EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus meets Aliyev US imposes sanctions on Ukrainians related to 'Russian harmful foreign activities' Sabah: Ankara refuses to hold next Armenian-Turkish meeting in a third country US general discusses regional security and bilateral cooperation in Armenia Secret graves of alleged protesters discovered in Almaty Armenian side members to Armenian-American Intergovernmental Commission confirmed WHO advises countries to lift or ease international travel restrictions US sanctions against Vladimir Putin, Ruben Vardanian and members of the Russian government Armenian Foreign Ministry discusses Mirzoyan's participation in Turkey forum Thailand to resume non-quarantine travel scheme from February 1 Instagram introduces paid subscription feature NEWS.am daily digest: 20.01.22 Europe considers new strategy to combat COVID-19 Norwegian prosecutors refuse release Anders Breivik, 2011 mass murderer Erdogan urges Turks to sell foreign currency for liras Azerbaijan not yet returned about 300 sheep of Armenia villager Media: Israeli President thinks about visiting Turkey Dollar quite stable in Armenia Trade turnover between Ukraine and Armenia increases by 24% Armenia legislature speaker meets with of International Republican Institute president, and director for Eurasia Kremlin does not exclude new call between Putin and Biden EU Special Representative for South Caucasus to soon visit Armenia, Azerbaijan State Duma discusses work of biolaboratories near Russia's borders US lawmakers to parliament speaker: Armenian POWs must be returned to their homeland immediately Security Council chief: Armenia expects OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to visit region Armenia government does not approve plan to considerably raise minimum wage Turkish FM: Armenian representatives invited to diplomatic forum in Antalya Twitter suspends Mexican billionaire's account over offensive behavior Armenian PM says Omicron strain is slowly spreading Azerbaijan says it supports launching border delimitation process with Armenia with no conditions Zakharova speaks on Aliyev's visit to Kyiv Zakharova does not comment on Azerbaijan president's threats against France presidential candidate for her Artsakh visit Cavusoglu: Steps to increase mutual trust will be discussed at next meeting with Armenia US gives go-ahead to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send missiles and other American-made weapons to Ukraine Zakharova: Russia, as OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair, supports continuation of work in this format Cyber attack on Red Cross: data of over 515,000 people compromised Pashinyan: UK has been strong partner of newly independent Armenia Israel hopes UN will unanimously condemn Holocaust denial Armenia, Ukraine depositories sign memorandum of cooperation Azerbaijan advises Armenia to correctly assess the new geopolitical realities and draw conclusions Australia, UK to fight back against cyberattacks from China, Russia and Iran Protesting residents of Armenias Parakar community march to territorial administration ministry Armenia government approves protocol on implementation of readmission agreement with Lithuania Iran suspends gas supplies to Turkey MFA: Armenia has no preconditions for border delimitation 621 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Paris to have place named after Hrant Dink Armenias Parakar enlarged community residents protesting outside government building Turkey opposition party MPs petition for parliamentary inquiry into Hrant Dink assassination France, Germany, Italy and Spain call on Israel to halt construction in East Jerusalem Armenia parliament speaker in US, meets with Nancy Pelosi Iranian MFA: Relations between Iran and Russia have moved into a new diverse, intensified direction Biden says invasion of Ukraine will be disaster for Russia Newspaper: Armenia PM Pashinyan plans to hold Presidents office Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc, led by ex-President Kocharyan, starting new processes Taliban PM calls on Muslim countries to be first to formally recognize their government Saudi Arabia records lowest temperature in 30 years Erdogan's visit to Ukraine scheduled for February 3 Russian peacekeeping contingent establishes order of passage through Lachin corridor French Senate votes to ban hijab at sporting events Armenian FM: All necessary conditions to be created for Demarcation Commission work Olaf Scholz: Borders in Europe cannot be changed by force Lavrov presents Armenian Ambassador to Russia, with the Order of Friendship Bill Gates warns of pandemics far more serious than COVID-19 FM on mirror withdrawal of troops: Not a single Armenian village will be left without proper protection Macron: EU countries must work together on agreement for stability and security PM Pashinyan assumes accountability for Armenia special representative for negotiations with Turkey Turkey Central banks and UAE sign agreement worth almost $5 billion Blinken: Western countries need unity to stop Russian aggression against Ukraine Iranian President performs evening namaz in Kremlin after talks with Putin Turkish police detain women protesting price hikes in hygiene products Delegation headed by Chief of the Cypriot National Guard General Staff has meetings in Armenia Merkel refuses job in UN structure Greece receives the first batch of French Rafale fighters NEWS.am daily digest: 19.01.22 Azerbaijan hopes Pope to mediate in relations with Armenia Talks between presidents of Russia and Iran start in Kremlin Armenian FM: This is not first time Baku makes nonconstructive statements Armenian Investigative Committee: 3,809 people die in the 44-day war Ombudsman: I urge not to give in to Azerbaijani manipulations, to visit Artsakh Armenian FM: Armenia passes a package of proposals to Azerbaijan France names the main favorite of presidential election Garo Paylan concludes address in Turkey parliament in Armenian Russian Foreign Ministry believes there is no risk of large-scale war in Europe Dollar goes up in Armenia Sharmazanov: Armenia ex-President Sargsyan did not decide to hold press conference, he did not change his mind Blinken: Russia has plans to increase force on Ukraine borders : Azerbaijani military participate in Turkish drills Taliban say all conditions for recognizing legitimacy of government are met Azerbaijan MFA statement distorts events of Armenian massacres in Baku 32 years ago Karabakh ombudsmans office: Azerbaijans anti-Armenian, genocidal policy has clear chronology US official, Barzani are photographed against backdrop of Greater Armenia and Kurdistan map Armenia ex-defense minister, army General Staff chief, some others criminal case court hearing kicks off FM: Most important direction continues to be international recognition of Artsakh Armenia revenue committee chief on opening of Turkey border: Shall we live with closed borders? In fear? US selects Los Angeles to host Summit of the Americas in summer 2022 Karabakh Foreign Minister: Return of refugees can only be like mirror Iranian president arrives on official visit to Moscow All CSTO peacekeepers leaves Kazakhstan Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Thousands of returning overseas Filipino workers will be offered construction jobs for the government's infrastructure projects, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Tuesday. "Dahil mananatili pa rin ang 'Build, Build, Build' initiative ng ating gobyerno, magkakaroon po tayo ng job fair specially targeting the OFWs dahil kailangan po natin sila ngayong narito na sa bayan natin sila dahil kulang na kulang po talaga ang ating mga construction workers dahil marami nga po ay nagsi-abroad na," Roque said during his regular media briefing. [Translation: Because the government's 'Build, Build, Build' push continues, we will hold a job fair targeting OFWs because we need them now that they are home. We are really lacking construction workers because a lot of them went to work abroad.] Roque said the Cabinet is still finalizing the list of infrastructure projects that will remain priorities despite the local outbreak. However, he said six projects including the construction of the Skyway Stage 3 project and the connector road for the North and South Luzon Expressways have resumed heavy works this month. Over 24,000 Filipino workers have flown home so far. Data from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration showed that 11,848 workers have returned to their hometowns as of Monday. President Rodrigo Duterte gave authorities a week to send these OFWs to their hometowns. Roque said residents of Luzon are either being sent through buses, while those from Visayas and Mindanao are ferried through chartered flights or ships. READ: DILG to issue show cause order vs. LGUs refusing to accept returning OFWs COVID-19 response chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said last week that up to 500,000 workers may return to the Philippines this year, as they find themselves jobless due to the global pandemic. The government will also seek to provide loans so that they can start their own businesses here, Roque said, hoping they can make enough to sustain their needs. He said the additional daily testing capacity, which has hit 32,100 as of May 20, will be used to test the thousands more OFWs expected to return in the coming weeks. Roque admitted that the economy will take a hit from the expected drop in OFW remittances, which have long been fueling local household spending as migrant workers send money to buy their families' needs and wants. However, Roque said the inherent strength of the domestic economy could soften the blow. OFWs remitted $33.5 billion to the Philippines in 2019, equivalent to 1.7 trillion according to central bank data. Scottish Bakers has appointed Ian McGhee of McGhees Bakery as vice president elect at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 20 May. The appointment came at the associations first virtual AGM on 20 May. He will be joined by incoming president Linda Hill from Murrays Bakers of Perth. McGhee will shape the future direction of the organisation at this crucial time, said the organisation. Outgoing president Ronnie Miles, of Bells Food Group, said: I will continue to serve as president until we can give Linda the inauguration she deserves in front of her peers in the industry. However, she will be taking a more active role in some of the presidential duties. Linda has been a great support to me and knowing that Ian McGhee, in turn, will be supporting Linda when the time comes is encouraging for the future of the association. McGhee has served on the board of Scottish Bakers for 12 years. He studied food technology at the Glasgow College of Food Technology, before joining family firm McGhees in 1986, where he became production director in 1990. He will follow in the footsteps of his father and brother in becoming president of Scottish Bakers. We are delighted Ian has agreed to take on the role of vice president elect, added Scottish Bakers chief executive Alasdair Smith. As we, as a sector, look to our post-Covid-19 future, we will need a strong and strategic team to help direct us and, with Linda and Ian supporting the work of all at Bakers House, I am confident we can rise to the challenges ahead. WASHINGTON Glenn A. Fine, ousted by President Trump last month as head of a watchdog panel assigned to oversee how his administration spends trillions of taxpayer dollars in coronavirus pandemic relief, announced Monday he was resigning from his Pentagon job. His departure came as Christi A. Grimm the acting inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, whom Mr. Trump attacked after she released a report about shortages of hospital equipment in the pandemic issued a strong defense of the system of independent watchdogs. We are impartial in what we do, Ms. Grimm said in an appearance Tuesday before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, where lawmakers questioned her about the survey, which was published in April. Really anything that is done that could impair independence I think compromises the effectiveness of oversight of programs that are there to serve the American public. Mr. Fine is a longtime leader among government watchdogs. He was the Justice Departments inspector general for years, uncovering problems with F.B.I. surveillance and other issues after the Sept. 11 attacks, and since 2016 had led the Pentagon inspector generals office. New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday (May 26) held a meeting with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs to review the ground situation in Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a face-off. The latest border tensions between the two Asian nations is being termed as the biggest confrontation since the 1962 war. After Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a meeting with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs with a focus on bolstering India's military preparedness to deal with external security challenges. The meetings were reportedly in the wake of China's aggressive posturing in the disputed border areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. China, which of late earned ignominy for allegedly spreading deadly coronavirus globally, is threatening India to maintain peace along the border. China does not seem to be in the mood to de-escalate tensions, as Sino-Indian troops have held several rounds of talks since the border skirmish took place on May 5. An article published in China's official newspaper Global Times on this issue has cautioned India to stop thinking about China from the perspective of Western countries, thereby, hinting not to toe the line of the rest of world. It said that India has made inroads into the Chinese border causing tension between the two countries, while poohpoohing India's tackling of COVID-19 situation. It suggested that India has more coronavirus cases than China, while everything is normal in the Communist nation. Therefore, India's priority should be the coronavirus rather than a border dispute. The write-up also boasted that the situation of China is no longer the same as in 1962. At that time, India and China were almost equal, but today China is much stronger than India with an economy of 5 times more, therefore, it should not see China through the spectacles of America. Amid global pressure of paying damages for allegedly hiding information about the outbreak of coronavirus, China is trying to divert the world attention, and for this, it has opened its fronts in many directions. It is threatening Taiwan, snatching Hong Kong's independence through a new security law, besides flexing its muscles in South China sea. It is challenging many countries including the US in the South China sea and has also started a trade war with Australia. According to reports, the Chinese side has been particularly peeved at India laying a key road in the finger area of Pangong Tso Lake region besides another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on May 5 evening that spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage" following a meeting at the level of local commanders. The trigger for the incident was China's strong objection to the road being laid by India in the Finger area in Pangong Tso lake. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in North Sikkim on May 9. Images via @planetlabs @sbreakintl help spot the #China PLA camp near the #Hotsprings Sector few Kms behind the LAC (Here china contests the LAC), approximately 11Kms North West of the #India base at Gogra, this unit size is the largest seen till now with adequate vehicle tracks pic.twitter.com/9eywCqD1Bk d-atis (@detresfa_) May 26, 2020 Since then, the Chinese military has increased its strength in Pangong Tso lake, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldi, and resorting to "aggressive patrolling" in these areas. Recent satellite images via @sbreakintl @PlanetLabs show a large area parallel to the runway at #Ngari Gunsa dual use airbase being rapidly developed since April 2020, as tensions between #India & #China continue to rise pic.twitter.com/1S2XQKHjZS d-atis(@detresfa_) May 23, 2020 It is being claimed that the Chinese army has erected around 100 tents in Galvan Valley, while some reports claim that about 5000 Chinese soldiers have been deployed at 5 points around this border if we look at satellite images on the Sino-India borders. Base apron revisit in hi-res shows the detachment of #China PLAAF Flankers on site May 2020 (first seen in DEC 2019) pic.twitter.com/H6zIXmGIDr d-atis (@detresfa_) May 26, 2020 Experts say that China's aggressive posturing is part of its strategy to create pressure. It is also not coincidental that Nepal has also come out with a new map citing a dispute with India. The Himalayan nation is understood to be instigated by China. Because inauguration of road, on May 8, to ease the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Uttarakhand has added to China's troubles. Indian Army understands the reason behind confrontation, that is why, Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh, on May 22, and reviewed security deployment of forces along the Line of Actual Control with China. China is worried about the massive construction of infrastructure on the LAC, as it has already built several roads near its border and does not like India's preparations. Annie Robinson doesnt like to plant flowers. She prefers shrubberieswell-groomed and freshly cut, just like the lawn, front and back, outside her Bessemer home. Shes tended it all herself, down on her knees, turning the dirt, cutting the grass, trimming the shrubs. Then trimming them some more. Until they are just right. One day in late March the 60-year-old retired nurse was doing what she does out in the front yard, doing it until it was just right when she began to become short of breath. It was all I could do, she recalls, to get to the garage door. She doesnt remember a lot after that, after taking a few breaths from an inhaler. I dont remember, she says now, because I almost blacked out and died. Robinson was diagnosed with COVID-19. She would be, in fact, among five members of her close, extended family, living in four different households, to be diagnosed with the coronavirus. MaCallah resident Annie Robinson was in a coma for 38 days, and coded once, while infected with the coronavirus. Her faith, and family's fervent prayers, got her through. (Courtesy / Annie Robinson) First sister Juanita Thomas contracted COVID-19; she works in a nursing home, on the pandemics front line, where the family believes she was exposed to the virus. Her husband, Booker, became infected, as well. As did Robinson, sister Tracy Quick and their mother, 84-year-old Dorothy Davis (She handled it the best, says grandson Anthony Buchanan, a software developer. It was almost like she didnt have it.). Haiden, Annie Robinsons 10-year-old great-nephew, tested positive for the coronavirus antibodies. He never showed any symptoms, Buchanan says. Annie calls herself a walking miracle. Because after being rushed to UAB Hospital on March 23 and placed on a ventilator in an induced coma for 38 days, after having a trach tube placed in her throat to help her breath, after coding on April 21 (16 days after Booker died from the virus,) after all that, Robinson was released from the hospital on Friday, May 15. I feel good, Annie says. I just hate the fact that I cant remember anything that went on. The day I got sick, my memory left after that day. People tell me I have a testimony. The only thing I have to do is stand up. When they look at me and see, now, I am the testimony. Its easy to think of death in these times. Even as the vast majority of those infected by COVID-19 recover96% statewide, 94% in Mobile (which leads all counties with 107 deaths) and Jefferson (No 2, with 87) counties. Yet by now, we all know, too, coronavirus trends dont equitably apply to African Americans. Nationwide, including in Alabama, blacks are bearing the brunt of COVID-19, exposing generational systemic healthcare disparities that cause African Americans to disproportionately endure the sorts of underlying cardiovascular ailments most vulnerable to the virus. Not long after his wife was diagnosed with the virus, Booker, developed a slight cough, though he was not showing a lot of symptoms, says Angela Buchanan, Annies sister. He liked to piddle around the house a lot, she recalls. He thought he was like mom, the virus would not get him down. When his oxygen level fell to 50, howeverit should be above 90the family called 911 to take him to UABs emergency room. But it was near the height of corona infections, so he was diverted to Princeton Baptist Medical Center. They had so many patients, Angela says with a sigh. Annie had been admitted at UAB a week earlier and was already on a ventilator. For two weeks, Angela, a semi-retired nurse, juggled regular calls to two hospitals. You just dont know, she says. We woke up every morning calling doctors and nurses every day. Booker, 76, was on a ventilator but had seemingly endured what worst of the battle. They were getting ready to wean him off ventilate, Angela recalls, when he went down. During his final days, his wife, under the strict no-visitation rules, could not visit him. She could not see him before he died, Angela says. Booker passed on April 5. McCalla resident Annie Robinson was in a coma for 38 days, and coded once, while infected with the coronavirus. Her faith, and family's fervent prayers, got her through. She is pictured during the coma as granddaughter Keyantranice Robinson spoke to her on Facetime (Courtesy/ Annie Robinson) The family, Angela says, is deeply rooted in faith. Family members attend different area churches, but their roots were fed at Spring Chapel Missionary Church in Bessemer. We follow a different set of rules, says Anthony Buchanan. We believe the good Lord has a say so in everything. We dont live by what men say. The family lost its patriarch, Zack Davis, Jr. back in January. He was 84 had lived a long good life, Angela says. He and Dorothy had childrenfour girls and five boys. There are 26 grandchildren and, 36 great-grandchildren. When Booker died, Annie was in an induced coma and on a ventilator. We put her on every prayer list there was, even international," Angela says. "We had Bible sessions every single night. We could not see any other way than her making it. I saw her at graduations and weddings, standing at the front. I kept my mind focused on the positive; I wouldnt hear negative stuff. I couldnt see death. Wed already buried Booker. I could not see going through that again. Even when the docs were talking to me about how bad she was, I would say, She go make it. On the day Annie coded, Angela says she spoke to a doctor or nurse at the hospital six times. It happened, she says, while the doctors were trying to wean her off the ventilator. She had a hard time, Angela says. They unplugged it to see how she do without the ventilator, but she coded. The doctor called me back and said they revived her with CPR and that she was stabilized. None of us slept that night. I think it was worse on us than her. She was back on the ventilator for 10 days after she coded. We were told she wasnt going to live, Anthony says. They said her condition was so severe she wouldnt survive. Annie has no recollection of those treacherous days. Angela shared the details with her once she came off the ventilator and began fighting to recover. And praying. I kept praying and asking God, please dont take me away from my kids, she recalls. I know were not supposed to question God, but I did ask: Why me? Why did he choose me to be sick? I have not gotten an answer. Im letting people know: Even if the doctors give up on you, even if they give you a 20% chance, it is hope. I was on my death bed. My brother says He just took me out of bed, put me in His just arms, and rocked me. I truly believe thats what happened. He said, I got the final say so. If you just remain positive, Angela adds. I knew she would make it home and safe. I dont like negativity; it doesnt do well with me, no matter how bad things get. Booker he might have died, but the Lord spared Annie. Even though he died, but she was spared when it looked like the other way around. She (Annie) was the one chosen. Upon returning home, Annie was, naturally, most curious about the condition of her lawn and shrubs. In her absence, they were cared for by her son. He tried to keep it from me, she says with a laugh. The first thing I saw when I got out of the car was all those weeds. I got sick. He said he couldnt even see em. Annie isnt strong enough yet to return to her beloved yard work, but when she does, be assured it will be done until it is donejust right. A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj A Pennsylvania natives coronavirus horror story has turned into a life-changing tale of inspirational success. As KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh reports, Steven Shulin, 69, spent 28 days in a hospital and two weeks on a ventilator. He not only lived to tell about it. But Shulin now credits COVID-19 as giving him a new lease on life. As part of his post-COVID recovery, Shulin says he has totally changed his life, shedding 38 pounds by pounding the pavement for a total of 10,000 steps daily. The Pennsylvania native now living in New Orleans tells KDKA he still isnt sure how he contracted coronavirus. But the dire diagnosis became a challenge to change his life. After he bested COVID-19, Shulin, a Coraopolis, Pa., native, set out to beat obesity one step at a time. I walk basically three times a day. Each day, Id increase a couple of hundred steps a day until I eventually hit over 10,000 steps, Shulin said of his weight-shedding routine since being released from the hospital on April 20. BREAKING: Nurse accused of switching patients OxyContin pills at Pa. hospital It wasnt always easy. COVID-19 is a formidable foe that can cause lingering health side effects. Shulin suffered one of them. He was struck by a small stroke after returning home from the hospital. He has since recovered and has kept right on walking. Now hes ready to return to work at a wastewater treatment plant in New Orleans, KDKA reports, adding: Shulin also is ready to get on with his life in other ways, too. He said hes not afraid to go out to eat or go to the store despite all hes been through. You cant live in fear. You still have a life to live, said Shulin. All this from a man who says coronavirus gave him a new lease on life. READ MORE: Pa. police break up DJ parking lot party of 250 people, many without masks 3 men accused of forcing Pa. woman to perform sex acts to pay off debt: cops Pa. sports bar fights back as liquor license suspensions spread in lockdown crackdown Man stabbed in chest outside Pa. Sheetz in dispute over womans lost purse: cops Pa. man who falsely claimed to be veteran blew up in Iraq learns fate for stealing real veterans valor Cadaver dog on boat finds missing 10-year-olds body in Pa. river Huge fentanyl bust on Pa. Turnpike shows opioids are booming amid coronavirus lockdowns Suspect fleeing Pa. police goes missing after plunging into river Wild Pa. police chase of serial burglary suspect caught on tape Pair of Sheetz bandits wear carved-out watermelons as face masks: cops 10-year-old Pa. boy falls into river while playing with older children; search is fruitless so far Person of interest in Pa. womans Mothers Day shooting arrested in 2nd killing: reports Accused DUI driver faces homicide charges in unborn babys death in violent Pa. crash Injured Appalachian Trail hiker triggers hours-long rescue in PA Counterfeit and potentially harmful Seresto flea collars for pets seized in Pa. Booze to go could be here to stay. Thats the message from Premier Doug Ford, who strongly hinted Monday that takeout wine, beer, and spirits from restaurants and bars would continue after Ontarios state of emergency is lifted. With the hospitality sector reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic that has restricted them to serving takeaway meals since March 17, the premier said he plans to discuss making permanent the liberalization with Finance Minister Rod Phillips. Were going to have that conversation with Minister Phillips. Theres going to be a lot of things, as we say, the new way of doing business and not only in government, but in the private sector, too, said Ford. Associate Minister for Small Business and Red Tape Reduction Prabmeet Sarkaria said restaurant owners that are using this have given us great feedback on how much of a help its been. Well do anything we can to support our restaurant owners and this is one way that we thought we could and Im happy to hear that many businesses are really benefiting from it, said Sarkaria. The Progressive Conservatives are also considering permitting private cannabis shops to continue home deliveries after the state of emergency. According to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the temporary loosening of booze and cannabis sales is set to expire on Dec. 31. But the Tories, who campaigned in the 2018 election on reforming the provinces restrictive liquor licensing laws, have been telegraphing for weeks that the emergency provisions could be permanent. Also Monday, Ford implored commercial landlords to accept the olive branch from Ottawa and Queens Park by enlisting in the federal-provincial rent subsidy program or else. Trust me, if they dont sign up, then there will be consequences. Simple as that, said the premier, appearing to suggest the province could impose a moratorium on commercial evictions. Under the $900 million program that was finally up and running on Monday, the two levels of government will pay 50 per cent of a small business rent for April, May, and June with landlords and commercial tenants each paying 25 per cent. They need to start signing up for this, because there are not going to like the consequences if they dont sign up for it. I can assure you Im protecting the tenants. Green Leader Mike Schreiner said Ford needs to be more clear about what he means. The Ontario business community asked the province for a temporary moratorium on evictions, but the premier would only pass the buck to landlords with vague threats, said Schreiner. But federal sources tell the Star that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been citing Fords tough talk when pushing other premiers to act to help small businesses. The prime minister wants other provincial and territorial leaders to make landlords an offer they cant refuse. At his daily briefing in Ottawa, he pleaded with landlords to accept the rent subsidy. Please apply, the prime minister said. And to business owners: make sure youre holding up your end of the bargain, too, he said, reminding them the Canada Emergency Business Account provides support to enable small businesses to make their rent on time as well. Trudeau said the program will also be available to non-profits and charitable organizations, adding if youre a landlord with up to 10 eligible tenants, and youre located in the Atlantic, B.C., Alberta, or Quebec, you can apply today. For landlords in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and the Territories, who also have up to 10 eligible tenants (Tuesday) is your day to apply. Landlords with more than 10 tenants will be able to apply later this week. With files from Heather Scoffield Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie Read more about: Securicy Co-Founders - CEO Darren Gallop and COO Laird Wilton If more businesses can achieve HIPAA compliance, the healthcare industry would benefit by gaining access to innovative solutions. Especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it is critical that American hospitals and healthcare providers can securely use the best technology available. Today Securicy is announcing the HIPAA Compliance Fast Track, a solution to speed up the process for businesses to meet security and privacy requirements for selling to the healthcare industry. For vendors and service providers, known as business associates, proving this standard of compliance can be a barrier to serving the United States healthcare industry. HIPAA Compliance Fast Track provides an efficient path to become a vendor for the healthcare industry, which would otherwise be a time and resource-intensive undertaking for many businesses. This is a great value to businesses that see the HIPAA Compliance Fast Track as a way to reduce their own risk, while opening up opportunities to reach a new market segment, says Securicy CEO Darren Gallop. If more businesses can achieve HIPAA compliance, the healthcare industry would benefit by gaining access to innovative solutions. Especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it is critical that American hospitals and healthcare providers can securely use the best technology available. While the requirements for HIPAA compliance can prove difficult to implement for many businesses, the HIPAA Compliance Fast Track is designed to give business leaders clear steps, compliance reporting, and a central hub for managing everything. Businesses can use this to efficiently achieve and maintain HIPAA compliance, ensuring their data, technology, and software meets security and privacy standards for serving facilities that hold patient contact information and medical records. Securicys HIPAA Compliance Fast Track includes the following tools and resources for businesses: Security Gap Analysis and Planning for HIPAA Compliance: This technical assessment of the current security measures and infrastructure at a business identifies gaps in compliance with HIPAA. With an Information Security Gap Analysis report from Securicy, business leaders can understand the timeline and resources required for their business to become fully HIPAA compliant. HIPAA-Compliant Security and Privacy Program Designer: The foundation of HIPAA Compliance Fast Track is a custom-generated information security and privacy program, with comprehensive internal policies, procedures, and controls. The Securicy platform develops a tailored set of critical components based on privacy regulations (HIPAA, PIPEDA, GDPR, CCPA) and information security best practices (SOC 2, CIS). Business Continuity Plan Builder: This tool quickly guides companies through creating and activating a strong business continuity and disaster recovery plan. A required element for HIPAA compliance, this plan keeps business operations protected, secure, and thriving even in the event of a crisis. To further support businesses, Securicy is also offering relevant content in a webinar series and recorded content focused on HIPAA compliance, securely working from home, and business continuity. Businesses can sign up for these free tools at https://www.securicy.com/hipaa-compliance-solution/ ABOUT SECURICY Securicy is a SaaS company that specializes in simplifying information security and privacy compliance for businesses. Securicy builds trust between businesses and their customers in a world where people want to know their confidential information is protected. The company has raised $2.8M dollars since its incorporation in late 2016 and currently employs 17 full-time employees and several contractors. Bengaluru, May 26 : Amid uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disrupted school education in Karnataka, the state government is seeking the help of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to televise classes, a state minister said on Tuesday. "We request you to provide minimum three channels on the Doordarshan network exclusively for the Department of Public Instruction, Government of Karnataka," Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar said in a letter to Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar. Suggesting co-branding the channels under DD and the state education department, he asked for the channels to be mandatorily transmitted by the cable and DTH operators under the Cable Act. The state education department has already discussed with Prasar Bharti officials, who, according Kumar, have assured 3+3 hours of timeslots on the education channel Chandana on cost basis. "We have also made all the necessary arrangements for content creation by the teachers," he said. Meanwhile, the minister has revealed that television is the best medium for the students as a home learning mode in these challenging times. "The department of public instruction reviewed various technological options and considered TV as one of the best means for home learning," Kumar said. In a survey conducted by the education department, it was found out that 95 per cent households had television sets. Kumar said the state operates government schools in nine languages, including Kannada, English and Urdu. "To cater to all the students, and considering a long-term strategy to run schools by maintaining social distancing, we are in immediate need of minimum three exclusive channels to teach through TV," he said. According to Kumar, the Karnataka government is facing hardships to meet the capital expenditure requirements, hence, it is seeking help from the I&B Ministry. After the Afghanistan government responded positively to the Taliban's pronouncement of a cease-fire for three days in celebration of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the country's president Ashraf Ghani has begun the process of releasing Taliban prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. On Sunday, in a tweet by Sediq Sediqqi, spokesperson for President Ghani, he wrote that the decision of releasing up to 2,000 prisoners was made by the president in order to make sure that the peace process is successful. Pres. Ghani today initiated a process to release up to 2000 Taliban prisoners as a good will gesture in response to the Talibans announcement of a ceasefire during Eid.The AFG Gov is extending the offer of peace and is taking further steps to ensure success of the peace process. pic.twitter.com/So0UEB5Bpi Sediq Sediqqi (@SediqSediqqi) May 24, 2020 Meanwhile, both parties seemed to have held up their part on the three-day truce since there were no clashes between the Afghan forces and the Taliban reported until the end of the Sunday. Moreover, Aljazeera reported that according to Ghani there is already a government delegation which is prepared for the peace talks with the Taliban to immediately begin. It was also stated that Abdullah Abdullah, the former political rival of Ghani is going to spearhead the negotiations. This follows after Ghani and Abdullah brokered a deal to power-share last week, which also ended the long going political crisis in the country. An agreement signed in Doha, Qatar back in February between the US and the Taliban stated that the government of Afghanistan would free at least 5,000 Taliban prisoners and in return the other party would release around a thousand security forces personnel who were captured. Read also: Beijing Pointing Fingers: China Accuses US of Starting a New 'Cold War' According to BBC, the prisoner swap was initially stated in the agreement as a measure to build confidence between the two opposing forces before the peace talks commenced. Before the announcement of the release on Sunday, there have already been around 1,000 Taliban prisoners that were set free while around 300 Afghan forces have been released by the Taliban. Taliban Reminds that release of 5,000 prisoners was agreed on In a report by NPR, the Taliban stated that they are very committed to holding up their end of the bargain but they also reminded that during the Doha signing, the government agreed to release 5,000 of their members. According to Taliban spokesperson, Suhail Shaheen, in order for the intra-Afghan negotiations to commence without any obstacles the agreed-upon number should be completed. In a statement by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan who was the one to broker the agreement between the two parties back in February, the ceasefire was a very momentous thing that happened between the opposing forces. He also added that the US will do its part in aiding both forces. Moreover, Mike Pompeo, the United States secretary of state also commended both the Afghan forces and the Taliban for making good on their call for a ceasefire. However, he stressed that the Taliban is expected to hold up their end of the agreement which clearly stated that the released prisoners will not be allowed to go back on the battlefield. In addition, he also encouraged both sides to avoid any violence after their ceasefire ends at the end of the Eid al-Fitr festival which marks the end of Ramadan or the fasting month of the Muslims. Related article: Taliban Takes Advantage of Pentagon Peace Deal by Attacking Afghan Allies, Killing Civilians @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. * Mexico's Q1 economic activity contracts less than expected * Brazil's posts record current account surplus in April * Investors turn "under-weight" on Brazil's real - JPMorgan * Chile's LATAM Airlines files for bankruptcy By Susan Mathew May 26 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso rose on Tuesday, hitting a 10-week high after economic activity contracted less than expected in the first quarter, while broader sentiment was lifted by hopes of a global economic recovery as countries further eased pandemic-driven lockdowns. The peso jumped 1.4%, extending gains to a seventh straight session after the GDP data, but as a coronavirus lockdown was applied only in late March, the second quarter is expected to bear the brunt of the shutdown in business activity. "The peso should be well placed to benefit from any improvement in global growth momentum and EM risk appetite, helped by its appealing short term valuations improving balance of payments dynamics," said global FX strategists at JPMorgan. Surging copper prices lifted top producer Chile's peso , while a recovery in oil prices led the Colombian peso to its highest since early March. Brazil's real surged 1.8% to a four-week high as central bank data showed the country posted a record current account surplus in April. The real has recently tried to rebound from record lows on the back of higher commodity prices, but remains about 25% down on the year amid a federal investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro as well as a spree of ministerial resignations. Bolsonaro has also been criticized for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, with Brazil now the second-worst hit country in terms of the number of infections. JPMorgan analysts said investors had turned "under-weight" on the real for the first time since September 2018, but they still see the currency outperforming by the end of the year as financial markets focus on "the significant cheapness of the currency in the medium run." Regional stocks tracked Wall Street higher on hopes the global economy could emerge from what is expected to be a deep recession as countries reopened more businesses and on hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine. Brazil's Bovespa hit an 11-week high, while Mexico's main index rose 1.3%, extending gains to a third straight session. Chile's LATAM Airlines Group SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization amid the coronavirus outbreak. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1056 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 929.68 2 MSCI LatAm 1785.09 2.82 Brazil Bovespa 86861.54 1.4 Mexico IPC 36308.55 1.33 Chile SPIPSA 3765.02 0.36 Argentina MerVal 41836.79 2.134 Colombia Colcap 1070.37 1.2 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.3594 1.79 Mexico peso 22.2375 1.33 Chile peso 798.7 0.73 Colombia peso 3723.41 1.42 Peru sol 3.4178 0.23 Argentina peso (interbank) 68.2600 -0.12 (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru) All the 241 Ghanaians deported from Kuwait last Saturday by the Kuwaiti Government for residing in the country illegally have been placed under a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Reports are that before the repatriated persons left Kuwait, they were taken through a COVID-19 infection test, the results of which were negative. The Director for Media and Communication for Operation COVID-19 Safety, Mr Osei Bonsu Dickson, told the Daily Graphic that they would undergo a second test to confirm their actual status. Repatriation The deportees arrived on board a special chartered Kuwait Airways flight which had 284 passengers made up of 241 Ghanaians and 43 Togolese nationals who would make an onward journey to their country. They were received at the Kotoko International Airport by the Operation Return Home joint task force which comprises the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ghana Police Service (GPS) the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and other stakeholders. Though the borders of Ghana remain closed as part of measures to curb the importation and spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), this chartered flight was allowed into the country with permission from the government. Last Friday, the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, indicated that the decision to accept the deportees into the Ghanaian jurisdiction despite the closure of the country's borders, was reached at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, May 21. Reception When they arrived, the deportees were taken through stringent arrival procedures to prevent any possible spread of the virus at the airport. They were ushered into waiting buses which conveyed them to their various quarantine centres. The Minister of Aviation, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, welcomed them on behalf of the government and informed them that they would be placed on a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Mr Adda explained that each of them would undergo two tests during the period, and those who tested negative would be discharged while those who tested positive would be taken to isolation centres to be treated. More to return Speaking to the media, the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of National Security, Mr Henry Quartey, said the exercise was the first and that there were other stranded Ghanaian nationals abroad who were also going to be repatriated. Although the country has closed its borders to contain the spread of the virus, it is imperative that we protect our compatriots who are living in other countries. Most of them want to return and the government is putting measures in place to ensure they are brought back into the country safely, he explained. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Legislators should focus on economic recovery The 21st National Assembly will host legislators chosen by voters who quintessentially called for generational and political changes, and a bipartisan floor for a "New Korea." Because the 20th Assembly that wraps up Friday has done one of the worst jobs in passing legislation just 39 percent of the 25,000 bills registered there is a hope that the incoming legislature will do better. This invariably veils Korea's desperation to keep the economy humming along amid the COVID-19 pandemic. President Moon Jae-in is moving aggressively to meet with the floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the main opposition United Future Party, Thursday, to seek cooperation on a myriad of economic issues. One of the foremost topics they can discuss will invariably be the passage of a third supplementary budget by the new Assembly, expected to be at least 30 trillion won ($24.2 billion), required to ease the unemployment crisis, and revive the economy. Negotiations to form the new Assembly are underway, but there are concerns that the two major parties are wrangling over which party helms the crucial budget and judiciary committees and thereby delaying any meaningful activity at the new parliament. If the new legislators bear in mind the creeping sense of gloom around Korea Inc., they will surely stop dragging their feet on procedural issues. From a broader perspective, a recent eye-catching survey by the Korea Enterprises Federation cited more and more deregulation as the legislative body's top priority. Among 222 business and economic professors surveyed, 73.4 percent cited abolishing high entrance barriers for new business entrants, and deregulation for new industries as the top tasks for the Assembly. About 57 percent selected labor reform, followed by 33.8 percent who indicated a stronger welfare and social safety net as being of key importance. Also, 14.4 percent of respondents said that reform of chaebol was necessary. These are no longer visionary statements but economic realities called for in this pandemic world. Fortunately, the administration is on the same page President Moon in his special third year anniversary speech said he would turn Korea into a "digital powerhouse" and the "world factory of high-tech industries." The new Assembly should get to work promptly and deal urgently with bills that will facilitate deregulation and the transition of the Korean economy in the face of the encroaching economic crisis. The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago crashed into Earth at 'the deadliest possible angle', researchers have concluded. The giant impacter struck what is today Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula at around 60 degrees maximising the production of climate-altering greenhouse gases. The global disaster caused by the space rock which was bigger than Mount Everest was far worse than once thought, Imperial College London experts said. Previous studies had suggested the asteroid came in at an angle of around 30 degrees, while others concluded that it crashed almost straight down. However, the team's computer simulation found that the gradient was bang in the middle of these two values a fact that was more the worse for ancient life. The mass extinction that occurred in the wake of the impact is believed to have killed off around three-quarters of all the animal and plant species alive at the time. Had the devastating asteroid's approach been either shallower or steeper, then its devastation would likely have been less widespread. Scroll down for video The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago (pictured in this artist's impression) crashed into Earth at 'the deadliest possible angle', researchers have concluded 'For the dinosaurs, the worst-case scenario is exactly what happened,' said paper author and planetary scientist Gareth Collins of Imperial College London. The asteroid left a 120-mile-wide crater at the disaster zone, vaporising rock and sending billions of tons of sulphur and carbon dioxide into the prehistoric skies. All living things within hundreds of miles of the impact site would have been incinerated within minutes. Meanwhile, the dust cloud generated by the impact would have blocked out the sun likely triggering a 'nuclear winter' and seeing temperatures plunge, acid rain falling from the skies and 75 per cent of living species wiped out. 'The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs,' said Dr Collins. 'This was likely worsened by the fact it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles.' 'Our simulations provide compelling evidence the asteroid struck at a steep angle perhaps 60 degrees above the horizon and approached its target from the north-east.' 'We know this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywhere the very thing that led to a nuclear winter.' The giant impacter struck what is today Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula at around 60 degrees maximising the production of climate-altering greenhouse gases. The global disaster caused by the space rock which was bigger than Mount Everest would thus have been far worse than previously thought, experts said Dr Collins and colleagues used a model that considered four different possible impact angles off of the Earth's surface those of 90, 60, 45 and 30 degrees. They used geophysical data from the site to reproduce the entire collision event from the moment of the initial impact to the formation of the Chicxulub crater. Data sources included recent results from an offshore drilling expedition that had brought up rocks containing evidence for the extreme forces that were generated during the asteroid impact. The surface layers of the earth at the impact site would have been rich in water and porous carbonate and evaporite rocks whose destruction released large amounts of carbon dioxide, water and sulphur into the atmosphere. The release of sulphur into the atmosphere would have been particularly hazardous as it rapidly forms aerosols tiny airborne particles that would have blocked the sun's rays, stopping plants from photosynthesising and rapidly cooling the climate. According to the researchers, the key to identifying the correct angle and direction of the asteroid's impact was trying to recreate the exact nature of the crater centre, its so-called 'peak ring' and the underlying rocks. Modelling an angle of 60 degrees reproduced the real-world observations almost exactly, the researchers said. 'The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs,' said Dr Collins. 'This was likely worsened by the fact it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles' 'Despite being buried beneath nearly a kilometre (0.62 mile) of sedimentary rocks [...] geophysical data reveals so much about the crater structure,' said paper author and geologist Auriol Rae of the University of Freiburg, Germany. This information, she added, is 'enough to describe the direction and angle of the impact.' Alongside providing important insights into the nature of the extinction-generating event, the researchers findings could also helps us better understand how large craters form on other planets. 'Large craters like Chicxulub are formed in a matter of minutes, and involve a spectacular rebound of rock beneath the crater,' explained paper author and earth scientist Thomas Davison, also of Imperial College London. 'Our findings could help advance our understanding of how this rebound can be used to diagnose details of the impacting asteroid.' The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications. The asteroid left a 120-mile-wide crater at the disaster zone in what is today Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, vaporising rock and sending billions of tons of sulphur and carbon dioxide into the prehistoric skies Sarah Henderson took the nuclear option in the battle against pesky Twitter trolls and online criticism last week launching defamation proceedings against a suspected detractor. The Victorian Senator is pursuing Supreme Court action alleging former Geelong councillor Jan Farrell is responsible for two defamatory tweets on the @Geelong_Elite Twitter account. The two tweets in question blast Henderson as a "sycophant" and falsely said she was "out of office and now into jail". Victorian Senator Sarah Henderson and NSW MP Dave Sharma Credit:Shakespeare Farrell has denied having any connection to the account. She also said the first she learned of the defamation suit was when she was contacted by journalists for a response. But thats not the only hurdle Henderson is facing. Her federal Liberal colleagues are dead against the move, particularly at a time when New South Wales Liberal Dave Sharma is facing action in court himself accused of defamation. In this context, Hendersons case is Unhelpful, badly timed, unnecessary and indulgent, according to one Lib. BEIJING : President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday China would step up its preparedness for armed combat and improve its ability to carry out military tasks as the coronavirus pandemic is having a profound impact on national security, state television reported. China's performance in fighting the new coronavirus has shown the success of military reform, Xi was quoted as saying, adding that the armed forces should explore new ways of training amid the pandemic. Xi, who chairs China's Central Military Commission, made the comments when attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force on the sidelines of the annual session of parliament. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Parks Victoria failed to properly consult with the public about its plans to cull brumbies in the state's fire-ravaged high country using ground-based shooting, the Supreme Court has been told. Omeo resident Philip Maguire has taken the government agency to court in an urgent action to prevent it from culling feral horses. Feral horse damage downstream from the source of the Murray River. Credit:Karleen Minney On Tuesday lawyer Angel Aleksov, appearing for Philip Maguire, told the court that Parks Victoria was required by law to consult with the community before adopting a "kill policy" of shooting horses from the ground. There was not any engagement with the broader community in relation to the new technique, Mr Aleksov said. Cindy Appelbaum has two silly walk signs in front of her Elkins Park home. One, alerting visitors they are entering the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Silly Walks and the other, alerting them when they are leaving the jurisdiction. Read more Nobody expects the Ministry of Silly Walks in Elkins Park or Phoenixville. Then again, nobody expected 2020, either (its chief weapon was surprise surprise and fear!). But when the going gets tough, sometimes the tough have to get silly. And so they did in these suburban Philadelphia towns, where residents have turned the sidewalks in front of their homes over to the jurisdiction of one of Englands most absurd governmental bodies the Ministry of Silly Walks. Inspired by the classic 1970 Monty Python sketch in which John Cleese plays a rubber-legged minister (or cabinet head) in the fictional British government agency, Cindy Appelbaum of Elkins Park and Alden Krausse, First Minister of Phoenixville, have placed signs in front of their homes, alerting passersby: YOU HAVE NOW ENTERED THE JURISDICTION OF THE MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS. COMMENCE SILLY WALKING IMMEDIATELY! And both women are sharing the silly walks captured by their home surveillance cameras on Instagram, under the handles @elkinspark.sillywalks and @phoenixvillesillywalks. The two Python fans, who do not know each other, are part of a larger silly walks movement thats spreading across the world like a drunk giraffe on stilts during the coronavirus era. Its hard to tell where the absurd movement began there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Silly Walk Instagram accounts from Sheboygan Falls, Wis., to Toronto, Canada but many, including Krausse and Appelbaum, cite an account out of Yorkshire, England, which began in early April, as their inspiration. When the stay-at-home orders went into effect, instead of sitting at home and pining for the fjords or contemplating the meaning of life, Appelbaum and Krausse put the silly walks signs on the sidewalks in front of their homes and turned on their doorbell cameras. Krausse, 31, who lives on Northridge Court in Phoenixvilles Northridge Village neighborhood, said she actually got her doorbell camera specifically for this project. Phoenixville is known for being a little quirky and cool, so I thought it was a good idea to spread a little cheer and have a little fun, she said. My neighborhood has been fantastic about participating." Although every walk is sacred, every walk is great, Krausse said her favorites have included a silly walking family of three and a man who did a complete flip without even suffering a flesh wound. We have a couple of regulars who are constantly stepping up their game each time they go by, she said. There are still a few people who are holding out on silly walking, but Im sure that at some point they will give in and have some fun too! Krausse even gets into character writing the captions for her Instagram videos. This little lady gave us a little jig as she was taking an evening stroll with this non-complaint man, she captioned one video. The ministry is looking into finding residents who dont follow jurisdiction laws. The bill is likely to fail. Over on High School Road in Elkins Park, Appelbaum said shes seen dads explain her silly walks sign to their kids and then do it together with them. Its really fun to see it without people knowing your watching, she said. Everybody knows how to walk silly. But if Appelbaum is within eyesight when people see her signs, she said theyre less likely to participate. And there are some people who walk by her house everyday who openly flout the jurisdictions orders. Ive actually seen people cross the street to avoid being in the silly walk zone, she said. While Appelbaum doesnt have a favorite walk yet, she did point out that her camera captured two deer walking very silly through the jurisdiction one day. While the search for the Holy Grail of silly walks continues, Krausses and Appelbaums projects are a reminder to always look on the bright side of life. And when this is all over, who knows, perhaps the Batley Townswomens Guild will present us with their reenactment of humanitys battle against the coronavirus. New Delhi, May 26 : As the national capital gears up to deal with the increasing number of coronavirus cases, the Delhi Health Department has ordered 30,000 PPE kits, 3.5 lakh N-95 masks, 28 ventilators and 435 oxygen concentrators. In a statement, the Raj Niwas said that Secretary (Health) presented the 'Situational Analysis of COVID-19 in Delhi' to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. "It was informed that up to May 25, there are 14,053 confirmed cases in Delhi out of which 6,771 patients were recovered or discharged or migrated. It was further informed that the Case Fatality Rate in Delhi is 1.96 per cent in comparison to the national average of 2.57 per cent," it added. It said the Lt. Governor was also informed about the status of lab reporting."It was apprised that as on May 25, total 34 labs are functional for COVID-19 test, total cumulative test done till dates are 1,74,469 and positivity rate as on May 25 was 8.06 per cent." About COVID logistics, it was informed that adequate supply of medical essentials has been ensured and more ventilators are being procured. "The Lt. Governor was also informed about the status of dedicated COVID hospitals and availability of beds in Delhi. At present 4,462 beds, 429 ICU, 343 ventilators and 2,632 oxygen supported beds are available in the COVID hospitals." Delhi has 19 COVID Care Centres (CCC) are functional in Delhi with capacity of 5,716. "The Health Department had ordered 30,000 PPE kits (50,000 PPE in stock), 3.5 lakh N95 Masks, 28 Ventilators and 435 Oxygen Concentrators," it added. The Secretary (Health) also informed Baijal about the recent steps taken by the Health Department to contain COVID-19 which includes augmenting bed capacity by 25 per cent in private hospitals with more than 50 beds, 20 per cent bed capacity earmarked for Covid in these private hospitals, contacting the Covid positive patients on the same day of the result, daily health monitoring of the Home Isolated Covid positive patients and augmenting the isolation beds in Covid Care Centres. "The Lt. Governor directed the Health Department to closely review the capacity building of medical infrastructure and remove bottlenecks immediately. He advised that the trend of the last 10-15 days should be analysed for future management." Baijal also advised for monitoring of containment zones on a dynamic basis for focused action. "He instructed concerned authorities to strictly follow guidelines of MoHFW (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) regarding home quarantine/discharge, etc and inform people regularly through IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activities for confidence building. He also stressed on IEC and surveillance measures to contain the spread of COVID-19," the Raj Niwas said. Also, the government has decided to provide real time information about the availability of COVID beds in hospitals in the public domain. "The Lt. Governor urged people to use Aarogya Setu mobile app for prevention and contact tracing and keep themselves safe from COVID-19," it added. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) She is certainly not shy when it comes to posing for raunchy bikini pictures. But Tammy Hembrow risked a wardrobe malfunction of epic proportions while promoting her Tammy Fit app on Tuesday. Taking to Instagram, the social media sensation, 26, posed in her favourite crochet daisy swimsuit. Careful! Tammy Hembrow risked a wardrobe malfunction of epic proportions while promoting her Tammy Fit app on Tuesday Tammy showed off her bronzed washboard abs and toned thighs in the two-piece, which featured tiny side-tie bottoms. The blonde beauty wore her blonde tresses down and had on minimal make-up for the photo. Tammy was promoting the importance of staying healthy and fit, revealing workout and meal plans available on her website. Moving on! It comes after big news for Tammy, who has recently been linked to New York-based musician Erick Delgado. Tammy appeared to confirm their fledgling romance on Sunday after engaging in a flirty exchange with the up-and-coming musician It comes after big news for Tammy, who has recently been linked to New York-based musician Erick Delgado. Tammy appeared to confirm their fledgling romance on Sunday after engaging in a flirty exchange with the up-and-coming musician. Erick, 25, uploaded footage of himself pouting to the camera and wrote in the caption: 'F*** I bit my lip.' Helping hand! Erick, 25, uploaded footage of himself pouting to the camera and wrote in the caption: 'F*** I bit my lip.' Tammy, 26, was quick to comment underneath the post, asking if she could offer any assistance Tammy, 26, was quick to comment underneath the post, asking if she could offer any assistance. 'Can I [?]' she asked, to which Erick cheekily responded, writing: 'Ok, but not too hard I'm sensitive.' The Gold Coast-based mother-of-two hinted she was missing her new beau on various Instagram stories earlier this month. Flirty! 'Can I [?]' she asked, to which Erick cheekily responded, writing: 'Ok, but not too hard I'm sensitive' While she showed off her famous derriere in a raunchy bikini video, Tammy sang along to Kehlani's You Should Be Here in another. Tammy smiled and lip-synced along to the chorus: 'You should be here right now.' Last month, it was rumoured Tammy had started seeing Erick Delgado after her split from Canadian rapper, Jahkoy Palmer. Tammy and Jahkoy confirmed they broke up in March, just one month after she had visited Erick's hometown of New York City. How can churches navigate 'new cultural reality' post-COVID? Barna highlights key findings Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment New data from Barna show the new cultural reality and spiritual landscape of the United States amid the multi-faceted disruption the global coronavirus pandemic has caused. Barna Group President David Kinnaman noted in a webcast Wednesday that churches and ministries are grappling with a handful of crucial known and unknown factors. "We know that God is for us, that God has not given us a spirit of fear but one of power, love and of a sound mind," he said, referencing 2 Timothy 1:7, praising pastors who have stepped up and served through these challenges. Barna researchers asked in a survey how often in the past seven days people have felt lonely. Millennial respondents were far more likely to report they had experienced loneliness "all the time" or "for at least some of each day" than Generation X or Boomers. The coronavirus crisis seems to be accelerating the mental health problems and relational well-being issues besetting many people, Kinnaman explained, concurrent with the loneliness and isolation many are experiencing. Spiritually speaking, during the pandemic half of all self-identified Christians reported that they were praying more than usual, 17% said they were reading the Bible more, and 6% said they were experiencing spiritual doubt. Some 43% of respondents said none of those things. An interesting data point in the survey was that millennials were more likely to say that they were reading the Bible more than usual than were Boomers, Kinnaman noted. With churches pivoting toward digital meeting formats, among practicing Christians approximately half have been streaming their regular church online. Around one-third have streamed a different church, and the rest have done neither and appear to be taking the time off. "Practicing Christians" were defined in the research as those who, before the COVID-19 outbreak, were attending church once a month or more. "We find that one in four practicing Christians say that they watch multiple church services on any given weekend and three out of 10 say they watch but not on a Sunday," Kinnaman said. Among non-Christians the data show that not many are doing overtly spiritual things such as joining a small group or reading the Bible, but prayer is being explored more, he explained. "We're not going back to normal,'" Kinnaman said, regarding the future of church-based ministry. He reiterated that the COVID-19 pandemic has merely accelerated the disruptions that were already occurring in culture, accentuating a sense of a deep cultural chaos and which is impacting many spheres of society. While many Christians would like to return to church they are uncertain about how safe they're going to be, he added. "I think we're going to see is a really interesting sort of 'new normal,' a lot of deep disruptions that are going to take place over many months and maybe even many years," he said. "The COVID crisis is going to accelerate many needed changes for the church. How is it that we are going to show up in an anxious moment for an anxious generation, for an isolated generation, for people that are struggling with questions but maybe aren't all that hungry for spiritual answers?" he posited. We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family, a Twitter spokesman, Nick Pacilio, said in a statement. Weve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly. The company declined further comment. Some of the renewed criticism appeared to push Twitter to act. On Tuesday afternoon, it marked two of Mr. Trumps tweets about mail-in ballots with a Get the facts link to more information. Twitter is not the only tech company struggling with moderating Mr. Trumps threats and falsehoods online. Mr. Trump posted identical comments about Ms. Klausutiss death on Facebook. One of his posts there gained about 4,000 comments and 2,000 shares and was not mentioned by Mr. Klausutis. On Twitter, that same post, which questioned whether Mr. Scarborough had gotten away with murder, was shared 31,000 times and received 23,000 replies. Twitter faces singular pressure because it is Mr. Trumps most frequently used method of communicating with the public. Early in his presidency, he tweeted about nine times a day, but has accelerated his pace, averaging 29 tweets a day last year and posting up to 108 times on May 10, according to a tally by The New York Times. For years, Twitter took a hands-off approach to moderating the posts on its platform. That brought it acclaim when it enabled dissidents to tweet about political protests, like the Egyptian revolution in 2011. But it also allowed trolls, bots and malicious operatives onto the site, making Twitter an epicenter for harassment, misinformation and abuse. During Mr. Trumps 2016 presidential campaign, his aggressive Twitter tactics attracted attention and were mimicked by his supporters. That led Twitter to clamp down on harassment and grapple with the kinds of political speech it would allow. Revelations about election interference and disinformation campaigns on Twitter during the 2016 campaign prompted further changes. In 2018, Mr. Dorsey said he would focus on molding the platform to support healthy conversations. We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers, he tweeted at the time. We arent proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough. Photo: iStock Here's what you need to know about what's happening in Houston. List of Houstons 45 missing children Maleah Davis has joined the ranks of Houston's missing children, as listed on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website. Read the full story on KPRC2 / Click2Houston. Willies Grill & Icehouse temporarily closes 2 locations after employees test positive for COVID-19 Two Houston-area restaurants owned by the same company shut their doors after a few employees tested positive for COVID-19. Read the full story on KPRC2 / Click2Houston. Gang member on the run after going on violent crime spree in Houston Alan Eleizer Reyes has eluded police since his first charge in early 2019. Read the full story on KHOU. HFD responded to more than 500 overcrowding complaints Memorial Day weekend, but no citations were issued Mayor Turner says voluntary compliance is still the priority as Houston firefighters will be enforcing the state's 25% capacity order. Read the full story on KHOU. 77 positive coronavirus cases reported at Houston homeless shelter Officials have been keeping a close eye on the homeless population in Houston. Read the full story on KHOU. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. New Delhi: NASA is geared up to launch two of its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 27 from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. The international space agencys mission in collaboration with its commercial partner SpaceX, dubbed Launch America, is scheduled for 4.33 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft will fly the astronauts to the ISS on the companys Falcon 9 rocket. This Crew Demo-2 mission is historic considering the fact that it will mark the first launch of astronauts on an American rocket from American soil since the last space shuttle mission in 2011. "SpaceX and @NASA completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities with @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug ahead of Crew Demo-2," SpaceX said in a tweet. SpaceX and @NASA completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities with @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug ahead of Crew Demo-2 pic.twitter.com/n3B2BBBmnq SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 23, 2020 NASA has also tweeted saying that the Launch America mission passed its final major review and teams received the go to proceed toward launch on May 27. A new era of human spaceflight begins this week Today, our #LaunchAmerica mission passed its final major review & teams received the go to proceed toward launch on May 27. @AstroBehnken & @Astro_Doug will fly aboard @SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft: https://t.co/BeSFgRAEZn pic.twitter.com/4Vqu68pV0e NASA (@NASA) May 26, 2020 Here is how to Live Stream NASA TV and Launch America The international space agency has said that NASA Television can be streamed through a variety of platforms to televisions, computers and mobile devices. NASA Live NASA's YouTube channel NASA App for iOS NASA App for Android It can be viewed through social media platforms, however for specific programs you may be required to create an account to subscribe and receive notifications. The social media accounts are: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Twitch.tv The Crew Dragon, carrying the two astronauts will head to the Space Station where it's scheduled to dock on May 28. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week unanimously advanced long-stalled legislation to formally institutionalize a counterterrorism partnership with numerous North African and Sahel states. The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Act, originally introduced by the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, also seeks to increase congressional oversight of the initiative, first established in 2005 under the George W. Bush administration. Under the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership, the United States provides military, law enforcement and logistical support to US partners in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia as well as numerous Sahel countries. Why it matters: The House passed McCauls legislation by voice vote in January 2019. While Senate Foreign Relations Committee did not act on the bill for more than a year, the Senate advanced the legislation as lawmakers seek to exert bipartisan pressure on the Pentagon to reconsider a decision to pull some 6,000 troops out of sub-Saharan Africa. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chris Coons, D-Del., penned a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper in January urging him not to pull US troops out of sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the Donald Trump administrations efforts to reduce the US troop footprint in Africa and slash foreign aid, the Pentagon and State Department have supported the program. The State Departments 2021 budget request asks Congress to appropriate $38.5 million to the program to counter al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, the Islamic State in West Africa and Boko Haram, which is mainly active in Nigeria, Niger and Chad. The Senates latest version of the bill also places more emphasis on development than the initial House version. It would mandate that the partnership improve governance and strengthen the rule of law with partner countries while addressing economic vulnerabilities that make people vulnerable to terrorist recruitment. Lastly, it requires the State Department to notify Congress 15 days before obligating funds for any activity under the program and to submit a comprehensive, five-year strategy for North Africa and the Sahel. Whats next: Given the Senates recent additions to the bill, the House will have to vote once more before it heads to the White House for President Trumps signature. Know more: Congressional Correspondent Bryant Harris outlines McCauls long-term plans for the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership. Washingtons Gov. Jay Inslee and the Department of Ecology have recently taken a historic step to address the negative impacts of the eight dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. They have required a plan to cool water temperatures to help struggling salmon. However, much more is needed. Northwest residents and business owners want to chart a new course for Lower Snake River dams to save endangered salmon. So do Gov. Kate Brown and Gov. Inslee. This was abundantly clear in their response to the wholly inadequate dam management options in the Columbia River System Operations Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Gov. Brown noted that the proposed plan will not meet the expectations and needs of the citizens of Oregon and the region, nor provide adequate protection for salmon and steelhead. She added: This vision of the future can only be realized with leadership from and strong collaboration with the four states (Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho). Gov. Inslee was equally clear. The plan falls short of Washingtons expectations to restore salmon and he called for an active, collaborative, and visionary regional conversation. Govs. Inslee and Brown are both right. For real solutions, we need regional collaboration and we must go beyond the recommendations put forth in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Draft Environmental Impact Statement. We have options, but little time. We are heartened by Govs. Inslee and Browns leadership and support them in forging a collaborative path forward. Tom France, Seattle France is regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defended the strictness of her state's coronavirus lockdown in an interview with "Axios on HBO," saying it was necessary despite the protests that have drawn national attention because of how quickly the state's cases were rising. The big picture: Whitmer, who has been a frequent target of President Trump, insisted that she had to act in the face of a lack of federal leadership and that thousands more people in her state would have died without the lockdown. "I'm never going to apologize for the fact that because there was a vacuum of leadership at the federal level, we had to take action to save people here in Michigan," she told Axios' Alexi McCammond. "It has not come without a cost. I recognize that. I know a lot of people are stressed about the job they lost or the business that might not open. But there's also over 5,000 families that are mourning the loss of a loved one. And I'm grateful that it's not 8,000 or more. " The intrigue: Whitmer, who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Joe Biden, didn't exactly slam the door on the prospect saying only, "I'm not looking to leave Michigan" and that "there's a lot of work that needs to be done" in responding to the pandemic. The backstory: Whitmer recently extended the state's stay-at-home order in the face of criticism from state officials and protesters, saying at the time that the extension was needed to "reduce the risk of a second wave." In the interview, Whitmer acknowledged that not all parts of the state have experienced the virus, so they may not see the danger but she insisted the lockdown was needed throughout the state to keep the virus from spreading out of control. "We had to act swiftly because of how steep our curve was. But it worked. And now we can really start to responsibly reengage," Whitmer said. If the virus did spread into rural areas, she said, "it could be even more dangerous than in a big city" because the hospitals might not be equipped to handle it. Whitmer mostly brushed off Trump's attacks on her and Michigan, saying she didn't believe he could actually carry out his Twitter threat to "hold up" federal funding to Michigan and Nevada because of their plans to expand voting by mail. But she said she does think carefully about her responses to him so they don't jeopardize aid to Michigan and she said that "the worst night's sleep that I've got in the last 10 weeks is when he has attacked me on Twitter." "I don't really care that it's an attack on me, but I'm worried that it would, you know, feed into a decision not to help Michigan. And that's all I'm asking for." Of the armed Michigan protesters who have demonstrated against the lockdown, she said, "there's a slim part of the population that is showing up at the capital with their assault rifles and their Confederate flags and Nazi symbolism. But you know what? That's not what you see as you get across Michigan." ANDRITZ Uses Remote Support in Successful Start-up of TMP Line at Volga Paper Mill in Russia ANDRITZ plug screw feeder used in the new high-consistency refiner feeding system. Photo courtesy ANDRITZ. May 26, 2020 - ANDRITZ has received the PAC (Provisional Acceptance Certificate) from Volga Pulp and Paper Mill in Balakhna, Nizhnij Novgorod Region, Russia, for the rebuild of an existing groundwood reject line as a TMP (Thermo-Mechanical Pulping) line. Due to the corona crisis, the complete start-up work was handled remotely in order to avoid any health and safety risks. "Due to the corona pandemic, the ANDRITZ team had to leave the mill site during the commissioning phase," explained Sergey Pondar, CEO of Volga Pulp and Paper Mill. "We agreed mutually to proceed by using remote support to avoid any significant delays in start-up of the new TMP line. This decision was absolutely right. ANDRITZ's remote start-up support worked extremely well, and the system performs excellently." The new TMP line features a capacity of 180 bdmt/d and increases the Volga Paper Mill's newspaper production accordingly. The line processes spruce as raw material to feed the existing paper machines. During this project, ANDRITZ modernized the high-consistency (HC) and low-consistency (LC) refining sections as well as the screening plant and delivered several new components, such as a new chip washing and pre-treatment system, the HC refiner feeding system, and an ANDRITZ DiscFilter. In addition, ANDRITZ provided the complete automation and electrification equipment with DCS system. Engineering, training and advisory services for mechanical installation work were also part of the scope and were a solid basis for the successful start-up. JSC Volga is one of the largest Russian newsprint producers and uses 100% TMP as furnish. About ANDRITZ ANDRITZ Pulp & Paper provides equipment, systems, complete plants and services for the production of all types of pulp, paper, board and tissue. The technologies and services focus on maximum utilization of raw materials, increased production efficiency and sustainability as well as lower overall operating costs.For further information visit: www.andritz.com . SOURCE: ANDRITZ No matter religious or political beliefs, Gladwin County residents saw a Facebook message that people needed help following flood devastation and organizers were putting a group together to meet the next morning at the Beaverton Nazarene Church. The next morning an estimated 60 people from Gladwin and Midland counties, Detroit and Grand Rapids showed up ready to help, some with shovels, rakes or other tools. For Shawn Dean, who organized the event, he was amazed at the outpouring of willing volunteers. The post also encouraged volunteers to be mindful of COVID-19 standards and to bring tools or anything they could to help with cleanup. It also encouraged those needing help to contact him. Dean said the goal was to help people until when and if the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped in. "People needed help now," Dean said. Dean got the idea to start the group when his mother's Wixom Lake house was filled with four feet of water. He knew it would just be something he, his father and sister would help with and how much work it would be. Then he thought about those people that didn't have any help and how a group of people could do more than a few people. Faithann Brubaker and Carrington DeShone contacted their Beaverton High School teacher Tami Wagner and invited her to join them in volunteering. Wagner was there the next morning. The group spent that Wednesday cleaning up an area south of Curtis Road in Edenville near where a bridge went out. "You cannot believe the devastation," Wagner said, noting that as disturbing as the pictures are, the actual scene is even worse. "You would think that you were in the aftermath of a tornado, hurricane or a tsunami, not in Beaverton. "It was mind blowing," Wagner added. "These people are just trying to survive a day." Faith Howe, 20, of Beaverton, attended the group for the first time Saturday. Howe said she was called to volunteer after seeing photos of the devastation. She said her house and family were safe and she wanted to help others that needed it. Volunteers saw many things, boats in trees, lone shoes, children's toys, a gas pig and more. Wagner was surprised to see a partly full bottle of Baileys Irish Cream that wasn't broken. Kerry Lang who has lived in Beaverton all her life, was ready to volunteer Saturday morning. On Saturday, the group worked in the area of Midland High School. They have worked in the areas of Edenville, Midland and Beaverton. "God's calling and people need help," Lang said. "People we help are so appreciative." Gladwin County Commissioner Chair Sharron Smith asked volunteers to stay away from the Tobacco River, noting that some erosion was reported, and officials were trying to reinforce the area with rocks preventing further loss. In addition to cleaning up disaster areas, volunteers also provided food and drinks for the workers. Kim Shea and her family hosted a dinner for them. Shea has been active with the group since day one. Lang said they had a lot of food, water and snacks donated. She said people really do care. Beaverton City Councilman Tim Danielak, his wife Seanne and their children, two sets of twins, 15 and 11, all came out to lend a hand. The family enjoys volunteering. Danielak said it teaches their children to be good citizens and it helps the community. It also helps them to feel more grateful and thankful for what they have. He was also touched by the strong community support. Dean said people from all over the state have reached out asking to help those in need. Victims of the flood were also out helping their neighbors. "This brought people closer together," Dean said. He said while working on Ostlund Drive in Billings Township, flood victims were coming out of their own damaged homes to help clean up their neighbors' homes. "It was very touching," said Dean who hopes the group can help as many people in need as possible. For more information on Dean's volunteer group, visit volunteering.agency. The Nigerian Navy Victory Ship (NNVS) has handed over 42 suspected cultists to the Cross River Government for onward investigation and prosecution. Briefing journalists on Tuesday in Calabar, the Commander of NNVS, Vincent Okeke, said the suspects were arrested on Sunday through a tip-off by concerned individuals. Mr Okeke, a rear admiral, who was represented by Ibrahim Gwaska, a captain, said the Navy standby team was informed that the suspects were gathered in Akpabuyo local government area of the state for initiation and other activities. According to him, intelligence gathering revealed that it was evidently clear that there was going to be a clash between the Klans and Black Axe confraternities. We are here to do a routine handover of 42 suspects to the Cross River Government representative. READ ALSO: Accordingly, the base responded through a tip-off and cordoned the area in Akpabuyo. In that raid, we arrested 61 suspected cultists. On arrival, preliminary investigations have been conducted and having concluded the investigation, 42 out of the arrested 61 persons were confirmed to be cultists accordingly. It is on this regard that we will be handing over the suspects to the state government and officials of the Anti-Cultism and Kidnapping Unit for onward investigation and prosecution, he said. In the same vein, on May 24, the navy also arrested a wooden boat laden with 130 drums of palm oil smuggled from Cameroon alongside 10 suspects The State Security Adviser, Southern Senatorial District, Ani Esin, who received the suspected cultists, commended the Navy for a successful operation. Mr Esin said the Navy acted swiftly on the tip-off that was given to them. As a state government, we are doing our best in ensuring that the issue of cultism is dealt with squarely. We are going to hand over the suspects to the relevant security agency for onward investigation and prosecution. For few days now, we have been on operation with other security agencies in making sure that all suspected cultists are arrested and prosecuted accordingly, he said. Mr Esin, thereafter, handed over the suspects to an official of the Anti-Cultism and kidnapping Squad, Mr Ogini Chukwuma for onward prosecution. (NAN) India's economy is estimated to have grown at 1.2 per cent in the last quarter of the previous fiscal as economic activity came to a standstill due to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, said the State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday in a report. According to the SBI's Ecowrap report, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is likely to be 4.2 per cent for FY20 and (-) 6.8 per cent for FY21. The fourth-quarter GDP growth number for FY20 will be announced by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on May 29. In the third quarter of FY20, GDP growth ... The African economy will recover quickly from the devastating impact of the Coronavirus pandemic if there is a meaningful collaboration between governments and the private sector, some global leaders said on Monday. The leaders, who stated this, include the Liberian President, George Weah; U.S. senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Africa, Chris Coons; the President/Chairman, Board of Directors, African Export-Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK), Benedict Oramah; and President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer. Others include the Founder, Africa CEO Forum, Amir Yahmed; the Secretary-General, African Caribbean & Pacific Group of States (ACP), George Chikoti; Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Achim Steiner, and the Chairman, UBA Plc, Tony Elumelu. They spoke at the second United Bank for Africa (UBA) African Day Conversations on the theme, Growth, Jobs, and Sustainable Development Amidst a Global Pandemic. Mr Elumelu, who is also the Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, moderated the event. Need for collective action Mr Elumelu said the global economic crisis as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic has brought the ideal time for collective action to rebuild Africa. This is not the time for finger-pointing, but for collaborative effort by governments and private organisations to fight the pandemic globally. READ ALSO: All hands must be on deck if the African continent is to recover quickly from the pandemic. There is need for global co-operation to flatten the curve of the pandemic and stem the global economic depression. Africa requires large stimulus packages and long-term solutions to prevent a cycle of debt, Mr Elumelu said. President Weah highlighted how collaborations between his government and the private sector helped to stem the sufferings brought by the coronavirus pandemic on Liberians. In Liberia, we have taken measures to ease the financial burden on vulnerable businesses in the informal sector by providing small loan assistance to small and medium enterprises and traders. In addition, we are working with commercial banks to manage the repayment of loans as well as to create stimulus packages for citizens, he said. The U.S. Senator, Mr Coons, stressed the need to invest in debt relief, infrastructure and human development. He said with the current experience under COVID-19, there is no time to look backwards, but to recognise the power of collective collaboration on the continent. The pandemic, the lawmaker said, presents an opportunity for Africa to be independent and promote its growth and development as a people without looking for external aid. Africa must act independent The President of AFREXIMBANK, Mr Oramah, said COVID-19 has taught Africa that there would come a time when a people must fend for themselves. Mr Oramah said African governments must swiftly implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement. The pandemic has shown so many weaknesses we have across our continent. We know that hunger is looming if we do not do anything. If we allow hunger to take over from the COVID 19 pandemic, we will begin to see political problems filling in. For Africa, the problems go beyond health challenges to other areas such as food supply. Hunger is looming and if action is not taken, Africa will see political problem. Africa has become the epicentre of the economic devastation that this pandemic has unleashed upon us, he said. On its part, he said AFREXIMBANK has made available about $200 million to facilitate the supply of fertiliser to farmers and grains across Africa. He warned that if Africa allows hunger to take over its people, the insecurity that would come as a result would take a long time to overcome. Mr Chikoti of ACP said the task of economic recovery to lift the burden of the pandemic on the continent rests on both the government and the private sector. He said African governments must accept the support of the private sector in alleviating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. He said the ACP released $114.5million to member states to help them cushion the impact of COVID-19, particularly to boost agricultural activity and productivity. Advertisements Digital connectivity crucial The UNDP Administrator, Mr Steiner said digital connectivity was a crucial opportunity to connect schools and improve healthcare delivery. Digital connectivity is very crucial to connect schools to the internet to address inequality. The virus has put a spotlight on Africas healthcare system. Africa needs to look at intermediate strategies like micro-insurance to ramp up this sector, as poor healthcare can make a large percentage of the population fall into extreme poverty, he said. President, ICRC, Peter Maurer, said people should look at the pandemics as part of a broader health system which needs stabilisation. He said vulnerable populations in Africa have been infected by the virus, adding that the pandemic has revealed the weaknesses in health, water, sanitation and social systems, which require heavy investments. Mr Yahmed said the crisis has shown that Africans need to move away from the commodity-driven model which has failed in creating prosperity. He said the pandemic is a wake-up call for Africa to embrace self-reliance and ensure new streams of revenue are created We need to use this crisis to take Africa to the next level. This crisis is going to be a super accelerator of already existing trends. We need to invest in digital infrastructure, digital education, and agriculture as new opportunities, Mr Yahmed said. Victorian senator Sarah Henderson and NSW MP Dave Sharma. Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit: Sarah Henderson took the nuclear option in the battle against pesky Twitter trolls and online criticism last week, launching defamation proceedings against a suspected detractor. The Victorian senator is pursuing Supreme Court action alleging former Geelong councillor Jan Farrell is responsible for two defamatory tweets on the @Geelong_Elite Twitter account. The two tweets in question blast Henderson as a "sycophant" and falsely said she was "out of office and now into jail". Farrell has denied having any connection to the account. She also says the first she learnt of the defamation suit was when she was contacted by journalists for a response. But thats not the only hurdle Henderson is facing. Hendersons federal Liberal colleagues are dead against the move, particularly at a time when NSW Liberal Dave Sharma is facing action in court himself accused of defamation. In this context, Hendersons case is, Unhelpful, badly timed, unnecessary and indulgent, according to one Lib. A 47-year-old New Jersey woman who served as the chief financial officer in Little Ferry was killed in an ATV crash over the weekend, according to the boroughs mayor. Lori-Ann Beck died as a result of injuries she suffered in the crash Sunday, Little Ferry mayor Mauro Raguseo said in a Facebook post Monday. Moonachie police Chief Richard Behrens confirmed two people were brought to the hospital after an ATV crash just before 6 p.m. Sunday in the field behind Robert L. Craig Elementary School. Behrens referred questions to the Bergen County Prosecutors Office. A spokeswoman for the prosecutors office on Tuesday afternoon declined to comment and told NJ Advance Media to contact Moonachie police for information. A mother of two, Beck had worked for the borough for more than 15 years and was engaged to be married this summer, according to Raguseo. We are all heartbroken and devastated by this loss of our dear friend, Raguseo wrote. Our hearts go out to her children, her fiance, and her entire family that loved her so very much. Lori, you made such a positive impact on our town and on all who met you. You taught us by example that no matter how difficult certain points in life may be always move forward and keep reaching for the stars. Moonachie police couldnt immediately be reached for additional information about the crash. Hired by Little Ferry in 2005, Beck was promoted multiple times before becoming the CFO, the mayor said. Raguseo described Beck as an outstanding employee who watched our budget like a hawk accounting for every penny and making sure we could save as much as we could. Yesterday in the late afternoon, we received the devastating news that our dear friend and colleague, Lori Beck... Posted by Mauro Raguseo on Monday, May 25, 2020 Beck and her fiance were planning a July wedding, a ceremony she asked the mayor to officiate. She was a dear friend to all, especially all her colleagues," Raguseo said. Always cheerful and upbeat no matter what personal problems she was going through. Loris smile lit up a room. Her presence and demeanor put everyone at ease. She would go above and beyond to help you. She was loyal, honest and trustworthy. She was the happiest I had ever seen her during the last few years. I was honored when she asked me to officiate at her wedding to her beloved fiance Joe. Beck is survived by her son Tommy and daughter Crystal. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) for the movement of Indian nationals stranded outside the country Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) for the movement of Indian nationals stranded outside the country, saying it will be a paid service and preference will be given to people in distress including those who have lost their jobs and pregnant women. A similar SOP was also issued by the government for those who are stranded in India and desire to travel abroad. As per the latest SOP, all travellers will have to give an undertaking that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days. It will be a seven-day paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by seven days of isolation at home with self-monitoring of health. Only for exceptional and compelling reasons such as cases of human distress, pregnancy, death in family, serious illness and parent(s) accompanied by children below 10 years, as assessed by the receiving states, home quarantine may be permitted for 14 days and use of ''Aarogya Setu'' app shall be mandatory in such cases, it said. According to the SOP issued earlier by the home ministry on 5 May, the institutional quarantine period was 14 days and another 14 days was for home quarantine while ''Aarogya Setu'' app was mandatory for all international arrivals. The latest protocol dictates that the state governments and UTs can also develop their own protocol with regards to quarantine and isolation as per their assessment. The government is currently undertaking a special operation under the name of ''Vande Bharat Mission'' to bring back stranded Indians from more than 40 countries. According to the latest guidelines, the Union Home Ministry has directed those who wish to return to India will have to register themselves with the Indian missions in that country, along with necessary details as prescribed by the Ministry of External Affairs. Priority will be given to compelling cases in distress, including migrant workers, labourers who have been laid off, short-term visa-holders facing expiry of visas, persons with medical emergency, pregnant women, elderly, those required to return to India due to death of family member, and students, the SOP said. The cost of travel, as specified by the carrier, will be borne by such travellers, it said. This comes at a time when there has been an increasing demand for various groups of immigrants to provide free of cost, or subsidised travel facility for those stuck abroad. There are many people who want to go back because they have lost jobs and not getting their salaries. The Government should consider the plight of such people, Indian advocate Ibrahim Khaleel, secretary of Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre in Dubai and KMCC legal cell chairman told Gulf News All those who will arrive from abroad will have to follow the guidelines for quarantine arrangements issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the SOP said. As per the Health Ministry guidelines, on arrival, thermal screening would be carried out in respect of all the passengers by the health officials present at the airport, seaport and landport. The passengers found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately isolated and taken to medical facility as per health protocol. The remaining passengers shall be taken to suitable institutional quarantine facilities, to be arranged by the respective State and UT governments. These passengers shall be kept under institutional quarantine for a minimum period of seven days. They shall be tested as per ICMR protocol. If they test positive, they shall be assessed clinically. If they are assessed as mild cases, they will be allowed home isolation or isolated in the Covid Care Centre (both public and private facilities) as appropriate. Those having moderate or severe symptoms will be admitted to dedicated COVID Health facilities and managed accordingly. If found negative, they shall be advised to further isolate themselves at home and self-monitor their health for seven days. In case, any symptoms develop they shall inform the district surveillance officer or the state/national call center (1075). Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the SOP was issued as many Indians who had travelled to different countries before the nationwide lockdown for various purposes such as employment, studies, internships, tourism or business are stranded abroad. He said due to their prolonged stay abroad, they are facing distress and wish to return. Besides, there are other Indian nationals who need to visit India due to medical emergencies or death of a family member. The returnees will travel to India by non-scheduled commercial flights as allowed by Ministry of Civil Aviation (MOCA) and ships as allowed by Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and Ministry of Shipping (MOS). Only those crew and staff, who are tested COVID-19 negative, will be allowed to operate these flights and ships. Based on the registrations received, the MEA will prepare flight and ship wise database of all such travellers, including details such as name, age, gender, mobile phone number, place of residence, place of final destination and information on RT-PCR test taken and its result. This data base will be shared by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with the respective state and UT in advance. The MEA will display with at least two days notice, the schedule (day, place and time of arrival) of the incoming flight and ship, on their online digital platform. All travellers will also be required to give an undertaking that they are making the journey at their own risk. Passengers arriving through the land borders will also have to undergo the same protocol as above, and only those who are asymptomatic will be enabled to cross the border into India. View Survey According to the SOP for movement of persons stranded in India who wish to travel abroad, such persons will have to apply to Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) or to any agency designated by MoCA along with necessary details, including the places of departure and arrival, as prescribed by MoCA. Persons shall be allowed to travel to the destination countries only if they are citizens of that country or hold visa of at least one year duration of that country or are green card or OCI card holder. In cases of medical emergency or a death in the family, Indian nationals holding six-month visa can also be allowed . The travel from India shall be by on the non-scheduled commercial flights that are allowed by MoCA for bringing back stranded Indian nationals from abroad. Indian seafarers and crew seeking to accept contracts to serve on vessels abroad, can travel on the non-scheduled commercial flights departing from India under the ''Vande Bharat Mission'' or other flights arranged by their employers subject to clearance given by the Ministry of Shipping. Before the tickets of such persons are confirmed, the MoCA will ensure that the destination country allows entry of such persons in that country. The conditions, if any, imposed by the destination country, will have to be fulfilled by the person intending to travel. The cost of travel, as specified by the carrier, will be borne by such travellers. A nationwide lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March for 21 days in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic. It was first extended till 3 May and again till 17 May. The lockdown has now been extended till 31 May. With inputs from agencies (Newser) Four Minnesota police officers involved in the death of an unarmed black man are "no longer employees," says Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. The four officers were fired after video surfaced of a white officer kneeling on the handcuffed man's neck while he repeatedly said "I can't breathe." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted that the four officers had been "terminated" and said it was the "right call," the BBC reports. He told reporters that the Monday night incident was "completely and utterly messed up," adding: "I believe what I saw and what I saw is wrong on every level. Being black in America should not be a death sentence." story continues below Police said the man, identified by relatives as George Floyd, was found "sitting on top of a blue car" by officers investigating a report of somebody trying to use a counterfeit bill at a nearby store. The video shows the officer kneeling on his neck as bystanders urge him to let the man breathe. Police initially claimed the man had died after suffering a medical episode while struggling with officers. "This abusive, excessive, and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a nonviolent charge," said a lawyer for Floyd's family, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Federal authorities say the officer seen in the video is being investigated for possible civil rights violations. (Read more Minneapolis stories.) (Alliance News) - Ryanair Holdings PLC on Tuesday again took aim at state aid in the aviation industry, with Deutsche Lufthansa AG in its cross-hairs in the wake of news it agreed a EUR9 billion bailout from the German government. The Irish budget carrier added that it plans to operate about 40% of its normal July schedule. This followed news that Spain would remove travel restrictions on July 1, and Italy, Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal all announced plans to reopen for the key summer tourist period. Ryanair shares were 10% higher at EUR11.75 each in London on Tuesday afternoon. Commenting on the Lufthansa bailout, Ryanair said the cash injection will increase the flag carrier's "monopoly like grip on the German air travel market". "The German and French governments continue to provide enormous state aid to their companies, many of whom do not need it, which distorts competition with other providers across Europe. Non-state aided airlines like Ryanair, easyJet PLC, British Airways and others, will now have to compete with Lufthansa in both the short haul and long haul markets without equivalent state aid. "Whereas Lufthansa can use this latest EUR9 billion subsidy from the German government to engage in below-cost selling on its short haul intra-EU routes and its long haul routes." It's not the first time Ryanair has weighed in on what it labels "state aid doping". Earlier in May, Ryanair noted Lufthansa took EUR12.4 billion in aid, and recently renationalised Alitalia received EUR3.5 billion in government assistance. With large war chests for these rivals, Ryanair said it expects below-cost selling in the year ahead. Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday: "Lufthansa is addicted to state aid. Whenever there is a crisis, Lufthansa's first reflex is to put its hand in the German government's pocket. While most other EU airlines can survive on just payroll support schemes (for which we are extremely grateful), Lufthansa claims it needs another EUR9 billion from the German government, EUR1 billion from the Swiss government, EUR800 million from the Austrian government, and EUR500 million from the Belgian government as it stumbles around Europe sucking up as much state aid as it can possibly gather. "The German government continues to ignore EU rules when it suits them to subsidise large German companies, but then lectures every other EU government about respecting the rules when they ignore them. Ryanair will appeal against this latest example of illegal state aid to Lufthansa, which will massively distort competition and level playing field into provision of flights to and from Germany for the next five years." Ryanair said that from July 1, it will offer flights from "all over northern Europe" to key holiday hotspots like Greece, Spain and Portugal as nations begin to ease travel curbs made as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. "After four months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines. Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much-needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations, for July and August before the schools return in September," O'Leary added. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. The Departments of Justice is investigating allegations that the meatpacking industry is fixing or manipulating prices, a person familiar with the investigation told Axios on Tuesday. Why it matters: The investigation follows a surge in meat prices after outbreaks in a number of processing plants led to closures in more than a dozen states. But processors have been paying farmers and ranchers extremely low prices for their cattle, according to Politico, which first reported on the investigation. The DOJ will probe the so-called "big four" meat producers who together make up about 85% of the U.S. market Tyson Foods, JBS, National Beef and Cargill. Tyson Foods, JBS, National Beef and Cargill. The Department of Agriculture is also reviewing meat price fluctuations, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told Politico. The big picture: The industry has long been a target of antitrust scrutiny. But the coronavirus crisis is "highlighting how the American system of getting meat to the table favors a handful of giant companies despite a century of government efforts to decentralize it," Politico writes. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 16:08:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HANOI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese authorities are investigating Tenma Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japan's plastic product maker Tenma Corporation, for alleged bribing some 232,000 U.S. dollars to avoid tax arrears, Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday. Vietnamese Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has requested an urgent investigation into the allegations, the news agency reported. "This was an important issue related to the business investment environment as well as prevention of corruption," Dung told the press on the sidelines of the National Assembly meeting on Monday afternoon. In a same move, the police of northern Bac Ninh province where the company based have requested the provincial taxation and customs departments to provide all documents for the investigation, daily newspaper Tien Phong (Pioneer) reported. The case of Tenma Vietnam came into the spotlight when Japanese media reported that the Vietnamese subsidiary gave a bribe of 25 million yen (about 232,000 U.S. dollars) to Vietnamese customs officials to avoid some 418 billion Vietnamese dong (18.1 million U.S. dollars) in tax duties between June 2017 and August 2019. In a related development, Ngo Xuan Tong, Director of Bac Ninh Tax Department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the allegation that tax officials received money from Tenma Vietnam was a unilateral report from Japanese media. Further investigation is underway. Tenma Vietnam was established in 2007 in northern Bac Ninh province with charter capital of 35 million U.S. dollars, fully contributed by the Japanese parent corporation, according to Vietnam News Agency. The company specializes in manufacturing and trading of plastic moulding components and plastic molds. Enditem San Francisco, CA, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Fundbox, the leading B2B payment and credit network, announced a fresh equity investment from MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd., the corporate venture capital arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan's largest financial group and the world's fourth-largest bank holding company. With this financing, MUFG Innovation Partners tripled its investment in Fundboxs recent Series C round, bringing the total equity funding in the round to almost $200 million. "We are pleased with how Fundboxs advanced data science and technology capabilities have contributed to its superior portfolio performance, especially during COVID-19," said Akihiko Okamoto, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer for MUFG Innovation Partners. Even in the face of these extraordinary economic conditions, the strength of the business has been impressive. Our team has great confidence in Fundbox. While COVID-19 has had a wide-scale negative impact on many Fintechs, Fundbox has gained strong positive momentum by continuing to grow its customer network, originating credit for existing customers, and enabling faster payments for B2B suppliers. Despite a modest increase in losses early in the pandemic, key portfolio health indicators are now back at, or better than, pre-crisis levels. "Our investments in real-time data access, machine learning, and automated credit management have helped us respond very quickly to this crisis, allowing us to continue serving the majority of our customers in addition to adding new customers, said Eyal Shinar, Founder, and CEO of Fundbox. The funding and support from sophisticated strategic investors like MUFG will enable us to continue investing in our technology platform and customer experience." About Fundbox Fundbox is a leading financial technology company focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by launching the worlds first B2B payment and credit network. With Fundbox, sellers (of all sizes) can quickly increase average order volumes (AOV) and improve close rates by offering more competitive net terms and payment plans to their approved SMB buyers. With heavy investments in machine learning and the ability to quickly analyze transactional data, Fundbox is reimagining B2B payments and credit products in new category-defining ways. Fundbox has received numerous accolades for innovation including the prestigious Forbes A.I. 50, Red Herring North American 100, Forbes Fintech 50, CB Insights Fintech 250, Benzinga 2019 Fintech Listmakers, Forbes Billion Dollar Startup To Watch among others. Since the companys founding in 2013, Fundbox has raised more than $400 million from a blue-chip group of investors led by Khosla Ventures, Allianz, MUFG Innovation Partners, General Catalyst, Spark Growth Capital, Arbor Ventures and Bezos Expeditions, and is currently experiencing incredible growth momentum. For more information about Fundbox, visit fundbox.com. Reconciliation Week is a chance to think about the nations unfinished business. I believe national reconciliation is closer than many of us dare to dream. When I sat down to write my first speech to the Senate last year, I agonised over every word in the section on reconciliation because there are so many spent hopes in this space. So many promises not delivered. Pat Anderson from the Referendum Council with a piti holding the Uluru Statement from the Heart in May 2017. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen In 2020, we mark the week in the light of two positive developments which I have noticed: more Indigenous success in education and progress on an Indigenous voice. First, on success, the efforts on education are paying off. More Indigenous Australians are succeeding on the education front. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to move the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina - while denying that he wants to hold the convention at his namesake resort in Florida even as some state officials started clamoring for the president's adopted home state to be the venue. Accusing North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, of being in a "shutdown mood," Trump - in a string of early-morning Memorial Day tweets - pressured Cooper to guarantee that "we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena" in Charlotte by the late-August convention. "Plans are being made by many thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August," Trump wrote. "They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied." Trump continued: "If not, we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Thank you, and I LOVE the people of North Carolina!" The threat singling out a Democratic governor who has followed federal guidelines echoed Trump's pressure on other Democratic-led states to reopen as the coronavirus pandemic pushes the economy to the worst crisis since the Great Depression, with about 38 million Americans filing for unemployment and scores of businesses shuttering. Trump, who sees a revived economy as critical to his reelection, also has encouraged protests against Democratic governors who have imposed stay-home orders consistent with federal health officials' recommendations. Others in the president's orbit have gone further. In a recent interview, his son Eric Trump leveled the baseless claim that the coronavirus will "magically" disappear after the November elections and suggested that his father's critics were using the pandemic to undermine Trump's rallies. Cooper, through aides, declined to respond forcefully to Trump's tweets Monday. "State health officials are working with the RNC and will review its plans as they make decisions about how to hold the convention in Charlotte," said Dory MacMillan, a spokeswoman for the governor. "North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our state's public health and safety." The governor, as well as North Carolina health officials, have had ongoing conversations with both the party committee and White House aides about the convention, according to a state official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The morning tweet was backed up by the Republican National Committee and Vice President Mike Pence, who in a Fox News interview on Monday mentioned Florida, Georgia and Texas as potential alternate venues for the convention, while stressing that the party wants to stay in Charlotte. "We love North Carolina," Pence said. "But having a sense now is absolutely essential because of the immense preparations that are involved." An RNC official echoed Trump, saying Cooper needs to assure the party that the convention can proceed as planned and urged for some answers "sooner rather than later, or we will be forced to consider other options." North Carolina offers a political trifecta crucial to the GOP's chances of holding the presidency and the Senate majority while reclaiming a governorship. Trump won the state by four percentage points in 2016 - the same year Cooper edged out GOP incumbent Pat McCrory. Cooper has gotten high marks for his handling of the pandemic as he seeks a second term, while the state's junior senator, Republican Thom Tillis, is locked in a tight race with Democrat Cal Cunningham. Planning for both parties' nominating conventions - a significant undertaking that attracts thousands from all over the nation - has been upended by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has killed at least 97,000 Americans and had forced most of the country to shut down businesses and limit mass gatherings. Democrats have postponed their July convention to August amid concerns about the pandemic. But it remains unclear whether their plans will shift again, of whether they will hold an in-person gathering in Milwaukee as they have long intended. One alternative under consideration, according to Democrats familiar with the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private planning, is to hold smaller regional events for delegates and party leaders that would complement a scaled-down main event in Milwaukee. The national party also opened the door Tuesday to remote delegate voting, an indication of movement toward a scaled back or virtual event. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been campaigning from home for the past couple of months, avoiding traditional rallies and town halls in favor of live-streamed events that have sometimes been complicated by technical difficulties. On Monday, Biden laid a wreath at a veterans park near his home, marking the first time in more than two months he has left his neighborhood. But Republicans have powered through with their plans for an in-person convention, currently scheduled from Aug. 24 to 27. In North Carolina, indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people, and no more than 25 people can congregate outside. Those restrictions run through at least June 26, but the state will only move to the next phase of reopening if the data show it is safe to do so. The state reported 1,107 cases of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, on Saturday, which was the highest one-day figure of cases confirmed by laboratories. Mecklenburg County and the city of Charlotte said Monday that they were continuing to plan for the convention, but that they will release guidance on large gatherings in Charlotte in June. Despite the party's preferred plans, officials in other GOP-led states on Monday began offering their states as alternate locations. The most prominent of them was Florida, the state that Trump made as his primary residence late last year and whose GOP governor, Ron DeSantis, is a close ally of the president. Pence traveled to Orlando for a joint appearance with DeSantis last week, and Trump is scheduled to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday. "The Republican Party of Florida would welcome the opportunity to host the Republican National Convention. Florida is committed to ensuring a safe, secure and successful event for President Trump and all attendees," Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said Monday. "We have America's number one governor in Ron DeSantis, and Florida is open for business." Chris Hartline, a spokesman for Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the senator and former governor believes "Florida is certainly the best place in the world to host big events" but deferred to decisions made by Trump and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. The Republican Party of Duval County, where Jacksonville is located, wrote on Facebook: "Duval County is ready and open for business, Mr. President! #RNCtoJAX." Trump ruled out one potential venue in Florida in a tweet later Monday, saying he had "zero interest" in moving the convention to Trump National Doral near Miami. He accused The New York Times of reporting that he was interested in holding the event there "in order to stir up trouble," though the newspaper did not report that. "Ballroom is not nearly big enough & would like to stay in N.C., whose gov. doesn't even know if he can let people in?" Trump tweeted. Still, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican, said in a Monday interview that he is open to the idea of moving the convention to his county, where Doral is located. Gimenez, who is vying for the congressional seat currently held by Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat, said he had not received any outreach from the Trump campaign or RNC officials. "Yeah, we'd be open to it," he said. "It's not a slam dunk - depends on how it's going to be done and all that." Officials in other states mentioned by Pence in his Monday interview - Texas and Georgia - also expressed openness to holding the GOP convention there if needed. "Texas would welcome President Trump and the RNC Convention," said James Dickey, the chairman for the Republican Party of Texas. "Until then, based on Governor Greg Abbott's progress in opening Texas, we are on track for our state convention as planned in person in July." Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, said she was not aware of any conversations between the governor's office and the White House or the Republican National Committee about the state as a backup convention venue. But, she added, "We would welcome those discussions." An Indian Army Major who has served with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), she is also a woman peacekeeper. A Brazilian woman commander has been selected for the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate as powerful role models. Wikipedia Indian Army Major Suman Gawani will be awarded in an online ceremony presided over by United Nations Secretary General Guterres on May 29, which is the International Day for UN Peacekeepers. Ms Gawani has completed an assignment in South Sudan which is apart from the stint with the UNMISS. Guterres has commended Ms Gawani and Ms Araujo. These peacekeepers are powerful role models. Through their work, they have brought new perspectives and have helped build trust and confidence among the communities we serve," he said. "Through their commitment and innovative approaches, they embrace a standard of excellence that is an inspiration to all blue helmets everywhere. As we confront today's challenges, their work has never been more important or relevant." This is the very first time that the UN Military Gender Advocate award has gone to an Indian peacekeeper and this is the second year in the row that the Brazilian peacekeeper has received this honour. Unsplash The award was created in 2016, this prestigious award recognizes the effort and dedication of an individual military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of the UN Security Resolution 1325 which has been on women, peace and security in a peace operation as nominated by Heads and Force commander of peace operations. Apparently it is the first time that the awards are being given to two peacekeepers and it will be given to them jointly for their efforts in the field. Major Gawani has expressed her gratitude towards the recognition she has received. Whatever our function, position or rank, it is our duty as peacekeepers to integrate an all-genders perspective into our daily work and own it in our interactions with colleagues as well as with communities," she said in a statement issued here. Major Gawani joined the Indian National Army in 2011 where she graduated from the Officers Training, then joined the Army Signal Corps. She has done her Bachelor in Telecommunication Engineering and a Bachelor of Education degrees from Military College of Telecommunication, and the Government Post Graduate College in Dehradun respectively. In December 2018, she was deployed in the UNMISS, Ms Gawani mentored over 230 UN Military Observers (UNMO) on conflict -related sexual violence and ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the missions team sites. "By providing support, mentoring, guidance and leadership, she helped to create an enabling environment for UN Peacekeepers," the statement said. Gutterres has made sure that ending sexual violence as a priority in the UN peace operations a priority and Atul Khare who is the under secretary general for operational support has announced a zero tolerance policy for peacekeepers. "As we confront today's challenges, their work has never been more important or relevant," Guterres said. Grab our new app rova and stay tuned to The Sound Stay tuned to The Sound and download our new app rova and take the greatest music ever made with you wherever you go. Mrs. Apothaker always seemed to be the coolest woman in the room. She spent most of her life in Philadelphia, first as a housewife then as a successful businesswoman. Read more People Weve Lost Cathy Apothaker 89 years old Lived in Philadelphia A strong, independent woman, she was years ahead of her time More Memorials When she was beginning her senior year at the University of Michigan in 1950, Cathy Sotir was described in a school profile as one of those rare young women who knows exactly what she wants and how to get it. Darn right. When she was barred from sororities because she was a first-generation immigrant, she spit on the ground and went on to become head of the universitys powerful Womens League. When she met the love of her life and he was from another religion, they made it work. And when the moving guys were stumped by a piece of bulky furniture, she straightened them out, too. Cathy Sotir Apothaker was raised in Detroit but spent most of her adult life in Philadelphia. She was a businesswoman, socialite, widow too soon, and loving parent. She died Sunday, April 19, at age 89 from COVID-19. Mrs. Apothaker spent the twilight of her life with her daughter, Helena, in Los Angeles, but her familys legacy in Philadelphia has continued. She was Cathy Sotir when she was working for Saks Fifth Avenue in Detroit out of college. Saks wanted her to run the womens department of the New York store, Helena said, so they sent her to the Philadelphia location for training. The 1958 book Sorority Rebel is based on her fight against injustice and discrimination in the Greek system, her daughter said. She hopped on an elevator at the Park Towne Apartments near the Art Museum when Louis Apothaker stepped into her life. He was Jewish. She was Greek Orthodox. Neither wanted to change religion, yet they were determined to make love work. My mother decided, if my father were to convert, she would have broken him for the rest of his life, and that was not a man that she wanted to marry, Helena said. She put her business ambitions on hold, found a justice of the peace in 1962, and never looked back. Louis went on to become a prominent lawyer, and the Apothakers became a power couple in Philadelphia society. Cancer took Louis in 1976. Mournful but resilient (and with two children younger than 12), Mrs. Apothaker started the annual gala still held by the Philadelphia Bar Association. The associations Foundation Award has been given out for 41 years and originally was named for Louis Apothaker. Sister Mary Scullion, founder of Project HOME, was the 1988 winner. The Apothaker family has had a lasting and profoundly positive impact on the Bar Foundation and beyond, executive director Jessica R. Hilburn-Holmes said. Mrs. Apothaker opened her own business after her husbands death, turning Country Floors at 1706 Locust St. into a popular spot for interior designers from around the country. She traveled the world and collected bits of stone from notable destination such as the Acropolis and the Great Wall of China. Helena is making sure her mother returns to these landmarks. What Im going to do is take those stones and a little sprinkle of her ashes and put them back, Helena said. Mrs. Apothaker was 75 when she left for L.A., where her daughter could keep an eye on her health. There was a treasured armoire that the moving company just couldnt get out of the narrow doorway of her Old City home when the woman who was so perfectly described in that college article more than 50 years ago put her foot down. She sat down with her cigarette in her hand, her daughter recalled, and said, I got it in here, so you better get it the [expletive] out or Im not going anywhere. Mrs. Apothaker eventually adjusted to life on the West Coast, befriending the workers at Beverly Hills stores such as Saks and Barneys New York. She also became a regular at a local gay bar, though it had nothing to do with her sexuality. She loved the Abbey, her daughter said, laughing. It was the only place you could still smoke. I was going to throw her a big 90th birthday party there. And thats what Im going to do for her memorial. Im going to throw her a party." In addition to her daughter, she is survived by son Jonathan. Ed Barkowitz, ebarkowitz@Inquirer.com We stood there huddled together on a cool afternoon driven out into the middle of nowhere miles and miles outside Madrid as close to the massive engine as we dared, but far enough away to still feel safe. And we waited in anticipation, all thirty of us, in total silence. Flames began to lick the bottom of the engine, slowly at first, then without warning consuming the whole engine. The fire shot up and lit up the yard, burning strongly, and for a moment I held my breath, worried that it wouldnt work. A loud bang sounded and suddenly foamy liquid engulfed the fire it was all over within about 15 seconds. For some, it was an anti-climax and people would later joke that they expected a dramatic fire display or a bigger fire but in this case the anti-climax was good, as it meant the system worked. And that meant it could save lives. What we had just watched in action was Tycos Ansul Checkfire detection and actuation system, designed for vehicles and equipment in a variety of applications, including in the mining industry. The system comes in two modules, Checkfire 110, which offers single zone detection and actuation for smaller vehicles in industries such as forestry, waste disposal, aviation and transit, and the 210 unit, which provides detection, alarm and fire suppression actuation for mobile applications such as hydraulic excavators, haul trucks, wheeled loaders, dozers and graders. Ronnie Drugan, business development manager at Tyco Fire and Building Products, told IM that the Checkfire system can protect machinery which can be worth anywhere between $1m to tens of millions of dollars. [With the Checkfire system] were protecting lead time, were protecting downtime, and safety. Its paramount for us, and its paramount we protect the operator, but in the real world a lot of it is about assets, production, Drugan said. The importance of Checkfire Steven Colclough, product marketing manager for Tyco Fire Protection, told IM that the installation of the system on mining equipment or vehicles ensures safety for operators, but also prevents losses from downtime. If we can keep the assets running, wherever that might be in mining, forestry wherever keep those vehicles running, that means theyre running safely, the operators safe and theyre generating income for the organisation, he said. The technology that we have now is going to identify problems and pre-empt some of the problems before they occur, [users] can then take the vehicle offline, get it repaired and get it back up and working before it has a fire, he added. Drugan explained that many mining operations have very high usage, with some companies running virtually non-stop operations. A fire could not only cause injuries or death to workers, but cost a company millions of dollars in replacing equipment and downtime. These operations are very high usage. Someone comes along, jumps in and takes over from another operator, so our equipment has to be reliable, rugged to meet the harsh environment, so that we give them the protection and allow them to keep operating for as long as they need, Drugan said. In terms of the benefits of installing the system, Drugan added that protection of mining vehicles is a worthy investment as, in some cases such as in gold mining, a million dollar truck can go down into the mine, collect ore, and pay for itself in one day. Underground mining leader in fatalities According to the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), mining and mineral processing facilities represent significant fire and explosion exposures to both personnel and production equipment and buildings. From a personnel safety standpoint, underground mining has been by far the global loss leader in fatalities and injuries for all industries, the NFPA said. According to the organisations website, in the 100 year period from 1900 to 1999, more than 100,000 miners died from all unintentional injury causes, including fires and explosions, in the US. US coal mine incidents alone, an average of 1,040 a year. In the last decade, this has been reduced to 450 fatalities, or an average of 45 per year. Approximately 10-15% can be attributed directly to fires and explosions, it said. This month, Turkeys coal industry was thrown into the spotlight as a fire tore through the Soma coal mine with a final death toll of 301. Investigations are still continuing to unearth what caused the deadliest disaster in Turkeys mining history, however, the tragedy has drawn attention to poor working conditions and low safety standards in industrial jobs in the country. Drugan explained to IM that while the Checkfire system adheres to US and Australian mining standards, Tyco would like to see stricter regulation in other regions, especially those with smaller localised mining industries. He added that stringent mining practices are often led by larger international mining markets. You tend to find some countries not operating international mining companies, international mining companies bring in standard operating practices, he said. Those companies that run smaller localised businesses might always have a hand portable, but if you lift up an engine hood to use a hand portable you let more oxygen in there and then the fire pushes back and becomes a hazard to the operator, he added. What Checkfire offers is a contained system, which is safer, and works for those who do not know how to use a hand portable fire suppression system. Refractories and magnesia producer RHI also recently experienced problems caused by a fire at its Porsgrunn, Norway, fused magnesia (FM) plant. The company presented weaker Q1 2014 results in terms of revenues and sales, and said that the fire means the plant is expected to be running at reduced capacity (although actual levels of utilisation have not been divulged) until mid-June. The damage level and recourse claims are currently being reviewed, RHI said. In a results webcast, which was released after the results, CEO Franz Struzl said that it had so far estimated damage to be at 1.5m, but this did not include the damage to the companys processing equipment. Understanding the system Tycos Checkfire demonstration in Madrid was led by Drugan, not just for journalists and analysts, but mainly for the companys distributors to give them an understanding of how the technology works. The product was launched less than a month ago, and this is the second such event held for distributors who must undergo full training and a two hour exam before they even have access to the product. Were very regimented with it, but its all about risk and reward. We need to make sure they understand how the system works, Drugan explained to IM. According to Tyco, the most important step in fire suppression and safety is detection, and the Checkfire system offers two highly reliable forms of detection which can be used either individually or in combination. The linear detection system wires consists of spring-steel conductors separated by a head sensitive insulator, which melts at 180C and sends a signal to the module, which signals to the control module to actuate the fire suppression system. The other type of detection, spot thermal detection, contacts close and signals to the control module to initiate fire suppression when the temperature reaches either 121C or 177C depending on which model is installed. In the really high value machinery we would promote infrared (IR) because then you can detect a fire in about 3 or 4 seconds, Drugan added. When the fire suppression system is alerted, the agent is released which is intended to put out the fire as well as lower the temperature and cut off oxygen to ensure the fire doesnt reignite. The chemical, which has a 25-year shelf life, is also environmentally friend and can be washed away. The choice of system, whether a company opts for the 110 or the 210, is dictated by the kind of machine it is being used to protect, with the 210 unit able to protect larger more expensive machinery. We can also protect the 4x4 that transports the mine underground and transit vans, with each diesel engine protected. For example, in Cleveland Potash in the UK they have 50 years of mining and they protect all their vehicles with our equipment as it gets very warm underground, Drugan said. Ahead of the competition Some technical advantages over similar competitor systems is that Checkfire able to withstand extreme conditions, and can operate in -40C up to 60C. Another technical advantage weve got in our system over some of our competitors is that now we have something like a 4,000 event history, so we can actually take to our clients or customers or distributors an event who say, Oh weve had a false alarm, and we can download the buffer history in the field, take it back into their office and show them what has gone wrong, with a real date stamp, time clock and all those things. So a big leap forward for us in technology and its way ahead of what customers have seen before, Drugan told IM. The Checkfire system also now has a built in redundancy, where a false alarm can be identified. The machine in questions will then be shut off and prevented from operating until the issue has been fixed. A lot of our competition have a fail safe mode, and that releases everything. Weve gone a step forward to identify that the alarm condition arises instead of losing $10,000 dollars worth of agent, we actually stop the machine and fix the problem, rather than just losing the agent, so were saving the customer a lot of money, Drugan said. As Tyco has distributors throughout the world including in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, it has another advantage over smaller companies, meaning distributors can respond to any problems fairly quickly. According to Drugan, Tyco fire suppression systems currently account for around 70% of the market in the Americas, with a similar market share in Europe, although he said the company is a little further behind in Asia. [Before Checkfire] a machine might have more of a basic type system which is still good, but now were trying to leap ahead of our competition, he told IM. We want to be at the forefront. Weve been market leader in vehicle protection for about 50 years now and we want to jump ahead because they need to be chasing us again. Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup commercializing fusion energy, raised $84m in A2 funding. The A2 round, which brought the companys total funding to more than $200m, was led by Temasek with participation from new investors Equinor and Devonshire Investors, the private equity group affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments, as well as current investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, The Engine, ENI Next LLC, Future Ventures, Hostplus, Khosla Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Safar Partners LLC, Schooner Capital, Starlight Ventures, and others. The company intends to use the funds to continue to grow its capabilities to offer fusion power plants, fusion engineering services, and HTS magnets. Led by Bob Mumgaard, CEO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems was spun out of MIT to design and build fusion machines that will provide fusion energy to combat climate change. The company, which is collaborating with MITs Plasma Science and Fusion Center, has grown since its founding in 2018, with a program to develop high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets and design and build the a net-energy-gain fusion system, called SPARC. FinSMEs 26/05/2020 The Central government is planning to reopen schools in a phased manner and as per zones. According to the plan, older students in green and orange zones would be eligible to attend schools first, while students from Class 1 to 7 would need to wait till schools are fully functional. In order to keep the younger students safe, they would continue their studies from home. Official guidelines regarding the same are likely to be released later this week after a final decision is taken by all the related ministries, according to a report in The Print. Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: India sees 6,535 new COVID-19 cases, 146 deaths in 24 hours The government is planning to reopen schools sometime in July with 30 per cent attendance. Students would require to follow social distancing norms and hence are likely to be divided into two shifts. Teachers would also be trained on how to follow the guidelines as well as help others follow them. School assemblies would not be allowed, as mentioned by the news site. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in a webinar with teachers had said that UGC and NCERT were deciding on the safety guidelines to reopen colleges and universities and schools respectively. The guidelines are likely to vary in each case. Also read: Coronavirus lockdown 4.0: No flights, no schools, no malls, no metro Teachers would be required to wear masks and gloves and thermal scanners would be installed in every school. CCTV cameras would ensure that social distancing rules are being followed. The guidelines would also be put up in multiple locations in every school, stated the news site. SDM and DM of every area could tweak the guidelines as required. Additionally, board exams that were halted in between due to nationwide lockdown would resume from July. CBSE and ICSE boards have already released the date sheet for Class 10 and 12's pending board exams. CBSE has increased the number of centres to ensure social distancing. It has also made sure that no exam centres are in red zones or containment zones. Pokhriyal during a webinar on May 14 had hinted about the measures that would be undertaken to reopen schools. "If social distancing needs to be maintained in a classroom, and if only 30% students are able to come, we need to see what steps need to be taken to bring in a proper system when schools reopen. The lives of teachers and students are more important right now," he had said. Also read: Coronavirus lockdown: Here's how schools across world are going to reopen Advertisement Mass coronavirus testing will cut down the sheer numbers who will need to be quarantined under coronavirus contact tracing, a study has found. Contact tracing, still in the process of being set up in the UK, involves identifying anyone who has been in close proximity to a Covid-19 case and telling them to self-isolate to curb the potential spread of the virus. The Government has yet to clarify if people who are tracked will be given a test during their quarantine period. Therefore, they may have to stick out a 14-day period 'just in case' they have the virus. Researchers have predicted hundreds of thousands of Brits will be thrown into self-isolation every day as a result, which could wreak havoc on their daily life - after already spending months in lockdown. A team led by University of East Anglia simulated a pandemic with almost 470 people in the village of Haslemere, in Surrey, using phone data to determine movements and social circles. They built an interactive platform where the public can see how the virus spreads in a town by selecting different scenarios - including how many people don't show symptoms. Across all of the simulations used, an average of 12 per cent of the population - up to a high of 15 per cent - end up infected, if the virus is left to spread uncontrollably over 70 days. With contact tracing, nine per cent of the population would be infected. But 12 per cent of people identified would need to be quarantined at the most severe point of the outbreak in order to curb the spread. If a high number of tests were available to Haslemere's residents - reaching one in ten people - quarantined cases would be slashed to 1.7 per cent at the peak - and even less over the entire outbreak, leaving people to carry on with their normal lives. To reach the same effect in Britain, 6.66million tests would be needed every day. But currently testing capacity in the UK is hovering around a mere 100,000. On top of that, the roll out of contact tracing has been embroiled in chaos. The contact tracing system, involving an army of 25,000 phone handlers and an NHS phone app, was promised to be up and running by June 1, when schools will re-open ahead of other rules being relaxed in mid-June, but progress has stalled. A team led by University of East Anglia simulated a pandemic with almost 470 people in the village Haslemere, in Surrey, using phone data to understand people's movements and social circles. Across all simulations used, an average of 12 per cent of the population end up infected if the virus is left to spread uncontrollably over 70 days. With contact tracing, 12 per cent of people identified would need to be quarantined at the most severe point of the outbreak in order to curb the spread If a high number of tests were available to Haslemere's residents reaching one in ten people - quarantined cases would be slashed to 1.7 per cent at the peak - and even less over the entire outbreak The team assessed how the huge numbers of people that would need to be quarantined as a result of contact could be avoided under different scenarios The researchers from University of East Anglia, Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine re-purposed data collected for the BBC Four Pandemic experiment (in 2017). Some 1,272 people downloaded an app which followed their movements. It gauged how many people the average individual comes into contact with at their home, work and other settings. It helps to understand exactly how a disease spreads among a community, in this case, Covid-19, which has killed at least 46,000 people in Britain. The researchers honed in on 468 people who had sufficient phone data over three days, showing everyone they had come within one metre of for face-to-face conversations. They worked out a 'Haslemere social network' and, using mathematical models, investigated how quickly SARS-CoV-2 would spread over the course of 70 days once one person was infected. The journey of the outbreak can be seen on their interactive website, where a user can change the infection and intervention settings themselves. The simulation showed if symptomatic people isolated as is the current UK Government guidance an estimated 9.3 per cent of the population would end up infected, compared to 12 per cent if nothing was done. Contact tracing reduced it to 9 per cent but social distancing and testing people as individual measures failed to make much difference to the outbreak. Lead researcher Dr Lewis Spurgin, from UEA's School of Biological Sciences, said: 'Our epidemic model showed that uncontrolled outbreaks typically resulted a significant proportion of the population becoming infected. 'We found contact tracing reduces outbreak size, but can result in lots and lots of people getting quarantined as the outbreak grows.' The researchers combined outbreak control measures to show how effective they would be in tandem. These were displayed in illustrations. Researchers worked out a 'Haslemere social network' (the blue lines represent one social contact between two people). Using mathematical models, investigated how quickly transmission of SARS-CoV-2 would happen over a 70-day outbreak once one person (the red dot) was infected This is an example of how one case leads to several more without any control (left, B). But quarantining at-risk people through contact tracing (represented by the grey boxes), it reduces the spread of the virus This simulation shows how social distancing (cutting the number of blue lines) slows the spread of the virus as well as limiting how many people go into quarantine Huge numbers of people are expected to need quarantining as a result of contact tracing - but the study showed this could be avoided. Without any testing at all, 50 people (12 per cent of the population) would need to be quarantined per week in the Haslemere scenario. By ramping up testing capacity to 50 tests every day, reaching ten per cent of people, and therefore testing and releasing more quarantined cases, less than 10 people would need to be quarantined in the worst week - about 2.5 weeks in. Over the course of the outbreak, only 1.7 per cent of people would need to quarantine because a negative test result would free swathes of people. However, a huge number of tests would have to be available if contact tracing was to be this effective in the UK. With just five tests per day in Haslemere, covering one per cent of the population, around 25 people would need to be quarantined every day during the peak of the outbreak. Social distancing had two benefits it had a 'marked reduction' in the number of quarantined cases by 1.2 per cent, and slashed how many tests were needed. Dr Adam Kucharski, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: 'An important finding of our study was that moderate social distancing, combined with contact tracing and testing, could help control the spread of Covid-19 while reducing the number of people who need to be in quarantine.' Even though this is a comprehensive study to predict how the UK's outbreak will play out, it is likely to be different in the real world. Models such as these rely on a lot of assumptions, including how much transmission is a result of asymptomatic spread, how long it takes for a person to show symptoms and how successful contact tracing is. Due to the rapid response nature of this research, it has not yet been peer-reviewed. But it provides valuable insight into potential ways to contain the pandemic using data from real-world social interactions something which has not been done in such detail until now. Dr Spurgin said: 'We wanted to find out how contact tracing can be best used to stop the spread of Covid-19 not least because more disruptive interventions, such as lockdowns, cannot be sustained for a long period of time.' Dr Josh Firth, of the University of Oxford and joint-lead author of the study, said: 'Human social behaviour is obviously very complex, so it is important that we are able to see how people socialise and interact in real life, rather than relying entirely on simulations of social interactions within communities. 'Going forward, real-world networks will be an important tool for considering epidemic spread, and our study provides new evidence into how contact tracing and social distancing strategies could potentially be combined to control Covid-19 outbreaks within local populations. 'It is important to note the limitations of this study and the current state of knowledge particularly that the social network here is taken from within a single, small town, and therefore larger-scale tracking efforts will be needed if we want to extrapolate these approaches to larger cities.' A recent paper by from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, led by Dr Kucharski, attempted to estimate how many people nationwide would need to quarantine when contact tracing comes into place. Estimates were based on the effects of manual contact tracing or the use of an app - both of which the government plans to use. But the team did not look at the effects of both methods combined, which would likely overlap. They projected for every 5,000 new cases in the UK every day, 68,000 people could be asked to quarantine themselves each day if officials relied solely on a tracing app. But this dropped to just 54,000 people under the same scenario, if Brits were limited to seeing a maximum of four people each day to contain the outbreak. Under a regime using only an army of volunteers to manually trace the spread of the virus, the figure was as high as 190,000 people a day, or 140,000 with a limit on the size of social gatherings. When the same model was applied to 20,000 new cases a day, it suggested up to 770,000 people may be asked to self-isolate each day through manual tracing, or 580,000 if Brits are told to stick to seeing only four people each day. While the figure was in the region of 220,000-270,000 under the same scenario for the app. The coronavirus is still infecting 61,000 people per week in England, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics on May 21. The true figure could be as high as 111,000 people every seven days or as low as 29,000, the data shows - and experts say the rate of infection is 'relatively stable'. The Government will launch a widespread contact tracing scheme to track down people who have been in touch with infected patients Contact tracing will also involve the NHSX app, which alerts people who have been in close contact with those who report having symptoms of COVID-19 How many people will need to self isolate when contact tracing is in place? A recent study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) estimate that for every 5,000 new cases in the UK every day, 190,000 people would be told to self isolate by contact tracers. It goes up to 770,000 for every 20,000 new cases. With just app-based tracing, the number of people that would need to self isolate reduces because an app doesn't identify as many people Ministers are set to combine different interventions testing, social distancing, and contact tracing in order to keep on top of the virus and avoid a second deadly wave. Contact tracing is being implemented worldwide because it health health chiefs stay one step ahead of the virus. It has been a key part of the response in several Asian countries that have successfully reduced case numbers, but has not been used in the same way in the UK. Contact tracing was used right at the start of the outbreak in the UK when they were only a handful of cases and Public Health England could somewhat identify anyone those infected people had been in contact with. But as the outbreak began to spiral out of control, the method was ditched because cases were too difficult to keep up with. That's where the lockdown came into effect. As part of its plan to prevent a second coronavirus wave, officials have recruited 25,000 contact tracers as part of what they say will be the largest virtual call centre operation in the country. These workers will pinpoint those who need to quarantine with old-fashioned interviews on diagnosed cases. Boris Johnson announced in parliament that these 'manual contact tracers' will be employed, trained and ready to track 10,000 new cases of the virus a day by 1 June - when the UK moves into phase two of the easing the lockdown. There is skepticism this system will not be ready in time before hundreds of pupils and their teachers return to schools up and down the UK, giving a feeling of unease. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the contact tracing smartphone app, made by NHSX, would be rolled out by the middle of May after a pilot study on the Isle of Wight. But this has now been pushed back for 'several weeks', officials have said, meaning it's possible it won't play a part in the contact tracing scheme before the lockdown is loosened further next Monday. The app alerts people who have been in close contact with those who report having symptoms of COVID-19, such as a cough or fever. Those people are then asked to self isolate, although ministers haven't revealed for how long. NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dixon has warned of 'severe consequences' if the governments test, track and trace system isnt in place soon, saying that easing lockdown before it is available would risk a second wave of infections that could overwhelm hospitals. In a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Dixon welcomed the news of the contact tracer recruitment but added that 'health leaders are yet to see detail on the strategy that underpins this' - referring to what sort of questions employers will ask people with the virus and how they will ask for phone contacts to be supplied. 'This is about saving lives and protecting the NHS, Dr Dixon said. 'If we do not set up the right system, involving local agencies, we will put patients and NHS staff at risk.' The recent LSHTM study predicted the success of different pandemic control measure, finding the call-handler contact tracers could reduce transmission by 61 per cent. That's based on the assumption that 95 per cent of all people at school and work would be successfully contact traced and told to isolate. The team estimated that with app-based tracing, spread would drop by 44 per cent - under the condition half of the public had the app on their phone. The pilot study of the NHS app on the Isle of Wight saw just 35 to 40 per cent of residents install the app, but the researchers said they think it would be higher nationwide based on survey results. In both situations, new cases could be limited even further if some social distancing remained in place and individuals had an inner circle of only four people. It would also slash how many people would need to self isolate as a result of contact tracing by thousands. For and Against a Bailout Furloughs at the Local Level Serious Shortfalls at the State Level Still Finding the Bottom State and local officials are well aware that they face the most dire fiscal circumstances in decades. They still don't know just how bad it will be.In Minnesota, a surplus of $1.5 billion turned into a shortfall of $2.4 billion within two months. The freefall may well continue. Its the uncertainty that is so difficult, says Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Were all anxious because we know it can get way worse.Minnesota's problems are almost universal. States collectively are facing revenue drops of more than 20 percent. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, projects that state budget shortfalls will total $765 billion over the next three years. Thats an increase from other recent CBPP estimates of shortfalls totaling $500 billion, then $650 billion.At least one city is publicly flirting with bankruptcy. State and local government employment has plummeted to levels that are lower than any point during the Great Recession. Already, nearly 1 million positions are vacant. Half the job losses are in education.In contrast to other recent recessions, public safety workers are not immune. The furloughs are extending to police and fire departments and, perversely during a pandemic, health workers. To us, cuts in public safety signal a canary in a coal mine, says Christiana McFarland, research director for the National League of Cities (NLC). If were already seeing cuts in public safety, the situation is pretty dire.Most forecasters are projecting a sharp uptick in economic growth this summer, following the coronavirus-induced cliff, but no one can be sure of the size of the possible rebound. Another round of federal aid may come, but there's no guarantee at this point.All that adds up to spending cuts. Already, nearly 1 million state and local jobs have been lost. Public employment at those levels has already dropped lower than at any point during the Great Recession. It's possible that far worse is yet to come.Cities are extremely hopeful that the federal government will support them, McFarland says, but they cant wait because its so uncertain at this point.On May 15, the U.S. House narrowly passed a stimulus package known as the HEROES Act, which includes more than $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments. Less generous but still hefty packages have been introduced in the Senate, but its not certain how much additional support the chamber will approve, if any. President Trump has also expressed skepticism about a bailout. The administration, though, is considering allowing states more flexibility in how they can use federal aid funds from the earlier CARES Act.More than 150 state legislators signed a letter circulated by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council arguing against additional federal dollars. ALEC contends a bailout would reward profligate states at the expense of those that have been more prudent. Past bailouts, according to the letter, have led to increased dependence on the feds while ultimately increasing state taxes because of higher spending levels.These are very trying times for budget writers and appropriators, theres no doubt about it, says Jonathan Williams, chief economist for ALEC. For those who believe in state autonomy, while these are difficult times, dont overly rely on the feds, because then we see the strings come out.Separately, 43 Wisconsin legislators wrote to the states congressional delegation, urging them to oppose a federal bailout. "Wisconsin taxpayers should not be responsible for funding bailouts for irresponsible states across the country, like Illinois, New York and California, they wrote.Most state and local groups, including NLC, the National Governors Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, are pleading with Congress to provide fiscal relief. Budget pain is universal and, while states and localities entered the year with record reserves, they will not be able to balance their budgets, in the absence of federal support, without severe cuts.State and local spending represents nearly a fifth of GDP. Deep cuts could create a sizable drag on the economic recovery. Every dollar cut by states during the Great Recession reduced economic activity by $1.70, according to a Harvard study published last year.For that reason, officials at the Federal Reserve have called on Congress to offer fiscal aid. A group of 100 California business leaders, including top brass at Disney, Salesforce and Netflix, have signed a letter supporting $1 trillion in federal aid.In April, retail sales dropped by 16.4 percent, on top of an 8.3 percent drop in March. The percentage point drop in sales tax receipts was actually worse, since many essential goods are not taxed.The situation is especially dire in places that are heavily dependent on tourism. Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas, is projecting a 52 percent drop in revenue, or $118.1 million, in the last three months of its fiscal year, which ends June 30. The seaside town of Monterey, Calif., has eliminated 106 positions, including 24 vacancies, to save $11.3 million.Pain is prevalent everywhere. Dallas has furloughed 472 workers, mainly in parks, libraries and cultural departments. Louisville has furloughed 380 workers and may have to let more go, as it faces a shortfall of $46 million in its current fiscal year ending June 30. Among its 1,700 furloughed workers, Cincinnati has let go 36 percent of its health department staff.Facing a shortfall of $3.5 million, or more than 10 percent of the city budget, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. says his city may file for bankruptcy. To lose the kind of revenue that we have lost has not happened in the history of this state, he told the Vicksburg Post . I dont know a city or a county in this state that has not been devastated by the loss of revenue.Eye-popping revenue drops of up to 40 and 50 percent at the state level in April, compared with last year, may have been a bit misleading. Normally, states collect about 15 percent of their annual revenues in April, due to income tax filing deadlines. Since most states have moved the deadline back to July 15, theyre hoping theyll still see an influx.But they know that mass unemployment has taken its toll. Michigan is facing a gap of $3.2 billion. New York is projecting $31 billion in lost revenue in its current fiscal year, which began April 1. California is projecting a shortfall of $54 billion.Even as tax collections plunge, some expenses are increasing. Prior to the pandemic, Maryland was paying $7 million per week in unemployment benefits. Now, its paying out $170 million per week, according to state Labor Secretary Tiffany Robinson.In Oregon, state agencies have been ordered to come up with plans to cut their budgets by $1.8 billion. Agencies in Georgia must save twice that number $3.5 billion, or 14 percent, with no exceptions, as a memo from Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders put it.States ended fiscal 2019 with $72 billion in reserves, representing a substantially higher percentage of their general funds than their rainy-day accounts going into the last recession. State-issued debt dropped in 2019 by 0.8 percent, according to Moodys, while median debt service costs fell by 3.8 percent, decreasing for the sixth straight year.But states are entering this apparent recession with pension costs higher as a share of their budgets than was the case in 2008.New Jersey and South Carolina have pushed back the start of their fiscal years until September, hoping the picture will get brighter or at least theyll have a firmer grasp of the budget situation they face.For most states, cities and counties, the normal July 1 start of their fiscal years is coming up fast. Theyre hoping that Congress will act before then, to spare them from making the most drastic cuts.Mississippi at one time anticipated a $200 million surplus. Legislators know theyre going to come up short. Ive advised my members to prepare their minds for bad months, says House Speaker Philip Gunn.He is putting off writing next years budget until mid-June, so the Legislature will have the latest possible set of revenue numbers available from May.Nobody knows what to expect, Gunn says. For that reason, we have to be extremely cautious. WASHINGTON North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday said he's trying to work out an agreement with GOP officials to keep the Republican National Convention in his state, as other governors expressed interest in hosting the August event. "I hope that we can find some kind of reasonable accommodation," Cooper said at a news conference. "But were not going to sacrifice the health and safety of North Carolinians, and that's the bottom line." Shortly after, President Donald Trump said he wants to know within a week whether the convention can be held in North Carolina. We dont have much time, Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden. If the governor cant tell us very soon, unfortunately well have no choice. The people want it. Trump noted Cooper is a Democrat and went on to accuse Democratic officials of not reopening their states for political reasons, which he also described as suspicious. He'd tweeted Monday that the GOP needed an immediate answer from North Carolina on whether Republicans will be able to "fully occupy" the convention space in August. North Carolina on Monday reported the highest daily total of coronavirus hospitalizations since the pandemic began. Cooper said he's asked the Republican National Committee to submit various ways the event could be held, depending on the state of the health crisis in three months. "We dont know what our situation is going to be regarding COVID-19 in North Carolina," he said. "We have to have options." .@NC_Governor Roy Cooper on Republican National Convention: "It's ok for political conventions to be political, but pandemic response cannot be." pic.twitter.com/TQVzausKmK CSPAN (@cspan) May 26, 2020 If the president wants to go elsewhere, two Republican governors said Tuesday they're happy to accommodate him. Story continues Florida would love to have the RNC," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters . "The door is open. We want to have the conversation, whether its RNC, DNC, whatever, because I think it would be good for the people of Florida." Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, another governor who has moved more aggressively than many states to end lockdowns, said his state "would be honored to safely host the Republican National Convention." "We hope you will consider the Peach State! @realdonaldtrump," Kemp tweeted. Trump delegates party and dance during the 2016 Republican National Convention. Ronna McDaniel, head of the Republican National Committee, said Tuesday other states are eager to get the revenue generated by a national convention. RNC: Texas GOP says it would welcome Republican National Convention if NC falters "You know, every state we talk to is saying 'we want to nominate the president here,' " McDaniel said on Fox News' "Fox & Friends." Ed Driggs, a Republican member of the Charlotte, N.C. City Council, told the Charlotte Observer it would be hard for another city to step in at this point. Charlotte has been planning the convention for two years and has received a $50 million federal security grant, he noted. Donald Trump and Mike Pence on stage at the conclusion of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland on July 21, 2016. But DeSantis, Florida's governor, said it wouldn't be that difficult to switch locations because "a lot of that work in terms of raising the funds is already done." "It would kind of be a plug-and-play thing," he said. .@GovRonDeSantis: "Florida would love to have the RNC. Heck, Im a Republican. It would be good for us to have the DNC in terms of the economic impact." pic.twitter.com/hacBxcFO6h CSPAN (@cspan) May 26, 2020 The GOP convention is scheduled for the week of Aug. 24. North Carolina, which is undergoing a phased reopening of the state, does not allow gatherings of more than 10 people indoors. The Republican convention is expected to draw up to 50,000 to Charlotte, the state's largest city. Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles told NBC News that "science and data will ultimately determine what we will collectively do for our city. The governor has made similar remarks. North Carolina is among 20 states where new cases of COVID-19 rose last week, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project. Cases rose 26% from the previous week. McDaniel said Trump loves North Carolina and wants to keep the convention there. "It's just the governor," she said. "He's got to work with us." North Carolina is a battleground state for the presidential race and is expected to have competitive gubernatorial and Senate races as well. North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, the Republican hoping to unseat Cooper, accused him of "playing politics" and jeopardizing the much-needed economic boost the convention would give the state's hospitality industry. "The governors holding up the show right now for August," Forest said on FOX News Radio. The Democratic Party, which is planning to convene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has pushed back its convention from July 13-16 to the week of Aug. 17, and it is considering scaling back those proceedings. Contributing: Bart Jansen and David Jackson, USA TODAY. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: North Carolina convention: Governor hopes to reach deal with Trump Four members of the Minneapolis Police Department have been fired over the death of George Floyd, who was filmed being pinned to the ground by his neck by a white police officer moments before he died in custody. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo confirmed in a press conference on Tuesday that four officers have been terminated following Monday's incident. 'We know there are inherent dangers in the profession of policing but the vast majority of the work we do never requires the use of force,' Arradondo said. The names of the four cops have not been released, but the two seen in the video have been identified by Floyd's family's lawyer as officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao. The pair were filmed in a video taken by a bystander on Monday which showed Floyd struggling to breathe on the ground as a white cop knelt on his neck for over six minutes. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also announced the firings on Twitter, saying, 'This is the right call.' The Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension did not respond to DailyMail.com's calls for comment. Scroll down for video The black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Monday has been identified as George Floyd on social media. The attorney representing Floyd's family Benjamin Crump tweeted this photo of the victim on Tuesday, calling for police officers to be brought to justice The man, who was being arrested for forgery, is repeatedly heard telling officers he can't breathe. About four minutes into the video, he appears to lose consciousness Disturbing footage captured by a bystander shows the moment a white Minneapolis police officer pins a black man to the ground with his knees during an arrest on Monday Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the move to fire the four officers was 'the right call' It comes as the FBI and state law enforcement authorities announced they have launched an investigation into the Floyd's death. The incident has drawn comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by New York City police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe. Floyd, who was being arrested on suspicion of forgery on Monday night, was heard repeatedly telling officers that he cannot breathe as he lay on the ground next to the tire of a squad car. 'Please, please, please, I can't breathe. Please, man,' Floyd, begs the cop. After several minutes, one of the officers tells the man to 'relax.' 'Man, I can't breathe,' Floyd responds, before eventually passing out. The video was widely shared on social media sparking national outcry from politicians and members of the public who have called for the police officers involved to be held accountable. Floyd was later identified as the victim by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney who said he had been hired by Floyd's family. Crump is also representing the family of 25-year-old black man Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed by two white men in Georgia earlier this month. A woman who replied to Crump's tweet shared a photo of the scene taken from a different angle that showed four officers were present at the time of Floyd's arrest Floyd, seen in a Facebook photo, was arrested on suspicion of forgery, however details of his alleged offense or what he was doing in the lead up to his arrest were not released Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of 25-year-old slain black man Ahmaud Arbery, has been hired to represent Floyd's family. Crump identified Floyd as the victim on Tuesday, as well as the two officers officers involved in the incident The man, unresponsive and handcuffed, is then placed on a stretcher before being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died shortly after The incident has drawn comparisons to the case of Eric Garner (pictured) an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life saying he couldn't breathe 'This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge,' Crump said in a statement. 'We will seek justice for the family of George Floyd, as we demand answers from the Minnesota Police Department. How many "while black" deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends?' A woman who replied to Crump's tweet shared a photo of the scene taken from a different angle that showed four officers were present at the time of Floyd's arrest. When asked by reporters about the use of the knee on the man's neck, Chief Arradondo said the department has 'policies in place regarding placing someone under control' that 'will be part of the full investigation we'll do internally.' Minneapolis Police released a statement earlier this morning confirming Floyd died in the hospital after officers had responded to a 'forgery in progress.' Further details on Floyd's alleged forgery offense or what he had been doing in the lead up to his attempted arrest, were not released. THE 2014 DEATH OF ERIC GARNER Eric Garner, was killed in 2014, after NYPD officers placed him in a lethal chokehold during his arrest Eric Garner, 43, died on July 17, 2014, after NYPD officers placed him in a fatal chokehold during his arrest. Video footage of the incident and Garner's subsequent death sparked national outcry over police brutality towards the black community. Police had suspected Garner of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on the street in Staten Island. The confrontation was caught on amateur video, including Garner's words 'I can't breathe,' which become a rallying cry among protesters. The city medical examiner's office later ruled Garner's death a homicide caused by neck compressions from a chokehold. In 2019, the New York Police Department began disciplinary proceedings against White police officer Daniel Pantaleo, but the trial did not result in any charges. Pantaleo was fired from the NYPD in August 2019. Advertisement Floyd was arrested apprehended outside Cup Foods grocery store on Chicago Avenue South around 8pm after he allegedly tried to use forged documents at a deli. Police found the man, believed to be in his 40s, matching the suspect's description in his car. 'He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers,' police spokesman John Elder claimed in a statement. 'Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.' He was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died a short time later, police said. But in the footage, shared by onlooker Darnella Frazier, the arresting police officer was seen pinning Floyd to the ground for more than six minutes as he pleaded with officers to release him. 'Please, please, please, I can't breathe. Please, man,' the man is heard telling the officer. Despite his pleas and agonizing screams, the officer continued to kneel on the man's neck for several minutes. Multiple witnesses were also heard arguing with the two cops over their excessive use of force. 'Bro, you've got him down at least let him breathe, man,' a male onlooker says. 'He's not even resisting arrest ... he's human, bro.' One of the officers then replies: 'This is why you don't do drugs, kids.' A man holds a 'Stop Killing Black People' placard while protesting near the area where a Minneapolis Police Department officer allegedly killed George Floyd A Black Lives Matter memorial was left for George Floyd who died in custody on May 26 People gather around a makeshift memorial Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis, near where a black man was taken into police custody the day before who later died 'This ain't about drugs, bro! He's human,' the bystander says. 'You're enjoying it. Look at you. Your body language, you bum. You know that's bogus right now,' he adds. About four minutes into the video, the man appears to begin to lose consciousness before becoming unresponsive. An ambulance then arrives and police officers move the man's limp body onto a stretcher. 'You just really killed that man, bro,' the male onlooker says. 'And if he's not dead, he's close to death, that's crazy,' Frazier adds. The video, which has been shared more than 15,000 times on Facebook, has sparked outrage among viewers on social media. 'They killed him right in front of Cup Foods over south on 38th and Chicago!! No type of sympathy. #PoliceBrutality,' Frazier wrote in a Facebook post. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota Mayor Melvin Carter spoke out against Floyd's killing on Tuesday, calling for the police officers to be held accountable Black Lives Matter protesters gathered at the site of Floyd's death on Tuesday, where mourners were seen placing flowers and balloons at a makeshift memorial. Tributes also poured in for Floyd on social media with many calling for the officers involved to be brought to justice. Jovanni Thunstrom, the owner of Conga Latin Bistro on East Hennepin Ave, said he learned Floyd, his employee, had died after seeing the video of the incident on social media. 'Today I woke up to hear a very sad news. I saw a video of a black man been choke[d] to death by a Minneapolis police officer with his knee and the black man begging for his life. Then I found out that this person was my employee, and a very good friend,' Thunstrom said in a Facebook post. 'My employee George Floyd was murdered by a police officer that had no compassion, used his position to commit a murder of someone that was begging for his life,' he added. Thunstrom later told the Star Tribune Floyd worked as security at his restaurant for the past five years and was also renting property from him in St. Louis Park. He described him as a 'good friend, person and a good tenant.' 'He was family. His co-workers and friends loved him,' he said. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed the FBI has joined in its investigation. All body camera footage has been turned over to the BCA, which investigates most police shootings and in-custody deaths. The officers involved were initially put on paid administrative leave, per department protocol, before it was announced they had been fired. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey addressed the incident in a press conference on Tuesday morning, calling events in the video 'wrong at every level.' 'Being black in America should not be a death sentence,' he said. 'For five minutes we watched as a white officer pressed his knee to the neck of a black man. For five minutes. 'When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. 'This officer failed in the most basic human sense. What happened on Chicago and 38th, this last night, is simply awful.' 'He was a human being and his life mattered,' he said. Throughout the video, the arresting officer is seen kneeling on the man's neck as he lay motionless on the ground The FBI is now investigating the man's death and four officers involved in the incident have been fired, police chief confirmed on Tuesday Minnesota state Senator Amy Klobuchar released a statement following the mayor's media briefing, calling for the police officers involved to be held accountable. 'We heard his repeated calls for help. We heard him say over and over again that he could not breathe. And now we have a seen yet another horrifying and gutwrenching instance of an African American man dying,' she said. 'Every single person in every single community in this country deserves to feel safe. As the Mayor Minneapolis noted, this tragic loss of life calls for immediate action. 'There must be a complete and thorough outside investigation into what occurred, and those involved in this incident must be held accountable. 'Justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country.' Nekima Levy-Armstrong, a prominent local activist, said watching the footage that was shared on social media made her 'sick to her stomach' and called the incident another example of police brutality toward African American men, the Star Tribune reported. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey addressed the incident in a press briefing on Tuesday morning, calling the events in the video 'wrong at every level' and saying the officers involved 'failed in the most basic human sense' The video has sparked outrage among viewers on social media and has been shared more than 7,000 times 'Whatever the man may have done should not have ended in a death sentence,' she said. 'What started as an alleged economic incident once again turned deadly for a black man.' Levy-Armstrong said the incident reminded her of the Eric Garner case. He was an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life saying he couldn't breathe. A grand jury later decided against indicting the officers involved, sparking protests around the country. Police in Minneapolis have come under the microscope in recent years for deadly run-ins with citizens. A 24-year-old black man, Jamar Clark, was shot in the head and died in 2015 after a confrontation with two white officers responding to a reported assault. A county prosecutor declined to prosecute the officers, saying Clark was struggling for one of the officers gun when he was shot. A white woman, Justine Rusczcyk Damond, died in 2017 when she was shot in the stomach by a Minneapolis officer responding to her 911 call. That officer, who is black, was convicted of manslaughter and murder and is serving a 12-year prison sentence. As families stayed home to help flatten the curve of coronavirus cases in New Jersey, they ushered in an unintended health consequence: a steep decline in the number of children receiving routine vaccinations. Between March and April 20, the rate of vaccinations in children ages 2 and younger fell 40%, while the rate among kids older than 2 dropped 60% compared to the same period in 2019, state Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Tuesday during the daily media briefing on the coronavirus. While staying at home has slowed the spread of the virus, it has also resulted in delays and decreases in the number of children getting recommended vaccines, Persichilli said. The need to protect against serious childhood diseases like whooping cough doesnt disappear during the COVID-19 public health emergency," she said. The disturbing trend is not just happening in New Jersey. Pediatricians around the nation are witnessing it as well. As talk of a COVID-19 vaccine dominates conversations around public health and economic recovery, the vaccinations that have granted society herd immunity from outbreaks of infectious diseases like measles, mumps and chicken pox have been dwarfed in parents minds by the ever-present threat of COVID-19. And fears around a new vaccine for the coronavirus have given conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers new talking points, potentially leading parents who stumble on misinformation to become wary of tried and tested prevention methods. The fear of coronavirus is making people not want to vaccinate, said Dr. Jill Garripoli Pedalino, owner of Healthy Kids Pediatrics in Nutley. This unfortunate potential of vaccine-preventable illnesses, thats the thing thats scaring pediatricians the most. If we dont vaccinate, were going to decrease herd immunity. These are not benign illnesses. Garripoli Pedalino said her practice has separated well and sick children, seeing those with symptoms curbside. She said she requires children within her practice to receive vaccinations, and said just a few parents have made the call to not come in for well-child visits during the outbreak. But she has heard of parents at other New Jersey practices turning away from vaccines, she said. And when a COVID-19 vaccine does become available, Garripoli Pedalino said she thinks pediatricians will have to work to make parents trust it. Some think researchers are developing the vaccine too quickly, and worry it might not be safe. Were gonna have to really reassure our parents, she said. A lot of people are saying, Id rather get the infection, or get it over with. Theres going to be a lot of convincing. The health department recommends pediatrician offices stagger patients by scheduling well visits in the morning and sick in the afternoon, or collaborate with other offices to find spaces to see healthy children and mitigate the risk of spreading the coronavirus. They may even consider giving vaccinations curbside, Persichilli said. And health care providers who can see only limited numbers of well children should prioritize care for newborns and vaccinating young children, she said. During the 2018-2019 school year, the most recent data the state has made publicly available, 93.5% of children in pre-K schools had all of their required vaccinations, according to state records. Due to a high vaccination rate that allowed schools to largely achieve herd immunity, it may take months or even a year to see the impact of more unvaccinated children entering schools and day cares this fall, experts say. And experts have warned of a possible second wave of coronavirus infections that could coincide with flu season, overwhelming the health care system. They say that possibility should encourage people to get their flu shots early. Dr. Hanan Tanuos, director of primary care and an associate professor of pediatrics at Rutgers University, said families in her pediatrics practice have expressed concern about coming to the office, but often keep appointments after they hear about the sanitation and social distancing practices in place. Her office has spaced out appointments and staggered sick and well-child visits, all while increasing sanitation measures. Those who do come often understand the importance of vaccinations more than ever after witnessing the havoc coronavirus has inflicted on the nation. Given the pandemic situation that we are in, they are more open to vaccinations, Tanuos said. As schools and day cares seek to reopen, they have pondered staggered schedules, small class sizes and social distancing in shared spaces like cafeterias and playgrounds to limit the spread of the virus. But experts say they must also worry about a drop in vaccination rates. Usually day cares and schools have rules about vaccinations prior to entrance. We hope those do not become more relaxed, so that they dont put more children at risk, Tanuos said. If theyre not vaccinated, we can start seeing pockets of these illnesses in communities that have a lower vaccination rate. Thats what happened in 2018, as measles, a disease nearly eradicated in the United States thanks to vaccines, began spreading in Ocean County. The state health department rushed to deliver 12,500 doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Ultimately, the outbreak infected a few dozen people, while a few hundred contracted the disease in New York. To prevent such an outbreak from coinciding with the coronavirus, officials are urging parents to follow up on missed vaccinations. So, I want to urge parents, grandparents and other caregivers to contact your health care provider and find out what special measures are in place for you to safely schedule a well-child visit so your children can catch up on their vaccinations, Persichilli said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Video of the incident posted to Twitter appears to show the woman calling the police while the man records the interaction. Screenshot/Twitter A woman who was caught on video calling the police and claiming there was an "African-American man threatening her life" has apologized said her actions were "unacceptable." Melody Cooper, a science-fiction and horror screenwriter, posted a video of the incident to Twitter on Monday. As of Monday evening, the footage has been viewed over 14 million times. Twitter lit up in response to the video, with many users criticizing the woman for using the man's race to falsely report an assault to police. In an interview with NBC News, the woman said she "humbly and fully apologizes to everyone who's seen that video." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. A woman who was caught on video calling the police and claiming there was an "African-American man threatening her life" has apologized said her actions were "unacceptable." The video, which has been viewed over 14 million times, was posted to Twitter by screenwriter Melody Cooper on Monday. She said her brother recorded the video after politely asking the woman to "put her dog on the leash" in a protected area of central park. "I'm going to tell them that there is an African-American man threatening my life," the woman in the video says before calling the police. Sergeant Mary Frances O'Donnell, a spokesperson for the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information at the New York Police Department, told Insider that police were called to the Central Park Ramble over a reported assault, but no arrests were made and no summons were issued. In an interview with NBC New York on Monday, Amy Cooper said she "humbly and fully apologizes to everyone who's seen that video." "I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone, especially to that man, his family," she told the outlet. "It was unacceptable and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone who's seen that video, everyone that's been offendedeveryone who thinks of me in a lower light and I understand why they do." Story continues According to NBC New York, Cooper said she "overreacted" and said that the man in the video, identified as Christian Cooper, had offered her dog a treat, which made her feel "threatened." "When I think about the police, I'm such a blessed person," she said. "I've come to realize especially today that I think of [the police] as a protection agency, and unfortunately, this has caused me to realize that there are so many people in this country that don't have that luxury." According to NBC News, Cooper has been placed on administrative leave by Franklin Templeton, an investment management company, in response to the incident. NBC News said that Cooper has "voluntarily surrendered" her dog to a rescue shelter while the incident is being investigated. Christian Cooper told the outlet that he refused to be intimidated by the woman's actions, which is why he kept recording. "We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and I'm just not going to participate in that," he told NBC News. Read the original article on Insider Staff waiting to check peoples entering permit, screen their body temperature, and scan their health codes at the entrance of a residential compound in Jilin city, China, on May 25, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Medical Staff at Two Hospitals in Virus-Hit Chinese Region Infected With CCP Virus: Leaked Document Chinese authorities hid information from the public about medical staff who were diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, amid a second wave outbreak in the northeastern region of Jilin, according to internal government documents obtained by The Epoch Times. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, first broke out in central Chinas Wuhan city in late 2019. Since early April, after a brief period in which most regions of China reported little to no new infections, second wave outbreaks have occurred in several Chinese provinces, including Jilin. Chinese authorities reporting of virus data is opaque; there are no cumulative infection figures, with local governments only reporting new infections daily. Asymptomatic carriers are also counted separately from confirmed diagnoses, while little background is provided about the diagnosed patients. Authorities have also underreported cases. In the current outbreak occurring in Jilin city, Jilin Province, authorities did not mention that any medical staff have been infected with the CCP virus. However, internal documents showed that at least two local hospitals have infected employees. Due to medical staffs close interactions with sick patients, they are at risk of spreading the virus to those with a relatively fragile immune system. Nurse Hu Hu is a 22-year-old woman who works as a surgical nurse at the Beihua University Affiliated Hospital in Jilin city. In an internal document, the Jilin Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported to the national CDC on May 15 that Hu was diagnosed with COVID-19 that day. In the Jilin provincial health commissions previous public announcements, authorities mentioned a case that matched Hus profile: a 22-year-old woman who lived in the same neighborhood as Hu. But no other background information was provided. In the internal Jilin CDC report, Hu is identified as the daughter of 45-year-old Gaowho was isolated as a close contact of a diagnosed patient on May 12. Gao was later diagnosed with COVID-19 on May 14. After her mother Gao was identified as a close contact, Hu took a nucleic acid test at her workplace on May 12. The result was negative. On May 14, after Gao was diagnosed with COVID-19, Hu took another nucleic acid test, which was performed by the Jilin CDC. This time, the result came back positive. The next day, Hu was isolated at the Chuanying No. 2 Hospital in Chuanying district, Jilin city. After specialists announced that she was formally diagnosed, Hu was transferred to the Jilin City Infectious Disease Hospital. The internal document listed close contacts of Hu. They are 55 medical staff at her workplace, 34 patients and their relatives whom Hu came into contact with, and Hus grandmother and aunt. Locals previously told The Epoch Times that the Beihua University Affiliated Hospital, which is not a hospital designated to treat COVID-19 patients, stopped taking any new patients since May 15. Contacted by phone on May 17, a staff at the reception desk of the hospital told The Epoch Times that its clinics and emergency departments were still treating non-COVID-19 patients who dont need to stay overnightbut all patients must register and take a nucleic acid test before entering the hospital. Patients need to make an appointment online or by phone. Afterwards, they must take a nucleic acid test at a temporary tent set up in front of the hospital, the staff explained. If the result is negative, the patient can register at the tent and then enter the hospital. If the result is positive, the patient will be sent to a quarantine center or a hospital designated to treat COVID-19. When The Epoch Times contacted the hospital about Hus diagnosis, the reception staff denied Hus case, and did not respond to questions about whether any medical staff from the hospital were being isolated. Cashier Li 49-year-old Li is a cashier at the Shulan Peoples Hospital. She was diagnosed on May 9. Shulan is a county-level municipality within Jilin city. In an internal document, the Jilin CDC reported to the national CDC that Li was in close contact with a diagnosed patient. On May 7, the day that the close contact was diagnosed, Li and her husband were isolated at a quarantine center. On May 9, Li and her husband were diagnosed with COVID-19. A case matching Lis profile was previously announced by authorities, with only her age and residential neighborhood. Another internal document detailed a suspected case previously unreported by authorities: Xiao, a doctor at the cardiopulmonary department of Shulan Peoples Hospital, who was being isolated because he had treated a diagnosed patient before the latter was confirmed to be COVID-positive. On May 26, Chinas National Health Commission did not announce any new domestic infections in China. Both the Jilin and national commission have never disclosed that a medical staff had been infected. Meanwhile, Hubei Province, a virus hotspot, has announced 25 to 40 new asymptomatic carriers every day since May 21. But authorities did not say where these carriers are from and when they contracted the virus. On Weibo and other social media platforms, Hubei netizens expressed their concerns about these asymptomatic carriers, and questioned whether there were more COVID-positive infections that were not being diagnosed or announced by authorities. Over 300 Indian nationals, who were stuck in the US due to the coronavirus-induced global travel restrictions, have flown home on board the fourth special flight from New York under the Vande Bharat Mission. The Air India flight from J F K International Airport to Bengaluru flew on May 25 and had 329 passengers, including two infants, according to officials. India's Consul General in New York Sandeep Chakravorty and Deputy Consul General Shatrughna Sinha were at the airport to supervise the process. The second phase of non-scheduled commercial flights of Air India from the US to various cities in India is underway from May 19 to May 29. In the first phase, Air India operated non-scheduled commercial flights from the US to various Indian cities from May 9 to May 15. Under the second phase, two flights will fly from New York to Delhi, Chandigarh and Bengaluru; two from San Francisco to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi and Ahmedabad; one from Washington to Bengaluru and Ahmedabad and two from Chicago to Delhi, Bhubaneshwar, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. Since the number of seats would be limited, passengers with compelling cases such as those facing medical emergencies or requiring return due to bereavement in the family, students, pregnant women, elderly or those facing expiry of visas will be given priority. They are identified through an electronic random selection method. The travellers will be required to undergo a medical screening before boarding the flight and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed. Passengers will be medically screened and would have to download the Arogya Setu app once they arrive in India. The Indian government launched the ''Vande Bharat Mission'' on May 7 to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Under Phase I of the mission, the government evacuated a total of 6,527 Indians from the Gulf region and from countries like the US, the UK, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives. By Daphne Psaledakis and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's economic adviser said on Tuesday China was making "a big mistake" with planned national security legislation on Hong Kong and pledged Washington would pay expenses of U.S. firms that wanted to shift operations from the territory or China. At the White House, spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told a briefing Trump was displeased with Beijing over the security law and finds it hard to see "how Hong Kong can remain a financial hub if China takes over." Trump economic Larry Kudlow, speaking to Fox News Channel, called Beijing's actions toward Hong Kong "very disturbing." "China is making a big mistake, frankly," he told Fox Business Network separately. Kudlow said the United States would welcome back any American companies in Hong Kong or on China's mainland. "We will do what we can for full expensing and pay the cost of moving if they return their supply chains and their production to the United States," he said. Beijing's proposed security law would reduce the territory's separate legal status. China's parliament is expected to approve it by Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is due to release a congressionally mandated assessment on whether Hong Kong enjoys sufficient autonomy to justify continued U.S. special economic treatment, said last week the legislation would be the "death knell" for its autonomy. Trump has warned of a strong reaction and national security adviser Robert O'Brien said the legislation could lead to U.S. sanctions and threaten Hong Kong's status as a financial hub. Kudlow also said that while Trump's "Phase 1" trade deal with China reached in January was intact for now, the president was so "miffed" with Beijing over the novel coronavirus and other matters it was not as important to him as it once was. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbying group urged Beijing to de-escalate the situation, saying it would be "a serious mistake" to jeopardize Hong Kong's special status. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann, Lisa Lambert, Daphne Psaledakis and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; writing by David Brunnstrom; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Customers were left outraged after Scientology pamphlets disguised as free coronavirus heath booklets were offered at a 7-Eleven store. The Church of Scientology pamphlets titled 'How to keep yourself & others well' were pictured next to the counter of 7-Eleven George Street in Brisbane's city centre. An employee of the 7-Eleven store told Daily Mail Australia a group of men entered the shop on Monday night and offered the pamphlets as an information booklet about COVID-19. Church of Scientology pamphlets (pictured) disguised as coronavirus heath booklets were offered at a 7-Eleven store on George Street in Brisbane The employee said she was unaware of the link between the pamphlets and the Church of Scientology. She noted that many customers commented on the Scientology booklets and they had since been thrown away. The pamphlets included coronavirus health information and encouraged readers to scan a barcode for further information. The pamphlets also directed readers to the Church of Scientology website where visitors were encouraged to make an account and take an online course. A spokesperson for 7-Eleven told Daily Mail Australia: 'The display of these brochures was not approved by 7-Eleven and we will be discussing the matter with the franchisee.' The pamphlet images were shared on Reddit, where users said they had seen other shops displaying the Scientology booklets. One person wrote: 'It would be very easy at first glance to mistake this religious literature as being important government information. Absolutely putrid, preying on non-English speaking shop owners and local people.' Church of Scientology say booklets are 'stay safe' guides during coronavirus crisis - 'nothing more' 'Our Stay Well booklets could not vaguely be considered 'religious literature'. There is nothing about the Scientology religion in our Stay Well booklets, but they do include a link to our Stay Well Prevention Resource Center. The booklets also include the line 'Courtesy of the Church of Scientology International'. 'With stay-at-home restrictions beginning to lift in countries around the world, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have begun global distribution of these materials approximately a month ago and is ongoing in communities surrounding every one of our Churches and Missions across the globe, including Australia. 'Our Volunteer Ministers have received overwhelming thanks and gratitude from across global communities for their unstinting support. 'To make it clear, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have been telling all store owners that they are from the Church of Scientology. Their bright yellow jackets with a very visible logo that says 'Scientology Volunteer Ministers' is something of a giveaway. 'They even give a card for feedback, which clearly states it is from the Church of Scientology. Contrary to your insinuation, there is nothing hidden about our booklet distribution and all those who received the booklets do know its origin, and have been extremely thankful for the materials. 'The booklets offer clear, easy-to-read information to help all communities stay safe during the pandemic. Nothing more. 'We are all in this together and we are trying to do our part.' Advertisement The pamphlets (pictured) encouraged readers to visit the Church of Scientology website Another said: 'I've seen them do this at multiple places along the strip of shops I go to. Had a chat with one of the owners who had no idea who it was from and had to explain it to them. 'Whoever delivered this traveled in a small group of six and do this under the guise of helping others,' the person noted. Boxes of the Scientology pamphlets were also placed by the self-service checkout machines at Woolworths in Chatswood, Sydney, earlier this month. Customer Jordan Smith spotted the 'totally inappropriate' pamphlets and shared images of the boxes reading 'please take one' online. Mr Smith wrote on Facebook: 'Anyone else for a side of Scientology compliments of Woolworths?' 'No judgment of other people and their beliefs but totally inappropriate to shove any type of religion down people's throats.' Mr Smith said he was worried for vulnerable people who could be targeted by the pamphlets and complained to the duty manager. A Church of Scientology spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'Scientology Volunteer Ministers have begun global distribution of these materials approximately a month ago and is ongoing in communities surrounding every one of our Churches and Missions across the globe, including Australia.' 'Scientology Volunteer Ministers have been telling all store owners that they are from the Church of Scientology.' Russia has passed its peak of coronavirus infections, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, ordering a World War II victory parade postponed by the pandemic to be held next month. The postponement of the May 9 Victory Day parade had been a blow to Putin, who had hoped to gather world leaders to watch troops march on Red Square to celebrate 75 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany. But with the number of new coronavirus cases declining steadily, Putin told Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to reschedule the parade for June 24. "According to experts, the peak can be considered passed," Putin told Shoigu in a video link-up. "We will do it on June 24, the day the legendary historic victors' parade took place in 1945," Putin said, referring to the first victory parade in Red Square after Germany's surrender to Soviet commanders on May 9. With leaders including China's Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron of France set to attend, this year's parade had been meant to showcase Russia's return to the world stage. Putin was forced to announce its delay in mid-April as coronavirus infections surged and officials ordered lockdowns across the country. After peaking in mid-May at more than 11,000 new cases per day, the number of daily infections has dropped below 9,000. On Tuesday, the country recorded its highest daily death toll of 174 and said a record 12,000 people had recovered from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Russia has the third-highest number of cases after the United States and Brazil, which officials say is due in large part to a massive testing campaign. Authorities have been easing lockdowns despite the high number of infections, though restrictions remain in place in hard-hit Moscow until at least May 31. - 'Strict safety measures' - Putin said "strict safety measures" would need to be put in place for the parade. "The risks for all participants should be minimised, or even better, eliminated," he said. The leaders of Kazakhstan and Moldova confirmed they will attend the parade. Another popular event usually held on May 9 -- the Immortal Regiment processions that see Russians carry photographs of relatives who died in World War II -- will be held on July 26, Putin said. Russian naval bases will also stage nautical displays for the public that day, he said. Putin has made clear he believes Russia has overcome the worst of the epidemic. On Monday, he made a rare Kremlin appearance during lockdown, after working remotely from his residence outside Moscow for the past few weeks. The pandemic derailed Putin's plans for a triumphant spring, with not only the parade postponed but also an April vote on constitutional reforms that could have paved the way for the longtime leader to potentially stay in power until 2036. Officials have said they still hope the vote can be held this year but have yet to announce a date. Political analyst Tatyana Stanovaya suggested the Kremlin could stage the constitutional vote soon after the parade to benefit from a possible mood of patriotism. "It would be logical to organise the constitutional referendum immediately after the military parade, that is on July 1 or 8," said Stanovaya. The government's handling of the virus crisis has come under fire, with critics saying Putin initially appeared uninterested in dealing with the pandemic. Many slammed his government for refusing to provide Russians with tangible support packages. One survey by independent pollster Levada showed Putin's approval rating falling to a historic low of 59 percent in April. Critics said it was inappropriate for Russia to hold celebratory parades in the current circumstances. "An upsurge (of infections) after this is inevitable," tweeted Anastasia Vasilyeva, the head of the Doctors' Alliance, an independent medical workers' union. "And this comes as people don't have enough money to feed themselves and their children or to pay off loans." In the rapid switch to remote learning this spring, some schools developed new approaches to everything from parent engagement to science lessons. Those innovations will not only help educators as they consider how to reopen schools that were closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, they may also inform the broader conversation about how to rethink education, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said Thursday, touching on a theme shes carried throughout her time in the adminstration. DeVos held a web conference for reporters, discussing online education strategies with state and district-level administrators, creators of education materials, and charter school operators. The crisis has created an opportunity to reexamine how schools operate, she said. Navigating the last couple of months has been challenging on many fronts, but Im inspired in how each of you has risen to the occasion in many ways, and how youve empowered students to continue learning, DeVos told educators on the call. The call came as district and state-level education administrators around the country consider when and how to reopen schools. On the call, leaders floated an array of options, includng reopening to in-person learning, remaining in remote instruction, or adopting a hybrid approach that blends the two. And, regardless of what approach a school takes, educators will likely have to continue some remote learning for students and families with heightened health risks, those on the call said. Participants included Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City; Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner; Khan Academy Founder Sal Khan; and leadership from the Alaska, Florida, and New Hampshire state education departments. The road to remote learning has been rocky for some. Around the country, schools have reported challenges securing internet access, meeting the needs of students in crisis due to family job loss, and even locating some students whove never logged on to their remote platforms. And some parents of children with disabilities have said their needs are not being met remotely. Schools also face the possibility of financial constraints and state budget cuts as they start the 2020-21 school year. Here are some remote learning strategies educators and administrators highlighted on Thursdays call. Blending Approaches Alaskas Mat-Su Borough School District built its approach to online learning on years of work developing choices for students, Superintendent Monica Goyette said. DeVos visited the district, 50 miles northwest of Anchorage, on her education freedom tour last year. The school system has about 19,000 students spread over an area the size of West Virginia, Goyette said. And students have long been able to cobble together educational offerings, including home school, AP classes, remote instruction, and career and technical training. That personalized approach informed the districts remote transition, Goyette said. Administrators sought input from families on preferences related to screen time, method of instruction, and other issues, she said. Rethinking Family Engagement The remote learning experience has caused Success Academy to rethink parent engagement, and its considering holding parent meetings online, even after school buildings reopen, Moskowitz said. Why do we always have parents come to schools? she said. Why not have all of the meetings virtually for parents who are working two jobs? Los Angeles Unified also worked to engage parents, who were taking an active role in helping their students learn from home, Buetner said. Principals hold virtual coffee hours with parents and have seen surging interest throughout the closures. The district also started a charity to help meet famillies immediate needs, and it launched a mental health support line. Engaging Partnerships Educational administrators on the call said they had worked with internet providers to help connect students to hotspots and private donors to provide materials for families in need. The Los Angeles district will extend its partnership approach to summer school, Buetner said. The district, the second largest in the country, will team with the Fender guitar company to offer students virtual guitar lessons. An animation studio will provide online drawing classes. And movie director James Cameron will assist with a virtual course about the Titanic that will blend physics, biology, and history. While we recognize there is no substitute for being in these school buildings, we are doing our best for the communities we serve, Buetner said. Photo: Jason Shellabarger, a technology services worker with the Tacoma, Wash., school district, handed a stack of laptops to students waiting in a vehicle in April. --AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa . China's top legislature said Monday it will prioritize legislation on public health this year. In its annual work report, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) said it plans to revise the Wildlife Protection Law, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, and the Emergency Response Law in 2020. The report was delivered by Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, to the ongoing third session of the 13th NPC for deliberation. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the top legislature has performed its lawful duty, providing legal support for anti-epidemic efforts and economic and social development. It issued a decision to completely ban the illegal trade and consumption of wildlife, and reached out to the public to clarify epidemic prevention and control laws, according to the report. China currently has over 30 laws on public health, which have generally withstood the test of the COVID-19 epidemic and played a positive role, Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the third session of the 13th NPC, told a press conference last week. Zhang however noted that there are still some weak links and shortcomings in the legal framework, and the NPC Standing Committee will further strengthen China's public health legislation. Lawmakers are expected to review and approve the country's biosecurity law within this year, according to Zhang. The draft biosecurity law went through a second reading in April. Meanwhile, legislators will expedite revising the Wildlife Protection Law in the hope of submitting the revision for review in the latter half of the year, Zhang added. EMPLOYERS with better staff safety records are 20pc more likely to go under, according to a new study of 25 years of health and business records. The findings come amid heightened risks associated with Covid-19, and suggest businesses that are less strict about enforcing new safety measures stand to benefit financially. "Unfortunately this is not the happiest research finding," according to Mark Pagell, professor of sustainable supply-chain management at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and one of the authors of the report. His team in Dublin was part of a global group of researchers that assessed 25 years of company records and incidents where an employee was absent for three days or more due to a work-related incident. They found that companies that suffer fewer accidents are more likely to go out of business. That shows that companies could have a competitive advantage by cutting corners in health and safety, which drives down their costs, while the cost in terms of hospital admissions is externalised - or pushed onto the public, Prof Pagell said. The effects seen in the US would be even more stark here because the health system is primarily taxpayer funded, he said. "Our research suggests that businesses that enhance their own prospects over worker safety will be more likely to survive as they will be both minimising their costs and maximising their cash-flow," he said. Expand Close Research: Mark Pagell said the findings were not the happiest / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Research: Mark Pagell said the findings were not the happiest The research shows that less-safe businesses gain in the short term and do not suffer in the longer term. In contrast, safety-conscious businesses that allow more time for tasks or have better safety equipment or policies are at a financial disadvantage and more prone to fail, he said. In the context of Covid-19, a business that has an unsafe work environment is also likely to be less safe for customers. "To put that into the current context, some businesses will reopen the second they are allowed after Covid-19 restrictions ease and with the minimal legally mandated protections. Others will wait until they are sure they have plans in place to fully protect their workers and customers," Prof Pagell said. There isn't evidence that health and safety regulations are lacking, he said. The answer is to have a credible threat of inspections and enforcement. "If you look at Covid-19 and workplaces, I think there will be around 67 inspectors for the entire country." Some businesses may take the view that they are unlikely to be inspected. "Meanwhile their more cautious competitors will in essence put their own survival at risk by better protecting the rest of us." Government and employer bodies need to think about rewarding businesses that do protect their workers and to protect them from being punished financially, he said. The study was published in the journal 'Management Science' and was the result of a collaboration between the researchers at UCD Smurfit School, Oregon State University, Universitat Ramon Llull in Spain and Ohio State's Fisher College of Business. International Donor Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees Statement Statement by Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland, Simon Coveney, T.D. International Donor Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Migrants and Refugees in the Countries of the Region, amid COVID-19 I would like to thank the European Union, Spain, UNHCR, and the IOM for convening this important conference. As the world comes together to battle COVID-19, it is more important than ever for us to demonstrate the values of solidarity and humanity. We know that the impact of this crisis will not fall equally, but will disproportionally impact those already suffering from humanitarian crises, including in situations of displacement, conflict or natural disaster. Our focus today is on the millions of women, men and children who have been compelled to flee their homes. The conditions that they face are incredibly challenging, and their lives have been made all the more precarious by the impact of the pandemic. Our thoughts are also with the millions of people within Venezuela itself, many of whom are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Covid-19 has made the situation worse for Venezuelans, both inside and outside their country. Food security and access to basic livelihoods have further seriously worsened in a matter of weeks. I want to commend the solidarity and generosity of neighbouring countries, who continue to offer refuge to Venezuelan people in their time of need. But it is not for them alone to address this crisis. Global partners, including the EU, need to work together to find a way to reach political transition to a peaceful, negotiated and democratic solution owned by the people of Venezuela and towards a peaceful electoral path. In parallel, efforts need to focus on how to reach agreement to enable increased humanitarian assistance to reach those in need inside Venezuela. Ireland fully aligns itself with the EUs statement of 3 April. We continue to witness solidarity from the many committed humanitarian actors who are providing vital assistance in often difficult conditions. We must collectively support them in their efforts. Ireland will provide 1 million in funding to UNHCR for their work under the regional response plan for Refugees and Migrants. This is in addition to Irelands core funding to the global humanitarian system, including over 20 million in core support to UNHCR, IOM, the ICRC and the UNs Central Emergency Response Fund. Ireland is also taking part in the Team Europe response to Covid-19, which in Venezuela and the region is tackling the aggravated situation created by the pandemic. I would like to assure you of Irelands continued support as we seek to collectively address this dire humanitarian emergency. Previous Item | Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has said that measures to set up the migration commission should be expedited to provide jobs to migrant workers, on Monday, amid controversy surrounding his move following Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackerays objections. Yogi gave the directives on Monday at a meeting of his Team-11 convened to review the lockdown situation here. Yes, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked for making efforts on a war footing to set up the migration commission. The commission will be set up in the next few days in accordance with the existing provisions of law, said chief secretary RK Tiwari. At a webinar on Sunday, chief minister said his government would set up the commission in the interest of workers and if any other state wanted to use Uttar Pradeshs manpower they would need to take the state governments permission. The migration commission will work in the interest of the migrant workers. If any other state wants UPs manpower, they cannot take them away just like that. Those states will have to do it with the consent and permission of the UP government. The way our migrant workers were ill-treated in those states, the UP government will take their insurance, social security in its hands now. The UP government will stand with them wherever they work, whether in Uttar Pradesh, other states or other countries, he said. Asked if the state government would study the Centres Inter State Migrant Workmen Act or go for enacting a new law to set up the commission, Tiwari said, Our basic objective is to watch the welfare of migrant labourers and ensure that they get their wages. The state governments move about its prior permission for jobs in other states may, however, have to stand legal scrutiny with experts saying there cant be any restriction on doing business in any part of the country. The Constitution of India provides a fundamental right allowing every citizen free movement and the right to do business anywhere in India. The state government can enact any law for welfare of migrant labourers. It however cannot restrict these rights, said former advisor to governor and legal expert CB Pandey. About 25 lakh migrant labourers have already reached the state. The state government is carrying out an exercise for skill mapping of the migrant labourers. An official spokesman said the skill mapping so far has indicated the largest number of 1,51,492 migrant workers have come from the real estate development sector. Yogi said the skill mapping exercise should continue and the district employment exchanges should be made useful, and help migrant labourers get a job. Earlier, reacting strongly to Yogis announcement, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, in a post on Twitter, on Monday, said, The CM of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath has stated that if the services of workers of UP are required, then prior permission of the UP government is essential. If such is the case, then any migrant entering Maharashtra too, would need to take permissions from us, from the Maharashtra state, our police force. Shri Adityanath needs to take cognizance of this. Thackeray further said, Also, the Maharashtra government needs to look into this matter seriously. In future, whenever migrants do enter our state, they will need to be registered and their personal details and their identification proof will need to be submitted to the police station. Only if these requirements are met with diligently, will they be allowed to enter Maharashtra. A strict adherence to the above needs to be followed by Maharashtra. In another tweet Thackeray said, Also, the migrant workers from UP will have voting rights only in UP. As per rules laid down, a voter can only vote from one place and cannot exercise their voting rights in two places. This fact needs to be realised by CM Adityanath, by Maharashtra and other states too. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Asia WHO Chief Deems Japan's Battle Against Coronavirus a Success WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus / KYODO GENEVAThe head of the World Health Organization on Monday described the result of Japans efforts in tackling the spread of the new coronavirus a success. WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus made the assessment during a press conference in Geneva held in the wake of Japans decision to lift a state of emergency in all parts of the nation after it was first declared in early April. Tedros praised Japan for stemming the epidemic in recent weeks, reducing the spread of infections from more than 700 cases a day at the peak of the outbreak, and for keeping the number of deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, at a relatively low level. Read more. Australia requested the accuseds extradition in 2014 on 74 charges of child sex abuse but the case has dragged on. An Israeli court on Tuesday ruled a former teacher accused of sexually abusing her students in Australia is fit to stand trial for extradition, capping a years-long battle that strained relations and angered Australias pro-Israel Jewish community. The ruling was hailed by Malka Leifers alleged victims, who have accused their one-time school principal and Israeli authorities of dragging out the case for far too long. A July 20 extradition hearing was set by the court. One of her accusers wrote on Facebook: Too many emotions to process!!! This is huge! said Dassi Erlich. She accused Leifer of exploiting the Israeli courts for 6 years and causing delays that have lengthened our ongoing trauma. OMG!! JUDGE RULED LEIFER IS MENTALLY FIT TO STAND TRIAL! This abusive woman has been exploiting Israeli courts for 6 years! Intentionally creating obstacles, endless vexatious arguments only lengthening our ongoing trauma! Too many emotions to process!!! This is huge! Dassi Erlich #bringleiferback (@dassi_erlich) May 26, 2020 Erlich and two of her sisters have spoken publicly about their allegations against Leifer. The women said Leifer abused them while they were students at an ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne, and there are said to be other victims. In 2008, as allegations surfaced, the Israeli-born Leifer, a trusted educator in an insular religious community, left her position at the school suddenly and returned to Israel, where she has lived since. Australia requested Leifers extradition in 2014 on 74 charges of child sex abuse, and more than 60 Israeli court hearings have followed. In Israel, critics say the legal proceedings have been marred by needless delays by Leifers legal team. Israeli police also have recommended charges of fraud and breach of trust be brought against former Health Minister Yaakov Litzman for suspicions he pressured ministry employees to skew Leifers psychiatric evaluations in her favour. Litzman, a powerful ultra-Orthodox politician, denies wrongdoing. Not fit After Australia filed its extradition request, Leifer was put under house arrest and underwent the beginnings of an extradition process that ended in 2016 when a mental health evaluation determined she was not fit to stand trial. But investigators later claimed to catch her leading a seemingly normal life and accused her of faking mental illness to avoid prosecution. Leifer was again arrested in early 2018, and the court asked for another psychological review. She has since been held in Israeli custody. In a statement, prosecutors Matan Akiva and Avital Ribner Oron said they were pleased the court had found Leifer had faked her mental incompetence. The removal of this obstacle that has stood in the way of any significant progress in this case will now enable the court to bring this matter to a timely and swift conclusion, they said. In recent years, leaders in Australia expressed impatience about the slow pace of justice, and the prime minister raised the matter with Israels president during an official visit to Australia in February. Leaders in Australias pro-Israel Jewish community also criticised the Israeli justice system. Australias attorney general, Christian Porter, called the ruling a positive sign, and said his government is strongly committed to ensuring that justice is served. At this time, the thoughts of the Australian government are very much with alleged victims, and hopefully this positive development will give them some confidence that proceedings in Israel are moving towards their aim of seeing proceedings commence in Australia, he said. Deserve our compassion Josh Burns, an Australian legislator who recently introduced a motion in Parliament demanding Israel extradite Leifer, said in a statement justice is finally arriving for the victims in Australia. We will all keep fighting until Leifer is in a Victorian courtroom facing justice, he said. Manny Waks, chief executive of Kol vOz, a Jewish organisation that combats child sex abuse and has been representing the three sisters, said all the discussion about Leifers mental state had distracted attention from the damage suffered by her alleged victims. They deserve our compassion, our support, and now moving forward we expect the Israeli judicial system to move expeditiously, as quickly as possible, to ensure that any appeal and the extradition itself happens as soon as possible, Waks said outside the courtroom. Russia is modernising its military at an extremely fast pace and has now started constructing its first strategic stealth bomber, capable of delivering nuclear weapons, under the Perspective Aviation Complex for Long-Range Aviation (PAK DA) programme. The strategic stealth bomber, the second 5th Generation combat aircraft from Russia after the Sukhoi Su-57 supersonic fighter, will eventually replace the currents set of Tupolev Tu 22, Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers. According to Russian news agency TASS, a senior military-industrial complex source confirmed about the construction of the bomber under the PAK DA programme designed as a flying wing. "The production of airframe elements will be handled by one of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC)s plants; development of working design documentation is complete, material shipping has commenced. The final assembly of the entire machine should be complete in 2021," TASS quoted the source as saying. Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Alexey Krivoruchko had in December 2019 told the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper that the PAK DA project had got the necessary clearance following which the Tupolev Design Bureau started the work on the future strategic bomber. The PAK DA bomber will use the latest technologies and materials to reduce its radar signature, making it invisible to the enemy. However, the bomber will be subsonic but will be configured to carry all the air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM) currently in Russian arsenal as well as hypersonic missiles like Kh-47M Kinzhal and precision-guided bombs. The first test flight of the PAK DA bomber is likely to take place in late 2021 or early 2022. The bomber is expected to join the Russian Aerospace Force only by 2028 0r 2029 after rigorous testing and development. While the PAK-FA programme was carried out by Sukhoi and finally culminated into Russia's first 5th Generation stealth fighter Su-57. the major PAK DA project is with Tupolev Design Bureau and so the bomber is likely to carry the Tu designation. Russian Aerospace Force started taking the delivery of Sukhoi Su-57 fighters in late 2019 after ordering 76 fighters. The Su-57 was combat tested in Syria in 2018 and 2019. Education is a hot topic this Legislative session. Here's what bills we're watching. Here are some of the hot-button education bills were tracking at the Argus Leader. Check back each day to see where they stand as we update. Churches in the Holy Land have opened their doors to worshippers for the first time in over two months, as Israeli and Palestinian authorities continue rolling back measures designed to curb the coronavirus. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem's Old City, will limit entry to 50 people at once. The church, which is identified as the site of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection, is barring worshippers from touching any of the stones or religious items. Bethlehems Church of the Nativity is also limiting access to 50 people and requiring that all wear protective masks. Worshippers are not allowed to touch or kiss the grotto where it is believed Jesus was born. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced Monday that mosques, churches and businesses would reopen in the Palestinian territories. The major religious site in the West Bank city of Hebron, known as the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims and the Tomb of the Patriarchs to Jews, also opened its doors today. As of today, Palestinian health officials had recorded a total of 602 coronavirus cases and five deaths. In Israel, the government reported more than 16,000 infections and a death toll of 281. Worship is expected to resume at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa mosque later this week, its governing council said in a statement. Islams third-holiest site closed in March for the first time in more than half a century. Sri Lanka: SLNS Samudura continues to provide fuel to distressed fishing trawlers at sea May 26,2020 | Source: Colombo Page Sri Lanka Navy Ship SLNS Samudura is assisting the multi-day fishing vessels that were washed-away to Indonesian seas as a result of the recent cyclonic storm Amphan to return to the island. The multi-day fishing vessels, under the supervision of SLNS Samudura, are returning to the island and are about 375 nautical miles off the coast, the Navy Media Unit said. SLNS Samudura is continuing to provide food, water, medical aid to the fishermen onboard of the 16 distressed boats and the fuel to make the return journey. Earlier it was reported that about 180 fishermen from Galle and Hambanthota districts are on board 30 ships that got swept away into the Indonesian seas. Further, SLNS Samudura is also closely monitoring all of these vessels and will continue to provide necessary facilities to these fishing trawlers until they are safely escorted to land. The retail giant TJX Companies, Inc., which reported losing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, announced last week it would begin to open its stores again nationwide. The company already started reopening stores May 2 in more than two dozen states and multiple countries per local governments guidelines. TJX is now set to start operating many of its location again throughout the country by the end of June, according to a statement from the company. To date, TJX has reopened more than 1,600 of its more than 4,500 stores in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. Initial sales, the company said, have been above last years sales across all the locations that have been operating again for at least a week. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company noted, though, that it is still early in the quarter, and sales could fluctuate. Although its still early and the retail environment remains uncertain, we have been encouraged with the very strong sales we have seen with our initial reopenings, TJX CEO Ernie Herrman said in a statement. We believe this very strong start speaks to our compelling value proposition and the appeal of our treasure-hunt shopping experience, as well as pent-up demand. It has been great to see, especially for the teams working so hard on the reopening preparations and our associates welcoming back our customers," he added. Retailers, small and large alike, have been hit hard by the COVID-19 public health crisis, suffering millions in lost profits as social distancing restrictions have forced companies to temporarily close up shop. J.Crew Group, which operates both the J.Crew and Madewell brands, filed for bankruptcy in early May, and J.C. Penney, which has accrued nearly $4 billion in debt, is also expected to go under. TJX announced March 19 it would close all its stores and halt online business during pandemic, and last month, the company said it would furlough thousands of employees. The companys net sales in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 were $4.4 billion, according to TJXs statement. The retail giants loss for the first quarter was $887 million. TJXs profits were negatively impacted by the closure of its stores for half of the quarter, the company noted. Throughout our 43-year history, we have navigated through many challenging economic and retail environments, and I am convinced that we will manage through this as well, Herrman said. In the United States, TJX has fully or partially reopened in 25 states. Internationally, the company has started operating stores in Austria, Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, according to TJX. Stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland remain closed, though the company has reopened its four e-commerce websites in the U.S. and U.K., TJXs statement said. The company expects to continue reopening stores around the world in a phased approach as more states and countries reopen for retail, TJX said in its statement. The company believes that it could be mostly reopened by the end of June based on current government guidance. In Massachusetts, retailers were allowed to start operating again with remote ordering and curbside delivery Monday per the state reopening advisory boards four-phase plan to reopen the commonwealth. Related Content: AACR funds a digitally enhanced smoking cessation intervention NIH funds study into chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy BOSTON - Nurse-scientists from the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute received more than $1.3 million dollars in funding for two separate research projects. The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) announced that in partnership with the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson (LCI) it will award $1 million dollars to a multi-institutional team focused on developing digital tools to engage high-risk smokers in an innovative smoking cessation program designed to encourage behaviors that promote lung health. This team project is co-led by Dana-Farber nurse-scientist Mary E. Cooley, PhD, RN, FAAN, whose research arose out of her experience as an advanced practice nurse working as part of a multidisciplinary team focused on treating and supporting lung cancer patients and their families. "Smoking cessation, even after the diagnosis of lung cancer, is essential to improving clinical outcomes," said Cooley. "Our hope is this program encourages behaviors that promote lung health and early lung cancer detection." The other co-leaders are Peter Castaldi, MD, MSC, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Sun S. Kim, PhD, associate professor of nursing at the University of Massachusetts. A separate research project recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. The study, led by Dana-Farber nurse-scientist Robert Knoerl, PhD, RN, looks at metabolomic and genetic markers of neuropathy in adolescents and young adults with cancer. "Essentially there's only one first-line treatment for neuropathy," said Knoerl. "One reason for the lack of effective treatments is that we don't understand the underlying causes of neuropathy. We hope with this study to identify potential biomarkers that can be targeted in the future." ### The mission of the Cantor Center is to reduce the burden of cancer through scholarly inquiry and rigorous research. The focus of the Center's research is the patient/family experience of living with cancer, as well as survivorship issues post-treatment. About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world's leading centers of cancer research and treatment. It is ranked in the top 5 of U.S. News and World Report's Best Hospitals for both adult and pediatric cancer care. Dana-Farber's mission is to reduce the burden of cancer through scientific inquiry, clinical care, education, community engagement, and advocacy. We provide the latest in cancer for adults through Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Care and for children through Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is dedicated to a unique and equal balance between cancer research and care, translating the results of discovery into new treatments for patients locally and around the world. A few days ago, Facebook joined Twitter in embracing remote work as a permanent option for many of its employees. In a decade, Mark Zuckerberg said, half of the companys employees could work from home. Now, lets consider all the high-tech companies that could afford to keep half of their employees in the home office and what this would do to oil demand. Oilprice.coms Michael Kern raised the question in April, soon after WTI swung into negative territory for the first time ever. Transportation, he noted, accounts for more than two-thirds of oil demand in the United States. This makes it the single most critical factor for sustainable demand in the industry. Within transportation, so-called light-duty vehicles, the kind that includes passenger cars that millions used for their daily commute, account for the biggest portion of oil demand, at 8.31 million barrels of oil equivalent daily. Freight trucks, for those interested, are a distant second, consuming some 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent daily, according to Statista data for 2019. When lockdowns effectively put an end to travel in March, the results were instant. In late March, the daily national traffic volume in the United States was down close to 40 percent from a month earlier. By mid-April, this was down 46 percent on a monthly basis before slightly improving towards the end of the month as lockdowns began to be eased. Chances are, traffic volumes will continue to improve from this point forward, with lockdowns lifted across the states. But the question remains, will demand rebound fully? The answer may well be no. An internal Facebook survey cited by the AP showed that one-fifth of employees was, extremely or very interested in shifting to full-time remote work. Another fifth was somewhat interested. The rest of the tech giants employees appear to want flexibility above all. The results of this survey, if indicative of the general mood in the tech industry, may be alarming for oil demand. Facebook alone employs close to 45,000 people. Of course, not all of these commute by car. But, once again, Facebook is not the only company mulling over permanent remote work. Twitter, which employs some 4,900 people, told them all they could keep working from home if they wished to after the lockdowns were over. This effectively means a permanent change in work patterns. This permanent change in work patterns would unavoidably mean a lasting change in energy consumption. Related: Is The U.S. Prepared For War With China? Not everyone believes that tech companies plans will work. In an article for Business Insider, David Plotz, for example, listed the reasons why the idea was doomed to failure. These included the marked difference in communication and networkingand hence career-advancingopportunities between in-office and remote work and the fact that people have different temperaments, and not everyone is suited to remote work. As true as that is, it is also true that for many people, remote work is a godsend--and they will be happy to stay at home after the pandemic goes away. So, while its impossible to make any specific predictions on how much oil demand will be lost because of permanent remote work, it is virtually certain that some will be lost. Many companies are learning that their workers are just as or even more productive working from home, the senior VP of staffing company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Andy Challenger, told the AP. Productivity is important for employers, so its safe to say that more companies will likely encourage permanent remote work. There is also the possibility that consumption would increase elsewhere, according to the chief economist of BP, Spencer Dale. In an interview with HIS Markit, Dale noted that things like home deliveries to avoid going to grocery stores and greater personal car use instead of public transport could be among the transportation segments that post increased demand for fuels after the crisis. Indeed, with so much fiscal stimulus, oil demand might rebound soon enough; only there are tens of millions of people out of a job, and if these jobs dont return, neither will pre-crisis oil demand. And then there is Europes green recovery plan, which is incompatible with oil demand growth, to put it mildly. For now, nothing is certain. The uncertainty will likely persist for months to come. The chances are that oil demand will continue to improve as travel-starved people take to their cars and the roads, but once the initial frenzy passes, most will settle into their oldor newhabits. And the new ones might become permanent, as habits tend to be. Every organization will increasingly need the ability at a moments notice to remote everything from manufacturing to sales, to customer support, Microsofts Satya Nadella said last week. The shift to new work patterns is already beginning. Where it will end is anyones guess, but unless it is almost identical to current work patterns, it will likely harm oil demand, perhaps permanently. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Kristina: How does Artificial Emotional Intelligence differ from standard AI? Chris Bauserman, VP, Segment and Product Marketing, NICE inContact: Artificial intelligence (AI) has already reshaped how brands communicate with customers by enabling them to make more timely and personalized connections. Moving forward, these interactions will become even more nuanced through artificial emotional intelligence (AEI). While AI aggregates and analyzes data, offering recommendations based on previous interactions and context, AEI technology, though still being developed, adds an extra layer of empathy to the customer experience. AEI helps agents understand the emotional state of the customer and nuanced communication preferences, like how much a particular customer uses emojis. With that added insight, brands can adapt customer service responses to best suit each situation. Kristina: What is the importance of AEI in the current digital landscape? Chris: Once thought of as an asset of the future, the ability to provide emotional intelligence within the context of a customer interaction has now become a necessity for business success during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers emotions continue to run high and AEI can detect crucial nuances in these emotions that may indicate the necessity for a very careful reply. For example, with anxieties running high, many consumers will have a generally negative sentiment, but that doesnt mean that they are displeased with your particular brand or service. But, if youre able to detect high frustration in the interaction, then that is an important indicator that an escalation may need to happen, as that emotion is highly correlated to poor CSAT and NPS. Essentially, by recognizing the emotions that humans experience in difficult situations, AEI is able to tailor the solutions offered to best address the pain points of that particular situation, so that each customer feels individually cared for. Kristina: Once the COVID crisis has calmed, will AEI continue to be of importance? Chris: Soon-to-be-released, proprietary data from NICE inContact found that 92% of contact centers have reported increased volume of interactions of all types over the past year, with 62% reporting an increase in digital interactions, specifically. Understandably, many businesses have faced challenges in keeping up with this increased inbound customer volume AI self-service can help, but in times of crisis, such as right now, it is also more important than ever to not just process interactions, but to demonstrate empathy. That said, both in the immediate and long-term future, emotional intelligence will be established as an essential capability for successful customer experience teams. Marrying emotional intelligence with AI-driven technology ensures that rich customer interactions are able to happen organically and at-scale. To provide a non-COVID-specific example, for global organizations that may have geographically siloed contact centers, AEI is able to take cross-cultural differences into account when providing agents with insights and recommended action steps. An agent in the United States may not have the full cultural context necessary for a successful interaction when engaging with a customer in Singapore, but in this situation, AEI can help to address the knowledge gap by sharing data-driven insights about previous interactions and socio-demographic profiles. The result is a more holistic understanding of the customer as an individual. This new take on the digital-first customer experience allows brands to build impactful and lasting relationships versus one-off touchpoints. That longevity and sustainability are what lead to greater customer relationships and valuable returns. Kristina: How can brands adjust their strategy in using AI to become more emotive? Chris: Brands with an AI strategy already in place can use those capabilities to amplify emotional intelligence. The concept of AI improving emotional intelligence might sound like a paradox, but agents and self-service channels can greatly benefit from real-time and historical sentiment analysis. This added analysis takes the guesswork out of reading emotions especially on phone calls or text-based digital interactions. For example, in self-service channels, this information can diagnose when an experience is not as satisfying or as useful as an agent-assisted interaction would be. If and when a live agent is needed, sentiment analysis can recognize the urgency and route the customer accordingly. Migrants: 72 rescued on 4 dinghies in Aegean Sea Migrants travelling towards Greek islands from Turkey (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MAY 26 - Migrant crossings have resumed in large numbers in the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the Greek islands with the approach of the summer season and the improvement of the COVID-19 emergency. Turkish coast guards rescued on Tuesday at least 72 people from four distressed motorized dinghies. According to Anadolu, the migrants were pushed back towards Turkish territorial waters by Greek coast guards. Rescue operations occurred off the coast of Foca in the province of Izmir. The migrants - Afghan, Congolese, Guinean and Pakistani nationals - will be transported to temporary detention centers. (ANSAmed) Eskom has explained that it needs to increase electricity prices to meet the cost of producing the power it provides to South Africans. Responding to queries from MyBroadband, Eskom said the recurrent equity injections from the government required to keep the power utility running were due to an electricity pricing issue. As is evident, Eskom is not recovering the efficient cost of the electricity, the power utility said. Thus Eskom is subsidising all consumers of electricity. This is because the price of Eskom electricity is below the efficient cost that it takes to produce that electricity. This explains the further and further debt requirements and equity injections from the government, Eskoms shareholder, the power utility said. Eskom is working with the national energy regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to raise electricity tariffs to a level where it will be able to recover the efficient cost of electricity from consumers, it said. This is a migration towards the user pay principle, where the taxpayer should not continue to subsidise the consumer. Eskom load-shedding probabilities Eskom has stated that it only expects around three days of stage 1 load-shedding during the 2020 winter season. The power utility confirmed to MyBroadband that it sees this scenario as the most likely, with an 80% probability of occurring. Eskom has considered all possible scenarios in terms of its ability to supply electricity and the possibility of implementing load-shedding, and is currently working with the most likely outcome, the company told MyBroadband. The best-case scenario that we have put forward which we regard as having an 80% probability, currently indicates that there is a probability of three days of stage 1 load-shedding during this winter. This scenario is based on unpredicted breakdowns of below 11,000MW. Energy expert Ted Blom has called into question Eskoms load-shedding projections, however, stating that South Africa may be headed for unprecedented levels of load-shedding. Eskom has continually refuted predictions of increased load-shedding as the national COVID-19 lockdown is eased, stating it is prepared for the return to operations of industries. Blom also disagreed with Eskoms evaluation of its electricity tariffs, stating that previous tariff increases funded corruption at the state-owned enterprise. To date, the public has not benefited one cent from any alleged curtailment of corruption at Eskom, Blom said. He warned that the increase in electricity tariffs proposed by Eskom would scare away investors from South Africas electricity industry. Demand projections and municipal prices Eskoms current demand projections are based on all currently known factors, including the staggered reopening of the economy in accordance with the governments plans, Eskom told MyBroadband. The demand remains significantly lower than what can normally be expected during the winter period. However, we are experiencing an increase in demand as the COVID-19 restrictions are gradually relaxed, but do not expect to have demand levels similar to previous years. The power utility also noted that it is only able to implement price increases that are approved by NERSA, which in turn places requirements on the company. Eskom is required to make applications for revenue and the regulatory clearing account, Eskom said. Thus this occurs at least on an annual basis. NERSA will make determinations for electricity price increases in accordance with its mandate. The power utility also noted that municipalities undergo similar approval processes from NERSA. The difference is, however, that municipalities are in a position to allow for surcharges that could in effect further increase the price of electricity, Eskom said. Everyone loves Costco, right? They treat their employees much better than other businesses, and they have competitive prices on a wide variety of items. In fact, Costco is known for some of the lowest prices on gas and if you want to shop gas at Costco, get a $20 Costco Shop Card for that. But what do these low prices mean when it comes to Costco gas quality? Cheap Gas But What About Costco Gas Quality? Costco gas prices positively cannot be beaten. Typically, this means that a company saves money by making a cheaper product. This can call into question the quality of Costcos black gold. When Costco is selling its gasoline for so much less than the competition, its natural to be skeptical and wonder if the quality is equal to brand-name gasoline such as Exxon, Shell, and Chevron. Most people want to know if Costco gas is good quality fuel, or if it might cause long-term damage to their fuel system. Gas Quality Standards First, its important to note that the government sets fairly stringent standards for all gasoline sold in the United States. When it comes to octane level and other specific gasoline characteristics, all gas is basically the same. The difference between the fuel that you buy at branded gas stations comes down to the detergents that are added to the gas. Even with detergents, the government sets standards. The federal government has required since 1995 that all gasoline sold in the U.S. must contain a certain amount of detergent additives. These additives are Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved, and the amount of detergent which must be added to keep vehicle engines free from deposits is regulated. Costco gasoline meets all these requirements, despite being so much cheaper than surrounding stations. Just because you are saving money, that does not mean that they have skimped out, or skirted any regulations. Is Costco Gas As Good As the Competitors? So, Costco meets the minimum requirements, but is it still as good as other brand-name gasoline? A number of automakers made the decision that the U.S. government additive requirement wasnt high enough for many cars. As a result, they developed a Top Tier standard. In order to meet the Top Tier designation, the fuel sold at the gas station must meet additive requirements higher than required by the U.S. government. Costco fuel meets this top-tier standard, so that just goes to show the value that you are getting. While Costcos gas isnt the same as the other brands, that does not make it a lesser product. After all, if it was the same exact gas, Costco wouldnt be able to set itself apart. Costco gasoline is practically equal to any other major brand gasoline. You should not notice any difference when filling up your vehicle at Costco as you would with any other brand. The only difference you should notice is a much lighter hit to the wallet. Get Better Gas Quality and Save Money If you arent sure that Costco gasoline is as good as another major brands, try this gas hack to save money. In most areas of the country, you can fill up at the Costco gas station, plus add quality fuel injector cleaner . If you add this fuel injector cleaner as recommended, you will still pay less for Costco gas and the fuel injector cleaner, than you would on gas alone at a major brand gas station. This, though, is more of a peace-of-mind improvement. Most mechanics will tell you that fuel injector cleaner really doesnt do much, so maybe just enjoy the savings that come with your yearly membership. In the end, there is nothing to suggest that Costco brand fuel is inferior to any other brands of gasoline. Dont let the price alone dissuade you from filling up there, but we wont judge if the long lines drive you away. From Around The Web If youre interested in some fun gasoline reading, check out this story of a guy who figured out how to turn off the ads at the gas pump. And, here is the story of a guy who made $900 using the app, GetUpside. The best part is, he donated the $900 to buy gas for some nurses. The story is here. Read More From Saving Advice: Is a Costco Executive Membership Worth the Price? Costco Gas Calculator: Will I Save Money Buying a Membership if All I Buy is Fuel? What Is The Costco Return Policy? The Costco Holiday Schedule Is More Surprising Than You Think Yes, Costco Will Do Your Tires (Photo courtesy of Adam Keys) Do you fill up at Costco gas stations? What do you think about the gas quality? The first was to hear oral arguments remotely, so that they and the contending lawyers dont have to travel to the courtroom in Washington, D.C. Like many other people who once worked in offices, the justices have been doing their jobs from home. They apparently concluded this option would work fine not just for reading briefs and doing research but also for grilling attorneys as they present their cases. GRAND RAPIDS, MI - John Ball Zoo will host a virtual and onsite fundraiser June 16-22 in hopes of securing $200,000 to help support its mission. The event called WildLive Week is a matching gift campaign. The zoo was scheduled to open April 3 but was forced to delay doing so due to the coronavirus pandemic and has struggled financially. Related: John Ball Zoo hopes to reopen soon after closure causes $2M in lost revenue This fundraiser will take the place of RendeZoo, the zoos largest annual fundraiser that was cancelled due to the pandemic. Sponsors have committed to match all donations up to $100,000. These times are challenging, but if you are able, we ask you to please consider making a gift today. Now, more than ever, every dollar counts, John Ball Zoo CEO Peter DArienzo said in a May 19 press release about the initiative. WildLive Week will consist of animal birthday celebrations, videos, and other zoo-themed ways community members can participate in the fundraiser and donate each day. During a press conference May 19, officials with the zoo and other businesses said they understood Gov. Gretchen Whitmers decision to temporarily close most businesses to reduce the spread of COVID-19. However, they said more clarity was needed on when they would be allowed to reopen. Zoo leaders said they had a plan to reopen safely, and were hoping that the state would give it permission to do so by May 29. On Friday, Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order past its scheduled May 28 expiration to June 12. Zoo fundraiser donations can be made at jbzoo.org/donate, by mail to John Ball Zoo, 1300 W. Fulton St., Grand Rapids 49504 or by calling 616-336-3036. Officials say they will announce opening day details for the 2020 season as soon as it is safe to open to the public. COVID-19 Prevention Tips: In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Gov. Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Also on MLive: Michigans 7-day average for new coronavirus cases is lowest in 2 months Whitmer says husbands boat launch request was failed attempt at humor Hundreds of flooded homes in Muskegon County will not qualify for relief funding Mary Lou McDonald is digging in for a decade at least at the helm of Sinn Fein. And why not? Her predecessor, Gerry Adams, hung in for 34-plus years then had her assigned the role of heir apparent. A decade in office seems modest by comparison. Read More The way the Dail numbers have panned out after the election on February 8, the immediate future looks pretty good for Ms McDonald. She will either be leader of the opposition at a time of very tough decisions for a three-cornered Fianna Fail-Fine Gael-Green coalition, or she and her Sinn Fein colleagues will be back in the frame for more talks about talks on coalition-making. That would surely be another long period of foot-dragging before we bowed to the inevitable new general election whenever coronavirus permits, probably in October at the earliest. Either way it's pretty good news for Ms McDonald and her resurgent party. So, why the moaning tone? Especially after a pretty stellar election performance which brought them to record highs with a quarter of the vote and a record 37 Dail seats. Surely, it is because Ms McDonald and her colleagues have failed in their promulgation of another myth. They do not have any automatic right to participate in coalition talks. For all their election gaisce, three out of four voters chose another party. The battered and dishevelled look on Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in the election aftermath did serve to obscure the reality they were both just a few percentage points behind Sinn Fein. Then there is the old question of legacy and IRA links, as well as her admitted mishandling of child abuse claims surrounding her organisation in the recent past. And there are questions about who actually makes the key decisions in Sinn Fein: the political leaders or the backroom people in Belfast? In a lengthy interview with our sister paper the 'Sunday Independent' this week, we saw Ms McDonald display irritation and impatience at dwelling on these "legacy issues" to the neglect of her party's stance on matters like welfare or housing. But let's just back up a minute here. In her inaugural address when she took over the party leadership from Mr Adams, she felt obliged to sign off by echoing the old IRA rhetoric of "Up the Republic," "Up the rebels" and "Tiocfaidh ar la" as pay-off messages. Those words were not in the advanced script but Ms McDonald's body language did not suggest she got carried away in the moment either with her right arm hoisted in a victory salute. In this latest interview she harked back to being 11 when IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands died in 1980. This memory, along with her parents' families background in the republican movement in the 1920s, played a role in influencing her pathway towards Sinn Fein, albeit via a disappointing detour through Fianna Fail. In the 'Sunday Independent' interview she again insisted the IRA's 30-year campaign in the North was justified and she could envisage in certain circumstances bearing arms herself had she lived there. Defending and celebrating fallen heroes of the republican movement was something of a rite of passage for up and coming Sinn Fein politicians. Surely Mary Lou McDonald's strangest one was celebrating the memory of Sean Russell, an IRA man who led a bombing campaign in Britain during World War II and died aboard a German U-boat returning to Ireland. Ms McDonald insists that Russell was no Nazi fellow traveller, just a militarist republican trying to play the old adage of "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity". It's a line which again reminds us about Sinn Fein's injunctions to defend Irish neutrality when their republican colleagues were the only ones in our history to put that neutrality at risk by associating with Nazi Germany in time of war. But that may be a little too historical. What about the horrific case of Paul Quinn, murdered on the border in Co Monaghan in 2007. The family want Sinn Fein's finance minister in the North, Conor Murphy, to recant a wrong claim that Mr Quinn was "a criminal." Ms McDonald wants the issue handled via a private meeting between Mr Murphy and the Quinns and problems rest with difficulties setting up such a meeting. But let's move to a more recent issue again. Last year's "cash for ash" inquiry into the outrageous squandering of funds by the Stormont government on a renewable heat scheme was mainly about the Democratic Unionist Party. But the inquiry threw up an interesting issue where then Sinn Fein minister Mairtin O Muilleoir sought clearance from a backroom adviser, Ted Howell, to cut costs for the scheme. Mr Howell was a very senior adviser to Mr Adams for years - but Ms McDonald is sticking with the assertion the elected minister was not seeking "backroom permission". Ms McDonald also rejects the MI5/PSNI assessment that the Provisional army council still exists as a political advisory panel. She insists that the party leaders make the decisions. Some workers at fast food chains including McDonald's and Domino's Pizza face a new ritual when they start their shifts: temperature scans to check whether they have a fever as part of anti-coronavirus measures. The chains are rolling out temperature checks with infrared thermometers, which have become common in some countries but have raised union concerns about staff privacy and the tests' effectiveness. McDonald's is using temperature checks to help control the spread of the coronavirus. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui A McDonald's spokeswoman on Tuesday said workers at some Victorian outlets were not allowed to start their shifts unless they took a temperature test conducted by their manager. Those with temperatures above 38 degrees had to go home and talk to a doctor. "We continue to trial the use of temperature checks in accordance with the government's previously published advice and the best interests of the health and safety of our people and customers," the spokeswoman said. After the French government announced plans last week for a 5 billion bailout of automaker Renault, due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Renault-Nissan alliance is about to announce plans for an international wave of plant closings and layoffs. President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to speak today on his governments plan to rescue the French auto industry. This will be followed by the release of Renault-Nissans strategic plan on Wednesday, May 27, and the unveiling of further details of its cost-cutting plans on Friday, May 29. Last February, Renault-Nissan laid out a 2 billion cost-cutting plan to boost corporate profits and ensure that any public bailout money leads to even greater profits for private investors. Details of the new restructuring measures planned by Renault were leaked by an anonymous source to the Parisian weekly Canard enchaine. According to the publication, Four plants will be closed in France: Choisy-le-Roi, Dieppe, and Fonderies de Bretagne. The biggest oneFlins (where the electric compact car Zoe and the Nissan Micra are assembled)will come later. The financial press reported official sources saying that taking a public bailout does not mean giving up on slashing jobs. Nissan, which had already announced in 2019 its intention to cut 12,500 jobs worldwide, now plans to cut 20,000 after the pandemic, Japans Kyodo News reported. This is 15 percent of its workforce. Spanish factories are especially threatened, notably plants at Zona Franca, Montcada and Sant Andreu de la Barca. In 2019, the company also announced plans to slash jobs in Japan, Britain, Mexico, India and Indonesia, among others. Workers at Montcada have been on strike since May 4, and Nissans Sunderland plant in Britain is also potentially threatened with closure. The use of billions in public funds to destroy tens of thousands of jobs, a decade after the Wall Street bailout, will provoke legitimate outrage among workers internationally. While governments and central banks hand trillions of dollars and euros to the ruling class, it uses these resources in an utterly parasitic fashion. Even as a raging pandemic kills hundreds of thousands, Renault-Nissan is not using these funds to save jobs or retool to produce critical health equipment, but to slash jobs and try to profit from an ongoing global restructuring of the auto industry. This is a warning of the global jobs massacre being prepared in industries from airlines and travel to autowhere at least 100,000 job cuts were planned even before the pandemic. Vast corporate bailouts are being announced, with 300 billion from the French state, and two slices of 750 billion and 540 billion from the European Central Bank. This plundering of public coffers, planned with the union bureaucracies in each country, sets the stage for enormous attacks on workers. On May 19, talks between Renault, private banks and the French state (which holds 15 percent of Renaults shares) led to a state-backed bailout of 5 billion to Renault. Renault skipped ahead of countless firms in France, 500,000 of which have applied for emergency loan assistance to deal with the collapse in business activity during the pandemic, and many of which are in imminent danger of bankruptcy. Renault had 10.3 billion in cash reserves in late March and monthly expenses of 600 million, with plant operations suspended worldwide. However, Renault management told La Tribune that it would have been reckless not to ask for state aid. The only condition for the loan, according to sources who spoke to the press, was that Renault not pay out dividends this year. It can, however, choose its repayment terms in coming years, including how to distribute profits made off public funds obtained in 2020. Renault has no legal obligation to avoid layoffs or plant closures under the terms of the bailout. Vast COVID-19 bailouts are not serving to meet urgent needs posed by the pandemic, but to finance previously planned corporate restructurings amid a global transition toward electric cars and a global economic slowdown already underway before the pandemic. Renault CEO Clotilde Delbos announced the 2 billion cost-cutting plan on February 14, just after announcing a net loss in 2019, for the first time since 2009, of 141 million. Falls in economic activity in China and Iran due to US trade war measures have particularly hurt the automaker. In April, Nissan, which has 1.14 trillion yen (9 billion) in cash reserves, asked for 500 billion yen in loans from public and private banks in Japan. We have enough liquidity for current operations, but we are examining different possibilities if a crisis arises in future, said Nissan spokeswoman Azusa Momose. Nissan expected to make only 4.6 million vehicles in 2020, though its production capacity is 7 million. The two corporations are linked by mutual capital holdings: Nissan has 15 percent of Renault stock, while Renault holds 43 percent of Nissan stock. For now, the French government is trying to lull workers to sleep, claiming that Macrons speech today will be about defending ecology and French industry. An anonymous official told AFP that Macron is preparing a general plan to support automakers: This plan has different components: industrial sovereignty, transition to clean vehicles, and also ensuring industrial competitiveness. The official said he would stress the industrial stakes, the stake in jobs and transforming the industry to transition and convert to clean vehicles. In fact, even Macrons ministers are signaling that they will accept massive job losses everywhere, including in France. We will be very demanding, France must remain Renaults global center for engineering, research, innovation and development, said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, adding only, We will be very mindful of the quality of social dialog and policy. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Renaults survival is at stake, while indicating that he opposes closing the Flins plantpassing over the three other plants in silence. The struggle against these reactionary bailouts, which force workers and the public to finance their own impoverishment, requires the construction of an international movement among workers. Against transnational companies, which shift production from one country to another to maximize profits, the opposition of autoworkers, including strikes and other struggles, can only be effective if it is mobilized across national borders. This requires building rank-and-file committees of action independent of the nationalist and pro-capitalist trade unions. The French unions are not even organizing symbolic protests. Instead, union officials have attended talks with representatives of the government and Renault since April and have kept a deafening silence on what was being planned. After the Canard enchaine report, Philippe Martinez, the head of the Stalinist General Confederation of Labour (CGT) union, responded with impotent and nationalist rhetoric. We are very upset. What Renault needs is to produce Renault cars in France and work on creating French jobs. Jobs must be protected not just in one country, but across the world. Renaults massive cost-cutting plan also underscores the bankruptcy of Martinezs Spanish counterpart, Unai Sordo, the boss of the Stalinist Workers Commissions (CCOO) union. While isolating the Montcada strike, Sordo asked the Podemos-social democratic government in Spain to beg Renault for relief. The pandemic and the dangerous and premature back-to-work policy of the national governments and trade unions further underscores the bankruptcy of the existing social order. Only a politically independent and international struggle by the working class, fighting for socialism against the diktat of the banks over world industry, can protect lives and jobs. Instead of bailing out the giant corporations, they should be transformed into public utilities under workers control, and run as part of a world socialist economy based on social need, not private profit. WASHINGTON - A Pentagon watchdog who was removed last month from his position overseeing the government's coronavirus response amid a purge of inspectors general has resigned from the Defense Department, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. President Donald Trump had dismissed Glenn Fine as the Defense Department's senior inspector general and as chairman of a committee overseeing the Trump administration's management of a massive economic stimulus package designed to blunt the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Fine, who had returned to his prior job as the Pentagon's principal deputy inspector general, said in a statement that "the time has come for me to step down and allow" someone else to take the position. "The role of inspectors general is a strength of our system of government," he said. Fine's removal coincided with a spate of dismissals of inspectors general across the government, including for the State Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the intelligence community. The ousters, which follow moves in the months since Trump's impeachment to sideline officials whose loyalty has been questioned, have prompted an outcry from Democrats who said they were retribution for critical investigations. In a statement, three Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, including its chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., issued statements denouncing what they described as unjustified actions against watchdogs. "It is indeed regrettable that yet another superb and patriotic inspector general has been compelled to step down as a result of President Trump's continued attacks on independent oversight," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., chairman of the committee's Subcommittee on National Security. Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, said Tuesday that she had been expecting Fine's resignation - but thought it might be accompanied by more of a sense of indignation. "I was not surprised by Fine's decision, given his unceremonious removal by Trump," she said. "But I was a little surprised that he didn't take the opportunity to put a finer point on the outrage of how that went down." A former Rhodes scholar, Fine joined the Defense Department as principal deputy inspector general in 2015. From 2016 until last month, he served as the department's top inspector general on an unconfirmed basis. In 2016, the Obama administration announced its intent to nominate Fine to be confirmed in the job, but he was never confirmed. Before going to the Pentagon, Fine served as Justice Department inspector general for over a decade. Trump has nominated Jason Abend, a policy adviser at Customs and Border Protection, to be the Pentagon's inspector general. The president appointed Fine's counterpart at the Environmental Protection Agency, Sean O'Donnell, to also fill the role at the Pentagon until his pick can be confirmed. While government inspectors general can be removed by the president, they have traditionally been seen as more independent than other political appointees. Former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, meanwhile has promised not to fire any inspectors general if he is elected. Fine's removal is expected to be a further blow to morale at the Pentagon inspector general office at a time when the staff is conducting oversight of the department's coronavirus response in addition to the typical array of military activities. Are you ready to level up your workout with Kayla Itsines's 500-rep challenge? Zero equipment is needed, so there is nothing stopping you from getting in this sweat session! There are 10 exercises. You'll complete 25 reps of each, then do it all again for a total of 500 reps. Pace yourself in this workout and see if you can complete your second lap quicker than your first! Move 1: Squat Step 1: Plant both feet on the floor shoulder-width apart. This is your starting position. Step 2 : Inhale. Looking straight ahead, bend at both the hips and knees, ensuring that your knees remain in line with your toes. Continue bending your knees until your upper legs are parallel with the floor. Ensure that your back remains within a 45- to 90-degree angle to your hips. Step 3: Exhale. Push through your heels and extend your legs to return to the starting position. Step 4: Repeat 25 repetitions Move 2: Push-Up & Shoulder Tap Step 1: Place both hands on the mat slightly farther than shoulder-width apart, with feet apart on the mat behind you, while resting on the balls of your feet. This is your starting position. Step 2: Inhale and brace your core. Release your right hand and reach across your body to touch your left shoulder, ensuring that you brace your abdominals to keep your hips parallel to (in line with) the floor. Step 3: Exhale as you lower your right hand to return to the starting position. Repeat this with the opposite hand and continue to alternate for four repetitions. Step 4: Inhale and ensure your core remains engaged. Bend your elbows and lower your torso toward the floor so that your arms form a 90-degree angle. Ensure that you maintain a straight back and stabilize through your abdominal muscles. Step 5: Exhale as you push through your chest and extend your arms to lift your body back into starting position. Step 6: Repeat for 25 repetitions. Move 3: Plank Jacks Step 1: Plant both hands on the mat slightly farther than shoulder-width apart, feet together on the mat behind you while resting on the balls of your feet. This is your starting position. Step 2: Jump both of your feet outward so that they are slightly wider than your hips, ensuring that your hips remain level. Step 3: Jump both of your feet inward to return to the starting position. Step 4: Repeat 25 reps, inhaling for one repetition and exhaling for one repetition. Story continues Move 4: Jump Lunge Step 1: Plant both feet on the floor shoulder-width apart. This is your starting position. Step 2: Bend your knees slightly and propel your body up into the air. Land in a split stance with your left foot forward and your right leg back, ensuring that your feet remain shoulder-width apart. Immediately bend both knees to approximately 90 degrees. When done correctly, your front knee will be aligned with your ankle and your back knee will be hovering just off the floor. Step 3: Extend both knees and propel your body up into the air. Land in a split stance with your right foot forward and your left leg back, once again, ensuring that your feet remain shoulder-width apart. Immediately bend both knees to approximately 90 degrees. Step 4: Extend both knees to propel your body up into the air. Land in a split stance with your left leg forward and right leg back. Step 5: Continue alternating between left and right for 25 repetitions before returning to the starting position. Move 5: X Mountain Climber Step 1: Place both hands on the yoga mat shoulder-width apart and both feet together behind you, resting on the balls of your feet. This is your starting position. Step 2: Keeping your right foot on the floor, bend your left knee and bring it into your chest and toward your right elbow. Extend your left leg to return to the starting position. Step 3: Keeping your left foot on the floor, bend your right knee and bring it into your chest and toward your left elbow. Extend your right knee and return to the starting position. Step 4: Continue alternating between left and right for 25 repetitions, inhaling for two repetitions and exhaling for two repetitions. Move 6: Pop Squat Step 1: Plant both feet together on the floor. This is your starting position. Step 2: Inhale. Exhale. Push through your heels and propel your body upward into the air, extending your legs beneath you. Reposition your legs to land in a sumo squat position with your feet slightly farther than shoulder-width apart, ensuring that you maintain 'soft' knees to prevent injury. Bend your knees until your upper legs are parallel with the floor, ensuring that your back remains within a 45- to 90-degree angle to your hips. Step 3: Inhale. Push through your heels and propel your body upward into the air, extending your legs beneath you. Reposition your legs to land in the starting position. Step 4: Repeat for 25 reps. Move 7: X Plank Step 1: Place both hands on the floor shoulder-width apart and both feet apart behind you, resting on the balls of your feet. Brace your abdominals and maintain a neutral spine, ensuring that your hands are directly below your shoulders. This is your starting position. Step 2: Inhale. While stabilizing through your abdominals, elevate your hips and release your left hand to reach toward your right foot (or as far as you can). Step 3: Exhale. Lower your hips and place your left hand on the mat to return to the starting position. Step 4: Inhale. While stabilizing through your abdominals, elevate your hips and release your right hand to reach toward your left foot (or as far as you can). Step 5: Exhale. Lower your hips and place your right hand on the mat to return to the starting position. Step 6: Continue alternating between left and right for 25 repetitions. Each repetition is equivalent to one touch of your hand to your foot. Move 8: Ab Bike Step 1: Start by lying straight on your back on a yoga mat with your legs extended out in front of you. Bend your elbows and place your hands behind your earlobes. Gently raise both legs and your head and shoulders off the mat. This is your starting position. Step 2: While keeping your right leg extended, bend your left knee and draw it in toward your chest. At the same time, rotate your torso to the left to bring your right elbow to your knee. Step 3: Untwist your torso and extend your left knee to return to the starting position. Immediately bend your right knee and draw it in toward your chest and rotate your torso to the right to bring your left elbow to your knee. Step 4: Untwist your torso and extend your right knee to return to the starting position. Step 5: Continue alternating between left and right for 25 repetitions, inhaling for four repetitions and exhaling for four repetitions. Move 9: Alternating Lateral Lunge Step 1: Plant both feet on the floor shoulder-width apart. This is your starting position. Step 2: Inhale. Keeping your right foot on the floor, release your left foot and take a big step to your left. As you plant your foot on the floor, bend your left knee, ensuring that your right leg remains straight. Step 3: Exhale. Extend your left knee and transfer your weight onto your right foot. Step your left foot inward to return to the starting position. Step 4: Inhale. Keeping your left foot on the floor, release your right foot and take a big step to your right. As you plant your foot on the floor, bend your right knee, ensuring that your left leg remains straight. Step 5: Exhale. Extend your right knee and transfer your weight onto your left foot. Step your right foot inward to return to the starting position. Step 6: Continue alternating between left and right for 25 repetitions. Move 10: Burpee Step 1: Plant both feet on the mat shoulder-width apart. This is your starting position. Step 2: Bend at both the hips and knees to place your hands on the mat on either side of your feet, ensuring that your spine remains in a neutral position. Step 3: Inhale. Jump both of your feet backward so that your legs are completely extended behind you, resting on the balls of your feet. Your body should be in one straight line from your head to your heels. Step 4: Jump both of your feet forward in between your hands, once again, ensuring that your feet remain shoulder-width apart. Step 5: Exhale. Propel your body upward into the air. Extend your legs below you and your arms above your head. Step 6: Inhale. Land in the starting position, ensuring that you maintain 'soft' knees to prevent injury. Step 7: Repeat for 25 repetitions Repeat this circuit one more time for 500 reps. Find more workouts from Kayla on the BBG Program in the Sweat App. . Promoter firm Bharti Telecom has sold 2.75 percent stake in Airtel to institutional investors in the secondary market, raising over Rs 8,433 crore, the company said on Tuesday Promoter firm Bharti Telecom has sold 2.75 percent stake in Airtel to institutional investors in the secondary market, raising over Rs 8,433 crore, the company said on Tuesday. The sale proceeds will be fully utilised to repay debt at Bharti Telecom and will make the promoter holding company a 'debt-free company', it said. Bharti Group and Singtel will continue to hold a majority stake in Bharti Airtel at 56.23 percent after the transaction, it added. Last week, Bharti Telecom raised about Rs 3,500 crore via commercial paper. Bharti Telecom raises Rs 8,433 Cr via stake sale of 2.75% in Bharti Airtel; to use proceeds of Airtel stake sale to clear debt pic.twitter.com/iONVVffKlS CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 26, 2020 Announcing the closure of secondary block placement of Airtel shares, Bharti Telecom said that the issue over-subscribed multiple times with a healthy mix of all categories of investors, long only and hedge fund investors across geographies in India, Asia, Europe and the US. "Bharti Telecom Limited, the promoter company of Bharti Airtel Limited have today sold 2.75 percent stake in Bharti Airtel to institutional investors through an accelerated book-building process in the secondary market," it said. Bharti Telecom has raised over Rs 8,433 crores (or about $1.15 billion) through the accelerated book-build offering of equity shares of Bharti Airtel, it added. The stake sale was anchored by several existing and new shareholders and several marquee global mutual fund complexes, sovereign wealth funds, multi-strategy funds and domestic institutional investors in sizable quantities, the company said. With Bharti Telecom Limited becoming a zero debt company Bharti Airtel's credit profile will also be augmented as it will stand to benefit from deleveraging on a consolidated basis, including any debt of promoter holding company. "Bharti Group and Singtel, as Bharti Airtel's largest shareholders remain committed to the business and the long term prospects of Bharti Airtel. In the last few years the promoters have invested over Rs 21,000 crores (over $3 billion) in Bharti Airtel and stay fully committed to investing further in the business as may be required," the statement said. A deleveraging exercise, says Credit Suisse The secondary equity sale by promoter company Bharti Telecom Ltd (BTL) in Airtel is more of a deleveraging exercise and the sector fundamental remains attractive, Credit Suisse has said in a latest note. Bharti Telecom is raising $1 billion (almost Rs 7,600 crore) by selling shares in telecom firm Bharti Airtel through a block deal on Tuesday at Rs 558 apiece, to become debt-free. It has sold has 2.75 percent stake in Airtel to institutional investors in the secondary market, raising over Rs 8,433 crore, the company said in a statement. "We see this stake sale by BTL a positive as it will make the promoter entity debt-free, in turn improving the flexibility for any support to Airtel in future. The promoter group will continue to hold 56.3 percent in Airtel," IIFL Securities said, according to a PTI report. "Secondary equity sale by Bharti Telecom is more of a deleveraging exercise, in our view; sector fundamental remains attractive," Credit Suisse said. Credit Suisse added that it expects Bharti Airtel to benefit from ongoing market repair in the sector. Another report by Jefferies said that while a stake sale by promoters is usually construed negatively by investors, in this case the stake sale is mainly to de-leverage Bharti Telecom and, hence, not a negative in its view. --With PTI inputs President Donald Trump's name is seen on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, in San Antonio, Texas, on April 23, 2020. (Eric Gay/AP Photo) Car Wash Worker Returns Stimulus Check Discovered in Trash GREENVILLE, N.C.A car wash worker in North Carolina found treasure amid the businesss trash when he discovered a $1,200 IRS stimulus check mixed in with the garbage. Antonio Hernandez was taking out the trash at the Greenville car wash when he spotted the payment in the can, WITN-TV quoted his daughter, Michelle Alvarado, as saying. Hernandez and Alvarado were able to track down recipient Charles Thompson, who said he was not even expecting to get a check after recently moving to a new address. I was behind on rent, I work construction so I work by the day, and I just try to keep going and going as best I can, Thompson told the news station. That money helped put me ahead and put me on the right track a little bit, to get back on my feet. Hernandez and Alvarado added that they were happy to help connect Thompson with the lost funds, even though they and Thompson had no idea how the check ended up at the car wash in the first place. It was very important for him to receive that check, especially in these uncertain times, Alvarado said. The IRS has been sending the economic impact payments to millions of Americans around the country as part of a rescue package aimed at combating the economic effects of shutdowns amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. NTD staff contributed to this report. Lee has spent over 17 years of her career at Swiss Re, holding senior positions such as head of P&C reinsurance for Hong Kong and Taiwan and, most recently, head of business services, Asia (including ANZ), where she led a regional team of more than 50 people. Anna has been a tremendous asset to our global team and her longstanding career at Swiss Re over the past 17 years has contributed enormously to our growth across the region, said Kuk. I am confident that her proven track record and deep institutional knowledge will continue to provide strong strategic guidance to the growth of our P&C business in SID. Simon Herbert has been appointed head of casualty underwriting for SID, effective May 04. Simon replaces Siew Choi Yau, who assumed the role of head of P&C solutions, APAC, in January 2020. Herbert has 25 years of industry experience and has held leadership roles across various companies, portfolios and markets within the Asia-Pacific region. He was most recently the chief underwriting officer of major Malaysian motor insurer, AmGeneral Insurance, a joint venture between IAG and Ambank. Between 2011 and 2016, he held the same role in IAGs associated companies in Indonesia and India. Ronnie Tong, meanwhile, has assumed the role of head of P&C facultative, Asia. He joined Swiss Re with extensive facultative and specialty underwriting experience. He was most recently the chief underwriting officer for facultative and specialty at Asia Capital Re Group (ACR) and has also held several leadership roles in AXA, Zurich Insurance and AIG. Over the course of his career, Tong has worked in Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Australia. Finally, Li Hui Lee will assume the role of Asia underwriting propositions lead on the life and health (L&H) front, starting July 01. Based in Singapore, she will join Swiss Res global underwriting proposition leads to work on expanding the companys client offerings and core services, with regard to automation, data insights, technology advancement, partnerships and the latest research and development. Lee joined Swiss Res regional L&H solutions team in 2015 and has over 15 years of experience in business development, product development and marketing across the insurance and healthcare industries. She has been a key driver in several of the companys initiatives, including the Vitana blockchain health parametric product in Singapore and the Bao Wan Bettercare diabetes product in Thailand. Nine fighters from an armed group which launched a week-long attack last week in south-eastern Central African Republic have been arrested. The assailants belong to a branch of the CARs biggest armed group, the Unity for Peace in Central Africa (UPC), the countrys special criminal court said in a statement on Monday. The court is responsible for trying cases of serious human rights violations in the country, which has been ravaged by conflict for more than 20 years. The UPC has committed widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population, the court said. During the attacks on the town of Obo last week, government forces backed by UN troops killed around 10 fighters from the rebel militia and captured others, a government spokesman had told AFP. Led by a mercenary named Ali Darassa, the UPC has been campaigning for months to extend its grip in the southeast, at the crossroads of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The UPC is one of myriad armed groups which have controlled most of the CAR since the country plunged into violence in 2013. A few months away from high-risk presidential elections due in December, the CAR continues to be plagued by militia attacks despite a peace agreement signed between the government and 14 armed groups, including the UPC, in February 2019. In late April, 28 people including at least 21 civilians were killed in Ndele in the north-east in clashes between two factions from the same armed group. Following the killings, the countrys special criminal court announced that it had opened an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity. Created in 2015 and inaugurated in 2018, the court is responsible for judging serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in the Central African Republic since 2003. It is composed of national and international judges and supported by the European Union and the United Nations. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Fire in Paradise By Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano Norton. 244 pp. $26.95 --- Some people knew, but they didn't know exactly where, or when. When it arrived, it came on so fast that the preparations the cautious had made weren't enough. Life as they'd known it was forever changed. People died: the vulnerable, the valiant, those who were just unlucky. This is, perhaps, how any tragedy unfolds. It's what connects our coronavirus fight with "Fire in Paradise," a book about a California calamity that speaks to our present moment. Co-authors Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano were journalists working for the British newspaper the Guardian in San Francisco when a devastating fire ripped through the Sierra Nevada in 2018. Gee is a writer and editor from England; Anguiano is a young reporter with family roots in the area. With one voice, they tell a story that is both sweeping in scope and vivid in its particulars. Located about 90 miles north of Sacramento, Paradise was a small town that dated to the Gold Rush, settled after the Konkow tribe of Native Americans was removed from its homelands. By 2018, it was populated by a mix of independent-minded people on both the right and the left who were drawn to its cheap housing and abundant natural beauty. The authors explain how a combination of global warming and the way we manage forests set the stage for the devastating blaze. Before Westerners arrived, the native landscape was so adapted to regular burns that some plants' seeds need fire to germinate; chamise, a native shrub, emits combustible gases in the presence of flames. But 20th-century forestry practices snuffed out fires immediately, meaning these naturally flammable environments became overgrown. Global warming left them parched - and the state had just recorded its four hottest years ever, consecutively. At around 6 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2018, at the tail end of what used to be fire season, the Camp Fire sparked and spread. The blaze was not set off by careless campers; as avid fire-watchers know, wildfires get their names from their location. First spotted by firefighters in a remote canyon off Camp Creek Road, the Camp Fire was caused by a sparking electrical line owned by Pacific Gas and Electric. The blaze made unexpected leaps and spread faster than anyone had experienced before. The town of Paradise had an evacuation plan but only a few narrow roads out, and more people tried to flee at once than anyone had predicted. They were outflanked by flames. The authors tell the story of the fire's progress by focusing on a handful of local residents. They include father and daughter John and Skye Sedwick; Iris Natividad and her partner, Andrew Downer; nurse Chelsea West; and bulldozer operator Joe Kennedy. John Sedwick, a former volunteer firefighter, sent his daughter ahead and stayed behind to help; Iris was working out of town and called Downer, urging him to leave; West helped evacuate patients, then had to get to safety on foot. Kennedy sped in to help set fire lines with his huge earth mover and instead wound up rescuing those stranded by the fire. For those who have seen the Netflix documentary "Fire in Paradise," which included cellphone video shot by fleeing residents, some of this will be familiar. But the authors do what that documentary couldn't: They paint a picture of the lives of these people and their town before the fire came. Some liked to evoke the bawdy history of the West, saying the town took its name from a saloon called Pair O'Dice. "More likely, it came from an appreciation of the area's natural qualities," the authors write. "Gold did not make the area rich, and it even earned the nickname of Poverty Ridge. Yet as one early settler proclaimed, 'It's a darn nice place to starve if you have to.'" By the 2000s, the town's affordability meant it had a high proportion of seniors and people with disabilities, who'd been priced out of much of California. The Sedwicks lived in a cabin that was more than 100 years old, a rustic retreat where John's parents had moved when he was a boy. Skye moved back in after raising her kids and experiencing health setbacks; she'd taken John to dinner for his 82nd birthday not long before the fire. Getting to know them and the others in the book gives depth to their losses. One survivor returns to the burned-out location ofa house to look at the marks left where a loved one had died, taking strange comfort in it. In all, the Camp Fire killed 85 people. It burned more than 150,000 acres and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes. The town was all but wiped off the map. "Fire in Paradise" follows the survivors out into the world, but there's a real sense of fracture. What was once a community is gone - to larger cities, to other states. A few remain, but Paradise will probably never be an affordable haven again. The mountains are, in some ways, renewed, but the threat of megafires remains. It happened so fast. One elementary school teacher saw smoke on the way to work, but she'd seen that before. As the morning grew dark, she distracted her students, then evacuated as police instructed. The gravity of the situation finally hit her when she stepped outside: "Then I got really scared," she says. This turning point happens in disaster narratives over and over again: Everything is normal, and then it's not. Those who made it are lucky. But their world will never be the same. --- Kellogg is an editor and critic living in Alabama. She is the former book editor of the Los Angeles Times. PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-25 23:01:47 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 954 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 25, 2020 / Ovation Science Inc. (CSE:OVAT) ("Ovation" or the "Company"), is providing an update to its previous disclosures regarding its DermSafe hand sanitizer product. This release provides updates to regulatory status, sales, manufacturing, and the science which supports DermSafe.DermSafe hand sanitizing lotion provides a protective solution that is unique from other products on the market due to its patented polymer skin delivery technology Invisicare and its use of chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) as the active ingredient versus alcohol. DermSafe helps prevent the cross-contamination of bacteria and viruses between people and from contact with hard surfaces. CHG is a well established active ingredient as it has been used in hospitals worldwide for over 60 years in pre-surgical soaps as well as dental applications.DermSafe Regulatory ApprovalDermSafe has two drug identification numbers (DIN) issued by Health Canada: DIN#02310589 and DIN#02355558 (personal use and personal commercial use). Both of these DINS are exclusively licensed worldwide by Ovation Science Inc. from Skinvisible Pharmaceuticals Inc. DermSafe has also been accepted by Health Canada under its list of "Disinfectants and hand sanitizers accepted under COVID-19 interim measure". On May 1st, DermSafe received clearance from Health Canada for importation into Canada from the USA under their "Notification & Request for Importation Clearance Number" COVID19 program. Under this clearance, on May 5th, the Company commenced importation of DermSafe into its warehouse in Toronto, Canada from the United States.DermSafe Sales and ManufacturingIn April, the Company announced sales of DermSafe to China, the United Kingdom and Canada. Sales to these countries totaled approximately CDN$233,000 in the initial three month introduction period for the product which began February 3, 2020. Other enquiries about DermSafe have come from potential distributors in S. Korea, Japan, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Kuwait and Greece. Ovation has signed confidentiality agreements with the potential representatives for some of these territories and is awaiting the results of their investigation into obtaining regulatory approval to import DermSafe into those countries. On April 22, Ovation announced it had signed a distribution agreement for its DermSafe hand sanitizer with Gad Medical Equipment Ltd. (Gad Medical) for Israel. They import and market healthcare and medical equipment as well as pharmaceuticals and consumables for hospitals and clinics. Gad Medical has filed with the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Israel to receive approval for the importation of DermSafe.Ovation has submitted a purchase order to begin its manufacturing at a contract manufacturer located in Ontario, Canada and anticipates a delivery date in early July. There are many advantages to having Canadian production including pricing and proximity to potential customers. DermSafe's approved by Health Canada, allows for easier exportation to some countries.DermSafe ScienceDermSafe has undergone many independent studies on its effectiveness and other benefits. Although the Company has not tested DermSafe against the COVID19 virus, an envelope virus, several viral tests were carried out by an internationally recognized, independent laboratory plus US FDA compliant laboratories on other envelope viruses including H1N1, H5N1 and H3N2. Additionally, the Invisicare polymer was tested to show its ability to remain bound to the skin for extended periods of time. A list of these studies, all conducted at independent laboratories, are summarized below:1. Tests conducted by independent lab, Retroscreen Virology Ltd., Center for Infectious Diseases Bart's & The London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, United Kingdom:Evaluation of Antiviral Properties of a Product Using a Virucidal Suspension Assay:REDUCTION IN INFLUENZA VIRUSES (#PCS-003 July/06): The virucidal activity of DermSafe was assessed against A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1), A/Panama/2007/99 (H3N2) and B/Guangdong/120/00 viruses. The viruses were placed for a 60 second contact time on 96-well plates which contained DermSafe. The virus titre was then measured by titration on MDCK cells and virus was detected by Haemagglutination assay. Untreated virus was used as control. The results show a >99.9968% reduction in the virus H1N1 (swine flu), >99.9998% reduction in H3N2 (influenza virus) and a >99.9684% reduction in Guangdong virus (Influenza B).REDUCTION IN H5N1 AVIAN FLU VIRUS AT VARIOUS TIME POINTS (#PCF-001 Dec/05): The virucidal activity of DermSafe was assessed against H5N1 (avian flu virus) at 15 and 30 seconds as well as 1, 5 and 10 minute contact times. The viruses were placed the various contact times on 96-well plates which contained DermSafe. The results showed a 99.00% to 99.90% reduction in virus from DermSafe over the various time points.Evaluation of Antiviral Properties of a Product Testing Virucidal Activity on Skin Tissue:REDUCTION IN H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS / Ex-VIVO STUDY (Pig Skin) (#PCF-002 June/06): The virucidal activity of DermSafe was assessed using an ex-vivo (pig skin) study at both short-term and long term time points. The virus was placed on sections of pig skin which had been treated with DermSafe. The results showed that DermSafe killed the H5N1 virus by 99.44% at 5 minutes and 99.9% at 10 minutes. The longer term durations resulted in a 98.22% reduction in the H5N1 virus at both 2 hours and 4 hours (without reapplication).2. Test conducted by ATS Labs., Eagan, Minnesota (US FDA compliant / independent lab):Evaluation of Antiviral Properties of a Product Using a Virucidal Suspension Assay:REDUCTION IN H3N2 INFLUENZA A VIRUS AT VARIOUS TIME POINTS (#AO3812 March/06): The virucidal activity of DermSafe was assessed against H3N2 (influenza virus) for a 15, 30 and 60 second contact times. DermSafe was placed in a tube and then the virus was added for the contact times. The results respectively showed a 99.00% at 15 seconds, 99.94% at 30 seconds and 99.98% at 60 seconds reduction in virus from DermSafe over the various time points.3. Test conducted by Bioscience Laboratories, Inc., Bozeman, Montana (US FDA compliant / independent lab):Evaluation of the Persistent Antimicrobial Efficacy on E.coli (Anti-Bacterial) of DermSafe at 2 and 4 Hours after Application ( By Mircely Guanipa and Marianna Parraga MARACAY, Venezuela, May 26 (Reuters) - The third cargo of an Iranian tanker flotilla carrying fuel for gasoline-thirsty Venezuela was approaching the nation's exclusive economic zone on Tuesday as the previous two were preparing to discharge, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The Iran-flagged tanker Petunia entered the Caribbean Sea on Monday after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, following the route taken in recent days by vessels Fortune and Forest. The Fortune was welcomed at state-run PDVSA's El Palito refinery by Venezuela's oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, who thanked Iran for its support during the crisis, which has forced Venezuelans to wait in long lines for gasoline. The deal has been criticized by the United States as both OPEC-member nations are under sanctions. A U.S. official said earlier this month that President Donald Trump's administration was considering responses to the shipment, prompting the Iranian government to warn Washington against any military action. The vessels did not appear to encounter any interference during their journey. The second tanker in the flotilla, the Forest, changed its destination to a port serving PDVSA's Cardon refinery, where it was expected to dock on Tuesday, according to two sources and the Eikon data showing its trajectory. As it receives the imports, which include gasoline and components for motor fuel production, PDVSA is working to recover a portion of the domestic refining capacity it has lost in recent years due to mismanagement, lack of qualified personnel and delayed maintenance due to limitations under the U.S. sanctions. The Venezuelan firm, whose nameplate refining capacity reaches 1.3 million barrels per day, increased crude processing for fuel production to about 215,000 bpd this month, from 110,000 bpd in March, according to sources and internal company data. (Reporting by Mircely Guanipa in Maracay and Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Editing by Dan Grebler) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26 2020 Members of the Indonesian diaspora are lending a hand in the domestic struggle against COVID-19, although they have said that the government could do more to allow them to help address national crises. On May 18, the Manpower Ministry and the Indonesian Diaspora Network Global (IDN Global) kicked off the Diaspora Peduli (Diaspora Care) fundraising program, which is seeking donations from Indonesians abroad to help 5,000 workers who have been furloughed or laid off. Each recipient family in the program is expected to get US$50 per month, and donors can choose or communicate first with the beneficiaries by looking at their profiles on www.diasporapeduli.id. The ministry expects at least six million members of the Indonesian diaspora to participate in the campaign. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has requested an urgent investigation into an alleged bribery of Vietnamese officials by Tenma Vietnam - a subsidiary of Japans plastic product maker Tenma Corporation. Tenma Vietnam in Que Vo Industrial Zone in Bac Ninh province. (Photo: tenmacorp.co.jp) Accordingly, he assigned the ministrys Inspectorate to immediately set up a team to inspect the Tax Department and the Customs Department of the northern province of Bac Ninh, where Tenma Vietnam is located. The Director-General of Vietnam Taxation and the Director-General of the Vietnam Customs were requested to report on recent allegations on Japanese media about bribes paid by Tenma Vietnam Company to the tune of 25 million JPY (232,000 USD) to avoid paying corporate and value-added taxes. The report must be sent to the Ministry of Finance before May 26. Tenma Vietnam was established in 2007 in Bac Ninh province with charter capital of 35 million USD, fully contributed by the parent corporation in Japan. The company specialises in manufacturing and trading of plastic moulding components and plastic moulds. Tenma Corporation is a Japanese company that was founded in 1949. According to its annual stock report, Tenma's sales in 2018 were 84.8 billion JPY with 7,557 employees worldwide. The case of Tenma Vietnam came into the spotlight when Japanese media including Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that the Vietnamese subsidiary gave a bribe of 25 million JPY (232,000 USD) to Vietnamese customs officials. According to Asahi Shimbun, the Tokyo-based Tenma Corporation confessed the case to the Tokyo District Prosecutor. Tenma Corporation reportedly took the initiative to set up a third-party committee to investigate the violation. Bribing foreign governments is a prohibited practice in Japan. According to a report from the committee, in June 2017, Tenma Vietnam in Bac Ninh received a notice of the collection of value-added tax with imported raw materials up to about 400 billion VND (17.8 million USD). Leaders of Tenma Vietnam proposed to the head office about bribing the local customs authorities for the exemption of these taxes. Receiving approval from the president of the parent company Kento Fujino, Tenma Vietnam reportedly paid 2 billion VND (88,900 USD) in cash to the local Customs Department's investigating leader, according to the report. In addition, a local tax audit in August last year found some of Tenma Vietnams revenues were not eligible for tax incentives. Therefore, local authorities reportedly asked the company to pay an additional 17.8 billion VND of corporate tax. Tenma Vietnam was alleged to have spent 3 billion VND to reduce this fee to about 567 million VND (25,200 USD) including fines. Meanwhile, Ngo Xuan Tong, Director of the Bac Ninh Tax Department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the allegation that Bac Ninh tax officials received money from Tenma Vietnam was a unilateral report from Japanese media. The company's chief accountant confirmed that there was no such expense, he said. Tong said the provincial Tax Department had reviewed all related records, and subsequently, the provincial People's Committee also assigned the Bac Ninh Police Department to investigate and clarify the case./.VNA Scientists in Japan have proposed a new model to estimate cell voltages in solar modules by irradiating the cells with a weak modulated laser light. The method could be used to detect hot spots and other panel-degradation issues, such as potential induced degradation (PID) peeling, cracking, and poor contacts.Scientists at Japan's Teikyo University have proposed a new method to quantitatively estimate voltage cells in operational PV modules. The new model - which the researchers describe in A proposal of a procedure to estimate a standard line for contactless estimation of a solar cell voltage ... Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Countries all over the world have adopted measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus. However, some surprising daily activities have been advised to help combat the spread of Covid-19. 1. Brushing your teeth A dental professor has urged people to brush their teeth before leaving the house in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Martin Addy, emeritus professor of dentistry at the University of Bristol in the UK, said toothpaste can reduce the chances of catching or spreading the disease. However, he warned the antimicrobial effect of toothpaste only lasts three to five hours. He recommended the oral hygiene practice of brushing twice a day for two minutes should be reinforced. Mr Addy said many of those who are not doing this are some of the most vulnerable to Covid-19, such as elderly people in nursing homes who rely on carers to brush their teeth. Read More 2. Shaving While the effectiveness of men shaving off their beards has been debated, many health workers have reached for the razor. NHS guidelines state that beards interfere with the effectiveness of PPE masks. They can "prevent the mask from being able to seal to the face". Many doctors and nurses uploaded pictures to social media of their freshly smooth jawlines. Read More 3. Flushing with lid down A research paper published in the 'Journal of Gastroenterology' found the coronavirus is detectable in faecal samples. Of the 73 patients, 39 tested positive for faecal SARS-CoV-2. The stools of 17 patients remained positive even after swabs from the throat or noses tested negative. It's highly unlikely someone would catch coronavirus directly from another person's stools, but the scientists said extra precautions can be taken. Qingyan Chen, an engineer at Purdue University, USA, told Forbes there's "one very easy way to help prevent the spread of coronavirus" - to close the lid of the toilet before flushing. Read More 4. Cleaning your phone During the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to clean commonly touched surfaces regularly. One of the most used devices is a mobile phone. Phones, along with keyboards and door handles are a potentially dangerous source of viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. Disinfecting these items daily could help to slow or prevent the spread of infection. People take their phones out to eat, on public transport, and even while in the bathroom. As a result, mobile phones carry more than 17,000 bacterial gene copies each, according to a 2017 study by researchers at the Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, the University of Tartu in Estonia. The report concluded that this "may play a role in the spread of infectious agents". Read More 5. Stop biting your nails Nervous habits like biting your nails are hard to overcome. But this could be putting your health at risk. Putting your fingers on your mouth or making contact with your face is against all the infection control advice. An allergy and infectious disease specialist with New York University's Langone Medical Centre, Purvi Parikh, said the easiest way to catch any infection is by nail-biting. Ms Parikh says it is best to keep nails short as they can collect a lot of 'bacteria, viruses, dirt and debris' which could be transferred into your body. Joe Biden ventured out of his home in Wilmington, Delaware, for his first brief public event in two months on Monday, to observe Memorial Day. Accompanied by his wife Dr. Jill Biden, he laid a flower wreath at Wilmington Memorial Park. The Bidens, who both wore black masks, placed the wreath of white roses before the Memorial Wall, which includes 15,000 names of men and women from Delaware and New Jersey who died in World War II and the Korean War, according to the Memorial's website. The two paused in front of the memorial for about a minute and then walked away, hand in hand. Biden also saluted a small group of veterans who were also at the memorial and thanked them for their service. Asked by reporters what message he wanted to send today, Biden replied, "Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made. Never, ever, forget," according to the pool reporter. Biden has attended Memorial Day events at this park in the past, according to his campaign. He also said that it "feels good to be out of my house." Election 2020 Biden Appearance Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrive to place a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park, Monday, May 25, 2020, in New Castle, Delaware. Patrick Semansky / AP The visit to the Delaware memorial site came nearly five years after Mr. Biden's son, Beau Biden, died of glioblastoma, on May 30, 2015. The younger Biden was Delaware's attorney general and served as a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq for a year in 2008. The former vice president has often spoken about his late son on the campaign trail and described his ordeal in a 2017 book, "Promise Me, Dad." Bo Erickson contributed to this report. Taps Across America Firefighters battle massive fire at San Francisco's Fisherman Wharf NASA astronauts conduct trial run before historic launch of SpaceX rocket The state of NSW is using tough anti-terror laws against Aboriginal men imprisoned for other crimes, prompting calls for a review to ensure the laws are used as intended. Under terrorism laws passed after the Lindt Cafe siege, offenders nearing the end of their prison sentence for serious crimes may be subjected to extended supervision or detention orders if a judge finds they pose an "unacceptable risk" of committing a serious terrorism offence. Offenders do not need to have committed a terror-related offence in the past. The NSW government has attempted to use terrorism laws against Indigenous men imprisoned for other crimes. Credit:Harry Afentoglou In February, the NSW Supreme Court refused to make an extended supervision order (ESO) against a 43-year-old Aboriginal man who had never committed a terrorism offence. After waiting two months for an operating slot, Robert DeMosss neck surgery was postponed indefinitely last week. (Amy Lynn Powell for The Post) Doctors and patients described frustration over delayed surgeries, overflowing emergency rooms and hospital beds taken out of service amid staff shortages. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images In the first few weeks of 2020, as president Donald Trump dismissed and mocked warnings about a novel virus killing people faraway in China, Native American leaders were taking the deadly threat seriously. And they were right. The infection rate among the Navajo Nation has now surpassed the state of New York, the centre of the pandemic in the US, and on Monday stood at 2,680 cases per 100,000 people compared with 1,890 in New York. The data emerging from some smaller tribes is even worse. By mid-May, the known infection rate in the Pueblo of Zia, which has a population of 934 people, was 3,319 per 100,000 ten times the rate of New Mexico where the tribe is situated, and almost double the rate of New Jersey the second worst hit US state. Related: Native Americans being left out of US coronavirus data and labelled as 'other' The nearby Pueblo of San Felipe, population 3,544, is also badly affected with 3,301 known cases per 100,000. Reporting lags mean the actual infection rate for both tribes could be significantly higher. Coronavirus is novel to the world, but the impact on native communities is anything but a new experience. Native Americans feared the worst because theyve been here before many times. European colonizers introduced, sometimes deliberately, an array of new infectious diseases including measles, cholera, typhoid and smallpox, which for many decades historians believed were solely responsible for killing more than 70% of native people who had no immunity to these deadly foreign germs. More than any other population in the country, the shared experience of surviving a pandemic is in our blood, its not historic, its current for American Indians, its our reality. We took it seriously because we had to, said Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, a social demographer at the University of Arizona and citizen of the Northern Cheyenne tribe in Montana. Native Americans of the Navajo Nation people, pick up supplies from a food bank set up at the Navajo Nation town of Casamero Lake in New Mexico on 20 May. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images As a child, Rodriguez-Lonebear recalls being told by her grandfather not to play in certain spots where their relatives who died of smallpox and typhoid were buried. Story continues Now, its increasingly thought that the cruel conditions of colonization such as forced displacement, enslavement and starvation created the perfect conditions for deadly disease outbreaks, according to Jeffrey Ostler, historian at the University of Oregon. The impact of Indian removals like the Cherokee trail of tears forced people into horrific conditions of poverty and destitution. It wasnt just because they werent immune, it was the conditions of colonization which made them vulnerable, said Ostler. This would also explain the lack of population rebound after each epidemic: the same horrific conditions caused low life expectancy and high infant and maternal mortality. Again, experts say that parallels can be drawn with whats happening today as the coronavirus pandemic rages across the US. The disproportionately high Covid-19 infection rates in Indian Country are attributed to chronic structural and economic inequalities such as overcrowded housing, understaffed hospitals, lack of running water and limited internet access resulting from the US governments failure to comply with treaty obligations which agreed adequate funding for basic services in exchange for vast amounts of tribal land. Back then, like today, tribes are trying to tackle a fatal virus without adequate resources. Thats a strong historic parallel, the simple failure of the federal and state governments to provide the resources necessary, said Ostler. In addition, high rates of medical conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart and lung disease have contributed to worse Covid-19 outcomes. For instance in Arizona, the death rate for indigenous people is 42.8 per 100,000 almost six times higher than for white people. In Mississippi, they are dying from Covid-19 at 10 times the rate of whites, according to analysis published last week by APM Research Lab. Native communities, who rely on their elders for oral history and traditions, are also concerned about the survival of their ancient cultures. We are survivors of genocide, our numbers prove it for nations with less than a thousand citizens, losing one person is too many, said Rodriguez-Lonebear. And losing even one of our elders threatens the future of our tribal nations as it means losing our language, oral histories and the cornerstones of our families and communities. In fact, the situation is likely worse as the data currently available is extremely patchy. A nurse takes a swab sample from a Navajo Indian woman complaining of virus symptoms, at a testing center at the Navajo Nation town of Monument Valley in Arizona on 21 May. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images In New York, where significant ethnic disparities have emerged, no data is being collected on indigenous peoples. This oversight is especially hammering its a painful blindspot in New York, said Andi Egbert, senior demographer at APMResearch. More than 70% of Native Indians and Alaskan Natives live in urban areas, where many use county and state health services where the data black holes exist. Native peoples with Covid-19 are being eliminated from the data because their ethnicity is so frequently misclassified or ignored, according to Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the national tribal epidemiology centre based in Seattle. Without the data, were going to keep dying and nobody is going to acknowledge that and resources allocated by congress wont reach the communities, said Echo-Hawk. Over recent weeks, Trump and his supporters have pushed for America to reopen for business, even though scientists are still months from finding a vaccine or treatment. Yet native communities have demonstrated a greater historical awareness of the experience of pandemics, and tried to protect their citizens through measured emergency responses with limited resources, but which assert their right to self determination and governance. In South Dakota, tribes set-up roadblocks to protect their citizens after the pro-Trump governor refused to issue a stay at home order. In Washington, the Lummi Nation created the countrys first field hospital, while the Navajo Nation, the second largest tribe in the US, has tested over 13% of those on the reservation compared to 4% in the US. Indigenous nations have been through so many waves of pandemics and epidemics that they have a well of resilience, stamina and intergenerational knowledge that others just do not have, said Jessica Kolopenuk, a political theorist and indigenous studies scholar at the University of Alberta. I am of the strong opinion that indigenous knowledge and world views can really help change the course of this pandemic. Tens of thousands of impoverished foreign labourers have been left stranded and ostracised in one of the world's most densely packed cities as the tourist paradise of the Maldives battles coronavirus. The turquoise waters and pristine beaches that draw honeymoon couples from around the world have been empty for weeks since a government order to close all resorts. That has left an army of migrant workers jobless. Like Singapore, which recorded a large number of coronavirus cases among migrants living in tightly-packed dorms, the Maldives is heavily dependent on foreign labour. About half of the 150,000 people in the two square kilometres that make up the capital, Male, are workers from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka living in teeming alleys that are a haven for the virus. "There is huge uncertainty and panic," said Zakir Hossain, 39, who had worked in a Male restaurant until Marchs shutdown. He said he has not been paid for more than two months. "We are worried about the disease. All the Bangladeshi workers live in congested conditions," he said. Like many migrants -- who share rooms and even beds between shifts -- Hossain lives in a single room on a backstreet with four other Bangladeshis. Outside, security forces stop the labourers going out on the streets. Authorities acknowledge conditions in Male for foreign workers are poor, and say they are moving thousands into better housing out of the capital. But opposition politicians have criticised the plans, labelling the treatment of such workers as "inhuman". - Family fears - The Maldives has recorded nearly 1,400 coronavirus infections among a population of 340,000, a much higher ratio than neighbouring Sri Lanka with 22 million people. Some experts have warned the Maldives risks thousands more cases unless action is taken. Authorities say the infection spreads three times faster in migrant communities than in the local population. Fears are growing for the health and welfare of these foreign workers, who are often brought in to clear refuse, clean dishes and do other essential jobs that locals reject. Four coronavirus deaths have been reported so far, including one Bangladeshi, but rumours that hundreds of foreigners have the virus have compounded concerns among migrants. Many are also worried about their families back in Bangladesh, also in the grip of a pandemic lockdown amid rising deaths. "We need money to survive. We need our work," said Hossain, who managed to send about 80 percent of his $180 a month wage back to his wife and four children before the outbreak. But others were not so fortunate. Anwar Hosain, a 42-year-old Bangladeshi carpenter and father of five, said he was owed about $1,800 by his employers. "My wife calls me every day and cries. What can I do?" - What next? - The government has moved 3,000 foreign workers to a temporary shelter on the industrial island of Gulhi Falhu outside Male. Thousands more are to follow but the main opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has described the facilities as prisons. Labourers are barely allowed out and their rooms do not even have fans in the peak summer heat, when temperatures climb above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). "The treatment of these expatriates, mostly Bangladeshi nationals, is inhuman," PPM spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef told AFP. Government spokesman Mabrook Azeez said authorities had built the housing in a bid to ease overcrowding in Male. "This is not the condition we want our labourers to live in," he told AFP. Roughly a thousand Bangladeshis staying illegally in the Maldives have been repatriated, minister for foreign affairs Abdullah Shahid said on Sunday. India has taken back 4,000 people who lost their jobs. Those left are increasingly despondent. "I heard that if a Bangladeshi worker dies here, they dont send his body back and he is buried here. I am worried what will happen if I die," said Hossain. Newton and Fisher are serving as the official developers and course facilitators; however, theyve gathered a diverse team of Lenoir-Rhyne faculty from Hickory, Asheville, and Columbia, South Carolina, to assist in course instruction. Faculty tend to be fairly specialized in their areas of expertise, Fisher said. We recognize that we dont have all the answers. Im not entirely sure what history can teach us about pandemics of the past, but I know that Dr. Veronica McComb will have amazing answers to that question. I can speak to the role of literature given that is my area of specialization. The course begins with Kathryn Tinkelenberg, professor of nursing and director of the master of science in nursing program, offering an overview of the science of epidemiology and the responding role of health care. Daniel Grimm, assistant professor of biology and former professional researcher in microbiology and biochemistry, will then take the class through a detailed understanding of the COVID-19 virus. The class then spends the rest of the term diving into the holistic impact of the pandemic. As the novel coronavirus continues to spread in Wyoming, state health officials expressed alarm Tuesday because fewer children are receiving routine and lifesaving vaccinations. It appears the pandemics uncertainty and challenges have resulted in the postponement of routine well-child visits, which typically include immunizations, Jude Alden, the manager of the state Health Departments immunization unit, said in a statement. While we recognize the reasons for the decrease, we also want to encourage families to stay on track and to schedule appointments to make up any immunizations that may have been missed. The department tracks virtually all children who are vaccinated via federal and state programs that funds the immunizations. The federal program which provides immunizations to children on benefit programs like Medicaid reported a 42 percent decline in vaccinations compared to April 2019. The state program, which covers children statewide, discovered a 25 percent decrease over the same period. State Health Department spokeswoman Kim Deti told the Star-Tribune that the decrease was likely a combination of people being more reticent to receive care during the pandemic and physicians changing their availability and appointment options to minimize in-person contact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found similar results nationwide. A week after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in mid-March, vaccinations began to decline. The agency reported a decline of several hundred thousand vaccinations between mid-March and mid-April. Deti said the obvious concern about fewer vaccinations is the spread of preventable disease, like measles a disease not seen here in a decade or whooping cough, a more common affliction in Wyoming and especially dangerous for infants. Many of the vaccines are also required for children to attend school, which could create problems as the fall draws closer and the education system readies to open up again. The decline in vaccinations matches a broader trend of fewer people going to the emergency room or seeking in-person treatment at clinics. Many providers including those linked to Wyoming Medical Center shifted to a telemedicine system amid the pandemic. Even still, visits declined. A Wyoming Medical Society survey of independent clinics released last month showed that 70 percent had seen an increase in cancellations, and 62 percent were currently experiencing or anticipating cash flow issues. The issue isnt isolated to Wyoming. A Commonwealth Fund study found that visits to clinics nationwide had dropped by nearly 60 percent between mid-March and mid-April. In the Mountain West, visits were down 45 percent over that time period compared to their pre-pandemic levels. Wyoming Medical, Cheyenne Regional, Campbell County Health and other facilities all reported plummeting revenues as they prioritized preparations for coronavirus patients and suspended other, more lucrative services. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. For investors willing to shoulder additional risk, these may be the best of times for buying stocks. Writing at Morgan Stanley, Michael Wilson, the firms head of US equity strategy, firmly believes that the signs are bullish, and that current conditions in the markets closely resemble those of March 2009. That was when market turned upwards after the 2008 financial crisis, beginning the longest bull run in history. Wilson wrote, A significant driver of our bullish call was based on the equity-risk premium reaching the same levels observed in March 2009. If theres one thing weve learned over the past 10 years, its that when risk premium appears you need to grab it before it disappears. Investors can maximize that premium by finding stocks with the lowest share price and the highest upside potential in short, by buying into high-rated penny stocks. These equities, typically trading for under $5 per share, offer a minimal cost of entry and can sometimes show triple digit upside potential. Weve used the TipRanks database to pull up the details on three such opportunities. All three have received enough support from Wall Street analysts to earn a Strong Buy consensus rating. Not to mention each boasts substantial upside potential of over 100%. Organogenesis Holdings (ORGO) Organogenesis subsidiaries operate in the world of medical tech, developing new technologies in two markets: wound care, and surgical and sports medicine. Despite a sharp increase in earnings losses during the first quarter, Organogenesis had good news to report. Top-line revenue came in at $61.7 million, modestly beating the forecast but growing 8% year-over-year. Revenues grew substantially in both the wound care and surgical and sports medicine segments. The company finished the quarter with $46.9 million in cash on hand. Organogenesis returned to public trading at the beginning of last year, after 16 years as a private company. Like many high-tech medical companies, it has not yet turned a profit but it does have exciting prospects for successful products in potentially lucrative sales fields. Story continues This potential lies behind 5-star analyst Richard Newitters comments. In his report for Leerink, Newitter writes, As a relatively new public company, we believe ORGO has yet to be fully discovered by investors with a below-peer valuation that in our view is highly dislocated from the companys longer-term sales growth prospects, healthy end-markets, and a scalable long term 70%+ GM business. Ultimately, as investors increasingly come to appreciate ORGOs potential for sustainable DD top-line growth & increased profitability prospects into the out-years, we think the multiple will expand driving shares higher. In line with his upbeat outlook, Newitter rates ORGO shares a Buy, and his $7 price target implies a 112% upside potential. In short, the analyst believes that now is the time for investors to get in at the ground level. (To watch Newitters track record, click here) All in all, Wall Street analysts are unanimous in their endorsement of the shares. Organogenesis stock has been endorsed with "buy" ratings by all four of the analysts who have voiced an opinion over the past year. Meanwhile, the consensus estimate of analysts is that ORGO, currently trading at $3.33, should rise over 120% to hit $7.50 within a year. (See Organogenesis stock analysis on TipRanks) Usio, Inc. (USIO) Next up on our list is a tech company, Usio. This company provides payment solutions for merchants and billers, offering credit, debit, and prepaid card processing, and automated clearing house payment platforms. Usio aims to combine card issuing and merchant payment processing options into a one stop shop platform. A small-cap company, with a market capitalization of just $32 million, Usio is nevertheless in a strong position despite the coronavirus market disruptions. While markets have lost heavily in the current bear cycle even accounting for the rally were experiencing USIO shares have outperformed and are trading above their late-February levels. The company reported an 18% growth in revenues for Q1 2020, to $7.8 million, along with steady progress towards break-even cash flow. Usio ended the quarter with $1.7 million in cash on hand. These positive results came despite a net loss in Q1 but it is important to note that Usios Q1 losses were 50% lower than in Q4, and beat the quarterly expectation by 14%. Usio has also been able to take advantage of Congressional stimulus funds. The company qualified for a CARES Act loan of $814,000. The loan comes with generous repayment terms, and provides Usio with needed liquidity to meet the coronavirus crisis. Ladenburg Thalmann analyst Jon Hickman sees a clear path forward for Usio, writing, we believe Usio's current market valuation is not reflective of the value of the companys growing presence in the digital payments space. Given the expected increasing revenue growth and future earnings potential, we believe the company should be valued more in line with its current and potential earnings growth. Hickmans Buy rating is bolstered by his $4.50 price target, which indicates confidence in a robust 142% one-year upside potential. (To watch Hickmans track record, click here) USIO shares have a Strong Buy analyst consensus rating, and it is unanimous. All three of the analysts who have reviewed this stock recently have come down with Buy recommendations. The shares are selling for just $1.75, and the average price target matches Hickmans $4.50. The upside potential, 142%, implies that this stock will more than double in the coming year. (See Usio analyst ratings on TipRanks) Ramaco Resources (METC) The last stock on our list is Ramaco, a coal mining company operating in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The company focuses its output on metallurgical coal, a grade used to produce the refined coke that is required in the steel industry. Even with economic activity greatly reduced in Q1 by the responses to the coronavirus crisis, Ramaco reported a quarterly profit. The 5-cent EPS came in 67% over the forecast. Earnings werent the only positive in the Q1 report. Revenue came in at $41.9 million, or 2.5% over the estimates. Ramacos main sales theater is the eastern US but demand there has collapsed due to the economic shutdowns. The company has countered this by turning to foreign customers and accepting aid through the Congressionally passed Paycheck Protection Program. The $8.4 million PPP loan has shored up the companys liquidity position, and allowed it to resume operations at two mines which were idled on April 1. Lucas Pipes, covering the industry and Ramaco stock for B Riley FBR, notes, management pointed to a number of marketing successes in the first quarter, including renewing a relationship with a major European customer, their first test shipment to Asia, and a notice that their product was approved for purchase by major integrated steel mills in Brazil [...] While we currently see investors focus on liquidity, then capital returns, and growth opportunities last, we regard these growth projects as long-term options when market conditions improve. These successes put Ramaco in a solid position to move forward, and Pipes rates the stock a Buy. His price target, at $8, implies a sky-high 221% upside potential this year. (To watch Pipes track record, click here) Its not often that the analysts all agree on a stock, so when it does happen, take note. Ramacos Strong Buy consensus rating is based on a unanimous 4 Buys. The stocks $5.25 average price target suggests a potential upside of 103% and a change from the current share price of $2.56. (See Ramaco stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. ChartPad provides an easy-to-use platform for quick training of clinical staff and minimizes disruption of workflows in the ICU setting, states Dr. William Kapp, Founder and Chairman of Landmark Hospitals. Technomad, an innovative technology solutions company, today announced that its proprietary HIPAA-compliant cloud-based electronic data capture (EDC) platform, ChartPad, was selected by Organicell Regenerative Medicine, Inc for the study of two FDA-approved Emergency Single Patient Compassionate Use trials. The study is taking place at Landmark Hospitals, a state-of-the-art hospital system of six long-term acute care hospitals across the Southeast. Two recovering COVID-19 patients in the ICU setting at Landmark Hospital of Athens, GA were treated last week with the first doses of Organicell Flow Allogenic Amniotic fluid. Study data was documented in real time directly into the ChartPad EDC platform. ChartPad provides an easy-to-use platform for quick training of clinical staff and minimizes disruption of workflows in the ICU setting, states Dr. William Kapp, Founder and Chairman of Landmark Hospitals. ChartPad provides rapid deployment of study case report forms (CRFs) in a cloud-based format for collection and management of data and is integrated with laboratory systems to streamline results entry and reduce documentation errors. ChartPad is in use by the Primary Investigators, Co-Investigators, the Clinical Trial Management team, Clinical Trial Site Coordinators, and the Data Collection and Analysis team for on-demand access to documentation, trending, and analysis of the COVID-19 research data. About Technomad: Founded in 2012, Technomad is a technology solutions company specializing in healthcare IT and application development services. Based in Bonita Springs, FL, Technomad is the developer of ChartPad, a cloud-based electronic healthcare record (EHR) and Electronic Data Capture (EDC) system. Technomad provides expertise, guidance, and support on all aspects of IT infrastructure, computing, and software systems. For more information, please visit https://www.technomad.net/. About Landmark Hospitals: Landmark provides solutions for patients who face a hospital discharge, yet still require acute medical care. These patients require a higher level of care for a longer period than the average hospital offers; but they are not yet ready to transfer to a sub-acute care facility. Landmark brings exciting new technologies and experienced management for the primary task of providing patients with the best medical care available as they continue their journey toward healing. For more information regarding Landmark Hospitals, visit https://www.landmarkhospitals.com. About Organicell Regenerative Medicine, Inc: Organicell Regenerative Medicine, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that harnesses the power of exosomes to develop innovative biological therapeutics for the treatment of degenerative diseases. The companys proprietary products are derived from perinatal sources and manufactured to retain the naturally occurring exosomes, hyaluronic acid, and proteins without the addition or combination of any other substance or diluent. Based in South Florida, the company was founded in 2008 by Albert Mitrani, Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Mari Mitrani, Chief Scientific Officer. To learn more, please visit https://organicell.com/. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Millions of children are at risk of contracting diseases like diphtheria, measles and polio as life-saving immunization services around the world are disrupted due to COVID 19. This stark warning comes from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. A Global Vaccine Summit is set to take place on June 4 in London, at which world leaders will come together to help maintain immunization programs and mitigate the impact of the pandemic in lower-income countries. At the Summit, donors will pledge their support to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to sustain and accelerate this lifesaving work in some of the most vulnerable countries. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, urged donors to fully fund the Alliance. Provision of routine immunization services is substantially hindered in at least 68 countries and is likely to affect approximately 80 million children under the age of 1 living in these countries, he said at a media briefing. Routine childhood immunization services have been disrupted on a global scale since March. Transport delays of vaccines are exacerbating the situation. UNICEF has reported a substantial delay in planned vaccine deliveries due to the lock down measures and the ensuing decline in commercial flights and limited availability of charters. UNICEF appealed to governments, the private sector, the airline industry, and others, to free up freight space at an affordable cost for these life-saving vaccines. Despite the challenges, several countries such as Uganda and Laos are making special efforts to continue immunization, the UN health agency noted. So far, Africa is the least-affected region globally in terms of the number of cases and deaths reported to WHO. 'Any suspension of childhood vaccination services is a major threat to life. WHO is working with governments around the world to ensure supply chains remain open and lifesaving health services are reaching all communities,' Tedros said. Next week, WHO will issue new advice to countries on maintaining essential services during the pandemic, including recommendations on how to provide immunizations safely. Many countries have temporarily and justifiably suspended preventive mass vaccination campaigns against diseases like cholera, measles, meningitis, polio, tetanus, typhoid and yellow fever, due to risk of transmission and the need to maintain physical distancing during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de The Centre has taken note of the rise in coronavirus cases in the North East region. Just weeks after Union Minister Jitendra Singh hailed five North Eastern states for being Covid free, the situation now seems to be changing for the worse, as thousands of stranded people make their way home potentially carrying the virus with them. According to reports, the Centre has taken note of the rise in coronavirus cases in the North East region and has asked the state governments to follow strict protocols to curb the pandemic. Meghalaya, which initially had been declared Covid-free after a woman who tested positive on April 13 recovered, once again became corona-infested on May 17 after a Chennai-return man tested positive for the virus. Another man, who had accompanied him, too, tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. "Another person who had travelled from Chennai along with the 14th case has turned out to be COVID19 positive. The person was in isolation since the day of arrival. Person is presently in Resubelpara under institutional isolation and medical observation (sic)," Chief Minister Conrad Sangma tweeted. Earlier, there were 12 other positive cases, out of which one died on April 15. Notably, the rest 11 cases came from within the family of the deceased -- a well known doctor in Shillong -- and his private hospital's staff. All of them, fortunately, recovered from the infection. In a worrying development, Nagaland, one of the five North Eastern states that was declared Covid-free, recorded its first cases of the virus on Monday. Principal Secretary, Home, Abhijit Sinha said that a total of 1,331 samples were tested and three returnees -- a woman and two men -- tested positive for Covid-19. Moreover, a man, who returned from Chennai recently, tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total number of active cases in Nagaland to four. State Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) and Deputy Director Dr Nyan Kikon said that a 27-year-old man at the quarantine centre in Kohima tested positive and is currently undergoing treatment at Covid-19 hospital. "We have 4 active cases. Contact tracing is being activated," Health and Family Welfare Minister S Pangnyu Phom said. Altogether, 1,328 people, who were stranded in different parts of Tamil Nadu due to the lockdown, had arrived in Nagaland in a Shramik Special Train on May 22. On arrival, they were screened while their luggage was disinfected at the railway station. Those belonging to Dimapur, Mon and Peren districts were taken to quarantine centre at Agri Expo site, Dimapur while returnees belonging to other districts were taken to quarantine centres in Kohima for compulsory quarantine. A total of 2,831 persons are presently lodged at quarantine facility. In Manipur, three more persons tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the state to 39. Of the 39 patients, four have recovered while 35 are under treatment. The three new patients had returned from Chandigarh, Delhi and Assam's Jorhat, sources said. Sikkim, too, now has an active coronavirus case after dodging the virus menace for over two months. Sikkim reported its first case on Saturday after a 25-year-old student who recently returned from Delhi tested positive for the disease. The sample of the student was sent to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri for testing and it came out to be positive. On Thursday, May 21, the County Council of Montgomery County, Maryland, approved a $5.8 billion operating budget with $70.3 million in spending cuts. The councils unanimous vote, done under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic, offers a preview of what is to come as local and state governments across the country respond to tax revenue shortfalls caused by the shuttering of non-essential businesses by emergency orders between March and May. The proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 has changed several times since the office of Democratic County Executive Marc Elrich made its first recommendations before the pandemic took hold of the region. The county expects further cuts to follow this year due to economic fallout from the pandemic. The county is one of the wealthiest in the United States and the most populous in the state of Maryland with more than 1 million residents. As of Monday, Montgomery County had 9,699 cumulative recorded cases of COVID-19. In just seven days last week, case numbers rose 22 percent, according to the Maryland Department of Health. So far, at least 502 people in the county, which borders Washington, D.C., to the northwest, have lost their lives to the coronavirus, the highest number of deaths for any local jurisdiction in the state of Maryland. Maryland as a whole has had over 46,000 cases and at least 2,207 deaths. Such numbers are expected to increase substantially in the days and weeks following the Memorial Day weekend, as public officials encouraged sightseers to move about freely. Following Thursdays vote by the Council, Elrich said he fully recognizes that the FY21 budget by necessity will be a flexible document that will evolve to take into account what are changing daily circumstances. Council President Sidney Katz, also a Democrat, said the latest budget proposal provides stability, while we await a clearer picture of expenses and revenues that will emerge during the summer and fall, when the Council could slash more spending and cut additional services. The largest spending cuts are for Montgomery County Public Schools, while another $32.4 million in tax-supported funding for various departments was cut. The county has used a projection of $600 million in lost tax revenue over the next two years as justification for the budget cuts. Affected in the proposed cuts are numerous county employees, whom would see no new raises or benefits. Many such workers, such as emergency responders and transit workers, are at increased risk of infection during the pandemic. While certain Montgomery County employees are receiving hazard pay, there are no plans to extend that in the long term. Currently, employees who frequently are in contact with members of the public are making an extra $10 an hour, while those who have to come into offices are making an extra $3 per hour. Montgomery County is often touted as a progressive haven just outside the nations capital. It is among the wealthiest jurisdictions in the United States, with numerous government and military agencies and contractors headquartered nearby. The countys executive and nine-member legislative council are strongholds of the Democratic Party. In the past decade not a single council seat has been occupied by a non-Democrat. The executive office hasnt had a Republican official represent it since 1978. Ahead of the budget vote, the Council had already ruled out the prospect of raises for county workers. Last week, in addition to rejecting a motion for pay raises for non-union employees, the Council voted down, by a 72 margin, three separate three-year bargaining agreements with the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization (MCGEO) Local 1994, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1664. The contracts for the three unions had already been renegotiated since the start of the pandemic after the Council rejected earlier contracts. Many of the members of these unions are frontline workers during the pandemic, in addition to thousands of other county workers such as bus drivers, EMTs and teachers. County employees would have received raises of just 3.5 percent, while non-union workers would have had their pay raised by a meager 1.25 percent. In rejecting these small increases, Katz again cited the projected budget shortfalls, stating, This is not about what our employees deserve. This is about what our county can afford. At a virtual Council hearing earlier this month on the contract approval, MCGEO Local 1994 president Gino Renne warned that morale among rank-and-file workers was already below zero because of the pandemic and their already inadequate wages. My workers are not overly paid, he said. The average salary in my unionin the service, labors, and trades [sector]is about $50,000. These folks are struggling every day. The County Councils clear contempt for the working class is evident in their rejection of pay raises at a time when workers are putting their lives at risk every day just by showing up for work. Further adding insult to injury, Council members are still set to receive their scheduled pay raises at the end of this year, as their salaries, unlike those of county employees, are tied to increases in the Consumer Price Index. Following the Councils initial vote last week to reject pay raises and ahead of Thursdays budget vote, groups including MCGEO, the Montgomery County Education Association, the Montgomery County Renters Alliance and others organized a protest in front of the house of Council Member Hans Riemer in Takoma Park. Cpl. Leonette Brown Dixon, a member of the corrections officers union, demonstrated the increasing anger of workers at the role of the Democratic Party and the various so-called trade union organizations that seek to tie workers to them. Speaking to the local ABC News affiliate, Dixon said: When we [the MCGEO union] endorse most of these guys, thats the only time that we see them. They make promises to us when we endorse them. I was on the endorsement committee, and the moment they get in office its like we never had a conversation with them. The MCGEO is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has helped to force its members in meatpacking and grocery stores to remain on the job without adequate protection even as the pandemic has ripped through their communities, infecting thousands of workers. Compounding the workers frustration is the fact that Montgomery County approved millions of dollars in spending for non-essential projects such as a $54.9 million pedestrian tunnel and $5 million for the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, which promotes business interests in the county. The cuts are of a piece with an increasing budget crisis at the state level. Last week, the office of Republican Governor Larry Hogan announced a staggering budget crisis in the state, with a projected loss of $925 million in state revenue by June. On Wednesday, Marylands Board of Public Works proposed an initial raft of cuts totaling $120.6 million. According to the Washington Post, the modest trims would still leave as much as $1 billion that needs to be cut from state balance sheets by the end of June. President Donald Trump's name is seen on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, in San Antonio, Texas, on April 23, 2020. (Eric Gay/AP Photo) GOP Lawmakers Want to Put a Pause on Federal Spending, Fine-Tune Previous Funding Programs Republican lawmakers have become unnerved by the huge economic debt created by the pandemic and say they do not support the latest House-passed HEROES Act. Republicans and some moderate Democrats say they would rather fine-tune the financial aid packages that have already been approved, rather than spend more money at this time. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) wants to give states more flexibility by reworking some CCP virus funding previously passed by the federal government. Kennedy recently commented on the HEROES Act while on Fox Newss Sunday Morning Futures. Its not going to pass the Senate, nor should it, Kennedy said. The senator has introduced his own amendment to the previous relief funding package. Kennedys legislation would allow state and local governments to use the $150 billion in funding provided to them in the CCP virus relief package signed in late March, for operating expenses not associated with the CCP virus. The advantage of my bill is it wouldnt cost any new money. The disadvantage is some of my colleagues, think that it will bail out so-called mismanaged states, Kennedy told Fox News. Many Republicans in Washington are against the HEROES Act because it contains nearly a trillion dollars to bail out local and state governments that many say mismanaged their states finances well before the pandemic. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) worries about states like California getting additional taxpayer money when their administration provided healthcare benefits to undocumented immigrants and gave $100 million in funding for Planned Parenthood. We need to put brakes on spending for a while, Rep. Glen Grothman (R-Wis.) said about the act to Seehafernews. At the rate we are going, we are only going to leave our children with a huge amount of debt. Republicans think the act will add to the national debt while funding measures not related to CCP virus relief, like vote-by-mail, funding Planned Parenthood, and bailing out the United States Postal Service. Giving money to Planned Parenthood, creating marijuana diversity studies, and permanently rewriting our nations election laws have nothing to do with the challenges we are currently facing and certainly do not help West Michigan job creators or their employees, said Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) from the House floor in May. House Democrats on May 15 approved the $3 trillion HEROES Act which includes another direct payment to each American, as well as nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments. The measure was approved by a vote of 208-199 over the opposition of Republicans as well as some moderate and progressive Democrats. Meanwhile the House will vote Wednesday on two important adjustments to the previous aid packages. The first one is the Payroll Protection Program Flexibility Act and the second is the Taxpayers at Home (TRUTH) Act. The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act is co-led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). This legislation makes changes to the PPP, allowing the funding to be much more accessible to hard-hit small businesses. The leaders of the bill say the reforms are the product of constituents feedback from small business owners and restaurateurs. The changes include allowing the forgiveness period to go from 2 months to 6 months; the removal of the 75/25 rule; the elimination of restrictions limiting the loan terms of 2 years; and expanded forgiveness for businesses unable to rehire due to the continuing pandemic. This bill gives them the flexibility to make it work for their business, be able to take the loan, stay afloat, until we can achieve the goal, youre outlining, get people back in the restaurants, get people back in hotels, said Roy. The bipartisan TRUTH Act would oblige the Small Business Administration (SBA) to disclose details about where small business relief money is going. The bill would require the SBA to provide this information on loans over $2 million and justify those decisions. Our jobs are to listen and to our constituents and small businesses and Ive done that both in Texas and Minnesota, said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.). It wont matter how much money we appropriate if the distribution mechanisms are broken. Congress now has an opportunity to fix whats broken and make this important relief program more accessible and usable to the small businesses that need it the most, said Phillips. I am encouraged by the bipartisan cooperation of my colleagues in the House and Senate, and look forward to working with them to push these reforms over the finish line without delay. Every day counts, and time cannot be wasted, added Phillips. TULSA, Okla., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Tulsa (TU), Oklahoma's highest-ranked national university, is now enrolling for its recently launched online MBA and elevating its online Master's in Cyber Security with Noodle Partners, the fastest-growing online program manager. Increasingly, adult learners are opting for programs that fit their busy lives. TU is working to improve the accessibility of their programs by meeting those students where they are online. The online MBA offers a part-time option to prepare students for career advancement in the private and public sectors as well as for positions of leadership and responsibility in business and society. Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing job sectors in the United States; the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 32% increase in employment from 2018 to 2028, more than six times higher than the average for domestic careers. For 20 years, TU has been one of only a few institutions designated as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance and Cyber Defense Education. "The University of Tulsa is excited to leverage the resources and expertise of Noodle Partners to further develop these two online degree programs and meet the needs of students seeking a research, university-level education outside of a traditional classroom setting," said TU Interim President Janet Levit. "TU's MBA and M.S. in Cyber Security attract highly motivated working professionals who will use the degrees to advance their careers and support the nation's thriving business and technology industries." TU's online MBA program features readily available student access to top-notch faculty along with small class sizes that promote participation and interaction among peers and faculty in the online environment. The degree is ideal for online learners seeking a flexible schedule that allows them to balance work and other priorities. Students who enroll in two courses per semester can complete the program in 24 months and receive career placement assistance from the Business Career Center. The online M.S. in Cyber Security requires 30 credits to graduate. The program offers an online curriculum along with the option to take one week of immersive courses on campus where students complete hands-on, intensive training guided by faculty. The program is designed to be completed in 24 months, and students can continue to work as full-time professionals while earning their degree. "TU is making an excellent strategic move by launching these innovative online programs," said John Katzman, CEO of Noodle Partners. "We have total confidence in our partnership with TU, and we're excited to see how its incoming cohorts of students leverage their degrees in the workforce." About The University of Tulsa TU is a private, doctoral degree-granting institution that fosters a rich, diverse experience for students through mutual respect and cultural appreciation. With undergraduate, graduate and law students from 60 countries, TU is ranked No. 1 in Oklahoma by U.S. News & World Report and the Wall Street Journal. Research opportunities start the moment students step on campus. Innovation and entrepreneurship are emphasized in equal measure with foundational coursework and design-thinking exercises. Through collaboration and commitment, the TU community generates prosperity, cultivates justice and serves others. Real-world experience is plentiful, and domestic alumni report a 96% placement rate. About Noodle Partners Founded by a team of education and technology veterans, Noodle Partners creates innovative online and hybrid programs while improving traditional classroom models. Noodle Partners has the capability to work with universities on every aspect of building a certificate or degree program that they choosemarketing, student recruitment, enrollment, curriculum design, student engagement, support services, graduate placement, and alumni engagementand provides a high level of fit and finish. For more information, visit noodle-partners.com or follow us on Twitter @Noodle_Partners or LinkedIn. Media Contact: Alyssa Miller [email protected] 973-615-1292 SOURCE The University of Tulsa and Noodle Partners Islamabad, May 26 : Kazim Niaz, Chief Secretary of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, has tested positive for COVID-19 and subsequently gone into quarantine, joining a list of government official infected with the virus, it was reported. In a statement on Monday, KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan wished Niaz a speedy recovery, reports Dawn news. "He (Niaz) has been working day and night against the coronavirus outbreak. He has gone above and beyond his duty in this regard." Khan also paid tribute to the services of the Chief Secretary and other officials involved in curbing the spread of the disease in the province. Niaz was actively involved in pandemic-related work in the province and was visiting hospitals, isolation centres and laboratories. On May 20, a PTI member of the Punjab Assembly (MPA) from Gujranwala, Shaheen Raza, passed away at Lahore's Mayo Hospital after having tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The same day, former Balochistan governor Syed Fazal Agha - who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 - died at a private hospital in Karachi. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Health departments in densely populated areas are reporting an increase in unusual or aggressive rodent behavior. In a memo sent out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health officials say that rodents, especially those in large cities, rely on food and waste generated by restaurants for food. With restaurants closed or limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, food available to such rodents has decreased. Some jurisdictions have reported an increase in rodent activity as rodents search for new sources of food, the CDC memo reads. Environmental health and rodent control programs may see an increase in service requests related to rodents and reports of unusual or aggressive rodent behavior. The CDC also notes that communities often experience a decline in rodent populations after natural disasters, followed by an increase in rodent populations as commercial activity returns to normal. Not only has Michigan one of the states most affected by the coronavirus, but mid-Michigan was also devastated by historic flooding last week. Environmental health programs should continue rodent monitoring and control activities after these events. Additionally, business owners should take preventative actions to help keep rodents away by sealing up access points, removing debris and heavy vegetation, keeping garbage in tightly covered bins and removing pet and bird food from their yards. More information on rodent prevention can be found here. With more employees working from home, Ted Schaer advises how to best prevent Malware and Ransomware Attacks PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Ted Schaer is a well-recognized attorney with Zarwin Baum DeVito Kaplan Schaer Toddy P.C. Law Firm. He is also chairman of the Cyber Liability, Privacy, and Data Security Department. He uses his expertise to advise clients on cybersecurity and provides data breach services. He is now using his expertise to warn other law firms of recent ransomware attacks. Ted Schaer explains that hacker groups have been known to target small law firms. One of these hacker groups known as Maze, has now attacked firms in Texas, Oregon, and South Dakota. The group is believed to be responsible for a recent attack on Cognizant, an IT services firm as well. Maze uses a process to conduct their attacks. They hack into a network, and slowly begin to steal files and credentials. They may begin by stealing unencrypted files, which they use as leverage. Maze threatens to release confidential data they obtain through hacking if a ransom is not paid. Ted Schaer warns that law firms are particularly vulnerable to this type of attack, because of the confidential nature of their business. Confidential information getting leaked could cause a firm legal problems and destroy the trust their client's place in them. At a 2018 seminar titled Shifting Your Cyber Risk to Protect Your Bottom Line, Ted Schaer stated that 63% of data breaches can be linked directly or indirectly to third parties. In addition to advice for small businesses on vetting vendors and designing contracts to shift liability to third parties, he mentions the importance of cybersecurity insurance. Ted Schaer recommends hiring experts to help you navigate the complexities of cybersecurity and insurance. Ted Schaer states that phishing and email malware are the top security concerns for law firms. Malware attacks occur 94% of the time through email delivery, and phishing accounts for 80% of all cybersecurity incidents. Unfortunately, these types of attacks are not easy to prevent. They require multiple layers of security, because as better anti-virus and spam blockers are developed, the hackers use more advanced techniques. Ted Schaer explains that there are steps all firms should take to protect their business. He recommends hiring a cybersecurity insurance and security specialist to correct any vulnerabilities a firm has. However, there are some basic cybersecurity tips firms can implement on their own. The first is to use a password manager. These allow you to create strong passwords, and they will automatically fill them in for you. You simply need the master password to access the password manager. It has another benefit as well. If you click on a website URL that is actually fake, the password manager will not automatically fill in your login details because it won't recognize the fake site. Next, Ted Schaer recommends using two-factor identification, particularly for sensitive email communications. If a hacker gets the emails, they won't be able to access them without the authentication code. He also suggests routinely checking software for updates and security patches. Lastly, he suggests offering cybersecurity training for all employees. Hackers often rely on well-meaning employees clicking a malicious link or opening a phishing email. Giving employees the cybersecurity tools they need includes the correct training as well as cybersecurity software. CONTACT: Caroline Hunter Web Presence, LLC +1 7865519491 SOURCE: Web Presence, LLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591411/Ted-Schaer-Warns-Law-Firms-of-Malware-and-Ransomware-Attacks When Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the New York on Pause executive order on March 20, effectively shutting down the state, he made a declaration: I accept full responsibility. If someone is unhappy, somebody wants to blame someone, people complain about someone, blame me. On April 19, the governor reiterated his proclamation, telling New Yorkers that when it comes to the coronavirus crisis, the buck stops with him. Blame me, Cuomo said again. Somebody's complaining about a beach, somebody's complaining about whatever, businesses open, schools open, blame me. But that hasnt always been the case. Despite Cuomo asking for the blame for the potentially unpopular decisions made by the state in response to the pandemic, the governor has denied responsibility in several instances when faced with criticism. Here are a few times during the crisis when the governor laid the blame on someone or something else. Nursing homes The Cuomo administration has received intense scrutiny for its nursing home policies during the crisis. About 6,000 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 in New York, around one-quarter of all the deaths in the state. In particular, critics have pointed to a March 25 directive that mandated nursing homes accept residents who test positive for COVID-19. The directive has been described by one lawmaker as a fatal error. But Cuomo has defended his policies on nursing homes and has said that the much-criticized March 25 Department of Health directive followed federal guidelines at the time. They should ask President Trump, Cuomo told reporters on May 20 when they pressed him on the policy. Dont criticize the state for following the presidents policies, he reiterated on May 23. Not acting fast enough Cuomo has stood by the actions of his administration and the speed at which he moved to respond to the crisis given the available data at the time. But public health experts have said the coronavirus was circulating in New York well before the first documented case on March 1 and that the clock should have started in late January when the country saw its first case. Others have said that shutting down just one week earlier would have resulted in thousands of fewer deaths. Cuomo has lamented not moving fast enough to curb the worst of the pandemics effects, but it also maintained it wasn't his fault. Governors dont do global pandemics, Cuomo said on April 28, even though the state has a pandemic response plan and one of the responsibilities of the state Department of Health is to track emerging and infectious diseases in New York. He laid the blame on global health organizations and the news media for failing to blow the bugle in November and December. If only those groups and people had said something back then and made the impending threat clear, he could have acted sooner, Cuomo said. The Chinese government only confirmed that it was treating dozens of cases of an unknown respiratory illness on December 31, and only identified the virus on January 8. The same month, the U.S. had its first case. On February 26, the country had its first instance of community spread, well after the president declared a public health emergency on January 31. Budget cuts The state is in a financial bind, facing a $10 billion shortfall this year alone. Despite the fiscal uncertainties the state faced at the beginning of April, Cuomo did not include large cuts or new revenue in the state budget he signed, instead promising to make rolling cuts as needed throughout the year. And he has done his best to lay the blame on the federal government for the potential cuts, which originally were slated to come out mid-May but which he has yet to release. The feds should bailout state governments, the governor said, so any cuts will be the result of their recalcitrance. If they dont act in a couple of weeks, Cuomo said on May 19 of the federal government, they will be more reckless and irresponsible than even I thought they were. However, the governor has resisted calls to pass new taxes on the wealthy to prevent deepest cuts to schools and hospitals, which he has said is in the cards. And its he who is withholding crucial funding details from schools, leaving districts in a state of limbo as they attempt to craft their own budgets for the next year without knowing what they will get from the state. Bad ventilator deal When the state was scrambling to purchase more ventilators the Cuomo administration entered into an $86 million contract to purchase 1,450 ventilators from a man who had never sold medical equipment before. They paid him about $69 million upfront. But the ventilators never came. The man, Yaron Oren-Pines, came to the states attention when he replied to a tweet from President Donald Trump, saying that he had ventilators he was looking to sell. Despite the dubious nature of trusting a random man on Twitter to provide life-saving equipment, the Cuomo administration stood by the procurement decisions it made during the crisis. State officials claimed that the White House directly recommended Oren-Pines and that it had already vetted him, something the federal government denied. But when Oren-Pines attempted to sell millions of masks to the California government on the social networking site Nextdoor, users immediately could tell something was off. And when the federal government referred Oren-Pines to New Jersey officials, they decided not to enter into business with him because of troubling warning signs. New York did eventually get most of its money back, but officials arguably should never have entered into such a large contract with a man that even his neighbors could tell was a scammer. Skateboarders might be the only group in society sad to see the end of the coronavirus lockdown. For the past 10 weeks Australia's capital city streets have been turned into giant skate parks, providing a once in a lifetime opportunity for urban boarders. One Sydney skate shop said business has been booming since the stay-at-home orders were introduced in March. Scroll down for video For the past 10 weeks Australia's capital city streets have been turned into giant skate park. Pictured: Australian skateboard sensation Aimee Massie is pictured in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Skateboarders are pictured cruising along a normally busy Melbourne street, which is now deserted due to the coronavirus lockdown 'We've seen a new form of customer getting into skateboarding - often adults looking to get some 'essential exercise' with their kids,' Ryan Nicholls, the manager of Sydney's Basement Skate shop told Daily Mail Australia. 'With the lockdown there have been a lot of people that just thought now is the right time to give it a try.' While new skaters were pushing off for the first time, more experienced riders saw the deserted streets as a dream scenario. 'I just knew the city was going to be empty and I thought there probably won't be too many securing guards to kick me out either,' Australian Olympic hopeful Aimee Massie told Daily Mail Australia. The once fringe sport was set to make its debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games before it was postponed until 2021 due to the deadly pandemic. Ms Massie had been traveling the globe over the past year trying to gain enough points to qualify for the historic event. Australian Olympic skateboard hopeful Aimee Massie said the lockdown has been a dream scenario for riders 'In the 80's and 90's nobody had these amazing skate parks. The streets were the skate park,' the 28-year-old said 'It was crushing because it's something you work really hard for, something you have been training for, for two years,' the 28-year-old said. Despite the Olympic postponement and the federal government-ordered closure of all Australia's skate parks, Ms Massie said she knew she'd still be able to do what she loves. 'In the 80's and 90's nobody had these amazing skate parks. The streets were the skate park,' she said. 'So I always knew I had the streets, no matter what.' 'I feel down - and I feel okay about it as well,' she said. Fellow skater Jeremy Estigoy said hill-bombing Sydney's CBD was a surreal feeling. 'It was like a post-apocalyptic ghost town. Like a zombie movie,' the 24-year-old said. With laws around skateboarding for exercise somewhat unclear under the strict lockdown measures, Mr Estigoy said he wasn't sure whether he could head outside. According to the rules, skateboarding for exercise or transport was permitted, but riding for recreation was not. 'When I saw people riding bikes around I thought, this is my form of exercise and it's also my work because I need to get footage for sponsors,' he said. 'A lot of smart skaters would go out with a group of two - just a skater and a camera - to get footage because it was so empty. 'I ran into heaps of other skaters because they all had the same idea.' According Mr Nicholls it's not just trick-orientated riders who've been buying boards. 'Cruisers and longboarding has really picked up too, because people are thinking when they go back to the office they probably don't want to use public transport given the virus,' he said. 'A lot of people aren't in it for just the tricks, they're looking at skateboards for cruising and going to work, so it's a whole new group of people.' With the restrictions on skate parks now eased and more workers heading back to the office, Mr Nicholls believes the 2020 pandemic will be reflected on as a pivotal time in the sport's history. 'I'm a 1990's skater, I'm in my 40's. When I was a kid there were no skate parks so you had to get creative,' he said. 'It reminded me of that time and with no cars or pedestrians, I think it made it really exciting again for some skaters.' In Spain, the effects of the coronavirus are also being felt by the social security system, where the number of contributors has declined while jobless claims have soared. On Tuesday, the Cabinet approved an extraordinary outlay of 30.5 billion that will go towards paying pensions (14 billion) as well as unemployment checks and subsidies (16.5 billion). Also on Tuesday, Finance Minister Maria Jesus Montero announced that the new guaranteed minimum income scheme, meant to help households at risk of poverty, will be approved on Friday. Fund injection This is the second time since the coronavirus crisis began that the Spanish executive has allocated money to shore up the social protection system. On April 14 the coalition government led by Pedro Sanchez, of the Socialist Party (PSOE), approved an early credit of 13.8 billion. In previous years, when the economy and the job market were growing at a fast pace, this type of transfer was typically done well into the month of June, to deal with the extra pension payments of July. But the economic slowdown caused by the confinement measures has affected millions of workers in Spain. Around 950,000 had been laid off by late April, while 3.4 million had been placed on a furlough scheme known as ERTE. And another 1.4 million were self-employed workers who have filed for government aid after being forced to shut down their businesses. Neither the self-employed workers, nor the vast majority of the furloughed employees, are now paying into the social security system. On the other hand, the Covid-19 crisis has also reduced the number of people claiming pension benefits. One of the reasons is that the disease has been especially lethal among the older population. Another one is that there have been fewer applications for retirement benefits during the confinement. In May, the system paid out 9,754,137 pensions, a 38,508 drop from April, for a total amount of 9.85 billion, or 0.27% less than in April. This is the third month in a row that the number of pension claims has declined. English version by Susana Urra. MasterChef Australia fans have once again turned on Poh Ling Yeow, accusing the bookies' favourite of being 'frustrating' and a 'drama queen'. After her disastrous effort during Monday's group challenge, which saw her cut her finger and overcook her dish, fans flocked to Facebook to slam the 47-year-old celebrity chef. 'She is a drama queen at best, last night she was bad,' one viewer commented, while another wrote: 'I absolutely love Poh but last night was very frustrating to watch.' Dividing fans: MasterChef Australia fans have once again turned on Poh Ling Yeow (pictured), accusing the bookies' favourite of being 'frustrating' and a 'drama queen' A third annoyed viewer wrote: 'What did she actually do this time besides cut her finger and burn some potatoes?' Many fans of the Channel 10 cooking show couldn't seem to understand how she was still a contender in the competition. 'I'm not a Poh hater but she is so frustrating! Every team challenge she puts her team in the weeds and then she manages to slip past elimination. It's really hard to watch,' one viewer observed. Frustrated: After her disastrous effort during Monday's group challenge, which saw her cut her finger and overcook her dish, fans flocked to Facebook to slam the 47-year-old chef 'Very frustrating to watch': Many fans of the Channel 10 cooking show couldn't seem to understand how she was still a contender in the competition 'She was useless as a mentor last season. I have no time for her at all, she makes me not want to watch the show,' another added. Several fans accused her of bringing too much 'drama' to the series, and claimed she had been given too much screen time. 'She creates the drama and it's the constant laughing that I find annoying. I just don't like the drama she creates, it takes [away] from the others and smacks of arrogance,' one viewer commented. Fighting talk: 'What did she actually do this time besides cut her finger and burn some potatoes?' wrote one critic Drama queen? Several fans accused her of bringing too much 'drama' to the series, and claimed she had been given too much screen time 'Yes, there is drama from everyone, but not like it is with Poh - every single time she cooks,' another critic wrote. Some people labelled her 'very disorganised' and claimed she was 'deliberately' acting confused in the kitchen. One conspiracy theorist even suggested that Poh had been 'sent in to sabotage' this year's season. Not for everyone: Some people labelled her 'very disorganised' and claimed she was 'deliberately' acting confused in the kitchen 'This is not MasterChef, this is The Mole': One conspiracy theorist even suggested that Poh had been 'sent in to sabotage' this year's season 'This is not MasterChef, this is The Mole and Poh has been sent in to sabotage,' they wrote, referencing the early 2000s game show. But others defended the chef and artist, saying she 'makes great TV'. 'Not sure why some people are so negative about Poh. She is great TV,' one supporter wrote, while another another: 'She's a great cook, she just doesn't work well under time constraints.' The enemy used large-caliber machine guns and rifles. A Ukrainian soldier has died of a gunshot wound in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. "Today, May 26, the Russia-led occupation forces have once again violated the ceasefire and shelled Ukrainian defenders in Donbas. The enemy used large-caliber machine guns and rifles. Unfortunately, one member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has received a fatal gunshot wound," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an evening update on May 26. Read alsoOSCE reports 44 civilian victims in Donbas hostilities since early 2020 The Command expressed their condolences to the victim's relatives and friends and assured that the invaders would be punished for their crimes. As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia's hybrid military forces on May 25 mounted 16 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas. 2K Shares Share Let me tell you a story about Francisco, a recent patient under my care in one of New York Citys hardest-hit hospitals. Suffering from severe COVID pneumonia, he gasped for air as I tried to exude empathy underneath the cold appearance of my head-to-toe, blue protective equipment. Carefully placing a breathing tube into his airway, I connected his lungs to a machine by a single plastic lifeline. Hoping also to bring life back into his weakly pumping heart, I fervently pushed syringes of epinephrine into his veins. As my own adrenaline levels spiked in the chaotic symphony of beeping alarms, for a brief moment, I took stock of my surroundings: faded wallpaper outlining once-hanging art, an abandoned bookshelf with post-it notes still attached, and a placard featuring an unfamiliar name tightly glued to the door. I realized then that, only weeks before, this intensive care room was actually a repurposed hospital administrators office. When we talk about reopening America, I dont think about friends laughing over mimosas at brunch or theme parks packed with excited kids; I think of emergently resuscitating Francisco in a makeshift ICU bed in a hospital pushed to its limits under the care of physicians like me who dropped everything to fight in the trenches of the New York City COVID battle. If states arent careful, it wont be a matter of if this situation iterates in other corners of the countryits a matter of when. We certainly need a responsible plan to reopen, but should we really have to choose between economic revival and human life? I believe we can have both. Right now, many states across the country are reopening while blatantly ignoring key virus metrics, ICU utilization trends, and insufficient testing capacity. Unfortunately, at a time when public health experts are needed the most, their recommendations are increasingly sidelined in favor of shortsighted policies aimed at sparking temporary financial growth. But what if stricter reopening strategies actually mean more lives saved and greater long-term economic prosperity? Thankfully these waters are not entirely uncharted, and history tells us we may be demonizing the wrong culprit. Evidence from the 1918 Spanish Flu suggests that economies are inherently stifled by pandemics themselves, not necessarily by public health containment measures. With widespread global illness, consumer confidence and spending plummet. This drives a reduction in manufacturing, productivity, and labor supply. A century ago, cities that intervened earlier and more aggressively did not perform worse economically, and, if anything, grew faster after the pandemics ravishing subsided. Granted, the 1918 Spanish Flu is not a perfect model because the COVID-19 mortality rate is lower, and we now live in a world with a more complex global supply chain and greater reliance on telecommunications. Nevertheless, getting out of this vicious cycle hinges on virus containment as a primary solution. We can also learn from Sweden, infamous for encouraging common sense social distancing guidelines instead of a mandatory lockdownrestaurants, gyms, shops, and schools have remained open. The country will still lose up to 10% GDP this year, according to the Swedish Central Bank. But thats not all they lost; nearly 30% more Swedes died compared to years past. The Swedish Finance Minister and a chief economist in Stockholm both acknowledged this financial despair. Compared to other nations, one official commented, Sweden would fare somewhat better, but the difference is marginal. So even in the modern world, premature reopening as an attempt to save the economy is a recipe for a lose-lose situation. As an anesthesiologist who has seen the worst this disease can do, I strongly advocate for states adhering to a phased reopening. Advancement between phases should depend on firm gating criteria and states should also be prepared to backtrack into a lockdown when numbers veer in a dangerous direction. However, the Centers for Disease Control comprehensive guide for reopening America was initially rejected and reprocessed into a diluted versionfurther evidence that expert recommendations are being silenced. A more robust conversation needs to be had around the distribution of tests. The Rockefeller Foundation National Testing Action Plan puts forth an ambitious blueprint of administering 3 million tests per week in the U.S., gradually increasing to 30 million weekly. Meanwhile, Wuhan concocted an impressive plan to test 11 million people in a 10-day window, following a resurgence in cases after the province reopened; the U.S. has only recently broached this number of total tests over three months. In a state like New York, where testing capacity is at 100%, weve seen a 58% decrease in cases over two weeks, in contrast to Alabamas 56% growth over the same period with a testing capacity of only 52%. Both states are partially reopened, but the radical difference in viral containment is directly associated with access to an accurate test. Having spent the last eight weeks as a first responder in New York City hospitals, I regard any reopening plan that does not meet the following criteria as unconscionable. First and foremost, COVID-19 tests must be ubiquitous and virus metrics need rigorous assessment. Next, PPE should be available in abundance; every morning, I still plead for a new N95 mask from locked hospital corridors, indicating supplies remain far from adequate. Third, we must integrate a response to the secondary ramifications of COVID-19, namely, the emerging mental health crisis resulting from burnout amongst essential workers, and the long-term health conditions that patients like Francisco will suffer when removed from a ventilator. I feel for the small business owner, the restaurateur, and the concert venue eager to host customers, foodies, and audiences again. But lessons from the 1918 Spanish Flu, pitfalls of the current Swedish model, and also as the WHO warn us, premature reopening will devastate our economy far more than a stir-crazy desire to watch society spring back into place. In a story well likely tell our grandchildren with somber reflection, our biggest cities and national landmarks cleared out seemingly overnight. Our reopening strategy cannot, by necessity, transpire with the same haste. Ajit Rai is an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician and can be reached at his self-titled site, Ajit Rai MD. Image credit: Shutterstock.com After decades on the run, Felicien Kabuga, who allegedly was a mastermind of the Rwanda genocide in the 1990s, was arrested by French police and will appear in court this week. The 84-year-old lived under a false identity in a Paris suburb "with the complicity of his children," according to authorities. Kabuga was the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Mechanism, the body responsible for completing the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. According to a statement from French authorities, he was one of the "most wanted fugitives in the world" and the United States had promised a bounty of $5 million for his capture. According to Paris prosecutors, Kabuga is accused of creating the Interahamwe militias that were responsible for numerous massacres between April 1990 and July 1994. He is also accused of starting Radio-Television Mille Collines, which supported and encouraged the genocide. PHOTO: A visitor looking at victims' portraits at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, April 29, 2018. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images, FILE) At the end of a bloody civil war that started in 1990, around 800,000 Rwandans died under attack from neighbors or militias that used machetes, hoes and studded clubs. The clashes between two of Rwanda's ethnic groups started under Belgian occupation, which granted Tutsis access to education and positions of governance over the Hutus. MORE: 'Batman atmosphere': Mysterious lock picker opens parks across Paris at night Olivier Olsen, who managed the apartment building where Kabuga lived outside Paris, told local news agency AFP that Kabuga was "very discreet" and someone "who whispers when you greet him." On Wednesday, judges will decide whether to surrender Kabuga to the International Criminal Court in Arusha, Tanzania. But Kabugas lawyers want Kabuga to remain in France and be tried there. PHOTO: Thousands of abandoned machetes collect at the border of Rwanda and Tanzania, where Hutu refugees fleeing Rwanda are allowed across the border on the condition that they leave behind their weapons, circa 1994. (David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images, FILE) "With regard to his condition and his age, Mr. Kabuga is not in the capacity to be transferred," attorney Laurent Bayon told ABC News. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Kabuga could be first transferred to The Hague before being sent to Arusha. Story continues Bayon said Kabuga denies his involvement in the genocide. Kabuga has been hospitalized multiples times since 2016, according to Bayon, who is asking for a complete "psychiatric and psychological expertise to see to what extent [Kabuga] is able to understand" the facts of the case. Since 1994, Kabuga had lived in various countries including Germany, Belgium, Congo-Kinshasa, Kenya and Switzerland, according to French authorities. Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga to be heard in French court after 25 years on the run originally appeared on abcnews.go.com 15 communities within the Kwadaso municipality of the Ashanti region have received 150 led street lights to help curb the alarming rate of crime in the area. The Member of Parliament Dr. S. K who donated the lights Monday says the security issues in most of the communities need swift attention hence the move. The fifteen communities benefitting from the lights include Kwadaso metro, Tanoso, Apatrapa, Nyakyernease, Techiman, Denkyemuoso, Edwenase, IPT, Pokukrom among others. Each community will receive 10 pieces to place them at some vantage crime-prone areas within these communities. Kwadaso is one of the municipality within the Ashanti region where security issues are of more concern. Presenting the items Dr. Nuamah hinted his outfit is committed to helping combat crime to safeguards the lives of the people. According to him, the initial 150 lights are given to the assembly members at the beneficial communities, for them to lead the team to put them in most critical areas in their respective communities. The member of Parliament says the University of Education Kumasi campus situated within his auspices has already received 30 pieces of the street lights adding up to 180 pieces. Also, the Member of Parliament also, inspected the asphalting roads project going on in some areas within the municipality. He, however, emphasized that the Tanoso Techiman road and Kwadaso-Denkyemuoso-Techiman which are also under construction will be completed at the speculated set time. CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wabash College Board of Trustees has elected Scott Feller, Ph.D., to serve as the 17th President of Wabash College. Dr. Feller, who has served as Dean of the College at Wabash since 2014 and as Professor of Chemistry since 1998, was elected by unanimous vote during the Trustees' meeting May 16, 2020. "Wabash has been fortunate to have Scott and his wife, Wendy, on our team for over 20 years, and I have personally experienced firsthand the attributes that make Scott the best-qualified person to be our 17th president," said Jay R. Allen '79, Chair of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Feller replaces Gregory D. Hess, president at Wabash since 2013, who announced his resignation in March. Dr. Feller spearheaded the College's ongoing efforts to expand its academic footprint, focus on student success, and improve operational effectiveness. Under his leadership and with innovative retention initiatives, the College boasted a record-high four-year graduation rate in 2019. He and Hess secured funding to launch the Wabash Liberal Arts Immersion Program, which dramatically improved the retention and graduation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. "I am humbled by the trust the Board has placed in me and look forward to continuing the good work underway at the College," Dr. Feller said. "The beauty of the strategic objectives we laid out seven years ago is they are timeless and exemplify our mission: we focus on the intellectual and personal development and success of each and every Wabash student. I have been excited to be a part of this work and look forward to continuing it as president." Dr. Feller joined the Wabash faculty in the chemistry department in 1998 after earning his B.A. from Willamette University and his Ph.D. from the University of California-Davis. He received the McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009. During his tenure, he has hired or conducted tenure or promotion reviews of over 80 percent of the current Wabash faculty. He led efforts to add majors in Computer Science; Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE); and numerous interdisciplinary minors. As a physical chemist, Dr. Feller has authored 76 peer-reviewed publications with more than 9,000 citations; has given more than 50 invited scientific lectures; and has mentored at least 15 undergraduates who later earned Ph.D.s. He has won national awards from the Biophysical Society, Eli Lilly/Indiana University, Dreyfus Foundation, Food and Drug Administration, and National Science Foundation. SOURCE Wabash College Related Links http://www.wabash.edu WASHINGTON - Two GOP governors are offering up their states to host the Republican National Convention a day after President Donald Trump threatened to pull the convention out of North Carolina if that states Democratic governor doesnt assure him that the August gathering can go forward despite coronavirus fears. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sent an open plea to Trump on Tuesday to consider his state as an alternate site for the quadrennial convention, which is set to gather more than 2,500 delegates and thousands more guests, press and security officials. Plans have been underway for more than a year to hold the convention in Charlotte, but Trump and national Republican officials have expressed concerns that local officials may not allow gatherings of that size during the pandemic. With world-class facilities, restaurants, hotels, and workforce, Georgia would be honoured to safely host the Republican National Convention, Kemp tweeted Tuesday. We hope you will consider the Peach State, ??@realDonaldTrump?! Kemps offer was followed by one from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who told reporters at a Miami news conference that he would love to have the GOP or even the Democratic convention, as either would bring millions of dollars to the state. The Republican governor said if Trump decides to move the GOP convention, it presumably would have to abide by any federal health guidelines and Florida would do its part to uphold them. The door is open, we want to have the conversation, whether RNC, DNC, whatever, because I think it will be good for the people of Florida, DeSantis said. The Democratic convention is scheduled to be held in Milwaukee, and party officials have said they are evaluating contingency options, including a potential virtual convention, as a result of the virus. Trump on Tuesday complained anew that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper wouldnt yet guarantee that the convention could take place as scheduled. We have a governor who doesnt want to open up the state, Trump said of Cooper, suggesting his hesitance was the result of political differences. Hes been acting very very slowly and very suspiciously. Trump reiterated that he hopes to have the convention in Charlotte but needed certainty within a week or he would be forced to consider alternate sites. A lot of locations want it, Trump said. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president is monitoring virus transmission data and wants to see this convention take place and sees no reason not to as the nation begins to reopen. Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said the president is right to ask for assurances from North Carolina about the convention. We want to have it in North Carolina, the president wants to have it in North Carolina, she told Fox News on Tuesday morning. Its just the governor. He has to work with us. Every state we talk to says we want to nominate the president here, but this governor is up for reelection and hasnt given us the reassurances we need. We need to be able to move forward in a concrete way. We are going to have those discussions. The Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Georgias capital and by far its largest city, said in a statement Tuesday that its reopening plan doesnt mesh with Kemps offer to hold the convention in Georgia. Like North Carolina, the City of Atlanta is following a phased, data-driven approach to reopening. That plan does not contemplate hosting a large gathering event in August, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said. In fact, several long-standing City-supported and sponsored events have already been cancelled in order to comply with CDC guidelines. David Shafer, chairman of Georgias state Republican Party, said in a text message that he spoke to Kemp on Tuesday morning. We have reached out to Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna Romney to let her know that, if North Carolina falls through, Georgia is ready to help, Shafer told The Associated Press. Under Governor Kemp, Georgia has led the nation in safely reopening its economy, Shafer said. We have first class facilities, a skilled workforce and a reputation for hospitality second to none. We would be proud to host the Republican National Convention. Kemp spokeswoman Candice Broce declined to answer questions about the hasty bid and instead referred questions to Shafer. Georgia became a lightning rod for both criticism and praise when it was one of the first states in the nation to allow businesses including tattoo parlours and bowling alleys to reopen in late April. Trump criticized Kemps decision at the time, saying Its just too soon, but later said he was only expressing concern about certain places, like tattoo parlours, being reopened, adding: I think its wonderful. As it tried to nail down convention plans, the Trump campaign announced it was promoting two veteran political aides to senior leadership roles. Bill Stepien, the former White House political director, will serve as deputy campaign manager, the campaign said. Stephanie Alexander, a regional political director, will become the campaigns chief of staff. The pair bring additional political experience to the campaigns upper echelon, which is led by campaign manager Brad Parscale, a relative newcomer to national politics who ran Trumps digital effort in 2016. - Nadler reported from Atlanta. Terry Spencer contributed from Miami. The Chronicle began covering the coronavirus crisis before the first cases were reported in the Bay Area and a pandemic was declared. We reorganized the newsroom to dedicate nearly every resource to stories focusing on the health and economic disasters. Every day we have published live updates to reflect the most critical local, national and global updates on COVID-19, and this news is free of charge in an effort to keep our community safe and informed. Read the previous batch of updates from May 23-24. Read the previous batch of updates from May 27-28. See the full timeline. Updates from Tuesday, May 26: 11:30 p.m. New cases in Sonoma County: Officials in Sonoma County reported nine new cases of the coronavirus Tuesday, bringing the countys total to 524 confirmed cases. Of those, 298 cases are active, 222 people have recovered and four people have died, according to the countys website. The total represents a 2.24% positive rate among 23,356 people tested for the virus, per the county. 11:13 p.m. Health worker cases in U.S. top 60,000, CDC says: More than 62,000 U.S. health care workers have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 291 have died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Health worker status was available for only 21.3% of cases for which data was collected, the CDC said, indicating the actual number might be higher. As of Monday, 9,360 cases and 50 deaths had been confirmed among health care workers in California alone, the states public health department reported. 10:49 p.m. IHME model reduces projected U.S. death toll: The U.S. is now projected to record 131,967 deaths by August due to the coronavirus in a model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at University of Washington, a decrease of more than 11,000 from the agencys projection a week earlier. That is despite lockdown measures being lifted across the country the IHME noted mobility patterns on April 26 were 35% to 40% below normal in most U.S. states but back up to 10%-to-30% below normal in at least 20 states as of Tuesday. The IHME website did not provide a reason for the change in its projected death toll. 10:35 p.m. Amtrak calls for nearly $1.5 billion bailout, report says: Amtrak said Tuesday it needs an additional $1.475 billion in federal aid and still plans to cut its workforce by up to 20% as the coronavirus pandemic decimates travel, according to Reuters. Amtrak said its ridership and revenue are down 95% or more year-over-year since the onset of the pandemic, Reuters reported. Amtrak previously received $1 billion in emergency federal aid in April. 9:15 p.m. Gatherings of 100 pose serious risk for spread of virus, health officer says: Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara Countys public health officer, said Californias move to allow religious gatherings and in-person protests of up to 100 people poses a very serious risk for the spread of COVID-19. Cody told county supervisors Tuesday the number far exceeds limits on gatherings of 10 people in New York and 25 people in New Jersey. Our ability to contain the virus from spreading if theres one COVID-positive individual at such a large event is quite limited, Cody said. 9 p.m. Santa Clara County releases information on every COVID-19 death: The data, which is the most comprehensive to be published by a public health department in the Bay Area, provides the age, race, gender, residential ZIP code, cause of death and underlying health condition for all 139 people who have died from the disease. Read the story here. 8:25 p.m. States reopening pace concerning, health official says: Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara Countys health officer, said the pace at which California is relaxing lockdown restrictions is concerning because the coronavirus 14-day incubation period means the effects of recent changes to health orders has not manifested yet. In recent days, California has relaxed restrictions on religious gatherings, retail shopping, salons and other activities. Santa Clara is among Bay Area counties moving at a slower pace and Cody told county supervisors Tuesday, The state modifications are being made without a real understanding of the consequences of what the last move has been. 7:50 p.m. LA County allowing churches, stores to reopen: Houses of worship can resume at 25% occupancy, some retail stores can reopen for in-store shopping and malls can reopen at 50% capacity under a revised Los Angeles County health order issued Tuesday. Businesses are required to implement health and safety protocols and residents are still required to practice physical distancing in public and wear a cloth face covering when in contact with others, according to the order. 7:27 p.m. Contact tracing leading to rise in Sonoma County cases, official says: Sonoma County health officer Dr. Sundari Mase said, intensive contact tracing of positive coronavirus cases is partly responsible for a recent increase in reported cases in the county. Sonoma County has confirmed 203 new cases in the last 14 days, Mase said. The county has uncovered spread of the virus both in family and work groups but is also seeing more community transmission cases, Mase said in a virtual town hall Tuesday. 7 p.m. Fourth Santa Clara County inmate tests positive: A fourth inmate in the Santa Clara County jail system has tested positive for the coronavirus, a county sheriffs spokesperson confirmed. The inmate was arrested by San Jose police on May 9 and tested positive while getting booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jails restrictive movement unit for a 14-day observation period, the spokesperson said. The inmate is now housed in an isolation cell at Elmwood Correctional Facility and is being monitored by health staff, the spokesperson said. 6:19 p.m. Sonoma County says it wont reopen salons, places of worship right away: Sonoma County announced on Twitter it will not immediately amend its health order to reopen some functions newly allowed by the state. Though the state has eased restrictions for in-store retail, barbershops, hair salons, and places of worship, the Sonoma County Health Officer will continue to adhere to the current County Health Order, county officials said. The primary reason for not modifying the health order is that Sonoma County has seen a large increase in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the past week, the county said. 6 p.m. LA opens test site at Dodger Stadium: A new coronavirus testing site in the parking lot at Dodger Stadium has the capacity to conduct 6,000 tests per day, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a Tuesday news briefing. The city, its fire department and the nonprofit Community Organized Relief Effort are partnering on the drive-through site, the Los Angeles Times reported. 5:41 p.m. Los Angeles to reopen all stores for in-person shopping: Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that starting Wednesday all retail businesses in Los Angeles will be allowed to reopen for in-person shopping if they adopt safety protocols to protect employees and customers. Garcetti said limiting many stores to curbside pickup had put small retail at a disadvantage. Garcetti said: If we dont do it right, well see things get shut down. But I believe that we can do it right and weve earned the right way to do it. 5:10 p.m. Pop-up testing available in Santa Clara County this week: Santa Clara County will offer free coronavirus testing on Tuesday in Mountain View, at Rengstorff Park Pool Area from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on Thursday in San Jose, in the parking lot of La Placita Tropicana Shopping Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the county announced. Tests do not require health insurance or a doctors note, the county said. County officials recommend that workers interacting regularly with the public get tested once a month even if they are asymptomatic. 5:05 p.m. Three new cases in Marin County: Public health officials confirmed three new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday in Marin County, bringing the total case count to 420. There have been 14 deaths, 52 hospitalizations and 269 recoveries, officials said. 5 p.m. New coronavirus cases grow 40% in the Bay Area, hitting Alameda County hardest: Thats compared to a 10% increase statewide. Alameda County has surpassed Santa Clara County as the regions hardest hit spot in the region. Bay Area experts say the increase may have started when construction sites re-opened, and now they say they will be extremely cautious about next steps. Read the story here. 4:53 p.m. Mandatory testing for staff at Chino state prison: All employees will be tested for the coronavirus at the California Institution for Men in Chino (San Bernardino County), where nine inmates have died due to the coronavirus, the Los Angeles Times reports. As of Tuesday, 635 inmates at the Chino prison had tested positive for the virus, including 458 in custody with active cases, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website. The prison has confirmed 58 cases among staff, with 35 returned to work, according to state corrections officials. 4:40 p.m. Solano County case count rises: Officials in Solano County reported 44 additional cases of the coronavirus Tuesday, bringing the countys total to 499. Solano County had not updated its case total since last Friday. The county has 65 active cases with 18 patients hospitalized as of Tuesday, according to its website. 4:25 p.m. San Mateo County votes to stop charging for reusable bags: San Mateo County supervisors voted Tuesday to suspend an ordinance that requires grocery and retail stores in the county to charge customers for reusable bags, the county announced. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a similar statewide order on April 22, but a county resolution said the order did not apply and stores in San Mateo County were still technically required to charge for bags. The countys health order prohibits people from bringing their own bags into stores to guard against spread of the coronavirus. 4:20 p.m. Marin County encourages essential workers to get tested: As testing capacity expands, health officials are urging essential workers to get a free coronavirus test if they have frequent contact with other people, Marin County officials announced. Health officials said they have seen spikes of case among people who work at grocery stores, construction sites, gas stations and restaurants. Seniors and people who live in multi-generational homes should also get tested because they are at higher risk, county officials said. 4:15 p.m. More DMV offices to reopen Thursday: The California Department of Motor Vehicles will reopen 46 more field offices on Thursday, in addition to 25 reopened earlier this month, to assist customers with an existing appointment and to provide limited transactions that require an in-person visit. In the Bay Area, the 46 include Corte Madera, Daly City, Fairfield, Fremont, Oakland Coliseum, Pittsburg, Pleasanton, San Mateo and Santa Clara. They will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. except for Wednesday when they will open at 9 a.m. The DMV has begun rescheduling prior appointments and notifying customers of the new date, it said in a press release, but didnt say whether all appointments missed since the offices closed March 27 will be automatically rescheduled. Appointments will be rescheduled as time permits, said DMV spokeswoman Anita Gore. 4:02 p.m. Santa Clara County confirms 24 new cases: Public health officials in Santa Clara County reported 24 more cases of the coronavirus Tuesday to increase the countys number of known cases to 2,675. The total represents a 4.06% positive rate out of 65,957 people tested for the virus, according to the county. 3:55 p.m. San Mateo County closes PPE drop-off site: County officials have closed a Redwood City site for the public to donate personal protective equipment to be used by health care workers combating the coronavirus, San Mateo County announced. The site, which opened in March, collected more than 200,000 gloves, more than 5,000 N95 and KN95 masks, 1,650 face coverings and nearly 13,000 surgical masks, the county said. Donations had tapered and closing the site allows staff to be redirected, the county said. 3:45 p.m. New cases in Napa County: Officials reported eight new cases of the coronavirus in Napa County, increasing the countys total to 109. Of those cases, 53 are active, 53 people have recovered and three people have died, according to the countys website. The positive case rate represents 1.7% of 6,482 people who have been tested, according to the county. 3:40 p.m. Alameda County nears 3,000 cases: Public health officials in Alameda County reported 49 new cases of the coronavirus Tuesday, bringing the countys total to 2,986 confirmed cases. The county has reported 93 deaths. 3:30 p.m. Bay Area hospital cases climb: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospitals in the nine Bay Area counties increased each day from Friday through Sunday before decreasing by one case to 250 on Monday, according to state data reviewed by The Chronicle. It marked the areas first consecutive days reporting increased hospitalization numbers since April 19-20. Statewide, 3,065 confirmed hospital cases were reported Monday, a one-day 1.7% increase, while confirmed ICU cases rose 2.1% to 1,084. 2:50 p.m. Twitter fact-checks Trumps mischaracterizaton of mail-in ballots: Twitter added a link to get the facts to President Trumps tweet about Californias mail ballot initiative. Trump tweeted that voting by mail would lead to election fraud, singling out Gov. Gavin Newsoms plan to reduce coronavirus risk by sending registered voters mail-in ballots. Twitter added a link to Trumps post that goes to page stating Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to a Rigged Election. However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. 2:30 p.m. Santa Cruz County allows office, retail other reopening: Office workspaces, in-store retail, religious services and cultural ceremonies in Santa Cruz County can resume under a new health order issued by health officials, effective 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. Businesses and operations that reopen must follow social distancing and face-covering orders, health officials said in a statement. Persons older than 65 and those with medical conditions should continue staying home. 2:20 p.m. FBI ends probe of biotech trades by Feinsteins husband: The FBI is no longer investigating stock trades made by Sen. Dianne Feinsteins husband in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the senators office said Tuesday. Investigators had questioned sales of millions of dollars of biotechnology stocks made shortly after senators received briefings in January about the coronavirus spreading. Read the details. 2:16 p.m. Deaths spike among SF homeless: The number of homeless people in San Francisco who died since March spiked dramatically compared to last year, an increase that officials say was likely driven by drug overdoses and a disruption to shelter and services due to the coronavirus pandemic. None appear to be directly related to COVID-19, according to preliminary Public Health data obtained by The Chronicle. 2:12 p.m. San Francisco Botanical Garden to reopen June 1: The San Francisco Botanical Garden will reopen on June 1 after closing in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Visitors are encouraged to buy tickets in advance to reduce transaction times at gates. Social distancing and face coverings will be required in the garden and the number of people allowed in simultaneously will be limited. 2:07 p.m. Only 3 Bay Area counties qualify for new state barbershop, salon rule: In the Bay Area, only Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties are eligible so far to open barbershops and hair salons under Gov. Gavin Newsoms guidelines announced Tuesday. Counties have to first have received state permission to move faster on loosening lockdown measures. Read The Chronicles story. 1:50 p.m. Contra Costa County confirms 17 more cases: Seventeen more cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Contra Costa County, bringing the number of known cases so far to 1,353, health officials said. 1:38 p.m. California death toll over holiday plummets to lowest since late March: Sixteen people in California died of COVID-19 on Sunday and again on Monday, marking the fewest number of fatalities per day since the 14 recorded March 29, The Chronicles comprehensive tracking shows. It was by far the lowest two-day total of lives lost since March 28-29, when combined deaths totaled 31. 1:22 p.m. As to start furloughs and salary reductions: The Oakland As have begun cutting back on fulltime employees during the coronavirus pandemic work stoppage, informing pro scouts they will be furloughed starting next week and amateur scouts after next months draft, The Chronicle is reporting. The affects more than half the teams front-office staff of more than 150. 1:16 p.m. Reopening boosts markets: Optimism over the reopening of the economy overshadowed lingering worries about the coronavirus pandemic, sending stocks up sharply Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 530 points to close at 24,995, a gain of more than 2%. 12:44 p.m. California records 19 more deaths: Nineteen more people in California died of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, and more than 2,000 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed. 12:40 p.m. How to track Californias reopening: The shifting outlines of whats open county by county can spur confusion and frustration: Whats open, whats still closed,what about parks, beaches, or travel? Whats the difference between Early Stage 2 and Advanced Stage 2? Get answers to these questions and track the states reopening in The Chronicles new interactive resource. https://projects.sfchronicle.com/2020/coronavirus-map/california-reopening/ 12:35 p.m. Counties can start to reopen barbershops and salons, Newsom says: Barbershops and salons can begin to reopen in counties where health departments give their approval, Gov. Newsom said at a briefing Tuesday. Counties that do so must meet the states criteria to move ahead of the current statewide restrictions 47 out of 58 counties have done so and shops have to take precautions to protect workers and patrons. 12:08 p.m. Morgan Hill seafood wholesaler struck by outbreak: At least 38 workers at a Morgan Hill seafood wholesaler have tested positive for the coronavirus, Santa Clara Countys top health official said Tuesday. Dr. Sara Cody told the countys Health and Hospital Committee that officials will test everyone again Wednesday at Lusamerica Foods where the outbreak was confirmed. The first case arose a few weeks ago in an employee whose spouse fell ill, Cody said. Lusamerica said all of the infected remained at home and most were asymptomatic. We are doing everything we can to provide a safe working environment for our employees, chief operating officer Louise Moretti told The Chronicle. 11:58 a.m. GOP convention solicited by two states: Two GOP governors are offering up their states to host the Republican National Convention, a day after President Trump threatened to pull the August event out of North Carolina if that states governor doesnt assure him it can go forward despite coronavirus fears. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sent an open plea pitching his state, and Floridas Gov. Ron DeSantis chimed in as well. 11:40 a.m. Blood clots are new worry in COVID-19 patients: Blood clots that can cause strokes, heart attacks and dangerous blockages in legs and lungs are increasingly being found in COVID-19 patients, including children. Even tiny clots that can damage tissue are seen, confounding doctors understanding of what was once considered mainly a respiratory infection, the Associated Press reports. 11:24 a.m. Newsom to update on pandemic efforts: Gov. Gavin Newsom planned a noon briefing Tuesday on the coronavirus in California, likely featuring questions about his new directive Monday allowing houses of worship and retail stores to reopen with conditions. 11:09 a.m. Poll finds more than 2-1 margin in favor of voting by mail: As President Trump without evidence denounces voting by mail as a scam, a national Fox News poll indicates that by a more than 2-to-1 margin Americans favor allowing mail-in ballots in November due to coronavirus health concerns. Nearly two-thirds were in favor, but the poll reflected a large partisan divide. 10:53 a.m. Pharmacies ramp up for regular flu season: U.S. pharmacy chains are preparing a big push for flu vaccinations when the season kicks off in October, hoping to curb tens of thousands of serious cases that could coincide with a second wave of coronavirus infections. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that about 60 percent of U.S. adults plan to get the flu vaccine in the fall. Typically fewer than half of Americans get vaccinated. 10:46 a.m. Pence aide back at White House after infection: Katie Miller, Vice President Pences press secretary, said Tuesday that she has returned to work after three negative tests for the coronavirus. Miller was notified May 8 that she had tested positive a revelation that heightened concerns about exposure within the White House. 10:40 a.m. The coronavirus could derail efforts to save nearly extinct rhino species: Groundbreaking work to keep alive the nearly extinct northern white rhino subspecies population, two by in-vitro fertilization has been stalled by coronavirus travel restrictions. And time is running out, the Associated Press reports. 10:30 a.m. San Mateo County announces six more deaths: Six more people in San Mateo County died of COVID-19 and 71 more cases of the coronavirus were confirmed, according to health officials. The county has recorded 82 COVID-19 deaths in all and confirmed 1,904 cases of the infection. 10:25 a.m. Obsessive compulsive therapy helps sufferers cope: But OCD sufferers in the Bay Area say that years of therapy have made them the calmest person in their household as the coronavirus-wrought intense handwashing, fear of leaving the home and fear of causing harm to others mimics classic OCD struggles. Read the story from The Chronicles Peter Hartlaub. 10:05 a.m. Pentagon watchdog who oversaw pandemic relief spending steps down: Glenn Fine, ousted by President Trump last month as head of a watchdog panel overseeing how his administration spends trillions of taxpayer dollars in coronavirus pandemic relief, has resigned from his Pentagon job. 9:57 a.m. Meatpacking companies keep case numbers secret: Dozens of U.S. meatpacking facilities, places where the coronavirus spreads rapidly, are beginning to reopen after President Trump declared them critical infrastructure. Yet its hard to know if the contagion is contained or if new cases are emerging even amid new safety measures, the New York Times reports, because companies wont disclose case counts. 9:40 a.m. Reopenings continue as outbreaks on the rise in many states: About a dozen states are seeing an uptick in new coronavirus cases, even as all 50 states move to reopen. States that reopened earlier or never fully shut down are among them. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee have had a rise in new cases several weeks after moving to reopen. 9:30 a.m. Dozens of SF homeless moved to RVs in Bayview: With homeless shelter capacity reduced 76% by needing to maintain social distance, San Francisco has moved 98 peple to newly available RVs in the Bayview as one solution, Mayor London Breed said Tuesday on Twitter. The Port Commission let the city put 120 trailers and RVs on Pier 94. 9:24 a.m. Dont throw your stimulus payment in the trash: Following reports that some people thought their prepaid debit card containing their economic impact payment was junk mail, the IRS is explaining how to recognize it. It arrives in a plain envelope from Money Network Cardholder Services. The Visa name will appear on the front of the card; the back of the card has the name of the issuing bank, MetaBank, N.A. The mail will identify it as an Economic Impact Payment Card. 9:16 a.m. Some New York ZIP codes have a 40% infection rate: Officials in New York will start focusing their efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic in ZIP codes that have recorded up to 40% infection rates in New York City, about double the rate of the city overall, Gov. Cuomo said. Those are predominantly lower-income and minority communities, he said. 9:12 a.m. Defining moment for Congress in election year: Congress is at a crossroads in the coronavirus crisis, wrestling over whether to go big, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants for the next relief bill, or hit pause, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insists. Billions of dollars in state aid, jobless benefits and health resources for Americans are at stake in an election year. 9:08 a.m. Cuomo and Trump to meet: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said hes scheduled to meet with President Trump on Wednesday to discuss several topics related to the coronavirus pandemic, including the start of infrastructure projects that need federal aid. 8:46 a.m. WHO health executive says we are smack in middle of 1st wave: As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, the disease is very much in a phase of escalation, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization.Right now, were not in the second wave. Were right in the middle of the first wave globally. 8:31 a.m. Study suggests U.S. hospitals may be hit harder than thought: COVID-19 patients in the U.S. are hospitalized longer and have higher ICU admission rates than patients in China, a new study by UC Berkeley and Kaiser Permanente researchers has found. Thus, observations from China dont likely pedict demand on U.S. hospitals, and the pandemic could hit American hospitals harder than was projected based on Chinas experience, the researchers found. 8:16 a.m. San Francisco confirms 13 new cases: San Francisco recorded 13 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the number of known cases to 2,399, according to the Department of Public Health on Tuesday. 8:12 a.m. Inside a San Francisco homeless hotel: Supervisor Matt Haney has been working at a hotel where unhoused people shelter in place. On the Fifth & Mission podcast, he tells Heather Knight about his experience there, and says its convinced him that more people on the streets need to be moved into vacant rooms. Click here to listen. 8:05 a.m. Schools are coming back, but what about teachers? Signalling a potential massive wave of resignations, one in 5 teachers say they are unlikely to go back to school if their classrooms reopen in the fall, a USA Today/Ipsos poll finds. Nearly two-thirds say they havent been able to properly do their jobs in an educational system upended by the coronavirus. 7:57 p.m. Some restaurants doing better than ever: Amid a dire pandemic landscape, some Bay Area restaurants found ways to emerge resilient, to the point of better than ever, including those serving Silicon Valley tech workers missing their free lunches at the office. With expanded delivery, special menus, and creative operations, some see guarded optimism about survival as a victory already. Read the full story. 7:45 a.m. Older adults face loneliness, frustration, fear: Older adults in the Bay Area are navigating the new reality of the pandemic: trying to maintain a quality of life that makes living worth it while avoiding the coronavirus. Read the story about this reality and how theyre getting creative by The Chronicles Tony Bravo. 7:34 a.m. PPE costs mean many restaurants cant make a go of it: As if they didnt have enough financial woes, restaurants now need to stock up on masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. In the Bay Area, not only are the items in short supply, they are also pricey, to the point that the cost of could force many to close. Read The Chronicles story. 7:27 a.m. Contra Costa County courts to reopen: All courts in Contra Costa County are reopening Tuesday, but with modifications. The criteria to enter court buildings includes temperatures checks, required face coverings and revised hours. Read a full list of guidelines and changes here. 7:22 a.m. Dow rises above 25,000: Stocks rose as the New York Stock Exchange resumed in-person trading. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.4%, crossing 25,000. 7:15 a.m. Also swept up in coronavirus fury Prop. 13: The pandemics vast financial damage is transforming the fight over a proposed change to Californias sacrosanct Proposition 13 already primed to be a fierce battle on Novembers ballot into a struggle over Californias future. The measure seeks to raise $12 billion a year for schools and local government by raising property taxes for many businesses. Read more here. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. 7:00 a.m. NY governor rings New York Stock Exchange bell: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday rang the New York Stock Exchanges opening bell to reopen the trading floor for the first time in two months, after the trading floors closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Traders now have to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart. 6:49 a.m. No one I can be mad at other than the virus: The coronavirus pandemic has wrought high school graduation seasons like none before drive-by diploma awarding, virtual commencements, digital yearbooks on Instagram. No ditch days, senior prom or cozy arm-around graduate photos. As one senior said Theres no one I can be mad at other than the virus. Read how Bay Area graduates are managing. 6:25 a.m. Trump mischaracterizes Newsoms absentee ballots plan: President Trump sent out a misleading tweet Tuesday morning about California Gov. Gavin Newsoms plan to send every registered voter in the state a mail ballot to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone (...) living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one, Trump said in a tweet. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way! Newsom announced the absentee ballot effort earlier this month as a safety precaution to allow people to avoid packing into polling places on election day. Read more on Newsoms plan. 6:12 a.m. Nearly 100,000 dead in the US: The number of people in the United States who have died of COVID-19 reached 98,223, according to Johns Hopkins University. There were 1,662,768 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the nation. Updates from Monday, May 25: 4:43 p.m. Marin County reports more cases: County public health officials reported 14 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the countys case total to 417 cases. The death total remained unchanged at 14 on Monday, according to Marin Health & Human Services data. 4:18 p.m. Santa Clara County cases climb: County public health officials reported 36 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the countys case total to 2,652 cases. The death total remained unchanged at 139 on Monday, according to the countys data dashboard. 4 p.m. U.S. ticks toward tragic milestone: The holiday weekend offered no reprieve for the nations steady march toward a marker that reveals the extent of the coronavirus pandemics human toll. As Memorial Day celebrations drew to an end, the nationwide death toll remained just shy of 100,000 lives lost, standing at 98,184 late Monday afternoon, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University. 3:56 p.m. Bay Area keeps it mainly virtual for Memorial Day remembrances: It was a virtual Memorial Day Monday, with a coronavirus-ravaged Bay Area replacing in-person parades and cemetery services with videos and online commemorations of those who have given their lives in service to the country.Veterans groups still honored service members in non-public events, including a virtual memorial hosted by the USS San Francisco Memorial Foundation. Read more about the Bay Areas holiday. 3:46 p.m. Neighborhood guerrilla history project attracts SF outdoor viewers: The Western Neighborhoods Project is an act of guerrilla history responsible for hundreds of historic photos showing up on telephone poles in San Francisco neighborhoods over the past two weeks. The often hastily-hung posters show streets and views over more than a century so passersby can get a then-and-now view of their neighborhood the perfect outdoor museum for coronavirus times. Read the details. 3:35 p.m. LA records more than 1,000 cases in single day: Los Angeles County reported a second day of soaring new coronavirus infections, with 1,047 new cases as of Saturday evening, and 42 additional deaths. County health officials have recorded 46,018 COVID-10 cases in all, with a death toll of 2,116. 3:22 p.m. Holiday travels down but we dont know how much: For the first time in 20 years, AAA did not issue a Memorial Day travel forecast, though an official predicted travel volume is likely to set a record low due to coronavirus restrictions. Accuracy of the economic data used to create the forecast has been undermined by COVID-19, AAA said. The group found last year that a near-record 43 million Americans traveled for Memorial Day. 3:10 p.m. Cases edge up in Alameda, Contra Costa counties as state eases restrictions: Alameda County reported 26 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total to 2,788, with 92 deaths as of Saturday. Contra Costa County reported 15 new cases and 1 death, bringing its total so far to 1,136 cases and 37 deaths. Bay Area numbers continued to climb as Gov. Gavin Newsom announced loosened restrictions for churches, retail and political gatherings Monday. 2:58 p.m. Doubt cast on European Union immunity certification: The EU cant count on immunity certification when lifting border restrictions within the bloc, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told health ministers on Monday. Immunity certification isnt reliable, she said, emphasizing instead prevention measures like maintaining physical distancing and robust testing strategies. 2:30 p.m. Is there a way to help the Tenderloin? On the Fifth & Mission podcast, Sam Dennison of the anti-poverty nonprofit Faithful Fools tells host Heather Knight what City Hall should be doing to help people in the Tenderloin, where tents continue to crowd sidewalks and people are unable to maintain social distance. Click here to listen. 2:15 p.m. Protests allowed in California with limited size: California health officials on Monday said that while most large gatherings remain prohibited under the states coronavirus stay-at-home order, in-person protests can occur as long as attendance is limited to 25% of an areas maximum occupancy or up to 100 attendees. The directive came in new guidelines on protests and events involving political expression. 2:10 p.m. California says retail stores can open statewide if counties approve: The California state health department on Monday announced that if approved by county public health departments, all retail stores can reopen for in-store shopping under previous guidelines but without having to take the step of asking state officials for approval. Counties may choose to keep tighter restrictions as most in the Bay Area already do. 1:15 p.m. Japan ends state of emergency: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas on Monday, ending the restrictions nationwide as businesses begin to reopen. Abe also unveiled a plan for a new stimulus package to support businesses hit by the pandemic. 12:17 p.m. England set to open most stores in June: The vast majority of shops in England can reopen in June as the government gradually eases coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says outdoor markets and spacious car showrooms can open June 1 because likelihood of transmission is low there. Clothes stores, bookshops, tailors, auctioneers and other retailers can follow on June 15, if infection numbers continue to fall and businesses can be made COVID-19 secure. 12:08 p.m. One partial explanation for partisan gulf on reopening: The staggering death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching 100,000, has touched every part of the U.S., but is most dramatic along the coasts, in major cities, across the industrial Midwest and in New York City. The devastation, in other words, has been disproportionately felt in blue America, which helps explain the partisan divide in the outlook on the coronavirus, the New York Times has found. 12:01 p.m. Counterproductive decisions due to fear of virus: Amid the high anxiety over COVID-19, fear is gripping not just people who are ill with the coronavirus but those in urgent need of other medical care. Even as the number of COVID-19 cases declines in many places, patients with cancer, heart disease and strokes, among others, are delaying or forgoing critical procedures that could keep them alive, the New York Times reports. 11:50 a.m. Poignant Memorial Day in nations hot spot: New Yorkers marked Memorial Day with car convoys and small ceremonies instead of big parades, blending tributes to coronavirus victims and frontline workers with the traditional remembrance of the nations war dead. Veterans wore masks and saluted while standing at social-distancing intervals at observances shrunk by virus precautions. Gov. Andrew Cuomo honored both veterans and essential workers on a day he called especially poignant and powerful. 11:35 a.m. California guidelines for churches call for written plan: Gov. Gavin Newsoms new guidelines for the reopening of places of worship call for them to create a written, workplace-specific COVID-19 prevention plan at every location, perform a comprehensive risk assessment of all work areas, and designate a person at each workplace to implement the plan. The guidelines also detail measures like disinfecting and face coverings and state, All workers and volunteers should wear gloves when handling items contaminated by body fluids, presumably a reference to communion distribution in Roman Catholic and other churches. 11:10 a.m. Newsom says churches can open with 25% of capacity: Churches in California can reopen for in-person services, provided the congregants are limited to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is fewer, under new state guidelines Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled Monday. After three weeks, state and county health officials will assess the impact of these imposed limits on public health and make a determination on future services, the guidelines state. The guidelines come after President Trump declared places of worship as essential businesses allowed to be open during the coronavirus pandemic. Read The Chronicles story with details. 10:59 a.m. WHO halts tests on drug Trump touted and took: The World Health Organization temporarily halted tests on hydroxychloroquine the drug President Trump has touted without scientific evidence in its Covid-19 drug trials because of safety concerns. The WHO on Monday announced a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial, pending further review. The decision followed a Lancet-published study saying the drug was linked to an increased risk of death and heart ailments. Trump said he recently finished a two-week course of the drug. 10:34 a.m. Black religious leaders in Bay Area urge churches in their communities to stay closed. A group of black pastors and clergy members is calling on Bay Area churches in the black community to stay shut to curb the COVID-19 risk. Black communities in the Bay Area and around the country have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. A dozen of the leaders planned to gather Monday at San Francisco City Hall to publicize their call for more testing, medical services and educational support, as California anticipated imminent state guidelines for reopening places of worship. 10:10 a.m. New York frontline workers to get death benefits: New Yorks state and local governments will provide death benefits to the families of essential workers who died while fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday. We want to make sure that we remember them, and we thank our heroes of today, and theyre all around us, Mr. Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. 9:49 a.m. Biden, in mask, lays wreath for Memorial Day: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Jill donned black face masks to visit to a veterans memorial, where he laid a wreath, in his home state of Delaware on Monday. It was Bidens first public appearance since mid-March. He has been observing coronavirus stay-at-home guidelines, campaigning from his home. He and the masked people with him contrasted with President Trump who has refused to don a face mask despite federal health guidance. 9:39 a.m. Suit hits Trump administration on food aid during pandemic: The Trump administration is defying Congress and harming some of the poorest and hungriest Californians by refusing to increase their food stamp benefits under a new federal law, advocates charged in a lawsuit. The government is denying emergency food assistance to those who need it the most in the midst of this unparalleled economic and health catastrophe, said the suit filed in federal court in San Francisco. Read The Chronicles story. 9:30 a.m. Newsom highlights measures taken to protect veterans. Gov. Gavin Newsoms Memorial Day message touted Californias proactive approach to minimizing COVID-19 risks at the states eight veterans homes. To date, three veterans in the homes have had confirmed cases of the virus and there are currently no active cases, according to the governors office.The homes house 2,400 veterans; each has its own detailed emergency operations plan and rigorous testing is conducted, Newsoms statement said. 9:22 a.m. Pelosi slams Trump on coronavirus testing: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, excoriated the Trump administration Monday for lack of a comprehensive national plan for testing to combat spread of the coronavirus. In a tweet and a joint statement with fellow Democrats, she called the administrations new test plan disappointing and wrote: After six months and nearly 100,000 lives lost, the Trump Administration still does not have a serious plan for increasing testing to stop the spread of the virus. 9:13 a.m. Spare the Air alert despite coronavirus-driven emissions reductions: Soaring temperatures prompted the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to declare Memorial Day the first Spare the Air day of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic eras reduced traffic and lower-than-normal air pollution. Temperatures were anticipated at as much as 20 degrees higher than average over the next few days, with light winds, which could make any vehicle exhaust linger, officials said. 8:53 a.m. Bay Area holiday crowds so far mostly observe social distance: Authorities throughout the Bay Area continued warning outdoor afficionados to be vigilant about physical distance to inhibit spread of the coronavirus, after heavy crowds in parts of the Bay Area during the first two days of a beautiful three-day Memorial Day weekend mostly succeeded to keep their distance from each other. One exception was Dolores Park on Saturday where sunbathers and picnickers crowded. 8:43 a.m. Trump threatens to yank GOP convention from North Carolina: President Trump is threatening to move the GOPs August nominating convention out of North Carolina unless the state allows a packed arena, despite the coronavirus pandemic. In a Monday morning tweet, he wrote he had insisted on Charlotte as a venue but, Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed ... ..full attendance in the Arena. Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News Monday the GOP would find another locale if need be. Coopers office said state officials are working with the GOP on convention decisions. 8:29 a.m. Post-pandemic life in San Francisco who knows?: The pandemics uncertainties no vaccine, no idea whether the virus might mutate or fade, no unified national response are different from a typical disaster, where a single event turns history on its head. Despite countless predictions about what lies ahead, it could be six months to a year before we have a sense of how cities will respond long term to a crisis that still is playing out. The Chronicles John King explains. 8:20 a.m. Bay Area firms study range of drugs for the coronavirus: Gileads antivirual drug Remdesivir is not the only treatment for the coronavirus being studied in the Bay Area. The scope of local research appears to be broadening, with a host of potential treatment raising the prospect that a major advancement against the coronavirus could come from the Bay Area. Read the story from J.D. Morris. 8:09 a.m. Trump administration delivers testing plan that relies on states: In a report to Congress, the Trump administration is pledging to buy 100 million swabs by the years end for states to help expand coronavirus testing capacity. The report, delivered on the Sunday deadline lawmakers had set for officials to submit a strategy, was obtained by the Washington Post. It doubles down on the administrations stance that individual states should bear primary responsibility for carrying out diagnostic tests to help curb the pandemic. 7:58 a.m. Dry winter compounds pain of coronavirus in northern state: In a handful of farm-dependent counties along the Oregon border, the prospect of running out of water, as soon as next month, has arrived as the Klamath Basin region faces the hardship of the coronavirus outbreak. Many businesses have closed or cut hours during the pandemic, leaving little cushion for the imminent fallout of drought. Hundreds of farmers are at risk of having their irrigation water shut off and watching their crops wither in the field. Read more from The Chronicles Kurtis Alexander. 7:39 a.m. Trump lays traditional wreath in Arlington National Cemetery: President Trump performed the traditional, somber wreath-laying Monday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington. Va., accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence and their wives. The first couples and the assembled dignataries and military members this year spaced themselves apart, but none appeared to be wearing face coverings to prevent spread of the coronavirus which is on the verge of claiming its 100,000th American. New Delhi, May 26 : Bharti Telecom has sold 2.75 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel to institutional investors through an accelerated book building process in the secondary market, raising Rs 8,433 crore. The allocation was done to over 50 accounts with the top 10 getting two-third of it, Bharti Telecom said in a statement, here on Tuesday. The sale proceeds would be used to repay promoter holding company's debt, it said. Bharti Group and Singtel, as Bharti Airtel's largest shareholders, remain committed to the business and long-term prospects of Bharti Airtel, it said. "The strong and wide response received from a diverse mix of investors across geographies, even during challenging global macro-economic conditions, shows the competitive strength and the long-term prospects of Bharti Airtel," said Harjeet Kohli, Group Director, Bharti Enterprises. "On the back of such a strong demand from international and domestic investors, the amount raised was increased to $1.15 billion," he said. As Connecticut reopens, as the focus of the cornonavirus crisis turns more toward the economy, the quality of an employer will come into ever-stark view. It matters even in the disaster of impossibly high unemployment, or maybe especially in the jobless spike forced by the health crisis. Through it all, weve seen business owners and managers step up with heightened concern for the safety of their workers and in many cases, for their economic wellbeing at a time when we cant know what will happen. Any organization in this storm can benefit from being known as a Top Workplace. In Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties, that means the Hearst Connecticut Media Group Top Workplaces awards, now in its 10th year. It will be easier to separate those companies that arent worthy of the moniker as a Top Workplace from those that are, based on whats happening, said David Lewis, founder and CEO of Norwalk-based OperationsInc, a human resources outsourcing and consulting firm entering Hearst Top Workplaces for the eighth time. The new deadline to to enter the final extension is this Friday, June 12. NOMINATE YOUR WORKPLACE HERE Weve extended the deadline through the spring. Despite many companies and nonprofit groups facing a threat to their existence, weve seen a solid response. Over the next three weeks well close out the nominations later than weve ever done it, in the hopes that organizations just now getting back up and running will have a chance to show what theyve accomplished in extreme conditions. Click here to see the 2019 winners and awards dinner Were looking to honor the best places to work whether theyre privately owned companies, publicly traded corporations, subsidiaries, partnerships, nonprofits or government agencies. A company need not have its headquarters here to compete. The contest, sponsored by all of the Hearst newspapers and websites, is open to any employer with 35 or more people in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties. Recognition is given for small, midsize and large organizations, and the contest also rewards the best executives. Last year, Hearst Connecticut Media honored 50 employers from across the region with a total if 13,595 employees. Results are based on a quick employee survey of 24 questions. The cost to compete and win is zero. Energage carries out the Top Workplaces surveys for more than 40 metro newspapers including some of the biggest. Last year, the company surveyed 2.7 million employees at more than 7,500 organizations. Last years highest award winners at Hearst Connecticut Media Group were: In the large employer category for companies with at least 400 people in the three counties, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties came in as No. 1, for the second year in a row. Among midsize employers with 125 to 399 local employees, United Rentals Inc., a global company based in Stamford, was the top finisher. In the small employer category, The Southfield Center for Development, a behavioral health care provider for children and teenagers in Darien and Wilton, won first place, among 33 companies on the Top Workplaces list. Three awards went to top-ranked leaders. They were Christopher Bogart, founder and executive director of The Southfield Center; Mark Curtis, founder and CEO of Splash Car Wash; and, at O&G Industries in Torrington, a trio of third-generation family members that run the giant construction firm: David Oneglia, Raymond Oneglia Jr. and Greg Oneglia. Watch this animated video about how Top Workplaces works. Ask any past winners why their Top Workplaces designation carries weight. For Lewis, at OperationsInc, the Top Workplaces brand matters...It speaks volumes to our prospective clients and existing clients. Only one company, ICON International Inc., the corporate barter firm, has made the winners list all nine years. We can only hope they celebrate with us for the 10th time in September when we announce the awards. Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces winners will be featured in the Connecticut Post, The News-Times of Danbury, Greenwich Time, The Stamford Advocate, The Norwalk Hour, New Haven Register and The Register Citizen of Torrington in September and will be highlighted on all of the associated websites. Clearly, these are scary and unpredictable times for companies and employees alike. Some employees just hope to have their jobs back and some companies and nonprofits just hope to survive. But for anyone, the Top Workplaces nameplate can help in a time of crisis, just as in good times and those good times will be back. For complete coverage of last years winners, go to any of those media outlets websites and type /topworkplaces such as www.ctpost.com/topworkplaces. Employers can be nominated online at topworkplaces. com/hearstct or by calling 203-617-0727. dhaar@hearstmediact.com Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi exchanged viewpoints on Tuesday on best practices to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In an official statement, El-Sisis spokesman Bassam Rady said the president had received a phone call from Modi. El-Sisi praised the historic bilateral relations between the two countries, affirming Egypts keenness to push forward with cooperation at various levels, especially in trade, investment and medical cooperation. Modi stressed his countrys appreciation for its close and extended ties with Egypt, according to the statement. The Indian premier also praised Egypts political weight, both domestically and internationally. Search Keywords: Short link: SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Congo Airways have converted the firm order made in December 2019 for two E175 aircraft, with purchase rights for two more, into a firm order for two E190-E2 jets, with purchase rights for a further two. The new deal has a total value of USD 256 million at current list prices with all purchase rights exercised, and will be included in Embraer's second quarter backlog. Desire Bantu, CEO of Congo Airways said, "These new jets will be replacing our legacy turboprops and will allow us to extend our operations within the Democratic Republic of Congo, and regionally to West, Central, and Southern Africa. Despite the current difficult circumstances, the fundamentals of our market have not changed; so we expect the momentum we've seen in the past to redevelop. I said in December that we may need to make an additional order for E2s due to the agility required to adapt to market changes we have now reached that point. As we prepare for future success, we will have the flexibility, and the right sized, most efficient aircraft, to serve our customers as the arket returns." "It's great to welcome another airline to the E2 and the Embraer family of operators, especially in Africa where the demand for regional travel had been growing strongly before the current crisis. Africa has long been a market with low frequencies and long thin routes. As airlines start ramp up their operations, the E2 family of aircraft is perfectly positioned to right size routes previously operated by narrowbodies, while keeping frequencies and adjusting capacity to new levels." said Raul Villaron, Vice President Sales, Africa and Middle East, Embraer Commercial Aviation "We look forward to supporting Congo Airways as they continue to upgrade their offering to their customers." The aircraft will be configured in a dual class layout seating 96 passengers in total, with 12 staggered business class seats. Deliveries are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022. This is second E2 order received from an African customer. There are currently 189 Embraer aircraft operating in Africa with 54 airlines in 27 countries. Embraer is the world's leading manufacturer of commercial aircraft up to 150 seats with more than 100 customers across the world. For the E-Jets program alone, Embraer has logged more than 1,800 orders and 1,500 aircraft have been delivered. Today, E-Jets are flying in the fleets of 80 customers in 50 countries. The versatile 70 to 150-seat family is flying with low-cost airlines as well as with regional and mainline network carriers. Follow us on Twitter: @Embraer About Embraer A global aerospace company headquartered in Brazil, Embraer celebrates its 50th anniversary with businesses in Commercial and Executive aviation, Defense & Security and Agricultural Aviation. The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets aircraft and systems, providing Services & Support to customers after-sales. Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft. On average, about every 10 seconds an aircraft manufactured by Embraer takes off somewhere in the world, transporting over 145 million passengers a year. Embraer is the leading manufacturer of commercial jets up to 150 seats and the main exporter of high value-added goods in Brazil. The company maintains industrial units, offices, service and parts distribution centers, among other activities, across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. PRESS OFFICES: Headquarters (Brazil) Corporate Communications [email protected] Cell: +55 11 98890 7777 Tel.: +55 11 4873 7984 North America Alyssa Ten Eyck [email protected] Cell: +1 954 383 0460 Tel.: +1 954 359 3847 Europe, Middle East and Africa Guy Douglas [email protected] Cell: +31 (0)657120121 Tell: +31 (0)202158109 China Mirage Zhong [email protected] Cell: +86 185 1378 5180 Tel.: +86 10 6598 9988 Asia Pacific Nilma Missir-Boissac [email protected] Cell: +65 9012 8428 Tel.: +65 6305 9955 SOURCE Embraer S.A. A slump in capital investments, private consumption and exports pushed the German economy into a recession in the first quarter, detailed data showed yesterday, giving a glimpse of the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Germany's Federal Statistics Office said capital investments fell by 6.9pc, private consumption by 3.2pc and exports by 3.1pc between January and March compared with the last three months of 2019. This meant that private consumption took off 1.7 percentage points of overall economic activity and net trade shaved off 0.8 percentage points. That translated into a first-quarter contraction of 2.2pc, the steepest rate since 2009. However, investments in the construction sector - which accounts for almost 10pc of overall national output and is Germany's largest employer - rose by 4.1pc, contributing 0.4 percentage points to quarterly growth. Government expenditure too rose by 0.2pc on the quarter, the data showed, preventing a deeper contraction. The 2.2pc drop in quarter-on-quarter output was the widest since the financial crisis of a decade ago and the second biggest since German reunification in 1990. It followed a 0.1pc contraction in the last three month of 2019. Economists expect a bigger fall in output in the second quarter as the bulk of curbs introduced in mid-March to fight the outbreak become more apparent. "As the first quarter performance is the result of 'only' two weeks of lockdown and supply chain disruptions due to lockdown measures in Asia, it does not need much analytical skill to predict a much stronger slump in the second quarter," said Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING. Reuters A Communications team member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Brogya Genfi has urged President Akufo-Addo to be patient and listen to experts in drafting his next address to the nation concerning the COVID-19 restriction measures. According to him he will not be surprised if the ban on public gatherings is lifted because the Office of the President has been under massive pressure by its own party members to lift the ban. " . . my advice to the President is that he should be very patient and vigilant in analyzing the precautionary measures associated with COVID-19," he said. He reitirated that the President should not be in a haste to satisfy the pleasures of his own party members. Speaking on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' newspaper panel discussion segment, Brogya Genfi insisted that, "there will be a disaster in Ghana should President Akufo-Addo uplift the ban on the ongoing precautionary measures". Ban on Public Gatherings The ban on all public gatherings as declared by President Akufo-Addo on March 15, 2020, in a televised broadcast, which included conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, church activities, and other related events as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus in the country has been extended till 31st May 2020. However, private burials are permitted, but with limited numbers, not exceeding twenty-five (25) in attendance. Source: Elizabeth Semiheva Bedi, [email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Washington: NASA has renamed its Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), a next-generation space telescope set to launch in 2025, in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, the US space agency's first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe. The newly named Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope -- or Roman Space Telescope, for short -- will investigate long-standing astronomical mysteries, such as the force behind the universe's expansion, and search for distant planets beyond our solar system, NASA said on Wednesday. Considered the "mother" of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which launched 30 years ago, Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when she died in 2018. "It is because of Nancy Grace Roman's leadership and vision that NASA became a pioneer in astrophysics and launched Hubble, the world's most powerful and productive space telescope," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "I can think of no better name for WFIRST, which will be the successor to NASA's Hubble and Webb Telescopes." Who was Nancy Grace Roman? Born on May 16, 1925, in Nashville, Tennessee, Roman consistently persevered in the face of challenges that plagued many women of her generation interested in science. By seventh grade, she knew she wanted to be an astronomer. Despite being discouraged about going into science, Roman earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy from Swarthmore in 1946 and a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1949. The head of Swarthmore College's physics department told her he usually dissuaded girls from majoring in physics, but thought that she "might make it". Knowing that her chances of achieving tenure at a university as a woman were slim at that time, she took a position at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and made strides in researching cosmic questions through radio waves. Roman came to NASA in 1959, just six months after the agency had been established. At that time, she served as the chief of astronomy and relativity in the Office of Space Science, managing astronomy-related programmes and grants. "I knew that taking on this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge of formulating a programme from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy for decades to come was too great to resist," she said in a NASA interview. This was a difficult era for women who wanted to advance in scientific research. While Roman said that men generally treated her equally at NASA, she also revealed in one interview that she had to use the prefix "Dr." with her name because "otherwise, I could not get past the secretaries." But she persisted in her vision to establish new ways to probe the secrets of the universe. Through Roman's leadership, NASA launched four Orbiting Astronomical Observatories between 1966 and 1972. While only two of the four were successful, they demonstrated the value of space-based astrophysics and represented the precursors to Hubble. Roman is credited with making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality. It turned out to be the most scientifically revolutionary space telescope of all time. Ed Weiler, Hubble's chief scientist until 1998, called Roman "the mother of the Hubble Space Telescope." The Bolgatanga Regional Hospital has successfully treated and discharged all persons with COVID-19 at its treatment centre. The Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Winfred Ofosu has disclosed. The region recorded 26 positive COVID-19 cases between April and May 2020. Speaking to Citi News, Dr. Ofosu indicated that 20 out of the 26 COVID-19 patients who were quarantined for treatment at the hospital have successfully recovered and been discharged. Meanwhile, four of the patients are under self-quarantine awaiting their second tests by close of the week and should the results turn negative, they would be declared, fully recovered. However, two of the patients passed on before their test results came out as positive. Dr. Ofosu bemoaned the spate of stigmatization against recovered COVID-19 persons and admonished the public to celebrate them. Stigmatization against persons with COVID-19 and recovered persons has been a challenge. There are many people particularly in the communities who do not want to associate with these people who have recovered and shun them and even their businesses. But we continue to tell everybody that these people do no longer have the virus to transmit to other persons. So they are not people we should shun or run away from. They are people we should celebrate as having successfully recovered from this dreadful disease, he noted. So, if we don't empathize and celebrate with them for their successful recovery, it means that others within the population looking at what is happening to people who get confirmed as COVID-19 cases and treated who have symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19 will not show up. They will remain within the community and go out to all other places that we all go to and spread the virus to all of us, Dr. Ofosu added. Of the 26 COVID-19 cases in the region, the Ghana Health Service recorded 11 cases and the Police Service recorded seven. ---citinewsroom It was 2009 and a Labor frontbencher was in the parliamentary press gallery spruiking the Rudd government's $42 billion "nation building and jobs plan". This second cash injection into the Australian economy was aimed at staving off recession, as global markets and the banking system melted down after a financial virus spread from the US housing market to infect the world. In interviews, the frontbencher argued the crisis demanded a massive fiscal response. In private he boasted that the secondary effect of showering money on families and every school in Australia was electoral stimulus. "We'll be cutting ribbons all the way to election day," he giggled. After backing the first stimulus package the Coalition rejected the next and began chipping away at delivery flaws, with little joy in the early months. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported 451 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, raising the statewide total to 68,637. Across Pennsylvania, 5,152 deaths have been tied to the coronavirus, including 13 new fatalities reported Tuesday. About two-thirds of the states deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. The health department released new data Tuesday; the figures include cases and deaths reported as of midnight. There are 339,835 patients who have tested negative, according to the health department. Nursing homes and hospitals In recent weeks, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine has said the curve has flattened in Pennsylvania. Fewer patients are being treated in hospitals and the number of people placed on ventilators has also declined substantially in recent weeks. Across Pennsylvania, 3,395 coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities. The health department said 14,857 residents of those facilities have contracted the virus, including 2,505 employees. Cases have been found in 594 long-term care facilities in 44 counties, the department said. The Wolf administration said it is ramping up testing and plans to test all residents and employees of nursing homes. Most people who are infected recover on their own without needing treatment at a hospital. But the coronavirus can cause serious complications for seniors and some younger adults have been hospitalized as well. Reopening Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has moved to gradually reopen Pennsylvania after imposing restrictions on businesses and routine activities to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The plan has three phases: red, yellow and green. On Friday, eight counties will move into the yellow phase of the Wolf administrations plan to reopen the state. Here are the counties heading to yellow: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, and Schuylkill. With those counties, 57 counties will be in the yellow phase. In addition, the first counties will enter the green phase - the least restrictive phase - on Friday. These counties will go green: Bradford, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Montour, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango, and Warren counties. On Tuesday, Wolf said Centre County would join that list. The governor said last week he anticipates the remaining red counties will be lifted from the stay-at-home order by June 5. They include Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery; Berks; Lancaster; and Lackawanna. More from PennLive What is the future of Harrisburg beyond the pandemic? Lincoln Speedway returns to racing with big crowd, hand sanitizer stations Coronavirus reopening: How, when summer camps and recreation, organized sports, more can operate in Pa. DENVER, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chosen from many outstanding Denver-based small businesses, TouchSource has been nominated as a finalist for the 2020 Denver Business Journal (DBJ) Small Business Awards. To determine finalists, a DBJ-formed panel of judges reviewed and scored each company based on community achievements, community involvement, and demonstrated growth within their industry. TouchSource According to the Denver Business Journal (DBJ), TouchSource is among a select group of notable companies honored for top achievements. "These companies, which were nominated and scored before the spread of COVIID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and stay-at-home orders were issued in Colorado, responded to our questions in the frenzied early days of those events. The stories they tell are emotional, scary and often inspiring," said the DBJ. Read the Denver Business Journal article to learn about TouchSource's journey and focus on people, customers and innovation to serve its community through the pandemic. "The bottom line: These small businesses are not only devoted to their communities they wouldn't be finalists in the Small Business Awards if they weren't but they're inherently connected to their communities. They're a part of something bigger. And, yes, they're all in this together," according to the DBJ. "TouchSource is thrilled to be a finalist for this prestigious award," said TouchSource CEO, Ajay Kapoor. "We're proud to share this honor with our amazing customers, our supportive community, and our locally-based supplier network. Most importantly, we'd like to share this with every member of our remarkable team who support our customers with meticulous support and non-stop innovation." TouchSource, the leader in smart digital displays and solutions, offers a full range of software applications for digital displays and signage including directories, kiosks, wayfinding maps, digital art, messaging boards, and mobile-enabled solutions that fit a world recovering from a global pandemic. Our newest solutionsafety messaging and contactless mobile compliance is designed to help re-opening businesses communicate safety notices and capture visitor acknowledgement. We're all navigating day by day changes. That's why we've designed this new solution to help property, HR and building professionals keep up with dynamic changes that vary by city, county and state. TouchSource delivers simple solutions for smart spaces that engage people. Our captivating digital displays and IoT-connected directory solutions improve the experience of tenants, visitors and shoppers. We create intelligent digital experiences in residential, business, retail, healthcare and public spaces with relevant, engaging content that moves people where it matters. Our digital signage solutions are simple to deploy, easy to use, mobile-enabled and low effort to maintain. Just ask our customers who we've proudly served over 9,000 times the TouchSource way. www.touchsource.com TouchSource Media Relations | [email protected] | 1370 Miners Drive, Suite 103, Lafayette, CO 80026 Related Images touchsource-employees-community.jpg TouchSource Employees - Community Focused Commitment Related Links Denver Business Journal Article TouchSource SOURCE TouchSource Related Links http://www.touchsource.com The Madhya Pradesh government has praised leading digital payments and financial services company, Paytm for sending across 4,000 masks for its workforce engaged in the fight against COVID-19. The state health ministry has tweeted from its official handle to appreciate this gesture, a company release said on Tuesday. Paytm, has been contributing face masks and hygiene products across the country to ensure the safety of frontline workers fighting COVID-19. The company is in the process of sending out 4 lakh masks and 10 lakh hygiene products to government offices, Army, CRPF, Police, municipal bodies, district magistrates and hospitals. These authorities would distribute among personnel working in the frontline to help control the pandemic, it said. Apart from Madhya Pradesh Ministry of Health, Hyderabad Police, CRPF Jammu, Delhi Traffic Police, CM of Karnataka, and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation among others have also tweeted from their official handles to thank Paytm for its efforts. The company is aiming to deliver supplies to many other states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, and Goa in the coming days. Paytm has also launched a host of initiatives to fight against novel coronavirus. It has revamped its app's user interface (UI) with 'Stay at Home Essential Payments'. Also, under the 'Feed My City' initiative, Paytm is providing meals to daily wage earners in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida (Uttar Pradesh) in association with KVN Foundation, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian military will keep assisting in nursing homes in Ontario and Quebec, though 39 members of the Canadian Forces have come down with COVID-19 while doing so. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Members of the Canadian Armed Forces take part in a training session before deploying to senior's residences Wednesday April 29, 2020 in Montreal. The Canadian Forces say 36 members working in long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec have now become sick with COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Canadian military will keep assisting in nursing homes in Ontario and Quebec, though 39 members of the Canadian Forces have come down with COVID-19 while doing so. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. That's up from 28 cases of the novel coronavirus among those troops less than a week ago, and three more cases than were confirmed Monday. The military has been deployed to nursing homes in the two provinces to reinforce workers overwhelmed by the illness, unable to keep up with residents' needs because of all the protective measures they need to take, or off work because they're ill themselves. According to data released Tuesday afternoon, 15 of the military members with COVID-19 are in Ontario and 24 of them are in Quebec. When the Forces started reporting the number of positive cases, they said they'd update the figures every two weeks but have revised that plan to give new numbers every day. Trudeau says the premiers of Ontario and Quebec have both asked for the military to extend the deployment and he expects to agree. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal The Albuquerque Police Department has been awarded $9.7 million from the Department of Justice as part of Operation Relentless Pursuit, an initiative that was rolled out in seven of the most violent cities across the country. But its unclear if APD will actually be able to get the money. Thats because the Department of Justice has previously said that, to receive the funding, the city must allow a federal audit of the forms city employees fill out saying theyre legally allowed to work in the United States, and it must certify that it complies with 8 U.S.C. 1373 a provision that makes it illegal to prohibit employees from sharing information about an individuals immigration status with federal law enforcement. These conditions are stymied by the immigrant-friendly ordinance passed by the Albuquerque City Council and strengthened in April 2018. Council President Pat Davis said if there is a condition that requires Albuquerque to change its immigration policy in order to receive the money, the city will not do that. The DOJ says we need the money, the DOJ says they have money to help us and we know we could use their help, Davis said. So were going to assume theyre going to be sincere in their offer. If they throw up a roadblock, well have to look at how to deal with it, but reforming our immigration statutes is not one of those options. The issue was first raised by U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John Anderson in February when he pointed out that the citys status as a self-proclaimed sanctuary city poses an obstacle to it being able to meet the conditions of the grant. The other cities selected to be part of Operation Relentless Pursuit are Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, and the combined metropolitan area of Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. The DOJs Office of Community Oriented Policing Services said the $9.7 million Albuquerque was awarded could be used to pay full entry-level salary and benefits for 40 police officers for three years. The COPS office has awarded a total of $51 million to hire 214 law enforcement officers, and cities will be able to deploy existing veteran officers to work on federal task forces and hire new recruits to backfill those positions, according to a news release. ORP grantees, including the city of Albuquerque, were made aware and provided copies of all grant conditions at the time of application, the COPS office wrote in a statement to the Journal. The COPS Office and the Department of Justice look forward to a successful partnership with the city of Albuquerque to provide these much-needed law enforcement resources for this great American city. The city did not make anyone available for an interview, but did send statements from the mayor and police chief praising the funding and thanking the U.S. Attorneys Office for being a crime-fighting partner. Though we disagree on some policies, we work together to fight violent crime, Mayor Tim Keller wrote in a statement. This funding is an important boost to our crime-fighting initiatives and will help us hire dozens more officers. Were hopeful that this funding will continue not to be politicized, especially when the direct need is so clear. In response to questions about whether the city will certify that it will comply with the provisions in order to get the money, an APD spokesman said: the provision 8 U.S.C. 1373 was mentioned in the application, but until we have the grant agreement, we wont know what will be included. Gilbert Gallegos, the APD spokesman, said nothing has changed since the issue was last brought to the forefront. We said we would still apply for the grant funding and we did, Gallegos wrote in an email. Previously, Deputy Chief Harold Medina said it kind of feels like political extortion that the DOJ is giving limitations on how the city can access the federal funding. APD wasnt the only local department to be awarded the grant. In April, the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office was awarded $1.4 million for Operation Relentless Pursuit. Deputy Connor Otero, a BCSO spokesman, said the sheriffs office has certified that it is able to comply with the conditions of the grant. He said BCSO has not received the funding yet as it is still being processed. The county also has an immigrant-friendly resolution on its books and the county commission strengthened it in February 2019. The resolution prohibits county agencies and employees from asking about or disclosing a persons immigration status or using county resources to assist the enforcement of federal immigration law. The Metropolitan Detention Center, for example, is run by the county. Sheriff Manuel Gonzales also would not agree to an interview on the subject, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on any of the legal issues related to the grant. However, he sent a statement saying that as the independently elected Sheriff of the largest county and of the only minority-majority state in the country, he is proud of his relationship and ties to the immigrant community and to his law enforcement partners. He said the Bernalillo County Commission has recognized that his offices operating procedures are consistent with the resolution. Gonzales said BCSO recognizes that the enforcement of immigration laws and arrests of foreign nationals are not the jobs of his deputies. Consequently, our deputies do not stop, question, detain, or arrest any person solely on the grounds that they may be undocumented, Gonzales wrote. BCSO will inquire about or seek proof of a persons immigration status when it is pertinent to the investigation of an underlying non-immigration criminal violation. Russian president claims pandemic past its peak as he orders postponed World War II parade to be held next month. Russias President Vladimir Putin has said the country has passed the peak of coronavirus infections as he ordered a World War II parade, postponed due to the pandemic, to be held next month. The Victory Day parade, marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, was meant to originally occur on May 9. According to experts, the peak can be considered passed, Putin told Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday, ordering him to begin preparations for the parade, held in capital Moscows grand Red Square and other cities across the country. We will do it on June 24, the day the legendary historic victors parade took place in 1945, Putin said. Hallmark of Putins rule The display of military strength and patriotism during the parade has become a hallmark of Putins rule, with thousands gathering in Moscow every year, including elderly veterans proudly wearing their medals. In power as president or prime minister for more than 20 years, Putin personally reviews the parade, and its postponement, along with that of a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms that could extend his rule until 2036, was seen as disrupting his political agenda. This year, the Victory Day parade was supposed to highlight Russias exception role in history and on the world stage, with leaders, including Emmanuel Macron of France and Chinas Xi Jinping, expected to attend. After Putins announcement, the presidents of Kazakhstan and Moldova said they would attend the June event. Another popular event usually held on May 9 the Immortal Regiment processions that see Russians across the country carry portraits of their relatives who died in World War II will be held on July 26, Putin said. The pandemic also forced Putin to cancel a key vote in April on constitutional reforms that would have paved the way for him to retain power until 2036. On Monday, Putin made a rare appearance in the Kremlin after working remotely from his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow for the past few weeks. Putins remarks on Tuesday came as Russia recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll of 174, bringing the overall COVID-19 deaths to 3,807. A record 12,000 people had also recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, officials said. Russia has reported a total of 362,342 confirmed cases, the third-highest number in the world after the United States and Brazil. South Korea's foreign ministry on Monday expressed regret over Japan's decision to extend its entry restrictions for South Korean visitors over the new coronavirus. Earlier in the day, Japan notified South Korea of its decision to extend the restrictions, including the suspension of a visa-waiver program and a 14-day quarantine for arrivals from the country, by another month until end-June. "It is regrettable that Japan has continued to maintain entry restrictions against South Korea, where coronavirus infections have been stabilized," an official at the foreign ministry said. Tokyo imposed the entry restrictions in early March when virus cases were surging in South Korea. Seoul also suspended a visa-waiver program for Japan in a tit-for-tat response. "The government will take additional measures, if needed, while closely monitoring infections reported in Japan," the official added. The ministry said Seoul will urge Tokyo to lift the restrictions at an early date, aside from its efforts to seek regional cooperation to contain the spread of the virus. (Yonhap) It was a late Sunday afternoon in September 2008, and senior aides to Barack Obama were gathered at his presidential campaign headquarters in Chicago. Their latest polling showed that Obama, the Democratic nominee, had lost his lead over his opponent, Sen. John McCain, since the Republican convention. They were worried. Two hours into the meeting, Obama walked in the door. Henry M. Paulson, the secretary of the Treasury, had just alerted him of bad economic news that would become public in the coming hours, Obama told his aides. The world is going to change and whatever you guys are working on is going to be different tomorrow, he said, according to participants. Early the next morning, Lehman Brothers, one of the nations most prominent securities firms, filed for bankruptcy. The collapse shook the nations financial industry and sent the stock market into free fall. Overnight, with the election less than two months away, a historic economic crisis transformed Americas presidential race, testing both candidates on who best could lead the nation to recovery. With its staggering death toll, surging unemployment and economic devastation, the COVID-19 crisis confronting the nation today is far more cataclysmic than the 2008 meltdown. But Obama and McCain faced a series of choices on leadership, empathy and tone, on executing political strategy and navigating fast-moving events on Wall Street, Main Street and Washington that are relevant and even illuminating as President Donald Trump and Joe Biden try to navigate another campaign playing out against the backdrop of a national emergency. After the Lehman bankruptcy on Sept. 15, over the crush of the next 14 days, McCain and Obama were forced to respond to a crisis in real time. It involved a complex unravelling on Wall Street, the anxieties of millions of Americans seeing huge losses in their retirement accounts, and the polarized politics of the White House and Capitol Hill. There was little time for polling or focus groups, aides to both campaigns said, and decisions were made on instinct. These were the 14 days that decided the 2008 race and assured Obamas election as the next president, in the view of both the McCain and Obama camps. The race changed on a dime, said David Plouffe, who was Obamas campaign manager. It became, who did the American people trust to dig us out of a crisis? And thats going to be the same here. Once again, virtually all other issues have given way to which candidate can communicate, manage and reassure an alarmed public. With five months to the November election and no end to the coronavirus in sight, the 2020 race is demanding not only a sophisticated policy response from Trump and Biden, but also a display of confidence, competence and steady temperament. The crisis has almost certainly changed what at least some voters will consider in judging the candidates. For Trump, the pressure is to lay out a course for the nation while also shifting public focus to his opponent, Biden, as the president tries to display the kind of empathy in times of suffering that has often eluded him over his years in public life. For Biden, the challenge is presenting himself as capable of leading, while deprived of any platform of authority or easy avenues with which to demonstrate his ability, as he quarantines himself at home in Delaware. The need to prove their readiness in a crisis, take positions on tough issues and speak deftly all were true in 2008, too. As the fall campaign began, Obama was running as a face of reform in Washington. The first-term senator from Illinois pledged to enact national health care, and attacked McCain for supporting the war in Iraq. He tied McCain to the unpopular Republican president, George W. Bush, and an economy that was already in distress. But almost immediately, the crisis threatened to highlight one of Obamas biggest weaknesses: a lack of experience compared with a six-term senator from Arizona. And Obama, as a senator and the leader of his party, would most likely have to vote on a Wall Street bailout that could undercut his stance as a candidate campaigning against special interests. McCain was running on a pledge to cut taxes, spending and governmental regulation. And McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, presented himself a national security expert running against a media celebrity without the experience to run a White House. But now, McCain was forced to talk abut the complexities of the economy, an issue he was never comfortable with, and defend his advocacy of Wall Street deregulation. And McCains instinctive and irreverent style which had always been part of his appeal as a senator in Washington damaged him as a candidate running during a crisis. He responded rapidly and rashly, in the view of his aides, ultimately undercutting any hope of portraying Obama as too young to lead in an emergency. We might have won, said Charlie Black, a senior strategist for McCain, as he recalled the Wall Street collapse. This made it not a close call. Rick Davis, another senior McCain aide, said Trumps campaign should pay heed to the 2008 experience. This is it, he said. I saw what happens when an issue galvanizes the American public. You can talk about anything else you want. We could have had a shooting war in the Gulf in the middle of the financial crisis and nobody would have cared. A kaboom comment Obama entered the fall with a historical advantage over McCain. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt, only one party had won the White House three times in a row. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted the weekend before the Lehman Brothers collapse found 68 per cent of Americans disapproved of the way Bush was conducting his job, and 81 per cent thought the nation was heading in the wrong direction. Unemployment hit 6.1 per cent in August, a five-year high. But McCain was a popular leader of his party; Obamas political resume was thin. And he was seeking to become the nations first African-American president. We thought we had a steady advantage in the battleground states, but it was not outsized, Plouffe said. There were only so many bricks you could put on the wagon. This young candidate, hasnt been in Washington long, was in the state Senate only four years ago. Fresh face, but now we are in a national crisis. Is that going to be too many bricks on the wagon? But McCain seemed unsteady from that very first day when, after an already scheduled meeting with financial advisers in New York, he flew to Florida to address the meltdown. People are frightened by these events, he said. Our economy, I think still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. The remark reflected what he had heard that morning and what he had said before. But candidates are often judged by their performance under fire, how they respond to unanticipated events, since that is a big part of being president. And in the context of the day, the fundamentals of our economy remark seemed a serious misstep that suggested McCain was unable to grasp the gravity of the crisis. Did he just say the fundamentals of the economy are strong? McCains close friend and senior adviser Mark Salter said as he watched the speech at campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Blacks stomach fell. It didnt fit the moment, Black said. Another senior adviser, Steve Schmidt, was more dire. The race was over at that moment, he said. It was done. Over. Ka-Boom. When Daniel Pfeiffer, who was Obamas communications director, heard McCain on television, he raced to Plouffes office to alert him, and an advertisement using McCains words was finished within hours. It allowed us to begin to play alternative president in a world of who can handle this crisis better, said Robert Gibbs, the campaign spokesman, who would become the White House press secretary. Obama addressed it that afternoon in Pueblo, Colorado. Sen. McCain, what economy are you talking about? he said. McCain backtracked quickly. By the next morning, in a round of talk show appearances, he was calling the economic situation a total crisis and denouncing greed on Wall Street. That week, the U.S. took control of the American International Group in an $85 billion (U.S.) bailout to prevent it from collapsing. McCain was warned by business leaders that unless Congress intervened, Americans would be unable to draw money from cash machines, Schmidt said. But even with all of McCains difficulties, Obamas advisers worried voters would return to safer harbours. Our immediate question was, is that going to change the threshold for Obama to win? Pfeiffer said. It could fundamentally change how willing people were to take a risk. The Republican candidate had an opportunity to define his opponent, but, trapped by his own record, he could not seize it. He had long been a foe of governmental regulation. Now, McCain demanded regulations to crack down on Wall Street. He called for the removal of Christopher Cox, Bushs appointee as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. None of it seemed to work. Davis felt that every time he saw McCain on television giving a speech, there would be a ticker on the lower corner of the screen showing the downward arrow of a market declining by the minute. Erratic vs. unifying Nine days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Washington Post-ABC News Poll showed Obama had gained his first clear lead in the general election campaign. Schmidt proposed that McCain leave the campaign trail to join the White House and congressional leaders struggling to pass a bailout and challenge Obama to join. Our numbers were in free fall, Schmidt said. The only chance that all of us agreed on was that maybe if this passed, it stabilizes things and theres some sense of normalcy before the election. Davis thought it was a mistake. I was like, no! Davis said. Nobody goes to Washington during a presidential campaign. The Republican candidate loved the idea of an unconventional gambit, aides said. He called Obama and proposed they go to Washington and postpone a debate set for that Friday in Mississippi. Before Obama had a chance to respond, McCain announced on television that he was returning to Washington and suspending his campaign. McCains advisers were caught off guard and Obama felt ambushed; he told aides McCain never mentioned suspending the campaign. Obamas campaign advisers assembled in a hotel room near Tampa, Florida, where he had gone for debate preparation. It was such a fast-moving situation, Plouffe said. Maybe people want us to suspend the campaign? We didnt know. For all the data and polling and machinery, usually campaigns come down to these moments you cant plan for. Obama agreed to return for a White House meeting but would not suspend his campaign. Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time, he said. Bush called the meeting at McCains request, but told aides he never understood the reason. And McCain sat silently through most of it, yielding his time to other Republicans and Obama. The meeting only intensified the stalemate and Democrats seized on McCains demeanour to portray him as erratic in a time of crisis. Black told McCain he would not be able to skip the next days debate. The debate was supposed to be about foreign policy, but the two candidates were questioned from the start about the crisis. McCain again struggled to explain what he would do. McCain returned to the campaign trail. He was on the airport tarmac in Columbus, Ohio, that Monday as a bailout vote began in the House. He asked the pilot to delay the takeoff when he realized that Republicans were voting overwhelmingly against the bill. The damn thing went down, said Black, who was with McCain. Oh my gosh. And House Republicans did it. Bush was being blamed for it. The first time it occurred to me that we might not win this thing was when the House failed to pass the stimulus package. The Dow fell seven per cent that day alone; by the time Congress passed the $700 billion bailout later that week, it was too late to help McCain. If the Republican failed at the test of presidential leadership during this crisis, in the view of many voters, the Democrat for all the criticism of him of being emotionally detached and inexperienced seemed to settle on a tone of assurance and command. Aides to McCain and Obama say finding that tone during a much graver crisis is the biggest obstacle Trump faces today. People want a unifying figure, said David Axelrod, who was the Obama campaigns senior strategist. In a crisis, people want to see public officials work together. This is not a situation that favours Trump. The divisive, nasty politics that are the hallmarks of Trump are not what the country is looking for in the midst of a crisis. Davis said there was probably little McCain could have done in 2008 and there is little Trump can do now. I mean, what are you going to do? he said. No ad was going to change any of this. One speech isnt going to change this. Im sure the Trump guys are confronting the same thing: How do you get ahead in Michigan when you have a pandemic going on? JEFFERSON CITY Drowned out by the coronavirus and national politics, Republican and Democratic operatives are quietly preparing for a battle of state legislative supremacy later this year that could have a profound effect on political power for the next decade. The November ballot will feature more than 5,000 elections for state House and Senate members in 35 states who will play a significant role in crafting or passing new voting districts for Congress and state legislative chambers based on census results. Republicans, who currently control a majority of state legislative chambers, generally will be on defense against a well-funded Democratic effort. But Republicans are trying to change that narrative. The national Republican State Leadership Committee on Tuesday rolled out a target list focused on a dozen states where it hopes to strengthen Republican redistricting power or dent that of Democrats. The targets include 115 state legislative seats held by Democrats in districts won by Republican President Donald Trump in 2016. The best way for us to play defense is to go on offense and flip these seats, said Austin Chambers, president of the GOP legislative organization. Trump could be a big factor in the down-ballot races. National surveys of voters from 2006-2018 have shown that presidential approval carries nearly three times as much impact in determining voters choices for state legislative candidates as their approval of the legislature itself, said Steven Rogers, a political scientist at Saint Louis University who studies elections with a focus on state legislatures. Thats likely to remain the case this year, Rogers said, though theres a chance that voters could be more attuned to state elections because of the attention given to governors who have been leading their states coronavirus response. National Democratic groups have compiled similar target lists focused on Republican-held seats, with a goal of flipping control of several closely divided chambers to their favor. Democrats are focusing not only on districts that Hillary Clinton carried in the 2016 presidential election, but also on some Trump-won districts where they think likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden may fare better. After the coronavirus and with Biden at the top of the ticket, our map now expands back out to districts that had Democratic DNA, that have voters that thought Trump might turn around the economy in working-class Rust Belt towns across the Midwest, said Jessica Post, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. In 2010, the first midterm election of Democrat Barack Obamas presidency, Republicans scored big victories in state legislatures across the country as the Republican State Leadership Committee outspent its Democratic rival by a 3-to-1 ratio. The next year, Republicans used their enhanced power in some states to draw voting districts that have benefited their legislative and congressional candidates for much of the past decade. Democrats have been paying the price since 2010 for their lack of success that year, Rogers said. Democrats have since ratcheted up their state legislative efforts. Obama and his former attorney general, Eric Holder, have spearheaded a new Democratic group focused solely on state redistricting. Various Democratic-aligned interest groups also have begun pouring money into state legislative contests. Democrats and Republicans have set their sights on some of the same places. Republican-led legislatures in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin appear on both of their redistricting target lists. So does Minnesota, the only state where Republicans control one legislative chamber and Democrats the other. Some North Carolina state legislative candidates are running in newly redrawn districts this year after a state court tossed out the old ones drawn by the GOP-led Legislature as illegal partisan gerrymanders. But Democrats could face an uphill climb in states such as Texas and Wisconsin, where they will be running in the same districts that have favored Republicans. Nationwide, 2020 may be a more pro-Democratic year, but the payoff in redistricting may be a little bit less, just due to what they can probably actually pick up, Rogers said. Texas looms especially large because Democrats have made gains in recent legislative elections. Continued Republican control of both chambers and the governors office would give the GOP great sway in shaping a large number of congressional districts. Texas ranks second to California with 36 U.S. House seats and is likely to gain more following the census because of its population growth. Democrats hold full control in California, but an independent citizens commission is responsible for redistricting. Some of the most hotly contested legislative elections are likely to occur in the Dallas and Houston suburbs. It would be a huge blow for the Republican Party if we lost Texas, Chambers said. Were going to make sure that never happens. North Carolina is another big target. Its expected to be a battleground for president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the governorship. The state legislative elections also matter more than in most states, because the North Carolina governor has no veto power over the voting districts that lawmakers will draw. Republicans currently hold modest majorities in both the state House and Senate. Kansas may appear to be one of the most surprising states on the target lists because of its solidly Republican legislative majorities. But Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly will have veto power over any redistricting plans passed by the Legislature. The battle focuses on whether Republicans will have the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. As one of Beijing's busiest areas for nightlife, Sanlitun is looking to boost consumption by targeting younger groups and inviting more new brands to set up business in the area. According to the Chaoyang District Commerce Bureau, the project to renovate and upgrade Sanlitun is now in full swing. At the same time, the remodeling of Taikoo Li Sanlitun West - formerly known as Yashow Market - has also commenced and will complement the existing Taikoo Li Sanlitun shopping center upon its completion. Chaoyang district is home to numerous foreign embassies and international organizations. As such, the district plans to develop Sanlitun into a hotspot for fashion, culture, dining and shopping, as well as a modern hub for both domestic and foreign tourists. Sanlitun plans to attract more international high-end, fashion brands to open up shop for the first time in the area. Last year, Taikoo Li Sanlitun introduced 26 such stores from companies including Canada Goose, 50% of which were companies' first store in the world, in Asia or in China. In 2020, it has plans to introduce a further 11 brands, including one flagship store for Asia, four first stores in China and four first stores in Beijing. In addition, seven retailers in Taikoo Li Sanlitun have started offering departure tax refund services so as to further enhance service channels and attract overseas consumers. Since the end of last year, the district's commerce bureau has joined hands with 17 other departments to formulate a work plan and mechanism regulating businesses operating at night and with outdoor spaces. According to travel data from transport company Didi, the Sanlitun area ranked second nationwide for nightlife attractions, surpassing even the popular Bund in Shanghai. This year, the Chaoyang's commerce bureau announced it will focus on the 13 measures to promote nighttime consumption released by Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau last year and continue to develop more late-night eatery streets, cultural consumption zones, and night markets. At present, six companies, including Hopson One Beijing, Solana Shopping Park, and Taikoo Li Sanlitun, plan to hold a series of events between May and September aimed at bringing in even greater numbers of shoppers. Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed strong optimism that Ghanas economy will bounce back after the coronavirus pandemic is dealt with. According to him, the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda which encapsulates policies such as the Planting for Food and Jobs will enable Ghana to recover quickly from the devastating effects of the pandemic. Speaking in an interview with GBC, after the Virtual Eid-ul Fitr celebration at the station on Sunday, the Vice President said: The President has already placed Ghana on a trajectory that allows us to come out of this crisis relatively quickly. As you know, one of the economic factors for growth in countries in the world after the pandemic is self-reliance. You are going to look at self-reliance in food production, manufacturing and in services that is really the Ghana Beyond Aid that the President started talking about way before this pandemic came into being. And so that trajectory that we have already embarked upon will allow us to recover from this pandemic much more quickly than probably other pandemics, he added. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, the government has initiated several measures to reduce the impact of the virus on the citizens. Some of the measures include the absorbing of water bills for three months for all Ghanaians, free electricity for three months for lifeline consumers and 50% discount for non-lifeline consumers, and the announcement of Ghc1 billion stimulus package for small scale businesses. Source: rainbowradio.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Riyadh, May 26 : Saudi Arabia has announced the gradual ease of precautionary measures against the COVID-19, the media reported. The gradual steps, with social distancing regulations obeyed, will start from Thursday and expand until the situation is back to normal, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Health Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah as saying on Monday, Xinhua reported. The easing will be based on medical reports of the spread of the virus, Rabiah added. Saudi Arabia has controlled the spread of the virus through early precautionary measures, especially maintaining a low death rate, he noted. The health ministry announced on Monday 2,235 new coronavirus cases, raising the number of infections to 74,795. The death toll rose to 399 after nine fatalities were reported since Sunday, while the recoveries reached 45,668. On April 15, a team of eight Chinese medical experts visited the kingdom to assist its anti-coronavirus fight. "History will judge you well," was one of a number of laudatory messages sent through to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, in response to confirmation last month that he had re-registered as a doctor to help in the battle against Covid-19. A total of 27 people wrote to the Taoiseach in response to the news that he had re-registered with the vast majority offering their support. In records released following a Freedom of Information request, one mother wrote to the Dept of the Taoiseach on April 5 to say: It is a humbling day indeed when the leader of our country offers his services on the ground to help those at the coalface during this pandemic.I have never been prouder than this evening and shared this information with my friends and family across the globe. Another person emailed the Taoiseach with the subject line "Well Done" and added a brief message: "Well done for going back to doctoringNuuff respect", while another wrote "What a great example of citizen goodness and a strong show of humanity in helping with the Coronavirus workload. A true sign of empathy". A frontline nurse emailed to say to tell the Taoiseach: I am very proud of you putting yourself forward for relief GP work. Please continue the good work in both the Government and medical world. One person sent through a gushing tribute on April 5 to say: In the current crisis, you have led us outstandingly. I cannot put into words the sense of pride you would have brought to me. It will be a difficult time for us all, but I have no doubt that you will be remembered for how you led through this. When I see how other world leaders have responded, I feel a sense of relief and pride to be under your leadership. Another person wrote to say on April 6: "Leo, re-registering into the medical profession to help tackle Covid-19 on the front line is very brave and a very honourable thing to do. It shows how much you really care for our citizens. In another email sent through on April 6, a person from overseas wrote: As someone who has a doctor in my family, I want to tell you how impressive and inspiring your willingness to use your knowledge and training from your previous career to ensure all hands are on deck fighting the pandemic in Ireland. You provide an outstanding leadership example to the Irish people and those across the globe for that matter.I want to wish you the best of luck, Godspeed and keep up the hard work and effortsthey do not go un-noticed even in places far from Ireland. Another person living overseas wrote: I hope your country is proud of you, because they should be. I wish with all my heart that my Governments leaders would show as much courage, but any courage at all is completely beyond them. One person on April 7 wrote to tell Mr Varadkar: I hear you are being criticised about registering as a doctor by some in the media. This has greatly angered meI am just a regular citizen whose business has been closed because of the new regulations. I dont know if it will be possible to recover my business but right now that doesnt matter. I want to let you know that you are doing, in my opinion, an outstanding job in both of your areas of expertise - namely politics and medicine. Not all thought it was a good idea. One front line nurse with a vulnerable husband and a son doing the Leaving Cert stated that the stress is unbearable and told the Taoiseach Leo..answering phone calls is a PR exercise. Another writer told the Taoiseachs office: I cannot believe that its necessary for Leo Varadkar to register/sign up for health care duties. We need him as our national leader - full stop! For which hes doing a fine job. Thats where the country needs him - its why we voted for him. To give up time for medical practice suggests panic or a misguided popularity winner - neither of which can be a good idea. Another person said that while admiring the decision by Mr Varadkar, they had reservations, saying: I just want to say that your best place on the front line is in your role as our Taoiseach where you are best placed to assure us that we will be okay under your watch. Durham, NC - In a study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), a team led by researchers at the Eugenia Menni Research Centre (CREM) in Brescia, Italy, show for the first time how stem cells collected from human amniotic membrane (one of the two fetal membranes forming the amniotic sac, which surrounds the fetus during pregnancy and is generally discarded after a baby's birth) can slow the progression of scarring in pulmonary fibrosis. This pre-clinical study could lead to new treatments for this deadly disease. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by scarring of the lung tissue. Over time, the scarring (fibrosis) worsens until the lungs cannot take in enough oxygen, affecting the person's quality of life and eventually leading to death. Worldwide, IPF affects 13 to 20 out of every 100,000 people, according to the National Institutes of Health. While current medications (and in some instances, a lung transplant) can extend a patient's life beyond the three to five years previously predicted from time of diagnosis until death, there is no cure. The cause of IPF is unknown, although many medical experts believe that it likely results from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Growing evidence also suggests a link between inflammation and the development and progression of the lung's scarring. That information prompted the current study published in SCTM, according to Anna Cargnoni, Ph.D., who led the investigation under the supervision of CREM's director, Professor Ornella Parolini, Ph.D. "Mesenchymal stromal cells derived from human amniotic membrane (hAMSCs) display a marked ability to affect the body's immune system," she explained. "They have been shown to reduce lung fibrosis in mice, possibly by creating a microenvironment that limits the evolution of chronic inflammation which leads to scarring. However, the ability of hAMSCs to modulate the immune cells - and specifically B cells- involved in pulmonary inflammation has yet to be clearly described. That's what we sought to do in our study." The team conducted their study on mice, beginning by inducing lung scarring with the drug bleomycin, which intra-tracheally instilled produces injury to the alveoli (the tiny air sacs in the lungs) and a consequent lung fibrosis. They then injected one group of animals with freshly isolated hAMSCs and another group with hAMSCs expanded in vitro, to address the important question of how in vitro expansion affects the hAMSCs' therapeutic capabilities. A third group of animals, the control group, was treated with the saline solution used to inject hAMSCs but without the cells. In order to explore whether treatment with hAMSCs may affect the immune cells that bleomycin-induced injury recruit into the lungs, the immune cells were collected at four, seven, nine and 14 days after treatment, from the alveolar spaces of the animals of treated and control groups. The animals' immune cells were identified and quantified by a technique called flow cytometry. Lung tissues were also collected at the same times and analyzed for gene expression of markers associated with different immune cell types. "We found that both the freshly collected and the expanded hAMSCs were able to control the recruitment, retention and maturation of B cells in the diseased lungs. This is important because in IPF patients, B cells form pulmonary aggregates with T cells, and continuously activate T cells creating a self-maintaining inflammatory condition. "By modulating the B cells, the hAMSCs were able to break this loop and, thus, help blunt the progression of lung inflammation and, consequently, scarring, too," Dr. Cargnoni explained. "We believe these key insights into the therapeutic potential of hAMSCs provide further evidence for the potential clinical use of hAMSCs in treating IPF and other inflammation-related fibrotic diseases." "This pre-clinical study demonstrates that stem cells derived from the amniotic fluid have the ability to hamper inflammation and slow scarring in lung tissue." said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. "These cells could eventually be used for new treatments of a deadly lung disease for which there is still no known cause or cure." ### The full article, "Amniotic MSCs reduce pulmonary fibrosis by hampering lung B-cell recruitment, retention, and maturation," can be accessed at https://stemcellsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sctm.20-0068. About STEM CELLS Translational Medicine: STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), co-published by AlphaMed Press and Wiley, is a monthly peer-reviewed publication dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology. By bridging stem cell research and clinical trials, SCTM will help move applications of these critical investigations closer to accepted best practices. SCTM is the official journal partner of Regenerative Medicine Foundation. About AlphaMed Press: Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press with offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, publishes two other internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals: STEM CELLS (http://www.StemCells.com), celebrating its 38th year, is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. The Oncologist (http://www.TheOncologist.com), also a monthly peer-reviewed publication, entering its 25th year, is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. All three journals are premier periodicals with globally recognized editorial boards dedicated to advancing knowledge and education in their focused disciplines. About Wiley: Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions, help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com. About Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF): The non-profit Regenerative Medicine Foundation fosters strategic collaborations to accelerate the development of regenerative medicine to improve health and deliver cures. RMF pursues its mission by producing its flagship World Stem Cell Summit, honouring leaders through the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Action Awards, and promoting educational initiatives. BETHESDA, Md., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it structured $14,895,100 in financing for The Grove Fox Valley, a 156-bed skilled nursing facility located in Aurora, Illinois, $14,960,000 in financing for WellBridge of Novi, a 100-bed skilled nursing facility in Novi, Michigan, and $7,377,600 Asbury of Kankakee, a 98-bed supportive living facility in Kankakee, Illinois. Walker & Dunlop Senior Managing Director, Joshua Rosen, led the origination team, which has extensive experience with seniors housing and healthcare facilities across the country. Leveraging their knowledge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) lending platform, the Walker & Dunlop team utilized HUD's LEAN 232/233(f) refinance program, which provides long-term and reduced-rate financing for specialty healthcare facilities. The permanent financing for The Grove Fox Valley will replace the existing debt previously provided by Walker & Dunlop's bridge lending program, which utilizes the company's own balance sheet to offer short-term, nonrecourse loans for properties that are being acquired or repositioned as part of a new business strategy. The permanent financing of WellBridge of Novi and Asbury of Kankakee allowed each of the property owners to refinance both their current bank and partnership debt. Mr. Rosen commented, "During these challenging times, Walker & Dunlop was able to help the borrowers navigate seamlessly throughout the HUD closing process. These transactions are perfect examples of how Walker & Dunlop's unique scope of financing products benefit our clients, providing the right solutions at the right time." Located 40 miles west of Downtown Chicago, Illinois, The Grove Fox Valley utilizes the latest rehabilitation techniques and is one of the most advanced facilities providing post-hospital care in the Fox River Valley. The property is conveniently located near many of the area's top hospitals and healthcare facilities and offers hotel-like amenities such as spacious private suites, housekeeping services, expansive family lounges, an on-site spa and salon, dining services, transportation options, and 24-hour medical assistance. Built in 2014, WellBridge of Novi is a 90-unit, Class A+ facility located 30 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, Michigan. WellBridge is located one mile away from the local hospital and provides inpatient short-term skilled nursing and rehabilitation services. The facility currently holds a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is a 2019 recipient of the American Health Care Association (AHCA) Silver Achievement of Quality Award. Asbury of Kankakee is located approximately 60 miles south of Downtown Chicago, Illinois, and was developed under the State of Illinois Supportive Living Program, which serves as an alternative to nursing home care for low-income seniors and seniors with physical disabilities under Medicaid. Asbury provides campus-style amenities, recreational activities, partnerships with local hospitals, and hospice and home health care services for its residences in a cost-effective manner. Walker & Dunlop ranked as the 3rd largest HUD lender in 2019 based on MAP initial endorsements, closing over $94 million of seniors housing and healthcare transactions. For information about Walker & Dunlop's view on the apartment market, including the impact of COVID-19 on commercial real estate owners, watch our recent webcasts at our Insights Center. About Walker & Dunlop Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD), headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, is one of the largest commercial real estate finance companies in the United States. The company provides a comprehensive range of capital solutions for all commercial real estate asset classes, as well as investment sales brokerage services to owners of multifamily properties. Walker & Dunlop is included on the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and was ranked as one of FORTUNE Magazine's Fastest Growing Companies in 2014, 2017, and 2018. Walker & Dunlop's 850+ professionals in 40 offices across the nation have an unyielding commitment to client satisfaction. SOURCE Walker & Dunlop, Inc. Related Links http://www.walkerdunlop.com Mr. Matthew Vocci, Partner - Santoni, Vocci, & Ortega, LLC Given the tremendous tenant advocacy that the PJC does on behalf of Marylanders, we are very pleased that the cy pres funds will further the vision we share for strong tenant protections. - Mr. Matthew Vocci, Partner In recognition of its advocacy for tenants rights, the Public Justice Center (PJC) has received a cy pres award of more than $125,000. The award is part of a court-approved settlement in a class action that compensated current and former tenants of Harbor Group Management Co. and Harbor Group Management Co., LLC for the landlords alleged practice of overcharging tenants for court costs, legal fees or attorneys fees related to court proceedings for failure to pay rent. Santoni, Vocci & Ortega, LLC represented the tenant class members. The settlement established a fund to compensate the thousands of class members and designated the PJC as the recipient of any funds left after checks were sent to the tenants. The PJC is a nonprofit legal services provider that pursues systemic change for social justice, economic and race equity, and fundamental human rights. The organization does a significant amount of work for renters through its Human Right to Housing Project, which advocates on behalf of tenants to protect and expand their rights to safe, habitable, affordable, and non-discriminatory housing and their rights to fair and equal treatment by Marylands landlord-tenant laws, courts, and agencies. PJC attorney C. Matthew Hill stated that the cy pres award will assist the PJC in representing and advocating on behalf of tenants, workers, and others who are experiencing dire consequences due to the COVID-19 emergency, including those whose landlords are threatening eviction and refusing to fix serious defective conditions in peoples homes. Our firm is dedicated to helping renters assert their rights, said Matthew Thomas Vocci of Santoni, Vocci & Ortega, LLC. Given the tremendous tenant advocacy that the PJC does on behalf of Marylanders, we are very pleased that the cy pres funds will further the vision we share for strong tenant protections. The case is Rashid Roberts, et al. v. Harbor Group Management Co., LLC, et al., Case No. 24-C-17-000509, in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Plaintiffs and the class were represented by the law firm of Santoni, Vocci & Ortega. About Santoni, Vocci, & Ortega, LLC Santoni, Vocci & Ortega were brought together by a singular vision to achieve justice and ensure the dignity of each client. Combined, we have over 40 years of legal experience and are passionate advocates for those who have been taken advantage of, victimized by fraud or injured. We are a boutique firm of trial lawyers who will be in your corner fighting against ruthless corporations, mortgage lenders, debt collectors, car dealers, landlords and insurance companies. For more information, visit our website at https://www.svolaw.com/. About the Public Justice Center Founded in 1985, the Public Justice Center uses legal tools to challenge poverty and racial inequity in Maryland and beyond. We represent people who are standing up for their rights. And we advocate to change the systems that keep people down. We work to empower communities and collaborate with advocates to build a just society. For more information, visit our website at https://www.publicjustice.org/en/. About Growth Solutions Team The Growth Solutions Team is a leading provider of Business Consulting Services including, Strategic HR, CFO Advisory, Sales & Customer Service Training, and Small Business Advisory services. Our team assists companies with growth in sales, profitability, and improved cash flows. For more information, visit the website at https://growthsolutionsteam.com. LAKEWOOD, Colo., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For decades, William Howard Taft University has offered high quality distance education degree programs, including an online Master of Science in Taxation (MST) program that offers hands-on practice and up-to-date knowledge of tax law. The Master of Science in Taxation is considered the terminal degree for taxation. If you're looking for an MST program that will challenge you to take on detailed knowledge of not only tax law but how to interact with the IRS, clients, and tax lawyers, take a look at our program. Over the years, we have kept our courses up to date with new information and ways to give you real practice with writing letters and other correspondence to help your clients. With electives covering real estate tax, estates and trusts, exempt organizations, and other niche areas of taxation, you can tailor your degree to your career goals. Right now, you can also save $75/unit in tuition for our MST program! Our MST Catalyst Grant runs now through September 15, 2020 and you can start on the 15th of any month. Apply now and start your Master's program in June! Are you an enrolled agent but don't have a Bachelor's degree? Normally, a Bachelor's degree and three years of tax experience is required to get into our Master's program. However, we understand how rigorous the certification process is to become an Enrolled Agent, so we are able to waive that requirement. Additional information about Taft University, our degree programs, or application procedures and requirements can be found on our website at www.Taft.edu or by contacting Ni and Megan in Admissions at 877-894-TAFT (8238) or [email protected] About William Howard Taft University: For over four decades William Howard Taft University (www.taft.edu) has offered distance learning graduate degree programs in business, education, and taxation to students throughout the world. Taft University is nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). The DEAC is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency. Contact: Ni & Megan 303-867-1155 [email protected] SOURCE William Howard Taft University Related Links http://www.taft.edu A Chinese woman shows her local health QR code from the Beijing Municipality to a security guard as he checks her temperature before entering a shopping area during the May holiday on May 3, 2020 in Beijing, China. Some of the barcode apps work on a traffic light system, where red would mean a person was a health risk and green meant they were able to enter a building, for example. Some of these barcodes were based on a person's travel history. If a person went to a high-risk area of China, that code may change color. Others were based on people self-declaring their health status, whether they had any symptoms and where they traveled. The tracking system would work via a digital barcode on a person's phones. These so-called QR codes became popular during the height of China's coronavirus outbreak . They are still being used to a lesser extent than before to determine whether a person can enter a building or take public transport. A Chinese city has unveiled proposals to permanently track a person's health through an app that gives them a score based on factors such as how much alcohol they drank and the amount of sleep they got. While these were seen as a way of countering the coronavirus outbreak, Hangzhou, a city south-west of Shanghai and home to technology giant Alibaba, is proposing a permanent version of the barcode system. Governments have been collecting more data during the global pandemic to help fight the virus. But that has raised concerns about heightened surveillance continuing even after the coronavirus is brought under control. In Hangzhou, the government's proposals involve giving a person a health score. This will be based on various factors including electronic medical records, results of physical examinations and lifestyle choices. In a screenshot of the barcode-based system, a person's health score can be seen going down because they drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes. Meanwhile, a good amount of sleep plus exercise increases a person's score. It is unclear how the government would collect such information or whether this app will come to fruition. The health code that Hangzhou residents are currently using related to the coronavirus is run via Alipay, the mobile payments platform owned by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. When asked about the new app, the company told CNBC it has "not been contacted by any party with respect to this project." A spokesperson reiterated that protecting the privacy of users is "a strict requirement for all third party service providers on our platform." Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy During the increasingly aggravating epidemic of COVID-19, where the national economy is being significantly impacted, SATYA MicroCapital Limited, one of the leading and fastest-growing micro-lending companies in the nation, has raised INR 105 crore in equity funding by Gojo & Company, Inc. This is one of the first investments in the Microfinance sector after the nationwide lockdown. To inhibit the nationwide turbulence created by a lethal coronavirus, India entered an outright lockdown, on 25th March 2020. The aftermath of the move is likely to severely affect the upcoming FY 2020 21. In times like these, SATYA aspires to successfully regulate the funds for enacting its commitment towards reaching out to mass parting of migrant workers and meagre people who are facing adverse effects of the pandemic. The recent capital infusion will be trajected in a diversified manner for employment generation and livelihood rehabilitation across terrestrial footprints in the country. Mr Vivek Tiwari, MD & CEO, SATYA MicroCapital Ltd. stated, We are grateful to Gojo & Company, Inc. for their continued belief in us. This shows the trust of our investors in the company as well as in the MFI industry which is exceptionally praiseworthy. The extent of confidence Mr Sanjay Gandhi and Mr Taejun Shin have fostered in our organization holds paramount significance for us and serves as a clear indication of our substantial strength, intrinsic values, and reliability. This further validates our business model and the responsible growth we have achieved in the last 3 years. Yielding capital infusions like this during the hazardous outbreak of such a pandemic is rare. Gojo not only holds a deep understanding of the microfinance sector in Asia but also shares our long-term vision of building a high-quality organisation serving people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. We are certain that the capital infusion will serve as a driving force to SATYA for reinforcing its vision of being a catalyst for the socio-economic upliftment of 5 million households by the year 2025, which will enable us to empower more and more entrepreneurs from the underserved sections of society. Owing to the persevering bounce back power, adaptability to change and resilience of MFI industry; the industry will again prevail stronger than ever before and will certainly win over the contagious COVID 19 crisis Given the fact that once the pandemic crisis is over, destitute section of the population will look forward to the microfinance sector for coming back to their normal lives. The sort of sectoral confidence and strength industry has illustrated in the past, serves as an imperative evidence that MFI strata will play an integral role in eradicating the domestic distress via credit-based poverty reduction strategy and will relevantly develop the underserved at an exponential speed. Gojo & Company, Inc., is a Japan-based holding company of microfinance institutions around the world that aims to provide financial access for everyone in developing countries via MFIs. The company is headquartered in Tokyo and has subsidiary microfinance institutions in various countries such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. Mr Sanjay Gandhi, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Gojo & Company Inc. said, it gives Gojo great pleasure to close the INR 105 crores equity funding round with Satya Microcapital Limited. Despite these tough COVID times, Gojos confidence in Satya remains as strong as ever. We are positive that Vivek Tiwari and the highly committed Satya team will make the best use of fresh equity and continue with its journey to provide financing support to micro-entrepreneurs across the nation. With Vivek at the helm of affairs, we do believe that in the days ahead, Satya will emerge stronger and we will see more adoption of technology to make Satya the MFI that will set the highest standards for others to emulate. SATYA MicroCapital Limited is one of Indias leading RBI registered NBFC - MFIs, with a hardworking and dedicated team of 1800+ employees. Having commenced its operations in January 2017, SATYA is integrally focused towards the provision of a consistent and essential passage for making financial services accessible to marginalized sections of the society. The company caters to a diverse range of 3.8 lac+ wide client base which primarily accounts to married women who own businesses and are looking for means of expansion, income growth or income generation. The organization fundamentally serves low-income, underserved entrepreneurs by extending microloans across rural and semi-urban areas in the country. SATYA has a massive presence in over 15,000+ villages through 145+ branches in 131 districts across 22 states and intends to scale up its presence henceforth for extending its distinguished financial services in a broader spectrum. Digpu: This content is released by Digpu News Network. No HT journalist was involved in the creation of this content. BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad is confronting the biggest challenges to his hold on power since Syrians first rose up against him nine years ago as a rift within his family, a collapsing economy and rising tensions with his key ally Russia lay bare the fragility of his government. The rebels now squeezed into one last corner of Syria no longer pose any threat, and there are no other serious contenders for the presidency of a country that has been ruled by the Assad family for the past 50 years. But cracks are starting to appear in the once-united front presented by loyalists who stood by Assad throughout his battle to crush the opposition. A rare eruption of criticism in Russian media outlets has drawn attention to his dependence on foreign allies - Iran as well as Russia - for his survival. Most important, an imploding economy is driving Syrians into poverty on a scale unprecedented in recent history. Neither Russia nor Iran is in a position to inject the billions of dollars Syria needs to rebuild and revive, yet Assad continues to reject the political reforms that might open the doors to Western and Gulf Arab funding. Even as a third of the country still lies beyond Assad's control, the stirrings of a new rebellion in the southern province of Daraa speak to the potential for a fresh insurgency in areas that have been recaptured by the government. Assad may be more vulnerable now than at any time in the past nine years of war, said Lina Khatib of the Chatham House think tank in London. "Assad has become highly reliant on Iranian and Russian support. He does not have the domestic resources to deliver to his constituents. He does not have international legitimacy, and he does not have the military power he had before the conflict," Khatib said. "His toolbox is empty, and he is actually more vulnerable than ever." - - - A public spat between Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf is one symptom of the deepening troubles. Makhlouf resorted to Facebook to complain about attempts by the state to confiscate his assets, indicating that he no longer can communicate directly with the president. In a series of increasingly threatening postings, Makhlouf has made it clear that he won't willingly hand over the more than $600 million the government says he owes in back taxes and duties. He has hinted at his capacity to wreak havoc on the Syrian economy through his control of a network of companies that employs thousands of Syrians and includes the mighty Syriatel mobile phone network, the nation's biggest company. "I didn't give up during the war," he said in the most recent video, posted last week. "You think I'm going to give up under these circumstances? Turns out you don't know me." The targeting of Makhlouf coincides with a broader effort to force the newly powerful Syrian business elites who have profited from the war to hand over cash to support the struggling economy. More than that, Assad appears to be trying to recoup some of the influence that has become dispersed among the warlord-like businessmen, many of whom, including Makhlouf, run militias alongside their commercial enterprises, Khatib said. But by going after his own cousin, Assad has taken his power grab to the heart of the ruling family. "It's very serious. It's different from squeezing the other business executives," said Ayman Abdel Nour, a former friend and confidant of Assad's who defected in 2008 and publishes the All4Syria news site. "This is within the inner circle." Makhlouf poses no threat to Assad's presidency, he said. But the Makhloufs are in their own right an important family in the Alawite sect, the minority religious group to which the ruling family belongs. And Makhlouf's companies, charities and militias have provided livelihoods to tens of thousands of Syrians, giving him a support base within the increasingly disgruntled Alawite community. "Mr. Rami, we all are with you. You are the father of the poor, and they are the thieves who robbed the people," said one of the commenters on a posting by Makhlouf last week rejecting the latest government attempt to seize his assets. His charities are one of the main sources of assistance for wounded soldiers, a large number of them Alawites, and for the families of soldiers who died fighting the rebellion - as Makhlouf pointedly reminds Syrians in his videos. "Makhlouf has become big, and that's not allowed in Syria, to be big and important," Abdel Nour said. He has also publicly defied the president, something not normally tolerated in Syria, said Danny Makki, a Syrian journalist and political analyst. "What we're seeing now is not just dissent but open dissent to the president and the institution of the presidency by a businessman," Makki said. "The bigger question is what happens to the economy long-term. It's really a race against time for Assad to find a way out of this. It's not just regime survival. It's the whole country." - - - For ordinary Syrians, Makki said, the rift is above all a reminder that Syria's shrunken wealth has been concentrated in the hands of an ever-smaller circle of people at the same time much of the population is becoming impoverished. The Syrian currency has lost more than half its value in the past month, and lost similarly in the six months before that. Prices of staples such as bread and sugar have doubled in the past month, putting Syria at risk of falling into famine, according to a World Food Program report released Wednesday. The decline in Syria's currency has been accelerated by the dramatic slide of the Lebanese lira, because Syrian traders depend on access to the banks in neighboring Lebanon to finance imports. The deeper problem is an economy that has been ravaged by war. And U.S. and European Union sanctions, intended to pressure Assad into making compromises with the opposition, preclude the kind of investment or reconstruction funding needed to kick-start growth. Starting in June, tough new U.S. sanctions will go into effect under a law known as the Caesar Act targeting any individual or entity in the world that offers support to the Syrian regime. Makhlouf's defiant outbursts have been followed by an unusually bold airing of grievances by loyalist supporters on social media. The most poignant came from a former soldier called Bashir Haroun, who was disabled fighting the rebels and uses a photo of himself being greeted as a wounded hero by Assad and his wife, Asma, on his Facebook profile. In a widely shared public posting, he lambasted the government for cutting off funding for physical therapy for wounded veterans. "You treat us like racehorses, who are shot dead when they are injured because they are no longer of use," he wrote. "Every day you issue a decision that breaks us, humiliates us, kills us." "The outlook in Syria right now is gloomy and frightening," Noureddin Mouna, a former agriculture minister, wrote on his Facebook page, capturing the mood. "On the horizon loom events that are hard to foresee or interpret. The Syrian people are filled with worry, anxiety, fear, hunger, and poverty." Assad, however, is rarely the explicit target of the anger, which is directed mainly at the allegedly corrupt officials surrounding him. Though the entire government has been weakened by the war, Assad remains "the strongest among the weak ones," said Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat who defected from the Syrian Embassy in Washington in 2012. - - - Adding to the pressures on Assad are the signs of strain in his relationship with Russia. Several recent articles in Russian news outlets have criticized his regime for its intransigence and corruption, triggering speculation that Russia's support for his presidency may be waning. The highest-profile critique came from a former ambassador to Syria, who argued that Assad's refusal to make political concessions ran counter to Russia's interests. That commentary was posted first on the website of the influential Valdai Discussion Club, then by the Russian International Affairs Council think tank and in Russian by the respected Kommersant daily newspaper. "Judging by everything we see, Damascus is not particularly interested in displaying a farsighted and flexible approach," wrote Alexander Aksenyonok, the former ambassador. "The regime is reluctant or unable to develop a system of government that can mitigate corruption and crime." "Russia has reached the limits of compromise" in the Russian-sponsored peace process that Moscow hopes will lead to political reforms, Aksenyonok warned. There is no reason to believe the comments signify any major policy shifts in Moscow, Russian analysts say. With its direct intervention in the conflict in 2015, Russia has achieved vital foreign policy goals, and it is not going to give up those gains, said Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Moscow-based Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. "Of course Assad is dependent on Russian support, but politically Russia is also dependent on him," Lukyanov said. "Russia can't afford to abandon him without suffering huge political damage." But there is frustration in Moscow with the government's refusal to agree to political changes, said Nikolay Surkov, a professor in the Oriental studies department at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Such reforms, which would dilute Assad's absolute power, "are viewed as an essential condition for true and lasting reconciliation," he said. "Even if the government wins militarily, there will be a high risk of resumed insurgency as long as the principal grievances of the population are not met." The unrest in the southern province of Daraa, the first Syrian province to rise up against the government in 2011 and one of the last to be pacified, offers evidence of the danger. Government troops have been dispatched to the province to quell a spiral of kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes, which have claimed the lives of scores of government forces in recent months. Exactly who is behind the violence isn't clear, but it appears that a new insurgency is in the making, said Abdo Jabassini, a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence. The stalled battle for the northwestern province of Idlib is another example of the constraints on Assad. After a Russian-backed government offensive to reclaim rebel-controlled territory in the province ran into an unexpectedly ferocious counterattack by Turkish troops in March, Russia struck a cease-fire deal that put a higher priority on Turkish interests than on Assad's determination to defeat the rebels. It is clear, said Lukyanov, that Assad cannot take territory without Russian support. None of this contributes to the sense that Assad is as much in control of the country as he likes to portray, said Makki, the political analyst. "This is more dangerous and more challenging than any period in the entire war," he said. "Unless he can find solutions, he is never going to rule over a stable Syria." - - - Khattab reported from Paris. Journalist Suzan Haidamous in Washington contributed to this report. 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. Dear Editor Through your pages can I express my sincere thanks to the people of Longford for their continuing support for Self Help Africas work overseas, in these challenging times. While COVID-19 has caused untold challenges to families across Ireland, one of the anomalies of the pandemic has been the relatively low levels of recorded cases, to date, in poorer parts of the world. Indeed, less than 2% of all cases thus far have been recorded in regions of Africa and Asia that account for half of the global population. However, to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19 to the worlds poor could be catastrophic. Weak health care systems, lack of testing, and high levels of poverty make sub-Saharan Africa particularly vulnerable, not just to this pandemic, but also to an extreme hunger crisis that will likely result from its economic fall-out. A World Bank report this week estimated that up to 60 million people globally could be pushed into extreme poverty because of Coronavirus. Many of these will be in Africa. Right now, Self Help Africas efforts are focused on the prevention and protection of the poor communities that we work with against the spread of COVID-19. Were also supporting wider efforts in our programme countries to help avert a spike in outbreaks of the pandemic, in Africa. We are doing this at a time of considerable challenges at home in Ireland, with a host of charity events and collections being cancelled out of necessity. It is therefore with gratitude that I express my thanks, through your pages, to the many supporters in County Longford who have continued to donate to our work, and who have supported Self Help Africas year-long campaign with Glenisk, One Million Trees. This results in donations to our work from every One Million Trees branded bio pot yogurt that is bought by households, in their weekly shopping. The One Million Trees campaign is allowing us to plant 100,000 new native trees in Ireland in 2020, together with a million new trees in Africa to provide food, fertiliser, shade, shelter and an income for rural poor families. I wish you continued safety in these challenging times, Yours sincerely Ray Jordan CEO Self Help Africa Bob Banion at his Harleysville home. Banion voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but is planning to back Joe Biden this year. Read more Bob Banion has been a Republican all his life. A 68-year-old sales manager from Harleysville, Pa., he voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But hes felt his political center shifting over the last four years along with his support for the president. As you get older in life, you start to move toward the left, when youre thinking about health care, when youre thinking about other peoples rights and futures, Banion said. Older people believe in class, believe in dignity, believe in doing the right thing. And you see all [Trumps] doing to break that down. I am really disgusted I voted for him. Trump, who needs to win states like Pennsylvania and hopes to hold onto supporters like Banion, may have a lurking problem. National polling averages show hes in a relative dead heat with Joe Biden among voters over 65, a group he won by 10 points in 2016. In recent polling of Pennsylvania voters, Trump comes up a few points short of Biden with voters over 45, according to an April Fox poll. (Pollsters use varying age groupings.) How to explain the Trump senior slide? His opponent this time, Biden, polls better with seniors than Hillary Clinton did in 2016. (Trump appears to be losing across the board with voters who said they backed him as a protest vote against Clinton). Another factor is likely Trumps response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately affected the elderly. In a Morning Consult poll from last month, voters 65 and older said defeating the virus was more important than healing the economy, counter to Trumps recent push to reopen states. Trumps approval rating with seniors also plummeted 20 points from March to April. READ MORE: Trumps push to reopen Pennsylvania adds 2020 politics to a heated coronavirus debate "Seniors have felt the wrath of this pandemic more than any other age cohort, said Chris Borick, a pollster at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. "By numbers and health effects, its been devastating. The concern levels weve seen, when weve polled, are highest among seniors, and that, of course, could be bleeding into their appraisal of the president. Fran Johannes, a 77-year-old retired educator in Newtown Square, put it more bluntly. A lot of seniors, theyre seeing their friends die, said Johannes, who switched her party registration from Republican in order to vote for a viable alternative" to Trump. I just find him offensive. I dont like his ethics. Johannes opposed Trump before the virus outbreak she left her ballot for president blank in 2016. But watching his handling of COVID, she said, just accentuated his anti-science ... anti-facts attitude." She thinks some peers may be starting to feel similarly. Seniors, theyre taking a look at this and theyre seeing family members are out of work, they may be losing their homes, and theyre also very concerned about seeing their children and grandchildren," Johannes said. A close friend called her recently, upset she hadnt been able to attend her granddaughters graduation. "There was no party, no graduation. No nothing. I think that is starting to have people take a look and say Could something have been done? Could this have been managed better? Johannes counts herself lucky. The mother of three and grandmother of seven had to miss a few birthdays and Mothers Day with the family, but on the whole shes felt connected to them. Republicans have handily won the senior vote going back to the 1970s with few exceptions (Bill Clinton in the 1990s and Al Gore in 2000 eked out wins among older voters). Voters 60 and over consistently turn out at higher rates than other age groups. Its a key constituency in Pennsylvania, where the population is older than the national average. And people older than 45 cast a higher share of the 2016 vote in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, and Florida than their age bracket did nationally, according to an analysis by the liberal Center for American Progress. Any sort of slide could matter given the small margins by which Trump carried those states. This is historic, said Patrick Murray, a pollster at Monmouth University in New Jersey. "The fact that were seeing this already in the data and its holding is something unusual and Im sure its something the campaign is paying close attention to. Tim Murtaugh, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said senior citizens appreciate the presidents coronavirus leadership. Seniors also care about who can restore the economy, who will stand up to China, and who will put America first in every decision, he said. They care about a strong military, looking after veterans, and protecting Social Security and Medicare. READ MORE: Want to know who won the presidential race on election night? Get ready to wait. The reliability of older voters could make them an even more critical constituency in an election in which many people are adjusting to voting by mail. With the uncertainty of how voting will even happen in November, that could be pretty significant," Murray said. Seniors will vote any way they can. Publicly available polling data dont always break down the race and gender of seniors, so its hard to tell more about who is abandoning Trump. But Murray said its most likely older white voters, because senior voters of color tend to lean Democratic. For Democrats, strategizing how to beat Trump has been a push and pull between attracting new, younger voters and holding onto or poaching from Trump older, more moderate voters. Since Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race, Biden has tried to appeal to the liberal base of the party. But he also wants to remain a viable option for Republicans who oppose Trump. Johannes plans to vote for Biden, but shes paying careful attention to his running-mate pick. John McCain lost her vote in 2008 when he chose Sarah Palin. She hopes he selects Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; shed have to think carefully if he picks someone she finds too liberal, like Stacey Abrams. "Ill say that I hope to vote for Biden, Johannes said. Banion wasnt a Biden fan previously. In 2008 and 2012 he wrote in former Army Gen. Colin Powell for president. He wishes the Democrats nominee was younger, a little sharper, but he thinks Bidens heart is in the right place and he seems to be respected in Washington and internationally. Banion also feels a connection to the former vice presidents personal tragedies. Biden lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident, and later in life, his son Beau, to brain cancer. Banions only son died in a car accident in 2011. Im tired of politicians that are so polished. ... Joe Biden comes across very human-like. He comes across as somebody to me that cares," Banion said. I just think hes smart enough that he will surround himself with the best people. Polls shift, of course, and the softness in Trumps support from older voters could be a reaction to the virus crisis at its peak. November is more than five months away. And many older voters back Trump. Charlotte George, 75, of Muncy Valley, Sullivan Couny, is a registered Democrat who plans to vote for the president in November. The great-grandmother of six opposes abortion rights and is frustrated with how far left the Democrats have moved on the issue. While shes supporting Trump again this fall, she offered that she thinks Biden would make the better leader. I think hes a very intelligent, nice person," she said. "I think comparing him to President Trump theres a world of difference there. They are opposite ends of the spectrum, but again, I wont vote for him because of what the Democratic Party stands for. After 100 years, Johnson & Johnson is discontinuing the product that made the company well-known, and that is the talc-based baby powder. Talc-based baby powder phased out The company released a statement on their official website on May 19 and they stated that they had re-evaluated their products in the light of the coronavirus pandemic. In March, the company stopped shipping items in Canada and the US, and their purpose was to prioritize the products that are of high demand and to make room for social distancing at their distribution and manufacturing facilities. Johnson & Johnson will permanently discontinue 100 products, including Johnson's Baby Powder. This decision will only impact sales in Canada and the US, as the company will continue to sell its products in other markets. According to the company, there was a decline in demand for baby powder. However, the company's cornstarch-based powder will still be distributed. Also Read: World Bank Says Pandemic Could Push 60 Million People into Extreme Poverty Is talcum powder safe to use? Johnson & Johnson are confident in the quality and the safety of their products, but the company has been faced with thousands of lawsuits filed by women who have developed ovarian cancer after using talcum powder regularly. Numerous cases are in different stages in courtrooms across America. Other companies that manufacture talcum powders have put warning labels on their products, but Johnson & Johnson refused to do it as they want to stand by their product. Numerous scientific studies have shown that there is an increased risk of ovarian cancer on women who uses talc powder in their genital area. However, there are those who had no signs of ovarian cancer despite using the powder regularly. With these, experts suggest that more research and study is needed. Johnson & Johnson lawsuits A set of lawsuits accused the company of adding asbestos in their powder, as samples of asbestos were found in the product. The company stated that its products are asbestos-free since the 1970s. In October 2019, the company suffered a major loss when the jury in New Jersey sided with four people who filed the lawsuit. They claimed that the talcum powder of Johnson & Johnson contained asbestos and now they are all diagnosed with cancer.The jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $37.2 million to the four people who filed the lawsuit in order to compensate them for the damages. The 65-year-old Douglas Barden, the 57-year-old David Etheridge, the 41-year-old D'Angela McNeill-George, and the 46-year-old Will Ronning claimed that they were diagnosed with mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos that is allegedly found in the baby powder. They also stated in their case that they have been exposed to the harmful chemical since they were children since that was the product that their parents used on them. According to the lawyers of the company, asbestos was not detected in the company's products and they argued that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the cancers that they developed were due to asbestos exposure. The lawyers had also made more than 12 motions for a mistrial throughout the trial. After the verdict, Johnson & Johnson made an appeal to the decision of the jury. Related Article: Fact Check: Frontliners Reportedly Using Hydroxychloroquine to Protect Them from COVID-19 @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ravi Zacharias' memorial service to be livestreamed on YouTube, Facebook Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A memorial service honoring the life of Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias will be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube on Friday with tributes from Passion Movement founder Louie Giglio, Lecrae, Tim Tebow and Vice President Mike Pence. Zacharias, who died of a rare form of cancer on May 19 at age 74, was ordained by the Christian and Missionary Alliance and founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in 1984. He later launched an apologetics training center in 2017. Zacharias also had a weekly radio program called "Let My People Think" that was carried by an estimated 2,000 outlets in more than 30 countries. "Ravi Zacharias spent the past 48 years traveling the world to commend the Christian faith and address life's greatest existential questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny with eloquence and grace for a variety of audiences," RZIM said in its announcement about the memorial service that will broadcast at 11 a.m. Eastern time. "Through his founding and leadership of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Ravi launched a global team of nearly 100 Christian scholars and authors who continue to speak, resource, train, and address the questions of millions around the world." According to the announcement, a memorial message will be given by Giglio and musical artists Matt Redman and Lecrae will perform. Others who will give tributes include Brooklyn Tabernacle Senior Pastor Jim Cymbala and RZIM President Michael Ramsden. On March 12, Zacharias announced that doctors discovered a malignant tumor of the sacrum called sarcoma a few weeks after he underwent back surgery. The sacrum is a shield-shaped, bony structure located at the base of the lumbar vertebrae and is connected to the pelvis. After undergoing chemotherapy in an attempt to shrink the tumor, Sarah Davis, the CEO of RZIM and Zacharias' eldest daughter, announced earlier this month that the area where the cancer was had metastasized even though chemotherapy shrunk the tumor. "His oncologist informed us that this cancer is very rare in its aggression and that no options for further treatment remain. Medically speaking, they have done all they are able," Davis said. She added that her parents left M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, to return home so her father could spend the remainder of his time on Earth with his family in Atlanta, Georgia. Zacharias wrote several books, including Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality. He was lauded by Christian leaders worldwide for teaching them how to become better defenders of the faith. Before Zacharias died, 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow hailed Zacharias as one of his "heroes of the faith." In a tearful message posted on Instagram, Tebow called Zacharias a "mentor" and urged others to also share the impact the evangelist made in their lives. Tebow said he wanted to be able to send the messages to Zacharias before he died. Following Zacharias' death, evangelist Franklin Graham shared a photo on Instagram of himself with Zacharias and mutual friend Sami Dagher. Graham's post described Zacharias as "one of the great Christian apologists of our time." Nick Hall, an international speaker and founder of the evangelistic ministry PULSE, also posted a message expressing his gratitude for Zacharias and detailed the last encounter he had with the minister, who was a part of Hall's global Holy Week outreach. "Ravi opened doors for me, shared our stage at @pulse.movement and @together.generation events, and spoke into my life in ways that I will never forget," Hall wrote on Instagram. Hall added that a few weeks before Zacharias' death, the two celebrated the impact of their Holy Week collaboration. It was Zacharias' "last ministry event while on earth, where his message went out to possibly his largest audience ever over 100 million people, according to Nielsen ratings." Zacharias was born in India on March 26, 1946. Although he was raised in a Christian home, Zacharias considered himself to be a religious skeptic until age 17. During a hospitalization following a suicide attempt, Zacharias was visited by a Youth for Christ director and was given a Bible. He was struck by the verse John 14:19, which reads: "Because I live, you also will live." "This verse has become the cornerstone of Zacharias' ultimate mission as a Christian apologist and evangelist: to present and defend the truth of Jesus Christ that others may find life in Him," RZIM stated in a tribute to the late apologist. According to Davis, the Bible verse is carved into Zacharias' grandmother's gravestone and it will also be etched on her father's gravestone. Archbishop Joseph D'Souza of the Good Shepherd Church of India said in a message shared with The Christian Post that Zacharias' life isn't "just a loss for the global Christian community." He said, "India also has lost a great son and a great Christian apologist." Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global chemical and specialty materials company, today announces it has filed a petition with the European Commission's Directorate-General For Trade seeking Anti-Dumping duties on imports of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) from Korea Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd. (KPIC) of Seoul, South Korea, into the European Union. "After successfully filing an anti-dumping case in the U.S., which the U.S. authorities voted unanimously to continue an investigation into, and in order to further ensure Celanese is able to operate in fair and sustainable industry conditions globally, we were compelled to also file an anti-dumping case against KPIC in Europe to address their destructive pricing practices in that region which have caused Celanese's UHMWPE business to suffer significantly over the last several years since KPIC began selling in the region," said Tom Kelly, Senior Vice President of the Engineered Materials business of Celanese. "Fair and sustainable pricing on a global basis is important for the health of every industry, and in the long term, this will lead to increased supply availability in the marketplace and to broader choices for our customers; and therefore, we believe it is our obligation to address these inequities through actions such as anti-dumping duties when they arise." GUR, the Celanese trade name for its UHMWPE product, is a core business and growing market and the company will continue to support market growth of this product by investing in its global manufacturing capabilities. With its unique quality, global manufacturing network, and decades of experience producing GUR, Celanese is highly committed to this business across all market segments and regions. Celanese values the long-term, strategic customer relationships it maintains in the European region, but the market requires a fair and sustainable price level to support these customers long term. UHMWPE is used in a wide array of applications in multiple industries, including construction, agriculture, material handling, transportation, textiles, pulp and paper, food and beverage, mining, marine, plastics, oil and gas, high performance fibers, battery separators, and waste water treatment. Under European law, a domestic industry can petition the government to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold at less than fair value (i.e., dumped). Additional duties can be imposed if the European Commission determines that imported goods are "dumped" and further determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of subject imports. If the European Commission makes preliminary affirmative determinations, European importers will be required to pay provisional anti-dumping duties in the amount of the anti-dumping duty for all entries on or after the date the European Commission preliminary determination is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The preliminary anti-dumping rates can change in the European Commission's final determination, especially if foreign producers participate fully in the investigation. About Celanese Celanese Corporation is a global chemical leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Our businesses use the full breadth of Celanese's global chemistry, technology and commercial expertise to create value for our customers, employees, shareholders and the corporation. As we partner with our customers to solve their most critical business needs, we strive to make a positive impact on our communities and the world through The Celanese Foundation. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of $6.3 billion. For more information about Celanese Corporation and its product offerings, visit www.celanese.com or our blog at www.celaneseblog.com Editor's Note: The merchandise covered by the proposed scope is Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE). UHMWPE is a linear polyethylene, in granular or powder form. It is defined by its melt mass-flow rate of <0.1 g/10 min, measured at 190 C and 21.6 kg load, based on the methods and calculations set forth in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards 21304-1 and 21304-2. UHMWPE generally has a Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) registration number of 9002-88-4. The scope includes all UHMWPE in granular or powder forms meeting the above specifications regardless of additives introduced in the manufacturing process. UHMWPE blended with other products is included in the scope of this investigation where UHMWPE is the predominant material within the blend. Excluded from the scope of the investigation is medical-grade UHMWPE. Medical-grade UHMWPE has a minimum viscosity of 2000 ml/g at a concentration of 0.02% at 135 C (275 F) in decahydronaphthalene and an elongational stress of 0.2 MPa or greater. Medical-grade UHMWPE is further defined by its ash and trace element content, which shall not exceed the following maximum quantities as set forth in ISO-5834-1: ash (125 mg/kg), titanium (40 mg/kg), calcium (5 mg/kg), chlorine (30 mg/kg), and aluminum (20 mg/kg). ISO 5834-1 further defines medical-grade UHMWPE by its particulate matter content, which requires that there shall be no more than three particles of contaminant per 300 20 g tested. Each of the above criteria is calculated based on the standards and methods used in ISO 5834-1. UHMWPE is classifiable under the HTS US subheadings 3901.10.10.00 and 3901.20.10.00 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005279/en/ Contacts: Celanese Contacts: Investor Relations Abe Paul +1 972 443 4432 abraham.paul@celanese.com Media Relations Global W. Travis Jacobsen +1 972 443 3750 william.jacobsen@celanese.com Media Relations Europe (Germany) Petra Czugler +49 174 762 8784 petra.czugler@celanese.com Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:24:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GABORONE, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Botswana's national airliner is expected to resume domestic flights next month, the minister of transport revealed on Tuesday. Air Botswana ceased operations in March, as part of efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. Thulaganyo Segokgo, the transport minister giving an update on national television said the airline will begin domestic operations in two weeks. "Air Botswana is looking at commencing domestic flight service on the 12th of June," said Segokgo. A latest transport and infrastructure report from Statistics Botswana, the national data authority, indicates that air passenger movements decreased in the last quarter of 2019. "They went down by 17.1 percent after falling from 275,406 movements recorded in 3rd quarter of 2019 to 228,215 movements in 4th of 2019," said Burton Mguni, Statistician General. According to the report, international air passenger movements accounted for 57.7 percent of total air passenger movements in 4th of 2019 while domestic air passenger movements constituted 42.3 percent. "Most of the international air passenger movements were made at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, they accounted for 74.4 percent of total international air passenger movements," said Mguni. Movements in the airspace are also expected to take a huge drop in the first quarter of 2020, following the ban of passenger aircrafts movements due to COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem China's central government is introducing a national security law in Hong Kong because the territory's authorities have not been able to do it locally for over 20 years, a Hong Kong official said on Tuesday. "In fact, it is a failure at the legislature that we have not delivered this national security law for 23 years," said Bernard Chan, a deputy to the National People's Congress. "Basically, the mainland has delegated that legislation to us, to Hong Kong, to do ourselves but we failed in 23 years," Chan told CNBC's "Street Signs" on Tuesday. Last week, Beijing introduced a draft national security law that will bypass the legislature in Hong Kong, reigniting concerns over eroding freedoms in the special administrative region and triggering protests over the weekend. The draft law would target acts of secession, subverting state power and organizing and carrying out terrorist activities, as well interference by foreign or external forces. The Hong Kong government is required to draft a national security law in accordance with Article 23 of the territory's mini constitution, the Basic Law but it has not been able to. A previous attempt to introduce national security legislation in Hong Kong in 2003 was shelved after mass protests. While some would argue there was no rush to introduce the legislation "this is before last year," said Chan. Beijing now feels there is an urgency to introduce this law as it feels that there are serious national security issues in Hong Kong, due to long-drawn social unrest sparked by protests over a scrapped extradition bill. "After the last year, there are now serious security issues they need to address. It's hard to pass legislation in Hong Kong these days, so the central government is taking the initiative and going forward with it," Chan told CNBC on Tuesday. Beijing is likely to introduce the law using Article 18 of the Basic Law which states that national laws can be applied to Hong Kong if they are under Annex III and related to defense, foreign affairs or "other matters outside the limits" of Hong Kong's autonomy. The Hong Kong government still needs to put in place its own national security law under Article 23, but it would be "very difficult" to do so in the legislature, said Chan. He said that Beijing's proposed legislation was not a circumvention of the law. Chan said Beijing's top priority is national security and that the central government wants Hong Kong to return to normalcy. "We are seeing things like acts of terrorism in Hong Kong, and what matters to China today now are issues such like secession; we are seeing people holding flags asking for Hong Kong independence, we are seeing signs where people will actually want to subvert state power or against the Central People's Government and clearly, we also see there is meddling from foreign countries, foreign influences," Chan said. Wuhan, the epicenter of Chinas coronavirus outbreak, said it tested nearly seven million people in 12 days, concluding a campaign to test the entire population after several infections prompted fears of a second wave. A total of 6.68 million people underwent nucleic acid tests, of which 206 asymptomatic cases were reported, according to Bloomberg calculations based on daily numbers released by the local health commission. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage Wuhans mass testing campaign is part of Chinas efforts to prevent the resurgence of the epidemic at all costs after it shut down large swathes of the worlds second-largest economy to get it under control. The emergence of a new cluster of cases in its northeast region led officials to lock down some 100 million residents. The ambitious testing mission was announced on May 12, days after new infections emerged for the first time since a 76-day lockdown was lifted in Wuhan in April. The pace of testing increased rapidly over the course of the campaign, with the city offering tests to over 1.1 million people on May 23, more than 26 times the number that were completed on the first day, according to the Wuhan Health Commission. Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need to not ruin the hard-won achievement of containing the virus at a meeting with representatives from Hubei, the province of which Wuhan is the capital, during high-profile annual legislative meetings underway in Beijing. The nations top leaders strive to project an image of calm and stability during the National Peoples Congress every year, making it all the more crucial for the new clusters to be quickly stamped out. Even before the mandated citywide testing in Wuhan, many companies in the city had taken the initiative to test all their employees before they returned to work because they risked getting shut down again if even a single infection was found. China has also embarked on a serological survey to determine the true scale of its outbreak. The project involves researchers taking blood samples from a representative group of people to see if they have generated antibodies to fight the virus, a sign they were infected with the virus at some point. Caracas (AFP) - The first of five Iranian tankers carrying much-needed gasoline and oil derivatives docked in Venezuela on Monday, Caracas announced amid concern in Washington over the burgeoning relationship between countries it sees as international pariahs. In a statement delivered on state television, Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said the convoy was an expression of the Venezuelan people's "self-determination" and praised Tehran's friendship at a time of need. "What great fortune to have Iran in these times," said the minister, surrounded by members of the military leadership. Earlier, El Aissami triumphantly shared images on Twitter of the first ship, "Fortune" arriving at El Palito refinery on Venezuela's northwest coast. "We keep going and WINNING!" El Aissami wrote. The United States has closely monitored the shipments, concerned that Iran and Venezuela -- both under US sanctions -- were taking their longstanding ties to another strategic level. The Iranian tankers have run the gauntlet of US warships arrayed off the Venezuelan coast after Washington announced last month it was stepping up its naval presence, arguing there was an increase in organized crime. Tensions between Washington and Caracas remain high following Venezuela's disruption last month of an abortive military assault by a group of mercenaries coordinated by a private US security company. The US has stepped up sanctions against socialist President Nicolas Maduro and his inner circle, recently offering a $15 million reward for Maduro accusing him of masterminding a drug-smuggling ring. Washington and more than 50 other states accuse Maduro of stealing 2018 elections and instead recognize his opposition rival Juan Guaido as interim president. - Vital shipment - The vital shipment arrives at a time of chronic fuel shortages in the crisis-wracked South American country, exacerbated by the coronavirus lockdown. Story continues In Caracas, where drivers lined up for hours to fill their tanks, Tehran's helping hand was viewed with a mixture of hope and suspicion. Osvaldo Rodriguez, 22, doubts the fuel "is for us," but instead destined for those with their hands on the levers of power in Venezuela. "If gasoline is sold at the same price as abroad, nobody will be able to afford it," he said, alluding to Venezuela's minimum wage of $4.60 a month. Gasoline is currently selling for up to three dollars a liter on the black market in Caracas, unheard of in a country where motorists are used to filling up for practically nothing. "We have no shortage of oil! Supposedly we are sitting on five billion barrels of it underground. But there's no gasoline," said Teodoro Lamonte, 50, as he slowly rolled his car along a line outside a service station. Venezuela boasts the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but production has plummeted under the current regime and its oil exports have been hampered by US sanctions. The Fortune arrived in Venezuela's territorial waters on Saturday night, escorted by the Venezuelan navy. The navy on Twitter said its ships were escorting a second tanker, the Forest, which it said entered the country's waters early Monday. The other Iranian tankers -- Petunia, Faxon, Clavel and Forest -- will arrive in the next few days, state television said. The fleet is carrying around 1.5 million barrels of gasoline, according to press reports. Tehran had warned of "consequences" if the US stopped the ships from reaching their destination. Iran and Venezuela have had close relations since the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez took power in Caracas in 1999. Venezuela has been in recession for six years, its economy in shambles and its citizens struggling with shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicines. US sanctions have targeted Venezuelan oil exports, starving Caracas of vital income. Venezuela is almost entirely dependent on its oil revenues but its production has fallen to roughly a quarter of its 2008 level. Maduro's government blames that on US sanctions, including against state oil company PDVSA, but many analysts say the regime has failed to invest in or maintain infrastructure. Falling oil prices since 2014 have exacerbated Venezuela's economic crisis. Last month, the oil ministry revealed that the price of Venezuelan crude had fallen to its lowest level in more than two decades, at less than $10 a barrel. Last year it averaged $56.70. UAV Thermal Imaging The pace of adoption of our Real-Time Crime Center Platform continues to accelerate, especially among technologically progressive agencies contending with the difficult policing environment created by COVID-19. Driven by the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of Police Departments are turning to the Fusus Real-Time Crime Center in the Cloud (RTC3) platform for enhanced situational awareness for officers and investigators. A diverse set of cities ranging from Rialto, California, to Oak Lawn, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota have all recently activated the Fusus Solution to power their Real-Time Crime Centers. Some of the primary factors driving adoption of the Fusus solution is the ability to quickly implement a robust, fully functional Real-Time Crime Center solution remotely without the need for onsite work, and the aggressive price-point of the solution, which makes it affordable for Departments located in cities suffering from budget shortfalls due to the ongoing pandemic. A notable recent deployment of the Fusus RTC3 platform is with the Georgia Tech Police Department, which safeguards one of the Nations premier innovation institutions, and is renowned for progressive policing through technology. The Department will leverage the Fusus Real-Time Crime Center in the Cloud (RTC3) solution to enhance the safety of its teachers and students through sensor and IoT fusion, video based pre and live event alerting, and integration with dispatch and other emergency alerts already in use on campus. The Department joins a growing family of agencies around the country that have migrated away from traditional and difficult to integrate on-premises video solutions by leveraging an agile, cloud-based Real-Time Crime interface. The Fusus Real-Time Crime Center solution brings many of our customers disparate technology investments into a single pane of glass, said Chris Lindenau, CEO of Fusus. The pace of adoption of our Real-Time Crime Center Platform continues to accelerate, especially among technologically progressive agencies. Especially given the difficult policing environment created by COVID-19, we appreciate the trust these departments are putting in the Fusus RTC3 solution for the daily support of their officers and community members. Given budget constraints and restrictions upon in-person interactions, the Fusus approach to rapid, scalable, rule-based integration with Police Departments mission critical systems is uniquely positioned to support their current and future needs for intelligence lead policing. System setup and integration can be completed remotely, creating a central integration point for all physical and life safety technology. This includes video intelligence, map-based awareness of police units, and a hub for intelligence-driven alerting through existing Officer, Vehicle, and Command-based interfaces. In the case of Georgia Tech, Fusus integrated campus floorplans and its 911/computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, to create a common operating picture for the Police Department. The system includes the capability to unify all campus gunshot detection systems, a student alerting app, a multi-media crime tips text messaging system, off campus video management software systems, license plate recognition technology, historical crime maps for predictive policing, and location alerts for responding officers. A similar unified awareness platform has been implemented in Rialto, Oak Lawn and Minneapolis as well, pulling together multiple public and private security systems and integrating them seamlessly with 911/CAD systems. For more information about Fusus, or to schedule a briefing session, please contact us at +1 (844) 226 9226 or info@fusus.com About Fusus The Fusus Real-Time Crime Center in the Cloud (RTC3) extracts and unifies live video, data and sensor feeds from virtually any source, enhancing the situational awareness and investigative capabilities of law enforcement and public safety agencies. Whether its a UAV, a traffic camera, a private cell phone video, a building security camera, or a bomb disposal robot, Fusus can extract the live video feed and send it to your emergency operations center and officers in the field. We create a public safety ecosystem that combines video with other utilities like ALPRs, gunfire detectors, real-time officer geolocator feeds, a registry map of all the public and private cameras in your region, a multi-media tips line for the public, and a digital evidence vault for investigators. Fusus enables Law Enforcement and Public Safety agencies to operate more efficiently, with improved operational intelligence, and with a proactive emphasis on officer, citizen, and community safety. For more information about Fusus, or to schedule a demo, please contact us. A CLAIM that nursing homes were left "isolated" by the State in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak has been angrily rejected in the Dail. Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd insisted that the allegation by Nursing Homes Ireland boss Tadhg Daly is "patently and obviously untrue". Read More It comes as the Dail's Special Committee on Covid-19 Response probes the situation in nursing homes - one of the parts of the community worst-hit by the pandemic. Mr Daly claimed key State organisations left the nursing home sector and its residents isolated in the early days of the crisis. He added: The dismay will live forever with us while also saying he welcomed the supports provided by public health authorities as the crisis continued. Mr O'Dowd referred to details of correspondence and meetings between NHI and the Department of Health which have been published today. He said that in one on March 17 NHI thanked the Department for "regular and ongoing communications" and another communication the following day where NHI thanked officials for its continued collaboration. He pointed to an item of correspondence on March 24 where NHI was looking for financial assistance and said the government's temporary financial assistance scheme was launched days later. Mr O'Dowd argued that the communications makes Mr Daly's claim that the sector was isolated is "patently and obviously untrue". He pointed out that NHI has 12 directors and some are "very wealthy". He said that there was 23.3m in profits for eight of those directors in the last account year. Mr O'Dowd put it to Mr Daly that the nursing home sector has "a lot of money" for buying things like Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), for testing and for paying for extra staff during the crisis. Mr Daly insisted the sector "takes its responsibility seriously". He said PPE was unavailable to the sector from the normal suppliers and that testing was being done nationally by the HSE. Mr Daly insisted that nursing homes spent "millions" in extra expenditure on PPE and more staff. He said that 8.7m has been drawn down from the government's temporary financial assistance scheme. Mr O'Dowd said: "That's government money being refunded to you". Mr Dowd repeated that Mr Daly's claim that nursing homes were isolated is "not a fact". He also hit out at how just 123 nursing homes out of 581 were fully compliant with standards in the most recent Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report from 2018. Mr O'Dowd said there were failures in risk management in 22pc of homes and in infection control in 18pc. Mr Daly said the Hiqa findings were for all nursing homes, public, private and voluntary and that the agency highlighted high compliance rates. Mr O'Dowd said the report also shows that compliance rates had gone down from 27pc in 2017 to 23pc in 2018. The Fine Gael TD said that care of older people in nursing homes is "not acceptable". He claimed: "the nursing home private sector is not complying... they are very wealthy companies who complain that the taxpayer isn't doing enough for them" He said there needs to be "a total change in the way the care of older people is looked at." He said no one had died from coronavirus in nursing homes in Hong Kong and added: "I just get so angry at this." Mr Daly said nursing homes are the most highly regulated part of the health service and Hiqa can close nursing homes where standards are not acceptable. He said a whole suite of care services for the older population needs to be developed and added: "we won't be found wanting in terms of our responsibility at all." Meanwhile, Sinn Fein TD Louise O'Reilly said that letters between NHI and the public health authorities show the organisation "begging" for assistance and pleading with the State to stop the "aggressive" recruitment of the sector's staff for acute hospitals. She said more than half of coronavirus deaths happened in nursing homes and claimed there was "no plan" for the sector. Ms O'Reilly asked Mr Daly why this is. Mr Daly said that's a question for someone else but that "there should have been a national plan". He claimed there was a focus on the acute hospital sector to make sure they were ready for the disease. "The surge predicted in hospitals materialised in the nursing home sector," he added. Ms O'Reilly asked about the testing for coronavirus of hospital patients to nursing homes at the start of the crisis. Mr Daly said: "More rigorous testing would have been appropriate". Earlier Mr Daly claimed key State organisations left the nursing home sector and its residents isolated in the early days of the crisis. He added: The dismay will live forever with us while also saying he welcomed the supports provided by public health authorities as the crisis continued. Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd took issue with the allegation that nursing homes were isolated claiming it was "untrue". MIDLAND, MI The phrase Nobody got hurt was a common refrain heard Tuesday, May 26, in Midland County as neighbors and volunteers worked to clean up flood damage and haul away debris. Homeowners Tuesday continued sorting through what they could save from their homes flooded nearly a week ago by heavy rains and nearby dam failures on the Tittabawassee River. Some helped to wash neighbors fine china in tubs placed in front yards. Others took a break from the heat to chat with neighbors as they waited for emergency crews to assess the damage the historic flooding had caused their homes. While some residents fared better than others, they all agreed things would have been worse without the help of volunteers who flocked to their neighborhood Memorial Day weekend to help clean up. It looks like a war zone Around 2,500 volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints alone came out during the extended holiday weekend. Many of them traveled from Fraser and stayed past the holiday weekend. Monte Searle, a bishop in Midland, coordinated the volunteers as they reached out to flood victims in Wixom, Sanford, Edenville, Saginaw and other flood affected areas. Over the holiday weekend, Searle said the volunteers helped clear over 300 homes. It was amazing to see all those volunteers, he said. It looks like a war zone. The number of volunteers here is a testament to the whole Midwest. Rebecca Jensen, one of the volunteers from Fraser, helped Village West residents in Midland on Tuesday. Throughout the day, she cleared mud from basements, tore out dry wall and salvaged personal possessions from ruined homes. Its really been gratifying to see all these volunteers from different organizations come together, Jensen said. Im just happy we could help. Some of organizations and individuals helping alongside Jensen volunteered through the United Way of Midland County. Sarah Michaelowski, a native of Midland, helped coordinate these volunteers throughout the holiday weekend. Tuesday morning, she was again out at the Sanford Family Pharmacy volunteer check-in site, located 28 W. Saginaw Road. I was lucky. I live north of the US-10 and I didnt get a drop, she said. Ill be out here for as long as they need me to. I just hope that in a few weeks, people dont forget about the flood victims. Michaelowski and United Way coordinators helped match volunteers from the area, Ann Arbor and even a family from Louisiana with a flood victims in need. Those with food to donate were sent to food insecure areas, and anyone with a shovel was sent to a flood victim who needed help clearing out basements and other tasks. Its been really incredible to see all this support, Michaelowski said. Homeowners are getting to a point where they can actually clean out their homes, so things are settling down. Volunteers are a large reason for that. Village West begins cleanup Village West residents, who live just off U.S 10 about two miles north of downtown Midland, were grateful for the overwhelming support they received. Mary Herst, who wont be able to return to her condemned home, said the outpouring of support left her speechless. The volunteers have been troopers, Herst said. Theyve come out of basements head-to-toe covered in mud. I even saw a mother and her child from the neighborhood walking around passing out sack lunches, and they had suffered flood damage, too. Herst said neighbors families from out of state even came up to help their families and neighbors. A neighbors daughter, Kelli Hansen, drove up from Alabama to lend a hand to her mother and other Village West residents. It was devastating, and thank God no lives were lost, Hansen said of of the damage the flood did to her mothers street. It was heartwarming to see all the volunteers willing to help my mom clean up her home." Damage assessment begins In between working on her mothers home, Hansen stood in the scorching sun with temperatures near 90, talking to neighbors such as Richard Jones, whose recently remodeled basement was destroyed. Like Herst, Joness house was condemned. One of two steel beams in his basement came undone during the flooding, and the foundation of his home was compromised. Inside his home, the kitchen floor dropped 8 to 10 inches, and mold was already starting to form. Since the house was condemned, Jones and his wife couldnt go inside. On Tuesday, he worked with friends who came to help him and his wife clean dishes and the few other possessions theyd managed to save. It sounds like a gun going off, Jones said as a he heard his floors again begin falling further into the ground. Mother Natures got a lot of power. Jones recounted the remodeling he and his wife had just done to the house, including a brand-new kitchen and a finished basement. It was beautiful, just wonderful, Jones said. Still, he knew the situation could have been much worse. My wife and I had a conversation that first night of the flood, he said. Were not picking out a coffin, so were good, is what she said. Jones said the damage his house underwent was the second-worst to neighbors Mike and Jan Warren. The Warrens had returned to Midland Sunday, May 17, just a day before the Village West community was instructed to evacuate. Like most of their neighbors, the Warrens reported around 2.5 feet of water in their home, while the basement was filled to the ceiling. Unlike their neighbors, the Warrens lost their entire front porch, and the cement their cars once sat on in the garage had completely collapsed, trapping the two vehicles halfway under the rest of the garage floor. Insurance doesnt know how to get the cars out, Jan said. When we first got home after the floods, the garage door had been pushed in. I thought, Oh, thats bad, but then we saw the rest of the house. The Warrens house soon was added to the growing list of condemned homes in West Village. Unlike other neighbors, the Warrens were unable to retrieve anything from inside the home before it was declared condemned since the front porch had been swallowed by the ground during the floods. Jan said a neighbor had volunteered to put a temporarily ramp connecting the front door of the house to the sidewalk, but the condominium association said they were not allowed to do so. After seeing the damage to the porch and garage, the Warrens went to stay with Jans sister nearby, unable to get themselves to examine the rest of the damage until the next day. It wasnt registering. We were so devastated that we couldnt go around the back, she said. I cant even put it into words. Everything weve worked so hard for is gone. The waiting game begins By midday Tuesday, The Warrens, Jonses, Hersts and other Village West neighbors were at a stand-still, playing the waiting game, as Herst described it. They shared stories of damages done and memories saved, all the while being thankful for the help they had received from each other and from strangers. Im in awe of the people who came out here, said Carolyn Copus, who worked with volunteers over the holiday weekend to clear mud from her basement. Theyre helped us all so much. As Village West continued clean up of the neighborhood, emergency vehicles, electricians, insurance agencies and other officials filed in and out of the area. By Tuesday, many homes were cleared out enough to begin assessing damages. Copus and her neighbors said they quickly found that those who did have flood insurance would only receive $5,000, which Copus said would not come close to covering the damage the floods had done. I wasnt destroyed, and we keep telling ourselves its only stuff, she said. But now were waiting. We need some direction. We need help from FEMA. We need money. Hansen, standing in the driveway of her mothers severely damaged home, echoed Copuss concerns. Were just sitting with the neighbors, waiting, Hansen said. I hope FEMA is here and can help. Read More Our whole life is gone, says woman whose Sanford home was washed away in Midland floods We lost our whole town: Sanford salvages whats left after flood destroys homes and businesses Consumers Energy provides close to $90k in grants to aid flood victims Midland County offers free water test kits to well owners concerned with potential contamination Midland residents urged to stay off lake beds and dams How a spring rainstorm became a 500-year flood event in mid-Michigan Economic impact, future of failed dams repair weigh heavy on residents around Wixom Lake ReOpen NC protesters attend a protest in Raleigh, North Carolina, on May 25, 2020. Similar demonstrations occurred in four other cities across the state that day. Anibal Martel Pena/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images ReOpen NC, an anti-lockdown group that has entered the spotlight for its protests across North Carolina, may use violence to ward off public-health measures, says one member. "Are we willing to kill people?" asked Adam Smith, the husband of ReOpen NC founder Ashley Smith. "We have to say yes." The anti-lockdown group describes itself as "peaceful" on its social media page. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order last week easing coronavirus-related restrictions on business, travel, and social gatherings. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In North Carolina, an anti-lockdown movement that has gained momentum since April took a new turn: The founder's husband said he wouldn't rule out violence to avoid coronavirus-related safety measures. "Are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay our lives down? We have to say yes," Adam Smith, the husband of ReOpen NC leader and founder Ashley Smith, said in a series of videos on Friday. He deleted the videos after news outlet Raw Story began reporting on them. "Is that violence? Is that terrorism? No, it's not terrorism," he continued. "I'm not trying to strike fear in people by saying, 'I'm going to kill you.' I'm gonna say, 'If you bring guns, I'm gonna bring guns. If you're armed with this, we're going to be armed with this.'" ReOpen NC, a protest group that held demonstrations in five cities across the state on Monday, was formed less than two months ago, according to its social media page. It describes itself as "a peaceful action group," and it has nearly 80,000 members on Facebook. Ashley Smith stood by her husband's claims and republished one of his videos on Sunday, The Charlotte Observer reported. "Maybe you agree with him and maybe you don't, but we have nothing to hide," she wrote on Facebook. "This group is built on the Constitution and that includes free speech and the second amendment. He is simply stating to protect his family and our freedom he is willing to take up arms like our forefathers did." Story continues She added that her husband, formerly a Marine, was still "willing to die for all of you too." "Could he have said it better?" she asked. "Maybe, but that's not for anyone to decide how a free person should speak their mind. Our founding fathers would not be pleased that we gave up so much for so little. Look how hard we are having to fight to get our freedom back!" ReOpen NC has held numerous demonstrations in the capital city of Raleigh, as protesters voice their anger with the state's lockdown measures. On Monday, protests were held in the capital, Charlotte, Asheville, Greensboro, and Wilmington. Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, issued his latest executive order last week, ending the stay-at-home order and easing restrictions on business, travel, and social gatherings. The injunction is described as "Phase Two" of the state's reopening plan. By Monday, there were 24,100 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The state reported a new surge in coronavirus hospitalizations the same day. According to the order, social-distancing is "encouraged," as is wearing a mask. In one of Adam Smith's videos, he said such recommendations constitute "indoctrination." "It is a test run to see how much liberty we're willing to give up without a fight," he said. "Boy, you know what I say? Not an inch." Read the original article on Business Insider What happened Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO (NYSE:NIO) were up on Tuesday, on signs of strong demand for its vehicles ahead of its earnings report later this week. As of 1:30 p.m. EDT, NIO's American depositary shares were trading up about 13.8% from Friday's closing price. So what With the COVID-19 outbreak receding in China, demand seems to be strong for NIO's upscale electric vehicles -- even without dealer visits. China Daily reported that a 40-minute NIO livestream last week, in which CEO William Bin Li presented the company's vehicles in detail and answered questions, led to 320 vehicle orders, 5,288 test-drive appointments, and total sales of 150 million yuan ($21 million) by the next day. The report fed into growing investor excitement around NIO, which secured what appears to be a long-term funding deal last month. The deal, with economic-development authorities in China's Anhui province, will provide NIO with 7 billion yuan ($981 million) in new funding in exchange for a 24.1% stake and an agreement to move NIO's operations to Anhui's capital city, Hefei. Now what Auto investors still have some big questions related to the structure of NIO's deal with authorities in Anhui. The parties are creating a new company into which NIO will put most or all of its assets in China in exchange for a 75.9% stake. But it's not clear what will will happen to NIO's debt -- or exactly what its U.S. shareholders will own once the transaction is completed. The good news is that more information, and (hopefully) answers to those and other questions, should be forthcoming when NIO reports its first-quarter earnings before the market opens on Thursday, May 28. YOU WANT To expound on every aspect of coronavirus while everyone else listens to you in respectful silence. YOUD SETTLE FOR Knowing what R means. YOU GET Into a heated argument with a 12-year-old about whether or not you washed your hands for more than 20 seconds. YOU WANT To do the shopping for all your most vulnerable neighbours. YOUD SETTLE FOR Keeping an eye on the elderly lady two doors down. YOU GET Annoyed by the sound of the elderly couple next door enjoying their online exercise classes and pop a note through their door asking them to pipe down. You want to practise online Yoga With Adriene. But you get waylaid into watching a video on YouTube of a goldfish who looks a bit like Alan Sugar. YOU WANT To nip up North without too much kerfuffle. YOUD SETTLE FOR Being spotted by a friendly neighbour and exchanging knowing smiles. YOU GET Top slot on News At Ten, with film of 60 photographers outside your front door and protesters chanting Hypocrite! Hypocrite! while you try to get to your car wearing your least flattering T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, with MPs and commentators all calling for your resignation. YOU WANT A civilised game of Scrabble. YOUD SETTLE FOR A game of Scrabble that doesnt end in tears. YOU GET Out the dictionary and say, As I thought! Theres no such word as EW, whereupon your daughter stomps out of the room saying, Thats so unfair! and your son says, Well if shes not playing, nor am I and your wife says, Why do you have to ruin everything? YOU WANT To practise online Yoga With Adriene. YOUD SETTLE FOR Practising online PE with Joe Wicks. YOU GET Waylaid into watching a video on YouTube of a goldfish who looks a bit like Alan Sugar. YOU WANT To Zoom six close friends and achieve a rare degree of intimacy by sharing your hopes and fears. YOUD SETTLE FOR Zooming two acquaintances and reaching a consensus after 20 minutes that: Yes, but it must be so much worse for large families stuck in high-rise blocks. YOU GET Baffled by which buttons to press and end up failing to hear what theyre all saying because you dont know how to unmute them. YOU WANT To do 25 jump squats in quick succession. YOUD SETTLE FOR Doing five push-ups over a period of five minutes. YOU GET The butter out of the fridge, the jam out of the cupboard and the bread from the bread bin. YOU WANT To be serene. YOUD SETTLE FOR Being pleasant. YOU GET Increasingly irritated by the way your mother-in-law keeps offering magisterial pronouncements on the spread of Covid-19 (Of course, everybody knows its largely spread through the ankles. I blame the Swedes.) and end up flouncing out of the room with your hands over your ears screaming: I cant take much more of this! You want a civilised game of Scrabble. But you get out the dictionary and say, As I thought! Theres no such word as EW, whereupon your daughter stomps out of the room saying, Thats so unfair! YOU WANT To lose a stone. YOUD SETTLE FOR Losing a pound. YOU GET A thick-crust pizza, six cans of Heineken, two bars of Galaxy and a 12-pack of Walkers crisps. YOU WANT To recite a long poem every day from memory. YOUD SETTLE FOR Reciting a short poem every week from memory. YOU GET Out your old copy of The Oxford Book Of English Verse, find all the poems a bit too heavy-going, and end up watching old YouTube videos of Alan Chatty Man Carr interviewing Sporty Spice. YOU WANT To grow sweet peas, petunias and six varieties of rose, as well as a vegetable patch with courgettes, runner beans, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes and cabbages. YOUD SETTLE FOR Mowing the lawn. YOU GET A sun-lounger, and put it all off until next week. HONG KONG, May 26, 2020 - (ACN Newswire) - Responding to market demand and an increasingly remote business environment, Blockpass today revealed the launch of the WebID version of its award-winning identity verification protocol, KYC Connect.The Blockpass KYC Connect console now enables businesses to easily integrate a WebID button that will trigger an intuitive, web-based and merchant branded identity verification and onboarding process for end-users selecting their services.The WebID service provides a guided onboarding process with full web experience and branding, including an auto-generated branded merchant page with logo, service description and requirements. Businesses can select different levels of identity verification and KYC & AML screening, as well as centralized management and data analytics for regulated industries. This process seamlessly accommodates onboarding of existing Blockpass users via their reusable identity profile as well as new users to Blockpass."We are very enthusiastic to reveal this groundbreaking development," said Blockpass CEO Adam Vaziri. "Blockpass is the ideal identity protocol for an increasingly remote world and regulated transaction environment, where there is a strong need to establish trust via reusable and verifiable digital identity."Blockpass continues to be committed to decentralized digital identity (DDI), both through ongoing updates to its mobile identity vault in iOS and Android app stores and its support of the groundbreaking research at the Blockpass Identity Lab at Edinburgh Napier University.The Blockpass platform is fully automated and hosted in the cloud, with no integration or setup fee. Within minutes, businesses can sign up to the KYC Connect console, test out the service, and start conducting identity documents verification, KYC and AML checks. Sign up for FREE at console.blockpass.org.About BlockpassBlockpass is a unique, reusable digital identity (DID) solution for any organizations that participate in regulated industries and in the increasingly remote business environment where trust needs to be verified digitally. Blockpass offers an alternative process to cumbersome, repetitive and expensive Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks through a seamless merchant dashboard that is setup immediately with pay-as-you-go and no initial fee. Blockpass' KYC Connect platform enables businesses to select requirements for customer onboarding that can include ID authentication, face-matching, address checking, AML ongoing monitoring and/or screening of sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP), and adverse media. Through Blockpass, end-users easily create a verified portable identity that they can control and re-use to onboard with any service instantly.For more information and updates, please visit and sign up to the following:Promotional video: https://youtu.be/SvO2cw3e-SIWebsite: http://www.blockpass.orgEmail: sales@blockpass.orgSource: Blockpass IDNCopyright 2020 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Four Chilean burglars who committed a series of break-ins between June and July 2018 will be expelled from Spain in September. On Monday, the four were each sentenced to five years and five months in prison, with expulsion from Spain after two-fifths of the sentences have been served. As they have been in prison since July 2018, the expulsion and return to Chile will be in September. The Guardia Civil say that the four belonged to a Chilean network that has been committing robberies in various parts of Europe in recent years. Targeting luxury properties, the wave of break-ins in Majorca started on Sant Joan Eve in 2018, the 23rd of June. On that night, two properties - one in Bendinat, the other in Santa Ponsa - were broken into. Twenty-four hours later, there were further burglaries. The gang concentrated on properties in Calvia and Santanyi. They stole jewellery and cash, the total value of which was some 300,000 euros. In terms of value, the largest haul was from the final break-in on July 22 - jewellery worth 170,000 euros. Soon after this, they were arrested at a flat in Magalluf. There is an increasing acknowledgement of the intertwining nature of voluntary and forced migration. Also, there is an increase in xenophobic and ethnic tensions accompanied by the rise of populist politics, as migrants get labelled as others and outsiders. There is a need to take cognisance of the coevalness of deterritorialisation, capital accumulation and the pronounced turn to the ethnic in the conceiving of sociopolitical identities. This can be a step towards analysing who we are as a collective, our differences, socialities and solidarities in these fraught times. With directed focus of social science and policy thinking on the human experience of displacement and uneven development, especially since the last two decades of the 20th century, there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the intertwining nature of voluntary and forced migration. Migration has always posed challenges for governance and the state that seek uniformity of cultures and practices among its population. Yet, migration, voluntary or forced, is a recurrent feature of capitalism, along with its unevenness, and the dispossessions and displacements that it engenders. Highlights Oppo has confirmed the Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro. Both smartphones have three cameras in a different design. They have also been certified on TENAA site. Oppo Reno 4 was glimpsed for the first time a few weeks ago but more information about it have begun to crop up. The company has started teasing the smartphone that confirms the Reno 4 but it has also inadvertently confirmed the Reno 4 Pro also exists. Oppo has shared a promotional video on Weibo that showcases Reno 4 in its entirety but without any spill over the specifications. However, the Oppo Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro have seemingly reached the TENAA certification website, where their key specifications have been revealed. In a post on Weibo, Oppo has confirmed the Reno 4 series will support 5G connectivity and that there will be at least blue and orange colours. Going by its look, the Reno 4 series will have protruded camera sensors aligned vertically at the back, in a manner that looks different from nearly existing camera setups on smartphones. Although, if we were to find a similarity, the Reno 4 series may have borrowed a design cue from the LG Velvet smartphone. The rear panel of the Reno 4 series has colour gradients and is emblazoned strongly with "Reno Glow". The term "Reno Glow" was trademarked by Oppo on EUIPO back in April, as per NotebookCheck. The look of the Oppo Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro is already out but their specifications are not official yet. That being said, China's TENAA certification website has listed at least four models that could belong to the Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro. The model numbers are PDNM00, PDNT00, PDPM00, and PDPT00, wherein the first two could be two variants of one smartphone and the last two could belong to another smartphone. The listing shows the images of the Reno 4 and Reno 4 Pro models, as well. Moreover, the model number PDNT00 has also appeared on the MIIT website (via MySmartPrice). Per the TENAA listings, the Reno 4 will run Android 10-based ColorOS 7.1 and rock a Snapdragon 765G SoC. It will feature a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080x2400 pixels with 2.5D glass protection. It will be available in 8GB/128GB and 12GB/256GB RAM and storage options. The listings have further detailed the cameras on the Reno 4 - a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide-angle sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. There will be two selfie cameras, as well - a 32-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel secondary sensor - housed in the punch-hole on the front. It will pack a 4000mAh battery with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charging. The listings suggest the Reno 4 will measure 159.3x74.0x7.8mm and weigh 183 grams. Coming to the Reno 4 Pro, the listings have revealed the smartphone will come with a 6.5-inch FHD+ display, pack the same Snapdragon 765G processor, and three cameras at the back. However, the cameras will have different sensors. The Reno 4 Pro is listed to come with a 48-megapixel primary OIS camera, a 12-megapixel night camera, and a 13-megapixel telephoto camera. Moreover, the smartphone will have a single selfie camera having a 32-megapixel sensor housed in a punch-hole. It will measure 159.6x72.5x7.6mm and weigh in at 172 grams, per the listings. The rest of the specifications of the Reno 4 Pro are similar to those of the Reno 4. Article Date: Word Count: 242 Tecnica Sees North America Drive 2019 Gains Tecnica Group revenues increased 6% last year to a record 424.0 million ($474.8 mm) including a 20% jump in the U.S. and a 42% improvement in Canada, accelerated by the creation of a single sales organization in North America for the groups brands, except for Lowa. EBITDA increased 23% to 49.7 million ($55.7 mm) and was up 15% on a pro forma basis correcting for last years increase in Lowa ownership and the acquisition of Riko Sport. Sales went up by 15% for Moon Boot, 11% for Blizzard and Tecnica, 9% percent for Nordica and 7% for Lowa, but Rollerblade ... Log in to view full article. Already a subscriber? User Name: Password: Forgot your password? Click here to have your password emailed to you. Not yet a subscriber? Try SGI for a month FREE. Youll get our daily news feed, weekly newsletter, and access to the last two months of SGI articles. Start a new subscription to SGI, or order any of our other products. The trade authorities of Quzhou in east China's Zhejiang province has built an online platform for local enterprises specialized in foreign trade to attract foreign buyers. The platform, named Quzhou Foreign Trade Enterprises Online Exhibition Platform, is an online platform designed to build a bridge between local businesses and foreign purchasers. Located in Zhejiang province in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River, Quzhou has long been known as the gateway to the four provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui. As a nationally renowned historic and cultural city and one of the first national leisure areas, Quzhou boasts more than 150 tourist attractions. The total foreign trade volume of Quzhou in the first quarter was 7.52 billion yuan, down 5.5% year on year. Among them, the export volume was 4.79 billion yuan, down 9.85%; the import volume was 2.73 billion yuan, up 3.25%. The city's foreign trade volume reached 2.93 billion yuan in March, a year-on-year increase of 13.69%. Among them, the export achieved a breakthrough growth with 2.07 billion yuan, an increase of 29.73%, ranking first among the 11 cities in the province. Imports amounted to 860 million yuan, down 12.38% year on year. According to the data, the U.S. overtook the EU (excluding the U.K.) to become the largest trade market for Quzhou. Don Potter recently joined Hull's Environmental Services When youve been around this business for 25 years, you gain a tremendous amount of knowledge in operational execution, rules and regulations, relationship building, resource utilization, project scoping, and a plethora of other areas that lend to your success. Hulls Environmental Services, Inc. (Hulls) recently hired Don Potter as Senior Business Development Executive for the south-central region of the U.S. He will be responsible for driving new customer acquisition, creating brand awareness, forming long term, value-based relationships and improving retention and growth within the current customer base. Mr. Potter began in the environmental industry nearly 25 years ago and has since served in a wide range of roles including sales, business development and operations with intimate knowledge of all three disciplines. In addition, he has held a variety of leadership roles over the course of his 25-year career in the environmental services industry including General Manager, District Manager, Business Manager and Director of Business Development. Leading and lagging KPIs illustrate depth and breadth within his previous roles; meeting or exceeding budgets for locations that had never previously done so; achieving the highest customer retention rates three years in a row; fostering the lowest employee turnover rates. Mr. Potter has participated in, supervised, managed, or directed countless projects within the environmental services realm including emergency oil spill responses for the oil/gas and rail industry, large-scale dust remediation in major industrial manufacturing facilities, tank cleaning and hydro-blasting of cooling towers for major utilities and countless liquid vacuum truck and air-mover projects to vacuum remove solids, semi-solids, sludges and liquids. We believe Don is going to be an invaluable asset to the company as we expand our services into new markets. When youve been around this business for 25 plus years, you gain a tremendous amount of knowledge in operational execution, rules and regulations, relationship building, resource utilization, project scoping, and a plethora of other areas that lend to your success. And as an ex-Marine, we know he will put 100% of his efforts into everything he does, said Jamie Michael, the companys Director of Marketing & Business Development. Mr. Potter commented on his new role stating, There is real inherent pride and satisfaction in knowing youve helped build part of an organization. I have done it many times before and I am thrilled to do it once again at Hulls. I know all of my previous time, energy and dedication in this industry will culminate into newfound success in new markets. With full support from the organization and all the tools I need in place, the sky really is the limit. About Hulls Environmental Services: Hull's Environmental Services, Inc. is a SBA self-certified, woman-owned small business operating from locations in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas. Throughout the southeast, south central and mid-west United States, Hull's performs a variety of environmental services including emergency spill response for oil, fuel and hazardous materials, infectious disease disinfection & decontamination (including COVID-19), contaminated soil remediation, hazardous & non-hazardous waste transportation & disposal, oil-field services, industrial cleaning & maintenance, vacuum truck services, tank cleaning and a wide variety of other related services for both the public and private sector. Hull's is also a United States Coast Guard certified oil spill removal organization (OSRO) for all or portions of COTP Zones five, seven, eight, nine, eleven and thirteen. Bank of Nova Scotia's quarterly earnings plunged 41% after the lender set aside a record amount for loan losses, giving investors their first indication of how the coronavirus pandemic will affect fiscal second-quarter results at Canadian banks. Scotiabank earmarked C$1.85 billion ($1.33 billion) for soured loans, less than analysts predicted. Canada's six biggest banks are expected to set aside C$8.9 billion for loan losses in the three months through April 30, triple the first-quarter total. At Scotiabank, earnings beat analysts' estimates even with the increase in provisions and charges tied to its shuttered metals-trading business. "Credit was largely better than expected," Barclays analyst John Aiken said in a note to clients Tuesday. Still, "the market was obviously expecting more reserves to be taken" and it's likely "additional reserves will need to be taken in future quarters as the true impact of the pandemic will be felt." The lender's shares rose 4.3% to C$54.21 at 9:51 a.m. in Toronto. They've fallen 26% this year, compared with a 22% decline for Canada's eight-company S&P/TSX Commercial Banks Index. Scotiabank is the first large Canadian lender to report second-quarter results. The country's six biggest banks are expected to post a 44% profit decline in the quarter, the median of estimates compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. That would be the biggest drop since 2009. Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter told analysts Tuesday that he expects economic declines in the bank's core markets for the balance of the year, followed by a return to growth in 2021 on a "gradual abatement of the pandemic" and reopening of economies. Loan losses will remain elevated for the rest of the year, with the third quarter resembling the second, though he expects all main businesses to remain profitable, he said. "Parts of the economy will snap back pretty quickly -- the pent-up demand, the impact of the relief programs the government has provided will have its intended impact, but we've never been through this before," Porter said. "This is not a one-quarter or two-quarter event. The banking sector will be picking up broken eggshells for a number of quarters here." Despite the surge in provisions, loans aren't showing signs of deteriorating. Net impaired loans accounted for 0.53% of overall customer loans, down from 0.61% a year earlier, and net write-offs as a percentage of average loans totaled 0.47%, less than 0.5% a year ago. Scotiabank's international banking business had the steepest profit decline in the quarter, falling 74% on higher provisions and lower contributions after selling some of its overseas operations as it sharpened its focus in Latin America and the Caribbean. Earnings from Canadian banking plunged 42% as provisions rose, while the bank's global wealth management and capital markets divisions posted higher income. The Toronto-based company had a 56% jump in trading revenue in the quarter, fueled by fixed-income, echoing the trend seen by Wall Street trading desks last month when they reported their best three-month period in eight years thanks to surging client activity during the most volatile period on record. That, along with higher investment-banking fees, helped boost earnings in Scotiabank's capital-markets division by 25% to C$523 million. Scotiabank also said it set aside C$232 million this year for U.S. regulatory probes into the bank's metals-trading practices and costs tied to the wind-down of that business. Net income for the three months ended April 30 fell to C$1.32 billion, or C$1 a share, from C$2.26 billion, or C$1.73, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings totaled C$1.04 a share, beating the 96-cent average estimate of 13 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses need an emergency aid package, Mikheil Saakashvili, head of the executive committee of the National Reforms Council under the President of Ukraine, has said. "I am very worried, because if we do not take very urgent measures, an emergency package of assistance to Ukrainian business...Who can save the economy today? The state has no money...The government has no money to support someone, to give them. The only one who can save the country at this time is Ukrainian business, especially small and medium-sized businesses," he told Ukraine 24 TV on Monday. Saakashvili added that it is necessary to make life easier for Ukrainian business. "At least, it is necessary to lag behind them, to let go, not to adopt new laws such as bill No. 1270, when 'Now tax police will come, and then the special police, etc.' No, let go, make it easier. You even need to close your eyes to some things. You have to do it manually when you want the economy to succeed. And give people the opportunity to breathe freely. Either we will assess ourselves from this point of view, as the whole government, or Ukraine will have a very big economic crisis, including a political one," he added. To the Editor: Students and their families, many of whom have recently lost jobs or had their hours reduced, face an uncertain future. Many are understandably questioning the choices that just a few months ago seemed certain. A recent study released by Junior Achievement and Citizens Bank found that almost 60% of high school students are concerned about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their future plans, with 44% concerned about affording college and a third planning to delay the start of college. While there is much about the new normal that is unknown, the benefits of college to students and families remain strong. As community colleges, our sectors return on students educational investment is substantial. While community colleges are perhaps best known for their tuition affordability, we provide nearly an eight-fold return on educational investment and are the most flexible educational bridge. We are not driven by deadlines and deposits. Instead we meet people where they are, even in a pandemic, and provide a bridge to many destinations. For recent high school graduates, we are their bridge to a career, a junior-year transfer to a four-year school, and as many are thinking this year in particular, a visiting gap year at your communitys college. Students may be thinking about putting the future on hold. As parents, we know that helping our kids make good choices now to keep moving forward, even when it feels hard or different, helps prepare them for a lifetime as a family member, an employee, a leader and as a member of a community. We have great confidence in this upcoming group of young people for their tenacity and grit that will no doubt change the world. To the Class of 2020, your community college is ready to serve you however that makes sense for you and your family. You are our community, and we are yours. Together we will get through this. And that amazing future you envisioned a few months ago? Its still there, and so are we. Go for it. Brian M. Durant, Ed.D. President, Cayuga Community College Auburn Randy VanWagoner, Ph.D. President, Mohawk Valley Community College Utica Casey Crabill, Ed.D. President, Onondaga Community College Syracuse Also in Opinion: Editorial cartoons for May 24, 2020: Memorial Day, reopening tensions, hydroxychloroquine MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Cuomo: NY coronavirus projections all wrong, too early to tell if reopening is working Coronavirus in NY: Campgrounds, all veterinarian services reopen this week, Cuomo says NY must own nursing home mistakes, learn from them (Editorial) Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com [May 26, 2020] Mobile application against COVID-19 - Louise Arbour and Louise Otis to head COVI Canada MONTREAL, May 26, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - The Honourable Louise Arbour and the Honourable Louise Otis join the COVI mobile application project, respectively as Honorary President of COVI Canada and Chair of its Board of Directors. COVI Canada is the new independent non-profit organization that will protect the privacy and human rights of citizens who download the COVI application. "COVI Canada has a well-defined mission to protect the health, privacy and dignity of citizens. The application provides tools to empower citizens to take action on their personal well-being and that of our society. Its governance model is built around the core values of accountability and transparency. I believe in this project and am pleased to join in supporting the fight against COVID-19," said the Honourable Louise Arbour. "The COVI application was developed by a coalition of experts in epidemiology, medicine, psychology and artificial intelligence. According to Oxford University, the approach used by COVI is the most effective in containing the pandemic and could have a significant impact on the number of lives savd. Moreover, it is a technological solution that will be open and accessible to all and which places the protection of human rights at the heart of its approach," added the Honourable Louise Otis. The application will enable every citizen to make real-time decisions about their daily activities, empowering individuals to protect themselves, limit the spread of the virus and facilitate a smart and safe lifting of social distancing measures. In terms of public health, COVI identifies risk areas for targeted local interventions before there is an outbreak, and helps to better understand how the virus is transmitted through an epidemiological model powered by artificial intelligence. COVI Canada is committed to ensuring that the data collected is never used for commercial purposes or sold to private companies. Nor will the data be used for surveillance or quarantine enforcement purposes. The data will be stored in Canada and deleted on a regular basis. Developed by Yoshua Bengio and his collaborators, the COVI application adheres to the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of AI and was developed with the support of UNESCO. Follow the latest news about COVI on Facebook, Twitter and covicanada.org. About Louise Arbour The Honourable Louise Arbour sat as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1999 to 2004 and was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2004 to 2008. She recently completed a term at the United Nations as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration. Ms. Arbour has also served as ad hoc judge in the International Court of Justice and as Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. About Louise Otis The Honourable Louise Otis is Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law of McGill University. Former Justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal from 1993 to 2009, she spearheaded the introduction of judicial meditation. She regularly participates in international missions related to governance and justice reform. She is also President of the OECD Administrative Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunal of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). SOURCE COVI Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] May 26 : Yesterday, on May 25, Bollywood actor Salman Khan gifted one of the most meaningful gifts that any person could give on Eid. He dropped in one more song Bhai Bhai through his YouTube channel and has been treating his huge fan base with some good thoughts in life. The song was simple, but the lyrics would make you think a lot about love and brotherhood. The song focuses mainly on the love between Indians. The song mentioned that Hindus and Muslims should instill strong brotherhood values among themselves, thereby creating a strong culture of Indian love among Indian folks. This Eid was extra special apart from the celebrations, he did share this message of unity and love - which is a must-watch for all people. Moving into the finer details, the song Bhai Bhai was shot in his own Panvel farmhouse. It was sung by Salman Khan and also Ruhaan Arshad. Apart from launching the song on YouTube, he also posted his special message on Instagram. His words of love read as follows, Maine aap subb ke liye kuch banaya hai, dekh ke batana kaisa laga... Aap subb ko eid mubarakh. His post went translated into English meant that he had created something for his fans, and he would like everyone to see and give their response. He also wished everyone, Eid Mubarak. His fans were truly excited and happy that he came forward with such an idea. The music composition was handled by Sajid Wajid, and produced by Aditya Dev. The lyrics too were a result of the joint work of Danish Sabri and Salman Khan. There have been cute feet tapping inclusion of rap and that was done by Ruhaan Arshad. During this lockdown, Salman Khan has been dutifully working from home, crooning a couple of songs, and instilling good vibes among the netizens. SEOUL, KOREA, REPUBLIC OFA UN investigation into a recent exchange of gunfire between the two Koreas has determined that both countries violated the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, the American-led UN Command said Tuesday. The May 3 gunfire exchange was the first shooting inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone in about two and a half years. There were no known casualties on either side. The DMZ, which was established as a buffer at the end of the Korean War, is a de facto border separating North and South Korea. It is officially jointly overseen by North Korea and the UN Command. The UN Command said in a statement that a multinational special investigation team led the probe with the full co-operation of the South Korean military. It said it invited North Korea to provide information on the incident but the country hasnt offered a formal response. The investigation ruled that North Korea breached the armistice by firing four rounds and South Korea by returning fire, according to the statement. It said the investigation was unable to determine if the North Korean rounds were fired intentionally or by mistake. South Koreas Defence Ministry expressed regret that the UN Command reached the conclusion without investigating North Korea, which the South says fired first. In a statement, the ministry said South Korean troops were reacting in accordance with a response manual and that the Souths military is committed to government goals of promoting peace and easing tensions along the border. South Korean officials earlier said they fired warning shots toward North Korea after four bullets fired by the North hit one of its front-line guard posts. The UN Command said the terms of the armistice agreement are in place to minimize the risk of incidents such as gunfire exchanges. Unlike its name, the DMZ is the worlds most heavily fortified border, guarded by mines, barbed wire fences and combat troops on both sides. Gunfire exchanges inside the DMZ are not unusual, but no deadly clashes have occurred in recent years. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea. The recent incident came amid a deadlock in negotiations between North Korean and U.S. officials on the Norths nuclear weapons program. Read more about: The United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) this spring began an initiative to host virtual UN75 consultations engaging Americans in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. UNA-USAs efforts are part of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterress plan to host the largest-ever global conversation on the role of multilateral cooperation in building a better future in honor of the UNs 75th anniversary. UNA-USAs state consultations will bolster this global dialogue with American perspectives that will be submitted to the United Nations ahead of UN General Assembly week. On April 15, UNA-USA hosted a live web event with Fabrizio Hochschild-Drummond, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the United Nations 75th Anniversary. Volunteers from across the U.S. tuned in to ask questions and hear his perspective on the importance of engaging in global dialogue with the UN. The future is not pre-determined. Whether we come out of this more united or less united depends on all of us, Hochschild said. The whole point of UN75 is to provide a platform for people across the world to weigh in. As the nation adjusts to social distancing measures in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNA-USA advocates have embraced these state consultations as a way to connect virtually with members of their communities and elevate policy recommendations to achieve a sustainable future by 2045. COVID-19 is an urgent reminder to our nation and our world that we need global cooperation, said Rachel Bowen Pittman, UNA-USA Executive Director. Our members are using the UN75 virtual state consultations to brainstorm ways the world can build back better in the wake of a pandemic. UNA-USA state consultations will be held continuously throughout the year. To learn more about the initiative, visit unausa.org/un75. People around the world are also encouraged to participate in the UN75 global conversation by submitting individual feedback directly to the UN in a one-minute survey. ### About the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA): The United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) is a grassroots movement of Americans who support the vital work of the United Nations in U.S. communities, colleges, and Congress. For more than 75 years, UNA-USA and its national network of 20,000 members and 200 chapters have promoted strong U.S. leadership at the UN through advocacy campaigns, youth engagement, outreach programs, and public events. Learn more. In brief: Motorola's first attempt at foldables with the mid-range, yet expensive Razr phone wasn't much of a success, and leaks for the upcoming second-gen model aren't all that inspiring either, save for 5G support and some minor hardware improvements. Motorola's reboot of the iconic Razr phone generated a lot of prelaunch excitement, but that soon damped after people came to know it was a case of form over function with the company's $1,500 mid-spec foldable. A successor with 5G support had reportedly been in the works since earlier this year, and now more details have surfaced around the device's hardware, which might disappoint those expecting a flagship-tier device this time around. According to an XDA Developers source, the upcoming model will use Qualcomm's mid-range Snapdragon 765 5G SoC, bump the RAM from 6GB to 8GB and offer twice the internal storage of its predecessor at 256GB. It will also replace the 16MP rear camera with Samsung's 48MP shooter and the 5MP front camera with a 20MP unit; no dual or triple lenses here. In terms of software, it will have Android 10 out of the box, along with Motorola's customizations for the Quick View display. It's primarily being developed for the North American and Chinese markets with a September launch window, while availability for other regions is uncertain at this point. The new model is also expected to address build quality concerns that tainted its predecessor's appeal, one of which reportedly peeled apart for a user during a train commute. Though such an issue is alarming for a new device, it's downright unacceptable for a $1,500 phone that's spent years in development, and which ultimately failed to push the case for foldables already held back by problematic hardware. Motorola's unique vertical flip form-factor with the reimagined Razr was noted for its usability, despite its hinge being subject to some unfair torture testing. The phone also failed to impress iFixit, who gave it a 1 out 10 for repairability. While the successor would (and should) pretty much retain this design, let's hope Motorola gets the price and hardware sorted out this time. The officials said that the accused barged into the shop and brutally bashed up the mother-son duo and fled from the spot Mumbai: Four persons assaulted a woman and her minor son in Mankhurd after they were asked to pick up a motorcycle that fell down after their auto rickshaw brush passed it on Friday night. The officials said that the accused barged into the shop and brutally bashed up the mother-son duo and fled from the spot. The police later arrested two accused and remaining accomplices are on the run. The woman was identified as Poonam Gupta (42) who was thrashed along with her son. The officials said that the duo was seated in their shop in Indira Nagar slums at Mandalay in Mankhurd. It was around 10.45 pm when the group was passing by in an auto rickshaw when they hit a two-wheeler that fell on the ground. The woman objected and asked them to pick the two wheeler. This enraged them and they entered inside the shop and began bashing the woman. The boy intervened and he was also beaten up by the four persons, said a police officer. The accused fled from the spot after locals began gathering. The victims were provided first aid. After some days, they approached the police station and lodged a complaint against them. The CCTV footage of the neighbourhood was checked and the accused were identified. Two persons were tracked down whereas remaining accused are yet to be found. The police have filed a case of assault, rioting, trespassing, criminal intimidation and acts of common intention as per the Indian Penal Code and further investigation is underway. Microsoft is determined to one-up Google where possible with its Chromium-based Edge browser, and that includes one of the most important areas: the cute mini-game you can play when youre offline. After a few months of previews, Microsoft has updated Edge with a new Surf game (available at any time by plugging edge://surf into the address bar) that harkens back to the old SkiFree game from Windows past. This is decidedly more sophisticated than jumping a dinosaur over cactus plants in Chrome you can take it surprisingly seriously for a game thats supposed to tide you over for a few minutes. At its heart, its an endless runner where you surf around obstacles and stay one step ahead of a kraken. There are also objective-based time trial and zig zag (really, slalom) modes, though. You can also use a variety of input that includes your mouse, keyboard, touch or even a gamepad with haptic feedback. High visibility and low-speed modes help with the difficulty, and there are promises of a few secrets. You probably wont get Edge just for Surf, of course, but the game does show that Microsoft is invested in its latest browser on a level where its sweating the small details. If nothing else, it gives you an easy way to kill time while youre waiting for your modem to reboot. The vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB) has backed the unprecedented stimulus packages launched in the region, saying there were no alternatives for lawmakers. Governments from euro area countries have passed major stimulus efforts in a bid to soften the impact of the coronavirus crisis and keep people in work. Fiscal deficits are expected to widen, debt piles will climb and the financial repercussions could be felt for generations. However, Luis de Guindos, the vice president of the euro zone's central bank, said the issue of lofty debt levels needs to be put into perceptive. "At the end of the pandemic for sure that we will have higher public debt ratio. But the alternative of doing nothing is much worse," he told CNBC's Annette Weisbach when asked specifically about Italy. "It would be much worse in terms of the crisis. And it would be much worse in terms of the recovery phase," he added. Germany and France the two largest euro economies have announced a ground-breaking proposal that could see the EU issuing large amounts of debt to mitigate the crisis. That plan would see the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, raise 500 billion euros ($545 billion) in public markets. CENTRE WELLINGTON The Grand River Conservation Authority has identified the biggest sources of threats to the drinking water supply in Centre Wellington. Previous studies show the townships current well infrastructure cannot meet the average predicted demand in 2041. Under provincial regulations, this classifies the township as being under significant risk, and all water takings or activities that could modify ground water levels or recharge are classified as significant threats. The GRCA conducted a threats assessment to rank the water takings according to which could have the biggest impact on the municipalitys ground water levels. The findings were presented last week, and are available for viewing online. The largest impact predicted is the increased pumping due to population growth, calculated to draw aquifer levels down between 1.5 to 24.2 meters. The next largest water taking is unserviced domestic water well pumping, though its effect is minimal at 0.1 to 0.4m of aquifer drawdown. Land development is expected to draw the aquifer down between 0.1 and 0.2m. Permitted, nonmunicipal water takings such as a water bottling plant are expected to draw the water supply down between 0.05 to 0.1m. The impact is minimal because these sort of operations are not usually close to municipal wells, though the project team advised that larger permits established closer should be individually assessed. The GRCAs predictions for how climate change will affect the supply in Centre Wellington are based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes latest global climate models. The team predicts an overall ten per cent increase in groundwater volume in Centre Wellington due to increased precipitation resulting from local warming. The project team is preparing policy proposals to help Centre Wellington and the Source Protection Team create effective policy to secure future water supplies. The recommendations will focus on reducing water demand, and optimizing well infrastructure. The public presentation of the GRCAs findings will be available to watch for another week at sourcewater.ca/en/source-protection-areas/Centre-Wellington-Tier-3-Liaison-Group.aspx LG Leah Gerber s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows her to report on stories about the Grand River Watershed. Email lgerber@therecord.com Read more about: By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a legal setback to Sudan on Monday, ruling that the African nation cannot avoid punitive damages in lawsuits accusing it of complicity in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. Siding with hundreds of people hurt and relatives of people killed in the bombings, the justices ruled 8-0 to throw out a lower court's 2017 decision that had freed Sudan from punitive damages awarded in the litigation in addition to about $6 billion in compensatory damages. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the case. The ruling reinstates about $826 million out of a total $4.3 billion in punitive damages, said Christopher Curran, a lawyer representing Sudan. The case hinged on the Supreme Court's view of a 2008 amendment to a federal law known as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act allowing for punitive damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2017 upheld Sudan's liability but ruled that the amendment was made after the bombings occurred and could not be applied retroactively. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in Monday's ruling that for claims made under federal law, "Congress was as clear as it could have been when it authorized plaintiffs to seek and win punitive damages for past conduct." The remainder of the punitive damages will be subject to further litigation as the ruling ordered the D.C. Circuit to reconsider its decision that the foreign plaintiffs who sued Sudan under state law in the United States also could not seek punitive damages. "As always, Sudan expresses sympathy for the victims of the acts of terrorism at issue, but reaffirms that it was not involved in any wrongdoing in connection with those acts," Curran said. Starting in 2001, groups of plaintiffs sued in federal court in Washington under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally bars claims against foreign countries except those designated by the United States as state sponsors of terrorism - as Sudan has been since 1993. Story continues "It's hard to imagine an act more deserving of punitive damages, and we are deeply gratified that the Supreme Court has validated our clients' right to receive this measure of compensation," said Matthew McGill, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. Twelve Americans were killed by the Aug. 7, 1998, truck bombs that detonated outside the embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The lawsuits involve 567 people, mostly non-U.S. citizens who were employees of the U.S. government and their relatives. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham) New Delhi, May 26 : Reacting to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's statement that states will have to take his permission if they employ migrant workers from UP, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi said "absolute absurd position". Rahul Gandhi was addressing a press conference on Tuesday. When asked about UP Chief Minister's statement, he said, "Its unfortunate, people are Indians first and then they belong to any state." "Its people of India to decide where they want to go to fulfill their dreams." Rahul Gandhi said its not the chief minister who will decide who wants to go where to earn and live. Yogi Adityanath on Monday had said that his government will lay down stringent conditions for ensuring social security of workers from UP who are hired by other states. "Other states will also need to seek permission from his government before engaging workers from UP," he said while addressing a webinar on Sunday. The Chief Minister stated, "If any state wants manpower, the state government will have to guarantee social security and insurance of the workers. Without our permission they will not be able to take our people," he said. He said all migrant workers who have returned to the state were being registered and their skills were being mapped by the administration. Any state or entity interested in hiring them will need to take care of their social, legal and monetary rights. (Natural News) The transit authority in New York City is going to install germicidal ultraviolet lights in the citys trains to see if they can help city officials disinfect the subway cars of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) calls the use of UV light another aggressive step in making sure that New Yorks public trains dont become vectors for COVID-19. @PuroLighting, powered by @VioletDefense technology, is running a pilot program with the @MTA for 150 mobile full spectrum, UV disinfection units across NYC transit. Read the press release here: https://t.co/A10KI7nx0H pic.twitter.com/sR1WVFVFnM PURO Lighting (@PuroLighting) May 19, 2020 UV light to be deployed on subways, buses and subway stations The MTA is working with Puro Lighting, a Colorado-based startup company, and Columbia University to develop portable ultraviolet C (UVC) lamps that can be installed on the trains. Puro Lighting, who provided the lamps, said that the UV lights have efficacy against Class 2 and 3 viruses, including coronaviruses, SARS, Influenza and Ebola. Its been known for more than 100 years, in fact, that UV light is incredibly efficient at killing both viruses and bacteria, said David Brenner, director of Columbias Center for Radiological Research and an adviser on the MTAs project. The UV light that will be used in the current overnight subway and bus disinfection program is very efficient in killing the virus that is responsible for COVID-19. The MTA said that the lights, which emit UVC rays, will be used during overnight station closures, between the early morning hours of 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. The use of the UV lights will be done in phases. The MTA says that, for the first phase, 150 mobile UVC light devices will be deployed to clean not only subways, but also subway stations and even buses. For the second phase, the lights will be deployed on the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road trains. The MTA is willing to spend $1 million on this project. Pat Foye, chairman and CEO of the MTA, said that the decision to use the UVC lights comes after several months of tests by the MTA and Brenner at Columbia. This is a first of its kind pilot when it comes to transportation agencies around the world and we are proud to be a part of it, said Foye in a statement. For nearly three months, the MTA has worked relentlessly to disinfect our entire fleet of subways and buses but weve always promised that we would explore any and all new approaches available to us as well. The launch of this UVC pilot represents a promising next step in our ongoing efforts to identify technologies that can keep our customers and employees as safe as possible, he added. The MTA is hoping that the use of UVC rays to disinfect train carriages can be a cheaper and quicker method for disinfecting New Yorks trains. Foye said that the MTA is also looking at using antimicrobials to help disinfection efforts. In an interview, he said that the agency is continuing with their research into the effectiveness of antimicrobials and that the preliminary results were very promising. A lot of wise, science-based and common sense strategies need to be employed to combat COVID-19. Listen to the Health Ranger Report by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how COVID-19 is dozens of times deadlier than the regular flu, which is why authorities all over the world need to take it seriously. The science behind how ultraviolet rays can defeat the coronavirus UVC, one of several types of light on the ultraviolet spectrum, has been proven capable of eliminating COVID-19. The germicidal UV lights being used in this pilot program have been used to help sterilize other places for decades, such as laboratories, buses and airplanes. The MTA has even pointed out that this same technology is used in police, fire and ambulance stations as well. One report, published by the BBC, showed that UVC rays are efficient at destroying genetic material. While studies have suggested that UVC rays may be the only ultraviolet rays that can reliably inactivate coronavirus, experts have found that it may be extremely dangerous to human skin. Dan Arnold, who works for UV Light Technology, a company that provides disinfecting equipment, stated that exposing people to UVC light would be akin to literally frying them. For comparison, if a person were to be exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, it would take hours for them to get sunburned. For UVC, it would only take a few seconds. However, the use of UVC rays is still popular. In proper, unoccupied settings, with specialists and the proper equipment, UVC rays can be competently harnessed to disinfect a variety of surfaces including subway cars, such as in the MTAs pilot program. Concentrated forms of UVC are already being used around the world against COVID-19. In China, for example, empty buses are sent to stations where they are lit up with UVC rays each night. The Peoples Bank of China, the countrys central bank, has even been attempting to disinfect banknotes by exposing them to UV light and high temperatures. (Related: Hong Kong airport trying out innovative technologies to prevent coronavirus spread.) Preliminary results from the pilot program released earlier this week show that the UVC lights have so far been effective in killing most traces of the coronavirus. Additional testing is set to take place before a study of the program is submitted for peer review. Our system is a low-cost, safe solution to eradicating airborne viruses minutes after theyve been breathed, coughed or sneezed into the air, said Brenner. Not only does it have the potential to prevent the global spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, but also future novel viruses, as well as more familiar viruses like influenza and measles. Pandemic.news has more stories about the different kinds of technology authorities all over the world are using to combat COVID-19. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com TheVerge.com NYPost.com SILive.com Edition.CNN.com BBC.com CentralBanking.com YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The European Court of Human Rights has issued a judgement in the case of Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan and Hungary, concerning the presidential pardon of Azerbaijani convicted military officer Ramil Safarov who murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in 2004 during a NATO training course in Hungary. Margaryan was asleep in his room when Safarov attacked him with an axe. Safarov admitted in court to having killed Margaryan because of his hatred towards Armenia and Armenians. He was sentenced to life in prison by the Hungarian court. However, in 2012 Hungary extradited him to Azerbaijan. He was released upon arrival, glorified on the state-level and pardoned by President Aliyev. The ECHR found that there had been no justification for the Azerbaijani authorities failure to enforce the punishment of R.S. and to in effect grant him impunity for a serious hate crime. The ECHR found that Azerbaijan had clearly endorsed [Ramil Safarovs] acts, not only by releasing him but also by promoting him, paying him salary arrears and granting him a flat upon his return. The court unanimously voted that there had been a procedural violation by Azerbaijan of Article 2 (Right to Life) of the Convention, by six votes to one, that there had been a violation by Azerbaijan of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken in conjunction with Article 2. The ECHR found that there were no facts to suggest that the Hungarian authorities couldve been aware about Safarovs future release. The applicants had not expected financial compensation: in an earlier interview they said they seek justice and Azerbaijans condemnation. They only requested the court 15,143 pounds compensation for covering the expenses of lawyers. The court found that Azerbaijan must make the payment. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan The war of words between the Centre and the Maharashtra government took another turn on Tuesday night when a few ministers from the state government picked holes in Union Minister Piyush Goyal's statement over the Shramik Special trains to the state. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh alleged that the Railways sent 34 trains to Maharashtra to ferry migrant workers to West Bengal despite the eastern state requesting the Centre not to send any trains till May 26 in the aftermath of cyclone Amphan. Nawab Malik, another NCP minister in Maharashtra, held Railway Minister Piyush Goyal responsible for migrants gathering in large numbers at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai expecting that north-bound trains will arrive there. The Railways earlier in the day had accused the state of not providing information about passengers as a result of which many Shramik Special trains could not be operationalised. Railways Minister Goyal, in another pot shot, said while 145 daily trains were demanded by the Shiv Sena-run MVA government and 50 trains were to leave till 3pm, but only 13 of them were actually able to leave due to lack of passengers. Malik, the state's Minority Affairs Minister, held Goyal responsible for the gathering of migrant workers at the train terminus in Mumbai. "Migrant workers are stuck at the LTT for want of 49 trains which were declared, but the Railway Ministry is not letting any train go from there. Goyal and the Centre are deliberately playing politics," said the NCP national spokesperson. It was declared earlier that 49 trains will be sent from LTT, but the divisional railways manager later said not more than 16 trains will be sent, Malik alleged. "Send those 49 trains. The number of passengers is increasing and Goyal will be solely responsible for it," he added. Mr @PiyushGoyal, you said that you have alloted 49 trains for migrants from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai.The DRM at LTT says only 16 trains can be released.You must come clear on this issue, stop playing dirty politics and mind games @PMOIndia @OfficeofUT @PTI_News @ANI pic.twitter.com/uSAPjpnldy Nawab Malik (@nawabmalikncp) May 26, 2020 Deshmukh also hit out at Goyal for allegedly claiming that the Maharashtra government did not send migrant workers despite the availability of trains. "West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha had written a letter to the railway administration on May 22, saying no train be sent to West Bengal till May 26. Despite the letter, the railway administration sent 34 trains to Maharashtra today. They (the Centre) wanted to embarrass Maharashtra by doing so," Deshmukh said in a video message. "Today he (Goyal) is saying Maharashtra has not sent migrant workers despite the number of trains made available to it. He should not lie and play such type of politics during such a situation," he added. The Railways earlier on Tuesday said it had planned 125 trains to evacuate migrants from Maharashtra on May 25 but the state government was only able to give information for 41 trains till 2 am. "Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled. After meticulous planning and sustained effort, the Railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26," it said in a statement. "Till noon, 25 trains were planned from Maharashtra to run but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding of the first train could only commence at CSMT at 12.30 pm," it said. According to the Railways, 68 trains were planned to depart for Uttar Pradesh, 27 to Bihar, 41 to West Bengal, one each to Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala, and two each to Odisha and Tamil Nadu. Over the past two days, a political slugfest over Shramik Special trains had broken out between Goyal and the Maharashtra government, with the state alleging that not enough trains were being provided to them. Goyal on Sunday night said, "We are ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to Maharashtra. Since you have said that you have a list ready, that is why I am requesting you to please provide all information like from where the train will run, the list of passengers according to the trains, their medical certificate and where the train is to go, to the General Manager of Central Railway within the next hour, so that we can plan the time of trains." Responding to it, Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday tweeted, "Maharashtra government has given you a list of workers who wish to return home. The only request is that the train should reach the station, as announced earlier." "The Gorakhpur-bound train had reached Odisha," the Sena's Rajya Sabha member further said. Raut also asked Goyal if the Ministry of Railways had made any such list while running the Nagpur-Udhampur migrant train on May 14. A number of prison visiting committees have raised concerns about mental health issues in different jails, as well as other issues such as drugs and overcrowding. A total of 12 annual reports for 2018 have been published by visiting committees, and while there were improvements noted and some jails received very positive appraisals, the theme of mental health concerns and lack of resources was to the fore. For example, 40 people were waiting for psychological support in Cloverhill Prison. The report by the visiting committee to Cloverhill said many improvements had taken place but that there was "a high amount of homelessness" among prisoners and that this was of "huge concern". Inmates raised issues such as fear of violence from other prisoners and stress and concerns, including for family members outside who might come under pressure to bring drugs into the jail. "We see an increase of mental health distress in an increasing number of prisoners," states the report. Overcrowding was another problem: 357 inmates in 2018 had to use a toilet in the presence of others and 3,030 people were in triple cells. There were also 16 inmates awaiting transfer to the Central Mental Hospital while the committee also mentioned people committed by the Garda National Immigration Bureau ahead of possible deportation who arrived in Cloverhill "at varying times of day or night and must sleep on the floor of the cells". It said there was an increase in drugs entering prisons having been thrown over the walls and one inmate had been hospitalised in trying to retrieve one such package. The committee said the escort of remand prisoners to courts around the country was "a serious waste of public funding" and that there was a need for increased medical provision in the jail. Between 97 and 127 inmates were on a methadone programme at the prison at any one time while it also noted an increase in the use of psychoactive substances such as 'spice'. In Mountjoy, many prisoners spoke of their need for support in making a change to overcome addiction, poor mental health, and homelessness during transition and resettlement in the community. "The substance abuse and related activity is contributing to risk to both prisoners and staff, with a reported increase in intimidation, violence and injury to physical and mental health," it said. In the Dochas Prison, overcrowding was mentioned by the visiting committee as a major concern. "On random checks undertaken by the visiting committee throughout 2018 we found that numbers regularly reached 130. Management try to alleviate this problem as best they can," it said. "It is ongoing and leads to disruption, behavioural problems and serious unrest." It added: "Many women have told us, that at times they are afraid to leave their rooms for fear of the aggressive behaviour of those who are under the influence of these illicit drugs." Advertisement It's being billed as 'the greatest safari in the world' though some might conclude that it's the greatest holiday in the world. Full stop. Unsurprisingly, it's not cheap. You'll need to find $125,000 (102,000) to book a place on the 'Roar Africa Emirates Executive Private Jet Safari', but for that whopping sum, you'll go 'beyond first class', flown on a bespoke Emirates A319 complete with 10 private suites and a 'shower spa' to four jaw-dropping African camps and lodges. And the 12-day itinerary includes Africa's 'Holy Grail' experiences - taking in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls (one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World), the Okavango Delta in Botswana (the largest inland delta in the world), Kenya's Great Migration, and the world's last wild mountain gorillas in the forests of Rwanda. 'The greatest safari in the world' will see guests flown around Africa on an Emirates A319 private jet (pictured) The Emirates A319 (pictured) will be the sole means of international transport throughout the entire journey The jet, said Emirates, was 'created for guests who want to go beyond first class and reflects the glamour of a bygone era, when air travel was both exclusive and an integral aspect of luxury travel experiences' The trip, which takes place in August 2021 and is being offered to just 10 people, begins with a night at the five-star Burj Al Arab Jumeirah hotel in Dubai. The Emirates A319 the guests board the next day for Africa will be the sole means of international transport throughout the entire journey. They will feel like royalty if they aren't already. The Emirates private A319 has a 'powder room, an expansive lounge which functions as a communal gathering space or restaurant, and a cabin crew committed to providing the highest levels of personal service'. And five-star bathrooms The Emirates A319 has 10 private suites, pictured. On the safari flight the guests will enjoy screenings of documentaries about Africa from notables such as historian David Attenborough The 12-day itinerary includes Africa's 'Holy Grail' experiences - taking in Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls (one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World), the Okavango Delta in Botswana (the largest inland delta in the world), Kenya's Great Migration, and the world's last wild mountain gorillas in the forests of Rwanda. Pictured are the suites on the Emirates A319 The jet, said Emirates, was 'created for guests who want to go beyond first class and reflects the glamour of a bygone era, when air travel was both exclusive and an integral aspect of luxury travel experiences'. As well as private suites and a private shower spa, there's also a 'powder room, an expansive lounge which functions as a communal gathering space or restaurant, and a cabin crew committed to providing the highest levels of personal service'. Guests will also enjoy screenings of documentaries about Africa from notables such as historian David Attenborough, conservationists Dereck and Beverly Joubert, and environmentalist and filmmaker Craig Foster. All the destinations for the trip which is being run jointly with ultra-luxe travel firm Roar Africa - have been hand-picked 'because of their shared vision and commitment to creating a better future, combined with the charm and hospitality of their local communities and residents'. They're also extremely luxurious. The first destination, on August 18, 2021, is Mpala Jena Camp, located in the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe, a few miles upstream from Victoria Falls. The first destination, on August 18, 2021, is Mpala Jena Camp (pictured), located in the Zambezi National Park in Zimbabwe All the rooms at Mpala Jena Camp, pictured, boast private plunge pools with views of the Zambezi River Its website says: 'The camp's guest tents are under flowing canvas, with open (yet netted) views of the river and Moroccan influences throughout the decor, a reference to the early Arab explorer's adventures up the Zambezi in search of gold in the 16th century. Decking in front of the tent leads to a private plunge pool with views of the flowing waters of the Zambezi River.' The second lodge, which the guests will arrive at on August 20, is Duba Plains Okavango Delta in Botswana, which 'evokes the classic African safari style of the 1920's' with 'rooms raised on recycled railway sleeper decking and with stunning views of the surrounding floodplain'. On August 23 the guests will arrive at the incredible Mara Plains Camp in the Kenyan Maasai Mara. MailOnline Travel can vouch for this one. The author of this story stayed there in 2016, describing it as 'a camp that specialises in making its guests feel like they're kings and queens of the savannah', that 'takes glamping into uncharted territory with luxuriousness and service I didn't know could exist in tents'. The second lodge, which the guests will arrive at on August 20, is Duba Plains Okavango Delta (pictured) in Botswana Ultra-luxury lodge: Duba Plains 'evokes the classic African safari style of the 1920's' The rooms at Duba Plains are raised on recycled railway sleeper decking and have 'stunning views of the surrounding floodplain' THE WORLD'S GREATEST SAFARI ITINERARY August 17, 2021 - Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE August 18, 19 - Mpala Jena Camp, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe August 20, 21, 22 - Duba Plains Okavango Delta August 23, 24, 25 - Mara Plains Camp, Maasai Mara, Kenya August 26, 27, 28 - Singita Kwitonda, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda Advertisement The fourth stopover, on August 26, is at Singita Kwitonda in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park. It has an 'unparalleled position [that] puts life-changing gorilla-trekking experiences within easy reach', along with eight luxurious suites with private heated plunge pools. Plus 'large timber-framed windows that welcome the breathtaking scenery and volcano views inside'. On August 23 the Roar Africa Emirates guests will arrive at the incredible Mara Plains Camp (pictured) in Kenya The fourth stopover, on August 26, is at Singita Kwitonda (pictured) in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park Singita Kwitonda has an 'unparalleled position [that] puts life-changing gorilla-trekking experiences within easy reach'. And nice bath tubs Deborah Calmeyer, founder and CEO of Roar Africa The expert chaperones accompanying the group, meanwhile, include Deborah Calmeyer, founder and CEO of Roar Africa, Humphrey Gumbo, Roar Africa's specialist safari guide with nearly 20 years of professional guiding experience in multiple African countries - and Dr. Ian McCallum, 'renowned poet, conservationist and psychiatrist who is one of the most eloquent ambassadors for wilderness and wild animals'. Guests will also 'enjoy interacting with other seasoned professionals in their respective fields with extensive knowledge of their African homeland'. Included among the 'notable participants who will impart fascinating facts and keen insights into the regions visited' is Zoologist Dr. Lucy King, who will 'speak to her personal conservation journey with elephants, bees, and villages'. Ms Calmeyer explained that the bucket list experience is designed to deepen knowledge of the natural world. She said: 'It has never been more important than now to curate experiences that facilitate an understanding of how the natural world works. We have curated this strategic itinerary by working from a place of deep insight and acute understanding of Africa's many strengths and complexities. We have painstakingly selected profound destinations and intimate wildlife discoveries to reveal what must be done to ensure that Africa's people, nature and animals survive and thrive. 'And knowing that time is a non-renewable resource, guests will appreciate the absolute exclusivity and unparalleled ease of travel. 'This authentic experience not only sets a new paradigm in ultra-luxe adventure and sustainable travel, but is a robust catalyst for change by facilitating active participation and insightful dialogue between informed, conscious travellers and local communities. Our goal is to change the philosophy and worldview of leaders, and I truly believe this is the greatest and most impactful safari experience on earth it will make your wildest dreams come true.' The trip will be 'carbon neutral with high-quality offsets' and Roar Africa will be donating 100 per cent of the trip's proceeds to The Great Plains Foundation, which 'will go directly towards conservation education programs for young people who live in and around the areas visited'. The Roar Africa Emirates Executive Private Jet African Safari will also be offered August 28 to September 7, 2022, and in 2023 (dates to be determined). For more information about the Roar Africa Emirates Executive Private Jet Safari visit www.emirates-executive.com and roarafrica.com. Coming soon - film producer Frank Mannion's engaging account of a five-day Out of Africa tour with Roar Africa. Medals of the WWI hero, who died in 1959, have now been sold at auction He deflated the balloon to prevent it from drifting into the hands of the enemy Burbury was straying towards German lines when a shell severed his cable Lt Arthur Burbury earned bravery medals after jumping out of one at 3,000ft Lieutenant Arthur Burbury, who died in 1959, won bravery medals for deflating his hydrogen balloon and jumping out at 3,000 ft to stop it from drifting into the possession of the enemy at Battle of Somme The amazing story of a colourful World War One hero pilot whose quick-thinking prevented disaster can be told after his bravery medals sold for over 5,000. Lieutenant Arthur Burbury, of the London Regiment, was observing from 3,000ft the British army's assault on the Germans at the Battle of the Somme when a shell severed his cable. The hydrogen balloon drifted perilously towards the German lines, seemingly destined to end up in enemy hands. To prevent this from happening, Lt Burbury performed a daring manoeuvre to cut the balloon's rip panel so it instantly deflated. He then attached his parachute and leapt out of the balloon as it dropped to the ground near Maricourt on the British side. Lt Burbury's medals, including a prestigious Military Cross and Croix De Guerre awarded for this action, were auctioned off by a private collector with London-based Spink & Son. They achieved a hammer price of 4,500, with extra fees taking the overall figure paid by the buyer to 5,500. Lt Burbury was born in Kensington, London, in 1896 and was a prodigious child boxer before enlisting with the 28th Battalion, London Regiment, at the outset of war. He was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps and became a balloon officer with 3 Kite Balloon Section in October 1915, arriving in France the following month. On September 15, 1916, he was observing the 6th Division's assault on the Quadrangle Redoubt at 3,000ft when his balloon drifted across the line of fire of a Royal Artillery battery armed with 6ins howitzers. The World War One hero's bravery medals have fetched over 5,000 at auction A shell severed his cable and he drifted towards enemy lines in his newly introduced Cacquot balloon which was a type unknown by the Germans, meaning it would have been disastrous if it fell into enemy hands. His Military Cross citation, in the London Gazette, read: 'For conspicuous skill and gallantry. When observing from a balloon at a height of 3,000 feet, the cable was cut by a shell. 'He destroyed his papers, ripped the balloon, a most difficult operation in the air, and then got down in his parachute.' Lt Burbury subsequently began pilot training and became a flying officer with No 1 Squadron in March 1917. That April, he destroyed an enemy balloon near Houthem, Netherlands, on a 'special mission' but was then shot down himself, spending the rest of the war as a POW. Lt Burbury was repatriated at conflict's end and posted to the North Russian Expeditionary Force to assist with the White Russians against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. He served on the Archangel as a pilot and staff officer from June to September 1919. A hydrogen balloon is pictured being sent aloft during the British advance in 1916 After resigning his commission in 1920, Lt Burbury went to King's College, Cambridge and gained a degree in modern languages - eventually becoming fluent in 24 of them. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1923 and became notorious for his womanising ways. How hydrogen balloons were used to locate enemy targets and stop bombing raids during World War One Hydrogen balloons were first used for military reconnaissance in the late 18th century and were critical assets to both sides in World War I. These balloon would float to a great height behind the front lines, where an observer could locate distant enemy targets and relay their positions to artillery on the ground. They were regularly targeted by fighter planes. If a balloon came under attack, its occupant would bail out, with a parachute automatically deploying upon leaving the basket. Balloons were also used in a defensive capacity and were one of the methods used to defend important sites from air attacks from the Germans. They would be strung with heavy metal cables and suspended above planes' operational ceilings to force enemy aircrafts to have to dodge colliding with them. Many bombing attempts were unsuccessful because of the balloons, which were used in great numbers to protect London. Advertisement On one occasion, he appeared before the court after being caught by a policeman romping with a woman in a car in Belgravia. His Cambridge friend Lance Sieveking said of him: 'As a youth, and up to the age of 23, when in 1919 he at last came up to King's (College), he had a traditionally idealistic attitude towards sex and women. 'This changed, and in a short space of time he ceased to imitate Sir Galahad, and adopted the attitude of Don Juan. 'A Don Juan with a mission - to bring love and physical satisfaction into the lives of as many women as possible who might otherwise be deprived.' Following his death in Germany in 1959, his funeral was held and Sieveking quipped: 'The church was full of women of all ages, dating back to his youth and coming right up to the newest loves of his last year. 'I was the only man.' Marcus Budgen, head of the medal department at Spink & Son, said: 'It was a privilege to sell the awards of Lieutenant Burbury for such a handsome price. 'Having been decorated as a gallant 'Balloonatic' and served in supporting the White Russians in Archangel - his prodigious appetite in the bedroom made him a quite special character.' His medal group consists of a Military Cross; 1914-15 Star; British War and Victory Medals; 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Croix de Guerre 1915-1918. Increased productivity but at what price? Back in April, Bloomberg reported on a U.S. employee survey administered by Eagle Hill Consulting, which found that just a month into the pandemic, about 45% of workers said they were burned out after working from home. Americas always-on work culture has reached new heights, the Bloomberg article warned. Whatever boundaries remained between work and life have almost entirely disappeared. Indeed, those boundaries collapsed for me when I made the transition three years ago from commuting into a Manhattan office to working from home in Montana. My first months in, I spent so much time working from my couch that when Id sit back down on it at night to unwind, Id break into a cold sweat, my mind and body unable to understand why I was in my office mainlining Netflix. My bosses reaped the benefits, whether they knew it or not. Work on weekends? Why not?! Im already at the office. No commute didnt mean a leisurely morning walk or exercise; it meant waking up, grabbing my phone in bed and punching the clock. My productivity was through the roof, but I found myself burning out every few weeks, desperate for a vacation or anything that could help demarcate work from leisure. And that was back in the Before Time, when you could gather in public. A shift to remote work may allow employees to leave the expensive, crowded coastal cities where so many companies have clustered. It may usher in better lives for those with the privilege. But I simply dont trust corporations to preside over the switch without forcing employees to sacrifice, in the name of productivity, what little work-life balance they have left. Facebook and Twitter employees may fantasize about the chance to move to a smaller city and add flexibility to their lives. For many, it might even happen. But tech companies are also masters of scale and excellent at exploiting inefficiencies. One big opportunity will be salary reductions. Mr. Zuckerberg has already hinted that employees would undergo cost-of-living decreases in pay to work remotely (If you live in a location where the cost of living is dramatically lower, or the cost of labor is lower, then salaries do tend to be somewhat lower in those places, Mr. Zuckerberg said last week). But just because pay decreases, doesnt mean employer expectations will. Large remote staffs could usher in a new wave of employee surveillance tech. And big tech companies that have been offering catered meals and perks to keep employees tethered to the company campus may no longer have to. Perhaps the work-life wall (a mere pretense by now for many companies) can be demolished without apology. 11 p.m. conference call? Deal with it. Youre the one who wanted to live in Oklahoma. (Natural News) The number of people whore infected with the Wuhan coronavirus but never get sick varies greatly from place to place. As such, scientists are having a hard time pinpointing a global average for COVID-19 since theyre finding different rates in different places. Were still in learning mode. The numbers are a bit all over the place, said Peter J. Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. In Iceland, a study found that half of those who tested positive for the coronavirus showed no signs of illness. Meanwhile, one in five, or 17.9 percent of those infected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship were asymptomatic, according to another study. Oxford Universitys Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine also reported that 50 to 70 percent of the residents of an Italian village west of Venice were asymptomatic, while only 31 percent of the Japanese nationals evacuated from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began, were free of COVID-19 symptoms. Tracking asymptomatic carriers The Trump administration says that the U.S. has now reached a point where states can test Americans who come forward with symptoms and trace the contacts of those people. This testing, however, is just starting to expand to include asymptomatic people. To better understand the coronaviruss pattern of spread and who might have antibodies against it, scientists must first collect more data for analysis. Only then can policymakers have enough information to reinforce face mask policies and other safety measures to the public. It would give us a better sense of how penetrant the virus is in our communities, said William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. Because weve been limited in our testing, weve kind of surmised there is more virus here in Nashville than in rural Tennessee, but we really dont know that. The availability of more data will be a boon for leaders whore having difficulty dealing with outbreaks in their jurisdictions. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said that the seemingly unpredictable nature of who gets sick from the virus has made the situation profoundly difficult for long-term care providers, such as nursing homes, where healthcare workers have to be in regular close contact with the elderly. If you think back 60 days ago, most people didnt even appreciate at that point in time that many of the people who carry this virus dont even have any symptoms, Baker said. And I think in some ways it was perfectly designed to create far more havoc and sorrow in long-term care facilities than in almost any other place you can think of. The knowledge that some people dont show symptoms but can still spread the coronavirus was a key development in responses to the pandemic. However, it wasnt until the start of April, when the likelihood of asymptomatic spread became clear, that the federal government started urging Americans to wear masks in public. (Related: Coronavirus masks? Theyre helpful because asymptomatic people dont even know theyre spreading it.) One of the [pieces of] information that we have pretty much confirmed now is that a significant number of individuals that are infected actually remain asymptomatic, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told WABE 90.1 FM on March 30. That may be as many as 25%. Thats important, because now you have individuals that may not have any symptoms that can contribute to transmission, and we have learned that in fact they do contribute to transmission. Understanding why not everyone gets sick Its currently not clear why some infected people dont develop COVID-19 symptoms while others get sick and die. Possible factors that influence susceptibility to the coronavirus include genetics or the amount of virus a persons immune system can handle. This is why we need good serologic testing in large numbers of representative people, said Barry R. Bloom, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, referring to tests that check for immune responses to COVID-19. Determining the percentage of people who have antibodies for the coronavirus would give scientists information about who had been infected without their knowledge and might have transmitted the virus to others. Scientists say that the ability to transmit a pathogen without showing any symptoms varies by disease. For example, a person with Ebola cannot spread the virus while asymptomatic but those with influenza can, said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the nonprofit Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. One of the key questions about the pandemic is that of the role children play in transmitting the coronavirus. With some diseases, such as the flu, children are big transmitters even though they rarely become severely ill. According to some researchers, a growing body of evidence suggests that children are less likely to get infected and spread the virus than adults. However, others say that the incidence in children is lower only because they havent been exposed to the virus as much, especially with many schools closed. I do not see any strong biological or epidemiological reason to believe that children dont get as infected, says Gary Wong, a researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As long as there is community transmission in the adult population, reopening of schools will likely facilitate transmission, as respiratory viruses are known to circulate in schools and daycares. Meanwhile, in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that the states Department of Health is investigating more than 100 serious cases in which children who might have had COVID-19 are now manifesting symptoms similar to a serious inflammatory condition known as Kawasaki disease. Because it happened after the fact and does not present as a normal COVID case, it may not have been initially diagnosed as a COVID case, he said. Sources include: WashingtonTimes.com WABE.org Nature.com A Junction City man has been arrested and charged in connection with a Saturday morning crash that left two dead and another seriously injured east of Brownsville. Austyn Hillsman, 21, is charged with two counts of criminally negligent homicide, driving while under the influence of intoxicants and reckless driving. Oregon State Police said Hillsmans Ford F-250 was heading east on Oregon 228 when it crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a Honda Pilot driven by Caleb Simonis, 19, shortly after midnight Friday. Simonis was pronounced dead. A 16-year-old passenger in Simonis vehicle was also pronounced dead after being taken by LifeFlight to a hospital. A 15-year-old passenger sustained serious injuries and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Hillsman, who did not sustain serious injuries, was being held at the Linn County Jail. -- K. Rambo krambo@oregonian.com Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Photo: (Photo : Photo from gofundme.com) It may look absurd for some - to kayak after a flood in Michigan, but for a daughter who lost her mom and is looking for her mom's remains, it is not. Kathy Parsch kayaked through the river to look for her home, which was floating at the river, to recover her mother's ashes. This incident was after their village in Sanford, Michigan, was flooded. Flood in Michigan made thousands homeless Earlier last week, after heavy rains, flood streamed portions of Michigan. Those who live in mid-Michigan had to evacuate because of this. Two dams caused the flood. A breach was seen at the Edenville Dam, causing an overflow to the Sanford Dam. Around 11,000 residents left their homes, including Kathy Parsh. She lived in Sanford and was one of those who left their village last. The daughter from Sanford left her home Tuesday evening with just her clothes that she was wearing. READ ALSO: Mother and Daughter Die Hours Apart Due to COVID-19 Flood in Michigan swept Parsch's home When the people of Sanford started to return to their homes, Parsch went home with her friends. Unfortunately, when they went to her address, what was left there was only the foundation of her house. The flood in Michigan swept her house and brought it to a nearby river. Other residents reported that they saw Parsch's house floating in the river. Parsch and her friends couldn't swim through the river, so when they found kayaks, they decided to paddle going to the flood-ravaged home. They braved all these, to rescue a priced possession for Kathy, which is her mother's remains. When they came into her home, everything was dredged in water. Parsch was also unsuccessful in her mission of recovering her mother's remains. In an interview with WDIV 4, Parsch said she thinks it was her mother's choice to sink with her home. "She wanted to stay with my house, I think, " Parsch added. Friends set-up a GoFundMe campaign to support Parsch after the flood in Michigan Since returning to her home, Parsch has been overwhelmed by the help she keeps receiving from her community in Sanford. Even though all of them were victims of the catastrophe brought by the flood, she still gets help like food and other necessities from her community. She said that the entire is amazing for helping her during these trying times. However, the amount of devastation for Parsch is something she cannot handle alone. Without a home to return to, and very small insurance money, Parsch's friends think that she would need some more help. Thus, they decided to create a GoFundMe campaign for Kathy. Parsch's friend described her situation in the campaign. They said that even her car was washed away by the flood. Her friends describe Kathy as someone who would do anything for others without expecting anything in return. That is why they think she deserves all the help that she could get. The GoFundMe campaign for Kathy aims to raise $25,000, which Parsch's friends think would be enough to help her get back on her feet. Three days after launching the campaign, they have already raised more than eleven thousand dollars. If there is one thing that rings true about the women of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, its that they always bring the drama. This season of The Real Housewives was no different. So, when it was announced that the reunion for this season would have to be virtual due to COVID-19, fans worried that the shade and snarky remarks between the women wouldnt translate via video. But, as we have now seen, the women definitely brought he drama virtually. But apparently there was a lot that we didnt get to see. The Real Housewives of Atlanta | Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic RELATED: RHOA: Which Housewives Will Be Invited to Cynthia Baileys Wedding? How did the women of RHOA feel about the virtual reunion? Obviously the women of RHOA wanted to be in the room with one another for the reunion, but that just couldnt happen. When the ladies found out that [Bravo] made the decision to do the reunion online, they were not happy about it and they tried to talk them out of it, a source told HollywoodLife. But it was too late at that point. They already made up their minds, and the virtual reunion is moving forward. But the women werent going to let a change in format stop them from confronting one another. Its a huge adjustment to have to do it online, the source said. The reunion is so important to them and their fans, and they are all used to doing it one way. Theyre all very nervous to change it up. Lets face it, change is never easy, but they will adjust. RELATED: RHOA: Which Housewife has the Highest Net Worth? What happened after Nene Leakes left the reunion? As always, Nene Leakes made a big stir at the reunion. This time it was by completely leaving the room. But a lot happened after the OG left that we didnt get to see. You saw Marlo [Hampton] did try to reach out to her, Porsha [Williams] did, but she did not come back to the computer but she was calling us on speakerphone, Kandi Burress told HollywoodLife. Now what they didnt show you [on TV] was we could actually hear what she was saying [at the time of filming], but they did not play her voice [from] the phone [on TV]. I [dont] know why they didnt want to play what she was saying, she continued. Though it seemed like Leakes left the reunion for a while, she wasnt gone that long. It was a good hour, maybe a little longer, Burruss said. Overall, I think that the funny thing was all of us were exhausted. We were pretty much exhausted after the reunion. RELATED: RHOA: Nene Leakes Breaks Silence on Claims Her Reads Were Scripted Are Nene Leakes and Kandi Burruss friends now? Leakes and Buruss definitely had their fair share of issues with one another during this season. And they actually havent buried the hatchet since the reunion. We didnt talk that much, Buruss said of her and the women on the show. I briefly spoke to Marlo, I think, and I briefly spoke to Kenya for a short period of time, but really, everybody was just so exhausted. Sitting in front of a computer all day is exhausting. Since the reunion, NeNe and I havent talked at all. The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) has called for the disbandment of President Muhammadu Buharis federal executive council and also describe it as cancerous. This was contained in a statement on the official Twitter handle of the party. A statement by the PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan said: Our party asserts that this situation is a mark of failure by the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to provide organized leadership for our nation. A situation where officials are constantly at daggers drawn among themselves in unending clashes, backbiting, betrayals, leakage of sensitive documents and internal bickering over pecuniary and political interests, in manners not different from street skirmishes of common cult groups, is unacceptable to our nation. Advertisement It is indeed shocking that the acrimony had sunk to a situation where the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, reportedly evicted the staff of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) from their allocated office, with guns, while the Chairman of the Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri, was on official assignment with the President. Currently, the newly appointed Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, are said to be at each others throats, with the SGF reportedly querying the decision of the President to sack the former Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Usman Mohammed. The situation had degenerated into serious confusion in the federal executive. The opposition party also recalled the rift between the National Security Adviser, Babangana Monguno and Buharis late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari over the delegation of duties in the area of national security. It added: Nigerians can recall the bitter wrangling, wherein the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen Babagana Monguno, earlier this year, alerted that Presidential responsibilities, including presiding over sensitive security matters, have been hijacked by the late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, thereby frustrating the fight against insurgency and acts of violence ravaging our country. Furthermore, the power sector is still under the stress of squabbling between the SGF and the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, with the SGF, reinstating some officials who were sacked by the minister in December last year. The nation has also not forgotten the embarrassing public fight between the First Lady, Aisha Buhari and President Muhammadu Buharis cousins, over rooms in the Presidential Villa, which further exposed the chaotic situation in the President Buhari-led administration. Before then, the First Lady had alerted the Nation that a cabal had hijacked the federal executive and taken over governance of our nation. It is sad that presidential hostilities had resulted in escalated cases of internal sabotage including the leakage of sensitive documents as exposed by the Head of Service, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan and recently witnessed in the embarrassing leakage of President Buharis draft COVID-19 speech. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Brnovich is joining a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general urging Congress to pass S.3607, the Safeguarding Americas First Responders Act. The Act would permit the families of first responders, who die or are permanently and totally disabled as a result of COVID-19, to receive the same federal benefits extended to first responders, or their survivors, otherwise killed or injured in the line of duty. Current federal law would only allow survivors access to certain benefits if evidence is provided proving the deceased or permanently disabled first responder contracted COVID-19 while on duty. In a letter sent to Congress Thursday, Attorney General Brnovich and 51 other state attorneys general urged quick passage of the SAFR Act. The letter states, in part, When public safety officers are called to respond, they do not know whether they are coming into contact with a person who is positive for COVID-19. We have seen harrowing stories about how public safety officers have taken heroic actions to save the lives of others, knowing that they risked infection in doing so. "Our first responders put their lives on the line every day, and their sacrifice is only heightened during a crisis like COVID-19," said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. "We should all work together to remove unnecessary barriers and uncertainty for our first responders and their families if they are faced with a sudden COVID-19 illness or death." The SAFR Act would establish a temporary presumption for first responders who contracted COVID-19 while on duty if diagnosed within 45 days of a first responders last shift. The legislation ensures families of officers and first responders lost while fighting the pandemic do not face unnecessary barriers to benefits already promised under existing federal law. This legislation is sponsored by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. It recently passed the United States Senate and is currently being considered by the House of Representatives. Additionally, Attorney General Brnovich recently transmitted letters to the Governor, President of the Arizona Senate, and Speaker of the Arizona House urging temporary protections be adopted in Arizona that would create a temporary presumption in state law to ensure first responders who contract COVID-19 be covered by workers' compensation. The federal government introduced an additional measure to speed up access to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for international students and temporary foreign workers, the National Post reports. Canada facilitates access to CERB for temporary residents The federal government introduced an additional measure to speed up access to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for international students and temporary foreign workers, the National Post reports. Canada facilitates access to CERB for temporary residents The federal government introduced an additional measure to speed up access to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for international students and temporary foreign workers, the National Post reports. Canada facilitates access to CERB for temporary residents The federal government introduced an additional measure to speed up access to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for international students and temporary foreign workers, the National Post reports. Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A The Government of Canada is waiving the condition requiring temporary foreign residents to provide proof of a valid work permit or renewal of an expiring permit by email to receive the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The new measure, which took effect this week, was announced in the form of a directive sent to Employment and Social Development Canada officials who are tasked with reviewing and approving CERB applications. Government agents will no longer have to get proof of a valid work permit by email, verbal confirmation from claimants will now be sufficient, according to the National Post. This change shows that the federal government is prepared to accommodate immigrants and provide as much support as possible to foreign workers and international students during this difficult time to encourage them to stay in Canada. With this new measure, the application process for benefits will be simplified and accelerated so that immigrants who find themselves in difficult financial circumstances due to the COVID-10 pandemic can receive the help they need. Find out how to stay in Canada In recent weeks, the government of Canada has made a multitude of funding announcements to help Canadians deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Temporary residents, such as international students and temporary workers, have been included in the provisions put in place. For instance, temporary residents may be eligible for government income support, such as Employment Insurance or the new Canadian Emergency Response Benefit. To qualify for emergency benefits, offered by the Canadian government, temporary foreign workers and international students must meet the same criteria as Canadians. In addition, temporary residents are required to be living in Canada and have a valid Social Insurance Number. The federal government has launched the CERB to provide income support to those in Canada who have been negatively affected by COVID-19. The CERB offers $500 per week for up to 16 weeks to eligible workers. International students who meet the CERBs eligibility criteria may also benefit from this income support. Maya Dura, a spokeswoman for the office of Canadas Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Ahmed Hussen, told the National Post that those who are claiming the CERB may be asked to provide additional documentation to verify their eligibility at a future date. Find out how to stay in Canada Need assistance with the Temporary Work Permit application process? Contact wp@canadavisa.com. 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved A humpback whale thought to be entangled in rope near Portland in south-west Victoria is still missing, despite extensive air and sea searches. Searchers in a small plane spotted four blue whales - the worlds biggest creatures - during a sweep on Monday. But there was no sign of a humpback during the flight between Lorne and the South Australian border and back to Port Phillip Heads, according to a statement from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. "Ground teams also searched from high vantage points along the coast around Portland and an on-water search was conducted in and around Lawrence Rocks [an ancient volcanic formation in the sea south-east of Portland]," the statement said. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form By 5 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning, around 60 people were waiting in line for the food pantry at Holy Redeemer Parish in West New York. The food giveaway wasnt scheduled to start for another three hours, but the pantry was drawing increasingly large crowds, and people were making sure they had a place near the front of the line. Ive never (seen) something like that before, said Juan Fernando Pena, the food banks director. Its a very difficult time for people. As the economic devastation of COVID-19 continues, food pantries are stepping up to feed the swelling ranks of Hudson Countys hungry. More than two months into New Jerseys statewide shutdown, relief for some of the states residents is still far away. The states ungainly unemployment system has been swamped with claims from roughly 1.1 million residents. And though the system has paid out $2.5 billion as of mid-May, many residents are still complaining of payment delays and obstacles. While many wait for their benefits, or are unable to receive them, food pantries that serve Hudson County residents are expanding their services to fill massive increases in demand, organizers said. At Holy Redeemer, Penas food pantry had expanded its services from two times a month to once a week. Before the pandemic, the giveaway never attracted more than 400 people; on May 16 the pantry served nearly 700. Pena estimated the church now distributes between 25,000 and 30,000 pounds of food every week. Former West New York Commissioner Sue Colacurcio, who runs a food pantry at the Franciscan Community Development Center of Fairview, said demand for food has been astronomical. The pantry went from serving roughly 200 families per month to serving more than 1,000 per week, many of its whom are from Hudson County. In Bayonne, the city-organized Bayonne Food Bank has served thousands of residents since opening just weeks ago. And in Jersey City, the Sharing Place, a food pantry affiliated with St. Pauls Lutheran Church, went from serving roughly 250 families a month to 400. Darlene Wyzga, executive director of the Sharing Place, estimates that in normal times, the organization donates between two and three tons of food per month; now, they are giving away four to five. Im experiencing growth like no business is experiencing growth, for all the wrong reasons, she said. Elaine Armas, who lives in public housing in West New York, said shes been visiting Holy Redeemers pantry frequently during the pandemic. I dont have the money to buy extra food if I have to be quarantined, she said. The food pantry and the church are my lifeline. Armas, who lives alone and is on a fixed income, said the pantry helps provide nutritious food that she wouldnt be able to afford on her own, especially with the rising prices of cleaning products and meats. She is not eligible for unemployment and was unsure whether she received a federal stimulus. Its really tough when you want to watch TV, and you have to spend $160 a month to watch TV, but you cant spend that money on food, she said, noting that she didnt venture outside often for fear of contracting the virus. In my house, without a TV Id be insane by now. Pantry organizers estimate that a significant percentage of their clientele are seniors on fixed incomes, like Armas. The pantries are also drawing many people from undocumented communities, many of whom work in industries that have been paralyzed by the economic shutdown: construction, restaurants, and service industries like domestic help and cleaning. Undocumented workers are also unable to receive unemployment benefits or federal stimulus checks. Altagracia Simo, a West New York resident who picked up food at the Franciscan Community Development Center, said both she and her husband had stopped working during the pandemic. Its been very difficult, she said. Not really being able to afford the food, and everything being so expensive. Neither Simo, a house cleaner, nor her husband, who worked at a dry-cleaners, had received unemployment benefits. Without a computer at home, and with libraries closed, they have struggled to fill out the application. The $1200 stimulus check helped a lot, Simo said, but feeding themselves and their two children was becoming increasingly difficult to afford. Were not even thinking about how long this is going to go on for, she said. The pantries are also drawing some educated office workers. Organizers say administrative workers and paralegals who have been laid off are among their patrons. Pena said that he knew of at least one doctor who visited Holy Redeemer. Theres a classic statement that hunger knows no boundaries, Colacurcio said. You go from your white collar all the way down to your undocumented. The disparities had led to some tensions among Penas rapidly growing clientele. Each week, the numbers have increased by roughly a hundred, with the service attracting more and more people in expensive cars. Last Saturday, some people showed up at three or four in the morning to wait. Sometimes people complain because they see people coming in nice cars, he said, but emphasized the pantry was open to all. I know everybodys going through a hard situation right now," he said. The legal suit instituted against the Ade Adetimehin-led state party executive committee at the federal high court in Akure has not been withdrawn, Olu Olatuja, acting factional Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, has said. Mr Olatuja, while briefing journalists on Tuesday in Akure, said the suit against the Adetimehin-led exco was instituted by 13 people, stressing that the withdrawal by one person would not stop the case. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the former chairman of the faction, Idowu Otetubi, had, on Sunday, expressed support for the Adetimehin-led executive, saying that he had withdrawn the suit in court. Mr Adetimehin is the chairman of the APC faction working with Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of the state. Mr Olatuja, however, said the Adetimehin-led executive committee remained illegal and that his own committee would continue the litigations without giving-in to any intimidation. He advised party leaders within and outside the state to shun the alleged intrigues by the Akeredolu-led government and the Adetimehin faction, saying that money would not buy the conscience of the people of the state. Our attention has been drawn to the social media publication and the press release issued by our former Chairman, Mr Idowu Otetubi, stating that our executive committee has withdrawn the suit filed against the Mr Ade Adetimehin-led executive committee of APC in Ondo State. Consequently, the remaining executive members met and mandated the state Deputy Chairman, Mr Olu Olatuja, to continue in acting capacity as chairman. We wish to state categorically that there is no time our executive committee met and discussed such move in recent times, having known that our case at the Federal High Court, Akure Judicial Division, holding at Akure, will be coming up middle of next month. We are of the opinion that the then chairman, Idowu Otetubi, has compromised his integrity and position. READ ALSO: This is in an attempt to frustrate the gubernatorial ambition of the various aspirants within the party. His defection to the governors group will definitely allow for proper monitoring of our case and will stop the unnecessary exploitation of party leaders. The spirit of seeking for genuine redress has now been reinvigorated, he said. Mr Olatuja said that his faction also supported the agitation for direct primary to be used in the coming APC governorship primaries in the state. NAN reports that the group has officially suspended the former factional chairman, Mr Otetubi and the Secretary, Gani Mohammed, both of who had joined forces with the governor for his second term bid. While pledging its loyalty to the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, the partys National Leader, Bola Tinubu, and the Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice, the group appealed for justice in the matter. (NAN) The fired Florida Health Department employee in charge of the state's COVID-19 response website has a lurid past including three arrests, a torrid affair with her student and being fired from her previous university teaching job, a DailyMail.com investigation can reveal. Rebekah Jones, 30, claims she was asked to leave by health officials this month because she refused to fudge coronavirus infection numbers. But a different picture has now emerged after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that Jones was canned because of insubordination and called her 'disruptive.' A DailyMail.com investigation has revealed Jones, a married mother-of-two, was fired from Florida State University for having an affair with one of her students while she herself was a PhD student and instructor in 2017. The affair - which she chronicled in great detail in a 342-page essay that she filed as part of a now dismissed defamation case - ended with three arrests and revenge porn and cyber stalking cases against her as well as her claim of a pregnancy. The essay, obtained by DailyMail.com, includes page after page of graphic details on alleged sexual encounters with then-student Garrett Sweeterman, then 21, as well as X-rated text messages about sexual fantasies both were having about one another. Rebecca Jones, a married mother-of-two, was charged with three counts of cyberstalking her student Garrett Sweeterman, 21, who filed a restraining order against her. She's pictured with her husband and two children She allegedly created a 'revenge porn' website called SurvivingGarrett and sent the link to online boards focusing on women's issues and the #metoo movement showing naked photos of her student and lover Garrett Sweeterman, 21, (pictured) Records show Jones was arrested for the first time and charged with vandalizing Sweeterman's car at the condo he shared with other FSU students in October 2017 Court documents show that Jones has been charged three times The essay even describes her body's sensations when she had sex with Sweeterman on the floor of her university office, as well as the size of the student's manhood . FSU, like most universities, bans sexual contact between professors and their students. The affair, Jones claims in the essay and court records, led to a pregnancy. She gave birth to a little girl, Evelyn, in mid-2018. Records show Jones is still living with her husband, 34-year-old Jacob Romer, their eight-year-old son and the new toddler. Neither Jones nor Romer returned calls or responded to emails and text messages asking for their comment. An email to Jones triggered an automatic reply asking those who contact her to donate to the GoFundMe page of her father and mother. Their house in Mississippi was destroyed by tornadoes April 12. So far, donors sent $6,565. Sweeterman, who works for a tech company in Tampa, Florida, picked up his cellphone and said: 'I'm sorry, I just don't want to talk about this.' The affair led to criminal charges for Jones. Records show Jones was arrested for the first time and charged with vandalizing Sweeterman's car at the condo he shared with other FSU students in October 2017. She once was charged with contempt of court for failing to follow a judge's orders to stay away from the campus of Florida State University. Public medical documents also show the same judge in Tallahassee, Florida, ordered that she take medications prescribed to her during a mental health evaluation as a condition for her release from one of Jones' three stints in jail. Rebekah Jones led a team of Florida Department of Health scientists and public health officers to create and design a comprehensive COVID-19 dashboard Neither Jones nor her husband Romer returned calls or responded to emails and text messages asking for their comment Records show Jones is still living with her husband, 34-year-old Jacob Romer, their eight-year-old son and the new toddler, believed to be Sweeterman's According to Tallahassee Police records, Jones discovered Sweeterman's address off campus despite the fact he refused to tell her where he lived, and drove to his house to talk about her pregnancy. The two apparently argued in front of his university roommates and Jones allegedly kicked the door of Sweeterman's car, denting it. She drove away from the scene but local cops pulled her over and eventually arrested her. Jones struck a deal with prosecutors and the case was dismissed after she completed a pre-trial intervention program for first-time offenders. Jones, however, also got on the radar of university officials. Because she allegedly texted Sweeterman about using a coat hanger to end her pregnancy and wanting to die, her second arrest affidavit shows, Florida State University campus police knocked on the door of her marital home and attempted to have Jones committed to a mental institution. Jones did receive treatment and was released. That prompted the university to initiate an investigation into Jones' dealings with her student and eventually the school fired her, according to an arrest affidavit and Jones' detailed essay. Her contacts with police, however, continued. In March 2018, Jones was charged with violation of a court order, robbery without violence and trespassing. FSU Police had been called to the campus after Sweeterman reported Jones had slapped his cellphone from his hands then left with it, according to an FSU police report. Jones was banned from campus but still had managed to find Sweeterman in one of his classes. What's more, weeks earlier, Sweeterman obtained a restraining order against Jones, according to legal documents. She was booked and spent the night in jail. A judge then allowed Jones to go free for as long as she took medications prescribed to her during a mental health evaluation, an FSU police report shows. Citing conflicting statements about the incident from both Jones and Sweeterman as well as a lack of witnesses, the state attorney declined to prosecute Jones. Jones' brushes with the law continued in July 2019, days after she gave birth to her daughter. This time, she was an employee of the state's health department. Court records show she was charged with three counts of cyberstalking Sweeterman after she allegedly created a 'revenge porn' website called SurvivingGarrett and sent the link to online boards focusing on women's issues and the #metoo movement. According to court records, the website included photos of Sweeterman naked that he allegedly shared with her when they were lovers. The Tallahassee Police report also shows, in June 2019, Sweeterman was receiving 'multiple calls' from the state's Department of Health that he didn't pick up. The cyberstalking case is still pending. She could be facing prison time, according to a lawyer familiar with the case. Jones filed an entire essay, 342 pages, as supporting evidence in a libel and slander lawsuit she filed against Sweeterman. It was voluntarily dismissed within weeks of the filing. The essay was titled 'It Was Warm The Day We Met' and dedicated 'To those who need to heal' Jones posted at least 60 pages of a 342-page manifesto with a narrative of the affair with Sweeterman, screen grabs of texts and sexts she claims were between the them As part of the charging documents, authorities mentioned the fact Jones posted at least 60 pages of what they called a manifesto with a narrative of the affair with Sweeterman, screen grabs of texts and sexts she claims were between the two, photos and x-rated paragraphs about their trysts. Jones eventually filed the entire essay, 342 pages, as supporting evidence in a libel and slander lawsuit she filed against Sweeterman. It was voluntarily dismissed within weeks of the filing. Jones described how she immediately noticed Sweeterman in the class she taught as a post-graduate student and a relationship ensued Titled 'It Was Warm The Day We Met' and dedicated 'To those who need to heal,' the essay reads like an old Penthouse sex column. A passage about Jones' first sexual, and painful, encounter with Sweeterman reads: 'I figured it had just been too long since I had sex last, and Garrett was bigger than I was used to.' The essay centers on Jones' claims she got pregnant during the affair and what she claims were weeks of pressure from Sweeterman that she get an abortion. In the essay she blames her criminal entanglements and her firing from FSU on Sweeterman's desire to punish her for carrying the baby to term. It describes how little Evelyn 'resembles him (Sweeterman) already with her blonde curls and piercing eyes.' Last year, Jones filed a paternity and child support lawsuit against Sweeterman. It was dismissed just days before Sweeterman submitted to a scientific DNA test, according to the case's dockets. The reasons for the dismissal included the fact husband Romer's name is on the child's birth certificate. In her writings, Jones described how she immediately noticed Sweeterman in the class she taught as a post-graduate student. Within days in early 2017, she recalled being attracted to him to the point of calling him into her office to berate him about the low quality of an assignment and noticing, she wrote, that he was aroused under his sweaty gym shirt and shorts. 'He sat too close to me,' she wrote about the meeting, 'looked at me like I was something to devour and brushed his legs against me several times. I could feel the heat coming off his body. And I noticed him getting hard.' An arrest affidavit shows Sweeterman identified Jones as the suspect of 'criminal mischief' with 100% certainty Details of Jones' second arrest for robbery and trespassing are explained in the documents where she described Sweeterman as harassing her The other students in her class, she wrote, were aware of the flirtation between Sweeterman and Jones which, at times, took place in the classroom. By the end of the semester, Jones shared her cellphone number with the students, as she always does, and Sweeterman started texting her immediately, she alleged. The texts continued for weeks after her classroom instruction ended and eventually turned graphic. According to her essay, Jones texted him: 'So, if I told you I've had recurring fantasies about you that take place in my office ' Sweeterman allegedly answered: 'Would it be weird if I told you I've had similar ones in your office?' From there, it evolved into sexting, with Jones telling Sweeterman: 'I'm gripping onto you, you want it so bad you moan, you can't help it ' At times during their online trysts, Jones wrote she was so aroused she could no longer type on her cellphone or breathe properly. Later, Jones and Sweeterman appear to have hooked up physically at least three times in the summer of 2017, both at her office and in a hotel room. According to her essay, Jones soured on Sweeterman after she became pregnant when, she claims, he refused to engage with the baby and rejected her love. The first lines of the essay read: 'I find talking about Garrett Sweeterman difficult now, as though I'm sharing the stories of a character in a book and antagonist, a despot, a stranger who I knew so intimately for so long but never really knew at all.' Last year, Jones filed a paternity and child support lawsuit against Sweeterman, but it was dismissed due to the fact husband Romer's name is on the child's birth certificate The Florida Department of Health did not respond to requests for comment about Jones' employment and whether health officials knew of Jones' legal entanglements and firing from FSU when they hired her. Robert A. Morris, Jones' lawyer in the revenge porn case, emailed a statement highlighting her 'sound' academic history. 'It is unfortunate that Ms. Jones has been thrust into this spotlight,' he wrote. 'I am certain that appropriate investigation and inquiry from oversight committees and other investigative agencies will reveal what has happened and why it has happened. 'Ms. Jones has a sound academic history. Her prior personal history and challenges should not be mixed with the present circumstance. Ms. Jones is working hard to resolve personal and private legal issues that are completely unrelated to her awkward thrust into the national media through no choice of her own.' Sweeterman's lawyer also released a statement. 'Mr. Sweeterman has nothing to do with the current situation between the Florida Department of Health and Ms. Jones, and does not know anything about it,' Tiffany Cruz wrote in an email. 'In 2019, Ms. Jones published a number of allegations about Mr. Sweeterman, from the time he was her student at FSU. Ms. Jones filed a number of legal actions against him, which the court records will show were rightly dismissed by her and the court.' More tinkering required for draft law on PPP, illustration photo According to the latest version of the draft law on public-private partnerships (PPP), if PPP schemes turn a profit with 125 per cent increase in revenue than the threshold agreed in the concession contract, they have to share 50 per cent of the difference with the state. Meanwhile, the government will consider paying up to 50 per cent of the difference between the actual revenue of the project and the amount agreed in the concession contract if they meet the conditions, including the ventures with planning built by authorised agencies. At last weeks meeting with the National Assembly Economic Committee, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United States Agency for International Development said it regarded the revenue sharing mechanism as one of the nine issues that need to be appropriately addressed to make the law on PPP successful. While Article 84 of the draft provides some high-level guidance on a revenue sharing mechanism, it does not clearly describe a proposed mechanism that investors could use as a reference. Don Lambert, principle private sector development specialist at the ADB said, The requirement for the project company to take 100 per cent of the downside risk in revenue for the first 25 per cent and then share 50 per cent thereafter poses too much risk. Also, it does not limit the downside exposure. Lambert added that, The need for the revision of the contract term to be negotiated before the state provides any revenue support places uncertainty over whether the revenue support will actually be paid. Downside revenue support is only available from the government on those projects for which the Viability Gap Fund (VGF) has not been provided. However, the provision of VGF does not eliminate revenue risks. VGF is state financial support provided for the construction of facilities to ensure financial feasibility. Lambert recommended the downside support mechanism should be redefined to allow for a limit to the exposure of the investors and lenders to revenue risk. For example, the government could provide full revenue support for 80 per cent of the financing plan revenue, while taking full risk of revenue falling below that level. In addition, the draft law on PPP should allow flexibility for the specific parameters of the revenue-risk sharing mechanism to be determined on a project-by-project basis, while removing the restriction on projects that require the VGF, and providing for establishing a revenue sharing fund. Profit and loss should not be used as the basis for determining the risk sharing. This would expose the government to risks, and the mechanisms would very much depend on the accuracy and transparency of the financial reporting of the PPP company. It is simpler and more transparent to base the mechanism on revenues, he suggested. Lamberts view resonates with representatives of the IMF and the World Bank. Francois Painchaud, resident representative of the IMF, said that the draft law does not define and limit the possible support mechanisms for PPPs, while those explicitly allowed are defined too rigidly, for example the minimum revenue guarantee. Risk sharing arrangements vary from project to project. Therefore, it would be smart to reserve flexibility in the draft law to allow for a balanced risk-sharing arrangement for each PPP contract, Painchaud suggested. Moreover, the need for minimum or maximum thresholds and risk sharing should be defined, but not the threshold percentage of the sharing percentage. In response to the concerns, Nguyen Dang Truong, director general of the Public Procurement Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment the compiler of the draft law reaffirmed that the draft law follows successful examples from other countries and meets international practices. No country worldwide has a standardised risk-sharing mechanism for Vietnam to deploy in the same way. In fact, no country guarantees all parameters of revenue risks, Truong explained. In the past, South Korea applied revenue risk-sharing mechanisms, but now it is applying these mechanisms like the one that Vietnam is proposing in the draft law. There are many contents improved in this draft to help investors feel secure. The draft law on PPP is being discussed and is set to be adopted by the National Assembly on June 18 to ease financiers long concerns over high risk of losses and lack of a completed legal framework, thus changing the private investment picture of local infrastructure development. The University of Limerick Governing Authority has today given a recommendation that UL subsidiary Plassey Campus Centre Ltd (PCC), which manages the student residences on campus, return rental income to the students who left their accommodation on foot of the governments decision to close the university campus in March. ULs Governing Authority held a Special Meeting today Tuesday during which the refund of student rents was discussed. It was noted that as Plassey Campus Centre Ltd (PCC) is the licensor and a separate legal entity to the University, this is a matter for decision by PCC and not the Governing Authority. Nonetheless, as PCC sought the views of Governing Authority on the matter of refunds, the view of Governing Authority is that the rents be refunded to the students. Michael McNamara, Clare T.D., who raised the matter with UL in early April having been contacted by students, said he welcomed the decision and that he would continue to maintain pressure on privately owned student accommodation providers to offer refunds to students in light of the closure of Third Level institutes in mid-March. When universities and colleges began giving lectures and tutorials remotely, it became clear that students who could do so would leave student accommodation to return home to their families, stated Deputy McNamara. I contacted the University of Limerick (UL) in early April and was advised that the matter of refunds to student residents was at that time under serious review by the UL Governing Authority. He continued, Following questioning by me in Dail Eireann two weeks ago, the Minister for Education Joe McHugh indicated that progress continued to be made on the matter. Todays decision by UL's Governing body will come as a welcome relief to students and their parents. A 55-year-old man has been jailed for three years for carrying out a "barbaric" circumcision without anaesthetic on a 10-month-old boy. The baby needed emergency medical attention and was hospitalised for two weeks. Nigerian father-of-six Philip Ogbewe, who has lived in Ireland for 20 years and resides at Green Lanes, Drogheda, Co Louth, used a blade on the infant during a crude cultural circumcision. The baby was bleeding heavily afterwards and was taken to the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, before he was transferred to Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. He has made a full recovery. Cruelty His mother, who had sought the circumcision, had thought Ogbewe, a grocer and fridge technician, was a doctor, Longford Circuit Criminal Court was told. Expand Close The Midland Regional Hospital / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Midland Regional Hospital "It is a barbaric act of cruelty on a 10-month-old, even allowing for cultural norms," Judge Keenan Johnson had said after hearing the evidence. He said the defendant had masqueraded as a doctor, "albeit a quack doctor", and he was well aware of the cultural norms in Ireland. Ogbewe, who called himself Doctor Philip, had been known in his community for carrying out circumcisions since he was in his mid-teens, the court was told. It was a tradition in his family going back a number of generations to his great-grandfather. Ogbewe had continued performing them while on bail which was revoked in November, the judge noted. The accused had lived in Ireland long enough to know it was not allowed, Judge Johnson said. He noted from evidence that Ogbewe already had made enquiries about the legitimacy of his circumcisions here, and he had been left in no doubt. He described the offence at the "higher end of recklessness" and "the procedure, on a 10-month-old child without anaesthetic or proper sterilisation, was obviously reckless in the extreme". A hospital report also described it as botched but Ogbewe thought it was a fantastic job, the court heard. Ogbewe pleaded guilty reckless endangerment of life, at the infant's home in a midlands town on December 4, 2015. A second charge of falsely representing himself as a medical practitioner was struck out. Yesterday, Judge Johnson imposed a four-year sentence with the final 12 months suspended on condition he does not reoffend within the next 10 years. He has to remain on probation supervision to address his offending behaviour for 12 months after release. Judge Johnson also ordered him to refrain from carrying out any medical procedure of any kind, or from holding himself out as a medical practitioner. The investigation commenced after gardai were contacted by staff from the hospital in Mullingar who had been treating the baby for heavy bleeding to the genital area. Garda Sergeant Paul Carney said the circumcision was carried out in a "crude manner". He said the child's mother paid Ogbewe 200 when he travelled to her home and performed the circumcision with a small knife. The mother was later described as traumatised. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is continuing to take a heavy toll on human life, spreading to new regions even as its fire appears to have dwindled somewhat in the earlier epicenters of China and Europe. Now, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 examines the risk of COVID-19 disease in various occupations, showing that as expected, health workers and those in social care occupation are at the highest risk. This should help guide policies to protect and support these occupations during this trying period. Occupation and COVID-19 It is already known that essential workers are likely to be more exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus compared to other workers. Healthcare workers have been considered the highest risk category. The current study focuses on identifying other essential high-risk categories for whom similar protection may not be in place yet. However, not much research has been done in the classification of risk in these groups. It is clear that all groups of the population are not at equal risk of infection. Especially vulnerable are essential workers (EW). Occupational Risk of COVID-19 Among Essential Workers Essential workers (EW) have come to the fore throughout this pandemic. These include frontline health workers, social workers, sanitation staff, and transportation staff. These groups of people have manned their posts throughout the pandemic, thus incurring a high level of exposure to the virus through their numerous contacts with the public. Many workers in occupations traditionally relegated to the low-skill category, in addition to those operating transport, social services, food production and distribution, sales, and retail workers, are suffering higher rates of infection, illness, and death. This type of prolonged exposure is all the more dangerous in that the majority may be with infected but asymptomatic individuals, or with colleagues who are sick or infected with the virus but continue to report for duty (a phenomenon called presenteeism). Reasons for Increased Occupational Risk Among EW Early research has shown that occupational exposure to the current virus is a matter of import to EW, and healthcare workers in particular, because of the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). This has caused a real and justified fear about personal safety. Which EW are at Highest Risk? There is a lack of evidence as to which occupational groups are at the highest risk for COVID-19, other than healthcare workers who are generally recognized to be at the most risk. This has interfered with the framing of policies to support and prevent infections in other high-risk groups. How Was the Study Done? The current study aims to examine the risk of COVID-19 in EW vs. non-EW, using data from the UK Biobank Study and test results for the virus from PHE. The aims include finding the risk of infection by: Broad essential occupational groups Detailed essential occupational groups Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2000 groups The study will also account for confounding factors related to demographic and social characteristics, socioeconomic, job-related, lifestyle, and health factors. It is designed to be a prospective cohort study. Participants were between 49-64 years in 2020, living within 25 miles of an assessment center, and registered with the National Health Service (NHS) of England. There were about 120,600 participants who were working at the time of baseline assessment, were below the age of 65 in March 2020. All participants had undergone a baseline assessment at a center, with a physical and biological examination/test carried out, between 2006 to 2010. They had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in a hospital setting either as inpatients or at an Emergency Department. All others, whether testing positive or negative, outside such a setting, were outside the study group. Classifying Occupations The jobs were classified as non-EW, healthcare workers, social and education workers, police and protective services, and others). Within these categories, EW was classified into nine more precise categories such as medical support staff, health associate professionals, healthcare professionals, social care workers, education workers, food workers, transport workers, and police and protective services, including sanitation staff. Of the over 120,600 participants, about 29% were EW, while healthcare workers made up 9%, and social and education workers 11%. About 86% had non-manual jobs, with just over half working less than 40 hours a week. About 91% of the participants were white. EW comprised more females than males, at 38% vs. 21% respectively, and more blacks than whites (43% vs. 29% respectively). Among this group, 817 participants had undergone hospital-based testing for COVID-19 between March 16 to May 3, 2020, which makes up less than 0.7% of the total number. The Risk of Testing Positive Among EW Among the total number of tested EW, 206 were positive (0.2%). The occupation-wise split-up was as follows: Healthcare workers - doctors, pharmacists (0.7%) Medical support staff - nursing assistants, hospital porters (0.8%) Health associate professionals - nurses, paramedics (0.7%) Social care (0.3%) Transport (0.2%) Police and protective service (0.2%) Non-EW (0.1%) The study shows a higher risk of COVID-19 among EW. Healthcare workers had a 7.6-fold higher risk of testing positive compared to non-EW. This remained valid after adjusting for all potential confounding factors. Social and education workers had a more than two-fold risk after adjusting for other variables. The Risk of Testing Positive Among Detailed EW Groups Compared to non-EW, healthcare professionals were at a more than 6-fold risk, which became only higher at almost 9-fold when adjusted for other variables. Health associate professionals were at a still higher baseline risk of almost 8-fold, which became still higher after adjustment. Similarly, medical support staff had an almost 9-fold risk of testing positive compared to non-EW, which was reduced slightly to over 6-fold after adjustment. For social care occupations, there was a 3-fold risk, which went down somewhat with adjustment. The risk for other EW was slightly higher than for non-EW, at almost 2-fold, but this was not significant. The Risk of Testing Positive Among SOC 2000 By SOC 2000-based analysis, there was a threefold risk among associate professionals and technical workers compared to managerial and senior-level officials. This was not significantly reduced by adjustment for confounding factors. The increased risk observed with personal service occupations and with employment in process, plants, and machine operations was found to drop significantly when adjusted by other confounding factors. What Does the Study Mean for COVID-19 Risk for EW? This study is the largest one yet to look at the risk of COVID-19 among various occupational groups. The more than 7-fold and 3-fold increase among healthcare and social care workers, respectively, seems to be unaffected by adjusting for other variables. This indicates the risk is linked to the occupation itself. The large sample size and detailed data collection allowed the investigators to rapidly collect evidence that the ongoing pandemic was affecting specific occupations differently and to connect such outcomes to a broad range of factors such as work and lifestyle factors, and other medical conditions. Limitations The limitations are also obvious: baseline data were collected 10-14 years before the study began, which limits the present applicability of health and employment variables. The overwhelmingly white participation prevents its generalization to ethnic minorities and poorer groups. Contradictory Results It is worth noting that the results of the UK Office for National Statistics show the highest mortality rates from COVID-19 to occur among those working as transport staff, chefs, sales and retail assistants but not among healthcare workers, compared to the general population. This difference may be due to the fact that while the infection is related to exposure, death rates are related to other health and sociodemographic factors. For instance, as early Wuhan studies show, males and people with other medical conditions are more likely to die from the virus. Low-skilled workers are more likely to be poorer, to have restricted access to testing, and, therefore later diagnosis with a lower chance of receiving timely care. What Can be Done to Protect EW? In light of these findings, appropriate policies must be put in place in the workplace to prevent unnecessarily high rates of workplace exposure and the spread of infection. However, say the researchers, Combining our findings with those of the ONS, it is clear that maintaining testing for essential workers is important; however, there is an urgent need for testing and protective measures to be extended to wider and more disadvantaged occupational groups. Further studies will be needed to evaluate how low-skilled younger workers respond to the infection, as well as the ethnic and occupational differences in the exposure, infection, and death rates. Proper interventions must be made in healthcare and social sectors to protect the vulnerable, since, as the researchers point out, The wellbeing of essential workers is critical to limiting the spread, and managing the burden of global pandemics. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. AUSTIN, Texas, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP (ADJ) is one of only three law firms in Texas ranked in the highest tier (Band 1) for appellate litigation in the 2020 edition of Chambers USA, the prestigious, independent legal industry referral guide. The publication also recognized seven attorneys from the firm for their appellate work. "Being able to execute a strong appeal takes a very keen skill set, and I am proud that our lawyers are recognized among the best," said ADJ's Managing Partner Marcy Hogan Greer. "We really value Chambers' acknowledgment of our firm and attorneys based on our extensive and very successful appellate work last year." London-based Chambers and Partners publishes its exclusive and highly respected listing annually. Feedback from thousands of attorneys and clients plays an influential role in determining which law firms and lawyers are recognized for delivering the top technical legal ability, professional conduct, diligence, and commitment for their clients. You can view ADJ's Chambers USA profile here . One of the sources interviewed by the Chambers USA research staff said of ADJ, "It is the best appellate firm in Texas, with strengths in strategic thinking and issue framing, which are the two most important criteria for success on appeal." As an internationally recognized appellate boutique, ADJ lawyers are regularly called upon to represent clients in high-stakes trial and appellate matters in state and federal courts. The firm has a deep bench of experienced counsel with 12 attorneys Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Seven attorneys at the firm were individually named to the 2020 edition of Chambers USA for appellate litigation in Texas. One client participating in feedback described their team as "brilliant legal minds." Members of the firm honored include: Austin: Dallas: Houston: The above-listed attorneys were also recognized for their appellate practices last year in the 2020 edition of Best Lawyers in America, one of the oldest and most respected legal industry guides in the country. Four of their colleagues were also selected for outstanding appellate work by the publication, including Alex Wilson Albright, J. Woodfin Jones and Amy Warr in the Austin office and Kristen M. Castaneda in the Dallas office. In addition, Best Lawyers listed Ms. Warr as Appellate Practice "Lawyer of the Year" in Austin, and Ms. Castaneda received additional honors for her Commercial Litigation practice, as did Ms. Greer for Bet-the-Company Litigation and Commercial Litigation. About Alexander Dubose & Jefferson Attorneys at Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP collaborate closely with clients at all stages of litigation. The firm provides multiple layers of experience and expertise, including: pretrial strategy to maximize the odds of a favorable outcome at trial; in-trial support including error preservation, issue identification, trial briefing, and jury-charge work; and post-trial management of all aspects of the appeal. The firm has offices in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. In addition to former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, the firm's lawyers include a former Chief Justice of the Austin Court of Appeals, a former Justice of the Houston (14th) Court of Appeals, and multiple former staff attorneys and law clerks of the Supreme Court of Texas and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Sixth Circuits. The firm also has numerous lawyers recognized for excellence in Texas appellate law by Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Best Lawyers in America, and Texas Super Lawyers. To learn more about Alexander Dubose & Jefferson, visit https://www.adjtlaw.com. Media Contact: Jennie Bui-McCoy 800-559-4534 [email protected] SOURCE Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP Related Links https://www.adjtlaw.com Its official: this hurricane season will be above-average, with 19 named storms, 6 of them major hurricanes in the Atlantic Coast. (Photo : Pixabay) The 2020 hurricane season is expected to be above-average, with 19 named storms, six of them being major hurricanes in the Atlantic Coast. Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that for this hurricane season, 13 to 19 storms are expected to be formed. Included in the number are tropical storms that have a wind speed of 39 mph or higher. Six to 10 of these storms will likely develop into a hurricane with wind speeds of 74 mph or higher. From the six to 10 predicted hurricanes, three to six are expected to have packing wind speeds of 111 mph or higher. As early as April this year, the Colorado State University, or CSU, made a forecast, announcing that there may be 16 named tropical storms, and six of which will become hurricanes as early as April of this year. Last year, the forecast was nine to 15 tropical storms, and four to eight were expected to become hurricanes. Instead, 18 storms developed, six of which became hurricanes. Dorian, the worst storm of them all ravaged the Bahamas. READ: Mississippi Delta Marshes May Soon Be Gone Due to Climate Change The past four years have also been riddled with above-normal activity. If the predictions were true, this is the fifth year of above-normal storm activity beating the above-normal streak from 1998 to 2001. Hurricane season starts on June 1 and ends on November 30. A hurricane season which peaks in August and September typically has 12 named storms, six of which are hurricanes, and three of them major hurricanes. The hurricane season started a bit early as Tropical Storm Arthur brought rain and winds in North Carolina on Monday. Active Season This year's active season is brought about by a lack of El Nino and the unusual high seawater temperature in the Atlantic Ocean. NOAA cites reduced vertical wind shear, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds, and enhanced west African monsoon contributed to this year's above-average hurricane season. WATCH THIS VIDEO: Snow Turns Green in Antarctica and Climate Change is the Culprit El Nino, the phenomenon of natural warming of waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, tends to prevent the development of Atlantic hurricanes. In contrast, La Nina, which cools the ocean, increases hurricanes in the Atlantic. El Nino, according to Meteorologist Phil Klotzbach of CSU, the lack of El Nino this summer and fall is one of the reasons why CSU had above-average forecast. El Nino tears apart hurricanes as it increases vertical wind shear in the Atlantic, Klotzbach added. Disaster in the time of coronavirus The hurricane season comes at the time when New York City and Long Island is preparing for reopening after months of isolation from statewide stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. With the looming above-average forecasts for storms and hurricanes, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross emphasized the importance of making the necessary preparations for the upcoming hurricane season. READ NEXT: Aridification and Climate Change in North America Carlos Castillo, the Federal Emergency Management Agency representative, said that social distancing and other CDC guidelines brought about by the pandemic had made hurricane preparedness complicated. With a looming tornado season coming, Castillo said it is time to revise and adjust emergency plans now. (Newser) Scientists say they finally understand why the glass frog has see-through skin: it's camouflagejust not in the way most other tree frogs do it. An international team of scientists wondered why the glass frogs found in Central and South America have partially translucent skinwith intestines and a heart visible through the underbellyrather than fully translucent skin or "the opaque camouflaged patterns of other tree frog species," James Barnett, lead author of the study published in PNAS, tells the Guardian. First, they used computer models to compare pairs of photos of 55 glass frogs, one with a white background and one with a background of leaves. "We found that the color of the frogs' bodies did not change much between backgrounds, but the legs did change significantly," says Barnett. This pointed to a new kind of camouflage, known as edge diffusion. story continues below "By having translucent legs and resting with the legs surrounding the body, the frog's edge is transformed into a softer, less contrasting gradient from the leaf to the legs, and again from the legs to the body," Barnett explains, noting this makes the frog less recognizable to predators. While the frogs always appear green, per a release, human participants had a harder time identifying the frogs in photos when they showed a natural pattern of translucency compared to when they appeared more opaque. And in an experiment in which fake frogs were placed in vegetation in Ecuador, birds attacked opaque versions more than twice as often as translucent versions. In other words, "being translucent does help glass frogs camouflage themselves from predators, but not necessarily in the way expected by comparison to fully transparent species," says Barnett. (Antarctica once had frogs.) YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) affected almost all sectors, and winemaking was not an exception in this respect. Due to the virus the domestic demand for Armenian wines declined, certain contracts in export were cancelled, and the Russian importers are expecting decline in price. In this difficult period the Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia is working with its partners at different directions: the Armenian wine is going to be more presented at an online platform, the ties and trust gained abroad will help to advertise more the Armenian wine in the foreign market, investments in the field continue, and new vineyards are being planted. Zaruhi Muradyan, head of the Foundation, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, talking about the challenges facing the sector, as well as the past and future actions. Winemaking before the coronavirus: domestic consumption, export Before the coronavirus pandemic the sector was developing quite actively. Investments were being made, new vineyards were being established, new companies were being registered, and the already existing ones were working quite actively by increasing the production volumes, she said. Currently there are 67 winemaking companies in Armenia. 53 companies were registered in 2018, some of which already have a production in the market, the others are still preparing for their first steps in winemaking, Muradyan said. While making wine the Armenian companies put the emphasis on the local Armenian endemic types. She says the Armenian wines are interesting thanks to their local vine types. Some companies planted vineyards with foreign types of vines, but the experience shows that the demand for the wines made with the local types is much higher. Through various projects the Foundation is trying to raise the rating and reputation of the Armenian wines. Active steps are being taken for developing and capturing new export markets. Last year the Armenian wine entered into three new markets South Korea, Vietnam and Japan. In terms of the export volumes, the first place for the Armenian wine is Russia (75% of the total export volume), the second one is the US (5.2%), the third is China (2.7%). Mrs. Muradyan says after active works for 2 years the Armenian wines in Poland have already registered success, increasing the consumption volumes. Thus, Poland is the 4th country for the export of the Armenian wine. Then comes Lithuania. Mainly the Armenian red wines are demanded in Europe. Nearly 12 million 400 thousand liters of wine is produced in Armenia annually. Approximately 30% of it is exported, 60% is sold in the domestic market, and the 10% remains mostly in cellars or is just not sold. The pandemic surprisingly withdrew the field from the so-called convenience zone and highlighted the future development directions of the sector. For instance, it was revealed very quickly that in the Armenian reality people drink wines mainly when they visit restaurants, bars. Unfortunately, wines are not used in houses with the volume we would like. However, if in 2014 just 1,2 liters of wine was consumed per capita, in 2019 it became 3,6 liters which became clear after our recent research, she said. Investments, new companies Zaruhi Muradyan assures that thanks to the daily consistent actions taken in the field the investment attractiveness of winemaking has greatly increased. Repatriated Armenians are making major investments. Only in 2018-2019 more than 20 million dollars have been invested in the winemaking and viticulture. Last year we had investors from Switzerland, the United States who want to plant a vineyard in Vayots Dzor province. There are also foreign investors, but mostly the repatriated Armenians are interested in winemaking, the head of the Foundation said. Last year the Foundation carried out a monitoring of lands in Vayots Dzor. We were interested in those community lands which have never been viewed as lands for viticulture. We have examined nearly 1000 hectares of land and 77 pieces which have a high potential for viticulture. After this project we are working with almost 15 investors. Now as well we are regularly visiting the regions, introduce the investors on the pieces of lands, are holding negotiation with some of them, and the others have already reached the process of purchasing the land. They are mainly using the state assistance programs for instance for the establishment of intensive yards, she said. Winemaking during coronavirus: the damages caused from the virus and the ongoing actions From the first month of the spread of the novel coronavirus the Foundation communicated with all winemaking companies to understand what problems they may face. Some of the companies continued the exports in accordance with the contract, although they had concerns that if the sale declines, the second group of export will not be sent. Some producers faced problem in Russia, connected with the Ruble fluctuation, they proposed to reduce the values, but this was not beneficial for our winemaking companies. Despite the problems the first group was completely exported in March-April. As for the second phase, the talks continue aimed at sending the products at a lower price. Mainly more flexible, major winemaking companies are able to reduce the price and avoid problems linked with the export, she said. Several importers in Europe have suspended the contracts. To solve this problem the Armenian winemaking companies are trying to boost their activity at online platform, by introducing new digital technologies for the presentation and promotion of the Armenian wines. Zaruhi Muradyan said the consumption in the domestic market has declined as people almost do not drink wines at home. This year we are going to implement more projects directed to the domestic demand. We have developed various programs. We will organize online trainings and will talk about more the Armenian winemaking, she added. She informed that last year the wine tourism was quite active. They were engaging tourists through various tour packages, and many wines were sold in this way. This year the Foundation will take actions to develop the incoming tourism so that the locals will try to spend an interesting time in winemaking factories. Full version of the interview is available in Armenia. Interview by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Surge in armed group attacks on schools in recent years deprives some 350,000 students of access to education, HRW says. Even before the gunmen arrived, the students and teachers were already gripped by fear. We were already living in psychosis, recounted an employee at a middle school in the village of Toulfe, located in a part of northern Burkina Faso where educational facilities were increasingly coming under attack. And on the afternoon of November 12, 2018, a group of armed men stormed the school. The students were constantly looking out the window. They saw when the men arrived that day. The children started screaming, jumping out the classroom windows, running One [attacker] pointed his gun at me, the employee said. He took a paper out of his pocket, a message, and asked us to transmit it to the Burkinabe authorities. The message said they no longer want any French education in Soum and Loroum provinces. The attackers then forced five school employees the principal, two teachers and two administrators out of their classrooms and offices. Some of the children who did not manage to escape burst into tears as they watched the men castigate and beat the staff. Before departing, the attackers set one of the schools offices ablaze. A parent, who arrived later at the scene, said: At the school, we found the fire still burning. We found the teachers there who had been beaten, some so severely that they couldnt speak They were in shock. Education under attack The school employees account was one of the many documented in a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that sheds light on Burkina Fasos education crisis amid a worsening security situation engulfing the country and other parts of the Sahel in recent years. Published on Tuesday, the rights groups report warns of the devastating impact of armed group attacks on the childrens right to education. It estimated that since 2017 and before the nationwide closure in March of all education facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic more than 2,500 schools had closed in Burkina Faso, negatively impacting almost 350,000 students and more than 11,200 teachers. It also said that armed groups allied with al-Qaeda or ISIL (ISIS) have burned, looted and destroyed dozens of schools, intimidated students and frightened parents into keeping their children out of school, and killed, abducted or threatened scores of teachers. Since 2017, these armed groups have pursued their vendetta against what they term French education or any education that is Western secular, Lauren Seibert, childrens rights researcher at HRW and author of the report, told Al Jazeera. Last year, there was a six-fold increase in school closures as part of a surge in violence between Burkina Fasos security forces and the armed groups, which resulted in a flood of displacement, Seibert noted. The United Nations estimates that more than 830,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to the violence. The situation is also volatile in neighbouring Mali and Niger, where a multitude of armed groups control vast swaths of land that have long suffered from weak governance. Along the way, they have exploited intercommunal disputes and widely held resentments towards local governments to incite violence and recruit new members. Backed by international allies, national armies have tried to quell the upheaval but muddled operations at times have killed more civilians than the armed groups themselves. Remove our heads In its report, HRW documented 126 attacks and armed threats against Burkinabe education professionals, students and schools between 2017 and 2020, more than half of them last year. At least 12 education professionals were killed and 17 assaulted or abducted in the documented attacks, with many others forcibly detained and threatened. A teacher victim of an attack in Burkina Fasos Est region told HRW: They started beating [my colleague] first, then me They said, You knew we didnt want you here teaching, and still you dared to continue You have defied us. They said if they come back and take us a second time, it will be to remove our heads. While the armed groups have appeared so far to spare children during attacks, they succeed in terrifying students by shooting in the air and threatening everybody to stop going to school, Seibert said. On top of forcing children out of school, thereby exposing them to possible labour exploitation and child marriage for girls, these attacks can have a major impact on victims mental health costing hundreds of thousands of children their futures, Seibert said. I dont have the spirit to go back, a former student whose high school was assaulted told HRW. The attack really disturbed me, so I havent been back to school, the student from Belehede village said. Im not even planning to restart. The Justice Department has notified lawyers for Senators Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Dianne Feinstein of California and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma that it will not charge the lawmakers with insider trading for stock sales they or their family members made shortly after some had attended closed-door intelligence briefings about the coronavirus crisis earlier this year, multiple news outlets have reported. The DOJ appears to still be probing transactions executed in February by Senator Richard Burr, who stepped down as Intelligence chairman last week after it was reported in March he sold off up to $1.7m in individual stocks after he had begun receiving classified briefings about Covid-19 but weeks before global markets plummeted due to uncertainty about the disease. A source close to Ms Feinstein confirmed other outlets' earlier reports that the DOJ was closing its investigation into her and her husband's investment portfolios. Spokespersons for Ms Loeffler and Mr Inhofe could not immediately be reached for comment for this story. Mr Burr's office declined to comment. The North Carolina Republican was the only one of the four lawmakers under investigation for their stock sales to acknowledge personally executing the transactions in question. He turned over his cell phone to investigators earlier this month. Mr Burr told reporters on Thursday that the ongoing probe into his stock sales had become "a distraction" to the intelligence panel's work, so he was stepping down until the investigation wraps up. The committee oversees the US intelligence apparatus including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, and the National Security Agency (NSA), among other entities and has spent the bulk of Donald Trump's term probing Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Obama administration's 2016 counterintelligence efforts against it. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has been elevated to chairman of the panel on an interim basis. Mr Burr attended a closed-door, open-to-all-senators briefing for the Senate Health Committee on 24 January where infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield apprised lawmakers of the latest government reports from the coronavirus outbreak in Chinas Wuhan province. As chairman of the intel panel, Mr Burr also had access to non-public reports about the coronavirus during that time, though it is unclear whether the US intelligence agencies that compiled those reports were providing information that couldnt be cobbled together from public reporting. On 13 February, three weeks after the initial 24 January briefing, Mr Burr sold off 33 stocks worth between $628,033 and $1.72m his largest sell-off of assets in at least 14 months. That sell-off included $250,000 worth of stocks in hotel companies that have seen their value plummet by more than half during the economic shutdown. Mr Burr has said the briefings provided him no informational advantage over the public, and that he relied solely on public news reports to guide his decisions regarding the sale of his stocks on 13 February. Specifically, I closely followed CNBCs daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time, he said in March. Ms Loeffler's apparent exoneration could boost her chances of re-election this fall. Appointed by GOP Governor Brian Kemp last December to replace former Senator Johnny Isakson, who was battling health issues, Ms Loeffler, a Republican, is battling GOP Congressman Doug Collins and a slate of Democratic candidates in the Peach State's all-party special election this November. If no one captures more than 50 per cent of the vote, the top two candidates will enter a run-off. Neither Ms Feinstein nor Mr Inhofe attended the 24 January Health Committee briefing with Mr Fauci and Mr Redfield. In fact, Ms Feinstein did not attend any non-public briefing about the coronavirus until 12 March, a spokesman for the senator previously told The Independent. Ms Feinstein has held her assets in a blind trust throughout her 28-year Senate career, she has said. Her husband, investment banker Richard Blum, controls his own account and sold off between $1.5m and $6m in stock in Allogene Therapeutics, a cancer technology company, on 13 January and 18 February. Those transactions were reported on Ms Feinstein's mandatory first-quarter Senate financial filing, as are all assets belonging to lawmakers' spouses. Mr Inhofe sold up to $750,000 in assets on 13 and 27 January as part of a pre-determined programme to systematically divest from individual stocks after he was named Senate Armed Services chairman last year to avoid the appearances of a conflict of interest. While Mr Inhofes assets are not held in a true blind trust, he has said he had no prior knowledge of the transactions, which were executed by his financial advisers based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Hero Cycles Limited is striving hard to complete the Hi-Tech Cycle Valley project at Dhanansu village and is likely to commence commercial production much before the target period of three years by April 13, 2022. This was stated by managing director, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC), Sumeet Jarangal, who visited the valley site along with senior officials of the corporation and other departments on Tuesday. Vice-chairman of Hero Cycles Limited SK Rai and other senior officials of the company were also present on the occasion. The company officials highlighted some important issues requiring the PSIECs attention. Jarangal said the PSIEC had embarked upon its ambitious project of development of the valley in an area of 380 acres of land and, out of which, 100-acre land had already been allotted to Hero Cycle on December 21, 2018. He said that the possession of the entire site was delivered on April 14, 2019. The company has already constructed the boundary wall, site office and the internal development of the plot is in progress. Upon completion of the project, the company will generate employment opportunities for 3,000-5,000 people, he said. He said, To provide uninterrupted power supply to the valley, 30-acre land has been allotted to the PSPCL for the setting up of a 400kva substation, the work of internal development of remaining 250 acres that is roads, storm drains, sewerage system, electrical trench, water supply network has been started at the site and will be completed within 15 months that is by August 31, 2021, the construction of a concrete approach road and a high-level bridge over the Buddha Nullah is in progress and the same will be completed by December 31, 2020. Jarangal said, The PSIEC is now planning to put up a 50-acre undeveloped chunk of land on e-auction very soon. All-out efforts are being made to make up for the delay due to curfew/lockdown owing to Covid-19. Various executing agencies are given targeted timelines for the completion of the project. He also assured all timely inputs by the corporation. The varsity offers courses in management and commerce stream, humanities and science stream and engineering for undergraduates. Ahmedabad University has allowed students to apply for undergraduate programmes using Class 10 and 11 mark sheets. The decision has been taken in view of the postponement of Class 12 exams due to the coronavirus lockdown. Students applying for academic year 2020-2021 will get to begin classes in August, even if their Class 12 has not been announced. We continue to accept applications through all Boards recognised by us and are closely monitoring evaluation processes of each Board, in order to ensure equivalence, said the varsity. In the case of the BTech programme, students will have to submit Class 10 and Class 11 mark sheets and furnish their Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) result, once it is available. The university has said that it will be managing all admission processes remotely during the COVID-19 lockdown to ensure the safety of everyone. Students have been asked to contact the authority concerned through email or phone for any admission related query. The varsity offers courses in management and commerce stream, humanities and science stream and engineering for undergraduates. In management and commerce stream, students can apply for Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours), Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) or Bachelor of Commerce Professional (Honours) and Integrated Master of Business Administration. In humanities and science stream, students can opt for Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Integrated Master of Science. In engineering, they can pursue B.Tech in different programmes. Students are advised to visit the official website of the university at regular intervals for any update. The university has, however, not announced details of the admission process for postgraduate and PhD courses. Ahmedabad University has introduced online lectures so that studies dont get hampered. It has also modified its evaluation process to adapt to the online platform. A man was arrested over the Memorial Day weekend, after he allegedly kidnapped a 17-year-old girl so that he and his female companion could get through a coronavirus checkpoint. Alexander Michael Sardinas, and a woman, both from Florida, initially attempted to enter the Florida Keys in a rideshare taxi, according to the Monroe County Police Department. The couple were attempting to get through the checkpoint and into the area, which has been closed to visitors since the coronavirus pandemic began. Mr Sardinas, who is 37 years old, and the 43-year-old woman, were not carrying appropriate identification, and were turned away from the checkpoint. After they left, they were given a courtesy ride by a police officer, who saw them arguing on the side of the road. He dropped them off at a Publix shopping centre, where the couple saw a woman in a car, with plates for an area in the Keys. The couple approached her, and Mr Sardinas allegedly told the girl that if she did not drive him and the woman across the checkpoint, he would hurt her. The girl then drove them through the checkpoint, after showing an identification with a Florida Keys address, and dropped the man off at a petrol station and the woman at a pharmacy. She then called a member of her family, who contacted the police. The Monroe County police department confirmed that the couple were found at different locations in the Florida Keys, and both apparently admitted to being with the girl. Additionally, the girl, who was unhurt in the incident, identified Mr Sardanis from a photo lineup. Mr Sardanis was arrested and charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment, pending further charges. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement: I am relieved this suspect is currently sitting in jail and the young victim in this case was not seriously hurt. According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 1.6 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 98,371. Hamilton police say they seized nearly $27,000 in drugs and more than $5,000 in cash after a traffic stop overnight. Patrol officers working in the area of Emerald Street North and Burton Street noticed a 2019 Chevrolet Malibu pull out of an alleyway around 2:15 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, said Const. Lorraine Edwards. When police searched for details, they found the vehicle was a rental from London, Ont. Police stopped the car on Burton just south of Emerald. Police asked the driver to identify himself and he said his name, Edwards said. A further search found both the driver and the passenger were wanted by Hamilton and Ottawa police. The men were arrested and police allege they found methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl valued at $26,800, along with more than $5,000 in cash. A 31-year-old Hamilton man the driver is facing charges, including three counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, two counts of proceeds of crime over $5,000 and fail to comply with probation. A 37-year-old man is facing a charge possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, proceeds of crime over $5,000 and fail to comply with probation. State health officials on Sunday announced 16 additional COVID-19 related deaths to push New Jerseys total to 11,144. Those numbers might be incomplete to a lag in reporting over the Memorial Day weekend. In all, 155,092 have tested positive for the coronavirus since March 4, though tens of thousands have recovered. The states 71 hospitals reported 2,723 COVID-19 patients as of Monday night, down from 2,792 a day earlier and far below the peak on April 14 of 8,084. The number of patients in critical care or and/or on ventilators also continues to decline to 786 and 578 respectively, according to the department of healths coronavirus dashboard. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage Heres a roundup of coronavirus news: 28 Jersey Shore rally to protest N.J.'s coronavirus lockdown orders Lawmakers join call for N.J. to reopen at rally that brought hundreds to Jersey Shore: New Jersey lawmakers appearing at rally in Point Pleasant Beach on Monday called on Gov. Phil Murphy to reopen houses of worship and nonessential business that have been shuttered for more than two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. State Sens. Joseph Pennacchio, R-Morris, and Michael Testa, R-Cape May, also criticized the states handling of the coronavirus outbreak in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, where more than 5,600 have died, and the delays in getting processing soaring unemployment claims. Memorial Day commemorated by Gov. Murphy in solemn, masked ceremony at N.J. cemetery for veterans: Murphy marked an annual Memorial Day tradition of remembering service members who have died by noting some of the states veterans fought in combat, but ultimately succumbed to the coronavirus pandemic. We are here to honor their sacrifice. We are here to laud their commitment, their commitment to service and to the ideals upon which this nation was built, Murphy said at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Memorial Cemetery in Burlington County. Public drinking working, Jersey Shore town says, as bars push for more relaxing of coronavirus rules: North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello announced the Jersey Shore town would allow public consumption of alcohol in certain designated areas - a major shift in public practice. The move followed Gov. Phil Murphy signing a bill allowing businesses with liquor licenses to sell sealed alcoholic beverages for takeout, as part of the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions. The town says that the experiment is working, though with some modifications after Memorial Day weekend. Church welcomes faithful back to Mass, with a dashboard view: Nearly 200 people gathered in the parking lot of St. Bernard of Clairvaux church in Bridgewater Sunday to celebrate Mass and receive communion while still seated in their vehicles that were parked six feet from each other. In mid-May, Murphy said churches could hold drive-in services if attendees stayed in their vehicles. Coronavirus question: Is it smarter to wear gloves, or frequently wash your hands?: Wash your hands. Although there is no definitive data confirming that hand washing is necessarily better, gloves are just as contaminated as a persons hands. Where is the coronavirus in N.J.? Latest map, update on county-by-county cases. (May 25, 2020): Hudson County has the most with more than 18,000, though five other counties have also reported at least 15,000 positive tests. Worldwide cases: More than 346,600 of the 5.51 million people infected have died as of early Tuesday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. At least 2.25 million have recovered. U.S. cases: At least 98,223 in the U.S have been killed among the approximately 1.66 million to test positive for the coronavirus, the center reports. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. NJ Advance Media staff writers Brent Johnson, Matt Arco, John Haley, Caroline Fassett, Ed Murray and Noah Cohen contributed to this report. The invention of chirped pulse amplification technique by Strickland and Mourou in 1985 has boosted the peak power of ultrashort laser pulses to an unprecedented level, which have found broad applications in fundamental science, industry and medicine. However, such high power lasers are usually obtained at the near-infrared wavelength about 0.8 micron. The extension to the mid-infrared band (2-20 microns) is of great interest to broader applications. At present, the generation of mid-infrared laser pulses based on conventional optical technologies is limited by the frequency bandwidth, energy gain, and damage threshold of the optical crystals, which make it challenging to achieve high-intensity few-cycle mid-infrared laser pulses. In a new paper published in Light: Science & Application, scientists from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China and University of Strathclyde, UK proposed a new scheme to efficiently generate mid-infrared light pulses of near-single-cycle with a few millijoules in energy by use of a plasma medium. This scheme adopts two terawatt-level short-pulse lasers initially with wavelength of ~0.8 micrometers, which are incident into an underdense plasma channel with a certain time delay. One of them is used as a driving laser to excite a laser wakefield in the plasma, which appears as a few moving plasma density bubbles behind the driving pulse. Another laser pulse as the signal pulse co-propagates with the driving pulse with a certain time delay, so that it is loaded at the head position of the second plasma bubble. This signal pulse is modulated by the plasma bubble and its frequency will be down-shifted rapidly. After a propagation distance of about 2 millimeters, it is effectively converted into a near-single-cycle mid-infrared light pulse with a center wavelength of about 5 microns, and its conversion efficiency is as high as about 30%. "An interesting aspect of our scheme is that the obtained mid-infrared pulse parameters, including pulse energy, central wavelength, pulse duration, carrier phase, and even polarization state, are tunable by changing the parameters of the incident laser pulse and plasma," said Zheng-Ming Sheng, one of the lead authors of the paper. "Compared with traditional optical crystal materials, plasma-based optical methods can sustain extremely high power and intensity laser pulses," added Su-Ming Weng, another lead author of the paper. "This makes the plasma-based optical method unique in the manipulation of ultrashort high power lasers." "Our scheme can be realized on a laser system with a kilohertz repetition rate, thereby providing a stable and efficient method to generate mid-infrared light pulses with millijoules, relativistic intensity, and near single cycle for wide applications," said Jie Zhang, one of the coauthors, the laser plasma program leader in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. ### Chavan had attended some meetings in the last week in Mumbai before travelling back to his home district in Marathwada. Mumbai: Ashok Chavan, Maharashtra cabinet minister and senior Congress leader, who has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, was on Monday admitted in a hospital in Mumbai, a close aide said. He became the second cabinet minister after NCP leader Jitendra Awhad to test COVID-19 positive. "The minister had contracted the infection a few days back and is undergoing treatment," a Health official had said on Sunday. Chavan had attended some meetings in the last week in Mumbai before travelling back to his home district in Marathwada. Earlier on Monday, the Maharashtra PWD minister left his home town for Mumbai in an ambulance, his aide said, adding that he was admitted in Breach Candy hospital as he has been diabetic and a regular visitor at the hospital, which is located in south Mumbai. The minister travelled a distance of 500 kms for almost 12 hours from Marathwada in the ambulance as a special chartered plane could not be arranged, the aide said. The minister was accompanied by a doctor and an attendant, he said. "There is no separate cabin for a pilot and crew in a chartered plane. Had crew members flown to Mumbai with the minister, they would have been forced to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Nobody was ready to take that risk," he said. He said a driver of the minister had tested positive for coronavirus a couple of days back, following which the minister isolated himself till his coronavirus test results were received. "It was decided to shift the minister to Mumbai as his regular doctor has been attached to Breach Candy hospital," the aide said. A video clip of Chavan leaving his home district and boarding an ambulance was aired by news channels on Monday morning. Earlier, state Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad had tested positive for coronavirus. He recovered after remaining admitted in a hospital in Mumbai for more than two weeks. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Kyodo News) Singapore Tue, May 26, 2020 14:57 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda28fe8 2 Business COVID-19,Singapore,economic-impact Free Singapore further downgraded its 2020 growth forecast on Tuesday, projecting a 4 to 7 percent contraction as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has worsened. The Ministry of Trade and Industry previously forecast the highly trade-dependent city state's gross domestic product would shrink by 1 to 4 percent in 2020. The revision coincided with the release of data showing the economy had contracted in the first three months of this year by 0.7 percent year on year, and by an annualized 4.7 percent from the previous quarter. This marked the third time the ministry has cut its economic projection for Singapore for 2020 since the virus outbreak earlier this year. The previous revision came in March. The Singapore economy last went into negative growth in 2001, when annual GDP fell by 1.1 percent. The ministry said in a statement that the latest downgrade was due to "the deterioration in the external demand outlook for Singapore as well as the expected economic impact" from a semi-lockdown implemented by Singapore to curb the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus. The semi-lockdown, which led to the shutdown of most workplace premises in Singapore, has "dampened domestic economic activity, along with domestic consumption," it said. The circuit breaker measures will start being lifted in phases on June 2. The ministry cautioned that "there continues to be a significant degree of uncertainty over the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the trajectory of the economic recovery, in both the global and Singapore economies." Irvin Seah, senior economist at Singapore's largest bank DBS, said the downward revision was not surprising as the previous growth projection was no longer tenable after Singapore extended its semi-lockdown beyond May 4. He added that the full impact of the pandemic will be felt only in the April-June period, saying that the "significantly weaker global demand, labor shortage in the construction sector, supply chain disruptions and restrictive measures imposed during the circuit breaker will inflict a severe blow to the economy." Japan share market finished higher for second straight session on Tuesday, 26 May 2020, as investors took heart on hopes for increasing domestic economic activity after the government completely lifted the state of emergency and end coronavirus-induced restrictions nationwide a day earlier. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average surged 529.52 points, or 2.55%, to 21,271.17. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 32.53 points, or 2.17%, at 1,534.73. All 33 issues of 33 industry category of Topix index advanced, with Air Transportation, Marine Transportation, Transportation Equipment, Real Estate, Land Transportation, Iron & Steel, and Textiles & Apparels issues being notable gainers. The Tokyo market commenced trading with firm footing after the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas yesterday, ending the restrictions nationwide as businesses begin to reopen. The prime minister's announcement came after yesterday's markets closed. Japan has reported about 820 deaths and more than 16,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, relatively few compared to hard-hit nations like the US. Air transport was the best performing sector on the main bourse for the second day in a row on hopes for the gradual reopening of the world's third-largest economy, with Japan Airlines Co and ANA Holdings Inc soaring 8.2% and 5.7%, respectively. West Japan Railway Co jumped 8.3% and Central Japan Railway Co advanced 5.2%, also supported by hopes of demand rebound following the reopening. Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings climbed 5.1% after the department store operator said it would reopen its main stores in the Tokyo area, including its Isetan flagship in Shinjuku. ECONOMIC NEWS: BoJ Ready To Take Additional Easing Measures If Required, Says Kuroda - Japan's economy has been in an increasingly severe situation due to the impact of the spread of Covid-19 at home and abroad, Kuroda said in a semi-annual testimony to parliament on Tuesday. As the impact of the spread wanes, Japan's economy is likely to improve. The annual rate of change in consumer prices is expected to increase gradually, he added. However, the outlook for economic activity and prices is extremely unclear, he said. The central bank will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if required as the novel coronavirus, or Covid-19, depressed global activity, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said. The BoJ last week introduced a new lending program worth about JPY 30 trillion to help financing small and medium-sized firms struggling to operate. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The western suburbs abattoir that has become the site of Victoria's biggest outbreak will return to full operations on Thursday, about a month after it was ordered to close. Ten days after a group of 20 workers returned to work, Cedar Meats 300 employees will go back to work after being cleared of illness by the Victorian Health Department. Brooklyn abattoir Cedar Meats. Credit:Darrian Traynor More than 110 cases are linked to the cluster that is the subject of a WorkSafe investigation. In a statement, the abattoirs general manager Tony Kairouz said strict health protocols would be implemented to ensure workers safety. We have done everything possible to provide a safe work environment for our staff, he said. I am really looking forward to having the Cedar family back together. "As a management team we have spent the last few weeks working closely with DHHS and WorkSafe to ensure that we are returning in the safest possible manner. Thailand is teaming with a blockchain firm to encourage peer-to-peer trading of renewable energy. Announced on Monday, Thai Digital Energy Development (TDED) a public-private joint venture has inked a deal with blockchain energy startup Power Ledger to develop a blockchain-based digital energy business. The deal, also in collaboration with energy suppliers in Thailand, seeks to develop solutions for peer-to-peer energy trading and environmental commodity trading, Australia-based Power Ledger said in a press release. Related: Colombia, Deloitte, ConsenSys Sign On to WEFs Blockchain Bill of Rights Ultimately, the partners aim to assist Thailands drive to hit a 25% renewable energy target by 2037 as the nation transitions away from fossil fuels. Blockchain-enabled transactive energy solutions including peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, virtual power plants as well as renewable energy certificates and carbon credits trading will be the key to establishing economically viable renewable energy markets, said Power Ledgers co-founder and executive chairman, Jemma Green. Our partnership with TDED will allow us to accelerate our efforts to promote distributed digital energy markets in Thailand, Green added. See also: Everledger Offers Diamond Industry Blockchain-Based Carbon Offsetting Related: US Military Is Falling Behind China, Russia in Blockchain Arms Race: IBM, Accenture The partners will oversee the management of four clean power projects from renewable energy provider BCPG Group, which have been included via a sandbox project to encourage uptake of renewable energy by Thailands Office of Energy Regulatory Commission. BCPG is a Bangkok-based firm dealing in solar, wind and geothermal power, with operations in Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. Together with a Thai electrical manufacturer under the Provincial Electricity Authority, it runs the TDED venture. One of the first projects to come out of the Power Ledger collaboration will focus on energy and carbon management at the 12-megawatt smart campus at Chiang Mai University in Thailands north. Story continues See also: A New York Power Plant Is Mining $50K Worth of Bitcoin a Day Power Ledgers expertise in state-of-the-art technology will help materialize TDEDs goal in the development of digital energy products and services, as well as making clean energy more accessible to people. said TDED and BCPG president Bundit Sapianchai. Power Ledger has been working with BCPG in Thailand since 2018 when it launched a peer-to-peer energy trading trial in Bangkok. Related Stories Long Island is on the cusp of reopening. The densely populated suburbs of Long Island are on the cusp of restarting parts of their economy, leaving the strong possibility that on Wednesday, New York City will be the only region in the state to remain on what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has labeled a pause. We are on track, Laura Curran, the Nassau County executive, said at a news briefing on Tuesday. I know people are itching to get back to work. Long Island home to 2.8 million people, about 15 percent of New Yorks population was among the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus, with nearly 80,000 reported cases and more than 4,500 deaths. In the past two weeks, eight regions in New York have entered the first phase of reopening by meeting the seven benchmarks set by the governor. People in the reopened areas can pick up retail purchases in stores or at curbside and can commence work in manufacturing and construction. 'Surviving the United Nations: The Unexpected Challenge' by Robert B. Adolph Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bruce Adolph tells in a terse and readable narrative the gripping true story of 4 intense years after he retired from the US Army Special Forces and joined the UN as Chief Security Officer. In Surviving the United Nations: The Unexpected Challenge, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bruce Adolph tells in a terse and readable narrative the gripping true story of 4 intense years after he retired from the US Army Special Forces and joined the UN as Chief Security Officer. In that capacity, he goes on to assignments in the worlds most dangerous countries, finding himself on terrifying missions that include murderous child-soldiers; blood diamonds; a double hostage-taking; the rape of innocents; an invasion by brutal guerrillas; an emergency aerial evacuation; a desperate mission to recover hundreds of prisoners; tribal gunfights and unusual kidnappings; refugee camp violence; a deadly jihadist suicide bombing attack; institutional corruption; and, unexpectedly, love. In Sierra Leon, he had a chilling encounter with teen-age guards: There was no sense in killing me. But, with child-soldiers, logic need not apply. Add alcohol and drugs, and a tough situation gets even worse. It would have been foolish of me to draw my own weapon. I was badly out-gunned, and my vehicle was not armored. If they had seen my pistol, they might have reacted to the potential threat. The use of force was not a viable option. This was no movie, and I am not Chuck Norris. In Yemen, he found himself in the middle of a gunfight: Someone must have seen me. The sound of fire came from above as rounds hit the pavement to my right and bits of concrete and tar were thrown into the air. Nothing hit me. I made the safety of the entrance in record time. But it was also in Yemen that he found his true love and married her: This is the woman that when we first metshortly after my arrival in Yemenverbally assaulted me. All I really remember clearly about the incident was that during her entire harangue, I could not help thinking to myself that she was incredibly cute. He was with his wife, Naima, in Iraq, when the UN headquarters was attacked by a suicide bomber in 2003: The sound was an indescribably low-pitched yet outrageously loud multi-tiered rumbling I felt the air move inside my lungs and then all around me. For the briefest of moments, there was no air to breathe. My next conscious sensations were both visual and physical. I saw and felt the building shake violently Then the windows of my office seemed to explode inwards. .. It was a bomba very big bomband we were the intended target. Naima was wounded in that attack, but luckily she fully recovered. The last chapters describe his fight with the United Nations which wanted to make him the scapegoat for the attack, while as Chief Security Officer he was the one who repeatedly sounded the alarm about the need for more security measures, personnel, and equipment, and his recommendations were ignored at the higher level. In the end, he was completely exonerated and rehired. Praise Robert Adolph is the real deal, a Special Forces officer, UN security expert, and scholar in the most dangerous countries of the world. His life mattered in a way that those of the famous often dont. Robert Kaplan, New York Times multiple best-selling author No rose-colored glasses here. Bob Adolph lays bare his unique experiences in pursuit of idealistic humanitarian purposes while in some of the toughest places on the planet. Sometimes his most dangerous opponents were in the very organization of which he was a part. To paraphrase from the book, Lonesome Dove, he survived because he dealt with things as he found them...not as he wished they would be. "Peter J. Schoomaker, General, US Army (retired), former Chief of Staff of the US Army About the Author Robert Adolph is a retired UN Chief Security Advisor and US Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel. He holds graduate degrees in both International Affairs and Strategy. While in uniform, he successfully completed multiple global Special Forces, Military Intelligence, and UN Peacekeeping command and staff assignments. Following his retirement, he began a second career as a UN Chief Security Officer. He also taught courses in History, Government, and Foreign Affairs at American universities. He has lived and worked in fifteen different countries, and now lives in Rome, Italy. Contact: -New Academia Publishing info@newacademia.com 202-391-1591 http://www.newacademia.com -Author Robert Bruce Adolph, Robert_Adolph@yahoo.com Print edition - Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing/ VELLUM Books, 2020 340 pages, 5 illustrations, ISBN 978-17333980-0-8, paperback, $28.00; ISBN 978-17333980-4-6, hardcover, $38.00 The Gombe state government says 18 patients have refused to undergo treatment at its isolation centres. Idris Mohammed, chairman o... The Gombe state government says 18 patients have refused to undergo treatment at its isolation centres. Idris Mohammed, chairman of the states task force on COVID-19, disclosed the development to journalists, on Monday. Some COVID-19 patients had staged a protest at the Federal Teaching Hospital in the state, destroying equipment in their ward. The patients, who were under quarantine, were said to have complained of ill treatment. While the protest at the hospital was going on, some COVID-19 patients at Kwadon isolation centre in Yamaltu Deba local government area of Gombe, also took to the streets to lament poor treatment. Mohammed said only 12 people could be accounted for out of the 30 patients, while 18 people are seeking treatment outside the isolation centres. He said the 18 patients are undergoing self-isolation as traditional rulers and political leaders in their area are ensuring they are well treated and discharged. We have a total of 30 people yet to be evacuated in the state, out of the 30, five are Adamawa indigenes; we collected their samples and we gave them our epid numbers and they have since gone back to Adamawa State. But because of the epid numbers, they remain our cases on paper but in reality they are in Adamawa State, he said. Two others were traced to Kano State and we notified the state epidemiologist and they have been placed in isolation; one other to Ogun, the state epidemiologist was called and another one was traced to Nasarawa State, we called the state epidemiologist and the last one to Borno state and he has been evacuated by the state. Out of 20 people remaining, they are the ones we are having some challenges evacuating but we are making efforts. As of Sunday, we evacuated two. The good thing is that as most of them are trying not to come, so they are in self isolation, they dont come out in the open but the traditional rulers and political leaders where they reside are working with the task force to ensure they are evacuated, treated and discharged lawfully. Grenell Responds to Warners Request for Underlying Intelligence Reports in Flynn Unmasking Outgoing acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell responded to a request by a top Senate Democrat for the underlying intelligence reports in which former Trump adviser Michael Flynns name was unmasked. On May 20, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member, sent a letter to Grenell requesting that he declassify intelligence reports in which Obama administration officials had unmasked Flynns identity and to explain the rationale for declassifying the unmasking requests. Warner also asked Grenell to declassify and make publicly available any intelligence report concerning conversations between Flynn and former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The senators request came after the Office of Director of Intelligence (ODNI) released the declassified list of Obama administration officials who requested the unmasking of Flynn to Congress. Grenell also declassified an email written by former national security adviser Susan Rice, who memorialized a Jan. 5, 2017, meeting at the White House in which then-FBI Director James Comey expressed concern about the frequency of communications between Flynn and Kislyak. Grenell said in a letter dated May 25 that he found it puzzling that Warners letter expressed concerns about the declassification of the Obama administration officials who unmasked Flynn, a retired Army three-star general, but then goes on to request the declassification and release of intelligence reports. Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell at Tegel airport in Berlin, on May 31, 2019. (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images) Cherry-picking certain documents for release, while attacking the release of others that dont fit your political narrative, is part of the problem the American people have with Washington D.C. politicians, Grenell wrote. He then asked Warner to explain his philosophy on transparency, adding that it appears to be solely on political advantage. In his May 20 letter, Warner raised questions about Grenells decision to declassify the information, given the potential compromise to sources and methods. Grenell reassured Warner that the protection of intelligence sources and methods is always at the fore of any declassification decision. As you well know, the decision to declassify the names of individuals who sought to unmask the identity of General Flynn poses absolutely no risk of compromise of either sources or methods, he wrote. The outgoing acting DNI said on May 22 that he was in the process of fully declassifying some of the call transcripts involving Flynn. The [intelligence community] doesnt have all the transcripts/summaries.it wasnt our product, Grenell wrote on Twitter. But I already started the declassification for the few we received. They should be released in full, though. The public deserves to see it. Grenell, who served as acting DNI since February, ended his tenure as his successor, John Ratcliffe, was sworn in on May 26. He also confirmed that he will step down from his post as the U.S. ambassador to Germany. Warners office didnt immediately respond to The Epoch Times request for comment. Within four months of its outbreak in Nigeria, coronavirus pandemic has not only plunged the country into financial insecurity but also many lives have been lost to the highly ravaging virus. Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Nigeria recorded its index COVID-19 case on Thursday, February 27, after an Italian man working as a consultant for a company in the country brought the virus. Since then it has been a huge manifestation of dark days for the country as its over 200 hundred million population became threatened by the disease which is daily claiming lives in top countries of the world. Nigeria recorded its first casualty from COVID-19 on Monday morning, March 23, signposting a tragic dive into a tough and turbulent time According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the first casualty was a 67-year-old man who returned home following medical treatment in the United Kingdom. READ ALSO: 10 richest men of all time, Jeff Bezos is number 9 Coronavirus has since claimed lives a total of 233 lives in Nigeria including prominent people like Victor Ikwuemesi, Suleiman Achimugu, a former managing director PPMC. The most prominent Nigerian so far known to have died of the coronavirus is Abba Kyari, the chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, who died from complications of the disease on Friday, April 17. Kyari had tested positive for the coronavirus in March after a trip to Germany and Egypt and he died three weeks after contracting the virus having been treating hypertension and other critical ailments. Those with a higher risk of COVID-19 complication With concentrated efforts channeled against the pandemic, NCDC has listed people with a higher risk of Covid-19 complication. The agency, in a tweet on Monday, warned that old people are vulnerable to the attack of the coronavirus. NCDC also warned that people battling critical ailments like cancer and diabetes are also liable to suffer coronavirus complications. "Older people & those with pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes & cancer, are at a higher risk of complications from COVID-19," NCDC warned. PAY ATTENTION: Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana Earlier, YEN reported that health minister, Osagie Ehanire, said hypertension, diabetes, HIV, cancer, others account for 70% coronavirus deaths. Ehanire disclosed amid a spike in fatalities and official cases of coronavirus. He also warned against self-medication amid reports Nigerians are stockpiling hydroxychloroquine. Ghanaian Pastors are crying because of the lack of offerings and tithes - Woman explains | #Yencomgh Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram Source: YEN.com.gh As coronavirus lockdowns across Africa start to ease, Open Society Foundations has moved to help southern African countries fill funding gaps in public health, while reaching out to grassroots groups that help informal workers. The US-based organisation is giving more than 3.2 million euros through the Open Society Foundation for South Africa and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. Given that the Covid-19 pandemic has gone beyond the realm of health, we are working with organisations that provide support in a number of technical areas, including health, education, transparency and accountability, gender justice, and feminism and human rights organisations in general, says Cynthia Ngwalo-Lungu, Johannesburg, South Africa-based health program manager at OSF. The funds are going to 11 countries in Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, eSwatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Malawi, for example, we have partnered with the Malawi Health Equity Network, for health aspects of the pandemic. In Madagascar, we partnered with an organisation called Autisme Madagascar, and at a regional level across South Africa, we have partnered with the Southern African Trust to look at issues of economic justice. It varies from country to country, she said. Civil liberties crackdown Ngwalo-Lungu says the organisation is concerned with government crackdowns on civil liberties, especially the militarisation of the Covid-19 response in places like Zimbabwe and South Africa, where citizens were beaten and intimidated. In the current context, as governments use the military to enforce lockdown measures, OSF has included [funding] documentation of human rights violations for future litigation, and for holding perpetrators accountable," she says. On the other hand, the organisation has helped governments procure testing kits and oxygen tanks and other issues needed. Story continues in spite of the fact that we are against some of the things that governments are doing with the crackdown, we still see that there is a need for us to support...especially from a public health perspective to ensure that we save lives within this pandemic." Aid in other Covid-19 issues Treating issues related to Covid-19, including lockdowns, are also funded by OSF. We've seen a spike of gender-based violence across the region and in Swaziland, obviously because of the lockdowns lots of women are spending time indoors with their abusers, says Ngwalo-Lungu. One portion of the money goes to Women and Law in Southern Africa, an eSwatini-based group that helps women in dangerous situations. Domestic workers and cross-border traders, such as women who buy goods in South Africa for sale in Zimbabwe have been stymied by the lockdown, unable to provide for their families. We're also looking at street vendors and market women in general, and just looking at the economic impact. So were responding from a policy perspective, where we're looking at the economic policies that are in place to ensure that the business sectors are stimulated and can start to rework post-Covid, Ngwalo-Lungu explains. Leaving comfort zone The urgency of the pandemic forced OSF to work outside their usual comfort zone, says Ngwalo-Lungu. While normally sticking to structural issues and advocacy and influencing policy development and implementation, the organisation decided to actually procure desperately needed items directly, such as personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers. It is incumbent on us to partner with organisations and give grants in ways that enable wage workers to have the wherewithal, the resources to continue to press for these policy solutions, OSF president Patrick Gaspard tells RFI. Will OSF return to its strict advocacy policy after the coronavirus pandemic is over? Maybe yes and no. I think we are really looking at a new world order, says Ngwalo-Lungu, adding that internal five-year strategy plans were due in February, but the deadlines have been extended in light of the pandemic. Were lookingat what is most relevant in the current context and beyond the current context, looking at the world that we are facing, she says. Based on the profound global economic downturn that weve already seen, it seems clear in Africa we will be operating in a Covid economy for several years to come, says OSF President Gaspard. 12.30 PM: Bihar Board 10th result will be out today Students waiting for their BSEB Class 10 results 2020 can also access the result on Jio Phone. For this, they need to download a relevant app from Google Play Store and get themselves pre-registered using their roll number. The candidates can also utilise the SMS facility to check their results. They need to type BSEB roll number and send it 56263. The result will appear on their phone screen. The candidates can also check results online via official as well as third party websites. The official websites include biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in,onlinebseb.com, bsebonline.org and biharboard.online, whereas third party websites include indiaresults.com, results.gov.in, and exam results. 10.00 AM: Fire broke out at Tughlakabad slums A major fire broke out at Tughlakabad slums in Delhi on Tuesday early morning. As per initial information, no casualty has been reported so far. The authorities are still probing the cause of the fire. SS Tuli, Deputy Chief Fire Officer of South Delhi Zone, told ANI that around 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the authorities were informed. The fire has now been brought under control, he said. Delhi: Operation to douse the fire, which broke out at a footwear factory in Keshavpuram area, underway by the fire fighters. 23 fire engines are present at the spot. More details awaited. https://t.co/UrxlOl2FHo pic.twitter.com/4bxMqJFWjZ ANI (@ANI) May 26, 2020 Rajendra Prasad Meena, DCP South East told the news agency that cops received information at around 1 am. "18-20 fire tenders are at the spot. Firefighting operations underway. No casualty reported so far," he said. In a separate incident, fire broke out at a footwear manufacturing factory in Keshavpuram area in Delhi. A total of 15 fire engines rushed to the spot. Delhi: A fire has broken out at Tughlakabad slums. Rajendra Prasad Meena, DCP South East says, "We received information of fire at around 1 am, 18-20 fire tenders are at the spot. Firefighting operations underway. No casualty reported so far". pic.twitter.com/9ny3HpHAAZ ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2020 More details being added. DALLAS, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BenefitMall , the leading provider of employee benefits and payroll services, today introduces enhancements to its next generation Agency Workspace, which launched in 2019. Agency Workspace has a new Carrier Center, fresh look, additional quoting features and an online training center. Brokers can now access the Carrier Center for an improved user experience, making the process easier for users to search for carrier information and details. The Carrier Center has documents available in Spanish, and brokers can easily send documents to themselves and their clients. Users also have secure, easy access to all recent activity in the tool. Additionally, the upgrades include higher visibility to upcoming renewal details, a new message board and an updated sales trip incentive tracker. "During these unprecedented times, it is more important than ever for brokers to have a digital strategy to overcome obstacles and maintain exceptional client service," said Laura Clenney, vice president of marketing services for BenefitMall. "We continue to enhance our technology suite with updates to ensure our broker partner can continue to manage their BenefitMall businesses in a secure and efficient way." In addition to Agency Workspace's upgrades, BenefitMall's Client Ready Quote System (CRQS) now includes voluntary lines of coverage for quoting. Brokers can now select to quote additional lines of coverage including: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity and cyber security. CRQS also provides an overview of how each of these products will complement the coverage currently quoted for a group. "Agency Workspace launched in 2019, and we are committed to pairing our best in class service with relevant, evolving technology to support brokers in their critical role in the distribution of employee benefits," said Clenney. "Our systems are designed by broker for brokers ensuring the right features are offered to meet their needs." The Carrier Center and Agency Workspace enhancements are now available. Here is a link to a video with additional details. BenefitMall's online training center houses training videos, quick reference guides and the ability to register for webinars for Agency Workspace, CRQS and Online Enrollment tools. About BenefitMall Headquartered in Dallas, BenefitMall partners with a network of 20,000 Brokers and CPAs to deliver employee benefits and payroll services to more than 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses. By combining payroll and benefits, BenefitMall empowers Trusted Advisors to develop the best employee programs while maintaining compliance with government regulations and Health Care Reform. Owned by Management and The Carlyle Group, BenefitMall also operates HealthCareExchange.com, the leading online community for information regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. More information is available at www.benefitmall.com . SOURCE BenefitMall Related Links https://www.benefitmall.com The Memorial Day weekend proved the deadliest in the last four years for the city of Chicago, where 10 people died and 34 were injured in shootings over the long weekend. By Monday, there had been 10 fatal shootings, including the death of a 16-year-old boy. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, six people died in the city over Memorial Day weekend. In 2019, that number dipped to five. According to ABC7, the most recent shooting occurred on Monday evening, when a 45-year-old man was shot in the head and torso when a man in a white sedan pulled up and began firing a gun. The victim was pronounced dead at the hospital. A 52-year-old standing with the victim was also shot in the leg. He is recovering in hospital and is said to be in a good condition. Recommended Mass shooting at Arizona shopping mall leaves three injured On Sunday afternoon, a man sitting in a vehicle in an alley was shot in the face and chest after someone walked up and began firing on him. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Earlier that day, two other men were shot in unrelated attacks. One man was shot in the face and left to die, while another was sitting in an SUV and was shot in the side. He was pronounced dead in hospital. Late Saturday night, a 28-year-old man was killed in Humboldt Park when he was shot in the head. Two men were seen running from the site of the shooting. The man was also pronounced dead in hospital. An hour earlier, a 16-year-old boy, Darnell Fisher, was shot in the chest and arm. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. An individual believed to be the shooter was taken into custody after a chase, and while a weapon was recovered, that individual was later released without being charged. Also on Saturday, a man died in his home from a gunshot wound near his armpit. In a separate incident, a man and his friends were hanging out outside a home when a person in a car pulled up and began shooting at the men. A 35-year-old man was hit in the chest and died at the hospital. Two other men with the group were shot and taken to the hospital, both are expected to recover. A third was grazed by a bullet and refused medical treatment. Recommended Boy who lost both parents in El Paso shooting has 1st birthday parade That morning, a 27-year-old man was found unresponsive after suffering a gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was pronounced dead at the hospital after he was found in his home. On Friday night, a man was shot numerous times across his body and was found lying on the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Stay-at-home orders in Chicago will continue until the end of the month. Residents can engage in outdoor activities, so long as gatherings are 10 people or fewer. Mills River plant makes the glue for emergency ventilator order MILLS RIVER In the midst of the current pandemic, time is of the essence. So, when the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services tapped Hamilton Medical Inc. to aid the national effort by producing 25,000 ventilators in record time, the company turned to its long-term partner Raumedic for a specialist silicone adhesive in short order. The adhesive is solvent- and plasticizer-free, easy to use and bonds silicones to each other and to further materials, such as metal or plastics. The single-component adhesive is used for parts of the housing of the HAMILTON-T1 critical care transport ventilator and helps to increase resistance to demanding environmental conditions. The shortage of ventilators in the U.S. has been well publicized and covered by the national media. In April, President Trump issued an order to increase production of the life-saving devices. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services awarded one of the largest contracts to Hamilton Medical. The first step in meeting the ambitious goal was to step-up existing production in Switzerland. In order to reach the target, it would be necessary to create an entire new assembly line and supply chain in the US, and to provide a sufficient number of components and consumables needed. Initially, we asked our Swiss colleagues who their suppliers were and so we were put in contact with Raumedic AG in Germany, recalls Bob Hamilton, CEO of Hamilton Medical, Inc. We were very pleased when they informed us that Raumedic already has a manufacturing plant in the U.S., in North Carolina. Being able to work with a team in the same time-zone and with a similar outlook on the market helped to keep the project moving as fast as possible. I think that all medtech companies want to make a contribution to the fight against the coronavirus, says Martin Bayer, President and CEO at Raumedic Inc. So, we jumped at the chance to connect with Hamilton in the USA and get them what they needed as quickly as possible. The trend towards offshoring has lengthened supply chains and can influence the ability of companies to be responsive. Raumedic has taken the opposite path. The medtech company deliberately chose to invest in manufacturing in America to react to US customers on short notice. The Anambra and Delta governments are currently holding talks to check the influx of people, seeking to cross the Niger Bridge in defiance of the presidential order restricting interstate movements. C-Don Adinuba, Anambra Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Onitsha on Monday. Mr Adinuba was commenting on the barricade built on the orders of Governor Willie Obiano at the Asaba-end of the bridge. The iron barricade was reportedly pulled down at the weekend by youth in Delta. NAN learnt that the development necessitated a meeting where the two governments resolved to jointly police the Niger Bridge to curtail movement of strange persons. Top officials of both Delta and Anambra State Governments have met thrice today and will meet again tomorrow or so. The meeting is to conclude arrangements on how to check the influx of people, who defy the presidential order restricting inter-state movements as part of the far-reaching measures to check the spread of COVID-19, Mr Adinuba said. According to him, the meetings have been held in a convivial and brotherly manner. Subsequent meetings will follow the same trajectory of peace and solidarity as each party is quite committed to the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Adinuba said. (NAN) MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MAGLITE, the world-famous flashlight brand, is proud to partner with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with a new line of logoed products. Sales of the product will help to ensure that families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. "We are honored to play a small part in the incredible work that St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is doing to help push the overall childhood cancer survival rate. We hope our customers will support us as we do our part to bring awareness to such a worthy cause," said Anthony Maglica, Founder, Owner and President of Mag Instrument Inc. Ten percent of proceeds from the sales of these specially marked MAGLITE flashlights will benefit St. Jude in the fight against childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. These featured products can be found here. Mag Instrument, Inc., manufacturer of the MAGLITE flashlight is proud to be a U.S.A. manufacturer. Each flashlight is a result of an obsession with fine engineering, craftsmanship and a commitment to perfection. Founder, owner and President Anthony Maglica has guided his company's growth from a one-man machine shop in 1955 to an enterprise that has proudly employed thousands of American workers since it produced its first flashlight in 1979. For more visit: https://maglite.com/ You can also like and follow MAGLITE on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to its YouTube channel. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude won't stop until no child dies from cancer. To learn more, visit https://www.stjude.org/ or https://maglite.com/collections/st-jude-1 *LOGO link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/19-1001s2p-maglogo-300dpi.jpg This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE MAG Instrument, Inc. Related Links https://maglite.com A 48-year-old man is being questioned by police after being arrested over the murder of a woman whose body was found in a Stockport country park. Greater Manchester Police have described the discovery in Reddish Vale Country Park on Monday as 'absolutely devastating', but are currently treating it as an isolated incident. Despite this, police announced they will be stepping up patrols around the park, near Brinnington, following the discovery. Forensics arrived at Reddish Vale Country Park following the discovery of a woman's body on Monday Police arrested a 48-year-old man following the discovery of the woman's body near Brinnington The country park, near flats and houses in Stockport, had a large police presence on Monday after a woman's remains were found Det Supt Neil Jones, of GMP's Major Incident Team, said: 'This is an absolutely devastating incident. 'First and foremost, our thoughts are with the victim's loved ones and specialist officers will do everything they can to support them. 'Understandably, this news may cause concern within the community but I would like to provide some reassurance by saying that, at this time, we believe that this was an isolated incident. 'Nevertheless, there will be increased patrols in the area in the coming days and I would encourage anyone with concerns to speak to those officers.' The 48-year-old suspect remains in police custody at this time and the woman's next of kin have been notified about yesterday's discovery. Police are treating the murder as an 'isolated incident,' describing it as 'absolutely devastating' as a search of Reddish Vale Country Park was carried out on Monday A stretch of pathway was cordoned off following the grim discovery yesterday. The victim's next of kin have been informed Police have stepped up patrols around Brinnington following the discovery of a woman's body on Monday Reddish vale Country Park was teeming with officers and forensic teams as police try and establish what happened to the woman before she died. GMP is now appealing for any witnesses to come forward as enquiries continue. A spokesman from the force said: 'Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0161 856 3400 quoting incident 913 of 25/05/20, or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.' ST. JOHNS, N.L.A charter challenge of Newfoundland and Labradors ban on travel into the province during the COVID-19 pandemic is set to be heard in August. The case was launched by a woman who says she was denied the right to travel to the province for her mothers funeral. The province and the chief medical officer of health are named as respondents in the application that was filed last week. It argues the provincial travel restrictions violate the charter and fall outside provincial jurisdiction. During a hearing conducted by teleconference on Tuesday, lawyers representing Kim Taylor and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association requested the province provide information on the science being used to justify the ban and the criteria for enforcing it. Justice Donald Burrage set hearings dates for the case to begin August 4. SEATTLE, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its annual comprehensive study of universal life (UL) and indexed universal life (IUL) issues. The 13th annual Milliman study, "Universal Life and Indexed Universal Life Issues," is based on a survey of 30 UL/IUL companies. The report focuses on current topics relative to a range of UL and IUL product types. Key findings of the study include: Total individual UL sales reported by survey participants decreased 31% between 2017 and year-to-date (YTD) 9/30/19 (on an annualized basis). (on an annualized basis). A 16% increase in total individual IUL sales was reported during the same time period. IUL sales during YTD 9/30/19 accounted for 63% of total UL/IUL sales combined (reported by survey participants), increasing from the 50% of total sales it represented in 2017. accounted for 63% of total UL/IUL sales combined (reported by survey participants), increasing from the 50% of total sales it represented in 2017. Sales of combination riders on UL/IUL products continue to be strong. During YTD 9/30/19, sales of chronic illness riders as a percent of total sales were 11.4% for UL products and 37.3% for IUL products. During the same period, sales of policies with long-term care (LTC) riders as a percent of total sales were 54.6% for UL products and 14.7% for IUL products. Within 24 months, 90% of survey participants possibly will market either an LTC or chronic illness rider. Of the 30 respondents, full underwriting of UL/IUL products is used by 29 participants, accelerated underwriting by 16 participants, and simplified issue underwriting by 11 participants. Of the 14 survey participants that do not currently have an accelerated underwriting program, eight indicated they plan to implement one in the next 12 months. The number of survey participants (27) that have repriced or redesigned at least one UL/IUL product under the 2017 CSO Mortality Tables was significantly higher than in our prior UL/IUL survey (14), published in June 2019 . The two most common products that were repriced or redesigned are ULSG and cash accumulation IUL. The 283-page "Universal Life and Indexed Universal Life Issues Detailed Report" includes detailed information on product and actuarial issues, such as sales, profit measures, target surplus, reserves, risk management, underwriting, product design, compensation, pricing, and illustrations. It is available for purchase by visiting the Milliman website at https://www.milliman.com/en/insight/Universal-life-and-indexed-universal-life-issues-2019-2020-survey or by calling Gina Ritchie at (312) 499-5605. Participating companies receive a complimentary copy of the detailed report, as well as individual company responses reported on an anonymous basis. About Milliman Milliman is among the world's largest providers of actuarial and related products and services. The firm has consulting practices in healthcare, property & casualty insurance, life insurance and financial services, and employee benefits. Founded in 1947, Milliman is an independent firm with offices in major cities around the globe. For further information, visit www.milliman.com. SOURCE Milliman, Inc. Related Links www.milliman.com As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey announced the Salt River Project (SRP) has donated $100,000 to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund, supporting frontline workers and efforts to mitigate the medical and economic impact of COVID-19 in Arizona. To date, the fund has received more than $8.2 million in donations. Arizonans continue to step up and support each other during COVID-19, said Governor Ducey. Medical professionals, first responders and countless Arizonans are working on the frontlines to protect our health and safety. Thank you SRP for supporting these Arizonans and helping to ensure we return stronger than ever. SRP is grateful for the frontline medical workers and first responders who have acted selflessly to keep us safe and healthy during this unprecedented crisis, said SRP CEO and General Manager Mike Hummel. Through Arizona Together, we want to help ensure these brave men and women have the supplies they require to stay safe while continuing to provide critical services for all of us. The Governor established the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund as part of the Arizona Together initiative, connecting individuals and businesses to resources, raising money for community organizations and providing information on volunteer opportunities. In April, the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation donated $5 million to support the purchase of PPE including 1.1 million N-95 masks. As the equipment is received, the Arizona Department of Health Services will distribute it to county health departments across the state. In addition to Arizonas continued efforts to support frontline workers, the fund supports students, families and seniors in need. Other contributions to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund include $1 million from Michael Bidwill, Chairman and President of the Arizona Cardinals; $1 million from Jerry Simms, owner of Turf Paradise Race Course; and contributions from Arizona Public Service (APS), Southwest Gas, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Waymo, VanTrust Real Estate and Valley Toyota Dealers. Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund can learn more about how to contribute at ArizonaTogether.org. Arizona Together also highlights organizations, businesses and individuals stepping up to help one another and provide support wherever needed. Stories about Arizonans helping frontline workers, vulnerable populations and businesses in need of support can be found at ArizonaTogether.org/thearizonaway. by Shafique Khokhar For Eid al-Fit, Bishop Indrias Rehmat paid tribute to the city's political and religious leaders. The holiday can bring us closer and give us the opportunity to sit together and think". In recent weeks interreligious prayers were held seeking the end of the coronavirus pandemic. The celebration embodied a message of brotherhood, peace, love, and coexistence. Faisalabad (AsiaNews) Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and prayer, was held yesterday in Pakistan. For Bishop Indrias Rehmat of Faisalabad (Punjab), it was a time to be united as citizens of Pakistan, to share the joy and happiness that come from an event that is both religious holy day as well as a cultural event. For the prelate, Such festivals bring us closer and give us the opportunity to sit together and think about others who are in need. Over the weekend, the bishop visited several Muslim clerics and political officials in Faisalabad. He was accompanied by the Vicar General, Fr Abid Tanvir, the director of the Commission for interreligious dialogue Fr Pascal Poolus and the director of the local chapter of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), Fr Khalid Rashid. In the various meetings, the Christian delegation presented cakes, tributes for the feast and the special message of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, issued by the Holy See Press Office at the start of Ramadan. The Catholic delegation met with local Muslim clerics, including Maulana Pir Ibrahim Sialvi, Mulana Yousaf Anwar, and Mulana Zahid Mahmood Qasami, who play a pivotal role in interfaith dialogue and harmony in Faisalabad. Through the Eid al-Fitr, we want to spread a message of brotherhood, peace, love, coexistence among all communities in Pakistan, said Bishop Rehmat, adding that we all pray for the country and the world so that we can get rid of the pandemic. During Ramadan, the bishop and Muslim leaders joined together to invoke the end of the COVID-19 emergency. During their meetings, the parties explored issues and thoughts related to the document on human brotherhood signed last year in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyeb. Sure, it might be warm Wednesday, but what about the rest of the week? local Some 43.3% of Kyiv residents believe that the situation in Ukraine is developing in the wrong direction, while 30% disagree, saying some aspects improving and some not. Some 17.8% believe that the situation in the country is moving in the right direction. Those are the results of a survey conducted in Kyiv from May 8 through May 20 by the Center for Social and Marketing Research SOCIS presented at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine, 35.4% of residents of Kyiv believe that the situation in the city is developing in the wrong direction, 31.8% said some things are developing in the right way (and others not), while 23.3% believe that the situation in Kyiv is moving in the right direction. Some 73.2% of respondents in Kyiv said the economic situation in the country is the most troublesome aspect of the situation, unemployment 71.4%, living standards 69.8% and utility tariffs 56.3%. Some 10.3% see improvement with the peace process, while 52% do not see changes and 30.6% see deterioration. Some 9.6% of the respondents believe that medical care in the country has improved, 26.3% do not see changes and 50.4% see deterioration. Some 8.4% noted an improvement in the fight against corruption, while 48.3% believe that the situation is unchanged. Some 33.9% said that the situation is deteriorating. The topic of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is very important for 49.2% of the respondents in Kyiv, and for 15.1% it is extremely important. For 19.2% it is moderately important, for 6.4% it is of little importance, and for 8.3% it is not important at all. Some 73.5% of Kyiv residents most often receive information from news sites on the Internet, 61.9% from social networks, 52.8% from national and regional television, 17.3% from friends, colleagues, relatives, and neighbors. Among the TV channels, Kyiv residents watch 1+1 the most (31%), ICTV (21.5%), Ukraine (19.1%), Inter (14.9%), 112 Ukraine (13.7%), Pryamiy (11.8%), STB (10.9%), News One (9.3%), Channel 24 (8.2%), less than 7% watch other TV channels. Some 4,000 respondents were interviewed by telephone for the survey, which was made in all 10 administrative and territorial areas of Kyiv. The statistical error of the survey is 1.9%. Hillsboro Council Members Sworn In To Begin New Terms The Hillsboro City Council met in a regular session Tuesday evening, May 19, and administered oaths of office to council members who were unopposed in their bids for re-election this year. Council members Larry Lloyd (Place 2), Frances Zarate (Place 4) and Scott Johnson (Place 6) took oaths administered by Judge F.B. (Bob) McGregor Jr. and were presented certificates of election by Mayor Andy Smith. The council approved two recommendations from the Planning and Zoning Commission to rezone property located to the northwest of Crestridge and Highland drives. Saltridge Properties submitted an application to rezone the area to allow a higher density of single-family housing units to be constructed. The 13-acre property is expected to be used for a housing development, including duplexes and smaller single-family homes. The Hillsboro Church of Christ, which is located near the proposed development, submitted a letter of support to the Planning and Zoning Commission, stating that the landowner has agreed to construct a wooden privacy fence between the development and church property. The church leadership also stated in the letter that they believe the development will be beneficial to the city and provide significant additional affordable housing in town. The council adopted a resolution authorizing the mayor, city manager, city secretary and two council members to sign certain documents and forms related to the city's $1 million Community Development Block Grant received from the Texas Department of Agriculture. The grant is for infrastructure improvements to support development of the Johns Manville plant in the Industrial Park. In another agenda item relating to the grant, the city reaffirmed resolutions relating to civil rights with the addition of a limited English profiency plan. Recipients of TDA grants over $10,000 must take actions to ensure compliance with certain civil rights rules and regulations to receive the federal funds. The council held a public hearing on a proposal to abandon an alley located between East Elm Street and East Franklin Street, beginning at North Givens Street and continuing east to a dead end. Other alleys in the area have previously been abandoned. The request was submitted to assist a property owner in selling property that encroaches into the alley at 1108 East Franklin Street. There was no comment on the proposal. A performance artist has protested lockdown restrictions outside of a Trader Joe's in Los Angeles by wearing a makeshift bikini fashioned from blue surgical masks. DaVida Sal shared the images of herself posing outside a local Trader Joe's grocery store, calling the image a performance piece named 'The New AbNormal'. In one picture, the artist is seen wearing a surgical mask over her eyes as a statement on people 'blindly obeying' lockdown measures and while she has a few parts of her body covered by the masks, her mouth and nose are conspicuously exposed. Protesting: DaVida Sal as protested lockdown restrictions outside of a Trader Joe's in Los Angeles by wearing a makeshift bikini fashioned from blue surgical masks DaVida wrote in an accompanying Facebook post: 'If the MASKS work, WHY the 6 feet? If the 6 feet works, WHY the Masks? If BOTH work, WHY the LOCKDOWN?' DaVida appears to have brought her own groceries to the store for the stunt, as she wouldn't have been allowed inside to shop and Trader Joe's doesn't carry Scott toilet paper. In the images, she is seen wearing blue surgical masks over her breasts and genitals. She also has one on each ankle and each shoulder, apparently for decoration. In some images, she wears one over her eyes as well, and she has also accessorized with hoop earrings and high heels. 'Abnormal Becoming the New Normal. She blindly obeyed,' she wrote in a Facebook post accompanying the photos. 'If the MASKS work, WHY the 6 feet? If the 6 feet works, WHY the Masks? If BOTH work, WHY the LOCKDOWN? 'Now more than ever we must express ourselves with the brilliance we were created to be,' she added. In one picture the artist is seen wearing a surgical mask over her eyes as a statement on people 'blindly obeying' lockdown measures Not giving her attention: A Trader Joe's employee stands outside using his phone as the artist carries a bag of groceries and a pack of toilet roll Stunt: DaVida appears to have brought her own groceries to the store for the stunt, as she wouldn't have been allowed inside to shop (and Trader Joe's doesn't carry Scott toilet paper) The artist is believed to subscribe to a theory that coronavirus is a hoax created to erode freedoms of people and keep them apart, reports the New York Post. She later tweeted: 'The World Health Organization, Bill Gates and Centers for Disease Control now recommend that people wear blindfolds so they cant see whats really going on. OBEY NOW!!!' In a later post, she wrote: 'I have turned my fears into my power, because I dared to cross the self imposed imaginary wall of fear and insecurities and I made it to the other side, realizing that the other side was brighter and filled with endless possibilities.' Public reaction to the stunt was largely negative, with one writing on the post: 'Being slightly inconvenienced isn't the same as systematic oppression. EVERYONE needs to stay home for the safety of the public.' Conspiracy theorist: The artist is believed to subscribe to a theory that coronavirus is a hoax created to erode freedoms of people and keep them apart Not impressed: Healthcare worker Elizabeth Lee shared a picture of herself wearing a mask at work with the caption: 'We wear this to save the lives of who claim a face mask is oppression' A woman named Ashya Larose commented an image to the post reading: 'Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because you are not personally affected by it.' KG Garcia wrote: 'I dont know who needs to hear this- but automatically doing the opposite of what scientists tell you isnt thinking for yourself.' Healthcare worker Elizabeth Lee shared a picture of herself wearing a mask at work with the caption: 'We wear this to save the lives of who claim a face mask is oppression. Shut the f**** up. It isn't art, don't flatter yourself.' The artist is also known for tackling controversial topics such as President Donald Trump, the legalization of weed, and the Syrian war. BOSTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of the failure on all levels to provide essential workers with appropriate PPE, the hearing will address the need for employers and the state to take responsibility for assuming that all workers tested positive for COVID-19 are presumed to have been exposed at work. When: Wednesday, May 27 at 10 a.m. Where: The hearing can be viewed via live stream at www.boston.gov/city-council-tv Who: The City Council will hear from a panel of union leaders representing frontline workers, including St. Elizabeth's Medical Center ED Nurse and MNA Board Member Ellen MacInnis, RN, who will testify how the lack of protection has left them vulnerable to exposure, and employers reprehensible refusal to take responsibility for their failure to protect them. As the city and state continue to confront the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thousands of essential workers, including police, fire, grocery store and postal workers, nurses, physicians and other healthcare workers continue to place their lives and their families lives on the line every day without being provided with consistent, proper protective equipment, the Boston City Council will hold a hearing on May 27 to hear from frontline workers about these conditions, and specifically, to discuss the need for all workers who test positive for the virus to be presumed to have contracted the potentially deadly pathogen at work. To date several thousand workers have contracted the virus, and several have died, yet employers throughout the Commonwealth refuse to acknowledge and take responsibility for their sacrifice by allowing workers to make the logical claim that they contracted the virus on the job, thus complicating their ability to access workers' compensation and other benefits. Ellen MacInnis, RN, an emergency department nurse at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, will testify at the hearing on behalf of all nurses and health care workers in Boston and beyond, stating "We entered this pandemic unprepared. People can debate the hows and whys of that, but what is certain is that we did not have the proper protective equipment, the proper isolation and segregation of patient populations nor adequate testing and tracing. In some cases, hospitals actively lobbied for a lowering of the CDC infectious disease standards, including those governing proper Personal Protective Equipment or PPE. "This left frontline workers vulnerable. Nurses were not supplied with the appropriate N95 masks, and when we did have access to them we were told to use them across multiple shifts and multiple days. These are disposable masks that were designed for single use. We did not have enough gowns or hair coverings or shoe coverings. Hospitals delayed implementing the directive that all employees in the hospital should wear masks and were slow to segregate patients who were confirmed or suspected COVID cases." "Meanwhile, we started to hear from hospitals that if workers tested positive they likely acquired it somewhere else. Somewhere in the community. This is absurd and it is insulting. The hospitals who, though their actions or inactions, put their workers at risk, are now trying to walk away from any responsibility." The hearing was scheduled based on an order issued by Boston City Councilor Liz Breadon and Councilor Ed Flynn. The hearing will be conducted by the Committee on Workforce Development chaired by Councilor Julia Mejia. The order specifically references the fact that: "More than 160 Boston hospital workers and more than 1,900 Massachusetts hospital workers have tested positive for COVID-19; and the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) provided by management and employers has put frontline essential workers at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus in their employment settings." The Councilors' order concludes that "Occupational presumption would recognize that essential frontline workers who contract coronavirus are almost certain to have contracted the virus at work or through work-related settings." Earlier this month, on May 14, the entire City Council sent a letter to Governor Baker urging him to enact legislation that would presume any healthcare worker who contracts the coronavirus (COVID-19) be presumed to have acquired the virus at work or in the course of work-related activities. Our healthcare professionals are at the frontline of this pandemic serving the public, and it is important that they have occupational presumption if they contract COVID-19." MassNurses.org Facebook.com/MassNurses Twitter.com/MassNurses Instagram.com/MassNurses Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public. SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association Related Links http://www.massnurses.org I went into my Halifax branch and asked for a cheque for 4,000 to be raised and paid to a third party. The cheque was never received and the money - 3,454 - has not been credited back to my account. The branch manager cannot explain where the money is. He said it must be something to do with the international branch of Halifax. M. C., Surrey. Mystery: One reader's bank could offer no explanation after she lost 3,454 trying to pay a cheque in Euros Halifax apologises for the amount of time it has taken for you to get your money back. You requested a bank draft in euros on January 30. Halifax says the cheque was processed as normal, but it can't account for the delay in it reaching the intended recipient. It also cannot account for the delay when, assuming it to be lost, you asked for a refund to be paid on February 11. Halifax says it should have offered you the opportunity to send the money via an international money transfer, which would have avoided complications. In the following weeks you were given conflicting information about when the money would be returned to your account. A Halifax spokesman says: 'We are extremely sorry for the distress and inconvenience caused, and for the length of time it took to reunite Mrs C with her money.' You have been paid 200 by way of apology. You have YOUR say Every week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some on our article about the savvy families using lockdown to save hundreds of pounds by switching utility providers. Since lockdown began we have saved 20 a month by switching energy supplier, 30 a month by negotiating my broadband contract and 24 a month by downgrading our mobile contract. If a recession is coming, I want to be prepared. D. M., Manchester. Now that I know how to save money I enjoy my life more. You can get a real buzz when you realise you have saved 60 a year just by switching from one company to another. I use the extra cash to top up my savings account. L. A., Leicester. My broadband company certainly doesnt want loyal customers. I have been with it for years, and every time I call up asking for a discount it refuses to give me one. I am seriously considering switching to a different supplier. R. T., Portsmouth. Many people dont know how to negotiate properly with their current suppliers. Sometimes they are frightened of losing the service they already have. Never accept the first offer, or even the first discount refusal. F. F., by email. My old mobile provider was still charging me the same 42 monthly fee three months after I had paid off the price of the handset. Luckily it didnt go on for too long, and I switched onto a SIM-only deal for just 18 a month. T. D., London. I use a comparison site to find the cheapest energy tariff. You can work out how much energy you use each year, then find the best deal for you. I dont see why anyone would bother to pay more than they need to. P. D., by email. My phone was due to be upgraded this month, but Ive switched to a SIM-only deal instead, and my monthly bill has fallen from 36 to 9. Ill be putting that extra 27 into my savings account. A. G., by email. In October 2018, my partner of 30 years passed away quite suddenly, just before his 70th birthday. We had been living together and he supported me financially. He had kept his own property in the event that I passed away first. He had a pension from BT and nominated me to be the beneficiary upon his death. BT is asking for proof of joint accounts and copies of utility bills in his name. But they are all in my name. I have provided them with copies of bills he paid for improvements to my property. He also paid the deposit on my property in January 1997, and the balance of the mortgage in November 1998. We were both divorced and had not remarried. BT appears reluctant to honour his wishes and wants more proof of joint accounts. M. D., Great Maplestead, Essex. I'm afraid that I have drawn a blank, but your letter serves as a warning to others in a similar position. Pension trustees do not have to act on instructions given to them. BT Pensions wants evidence that you were financially reliant on your partner. To me this sounds like a demand from the 1950s. Surely evidence of a 30-year relationship and a statement of wishes from your partner should suffice? A BT Pension Scheme spokesman says: 'When a scheme member dies and is not married or in a civil partnership, a pension can be paid to a 'nominated dependant' identified by the member in writing.' But here's the nub: 'Nomination does not guarantee the payment of the pension as, under the scheme rules, the trustees must be satisfied that, at the date of the nomination and at the time of the member's death, the nominated person was financially dependent on the member.' The trustees have a legal obligation to ask for evidence of financial dependency. This may include joint utility bills, mortgage statements, bank statements or council tax bills. A spokesman says: 'Mrs D was unable to provide evidence that she was wholly or partially financially dependent on our member. As a result the trustees have declined the application.' If you can dig up further evidence to show you were financially dependent, it will refer the decision back to the discretions committee for review. The difficulty for you is not just the absurd idea that you need to be financially dependent on your partner, but also that BT Pensions can request proof of this dependence at the time of nomination and now. The nomination was made in 1998, and financial institutions have no obligation to keep records for this length of time. The rules of many pension schemes mean that if you are not married or in a civil partnership, the trustees have the discretion to not award a widow's pension. Those in a similar position should take note. Straight to the point I was the victim of identity theft and am now being chased by the Debt and Revenue Services on behalf of eBay for 179.95. I have never had an eBay account, but the firm doesn't believe me. L. D., Cumbria. You are almost 76 years old, and feared you may have to go to court to get the demand dropped. Despite your distress, eBay took three weeks to investigate. A spokesman refused to explain why it initially held you responsible, but the firm has agreed to stop chasing you for the money. *** Ladbrokes owes me 190 after I entered its Millionaire Irish Lottery. It won't pay me my winnings. I'm either ignored or told to wait until the shop opens, which might not be for a long while. D. T., Torquay, Devon. The betting shop refused to explain the hold-up but has now verified and settled your bet. The money should arrive in your bank account within three to five working days. *** My 89-year-old mother decided to end her telephone contract with TalkTalk and was due an 11.05 refund. At the time a member of staff told her she would be sent a cheque in the post, but it has yet to arrive. The company is now trying to get her to accept a BACS payment instead. K. B., Berkshire. The telecoms giant rang your mother just a few hours after I contacted it. It has now posted a cheque for 20 the extra 8.95 was added as a goodwill gesture. *** I recently found an old bank book with Lloyds TSB. The last withdrawal was made in February 1997, and the balance was 38.68. Does the bank still hold any information on this? E. C., Peterborough, Cambs. Lloyds says it has traced your passbook account, adding that it contains 63. You would normally have to visit a branch with ID to reclaim the money because you are no longer a customer, but this is not advised during the pandemic. It says you can use mylostaccount.org.uk instead, although this may take longer as the claim is going through a third party. On March 16, I tried to withdraw 40 from a cash machine at Sainsbury's. As I went to take the money it went back into the machine. I complained to the store but was told I had to contact my bank. On March 19 the money was refunded, but on March 31 it was taken out of my account again. Quite apart from losing the money, it is the insinuation that I am lying that upsets me. I don't know where to turn now. V. G., Birkenhead, Merseyside. I decided to bypass your bank and go straight to Sainsbury's Bank, which operates the machine. The bank told me it was sympathetic to your complaint and has sent 40 to HSBC, which has refunded it to your account. New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday called up the heads of two of India's close allies, the UAE and Bangladesh, to wish them on the occasion of Eid. Modi tweeted: "Conveyed Eid-ul-Fitr greetings to His Highness @MohamedBinZayed and the friendly people of UAE. Thanked him for the cooperation extended to Indian citizens in UAE. India-UAE cooperation has grown even stronger during the Covid-19 challenge." Modi is known to share a cordial relation with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. When Modi took oath of office for a second term last year, the iconic Adnoc Group headquarters in Abu Dhabi was lit up with the Prime Minister's face. Later that year, he also received the Order of Zayed, the highest civil decoration of the UAE. Meanwhile, the Prime Minster also dialled his Bangladesh counterpart, Sheikh Hasina. "Spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina to wish her and the friendly people of Bangladesh a happy & prosperous Eid-ul-Fitr," tweeted Modi. "We discussed the impact of cyclone Amphan and the present Covid-19 situation. Reiterated India's continued support to Bangladesh in this challenging time," Modi added. Interestingly, the specific tweets mentioning his outreach to two Islamic nations came in the wake of Maldives thwarting Pakistan's attempt to single out India at a virtual meet of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Islamophobia, accusing India of actively promoting Islamophobia, something that was outrightly denied by Malvides. --IANS abn/arm About 60 per cent of trees have been uprooted; hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed. There is no electricity, water, food, sanitation. Roads are cut off. Many churches and convents have been affected. Caritas is working with the army in the relief and reconstruction efforts. Kolkata (AsiaNews) - Cyclone Amphan, which hit West Bengal and Odisha last week killing 87 people (86 in West Bengal; one in Odisha), has caused extensive damage for at least 18 million of people. At least, 60 per cent of the trees many over 100 years old have been uprooted, resulting in an environmental disaster, says Fr Franklin Menezes, from Seva Kendra, the charity of the Archdiocese of Calcutta (Kolkata). Many of the trees fell on rooftops, destroying hundreds of thousands of houses, especially those of the poor, the least resistant. Some trees fell on electrical wires and poles, so that many villages, even now, have no power for the Internet and water pumps. The lack of drinking water, hot food and a roof are the most urgent needs. The roads blocked by fallen trees are also a problem, especially in 24 Parganas South and North districts. Here it is still impossible to bring relief. The army is in charge of clearing the roads, along with many volunteers. Toilet facilities are also out of work because of water shortages and damages caused by the cyclone. The only positive note is the low death toll, thanks to the foresight of the two state governments, which moved 700,000 people to shelters. Archbishop Thomas D'Souza of Calcutta is visiting places hit by the cyclone. Amphan has destroyed homes, crops, animals in at least 24 parishes. Churches and convents have also suffered damage, he told AsiaNews. I have sent a circular to all parish priests, religious superiors and school principals to provide food and shelter, wherever it is necessary, to those who were hit by the cyclone, without concern for belief or caste. In relief and reconstruction, Caritas is working with the Indian army. Card Oswald Gracias, president of Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), offered prayers and compassion for the loss of lives and livelihoods in West Bengal and Odisha. The Bishops, he said, "are one with the sufferings of the people". For this reason, he called on the civil and Church authorities to make every effort "to reach and help those who have been hit by the cyclone. (N.C.) By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Coming down heavily on Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the aim and purpose of the lockdown had failed to check Covid-19 spread in the country and the prime minister should explain the strategy for opening up as India was the only country relaxing the lockdown amid rising cases. Addressing a press conference via video-conferencing, Gandhi said the prime minister was quick to take the centre stage in the early stages of this battle, but now when his leadership is most needed, he has stepped back. The PM will accept that his first plan failed. The PM has gone on the back foot, I request him to play on the front foot. The PM had said the war against the coronavirus would be won in 21 days, but 60 days later, it is now clear that the lockdown has not been able to defeat the virus. The number of new cases in many areas around the country is increasing exponentially. Clearly, the prime minister and his advisors had underestimated the scale of the battle India had to launch to defeat Covid, he said. The Congress party chief said state governments are fighting valiantly against the virus, but they are struggling because the funding that the central government should have made available to them has not been forthcoing. Hitting back, the BJP charged the former Congress president of shifting stands on the lockdown. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said Gandhi is exhibiting hypocrisy since he first opposed the imposition of the lockdown and now is finding problems in the graded relaxations. At a time when the country is waging a decisive battle against the national calamity, Rahul Gandhi has resorted to negativism, which the people have rejected long back. The Covid-19 cases were doubling in three days when the lockdown was imposed. Now, the doubling rate is 13 days, which is a success for the lockdown as the containment strategy, he said. Rahul Gandhi keeps raising the issue of the migrant labourers. But none of the Congress-ruled states has taken any measures to the benefits of the migrant labourers, added Javadekar. Infuse cash into hands of people Rahul Gandhi said the government must infuse cash into hands of people and it will be fatal if they do not do it. It is important the government share concrete plans for how it intends to deal with our migrants crisis, he said You may like them or not, but almost everyone knows them: brown algae such as Fucus vesiculosus, commonly known as bladderwrack, grow along the entire German coast. Giant kelp like Macrocystis or Sargassum grow closely together along the coasts but can also form floating aggregates that can cover the Atlantic from west to east. Some ecologists see this this very productive ecosystem as a marine counterpart to rainforests on land. In these algal forests, large amounts of carbon dioxide are stored, making them an important part of the global carbon cycle. Andreas Sichert from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology dedicated his PhD to the question how brown algae can be such a good sink of carbon: "Main constituents of algal biomass are their cell walls - a tight network of proteins and long-chained sugars. When the algae die, we actually have little clue about the fate of algal biomass in the ocean, for example which compounds are degraded fast or slowly". Firm and flexible The Atlantic coast is not a cozy habitat. Tides, wind and waves demand special adaptations from the inhabitants of this harsh environment. Brown algae developed a special cell wall structure, making them both firm and flexible, and enabling the plant to successfully withstand heavy currents and waves. A major component of the cell walls is the polysaccharide fucoidan, a long-chained sugar accounting for about a quarter of algal dry mass. Likely, fucoidan can regulate the water content of the cell wall which protects brown algae from drying out at low tide. What role this sugar plays in the long degradation process of brown algae was analyzed by scientists from the research group Marine Glycobiology at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and the MARUM, Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen. For their study, they cooperated with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from the University of Greifswald and from the University of Vienna. "It was already known that microbial communities hydrolyze fucoidan slower than other algal polysaccharides and thus fucoidan might act as carbon sink" says Andreas Sichert from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, first author of the study, published in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology in May 2020. "Usually, polysaccharides are a favorite energy source for bacteria, but the reason why fucoidan should be barely digestible remained unclear". Only specialists degrade this sugar So far, the fucoidan degradation pathways were only partially known, but it was evident that they involve a substantial number of enzymes either distributed within a microbial community or housed within individual, highly specialized bacteria. The scientists from Bremen examined the latter theory and analyzed newly isolated bacteria of the genus Lentimonas, belonging to the phylum Verrucomicrobia. Even the isolation of these Lentimonas bacteria was challenging. "From initially more than thousand colonies, only one was able to degrade fucoidan in the end," remembers Christopher H. Corzett from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first author of the study next to Andreas Sichert. "We could show that Lentimonas acquired a remarkably complex machinery for the degradation of fucoidan that uses about one hundred enzymes to liberate the sugar fucose - a part of fucoidan", says Jan-Hendrik Hehemann, leader of the research group Marine Glycobiology. This is probably one of the most complicated biochemical degradation pathways for natural material that we know of." Fucose is then metabolized via a bacterial microcompartment, a proteinaceous shell that shields the cell from the toxic intermediate lactaldehyde. The need for such a complex catabolic pathway underpins the recalcitrance of fucoidans for most marine bacteria and it shows that only highly specialized organisms in the ocean are able to break down this algal sugar," says Hehemann. This can explain the slower turnover of the algal biomass in the environment and suggests that fucoidans sequester carbon in the ocean." Potential for pharmacology Scientists are also interested in enzymes for fucoidan degradation because it may be a pharmacologically active molecule that shows similar effects to heparin in blood clotting. "Enzymes that specifically fragment fucoidan and thus help to characterize its structure are of great scientific interest because they enable researchers to understand the effects of fucoidan and to open up these marine sugars for biotechnological applications," says Thomas Schweder, participating microbiologist from the University of Greifswald. ### Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Michael Flipse, sport management major, working at Toledo Food Bank By Meredith Troxel 20 One Bowling Green State University student has geared up to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Flipse, a senior sport management major from Pemberville, Ohio, serves in the 148th U.S. Army National Guard as a mortarman, or 11-C. According to the U.S. Army website, a mortarman loads mortars and even employs and fires mines. He was called to activate by his readiness NCO (non-commissioned officer) and had one day between receiving his call and having to report for activation. Flipse and his colleagues were activated until May 30, at the earliest. They are working at the Toledo Food Bank, helping pack and distribute food to families in Toledo. Working with the food bank has been a great experience, Flipse said. There is an awesome group of people working there who want to positively impact and help the community. People tend to smile and start small talk. We have joked a lot with the people in Toledo, really just trying to smile and show them were going to get through this weird time. In March, Flipses activation group was heading home from the day and saw a crash on the side of the road. The driver had overdosed and loss control of the vehicle. His group was more than four cars behind the crash, but they pulled over to help. His friend and fellow soldier, bashed the drivers window, pulling her out and helping while they waited for the paramedics to arrive. Like Flipse, many BGSU students in the National Guard and Reserve have been helping their communities while also balancing the rest of remote learning. The Office of Nontraditional and Military Student Services (NTMSS) at BGSU has continued to help students stay up to date with their online classwork while working full days in their military activation sites. BGSU has 700 military affiliated students and about 200 are Ohio National Guard and Reserve students. BGSU students start their military career in different periods of their college career. Many join the military after starting at the University, while others have completed basic training and received their assignments at their unit before joining BGSU as a student. NTMSS helps students balance military and student life, while supporting them during military activations and deployments. The office also awards scholarships to its military soldiers and students and stays open outside of office hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to help students whose schedules do not run in that same time frame. We assist students from application to graduation, said Dr. Barbara Henry, assistant vice president of Nontraditional and Military Student Services, We help students connect to their military benefits, provide academic advising, support the Student Veterans of America student organization, provide peer tutoring in math and science, and peer support for transitioning military students new to BGSU. -Thousands of migrants gather at a ground in Wadala, Mumbai, to wait for buses that will ferry them to the railway station as the coronavirus lockdown was imposed in Mumbai on Tuesday. Photo: Rajesh Jadhav Mumbai: As the political slugfest between Maharashtra government and Railways has refused to die down, thousands of migrants were looking for alternate ways to make their way out of Maharashtra. Many migrants were seen gathered at a ground in Wadala, waiting for buses to ferry them to the railway station. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that the Railways had planned 145 trains for Tuesday but only 13 trains could be run till 3.00 pm due to lack of passengers. The railways accused the state of not providing details of the passengers, as a result of which many Shramik Special trains had to be cancelled. On request of Maharashtra Govt, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers. Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 26, 2020 "Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled. After meticulous planning and sustained effort, the Railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26," a statement issued by the Railways said. "Till 12 noon, 25 trains were planned from Maharashtra to run but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding of the first train could only commence at CSMT at 12.30 pm," it said. Over the last couple of days, the state government and Railways had engaged in a war of words, with the former alleging that the Railways has not provided enough trains to the state to ferry migrants to their respective states. However, Goyal on Sunday night said that the Railways was ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to the state "Since you have said that you have a list ready that is why I am requesting you to please provide all information like from where the train will run, the list of passengers according to the trains, their medical certificate and where the train is to go, to the General Manager of Central Railway within the next hour, so that we can plan the time of trains," he tweeted. Commenting on it, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday tweeted, "Maharashtra government has given you a list of workers who wish to return home. The only request is that the train should reach the station, as announced earlier." Meanwhile on Tuesday, heavy rush was also seen at Dharavi,a covid-19 hotspot, as hundreds of migrnants made their way to Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, to leave the city. People who own second homes and caravans need to abide by the coronavirus restrictions and not place those who live and work in visitor hotspots in danger, residents of Portstewart and Portrush have said. They were speaking after hundreds of cars filled with day-trippers, people with second homes or caravans and other out-of-town visitors descended on the two seaside towns on Sunday. So many arrived that the PSNI was forced to close off some roads into Portrush and re-issue a reminder to people to follow Government rules to stay at home. However, after the First and Deputy First Ministers relaxed restrictions to allow people to leave their local area and drive to somewhere else for exercise, there has been some confusion about what is or is not acceptable. Yesterday there was no repeat of the large number of visitors that descended on the North Coast on Sunday, suggesting that people had perhaps listened to the advice of the police - although the dull, overcast sky probably played a role. As the waves rolled in along Portstewart Strand yesterday there were just a few dozen hardy souls there, meaning ample space for social distancing. Among those taking in the scenery was Samantha Marshall from Portrush who had cycled the four miles that separate the two towns for some quiet time at the beach. She said: "You could hardly move in Portrush on Sunday and this morning there was rubbish lying everywhere. "The town was full of bikers, cruisers, and people who were not local. Portrush is not a big place and you know the people who live there because you see them everyday so when it fills up, you know it is strangers. "I saw loads of second homes opened up and you can see why people who live in Belfast might want to come to their second home in Portrush but the big worry is there could be a second spike of coronavirus so our health is being put at risk. "Our family has a second home in Donegal and I would love to be in it but we haven't been there in months because we are trying to be responsible." Police officers were on foot patrol yesterday in Portrush but the number of people walking along the shore front or streets were few and far between. Business was fairly quiet at Tom Tom's Bakery in Portrush yesterday but 24 hours earlier trade had been brisk. Expand Close Sebastien Peirzchalski / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sebastien Peirzchalski Owner Sebastien Peirzchalski said: "We were busy yesterday (Sunday) with a lot of local people and also a lot of people who are not local - but they are not strangers to us because they have second homes and caravans here. "They told us they had come to open up their homes and let the fresh air in but there is a lot of confusion about why they cannot stay here in their homes or caravans. "I don't think the Government has thought things through enough." Mervyn Lewers who had travelled from his home in Londonderry to Portstewart yesterday said he was doing nothing wrong as far as he could fathom. Expand Close Mervyn Lewers / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mervyn Lewers He said: "I came here for a walk along the promenade and a coffee for the good of my mental health and wellbeing - and that, as far as I know, is permitted and within the Government guidelines. "I am sitting here looking for a suitable place where I can take my grandson fishing as soon as the restrictions on that are lifted. "There is no one near me and I can see no difference in what I am doing here than if I was standing in a queue for a supermarket - in fact there would be more people in the supermarket queue. "It was announced last week that people can get in their car and leave their locality for exercise. That is what I have done." Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. New Delhi, May 26 : Xiaomi's sub-brand Redmi on Tuesday launched its wireless earphones the Earbuds S for Rs 1,799 in India. The Redmi Earbuds S will go on sale on May 27 and will be available via Amazon India, Mi.com, Mi Home stores and Mi Studio outlets. It will soon be available across all retail channels, said the company. " Features like the compact design and IPX4 rating increase the versatility of Redmi Earbuds S, allowing usage across different scenarios. We hope that with the Redmi Earbuds S, our consumers have a great audio experience," Anuj Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Xiaomi India said in a statement. The device features dedicated gaming mode (low-latency mode), reducing audio lag while playing games. According to the company, the Earbuds S are capable of providing 12 hours of usage with the charging case. For enhanced usability in multiple scenarios, the earbuds come with IPX4 rating, making it sweat and splash resistant. Redmi Earbuds S also features environmental noise cancellation (ENC). -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The Lagos State government has explained that it does not have the authority to unilaterally order the reopening of schools in the State. This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Education, Folashade Adefisayo during an online programme, Covinspiration show, moderated by a United Nations (UN) Youth Ambassador, Dayo Israel in Lagos. Also Read: Lagos To Close Marine Beach Bridge For Five Months Adefisayo disclosed that the State government was meeting with officials of the Federal Ministry of Education to draw up guidelines ahead of reopening of schools. Advertisement Adefisayo said the government, which also plans to recruit additional 2,000 teachers, was watching the behaviour of COVID-19 to determine the next step to take. Smiths Medical announced today it has joined several of the worlds other ventilator manufacturers in the Ventilator Training Alliance (VTA) to support frontline medical providers access to a centralized repository of ventilator training. The content can be found in a mobile app managed by Allego. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005108/en/ Ventilator Training Alliance App (Photo: Business Wire) Smiths Medical is proud to be a part of the VTA by providing training for our ventilators through the Allego app, said Jeffrey Hohn, Vice President, Global Product and Commercial Excellence, Strategy and M&A at Smiths Medical. Improving healthcare around the world is the foundation of our mission. During this critical time, we understand healthcare professionals need ventilator information quickly and the app enables the right care delivered to their patients, quickly. The VTA app connects respiratory therapists, nurses and other medical professionals with ventilator training resources from alliance member companies. Included in the app are instructional how-to videos, manuals and troubleshooting guides critical to treating patients suffering from COVID-19 related respiratory distress. Ventilators play a critical role in the management of patients who require respiratory assistance due to a severe illness, such as COVID-19. Speed and ease of access to ventilator training could have a direct impact on patients health during the COVID-19 crisis. Content on the VTA app can be accessed on iOS and Android devices even in environments with little to no Wi-Fi access or from a web browser. The app provides healthcare professionals multi-language closed captioning and mobile background audio when multitasking. How to Access the Ventilator Training Alliance Hub The app is provided at no cost to medical professionals. To download the Ventilator Training Alliance knowledge hub application, visit the Apple App Store or Google Play store, or access the hub from any web browser. Watch a video overview of the VTA app. About the Ventilator Training Alliance The Ventilator Training Alliance provides a library of training and product resources for medical professionals. Created through a partnership between ventilator manufacturers, including Drager, GE Healthcare, Getinge, Hamilton Medical, Medtronic, Nihon Kohden, Smiths Medical, and Philips, and powered by Allego, the central knowledge hub provides free mobile access to video tutorials, instruction manuals, and other training materials for equipment that is critical to helping clinicians treat patients suffering from COVID-19 related respiratory distress. If you are a ventilator manufacturer and would like to join the alliance, please send your request to: [email protected]. About Smiths Medical A leading supplier of specialized medical devices and equipment for global markets, focusing on the medication delivery, vital care and safety devices market segments. For more information, visit www.smiths-medical.com. About Smiths Group A global technology company that has been operating for nearly 170 years, delivering products and services for the medical technology, security & defence, general industrial, energy and space & commercial aerospace markets worldwide. Smiths Group plc employs c. 23,000 colleagues in over 50 countries and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. For more information visit www.smiths.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005108/en/ The debate will take an in-depth look at the potential of the Chinese outbound leisure market now that China seems to have the viral outbreak under control and domestic tourism is growing once again. Many Middle East travel professionals will be looking for insight into the current state of the market and more importantly, how and when to start planning for inbound Chinese visitors. Danielle Curtis, Exhibition director Middle East, Arabian Travel Market, said: Travel and tourism professionals around the globe will not need reminding that the global industry has been hit badly by the effects of Covid-19 but in China we are witnessing the green-shoots of recovery. The relatively swift rebound of domestic travel during the May Golden Week Holiday in China for example, underscores the bullish view of certain analysts regarding Chinas integral role in leading the global tourism industry post Covid-19s closed borders. Some hoteliers in China were reporting occupancy levels for the recent national holiday in excess of 45% with resort markets close to 70%, a significant improvement from the overall average of 30% occupancy, confirming leisure demand is robust. Specifically, The Virtual ATM China Tourism Forum will focus on the potential recovery of outbound travel and how Chinese travellers have been changing the way that they access information about foreign destinations and making contacts with local hotels, tour operators and ground handlers. Moderated by Dr. Adam Wu, the panellists for this session, which takes place on day two (Tuesday 2nd June) at 11am to 12pm GST (8am to 9am BST), include Dr. Taleb Rifai, Chairman, International Institute of Peace for Tourism (IIPT) and former Secretary General of the UNWTO; H.E. Khalid Jasim al-Midfa, Chairman, Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority; Helen Shapovalova, Founder & Director, Pan Ukraine; Lisa Dinh, Tourism Director, VIA Outlets and Tony Ong, Chief Business Officer and Vice President of HCG International Travel Group, which has over 7000 local travel agents across China focusing on outbound travel. The experts will share their opinion and experience on how to overcome the current crisis by identifying new buying patterns, new demand streams and innovative ways of reaching customers as well as of course enhancing existing partnerships. We have an impressive line-up of tourism experts and Dr. Wus credentials are exemplary. He is CEO of CBN Travel & Mice and World Travel Online, which is the leading outbound travel portal on the China Wide Web providing destination information in Chinese to the entire outbound travel trade and millions of Chinese travellers, added Curtis. With it being a live session, members of the online audience will also have a chance to ask questions, through a Q+A function at the end of the discussion. In addition, viewers will also have an opportunity to share and exchange thoughts and ideas, during a speed networking session, immediately following the panel debate. Another highlight of ATM virtual, will be a series of hour-long speed networking sessions, between key buyers and exhibitors, will culminate in over 1,400 5-minute meetings that can then be extended into more in-depth meetings where a business need is identified. For exhibitors from this region, the dedicated networking event will also include one specifically targeting Chinese buyers, said Curtis. Over three days, ATM Virtual, will also feature a host of comprehensive webinars, live conference sessions, roundtables, speed networking events, one-to-one meetings, as well as facilitating new connections and offering a wide range of online business opportunities. With up to four live high-level sessions each day, industry experts will address a range of topics including tourism strategies for the future, the hotel landscape in a post-COVID-19 world, and the resilience of the travel industry, as well as exploring emerging travel technology and sustainability trends, amongst other key topics. Sessions on the first day of the virtual event include, amongst others, Communicating and Building Confidence Now and The Hotel landscape in a post-COVID-19 world. Day two will also include the sessions entitled, Bouncing Back: Tourism Strategies for the Future and Catapulting Resilience Through Technology and Analytics. On day three, the event will conclude with the International Travel Investment Conference summit, Restructuring to attract sustainable investment and customers in the new world order. Arabian Travel Market would like to thank the Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia and the Italian Tourist Board for their support of ATM Virtual as Gold Sponsors. ATM Virtual takes place from Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd June 2020. To register for the event please visit: atmvirtual.eventnetworking.com/register/ H.E. Khalid Jasim al-Midfa Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has ordered a top-level probe into concerns counterfeit face masks were issued to doctors and nurses who may have been caring for coronavirus patients. The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Tuesday was instructed to investigate whether defective face masks had been sold to some private hospitals by companies exploiting a loophole in regulations. One major retailer temporarily withdrew some masks from sale after The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday reported experts' fears that Australia had been flooded with dodgy imitations of N95 face masks after the TGA relaxed its registration rules. Department of Health acting secretary Caroline Edwards told a Senate committee hearing the TGA would investigate health workers' concerns. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Acting federal Health Department secretary Caroline Edwards, under questioning on Tuesday during the Senate inquiry into the government's COVID-19 response, said the TGA would investigate the concerns, but rejected the suggestion that defective masks had been let through by the rule change. T he World Health Organization has suspended testing hydroxychloroquine on Covid-19 patients due to safety concerns. Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday trials of the malaria drug on coronavirus patients have been halted in several countries. Hydroxychloroquine has been touted by Donald Trump and others as a possible treatment for the disease and the US president even said he was taking the drug to help prevent infection. The news comes as a study in a scientific journal said the drug was linked to an increased risk of death and heart arrhythmias among people severely ill in hospital with coronavirus. Dr Tedros told an online briefing: The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board. He said the other arms of the trial - a major international initiative to hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus - were continuing. WHO said it had temporarily suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine / AFP via Getty Images The WHO has previously recommended against using hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent coronavirus infections, except as part of clinical trials. Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said the decision to suspend trials of hydroxychloroquine had been taken out of an abundance of caution. It comes as experts have said hydroxychloroquine offers no benefit to patients hospitalised with Covid-19. According to a new study published in The Lancet, researchers found that the drug and related medicine chloroquine was linked to an increased risk of death. The suspension of trials is a precautionary measure / AFP via Getty Images The authors of the new study said neither drug should be used to treat Covid-19 outside of clinical trials and said randomised clinical trials were needed. The Lancet study analysed data from almost 15,000 patients with Covid-19 receiving the drugs and 81,000 people who did not. Treatment with the medications among patients with Covid-19, either alone or in combination with antibiotics, was linked to an increased risk of serious heart rhythm complications and death. But the authors stressed that anyone taking these drugs for other conditions should not stop taking them as the trial looked specifically at coronavirus strain. UK returns to work as Coronavirus restrictions are eased - In pictures 1 /38 UK returns to work as Coronavirus restrictions are eased - In pictures Londoners returning to work near London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Emergency as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Cyclists travel in central London AFP via Getty Images Emergency as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Alan Price on his Penny Farthing this morning on Battersea Bridge Jeremy Selwyn Delivery men are seen outside a reopened McDonald's with take-out only deliveries in Dalston Reuters Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases Nigel Howard Worlds End Nurseries in Chelsea opens for business. Customer Nika Kucifer is shown flowers by Janson Lotery Nigel Howard Londoners going back to work at Waterloo Jeremy Selwyn People ride bicycles in a cycle lane in Chelsea PA Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases Nigel Howard Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases Nigel Howard Jubilee Line tube commuters as lockdown eases. Nigel Howard Matt Writtle Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Vehicles are seen on the M56 motorway near Manchester, Reuters Londoners going back to work at Waterloo Jeremy Selwyn Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Monty's first day back. West Highland Terrier Monty commutes to work on his bike on his first day back with owner Darragh McElroy. Monty, who's Instagram account is @monty_whitehall_westie, works at the Cabinet Office in Whitehall with his owner Darragh who is Deputy Director of Coronavirus Communications at the Cabinet Office Matt Writtle Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn A commuter wears a mask at Canning Town station Reuters Rush hour on the M6 at the junction for Birmingham/Walsall on the first morning of the eased Coronavirus lockdown PA Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Commuters, some wearing masks are seen on a London Underground tube, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease Reuters Londoners going back to work at Vauxhall Jeremy Selwyn Commuters, some wearing masks are seen at Stratford station, Reuters Cyclists in Chelsea today. Nigel Howard Professor Mandeep Mehra, lead author of the study and executive director of the Brigham and Womens Hospital Centre for Advanced Heart Disease in Boston in the US, said: This is the first large scale study to find statistically robust evidence that treatment with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine does not benefit patients with Covid-19. Instead, our findings suggest it may be associated with an increased risk of serious heart problems and increased risk of death. Randomised clinical trials are essential to confirm any harms or benefits associated with these agents. In the meantime, we suggest these drugs should not be used as treatments for Covid-19 outside of clinical trials. The researchers estimated that the excess risk attributable to the use of the drugs rather than other factors such as underlying health issues ranged from 34 per cent to 45 per cent. Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the school of medicine at the University of Leeds, called for more research but said: This is potentially a landmark study for Covid-19 therapy. Whilst not a placebo-controlled trial, an observational study on this scale undertaken with stringent and meticulous analysis is powerful indeed. The key finding of this study is that neither single, nor combination therapy with either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine appear to provide any patient benefit in large numbers of Covid-19 infected patients. Moreover, and worryingly, such therapy actually may be harmful as treatment was associated with cardiovascular problems relating to heart rhythm. Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said more research was needed, but added: A definitive answer still awaits the results of the randomised trials, but it is clear that the drugs should not be given for treatment of Covid-19 other than in the context of a randomised trial. It might even be said that to go on giving them other than in a trial is unethical, given this evidence that is not yet contradicted by other available evidence. US President Donald Trump has been criticised after he said he had nothing to lose by taking hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat malaria and arthritis, despite warnings it could be unsafe. Earlier this week it was announced that a trial to see whether the drugs could prevent Covid-19 had begun in Brighton and Oxford. Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine or a placebo will be given to more than 40,000 healthcare workers from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. Older adults are among those who are particularly vulnerable to severe illness and death from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That's why health officials are encouraging people over 65 to stay home even as some states loosen restrictions put in place because of the pandemic. For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, and the vast majority recover within a few weeks. NHLANGANO A group of armed police officers allegedly smashed doors and shattered glasses in their wake as they rummaged through several homesteads. A number of startled residents of Nedso, outside Nhlangano, spent the entire day counting their losses yesterday following the early morning raids which were apparently targeted at certain youths, who allegedly assaulted a police officer who was on duty during a recent clash in the area. The group of over 10 police officers is said to have stormed the area at around 3am yesterday, forcing entry into about seven homesteads, without even identifying any occupants. Although some of the homesteads were unoccupied, the police officers allegedly continued to ransack the houses, leaving everything inside upside down. Armed Other families said they woke up to the sound of breaking doors as the heavily armed officers forced entry without even introducing themselves. One particular elderly woman told this publication that a group of armed officers entered her residence shortly before 5am and pointed guns at everyone inside, before they rummaged through the property. We were terrified. They were asking us about the whereabouts of certain young men from the area. They were pointing guns at us, she said. At the time, the occupants of the house had no idea why their house had been targeted, or why police had forced entry into their homestead. We did our best to cooperate, with our hands held up high in the air as they ransacked the house, narrated the woman. Another resident described how much she was shocked when she returned to her house to find it a mess. She said she had gone to visit a relative over the weekend. I first received a call from a neighbour who told me police were terrorising people around the area. I did not pay much attention because I had no business to do with the police, not knowing that my house was also raided. I was shocked when I found several items, including my ceramic plates broken into pieces, said the upset resident. The resident said what annoyed them was that the police did not find anything inside their houses or make any arrests. She said the police exercised excessive force from the very beginning, yet there was no one obstructing them in whatever they were doing. Lets say they were looking for something, why didnt they introduce themselves in a civilized manner instead of breaking doors, and pointing guns at innocent people? Who is going to compensate us for the damage they caused in our houses, and why are these people really terrorising us? she asked. The disgruntled residents hinted they were contemplating taking legal action against the police over what they described as wrongful raids. Assaulted Other community members said they were assaulted, and their cellphones confiscated by the police. The early morning raid was confirmed by the areas Indvuna who was only identified by his last name, Vilakati. There has been a heightened police interest in the area. It came after some youths clashed with the police recently. We have also heard about the complaints from the community. As the community leadership, we are not against police visibility or them doing their work. In the same vein we do not condone any attack on police officers. I have already been sent by the areas elders to go and have an audience with police superiors over the same issue, said Vilakati. Confirmed Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that police had been to the area, searching for certain individuals who were involved in a recent attack on some officers who were on duty. It is really important for people to understand what we are doing to root out crime from society. What we know is that a search was launched for these particular individuals, but we are not aware of any vandalised property. However, anyone who feels they may have been wronged is free to approach the police and lodge a complaint, she said. Confrontation: Hong Kong police pour water on an activist hit by pepper spray during a protest earlier this year. Photo: Reuters China yesterday defended proposed national security laws in Hong Kong by claiming that some of last year's mass pro-democracy protests amounted to terrorism. A number of government departments issued statements defending the proposal, which provoked the biggest protest in the city since the coronavirus lockdown. Crowds thronged city streets on Sunday, many chanting: "Hong Kong independence, the only way out." Pro-democracy activists say the laws could erode freedoms guaranteed by the "one country, two systems" agreement under which Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997. They could see Chinese intelligence agencies set up bases in the semi-autonomous territory, one of the world's leading financial hubs. Xie Feng, China's foreign commissioner in Hong Kong, said the new legislation would target "troublemakers" who had posed "imminent danger" to China's national security. "The legislation will alleviate the grave concerns among local and foreign business communities about the violent and terrorist forces," Mr Xie said. He declined to clarify specifics, including when the full legislation would be enacted, what specific acts would be outlawed, and whether it would have retroactive effect. Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials have come out in recent days seeking to reassure investors their interests would not be harmed and criticising protesters. Police commissioner Chris Tang cited 14 cases involving explosives which he said were commonly used in terrorist attacks overseas, and five seizures of firearms and ammunition since protests began. Secretary for Security John Lee said "terrorism is growing" and harmful activities such as calling for Hong Kong's independence were becoming more rampant. Police said they arrested more than 180 people on Sunday, firing tear gas and water cannon for the first time in months. The US, Australia, Britain, Canada and others have already expressed concerns about the security legislation, seen as a potential turning point for China's freest city. Washington is considering whether to maintain Hong Kong's special status in US law, which secures its position as a global financial centre. In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian accused the US of "flagrantly interfering" in China's national security legislation. Taiwan is also considering revoking the special status it extends to Hong Kong, which is likely to anger the authorities in Beijing. The Media Advocate initiative has posted the following on its Facebook page: Right of the media to ask the Prime Minister questions and receive answers directly is being restricted According to the statement issued by the Department of Information and Public Relations of the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Starting from May 26, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan will be regularly holding briefings with Deputy Prime Minister, Commandant for the state of emergency Tigran Avinyan and Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan after the sessions of the Commandants Office, as reported the news department of the Government of Armenia. The briefings will be held online and will be exclusively devoted to the coronavirus pandemic, the steps that the Commandants Office is taking to prevent the spread of the pandemic, the rearmament of the healthcare system and other issues related to this. During each briefing, the Prime Minister and the other participants will answer two questions. Before each briefing, the news service of the Prime Minister will contact two media outlets to receive their questions of concern, and those questions will be addressed live. This is a de facto restriction on the right of the media to ask the Prime Minister questions and receive answers directly. The statement doesnt state how the Prime Minister will select the media outlets to which he will give answers, the statement reads. The Media Advocate initiative emphasizes that it will follow the course of the regular briefings and calls on media outlets to contact the Media Advocate initiative, if they notice violation of their rights. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Good morning, Bay Area. Its Tuesday, May 26, and Bay Area high school students are trying stay upbeat about unconventional graduation ceremonies. Heres what you need to know to start your day. Theres been buzz around antiviral drug remdesivir after a federal clinical trial indicated it could reduce the time COVID-19 patients spend in the hospital. But its becoming clear to experts that the drug, produced by Gilead Sciences in Foster City, will not make waves just by itself. Remdesivir is not a silver bullet, said Lloyd Minor, dean of Stanford Universitys School of Medicine. Its not the type of drug that you give it to someone and theyre instantly cured of this virus. So drug companies are looking to set up clinical trials for potential treatments used in tandem with remdesivir, including one sponsored by the federal government. Bay Area doctors and researchers at Stanford and UCSF are also exploring other drugs for their effectiveness to fight the coronavirus, as reporter J.D. Morris explains in depth. Swift communication is essential: Medical interpreters have taken a crucial role in the coronavirus pandemic to bridge language barriers, providing vital information and comfort during difficult conditions. Crowdsourcing the coronavirus: A new website relies on anonymous self-reporting of coronavirus symptoms to determine where the disease is spreading or receding. Californias far north dries up Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle Farmers in Northern California counties along the Oregon border are in trouble. The dry winter has put their crops at risk as the Klamath Project, a federally owned water management operation that sends water to more than 200,000 acres, might not have enough after next month. I grew up here, and Ive never seen it this dry, said Tricia Hill, a farmer in California and Oregon. You could watch the cows walk in April and see dust come out of the grass. Many of these small towns have been reeling for years now, with many people moving out, leaving empty storefronts and abandoned barns. Reporter Kurtis Alexander details the drought emergency up north and how it could devastate many farmers and their livelihoods. A teachable moment Constanza Hevia H. / Special to The Chronicle The coronavirus has led many Americans to face increased anxiety about leaving home and adopt rituals such as excessive handwashing. This has shined a light on individuals suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, who have often seen their issues dismissed. For some, their worries have grown with the pandemic. But others have found strength and calmness because their treatment has equipped them with the tools to handle these types of situations. Yet, according to a 2011 Singapore study, 90% of individuals with OCD dont get treatment. Experts hope that the pandemic raises awareness of OCD and gets help to those who need it. Peter Hartlaub writes about the OCD community, its fight for effective treatment, and its desire to put an end to stereotypes. Making the most of it Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle High school graduation is usually a time filled with rituals and events that commemorate a major milestone in their lives. But for the class of 2020, the pandemic ripped away cherished traditions including prom and senior skip day. Packed, gleeful graduation ceremonies are being replaced with drive-through parades, virtual ceremonies and socially distant cap-and-gown photos. It sucks, but theres not much we can do about it, said Castro Valley High student Jakob Kidd. Theres no one I can be mad at other than the virus. This has led to emotional experiences for many Bay Area students, who are trying to process the harsh reality. Read more from reporter Ron Kroichick about how Bay Area high schools are handling graduations and how some students are coping. Also: The shutdown of City College of San Franciscos Fort Mason campus because of pandemic-related financial challenges has led to student protests. UC San Diego started a program on May 11 to administer coronavirus tests to students, faculty and staff with a goal of reaching 1,500 tests a day in the fall in hopes of reopening the campus. Prop. 13 ballot fight worsens Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle The debates revolving around a proposed Proposition 13 change, which seeks to raise $12 billion annually for schools and local government, have become even more heated during the pandemic because it would raise property taxes for many California businesses. Properties assessed at less than $3 million and residential properties would be exempt from the tax. But opponents say this could further cripple many businesses that are already struggling from the effects of the pandemic. At the same time, passage of the measure would provide a much-needed $12 billion revenue stream to help remedy potential deep budget cuts to the states school system and city budget problems, including in San Francisco and Oakland. Health care officials also worry about cuts to essential services that are necessary during the coronavirus crisis. Read more from reporter Joe Garofoli. Around the Bay Stephen Lam / Special to The Chronicle From useless to useful: A UCSF doctor assembled a team of volunteers to refurbish thousands of expired N95 masks to distribute to organizations in need. Never forget: The USS San Francisco Memorial Foundation hosted a virtual memorial with private wreath-laying and ceremonial bell-ringing services in San Bruno and San Francisco. Churches can reopen: Gov. Newsom announced Monday that places of worship may reopen at 25% capacity, but the state Public Health Department recommended churches continue with remote services. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The future of cities: Urban design critic John King examines what life might look like in post-shutdown cities. No more youth prisons? In a recently proposed budget, Gov. Newsom looks to shutter the remaining juvenile state facilities, and any future offenders would go to a county juvenile hall or alternative setting. Another big hit: San Franciscos fishing industry received a major blow after a huge fire destroyed a processing and storage warehouse at Fishermans Wharf. Robots can help: Some industries may benefit in the future from robots being developed or already deployed that could do tasks now considered risky, including restocking grocery store shelves and disinfecting hospital rooms. Guerrilla history: The Western Neighborhoods Project is teaching San Francisco residents about their neighborhoods with historic photos taped to telephone poles across the city. Running nonstop: Disinfectants are one of the most sought after products during the pandemic, and Oakland firm Clorox has seen an unprecedented surge in sales and demand as the company tries to keep up. Also: South San Francisco company Sees Candies has resumed production at its Bay Area and Los Angeles candy kitchens. Show must go on: Local musicians have been performing virtually to help music venues, which have not been able to bring in any revenue, survive the pandemic. Reducing risk: Experts discuss what seeing loved ones and friends in person may look like as cities continue to reopen, and how to do it safely with the least amount of risk. Also: What you should know about the life-threatening inflammatory condition affecting children. Chronicle Food Chris Kaufman / Special to The Chronicle The reopening of Californias wineries has been particularly challenging. To reopen tasting rooms, wineries must provide full meals, which has some owners scrambling to begin food service,while others remain closed because of the logistics or added safety hazards. Many vintners are upset by this requirement, arguing that wineries often have plenty of room for social distancing and outdoor space. It has pushed Napa Countys Board of Supervisors to request permission from the state to reopen wineries. But the other side of the argument is that wineries tend to bring visitors from far away, with 65% of Napa Valleys yearly visitors coming from out of town. Wine critic Esther Mobley delves into the special situations that wineries are in as cities and towns begin to reopen. More: While many Bay Area restaurants are suffering in the pandemic, some owners who expanded delivery, offered at-home meal kits and sold groceries have found success. Many bakeries have thrived as well. Several organizations have sprung up in the pandemic to help Bay Area restaurants stay afloat while feeding frontline workers. Gov. Gavin Newsom picked this Napa Valley hot spot to announce his restaurant policy. Bay Briefing is edited by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact Brown at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top aide Dominic Cummings defied calls to resign on Monday over allegations that he broke coronavirus rules and undermined the government's response to the health crisis. The Brexit campaign strategist told reporters he had acted "reasonably and legally" when he drove across the country with his wife while she was suffering from the virus in early April. "I don't regret what I did... I think reasonable people may well disagree", he said. Britain was then recording hundreds of deaths daily and following strict lockdown rules requiring people with even the slightest symptoms to stay at home for at least a week. "I have not offered to resign. No, I did not consider it," a visibly nervous Cummings said. "In this very complex situation, I tried to exercise my judgement the best I could. I believe that in all circumstances I behaved reasonably and legally." Cummings did not apologise for his behaviour but did express regret for not asking Johnson -- himself already hospitalised for COVID-19 -- for permission to travel during the lockdown's most restrictive phase. "Arguably, this was a mistake and I understand that some will say that I should have spoken to the prime minister before deciding what to do," Cummings said. His "no regrets" comment was the headline for several major newspapers Tuesday. "No apology. No regrets," said the right-wing tabloid Daily Mail, asking "So how can he survive?" - Flouting rules - The scandal raging around his decision to drive to his parents' house while he and his wife were sick threatens to undermine Johnson in the heat of a health emergency that has claimed nearly 37,000 lives. Johnson announced on Monday that all shops could reopen on June 15, but it was all but ignored by TV stations and newspapers mesmerised by Cummings -- seen as one of the most powerful civil servants of the modern era -- fighting for his political life. The 48-year-old was already a lightning rod for many Britons over his role in orchestrating the 2016 Brexit campaign that eventually saw Britain pull out of the European Union after nearly 50 years on January 31. Politicians of all stripes have been joined by scientific advisers and even some members of the clergy in condemning Cummings for flouting the rules. "If you give the impression there's one rule for them and one rule for us, you fatally undermine that sense of 'we're all in this together'," scientific adviser Stephen Reicher told ITV. - 'Not a great sign' - Johnson attempted to draw a line under the scandal in his second media appearance in two days. "I can understand why people might ask for resignations," Johnson told reporters. "But I think people will make up their own mind over what Cummings had to say." The ConservativeHome website published a rolling list of MPs from Johnson's Conservative party who have publicly called for Cummings to be dismissed. It had 20 names on Monday -- still too few to challenge Johnson's 80-seat majority in parliament but growing by the day. The Politico website noted that the list's publication "in itself is not a great sign for the prime minister". - Treating people 'as mugs' - Cummings is an enigmatic figure with an unconventional dress style and direct approach that has endeared him to a segment of Britons who have developed a distaste for the ruling elite. His role in spearheading the Brexit campaign was made into a TV film that further fed the mystique surrounding him. But the timing of the revelations about his travels could hardly be any worse. Britain is just starting to emerge from its coronavirus lockdown and the government wants everyone to keep observing social distancing rules in the coming months. Bishop Nick Baines accused Johnson of treating Britons "as mugs". "The moral question is not for Cummings -- it is for the PM and ministers/MPs who find this behaviour acceptable," the bishop tweeted. RESTON, Va., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, was awarded the Enterprise Standard Architecture V (ESA V) task order to provide managed IT services for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) within the Department of Justice (DOJ). The single award hybrid task order has one ten-month and two one-year base periods of performance followed by six one-year option periods. It includes a ceiling value not to exceed $850 million. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C. and Clinton, Miss., supporting both domestic and international customer sites. ESA V serves ATF and several other DOJ components, including the United States Trustee Program, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Antitrust Division, the Justice Management Division and the Office of the Inspector General. These DOJ components conduct law enforcement missions that are both unclassified and classified, on U.S. soil and outside of the continental U.S. Under the ESA V task order, Leidos will expand upon its continuous innovation, integration and improvement (C3I) model to facilitate economies of scale in managed IT services. These managed services include help desk, unified communications, application and hosting, monitoring and management, print, and user device experience. The program team will also support special operations as needed. "Leidos has a long standing relationship with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and we are excited to provide robust IT services that enable ATF and other Department of Justice component missions," said Jim Moos, Leidos Civil Group president. "This follow-on task order will offer new opportunities to solve problems and increase efficiencies enabling law enforcement to focus on their important work for the American people." About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 37,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $11.09 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2020. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 3, 2020, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. SOURCE Leidos Related Links https://www.leidos.com/ Pallbearers walk the casket carrying Henry James to the hearse in front of the Terry Funeral Home in Philadelphia on April 18. Mr. James died of Covid-19 on April 4. Read more The coronavirus may have killed up to 9% more Pennsylvanians than the reported death toll for the month of April, an Inquirer data analysis suggests. The states official number of COVID-19 deaths for the month is 3,200, but the number of deaths from all causes was 3,500 above the five-year average for April. That means as many as 300 additional deaths could have been due to coronavirus. In New Jersey, which has been more up to date in recording death certificates, the possible undercount is even larger. As of May 9, some 9,100 deaths had been attributed to COVID-19, while the number of deaths from any cause was more than 12,000 above the states five-year average in the same time period. If those deaths were due to coronavirus, that would increase the virus death tally by a dramatic 32%. As Yale University researchers have found elsewhere in the country, much of the likely undercount in each state can be explained by an unprecedented spike in deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza. Generally, deaths attributed to the flu are not confirmed with a laboratory test. And deaths due to pneumonia, whether blamed on the flu or not, are usually in steep decline by spring, said Esther Chernak, an associate professor at Drexel Universitys Dornsife School of Public Health. Not so this year. She and other infectious-disease experts say there is little explanation for the grim nationwide surge in flu and pneumonia deaths during March and April beside the obvious: COVID-19. It appears that doctors, pathologists, and funeral directors, unable to test for the new virus, mislabeled many early cases of the disease, which as of Tuesday has killed more than 5,100 Pennsylvanians. Theres no question that weve missed a number of cases, Chernak said. Precisely how many Americans have succumbed or likely will die from the virus has become an issue not only for medicine but also for politics. Fox News commentators and other conservatives have argued that the official tallies overstate the deaths and that some fatalities were mislabeled as COVID to exaggerate the crisis. President Donald Trump, who has argued vigorously that his policies have kept deaths far lower than forecast, skeptically took note of New York Citys revision in April that increased its death tally upward by 3,000. On Friday, Trump said he accepted the current death toll, but said that the figures could be lower than the official count, which is drawing close to 100,000. The Yale analysis found no evidence for an overcount, said Daniel Weinberger, an associate professor of epidemiology. "The supposition that COVID deaths are being overestimated doesnt seem to hold water," he said. Some of the additional deaths may be due to other causes, such as heart attacks or strokes that proved fatal because patients were reluctant to go to coronavirus-slammed hospitals, Chernak said. On the other hand, some heart-related deaths might be the result of the virus, as it is known to cause dangerous clots and other circulatory problems, Chernak said. With the shortage of testing early in the pandemic, a precise accounting may remain elusive. Odd rise in pneumonia and flu But the unusual increase in deaths attributed to pneumonia and flu is a strong indicator of missed COVID deaths, Chernak and Weinberger agreed. For Pennsylvania and New Jersey, The Inquirer counted the number of deaths due to pneumonia, flu, and COVID for the period from March 22 through May 9. That number was then compared with what pneumonia and flu deaths likely would have been during that period, based on historical trends. In fact, deaths from pneumonia and flu this year were actually running 15% under the typical numbers, until the virus hit. Pennsylvania saw 141 additional such deaths beyond the expected number, while New Jersey recorded an extra 750. As COVID diagnoses apparently improved, The Inquirers analysis showed, pneumonia and flu cases fell back to the predicted figure. Nationally, The Inquirer has found 8,500 likely COVID-19 deaths that were attributed to pneumonia or flu through May 2. Many states are still reporting their fatality data to the CDC, which is why the U.S. analysis ends a week earlier than the calculation for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. At Yale, Weinberger and colleagues tackled the same question. The teams methodology was more complex than The Inquirers, and only goes through April 25, but their findings are similar. Through April 25 the Yale team found 5,760 likely misdiagnosed deaths in the United States, 470 in New Jersey, and 120 in Pennsylvania. As virus deaths began to mount nationwide, researchers have repeatedly found a likely undercount in COVID fatalities, both for the country and for individual states. In their latest death-toll analysis, released May 15, Weinberger and his Yale team found as of April 25 an additional 30,000 deaths nationwide over and above regular death rates after accounting for the 50,000 virus deaths. That suggests an undercount by that point of 60%. However, until recently, Pennsylvania lacked death data reliable enough to figure out what could be happening in the state. The problem was due to lags in the compilation of death data, an issue the state addressed in March when it instructed funeral directors and others to submit death records electronically, rather than on paper. Over the last week, Pennsylvania has updated its death figures, especially for recent months. But it still cannot offer county-level data that would show potential undercounts for hard-hit Philadelphia and its collar counties. Looking at deaths by all causes As some of the missed COVID-19 deaths may be hidden in other categories besides pneumonia, researchers also are looking at deaths by all causes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking how much overall deaths in every state have differed from historical trends. That historical baseline number in each state is based on the five-year average number of deaths, plus or minus a statistical margin of error. In New Jersey, the CDC has calculated the number of deaths this year to be at least 11,500 above what would have been expected through May 9 (The Inquirers analysis found the difference was more than 12,000). Either way, New Jerseys deaths at that point were well beyond the 9,100 officially attributed to COVID. An accounting of the year to date is not yet possible in Pennsylvania, as data are incomplete prior to mid-March, when some funeral directors were still submitting death certificates on paper. As more data come in, the state continues to update its statistics. Sara Simon of Spotlight Pa contributed to this article. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:06:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- With the addition of 90 new cases on Tuesday, Nepal's total COVID-19 cases jumped to 772, a senior official of Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said. It is the largest ever single day spike in COVID-19 cases in the Himalayan country. Earlier, the largest single day spike was reported on May 13 when the Nepali government confirmed 83 new cases. The largest number of cases was reported in southwestern Kapilvastu district where a two-year-old girl and other 23 men aged 19-55 years tested positive for the coronavirus. The second largest number of cases was reported in southeastern Rautahat district on Tuesday as 23 people from the district tested positive for the virus, Bikas Devkota, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population, told a regular press conference on Tuesday. As the number of cases in the country is rising rapidly, Devkota appealed to people whose samples are collected to provide their proper address, both permanent and temporary, to ensure timely contact tracing of those who come into contact with infected people. As the number of cases is rising rapidly, the Nepali government is preparing to increase testing for the virus. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said on Monday that the government planned to increase testing among 2 percent of the population, which is around 600,000 out the nearly 30 million. The Himalayan country has so far reported four deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem A hospital in Trinidad and Tobago has denied reports that a snake was found in an operating theatre... and insisted there was only a monkey. The capuchin monkey was filmed clambering over shelves by medics at Port-of-Spain General Hospital on Friday. The staff had been preparing to start elective surgeries after a three month hiatus due to coronavirus. The monkey delayed the doctors by several hours before zoological officers were able to capture it. But health officials strenuously denied 'malicious' claims on social media that a 'big snake' was also retrieved at the same time. The capuchin monkey was filmed clambering over shelves by medics at Port-of-Spain General Hospital on Friday. The staff had been preparing to start elective surgeries after a three month hiatus due to coronavirus. One post was captioned: 'Monkey and Big Snake was found at the Post-of-Spain General Hospital yesterday.' In a statement to the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, the North West Regional Health Authority said: 'The Authority categorically denies that a snake was also found on the hospital's compound and any information suggesting same is false, misleading and malicious. 'The incident is currently being reviewed in an effort to implement appropriate measures to prevent a recurrence.' While the little capuchin monkeys are common pests throughout the Caribbean, Trinidad is unique for its diverse snake population. The monkey delayed the doctors by several hours before zoological officers were able to capture it It has 47 species of the reptile, four of which are venomous, and many of these are also found in Venezuela which is separated from Trinidad by just 10 miles of sea. By comparison, on other Caribbean islands popular with British tourists like Barbados and Jamaica, mongooses were introduced in the late 1800s to control rodent and reptile populations on sugar plantations. Mongooses were very successful in combating sugar cane damage caused by rats and also wiped out many species of snakes and lizards. Lycored has opened a new processing plant in New Jersey, US, which is set to maximize both the quantity and quality of its ingredients. The global wellness company will... Read More Connecticut State Police Police have put out an alert for a stolen SUV that a University of Connecticut student may be using as a getaway vehicle following a bloody three-day rampage. The 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe was taken from an area in East Stroudburg, Pennsylvania, where fugitive murder suspect Peter Manfredonia, 23, was last seen on Monday. The FBI and police in three states are hunting for Manfredonia, who is accused of a shocking crime spree: hacking to death a Connecticut woodworker and severely wounding an elderly man in Willington, breaking into a home and holding the owner captive overnight, and killing an acquaintance and kidnapping his girlfriend, 23. Manfredoniaa former high-school football player who grew up on the same street as Sandy Hook school massacre gunman Adam Lanzais believed to be carrying a large duffel bag full of weapons stolen from one of the victims. An attorney for Manfredonias family said the student struggled with mental health issues as he urged him to turn himself in. Its time to let the healing process begin, lawyer Michael Dolan said at a Monday evening press conference. Its time to surrender. In an interview on Tuesday, Dolan said that before the crime spree, Manfredonia had no history of violence. This really came out of nowhere, he told Connecticut Hearst Media. Manhunt Underway for Armed-to-Teeth UConn Student Wanted in Deadly Rampage Police have not released a motive for the explosion of violence but Dolan began his press conference by describing the suspect as a former honor student and athlete who sought help for mental illness. You wont be surprised to hear that Peter has struggled with mental health issues over the past several years. He sought the help of a number of therapists, and hes had the support of his parents and loved ones to help him through. Then, directly addressing the fugitive, Dolan said, You are loved. Your parents, your sisters, your entire family loves you. Nobody wants any harm to come to you. Story continues He added, Peter, from your parents, We love you. Please turn yourself in. Dolan, who did not answer any questions about the case, also expressed condolences to the families of the victims. Authorities have been looking for Manfredonia since Friday, when he was seen leaving the scene of the brutal assault on woodworker Ted DeMers and an elderly neighbor in Willington, Connecticut. His sister-in-law Pat Jones told NBC Connecticut that the college student knew a family who lived on the same road. We think thats how he established trust with Ted, she said, explaining that DeMers offered to give Manfredonia a ride on his four-wheeler down to his motorcycle, which was parked in a cul de sac. As he was driving past this neighbor's house, the neighbor saw something sticking out of the top of [Manfredonias] backpack. The neighbor got very concerned, Jones told the station. A few minutes later he heard this awful shrieking. Manfredonia allegedly hacked to death DeMers, 62, with whats been described only as an edged instrumentand also attacked an 86-year-old neighbor who came out to help and is still hospitalized. Jones said that Manfredonia took off on the red motorcycle when another neighbor who knew him started yelling. She said that neighbors family had been so disturbed by his behavior that they considered seeking an order of protection two weeks ago. This was intentional. This was not just some random crazy person who flew off the handle. He had a plan, she said. Later that night, police said, Manfredonia broke into a house in Willington and held the owner prisoner before leaving early Sunday with food, long guns, a pistol, and a car, which he later crashed and abandoned near a state park in Derby. Authorities say he then headed to a Derby home where he allegedly killed an acquaintance, 23-year-old Nicholas J. Eisele, stole a black Volkswagen Jetta, and abducted Eiseles girlfriend. Pennsylvania state police said Manfredonia left the Jetta and the woman, who was unharmed, in New Jersey and hopped an Uber to a Walmart in East Stroudsburg. He walked behind the Walmart and was last seen following train tracks on foot. Police said they have not definitively tied to him to the missing Santa Fe but urged the public to report any sightings of it. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Each of these laws is modest and carefully tailored to respect the Second Amendment as the court interpreted it a decade ago. While highly favorable to pro-gun interests, the courts decision in its landmark 2008 gun case, District of Columbia v. Heller, declared that the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited, and it does not guarantee that people can keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. The justices insisted that many firearms restrictions were presumptively lawful, including longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Nor was this an exhaustive list, the justices said. Over the weekend, the District hit a setback in achieving a two-week decline in the viruss spread after recording a single-day spike in new cases, from 68 on May 12 to 118 on May 13. But instead of resetting the 14-day clock to zero, the District removed the two days that showed that spike, meaning the city could still begin reopening on Friday as the mayor had already floated. India has decided to not back down from a standoff with China -- along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh -- that centres around a strategic bridge being built near Daulat Beg Oldi, the last military post south of the Karakoram Pass, and has moved troops to counter Chinese forces stationed in the region, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. The idea is to not allow any alteration of Indian territory and to face the Chinese challenge with strength and restraint, the people cited above said on Tuesday against the backdrop of a high-level security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat to assess the situation along the LAC amid a tense stand-off between thousands of Indian and Chinese troops, especially in Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh. The CDS briefed PM Modi on the military inputs and suggestions to handle the situation in Ladakh. The bottom line is that we will not allow any change in the status quo on the LAC. That we will not permit, said one of the people cited above, who spoke on condition of anonymity. We have faced similar situations in the past, and we will face this situation with strength and restraint, the person added. In many ways, Indias position is a reiteration of the stance it adopted during the 73-day standoff at Doklam in 2017, when Indian troops dug in and stood their ground in the face of a rapid mobilisation by the Chinese side. Indian security officials said that the focus of the Chinese action in the area was to dominate the region and deter India from completing the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi road, which, once fully metalled, will give India a major advantage in terms of access and military mobilisation. A key part of this is the construction of a bridge at Daulat Beg Oldi that China wants to stop. India has decided to stand up to China -- in terms of troops, capacity and resources, one of the officials said on condition of anonymity, adding that this included the induction of specialised forces in the area. China is believed to have marshalled close to 5,000 soldiers on its side of Ladakh sector. The situation in the Sikkim sector, meanwhile, has eased off, the official added. The people cited in the first instance also reiterated the external affairs ministrys comment of May 22 that all activities by Indian troops were on the Indian side of the LAC in the Ladakh and Sikkim sectors. They repeated the ministrys accusation that it was Chinese troops that were hindering normal patrolling by Indian forces on the Indian side of the LAC. The Indian troops are fully familiar with the alignment of the LAC. The Chinese have raised similar objections and made similar attempts [to hinder the activity of Indian troops] in the past too. Their motives and intentions in the current circumstances are not clear, one of the persons said. But we are very firm and very clear there have no violations by us, the person added. A second person, who too spoke on condition of anonymity, said Indias construction activities in forward areas will not stop because of the standoff. The issue is being dealt with on the Indian side by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and CDS General Bipin Rawat, a senior official aware of the matter said. Indian and Chinese soldiers are eyeball-to-eyeball at four locations along the LAC and several rounds of talks between local military commanders have failed to end the standoff that began with a violent confrontation between rival patrols three weeks ago near Pangong Lake. The standoff is also expected to figure prominently on the agenda of the three-day army commanders conference that begins on Wednesday, officials said. Army chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane will chair the meeting. The apex level leadership of the Indian Army will brainstorm on current emerging security and administrative challenges and chart the future course for the army, an army spokesperson said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday reviewed the situation in the Ladakh sector of the LAC during a meeting with the chief of defence staff and the three service chiefs. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) plans to complete all 61 strategic roads assigned to it along the border with China by December 2022, officials said. These roads are spread across Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and will allow swifter mobilisation of troops and stores to forward areas. HT was the first to report on May 10 about tensions flaring between India and China in north Sikkim, where 150 soldiers were involved in a tense clash a day earlier. Four Indian and seven Chinese soldiers were injured at Naku La during the confrontation. CEO of luxury hair brand Kukushair , Akunna Nwala released a statement to clear the air in her reported involvement in the death of billionaire businessman Keniebi Okoko who died on Tuesday April 14th 2020 after a botched liposuction surgery in a hospital in Lekki, Lagos. Shortly after Okokos death, news went round that the beauty entrepreneur took him to the hospital without his wifes consent where he met his untimely death. And now that the popular politician and pastor has been laid to rest, the married mother of one has decided to tell her own side of the story. My family and I have been aware of the manifestly contrived falsehood being peddled against me, Akunna Nwala, as playing a key role in the demise of our family friend, Pastor Keniebi Okoko. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ordinarily I would not join issues with anyone or address any matter of this magnitude on a public domain. However, this concerns human life and also about great loss to a woman like me. It is also a disappointing report of my person to the people who look up to me, what I stand for, to all my beautiful Clients and fans. I had kept silent for the better part of this whole charade, but since our dear family friend has been laid to rest (may his soul continue to rest in peace), I feel it is high time I speak out. I, Akunna, grew up on the campus of University of Nigeria Nsukka, and while we lived there, Mrs Ihuaku Okoko (Nee Eke) wife of Mr. Keniebi Okoko, was our next door neighbor and we were family friends. I was good friends with her younger sister and Sis Ihuaku was a big sister/mother figure to me. We reconnected again in Lagos, as old friends, business clients and later on our, husbands went on to build a beautiful friendship that extended to late Pastor Keniebis father and mother. While I was in the UK spending time with my family just before the lockdown, The late Pastor Kenebi Okoko and his wife had independently decided and agreed to have cosmetic surgery in Nigeria, and in the course of making enquiries regarding cosmetic surgeons in Nigeria, they decided to ask me, Akunna, knowing that I could be a good resource. Ive been made aware of a few of such Physicians in Lagos on the basis of my respectable standing and good influence in the beauty industry in Lagos and in addition, owning a beauty Spa where non evasive procedures are carried out. When Pastor Keniebi and Mrs Ihuaku reached out to me, Mrs Ihuaku expressed the fact that they were dissatisfied with their looks and wanted to perform cosmetic surgery for enhancement, and that most importantly they needed to do the procedure during the Covid-19 Pandemic lock down to enable them celebrate her 50th birthday in style like any other couple reaching a milestone age. Remember that with or without my input the couple would have still gone ahead with their intended surgery bearing the couple being much older than I am my opinion would make little or no difference . Prior to this they had reached out to a few others with regards to possible options in Lagos. I then went ahead and mentioned the names of 2 physicians I knew of and was aware of procedures they had successfully done in the past,( there was no part of these conversations or communications that my husband and I were not privy to). Again, husband and wife,- Mr and Mrs Okoko, based on their consultations with the physicians, and as adults, saw the conditions of each of their clinics, decided and agreed on which one of the two surgeons they were more comfortable with. On the morning of 14th of April 2020, Pastor Keniebi Okoko and Mrs Ihuaku Okoko called my husband and I to inform us that they were already at the hospital together where he was being prepared for the surgery. On the invitation of Mrs. Okoko to keep her company I went in briefly by 10am to say hello to the couple as the Surgi-center was in our neighborhood. It is important to state here that as at 11am that I left, he hadnt gone in for surgery, I had to leave as some domestic matters needed urgent attention, I was grateful to be relived and allowed to leave when a Mrs. Chioma Ude, who Mrs. Ihuaku Okoko introduced to me as her cousin came in to keep Pastor and Mrs Keniebi Okoko company. At 9pm that same day, My family and I were in our home when we heard the shocking news that our friend Pastor Keniebi had passed on from complications during his surgery. My heart goes out to Sis Ihuaku Okoko, understanding the shock and pain she must feel, in that she drove into that hospital with her husband and had to leave without him. To my shock and that of my husband, shortly afterward, various versions of stories began to filter out that I was responsible for taking him without the knowledge and consent of his wife for the surgery and was therefore to blame for his death, to which his wife Mrs. Okoko called me to apologize and denied any involvement with these claims, all these are on record. All these malicious claims, obviously, are completely false. The relationship between my family and that of Pastor Keniebi Okoko, until his unfortunate passing was cordial and was not one of a benefactor/ beneficiary relationship, which was proven times and again during his lifetime. As family friends, we have fellowshipped together at Pastor and Mrs Keniebi Okokos home on the invitation of Mrs Ihuaku Okoko and shared a bond that was altruistic and Christ-like. There was no aspect of the conversation between Pastor Keniebi, his wife and myself, concerning the surgery that my dear husband was never privy to. I have taken my time to express our relationship with this family and I am heavily burdened by not only the loss of a dear family friend but that people could use some ones death and anothers loss to garner traffic, I start to wonder, where is the humanity in all of us. Thinking out loud on behalf of the few enlightened ones, how would I have been involved in the death of a billionaire as alleged and I havent been called upon by any authority or the immediate family or questioned? Hopefully, the mischievous group would help us answer this! On the strength of the foregoing, I ask that all persons and media platforms peddling false narratives against me , kindly cease and desist from doing for forthwith, as further publications of these false stories that has brought both reputational and financial damage to me, may attract legal redress. Our family lost a good friend, it is a huge burden on its own . However, his wife and children lost a loving husband and father. We pray that they all be left alone in peace to mourn this irreparable loss. SAN ANTONIO Two members of San Antonios congressional delegation called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate multi-million dollar contracts for food relief granted to companies with no experience in food distribution, including a San Antonio event planner. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said Tuesday the $39 million contract awarded to CRE8AD8, owned by event planner Gregorio Palomino, should be canceled. I am contacting the Agriculture Department and asking them to issue a stop-work notice and then to proceed to void the contract, said Doggett, who represents most of the eastern half of San Antonio from U.S. 281 to Loop 410. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking for an investigation into how the contracts were awarded for the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, designed to get surplus food into the hands of families in need because of the economic havoc caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. On ExpressNews.com: SA event planner claims progress in food relief program, but distribution has yet to begin The two congressmen acted after a San Antonio Express-News investigation, published Sunday, documented how Palomino touted professional credentials he does not possess and boasted of major corporate clients who say they have never done business with him. USDA officials didnt comment about CRE8AD8 specifically, but said all proposals had to demonstrate that product could be purchased, moved to a distribution center and delivered while adhering (to) the USDA high food safety protocols. A robust audit program will also be a part of the program to ensure quality of product and execution of the proposal as submitted to USDA, a spokesperson said. Palomino did not respond to requests for comment. Now Playing: See the viral video of San Antonio's Food Bank that changed the narrative of the coronavirus pandemic. Video: Kin Man Hui San Antonio Express News, William Luther San Antonio Express News, Michel Fortier As best as I can determine, the Agriculture Department awarded 198 contracts in a single week, Doggett said. For them to award almost 200 contracts in a week, its clear they did not do proper vetting. The contract awarded to Palomino requires his company to buy 18 million pounds of fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat, pack it into 750,000 individual boxes and transport the boxes to food banks and other nonprofits in seven states from Louisiana to Utah by June 30. The programs distribution period began May 15, but the San Antonio Food Bank and other nonprofits have yet to receive a single box of food from CRE8AD8. Palomino was selected for the contract over established food distributors even though he lacked both experience and a Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act license, a requirement for operating a produce business. Experience a major issue The USDA granted Palomino a PACA license last week, but industry experts said the license doesnt ease concerns about his inexperience. Castro agreed. The contract award is very suspicious because of the lack of qualifications of the vendor. This contract doesnt look right at all, Castro said. On ExpressNews.com: Experts knock USDA for unfathomable contract to event planner In his letter to Perdue, Castro said his constituents require an explanation as to why the USDA contracted with entities without a proven history or track record over applicants with years of experience in the industry. Doggett had a similar dim view of some of the USDAs vendor choices. Everything about this particular contractor in San Antonio, where we made national news because of the demand on the Food Bank, is so very wrong, Doggett said. He said it appeared the USDA rushed the awarding of the contracts to provide a photo op for Ivanka Trump. The presidents daughter attended an event celebrating the program. The problems that it creates for food banks that are overwhelmed and producers that, in some cases, are overwhelmed with produce that they are destroying is so wrong, Doggett said. I just wish we had a slight amount of competence, but we dont. The USDA rejected bids submitted by several longtime San Antonio wholesalers, including River City Produce and Big State Produce. More Information ds See More Collapse At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to put food on the table, USDA is wrong to bet the success of vital food safety net programs on neophyte food distribution companies, Castro said in his letter. Food banks, nonprofits, and needy families should not have to hope and wait to see if a distributor can deliver as promised. On ExpressNews.com: SA event planners claims wilt under investigation Dubious claims As the Express-News reported Sunday, Palomino has listed Valero Energy, USAA and Fiesta San Antonio as clients, but none of those entities could find any record of having contracted with him or CRE8AD8. Their names have since been removed from the companys website. Palomino also said he was on the board of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce from 2010-11. A chamber spokesman said there is no record of his having ever served on the board, and the chambers annual federal tax filings have never listed him among the organizations board members. On Palominos LinkedIn page, the designation for CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) appeared after his name until the Express-News began inquiring about it. The credential is awarded by the Events Industry Council in Washington and is regarded as a badge of excellence in the events industry. An industry council spokesman said Palomino has never been a CMP. The designation has been removed. While San Antonio Democrats are putting pressure on the USDA to investigate, even cancel, Palominos contract, Palomino touted the support of a former Republican congressman. Photos of Palomino with Henry Bonilla, who served in Congress from 1993-2007, were posted on Cre8ameal, a Facebook page devoted to CRE8AD8s food box venture. The photos, which appear to have been taken at Los Patios, a catering and event space in north San Antonio, are accompanied by a post that thanks the former legislator for stopping by and showing support from Washington DC! Efforts to reach Bonilla were unsuccessful. Address raises eyebrows In applying for a PACA license, Palomino listed the address of Los Patios as his business address, records show. USDA regulations require a PACA applicant to list his or her business address. But CRE8AD8s address is a mailbox at a UPS store in a North Side shopping center, and the USDA wont accept a P.O. Box. Los Patios owner John McClung said he wasnt aware that Palomino had used Los Patios address. Iverson Brownell, the San Antonio chef who Palomino said is his partner on the food box project, has been working out of Los Patios for the last six to nine months catering for Los Patios and other clients, McClung said. I have no business relationship with Mr. Palomino or whatever this venture is that he and Mr. Brownell are involved in, McClung said. Im not impugning or endorsing it. Im just giving you the facts. McClung added he saw nothing deleterious in Palomino and Brownell operating out of Los Patios and called the Farmers to Families Food Box program a good use of government dollars. The CEO of Feeding Texas, a coalition of 21 food banks across the state, said uncertainty about CRE8AD8 is causing anxiety among food bank directors counting on the company to provide food for needy people. Feeding Texas is working with them to make it work, but if USDA is going to pull the contract, we need to know about it sooner rather than later, Celia Cole said. CRE8AD8s contract isnt the only one that raised eyebrows. A $40 million deal went to California Avocados Direct, which has no more than $2 million in annual work; $12.2 million to Travel Well Holdings LLC, which sells organic hand sanitizers, CBD products, goat milk body cream and other products online; and $16.6 million to Yegg Inc., a California firm that offers business finance solutions. The USDA has since terminated its contract with California Avocados Direct. Tom Orsborn covers sports news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Tom, become a subscriber. torsborn@express-news.net | Twitter: @tom_orsborn Hong Kong residents sign their names on Friday in support of the Hong Kong national security law. A draft decision of the law was submitted to China's top legislature on Friday. Photo: cnsphoto The US is rallying Western officials and instigating Western media outlets to attack China's National People's Congress for its formulation of a national security law for Hong Kong. They have gained a seemingly ferocious momentum. But this momentum is far less powerful than it seems. The US is again leading the Western camp in besieging China. Western countries are good at shaping public opinions. Most of the world's major media outlets are based in the West. When they focus on one topic at the same time, that topic naturally becomes the focal point of global public opinion. With the rise of emerging markets and developing countries becoming increasingly independent, the universality of Western values has been compressed. Those values are losing their charm. When the world sees that the US, for the sake of geopolitical interests, is inciting Western forces to stir up troubles for China, people will be well aware what is happening. Fighting the national security law for Hong Kong is not a universal value and cannot withstand serious scrutiny. Isn't national security the top priority for each and every country? Washington has always used national security as an excuse to suppress normal commercial activities. Saying that the national security law in Hong Kong hinders the city's high degree of autonomy and ends its freedom will hardly fool all Westerners, let alone manipulate the whole international community. Nearly 100,000 Americans have died from the COVID-19 epidemic, which exposes a great loophole concerning US human rights. The death toll has proved that ordinary Americans have neither the place nor discourse power under US democracy. At this moment, the US is taking the lead in accusing China of allegedly depriving Hong Kong of freedom and human rights with the national security law. Such behavior particularly lacks moral grounds. As the US is entangled in the COVID-19 epidemic, its actual ability to intervene externally is weakening. The White House claimed it would impose sanctions on China, but the tools and resources at its disposal are fewer than those it could mobilize before the outbreak. It is only bluffing. The biggest pillar for Hong Kong's status as an international financial center is its role as a window to the Chinese mainland as well as its special relationship with the mainland economy. The special trade status given by the US is important, but is not a decisive factor to determine whether Hong Kong is a financial center or not. As long as the economy in the Chinese mainland keeps booming, Hong Kong will not decline. If the US changes its policy toward Hong Kong, that will result in a lose-lose situation. But Hong Kong will be able to adjust its way to maintain prosperity with the support of the Chinese central government. The entire Western world will not follow the US. China is a huge market and the US is unable to provide enough compensation to offset the losses if Western countries become alienated from China. Values still have a strong appeal, but they cannot replace the fundamental interests of a country in pursuit of development. Besides, China has not intervened in the way of life of Western countries. Taking sides based on values at a disproportionate economic cost is not supposed to be the logic of international relations in the 21st century. Such being the case, as long as China acts based on facts, resolutely formulates the national security law for Hong Kong, strictly limits the law's scope to ensure both national security and the city's stability under the "one country, two systems" principle, while safeguarding the basic rights and interests of the Hong Kong people, China will take the initiative in Hong Kong affairs. The US stirring of Western public opinion will lead to nothing. Burundi's leading opposition party will start filing challenges to election results as early as Wednesday, a lawmaker told AFP as calm reigned in the commercial capital a day after the ruling party's candidate was named winner of the presidential contest. Evariste Ndayishimiye, a former army general chosen by the powerful CNDD-FDD governing party as heir to outgoing President Pierre Nkurunziza, won the May 20 poll with 68.72 percent of the vote, according to results announced Monday. The strongest opposition candidate, Agathon Rwasa, came in a distant second with 24.19 percent, but his National Freedom Council (CNL) has rejected the results and accused the CNDD-FDD of fraud. CNL officials were still preparing appeals Tuesday in polls which also involved legislative and municipal contests, said a party lawmaker, who spoke to AFP anonymously. The party has until Thursday to formally contest the presidential outcome, although the appeal will "probably" be ready Wednesday along with challenges in lower-level races, the lawmaker said. Many shops and bistros closed Monday evening after the results were announced, but life largely returned to normal Tuesday in Bujumbura, the commercial capital, and elsewhere in the country. Burundi is tightly controlled by the ruling party and its youth wing has been implicated in a forceful crackdown against the government's critics. No foreign observers were allowed into Burundi to keep an eye on the election, which went ahead with scant regard for the coronavirus outbreak following a tense campaign marked by violence and arbitrary arrests. "We feel that people are resigned. We also feel a deep disappointment because everyone says their victory was stolen from them but they know they can't do anything," said a bank employee who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. A 'personal choice' Nkurunziza has been in power since 2005, and his final years in office have been wracked with turmoil. His third-term election run in 2015 sparked violence which left at least 1,200 dead and pushed 400,000 to flee the country. While some observers feared Rwasa would urge his supporters to take in protest after results were announced, he appears committed to a legal challenge, said Richard Moncrieff of the International Crisis Group, a conflict-prevention organisation. Rwasa acted similarly during the unrest of 2015, unlike other members of the opposition, Moncrieff noted. "He did not choose exile or armed struggle. He obviously made a personal choice," Moncrieff said. The CNDD-FDD also defeated the CNL by a similar margin in the legislative elections. Burundi's presidential election. By Vincent LEFAI (AFP) In another sign that the CNL will stick to a constitutional path, its members participated in a meeting Tuesday with the only other opposition party to secure seats. The constitution requires that ethnic Hutus make up 60 percent of the National Assembly and ethnic Tutsis 40 percent, and 30 percent of the body must be women. Some reshuffling will need to take place to honour the quotas. Wary of ratcheting up tensions, the CNDD-FDD has called on its supporters to refrain from "provocation" and to hold off a few days before celebrating its victory. Yet the youth wing, known as the Imbonerakure, has already begun settling scores in the northwest province of Citiboke and elsewhere, witnesses told AFP. "They tell us that we committed a grave error voting for (the CNL), that we are going to pay dearly and that we must not submit if we want to live in peace in this country," a Citiboke resident said. A 'new face' Ndayishimiye is expected to be sworn in for a seven-year term in late August, when Nkurunziza's term ends. The 52-year-old is set to inherit a deeply isolated country, under sanctions and cut off by foreign donors, its economy and national psyche damaged by the years of unrest. Burundi compared to regional neighbours on key socio-economic indicators. By (AFP) It remains to be seen how much influence Nkurunziza will exert and how freely his successor can reign. Nkurunziza was this year elevated by Burundi's parliament to the rank of "supreme guide for patriotism" and he will continue to be chairman of the ruling party's powerful council of elders. In a Twitter post Tuesday morning, Nkurunziza congratulated his hand-picked successor on a "large victory". "I warmly congratulate the President-elect Gen. Major Evariste Ndayishimiye for his large victory which confirms that the great majority of Burundians adhere to the projects and the values he embodies," the outgoing president wrote. "We are privileged witnesses to history. May God bless Burundi!" Burundi's main donors, which imposed sanctions on the country in 2015, have not yet reacted to Ndayishimiye's victory. A diplomat stationed in Bujumbura told AFP that donors would likely welcome the arrival of a "new face" who is seen as less dogmatic than his predecessor. FAIRFIELD, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Jerash Holdings (US), Inc. (JRSH) (the "Company" or "Jerash"), a producer of high-quality textile goods for leading global brands, today announced that its factories are preparing Jerash's first shipments of non-medical, washable, and breathable face masks to customers, as well as the first garment shipments to a new customer, a designer and supplier of apparel to the promotional apparel market. "We are excited to be preparing the first shipments of non-medical face mask products and our first shipments to a new customer we secured last year, one of the top suppliers in fashion blanks in the world market," said Samuel Choi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jerash. "We believe that many companies, including current and prospective Jerash customers, will want to offer comfortable, easy-to-wear branded face mask products for general consumer wear. We had begun to make non-medical face mask products at the start of the pandemic, prior to the national closure in Jordan, and leveraged this experience to manufacture products for the broader consumer market as countries around the world shift to re-opening their economies." "We are beginning garment shipments to a new customer in the promotional apparel market as we continue to diversify our customer base and deploy the additional capacity of the new factory we opened in March 2020," said Gilbert Lee, Chief Financial Officer of Jerash. "While we anticipate that existing customers will adjust orders to account for the COVID-19 outbreak's impact on the retail sector, we are simultaneously working to deploy any capacity those adjustments may create with new customers seeking to take advantage of Jerash's duty-free import status to the United States and European Union. We have also seen several orders that were initially put on hold being reactivated as economic forecasts continue to improve. In addition to ongoing orders, we are discussing additional categories of products we can produce with certain customers, in line with our goal to further diversify our product portfolio. Our focus is to emerge from this pandemic with a more diverse customer and product base as we continue to focus on our long-term growth plans." Story continues Jordan continues to advance its reopening plans, including easing of work restrictions on local workers. Jerash initially resumed production with its dormitory-based workforce, enabling closer control over outside interactions as part of Jordan's carefully controlled response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Jerash's main factories in the Qualified Industrial Zone in Amman have resumed operations, as has the satellite sewing factory south of the city. All of Jerash's facilities are maintaining strict hygiene and health measures developed in close collaboration with Jordan's health ministry. These factories are producing orders to major global brand customers worldwide across a growing range of garment categories. "We have worked closely with the Jordanian government to plan and implement best practices to protect our workers and mitigate the risks associated with the COVID-19 outbreak," said Lee. "Jordan responded swiftly and effectively to limit the spread of COVID-19 in March and April, and we are now doing our part as a responsible employer to continue protecting our workers and their families as we increase production volumes in order to meet growing demand from our customers, many of whom use Jerash as a key strategic supplier." About Jerash Holdings (US), Inc. Jerash Holdings (US), Inc. (JRSH) is a manufacturer utilized by many well-known brands and retailers, such as Walmart, Costco, Hanes, Columbia, VF Corporation (which owns brands such as The North Face, Timberland, JanSport, etc.), and PVH Corp. (which owns brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD, etc.). Its production facilities comprise five factory units and three warehouses and it currently employs approximately 4,000 people. The total annual capacity at its facilities was approximately 8.0 million pieces as of the end of calendar year 2019. Additional information is available at http://www.jerashholdings.com. Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. When used in this document, the words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "seek", "potential," "outlook" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Jerash's current views with respect to future events and are subject to such risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made, including those risks described from time to time in filings made by Jerash with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, there is uncertainty about the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the impact it may have on the Company's operations, the demand for the Company's products, global supply chains and economic activity in general. These and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated or expected. Statements contained in this news release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. Jerash does not intend and does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by law. Contact Information: Matt Kreps, Darrow Associates Investor Relations (214) 597-8200 mkreps@darrowir.com SOURCE: Jerash Holdings (US), Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591359/Jerash-Holdings-Commences-Face-Mask-New-Customer-Shipments Since its inception in 2013, SparkCognition has worked with customers and partners in the public sector and national defense, and has advocated for the pursuit of AI technologies to improve government operations. Through these years of experience working with defense and national security clients, SparkCognition understands the unique needs of government. Recognizing that those needs require an undiluted focus, SparkCognition evolved its existing defense and national security business and launched SGS as a full-spectrum AI company. Full-spectrum refers to both the applicability of SparkCognition's technology across all service branches and government institutions, and the availability of SparkCognition's solutions as both software and fully integrated systems and platforms. At the helm of SGS are some of the most experienced and decorated leaders in government and national defense. SGS's Board of Directors includes the following: General John R. Allen is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general and former Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan. In 2014, Gen. Allen was appointed by President Barack Obama as special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). "Warfare of the future will be characterized by rapidly evolving technology, of which AI will perhaps be the most influential," said General Allen. "The side with the greater capacity to understand the implications of these technologies, and to employ them effectively, safely, and in accordance with the law, will be the side that prevails." Lisa Disbrow is the former Under Secretary of the United States Air Force, where she was responsible for the affairs of the Department of the Air Force. Disbrow, an Air Force veteran, previously served as Acting Secretary of the Air Force; as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller; and held senior positions at the White House and the Joint Staff. "By adopting next-generation technologies across the full spectrum of government operations, the US can adapt to future challenges with a more analytical approach," said Sec. Disbrow. Amir Husain is the Founder and CEO of SparkCognition and the founding CEO of SkyGrid. He is the author of the best-selling book "The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence" and a co-author of the compilation "Hyperwar: Conflict and Competition in the AI Century." "At SparkCognition, we've long recognized the importance of applying AI capabilities to keep our government and allies in a strong global position. Now we are furthering our commitment to ensure the defense of the nation in a time of exponential technological change, and we are honored to do so alongside such an illustrious group of leaders," said Husain. Admiral John M. Richardson is a retired United States Navy four-star Admiral who served as the 31st Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from 2015 until 2019. Adm. Richardson also served as the Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program (a joint Department of Energy and Department of Navy organization), and the Commander of the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. "Successfully employing artificial intelligence is the key to victory against our competition. AI turbocharges the human-machine teams that must solve the ever more complex challenges today and in the future. We need to get ahead and stay ahead with this critical technology," said Adm. Richardson. Robert O. Work served as the 32nd United States Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2014 to 2017 under both the Obama and Trump administrations. He also previously served as the Under Secretary of the Navy and was the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). "The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence across the entire Department of Defense is key to maintaining battlefield dominance in the future. SparkCognition has always viewed this as a top priority, and with the creation of SGS, we can continue to support the government in upholding our nation's global competitiveness," said Sec. Work. Serving as a Strategic Advisor to SGS, Michele Flournoy is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and former Co-Founder and CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where she currently serves on the board. Using technologies built in the United States, SGS evolves SparkCognition's innovative commercial systems and tailors them for the public sector, with a focus on improving the performance of critical operational functions in a cost-effective manner. With next-generation AI-powered technology, SGS advances government operations by analyzing complex data to inform and accelerate intelligent decisions, applying predictive and prescriptive analytics to improve logistics, deploying autonomy technology for power projection systems, using natural language processing for large scale processing of unstructured data, and more. To learn more about SparkCognition's new wholly owned subsidiary, SparkCognition Government Systems, visit www.SparkCognitionGS.com . About SparkCognition: With award-winning machine learning technology, a multinational footprint, and expert teams focused on defense, IIoT, and finance, SparkCognition builds artificial intelligence systems to advance the most important interests of society. Our customers are trusted with protecting and advancing lives, infrastructure, and financial systems across the globe. They turn to SparkCognition to help them analyze complex data, empower decision-making, and transform human and industrial productivity. SparkCognition offers four main products: DarwinTM , DeepArmor , SparkPredict , and DeepNLPTM . With our leading-edge artificial intelligence platforms, our clients can adapt to a rapidly changing digital landscape and accelerate their business strategies. Learn more about SparkCognition's AI applications and why we've been featured in CNBC's 2017 Disruptor 50, and recognized four years in a row on CB Insights AI 100, by visiting www.sparkcognition.com . About SparkCognition Government Systems: SparkCognition Government Systems (SGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of SparkCognition, is the first full-spectrum artificial intelligence (AI) company devoted entirely to government and national defense. By developing and operationalizing next-generation AI-powered systems, SGS enables government organizations to meet the needs of their most pressing national security missions. Using technologies built in the United States, SGS advances government operations by analyzing complex data to inform and accelerate intelligent decisions, applying predictive and prescriptive analytics to improve logistics, deploying autonomy technology for power projection systems, using natural language processing for large scale processing of unstructured data, and more. For in-depth information about SGS and its offerings visit: www.SparkcognitionGS.com . For Media Inquiries: Michelle Saab VP, Marketing Communications SparkCognition [email protected] 512-956-5491 SOURCE SparkCognition Related Links http://sparkcognition.com Disinfecting wipes stand at the ready at the Lancaster County Election Committee offices in Lincoln, Neb., on April 14, 2020. (Nati Harnik/AP Photo) DOJ Says Witness Requirement on Alabama Absentee Ballot Does Not Violate Voting Rights Law Alabamas requirement to have witnesses sign an absentee ballot does not violate the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department (DOJ) argued in a brief filed in a lawsuit challenging the states election process. The DOJ filed a statement of interest on Monday to clarify its interpretation of section 201 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which prohibits any jurisdiction from requiring an eligible voter to comply with any test or device as a prerequisite before registering or casting a vote. The prerequisites that are prohibited include demonstrating literacy ability, educational achievement, moral character, and qualifications by a voucher of a registered voter or members of any other class. The banned vouchers requirement is at issue in the case, which was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program on behalf of a number of plaintiffs who argue that some of the states election requirements are posing as direct and severe obstacles to voting. The lawsuit (pdf), which was filed on May 1, argues that the obstacles would force thousands of Alabamians to choose between risking their lives or voting in 2020. Some of the challenged provisions include the requirement that an absentee vote needs to be signed by the voter in the presence of either a notary or two adult witnesses (witness requirement), the requirement of photo identification to accompany certain absentee ballots, and the prohibition on curbside voting. The lawyers argue that the witness requirement violates section 201 of the VRA because it equates to asking a voter to prove his or her qualification by the voucher of registered voters of members of any other class. The challengers worry that this requirement threatens to disenfranchise many thousands of voters as it poses as an obstacle for people who live alonewhich they say constitutes 30 percent of households in Alabamaand are trying to adhere to social distancing guidelines. The challengers are seeking a declaration that the witness requirement violates section 201 and a preliminary injunction to block enforcement. A man drops off his election ballot in the drop box at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 22, 2020. (Tony Dejak/AP) The DOJ, however, said in its brief that the states witness requirement does not violate section 201. It does not violate the first three provisions of Section 201 in that it is not a literacy test, it is not an educational requirement, and it is not a moral character requirement, the DOJ wrote (pdf). Nor, contrary to Plaintiffs position, is it a voucher requirement prohibited by Section 201s fourth and final provision. The department also differentiated the witness requirement to the voucher requirement, saying that the former only requires witnesses to affirm that the voter had signed the affidavit and does not require him or her to prove a voters qualification. Neither requirement requires a voter to obtain the voucher of registered voters or members of any other class. Alabama voters may choose any adults as their witnesses, except for candidates in contested elections, the DOJ argued. The DOJ noted that its statement of interest does not hold a position on the other claims in the lawsuit. Concerns over the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has resulted in increased support and sparked partisan debate over the issue of absentee voting. Democrats and Republicans across the country lock horns over the issue amid the pandemic. President Donald Trump and Republicans have rebuked the idea of the blanket expansion of mail-in voting, citing concerns of voter fraud. Meanwhile, Democrats argue that mail-in voting options are necessary in order to comply with public health recommendations to reduce gatherings due to the pandemic. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, who is a defendant in the case, has largely resisted calls to change the states current absentee laws but is allowing the pandemic to be a qualifying excuse for absentee voting. That is a qualifying excuse for all voters to use, it will be accepted and it will be processed accordingly, Merrill said, reported WHNT19 News. On Sunday, Trump expressed his concern over voter fraud and reiterated his call to not expand absentee voting. The United States cannot have all Mail In Ballots. It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history. People grab them from mailboxes, print thousands of forgeries and force people to sign. Also, forge names. Some absentee OK, when necessary. Trying to use Covid for this Scam! Trump wrote in a Twitter post. In response to the president, Merrill wrote dont worry @realDonaldTrump, WE WILL NOT have direct mail in voting in Alabama! We have provided an excuse provision for anyone that wants to vote absentee and our polling sites will be open for anyone that wants to vote in person! Keep working hard to Make America Great Again! he added. Downing Street has debunked Matt Hancock's off-the-cuff suggestion that fines handed out to families for childcare-related lockdown breaches could be overturned - as officials insist no review will take place. The Health Secretary suggested punitive penalties could be reviewed by the Treasury after Dominic Cummings made a 260-mile dash from London to Durham. Mr Cummings, Boris Johnson's chief aide, justified the March 27 journey on the grounds that he was concerned that if he and his wife became ill no one would be able to look after his son. Mr Hancock tonight was put on the spot by Martin, a vicar from Brighton who asked one of the public questions at the daily Downing Street press conference. He asked: 'Will the government review all penalty fines imposed on families travelling for childcare purposes during lockdown?' Mr Hancock said he would 'look at' the issue and come back with an answer - but a government advisor has since said there was no 'formal review' of lockdown fines, Sky News reports. Mr Hancock tonight was put on the spot by Martin, a vicar from Brighton who asked one of the public questions at the daily Downing Street press conference Senior figures in Government departments were not aware that the Health Secretary would make that commitment, and shortly after he made it a special adviser for Mr Hancock was calling to reassure them that no formal review was underway, reports have suggested. Mr Hancock's response to the Vicar from Brighton had been: 'That is a very good question and we do understand the impact and the need for making sure that children get adequate childcare. 'That is one of the significant concerns that we have had all the way through this. 'So I think especially coming from a man of the cloth I think that is perfectly reasonable to take away that question. 'I will have to talk to my Treasury colleagues before I can answer it in full and we will look at it and if we can get your details we will make sure that we write to you with a full answer and make an announcement from this podium. 'I think we can make that commitment.' Labour blasted the decision with shadow attorney general Lord Falconer tweeting: 'Government appear to be willing to change direction in what the guidelines mean to save Cummings. 'Looking after each other not the country.' And SNP Westminster deputy leader Kirsty Blackman said: 'The Tory government is blowing all credibility by falsely claiming Dominic Cummings didn't break the rules - when there is indisputable evidence he did. 'This is a false information campaign that would make the Kremlin blush. 'It is designed to gaslight the public into thinking we are too stupid to understand the truth. The Health Secretary suggested punitive penalties could be reviewed by the Treasury after Boris Johnson's chief aide made a 260-mile dash from London to Durham 'We've all been obeying these rules for months while the Prime Minister's most senior adviser has openly flouted them - and has shown no contrition whatsoever. 'Now, staggeringly, the Tory Health Secretary is attempting to rewrite the rules to suit Mr Cummings - it's farcical and no one is taking the government seriously. 'This isn't ''Dom's Law'' - there cannot be one rule for the Tory elite and another for the rest of us.' A former chief prosecutor has said that any potential review of fines imposed on families travelling for childcare during lockdown would be a 'scandalous waste of time and money' which will require a retrospective change in the law. Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor for north-west England, said an 'inordinate amount of time has been spent enforcing the restrictions' and reviewing penalties would come at a high cost to police time and resources. He said: 'There is no process by which a review could take place, there would have to be a retrospective change in the law which would enable these penalty fines to be reviewed.' Mr Afzal also said if he was a lawyer defending someone who had allegedly breached the lockdown, he would be currently printing off tweets from Government figures defending Mr Cummings and 'I would be using that in my defence for every single case brought before the court'. 'It could be the ''do a Dom'' defence', he added. Mr Afzal also suggested the furore over the top Downing Street adviser risked undermining public confidence and public health, adding: 'We rely on people to comply, and why should they?' Trump's tweets revived a baseless theory that Scarborough was allegedly involved in Klausutis' death. On Thursday, her widower, Timothy Klausutis, wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey requesting the company delete Trump's tweets referencing those claims. Earlier this month, Trump tweeted questions about when an investigation would be opened into the "Cold Case" of "Psycho Joe Scarborough." The unfounded accusation refers to the death in 2001 of Lori Klausutis, who was working for Scarborough when he was a Republican congressman for Florida. At the time, the medical examiner concluded Klausutis, 28, had fainted due to an undiagnosed heart condition and hit her head on the way down, finding no evidence of foul play. Scarborough was in Washington, D.C., when Klausutis died in his district office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Twitter 's policy carve-out for world leaders is facing another test with President Donald Trump's latest tweets resurrecting baseless claims that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough should be investigated for the death of his former staffer. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, May 25, 2020. "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain," Klausutis wrote in the letter, which was dated May 21 and published by The New York Times on Tuesday. Klausutis' request is the latest test of Twitter's world leader policy, which the company first announced last June. The policy makes exceptions to some of its content standards for heads of state, arguing that it's important to maintain their speech for the public to evaluate for themselves. The policy says Twitter could still remove posts by world leaders in certain instances; for example, if they promote terrorism or violence or post personal private information on another person. Twitter has yet to publicly make a call on the latest series of tweets. A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement, "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly." New York Times opinion columnist Kara Swisher reported that Twitter is considering labeling Trump's tweets as false and linking to reputable information about Klausutis' death that would refute his insinuations. The company is accelerating efforts to strengthen a rubric of criteria for labeling world leaders' tweets, sources told Swisher. The Twitter spokesperson would not confirm or provide comment on Swisher's reporting. But any effort from Twitter to mitigate the problems caused by Trump's tweets will likely come too late. Meanwhile, Trump doubled-down on his claims in two more tweets on Tuesday. Trump tweeted that the idea of an investigation into Scarborough "was not a Donald Trump original thought" and was "going on for years, long before I joined the chorus." "So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won't bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?" he tweeted. Tweet Later in the day Tuesday, Trump said he had seen the letter, but he dismissed the request from Klausutis' widower. "I'm sure that [Klausutis' family], ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and it's a very serious situation," Trump told reporters at the White House. "It's a very suspicious thing, and I hope someone gets to the bottom of it." Trump did not offer any evidence for his claims. This is hardly the first time that Trump has publicly accused someone of crimes without citing any evidence. Over the course of his career in politics, Trump has accused dozens of government officials of "treason." As president, Trump has also demanded that the Justice Department launch federal investigations into his opponents, his critics and most recently his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. But in recent years, several legal cases have sought to highlight the pain and hardship inflicted on families when their loved ones' deaths are weaponized into false conspiracies. So far, courts appear to be siding with the families. Following the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, conspiracy theorists including InfoWars host Alex Jones peddled for years the false theory that the murders were staged. In response, families of the victims sued Jones and others involved in a campaign to deny that the school shooting ever happened. Late last year, Sandy Hook parents won a defamation lawsuit against the author and publisher of a book that claimed the massacre never happened. Several other cases brought by families against Jones and InfoWars are still moving through the courts. Twitter permanently banned Jones and InfoWars from its service in 2018, underscoring the differences between how the platform approaches regular users such as Jones and how it deals with world leaders such as Trump. Trump and other conservatives have repeatedly accused social media companies, including Twitter, of displaying bias against conservatives through their content moderation policies. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday the White House is considering creating a panel to review claims of bias on digital platforms. But it's not just the far right that has peddled the Scarborough conspiracy. In the past, the same refuted claims about Klausutis' death have made the rounds on the far-left fringes of the internet, where they were embraced by conspiracy theorists who objected to Scarborough's Republican politics. As recently as 2016, the left-leaning website Daily Kos published a blog post raising the same baseless accusations about Scarborough. Trump and Scarborough have a complicated personal history that has shifted over time according to Trump's political aspirations. Prior to Trump's election, the two men moved in the same New York and Florida social circles, and Scarborough, a former four-term Republican congressman, used to boast about giving Trump political advice. During Trump's 2016 campaign, Scarborough was criticized for having "too cozy" a relationship with then-candidate Trump. Back then, Scarborough and his wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, were frequent guests at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, and they even celebrated New Year's Eve 2017 at the Palm Beach resort. But as Scarborough and Brzezinski grew increasingly critical of Trump's presidency during his first year in office, Trump turned on them, and the relationship has only grown more bitter over time. Last December, Scarborough wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that after years of viewing Trump as a "cartoonish" character, he now sees him as something more sinister. "At last, I saw this reality TV president as a malevolent character, inspiring fascist chants while proving to be more hapless than any of his [44] predecessors. All versions of Trump have been cynical and manipulative, but his latest incarnation has proved to be destructive to his party, his country and the world," wrote Scarborough. Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. WATCH: Here's how Big Tech companies are combating coronavirus misinformation Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday described Congress leader Rahul Gandhis news conference as an example of how the Congress is politicising the Covid-19 pandemic at a time when the whole country is fighting it. He gave a wrong statement, I want to tell him, when the lockdown was imposed, the doubling rate of infection was three days. Now, the infection takes 13 days to double. This is Indias success and everyones success, Javadekar said. Javadekar, who holds the portfolio of information and broadcasting and environment and forests, accused the Congress of double speak and said the party has only been critical of the governments decisions at a time when the rest of the world has praised steps taken by India to halt the spread of the coronavirus. When the lockdown was imposed, the Congress was upset why it was imposed across the country, the economy will be destroyed. They opposed the imposition of the lockdown and now are opposing the relaxation. This is their double speak, he said. Compared to the losses faced by America, France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Iran, Brazil, and China, India has been relatively less affected and for this, the whole world is praising India, that they imposed the lockdown at the right time. Javadekar countered the accusation that the government had failed to address concerns of migrant workers, and said 300,000 workers were safely transported in 3,000 trains special by the government. It is a historic step. Uttar Pradesh and Karanataka made cash transfers and gave money to the workers, which Congress ruled state is doing this? I dont want to argue on this, because it is a time of national calamity. But people will not listen to lies anymore, he said. They (the Congress) are asking for Rs7,500 per person, we have offered 80 crore people 25kg of rice and 5kg of dal for five months free. Ten crore migrants workers with no ration cards have been given 10kg of grain and 2kg of dal for free. Twenty crore women got Rs500 per month and nine crore farmers got Rs2,000 in their accounts, eight crore households got three gas cylinders free, and 50 lakh street vendors have got money too, he said, elaborating on the steps taken by the government. HO CHI MINH, VIETNAM / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / EPM Dupont Fund is an exempted company incorporated with limited liability funds in the Cayman Islands. 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Email: kevinepmdupontfund@gmail.com enquiry@epmdupontfund.com SOURCE: EPM Dupont Fund View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591392/EPM-Dupont-Fund-is-Pleased-to-Announce-Our-New-Regional-Representative-in-Vietnam There are no casualties among the Ukrainian servicemen Open source May 25, militants violated the ceasefire in Donbas 16 times, using weapons of calibers that are prohibited by the Minsk agreements. This was reported by the press service of Ukraine's Defense Ministry. Thus, the occupiers fired at the positions of the Joint Forces with 120-mm and 82-mm caliber mortars, as well as grenade/rocket launchers, BMP weaponry, large-caliber machine guns, and small arms. Most of the violations were recorded in the Donetsk region - 14 cases. The Ukrainian positions near Piskiv, Orikhove, and Bohdanivka were under attack. As a result of the shelling, no casualties among the personnel of Joint Forces were reported. As we reported earlier, Vice Prime Minister, First Deputy Head of Ukraines Delegation at the Trilateral Contact Group Oleksiy Reznikov believes that Russia needs Crimea for presence in the Black Sea and Donbas. He predicts that Ukraine will return Donbas faster than Crimea. "The Crimean peninsula will be returned to the composition of the Ukrainian state - all in good time," Reznikov said. Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - Diabetes and Obesity is a book series that brings updated reviews to readers interested in advances in the development of pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of two metabolic diseases - diabetes and obesity. The scope of the series covers a range of topics including the medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, molecular biology and biochemistry of natural and synthetic drugs affecting endocrine and metabolic processes linked with diabetes and obesity. Reviews in this series also include research on specific receptor targets and pre-clinical / clinical findings on novel pharmaceutical agents. Frontiers in Clinical Drug Research - Diabetes and Obesity is a valuable resource for pharmaceutical scientists and postgraduate students seeking updated and critically important information for developing clinical trials and devising research plans in the field of diabetes and obesity research. The fifth volume of this series features 5 reviews which are informative guides to therapy and drug administration in diabetes and metabolic syndrome, for both the medical specialist and the pharmacologist. Metabolic syndrome in schizophrenia Insulin therapy and foetoplacental endothelial dysfunction in gestational diabetes mellitus Insights on diabetes, oxidative stress and antioxidant therapeutic strategies Administration of Nano drugs in the treatment of diabetes mellitus SGLT-2 inhibitors ### About the Editor: Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cambridge University (1968), has 1080 international publications in several fields of organic chemistry including 751 research publications, 37 international patents, 69 chapters in books and 221 books published largely by major U.S. and European presses. He is the Editor-in-Chief of eight European Chemistry journals. He is Editor of the world's leading encyclopedic series of volumes on natural products 'Studies in Natural Product Chemistry' 54 volumes of which have been published under his Editorship by Elsevier during the last two decades. Prof. Rahman won the UNESCO Science Prize (1999) and was elected as Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society (London) in July 2006. He has been conferred honorary doctorate degrees by many universities including (Sc.D.) by the Cambridge University (UK) (1987). He was elected Honorary Life Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University, UK, conferred the TWAS (Italy) Prize and the Austrian government has honored him with its high civil award ("Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande") (2007). He is Foreign Fellow of Chinese and Korean Academy of Sciences, Foreign Fellow of the Chinese Chemical Society and former President of Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Keywords: Diabetes, obesity, metabolic diseases, clinical trials, Insulin therapy, synthetic drugs, molecular biology, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology For further information, please visit: https://bit.ly/FCDR-DiabetesandobesityVol5 By PTI MUMBAI: Accusing the BJP of spreading rumour that President's rule will be imposed in Maharashtra, state minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Tuesday asserted that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government is strong and stable and will complete its term. Malik expressed confidence that numbers (of MLAs) are in favour of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising theShiv Sena, NCP and Congress, and said the three parties are united. "The government is strong and stable. The numbers are in favour of MVA. The three parties are united," Malik, who is NCPs national spokesperson, told a channel. "But, people in the BJP have been spreading rumours since past few days that Presidents rule will be imposed in Maharashtra, that this government will go," he said. "The Maharashtra government has been strictly adhering to the Centres guidelines on combating COVID-19, he said. The number of people tested and traced in Maharashtra is highest in the country," he claimed. READ| Sharad Pawar meets CM Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra government firmly in saddle: Sanjay Raut "Our government is performing well. The BJP is spreading rumours, our government is strong," Malik said. On Monday, BJP's Rajya Sabha member Narayan Rane met Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari and demanded imposition of President's rule in view of the Shiv Sena-led state government's "failure" in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Rane told reporters that the MVA government has messed up administrative affairs in the time of the unprecedented crisis. PITTSBURGH, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- "We came up with this idea after our daughter was born," said one of two inventors, from Torrance, Calif. "We wanted to create a protective barrier between a baby's skin and hospital bracelet, so we invented BABY FRIENDLY MITTENS & SOCKS BUDDIES." The patent-pending invention provides an improved pair of socks and mittens for newborns in hospitals. In doing so, it helps to prevent chaffing and discomfort caused by ID/alarm bracelets. It also enhances comfort and warmth and it enables medical personnel to easily check the baby's hands/feet during medical procedures. The invention features an effective design that is easy to use so it is ideal for hospitals & medical facilities. Additionally, it is producible in design variations. The inventors described the invention design. "Our design also offers a better way for doctors to perform routine procedures on a baby's hands and feet." The original design was submitted to the Los Angeles sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 18-LAX-1161, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com. SOURCE InventHelp Related Links http://www.inventhelp.com (CNN) A black version of the Chinese flag swept across African Twitter earlier this month, as users replaced their avatars to express their anger at the government of China. They were outraged not only by widespread reports of coronavirus-related discrimination against Africans in China, but also by claims on Chinese state media that the allegations were "groundless rumors." Posting under the hashtag #BlackChina, Dennis Kiplomo, a nurse from Kenya, tweeted: "We expect the kind of hospitality we give to Chinese here in Africa, be reciprocated in their home country." Another user in Kenya, Peter Kariuk, wrote: "We need a united Africa which will not be slaves of #BlackChina." The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has Asia's largest African population. While the exact number of Africans living in Guangzhou is unknown, in 2017 more than 320,000 Africans entered or left China through the city, according to state news agency Xinhua. Last month, many Africans were subject to forced coronavirus testing and arbitrary 14-day self-quarantine, regardless of their recent travel history, and scores were left homeless after being evicted by landlords and rejected by hotels under the guise of various virus containment measures. The incident caused a rupture in China-Africa relations, with the foreign ministries of several African nations -- and even the African Union -- demanding answers from China. Yet China's official response stopped short of admitting that the discrimination took place -- or apologizing for it. "All foreigners are treated equally. We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. China's embassy in South Africa said in a statement: "There is no such thing as the so-called discrimination against Africans in Guangdong province." The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, went one step further, publishing an article titled: "Who is behind the fake news of 'discrimination' against Africans in China?" Traditionally, Beijing has portrayed racism as a Western problem. But for many Africans, whose countries have in recent years become heavily economically entwined with Beijing, the Guangzhou episode exposed the gap between the official diplomatic warmth Beijing offers African nations and the suspicion many Chinese people have for Africans themselves. And that has been a problem for decades. No racism in China The West only began really noticing -- and criticizing -- China's relationship with Africa in 2006, following a landmark summit which saw nearly every African head of state descend on Beijing. Yet China's ties with Africa stretch back to the 1950s, when Beijing befriended newly independent states to position itself as a leader of the developing world and to counter US and USSR power during the Cold War era. Beijing talked up its shared history of oppression by white imperialists, condemned South Africa's apartheid early on and gave aid to Africa even when China was a poor country. In 1968, Beijing spent the equivalent of $3 billion in today's money on constructing the Tanzam Railway in Zambia and Tanzania, and in the 1960s it began offering Africans full scholarships to Chinese universities. The presence of African students in China was highly unusual. Most foreigners fled China after the Communist Party came to power in 1949. When African students began arriving in significant numbers in the late 1970s, China was just beginning to open up to the world. The vast majority of people still lived in rural areas with no access to international media, and had not seen a black person outside of propaganda posters -- let alone met one. From the beginning, clashes were reported across the nation. In 1979, Africans in Shanghai were attacked for playing music too loudly, leading to 19 foreigners being hospitalized. After another fracas in 1986, this time in Beijing, 200 African students marched through the capital, shouting that Chinese claims of "friendship were a mask for racism," according to a New York Times report. ''The Chinese deceived us,'' Solomon A. Tardey, of Liberia, told the newspaper. ''We know the truth now. We are going to tell our governments what the truth is.'' China's then Education Ministry spokesman said: ''It is the consistent and long-term policy of the Chinese government to oppose racism." That response was echoed nearly word for word in a statement from the Chinese government responding to the fallout in Guangzhou last month. A race riot in China By 1988, a total of 1,500 of the 6,000 foreign students in China were African, and had been scattered to campuses around the country -- a tactic designed to dilute racial tensions, according to a 1994 report by Michael J Sullivan in China Quarterly magazine. But the attempt didn't work, and on Christmas Eve that year anti-black tensions exploded in the eastern city of Nanjing, resulting in a mob of Chinese protesters running the Africans out of town. After, the Chinese government claimed that African students had arrived at a campus dance armed with weapons, including a knife, and beat up Chinese guards, teachers and students after being asked to register their Chinese guests, according to the Jiangsu provincial yearbook. The Africans maintained that when they tried to bring a Chinese friend into the dance, they were taunted with calls of "black devil" and a fight ensued, according to Sullivan. Whichever account is true, what happened after has been well documented. Later that night, about 1,000 local students surrounded the Africans' dormitory, after rumors swept campus that they were holding a Chinese woman against her will. Chinese students lobbed bricks through their windows. After police broke up the scene on Christmas Day, about 70 African students decided to flee the campus and went on foot to the city train station, hoping to travel to Beijing where they had embassies. Other dark-skinned foreigners, including Americans, also fled, fearing for their safety. On campus, rumors spread that the Chinese hostage had died. At 7 p.m. on Christmas Day a mob of about 8,000 students from universities across the city began marching to the railway station, carrying banners shouting "severely punish the murderer" and "drive out black people." As the mob closed in, police bussed out all the black students to a nearby guesthouse, where they were held until several Ghanian and Gambian students were arrested for the fight at the campus dance. The other Africans were bussed back to campus -- and warned not to go out at night. Kaiser Kuo, an American-born Chinese guitarist in the Tang Dynasty rock band, and founder of media group Sup China, was studying at Beijing University of Language and Culture that Christmas, living on a dormitory floor with students from Zambia and Liberia. He remembers hearing about the race riots. "They were angry with the Africans that apparently a Chinese woman's honor had been sullied," he said. "This is one of the things where the rumor just kept getting inflated. By the time it reached my ears, the version was that a Chinese girl had been raped to death, when of course there was no evidence of anything like that ever happening. "As far as I can tell, it was more like an African man had asked out a Chinese girl." Anti-African protests The Nanjing event was not an outlier. In the city of Hangzhou, students claimed Africans were carriers of the AIDs virus in 1988, even though foreign students had to test negative for HIV before entering the country, wrote Barry Sautman in China Quarterly. Then, in January 1989, about 2,000 Beijing students boycotted classes in protest against Africans dating Chinese women -- a recurrent lightning rod issue. In Wuhan that year, posters appeared around campuses calling Africans "black devils," and urging them to go home. Kuo remembers: "You know, all around me, there was this real concern among the African students for this kind of rising xenophobia on the college campuses." That created a problem for Beijing, Sautman wrote, as it undermined China's credentials as the leader of the developing world -- and the hostilities didn't go unnoticed back home. Just as African media across the continent was outraged by the Guangzhou incident in April 2020, newspapers in Africa reacted with indignation in the 1980s. A Kenyan publication said they were not "accidental," wrote Sautman. A Liberian newspaper spoke of "yellow discrimination." A Nigerian radio station said the Chinese students "could not bear to see Africans" mix with Chinese girls. The Chinese ambassador to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union, was called in to answer for what was happening in China, and the OAU secretary general called it "apartheid in disguise." Many African students left China as a result. Around the same time, China announced a reduction in interest-free loans for Africa, marking a cooling off of official relations, although ties were never broken. Now a professor in social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Sautman says that while the anti-African protests during the late 1980s were about race, they were also a way for Chinese students to express broader anti-government sentiment. "The people who participated in anti-African demos then were university students, and those students were in some ways jealous of the African students," he says. The Africans typically got their own room, whereas Chinese were often living eight to a dorm. "They perceived them as living better than they did because they got subsidies from their home government and the Chinese government, and they also thought that Africans acted in a freer way than Chinese students were allowed to act," Sautman says. Is Chinese racism the same as Western racism? As China's interaction with African people increased in the 21st century, the awkward gap between the public friendship Beijing extends and the private suspicion its citizens harbor has once again sparked moments of racial tension. In 2009, an African-Chinese contestant on a Shanghai TV talent show received a barrage of internet abuse because of her skin color. In an opinion piece in the state-run China Daily, columnist Raymond Zhou argued that this discrimination stemmed from the fact that "for thousands of years, those who worked outdoors (had darker skin and) were of the lower social status" -- rather than racism. "Much of China's simmering intolerance is color based. It is not an exaggeration to say many of my countrymen have a subconscious adulation of races paler than us," he said. "(It seems like) outright racism, but on closer examination it's not totally race based. Many of us even look down on fellow Chinese who have darker skin, especially women. Beauty products that claim to whiten the skin always fetch a premium. And children are constantly praised for having fair skin." But more recent events have undermined the idea that discrimination against black people in China is not racism. In 2016, a Chinese detergent maker sparked international outrage over an advertisement that showed a black man being washed whiter in order to woo an Asian woman. A spokesperson for the company said Western media was being "too sensitive." The following year, a museum in the city of Wuhan apologized for presenting an exhibition that juxtaposed images of African people and wild African animals making similar facial expressions. Then, in 2018, the annual gala for national broadcaster CCTV drew ire after a Chinese woman appeared in black face. In Africa, where it is estimated more than 1 million Chinese people now live, there have been repeated reports of Chinese restaurateurs setting up establishments that ban Africans. "There is a classic discussion over whether Chinese racism is racist in the way it's envisioned in the West or Europe, or is it a different kind of discriminatory policy," says Winslow Robertson, founder of Cowries and Rice, a China-Africa management consultancy. "My sense is that it is racism. Is it identical to what we see in the US coming out of chattel slavery? No. But if you define racism as based on something you can't change about yourself, then yes it is racism." Discrimination against Africans in China during the coronavirus pandemic, he adds, has exposed that fact. Earlier this month, in a bid to head off those criticisms, officials in Guangdong announced new measures to combat racial discrimination, including setting up a hotline for foreign nationals. The notice said that shops, hospitals, restaurants and residential communities -- the places where Africans had been targeted -- should offer "strictly offer equal services." But Paul Mensah, a Ghanian trader who has been living in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen for five years, says the treatment of Africans in China during the Covid-19 pandemic has shaped his perceptions of racial attitudes in the country. "I thought racism was inherent in America but I never thought people in China would do this," says Mensah. "Before when they (Chinese people) would see a black person, they would touch your skin and touch your hair, and I thought it was out of curiosity because a lot of them don't travel. But this is racism and there is no punishment for it." Sautman, who wrote the paper on the Nanjing riot, says that if China is serious about eliminating the maltreatment of foreigners, it should punish those who mete out racial abuse and discrimination. Article 4 of China's constitution stipulates that "all ethnic groups in the People's Republic of China are equal ... discrimination and oppression of any ethnic group is prohibited. It is forbidden to undermine ethnic unity and create ethnic divisions." But there have been no reports of people in Guangzhou being held accountable for their actions against Africans, and the constitution has had little effect in protecting China's own ethnic minorities. It is estimated that 2 million of China's Uyghur minority are being held reeducation camps in the northwest of the country. Without an enforced legal deterrent, Sautman says it will be hard to change the way Chinese people treat Africans. "There's not a place in the world where racial discrimination has been diminished without taking those actions," he says. This story was first published on CNN.com "China says it has a 'zero-tolerance policy' for racism, but discrimination towards Africans goes back decades" Congressman Al Green, Houston NAACP president James Douglas and a group of community leaders gathered in front the home where a Missouri City man was killed in a deadly police shooting last month to call for a new investigation and legal policy reforms Wednesday, May 19. It is time for us to change the paradigm because the grand jury system has not worked, Green told a group of neighbors, family members and community members who gathered outside the home where the shooting occurred. If the Grand Jury system worked as intended, we would not continue to have these kinds of cases and having an officer investigate themselves is not the solution; we need a third, disinterested party and thats the judge in a Court of Inquiry. MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox Green also called for Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales to fire the deputy who shot Johnson. This officer should be fired and, because there is probable cause to believe there has been corruption and conflict of interest, a court of inquiry should examine the shooting of Joshua Johnson. Green said. According to investigators, the 35-year-old Joshua Johnson was shot April 22 when he approached the car of an undercover officer with a cell-phone flashlight and a BB-gun, which the deputy later said looked like a realistic hand fun. The shooting occurred outside a home in the 15100 block of East Ritter Drive where the victim was watching over the house of a neighbor who was in the hospital. The deputy was a member of the Gulf Coast Task Force planning to issue a felony arrest warrant at a nearby residence. But all that changed when shortly before sunrise, Johnson reportedly tapped on the window of the deputys unmarked car. Investigators say words were exchanged and Johnson was shot at least once. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Dont cover it up: Father doubts police account of sons death by undercover Harris County deputy The deputy was not wearing a body camera and his car did not have a dashcam to record the incident. Family members and neighbors questioned information provided by investigators, such as a witness who lives nearby who claims to have not been interviewed by detectives and others who dispute certain details of the shooting, which occurred in the Fondren Park neighborhood of Missouri City. Robert Pringle, who lives across the street from where the shooting occurred, said he had at least four cars parked in his driveway that day, almost blocking access to his garage, where he discovered a bullet lodged in the garage door. Pringle stood in the spot where investigators say Johnson was shot and then walked with reporters across to his garage where the bullet was found. I dont understand how that bullet couldve landed all the way over here if Josh was shot by the deputys car, Pringle told reporters. MORE FROM KRISTI NIX: Statewide testing program aims to combat COVID-19 at Fort Bend County nursing homes James Douglas, president of the NAACP Houston Branch and longtime law professor at Texas Southern University, was also among those calling for a new investigation. One of the things we know as African Americans in this community is its extremely difficult when we ask law enforcement to police themselves, Douglas said and voiced his organizations support for a Court of Inquiry to be called to investigate the shooting. Why do these killings continue to happen? A law without penalty is no law at all. One of the reasons this continues to happen is that nothing happens to the people who perpetuate these crimes. So, if we are going to prevent these types of crimes, we have to change the way in which we operate. Having a judge and an influential system outside of law enforcement investigate these crimes, I think it is the right way to go. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Acevedo, advocates spar over relevance of race in Houston police killings Other community leaders stood with Douglas to demand a new investigation and policy reforms. We are done dying. We stand and we will not be stopped, Eugene Howard, president of the Brazoria County NAACP told the crowd. Since April, Harris County District Attorney Kim Oggs department have been called to investigate at least six officer-involved shootings for the Houston Police Department. Its a task investigators dont take lightly. In addition, the Harris County Sherriffs Department Homicide Division and the Internal Affairs Division are also reviewing the case. Separate investigations into the March 20 shooting death of Joshua Johnson are being conducted by the Harris County Sheriffs Office Homicide and Internal Affairs bureaus, as well as the Harris County District Attorneys Office. Once these investigations are complete, the findings of these separate investigations, along with the autopsy findings of the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, will be presented to an independent grand jury to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate. Our condolences go out to Mr. Johnsons family for the loss of their loved one in this tragic incident, Harris County Sheriff Department Sr. Deputy Thomas M Gilliland said via email Friday. The Harris County Sheriffs office has been tasked with investigating four deputy involved shootings since the beginning of the year. The and is also currently investigating two separate officer related shooting that occurred in Harris County by two other agencies. The Harris County Sheriff Department is also investigating two separate officer related shooting that occurred in Harris County by two other agencies. Because they occurred in unincorporated Harris County we are the lead agency to investigate, Gililand said. MORE FROM KRISTI NIX: Missouri City emerging as COVID-19 hot spot. Heres what being done to help Once these investigations are complete, the findings along with the autopsy case results of the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, will be brought to Harris County grand juries. However, Green and other elected officials say they want the case to be reviewed by an outside judge. I think back to the words of Martin Luther King Jr. who said, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and we believe a grave injustice took place right here in Missouri City, State Rep. Ron Reynolds told reporters and others at the site of the shooting. We cannot continue to sit silent while these unfortunate killings continue to happen at the hands of police. I support law enforcement. But, I also support transparency and holding law enforcement accountable when there is an error or some type of injustice. The parents of Joshua Johnson were injured when their son was killed within view of their home. Insult was added to the injury when an investigating officer showed little compassion and they were denied the opportunity to see their sons body until the day of his wake, Green said. Family members also spoke at the gathering and described the pain of losing their son. It hurts, Wilhelmena Beary, Johnsons mother, said. I thank God for giving me the inward strength I need to stand, especially today. Harris County Sheriff Department officials declined to clarify certain details family members and neighbors questions or to release the name of the deputy involved in the shooting as the incident remains under investigation. knix@hcnonline.com Brokerage websites can help you find the best car insurance deals in your area. Visit our website for free online car insurance quotes, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has released a new blog post that explains why brokerage websites are really useful and how they can help drivers save money. For more info and free car insurance quotes online, visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org/how-useful-are-auto-insurance-broker-websites// Out of the vast multitude of aggregator websites, brokerage websites are some of the best. Their main purpose is to match their users with insurance providers. Find out more about car insurance and get free car insurance quotes online from http://compare-autoinsurance.org. Multiple possibilities. Unlike official websites of insurance companies, brokerage websites can provide multiple results on the same search page. Some websites ask the ZIP code, then show all available companies in the areas. Other websites ask for the ZIP code, then other preliminary questions. After the questionnaire is completed, they will also show insurance companies that match. These are the 2 ways in which a brokerage website can redirect a user to an insurer. Get in touch with numerous insurance companies. A person whos not working in the insurance industry is not typically aware of the numerous providers selling coverage in the area. The typical driver is aware of 6-7 big names and 1-2 smaller companies. Keep in mind that not all the big names may be present in and area, this drastically limiting a clients options. With brokerage websites, a person will investigate how many companies can sell to his/her location and will be given hyperlinks to follow. Free estimates. Every insurance company offers free quotes. This is also true to brokerage websites. Furthermore, this increases the chances of saving more money. Some companies offer discounts for getting online quotes before buying or discounts for purchasing coverage online. Either way, brokerage websites can help driver have a swift and pleasant underwriting process. Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. For more information, please visit http://compare-autoinsurance.org Growing up, Elon Musk read plenty of books but was especially inspired by science fiction. The genre motivated him to create "cleaner energy technology or [build] spaceships to extend the human species's reach" in the future, according to the book "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future" by Ashlee Vance. With these goals in mind, Musk went on to start SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla in 2003. And now, he is on the precipice of a potentially historic launch for SpaceX on Saturday, as the company plans for its first crewed mission of two NASA astronauts. Looking back on his success, Musk in part credits the opportunity he found when he emigrated to the United States in 1992. "America is still the land of opportunity more than any other place, for sure," he told Vance in a Bloomberg interview published Friday. Musk was born in South Africa, but always wanted to move to the U.S. "It always seemed like when there was cool technology or things happening, it was kind of in the United States. So, my goal as a kid was to get to get to America basically," Musk told Kevin Rose in 2012. At the age 17, he arrived in North America with only "$2,000, a backpack & a suitcase full of books," Musk tweeted in June 2018. "I paid my own way through collegethrough student loans, scholarships, working jobsand ended up with $100,000 of student debt. I started my first company [Zip2] with $2,500, and I had one computer and a car that I bought for $1,400, and all that debt," he told Vance. (Though some critics have alleged that Musk had a privileged life paid for by his family, Musk has said that is not true.) Despite the challenges, Musk succeeded. In 1999, Musk sold Zip2 to Compaq for roughly $300 million. Musk used the money from that sale to found X.com, an online financial services platform that merged with Confinity in 2000, and later became PayPal. In 2002, eBay purchased PayPal for $1.5 billion. These successes led him to start SpaceX and Tesla, along with Neuralink in 2016, and a year later, The Boring Company. Today, Musk is worth $36.8 billion, according to Forbes. "There is definitely no other country where I could have done thisimmigrant or not," he told Vance. This story has been updated to reflect the new SpaceX launch date after the initial launch was postponed due to bad weather. Check out: The best credit cards of 2021 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years Don't miss: HOUSTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BBVA USA has funded approximately $3.3 billion small business loans in less than 60 days, processing more than 22,000 applications and impacting approximately 360,000 jobs through its efforts in the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the bank announced today. For context on the size of the bank's commitment to the PPP, the bank's total SBA 7(a) loan originations for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2019 were 259 loans totaling nearly $270.7 million, an outcome that garnered the bank a no. 14 rank nationally in dollar volume for SBA loans originated. The bank consistently punches above its weight class for the SBA lending component of its small business portfolio, ranking in the top 15 nationally each year. In the case of PPP, the bank lent in less than 60 days what it might typically do over the course of ten years. "This program has by far outpaced any previous small business lending that we have done," said BBVA USA Executive Director of Business Banking Elizabeth Dobers. "We were among the first banks to open our online portal to applicants because we truly felt this program was our call to do everything we could for the small businesses that make up the fabric of our communities, and it was a call we took to heart." The PPP, a key small business relief component of the CARES Act , allows businesses with fewer than 500 employees to borrow money from government guaranteed lenders to fund up to 2.5 times their monthly payroll and other employee expenses, including health insurance and retirement coverage. If all employees are retained throughout the designated time period, businesses may be eligible to have their loan balances forgiven. BBVA today reported that so far, through the second round of funding for the PPP, it has: Funded approximately $3.3 billion dollars in small business loans in small business loans Processed, underwritten and approved more than 22,000 applications Impacted approximately 360,000 jobs in communities across the country Provided an average loan size of $149,000 Supported diverse industries from medical providers to restaurants to manufacturing plants Provided loans to nearly 3,100 borrowers who did not previously have a relationship with BBVA USA Began funding loans on April 6 , just 3 days after the program opened for applications To support small businesses through the PPP, the bank developed a new online application in just three days - something that in normal circumstances would typically require up to a year of planning, development and deployment. The bank also added hundreds of people from across all lines of business to process, underwrite and submit applications, including a volunteer force and Retail team members who came in during their "off" hours to process applications and connect with applicants. "We've heard from clients across our footprint whose livelihoods have been saved by this funding," Dobers said. "Many of them have told us how our team members were contacting them in the wee hours of the morning, based on their email timestamps. Without fail, all of them have told us how grateful they are that our team members worked around the clock to get them funding." BBVA USA has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the SBA and ranked 14th nationally in terms of dollar volume of SBA loans originated, based on financial data for fiscal year 2019. "BBVA USA has always been incredibly strong with its SBA lending, ranking consistently in the top 15 for dollar volume and punching way above its weight class," she said. "Our efforts with PPP were herculean, comparatively, with the bank lending in less than 60 days what it might typically do over the course of ten years." "I just can't tell you how proud we are as a bank to have served our communities in this way," Dobers said. "I speak for everybody that was part of this project when I say that we were fully aware of how many livelihoods were on the line, but having the opportunity to be a part of saving an estimated 360,000 jobs is a pinnacle moment in our careers." BBVA USA is continuing to take applications from customers and non-customers. Click here for more information on how to apply for a PPP loan through BBVA USA. For additional information regarding BBVA's COVID-19 response, visit the bank's COVID-19 landing page, here . For more BBVA news visit, www.bbva.com and the U.S. Newsroom . Additional news updates can be found via Twitter and Instagram . For more financial information about BBVA in the U.S., visit bbvausa.investorroom.com . About BBVA BBVA Group BBVA (NYSE: BBVA) is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The Group has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico, and has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States. It is also the leading shareholder in Turkey's Garanti BBVA. BBVA's purpose is to bring the age of opportunities to customers by providing the best solutions and helping them make the best financial decisions through an easy and convenient experience. The institution's responsible banking model aspires to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable society. BBVA rests on three solid values: customer comes first, we think big and we are one team. BBVA USA In the U.S., BBVA is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 641 branches, including 330 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 63 in Arizona, 61 in California, 44 in Florida, 37 in Colorado and 17 in New Mexico. The bank ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (6th). In the U.S., BBVA has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and ranked 14th nationally in terms of dollar volume of SBA loans originated in fiscal year 2019. SOURCE BBVA USA Related Links www.bbva.com Pedro Pascal is known for playing the titular role in The Mandalorian, and for portraying Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones. Heres a look at Pascals career, net worth, and rise to fame. Pedro Pascal at The Mandalorian premiere | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images The actor was born in Chile Pascal was born in Santiago, Chile. But he left the country at the age of 9 months when his parents were granted political asylum in Denmark. They eventually relocated to Texas, where Pascals passion for cinema began. I saw First Blood when I was, like, six years old, he told Elle in an interview. There was an entire week one summer when my father was working and my mother was getting her PhD, so shed tell the people working at the Cineplex, Im going to drop off my son and will pick him up around 6 p.m. Shed say, Hes going to watch E.T., but Id watch Poltergeist instead. Id already seen E.T.! At 11-years-old, Pascal and his family moved to California where he went on to attend the Orange County School of the Arts. Eventually, the actor moved to New York to study at NYUs Tisch School of the Arts. After graduation, he began working as a young actor in New York City, taking on small roles in various film and television projects. What has Pedro Pascal been in? Pascal started his TV and film career in 1999 with a small role on the USA comedy series, Good vs Evil. He went on to appear on episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Touched by Angel, and Without a Trace. He was also featured on episodes of Law & Order: SVU, Nurse Jackie, and Homeland. And he had recurring roles on shows like The Good Wife and Graceland. Pascals breakout role came in 2014 when he portrayed the Dornish prince, Oberyn Martell on the fourth season HBOs hit fantasy series, Game of Thrones. Soon after, the actor landed the lead role of Javier Pena on Netflixs crime drama, Narcos. Pascal has also been in a number of popular films. He starred in The Adjustment Bureau, The Great Wall, and The Equalizer 2. In the 2018 Academy Award-winning film, If Beale Street Could Talk, the 45-year-old actor played the go-between, Pietro Alvarez. Pascal currently has a leading role in the Disney+ Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. In his next project, the upcoming DCEU film, Wonder Woman: 1984. Pascal will play the shrewd DC supervillain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot. RELATED: The Mandalorian Star Pedro Pascal Joins the Cast of Community What is Pedro Pascals net worth? At this stage in his career, Pascal has played iconic characters in three of the most popular series on TV. His net worth, according to Who Times, is $30 million. But other sources, like Celeb Worth, suggest his net worth is $2 million. The discrepancy could be because the actors salary for The Mandalorian and Wonder Woman; 1984 have yet to be configured in. RELATED: Why Pedro Pascal Died Inside When He First Met Jon Favreau Hong Kong: Social distancing rules to be relaxed The Government will relax social distancing measures in accordance with the suppress and lift strategy. Starting from Friday, bathhouses, party rooms, clubs or nightclubs and karaoke establishments can resume operation. The Secretary for Food & Health issued the latest directions under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Requirements & Directions) (Business & Premises) Regulation through notices published in the Gazette today. The move was made as the situation in Hong Kong has stabilised in terms of the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, and no new local cases have been detected after enhanced testing in the community. The latest directions will also allow karaoke activities to be carried on in catering premises, party rooms and club-houses provided that the applicable directions in respect of karaoke establishments are complied with. Any part of the club-house being used or operated as a party room will also be allowed to resume operation, provided that the applicable directions in respect of party rooms are complied with. Other measures regulating catering businesses and scheduled premises will be maintained. The latest directions will come into effect at midnight on May 29 for a period of seven days. This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. Digital insurance platform launched in just three months with Duck Creek OnDemand Boston, MA and Philadelphia, PA, May 26, 2020to modernize its technology infrastructure with a digital-first, cloud-native offering via the Duck Creek OnDemand platform. "The initiative is a key step forward in support of MRSI's mission to provide exceptional service to our partners, clients and customers," said Adam Edelstein, chief operating officer, MRSI. "By enabling our underwriting, claims and operations teams, as well as our business partners, with the speed and efficiency delivered via Duck Creek OnDemand, MRSI is positioning itself for significant growth." "All insurers focus on speed-to-market as a differentiating factor," said Andy Dey, chief product and technology officer, Duck Creek. "But what MRSI has accomplished is truly unprecedented - they have built a fully-operational business offering from the ground up in less time than many insurers, still tied to legacy systems, take to make a small change to a single insurance product. Duck Creek is excited to support MRSI in this exciting endeavor and help them as their offerings grow and expand." OnDemand is Duck Creek's end-to-end SaaS solution providing all services, support and computing resources needed to help carriers move faster and more efficiently than ever before. Duck Creek OnDemand includes Duck Creek Policy, Duck Creek Billing, Duck Creek Claims, and Duck Creek Insights. By leveraging the best available technology and continuously delivering new functionality to solve ever-changing property and casualty insurance business challenges, OnDemand provides a fundamentally new approach to competing in today's industry-one where technology supports strategy rather than dictating it, and where carriers are empowered to focus on innovation in entirely new ways. "Service, speed and flexibility are at the core of our value proposition to the market and we needed a modern technology foundation to deliver on that," said Edelstein. "Our partnership with Duck Creek enables us to offer our users a world-class experience on a scalable platform." A full-suite solution, including policy, billing and claims, was implemented by the MRSI and Duck Creek teams in 90 days. "We look forward to our continued partnership with Duck Creek as we build a premier platform for the future." About Munich Re Specialty Insurance Munich Re Specialty Insurance (MRSI) is a description for the insurance business operations of affiliated companies in the Munich Re Group that share a common directive to offer and deliver specialty property and casualty insurance products and services in North America. Since December 2018, MRSI has brought together the existing expertise of Munich Re's commercial specialty insurance divisions under one umbrella to gain efficiency, leverage technology and develop future-focused solutions. MRSI offers its clients innovative risk and claims solutions powered by advanced technology and analytics, superior service and enhanced responsiveness to clients' needs, and simplified access to the full breadth of Munich Re solutions through a dedicated Broker Relationship Leader. About Munich Re Munich Re is one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance, primary insurance and insurance-related risk solutions. Since it was founded in 1880, Munich Re has been known for its unrivalled risk-related expertise and its sound financial position. It offers customers financial protection when faced with exceptional levels of damage - from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake through to the 2019 Pacific typhoon season. The company is playing a key role in driving forward the digital transformation of the insurance industry, and in doing so has further expanded its ability to assess risks and the range of services that it offers. Its tailor-made solutions and close proximity to its customers make Munich Re one of the world's most sought-after risk partners for businesses, institutions, and private individuals. About Duck Creek Technologies Duck Creek Technologies is a leading provider of core system solutions to the P&C and General insurance industry. By accessing Duck Creek OnDemand, the company's enterprise Software-as-a-Service solution, insurance carriers are able to navigate uncertainty and capture market opportunities faster than their competitors. Duck Creek's functionally rich solutions are available on a stand-alone basis or as a full suite, and all are available via Duck Creek OnDemand. For more information, visit www.duckcreek.com. Contact: Jodi Dorman Senior Media and Public Relations Specialist Munich Re US Email: JDorman@MunichRe.com Phone: 609-243-4533 Media Contact: Paul Rechichi Racepoint Global 617-624-3295 prechichi@racepointglobal.com Attachment Luxembourg police are continuing to monitor the public up and down the country to ensure sanitary measures are adhered to, even in sunny weather. In the last week, around 100 checks were carried out each day, leading to 15 fines issued. According to police, 90% of those charged were not wearing masks in circumstances where masks are compulsory. The remainder of the fines were issued to those who were not respecting safe social distancing. Luxembourg authorities also issued a number of warnings to citizens who did not respect the closure of the beaches at Upper-Sure Lake, as well to those whose private events exceeded the number of guests allowed. Currently, just one bathing area is open in Luxembourg, and no more than six people are allowed to congregate in private homes. Physical distancing measures are still in place, and masks must be worn in public places such as supermarkets, DIY shops and so on. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 18:17 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda3e069 1 Business pertamina,Mahakam-block,East-Kalimantan,exploration-blocks,oil-and-gas Free Pertamina Hulu Mahakam (PHM), a subsidiary of state-owned oil company Pertamina, is opening up a new oil and gas field in the country to find new reserves despite a sharp fall in crude oil prices. PHM began on May 21 drilling a new oil and gas exploration well in the Peciko Field, Mahakam Block, which is located off the coast of East Kalimantan, said the company in a statement on Monday (25/5). The company expects to finish drilling the well, which will be up to 2,700 meters deep beneath the sea surface, within 90 days. This is part of our effort to discover new reserves in maintaining operation and production levels in the Mahakam Block, wrote the company in a statement. PHM did not mention how much oil and gas it expected from the new well. However, PHM yielded 153,477 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) last year, becoming Indonesias third-most-productive oil and gas company in 2019. Oil and gas reserves in the Mahakam Block are confined to thousands of small, isolated, underground pockets, which means PHM has to continually drill new wells in existing reserves, on top of drilling for new reserves, in maintaining production levels. The company drilled 127 wells last year. Furthermore, as a national oil company (NOC), Pertamina is obligated to uphold Indonesias upstream oil and gas industry in the name of domestic energy security even when less profitable, Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati told lawmakers on April 4. Most NOCs consistently spent between 12 and 35 percent of their upstream budget on exploration, said senior energy analyst Huong Tra Ho of consultancy Wood Mackenzie in a statement dated May 20. This is significantly higher than the majors [private oil companies] average spend of 8 percent of the upstream budget on exploration. Retired Marine Tom Jankiewicz, (left) who fought in the Vietnam War, places flags at Washington Crossing National Cemetery in Newtown, Pa. on May 25, 2020. Jankiewicz is a member of the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation. Joining him from the foundation during the visit to the cemetery on Memorial Day G. Daniel Jones, his grand daughter, Ryleigh Cassidy, and Mike Wallace. Read more It was a different sort of Memorial Day in the Philly region this year, with social distancing measures preventing mass gatherings to commemorate the day. Smaller gatherings and virtual ceremonies were held, though. And, at the Shore, cloudy skies kept beaches less crowded than they otherwise might have been, even with the coronavirus pandemic. Josh Rosenblat (@joshrosenblat, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com) Normally, there would have been a public service at the Washington Crossing National Cemetary in Bucks County. This year, though, retired Marine Tom Jankiewicz and two other members of the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation placed American flags in front of about 135 gravestone markers. The coronavirus pandemic meant that there were no large gatherings to commemorate Memorial Day in the region yesterday. Instead, virtual ceremonies were pre-recorded or shown live online. And, nationally, musicians marked the day with a playing of Taps. Heres what the weekend looked like in pictures. Hilco Global, the Chicago company thats buying the 1,300-acre Philadelphia Energy Solutions property in South Philly, has a long history of buying and salvaging distressed businesses and real estate. But its record as a developer is mixed. With the sale of what used to be the East Coasts biggest oil refinery set to close around the end of the month, Hilco officials still have not publicly released a plan for the South Philly property. National polling averages show President Trump is near even with Joe Biden among voters older than 65. Thats a group of voters he won by 10 points in the 2016 election. One of the likely reasons for his senior slide, my colleague Julia Terruso reports, is Trumps response to the coronavirus, which has disproportionately affected the elderly. What you need to know today Through your eyes | #OurPhilly Memorial Day can help us reflect on the past and remember those who are no longer with us. Thank you for sharing, @kslouf. Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and well pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out! Thats interesting Opinions Anticipation is sometimes the best part of life. We are lucky when we are happy and healthy enough to make future plans. But this summer, we may only have memories to share, not plans to make. Philadelphia, I already miss you. writes Tina Isen Fox, a freelance writer in suburban Philly, about the things shes already missing about summer. Mayor Kenney hasnt taken advantage of Philadelphias fiscal boom, writes Dan Pearson, an urban policy enthusiast and political activist in South Philly. Jessica Sabella, also known as Jammin Jessie on Radio 104.5, writes about missing the magical bond music creates. Inside The Inquirer Every day this week, were taking you behind the scenes of The Inquirer newsroom to learn more about what we do and how we do it. If you missed yesterdays edition, you can find it here. Today, were talking about breaking news coverage and how our Now Team works. Heres how the editor Molly Eichel describes it: Team Now is breaking news, plus a little extra zazz. Every day, we start at 5 a.m. and wrap up at 1 a.m. Right now, we are responsible for operating the coronavirus liveblog. Its a running feed for breaking news, such as Gov. Tom Wolf moving all counties to the yellow phase on June 5; important news you-can-use; and links to the newsrooms comprehensive coronavirus coverage. But we also take time for fun stuff, like finding the Instagram star who Lysold North Philly, figuring out what happens to the cats at cat cafes during a pandemic, or following a surfers return to the water after the coronavirus shutdowns. Our job is to make sure the biggest Philadelphia-area story of the day is covered from all angles. If youre talking about it, its probably because we wrote about it. Check this out: To get our latest breaking news coverage as it happens, sign up for alerts on our mobile app (available on iPhone and Android) and now on desktop. Heres how to turn them on. Tomorrow, well talk about what our opinion section is. Your Daily Dose of | Helping others Philadelphia-based Amerihealth Caritas launched a program called Care Crew to encourage employees to volunteer at least four hours a year. But in 2019, employee Vidya Iyer blew that suggestion way out of the water, donating 533 hours of her own time, energy, and skills to nonprofits and causes close to her. And the coronavirus pandemic hasnt slowed her pace. PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled Tuesday an 8 billion-euro ($8.8 billion) plan to save the countrys car industry from huge losses wrought by virus lockdowns, including a big boost for electric vehicles. The plan includes government subsidies for car buyers and longer-term investment in innovative technology, especially in battery-powered cars. Our country wouldnt be the same without its great brands Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Macron declared, and announcing a goal of making France the leading producer of clean cars in Europe. The 8 billion euros does not include a 5 billion-euro government loan guarantee under discussion for struggling Renault, or the millions the government has already spent on temporary unemployment payments to auto workers told to stay home for weeks to keep the virus at bay. As carmakers around the world face record slumps in sales, Macron met with industry representatives and unions at the Elysee presidential palace on Tuesday morning, notably to discuss the loan guarantee for Renault. He then visited supplier Valeo, which makes equipment for electric cars, at its factory in northern France, from where he detailed the wider rescue plan. The issue is politically sensitive, since France is proud of its auto industry, which employs 400,000 people in the country and is a big part of its manufacturing sector. The government wants carmakers to develop innovative products in France and keep jobs in the country. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said that carmakers must commit to bringing back manufacturing to France in exchange for the support, but unions are wary as the industry is in turmoil. The aid is expected to include government subsidies for consumers to buy a battery-powered car as well as other incentives for people to scrap their old car and buy a lower-emissions model. Auto sales in France fell by about 90% in April compared with a year earlier as showrooms were shut and factories suspended production. The country started easing restrictions on May 11 after two months of strict lockdowns. The plan to support the industry comes at a crucial time for carmaker Renault, which came into the virus crisis in particularly bad shape after the 2018 arrest of its longtime star CEO Carlos Ghosn. Le Maire said Monday its survival is at stake and that the government which owns 15% of Renault would not require Renault to keep all its French jobs and facilities in exchange for the rescue funds, in order to allow the company to adapt to the economic situation. Renault and Nissan have scheduled an announcement Wednesday that is expected to address the future of their alliance. Renault unions say they have been summoned to a meeting Thursday on how the carmaker will cut 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in costs, and expect that will lead to factory closures and job losses in France. French carmakers won billions in bailout funds after the 2008 financial crisis and benefited from a government bonus plan that encouraged consumers to buy newer cars, though that didnt prevent thousands of job cuts. PSA Group, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, came into the current crisis in better shape, after years of cost-cutting under CEO Carlos Tavares. PSA reported record profits last year, but has also seen sales plunge amid virus lockdowns. It is in the process of merging with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to create the worlds fourth-largest auto maker. The French government owns a 12% stake in PSA through the state investment bank. Carmakers in other countries are also struggling. U.S. automakers havent received direct government help yet but car dealers and auto suppliers can apply for low-interest loans. Some U.S. some politicians dont want to bail out carmakers again after they got huge bailouts after the 2008 financial crisis. In Germany, automakers are pressing for car purchase incentives to support major employers and prevent layoffs. The idea is opposed by some legislators in Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative party and by an expert council of economists, who advised tax breaks and lower energy costs for all companies instead of singling out one industry for help. A decision on the issue could come as early as next week. Italian-American Fiat Chrysler, which has its corporate headquarters in the Netherlands and its financial base in Britain, confirmed this month a request for an Italian state-backed loan worth 6.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion). The move set off debate in Italy over whether such money should be made available to companies with legal headquarters overseas. Britains government is considering bailing out companies whose demise would disproportionately affect the economy, on a last resort basis. The Financial Times reported Sunday that Jaguar Land Rover was among those approaching the government to acquire stakes as part of a broader manufacturing bailout. Steve Turner of the Unite Union said action is needed to bolster major employers and their supply chains. There is no more time to lose if we are to prevent a tsunami of job losses from sweeping through communities this summer, he said. ___ Angela Charlton in Paris, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report. SheKnows When Kim Kardashian became famous, she ushered in an era of highly curated and airbrushed photos and she even influenced makeup trends with a heavily contoured face. But what we should be celebrating is how gorgeous she looks without all of the editing. The SKIMS founder was spotted in longtime friend Allison Statters birthday [] MOSCOW (Reuters) - Banks mostly ignored the Russian central bank's first month-long liquidity auction in many years on Monday, preferring funds with shorter maturity in what the central bank described as evidence there is adequate liquidity in the system. The central bank normally provides the market with rouble liquidity at one-week repo auctions. For the first time since 2013, Monday's repo auction offered up to 500 billion roubles ($7 billion) to banks willing to park OFZ treasury bonds as collateral for a full month. Only one lender took part, the central bank said without identifying the lender. The central bank said the limited demand for the longer-term liquidity was not unexpected, and confirmed that the current liquidity level in the banking system is sufficient. A top executive at a major Russian bank in Moscow that usually takes part in repo auctions said banks have ignored the new auction "as they still have money". The funds were offered at a minimum rate of 5.6%, slightly above the bank's key rate of 5.5%, which it has pledged to cut in June to support an economy hit by the novel coronavirus crisis and related lockdowns. "The system retains liquidity surplus, that was the main reason for poor demand," said Sofia Donets, chief economist at Renaissance Capital. Some state banks have asked for longer-term repo auctions to buy OFZ bonds, the issuance of which the finance ministry plans to double this year to 4.0-4.5 trillion roubles as it needs funds to fight an economic fallout from the new coronavirus. The central bank said it will continue holding longer term repo auctions to support market liquidity according to its schedule. It will next test demand for long-term rouble liquidity at a one-year repo auction due on June 22. That auction could draw higher demand as such long-term funds are a "rare thing" for the Russian market, said a source with another major Russian bank who asked not to be named. ($1 = 71.5600 roubles) (Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, Andrey Ostroukh and Tatiana Voronova; Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Katya Golubkova, Peter Graff and Jan Harvey) Hong Kong Leader Defends Beijings National Security Law Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam attempted to assuage concerns over risks to the citys freedoms after Beijing proposed a national security law last week. Lam, speaking at her weekly press conference on May 26, was asked by a reporter whether she could guarantee that Hongkongers could still protest on the streets, and voice their opposition to her policies and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), if the proposed law from Beijing is enacted. She didnt respond directly to the question. Instead, she asked people not to worry, saying that legal protests would not be in the crosshairs of the national security law. Protest itself is an expression of freedoms and rights and opinions if it is done in a legal way. You must observe the law, Lam said. It has to depend on the circumstances and whether it has been done in a legal fashion. Hong Kong police have on many occasions refused to approve protest applications, citing security concerns. During the protests sparked by the Lam governments extradition bill proposed last year, despite having no official approval, Hong Kong protesters continued to take to the streets, voicing their demands for universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into instances of police violence. On May 24, thousands took to the streets of Hong Kong Island to protest against the CCPs national security law that may, in an unprecedented move by Beijing, be enacted without scrutiny from the citys legislature. In response, local police fired tear gas, pepper spray, and a water cannon in an effort to disperse protesters, and arrested 193 peoplethe youngest being 12 years oldon charges such as illegal assembly. Lam explained that from the governments perspective, she has to take into account the safety and security of the 1.4 billion people of China. As a result, we take the legislation proposed by the central government at the national level for granted. If there is objection, we would deal with illegal opposition acts in accordance with law and will not back down, Lam said. Lam also defended the CCPs security law, arguing that it was intended to target a small number of criminals. Her words echoed recent comments made by Chinas state-run media, which stated that the security law only targeted a small group of people that seriously endanger national security, or a small group of secessionists in Hong Kong. Since June last year, Chinas state-run media have repeatedly portrayed Hong Kong protesters as a small number of people, among them rioters and radicals, saying the majority of Hongkongers support Beijings hopes that the protests will come to an end. Currently, Hong Kong has a population of about 7.4 million people. In 2003, half a million took to the streets in protest against Article 23an anti-subversion bill pushed by Beijing. Many feared the the proposal would threaten the citys autonomy and their basic freedoms. Article 23 was eventually shelved. Then in June last year, protests against the extradition bill drew millions of Hongkongers onto the streets, which eventually led to the bill being scrapped. Lam told Hong Kong that the national security law was not a replacement for Article 23 and expressed hope that the latter would also move ahead in the citys legislature. She said her government would take the firm stand to fully support and collaborate with Beijing. International Outcry Lam also accused foreign politicians of making wrongful statements and having double standards with their comments about the legality of implementing the national security law. After Beijings rubber-stamp legislature, the National Peoples Congress, announced the proposed law on May 21, it was immediately condemned by multiple countries and regions, including the United States, Taiwan, and Australia. On May 25, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) issued a statement condemning Beijings efforts to destroy Hong Kongs freedoms of press, speech, and assembly. Should Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam continue to follow the dictates of Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and fail to protect the rights of the people of Hong Kong, she will have presided over the death of One Country, Two Systems, Smith stated. And the United States will be forced, by statute, to reassess the status of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and our relationship with it. Also on May 25, the Hong Kong Bar Association issued a statement expressing multiple concerns about Beijings proposed law. The association stated that there was no assurance that the law would comply or be required to comply with provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is entrenched in [Hong Kongs mini constitution] the Basic Law. It also expressed concerns about the likely scenario that Beijings security agencies would be granted justification over matters in Hong Kong. It questioned whether these agencies would have the power of enforcement and whether such powers as exercised will be limited by the laws currently in force in the HKSAR. Reuters contributed to this report. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Tamilla Mammadova Trend: The Czech Republic will be one of the first European countries with which Georgia will resume tourist traffic, said Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Natia Turnava, Trend reports via Georgian media. She made the remark after the meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to Georgia Petr Mikyska. At the meeting, the parties discussed cooperation in the tourism sector and the possibility of restoring direct flights between the countries. In addition, the parties discussed in detail the creation of a safe corridor between the countries and the implementation of travel protocols that would allow visitors to both countries to travel safely. According to Turnava, the tourism market of Georgia is still of rather great interest in the Czech Republic. Before the pandemic, we had a growing flow of tourists from the Czech Republic. Most importantly, they traveled to different regions of Georgia. We discussed with the Czech ambassador formal procedures that still need to be completed in order to accelerate the creation of a safe corridor between our countries, said Tunava. Mikyska praised the actions taken by the Georgian government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. At a working meeting with the minister, we discussed the current situation in Georgia and the success of the Georgian government in this area. My congratulations are sincere, because we were here and carefully monitored the development of events, he said. Georgia will open for domestic tourism from June 15, and from July 1, the country will begin to receive foreign tourists. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356 New Delhi: Government of India has started the process of bring the countrymen back trapped in Kazakhstan. The first flight will return on Tuesday for the return of Indians. Around 3400 people have registered for return to India. It is believed that 1 thousand Indians may return home in the first phase. India's Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Prabhat Kumar, while talking to WION has said, 'We are getting Indians back from Kazakhstan. Today is the first flight from Karaganda. After this, 7 flights will leave from Karaganda, Almaty, Noor Sultan. From 26 May to 1 June, a plane will bring one thousand people back to India every day. About 3400 people have been registered for return, the rest will be brought in the second phase. He further informed that in total 3 flights from Karaganda, 2 flights from Noor Sultan, 2 flights from Almaty are going to come to India in the next one week. Prabhat Kumar thanked the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Almaty, Noor Sultan Airport for assisting in the return of Indians. He has particularly appreciated Air India, Indian Home and Health and Civil Aviation. Most of the passengers returning from Kazakhstan are students. Those who requested the government to return to the country. Many Indian workers are also working for the construction of Mega Abu Dhabi Plaza in the capital Noor Sultan. Know some special things about Angela Merkel Bihar triple murder case: Tejashwi Yadav slams CM Nitish Kumar World's biggest gambling businessman dies America could face a miserable summer of blackouts, experts have warned, as millions of people working from home cause the power grid to collapse. With offices across the U.S. expected to remain closed, demand from households will soar - particularly as the weather gets warmer. Some analysts are worried that the infrastructure may not be able to cope, and that swathes of the country could be plunged into darkness. Wendy Hijos, of the Consumer Energy Alliance, said the threat was very real. Experts are warning that millions of people working from home are placing strain on the country's power systems, and that blackouts could result. Last year huge swathes of Manhattan were plunged into darkness on July 13 after a fire at a Con Edison facility 'The potential for further blackouts in New York City should truly concern families, businesses and energy consumers across the board,' she told DailyMail.com. 'Many have warned that New Yorks energy and electricity future are at risk because of policy decisions made to please a narrow set of interests. All that has left the people of New York City in the worst possible position not having the energy they need, or can afford, during a public health crisis.' She said that the city had begun shutting down units at the Indian Point nuclear power plant and rejected natural gas pipelines, which aggravated the situation. 'The state is applying short-term, politically-motivated Band-Aids to the very real challenge of providing a sufficient energy supply,' she said. 'This is no way to run an economy in the 21st century New York desperately needs energy solutions that can deliver now, not more promises about the future.' New York City council is today holding a meeting to discuss how to avoid shortages and chaos. Justin Brannan, chair of the committee on resiliency and waterfronts, urged Con Edison, which provides energy for 10 million people living in New York City and Westchester, to make urgent preparations. 'Con Ed struggles to keep up with demand during a normal summer,' he said. Last year a fire at an electricity generator left 72,000 people without power in Manhattan on July 13. In December 2018 a transformer at a Con Ed facility in Queens exploded, causing an eerie blue light to hover over New York City. A Con Ed spokesman told DailyMail.com that the company had spent $1.3 billion on upgrades designed to keep the systems running this summer, and was urging customers to save electricity where possible. Con Ed suggested making sure all electrical items were fully turned off when not in use, taking showers instead of baths to avoid heating so much water, and considering setting your washing machine on cold. The company warned last week that customers should expect a 10 per cent increase in their bills this summer, due to more people staying at home. Residential power usage in California has already risen by 15-20 per cent, and demand is expected to increase. In October, Pacific Gas & Electric Co was forced to shut off the power, due to fire risks Tim Crawley, president of Con Edison, said the company was doing all it could to keep the power flowing. 'Safe, reliable power is essential for New Yorkers, particularly during the health crisis,' he said. 'We continue to invest to keep our system reliable and are accelerating the integration of clean technologies onto the grid.' An analysis of American work habits by Global Workplace Analytics showed that, in 2018, only 3.6 per cent of Americans worked from home. That figure could now have almost reached 60 per cent, the think tank reported. And, while business districts are designed to cope with high energy demand, the residential areas are not. Residential consumption in New York City had risen by 7 per cent by the end of April, according to research from Columbia University's Earth Institute. California Public Utilities Commission reported that residential consumption in the state had risen 15-20 per cent. 'With people at home 24-7, the network doesnt have a moment to cool down and the heat continues to build in the wires, the transformers and the substations day after day,' said Lawrence Orsini, founder and CEO of L03 Energy, a local energy company. 'Without deliberately shutting it off and giving it time to cool, it will just get hotter and hotter until things start to burn. Orsini said that all states will face similar problems, but noted that California, whose grid he said was 'already at breaking point', would be facing a particularly difficult situation. Jason King, spokesman for PG&E, which provides electricity in California, told DailyMail.com: 'PG&Es power supply remains secure and, in coordination with Californias independent grid operator, we do not anticipate any disruption [at this time] to the production and delivery of electricity and gas to our customers.' The problem is not limited to New York and California. In mid April storms unleashed tornadoes in the Carolinas, Mississippi and elsewhere, leaving 250,000 homes and businesses without power from Texas to Maine, according to utility websites. Meanwhile, Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and initial forecasts from Colorado State University call for it to be an especially active one, adding to the electric companies' woes. Craig Hart, executive director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center, said the U.S. was facing a 'perfect storm' of a hot summer, coupled with people already affected by economic losses from covid-19 worrying about their energy bills. He warned that Americans needed to brace themselves for higher costs. A Starbucks in Paradise, California, is closed due to blackouts caused by the October wildfires. Experts warn that California's infrastructure will struggle to cope with increased demand. 'We are expecting a warm summer,' he told DailyMail.com. 'Let's assume we're still in partial lockdown. A lot of people will be at home, and so the cooling which would be done by offices is now being done by residential buildings. 'The heat waves that swept Europe in the mid 2000s killed thousands of people who were elderly or already had respiratory problems - those are the exact same people at risk from covid-19. 'So electricity companies are working to avoid a situation where people can't afford air conditioning, and the health crisis is worsened. That would be a perfect storm.' He said that some of the additional demand from houses would be offset by the reduction in demand from offices, and added that it was impossible at the moment to gauge whether that would be sufficient. 'My guess is that they probably can handle it,' he said. Richard Kauffman, chairman of the New York Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), said he was optimistic that New York could cope, and pointed out that overall demand for electricity had actually dropped. 'We have already seen substantial changes in electricity demand due to covid-19,' he told DailyMail.com. 'Retail demand is up, but overall demand is lower - about 15 per cent lower - since there is much less commercial and industrial use. 'Patterns of use have also changed, with less peakiness. 'The electricity system in the state has substantial excess capacity.' A Cathay Dragon Airbus A330-300 plane descends before landing at Hong Kong Airport in Hong Kong, April 4, 2018. Reuters China's aviation regulator may make it difficult for Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd to merge regional arm Cathay Dragon into its main brand because of infractions during last year's pro-democracy protests, two sources said. The airline is looking to cut costs, streamline marketing and consolidate pilot contracts around Cathay Pacific and low-cost arm HK Express, the sources said on condition of anonymity. Rival Singapore Airlines Ltd is doing the same with regional arm SilkAir and budget arm Scoot. But the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) would view such a move as an expansion and could block Cathay from keeping access to 20 mainland routes flown only by Dragon. The Cathay Pacific brand flies only to Beijing and Shanghai, while Dragon destinations include smaller cities like Fuzhou and Nanjing. China's aviation regulator stepped up inspections of Cathay planes last fall after warning the airline that staff participating in anti-government protests in Hong Kong would no longer be allowed to fly to mainland destinations or even in Chinese airspace. During that period, Cathay's chief executive resigned and the brand received enough demerit points for minor infractions under the strict CAAC system that the regulator can deny an application to add mainland destinations and aircraft, including Dragon's, three sources said. The six demerits received, according to two of the sources, mean it could take a year from the date of the most recent one, near the end of last year, to be allowed to expand, CAAC demerit rules posted online say. Cathay, which is doing a strategic review amid the collapse in demand related to the coronavirus, declined to comment on its plans for Dragon, its demerit points and its talks with the CAAC. "Given the very dynamic situation we are currently in, we are not taking anything off the table and we can't rule out anything to ensure our airline business will come out from the crisis stronger and more competitive," the company said in a statement. The CAAC did not respond to a request for comment. The regulatory pushback has contributed to weeks of delays in Cathay's plans to meet with its pilot's union to discuss structural changes it first flagged to them in a letter on April 22, the sources said. A meeting has been tentatively set for June 10, one of the sources said. The union declined to comment. The airline is considering moves such as moving veteran pilots to cheaper contracts as it looks to cut costs, the sources said. The removal of the Dragon brand would mean some of those pilots move to Cathay Pacific and others to HK Express, the sources said, with early retirement offers and layoffs also possible. Dragon has a fleet of 25 Airbus SE A330 widebodies and 23 A320 family narrowbodies. Cathay has already said it will shift 16 new A321neos for Dragon to HK Express, which operates only narrowbodies and has only one destination on the mainland, Ningbo. (Reuters) Number 10 downing Street Special Advisor Dominic Cummings 26.05.2020 LISTEN Leaving crises to Prime Minister Boris Johnsons management skills will never disappoint those who favour chaos and the attractions of vague direction. The double standard is to be preferred to the equal one. With the United Kingdom sundered by death and the effects of COVID-19 (the PM himself having had his battle with the virus), the population was hoping for some clarity. When, for instance, would the lockdown measures be eased? On May 10, Johnson delivered an address from his comically staged desk which had the appearance of being trapped in the door during a bungled removal effort. We have been through the initial peak but it is coming down the mountain that is often more dangerous, he tried explaining. We have a route, and we have a plan, and everyone in government has the all-consuming pressure and challenge to save lives, restore livelihoods and gradually restore the freedoms that we have. Seeds of confusion were sowed with promise. People would be allowed to do unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise, and the Stay Home message had changed to stay alert, control the virus and save lives. The broader citizenry were puzzled. Mixed messaging was not the only problem facing Johnson, whose preferable default during any emergency is the behaviour of the reasonable Briton, characterised by patience and common sense. Within his own circles, abiding by the rules has been a lax affair. His chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been defiant before the lockdown rulebook. In a statement and press address, Cummings laid out his explanation for his recent bad behaviour. The heart-tugging element was important. So was the ignorance that he had done nothing to niggle the ethical. Johnson had just been found out to have contracted COVID-19. Arrangements of how to handle the emergency were discussed. Then came the urgent call from Cummings wife. Shed vomited and felt like she might pass out. And therell be nobody to look after our child. None of our usual childcare options were available. What followed that April, with most of the UK in mandated self-isolation, was travel some 260 miles in all that involved leaving his London home on a trip to County Durham, accompanied by his wife and child. The decision had been made to stay in a cottage on the farm of Cummings father. It was there that Cummings fell ill, as did his son, who spent a stint in hospital. It subsequently surfaced that Johnsons aide had also repaired to Barnard Castle, a visit reported to Durham police by Robin Lees, a retired chemistry teacher. That visit raised eyebrows for falling within the category of non-essential travel. The aides conclusion for breaching such rules were self-exculpatory, which cannot excite any surprise from those familiar with those behind the law and policy of the state apparatus. The higher up the food chain of power, the more likely the powerful will misbehave and change the meals. Andre Spicer puts it in a dull though accurate manner: a large body of research [] shows that it is people in positions of power that are most likely to take excessive risks. Such risks are minimised, if not ignored altogether. The one who assumes, and presumes to be in a position of power, is likely to cheat, bend and break the order. Cummings, in his reasoning, might have done unreasonable things in the past, but thought that what had transpired over those 14 days was reasonable. The regulations make clear, I believe the risks to the health of small children were an exceptional situation, and I had a way of dealing with this that minimised risk to others. Such a statement of behavioural latitude, in times when those in the United Kingdom, for the most part, have complied with the coronavirus lockdown, looks politically indulgent. Johnson has added to that indulgence, claiming that Cummings merely followed the instincts of every father and every parent, and I do not mark him down for that. The right kind of childcare was not available at that time; both Cummings and his wife were about to be incapacitated by coronavirus. Staying with Cummings is courting a grand risk. And such risks compound when they are given the Johnson touch. Professor Stephen Reicher of the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) furnishing Downing Street with advice on how the public might best respond to the lockdown measures, seethed on hearing about the prime ministerial defence. I can say that in a few short minutes tonight, Boris Johnson had trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control Covid-19. Honesty had been trashed, as had respect for the public, equity, equal treatment, consistency and the message we are all in Fthis together. Even conservative commentary on the subject is wary of the prime ministers loyalty to Cummings, showing that this is no ordinary row in the halls of Westminster. Former Johnson adviser Tim Montgomerie expressed embarrassment for having ever backed Boris Johnson for high office. Chair of the Northern Ireland select committee, Simon Hoare, was baffled. With the damage Mr Cummings is doing to the governments reputation, he must consider his position. Lockdown has had its challenges for everyone. The prime minister is a populist who no longer understands the populace, suggests Nick Cohen in The Spectator. Dominic Cummings pretends to be an anti-elitist but cannot see how lethal the slogan one rule for me and another for everyone else is to him and the elite her serves. That about sums it up. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark[email protected] Approximately 350,000 Michigan families that participate in the states food assistance program will receive additional benefits for the month of May to ease the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. After extending the programs assistance benefits in March and April, the state announced Tuesday, May 26, that it would provide the maximum benefits to more families by May 31. Eligible participants will receive between $194 and $1,164 on their Michigan Bridge Card for the month of May, depending how many people make up their family. The 350,000 Michigan families impacted by Tuesdays announcement represent about 50 percent of the states families that received food assistance in April, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The remaining households already receive the maximum benefits. No Michigander should worry about how to put food on the table for themselves and their family, especially during a pandemic, said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a prepared statement. This is a crisis unlike anything weve seen before, and we must work together to do everything we can to support working families during this time. "I will continue working around the clock to ensure Michigan families can access the food they need as we fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In April nearly 1.5 million people in Michigan received federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits through the states Food Assistance Program. The federal funding was provided to the states through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Eligible recipients do not need to re-apply to receive the additional benefits. The benefits will be added to their Bridge Card by May 31. People who receive food assistance can check their benefits balance on their Michigan Bridge Card on the states website, here, or by calling a consumer service representative toll-free at 888-678-8914. Customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Spanish and Arabic service is available. If you are deaf, deafblind or hard of hearing or speech-impaired, call the Michigan Relay Center at 7-1-1. COVID-19 PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. Read more on MLive: Gov. Whitmers relationship with Republican leaders is at an all-time low. Now they need to solve a $3.2B problem together. Whitmer worried Trumps Twitter 'attack could lead to less funding for Michigan Gyms sue Gov. Whitmer in bid to reopen, overturn stay-at-home order Tuesday, May 26: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan A tornado with maximum winds of 100 miles per hour touched down in a Northwest Side neighborhood Sunday evening, the National Weather Service confirms. Meteorologists rated the tornado as an EF1 after a damage survey was conducted Monday in the Wildhorse subdivision, near the intersection of Shaenfield Road and Loop 1604. The rating scale takes into account both wind speed and damage caused by a tornado, according to the NWS website. Eric Platt, a NWS meteorologist, said specific details are still under investigation, including what time the tornado formed as well the length, width and path of the whirlwind. Fences down and roof damage are the main things we saw so far, Platt said. No injuries have been reported. Meteorologists said more information will be released Tuesday. Platt said straight line damage, often caused by a thunderstorm or a microburst, was also reported on Talley Road. The line of storms brought a recorded 1.93 inches of rain at the San Antonio International Airport. Platt said about half an inch of rain has been recorded as of Monday afternoon. He said the setup for severe weather Monday evening is not as strong as it was Sunday, but there is the possibility of a few overnight storms after midnight. We certainly don't want folks to let their guards down just yet, Platt said. A 10 percent chance for thunderstorms lingers Tuesday, meteorologists said. Wednesday and Thursday are expected to be dry with a 20 or 30 percent chance returning for the weekend. On Friday night, the town of Bowie, about 65 miles northwest of Fort Worth, was hit hard by one tornado about 9 p.m, the NWS confirmed Saturday. A weather service survey team concluded from damage patterns that the twister rated an EF1 Mayor Gaylynn Burris told the Bowie News that the storm damaged at least 50 businesses and at least that many homes in the town of more than 5,000 residents. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA Chris Evans as Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger. (Marvel Studios) Actor Chris Evans says he declined the chance to screen test for 2011s Captain America: The First Avenger a number of times due to his mental health. The 38-year-old revealed on The Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast that he had suffered mini-panic attacks while filming 2010 indie film Puncture in Houston, Texas. "It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set," Evans says. They were low grade, but they were enough to make me question Am I on the right path? "I really started to think, 'I'm not sure if this [acting] is the right thing for me, I'm not sure if I'm feeling as healthy as I should be feeling.'" Actor Chris Evans attends the "Puncture" premiere at the Angelika Film Center on September 15, 2011 in New York City. It was during this time that Marvel Studios offered him the chance to test for the role of Steve Rogers AKA Captain America, after talks with John Krasinski fell through. It was a nine-picture deal on the table, including Captain America sequels, key roles in the forthcoming Avengers films, and a big paycheque, but Evans said thanks, but no thanks. Read more: Evans on why he wont return as Cap Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige came back a number of times, but it wasnt until he was on his way home to LA from Houston that he agreed to come in for a chat. After being talked through the film and shown concept art of himself in the role, he said no again. He said it seemed like too much, and Evans thought my suffering would be my own. Marvel then offered him the role, no test, no audition and gave him the weekend to think about it. After seeking advice from therapists and trusted friends who told him that fear was dictating his decision, he relented. Captain America: Civil War (Marvel Studios) He says that Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr., with whom he shared an agent, also reached out to convince him to join the burgeoning MCU. It was very nice, comforting thing to hear, that he was in my corner. "It was the best decision I've ever made, and I really owe that to [Marvel chief] Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake." he adds, "To be honest, all the things that I was fearing never really came to fruition." Chris Evans played Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The Marvel Cinematic Universe is streaming on Disney+. A Deliveroo driver is challenging his sacking in an expansion of the fight over whether workers in the gig economy should be entitled to unfair dismissal protections, the minimum wage and superannuation payments. Diego Franco, the sole income earner for his wife and 11-month-old daughter, delivered food via motorbike for the company for about three years until he was dismissed last month with seven days' notice. Diego Franco, a Deliveroo rider, says he has found it very difficult surviving without the platform during a pandemic. Credit:Rhett Wyman "I'm considered a good rider for this long period of time," Mr Franco said. "This partnership has been good for both sides. They should give me a call or [get a] manager to investigate first, but they send this termination letter." Workers for online platforms such as Uber Eats are largely classified as independent contractors, who mostly do not have access to the same protections as employees such as unfair dismissal, sick leave and the minimum wage. Tens of thousands of impoverished foreign labourers have been left stranded and ostracised in one of the world's most densely packed cities as the tourist paradise of the Maldives battles coronavirus. The turquoise waters and pristine beaches that draw honeymoon couples from around the world have been empty for weeks since a government order to close all resorts. That has left an army of migrant workers jobless. Like Singapore, which recorded a large number of coronavirus cases among migrants living in tightly-packed dorms, the Maldives is heavily dependent on foreign labour. About half of the 150,000 people in the two square kilometres that make up the capital, Male, are workers from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka living in teeming alleys that are a haven for the virus. "There is huge uncertainty and panic," said Zakir Hossain, 39, who had worked in a Male restaurant until March?s shutdown. He said he has not been paid for more than two months. "We are worried about the disease. All the Bangladeshi workers live in congested conditions," he said. Like many migrants -- who share rooms and even beds between shifts -- Hossain lives in a single room on a backstreet with four other Bangladeshis. Outside, security forces stop the labourers going out on the streets. Authorities acknowledge conditions in Male for foreign workers are poor, and say they are moving thousands into better housing out of the capital. But opposition politicians have criticised the plans, labelling the treatment of such workers as "inhuman". Family fears The Maldives has recorded nearly 1,400 coronavirus infections among a population of 340,000, a much higher ratio than neighbouring Sri Lanka with 22 million people. Some experts have warned the Maldives risks thousands more cases unless action is taken. Authorities say the infection spreads three times faster in migrant communities than in the local population. Fears are growing for the health and welfare of these foreign workers, who are often brought in to clear refuse, clean dishes and do other essential jobs that locals reject. Four coronavirus deaths have been reported so far, including one Bangladeshi, but rumours that hundreds of foreigners have the virus have compounded concerns among migrants. Many are also worried about their families back in Bangladesh, also in the grip of a pandemic lockdown amid rising deaths. "We need money to survive. We need our work," said Hossain, who managed to send about 80 percent of his $180 a month wage back to his wife and four children before the outbreak. But others were not so fortunate. Anwar Hosain, a 42-year-old Bangladeshi carpenter and father of five, said he was owed about $1,800 by his employers. "My wife calls me every day and cries. What can I do?" What next? The government has moved 3,000 foreign workers to a temporary shelter on the industrial island of Gulhi Falhu outside Male. Thousands more are to follow but the main opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) has described the facilities as prisons. Labourers are barely allowed out and their rooms do not even have fans in the peak summer heat, when temperatures climb above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). "The treatment of these expatriates, mostly Bangladeshi nationals, is inhuman," PPM spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef told AFP. Government spokesman Mabrook Azeez said authorities had built the housing in a bid to ease overcrowding in Male. "This is not the condition we want our labourers to live in," he told AFP. Roughly a thousand Bangladeshis staying illegally in the Maldives have been repatriated, minister for foreign affairs Abdullah Shahid said on Sunday. India has taken back 4,000 people who lost their jobs. Those left are increasingly despondent. "I heard that if a Bangladeshi worker dies here, they don?t send his body back and he is buried here. I am worried what will happen if I die," said Hossain. Living conditions for many migrant workers in the Maldives are tough The Maldives, usually a tourist paradise, has been left deserted of holidaymakers by the virus outbreak Workers from Bangladesh gather in an alleyway in Male, capital of the Maldives 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. Close to half of New Jerseys coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. When did state officials first realize we had a problem in these places? We know that Gov. Phil Murphy issued an order closing all schools on March 16. We also know that a state mandate to test all staff and residents of nursing homes did not go into effect until today, which is 71 days since the school-shutdown order. Follow-up testing is required no more than a week later. I am not an epidemiologist, but is even weekly testing sufficient to stop the spread in these homes? What if an employee takes a test on Monday, but gets infected on Tuesday and spreads the virus until the following Monday? How many residents would be infected? Im sorry. Ive just plagiarized some of the words of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at his May 18 briefing. He issued a twice-a-week testing mandate for staff on May 10. Why aren't New Jersey officials doing as much to mitigate the nursing-home deaths, and testing staff twice a week? Rick Short, Cherry Hill Stop electing fear-mongering N.J. Democrats People are not lemmings; to call them such is a disservice to the lemmings. But, people are essentially selfish. Its in their basic nature to care mostly about their own needs. Once these are taken care of, then maybe they will practice a little altruism and community spirit. Dictators know this. They also know that nothing brings out this very human trait more than fear. Scare the hell out of people and they will comply and throw away their freedoms, which is exactly what has happened in the coronavirus pandemic. Often, by the time people wake up to how they're being played, it is too late, and you get highly restricted societies like Venezuela or Cuba. COVID-19 has an overall global survival rate of more than 98%. Yes, you may get sick for the short term, but most people with no underlying health issues will get well over time. Still, people can be excessively fearful. Some call them snowflakes, especially when theyre college-age. And, they are looking out for themselves, regardless of the consequences. So, the only solution is to oust those who keep generating this fear mentality and replace them with others who will bring reason and sanity back. You get who you vote for and, in New Jersey, a majority vote for Democrats. Joseph Groppenbacher, Woodbury Heights If sent to Congress, Kennedy will care about youth Dont look now, but there is a primary election on July 7. With all that is going on, we really must consider which candidates we choose to lead us through this present health and economic crisis. When considering my local governmental representatives, and especially my current congressman (Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd Dist.), I want someone who understands what our district needs and is totally invested in this area. Thats why I support Amy Kennedy for the Democrats nomination for this House seat. Kennedy grew up in this area and has been an effective educator and community activist. Her family has been in politics for many years, and she wants to work to create a stable economic environment for our young children to have a future here. As a current Brigantine resident, Kennedy is also very aware that we have to work to ensure our environmental security. All the people of South Jersey deserve to have someone like Amy Kennedy represent them in Washington. Charlotte Carney, Somers Point Editors note: Kennedy is one of five candidates seeking the Democrats nomination for this seat. The others are Brigid Callahan Harrison, Will Cunningham, John Francis and Robert Turkavage. In November, the winner will face incumbent Van Drew or a challenger for the GOP nomination, Robert Patterson. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Researchers in Italy have found that the proportion of people dying from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be on the decline in Italy. Their retrospective study of almost 2,000 infected individuals across two Italian provinces, found that the SARS-CoV-2 case-fatality rate fell significantly between March and April, both overall and when participants were assessed by subgroups of age and comorbidity. Lamberto Manzoli (Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara) and colleagues say their findings are the first to demonstrate a significant decline in SARS-CoV-2-related deaths in the country over time. They report that between March and April 2020, the death rate fell by more than half across all age groups, with the most significant decrease observed for those at the highest risk due to other health conditions. A pre-print version of the paper is available in medRxiv, while the article undergoes peer review. Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. SARS-CoV-2, also known as 2019-nCoV, is the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus shown was isolated from a patient in the U.S. Image captured and colorized at NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) in Hamilton, Montana. Credit: NIAID Italy has seen one of the highest death tolls As of May 26th, 2020, the number of reported SARS-CoV-2 infections worldwide was more than 5,495,000, and the number of lives claimed was more than 346,000, with case-fatality rates significantly varying between countries. Since the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, Italy has seen one of the highest death tolls, with the number of recorded deaths reaching more than 32,000 and the estimated case-fatality rate reaching an estimated 14%. Experts working closely with patients report a fall in fatalities Manzoli and the team say that over recent weeks, some clinical experts actively involved in caring for infected individuals have reported a significant decrease in SARS-CoV-2-related deaths, which they think may be attributable to more targeted treatment approaches. However, currently, the evidence for this is either anecdotal or based on case studies, and no robust evidence is available. Now, Manzoli and the team have conducted a retrospective study of 1,946 patients (aged a mean of 58.8 years) infected with SARS-CoV-2 across two Italian provinces to investigate whether there has been any change in case-fatality rate over time. What did the study involve? Information was collected on all people in the provinces of Ferrara and Pescara, who were diagnosed between March 3rd (when first cases of onset were recorded) and April 25th, using local registries and clinical health records. Participants were followed until May 5th. The case-fatality rate was compared between the first 29 days following index day (3rd to March 31st) and the following 25 day period from 1st to April 25th. What did the study find? One-hundred-and-seventy-seven people died after an average of 11.7 days of follow-up; 135 of 1244 people in the March group died, and 42 of 702 people in the April group died. The average age of those who died in March was 78 years, and the average age of those who died in April was 87 years. After adjustment for potential confounding factors including age and various comorbidities, the overall case-fatality rate fell by more than 50% in April, compared to March. Among the elderly, the rate fell from 30% to 13% and among participants with hypertension, it fell from 23.% to 12%; diabetes 30% to 8.0%; cardiovascular disease 31% to 12%; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 30% to 11% and renal disease 32% to 12%. With the exception of patients who had cancer, the risk of death was significantly lower in April, compared to March across all subgroups, ranging from a 20% lower risk among those with renal disease to a 51% lower risk among those aged 80 years or older. Potential explanations for the observed fall in fatalities Manzoli and team say it is difficult to discern which factors are most likely accountable for the observed findings. The first, most obvious explanation, is that the healthcare system might have been overcrowded during the epidemic peak in March, with a loss of efficacy, says the team. However, in the present cohort, infection rates were comparatively low and did not exceed the capacity of the critical care services in these particular provinces. Other potential factors include infection with a mutated, less fatal strain of the virus, which some experts have suggested could emerge during the pandemic. However, this theory has been widely contested and is not currently supported by data. Another potential explanation is improvements in healthcare and organization, including a greater number of hospital beds and better treatment and clinical management of infected individuals over time. Concerning the therapy, a growing number of clinicians suggest that the current therapeutic approach, based upon the early administration of more tailored medications, is considerably improving the clinical course of COVID-19, writes Manzoli and team. Randomized trials are needed to confirm findings The authors say this study provides the first evidence of a significant decrease in SARS-CoV-2 case-fatality rates in Italy over time. However, the findings are inevitably preliminary and require confirmation from further datasets and ongoing randomized trials, concludes the team. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. As health officials around the globe seek to contain the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, economies and citizens remain unsettled. In recent times in the United States, public events have been canceled, the government has discouraged gatherings of more than 10 people, and such businesses as bars and restaurants have been forced to close their doors. In the face of this changing reality, consumer behavior is shifting. People are adopting strenuous social distancing measures in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. This includes opting for food delivery services to avoid crowds at grocery stores, canceling non-essential travel plans, limiting interactions with cashiers, and minimizing contact with potentially contaminated surfaces. Recent research suggests that coronavirus can live for three days on some hard surfaces, such as plastic and steel, and cash is a notorious hideout for germs and bacteria. A recent government study of banknotes collected in Ohio showed that 94% of them were infected with pathogens, including E. coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus. The federal government is taking measures to ensure that cash transactions arent fueling the spread of coronavirus. In the past several weeks, new precautionary measures were enacted that increase the minimum holding period from banknotes coming into the country from Asia and Europe from five to 10 days. Since February, Chinese officials have begun requiring state banks in Hubei province sanitize their bills with ultraviolet light and then store them for two weeks before releasing them to the public. Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte has declared children won't go back to school until a coronavirus vaccine is found. 'Unless I am sure that they are really safe it's useless to be talking about opening of classes,' Duterte said on Monday night. 'For me, vaccine first. If the vaccine is already there, then it's okay,' he added. 'If no one graduates, then so be it.' The reopening of schools has been a contentious issue throughout the world, not least in Britain where the teachers' unions have balked at the government's decision to resume classes from the start of next month. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaking during a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in Manila earlier this month In the Philippines children were due to return to school at the end of August after classes for more than 25 million primary and secondary students were shut down in March as the contagion took off. But Duterte believes the risk is too great, even if it means holding back youngsters academically. Though researchers have launched an unprecedented global effort to quickly develop a vaccine, it is not clear when or if a viable candidate will be proven and distributed on a large scale. Public school normally runs from June to April in the Philippines, but authorities pushed back the start as cases rose and a strict lockdown brought most of the nation to a halt. In order to ease classroom crowding, the education ministry had already announced a mix of distance-learning measures, including online classes, would be used for the coming school year. Healthcare workers from Santa Ana Hospital attend to suspected COVID-19 patients at a testing facility in Manila last month Millions live in deep poverty in the Philippines and do not have access to computers at home, which would be key for the viability of online classes. The pandemic has kept children around the globe home for months, but in-person classes have begun to resume in countries including South Korea and France. The Philippines' coronavirus case count reached more than 14,300 on Monday, including 873 deaths. A university in China has used robots to replace students who were under coronavirus isolation during their graduation ceremony. Footage shows two droids dressed in caps and gowns 'walking' on a stage to have their tassels turned and receive diplomas on behalf of the graduates. The bots each carried a tablet with cameras to allow the students to interact with the principal via video-conferencing. A university in Nanjing, eastern China has used two robots to replace students under self-isolation during a virtual graduation ceremony to prevent the spread of the coronavirus Footage shows two droids dressed in caps and gowns 'walking' on a stage, to have their tassels turned and to receive diplomas on behalf of the graduates during the graduation on May 22 The unconventional ceremony was held at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in eastern China on May 22. Over 1,500 master's and PhD students were to receive their diplomas on that day, according to the press. A small group of the students were selected by the university to physically attend the graduation while another group of the graduates watched the ceremony in a separate venue through a screen. Other students who were unable to travel due to the coronavirus were replaced by robots to celebrate their special day. The droids were initially built by the university's robotics club to enter competitions, according to China Youth News. The team of students spent nearly three weeks turning the robots into human-sized machine students. 'It was really memorable to attend my master's graduation this way,' a student told Pear Video. The bots each carried a tablet with cameras to allow the students to interact and communicate with the principal through a video call. The two droids were initially built by a team of students from the university's robotics club to enter competitions, according to China Youth News Using Newme telepresensence robots, students attending Business Breakthrough (BBT) University in Tokyo were able to walk across the stage and accept their diplomas Four students virtually walked across the stage at the Hotel Grand Palace in Tokyo on March 28. The Newme robot was designed with a tablet as a face and has four wheels It comes after another university in Japan has also used robots to stand in for the self-isolated students during a graduation in March. Using Newme telepresensence robots, students attending Business Breakthrough (BBT) University in Tokyo were able to walk across the stage and accept their diploma. The robots were dressed in a cap and gown and fitted with tablets on their heads, allowing students to show their face using Zoom. Students who attended the graduation remotely operated the robots in what is deemed the 'world's first' online graduation ceremony. Among the sweeping cancellations and postponements due to COVID-19 was IFWTO (Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto), a multi-platform festival celebrating Indigenous craft, textiles and fashion set to take place at the Harbourfront Centre this month. For now, the event is on hold, but one aspect of the showcase is going ahead as planned: a special fashion collection produced by Quebec-based department chain Simons in collaboration with Indigenous fashion creators. For the collection, which drops online on May 28, Simons produced simple base garments out of organic linen shift dresses; loose, short-sleeve tops; and cropped pants. From there, eight Indigenous designers from across Canada were given artistic freedom to transform the pieces using the craft techniques of their communities. The pieces will retail between $95 and $395 on the Simons website and in-store, once they reopen. What has come to be known as Indigenous fashion is actually a diverse multiplicity of nations, culture, creativity and generational knowledge, says Sage Paul, artist, designer and artistic director of IWFTO, who helped oversee the collaboration. The collection features red ochre dye from Canadas arctic, Anishinaabe floral designs interpreted in three different ways, contemporary interpretations of formline art and Metis weaving, delicate Haudenosaunee beadwork, and Mikmaq quillwork reimagined into digital graphics, explains Paul. The concept for the collection was born after Paul and Simons buyer Oceane Stanislas took part in The Kits Canadian Fashion Roundtable last year. We started talking about Indigenous fashion and agreed that the Indigenous savoir faire passed on through generations, as well as the very unique and rich creativity of the artists, deserved to be largely broadcasted, says Stanislas. This collection has been designed to allow a broad demographic to access this type of work, says Paul. While beautiful and intricate, the pieces in the collection feel contemporary and fit perfectly alongside Simonss existing high-end offerings from big-name designers. This kind of approach is exactly whats needed to help Indigenous designers find a wider audience and grow their brands in a sustainable way, lowering the barrier of entry while providing vital online commerce, marketing and distribution channels to talented creators. By joining forces we saw an opportunity to implement Indigenous leadership in how we, Indigenous people, are represented in the fashion industry, to support and value Indigenous expression and craftsmanship and to promote local, sustainable fashion practices, says Paul. For Stanislas, the collaboration fits into her own mission to promote artistic expression and mindful consumption of fashion. It will fuel a Buy less, choose well, make it last approach to fashion that has been long overdue. To me, buying locally is essential (for) the fashion industry to achieve sustainability. For Paul, staying connected to her family and community has helped her get though quarantine. I am video conferencing with friends and family to work with them. Ill spend chunks of time pattern-making while my sister beads. Every now and then well both giggle over a funny story about her sons or a cat we see outside, but mostly were working side by side with just atmosphere sounds. As for the future of Indigenous fashion, Paul is hopeful. Business is often competitive, but now Im seeing industry information shared that was once hoarded for individual gain. I envision the future of Indigenous fashion as integral to global fashion, where practices of sustainability, integrity and respect are adopted. An Italian passenger ferry crashed into the rocks of a port after the captain lost control due to an 'technical issue' on Sunday. The incident took place as the Isola di Caprai ship tried to manoeuvre into the small harbour of San Nicola Island, in the Isole Tremiti archipelago near eastern Italy's Apulia region. Technical issues with the ferry meant the captain could not control the ship as it ran aground into the rocks doing 'slight damage' to the ship, reports local media. In the video, the front of the boat can be seen running aground on the rocks as smaller boats move in closer. After a minute or so the ship is re-floated, most likely using its own engines to reverse and left the port later that afternoon after inspection, reports The Maritime Bulletin. Seven passengers were on board the boat with the crew at the time of the crash but none are believed to have been injured. Emergency services went to the scene and divers were used to check how much the boat had been damaged, according to local media. In the video, the front of the boat can be seen running aground on the rocks as smaller boats move in closer The ferry had been due to bring tourists back to the island next week, the first visitors since the coronavirus pandemic begun. The ship connects the Tremiti Islands with the Italian peninsula The ferry, owned by a company called Tirrenia, was reportedly tugged to the port for an investigation into the exact causes of the crash before being allowed to sail out of the port later on Sunday. Marco Napolitano, owner of the local Hotel Gabbiano, said: 'I hope it is not serious' as the ferry was expected to bring the first tourists to the island next week as Italy begins to move out of coronavirus lockdown.' The ferry can transport 522 passengers along with 57 vehicles and crew, and connects the Tremiti Islands with the Italian peninsula the whole year round. The investigation into the accident is ongoing. Ryanair has confirmed its plan to ramp up flights to 40% of its normal schedule from July 1 after Spain announced it will welcome the return of tourists from the same date. The low-cost airline said it will operate flights to key holiday airports in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. It has launched a sale for flights in July and August with one-way fares starting from 29.99 in a bid to kick-start demand for travel. Since mid-March, Ryanair has operated a skeleton daily schedule of 30 flights per day between the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe. The Spanish government revealed on Monday that its requirement for overseas visitors to go into quarantine for 14 days will be lifted from July 1. This followed announcements by other popular tourist destinations that coronavirus restrictions will be eased in the coming weeks. Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said: After four months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines. Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much-needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations for July and August before the schools return in September. Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from July 1, and we have a range of low fare seat sales, perfect for that summer getaway, which we know many parents and their kids will be looking forward to as we move out of lockdown and into the school holidays. He insisted that all Ryanair flights will operate with new hygiene guidelines in place. These include all passengers having to wear face masks in airports and on board aircraft, and having to ask cabin crew for permission to use the toilet facilities to avoid queues. Mr Wilson added: We look forward to welcoming millions of Ryanair passengers and their families back on board, and flying them on holiday as Europes economies begin to recover from these difficult recent lockdowns, which have been so successful in reversing the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Other airlines have also announced plans to boost flight numbers. EasyJet announced last week it will resume flights from June 15 with a mainly domestic schedule in the UK and France. British Airways is due to launch a meaningful return to service in July, while Jet2.com is to resume its flight programme at the beginning of that month. Thirty-three (33) Ghanaians have been killed by the Coronavirus disease in New York alone, Ambassador to the United States of America, Baffour Adjei Bawuah has disclosed. Speaking on Ghone TV, Ambassador Bawuah said: quite a number of Ghanaians have been affected and, indeed, we have 33 people who have been verified to have died from the disease in New York alone. New York is the epicentre of the deadly COVID-19 in the USA with almost 400, 000 cases and over 23, 000 deaths out of the over 1.7 million cases recorded in the US. Ambassador Bawuah also revealed that over 300 stranded Ghanaians in the US want to return to Ghana. At the moment, about 300 people have expressed a situation where they believe that they are stranded and, therefore, want to come back home. We are liaising with the US government, particularly, in connection with some students and some officials who came here and are stranded. The students, in particular, are now living with host families and that has put a bit of pressure on these families but we are reasonably certain that by the end of this week, we would have been able to relay to the US government enough [detail] for those people to be brought home. Meanwhile, two members of Ghanas Parliament and 13 staff of the lawmaking chamber have tested positive for COVID-19 after results of voluntary testing requested by the Speaker trickled in, Starr News has learnt. It is unclear the identities of the affected MPs. Starr News sources say the results started coming in from last week. Following the development, the Speaker has ordered for mandatory testing of all staff and members of Parliament. The move is to ensure effective contact tracing since MPs interact among themselves often. The Speaker has, however, assured the results of the testing will be highly protected. Commenting on the reports, Dr Prince Pambo, Medical Director for parliament on Covid-19 testing said: I have no idea about that and I dont even think it is news if any MP has the virus, there are nearly 7000 Ghanaians who have contracted it. Ghanas COVD-19 case count has shot up to 6,964. Source: starrfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Investment from Aquiline and 83North will be used to continue rapid global expansion TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions), a leading cloud platform for managing corporate payments and cash flows, today announced it has raised $20 million in additional financing led by Aquiline Technology Growth, an early- and growth-stage fund managed by Aquiline Capital Partners. The round also included participation from existing investor 83North. Aquiline joins previous investors 83North, Target Partners and Zobito. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005442/en/ TIS Raises $20m as Demand Grows for its Leading SaaS B2B Payment Platform (Graphic: Business Wire) The company plans to use the new funding to further accelerate product development and to scale operations in Europe and in the US, in order to meet growing international demand. Many globally recognized organizations, including Adecco Group, Bertelsmann, Hugo Boss, Fresenius, Fugro, Lanxess, ManpowerGroup, OSRAM and QIAGEN, already use TIS to standardize and analyze payment flows and to obtain liquidity overview throughout their organizations. Jorg Wiemer, CEO and co-founder of TIS: "We are proud to have Aquiline on board alongside our existing investors. This investment will help accelerate our growth. More than ever, companies who operate globally need to be able to rely on solutions that support their business-critical payment processes. Thanks to the growing number of corporates, banks and service providers already using our cloud platform, TIS will further strengthen market leadership while leveraging sustainable competitiveness in combination with increasing network effects." "We have significant experience investing in modern payments businesses and believe that TIS is well positioned to meet the growing demand for innovation from Chief Financial Officers and Treasurers," Jeff Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aquiline Capital Partners stated. Additionally, as part of the investment, TIS will welcome Michael Cichowski of Aquiline to its Board of Directors. Mr. Cichowski added, "TIS addresses a large, important market that is ripe for digital transformation. I look forward to working with the management team and board as they continue on their growth trajectory." About TIS: TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH), founded in Walldorf, Germany in 2010, is a global leader in managing corporate payments. The Financial Times named TIS as one of "Europe's Fastest Growing Companies" for 2019 and 2020. Offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the TIS solution is a comprehensive, highly-scalable, cloud platform for company-wide payments and cash management. The TIS solution has been successfully used for many years in both large and medium-sized companies, including Adecco Group, Hugo Boss, Fresenius, Fugro, Lanxess, OSRAM and QIAGEN. More than 25% of DAX companies are already TIS customers. Your world of Payments. ONE Login. https://www.tis.biz About Aquiline Technology Growth: Aquiline Technology Growth (ATG) seeks to invest in early- and growth-stage technology companies that are bringing innovation to the financial services ecosystems. ATG is managed by Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in New York and London investing in businesses globally across the financial services and technology sector. The ATG team has experience in technology and financial services and is supported by its colleagues at Aquiline, strategic partners, and an active group of industry Executive Advisors. For more information on ATG, visit: www.atgvc.com. About 83North: 83North is a global venture capital firm with over $1B million under management. The fund invests in exceptional European and Israeli entrepreneurs. 83North is also deeply rooted in the main US tech hubs, with over half of its portfolio companies having operations in the US. The firm has backed more than 50 companies including Ebury (51% acquired by Santander), Hybris (acquired by SAP), iZettle,(acquired by Paypal), SocialPoint (acquired by Take2), Just Eat (London IPO), Celonis, Payoneer, Mirakl, Marqeta, Via and Vast. Visit www.83north.com and follow us on Twitter @83NorthVC View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005442/en/ Contacts: Press Contact: Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH Jorg Wiemer, CEO Altrottstrae 31 69190 Walldorf Email: joerg.wiemer@tis.biz Graffiti for "courage" Location: Havana Cuba's dilapidated buildings have become canvases for graffiti artists to express anguish and hope (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CUBAN GRAFFITI ARTIST KNOWN AS "MR. MYL" SAYING: "The word courage is very forceful in terms of message, right? It is telling you a specific thing. I think I put it on because what I like is that people interpret it freely, I don't feel that I am creating a message or really conveying it, I am presenting an image so that people, the public, can interpret it freely, and associate it with your life. In Cuba you have to live with courage all the time." Location: Cojimar This village inspired Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' and youths have painted colorful murals dedicated to healthcare workers on the ruins by the waterfront (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LEADER OF "COLOR COJIMAR" PROJECT, CUBAN MUSICIAN SEKOU SARRIAS, SAYING: "With the murals, this is the attitude we are taking - we are thanking the Cuban doctors, and the doctors of the world, their assistants, their volunteers. We are grateful for the work they are doing and this is a thank you from us. I am sure that this is a message other people have also sent." Just over a month ago the cartoonist Albert Uderzo died, leaving orphaned the adventures of Asterix the Gaul and Obelix. However, the unyielding spirit of their French hamlet in its battle against the Roman empire lives on in places like Genalguacil, the tiny village in the Genal valley which has barely 400 inhabitants but whose Art Encounters have become famous in the Spanish contemporary art world and, at the same time, have proved to be an effective weapon against depopulation and oblivion. Many places have cancelled cultural events this year because of the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis, but Genalguacil stepped forward and decided to hold this year's encounter as scheduled. The organisers have included an 'anti-Covid' clause in the conditions, saying they are going ahead because they want to support artists in these difficult times, and that all necessary health and safety measures will be put into effect, even if the format ends up being different for legal reasons and the participants are unable to come to the village to work. To coincide with the announcement, perhaps as a way of demonstrating its commitment, Genalguacil council has also just installed the wrought- iron balustrades created by Tamara Arroyo as part of the 'Forging identities. Building scenarios' project. New pieces of urban art The four new balustrades are at the entrance to the village, by the bus stop in Calle Real. Genalguacil is a continually evolving outdoor museum and art gallery, and some of the other most recent pieces now on display have been created by artists such as Jose Medina Galeote, Fernando Renes and Julio Anaya. "The idea is for people to recognise and connect with these works of art with which they live every day, so we explore crafts and popular imagery (wrought iron, native species, the landscape etc) all of which are identifying features. We want to connect artists of all types, because that creates an enriching relationship," says Juan Francisco Rueda. This connection between the resident artists and local people has been one of the project's signs of identity in the past 25 years, and in the intervening years between the Art Encounters there are other exhibitions and urban art projects take place. During the Encounters, several artists move into the village for the first fortnight in August and carry out the projects for which they were selected. Afterwards, the works remain the property of the village. Genalguacil's population usually triples when these events take place. In 2014 there was a major step forward when it was decided that the artists who participate should be paid 1,000 euros as well as being provided with accommodation and meals during their stay. This is still the case today and will apply to this year's event, for which applications are invited until 15 June. The successful applications will be decided in the second half of the month and, as usual, the event is scheduled for the first half of August. Artists who have taken part in recent years and whose works are on display in the village include Jose Luis Serzo, Noelia Garcia Bandera, Eugenio Merino, Moreno&Grau, Juan Francisco Casas, Paloma de la Cruz and Jesus Zurita. The initiative has become so popular that it has even been included in suggestions of places to go by the Observatory of the Contemporary Culture Foundation. It is also extremely significant that such a tiny place has been able to use contemporary art as a crucial tool to prevent the depopulation which is affecting so many others. And now, facing up to the threat of the coronavirus, it is once again showing that same indomitable spirit of Asterix and company which Uderzo made immortal. New Delhi: The Indian Air Forces 18 Squadron, which earned the nickname of Defenders of Kashmir Valley for being the first to land and operate from Srinagar, will be operationalised once again on Wednesday at Air Force Station Sulur near Coimbatore. The squadron actively participated in the 1971 war with Pakistan and was decorated with the highest gallantry award Param Vir Chakra awarded to Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon posthumously. The Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, will operationalise 18 Squadron, also known as Flying Bullets. The squadron will be equipped with LCA Tejas FOC aircraft and will be the second IAF Squadron to fly LCA Tejas. 18 Squadron was formed on 15 April 1965 with the motto Teevra aur Nirbhaya meaning Swift and Fearless. The Squadron was flying MiG 27 aircraft before it got number plated on 15 April 2016. In IAF jargon, a squadron which is bereft of aircraft is not retired but number-plated. This means that the squadron exists and could be revived when aircraft are available. The Squadron was resurrected on April 1 this year at Sulur. The Squadron was presented with Presidents Standard in November 2015. Tejas is an indigenous fourth generation tailless compound delta wing aircraft. The aircraft is equipped with fly-by-wire flight control system, integrated digital avionics, multimode radar and its structure is made out of composite material. It is the lightest and smallest in its group of fourth generation supersonic combat aircraft. The legendary 1971 fight On 14th December 1971, Flying Officer Sekhon had defended the Srinagar airfield from a wave of six Pakistani Sabre aircraft. He engaged a pair of the attacking Sabres. In the fight that ensued, he secured hits on one aircraft and set another on fire. By this time the other Sabre aircraft came to the aid of their hard pressed companions and Flying Officer Sekhons Gnat was again outnumbered, this time by four to one. Even though alone, Flying Officer Sekhon engaged the enemy in an unequal combat. In the fight that followed, at tree top height, he almost held his own, but was eventually overcome by sheer weight of numbers. His aircraft crashed and he was killed. Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, has said that Covid-19 has brought huge levels of upset, sadness and worry in nursing homes across the country. He is speaking before at a special Oireachtas Covid-19 committee about what went wrong in nursing homes. He said: It should not be lost upon us that four out of every five nursing home residents who contracted Covid-19 recovered form the virus. We knew that Covid-19 disproportionately impacts on older people. The planning and focus was almost exclusively on our acute hospitals. Multiple clusters initially emerged in our hospitals. But the numbers in nursing homes started to increase. We were already aware people in our homes would be amongst the most susceptible to the virus and a national strategy and response was required. In the absence of such, the challenges emerged. Mr Daly added: Our decision to restrict visitors on Friday March 6 was informed by our Nursing Committee, comprising of clinical experts representing nursing homes across the country. It was not taken lightly. Covid-19 was within our communities and the weekend presenting would see thousands of people engage in close contact with residents and staff. At the NPHET briefing of 10 March, the decision was taken to publicly challenge the decision to restrict visitors as premature. This is despite HIQA, presented as the representative voice for our sector at NPHET, announcing that same day it would suspend visits by its inspectors to hospitals, citing the safety and wellbeing of people using services and staff. Sage Advocacy executive director Mervyn Taylor told the committee that the impact of the outbreak has been frightening for many residents, and for those with dementia the arrival of people in full PPE was terrifying. Serious shortages of staff meant that there was little, if any, time to provide support to residents in facilities where many died, Mr Taylor added. For families with relatives who were extremely ill or dying, the inability to visit or to even talk to their loved one by phone was a source of considerable distress and frustration. At the core of this issue is the fragmented nature of social care for older people. Home support services, such as they are, are not on a statutory basis, are not regulated and have no clear vision, other than the level of home care packages that can be provided in any one year. Care in nursing homes is on a statutory basis and is regulated, but it has an overly complex and ultimately dangerous architecture. Mr Taylor added: Over recent decades the States approach to residential care of older adults has been one of retreat in favour of private providers, with the remaining public facilities providing care mainly to the more frail with complex care needs, sometimes in famine-era buildings. Elements within the HSE, working with NGOs, put forward proposals for a change to a Teaghleach or smaller-scale household model but they were not supported. The State, having outsourced the service, practised sectoral distancing while the public, notwithstanding the excellent service provided by many facilities, has grown increasingly wary of the dark side of private investment in human vulnerability. Simply stated, we are talking of vulnerable people in a vulnerable sector. Mr Taylor outlined a number of the organisations recommendations, including: An integrated system of long-term support and care spanning all care situations with a single source of funding. Integration of private nursing homes into the wider framework of public health and social care. A wider range of service models and ownership models for both homecare and care in congregated settings. Incrementally develop a network of world-class community hospitals as teaching facilities. Legislation for adult safeguarding and protection of liberty in places of care and legislative recognition for independent advocacy. Mr Taylor concluded: The Covid-19 public health emergency has shown some of the great strengths of Irish society. It has also shown weaknesses. We have a two-tier healthcare system and a two-tier siloed approach to the long-term support and care of older people which is biased towards congregated settings. We owe it to ourselves, and to those who have sacrificed so much, to do better. Lets shed a tier and set about building Slaintecare a single-tier national health service with an integrated system of social care focused on home and a much wider range of options between home and community hospitals. They are known for their impeccable taste. So The Block judges weren't going to let being on a dusty worksite stop them from dressing up to the nines on their first day back filming the hit Channel Nine series. Shaynna Blaze, Neale Whitaker and Darren Palmer looked chic as they visited the set in Brighton, Melbourne on Monday after production was halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak in March. Dressed to the nines! The Block judges Shaynna Blaze (front), Neale Whitaker (back) and Darren Palmer (centre) toured the derelict Brighton building site dressed in stylish outfits as they returned to filming on Monday Interior Designer Shaynna, 56, looked elegant in a checked houndstooth patterned trench coat she wore over an immaculate pair of wide-leg white trousers. Despite using stairs and navigating her way through rubble on the building site, the mother-of-two added a stylish pair of three-inch heels with a bold black, blue and yellow pattern. Former editor-in-chief of Belle magazine Neale, 58, looked equally as dapper in a navy cashmere sweater he wore with a pair of jeans. How does she keep those pants clean? Interior Designer Shaynna, 56, looked elegant in a checked houndstooth patterned trench coat she wore over an immaculate pair of wide-leg white trousers That's a skill! Despite using stairs and navigating her way through rubble on the building site, the mother-of-two added a stylish pair of three-inch heels with a bold black, blue and yellow pattern The book author coordinated with a bone coloured tailored jacket, brown leather boots and sensibly added a pair of perspex safety glassed for much of the tour. Leading design aficionado Darren, 42, was bang on trend with his slick ensemble which included a blue check button-up shirt and a pair on jeans. The homewares designer added a classic black leather jacket to rug up against the Melbourne chill and also wore a pair of matching boots. Dapper! Former editor-in-chief of Belle magazine Neale, 58, looked equally as impressive in a navy cashmere sweater he wore with a pair of jeans Stylish! Leading design aficionado Darren, 42, was bang on trend with his slick ensemble which included a blue check button-up shirt and a pair on jeans Edgy! The homewares designer added a classic black leather jacket to rug up against the Melbourne chill and also wore a pair of matching boots The visit comes after building resumed at the Brighton location following production being halted for five weeks due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier this month, The Block host Scott Cam described this year's season of the renovation show as the 'most challenging ever' because of the coronavirus pandemic. He told A Current Affair that producers had downsized the latest project, after several teams had struggled with the mammoth task of renovating The Oslo hotel in St Kilda last year. Glad to be back! Monday was the first day back filming for the judges after production was halted for five weeks in March after the COVID-19 outbreak Safety first! Producers of the program sent contestants home as a precaution as the pandemic escalated and states and territories began to close their borders before returning back to the set last week 'But of course, then COVID-19 turns up and now it is probably the most challenging Block we have ever done,' he said. Filming was halted five weeks ago and the contestants were sent home as a precaution as the pandemic escalated and states and territories began to close their borders. Last week, the teams and workers returned to the site to continue production, albeit with strict social distancing rules in place. Trying times: Earlier this month The Block host Scott Cam (pictured) described this year's season of the Channel Nine show as the 'most challenging ever' because of the coronavirus pandemic 'We are policing the 1.5 metre rule. It's very important on The Block that we have sufficient room between each person,' foreman Keith Schleiger explained. On-site safety measures include limiting how many people can gather in rooms and hallways, disinfecting surfaces, regular temperature checks, and making sure all the cast and crew have had the flu vaccine. Producers have also increased the availability of hand sanitiser and face masks. The Block 2020 will air on Channel Nine later this year. The German government's 9 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa may cost the stricken carrier some valuable assets: Key flight slots at airports in Frankfurt and Munich. The European Commission wants Lufthansa to surrender the slots out of concern the aid will give the carrier unfair advantage over competitors, people familiar with the matter said. After weeks of talks, Germany on Monday offered Lufthansa a package of loans and equity investment to keep the carrier aloft through the coronavirus storm. Officials in Brussels are concerned the deal will distort competition and fuel lawsuits from competitors like Ryanair Holdings, the people said. Approval of the deal could take several weeks, they said, asking not to be named discussing confidential deliberations. To compensate for the state help, the European Union's executive arm also would like the airline to decrease the number of aircraft based in Germany, the people said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a meeting of conservative lawmakers the government would fight for Lufthansa to keep key slots, people familiar with the matter said. "The discussions with the European Commission are continuing at full speed," German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Monday at a news conference in Berlin. "So far, we have managed to get approval from Brussels for all our aid requests during the corona crisis. How long it will take I cannot say, but the main point for us is that we want to achieve a good result." Lufthansa shares advanced on Tuesday, building on Monday's 7.5% gain in the wake of the deal. As of 2:33 p.m. in Frankfurt, the stock was up 6%. Still, it remains down 44% for the year. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said that while some of the terms of the German government deal were less punitive than expected, it would leave Lufthansa with high debt levels. Still, the cost of protection against a default by Lufthansa touched its lowest level in a month, according to Bloomberg data. Bonds were mixed, with a hybrid note due in 2075 rising 3.4 cents to 79.3 cents, while the senior note maturing in 2024 fell 1.9 cents to 91.6 cents. "Lufthansa still faces huge challenges, including the right-sizing of the company and difficult labor talks," Societe Generale analysts Michael Kuhn and Sumit Mehrotra wrote in a note to clients. In addition to potential snags for the deal in Brussels, "the main profit driver, intercontinental traffic, will take a long time to recover." Airport slots are a crucial currency for airlines, providing them with the ability to operate flights at popular times and to coveted destinations. It's a commodity that EU regulators have often asked carriers to cede to smaller rivals when seeking approval for mergers, including during Lufthansa's 2017 takeover of a unit of Air Berlin. While airport capacity is being under-used while Lufthansa and other airlines focus on survival, they will be back in demand once travel starts to recover. Like airlines the world over, Lufthansa has been struggling to stay afloat after the coronavirus punctured a decades-long aviation boom. The company plans to operate fewer aircraft when flights resume and is closing discount arm Germanwings to resize for what it warns could be years of depressed demand. The EU press office said it had no comment on the Lufthansa plan and was "in constant contact" with governments. It defended the need for "additional commitments to preserve effective competition" that are required for recapitalizations of more than 250 million euros to a company, according to an emailed statement. "This is important to preserve the level playing field in the single market post-coronavirus crisis to the benefit of all European consumers and companies," the EU said. The Lufthansa package will be the first recapitalization to be weighed by the EU after it loosened rules this month that usually prevent governments from pumping money into favored firms. EU approvals for aid can be challenged and potentially overturned in the EU courts where Ryanair is also suing previous EU orders to allow airline aid. Ryanair vowed to carry out Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Leary's threat to challenge the German bailout, saying it could "further strengthen Lufthansa's monopoly-like grip" on the German air travel market. "Lufthansa can use this latest 9 billion euro subsidy from the German government to engage in below-cost selling on its short haul intra-EU routes and its long haul routes," the company said in a statement. "How can airlines like Ryanair, EasyJet and Laudamotion be expected to compete with Lufthansa in the short-haul market to and from Germany?" EU officials are aware of the need for speedy approvals, said Margrethe Vestager, the bloc's antitrust chief. Officials have been "working seven days a week around the clock" and at night "in order to make sure that things can be processed as fast as possible," she told EU lawmakers on Monday. The German aid package unveiled on Monday involves taking an initial 20% stake in Lufthansa that could rise to a blocking minority of 25% plus one share in the event of a hostile takeover. The support also includes a 5.7 billion-euro investment via a so-called silent participation -- a debt-equity hybrid instrument that wouldn't dilute shareholder voting rights. The state will also back a three-year loan of 3 billion euros. As well as approval from the European Commission, the plan needs sign-off from Lufthansa's supervisory board, and shareholders will have to vote on the capital increase at a special meeting, likely to be held in late June. Lufthansa is also poised to receive some 2 billion euros in aid from Austria, Belgium and Switzerland, where the airline owns units. Swiss state credit guarantees worth 1.28 billion francs ($1.3 billion) have already been agreed. Spohr is set to speak with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz this week to finalize an aid deal totaling about 600 million euros, equally split between loans and equity, according to people familiar with the matter. The Belgian package will be about half the size of the Austrian, plan, according to local reports. The German package represents the biggest corporate rescue in the country during the pandemic crisis. It's also the only one that involves a direct investment by Merkel's government, but more may be coming. The government set up the 100 billion-euro fund to buy stakes in stricken companies as part of its effort to stabilize Europe's largest economy. The Asante Akim South Municipality Assembly in the Ashanti Region has warned New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary aspirants against the violation of the social distancing protocols put in place to combat the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak. The musician-turned politician, Bice Osei-Kuffour, popularly known as Obour, who is contesting the NPP primary in the Asante Akim South Constituency, allegedly breached the social distancing protocol when on Sunday, May 3, he met some party delegates in a Catholic Church at Kurofa, a town in the municipality to campaign for votes. The gathering also reportedly led to an assault on the Assembly member for Kurofa West Electoral Area, Amponsah Adarkwa Yiadom, who tried to draw the attention of Obour's supporters to the glaring breach of the social distancing order. Having learnt about the breach, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Alexander Frimpong, together with the Municipal Police Commander, Superintendent Anyaani, and members of the Municipal Public Health Management Committee reportedly summoned Obour over his blatant disregard for the social distancing protocol and urged him not to repeat his action. At the meeting, Obour is said to have apologized and promised to obey the social distancing order. Narrating how he was assaulted for raising the alarm, Amponsah Adarkwa Yiadom told DAILY GUIDE that Obour arrived from Adomfe, a neighbouring town, in a convoy of vehicles tooting their horns. I went to the place and saw a lot of people gathered in the church, and when I tried to draw their attention to the breaching of the social distancing protocol, one of Obour's supporters, Otani Yahaya, assaulted me without any provocation, he claimed. According to him, Otani Yahaya heavily punched his mouth leading to a cut on the upper lip, and he bled profusely as a result. He explained that he reported the case to the police, but one Mr. Darkwa who is the Municipal NADMO Coordinator and a staunch supporter of Obour pleaded with him for them to settle the matter amicably at home since Tani Yahaya and himself (Amponsah) were both members of the NPP. According to him, they met at Obour's house at Juaso where the offender admitted his offence of assaulting him (assembly member). He said Mr. Darkwa then agreed to pay him a compensation of GH2,000 in addition to the GH3,000 cost incurred when he sought medical treatment at the hospital. Amponsah Yiadom The assembly member said Mr. Darkwa later reneged on his promise because he claimed the issue had been reported in the social media, while they had settled the matter and agreed on a compensation package. He said now that Mr. Darkwa had reneged on his promise, he would like the case to be sent to court for the court to determine the matter. When DAILY GUIDE contacted Obour, he said the story was politically-motivated since nothing of that sort happened on that fateful day. He said as a decent person, he would not allow his supporters to exhibit such bad behavour. He, however, admitted that the MCE of the area drew his attention to the observance of social distancing when they (contestants) were campaigning and did not think he was the only contestant that the MCE gave that friendly advice in order to avoid the possible spread of Covid-19 in the municipality. ---Daily Guide (Newser) A little bit of normalcy returns to New York City on Tuesday morning as traders return to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Sort of. About a quarter of the normal traders will return to the floor, with the rest continuing to work from home, reports Reuters. The trading floor has been closed for about two months because of the coronavirus. The roughly 100 or so traders and other staffers who return Tuesday must wear masks, undergo temperature checks, and stay within newly erected plastic partitions. Most significantly, they have to sign a waiver promising not to sue the NYSE if they get COVID-19, reports the Wall Street Journal. story continues below The waiver makes clear that returning to the floor raises the possibility of "contracting Covid-19, respiratory failure, death, and transmitting Covid-19 to family or household members and others who may also suffer these effects, per the Journal. Traders are not NYSE employees but work for brokerages, banks, and the like. Meanwhile, it appears the first day back to work in person should be a lively one: CNBC reports that the Dow is expected to jump about 500 points at the open because of rising optimism about a possible vaccinein the latest news, US biotech company Novavax has begun human trialsand a general uptick in economic activity. (Read more New York Stock Exchange stories.) US President Donald Trump speaks at the Republican National Committee winter meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC on February 1, 2018. Several Republican officials are pitching their states as possible venues for the upcoming Republican National Convention after President Donald Trump suggested moving it out of North Carolina over coronavirus-related social distancing restrictions. In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump said he "will be reluctantly forced" to move the convention, which is set for the week of Aug. 24 in Charlotte, if the state doesn't ease up on social distancing restrictions to allow full attendance. Since his tweet, multiple Republican governors and party officials have offered their states as potential hosts. "Texas would welcome President Trump and the RNC Convention," Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey told CNBC in a statement. But not everyone in Texas is willing to welcome the RNC with open arms. "The last thing we need right now is a large gathering of nationwide visitors coming to Dallas given we are currently at 'red' our highest threat level" for Covid-19, said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. "No offense. Would say the same thing to the Democrats please go somewhere else." Tweet "It doesn't matter where the RNC holds their convention, Donald Trump's historic unpopularity is going to cause him to lose Texas," the Texas Democratic Party told CNBC in a statement. "Nobody wants Trump in Texas. We recommend Trump host the RNC at one of his golf clubs." Georgia chimed in, too. "With world-class facilities, restaurants, hotels, and workforce, Georgia would be honored to safely host the Republican National Convention. We hope you will consider the Peach State, @realdonaldtrump," Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted Tuesday. Kemp tweet But Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, said the plan to reopen the city does not jibe with Kemp's desire to host the RNC. "Like North Carolina, the City of Atlanta is following a phased, data-driven approach to reopening. That plan does not contemplate hosting a large gathering event in August," Bottoms said. "In fact, several long-standing city-supported and sponsored events have already been canceled in order to comply with CDC guidelines." There is interest from Florida as well, with multiple officials in the state pushing for the convention to be held there. Upon speculation about where the convention might be moved, Joe Gruters, chair of the Florida Republican Party, told NBC News that it "would welcome the opportunity to host the Republican National Convention." "Florida is committed to ensuring a safe, secure and successful event for President Trump and all attendees," Gruters said. On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis echoed that sentiment. "Florida would love to have the RNC," he said during a news briefing with reporters. Trump has reportedly asked several aides about having the GOP convention in Florida, The New York Times reported. In a Monday tweet, though, the president denied the report and struck one Florida location from consideration his own Doral resort. "I have zero interest in moving the Republican National Convention to Doral in Miami, as falsely reported by the Fake News @nytimes in order to stir up trouble. Ballroom is not nearly big enough & would like to stay in N.C., whose gov. doesn't even know if he can let people in?" Tweet Vice President Mike Pence, siding with Trump on his push for North Carolina to relax social distancing guidelines for the convention, indicated interest in moving it to Texas, Florida or Georgia. "These national conventions literally take many months to organize and prepare," Pence said in an interview Monday on the Fox News program "Fox and Friends." "And, you know, there are states around the country. We think of Texas, we think of Florida, Georgia the last two states I visited last week that have made tremendous progress on reopening their communities and reopening their economies." Meanwhile, the city of Charlotte is doubling down on Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. "With the health and safety of our residents and visitors being the top priority, the city of Charlotte will continue to follow guidance from Governor Cooper and public health professionals in determining the best and safest way to host the Republican National Convention," said Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, a Democrat. "While I've remained consistent in my statements regarding the RNC being held in Charlotte, the science and data will ultimately determine what we will collectively do for our city." The president's threat to potentially move the RNC out of North Carolina seemed to come as a surprise for Cooper's office. A letter obtained by NBC News indicates that the state's Department of Health and Human Services and the RNC were in the middle of discussions about going forward with the convention. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said in the letter to RNC President Marcia Lee Kelly, that there was a call as early as Friday on the logistics of the upcoming convention. "The status of COVID-19 infections in our state and in the Charlotte area continues to rapidly evolve, thus, it will be important to have several scenarios planned that can be deployed depending on the public health situation," the letter said. The outbreak has spread to dozens of countries, with more than 5.5 million confirmed cases worldwide and over 346,632 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are at least 1.6 million cases in the United States and nearly 100,000 deaths, according to the latest tallies. With 2020 shaping up to be one of the hottest years on record, the insurance industry, already hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic, is bracing for another wave of insurance claims. If 2019 is any guide, economic losses from climate-related disasters could top $137 billion, according to figures from insurance company Swiss Re. The severity of [loss costs] is increasing in part because youre seeing weather trends happening differently, said Sean Kevelighan, CEO and president of the Insurance Information Institute. Loss costs have increased from the 80s, over 660%. The impact of rising claims has been most acutely felt in California, where wildfires from 2017 and 2018 wiped out 25 years of the industrys profits. According to the states climate change assessment, insurance costs are expected to rise nearly 20% by 2055. What weve seen after a couple of years of the most catastrophic fires in California is really this challenge of finding affordable insurance and also having availability of insurance products in California in some of our most vulnerable areas, said California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara. The state has battled wildfires for decades, but Lara says 2018 was a big wakeup call for insurance companies operating there. The Camp Fire in Paradise devoured 95% of the community within hours, destroying 19,000 homes, killing people. The fire was the worlds single costliest natural disaster that year, bringing the total amount of insured losses in the state to $18 billion, according to Munich Re. Worldwide, losses from global natural disasters topped $225 billion in 2018. Insurance claims have grown so costly and damaging in California, providers started canceling policies of longtime customers in fire-prone parts of the state. That prompted Lara to step in late last year and take the unprecedented step of imposing a one-year moratorium on the practice, protecting more than a million residential policies. A home burns as the Camp Fire tears through Paradise, California, on November 8, 2018. You hear stories time and time again of Californians who have been with their insurance company for 20, 30 years, all of sudden getting dropped at the moment where they actually need some certainty, Lara said. I just thought it was inhumane. For attorney Joseph Earley, those stories are personal. The Paradise resident lost his home and office to the Camp Fire. Over the last 18 months, hes helped his community rebuild by guiding them through the insurance red tape and successfully pushing for a $13.5 million settlement with PG&E (PCG) the utility company responsible for sparking the fire. Story continues My fear is that there isn't enough funds to deal with people's needs, to get them to be able to move forward, Earley said. It's the second- to third-largest settlement in the history of this country. I don't think there's any more money available for it, but I know it's not enough. I know because I know what I lost and there's no way I can recover what I lost. Becky and Lee Nelson lost the place they called home for 40 years in the wildfire. They successfully filed their insurance claim, but say the payout doesnt begin to cover the cost of rebuilding. We're not sure we have water on our property because the water mains were damaged, Becky Nelson said. We don't know if our septic tanks made it. There is obviously no power on this property. We really didn't have enough coverage to handle all of that and put our house back in its original form. Kevelighan said insurance companies are scrambling to reassess their risk models, to get ahead of natural disasters. That includes working with developers to understand areas most exposed to extreme climate and using data to help homeowners plan for the risks ahead. Kevelighan also says insurance companies need to create a business model that ensures their sustainability. Weve got to make sure we price it in a sound manner in order to stay in business, he said. You probably will likely, as risks increase, see prices increase. Thats how insurers have to respond when risks are happening. Thats just the model that we have right now. Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita Sherry Vivian/CBC On Mother's Day 2019, a police officer knocked on the door of Cherine Day's St. John's home. Her former partner, they told her, had been caught watching her house from his vehicle parked up the street. It came months after Day went to police with allegations of assault. She says the last year and a half has taught her patience not a lesson of her own choosing, but the byproduct of a system Day believes is failing women in Newfoundland and Labrador. The single mom of two says she went to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in January 2019, after three years in a tumultuous relationship. Her former partner Leslie Miller is now facing charges of assault and criminal harassment. Miller has pleaded not guilty. The allegations against him haven't been proven in court, and the trial has been delayed until October, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Day says going to police was not the end of a lengthy, confusing, and at times, frustrating journey. Instead, it was just the beginning. Submitted by Cherine Day "The onus is on me to make sure I want to meet with the Crown attorney, I want to make sure the evidence collected made it to disclosure, to understand what I can and can't do. What can I talk about? What can I not talk about?" said Day, from her St. John's home. "There's no one place to provide a whole holistic view of it." Resource centre she never had In the spring of 2019, Day saw a social media post from a woman in Ontario who was trying to share information about her ex-boyfriend, Kevin Evans. Evans was wanted in Ontario on charges of assault and sexual assault. He has since been convicted of assaulting two other ex-girlfriends in Newfoundland. Day reached out to the Ontario woman, whose name is covered by a publication ban, and since then they've been running a Facebook page dedicated to educating and helping other women. It has hundreds of members who are screened before being allowed to join to ensure the women in the group feel safe. Story continues It's the resource centre Day says she never had, and aims to fill a void in the system. Sherry Vivian/CBC "It's not a bashing group posting photos of men. We're more of a supportive community, we talk about how do we support each other," Day said, adding the women plan to ensure no one has to attend court alone. Day says they help with victim impact statements and talk with each other about how the process will unfold in the police station and in the courtroom. Day applauds the RNC's intimate partner violence unit but says there are just not enough members to keep up. RNC Chief Joe Boland has not committed to expanding the unit, but says he would like to if the resources were available. Victim services is also an option, but Day says they cannot be expected to answer every question from every facet of the complex system. "Everybody is overworked. There's so many cases, they don't have time to sit down and speak with you," she said. "For me, I need to understand, OK when I make a charge, what happens next? What are the things I need to be expecting? They don't explain the process." It's just a colossal mess for some women. - Michelle Greene Day has met with Michelle Greene, executive director of Iris Kirby House, who agrees there needs to be a more streamlined system. "I think there's many silos in the justice system," Greene said in an interview with CBC News for the series Stopping Domestic Violence. "I'm a social worker. Many of the staff here have professional degrees as well and we have trouble navigating many of the systems." Greene said in many cases a woman could be tackling the justice, law enforcement, housing and child services systems all at once. "It's a colossal mess for some women." The good and the bad of social media Day says her Facebook page is creating positive results, but she also sees the flip side of social media how domestic violence can flourish online. She has seen examples of women who have met partners on dating apps, only to later realize they have a history of abuse. "There's nothing from a social media perspective to stop them. There has to be some accountability," Day said. "If you're willing to date someone like that, that's fine but most of these women don't know. They have no clue." Ariana Kelland/CBC Greene says she has seen an increase in women seeking shelter at Iris Kirby House after meeting men on dating apps. Once they get here, Greene says, they are trapped in violent, forceful relationships. A time of reckoning Big players in the online dating world, like Tinder and Bumble, have guidelines in place to deal with abusive users but only if they are flagged about the behaviour. "When a user reports an assault to Tinder, we attempt to identify the alleged perpetrator and block the associated account," a spokesperson from Tinder told CBC News. Several online dating services, such as Tinder, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, Match and OKCupid, are owned by the same company Match Group. "The incident is then reported to Match Group's centralized safety repository and checked across our various brands to see if the user has other accounts on other platforms," the spokesperson said. "If any are found, they are blocked as well." Day believes this is a time of reckoning for women who once felt silenced by their abusers. Together, she said, they feel empowered to go against the grain and fight for a better system. Day is preparing for Miller's trial this fall. When she goes through the doors of provincial court in St. John's, she takes solace that she won't be alone. If you need help and are in immediate danger, call 911. To find assistance in your area click here. For general advice, contact IPVU at IPV@rnc.gov.nl.ca or call 709-729-8093 Are you facing intimate partner violence? Here are some resources in N.L. that can help. Read more by CBC Newfoundland and Labrador Bimodal distribution of cardiac states and cardiac state flickering before the onset of atrial fibrillation. Credit: Yew Wai Liew Affecting up to 4% of patients older than 65 years, atrial fibrillation ranks among the most common heart conditions. Described by health professionals as an "irregularly irregular" heart rhythm, episodes of atrial fibrillation continue to prove difficult to predict. An international team of researchers, led by Boon Leong Lan, at Monash University Malaysia, has proposed a way to define cardiac state and has studied the dynamics of the state before the cardiac rhythm changes from normal sinus to AF rhythm and vice versa. The work, appearing in Chaos, and based on critical transition theory, looks to provide an early warning for those with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with potential implications for future wearable devices. The paper points a path forward for better screening for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and may lead to more successful interventions when an atrial fibrillation episode has started. "The flickering of the cardiac state could provide an early warning for the onset of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation for patients who are wearing a device that can measure the heartbeats accurately to monitor their cardiac state," said Lan. "This early warning would be useful if there is a medicine that the patient could take to prevent the onset." It is not obvious how the cardiac state should be defined using just the electrocardiogram time series data. Lan said that their definition of the cardiac state, which is based on the changes between successive beat-to-beat intervals, was inspired by his previous work. He and his collaborator previously discovered that the distribution of the beat-interval changes can discriminate subjects with sustained atrial fibrillation from healthy ones very well. Their new approach shows the cardiac state flickers back and forth between near normal and near atrial fibrillation states, resulting in a bimodal distribution of states before atrial fibrillation starts or terminates. Others have proposed that dynamical transitions in a host of different realms from climate to stock markets to medicine are preceded by critical slowing down as the tipping point is reached. In critical slowing down, the rate of recovery from even a small perturbation approaches zero. Lan and colleagues found that critical slowing down did not precede the onset of atrial fibrillation. Lan is optimistic their method of defining the state of a complex system can be adapted to study critical transition in other chronic episodic diseases, such as epileptic seizure, asthma and ulcers, and other complex systems like an electrical power system or climate system. He and his group are currently studying the changes in the brain state before epileptic seizures using their approach. Explore further Novel necklace detects abnormal heart rhythm More information: "Flickering of cardiac state before the onset and termination of atrial fibrillation," Chaos (2020). Journal information: Chaos "Flickering of cardiac state before the onset and termination of atrial fibrillation,"(2020). aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5130524 President Akufo-Addo has admonished Prof. Mensa-Bonsu to dispense justice in accordance with her conscience and the rule of law. "It is important that you dispense justice in full accord with your conscience and the rule of law....you must ensure the strict application of the laws of the land without fear or favour, affection or ill will, and therefore without recourse to the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of any citizen of the land, " he said. This was held at a short ceremony on Tuesday at the Jubilee House, Accra, ---GNA The Indo-Tibetian Border Police, at the vanguard of India's defence along the Line of Actual Control with China, is staring at vacancies right at the top. As many as three ADG (Additional Director General) level posts in the force are vacant. There are 50 per cent vacancies at the level of inspector generals as appointments have been made for only 10 out of the sanctioned 20 IG posts so far. The Border Security Force, which guards the western border with Pakistan, is no better when it comes to recruitment at the IG level as 12 posts are lying vacant out of sanctioned strength of 45. The two para military forces guarding the two flanks of the country also share a DG (Director General). SS Deswal has been handling the additional charge of DG BSF since March 2020. The government has not appointed a full-time Director General of BSF for two months now. Deswal had been dividing his time between ITBP and BSF frontline posts but with the recent Indo-China border tension, the need for a full time DG is being felt even more. Prakash Singh, former DG of BSF, said not appointing a full-time DG also impacts the morale of the force. Even under normal circumstances a force of 200 thousand plus would need a full time Director General. Why cant you appoint a full-time one? You knew the retirement date of the incumbent. The officers from amongst whom you have to appoint are available, then what is the problem? Can you imagine the Army being kept headless?" Prakash Singh asked. He added that both Pakistan and China are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic and vacancies at the top during such a time will only lower the morale of the jawans. "The soldiers feel bad. ITBP is a full-time job. You always will be unable to give full attention to the force which has been given to you as additional charge, he said. The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet appoints the Director General of the force and the ADG-level officers while the IGs and DIGs are finalised by MHA constituted Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC). Officials told CNN-News18 that DPC which usually meets in September-October to finalise recommendations by December 31 of each year has not met in 2019, thereby delaying promotions and appointments at DIG and IG levels. Paramilitary officials told CNN-News18 that the cadre review of the CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) and the OGAS (organised group A service) matter has compounded vacancy related problems. In ITBP for example, pre-2019 there were 10 IG posts. Cadre review doubled the posts but recruitments did not happen. At the DIG level, only 55 of the 71 positions are filled. In 2017, junior home minister Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that 16 per cent of total CAPF sanctioned strength was vacant. Since then vacancies have only gone up as IPS and cadre level officials have clashed in Supreme Court and the Delhi high court. In 2019, the cadre officers of paramilitary forces moved Delhi HC arguing that all the newly created IG and DIG posts should be filled with cadre-level officers only and not by IPS officers. The court gave an injunction which means appointments are on hold till the matter is sub-judice. A similar cadre vs IPS battle on the OGAS issue was also fought before the Supreme Court where the court ruled in favour of granting Organised Group A Service to CAPF cadre but the judgement failed to resolve the tug of war between cadre and IPS officers over senior positions in the force. The cadre level officers of CAPF want the IG level posts to be filled exclusively by them while IPS officers say this is against recruitment rules. The Ministry of Home Affairs has failed to amicably resolve the issue. In this fight, the force stares at leadership crisis, low morale and discipline related issues while the enemy is getting aggressive at the borders. D onald Trump today mocked Joe Biden for wearing a face mask at Memorial Day commemorations after the President again refused to put one on in public. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee appeared for the first time in two months to lay a wreath near his Delaware home. Mr Trump retweeted a post from Fox News political analyst Brit Hume, who shared a close-up shot of Mr Biden wearing the mask. This might explain why Trump doesnt like to wear a mask in public. Biden today, it read. Mr Biden, 77, and his wife Jill covered their faces as they laid the wreath at the veterans park. Mr Trump, 73, chose not to wear a mask as he attended events at Arlington National Cemetery and Fort McHenry in Baltimore, despite advice from the Centers for Disease and Prevention for Americans to wear them. Montgomery County voters should have more time to return their mail ballots, county elections officials said in asking a court to grant a one-week extension. Read more Montgomery County elections officials are asking a Pennsylvania court to extend the states deadline for mail ballots by one week, which would allow voters to have their ballots counted if they arrive within a week after next months primary election. Without that extension, the county Board of Elections said in its emergency petition Tuesday in Common Pleas Court, voters will be unfairly disenfranchised due to a variety of issues with this years election. The Montgomery County Board of Elections has received numerous reports from individuals who have not received their absentee or mail-in ballots, despite the fact that the ballots were mailed to them, the petition said. Additionally, both the Democratic and Republican party officials of Montgomery County have received reports from constituents that they still have not received their absentee or mail-in ballots. If the court allows the move, it could lead to thousands of additional votes being counted. But it would only apply to voters from Montgomery County, not the states other 66 counties. County officials, like others across the state, have struggled to hold an election during the coronavirus pandemic. A new state law allows any voter to request a mail ballot for any reason, and the pandemic has fueled a massive surge in mail ballot requests. At the same time, officials are preparing for in-person voting that, in Montgomery County, will take place with 60% fewer polling places than normal. Every step of the vote-by-mail process is taking longer than normal, and officials in multiple counties have warned that thousands or even tens of thousands of voters who requested mail ballots close to the deadline could receive their ballots too late to vote. READ MORE: Thousands of Pennsylvania voters might not get their mail ballots in time to actually vote Mail ballot applications are due by 5 p.m. Tuesday, one week before the June 2 primary. The completed ballots are due back by 8 p.m. election night, leaving voters with just one week to have their ballots processed, printed, mailed, filled out, and then returned. County officials cited two specific problems in their filing Tuesday: long mail delivery times and a flaw in the online mail ballot application system. The United States Postal Service told county officials last week that ballots that had been mailed could take up to ten days to be delivered, too long to allow last-minute voters to receive their ballot. And the states online application form has a design flaw that led hundreds of voters to write their apartment numbers into a field that doesnt get included when elections staff print ballot materials. So those voters apartment numbers werent included on the envelopes when ballots were mailed, and the county has begun receiving them back as undeliverable. County officials said they discussed their options with lawyers from the Pennsylvania Department of State, who suggested going to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas. Elections officials across the state are also closely watching another lawsuit, filed with backing from national Democrats, that seeks a similar one-week deadline extension for the entire state. That case remains open, with the plaintiffs, Gov. Tom Wolfs administration, and state lawmakers fighting over whether the case should be moved to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court or remain in Commonwealth Court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court this month dismissed a separate, similar challenge that also sought a one-week deadline extension. Near the end of his life more than 30 years ago, a father made a final request of his second son: Watch over your older brother, David. David Christensen didnt live with the family. But in his 70-plus years, he was in many ways an emotional center for his brother, Dan, and sister, Pamela Scoglio, of Greensboro, N.C. In those decades, their parents died. The siblings were married and had children. Eventually hundreds of miles separated the Christensens, and yet David was a constant. The family always worried about his care, wondered about his happiness, and cherished moments of affection and warmth with their brother. He opened our eyes to the world and whats out there and the differences that can exist, Dan Christensen said. I owe him for that. From about age 6 until his death from COVID-19 at 73, this month, David Christensen lived in institutions for people with developmental disabilities. He died earlier this month at his final residence, the New Lisbon Developmental Center, the state-run facility in Burlington County particularly hard-hit by the pandemic. Christensen was among the 194 out of 288 residents who tested positive for COVID-19, and one of 10, as of Sunday, to die from it. A staff member at New Lisbon also died of the virus last week. For his brother and sister, his death is less about the pandemic than the conclusion of a complicated family tale of duty, hard choices, and love spanning three generations. At his birth in Havre de Grace, Md., Davids parents were told their first born was healthy. Within his first year, though, it became obvious that he had serious developmental problems, according to a 2015 evaluation shared by his brother. As an adult, he was diagnosed with autism, Tourettes syndrome, and profound intellectual disability. READ MORE: At South Jersey center for disabled adults, COVID-19 has killed 8 while infecting most residents and many staff All his life, Christensen suffered fits of screaming and scratching, his family said. Doris and Charles Christensen agonized over their decision in 1953 to place him in the now-defunct Vineland Developmental Center, both siblings agreed. They did it at the recommendation of the doctors, said Dan Christensen, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a reporter and founder of the publication the Florida Bulldog. They were both good parents. Having to give up your son to other people is something we today couldnt ever imagine. Christensen came home to Hillsdale, N.J., in Bergen County, for a few weeks every summer and for Christmas, and there were monthly weekend excursions to such places as Atlantic City and its open air amusement park on the Million Dollar Pier. The visits could be challenging. Scoglio, nine years younger than her brother, remembers fearing him in childhood. Loud noises could trigger a tantrum, she said. Sometimes he acted out inexplicably, and even ferociously. I was perceived as the youngest and the weakest," Scoglio said she thought, so he would take it out, physical aggression, even, on me. Often he seemed immersed in his own world. Names of people from the past, snippets of old memories, and meals he enjoyed came out as a soft, rambled monologue. But his care needs were intensive. Getting washed and dressed required help, as did finishing a meal. As Christensen aged he lost his teeth, and staff at New Lisbon would puree his food before serving it to him. He could wash his own hands if directed to, but didnt know how to control the temperature of the water. He got credit for fluffing his own pillow and pulling the sheets off his bed in that 2015 evaluation, and had a goal to learn to fold his own clothes. He could tell time, but couldnt read. Much of Christensens adult life was spent at the Woodbridge Developmental Center, which closed in 2014 during a lawsuit-driven reorganization to move people out of residential institutions to group homes. His days were filled with meals, television, leisure activities, and a campus job shredding papers. He was a very quiet man, pleasant, recalled Sheronda Swink, a nurse at New Lisbon who cared for Christensen for about three years. You had to listen closely. He was very soft spoken. The nurse said Christensen could occasionally be encouraged to sing along with his favorite music, but his sister said he often seemed happiest just observing. READ MORE: Tinder boxes: Secret data reveal how COVID-19 swept through Philadelphia nursing homes I think he liked being a fly on the wall, she said. He liked being at [his familys homes] where he got the foods that he liked and could listen to the music that he liked. He also could be warm and funny. At a restaurant with panoramic windows, Dan recalled, his brother complimented the server on the wallpaper. When he was in a good mood and happy and loving, it was wonderful, Scoglio said. It was wonderful and I wanted that the whole time, but a minute later it could change. The family scattered as time passed. Scoglio moved to North Carolina. Dan Christensen and their mother moved to Florida, where David would visit a few weeks a year until his mother died in 2008. After that, his siblings visited him in New Jersey once or twice each year. Scoglios son, Mike, now 35, was born with Down syndrome, but has had only mild developmental issues. Despite the miles between them, Mike developed a close bond with his Uncle David, delighting the older man with his Elvis impressions. Scoglio tried to move her brother closer to her home in North Carolina. But the states emphasis on group homes meant there was nowhere equipped to meet Davids needs. She advocates for people with cognitive disabilities, and agrees the least restrictive environment is preferable -- as long as its safe. New Lisbon notified the family by letter April 14 that 13 residents and six staff had tested positive for the coronavirus. Christensen contracted the coronavirus in late April. He had been lethargic and wouldnt eat, and was taken to Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly. He tested positive and was diagnosed with pneumonia, but after less than a week in the hospital was judged well enough to return to New Lisbon. But in some patients, the virus appears to clear up, only to strike back harder. May 5, while sitting down for lunch, David had a seizure -- thanks to medication, his brother said, that hadnt happened for years. He was pronounced dead of a heart attack brought on by the virus at 12:34 p.m. that day. This is a virus that exploits weaknesses, Dan Christensen said. Both of Christensens siblings spoke highly of the staff at New Lisbon, saying they seemed to care about their brother and treated him well. They had not known the facility waited until May to quarantine infected people in separate buildings, until they read about the problems there in The Inquirer earlier this month. New Lisbon workers who had complained of having to care for both infected and uninfected residents during the same shift said they recently started getting new masks each day. It would have been nice to know a little bit more, Dan Christensen said. It seems like maybe they werent quite as straight as they should have been. Scoglio last saw her brother David during a visit to New Jersey in October. He had aged visibly in the months since her last visit. She wondered whether they would be together again. He was getting older and slowing down, she said. After a big meal he would usually want to lay down and take a nap. Dan Christensen has thought about his fathers request since his brothers death. Take care of him the best you can. I promised that I would," Dan Christensen said, and I hope I lived up to that. Frum is on shakier ground when he places Trump internationally, as part of a fascoid movement an awkward coinage he uses to indicate a diluted form of fascism that is based not in nationalism, but in white racial identity with a capital in Moscow. Well, maybe. The replacement of nation by race may explain why so many Trump supporters felt untroubled by Russian help for the Trump candidacy. Or perhaps they were just convinced by their hero that the Russian disinformation campaign was fake news. Trumps tribal appeal has exacerbated a structural defect in our Constitution, the overrepresentation of rural America, a region slipping farther away culturally and economically from the countrys dynamic urban centers. There is a strong chance that if Trump wins in 2020, he will do so, once again, with a minority of the popular vote, but a majority of the Electoral College. Is it possible, Frum wonders, that this will be the new American electoral reality? If so, the Constitution itself will look ever less credible. And as the United States becomes an increasingly polychromatic nation, Republicans may begin to argue that with the country composed of the wrong kind of majorities demographically, it cannot be governed by majority rule electorally. Happily, Frum remains a small-c conservative, not a radical. The solutions he proposes in the second half of Trumpocalypse are bold and provocative, but not wild-eyed. He does not want to eliminate the Electoral College, or combine the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana into one state (which would have about as many people as Los Angeles); sadly, such things arent feasible. He does suggest some small structural changes: eliminate the Senate filibuster, make it illegal for politicians to withhold their tax returns, have congressional districts drawn by independent commissions, not state legislatures. There are several others. But Frums boldest proposal involves policy, not governmental structure, and it goes back to the notion that too many Americans Trump supporters, mostly see government benefits going to the wrong people. He proposes a political trade: a severe tightening of immigration rules in return for the passage of much-needed social and climate legislation a comprehensive national health care system, a carbon tax (that would include products imported from polluters like China and India). If Democrats want to perpetuate their health care reforms, they must do a better job of solidifying a sense of national belonging. If Republicans want to safeguard the border, they must offer a better deal to those living on that borders American side. This would be a difficult pill to swallow for those of us who believe that our immigrant heritage is truly what has made America exceptional in the world. But Frum builds his case carefully. Immigration has always been tangled up in our tortured racial history. A century ago, Jews and Italians were the nonwhite interlopers; it took generations for them to be seen as us. It is possible, he observes, that stopping the human flow from Eastern Europe, and creating a more homogeneous America, made it easier for Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson to pass their enormous social programs. If society allows its sense of one of us to weaken, so will its willingness to provide for members of that us. It may be no accident that at the very moment President Johnson was passing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, he also signed an immigration law that loosened the 1924 strictures and, arguably, set us on the path to toxic hyperpartisanship. Frum is careful not to attribute everything to this dilemma. The concentration of Americas economy, a celebrity society that aggrandizes the wealthy and a fragmented media have certainly played a role as well. Still, Frums proposal seems prescient: Covid-19 may have pushed the national mood toward the deal he posits a stronger health care system and stronger borders. Some 115 Indians, including out of work and broke caregivers, students and pregnant women, were all smiles as they boarded an Air India flight at Ben-Gurion Airport (Tel Aviv) on Tuesday and left for India after being stranded in Israel for more than two months due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The flight took off at 1 AM IST and also carried a Nepalese national Prabha Baskota, married to an Indian, and five Israeli diplomats posted in Delhi. Out of the 121 passengers aboard flight AI 140, some 85 of them would take a connecting flight to Kochi on Tuesday from Delhi. Most of the Kochi passengers are caregivers who have wished to be quarantined close to their home. "These are very challenging times and the Vande Bharat Mission flight to India is one of our many efforts to reach out to our community of students and caregivers here in Israel," India's ambassador to Israel Sanjeev Singla told PTI at the airport. "The Ministry of External Affairs, the Civil Aviation Ministry, the Home Ministry, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the embassy have taken all possible steps to ensure that our nationals stranded and facing hardships for various reasons are able to return home", Singla said. The Indian government launched the ''Vande Bharat Mission'' on May 7 to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Under Phase I of the mission, the government evacuated a total of 6,527 Indians from the Gulf region and from countries like the US, the UK, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives. Among the passengers on Tuesday was 74-year-old Sam Edelji Turel from Maharashtra, who came to Israel in February for treatment of lymphoma."I was referred to Sheba Medical Centre and I was happy to see the state of the art technology being used in Israel for the treatment of Lymphoma. I got very professional care during my treatment after coming here on February 3. My treatment got over on April 10 and since then me and my wife have been waiting to go back", Turel said. "I must say that we are very lucky that a flight has been organised for stranded Indians like me. As elderly people, we cannot thank enough for this help. At the same time I hope that I can reach Mumbai and be quarantined there as I continue to need medical care and my doctors are there," he said. Some pregnant women waiting to collect their boarding passes looked quite relieved after having gone through weeks of uncertainty and forced to stay on without any support after having been laid off by their employers. Soumya Jose, who is from Kerala and in an advanced stage of pregnancy, expressed "warm appreciation at this gesture" and "happiness at the prospect of returning to her home during a critical time". Most of the passengers are caregivers who had been laid off by their employers. Annama Siby, who is from Kerala's Idukki district and came to Israel in 2013 as a caregiver but has been recently cleaning houses in Tel Aviv for a living, said that most of the people going back are those without a job. "I was without a job for almost four months now. I have no money and no work. I had to pay rent for my room and Israel is such an expensive place. The Israeli government had given us the permission to work but even those who would earlier give us some work were scared because of the coronavirus and we had to sit idle," Siby said. Akhila Viswan, a postdoctoral fellow in Chemistry at one of the leading universities in Israel, was "stressed out" till she got her ticket confirmed as her marriage has been fixed in India and the COVID-19 related lockdown had turned all the those plans topsy-turvy. "I reached the airport way ahead of time to make sure that there are no surprises. I can't tell you the feeling when I got my boarding pass", she said, heaving a sigh of relief. The specially arranged Air India evacuation flight brought 88 passengers from Delhi to Tel Aviv, almost all of them Israelis. The national carrier which has stepped up to support the government mission to help bring back stranded Indians has also kept the price of the tickets reasonable. "All of us going to Delhi have paid USD 679 for the ticket. Those going to Kochi have paid USD 750," a relieved student said, adding that, "We thought given the extraordinary situation we may have to pay something abnormal, but it's the same fare that we pay during normal times". Air India's country Head Pankaj Tiwari told PTI that the airline even took pains to adjust the fares of those who had bought tickets through its sales office and were looking for a refund or adjustment. The Indian embassy in Tel Aviv in an announcement on May 15 said that it was looking into the possibility of facilitating the return of interested Indian nationals from Israel, who could not travel earlier due to COVID-19-related international travel restrictions. Most of those who provided details and expressed willingness to pay for the ticket and quarantine boarded the flight today, the embassy officials said. Almost all the embassy staff was present at the airport to see off the passengers and also distributed a package with gloves and masks for their onward journey. As Delhi government has directed private hospitals and nursing homes to reserve 20 per cent of their total bed strength for coronavirus patients, doctors have warned that mixing Covid-19 patients in hospitals treating people with other ailments might lead to a further spread of the virus. Strongly objecting to this order, the private hospitals and doctors will be writing to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government to review its decision. Kejriwal, while addressing a digital briefing on Monday had said, "Government and private hospitals in Delhi have 4,500 beds for Covid-19 patients and out of these, only 2,000 are occupied. He added that around 2,000 new beds have already been added in 117 private hospitals for Covid-19 patients. Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday had said the Delhi government has directed private hospitals and nursing homes with a capacity of 50 beds or more to reserve 20 per cent of their total bed strength for coronavirus patients. Reacting on governments directive, Dr Girish Tyagi, president of Delhi Medical Association, said that the bigger challenge would be for the small hospitals as they do not have enough space, handling both Covid-19 and non-Covid patients at the same time would become difficult and risky to all. The bigger hospitals that have several blocks can manage to dedicate these beds. However, the challenge will be for smaller ones as they might not have enough space or separate entry and exits to ensure Covid-19 and non-Covid patients are segregated properly. This might lead to a spread of the infection within the hospitals, Hindustan Times quoted Dr Tyagi as saying. Citing the examples of Italy and Spain, the countries which handled both Covid-19 and non-Covid patients together, Dr PK Bharadwaj, secretary, Delhi Voluntary Hospitals forum, an association of large private hospitals, said, We should learn from the experiences of other countries. In countries such as Italy and Spain, treating Covid-19 patients alongside non-Covid patients add to several hospitals becoming transmission hot spots. Earlier, the Delhi government had decided to designate only independent hospitals or those with separate blocks for the treatment of coronavirus patients such as one block in Max Smart Super Specialty hospital or the two independent hospitals under Sir Gangaram -- Kolmet and City. In order to avoid mixing of Covid-19 and non-Covid patients, the Kejriwal government had earlier decided to use two of its hospitals the 2000-bed Lok Nayak and 500-bed Rajiv Gandhi Superspecialty hospital in its entirety days later. At All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), people with Covid are being treated at the Trauma Centre on Ring Road and the Cancer centre in Jhajjar, which are completely isolated from the main campus where non-Covid patients are being treated in the emergency department, Hindustan Times reported. At Safdarjung, a separate Superspecialty block and in Ram Manohar Lohia, a separate Trauma block are being used for treating coronavirus patients. If the government needs to take over beds in the private sector, instead of getting 2,000 beds in over hundred hospitals, they can take over a few of the bigger hospitals, said Dr Bharadwaj. Meanwhile, the Delhi Medical Association will also be writing to the government to extend the health insurance for health care workers in the government sector to the private sector, ensure availability of PPE kits, masks, sanitisers, and respirators at government rates, and create a separate facility for treating health care workers with Covid-19. South Africa: COVID-19 must enable a new Africa - President Ramaphosa Africa has marked the 57th Africa Day amid the Coronavirus pandemic with African Union Chair, President Cyril Ramaphosa, calling on the continent to use the global crisis as an opportunity to re-imagine a new Africa. Africa Day is celebrated on 25 May 2020 and marks the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Africa has not been spared from the COVID-19 pandemic with almost 96 000 people infected with almost 3 000 having lost their lives. Delivering the keynote address on the Africa Day special virtual broadcast on Monday, President Ramaphosa said the pandemic will have a lasting impact on the continents ability to meet the aspiration of the African Unions Agenda 2063 of a peaceful, united and prosperous continent. The virus has exposed the deep inequalities that continue to exist on our continent and across the world. It has shown how far we are from realising our developmental goals and our responsibilities to the citizens of our continent. But at the same time, this global crisis should enable a new Africa to come to the fore, said President Ramaphosa. While noting the impact of the pandemic, the AU Chair called on Africa to ensure the pandemic does not reverse the continents developmental gains. We must forge ahead with meeting the aspirations of Agenda 2063. We must move ahead with the most ambitious step towards pan-African integration to date, the creation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, and ensure that it is operational soon. We must not let up on our efforts to drive the African agenda of security, peace and stability, of democracy and human rights, of womens emancipation and the protection of the environment, said President Ramaphosa. The 57th Africa Day marked was under the theme: silencing the guns - creating conducive conditions for Africas development and intensifying the fight against COVID-19. In line with this years theme, President Ramaphosa urged the continent not to let up on its efforts to drive the African agenda of security, peace and stability, democracy and human rights, womens emancipation and the protection of the environment. We must not under any circumstances allow this global health emergency to derail our efforts to silence the guns on the continent. The tragic conflicts that are breeding instability in a number of countries on our continent are exacting a heavy toll on human life and must end. We must continue to affirm the supremacy of dialogue over military intervention, he said. Calls for financial support to Africa With countries tasked with fighting the scourge of COVID-19, President Ramaphosa made a clarion call to developed countries, multilateral institutions and the donor community to provide vulnerable countries across the world especially in Africa with the necessary support in the form diagnostic and therapeutic medical supplies as well as necessary financial support to sustain the livelihoods of vulnerable people. President Ramaphosa repeated the call for an economic stimulus package for Africa that includes debt relief and other support measures for the continents immediate humanitarian needs and necessary economic recovery. He also reiterated the call for the unconditional lifting of sanctions that have been imposed on Zimbabwe and Sudan during the pandemic. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Press Release 26 May 2020 Holidaying on the English Riviera, taking a trip on the Jacobite, soaking in the Stonehenge summer solstice, eating fish & chips at the seafront, exploring the Scottish Highlands and having a picnic on the Yorkshire Dales are just some of the activities to make Britons post lockdown UK bucket list. Advertisements During the COVID-19 lockdown over half of Britons (57%) have taken pen to paper and created a bucket list of places and activities they want to experience in the UK post lockdown. The average Briton's UK bucket list consists of 25 experiences and respondents estimate it will take them around seven years to accomplish. The research conducted by the UK's first budget hotel chain, Travelodge, which operates 584 hotels across the UK, surveyed 2,000 British adults to seek their views on having a UK bucket list. Key findings revealed that over a third (35%) of Britons think having a bucket list is a good idea as it will encourage them to try new things. A quarter (25%) of Britons reported having a bucket list will help them to achieve their new goals in life. A fifth (20%) of Britons reported that they have created a joint bucket list with their partner as it will enable them to spend more quality time together in the future. Whilst over a third (37%) of parents reported that they have created a family bucket list as it has helped to keep the children entertained during the lockdown and gives them something to look forward too. The research also revealed that 48% of Britons UK bucket list has been inspired from their childhood and includes experiences that they have wanted to try since they were a child. When asked what Britons have on their UK bucket list it was revealed that we are getting back to basics and truly valuing what makes Great Britain so Great. Britons top 50 list of bucket list activities is dominated by activities around exploring Britain's glorious countryside. This includes exploring picturesque rural locations such as the Scottish Highlands, the Peak District, the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. As well as, walking Hadrian's Wall and climbing Ben Nevis. Quintessentially British things are also popular activities to make Britons bucket list. This includes: eating fish & chips at the seaside, having a cream tea in a tea shop in Cornwall or Devon, eating strawberries and cream at Wimbledon, indulging in a traditional afternoon tea at the Ritz and enjoying a picnic in the countryside. Britons are also eager to experience eating a Cornish pasty in Cornwall, haggis in Scotland, Scouse in Liverpool and drinking scrumpy in Somerset. Interestingly, iconic train journeys are also a popular activity to make Britons bucket list. The most popular trips include: The Jacobite steam train voted best train journey in the world and made famous by the Harry Potter movies. The vintage steam train ride offers breath-taking views of mountains, lochs and rivers. Other iconic train journeys to make the top 50 list include, the Snowdon Mountain train; which offers a unique rail journey to the summit of the highest mountain in England and Wales showcasing stunning scenery. The Ravenglass & Eskdale train journey offering spectacular scenery as you travel through the Lake District. Shakila Ahmed, Travelodge Spokesperson, said: "The lockdown has certainly inspired Britons to put pen to paper and create a bucket list, so that they can look forward to discovering what makes Britain so great after the lockdown. Interestingly quintessentially British things such as eating fish & chips at the seafront, having a cream tea in Cornwall or Devon and having a picnic in a rural setting such as the Yorkshire Dales are just some of the activities to make Britons bucket list." "We are seeing an increase on our site, travelodge.co.uk, in searches for coastal and rural UK locations, which shows Britons are eagerly planning their Staycation when it is safe to do so. Top locations include: Cornwall, Devon, Scotland, North Wales, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Brighton, Bournemouth and Blackpool." Explore the English Riviera Take a trip on the Jacobite (Fort William to Mallaig) Have fish and chips and an ice cream at the seafront Experience the Stonehenge summer solstice Explore the Scottish Highlands Walk Hadrian's Wall Explore the Peak District Take a trip on the Ravenglass & Eskdale train to explore the Lake District Have a picnic on the Yorkshire Dales See the northern lights Take a boat ride on Lake Windermere Explore the Shetland Islands Visit the Giants at Giants Causeway Attend the Edinburgh Tattoo Take a trip on the Flying Scotsman Have a cream tea in Cornwall or Devon Explore the Emerald Isle - Ireland See the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall Take a trip on the Snowdon Mountain train Eat a pasty in Cornwall See London at the London Eye Explore the enchanted forest in Scotland Climb Ben Nevis Have afternoon tea at the Ritz Dolphin watching in Dorset Whale watching in the Isle of Mull Visit Edinburgh Castle Take the sleeper train from London to Edinburgh Visit Canterbury Cathedral Take a tour of the Houses of Parliament See Nessie at Loch Ness Eat Scouse in Liverpool Take a tour of an English vineyard Explore Westminster Abbey Go to Wimbledon and eat strawberries and cream Eat dinner at Gordon Ramsey's Michelin star restaurant Explore the Jurassic coast See the Grand National in Aintree Visit the Isle of White Explore Cotswold villages Visit the Cheddar Gorge Explore Shetland Forest Drink real scrumpy in Somerset Take a ferry ride over the River Mersey Go to Glastonbury Eat Haggis in Scotland Experience Velocity 2, Zipworld Penrhyn Quarry - world's fastest zip ride Have Sunday lunch in a traditional British countryside pub Explore Buckingham Palace Eat fish & chips at Land's End Travelodge is currently operating over 50 hotels in critical locations across the UK from Plymouth to Aberdeen to support key workers and local authorities. The company is planning to start to reopen its hotels in early July once the government gives permission for UK hotels to reopen. You cant afford to depend solely on the past for answers to these questions. You need real, up-to-date data to take the place of guesswork, so you arent flying blind, Helms says. The novel coronavirus crisis has abruptly upended the operations and behaviors of both businesses and consumerswith such changes seemingly just the beginning. One poll from industry experts expects the U.S. economy to shed 21.85 million jobs in Aprilby far the largest number on record.(1) On March 20, Goldman Sachs found a haunting prediction of nearly a 24% decline in GDP in this years second quarter.(2) The numbers dont lie, says Karla Jo Helms, the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR Strategist for JoTo PR Disruptors. No other event save the Great Depression has hit our economy harder than COVID-19. Despite the crisis, many businesses are struggling just to hang in there. For instance, the need for social distancing has demanded companies to make a major shift in how they conduct businesssending employees to work from home and altering the way their consumers access products/services. But thats a minor problem when you consider that your clientele thats still around is spending their money elsewhere, and still others have shuttered their doors, unable to withstand the seismic shift that the global pandemic has wrought upon us all, Helms says. For Helms own company, she notes three specific industries that she has seen major downturns in: healthcare, finance, and information technology. In the healthcare sector, consumer spending plummeted at an annualized rate of 18% in the first three months of this year, helping drive an annualized 4.8% drop in first-quarter GDPthe worst performance since the Great Recession. The field also shed 43,000 positions in March, with big declines shown at dentists' and physicians' offices. Health systems are projected to sustain more than $202 billion in losses between March 1 and June 30, according to a report released by the American Hospital Association.(3) Impacts revolved around the financial industry are largely on the minds of Americans amidst COVID-19with 71% concerned about the pandemics financial implications, including effects on results of operations, future periods and liquidity and capital resources.(4) In information technology, one Glassdoor report said that tech industry job openings posted on the site dropped roughly 20% between March 9 and April 6. More specifically, Glassdoors monthly Job Market Report stated that job openings in information technology dropped from nearly 174,000 on March 9 to around 152,000 on April 6 while computer software and hardware job postings dropped from just under 176,000 to about 128,000 during that timeframeboth proving to be a staggering decrease.(5) With no definitive end to this crisis in sight, weve been forced to take a long, hard look at how weve been conducting business for decades and admit that those days are over, Helms says. Lets face itnone of us planned for a pandemic that would create wholesale changes to our entire society. But now here we are, and the decisions you make today can either secure your companys future or spell disaster. This is where the importance of recognizing the market and its audience comes in, Helms stresses. With this, businesses should move forward by analyzing changes with their target audience in order to make adaptations, she says, noting several questions companies should be asking themselves: Consumers have changed their spending habitsdo businesses even know if their products or services are still relevant to their customers? What services are consumers wanting, and what new solutions can businesses provide for these different needs? What is the message that will resonate with consumers and bring them back? With these kind of questions, businesses are setting themselves up to have a better understanding of both the market and its audience in order to best represent the brand as the ongoing crisis continues. Additionally, Helms notes that her company has seen immense value when it comes to conducting market research for measures of both ROI and reputation. You cant afford to depend solely on the past for answers to these questions. You need real, up-to-date data to take the place of guesswork, so you arent flying blind, Helms says. Those answers come from doing the market research to rediscover your audiencefind out what people are thinking about your industry, products, and your company. About JoTo PR: After doing marketing research on a cross-section majority of 5,000 CEOs of fast-growth trajectory companies and finding out exactly how they used PR, how they measure it and how they wanted the PR industry to be different, PR veteran and innovator Karla Jo Helms created JoTo PR and established its entire business model on those research findings. Astute in recognizing industry changes since its launch in 2009, JoTo PRs team utilizes newly established patterns to create timely PR campaigns comprising both traditional and the latest proven media methods. This unique skill enables JoTo PR to continue to increase the market share and improve return on investment (ROI) for its clients, year after yearbeating usual industry standards. Based in Tampa Bay, Florida, JoTo PR is an established international public relations agency. Today, all of JoTo PRs processes are streamlined PR services that have become the hallmark of the JoTo PR name. Giving hope and help to meaningful and purposeful businesses is what makes JoTo PR motivated to impact the world positively and for the optimism to help more people. For more information, visit http://www.jotopr.com. About Karla Jo Helms: Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR Strategist for JoTo PR. She learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the lineand how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumna of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinionKarla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances, and doing what it takes to excel. Karla Jo has patterned her agency on the perfect balance of crisis management, entrepreneurial insight and proven public relations experience. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of PR to drive markets and impact market perception. 1. Tappe, Anneken. April Was Probably the Worst Month for American Jobs since the Great Depression. CNN, Cable News Network, 6 May 2020, cnn.com/2020/05/06/economy/april-jobs-report-2020/index.html. 2. Paumgarten, Nick, et al. The Price of the Coronavirus Pandemic. The New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2020, newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/20/the-price-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic. 3. Luhby, Tami. Health Care Spending Has Actually Plunged in the Middle of the Pandemic. Here's Why. CNN, Cable News Network, 7 May 2020, cnn.com/2020/05/07/economy/health-care-downturn-coronavirus-pandemic/index.html. 4. PricewaterhouseCoopers. COVID-19 and the Banking and Capital Markets Industry. PwC, pwc.com/us/en/library/covid-19/coronavirus-banking-and-capital-markets.html. 5. Whiting, Rick. Tech Job Openings Plunged More Than 20 Percent As Coronavirus Crisis Deepened: Glassdoor. CRN, 16 Apr. 2020, crn.com/news/running-your-business/tech-job-openings-plunged-more-than-20-as-coronavirus-deepened-glassdoor. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Manila, Philippines Tue, May 26, 2020 15:31 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda2b7ad 2 SE Asia Philippines,Rodrigo-Duterte,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-vaccines,school,reopening Free Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not allow students to go back to school until a coronavirus vaccine is available, even as some countries resume in-person classes. Children were due to return to school at the end of August after classes for more than 25 million primary and secondary students were shut down in March as the contagion took off in the Philippines. But in a speech aired late Monday, Duterte said the risk was too great, even if it held students back academically. "Unless I am sure that they are really safe it's useless to be talking about opening of classes," the president said. "For me, vaccine first. If the vaccine is already there, then it's okay," he added. "If no one graduates, then so be it." Though researchers have launched an unprecedented global effort to quickly develop a vaccine, it is not clear when a viable candidate will be proven and distributed on a large scale. Public school normally runs from June to April in the Philippines, but authorities pushed back the start as cases rose and a strict lockdown brought most of the nation to a halt. In order to ease classroom crowding, the education ministry had already announced a mix of distance-learning measures, including online classes, would be used for the coming school year. Millions live in deep poverty in the Philippines and do not have access to computers at home, which would be key for the viability of online classes. The pandemic has kept children around the globe home for months, but in-person classes have begun to resume in countries including South Korea and France. The Philippines' coronavirus case count reached more than 14,300 on Monday, including 873 deaths. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday said that while people wanting to come to the state were welcome, they would need to register on the state government's website in advance and the Indian Railways would be required to inform the authorities about when they were being brought to the state, so that quarantine arrangements could be made in advance. His comments came after Union Minister of Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal criticised the state for denying approval to a train from Mumbai to Kerala. Commenting on the central minister's criticism, Vijayan told ... Delhi's famous Jama Masjid is seen on the eve of Eid al-Fitr during a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus, at the old quarters of New Delhi. (Image: AP) Address by Mr Gent Sejko , Governor of the Bank of Albania, to the Discussion Forum on ''Bank - business relationships: common economic challenges in face of global Covid-19 pandemic", Tirana, 13 May 2020. Dear representatives of business community in Albania, Dear banking system executives, First, I would like to thank you for your participation in this round table, held to discuss on the way and optimum instruments to face the common challenges ahead. This meeting is being organised under extraordinary circumstances. The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the prudential measures adopted to confine it, drove to a rapid drop of the demand for goods and services, in the domestic and foreign markets, and to a considerable contraction of output. The challenges we are facing are serious, in terms of both size and complexity. The Albanian economy is expected to undergo a strong drop of the economic activity during 2020, in those levels never being experienced during the last two decades. It will be accompanied by an increase of unemployment, fall of revenue, and financial difficulties to firms and households. In the microeconomic view, the fall of revenue, reduction of liquidity and worsening of solvency will test the financial stability of firms. In the macroeconomic view, the increase of private and public debt will test the stability of economic equilibriums of Albania. Last, the shock experienced by the real sector will not overcome without leaving traces in the financial market and in the indicators of the banking sector's business, as well. The dimensions and complexity of the crisis demand for a coherent and comprehensive response. Absolutely, public authorities have the primary role to play in this regard. The fiscal, monetary and financial stimulus, are essential instruments to boost the aggregate demand, mitigate the liquidity problems and avoid the long-term consequences of the crisis. Nevertheless, firms and banking sector should not consider themselves as passive consumers of the economic policies, but as exceptional actors in our efforts to resolve the crisis. The stimulus of public authorities could be neither effective nor potentially sufficient, without the adequate reaction of both firms and banking industry. Dear guests, Allow me to introduce briefly the reaction of public authorities, and further to share with you our vision on the challenges and role that the Albanian firms and banking sector should play. 1. Reaction by public authorities In the face of the unprecedented health emergency, the focus of public policies - in Albania and globally- was the undertaking of severe social distancing measures. Naturally, these measures have hit the economic activity and have demanded for a comprehensive easing of fiscal, monetary and financial policies. Fiscal policy - rightfully- has been given a primary role in facing the situation. This policy may provide a direct support to aggregate demand, through fiscal transfers, and an immediate and targeted improvement of liquidity to enterprises, through the postponing of the payment of taxes and through the sovereign guarantees programs. The two introduced fiscal packages, so far, provide for a maximum potential stimulus at around 3% of GDP. Even without considering the negative effect on public income, this stimulus transfers to the balance sheet of public sector a considerable part of the financial costs of the crisis. On its side, the Bank of Albania has increased the dosage of the monetary stimulus. This stimulus has been taken the form of the reduction of policy rate, already in its historical minimum of 0.5%, aiming to boost lending and reduce the servicing cost of existing loans. Also, it has been in the form of removing the quantitative limits of liquidity injection into the system, aiming to a better supply of the banking market and the Albanian economy. The volume of liquidity that we inject every week in the system fluctuates around the level 2%. In addition, the Bank of Albania has undertaken operational measures for guaranteeing the supply of economy with cash, in response to its increased demands. In parallel, the Bank of Albania - in an agreement and good understanding with banking industry - has carried out regulatory amendments which ease the postponing with one quarter of the credit payment for firms and households which face temporary financial difficulties. The reports, so far, show that more than 20.000 firms have benefited from this easing, who have a credit at banks which account for higher than EUR 2 billion. Also, we have temporary suspended the allocation of dividend by the banking sector, for the purpose of strengthening the capitalisation indicators of this sector. Dear guests, The reaction philosophy of the Bank of Albania is the mitigation of crisis consequences and the establishment of preconditions for a rapid recovery of the economy once the pandemic is overcome. In detailing this philosophy, we deem that: the safeguarding of the monetary and financial stability, and the minimisation of the negative effects of pandemic on our production capacities, are two crucial preconditions for the recovery. For this reason, the objective of our policies is the application of the right stimuli in timely manner, without prejudice in any moment to the monetary and financial stability of Albania. I am confident that both business community and the banking sector share this philosophy. 2. Business and banking sector in face of Covid-19 As I already emphasised, the Albanian business is facing a serious challenge to its future. This challenge has almost existential dimensions in certain segments. At the same time, the long-term soundness of banking sector is closely related with the soundness of business. Banking credit to firms is almost 4 times higher during the last two decades. It accounts for around 25% of banks' balance sheets and has a comparable share to GDP, while the bank - business relationships' flow is present also in the field of other financial products and in the payment services. For this reason, your reaction against the shock should be decisive, courageous and visionary, as well as based on the spirit of collaboration and common long-term interests. Allow me to be more concrete in detailing the vision of the Bank of Albania on the challenges ahead. The first challenge is the facing of health emergency. The business and banking sector should be clear that human capital is the most precious asset for every company. For this reason, any necessary measure to guarantee the health of the employees should not be considered as an expense, but as a strategic investment for the future of the firm. The second challenge is the revision of the business model and the increase of operational flexibility. One of the lessons of this crisis is that each of us can make more to adopt the information technology, to shift part of the business on line, and to increase the operational flexibility and efficiency. Putting into practice these lessons is particularly useful in case of the prolongation of the pandemic. The third challenge is maintaining liquidity and solvency of firms. The shock we are suffering found the Albanian business with a high historical level of liquidity; its deposits with banks accounted for around 12% of GDP in the first quarter. In parallel, business access to banking liquid funds, in the form of overdrafts or lines of credit, is at a comparable size with the deposits of the business itself. This liquidity is a reasonable security restrain to risk. Nevertheless, the historical experience shows that liquidity crises frequently are the starting point for complete financial crises. For this reason, I would like to point out that: Business should be prudent in the operational management of liquidity, being based on real plans and by taking measures to handle the contingent or unforeseen needs. Also, banking sector should continue to support the economy with liquid funds, by performing an objective and real assessment of the situation, but without compromising the lending risk criteria. In this regard, the Bank of Albania has undertaken and will undertake all the necessary measures in order the banking sector will have all the sufficient liquidity to support the Albanian economy. The fourth challenge is the maintaining of production capacities of economy. This challenge implies the safeguarding of individual firms' soundness and the functioning of the entire production and trade chain. For this purpose, the Bank of Albania suggests: The business should be careful in fairly sharing the cost of crisis, by offering - wherever possible and on mutual interest - the necessary financial facilities to suppliers or long-term clients. The banking sector should carry out a reassessment of the stability of the borrowers' business model, under the post -Covid reality. Clients facing temporary financial difficulties but with stable business models, should be supported with liquidity and temporary operational easing. Clients facing serious difficulties may be supported through the restructuring of credit, always so far and at the level that the long-term perspective of the business remains solid. On its side, the Bank of Albania will encourage a pro-active approach of the banking sector towards this process, without prejudice to the stability of the sector and transparency of its balance sheets. Lastly, the fifth challenge is the safeguarding of the monetary and financial stability of Albania. In this regard, I would like to underscore that: The Albanian business should show transparent and loyal to the banking sector. This sector should provide its help to face the crisis, but it may not counter alone its financial costs. Also, banking sector should find a fair equilibrium between the support to borrowers in need - in a bilateral long-term interest and benefit - and the safeguarding of its balance sheet soundness. As I already mentioned, the monetary and financial stability is not negotiable to the Bank of Albania. In compliance with our legal mandate it has been and will continue to be the milestone of our polices. Dear guests, At the end of my speech I would like to emphasise that, although the challenges ahead are serious, their successfully countering is within our possibilities, if we all will know to rise to these challenges. I invite you to have an open and fruitful discussion, aiming at identifying a common work agenda for the continuing period. Thank You! [May 26, 2020] Leading Independent Proxy Advisory Firms ISS and Glass Lewis Recommend Western Asset Variable Rate Strategic Fund Inc. Shareholders Vote to Approve New Agreements Between the Fund and its Investment Manager and Subadvisers Western Asset Variable Rate Strategic Fund Inc. (NYSE: GFY) (the "Fund") today announced that Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. ("Glass Lewis"), two of the leading independent proxy advisory firms, recommend that shareholders vote to approve the new agreements between the Fund and its investment manager and subadvisers. With respect to the new management agreement, in their reports dated May 20, 2020, and May 21, 2020, respectively, ISS and Glass Lewis noted1: "A vote FOR this proposal is warranted given that the fee rate shareholders pay will not increase; the investment objective remains unchanged; and the fund will continue to be managed by the same personnel." ISS report dated May 20, 2020 "Shareholders should note that the terms of the new management and subadvisory agreements are substantially identical to the terms of the current agreements, and that there will be no change to the existing management fee structure of each of the Funds as a direct result of these proposals." Glass Lewis report dated May 21, 2020 With respect to the new subadvisory agreement, in their reports dated May 20, 2020, and May 21, 2020, respectively, ISS and Glass Lewis noted1: "A vote FOR this proposal is warranted given that the investment advisory fees paid by the fund will not be affected by implementation of the new sub-advisory agreements; and the financial condition of the sub-advisors and the expertise of their personnel will further benefit shareholders of the fund." ISS report dated May 20, 2020 "Glass Lewis believes that the new investment sub-advisory agreement is in the best interests of shareholders, who should directly benefit from the services and duties of the Adviser." Glass Lewis report dated May 21, 2020 "We are pleased that ISS and Glass Lewis recognize that approval of the new agreements between the Fund and its investment manager and subadvisers is in the best interest of all shareholders," said Jane Trust, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Western Asset Variable Rate Strategic Fund Inc. "The Fund's investment manager and subadvisers have enabled the Fund to outperform2 its benchmark3 and peers4 and increase distributions to shareholders. We encourage shareholders to follow the recommendation of the Fund's Board of Directors, ISS and Glass Lewis by voting "FOR" the new agreements to ensure the Fund continues to operate and deliver the returns they rely on." The Western Asset Variable Rate Strategic Fund Inc. management team has a proven track record of achieving the Fund's objectives, including: Delivering a 1-year annualized distribution 2 of 6.20 % as of April 30, 2020, an increase from 5.78% as of the same period in 2019 of % as of April 30, 2020, an increase from 5.78% as of the same period in 2019 Delivering 5-, 7- and 10-year annualized total returns 2 of 3.79 %, 2.35 % and 4.87 %, respectively, above its benchmark 3 averages of 1.48%, 1.13% and 0.90% over the same time periods of %, % and %, respectively, above its benchmark averages of 1.48%, 1.13% and 0.90% over the same time periods Outperforming2 Lipper Peer Group4 averages across key timeframes, including 2.06% vs. -0.75% on a 3-year basis The Fund's Board of Directors unanimously recommends that shareholders vote on the WHITE Proxy Card "FOR" the approval of the new management agreement for the Fund's manager and the new subadvisory agreement for the Fund's subadvisers. If shareholders do not approve these agreements, the Fund may be forced to liquidate. Liquidation could result in a meaningful loss of value as well as negative tax consequences for shareholders, particularly during this period of significant market volatility. Your Vote Is Important, No Matter How Many or How Few Shares You Own You can vote by Internet, telephone or by signing and dating the WHITE proxy card and mailing it in the envelope provided. If you have any questions about how to vote your shares, or need additional assistance, please contact: INNISFREE Shareholders Call Toll-Free: (877) 750-0625 Banks and Brokers Call: (212) 750-5833 REMEMBER: We urge you NOT to vote using any other colored proxy card as doing so will revoke your vote on the WHITE Proxy Card. About Western Asset Variable Rate Strategic Fund Inc. Western Asset Variable Rate Strategic Fund Inc., a non-diversified closed-end investment management company, is managed by Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Legg Mason, Inc. and is sub-advised by Western Asset Management Company, LLC and Western Asset Management Company Limited, affiliates of the investment manager. An investment in the Fund involves risk, including loss of principal. Investment return and the value of shares will fluctuate. Data and commentary provided in this press release are for informational purposes only. Legg Mason and its affiliates do not engage in selling shares of the Fund. The Fund files its semi-annual and annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "Commission"). These reports are available on the Commission's website at www.sec.gov. For more information about the Fund, please call 1-888-777-0102 or consult the Fund's web site at http://www.lmcef.com. Hard copies of the Fund's complete audited financial statements are available free of charge upon request. Forward Looking Statement Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The information provided is not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results or investment advice. All investments are subject to risk including the possible loss of principal. All benchmark performance reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes. Please note that an investor cannot invest directly in a benchmark. 1 Permission to use quotations neither sought nor obtained. 2 Based on market price for the period ended April 30, 2020. 3 The ICE BofAML USD LIBOR 3-Month Constant Maturity Index is based on the assumed purchase of a synthetic instrument having three months to maturity and with a coupon equal to the closing quote for three-month LIBOR. That issue is sold the following day (priced at a yield equal to the current day closing three-month LIBOR rate) and is rolled into a new three-month instrument. The Index, therefore, will always have a constant maturity equal to exactly three months. 4 The Fund's Lipper peer group refers to the peer group of high-yield, levered closed-end funds as selected by Lipper, an independent nationally recognized provider of investment company information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005823/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Guest Column Shan Pants, Burmese Longyi and Teenagers: Finding the Moral Imagination for Peace in Myanmar Dancers in traditional Shan attire participate in a Shan Thingyan celebration in Yangon in April 2018. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy I have recently read much about federalism in Myanmar. There is of course no shortage of reports about this; after all, since 2015, international donors have assumed that federalism is a key to resolving Myanmars conflicts via the peace process. The donor reports search for federalist traditions in Myanmar, usually focusing on the 1947 Panglong conference at which General Aung San of the soon-to-be central government negotiated with Shan leaders about post-independence governance. Federalism is typically presented as the pragmatic democratic compromise which well-educated donors believe will work in a complicated country like Myanmar. But I wonder if this is really a key any more than the unitary government in Naypyitaw, or even the independence asserted by de facto entities like Wa State, Kawthoolei, Arakan and Kachin. The legitimacy of any system is in fact not a technical question, but is about the morality of who is us and them, as asserted by ethnic armed groups, the Myanmar government and the peoples of Myanmarincluding the teenagers! Who is the us and who is the them matters in governance, more so than a legalistic contract of constitutional federalism. And again, this is fundamentally a moral question reflecting cultural habits, family connections, historical contingency and local traditions. Ironically, I reached this conclusion not through some technical scientific comparison by political scientists from the UK and the US, but after reading a story from Shan teacher and writer Khuensai Jaiyen, who describes his own shifting preferences for Burmese longyi, Shan pants and writing Burmese romance songs as a teenager. He wrote about this in a 2016 essay How I Became Shan. Khuensai remembers that in 1962, General Ne Win took charge of Burma, and soon after implemented his Burmanization campaigns. The campaigns would last decades, during which both federalist and independence dreams became an illegal challenge to military authority. The military in response implemented the harsh Four Cuts policy to starve the Shan and other groups out of their mountain redoubts, where they operated their own independent micro-states. In the test between the unitary Rangoon government, and the independence-seeking micro-states, federalism was seemingly forgotten. The federalism solution seemed to reach a dead end after the Karen National Union (KNU) changed its goal from independence to federalism in 1976, but received no response from Gen. Ne Wins government. But such intractable conclusions in peace negotiations are seen not only in Myanmar. The peace scholar John Paul Lederach emphasizes that peace in such situations requires something more than a repackaging of older failed proposals. He writes that intractable situations require a moral imagination, which emphasizes thinking outside the box. For Myanmars armed groups today, the imagination of that Shan boy Khuensai, growing up in Rangoon and later in Shan States Lashio and Taunggyi in the 1950s and 1960s, is perhaps relevant. Now an elder, Khuensai was a young student in the 1950s and 1960s, attending a Catholic school in Lashio, and later Kambawza School in Taunggyi. Today, he remembers alternating between the Burmese, Shan and English languages. But of the three he remembers preferring Burmese, which was the language of a broader popular culture. He saw Shan as being simply the language of his own elderly grandparents. In the 1950s and 1960s, like other teenagers in Lashio, he preferred to ride his bicycle wearing a longyi, rather than baggy Shan pants, which he feared would easily be tangled in the pedals. In other words, the teenage Khuensai was becoming Burman! Thus, he was horrified in the mid-1960s when a new military appointee assigned Shan States education portfolio, U Tin Ko Ko, insisted that the male pupils wear Shan pants rather than longyi. It seems that 16-year-old Khuensai just wanted to be a Shan who chose to wear longyi, not pants! But then U Tin Ko Ko was replaced, and a new directive came from Gen. Ne Wins new appointee: Shan pants and Shan language were banned in Shan State schools! The full force of Gen. Ne Wins Burmanization campaign came to Shan State, and in the ensuing years all things Shan were forcefully eliminated. The increasing repression was a step too far, and Khuensai remembers becoming Shan in response. He began wearing pants, and the Burmese language in which he once wrote love songs fell into disuse. What was wrong with being Shan, wearing Shan pants, and speaking Shan in Shan State? And thus young Khuensai in 1969 embarked on a decades-long career in rebel-held territory as a teacher, journalist and liaison. Today he is an informal adviser for a Shan peace negotiating team. But the reason Khuensais thoughts about Shan pants and Burmese longyi are interesting today was highlighted for him only in a meeting he had in 1998 with a Tai-Leu representative from the Chinese province of Yunnan whom he met in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Tai-Leu are a major ethnic minority in Yunnan, and speak a Tai language similar to Shan. Yunnans central government had during the previous decades adopted policies encouraging preservation of Tai-Leu language and culture. Indeed, these policies were encouraged and financed by Yunnans government alongside the national Mandarin language curriculum, apparently to the delight of the Tai-Leu parents. Here is how Khuensai remembered the conversation in How I Became Shan. Khuensai: I really envy your situation. Tai-Leu representative: Why? Khuensai: Because the Chinese government is not only allowing you to learn Tai, but also encouraging and supporting it. The same goes for your efforts to preserve and promote your culture. I wish we in Burma are enjoying the same rights. Tai-Leu representative: You may be right. But, on the contrary, we too feel envious of your situation. Khuensai [surprised]: How is that? Tai-Leu representative: Of course, you know the Tai saying: The fish lives when the water is hot. The fish dies when the water is cold. [Nam Hawn Pa Pen, Nam Yen Pa Tai] The Tai-Leu man continued: You Shans are living under suppression, like a fish in hot water. You therefore do everything to survive. So your literature and culture live on. However, we Tai-Leu, bestowed freedom by the Chinese government to preserve, promote and propagate our literature and culture, face a bigger opponentour own youth. Given a choice between Tai and Chinese literatures and cultures, they are not interested in their own heritage anymore. To them, the choice is to go the Chinese way. Had our literature and culture been suppressed and strangled like you are, these young people would have been easier to convince. Policies encouraging Shan culture, language, literature, etc. were unheard of in Gen. Ne Wins Shan State, at least since the departure of U Tin Ko Ko, and the Burmanization programs heated up the water. Thus, Shan youth in 1998 spoke Shan, could read and write Shan, wore Shan clothing, and had the strong and vibrant culture envied by the Tai-Leu representative. They also of course had Shan militaries governing parts of Shan State, which tried to protect the poorly financed Shan schooling from attack by the Tatmadaw, Myanmars military. And herein lies the profoundly moral question that Khuensai now imaginatively asks. What would have happened if Gen. Ne Wins government in Rangoon had adopted Yunnanese-style policies of ethnic accommodation, rather than those of Burmanization and Four Cuts in the 1960s-1990s? Khuensai once spoke Shan with only his grandparents, but if Shan State had been peacefully governed by someone like U Tin Ko Ko after 1970, what language would Khuensai be speaking with his own grandchildren today? And would those Shan grandchildren prefer longyi, or Shan pants? Such questions have little to with the technical aspects of good governance taught by consultancy reports about federalism, and everything to do with dignity and political legitimacy. It also has nothing to do with whether Myanmar should have a unitary or federal government, or even be a series of independent nations. Dignity and legitimacy do not come from the words of a constitution, but the attitude and trust people have for each other, whether or not there is a larger political entity. In telling the story of his Shan pants, Khuensai is in effect challenging readers to reframe a moral question about what is at the heart of both Shan and Myanmar identity. In this context the question becomes about what type of policies give legitimacy and dignity to the people of Shan State, rather than what flavor of governance is preferred by political scientists from Oxford or Harvard. What is more, judging from Khuensais story, the response to a given policy is likely to change across time, as it did for the Tai-Leu from Yunnan whose youth became Chinese, and just as it did for Khuensai, who, as he notes, himself became more Shan because of Gen. Ne Wins Burmanization policies. This gets back to Lederachs point about the moral imagination. What does thinking outside the box really mean? Maybe a now elderly Shan teachers question about how government policy made him Shan 50 years after the fact is a good place to start. Evaluating how the youthful Khuensai became Shan despite writing Burmese love songs is at least as insightful as the latest Yangon consultancy reports. So what questions are really relevant to the boys and girls living in Yangon, Mandalay, Lashio, Mong La, Kawthoolei, Sittwe and Mytikyina today? Like the youthful Khuensai, they seek identities in which they can find dignity locally, nationally and internationally. The central question is not whether you choose one or the other governance system off the grocery store shelf (Would you like unitary government, federalism or independence?). Rather, peace involves listening to what young and old are thinking and doing, and permitting them the peace and freedom to manage changing situations, just as U Tin Ko Ko proposed in Shan State in the 1960s, and the Chinese apparently did in Yunnan for the Tai-Leu in recent decades. Tony Waters is director of the Institute of Religion, Culture and Peace at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He works with Burmese, Karen and other students in the universitys PhD program in Peacebuilding. He is also a professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico, and author of academic books and articles. He can be reached at [email protected]. You may also like these stories: Personal Histories Behind the Headlines of Modern Myanmar COVID-19 and the Unfinished Agenda of Funding Disease Control in SE Asia As the coronavirus pandemic appears to be subsiding in China, it's becoming clear that its targets for the phase one trade deal with the U.S. are unrealistic and there is so far no sign of a plan for renegotiation. What's happening: White House National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said Thursday the trade deal was "intact, and China has every intent of implementing it." Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Friday that Beijing plans to "work with the United States to implement the phase one China-U.S. economic and trade agreement." Background: China agreed to buy $200 billion more in U.S. goods over the next two years than it bought in 2017. The deal paused further escalation in tariffs and helped spur bullish sentiment (even though it did not remove many of the already implemented tariffs). Yes, but: While China has significantly stepped up its purchases of U.S. agriculture products so far this year, including corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton, it is far from the pace necessary to meet targets for purchases overall. Thanks in large part to the pandemic shuttering much of its economy for two months, Chinese purchases of U.S. goods are down 23.5% from 2019's levels and China was $21.2 billion behind schedule for the first three months of the year, according to an analysis earlier this month from Panjiva, which is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. The biggest shortfall is in purchases of U.S. energy products, particularly liquefied natural gas, as energy demand has cratered and prices have dropped. By the numbers: Given the lull in imports during the JanuaryMarch period, China would need to buy an "impossible" $2.9 billion of energy per month from April to December, Jason Bordoff, a former senior director at the U.S. National Security Council, writes in Foreign Policy. "[A]t $30 per barrel (the U.S. governments projected average price for 2020), thats equivalent to about 3 million barrels of oil per day, or the total of all U.S. daily crude exports in 2019." "That China would buy every last drop of exported U.S. oil is unrealistic enough but today, that oil is not even available, as U.S. oil exports are projected to fall this year along with the collapse in U.S. shale output, which is projected to drop by roughly one-third over the next year." One more thing: China also is facing renewed street protests in Hong Kong after passing a controversial national security law that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called a death knell for Hong Kong's autonomy. White House National Security Advisor Robert OBrien said the U.S. is likely to impose sanctions on China if the law is passed. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that some in the U.S. were pushing relations toward a "new Cold War." Go deeper: Beijing says U.S. should give up "wishful thinking" of changing China Comedian Michael Hing is back for a third season of Where Are You Really From? for SBS. Hing, a fifth-generation Australian, playfully tackles the question that has stalked Australian migrant families for generations, with stories of migrant communities that have fundamentally changed the towns and cities that they call home. Over four episodes, he learns why these families came, why they stayed, what theyve learnt and contributed and how they answer that big question. The thing about a question like Where Are You Really From? if we ask it the right way, it gives us a chance to celebrate who we are and how we got here, he said. This season takes in everything from Kung Fu battles and crocodile encounters to confronting stories of extraordinary hardship and sacrifice. The series is produced by The Feed. Michael starts his journey in Brisbane, home to one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the country, who survived the trauma of the Vietnam war to thrive in the citys south western suburbs. Their exodus from Vietnam may have coined the term boat people, but more than 40 years later theyve reclaimed it as a reminder of their strength, resilience and gratitude to a country that took them in when they had nowhere else to go. As My-Linh Do, who fled Vietnam as an unaccompanied 12-year-old girl, puts it, This is me, this is home. Im an Australian boat person and Im actually proud of it. In episode two, Michael learns the 100-year Greek history of Darwin, a community that was wiped out by economic ruin and devastating natural disasters, only to rebuild stronger and more dedicated to a city that became a part of their identity. In the words of the Greek Crocodile Dundee George Haritos, I dont feel Greek Im not a Territorian I am Darwin! In Wollongong, New South Wales, Michael unearths the Serbian history of a steel city. Generations of migrants from the former Yugoslavia have made a home in this picturesque seaside destination. From steel working priests to Balkans war survivors, this is a community constantly striving to balance its complicated cultural history with their Australian future. Zeljka Cankovic, a former refugee who came to Wollongong as a teenager, tells Michael, My kids know who they are. Even at the times when it was not easy to say who you are, we were still not hiding who we were. Im proud of being both Australian and Serbian. The journey ends in Shepparton, a city with four mosques, 30 different nationalities and an Islamic history that stretches back over a century. What makes this Victorian city a cosmopolitan hub is summed up by Dinny Adem, the son of an Albanian Muslim migrant who went on to become Mayor of Shepparton, You shouldnt tolerate your neighbour, you should celebrate them. These stories remind us of the richness of Australias regional and suburban communities and the strength and fortitude of the people that now call them home. The series will also be subtitled in Simplified Chinese and will be added to the subtitled collection on SBS On Demand, available immediately following its premiere on SBS, along with Season 1 & 2. The Chinese and Arabic collections on SBS On Demand feature a range of dramas, documentaries and current affairs programs to enable growing multicultural communities in Australia to engage with local and international stories in their first language. 9:30pm on Tuesday June 23 on SBS. By Express News Service Bommali man Sonu Sood might have scared the hell out of us in Anushka Shettys Arundhati over a decade ago, but today, this much-in-demand Tollywood villain is winning our hearts by going out of his way to arrange buses for migrant workers. Earlier in April, actor Sonu Sood offered his 24-room Juhu hotel for medical front liners in Mumbai. He also launched Shakti Annadanam, a food distribution drive to feed more than 45,000 people on a daily basis. The campaign was aimed at migrant labourers stranded in the city, as well as essential service workers in need of food and ration. To sustain the initiative, Sonu launched a crowdfunding campaign with restaurateur Neeti Goel. We started with the idea of feeding 500-700 workers, Sonu shared, but as word spread, we started getting calls from a lot of people. At present, we have a team of 140 people delivering food to all areas. Additionally, Sonu is providing meal kits to over 25,000 migrant workers during Ramzan. He also recently arranged buses for migrant workers to travel back to their homes in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. My heart pains to see these migrants staying away from their homes walking on streets, Sonu said. I will continue sending migrants home until the last migrant reunites with his family and loved ones. Earlier, he had offered his Mumbai hotel as a stay facility for healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic. On the film front, Sonu was last seen in the Telugu releases Sita and Abhinetri 2. His upcoming Bollywood film is Prithviraj, co-starring Akshay Kumar. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) The Interior Department on Tuesday warned local officials it will issue show cause orders against government units that will refuse to accept returning overseas Filipino workers in their respective areas. Speaking to CNN Philippines, DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing said all local governments have "no reason" to turn away returning workers, as they have already undergone the mandatory health protocols such as COVID-19 testing and quarantine. "They have no reason not to accept the OFWs. Otherwise, we will send them a show cause order why they are not abiding or following the directive of the national government vis a vis the OFWs' return," Densing said in an interview with The Source. "Based on our advisory, all LGUs should accept the OFWs. Lahat po sila (all OFWs) have the certifications of the 14-day quarantine, all of them also have the certifications that they have undertaken RT-PCR tests and they have negative results. So walang dahilan ang mga LGUs para hindi tanggapin ang mga OFWs (There's no reason for the LGUs not to accept the OFWs)," he added. Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said separately that he himself will run after LGUs that would impose tight protocols for the entry of the returning workers. "Sa mga LGUs na masyadong mahigpit, at lumalabag sa ating panuntunan, I am warning you, stop niyo 'yan. Kasi hindi pwedeng sabihin niyo na zero COVID kami kaya hindi kami tatanggap ng OFW," Ano said in the virtual Laging Handa media briefing later in the day. [Translation: For our LGUs that are too strict and not abiding by our rules, I am warning you, stop that. You can't say that you have zero COVID cases, that's why you wouldn't want to accept the OFWs.] "I myself will make sure na hahabulin ko kayo, sapagkat hindi 'yan in accordance sa ating Bayanihan Act at sa pinag-uutos ng Pangulo." [Translation: I myself will make sure to run after you, because that is not in accordance with our Bayanihan (to Heal as One) Act and our President's directive.] The agency will meanwhile leave it up to the respective local governments to implement additional health protocols such as another round of quarantine should it be deemed necessary, according to Densing. Local governments not accepting? President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered agencies to speed up the release of COVID-19 test results of over 24,000 returning OFWs stuck in quarantine facilities. In his public address on Monday evening, Duterte reiterated his appeal for the regional governments to welcome the residents, claiming that some units have been turning down the OFWs' return to their hometowns. "They (OFWs) are stranded in the sense that they are not allowed or they cannot go home because the local governments are not accepting them," Duterte said. While the President acknowledged how some officials wanted to "protect their turf", he said it is "very cruel" for them to deny the move amid the crisis. It is the constitutional right of people to travel and go home. Do not impede it. Do not obstruct the movement of people because you run the risk of getting sued criminally, Duterte said, noting he has ordered the use of all government-owned air, water, and land modes of transportation to bring home the OFWs. Some provincial governors earlier aired their concerns about the possible surge in coronavirus cases in their localities from migrants who may be infected by the infectious disease. But officials from the national government have assured that the returning OFWs by the time they reach their regions would already be cleared from the quarantine and testing measures. The Philippines expects to welcome around 60,000 OFWs in next two months, while over 300,000 are estimated to return for the rest of the year. The Labor Department said officials are targeting to send home all OFWs who have tested negative and completed their quarantine requirements by Wednesday. Three brothers in Bolivia were hospitalised after letting a Black Widow spider bite them because they wanted to be Spider-Man. The boys, aged 8, 10, and 12, were herding goats in the town of Chayanta, in the Andean region of Potosi when they came across the spider. Hoping to turn into their comic book hero, they approached the Black Widow and prodded it with a stick on May 14, until it bit each of them in turn, epidemiology chief at the Bolivian Ministry of health, Virgilio Pietro, told local outlet Telemundo. The boys, aged 8, 10, and 12, approached the Black Widow and prodded it with a stick on May 14 (Stock image) The boys started experiencing symptoms within a few minutes and their concerned mother rushed them to a local health center where their conditions continued to worsen and they were taken to a hospital in Llallagua. The next day they were transferred to the Children's Hospital in La Paz, where they were admitted with fever, tremours, sweating and muscular pain, Pietro said. The boys were successfully treated at the hospital and were able to be discharged a week later. Pietro said the incident should be taken as a warning that 'for children everything is real, movies are real'. The boys were hoping to turn into their comic book hero, Spider-Man. Pietro said the incident should be taken as a warning that 'for children everything is real, movies are real' A bite from a Black Widow spider can cause varying symptoms and can prove fatal to young children. Their venom affects the nervous system and can immediately cause pain, burning and swelling, as well as longer-term symptoms such as stiff and sore muscles, nausea, abdominal pain, swollen eyelids and weakness or tremours. The spiders are native to North America, South America, and southern Europe. They are also found in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. PHILIPSBURG:--- Year eight indeed shaped up to be a great one for the regions largest cancer fundraiser across the English and Dutch Caribbean CIBC FirstCaribbeans Walk for the Cure. Partnership with the Positive Foundation and Adtalem Global Education on St. Maarten heightened the awareness, raising a grand total of USD $16,000 for the benefit of the Positive Foundation. The donation supports the foundations endeavors which are geared towards stimulating, educating and activating the consciousness of the community on aspects of self-responsibility towards overall health improvement, and in particular, towards breast cancer. Since its inauguration in 1998, the Foundation has organized month-long breast cancer campaigns every October. The campaigns include public service announcements, free clinical breast examination screens, demonstration sessions on breast self-examination and the distribution of educational literature. Activities also include their popular Pink, Phit, Phabulous walk/run which, last October was joined with the banks Walk for the Cure, making for St. Maartens largest walk. The Positive Foundation broadened its scope as of recent, by also joining in the awareness of prostate cancer. Last September, Michael Ferrier, prostate cancer survivor, was the first to share his story as part of the Hour of Hope series (stories by cancer survivors, patients and caregivers) launched by CIBC FirstCaribbean in collaboration with the Positive and the Elektralytes Foundations. The interactive and intimate sessions were held throughout September, (prostate cancer awareness month), and into October (breast cancer awareness month), as part of the banks 2019 Walk for the Cure activities and commitment to the cause. Such events are made possible through the innovative and unswerving efforts of the banks Walk Managers and in-house planning committees. This, together with the efforts of regional partners such as Adtalem Global Education, that joined as a regional sponsor last year, has propelled the fundraising from a modest USD$30 000 at the inception of the walk eight years to over USD$2.2 million over the past eight years. Adtalem Global Education operates three higher education institutions in the region. The group took part in the walks in St. Maarten, Barbados and St. Kitts, where its campuses are located. CIBC FirstCaribbean was enthusiastic in welcoming them as one of its regional sponsors, given their established track record of engaging with communities where their campuses are located and impacting them for the better. Adtalem is a mission-driven, leading workforce solutions provider and the parent company of Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados, American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten and Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine in St Kitts. Plans for Walk for the Cure 2020 have already started and with the impact of Covid-19 across the region, the walk may take a different format this year. Donna's Italian brand being revived in Troy Donnas Italian, a well-liked but short-lived restaurant that was the only Clark House Hospitality venture not located in downtown Troy, is being revived as a brand with a menu to be available via takeout and delivery starting Monday from the kitchen at Clark Houses Little Pecks cafe. Donnas fare will be available for pickup or delivery every evening. Owner Vic Christopher said it will start with six types of pizza and a small selection of pasta dishes, including chicken Parm and shrimp scampi. Donnas, located in the former home of Minissales Wine Cellar Cafe at 1 14th St. in Troy, closed in May 2017 just shy of its sixth-month anniversary. The brand has returned on occasional pop-up incarnations at Clark House Hospitalitys flagship restaurant, Pecks Arcade, and the fare was available for private events. Bringing Donnas back is in line with Christophers positioning of the company for a slow and uncertain return to table-service dining. Until mid-June, when restaurants are likely to be allowed to again welcome dine-in guests, Clark House will be making food and drinks for its restaurant brands Donnas, Little Pecks, Pecks Arcade and the the Lucas Confectionery wine bar available for pickup or delivery from its Little Pecks kitchen, which has been expanded and had a state-of-the-art pizza oven installed. After in-house service starts again, customers will be encouraged to order in advance online from any of the menus, pick the food up on arrival and choose where to sit within the expansive, conjoined Clark House spaces; coming this summer, parties of up to five may also reserve a small, one-table private room from among those being built on the upper floors. Christopher doesnt foresee a return to the polished, elevated service that helped define a meal at Pecks Arcade until after it is deemed safe for staff no longer to wear masks; he believes masked servers will not appeal to diners, calling it creepy and stupid. Clark House-brand food will also continue to be available via its own delivery staff. Little Pecks is at 211 Broadway. Blue Ribbon reopens in Schenectady Blue Ribbon Family Restaurant & Bakery, a Schenectady dining destination since 1977, reopens today after having been closed since March 16, when Gov. Cuomo banned restaurants from offering table service due the coronavirus pandemic. The takeout menu offers apps, salads, comfort-food meals chicken, meatloaf, fish-n-chips, sirloin, pasta available as single servings ($11 to $18) or family packages to feed four to five ($45 to $62) and lunch options ($8 to $12), plus a limited selection of Blue Ribbons beloved desserts. Phone preorders are required; cash or card payments available in person. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Call 518-393-2600. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. Blue Ribbon is at 1801 State St., Schenectady. Villa di Como opens in Albany Ali Celik, who ran Mercatos in Delmar for 13 years, closing it to open 288 Wine & Tap on Albanys Lark Street 11 months ago, redeveloped the adjoining building into Villa di Como Ristorante & Pizzeria. Open since late April, the new places menu, at villadicomo.com, offers 17 kinds of pizza, all in 12-inch sizes, and a small selection of Italian food and drinks from the menu of 288 Wine & Tap, which remains closed. Order by 3 p.m. for pickup from 5 to 7 p.m. daily. Text 518-475-7777 to order. Villa di Como is at 286 Lark. Lobsterpalooza at Wishing Well on Friday The Wishing Well restaurant in Wilton is turning its spring Lobsterpalooza promotion into a takeout event this year, for obvious reasons. The traditional lobster bake clam chowder, steamed lobster, coleslaw, potatoes, corn costs $39 and will be available for pickup from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday. Call 518-584-7640 or order online by Thursday. The Wishing Well is at 745 Saratoga Road/Route 9. Officially the green light for the Austrian Grand Prix has not yet been given, but that seems to be a matter of time. All parties want to organize the race in June and it is only waiting for approval from the government. The plans are therefore currently at the Ministry of Health in Austria. The plan is to organize two races in Austria. The first has to take place in the weekend of the 5th of July and the following week on July 12th the second race will follow. The races have to take place without an audience and also the teams will come with much less staff. Race without an audience ''We've been sent the concept by the organisation and we're trying to come up with an answer as soon as possible'', says health minister Rudolf Anschober to ORF. It would be a double race on the Red Bull Ring, where Max Verstappen won the last two years. Although according to the Austrian government 500 people are welcome at events, the organization wants a race in Spielberg without an audience. There is now a proposal for a maximum of 2,000 people present at the Grand Prix. This concerns the organization itself, teams, the television broadcasters and the accompanying Marshalls. Read more OFFICIAL: Aston Martin appoints new CEO and chooses head of Mercedes Starting car cold weather winter storm Experts say it's not a good idea to warm up your car in winter. Here's why. By Express News Service As everyone is pondering the state of the upcoming Malayalam releases and whether they will be released theatrically or on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, a few filmmakers are coming forward with their stand on the issue. The makers of Mammoottys upcoming political thriller One has issued a statement with regard to the same. We would like to bring it to your kind attention that we are not planning to release our movie One through OTT platforms. We are looking at a theatrical release of One once the pandemic situation settles down and we get back to normalcy. Taking a moment to express our gratitude and respect to everyone in the front line relentlessly working to tackle the existing challenges. Until then, lets stay united in our distances, said the One team in an official statement. Also starring Murali Gopi, Joju George, Nimisha Sajayam and Mathew Thomas in pivotal roles, One is directed by Santosh Vishwanath from a script by Bobby-Sanjay (Uyare, Mumbai Police). Sreelakshmi R is backing the film under the banner of Ichais Productions. The team will be revealing the theatrical release date once the pandemic situation has improved in Kerala. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pushed ahead of Warren Buffett to become America's third wealthiest man. CEO Zuckerberg has seen his worth hit $80 billion - from $54.7 billion - after stock in the social media giant soared by by nearly 48 per cent over a two month period between March and May. That puts him ahead of billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet, who has seen his net worth rise by 0.8 per cent, a report released last week says. Buffett also gave charities $15 billion between 2014 and 2018; Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan gave $1 billion. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stays the richest after his net worth jumped from $113 billion to $147.6 billion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates stays in second place. A devastating jobs report released earlier this month revealed 20.5 million jobs were lost nationwide and the unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent in April - the highest rate since the Great Depression. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, pictured with wife Priscilla Chan, has seen his worth hit $80b Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet has seen his net worth rise by 0.8 per cent Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, pictured with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, stays the richest after his net worth jumped from $113 billion to $147.6 billion America's wealthiest and their worth 1. Jeff Bezos: $147.6 billion as of May 19; $113b as of March 18 2. Bill Gates: $106 billion as of May 19; $98b as of March 18 3. Mark Zuckerberg: $80 billion as of May 19; $54.7b as of March 18 4. Warren Buffett: $68.1 billion as of May 19; $67.5b as of March 18 5. Larry Ellison: $66 billion as of May 19; $59b as of March 18 Source: The Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies' Program for Inequality Advertisement But the report on the richest found that the top five U.S. billionaires saw their wealth grow by a total of $75.5 billion, or 19 per cent. Data taken from mid-March to mid-May shows that the country's wealthiest have profited from the health crisis, becoming $484 billion richer. The report, carried out by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies' Program for Inequality, used Forbes data for over 600 billionaires in America. Elon Musk had among the largest percentage gain of billionaires during the two months, after his net worth jumped by 48 per cent in the two months to $36 billion. Between March 18 and May 19, the total net worth of the 600-plus U.S. billionaires rose from $2.948 trillion to $3.382 trillion. In March, there were 614 billionaires on the Forbes list. There are 630 two months later, including newcomer Kanye West at $1.3 billion, the report found. The increase in wealth for America's billionaires highlights how the coronavirus has profited big, largely tech-based companies while the rest of the economy has struggled. Zuckerberg said last week last week Facebook will permanently embrace remote work even after coronavirus lockdowns ease. Facebook, which has nearly 45,000 employees, is looking five to 10 years down the line as it plans for more remote work, even when COVID-19 is no longer a threat that requires most of its employees to work from home. Since the coronavirus has upended work and office life, even companies with fewer resources and slower-moving cultures are likely to follow. Zuckerberg said a Facebook employee survey found that about 20 per cent of workers were 'extremely or very interested' in moving to full-time remote work after virus-related restrictions are lifted. Another 20 per cent were 'somewhat' interested and the largest group wanted flexibility, with some remote and some in-office work. Eventually, Zuckerberg said, as many as half of Facebook's workers could be working remotely. But he cautioned that this is years, perhaps even a decade, away. A new 'Mutual Commitment Membership Plan' at Congregation Or Shalom in Vernon Hills, IL has been introduced. VERNON HILLS, IL / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Congregation Or Shalom in Vernon Hills, IL has implemented a new Mutual Commitment Membership Plan that recognizes the varying household incomes of families in the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago. This new membership dues plan was put forward by Joel Bernheim, Congregation Or Shalom Treasurer, and supported by the efforts of Board President Jeff Kruger, the Membership Committee led by Charlie Silverberg, Finance Committee led by Jerry Goldstein, the Executive Board, Executive Director Lora Zygman and Rabbi Ari Margolis. Per Rabbi Ari Margolis: 'Or Shalom's leadership team has been exploring ways to align congregational membership with the values that have made us a people, both in the time of our Torah and in our community today. Rather than using a traditional model of collecting fixed dues based on categories of membership, we are excited to open a community-wide dialogue about a more inclusive approach, a Mutual Commitment.' Along with 55 other congregations across the country, Or Shalom has adopted a membership commitment plan that will enable their congregation to flourish. According to Rabbi David Holtz of Temple Beth Abraham, the dues plan for his synagogue has been a success; saying that even though some in his 400-member congregation are giving less, "others have increased their pledge and we're going to break even this year." Additionally, the new dues plan is based upon self-evaluated household finances. Members would assess their own household finances and contribute annual membership dues accordingly. According to Mr. Bernheim, 'We will never ask for income verification - or even about income at all. The relationship between Or Shalom and its current or future membership is based upon mutual trust.' Or Shalom is also implementing free dues and school tuition at the pre-K, first and second grade levels for the first year of a new family membership. Bernheim explains, 'We want to reinvigorate our existing membership by taking some of the financial strain off our members' shoulders, but we also want to encourage new membership among young families. We don't want the burden of heavy dues or tuition keeping families away.' When putting together this new membership dues plan, Or Shalom leadership considered what has been successful for other congregations as well as what that data was telling them. In a URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) survey conducted on synagogues who have deployed this model previously, they learned that congregations are almost uniformly pleased with this membership dues model and no congregation reported an interest in returning to a traditional dues model. One of the primary reasons many synagogues have implemented this dues plan is that they didn't want to have potential members feel that there is a dollar sign hanging over their head when they considered the possibility of joining a synagogue. "The dues system has fallen out of alignment with the zeitgeist," said Rabbi Dan Judson, an expert on the history of financing American synagogues who teaches at Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Massachusetts. "People want to feel that whatever they want to give to a religious community should be valued as a gift," he said. "They don't want to feel like they're giving money and still it's not good enough." Bernheim acknowledges that many religious institutions are experiencing a decrease in membership as families must prioritize what they can afford. We are suffering the effects of growing secularization; declining affection for institutions; a dispersal of Jewish philanthropy; and an end to the era in which membership in a congregation was a social obligation. In the words of Or Shalom Rabbi Ari Margolis; 'Together, we will achieve our goals by taking shared responsibility. The Or Shalom leadership is confident that each member will step up, in mutual commitment, to keep this community strong and accessible for generations to come. We are not just a synagogue. We are an organic, ever-changing spiritual community committed to a greater Jewish World. We are ruach, spirit, we are light, and we are the future. In this holy space, we commit ourselves to ensuring that everyone has a place to gather. We commit ourselves to learning with others who share our faith. We commit ourselves to lifting one another.' If you would like more information on membership at Congregation Or Shalom, then please call their administrative office at 847-362-1948 or email orshalom@orshalomlc.org Joel Bernheim T: 847-708-1669 Location: Vernon Hills, IL SOURCE: Joel Bernheim View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591175/Joel-Bernheim-Advocates-a-New-Membership-Commitment-Plan-at-or-Shalom Cyclone Amphan shows Bangladesh the cost of delaying a $38 billion delta management plan by ARUN DEVNATH May 26,2020 | Source: The Print Mizanur Rahman recalls the last time a major tropical storm hit Bangladesh, when Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people in 2007. In the aftermath of the destruction, he watched the dead body of a woman being washed ashore by the tide. That image doesnt go away. It keeps coming back, Rahman, a bungalow caretaker, said in the coastal town of Patuakali in Bangladeshs huge river delta. The district was devastated by the 2007 storm and has been hit by a series of cyclones since, the latest being Amphan, which tore into the region last week, killing about 100 people in Bangladesh and India and causing more than $13 billion in damage. In an effort to strengthen its climate resilience, the Bangladesh government in 2018 approved Delta Plan 2100, an eight-decade program combining water and land management and development. The first phase requires about $38 billion by 2030 to implement 80 projects, including 65 tied to infrastructure. Raising that money was never going to be easy, but now the program to protect the 37 million people who live in the delta is in limbo hit first by the coronavirus and then by the damage from Amphan. Bangladesh evacuated 2.4 million people from coastal districts, State Minister for Disaster Management Enamur Rahman said in Dhaka on May 19, the day before the storm hit. Fundraising is a big challenge, said Shamsul Alam, a senior secretary of the Bangladesh Planning Commission and lead author of the Delta Plan. The coronavirus came as a huge, sudden shock. We have to readjust in the short run maybe for three to four budgets. We have to think carefully how we can adjust to the new situation. If nothing is done by 2050, climate change could make another 14% of the country extremely vulnerable to floods and displace some 35 million people from the coastal districts. The combined effects of climate change could cost the country as much as 2% of gross domestic product per year. A Dutch consortium led by consultancy Twynstra helped develop the Delta Plan, most of which is in the worlds most-populated river delta, where the waters of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna reach the Bay of Bengal. Almost a third of the first-phase budget is earmarked for 23 coastal projects to prevent flooding, including land reclamation and building islands and polders. Bangladesh, a nation of more than 160 million people, currently invests 0.8% of GDP in water-related projects and would have to raise that to about 2.5% by 2030 to implement the projects with minimum financing, Alam said. The coronavirus is one truth were facing now and climate change is another, he said. We need to handle these two issues in a combined way. We will emphasize our health services and go with universal health coverage, and at the same time, we need safe drinking water for health and good sanitation. These issues are interrelated. The country has more than 35,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and already borrowed $950 million from lenders, including $600 million from the Asian Development Bank, to tackle the virus. Bangladesh increased its social protection and economic stimulus package to 1 trillion taka, or 3.6% of the countrys GDP. 2020 Printline Media Pvt Ltd Theme(s): Others. The trailer of the third season of German show Dark has been released by Netflix. The show will be available on the streaming platform on June 27, which is also mentioned as the Day of the apocalypse in the show. The 1 minute and 19 seconds long clip also has the iconic dialogue, The end is the beginning and the beginning is the end. The teaser ends with the line, The Last Cycle Begins and The Last Cycle Ends. Till now, the trailer has been viewed more than 2.5 lakh times and has been liked by over 31,000 users. The Netflix Indias Twitter handle too shared the trailer of Dark. The end is the beginning. Tick, tock. Tock, tick, read the caption of the post. The end is the beginning. Tick, tock. Tock, tick. pic.twitter.com/h8y4ECUoz3 Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) May 26, 2020 In another tweet, Netflix has nudged Darks fans by sharing a glimpse from the previous season wherein the date of release of Season 3 was revealed. In the photo, one can see June 27, 2020. Beginning of the last cycle written in German on a paper. The graphic has been captioned, Still thinking about how DARK announced the date for Season 3 in Season 2 itself. Still thinking about how DARK announced the date for season 3 in season 2 itself. pic.twitter.com/BZEkid77OC Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) May 26, 2020 The German science-fiction thriller series has been co-created Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. The series made its debut on Netflix in December 2017 and its second season was released June 21, 2019. Follow @News18Movies for more Dubbing as "absolutely absurd" and "unfortunate" Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's remarks that states should seek his government's permission to hire workers from his state, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said people of UP are not his "personal property". Adityanath on Sunday said other states will have to seek his government's permission before hiring workers from his state, comments which evoked sharp reactions from the Congress leaders. "It is very unfortunate that the UP chief minister views India in such a way. These people are not his personal property, they are not the personal property of UP, these people are Indian citizens and they have the right to decide what they want to do and they have the right to live the life, they want to live," Gandhi said at a virtual press conference. Asserting it was the job of the leaders to support these workers and to fulfil their dreams, Gandhi said,"It is not our job to say that you belong to me, and you cannot go and work in Maharashtra, it is an absolutely absurd position." "I think it is unfortunate. I think, people are first Indian and then they belong to their states", he said, adding it was up to the people of India and the people of UP to decide where they want to work and it was not the chief minister's decision. He said if a citizen of UP wants to go and fulfil his dreams in Maharashtra or in Delhi or in Karnataka or anywhere else, he should have the right to do so. Upset that migrant labourers were "not properly taken care of" by various states in the wake of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, Adityanath had said, "These workers are our biggest resource and will give them employment in Uttar Pradesh as state government is going to set up a commission for their employment." "They are our people... and if some states want them back, they have to seek permission from the state government," Adityanath had said. As US workers began returning to their jobs at major auto assembly plants amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, many are speaking out over the dangers posed by the premature return to work. In the last week alone, cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at several auto plants, including one at Ford Dearborn Truck, two at Ford Chicago Assembly, two at the General Motors Lockport, New York components plant, one at Toyota Georgetown, Kentucky assembly and one at Lear Seating in Hammond, Indiana. These are in addition to other unconfirmed reports of cases on Facebook at Fiat Chrysler facilities. Workers expressed skepticism over the screening procedures being implemented by the auto companies in collaboration with the United Auto Workers and explained how economic blackmail is being used to force workers back into the plants. These conditions underscore the importance of the call by the Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter for the building of rank-and-file workplace safety committees independent of the UAW to protect workers on the job. These committees, democratically elected and controlled by workers, should implement such measures as full testing, limits on line speed, full access to sickness pay and universal access to information. Workers assemble Ford trucks at the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, KY (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) Over the weekend the Autoworker Newsletter reached out to autoworkers in the Midwest to discuss their experiences. An autoworker who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution said, Its crazy. I called to find out what the stipulations are for someone getting sick, and they put me out without pay for 72 hours. They said I shouldnt have been asking, that I was probably sick. When we do huddle-ups at the start of the shift they said that if you have muscle aches, fever, sore throat, coughing, to let your supervisor know. They said I was poking around when I asked what symptoms qualify. I told my committee person that I felt as though Im being punished because I asked a question. I feel like there could be infections, this seems like some hidden lawsuit in here. It felt like theyre hiding something, that this is bigger than me. I dont like the reopening plans, I dont think its safe. Trump knows its not safe to return back to work. There are no confirmed cases at my plant that I know of, but they might not be telling us everything. They say people who were in quarantine were all cleared, no one was sick. A lot of people are taking the layoff pay of $260/week. If everyones there, its probably 400 people including first and second shift. How many people will actually get sick here before they do something? We should have access to information about if a person is sick or not, because we could have had contact with that person. Theyre making sure we dont ask questions. FCA Belvidere Assembly A worker from FCA Belvidere Assembly in northern Illinois said, When we go back to work, the email I received said theyre going to bring back one shift for the first two weeks and then play it by ear. There are a lot of people that are vulnerable. People have been through cancer fights, trying to stay alive, diabetes, no spleens. Theres no air conditioning, no fans. I heard there would be goggles and shields, plus facemasks. There will be people not standing by the end of a shift. Theyre talking about separation at break areas, and at your workstations. We all work pretty damn close, so I dont see how this is going to work. People are less than six feet apart from each other. FCA Mopar A worker at a Detroit area MOPAR parts distribution facility said, We have already lost three people at our plant. This can be stressful and overwhelming. Every day last week I went home with a headache. I think it is from breathing in that mask all day. The safety precautions are all fake. They dont want to look at the truth. They only want to look at things that will cause the business to grow. If I died tomorrow, they would just replace me. You have to wear gloves, facemasks and safety glasses 100 percent of the time you are in there. If you know anything about these plants, they get extremely hot and we are going into summer season. They say they care, but if they really cared we wouldnt be here. They basically care about their bottom dollar. The worker described the screening procedures being implemented by management. They have an app where you have to answer questions before you go into the building. If you answer yes to any of them you have to quarantine for 14 days. The problem is that there is no proof you are not ill. They have questions like have you been outside of the US via airplane. If you answer yes they quarantine you. But they dont have it set up where you get paid. You have to file for sickness and accident, which can take weeks. The worker explained how the auto companies were using the federal unemployment supplement to pad their own profits. Because the federal government was giving $600 additional unemployment benefits that kicked out our SUB pay. They said they accidentally gave us our pay, so now we have to pay it back. You know they got a federal bailout. They are double dipping. Not only are they getting money from the government, they are making us pay back the money they agreed to pay us if we went on layoff. FCA Sterling Heights Assembly I work on the line crew where there is no way to social distance. We are right up under each other. It takes two of us to do the job that I do. I do not feel safe going back. I dont feel comfortable being up under people and we cannot be six feet apart. I also have a child who is disabled. So, I have more than myself to think about. We know that this can kill children, too. Remember the five-year-old that died; her parents were first responders. Our jobs are not essential. Making cars is not essential. They have inventory if they want to sell cars. We do not have to go back yet. This is not a game that I want to play with my life. History is going to repeat itself if we get this wrong. Remember 1918 and the flu pandemic. I know that part of flattening the curve is the social distancing. Its not just using a mask. Thats only half of the equation to cover up coughs and sneezes and particles that come out. On certain jobs because it is so loud we have to shout and particles will come out. So the social distancing is as important as having a mask that is just half of the equation. Its also hot on the floor so we are working in masks where it is already hot before using the mask, and much hotter after having one on. Another factor is people having underlying conditions such as asthma, or they are a smoker. Someone I know who has already started told me that some people are already putting holes in their masks because they are having trouble breathing; someone takes it off and they infect another person. FCA Tipton transmission A worker at the FCA Tipton plant outside Kokomo, Indiana said, Thousands more will be lost especially the way its set up at the Tipton transmission plant. Look back at everything that has happened and everything thats been done to the UAW workers, and now everyone who stole our union dues, and it was in the millions and millions, is not even being punished. If you or I did that we would be sent away period. As far as COVID-19 goes, this company and the corporate union doesnt give a damn about any of us workers. They dont step a foot in any plant, but it seems like we raise hell and stand up for whats right and we still get run over, lied to on a regular basis. There have been no changes since everyone got arrested for stealing and embezzling millions. Rory Gamble is a damn joke and we will continue to be done dirty. We have nobody that can or will do anything about it or help the workers directly on the floor. GMCH Grand Rapids I dont agree with it at all. They told me I could take 30 days off, but it would be without pay. My unemployment just stopped, Ive gone through all my funds. Im out there, and at their mercy. I applied for unemployment and got it for last month and the first part of this month, and for the end of May I havent gotten anything. You cant talk with unemployment, its impossible. I dont have a choice but to go back to work. I dont know if theyre messing with our money; I know a couple more autoworkers that havent gotten their unemployment checks. Thats strange how we were getting them and now were not, right when theyre reopening the plants. They say weve got to do social distancing, but when youre working on the line at different spots there has to be two people. I dont see how this will work. We need safety committees in all the shops. They do a lot of dirty stuff in those shops that people dont know about, and they need to know about it. We need our safety committees to get in there and make them do what they say theyve got to do, not just talk about it. We should be able to be tested. Why do the UAW reps get tested and we dont? Before all of us went back to work, it shouldve been that everyone got tested. We could have it and dont even know it. Were just a number and they just want their parts, so the rich can get richer. Its all about money. They tried to tell me its due to demand, but what demand? Nobodys buying new cars right now. The demand is the demand for money to go into rich peoples pockets. I asked my supervisor to explain this to me, and he said he couldnt, but I know he knows. Everyone can see that Trump doesnt care about anyone but Trump, and that is clear. My feelings are that hes the worst president ever, but its all of them, the Democrats too. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey says the raging Coronavirus pandemic must challenge African governments to do more for their citizens. The Foreign Affairs Minister and Regional Integration made the remark today, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 during an address in Parliament to mark the African Union Day commemorated on May 25, 2020. According to the Minister, the difficulties presented by the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an indication that the continent cannot depend on others for solutions. It is obvious that COVID-19 will adversely have an impact on our ability to meet the aspirations of the AU agenda 2063 for a peaceful, united, and prosperous continent. Several countries in Africa with Ghana inclusive have had their economic targets and ratings revised as the virus has exposed the deep inequalities that continue to exist on the African continent and across the world. Indeed, it has shown how far we are from realizing the development aspirations and our responsibility to the citizenry. The pervasive negative impact of the pandemic will require more than ever before our collective coordinated, strategic, and innovative action in the fight against this pandemic to save lives without losing focus on our efforts to advance the course of progress and development on the continent, she urged. Meanwhile, as of May 23, Africa had reported nearly 105, 000 cases of infection, nearly 4,000 deaths, and 42,000 recoveries. About AU The African Union was formed 57 years ago on May 25, 1963, and the day is commemorated across the Africa continent. AU was established to help achieve greater unity, cohesion, and solidarity between the African countries and African nations, defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States and accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent. AU establishes COVID-19 Fund The African Union has created a COVID-19 Response Fund with the aim of raising US$1 million to boost the Union's response towards the COVID-19 fight in Africa. The Fund was established by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. The Fund, dubbed Give a Little has a target of raising the US$1 million today, AU Day, May 25, 2020. On this Africa Day, 25 May, all Africans, people of African descent and friends of Africa are encouraged to give a little to the Fund. A target of US$1million has been set for the day. Contributions can be made in any currency and this will be automatically converted into United States dollars, which is the original currency of the Fund account. Money raised under the Fund will be used to mitigate the social, economic, and humanitarian impact of COVID-19 in all African countries. This is important because the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse the socio-economic advancements made by Africa in the last 30 years as the pandemic proves to be more severe on the socio-economic well-being of populations in Africa, AU captured in a statement on its website on Monday. ---citinewsroom Most of Spain moved to Phase 1 of the coronavirus deescalation plan even though primary healthcare systems could only test less than half of all suspected Covid-19 cases via PCR lab tests. Thats according to reports from the Spanish Health Ministry, released on Monday following demands by regional governments for greater transparency, that set out the reasons for and against allowing regions to relax their confinement measures. In the small northern region of La Rioja, the primary healthcare system was diagnosing up to 100% of all suspected coronavirus cases via PCR tests. But it was the exception. According to the reports, most of Spains 17 regions were able to diagnose far fewer patients. The figure was 50% in Madrid, 41% in the Basque Country, between 40% and 43% in Castilla-La Mancha, and 14.3% in Asturias. Only the small northern region of La Rioja was testing 100% of suspected coronavirus cases In Castilla y Leon, more than 80% of cases were diagnosed in five provinces, and in Andalusia the rate was 52.7%, although Malaga and Granada, which were held back in Phase 0 longer that the other Andalusian provinces, only reported 48% and 45.3% respectively. To move to the next phase, Granada increased its testing capacity to 50.5%, while in Malaga it fell to 32.8%. In Catalonia, Barcelona and its north and south metropolitan area was testing 21% of suspected coronavirus cases. The disparity in testing capability reflects the differences in how the outbreak has hit each region. For example, a region that is not able to diagnose a large number of cases but has a very low incidence of coronavirus (such as Asturias) would be in a better position that a region that has a greater diagnostic capability, but a higher infection rate, such as Castilla y Leon. The ability to quickly test suspected cases, isolate them, identify their contacts and cut the chain of transmission has always been a top priority by the Health Ministry in the path towards the new normality. The central government has tasked the primary healthcare system with detecting each new case, and together with regional public health services, tracing all their contacts to test whether they have also caught the virus. But the reports published on Monday indicate that most areas of Spain were far from achieving this goal when they moved to Phase 1. Primary care facilities were unable to test a large number of suspected infections, while hospitals carried out PCR tests on 100% of cases. Recommendations The Health Ministry reports did not generally outline the shortcomings of a region, but rather suggested recommendations for improvements. For example, regional authorities in Extremadura were told: The commitment to reach 100% from May 11 will require a significant organizational effort. This region was only carrying out PCR tests on 26.2% of suspected cases in the province of Badajoz, and 19.1% in Caceres. In the case of Catalonia, the report warned that the north and south metropolitan areas of Barcelona (but not the city itself) needed to increase testing capacity, which was between 73% and 88%, in case of a new outbreak. The Madrid region was told in a May 15 report that it would not be able to move to Phase 1 until the Health Ministry saw that it had strengthened the diagnostic capacity, early detection system and tracing of contacts in primary healthcare facilities. Last week, regional authorities explained that they had increased the number of staff monitoring the outbreak from 36 to 169, according to a May 22 report. The region also highlighted that it had a system to trace the contacts of coronavirus patients, which would be carried out with the support of technology and multidisciplinary teams. Last Friday, the central government allowed Madrid to transition to Phase 1 after twice rejecting its request. On May 11, 14 of Valencias 24 healthcare regions were refused permission to move to Phase 1, a decision that was challenged by the regional government which accused the Health Ministry of lack of transparency. In the report to justify its decision, the Health Ministry called for more PCR testing (between 80% and 100% of all suspected cases) and warned that some areas still had infection rates above or equal to 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. English version by Melissa Kitson. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 00:12:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A man wearing a face mask passes by a gas pump at a gas station in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on April 20, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/ Xinhua) Putin and al-Kadhimi gave a positive assessment to the agreements on oil output cuts reached with the participation of Russia and Iraq in the OPEC+ format. MOSCOW, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday held a phone conversation with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, to discuss stabilizing the global oil market and the situation in Syria, the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin and al-Kadhimi gave a positive assessment to the agreements on oil output cuts reached with the participation of Russia and Iraq in the OPEC+ format, which are aimed at overcoming the acute phase of the oil crisis, the statement said. They stressed the importance of continuing effective joint efforts in this direction, it said. While discussing the situation in Syria, Putin and al-Kadhimi agreed to further coordinate steps to ensure a long-term normalization of the situation in the war-torn Middle East country and restoration of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The two leaders discussed issues concerning bilateral cooperation in trade, the economy and energy and expressed the wish to further develop the traditionally friendly ties between their countries, the statement said. Putin congratulated al-Kadhimi on assuming his office earlier this month, and the Iraqi people on the occasion of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr celebrated during the past weekend. Putin and al-Kadhimi agreed to continue the bilateral contacts at various levels, the statement said. In a drastic move to stop the second wave of coronavirus, the Chinese city of Wuhan conducted more than 6.5 million COVID-19 tests in just nine days, Chinese state media reported. Authorities in Wuhan declared a '10 day battle against the pandemic earlier this month after six new cases emerged in a residential complex. Following which Wuhan officials launched a citywide nucleic acid testing drive through which they aim to test all of 11 million residents in ten days. As a part of the drive, swab tests samples from over nine million people were collected between May 15 and 23, marking successful testing on more than 80 per cent of the citys total population, Chinese state media reported. As of now, a total of 198 asymptomatic cases have been found following the tests. According to the Chinese state broadcaster, more than 11,46,156 nucleic acid tests have been conducted on May 23 in the epicentre Wuhan alone. COVID-19 in China This comes as China has reported 84,102 positive coronavirus cases, out of whom 79,353 have died as of now, the latest data from John Hopkins University stated. On May 25, the country reported 36 new cases, including 29 asymptomatic infections, mostly in the contagion's first epicentre, health officials said. The country's National Health Commission (NHC) said that seven new imported cases were reported, including five in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and one each in Shanghai and Fujian. Read: Def Min Rajnath Singh Chairs Meet To Review Situation Along LAC Amid Standoff With China Read: China Declares War On 'problematic Maps'; Targets Taiwan Amid Larger Aggressive Posturing No deaths due to the COVID-19 were reported on May 25, it said, adding that 403 asymptomatic cases, including 28 from overseas, are currently under medical observation across the country. Wuhan started a campaign on May 14 to expand nucleic acid testing in order to better know the number of asymptomatic cases or people who show no clear symptoms despite carrying the virus, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Read: China Reports 36 New Coronavirus Cases Read: Wuhan Conducted Over 11 Lakh Nucleic Acid Tests On May 23: Health Authorities Image credits: PTI India's top medical body, the ICMR has said human trials of coronavirus vaccine may begin in another six months. Dr. Rajni Kant, Director Regional Medical Research Centre and Head at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) told news agency IANS that, "The virus strain isolated at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) laboratory in Pune will be used to develop the vaccine. It is expected that the human trials of the vaccine will begin in at least six months". Kant added that virus strain had been successfully transferred to the Bharat Biotech International Ltd. (BBIL). Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, on Sunday, said that four out of the 14 COVID-19 vaccine candidates from India may enter the clinical trial stage in the next three-five months. Vardhan added that industry, academic world were contributing to the clinical trial. Additionally, Ministry of Science was helping the Department of Biotechnology in all such efforts. The Department of Biotechnology has been made a central coordination agency to identify pathways for vaccine development in the country. Vardhan said, "It's very difficult to predict when a vaccine will come, but as a doctor, I can say that the process it involves, one year would be a modest estimate". Meanwhile, US Biotech firm Novavax has also joined the list of companies to statrt human trials of a vaccine for the coronavirus disease. As of May 26, there were at least 10 vaccines in human trials, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Also read: Coronavirus vaccine: ICMR says clinical trials within 6 months; Moderna moves to Phase 2 Also read: Coronavirus update: 4 vaccines may soon enter clinical trial stage, says Harsh Vardhan Google has removed multiple applications from its Google Play Store that were used to promote the QAnon conspiracy theory. The QAnon conspiracy is a idea based on the notion of an anonymous figure called 'Q' who claims to have classified information about the Trump administration. This includes the belief that opposition to the government operate in deep state which works to undermine him. The conspiracy is also linked to the unfounded 'Pizzagate' conspiracy from 2016, which claimed that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among other members of the US establishment, was involved in an apparent child abuse ring. QAnon believers have had their own lawyers argue that belief in the conspiracy proves they are insane, and have climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge to spread the ideology. The FBI has stated that QAnon is a potential domestic terrorist threat. As reported by Media Matters, a not-for-profit progressive research centre, which brought the applications violations of Google policies to the search giants attention, QMAP, Q Alerts!, and Q Alerts LITE were removed from the Android store. Googles privacy policy states that apps which have content related to terrorism, such as content that promotes terrorist acts, incites violence, or celebrates terrorist attacks are forbidden. A Google spokesperson said in a statement that: When we find apps that violate Play policy by distributing misleading or harmful information, we remove them from the store. It is unclear how many people downloaded the applications, or whether Google profited from any microtransactions or other payments made by people through the app. Google takes a 30 percent cut of all payments made through in-app purchases on its store. Google did not provide a comment. The QAnon conspiracy theories have also interlinked with false beliefs about the coronavirus with some suggesting that the disease is a cover so Trump can secretly arrest deep state agents while others believe that COVID-19 is part of spiritual warfare where only those chosen by God will not be affected. Google has had to take action against coronavirus misinformation too, working with the NHS as well as Facebook and Twitter to crack down on hoaxes. WASHINGTON The Pentagon's former top watchdog resigned Tuesday one month after President Trump demoted him and prevented him from overseeing COVID-19 stimulus spending. Glenn Fine, who had been acting inspector general for the Defense Department, announced his resignation after a White House purge of inspectors general. Four of them have been fired or pushed aside in the last three months. "The role of inspectors general is a strength of our system of government," Fine said in a statement. "They provide independent oversight to help improve government operations in a transparent way. They are a vital component of our system of checks and balances, and I am grateful to have been part of that system." Fine's fellow inspectors general had selected him to chair the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a body charged with overseeing the roughly $2 trillion stimulus deal. The committee chairman was given the power to issue subpoenas and investigate officials inside and out of government. Glenn Fine, Department of Defense Inspector General, poses for his official portrait in the Army portrait studio at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, Jan. 14, 2016. Trump signaled his displeasure with the law's oversight provision and nominated Jason Abend to be Pentagon inspector general. That move effectively demoted Fine and prevented him from chairing the accountability committee. Fine had been acting inspector general at the Pentagon since 2016. He previously served as inspector general for the Justice Department from 2000 to 2011. "The way Fine was treated by President Trump makes it no surprise he has resigned," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group. "This is just one more step in the crushing of our IG system." Trump also fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general who informed Congress about an anonymous whistleblower complaint that described Trumps pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden. The complaint led to Trumps impeachment, though he was acquitted in the Senate. Story continues Earlier in May, secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired Steve Linick as inspector general of his department. Linick had reviewed allegations of political retaliation by allies of the president highlighting instances where State Department employees were labeled "disloyal" or "traitors" even though they were career diplomats who had served multiple administrations. Linick had also investigated Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of State. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inspector general: Former Pentagon watchdog resigns after demotion by Trump Every member of the board of the farmers' market at Morrow Park, including longtime chair Cindy Hope, has resigned with plans to open a new market nearby. The Examiner has learned that the new market will be called the Malt Mill Marketplace and will be located west of Morrow Park at the corner of Lansdowne and Park streets. The former Canada Malt factory on the property is in the final stages of demolition as its owners prepare for a new development. The resignations happened at an annual general meeting in April, stated new board member Jessica Arsenault of Hard Winter Bread Company in an email to The Examiner. The Morrow Park market, which leases part of the park in summer and the Morrow Building in winter from the city on Saturday mornings, is run by the Peterborough District Farmers' Market Association (PDFMA). The board had been chaired by Hope, who runs Crosswind Farm in Keene with her husband and has a stall at the market selling products such as goat cheese. She quit the board along with Mark Jones of T and R Jones Family Farm of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Bonnie Clark of Millar Eggs in Keene (she's also the deputy mayor of Otonabee-South Monaghan Township), Anne Marie Warner of Mother Goose Creations in Peterborough and Courtney Vanden Anker of Vegan Sweet Home in Peterborough. Hope, Jones, Clark, Warner and Vanden Anker did not reply to The Examiner's requests for comment. The new board includes Arsenault, Brenda Steed of Sugar Valley Farm and Maple Products in Otonabee-South Monaghan Township and Meredith Bruni of C. Bruni and Sons (vegetable in Oshawa). Arsenault told The Examiner that the former board members were planning a new market. "We have become aware that some of the former board members are actively recruiting our current vendors, including ourselves." The Malt property is owned by David McGee, a developer and car dealer. He plans a mixture of retail and residential space on the site, which runs along Lansdowne Street west of Park Street. McGee said Friday the opening of the new market won't happen until demolition is complete, likely sometime in July. The Morrow Park farmers' market has been closed since March because it is on city-owned property, and most city facilities are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the market will reopen at an unspecified time, and when it does the PDFMA is expected to resume running it for a year using a special event permit. The PDFMA has been operating the Morrow Park market since 1984, but when the board applied for a new three-year licence agreement in the fall, its bid didn't get past the first stage of evaluation from the city. The only other bidder, the Peterborough Regional Farmers' Network (PRFN), withdrew its bid because it wanted to remain downtown (it sells from the Citi Centre courtyard on Saturday mornings). The bidding process sought an operator that would clearly identify where produce is grown. That has not always been clear with the PDFMA, which has allowed farmers to resell produce from outside the area without telling customers. The Peterborough Regional Farmers' Network got started in 2018 after seven local farmers who were evicted from the Morrow Park market. The market board said the evictions were based on harassment complaints, while some of the evicted farmers said they had pushed Hope to see an audit of the market's books. They alleged a discrepancy that made it appear that $22,000 was apparently missing from the accounts between 2015 and 2016, and they wanted to see an audit showing it was an error and no money was actually missing. Hope told Peterborough This Week in 2018 she'd had a professional audit done showing no misappropriation of funds, but it was never shared publicly. Arsenault wrote this week that audited books are available for market members to see. "All of our finances are in order. The current board has no concerns," Arsenault wrote. "We use a registered professional accounting corporation as both our bookkeepers and auditors." She also wrote that the market is trying to support its vendors as much as they can during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was still unclear this week when the market might reopen at Morrow Park, Arsenault wrote. "Customers can check out our social media for updates on their favourite vendors and farm sales until the market is able to physically operate again." CORRECTION: This story has been updated with the correct name of Ann Marie Warner's business. We apologize for the mistake. joelle.kovach @peterboroughdaily.com Indian Army Major Suman Gawani to be honoured with UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award Major Suman Gawani is the first Indian to receive the United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@UNinIndia Indian Army officer and woman peacekeeper, Major Suman Gawani has been selected for the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award (2019). Major Gawani, who has served with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and Brazilian Naval Officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo will receive the award during an online ceremony on May 29, the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. The ceremony will be presided over by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who described the two women as "powerful role models." As #PKDay approaches what better news for us at #UNMISS than #peacekeeper Major Suman Gawani frm. being co-winner of the #UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year 2019! Read more abt. Maj. Gawani's contributions in #SouthSudan: https://t.co/FJUrXPNBiT #womeninpeacekeeping pic.twitter.com/s7qNtHgnTE UNMISS (@unmissmedia) May 26, 2020 Military Observer Major Gawani recently completed an assignment in South Sudan apart from her stint with the UNMISS while Commander Araujo is working in the United Nations' Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). "These peacekeepers are powerful role models. Through their work, they have brought new perspectives and have helped build trust and confidence among the communities we serve," said Guterres. "Through their commitment and innovative approaches, they embrace a standard of excellence that is an inspiration to all blue helmets everywhere. As we confront today's challenges, their work has never been more important or relevant." This is the first time the UN Military Gender Advocate award has been given to an Indian peacekeeper. #Indian peacekeeper -- Suman Gawani -- to be honoured with the @UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award during an online ceremony presided over by Secretary-General @antonioguterres on 29 May - International Day of UN Peacekeepers: https://t.co/hjdQQxChdW pic.twitter.com/528yC0aHH6 United Nations in India (@UNinIndia) May 26, 2020 Created in 2016, the award recognises the dedication and effort of an individual military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of UN Security Resolution 1325 which is on women, peace and security in a peace operation as nominated by Heads and Force Commanders of peace operations. Major Gawani joined the Indian Army in 2011 where she graduated from the Officers Training Academy, then joined the Army Signal Corps. She holds a Bachelor of Telecommunication Engineering and a Bachelor of Education degrees from Military College of Telecommunication, and the Government Post Graduate College in Dehradun respectively. Since her deployment to the UNMISS in December 2018, Major Gawani has mentored over 230 UN Military Observers (UNMO) on conflict-related sexual violence and ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the mission's team sites. She also trained the South Sudanese government forces and helped them launch their action plan on conflict-related sexual violence. India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported Glenmark to study potential COVID-19 drug combination on Favipiravir, Umifenovir in India India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, May 26: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Tuesday it will begin a new clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment. Glenmark has received approval from the Indian regulator to initiate the study. The study dubbed 'FAITH trial' will look to enroll 158 hospitalized patients suffering from moderate COVID-19 infections in India, the company said. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News Coronavirus outbreak: Bihar to soon reach 3,000-mark; State govt blames migrant workers The two antiviral drugs have a different mechanism of action, and their combination may demonstrate improved treatment efficacy by effectively tackling high viral loads in patients during an early stage of the disease, said the pharma major in a statement. Early administration of a combination of antiviral medications acting by different mechanisms is desirable for the treatment of COVID-19, since the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 peaks around the time of symptom onset. Thus combining antiviral drugs could result in greater clinical effectiveness and could also prevent, or delay, the emergence of resistance. Favipiravir is an oral antiviral drug approved in Japan since 2014 for the treatment of novel or re-emerging influenza virus infections. It has a unique mechanism of action by which it inhibits viral replication: it is converted into an active phosphoribosylated form (favipiravir-RTP) in cells and recognized as a substrate by viral RNA polymerase, thereby inhibiting RNA polymerase activity that is required for viral replication.4 Umifenovir is another oral antiviral drug licensed for the treatment and prophylaxis of influenza A and B infections in Russia and China. 'Age, male sex, underlying illness validated as risk factors for death due to COVID-19' Umifenovir impedes the viral attachment to cells and acts as a viral entry inhibitor. Additionally it exhibits modulatory effects on the immune system and induces interferon-production. Hence a combined use of Favipiravir and Umifenovir acting on different mechanisms offers a comprehensive antiviral cover on preentry and post-entry life-cycle of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Both Favipiravir and Umifenovir inhibited virus infection in vitro5,6 and have shown efficacy in COVID-19 clinical trials. The current Glenmark study will examine whether early administration of a combination of Favipiravir and Umifenovir, both acting by different mechanisms, enhances antiviral efficacy on COVID-19 patients. Monika Tandon, Vice President and Head for Clinical Development Global Specialty and Branded Portfolio, said "Combining antiviral agents that have a good safety profile and act on different stages of viral life-cycle is an effective treatment approach to rapidly suppress initial high viral load and lead to overall improvement in clinical parameters. We consider Glenmark's study will be pivotal in leading to identification of highly effective and safe treatments against COVID-19 in India. Beyond its many potential patient treatment benefits, we also hope the combination therapy will reduce infection risk amongst medical professionals and healthcare workers by reducing the duration of virus shedding from treated patients." Simultaneously, Glenmark is also conducting phase 3 clinical trials of Favipiravir as a COVID-19 monotherapy option with 150 patients, enrolled from nine leading government and private hospitals across the country. So far, 30 patients have been randomised.Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is a global research-led company with presence across generics, speciality and OTC business with operations in over 50 countries. Its key therapy focus areas globally are respiratory, dermatology and oncology. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai, India that was founded in 1977 by Gracias Saldanha as a generic drug and active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer; he named the company after his two sons. Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed to move by Tuesday toward giving up his right to rule Hungary indefinitely by decree, which some critics had warned would turn the country into a de facto dictatorship. The government will submit a bill to parliament to end the regime that the premier's allies approved in March, when they argued that he needed unrestrained powers to deal with the coronavirus crisis. By the first week of June, lawmakers plan to revoke the measures, which stoked concern over democratic backsliding from the European Union's executive commission. The administration in Budapest was quick to brand the occasion as proof that its critics were wrong. "We continue to expect that those who, out of ignorance or malice, joined in spreading fake news when the government worked to save lives, apologize now to the Hungarian people and draw the appropriate conclusions," Justice Minister Judit Varga wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. Hungary, which joined the EU in 2004, became the first member of the trading bloc to lose its status as a democracy this month in an annual survey of countries by Freedom House, a rights watchdog based in Washington D.C. Hungary is now classified as a "hybrid regime" between a democracy and an autocracy. While Orban and his aides have rejected accusations that the emergency powers were a violation of the EU's democratic norms, the bloc continues to probe whether the government is upholding the rule of law. Many of the initiatives that the prime minister passed via decrees may remain in effect. They include the halving of financial support for political parties and seizing tax revenue in some cities, policies that disproportionately hurt the opposition and the municipalities it controls. Orban also retains a two-thirds parliamentary supermajority, allowing his ruling party to unilaterally pass or change any law. "Surrendering rule-by-decree is a great communications ploy by Orban," said Peter Kreko, managing director of Political Capital, a research institute in Budapest. "In reality it's just a technical question. The past two months have shown that it's not the main engine behind Hungary's increasingly rapid slide toward authoritarianism." Since March 30, when parliament green-lighted the decree regime, ruling-party lawmakers have also approved a range of measures to further Orban's self-styled illiberal agenda. They included laws criminalizing the "distortion" of facts -- which triggered more than 100 police investigations -- and banning legal gender change. The government has also given away state property, including a villa, to the premier's allies. Lorinc Meszaros, a boyhood friend of Orban whom opposition parties accuse of managing business interests on the prime minister's behalf, has been particularly favored. A government entity bought Meszaros's unprofitable coal plant, which the cabinet estimated needed a $1 billion overhaul. And a contract for a $2 billion Chinese-backed rail development project connecting Budapest and Belgrade -- which had been criticized for its lack of transparency and cost -- was restricted as classified information for 10 years. Meszaros's company is part of the consortium building it. Orban has denied having business links with Meszaros. "There's been a raft of measures rammed through in the past two months relating to corruption and the stripping of rights," opposition lawmaker Bernadett Szel told a parliamentary committee on Monday. Inside crowded courtyard buildings, where blue-collar Latino families share apartments meant for one, the sick are multiplying. Isabela Rivera was the first in her home to test positive for the novel coronavirus. Unable to fully isolate in the three-bedroom apartment she and her husband, Danilo, share with two other northern Virginia families, the Riveras sent their 7-year-old son to live with a family friend. Danilo sleeps on the couch, unsure whether he is infected. The other families have taken cover in their rooms, hoping a closed door will protect them from the deadly and highly contagious virus. But their apartment complex in Herndon has become a coronavirus magnet. Soon, others were coughing and wheezing. Latinos, who make up about 10% of the population in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, make up about a third of the coronavirus cases in the region, according to a Washington Post analysis of jurisdictions that track the race and ethnicity of patients with covid-19, the disease the virus causes. The disparity is not unique to the capital area. Latinos young and old are contracting the virus at alarmingly high rates in places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, although the fatality rate for their community is significantly lower than that of African Americans. In an ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday, 26% of Latino adults in the country said they know someone who has died of the virus or of complications related to it. Experts cite many explanations: Latinos are a dominant presence in service industry jobs, leaving them unable to ride out the pandemic from home. Many have struggled to get protective equipment, while others ignored shutdown orders to take risky jobs in exchange for much-needed cash. Outside of work, avoiding the virus can be nearly impossible, either because Latino families are more likely to live in multigenerational homes or because many take on multiple roommates to manage the Washington region's high housing costs. Efforts to slow the virus's spread are tangled with complications, public health experts say, including language barriers, economic stressors, limited resources and, in some cases, a slow response from local governments. "There is a lot of fear," said Yukmila Soriano, a primary care doctor at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County, Virginia, where a majority of the 100 patients tested per day tend to be Latino. "We are asking everybody to stay home, but the idea of staying home is very different depending on who you are and what your role in society is." In northern Virginia, Latinos make up 16.8% of Fairfax County's population but nearly 64% of its coronavirus cases in which ethnicity is known, records show. In Prince William County, Latinos represent 24% of the population and nearly 77% of infections in which ethnicity is known. In the Maryland suburbs and D.C., predominantly Latino neighborhoods also have some of the highest rates of contracting the coronavirus. As it spreads, the virus has gnawed through the region's economic backbone, sidelining thousands of cooks, custodians, landscapers and other front-line workers. Fredys Medina, a diabetic construction worker from Arlington County, waved off his wife's suggestion that he had the virus after he developed a cough and fever in late April, and he continued to work. Two weeks later, he collapsed on the living room floor. By the time paramedics arrived, Medina, 56, was gone. His wife, Leonor Medina, an unemployed hotel housekeeper, was left with an $8,000 funeral bill she could not pay until neighbors and members of their church chipped in. At the funeral, the couple's middle child, Alberto, 14, flung himself onto his father's body, holding tightly as he wept. He has since tested positive for the virus. So did his mother and 11-year-old brother, Freddy. Leonor Medina seeks comfort in her Pentecostal Christian faith, grateful that her symptoms - and those of her children - have been mild. "This is a demon that wants to kill everyone," she said. "I was spared, and so were my sons." Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said the number of Latinos who work in hotels, restaurants and stores was one reason he asked Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, to delay relaxing restrictions on nonessential businesses in northern Virginia until at least Thursday. "Some of them are eager to work again because they're not getting income, but there is a whole lot of them also scared to go back to work," said McKay, a Democrat. "That's a really bad position for anyone to be in." - - - In D.C.'s historically Latino Columbia Heights neighborhood, the virus ripped through Flor Morales' home like a tornado. The neighborhood still does not know how it got in. Morales, 23, lost her job as an office custodian when the pandemic began. But her husband continued to work in construction, and her twin sister, Rosa Morales, kept her job at McDonald's, despite her growing unease over maskless customers and the cramped restaurant kitchen. In early April, their mother, Maria Elena Velasquez, got sick and died of covid-19. Soon, Rosa was coughing. She quarantined in the only vacant room: the one her mother had used. Within days, her father's temperature spiked. Both tested positive for the coronavirus. The family heard about sick friends and neighbors - a pastor and his wife, the owner of a pupuseria down the block, co-workers, street vendors, supermarket employees. One of the boarders who rented a room from the Morales family also fell ill. Flor Morales spends her days taking care of everyone else - delivering food to her father, leaving hot soup and tea outside the basement door for her sister, caring for her three children and four nieces and nephews, the youngest one 6 months old. When Morales' 8-year-old niece developed a fever, she carried the girl to her car and took off toward the hospital, passing groups gathered on corners, neighbors talking without masks. One night, she shut herself in the bathroom she shares with her husband and their kids, threw herself onto the tile floor and screamed. "God!" she shouted. "Why did you take her away from me?" Downstairs, her sister Rosa leaned against the closed basement door and cried. Ivan Torres, a language access coordinator for D.C., said quarantining Latino patients who live in crowded multigenerational homes is rarely effective. Instead, Torres said, local governments must provide lodging and support to allow individuals to quarantine safely away from their families. "We know not everyone can say, 'OK, I'll just stay in my room' or 'I have my own bathroom,' " Torres said. "We understand what the reality is." D.C. and parts of Maryland and Virginia have worked to provide individuals with a place to isolate. But advocates say most rooms go to homeless people, and many Latino residents do not know about the option. In the predominantly Central American immigrant neighborhood of Langley Park, Maryland, an entire family of six came down with the virus, said Prince George's County Council member Deni Taveras, a Democrat. When the parents were hospitalized, the four children were taken in by relatives - adding another layer of potential exposure. "It is a desperate, desperate state of affairs," said Taveras, who lost four family members to covid-19 in New York. Prince George's recently opened a quarantine site seven miles from Langley Park that can hold 100 people, but officials declined to say how many rooms are in use. In Virginia, Fairfax County has rented 221 hotel rooms, and Prince William County has rented 40. D.C. has designated 864 hotel isolation rooms, which officials said primarily are used by people who otherwise would be in shelters or on the street. D.C. data shows that 38 people have used the hotel rooms because they were unable to quarantine at home. Public health advocates and doctors said government agencies need to do more. James Lamberti, a pulmonary care doctor whose practice in heavily Latino Annandale treats as many as 30 patients per day, called the lack of quarantine sites in Fairfax County "an embarrassment." "There's a history for this with public health with tuberculosis," he said. "If people were not able to go back to a home, they got put up in a hotel. A lot of this ongoing community spread over the last month could have been prevented by better public health, by figuring out where the problem was at a local level." Fairfax County, which has 1.1 million people, had reported 9,482 infections and 331 deaths as of Monday. Officials say they plan to rent an additional 160 hotel rooms for quarantining, on top of the 221 that are mostly occupied. Local governments also have struggled to get Spanish-speaking residents information about the coronavirus and to track its spread in the community. Spanish-language text alerts recently launched by Fairfax reach fewer than 200 residents, despite a population of about 53,000 who speak mostly Spanish. About 39,000 residents of Prince William County primarily speak Spanish; 53 have signed up for their alerts. Steven Woolf, a researcher with the Northern Virginia Health Foundation, said increased testing and the ability to track people potentially exposed to an infected person are crucial to control community spread of the disease. But, Woolf said, many contact-tracing efforts do not include interpreters. Another obstacle local governments and health-care providers must contend with is fear. Jair Carrasco, an organizer with D.C. street-vendor advocacy group Vendadores Unidos, has heard from immigrant families afraid to take sick relatives to a hospital that they are concerned immigration agents could be lurking there. "On top of the virus and people not wanting to go outside due to safety concerns, you're also dealing with immigrant communities with a long history of police abuse and discrimination," said Carrasco, 29, who began to feel ill in early May after his girlfriend came home from her supermarket job feeling feverish and dizzy. She later tested positive for the coronavirus. While he waited to be seen by a doctor, he decided to try out D.C.'s Spanish-language coronavirus hotline. He was transferred three times, he said, and given a new number to call. He never found the food-delivery service he was seeking. "What if I was only a Spanish speaker and they're giving me this go-around?" he said. "That can make the difference between someone getting help and people suffering." D.C. officials said they consulted with a wide range of organizations that work in the Latino community before launching robocalls in Spanish and attempting to streamline the city's complex web of bureaucracy for non-English speakers. "Something we saw at the [outset] that was really devastating is, we had residents dying in their homes because they had not sought care," said Tomas Talamante, the deputy chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat. "That's the message we've been trying to get out: Regardless of immigration status, regardless of socioeconomic situation, we want our residents to seek care." - - - On a recent morning, a line of patients stretched down the block outside the Upper Cardozo Health Center in Columbia Heights. The clinic - which tests more than 80 people daily, about half of them Latino - opens its doors at 8 a.m. Patients have been known to arrive as early as 6. Medical director Blanca Toso worries that they are just the tip of a much larger iceberg. She spends her weekends making calls to patients, reminding those who have tested positive to treat the symptoms, isolate and call for help if conditions get worse. Though the respiratory effects of the coronavirus are well known, she said, many of her patients are unaware of the disease's other manifestations. Often, if a patient is ill but does not have a hacking cough, Toso said, they do not think it's possible that they could have the virus. Some try home remedies as a cure: herbal teas or roots mailed from relatives outside the United States. "A lot of these people still have to go to work every day, so they're not able to keep up with the news or every new symptom that we're discovering about this virus," Toso said. "They may not think they have the virus, but many of them do." Others have tried to get tested and, amid an initial shortage of test kits and supplies, were turned away. Edith Morejon rarely ventures outside her apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland, anymore. Still, she said, it feels as if the virus is closing in. Her husband, who works during the week in Pennsylvania and shares an apartment with four other men, recently came home with a fever and a cough. Within days, he was diagnosed with covid-19. Morejon, 40, was not able to get tested, despite having a fever. Her doctor advised her to try again if her symptoms got worse, she said. To protect their three children - ages 12, 10 and 6 - Morejon kept her husband isolated inside the bedroom. When the children ran to hug her, she waved them off, unsure whether it was safe. Morejon has done everything officials have asked. She keeps up to date on covid-19 news and signed up for text alerts from Prince George's County. Even though Maryland recently expanded its testing options, as of Thursday, she had not been able to secure a test. "I'm just waiting here in my house, passing my quarantine so as not to infect anyone else," Morejon said. "I don't know what else to do." - - - The virus can dissolve what little economic stability some families have. Before the pandemic struck, Danilo and Isabela Rivera relied mostly on her income as a hotel housekeeper near Dulles International Airport in Virginia. He lost his job as a house painter last year. Now, with Isabela bedridden, Danilo puts on a cloth mask every morning to stand outside a 7-Eleven with other day laborers. He leaves food donated by a neighborhood church by his wife's bedroom door and checks in by phone with their son, Alan, who does not understand why he can't just come home. "He cried a lot the first three days," Danilo said. "We've wanted to give him a hug and kiss him but haven't been able." In Washington, Jose Mardoqueo Reyes was hospitalized with covid-19 in late April, the day his wife, Blanca Bonilla, was discharged from a hospital after her symptoms subsided. He died three weeks later. The family isn't sure how the virus entered their household of six, though it had several possible avenues. Bonilla worked at a McDonald's before the pandemic took hold in March. Mardoqueo Reyes, a well-known Spanish-language sportscaster in the region, also worked in construction. His eldest son, Mardo Reyes, 28, drove a delivery truck. Mardo's wife, Emmy, who has been on leave from her job as a nurse, was the first to experience symptoms and was briefly hospitalized last month. Ingrid Reyes, 26, Mardo's sister, lives elsewhere in the neighborhood and has stayed healthy. After her father spent three weeks on a ventilator, she asked for two weeks off from her job as a construction site traffic controller to help care for her family. Instead, she said, her boss fired her. Mardoqueo Reyes died on May 12. The family is now seeking help with the $14,000 burial costs. "Everything just hit us at once," his daughter said. - - - The Washington Post's Rachel Chason contributed to this report. WASHINGTON A live nuclear test could be arranged within months if requested by the president, a top defense department nuclear official said Tuesday, following a report that the Trump administration has discussed the first American nuclear test in decades. However, Drew Walter, performing the duties of deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear matters, stressed that there has been no policy change when it comes to avoiding live nuclear testing. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that there have been high-level discussions around the possibility of doing a live nuclear test for the first time since 1992. Since that time, the United States has relied on simulations and non-explosive testing to assess the health and capabilities of the nuclear arsenal; the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-independent branch inside the Department of Energy, currently oversees that effort through its Stockpile Stewardship program. Walter said it was his understanding that a very quick test with limited diagnostics could occur within months if ordered by the president for technical or geopolitical reasons. "I think it would happen relatively rapidly. Why we need better science to pinpoint small, underground nuclear tests However, the data gathered from such a test would likely be minimal, given the need to quickly set it up; a fuller test, to gather large amounts of useful data, might be more likely to take years, he said at an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute. Under presidential guidance going back to 1993, NNSA is required to maintain a capability to conduct a nuclear test within 24 to 36 months, according to an agency document. However, Nuclear test response time depends on the specific details of the test. Walter added that he believes the NNSA has a spot picked out in Nevada where it could do underground testing. There is no legal block on live testing, as America has not formally ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which fell just short in the Senate in 1999. Like the U.S., China has signed onto the CTBT but not ratified it, and while Russia has, the U.S. has publicly questioned whether Moscow is fulfilling its promise not to do testing. (Public data has not substantiated those claims.) Story continues Walter hinted in that direction Tuesday, saying there is widespread concern about the major disparity in the way Russia and China appear to interpret and adhere to the CTBT guidelines. He added that the U.S. should be mindful of the implications over the long term of what other countries will learn, maybe not today but in the long term, if they conduct live nuclear tests. Eric Gomez, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute, argued that a U.S. resumption of testing would backfire, with China and Russia freed from pressure to avoid openly testing. Americas stockpile stewardship program is much better than Russias or Chinas there is more we can figure out about weapons from not testing them compared to our adversaries, Gomez said. Therefore, a U.S. test would reveal relatively little unique information to us, while Russian and Chinese tests that would likely follow ours would be very valuable for their own weapon designers." Gomez also raised practical questions about testing, noting that the public in Nevada or Utah would likely be unhappy with the prospect of nuclear explosions in their states, no matter how far underground. In addition, testing is expensive and could splinter the current bipartisan nuclear balance in Congress, he warned. CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will begin easing restrictions on movement and travel this week, more than two months after stringent measures were introduced to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Restrictions will be lifted in three phases, culminating in the curfew completely ending - with the exception of the holy city of Mecca -- from June 21, the state news agency reported in a statement early on Tuesday. The Hajj and Umrah pilgrimmages -- which attract millions of travelers from around the world -- will remain suspended until further notice. The kingdom has so far recorded 74,795 cases of COVID-19 with 399 deaths. More than 2,000 cases are still being reported daily. The first phase, starting on Thursday, will see the 24-hour curfew reduced to between 3 p.m.-6 a.m. countrywide. Free movement between regions and some retail and wholesale activities, including malls, will be allowed to resume. Saudi Arabia had imposed 24-hour curfews on most towns and cities but eased them for the start of the fasting month of Ramadan. The 24-hour curfew was reimposed during the five-day Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which began on Sunday. From Sunday May 30, free movement will be allowed between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., Saudi Press Agency reported. Domestic flights will be allowed to resume, but a ban on international flights will stay. Mosques can hold prayers once again, subject to social distancing and hygiene measures, except for in Mecca where restrictions on attendance will stay in place. Public and private sector employees will be allowed to return to their offices. Social gatherings of more than 50 people will still be banned, including weddings and funerals. Citizens will still be urged to wear masks in public and continue hygiene and social distancing measures after June 21. Mecca will stay one phase behind the rest of the country, with curfew times adjusted to 3 p.m-6 a.m until June 20, revised up to 8 p.m. thereafter. Prayers will only be allowed to resume in mosques from June 21. (Reporting by Hesham Abdul Khalek; Writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) Credit: Vienna University of Technology Stimulating the vagus nerve in the ear can help to relieve chronic pain. TU Wien and MedUni Vienna have developed novel, sophisticated methods for electric stimulation of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve plays an important role in our body. It consists of various fibres, some of which connect to the internal organs, but the vagus nerve can also be found in the ear. It is of great importance for various bodily functions, including the perception of pain. Therefore, a lot of research has been focusing on how the vagus nerve can be stimulated effectively and gently with special electrodes. An important step forward has now been achieved through a cooperation between the TU Wien (Vienna) and MedUni Vienna: the microanatomy of the vagus nerve branches in the human ear, in relation to auricular blood vessels, has been studied with a precision on a micrometer scale. Then a 3-D computer model was created to calculate the optimal stimulation of nerve branches using tiny needle-shaped electrodes. These results were then tested on patients. This way, a novel stimulation pattern could be determined, which stimulates the vagus nerve in the ear particularly well. Tiny electrodes directly on the ear The team of the electrical engineer Prof. Eugenijus Kaniusas (Institute for Microwave and Circuit Engineering, TU Wien) in cooperation with the Medical University of Vienna has already conducted several studies in which chronic pain or even peripheral circulatory disorders were treated with electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve in the ear. In this process, small electrodes are inserted directly into the ear, which thencontrolled by a small portable device worn on the neckcreate specific electrical pulses. Left: Typical blood vessels in the ear, with nerves (blue) and electrodes (blue and green). Center: electrical current on the surface of the ear. Right: 3D-Model of the head, the ear and the electrodes. Credit: Vienna University of Technology A major challenge, however, is to attach the electrodes in exactly the right place. "It is important not to hit any blood vessels, and the electrodes have to be placed at exactly the right distance from the nerve," explains Eugenijus Kaniusas. "If the electrode is too far away, the nerve is not stimulated at all. If it is too close, the signal is too strong, leading to blockage of the nerve. The nerve can become 'tired' over time and eventually stop sending signals to the brain." Until now, medical doctors had to rely on experience when positioning the electrodes in the ear. Now, for the first time, a microanatomical study has been carried out to investigate in great detail spatial arrangements of the nerve fibres and blood vessels in the ear. For this purpose, sectional images of tissue samples were photographed in high resolution and then combined into a three-dimensional model on the computer by Babak Dabiri Razlighi, a researcher in Eugenijus Kaniusas' team. "The blood vessels can be made clearly visible in patients by shining light through the ear", says Prof. Wolfgang J. Weninger from MedUni Vienna. "The nerves, however, cannot be seen. Our microanatomical measurements on donated human bodies now tell us exactly where the nerves run in relation to blood vessels, as well as the average distance between blood vessels and nerves at certain important positions of the ear. This helps us to find the correct spot for placing the stimulation electrodes." Credit: Vienna University of Technology Three-phase signal for optimal stimulation The computer model can also be used to calculate which electrical signals should be used. Not only the strength of the signal is important, but also its shape: "In our computer simulation, it was shown for the first time that from a biophysical point of view, a triphasic signal pattern should be helpful, similar to what is known from power engineeringonly with much lower magnitude," reports Kaniusas. "Three different electrodes each deliver oscillating electrical pulses, but these pulses are not in synch, there needs to be a specific time delay." This type of stimulation was tested on people suffering from chronic painand the experiments showed that indeed the triphasic stimulation pattern is particularly effective. "Vagus nerve stimulation is a promising technique, the effect of which has been validated with our new findings and is now being further improved," says Eugenijus Kaniusas. "Vagus nerve stimulation is often a lifesaving option, especially for people with chronic pain who have already been treated with other methods and do not respond to medication anymore." Explore further Vagus nerve stimulation promising in Crohn's disease More information: Babak Dabiri et al. High-Resolution Episcopic Imaging for Visualization of Dermal Arteries and Nerves of the Auricular Cymba Conchae in Humans, Frontiers in Neuroanatomy (2020). Babak Dabiri et al. High-Resolution Episcopic Imaging for Visualization of Dermal Arteries and Nerves of the Auricular Cymba Conchae in Humans,(2020). DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2020.00022 E. Kaniusas et al. Stimulation Pattern Efficiency in Percutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation: Experimental versus Numerical data, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (2019). DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2019.2950777 Eugenijus Kaniusas et al. Current Directions in the Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation I A Physiological Perspective, Frontiers in Neuroscience (2019). DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00854 Eugenijus Kaniusas et al. Current Directions in the Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation II An Engineering Perspective, Frontiers in Neuroscience (2019). DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00772 Journal information: IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering , Frontiers in Neuroscience EFI strives to ensure they deliver only the best for their utility clients, and winning this Hermes Creative award for design and interactive capabilities only confirms all of their hard work was worth it. "This utility marketplace successfully deployed in January, 2020, and it has exceeded the client's expectations," said Jonathan Coons, Director of Marketing at EFI. He continued, "Receiving the Gold award has only solidified that our services are successful at empowering the utility's program." Hermes Creative Awards recognizes outstanding work in the industry while promoting the philanthropic nature of marketing and communication professionals. About EFI Energy Federation, Inc. (EFI), the industry leader in delivering energy efficiency technology solutions, is changing the way people save energy and how utilities engage with their customers. EFI is a leading technology provider of utility-branded instant rebate programs for leading utility companies. EFI's innovative incentive and product all-in-one solutions help utilities meet their customer's needs - at the speed of life. To learn more about how EFI can help, visit www.efi.org. Visit the Atmos Energy Online Marketplace - https://www.poweredbyefi.org/atmosenergy Contact Information EFI Jessica Kerr [email protected] SOURCE EFI Related Links http://www.efi.org Under the states new coronavirus safer at home advisory which suggests limiting outings to outdoor activities, and keeping gatherings under 10 people some residents may turn to backyard fires as an option for maintaining social distance while visiting with friends or family. But anyone hoping to use a fire pit, chiminea or outdoor fireplace should check in with their local fire department to ensure they are in compliance with state and local regulations, fire officials say. Fire pits have become popular in recent years, said Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for the state Fire Marshals office. But, Mieth said, unless a fire is used for cooking, its subject to the state Department of Environmental Protections open burning regulation. Nearly two-dozen cities and towns throughout the state, including Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee, prohibit open burning due to population density, the close proximity of buildings and air quality issues. In dense urban communities open flames pose a real risk, Mieth said. Other communities may regulate, limit or prohibit the use of chimineas, fire pits and outdoor fireplaces, she said. The law, however, allows for small cooking fires. But that essentially means the fire has to be extinguished once the food is cooked. But even cooking fires are subject to state regulation if the smoke they produce proves to be a nuisance to neighbors, according to Capt. Richard Martin, fire marshal for the Springfield Fire Department. If a neighbor calls the fire department to complain about smoke, he said, you have to extinguish it. Meanwhile, some communities around the country have asked residents to stop open burning during the pandemic either for recreation or to dispose of yard waste citing the potential impact on those coping with COVID-19, the potentially severe or fatal respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. In Pennsylvanias Allegheny County, officials launched a Be a Good Neighbor campaign asking residents not to have recreational fires due to potential health impacts during the pandemic, for people with COVID-19 or other respiratory conditions. The fire department in Aurora, Illinois made a similar request. In a video titled A Fireside Chat, Fire Chief Gary Krienitz asked residents not to engage in open burning. You might not even know a neighbor five, six houses down might be ill from this and it might irritate and exacerbate their illness," he said. Just because you can buy it... Martin said recreational fires not specifically used for cooking are prohibited in Springfield. The same holds true for Chicopee and Holyoke, fire officials said. Lt. Katie Collins-Kalbaugh, spokeswoman for the Chicopee Fire Department, said residents sometimes assume that because they can purchase fire pits at retailers within the city, they can fire them up at will. Just because you can buy it doesnt mean the DEP will allow you to use it, she said. Collins-Kalbaugh said residents are welcome to call the department if they have questions about the use of fire pits and chimineas. We hope people will call before they spend the money on something they cant utilize because of the regulations, she said. The Chicopee Fire Department regularly enforces those regulations, especially during the warmer months, Collins-Kalbaugh said. Anytime we get calls and our dispatcher says someone is burning we do have to respond and see whats happening, she said. Capt. Kevin Cavagnac, spokesman for the Holyoke Fire Department, said much the same. We go there, explain the DEP statute and they have to extinguish it, he said. Cooking fires, according to the Department of Environmental Protection, must be kept to a reasonable size, located away from non-combustible materials, contained in an enclosure and tended by someone who is 18 years or older. The use of clean dry firewood is recommended to minimize the amount of smoke. Backyard Recreational Fires Backyard Fires Yes, they are allowed so long as you follow some simple safety regulations that you can view in full here: https://ecode360.com/documents/WE1103/public/521951248.pdf no burning of trash, leaves, tires, or similar materials (i.e. minimal smoke) fires must be constantly attended (obviously) must have a water supply for extinguishing available (garden hose or water bucket) the fire shall not be located within 25 feet of a structure (because that would be arson) if the Fire Department receives a complaint from your neighbors they can instruct you to extinguish the fire (dont be that guy/girl) Have a fun and safe weekend/summer! Posted by Mayor Will Reichelt on Friday, May 22, 2020 Although West Springfield is one of the 22 communities statewide that prohibits open burning, the city enacted regulations last year to allow for backyard fires, including campfires not contained within enclosures like fire pits or chimineas. West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt said numerous requests from residents seeking to have backyard fires prompted the city to clarify the difference between open burning and recreational fires. One of the biggest complaints that Ive had, not really complaints, but inquiries besides like pave my street, fix my sidewalk, cut down my tree then plant a new one, has been why cant we have fire pits in West Springfield? Reichelt said in a video posted to his Facebook page outlining the citys stance on outside recreational fires. Backyard fires in West Springfield must be no larger than three feet in diameter, cannot be within 25 feet of a building and must be constantly attended. Flammable fluids may not be used to start a fire and burning trash is also prohibited. Mieth said fire pits fueled by portable 20-pound propane cylinders are essentially treated like gas grills under the regulations. People should follow the manufacturers recommendations, especially for setback distances to buildings and trees, she said. Those who store more than 42 pounds of propane need a permit from their local fire department. So, basically, two 20-pound tanks is OK. Three would require a permit, she said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Galih Gumelar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 16:12 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda337ad 1 National detention,#detention,detention-center,criminals,#criminals,prisoners,#prison,COVID-19,#COVID19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia Free Law enforcement agencies must look at alternatives to detaining criminal suspects and defendants to aid efforts to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in the countrys overcrowded detention facilities, a government official has said. The countrys 524 penitentiaries and detention centers hold a total of 232,795 inmates and detainees, almost double the facilities total capacity of 131,931, according to Law and Human Rights Ministry data from May 24. The countrys 55,089 detainees account for about 24 percent of the total prison population. The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) director for legal affairs, Prahesti Pandanwangi, said all sectors of the country needed to adapt to the new normal brought on by COVID-19, with President Joko Jokowi Widodo recently calling on the public to make peace with the pandemic. The government is preparing measures to increase productivity while keeping workers safe. The prison system, Prahesti said, should be no exception, arguing that the implementation of health protocols in such facilities would be ineffective if the prison and detention population continued to increase. Therefore, we ask law enforcement authorities to pursue strategies beyond detention to curb the spread of the virus in detention facilities, Prahesti said during a recent virtual public discussion. She said authorities should not hesitate to enforce different measures, such as house arrest and city arrest, which were regulated in the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP). Under the KUHAP, suspects and defendants can also be released on bail or have their detention suspended with or without a guarantor. The discretion largely lies in the hands of the investigators, prosecutors and judges. Read also: COVID-19: Health minister issues new normal guidelines for workplaces The Law and Human Rights Ministry sent a letter on March 24 to the Supreme Court requesting that judges place suspects under house arrest or city arrest as an alternative to detention, citing the KUHAP. Such alternative measures, Prahesti said, would support the governments decision to grant early release and parole to thousands of inmates to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in detention and correctional facilities. As of mid-May, the government had released more than 39,000 inmates, resulting in a drop in the prison population to around 75 percent above the intended capacity from 106 percent above capacity. According to official records, 125 of the inmates granted early release have been reimprisoned for reoffending. The Law and Human Rights Ministrys Corrections Directorate General has deemed the policy a success. There is no new data available on COVID-19 cases in prisons, but on May 11, the directorate general had recorded only one confirmed case in a prison in Bojonegoro, East Java. Read also: Prisons less overcrowded thanks to early release of inmates over COVID-19 Reza Fikri Febriansyah from the ministry's Legislation Directorate General said alternatives to detention could help reduce overcrowding in jails and detention facilities, but admitted that law enforcement officers might find the measures difficult to enforce as the KUHAP did not outline clear mechanisms for their implementation. He said the KUHAP needed to be revised to resolve this issue, especially as it had not been revised in 39 years. However, Taufik Basari, a member of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said lawmakers had no plans to amend the KUHAP as they were occupied with revising the Criminal Code (KUHP), which is listed as one of the Houses priority bills this year. But activist Genoveva Alicia from the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) said that even without an amendment, the KUHAP provided sufficient means for law enforcement agencies to determine which suspects should be eligible to have their detention suspended. She cited provisions that stipulated that a suspect or defendant must be detained if they face charges that carry a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and above. Law enforcement authorities can simply play by the book before detaining suspects," Genoveva said. The Attorney General's Office, one of the law enforcement agencies with the authority to detain suspects, has been reluctant to embrace alternatives to detention out of concern for heightened risks, according to Agung Purnomo, the head for preprosecution programs under the assistant attorney general for general crimes. "If defendants are placed under house arrest, are there any guarantees they will show up to their trials and not run away? Not to mention the likelihood of the victims accusing us of being unfair, Agung said. "We are aware that we have the authority to implement alternative measures, but even so, we have to do it very carefully." Read also: Activists, experts caution against slapdash reform to tackle prison overcrowding When COVID-19 first hit Indonesia in March, activists were quick to warn the government that failing to act could expose the prison population to the virus. Many put the blame for Indonesias overcrowded prisons on the judicial system, the existing Criminal Code (KUHP) and the punitive attitude of the judiciary, prosecutors and law enforcement officers, particularly when it comes to drug crimes. But activists have also warned against speeding up deliberations of the KUHP on the pretext of the COVID-19 outbreak, expressing fear it could lead to excessive criminalization, given that the revised bill still included contentious provisions that would penalize activities in the private sphere, such as consensual sex and cohabitation among unmarried people. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 03:01:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close FRANKFURT, May 25 (Xinhua) -- German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG said on Monday that the federal government's Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) has approved a nine-billion-euro rescue package (9.8 billion U.S. dollars) for the company. Lufthansa said the WSF would provide up to 5.7 billion euros in the form of "silent participation" in the company's assets, of which nearly 4.7 billion euros would be classified as equity in accordance with related financial rules. Under German law, "silent participation" is unlimited in time and can be terminated by the company on a quarterly basis in whole or in part. The WSF will also acquire shares worth about 300 million euros in the form of a capital increase in order to build up a 20 percent stake in Lufthansa. The WSF may increase its stake to 25 percent plus one share in the event of a takeover of the company. Other measures in the package include a syndicated credit facility of up to three billion euros with the participation of state development bank KfW as well as private banks, with a term of three years. The conditions of the deal include a waiver of future dividend payments and restrictions on management remuneration. Two seats on the Supervisory Board are to be filled in agreement with the German government, one of which is to become a member of the audit committee, said the company. Noting that the Executive Board supports the package, the company said it still requires final approval from the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. It is also subject to the approval of the European Commission, the company added. Lufthansa was operationally healthy and profitable before the pandemic and has good prospects for the future, but it came into an existential emergency due to the coronavirus crisis, the WSF Committee, which consists of representatives of several federal ministries, said in a joint statement. The government's stabilization package takes into account the needs of the company as well as those of taxpayers and employees of the Lufthansa Group, the ministries said. In early May, Lufthansa revealed that it was in talks with the federal government on a rescue package to finance the troubled airline amid the coronavirus crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable damage to the aviation industry worldwide, with flights largely grounded due to the travel restrictions imposed by many countries. Preliminary results released in late April showed that Lufthansa's group revenues fell by 18 percent to 6.4 billion euros in the first quarter. In March alone, revenues declined by 47 percent. The group announced in mid-May that it would gradually resume services in June. It plans to offer around 1,800 weekly round trips to more than 130 destinations worldwide by the end of June. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) Enditem The arcs of their careers and personal lives have for years run on parallel tracks, like twin strands of DNA, winding from the military to test pilot school to the same NASA astronaut class, where both met their wives. Now Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are about to fly together in one of the most important launches NASA has attempted in years: a crewed test flight of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, set for Wednesday, if the weather cooperates. On Monday, the Space Force's weather office at Cape Canaveral predicted a 60% chance weather would prevent a launch. The mission would be the first launch of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, and the first by a private company of people to orbit. Scheduled for Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it would be the culmination of a long journey - for NASA, for SpaceX and for a pair of the agency's most seasoned astronauts, who have marched together in unusual lockstep to get to this point. Both are former military pilots who achieved the rank of colonel - Hurley in the Marine Corps, Behnken in the Air Force. Both were accepted to the NASA astronaut class of 2000 on their first try. Both have been to space twice before. Both are fathers to a young boy. Behnken is married to Megan McArthur, a NASA astronaut and oceanographer; Hurley is married to Karen Nyberg, who recently retired from the NASA astronaut corps. The couples joke that they often thank the head of the astronaut selection committee "for doing a great job of selecting spouses for us," McArthur said. In the past, NASA's astronauts may have been pitted against each other in ruthless competition for flight assignments, preening for the cameras and strutting their ego-fueled "Right Stuff" to orbit and back, always eager to get ahead. But Behnken and Hurley - Bob and Doug, as most everyone calls them - are more like a couple of self-effacing old pals, with an easygoing relationship shaped by a shared history that includes serving in each other's weddings and having trained side by side for this mission for five years. Their rapport, in the cockpit and in training, is fueled by trust and an intimate sense of each other, people who know them say, a sort of fraternal bond that allows them to tease each other as well as finish each other's sentences. It gives them a late-night-talk-show kind of chemistry, at turns goofy and sincere. Hurley is the obsessive-compulsive Marine, with a crisp flat-top, a penchant for order and a "repository" of "useless information," Behnken said. "He's the trivia master between the two of us." "Doug's worst habits?" Behnken said during a NASA promo video. "He's got a tighter sense of hygiene than I do." Their bond was evident earlier this month, when the pair, having finished yet another news conference, were sitting through questions asked through NASA's Instagram account, moving from ribbing to supporting each other in the span of a couple of minutes Hurley held his phone, scrolling. "How long did it take you to become an astronaut, Bob?" he asked, reading one of the questions. "Well, I was born in 1970, and I became an astronaut in 2000, so it took about 30 years," Behnken deadpanned. It was a wisecrack of an answer, a flair of wit after a long day of meetings and a news conference and now this social media hit. Hurley couldn't help himself from cracking up in laughter. "It took Doug longer," Behnken said, teasing his friend, still straight-faced. "No!" Hurley said. Then conceded: "Like, two years longer." "Yeah, two years is two years." Finally serious, Behnken traced his career: test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, "I got an engineering education," he said, "and a degree in physics - " "You got a PhD from Caltech!" Hurley interrupted. "I did." That kind of connection will serve them well on the upcoming mission, a risky test flight NASA officials say they were made for. The Crew Dragon spacecraft has flown just once before, in an uncrewed mission last year that officials from NASA and SpaceX said went flawlessly. But then the same spacecraft that flew to the space station and back exploded during a test of its emergency abort engines. It was a fiery setback that drove home the dangers of the mission to NASA as well as SpaceX. "I wanted to make sure everyone at SpaceX understood and knew Bob and Doug as astronauts, as test pilots - badass - but also as dads and husbands," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer. "I wanted to bring some humanity to this very deeply technical effort as well." One of the ways the company has done that, she said, was an idea that came from a technician, who "wanted to make sure that we had pictures of Bob and Doug on the work orders." Behnken has said his 6-year-old son, Theo, was nervous about him flying, and his astronaut parents have worked to make their extraordinary lives seem regular. "We try to make it as normal-seeming as possible," McArthur said in an interview. "We just talk about it as something that Mommy and Daddy do. This is our job. We've shown him videos of people living aboard the space station. We've taken him to see rockets launch from the Kennedy Space Center." It's still not clear how long the astronauts will be on the station. NASA has said the mission will last roughly between one month and four. Behnken flew on the space shuttle twice, once in 2008 and again two years later, spending a total of more than 708 hours in space and performing six spacewalks. In the Air Force, he flew more than 25 different kinds of aircraft, including as a test engineer for the F-22 Raptor. When he arrived at the Kennedy Space Center last week, he said he was excited by the mission, not just because of its historic significance, but also because it is the first flight of the spacecraft with crews. "As graduates of military test pilot schools, if you gave us one thing that we could have put on our list of dream jobs that we would have gotten to have someday, it would have been to be aboard a new spacecraft and conduct a test mission" Behnken said. Being on the ground, however, watching while the engines ignite and fire comes blasting out, will be far more difficult. "One of the hardest things to do is watch the person that you love launch into space," McArthur said. "It's much harder than actually doing it yourself when you're in the rocket. You have the training. You're prepared for the mission. "When you're watching, you're just a spectator. And no matter what happens, there's nothing you can do to contribute to the situation." Hurley is also a veteran of two shuttle missions, including the very last one, which brought a 30-year era to an end and signified a moment of transition for NASA. The day after the shuttle landed, hundreds lost their jobs, and NASA was suddenly unable to fly astronauts anywhere. "I remember when we landed just before dawn, but we were still in the vehicle as the sun came up," Hurley recalled. "People were walking up to the vehicle, and it was their last day, in many cases, of work. You felt like you had to honor those people." Asked on NASA's promo video what they were looking forward to most, Behnken said he expected the crescendo of their mission to end with a bit of seasickness christening once it's over and they splash down into the ocean. "I'm expecting a little bit of vomiting maybe to happen in the end," Behnken said, "so when we get to do that in the water together - it's kind of a weird thing to say - but I'm looking for that kind of celebratory event." Hurley said he was looking forward to just being there in the spacecraft, sitting next to Behnken. "We've been close friends since we started as astronauts almost 20 years ago," he said, "so being lucky enough to get to fly with your best friend is kind of a - I think there's a lot of people that wish they could do that, and we're lucky enough to do it. "We spent a ton of time together. We could have gone two directions with that. We could have gotten to the point where we didn't want to be around each other, or we're closer. So I think just the whole experience for me is what we're looking for. "And then, yes, the celebratory vomiting at the end of the mission." Sony has launched launched two new premium BRAVIA TVs in India as part of its X8000H and X7500H series. They both features X1 4K processors, 4K X-Reality PRO upscaling, Triluminous displays, X-Balanced Speakers, Android TV support and more. The Sony X8000H series will come in 6 sizes 216 cm (85), 189 cm (75), 165 cm (65), 140 cm (55), 123 cm (49) and 108 cm (43), while the X7500H series will come in 3 sizes 140 cm (55), 123 cm (49) and 108 cm (43). Running the X7500H TVs is the X1 4K picture processor, while the more expensive X8000H TVs will run the X14K HDR picture processor. Both TVs can upscale 2K and Full HD to 4K videos using the 4K X-Reality PRO engine while the TRILUMINOS display produces natural and precise colours for life-like images, with BRAVIA X8000H lineup also supporting Dolby Vision HDR. Android TV is built-in with Google Assistant integrated and the BRAVIA X8000H support even Apple AirPlay & Apple HomeKit. Both models are available for purchase across Sony Centers, major electronic stores and e-commerce portals in India. The 85X8000H available at an attractive best buy price of Rs. 5,99,990, 65X8000H at Rs. 1,39,990 and 55X7500H will be launched at Rs. 79,990. Sony is also offering additional 5% cashback on selected bank credit cards. ELK RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmers husband urged a business to get his boat in the water in time for Memorial Day weekend, according to social media posts, while she was publicly telling cooped-up residents to resist flocking to popular vacation areas during the coronavirus pandemic. Personal Facebook posts from NorthShore Dock owner Tad Dowker are no longer available. But The Detroit News reported that Dowkers staff last week took a call from Whitmers husband, Marc Mallory. This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend, Dowker posted, according to the News. Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen. Well our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?' Dowker posted. Whitmer, a Democrat, and Mallory own a property in the Elk Rapids area in the northern part of Michigans Lower Peninsula. NorthShore Dock subsequently said on Facebook that Mallory was respectful and understood why the company couldnt immediately get his boat in the water, the News reported. Our practice is not to discuss the governors or her familys personal calendar/schedules. And were not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online, Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said. The governor has lifted restrictions on Michigan residents traveling to second homes or taking a road trip. But she doesnt encourage it, saying the coronavirus is highly contagious. A small spike could put the hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly, Whitmer said. Thats precisely why were asking everyone to continue doing their part. Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett said Whitmers husband wasnt following her message. In the Army, we have a tradition that the leaders get in line for chow last behind everyone else in the unit, said Barrett, an Iraq War veteran. Her family is trying to cut people in line. AUGUSTA, Ga. (May 25, 2020) - More than a quarter century after the Gulf War, female veterans who saw combat have nearly a twofold risk of reporting more than 20 total medical symptoms, like cognition and respiratory troubles, than their fellow female veterans who were not deployed, investigators report. A sizeable percentage of the female combat veterans still report neurological symptoms; about two-thirds report difficulty remembering new information and trouble concentrating, investigators report in the Journal of Women's Health. An association with more headaches among the combat veterans also was reported and there were "strong associations" between deployment status and respiratory symptoms with 39% of combat veterans still reporting difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. More than half also report a low tolerance for heat and cold. "It's been over 25 years since the war ended and these are very persistent health outcomes," says Dr. Steven S. Coughlin, interim chief of the Division of Epidemiology in the Medical College of Georgia Department of Population Health Sciences. "This tells us that the way the Gulf War illness manifests itself may be different in female than male veterans, so it's important to take gender into account," says Coughlin. Twenty years ago, female Gulf War veterans were reporting similar problems, investigators say. The newly reported findings indicate the women are showing increased frequency of symptoms over time and above the rate that would be expected with normal aging, the investigators say. Their reported symptoms correspond with higher rates of diabetes, osteoporosis, thyroid problems, asthma and irritable bowel syndrome in this and similar groups. Additional studies are needed to find biomarkers of Gulf War illness in these former soldiers and effective treatments, they write. "We think this has a lot of importance for the health of these veterans and hopefully, when combined with information from other studies, it will lead to improved treatment," Coughlin says. Three hundred-and-one female Gulf War veterans from all military branches participated in the study, including 203 who were deployed and 98 who were not sent directly into a war zone. Other persistent problems war zone veterans report include about a third saying they frequently cough when they do not have a cold. Many of their reported symptoms fit the definition of Gulf War illness, which includes having at least three of six symptom categories that include fatigue, neurological/cognitive/mood problems, pain as well as respiratory, gastrointestinal and skin problems. Younger, non-white, female Army veterans were likely to report the most symptoms, they say. Their significant symptom burden would likely impact the veterans' quality of life and require medical evaluation and treatment, Coughlin and his colleagues write. "We are trying to fill in this gap in the published literature about Gulf War illness among women veterans because they have been greatly understudied," Coughlin says, referencing the first conflict in which the United States included a sizeable female contingent directly in warfare. The gender differences they are finding are consistent with earlier studies as well as other current ones coming out of Florida-based Nova Southeastern University, for example, where they are conducting a clinical trial to try to reverse some of the ill effects, he says. The findings also are more evidence that the female veterans of the Gulf War may have more chronic health issues and conditions than other groups of women generally or female veterans specifically. Coughlin theorizes that females may be more susceptible to some of the wartime hazards because on average their body size is smaller and because of other differences in physiology. "We can only speculate," he adds. When troops started to come home from the Middle East following the conflict that lasted from August 1990 through February 1991, they reported a constellation of symptoms, including headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, skin ailments, forgetfulness, fatigue, particularly after exertion, and musculoskeletal pain, says Coughlin, who served as a senior epidemiologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs Central Office in Washington, D.C. The leading theory early on was that it was a psychogenic illness, somewhat similar to the PTSD experienced by many Vietnam War veterans. Now the consensus is that much of it results from the neurological impact of neurotoxins soldiers on the frontline were exposed to, Coughlin says. "They were inundated with pesticides, there are a lot of biting flies and pests in that part of the world so they had uniforms infused with pesticides, a lot of them even wore a dog's flea collar for extra protection," he says. Soldiers also were asked to take pyridostigmine bromide, a drug given to patients with myasthenia gravis to improve muscle strength, prophylactically to help protect them from nerve agents in field, but the drug itself is mildly toxic to nerves and there is some evidence that, in combination with some of the insecticides used, it becomes more potent. "Every time the alarms went off, they would have to take these little white pills," Coughlin says. There were other environmental toxins as well, like blown up munitions factories and low dose exposure to sarin nerve gas and others. "It's similar to what you see among agricultural workers exposed to pesticides," he notes. The veterans also were exposed to hazards such as smoke from oil well fires and burn pits used to incinerate waste, the investigators write. The new study looked at the frequency and patterns of health symptoms in the female veterans as well as military service and lifestyle. The investigators theorized that symptoms associated with Gulf War illness would be more prominent in the women who saw conflict. They found the deployed veterans were significantly more likely to report seven symptoms consistent with Gulf War illness, including low tolerance for heat or cold, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, frequent coughing without having a cold, difficulty concentrating and remembering recent information, feeling down or depressed and anxious, the investigators write. Those deployed were more than twice as likely to report more total symptoms and nonwhites -- including American Indians, Alaska natives as well as Asian Americans and Pacific Islands Americans -- were four times more likely to report symptoms than whites. Older women were less likely than younger women to report symptoms and those enlisted in the Air Force and Navy were significantly less likely to report more symptoms than those in the Army. Participants in the study were a mean age of early 50s and other demographics, like race, ethnicity and education, were similar, but those who saw combat were more likely to have served in the Army or Navy and less likely to have served in the Air Force. They were taken from a national cohort of 1,318 Gulf War veterans created from the Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program 585 Gulf War Era Cohort and Biorepository pilot study. Outcomes of female veterans in the group have not been reported separately. Women comprised 7% of the 700,000 military personnel to serve in the Gulf War, the largest number of women to serve in a war zone in U.S. military history at that time. The influx of the some 50,000 female Gulf War veterans resulted in the establishment of specialty clinics for them at VA hospitals. Evidence indicates about 19% of women veterans still have delayed or unmet health care needs, possibly because of expanded military roles for women, including increased exposure to combat, the investigators write. Female veterans who have been involved in conflicts since the Vietnam War report higher rates of poor sleep quality, fatigue, insomnia, chronic pain, including headache and musculoskeletal complaints, respiratory problems and skin problems, as well as cognitive and mood related complaints, Coughlin and his colleagues write. ### Coauthors include Dr. Vahe Heboyan in the Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences in the College of Allied Health Sciences at Augusta University as well as colleagues at the Boston University School of Public Health and the Uniformed Services University Graduate School of Nursing in Bethesda. The research was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Gulf War Illness Research Program. Read the full study here. SCHENECTADY In 2019, there were three homicides in Schenectady, only one of them a gun-related killing. The year before, there were no fatal shootings in the city. In the span of four days last week, two men were gunned down on city streets. Police have refused to discuss motives or say if they have questioned any suspects in their investigations of the May 19 slaying of 48-year-old Fred Gentry in the Vale neighborhood and the Saturday shooting death of Duane Todman, 27, who was killed on the steps of a church in Hamilton Hill. The homicides come amid a looming financial crisis caused by revenue loss during the coronavirus pandemic that Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy has said may force him to lay off upward of 40 police officers unless the city receives federal funds as part of an aid package that's stalled in the U.S. Senate. The potential cuts, which could happen as early as next month, would also mean the loss of about three dozen firefighter and paramedics in the 114-member fire department. Other departments are likely to face job cuts too. McCarthy said the job cuts would plug a projected a $11.5 million budget gap caused by a dramatic drop in local tax revenue and a threatened loss of federal funding. On Monday, the mayor insisted he may have to move forward with the layoffs. The pronouncement has touched off a fierce debate among City Council members. Councilwoman Marion Porterfield said Monday the spate of violence reinforces her belief staffing in the police force should remain intact. The Hamilton Hill Democrat said police layoffs are "never a route that we should take, but this just makes it much more clear that we definitely need our law enforcement and stay at the level it is, if not increase it. I dont think that we can afford to lose any more officers out patrolling the streets. Police Chief Eric Clifford, who did not return a call Monday, has said he fears that a trimming his now 160-member force could signal a return to double-digit homicides when the city was plagued by gangs and drug dealing in years past. McCarthy said Monday he is making calls to ensure the city gets federal funds and staves off what he believes could become a long-term financial crisis. I have to balance the budget, you tell me where I get the money from, he said. Im looking at how do I not do any of those things, but if I don't get some assistance from the federal government, I have to make some cuts. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Schenectady is not the only municipality facing fiscal uncertainty during the pandemic. Faced with a potential $20-million budget gap, Albany earlier this month began laying off so called non-essential workers. To save money, Saratoga Springs is weighing 90-day furloughs for its employees. McCarthy said homicides are the hardest to predict and the hardest to prevent, saying he doesn't see the two killings as a trend. Im not going into this debate over one event or two events, its the overall trend, he said. Crime is going in the right direction and its because were staffing at adequate levels. If I dont have the money, I cant continue to do that. McCarthy also mentioned that the fire department on one day last week handled four fires, including one that killed a man at a home Elmer Avenue. Porterfield said that she has also gotten calls from city residents concerned about the possible cuts. People need to feel safe, thats the bottom line, she said. The Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' is all set to address the heads of whopping 45,000 Higher Education Institutions on May 28, at 3 pm, at a webinar organised by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). The minister will be speaking on the topic Turn challenges into opportunities: COVID-19 pandemic and measures to combat by Higher Education institutions of India. "Interacting LIVE with 45,000 HEIs on May 28 at 3 PM via a webinar (organised by @NAAC_India). I will be talking about turning the challenges of #COVID19 pandemic into opportunities. Feel free to share your suggestion/query with me on @DrRPNishank (my handle) or @HRDMinistry," the minister tweeted. "At a time when a pandemic like Corona is causing distress to many in the world. We need to look for solutions to fight this crisis," he said in a video. The minister had previously conducted webinars during the lockdown to address the concerns faced by the parents of students. Many academic activities including examinations, assessments and regular classes were postponed or suspended, owing to the lockdown. While a lot of institutions have pushed for online classes, teachers' and students' bodies all over the country have raised their voices against them. The event will be coordinated by S C Sharma, Director, NAAC. One can register themselves for the event through www.naac.gov.in. They can also watch it live on the council's Facebook and Twitter handles. NAAC is an autonomous body under the UGC, which was set up to accredit higher education institutes in the country. It is headquartered in Bengaluru. The accountancy watchdog has launched yet another inquiry into PwC and KPMG this time over their audits of Eddie Stobart Logistics. The green-and-red liveried lorry company almost tumbled into administration last year, after revealing several million-pound errors in past accounts. It was saved by the private equity firm Dbay Advisors, which now owns a majority stake in the firm. Eddie Stobart Logistics almost tumbled into administration last year, after revealing several million-pound errors in past accounts But investors and savers who owned shares in Eddie Stobart Logistics were left disappointed as the value of their stake plunged dramatically. Shares are still 90 per cent lower than they were a year ago. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has said that it will begin two probes. One will be into KPMGs audit of Eddie Stobart for the year to November 2017, and the other will look into PwCs audit the following year. The investigations come as the latest blow for Britains Big Four accountants, which include EY and Deloitte as well as PwC and KPMG. The FRC is currently working on eight disclosed investigations into audits which have been completed by the Big Four, of companies ranging from travel firm Thomas Cook to outsourcer Carillion. KPMG and PwC both said they would co-operate fully with the watchdogs investigations into Eddie Stobart audits. PwC also began an overhaul of its audit department last year to improve quality. But the sector has come under pressure to implement a more radical reform. A report by Sir Donald Brydon last year recommended that the audit industry should be entirely separated from accounting. And other experts have called for a break-up of the Big Four firms. Shares in Eddie Stobart Logistics, which now owns less than half of the actual operating company following the Dbay rescue, edged up 5,6 per cent, or 0.45p, to 8.55p. :1% 20200526 16:20:52 : : :1% Stock Code: 200771 Stock ID: Hangqilun B Announcement No. 2020-36 Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. Announcement on the share repurchase ratio reaching 1% and the progress of the repurchase The members of the Board and the Company acknowledge being responsible for the truthfulness, accuracy, and completeness of the announcement. Not any false record, misleading statement or significant omission carried in this announcement. Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. held the second Provisional shareholders' general meeting of 2019 on December 10, 2019, in which the "Proposal on the share repurchase of the Companys Shares" was reviewed and approved. And disclosed the "Company Repurchase Share Report" Announcement No.:2019-79. According to the relevant provisions of the Implementation Rules of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on the share repurchase by Listed Companies, During the implementation of the repurchase, For every 1% increase in the proportion of repurchased shares in the company s total share capital, it should be disclosed within three days from the date of the fact.The progress of the company's share repurchase is announced as follows: As of May 25,2020,The Company brought back the 7,546, 422 Company's shares for the first time through a special securities trading account for shares repurchase, and those shares account for about 1% of the Company's total share capital, with the highest transaction price is 8.52 HKD / share and the lowest transaction price is 7.22HKD / share and the total transaction amount is 60,765,548.86HKD. The company's repurchase is in compliance with the established repurchase plan disclosed by the company and in accordance with the "Implementation Rules for the Repurchase of Shares by Listed Companies on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange". The Company will continue to implement this repurchase plan during the repurchase implementation period according to market conditions, and will promptly perform its information disclosure obligations in accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and regulatory documents. Hereby, Investors are kindly requested to pay attention to investment risks. This announcement is hereby made. The Board of Directors of Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. May 27,2020 Stock Code: 200771 Stock ID: Hangqilun B Announcement No. 2020-36Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd.Announcement on the share repurchase ratio reaching 1% and the progressof the repurchaseThe members of the Board and the Company acknowledge being responsible for the truthfulness,accuracy, and completeness of the announcement. Not any false record, misleading statement orsignificant omission carried in this announcement.Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. held the second Provisional shareholders' general meeting of2019 on December 10, 2019, in which the "Proposal on the share repurchase of the CompanysShares" was reviewed and approved. And disclosed the "Company Repurchase Share Report"Announcement No.:2019-79.According to the relevant provisions of the Implementation Rules of the Shenzhen StockExchange on the share repurchase by Listed Companies, During the implementation of therepurchase, For every 1% increase in the proportion of repurchased shares in the company s total share capital, it should be disclosed within three days from the date of the fact.The progress ofthe company's share repurchase is announced as follows:As of May 25,2020,The Company brought back the 7,546, 422 Company's shares for the firsttime through a special securities trading account for shares repurchase, and those shares accountfor about 1% of the Company's total share capital, with the highest transaction price is 8.52 HKD /share and the lowest transaction price is 7.22HKD / share and the total transaction amount is60,765,548.86HKD.The company's repurchase is in compliance with the established repurchase plan disclosed bythe company and in accordance with the "Implementation Rules for the Repurchase of Shares byListed Companies on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange".The Company will continue to implement this repurchase plan during the repurchaseimplementation period according to market conditions, and will promptly perform its informationdisclosure obligations in accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and regulatory documents.Hereby, Investors are kindly requested to pay attention to investment risks.This announcement is hereby made.The Board of Directors of Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd.May 27,2020 STEPANAKERT, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh Republic President Arayik Harutyunyan signed a range of decrees on May 26, the Presidential Office told Armenpress. According to the decrees lieutenant-general Lyova Mnatsakanyan was released from the post of the head of the Artsakh Republic Police upon his own request. Colonel of the Police Ashot Hakobjanyan was appointed head of the Artsakh Republic Police being released from the position of deputy head of the Artsakh Republic Police. Head of the Artsakh Republic Police, Colonel of the Police Ashot Hakobjanyan was conferred the rank of the major-general of the Police. New Delhi: Worried about security risks arising out of in-flight selfies, aviation regulator DGCA may soon ask airlines to strictly enforce a ban on taking pictures inside cockpit and at other critical places, including by crew members. While existing rules also put some restrictions on in-flight photography, the regulator will come out with a detailed set of guidelines in a few days in the wake of certain cases coming to the light about possible security risks from clicking cockpit selfies. With increased use of smart devices, there have been many instances of travellers as well as crew members, including pilots, clicking photographs inside flights. Against this backdrop, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is working on guidelines for airlines that would cover various aspects of photography inside an aircraft including selfies. A senior DGCA official today said the regulator would be soon coming with a circular in this regard, mostly likely next week. It will be a safety circular for providing guidance to airlines, the official said, even as he made it clear that there are already rules in place for photograph at aerodromes or from aircraft in flight. According to the official, the circular would cover issues such as whether photography is permitted in cockpit including selfies. The aspects like at what stage of a flight can ground photography be permitted might also included in the circular, he added. Recently, six pilots of IndiGo came under the scanner of DGCA for allegedly taking pictures in the cockpit with family members. Under the Aircraft Rules, 1937, photography from an aircraft in flight is prohibited unless there is prior permission from authorities concerned. For all the Latest Business News, Economy News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. PARIS (Reuters) - French government measures to prop up the economy through the coronavirus crisis have cost 450 billion euros (402 billion), the equivalent of 20% of gross domestic product, the finance minister said on Monday. Since mid March, the government has implemented a package of measures, including state-subsidised furloughs, state-guaranteed loans, tax deferrals and handouts to small businesses. "If we take everything that has been done with the budget and in support of businesses' cashflows, it's 450 billion euros, 20% of the nation's wealth on the table," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on BFM TV. He added that state-guaranteed loans, for which a total 300 billion-euro limit has been set, only had a direct impact on the budget if the borrower went bankrupt and the guarantee had to be used. So far, the government has budgeted 110 billion euro, in direct crisis support for the economy, but is due to update that figure with a bill revising the 2020 budget on June 10. Among the most costly measures are the state-subsidised furloughs, which Le Maire said the government would make less generous for companies starting in June. During the crisis, the state has fully reimbursed firms for 70% of the gross wages paid to furloughed employees, but Le Maire said that the amount paid to companies would be gradually reduced. Sectors hit particularly hard by the coronavirus outbreak are to benefit from specific support plans. The government has already produced one for the tourism industry. One for carmakers is due on Tuesday and a third for aerospace is expected before the revised budget bill in June. Le Maire said that President Emmanuel Macron would announce "strong measures" for carmakers that would boost demand, but which would require them to re-locate some production in France in exchange. (Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Toby Chopra, Larry King) Russia has begun building a prototype of its first stealth bomber which should be completed next year, the state-controlled TASS news agency reported on Tuesday, citing two sources in the military-industrial complex. When completed and operational, the new plane will be able to carry an array of advanced missiles and bombs, including hypersonic weapons, TASS said. The aircraft, known as the PAK DA, will compete with the U.S. B-2 strategic stealth bomber which entered service in 1997. China is also developing its own stealth bomber - the Xian H-20. Russia has already developed its own stealth fighter, the Sukhoi-57. It first flew in 2010 but has yet to be manufactured in large numbers. Search Keywords: Short link: An 80-year-old woman was recently taken to the hospital after she drowned on Monday evening, in a swimming pool. She is currently in critical condition. The drowning took place, Captain Kenny Overton, Phoenix Fire Department spokesman said, at a residence in a Phoenix's Ahwatukee neighborhood, specifically "near Elliot Road and 44th Street. Overton added, bystanders, pulled the 80-year-old from the pool "and performed CPR." Meanwhile, the person who contacted 911 to report the woman's drowning did not know how long the victim had been drowned. Following the incident, firefighters had arrived and took the old lady in critical condition was taken to the hospital. No further details were provided. Nearly Drowned on Memorial Day Before the news about the 80-year-old woman's drowning came out, earlier on, according to officials, a 60-year-old man, also in critical condition, on Memorial Day, was brought to the hospital after also possibly drowning in Phoenix. Authorities, on Monday afternoon, responded to a phone call in the area of Thunderbird Road and 43rd Avenue. Overton said, the senior was brought to the hospital and is also in critical condition. Presently, Sgt. Maggie Cox, the Phoenix Police Department spokeswoman said, there is no further information available to specify if a suspicious circumstance or foul play is related to the occurrence. An investigation is currently ongoing. Early April Incident In early April, firefighters also rescued an 85-year-old man who was already unresponsive when pulled out of a backyard pool Tuesday morning at a home, also in Phoenix. According to Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Rob McDade, crews of the department responded to a residence near West Beryl Avenue and West Dalphin Road after they received reports of an unresponsive resident. Right after the incident, the 85-year-old who was already in critical condition, McDade said, was taken to the hospital. Kids are prone to drowning, too, and this was proven in a review that came out several years back. Specifically, the Arizona Child Fatality Review program, in 2014, indicated that drowning turned out to be the third most typical cause of accidental injury-related fatalities. More so, the same review identified that during that year, more than 25 children died because of accidental drowning. Relatively, the group, most likely to have the highest risk or biggest possibility of drowning, belongs to children aged one to four. According to the AZ Child Fatality Review, the sad age range accounts for 58 percent of the drowning mortalities specifically in the year 2014. That is why the said fatality review came up with some recommendations which the organization found were "effective interventions" to avoid accidental drowning. These included focused supervision, self-latching gate or a "four-sided isolation fencing with self-closing," and the child's ability to swing by the time he or she reaches eight years old, according to the National Safe Kids Campaign. Also, the study suggested that water safety is not just essential by the pool. Accidental drowning at home may happen too when kids, and even the elderly, are not closely watched while they are bathing or inside the bathroom, near the toilet, bath, or sink. Check these out! African Tour Concert Director and former partner of Nigerian rapper, Skales, Konjo Leyla, has waded into the supremacy battle between top Nigerian artistes, Davido and Burna Boy. However, Leyla stated that Davido is the King when it comes to overall African music. According to her, David is the best because Burna Boy still has a lot of work to do in some African countries. She said, as of this moment, its too early to crown Burna Boy as he needs more years to wear the crown. She went on to reveal that Davido is in high demand in most African countries. Read excerpts from her Instagram live chat below, Now here is the thing, at the moment, most people feel like Burna Boy is the biggest artist in Africa, I dont feel like that, he is not. Because the reason why he is not is that he still has more work to do in the countries in Africa. This is a true story when it comes to Africa, David is the king, believe or not, period!. Nobody can take away that from him when it comes to overall Africa. Let me tell you why I have booked so many shows for David. 95% of bookings are David, the demand is so high. Nigerians are probably going to say Wizkid and Burna Boy are bigger, but they cant tell me that when it comes to East Africa, we know David is the king. ARCHIVED - Ryanair announces flights to Spain from 1st July....last week they were cancelling flights to Spain Last week Thousands of passengers received messages advising them that their flights to Spain in early July had been cancelled! Its certainly been a week of changing landscapes, as the Spanish Government has done a complete U-turn in its stance towards foreign tourists visiting Spain this summer, and now it appears Ryanair has done the same!. Last week the Spanish Prime Minister was standing determinedly by his message that the health and well-being of Spanish residents took priority over everything else and that Spain would only open when the time was right to do so. Just last week border closures were extended and a 14- day quarantine imposed, the message loud and clear that Spain wasnt ready to open its borders just yet. The PM knows its a risk, knows that every contact increases the chance of the virus returning to Spain, but also knows that if he follows his instincts and tries to protect the population from possible death by Covid, then he will face political dismemberment by the opposition parties when Spain enters a major recession this autumn. Hes caught between a rock and a hard place and can do no right, whichever path he chooses. So, Spain has opted to allow in the foreign tourists and re-activate its important job-generating tourism sector for the summer. Last week Ryanair messaged thousands of clients who had taken up the offer of early July flights to Spain informing them that their flights to Spain had been cancelled. But that was last week!! And this is now!!! Here is the press release from Ryanair: "Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Spain Now Open For Holidays Ryanair, Europes largest low fares airline, today (Tues 26 May) confirmed it plans to operate 40% of its normal July flight schedule, as Spain this weekend, announced it would remove travel and visitor restrictions from 1 July, mirroring earlier plans announced by Italy, Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal to reopen their hotels and beaches for the key July-Aug family holiday season. Ryanair will be offering daily flights from countries all over Northern Europe including Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Holland, Germany to the key holiday airports of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus from 1 July. To celebrate the lifting of these travel restrictions across Europe, Ryanair has launched a seat sale for travel in July & Aug with fares starting from just 29.99 one way, but these seats must be booked by midnight Thurs 28 May." Ryanairs CEO Eddie Wilson said: After 4 months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by Governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines. Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations, for July & Aug before the schools return in Sept. Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from 1 July, and we have a range of low fare seat sales, perfect for that summer getaway, which we know many parents and their kids will be looking forward to as we move out of lockdown and into the school holidays. All Ryanair flights will operate with new health guidelines in place, which will require all passengers (and Ryanair crews) to wear face masks at all times in the airport terminals and on board our aircraft, in compliance with EU guidelines. We look forward to welcoming millions of Ryanair passengers and their families back on board, and flying them on holiday as Europes economies begin to recover from these difficult recent lockdowns, which have been so successful in reversing the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Here we go again!!!!!!!! Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Murcia region: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/ OTTAWA - New Democrats joined forces Tuesday with the governing Liberals to waive normal House of Commons proceedings for another four months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stands during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Monday, May 25, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA - New Democrats joined forces Tuesday with the governing Liberals to waive normal House of Commons proceedings for another four months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they voted in favour of a government motion to continue with an expanded version of the special COVID-19 committee that has acted as a stand-in for the chamber over the past month. The motion passed by a vote of 28-23 in a skeleton House of Commons, with Liberal, NDP and Green MPs supporting it. The Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs who had argued for a resumption of normal Commons operations with a reduced number of MPs in the chamber voted against. As a result, the special committee will resume sitting Wednesday but in a new hybrid format, with a small number of MPs in the Commons and others participating virtually via two large screens set up on either side of the Speaker's chair. The committee which has been meeting twice a week virtually and once a week in person with reduced numbers in the Commons will now meet four times each week for the next month and four times over the summer. A previous restriction that prevented MPs from asking questions on issues other than the pandemic will also be lifted. The Commons has been largely adjourned since mid-March, when the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly virus that causes COVID-19. It has met only briefly to pass emergency aid legislation and several times to come to agreement on how the chamber should function while the pandemic continues. The last agreement expired Monday, triggering a brief resumption of "normal" proceedings in the Commons, with only about 50 of the country's 338 MPs actually in the chamber. Prior to the vote, Conservative and Bloc MPs contended that continuing normal operations in the Commons is necessary for the proper functioning of Canada's democracy. They argued that the special committee structure does not allow MPs to use all the tools they would normally use in the Commons to hold the government to account, including opposition days, introducing motions, posing written questions and debating and voting on legislation on topics other than the novel coronavirus. Conservative House leader Candice Bergen called the special committee "feeble" and a "fake Parliament." However, until the issue of how MPs can vote electronically is resolved, Liberals and New Democrats maintained the special committee is the best way to continue since it allows all 338 MPs to be involved in the proceedings not just those who are in the chamber. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier Tuesday that there are still limitations in allowing MPs to vote virtually that would effectively disenfranchise millions of Canadians whose representatives would have no official say on government policies. "I think it would be important to ensure that Canadians across the country have an ability to make their voices and decisions heard in Parliament through that process. That continues to be something we are working on," he said. The motion calls on the procedure and House affairs committee to further study how a secure electronic voting system could be set up. The committee has heard from experts that there may be constitutional and technical concerns over electronic voting, which may also violate traditional principles of parliamentary procedure. But Bloc MP Stephane Bergeron contended that the issue of voting is a "fallacious argument" being used to "silence Parliament." He maintained that a solution to electronic voting could have been found had MPs put their minds to it. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Bergeron also accused the government of secretly negotiating a deal to secure the NDP's support for continuing with the COVID-19 committee format, including a promise to work with the provinces to ensure workers are allowed at least 10 days of paid sick leave during the pandemic. That is an intrusion into provincial jurisdiction, he said. Because the Liberals hold only a minority of seats in the Commons, they need the support of at least one of the main opposition parties to pass the motion. Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez chided the Bloc which had refused to take part in the most recent negotiations about the future of the Commons because it maintained the government had reneged on previous agreements for going off to "sulk in a corner." New Democrat MP Charlie Angus went after the Conservatives, saying it's "pretty rich" for them to complain about shutting down Parliament when the previous minority government of Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament altogether in 2008 to avoid defeat in a confidence vote. They'll be able to resume "howling at the moon, the abuse of the privileges of the most privileged people in Canada" in September but, in the meantime, he argued there's work to get done to help Canadians weather the COVID-19 crisis. "I want to get to that work tomorrow so that we can start to drill down and ask serious questions of ministers, where we have a good period of time to actually go through the issues, push, find out and insist on responses. So let's just get down to it," Angus said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Around 200 tricycle drivers in Mandaluyong City tested positive for COVID-19 through rapid diagnostic testing. They are among some 7,000 drivers who went through coronavirus testing in Mandaluyong, the city public information office told CNN Philippines on Tuesday. The patients are all asymptomatic and under observation, the city government said. They have been isolated, some are in quarantine facilities, others are under home quarantine, while awaiting results of their confirmatory swab test. The city government began testing of tricycle drivers last Thursday since they were allowed to resume operations under the modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila. They should take only one passenger at a time to practice social distancing to prevent further spread of the virus. Drivers need certification that they are negative for COVID-19 before they can ply their routes again, the city's public information office said. Mandaluyong has 651 confirmed COVID-19 cases, based on the city government's monitoring as of Tuesday. Of this number, 54 died while 326 have recovered from the viral illness. Metro Manila mayors are now recommending a shift to general community quarantine to allow more industries to reopen on June 1. Many of the 6,300 Philadelphia teachers who responded to a survey have concerns about returning to school buildings before a COVID-19 vaccine is developed. Read more Ahead of a likely in-person September return to school, more than 6,300 Philadelphia educators weighed in on what reopening school might look like. School-based staff who expressed concern about reopening under any circumstances before a COVID-19 vaccine is developed overwhelmingly believe a hybrid model will work best when the 2020-21 school year opens. Many support a staggered schedule where groups of students return on various days of the week; most believe the Philadelphia School District must make provisions for immunocompromised staff and students to work and learn remotely. And while some teachers think bringing children back into brick-and-mortar locations in September is of utmost importance, others were less sure. Teachers WILL die if schools reopen too early, one teacher wrote in the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers survey compiled this month and released Tuesday. Students WILL get exposed and potentially [suffer] long-term consequences of the virus we dont yet know enough about. Opening schools amid COVID-19 will be tricky for schools around the world, but large districts that educate significant numbers of low-income children face specific hurdles, said Jerry Jordan, PFT president. We had challenges before there was a pandemic concerns about basic things, like building cleanliness, soap, hand sanitizer. There has been a shortage of cleaners, said Jordan. The union sent the survey to its 13,000 members including teachers, classroom assistants, nurses, counselors, and other school workers to gauge concerns and ideas as school and city officials plan the eventual return to buildings; 6,325 responded. READ MORE: Why many Philly students arent logging on for school, and what that could mean for September Questions abound: How will students in already-overcrowded schools implement social distancing? Where will children eat lunch, and pass in hallways? How will children whose families struggle to buy school uniforms provide masks, too? It seems obvious that class size reductions would be an absolute minimum requirement, one teacher said in the survey. To allow minimally six feet of personal space, the average room will contain only 10 to 12 students in early primary grades, even fewer because of more random movement. Class sizes currently cap at 30 in Philadelphias early grades, with 33 students permitted in higher grades. School staff expressed significant concerns about their most vulnerable students, including children with special needs. Autistic students with sensory issues will not wear masks, one teacher said. I am concerned about the implementation for our youngest and special education students, another wrote. How do you teach phonics and oral language with a mask on?" READ MORE: Teaching through coronavirus: Phillys star educators, winners of Lindback prizes, tell all Whenever they return to school, students will need more access to more mental health services, teachers said; the pandemic has traumatized young people who already struggled with trauma. If health officials recommend students do not share materials, that will be an issue for the cash-strapped district, where students share books, gym equipment, musical instruments, and other items. If students are to come to specialists rooms, there will be 150+ students circulating through my room in a day, one teacher wrote. Students will also be sharing a variety of materials and it is unrealistic that I will be able to sanitize all materials between classes and at the end of day. Staff offered suggestions for returning to school. One proposal: staggered schedules, with some students coming in Mondays and Wednesdays and others Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Fridays online for children and staff, allowing for buildings to be deep-cleaned. Another possibility is a morning/afternoon schedule with children rotating in. Some suggested prioritizing opening schools for elementary students, who struggle more with remote learning, and requiring more rigorous and sustained distance learning for students who can be home alone." If staggered or shortened schedules are considered, how will this impact parents who work full time and are not able to stay home with their child every other day, or for half the school day? What procedures will be in place to provide supervision for students who are not picked up/dropped off on the correct day or at the correct time? another teacher asked. Staff were concerned with many students lacking internet access and wanted to know how health guidelines will be enforced once children return to buildings. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has said that working groups are in the process of planning school reopening and will consider the input of the PFT, teachers, parents, and students. Jordan said he has been in one meeting about school reopening to date, but expects the information shared by his members will be considered by officials going forward. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 12:27:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Coast Guard rescued more than 300 illegal immigrants and brought them back to the capital Tripoli, the United Nations Higher Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) said Monday. "Today at dawn, Libyan Coast Guard returned to Tripoli 315 refugees and migrants after being intercepted/rescued at sea aboard several boats," the UNHCR tweeted. "Two persons lost their lives and their bodies were recovered. UNHCR partner IRC (International Rescue Committee) was on site to provide urgent medical care to all survivors," the UNHCR said. At least five boats carrying nearly 400 people attempted to flee Libya during the previous 48 hours, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said earlier Monday. The IOM reiterated call for ending returns of rescued migrants to Libya and establishing a safe alternative disembarkation mechanism. After the fall of the late leader Gaddafi's government in 2011, Libya has become a preferred point of departure for thousands of illegal immigrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean towards European shores. Enditem The coronavirus pandemic has hammered Latin America, with Brazil the latest epicentre of the disease The WHO suspended trials of the drug that Donald Trump has promoted as a coronavirus defence, fuelling concerns about the US president's handling of the pandemic that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans. Trump has led the push for hydroxychloroquine as a potential shield or treatment for the virus, which has infected nearly 5.5 million people and killed 345,000 around the world, saying he took a course of the drug as a preventative measure. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has also heavily promoted hydroxychloroquine while the virus has exploded across nation, which this week became the second most infected in the world after the United States. But the World Health Organization said Monday it was halting testing of the drug for COVID-19 after studies questioned its safety, including one published Friday that found it actually increased the risk of death. The WHO "has implemented a temporary pause... while the safety data is reviewed", its chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, referring to the hydroxychloroquine arm of a global trial of various possible treatments. Trump announced last week he was taking the drug, explaining he had decided to take after receiving letters from a doctor and other people advocating it. Timeline on what the experts have said about the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine in the COVID-19 pandemic. "I think it's good. I've heard a lot of good stories," Trump told reporters then, as he declared it safe. Trump dismissed the opinions then of his own government's experts who had warned of the serious risks associated with hydroxychloroquine, with the Food and Drug Administration highlighting reported poisonings and heart problems. Trump has been heavily criticised for his handling of the virus, after initially downplaying the threat and then repeatedly rejecting scientific analysis. The United States has by far the world's highest coronavirus death toll, reaching 98,218 on Monday, with more than 1.6 million confirmed infections. Despite the WHO suspension, Brazil's health ministry said Monday it would keep recommending hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. "We're remaining calm and there will be no change," health ministry official Mayra Pinheiro told a news conference. Spanish healthcare workers call for a reinforced healthcare system outside the Gregorio Maranon hospital in Madrid Bolsonaro is a staunch opponent of lockdown measures and like Trump has played down the threat of the virus, even as Latin America has emerged as the new global virus hotspot. Brazil has reported nearly 375,000 cases, widely considered to be far fewer than the real number because of a lack of testing, and more than 23,000 deaths. Chile also is in the grip of a virus surge, with a record of nearly 5,000 infections in 24 hours on Monday. 'Thrilled to break the isolation' While South America and parts of Africa and Asia are only just beginning to feel the full force of the pandemic, many European nations are easing lockdowns as their outbreaks are brought under control. In hard-hit Spain, Madrid and Barcelona on Monday emerged from one of the world's strictest lockdowns, with parks and cafe terraces open for the first time in more than two months. Children wear face masks at a primary school in Abidjan on the first day day after the resumption of classes after a COVID-19 lockdown Elsewhere, gyms and swimming pools reopened in Germany, Iceland, Italy and Spain. And slowing infection rates in Greece allowed restaurants to resume business a week ahead of schedulebut only for outdoor service. "I'm thrilled to break the isolation of recent months and reconnect with friends," said pensioner Giorgos Karavatsanis. "The cafe in Greece has a social dimension, it's where the heart of the district beats." Despite the encouraging numbers, experts have warned that the virus could hit back with a devastating second wave if governments and citizens are careless, especially in the absence of a vaccine. The latest reminder of the threat came from Sweden, where the COVID-19 death toll crossed 4,000a much higher figure than its neighbours. The Scandinavian nation has gained international attentionand criticismfor not enforcing stay-at-home measures like other European countries. Crowds flock to a beach in Bournemouth, England, following the easing of some lockdown restrictions 'What will happen if I die' The extended lockdowns, however, have started to bite globally, with businesses and citizens wearying of confinement and suffering immense economic pain. Unprecedented emergency stimulus measures have been introduced, as governments try to provide relief to their economies, with the airline and hospitality sectors hit particularly hard because of travel bans. Lufthansa became the latest major global company to be rescued, as the German government agreed a 9 billion euros ($9.8 billion) bailout for one of the world's biggest airlines. But analysts have warned that the pandemic's economic toll will be even more painful for countries far poorer than Western nations. In the Maldives, a dream destination for well-heeled honeymooners, tens of thousands of impoverished foreign labourers have been left stranded, jobless and ostracised as the tiny nation shut all resorts to stop the virus. Health workers sanitize private vehicles and taxis to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Escobedo, Mexico Flight attendants walk out of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad as domestic flights resume after the government eased some of its virus lockdown restrictions Thais are continuing to return to work following the lifting of restrictions to halt the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus "We need money to survive. We need our work," said Zakir Hossain, who managed to send about 80 percent of his $180 a month wage to his wife and four children in Bangladesh before the outbreak. "I heard that if a Bangladeshi worker dies here, they don't send his body back and he is buried here," he said. "I am worried what will happen if I die." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP In his thoroughly researched and reported book, replete with human detail and probing insight, DePalma, a former foreign correspondent for The New York Times, renders a Cuba few tourists will ever see. He burrows deep into one enclave of Havana, the historic borough of Guanabacoa, some three miles southeast of the capital. Lying across the famous harbor from the city center, Guanabacoa is close enough to have ties to Havanas businesses, politics and culture, he writes. Yet it operates at its own speed, with its own idiosyncrasies and an overriding sense, as one Cuban told me, of geographic fatalism that comes from being so close to the capital, yet so very hard to reach from there. Famous for its Santeria and Indigenous history, with grand 18th-century mansions now gone to ruin, Guanabacoa is home to the diverse and colorful individuals who populate this book. At the heart of its tightly braided narrative is Caridad Limonta, whose complicated story we trace from a childhood of abject poverty to her engineering studies in Kyiv and, finally, to a triumphant rise to the post of Cubas vice minister of light industry, one of few Afro-Cuban women in that lofty realm. A fierce revolutionary dedicated to the communist vision, she passes from euphoria to disillusionment, given the racism and machismo she finds along her way. Finally, she comes to the gnawing recognition that hers is a life of unimaginable privilege (the coveted apartment, the superior medical attention, the special favors, the car and chauffeur). Suffering from a failing heart, Caridad removes herself from her exalted position and reinvents herself as a seamstress. There is Arturo Montoto, a Moscow-trained artist, whose trajectory from nowhere to internationally known painter confirms the Cuban lesson that if you become famous beyond your borders, you become untouchable can do what you like, live well. Or Jorge Garcia, a veteran of the Angolan wars, who, in the course of one starless night, lost all faith in the system. It was during 1994, the nadir for Cubas struggling economy, that 14 members of Jorges family stole out of Havanas harbor in the night in a tugboat named the 13 de Marzo. As they frantically tried to escape toward Florida, their rickety vessel was rammed and sunk by the Cuban Coast Guard, killing more than half the passengers. The episode provoked fury around the globe. And then there is the hard-working, no-nonsense hospital worker Lili Durand Hernandez, who has no other recourse in lean times than to lock her demented father in a closet and muck it out every morning as if he were a caged beast. If this sounds like something out of Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo, it is because it is. During what Castro called the special period, after the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States imposed a punishing trade embargo and Cuba was abandoned to rampant shortages and deprivation; the people of Guanabacoa did what all Cubans had to do to survive: fry up banana peels to dull hunger, grind a few dried peas to brew coffee, scrounge a scrap of gristle from a slaughterhouse and roam the streets, luchando Cuban for stealing, cheating, hustling or subverting the system. Bengaluru, May 26 : Returnees from domestic travel to three Indian states led to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Karnataka with 101 new infections, raising the state's tally to 2,283, an official said on Tuesday. "New cases reported from Monday 5 p.m. to Tuesday noon, 101," said a health official. In the past 19 hours, 81 people who returned from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, 46 per cent or 47 cases had an inter-state travel history to Maharashtra, India's COVID hotspot. Similarly, 21 per cent or 21 cases had inter-state travel history to southern state Tamil Nadu, a bigger COVID sufferer than Karnataka. Likewise, 13 returnees from Jharkhand have also tested positive. Incidentally, four new cases also had international travel history to Qatar. Eighty four per cent of the new cases had travel history, dwarfing the number of people contracting the disease through contacts. Unlike before, most positive cases in the state nowadays are people with a travel history to Maharashtra, India's COVID hotspot. In the past 24 hours, only 12 contracted the virus from earlier positive cases, constituting just 12 per cent of the new cases. A 47-year-old woman from Davangere is suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A 27-year-old man from Koppal is suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI). Similarly, another 55-year-old woman from Davangere is suffering from ILI. Among the new cases, 72 are men and 29 are female, including five cases below 10 years of age. Of the new cases, Chitradurga contributed (20), Afollowed by Yadagiri (14), Belagavi and Hassan (13 each), Davangere (11), Bidar (10), Vijayapura (6), Udupi (3), Bengaluru Urban (2), Chikkaballapura, Ballari and Koppal (1 each). As many as 43 patients got discharged in the past 24 hours, 17 from Bagalkote, 14 in Belagavi, seven from Uttara Kannada, two from Gadag and one each in Kalaburagi, Bengaluru Urban and Chikkaballapura. Of all the cases, 1,489 are active, 748 discharges and 18 patients are admitted in ICU. In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 9,020 people for COVID, out of which 8,169 were negative. In total, 2.28 lakh samples were tested, out of which 2.23 lakh were negative. Top five places with active cases in the state include Mandya (227), Davangere (133), Yadagiri (122), Hassan (118) and Bengaluru Urban (116). Bengaluru Urban has seen nine deaths, followed by Kalaburagi and Dakshina Kannada (7 each), Davangere and Vijayapura (4 each), and the remaining from other districts. Of the 2,283 cases, eight per cent were senior citizens, and 62 per cent men and 38 per cent women. The state's patient discharge rate has declined to 33 per cent. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) The government is pushing ahead with a slew of quixotic cross-border projects despite a total lack of interest from North Korea and international sanctions. Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul visits the estuary of the Han River on Wednesday to inspect an inter-Korean waterway, the Unification Ministry said Monday. The same day Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho will visit a village on the southern side of the heavily fortified border with North Korea as part of efforts to list the demilitarized zone as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The "inter-Korean" projects are now forlornly one-sided, but ministry spokeswoman Cho Hey-sil told reporters, "South and North Korea conducted a joint study of the estuary and reached an agreement over military guarantees, so the visit is part of inspections to live up to that agreement." The study was part of an inter-Korean military agreement signed in September 2018 and envisions the free passage of civilian vessels from both sides. The two Koreas did indeed conduct some studies of the estuary in November and December that year, but North Korea cut off all contact the following February after its second summit with the U.S. in Hanoi collapsed. Suh, meanwhile, will accompany the chief of the Cultural Heritage Administration on his visit to Daeseongdong, the only civilian village on the South Korean side of DMZ. The government is planning to conduct a comprehensive study of the area in a bid to list it as a World Heritage Site. USAA said Tuesday it has completed the sale of its investment management company, including its brokerage and managed portfolio accounts, to the Charles Schwab Corp. The deal adds more than a million accounts with about $80 billion in assets to San Francisco-based Schwab, which now has total client assets of $3.8 trillion. About 400 USAA employees will join Schwab. When the deal was announced last summer, it was valued at $1.8 billion. Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox USAA and Schwab have entered into a long-term referral agreement that makes Schwab the exclusive provider of wealth management and investment brokerage services for USAA members. USAA and Schwab share the same unwavering commitment to facilitate the financial security of our members and clients, USAA CEO and President Wayne Peacock said in a statement. Schwab approaches every decision through clients eyes and offers a wide selection of investment products and services for some of the lowest costs in the industry. The sale is part of USAAs strategy to simplify its business and focus on its core products and services in insurance and banking. Last summer, USAA completed the sale of its asset management business to Victory Capital Holdings Inc. in a deal that could be valued at $1 billion. The business oversaw a portfolio of 47 mutual funds, six exchange-traded funds and a college savings plan. On ExpressNews.com: Victory Capital has plans to expand on heels of USAA deal Victory subsequently relocated its headquarters to San Antonio from Ohio. About 140 USAA employees in San Antonio joined Victory. USAA boasts some 13 million members, but only about 10 percent of them have tapped its wealth management and brokerage services. Schwab officials see an opportunity to increase that percentage. Only 10 percent of (USAA) members use wealth management, Schwab CFO Peter Crawford said in a conference call to discuss the transaction with analysts last summer. Theyd like that number to be up much higher than it is today, and so would we, of course. USAAs membership is comprised of current and former military personnel and their families. Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. To read more from Patrick, become a subscriber. pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD A church in Mississippi was destroyed by a suspected arson fire, about a month after its pastor filed a lawsuit challenging the city of Holly Springs on gathering restrictions amid the coronavirus outbreak. First Pentecostal Church in Holly Springs, Mississippi, burned down May 20, news outlets reported. When investigators from the Marshall County Sheriffs Office got to the scene, they found graffiti in the church parking lot that read: Bet you stay home now you hypokrites. Weve kind of racked our brains and we have no idea, Jerry Waldrop, the pastor of the church, said. No enemies that we know of. We dont know anyone that we even think could be capable of doing something like this. Waldrop filed a lawsuit against the city of Holly Springs last month, alleging police officers had disrupted a church Bible study and Easter service. Holly Springs City Attorney Shirley Byers said nearly 40 worshipers inside the church building were not practicing social distancing on April 10 when a violation citation was issued for the church. Churchgoers practiced social distancing while indoors and only held indoor services when bad weather would not allow them to gather outside, the lawsuit said. Waldrops complaint also asked for a temporary restraining order to keep city officials from preventing church services. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reevess safer-at-home order, just extended through this week, allows churches to operate as essential businesses, but it limits the size of indoor gatherings. The Republican governor has also asked pastors to follow public health recommendations on social distancing and other practices to mitigate the spread of the virus. Reeves issued guidelines this week for places of worship to restart services inside their buildings. On Thursday, Reeves condemned the church fire, saying during a news conference in Jackson that the fire and the message make him heartbroken and furious. This is not who we are as a people, Reeves said. This is not who we are as a state. Byers said the city amended its local order in late April to allow for drive-thru church services. Authorities are offering a reward for tips on the arson investigation. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Mississippi Arson Wall Streets focus was on economic recovery Tuesday, and stocks rallied along with crude oil prices. The S&P 500 rose more than 1 percent, with shares of companies most likely to benefit from the lifting of restrictions on travel and commerce faring well. Shares of Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and other big carriers rose, as did Marriott International. Oil prices have been climbing all month as the restarting of factories and resumption of travel raised expectations that demand would rise. On Tuesday, West Texas intermediate crude rose another 3 percent, and shares of companies in the energy industry, like Chevron and Halliburton, were also higher. Its been a turbulent period for stocks, with the S&P 500 alternating between gains to losses on a daily basis last week, as expectations for an eventual recovery from the coronavirus pandemic have squared off against the reality that the damage is still severe and likely to continue for some time. Asia Hong Kongs Leader Says New Security Laws Wont Affect Rights, Freedoms Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, wearing a mask due to the COVID-19 outbreak, speaks during a news conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday. / REUTERS HONG KONGHong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that Beijings proposed national security laws would not trample on the citys rights and freedoms and called on its citizens to wait to see the details of the legislation. There is no need for us to worry, Lam told a regular weekly news conference, without explaining how the freedoms that Hong Kong enjoys will be upheld. In the last 23 years, whenever people worried about the Hong Kongs freedom of speech and freedom of expression and protest, time and again, Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values, she said. The best thing is to see the legislation in front of us and to understand why at this point in time Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation. Beijing unveiled plans last week for national security legislation for Hong Kong that aims to tackle secession, subversion and terrorist activities. It could see Chinese intelligence agencies set up bases in the city. Thousands poured onto the street of Hong Kong on Sunday in a mass protest against the planned new security laws. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and arrested almost 200 people. It was the first major protest since pro-democracy demonstrations rocked Hong Kong last year over an unsuccessful plan to introduce an extradition law with China. The unrest plunged the former British colony into its worst crisis since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. More protests are expected in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The commander of the Chinese militarys Hong Kong garrison said in a rare interview that the garrison firmly supported the Chinese parliaments new Hong Kong security legislation. Chen Daoxiang told Chinese state television the garrison had the determination and ability to safeguard Chinas national sovereignty and the long-term prosperity and security of the city. Chinas military has remained in barracks in Hong Kong throughout the past year, leaving police to confront pro-democracy activists. Beijings security plans have sent jitters through the business and diplomatic communities and raised concerns about the citys future as a global financial hub and whether it will continue to function as a vibrant interface between communist China and the West. Hong Kong is governed under a one country, two systems formula that guarantees it a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not seen in mainland China, including freedom of expression and the right to protest. Beijing and local officials have toughened their rhetoric recently, describing some of the acts in the protests as terrorism and attempts at secessionism. Protests turned increasingly violent last year as authorities dug in their heels against demands for universal suffrage, amnesty for those arrested, an independent inquiry against polices handling of the demonstrations and a request not to label the protests as riots. Opinion polls show only a minority of Hong Kong people support independence, which is anathema to Beijing. You may also like these stories: Hong Kong Leader Leaves Door Open to Reshuffle, Says Focus Is Restoring Order China Wont Allow Foreign Forces to Interfere in HK, Macau, Xi Says One wonders what sexual favors were exchanged for the normally well-regarded publication Nature to run a defense of the indefensible, in this case, an obviously half-baked idea for Seattle residents to volunteer themselves for a home science study by jamming swabs through their noses to the back of their throats to collect their own Covid-19 samples and send them in by mail. Remarkably, the FDA woke up, cleared its throat, and said it needed to evaluate this do it yourself specimen collection. Now mind you, thats actually the more charitable interpretation as far as the Gates Foundation and the FDA is concerned. It is possible that the Seattle testing initiative was using mere nose swabs (as in just of the nasal cavity), which is not the current standard for Covid-19 tests. If that is so, the Gates Foundation and its allies in the Seattle medical-academic community are setting out to promote tests that are known to be less accurate via inferior sample collection. They will endanger patients and the public by virtue of generating false negatives due to choosing inferior sampling methods. Yet Nature wails over the FDA stopping a testing program that either way was sure to generate a lot of bad samples and therefore bad results in Scientists baffled by decision to stop a pioneering coronavirus testing project. Honestly, any scientists who are baffled are revealing their lack of powers of observation and common sense. So what accounts for Nature shilling for such a flawed program? The too-obvious explanation is Bill Gates influence. He is the big money behind this so-called SCAN. Before we take apart the Nature story (actually two but the second one is more important), it goes without saying that the US has a problem with Covid-19 testing, that in general, not enough is being done, and those who are worried that they might have contracted it dont want to show up in an emergency room or outpatient clinic and risk getting infected. And medical professionals probably arent so keen about handling Covid-19 tests interspersed with other duties, particularly if they dont have the best PPE to begin with. The same conundrum exists with going to your regular MDs office to get tested (assuming you have one and assuming hell even test you). However, South Korea already solved this problem: drive up testing. They also have walk-in testing stations, well enough staffed that there is no wait. Even in the supposedly backwards Deep South, we had drive up testing here in Birmingham, 20 minutes from where I live, up and running less than ten days after schools closed. Ive seen more sites opened since then. And I have not seen how the US version of these set-ups work, but in South Korea, all of the medical techs are hazmat-suited up, so they look well protected. As they ought to be in the US. And here is why you want medical professionals to gather those samples. This is how the swabbing is supposed to be done: In other words, this nose swab: which is more accurately called a nasopharyngeal swab is very invasive, as this Chicago Sun-Times story confirms (emphasis ours): It isnt pain like you feel from a shot. Instead, think about how it felt if youve gotten chlorinated water up your nose in a swimming pool. The complex nerve endings in your nose told your brain: Thats not right, theres something bad in there. And that burning sensation makes you want to blow the water right back out. Well, the swab test for COVID-19 is more intense than that. Its a deep burning, and it often elicits tears and sometimes coughing, says Molly K. Erickson, a nurse practitioner at Rush University Medical Center who helped set up the Chicago hospitals testing sites. That discomfort really comes with getting an adequate sample. Got that? The test is nasty because it has to be to do the job properly. The nasty bit is hopefully short lived but that isnt a given. For instance, in Business Insider: While momentarily uncomfortable for most, it was excruciating for Pauw, who already had swollen nasal passages and had to drive 45 minutes to Tacoma, Washington, to get one. It feels like being stabbed, to me, in a really sensitive place and then having it be twisted, she said. And then, they had to do it twice. Even when it was over, Pauw didnt feel better. In fact, she and her husband had just gotten on the freeway home when Pauw passed out. Fortunately, she wasnt driving. That was a horrible experience, she said. That was the very worst day of it all. One reason this test isnt easy to administer is 70% to 80% of the population has a deviated septum, which means for them, there isnt a perfectly straight path from their nostrils to the back of their throats . And while the plural of anecdote is not data, I happened to grumble to a colleague about the idiocy of expecting people to jam nose swabs to the back of their throats to do their own Covid-19 sample collection. He gasped out loud. Within the last hour, hed gotten a call from a friend whod gotten the Covid-19 sinus jab five hours earlier. He was on the verge of tears, he was in so much pain. How can I ice myself in there? Mind you, the SCAN project has taken some important steps. It did help address a bottleneck, which was a shortage of test equipment. As a March 6 Nature article described, apparently before the home testing part had been launched, how lab testing initiatives exploded in Covid-19 hotspot Washington state after the FDA on February 29 authorized some academic labs to run tests. The Seattle Flu Study, dating from 2018, where people who think they have a bug send in nose swabs for analysis. If you look at this video and instructions on how to do a flu swab, the preferred method is to use a swab that goes just as far back in the sinus cavities. This raises the question as to the integrity of the Seattle Flu study process. Did they use the invasive nasopharyngeal swabs, or the more patient-friendly nose swabs? Plus for flus, a study published by the NIH didnt find a major difference in results between nose swabs and the more daunting nasopharyngeal swab. But the nasal swab had a mere 89% accuracy versus 94% for the nasopharyngeal swab. That seems significant, particularly when a deadly disease is in play. Back to the Nature stories. Heres the snippets on the Gates efforts from the early March account: Some of this burden could soon be relieved as the Seattle Flu Study changes course. This week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle said that it will furnish the study with another US$5 million. People who feel ill but arent in dire need of hospital care can now order the swab kit from the study website. Dan Wattendorf, who directs efforts to create biotechnology solutions at the Gates Foundation, hopes that people with bearable illnesses will stay at home and order the kit, instead of going to hospitals where they could transmit the virus or catch it Notice the reinforcement of the false dichotomy: testing at home or testing in hospitals. No consideration of drive-by tests, or the medical vans created by Arnold Schwarznegger and disbanded by Jerry Brown as part of a pandemic emergency response program. A correction to the story notes that Bill Gates has long has had his fingers in this Seattle testing pie: It also said that the Seattle Flu Study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In fact, it is funded by Gates Ventures, an investment firm founded by Bill Gates. The Gates Foundation has provided funds for the studys extension to COVID-19. So Gates has a commercial, not charitable, motive. Glad we have that clear. Youll see in the second story simply brushes off the key question: could these at home samples be adequate? The FDA has every reason to be worried. Unlike the original Seattle Flu study, whose main goal was to trace the spread of seasonal bugs through the Seattle area, here the stakes are much higher: do you have a potentially deadly ailment or not? Do you need to self-quarantine and monitor your symptoms? And if you watched the video or read the instruction, proper sample collection isnt merely getting that swab to the back of your throat and removing it. The med tech is supposed to rotate the swab (up to five times!) and hold it in place five to ten seconds. The May Nature story explains how the SCAN group exploited a loophole: The FDAs request to pause testing on 12 May frustrates many researchers developing diagnostics that can be conducted partially or fully outside hospitals.. The researchers assumed that they were in the clear because the FDA had granted Washington state the ability to authorize emergency use of COVID-19 tests. In February, FDA guidelines precluded at-home testing from this type of provision, but made no mention of at-home specimen collection, which is how SCAN operates. As of 11 May, however, updated FDA guidelines do specify that tests with at-home collection need to be assessed by the agency. Its not clear the FDA has focused on the swabbing issue. It is concerned about samples possibly degrading via getting hot in transit. Having said that, the FDA has approved three home based tests. However, looking at test video from Labcorp, which has one of the good to go tests, it really is a nose swab, not a nasopharyngeal swab. So the FDA has signed off on a significant sacrifice in accuracy for the sake of convenience. Back to the Nature account, which features the worst sort of assume a can opener thinking: Robin Patel, president of the American Society for Microbiology, who is based at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota , says that researchers have long called for diagnostic tests to be deployed outside of healthcare settings. This push is being accelerated now by COVID-19, because the reasons to do this are so apparent in an outbreak. A model that requires health workers to draw samples cant easily be scaled up. Its labour intensive, and is risky for the workers required to stick long swabs up peoples noses. Yes, and it would also be nice if patients could draw their own blood so as not to expose health care workers to them either. Help me. How about investing in Ebola-level PPE instead? So the answer is defective sampling and people getting false negatives because they didnt swab adequately or contaminated the sample? The article unintentionally makes clear that the vetting of the SCAN process didnt check the accuracy of home-brew samples versus med tech collected samples: In late February, the SCAN team cleared a first set of regulatory hurdles with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Next, the group analysed about 30 specimens with its own test alongside other assays in clinical labs, to vet its accuracy. With the data from these experiments, Washingtons department of health authorized the researchers to screen people and return the results to them. In other words, the samples were assumed to be hunky-dory. And it looks as if Nature completely missed the real story in lining up to defend Gates: that the FDA is approving home tests with nose swabs, which may indeed be what the SCAN tests were using, which studies have found to be markedly less accurate that the obnoxious nasopharyngeal swab. The result will be false negatives, meaning people who are sick will think they arent, and will infect others and possibly get quite sick before they get a second test and find out they have Covid-19. And all for the sake of Gates and commercial lab profiteering rather than staffing up and suiting up techs to conduct drive up and other more local tests. FEMA offering many forms of assistance to residents in disaster areas On the warm afternoon of June 8, 1844, an armed patrol of 15 Texas Rangers was traveling through the Hill Country of south central Texas when it came under attack by 75 Comanche warriors. Until this day, encounters between the Rangers and Comanchefierce and able fighters whod been raiding Texan settlements for years, as the Spanish and then Anglo presence intruded on their homelandhad generally gone badly for the Rangers. Not only were they often outnumbered, they were also effectively out-weaponized. The Rangers had better guns, but even the best guns at the time needed to be reloaded after every shot. At a minimum, reloading took 30 seconds. Meanwhile, the Comanche, mounted on fleet mustangs, galloped toward them, firing arrows at a rate of 20 or 30 per minute. Before a Ranger reloaded, he was likely to be dead. But the Rangers had a surprise in store for the Comanche that day. Theyd acquired a cache of a new kind of pistol, called a repeater, or a revolver, patented eight years earlier by a young man from Connecticut named Samuel Colt. The first practical mass-produced, rapid-fire gun in history, Colts pistols had a rotating cylinder that could be loaded with five bullets (later six) and turned after each shot to bring the next chamber into alignment with the barrel. Now, as the Comanche attacked, they galloped into a blaze of gunfire such as they had never experienced, a shot for every finger on the hand, as one of the astonished Comanche leaders is said to have later put it. Almost at once, the balance of power in the American west shifted. We now come to the first radical adaptation made by the American people as they moved westward from the humid region into the Plains country, wrote Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb in his 1931 history of the American west. The story of this adaptation is the story of the six-shooter, or revolver. How Americans view this story today probably corresponds to how they identify politically. Conservatives, especially those who embrace the right to bear arms as a foundational American liberty, are likely to see the western debut of Colts revolver as a demonstration of American ingenuity applied to dangerous circumstances. Liberals are more likely to focus on the violence unleashed by the guns, and by the numerous rapid-fire guns that came later. A deeper look at the history that surrounds the moment suggests that both of these views are warranted, and neither excludes the other. Story continues Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Colts invention led to a great deal of unnecessary bloodshed. It sped the mass slaughter of Native Americans, including women and children, at the hands of U.S. Army cavalry, in numerous shameful massacres. It also set off an arms race that would lead to far more lethal rapid-fire weapons, from the Winchester rifle to Maxims machine gun to the AR-15 (which the Colt company ceased manufacturing last year). But the revolver cant be dismissed as nothing more than an unfortunate development in human progress. The famous saying about Colts gunsGod created man, but Sam Colt made them equalcaptures the very real way the gun changed life for 19th century Americans. It endowed men (and women, too; many became loyal customers) with a confidence to enter hazardous environments in which they might be outnumbered or overpowered. It allowed people to travel solo into wilderness, and it was a godsend to those who dared to go west on the Oregon trail. Americans today can debate whether our westering forebearers, in pursuit of land and gold and better lives, had a right to go where they were not wanted. But there is no arguing with the risks they took in going. Attacks by Native Americans in the west were infrequent but deadly. Fellow white settlers, too, were a serious threat in the gold fields of California and Colorado, where greed was rampant and law enforcement scarce. Appreciating this may not change our opinion of guns. But it might help us understand that Americas gun culture was not born of insanity or blood lust. Many of Colts early customers were simply people doing their best to respond prudently to risk. The larger point here is not to defend or applaud Colt and his gun. Rather, its to commend American history as an antidote to the entrenched positions we tend to assume when it comes to thorny issues like guns. At a time when nearly every matter confronting the American public, from our weather to our immigration policy to our response to a pandemic, is quickly shorn of nuance and reduced to Manichaean politics, history nudges us to view American life less dogmatically. Because their lives occurred in different contexts and were driven by different exigencies than our own, our forebears resist sorting themselves neatly into white hats and black hats. Good and evil existed in the past, but it was not always clear who was which. Consider the abolitionists who dedicated themselves to freeing slaves but were often vehemently anti-Catholic, which meant anti-Irish and anti-immigration. Or the great generals who led the union army to victory during the Civil WarSherman, Sheridanthen went on to command military campaigns intended to wipe out Native Americans. We cant enter the past without getting discombobulated in our moral and political certitudes. Colt himself was a devilishly complicated man whose moral compass usually pointed in the direction of his own self-interest. We have every reason to judge him harshly for his rapaciousness, his duplicity and his contempt for law (when called before the House of Representatives to testify on charges that hed bribed Congressmen, he showed up drunk), but we also have to admire his energy, his ingenuity and his ridiculous perseverance. Colt was more than happy to sell guns to the South right up until the bombing of Fort Sumter in April of 1861. But immediately after Sumter, he expanded his armory in Hartford, Conn.already the most advanced factory in the worldnearly doubling its size and making it one of the most important resources of the North. The past is a morally untidy place. As a result, it is also a place, perhaps the last one left, where we can meet and lower our weapons for a while. History probably wont solve our disagreements about guns or anything else. But it might allow us, for a moment, to consider, with more open minds and hearts, the complicated land we share. Scribner Jim Rasenberger is the author of Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America, available now from Scribner. Disagreements over cost-sharing and new model development stymied plans to integrate the two carmakers, sources say. Renault and Nissan have shelved plans to push towards the full merger former leader Carlos Ghosn craved and will instead fix their troubled alliance to try to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, five senior sources told Reuters news agency. Nissan has long resisted Renaults proposals for a full-blown merger as executives felt the French carmaker was not paying its fair share for the engineering work it did in Japan, sowing discord that some feared could wreck the partnership. Now, with carmakers around the world reeling from the pandemic, the partners are planning to overhaul an alliance that largely failed to convert its global scale into a competitive advantage beyond the joint procurement of parts. The struggling partners are set to announce mid-term restructuring plans this week that will serve as an agreement designed to resolve long-standing tensions, the five people familiar with the overhaul told Reuters. After the rain, the earth hardens, said one senior Nissan source, citing a popular Japanese proverb that means relationships become stronger after a period of strife. All five sources within the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors Corp, declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media. Nissan and Renault are planning substantial restructuring and cost cuts that could affect tens of thousands of jobs, with the Japanese company to announce its measures on May 28 and its French partner likely to follow the next day. Before that, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault are holding a joint news conference on May 27, during which they are expected to outline the philosophy behind their new leader-follower approach to the alliance. The sources said the companies were unlikely to disclose many details this week of how the new approach will be used to share costs as they were still working on specific projects. However, the crisis at both carmakers has accelerated efforts to resolve the disagreements that have stymied collaboration and cost-sharing in technology and product development for five years, the sources said. Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault all declined to comment officially about alliance plans. Leader-follower approach The alliance has steadily ramped up output over the years, delivering more than 10 million vehicles for the first time in 2017, the first full year after Mitsubishi joined the partnership. But persistent quibbles over sharing the costs of innovation and new vehicle development soured relations and stalled plans to forge an even tighter alliance. Nissan executives believe their engineers are substantially more productive than their Renault colleagues and the way the French carmaker proposed to combine technology and product development did not properly account for Nissans intellectual property, three of the sources said. Nissan engineers on average produced 40 percent more than their Renault counterparts in a given amount of time spent on a job, one insider told Reuters in January. After his arrest in 2018 in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct, former alliance head Ghosn said his detention was part of a plot by Nissan executives to bring him down and block the merger. Earlier this year, relations looked strained to a point where the 21-year alliance was at risk of collapse. However, the turnaround plans due are now likely to be combined to forge what the sources described as a more equitable way of sharing technology and resources while preserving the distinctiveness of the alliance brands. Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta and Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard are key advocates of the new approach that they are calling a leader-follower system, the sources told Reuters. The plan is for one company to lead the development of a type of vehicle or technology with the other following, taking a page out of the playbook Gupta used to revive Renaults commercial vehicle business, as well as reinvigorate Nissans. When he was in charge of the French business, Nissan used Renaults vehicle architectures as the building blocks for its city delivery vans while Nissan, in turn, provided the Renault group with technology for pick-up trucks. Off the table A test of the new approach could come in several places around the world, such as Renault and Nissan cooperation in Europe and perhaps South America, as well as how Nissan and Mitsubishi cooperate in Southeast Asia and Japan. Under the new working relationship, Nissan could take the lead in Europe on crossover sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), while operating as a follower in commercial vans and small city cars, using versions produced by Renault, the sources said. Nissans factory in Sunderland in the United Kingdom is of particular importance, they said. Renault and Nissan are planning to turn the assembly plant into a hub for sport-utility vehicles such as Nissans Qashqai and Juke, and potentially their Renault counterparts, the Kadjar and Captur. The companies are working on the plans, though it is not clear when a final decision will be made, the sources said. Whether Renault vehicles could be built profitably at the plant is unclear, given the uncertainty over tariffs as Britain leaves the European Union, according to one of the sources. It should be a pure economic transaction, but its also likely a political decision, too, he said. In the Philippines, Mitsubishi will likely help make cars for Nissan as it already has a plant there while the two will beef up cooperation in Japans micro-car business, which makes up about half the countrys passenger car market. The latest effort to salvage the Renault-Nissan alliance comes at a time of rising global economic nationalism and protectionism that represent a risk to the partnership. But, for now, the new approach means the two companies will sideline any discussion of a complete merger, the sources said. Renault owns a 43.4 percent controlling stake in Nissan, which owns a non-voting 15 percent stake in the French carmaker. Will merger talk be revived in the future? No one knows. Everybody has to be prepared for that. But as far as I know, its not being pursued any more, said one of the senior alliance sources. It is totally out of our sight today. Click here to read the full article. The Panama Film Festival (IFF Panama), with support from the Inter-American Development Bank, is unspooling a five-day online festival, running May 22-26, which includes film screenings and round tables. Held on May 22, 23 and 24, three online round-tables two moderated by festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron and one by TIFFs senior director, film, Diana Sanchez questioned leading international talent, based in Latin America and Europe, about what film festivals and film production and distribution will look like after COVID-19. More from Variety The panelists were Jayro Bustamante (Ixcanul), Nicolas Celis (Roma), Cristina Gallegos (Embrace of the Serpent) Elena Manrique (Pans Labyrinth), production designer Enrique Caballero (Roma), and actors Yalitza Aparicio (Roma), Luis Tosar (Cell 211), Ricardo Darin (The Secret in Their Eyes), Geraldine Chaplin (Talk to Her), Daniela Vega (A Fantastic Woman) and Marina de Tavira (Roma). Several innovative new projects adapted to the lockdown period were discussed. For example, Spanish actor Luis Tosar talked about a project he is working on with producer-director Alvaro Longoria of Morena Films, who is already making a short format series for TVE called Quarantine Diaries. The untitled project is a fiction series starring Luis Tosar and his wife, Chilean actress Maria Luisa Mayol (Dont Open the Door), who have recorded the scenes in their own house basically with the family unit acting as cinematographer, electrician, wardrobe etc, everything directed via Skype. Following, 10 Takeaways from the panels: Film and Theatre Are Contact Sports Story continues The panelists glossed film projects being directed at a distance, but emphasized the key role of close physical contact: Luis Tosar said that the project recorded in his home has been exciting but somewhat frustrating Cinema and theater are contact sports, we need to be very close to each other to do what we do, you can probably make some things at a distance, but for how long? Until there are clear solutions to how film sets can be made secure, no-one is making plans. Ricardo Darin added: The health and safety protocols are going to make it very difficult to imagine a film set where there are between 60-100 people in situations of necessary proximity. It will be complicated. Were basically depending on whether we can get close to each other. Film Festivals Still Essential Festivals will continue to be places to watch films that cant be seen elsewhere and to allow people to meet informally. COVID-19 and the need to use virtual communication mechanisms whereby people speak from their homes in casual clothing has reinforced a more down-to-earth and informal side to the film festival world, in contrast to glamor and red carpets. That, the panelists thought, was positive step and here to stay. Diana Sanchez noted: One thing I like about how we are doing festivals now is that there is much less glamour, you see a lot of people at home, nobody has been able to go to the hairdresser, everyones wearing casual clothes, to which Darin quipped: Im talking to you now, naked from the waist down. Film Exhibition Will Change Smaller theaters, especially independent cinemas, will face even greater difficulties. Larger operators will find it easier to survive. The trend towards smaller screens, however, may be reversed, moving back towards larger-seater theaters. Drive-ins are reviving and may lead to new initiatives. Tosar noted that the increase in drive-ins is amazing. In countries like Germany, there are now about double as many. A few have opened in Spain, with projects to open more. Ive never been to a drive-in, in Galicia there was none and I never had to go to any. Not even here in Madrid. Maybe I can go with my children! Netflix and Streaming: Theirs is the Kingdom Panelists noted that 70% of people have stated they want to watch films at home. Darin felt that this is a result of paralyzing fear but will pass. Several panelists agreed that the crisis will reinforce the positioning of streaming platforms such as Netflix. COVID-19 is a wake-up call The crisis is forcing us to focus more on the need to protect the planet, reinforce sustainability and preserve nature. Ricardo Darin suggested that There is something positive about whats happening. Obviously the human species when threatened, begins to act a bit like ants, a species I truly admire. People begin to think more about the community than the individual. Maybe this is one of the few great messages, lessons that this pandemic can leave us. On a separate round-table, Jayro Bustamante developed these ideas further: I think the crisis is showing us that we are all part of this world, connected to each other and to the land and roots. These experiences are touching us and telling us to return to what Maya culture calls the spiritual path, and the need to reconnect with nature. De Tavira commented: Bertold Brecht said of the 1929 crisis: And the world continued along its way unable to change. If the world doesnt change after COVID, that will be a failure on our part. What Role Can Art Play in Recovery? IFF Panama director Pituka Heilbron asked Celis, Gallegos, Caballero, Manrique and De Tavira on Saturday. I remember Arturo Ripstein once commenting that Mexican cinema had given a sense of identity and hope to Mexicans devastated by the violence of the Mexican Revolution, said Caballero. Cinema, theater, literature, the liberal arts in general have a calling to be the conscience of the times we live in, Cristina Gallegos agreed. Making It Count These times confirm for me the importance of making films which do have a social impact, a reason for existing, and which promote change, Celis reflected. I dont have time to spend three years making a film which is just a pure question of money. He cited the role played by the Mexican film industry in organizing help during the 2017 Puebla earthquake disaster or the rapid pushback against an attempt by the government to abolish Mexicos Fidecine film fund, a move which stopped the destruction of other NPOs in Mexico: The artistic community can be very powerful, high-profile and united and can have an impact. Elena Manrique agreed: People havent suddenly thought that they have to think up stories which have just one location. What Im sensing from my colleagues, however, is that everybodys pretty clear that now stories have to count for something. Nobody just wants to entertain. The COVID-19 Crisis Intensifies the Divide between Haves and Have-Nots. This finds particular expression in Latin America. Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante noted that fortunately his country has not suffered a high level of COVID-related deaths to date, but added that only 9% the population can stay at home, telework, and watch movies, because the majority of the population has no alternative than to go out and work. 52% of our population is chronically malnourished, which means that our defenses are very low. Many people dont speak Spanish and even fewer speak English, so much of the information doesnt get through. Bustamente explained that he has just carried out a campaign with private sponsors to carry the protection messages in all the languages of Guatemala, to adapt to the new normal. Yalitza Aparicio said that with Mexican producer Nicolas Celis they have been developing a COVID-19 campaign in Mexico, in indigenous languages such as Mixteco. There is More to Life than Covid-19 The pandemic will inevitably be the burning topic for content creators but the panelists agreed that this shouldnt be allowed to crowd out all other issues. Daniela Vega felt that theres a need to focus on many parts of society that tend to be overlooked, not just the single invisible enemy of the virus: When we speak about invisibility, we have to talk about indigenous communities, migrants, LGTBI+. We are talking about human stories that have not been taken as human, but as mere anecdotes. Its up to art and cinema to show these realities, demonstrate who we are and where we are going. New Forms of Government Will be Required. In addition to a new orientation in individual lives, the panelists also agreed that new public policy priorities will have to emerge. Vega noted: We are talking about human rights, that are not served by different states, by different nations. If people cant eat and the state cant solve that, this is not a question of charity, its a question of state, of government, planning, use of public resources; and ensuring that public resources reach the people who need it. Charity is for churches and for personal faith. We are talking about public policies that need to protect the people who live in these places. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NSA Ajit Doval and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat, were part of the meeting. During the meeting, Modi wanted to know how to end the standoff and resolve the issue. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a meeting with the country's top defence and foreign affairs officials and the National Security Advisor (NSA) over the prevailing situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. Earlier in the day, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs to understand the prevailing ground situation of the face-off in Ladakh and to discuss the next move of the forces. Sources said that the deliberation over the matter carried on for more than an hour. Singh was briefed about the Indian response in matching up to the Chinese troop mobilisation. It was clarified during the meeting that the Indian Army will hold its fort and talks to diffuse the situation would continue. It was also decided in the meeting that road constructions must continue and the Indian fortifications and troop deployment must match the Chinese. Earlier, the Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army held several meetings to resolve the face-off in Eastern Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control. However, no breakthrough has taken place. The last meeting took place on Sunday, but many things remained unresolved, said sources, adding that more commander-level talks are in the pipeline to resolve the issues. Sources said that there have been five rounds of talks between the military commanders on the ground, but there has been no breakthrough. A top Indian Army officer told IANS, "No breakthrough. Status quo is maintained." He also said that the situation will be resolved, but the Indian Army will continue with its construction work along the LAC. Sources said that there has been a troop build-up on both sides and there are three to four places where there is an eye ball to eye ball situation since May 5. Across Line of Actual Control, both sides have deployed over 1000 troops in eyeball to eyeball situation at four places. Indian Army is keeping a close watch in the Pangong Tso sector of Eastern Ladakh and the Galwan Valley region where the Chinese have enhanced deployment. Other than Pangong Tso, which is extremely sensitive, the other places that are volatile in the wake of the recent escalation are Trig Heights, Demchok and Chumar in Ladakh, which form the western sector of the India-China frontier. The disengagement took place in Eastern Ladakh after troops came to blows on May 5 and were involved in a face-off till the morning of May 6 when troops from both sides clashed, leaving several injured. Sources reported a massive troop build-up by China on their side, not too far away from the point of the standoff. It was also observed that enhanced patrolling was being carried out by China in the Pangong Lake. They have also increased the number of boats. The face-offs were triggered by Indian road construction and development of infrastructure which the Chinese objected to. However, Indian Army has maintained that there is no continuing face-off at the Pangong lake and there is no build up of armed troops in the area. On Friday, Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh, and reviewed the security deployment of the forces along the LAC with China. He held a meeting with Northern Command (NC) chief, Lieutenant General Y.K. Joshi, and the 14 Corps commander, Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, and other officers to know the ground situation at the forward locations along the LAC. Later in the day, he returned to Delhi. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that trials of corona vaccine would begin within six months in the country, while frontrunners Moderna and Novavax have made significant progress. Moderna is slated to enter Phase 2 of its clinical trials while Novavax has started Phase 1 of the clinical trials. However, experts still believe that the earliest a vaccine could be in hands is next year. Additionally, the race to fund a cure has reached its zenith. Japan has said that tests of drug Avigan would continue till June, while Glenmark plans to test combined effects of favipiravir and umifenovir in India. A study has alerted drugmakers of the side effects combining hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could have on the patient. Here are the latest updates on COVID-19 vaccine: CORONAVIRUS VACCINE ICMR said that the human trials of COVID vaccine would begin within six months. As numbers increase exponentially in India, Dr Rajni Kant, Director Regional Medical Research Centre and Head at ICMR said that there is no need to worry about increase in numbers. "The virus strain isolated at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) laboratory in Pune will be used to develop the vaccine, and this strain has been successfully transferred to the Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL). It is expected that the human trials of the vaccine will begin in at least six months," said Kant. Also read: Coronavirus vaccine update: After Moderna, CanSino Biologics claims positive results in early trials Moderna's RNA vaccine that is touted to be one of the frontrunners is all set to move to the second phase of clinical trials. The second phase is expected to be conducted in July. The first stage of clinical trials has been completed with encouraging results. At least eight of the subjects are said to have developed protective antibodies against the COVID virus. Another company Novavax has begun the Phase 1 of clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine, it said on Monday. Results of the trial are expected to be out in July. "Administering our vaccine in the first participants of this clinical trial is a significant achievement, bringing us one step closer toward addressing the fundamental need for a vaccine in the fight against the global Covid-19 pandemic," said CEO Stanley C Erck. Japanese biopharmaceutical company AnGes Inc is set to begin the trial of its coronavirus vaccine in July, instead of September as estimated earlier. The vaccine has been developed by the firm along with Osaka University. If the effectiveness is proven then AnGes' vaccine candidate could be approved by the end of the year. Also read: Coronavirus update: List of WHO's top-8 contenders for COVID-19 vaccine CORONAVIRUS CURE Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said that it would conduct clinical trials in India to test the effects of the combination of two anti-viral drugs favipiravir and umifenovir. The company said that the study will look to enroll 158 hospitalised patients suffering from moderate infections in India. Glenmark is already conducting clinical trials in India of just favipiravir as a potential treatment. The results are expected by July or August. Meanwhile, tests for favipiravir that goes by the name Avigan will be continued till June. Japanese government said that research into Fujifilm's Avigan that was estimated to wrap up in May will be pushed to June. "The company will continue research into next month or so, and if an application for approval is received from the company, it will be promptly reviewed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular briefing. Meanwhile, a recent study by researchers from Stanford University and Vanderbilt University shows that combining hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could be a potentially lethal combination. It could have a serious impact on the cardiovascular system, stated the study. The study compared cardiovascular adverse-drug-reactions in patients who received HCQ, azithromycin or a combination of the two. South African business leaders lauded the governments plan to substantially ease a nationwide lockdown thats crippled the economy, even as the number of the coronavirus cases grows exponentially. An additional 8 million people will be allowed to return to work when the national disease-alert level drops one notch from June 1, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday night. His administration abandoned previous plans to maintain more stringent restrictions in several cities and towns hardest hit by the disease, but cautioned its still an option. Like other African nations including Nigeria and Ghana, South Africa is relaxing its rules when cases are still on an upward trajectory a third of its 22,583 infections were diagnosed in the past week alone. But with job losses and business closures skyrocketing and the central bank anticipating a 7% economic contraction this year, Ramaphosa acknowledged that maintaining the lockdown had become unsustainable. We believe that the decision announced by the president is best for the country given where we find ourselves now, Sipho Pityana, the president of lobby group Business Unity South Africa, said in a statement. It is time for many of us to return to work, but to do so in as safe way as possible. Rational Analysis Africas most-industrialized economy went into lockdown on March 27, with only grocers, pharmacies and suppliers of essential services allowed to keep operating. The rules were relaxed May 1, but many businesses have remained partially or completely shut. While the government had previously been accused of taking arbitrary decisions, its response now appears to be based on a rational analysis of the available options to protect the economy and fight the pandemic, said Busi Mavuso, chief executive officer of lobby group Business Leadership South Africa. Ramaphosa has shown great leadership in resetting the course of governments response when it has become clear that it is needed, she said in her weekly newsletter. The shift to level three next week is important and welcome. It will allow more of the economy to reopen and for people to earn a living. Under the new rules, limited alcohol sales for home use will be allowed to resume, while a night-time curfew and a restriction on when people can exercise will be dropped. Tobacco sales will remain banned because of the health risks associated with smoking. Eat-in restaurants, bars, sporting venues, places of worship and conference centers will also be barred from reopening. Alcohol Sales Wine and spirits maker Distell Group Holdings Ltd. expressed concern that only a limited number of alcohol outlets will be allowed to resume trading and that curtailing their opening hours times could result in overcrowding. The industry is in talks with government about allowing smaller bars and counter-service outlets to be converted into alcohol collection points to increase ease of access, and wants normal trading hours to resume, Richard Rushton, the companys chief executive officer, said in an interview. While the reopening of the economy is welcome, the announcement was six weeks overdue, said John Steenhuisen, the acting leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance. There was no rational justification to extend the hard lockdown beyond the initial three weeks, and this extension has now caused irreparable damage to our economy, he said. The resulting hardship and suffering - and ultimately, the premature deaths of South African citizens due to this could have been avoided, he said. Thiruvananthapuram, May 25 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, here on Monday, assured representatives of various Kerala organisations in the US through video link that the state had demanded more international flights to fly back Keralites back home. During the day, the first flight from San Francisco arrived at Kochi carrying 103 people. Vijayan has sought more flights from San Francisco, New York, Washington and Chicago. "Apart from that, I have informed the Centre about our people stranded in Europe, Middle East and other countries. I have also asked the Centre to take immediate steps about numerous students stranded in various countries. We are waiting to see more of our people to be put on the Vande Bharat Mission flights. All arrangements are now in place in the state for isolation and quarantine," said Vijayan. Vijayan said he would take up again the issue of the Overseas Indian Card holders, who were presently not able to travel from abroad to Kerala. According to estimates, about two million Keralites who hold foreign passports. --IANS sg/pcj Major Suman Gawani, an Indian Army officer and a Military Observer formerly deployed with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), will receive the 2019 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award along with Brazilian Navy officer Commander Monteiro de Castro Araujo. Major Suman Gawani is also the first Indian peacekeeper to win the prestigious award. Major Suman was commissioned into the Army Signal Corps in 2011 after graduating from the Officers Training Academy, Chennai. Major Suman, a native of Pokhar village in Uttarakhand's Tehri Garhwal, completed her schooling in Uttarkashi. She holds a Bachelor of Education from the Government Post Graduate College in Dehradun, Uttarakhand India. She also has a telecommunication engineering degree from Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), Mhow in Madhya Pradesh. As #PKDay approaches what better news for us at #UNMISS than #peacekeeper Major Suman Gawani frm. being co-winner of the #UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year 2019! Read more abt. Maj. Gawani's contributions in #SouthSudan: https://t.co/FJUrXPNBiT #womeninpeacekeeping pic.twitter.com/s7qNtHgnTE UNMISS (@unmissmedia) May 26, 2020 Reacting to the award, the Indian Army Major stated, "Whatever our function, position or rank, it is our duty as peacekeepers to integrate an all-genders perspective into our daily work and own it, in our interactions with colleagues as well as with communities." During her tenure with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Major Suman trained over 230 UN Military Observers on conflict-related sexual violence. She also ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the UNMISS's team sites. Major Suman also trained South Sudanese government forces and helped them to launch their action plan on conflict-related sexual violence. Major Suman and Commander Monteiro will receive the 2019 United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award during an online ceremony presided over by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers on May 29, 2020. Indian Army has been taking part in UN peacekeeping operations since 1950. Units and troops of the Indian Army have been part of 49 UN Missions with over 1,95,000 troops having served in various parts of the world. Presently, India is ranked as the third largest troop contributor to the UN peacekeeping missions. Irish racing will return next month to increased coverage on RTE television with confirmation today of a series of new one-hour evening programmes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in June and early July. In an announcement that will see live terrestrial coverage of Irish racing on eight of the first 20 days following the resumption of racing in Ireland on June 8, live RTE coverage returns for the first Classics of the Flat racing season at the Curragh, the Irish 2000 Guineas on June 12 and the Irish 1000 Guineas on June 13. And outside of the traditional Classics weekend coverage, RTE will broadcast new hour-long evening programmes on RTE2 and RTE Player on consecutive Friday, Saturday and Sundays, with ten extra meetings confirmed up to mid-July. Hugh Cahill will present the new run of live coverage with guest analysts joining regulars Jane Mangan, Ted Walsh and Ruby Walsh. The new programmes will run from 7-8pm on Friday evenings and 5-6pm on Saturdays and Sundays, and will have two live races with previews and analysis, interviews from the track, as well as replays from action earlier that evening. All of RTE Sports racing coverage will comply with Horse Racing Irelands Covid-19 protocols around social distancing for behind closed doors meetings. Brian Kavanagh, Chief Executive of Horse Racing Ireland, said: RTE has always been very supportive of racing in Ireland and todays announcement confirms that commitment. The new one-hour evening programmes are an opportunity for Irish racing to attract people to our sport and educate those new fans on what makes racing so exciting. We appreciate the flexibility shown by the RTE team around the new dates for the Irish Guineas in June and really look forward to their live coverage of our opening Classics, as well as this new departure. Group Head of Sport at RTE, Decan McBennett, said: "Live Sport is an integral part of Irish life and RTE Sport is delighted that it is returning across all RTE platforms. For everything that it brings in terms of physical exercise, mental wellbeing, social and community cohesion and economic stimulation the benefit of sport will again be appreciated by all. Horse Racing in this country is a key component of that and Horse Racing Ireland are to be commended for getting racing back in a safe and responsible manner." RTE Racing in June on RTE2 and RTE Player - Friday 12th June, Curragh Saturday 13th June, Curragh Friday 19th June, Gowran Park Saturday 20th June, Naas Sunday 21st June, Leopardstown June 26th - Curragh June 27th - Curragh (The Irish Derby) June 28th - Curragh South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn weighed in on presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden suggesting that African American voters who support Trump aint black, saying he cringed when he heard the comments I cringed, no question about that, Clyburn said in an interview with The View Tuesday morning. "In this instance, Joe did not do as well as I hoped in responding, but I will say this, I go about my business every day comparing Joe Biden, to the alternative, not the Almighty. He is not a perfect person. None of us are. So what my decision now is to determine who I feel should be the next president of the United States, and I do that by comparing the candidates to each other, not to the Almighty, Clyburn said. Biden came under fire Friday for comments he made during an interview with The Breakfast Club radio program, in which he quipped that if African American voters support President Trump over him in November, they arent black. "Well, Ill tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black," Biden told radio personality Charlamagne tha God, who hosts the program, which is particularly popular among black millennials, a voting bloc the former vice president is hoping to woo. MORE: Biden on comment to black radio host: 'I shouldn't have been such a wise guy' Later that afternoon, Biden said that he shouldnt have been so cavalier with his comments during a call with the National Black Chamber of Commerce. "I know the comments have come off like I was taking the African-American vote for granted. But nothing could be further from the truth, Biden said on the call. "I shouldn't have been such a wise guy," Biden added, I don't take [the black vote] for granted at all. And no one, no one should have to vote for any party, based on their race, their religion, their background. There are African-Americans who think that Trump was worth voting for. I don't think so, I'm prepared to put my record against his. That was the bottom line and it was really unfortunate, I shouldn't have been so cavalier, Biden said. Story continues PHOTO: Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the Coronavirus and the response to it at the Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware. (Michael Brochstein / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) When asked about his message to African American voters who were offended by Bidens comments, the House Majority Whip reiterated his support for the former vice president. We sometimes say things we do not really mean, they come out a little bit wrong, and that's what happened here. I think all of us know Joe Biden, Clyburn said. I know him, and he knows me. He knows the African American community very well. I've done a lot of stuff for Joe Biden over the years, and I would not have supported him if I did not think that he was best suited to be the next president of the United States. It's just that simple, Clyburn continued.Bidens comments perhaps put a new pressure on Biden to select a woman of color as his running mate for the November election. Clyburn, who many credit with reviving Bidens campaign with his endorsement leading up to the South Carolina primary in February, bristled at the idea that the former vice president must choose a woman of color as his running mate. I think we've taken a little too much on to tell a person what he must do. If it doesn't happen, then what? I think -- and I've said this before -- there should be polling, there should be vetting, and he should be instructed by the polling and the vetting, and should be guided by his heart and his head, Clyburn said Tuesday. That is as far as I wish to go with telling him how to conduct himself going forward. We are all human beings, we are all sensitive about our own thinking apparatus, and none of us want to be told what you must do. I don't like that at all. And I would never tell that to anybody, he added. Last week, Clyburn said it would be a mistake to assume that picking a woman of color would immediately boost Bidens standing with black voters."I think one would make a mistake if one were to feel that a person of color is all that is required to galvanize black voters," Clyburn told ABC News. "You got to look at what the candidate is proposing." "So just picking a person of color won't cut it...You got to pick the person that not just got credibility in the African American community, but also is - what's the word he calls - simpatico with him," he added. The longtime South Carolina congressman has also taken on a major new role as the chairman of the newly established Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in the United States House, which will provide oversight to the massive relief legislation passed by Congress last month to aid the nations recovery from the pandemic. Asked about the disproportionate impact that the coronavirus crisis has had on African-Americans, Clyburn pushed for the passage of the HEROES Act, a massive relief bill passed by the House last week that he argues would help alleviate many of the problems facing communities hard-hit by the pandemic. I think that South Carolina and other states have got to get serious about spending out the money that is necessary in education, in broadband, in putting in the kind of health care facilities that we need, Clyburn said of his home state, where over 50 percent of COVID-19 related deaths have been African-American individuals. We need to have a massive expansion of community health centers, we've got that in the HEROES Act, a massive expansion of broadband, that's in the HEROES Act. Pass the HEROES Act, take care of state and local governments, and we will see a massive improvement in the statistics, he added. Rep. Clyburn on The View says Biden's 'ain't black' comment made him 'cringe' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Three men accused of murder after a teenager fell to his death from a fourth-floor Gold Coast balcony allegedly used drugs together before the botched robbery attempt that has left a Brisbane family devastated. Jason Ryan Knowles, 22, Hayden Paul Kratzmann, 20, and Lachlan Paul Soper-Lagas, 18, have been remanded in custody and were not required to appear in court on Monday following the death of Cian English, 19, on Saturday. Police at the Gold Coast high-rise on Saturday after the teenager's fatal fall. Credit:Nine News Mr English's body was found about 3.15am by a passer-by at the foot of the View Avenue building at Surfers Paradise. Police say the teenager was trying to escape being robbed by the three men at knifepoint when he fell to his death. No, not a high-profile, Hollywood party. And not the Walk of Fame. The ice cream maker literally launched a pint aiming towards space almost 20 miles above the earth and with good reason. There's no better way to launch a flavor called "Boots on the Moooo'n"! In a continued partnership with Netflix that has already introduced two fan-favorite flavors this year, Ben & Jerry's unveils "Boots on the Moooo'n." The ice cream is an ode to the newest Netflix comedy series, Space Force, which premieres this Friday, May 29. The flavor, which features a universe of milk chocolate ice cream with fudge cows and toffee meteor clusters orbiting a sugar cookie dough core, takes inspiration from the Space Force goal to get "boots on the moon" by adding a bovine themed moooo into the mix. Space Force, one of the most anticipated Netflix series of the year, from co-creators Steve Carell and Greg Daniels (The Office) is a new kind of workplace comedy, where the stakes are sky high and the ambitions even higher. John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Jimmy O. Yang, Alex Sparrow and Don Lake also star. Actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang, who plays Dr. Chan Kaifang the lead scientist on the Space Force team, partnered with Ben & Jerry's to get a sneak peek and taste of the new offering. "I'm excited to join forces with Ben & Jerry's on this Space Force flavor launch. How cool is it that we have our own ice cream?! Especially because it's super delicious. Can't wait for everyone to try it and watch Space Force at the same time," said Yang. Boots on the Moooo'n will be available on shelves as a Limited Batch flavor with a suggested MSRP of $4.99, The flavor is available now in pints, and blasting off at participating scoop shops over the coming months as they reopen across the U.S. To learn more about Boots on the Moooo'n or Ben & Jerry's, visit: benjerry.com . About Ben & Jerry's As an aspiring social justice company, Ben & Jerry's believes in a greater calling than simply making a profit for selling its goods. The company produces a wide variety of super-premium ice cream, yogurt and sorbet using high-quality ingredients. Ben & Jerry's incorporates its vision of Linked Prosperity into its business practices in a number of ways including a focus on values-led sourcing. In 2015 the company completed its transition to using entirely non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients by source as well as to fully source Fairtrade-certified ingredients wherever possible, which benefits farmers in developing countries. Ben & Jerry's products are distributed in 35 countries in supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, franchise Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shops, restaurants and other venues. Ben & Jerry's, a Vermont corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever, operates its business on a three-part Mission Statement emphasizing product quality, economic reward and a commitment to the community. Ben & Jerry's became a certified B Corp in 2012. The Ben & Jerry's Foundation's employee-led grant programs totaled $3MM in 2019 to support grassroots organizing for social and environmental justice around the country. SOURCE Ben & Jerry's Related Links https://www.benjerry.com/ Aim: Carolan Lennon said the rollout of 4G and 5G can now be accelerated EIR, the country's largest telecoms provider, has sold its tower infrastructure company to Phoenix Tower International for 300m. Under the terms of the deal, Eir has sold the entire share capital of Emerald Tower, its mobile telecom infrastructure management business. Proceeds from the sale will be used to accelerate the rollout of Eir's 4G and 5G networks. In addition, it provides the company with more money to invest in its mobile network. Eir will retain ownership of the base stations, antennae and all telecom-related equipment, including fibre. Going forward, Eir and Phoenix will be entering into a long-term agreement for the provision of hosting services over the infrastructure, as well as the construction of new sites through a build-to-suit programme, according to a statement from Eir. "This transaction allows us to accelerate the rollout of our expanded 4G and 5G networks and increases Eir's capacity to further invest in our mobile network," said Eir CEO Carolan Lennon. "It will help us deliver the best mobile experience for all our customers across Ireland, enabling more efficient infrastructure rollout in the future to further increase geographic coverage." The transaction is expected to close this summer. Bank of America acted as financial adviser to Eir. Paul Hastings and A&L Goodbody acted as legal advisers, while consulting group KPMG also acted as an adviser to Eir. The move by Eir is not unusual for a telecoms company. Last year Vodafone Group spun off its European mobile mast infrastructure when it created TowerCo. The new company comprises 61,700 towers in 10 markets. Following the deal, Phoenix Tower will have more than 9,000 towers, 986km of fibre and more than 80,000 other wireless infrastructure and related sites throughout Ireland, the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Peru. Meanwhile, in the three months to March 31 turnover at Eir declined by 1pc, or 3m, year on year, while earnings increased by 5pc, or 7m. The firm had capital expenditure of 70m over the three months, driven by its investment in fibre broadband as well as 4G and 5G. Two armed Cancun taxi drivers arrested Cancun, Q.R. Two taxi drivers have been taken into custody by police in two separate, but closely timed arrests, after they were found armed. One man, 46-year-old Victor Manuel from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, was arrested after police found him armed. He said he was a taxi driver, residing in Villas Otoch Paraiso. Police took him into custody and seized his Nissan taxi belonging to the Andres Quintana Roo taxi drivers union. Another man, 27-year-old Marco Antonio from Chetumal, was also arrested by Municipal Police after they found him in possession of a charger supplied with 25 9 mm caliber cartridges at 1:45 a.m. along on the Cancun-Tulum highway. The man says he is a taxi driver who lives in Cancun. He was arrested and his personal vehicle seized by police. Sorry! This content is not available in your region 26.05.2020 LISTEN Former Member of Parliament for Madina, Aljahi Amadu Sorogo, claims President Akufo-Addo wants to lift the ban on all social gatherings because he wants his party to be able to go for primaries to elect parliamentary candidates. He also said the president intends to make it easier for the electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new register for this years elections hence the signals to lift the ban. Mr Sorogo said on Accra 100.5FMs Ghana Yensom on Tuesday, 26 May 2020 that if the ban on social gatherings is still in place, these activities by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the EC will not be possible. President Nana Akufo-Addo has announced that stakeholder consultations are taking place on the way forward toward the easing of COVID-19 restrictions so that the social and economic lives of Ghanaians can go back to normal. I expect these consultations to conclude this week, he said at a virtual national Eid celebration on Sunday, 24 May 2020, adding: So that I can announce to Ghanaians a clear roadmap for easing the restrictions. We have to find a way back, but in safety, for we cannot be under these restrictions forever, the President said. Ghana has recorded 125 new COVID-19 cases raising the figure to 6,808, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said on Monday, May 25. The total number of recoveries has also shot up from 1,998 to 2,070. Thirty-two people have died. Mr Sorogo said: Even at the time Muslims cant go to mosque to worship, even when Christians cant go to churches to worship, the figures are increasing so what is going to be the rationale to lift the ban on social gatherings? All of us are sing that the figures are increasing. There is no way we should lift the ban in the sense that the figures are increasing They only want to go for primaries to elect their flag bearer and parliamentary candidates. The president also wants the new register for the elections but he knows that with the ban on gatherings it cannot be done. But responding to this claim, the Eastern Regional Vice Chairman of the NPP Aljahi Omar Bodinga said the president will take a decision that is in the interest of Ghanaians and not his interest. In the whole world, Ghana is one of the countries whose measures to deal with the COVID-19 have been commended. We went after the virus, we didnt wait for the virus, he said. He added: The president listens to experts and I'm sure the decision he will take will be in the interest of Ghana and not him Nana Akufo-Addo. ---classfmonline Motorola is reportedly gearing up to release the second installation to its revamped line of Razr foldable phones despite issues with the previous generation's screen. As reported by Android Authority, the news that Motorola may be planning a second Razr phone for release before the end of the year comes from a general manager with the technology company, Lenovo. It also marks a sign of confidence in the line despite reported issues with the first iteration's design that cast doubt on the durability of the Razr's hinge and display. In a podcast called Reframed Tech, Lenovo South Africa general manager Thibault Dousson said the phone could be released as soon as September. Motorola may be planning a second Razr phone set to be released in September according to a Lenovo general manager who spoke about the device on a podcast 'Theres a new iteration [of the Razr ed] coming up. Theres one in September I think, coming up,' Dousson told the host. Following revelations of a next-generation Razr, XDA Developers reported that tit could also see several upgrades. In addition to a new Snapdragon processor, the device, reportedly codenamed 'smith' will also have 8 GBs of RAM and 256 GBs of storage, XDA reports. It may also see a slight improvment on battery life As noted by XDA, the device's Snapdragon processor also means that it will support 5G networks, though it's unclear if that will include the super-fast ultra mm wave 5G. The next addition to the Razr line of phones will also look to help reduce problems with the 2019 phone's display that caused the screen to peel and noticeable bumps. While it's unclear how widespread issues were, Input, which first reported issues with the Razr hypothesized that extreme temperature changes - from hot to cold or vice versa - could have caused issues. A test conducted by CNET using its 'FoldBot' which put the device to the test with thousands of rapid folds in just three hours, caused the Razr's hinge to fail before the advertised amount. However, the US smartphone-maker says the robot put undue stress on the hinge and did not allow the foldable phone to open and close as intended.' Motorola's redesigned Razr flip phone was unveiled November 2019 and has a 6.2-inch foldable screen, which bends in half to close - in the same way as the original 'clamshell' Razr handsets which were popular in the mid-2000s. The updated Motorola device has replaced the physical keyboard with a foldable screen which fills the entire inside of the phone. A newly developed video technique has allowed scientists at Goethe University Frankfurt at the Bee Research Institute of the Polytechnical Society to record the complete development of a honey bee in its hive for the first time. It also led to the discovery that certain pesticides - neonicotinoids - changed the behaviour of the nurse bees: researchers determined that they fed the larvae less often. Larval development took up to 10 hours longer. A longer development period in the hive can foster infestation by parasites such as the Varroa mite (Scientific Reports, DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-65425-y). Honey bees have very complex breeding behaviour: a cleaning bee cleans an empty comb (brood cell) of the remains of the previous brood before the queen bee lays an egg inside it. Once the bee larva has hatched, a nurse bee feeds it for six days. Then the nurse bees caps the brood cell with wax. The larva spins a cocoon and goes through metamorphosis, changing the shape of its body and developing a head, wings and legs. Three weeks after the egg was laid, the fully-grown bee hatches from the cocoon and leaves the brood cell. Using a new video technique, scientists at Goethe University Frankfurt have now succeeded for the first time in recording the complete development of a honey bee in a bee colony at the Bee Research Institute of the Polytechnical Society. The researchers built a bee hive with a glass pane and were thus able to film a total of four bee colonies simultaneously over several weeks with a special camera set-up. They used deep red light so that the bees were not disturbed, and recorded all the movements of the bees in the brood cells. The researchers were particularly interested in the nursing behaviour of the nurse bees, to whose food (a sugar syrup) they added small amounts of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids are highly effective insecticides that are frequently used in agriculture. In natural environments, neonicotinoids arrive in bee colonies through nectar and pollen collected by the bees. It is already known that these substances disturb the navigational abilities and learning behaviour of bees. In a measure criticised by the agricultural industry, the European Union has prohibited the use of some neonicotinoids in crop cultivation. Using machine learning algorithms developed by the scientists together with colleagues at the Centre for Cognition and Computation at Goethe University, they were able to evaluate and quantify the nursing behaviour of the nurse bees semi-automatically. The result: even small doses of the neonicotinoids Thiacloprid or Clothianidin led to the nurse bees feeding the larva during the 6-day larval development less frequently, and consequently for a shorter daily period. Some of the bees nursed in this manner required up to10 hours longer until the cell was capped with wax. "Neonicotinoids affect the bees' nervous systems by blocking the receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine," explains Dr Paul Siefert, who carried out the experiments in Professor Bernd Grunewald's work group at the Bee Research Institute Oberursel. Siefert: "For the first time, we were able to demonstrate that neonicotinoids also change the social behaviour of bees. This could point to the disruptions in nursing behaviour due to neonicotinoids described by other scientists." Furthermore, parasites such as the feared Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) profit from an extended development period, since the mites lay their eggs in the brood cells shortly before they are capped: if they remain closed for a longer period, the young mites can develop and multiply without interruption. However, according to Siefert, it still remains to be clarified whether the delay in the larval development is caused by the behavioural disturbance of the nurse bee, or whether the larvae develop more slowly because of the altered jelly. The nurse bees produce the jelly and feed it to the larvae. "From other studies in our work group, we know that the concentration of acetylcholine in the jelly is reduced by neonicotinoids," says Siefert. "On the other hand, we have observed that with higher dosages, the early embryonal development in the egg is also extended - during a period in which feeding does not yet occur." Additional studies are needed to determine which factors are working together in these instances. In any case, the new video technique and the evaluation algorithms offer great potential for future research projects. In addition to feeding, behaviours for heating and construction were also able to be reliably identified. Siefert: "Our innovative technology makes it possible to gain fundamental scientific insights into social interactions in bee colonies, the biology of parasites, and the safety of pesticides." ### Publication: Paul Siefert, Rudra Hota, Visvanathan Ramesh, Bernd Grunewald. Chronic within-hive video recordings detect altered nursing behaviour and retarded larval development of neonicotinoid treated honey bees. Sci. Rep. 10, 8727 (2020). Video: Development of a bee larva https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65425-y (Supplementary Material) Images may be downloaded here: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/88682581 Captions: Figure 1: Diagram/monitoring of brood cells - side view of the construction and camera view of the brood area. The brood area of the bees was filmed with a camera (green) through a dome lighting (grey). The specially designed hive (brown) was only 2.4 cm wide, so that the bees would raise young as quickly as possible (right). Credit: Paul Siefert/Bee Research Institute Oberursel/Goethe University Frankfurt Figure. 2 Excerpts from the video of the development of a worker bee. Above left: The queen lays an egg (arrow) in the cell. The growing larva (arrow) is fed with jelly. Below left: the metamorphosis takes about one hour and includes the rupture of the larval skin (arrow); the pupa is beneath it. Finally, the adult bee hatches out of the cell. Credit: Paul Siefert/Bee Research Institute Oberursel/Goethe University Frankfurt Further information: Dr Paul Siefert Bee Research Institute Oberursel Subsidiary of the Polytechnical Society Frankfurt am Main, Faculty of Biosciences Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Tel.: +49 6171 21278 siefert@bio.uni-frankfurt.de http://www.institut-fuer-bienenkunde.de Current news about science, teaching, and society can be found on GOETHE-UNI online (http://www.aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de) Goethe University is a research-oriented university in the European financial centre Frankfurt am Main. The university was founded in 1914 through private funding, primarily from Jewish sponsors, and has since produced pioneering achievements in the areas of social sciences, sociology and economics, medicine, quantum physics, brain research, and labour law. It gained a unique level of autonomy on 1 January 2008 by returning to its historic roots as a "foundation university". Today, it is one of the three largest universities in Germany. Together with the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it is a partner in the inter-state strategic Rhine-Main University Alliance. The Bee Research Institute is a subsidiary of the Polytechnical Society Frankfurt am Main and has been operated jointly with Goethe University since 1963. Internet: http://www.goethe-universitaet.de Publisher: The President of Goethe University Editor: Dr. Markus Bernards, Science Editor, PR & Communication Department, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Tel: -49 (0) 69 798-12498, Fax: +49 (0) 69 798-763 12531, bernards@em.uni-frankfurt.de Reader Alert: Toni turned 65 on Wednesday, May 20, and has now joined the maze of Medicare. She will discuss what Medicare issues she meets in the future. Hi Toni: I attended one of your seminars and now I need help with my Medicare issue. I am 65 almost 66, still working and covered by my employers group health HSA plan. Approximately $5,000 is contributed to my qualified tax-deductible HSA account for medical expenses. When I talked with my companys HR department, they advised me to apply for Medicare Part A (hospital) although I really did not need it. Now I find out that since my insurance is an HSA, signing up for Part A has disqualified me for any contribution to the HSA plan. I have a few questions: 1) Does having Part A really disqualify me from contributing to my HSA Plan? 2) If so, how can I stop Medicare Part A and stop this HSA tax situation? Thanks, Stephen from Clear Lake area Stephen: This is an especially important topic to those who are turning 65, still working with an HSA because as you are experiencing Stephen, HR departments and friends are giving wrong advice to those becoming Medicare age. This week, three different Toni Says Medicare column readers sent in HSA questions because they had received wrong information which is costing them from funding their HSA. The rule about Medicare Part A and making contribution to an HSA is discussed in the Medicare & You handbook. It states, You cant contribute to your HSA once your Medicare coverage begins. The handbook also states in the last paragraph, To avoid a tax penalty, you should stop contributing to your HSA at least six months before you apply for Medicare. Please review this information; very important. Below are the answers to your questions: 1. Thats correct! Enrolling in Medicare Part A will disqualify you from contributing funds to your HSA. Contact the Toni Says office by email at info@tonisays.com or call 832-519-8664 and together we can explore your Medicare options. 2. Question No. 2 about stopping your Medicare Part A: I would call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 or visit your local office explain to the agent how you were misinformed since you have been enrolled and funded your HSA before you turned 65 and now you cannot contribute to the plan. Ask how you can appeal what was advised to you. Since Social Security offices are not open due to COVID-19, you will have to fax in your information, and you want to schedule an appointment with a Social Security agent by phone until the Social Security offices reopen. 3. Getting Part A back: When you talk with Social Security ask what type of problems you will have to getting back into Part A later. It is rare that one stops Medicare Part A, but more Boomers enroll in HSAs to grow their retirement because of Health Savings Accounts. I have consulted with many who have stopped Medicare Part B(Medical) when they have returned to work with group health insurance. For those who need to delay Medicare Part A due to still working full-time with company health insurance and want to continue making contributions to their HSA can do so by simply NOT enrolling in Medicare Part A when turning 65. When you and your spouse retire later past 65, when no longer working full-time with company health insurance, then you can apply for Medicare. Contact the Toni Says office at 832-519-8664 for more information on Medicare and HSA topic. Toni King, author of the Medicare Survival Guide is giving a $5 discount on the Medicare Survival Guide Advanced book and bundle package for the Toni Says readers and friends at www.tonisays.com. As of last Wednesday, a federal court had received notice that 101 lawsuits have been filed as of seeking coverage from insurers for business interruption losses caused by COVID-19, and plaintiffs attorneys say they expect thousands more. Ultimately, I think whats going to happen is small businesses are going to have to come to the table with the insurance companies and the government to figure out a solution for this, said Richard Golomb, a partner with the Golomb & Honik law firm in Philadelphia. The 101 cases filed so farwhich does not include suits filed in state courtswere tagged by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation because they are related to a petition filed by groups of plaintiffs in Philadelphia and Chicago to assign to a single judge all COVID-19 business interruption lawsuits filed in federal courts. The panel was created in 1968 to determine whether civil actions pending in different federal districts involve one or more common questions of fact and should be coordinated or consolidated for pretrial proceedings. Golomb said insurers have been giving blanket denial to such claims, while business ownersespecially restaurant ownersare counting on an insurance payout to survive. He cited an estimate by the National Restaurant Association that if no assistance is given, 40 percent of restaurants will not survive the pandemic. The American Property and Casualty Insurance Association said forcing insurers to pay such claims would undermine the solvency of the industry. APCIA estimated business closures are costing businesses with fewer than 500 employees from $393 billion to $668 billion per month. What started as a judicial question has moved to the legislative branch. Bills to require insurers to pay COVID-19 business interruption claims have been introduced in eight states, although a bill in the Louisiana state house has been dropped. The U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee is held a virtual hearing on the issue last Thursday. Even the executive branch has chimed in. President Donald Trump pronounced his support for claims made by business owners who purchased insurance policies without any virus exclusions during an April 10 press briefing. Golomb said he believes eventually insurers will eventually ask Congress for help in paying business-interruption claims. In the end, that might result in a complicated global settlement in which each of the partiesplaintiffs, insurers, and the government, pays a part of the lost income costs. The No. 1 goal has got to be to get these businesses open, he said. For now, plaintiffs attorneys dont even agree among themselves whether all of the COVID-19 claims should be heard by the Multidistrict Panel. A group of plaintiffs led by the Big Onion Tavern in Chicago in lawsuits against Society Insurance filed a memorandum opposing consolidation of the cases. They argue that each claim involves unique insurance policies in various states with differing laws. Theres also a question of where to assign the cases. In addition to competing petitions from Philadelphia and Chicago, a third group of plaintiffs in South Florida asked the Multidistrict Panel to assign the litigation to the U.S. District Court in Miami. Attorney Charles A. Silverman, a sole practitioner in Skokie, Ill., filed his own petition asking that his suit filed on behalf of Sandy Point Dental P.C. against Cincinnati Insurance Co. be heard in Chicago. Silverman said he doesnt travel and doesnt want to hire co-counsel in a distant city. He said he doesnt oppose consolidation of the cases in principal, although it may be difficult for the court to resolve questions of law that apply to a wide range of policy types across myriad jurisdictions. However, he said some coordination is possible. For example, the court may create consolidated cases for claims in each state, or lump them together by region. Silverman said he wouldnt be surprised to see Congress step in with some sort of bailout for either insurers or small businesses, even though he described himself as a grumpy libertarian who generally disfavors such interventions. This is what people are calling a black swan event, he said. Nobody was predicting this. I dont think anyone was anticipating this degree of shutdown. Plaintiffs attorney Benjamin Widlaski from Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton in Coral Gables, Fla., said he is hoping litigation, not government intervention, will resolve the coverage question. His firm is asking for cases to be consolidated in Miami, where the hospitality industry makes up a large part of the economy. The people who were harmed, they need relief and they need it soon, he said. They need that check to stay in business. Steven Badger, an insurance defense attorney for Zelle LLP in Dallas, said the COVID-19 claims dont belong in a consolidated action, and shouldnt be resolved politically either. Badger said breach-of-contract lawsuits involving hundreds of different insurance companies, thousands of different policy forms with 50 different applicable state laws will not serve the purpose of the Multidistrict Panel, which is to expedite and simplify litigation. Just the opposite would occur here, with a single MDL judge being overwhelmed by the predictable morass of individual case issues, he said in an email. As a result, the insurance industry uniformly opposes a federal MDL. Badger said he believes personal injury attorneys are hoping for a modest hold-up settlement, but that wont likely be the result. Settlements will be offered based on the merits of each claim without any expectation of a federal bailout, he said. Any plaintiffs attorney who believes that the insurance industry is just going to bundle-up thousands of lawsuits and write big checks without specific claim analysis is being shortsighted and doesnt understand commercial first-party property insurance litigation, he said. But Badger the chances of insurers quickly crushing the plaintiffs arguments without a substantial expense for attorney fees are also slim to none. The commercial insurance industry, like it does in all catastrophe events, will litigate individual disputes and make decisions whether to take cases to trial or settle based on the facts of the individual disputes, he said. They will also consider the law as it develops on the key coverage questions. Early indications are that the law will be very favorable to the positions being taken by the insurance industry. (This article was originally published by Claims Journal, a sister publication of Carrier Management. Reporter Jim Sams is the editor of Claims Journal) The Pittsburgh community is coming together to restore a beloved World War I memorial that was vandalized with red paint over the holiday weekend. The Pittsburgh Police Department shared that officers arrived at the Doughboy Statue Memorial at Butler Street and Penn Avenue in Lawrenceville at 8am on Monday after receiving reports of vandalism. Responding officers found the memorial splashed with red paint and scrawled with indeterminate messages, police said in a release. Some of the images resemble the hammer and sickle commonly associated with the communist party. The Pittsburgh Police Department shared that officers arrived at the Doughboy Statue Memorial in Lawrenceville at 8am on Monday Responding officers found the memorial splashed with red paint and scrawled with indeterminate messages, police said One portion of the vandalism reads: 'June 19, 1986, Glory to the day of heroism.' While it is unknown what exactly the date is in reference too, it could be referring to the Peru Prison Massacre of 1986 that resulted in the killing of more than 200. Spray paint was used for the symbols but common household paint could also be seen splashed on the memorial. Police are still investigating the incident. 'Vandalizing a memorial on any day is wrong, but it is incomprehensible to vandalize this memorial on a day in which we honor those who served and gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today. Pittsburgh Police will vigorously investigate this crime, Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said in a statement. 'This is not Pittsburgh. Whoever did this. Please leave. Today,' Mayor Bill Peduto said in a Monday afternoon tweet, condemning the attack Some of the images resemble the hammer and sickle commonly associated with the communist party The Pittsburgh Public Works' Graffiti Removal Team and the city working together to clean the statue on Monday Bill Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh, took to Twitter to share video of the Pittsburgh Public Works' Graffiti Removal Team and the city working together to clean the statue. He also condemned the clear act of vandalism. 'This is not Pittsburgh. Whoever did this. Please leave. Today,' he said in a Monday afternoon tweet. A GoFundMe fundraiser launched by Lawrenceville United has raised just under $200 of its $10,000 goal. Spray paint was used for the symbols but common household paint could also be seen splashed on the memorial The non-profit shared that the 'iconic symbol of the Lawrenceville neighborhood' was dedicated in 1921 after funds were raised to honor residents of Pittsburgh's 6th Ward who served in WWI. The 6th ward includes Lawrenceville and the Polish Hill neighborhoods. WWII veterans were added on in 1947, along with dozens of others that died while serving in action. 'This fundraiser is set up to make positive out of a negative act and to anticipate future restoration needs of the Doughboy statue, as well as ongoing maintenance of the landscaping around it, which has long been maintained by volunteers from the community,' the group shared in the release. A GoFundMe fundraiser launched by Lawrenceville United is seeking $10,000 ST. LAWRENCE, N.L.A Newfoundland community was in mourning Tuesday after the bodies of three fishermen were recovered and a search continued for a fourth crew member missing off the islands south coast. A man and his son and nephew, along with a close friend of the family, were aboard the 12-metre fishing vessel that did not return as planned on Monday evening, the mayor of their home port said. Mayor Paul Pike of St. Lawrence, N.L., said the mood was sombre in the town of about 1,200 people on Tuesday. Eileen Norman, who is related by marriage to three of the men, said the community is devastated. Its a very close community. Everybody knows everybody, Norman said by phone. People just cant get over it. Its still unreal. The Canadian Coast Guard says the first body was recovered just before 4:15 a.m. at the western end of the mouth of Placentia Bay, almost 40 kilometres from the coast. The second body was found at 11:15 a.m., and a third was recovered at 12:57 p.m. Mark Gould, regional supervisor for search and rescue at the Maritime rescue subcentre in St. Johns, said it appears the vessel Sarah Anne sank, though the exact circumstances remained unclear. After finding what we found, we knew something catastrophic happened, Gould said from St. Johns. He said a few pieces of the boat were found near the first mans body, and all three victims were found within a couple miles of each other. Gould said its been a tough case that has strongly affected the community, with residents taking to their boats to help in the search. But the news had been only bad as the search stretched into late Tuesday. Unfortunately in the situation so far, weve recovered bodies instead of people, and its a sad result, he said. Gould said everyone involved was impacted by the difficult search. All day long, youre thinking about it and you feel so much for the families, he said. The spokesman said it appears the small vessel didnt have an emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRG, and the search and rescue centre hadnt received any signal from the boat. The four men left St. Lawrence to fish for crab well before dawn on Monday, which Pike said was a sunny day with low winds. They had been scheduled back at 8 p.m., and a search was started shortly after a person called in a report that the vessel hadnt returned on time. Pike said their families had begun to feel uneasy Monday afternoon when there was no communication from the crew, who were all experienced on the water. He said three of the men on the Sarah Anne were between 30 and 45 years old and the fourth was in his 60s. Two of the men worked as volunteer firefighters in the community, and three had young children. They were great friends, Pike said of the group. A Cormorant helicopter, a Hercules search and rescue aircraft, an Oceanex cargo vessel, members of the coast guard auxiliary and several coast guard vessels were involved in the search on Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard said multiple aircraft had joined in the search by the afternoon. Volunteer vessels from the community were also on the water. Pike estimated that dozens of fishing vessels from St. Lawrence and other communities along the Burin Peninsula set out Monday evening to look for their colleagues. Fishermen have this strong bond, this brotherhood that exists, and they certainly were out in full support to bring these boys home, Pike said. As neighbours and families waited for news about the fourth man, Pike said people are also left wondering what went wrong on the trip, when the weather was good and four experienced fishermen were on board. Thats the whole mystery that surrounds this, is what happened to these guys, he said. Gould said efforts to locate the missing man would continue until all options had been exhausted, adding that some vessels on the scene would have to refuel and rest at some point in the evening. Everyone knows how important this is to the families, and were doing everything we can, he said. With over 37,600 deaths, nursing home fatalities now account for nearly 40% of deaths from the novel coronavirus in the U.S., according to an ABC News analysis of the latest public health data. In at least 18 states, nursing home deaths account for over 50% of coronavirus-related deaths, placing a continued stress on the infrastructure for American elder care even as much of the nation tries to return to some sense of normalcy Ten states have still not released figures for infections and deaths in long-term care and skilled nursing facilities. But even limiting the count to the 40 states that have provided figures, as well as Washington, D.C., more than 182,500 nursing home residents and staff members at this point have reportedly contracted COVID-19. That's more than 14% of the nation's total nursing care population. MORE: Advocates demand stronger federal action as nursing homes engulfed by pandemic The number of infections in the latest review of state data suggests nursing home infections have not slowed in recent weeks; rather, nursing home infections are accounting for a rising percentage of the overall spread of the virus. "This is an 'all hands-on deck' situation," Mark Parkinson, the president of the National Center for Assisted Living and the American Health Care Association, said in a statement released late last week. PHOTO: A Superior ambulance prepares to leave Bria of Geneva skilled nursing facility in Geneva, Ill. (Mark Black/ZUMAPRESS.com) Last week, the federal health department announced it would channel $4.9 billion to nursing homes to help support their response to the outbreak. "The Trump Administration is providing every resource we can," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement released Friday. The agency said the additional funds are intended to help nursing homes address critical needs such as labor, scaling up their testing capacity, acquiring personal protective equipment (PPE) and a range of other expenses directly linked to this pandemic. Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis. Story continues That need continues to be acute, Parkinson and others told ABC News, as nursing care facilities face the stress of staffing facilities in spite of increased danger to workers and the need to sideline staff that show indications of infection. "We've seen inspiring images of nurses and doctors flying across the country to serve in our hospitals. We hope to see the same national support rally around our long-term care facilities," Parkinson said. "We owe it to our residents -- those from the Greatest Generation -- to ensure they have the necessary support they need and deserve." As many parts of the country have pushed towards a gradual reopening, nursing care facilities have had to gain a firmer grip on their access to a steady supply of testing kits, as well as the same masks, gloves, gowns and other protective equipment that are now also being purchased by hospitals, doctors and dentists resuming non-emergency practices. MORE: In nursing homes, as in wider community, minorities hit hardest by COVID, researchers say Early this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began large shipments of masks, gowns and other protective equipment that are eventually supposed to reach all facilities nationwide. Last week, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the federal government wants nursing facilities to test all patients and staff over the next two weeks. PHOTO: Sen. Susan Collins presides over a hearing on Capitol Hill, conducted remotely through video conferencing, to examine caring for seniors amid the COVID-19 crisis, in an almost empty hearing room on Capitol Hill, May 21, 2020, in Washington. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) Dr. Mark Gloth, the medical director at HCR ManorCare, one of the nation's largest providers of nursing and long-term care, said accessing steady channels of protective equipment has been an ongoing challenge, and the atmosphere has changed as nursing care communities were designed to provide care in a more home-like setting that allows for social engagement. Nursing and long-term care facilities are, for the most part, still limiting access to visitors as the try to keep out the virus. "Now we have employee screening protocols, isolation units, social distancing, universal masking, and every employee is wearing some additional form of [protective equipment] when they are in the center," Gloth said. "Our supply chain has performed Herculean feats in getting us supplies above and beyond what we typically order. We believe this need will continue and grow as we slowly open our communities and our facilities." What to know about coronavirus: How it started and how to protect yourself: coronavirus explained What to do if you have symptoms: coronavirus symptoms Tracking the spread in the US and Worldwide: coronavirus map Congress has also provided some aid to nursing homes as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package passed in March, including $200 million allocated to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to assist the agency with infection prevention in the homes. House Democrats have argued that not enough of these emergency funds are reaching seniors. Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, which advocates for the needs of residents in the hard-hit facilities, said he is concerned nursing homes will not only recover more slowly, but are also "much more likely to be hit hardest by any resurgence." PHOTO: In this May 3, 2020, file photo, a man passes by the Isabella Geriatric Center in New York. (Michael Nagle/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images, FILE) Mollot said he would like to see a more flexible government response, so that harder-hit communities receive more immediate attention. "We are supporting the use of strike teams to go into nursing homes, identify any residents in distress due to COVID-19 or neglect and ensure that they get the care they need, and evaluate the whether the nursing home is being appropriately managed, with sufficient staffing, [protective gear] and other supplies," Mollot said. MORE: COVID-19's hidden victims, Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes Last week, a Senate hearing focused on the approaches that can be employed to meet the crush of need. "We have to do more of our seniors, we cannot stop working, we cannot stop legislating, we cannot stop appropriating dollars to help our seniors," Ranking Member Bob Casey, D-Pa., said. "There's no such thing as doing too much to help our seniors during this pandemic." ABC News reporters Soorin Kim and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report. As nation tries to exhale, coronavirus still carrying infection, death into nursing homes, data show originally appeared on abcnews.go.com According to Democrats, everyone will now need to vote by mail this fall. They argue that traditional voting standing in lines at libraries and schools will cause a contagious outbreak or at least force voters to choose between democracy and health. So how will the coronavirus crisis affect national elections this November 3? There is an interesting solution: drive-through voting. Even Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) supported this within her plan under her name "curbside voting." It works for banking. A drive-through area could be set up in a parking lot or along the side of vacant buildings. Libraries and schools could be spared exposure. One table with a hard awning covering above could be set up to take photo ID from cars and give a ballot to those who are on the voter registration list. The driver would then drive forward and fill out his ballot and then drive forward to another station to hand in his vote. Plexiglas walls next to each station in the parking lot or in the windows of a building with a drawer or flip shelf might protect the election staff. Voters would probably sign an individual covering receipt separated from their ballot to keep how they voted secret instead of the current practice of voters signing in on the master registration book inside a voting precinct. Harris introduced in the Senate the VoteSafe Act of 2020 on April 16, 2020. Most of Harris's comments and proposals are left-wing identity politics about the virus affecting minorities most. But also Harris proposes a new Section 298 to the "Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21001 et seq.)" (emphasis added): (5) CURBSIDE VOTING. -- The implementation and promotion of curbside voting to allow individuals to pick up ballots, complete them, and return them to a poll worker from their vehicles. So Democrats would have difficulty opposing this, Kamala Harris being one of the most logical choices to run for vice president with Joe Biden, according to campaign strategists. The safety of drive-through voting won't help everyone. Not everyone has a car. But it can reduce the need for universal mail-in voting. President Trump has repeatedly opposed efforts to convert U.S. elections into all-absentee ballots: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump The United States cannot have all Mail In Ballots. It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history. People grab them from mailboxes, print thousands of forgeries and force people to sign. Also, forge names. Some absentee OK, when necessary. Trying to use Covid for this Scam! 161K 10:08 AM - May 24, 2020 Democrats controlling the U.S. House of Representatives passed another $3-trillion relief bill on May 16 to help the country during the economic shutdown. The jaw-dropping amount of funds is still probably not enough to heal the economic damage of shutting down the country. Democrats earmarked much of that money for state and local governments and another round of $1,200 stimulus checks. But the massive aid package includes $3.6 billion for voting by mail. Nancy Pelosi explained: "'We're now calling it 'Voting at Home'" (id.). Also: "Pelosi said the proposal would allow for the implementation of same-day voter registration and the distribution of absentee ballots for all voters." But if large numbers of voters can cast drive-through ballots in lieu of traditional precincts, it will take a lot of pressure off. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 20:45:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 22, 2020 shows flags on the Tian'anmen Square and atop the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers have proposed formulating a foreign states immunities law following malicious litigations filed against China over its COVID-19 response. The move will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens as well as foreign investors, said Ma Yide, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and a law researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. It will also counteract malicious litigations raised in countries like the United States towards China over the COVID-19 response, Ma told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual NPC session. He said the lack of such a law has emerged as a prominent issue in the current epidemic as some countries, led by the United States, tried to shift the blame for their own governments' incompetence on COVID-19 response. Some groups and individuals even cited the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of the United States to bring litigations to the Chinese government and relevant departments, he added. "This is a show of hegemony and power politics and a reminder of the necessity and urgency for China to formulate a foreign states immunities law," Ma said. Over 35 lawmakers from the NPC Beijing delegation have endorsed the proposal, which has been accepted by the session and forwarded to special committees of the national legislature for study. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 26 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. 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, 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 the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts. Its now widely accepted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves creating and revelling in one grandiose spectacle after another. The completion of one year of its second term in office might have seen a series of pageants unfold in late May if it were not for the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Most right-thinking not Right-wing Indians will see a celebration now as obscene. With Lockdown 4.0 in force, the economy staring at negative GDP, a health crisis turning into a humanitarian crisis not seen since Partition, millions of migrants trudging hundreds of kilometres across states on foot, an economic stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh-crore that many analysts took apart in two paragraphs, 40 special trains losing their way, confusion over flights, and China intrudes across the LAC, a self-congratulatory event would look out of place even for the master of spectacle. However, the BJP thinks differently. The party will hold more than 750 virtual rallies across the nation to mark the anniversary. The second consecutive term for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which is also known as Modi 2.0, stands out for, among other things, a brazenness in macro decisions, a clear tilt to Hindutva with the decks cleared for the construction of a Ram mandir and the passage of Triple Talaq Act, and a disdain for niceties and procedure. If before COVID-19, the central government came across as unabashedly anti-Muslim, during the outbreak, it has come across as classist and anti-poor. There is a deepening belief in the BJPs electoral invincibility partly due to an Opposition that cannot get its act together which in turn has meant a lack of accountability. Few demand answers from the government; it gets away without responsibility, be it the four-hour notice for locking down India, or collecting nearly Rs 10,000 crore in PM-CARES Fund whose allocations for COVID-19 relief are opaque. An emboldened BJP is seen toppling an elected government in Madhya Pradesh and accused of attempting it in Maharashtra. It is at the same time that we see defence chiefs making political statements, and the Supreme Court procrastinating on matters of individual rights and liberties. Now, it seems that the unimaginable state of affairs is the new normal. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show The lack of accountability is typified by the governments handling of the COVID-19 crisis. On February 24, when India had three cases and the graph seemed to move up, the government was amusing United States President Donald Trump at a gathering of 125,000 people in a stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Through February and March, preparations for the pandemic were tardy, air travel and airports were not shut down till the third week of March, and consultations were not scheduled with opposition parties and state governments. Even NITI Aayog CEO has said that the lockdown has massively disrupted supply chains. Before COVID-19 laid Indias economy low, it was already gasping for air. Unemployment was at a 45-year high. Police entered college campuses and arrested protesting students; BJP leaders who went on rampage or prodded the slogan Goli maaron saalon ko are scot free. Social strife and communal division was rife with the government moving the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Parliament and rolling out the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that would have turned millions of minorities into second-class citizens. Delhi saw its worst riots in decades. Even before that, the government nullified Article 370 taking away the special status of Jammu & Kashmir, bifurcated the state into two union territories, and placed Kashmir under a severe lockdown and communication blackout. Three former chief ministers were considered threats under the Public Safety Act, and placed under house arrests. Two of them have since been released. Those who dared to protest any of this were arrested under draconian laws. COVID-19 only made a bad situation worse. The BJPs supporters look at these lapses but see a starkly different picture. They see a government led by a no-nonsense, authoritative, driven man often let down by a bureaucracy thats still loyal to the Congress. They see Modi now comfortably ensconced in Lutyens Delhi and feel proud. They are hurt when the economy chugs listlessly, but find excuses to explain it. After all, the government has bolstered their idea of a Hindu India. Here lies the dichotomy: what delights the BJP, what works for its supporters is not necessarily in the best interests of a composite and inclusive India. As an Indian, theres little to celebrate. TikTok stars Bryce Hall and Jaden Hossler have run into some legal trouble. The social media personalities were both arrested in Texas on Memorial Day, PEOPLE magazine reports. Hall, 20, was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, while Hossler, 19, was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance, which is a felony. They each posted bail the next day. The two are members of Los Angeles-based creative collective Sway House. Days before the arrests, Hall announced that the six boys would be taking a cross-country road trip together. She recently revealed that she is 'pretty sure' that she and her husband Sean McGuinness suffered from coronavirus. And Amanda Lamb took to Instagram on Tuesday to share another candid update during the lockdown. The presenter, 47, posted a lingerie selfie as she admitted that she hasn't worn a bra for the majority of the pandemic. Candid: Amanda Lamb took to Instagram on Tuesday to post a lingerie selfie as she admitted that she hasn't worn a bra for the majority of the pandemic Amanda joked that she felt like a 'doofus' taking her lingerie snap and said that it has been 'great' not having to wear a bra. The presenter also offered her advice for good-fitting lingerie for when lockdown is over as she quipped: 'Looks like we might have to start again soon.' Amanda looked radiant as she posed in a grey sheer bra from Fantasie Lingerie, which she admitted she accidentally dyed during its first wash, with a floral silk kimono and silver necklace. The presenter left her brunette locks loose into a relaxed hairdo and she added a slick of make-up. No bra life: The presenter, 47, joked that she felt like a 'doofus' taking her lingerie snap and said that it has been 'great' not having to wear a bra during lockdown Amanda penned: 'Firstly may I just start by saying I felt like a right doofus trying to take this picture. Secondly it's about bras. Like the vast majority of the nation I haven't worn one for most of lockdown and it's been great. 'Looks like we might have to start again soon. Trying to find one that doesn't dig in/cut your blood supply off or allow your boobs to spill out over the top or round the sides is really difficult. 'I found a brilliant one a few years ago and managed to shrink it and turn it grey within one wash! Health: It comes after Amanda revealed that she is 'pretty sure' that she and her husband Sean McGuinness suffered from coronavirus earlier this month 'Like most of us I make do with ones that I've had for years and ignore the fact the wires have come loose and are threaten to stab me in the rib cage every time I move.' She added: 'Another top tip I got from a bra fitter once is to bend forward as far as is comfortable, grab a boob and hoof it into your cup then stand back up and everything fills out perfectly without the lumps and bumps. 'There will not be an IGTV if that at anytime soon!! . . . #bras #bra #underwear #goodshape #lingerie #fantasielingerie #ilovemyfantasieslingerie .' It comes after Amanda revealed that she is 'pretty sure' that she and her husband Sean McGuinness suffered from coronavirus earlier this month. Health scare: The presenter said she and spouse Sean are yet to be tested for the virus (pictured with their daughters in 2016) The presenter said on This Morning that she and Sean are yet to be formally tested, but believe their symptoms were akin for the deadly disease. During the show Amanda also offered her views on the news that an accurate antibody test may have finally been found, saying 'nobody is 100% sure' the virus cannot be contracted again. Speaking live from her home in South West London, presenter Amanda told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: 'I think it's great they found it. 'I think that's fantastic but I'm just trying to work correlation between us knowing that we've had it and us being able to get out of lockdown. Views: Presenter Amanda spoke on This Morning alongside Drillminister about the day's headlines surrounding the coronavirus crisis 'For example I'm pretty sure I've had it, I'm pretty sure my husband's had it, we haven't been tested yet. 'Even if we know we've had it, nobody has actually 100% said we'd get it again, we could still carry it that's the thing I'm slightly concerned about. 'If they come up with a vaccine I'd be cartwheeling down the street, but I'm not sure how having this information is going to help us get out of lockdown.' Amanda was a guest on the show alongside Drillminister to discuss recent headlines surrounding the coronavirus crisis. Concerns: Amanda also offered her views on news that an accurate antibody test may have finally been found, saying 'nobody is 100% sure' the virus cannot be contracted again The former host of A Place In The Sun married cameraman Sean in 2012, and they have two daughters Willow, 10, and Lottie, seven. Hours earlier it was revealed the government had approved use of an antibody test following an evaluation at the Porton Down facility last week. As of Tuesday, more than 265K people are thought to have tested positive for coronavirus and 37,048 have died of the disease in the UK alone. This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV. House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) at a press conference in the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 9, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) McCarthy Pulls Support for GOP House Candidate Over Disturbing Social Media Posts House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on May 25 revoked his endorsement of Ted Howze, a candidate for a California House district, after the emergence of disturbing social media posts that disparaged Democrats, Muslims, and a survivor of a mass shooting. In light of Mr. Howzes disappointing comments, Leader McCarthy has withdrawn his endorsement. As the leader has previously stated, hateful rhetoric has no place within the Republican Party, Drew Florio, a McCarthy spokesman, said in a statement on May 25, Politico reported. The troubling posts, since-deleted, were unearthed by Politico, and included deriding Islam as a death cult, accusing Hillary Clinton and her 2016 campaign chairman, John Podesta, of murder, and lambasting Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) of hitting the crack pipe too hard. Another post questioned whether a Muslim [can] ever truly be a good American citizen. Howze responded to the allegations in a statement that acknowledged the content as negative and ugly ideas, but said someone else authored and posted the messages without his knowledge or consent. Like many folks in my middle-age group, I learned the very hard lesson to never allow anyone access to social media accounts or passwords, Howze said, according to Politico. I made the mistake of allowing others access to these accounts unknowinglyand I am angered, horrified, and extremely offended that these ugly ideas were shared or posted by those individuals several years ago. Tim Rosales, his campaign manager, declined to name the individual responsible for the offensive posts, but told The Modesto Bee that people [Howze] knew, people he was familiar with made these comments [and retweets]. Hes very upset. This is not who he is. He really is disgusted by the whole thing. Howze is running against Josh Harder, a Democrat, who won Californias 10th Congressional District seat from Republican Jeff Denham in 2018. Harder, in a recent Twitter post, shared several screengrabs of what he called vile social media posts that he attributed to Howze. One of the posts, dated Feb. 8, 2018, states, I am still waiting for any Democrat, any, to explain the reasoning for referring to illegal immigrants, more accurately criminal foreign invaders, as Dreamers? Ill never understand how these people can so blindly divorce themselves from reality and the sentiment of average Americans, the post continued. Following revelations about the content of the controversial posts, Howze has faced mounting backlash, including withdrawals of support from state Republicans and local officials. National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Tom Emmer, voicing his opposition, told Politico in a statement, These statements are unacceptable and not indicative of the Republican Party and what we are building here at the NRCC with our diverse slate of candidates. While McCarthy expressed his opposition to the posts, he didnt officially pull his endorsement until May 25. The content in question on Mr. Howzes social media channels is disappointing and disturbing. Bigotry and hateful rhetoricin any formhave no place in the Republican Party, McCarthy said in an earlier statement to Politico. These posts are unacceptable and do not reflect the Ted Howze that I have briefly interacted with. Anunt de selectare a participantilor si participantelor la cel de-al doilea curs de instruire din cadrul Programului educational pentru dezvoltarea competentelor lucratorilor de tineret A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless that horse resides on the Pritzer horse farm in Wisconsin As he requests the power to seize private business property if owners open too early or not in concert with his wishes, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says its not safe yet to hold indoor church services, but its totally okay that construction workers travel to his Wisconsin horse farm to build his new house. Construction workers have been deemed essential, especially union construction workers who have dues taken out to fund the campaigns of politicians like Pritzker and who get time off to ring campaign doorbells on behalf of Illinois Democrat politicians. And so, apparently, is his horse farm, where the customers get better grooming services than the taxpaying citizens of Illinois. If you want to get your hair cut or your nails done in Illinois, you might want to start eating hay and carrying a saddle around. Unless, of course, you are the public face of a major city like Pritzker ally Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who issues citations to locked-down Chicagoan on her way to her personal hair stylist. While he orders Illinois residents to stay in their homes and avoid unnecessary travel and contact, Pritzker, it is okay for Illinois construction workers, at his behest to travel to Wisconsin to work on the 7,000 square-foot, $2.5-million project Maybe they couldnt find enough work in locked-down Illinois. As Fox 32 Chicago reports: FOX 32 News watched Thursday as construction workers from Illinois crossed the border to work on the governors farm. Pritzker, though, says there is no double standard because construction workers are exempt. FOX 32 wandered over the Wisconsin border into Kenosha County and found more than 20 construction workers -- nearly all from Illinois -- helping build a massive new home and several outbuildings on Pritzker's horse farm All but one of the listed contractors is based in Chicago or its suburbs, and we saw cars and construction vehicles with Illinois plates leaving the project and turning south into the Land of Lincoln One Republican critic of the stay-at-home order says the traveling construction workers smacks of hypocrisy. "He's saying they don't want to have any unnecessary travel, said state Rep. John Cabello of Rockford. "It seems as though he has one set of rules for himself while everybody else has to abide by his stay-at-home order." In Wisconsin, there are virtually no limitations on public accommodations after its Republican Supreme Court struck down their governors stay-at-home order. State Rep. Cabello is currently involving in legal action against Pritkzer overextending his draconian and unconstitutional lockdown. Lawsuits have been filed claiming Pritkzers lockdown does what protestors all over the country have claimed -- that such lockdown orders unconstitutionally infringe on our basic constitutional rights such as freedom of assembly,, the right to petition for redress of grievances, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, and even freedom of speech. Pritzker claims he is just violating our rights for our own good: Pritzker finds himself in the middle of a legal battle over his extension of the lockdown order. Clay County Circuit Court Judge Michael McHaney sided with State Rep. Darren Bailey (R), who filed a lawsuit alleging that Pritzker exceeded his authority. While McHaney issued a temporary restraining order pausing the extended lockdown orders, it only exempts Bailey, leading to action from State Rep. John Cabello (R). He plans to issue a similar lawsuit, but in a way that will apply to everyone in Illinois. I want to see if what the governor is doing by extending his order is constitutional, Cabello said. Im not trying to put anybody in harms way here, he continued. Im just wanting to see that some of this stuff starts making common sense. Putting his Wisconsin horse farm above the welfare of the Illinois residents he represents shows a total lack of common sense and fairness. Clearly we are not, as the elites say before telling us to shut up and sit down, all in this together. Interestingly, Wisconsins Supreme Court recently struck down that states stay-at-home order as an unlawful order that exceeded the states authority: The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the state's stay-at-home order during the coronavirus pandemic as "unlawful, invalid, and unenforceable" after finding that the state's health secretary exceeded her authority. In a 4-3 ruling, the court called Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm's directive, known as Emergency Order 28, a "vast seizure of power." The order directed all people in the state to stay at home or at their places of residence, subject only to exceptions allowed by Palm, the ruling says. The order, which had been set to run until May 26, also restricted travel and business, along with threatening jail time or fines for those who don't comply. Would that Illinois Supreme Court might do likewise and provide a statewide reprieve. Pritzker was clever enough to argue that this was a civil-rights ruling and matter applying only to Bailey, not Illinois as a whole. Not so fast, said the U.S. Department of Justice. The DoJ has sided with Bailey and Caballo on the excessiveness and illegality of Pritzkers extension of his Illinois lockdown order: On Friday, the DOJ filed a statement of interest supporting Republican Bailey's lawsuit, which challenges whether Illinois' Democratic governor can keep the state's lockdown order going past the 30 days allowed by state law, according to Fox News The DOJ also said that 'According to the lawsuit, the Governors actions are not authorized by state law, as they extend beyond the 30-day time period imposed by the Illinois legislature for the Governors exercise of emergency powers granted under the Act.' The civil rights angle allowed Pritzker to move Bailey's lawsuit from state to federal court, which presides over issues involving the US Constitution, according to NBC Chicago. The move was made on Thursday, the day before a hearing was scheduled in state court. Of the move, Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a statement: 'The Governor of Illinois owes it to the people of Illinois to allow his states courts to adjudicate the question of whether Illinois law authorizes orders he issued to respond to COVID-19.' Dreiband also noted that 'Under our system, all public officials, including governors, must comply with the law, especially during times of crisis. The Department of Justice remains committed to defending the rule of law and the American people at all times, especially during this difficult time as we deal with COVID-19 pandemic.' Despite his slogan All In which he preaches to Illinois residents under virtual house arrest Pritzkers wife wasnt content to hunker down with the peasantry and watch Netflix: M.K. Pritzker, the billionaire wife of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), is reportedly skipping out on her husbands stringent lockdown orders, jetting off to their $12.1 million equestrian estate in South Florida -- a state that has refused to implement what Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) described as draconian measures as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. While Pritzker finds himself in the middle of a legal battle over his extension of his lockdown order his wife is nowhere to be seen, at least in the Prairie State. Illinois was already in deep trouble before Pritzker and the Wuhan virus showed up as the ultimate double whammy. But fear not, for whether the Pritzkers are sheltering in place at their equestrian estate in South Florida or their horse farm in Wisconsin, rest assured their horses are doing just fine. Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investors Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. The countrys first surfing centre of excellence could be up and running next year after a tender was issued for its construction in Sligo. The Government announced in November 2018 that the new national surf centre would be located in Strandhill and would be a key centre for visitors looking to capitalise on some of Europes best waves while touring along the Wild Atlantic Way. The National Surf Centre of Excellence would also feature an interpretive experience that would tell the story of surfing in Sligo and along the Atlantic coast, an area that, pre-Covid-19, had become increasingly popular with domestic and international surfers. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced funding of over 1m from Failte Ireland to Sligo County Council for the venture on Strandhill promenade. The National Surf Centre of Excellence would feature an interpretive experience that would tell the story of surfing in Sligo More than a year ago Sligo County Council tendered for architectural design for the project, which received planning permission in 2017, and this week it issued a fresh tender for the construction works, outlining how it is to be completed within 15 months of contracts being signed. According to the tender issued by the local authority, the requirement is for a new-build two-storey construction, -570m2-, comprising of a state-of-the-art modern national surf centre over two floors with associated siteworks with the provision of a peace park on an adjacent site. The site is an existing brownfield site and includes an existing single storey domestic building and associated structures to the rear. The site is owned by Sligo County Council. The existing buildings and structures are to be demolished as part of the contracted works. The site also includes the existing peace park and renewal of same also forms part of the contracted works. The works involve the construction of a new two-storey comprising a state-of-the-art modern national surf centre over two floors with associated siteworks. Works to include demolition of existing buildings and outbuildings to the rear of the existing building, the construction of a new two surf centre and associated site development works. The works involve the construction of a new two-storey comprising a state-of-the-art modern national surf centre over two floors with associated siteworks Lonely Planet is among the international publications that have hailed Sligo as a surfing destination. As far back as 2013 Lonely Planet named Mullaghmore as one of the Best Spots to Catch a Wave, measuring 15m high. High winds, choppy surfaces, and blinding rain can present obstacles, but the heavy, long tubes make up for the conditions, it said. The centre received planning permission in 2017. The Surf Centre project was also awarded 615,000 from the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund in 2018 and at the time, the Taoiseach said: Strandhill is already a very popular destination thanks to its wonderful location, great beaches and of course its secret weapon, the waves that have become so popular with locals and visitors alike. I am delighted to be announcing this significant funding for the development of the new Strandhill Surf Centre, which I have no doubt will make this coastal town even more popular in the years ahead. OTTAWAThe Canadian government will co-lead an international push to counter election interference and online disinformation campaigns. Ottawa will work with Microsoft and the Alliance for Securing Democracy to lead international efforts to prevent election meddling and countering disinformation online and cybersecurity threats. The initiative is part of the 2018 Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, a declaration spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of multiple attempts by hostile states to meddle in democratic elections. Dominic LeBlanc, the president of the Queens Privy Council, will lead Canadas contribution. The surge of disinformation and cyber threats emerging in the context of COVID-19 highlight the need to strengthen our capacity to prevent the spread of disinformation by foreign actors and malicious cyber activities, LeBlancs office said in a statement. Western governments and intelligence agencies have been seized with the threat of election interference since the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But other countries and institutions including France, Germany, and the European Union have also been the targets of election meddling campaigns. While there is no evidence to suggest Canadas 2019 general election was influenced by foreign actors, Canadas intelligence agencies did say that federal political parties were targeted by state-backed hackers. The Canadian parliaments national security committee also said earlier this year that the country is the target of persistent influence campaigns from foreign governments, including Russia and China. According to LeBlancs office, Canadas contribution will include training other countries on countering election interference, as well as developing international standards, norms and policies on the issue. Read more about: A new study by Johns Hopkins researchers found that it may take between seven and 16 months for surgeons to complete the backlog of elective orthopaedic surgeries that have been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. This accounts for more than a million surgeries in the U.S. for spinal fusion and knee and hip replacements. The study was published online May 12 in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Lead author Amit Jain, M.D., chief of minimally invasive and outpatient spine surgery and associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says that in fields such as orthopaedic surgery, where procedures are frequently performed in an inpatient setting, the ramp-up may be slower than surgeries typically done in outpatient facilities. "We will keep adding to the backlog as long as we are not operating at 100% capacity," states Jain. Jain and his colleagues used the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality National Inpatient Sample, a national database that contains hospital inpatient data, to model the number of current and forecasted spinal fusion and hip and knee replacement surgeries in the United States. The researchers found that, in an optimistic scenario where most elective surgeries are back to full capacity in June, it would take approximately seven months to get through the backlog. Delays to the ramp-up to full capacity could extend the backlog to 16 months. To help ease the backlog, Jain proposes several strategies to increase surgical throughput, including more use of telemedicine. At Johns Hopkins, telemedicine use has skyrocketed. He also suggests making more timeslots available in operating rooms for orthopaedic surgeries, increasing care coordination resources and shifting care to ambulatory surgery centers as much as possible. ### Jain is available to discuss further the implications of the study's findings. For information from Johns Hopkins Medicine about the coronavirus pandemic, visit hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus. For information on the coronavirus from throughout the Johns Hopkins enterprise, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Johns Hopkins University, visit coronavirus.jhu.edu. Traffic congestion is a serious problem in the United States, but a new analysis shows that interactive technology - ranging from 511 traffic information systems and roadside cameras to traffic apps like Waze and Google Maps - is helping in cities that use it. Potentially, the researchers said, technology could limit the need to widen and expand roadways while saving commuters time and money and lessening environmental damage. "Technology has the potential to help society, and one way is to help us make better infrastructure decisions and put less pressure on roads," said Paul A. Pavlou, dean of the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and corresponding author for the report, published by the journal Information Systems Research. Pavlou and colleagues Aaron Cheng of the London School of Economics and Min-Seok Pang of Temple University found that U.S. cities using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) saved money, time and other resources, including: More than $4.7 billion a year in lost work or productivity 175 million hours a year in travel time 53 million gallons a year in fossil fuel consumption and 10 billion pounds less CO2 emitted each year. The researchers analyzed longitudinal data from ITS technologies deployed in 99 urban areas in the United States from 1994 to 2014. That included the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York-Newark, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington D.C., among others. Pavlou noted that technology has advanced - and traffic has continued to grow - since 2014, the latest year in the dataset used for the research, making it likely that today's savings would be greater. The U.S. Department of Transportation describes ITS as "an integrated system of advanced communications technologies embedded in the transportation infrastructure and in vehicles to improve transportation safety and mobility," and has awarded grants to cities to invest in the technologies. Technologies included in the research include both those developed by DOT and commercial technologies designed to improve traffic safety and mobility. The researchers found that the technology is most effective at reducing traffic congestion when two things happen: commuters use more online services for traffic information, including such apps as Waze, and when state governments incorporate more advanced functions into their 511 traveler information systems. But each city is different. Pavlou noted that while Houston has not adopted the 511 system, it does collaborate with private companies to design and build intelligent transportation systems, including messaging signs, roadside cameras and solar-powered radar detection sites. Pavlou said the study suggests alternatives to simply building more and bigger roads to keep up with population and traffic growth. Using large-scale technology systems in conjunction with real-time traffic apps at the individual level is less expensive and more effective than only spending funds to expand and maintain roadways, he said . Houston traffic and its freeway system, for example, have grown significantly since he was a student here in the 1990s, he said. "Traffic is even worse than before since people move where the roads are built and drive more. The city is growing, but there are alternative ways that do not impose some much demand on roads with the intelligent use of technology in parallel." ### The court granted the motion of the prosecutor and extended the restrictive measure in the form of the detention until July 24, 2020 The court extended the arrest of suspects in the case of the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet Yulia Kuzmenko. Such a decision was made on the night of May 26 as Interfax-Ukraine reported. The court granted the motion of the prosecutor and extended the restrictive measure in the form of the detention until July 24, 2020, the message said. Earlier, Kuzmenkos lawyer Taras Bezpaly stated about the recusal of the judged. He grounded his decision by doubt about the impartiality of the judge. He asked to appoint another judge for the consideration of the appeal of a group of prosecutors on the extension of the detention. In his turn, the judge announced a break in the court session for an indefinite period after the statement about recusal. On May 25, another suspect Yana Duhar was released on bail. As we reported National police detained the persons of interests in case of the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet. They also notified of suspicion. Totally, there are five main suspects in the murder of the journalist. Kyiv Pechersk District Court chose a preventive measure for Yulia Kuzmenko in the form of the detention for two months. Pechersk district court of Kyiv chose the restrictive measure in the form of the 24-hour house arrest for military nurse Yana Duhar. Andriy Antonenko was also arrested for two months. Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sheremet was killed in Kyiv on the morning of July 20, 2016. The car he was driving exploded in the citys downtown. The vehicle belonged to his civilian wife, Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainska Pravda outlet Olena Prytula; she was not in the car at the moment. The Ukrainian police qualified the explosion as intentional homicide. Then Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko assumed the murder could be the part of some greater plan, perhaps designed by the Kremlin. The key version of Sheremets murder was his professional activity. BRADY ANDERSON, Chariho, Wrestling, Sophomore; Anderson finished first in the 152-pound weight class at the Griswold Midseason Invitational tournament. Anderson went 3-0 in the tournament, pinning all of his opponents in the first period. Anderson is 10-4. LYDIA LASKEY, Stonington, Gymnastics, Senior; Laskey finished first in all four events in meets against NFA and Westerly. Laskey had an all-around score of 33.75 against NFA and 34.60 against Westerly. RILEY PELOQUIN, Westerly, Girls Basketball, Sophomore; Peloquin scored 22 points and had 19 rebounds in two games. Peloquin is averaging 7.6 points and 7.5 rebounds a game for the Bulldogs. DEONDRE BRANSFORD, Wheeler, Boys Basketball, Sophomore; Bransford scored 25 points and had 28 rebounds in a pair of Wheeler victories. Bransford is averaging 10.6 points and 12.1 rebounds per contest for the Lions. Vote View Results (Newser) The tow truck industry in the Toronto area has broken down into a "true Wild West show" dominated by organized crime, police say. Police said Tuesday that 200 charges were filed and 19 arrests were made in an investigation of turf wars between rival operators that have "resulted in murders, attempted murders, shootings, assaults, arsons, threats, and property damage," the CBC reports. Police say tow truck companies were colluding with body shops, car rental companies, and even physiotherapy clinics to "grossly inflate" bills, the Guardian reports. In some cases, rogue tow truck companies deliberately staged collisions to scam insurance companies, police say. story continues below "These actions victimize innocent drivers, insurance companies and, ultimately, all of us, through increased insurance rates," says York Regional Police Supt. Mike Slack . At least four murders and 30 arsons are believe to be connected to the turf warincluding a fire at a law firm hired by insurance companies to contest fraudulent claims. Police say that as part of the "Project Platinum" investigation of the industry, they seized 11 tow trucks, more than 40 firearms, and drugs including cocaine and crystal meth, the BBC reports. They say they expect to make dozens more arrests in the months ahead. Police have urged Ontario's government to do more to regulate the towing industry. Currently, only 17 of the province's 444 municipalities require operators to be licensed. (Read more Canada stories.) Peeva says fraud in the commercial space is hard for brokers to initiate. Their deals are based on a propertys overall profitability which is hard to fabricate rather than a borrowers income which is not. Fraud in the commercial sector generally starts with the borrower. What I have is a client coming out of jail asking to buy land for so many millions. Or someone who worked in Iraq for the government whos trying to buy an apartment building, she says. Both Peeva and Gibbons say the frequency of outright fraud in their respective spaces is low, but examples of unethical behaviour do occur. Peeva says she has heard of more than one example of a banned commercial broker returning to the market and operating under a family members name. Only recently, a customer with excellent credit and the ability to work with A-lenders reached out to Gibbons wondering if the $3,000 brokerage fee theyd been quoted was reasonable. It wasnt. Gibbons stresses that the overwhelming majority of brokers in Canada are working ethically in their clients best interest. She hopes that a flight to quality, which often accompanies a lull in the market, will be enough to shed a few more desperate and shady brokers from the industrys ranks. I hope our new normal will have them out of the industry, she says. The majority of mortgage brokers are amazing, and we dont like to have these types of people in our industry. HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Monday strongly condemned the illegal assemblies and violent acts by rioters in Hong Kong. A spokesperson of the office said in a statement that rioters on Sunday took part in illegal assemblies in central area of Hong Kong Island, and some even openly called for "Hong Kong independence." The rioters blocked roads, vandalized public facilities, set fire, and beat up innocent people, causing severe damage to the security of people's lives and properties and endangering national security, said the spokesperson. The spokesperson denounced opposition figures and radical forces who have instigated another round of violence starting from May 1 and wreaked havoc on Sunday under the excuse of opposing the national security legislation in HKSAR and the National Anthem Bill. There acts were carried out in disregard of people's wish for a peaceful environment, the spokesperson said. The rioters Sunday gathered at Hong Kong's Causeway Bay and Wan Chai area, shouted slogans of "Hong Kong independence," waved flags of foreign countries, blocked roads, trashed Chinese-funded enterprises and stores and public transport facilities, and assaulted police officers, the spokesperson said, stressing that at least 10 people including four police officers were injured and sent to hospitals due to these violent acts. Most horrifying is that rioters even used a long stick to batter a woman who tried to go through the barricade they set up, and used sticks and umbrellas to beat up a lawyer who was against blocking roads, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson condemned the illegal violent acts which will not be tolerated in any civilized society, saying that the office firmly supported the Hong Kong police in bringing those rioters to justice and strictly enforcing the law. The spokesperson said the rioters' wanton acts unveiled how they colluded with foreign forces, created terror and incited "Hong Kong independence," and tried to destroy the Hong Kong society with the "burn with us" tactic. All these facts proved that it is imperative and urgent to introduce national security legislation for Hong Kong, said the spokesperson. More and more Hong Kong residents have realized that the interests and boons of the majority will be harmed and the prospect of Hong Kong and the "one country, two systems" will be ruined if the wrong doings of this small group of people could not be stopped in time, the spokesperson said. A petition activity was launched on Sunday through street stands across Hong Kong and online in support of the national security legislation for Hong Kong, with the number of supporters quickly amounting to over 500,000 by Sunday and the figure still climbing, which showed the residents' full support for safeguarding national security, fighting against violence and saying no to "burn with us," the spokesperson said. There are various signs that some extreme radicals are stepping up planning for larger-scale illegal and violent acts in an attempt to fully apply the "burn with us" tactic, the spokesperson pointed out. "We sternly warn these people and the forces behind them not to underestimate the central government's rock-firm determination to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests and to safeguard Hong Kong's prosperity and stability and Hong Kong compatriots' fundamental interests," the spokesperson said. The central government is ready to deal with all kinds of complicated situations, the spokesperson stressed, warning that those who insist on the wrong path will definitely be punished by law. Nino Martinetti, 74, is an award-winning cinematographer who posted an image to an Olivia Newton-John Facebook page of himself and the beloved actress on the set of 'The Wilde Girls' (pictured) Scammers pretending to be Olivia Newton-John have tricked people into sending them up to $13,000 - but their scam fell apart after one victim tricked them into revealing their operation. Nino Martinetti, 74, is an award-winning cinematographer who posted an image to an Olivia Newton-John Facebook page of himself and the beloved actress on the set of the film 'The Wilde Girls.' He was messaged by a Facebook account with the name 'Dame Olivia' who claimed to be the real actress and after the pair started to talk, she told Mr Martinetti if he wanted to meet her, he would need to transfer money to her management team which could cover hotels and security. Mr Martinetti agreed with the fake 'Dame Olivia's' demands and transferred $13,000 to two Melbourne bank accounts, but when he didn't receive any information about their meeting, he realised he had been scammed. He decided to trick the scammers into providing a Melbourne address under the guise of transferring more money, which lead him to the home of 63-year-old Mary Busuttil. He was messaged by 'Dame Olivia' who claimed to be the real actress and the pair started to message every day Mr Martinetti said it was odd Newton-John would ask for his money when the pair started to talk to each other. 'If you want to have a coffee with Olivia, it cost $2,000 and if you want to go to a restaurant it costs $5,000,' Mr Martinetti told A Current Affair. 'I was still thinking that I didn't want to be disrespectful to her and say, ''okay p*** off.'' Can you say ''p*** off'' to Olivia Newton-John? I don't think so.' After he tricked the scammers into providing a Melbourne address, he contacted A Current Affair and asked them to help deliver the money with the hopes it would uncover who these people were. After the money was left on the doorstep, Ms Busuttil walked out to collect it. Dame Olivia told Mr Martinetti if he wanted to meet her, he would need to transfer money to her management team which could cover hotels and security Mr Martinetti agreed with the fake Olivia's demands and transferred a total of $13,000 to two Melbourne bank accounts, but when he didn't receive any information about their meeting, he realised he had been scammed Ms Busuttil initially said she had never heard of Mr Martinetti but changed her mind after she was given his bank statements which showed he had transferred money into her account. She revealed she had been talking to a man online who claimed to be Sgt Major Samuel Spencer from the US Army. Though Sgt Major Spencer is a real soldier, Ms Busuttil was actually talking to the same person who had scammed Mr Martinetti. Ms Busuttil had been tricked into transferring her own money and Mr Martinetti's to the scam artists in the hopes of meeting her online lover. She was told to take Mr Martinetti's money and deposit it into a Bitcoin account using an ATM. 'I put $4000, $2000, $1000 you can put as much as you like,' Ms Bussitil said. Though Mr Martinetti will never get back his money, he said he felt sorry for the real Ms Newton-John as her identity was used to scam vulnerable people. 'The people that prey on other people based on trust and their feelings, to me they are the worst scam in the world,' he said. On May 22nd of last year, I wrote a column entitled Reflections on the Bridgegate Scandal in which I took umbrage at a comment regarding Bridgegate made by Julie Roginsky, a prominent Democratic operative. Ms. Roginsky said, I have a very big problem with the notion that we are sending anyone to prison for a dumb stunt that doesnt merit incarceration. On May 7th the US Supreme Court by a 9-0 vote, agreed with Ms. Roginsky that the defendants William Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, should not go to jail for creating a traffic jam that was intended to punish the Mayor of Fort Lee because they did not commit property fraud as defined by the federal fraud statutes. The court ruled that based on the federal statutes at issue, holding the Bridgegate defendants accountable was a misapplication of the statue as neither of them was guilty because the plan wasnt intended to obtain Port Authority money or property. In the opinion Justice Kagan wrote: The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing-deception, corruption, abuse of power. But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct. The ruling went on to indicate that the defendants were engaged in political retribution that jeopardized the safety of the towns residents and was designed to send a message and to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to support the New Jersey Governors reelection bid. Let us remember that in an admirably concise e-mail Bridget Anne Kelly wrote: Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee. To complete the scheme, a cover story was concocted that the lane change was part of a traffic study, intended to assess whether to retain the dedicated Fort Lee Lanes in the future. The plan worked flawlessly according to the Supreme Court opinion: Almost immediately, the towns streets came to a standstill. According to the Fort Lee Chief of Police, the mess traffic rivaled that of 9/11, when the George Washington Bridge had shut down. School buses stood in place for hours. An ambulance struggled to reach the victim of a heart attack; police had trouble responding to the report of a missing child. Mayor Sokolich tried to reach Baroni, leaving a message that the call was about an urgent matter of public safety. Wildstein, the conceiver of the plan, Kelly and Baroni maintained radio silence and Kelly Ann sent a text message, Is it wrong that I am smiling. Despite what former Governor Christie said, the defendants in Bridgegate were not vindicated by the Supreme Courts unanimous decision! They abused their power and undermined public trust in government and got caught-up in the vindictive political culture of Chris Christie and paid an enormous price for their corrupt and deceptive transgression. The defendants were tried in the wrong venue. They should have been tried in the State rather than the Federal courts. There appears to be little doubt that they would have been convicted under provisions of New Jerseys misconduct in office statue (2C:30-2) which indicates that the crime of official misconduct requires that the defendants: (1) was a public servant, (2) committed an act relating to his office, which constituted an unauthorized exercise of his official functions, knowing that it was unauthorized or committed in an unauthorized manner, and (3) had a purpose to obtain a benefit for himself or another or to injure or deprive another of a benefit (underlining added) There is, no doubt, that the defendants deprived the residents of Fort Lee of the use of dedicated Fort Lee lanes on the Bridges toll plaza. Im not suggesting that the defendants be retried. They have had their lives disrupted for almost seven years and their reputations besmirched. Enough is enough. I would, however, like to see the legislature hold open public hearings to discuss in detail what went wrong in Bridgegate and how we can take steps to reduce the likelihood that this kind of corrupt official abuse of power does not occur again. More specifically, I would like to hear a frank transparent discussion which includes answers to the following questions and what, if anything, can be done to reduce the culture of corruption that is all to prevalent in New Jersey and leads far too many residents to see Bridgegate as just another example of just plain New Jersey politics. Since New Jerseys Attorney General is appointed by the Governor, should there be a provision in state law that calls for the creation of Special Prosecutor in potential corruption cases involving appointees of the Governor since there is little certainty that state authorities would have pursued such prosecution. Would having an elected Attorney General, not beholden to the Governor, reduce the likelihood of the State ceding corruption cases to federal authorities and improve the overall integrity of the public sector? How do we ensure that in the future the Port Authority Police Department is not compromised by politics? People could have died as a result of the wrongdoing by the defendants. How do we send a clear message that what occurred in Bridgegate was criminal behavior and not routine bare-knuckle New Jersey politics and will not be tolerated? It imperative that we make it abundantly clear to all New Jersey elected officials, at all levels, that if they manipulate government functions for greed, personal advantage, political advantage or punish an elected official and someones life is disrupted, is hurt or dies as a result of their official misconduct we will throw the book at them. No ifs ands or buts. [May 26, 2020] Leaf Group to Participate in the Cowen Virtual Presentation Series - 2020 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leaf Group Ltd. (NYSE: LEAF), a diversified consumer internet company, announced that the Company's Chief Executive Officer Sean Moriarty and interim Chief Financial Officer Brian Gephart will participate in the Cowen Virtual Presentation Series 2020 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Thursday May 28, 2020. Management will be hosting one-on-one investor calls. The Companys most recent investor presentation will be made available on Laf Groups Investor Relations website at ir.leafgroup.com under the Events & Presentations page. About Leaf Group Leaf Group Ltd. (NYSE: LEAF) is a diversified consumer internet company that builds enduring, creator-driven brands that reach passionate audiences in large and growing lifestyle categories, including fitness and wellness (Well+Good, Livestrong.com and MyPlate App), and art and design (Saatchi Art, Society6 and Hunker). For more information about Leaf Group, visit www.leafgroup.com. Investor Contact Shawn Milne 415-264-3419 [email protected] [May 26, 2020] RAD Studio 10.4 Accelerates Native Windows Development, Adds Powerful Code Insights for Delphi Developers Embarcadero (a division of Idera, Inc.), a provider of cross-platform app development productivity tools, today announced the release of RAD Studio 10.4 featuring major updates to the rapid application development tool chain for RAD Studio, Delphi (News - Alert), and C++ Builder. Version 10.4 delivers improvements for Windows 10 VCL (Visual Component Library) desktop development, Delphi multi device development, and developer productivity that optimizes application performance while reducing the time developers spend building and maintaining code. In total, RAD Studio 10.4 introduces more than 1,000 quality and performance enhancements. Embarcadero senior product manager Marco Cantu called the release "the most significant update we've made to RAD Studio in years." A key feature of the release includes the introduction of the Language Server Protocol (LSP) technology for Delphi to standardize inter-process communication between the RAD Studio Code Editor and Delphi language server. This helps Delphi developers speed code completion, improve error insight accuracy, and reduce the memory required to parse large projects with millions of lines of code. RAD Studio 10.4 also adds new custom-managed records support for Delphi record types. The Delphi language allows more complex record types with class-like functionality that may include properties and methods (including constructors), class properties, class methods, class fields, and nested types. Custom-managed records allow developers to customize how records get created, copied, and destroyed by writing the code to be executed at each of these steps. p> In addition, Delphi memory management is now unified across mobile, desktop, and server platforms using the classic implementation of object memory management. Compared to Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), this offers better compatibility with existing code and simpler coding for components, libraries, and end-user applications. "With the resurgence of Delphi's popularity, we continue to introduce new language features that allow developers to build cross-platform connected apps with significantly less coding effort," said Cantu. "Improving Delphi's productivity and scalability remains a primary product priority." RAD Studio also includes updates to its award-winning VCL for Windows 10 with new high-DPI support for styled applications. Developers can now use multiple VCL styles in different forms within a single application or different visual controls on the same form. This includes support for styling any element using the default platform theme and allows developers to use third-party unstyled controls within a styled VCL application. Additional capabilities include integration with Microsoft's (News - Alert) Chromium-based Edge browser and expanded C++ compilers and debuggers for Windows 10. The 10.4 release continues to support multi device development with FireMonkey enhancements, including implementation of Metal 2 GPU driver support for macOS and iOS, Apple (News - Alert) API updates, Windows API updates, enhanced FMXLinux integration for the Enterprise and Architect edition, and more. RAD Studio includes a new unified installer for online and offline installations using Embarcadero's GetIt package manager. This allows users to select an initial set of RAD Studio features to install, add, or remove at any time via an internet connection or ISO image. "We are committed to making RAD Studio the most productive and high-performance native app development tool. 10.4 reinforces our technology leadership in native Windows desktop development," said Atanas Popov, general manager of Embarcadero. "There are thousands of Delphi apps awaiting upgrades, and we want to present our customers a clear and compelling path forward." Click here to learn more about RAD Studio 10.4 updates. About Embarcadero Embarcadero builds tools that solve productivity problems for application developers. The company's products allow users to design, build, and run applications from a single code base across all platforms. Ninety of the Fortune 100 companies and a community of more than three million C++ and Delphi users worldwide rely on Embarcadero's award-winning products to deliver critical enterprise applications. Embarcadero is a division of Idera, Inc. To learn more, visit https://www.embarcadero.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005263/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Global decline in growth The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic was the main factor that caused the global GDP to decline by 3% in the first quarter of 2020. In particular, the first quarter GDP of superpowers, that are Vietnam's major economic partners, fell sharply in the US by 4.8%, in China by 6.8%, in EU by 3.5%, and in the UK by 1.6%. In China for the first time in more than 40 years, the steepest decline in growth was seen. In this context, the growth of around 3.8% in the first quarter in Vietnam is encouraging, even though this growth discounts for factors such as the Tet Lunar New Year and the impact of ban on alcohol. In the first quarter, Vietnam felt almost no impact and countries that are Vietnam's main export markets did not suffer much. As for Vietnam's imports, even though these are limited, they are not so seriously affected because many enterprises still have provisional stocks. Another important motivation is that the FDI in the first quarter still continued to grow. A case in point was that of Samsung Electronics Vietnam which grew well because the company moved fast and withdrew from China at a very early stage. Samsung now only has facilities in Vietnam and South Korea. Although the company is affected, it continues to contribute to Vietnam's growth rate. A brief review of business results in the first quarter of 2020 of listed companies on the stock market show that many industries face difficulties, but on the other hand some industries are experiencing quite favorable conditions. These are the industries that directly serve disease prevention and pandemic scenarios, such as those enterprises that promptly switched to production of medical supplies and other related businesses, such as production of facial masks, online learning, e-commerce, and home delivery and courier services. Some industries also indirectly benefited from falling oil prices such as the plastic industry and nitrogenous fertilizers. The problem became more serious in the second quarter, when Vietnam implemented wider areas for social distancing and large export markets faced more difficulties, especially for non-essential goods. In this situation, Vietnam offered unprecedented and varied economic stimulus packages, which are continually being elaborated, developed and implemented, so their effectiveness cannot yet be assessed. Stimulus policies in global context Methods of economic stimulation in Vietnam need to be reconsidered in their entirety for the first time in history, such as additional economic stimulus policies that will affect monetary policies between countries. Vietnam has implemented stimulus in the context of an interlacing between regional production, value chain and the global Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This value chain has a strong influence on the spread of monetary policy, especially the exchange rate, compared to the past when only two countries had relations with each other. Another factor to consider when implementing stimulus packages is that Vietnam has been very open in economics and trade, with more openness in exchange rate policies, and financial openness far beyond the level of financial development. Therefore, the problem here must be to clearly identify the cause of economic decline in Vietnam, global recession, and not the weakness of financial institutions, or the structure of the economy. In addition, new factors supporting growth such as investment, trade, institutional reform, are all under the influence of CPTPP, EVFTA, the Covid-19 pandemic, the US-China trade war and Southbound policy of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, as well as the new strategy to withdraw investments from China. These factors must be fully taken into account when designing economic stimulus packages to meet demand. This will help us avoid wasting our resources. The Covid-19 pandemic may not be completely addressed globally, so we must be prepared for any eventuality in order to design appropriate strategies and policies to support growth in the long run. The principle of stimulating demand must be at the right time, with the right dose and with the right objectives. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, its level, scope, and long-term and short-term effect on each enterprise group by commodity line, industry characteristics, degree of impact and expected business performance. Ideally, these factors must be identified early and analysed fully. Inadequacies in stimulating demand as well as not addressing problems that arise in Vietnam, show that thorough preparation is needed. However, the principle of stimulus at the right time poses certain difficulties that require quick analysis and appropriate incentives for each objective. Also, it may be necessary to set up a system of post checking and sanctions on dishonest declarations by beneficiaries of Government support, to ensure immediate and effective results from any stimulus policy. However, this is not easy to implement or foresee. Yen Lam (recorded) Dr. Le Xuan Sang Deputy Director of Vietnam Economic Institute live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Even as some of the bottlenecks around flights resumption seem to have eased on May 26, industry executives have a new headache to deal with - the low passenger loads. Though the second day after domestic flights resumed may eventually see a higher number of departures and arrivals and more passengers taking to the air, the overall loads are lower. On May 26, airports in Vizag and Vijaywada also resumed operations, adding to the number. On the first day on Monday, there were 404 arrivals and 428 departures. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted on May 26 evening that airports have handled 325 departures and 283 arrivals, with 41,673 passengers till 5pm on 26 May 2020. "Final report for the day will be prepared after details come in at midnight," he added. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show But the increasing numbers will do little to mask the worrying part. While on May 25, the passenger loads were about 55 percent, these had dropped to about 40 to 45 percent on may 26, said Nishant Pitti, CEO, EaseMyTrip.com. In Pics | Dos and don'ts to stay safe while flying during the time of coronavirus The highest loads are concentrated in Delhi and Mumbai. But in other metros, including Bengaluru, traffic has been low. "Flights to Bengaluru will be reduced by airlines as passengers are avoiding travel because of mandatory quarantine," said Pitti. Track this blog for latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak Industry executives expect the traffic to slow down further after the initial demand cools down. The low loads are despite airlines not operating even one-third of their schedule, as allowed by the government, until August 24. While it may be too early, but airlines may take a re-look at their schedule. IndiGo, the largest airline in the country, is operating more than 200 flights a day. The lower loads will also raise questions on the fare cap that the government has imposed on all the routes. For instance, in the Delhi-Mumbai route, the fare is capped in the Rs 3,500 to Rs 10,000 range. "Regulation of domestic airfares may need to be lifted before 24-Aug. The price floor in particular is likely to further soften demand as we head into the weakest quarter of the year," advisory firm CAPA India said on Twitter. "If necessary, the price cap could be maintained without any other conditions," it added. Airlines, already under a financial squeeze, will also push for a market-driven determination of fares. This is not just to have fares attractive enough to woo passengers, but also to bring about a competitive level in the rates. Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak A fire at Portsmouth Middle School in New Hampshire early Saturday appears to have been intentionally set, an official said. Firefighters arrived at the school after 3 a.m. and found flames coming out the front door of the main entrance foyer. Fire Chief Todd Germain said fire was contained to the room where it started thanks to automatic fire sprinklers and the fire was quickly extinguished, The Portsmouth Herald reported. Germain said officials found accelerants and other evidence of arson. The fire caused an estimated $100,000 in damage, officials said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is helping with the investigation. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Education New Hampshire An Indian-American couple has developed a low-cost portable emergency ventilator which is soon to hit the production stage and will be available in India and the developing world at an affordable rate to help doctors deal with the COVID-19 patients. Prompted by the lack of adequate ventilators during the coronavirus pandemic, Devesh Ranjan, a professor and associate chair in the prestigious Georgia Tech's George W Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and his wife Kumuda Ranjan, a practising family physician in Atlanta, developed the emergency ventilator from concept to prototype in just about three weeks-time. "If you can do a manufacturing of scale, it can be produced (item cost) in less than USD 100. Even with a price point of USD 500, they (the manufacturer) would have enough money to make sure that they are making enough profit in the market," Professor Ranjan told PTI. He said a ventilator of this type, on an average in the US, costs USD 10,000. Ranjan, however, clarified that theirs was not an ICU ventilator, which is more sophisticated and costs more. This Open-AirVentGT has been developed to address acute respiratory distress syndrome, a common complication for COVID-19 patients which causes their lungs to stiffen, requiring their breathing to be assisted by ventilators, he said. The ventilator developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology uses electronic sensors and computer control to manage key clinical parameters such as respiration rate, tidal volume (the amount of air moved into and out of the lungs during each cycle), inspiration and expiration ratio, and pressure on the lungs. "The whole goal of this project was to make a low cost makeshift ventilator that gives those controls to the physician," Dr Kumuda told PTI, noting that there is going to be a global shortage of ventilator given the massive spread of coronavirus, which so far has killed more than 345,000 people globally and infected over 5.4 million. Story continues In the United States till Monday, more than 98,000 Americans had died and nearly 1.7 million had tested positive. Scientists are racing against time to develop a vaccine or come out with a therapeutic treatment. Born and brought up in Patna, Bihar, Ranjan earned his degree in engineering from Regional Engineering College, Trichy followed by Masters and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been teaching at Georgia Tech for the last six years. Kumuda moved with her parents to the US from Ranchi when she was six. She did her medical training and residency in New Jersey. Both Ranjan and Kumuda said that India had the potential to become a global manufacturing of low cost ventilators and export across the world at a rate that is affordable to all. Professor Ranjan said that the low-cost ventilator has been developed keeping in mind the requirements of countries like India and those in Africa, where the affordability care is a very big factor in providing healthcare to the people. The idea was to develop a lost cost ventilator, which can be manufactured very easily using the already available supply chain in India, he said. Rajan said that the team has been approached by Georgia Tech alumni in Ghana and India to set up manufacturing lines in their countries. "The impact of this could be significant if other parts of the world are hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Having equipment that can be made quickly where it is needed and with the kind of control system doctors need could really help address the worldwide impact of this virus," he said. The prototype is now being developed into a real product by Singapore-based Renew Group, headed by Ravi Sajwan, an Indian-American from Uttarakhand. "We have built a wide collaborative network with a single focus of getting more ventilators into the most disadvantaged health systems in the world in order to help doctors and patients dealing with COVID-19," Sajwan said. Addressing the critical shortage of low-cost, mechanical ventilators is a key focus of Renew Group, who are collaborating with a group of companies and affiliates committed to fast-track the manufacture and distribution of the medical-grade ventilation device, Open-AirVentGT to hospitals and remote facilities in under-privileged countries including India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, the company said in a statement. To maximise the effectiveness of treating patients on ventilators, Renew Group is working together with the LifeSignals Group to integrate their wearable medical biosensors, a single-use patch that allows remote patient monitoring of respiration rate, heart rate, ECG and oxygen saturation (Sp02). This technology partnership will provide enhanced patient treatment and monitoring by wirelessly transmitting patient vital sign data directly to the Open-AirVentGT ventilator, allowing the ventilator pumps to respond to the patient's breathing rhythm and requirements complementing the use of standard pre-set algorithms, the company said. "Ventilators play a critical role in the management of COVID-19 patients suffering with severe respiratory conditions. Our engineers are working to integrate medical biosensor technology into the Open-AirVentGT ventilator that will enhance the treatment and care of the most critical COVID-19 patients," said Surendar Magar, Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder of LifeSignals Group. Coronavirus: The latest updates from Spain and around the world Coronavirus Tuesday's news on the global pandemic That is all for today. Be sure to join us tomorrow for all the latest coronavirus news. Stay safe! 22:30. A study by the University of Washington has warned Brazil that its total number of deaths could rise to 125,000 in early August, with advice to adopt the measure of Spain, Italy and New York. 21:55. The UK will administer the drug remdesivir to certain patients with coronavirus. Data from initial clinical trials showed the drug can shorten recovery time by four days. 21:35. The White House has reaffirmed the decision by US President Donald Trump to order a lockdown was correct and saved many lives. 21:12. Russia has had a significant increase in deaths in one day. Health authorities have announced that 174 people with coronaviruses have died in the past 24 hours. 21:02. The German government has decided to extend the coronavirus distancing rules to June 29. Germany has recorded 45 deaths in the last 24 hours and 432 new cases. 20:40. The WHO has stated that the new epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak is in Central and South America. With infections accelerating in countries such as Brazil, as well as Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. 19:30. The Italian Ministry of Health has updated coronavirus cases in the country. In the last 24 hours there have been 78 deaths and 397 new positive cases. 19:20. The Spanish government intend to ask for one last extension to the state of emergency, if there is sufficient support. 18:50. The United States currently have 1,712,626 cases of coronavirus and 100,000 deaths, which is 30 percent of those registered worldwide. 17:07. Spain has seen 35 deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, while 194 people have tested positive for the virus in that time. The total number of deaths is now 27,117. 17:05. Hungary aims to lift the state of emergency introduced to deal with the coronavirus crisis on June 20, said its justice minister, which could end Viktor Orban's controversial power to rule by decree. 16:53. World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus HO) assures that hydroxychloroquine is indicated to treat pathologies other than COVID-19. "I wish to reiterate that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are generally considered safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria," he said. The WHO withdrew this drug from its trials against coronavirus on Monday. 16:33. The United Kingdom has reported 134 deaths from coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths in the islands since the start of the pandemic to 37,048. In addition, 2,004 people have tested positive over the course of the last day. 16:15. The New York Stock Exchange partially reopened the floor of its flagship 11 Wall Street building on Tuesday for the first time since March 20, when the exchange was forced to go fully electronic due to the coronavirus pandemic. 14:14. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has tweeted to inform Spain's citizens that a 10-day mourning period will begin from Wednesday. "Tomorrow the official mourning begins in our country in memory of the victims of COVID-19," he wrote on his official account. The leader of the PSOE recalled that this is the "most painful mourning in our democracy". Manana comienza en nuestro pais el luto oficial en memoria de las victimas del #COVID19. 10 dias, el luto mas largo de nuestra democracia, con los que mostramos todo nuestro dolor y rendimos reconocimiento a quienes han fallecido. Su recuerdo permanecera siempre con nosotros. pic.twitter.com/WBiBEzLqhP ? Pedro Sanchez (@sanchezcastejon) May 26, 2020 13:58. The German government is considering lifting travel warnings to 31 European countries, including Spain. A draft project entitled 'Criteria for Permitting Intra-European Tourism' would lift the global travel warning issued by foreign minister, Heiko Maas, on March 17. 13:11. From today, Tuesday, Slovenia will allow tourists with a reservation to not to be subject to a two-week quarantine, which, with some exceptions, all other citizens of the European Union (EU) entering the country must undergo. 12:56. According to the Johns Hopkins University's last count, the United States is averaging one coronavirus infection for every 198.01 Americans. This is due to having 328.2 million inhabitants and 1,662,778 positive cases, which amounts for 30.5 percent of the world's total cases. 11:00. The 2020-2021 flu vaccination campaign will begin in October and priority will be given to the most vulnerable groups, such as those over 65 years of age and people with at-risk pathologies, in order to help reduce the pressure on healthcare, as stated in the document 'Recommendations for flu vaccination. Season 2020-2021', approved on May 5 by the Public Health Commission of Spain's Ministry of Health. 10:03. According to reports in Germany, the country's government is planning to bring forward its de-escalation process by one week, while lifting travel restrictions to 31 European countries. 9:50. The French government is not recommending travel to other European countries at this stage, but if as expected the epidemiological situation continues to improve and border controls are lifted, "there is no reason" for the French not to go on holiday to Spain. 9:00. Germany has seen an increase of 432 infections in the last 24 hours, while there have been 45 more deaths in the last 48 hours. This brings the respective totals to 179,002 and 8,302. 8:04. Having a "defective" dementia-related gene doubles the risk of developing severe COVID-19, according to a large-scale study by researchers at the University of Exeter (UK) and the University of Connecticut (USA). Specifically, the scientists found a high risk of severe coronavirus infection among those of European descent who carried two defective copies of the APOE gene (called e4e4). One in 36 people of European descent have two defective copies of this gene, and this is known to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease by up to 14 times, the scientists explained in a University of Exeter news release, noting that it also increases the risk of heart disease. 7:33. With more than 100 volunteers, the US company Novavax announced the start of human clinical trials of a vaccine against the virus in Australia. Novavax reported that it expects preliminary immunogenicity and safety results from the trial in July. Following a successful Phase 1, the Phase 2 part of the trial will be conducted in several countries. The Phase 2 trial will evaluate immunity, safety and reduction of COVID-19 disease in a wider age range, the company added. 7:16. The World Health Organisation has discontinued the use of hydroxychloroquine in treatment research to cure COVID-19. The decision was taken after the scientific journal 'The Lancet' published a study last Friday, which demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the substance and of chloroquine against the new coronavirus, risk of arrhythmia and increased mortality among 96,000 patients evaluated. 7:03. The Spanish government will today declare 10 days of official mourning for the victims of coronavirus, the longest period of mourning in Spain's recent democratic period, the president, Pedro Sanchez, announced last Saturday. The mourning will begin on Tuesday, when the entire Spanish territory is already at least in Phase 1 of the de-escalation process. 6:16. New York State will pay compensation to families of essential workers killed by COVID-19. Governor Andrew Cuomo has urged Donald Trump's federal government to make a similar gesture to doctors, nurses, firefighters, transportation workers and all those personnel who "have put their lives on the line to allow the rest of the population to stay home and not miss out on anything." 6:09. Brazil has seen an increase of 807 additional deaths and 11,687 new infections in the last 24 hours, which brings their totals to 23,473 deaths and 374,898 cases. 6:05. China has recorded seven new infections, all from abroad, after counting 11 on Sunday and three on Saturday, according to the country's National Health Commission. There were no new deaths in the last 24 hours and no new suspected cases were reported, according to the commission. Melissa Goodwin, 25, has been charged over her alleged sexual relationship with inmate Corey London inside Silverwater Jail A female prison officer allegedly had sex behind bars with a convicted armed robber who calls himself a 'korrupt gangster'. Melissa Goodwin, 25, was on Monday charged over her alleged jailhouse romance with 21-year-old inmate Corey London. Goodwin was an officer at Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater in Sydney's west when she allegedly had sex with London on five occasions. She is also charged with smuggling in tobacco, cigarette lighters and chewing gum for him since last November. London was moved to Long Bay Gaol in early May after being found guilty of armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and attempted armed robbery. He was sentenced to six years in jail and will be eligible for release in August 2022. London (pictured) was moved to Long Bay Gaol in early May after being found guilty of armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and attempted armed robbery. Goodwin allegedly had sex with him on five occasions and smuggled in tobacco, cigarette lighters and chewing gum London has been a regular before the courts ever since he became an adult and has even boasted on Facebook about his time in lock up. He also refers to himself as a 'korupt gangster', a sergeant at arms and has posed for photos brandishing a sharp knife. Goodwin was arrested at her home in Ingleburn, in Sydney's south-west, on Monday and was charged with public office misconduct and engaging in a relationship with an inmate, causing a safety risk. The charges were the latest step in the downfall of the one-time prison poster girl. Earlier this month Goodwin was stood down from her job at the Silverwater jail after revelations she was dating former prisoner and Rebels OMCG associate Caleb Valeri. Goodwin and Valeri are understood to have been in a relationship for several months but their romance started following the bikie's release from jail. Corrective services workers are required to inform their employer of relationships of any nature they have with former inmates. As such an investigation into Goodwin was launched earlier this month during which she has been suspended from her role. While their post-prison relationship is not a crime, Goodwin's jailhouse romance with London could land her in the same prisons she patrolled. Strict new laws introduced in NSW in 2018 mean prison officer in a realtionship with inmates face up to two years jail. Goodwin was charged on Monday with public office misconduct and engaging in a relationship with an inmate, causing a safety risk. It came weeks after she appeared on the front cover the Corrective Services NSW magazine (pictured) Ms Goodwin had already been suspended by Corrective Services NSW over her relationship with Caleb Valeri (left) Robert Hallows, boss of the NSW Corrective Services Investigation Unit, said they uncovered the alleged crime after a tip off from Corrective Services NSW. Detective Inspector Hollows said NSW Police have a 'zero tolerance' on relationships between inmates and corrective services employees. 'Last Wednesday we received some information from the Correction Services NSW intelligence unit in relation to an (alleged) inappropriate relationship between a female officer and a male inmate,' Detective Inspector Hollows said. 'We have confirmed that their has (allegedly) been correspondence between this female officer and the inmate, and as a result she was taken to Campbelltown Police Station today and charged. 'The allegation is that there were five separate sexual incidents... also there was an allegation of contraband being taken into the centre, being tobacco, lighters and chewing gum.' Goodwin and Valeri have regularly posted photos to social media together over recent months (right) Valeri (pictured), an up and coming rapper and former prison inmate, created his first music video behind bars and has posted numerous pictures to Instagram from his time in jail Goodwin's new boyfriend Valeri was there to escort her out of Campbelltown Police Station on Monday, shielding her face from waiting TV cameras. He then took to Instagram with a video of himself calling the media 'wankers'. A wannabe rapper, Valeri recorded the music video for his only song within the walls of a NSW prison as his fellow inmates watched on. Valeri - who goes by the rap name Hoodrich Hefner - has one song which he shared to Spotify for the first time on the day his girlfriend was arrested. Goodwin has been granted bail and will face Burwood Local Court on July 14. Press Release 26 May 2020 Reflecting impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central/South America hotel industry reported historic performance lows during April 2020, according to data from STR. U.S. dollar constant currency, April 2020 vs. April 2019 Advertisements Occupancy: -79.7% to 11.6% Average daily rate (ADR): -28.7% to US$61.83 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -85.5% to US$7.17 The absolute occupancy and RevPAR levels were the lowest for any month on record in the region. Local currency, April 2020 vs. April 2019 Panama Occupancy: -69.2% to 14.0% ADR: -49.1% to PAB47.71 RevPAR: -84.3% to PAB6.69 The absolute levels in each of the three key performance metrics were the lowest for any month in STR's Panama database. Panama City experienced a 68.5% decrease in occupancy. Ecuador Occupancy: -85.3% to 9.0% ADR: -36.3% to US$61.69 RevPAR: -90.6% to US$5.56 The absolute occupancy, ADR and RevPAR levels were the lowest for any month in STR's Ecuador database. Quito recorded an occupancy decline of 84.0%. Additional COVID-19 analysis All of STR's COVID-19 analysis, including press releases and webinar recordings, can be found here. Lanaghan joins CRG after 28-years at IDI Logistics, where he was the market leader for the Chicago region. He will lead all aspects of regional activity for CRG, including capital development, leasing and asset management with an immediate focus on the Midwest industrial market, which has continued to see a surge of activity and interest due to the spike in e-commerce-driven space needs, which has only increased as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. "Jeff is one of the most respected names in our industry, and his experience will be invaluable as we continue to deliver best-in-class industrial assets through our nationally integrated platform," said Shawn Clark, President of CRG. "The current economic environment has placed special emphasis on the continued strength of our country's supply chain, and with Jeff, we have the best team in place to create value for our clients and investors through this difficult time." The move is another strategic addition to CRG's nationally integrated platform, which is responsible for development of more than 8,500 acres of land and 197 million square feet of commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily assets exceeding $12 billion in value. Lanaghan joins a powerhouse of industry talent moving to the firm's Chicago headquarters, including the recent additions former City of Chicago Planning and Development Commissioner David Reifman in August, Geoffrey Kasselman, SIOR, Senior Vice President and Partner, Workplace Strategy in December, and Andy Perille as Vice President of Development in March. Clayco, who moved its headquarters to Chicago in 2013, also recently hired Lori Healey, the former CEO at the Metropolitan Pier and Expo Authority, as President of its new regional business unit. "The team that's been assembled by CRG is second-to-none," Lanaghan said. "And what they've created nationally with their integrated development platform offered me an opportunity I couldn't pass up. There's an energy to this place, and it's a special opportunity to build on their national success throughout the Midwest. We're going to make CRG the household name that it should be." Lanaghan a nearly 30-year veteran has worked with Fortune 500 clients throughout his career, developing and managing the design and construction of projects totaling more than 15 million square feet exceeding $1 billion in market value. His recent projects include a 558,550 square-foot build-to-suit warehouse for Handi-Foil in the Antioch, Illinois and a 750,000 square foot Amazon distribution facility in Channahon, Illinois. Over the past few years, the online share of retail sales has grown nearly 15 percent year-over-year, and during the COVID-19 crisis, online shopping has attracted additional consumers that previously resisted the shift to e-commerce. That creates a unique opportunity for the Chicago industrial market, according to Lanaghan. "Chicago is unique in so many ways," Lanaghan said. "You have to have people who understand that through-and-through, so that's why it's important that we have this team. We're the third largest industrial market in the country and, arguably the largest inland port in the world." "Everything comes through Chicago as some point in time. You really need a real estate partner with the expertise and reach to manage that. That's what we have at CRG." At IDI Logistics, Lanaghan started as an Assistant Development Manager in 1991, working his way up to market leader after several positions within the company, including oversight of the Salt Lake region. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering and Urban Land Planning from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He's an active member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) and an associate member of the Association of Industrial Real Estate Brokers (AIRE) and Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR). CRG is focused on the development of high-quality real estate assets throughout North America and primarily invests in large scale commercial real estate including industrial warehouses, data centers, corporate headquarters, mixed use and multifamily assets. The firm recently developed a 295,000 square foot state-of-the-art research and design facility for Pfizer in Chesterfield, Missouri, a 1.8 million square foot industrial project for Shaw Industries Group, Inc. at the Port of Savannah in Georgia, and a 750,000 square foot distribution facility for Kimberly-Clark in Seattle, amongst other national projects. About CRG CRG is a privately held real estate development firm that has developed more than 8,500 acres of land and delivered over 197 million square feet of commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily assets exceeding $12 billion in value. CRG, headquartered in St. Louis, leverages a powerful North American platform with local market expertise and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Southern California and Philadelphia. CRG's philosophy of developing for the future and anticipating the enhanced needs of next generation users led to the creation of its industrial brand, The Cubes, and its multifamily brand, Chapter. For more information, visit CRG's website at www.realcrg.com. About Clayco Clayco is a full-service, turnkey real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm that safely delivers clients across North America the highest quality solutions on time, on budget, and above and beyond expectations. With $3.25 billion in revenue for 2019, Clayco specializes in the "art and science of building," providing fast track, efficient solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional and residential related building projects. For more information visit www.claycorp.com. SOURCE CRG Related Links https://realcrg.com Tokyo: Research into Fujifilm Holdings Corp's Avigan will continue into June, Japan's government said on Tuesday, effectively dashing hopes by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the drug would be approved as a COVID-19 treatment this month. Abe had said he hoped the drug would be approved in May if its efficacy and safety could be confirmed. "The company will continue research into next month or so, and if an application for approval is received from the company, it will be promptly reviewed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular briefing when asked about Avigan. Suga said trials of a coronavirus vaccine could begin as early as July, raising expectations about a candidate developed by Osaka University and biopharmaceutical firm AnGes Inc . Kyodo News late on Monday reported the government had given up on Avigan's May timeline. Last week, the news agency said an interim study showed no clear evidence of the drug's efficacy in COVID-19 cases. During an earnings briefing on May 22, Fujifilm Senior Vice President Junji Okada declined to comment on when Avigan might be approved. The company did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on Tuesday. Avigan is the subject of at least 16 trials worldwide, though there is concern the drug has been shown to cause birth defects in animal studies. Japan's government has called on Fujifilm to triple national stockpiles of Avigan, approved in 2014 as an emergency flu treatment, and pledged to donate it to countries upon request. Dozens of clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines are ongoing globally. The Nikkei newspaper on Monday said AnGes is set to begin a trial of its DNA vaccine in July, rather than September as initially scheduled. AnGes shares surged 16% in Tokyo morning trade versus the broader market's 2.2%. Fujifilm was down 0.1%. To check if China would make a military move, India deploys UAVs India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: With no signs of tensions de-escalating, India is using UAVs to find out the exact locations, where China may attempt a military move. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News There is some military movement taking place in China across the Tibetan plateau to its key base at Nyagari, 100 kilometres south east of Demchok. India has been seeking withdrawal of Chinese troops from points in the Galwan area of sub-sector north of Pangong Tso. At the meetings, the Chinese have refused to scale back troops from the flare up spots. Chinese state media says new chopper drone may be deployed along India border Along with the UAVs, the Indian Army and Indian Air Force have been deployed along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to monitor the movement of the Chinese. Meanwhile, the Indian Army has increased its presence in Uttarakhand after reports suggested that the Chinese are indulging in a troop build up. The Army has inducted additional troops and also increased surveillance along the Line of Actual Control. There are reports that China may have marshalled around 5,000 soldiers on its side of the border in the Ladakh sector. The enhanced troop build up took place following a failed meeting that took place on Monday between the two sides. Sources tell OneIndia that the Chinese troops are scattered on their side of the border. They are not concentrated in the flash points the source also added. Indian officials are tracking the developments closely. The officials also said that there is no cause for worry owing to the number of troops the Chinese have deployed. On the other hand the Chinese state media has described the developments as the worst since the Doklam standoff in 2017. India says that there is a need to set the stage for talks. There is no problem as long as the Chinese troops are stationed wherever they are. Last week, Army Chief General M M Naravane made a visit to Ladakh for a security review. It has been reported that the Chinese have pitched 100 tents and also put up temporary structures to establish a presence. The Chinese are also said to be constructing bunkers in some of the disputed areas. Even as both sides are locked in a war of words, India has rejected allegations by Beijing that the Indian troops were responsible for triggering tensions. The Chinese have in fact hindered Indian patrols, India has further said. Tensions soar at border as China increases number of troops Meanwhile the Chinese military has been fast increasing its troops in areas around Pangong Two Lake and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. China is trying to send a clear signal that it is not ready to end the confrontation with the Indian Army. The Chinese side has increased its presence in the Galwan Valley and has erected around 100 tents in the past two weeks. It has also been bringing in machinery for possible construction of bunkers, despite the stiff protest by the Indian troops. In this backdrop Indian Army Chief, General M M Naravane paid a visit to the headquarters of the 14 Corps in Leh and reviewed the situation with the top commanders. Students applying to New Jerseys largest university in 2021 wont have to submit SAT or ACT scores as part of their applications. Rutgers Universitys New Brunswick campus announced Tuesday that its joining a growing list of colleges going SAT/ACT optional for next year after the coronavirus pandemic upended standardized testing. Students who want to submit a standardized test score with their application still may do so. The college search process can be stressful for high school juniors and rising seniors and their families even in the best of times," said Christopher Molloy, the chancellor for Rutgers-New Brunswick. Our adoption of this temporary, test-optional policy will ensure full consideration for qualified students whose ability to take the SAT or ACT is being disrupted by this global pandemic. Giving students the option to include standardized test scores in their applications was an emerging higher education trend even before the pandemic. Critics of standardized testing have long argued the exams are unfair test scores largely correlate to family income, and wealthier families have greater access to prep courses that help students prepare. However, even more colleges have decided to temporarily drop the requirement in the wake of the pandemic, which forced the postponement of SAT and ACT exams and the closure of schools. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. India's Maharashtra, home to the nation's financial hub Mumbai, resumed commercial flights yesterday with reduced domestic services as the state struggles to contain coronavirus infection cases. The state will allow 50 flights per day, from the earlier 200 flight movements, Mumbai airport said in a statement, joining airports in cities including Chennai and Hyderabad in pruning air-travel services. The decision to resume domestic flights surprised most of the country's aviation companies. While airlines were waiting for a decision, the short notice made it harder for them to prepare for operations, deploy staff, arrange for protective gear, and ensure the virus stays away from flights, top executives at three airlines said last week. On Sunday, the civil aviation ministry met with states voicing reluctance on incoming flyers. Bloomberg Popular social media commentator, Reno Omokri says the current coronavirus pandemic should teach Nigeria to abandon tribalism. Read Also: Buharis Govt Has Poverty Acceleration Programs, Not Poverty Alleviation Programs Omokri Speaking via his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, he stated that a large number of doctors battling Coronavirus in the North are people of Southern origin. While a huge number of those still supplying food to the South are people of Northern origin He wrote: #COVID19 should teach Nigeria to abandon tribalism. A large number of doctors battling #CoronaVirus in the North are people of Southern origin. While a huge number of those still supplying food to the South are people of Northern origin. Interdependence is maturity. Advertisement The death of a worker posted at Mumbai's KEM hospital triggered a protest by employees on Tuesday alleging apathy by the city civic body towards their working conditions amid the coronavirus crisis. The employees went on a strike demanding concrete steps from the civic body. A staff union member said the contractual daily labourer was not sanctioned a sick leave despite him complaining about body pains and fever after having worked in the COVID-19 ward for the last few days. "The worker had complained of body ache and weakness over the last two days but he was not sanctioned leave," he said. The official claimed that the worker hardly received any treatment and was not even tested for coronavirus. "His death shows the apathy of the BMC administration towards us. If we are not given (any basic protection like) gloves and face shields, our life could be in danger," he said. However, Dean of KEM Hospital, Dr Hemant Deshmukh, said the worker was sanctioned leave after May 16. "He went to a local doctor in Thane, and started taking treatment. He died yesterday," the dean said. Like other healthcare facilities, the KEM Hospital, run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has been stretched to the limit because of rising virus cases and inadequate staff. The protestors sought better safety measures for the staff, residential arrangements for those serving virus-hit patients. They also raised concerns about the lack of any life insurance cover to the healthcare providers. Dr Deshmukh said the staff wanted to know about the further process for life insurance. "They had concerns and queries about the procedure to be followed ahead. Once that information was given, they went back to work," he said. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Sandeep Deshpande the healthcare workers at the hospital are already stressed because of lack of safety measures. Those serving in COVID-19 wards also do not have any place to stay. They aren't getting life insurance, despite an assurance by the government, Deshpande, who is the president of the MNS union in the hospital, told CNN-News18. "The dean had also made some insensitive remarks about the employees and the payments made to them. We talked to him about it as well. He assured the employees of making residential arrangements. Thereafter, the employees resumed work," Deshpande said. He also claimed that 19 healthcare workers in KEM had died due to the virus. However, Dr Deshmukh refuted the claim, but said there were problem of accommodation. "Over 1,000 nurses are staying on the campus," he said. Deepak Dalvi, the vice president of Maharashtra Navnirman Bruhanmumbai Karmchaari Union, said there are many issues at KEM hospital, including that of overflowing morgues. At this point, several bodies are kept outside the morgues because there is no place anymore. There is mismanagement. Covid duty staff are not receiving proper accommodation. Many of our daily wage labourers are living in parks or streets because they cannot go back home as they fear of getting their family members infected. Even the sweeper who died on Monday, was not given leave or medication despite being unwell. Everyone is unhappy with the highhandedness and insensitivity of the dean," said Dalvi. Among more than 52,000 coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, 31,972 cases were reported from Mumbai city, where the death toll crossed the 1,000-mark on Monday. (With inputs from PTI) (CNN) The US military Tuesday accused Russia of deploying a fighter jet to Libya in support of Russian mercenaries operating there. "U.S. Africa Command assesses that Moscow recently deployed military fighter aircraft to Libya in order to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors operating on the ground there," the US military's Africa Command said in a statement. Two US defense officials told CNN there were "several" Russian military aircraft deployed. Africa Command also released a surveillance photograph which it said showed the Russian aircraft, a MiG-29, in Libya. The US has long accused Moscow of using Russian mercenaries to bolster its preferred side in Libya's civil war, the forces led by Gen. Khalifa Haftar. "Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fires for the Wagner Group PMC that is supporting the Libyan National Army's (LNA) fight against the internationally recognized Government of National Accord," the statement said, saying the aircraft arrived in Libya from Russia via Syria "where it is assessed they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin." Haftar's forces have suffered some tactical setbacks in recent days as the UN recognized government in Tripoli has received backing from Turkey, including armed drones, enabling it to push Haftar's troops farther from the capital. Haftar had recently reportedly pledged to mount a large-scale air campaign to reverse the recent setbacks. "The world heard Mr. Haftar declare he was about to unleash a new air campaign. That will be Russian mercenary pilots flying Russian-supplied aircraft to bomb Libyans," Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of Africa Command said in the statement Tuesday. The state department said Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with the leader of the Tripoli-based government, Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj " to reiterate U.S. opposition to the continued level of weapons and munitions being brought into the country," according to a State Department spokesperson. This story was first published on CNN.com, "US military accused Russia of deploying fighter aircraft to Libya" Shimla, May 26 : The positive impact of the lockdown, enforced to contain the coronavirus spread, is visible in the agricultural fields and orchards of Himachal Pradesh where almost 80 per cent of rural households possess some land. The state Agriculture Department has seen the lockdown period as an opportunity to get involved with the growers through the digital technology. A total of 5,676 farmers have been enrolled with the communication platform WhatsApp that is being used by the department to solve their problems and issues advisories to them from time to time. "Ninety-four WhatsApp agricultural groups have been activated at the block, district and state levels. Agriculture officials are reaching out to the farmers through video calling to resolve their issues and giving them tips too on natural farming," Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kissan Yojana Executive Director Rajeshwar Singh Chandel told IANS. Himachal Pradesh is the only state in the country whose 89.96 per cent population, as per Census 2011, lives in rural areas. Agriculture and horticulture provide direct employment to about 69 per cent of the total workforce. He said 5,676 farmers have been linked to these groups so far. Out of them, 80 WhatsApp groups have been formed at the block level, 12 at the district level and two at the state level. Three officers in each block, while the Project Director and subject matter specialists at district level are in constant contact with the farmers through phone during the lockdown. Chandel said every possible solution to the problems of the farmers during the lockdown is being provided online. The farmers are being advised from time to time regarding crop protection by adopting natural ways through WhatsApp groups, he said. So far 54,000 farmers in the state have joined agriculturist Subhash Palekar's zero budget natural farming technique under the Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kissan. Under the scheme, they are growing vegetables and other crops through natural farming -- both individually and by forming self-help groups. More than 70,000 farmers have been trained for natural farming. Currently, natural farming is being done on 2,151 hectares in the state. With an objective to expand its scope by 2022, agro-models have been established in 2,921 Panchayats. A total of 312 resource stores have been set up to enable farmers to get ready inputs at cheap prices. During the lockdown, the farmers who have already adopted natural farming have taken steps to enroll new farmers. Since the mass training of the farmers is not feasible amid the lockdown, the farmers already practicing natural farming are not only motivating the new ones but have also set models of natural farming methods, Chandel said. New farmers adopting natural farming are of the view that with this method of farming, they do not need to buy anything from the market. The necessary materials used in farming are easily available at home and around the house. Efforts are also being made under the Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kissan Yojana to deliver the produce of the farmers to markets, so that the farmers can get a fair price for their crops. Special literature has also been prepared in easy and simple language to enable farmers to understand the technique of natural farming. To attract farmers, success stories of farmers, who have adopted natural farming, are also being published. Two years ago, the Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kissan scheme was launched to popularise the Subhash Palekar natural farming system. With an aim to bring 20,000 hectares under natural farming by 2020-21, the state government has an outlay of Rs 25 crore for this fiscal to popularise it. (Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A colleague once described Shriners as heavy set members, driving big cars, who like to party, and care greatly about crippled children. While that description may be a little broad, it does convey the important message of the tremendous work that the Masonic Order members perform on behalf of the hundreds of crippled children that they have helped over the years since the local chapter was formed in 1890. The local unit was formed after a visit to Chattanooga on September 15, 1889, by Illustrious Potentate Sam Briggs, who was the second Imperial Potentate in the Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His visit was at the request of a group of Masonic leaders interested in the establishment of a Shrine Center, and it resulted in the creation of the Alhambra Temple. Major George Cooper was installed as the first Potentate (President) and nine other charter members were also installed. Alhambra thus became the fiftieth Shrine Center in the United States and the first in Tennessee. Over the years the Mosque (center) has been at several locations with the longest residence being east of the south end of Market Street. It is presently domiciled at 1000 Alhambra Drive, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37421, just off I-75 in the East Brainerd area. The facility is available to the public for rental and contains a 10,000-square-foot ballroom with a full kitchen, free on-site parking, security, and other amenities. The Shriners over the years have been big participants in the annual downtown Armed Forces Parade with their various horse units, clown unit and others. One of the initiation requirements for membership for new members was the riding of an iron horse named Ole Ned that required the inductees to straddle the device. The horse was attached to a battery and on occasions a non-lethal electric current was activated. The reactions of the new Shriners always brought a big laugh from the viewers of the parade as the device moved north on Market Street. The local support of Alhambra Temple for the various Shriners Childrens Hospitals across the nation is legendary. Through candy sales, gun shows or July 4th barbeques, or the annual Shrine Circus, the chapter makes significant contributions. With these proceeds the treatment of children is possible at Shriners Childrens Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shriners International Alhambra Temple is a fraternity based on fun, fellowship, and the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth with nearly 200 temples in several countries and thousands of individual clubs in each chapter around the world. All Alhambra Temple fundraising events, the B-B-Q, circus, gun show, candy sales, etc. have been cancelled due to the virus so please consider donations or renting of the facilities in Brainerd in order that they can continue to contribute towards the Shriners Hospitals. For more information about the Alhambra Temple contact Ken Bailey at recorder@alhambrashrine.com. * * * Jerry Summers (If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact Mr. Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com A group of men gather their belongings on a bench outside Terminal A at the airport as people who have been staying at the airport are relocated, on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Read more City officials cleared out about 25 homeless individuals from Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday morning, offering COVID-19 tests to anyone who asked to be transported to a shelter. No one was determined to be positive for the coronavirus, said a city spokesperson, who was unable to say how many people received the test. No incidents were reported as Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw was on hand commanding dozens of officers. They were there to back up outreach workers, who explained to members of an encampment that had formed at Terminal A-East that they could no longer remain. An estimated 51 people had spent the night in the airport, according to city officials. About half left on their own, a city spokesperson said, while the remaining individuals allowed the city to transport them to various places: a hotel used to protect older adults and those with chronic health conditions who are most at risk should they contract COVID-19; shelters (the spokesperson did not say which ones); and to Delaware County. All individuals are being offered multiple places to stay, as well as behavioral health and medical attention as needed, said city Managing Director Brian Abernathy, who was at the airport early Tuesday. So, a relatively quiet day. Things have gone well. The situation wasnt nearly as tranquil last week, when advocates and providers of services for the homeless threatened to sue the Kenney administration if it didnt test people moving from the encampment to shelters for the coronavirus. City officials had planned to break up the airport group last Friday, but agreed to hold off until Tuesday, when it would offer testing. Addressing the conflict between advocates and the city about COVID-19 testing, Abernathy said: I think the advocates had a point, and I think we try to listen when we can. We arent going to agree with them 100% of the time." Marsha Cohen, executive director of the Homeless Advocacy Project, a legal services nonprofit that threatened the city with a lawsuit if no coronavirus testing was undertaken, said she was pleased that the city said it would administer a test to anyone going into shelter. But, she added, I personally find it baffling that we have to have this conversation with the city in the first instance. Its common sense to test people before putting them in a congregate setting. On Tuesday morning, outreach workers from Philadelphia as well as Delaware County, where some of the homeless individuals at the airport had originated, led people to waiting vehicles, including three vans, three SUVs, three ambulances, and a SEPTA bus. The bus was there to transport individuals who didnt want to go to a shelter to Center City, where theyd be dropped off and allowed to move along on their own, advocates said. Among the people from the encampment, at least three were taken out of the airport in wheelchairs, and one woman was carried to an ambulance on a stretcher. While outreach workers and city officials began escorting people out of the encampment by around 8 a.m., many from the group had moved out days ago, after being told that they would no longer be permitted to spend the night at the airport. At one point, approximately 150 people were living at the facility, advocates said. In expressing a willingness Wednesday to sue, advocates and providers conveyed their fear that placing untested people from an encampment into a shelter could be disastrous. They cited Philadelphias decision in late March to clear a homeless encampment at the Convention Center against federal health recommendations and place some of the people in a Center City shelter, Our Brothers Place. A subsequent outbreak of coronavirus there infected more than three dozen residents, and a 46-year-old man died April 2. He is the only known coronavirus fatality among more than 5,000 individuals living in shelters in the city. By placing members of the airport group into shelter without learning their COVID-19 status, the city would have been "almost guaranteeing the same thing will happen again, David Fair, a member of the board of SELF, the largest provider of emergency housing in the city, said last Wednesday. Eva Gladstein, deputy managing director of health and human services for the city, disputed the idea that moving people from the street hastened the virus spread through Our Brothers Place. Its a false correlation, she said. The airport had permitted people to shelter there during the coronavirus crisis, and had directed them to Terminal A-East, which has not been in use for flights. But, advocates said, they were told that the terminal will be used again starting around June 4. A serious security breach occurred at the airport on May 2, when a man believed to be homeless was found in the bathroom of a Southwest Airlines plane as the flight crew prepared it for boarding. The airport has now begun enforcing new regulations that allow only employees and travelers access to the facility. An airport spokesperson said that those without airport business wont be welcome in the terminals and will be strongly urged to leave. In a wide-ranging conversation during the clear-out of homeless individuals Tuesday, Commissioner Outlaw acknowledged that she and her officers were on scene to support the outreach workers. Were not the first people that people will see. Were here behind the scenes first. Asked about the intricacies of keeping Philadelphians safe during the pandemic, Outlaw pointed out that because officers cant be everywhere, citizens have to learn to police themselves and self-protect. I encourage folks not to let their foot off the gas in terms of staying vigilant against the coronavirus, she said. I know it seems like Groundhog Day every day, but we have to do what we can to make sure were doing our part to keep our neighbors and loved ones safe. Referencing some who might start gathering in large groups, Outlaw said: Folks seem to think that its over, and its not. The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the citys push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org. A gay aerospace executive won a 175,000 payout after his boss joked about him wearing tight shorts and asked what type of men he liked. Peter Allen, 41, kept his sexuality secret at work and even had a female friend agree to pretend to be his wife, but after he came out workmates subjected him to limp-wristed hand gestures and told him he was 'camp'. His manager, Carl Wheeler, also emailed him a photo of two stereotypical gay men with the mocking comment: 'I hope your shorts aren't as tight as that'. Peter Allen, 41, (seen on the left with his husband, Michael Dewhurst) was subjected by taunts about his sexuality at work Mr Allen was subsequently denied a promotion after telling his boss he wanted to take leave because he and his husband were planning to adopt a child. Now an employment tribunal has found he was the victim of harassment, sex discrimination and victimisation and awarded him 175,000 in compensation. At a hearing in Manchester, Mr Allen told how he had been Quality Director at Paradigm Precision, a US-owned aerospace parts manufacturer based in Burnley, since 2012. The tribunal heard that while he confided in some of his co-workers he did not tell the majority of his colleagues - including General Manager Carl Wheeler - he was gay. 'In fact, he took steps to hide it,' the panel's judgment found. 'He told colleagues that he was married to a woman called Karen. 'He had a good female friend outside of work who was willing to play the role of Karen if required, and this pretence was convincing enough that some colleagues even addressed Christmas cards to the claimant and Karen.' In early 2018 Mr Allen was told by Mr Wheeler - who was due to retire the following year - that he had been earmarked to succeed him. Following this news, Mr Allen decided to inform his boss that he was gay and that he was intending to take adoption leave at some point because he and his husband had decided to adopt. Mr Wheeler responded by saying he was 'quite camp' and so 'everyone knows' about his sexual orientation, the tribunal heard. After the conversation, Mr Allen, of Tockholes, Lancashire, said colleagues at work started to treat him differently. Soon after Mr Wheeler sent him an email, the tribunal heard. Mr Allen - pictured with Mr Dewhurst - was subsequently denied a promotion after telling his boss he wanted to take leave because he and his husband were planning to adopt a child 'The email had a picture attached of has been described as two stereotypical gay men,' the judgement found. 'One of the men in the picture is wearing tight shorts and (Mr Wheeler) added a comment: 'I hope your shorts are not as tight as this.' ' Mr Allen light-heartedly replied to his boss: 'Where did you find my holiday snaps?' but complained to the tribunal that actually he found the message "unsolicited, unwanted and... sent with the intention of embarrassing me because of my sexual orientation".' The tribunal concluded Mr Wheeler's email was an 'ill-judged attempt at humour'. At a subsequent work event Mr Allen said he was the target of several jokes including Mr Wheeler asking him in front of colleagues what 'type' of man he preferred as a partner. 'Following this comment he was asked a number of questions about his personal life and sexual orientation by colleagues to whom (he) had not wanted to disclose his sexual orientation and who, as far as (he) knew, were previously unaware of (his) sexual orientation,' the tribunal heard. Mr Allen told the hearing: 'I felt forced in to outing myself to colleagues because of Carl's inappropriate remarks.' The tribunal heard there were no other openly gay male employees working at Paradigm. 'We find that the claimant's sexual orientation was to an extent a novelty amongst some employees there and unwelcome comments/questions were made/asked,' the panel said. In June 2018 Mr Allen found out that he was not going to be considered to succeed Mr Wheeler and came to believe that their relationship had broken down. He launched an unsuccessful grievance against his employers claiming he had been discriminated against and then resigned in November 2018. 'I am devastated and it feels as though my heart has been ripped out of my chest,' he wrote in his resignation letter. 'Never did I think that in 2018 a company whom I gave over six years dedicated service of exceptional performance, could and would condone the despicable treatment of me purely due to my sexual orientation and my want to be a father and build a family.' The tribunal concluded that Paradigm had decided not to appoint Mr Allen as General Manager because he had told them he intended to take adoption leave. It found that Mr Allen - who now works as a self-employed consultant - had been harassed, victimised and discriminated against because he was gay. It found that he had been constructively dismissed and had been subject to detrimental treatment. In total he was awarded 174,645 in damages. Food and beverages major PepsiCo India on Tuesday said it has tied up with on-demand delivery service platform Dunzo to deliver its products from four food brands at consumers' doorsteps New Delhi: Food and beverages major PepsiCo India on Tuesday said it has tied up with on-demand delivery service platform Dunzo to deliver its products from four food brands at consumers' doorsteps. The initiative has been launched as a pilot in Bengaluru to deliver PepsiCos products from food brands Lays, Kurkure, Doritos and Quaker. The company is planning to expand the service to Mumbai, Gurugram, Delhi, and Jaipur, a joint statement said. .@PepsiCoIndia to partner with Dunzo to enable last-mile delivery of its food brands - @LAYS, Kurkure, Doritos & Quaker. The initiative has currently been launched as a pilot in Bengaluru and will eventually expand to 4 more cities across Mumbai, Gurugram, Delhi, and Jaipur pic.twitter.com/dl8pxeuU0c CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 26, 2020 As part of the initiative, Dunzo would host Lay's e-store on its app and would deliver products within an hour of ordering. The tie-up with Dunzo will further strengthen our Direct-to-Customer initiative and provide our products at the customers doorstep," PepsiCo India Senior Director, Marketing Dilen Gandhi said. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak Dunzo CEO & Co-Founder Kabeer Biswas said: Partnership with PepsiCo India will give users access to the products they love while maintaining the highest quality of safety standards in the packaging as well as the delivery of these essential products. During the lockdown, several FMCG companies have partnered with app-based delivery platforms to send their essential products at the doorsteps of the consumers. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Jon You and I dont know each other, but I read your Instagram post where you declared that you no longer believe in God. While you gave reasons for your decision, you also said this: Im open to the idea that God is there. Id prefer it if he was. I suspect if he is there, he is very different than I was taught. I know my parents pray that God reveals himself to me. If hes there, I hope he does. You and I both know that preferring and hoping something is real doesnt make it so, but in this instance, theres good news. Ill do my best to explain why thats the case and promise not to get preachy in the process. To begin, since youre doubting the whole of Christianity, Id like for you to consider that at least in your Instagram post youre not asking the right questions. You mention quite a few things including the problem of evil, questionable actions of God in the Old Testament, biblical inerrancy, translations of the Bible from the original languages, and miscellaneous things like the role of women and hair braiding.[1] Have you considered that none of those things have any bearing whatsoever on whether Christianity is true? If youre going to call into question all of Christianity, then you need to examine the three foundational claims of the Christian faith which are: 1. God exists 2. Jesus exists 3. Jesus rose from the dead You must dismiss these three truth claims and concern yourself with nothing else (at least for now) if you want to walk away from Christianity. Let me quickly work through what I mean. For example, just because you cant square God and evil at the moment doesnt mean that a transcendent Creator who brought everything that we know into being doesnt exist. And this might be a shocker, but you don't need to reference the Bible to have confidence in this fact. You heard me right you dont need your Bible for this one. Both science and general philosophy agree that the idea of a Creator makes sense. Without God, we need to answer how an impersonal, non-conscious, meaningless, purposeless, and amoral universe accidentally created personal, conscious, moral beings who are obsessed with meaning and purpose. I havent found anyone able to successfully do that yet. Using the general scientific principle of cause and effect, youll find its highly probable and reasonable to conclude that any first cause represented by the effects we see is personal (defined as having intent), moral, timeless, changeless, immaterial, intelligent, and incredibly powerful. Again, you dont need to open your Bible to reach a conclusion on those things or that such a position is more plausible than trying to argue for all of existence coming from a non-eternal universe made up of only mindless matter. Then we come to our second truth claim, which is that Jesus exists. On this point, Ill ask for some grace and assure you that Im not doing an appeal-to-authority; I simply dont know how to say it any better than Dukes Historian Dr. E. P. Sanders: There are no substantial doubts about the general course of Jesus life: when and where he lived, approximately when and where he died, and the sort of thing that he did during his public activity. Go ahead and toss the doctrine of biblical inerrancy aside for now; that doesnt matter at this point. The biblical biographies and external / non-biblical historical evidence leave no room for assertions that Jesus didnt exist or that the events chronicled in his biographies arent grounded in history. Which brings us to our third foundational truth claim that Jesus rose from the dead. This is a big one because a still-dead Jesus falsifies Christianity. But heres an interesting fact: in the same way all educated historians believe Jesus of Nazareth existed, they also agree on the base events of His resurrection. Again, we dont need biblical inerrancy for this; all we need is reasonable assurance that the New Testament authors got their history right. And historians say that they did. That Jesus was crucified under Pontus Pilate, that He was buried, that His body went missing three days later, that reports of Him appearing to various individuals and groups began circulating, and that all His disciples except one were martyred for proclaiming His resurrection are not disputed by learned historians Christian or non. Of course, what they disagree on is what caused those events. There are lots of good books that work through all the different hypotheses of the resurrection and I can point you to some of the better ones if you like. So, Jon, in my opinion, these are the things with which you need to wrestle. If youre going to completely walk away from Christianity, youre going to need good reasons for saying a Creator God doesnt exist, that Jesus never existed or wasnt who He claimed to be, and that His resurrection didnt happen. And sure, I get your issue with God and evil. I watched my young wife die in front of me many years ago, so that problem is one Ive dealt with at a very personal level. But heres something Id like you to consider. Scientists dont toss their discipline as a whole into the trash because they cant explain every question they have at the moment. Instead, they stand firm on their foundations and keep digging. Since Christianitys foundations stand firm, thats what I recommend you do. One last thing and I question as to whether I should bring it up, but I have too strong an inclination to let it slide. With you now proclaiming your disbelief in God, you will have many people come along side you and say how you and they are exactly alike. You will find strong encouragement and comfort in what these and others tell you; they will make you feel accepted and safe. Whenever I see this happening, it always makes me think back to a guy who came to Christianity out of another worldview. He said the people of that belief system were warm and loving, but Ill never forget what he said right after: They would have loved me right into hell. I bring this up only to say that the things youre wrestling with have eternal implications, and eternity is a long time to be wrong. Dont take this as a threat I mean actually the exact opposite. I dont want you to miss any of the wonderful things God has for you, both in this life and the next. Jon, I hope Ive given you some things to consider. If you want to talk one-on-one, you can reach me via Christian Post or through LinkedIn. God bless you my friend! [1] All of these issues have both intellectually and emotionally satisfying answers and have been addressed by many solid Bible teachers. For example, William Lane Craig handles the problem of evil well in his book, Hard Questions, Real Answers; Paul Copan deals with questions about God in the Old Testament in his book, Is God a Moral Monster?; Mark Roberts addresses questions about Bible translations and their trustworthiness in his book, Can We Trust the Gospels?; and John MacArthurs New Testament commentary series does a great job of discussing the cultural and descriptive aspects of the New Testament (e.g. womens dress) vs. prescriptive teaching. Bihar Board 10th Result 2020 Today | The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) announced the Matric or Class 10 results. Candidates, who appeared for the class 10th examination this year, can now check their results on the Bihar Board's official websites at onlinebseb.in and biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in. The Bihar Board results for class 10 students was jointly released by chairman Anand Kishor, additional chief secretary (education) R K Mahajan and state education minister Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma without holding any press conference due to Covid-19 pandemic. The evaluation process was completed on May 17, following which the physical verification of the toppers was carried out. The physical verification process includes IQ Test and matching of the hand-writing. Students can check their BSEB Bihar Board 10th results by logging in below with the required details. Steps to check Bihar Board 10th results 2020 1. Visit the BSEB official website of at biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in. 2. Click on the "Class 10 Result" link given on the homepage. 3. Enter your roll number, DoB and other credentials and click on submit. 4. The results will appear on your screen. 5. Download the result and take a print out for future reference. The announcement of the BSEB matric result was delayed this year because of the Covid-19 induced nationwide lockdown. On March 24 the evaluation process of class 10th answer sheets had to be suspended by the Board. The Class 10th paper evaluation work was resumed on May 6 after some relaxations in the lockdown were announced by the Centre. Altogether 15,29,393 students including 7,83,034 girls wrote class X exam from February 17 to February 24 at 1,368 exam centres in Bihar. Earlier, the board announced the result on April 6 and recorded a pass percentage of 80.73% in class X. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The Automotive Interior Ambient Lighting System Market research report provides the latest industry data, growth, key segments and future trends on the basis of the detailed study. Moreover, this market report also allowing you to identify the opportunity and growth rate of the leading segment, revenue growth and profitability. The entire automotive interior ambient lighting system market has been sub-categorized into application and vehicle type. The report provides an analysis of these subsets with respect to the geographical segmentation. This research study will keep marketer informed and helps to identify the target demographics for a product or service. Request a FREE Sample Copy of Global Automotive Interior Ambient Lighting System Market Report with Full TOC At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/contact/automotive-interior-ambient-lighting-system-market/download-sample By Application Dashboard Footwell Doors Others By Vehicle Type Conventional Cars Green Cars The research report also covers the comprehensive profiles of the key players in the market and an in-depth view of the competitive landscape worldwide. The major players in the automotive interior ambient lighting system market include DRAXLMAIER Group, Federal-Mogul Holdings LLC, Grupo Antolin, Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., OSRAM GmbH, Pacific Insight Electronics Corp., Philips Lighting, SCHOTT AG, Texas Instruments Incorporated and Valeo. This section includes a holistic view of the competitive landscape that includes various strategic developments such as key mergers & acquisitions, future capacities, partnerships, financial overviews, collaborations, new product developments, new product launches, and other developments. This section covers regional segmentation which accentuates on current and future demand for automotive interior ambient lighting system market across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Further, the report focuses on demand for individual application segment across all the prominent regions. Browse Full Global Automotive Interior Ambient Lighting System Market Research Report With TOC At: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com/report/automotive-interior-ambient-lighting-system-market About Us: Value Market Research was established with the vision to ease decision making and empower the strategists by providing them with holistic market information. We facilitate clients with syndicate research reports and customized research reports on 25+ industries with global as well as regional coverage. Contact: Value Market Research 401/402, TFM, Nagras Road, Aundh, Pune-7. Maharashtra, INDIA. Tel: +1-888-294-1147 Email: sales@valuemarketresearch.com Website: https://www.valuemarketresearch.com New Delhi: Launching an all-out war over the issue of migrant workers, the Congress party is set to begin an online campaign from May 28 against the government's "carelessness and apathy". This coincides with one-year anniversary of Modi government 2.0 with BJP planning large-scale programmes on the day. As Congress decided to dampen the celebrations, Rahul Gandhi began his attack on Tuesday with "the lockdown has failed". "The PM thought that in 21 days we would be fine but it hasn't worked," he said. Being careful not to politicise or overly criticise the government on the issue, Gandhi once again warned that lockdown has been removed at a time when there is a huge spike in cases and things are going out of control. The Congress leader had recently released a documentary of his interaction with the migrants who were walking all the way back home in UP and Bihar. Issuing a warning, Gandhi said the way lockdown is being removed when spike is taking place is bound to spell disaster. Once again the Congress demanded that government announce a direct cash transfer. So far an economic package has been announced, while the government has stayed away from direct transfer. At the core of Gandhi's declaration that lockdown had failed is the declaration that this government has failed and has no reason to celebrate a year in power. As Congress gets into online space to hit out at the government, the senior Congress leader will be the face of this campaign. And what better way to attack your opponents than by saying: "I told you so". Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, May 27 2020 Agriculture experts have criticized the governments agrarian reform program and its lack of progress, which has led to low production yields and mounting food imports, pointing to possible food shortages if the COVID-19 pandemic continues. University of Indonesia (UI) senior economist Faisal Basri has voiced his concerns over the increasing number of food imports over the years, saying that the government had been overly reliant on imports to cover the shortcomings of Indonesias agriculture industry. Last year we imported US$830 million worth of meat, $1.5 billion worth of fruits and $770 million worth of vegetables. Most of our imports also came from China, on which we become overly reliant, he said during a virtual public discussion on Friday. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to pull the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina unless the state's Democratic governor guarantees he will swiftly lift restrictions on large gatherings of people during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, who is set to be named the party's candidate for the November election, fired off a series of early morning tweets on Memorial Day, when the US honors its war dead, professing his "love" for the state but lamenting the fact that he might not be allowed to fill the Charlotte arena where the gathering is scheduled to be held between August 24-27. "Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena," the president wrote. "In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space." The conventions are traditionally moments of great pomp and pageant when parties officially announce their candidate for the election, and the events play an important role in the political life of the country. "Plans are being made by many thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August," Trump said. "They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not, we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site," he warned. In a statement, the North Carolina governor's spokesperson said state health officials were working with the Republican National Committee and "will review its plans as they make decisions about holding the convention in Charlotte." Story continues "North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our state's public health and safety," it added. North Carolina entered the so-called Phase 2 of reopening from lockdown last week, allowing restaurants to open to 50 percent capacity but still banning large gatherings of people. While the Democratic Party is considering holding its own convention -- also scheduled for August -- either online or in some other format as yet to be decided, Trump has rejected any such idea for his party, despite the risk of contagion. Russian jets were deployed in Libya to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors The United States has accused Russia of deploying jet fighters to Libya in what if confirmed would be a dramatic escalation of its military support for renegade field marshal Khalifa Haftar's war against the country's UN-recognised government. United States Africa Command said on Tuesday it had monitored several jet fighters flying from Russia to Libya via Syria, and that it expected them to be used to support Russian mercenaries fighting on the ground in support of Gen Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). "We watched as Russia flew fourth generation jet fighters to Libya - every step of the way. Neither the LNA nor private military companies can arm, operate and sustain these fighters without state support - support they are getting from Russia," US Army Gen Stephen Townsend, the head of Africom, said in a statement. Africom said it had tracked the Russia and that they stopped en-route in Syria, "where it is assessed that they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin." It did not say exactly how many aircraft were involved, but released several images of what appeared to be Mig-29 Fulcrum and Su-35 Flanker fighters in flight, as well as one Mig-29 being towed on a runway at the al Jufra airbase 300 miles southeast of Tripoli. The Russian ministry of defence did not immediately comment on the claims. Forces loyal to Libya's UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) parade a Pantsir air defense system truck in the capital Tripoli - MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity last week said it had intelligence that "several" Russian jets had been deployed to the country from Libya, though it was not clear whether they were piloted by Russians. That claim came as Gen Haftar's Libyan National Army said it was preparing an air campaign in a bid to reverse a series of battlefield setbacks it has suffered over the past month. Saqr Al-Jaroushi, the head of Gen Haftar's air force, said on May 21 that he was preparing "the largest aerial campaign in Libyan history" and would target Turkish assets that Turkish troops and assets, which have intervened on the side of the GNA. Story continues The GNA has scored a series of victories against the LNA since Turkey has deployed drones, air-defence systems and thousands of ethnically Turkish Syrian fighters at the beginning of the year. A United Nations report into the war in Libya has concluded that around 1,200 Russian mercenaries have deployed to the country in support of Gen Haftar's troops. Over the weekend there were reports that several hundred Russian fighters had been flown out of Bani Walid, a town held by Gen Haftar's forces, after pulling out of the frontline near Tripoli. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, on Tuesday called for a ceasefire and peace talks during a telephone conversation with Aguila Saleh, the speaker of the House of Representatives, a parliament that split from the GNA in 2016. The HoR is based in Tobruk, a city controlled by Gen Haftar. The pressure was intense. Booking paid customers $63 million in refunds on nonrefundable reservations for the first three months of the year, money it does not expect to recover. Fogel said the company would try to get some back from the hotels eventually, but that requires helping them stay afloat now. OpenTable later waived fees on its restaurant reservation system for the rest of the year. President Donald Trump is preparing to exit his second arms-control treaty with Russia since taking the oath of office, and the opposition is already in high dudgeon. This is insane, tweeted former CIA director Michael Hayden. Another shortsighted Trump move to abandon a treaty that includes many close allies, tweeted Samantha Power, former ambassador to the United Nations. But Trumps decision is the right one both in the details and on principle. The deal in question is the Open Skies treaty, signed in 1992, which allows U.S. and Russian spy planes to fly over military installations and weapons facilities. The aim is to give the 35 nations that are now members confidence that their adversaries are keeping their arms-control commitments. In theory, its a good idea. Overhead surveillance is one way to verify more substantive arms control agreements with Russia. It also gives a baseline for military planners, providing a data set that shows what peacetime deployment looks like. The big flaw in the arrangement is that the one party that all the others must worry about Russia is a serial violator of international agreements. Consider Moscows recent record. When Russian special operations units invaded Crimea and later Eastern Ukraine in 2014, President Vladimir Putin was violating a 1994 pledge to protect and respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The Ukrainians got these commitments in exchange for relinquishing the Soviet-era nuclear arsenal stationed on their territory. The same pattern was repeated by Russia with regard to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, treaty. Russia largely complied with the part of the treaty that eliminated a class of short- and medium-range nuclear weapons from Europe from its signing in 1987 to about 2008. But in that year, Russia began testing a ground-launched cruise missile that violated the ranges set by the INF treaty. For 10 years, the U.S. tried to bring Russia back into compliance, but Putin kept escalating, eventually deploying banned missiles with ranges that could hit Europe. A similar story can be told about the Open Skies treaty. When it took effect, in 2002, Russia largely abided by it. But during former President Barack Obamas administration, the U.S. found its flights were restricted over suspected facilities in Russia even as the U.S. gathered evidence that Russian surveillance planes were mapping critical infrastructure in the U.S. U.S. diplomats have raised these issues with their Russian counterparts to bring them back into compliance with the treaty. But Moscow has not budged. Because the U.S. has spy satellites and other technological means of gathering the same data its surveillance planes collect, it loses very little by withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty. There is a more important principle at stake as well. If Putin believes that he can get away with cheating on treaties that his most important adversary respects, what incentive does he have to come into compliance? What good are arms-control agreements if they do not enhance international security? Until the Trump administration, no senior U.S. official had stated this principle clearly: When the other party refuses to honor an agreement, walk away. If Trump and his successors stick to this simple approach, the arms-control arrangements of the future will provide the security that the flawed treaties of today do not. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 When the CEO of the countrys housing agency says the pandemic will hit hard at home prices and that 20 per cent of those currently deferring their mortgage payments could be in arrears come the fall well, you have to take that seriously. Last week, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) chief Evan Siddall told a parliamentary committee that Canadian housing prices could sink 9 to 18 per cent and a fifth of mortgage holders, who are deferring their payments, could find themselves in arrears once the COVID-19 deferral period ends in September. Hardest hit, he said, would be Toronto, Vancouver and the oil patch. Siddall also floated the prospect of raising the minimum down payment for an insured mortgage to 10 per cent from the current 5 per cent. Some of the assumptions and data on which Siddall based his comments will presumably come into focus Wednesday, when CMHC issues a special edition of its housing market outlook. Coming the same week that Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz projected a swift economic recovery, homeowners could be understandably confused in the meantime. Even those who disagree with Siddalls outlook say it is his job to prepare the government and the country for the worst outcome. But they dont necessarily believe 20 per cent of households using mortgage deferrals will fail to make a payment when that ends in the fall. Its confusing for a lot of people because CMHC came out with a very bearish outlook, Poloz came out with a bullish one. It is hard for the average person to know whats going on, said Realosophy president John Pasalis, who does not discount Siddalls grim horizon. This isnt just some housing analyst who is particularly bearish, said Pasalis. At the end of the day CMHC has access to data you and I dont and bank economists dont. CMHC has far more information about their mortgage book and potentially the profile of people who are asking for deferrals. An 18 per cent price drop sounds like a big number, but only three years ago house prices in York Region were down at least that much, he said. He cites the 2017 correction that followed government interventions such as a foreign buyers tax, aimed at cooling the Toronto market. Pasalis stresses that Siddall provided a range not far off some bank estimates of a 5 to 8 per cent price drop. Eighteen per cent is CMHCs worst-case scenario, he said. Even if prices cool again, home buyers wont spend less they will just buy in less expensive neighbourhoods. The most vulnerable group could be downsizers, said Pasalis. If you have a $1-million home that falls 18 per cent, your retirement nest egg just downsized $200,000, he said. There is no point in trying to figure out who has the right projections, said housing analyst Ben Rabidoux of North Cove Advisors. There is no truth right now. If they find a vaccine in six months thats a very different truth than if this drags on for 18 months, he said. Optimistic projections may, however, be underestimating the impacts of immigration losses and employment income, said Rabidoux. Given the weaker economy and the move to online post-secondary classes, non-permanent residents and foreign students, who made up about 40 per cent of population growth in the last quarter of 2019, will almost certainly shrink significantly for the next few quarters. Add to that the loss of income indicated by the 8.2 million people who have applied for CERB and Canada has lost two years of job growth even if 95 per cent of those jobs and income come back in the next few months, he said. I just dont know how this isnt tremendously disruptive to the housing market, he said. But Rabidoux expects that the GTA market has enough supply and limited demand to remain strong overall, with pockets of weakness that could include condos where there has been new supply and declining rents. Paul Taylor, CEO of Mortgage Professionals Canada, said he does not expect anywhere near 20 per cent of deferral participants to end up in arrears. There is going to be some day of reckoning for some people come September. Theres no doubt about that, he said. But, The notion that one in five Canadians is going to find themselves unable to make a payment and therefore technically be in arrears in September is hugely inflated. I cannot fathom thats the case given the amount of money and support the government has poured out to ensure income continuance for millions of Canadians, said Taylor. He said its likely that many people applied for deferrals even though they are still being paid. Add to that Canadians propensity to pay their bills, especially their homes, and the reluctance of any homeowner to lose their equity, and most will find a way to pay the bank. If a large number of deferral recipients sell their homes, that could add supply to some parts of the country. Generally, when theres more supply, prices soften, so Siddalls projection of a 9 to 18 per cent price drop could make mathematical sense, said Taylor. But while he agrees oil-based economies will fare worse given the double whammy of the pandemic and negative oil pricing, housing supply in the GTA continues to be tight. Youre going to see significantly less (price) erosion and maybe no erosion at all, he said. As for raising the minimum down payment, Taylor said it would be one more hurdle for people at the bottom of the economic ladder aspiring middle-class Canadians who will be precluded the opportunity to own. A 5 per cent down payment for a $600,000 condo is $30,000. Thats already a lot of money. For a couple to double that and save $60,000 will push their purchase out another two or three years. Even under Siddalls projections the housing market should be back to where it was in March by the end of 2022. Those folks arent ever going to be able to beat the market as those house prices start to appreciate again, said Taylor. It means that any of the homes that come on the market will inevitably be bought by investors and income-property buyers that he terms amateur landlords. I agree we need to be prudent managing risk, he said. But CMHC is supposed to be managing risk and promoting home ownership for the folks at the bottom end of the economic ladder. The Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted LG Polymers India Ltd to have restricted access to its sealed plant in Ahdhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam where a gas leak on May 7 killed 11 people. The court asked the company to provide a list of its 30 personnel who could be allowed the entry. The Andhra Pradesh High Court has recently ordered sealing of the plant and its premises and also barred entry into the plant by all except the committees appointed by the state government. The high court had also asked the directors of the firm not to leave the country without its ... Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) The National Telecommunications Commission asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to turn down ABS-CBN's request to stop the implementation of its shutdown order which took the network off the air since early May. In a 157-page plea, the NTC through the Office of the Solicitor General asked the high court not to issue a temporary restraining order against its May 5 directive telling the media giant to stop its TV and radio broadcasts due to an expired franchise. ABS-CBN stopped its TV and radio broadcasts since that night to comply with the NTC's cease and desist order. READ: There will be a reckoning: Cayetano blames SolGen, NTC for ABS-CBN closure NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba pledged in March that the regulator will issue a provisional authority to ensure uninterrupted operations of the network despite the lapsed franchise, taking into account that pending bills are being discussed in Congress. However, the regulator now claims that Cordoba was answering "based on his personal belief" and that the regulatory body was still weighing its legal options at the time. On April 30, the NTC said Solicitor General Jose Calida wrote to them saying that a provisional authority cannot be issued without a valid franchise, which led to the agency's decision. Calida was also behind the February petition seeking to invalidate ABS-CBN's franchise for supposed violations in the rules set by Congress. The network has been repeatedly criticized by President Rodrigo Duterte over unaired campaign ads for the 2016 elections, even telling the TV giant that he will see to it that they will be off the air this year. READ: SolGen quo warranto plea vs. ABS-CBN now 'moot', officials say ABS-CBN has appealed the cease and desist order before the SC, but the NTC said this should be dismissed due to lack of merit, upholding that the shutdown directive is "valid." "The NTC has the power to stop broadcasting operations in the absence of a legislative franchise," it said in its reply to ABS-CBN's petition. It also argued that ABS-CBN should not be allowed to continue broadcasting on the basis of "wrongful past practice," responding to lawyers and media groups who argued that other media and telecommunications companies were previously allowed to continue operating even if their franchises have expired. RELATED: Senators adopt resolution telling NTC to revoke ABS-CBN shutdown order "The NTC's issuance of the CDO did not curtail ABS-CBN's right to freedom of speech and of the press. Neither did it deprive the public of its right to information," it added, responding to claims that the network's shutdown limited sources of crucial information amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency also wants the high court not to include the House of Representatives and the Senate as respondents to the pending case, saying they are not "indispensable" parties to the issue. The $310 million looked great on paper. Hundreds of New Jersey school districts would receive as much as $19 million through the federal CARES Act to help with services for low-income students during the coronavirus pandemic. But the money came with an unexpected catch, said David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center. Though public school districts typically divert a share of their federal funding to private schools based on their number of low-income students, the U.S. Department of Education directed districts to funnel the CARES Act money to private schools based on total enrollment. The result? The wealthiest of private schools will get a larger chunk of money from school districts no matter if their students are low-income or not, Sciarra said. This erroneous guidance lays bare Secretary (Betsy) DeVos personal agenda for reducing federal emergency CARES Act funds to public schools and redirecting as much of that funding as possible to private schools, Sciarra wrote in a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy. Sciarra, whose group represents low-income districts across New Jersey, asked the state to ignore Devos guidance amid a debate in the nations capital over how much federal relief money should flow to private schools. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have questioned Devos guidance, but the secretary of education defended the decision, saying all schools need help during the pandemic, regardless of whether they are public or private. Its our interpretation that [the funding] is meant literally for all students, and that includes students no matter where theyre learning, DeVos said last week, according to the Washington Post. New Jersey wont know how much federal aid will go to private schools until after applications are completed and submitted, said Mike Yaple, spokesman for the state Department of Education. The federal money is awarded to local school districts, and they are ultimately responsible for allocating it to various private schools that request it, he said. The Department followed the guidance given by the U.S. Department of Education, as we do with all federal grants, Yaple said. Doing so could cost some public schools districts hundreds of thousands of dollars that otherwise would stay with local students, Sciarra said. In Passaic, about 16% of students attend private schools, but only 1 in 10 of those students are poor, Sciarra said. Instead of sharing about $300,000 with private schools, the district will be forced to give away $1.4 million, he estimated. Meanwhile, only about 14% of private school students from Jersey City are low-income, but private schools would receive CARES Act money for every student from Jersey City, taking almost an additional $1 million from the district, Sciarra projected. By advising that even the wealthiest students in the most expensive private schools should receive services paid for with CARES Act funds, the guidance would lead New Jersey and other states to divert millions of dollars critically needed by public school students," he said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Learn more about this award by clicking here: https://carnahangroup.com/about-us/ The considerations for earning this award include (but were not limited to): company culture, types of benefits offered, ability to work remotely, and the level of employee engagement. One of the employees explains "Carnahan Group is built on a strong foundation of teamwork and trust, which leads to consistent personal and professional growth. CG is a great place to work!" "We have worked hard to create a culture that allows team members to be successful. This environment directly supports our goal of providing the best service and most value possible for our clients. It's humbling to be recognized again by the Business Journal", said Christopher Carnahan. About Carnahan Group: Carnahan Group, Inc. is an innovative healthcare advisory firm that leverages its expertise and technology to drive compliance improvements and cost reductions for some of the nation's largest healthcare organizations. For almost two decades, Carnahan Group has served the healthcare industry by providing physician compensation and business valuations, Community Health Needs Assessments, and other strategic services. The firm's FMVMD compliance platform allows healthcare organizations to receive instant fair market value opinions. While headquartered in Florida, Carnahan Group also has employees in Colorado and Tennessee. For more information on our areas of expertise, visit: http://carnahangroup.com/our-expertise/. Media Contact: Kelsey Lay Marketing Specialist 813-289-2588 [email protected] SOURCE Carnahan Group, Inc. Related Links http://www.carnahangroup.com With a killer on the loose, the public was unknowingly in danger for four days due to the closing of Hamiltons forensic pathology unit. The danger was so great that police issued a rare notice to warn the public of the risk. From the time the body of Gladys Little, 79, was found in her downtown apartment on May 16 until her autopsy in Toronto on May 20 determined her death was a homicide, her killer was at large and the community was unaware. Since the Hamilton Regional Forensic Pathology Unit (HRFPU) was forced to close in March, autopsies have been done in Toronto instead. Police, politicians, doctors and hospital administrators have slammed the closure, predicting it would cause delays that would impede homicide investigations and further traumatize families of homicide victims. That four-day delay in this citys latest homicide left Hamilton police hamstrung as they waited to learn if they were dealing with a natural death or a murder. The seemingly arbitrary and senseless killing of Gladys, a retired nurse, was such a public safety concern that, on May 23, the major crime unit alerted the public to a pending first-degree murder arrest warrant for their prime suspect: Larissa Shingebis, 26. Due to the random and violent actions of Shingebis in the murder of Gladys Little, the Hamilton Police Service have decided to release her name and photo for public safety reasons prior to the warrant being issued. Shingebis, who is presumed innocent, has a history of violence. She was arrested May 24 after a shelter worker recognized her from the news and contacted police to report she was staying there. Those post-autopsy steps the public warning, the warrant and arrest might have happened faster had Gladys death been examined by a forensic pathologist in Hamilton. The way it used to be. Here, autopsies in cases of suspected homicide were typically done within 24 hours. I would say a four-day turnaround doesnt help the investigation, says Det. Sgt. Peter Thom, who is overseeing the murder investigation. My only interactions where such delays have occurred have been when they have been conducted in Toronto. When we had the HRFPU, I never experienced this type of delay. Dr. Elena Bulakhtina, a forensic pathologist with the Hamilton unit, says a four-day wait is unacceptable. This is not the high-quality service we were promised, she says. When our unit was open, an autopsy would have been done the next day weekend or not. It doesnt matter. Cheryl Mahyr, issues manager for the Office of the Chief Coroner, says there are acceptable reasons why it could take four days for autopsy results. Using the technology that is available to us at the provincial forensic pathology unit autopsies take at least two days to complete. A number of factors can extend that time, including the time of day that the body arrives at our facility and the number/types of cases on the roster, which can extend the time it takes to complete the examination. Last year, the HRFPU was ordered closed by Ontarios chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, and chief forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Pollanen. They decided that all of Hamiltons more than 1,300 yearly death investigations would be done at the Ontario Forensic Pathology Unit in Toronto. Hamilton did its last forensic autopsy in March. The move is steeped in controversy. The official reason for closing the unit has been that it was behind on paperwork. The units caseload had grown considerably in recent years with few new resources allocated to allow it to catch up. But as reporting by The Spectator revealed, Huyer and Pollanen announced the closure at the same time the provincial Death Investigation Oversight Council was investigating a complaint against them from a former director of the Hamilton unit. This is not the first time Thom has been critical of the decision to close the unit. Shortly after the move was announced, the autopsy of a Hamilton teen stabbing victim was moved to Toronto. That decision also caused a delay, which Thom said hampered the investigation and added to the familys grief because they had to wait longer for answers and to retrieve the body. Gladyss family has also had to wait. On May 16, she didnt answer her phone. Concerned family came and found her dead inside her seventh-floor unit at 4 p.m. It was unclear to police how she died, until the first few minutes of her autopsy revealed her death was caused by someone else. Shingebis was seen leaving Gladyss building the day before her body was discovered. The closure of the HRFPU means a forensic pathologist isnt likely to attend the scene. Perhaps that would have been beneficial in this case. Most importantly, public safety was jeopardized as a killer wandered our streets without us knowing. Jumping between high-rise buildings, launching themselves off cliffs and gliding across rooftops are commonplace for parkour group Storror. The septet of British parkour specialists have amassed over 600 million views on YouTube and even worked on a Hollywood film. The group, which started on 10/10/10, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and over the last decade has filmed around the world, from Seoul to Madrid (a favorite destination). But with the world in lockdown changes have had to be made. They should be in Nepal filming, but are instead searching for ways to create content from home. Living separately, Storror members have been filming videos on their own and then editing the footage together. But making engaging content for their fans while not encouraging them to break lockdown rules is a fine line. "I think that's part of this whole maturity thing and learning to understand our responsibility, like we're taking the lockdown seriously," Drew Taylor, professional parkour athlete and Storror member, told CNN Sport. While mastering parkour has come through years of training, the group which includes Taylor, Toby Segar, Sacha Powell, Joshua Burnett Blake, Callum Powell and founders, Max and Benj Cave has also put on workshops for groups of refugees. "I think most of us can agree we've kind of overshot even our greatest expectations of what we wanted to do with this when we were a kid," added Taylor. Moving up in the world Last year the group worked on the set of a Hollywood movie after being invited by award-winning Hollywood director Michael Bay also director of the 'Transformers' trilogy and the 'Bad Boys' films to assist in the filming of '6 Underground,' his Netflix film starring Ryan Reynolds and Dave Franco. They were given the freedom to instruct experienced cameramen as they saw fit, while also serving as actors' stunt doubles. During their time on set, the group also performed stunts on famous sites, such as the Florence Cathedral, while also training other actors in the basics of parkour. Working on a Hollywood movie set was "affirmation that we were moving in the right direction," Segar, one of Storror's members, told CNN Sport. "It was skipping a lot of steps in the movie industry, in terms of learning about how they do it," Segar said. "It was a really crazy position to be in, where we have control over these scenes and we have control over certain elements of this blockbuster movie. But it was great for the entire team." Taking a toll But in creating the jaw-dropping videos, bodies have been pushed to the limit which has consequences. Segar the 2015 winner of 'Ninja Warrior UK' recalled knocking his four front teeth out and breaking his collarbone, while Taylor has broken his ankle. "I guess that's why we're still doing it after 14 years is because those kind of things happen so rarely that it's worth all the reward and how much it's improved our lives, like the physical benefits of the exercise or the friends that we've met through it," Taylor a world record holder for the longest front flip explained. "The sense of reward and achievement you get from doing all these crazy things ... If once every 14 years you break your ankle, I'll take that risk because people break their ankles or arms getting drunk on the weekend and going out in town. It's not like you're completely safe if you don't choose to take risks." The-CNN-Wire & 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A recent report from EdChoice, working with Hanover Research, identifies and reviews studies that use Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) to determine student achievement or educational attainment outcomes of nine broad education reform areas. Bruce Baker of Rutgers University reviewed Comparing Ed Reforms: Assessing the Experimental Research on Nine K-12 Education Reforms. He concludes that the report accomplishes what it set out to do, but he points to several issues that minimize its usefulness in guiding policy, practice, or research. The report simply presents counts of studies with positive, negative, and neutral findings from RCT studies. RCTs are presented in the report as gold standard studies for determining effects of specific treatments on measured outcomes, and the approach has clear strengths. But Professor Baker explains that the approach also has notable limitations. In fact, the actual randomization in education studies generally applies to only part of natural experiment; the randomization operates in a largely non-random context. Similarly, the studies are not fully controlled. Each of the reports specific education-reform-area counts also has notable limitations. RCT studies of charter schools tend to be limited to specific contexts, models, programs and services. Private school voucher policies are similarly varied and difficult to classify as a single treatment. Moreover, as the report notes, studies categorized under the reform open enrollment are actually magnet school programs. In fact, the report found no RCT studies that could be squeezed into three of the reform categories. All six of the reform areas that were in fact talliedfrom smaller class sizes and schools to pre-k programs to school choicescore well, with positives outweighing negatives by large margins. But that truly tells us very little, Professor Baker explains, and the study authors are in fact cautious in explaining their modest goalsmerely counting the quantity and superficial results of research done in those six specific areas. The main concern with this report, therefore, is that the casual reader will take the table presenting the tallies out of context and use it to argue that charter schools and vouchers for private schools are most important or worthwhile because they have been studied most and thus have the highest counts of positive effects. If, however, the report is not misused in such a way, it offers a limited contribution for readers wanting to get an initial feel for the RCT research in these areas. Find the review, by Bruce D. Baker, at: https://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/charter-research Find Comparing Ed Reforms: Assessing the Experimental Research on Nine K-12 Education Reforms, written by Paul DiPerna, with reviews conducted by Hanover Research and published by EdChoice, at: https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/comparing-ed-reforms.pdf NEPC Reviews (http://thinktankreview.org) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: http://www.greatlakescenter.org The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: https://nepc.colorado.edu Anusha Ravi By Express News Service BENGALURU: Was Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilisers DV Sadananda Gowda exempted from quarantining himself after arriving in the city? The question arose after the minister who arrived in Bengaluru from New Delhi on a flight on Monday exempted himself from mandatory quarantine and drove away in his car even as his co-passengers were sent to institutional quarantine. Later in the day, the minister even chaired a meeting at Vidhana Soudha where a host of officials as well as Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayana and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar were present. Karnataka government's SOP for interstate travellers dated May 22, 2020, mandates seven-day institutional quarantine of people returning from high-risk States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, New Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh followed by home quarantine of another seven days. Gowda, who returned from Delhi, claimed that he was exempted from institutional quarantine since he headed the pharma ministry. "I am heading the pharma ministry. We are responsible for providing medicines for every State. I come under exemptions in the SOP - pharma is excluded at Centre and State level," DV Sadananda Gowda told the media. No such exemption was mentioned in the SOP dated May 22 issued by the State government. ALSO READ | Solo travel, small resorts new ideal? Karnataka's tourism industry plans restart amid COVID-19 reality Face-saving act? Following the furore on Monday, however, the health department released an 'addendum' to its May 22 SOP. "The ministers of Union Government or State Government or Officers on their official duty who are travelling across States will be exempted from the requirement of quarantine as has been done for health professionals and others in para 4(e)," the addendum said. Although the addendum is dated May 23, it was made public only on Monday evening after the controversy surrounding Gowda. The Karnataka health department, Health Minister B Sriramulu, Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare have been lightning fast in sharing government SOPs, guidelines, orders and even the COVID-19 bulletin, but this addendum was released only on Monday evening - two days after the date it was signed. The addendum exempts Gowda from institutional quarantine. Para 4 that deals with passengers travelling by road/rail/air in section E says, "GOI has advised that all State/UTs shall allow the interstate movement of medical professionals, nurses and para-medical staff, sanitation personnel and ambulances without any restriction. Therefore, inter-state movement of above professionals with only home quarantine is allowed." Going by this guideline, Sadananda Gowda should have been in mandatory home quarantine. The minister, however, chaired a meeting at Vidhana Soudha barely hours after he landed from Delhi. The addendum by Karnataka government came after Minister Suresh Kumar said the MHA orders exempted Gowda. "He is exempted in his capacity as a minister handling pharma sector. It has been issued by the central government," he said. India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported Hotel quarantine for foreign returnees only for 7 days, can't charge more: Centre to states India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, May 27: The Centre on Tuesday directed states to ensure that hotels, which had charged people returning from abroad for a 14-day quarantine upfront, return the deposits of seven days. The home ministry in a letter to states said that since the revised Union health ministry guidelines on quarantine of international travellers allow such people to leave institutional quarantine after seven days, the hotels must return advance money charged from the travellers. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News Karnataka mandates week-long institutional quarantine for passengers from 7 states "It has been brought to the notice of the ministry that Indian nationals who were quarantined in hotels after their return from abroad were made to pay advance for 14 days. Since they can now leave for home quarantine after seven days, the amount paid by them for the remaining seven days needs to refunded to them, which some hotels are refusing to refund," the MHA letter to all state chief secretaries said. By Stephanie L. Schmid We may not know every step its going to take to bring us back from the COVID-19 crisis that, as I write this, has taken the lives of over 11,000 people in New Jersey and has left tens of thousands of workers unemployed. But U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, true to form, has shown us what not to do. On May 15, Chris Smith voted against the decidedly bipartisan HEROES Act, a bill that when passed will provide critical resources for New Jersey families. Smith voted against support for our state and local governments, against providing job security for our police officers, firefighters and teachers; and he voted against funding for the testing and tracing that is essential to be able to safely reopen our economy. Along with that, Smith voted against eliminating the $10,000 cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction for 2020 and 2021, which puts Smith squarely on the side of tax increases for New Jerseys middle-class homeowners. While the whole rest of our congressional delegation fights for New Jersey, Smith keeps working directly against New Jerseys interests, apparently indifferent to our suffering. With New Jersey families still waiting on stimulus checks, local small business owners finding their loan applications still unprocessed, and workers still unable to have their unemployment claims processed, it took months for Smith to leave his home in Herndon, Virginia and set foot in our district. His decision to spend his time sitting out a devastating pandemic speaks volumes to his lack of involvement in the crisis and his lack of concern for New Jersey families. While hundreds of New Jerseyans are dying each day and tens of thousands are suddenly unemployed and without health insurance, Smith offersnothing. At this moment of crisis, he should be laser-focused on providing immediate assistance to our community. Chris Smith is utterly failing us. I know theres a better way. It involves radical ideas like listening to experts and working together. Ive been a part of leadership and problem-solving during times of crisis in service to our country as a United States foreign service officer and as a human rights advocate and attorney. In 2012, I deployed to Haiti, serving for two years in a nation devastated by an earthquake and suffering in the midst of a cholera outbreak. I worked with Haitis government to increase access to healthcare and other critical public resources, to help rebuild their infrastructure and to ensure they held free and fair elections to strengthen their democracy. I know that coming back from a public health crisis requires fixing many of the problems that were in place when the crisis hit. Now, more than ever, we need strong leaders who will put people before partisanship, country before party, and lead us forward. Thats why Im running for Congress -- to help New Jersey not only recover from the COVID-19 crisis but to rebuild stronger going forward. We have an opportunity this year to reject politics as usual and elect new leaders, like me, who are dedicated to public service and who will always put our communities before special interests. My fellow New Jerseyans are more concerned than ever about access to quality, lower-cost health care, aid for our local economies and small businesses and ensuring that our upcoming elections are conducted safely, fairly, and on schedule. If Chris Smith wants to vote against vital aid to our state provided by the HEROES Act at a time when we are in need of urgent resources and while hes at it, defund the World Health Organizations preparations for the next pandemic -- he shouldnt be in Congress. If he wont use his office to help New Jersey families, send me to Congress. I will. Ill work to address the critical policy gaps this crisis has laid bare: quality affordable healthcare for every American, paid medical and family leave, support for police and firefighters, and American leadership that prevents pandemics rather than sets out to deflect blame after the fact. I will use both my voice and my vote to ensure that New Jersey is represented in Washington so we have access to the resources we need before, during, and after a global crisis. Every day, Ill fight tirelessly for our families and our future. Its the kind of change Central New Jersey deserves. Stephanie L. Schmid is an attorney who is running as a Democrat for election in the 4th Congressional District, which includes parts of Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer counties. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Unbeknown to them, she was pregnant when she left Germany in 1936 for a Jewish boarding school in Switzerland. She hid her condition with a corset until one night, all alone, she lay down in the Swiss snow and went to sleep, hoping to freeze to death. She was suffering from severe frostbite when she was discovered. Several months later, she delivered a baby she never saw. It was a stillbirth, the clinic staff told her when she emerged from the ether. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:19:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BERLIN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- At 6.84 percent, the share of employees in Germany who called in sick in March was at its highest level in 20 years, the country's statutory health insurance fund Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) announced on Tuesday. The figure for the previous year was only 5.30 percent, according to TK's evaluation of its data on insured citizens. "We assume that a large share of the above-average sickness rate can be explained by preventive sickness notifications due to the coronavirus pandemic," said Jens Baas, chairperson of the TK's board of directors. German employees had followed the official recommendation to "stay at home in case of showing symptoms of a cold in order not to endanger others," explained Baas, adding that every two years there was a "strong flue wave" in Germany, leading to a high number of people calling in sick. According to the TK, COVID-19 played "only a minor role" in the figures because only around 3,000 of the almost 900,000 cases of sickness reported in March were coded with the COVID-19 diagnosis. Meanwhile, Germany's health insurance funds expect to see a drop in revenues because of the coronavirus crisis. "For 2020, we expect a reduction in revenues in the statutory health insurance system of 4.8 billion euros," Ulrike Elsner, chair of the board of the Association of Substitute Health Insurance Funds (vdek) told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on Monday. Enditem Ms. Torneden is a seasoned insurance executive with expertise in growth strategies, collaboration and creating new capabilities in broker distribution, sales, partnerships and finance. She has a solid track record of building high performance teams and collaborating with board of directors, senior management, customers, peer executives and team stakeholders to drive alignment and execution on key business initiatives. She is driven to deliver efficiencies and results throughout the organization. Commenting on her new role, Ms. Torneden stated, "I am very excited to join LGA and build upon the strong foundation that's already been established. I have long admired General Colin Powell, most specifically his vision on the role of leadership and importance of supporting one's team. Throughout my career, I have strived to apply this vision and look forward to bringing it with me to LGA." Mark Holweger, President and CEO of LGA said, "We are thrilled to be welcoming Ms. Torneden to our team. Digitization, partnerships and innovation have been key tenants of our growth strategy at LGA, and Ms. Torneden is well-positioned to drive that vision forward." In her most recent role at Aon Affinity as SVP, Head of Distribution and Sales, Ms. Torneden developed and launched an innovative growth strategy around agents and brokers to become one of Aon's fastest growing distribution channels. She also worked with insurtech partnerships to identify new capabilities, products and ways of working to disrupt how they operate today. Prior to joining Aon, Ms. Torneden spent 16 years at Zurich Insurance in significant roles in finance, strategy, administration, product marketing and most recently as SVP, Regional Sales Director. She also worked for Arthur Andersen Consulting in Advanced Technology where she implemented a customer satisfaction process under the direction of the Executive Branch. She completed her MBA at Columbia University and her BS in finance at George Mason University. Ms. Torneden was the winner of the 2019 Women to Watch award from Business Insurance, recipient of the 2018 Woman of the Year award from Rough Notes for promoting diversity and inclusion within the insurance industry, is a Board member for GrowthSource Academy, and involved in multiple charitable organizations. She is a speaker on industry panels at Columbia University and is a regular speaker of the Keams Global Lecture Series. About Legal & General America Legal & General America (LGA) is part of the worldwide Legal & General Group. For over 70 years, the Legal & General America companies have been in the business of providing financial protection through life insurance for American families. The Legal & General America companies are Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York. With more than $58 billion in new coverage issued in 2018, LGA is ranked in the top ten of U.S. life insurers and ended 2018 with in excess of $734 billion of coverage in force with 1.3 million U.S. customers. LGA shares Legal & General's independent financial strength ratings: A+ Superior from A. M. Best and AA- Very Strong from Standard and Poor's and Fitch. For more information, please visit www.lgamerica.com. Media Contact: Lindsay McGarity (Edelman) +1 202-210-8648 [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @landg_usa SOURCE Legal & General America (LGA) Related Links https://www.lgamerica.com A Texas doctor who traveled nearly 2,000 miles to New York City to help treat coronavirus victims has had $11,000 worth of items ransacked from her hotel room. The selfless doctor, whose identity has not been released, was in town helping frontline colleagues battle the killer virus as it surged through the city. But a female suspect, believed to be in her twenties, broke into the doctor's room at the Brooklyn Hotel on Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights over the weekend. Deputies have yet to catch the suspect and say she was last seen wearing a blue tank top and black pants as she fled from the Brooklyn Hotel on Atlantic Avenue (pictured above) She grabbed around $11,000 of jewelry and clothing before fleeing on foot, police sources told the New York Post. Deputies have yet to catch the suspect and say she was last seen wearing a blue tank top and black pants. It marks yet another crime against a frontline worker in New York City, which is the epicenter of the Covid-19 crisis. Earlier this month saw a 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the attempted rape of a 32-year-old nurse who had also traveled to New York City to help during the pandemic, ABC7 reported. And in April a nurse who beat coronavirus was attacked and robbed on her way to work by a group of thugs who threw her to the ground and fled with her purse. Martha Toscano, 60, had just got out of the train station and was making her way to Bellevue Hospital when she was approached by a group of 15 thugs. They ran her down and pummeled her to the floor before making off with her purse. That same month a Florida nurse who had come to help during the pandemic was mugged in Times Square. More than 1,000 people a day were losing their lives in New York, the worst-hit US state, during the height of the outbreak in April The state of New York has so far seen 360,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 23,000 deaths. More than 1,000 people a day were losing their lives every day in New York during the height of the outbreak in April. The number of cases has since dropped sharply, largely in response to strict statewide lockdown measures. Last week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dropped the state's ban on gatherings. It marks a significant loosening of measures imposed in March which prevented all but key workers from gathering unless they lived in the same household. All future gatherings must ensure people stay at least six feet away from each other or wear masks when they can't maintain that distance in public. When a Wall Street Journal editorial warned last week against any precipitous U.S. withdrawal that might imperil our gains in Afghanistan, an exasperated President Trump shot back: "Could someone please explain to them that we have been there for 19 years. ... and except at the beginning, we never really fought to win." Is that true? Did we "never really" fight to win during our 19-year war in Afghanistan, except when we first ousted the Taliban in 2001? At one point in this longest American war against al-Qaida and the Taliban, Barack Obama surged 100,000 U.S. troops into Afghanistan. The issue here is with the terminology. In the forever wars of the Middle East, what does "winning" mean? To those of us who grew up in the mid-20th century, victory was Gen. MacArthur standing on the deck of the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay as top-hatted Japanese diplomats signed the articles of surrender. Victory was unmistakable and irreversible. Five years after V-J day, however, came Korea, a war that lasted three years and ended in deadlock, stalemate and a truce along the 38th parallel, where the North-South war had begun in June of 1950. Vietnam also came to be called a "no-win war." Though U.S. troops never lost a major battle, and every provincial capital was in Saigon's hands when we departed in 1973, the United States is said to have "lost the war" when the North Vietnamese army overran the South and Saigon in the spring of 1975. That was a geostrategic defeat but not a military defeat. America's problem, in this century, lies in our concept of "winning." While U.S. military forces can crush any Middle East adversary, as we showed in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, we have been unable to realize the fruits of the victories our armed forces produced. We have failed to reorient the defeated nations to our way of thinking. We have failed to win the peace. While we can defeat our enemies in the air and on the seas and in cyberspace, we cannot persuade them to embrace secular democracy and its values any more than we can convert them to Christianity. John Locke means nothing to these people. As for our Bill of Rights, why would devout Muslims, who believe there is but one God, Allah, and that Muhammad is his only Prophet, tolerate the preaching of heresies in their countries that can cause Muslims to lose their souls? Millions of Muslims are familial, tribal, nationalistic, resistant to foreign intervention and proudly anti-Enlightenment. With our "democracy crusades," we have been trying to conquer and convert people who do not wish to be converted. Moreover, we lack the patience and perseverance to change or convert them. As imperialists, we Americans are conspicuous failures. Moreover, with us, the national interest inevitably asserts itself. When it comes to spending lives and treasure indefinitely we find we have no vital interest in whether these lands we occupy are ruled by monarchs, democrats, dictators or demagogues, and we lack the staying power to occupy these countries until they accept our ideas and ideals. If they don't attack us, why do we not just leave them be? Our enemies in the Middle East do not defeat our military. They outlast us. They apparently have an inexhaustible supply of volunteers willing to give up their lives in suicide attacks. They are willing to fight on and trade casualties endlessly. They do not subscribe to our rules of war. They tire us out, and, eventually, we give up and go home. They refuse to surrender and submit because it is their beliefs, their values, their faith, their traditions, their tribe, their God, their culture, their civilization, their honor that they believe they are fighting for in what is, after all, their land, not ours. They are not trying to change us. We are trying to change them. And they wish to remain who they are. Woodrow Wilson famously declared of our neighbors to the south, "I am going to teach the Latin American republics to elect good men!" Wilson forgot the kernel of truth in the ethnic slur of his era, that you cannot grow bananas and democracy on the same piece of land. If it is a contest between armed forces, America wins. We can impose our will on the country but cannot win their assent. They resist until we tire of trying to educate them. Historically, the Afghans are fundamentalist, tribal and impervious to foreign intervention. What will the Taliban do when we leave? They will not give up their dream of again ruling the Afghan nation and people. And they will fight until they have achieved that goal and their idea of victory: dominance. And if 100,000 Americans fighting beside the Afghan army could not force them to surrender, then why should they settle for half a loaf and accept a compromise now? Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The UK prime minister Boris Johnson has revealed his eyesight has been affected by the Coronavirus disease. Johnson contracted Coronavirus and was hospitalized in April, and spent several nights in intensive care battling the disease. Johnson told the daily Downing Street press briefing on Monday that he was having to wear glasses for the first time in years after suffering coronavirus. Im finding that I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years because I think of the likely effects of this thing so Im inclined to think theres some I think thats very, very plausible that eyesight can be a problem associated with coronavirus. he said. Johnson's comments come after top adviser Dominic Cummings said he made a 60 mile round trip from London to Barnard Castle in Durham to check if his eyes were good enough to drive back to London. Cummings made the statement in defence of his controversial decision to disobey lockdown rules and leave London to travel to Durham when his wife became unwell. He said he had fallen ill with Covid symptoms of a headache and fever the day after arriving in Durham. After recovering, Mr Cummings said he got expert medical advice and was told he could go back to work but decided to drive with his wife because the virus had affected his eyesight. Cummings said his wife did not want to risk the drive back to London and they agreed they should go for a short drive. Mr Cummings said: My wife was very worried, particularly as my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. She did not want to risk a nearly 300-mile drive with our child given how ill I had been. We agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if I could drive safely, we drove for roughly half an hour and ended up on the outskirts of Barnard Castle town. 'We did not visit the castle, we did not walk around the town. We parked by a river. My wife and I discussed the situation, we agreed that I could drive safely, we should turn around and go home. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video NEW YORK - It was laundry that broke Mary Shell. Or rather, the lack of an in-unit washer and dryer in her Brooklyn apartment where Shell, 37, a field producer for reality television, could barely afford her half of the rent before the novel coronavirus pandemic because work had been slow for months. Times are even tougher now that her roommate, also unemployed, has had to move back in with her parents. Shell was so financially strapped that she began inquiring about various night-life gigs, only to see covid-19 close all the bars and clubs. ("So that's another job you can't do in a pandemic.") Still, her situation might have been bearable if the nearest laundromat wasn't four blocks away. "I just want to be able to do laundry without having to drag it up and down a four-story walk-up or pay someone $40 or $50 to do it for me," said Shell - echoing a gripe of New York City's apartment-dwellers so timeless that "Seinfeld," "Friends," "Living Single" and "Broad City" all have episodes about the indignities of shared laundry facilities. But throw in a pandemic and Shell said the stress has been "exhausting," noting how she recently showed up to her laundromat to find that someone had handled all the clothes she had just washed. "Everyone deserves space and basic amenities," she said, lamenting how, in New York, many landlords deem a washing machine a "luxury" item. "It's just insulting to come at us and be like, 'We're going to charge you an extra thousand dollars a month for this standard appliance that's been in American households since the 1970s.' " It's enough to make her contemplate leaving, for good. Welcome to the Great Reassessment. New York City is a shadow of its pre-pandemic normal. Like Shell, many residents are out of work, out of money, out of patience and out of sorts. Reassessments are happening throughout the country, but nowhere else are they as sharply focused as here, in the nation's most populated, most dense, most diverse metropolis - where more than 21,000 have died. Even with all the chaos, filth and struggle, nostalgics have long mourned every change in what they called the "vanishing" city. But calls to the city's mental health hotlines have surged. Whether they have left, or whether they have no option to leave, New Yorkers are having to ask themselves whether the city they love is really still livable. "The 'rona sat every New Yorker down and legit asked that question everyone knows from tired job interviews: Where do you see yourself in five years?" said Sandy Jose Nunez, 31, a bartender hoping to pivot toward opening a jujitsu gym. "You have plenty of time now to step up to a solid answer." But there is no universal answer. The pandemic has laid bare the inequities of who gets to go and who has to stay, of who lives and who dies. The average rent in Manhattan began the year at a record high of $4,210 a month, while Queens and the Bronx, the boroughs hardest-hit by covid-19, were also on a decade-long upswing. In February, discussing the state's $2.3 billion revenue shortfall, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, sincerely, "God forbid if the rich leave." But 420,000 of the city's wealthiest residents did go, gutting marquee neighborhoods now facing up to 40 percent vacancy. "I'm a born-and-raised, do-or-die New Yorker because it was always a party," said Giovanni Cassinelli, 44, a dog walker who was an acolyte of the late nightlife legend Willi Ninja, "but the party is over." He's heading to an unincorporated mountain town in Nevada. "I'm not getting my city back," he said. "So I'm leaving before it gets to the point that I can't get my mind back." Such responses represent a major departure from previous citywide crises, when New Yorkers mostly rolled with the punches with fuhgeddaboudit humor and go-big-or-go-home tenacity. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for instance, "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels famously asked then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, "Can we be funny?" to which Giuliani countered, "Why start now?" Eleven years later, when Hurricane Sandy knocked out electricity in half of Manhattan, the running gag was that the city's trendiest new neighborhood had become SoPo, South of Power. This novel coronavirus, by contrast, has brought with it a novel reckoning. At the start of April, Shari, 33, born and raised in Queens, had to step away from her career as a social worker, even though her profession is essential. She declined to provide her last name, citing privacy concerns. Her job entailed home visits with 2-year-olds with autism, and last year all that close contact landed her in the hospital with pneumonia. The day she received an email from her employer urging workers to hound their clients - many of them overwhelmed parents from underserved communities - and rack up billable hours, she quit. That email came the night before her grandmother died of covid-19, under the watch of a nursing home in Queens that, she said, wouldn't help Shari's family stay in touch with their matriarch. She has been thinking a lot about the 60-acre ranch in California where her grandmother grew up. "I can see the horizon there and it's just quiet, the earth smells different," she said. She has been looking into apprenticeships for black farmers upstate and considering moving somewhere more affordable, like New Jersey, "even though that was like my lifelong thing - 'I'll never go to New Jersey.' " For families with young children the incentive to go, or stay and get creative, the calculus has turned urgent. Julia Febiger, 39, gave birth to her first child a week and a half before the first coronavirus case in New York state was confirmed. "It was just a lot with this fragile, vulnerable newborn," she said, particularly because she also had postpartum anxiety that she thinks was exacerbated by the pandemic. "I was terrified. I felt like we were under attack." She and her husband headed to Massachusetts to be close to relatives. They're looking at houses in small towns along the Hudson River in Upstate New York, which real estate agents say are selling hours after they go on the market, with other emigres from the city sometimes paying full price in cash after seeing the houses only on video tours. Parenting message boards across gentrified Brooklyn are filled with questions about where to shop for groceries safely, or what to do if you took your kids to school via public transportation. There's a closed Facebook group with more than 3,000 members called Into the Unknown, "for those of us who have decided or are considering - willingly or otherwise - to join the exodus from NYC to greener pastures, as it were," the description reads. Faced with a June 30 deadline to renew the lease on their two-bedroom duplex in Brooklyn, Naomi Mersky, 44, and her husband decided to bail. "We know we're lucky that we have options," she said, but they also couldn't keep paying rent indefinitely if their kids, ages 5 and 9, didn't feel safe. They've bought chickens and are looking into starting the next school year in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, where they're living in a summer cabin they own. Krista Sudol, 42, a mother to two young children who just lost her job in fashion "and possibly my career," summed up the zeitgeist bluntly: "I love New York so much I could cry, but for the first time ever, it feels all wrong." For many artists who came to the city to make it big and wound up waiting tables, the city's promise that hustle and paying dues leads to achieving your dreams is starting to feel like a broken contract. Almost five years to the day that he began his career as a comedian, Kevin Delano, 28, finally gained a prestigious turning point: membership on a house team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the legendary launchpad for actress Amy Poehler and hundreds of others. He performed once. Then the shutdown happened. "There's no Plan B," he said. "I hadn't decided to throw in the towel but the towel got thrown at me." During the shutdown, something changed. Seeing "Saturday Night Live" star Aidy Bryant filming sketches from her bedroom felt like an equalization, he said, inspiring him to double down on his digital comedic output. But for Delano, the pause of city life has been a tectonic shift deeper than a career pivot. "The strangers on my street became my neighbors. We leave baked goods on each other's stoops," he said. "And I've become the Jared Kushner of sewing: Whatever I learn, I feel like I invented it. . . . I have more space for myself, to find out who I am. I don't want to go back. My girlfriend says she feels five years younger." Andre Urban, 38, was already a voracious learner and life experimentalist before the pandemic, as an actor who also does wedding photography and shoots music videos. The shutdown has brought about what he calls his "metamorphosis." He used to wake up about 11 a.m. Now he's up at dawn and has loaded his schedule with self-improvement: meditation, self-help books, Spanish lessons, video editing courses, voice lessons and guitar lessons - all before lunch. "The whole world has changed, so why not me, too? I spent 15 years prioritizing work. This is my time." Some artists left town and accidentally found a new home. Kevin Hertzog, 55, a set designer and Gays Against Guns activist, absconded to a friend's mother's cabin three hours north of the city because he's HIV-positive and recently had cancer, so is immunosuppressed. Long walks in the woods with his dog inspired him to look for property - and he has found houses selling for just $50,000. "I've started to look back at my New York life in a new light," he said. "It seems analogous to seeing images of planet Earth from the moon for the first time. Suddenly, I could see a bigger picture." For some, an onslaught of life changes forced the decision. Since March, Nancy Lee, 39, has lost her job in marketing (because of internal reshuffling, not coronavirus-related unemployment), confirmed she's pregnant, gotten engaged and hunkered down with her fiance - who is also out of work - and their pug, Biggie, in an East Village studio apartment. "It's just resonating that I think it's my time to leave New York," Lee said. "The value of living here is the way of life. And if the sexiness has worn off, then why pay the expensive price tag?" Lee, who is Chinese American, said she has been harassed at least three times by a man on a bicycle screaming about Chinese people and covid-19, part of a larger racist movement blaming Asians for the virus. "I didn't know it was directed at me, but as I got closer, he said it over and over," she said. She's considering a move to suburban Philadelphia, where she grew up and her parents still live. The reassessments aren't only personal. Sometimes they're business-driven. In the wake of citywide closures of Chinese takeout spots - which were teetering on extinction already - Beichen Hu, director of special projects at Junzi Kitchen, has pivoted the modern fast-casual Chinese local chain to develop comfort food classics, such as sausage fried rice and egg drop soup - all of which are hard to find now that 70 percent of Chinese restaurants citywide have closed. "I would never expect this," he said. "But nobody has expected anything this year." And reassessments mean something else for essential workers. When she stopped feeling safe riding the subway, Yessenia Alvarez, 41, bought a bike, which she carries up and down three flights of stairs and rides nine miles (and back) from her home in Queens to run a skeleton crew at Rahi, a stylish Indian restaurant in posh Greenwich Village, in the shadow of a 161-year-old hospital that was turned into million-dollar condos. If she didn't work, the restaurant wouldn't be open, a loss not just to its customers but also to the 250 needy recipients of meals it delivers every day. She and her husband, Julio, a police officer, don't have the privilege of grand reassessments, like Rahi's wealthy neighbors who fled. "We came here to live here, so that's what we are going to do," said Alvarez, who immigrated from the Dominican Republic in 2006. Asked about those neighbors, she said she was more disappointed than mad. "They left their servants to fight for themselves. Think about that," she said, but then quickly focused on the bright spots, such as the elderly couple who come by weekly and buy about $200 worth of food. "They say they want to support us," she said. "It's hopeful. You have to not think only about yourselves. You have to think and live in a different way." Ad budgets were already shifting from TV to digital before the coronavirus pandemic, but that's going to speed up, according to a Europe-focused report by Goldman Sachs. "Overall, we expect the crisis will only accelerate the secular shift in advertising budgets towards digital, while potentially also leading to more attempts by the EU broadcasters to seek further partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions) to share costs and build scale," according to the company's Europe Media: Broadcasting report, seen by CNBC. Brands are able to measure the impact of online ads more easily than those on TV, and digital ads tend to be cheaper and it appears the pandemic has had more of an impact on TV ad revenue than digital. TV ad revenue in Europe was down by about 50% in April, while the results of the major digital players were generally above expectations, Goldman noted. Google search revenue was "down mid-teens," while Facebook's revenue growth for the first three weeks of April was flat and Snap's went up 15% in April, the report added. A separate report from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) showed that global marketing budgets for digital advertising in April fell for the first time since WARC started tracking spend in 2012. Advertising in printed newspapers and magazines saw the steepest declines followed by outdoor billboards, radio and TV. Archaeology Class Makes a Spectacle in Online Exhibition While some museumsincluding the Bowdoin College Museum of Artare organizing online exhibitions as a way to safely share art during the pandemic, students in Ambra Spinelli's spring archaeology class had planned an online show all along. Sestertius of Otacilia Severa. Roman, 244-249 CE/ Orichalcum (ancient brass). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Mark M. Salton. This coin, part of the show , depicts a hippoan exotic animal used in Roman spectacles to demonstrate the reach of the empire. That show, Spectacle in Antiquity and Beyond, features displays of objects and photographs from ancient Greece and Rome to the twentieth century. Together, the objects in the exhibition's six galleries illuminate how large, spectacular eventsa Roman gladiator fight, an Inuit kayak contest, a Christian pilgrimage, a Nazi marchcan foster and sustain a shared identity and reinforce social cohesion. Spinelli, who specializes in Roman art and archaeology, designed her course to culminate with a student-curated exhibition that spans centuries. "[The show] looks at spectacles as a way to connect people in time and space, as something that characterized both ancient and modern societies," she said. The three students in the small Classics department classMike Brown 20, Brooke Wrubel 21, and Benjamin Wu 18were each responsible for two of the show's galleries. They selected objects from the Museum of Art and the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum collections and, after researching them, wrote object labels and introductory texts for their items. "The collections here are stunning," Spinelli said. "The Museums have so much to offerI wanted students to explore and engage with the many resources on campus." The variety of pieces in Spectacle highlights the breadth of Bowdoin's collections, Wu said. "There are all these different ways to interpret these objects to form a story," he added. "A lot of the items we picked were either directly involved in the specific spectacles, or they were commemorating or depicting such spectacles." View image caption A Time for Celebration Luke Anguhadluq, 1974 Stonecut and stencil on paper 25 x 39 in. (64 cm. x 99 cm.) Robert and Judith Toll Collection 30, 2009.7.140 An Online "Journey" In a video chat, the three students and Spinelli recently discussed the merits of a curating an online exhibition versus a physical, three-dimensional one. "We talked a lot about how we wanted people to interact with objects and galleries," Wrubel said. "Having everything all in one place encourages people to make different kinds of connections." The six galleries, she continued, "emphasize continuity and changes across time periods." Visitors can hop across history as they compare objects. "A lot of emphasis, when it comes to exhibition design, is the juxtaposition of certain works so they can be in dialogue with one another," Wu added. "In a virtual exhibit, you have to find a new way of creating that." Having a user-friendly interface helps, he added. David Francis, senior interactive developer with Bowdoin's academic technology team, built the site for Spectacle. Other Bowdoin staff and faculty collaborators included Sean Burrus, Jim Higginbotham, Genevieve LeMoine, and Hannah Moore. The curators: Ambra Spinelli, Benjamin Wu 18, Brooke Wrubel 21, and Mike Brown 20. An online gallery can also offer a more personal experience, Spinelli argued. Viewers can enlarge an object, sometimes rotate it, and "get closer" to it than in a physical exhibition where display cases or ropes can prevent access. Clicking links provides more information, opens videos, or offers audio recordings that help explain an object's significance. The other virtue of online exhibitions is that they don't need to be dismantled; they can stay on the internet for as long as the host and technology allow. Spinelli said Spectacle in Antiquity and Beyond can be included as a link on her students' resumes. Wrubel and Wu both aspire to work in the museum field. Brown is considering a career in the financial industry. "This is something they have in their own portfolio," Spinelli said, so when they apply for jobs or internshipsin museums or elsewhere"it's really something that will put them in a stronger situation in the job market or in their future studies." A protest against Beijings proposed National Security Law on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images) Canada Must Do More to Protect Hong Kong: Conservatives Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is calling for Canada to organize an international coalition to protect Hong Kong and counter the Chinese regimes aggressive push for more control over the autonomous region. During question period in the House of Commons on May 25, Scheer quizzed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on whether Canada will condemn the Chinese regimes new national security law it aims to impose on Hong Kong and in what way Canada plans to support the city. The government of China has launched an unprecedented attack on the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong. Now this [Canadian] government should go beyond statements and should act in concert with our allies to show the government of China they must abide by their commitments, Scheer said. Mass protests erupted in Hong Kong this week in opposition to Beijings proposal for a tough new national security law that was presented at the Chinese regimes rubber-stamp legislature on May 22bypassing the Hong Kong legislative council. The move was met with international criticism as critics argued that the law would undermine Hong Kongs autonomy and freedoms, which the Chinese regime promised to preserve after the citys sovereignty was handed over by Britain to China in 1997. When Scheer accused the Liberal government of not doing enough to counter the Chinese regime at this critical time, Trudeau reiterated deep concern about Beijings actions and the need for a de-escalation of tensions. We stand with the people in Hong Kong who believe that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly continue to be an essential part of their way of life , he said. Trudeau noted a May 22 joint statement issued by Canada, the U.K. and Australia expressing concern that the proposed security law would clearly undermine the one country, two systems principle under which Hong Kong is guaranteed a high degree of autonomy. Canada-China Committee Voted Down A motion moved by Conservative MP Garnett Genuis on May 25 to convene the Commons Canada-China committee to hold urgent hearings on Hong Kong through remote sessions was defeated by the Liberals and NDP. Genuis called the defeat very disappointing and a real step backwards, but said committee members would continue looking for opportunities to support Hong Kong. Were going to continue to stand strong and to call for meaningful accountability and to call for a thoughtful and serious response to the security challenges and human rights challenges presented by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) regime, he said in an interview with The Epoch Times. Genuis noted the potential effectiveness of coordinated international action, using the example of condemnation and sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. The Beijing regime will not back down on power grabs unless their actions are effectively challenged through a similar coordinated response, he said. The regime has an aggressive plan to advance their position in violation of international lawWe see it in Hong Kong, we see it in the South China Sea, we see it in some of the aspects of neo-colonialism in Asia and Africa, Genuis said. Every time this regime is able to get away with it, theyre going to continue and escalate their push, so we have to demonstrate our seriousness if we want to deter further aggression, he explains. And if we dont do that, in the case of Hong Kong, its not as if its going to stop until we show the resolve and have the organization to really have meaningful consequences in terms of cooperation, relationships, that stem from these kinds of actions. That response needs to be coordinated among allies. But it needs to be a serious and strong response. China Flouting Human Rights Standards Speaking in the House on May 25, Conservative MP David Sweet said Canadians are becoming more aware of and concerned about the dubious actions of the CCP, noting the issue is now probably what I hear most from my constituents. Thats why, he said, the work of the Canada-China committee is vital, and emphasized the committees recent report on the Chinese regimes five main human rights victims as examples: Uyghur Muslims, Tibetans, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and all Chinese people living under oppressive communist rule. These examples underscore the long, consistent, and deliberate pattern of the CCP in flouting any acceptable international standards of human rights, Sweet said. The report outlines several shocking human rights atrocities in China, such as the incarceration and torture of 1.5-3 million Uyghur minority Muslims in re-education camps, the severe religious and ethnic persecution of Tibetans, and harassment and random arrests of Christians. The report also notes the ongoing persecution campaign against Falun Gong practitioners in China, including illegal organ harvesting detailed by Canadian human rights activists David Kilgour and David Matas. Those who practice Falun Gong in China face harsh persecution at the hands of the CCP and its police forces. If arbitrary arrests, forced labour, and torture werent enough, weve had witness testimony at the sub-committee on international human rights of organ harvesting, said Sweet. Think about that: detaining Falun Gong, imprisoning them arbitrarily, torturing them to death, and then harvesting their organs for sale. Sweet also emphasized, as noted in the report, that all Chinese people living under the regime are suffering due to a lack of basic freedoms and human rights, tight control and surveillance, and fear of retribution for speaking out. With the CCPs consistent history of brutality, the recent developments in Hong Kong should be of major concern to Canadians and free democracies, he said. While the world has been preoccupied by COVID-19, Chinas been cracking down on Hong Kong hoping no one will notice. We are witnessing the end of the one country, two systems agreement. We are witnessing the end of Hong Kong, Sweet said. The response from the Liberal government has been acquiescence and naivete. Canada must do more than just hope for dialoguewe must act now. With reporting by Omid Ghoreishi The Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation announced a $750,000 commitment for disaster relief to help families, homeowners and small businesses recover and rebuild from the recent flooding and dam breaches which have swamped mid-Michigan. Lisa J. Gerstacker, president, and Bill Schuette, executive vice-president of the Gerstacker Foundation stated, the Trustees of the Gerstacker Foundation are steadfast in our commitment to help Midland and the surrounding area recover from the 2020 Flood. We will dry-out, we will clean-up and we will rebuild our town and our neighborhoods. New Delhi, May 26 : The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday said Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases for the past three weeks as lockdown rules have been eased and inter-state migration has been allowed. Health Secretary Preeti Sudan along with other Health Ministry officials held a review meeting through video conference with Chief Secretaries, Health Secretaries and National Health Mission (NHM) Directors of these five states on Tuesday. The Health Ministry advised the states to station Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) at quarantine centres. The Health Secretary said temporary sub-health centres can be set up in existing buildings and additional frontline workers such as Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) teams can be utilized. The Ministry also advised that the link with Ayushman Bharat - Health and Wellness Centres -- needs to be established so that immediate health check-ups can be arranged and tele-medicine services can be rolled out from these centres. "To meet with the surge among incoming migrant workers, ASHAs and ANMs can be given additional incentives. Pay special attention to vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, under-5-year children, elderly, those with co-morbidities and also mobilize the Anganwadi workforce in the districts. The nutrition needs have to be checked among children under the age of five," said Sudan. The Ministry also stressed that immediate measures need to be taken to continue essential health programmes for TB, leprosy, COPD and non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text When University of Ottawa biologists Kim Mitchell and Vance Trudeau began studying the effects of gene mutations in zebrafish, they uncovered new functions that regulate how males and females interact while mating. We sat down with senior author Professor Trudeau, Research Chair in Neuroendocrinology at the Faculty of Science, to learn more. Please tell us about this research project. Kim and I were working with international collaborators from the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan. Using gene editing technology set up by our Chinese colleagues, we mutated two related genes and studied the effects on sexual function in zebrafish. They are freshwater fish belonging to the carp and minnow family that are now a widely used model organism in biomedical research. What did you discover? We changed the secretogranin-2 genes through specific mutation and found that it affected the ability of females and males to breed. It severely reduced their sexual behaviour. The fish look normal, but when both sexes are put together, they almost ignore each other! Normally, within a few minutes after a male and female are introduced for the first time, the male chases the female in a courtship ritual, and shortly therefore they spawn - that is to say, the female releases her eggs to the water, and the male instantly fertilizes them. But we found that only 1 in 10 of the couples with mutated genes could spawn. The couples carrying the introduced mutations produce eggs and sperm, but they are simply terrible at mating with each other. This is the first evidence that mutation of these genes leads to disruption of sexual behaviour in any animal. What role does secretogranin-2 play? Secretogranin-2 is a large protein that is important for the normal functioning of brain cells and other cells that secrete hormones to control body functions such as growth and reproduction. However, this protein can get chopped up by special enzymes and we found that one small fragment called the secretoneurin peptide is important for stimulating sexual function. In the genetically altered fish, we can partially restore sexual function by a single injection of the secretoneurin peptide into the body. We believe the peptide acts on cells in the brain and pituitary gland to increase hormone release thereby enhancing the ability of the female to ovulate and lay her eggs. Why is this important? We have uncovered new genes that can regulate reproduction, and the secretoneurin peptide is therefore itself a new hormone. The secretoneurin produced in fish is remarkably similar to that found in other animals, including humans. We can now use our genetically modified fish to look for other factors that could enhance sexual function, be it for increased spawning in cultured fish species, or to help with the search for new human infertility treatments. This is just the beginning of the possibilities. The large secretogranin-2 genes may produce many other hormone-like peptides with unknown functions. It will be exciting to explore this in future research projects. The paper "Targeted mutation of secretogranin-2 disrupts sexual behavior and reproduction in zebrafish" is published in the scientific journal PNAS. A container truck passes the main gate of Djibouti International Free Trade Zone after an inauguration ceremony in Djibouti on July 5, 2018. Yasuyoshi Chiba | AFP | Getty Images The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) must not be allowed to fall by the wayside, according to experts, after its launch was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. The AfCFTA, which was due to be implemented on July 1, will be the largest free trade area in the world, uniting 1.3 billion people in a $3.4 trillion economic bloc, and came after protracted negotiations between the leaders of 54 African nations. However, it was postponed in late April, with AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene telling Reuters it was the "responsible thing to do" to avoid distracting leaders during the pandemic, adding that he was confident the deal will go through eventually. The continent's key trading partners, such as China, and now to a greater extent Europe and the U.S., have been blighted by the pandemic, while Africa has for the most part managed to avoid an exponential spread of Covid-19. An opportunity amid the crisis Given the impact of the outbreak on Africa's traditional intercontinental trade routes, intra-Africa trade will be key to getting the region's nations back up and running, according to Thomas Birgen, Nairobi-based Treasury Manager for AZA, Africa's largest non-bank currency broker. "We need to see a situation where your cargo isn't returned at the port because you don't belong to a certain economic bloc," Birgen said in a recent webinar. "Here in Kenya, we killed our textile industry because we import second-hand clothes from China and everywhere else. Now with the closure of borders, we cannot live without these products that we have become used to importing." Birgen noted the manufacturing of protective masks in Kenya and Nigeria as an example of the opportunities available for African nations to produce their own products and trade within the continent. A truck carries rocks extracted from a cobalt mine at a copper quarry and cobalt pit in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 23, 2016. Junior Kannah | AFP | Getty Images Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, Dorothy Tembo, told CNBC Africa that despite the risks to the AfCFTA's implementation, African leaders had a unique opportunity to spur greater collaboration if specific policies were fast-tracked. "This is a time for Africa to rethink and reposition itself. Part of what we are seeing is that there is a shift in the demand in the context of the different value chains that African companies and businesses are involved in," Tembo said. Like Birgen, she noted the shift in demand from textiles and garments to masks and health-related products, and suggested that other opportunities will also arise. "It is a dark moment for Africa in terms of the public health impact, but it is also one that demands that on the economic side, we are not losing truck on the efforts that have been made, particularly with respect to the continental free trade area," Tembo added. AfCFTA will take time to fulfill its promise Jeff Gable, chief economist at African banking group Absa, told CNBC that Africa should be "applauded and supported" for moving towards collaboration, while the rest of the world moves towards isolationism. However, he cautioned that the necessary integration will take much longer than two or three years, with smaller economies unlikely to see any early benefit as businesses will need to be created from scratch to participate in core value chains. "For manufacturers in Ghana, this is great news for Kenya, South Africa," he said. "But this doesn't suddenly unleash a manufacturing boom in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo)." A common qualm with intercontinental trade is that African nations extract and export raw materials, which are then manufactured into products elsewhere and shipped back with a substantial value addition. People stand in a queue to receive food aid amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Itireleng informal settlement, near Laudium suburb in Pretoria, South Africa, May 20, 2020. Siphiwe Sibeko | Reuters In any case, on careful analysis of the scenario and judiciously comparing the domination desire of China and USA, one cannot but see a subtle difference between both these countries. by N.S.Venkataraman Chinese government has not left anybody in doubt , about its ambitious target of dominating the world at any cost. Chinese government has been suppressing freedom of speech in China, taking away the rights of citizens of Hong Kong in authoritarian manner and aggressively occupying the territory of neighbours such as Tibet and part of Indian territory , which it occupied after 1962 Indo Chinese war. China is now claiming Indian province Arunachal Pradesh as its own and aggressively claiming territorial right in South China Sea and Senkaku island. Chinese government says that Taiwan is part of its territory and objects to any recognition given to Taiwan by any other country. Power Players Further, China is trying to enforce its domination over small and weak nearby countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and others, by extending loans , which these countries cannot afford to repay in the foreseeable future. Viewing Chinas methods and targets, one does not find much of difference between todays Chinese government and Hitlers Germany. Several countries in the world are gradually realizing that checking Chinas ambition is as necessary, as checking Hitlers ambition that caused World War II. However, the supporters of China claim that US government too should be accused of trying to dominate the world and it has sent troops to several countries such as Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and others to enforce its domination. There is an element of truth in this, as American government seem to think that it has the duty to police the world. In any case, on careful analysis of the scenario and judiciously comparing the domination desire of China and USA, one cannot but see a subtle difference between both these countries. While China believes in ruthless elimination of opponents both inside and outside China (just like the way Hitler did) and wants to occupy territories of other countries by coercion or force , US does not indulge in such acts of suppression of human rights or occupying territory of other countries. U S has not concealed its desire that freedom of speech and democratic procedures should prevail in all regions in the world. On many occasions , US has fought against totalitarian regimes , religious extremists and terrorist groups and has paid a high price by losing American lives. USA may have the ambition to dominate the world and ensure its authority as super power, but it has no ambition of territorial expansions that China has. All said and done, if the world were to choose between USA and China, it would inevitably come to the conclusion that world domination by USA is a lesser evil than the world domination by China. Unlike China, the citizens of USA have the right to criticise the decisions of the government , launch protests against human rights violation, if any and exercise their franchise once in four years to change the party in power , if it would act against the wishes of the people. By such process, the conscience of USA largely remain in tact and US government is vulnerable to the pressure of public opinion, both in USA and other parts of the world. On the other hand, China has totalitarian regime and no citizen can survive in China if he would criticise the Chinese President or question the decision of the Chinese government. To this extent, it is dictatorial regime in China, which can be termed as uncivilized form of governance. The fact is that USA has been remaining as super power in the world for several decades now and the world has not become worse due to the dominating power of USA. Of course, there have been criticism against US government by some section of world opinion but most of such critics belong to religious extremist groups and motivated leftist (communist ) forces , whose economic and administrative policies have totally failed to deliver the goods. Achieving super power status by China and establishing its authority in large parts of the world with least consideration for value systems and sentiments of people, is the worst thing that can happen to the world civilization. The Government needs to rethink a blanket quarantine on travellers into Ireland and should instead risk-assess air routes, countries, and regions, a group representing pilots says. The Irish Air Line Pilots Association (IALPA) is urging the Government to tailor any quarantine requirement to different regions and routes rather than requiring all travellers into the country to quarantine for 14 days. IALPA president Evan Cullen said a more evidence-based approach is needed to get the airline sector running again. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have provided guidance for the sector. The EU guidelines include safety measures, such as intensive cleaning and sanitisation of airports and aircraft, the wearing of masks, and pre-flight screening. Mr Cullen said, however, it is not clear if the Department of Transport has adopted these guidelines. Were not aware of their definitive position on this or what their response is to the EU guidelines, he said. Some countries and regions, he said, have managed Covid-19 better than others and would pose less risk. The Canary Islands have managed the situation very well, said Mr Cullen. They have a very low infection rate and very low death rate. So what is wrong with people flying between Dublin and the Canary Islands, subject to signing the relevant forms and documentation and wearing masks? He said regions and routes could be risk assessed using information collated by European agencies to tailor quarantine requirements to the level of risk. There is a more informed way of doing this than to issue a blanket generalised quarantine, said Mr Cullen. Every few days, information is published on the extent of risk associated with each airport and each region of Europe. The Department of Transport could sit down, say twice a week, and assess each region and risk and then assign mitigation measures to flights that come from that region. We think that is a more sensible approach. Air traffic in and out of Ireland is operating at less than 5% of normal traffic volumes, he said. The industry is in meltdown at the moment. Theres no other way to look at it, said Mr Cullen. We want an evidence-based approach to how we can get back to flying again. From tomorrow, passengers coming into the country must complete a Covid-19 passenger locator form, designed to help with contact tracing should someone on a flight or ferry be confirmed as having Covid-19. A new pension scandal has seen married women miss out on thousands of pounds they were entitled to in retirement. One widow has now won back more than 100,000 after it emerged government blunders have denied some women a better-paying state pension for years. Former pensions minister Steve Webb revealed in analysis on Saturday that around 130,000 women may have been short-changed to the tune of 100 million in total. Missing out: Around 130,000 women may have been short-changed to the tune of 100m in total Campaigners are now calling for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to conduct a full investigation into how many women have missed out and how it was allowed to happen. Some women have even won backdated pension payments worth tens of thousands of pounds despite initial assurances from the DWP that they were getting the income to which they were entitled. Mr Webb, a partner at pension consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock, says more than 24,000 people have now used an online calculator he created to determine whether or not they could be owed money. And of those, close to 1,500 had indicated they could be being underpaid. The scandal was first unearthed by This Is Money, the Mail's financial website, after a reader wrote to Mr Webb when his wife found out she had been underpaid for 13 years. Mr Webb is now calling on the Government to act. He says: 'We have had a huge response from people wanting to check if this issue applies to them. 'But it should not be down to us or campaigning newspapers to get people the right amount of state pension. The ball is now in the Government's court. 'We have presented the evidence of a serious problem. They should now use their records to check for any woman who could be getting a higher pension and put things right as a matter of urgency.' Meanwhile, writing in Money Mail today, Baroness Altmann, another former pensions minister, also demands an inquiry. She says: 'It appears some women have slipped through the net, but we don't know how many and we don't know why which is deeply troubling. We need to know what has gone wrong.' Grandmother lost out on 9k Underpaid: Jean Hayes, 75, should have had her pension increased from 60.72 a week to 77.45 when her husband Richard, 77, retired in 2008 Jean Hayes, 75, should have had her pension increased from 60.72 a week to 77.45 when her husband Richard, 77, retired in 2008. Her family were suspicious she was not getting enough but she says the DWP had reassured them she was getting the correct amount. Yet mother-of-two Mrs Hayes, who lives near Andover, Hampshire, has now received 8,822.41 after the department eventually admitted it had been paying her a lower rate for 12 years. The retired retail worker says: 'I am pleased I have got it back at last, but I am cross because I could have used that money over the years. 'It would have made a difference. I could have gone on better holidays. Now I might be too old.' Are you entitled to a bigger pension? Married, widowed or divorced women who did not pay enough contributions to get the full state pension are entitled a rate based on their husband's record. The rule applies to those who retired before April 2016 and, therefore, collect the basic state pension. The boost dates back to an era when wives were typically financially dependent on their husbands and did not pay enough National Insurance (NI) contributions to earn a full pension in their own right. These married women may have stopped work to bring up children, or paid reduced NI contributions. It means married women are entitled to 60 per cent of the amount of their husbands' basic pension. So if your husband receives a full basic state pension, which is now 134.25 a week, then you should be receiving the married woman's rate of at least 80.45 a week. If not, you could be one of those affected. Wives are not typically entitled to claim a rate based on any additional state pension their husband is paid on top. Mr Webb's analysis of government figures has revealed around 130,000 married women might be being underpaid because they are not receiving 60 pc of basic state pension. A married woman can only begin claiming the increased rate from when her husband begins to collect his state pension. To receive a full basic state pension under the old system, you need to have up to 44 years of NI contributions. A report by the Pensions Commission found that in the early 2000s, 85 per cent of men aged 65 to 69 were collecting the full state pension compared with just 31 per cent of women. Women only get a pension based on their husband's NI record if their own contributions do not entitle them to more than the married woman's rate. If their husband retired before March 17, 2008, women had to claim the increased income themselves. If they did not make a claim, they can do so now to receive the rate going forward. But they can only receive payments backdated for a year. For women whose husbands reached state pension age after March 17, 2008, the upgraded payments should have been applied automatically by the DWP. If not, they are entitled to receive all payments backdated. The married woman's rate can also not be claimed if the retiree has moved to a country such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand or South Africa, where their state pension is frozen. Expat was forced to fight for 6k refund Pay out: Glenis Madden, 72, queried the size of her 66.24-a-week pension Glenis Madden, 72, first phoned the DWP to query the size of her 66.24-a-week pension in November. And after a long wait, she was assured it was correct in February. Yet the former accountancy administrator, who retired to Spain with husband Michael, 67, has now received close to 6,000 after the department took another look. The mother-of-two, who lived in Cheshire before moving to the Costa Blanca nine years ago, says: 'I was absolutely furious. I couldn't believe that a government department could have lied to me and kept me waiting.' She adds: 'I am very shocked that there could be so many people in the same situation.' Widows owed same pay as husband Widows can be entitled to an even higher rate of 100 per cent of their late husband's basic pension under the old state pension system. This is because the rules allow them to use their late husband's NI contributions for their own pension. So, if a woman's husband was collecting the full basic weekly rate of 134.25 when he died, her pension should have been automatically increased to that rate. But Mr Webb estimates that tens of thousands of widows could be receiving less than even the married woman's rate. He adds: 'It would be a cause of particular concern if elderly widows were getting by on such small state pensions. This issue should be investigated as a matter of urgency.' Divorcees could be due, too It is also feared that divorced women could have missed out on extra state pension cash; they, too, can claim a full pension based on their ex-husband's work records. When a woman reaches state pension age, she can claim a state pension from her ex-husband's NI contribution record up to the date they divorced. Divorcees may be entitled to claim the full basic state pension rate of 134.25 a week; more than the 80.45 married woman's rate. If a woman has divorced for a second time after remarrying, it is the NI record of her most recent former husband that applies. But, again, Mr Webb's analysis found that tens of thousands of divorced women were likely receiving less than the married woman's rate. 96-year-old deprived of 117k over 20 years Rosemary Chattell's family say they had queried her 77-a-week pension before A 96-year-old widow has received more than 117,000 after it emerged she was not paid enough state pension for 20 years. Rosemary Chattell's family say they had queried her 77-a-week pension before, only to be repeatedly told by DWP officials that she was getting the correct amount. Rosemary lives in a care home in Cheshire and suffers from dementia. Her son John, 66, who has power of attorney for her, queried his mother's pension, but says he was fobbed off three times by the DWP. John, a retired sales manager, says it was only on the fourth call that someone agreed to investigate for him. They later called back to say his mother was owed 107,852.58. After sending two letters to the DWP requesting interest on top, he turned to This is Money for help. Following its intervention, the DWP also later added interest of 9,447.20. Rosemary's pension should have been increased automatically after her husband Roy died at the age of 76. John says: 'It's an injustice. How many other people are there like us? There's got to be thousands. Without making a call, you never find out.' A DWP spokesman says: 'We are very sorry that Mrs Chattell's state pension review was not processed correctly. We have amended this, paid the arrears owed with interest and apologise unreservedly.' Over-80s should get 80 each week Pension rules mean that once someone turns 80, they should receive 60 pc of the full basic rate. This is irrespective of marital status and their NI contribution record. Those turning 80 should automatically receive the 'Category D' pension rate of 80.45 a week as long as they have lived in England, Scotland, Wales or a European Economic Area country for ten of the past 20 years. Are you being underpaid state pension? How to check Steve Webb's firm LCP has launched an online tool to help older married women work out if they are being paid correctly. Find out more here. But Webb stresses that the website is simply designed as a useful tool, and anyone with any doubt about the amount of pension they are receiving should contact the Department for Work and Pensions. Its details are here. It means most women over the age of 80 should receive at least the married woman's rate. But there could be tens of thousands of women over 80 not receiving that amount. The scandal comes after women born in the 1950s have been made to wait up to six more years for their state pension after the Government raised the qualifying age from 60 to 66. A DWP spokesman says: 'In a number of cases individuals have been underpaid state pension. We corrected our records and reimbursed those affected as soon as errors were identified. 'We are checking for further cases. If any are found, awards will be reviewed and any arrears paid.' If it looks as if you have been underpaid, call the Department for Work & Pensions on 0800 731 0469 or visit gov.uk/contact-pension-service. Are you a married, widowed or divorced woman who has not received the right state pension? See the box above to find Steve Webb's online checking tool, and go here to find out what to tell us at pensionquestions@thisismoney.co.uk. Yet another blow for women on pensions By Baroness Altmann Call for action: Baroness Altmann Older women in Britain grew up with the post-war state and private pension systems that assumed most women would rely on their husband's pension in later life. Married women paid lower National Insurance contributions, and some employer pension schemes did not allow married women to participate. But with the lowest state pension in the developed world, British women need every penny. And that's why these latest revelations are particularly disturbing. How many married, widowed and divorced women have been short-changed? We don't know and, apparently, neither does the DWP. Women phoning the Department for Work & Pensions because they suspected their payment was too low were reassured the amount they were receiving was correct. But it wasn't. With such a complex pension system, they could not be sure of all the rules. Of course, errors are bound to occur. But, once discovered, they must be quickly investigated and rectified, with a proper explanation of what went wrong. I hope this will happen as soon as possible. Pensions aim to help older citizens escape poverty with the oldest and poorest pensioners being women. Much more must be done to provide for female pensioners properly, rather than them continually losing out in many different ways. Muslim youths affiliated to a local organisation performed the last rites of a 78-year-old Hindu man, who died after a heart attack in Maharashtra's Akola district. According to a report in The Indian Express, the man's son allegedly refused to accept his body, following which the members of the organisation decided to light his pyre. The man's wife is receiving treatment for Covid-19 at Akola Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). The head of the sanitation department at the hospital, Prashant Rajurkar, told IE that local Muslim organisation, Akola Kutchhi Memon Jamaat, decided to perform his last rites after the man's son, who resides in Nagpur, did not accept his body and refused to perform the funeral. Javed Zakeria, president of the Muslim organisation, told the publication that after the first death was reported in Akola, they had taken the decision to perform the last rites of individuals whose families were not able to do so. He added that since then, they had organised 60 funerals, out of which 21 were Covid-19 deaths and five were of Hindus. Meanwhile, Amravati Divisional Commissioner Piyush Singh told the publication that the dean of GMCH received a message at around 6.30 pm that the man had collapsed at his residence, after which an ambulance was dispatched, but the man had died by then. Singh added that according to the protocol, swabs are not collected from a dead body but samples from close relatives are taken. Maharashtra is one of the states worst-affected by the coronavirus outbreak. As on Sunday, the state recorded 3,041 new COVID-19 cases and 58 deaths, taking the total number of cases to 50,231, of which 33,988 are active cases. In India, the virus has been on a record spike for four consecutive days. In the last 24 hours, the country has recorded 6535 cases, taking the total tally to 1,45,380, of which 80,722 are active cases, 60,490 cured and 4,167 succumbed to the infection, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare announced. The Congress has accused the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government of putting districts in the green zone to help party leaders campaign for the yet to be announced state assembly bypolls. The principal opposition party, which was in power until two months ago, also complained that the BJP leaders are violating the social distancing norms while out on the campaign trail. Stressing its point, the Congress highlighted the situation in three regions. In Gwalior, cases have increased from 72 on May 19 to 107 on May 25; in Morena, they have increased from 38 to 83; while in Bhind they have increased from 25 to 49 during the same period. Ajay Yadav, Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson, said the entire Chambal-Gwalior belt, which has 16 of the 24 constituencies, has been declared a green zone despite the high number of Covid-19 cases there. This has been done to allow BJP leaders and their followers to campaign without any hindrance in the region, he said. State BJP vice president Vijesh Lunawat said the allegation of the Congress showed that they were giving up already. The norms are the same for all. There is no exception for the BJP leaders, he said. The bypolls, necessitated by the resignations of 22 Congress MLAs who rebelled against Kamal Nath, are to be held before September. The 22 rebel MLAs later joined the BJP. The resignations were accepted on March 15 and the elections are to be held within six months. Two seats are vacant because of the death of sitting legislators. Tulsi Silavat, water resources minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet, who is expected to contest the bypoll from Sanver, the seat he resigned from, visited the constituency last week, accompanied by BJP MP from Indore Shankar Lalwani and MLA Ramesh Mendola. MP Congress secretary Rakesh Yadav alleged that there was violation of lockdown restrictions and social distancing norms as a crowd surrounded the minister and other leaders. Silawat, however, said the visit had nothing to do with the bypolls and that he was on an official visit to the constituency. There was no restriction to move around in my constituency, he said. On May 24, state BJP leaders claimed that 200 Congressmen from Sanchi in Raisen district joined the BJP at the state BJP headquarters in Bhopal in presence of ex-minister Prabhuram Chaudhary. The latter is likely to re-contest from Sanchi. On this occasion too, the Congress accused the BJP of ignoring social distancing rules. The leaders of the BJP and the Congress have held several meetings to prepare for polls in the Gwalior-Chambal region. Union rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who represents Morena in the Lok Sabha, had several meetings with party workers last week in his constituency. Five of the total six assembly seats in Morena district would go to polls. Gwalior is another key district with three assembly seats going to polls out of the total six. MP health minister Narottam Mishra and Pradyumn Singh Tomar, who resigned as minister from Kamal Nath government, has held several meetings in the region. Tomar is likely to contest on a BJP ticket from the Gwalior seat. The day CM renamed Chambal expressway as Chambal progress way, the partys campaign in the region started. Leaders are holding small public meetings to inform people about the Congress misrule of 14 months, Lunawat said. The Congress has appointed Ashok Singh, former Gwalior mayor as Gwalior district president, and has asked senior party leader Gobind Singh to look after the campaign in the region. Another prominent Dalit leader of the Gwalior-Bhind region, Phool Singh Bhariya, was given the Rajya Sabha ticket to strengthen the partys vote base among Dalits in the region. The Congress has also shifted its war room to Gwalior, indicating that the party was preparing for the polls. Our biggest challenge is selecting the candidates as the established leaders have joined the BJP. That is an opportunity to prop young leadership in the region, said a senior Congress leader, who is tasked with candidate selection. Gwalior-based political analyst, Jayant Singh Tomar, said, The reason why the BJP is ahead of the Congress in the poll campaign is the fact that there is no confusion in the party on candidates selection. Also, the party has to ensure its victory on at least nine seats to retain power. The Congress is struggling in the candidate selection process. The strength of the house has been reduced to 206 from 230 because of the resignation by Congress legislators and death of two BJP lawmakers. The BJP, with 107 legislators, is comfortably ahead of the majority mark of 104. Yadav said the Congress was confident of the victory despite the ruling party creating hurdles for its leaders to campaign. The high number of Covid cases have exposed the inability of the Shivraj Singh government to handle any crisis. We worked for welfare of the farmers and downtrodden, he said. Lunawat countered by saying that people would vote against the Congress as they were fed up with their misrule of 14 months. He alleged that the Congress rule brought back corruption in transfer and postings. A man has been arrested after allegedly stealing an American flag from a memorial commemorating service members who have given their lives in defense of the United States, lighting it on fire and then throwing the burning flag onto a police car. The incident occurred on Sunday evening at approximately 7:10 p.m. when officers assigned to patrol Boston Common in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, were approached by several members of the public saying that they had seen a man lighting fire to the American flag and then throwing it onto the roof of a Boston Police prisoner transport wagon. MORE: Man allegedly kills pro-Trump boss after argument, throws American flag on his body The car was parked near the fountain inside the park and was unoccupied at the time of the incident. Officers responded to the scene and arrested 40-year-old Daniel Lucey who confirmed to the authorities that he had lit the flag on fire and thrown it onto the police car as a form of protest. MORE: Car full of teenagers drives at, runs over officer who tried to stop them PHOTO: Visitors look at the U.S. Flags planted six feet apart on Boston Common for Memorial Day amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., May 25, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters) MORE: Man slashes married couple with machete, says he was angry over coronavirus lockdown Over the weekend, 1,000 flags were planted on Boston Common by a small group of volunteers who organized a social distancing-compliant version of the annual flag garden, according to ABC News Boston affiliate WCVB. Officers noted that the suspect was in possession of several other flags which appeared to be similar to the ones which are planted in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument over Memorial Day weekend to commemorate the Massachusetts service members who have given their lives in defense of the United States of America, the Boston Police Department said in a statement posted to social media. MORE: Library security guard killed after being stabbed repeatedly without provocation While speaking with the officers about the incident, the man then proceeded to spit at the authorities and hit one responding officers shoe with saliva. Story continues The suspect was arrested and placed in custody at the scene of the incident. Lucey is scheduled to appear in Boston Municipal Court on charges of Disorderly Conduct, Assault and Battery on a Police Officer, Malicious Destruction of Property and Malicious Destruction of Historical Monuments. Man throws burning American flag onto police car, spits at cops during arrest originally appeared on abcnews.go.com President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen talks to media in the Berlaymont, the EU Commission headquarters. Thierry Monasse The European Commission will unveil Wednesday a new coronavirus-related stimulus package and expectations are that it could boost markets across Europe. In what's been described as a "Hamiltonian moment" for Europe, Germany and France proposed last week to raise common European debt in an effort support the region's economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis. The announcement was particularly significant because Germany had been a fierce opponent to the idea of European debt its change of heart suggests the EU could be moving closer to a fiscal union, an important factor of stability going forward. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will present her own proposal Wednesday, building on the Franco-German plan. "As proposed, the new EU recovery fund would mark an important turning point and lead to lower risk premia across the region," analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note last week, after the Franco-German announcement. This would likely impact government bonds, as lower risk means investors would become more confident in lending to indebted nations such as Italy and Spain, which in turn could reduce borrowing costs. Peripheral bond yields have moved lower in the month of May as investors have digested the possibility of common European debt. On Tuesday, Italian 10-year bond yields fell to their lowest in almost seven weeks. Meanwhile in currencies, the euro the common currency used across 19 European countries could strengthen on the back of new European stimulus. "The Recovery Fund proposal should ease pressure on EMU (European Monetary Union) sovereign spreads for now, and also limit immediate depreciation pressure on the Euro," analysts at Goldman Sachs said over the weekend. They added that if the EU legislates new stimulus on the basis of the Franco-German proposals this "could represent a major step toward greater scal policy coordination in the region" and make the euro more competitive against the U.S. dollar. Equity markets could also benefit as the upcoming stimulus is expected to support businesses impacted by the virus, as well as help with the digitization and environmental transition. The message matters It is uncertain how big the commission's proposed stimulus package will be, but the instrument proposed by Berlin and Paris is so ambitious that analysts believe, if implemented, it would reduce the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) as well as on individual governments. "We see this as mitigating the risk of a southern slump and increasing the prospect of a synchronised recovery in Europe. Over time, we think that this reduces the pressure on national budgets and the ECB, and increases the likelihood of enhanced European fiscal capacity," the Morgan Stanley analysts said. France and Germany suggested the European Commission should raise 500 billion euros ($550 billion ) in public markets and give that money as grants to the sectors most impacted by the pandemic. The allocation of these funds would be done via the European budget a common basket that receives contributions from all 27 member countries and which finances projects across the region. Market players will be watching the size, composition and conditionality attached to von der Leyen's proposal. "Von der Leyen is likely to propose a fund above 500 billion euros," research firm Eurasia said in a note Friday, as upcoming negotiations with the 27 countries are likely to bring down the original target. It will need consensus Contributed photo. / MILFORD A New Haven man was recently charged after allegedly violating a protective order, then falsely telling officers he had COVID-19 while being arrested. Jew Greene, 21, of Valley Street, was charged with violation of a protective order and interfering with an officer, police said. Donald Trump continued Tuesday morning to push a conspiracy theory that former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough was involved in the murder of a former staffer as he lobbed new insults at the cable morning show how and his co-host wife. The president for weeks has taken to Twitter to suggest the former Florida House member was responsible for the death of Lori Klausutis, who worked in his Florida office while he was a congressman. The conspiracy theory was first pushed by left-wing opponents of Mr Scarborough, but has been picked up by Mr Trump and many on the right because the MSNBC morning show host is a leading critic of the president. Mr Trump used tweets over the long Memorial Day holiday weekend and then on Tuesday morning to push the theory again. But he has never provided a shred of evidence to support his claim. The tweets come after Ms Klausutis's widower pressed Twitter chief Jack Dorsey to delete all posts from the president about his late wife, arguing Mr Trump is pushing a baseless conspiracy theory. "My request is simple: Please delete these tweets," Timothy J. Klausutis wrote. "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the president of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him - the memory of my dead wife - and perverted it for perceived political gain," Mr Klausutis told Mr Dorsey in the letter, first reported by the New York Times. "My wife deserves better." The company has yet to publicly respond to Mr Klausutis and the president's tweets remain live on the social media site. "In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking........about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing?" Mr Trump wrote, referring to his previously friendly relationship with Mr Scarborough and his now-wife Mika Brzezinski. The pair talked to Mr Trump on and off the air frequently during the 2016 presidential election, and even joined him at his Mar a Lago resort before he took office. Once they criticised him on air, however, a nasty feud developed. Ms Klausutis died in 2001 after hitting her head on a desk after fainting due to an undetected heart condition, local police concluded. The president has never outright accused Mr Scarborough of having committed murder. But he certainly has suggested it over and over. "Maybe or maybe not" he wrote on Tuesday morning about whether or not Mr Scarborough is guilty. "But I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won't bring them up now!" he wrote before appearing to pressure local and state authorities: "Law enforcement eventually will?" The "Morning Joe" co-hosts addressed the matter on Tuesday morning, perhaps prompting Mr Trump's response. "I know all too well how much T.J. [Klausutis] has suffered, and how much, he's told me his family has suffered," the former GOP congressman said. "Every time they spread these lies, they're hurting the family." "What the Klausutises, the entire family have had to endure for 19 years, it's unspeakably cruel," he added. "Whether it's the president or the people following the president, it's unspeakably cruel. These are not public figures." His wife then chimed in with: "And made worse by Twitter." Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday described as absolutely absurd chief minister Yogi Adityanaths comment that other states will have to seek his governments permission to engage workers from Uttar Pradesh, saying people are not his personal property. I think its unfortunate. I think people are first Indian and then they belong to their states. The decision on whether somebody goes to work from Uttar Pradesh to the rest of the country is not the chief ministers. It is of the people of India and the people of Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi told a news conference held via video conference. Interacting with the media at a webinar organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) publication Organiser on Sunday, Adityanath had said other states will have to seek permission from his government before hiring workers from Uttar Pradesh. If any state wants manpower, the state government will have to guarantee social security and insurance of the workers. Without our permission they will not be able to take our peoplebecause of the way they were treated in some states, he had said. But Gandhi dismissed Adityanaths remarks. If a citizen of Uttar Pradesh wants to go and fulfil his dreams in Maharashtra or in Delhi or in Karnataka or anywhere else, he should have the right to do so, he said. It is very unfortunate that the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh views India in such a way. These people are not his personal property. They are not the personal property of Uttar Pradesh. These people are Indian citizens and they have the right to decide what they want to do and they have the right to live the life they want to live, Gandhi added. It is our job to support them to fulfil their dreams. It is not our job to say that you belong to me, you cannot go and work in Maharashtra. Its an absolutely absurd position, the former Congress chief said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The chief financial officer of budget airline EasyJet has announced he is to depart the company next year following unsuccessful attempts by the firm's founder to oust him. Andrew Findlay is expected to remain at the company until May 2021 in line with his contractual obligations. He joined EasyJet as CFO five years ago, having previously held the same role at car parts retailer Halfords. In the year he joined, the business flew over 73 million passengers. That number rose to 96 million in the twelve months ending September 2019, while turnover jumped by 1.7billion over the same period. The qualified chartered accountant is also a non-executive director at Rightmove and has held senior positions at Marks and Spencer, Cable & Wireless, and the London Stock Exchange Last week, Findlay was the subject of a shareholder ballot led by the airline's creator Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou to remove him along with three other senior company officials over a 4.5billion order for 107 Airbus planes. Sir Stelios argued that the deal would bankrupt the airline due to the financial hurt it is experiencing from the coronavirus. He even offered a 5million reward to anybody who could provide information that would get the order cancelled. EasyJet's board argued that the new planes were necessary because many of its current fleet was old and required more fuel and maintenance for them to operate. However, around 60 per cent of the firm's shareholders opposed the motion, which was aimed at removing Findlay, the airline's chief executive Johan Lundgren, chairman John Barton and non-executive director Andreas Bierwirth. Findlay said he would 'repay that support in the coming year' and that he would 'remain fully committed to the business to support Johan and to ensure easyJet successfully weathers this unprecedented time for the airline industry.' 'By the end of my notice period I will have been with this great company for almost six years and it will be the right time to pass the financial reins to someone who will help take EasyJet into its next chapter.' EasyJet's planes have been grounded since March 30 after the coronavirus pandemic compelled governments across the world to impose new travel restrictions The qualified chartered accountant is also a non-executive director at Rightmove and has held senior positions at Marks and Spencer, where he was the Director of Finance, Tax and Treasury, Cable & Wireless, and the London Stock Exchange. Chief executive Johan Lundgren thanked Findlay for his service to EasyJet, complementing his efforts 'to shore up easyJet's balance sheet during the coronavirus crisis' and remarking that they had worked 'extremely well together.' He added: 'As the longest standing member of the Airline Management Board, Andrew has and continues to provide solid financial steerage and guidance. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou brought a shareholder ballot against Findlay, and other senior officials over a 4.5billion order for 107 Airbus planes that he believes will bankrupt the company 'This has been particularly so during recent months when he was quick to secure liquidity and deliver a significant reduction in cash burn.' EasyJet's finances have been heavily impacted since it was forced to ground its planes on March 30 after the coronavirus pandemic compelled governments across the world to impose new travel restrictions. Last week though, it stated that it would recommence flights from June 15 at 21 European airports, including London Gatwick, Edinburgh, and Paris Charles De Gaulle, albeit with numerous health and safety measures. All passengers, cabin and ground crew must wear masks, and there will be 'enhanced aircraft disinfection' for the firm's aircraft and no onboard food service. Shares in the low-cost airline soared 15.1 per cent by late morning to 641.5p following the announcement. The government has denied it will launch a review into fines issued to parents who breached lockdown rules to seek childcare, according to reports. The move came after Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said he would look at refunds for people penalised for making similar journeys to Dominic Cummings. Ministers have spent days insisting that Mr Cummings, who contradicted government advice by driving 260-miles to his parentss estate in Durham at the height of the pandemic, did nothing wrong insisting he needed to make the journey for childcare reasons. Asked at a daily Downing Street press conference whether people who were fined for doing the same thing as Boris Johnsons top aide could have their charges refunded, Mr Hancock pledged to go over the issue with the Treasury. Hinting that the discussions could lead to a formal announcement, he said: I will have to talk to my Treasury colleagues before I can answer it in full, and well look at it. And if we can get your details, well make sure that we write to you with a full answer and make an announcement from this podium. I think we can make this commitment. However, reports now suggest any review of fines is unlikely. One source told ITV News the government doesnt think that its going to have to pay any of those fines back, or theres anything to review. Meanwhile, a government adviser also told Sky News there would be no formal review of lockdown fines. Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the question over the scrapping of fines needed an urgent answer from home secretary Priti Patel. Following reports a formal review was unlikely to take place, Mr Thomas-Symonds said: Its now been made incredibly difficult to police vital public health guidance, as this flip-flop over fines shows. The Treasury and the Home Office referred inquries to the Department of Health and Social Care, which, when contacted, said it had nothing further to add to Mr Hancocks comments. Mr Cummings said that on 28 March he woke up in pain and clearly had Covid symptoms, including a bad headache and a serious fever and is confirmed to have driven up to Durham from London two days later despite the strict instructions to self-isolate. On 12 April, while lockdown was still ongoing, Mr Cummings and his family were seen walking by the River Tees in Barnard Castle, a local beauty spot 30 miles from Durham. That date is also the birthday of Mr Cummings wife, but the top government adviser has claimed the trip with with his family was to test his eyesight and whether he was well enough to drive back to London. Asked by a member of the public whether those who had been fined by the police for making journeys for childcare purposes could be refunded, Mr Hancock said the question was perfectly reasonable. The health secretary also announced that the government is looking at ways to loosen the lockdown and allow people to visit friends and family in other households. We are on 1 June proposing to make a series of changes, including from the middle of June starting to open up non-essential retail and from 1 June having schools accept children in reception year, year 1 and year 6, he said. But, as you say, theres also a yearning to see people in another household and we are looking at how we can make this happen in a safe way. Matt Hancock made the announcement on Tuesday (via Reuters) (Reuters) Guidelines currently state that people are allowed to meet only one other person from another household, and only in a public place such as a park. Mr Hancock also said that, as part of the NHS test-and-trace system, local lockdowns will be introduced in areas where there is a resurgence of the coronavirus. He said: Yes, we will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups, and we have a system we are putting in place with a combination of Public Health England and the new joint bio-security centre, along with the local directors of public health who play an absolutely crucial role in the decision-making in the system to make sure if there is a local flare-up, there is a local lockdown. In addition, Mr Hancock said the NHS was now receiving enough personal protective equipment (PPE) that it could start to rebuild its stockpile instead of just meeting demand. Many medics have complained about an under-supply of equipment, and advice on reusing it has been changed during the crisis to make supplies last longer. Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Show all 11 1 /11 Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The TImes Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Daily Mirror Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Daily Express Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Independent Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Daily Mail Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Guardian Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Daily Telegraph Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Financial Times Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings i Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Sun Weve been working hard to build our supplies of personal protective equipment, he said. I know how important this is, especially to colleagues on the front line. The health secretary added: There is a lot further to go on PPE, as on so many things, but we have made significant progress, and Id like to thank everybody involved. Coverage of the ongoing pandemic has focused on Boris Johnsons refusal to sack Mr Cummings for breaking the lockdown with his trips to Durham and Barnard Castle. A new YouGov poll on Tuesday found that 71 per cent of the public believe the aide broke the rules and that a clear majority also believes he should resign. Additional reporting by Press Association Chinese lawmakers have proposed formulating a foreign states immunities law, following litigations filed against the Asian powerhouse in the US and other countries seeking compensation over the coronavirus outbreak. The move will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens as well as foreign investors, said Ma Yide, a deputy to the National Peoples Congress (NPC) and a law researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. It will also counteract malicious litigations raised in countries like the US towards China over the COVID-19 response, Ma told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual parliament session. A lawsuit was filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt against the Chinese government, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), and other Chinese officials and institutions in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. It alleges that during the critical weeks of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus, the Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistle-blowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, allowed millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE), causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable. Observers say the Missouri lawsuit could pose a problem to China in view of the US courts claim of universal jurisdiction. Asked for his reaction to the lawsuits whether Beijing is concerned that Chinas assets overseas could be seized, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday said, Some people are clamouring for so-called accountability and compensation from a victim of COVID-19. They are fabricating so-called evidence for frivolous lawsuits. These people are tramping on international rule of law and betraying human conscience Ma said the lack of such a law has emerged as a prominent issue in the current epidemic as some countries, led by the United States, tried to shift the blame for their own governments incompetence on COVID-19 response. Some groups and individuals in some countries even cited the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of the United States to bring litigations to the Chinese government and relevant departments, he added. This has trampled on the internationally recognised principle of sovereign immunity, and is also a show of hegemony and power politics, Ma said, stressing the necessity and urgency for China to formulate a foreign states immunities law. China follows the principle of absolute immunity of foreign states and their property, thus Chinese litigants are unable to sue foreign governments from domestic courts, while Chinese governments have often been sued in foreign courts, he added. Ma suggested adopting a limited immunities principle, which is more commonly found in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union countries. From a long-term perspective, adopting a limited immunities principle will show a responsible manner of the Chinese government to foreign investors, ensure stable expectations for the protection of their investments, and facilitate Chinas new round of opening-up and the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, he said. Over 35 lawmakers from the NPC Beijing delegation have endorsed the proposal, which has been accepted by the session and forwarded to special committees of the National Legislature for consideration, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. It is expected to be passed by the NPC on May 28, the last day of the current session. PTI KJV IND RUP RUP Chinese lawmakers have proposed formulating a foreign states immunities law following malicious litigations filed against China over its COVID-19 response. The move will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens as well as foreign investors, said Ma Yide, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and a law researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. It will also counteract malicious litigations raised in countries like the United States towards China over the COVID-19 response, Ma told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual NPC session. He said the lack of such a law has emerged as a prominent issue in the current epidemic as some countries, led by the United States, tried to shift the blame for their own governments' incompetence on COVID-19 response. Some groups and individuals even cited the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of the United States to bring litigations to the Chinese government and relevant departments, he added. "This is a show of hegemony and power politics and a reminder of the necessity and urgency for China to formulate a foreign states immunities law," Ma said. Over 35 lawmakers from the NPC Beijing delegation have endorsed the proposal, which has been accepted by the session and forwarded to special committees of the national legislature for study. About 130 Armenian citizens of the Russian Federation are having trouble departing to the Russian Federation at Bagratashen border checkpoint where they have been stranded for a long time already, as reported SHAMSHYAN.com. The citizens told SHAMSHYAN.com that the police officers of Armenias Tavush Province had a meeting with them today and told them that they couldnt let them cross the border. The police officers told us that the Armenian government isnt competent to solve the issue and that we should demand that the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Armenia solve our problems. We contacted the embassy and told them that we have been at the border checkpoint since yesterday, but we were told that we shouldnt have come to the border checkpoint since we knew the border was closed. I told the embassy that we have been in Armenia for three to four months, but the embassy told us that it cant help us in any way, one of the citizens said, stating that starting tomorrow, all the citizens will close the roads leading to the border until their problem is solved. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Andre Paultre and Robenson Sanon (Reuters) Port-au-Prince Tue, May 26, 2020 10:06 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda19276 2 Health coronavirus,COVID-19,health,voodoo,Haiti Free Haiti's voodoo leaders have trained priests of the Afro Caribbean religion to concoct a secret remedy for the novel coronavirus and to prepare the sacred initiation chambers of their temples to receive patients. In Haiti, where Western healthcare services are scarce and too expensive for many, inhabitants often rely on the herbal remedies and ritual practices of their voodoo houngan priest or mambo priestess. Draped in necklaces of colorful beads, Haitian Voodoo "Ati" or supreme leader Carl Henri Desmornes said in an interview at his "gingerbread house" in Port-au-Prince he knew there would be a deluge of patients at their temples. While the virus took root slowly in the poorest country in the Americas, in the last two weeks the number of confirmed cases has nearly quintupled to 865 while reports of a mysterious "fever" are spreading. "Voodoo practitioners - the Houngans and Mambos in particular - have the responsibility to look after the well-being of the population," said Desmornes, 60, who was a music promoter before becoming the Ati. "They have received the powers and the knowledge to put in practice." More than half of Haitis 11 million people are believed to practice voodoo, a religion brought from West Africa centuries ago by enslaved men and women and practiced clandestinely under French colonial rule. Ever since the first cases of the new coronavirus were confirmed in Haiti in mid-March, Voodoo priests have been serving up teas with ingredients including moringa, eucalyptus, ginger and honey to strengthen the immune system. "We live in a country where the health system is not able to respond to the challenge of the pandemic, so we rely on natural remedies instead," said Mambo Lamercie Charles as she ladled out potion. "I consider my temple a clinic". Voodoo deputy leader Euvonie Georges Auguste said the community, inspired by the "Loas" (spirits), has also come up with a potion for COVID-19 symptoms that they had taught priests virtually to prepare and administer. The community had identified 1,000 voodoo temples that had a "Djevo" - a sacred chamber used for initiation rituals - that was separate to the worship chambers and could be used to isolate up to 15 patients each, she said. Read also: For Haitians, die of hunger today or coronavirus tomorrow? Coronavirus message Auguste said it was a shame President Jovenel Moise had highlighted Madagascar's self-proclaimed, plant-based cure for COVID-19 rather than Haitian voodoo treatments. "This attitude shows he is a victim of the system that still bears the scars of slavery," she said. Voodoo is closely identified with Haiti's struggle for independence but has worked hard for legitimacy. It only won recognition as an official religion in 2003 under President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Haiti's voodoo practitioners in the past have criticized Moise for appealing publicly to Christianity's god rather than to Voodoo's spirits. Sometimes misrepresented in Hollywood and pulp fiction as a black magic cult, it suffers from stigma. Some evangelical preachers blamed the 2010 earthquake on voodoo while mobs lynched at least 45 houngans and mambos they blamed for bringing about the subsequent cholera outbreak with their spells. Voodoo priests have appeared on television and radio shows to make clear they are not responsible for coronavirus and are ready to fight it. Still, Desmornes said maybe the pandemic carried a message for the world - one difference between voodoo and Western medicine is that it seeks meaning in illness. Perhaps it was a warning sign, Desmornes said, that humans were like a virus to other beings on earth. "My hope is that after corona ... instead of transforming all we touch, transforming nature, we look instead to live in harmony with it," he said. President Donald Trump has threatened to shift the upcoming Republican party convention, where he will be officially crowned as the partys presidential nominee for the November elections out of Democratic-ruled North Carolina, citing continuing Covid-19 related restrictions there. But the president denied he intended to shift it to one of his resorts in his adoptive state of Florida. Trumps threat came in a bunch of tweets on a day the country observed Memorial Day in the memory of those who died while serving in US military, and in the shadow of US fatalities from Covid-19 set to cross 100,000. The toll had climbed closer to the mark to 98,223 by Tuesday morning with 500 more deaths in the last 24 hours; and infections were up to 1.66 million with 19,056 more. Both Republican and Democratic party conventions have been pushed back by a month in anticipation of continued restrictions from their earlier dates in late July to late August. The Republicans meet in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Democrats in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Trump threatened the venue change saying North Carolinas Democratic governor Roy Cooper is in a shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance in the Aren (the convention venue). If not, he added, we will be reluctantly forced to to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. The state governor pushed back through aides. They said that while public health officials are working with the Republican party on how to hold the convention, as scheduled, North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our states public health and safety. Trump has targeted Democratic state governors as he has pushed for rolling back restrictions that have led to unprecedented layoffs with 38 million people having applied for unemployment benefits in the nine weeks of the lockdown. At the peak of the outbreak mid-April, he had egged on protestors with a call to liberate Michigan, Virginia and Minnesota. His mind is clearly on his the November elections. His tweeting has been less about the outbreak increasingly than politics: hitting Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee over his use of masks, among other things and his boss the former President Barack Obama. And he has taken to tweeting a new slogan, mostly in all-cpas, Transition to Greatness. I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved. I understand that Twitters policies about content are designed to maintain the appearance that your hands are clean you provide the platform and the rest is up to users. However, in certain past cases, Twitter has removed content and accounts that are inconsistent with your terms of service. Im asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain. I would also ask that you consider Loris niece and two nephews who will eventually come across this filth in the future. They have never met their Aunt and it pains me to think they would ever have to learn about her this way. My wife deserves better. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Timothy J. Klausutis, Ph.D. Twitters response, May 26 Twitter said President Trumps tweets did not violate its terms of service, and that it would not remove them. A spokesman for Twitter, Nick Pacilio, provided the following statement: We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. Weve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly. As it teased, Sony is going all-in on vlogging with the ZV-1, a video-centric compact that fuses features form the popular RX100 V and RX100 VII cameras. It has a 20-megapixel 1-inch sensor thats big enough to deliver decently blurred backgrounds, along with a fast 24-70mm f/1.8-2.8 lens. It also supports 4K recording at up to 30 fps with a full pixel readout, or 1080p video at up to 120 fps. The ZV-1 has a couple of extra tricks, too. Its one of Sonys first cameras with a pivoting flip-out screen that makes vlogging a whole lot easier. That display has touch-focus control (though not touch menu control), letting you easily select a region to focus on. Given its vlogging purpose and price point, however, it has no electronic viewfinder. The record button is placed prominently on top, rather than around the back like before and it even has a small grip, unlike all other RX100 models. All that makes the ZV-1 just a smidgen bigger than the RX100 VII. On top of that, it offers real-time autofocus tracking and real-time eye AF in movie mode, much like the A7R IV, A6600 and other recent Sony mirrorless cameras. It can handle photos, too, with shooting speeds of up to 20 fps with autofocus and auto-exposure enabled. Gallery: Sony ZV-1 compact vlogging camera press images | 31 Photos /31 Gallery: Sony ZV-1 compact vlogging camera press images | 31 Photos /31 With most cameras, focus will stay persistently on your face with the eye autofocus engaged. However, if you flip on the ZV-1s product showcase setting, it will instantly switch focus from your face to any foreground object, letting you show off products in a YouTube vlog, for example. It also has a background defocus function that opens the aperture to its widest setting. Since the camera also has a built-in neutral density filter, you can get shallow depth of focus even in fairly bright light. Another video-oriented feature is face priority autoexposure. When walking through changing light conditions, the ZV-1 will make sure your face is correctly exposed and ignore everything else. Sony also geared the color science toward faces to deliver more natural results, no matter your skin tone. The ZV-1 has a built-in 3-capsule microphone with better quality than the built-in mics on any of its mirrorless or DSLR cameras, Sony said. It also comes with a sock to muffle wind noise. If that doesnt cut enough wind or other noise, it has a built-in noise-reduction setting pulled from Sonys NR headphones. Sony That should deliver good enough audio quality for many vloggers, but if not, it has a 3.5mm external microphone port and a multi-interface shoe that supports Sony-branded microphones. It also has a micro-HDMI port, but no headphone jack, as Sony told me that wasnt a priority feature for vloggers (Id beg to differ). The ZV-1 comes with HLG/HDR and S-Log3 and S-Log2 settings, letting you shoot to maximize dynamic range. It doesnt support 10-bit video, however. It also uses Sonys image stabilization active mode (optical and electronic), to smooth out any jarring footsteps while youre vlogging. Compared to Sonys RX100 lineup, the ZV-1 is surprisingly inexpensive at launch. It costs $799 (or $749 if you order before June 28th), with shipping starting on June 11th, 2020. You can also get a vlogger accessory kit with the GP-VPT2BT wireless shooting bluetooth grip and a 64GB UHS II memory card for $100 until June 28th, or $150 afterwards. An independent review panel, struck in the wake of Grade 9 student Devan Selveys fatal stabbing, has released a long-awaited interim report on bullying in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. The 25-page report, released Monday, shares the interim findings of a three-person independent panel tasked by the school board in the fall to explore issues of bullying prevention, intervention, reporting and response in Hamilton public schools and the community at-large. At least 900 community members attended 15 meetings hosted by the Safe Schools: Bullying Prevention and Intervention Review Panel in February and March. A summary of 25 themes, or issues raised at meetings, is outline in the report. BOARD AGENDA by RosieGrover on Scribd Among the themes are calls to engage students in problem-solving and peer support, to provide staff with bullying prevention training, to train staff and students in interventions techniques, to ensure students arent punished when they stand up to bullies and to offer mental health supports to victims. Emotions ran high at a number of the winter consultations sessions, as parents and students shared heartbreaking stories of bullying. The report notes that the panels work is ongoing and some sessions were cancelled due to COVID-19. The panel hopes to hold more consultation sessions and also offer online surveys on bullying to students and staff in the fall. The committee was formed in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2019, stabbing of Devan Selvey, a 14-year-old Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School student. His mother, Shari-Ann Selvey, has said her son was subjected to bullying in the months leading up to his death. She criticized the school and school board for not doing enough to help her son. A 14-year-old boy, who cant be named due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, faces a first-degree murder charge in relation to Selveys death. A first-degree murder charge against his 18-year-old brother, who The Spectator is not naming because identifying him could identify the younger boy, was withdrawn in December. The older brother still faces charges related to the stabbing, including a weapons charge. The three-person panel, which includes experts in child psychiatry, health and human rights, will make recommendations in a final report. The interim report is being presented at a board meeting Monday evening. At the meeting, trustees will vote on a final report completion date, with the goal date being December 16, 2020. The Bible Belt is the 'death belt,' Shane Claiborne says Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christian activist, author and self-proclaimed recovering redneck, Shane Claiborne, said this week that Americas Bible Belt should really be known as the death belt, warning that the pro-life ethic should be applied consistently. Claiborne, a progressive Christian speaker based in Philadelphia and a leader in the New Monasticism movement, joined the leader of the conservative-leaning think-tank Institute on Religion & Democracy Wednesday for a conversation on subjects including just war theory, the death penalty, and abortion. Claiborne, who grew up in the hills of East Tennessee, spoke about how he used to be in favor of the death penalty but later had a hard time reconciling that belief. He contends that capital punishment undermines the redemptive work that Jesus did on the cross and the possibilities of redemption. I got involved in the death penalty partly because I saw that there were a lot of Christians that were vocal on abortion and other issues, he said. But gun violence and the death penalty, we actually havent been the champions of life. We have been the obstacles. That is why I wrote a book around both of those because I saw the death penalty. The death penalty wouldnt stand a chance in America if it werent for Christians, Claiborne asserted. The Bible Belt is the death belt. Where 85% of the executions happen is in the Bible Belt. Its also the states that held on to slavery the longest. That became very problematic for me. I think the questions that are raised by the death penalty, they are very deeply theological questions, right? Claibornes 85% figure comes from 2016 research done by the advocacy group I Was In Prison, which found that over 85% of the 1,419 executions at state prisons since 1976 have been carried out in Bible Belt states. The Bible Belt is an informal region of the southern and Midwest U.S. The area became known for its predominance of adherents to conservative Protestant faith traditions. Amnesty International found in 2012 that since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 82% of death penalty cases have occurred in the southern U.S. In a 2015 op-ed published by The Washington Post, Claiborne quoted Catholic Florida death row chaplain and I Was In Prison founder Dale Recinella, who said: The Bible belt has become the death belt. Is anybody beyond redemption? Claiborne asked IRD President Mark Tooley. How much do we trust imperfect institutions like our government with the irreversible power of life and death? Claiborne was also critical of the rate of gun ownership among evangelical Christians. Of course, with gun violence, Christians own guns at a higher rate than the general population. The highest-owning gun demographic in America is white evangelicals, he said. Particularly, advocating [against the] legality of assault weapons and things like that has been a big passion of mine. To me, these are very personal [issues]. In every corner of our neighborhood, we have stories of people who died from guns here. It is not just a debate for me. I think proximity makes a world of difference. Claiborne is a founder of the Simple Way community a nonprofit in urban Philadelphia. When it comes to holding an authentic pro-life ethic, Claiborne assured that he is for the eradication of abortion, like many conservatives in the Bible Belt are. Claiborne, who's been identified as left-leaning, said he doesnt like the labels of left and right. Instead, he'd rather the context be framed in terms of right and wrong. The problem is in our partisan politics where you dont have a party or a candidate that is very consistent, Claiborne said. Even in the last election, Hillary Clinton she was for the death penalty and had a terrible track record on abortion. On the other side, Donald Trump, his life ethic is just an absolute train wreck on almost everything. I didnt find a home very easily in that [election]. Claiborne garnered national attention in 2018 for helping to organize the "Red Letter Revival: A Revival of Jesus & Justice" in Lynchburg, Virginia, that aimed to contrast their movement from "America First" Christianity and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and pro-Trump Christians. At the time, IRD's Chelsen Vicari attended the event and said what she witnessed was "more of a rally intended to stir a partisan base rather than a Holy Ghost revival." When it comes to reducing abortions and gun violence, Claiborne said he doesnt think in terms of legalization. I dont think the answer to our gun problem is to just overturn the Second Amendment. I dont think the answer on abortion is to just overturn Roe v. Wade, Claiborne contended. I do believe that we all have to be asking how we can do a better job at protecting life. He criticized both Democrats and Republicans for what he calls the toxicity of self-righteousness. I think sometimes for folks on the left, the conversation has just been about rights and not about life and the dignity of the [baby] and of the mother, he said. How do we really try to be a stronger advocate for life? I think, on the other hand, some of the rhetoric on folks on abortion has been a hindrance to actually reducing abortions in real ways by just having an ideology that is so polarizing in our country, he said. I think we need a better conversation around abortion and we also need a conversation on what a consistent ethic of life could look like. I am considering writing a book on that. Claiborne also warned that self-righteousness is what Jesus called the yeast of the Pharisees. I think it does so much damage when we say: I think I am not like those people, Claiborne added. When we can find common ground, I think that is so important and we can have a posture of humility. Thats what I am trying to do. This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays. The most helpful shopping ideas right now are coming from blah big box stores like Walmart and Lowes. Its surprising, yeah. And Amazon, the company thats determined to reinvent everything, is kinda boring. There are times when youd prefer to sit on your couch, pull out a laptop and wait for a pair of curtains to arrive in a cardboard box. But it can also be great to make your purchases online, and then pop by your local Walmart and know that someone is waiting to put those curtains in your car trunk along with some milk and peanut butter, too. Theres recently been a surge of people who are picking up their online orders in-person at Walmart, Target, Home Depot and other stores big and small. Ive been impressed by how old-school companies, from Best Buy to my local cheese shop, have quickly adapted to offering low-contact pickups like this. Some of this activity is a temporary coronavirus-related spike, but I bet some of these habits will stick. Thats because we want to shop any way we like all online, all in-store or a mix with the best of both. And I cant for the life of me understand how Amazon is missing this. The first Advance Estimates, released in January for the purpose of Budget preparations, pegged the economic growth rate at 5 per cent in 2019-20. The second Advance Estimates, released on February 28, also projected the growth rate at 5 per cent though there were changes in growth in various segments within overall economy and in various quarters compared to that in the first Advance Estimates. Some economists had doubted the numbers at that time. Now, with the government releasing the data on Friday, none of the major analysts expects the economy to grow 5 per cent in ... A young woman was lucky to avoid serious injury after sticking her arm into the door of a closing train just as it was leaving the station. In vision obtained by Seven News, the woman attempts to get the automatic doors of the train to reopen just as it's leaving Chatswood station on Sydney's north shore. However, the woman's wrists were believed to be too small to trigger the safety mechanism which reopens the door. The woman then frantically attempts to get the attention of a platform attendant. An elderly man and a young man behind the woman also try in vain to get the attention of a platform guard. Fear quickly turns to panic as the train starts to move away from the platform, dragging the woman along with it. Luckily, as the train started to speed off, the attendant sees the woman and manages to stop the train. She escaped serious injury and was even able to board the next train and continue on her journey. Footage has been released of a 2018 incident where a woman at the Chatswood train station in Sydney (pictured) got her arm caught in the train door before it started to leave the station The footage was released by Sydney Trains as a warning to the common practice among commuters of sticking an arm or a foot in a carriage door to get it to automatically reopen. Chief Executive Sydney Trains Stewart Mills said sticking your arm into a closing train door was dangerous and says the woman could easily have suffered a serious injury. The incident took place in 2018 but the footage was released this week as a way of highlighting train platform safety as commuters start to pack trains again. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Transport for NSW for further comment. Despite India's objection, Nepal's Oli government has started preparations to bring the new map into circulation. On Sunday, Nepal's Ministry of Land Management, Cooperation and Poverty Alleviation sent a circular to all state offices for political and administrative Ordered to be included in the map. In the new map, Nepal has shown India's Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani in its territory, which India has objected to. The letter, quoting Janak Raj Joshi, joint secretary and spokesperson of the ministry, has been sent to all the ministries, constitutional bodies and subordinate offices. Bring this new map into implementation. In the letter urging to create an atmosphere of consensus among all political parties, the ministry has also asked all offices across the country to change the old map afresh. In the meeting of the Working Committee of the House of Representatives on Sunday, the Government of Nepal has been urged to create an atmosphere of consensus among all political parties on the Constitution Amendment Bill. Experts in Nepal's diplomacy sector have emphasized the need to make urgent efforts to reduce the conflict between India and Nepal. Tension between the countries is not better for either country who shares a good relationship. Former Foreign Minister Dr Bhesh Bahadur Thapa has also said this. PM Johnson to open schools in Britain from June 1 Iran send oil tankers to Venezuela despite US sanctions Can corona hurt the placenta in a pregnant woman? Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication. This post is part of Outward, Slates home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture. Read more here. Meredith Talusan knows a thing or two about journeys. When I called her up in March to discuss her debut book, Fairest (out this week from Viking), she had only been back home in the U.S. for about a day. Prior to our conversation, she had been in Guatemala on an individual writers retreat, already at work on her next book: a novel. After receiving an alarming email from the State Department regarding COVID-19, she had to make a mad dash to secure a flight back to the U.S. Advertisement Luckily, Talusan is well-acquainted with abrupt and dramatic changes to her scenery. Her luminous memoir follows Talusans childhood as a boy with albinism, known as a sun child, growing up in a rural village in the Philippines. Talusans gorgeous, vulnerable prose explores her pregender transition adolescence in that village and later, Manila, as well as her familys journey immigrating to Southern California. In addition to being her personal immigrant story, a narrative of gender transition, and a queer bildungsroman of a literature-obsessed Harvard undergrad, Fairest also takes readers through a few of Talusans continent-crossing sexual and romantic relationships. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this interview, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, Talusan unpacks the role of the mirror in trans womens lives, how she went about tackling the challenge of writing sex scenes about herself, and how Fairest allowed her to honor her messy twentysomething self. Advertisement Advertisement Madeline Ducharme: Mirrors play a huge role in your book. The title obviously evokes the fairy tale rhyme of mirror, mirror on the wall, whos the fairest of them all? but theres also a dual meaning in fairest with the question of equity: What is fairest for all of us? Can you tell me more about that? Meredith Talusan: Im really fascinated by the mirror because of the fact that its such a long-running sort of, like, cliche in terms of trans writing, you know? Theres been so much criticism around the fact that trans women are obsessed with the way that we look and, you know, every trans-related movie has a scene with a trans woman putting on makeup in the mirror. So for me, I wanted to say: Yes, it is the case that one of the ways in which trans women filter our experiences is by looking at ourselves, but, that action, which is so associatednot just for trans women but for women in generalwith vanity, with superficiality, is actually also an opportunity for us to introspect. Its actually time that many men dont take to do. Advertisement Advertisement In the process of putting on what we need to put on in order to move in the world, were also simultaneously thinking about what its like to be there, what its like to be observed, how it is that we interact and relate to others. As somebody who has such a huge gulf between my internal perception and my external reality, that action is really important to me. The very weird thing about me is that in a lot of ways, I transitioned in order to allow for my internal perception of my femininity and my womanhood to match external reality better, but in fact, I am extremely, extremely internally Filipino. You know, I grew up in a rural environment in the Philippines, I only spoke Tagalog for the first six or seven years of my life, and so theres this way in which I have to look in the mirror to constantly remind myself, no, other people arent perceiving me the way I perceive myself. And I constantly have to negotiate those two perceptions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You also seem to have this fearlessness around being seen and being observed. That theme seems to be important throughout your book and throughout your life, whether it be at Harvard as the Dancing Deviant (your theater show that got so much attention and acclaim) or being a child television star in the Philippines. Can you talk about the way that visibility in this way has kind of shaped your life and your writing? Advertisement Advertisement Theres this interesting way that as a very young child, there were people who tried to reinforce this idea that I was abnormal, that I was freakish, that I belonged to a category of people that is not worth paying attention to. And I do think that in a lot of ways, I developed this coping mechanism of: Oh, you think that Im a freak? Well look at this! You know? Just see what I can do! And see what you think after that! Advertisement It also seems theres a power thats granted to you throughout your life by way of perceived whiteness. What was it like to interrogate that experience? I mean the book has been immensely personally beneficial to me because of the fact that ones life movesespecially during those periods that I write about in the bookat such a dizzying pace that it becomes very difficult to take stock of your life at the time. And I do think engaging in that interrogation has been super helpful just in terms of becoming much more aware and much more precise about that quality of my life: that this really random genetic occurrence that is supposed to disable me and render me freakish is actually a quality that has, on aggregate, hugely advantaged me. And that isnt true for a lot of albino people for various reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And it is something that I think about a lot and its something that, now that Ive written the book, I have a much clearer understanding of and a much greater appreciation for people who hold me accountable for being white-passing but also for, you know, being kind to my own self. Being kind to the fact that I am in many ways alienated from my own people because Filipinos cant recognize me as Filipino, and even when they do, there is a gulf between me and a lot of Filipinos that I interact with just because we have such different experiences, and none of that is our fault. You know, we didnt create these societal structures. But at the same time, the realities of both are much clearer to me now. That I can simultaneously say, without question, that looking white and by extension, looking cisgender because of the fact that I look white, has been really advantageous for me but also has been really psychologically difficult and damaging in a lot of ways, and both of those things can be true. Advertisement Something your book does so beautifully is talk about elements of transition in our lives that are unrelated to gender. Theres, like, your transition from being a rural to an urban resident, from being poor to well-off in a relationship with somebody who has a lot of inherited wealth, being the center of attention to being anonymous. Its so powerful to read about those versions of transition in tandem with your story of gender transition. Advertisement Advertisement Yeah, that was definitely deliberate. When I was conceiving and proposing this book, I felt a lot of pressure, whether explicit or implicit, from the publishing industry like, Oh, people are interested in trans stuff right now so this book has to bewhatever it is, it has to be primarily like a trans-related book. And for me, I was not interested in that, because of the fact that it just oversimplifies my experience. Also, whats really interesting is that memoir itself is a craft. In this genre, your memoir needs to be about one main theme and one main topic, and I realized that the genre evolved out of writers who had one thing in their lives and could do that. Like, [these writers] could parcel out one thing of their experience and say like, OK, this is what Im exploring in this book. And for me, I said to myself, No! Like, I cantfirst of all, my experiences of race and gender are so intertwined that its just impossible, theres no way. And I think that over time, the book really developed, I call it a kind of prismatic lens. You cant just see the world from this singular perspective, right? It has to be kaleidoscopic, it has to be prismatic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now for a fun question: The sex in your memoir is extremely hot. You write about sex with a beautiful and moving ferocity. Can you tell us about what it was like to mine those experiences and write something so erotic and so personal? Thank you, thats such a huge complimentbecause at the time, it was like, ugh, this is so awkward. One of the things that I discovered is that in order to write those scenes, it actually took me getting to a place where Im so fully comfortable in my current identity, so fully comfortable in my own sense of my own womanhood, which is like a form of womanhood that is just not the same as a lot of cis peoples. Advertisement And one of the forms that that womanhood takes is that I am a woman who used to really enjoy having sex as a man. And being able to understand that about myself allowed me to then really open up that space, psychologically. In Fairest, I also expressed the ways in which I felt alienated from sex as a gay man, and I think its good to be in a psychological space where both of those possibilities were open, where its not just like, Oh my God, I hated my body, I hated my penis, therefore, everything was bad! I was in a psychological space where I could also think, No actually, there were things that you really liked about it! I really liked enjoying sex without having to feel like people were socially punishing me. I really liked being able to say things that were sexually explicit without people judging me. Im curious about how writing this book compared with writing really personal journalism for outlets like the New York Times and Them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the early decisions that I made writing this book is to create a space for myself and also for trans writers in general to write about our own experiences, on our own terms, outside of how we can harness that experience in order to make a political or social point. That was really important to me. So if you notice, the book has only a couple of necessary moments, but on the whole, it does not talk about external politics. It doesnt talk about the Time magazine Trans Tipping Point Right! Its like, can someone please write one book, one piece on trans life and culture that doesnt mention Laverne Cox appearing on the cover of Time magazine? Advertisement Right! Exactly. I do think that in a way one of the most political things that the book does is to not politicize itself. Instead, it says these are all of the things that have happened to me, this is how I experienced them at the time, and some of those experiences people now will find difficult to handle, and problematic. Theyll find that they do not conform to their political standards, and all I can say to that is that is how I experienced those things. I am a person that is very different in 2020 than I was back in the early 2000s when I transitioned, and I want to honor that difference. [And I think] the best way for me to honor the person that I was, with all of my faults, with all of my misguided thinking at the time, is to actually represent that person honestly. And to actually represent her without sort of doing this larger political point, larger political rationalization or apology. I feel like thats for other people to do. Were Queer People Better Prepared for #QuarantineLife? Bryan Lowder, Christina Cauterucci, and Rumaan Alam host this months episode of Outward, Slates LGBTQ podcast. Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of facial coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has exploded from under 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. BACK TO THE BAR: Houston bars reopened Friday. Here's what it was like What has happened at Tyson - and the meat industry overall - shows how difficult getting the nation back to normal is, even in essential fields such as food processing. Meat companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars - on protective gear, paid leave, ventilation systems and more - because they were forced to shut dozens of plants that were among the top covid-19 hot spots outside of cities. But the industry has still experienced a surge in cases, and some of the companies say they are limited in how much they can keep workers separated from one another. A small portion of the industry's labor force has gone back to work - some workers kept away on purpose - and the nation's meat supply remains deeply strained as barbecue season gets underway. A May report from CoBank, which specializes in serving rural America, warns meat that supplies in grocery stores could shrink as much as 35%, prices could spike 20% and the impact could become even "more acute later this year" as the effects on the U.S. agriculture supply chain are felt. Grocery stores have been able to partially meet consumer demand thanks to meat already in the supply chain in March, when the pandemic broke out, but the report said those supplies were quickly being used up. The prospect of long-term shortages is giving rise to an intensifying debate about whether the industry should reopen faster or safety should be prioritized, even at the cost of the nation's food supply. With an April 28 executive order encouraging meat plants to reopen, the Trump administration has said the food supply must be weighted equally with safety. Over the past month, more than half of the 30 meat processing plants that had shuttered because of covid-19 have reopened. "Our objective is two equal goals," Vice President Mike Pence said in a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican. "Number one is the safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and, two, there's strength in our food supply and getting people back to work." But others say safety must be the paramount concern - and the industry still has a long way to go before facilities are safe again. "Absolutely, positively, no worker's life is worth my getting a cheaper hamburger. No worker's life is worth that," former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, told Yahoo News last week. Officials with the meat processors say they are doing whatever they can to protect workers, while trying to make sure the nation's food supply remains sound. "The safety of our team members is paramount and we only reopen our facilities when we believe we can safely do so," said Gary Mickelson, Tyson's director of media relations. What's clear is the industry's efforts so far, though they may have lessened the virus's spread, have not come close to stopping it. Over the past month, the number of infections tied to three of the country's biggest meat processors - Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS - has gone from just over 3,000 to more than 11,000, according to the analysis by The Post. Throughout the entire industry, worker deaths have tripled, surging from 17 to at least 63, according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, which is tracking outbreaks through local news reports. Four of the plants that reopened saw outbreaks with more than 700 positive cases, according to the Midwest Center: Tyson Foods operations in Logansport, Indiana; Perry, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa; and a Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, coronavirus cases linked to meat workers represent 18%, 20% and 29% of the states' total cases, respectively, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization. HOLIDAY WEEKEND: Astros stars spend Memorial Day eating mudbugs from Houston favorite Many plants that have reopened are operating at reduced capacity - either due to widespread absences or to reduce the number of workers on shift to allow for social distancing. Closures have affected 45,000 workers, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the largest organization representing meatpacking workers. JBS, the second largest meat processor in the United States, said it is paying workers who could be particularly vulnerable to covid-19 to stay at home - about 10% of its workforce. The question over reopening, even amid safer conditions, can cause difficult choices for communities. Meat plants are usually located in rural communities where they are among the area's largest employers. Covid-19 infection rates in communities within a 15-mile radius of meat plants are twice the national average, according to the Environmental Working Group. The recent closures have cascaded through local economies, as farmers who supply plants are left with nowhere to take their animals. The National Pork Producers Council estimates that current plant capacities are creating backlogs of 170,000 hogs a day. "These hogs will eventually stay on farms too long and grow too large to be accepted by harvest facilities. It is estimated that up to 10,069,000 market hogs will need to be euthanized," the pork producer group said in a recent fact sheet. - - - Although companies have tried to get back to normal operations, union and local officials question whether they are ready. Tyson's biggest pork plant, in Waterloo, reopened May 7 with new safety precautions and social distancing policies. "Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members, their loved ones and our communities," Tom Hart, the plant's manager, said in a news release. Tyson had just finished running a national ad campaign warning, "The food supply chain is breaking." But the Waterloo plant reopened the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County - where it is located - reported more than 1,000 employees out of 2,700 there had tested positive for the coronavirus "Tyson did not go above and beyond," said Iowa state Rep. Ras Smith, a Democrat who represents Waterloo. "They did what they already should have done." He called Tyson's handling of the outbreak "appalling." Smith and fellow Iowa Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat, say they suspect Trump's executive order encouraged Tyson to reopen faster, a point the company disputes. The plant shuttered April 22 after weeks of resisting calls from local officials. The lawmakers said they met with the plant's human resources director on May 1 and were told the facility was weeks away from reopening. Four days later, they said, they were told production would resume May 7. They said there was no explanation for the new timeline. "It really doesn't feel like our local Tyson was in this big of a hurry to reopen," Brown-Powers said. "It became a hurry for them because of the pressure they're getting from above." Mickelson, Tyson's spokesman, said in an email to The Post that the executive order had helped Tyson by providing "clear, uniform standards" for how processing facilities should protect workers and by giving the company better access to protective gear. But he said it did not accelerate the reopening of the facility. - - - When he announced the executive order on April 28, Trump initially said it would solve "liability problems" for companies and force them to stay open during the pandemic. "Now that Trump issued that executive order, it gives plants this insurmountable feeling that they are invincible," said Kim Cordova, a local union president in Greeley, Colorado, where a JBS beef plant was shuttered in April amid a coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least seven workers. In practice, the order was more narrow, legal experts said. It designated meat producers as critical infrastructure and ordered them to follow federal guidance developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It also enabled Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to take steps to get meat companies federal contracts and access to protective gear. OSHA - the federal agency in charge of worker safety - has not issued enforceable guidelines for protecting employees, as it did during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, instead opting for voluntary guidance. The agency has said it plans no enforcement action so as not to overly burden companies during the pandemic. Smithfield cited the Trump executive order in federal court, saying it meant local and state authorities no longer had any authority over meat processors. It was part of the company's defense in a Missouri lawsuit, which was filed by an unnamed employee saying Smithfield failed to protect employees by not accommodating social distancing and by discouraging sick employees from staying home. "The president has identified state interference with meat and poultry processors as 'undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency,' " Smithfield's attorneys said in court documents. "State law, whether statutory or through private lawsuits, cannot be used to regulate the subject matter covered by the EO. This task belongs exclusively to the federal government." Judge David Gregory Kays dismissed the case 12 days later, citing the "significant steps" Smithfield had taken to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection at its plant in Milan, Missouri. In a news release, the company praised the outcome of the case, which it said was "frivolous, full of specious allegations that were without factual or legal merit." Less than two weeks after the case was dismissed, voluntary testing at the Milan plant revealed an outbreak at the facility, according to local news reports and the worker behind the lawsuit. She told The Post that fearful workers have been staying home, and that those who do show up for shifts are working overtime to keep up production. "They could have listened to workers and protected the company and the people by being proactive," said David Muraskin, the worker's attorney. "Now that they've failed to do the right thing, their responsibility is to make sure they take care of their workers and pay them their wages while the company puts in place the protections that should have been there all along to protect the community." Smithfield said the Milan plant is "operational" but declined to provide further details about absences and production capacity. The company said it would not confirm coronavirus cases "out of respect for employees' legal privacy." - - - On April 16, the JBS beef plant in Greeley was forced to shut down after about 100 workers came down with the virus and three died. Another worker died during the closure, and four others since it reopened on April 24. Coronavirus cases at the plant now exceed 300, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment records show. "We are raising hell because the numbers continue to rise," said Cordova, the local union president. "People are scared to go to work because people keep getting sick. There are hundreds of workers who have not come back. We don't know if they have moved on, if they are on ventilators. We can't find them." Nikki Richardson, a JBS spokeswoman, said in an email that JBS USA has adopted more than $100 million in enhanced safety measures throughout its facilities, including "increased sanitation and disinfection efforts, health screening and temperature checking, team member training, physical distancing, reduced line speeds and increased availability of personal protective equipment, including face masks and face shields." Cordova toured the Greeley plant last week and said improvements have been made on the processing side, where the beef is cut into steaks, ribs and briskets. Metal dividers have been installed between workers, and protective equipment has been placed next to workstations so employees can avoid congregating to pick up their supplies. Still, she said, additional safety measures need to be taken to lessen the risk of infection. Workers are still crowded into halls and stairways. Due to the loud noise in the plant, workers take off their masks and lean in close to speak to supervisors. In the area where cattle are slaughtered, Cordova said, plastic dividers between work stations have yet to be installed. "They are on rafters, right next to one another," she said. Richardson said the company is trying its hardest. "We are doing the best we can to ensure social distancing in the facility, but we recognize the challenges that exist to maintain social distancing in areas where people naturally congregate," Richardson said in an email to The Post. "We have hired people to be part of an employee health team that is responsible for covid-19 program management, compliance and auditing, including enforcing social distancing." - - - The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy and Julie Tate contributed to this report. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigerian farmers must produce enough for the country to eat, indicating that the country has no money to import food. The comments follow concerns around food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic and rising food prices in Africa's most populous nation. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Programme, even before the Covid-19 crisis, farmers had not been able to satisfy the demand for Nigeria's population of some 200 million. Although the agricultural sector remains a major employer, it has suffered years of neglect as the country's economy-focused heavily on oil revenue. Nigeria has been trying to boost domestic rice production for some time, cracking down on smuggled imports from Thailand by closing the country's land borders last year. Prior to the ban, Nigeria used to import over a million tonnes of rice from Thailand annually. Now it only allows foreign rice through its ports and imposes high import taxes. Food prices have risen in Nigeria since the onset of coronavirus and government revenues have been hit badly by the fall in global oil prices. The International Monetary Fund predicts that Africas biggest economy will contract by 1.5% points in 2020. ---BBC Workers freshen up the paint on the NASA logo on the Vehicle Assembly Building before the arrival of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley at the Kennedy Space Center on May 20, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Nasa and SpaceX are preparing to send two astronauts to space in a mission that hopes to change the future of space exploration. When Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley lift off from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station, Nasa will be hoping they will both break tradition and set a new course for US spaceflight. It will be the first time in almost a decade that astronauts have been launched from US soil, with Nasa being forced to borrow seats on board spacecraft from the Russian space agency. The last time Nasa was able to launch astronauts from the US was in 2011, when the Space Shuttle programme came to an end. This time around, Nasa still will not be launching the astronauts themselves, despite providing the launchpad. The rocket and capsule that will carry the astronauts has been built by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and the mission represents the final test of both. It will also be the first time a private company has attempted to send astronauts into space. Here's everything you need to know about this mission, which will launch at 9.30pm UK time. What is the purpose of this mission? The mission, known as Demo-2, will allow the US to once again send humans into space. According to Nasa, this is a demonstration mission to show SpaceX's ability to ferry astronauts to the space station and back safely. It is the final major step required by SpaceX's astronaut carrier, the Crew Dragon, to get certified by Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme for more long-term manned missions to space. Who are Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley? Mr Behnken, 48, and Mr Hurley, 53, are experienced Nasa astronauts who have been involved in testing of the Crew Dragon capsule. Mr Hurley, who was a fighter pilot in the US Marine Corps, was on the final flight of the space shuttle Atlantis in 2011 before it was discontinued. Mr Behnken was a flight test engineer with the US Air Force before joining Nasa, and has spent just over 29 days in space, which includes 37 hours of spacewalking time. Story continues He will serve as the mission's joint operations commander and take responsibility for the rendezvous, docking and undocking of the Dragon capsule, while Mr Hurley will be in charge of the launch, landing and recovery of the vehicle in his role as the Crew Dragon spacecraft commander. The two men will be wearing spacesuits designed by SpaceX with help from Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez. How will the astronauts get to the space station? The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft with Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley strapped inside. Shortly after lift-off, the rocket will separate into what is called a first stage and a second stage. The first stage will return to a SpaceX landing ship which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, while the second part of the rocket continue the journey with the Crew Dragon. Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon will then separate from the second stage and travel at around 17,000mph before being in a position to rendezvous, and dock, with the space station 24 hours later. What will they do when they are in the space station? Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley will test the Crew Dragon's environmental control system, the displays and controls, and the manoeuvring thrusters. They will also monitor the autonomous docking system during the approach to the space station, according to Nasa. The duo will become members of the Expedition 63 crew and perform further tests on the Crew Dragon along with other tasks related to the space station. But the pair's main mission is to conclude the validation process that is required by Nasa to ensure the spacecraft designed to carry astronauts can operate safely. How and when will they return? The Demo-2 mission is expected to last anything between one and four months. But Nasa said the duration of this mission would be determined by when the next commercial crew will be able to travel to the space station. The spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days. When it is time to return, the Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley on board and depart the space station. Shortly after firing up its engines to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft will deploy four parachutes to slow its descent and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida. SpaceX's recovery ship, called Go Navigator, will be waiting nearby to retrieve the duo and ferry them to Cape Canaveral. Why did Nasa stop sending astronauts into space? In 2010, the US started to wind down its space shuttle programme which had carried astronauts into orbit for three decades with the aim of focusing on building technology for Moon and Mars missions. Nasa asked private companies such as Space X and Boeing to design the technologies which would allow passengers to travel to space, while opting to pay Russia to send American astronauts to the space station as an interim arrangement. What's next? If Demo-2 is successful, SpaceX will be allowed to go ahead with more manned missions to the space stations as part of their 2.6 billion US dollar (2.1 billion) contract with Nasa. Boeing also has a similar deal with the space agency, worth 4.2 billion US dollars (3.4 billion), to send astronauts to the space station in its CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, although its vehicle is not expected to be ready until next year. How can I watch live? Both Nasa and SpaceX will be hosting live streams of the events, which will begin a few hours before launch. Tune in earlier to get a look at the astronauts as they are driven to the spacecraft before they set off, as well as for discussions about the mission with experts. Nasa's live coverage will be hosted on Nasa TV, which can be watched here, via YouTube, as well as on the space agency's official site: SpaceX's coverage will be hosted on its own website too, on a launch page that currently gives a full rundown of how the day will play out. Additional reporting by agencies Read more Nasa and SpaceX launch could be delayed by weather A Bridgewater teenager was struck and killed by a New Jersey Transit train on Monday afternoon. The victim, a male, was hit by an eastbound Raritan Valley line train west of the Bridgewater station at about 4:20 p.m, according to New Jersey Transit. The train, which had six people aboard, departed Raritan at 4:16 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Newark Penn Station at 5:15 p.m. Service was suspended between Raritan and Bound Brook for before resuming around 7 p.m. New Jersey Transit police are investigating. The victims identity was not provided because of his age, which NJ Transit didnt disclose. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Room 5 of the COVID-19 critical care unit was largely silent, save for the occasional alarms from machines keeping Ron Panzok alive. Few people entered the room. Physical examinations were limited to once per day to reduce the chances of spreading the coronavirus responsible for putting Panzok, 66, of New York City, in North Shore University Hospital, part of Northwell Health, on Long Island in mid-March. Hospital restrictions prevented his family from visiting. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak It's unlikely that the silence bothered Panzok; he was in a coma, responding to neither doctors nor the therapy meant to help him beat the virus wreaking havoc in his body. Several times a day, though, Panzok's room would fill with the sound of familiar, loving voices, often singing familiar, happy songs. "Sweeeeet Caroline! Bah bah bahhhh... Good times never seemed so good. (So good! So good!)" Panzok's large extended family his wife, children, siblings, cousins called his room multiple times a day to sing, to pray, to talk about nothing in particular, and sometimes, yes, to play his favorite Neil Diamond song. A nurse would put the phone on speaker, leaving the line open for an hour or more. During Passover, the family serenaded him with "Dayenu," a traditional and jubilant song from the holiday's seder. "Who could forget 'Dayenu'?" Panzok's daughter, Amy Harel, said as she chuckled at the memory. "We would try anything just to see what would help wake him up." Image: Ron Panzok (Courtesy of Amy Harel) Panzok's physician at North Shore University Hospital said strong connections to family or friends are an important component of intensive care, even for patients in a coma. "I am a firm believer in a positive environment and family being at the bedside encouraging the patient. The horror of COVID-19 is that it took away most of that," said Dr. Hugh Cassiere, director of the hospital's cardiothoracic intensive care unit, which has been transformed into a COVID-19 ICU. Story continues 'If the alternative is death, it doesn't matter' Panzok was one of the first COVID-19 patients Cassiere treated. He arrived by ambulance March 19, just 18 days after New York health officials had announced the state's first case. The week before he was hospitalized, Panzok had symptoms typical of the coronavirus: fever, cough, weakness, muscle aches, nausea, diarrhea. The virus had spread to at least five other family members, including Harel, but it was Panzok who deteriorated, developing shortness of breath. When he arrived at the emergency room, his kidneys had started to fail. His lungs were so stiff and hard that physicians had to use three sedatives essentially paralyzing his body to get him on a ventilator. There was no clear treatment strategy. Another doctor had already given Panzok hydroxychloroquine, which studies at the time hinted might benefit COVID-19 patients. It didn't work. (Later studies found the drug did not help and may, in fact, harm patients.) Panzok's damaged kidneys meant he wouldn't qualify for an experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, because it had been shown to impact renal function. Cassiere told Harel he needed her to help prepare the family for Panzok's death. Harel refused to accept such an outcome. "He was not ever the kind of person who would give up. So we were never going to give up on him, ever," Harel said. Image: Ron Panzok (Courtesy of Michelle Kohansieh) She described for Cassiere the reasons why her father needed to live, including six grandchildren he adored, plus a set of twin grandkids due any day. She described a kind, generous man who worked two jobs so Harel, 33, of Fairfield, Connecticut, could go to school to become an orthodontist. "We need to do anything we possibly can to try and keep him alive," Harel recalls saying. "Even if there are risks to trials or drugs, we need to try it, because if the alternative is death, it doesn't matter." "I was distraught by the end of the conversation," said Cassiere, who has more than two decades of experience with families whose loved ones are at the end of their lives. That emotional conversation, plus the ensuing deluge of COVID-19 patients in his critical care unit, has lead to many sleepless nights for the doctor. Before the pandemic, Cassiere's department was focused on critically ill people with major heart problems, such as aortic aneurysms and heart attacks that required surgery. He estimated that 75 percent of his critically ill patients were eventually well enough to be discharged. "I'm used to taking care of medically complex patients," Cassiere said. His skills were prepared for a pandemic. His emotions were not. Once the coronavirus took hold, he said, "100 percent of patients" were like Panzok, with slim odds of ever getting off the ventilator. "It's a constant emotional bombardment," Cassiere said. "You can't detach yourself. It's impossible." The one-two punch Cassiere recalled a study published just a month earlier in The Lancet, which suggested high doses of a steroid called dexamethasone could help patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome get off ventilators more quickly, and reduce deaths. But he was concerned steroids would do more harm than good. Some research from the 2003 SARS outbreak suggested that coronaviruses linger longer in patients who received steroids to reduce inflammation in their lungs. To counter that possibility, Cassiere decided to explore using convalescent plasma, the antibody-rich blood product of recovered COVID-19 patients. That just might be enough to counter the virus, he thought. "I call it the one-two punch," he said. He started Panzok on the steroids and waited. Panzok would need to show an improvement on the drugs before moving onto the convalescent plasma. "If he didn't improve, there's really no other option, and we would have to just make him comfortable," he said. Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Cassiere wasn't certain he'd see improvement; he'd tried the steroids in other patients in similar situations, and they only worked about half the time. But Panzok's lungs, it turned out, responded dramatically. Even so, he still wasn't reacting to simple commands, like squeezing a doctor's hand. Before doctors moved to the convalescent plasma, they did an MRI on Panzok's brain to make sure he hadn't suffered irreversible damage. "COVID-19 can cause devastating strokes," Cassiere said. "I wanted to make sure I wasn't dealing with a patient that, although he responded to steroids, had had a stroke" that would make any further treatments useless. The MRI showed a partial clot in one of the veins in Panzok's brain, but it wasn't dire. It was something doctors could treat. They moved ahead with the convalescent plasma, asking the Food and Drug Administration for authorization to use the treatment, as the plasma is considered experimental. Within a week of the plasma infusion, Panzok went from COVID positive to COVID negative. 'He would not wake up' The medications had done their job. He was weaned off the sedatives. But Panzok remained unresponsive. "He would not wake up from the medically-induced coma," Harel, Panzok's daughter, said. "He was off of the sedation about a week or two, and he wasn't waking up." In order for physicians to get Panzok off the ventilator, he needed to follow simple commands to prove he could breathe on his own. Once again, his doctors spoke with his family about the possibility that there was nothing more they could do, other than place a tracheotomy tube into his throat as an alternative to the ventilator. Harel recalled that physicians told her that in general, "Either the patients wake up right away, or they never wake up again." "I refused to give in. I refused to give up," Harel said. The family enlisted large prayer groups. And they made sure Panzok, perhaps on some level, knew it. That's when every day, multiple times a day, Panzok's nursing team would open up the phone line, providing the auditory tie to his family. "We just kept trying" to connect with him, Harel recalled. The family even spoke in Hebrew, Panzok's first language. The prayers continued. "I think if you are the kind of person who believes in God or has faith," Harel said, "you like to think there is a higher being." Image: Ron Panzok (Courtesy of Amy Harel) Five weeks into his coma, Panzok started to move. "First, he moved his hand. Then he moved his foot," Harel said. Doctors then capped the tracheotomy incision in his neck so he could speak. A nurse called Panzok's wife, Bonnie, who was with Harel at the time, and asked him to say something to his family. "He said, 'I love you, baby,'" and that was exactly what my father would always say," Harel said. He was back. Eight weeks after he entered the hospital, Panzok was ready to leave. The road ahead It's going to take many weeks and months for Panzok to regain his previous strength. An avid cyclist, he used to go on 40-mile bike trips. He loved exercise and working out in the gym. All of that is gone. Image: Ron Panzok (Courtesy of Amy Harel) He is now relearning to do the basics on his own: getting out of bed, swallowing. He's being weaned off of supplemental oxygen. That is typical of most patients who've been in intensive care for many weeks, with little to no physical activity. "We're seeing a lot of weakness, a lot of numbness, difficulty walking," said Dr. Susan Maltser, medical director of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Glen Cove Hospital on Long Island, where Panzok is currently in rehabilitation. Maltser's facility typically has 65 beds available for acute rehab patients, but has been able to expand to 75. Half are designated for post-ICU COVID-19 patients. "The hospitals saw their peaks about three weeks ago," Maltser said. "We're seeing our peak right now because people who were in the ICU intubated are just getting to us." Patients like Panzok get about three hours of rehabilitation therapy each day, for about three weeks. His doctors say he is getting stronger. But there is a long way to go, and he is acutely aware of that fact. Image: Ron Panzok (Courtesy of Amy Harel) "He just said to me, 'I was a bull of a man. I drove a truck, and I carried boxes. Now, it's hard for me to move my arm all the way,'" Maltser said, recalling a conversation she had with Panzok this week. But, she added, he is motivated to do the hard work necessary to get back to independence. Harel, too, has faith. "He's not a complainer, ever," she said. "He has that 'can-do spirit.' He's a very hard working, positive person." Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook. (Natural News) Not everyone likes to exercise, but studies have proven time and again that regular physical activity is crucial for maintaining your overall health. If you hate going to the gym but want to keep fit, you may finally have a reason to rejoice. According to updated federal physical activity guidelines, short bursts of exercise can also offer benefits for your well-being. Move more, sit less In November 2018, updated federal physical activity guidelines highlighted the importance of encouraging sedentary people to be more active, even if their exercise routine only lasted for several minutes. Previous guidelines from a decade ago state that you need to work out for about 10 consecutive minutes to improve your well-being. Dr. Katrina Piercy, a physical activity and nutrition advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, explained that smaller increments of exercise will add up and offer important health benefits. Piercy, who belonged to the team that wrote the new guidelines, added that the biggest benefits may come from an inactive person who starts exercising more, even if its just walking to their office daily instead of using the elevator. The important thing is to promote the practice of moving more and sitting less. The revised guidelines have also set the standards higher for alleged substantial health benefits. Now, adults need around 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate-level physical activity. Alternatively, you can take part in vigorous activities for 75 to 150 minutes a week. You can enjoy additional benefits if you do muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week. If you are busy at work, you dont have to commit to planned and structured activities. (Related: Short duration, high-intensity resistance exercise training programs can dramatically improve insulin sensitivity in overweight men: Study.) Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, an epidemiologist and vice chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, said that you dont need to do intense workouts to get your heart rate pumping. Other options that you can do include the following: Dancing at home. Doing jumping jacks for five to 10 minutes. Doing leg exercises or jogging in place while watching TV. Playing with your kids at the park. Using an exercise bike or a treadmill at home. Walking more and using your car less. According to the new guidelines, children aged three to five must be physically active throughout the day. This is a significant change from previous recommendations that said children aged six and older should stay active. Those aged six to 17 need at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise daily. While the advice for older adults is the same as those for younger adults, there is one difference. Older adults are advised to try mixing balance training with aerobic activities and muscle-strengthening. Piercy explained that taking part in multi-component exercises can help the elderly avoid falls and reduce the risk of injury if they fall. These activities can also help the elderly continue their normal routines and maintain independence. The new guidelines also note that being physically active benefits your brain health. Exercise may help improve sleep quality and lower your risk of developing issues such as depression, anxiety and dementia. Some studies have found that there is a link between exercise and improvements in brain health. Piercy notes that runners experience a phenomenon called runners high, which is caused by endorphins. Even if youre not an experienced runner, you may experience these same benefits if you go on a short, brisk walk. In recent years, physical activity levels in the U.S. have improved somewhat. But only about 20 percent of American adults get the recommended amount of physical activity. Carnethon hopes that the new guidelines can help improve these numbers by encouraging people to be more physically active, whether by exercising for several minutes or going all-out and working up a sweat at the gym. She concluded that physical activity should be treated like personalized medicine. Theres no clear-cut prescription for reaching 150 minutes weekly, so you can make changes to your routine to accommodate your schedule and personal interests. The important thing is to commit to exercising regularly and not to spend too much time sitting on your couch to improve your overall health. Sources include: Heart.org Prevention.com A Lehigh County gym owner cited for violating a shutdown mandate said Tuesday hell stay open until state authorities force him to close. SuperSets gym owner Ed Frack opened Sunday in violation of the states mandate for non-life-sustaining businesses to close in the Lehigh Valley to quell the spread of coronavirus. State police stopped by on Sunday at the gym at 2450 Schoenersville Road in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, but didnt cite him. Frack said they returned Monday, however, and issued two citations. Online records say he was cited under the Disease Control and Prevention Act of 1955 and the Administrative Code of 1929. Both citations are summary violations. Frack said police warned him that the state health department would take up the case and attempt to take away our license and shut us down for good. He said police threatened to cite each individual customer who works out in the gym and ignores the mandate from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. He said police vowed to return each day with citations. Spokespeople for Pennsylvania State Police and the state health department acknowledged the citations but didnt address Fracks claim that SuperSets would be forced to shut down. Frack said hell stay open until they force him to close. He feels he has no alternative. Closing the gym means hell go bankrupt, he said. Were in a worse position if we close and they need to understand that, Frack said. State officials have said non-life-sustaining businesses need to stay shut in counties in the yellow or red phase of the governors coronavirus plan. The risk of death or illness from coronavirus outweighs the economic damage caused by the shutdown, officials have said. Fracks opening on Sunday attracted about 15 customers and about 50 supporters of small business. The small business supporters gathered outside for a rally urging Wolf to relax his rules and allow more businesses to open. Few of the participants wore masks and few stayed more than six feet apart from other people. Both are recommended to help curb the spread of the disease. Wolf hopes the Lehigh Valley can move from the red phase to the yellow phase by early June. Gyms cant open until the region is in the green phase, however. Theyre not trying to help small businesses, Frack said of state authorities. Theyre just trying to bully them into closing. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. The Cayuga County Health Department reported Monday there were no new cases of COVID-19, after receiving the results of 154 new tests. While there are still two county residents hospitalized with COVID-19, the total number of active cases dropped slightly from 12 to 11 as of Monday afternoon, the department announced around 4 p.m. in its daily situational update. The additional recovery brings the number of people who've been allowed to leave mandatory isolation to 67 in total. Since testing began in mid-March, the county has received the results of 3,203 tests. The health department is still waiting for the results of 107 tests following several drive-thru clinics it hosted for essential workers, as well as their adult and child household members. Tests included in the overall count are performed by physicians, health facilities and licensed clinical laboratories in Cayuga County. Three women, one who lives in the city of Auburn, and two who live in towns, were the last people to test positive for COVID-19. Those most recent confirmed coronavirus cases were announced by the department Saturday afternoon. Two of the women are in their 40s and the other is in her 20s. In total, there have been 79 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cayuga County. One resident a man in his 40s with underlying health conditions died in April after a period of hospitalization. As of Monday afternoon, there are still 43 residents in mandatory quarantine and 11 in mandatory isolation. Neighboring Onondaga County did not release updated data for Monday because county workers who collect the data were off for Memorial Day and County Executive Ryan McMahon cancelled the daily briefing due to the holiday, as well. The most recent reports showed 47 new cases with 779 active cases in total, as of Sunday. Seventeen out of the 79 hospitalized patients are in critical condition, according to the county's website. In total, Onondaga County has reported 1,883 confirmed cases of COVID-19 this year. BEIRUT - A mass grave with at least 100 bodies, probably victims of ISIS, were discovered in northern Syria near Raqqa, which was the 'capital' of the 'Islamic State' in the war-torn country from 2014 until 2017. Rome-born Jesuit priest Father Paolo Dall'Oglio was reported missing in the area in July 2013. Many suspect that the priest was kidnapped and killed by ISIS. Dall'Oglio is still missing and some reports over the years have claimed that he was killed while others say he is still alive and held by his abductors. According to local sources in Raqqa and Syrian media reports, dozens of bodies have so far been found in the mass grave in the area of Tell Zidan. The remains belong to victims aged 25 to 35, according to the reports. Up to 200 people could be buried in the grave, according to excavation workers quoted by the outlets. Over the past few years the bodies of at least 6,000 people killed before and during ISIS's rule were discovered in mass graves in the area of Raqqa. A Cork landowner has said he may be forced to close off public access to walks and woodland on his property because of persistent antisocial behaviour there. Stephen Forrest, whose family owns farmland in Blarney, Cork, said it is upsetting for him and his family to be in this situation, but that a blanket ban on access is being considered to protect local residents, whose lives are being disrupted by the activity, and to protect his own family from possible legal claims. We grew up having great respect for our neighbours. We never fell out with them and we are not going to start now, but this activity is having an impact on them and we are now in the position of having to consider closing off the land to the public, land thats used and respected by local people, but we have to protect our elderly neighbours and ourselves from a liability perspective, he said. Mr Forrests family is now liaising closely with senior gardai on a range of options to tackle the problem, including the installation of more than 3km of new fencing which could cost several thousand euro the possible hiring of private security to guard the land at certain times, and a complete ban on public access. Mr Forrest said their property has always been popular with locals who use the land and wooded area for walks. He said the wooded area has always been used by small groups of young people over the years and there was never any hassle. But he said the nature of the antisocial activity and the numbers involved in the activity has ramped up significantly in the last three or four years. He said the increase was noticeable shortly after the introduction of significant improvements to the bus service to Blarney. Were talking about large, organised drinking gatherings now, involving teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 19, as well as young lads on motorbikes, and the lighting of fires, said Mr Forrest. Recently, we had some of the wooden poles in our fencing pulled out and used to fuel the fires. We have neighbours living alongside the property and they are suffering from this kind of activity. Some of those involved get access to the land over walls and fences and through some of these residences. And they are intimidating some of the older people in their homes. Gardai are doing their best. We even have access routes kept open for the gardai so that they have continual and quick access to our property, whenever they need to respond. But they are dealing with juveniles in many cases, and when they are brought home by the guards, some of the parents couldnt care less. Locals who use the land and woods for walks have helped with clean-ups after some of the parties, said Mr Forrest. But a recent confrontation between individuals and motorists who were speeding recklessly on tracks on the land, during which members of Mr Forrests family were threatened with rocks and stones, and then spat at, has brought the issue to a head. I really feel for the gardai trying to deal with this kind of behaviour but there seems to be no fear amongst those involved, its almost as if theyll get brownie points on social media for getting hassle from the gardai, he said. Those involved in this need to find other ways of socialising without bringing the gardai to their door. Oxxa is the ICANN accredited domain name registrar based in Netherlands, that also offers hosting services, dedicated servers, VPS, SSL Certificates and more. We already have Oxxa domain registrar module , which allows to automate domain provisioning and management, now were happy to introduce Oxxa SSL module!Oxxa SSL module for HostBill is an all-in-one tool to sell Oxxa SSL certificates either as separate products or as additions to or bundled with other services! Easily setup your products and let HostBill do the rest automatically issue certificates, parse CSR and synchronize certificate info. Provide clients with user-friendly way to manage their certificates from client area, where they can enter CSR, select approval email or get certificate status. Control everything: account lifecycle, billing, certificate autorenew and more from admin panel!The Moneris Gateway is a multi-functional online payment solution for business owners. 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Press release Regulated information 25 May 2020, 20:00 CEST IRVINE, CA, and HERSTAL, BELGIUM 25 May 2020 MDxHealth SA (Euronext Brussels: MDXH) (the "Company" or "MDxHealth"), a commercial-stage innovative molecular diagnostics company, announces today in accordance with Article 14 of the Belgian Act of 2 May 2007 on the disclosure of important participations in issuers of which shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market and regarding miscellaneous provisions (the "Belgian Transparency Act"), that it received the following notifications of significant shareholdings as a consequence of the capital increase announced on 27 April 2020 and completed on 15 May 2020. Valiance Asset Management Limited notified MDxHealth that the aggregate number of shares with respect to which Valiance Asset Management Limited can exercise voting rights passively crossed below the threshold of 15% of the outstanding shares and voting rights of MDxHealth. Notably, it follows from the notification by Valiance Asset Management Limited, who notified alone, that an aggregate of 11,159,202 shares of MDxHealth, representing 12.30% of the 90,691,449 outstanding shares and voting rights of MDxHealth, is held through the following entities: TopMDx Ltd, Valiance Life Sciences Growth Investments SICAV-SIF, and Valiance Holdings Limited. The notification also stated that Valiance Holdings Limited is a Guernsey company within the Valiance corporate structure, that Valiance Life Sciences Growth Investment Fund SICAV-SIF is a Luxembourg fund with multiple external investors, that TopMDx Ltd is an exempted closed-ended fund registered in British Virgin Islands with multiple external investors, and that Valiance Asset Management Limited is investment manager, is not a controlled entity, and can exercise the voting rights at its discretion for each of the aforementioned three entities. MVM Partners LLP notified MDxHealth that the aggregate number of shares with respect to which MVM Partners LLP can exercise voting rights actively crossed above the threshold of 20% of the outstanding shares and voting rights of MDxHealth. Notably, it follows from the notification by MVM Partners LLP, who notified alone, that an aggregate of 20,162,924 shares of MDxHealth, representing 22.23% of the 90,691,449 outstanding shares and voting rights of MDxHealth, is held through the following entities: MVM V LP (which acquired 19,755,592 voting securities by way of subscription to a capital increase by MDxHealth) and MVM GP (No. 5) (which acquired 407,332 voting securities by way of subscription to a capital increase by MDxHealth). The notification also stated that MVM Partners LLP is not a controlled entity, acts as fund manager of the aforementioned two entities, and can exercise the voting rights attached to the securities at its own discretion, without specific instruction. Story continues For further information, reference is made to the information published on MDxHealth's website (http://www.mdxhealth.com/investors/shareholder-information). Pursuant to the Belgian Transparency Act and the articles of association of the Company, a notification to the Company and the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) is required by all natural and legal persons in each case where the percentage of voting rights attached to the securities held by such persons in the Company reaches, exceeds or falls below the threshold of 3%, 5%, 10%, and every subsequent multiple of 5%, of the total number of voting rights in the Company. About MDxHealth MDxHealth is a multinational healthcare company that provides actionable molecular diagnostic information to personalize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Company's tests are based on proprietary genetic, epigenetic (methylation) and other molecular technologies and assist physicians with the diagnosis of urologic cancers, prognosis of recurrence risk, and prediction of response to a specific therapy. The Company's European headquarters are in Herstal, Belgium, with laboratory operations in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and US headquarters and laboratory operations based in Irvine, California. For more information, visit mdxhealth.com and follow us on social media at: twitter.com/mdxhealth, facebook.com/mdxhealth and linkedin.com/company/mdxhealth. For more information: MDxHealth info@mdxhealth.com Important information The MDxHealth logo, MDxHealth, ConfirmMDx and SelectMDx are trademarks or registered trademarks of MDxHealth SA. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Attachment SureSale won the Gold Stevie Award in the Innovation of the Year Business Services category in the 18th Annual American Business Awards We are particularly gratified that SureSales innovation was recognized by this award. Our information-rich certification-as-a-service platform could not be timelier as transactions between consumers and auto dealers are, by necessity, become more digital and contactless SureSale, the gold standard for quality used vehicles and purchase protection, won the Gold Stevie Award in the Innovation of the Year Business Services category in the 18th Annual American Business Awards. The category recognizes singular innovations in product development. The SureSale team is proud to receive this honor which validates our mission of enabling auto dealers to more easily certify more of their used vehicle inventory, while providing greater peace of mind to used car buyers, said SureSale President and Co-founder Jeffrey Schwartz. We are particularly gratified that SureSales innovation was recognized by this award. Our information-rich certification-as-a-service platform could not be timelier as transactions between consumers and auto dealers have, by necessity, become more digital and contactless." SureSale bridges a major auto market gap by expanding the certified category to meet demand for Certified Pre-Owned vehicles (CPO) among the US 40 million used car buyers. SureSale is poised to create a sea change in the ability of automobile dealers to earn consumer trust for a much larger percentage of their used vehicle inventory, while meeting and exceeding the needs of shoppers who want to be sure about their used vehicle purchase. SureSales certification and marketing platform offers franchise and independent dealers across the US a turnkey program and technology that enables them to certify more of their used vehicle inventory. The platform, which helps to facilitate a more socially distanced purchasing process, provides vehicle history data, mobile vehicle inspections, and VIN specific data, including recalls, warranty coverages, and purchase protection, all presented through SureSales industry leading, proprietary Comprehensive Auto Report (CAReport). Despite the toughest business conditions in memory, American organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to innovation, creativity, and bottom-line results, said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher. This years Stevie-winning nominations are full of inspiring stories of persistence, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and compassion. We celebrate all of their stories and look forward to showcasing them during our virtual awards ceremony on August 5." The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word meaning crowned, the awards will be virtually presented to winners during a live event on Wednesday, August 5. Tickets for the virtual event are now on sale. More than 230 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this years Stevie Award winners. Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2020 Stevie winners are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA. About SureSale Founded and led by a team of automotive/tech innovators, SureSale has created the gold standard for quality used vehicles and purchase protection. Delivered through the industrys first, and only, Certification-as-a-Service platform, SureSale bridges a major auto market gap, dramatically expanding the certified category and meeting the growing demand for Certified Pre-Owned vehicles (CPO) among the US 40 million used car buyers. SureSales certification and marketing platform, which is supported nationally by the SureSale brand, offers franchise and independent dealers across the US a turnkey program and technology that enables them to certify more of their used vehicle inventory. Each SureSale Certified vehicle comes with a CAReport (Comprehensive Auto Report), the single source of truth on the past history, present condition and future assurance of a used car, as well as comprehensive warranty and purchase protection. SureSale is based in Santa Monica, CA. Visit https://www.suresale.com/ for more information. About the Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com SureSale Media Contact: Angela Jacobson, mWEBB Communications, angela@mwebbcom.com, (714) 454-8776 Melanie Webber, mWEBB Communications, melanie@mwebbcom.com, (949) 307-1723 Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:57:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Sales of new vehicles in Lebanon in the first four months of 2020 dropped by 69 percent over the same period last year, given the deteriorating economic situation, Elnashra, local independent newspaper, reported on Tuesday. Car companies sold 2,532 new vehicles in the first four months in 2020, compared to 8,102 for the same period last year, while they have only sold 188 new vehicles in April compared to 2,168 during the same month last year. The country has been plagued by a deteriorating economic situation. Also, car importers have not been able to have easy access to U.S. currency to import cars which contributed to the increase in prices of new vehicles. At the same time, the COVID-19 outbreak in Lebanon prompted companies to close for a long time. Enditem [May 26, 2020] On June 2 Join Cloud Native Technologies Experts for Hands-On Demos, Thought Leadership, Best Practices, and Trends Following the recent success of the Destination: Decentralization virtual event last month, Kong Inc., a leading cloud connectivity company, and Mirantis, the open cloud company, have teamed up with Microsoft Azure to host the Cloud Native eParty. Scheduled from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 2, the Cloud Native eParty will bring together experts from across the ecosystem for hands-on demos of cloud native technologies and thought leadership on best practices and trends. Attendees will consist of software engineers, architects and IT executives for a single-day event that caters to global time zones. The agenda will feature technical sessions highlighting open source cloud native technologies and business-level thought leadership from industry experts. Partners for the event include Buoyant, CNCF, Cockroach Labs, HashiCorp, Honeycomb, PlanetScale, StackRox, The New Stack, and Tigera. "After such a successful event last month, we are excited to once again partner with Kong to put on another great event for our community," said David Van Everen (News - Alert), SVP, Marketing, Mirantis. "Despite the current public health crisis, we are happy to find a way to share innovative ideas and things we've learned, and have some fun while doing it." Confirmed speakers include: Melanie Cebula, staff software engineer, Airbnb staff software engineer, Airbnb Katie Gamanji, cloud platform engineer, American Express (News - Alert) cloud platform engineer, American Express (News - Alert) Cheryl Hung, director of Ecosystem, CNCF director of Ecosystem, CNCF Reza Shafii, vice president of Product, Kong vice president of Product, Kong Brendan Burns, corporate vice president, Microsoft (News - Alert) corporate vice president, Microsoft (News - Alert) Miska Kaipiainen, sr. director of Engineering, Mirantis "Kong was hoping to connect with the Kubernetes and cloud native community at various events throughout the year, but since meeting in person is not an option at the moment, we're thrilled to host this Cloud Native eParty with Mirantis and Microsoft," said Marco Palladino, CTO and co-founder of Kong Inc. "Together, we are stronger and learn more when we share our stories, what has worked and the problems that are challenging us most." Register now for the Cloud Native eParty: https://cloudnativeeparty.com/#section-registration About Kong Inc. Kong creates software that connects APIs and microservices natively across and within clouds, Kubernetes, data centers and more using intelligent automation. Built on an open source core, Kong's solutions enable digital innovation by allowing organizations to reliably and securely manage the full lifecycle of APIs and services for modern architectures including microservices, serverless and service mesh. By providing developer teams with unprecedented architectural freedom, Kong accelerates innovation cycles, increases productivity, and seamlessly bridges legacy and modern systems and applications. For more information about Kong, please visit konghq.com or follow @thekonginc on Twitter (News - Alert). About Mirantis Mirantis is the fastest way to modern apps, providing containers-as-a-service at enterprise scale. The company uses a unique as-a-service model to deliver Kubernetes and related open source software, empowering developers to build, share and run their applications anywhere - from public cloud to hybrid cloud to the edge. Mirantis serves many of the world's leading enterprises, including Adobe (News - Alert), Cox Communications, DocuSign, Liberty Mutual, PayPal, Reliance Jio, Splunk, STC, Vodafone, and Volkswagen. Learn more at www.mirantis.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005863/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Last week, Midland ISD filled two of the highest-ranking positions in the district: the chief academic officer and the chief operations officer. And Superintendent Orlando Riddick went to a place he knows well to make these selections. The chief of Midland ISDs chiefs selected a pair of top officials he worked with at Cedar Hill ISD, a district in southwest Dallas County, where Riddick was superintendent before his arrival in Midland. Midland ISD announced Lisa Goodnow will be the next chief academic officer, a position which has been vacant since the fall. The district also stated that Kellie Spencer will replace James Riggen as the chief operations officer. Riggen announced his retirement this spring. In selecting candidates for the roles of chief academic officer and chief operations officer, I reviewed numerous resumes, Riddick said in an email to the Reporter-Telegram. In the case of the chief academic officer role, the search even extended nationwide, with MISD interviewing candidates hailing from Houston to Chicago and everywhere in between. Ultimately, Dr. Goodnow and Ms. Spencer were the top candidates based upon their employment history, demonstrated results and passion for the work. Goodnow comes to Midland from Austin ISD, where she has served as an assistant superintendent for the past two years, overseeing multiple departments, including special education, academics, social and emotional learning, multilingual, health services and early childhood. Before that, she served as executive director of academics and social and emotional learning. Goodnow began her career in 1989 teaching middle school history and English in Austin ISD. She also served as a principal in Hays CISD, and later in Cedar Hill ISD, where she oversaw academics and school leadership from 2014-2016. Riddick was at Cedar Hill ISD from 2014 to 2017. Academic performance has been an area where Midland ISD has struggled for more than a decade. The Texas Education Agency reported last fall that nine Midland ISD campuses received failing grades and another 10 record Ds. Only a total of four earned an A or a B. The district also has struggled to reach goals set by district leaders as part of the Lone Star Governance program. I had the opportunity to visit Midland ISD and meet principals, teachers, and teacher assistants. I could really tell that Midland ISD was about kids first, Goodnow said in a press release provided by the district. Im excited to be a part of a school community that shares the strong commitment to meeting students and teachers needs. Im eager to join the Midland ISD family and community and serve on a dynamic leadership team with truly caring educators. Im also excited about a team that looks ahead and takes an innovative approach to education. Spencer comes to Midland ISD from Cedar Hill ISD, where she has served as deputy superintendent since February 2018. Cedar Hill ISDs website states Spencer has spent all 22 years of her education career at Cedar Hill ISD. She began as a fourth-grade teacher, worked in the district special education department, eventually becoming the departments executive director. Spencer became the assistant superintendent of operations in 2014. As stated no less than six times in the job description for the position, bond preparation is a priority of the position. The school district narrowly lost a $569 million bond election in November. My family and I are excited to join this community, Spencer said in the release. I look forward to serving the students, staff and stakeholders of the district. With the latest moves, Riddicks staff has evolved to the point that he has hired or created positions for the eight highest-ranking positions, according to the districts pay plan. The four top pay grade positions are chief academic officer (Goodnow), general counsel (Sid Pounds), chief operations officer (Spencer) and chief financial officer (Darrell Dodds), with a salary range of $147,120.04 to $183,487.64. The other four positions are chief of staff (Katie Atkins), chief communications officer (Elana Ladd), chief human resources officer (Woodrow Bailey) and chief transformation officer (Elise Kail). Riddick said in the release Goodnow and Spencer are highly effective leaders adept at implementing strategies that lead to improved student outcomes. Both individuals were integral to the work that occurred under my leadership at Cedar Hill leading that district to a B rating, Riddick said in an email to the Reporter-Telegram. Just as we are working on here, at Cedar Hill we implemented strong systems and processes, worked to maintain a solid fiscal position, fostered innovative campus leadership, and strove to listen and respond to the community. Ms. Spencer and Dr. Goodnow both bring the dual perspective of educators and parents and understand the importance of teacher and community engagement. I look forward to their arrivals and introduction to the Midland ISD family. COLBORNE The victim of a homicide last week at a residential property between Colborne and Brighton was identified as 72-year-old Boyd Woods. Woods was found inside an outbuilding with obvious signs of trauma and no vital signs by paramedics and Northumberland County officers who were called at about 7 p.m. May 19 to the property at 14407 Northumberland County Road 2, near Trennear Road, in Cramahe Township, about 74 kilometres southeast of Peterborough. It was initially treated as a sudden death, but it was confirmed to be a homicide after an autopsy was conducted Saturday in Toronto. No arrests have been made and police have not said if there is a suspect. Police have not said if there is a threat to public safety, but they are advising people to lock the doors to their homes, be aware of surroundings and personal safety and report anything suspicious to police. Members of the Northumberland OPP crime unit and the OPP Central Region forensic identification services, in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, are investigating the homicide under the direction of the OPPs criminal investigation branch. Police advise that people can expect more OPP investigatiors and vehicles in the area of the property as the investigation continues. Anyone with information about the killing can call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or online at stopcrimehere.ca Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Tiffany Fumiko Tay (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Singapore Tue, May 26, 2020 14:00 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda22fad 2 Sports Singapore,singapore-gp,car-race,sporting-event,COVID-19,coronavirus,pandemic,Formula-One Free While the fate of this year's Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix remains up in the air, preparations are under way for it to go ahead with a live audience. At least four tenders related to the set-up of viewing facilities and ancillary activities for the Sept 20 Formula One race were put up by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) between February and last month, according to checks by The Straits Times. These include the construction and fitting out of the Temasek and Singapore suites at the F1 Pit Building, shuttle bus services for suite guests and precinct parties to be held in Orchard Road and Clarke Quay. Other tenders relate to works to be carried out at the F1 Pit Building and storage site in Tampines. Promoter Singapore GP said last week that it is not feasible to conduct the race behind closed doors, given that it is a street circuit. The Formula One season is expected to kick off in Austria in July without spectators, after a series of cancellations and postponements. The request for proposal to organize and execute precinct parties is part of the Grand Prix Season Singapore, scheduled to happen from Sept 11 to 20. Race-themed parties were first extended beyond the racetrack in the lead-up to last year's event, which drew 268,000 spectators over three days. Fringe activities including racing simulators, a carnival and live music were held in Orchard Road, Kampong Glam, Clarke Quay and Jewel Changi Airport. Examples of the desired scale and variety of activities this year include a "mega outdoor party" in Clarke Quay and partnerships with nightclubs in the area, as well as branded race-themed activities in and around Orchard Road, according to tender documents seen by The Straits Times. STB noted, however, that tenderers should factor the Covid-19 pandemic and any related regulations in their planning and proposals. A contractor is expected to be appointed by early next month, according to the request for proposal, which closed last Thursday with seven bids. The budget for the precinct parties is listed as between $490,000 and $590,000. The tourism board said in response to queries that it is working closely with Singapore GP and other government agencies to assess the feasibility of proceeding with the race. "Being a street circuit, more lead time for planning and preparation is required, which includes procurement," STB said. If the event is called off, any awarded tenderers will be paid for work done, it said, adding that it will explore options to deploy the works for future use. Asked about safe distancing measures at the parties and whether entertainment establishments in Clarke Quay are anticipated to reopen by September, STB said the Government will monitor and assess developments in the global and local Covid-19 situation to determine the appropriate timelines for the gradual resumption of more businesses and activities. The Republic will be undergoing a phased reopening of its economy when it exits a two-month circuit breaker on June 2. The first phase, which will last for at least four weeks, will allow more people to return to the workplace, while the second phase, which will span several months, will see shops and sports and recreation facilities reopen. Social, cultural, religious and business gatherings are expected to resume by the third phase, with limits on gathering sizes. Magazine Nexos has counted 39,173 fatalities until May 20 a sharp increase compared with the previous four years. Mexicos capital registered 8,072 more deaths in the first five months this year than the average from the same period over the previous four years, an analysis by independent researchers showed on Monday, suggesting a possible surge in fatalities to the coronavirus pandemic. Health officials have reported 1,655 deaths from the virus in Mexico City, out of 7,394 deaths nationwide. They have also acknowledged that the true death toll is higher, but difficult to estimate because of the low testing rate. Software developer Mario Romero Zavala and economic consultant Laurianne Despeghel, whose analysis was published in Mexican magazine Nexos, counted 39,173 fatalities this year up to May 20 by extracting data from Mexico Citys online database of death certificates. During the previous four years, they calculated just 31,101 deaths on average during the same period, using the same database. Mexico Citys official count of deaths from the coronavirus represents just more than 20 percent of the studys excess mortality a term used by epidemiologists to estimate the increase in deaths, versus normal conditions, attributable to a public health crisis. Excess mortality is difficult to calculate in Mexico because the most recent data on fatalities from the national statistics institute is from 2018. Despeghel said the analysis was only a first step towards measuring the impact of the virus. While studying excess deaths allows us to identify a higher mortality rate during the COVID-19 crisis, it is not sufficient to attribute it directly or solely to the virus, she said. Border checks tighten A Reuters review of data from 13 funeral homes in Mexico City showed that the excess mortality rate in the first week of May could be at least 2.5 times higher than the governments tally of deaths from the coronavirus during that period. On Monday, Mexican health officials reported 2,485 new cases of coronavirus and 239 deaths nationwide, bringing the countrys official count to 71,105 cases and 7,633 deaths respectively. Meanwhile, officials in a Mexican border city are tightening checks on travellers coming from Texas, saying they fear US visitors may be helping feed a spike in COVID-19 cases, The Associated Press news agency reported on Monday. Municipal and state officials in Matamoros, together with Mexicos National Guard began setting up checkpoints last Saturday at the three border crossings to question US citizens and residents coming from Brownsville, Texas. City official Jorge Mora Solaldine said only one person would be allowed for each vehicle and people will have to prove they have essential business, such as work or medical care. At least 180 people were turned back at a single point on Saturday, according to city officials. Mexico and the US announced in March that they were closing the border to non-essential business, but enforcement has been spotty in some places, and there were few, if any, checks on those coming into Matamoros. Commercial traffic, critical to the economy on both sides of the border, has continued on a large scale. Excess mortality is difficult to calculate in Mexico because the most recent data on fatalities from the national statistics institute is from 2018 [Gustavo Graf/Reuters] The municipality of Matamoros, with a population of roughly 500,000, has reported 323 confirmed infections of the new coronavirus and 29 deaths, while Cameron County on the other side of the border has recorded about 700 cases and 32 deaths among its roughly 420,000 people. The US-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, with many people normally crossing almost daily for work or school. Residents and officials on both sides have claimed that travellers from across the border were bringing the infection. As many as 350 migrants returning from Delhi and Patiala jumped off Shramik Special trains by pulling alarm chains in two separate incidents between Mansi-Saharsa rail sections near Simri-Bakhtiarpur station falling under East Central railway on Tuesday. According to reports, the train (04062) carrying the migrant workers from Delhis Anand Vihar to Purnia halted near the Ranibagh railway crossing though there was no scheduled stoppage. Around 150 workers de-boarded and escaped. On getting information, Simri Bakhtiarpur BDO Manoj Kumar reached the spot and also met station superintendent of Simri Bakhtiarpur railway station, B K Verma who said the train stopped at around 8.36 am to 8.41 am after passengers pulled the emergency brake. Later the BDO visited a nearby village and urged locals as well as the mukhia (headman) to inform them about the migrants who escaped from the train. The locals also demanded migrants who escaped from the train should be kept in quarantine centres. In another incident, at around 4.24 pm more than 250 migrant returnees fled a Shramik Special train near the same rail section after pulling the alarm chain. After some locals spotted the migrant returnees coming from the railway track towards Ranibagh area, they informed police and railway protection force (RPF). While 180 of the migrants were detained by the locals, others managed to escape. On getting information BDO Manoj Kumar and government railway polices (GRP) station house officer (SHO) Ranveer Kumar reached the spot and brought them back to Simri Bakhtiarpur railway station. Though the migrants refuted the allegation of chain pulling and said that they alighted from the train as it had stopped, the station superintendent insisted that the chain was pulled to stop the train. The migrants would be sent to their respective native places by buses after thermal scanning. One of the migrants said the Shramik Special train (4534) was carrying people of Saharsa from Patiala in Punjab. We were facing a lot of problems owing to lack of jobs and the lockdown. We were returning home, he added. In a similar incident, migrants allegedly stopped another train headed towards Gaya from Chandigarh near Mahdi Ganj village in Sasaram district. Soon after, the passengers started deboarding the train and ran away to their destinations instead of going to the quarantine centre, GRP officials said. Twenty four passengers are suspected to have escaped from the train. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Police authorities in Michoacan, Mexico found 12 burned bodies of suspected members of New Jalisco Generation Cartel, according to a recently published article. Mexican Cartels in Mexico Amid Global Pandemic Mexican cartels in Mexico are known for their different illegal businesses and gruesome killings. Most of the time, a cartel would murder a member from their rival group due to some conflict of power in a certain territory for control over the distribution of illegal drugs and cocaine. Amid the global pandemic, Mexico has reached its highest murder rate in March since it began recording in 1997. Around 2,585 murders were recorded in March and it still not known until now as to how many of these killings are related to the violence committed by the different cartels. This only shows that even amid the pandemic, killings and distribution of illegal drugs by the Mexican cartels continue. Due to the existing violence in the country, Pres. Manuel Lopez Obrador signed an executive order early this month that mandated the Armed Forces to return on the streets to stabilize and implement peace and order. Feud of Mexican Cartels Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Familia Michoacana The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is considered today as the most feared organized group across the country. One of the Mexican states that they control is the Michoacana. However, their most rival group in the state is also known for its power and influence, the Familia Michoacana. Recently, a leaked video from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel showed the alleged member of Familia Michoacana who was identified as "El Vago" being interrogated by armed men. On a separate video, it showed how El Vago was brutally beheaded. Another video went viral online that showed the alleged members of Jalisco New Generation Cartel killed three of the 10 Familia Michoacana members. Additionally, the video also showed how they dragged them on a dirt road and place them atop each other. 12 Burned Bodies of Suspected Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Found Police authorities on Michoacan, Mexico found 12 burned bodies of suspected members the Jalisco New Generation Cartel on Saturday. The 12 bodies were stacked on top of each other on the back of the pickup truck covered with a tarp. The gruesome killing was allegedly an act of revenge from the Familia Michoacana whose member was beheaded by its rival cartel. Moreover, the Familia Michoacana claimed responsibility for the said killing of 12 persons. They left a poster that states: "Forgive me Chito Cano. I forgot your Mother's Day gift but I send it to you here. ATTN: La Michoacana Familia." Chito Cano was reportedly the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel that operates in Michoacana. Bodies Were Not Just Burned, But Tortured As Well The Michoacan Attorney General's office confirmed that all bodies found were not only burned but they all showed signs of being tortured. However, the office did not give any details as to when the gruesome killings happened. In an official statement the office released, it says: "In regards to the event's modus operandi, it is not ruled out that the crime is due to a settling of accounts between members of organized crime due to drug trafficking." Moreover, the war between the two cartels in the Mexican state started several years ago but it was intensified just this February when a member of Chito Cano appeared on a video and gave a threat to wipe out the members of Familia Michoacana in the state. Read related articles: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that rats might become more aggressive during the pandemic since food sources become scarce. According to Independent's latest report, humans are not the only ones affected by the lockdown caused by the global coronavirus pandemic. Some rodents are becoming more brazen to find new food sources since almost all restaurants are currently closed. Restaurants' trash bins are no longer overflowing with food leftovers that are mainly the food source of the rats living in the city. The stay-at-home restrictions being implemented during the pandemic pushed many cafes and restaurants to close, limiting their services to food takeout and delivery, leading to reduced sales. Since rodents become more aggressive because they are finding slimmer pickings that they used to, CDC has issued guidance that will help people how to deter the sudden change of the rats' behavior. Rats are becoming more aggressive during the pandemic Reports of the rat infanticide and cannibalism had increased in New York, while Chicago received more rat complaints since humans produce more food waste at home since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC advises businesses and homeowners to seal holes rodents could access in buildings, put pet and bird food out of reach, and, most importantly, cover the garbage cans to avoid attracting aggressive rats. "Some jurisdictions have reported an increase in rodent activity as rodents search for new sources of food," CDC stated. "Environmental health and rodent control programs may see an increase in service requests related to rodents and reports of unusual or aggressive rodent behavior," explained CDC. Pest control workers are classified as essential in cities trying to combat the rat issues, like the District of Columbia. According to city 311 data, 800 calls regarding rodents were received by the District for the past months. Food-borne illnesses such as salmonella can be transmitted by rodents and other health issues such as asthma and allergies--children are most likely at risk, Because of the aggressive behavior of rodents, they are starting to devour cars, posing an additional threat to those working remotely. Car engines and tires that were destroyed by the rodents can cause fires, pushing goaded officials and car owners to seek their own solutions for the pest issue. Bobby Corrigan, an urban rodentologist, stated that the rats would need to adapt to find new food sources as the pandemic continues. He also currently works with other pest experts to share what they discovered surveying the area affected by the pests. Also Read: COVID-19 Update:16 Pregnant Women Found With Injured Placenta; Can Virus Affect the Baby in the Womb? 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A man involved in a fatal wreck that killed a woman on a North Side highway before police say he fled the scene later told police the crash was caused by another driver, according to his arrest affidavit. Police arrested Justin Antwan Jackson, 29, on Friday and charged him with failure to stop and render aid resulting in death after an 18-wheeler slammed into a stalled vehicle killing 46-year-old Donna Falkenberg. Jackson was driving a truck near the 20000 block of Interstate 10, near Dominion Drive, when he came upon a stalled Ford Fiesta with its hazard lights flashing, according to the affidavit. He told police that he had been attempting to avoid another vehicle that was crossing into his lane near and didn't see the stalled vehicle until it was too late, the affidavit stated. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox The truck crashed into the rear of the Fiesta causing such extensive damage that the trunk was "completely collapsed to nearly the front seats," the affidavit reported. The court document then stated that Jackson fled the scene, later telling police that he was trying to chase the other vehicle he claims moved into his lane of travel. Police found the 18-wheeler nearly 20 miles away at the intersection of Bowie and Crockett streets. The truck was missing its front bumper and still had pieces of the victim's vehicle stuck under its wheels, according to police. Jackson was found near the truck when police arrived and initially told officers he was a passenger, asleep in the cab, at the time of the crash, according to the affidavit. He later confessed that he was the driver of the truck, the affidavit stated. He said he didn't know the Fiesta was occupied and only learned otherwise after seeing news reports, police noted in the affidavit. The court document also stated that Jackson claimed he was told to lie to the police by his employer, whom he said he contacted following the wreck. Jackson remains in the Bexar County Adult Detention Facility, his bail was set at $150,000. Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (29) Ireland's designated lands are worth 2-3 billion - or between 1,000/ac and 1,500/ac - to the national economy each year, according to the EU Commission. These benefits are provided in the form of direct farming output and in public goods such as bio-diversity, tourism and protection of carbon sinks. The latest EU assessment has resulted in calls from the INHFA for a total re-evaluation of direct payments on these lands to farmers. The Commission's Bio-diversity Strategy for 2030 estimates that Natura 2000 lands are worth 200-300 billion annually to the union's economy. Given that Ireland has 1pc of the EU's total protected area, the country's share of the economic benefits from Natura 2000 equates to 2-3 billion a year, or 1,000-1,500/ac for the two million acres (800,000ha) of designated land in the state. Reacting to the report, the INHFA claimed that the 30,000 Irish farmers with designated lands deserved a greater share of the benefits that accrue to the economy from these sites. "Almost 10 years ago we were informed in Brussels that the EU valued the impact of designations at 150/ha/year. Up to this we have accepted that valuation, however, it may now be time to re-evaluate how everyone gets rewarded," an INHFA spokesman said. The hill farmer body claimed that 50m from GLAS was the only environmental payment currently available to Natura farmers. "The fact that these farmers must first join GLAS in order to receive any payment is unacceptable. In addition, the payment rate of 79/ha on a limited number of hectares has added injury to insult," he said. Lufthansa airplanes are seen parked on the tarmac during a strike of cabin crew union (UFO) at Frankfurt airport, Germany, on Nov. 7, 2019. (Ralph Orlowski/File Photo/Reuters) Lufthansa and German Government Agree on $9.8 Billion Rescue Package FRANKFURT/BERLINThe German government and Lufthansa, which has been hit hard by the CCP virus pandemic, have reached a preliminary deal on a 9 billion euro ($9.8 billion) bailout. The airline has been in talks with Berlin for weeks over aid to help it to cope with what is expected to be a protracted travel slump, but the carrier has been wrangling over how much control to yield in return for support. The German Finance and Economy Ministries on May 25 said Lufthansa was an operationally healthy company before the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak, was profitable, and had good prospects for the future but had got into trouble because of the pandemic. Rivals such as Franco-Dutch group Air France-KLM and U.S. carriers American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines have also sought state aid. Shares in the company were up 5.5 percent at 8.48 euros by 1507 GMT. Lufthansa said that conditions of the deal include the waiver of future dividend payments and limits on management pay. The government will also fill two seats on the supervisory board, one of which is to become a member of the audit committee. The plan includes Germany taking a 20 percent stake in Lufthansa, which it plans to sell by the end of 2023. Germany will buy the new shares at the nominal value of 2.56 euros apiece for a total of about 300 million euros. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said the rescue package was a very, very good solution that takes into account the needs of both the company and taxpayers. The support that were preparing here is for a limited period, he said. When the company is fit again, the state will sell its stake and hopefully with a small profit that puts us into a position to finance the many, many requirements which we have to meet now, not only at this company. The government will also inject 5.7 billion euros in non-voting capital, dubbed silent participation, into the company. Part of this could be converted into an additional 5 percent equity stake, either if coupon payments are missed or to protect the company against a takeover. The silent participation will carry a coupon of 4 percent in 2020 and 2021, increasing to 9.5 percent by 2027 to encourage fast repayment. Separately, Lufthansa will receive a 3 billion euro loan from state-backed bank KfW and private banks with a term of three years. The bailout deal is still pending approval by shareholders as well as the European Commission. The company and the competition watchdog are still discussing which slots at which airports Lufthansa will have to waive as a remedy to ensure the bailout does not hamper competition, a person close to the matter said. Scrutiny is extremely thorough as it is the first large equity-based bailout in the pandemic, the source said. According to business daily Handelsblatt, German chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would fight for remedies not being too stringent. By Arno Schuetze and Christian Kraemer Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. This is the moment a paralyzed deaf-mute teenager tried to rob a jewelry store in Brazil by aiming a fake gun with his feet. The astonishing incident unfolded Monday afternoon at a shop in Canela, Rio Grande de Sul, when the 19-year-old placed a threatening note on the counter using his feet. The note from the suspect, who authorities say has cerebral palsy and cannot move his hands, read: 'Hand over everything. Don't raise attention.' A store surveillance camera captured the disabled teen in his wheelchair before he aimed a plastic toy gun wedged between his bare feet at the counter. A person, who appeared to be a customer, walked away while the employee confronted the teenager, whose name has not been released by authorities. Police in Canela, a city in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande de Sul, arrested a 19-year-old man (right) Monday after he attempted to rob a jewelry store The teen (right), who suffers from cerebral palsy, used his bare feet to point a fake gun at the store employee (left) The teen used his feet to place a note on the counter. The Portuguese written note said: 'Hands off everything. Don't raise attention' The jewelry shop employee said the paralyzed teenager had been in the store for about 10 minutes and that he initially thought he was begging. A customer had already given the teenager money and the store clerk said he felt sympathy towards him before he was given the robbery note. The fake plastic gun, knife and note that the wheelchair-bound teenager was in possession of when he tried to rob a jewelry store in Brazil on Monday are pictured above The Civil Police in the Brazilian city of Canela are still investigating Monday's robbery and said it was impossible to think the teenager (pictured right) was capable of committing the crime 'Then he pulled the gun out with his feet. That pistol looked real,' the worker said, according to Brazilian news outlet Metropoles. 'A guy back there saw it and called 911.' The police arrived and arrested the teenager, who was also in possession of a knife. A family member was allowed to assist officers questioning the teen at the precinct because of his disability, before he was later released from custody. City delegate Vladimir Medeiros initiated an investigation into the failed robbery 'It must be considered that, given the elements initially brought to the police station, it would possibly be an impossible crime to be consummated, especially if you considered the physical condition of the [person being] investigated, also due to the unlikelihood of escape,' Medeiros said. As South Africa gradually heads towards Level 3 lockdown as from 1 June, the opening of most retail means that retailers and retail property owners will begin to look forward to a more normal business life. Image source: Gallo/Getty Unrealistic assumptions Contraction in real household sector disposable income Wildcard risks to retail expectations and forecasts Virus-related fear of crowded public spaces Financial health fears and increased savings the less talked about wildcard How realistic is the possibility of a significant increase in the household sectors savings rate? The 1977 GDP contraction, the year after the Soweto Uprisings saw household net savings as a percentage of disposable income rise from 3.7% in 1976 to 7.5% in 1977. The double-dip recession of 1982-1985 saw this net savings rate rise from 1.6% in 1982 to 4.4% in 1985. The three-year recession of 1990-1992, accompanied by SAs volatile political transition, saw net savings rise from 2% in 1991 to 4.1% in 1992. Around the 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis, and again following the onset of SAs long-term growth stagnation from 2012 onward, we saw mild improvements in the form of diminishing net dis-savings rates too. Understanding savings behaviour Key near-term risk factor Moving gradually to lower levels of lockdown should mean that the retail property sector can look forward not only to an increasing number of their tenants reopening, but also to foot traffic increasing along with spending.But even with the lockdown being phased down, and eventually out, there are no guarantees that the full consumer recovery will be quick. Rather, full recovery could conceivably lag the end of lockdowns considerably, given the magnitude of the financial knock that the household sector has taken.A simplistic assumption may be that household disposable income returns to its pre-Covid-19 crisis level, consumer spending follows suit and also returns to its pre-Covid-19 level, and this translates into retail sales returning to similar levels too, all fairly quickly once lockdown is fully phased out.But such assumption may be unrealistic. One should assume that a portion of the more financially fragile businesses in the country wont make it past the full lockdown period, with a loss of revenues of even a few months being more than they can manage.How big this group of businesses at risk is, is difficult to tell, but it was probably a growing number in recent years, and indeed all three major categories of commercial property had seen mild increases in their average vacancy rates and bad debt levels in recent years.This means that a portion of the countrys production capacity has likely been damaged, remaining damaged even after the lockdown is over, lowering its potential output. That contributes to post-lockdown employment constraints, which dents household income in the longer run too.This makes it likely that in the post-lockdown phase, the countrys consumer demand wont immediately recover fully to pre-Covid-19 levels.FNBs forecasts project accordingly. During 2020, real household sector disposable income is expected to contract by -7%, causing a simultaneous decline in real household consumption expenditure to the tune of -7%. A significant growth rebound off the lower 2020 base is foreseen in a post-lockdown economy, but forecasts of +3.2% and +0,5% growth for 2021 and 2022 respectively in both real household disposable income and real household consumption expenditure means that even by 2022, the level of real household consumption expenditure will still be -3.54% below the level in the pre-Covid year of 2019.This long and slow road out of the dip is not unrealistic, given what weve mentioned about a portion of businesses (production capacity) and jobs having closed down more permanently, and not returning immediately after lockdown.The implication for retailers, and the centres in which they operate, is that after lockdown (which is assumed in the forecasts to be virtually entirely over before the end of 2020), the retail economy will indeed improve significantly from lowly lockdown levels, but only back to a normal recessionary environment, with real consumer spend levels remaining below 2019 levels for a few years to come.Granted, in nominal terms, household consumption expenditure next year is projected to be a mild 2.62% higher than that of 2019, after dipping by a forecast -4% in 2020, but that would mean that it hasnt nearly kept up with general price inflation, and likely not with retailers operating costs either.Besides the normal hazards with forecasting the magnitude of the economic contraction, and the resultant impact on employment and household income growth (decline), a big unknown is the impact of the corona crisis on confidence and sentiment.One area of confidence that is being spoken about a lot, as certain countries or states open up, relates to the confidence of the public to return to crowded public spaces, of which retail centres are one such example.Essential item shopping, such as the visits of consumers to the supermarkets throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns are unlikely to be avoided. But in the area of lifestyle, for example gyms, dining at restaurants, visiting pubs, cinemas, ice rinks and bowling alleys, the attitude may be significantly different, as it may be with postponeable and non-essential/luxury goods purchases. While predicting the magnitude of possible virus-related consumer caution is impossible, we would expect some impact to be prevalent for as long as the virus lingers.Fear of crowded public spaces doesnt necessarily curb consumer spending, however. Rather, it may play into the hands of online retailers and food deliveries, even after lockdown is entirely ended.Perhaps making this fear factor less of a threat to retail centres in SA than in certain parts of the US and Europe, for instance, is South Africas (to date) still relatively low Covid-19-related death rate. But time will tell.But the wildcard retail risk thats being talked about far less, it seems, is the possibility of far greater future financial caution, and its impact on consumer spending.In this very deep recession that appears to be unfolding, the employment loss and decline in real incomes appears to be severe. While automatically curbing the spending of many who have lost jobs and incomes (and who dont always have wealth buffers built up to see them through), it is possible that this can also put fear into the minds of those households that have not suffered a loss of employment of income.Job losses are well publicised, and many people will actually know others that have lost either their business income or their personal income.Many people, even highly skilled people, may become acutely aware that employment opportunities are not in abundance.Add to this that many households would have seen a decline in their net wealth with the onset of Covid-19, and even for a while prior to this crisis, with the economy having stagnated since around 2012.It is this environment that has the potential to create a widespread concern amongst households over their longer term financial future, and that in turn has the potential to cause the household sector to meaningfully increase its savings rate.A significant increase in the savings rate in a time of income decline or low income growth would mean further downward pressure on household consumption expenditure and retail sales growth. It would mean the risk that our assumption that consumer spend grows in line with the growth rate in disposable income would be over-optimistic.Has there been any evidence of a move to lift the net savings rate (gross saving less depreciation on fixed assets)? Yes, but only mild attempts in SAs recorded history:So there have been mild hints of a move to lift the savings rate in tougher and more uncertain times, and we believe that this is based on heightened concern regarding households own financial future that come with a weaker economy and/or political and policy uncertainty.Admittedly, none of the economic shocks over the past 60 years have been sufficient to do more than lift the savings rate mildly and temporarily, while the longer term broad trend in savings has been one of decline.So can a big enough economic shock cause a more significant and sustained rise in household savings? Looking elsewhere for a longer data history, it appears that this is perhaps possible. For evidence of a prior long upward savings rate cycle, we turn to the United States, where a longer data history exists than in South Africa.From the Bureau of Economic Analysis, at the University of California, US personal savings rate data going back to 1900 is available. It shows this savings rate being weak in the initial stages of the 20th century, before embarking on a long term up-cycle that had its roots in a below-zero rate around the time of the Great Depression, thereafter rising to a high (ignoring an abnormal World War II spike, which may have had much to do with consumer product supply constraints too) of near 13% by the early-1970s.Savings behaviour and all of its drivers have proved difficult to fully understand over the years, but a long term rising trend in US savings following the Great Depression many years ago, and through a World War, is interesting to take note of at the current time when an extreme economic contraction is unfolding.In South Africas more recent savings history, negative economic shocks appear to have been accompanied by mild savings rate increases.Zooming in on savings trends of the past two decades in South Africa, the economic slowdown/recession of 2008/9 appeared to prompt a temporary improvement in household savings (diminishing in net dis-savings), as has the more recent economic growth downturn which started around 2012.From a net-dissaving rate of -2.5% of disposable income as at the final quarter of 2013, this rate has diminished to -0.2% as at the end of 2019.The magnitude in savings "improvement" has not been large in the most recent multi-year downturn to date. But the question is whether it is now time for the net savings rate to turn significantly positive, given the extreme magnitude of the current economic shock unfolding.Weak and uncertain economic times appear to motivate savings, and a massive GDP contraction of -8% is forecast for 2020 in what appears to be the biggest recession in post-World War II history unfolding.It is difficult to know what magnitude of crisis is needed to send households into a major savings drive. But this increased savings and financial caution possibility must be flagged as a key near-term risk factor to retail and retail centre performance, over and above the recessionary income knock that many households have taken, and along with the possible virus-related fears related to visiting these centres.The post-lockdown road to recovery for retail property looks likely to be a lengthy one, with household finances and confidence-related factors being crucial. Several states in northern India, including Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are facing one of the worst locust attacks, adding to their worries during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to agro experts, this is the most severe locust attack in nearly 26 years which threatens to destroy crops and disrupt food security in the country. Overseas, Kenya faces its worst attack of locusts in 70 years, while Ethiopia and Somalia are battling worst invasion in 25 years. Swarms of locusts have entered Rajasthan's Jaipur and parts of Maharashtra and Delhi, posing a big risk to standing crops, plants and trees. These locusts, which came from Pakistan, have already caused large scale destruction of over at least 5,00,000 hectares of land in Rajasthan, mostly in western and eastern part of the state. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has forecasted losses to agriculture from locusts this year could be as much as $2.2 billion for winter crops like wheat and potatoes and about $2.88 billion for summer crops of cotton, sugarcane and rice. Also Read: India faces worst locust swarm attack in decades: What does it mean for agri economy? The locusts, which bred and matured in Iran and Pakistan's Balochistan, are one of the oldest migratory pests that belongs to species of grasshoppers. Locusts swarms can fly up to 150 km in a day and each locust can eat around two grams of crop i.e. equivalent to its own weight. These swarms destroy crops and thereby disrupting the entire agricultural economy is what is commonly referred to as locust plague. Here are key facts on Locusts: Locusts are the oldest migratory pest in the world. They differ from ordinary grasshoppers in their ability to change behaviour and form swarms that can migrate over large distances. The most devastating of all locust species is the Desert Locust. During plagues, it can easily affect 20 per cent of the Earth's land, more than 65 of the world's poorest countries, and potentially damage the livelihood of one tenth of the world's population, according to FAO. During quiet periods, Desert Locusts live in the desert areas between West Africa and India - an area of about 16 million square km where they normally survive in about 30 countries. Three pests, the Italian Locust, the Moroccan Locust, and the Asian Migratory Locust, jeopardise food security and livelihood in Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA) as well as in adjacent areas of northern Afghanistan and southern Russian Federation. Other locust species of economic importance in the world are: the Red Locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata) in Eastern Africa, the Brown Locust (Locustana pardalina) in southern Africa, Migratory Locusts (Locusta migratoria) throughout Africa and Asia, the Tree Locust (Anacridium melanorhodon) mainly in Africa, the Moroccan Locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus) and the Italian Locust (Calliptamus italicus) in North Africa, Europe and Central Asia, and the Australian Plague Locust (Chortoicetes terminifera) in Australia. Locusts have a high capacity to multiply, form groups, migrate over relatively large distances (they can fly up to 150 km per day) and rapidly reproduce and increase some 20-fold in three months. Locust adults can eat as much as their own weight every day, i.e. about two grams of fresh vegetation per day. If infestations are not detected and controlled, devastating plagues can develop that often take several years and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring under control with severe consequences on food security and livelihoods. India has reached out to Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Africa for a joint effort to contain the spread of locusts which pose a major threat to food security in the region. A high-level virtual meeting on desert locusts in Southwest Asian countries (Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan) was held on March 11, 2020 in New Delhi, India. By Chitranjan Kumar with inputs from United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) KARACHI, Pakistan - Pakistan announced Tuesday that Airbus experts have opened a probe into last weeks plane crash that killed 97 people when an Airbus A320 went down in a crowded neighbourhood near the airport in the port city of Karachi. Initial reports have said the Pakistan International Airlines jet crashed after an apparent engine failure. Pakistani aviation authorities said Tuesday they have shared their initial findings with the visiting 11-member team from the European plane maker. The Airbus experts and engineers are also to visit the crash site, according to Abdul Hafeez, a spokesman for PIA. We are providing all possible assistance to the technical experts of Airbus, he said. Only two people on board survived the crash, including Zafar Masood, a bank executive. Flight PK-8303 took off from the eastern city of Lahore and crashed on Friday while trying to land at the Karachi airport, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Abdul Sattar Kokhar said. On the ground, 18 homes were damaged but no one was killed, mainly because the local residents were gathered at nearby mosques at the time, officials had said. Eight people on the ground were injured. So far, Pakistan has handed over 41 bodies to their families, Hafeez said, adding that DNA tests were underway to identify the remains of the other victims. The plane made failed attempts to land at the Karachi airport before the crash. Authorities found the planes black box and have been guarding the crash site to facilitate the probe. The plane last received a government check last November. PIAs chief engineer signed a separate certificate on April 28, confirming all maintenance had been conducted. Airbus has said the two-engine plane had logged 47,100 flight hours and 25,860 flights as of last Friday. The crash took place days after Pakistan resumed domestic flights ahead of Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Many of the passengers aboard the flight were families returning home for the holiday. Pakistan has been in a countrywide lockdown since mid-March because of the virus, and when flights resumed last week, every other seat was left vacant to promote social distancing. Authorities have reported over 57,700 cases of the virus, including 1,197 deaths. NPC deputy calls for modification of wildlife protection law By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-05-26 18:04 The Wildlife Protection Law of China should be modified, said Zhou Hongyu, deputy of the ongoing third session of the 13th NPC (National Peoples Congress). The price of eating wildlife was once gain witnessed by us through the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing the shortcomings of the existing Wildlife Protection Law, said Zhou. In his opinion, the definition of wild animals needs to be further clarified when the law is revised. The management and control of the eating, trading and utilization of wild animals should be further strengthened, so as to provide legal guarantees for eliminating the misuse of wildlife. (Zhou Hongyu [Photo/JYB.cn]) Some regulations about wildlife protection in the law need to be revised and improved, said Zhou. He suggested that the Wildlife Protection Law should be expanded into Wildlife Protection and Management Law, and Chapter Three of the existing law (which stipulates the management of wildlife) should be enriched. Passed on November 1, 1988, the Wildlife Protection Law was implemented and enforced on March 1, 1989. Since then, it has played a significant role in Chinas protection and rescue of precious and endangered wildlife, the protection, development and rational use of wildlife resources, and the maintenance of ecological balance. (Photos/Xinhua News) Zhou Hongyu is a professor at the Central China Normal University and dean of the Changjiang Education Research Institute in Wuhan, Hubei province. Countless articles and books address the vexing rift between American Jews and Israel. They are short on solutions and long on confirmation bias. Daniel Gordis adds another tome to the pile in We Stand Divided: The Rift Between American Jews and Israel (HarperCollins Publishers, 2019), but he is also short on solutions. Gordis's 14th book is receiving plaudits and endorsements from big-name pundits and politicians. Yet I find little in the book that adds to my general knowledge of the subject or a solution to his desperate plea opening the Introduction, "WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?" He ought to know the answer by now after years officiating at the Shalem College in Jerusalem, speaking on the college-synagogue-Jewish lobby circuit crisscrossing Israel and America, making a mint, debating doubters like Peter Beinart and fellow travelers of J Street. Yet he doesn't offer the reader outstanding, "why didn't I think of that" answers to heal the rift. There is nothing explosive if that's what a book-buyer is expecting. "My goal is to put the big ideas about the relationship into the public sphere, so that we can all engage in a rethinking of why the relationship between the two communities is fraught, deepen the conversation that many in the Jewish world are having about the rift, and even begin to muse on some possible directions for healing the break." We are way past musing. Just ask my foreign students and my children living overseas. Moreover, the new government of Israel has multiple ministries addressing the rift, spending billions of shekels. There are thousands of overpaid NGO officials with inflated memberships soliciting tons of money and little to show but glittering generalities claiming to have the answers. Unless we find the right answers, Gordis concludes, darkness may descend on the two Jewish nations of Israel and Diaspora. I'm not going to list the religious, political, and nationalist causes Gordis identifies for the rift. They are commonly known to people familiar with the subject. The book is interesting because Gordis provides a great deal of novel history and recordations of lesser known interactions between advocates and contrarians. Their points differ little from better known more usually quoted sources. Suffice it to say he spends more than 200 pages and nearly 250 footnotes on the history of the Jewish people and the rift. This is an excellent primer for students new to the subject of Israel and aliyah, but the book will not make them feel better about leaving their lifestyles and birthlands behind. You cannot fix the rift with intellectual "truths" about history or detailing the threats to Jewish survival in Diaspora. Gordis is more truthful and a realist than many observers when he offers readers this portent: "If anything, what is surprising is not that the relationship is wounded, but that it has survived intact for as long as it has." So Gordis takes a stab at answering the ultimate question: "what anyone should actually do." He offers six points for healing the rift, but I cannot imagine how they will save the Jewish people. There is a bit of sunshine on the horizon. Diaspora support for Israel is regularly reported as on tenterhooks in poll after poll of young Jews. A new poll suggests there is a sea change in their views about Israel for the positive, as they age into their late 30s and 40s. This is when Americans trend away from youthful progressive ideas and hook onto more conservative ones, though not giving up on the causes of their youth. That's why, having been a teacher of international gap year students in Israel, I list as the number-one rift-healer bringing Diaspora Jewish youths and young people of other backgrounds to Israel to see for themselves. COVID-19 hit these programs hard. Masa high school and college study abroad, yeshiva and seminary programs, Birthright, and student exchange programs are critical in healing the rift. Spend money bringing them two and three times to get to know life in Israel. Gordis writes a four-page advocacy statement for these programs. They are, in my experience, the most healing and lasting means to realize the dream of Gordis i.e., "The light simply must be ushered in." The young people bring the light in their eyes home with them whether they make aliyah or live overseas. Bring them to Israel make her a light unto the Jews of their nations. Dr. Harold Goldmeier is the manager of an investment fund, university teacher, business consultant, speaker, and writer who can be reached at Harold.goldmeier@gmail.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:29:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Tuesday by 21 cases to 1,140 while the death toll remained unchanged at 26, the National News Agency reported. The Lebanese Interior Ministry issued a decision imposing a fine of 50,000 Lebanese pounds (33 U.S. dollars) on citizens who do not use masks during their daily transportation. Citizens are required to use masks while walking on the streets or using public transport. People are also required to wear masks if more than three people are using the same private vehicle. Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan urged people to wear masks and take precautions while the ministry is still conducting PCR tests all over the country in a bid to isolate the areas that are seriously affected by the pandemic. Enditem A man is accused of stabbing a woman who jumped from a moving vehicle Sunday in West Bexar County before she died. Michael Gonzales, 27, is charged with murder. His bail was set at $200,000. Witnesses called 911 after they saw Miranda Sage Milowski, 27, jump out of a moving vehicle in the 3800 block of Krie Trail, according to the Bexar County Sheriffs Office. The people who ran to check on Milowski told deputies she was bleeding heavily and had been stabbed several times. They tried to help her until EMS arrived, deputies said. Milowski was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:56 p.m., according to the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office. Deputies found that the vehicle she jumped out of had crashed near Salty Marsh and Kennebec Way. Gonzales was found by deputies Sunday night, who said he was hiding at a home in the 9600 block of Acadian Drive, a block away from the wrecked vehicle. Investigators have not said what motivated the attack. Deputies did however urge people in abusive relationships to call the sheriffs office at 210-335-6070 to speak with a domestic violence victims advocate. Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA Kabul, May 26 : The Afghan government on Tuesday released another batch of 900 Taliban inmates in the latest move to further advance the intra-Afghan peace talks with the militant group, a spokesperson for the Office of the National Security Council confirmed. "The government released 900 Taliban prisoners today to further advance peace efforts, including an extended ceasefire and the immediate start of intra-Afghan peace talks," spokesman Javid Faisal tweeted. The move came after Taliban militants announced a three-day ceasefire during Eid al-Fitr festival, which started on from Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency. Taliban militants have reportedly agreed to extend the ceasefire for another four days or more. On Monday, the second day of the festival, the government released 100 Taliban from Bagram prison in eastern Parwan province. Around 1,100 Taliban prisoners have been released in smaller groups in the past few weeks, but Tuesday batch was the biggest to be released at once. In response to the government's gesture, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Qatar, said it was a good step but added that the process of releasing 5,000 prisoners should be completed to create a suitable environment for confidence building. On March 11, President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani issued a decree to release 5,000 Taliban inmates on parole and Taliban agreed to release 1,000 soldiers but the exchange of prisoners was repeatedly delayed. As of May 10, some 1,000 Taliban fighters and 200 Afghan government soldiers had been freed by the two sides, but the exchange process had been suspended over some disputes. The release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners was included as part of the US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on February 29. However, the Afghan government was not a signatory of the deal. A 30-year-old man in Odishas Covid-19 hotspot of Ganjam district has been forced to quarantine himself in his car for the last six days as villagers have not allowed him to enter the village. Madhaba Patra, a videographer staying in an apartment of Berhampur town in Ganjam district had gone to Bihar on some business-related trip on May 3 and returned after three days. As Patra had no symptoms of coronavirus, he was allowed by the administration to stay in home quarantine in Berhampur as per norms. After completing his quarantine period of 14 days in his apartment at Berhampur he tested negative for coronavirus, officials said. After completing the 14-day quarantine period, he went to his village Dolaba in Sanakhemundi block of Ganjam in his car on the day cyclone Amphan was to pass by Odisha coast. But a day after his arrival, the husband of a local anganwadi worker and some other villagers opposed Patras entry to the village and insisted that he undergo another round of quarantine. I tried to reason with the villagers that I have tested negative for Covid-19 and spent the mandatory 14 days in home quarantine. I showed my certificate. However, no one seemed to believe me and asked me to stay in the institutional quarantine in a school near the village, said Patra. The matter even reached the local police station, where the officials tried to make the villagers see reason. However, they insisted that the youth has to stay in quarantine. But unwilling to stay in the quarantine centre running in the school where several migrant workers too stayed, Patra said he would rather stay in his car. There is a risk of getting infected in institutional quarantine where many migrant workers are housed. So I decided to stay in my car. If I have to stay in quarantine twice, there is no point. Once I tested negative in Covid test and completed home quarantine I should have been free to go anywhere, he said. The Basudevpur grampanchayat sarpanch decided that Patra needed to spend a week in quarantine. Ganjam has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in Odisha at 358. Patra who parked himself near the quarantine centre is served food from there and gets to use the bathrooms and toilets at the facility. He sleeps in his car. Sanakhemundi Block Development Officer Gayatridutta Nayak said the youth will complete his quarantine on May 27 and can visit his home. Under Odishas new quarantine protocol for village areas, one has to be in institutional quarantine for seven days followed by home quarantine for another seven days. Earlier this month, a 30-year-old man in Odishas Balasoredistrict had to spend three days in the toilet of his home before he wasshifted to a school because the village did not have a quarantine centre. A union has called on Defra to open a dialogue with food manufacturers after workers at Cranswick's meat processing plant in Barnsley died of the coronavirus. GMB has urged the department to address the 'inadequacy of the government's guidance' surrounding Covid-19 workplace safety. The call comes after three workers at Cranswick's facility in Wombwell, Barnsley were confirmed to have died after testing positive for coronavirus. They were part of the 1,200-strong workforce at the site 'maintaining vital supplies of fresh food into the supermarkets', the food giant said. Cranswick said in a statement that the health and safety of its staff was its 'number one priority'. Earlier this month, GMB wrote to Defra Secretary George Eustice and retailers raising concerns over issues in the supply chain that could lead to unnecessary deaths. Since the letter was wrote there have been severe coronavirus outbreaks in meat and food plants in Ireland and the United States. Eamon O'Hearn, GMB's national officer, said it was 'imperative' that Cranswick worked with the union to review operations and identify issues that could impact work safety. "We really hope that theyve been following GMB guidance on social distancing which is significantly more comprehensive that government guidance recently issued. We wrote to the Secretary of State for Defra about our concerns earlier this month, precisely because we wanted to avoid further deaths in our industry," he said. It's now crucial that Defra establishes a dialogue on the food and drink supply chain, including addressing the inadequacy of the government guidance issued last week." 2K Shares Share I am the only physician in a family of farmers. As I witness the pandemics devastating health consequences from the frontlines, I feel a fundamental responsibility to share my experience and advice with my loved ones to keep them safe. However, I find myself battling COVID-denial propaganda at every turn. Even my years of medical training have not endowed me with the credibility necessary to break down the sociopolitical barriers that separate my family and me on this life-and-death issue. Growing up on a farm in South Dakota, I spent my childhood doing chores, playing sports, and going to church. The ideals my rural hometown cherishes a strong faith, a sturdy work ethic, and a reverence for constitutionalized personal freedoms were instilled in me from before I could walk. And yet, while those around me seemed content, I felt restless. I longed for the excitement of living in a big city, surrounded by people with vastly different life experiences in comparison to my own. Today, I live in San Francisco and work as an emergency medicine physician on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. And while I will always carry pieces of my conservative upbringing with me, most facets of my life have changed since I left my familys farm for college a decade ago. I am now accustomed to frequent disagreements with my family; however, I struggle to reconcile our differences around a critical topic like COVID-19. As I do my best to convince my family that the pandemic is not an expertly-crafted conspiracy, I am struck by how our vastly different perspectives are more aligned with political beliefs than with modern science. The challenge of balancing my responsibilities on the frontlines while constantly fighting misinformation to keep my family safe has left me deflated. Most of my family believes that the public health response to COVID-19 is beyond excessive. They agree with the South Dakota governor that a shelter-in-place mandate is far too restrictive on their personal freedoms, and they are proud to use their own gumption to avoid viral spread rather than follow infectious control guidelines from public health experts. One of my recent conversations with my family digressed into the argument that the pandemic is simply part of a corrupt agenda that is weakening our society. I struggle to respond to this sentiment, both as a physician and as a person. How does one begin to grapple with a perspective not grounded in science and facts, but rather based on a prepackaged ideology being delivered as part of a larger political agenda? As I work tirelessly through long shifts in the emergency department, followed by phone calls with my family who continues to minimize the pandemic, I have gravitated toward a simple answer: keep calling. I try to listen to their thoughts and validate their fears of the unknown. I do so not in silent acquiescence; despite the frequent awkward pauses in conversation and my generalized feeling of unease, I try to engage my family to the best of my ability through careful questioning and by sharing my own fears and experiences. Most of my colleagues on the frontlines have nominal contact with individuals on this end of the sociopolitical spectrum. When they call home, they are met with affirmations, and their thoughtful cautions are received in earnest. The interactions I experience with my family are quite different; they are not part of my personal echo chamber. I could choose to shut my family out. However, they are still my family, and I choose to continue loving and respecting them. So I will continue to call. I will continue to listen. I will continue to offer advice to help keep my family safe as best I can from 1,500 miles away. And who knows maybe tomorrow will be different; maybe tomorrow they will listen. Nicholas Stark is an emergency medicine resident. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The start of the swimming pool season in The Woodlands is expected to be finalized during a township Board of Directors meeting on tomorrow. The agenda features a proposal to begin the phased reopening of some community pools. On the agenda for the 6 p.m. meeting is a public hearing on swimming pool fees, which are slated to be altered by the township due to the shortened swimming pool season as well as the continued closure of all 13 of the townships swimming facilities. There are 12 community swimming pools, smaller facilities spread out between the nine villages in the township, as well as the larger water park type facility, the Rob Fleming Aquatic Center. None are open yet due to issues stemming from the coronavirus pandemic restrictions set by state officials. ON CHRON.COM: Woodlands officials carefully plan swimming pool openings; no dates set The public hearing will focus on pool access and user fees. Among the proposals are a resident day pass rate for village pools (not Rob Fleming) of $5 per day while non-resident day passes for village pools are proposed at $10 per day. The board will also consider the removal of the guest pass and punch cards fee category as well as the day care and group daily pass fee category and the swim team member pass fee category. There are no proposed changes to season passes. Once the swimming pool fee structure is set for the 2020 season, township officials are expected to finalize the list of the six village community swimming pools that are expected to open sometime in mid-June. No official date has been set for the first round of openings due to complications with training lifeguards and other issues. The remaining six village community pools are expected to open by July 4 under current plans. The Rob Fleming Aquatic Center will be the last of the townships pool facilities to reopen during the 2020 season. The meeting will be hosted online via Zoom video-conference technology on the townships website. To participate in either public comment or the public hearing on pool fees, residents can provide public comment by calling 346-248-7799 or 888-788-0099 (toll-free), then enter ID 814 2647 4745 followed by the # symbol. According to the agenda, resident telephone calls will be taken in the order the calls are received and only during the public comment agenda item and the public hearing. This phone number is active only for the May 27 board meeting. New phone numbers will be issued for each future meeting during the pandemic. Also on the agenda for Wednesdays meeting are several other items, including approval of a land donation from The Woodlands Land Development Company, a subsidiary of the Howard Hughes Corp., to the township in the Grogans Point area of the Village of Grogans Mill. According to an agenda description, the land is not developable and will be maintained with no residential or commercial construction as a greenbelt buffer area for current residents. The board is also expected to discuss matters and issues related to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and hear an updated financial report. To watch the meeting, head over to the township website at http://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/778/Meeting-Videos. jeff.forward@chron.com Food banks in the United States have struggled to meet increasing demand from people who cannot pay for food because they have lost their jobs. At the same time, farmers cannot sell much of their crop food, so many vegetables and meat from farm animals go to waste. Now, some states are providing money to help pay for such food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, is spending $3 billion to help get farm crops to food banks. Nobody likes to see waste of good food, said Mark Quandt. He is the executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. But when the coronavirus spread forced restaurants and schools to close, demand for farm products dropped, leaving farmers with too great a food supply. Farmers from Florida to California left their crops to die. Dairy farmers in Vermont and New York had to throw away millions of liters of milk. And animal farmers killed their animals that could not be processed for meat. Now, as 39 million Americans have lost their jobs, many depend on food banks to feed them and their families at no cost. In Florida, 12 food banks had to increase the food they provide from 6 million pounds of food per week to 10 million pounds. A U.S. Census Bureau report found that more than 10 percent of families were not able to get enough food. Another report for the non-profit policy group Data Foundation says that 37 percent of those who lost their jobs did not have enough food in the past 30 days. The USDA and private companies are trying to make sure that food that would have been wasted is now getting to food banks. New York state created a $25 million program to help food banks buy local crops. Mark Quandt said he is planning to use the $4.3 million his food bank will receive to buy milk, cheese and other food. Chris Noble has a dairy farm in northwestern New York State. He said the Nourish New York program bought some of the milk he would have thrown away. He worked with other dairy farmers in western New York to send their milk and cheese to a food bank in New York City. Noble said he wants to be able to meet the needs of our community with the food we produce and not see it go to waste. In Iowa, state officials and the Iowa Pork Producers Association have raised more than $130,000 to help pay to make pig meat for food banks. So far, 364 pigs have been donated. The last thing we want to do is waste anything, said Kevin Rasmussen. He donated seven pigs from his northern Iowa farm to the program this month. Other states, such as Florida and California, had existing programs to help get donated crops to food banks by paying part of the cost of harvesting them. Those programs are getting a lot of donations now. California is adding $2 million to the program. The biggest effort is the $3 billion USDA program to buy crops for food banks. That program has been slowed by ethics issues. Critics are questioning the qualifications of several companies that received the first $1.2 billion worth of contracts. Celia Cole of the Feeding Texas alliance of food banks said, Some of the companies that got bids, people are kind of scratching their heads like wait this isnt a food distributor, why are they winning the award? One of the companies that won a contract, for example, is a marriage ceremony planning business in San Antonio, Texas. Brent Erenwert is chief of Brothers Produce, a Houston-based vegetable distributor. It sought a contract with the USDA but was denied. Erenwert said he is concerned that the USDA program will fall short of its goals because of the companies it chose. Theres just no way or shape this will help the farmer or the end user thats going to need this product, he said. USDA officials said they fully believe the chosen companies can complete the job. Im Caty Weaver. The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story dairy - n. a place where cows are raised for their milk to be sold milk - n. the product that cows from cows lactating distributor - n. one who organizing sending things out to various people n. Something stinks in the household of Camimex Group? The recent transactions involving Camimex Group, a large local shrimp exporter and producer, raised the red flag over a painful lack of transparency during the process of calling for capital. Notably, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) issued the information that Nguyen Trong Ha, chief accountant of Camimex Group, registered selling 3.05 million shares. The transaction is implemented under the put through method, which is expected to occur from May 18 to June 16, 2020. Ha is currently the largest shareholder of the company, but after the sale, her interest in the company would be zero. Previously, on May 13, Dang Ngoc Son, a member of the board of directors cum deputy general director of Camimex registered to sell nearly 3 million shares (equalling 11.29 per cent) under the put through method to decrease his holding in the company to 0 per cent. The transaction is expected to occur from May 19 to June 18. At the same time, Vu Thi Bich Ngoc, the wife of chairman Bui Si Tuan of the Board of Directors, registered to buy 2.99 million Camimex shares, equalling 11.29 per cent stake. The purchase is expected to be completed between May 12 and June 12, 2020. Without context, these moves would be normal. However, in light of the extraordinary activities in previous months, they become suspect. Notably, in late January 2020, Camimex published the business results for 2019. Accordingly, full-year profit increased by 74 per cent on-year. Besides, its share value increased by 60 per cent on-year. After that, in early February, Camimex sold 114 million shares to existing shareholders (equaling 100 per cent of its charter capital). At the time, 134 domestic shareholders bought 9.4 million shares (71.2 per cent of the offered shares), five foreign shareholders bought 799 shares, and four private investors bought 3.81 million shares. Notably, chief accountant Nguyen Trong Ha and Dang Ngoc Son a member of the Board of Directors cum deputy general director bought 11.54 and 11.29 per cent of the charter capital. In addition, Ha Van Bang, an investor who previously did not own any Camimex shares, also bought 1.6 million shares to become a large shareholder with the ownership ratio of 6 per cent. After this sale, in late March 2020, the company published the audited financial statement for 2019, which showed that its after-tax profit decreased by 70.7 per cent against the unaudited figure, while the profit for the whole year declined by 49.1 per cent. As a result, its shares plunged to VND10,800 (46.96 US cents) on April 22. However, since late April, its shares have risen to VND18,000 (78.26 US cents). Especially, at transaction sessions when its shares hit the ceiling rate, large volumes of shares were matched. An issue noted by the HSX was that Son and Ha increased their shareholding in the firm from nothing to more than 11 per cent each in only two months and then want to divest their entire holdings via put through deals. On May 11 and 13, Ha Van Bang also transferred his entire holding in the company. In light of the above information, investors expressed concerns that these shareholders, who are in fact related to the company, only bought share that would have been left unsold otherwise to make the sale seem more successful than it actually was and then wait for the shares to rise and sell. In addition, in the audited financial statement for 2018, there was a qualified opinion from the State Audit Office of Vietnam relating to the unsold shares, however, the State Securities Commission of Vietnam still authorised the company to implement its initial public offering (IPO) in 2019. Furthermore, on March 28, 2020, on the day the company published information about the sale, the Board of Directors of the company issued the decision to adjust the purpose of using the mobilised capital. Accordingly, instead of using part of the capital to invest in machinery and equipment and another part to supplement the working capital, the company will pour the entire proceeds into the working capital. Some investors expressed concerns over the sudden change as well as the steps to reach shareholders' approval for the change. VIR contacted the investors with these concerns and is waiting for their reply. Peter Manfredonia (pictured) 23, who allegedly killed two people, was stalking a woman in the Connecticut neighborhood of his first victim, Ted DeMers A University of Connecticut student suspected in two slayings had gone to the neighborhood of the first victim because he was looking for a young woman he knew, the victim's wife said Tuesday - as law enforcement renewed a plea for him to turn himself in. Cindy DeMers said that her husband, Ted DeMers, went to speak with Peter Manfredonia on Friday when they saw the 23-year-old walking down the rural road in front of their Willington home wearing a motorcycle helmet. Manfredonia said that his motorcycle had broken down. 'He said to my husband, "I know so-and-so," who is one of our neighbors, which then opened up the door to trusting this person,' she said. After giving Manfredonia a ride back to his bike, Ted was killed with a machete, Cindy said in an interview. Ted's friend suffered severe wounds. 'I think he got in the way of what he was going to do,' she said. 'He was clearly walking to her home with a mission, with a machete in his backpack.' Cindy said she talked with the young woman's father over the weekend and discovered the family had been considering getting a restraining order against Manfredonia, who had been to the home in the past. Her neighbors have been told by police not to return to their home until he is captured, she said. Manfredonia has been on the run since killing DeMers on Friday. Cindy DeMers said that her husband, Ted DeMers (both pictured), went to speak with Manfredonia on Friday when they saw him walking near their home Cindy said she talked with the young woman's father over the weekend and discovered the family had been considering getting a restraining order against Manfredonia, who had been to the home in the past Manfredonia is also accused of killing 23-year-old Nicholas J. Eisele (left and right), who was found dead at his home in Derby. Eisele's neighbor said he heard arguing and loud banging that was followed by screams and then silence from the apartment above him on Sunday Law enforcement renewed their plea to get Manfredonia to give himself up on Tuesday. 'Peter weve talked to family, weve talked to your friends and roommates all of them have said the same thing; that this behavior out of ordinary for you. We know that this is not who you are,' Lt John Aiello, Commanding Officer of Eastern District HQ said. 'I want you to know that we are continuing our investigation. The one thing missing right now it you. We want you to tell your story. Your family has hired an attorney on your behalf and are there to safeguard you. 'We are here to listen to you. Your parents, your friends, all of us back here in Connecticut want a peaceful end to this. We are waiting to hear from you. Please call 911 and let us know where you are. We want to resolve this in a safe way.' Police clarified the timeline of events in a press conference Tuesday. After the first slaying, police said Manfredonia fled the scene and broke into a nearby home where he held the homeowner captive before stealing his guns and a truck. The truck was later found abandoned near Osbornedale State Park in the early hours of Sunday morning. Authorities said Manfredonia drove to the home of his acquaintance, 23-year-old Nicholas J. Eisele on Sunday. Manfredonia is suspected of killing Eisele before forcing Eisele's girlfriend into her car and fleeing to New Jersey with her. The 23-year-old woman was located in her Volkswagen Jetta near Paterson, New Jersey, on Sunday and was not hurt, police said. Authorities have not named her. State police described Eisele, who worked with his father in a landscaping business, as an acquaintance of Manfredonia's. The medical examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine cause of death. It was also revealed on Tuesday that Eisele's neighbor told WTNH he first heard arguing and loud banging followed by screams and then silence from the apartment above him on Sunday. The neighbor said he and his roommate did not call police. 'I feel guilty for not making that phone call. Maybe it wouldnt have saved them, but it would have caught him at least. Thats my guilt. I have to live with that,' the neighbor told the station. Connecticut state police and the FBI have been desperately searching for Manfredonia who they have described as a 6ft 3in white man who should be considered armed and dangerous. Police said Manfredonia, a finance and mechanical engineering major, was last seen entering a Walmart in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. Manfredonia was seen carrying a duffel bag near train tracks in East Stroudsburg. Authorities said in a press release on Tuesday that they were able to confirm that Manfredonia was dropped off by an Uber in front of the East Stroudsburg Walmart. Police describe Manfredonia as a 6ft 3in white man who should be considered armed and dangerous Connecticut state police and the FBI have been desperately searching for Manfredonia across three states: Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey Manfredonia was last seen walking along railroad tracks in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, wearing dark shorts and carrying what appears to be a duffel bag On Tuesday afternoon, police released another update that said a stolen black Hyundai Santa Fe had been reported near the area where Manfredonia was last seen. According to police, the vehicle bearing Pennsylvania registration KYW-1650 was stolen around 9pm on Monday 'Through interviews with the driver and recovered security camera footage, troopers were able to determine that Manfredonia walked behind Walmart and other businesses onto a set of train tracks and was still in possession of a duffel bag full of guns he stole from a home invasion in Connecticut,' the release reads. 'It is believed that Manfredonia does not have ties to the area and does not have a vehicle. He may attempt to solicit ride sharing services, possibly through third party means, to flee the area.' On Tuesday afternoon, police released another update that said a stolen black Hyundai Santa Fe had been reported near the area where Manfredonia was last seen. It was also revealed on Tuesday that Manfredonia's father, Robert (pictured), was arrested in April on charges of second-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a child, and sale/delivery of liquor to a minor According to the statement, the vehicle bearing Pennsylvania registration KYW-1650 was stolen around 9pm on Monday. 'At this point a connection cannot be confirmed,' authorities said. Manfredonia's family are also pleading with him to surrender. Through their lawyer, Mike Dolan, Manfredonia's parents said: 'We love you. Please turn yourself in.' 'You have your parents' and your sisters' and your family's entire support. It is time to let the healing process begin,' Dolan added. Dolan said Manfredonia had struggled with mental health issues and 'sought the help of a number of therapists'. According to NBC, Manfredonia's father, Robert, was arrested in April on charges of second-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a child, and sale/delivery of liquor to a minor. He was released on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to be in court on July 1. On Tuesday, Sandy Hook Promise released a statement to Fox 61 confirming that Peter Manfredonia participated 'in an athletic event in 2019 and chose Sandy Hook Promise as one of his fundraising recipients'. 'We hope he surrenders peacefully to the authorities and that no one else is hurt or killed, the statement reads. The alleged killer (pictured) is thought to be armed with several guns stolen during a home invasion Police in Willington, Connecticut, on Friday are seen gathering evidence near the area where the grisly murder and assault took place Eisele's family set up a GoFundMe page to help cover funeral expenses. On the page, friends and family shared memories, including his love of his mother's German shepherds, Trooper and Sandy. A GoFundMe page was also set up for the DeMers family. The University of Connecticut on Sunday released a statement confirming that records show Manfredonia is enrolled as a student in the joint school of engineering/school of business program. Manfredonia first enrolled at UConn in the fall of 2015, and is a senior. 'He is not attending summer courses, and had not been living on the UConn campus either at the time of the incident in Willington or during recent semesters,' UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said. Reitz said the university is in contact with authorities to provide assistance that might help the investigation. 'The university expresses its deepest, most heartfelt sympathies to the victims and their families in this horrible, incomprehensible tragedy,' Reitz said. 'They are all in our thoughts.' When asked if the university knew of any problematic behavior by Manfredonia in years past, she said the university couldn't discuss specific individuals and cases. She did say, however, that 'UConn strives to do everything possible to identify and engage with students of concern and to provide them with all the assistance and resources we can both for their own well-being and that of the wider community'. A motive for the slayings has not been determined. Anyone with any information is asked to call Derby police at 203-735-7811, state police at 860-896-3200 or the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI. Tips can also be sent to 203-503-5555. Any sightings of Manfredonia should be called in to 911. Count Goldie Hawn among the celebrities whove clashed with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. Hawn explained, while appearing Sunday on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, that she feuded with Weinstein while working on a film version of Chicago that never got made. While the Broadway show was eventually turned into a 2002 movie that took home the Best Picture Oscar in 2003, Hawn said she and Madonna worked an earlier version. Goldie Hawn and Harvey Weinstein worked together on an early version of "Chicago." (Photo: Getty Images) When Hawn received the script, however, she noticed her part was written for someone decades younger. Shes now 74, so she would have been in her 40s at the time. I called him and said, Well, you know, Im not 23. Whos writing my part for a 23-year-old? Hawn said. And [Weinstein] said, Well, actually. You can't play 23... I said, Oh, I can actually. Theres digital, you can do my face, you can make me look 12 if you want to. Im still dancing and singing, so youre not gonna get off that way Harvey. So how else are you going to do it? She said to him, That was really underhanded of you. Why dont you just come out and say you want to [make the movie] with somebody else? The two got into it then. The First Wives Club star didnt like the script anyway she thought it lacked emotion and told Weinstein it was so bad that as a producer, not an actress, I wouldnt touch this with a 10-foot pole. Hawn exited the project, but her contract stipulated that she be paid whether or not she appeared in the movie. Weinstein did the honorable thing and followed through on that, she said, which she called amazing. The actress noted that Weinstein eventually did hire the right people for the project. She said she congratulated him on the blockbuster that resulted. In 2009, Hawns actress daughter, Kate Hudson, appeared in another Weinstein musical, Nine. Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: By Express News Service NEW DELHI: A part of the active coronavirus cases that are galloping nationwide, comes from Indians stranded abroad who were evacuated recently during the ongoing Vande Bharat mission. Their figures are not as big as that of the hapless migrants who went back to their villages and tested positive, but the infection count is steadily rising. Take Kerala. Of the 10,011 people who returned through seaports and airports ever since the evacuation began on May 7, as many as 151 have tested positive for the virus. Tamil Nadu, which is hassled by the steady rise in coronavirus 8,230 active cases on Monday counts 81 of them as repatriates, one reason why it is wary of opening the skies for domestic flights and insists on home quarantine of arriving fliers. In Karnataka, three Vande Bharat arrivals tested positive on Monday, taking the total infection count among repatriates into three digits 102. The other big figure state is Andhra Pradesh, with 62 of the 1,169 evacuees testing positive, 45 of them on Monday alone. Of the 62 fliers, 41 had returned from Kuwait, three from Qatar and one from Saudi Arabia. The situation elsewhere is comparatively better with Madhya Pradesh at 48 cases, Telangana 28, Haryana 22, Odisha 7, Punjab 4, and Assam 1. For states, tracking these numbers is fairly easy as all of them are under quarantine. Many of the returnees were from countries with a high viral load. Nationwide, there were 77,103 active cases on Monday. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) -Palladium One Mining Inc. (TSXV: PDM) (FSE: 7N11) (OTC Pink: NKORF) (the "Company" or "Palladium One") reports a new, large chargeability drill target at the Haukiaho East Induced Polarization (IP) survey grid, located in central Finland. Highlights: The Haukiaho East IP survey grid is located 7.5 km east of the Haukiaho survey grid (see news release May 7, 2020) and covers 1.6 kilometers of the seventeen (17) kilometer strike length of the highly prospective Haukiaho trend ( Figure 1 ). ). The survey has identified a consistent chargeability anomaly over the full extent of the grid, suggesting the anomaly continues to the southwest and northeast. ( Figure 2, 3 and 4 ). ). The newly identified chargeability anomaly has only been tested by one historic diamond drill hole (R619) drilled by Outokumpu in 1966, which did not intersect the core of the anomaly. Sporadic sampling of hole R619 by Outokumpu returned up to 0.20% Cu, and 0.13% Ni over 8.94 meters, while no PGE analysis was performed. Selective re-sampling of hole R619 by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) confirmed the presence of PGE mineralization, returning up to 0.367 g/t PGE (0.206 g/t Pd, 0.098 g/t Pt, 0.18% Cu and 0.19% Ni over 0.20 meters). Preliminary Analysis: The chargeability anomaly is coincident with a strong magnetic high suggesting peridotitic rocks, which are characteristic of Haukiaho-style PGE-Ni-Cu mineralization. Both the chargeability and magnetic data show little sign of deformation suggesting relatively good preservation of original geometry of the favour basal phase of the Koillismaa Complex. Target Model: Large tonnage, near surface PGE-Ni-Cu mineralization amenable to open pit mining. Multiple higher-grade pods of PGE-Ni-Cu mineralization located in embayment structures along the basal contact of the Koillismaa Complex. "The current IP geophysical program has shown that the 17 km long Haukiaho trend has the potential to host significantly more mineralization than outlined in the historic 2013 Haukiaho resource estimate. The eastern portion of the Haukiaho trend has seen very little historic drilling. Having outlined significant chargeability anomalies in Haukiaho East, we are highly encouraged and now have quality drill targets." commented Derrick Weyrauch, President and CEO. Figure 1. Palladium equivalent (Pd_eq) grade shells along the 17 km long Haukiaho Trend. Note: Pd_eq grades generated using historic drilling east of the 2013 historic resource, frequently include holes for which only copper-nickel analysis was conducted, therefore underestimating the actual Pd_eq grade. Pd_eq calculation used metal prices (in USD) of $1,100/oz for Pd, $950/oz for Pt, $1,300/oz for Au, $6,614/t for Cu and $15,432/t for Ni which are the same as those used in the Company's pit-constrained NI 43-101 Kaukua zone resource estimate (see September 9, 2019 news release). To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/56580_ce3124dc541d3b41_001full.jpg Figure 2. Plan view of the 2020 Haukiaho East grid IP survey showing chargeability. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/56580_ce3124dc541d3b41_002full.jpg Figure 3. Long section view, looking north, of the 2020 Haukiaho East IP survey showing chargeability. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/56580_ce3124dc541d3b41_003full.jpg Figure 4. Cross section view, looking east, of the 2020 Haukiaho East IP surveys showing chargeability. To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6502/56580_ce3124dc541d3b41_004full.jpg Qualified Person The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Neil Pettigrew, M.Sc., P. Geo, Vice President of Exploration and a director of the Company and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Corporate Update The Company has completed the second and final tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement of flow through Units for gross proceeds of $76,440 and has issued 588,000 flow-through Units at a price of $0.13 per unit (see news release dated May 6, 2020). The Units are subject to a four-month hold period in Canada from the closing date, acceleration and customary capital adjustments. About Palladium One Palladium One Mining Inc. is a palladium dominant, PGE, nickel, copper exploration and development company. Its assets consist of the Lantinen Koillismaa ("LK") and Kostonjarvi ("KS") PGE-Cu-Ni projects, located in north-central Finland and the Tyko Ni-Cu-PGE and Disraeli PGE-Ni-Cu properties in Ontario, Canada. All projects are 100% owned and are of a district scale. LK is an advanced project targeting disseminated sulphide along 38 kilometers of favorable basal contact. The KS project is targeting massive sulphide within a 20,000-hectare land package covering a regional scale gravity and magnetic geophysical anomaly. Tyko is a 13,000-hectare project targeting disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly metamorphosed Archean terrain. Disraeli is a 2,500-hectare project targeting PGE-rich disseminated and massive sulphide in a highly productive Proterozoic mid-continent rift. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Derrick Weyrauch" President & CEO, Director For further information contact: Derrick Weyrauch, President & CEO Email: info@palladiumoneinc.com Phone: 1-778-327-5799 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States of America. The common shares of Palladium One Mining Inc. have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration. Information set forth in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", and "intend", statements that an action or event "may", "might", "could", "should", or "will" be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in palladium and other commodity prices; title matters; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the absence of dividends; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; and tax consequences to Canadian and U.S. Shareholders. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56580 The Congress does not have a key role in the Maharashtra government, said Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday, seemingly distancing his party from the ruling alliance that is being criticised for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the state. The Congress is part of "Maha Vikas Aghadi" and holds key ministries but Rahul Gandhi said, "We are only supporting the government and are not a 'key player' in the state". Rahul Gandhi, however, defended the state government and said that Mumbai is a well connected state. and that is the reason why Covid cases are ... A pandemic couldn't cancel America's most crowded parties this Memorial Day weekend, even as the novel coronavirus took at least 2,000 more American lives. At a flashy club in Houston, dozens splashed around the pool and sipped on drinks on the patio. In rural North Carolina, thousands packed the stands shoulder to shoulder at Ace Speedway on its opening night, where face masks were the exception. And in Daytona Beach, Florida, even after an event called "Orlando Invades Daytona" was canceled, hundreds still danced in the street and on top of cars near the boardwalk. "It looks like there are two people out the sunroof throwing money," the seemingly perplexed pilot of a police helicopter said over his radio, flying over the wild scene near the beach to get a closer look. "They're clearly throwing cash at the crowd." The raucous events across the country over the holiday weekend led some local officials to sound the alarm Monday, warning that consequences could be dire if such behavior continued unchecked. Some, like Houston Democratic Mayor Sylvester Turner, vowed to crack down on businesses failing to enforce capacity restrictions. Turner chastised the clubbers who may end up exposing responsible people "who chose to do the right thing" by staying home. In Missouri, viral images of pool parties at waterfront bars and yacht clubs in the Lake of the Ozarks even led St. Louis County officials to issue a travel advisory, calling the scenes an "international example of bad judgment." One Ozarks pool party at Backwater Jack's featured live music under the theme "Zero Ducks Given," while photos at another yacht club showed dozens of people crammed together beneath a sign that said, "Please practice social distancing." On Monday, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, who is also a physician, urged employers to question workers about their recent travels, and recommended a 14-day quarantine for anyone who flouted social distancing. "This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of COVID-19," Page said in a statement announcing the travel advisory. The weekend's crowded festivities could presage the challenges local officials may face this summer as governors gradually roll back restrictions and residents flood reopened businesses. In areas that no longer have enforceable executive orders, authorities insist there is little they can do to require people to practice social distancing. The mayor of Osage Beach, Missouri, where the viral pool parties took place, said he views it as essential that his town's tourist-dependent businesses reopen, while police there said they couldn't enforce any restrictions. "It kind of ties our hands when they're just guidelines and not mandates," Chris Twitchel, captain of operations for the Camden County Sheriff's Office, in the Lake of the Ozarks, told The Washington Post this weekend. He added, "We are doing the best thing that we can by urging people to use social distancing. But ultimately, there's not a lot we can do about it." Elsewhere, even if executive orders are in place, some local sheriffs have refused to enforce them. Such was the case in Alamance County, North Carolina, where Ace Speedway is located. Although Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's second phase of reopening North Carolina limits outdoor gatherings to 25 people, Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said he would refuse to "enforce an unconstitutional law," allowing the speedway's opening night to proceed as planned on Saturday night, WTVD reported. About 2,500 people showed up, half of the track's 5,000-seat capacity, co-owner Jason Turner told WXII. "We're tired of being stuck in the house," one spectator, Becky Woosley, told FOX 8. "I'm not afraid of this virus one bit." In a Facebook video ahead of the event, Ace Speedway's Turner asked attendees to respect other spectators' space and to wash their hands frequently, although he said nothing of face masks. He also asked attendees to write their names and phone numbers on a legal pad at the entrances, to assist the county health department in contact tracing should anyone later test positive for the virus. "We know everybody's excited, everybody's chomping at the bit to get back out here and get back to some normalcy, but we have to do so responsibly," Turner said on the video, urging those who have come in contact with anyone who's tested positive to stay home. He thanked the sheriff for "standing up for our constitutional rights." Police elsewhere were not quite so open-minded to inviting mass crowds in their communities. But like in tourist-swarmed Lake of the Ozarks, authorities in Daytona Beach said they couldn't simply arrest people who gathered en masse. "We don't take this lightly, especially with the crowds gathering together right now as we got the coronavirus still going around and people not practicing social distancing," Daytona Police Chief Craig Capri said at a Sunday news conference about the crowds. "But I'm not the social distancing police - that's not my job." Police convinced the promoters of the "Orlando Invades Daytona" event to cancel it, but hundreds still showed up Saturday. "We were invaded by people from Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. On Saturday, roughly 200 people clogged the highway adjacent to the boardwalk and began dancing and hollering, as two men revved up the crowd from the sun roof of a white vehicle. They began throwing money while people in the crowd scrambled to pick it up - causing an immense traffic jam. Things got worse. A shooting broke out nearby around 7:30 p.m. Two people in the crowd were shot and four others were injured by shrapnel, police said. No one has been arrested. Still, police praised the overall response to the hectic situation, saying that other large crowds they encountered along the beach dispersed when asked. Chitwood said he has heard from critics who insisted that those recklessly gathering should have been arrested, or that he even should have used tear gas, but the sheriff said that was out of the question. "I can tell you the only investigation we have going on right now is for the a------ that was throwing money out of the car," he said. Technavio has been monitoring the lignite market and it is poised to grow by USD 2.71 bn during 2020-2024. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005425/en/ Technavio has announced the latest market research report titled Global Lignite Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will decelerate during the forecast period. ALLETE Inc., China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd., EP Power Europe AS, JSC Siberian Coal Energy Co., Lanna Resources Public Co. Ltd., Lignitiki Megalopolis SA, NACCO Industries Inc., NLC India Ltd., PT Bukit Asam Tbk, and RWE AG, are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Increasing demand for fertilizers has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Lignite Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Lignite Market is segmented as below: Application Power Generation Syngas Generation Others Geographic Landscape The Americas APAC EMEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40066 Lignite Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our lignite market report covers the following areas: Lignite Market size Lignite Market trends Lignite Market industry analysis This study identifies the increasing adoption of CTL as one of the prime reasons driving the lignite market growth during the next few years. Lignite Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the lignite market, including some of the vendors such as ALLETE Inc., China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd., EP Power Europe AS, JSC Siberian Coal Energy Co., Lanna Resources Public Co. Ltd., Lignitiki Megalopolis SA, NACCO Industries Inc., NLC India Ltd., PT Bukit Asam Tbk, and RWE AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the lignite market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Lignite Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist lignite market growth during the next five years Estimation of the lignite market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the lignite market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of lignite market vendors Table Of Contents : PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value chain analysis Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2019 Market outlook Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Market segmentation by application Comparison by application Power generation Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Syngas generation Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by application PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 EMEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Americas Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Improvements in ash-handling technologies Advances in mining industry Increasing adoption of CTL PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors ALLETE Inc. China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd. EP Power Europe AS JSC Siberian Coal Energy Co. Lanna Resources Public Co. Ltd. Lignitiki Megalopolis SA NACCO Industries Inc. NLC India Ltd. PT Bukit Asam Tbk RWE AG PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005425/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ LOS ANGELES, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Foster Company (https://thefosterco.com/) recently highlighted its experience and services helping secure Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan-forgiveness for clients, just as the SBA issued new guidance related to such loans, along with a new SBA loan-forgiveness application process. PPP loans are designed to provide direct incentives for small businesses to keep workers on the payroll, despite economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. These loans will be forgiven if small businesses keep employees on the payroll for eight weeks, and the money is subsequently used for payroll, rent, utilities or mortgage interest. The Foster Company has over two decades experience working with both the SBA and lenders. The Foster Company The Foster Company logo "Although the CARES Act provides relief to small businesses, that assistance must be formally requested through an application process," said Christopher Foster, Founder and Owner of The Foster Company. "And Congressional funds allocated for this forgiveness are limited so mistakes in the application process can be both costly while also losing precious time. We have always been sensitive to the needs of small businesses, and have established connections with both the SBA and multiple commercial banks. This allows us to streamline the process, with no disastrous paperwork errors. Call us today to see how we can help you get the assistance you need, so you can get back to the daily job of running your business." The Foster Company: What Are PPP Loans and Loan Forgiveness? The 2020 U.S. CARES Act provided $376 billion in relief for American workers and small businesses, including PPP loan forgiveness. PPP Loan Forgiveness is available through any existing SBA 7(a) lender, or through any federally insured depository institution, federally insured credit union, and Farm Credit System institution that is participating in the program. The government will also make other regulated lenders available as they are approved and enrolled in the program. This loan relief must be applied for directly from the SBA, through a variety of applications like the Economy Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and EIDL Advance. And under the new procedures issued, borrowers must request forgiveness of PPP loans by filing SBA Form 3508: the Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness Application. The application has four specific components: the PPP Loan Forgiveness Calculation Form, PPP Schedule A, the PPP Schedule A Worksheet, and an optional PPP Borrower Demographic Information form. The first two are required and must be submitted to the lender. Borrowers with loans over $2 million are additionally required to check a box alerting the SBA to the size of the total loan. This provision flags these specific PPP loans, and the Treasury Department has already stated it will audit each of them. Thus it is especially important that all paperwork be filed correctly, and each company comply exactly with the rules outlined in these guidelines. Small business owners can often find this process both baffling and time-consuming, especially as they struggle to keep their businesses afloat. About The Foster Company The Foster Company is a full-service commercial finance brokerage and boutique consultancy company serving the southern California market. Owner and founder Christopher Foster is a graduate of Humboldt State University and has over 17 years' experience working directly with the SBA and multiple commercial banks to secure loans for his clients. Christopher is an expert in Commercial Financing, including Conventional, SBA and Bridge Financing, and has successfully negotiated financial services for a wide variety of businesses and individuals. Learn more at: www.TheFosterCo.com. Media Contact: Christopher Foster 833-367-4482 [email protected] SOURCE The Foster Company Related Links http://www.TheFosterCo.com Halifax, Nova Scotia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Sixth Wave Innovations Inc. (CSE:SIXW) (OTC Pink: ATURF) (FSE: AHUH) (the "Company" or "Sixth Wave") announces a strategic alignment with Natural Ascent Consulting (NAC) and the signing a hardware loan and production agreement which will allow NAC to field test and contribute to the commercialization process of the Company's Affinity cannabinoid purification system for the remediation of non-compliant hemp and cannabis extracts and standard extraction of cannabinoids from other crude extracts. The contract engages NAC in cannabinoid production using the Affinity System, and establishes a Southern California based production hub for Sixth Wave in one of the worlds largest cannabis markets. NAC will also use their lab capability with Sixth Wave to trial multiple production applications for the Affinity System including continued validation of the Systems capability to remediate failed extracts for heavy metals, pesticides, and possibly the chemicals associated with fire retardants that are found in both hemp and cannabis extracts due to their widespread use to combat forest fires. As an established consulting firm supporting the cannabis and hemp industries, NAC brings an array of knowledge and resources to the venture. With experience in a wide variety of projects, NAC centers on processing CBD / CBG biomass to the highest quality downstream wholesale product lines at an industrial scale. NAC is currently focused on assimilating advanced technologies, such as THC remediation and cannabinoid conversion/isolation, into a contract farming business model for the hemp industry. Focused on developing nanotechnology applications, Sixth Wave's Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) have also been applied in industries including homeland security, mining, and pathogen detection. NAC's expertise in hemp/cannabis extraction and processing has resulted in significant benefit to Sixth Wave by providing the rigorous and resource-intensive process development required with cannabinoid specific MIPs. "After many months of working together, and thanks to the brilliant work of the Sixth Wave team, we have been able to show that THC remediation, full-spectrum cannabinoid isolation from complex tinctures, and pesticide/heavy metal remediation are all quite possible," Kameron Walker, Co-owner of NAC, proudly explained. "We are working through proof of concept which is always the most difficult and tedious part of the process, and expect to turn our focus to production, scale-up, and eventual automation in the months to come." Jon Gluckman, Sixth Wave CEO, commented, "NAC's experience in engineering industrial chromatography equipment provides turn-key solutions for us to quickly bridge the gap between small-scale proof of concept and full-scale industrial production." Under the terms of the Agreements, Sixth Wave has provided a complement of test and pilot scale equipment to the NAC laboratory for experimental use designed to develop standard operating proceedures for the remediation applications using a variety of biomass sourced from California. Once completed, NAC will begin processing extracts using the pilot Affinity System in accordance with Sixth Wave's Total System Performance License Agreement which is still under negotiation. Further, Sixth Wave will replace the pilot system with a fully GMP compliant system to meet NAC's expected processing requirments. The NAC team will continue to support roll out and installation/support under contract to Sixth Wave when the Company begins fulfilling delivery of Affinity Systems to other customers. The Company further advises that it has engaged Hybrid Financial to promote market awareness and further the Company's reach within the investment community. Hybrid will be engaged for a fee of $15,000.00 per month for an initial term of six months, with an automatic renewal for successive three month terms unless canceled by written notice 30 days prior to the end of the term. About Natural Ascent Consulting Natural Ascent Consulting, established in 2019, Co-owned by Kameron Walker & Earl Ross, NAC has expertise in implementing customized solutions to maximize process efficiency for demanding clients in the Hemp processing industry, specializing in installation, training, maintenance, and service support of equipment. Other industry provided services include extraction, distillation, and solvent recovery. For more information about Natural Ascent Consulting, visit its web site at: www.naturalascentconsulting.com About Sixth Wave Sixth Wave is a development stage nanotechnology company with patented technologies that focus on extraction and detection of target substances at the molecular level using highly specialized molecularly imprinted polymers. The Company is in the process of commercializing its AffinityTM cannabinoid purification system, as well as, IXOS, a line of extraction polymers for the gold mining industry. The nanotechnology architectures, which are the focus of the Company's work, are amenable to other relevant detection and separation problems, including the detection of biogenic amines, viruses, and other pathogens, for which the Company has products at various stages of development. For more information about Sixth Wave, please visit our web site at: www.sixthwave.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Jon Gluckman" Jonathan Gluckman, Ph.D., President & CEO For information, please contact the Company: Phone: (801) 582-0559 E-mail: info@sixthwave.com Cautionary Notes This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements," including statements regarding the AffinityTM System scale-up, THC remediation performance, he expected terms of the Total System Performance License and commencement of full-scale production. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual events or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including the risks that AffinityTM System performance may not be maintained at production level, that anticipated cost savings and performance levels relative to competing technologies may not be realized, that other technologies with better performance or costs may be developed by competitors, that the regulatory regime related to cannabis and hemp, which has evolved rapidly, may change in a manner adverse to the Company's business, the expected terms of the Total System Performance License and other risks detailed in the Company's filing statement available at www.sedar.com, which may cause the Company's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56554 Access to these geospatial resources is intrinsic to the operation of local governments, and their use and application will only grow as technology continues to advance. Clinton County, Ohio, has signed an annual contract with Woolpert for STREAM:RASTER, a subscription software service that hosts, maintains and facilitates access to geospatial imagery in the cloud. The Southwest Ohio county owns large volumes of high-quality orthoimagery for use by the public and local, state and federal agencies. Most counties map between every year and every three years to support their planning, engineering and land management data needs, Woolpert Vice President and Geospatial Program Director Brian Stevens said. Due to the sheer size and expanding applications of geospatial imagery, storing, managing and distributing this data has become a major challenge for many counties and municipalities. STREAM:RASTER was developed in direct response to this need. Clinton County has accumulated layers of geospatial data, including large imagery datasets, since initiating GIS operations in the 1990s. Stevens, who has worked with the county for more than 20 years, said Clinton County Engineer Jeff Linkous was instrumental in the countys early adoption of GIS. He said that support has continued to benefit the county as technology has advanced and geospatial applications have grown. Stevens said mapping Clinton County in one flight at a standard 6-inch resolution creates about 200 GB of data. Upgrading from 6-inch to 3-inch resolution, which can vary per the needs of the collection, quadruples the size of the dataset. When you upgrade to 3-inch resolution, as Clinton County did this year for the city of Wilmington, you quadruple the size of that dataset, Stevens said. Hosting and maintaining that volume of data, on top of the existing historical data, is challenging, time-consuming and costly to perform in-house. Clinton County GIS Manager Joe Merritt said the size and storage of the countys imagery base mapping data was becoming counterproductive. He said accessibility constraints were limiting use by county offices and the general public, thus reducing the datas usefulness and compromising years of investment. We have imagery from 20 years ago that we couldnt access effectively, Merritt said. This subscription service provides an easy, ready and cost-effective solution to a problem that has literally been building for years. With this service, well have access to this data across the county without worrying about future costs in software, storage or IT staffing. Woolpert Chief Innovation Officer Jon Downey said this hosting service is supported by the firms experience collecting, processing, and managing data and imagery for local, state and federal agencies. Over the years, weve seen geospatial datasets grow and the demand for access to those datasets become greater than ever. At the same time, weve seen our local government clients hamstrung with limited budgets for staff, storage and servers, Downey said. Access to these geospatial resources is intrinsic to the operation of local governments, and their use and application will only grow as technology continues to advance. STREAM:RASTER was designed to evolve with geospatial data and imagery to support communities effectively around the world. Were happy to be able to provide this support. About Woolpert Woolpert is committed to a vision to become the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, and one of the best companies in the world. Its a vision weve been fine-tuning for decades. It guides our decisions and investments, provides our clients with optimal solutions and offers our employees unrivaled opportunities. Woolpert is recognized as a Great Place to Work by its employees and is Americas fastest-growing AEG firm. With more than a century of experience, close to 1,000 employees and 30 offices, Woolpert supports public, private, federal, and U.S. military clients nationally and around the globe. For more information, visit woolpert.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Portugal and Britain are in talks to try and secure an air corridor for tourists that would allow British visitors to avoid a COVID-19 quarantine upon returning home, two Portuguese sources familiar with the situation said. News of the talks has caused an outcry in Spain and the Balearics because the Spanish tourist industry would like a similar deal as Portugal but it appears that there has been no offer from Britain. Portugal's tourism-dependent economy has been hard hit by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns at home and abroad, and authorities are trying to save at least part of the crucial summer season. Britain, the main source of tourism for Portugal, will introduce a quarantine for travellers arriving from abroad from June 8, including returning Britons. Travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days. In 2019, more than 16 million foreign tourists visited Portugal, almost 20% of them from Britain. One source said the talks were still in an initial phase. Another said the government sought the air corridor both for Portuguese tourists visiting Britain and vice versa, and was hoping that Portugal's relatively low coronavirus tally compared to countries like Spain or Britain would benefit tourism. Portugal's death toll of 1,330 and total cases at 30,788 are just a fraction of neighboring Spain's nearly 27,000 dead and over 235,000 infected. Approached for a comment, the foreign ministry told Reuters that Portugal had requested additional information after the British quarantine decision. Although it would not confirm nor deny any specific talks on a corridor, said it was optimistic about finding an acceptable solution. "Given the relevant reciprocal interests, the foreign ministry is confident that it will be possible to agree a solution that meets these interests, especially concerning the coming summer season," it said. The tourism sector accounts for nearly 15% of Portugal's gross domestic product and was one of the main drivers of its recovery from the 2010-14 economic and debt crisis. The AHP hotel association has said over 90% of Portuguese hotels remain closed after a lockdown imposed in March, expecting revenue losses of up to 1.4 billion euros between March and June. Emergency benefit schemes are set to be extended beyond next month, but changes are expected after a Government report found the income supports are unsustainable. More than 30,000 people have received their final pandemic payment as they head back to work. Read More The number receiving the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) fell again this week but there are still 579,400 receiving the payment. The pandemic payment, and a separate scheme to subsidise wages, were introduced 12 weeks ago as thousands of workers lost their jobs due to a Government-ordered business shutdown. A spokesperson for Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said there is an anomaly in relation to the pandemic payment and he is "examining the matter". Social Protection and Employment Affairs Minister Regina Doherty announced yesterday that a review of the payment is necessary. "As we gradually move through the phases of reopening our society, we need to now review the nature of the pandemic unemployment payment and how it fits into cross-government plans to keep Ireland healthy and get the country working again," she said. Recruitment Meanwhile, Business Minister Heather Humphreys said employers had told her they were finding it difficult to recruit staff as the restrictions ease. She said that employers are finding it difficult to recruit people back to work as some are earning more from the 350 weekly pandemic payment. She said the payment was an urgent response to an unprecedented emergency and the Government never claimed it was perfect. Ms Humphreys said a final decision had not been made on changes to the payment, but it was not fair and sustainable that some were getting more money than when they were at work. But Fianna Fail spokesperson on social protection Willie O'Dea said there was no great evidence that people were not going back to work because the pandemic payment is too high. "This payment is barely sufficient to enable people to survive from week to week and ordinary rates of social welfare are below the poverty line," he said. "We have to be very careful how we approach this. "If the Government deems it to be necessary to reduce it because of the cost, it has to be done in a humane and measured way." He also criticised comments by party colleague Anne Rabbitte over the weekend backing a reduction in the payment. "I profoundly disagree," he said. "It is not a proper attitude to people surviving on social welfare and is not Fianna Fail policy." Labour social protection spokesperson Ged Nash said the payment should remain in its current form until the economic sectors are more substantially reopened. He said the Government should clarify if the payment will be cut ahead of a crunch Dail vote on Department of Social Protection spending estimates on Thursday. Meanwhile, those on the pandemic payment could face a tax bill later this year. The Revenue Commissioners has indicated that the payment will be treated as taxable income. Meanwhile, the cost of the income support is set to drop in the coming weeks as claimants return to work. A total of 35,600 recipients have informed the department that they are returning to work and 33,400 of these will receive their last payment this week. A Chinese city's plan to use a smartphone app to track its citizens' health status regularly has caused fears that the government could use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to tighten its Big-Brother state surveillance. Hangzhou, a major city in eastern China, has proposed to use a permanent, point-based mobile programme to monitor its residents' lifestyle, such as how much they exercise, drink or sleep. Local officials say that the software, which would draw and share citizens' sensitive information from their medical records, could help authorities keep tabs on the health condition of the city's 10million people. But news of the plan immediately sparked an outcry on various Chinese social media outlets. Some web users voiced their concerns over the safety of their data; others criticised the city's leaders for violating their privacy and expanding state monitoring in the name of epidemic control. Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, was one of the first cities in China to use a state-backed app to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Pictured, a passenger wearing a mask using a smartphone to scan a health QR code before entering Tianhe Airport in Wuhan on April 11 Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, was one of the first cities in China to use a state-backed, color-coded app to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since mid-February, the city has required all of its citizens to use their smartphones to scan designated QR codes to prove that they don't have the novel coronavirus before they could enter public places or use public transport. The city's government last week said that they wanted to bring the health-control method into more extensive and regular use. According to a plan issued by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission, each Hangzhou resident will be issued a colour card spanning from purple to green. Solid purple means zero points or poor health, while solid green means 100 points or good health. Citizens will be encouraged to stay in the 'green zone', and the 'greener' their app shows the healthier they are, the scheme proposes. Officials say they also intend to review and give scores to residential complexes, neighbourhood and companies based on the colour codes of their residents and employees. According to a plan issued by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission, each Hangzhou resident will be issued a colour card spanning from purple to green. Citizens will be encouraged to stay in the 'green zone', and the 'greener' their app shows the healthier they are This file photo taken on May 2, 2020 shows people wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they use a phone app to scan a code required to prove their health and travel status before being allowed to enter a shopping mall in Beijing Over the weekend, thousands of Chinese social media users protested against the proposed scheme. One typical comment read: 'I oppose. What about our rights to privacy?' Another person condemned: 'Does (the government) need to monitor if I exercise every day, drink alcohol or not and how many hours I sleep?' Some people compared the initiative to the plot of Black Mirror, a British dystopian TV series. Writing on Pincong, a Chinese forum with a focus on censored topics, one critic said that the proposed app reminded him of several science fiction productions, such as 'I, Robot', 'Blade Runner', 'Westworld' and 'Black Mirror'. 'All of these productions which describe a future society give people nightmares,' wrote the internet user in a blog titled 'Can I be scared?' Since mid-February, Hangzhou has required citizens to use their phones to prove they don't have coronavirus. Pictured, passengers wait in the Hangzhou east railway station on May 5 Authoritative figures also blasted the idea. Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of Beijing's state-run Global Times, urged the Hangzhou government to take into consideration the privacy of its citizens. The editor said: 'Health codes should be regularised to control and prevent the novel coronavirus. It should not be expanded to be a regular method of comprehensive urban management.' Hu made the comments on Zhihu, the Chinese equivalent to Quora. China has faced widespread doubts and criticism over its use of artificial intelligence to monitor its citizens during the pandemic. It was revealed earlier this month that Chinese officials installed security cameras right outside people's homes to prevent a second wave. Expats in home isolation in Beijing said the government had mounted monitors pointed directly at their front doors to ensure they didn't step out. The picture shows a surveillance camera mounted on the wall outside the home of a journalist placed under quarantine at his Beijing home on May 3 after he had visited Wuhan. China is stepping up its 'big-brother' state surveillance to prevent a second wave of coronavirus cases A worker is pictured adjusting a surveillance camera outside the home of a journalist placed under quarantine after he had visited Wuhan in Beijing on May 3. Such security cameras are set up 'purely for the needs of counter-epidemic works', according to The Global Times Security guards, building cleaners and neighbours have allegedly been told to keep close watch of those in quarantine. Security analyst Paul Bischoff, who has penned a report about the world's most-monitored cities, believes that China has taken advantage of the health crisis to speed up the implementation of state surveillance. Mr Bischoff told MailOnline: 'This is the exact sort of surveillance creep that privacy advocates have warned against since contact tracing apps were first introduced. 'There was always a risk that contact tracing apps would be used beyond their intended purpose, particularly for surveillance. It's not hard to imagine authorities taking advantage of access to contact tracing data and using it to restrict freedom of movement and assembly. 'Whether this actually happens or not, even having the capability to monitor users will cause them to act differently, creating a chilling effect on those freedoms.' Officials have used various surveillance methods, including increasing location tracking via people's phones and boosting the use of face recognition in public places, during the pandemic, according to Mr Bischoff. Security personnel work a check point in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Life in China post-coronavirus outbreak is ruled by a green symbol on a smartphone screen China has been building a mass surveillance network, which boasts hundreds of millions of street cameras. The surveillance network has been billed as the world's most powerful facial-recognition system and aims to identify any of its 1.4 billion citizens within three seconds. The country's residents are due to be carefully watched by 626 million street monitors, or one camera for nearly every two people, as early as this year, according to a study. China has five most-monitored cities in the world. Its most-surveilled city, Chongqing, is equipped with more than 2.5 million street cameras, or one for every six people. Critics have cautioned over the scheme. Many have compared it to a dystopian system run by a fictional state leader, Big Brother, in George Orwell's novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. After she landed in the hospital with a broken hip, Parkinsons disease and the coronavirus, 84-year-old Dorothy Poogie Wyatt Shields made a request of her children: Bring me home. Her request came as hospital patients around the world were dying alone, separated from their loved ones whether or not they had COVID-19, because of visitation restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. Bringing home a terminally ill patient with COVID-19 bears extra challenges: In addition to the already daunting responsibility of managing their loved ones care, families must take painstaking precautions to keep themselves safe. Julia Shields, 53, one of Poogie Shields four children, said she had reservations about the risk of infection and how it might affect her family's health and ability to care for her mother. I didn't want to bring my mom here, and have it where we're all of a sudden collapsed in bed ourselves and can't give her pain medicine and cant take care of her, she said. But she and her siblings were determined to honor their mothers wishes. So they stocked up on personal protective gear and converted the mudroom of Julias Greenwood, Virginia, home west of Charlottesville into a solarium where her mother could be closer to family. Julia said she wasnt sure how long her mother would survive; it could have been a few days or even a few months at her home. She's such a fighter, she said. Poogie Shields, a former guidance and addiction counselor, had an appetite for adventure, be it camping on the Appalachian Trail or moving her family to Paris for a year while writing a masters thesis. After raising her children in Virginia, she set off to do volunteer work, helping homeless teenagers in Florida and pregnant women facing addiction in Washington, D.C. But over the past 20 years, Parkinsons disease gradually limited what she could do, and three years ago she moved into an assisted living community in Crozet, Virginia, about 5 miles from Julia's home. At first, she walked all over the campus, taking yoga classes and playing trivia with friends. But in recent years, she could manage only short distances with a walker, and Parkinsons, a progressive nervous system disorder, was affecting her voice, according to her daughter. She was the person who had the most interesting thing to say in the room, Julia said. It was sad. You just couldn't hear what she had to say. In mid-March, as the pandemic spread, Shields spiked a fever and got tested for the coronavirus. On March 22, while self-isolating and awaiting her test results, she broke her hip and was taken to the UVA Health System University Hospital. In the hospital, a rapid-results test came back positive for COVID-19. The coronavirus wasnt killing her: Her symptoms had largely subsided, and she wasnt in respiratory distress, said Dr. Lily Hargrove, a private practice physician who had treated Shields for 15 years and advised her family. The biggest problem was her hip. Surgery was an option, but Shields had already endured an excruciating loss of independence over the past two years, Hargrove said. Recovery from surgery two to three months in a rehab center with no visitors because of efforts to slow the virus in most facilities would have been a nightmare, Hargrove said, and would not have returned her to normal functioning. She said she and Shields had reached an understanding during the past year that her disease had progressed so far that we were beyond the point of fixing things. Julia and her siblings consulted a palliative care specialist and decided to pursue hospice. The hospital and hospice staffs told the family this was not to be taken lightly not only her dying, her potential pain, and also us getting sick, Julia said. The family signed up with Hospice of the Piedmont, which is one of about 75 community-based, not-for-profit hospices in the National Partnership for Hospice Innovation (NPHI). Dr. Cameron Muir, NPHI's chief innovation officer, said most hospices in the group have treated or prepared to treat COVID patients, despite the added risks for workers. Many hospices are facing shortages in staffing and protective equipment due to the pandemic, prompting concern from some advocates that patients won't get the care they need. Muir said hospices in his group have bulk-ordered protective equipment together. With the pandemic, most NPHI hospices are seeing an increase in the number of people theyre caring for at home, Muir said, because hospitals are "eager to get people with advanced illness home if possible" to make room for COVID patients. Absolutely the safest place for frail elderly without COVID is in the home, said Muir, who is also chief medical officer of Hospice of the Piedmont, and if you're COVID-positive, the best place to be quarantined is at home. Hospice of the Piedmont has shifted to telehealth when possible and has stocked up on protective gear so that staff and families can safely treat COVID patients, said CEO Ron Cottrell. While the hospice gathered equipment, Julia and her family set to work creating a sterile-yet-welcoming solarium in her home. They cleared out the raincoats and lacrosse sticks from Julias mudroom. They rolled in a hospital bed next to a window overlooking the deck and hung a picture Julias daughter had painted. They filled the windowsill with fresh daffodils. Julia's husband and two children, 18 and 20, went to stay at a friends empty house, while one of her sisters moved in to help her care for their mother. On March 25, Poogie Shields came home, sedated with pain medication. Out the window, she could see a redbud tree in bloom and, soon, the faces of her visiting grandchildren and other relatives. Julia, a tax preparer, and her sister, an archaeologist, got into a rhythm of suiting up like hospital employees in scrubs, gloves, shoe covers, masks and eye protection every time they entered the room. Their time together was peaceful, Julia said. Other family members hung out on the deck, 6 feet apart, just outside the window. Her sister brought an iPad to coordinate video calls and read aloud dozens of emails and cards. There was a fairly reasonable feeling of normalcy, Julia said. Over the course of several days, Poogie Shields became unable to eat, drink or swallow medication. With Hargroves advice, Julia and her sister managed her fentanyl patches and slipped morphine under her tongue. As her mother began to lose awareness, Julia softly sang Episcopal hymns Abide With Me, Breathe on Me, Breath of God to comfort herself and her mother, just in case she could hear. Poogie Shields last day was very peaceful, Julia said. It was such a beautiful day. Relatives had all come by to see her. There was no anxiety about anything that we needed to figure out, no last unburdening of unresolved feelings. Julia said she and her sister were with their mother as she took her last breath at 8:30 p.m. on March 28. Hospice staff came to the house about three hours later. In the meantime, Julia said, nothing needed to be done. It was just very calm. Hargrove said that in her 20 years of practice, I've never had a patient die with such reported ease and grace. The two daughters were extraordinarily brave, she said. They were committed to honoring their mom's wishes. After their mother's death, Julia and her sister disinfected the house before Julia's family moved back in. No one in the family has become sick with COVID-19. For other families, bringing COVID patients home might not be possible, especially if someone in the house is at a higher risk of serious complications from the virus, Hargrove noted. I would hate to have someone who was unable to bring someone home, who was dying of COVID-19, to think that they had somehow failed that person, Hargrove said. I would ask that people find grace and compassion for themselves if this is not available for them. Photo credit: Chris McGrath - Getty Images From House Beautiful If you're already planning your first vacation post-pandemic, we have some suggestions. First off, you may want to consider Sicily. Last month, the island's tourism board announced that it would be paying a portion of tourists flights and hotel costs in order to help restart the economy. Travelers would be entitled to vouchers granting them 50 percent off on their airfare, as well as one night free for every three spent in an island hotel. Pretty sweet deal if you ask us, but if that's not the type of destination you had in mind (perhaps you're pining to see some cherry blossoms), Japan may also be willing to foot some of your travel bill. While the plan has not yet been officially unveiled, The Japan Times writes that the Japanese government is planning to boost tourism by subsidizing a portion of travel expenses once the coronavirus outbreak is brought under control. Hiroshi Tabata, chief of the Japan Tourism Agency, revealed during a news conference last week that a 1.35 trillion ($12.5 billion) program could start as early as July 2020, assuming novel coronavirus infections subside accordingly. Under this campaign, when a travel product is purchased through a travel agency, a discount coupon worth 50 percent of the product price will be offered, sources told The Japan Times . This news comes after Japan took a huge hit last month in tourism. Government data estimated that 2,900 foreign travelers visited last month, which is down 99.9 percent from the year before, reports The Japan Times . While it makes sense that Japan would want to lend a hand by helping make travel more affordable for visitors, it is unknown whether this stimulus program will apply to all foreign travelers or exclusively to domestic travelers. In terms of handling the virus, Japan fared exceptionally well. The Wall Street Journal reports that as of Monday, the nation had 131 COVID-19 cases and six deaths for every million people. The Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Ghebreyesus, even described the result of Japan's efforts in tackling the spread as a "success," The Japan Times writes. With this in mind, Japan may be selective in who this new plan will apply to, not to mention, if all foreign travelers will be allowed to visit. Earlier this month, Japan extended its travel bans to Mexico and 12 other countries, according to Kyodo News reports. Story continues Until the Japanese government unveils this plan, we'll just have to wait and see whats in store. Fingers crossed that Japan follows Sicily's lead! Follow House Beautiful on Instagram . You Might Also Like BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: The export of leather goods from Turkey to China declined by 49.3 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, and amounted to $2.8 million, the Turkish Ministry of Trade told Trend on May 26. In April 2020, export of leather goods from Turkey to Uzbekistan plunged by almost 66.3 percent, compared to April 2019 and amounted to $668,000. From January through April of this year, export of leather goods from Turkey to world markets was down by 19.2 percent compared to the same period of 2019, amounting to $469.4 million. The export of leather from Turkey made up 0.9 percent of the country's total export over the reporting period. In April 2020, Turkey exported the leather goods worth over $54.4 million to the world markets, which is 61.6 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Meanwhile, Turkeys leather export amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. During the last twelve months (from April 2019 through April 2020), Turkey exported the leather goods in the amount of over $1.5 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu After bagging multi-billion dollar deals from marquee investors in the last one month, billionaire Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will now be considering an overseas listing of Jio Platforms, said two people, requesting anonymity. Jio Platforms houses RILs digital business assets, including Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which in turn holds the Jio connectivity businessmobile, broadband and enterprise, besides others such as Jio Apps, tech backbone. It has also invested in other tech entities such as Haptic, Reverie, Fynd, NowFloats, Hathaway and Den Networks. Over the past one month, Jio has raised $10.3 billion across five dealsa 9.99% stake to Facebook for $5.7 billion; 1.2% to Silver Lake for $750 million; 2.3% to Vista Equity Partners for $1.5 billion, 1.34% to General Atlantic for $870 million, and a 2.32% stake in KKR for $1.5 billion. The enterprise value of Jio Platforms has reached 5.15 lakh crore within six months of its launch, making it comparable with global platforms, such as Alphabet, Tencent, and Alibaba, which are largely debt-free and have large digital ecosystems. RIL may look for a simultaneous listing of Jio Platforms. However, this would happen only after market sentiments, domestic and global, improve. An overseas listing will give the private equity investors a better exit, said a banker. Last August, Ambani had said that he was aiming to list RILs consumer businesses, Jio, and Retail in the next five years. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the social, educational and health care disparities already plaguing the nearly 40 million Americans the U.S. Census Bureau estimates are living in poverty. Perhaps the hardest hit members of that population, say three pediatricians at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and Children's National Hospital, are children from low-income households who are experiencing major disruptions in already inconsistent routines and less-than-adequate resources critical to learning, nutrition and social development because of restrictions in place to curb the spread of the disease. In a viewpoint article published in the May 13 issue of JAMA Pediatrics, the physicians provide examples of how efforts to keep COVID-19 in check have disproportionally impacted the nearly 1 in 5 U.S. children whose family incomes are below the poverty level. "For example, many school districts are engaging in distance learning during the pandemic, but there is wide variability in the ability to access quality educational instruction, digital technology and internet service, especially by rural and urban students," says Megan Tschudy, M.D., M.P.H., assistant medical director at the Harriet Lane Clinic of Johns Hopkins Children's Center and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In some urban areas, as many as one-third of students are not participating in online classes because of challenges accessing the internet." The authors cite other difficulties that COVID-19 policies and regulations have placed on children from low-income households, including missing months of school by a student population commonly burdened by chronic absenteeism, the inability to get nutritious meals previously provided before and during school hours, and removal of key resources available at schools such as "consistent and caring adults who can help build resiliency and offer holistic support." To counter the increased disparities brought about by the pandemic and help prevent children from low-income households "experiencing consequences for a lifetime," the authors recommend that future COVID-19 legislation target child health and well-being. They say that this effort should include expanding services and increasing funding for health and nutrition assistance programs, improving child tax credits, and expanding access to high-speed internet and versatile electronic devices so that all children can participate in distance learning. ### Along with Tschudy, who is available for interviews, the other authors of the viewpoint article are Danielle Dooley, M.D., medical director for community affairs and population health, and Asad Bandealy, M.D., pediatrician, both of whom are at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. For information from Johns Hopkins Medicine about the coronavirus pandemic, visit hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus. For information on the coronavirus from throughout the Johns Hopkins enterprise, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Johns Hopkins University, visit coronavirus.jhu.edu. The class 10 board results of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has brought bad news for states premiere school, Simultala Awasiya Vidyalay (SAV), which held sway in the top 10 in the last five years. This year, it has no student in the top 5, while there are just three students among the 41 students in the top 10 a steep fall for the institution set up in 2010 to fill the void of Netarhat Vidyalay that went to Jharkhand after Bihars bifurcation. Also Read: Bihar Board 10th Result 2020 Toppers List: Himanshu Raj of Rohtas tops, check merit list In its debut class 10 board exams in 2015, 19 students of the Simultala Awasiya Vidyalay (SAV) had secured more than 96% - a record since the inception of the Bihar board in 1952 while 70 students got 90% to 96%. Since then, it hardly left any space for other schools in the top 10, until its near wipeout this year. A dream project of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, its students had captured the top 108 positions in 2016, while the turn of other schools came only after that. In 2019, its 16 students were in the top 10, which had a total of 18 students. This year, the SAV students ranked 7th, 8th and 10th. Also Read: Bihar 10th Result 2020: 80.59% pass BSEB matric examination The institution had struggled due to a host of issues and also had to skip two sessions 2013-14 & 2014-15. In 2017, it conducted test for class 7 and 8, along with entrance level class 6, after chief minister Nitish Kumar expressed his displeasure over its functioning. Later a six-member committee was formed at the directive of the then chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh. The committee submitted its report, but nothing changed. So far, four committees have been formed for improving the school functioning. The report also highlighted migration of students from SAV after Class 10. Also Read: BSEB Bihar 10th Result 2020 Live Updates: Bihar Board class 10th result declared at biharboardonline.com SAV principal Rajiv Ranjan said the results were shocking and very difficult to digest. We were never expecting such results in class 10 board. Nothing has changed in the school, but the results have taken a sudden dip this year, he added. Ranjan said there would be thorough review of performance and the students would certainly like to apply for scrutiny, as nobody was ready to believe it. The shock is big and it will take time to absorb. We know the students. In Class 12, there could be variation as many students study outside at different places, but in class 10, it is difficult, he added. Even after a decade of its establishment, the school still does not have its own campus, though the government has a big budget for this school. It also has to manage with ad hoc teachers. Later, the Bihar board issued a communique, saying that all the 115 students of SAV had secured first division marks, with the minimum being 73.20% and the highest being 94.80%. Click here for full coverage of Bihar Board class 10 results. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A Northern Ireland engineering firm has said it's emerging with hope from "challenging times" due to Covid-19. Hutchinson Engineering in Kilrea, Co Londonderry, said around 50% of its usual 100-strong workforce is now back on site. It follows a gradual return to work for much of the manufacturing sector over the last few weeks. Managing director Mark Hutchinson said: "We're finding it okay - there is demand, albeit at lower levels than pre-Covid, but we would be generally optimistic for the coming months." The company has also participated in the UK-wide VentilatorChallengeUK, in which a consortium of firms joined forces to manufacture ventilators for coronavirus patients. Mr Hutchinson said: "On March 25 we furloughed pretty much all of our staff. "It was a very challenging and very strange time. But just over two and a half weeks into shutdown, we were contacted by a guy we knew to see if we could bring in people around the VentilatorChallengeUK. "Then around the middle to the end of April we were contact by a big customer in power generation who needed a local supply of components - then we brought in another small group of employees, while always making sure we could keep our staff safe." He said that as a result of the work secured, the company was now operating at between 65 to 70% of normal levels. "We had forecast around 30% so to be at up to 70% means that we are at the better end of things." The company also supplies parts to firms in the material handling sector, and the agriculture sector, where demand has been particularly strong. He said the safety of employees has been paramount. "The key thing which has struck fear into everyone is making sure employees are safe, so we've made a lot of change to factories, giving employees the confidence to come back. "We've never have a long outlook, it's normally six to eight weeks for us. June is looking okay but the challenge will be around July and August, the traditional holiday months - but we are hearing different messages about people maybe not taking the usual holidays or shutdown in July." But he said he was concerned about the long-term outlook for employment across the economy, fearing that many people will be made redundant when the furlough scheme runs out. He said the firm had dealt with the crisis "as best we could, and it's looking okay". House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told "The View" Tuesday that he "cringed" at Joe Biden's comment to radio show host Charlamagne tha God last Friday, in which the presumptive Democratic nominee suggested people who haven't yet decided between he and Trump aren't black. Why it matters: Clyburn's endorsement of Biden in February was a pivotal moment in reviving the former vice president's campaign. It preceded Biden's win in South Carolina, Clyburn's home state, which was largely driven by wide support among black voters. What he's saying: Clyburn acknowledged that Biden "did not do as well as I had hoped" in responding to Charlamagne. But he said he is "comparing Joe Biden to the alternative, not the almighty," suggesting he views the former vice president as better than Trump. "I know him (Charlamagne) very well. I know what his job is. His job is to push the buttons and he does that very well. In this instance, Joe did not do as well as I had hoped in responding. But I will say this. I go about my business every day comparing Joe Biden to the alternative, not the Almighty. He is not a perfect person, none of us are. So what my decision now is to determine who I feel should be the next president of the United States, and I do that by comparing the candidates to each other, not to the Almighty." Clyburn on The View Go deeper: Val Demings rips Trump for having the "gall" to use Biden remarks in campaign 'Bet you stay home now you hypokrits': Miss. church destroyed in suspected arson attack Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Mississippi church that filed a lawsuit against a town ban on worship gatherings was destroyed by a fire Wednesday morning that investigators believed was set as an act of arson. According to local news reports, firefighters responded to a fire at First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs around 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Responders arrived to find the church building engulfed in flames. Fox 13 reports that investigators found cans of spray paint on the ground with graffiti on the pavement of the church parking lot. The graffiti in the parking lot reads: Bet you stay home now you hypokrits (sic). We do believe that based on the evidence and what we have seen at the scene and on top of the hill this was an arson, Marshall County Major Kelly McMillan said, according to the news station. Pastor Jerry Waldrop, who has pastored the church for over 30 years, told news station WMC5 that it's hard to wrap your head around the idea that someone may have orchestrated this or done this. Waldrop said the church has no enemies that we know of. We dont know anyone that we even think could be capable of doing something like this, he said. Waldrop told Fox 13 that he's unsure of what to do because the church building is now destroyed. We are going to keep the faith, and we're going to keep doing what we have always done, and maybe not on this location, Waldrop said. I'll get with our faithful people, and maybe we'll rent a building or whatever we need to do for the time being. In a press conference Wednesday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he's going to keep track of the arson investigation. First Pentecostal Church had filed a lawsuit against the city of Holly Springs, which barred worship gatherings as part of its safer-at-home policies enacted to combat the spread of coronavirus. Although Reeves included houses of worship as essential entities that can be open to more than 10 people in a statewide order, officials in Holly Springs have deemed churches to be non-essential. Police in Holly Springs previously disrupted an Easter service and a mid-week Bible study at the church and reportedly told attendees they could be slapped with criminal citations. In late April, a federal judge sided with the church and ruled that its congregants have the right to hold drive-in services. However, the churchs legal push for the right to have full in-person services is still pending. If in fact the order in the city of Holly Springs says that church is non-essential and cannot order, then that order is in direct violation of the order that governs the state of Mississippi. Then they should cease and desist said order, Reeves said in his news conference. It is very clear local municipalities can have guidelines that are more strict than the governors guidelines, but they cannot have guidelines that directly conflict with what we have put in place. There is a reason that we named churches essential. The reason is that I believe very strongly that the government does not have the right to shut down churches. We have a freedom of religion in this country. Reeves said that he's called pastors and asked them not to hold services but stressed that the government cant tell churches not to meet. In its lawsuit, First Pentecostal Church was represented by the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law group that is dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty. To hear that the authorities are treating this as arson is distressing and we pray that the perpetrators of this terrible event will be brought to justice, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Stephen Crampton said in a statement. Our most sincere prayers are with the people of this church and their pastor. They have been grieving the inability to gather as a congregation since the COVID-19 pandemic stay home orders forced the closure of their church home and now they must grieve the loss of this spiritual home, their place of worship." Crampton told Fox News that the church has also had negative comments come its way on social media. There is just a segment that takes issue with the church standing up, and the church just being the church, Crampton said. The news of the churchs destruction drew the ire of some Christian leaders online. The lower court judge issued a sarcastic and demeaning opinion. The case has been appealed. A few days after this judges mean opinion, someone firebombed the church and burnt it to the ground, Mat Staver, founder of the conservative Christian law group Liberty Counsel, wrote on social media. And this happened in America! Enough! Ken Graves, pastor of the Calvary Chapel in Bangor, Maine, shared a news link on the church fire on Twitter and cited Ephesians 5:14-16. Therefore He says: AWAKE, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light. Graves wrote. WALK IN WISDOM See then that you walk CIRCUMSPECTLY, NOT AS FOOLS but as wise, REDEEMING THE TIME, because THE DAYS ARE EVIL. In a shocking incident a man who was allegedly drunk broke into a bear enclosure at a zoo in Poland and tried to drown the animal. The shocking incident was captured on camera the shocking incident was captured on camera Footage of the incident shows the intruder jumping into a moat that separates the animal enclosure from visitors to the zoo. The panicked man can seen trying to push her head underwater. the bear was not harmed during the fight, though she was left shaken by it. The man was later rescued by firefighters and taken to the hospital with minor injuries and cuts to his hand. Watch the video below: Credit: CC0 Public Domain Rheumatologists at the University of Alberta are flagging similarities between the deaths of some COVID-19 patients and those with rheumatic illnesses, and are testing proven rheumatic treatments to see whether they help against the pandemic virus. A substantial proportion of COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care die of pneumonia due to a cytokine storm, where the body attacks itself rather than fighting off the illness, said Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert, director of rheumatology in the Department of Medicine. In a new paper published in Autoimmunity Reviews, Cohen Tervaert and his colleagues note that such storms, whether in patients with COVID-19 or rheumatic diseases, are caused by dysfunctional "natural killer" (NK) immune cells. They say that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, might attack NK cells directly by binding to angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), a receptor on the cells that COVID-19 researchers believe attracts and opens the door to the virus. "This virus is so smart, it kills the cells that are supposed to kill it," Cohen Tervaert said. Trials with rheumatoid treatments Worldwide clinical trials are being carried out to test treatments typically used to treat cytokine storm in patients with juvenile arthritis and other rheumatic diseases. These include intravenous immunoglobulin, a blood transfusion product prepared from the serum of thousands of healthy or previously infected patients, and rheumatic drugs such as tocilizumab and anakinra. Some researchers in China are even attempting to transplant healthy NK cells. Cohen Tervaert said the U of A team is collaborating with researchers at the University of Calgary to further study the role of NK cells in COVID-19 patients. There are more COVID-19 patients in southern Alberta than in the Edmonton area. A key immune system regulator In a healthy person, natural killer cells are responsible for both turning on and turning off the immune response when a body is attacked by disease, including viruses and even cancer. Unlike other immune cells (T and B cells), natural killer cells don't need to be trained or primed to fight infection. "They are not thinkers," Cohen Tervaert said. "They immediately do their work without being exposed previously to a virus. As soon as a virus affects the cell and the cell wall changes, NK cells can attack that cell." After the NK cells kill the virus-infected cells, the T and B immune cells come along and produce cytokines, making the immune reaction stronger and stronger. "But at a certain time the immune reaction has to end," he said. "Natural killer cells play an important role in finishing that huge attack. "If they don't work, the cytokine storm goes on and on, and the patient will die." Exercise is prevention For those who have not been infected with the virus, Cohen Tervaert recommends regular mild to moderate exercise to boost their NK cells. His own daily routine includes step climbing, walking and weightlifting. "If you sit the whole day in your room because you have to be isolated, your NK cell activity goes down," he said. "That's the big warning about the isolation of elderly people who are not allowed to go outside of their rooms. Over time they are more and more at risk to die from COVID-19." Explore further Blocking the deadly cytokine storm is a vital weapon for treating COVID-19 More information: Mohammed S. Osman et al. Fatal COVID-19 infections: Is NK cell dysfunction a link with autoimmune HLH?, Autoimmunity Reviews (2020). Mohammed S. Osman et al. Fatal COVID-19 infections: Is NK cell dysfunction a link with autoimmune HLH?,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.autrev.2020.102561 Glenn Fine, then Acting Inspector General, U.S. Department Of Defense, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Dec. 6, 2017. (Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo) Pentagons No. 2 IG Official Resigns WASHINGTONThe No. 2 official in the Pentagons office of inspector general, Glenn Fine, resigned May 26, several weeks after he was effectively removed as head of a special board to oversee auditing of the $2.2 trillion CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus economic relief package. A spokeswoman for the Pentagons Office of Inspector General, Dwrena Allen, said Fine was not asked to resign. Fine issued a brief written statement lauding the importance of government watchdogs. The role of inspectors general is a strength of our system of government, Fine said. They provide independent oversight to help improve government operations in a transparent way. They are a vital component of our system of checks and balances, and I am grateful to have been part of that system. Fine, who received his law degree from Harvard, came to the Pentagons inspector generals office as the No. 2 official in 2015 and had previously been inspector general at the Department of Justice from 2000 to 2011. He also is a former assistant United States attorney in Washington. Trump in early April designated Sean ODonnell, the inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency, to also be the acting Pentagon inspector general, replacing Fine as the head official. That move pushed Fine back to his previous position as the principal deputy inspector general and made him ineligible to head the special oversight board for CCP virus relief spending. Although ODonnell is now the acting inspector general at the Pentagon, Trump has nominated Jason Abend to be the permanent IG. Abend is a senior policy advisor at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. By Robert Burns, Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. Rahul Gandhi expressed concern that if the government functions haphazardly during the non-lockdown period, the country will face a second wave of coronavirus which will be 'extremely devastating.' New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the four phases of nationwide lockdown have "failed" and not given the results that Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected as he urged the Centre to spell out its strategy for "opening up" the country. Addressing an online press conference, the Congress leader expressed concern that if the government functions haphazardly during the non-lockdown period, the country will face a second wave of coronavirus which will be "extremely devastating." Gandhi further said if money is not given in the hands of the poor and small and medium industry, there could be "serious economic damage" in the country as he sought to know the government's plan to support migrants and various states in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. "We want to ask the government, what is their strategy as far as India's opening up is concerned and what precautions they are going to take, how are they thinking and how they are going to support the migrants and our states?" he asked. It is clear that the aim and purpose of the lockdown have failed even after 60 days and the disease is growing exponentially in the country, he said. "What India is facing now is a result of a failed lockdown. It is pretty clear that the four stages of lockdown have not given the result that the Prime Minister expected," he said. Gandhi noted that India is the only country in the world which is relaxing the lockdown when the virus is "exponentially rising". The former Congress chief said though he is not an expert but "we need to open up with planning and systematically and not in an ad-hoc way". He said the country's economy needs to be restored and that needs to be done by infusing money into the hands of the poor and the small and medium businesses. "The central government must infuse cash into hands of people and it will be fatal if they do not do it," he noted. A dangerous situation will arise if financial support to people and industry is not provided, he warned. Follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak here Gandhi also called for financial support to states, saying it will be difficult for states to function without central aid. It is clear the disease is not decreasing but increasing. With utmost respect, we want to ask the PM and the Govt: now that we have a failed lockdown, what is their strategy going forward?: Shri @RahulGandhi#RahulGandhiVoiceOfIndia pic.twitter.com/V3vkV4jj5V Congress (@INCIndia) May 26, 2020 Gandhi also called upon the central government to be transparent about what is happening in Ladakh and Nepal. "We would like the central government to make it clear to people on what is happening on the border with China," he said. Asked about the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, where Congress is a partner in the government, Gandhi said there is a difference between running the government and supporting a government. "We are supporting Maharashtra government, but we are not in the key decision-making role in Maharashtra," he said, adding that Maharashtra requires full support of the central government as the state is fighting a very difficult battle. On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced it was suspending the hydroxychloroquine arm of its trial over safety concerns (file image) A major British coronavirus trial of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is going ahead despite fears it might raise the risk of death, it emerged today. Oxford University researchers were given the green light by the UK drugs watchdog to continue giving the tablets to NHS patients with COVID-19. Concerns about the Donald Trump-backed medicine were raised in a scientific paper published in The Lancet last Friday. It linked the anti-malaria medicine with higher mortality and heart arrhythmias in severely ill coronavirus patients. The finding prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to pull the plug on its own global study of hydroxychloroquine, known as the Solidarity Trial, on Monday. The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it 'did not see any safety concerns' with the Recovery Trial, which is investigating the effect of five promising treatments on Covid patients with moderate to severe illness, including hydroxychloroquine. More than 10,500 Covid NHS patients are taking part in the Randomised Evaluation of COV-id19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial at hundreds of hospitals around the UK. Last Friday, The Lancet study looked at more than 96,000 people hospitalised with COVID-19 and found patients treated with hydroxychloroquine had a higher risk of death and heart rhythm problems than those who were not given the medicines. However, the antimalarial was only given to patients who had fallen severely unwell with Covid and were already at a high risk of falling victim to the illness. The Recovery Trial has been deemed safe because the drug is being randomly allocated to patients with varying degrees of illness and compared against a control group. But two other Oxford-led human trials of the drug have been halted amid the safety concerns. On Sunday, President Donald Trump said he had finished taking his two-week prescription of the anti-malaria medication, which he'd used as a prophylactic to stave off the virus WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (pictured) said the decision came after a study on Friday revealed higher mortality rates among COVID-19 patients who took the drug One of Recovery's chief investigators, Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at Oxford, said: 'Since Recovery (trial) patients are randomised, our data are much less vulnerable to the biases that plague studies that use routine health care data. 'An independent committee has looked at our data and did not see any safety concerns. 'We discussed our findings with (the) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), who have agreed with our interpretation that the data provide reassurance that continued enrolment into the hydroxychloroquine arm is safe and that we should press ahead with getting a reliable answer on hydroxychloroquine through the Recovery trial.' However, the MHRA has temporarily suspended recruitment for the COPCOV trial, a separate Oxford study being carried out alongside Brighton University. Hydroxychloroquine: What you should know about the drug Hydroxychloroquine was approved in the 1940s as a way to treat malaria. It is also prescribed for patients with arthritis and lupus. Trump has hailed the 'game-changing' drug and said: 'This would be a gift from heaven, this would be a gift from God if it works.' Physicians, however, have urged that the medication shouldn't be used without more testing. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also warned doctors against prescribing the drug to treat coronavirus outside of hospitals following reports of serious side effects, including irregular heart rhythms and death among patients. Preliminary results from a recent study done on coronavirus patients at US veterans hospitals showed no benefit, casting more doubt on the drug's efficacy during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed guidance from its website informing doctors on how to prescribe hydroxychloroquine. Initially, the CDC webpage had read: 'Although optimal dosing and duration of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 are unknown, some US clinicians have reported anecdotally.' It now says: 'There are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US FDA to prevent or treat COVID-19.' Advertisement COPCOV is an international study investigating whether the malaria tablets can prevent coronavirus infection in the first place. Hydroxychloroquine will be given to more than 40,000 frontline healthcare workers from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. The Oxford researchers believe their research is safe because it does not involve patients already ill with coronavirus. They remain confident their study will go ahead. But the University said it had temporarily paused enrollment around the globe and would wait on the MHRA's decision. The MHRA has also temporarily blocked recruitment for the Principle trial, which is looking at hydroxychloroquine's effect on elderly Covid patients - who are most at risk of dying from the disease. The Principle trial is studying people aged 50 to 64 who have COVID-19 symptoms and a chronic health condition such as heart disease, asthma or cancer. It is unclear how many patients are taking part. Commenting on the announcement, Professor Trudie Lang, director of The Global Health Network, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said: 'The WHO temporarily halting the use of chloroquine in Covid-19 clinical trials highlights why we need to run carefully-designed clinical trials during outbreaks. 'This enables us to learn as quickly as possible about whether potential therapies can tackle the virus and are safe. 'Properly designed and managed clinical trials are the only way we can see whether drugs might also cause harm. They are designed to assess the safety of the drug relative to the ability to bring any benefit. 'We have long known that chloroquine can cause harmful cardiac-related side effects from the use of chloroquine in the treatment of malaria. 'Recent trials carried out in China of a lower chloroquine dose didn't show efficacy in relation to Covid-19. A higher chloroquine dose could bring increased risk of harmful side effects.' She added that using chloroquine 'off licence' or outside a trial does not help answer questions about its safety and can also present a risk to the patient. Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the School of Medicine, University of Leeds, said: 'The WHO has taken the wise precaution of halting arms of their wide-ranging therapeutics trial relating to chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). 'This is largely based upon a study published last week that retrospectively analysed thousands of patients receiving these drugs as part of their Covid-19 treatment, either alone or in combination with antibiotics. 'The study could find no evidence for a beneficial effect in patients taking these drugs. 'However, worryingly, patients appeared to be at heightened risk of cardiac complications, especially when taking CQ or HCQ alongside macrolide antibiotics.' President Trump was among the first to wax lyrical about the possible benefits of hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus patients in March. Then last week he revealed he'd been taking the malaria drug for a week-and-a-half to stave off the virus. In an interview with Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson that aired on Sunday, Trump announced he'd finished taking his prescription. 'Finished, just finished,' the commander-in-chief said. 'And by the way, I'm still here. To the best of my knowledge, here I am.' Trump suggested he began taking the drug after two White House workers tested positive for the virus. 'I believe in it enough that I took a program because I had two people in the White House that tested positive,' he said. 'I figured maybe it's a good thing to take a program.' The network security market is expected to grow by USD 5.64 billion during 2020-2024. The report also provides the market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact can be expected to be significant in the first quarter but gradually lessen in subsequent quarters with a limited impact on the full-year economic growth, according to the latest market research report by Technavio. Request a free sample report This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005411/en/ Technavio has announced the latest market research report titled Global Network Security Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) The growing adoption of M2M communication in enterprises is one of the major factors driving network security market growth. M2M communication is increasingly being used to manage and monitor the physical assets of an organization. M2M communication uses various technologies like sensors, a global positioning system (GPS), radio-frequency identification (RFID), and bar codes. With the growth in M2M adoption, maintaining security becomes essential to ensure the confidentiality of data. Therefore, the increase in M2M adoption will stimulate the demand for network security during the forecast period. To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43379 As per Technavio, the increased adoption of BYOD concept will have a positive impact on the market and contribute to its growth significantly over the forecast period. This research report also analyzes other significant trends and market drivers that will influence market growth over 2020-2024. Network Security Market: Increased Adoption of BYOD Concept The adoption of BYOD is an emerging trend in this market space. Enterprise mobility has gained ground in the corporate world in response to employees' preferences to use their smartphones, tablets, and portable computers at work. However, BYOD demands specific network security solutions and IT service delivery frameworks to guarantee electronically secure and productive work environments. Vendors are hence, providing network security solutions to provide an environment where the employees can use their own devices through robust internet and connectivity infrastructure. Thus, the increased adoption of the BYOD concept can be expected to boost the growth of the network security market. "The increasing demand for cloud-based solutions will have a significant impact on the growth of the network security market value during the forecast period," says a senior analyst at Technavio. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Network Security Market: Segmentation Analysis This market research report segments the network security market by type (hardware and software) and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA). The North American region led the network security market in 2019, followed by Europe, APAC, MEA, and South America respectively. During the forecast period, the North American region is expected to register the highest incremental growth due to factors such as the strong presence of IT, healthcare, BFSI, retail, and education industries in the US, and the increased prevalence of insider fraud, data breaches, and hacking. Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report Some of the key topics covered in the report include: Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Competitive scenario About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005411/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Rightfully, most attention now is on the front-line care Iowa hospitals are providing for patients stricken with COVID-19. Yet, its the financial repercussions of this pandemic that may be more threatening to the future of Iowa hospitals. Collectively, Iowa hospitals could lose more than $1.4 billion through September, according to financial modeling by CliftonLarsonAllen, a well-known audit and consulting firm. Although Congress has provided stimulus and relief funding, the $550 million that has been received by Iowa hospitals will on average help support their operations for 45-60 days and will not be enough to close the fiscal gap many are facing because of COVID-19. Iowa hospitals on average lost half of their gross revenue in the pandemics first six weeks. As a group, its an estimated $12 million net loss per day from mid-March to late April. Much of that is because of the suspension of elective procedures. Although COVID-19 treatment comes at a substantial cost to hospitals, its been this elective-procedure interruption that has caused the most damage to hospitals financials. For rural Iowa hospitals, its another blow to an already fragile financial reality. A study conducted more than a year before COVID-19s emergence found 17 Iowa hospitals at high risk for closing. Rural hospitals also rely on outpatient services to provide most of their revenue. Nearly 80% of rural hospitals services are outpatient-based and most elective cases are outpatient procedures. Even with elective procedures resuming, modeling shows it will take more than a year for hospitals to recover from the lost revenue. The growing possibility of rural hospitals in Iowa closing could leave some of the states most-vulnerable citizens in limbo without adequate health care access. The states major health care systems are not immune to the pandemics affects either. They have instituted pay cuts, furloughs and layoffs, adding to an already deep and growing unemployment crisis. Although better prepared now than several weeks ago, Iowas urban hospitals are seeing higher percentages of COVID-19 patients and will continue negative financial operations for many months as they bring back other essential services and work to preserve capacity for more COVID-19 hospitalizations. A recent economic report released by the Iowa Hospital Association highlights Iowa hospitals role in supporting the states vitality by generating more than 143,000 jobs in 2019 that added nearly $7.9 billion to the states economy. The closure of an Iowa hospital means the loss of access to health care for patients, the loss of an important economic engine for the region and the loss of an essential driver of a communitys quality of life. Proper funding is needed to offset the major financial losses Iowas hospitals have incurred during this pandemic. When lawmakers reconvene in June, they must move forward with measures and decisions that support the institutions that have been at the front line Iowa hospitals. Marty Guthmiller is CEO of Orange City Area Health System in Orange City, Iowa. He is also chair of the Iowa Hospital Associations board of directors and trustees. David Stark is CEO of UnityPoint Health-Des Moines. He is also a member of the Iowa Hospital Associations board of directors and trustees. The federal health minister has ordered an investigation into the alleged sale of counterfeit protective face masks in Australian hospitals, exposed by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Tuesday. Acting Health Department Secretary Caroline Edwards told the Senate inquiry into the government's COVID-19 response that Health Minister Greg Hunt had ordered the Therapeutic Goods Administration to examine "what might have happened", after the publications revealed that private hospitals were sold to private hospitals. Asked if the department had been aware of concerns that doctors and nurses exposed to COVID-19 may have been wearing defective masks, Ms Edwards said: "We are now." The TGA in March dropped strict regulations that required all masks to be tested before being registered in Australia in response to a global shortage of personal protective equipment. Ms Edwards rejected the suggestion that defective masks had been let through by the TGA's relaxation of the rules, saying that this only applied to masks acquired by the federal government for the national medical stockpile and not those sold on the private market. "We changed the regulation so that certain equipment coming only into the national stockpile could skip some of the regulatory hoops on the basis that there would be post market reviews to check that that material is safe and so on," Ms Edwards told the hearing. "But [we] in no way changed the requirements for anybody else that's using PPE for a therapeutic purpose - as opposed to if you buy it at the chemist for some other reason around your house. "If it's used for a therapeutic purpose, which you would expect in a hospital, it needs to go through the exact same regulatory process as always. So the TGA is going to go investigate the situation we have here." Before March 22, companies selling masks to hospitals first had to ensure their products passed independent testing and were registered by the TGA. Experts have told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that mask manufacturers, many based in China, took advantage of the relaxed rules to register counterfeit masks and then use the government-issued registration certificate to sell them to private hospitals and other companies. The governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said he did not unilaterally take the decision to demolish two hotels in the state for allegedly violating COVID-19 order in the state. The destruction of the hotel had attracted outrage among Nigerians, with one rights group, SERAP suing Mr Wike at the ECOWAS court for violation of the rights of residents of the state. I dont take decisions alone in the fight against COVID-19, a statement issued by the Rivers State government quoted Mr Wike to have said on Tuesday when the executives of the Nigeria Hotel Association, Rivers chapter, paid him a visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt. The statement was signed by the commissioner for information in Rivers, Paulinus Nsirim. Mr Wike said all decisions, apparently including the decision to demolish the two hotels, are taken by the Rivers State security council. And they are for the overall interest of Rivers people, he added. The governor said no right-thinking government would deliberately take decisions that would negatively affect the lives of the people. He said people only applaud government decisions when it favours them. Rivers State government does not have anything against hoteliers in the state, but decided to shut down their activities because some cases of COVID-19 were recorded in hotels. Its not possible that the state government will intentionally close down hotels. But what I see is that people play politics with everything. The demolition of Prodest Hotel and Etemeteh Hotel in Eleme Local Government Area by the state government became necessary because the owners failed to comply with Executive Order 7. I cant believe that I will be sitting here as a governor and take a painful decision that will make churches and mosques not to hold full religious activities, he said. Meanwhile, Governor Wike said hoteliers in the state failed to assist the government in providing information on those that test positive for COVID-19 in their hotels. If such information were provided, health workers would have carried out proper contact tracing which could have helped halt the spread of coronavirus in the state, he said. The Rivers State government in an earlier statement said a manager in one of the demolished hotels tested positive for COVID-19. There are 121 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Rivers as of May 26. Patrons maintaining social distancing as they await their orders outside Bayou Bar & Grill on Main Street in Manayunk on May 10, 2020. Read more Calling it the first step toward a new normal, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Thomas Farley on Tuesday said that the city had lifted two restrictions on food ordering. Patrons may walk inside restaurants to order food in real time, rather than order in advance and pick up only when the food is ready. Since assembly of more than 10 people is not allowed, Farley said lines must be limited to 10 and customers must wear masks and maintain social distancing while waiting for orders. He made it clear that dining rooms have not been allowed to reopen for service. Food trucks and other mobile food vendors are now permissible in Philadelphia, the only municipality in Pennsylvania that banned them, subject to social-distancing requirements. Both policies were adopted in late March, at the beginning of the coronavirus shutdown. The Philly Mobile Food Association had been lobbying for weeks for the city to lift the ban, even floating an idea to allow a dozen vendors a day to set up in private lots with contactless takeout. Last week, the city rebuffed the PFMAs entreaties, saying it was committed to a more holistic review of the order. Im glad for all the vendors out there every day trying to make a living, said Matt Rossi, president of the Philly Mobile Food Association, which lobbied the city to change the rules. Restaurant owners are now looking toward a potential lifting of some restrictions on outdoor dining. City Managing Director Brian Abernathy said the office was working with the Streets Department about getting extra curb space. CHICAGO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Jorie Healthcare Partners, a Chicago-based Medical Practice Physician Group and a full-service Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) company, is pleased to announce the opening of its new division Jorie Technology Partners. With the recent acquisition of a leading software technology firm, Jorie is poised to spearhead the future of outsourced on-shore and off-shore RCM by providing cost containment solutions that leverage the latest AI in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and powerful BI Analytic Tools to increase profitability, scalability and reporting. Jorie Healthcare Jorie Healthcare Partners and its various conglomerates will continue to be led by Anita Sumra Singh as CEO. She has been instrumental in driving the company's growth and vision to become an exclusive world-class provider in RCM since its inception. "We are confident that successfully applying RPA and AI within Revenue Cycle Management will drive better fiscal outcomes and reduce labor-intensive dependency along with a dramatic improvement in accuracy and quality levels to drive efficiencies. It is our goal to provide clients with this competitive advantage," says Anita Sumra Singh, CEO, Jorie Healthcare Partners. Jorie Technology Partners will be integrated by June 1, 2020 under the Jorie moniker. The launch will signify the availability of the organization's new software solutions, coupled with RCM and practice management to Physician Groups, Hospitals Systems, and ASCs About Jorie Healthcare Partners: Jorie Healthcare Partners is an 'outcome sourcing' company, providing practice and financial management services to the healthcare industry. Jorie features its own physician practice group and multiple ASCs out of Texas, along with a Microbial Technology firm (Strategia) for diabetic wound-care and commercial/personal sanitizers with an On-Shore Central Billing Office out of Oak Brook, IL, as well as an exclusive Captive Delivery Center in Chandigarh, India with 1,200+ resources. As a global services, technology, and analytics leader, Jorie is committed to optimizing value for its clients and their businesses. The company was created to provide excellence in revenue capture for physician and hospital support within the healthcare space. For more details, visit www.joriehc.com. Aashmita Nayar Marketing & Publications Email: [email protected] Phone: 1 - 888 - 522 - 0022 Related Images jorie-group-of-companies.jpg Jorie Group Of Companies SOURCE Jorie Healthcare Related Links http://www.joriehc.com [May 25, 2020] Cyber Security: Technologies and Global Markets NEW YORK, May 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Report Scope: The scope of the report encompasses various technologies used in cyber security applications and deployment types. The market is divided on the basis of enterprise size. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04316851/?utm_source=PRN Applications for the market are segmented into banking and financial services institutions, defense and intelligence, healthcare, retail, IT and telecommunications, government, and others, which includes the education and manufacturing sectors. The present cyber security market offers an opportunity to stakeholders largely because of a surge in cloud-based services and the increased use of the internet for online financial transactions. This report highlights different solutions in the cyber security market, which includes identity and access management (IAM), encryption, data loss protection (DLP), firewall, antivirus and antimalware, disaster recovery, risk and compliance management, and other solutions. Other types of solutions include unified threat management (UTM), distributed denial of service mitigation and web filtering. In addition, the report also offers major regional analysis of North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The estimated and forecast market revenue considered in this report is the summation of prices for software, hardware and subscription services. Report Includes: - 75 data tables and 39 additional tables - An in-depth analysis of the global market for cyber security technologies within the industry - Analyses of the global market trends, with data corresponding to market size from 2018 and 2019, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2024 - Discussion of major market drivers, current trends and opportunities, challenges and restraints, and adoption of managed security service providers - Information on value chain analysis providing a systematic study of the key intermediaries involved, which could further assist stakeholders in formulating appropriate strategies - Competitive landscape covering leading IT security solution providers; their market share analysis and key strategies adopted by these companieswithin the global cyber security market - Descriptive company profiles of major vendor companies, including BAE Systems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Technology, HP, IBM Corp., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Thales Group Summary: Cyber security challenges are growing along with the expansion of the internetactually, the hacking world is growing faster. Cyber security is the process of protecting internet-connected systems, including hardware, software and data, from cyberattack. Security which is designed to maintain the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data is a subset of cyber security. Cyber security involves protecting information and systems from major cyber threats. These threats take many forms. As a result, keeping pace with cyber security strategy and operations can be a challenge, particularly in government and enterprise networks where, in their most innovative form, cyber threats often take aim at secret, political and military assets of a nation, or its people. Some of the common threats are - - Cyber terrorism: The innovative use of information technology by terrorist groups to further their political agenda. This can include attacks on networks, computer systems and telecommunication infrastructures. - Cyber warfare: This involves nation-states using information technology to cause other national networks damage. In the U.S. and other countries, cyber warfare has been acknowledged as the fifth domain of warfare. Cyber warfare attacks are primarily executed by hackers who are welltrained in use of computer networks and operate under the favorable support of nation-states. Rather than closing a target's key networks, a cyber warfare attack may compromise valuable data, degrade communications, impair such infrastructural services as transportation and medical services, or interrupt commerce. - Cyber espionage: The practice of using information technology to obtain secret information without permission from its owners or holders. This is most often used to gain strategic, economic and military advantage, and is conducted using cracking techniques and malware. Version 1.1 of the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure was released by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. in April 2018. The voluntary cyber security framework, developed for use in the banking, communications, defense and energy industries, can be adopted by all sectors, including federal and state governments. President Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating that federal agencies adopt the NIST Cyber security Framework (NIST CSF) in May 2017. As a result of security risks, investments in cyber security technologies and services are increasing. In the past, it was estimated that worldwide spending on information security products and services would grow to REDACTED in 2018, and another REDACTED increase to REDACTED in 2019. Later, in 2019, worldwide cyber security researchers had also predicted that spending in enterprise security and risk management would grow REDACTED in 2020 in the Middle East and north Africa. In terms of region, Asia-Pacific is the emerging cyber security market, while the U.S. and western Europe markets are mature. Some of the part of Asia-Pacific including Japan, India and China are showing moderate cyber security market maturity. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04316851/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. ReportLinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: [email protected] US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cyber-security-technologies-and-global-markets-301064790.html SOURCE Reportlinker [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Four invaders were wounded on May 25, according to intelligence data. Russia's hybrid military forces on May 25 mounted 16 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. "The Russian Federation's armed formations violated the ceasefire 16 times in the past day," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in a Facebook update as of 07:00 Kyiv time on May 26, 2020. Russia-led forces opened fire, employing proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, heavy machine guns, and rifles. Read alsoTortures in Donbas: Ukraine prosecutors identify about 600 victims Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka, Maryinka and Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Pisky, Orikhove, Bohdanivka, Pavlopil, Berezove, Vodiane, and Luhanske. Joint Forces returned fire to each enemy shelling. According to intelligence data, four members of Russia-led forces were wounded on May 25. The enemy did not attack Ukrainian positions from 00:00 to 07:00 Kyiv time on May 26. Read alsoOSCE reports 44 civilian victims in Donbas hostilities since early 2020 No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops over the period under review. SPRINGFIELD In recognition of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John J. Kim recently celebrated the creativity and hard work of fifth and sixth grade students selected for their artistic and writing skills used to express environmental awareness, as part of the Agencys 33rd Annual Poster, Poetry and Prose Contest. The students were selected from works submitted by students throughout Illinois. Each year, fifth and sixth grade students in Illinois take part in the Poster, Poetry and Prose contest as part of the Agencys Environmental Education initiative. Through the program, participating schools study environmental concepts with an emphasis on the current years environmental theme. Many teachers round out the classroom program by having the students create posters or poetry/prose works to illustrate what they have learned and submit these to the Agency. Each participating school is eligible to select four works in each category to submit for competitive judging. This years theme, "Algae: The Good, the Bad, and the UglyHow Can You Keep Your Local Pond Healthy?" focused on understanding how algae affect waterbodies in both good and bad ways, and learning how to prevent nutrient runoff to help maintain healthy water ecosystems. Educators were asked to incorporate Illinois EPAs newly created Environmental Pathways: Why is the Pond Green? unit into their classroom curricula that is available free online at: https://pathways.mste.illinois.edu/. Students learned how algae can be good and bad in the aquatic environment and why it is important to reduce nonpoint source pollution in our waterways to prevent the negative effects of too much algae. This curriculum unit is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. In celebration of Earth Day, we want to recognize these students who are poised to make a difference in their communities, said Director Kim. These students did a great job demonstrated the knowledge they gained through their works of art and writing. We are excited to see our Environmental Pathways program explored by so many schools and look forward to classrooms utilizing our newly released STEM curriculum in years to come. A panel of representatives from the Illinois EPA judged all entries and selected the finalists, whose entries were then judged by an outside panel of authorities, to determine the top 12 winners. Student awards were mailed to the schools, where the top 12 and honorable mention winners received environmental reference books for their school libraries. The winners, along with all finalists, also received certificates and ribbons for their creative efforts. Local Illinois Environmental Protection Agency 2020 Poster, Poetry and Prose Winners Honorable Mention: Poetry/Prose Brianna Miller, Jefferson Elementary Special Recognition: Poetry/Prose Avery Beals, Jefferson Elementary Arabella Combs, Jefferson Elementary Addison Daugherty, Jefferson Elementary Special Recognition: Posters Stevi Nichols, Cumberland Middle School Wyatt Scales, Cumberland Middle School Isaac Venatta, Cumberland Middle School Dane Hutchcraft, Jefferson Elementary School Alyssa Johnson, Jefferson Elementary School Graci Snyder, Jefferson Elementary School Information about the annual event can be obtained by contacting Kristi Morris, Environmental Education Coordinator for the Illinois EPA at 1021 North Grand Avenue East, P.O. Box 19276, Springfield, IL, 62794-9276, or Kristi.Morris@Illinois.gov. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Delegates launch the Facebook for Vietnam campaign to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Viet Nam - US relations on May 24. - Photo courtesy of Facebook The campaign is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive programme designed exclusively for Vietnam under the social media hashtag #fb4vn. Facebook for Vietnam puts existing and newly created programmes in Vietnam under one hashtag. Running in Vietnam from May until December 2020 and focusing on five pillars: Innovation, Digital Economy, Safety and Digital Literacy, Cities and Community, the campaign presents Facebooks contributions and investments that will support Vietnam to become a fully digital nation. Facebook is one example of the many US companies that play a vital role in the daily lives of Vietnamese citizens by connecting family and friends, and also serving as a business platform and news source, all of which have been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, the Facebook for Vietnam campaign, which further expands Facebooks socio-economic development projects throughout the country, demonstrates both Facebooks and the United States long-term commitment to the prosperity of Vietnam, said Daniel Kritenbrink, US Ambassador to Vietnam. Nguyet Nguyen, Country Head of Public Policy, Vietnam at Facebook shared: Vietnam is an important market for Facebook, with a digital economy that is growing at a remarkable pace. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the global economy as well as the local business landscape, especially small and medium businesses that have been heavily impacted. With this campaign, we want to work more closely with the Government, partners, non-profit organisations and others to help Viet Nam quickly recover from the crisis while creating opportunities for people to build digital literacy skills, helping businesses grow and creating jobs in the digital economy. The Facebook for Vietnam campaign will extend Facebooks activities to more areas and provinces to support Vietnams Industry 4.0 goals. It once again reinforces Facebooks long term commitment to the country, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, Facebook has collaborated with different partners in Vietnam to implement projects which promote the countrys socio-economic growth. They included: #SheMeansBusiness & Facebook Community Boost which helped train and consult over 10,000 small and medium enterprises in-person, in which nearly 6,500 women entrepreneurs attended our #SheMeansBusiness workshops; and We Think Digital which pilot trained 244,813 secondary school students and 1,227 teachers on digital literacy across 13 provinces in Vietnam in 2019. Opposition party claims it won the poll but election board says their candidate garnered 20 percent of the vote. Burundi will have a new president after the countrys election commission declared the governing party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye the winner of the May 20 poll, a result disputed by the opposition. The electoral body, CENI, said Ndayishimiye, a former rebel commander and current secretary-general of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, garnered 67 percent of the votes cast. Agathon Rwasa, leader of the opposition National Freedom Council (CNL), came a distant second receiving 24 percent of the vote, according to CENI. More than four million Burundians cast their ballot in the election contested by seven candidates. Massive fraud In a statement, CNL said the results announced by the electoral commission were not credible, adding they were prefabricated and stemming from a massive fraud. The opposition party, which has until Thursday to formally contest the result, claimed it won the vote and was going to challenge the outcome in court. The Constitutional Court will declare the final election results on June 4. Ndayishimiye is expected to be sworn in for a seven-year term in late August when President Pierre Nkurunzizas term ends. Nkurunziza, who is retiring after 15 years in power in a move that caught many people by surprise, praised his successor. I warmly congratulate the president-elect General Major Evariste Ndayishimiye for his large victory, which confirms that the great majority of Burundians adhere to the projects and the values he embodies, Nkurunziza said on his official Twitter account. We are privileged witnesses to history. May God bless Burundi! the 55-year-old leader added. Nkurunzizas decision to run for a third term in 2015 led to widespread violence that left at least 1,200 people dead and forced 400,000 to flee the landlocked Central African country. Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader, will have the title Supreme Guide when he hands over power. After leaving office, he will also receive a luxury villa and a one-off payment of more than $500,000. Meanwhile, analysts say the result will not just be disputed by opposition candidates, but also by many voters. Some of the Burundians do not see this as a democratic transfer of power, David Otto, a senior consultant at Global Risk Assessment, told Al Jazeera. They think power has just been given to General Evariste Ndayishimiye. The opposition have said they won the election by 58 percent or so. Peaceful and successful Foreign observers were absent from the poll after the Burundi government said observers arriving in the country would have to be quarantined for 14 days. On Tuesday, the East African Community, a regional body, gave the election a clean bill of health, congratulating Burundi for holding peaceful and successful vote. The 2020 Burundi elections hold an iconic place in the history of the nation, marking this the first peaceful and democratic transfer of power. More significantly, the process was domestically driven through own funding, it said in a statement. The peaceful conclusion of the electoral process will not only be a big win for the people of Burundi, but for the East African Community as a region. President Pierre Nkurunziza is retiring after 15 years in office [Clovis Guy Siboniyo/Reuters] Rights groups, meanwhile, said the vote took place against a backdrop of continuing repression of the political opposition, independent media, and civil society. There were continued reports of killings, arbitrary arrests, beatings and disappearances of opposition members, Rachel Nicholson, Great Lakes researcher at Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera. On election day itself, Burundians woke up to find all major social media sites blocked in a blatant violation of their rights to freedom of expression and access to information, she said. Ndayishimiye, 52, will inherit a country in economic freefall after donors imposed sanctions following the disputed polls in 2015. The country is also trying to recover from years of unrest. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 185th out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index. More than 65 percent of Burundians live in poverty, with at least 55 percent of the countrys 11 million people chronically food insecure, according to the United Nations. Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa Advertisement A conservationist has undertaken one of 'history's biggest habitat recovery projects' and moved 24 lions from five locations across South Africa to a new home hundreds of miles away. Ivan Carter and his team transported the animals by plane and truck to the Zambeze Delta in Mozambique, an area which has been without the predators for 30 years due to poaching. The conservationists carefully selected lions with good pedigree which had been roaming free all of their lives. The animals were then kept in a large enclosure for six weeks so they could get to know each other. Mr Carter is delighted to report that the movement of the lions - which took place in May 2018 - has been an amazing success and the number of lions on the nature reserve has trebled to 60. A hundred years ago more than 200,000 lions roamed across Africa. Habitat loss and human conflict has decimated their population, now thought to be in the region of 20,000. The local community gathered to see the lions arrive in Mozambique Ten tranquilized lions have hoods put over their heads by the conservationists as they prepare to move them to their new home at the Zabeze Delta Conservation in Mozambique. The conservationists carefully selected lions with good pedigree who had been roaming free all of their lives. The animals were then kept in a large enclosure for six weeks so they could get to know each other. Lions lying in the back of the plane for transportation to Mozambique. After careful consideration, Mr Carter and the team, selected the healthiest lions to transport via car and plane to their forever home which has two million acres of land in May 2018. The project was a massive success as they have now tripled in numbers and theres over 60 lions Fifteen of the 24 Lions released into the Zambezi Delta have been tagged to allow for monitoring. Additional satellite collars have been placed on buffalo, sable, zebra, reedbuck and warthog. The tracking data allows the staff to measure changes in their behaviour A hundred years ago more than 200,000 lions roamed across Africa. Habitat loss and human conflict has decimated their population, now thought to be in the region of 20,000 (pictured: two of the lions in their new habitat) The Cabela Family Foundation has partnered with Zambeze Delta Conservation, Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance, and ANAC to reverse this trend in the Zambeze Delta Ecosystem. Mark Haldane, CEO of Zambeze Delta Safaris, who works with the Cabela Family Foundation, started a mission on 1995 to bring game back to the region. On its 24Lions website, the group says: 'In 1995 when Haldane started on this mission, wildlife was almost zero. Well managed responsible use of wildlife and the ecosystem has resulted in an expansion of game numbers. 'This is the very foundation upon which this initiative has been made possible, and with the very highest rate of success. The hunter's dollars that flow through this area have funded this recovery in its entirety. 'In 2018, 66 tons of sustainably harvested meat was distributed to the local community in return for a zero poaching policy.' Mr Carter from White River, South Africa, said: 'It was quite exciting moving the lions from around five different locations in South Africa. 'We had to pick those with good genetics and health who have been roaming free all of their lives - this was done by taking them to the vets for tests prior to putting them into quarantine. 'They were in a large enclosure for six weeks and put into groups so they could integrate, otherwise, they would have just walked straight off and the habitat recovery project would have been unsuccessful. 'We had to get various permits and vet certificates and had to ensure the Zabeza Delta conservation had enough prey base there for the lions to survive. The Cabela Family Foundation funded satellite collars for the lions. The Cabela Family Foundation has partnered with Zambeze Delta Conservation, Ivan Carter Wildlife Conservation Alliance, and ANAC to reverse this trend in the Zambeze Delta Ecosystem. Mark Haldane, CEO of Zambeze Delta Safaris, who works with the Cabela Family Foundation, started a mission on 1995 to bring game back to the region. On its 24Lions website, the group says: 'In 1995 when Haldane started on this mission, wildlife was almost zero. Well managed responsible use of wildlife and the ecosystem has resulted in an expansion of game numbers. 'This is the very foundation upon which this initiative has been made possible, and with the very highest rate of success. The hunter's dollars that flow through this area have funded this recovery in its entirety. 'In 2018, 66 tons of sustainably harvested meat was distributed to the local community in return for a zero poaching policy.' Mr Carter from White River, South Africa, said: 'It was quite exciting moving the lions from around five different locations in South Africa. 'We had to pick those with good genetics and health who have been roaming free all of their lives - this was done by taking them to the vets for tests prior to putting them into quarantine' (pictured: the lions being fed) Sixty-six tons of sustainably harvested meat was distributed to the local community in return for a zero poaching policy 'The whole project took ten weeks, from the moment the first dart was shot to the second the first lion stepped foot back into the wild. 'It was an unbelievably momentous moment watching the majestic lion repopulating the area!' Mr Carter praised Cabela Family Foundation for funding the relocation, seven years of follow up science and research and protection for the lions. He said: 'Without the foundation, we would have never been able to make this happen. The 24 lions were released in early August 2018. There numbers have now trebled with more than 60 inhabiting the delta Some of the lions during their socialising period in South Africa. Mr Carter praised Cabela Family Foundation for funding the relocation, seven years of follow up science and research and protection for the lions. He said: 'Without the foundation, we would have never been able to make this happen' Two of the lions are seen with three cubs from one of the helicopters used by the conservationists at the safari Mr Carter said: 'An anti poaching team is also funded to keep the lions and wildlife of the area safe. This project has been a complete rejuvenation of wild lions and they have done really well' 'They also paid for satellite collars for the original lions - we have biologists on the ground who are always studying. 'An anti poaching team is also funded to keep the lions and wildlife of the area safe. 'This project has been a complete rejuvenation of wild lions and they have done really well.' The relocation was caught on camera by photographer Sean Viljoen who has shared the images. One of the lions at the Zambeze Delta safari The lions were kept in a large enclosure for six weeks before release The lions were kept in a large enclosure for six weeks before release Tthe local community gathered to see the lions arrive in Mozambique for what has been described as 'one of history's biggest habitat recovery projects' (Newser) Anyone who failed to keep distance at a crowded pool party in Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks over Memorial Day weekend is being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. Public health officials in St. Louis County issued an advisory on Monday, noting "recent news reports indicate that many people, including those from the St. Louis region, did not follow any protective practices over the holiday weekend." A 16-second video clip, viewed more than 18 million times as of Tuesday, showed crowds gathered for a "Zero Ducks Given Pool Party" at Backwater Jacks Tiki Bar in Osage Beach on Saturday, per KSHB. Anyone who traveled and failed to maintain 6 feet of distance from others is asked to self-quarantine for 14 days or until they test negative for COVID-19. story continues below "This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of COVID-19," County Executive Sam Page says, per USA Today. Rex Archer, director of the Health Department in Kansas City, Mo., says attendees should follow the advisory "if they have any compassion for others," per NBC News. A witness tells KSHB that every attendee received temperature checks and had access to hand sanitizer. In advance, bar owner Gary Prewitt said there would be efforts to enforce physical distancing but "we don't know who's in groups, who's in families. We expect them to do that on their own." In a statement, the local sheriffs office says it's up to health authorities to enforce health guidelines. (Read more coronavirus stories.) Founder and Leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana, Kofi Akpaloo has emphatically stated that the proposed Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday), will be held with or without the presence of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). According to him, the NDCs decision not to partake in the meeting, will not thwart ECs agenda for the day saying; they [NDC] are not the only party in Ghana. The IPAC meeting will go on without them. Maybe they are observing social distancing and they can do that till next year, he added in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show Ghana Montie.' NDC out of IPAC meeting The NDC says it will not attend the IPAC meeting at the behest of the EC. The larget opposition party therefore wants the meeting to be suspended indefinitely until further notice in compliance with the directive by the president for all public gatherings to be suspended over the outbreak of COVID-19. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, the deputy General Secretary of the party, Peter Boamah Otokunor said officials of the party will not risk their lives to attend the meeting in a small room in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the EC has invited fifteen parties to attend the planned IPAC meeting on the compilation of the new electoral register, Wednesday. Parties to attend IPAC meeting The meeting, which is expected to be held at the IPAC room of the EC, will attract all registered political parties including; the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC), Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and Ghana Union Movement (GUM). The rest are the Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere (EGLE), United Front Party (UFP), Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), National Democratic Party (NDP), All Peoples Congress (APC), United Progressive Party (UPP), and Power United Party (PUP). Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 17:12:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Once again a scene of indefensible, horrific violence has unfolded on the streets of Hong Kong in broad daylight. The innocent victim this time was a young woman who, after being brutally knocked down, was dragged along the ground and viciously punched and kicked by a group of black-clad men and women wearing face masks. She was barbarically beaten by the so-called "freedom fighters" because she was trying to clear the barricades blocking the road to let the cars get through, video footage that emerged online showed. On the same day, a 41-year-old man, identified afterward as a lawyer, was assaulted and chased down the street by a mob for complaining about their unlawful behavior. While he was being savagely beaten up, a group of rioters opened umbrellas to cover the gruesome assault. The violent acts, abhorrent in any civil society, happened on Sunday in Hong Kong after China's top legislature announced a draft decision to introduce national security legislation for the city. Masked radicals flocked to the streets on Hong Kong Island, blocking roads, dismantling railings, trashing shops and setting fires. Not surprisingly, none of those atrocities and law-breaking activities caught the attention of politicians in Washington, whose sole interest lies in blaming, attacking and smearing China. In one of the most shocking remarks made by a U.S. politician, congressman Scott Perry introduced a so-called "Hong Kong Freedom Act," which, he explained, "authorizes the President of the United States to recognize Hong Kong as a separate, independent country." Absurd and ignorant as the remarks are, such reactions of Perry and the like, undoubtedly, further embolden the rioters and their hidden handlers in Hong Kong. The collusion between the two sides, ironically, perfectly highlights why China indeed needs the national security legislation in Hong Kong. Under the "one country, two systems," Hong Kong, as a special administrative region of China, has a high degree of autonomy and retains its own capitalist system and lifestyle. However, first and foremost, Hong Kong is part of China and is under the overall jurisdiction of the Chinese central government. Every country has a right and a duty to protect its national security. To suggest that China does not have the same right to legislate to protect national security in Hong Kong shows a double standard and hypocrisy. The absence of national security law in Hong Kong has long been taken advantage of by local and foreign anti-China forces. Activities jeopardizing national security have become increasingly rampant in Hong Kong. During months of social unrest last year, rioters besieged government and legislative buildings, trashed metro stations, banks and stores and assaulted innocent residents, plunging Hong Kong into chaos and deep economic recession. Those who claim to be acting in Hong Kong's best interests turn a blind eye to the violence and its traumatic consequences and focus purely on hyping up anti-China sentiments and stoking fear and chaos in Hong Kong. By doing so, their true, deceitful intentions are exposed. No country would allow the same kind of riots and lawlessness in Hong Kong to occur in their own territory. Neither will China. The legislation in the pipeline is aimed at rescuing Hong Kong from being ruined, ensuring the "one country, two systems" stays on track and guaranteeing a stable future for Hong Kong. Those who truly value and cherish the Pearl of the Orient should rest assured that the legislation will better protect and secure the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Hong Kong residents. Only those who attempt to use Hong Kong as a political pawn for their own political or economic gains should feel uneasy. The Chinese government is rock-firm in protecting national sovereignty, security and its development interests. Anyone trying to use Hong Kong as a bargaining chip to contain China, split the country, or subvert state power, is either ignorant or self-deceiving. Enditem Sixty seven new COVID-19 cases were reported in Kerala on Tuesday,the highest single day spike so far, with Palakkad district alone clocking 29 cases and those under observation crossing the one lakh mark. The total Covid tally in the state has touched 963 with 415 presently under treatment and over 1.4 lakh under observation. Of the total positive cases, 27 came from abroad and 33 from other states, including Maharashtra 15, Tamil Nadu nine and Gujarat five. Seven people have been infected through contact, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters here. While Kannur had eight cases, Kottayam six, Malappuram and Ernakulam five each, Thrissur and Kollam had four each and Kasaragod and Alappuzha recorded three cases each, he said. "We have entered another phase with a lot of people coming from abroad and other states", he said. The Chief Minister said he held a virtual meeting with MPs and MLAs from the state on Tuesday and all of them supported the government's efforts in tackling the pandemic. Among those who participated were Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, Opposition leader in the assembly, Ramesh Chennithala and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Vijayan pointed out that 133 people who came from abroad, including 75 from the UAE and 25 from Kuwait tested positive for the virus, while 72 who had returned from Maharashtra, 71 from Tamil Nadu and 35 from Karnataka have tested positive so far. "On May 8, only 16 people were under treatment in the state and today 415 are under treatment,"he said and expressed concern at the increase in number of cases. The Chief Minister said that the state would face immense difficulty if all Keralites in foreign countries and other states returned at the same time, as lakhs of Keralites are settled in various parts of the country and abroad. Ghanas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has described the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on the continent as a major test of the resolve the African Union (AU) and its member countries to advance the development of Africa. In a statement to mark this years edition of the African Union Day on May 25, 2020, the Ministry says while dealing with the pandemic, Africa cannot defer urgent action on plans and programmes that will advance continental trade and development. It added that it is, therefore, only through our collective efforts and resilience that we can position Africa in the right place among the comity of nations. AU started 2020 with the theme: Silencing The Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africas Development. The AU has maintained the above theme for the past three years. The Ministry bemoaned how the novel viral disease devastated the worlds most robust economies and heightened uncertainty amongst the investor community. Despite the relatively lower Morbidity among Africas victims, our economies, still very reliant on foreign aid and in-flows have taken a disproportionate hit. Thus, the impact of the disease on African economies have been very disruptive. Several countries in Africa Ghana inclusive have had their economic targets and rating revised. This bleak outlook notwithstanding, Africa is optimistic of riding the storm and coming out successfully from the pandemic, with as minimal damage as possible, it says. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Help India! By Roshan Nageena Women and their status, role and position in society is a topic close to my heart. A picture widely circulated in WhatsApp during this troubling time of lockdown as to how families can pray in congregation in their own homes evoked in me the need to comment on the issue of womens leadership in prayer. The picture showed, in its first panel, that a male offspring could stand one step behind his Father who stood as Imam. But the next panel claimed that if the mother is joining then she must be in a whole new row behind. If male and female children are present, then the sons occupy the row behind the father and the women (including mother and daughters) occupy the row behind the male children. This picture disturbed me as it was describing a scene inside a home, and not public congregational prayer. Support TwoCircles For one thing, the title of the most knowledgeable member in the family in religious matters was automatically conferred upon the Father. The sons were next given preference, over even their mother, her religious qualifications and knowledge (ilm) notwithstanding. Incidentally, my niece who has a beautiful style of recitation was not allowed to stand as Imam in her own home by the elders citing that she cannot lead mixed-gender prayers. The congregation behind her would have comprised her parents, grandparents and younger brother. Evidence from Quran Modern-day practising Muslims would rather err on the side of conservative thought processes of religious interpretations and doctrines than challenge the status quo for fear of bringing new practices (Bid ah) into the Deen. But there is a difference between Bid ah (innovation) and Ikhthilaf (difference of opinion). There have always been differences of opinion throughout Islamic history starting with the companions of the Prophet (PBUH). The Quran, we Muslims believe, is a living Scripture which applies to every age and time. The Quran is my source Scripture from which I am convinced that Allah does not differentiate between men and women and they are equal in accountability and responsibility before God. They are partners and counterparts of each other. Surah 9, Verse 71 The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.1 The Arabic word, Awliya as translated here is allies (Singular Waliy meaning helper, supporter, guardian, protector, ally, friend). Please note that Allah did not say in His Holy Book that believing men are the waliy of believing women. Nay, they are Awliya for one another. Surah 3: Verse 195 And their Lord responded to them, Never will I allow to be lost the work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one another 1 Surah 4: Verse 124 And whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer those will enter Paradise and will not be wronged, [even as much as] the speck on a date seed. 1 Surah 16: Verse 97 Whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer We will surely cause him to live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do. 1 Surah 40: Verse 40 Whoever does an evil deed will not be recompensed except by the like thereof; but whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, while he is a believer those will enter Paradise, being given provision therein without account. 1 Surah 49: Verse 13 O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. 1 Surah 33; Verse 35 Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward. 1 It is said that this verse was revealed to the Prophet soon after his wife, Umm Salama, asked him why God was addressing the men in the Quran and not the women. It seemed like Gods way of immediately stressing that men and women are equal in Allahs sight. In her home, the woman may be better informed in matters of religion. Can men dare to say that their Taqwa (piety) is stronger than their women counterparts? In the Quran, Allah warns us not to think that our purity is unique. Only Allah knows what is in the minds of people, men and women. If men claim that their Eeman (faith) is stronger than women then they must know that they have to stand before their Lord and be answerable for that arrogance in their hearts. A careful study of the Quran in these and many other verses reveal that Allah did not favour men over women in the Holy Scripture. Even mathematically, the number of times men and women occur are equal. Further, the number of times old men are mentioned is equal to the number of times old women are mentioned. In most places in the Quran Annas (Mankind) and Ins (people) have been translated as men. Please note that these verses apply to both men and women equally. Apart from these verses showing that men and women are complementary to one another, there is no verse in the Quran which forbids women from holding a position of any form of leadership. The Quran explicitly warns against making the forbidden permissible and the permissible as forbidden. What is forbidden is clearly outlined in the Quran. Evidence in Hadith As the hadith has been the lens through which the scriptures have been interpreted, and since the Quran does not explicitly forbid womens leadership, it becomes necessary to engage with and examine the vast reservoir of our hadith tradition. From the Sunan Abi Dawud 591 Grade: Sahih, Umm Waraqah reported, The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would visit her in her house, he appointed a caller to prayer for her, and he ordered her to lead the people of her household in prayer. The hadith which says the Prophet asked Umm Waraqa (who was proficient in Quran) to lead members of her household/ village in prayer is most popularly quoted to show permissibility for Muslim women to stand as Imam. It is argued by some that the word Daar in this hadith mentions only Umm Waraqas household. Even if that were the case then there was a male muezzin and he was assumed to be part of the prayer. While some scholars consider this hadith as weak, many others have considered it to be Hasan. They are Hakim, Zahabi, Daruqtuni, Abu Hatam, al- Ayni, Ibn Hajar, Shukani and the contemporary scholar Imam Albaani. This narration is accepted by these scholars because Ibn Khallad was considered trusted by Ibn Haban and also the fact that the hadith is narrated by Layli bint Malik as well. 3 Interestingly, Hadrath Umar in later times gave Umm Waraqa the post of managing the market in Medina 4 Further, Imam Tabari (838-932) (as narrated by Sanayee, in Subul al-Salam) and the Shafei scholars Abi Thur (764-854) and al-Mazni (791-878) (al- Majmu 4:52, al- Mughni 333, Bidaya al- Mujtahid 3:189) and Muhyeddin ibn al- Arabi (1165- 1240) (as reported by Muhammed Hussein al- Jaberi in Bahth fi Imamah al- Mirah Li- Rijaal) have said it is permissible for women to lead prayers for men. Imam Ahmed and the early Hanbali scholars have allowed women leading prayers for men in non- obligatory prayers (al Mughni 3:33, al-Insaaf 2:264). 5 Ibn Taymiyya mentioned that Imam Ahmed allowed women to lead men in non- obligatory prayers with a condition that they must lead from the rear provided she is well versed with the Quran (Majmu al-Fatawa 5:317).6 In another account (Radd al- Maratibul- Ijma) Ibn Taymiyah refers to the narration contained in the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal where it is affirmed that women can lead non-obligatory prayers.7 Furthermore, we see in a description on Ibn Arabi that on an occasion when Ibn Taimiyyah who was known to be more hard-line and strict went to a Masjid, a woman was delivering Khutbah.8 More recently; Shaykh Hamza Yusuf stated in a speech that female leadership in prayer was permitted by Ibn Ayman from Maliki Madhab and Imam Tabari. He asserted that it was debated much earlier on by Islamic traditionalists and that there were multiple opinions on it.6 Javed Ahmad Ghamidi says the question as to whether women can stand as Imam itself is a skewed one.9 Yusuf Qaradawi has also permitted women to lead mixed-gender congregations but in their own homes so that men may not be aroused by her presence. The argument most often made against women standing as Imam in the public space is that men will be distracted by the presence of a womans figure while he is praying. But Muslim men should be the best of men in society (because that is what Islam teaches) who discipline themselves with prayer 5 times a day and abstain from even food and drink during the days in Ramadhan. Then, what about the hadith against women as leaders? There are thousands of hadith and the study of its critiques makes it impossible for anyone to completely undertake its study in a lifetime. For an average thinking Muslim, diving into the database of hadith is a formidable task. Just as Allah reprimands the Jews, in the Quran, for making religion difficult to follow, Muslims are also guilty of making it difficult to study the vast range of opinions. But they are a part of our rich scholarly history. However, it would be wise to bear in mind that even when the major hadith scholars proposed their own interpretations they were tolerant of the others ideology. Modern-day Muslims imagine that they must completely adhere to one school of thought and regard every other practice incorrect. Is this practice informed by a careful study of all the madhabs (schools of thought) or are we simply following what our forefathers followed? This is the very thing that the Quran criticises. Hadith started being recorded 200 years after the Holy Prophets death. While a huge amount of effort was invested in keeping the hadith canon free from forgery of any sort, it was still a human effort. Hadith reports were not immune to external influences of each age and time. Even assuming that not a single mistake ever crept into the hadith collection it is still an endeavour of humans and the divine cannot be compared to any human endeavour. Unfortunately, we have in our hadith collections some hadith which see women in a derogatory light. Ayesha R.A openly criticised Abu Hurayra for relating wrong sayings to the Prophet (PBUH). Imam Malik is said to have called a famous hadith transmitter Abu Bakra (not to be confused with Abu Bakr R.A.) a liar. 10 Despite this many of these hadith have found its way into the Saheeh hadith of Imam Bukhari and Muslim. But it is not in the scope of this paper to discuss this issue. Since these hadith go against the very core teaching of the Quran they must be critically examined and disregarded. I cannot imagine that the Prophet of Islam who brought great reforms to the way women were seen and treated would utter such words. From a community that buried their girl children alive to being the community that granted their rights to women, Islam paved the way for womens rights all over the world. Hence any hadith that goes against the egalitarian teachings of the Holy Quran must be discarded. The early collectors of Hadith were more involved with establishing the Isnad (chain of transmission) than rationalising the matter (the actual matter) 9 and hence the hadith that defies human intellect must not be entertained. After all, doesnt the Quran repeatedly exhort its followers to think! Like the scholar Muhammad Akram Nadvi, my grandfather, late Justice Khalid, used to say that in modern-day practice, the equivalent for burying the girl child alive is to deny her, her rights. Hadith reports claim that women as leaders will not succeed but the Queen of Sheba is described in the Quran as an able leader and a contemporary of Prophet Suleiman. Maryam R.A, revered Mother of Jesus Christ was dedicated to the service of God by her mother who denounced the tradition of her time and dedicated her female offspring to the service of God. While God graciously accepts her prayer, He also rebukes the priesthood who were hesitant to care for the girl child in Allahs service. Some hadith declare that it is better for women to pray at home but there are also hadith which strongly encourage women to go to mosques and pray. There are many reports from Ayesha R.A. that not only were women an integral part of the Prophets mosque (they even went for Fajr and Isha prayers, in the dark) 11 but the mosque itself housed the early first aid unit with a woman handling it. In Umar R. A.s army, there were thousands of women who fought besides men.9 Evidence in History Examples in early Islamic history include Juwariya, Abu Sufyans daughter standing as Imam at the battle of Yarmuk. Another woman, Ghazala al Haruriyya- a Haroori woman from the Khawarij during Hazrat Alis time led her male warriors in prayer in Kufa and she is said to have recited two of the longest chapters in the Quran during that prayer.5 The Islamic tradition, more than any tradition in human history, is one where you find scores of women jurists, scholars, philosophers and religious teachers. Some examples of exemplary roles played by women in Islamic history are highlighted by the scholar Mohammed Akram Nadwi who has found more than 10000 women scholars in Islamic history. Women jurists such as Umm al- Fadl bint Harith, Maymouna bint Sad, Amra bint Abd al- Rahman bin Zarara al- Ansariyya, Nabda Mawlat Maymuna, Fathima al-Khuthaiyya, Hind bint al- Harith al- Farisiyya, Umm Abd Allah al Dusiyya, Aisha bint Sad al Zuhriyya, Umm Umar bint Hassan al- Thaqafi, al-Salam bint al qadi Abu Bakr bin Shajara al Baghdadiyya were on the forefront in the early centuries of Islamic thought and leadership.12 A 10th c Baghdad born jurist, a 12th century Egyptian scholar, another 15th century woman who taught hadith, a 7th century medina woman who gave key fatwas on hajj rituals and commerce and Fathima bint Muhammad al-Samarqandi, a female jurist who issued fatwas in Aleppo and advised her husband on how to issue his are all part of our vast tradition. Umm al Darda the prominent jurist in 7th century Damascus taught hadith and fiqh at the local mosque, lectured in the mens section and her students included the Caliph of Damascus. She prayed shoulder to shoulder with men and issued a fatwa allowing women to pray in the same position as men. She was considered superior to all other hadith scholars at the time. Unfortunately, after the 16th-century citation of women scholars dwindles.13 It was Islam that taught the World to value women and ironically it is the Muslim world that is under attack for undermining their women. Our collective experiences My own experience when I went for Hajj and was doing tawaf in the mataf area when the call for prayer was made proved a point of contention. We immediately fell into place making sure that modesty was maintained in our midst. Suddenly a self-appointed religious authority came and practically sent all of us in disarray screaming out Nisaa Waraa. The moment of peace was lost. The woman next to me mumbled, Always Nisaa Waraa. We exchanged glances. I was not alone in what I felt. Interestingly, my memory of performing prayers in Mecca as a 7-year-old was standing between my mother and father amidst a large sea of men and women. When prayer spaces are segregated we find womens prayer areas are poorly designed, almost as an afterthought. When I travel with my ageing grandmother and experience the difficulty my grandmother has to face to do her prayers because womens spaces are either in the basement or the upper floor. As an architect, I wonder which designer would have conceived segregation in the standard and design of prayer spaces for men and women. Allah is the Most Just and he does not wrong His slaves. If a section of people in society, feel wronged then clearly someone is oppressing the rights of that section. Allah does not wrong anyone, they wrong themselves. The injustice is not only to women; it is to men themselves for these feelings of being superior permit men to show a laxity when it comes to their behaviour. And this after the Prophet (PBUH) repeatedly told his followers to look after their women. Haya (Modesty) An oft-repeated hadith quoted often to prove the point against women standing as Imams is that the best rows for men are in front and the best rows for women are at the rear. Women are taught from a young age to show more modesty than men. Modesty prevents most women from making it to the frontlines of public spaces. The hadith then only gives women the consideration of this inherent quality of modesty but does not forbid her from standing in the front rows either. Sometimes women have an exaggerated sense of modesty in Muslim spaces like mosques which hinder them from seeking knowledge or being a part of Islamic discourse. She may feel left out and disregarded. Modesty is demanded by God from both men and women equally. It would be healthier for the Muslim societies if places of worship instilled an inclusive environment, and rules of modesty were inculcated right from there. This would give both Muslim men and women operating in a secular world a first-hand illustration of how to behave in the public sphere. Conclusion God has not made women secondary in any way. The Qurans core teaching establishes that men and women are complementary to each other as a truth. Hadith and traditional reports of early Muslim societies point to an egalitarian society wherein Muslim women seem to have enjoyed a better standing than modern standards. Some Hadith discourage women from the public sphere but it seems to be counter to the Quranic message and many of Prophetic hadith. Then the innovation (Bidah) would be in imagining that women are secondary and cannot be allowed to hold positions of leadership in their homes and the public arena. Islamic history is replete with the most astounding examples of womens leadership which is still lost to the modern world. If Islam has to continue inspiring just societies in the present day, it must be open to differences of opinions and as long as we close the doors to that very important aspect, we will be blinded despite the glory of a long-forgotten history. This access to discourse should be available for men and women alike. In public congregational prayer, it may be more modest for men to lead men and women in prayer. But a woman capable of leading in the public domain must be granted that right. And inside her home, she can definitely pray alongside her male counterparts and can lead them as well. Women are slowly rediscovering their tradition and space in society. Women have always had to fight for her dignity and her rights and it seems more challenging for her in the modern-day for it seems that her counterparts are trying to relegate her to the background. In the public domain, women are seen as achievers in every field. Many women who are more learned and more proficient in religious studies like Dr Amina Wadud, Asma Barlas and Fathima Mernissi among others have already made headlines on the issue of womens leadership in society. The Islamic community is slow at responding to changes but change is incumbent. Muslim women in my parents generation were barred from higher education on the grounds of religious beliefs. What was then an embarrassing aspect of an overtly regressive Muslim thought process has transformed towards making great strides in the field of education for girls. I do not imagine that naysayers will become convinced of my position on this issue. The Quran is my primary source of guidance and I speak as a believing Muslim woman standing within the framework of a large, composite and complicated awareness of Islam that is followed by a myriad number of followers in a wide variety of ways. If we must move forward with Islam as a beacon of light guiding us to the true path, then we must engage with all the factions that make up society. Do you want to be, an exclusivist or do you want to practise the universal virtue of inclusion which Islam practised from the Prophets (PBUH) time? Roshan Nageena is an architect based in Kerala, India. Describing herself as a lifelong learner, she loves to write and paint to express herself and draws inspiration from nature. Working from a pop-up studio in the garage of his Bellevue Hill home, photographer Hugh Stewart has captured the experience and emotion of life in lockdown using just FaceTime and a strategically placed computer monitor. Celeste Barber is loving the new sense of community. Credit:Hugh Stewart The black-and-white portrait series features a range of notable personalities including actress Nell Campbell and comedian Celeste Barber as well as intimate moments of less well known individuals and families adjusting to home quarantine. There was no great epiphany starting the project, but it has touched a chord with people and has been a great leveller, which is what I think everyone has responded to, says Stewart. With his monitor propped on top of a chair (a prize for winning highly commended in the 2020 National Photographic Portrait Prize), Stewart came up with the idea of FaceTime calling his subjects and photographing the scene before him. However, he admits: Id never made a FaceTime call before all of this. This is the dramatic moment police swooped on a cocaine dealer after he became stuck in traffic and caught him with a 90,000 haul stashed inside a plastic Tesco freezer bag. Officers had been following Marian Dinca, 26, as he drove towards the Dartford Crossing in Kent in his Fiat 500 before deciding to strike when he came to a halt at around 5.45pm. The police team sprinted out of their unmarked 4x4s and bundled two men out of the car, including Dinca, who was arrested for drugs charges after his stash was discovered. He was jailed on Friday for more than four years. Officers had been following Marian Dinca, 26, as he drove towards the Dartford Crossing in Kent in his Fiat 500 before deciding to strike when he came to a halt at around 5.45pm Dinca admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of cocaine and acquiring criminal property. He was jailed for four years Dinca was arrested on April 17 and found with the bag, which contained 846g of cocaine at 45 percent purity. A smartphone was also seized and, while he was in custody, his phone received several messages that clearly connected him to drug smuggling. Leicestershire Police later carried out further searches at his home, leading to the discovery of 12,500 in cash. Maidstone Crown Court heard on Friday that Dinca came to the UK just under two years ago 'in search of a better life' and to send money home to his sick relatives. His heavily-pregnant girlfriend gave birth to their child shortly after his arrest. Dinca, who has no previous convictions, found a job immediately and was working at Panache clothing factory in Leicester but was made redundant last month due to the pandemic. The police team sprinted out of their unmarked SUVs and bundled two men out of the car, including Dinca, (pictured) who was arrested for drugs charges after his stash was discovered Officers ordered Dinca - who was wearing a loosely-fitting surgical mask - to get to the ground before he was arrested He was put into handcuffs and taken into custody, while police searched his home and found 12,500 in cash He admitted to possessing cocaine with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of cocaine and acquiring criminal property. The defence claimed he had become financially 'desperate' after losing his job so turned to drug smuggling. But jailing him for four years and four months, Judge Tony Baumgartner said Dinca had played a 'trusted and significant' role in the drugs operation. Detective Sergeant Jason Booth, Kent Police's investigating officer for the case, said: 'A substantial amount of cocaine was found in Dinca's car and this, coupled with the phone we seized, provides clear evidence that he was involved in a well-organised plot to supply class A drugs. 'The quality of our evidence gathering, combined with the professionalism of our officers who acted quickly to detain him, led to this arrest. 'This result sends a clear message that we have the expertise and resources to target individuals involved in organised criminality in our county.' Dinca was arrested on April 17 and found with 846g of cocaine at 45 percent purity, which was kept inside a Tesco freezer bag Sudarsan Maharana By Express News Service BHUBANESWAR: As domestic air travel resumed after over two months with five flights landing at Biju Patnaik International Airport on Monday, there was a palpable sense of nervousness among passengers, who were the first to try out the new normal in COVID-19 era. As many as 166 passengers flew in from Delhi and Bengaluru on the day. With every procedure related to flying altered and modified, both at the airports and in-flight, for many the experience was overwhelming - a mix of wariness of being in the midst of a crowd in a closed environment and the extra care taken to ensure strict compliance to safety measures view of coronavirus threat. At the end, it was a feeling of relief to have been able to return home after such a long period of uncertainty. Narrating his experience of flying from New Delhi to Bhubaneswar, Pritam Kumar Behera, a mechanical engineer, said that the journey was smooth, though he was nervous to travel in a plane packed with passengers. Pritam, who was stuck in New Delhi for two months, said after booking a ticket and completing his check-in online, he went to the Indira Gandhi International Airport in a private taxi where he was issued the boarding pass. Use of face mask was compulsory. The luggage were sanitised before passengers entered the airport terminals. But, the most nervous moment was when every passenger was subjected to thermal screening. Those found with body temperature above normal were asked to stay back and were screened again after some time to ensure that no sick person boards the plane, he said. Pritam, however, found that there wasnt any change in sitting arrangements for the passengers in the cabin. Barring two-three seats, the entire cabin was packed. There, however, was restriction on eating anything in the plane, he said. On the other hand, Akshay Kumar Swain, who flew from Bengaluru in the evening, said around 40 per cent seats were vacant. It was a different experience altogether. Though there was risk in travelling in this situation, I was happy with the arrangements and social distancing measures that were in place, he said. Passengers were screened again on their arrival at Bhubaneswar and were stamped before leaving the airport. Susma, a senior citizen who also came from Bengaluru, said that flight operations should be made regular, as most people are aware of the present situation and only those having urgent work are travelling in it. [May 26, 2020] Edison Nation Acquires Fifty Percent Interest in Global Clean Solutions, LLC BETHLEHEM, Pa., May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Edison Nation, Inc., a multifaceted ecosystem that fosters innovation and drives IP, media and consumer products, is pleased to inform shareholders that it has acquired a fifty percent interest in Global Clean Solutions, LLC. Under the terms of the Agreement, the Company acquired a fifty percent interest in Global Clean Solutions, LLC (Global), a Nevada limited liability company, through the exchange of 300,000 shares of common stock for 50 membership units. Simultaneously, the Company entered into a series of transactions, whereby it would guarantee a $2.5 million line of credit to be used for the procurement of raw materials, finished goods, and related medical supplies. Global is soon to launch two new brands of hand sanitizers: (1) Purple Mountain Clean, a 100% US based product; and (2) Blue Sky Pure. Both product lines are expected to be available for purchase within the next 60 days. In addition, Global is in development of a proprietary patent-pending, hands free sanitizer stand. The stand will be provided to customers at no cost provided the customer commits to purchase recurring refills of its Purple Mountain Clean Sanitizer for the sanitizer stand. The partnership with Global provides Edison with a platform to broaden its offerings in the growing hand sanitizer market, said Chris Ferguson, CEO of Edison Nation. The recurring refill model is also an exciting opportunity to develop an annuity stream of revenue for the Company. The Company kindly advises its shareholders to eview the Current Report on Form 8-K released today through the Securities and Exchange Commissions website or directly on the Companys website at: https://investors.edisonnation.com/all-sec-filings . About Edison Nation, Inc. Edison Nation, Inc. (EDNT), is a multifaceted ecosystem which fosters innovation and drives IP, media and consumer products. Edison offers innovation sourcing, product design, sales, manufacturing, and fulfillment services. Edison Nations model is to source innovative ideas to launch internally or license to brand partners. Edison Nation hopes to leverage its television property, Everyday Edisons, to become the recognized leader in the innovator community. For more information, please visit www.edisonnationmedical.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release regarding strategy, future operations and plans, including assumptions underlying such statements, are forward-looking statements, and should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any subsequent date. Such forward-looking statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date of this release and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some beyond the Company's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements, including consumer, regulatory and other factors affecting demand for the Company's products, any difficulty in marketing the Company's products in global markets, competition in the market for consumer products, any inability to raise capital to fund operations and service the Company's debt. Additional information that could lead to material changes in the Company's performance is contained in its filings with the SEC. The Company is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any responsibility to, update or alter forward-looking statements contained in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investor Relations: Aimee Carroll Phone: (484) 893-0060 Email: [email protected] Source: Edison Nation, Inc. Released May 26, 2020 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A fitness boss said it's 'illogical' restaurants, pubs and beauty salons were allowed to open before gyms during the coronavirus pandemic. Fitness Australia CEO Barrie Elvish said returning to the gym posed less of a risk due to clear-cut protocols protecting members' safety. The New South Wales Government has allowed beauty salons to return to business on June 1, while restaurants, cafes and pubs will be able to hold up to 50 customers. But gyms remain closed, causing a headache for fitness lovers, trainers and business owners across the state. Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Monday said gyms won't open in the 'foreseeable future' due to their 'health risk'. 'Look we're still working with industry on that... obviously frequent use of equipment at short intervals poses a health risk,' Ms Berejiklian said. Mr Elvish said he was 'frustrated' by the government's 'illogical' decision. 'Fitness Australia is very disappointed that the NSW Government has not given us any clarity when gyms will open,' he told Daily Mail Australia. Australia's top fitness boss said it's 'illogical' restaurants, pubs and beauty salons were allowed to open before gyms during the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: Lela Senebiratne at Edge Health Club in Darwin on Friday May 15. The Northern Territory has lifted a range of restrictions but social distancing is still required The NSW Government has failed to commit to a date about the return of gyms, causing a headache for fitness lovers, trainers and business owners across the state. Gyms have reopened in WA and the NT. Pictured: Tristan Hatt hits the gym at Fitness Playground Gateway in Darwin on May 15 'Every other state has given us a timeline when gyms will open. 'It's incredibly frustrating at this time that NSW, the largest state, has not been able to decide an appropriate time to do that.' Mr Elvish referred to the premier's comment that gyms are high-risk because of touch points but argued it is only the case when thorough cleaning is not conducted. Mr Elvish, who noted beauty salons were given the green light, said he was 'frustrated' by the government's 'illogical' decision. 'Fitness Australia is very disappointed that the NSW Government has not given us any clarity when gyms will open ,' he told Daily Mail Australia The NSW Government has allowed beauty salons to return to business come June 1, while restaurants, cafes and pubs will be able to host up to 50 customers. Pictured: Three women dine at Bondi Beach, Sydney, on Friday May 15 WHEN GYMS WILL OPEN IN YOUR STATE All gyms will be initially open subject to social distancing limits and/or restrictions on numbers which may vary in your state New South Wales: No date set Queensland: Expected on June 13 with up to 20 patrons at a time Victoria: June 22 South Australia: June 1 Tasmania: June 15 ACT: In stage 2 but no date set Western Australia: Opened on May 18 Northern Territory: Opened on May 15 Advertisement 'If the gyms follow the protocols, we believe exercising in the gyms is not high risk,' he said. The protocols include disabling equipment to ensure social distancing, limiting members inside venues and increased sanitising. He said the measures would allow fitness junkies to get back to the gym safely and with confidence. Unlike beauty salons and restaurants, Mr Elvish said gyms already have electronic monitoring implemented, which would allow them to track members if a coroanvirus outbreak occurred. 'We effectively have the COVID19 app across our gyms,' he said. 'I don't think the government understands the environment.' Mr Elvish explained it is 'not a one shoe fits all' situation as the bans on gyms also impact small yoga and Pilates studios and leisure centres. Fitness Australia has been in discussions with NSW Health and the treasurer about reopening gyms, Mr Elvish said. Gyms were shut across the country on March 23 as the Federal Government moved to control the coronavirus outbreak Pictured: Group training operates in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, on May 15 HOW GYMS WILL PROTECT YOU FROM COVID-19 1. PHYSICAL DISTANCING Restrict the number of customers allowed in specified areas Ask customers to leave the premises once they have completed their workout session Direct staff and customers to keep 1.5 metres of distance between people Remove or cordon off common areas and put out signs The layout of the gym floor and specific workout areas should be reviewed to enable customers and staff to keep at least 1.5 metres apart while exercising 2. HYGIENE All fitness facilities will require regular cleaning per Safe Work Australia recommendations for cleaning of workplaces 3. STAY AT HOME IF UNWELL Public health authorities advise all people to stay at home if they are unwell or display any symptoms of COVID-19 infection 4. CONTACT TRACING Maintain a Register of Attendance (sign-in) either digitally or manually of all persons on their site Establish protocols for providing government authorities with member access logs for the purposes of contact-tracing with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 SOURCE: Fitness Australia - Framework for Safely Operating a Fitness Facility Advertisement He said there are 'two reasons to get gyms back open', including commercial losses to businesses as well as the physical and mental health of the community. 'The longer the gyms are close, the higher the risk some won't open at all,' he said. He referred to an online petition to NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard, which calls for gyms to open with social distancing on June 1. 'Gym's are not even open for trainers to perform one on one training, let alone 50 people at a time, I feel this to be a huge injustice to a community that is serving to IMPROVE health outcomes,' the Change.org petition reads. In a Fitness Australia statement on Saturday, Mr Elvish said the 'Ruby Princess virus outbreak started in the restaurants, not the gym'. 'Australia's fitness industry is a $3billion a year industry that employs more than 35,000 staff in over 5,000 facilities and businesses - the vast majority of which are on the eastern seaboard. 'Gym owners, operators and the industry are extremely frustrated that cafes, pubs, restaurants and hotels appear to be being given relaxed concessions.' Mr Elvish said there is a 'misguided belief' that gyms are high-risk for a coronavirus outbreak. Mr Elvish said there are 'two reasons to get gyms back open', including commercial losses to businesses as well as the physical and mental health of the community Pictured: A group of people dine in at Macelleria Restaurant in Bondi Beach, Sydney, on May 15 'Because of the misguided belief gyms are high risk, the industry has a greater incentive than any other industry to make sure their facility and staff follow and enforce a strict COVID Safety Plan,' he said. 'We have done this to demonstrate the industry is willing, and ready, to do whatever it takes to reopen and provide the community with the confidence their health and safety is protected in a gym environment. 'All our operators understand the health and commercial implications of not getting it right, which is why there is so much focus on having a robust plan.' Gyms, pools and other fitness centres fall into stage two of the Federal Government's three-step plan to restart Australia. In the Northern Territory they reopened on May 15 - the same day as pubs and cafes - and in Western Australia on May 18. Victoria and South Australia plan to lift fitness restrictions on June 1, while Tasmania will follow suit on June 15. Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has warned parents against enrolling their children into the Almajiri education system in the state. The governor threatened that any parent who enroll their children into the Almajirai system stand the risk of prosecution and up to two years jail. El-Rufai stated this on Monday when he visited some 200 Almajiri children repatriated from Nasarawa State and undergoing rehabilitation and optical screening at Government College, Kurmin Mashi, Kaduna. He also warned that any Islamic cleric who enrolls any child into the Almajiri system would be prosecuted and jailed as well as fined N100,000 or N200,000 per child. ALSO READ: Stop Making Noise Ganduje Knock El-Rufai For Politicizing Evaluation Of Almajiris Governor El-Rufai promised the people that the state would continue in its efforts to offer a better future for the children. We will, therefore, continue to take delivery of every almajiri pupil indigenous to Kaduna state for rehabilitation, treatment and enrollment into formal school nearest to where their parents live, he said. We will continue to do this until we clear Kaduna state of the menace of Almajiri system, which is not education but the abuse of the privilege and future of a child. Our ultimate goal is for them to acquire formal education without depriving them of the opportunity to acquire Quranic education. They will continue their Quranic education but under the care of their parents and not under someone who does not know them or paid to look after them. He said the Ministry of Human Services and Social Development (MHSSD), as well as the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) would closely monitor the progress of the children and ensure that none of them leaves their locality until the completion of primary and junior secondary school. According to the governor, every child must get 12-year free and compulsory primary and secondary school education. Those that cannot proceed to senior secondary school will have the opportunity to go to vocational school, also free. As such, no parent has any excuse for his child not to go to school, he added. El-Rufai thanked MHSSD, other state agencies, UNICEF, AMA foundation, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil societies for their support. KanyiDaily recalls that Governor El-Rufai had disclosed that Northern Governors have all agreed to completely abolish the Almajirai system in the country. LACEY, Wash., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A medical device company in Washington State has developed a process that will breathe life into and provide hope to those battling the Coronavirus. The Evolving Medical Solutions, Inc. (EMS) team, located in Lacey, Washington, has invented a life-saving medical process called Extracorporeal Hybrid Oxygenation (ECHO). ECHO delivers oxygen intravenously to the bloodstream and works with the lungs, giving patients the life-saving oxygen, they need to prevent death by severe hypoxia and promote healing. It converts the life-saving functions of the FDA-approved Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) circuit on to the FDA-approved hemodialysis machine. ECHO can be scaled globally and administered by medical professionals with minimal additional training. EMS is preparing to take this life-saving technology worldwide. A recent headline from Business Insider gave this sobering revelation, " . . . the daily Coronavirus death toll will almost double over the next month, with new infections increasing from 25,000 per day to 200,000. . . Daily deaths are expected to grow to about 3,000 by June 1, from about 1,750 now." The Associated Press recently reported New York City officials as saying at least 80% of Coronavirus patients who were put on ventilators ultimately died. Those who do recover are likely to experience some form of lung damage. ECHO is effective because, unlike ventilators, it delivers oxygen directly to the bloodstream. The idea for ECHO was inspired by the effectiveness of ECMO in treating Coronavirus patients. However, the challenge in this pandemic is that ECMO machines are scarce. In fact, there are only 264 ECMO centers in the US. In contrast, there are 7,900+ dialysis centers in hospitals throughout the US. Hemodialysis machines can easily be converted into ECHO machines. Nearly 80% of the hemodialysis market is covered by two companies: DaVita Inc. and Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. Upon final FDA approval, EMS will begin discussions with both companies and hospitals throughout the world. For more information, please contact: Kelly Jenkins [email protected] (206) 387-2271 www.evolvingmedicalsolutions.org SOURCE Evolving Medical Solutions, Inc. Related Links http://www.evolvingmedicalsolutions.org Migrant workers who have yet been unable to return to their home states in north India sit wearing masks at a town square in Kochi. Villages across India are seeing an increase in cases with the return of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who left cities and towns. (AP) Kochi: Kerala's fabled Covid success story is coming under strain due to the return of natives from other parts of the country and abroad. Though the figures may sound low when compared to badly hit states like Tamil Nadu or Maharashtra, the state is now being subjected to a third wave of virus transmission. Kerala has reported two Covid deaths and 273 new cases in the past five days, taking the total death toll to seven and the tally of infections to 963. There were 42 new cases on Friday and 62 more on Saturday. On Sunday, 53 persons tested positive and 49 on Monday. Tuesday topped it all with as many as 67 positives, which is the highest single-day spike since the virus outbreak was reported in January end. This sequental spurts of positives broke a three-month sequence of slow increase of fresh cases, low mortality and high recovery rates. These factors helped the state in flattening the virus transmission curve. But a reversal of the trend has been seen since the second week of May. This coincided with the huge inflow of non-resident Keralites through rail, road, air and water ways from badly hit red zones. On Sunday a 53-year-old woman, a native of Wayanad, who returned from Dubai died at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode. On Monday a 62-year-old woman from Dharmadam in Kannur district succumbed to the infection. A total of 133 persons who returned from foreign countries have tested positive, most of them arriving from the UAE. Though most of the new positive cases are NRKs, more than 30 persons contracted the virus infection through contact in the last couple of days. There are cases where the source of infection is unknown. The number of health workers getting virus infection also is on the rise. The number of containment zones and persons under observation also is on the increase. More than one lakh persons are currently under isolation, in both home and institutional quarantine. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has termed the situation as very alarming. The state is facing a deep crisis situation. There is no idea how far the transmission will escalate. But despite the sharp increase in new cases the state government will not shut doors on expats. The government will take necessary the preventive measures, he added. The state has been maintaining a strict home quarantine system with regular surveillance which helps the authorities to control virus transmission through contact. As per the revised quarantine guidelines, only those who have a separate room with toilet facility will be sent for home quarantine. All others who return from other states and counties will have to choose institutional quarantine or paid quarantine. Several hotels and lodges have arranged rooms for NRKs coming from outside. Dr Tim Hore (right) and his PhD student Tom Moser continue to work in their lab on their diagnostic test for COVID-19 which has had huge uptake internationally. Credit: Sharron Bennett A method to help improve testing for COVID-19, first promoted by a University of Otago researcher, is being used worldwide as countries struggle to manage high demand for testing. In early 2019, Drs Tim Hore (Otago) and Tomasz Jurkowski, from the University of Cardiff showed scientists how to purify genetic material from a wide range of sources using self-made magnetic nanoparticles for use in research and testing. They called the platform "Bio-on-Magnetic-Beads," or "BOMB" for short, and originally advocated the "do-it-yourself" system on the basis that it was much more cost-effective and flexible than existing solutions for purifying genetic material. It could also be scaled for processing hundreds of samples simultaneously using robotic instruments. Fast-forward to March 2020 and a few days prior to New Zealand's move to "lockdown", Dr. Hore was contacted by Canterbury Health Laboratories (CHL) Scientific Officer, Dr. Kylie Drake, a University of Otago alumna, who was actively looking for ways to purify the genetic material from the COVID-19 virus, so that it could be tested for diagnosis. Dr. Hore explains that usually this is done using reagents supplied in a proprietary kit sold to testing laboratories. "This works fine under usual circumstances, but we now know that when a pandemic like this hits, companies are unable to keep up with demand, panic-buying occurs as countries try to secure testing for their peopleand inevitably stocks run out. "Because of the limited reagent supply from companies and precipitous drop in air-travel it was harder and harder to get the required reagents in and New Zealand's ability to test for COVID-19 testing was severely threatened." Dr. Hore adapted one of the protocols to isolate genetic material from the SARSCov-2 (COVID-19) virus. Dr. Drake undertook all of the testing and validation required to make this a diagnostic test, so it was proven to work well in a clinical setting and as such could be implemented widely if needed. Dr. Hore explains it resulted in a locally-developed, efficient and validated diagnostic method to purify the genetic material of the virus that did not rely upon foreign life-science companies for supply. "It gave District Health Boards a backstop, so that if the supply chain for reagents failed, we were still going to have a method to purify the genetic material from the virus so that it could be tested in patients." Fortunately however, the supply-chain has held up in New Zealand so the protocol has only been used in limited capacities, testing some frontline healthcare workers that needed rapid turnaround. Instead, the biggest impact of the work has been outside of New Zealand. Drs Hore and Drake published their protocol on the BOMB.bio website on 4 April and international interest has been steady since. "Researchers and clinicians from at least West Virginia and Oklahoma in the US, Cardiff, the Isle of Man, London, Norway, Estonia and Colombia are either using this protocol or modified BOMB protocols to undertake COVID-19 research or to do diagnostic testing," Dr. Hore says. "We have also been invited by the UK's National Health Service COVID-19 Novel Testing Solutions Team to participate in web calls to improve resilience in diagnostic testing and there is even a team implementing mobile testing facilities from shipping containers (OpenCell London) that uses our method." Dr. Drake emphasises the protocol would not have been used in New Zealand if it were not for Dr. Hore. "Several of us were given the remit of finding an alternative RNA extraction method that used reagents we could readily source within New Zealand. I crowdsourced the issues on Facebook, by email to colleagues overseas and within New Zealand and out of all of them, Tim was the one who stood up and said 'let's do this!'." Infectious disease specialist, Professor David Murdoch from the University of Otago, Christchurch, explains Dr. Hore's method is a useful alternative to other standard methods, especially at a time when lab supplies were running short globally. "Fortunately, New Zealand got on top of the pandemic quickly, so it wasn't needed here, but the situation could have been different had we had the large number of cases that some countries experienced." Needless to say it has made for a busy time for Dr. Hore and he pays tribute to his Ph.D. student, Tim Moser"who has been working day and night in the laboratory for weeks now refining synthesis of the paramagnetic beads. "If required, he could produce enough reagents to purify the virus from more than 40,000 people per daya tremendous achievement." Dr. Hore also credits BOMB.bio co-founder Dr. Jurkowski for developing the system further and pushing for diagnostic testing at his base in Cardiff and more broadly, the UK. "Tomasz has already significantly streamlined the protocol and has very quickly started to process many samples per daywith the aim to become thousands soon." Dr. Hore says he is humbled by the impact of the work. "Tomasz and I started this work for purely academic reasons and to save money as we were establishing our laboratories, so it is very humbling to see it have direct relevance to New Zealand diagnostic testing and to now be used fighting COVID-19 worldwide." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak Dr. John B. Eleeza 26.05.2020 LISTEN The Northern Regional Health Director, Dr. John B. Eleeza, has disclosed to this portal that the regional health directorate is in search of two Covid-19 patients who have gone into hidden in Tamale in the Northern Region. According to the health director, the two are part of the 12 cases involving nine males, two females and one child whose samples were sent to the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) on April 22, 2020 for testing before a testing center was established in Tamale. He lamented that efforts to pick up the two have proved futile as they have abandoned their homes and cannot be found. We are still tracking those people and like I said we have traced 10 out of the 12, he said. Dr. Eleeza assured that the directorate is doing its best to locate the two in order to prevent them from spreading the virus in the region. He appealed to the general public to ensure that they adhere to all the health directive to help prevent the spread of the virus. The Northern Region has recorded 36 confirmed cases with one death. ---DGN Online Most of the complaints regarding the Illinois Department of Employment Security are from people who need to speak to an agency representative but cant get through, as well as individuals struggling to navigate the IDES online system. The Tribunes Mary Wisniewski spoke with one of the states frustrated jobless individuals, Ian Lyons, 28, a Chicagoan who applied for unemployment benefits online but was told he had exhausted his benefits, which wasnt the case. When he called the IDES hotline, hed usually get a busy signal. When I did get through, Lyons said about half the time I was immediately told via recording that they couldnt take my call at this time, and to please file online. MOSCOW -- When the number of coronavirus cases in Russia began growing in early March, Vladimir Shelkovy set about preparing for an influx of patients to his hospital in Noviy, a village in the southern Krasnodar region. The facility's management, he concluded, was doing too little to help, and on April 8 he bared his frustration to journalists. His bosses were saving money on vital equipment, he complained in a TV interview, and in the process were endangering the lives of their staff. "We buy our overalls ourselves and wash them ourselves at home," he said. "They should wash our overalls at the hospital. But there's nothing to wash, because we're not given anything." Two days later, Shelkovy was fired. He was told he had shirked his official duties, but he had long been at odds with management and suspects the interview was the final straw. "I've worked faultlessly for over 40 years," said the fourth-generation doctor, who is 64. "But they don't need a specialist. They need someone who'll follow orders." 'Front Line Of The Country's Defense' Russian state TV has hailed medics as national heroes, airing reports from well-equipped hospitals manned by upbeat staff. Billboards on roadsides pay tribute to their efforts. And in April, President Vladimir Putin pledged bonuses to all doctors treating the virus, to bolster "the front line of the country's defense." But the reality off-screen and beyond the achievements peddled by officials looks very different. Less than half the allocated bonuses had been paid by May 11, and medics who complain have at times been prosecuted for going public. Across Russia, front-line workers are decrying chronic shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). And some are thought to have committed suicide under the pressure. An analysis of official statements and media reports in more than 70 Russian regions shows that at least 9,479 medical workers have been infected with the virus in the past month, and more than 70 have died. That's a small fraction of Russia's reported death toll from the coronavirus, which stood at more than 3,800 as of May 26, with over 362,000 infections. Doctors lacking trust in official figures are compiling their own list of colleagues they've lost to the virus. It now has 300 names. According to an investigation by independent outlet Mediazona, that makes Russian medical workers 16 times more likely to die from coronavirus than their counterparts in other hard-hit countries. "The rate of deaths among medical workers in Russia is huge," said Aleksei Erlikh, a cardiologist who is part of the group that launched the rolling tally. "A lack of organization, inadequate testing, PPE shortages -- all these things have played a part." In a survey this month of 509 Russian doctors treating coronavirus patients, 39 percent said PPE was supplied irregularly or in inadequate quantities to their hospital and 48.5 percent said they had to reuse whatever PPE they had. Four out of five medics admitted feeling physically and/or psychologically exhausted. Controversial reforms to Russian health care have compounded the problems. Over the past 20 years, as many as half of Russia's hospitals have closed as part of a campaign to merge small, rural facilities with larger, higher-tech clinics. Critics say it's a cost-saving measure that has led to chronic underfunding and an exodus of trained doctors from the health sector. Many say they're battling a pervasive climate of hostility and secrecy. In the Buryatia region, authorities strengthened security around hospitals on May 18 after two doctors were attacked by patients. One in three respondents to the recent survey admitted to doctoring figures on deaths and infections from COVID-19 on orders from their superiors. "This problem wasn't born yesterday; it didn't come with these hazard-pay arrears and this pandemic," said Erlikh. "It's always been there. It's a question of mentality, and the system itself." 'No Choice But To Quit' Even before the pandemic, doctors were warning that a punitive system was driving them away from the profession. But with medics across the country now facing legal consequences for speaking out, the issue has been brought into stark relief. Half the cardiologists from a St. Petersburg hospital resigned early this month, and in Novocherkassk, the infectious-disease clinic stopped taking patients after its entire staff left. In the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, 350 medical workers refused to treat coronavirus patients last month and quit. "I guess there are good reasons for this," regional Health Minister Aleksandr Kravchenko said on May 4, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. In the town of Reutov outside Moscow, a senior doctor quit following what she said were repeated threats and insults from bosses after she complained about working conditions at her hospital, where some 50 workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. WATCH: Russian Med Students Feel Pressured To Fill Gaps In COVID-19 Battle On May 19, the opposition-backed Doctors' Alliance trade union launched an initiative to track all these developments. An interactive map on its website highlights areas of the country that are short of PPE, hospitals still waiting for promised hazard pay, and facilities where inadequate testing has been done. It also allows doctors to submit anonymous complaints. "Medical workers will see the growing number of complaints on our map, and the lack of moves to remedy them, and they'll have no choice but to quit," Doctors' Alliance head Anastasia Vasilyeva said in a video promoting the initiative, which she said is aimed at preventing such a scenario. In an interview with RFE/RL, she said the trade union had received almost 800 complaints from doctors since the initiative was launched on May 19. Punished For Speaking Out Many of the complaints concern the payouts that Putin promised to nurses, paramedics, ambulance drivers, and doctors. Health-care workers across Russia have complained that the bonuses have not been paid, and some have posted video addresses to the president asking him to stay true to his word. Putin, in turn, has blamed regional officials and demanded the payouts reach their destination. "I gave specific figures for these payments to doctors, to nursing staff, to all medical staff, to ambulance crews and so on," he told officials in a recent video conference from his residence outside Moscow. Instead, he said, his subordinates "made a bureaucratic mess, counting the number of hours worked on some kind of clock. Did I instruct that you count with a watch or something? No!" Yet even as Putin scolded officials and demanded the bonuses be paid, medical workers were facing repercussions for issuing their own appeals. After a group of paramedics in the Krasnodar region recorded a video address on May 18 complaining that they'd not received their payouts, they were called in for questioning and warned against engaging in "extremist activity." In the Ivanovo region, two paramedics who appeared in a video requesting donations from the public to buy PPE were charged under a new law banning the spread of "fake news." The head of one Moscow clinic accused doctors who complain publicly of "treason." "It's horrific, this attitude toward medics," said Dmitry Kolenov, an ambulance driver in the far eastern city of Khabarovsk who says he's not received any payouts from the state. For those who have received bonuses, the sum has often fallen far short of that promised by the state. Nurses in Chita, in Russia's Far East, had been promised 25,000 rubles ($343) each. Instead, they told RFE/RL's Russian Service, they received 200 rubles -- less than $3. "We got this because we work with the coronavirus. Some [of our colleagues] received nothing," said Valentina Solodukhina, one of the nurses. "That's how highly they value our work." With reporting by Yekaterina Khasina of the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service After 7 years, many SITs, CBI investigation and probe panels still no justice is served in sacrilege cases: Harpal Singh Cheema Terming Jan 26 as black republic day, Sikh groups to hold protest against Indias unequal laws and norms on prisoners A grafitti receives a face mask as an attempt to raise awareness to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on May 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Rahel Patrasso) Data from Brazil's civil aviation agency shows there has already been a sharp reduction in U.S.-bound flights from the South American country. WASHINGTON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Sunday announced travel restrictions on Brazil, the nation with the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases. "Today, the President has taken decisive action to protect our country by suspending the entry of aliens who have been in Brazil during the 14-day period before seeking admittance to the United States," the White House said in a statement. The statement said the action would "help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country," noting that this measure would not apply to the flow of commerce between the two countries. President Donald Trump had said last week that he was considering limiting travel from Brazil. The order is effective at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday (0359 GMT Friday), and it does not apply to legal permanent residents. A spouse, parent or child of a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident would also be allowed to enter the country, according to the White House. Brazil's Foreign Ministry called it a technical decision in the context of "important bilateral collaboration" to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting U.S. donations of 6.5 million U.S. dollars and a new White House promise of 1,000 respirators. Earlier in the day, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said in an interview with CBS News, "I think that we'll have a 212(f) decision today with respect to Brazil, and just like we did with the UK and Europe and China, and we hope that'll be temporary." "But because of the situation in Brazil, we're going to take every step necessary to protect the American people," he added. People take a walk on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the United States on May 23, 2020. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua) When asked if the upcoming travel restriction would also be expanded to other countries in the Southern Hemisphere, O'Brien said that the United States would "take a look at the other countries on a country-by-country basis." As of Sunday afternoon, there have been 347,398 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil with over 22,000 deaths, while the United States had more than 1.64 million COVID-19 cases and more than 97,000 people have died of the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Trump administration has adopted travel restrictions against Canada, Mexico, and European countries, among others. The U.S. State Department's travel advisory remains at Level 4, which instructs its citizens to avoid all international travel amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus. Data from Brazil's civil aviation agency shows there has already been a sharp reduction in U.S.-bound flights from the South American country. There were more than 700 flights from Brazil to the United States in February of this year, with the number dropping to just 140 in April. Like everyone, CJ Peoples says he has had to make major adjustments to maintain his well-being during the coronavirus crisis. Taking classes and being a part of groups at the Curry Senior Center in the Tenderloin was a key part of retired life for Peoples, 65. He was even a part of the centers weekly podcast, Revolting Seniors. With the center now closed, many of its resources have moved online or to the phone, which does little to help his social life. Peoples says Mister, his 13-year-old terrier-Chihuahua mix, has been a major factor keeping him from going into a depression. If it wasnt for Mister, I wouldnt go out of the house, says Peoples. It could be really easy to fall into fear and just get things delivered. Mister saves me every day, pretty much. Hes the boss. Peoples is one of many Bay Area seniors trying to navigate a new reality of the pandemic: trying to maintain a quality of life that makes living worth it while avoiding the coronavirus. Some have tried to get creative with visits under social distancing guidelines; others are struggling with technology that can keep them in touch with support networks. Some seniors are also trying to safely find their way while also dealing with additional health issues that make them even more vulnerable if they get sick. Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle Loneliness, frustration and fear of the virus have hit seniors hard, says Karyn Skultety, executive director of Openhouse LGBTQ senior housing in San Francisco. I think part of whats so difficult for many seniors is not knowing when life might return to normal for them, she says. Because seniors are at a higher risk of dying if they catch the virus, sheltering and social distancing will probably be in effect longer for them. During that time Openhouse and other organizations that work with the senior community will have to address a variety of concerns, from clients mental health to how they can safely meet their everyday needs. The issues many seniors faced from before sheltering are still there, on steroids, says Skultety. Those can include worries about food instability, ongoing health issues and getting to necessary medical appointments, as well as overall feelings of isolation. Many seniors feel that seeking assistance comes with greater difficulty during a time when many medical and volunteer services are stretched thin due to the pandemic. Some also dont care for the language used to describe their demographic during the crisis. I dont know how many times Ive been told who I am, what I am or what I need was not essential during the pandemic, says Pat Hayashi. It made me feel like a nonessential human being. Hayashi, 63, who was homeless for two years before moving into subsidized housing, says that she recently needed to borrow a potato peeler to make dinner and sought help from her neighbors by placing a note in her SoMa buildings mail room. She kept the note posted for several days and was discouraged that no one responded. There are hundreds of people in this apartment building. Not one of the young people here wanted to help me, says Hayashi. They treat you like the plague. It gave me a complex for a while. As senior centers and wellness programs have ceased functioning in person, many are making attempts to stay in touch with seniors through other means. Curry Senior Center and Openhouse both check in with residents and clients on the phone and have programs that match seniors with people who can assist with running errands and meeting other outside needs. Another key part of staying in touch with isolated seniors has been making sure not only that technology like tablets, smartphones and computers is accessible, but also that seniors are comfortable enough with the devices to use them. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University had 250 members signed up for its spring classes before the shelter-in-place order went into effect, says Director Kathy Bruin. The classes, which cover a range of topics in the arts, humanities and sciences, are a lifeline for many seniors who might not otherwise have many opportunities to socialize with peers. When the stay-at-home order canceled spring sessions, Bruin says she knew it was imperative that classes and lectures shift online. Its been easier for some who are already tech-oriented, says Bruin. Those are the people who found us online. Others go to the library for the internet or have flip phones and are not a candidate for Zoom. Were trying to figure out how to work with those members because we will have to keep doing this through 2020. Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle At Curry Senior Center, wellness case manager Angela Di Martino says clients are usually pretty low on the poverty scale and access to devices like tablets and computers can be a major obstacle. The centers senior vitality program, which gives iPads and lessons on how to use them to seniors, was one way they helped close the income-tech gap among clients. This spring, 105 people were enrolled in the class. After moving sessions to YouTube this spring, theyre still exploring other ways they can make the remote learning experience senior friendly. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. One of the first things we did right away with the iPads was show them how to be connected to their doctors and their families, says di Martino. But many of them still have problems paying phone bills or not having Wi-Fi service. Technology can make all the difference in isolation, but if you cant use the iPad, it doesnt do anything to help with loneliness. Hayashi says that her iPad and senior vitality classes have opened up the world while sheltering in place and allow her to maintain contact with classmates she would normally see in person. If I didnt have my iPad, I would have jumped out the window from frustration and depression. Some seniors are also starting to make choices about socializing in person again with added precautions. Given her age, 79, and other preexisting health conditions, Linda Carter was mostly staying isolated with her husband, John, in San Francisco when the shelter-in-place order took effect. After about a month, she missed her weekly contact with her grandchildren so much that she and her husband decided to try socially distanced visits to her daughter and family in Bernal Heights. Three times a week, Carter prepares lunch for grandson Milo and granddaughter Zella and visits with them on folding chairs on the sidewalk. The family is masked for the visit and has measured everything out for 6 feet of social distance between chairs. I was a teacher for 40 years, and just being at home wasnt easy for me, says Carter. Suddenly, her visits gave her a purpose again. My daughter is a therapist, and her husband runs his business now from home. Us coming over gave them time off; were nourishing our grandchildren. I realized this is becoming a major activity since Im not going to school at OLLI and not seeing people for lunch. It helped them and it helped us. Judy Goddess and her husband, Rufus Browning, have also decided that the benefits of socially distanced visits outweighed the risks for them and began seeing friends in their backyard for breakfast get-togethers in the Sunset. The tech has been an asset certainly. Ive done a lot of Zoom, some FaceTime and internet, whatever, but it can still be lonely, says Goddess, 83. Spontaneous getting together is gone. Once we figured out we could do backyard things, it helped. We want to do more. Were very grateful for what we have, but its still possible to know youre lucky and be depressed by the situation, says Browning, 86. It was hard not seeing people, and its still hard not being able to hug them. Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com Twitter: TonyBravoSF New Delhi, Delhi, India: In the light of ongoing pandemic, whilst all is paused to a standstill, there is a lot that can be pondered upon now. While the environment looks cleaner and the governments are treading towards opening up the economy and restoring normalcy, the issues in relation to a cleaner environment must be addressed with urgency. The economy needs to be restructured to ensure that the gains towards a cleaner environment that we accidentally reaped are not lost into the mists of oblivion. In January 2020 Mr. Pankaj Choudhary was invited as a keynote speaker on Circular Economy: Needs and Opportunities at Caspian Week, World Economic Forum, at Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Pankaj Choudhary is one of the prominent faculty of international law in Delhi University, India who has been teaching International law since 2017, while some would often refer to him as one of the youngest people to teach in this prestigious institute, there is a lot more under the hood. He also completed the prestigious directed studies at The Hague Academy of International Law, Netherlands which since its inception in the early twentieth century has blessed its fair share of prominent jurists, diplomats, statesmen, and legal luminaries. In 2018, he completed the prestigious professional legislative fellowship program with the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State. On his visit to Ohio state, he was also welcomed by the members of the Senate of the 132nd General Assembly of the Ohio State, USA. His reputation precedes him and is known to have delivered lectures at the University of Nottingham, LimKokWing University in Malaysia, and Ohio State University in the United States. He has also represented India in over 20 countries, including the Commonwealth Youth Summit. In 2017, he authored the book Indias Missing Women, a commentary on the issue of female foeticide in India from a socio-legal framework, highlighting the changes required to combat the heinous age-old practice, which is also featured at Princeton university library, USA. His areas of interest also include Public International Law, Law of Sea, Environment Law, Boundary Disputes, and International Legal Theory. With his roots in rural India, Pankaj has found a natural inclination for nature and the environment from an early age. It is this love for the Land and passion for its protection which led him to initiate Lets Do It, India!, as a founder of a movement for sanitation and environment protection. He is one of the forefront activists of Lets Do It campaign is not only India but Asia. His organization works by mobilizing millions of positive-minded, action-oriented people to tackle environmental and social problems related to mismanaged solid waste. A born leader, he single-handedly led the UNEP World Clean-up Day this year with 1.6 million volunteers. Mr. Choudhary was appreciated for his work by the president of United Nations Environment Programme H.E. Mr. Siim Valmar Kiisler. As part of a growing section of this new Indian generation, he strongly believes in taking active responsibility in the growth and wellbeing of the nation, putting the needs of the nation first. He believes that one must serve the nation selflessly. Along with academics and social policy, it is in politics it seems he believes to have found that opportunity to serve. Though his political life is not very old, it has nevertheless been eventful thus far. In a small period of time, he has made some long strides in the political field. Belonging to the new confident India of young, educated, and rebellious generation, not afraid to pave new ways for the betterment of the nation, he decided to undertake the arduous course of leading from the front and by example. As the youngest National Office bearer of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, (the youth wing of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party), he has proved his mettle and earned the trust of the Party affirmed by his appointment as the co-incharge of the College outreach program, a BJP initiative to make the students more aware about the various works of the Government. He even though sees himself as a member of the global community but prioritizes India. He represents almost all that we want to see in a son of the soil, while exemplifying the ethos of a new resurgent Atmanirbhar India. To know more about Prof. Pankaj Choudhary and his foundation Lets Do It India, log on into www.pankajchoudhary.org/ | www.letsdoitindia.org Disclaimer: This content is released by Business Wire India. No HT journalist was involved in the creation of this content. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Pizza Hut is giving away 500,000 free pizzas to 2020 graduates in the Unites States. The pizza chain, owned by Yum! Brands, offers one free medium 1-topping pizza to all diploma/degree earning individuals until supplies last. The company is partnering with America's dairy farmers for the offer, which can be claimed until Thursday and redeemed until June 4. The 2020 graduates can go to Pizza Hut Graduation website and sign up for a Hut Rewards account to claim one free pizza per account. In an Instagram post, Pizza Hut said, 'Congratulations Class of 2020, you did it! Together with America's dairy farmers, we want to celebrate all your accomplishments with half a million FREE pizzas. Visit https://bit.ly/2XmKGkz to claim your free medium 1-topping pizza while supplies last.' Amid the worsening coronavirus spread, Pizza Hut in April donated 250,000 Personal Pan Pizzas through its Read & Feed Program to meet the urgent needs of those who rely on school for food. The company also announced $500,000 in grants to educators through its nonprofit partner, First Book. Pizza Hut, which operates over 18,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, also announced plans to provide over 10 million masks for team members at all restaurants. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. More than 100 residents of Hong Kong, mostly young people, awaken the city by sending their best wishes to the nation and the city at Wan Chai's Golden Bauhinia Square, on Sept 17, 2019. [Photo/China Daily] The United States has no right to meddle in legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and China will take any countermeasures necessary if the US insists on undermining the country's interests, Beijing said on Monday. China is firmly opposed to "the noises some US politicians have made" over the draft decision on national security legislation in the SAR that was submitted to the third session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. The country has made solemn representations to the US in this regard, Zhao said at a daily news conference, after White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien told NBC's Meet the Press that the US may impose sanctions on China if it goes through with the legislation. Hong Kong belongs to China, and legislation for the special administrative region is an issue totally within China's sovereignty, Zhao said. No country allows activities that jeopardize its national security in its own territory, Zhao said. He added that only the national legislature has lawmaking power on issues concerning national security in any country. The US, which "has gone to great lengths to protect its own national security by making dozens of laws", is using a double standard by "flagrantly interfering" in China's national security legislation, Zhao said. Also, the draft legislation for Hong Kong, targeting "a tiny minority" of activities, such as those that aim to break up the country, will not affect the SAR's high degree of autonomy and Hong Kong residents' rights and freedoms, the spokesman said. In contrast, it will improve Hong Kong's legal system, ensure a more stable social order and a better legal and business climate for the city, and help to achieve its long-term stability, Zhao said. The legal basis for the Chinese government to govern Hong Kong is China's Constitution and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, instead of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, he said. British rights and obligations, as outlined in the declaration, were completed when China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, and there is no legal basis for the US to cite the declaration and make irresponsible remarks over Hong Kong affairs, Zhao said. Extensive violence proves the urgent need for national security legislation in Hong Kong, the special administrative region's Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu said in a statement on Monday. Noting that some people had displayed banners to advocate "Hong Kong independence" during Sunday's protest, Lee was quoted as saying in the statement: "Terrorism is growing in the city and activities that harm national security, such as 'Hong Kong independence', become more rampant." "In just a few months, Hong Kong has changed from one of the safest cities in the world to a city shrouded in the shadow of violence," he said in the statement, adding that national security laws were needed to safeguard the city's prosperity and stability. The Hong Kong SAR government's top officials and lawyer groups in the city strongly condemned violence during the illegal protests on Sunday. Willy Fu Kin-chi, a law professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said some foreign politicians' criticism of the proposed national security law was "unfair, unreasonable, and a double standard". The vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation said some Western politicians tend to bully or unnecessarily interfere in other nations for the purpose of political or economic gains. The West has an ideological bias regarding China, Fu said. [May 26, 2020] MatriSys Bioscience Inc. is pleased to announce that Magda Marquet PhD has been appointed Chairwoman of MatriSys' Board of Directors SAN DIEGO, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MatriSys Bioscience, Inc., a leader in the field of microbiome-based therapeutics, is pleased to announce that Magda Marquet PhD has been appointed Chairwoman of MatriSys Board of Directors. Dr. Marquet joined MatriSys Bioscience as an outside director in November 2018. She is a recognized life sciences serial entrepreneur, business and community leader with a successful track record in entrepreneurship and company building. In addition to co-founding Alma Life Sciences LLC, an early stage investment firm and serving as co-CEO, Magda has served in various other leadership roles during her career. She was co-President and CEO of Althea Technologies for ten years prior to the companys successful acquisition by Ajinomoto. Magda also co-founded AltheaDx, a spin-off of Althea Technologies focusing in precision medicine, and held management positions at companies such as Vical Inc. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Magda currently serves on the Board of Directors of Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT) and Pfenex (PFNX) as well as several private companies boards such as Sente and Micronoma. She currently sits on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the UCSD Moores Cancer Center where she served as its Chairwoman in 2016-2017. She is also a Life Director of BIOCOM having served as Chairwoman in 2013-2014. She is a former Director and member of the Executive Committee of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and former Chair of the Global Competitiveness Council (EDC/World Trade Center) ad serves on the Board of the Kyoto Symposium Organization and the Board of Overseers of The Scripps Research Institute. Additionally, Magda is a Member of Governor Gavin Newsom's Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Magda received many prestigious awards throughout her career including the Ernst & Young Regional Entrepreneur of the Year award in the life sciences category and the Director of the Year award in Corporate Governance. "Dr. Marquet brings her broad technical background and proven boardroom leadership experience to the role of Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, and we are thrilled to acknowledge her contributions in supporting the MatriSys team," said Mark S. Wilson, Co-founder and Director. I am delighted to serve on the Board of MatriSys Biosciences as Chairwoman and I am very grateful for this opportunity, stated Magda Marquet. MatriSys Biosciences has a very unique dermatology pipeline based on the groundbreaking skin microbiome research of Dr. Richard Gallo and has already accomplished significant clinical validation. About MSB-01 MatriSys Bioscience is currently developing MSB-01 which is a commercially viable room-temperature stable topical formulation of freeze-dried S. hominis Strain A9 bacteria for application to the lesional skin of atopic dermatitis patients. About MatriSys Bioscience MatriSys Bioscience is a clinical stage Specialty Biopharmaceutical Company focused on developing and commercializing rational microbiome therapies for the top five dermatology and skin care conditions. Our foundational microbiome therapeutics platform is based on the pioneering work of Richard L. Gallo MD PhD, Distinguished Professor and Founding Chair, Department of Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego and the http://gallolab.ucsd.edu/ . For more information, please visit http://www.matrisysbio.com/ . Contact: [email protected] 858.456.3919 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Cyprus to expel 17 people suspected of ISIS-al Qaida ties Identified among migrants (ANSAmed) - NICOSIA, MAY 26 - Cyprus will expel 17 migrants suspected of belonging to extremist groups linked to ISIS and al Qaida or involved in terror acts, said Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris. Among the hundreds of undocumented migrants who reached the island, Nouris said, 17 people are ''suspected of being involved in terrorist organizations'' after their names were checked by Interpol and Europol. The minister added that the suspects are currently detained in a migrant detention facility in Menoyia, near the southern coastal city of Larnaca. ''They are detained there. We can't expel them at the moment due to coronavirus. All procedures for their expulsion are being prepared'', said Nouris. Cyprus has imposed a ban on regular passenger flights since March 21, which should be revoked once airports are expected to reopen on June 9. The minister did not mention the nationality of the alleged terrorists or where they will be deported. Authorities in Cyprus say they have received some 3,000 asylum seekers since the start of the year, the majority of whom arrived in the country before a lockdown came into force in mid-March due to the coronavirus emergency.(ANSAmed). The lethality of the virus has been hard to estimate because of the lack of testing and the paucity of solid data on how many people have been infected. That data is now coming in, however, including a report by researchers at the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles County health department, published in JAMA, that described a survey of Los Angeles County residents who were tested for antibodies to the virus. The authors estimated that about 4 percent of the population had been infected as of April 10 and 11. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (18) TEL AVIV - General Kamil Abu Rukun, the coordinator of Israelis activities in the Territories, has expressed pessimism in internal debates with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and army chief of staff, Gen. Aviv Kochavi, regarding repercussions among Palestinians of Israel's potential annexation of parts of the West Bank, military radio reported on Tuesday. A military spokesman declined to comment the report. According to the report, Abu Rukun warned that a unilateral move risked compromising security cooperation with the Palestinian National Authority, commenting government plans to start the annexation of those areas under Israeli sovereignty in July. ''A wave of violence and intifada-style attacks could take place'', he reportedly said. Rukun reportedly believes that tension could be further heightened by controversial restoration work on the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the Israeli request to freeze in the West Bank the bank accounts of family members of Palestinians detained in Israel on terrorism charges or who have died in attacks. In a nutshell: When smartphones first launched, we had passcodes to secure them and transactions made on them. Then came fingerprint scanning, followed by facial recognition. Now Google wants to use your voice to authenticate your identity. A not so new feature (support queries date as early as June 2019) is letting some users make Google Play transactions via a smart speaker. Google is piloting a "new" voice authentication method for securing purchases made via its AI Assitant. The feature, called Voice Match, has limited availability for now and is only usable with Assistant-enabled smart speakers and displays. It is also restricted to only confirming purchases made through Google Play and restaurant orders. The Verge notes that when it followed the support page's instructions for enabling Voice Match, it was not presented with an option to use the feature. It could only use fingerprint or face authentication. Other users who have found the feature available have reported the software stalling when attempting to turn on Voice Match. Issues like this are likely why the program is in a limited pilot phase. The security method may not be so secure, however. Screenshots captured by Android police show one setup page stating, "Keep in mind: Someone with a similar voice or recording may be able to confirm purchases on devices you're logged into." To mitigate possible breaches of the authentication method, Google has put further restrictions on what the feature will allow. For example, purchases are limited to an unspecified amount per transaction. Furthermore, the number of uses per day is also capped at an undisclosed amount. To see if the functionality works for you, go to the Google app and tap More Settings Google Assistant You Payments. If you are part of the pilot, you will see "Confirm with Voice Match" as an option. Tapping it will start the setup process, which may or may not freeze on you. It certainly does seem less secure than fingerprint or face scanning, but limiting it to devices that mainly reside inside the home alleviates some of the concern. That is unless you are John Madden and have Frank Caliendo over for dinner. With the concert industry months into an almost complete standstill, people are trying to figure out ways to bring people to live events again. From drive-in gigs to the infamous social distant Travis McCready show in Arkansas, live music organizers are rallying to figure out how to put on a safe event. And now, Production Club, a design firm in Los Angeles, is throwing its hat in the ring with a new protective suit that includes an N95 filtration system and snap-in canisters for drinking, vaping and can even charge your phone. Micrashell is a solution for bringing people together safety, Miguel Risueno, head of inventions for Production Club told NBC Los Angeles. Its a half suit that kind of takes your safety and your security in terms of being close to airborne particles or viruses to the next level. Micrashell grew out of a brainstorming session after the firm saw beaches were still filled with spring breakers. Knowing that even a global pandemic wont stop people from going out, they wanted to find some kind of solution to keep things safer even if you do look like you modern-day space cadet. With our solution we are trying to make space available for everyone because our solution depends on your own footprint rather than distancing yourself, Risueno said. While the patent for the suit is still pending, Production Club is also in talks with venues (that they wouldnt disclose) about renting out these suits and sanitizing them after us. We need to make sure that people want to wear it and they feel good about wearing it, Risueno said. So its a little bit more of a fashion piece rather than something that looks like a medical device. As we wait for the prototype, see the designs for the Micrashell below. R Sivakumar By Express News Service VELLORE: When the textile hub of Tirupur and capital city Chennai have been struggling to cope with the migrant crisis, the Vellore district administration has quietly worked out a plan to transport the those stranded here for months. As per the administrations data, around 12,000 patients stranded at the Christian Medical College and migrant labourers have been sent back to their native States. The trick, officials say, is that the district administration held direct talks with the stakeholders. They negotiated directly for special trains. The first Sharamik Special left Katpadi junction on May 6 with 1,140 passengers to Jharkhand. Database collection, assessment, advance movement before boarding the special train and passing of information on the date and time of boarding to the stranded people were part of the plan.Since there was no data available about the migrants, we thought it is necessary to collect database. Online registration of their particulars were done with the help of translators, Collector Shanmuga Sundaram explained. The authorities had a tough time collecting the details because the stranded persons hailed from states including West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, and from neighbouring country Bangladesh. We informed 1,436 persons, in a batch, about the date and time of the special train on the day of boarding. They were asked to assemble at three marriage halls where tokens were issued. We led them to the railway station in special buses. This helped avoid congestion, he added. In the initial days, several stranded persons thronged the collectorate seeking action. But soon, the positive action invoked confidence. The rest, as they say, is history. On May 25, Russia-led armed groups from occupied village of Oleksandrivka shelled positions of the Ukrainian border guardsmen from the Joint Forces Operation (JFO), who fulfilled the tasks as a part of the humanitarian road corridor "Donetsk-Kurakhove". "The enemy fired 25 shots from an automatic grenade launcher at the Maryinka checkpoint," the state border service of Ukraine said on Tuesday morning. Besides, days earlier, Russian mercenaries had already resorted to such provocations. In particular, near the Maryinka checkpoint, firing from an anti-tank missile system was fired at positions of servicemen of the State Border Guard Service, shells exploded near the military. And few days before this, the enemy opened fire from small arms at border outfits near the Mayorske checkpoint. According to the service, there are no losses among the personal staff. Ukrainian servicemen did not open the fire since they adhere to ceasefire. "At the same time, such provocative attacks on humanitarian road corridors destabilize the situation. Non-compliance with the ceasefire by illegal armed groups controlled by the Russian Federation threatens the possibility of crossing the demarcation line by citizens for important life circumstances," the statement said. New Delhi, May 26 : Union Commerce and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday once again urged Maharashtra government to cooperate with railways for operating the Shramik Special trains as out of 145 trains only 13 trains have departed from the state in lack of passengers. In a series of tweets, Goyal said, "On request of Maharashtra government, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. Fifty trains were to leave till 3 p.m. but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers." "I request Maharashtra government to fully cooperate in ensuring that the distressed migrants are able to reach their homes and bring passengers to stations in time, and not cause further delays. It will affect the entire network and planning," he said in another tweet. Goyal's remarks came two days after he asked the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to share the list of the passengers for arranging Shramik Special trains. The war of words between the Centre and the state government started after Thackeray had commented on Sunday that though the state wanted 80 trains daily to send migrants home, the Railway Ministry was giving around 30-40 trains. Even the Central Railways in a statement said that on Tuesday the national transporter had offered 125 trains for evacuation of migrants from Maharashtra. "But the State government was only able to give information for 41 trains till 2 a.m. on May 25. Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled," the CR said. It further said that after meticulous planning and sustained effort, railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26. "These trains have already been notified for today from Mahrashtra as per state wise break up. Till 12 noon, 25 trains were planned from Maharashtra to run but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding of first train could only commence at Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus at 12.30 p.m.," it added. The Central Railways further said that from Maharastra 68 Shramik Special trains were supposed to go to Uttar Pradesh, 27 to Bihar, 41 to West Bengal, two to Odisha and Tamil Nadu and one each to Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala. The Indian Railways, which has suspended the passenger, mail and express train services from March 25 amind the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of novel coronavirus has started the Shramik Special trains from May 1. The railways also started to operate 15 pairs of the Special air conditioned trains from May 12. The Shramik Special trains were started to transport the stranded migrant workers, tourists, pilgrims and students. A senior railway ministry official on Tuesday said that till Monday, 3,274 Shramik Special trains have been run and ferried 44 lakh passengers to their home states. He said that on Monday, the national transporter operated 223 Shramik Specials trains and transported 2.8 lakh passengers. Railways has planned to operate 200 trains from June 1 on time table basis, bookings for which have already started. Just a friendly reminder for inexperienced walkers while using and enjoying our great trails, such as Kingston Park: There is a hierarchy on the trails with a few unwritten rules. Please stay to the right, pass on the left, similar to driving a car. When walking in a group, meaning two or more people, do not take up the whole width of the trail. Allow for others to pass, meaning move over to what is known as single file either behind or in front of your partner. And, of course, maintain your six-foot distance if desired. So, be friendly and respectful and enjoy your walk. No need for hostility, ladies. This week in Christian history: England tolerates Protestants, Edict of Worms, Archbishop of Canterbury Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christianity is a faith with a long and detailed history, with numerous events of lasting significance occurring throughout the ages. Each week brings the anniversaries of great milestones, horrid tragedies, amazing triumphs, telling tribulations, inspirational progress, and everything in between. Here are just a few things that happened this week, May 24-30, in Church history. They include England passing measures to tolerate Protestant groups, an edict condemning Martin Luther, and Archbishop of Canterbury recognizing King Henry VIII's second marriage as valid. 1 2 3 4 Next PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 18:17:01 PRESS RELEASE RECEPTION OF INDICATIVE NEW FINANCING OFFERS NEGOTIATIONS WITH INVESTORS AND CREDITORS TO IMPLEMENT SUCH NEW FINANCING SOLICITATION OF THE RELEVANT CREDITORS TO PETITION FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A CONCILIATOR Richard Moat, Chief Executive Officer of Technicolor, stated: On February 13th, we announced our 2020-2022 strategic plan and a c. 300m rights issue. Since then the world and our industries have faced an unprecedented crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been working tirelessly to guarantee safety for our employees, whilst ensuring the smooth continuity of our activities. Nevertheless, the current situation has limited our capacity to launch the envisaged rights issue, and so we have recently entered into discussions with some of our creditors and with third party investors to obtain a new 400 million financing more adapted to the Groups current situation. To facilitate the implementation of this financing, we are now soliciting consents from our creditors to have the option to open a Conciliation proceeding. This additional financing, together with a restructuring of our balance sheet, should reinforce the Group and its ability to serve its clients and trade with its suppliers in the long term. Whilst this is in progress, the business will continue as usual, with no impact on our operations and the quality of service we deliver to our clients, and we intend to maintain our workforce of talented people to enable the delivery of all our services and products. Paris (France), 26 May 2020 Technicolor (Euronext Paris: TCH; OTCQX: TCLRY) (the Company) announces today that the prolonged uncertainty in global market conditions, as well as the impact of the Covid 19 crisis on its business in the short term, have limited the ability of the Company to launch the previously announced 300 million Rights Issue. It has therefore engaged in discussions with some of its financial lenders and third party investors in an effort to obtain new financing (the New Financing). To date, the Company has received indicative offers from a third party investor and from one of the existing lenders of the Group, and negotiations are on-going. The New Financing, which would amount to c. 400 million, would allow the Company to (i) pay off the $110 million short-term facility granted by JP Morgan in March 2020 and due on July 31st 2020 (the Bridge Facility) and (ii) finance the liquidity needs of the Group as from July 2020. In addition to this New Financing, the Company intends to implement a long term sustainable financial structure for the Company, including by way of debt to equity swap, depending of course on the discussions with its existing creditors in this respect. The market will be informed in due course of the outcome of these discussions. In this context, to facilitate discussions with all stakeholders, the Company wishes to have the ability to request the opening of conciliation proceedings in France on Technicolor SA, which are amicable and consensual, in order to facilitate discussions with its creditors and implementation of the New Financing under the aegis of a court-appointed conciliator. This would require the prior agreement of the relevant majority of creditors, in accordance with the applicable Credit Facilities (as defined below). Therefore, the Company announces today that it is soliciting consents from such creditors to allow the appointment of a conciliateur (the Solicitation). The purpose of the Solicitation is to obtain the consent, at the requisite majority, of (i) the lenders under the RCF, (ii) the lenders under the Term Loan B, (iii) the lenders under the ABL Facility, and (iv) the lenders under the Bridge Facility, such that the Company would have the option, if desired, to request the appointment of a conciliateur, without such action constituting an event of default under each of the RCF, Term Loan B, ABL Facility and Bridge Facility documentation. RCF means the EUR 250 million revolving facilities agreement dated 21 December 2016 between, among others, the Company, Natixis as agent and Citibank N.A., London Branch as security agent (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). Term Loan B means the c. EUR 1 billion (which includes EUR 755 million term loans and USD 300 million term loans) credit agreement dated as of December 6, 2016, by and among the Company, Citibank N.A., London Branch, as collateral agent, J.P. Morgan Europe Limited, as administrative agent, J.P. Morgan Limited and Citigroup Global Markets Limited, as joint bookrunners, and the lenders and other parties from time to time party thereto (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). ABL Facility means the USD 125 million credit agreement, dated as of November 6, 2017, by and among Technicolor USA, Inc., a Delaware corporation (Technicolor USA), Wells Fargo Capital Finance, LLC, as agent and the lenders and other parties from time to time party thereto (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). Bridge Facility means the USD 110 million credit agreement, dated as of March 5, 2020, by and among Technicolor USA, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., as agent and the lenders and other parties from time to time party thereto (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). Credit Facilities means, collectively, the RCF, Term Loan B, ABL Facility and Bridge Facility. The Solicitation will expire at 5:00 pm New York City time on May 28th, 2020, unless extended by the Company. Financial calendar Annual Shareholders Meeting 30 June 2020 H1 financial results 30 July 2020 ### Warning: Forward Looking Statements This press release contains certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements", including but not limited to statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives, based on certain assumptions or which do not directly relate to historical or current facts. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed, forecasted or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more complete list and description of such risks and uncertainties, refer to Technicolors filings with the French Autorite des marches financiers. ### About Technicolor: www.technicolor.com Technicolor shares are on the Euronext Paris exchange (TCH) and traded in the USA on the OTCQX marketplace (OTCQX: TCLRY). Investor Relations Christophe le Mignan: +33 1 88 24 32 83 Christophe.lemignan@technicolor.com Attachment Maha govt politicising Shramik trains; 145 planned on Tuesday, less than 10 per cent run: Goyal India pti-PTI New Delhi, May 26: As the feud between the Maharashtra government and railways refuses to die down, the national transporter accused the state on Tuesday of politicising the migrants issue and alleged that despite trains being ready, passengers were not available. In a series of tweets over a span of four hours, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said Shramik Special trains that were planned to have originated from Maharashtra failed to do so because of the state's lack of preparedness. He said 145 such trains were planned to be operationalised from Maharashtra on Tuesday, but less than 10 per cent could actually run due to non-availability of passengers. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News Fake: Indian Army has no plans of creating a Himachal Regiment "Till 6 pm, 85 out of the 145 trains were to run from Maharashtra today (Tuesday), out of which only 27 could run due to non-arrangement of passengers by the state government. "I request the Maharashtra government again to please help us take the poor labourers to their homes," Goyal tweeted. Earlier, he tweeted, saying the railways had planned to run 50 trains from Maharashtra by 3 pm, but only 13 could be operationalised. "On request of Maharashtra Govt, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers. "I request Maharashtra Government to fully cooperate in ensuring that the distressed migrants are able to reach their homes and bring passengers to Stations in time, and not cause further delays. It will affect the entire network and planning," the minister said. "The Maharashtra government has tried to politicise the difficulties of migrant labourers," he alleged. Earlier, the railways issued statements, saying it had planned 125 trains for evacuating migrants from Maharashtra on May 25, but the state government was only able to give information for 41 till 2 am. "Out of these 41 trains, only 39 could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and two trains had to be cancelled. "After meticulous planning and sustained efforts, the railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26," a statement issued by the national transporter said. "Till 12 noon, 25 trains were planned to run from Maharashtra but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding for the first train could only commence at CSMT at 12.30 pm," it added. According to the railways, 68 trains from Maharashtra were planned to depart for Uttar Pradesh, 27 for Bihar, 41 for West Bengal, two each for Odisha and Tamil Nadu and one each for Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala. A political slugfest over the Shramik Special trains is going on between Goyal and the Maharashtra government for the last two days, with the state alleging that not enough trains are being provided to it. On Sunday night, Goyal said, "We are ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to Maharashtra." "Since you have said you have a list ready, I am requesting you to please provide all information like from where the trains will run, the list of passengers according to the trains, their medical certificates and where the trains are to go to the general manager of Central Railway within the next hour, so that we can plan the time of the trains," he had said in a tweet. Taking a dig at Goyal, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut tweeted on Monday, saying, "The Maharashtra government has given you a list of the workers who wish to return home. The only request is that the trains should reach the station, as announced earlier." A Gorakhpur-bound train had reached Odisha, the Rajya Sabha MP pointed out. He also asked Goyal if the Railway Ministry had made any such list while running the Nagpur-Udhampur train for migrants on May 14. The Indian Railways has so far run 3,276 Shramik Special trains and ferried more than 44 lakh migrants since May 1. The top five states and Union territories from where the maximum number of trains originated are Gujarat (897), Maharashtra (590), Punjab (358), Uttar Pradesh (232) and Delhi (200). The top five states where the maximum number of these trains terminated are Uttar Pradesh (1,428), Bihar (1,178), Jharkhand (164), Odisha (128) and Madhya Pradesh (120). STAMFORD Police investigators responding to reports of gunshots late Monday night found about 20 shell casings from multiple semiautomatic pistols at the end of Connecticut Avenue near the border with Greenwich. Another apparent shootout occurred Sunday night at Lockwood Avenue and William Street, police said. There, police found 19 casings from at least two guns. No injuries were reported. Police did not know Tuesday if the two apparent shootouts were connected. A city man who was shot in the leg in the Monday night incident was subsequently arrested after police allegedly found heroin and crack cocaine in his possession at Stamford Hospital, police said. Several cars were damaged by bullets in the Monday gunfire, as was a home on Havemeyer Lane, across the Greenwich line, police said. Lt. Tom Scanlon said police did not yet know what had touched off the gunfire that so far has claimed only one injury. But police on Tuesday were looking for witnesses and checking video in hopes of piecing together what happened. We arent getting much cooperation at this point. We are trying to get more, he said. Calls from people reporting gunshots in the area of Connecticut Avenue and Myano Lane began flooding 911 emergency lines at 10:45 p.m. Monday. When police got to a parking lot at 250 Connecticut Ave. they found about 20 shell casings and other discarded possessions that were collected as evidence. While police were in the parking lot, they were informed by Stamford Hospital that a man, later identified as Raheem Henry, 22, who told police he lived on Ursula Place, had been dropped off with a bullet wound to his right leg. When police responded to the hospital, they saw another man run away as they arrived. They called for the man to stop and when he did not, a foot pursuit took place and the man was tackled to the ground. That man, Jermaine Bethel, 23, of Bridgeport, was charged with interfering with police. It was determined Bethel was at the scene of the shooting and helped Henry get to the hospital, police said. Further information on either man was not available Tuesday. Greenwich police were notified about the shooting and were monitoring the case. If they need anything, well help them, said Greenwich police Lt. Mark Zuccerella. It was unclear if the house on Havemeyer was occupied at the time of the shooting. Scanlon said that as Henry was being searched at the hospital, police found heroin and crack cocaine. After he was treated and released, he was charged with possession of narcotics and possession with intent to sell. He posted $20,000 bond and was released. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Sgt. Paul Guzda at 203-977-4417. Scanlon said investigators dont know if the Connecticut Avenue shooting was made in retribution for the Sunday shooting, which took place at the same time of day. Police received multiple calls at 10:40 p.m. Sunday reporting shots being fired at Lockwood Avenue and William Street. Scanlon said investigators and patrol officers collected evidence and police determined shots appear to have been fired from at least one car. Another shooter may have been on foot or in another car, Scanlon said. File photo / Hearst Connecticut Media It looks like one vehicle was struck from the glass evidence and fled and a parked vehicle was truck as well. There was evidence of a vehicle in the travel portion of the road on Williams street, based on the where the glass was found and they did not stick around, Scanlon said. No one has reported injuries from that exchange of gunfire, Scanlon said. jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer claimed Tuesday that her husband was joking when he nudged a northern Michigan docking company about giving him preferential treatment because he's married to the governor. He thought it might get a laugh," Whitmer said of her husband, Marc Mallory, as reported by The Detroit News. "It didnt. And to be honest, I wasnt laughing either when it was relayed to me. Because I knew how it would be perceived. Whitmer's stay-at-home restrictions, put in place to slow the novel coronavirus pandemic, have been under criticism from conservatives who have argued the orders are too strict. The news of Whitmer's husband making the trip to northern Michigan and urging NorthShore Dock LLC to install his boat in the water by Memorial Day weekend raised questions among critics about whether the governor and her family were abiding by the same rules she's urged others to follow. The northern Michigan docking company said in a Facebook post last Thursday that Mallory called and asked about installing his boat before being told it couldn't be done by the weekend. The Detroit News reported that Tad Dowker, the owner of NorthShore Dock LLC, detailed the exchange in a now-deleted social media post. "This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend," Dowker's post read, according to the News and the Detroit Free Press. "Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen." Dowker's post continued: "Our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, 'I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?' " Whitmer said Tuesday that the comment was made in jest. "He regrets it. I wish it wouldn't have happened. And that's really all we have to say about it," Whitmer told reporters. Story continues Whitmer's office previously said in a statement to the News that it wasn't going to "make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online." "Theres been a lot of wild misinformation spreading online attacking the governor and her family, and the threats of violence against her personally are downright dangerous, the office said, before the governor confirmed the story and that her husband had traveled from Lansing to northern Michigan. "My husband did go up to our place in Antrim County and rake some leaves and came home," Whitmer said. "So, he was there. We did not all pile in the car to go enjoy our second home although that would have been permitted." NorthShore Dock deleted its post after it gained traction online and said the company couldn't handle the media requests coming in on top of daily work. The company later clarified in another post that, according to them, Mallory was respectful in understanding his request could not be fulfilled, Fox News reported. RELATED: Mich. Governor Says Protests Over Strict Stay-at-Home Order Will Likely Only Prolong Social Distancing David Eggert/AP/Shutterstock Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Whitmer, a Democrat, has become a lightning rod for conservative criticism during the widespread shutdowns officials said were needed to slow the deadly, contagious respiratory illness. Encouraged by tweets from President Donald Trump, conservative groups pushing for the state to reopen its economy amid the pandemic have led some of the nation's most aggressive anti-shutdown protests in recent months. Michigan's restrictions have also been among the strictest in the country. The state had more than 50,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 5,000 deaths as of Tuesday, according to The New York Times. Protestors waving Trump 2020 flags and armed with guns gathered inside and around the state capitol building in mid-April, in some of the most tense images of the pandemic highlighting the nationwide debate over continuing stay-at-home orders to keep suppressing the spread of the virus until there are treatments or a vaccine or reopening businesses to salvage the economy. "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" Trump, 73, tweeted as protests in the state began in April. "The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire," he tweeted again on May 1. "These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal." JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Protesters at the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, on April 15. Protestors try to enter the Michigan House of Representative chamber and are being kept out by the Michigan State Police after the American Patriot Rally organized by Michigan United for Liberty protest for the reopening of businesses on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on April 30. Whitmer had announced last Monday that some of the state's stay-at-home restrictions would be lifted for the northern part of the state, but urged Michiganders who didn't live in the area to stay away for now in order to avoid the virus spreading there. "If you don't live in these regions ... think long and hard before you take a trip into them," Whitmer said last week. "A small spike could put the hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly. That's precisely why we're asking everyone to continue doing their part. Don't descend on Traverse City from all regions of the state." Traverse City is a waterfront town in the northern glove of Michigan. Whitmer and her family live in Lansing, 150 miles away, but have a vacation property about 25 miles away from Traverse City, the News reports. Republicans lawmakers in the state were quick to jump on Whitmer's husband's gaffe, criticizing her for asking people not to "descend" on Traverse City and the rest of the northern part of the state. "Yet, what did her family try and do?" said Michigan state Sen. Tom Barrett. "In the Army, we have a tradition that the leaders get in line for chow last behind everyone else in the unit," Barrett continued. "Here is the leader of our state. ... Her family is trying to cut people in line." As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here. $70M Sent from China to US University; Cryptic Message in S. Korea Voting Machines Chinese authorities are moving to create new security laws that will extend the mainlands control over Hong Kong. Since this goes against the one country, two systems policy that previously allowed relative freedom, Hong Kongers have renewed protests against the influence of Mainland China. Hong Kong police were caught on camera stealing from a local shop. Other videos showed them spraying journalists with a water cannon. Thousands of protesters had gathered, and were dispersed with tear gas and arrests. And as the U.S. Department of Education continues its probe into Chinas influence in American universities, a complaint has been filed by the National Legal and Policy center, calling for an investigation into the University of Pennsylvanias alleged failure to disclose Chinese donations. These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads. Crossroads is an Epoch Times show available on Facebook and YouTube. China's President Xi Jinping (top C) attends the second plenary session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 25, 2020. AFP China's move to double down on a pivot away from export-led growth in favour of developing its domestic market reflects a strategic shift by Beijing to prepare for the "worst case scenario" after the coronavirus pandemic, according to analysts. President Xi Jinping told dozens of top economic advisers in Beijing at the weekend that China was pursuing a new development plan in which "domestic circulation plays the dominant role". "For the future, we must treat domestic demand as the starting point and foothold as we accelerate the building of a complete domestic consumption system, and greatly promote innovation in science, technology and other areas," Xi said in comments published by the official Xinhua News Agency. Xi's remarks suggest that Beijing is moving towards giving up the "great international circulation" strategy adopted in the 1990s that helped fuel its growth to become the world's second-largest economy. "It's a kind of preparation for the worst-case scenario, including the decoupling with the United States and even the whole Western world," said Hu Xingdou, a Beijing-based independent economist. Hu said China has no choice but to face the adversity, but warned that it must not undo its market reforms and not go back to the closed nature of a command economy where the central government makes all economic decisions. Instead, Hu said China should expend more effort convincing the rest of the world that it has no intention of building an economic model that is different from the current global system. The Asteroid That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs Hit at the Deadliest Possible Angle The city-size asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago and doomed the dinosaurs to extinction came from the northeast at a steep angle, maximizing the amount of climate-changing gases unleashed into the atmosphere, a new study has found. That the 200 kilometer (125 mile) wide Chicxulub crater in present-day Mexico was formed when the asteroid struck, ultimately killing off three-quarters of life on the planet, is a fact most scientists agree on. But the trajectory and direction of that impact is still a topic of debate. In a new study, an international team of researchers said their 3D simulations showed that the asteroid hit at an angle of 40 to 60 degreeswhat Gareth Collins, a professor of planetary science at Imperial College Londons department of earth science and engineering, described as a worst-case scenario for the dinosaurs. The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This was likely worsened by the fact that it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles, said Collins, the lead author of the study that published on May 26 in the journal Nature Communications, in a statement. Cataclysmic Event We know that this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact, because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywherethe very thing that led to a nuclear winter, he added. Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tons of sulfur and other gases into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and leading to a dramatic cooling of the Earths climate. Older studies had found that the asteroid hit at a shallower angle and came from the southeast, Collins said. This was based on a different interpretation of the geophysical data, which our work overturns, and observations at the time that suggested that the ejecta from the crater was asymmetric, with more ejecta in North America (to the northwest) than elsewhere, he explained via email, referring to the material that was forced out as a result of the impact. More recent observations have shown that the ejecta distribution is more-or-less symmetric. The team of researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Freiburg in Germany, and The University of Texas at Austin examined the shape and structure of the crater and rocks extracted by drilling down into the crater, which contained evidence of the extreme forces generated by the impact. Despite being buried beneath nearly a kilometer of sedimentary rocks, it is remarkable that geophysical data reveals so much about the crater structureenough to describe the direction and angle of the impact, said Auriol Rae, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Freiburg and a coauthor of the study. This information and other data were used to build a model that simulated how the Chicxulub crater was formed, determining the direction the asteroid came from and the angle. The team considered four different angles90, 60, 45, and 30 degrees. The authors said that they regarded 60 degrees as the most likely angle because of the relationship between three points in the craterits center, a ring of a mountain made of heavily fractured rock inside the crater rim, and the center of dense, uplifted mantle rocks some 30 kilometers beneath the crater. At Chicxulub crater, these features are aligned in a southwest-northeast direction, the study said, and the teams 3D simulations at an angle of 60 degrees reproduced these observations almost exactly. The authors said that that angle of impact would have produced more climate-changing gases like sulfur and carbon dioxide than either a very shallow or near-vertical impact. The-CNN-Wire & 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. In Le Temps, a French newspaper, anthropologist Julie Billaud wrote that the governance of COVID-19 represents a move towards a biopolitical mode of governance that aims to manage human collectives through statistics, indicators, and other measurement tools.[i] Others are less convinced. Social theorist Joshua Clover has written in Critical Inquiry, a French online journal,that COVID-19 represents not a push towards biopolitics, but an abandonment of it; suggesting that instead we have embraced a post-biopolitical era where we have ironically returned to capitalism [as] sovereign.[ii] However, I believe these attempts do not go far enough in recognizing the novel subjects of governance at stake within the type of governmentality which is on display today. In this piece, I take a step back from these two positions to think through empirical epidemiological evidence to understand the technologies of governance at play within Western populist governments, namely the United States and the United Kingdom. First, is the governance of COVID-19 really a biopolitics? And if so, what form is it taking? I suggest that we are not governing people as much as we are governing the unknowns of the virus. When the subject of governance is the viruss unknowns, the state becomes a privileged site of negotiating ontology, specifically that of the human-virus relation. I conclude by opening a discussion for what is at stake for these governments to not know SARS-CoV-2. Biopolitics, revisited Foucaults seminal lectures on biopolitics reveal how the states claim to authority is in the power to make live and let die. Reflecting on late 19th and early 20th-century state practices, Foucault discusses how the management of populations is central to the states ability to perform this power.[iii] The state produced categories, both biomedical and otherwise, to perform ubiquitous calculations of the population. Armstrong suggests there was a change in the biomedical observation of the population with the introduction of the British dispensary in the early 20th century.[iv] For Armstrong, the dispensary represented taking the management of populations into the community. This emergence coincided with the rise of miasmatic theories of public health. Miasmatic theory flipped the long-held assumption that citizens were victims when afflicted with disease, but instead citizens were producing the unhygienic environments where diseases could flourish. The dispensary became responsible not just for tracking disease, but for tracking births, deaths, school attendance, and other population statistics. Some may attempt to suggest that this is exactly what is being seen today: the close monitoring of the potential patient which demands social distancing, working from home, and unprecedented border closures. Latour identifies the figure of the hygienist as one which not only tracks how the characteristics of populations create environments, but how environments and their microbes are part of the social life of populations.[v] The difference from Armstrong is that as principal actors in the co-constitution of social life microbes must also be measured: this is what Paxson terms microbiopolitics. The microbiopolitics [at stake between microbe and human acts] as a productive force, with calculation, classification, and cultivation of microbes.[vi] Again, if we are not careful, perhaps we may conclude that this is exactly what is being seen today: calculation of the risk of SARS-CoV-2 upon its interaction with a human. Key to the concept of biopolitics is measurement, and principally measurement of the population and the non-human when it is co-constitutive of the population. Within measurement there is the assumption that data is 1) comprehensive and 2) accurate. However, this assumption is not always true within biopolitics; part of the states production of power can be intentionally foregoing measuring populations or measuring inaccurately. Biehl has discussed how AIDS populations in Brazil are excluded from measurement and are left to die.[vii] Gupta has shown how approximating census numbers in India creates below poverty line statistics which are unrepresentative of social realities.[viii] COVID-19 encompasses both: data is neither comprehensive nor accurate. The measurement which is at stake is not necessarily about populations, but the virus. The genealogy of biopolitics I have briefly outlined only strays from measuring human populations to understand how the non-human affects human populations. The current way of knowing involves inaccurate and uncomprehensive data about populations and the virus during COVID-19 and asks us to question what connection this type of governmentality is making between the virus and the human to be able to better understand the potential of a biopolitics to be at play. Technologies of Governance in SARS-COVID-19: If COVID-19 was a biopolitics, one would expect to see some form of data production of populations. The majority of nations have foregone the classic 19th-century public health strategy of test-trace-isolate which can produce this data. Perhaps unsurprisingly, countries with strong public health funding and which have implemented test-trace-isolate strategies have often the lowest case-fatality rates, one such example being South Korea. Other nations have not done the same. Countries have knowingly foregone testing despite a number of health professionals strongly advocating for this strategy: among these including the Chair of Global Health at the University of Edinburgh, the Editor of The Lancet, and the Director General of the World Health Organization. Beginning in late February, 2020, governments have relied upon mathematical-epidemiological models with exponential estimates and all have included the preface that these models are based upon assumptions which may not be true. None of these models have estimated the social, health, or economic damages of any of the measures they recommend (i.e. social distancings impact on one lost day of work productivity). These models have included suggestions that half of the UK population is infected with COVID-19[ix], that nearly a million people will die in the UK if social distancing policies are not implemented[x], or that there may be up to two million people hospitalized because of COVID-19 in India.[xi] At one point, a model in the United States adjusted for the confounding factor that people would not trust the model.[xii] I want to highlight three units of measurement to understand the technologies of governance of COVID-19: i) incidence, ii) case-fatality rate, and iii) the basic reproduction number. Measuring COVID-19 Incidence: Caduff has pointed out how most nearly 50% of people do not experience symptoms and will not become confirmed cases[xiii]. The ability of a patient to qualify for a test often varies by country, frequently requiring recent travel or direct contact with a COVID-19 patient, and many are not able to be tested until they are admitted to a hospital. Even if systematic testing were to be done there are i) technical and ii) social causes which continue to create unknowns. Within the technical realm, Street and Kelly have pointed out the unreliability of the test. Testing relies upon supply chains and some form of training which are highly variable characteristics across different health systems. Further, if a test is successfully administered false negatives are common in the early stages of the pandemic because there is not enough genetic material for the test to detect. Street and Kelly describe the technology of the test as a tool which produces unknown unknowns.[xiv] The lack of testing and the inaccuracy of the test means decision makers dont know what they dont know; the data that has been collected is both incomplete and uncertain. There are social drivers of measuring COVID-19. In the United Kingdom, incidence (and mortality) rates rise by nearly 20% every Monday, after reductions on Saturday and Sunday; as put poignantly by a Financial Times columnist, less people work on the weekend, and less testing is done so the incidence is lower. In light of not having comprehensive data epidemiologists are tasked to produce incidence predictions. The data these models rely upon produces different outcomes based upon the method of analysis applied. On April 6th, 2020, one method predicted cases in the UK are decreasing, another predicted cases in the UK are increasing. Both models were statistically significant. As Street and Kelly have pointed out, when epidemiologists can produce near exact opposite results, we may really not know what we dont know. Measuring COVID-19 Case-fatality rate (CFR): CFR is calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the number of incident cases of COVID-19. However, as detailed above, the number of cases is unknown. As Caduff has discussed, the characteristics of the viruss 2-week incubation and procedures of testing policy inflate the case-fatality ratio. This drastic uncertainty can be represented by the model released by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation on April 6th, 2020, which suggested 60,000 fewer deaths in the United States would occur than was originally predicted two weeks before.[xv] The embedded uncertainty and changing numbers of CFR in COVID-19 suggest something else is at stake in the states perception of risk than life and death; risk is not about the CFR, but hospital bed capacity. Measuring COVID-19 Basic Reproduction Number (R0): R0 is a variable which indicates for each person infected with SARS-CoV-2, how many more people will contract the virus. If this number is above 1, the virus is spreading. This number can allow epidemiologists to predict future incidence when there may be little data from testing if there is a base population of incidence; however, to do this a number of assumptions have to be made. An R0 is calculated by i) observing SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory setting to understand the rate of reproduction; ii) assuming a number of social factors until they can be epidemiologically proven including how many people the average person contacts within a day or personal protection measures taken by an infected individual (i.e. wearing a mask); and iii) assuming a number of biological factors about the virus until they can be epidemiologically proven including the length of exposure required to contract the virus and the length of incubation of the virus. In other words, to calculate R0 accurately, incidence must be measured accurately because R0 invariably varies by social context. R0 has become relevant for COVID-19 governance because it has worked to justify a number of policy responses. For example, Public Health England spoke on April 7th, 2020, that social distancing is the best strategy because it brings R0 below 1, and because of this contact tracing is not indicated.[xvi] By making this claim, the state reveals a logic of governing through unknowns. The state claims that R0 is truth but denies the opportunity to produce any evidence that would verify R0. Further, the (nearly unsubstantiated) truth that R0 is below 1 is turned back on itself by the state to establish the logic that contact tracing would not be cost-effective. Thus, it is cyclical: the way we have chosen to know R0 has ensured that we can never prove R0. Epidemiologists and public health experts have chosen to not know the relationship between virus and human between rate of transmission and social context and as such are governing the unknowns. So, can this be a biopolitics? Certainly, there is something bio about this. Nearly the whole world has been put on lockdown because of the plausibility that millions will die. But what type of measurement is this? It is not a comprehensive measurement of the population: (most) governments refuse to test the entire population. Nor is this a measurement of the population with some excluded parts left to die as Biehl has suggested: for the most part COVID-19 victims have been dying in hospitals (so far although the excluded are certainly relevant and worryingly overlooked as pointed out by many others both within and beyond COVID-19). Nor is this an intentionally inaccurate measurement as Gupta suggests: epidemiologists (and the politicians they influence) very much believe their numbers to be highly probable and the phrase we dont know is not to be muttered (especially publicly) within these epistemic circles. Nor is this a measurement of the virus in relation to particular social lives as Latour and Paxson discuss: all data is immediately extrapolated out to attempt to be seen as nationally and globally comprehensive. If life is at stake, what does it indicate that governments have chosen to produce measurements of uncertainty claimed-truth? To understand this, we first must work to deprovincialize life as the principal subject of governance; the anthropocentric lens of biopolitics obscures the agency of the virus. Theories of Government of the Non-Human: This is not the first time that governments have chosen to govern with limited and paradoxical data, it is just the first time that data could be collected but is not; because of that effects are taking place at a population wide scale in real-time. In his writings about pandemic preparedness, Lackoff suggests that the notion of unpreparedness is dependent upon the event whose probability cannot be calculated.[xvii] To overcome unpreparedness but never become prepared, states become responsible for not investing in their populations but in their vital systems (for example, respirators and hospital beds). Thus, the state generates knowledge about internal system-vulnerabilities rather than populations. In one sense the measurement of vital systems is taking place in assessing hospital bed capacity for COVID-19. In another sense, this is very different from what Lackoff describes, because the pandemic is here, and the technologies of governance have chosen to continue to measure vital systems capacity rather than attempt to produce more rigorous epidemiological evidence. Other than temporality, the pandemic in the present allows us to understand how governance will (or not) protect these vital systems. Globally there have been calls for governments to provide hospitals with respirators and health care workers with personal protection equipment; most of these calls have gone unanswered. Instead of funding these vital systems, the responsibility has shifted to the citizen which is expected to stay at home. Even if governments would fund the vital system, unreliable incidence and mortality data is unable to indicate how much to fund. So we can again ask ourselves: how is this neoliberal responsibilization governed? For Elizabeth Povinelli, the source of power for biopolitical technologies of governance often relies upon the ability of biopolitics to create a self-evident distinction of Life and Nonlife whereby the stakes of government are then exclusively between life and death and excludes consideration of Non-life.[xviii] As Povinelli exactly points out, the division of Life and Nonlife does not define or contain the Virus the virus copies, duplicates, and lies dormant even as it continually adjusts to, experiments with, and tests its circumstances. It confuses and levels the difference between Life and Nonlife. A pandemic produces a potential for confrontation between the imagined human stakes of life vs. death and the viruss stakes of life vs. nonlife. In the pandemic, the virus can no longer be controlled through measurement as in Paxsons microbiopolitics. The virus has arrived and is dangerous; but contrary to Paxson, the virus is largely unknowable. However, some aspects of the virus could be known. As I suggested above, there is an active choice not to know the virus. By not implementing community-wide testing policies, properties of the virus including the R0 cannot be confirmed. By choosing not to know the virus, perhaps this evades confronting the stakes of life vs. nonlife. Caduff attributes this property of the viruss unknowns to the continuously evolving cosmology of mutant strains [which has made] the unknown possible as an ontological given.[xix] In other words, even if more properties of the virus were known, the virus may always remain unknown because it can change. To Caduff, the unknown becomes an ontological given; in other words, it will never be disputed that the virus cannot be known. What I am attempting to suggest here is that there is a lot at stake for governments in not knowing the virus. It is not populations nor is it vital systems that governments are managing; this is a governance of the viruss unknowns. To govern the unknowns of the virus, governments must maintain the ontological given that the virus can never be known. The COVID-19 pandemic is thus a clash. The virus could be known; if the virus was known, would late-liberalisms underlying distinction between Life and Non-life be faltered, and if so, what would happen? This is the question governments are trying to avoid. By not testing the population, the distinction between Life and Non-life is denied and the ontology of the virus as unknowable is maintained. As Caduff observes, when risk assessment is inconclusive [and] truth is suspended authorities [are required] to consider the worst imaginable case as the most likely scenario. In Caduffs work on bio-preparedness research he observed how considering the worst imaginable case as the most likely scenario produced a logic for multi-billion-dollar investments into the biomedical industry. Today, by maintaining the ontological given that the virus is unknowable, the entire government apparatus can consider the worst imaginable case as the most likely scenario. Importantly here, by not knowing the virus, the worst imaginable case is exactly that: imaginable. Whatever someone can imagine is possible. By not-knowing, we can now imagine, and in these sites of imagination we are seeing the contemporary forces of biopower being strengthened, as well as new sites being formed. Remarkably, this time the population is nothing but imagined. Where to? I have tried to open up a discussion of what governmentality, and specifically population measurement, looks like in times of COVID-19. But what avenues can we take with this way of thinking. I want to conclude on two suggestions. Frist, returning to Foucault, Caduff and Rabinow have discussed how the state as a security apparatus takes the object of population as a formed entity and becomes interested in modulating external events of things like the market and the potential (now present) pandemic.[xx] Second, another productive avenue of thinking may be through James Scotts work in Seeing Like a Sate.[xxi] Scott suggests that states need to see certain things to be able to govern; perhaps, here, we can ask what the state chooses to see and not see. Further, what new practices of state seeing are being required to modulate the security apparatus, and what contradictions will this bring to light of past, present, and future state practices? Robert D. Smith is an MA candidate in Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute of Geneva. He is interested in primary health care in the treatment of non-communicable diseases in Delhi, India, and more broadly practices of public health policy prioritization. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Purbasha Mazumdar, Carlo Caduff, Dorota Kozaczuk, Bryan M. Dougan, Anthony Rizk, Aditya Bharadwaj, Pooja Sharma, Mohandas Mallath, Kawahya Tizhe, Daniel Villamarin, and the Critical Theory Reading Group at the Graduate Institute of Geneva for earlier comments on this paper as well as stimulating conversations which have shaped my thinking about what may only be best described as unique times. None of these teachers, fellow students, or friends are responsible for the opinions raised in this paper. Notes [i] Billaud, Julie. 2020. Coronavirus: Moins DHumanitaire, Plus De Politique!. Le Temps. https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/coronavirus-dhumanitaire-plus-politique. [ii] Clover, Joshua. 2020. The Rise And Fall Of Biopolitics: A Response To Bruno Latour. In The Moment. https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/the-rise-and-fall-of-biopolitics-a-response-to-bruno-latour/. [iii] Foucault, Michel. 1976. The History Of Sexuality. [iv] Armstrong, David. 1983. Political Anatomy Of The Body. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [v] Latour, Bruno. 1993. The Pasteurization Of France. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. [vi] Paxson, Heather. 2008. Post-Pasteurian Cultures: The Microbiopolitics Of Raw-Milk Cheese In The United States. Cultural Anthropology 23 (1): 15-47. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1360.2008.00002.x. [vii] Biehl, Joao. 2013. Vita: Life In A Zone Of Social Abandonment. Berkeley, Calif. [u.a.]: Univ. of California Press. [viii] Gupta, Akhil. 2012. Red Tape. Durham (NC): Duke University. [ix] Lourenco, Jose, Robert Paton, Mahan Ghafari, Craig Thompson, Peter Simmonds, Paul Klennerman, and Sunetra Gupta. 2020. Fundamental Principles Of Epidemic Spread Highlight The Immediate Need For Large-Scale Serological Surveys To Assess The Stage Of The SARS-Cov-2 Epideic. Medrxiv. doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042291. [x] Verity, Robert, Lucy C Okell, Ilaria Dorigatti, Peter Winskill, Charles Whittaker, Natsuko Imai, and Gina Cuomo-Dannenburg et al. 2020. Estimates Of The Severity Of Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Model-Based Analysis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30243-7. [xi] The Center for Disease Dynamics Economics and Policy, and Johns Hopkins University. 2020. COVID19 For India Updates. [xii] Washington Post. 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/27/coronavirus-models-politized-trump/. [xiii] Caduff, Carlo. 2020. What Went Wrong: Corona and the World after the Full Stop. https://www.academia.edu/42829792/What_Went_Wrong_Corona_and_the_World_after_the_Full_Stop [xiv] Street, Alice, and Ann Kelly. 2020. Counting Coronavirus: Delivering Diagnostic Certainty In A Global Emergency. Somatosphere. http://somatosphere.net/forumpost/counting-coronavirus-diagnostic-certainty-global-emergency/. [xv] IHME. 2020. COVID-19 Estimation Updates. Institute For Health Metrics And Evaluation. http://www.healthdata.org/covid/updates. [xvi] Cosford, Paul. 2020. RSM Live Webinars | The Royal Society Of Medicine. Rsm.Ac.Uk. https://www.rsm.ac.uk/rsmlive. [xvii] Lakoff, Andrew. 2008. The Generic Biothreat, Or, How We Became Unprepared. Cultural Anthropology 23 (3): 399-428. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1360.2008.00013.x. [xviii] Povinelli, Elizabeth A. 2016. Geontologies. Duke University Press Books. [xix] Caduff, Carlo. 2014. Pandemic Prophecy, Or How To Have Faith In Reason. Current Anthropology 55 (3): 296-315. doi:10.1086/676124. [xx] Caduff, Carlo, and Paul Rabinow. 2007. Security Territory Population. Anthropology Of The Contemporary Research Laboratory ARC Concept Note (8). [xxi] Scott, James C. 1999. Seeing Like A State: Yale University Press. Share this: Share Email Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr LinkedIn [view academic citations] [hide academic citations] Singapore drastically downgraded its economic forecast for 2020 after its coronavirus-hit economy contracted in the first quarter of the year, official data showed on Tuesday. The Singapore economy is now expected to shrink by between 4.0% and 7.0% this year, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry. That's the third official downgrade in economic forecasts this year. The last projection was for a gross domestic product contraction of between 1.0% and 4.0%. The ministry said in a statement that since announcing its last economic forecasts in March, "the disruptions to economic activity in major economies around the world have been more severe than expected." It explained that lockdown measures aimed at containing the coronavirus disease which has been formally named Covid-19 have hurt economic activity in major economies such as the U.S., Europe and China. Such weakness would continue even after countries roll back those containment measures given that further waves of infections could emerge, said the ministry. For Singapore, that means that outward-oriented sectors such as manufacturing, wholesale trade, and transportation and storage will be hit, while many consumer-facing companies in retail and food services have suffered as a result of containment measures domestically, the ministry added. "Notwithstanding the downgrade, there continues to be a significant degree of uncertainty over the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the trajectory of the economic recovery, in both the global and Singapore economies," it said. Often-and-on relationships end when the decision to take it a step further doesnt necessarily produce a more lasting committed result... Often-and-on relationships end when the decision to take it a step further doesnt necessarily produce a more lasting committed result. This is often caused by lack of understanding of each other and the inability to effectively reach a compromise with each others differences. As far-fetched as it sounds, the five love languages are core elements that would enable better understanding of ones partner in a relationship, according to the shrinks. Now because no two human beings are alike, the key is to understand which of the five you fall under and utilise it in your relationship. Word of affirmation. For some, all they require is those encouraging words- the compliments, the affirmation, the booster. They dont need gifts or affection, just appreciation. Once or twice or several times as much as you can, throw in a little appreciation. For example, if she made you a sumptuous meal, and you just accept it like it is her duty, without as much as saying thank you, and peradventure this is her love language, she will not only feel unloved by you, there will also be a form of resistance in the relationship because she will always feel unappreciated. It applies for the men. Yes they have feelings too and tend to feel unappreciated most times. For some, all they require is those encouraging words- the compliments, the affirmation, the booster. They dont need gifts or affection, just appreciation. Once or twice or several times as much as you can, throw in a little appreciation. For example, if she made you a sumptuous meal, and you just accept it like it is her duty, without as much as saying thank you, and peradventure this is her love language, she will not only feel unloved by you, there will also be a form of resistance in the relationship because she will always feel unappreciated. It applies for the men. Yes they have feelings too and tend to feel unappreciated most times. Act of service. A lot of people take action speaks louder than words much more practical and literal than even their partners. A simple act of help around the house when she is doing chores or aiding her to carry the grocery bag or even her bag, tends to make her feel loved if this is her love language. No matter how many times you tell her you love her, be it every minute or hour, she will still feel you dont love her when she is straining herself out and youre laying about watching TV. . A lot of people take action speaks louder than words much more practical and literal than even their partners. A simple act of help around the house when she is doing chores or aiding her to carry the grocery bag or even her bag, tends to make her feel loved if this is her love language. No matter how many times you tell her you love her, be it every minute or hour, she will still feel you dont love her when she is straining herself out and youre laying about watching TV. Receiving gift. This one is easy and can be easy related with in Nigeria. A lot of women have been categorized material for possessing this love language. Even men have gone on to make this a thing once they venture into a relationship; even when it isnt their partners love language. Thing is the people with this type of love language express their love more with gifts. It doesnt always have to be on the receiving end. Most times than normal, the people with the love language tend to spoil their {male} partners with gift items as well. To them it is just another means of communication. This one is easy and can be easy related with in Nigeria. A lot of women have been categorized material for possessing this love language. Even men have gone on to make this a thing once they venture into a relationship; even when it isnt their partners love language. Thing is the people with this type of love language express their love more with gifts. It doesnt always have to be on the receiving end. Most times than normal, the people with the love language tend to spoil their {male} partners with gift items as well. To them it is just another means of communication. Quality time. If your spouses love language is quality time, giving him or her your undivided attention is one of the best ways you can show your love. Some men pride themselves on being able to watch television, read a magazine, and listen to their wives, all at the same time. That is an admirable trait, but it is not speaking the love language of quality time. Instead, you must turn off the TV, lay the magazine down, look into your mates eyes, and listen and interact. To your spouse, 20 minutes of your undivided attention listening and conversing is like a 20-minute refill of his or her love tank. Men, if you really want to impress your wife, the next time she walks into the room while you are watching a sporting event, put the television on mute and dont take your eyes off her as long as shes in the room. If she engages you in conversation, turn the TV off and give her your undivided attention. You will score a thousand points and her love tank will be overflowing. If your spouses love language is quality time, giving him or her your undivided attention is one of the best ways you can show your love. Some men pride themselves on being able to watch television, read a magazine, and listen to their wives, all at the same time. That is an admirable trait, but it is not speaking the love language of quality time. Instead, you must turn off the TV, lay the magazine down, look into your mates eyes, and listen and interact. To your spouse, 20 minutes of your undivided attention listening and conversing is like a 20-minute refill of his or her love tank. Men, if you really want to impress your wife, the next time she walks into the room while you are watching a sporting event, put the television on mute and dont take your eyes off her as long as shes in the room. If she engages you in conversation, turn the TV off and give her your undivided attention. You will score a thousand points and her love tank will be overflowing. Physical touch. We have long known the emotional power of physical touch. Thats why we pick up babies and touch them tenderly. Long before an infant understands the meaning of the word love, he or she feels loved by physical touch. In relationships, the love language of physical touch includes everything from putting a hand on your mates shoulder as you walk by, touching his or her leg as youre driving together, and holding hands while youre walking to kissing, embracing and sexual intercourse. If physical touch is your spouses primary love language, nothing communicates love more clearly than for you to take the initiative to reach out and touch your mate. Chinas anti-epidemic measures were right and set an excellent example to the world, said Stephen Perry, the chairman of the 48 Group Club, a British business association committed to promoting China-UK trade. In an exclusive interview with Peoples Daily Online, Perry expressed high hopes for Chinas two sessions and looked forward to closer Sino-British relations in the future. With the global economy contracting as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this years two sessions are being more closely watched by foreign observers. Perry expressed his interest in the Chinese governments plan to keep moving the economy forward and the preparations being made to avoid new outbreaks. Perry gave high praise to Chinas swift and effective actions against the virus, which helped all Chinese and foreign people alike. He noted that the countries that have done well have followed Chinas example, stopping the virus from spreading through testing and social distancing. Perry said the Chinese government made the decision to take action from the outset of the outbreak after listening to experts advice and respecting senior leaders experience in making such decisions. The measures have been right and China has set an excellent example to the world. It is unfortunate that some countries do not have the experience, and did not follow the advice and many people have died, he noted. This is a decisive year for China in its bid to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and to end extreme poverty. No nation ever managed the forces of capital as China has done, and [China] has done very successfully, he said. Perry said the development of Sino-British trade and economic relations are assured from the Chinese side. The British are hit by a bad blow from the virus and distractions from Brexit. We hope the British will respond well but no one knows what shape the British economy is going to be in, so it will take time to make suitable arrangements for the concrete conditions still to emerge, he said. On the subject of Sino-British relations, Perry looked forward to enhanced bilateral cooperation in the future. According to Perry, the two countries' bilateral relations in all fields have progressed very well and the British have a lot to gain from the Chinese market, BRI and third country cooperation, as well as investment from China. Due to the virus and the American trade war, the global situation is a little uncertain, which is having an effect on some parts of British society and its economy, Perry said. In the end, the new world will become clearer to the British and they will turn the right way. Bharti Telecom has today (26 May 2020) sold 2.75% stake in Bharti Airtel to institutional investors through an accelerated book building process in the secondary market. The total sale proceeds of over Rs 8433 crore was over-subscribed multiple times with healthy mix of all categories of investors, long only and hedge fund investors across geographies in India, Asia, Europe and the United States of America (US), Bharti Telecom said in a statement. The stake sale was anchored by several existing and new shareholders and several marquee global mutual fund complexes, sovereign wealth funds, multi-strategy funds and domestic institutional investors in sizable quantities. J.P. Morgan India acted as the sole placement agent for the secondary placement, the statement added. The sale proceeds will be utilized to fully repay debt at Bharti Telecom which was raised primarily to finance the acquisition of Bharti Airtel equity shares in the past. With Bharti Telecom becoming a zero debt company, Bharti Airtel's credit profile will also be augmented as it will stand to benefit from deleveraging on a consolidated basis including any debt of promoter holding company. Post transaction, Bharti Group and Singtel (the promoter group) will continue to own a majority stake in Bharti Airtel at 56.23%. The promoter group remain committed to the business and the long term prospects of Bharti Airtel. In the last few years the promoters have invested over Rs 21,000 crore in Bharti Airtel and stay fully committed to investing further in the business as may be required. On the BSE, shares of Bharti Airtel fell 5.71% to Rs 559.15. The counter clocked a volume of 17.26 crore shares as against its average trading volume of 6.06 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock fell 5.96% to hit the day's low of Rs 557.65 on BSE today. On the NSE, the scrip fell 5.94% to Rs 557.95. The counter clocked a volume of 7.64 crore shares compared with its average trading volume of 1.75 crore shares in the past one quarter. The stock fell 6% to hit the day's low of Rs 557.55 on NSE today. Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An undocumented immigrant who was awaiting to be deported to Guatemala has died from the coronavirus - the second migrant to pass away from the deadly bug while in custody of U.S. Immigration and Enforcement (ICE). Santiago Baten Oxlaj was declared dead Sunday at Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, in Columbus, Georgia, the federal immigration agency announced Monday. The 34-year-old had been hospitalized since April 17 after he contracted COVID-19 while incarcerated at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. The private jail, which is operated by Corrections Corporation of America under its contract with ICE, has 16 other inmates infected with the deadly virus. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that a Guatemalan undocumented immigrant identified as Santiago Baten Oxlaj died at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia, from the coronavirus which he contracted at the privately-operated Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin Baten Oxlaj was taken into custody March 2 at the Marietta, Georgia, Municipal Probation Office following a conviction for driving while under the influence. A federal immigration judge granted the Guatemalan man a voluntary deportation order to his native country. It is unknown why he was kept detained. Baten Oxlaj is the second undocumented immigrant to have died from COVID-19 in custody of ICE since Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia was declared dead May 6 at a San Diego hospital where he was being treated since April 24 after testing positive for the virus. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia contracted the virus at Otay Mesa Detention Center in California and died May 6. The 57-year-old native from El Salvador became the first undocumented immigrant in custody of ICE to die from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States The 57-year-old native of El Salvador was sickened at Otay Mesa Detention Center, a for-profit penitentiary run by CoreCivic, which has reported the largest outbreak of coronavirus cases with 155 detainees and 11 workers. Pro-immigrant groups, politicians and family members have urged leaders in Washington and ICE to release the 26,660 undocumented immigrants who are being held. As of May 22, ICE had tested 2,394 detainees, including 1,201 who tested positive. Supporters fear that the conglomeration of detainees in tight spaces could lead to a massive outbreak of the global pandemic that has already killed over 98,000 people in the United States. New Delhi, May 26: The Indian Army on Monday busted a fake news that was widely circulated on social media claiming that a separate Himachal Regiment will be formed in the Army. Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, the Indian Army issued a clarification saying that no such plans have been announced and the information is fake and untrue. The claim made on social media platforms said that the Indian Army would create a Himachal Regiment which would have its headquarters at Kangra. Dismissing the fake claim, a fact check report by Additional Directorate General of Public Interface (ADGPI), the official Twitter handle of the Indian Army, said that there is NO such plan of creating a separate Himachal Regiment in the Indian Army. The tweet added saying that these messages are fake and untrue and urged people to stay away from rumours. Indian Army Denies Reports of Soldiers Being Detained by China in Ladakh. Here's the tweet by Indian Army: There are NO such plan of creating a separate Himachal Regiment in the #IndianArmy. These Social Media messages are fake and untrue. ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) May 25, 2020 Messages on Social Media are circulating about the creation of a #Himachal #Regiment having headquarters at #Kangra. Request guard against misinformation and #Fake messages", the tweet read. The clarification by the Indian Army came after several social media users showed willingness to join the special regiment which was claimed to be created for the youth of the mountain state. Fact check Claim : Indian Army creating a separate Himachal Regiment having headquarters at Kangra Conclusion : The Army clarified that there are NO such plan of creating a separate Himachal Regiment in Indian Army and the claims were fake and untrue Full of Trash Clean (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 26, 2020 12:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (26) Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia is coming back for season 15 - and making history in doing so. FX on Tuesday announced that it was bringing back the comedy for another year. With the renewal - foreshadowed last month when star/creator Rob McElhenney said he was at work on penning the upcoming season - the series surpassed The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as TV's longest-running live-action comedy. Philadelphia freedom: Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia - featruring (L-R) Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Danny DeVito and Rob McElhenney - is coming back for season 15 'Were going to keep doing it forever if people keep watching,' McElhenney said in January at the TCA Winter press tour. FX chairman John Landgraf last year described the network's flagship series to Deadline as 'the first successful deconstruction and reconstruction of a sitcom.' The FX staple, which chronicles the comings and goings of friends who have a South Philadelphia bar, features a cast including McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day - who are also writers and exec producers - and Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito. It initially debuted on FX 15 years ago and subsequently wound up on FXX during season nine. Stalwart: Danny Devito is among the core cast of the Philly-based comedy show Funny: Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney have appeared on the comedy since 2015 Speaking with NME last week, McElhenney said he had no plans to cease production on the series based in the City of Brotherly Love. 'If people keep watching it and we keep having fun, why would we ever stop? Its my dream job,' he said. The show's most recent season chronicled the core cast dealing with issues including a suicidal man, and guests at an Airbnb. In the chat, McElhenney said that future storylines would touch on life in the COVID-19 era. 'When we come back, dont worry,' he said. 'We will address all this in the way only Sunny can.' Melbourne institution the Hopetoun Tea Rooms is for sale in a last ditch bid to save the famous cake store after it collapsed into administration earlier this month. Owner Kelly Koutoumanos said she hoped it did not spell the end for the Hopetoun Tea Rooms, which has been trading since 1892 in the Block Arcade. Generations of Melburnians have queued up over the years at the tea rooms for a cup of tea, piece of cake and slice of history. Cakes on display at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms in The Block Arcade. Credit:Craig Sillitoe "The next purchaser would be silly to change it in any way, what people love is that it is unique," Ms Koutoumanos said. "Im heartbroken, thats the honest truth. I ran it with my family, my husband and children, and it has been our life. I never wanted to be in this situation." Up to 200 revellers were seen hugging and inhaling 'hippy crack' during a 12-hour illegal rave at a nature reserve before it was broken up by police for breaching lockdown rules. Shocking footage shows the revellers hugging, dancing together, drinking and breathing in laughing gas from balloons. The rave kicked off around 6pm shortly after Dominic Cummings defended his 260 mile trip to Durham from London. And Prime Minister Boris Johnson's aide was mentioned many times by angry locals, furious at the actions of the selfish ravers. The party-goers - most in their late teens and early 20s - trampled over nests and destroyed wildlife on Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve, in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Flouting coronavirus social distancing rules the party-goers had to wade through the River Aire to access the nature reserve, which is on an island. Fire fighters rescued one female raver who got into difficulties in the water as she crossed the river and police made three arrests. Sound equipment, mixing decks, lights and gazebos where set up on the island secretly on Monday afternoon and police and fire crews were sent to Kirkstall after several local residents reported loud music and big crowds near Redcote Lane, Kirkstall. Officers arrived to find people wading through the River Aire to get across the water and try and access the nature reserve. The police helicopter was also dispatched to the area and was seen flying low over parts of Kirkstall, Bramley and Burley until midnight, more than five hours on from the first reports about the incident. People are pictured having descended on the nature reserve in Leeds, West Yorkshire, for a rave The ravers are pictured in Leeds, West Yorkshire, before the police came and broke up the party As well as the arrests police seized sound equipment, the revellers were still seen dispersing at 5am today. Horrified locals took to Facebook. Adam Flaky stated: 'Well Dominic Cummings cba so crack on boys and girls.' Nicola Rayner said: 'People putting there life at risk, key workers, frontline staff & then this, absolutely disgraceful!' Daniel Lunn posted: 'They should have invited Dominic Cummings, it would have been okay then.' Lisa Sunderland said: 'Absolute muppets. Show them images of what frontline doctors and nurses are dealing with and get them to sign a waiver that they will not need the nhs in the event of illness ! Absolute Disgrace !' Revellers were filmed dancing and drinking alcohol at the illegal rave in Leeds Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve is a protected area of natural beauty which is used as a nesting ground for several species of birds. A similar rave in 2018 saw revellers scorch patches of wildflower meadows and leave hundreds of beer bottles left behind. In a lengthy post on Facebook, the Kirkstall Valley community group have slammed the irresponsible behaviour of those who took part in the rave. They described the incident as 'a disgraceful act against nature'. It says: 'Well the fine youth of Leeds ONCE AGAIN show NO RESPECT for wildlife in bird breeding season never mind lock down. In a lengthy post on Facebook, the Kirkstall Valley community group have slammed the irresponsible behaviour of those who took part in the rave. Pictured: A man is held down by police Police are pictured arriving in Leeds, West Yorkshire, in order to break up the party in the nature reserve 'Once again on the Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve youths, people have a full blown amped up music rave on the nature reserve last night from approx 9pm. 'Not content with the damage they caused at the last one in 2018 burning down meadows full of moths and butterflies and causing disturbance to waterfowl wildlife. This time it was on the protected nature reserve island. 'We are not happy. Being a quiet refuge for nature and waterfowl in the Kirkstall Valley. we have only just got the Little Egret breeding in the Kirkstall Valley, seen in pairs for the first this year and feeding in nearby goits. We have Kingfisher and other protected species seeking refuge on the reserve island which is meant to be NO PUBLIC ACCESS all year round. 'We have not assessed the damage that has been done yet. but many waterfowl species will have been scared off their nests which will have been on the ground and in the river bank. Young will likely to have been abandoned or even trodden on in the dark. Mallard, Gooseander, Grey Wagtails will all have had young in nests on the ground near the river bank.. Wrens, Robins, Blackbirds. Blackcap and many others are ground nesting birds nesting in bramble patches and dense vegetation which will likely have been damaged or disturbed.' The post continues and states the people were seen trampling over the nature reserve with torches to access the rave, which was advertised on Snapchat. 'When we made our report, the police told us 200 people were there and the fire brigade were called out to access the island safely, as you have to cross the river. 'We hope fines will have been enforced not just a warning. This is not just breaking lock down. This is breaking the WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION ACT. 'We are left heart broken for the likely damage to birds nests and their young and to other species breeding at this time of year. 'We are DISGUSTED with the LITTLE RESPECT people show for wildlife thinking only of themselves and where they can get the next high from. 'No one is innocent here, if you started this rave or attended you ALL know it was on a NATURE RESERVE as your map and informant would have told you! And you STILL WENT TO ADD TO THE DAMAGE.' Superintendent Chris Bowen of West Yorkshire Police said: 'We would urge people to consider their own safety and the safety of others, particularly during the warmer weather and the ongoing period of lockdown. 'We will continue to work alongside our partners to engage, explain and encourage in a way that will influence people's behaviours, using enforcement only in the circumstances that we have to.' [May 26, 2020] Lexus Partners With Widewail To Enhance Online Customer Experience BURLINGTON, Vt., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Widewail, the automotive industry's leading reputation management and social media engagement solution, has partnered with Lexus to ensure each online customer engagement experience with the luxury OEM's dealers is positive, engaging, and exceeds the hallmark expectations of the Lexus brand. Widewail's Engage solution, which delivers online customer review monitoring and response management for local businesses, will be paid for by Lexus on behalf of subscribing dealers for one year beginning August 1. As Lexus dealers throughout the U.S. navigate the business impacts of the pandemic and improve their online operations, it is paramount that the signature Lexus values of quality and service are not lost in a digital experience. Now, Lexus dealers using Widewail's Engage solution will be able to effortlessly monitor and respond to reviews in real time and optimize positive reviews for search, keeping customers engaged, building loyalty and improving dealership visibility. "Widewail responses are timely, thoughtful, and engaging," says Amy Nail, Marketing Director at Jim Koons Automotive Companies. "When customer issues do arise, the Widewail process is quick and seamless, and we immediately put the customer at ease and take any issues offline. Having the expertise of the Widewail team in our corner has allowed us to focus on other aspects of our digital strategies with the peace of mind that our online reputation is being guarded." 85% of customers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation* Widewail's solution leverages automation and industry expertise to monitor and respond to consumer reviews with immediacy and personalization. When a negative review is posted, for instance, dealers are notified via text with a copy of the review and a suggested human-authored response that they can either publish o edit. Additional capabilities of Widewail's Engage solution include: Continuous monitoring of stores' review sites on Google, Yelp, Facebook, CarGurus, DealerRater, Cars.com, and Edmunds. Carfax will be added shortly. Access to real-time reporting across monitored sites. Side-by-side comparisons among profit-centers. "Online customer engagement through reviews and social media has a large impact on search rankings today and can easily and immediately influence a customer's decision to buy, recommend, or make contact with that business," says Matt Murray, Founder and CEO of Widewail. "All too often, a business suffers at the hands of a negative, unanswered review or social comment, a positive review that goes unappreciated, or worse, individuals who don't represent the company injecting their opinion. We are proud to introduce our solution to Lexus dealers and ensure they never miss an opportunity to deliver a positive customer experience." Consumers read an average of 10 reviews before they feel they can trust a local business; 57% of consumers will only consider a business if it is rated 4 stars or higher.* "At Lexus we have always held guest experience as our top priority. Now, more than ever, our customers are interacting with our dealerships online. With thousands of customer interactions happening each day, we need a solution for our dealerships that is of the highest quality, personal, and cost-effective," says David Telfer, National Manager of Digital Marketing at Lexus. "Widewail, with its thoughtful approach to engagement management and unique focus on conversational SEO, is the best choice to provide Lexus guests with personalized, impactful online experiences." Dealers can also opt for Widewail's Engage Plus package, which delivers managed social engagement across Facebook and Instagram and rich social media analysis and reporting. Engage Plus features sentiment scoring for Facebook and Instagram and Q&A seeding and management on the location's Google My Business page. Engage Plus is available to Lexus dealers for a $250/month subscription fee. Webinar training will be available for enrolled dealers beginning June 4th. For more information, dealers can visit the Amazing Digital Experiences (ADE) program website, contact the Lexus concierge team, or reach out to Widewail at [email protected]. About Widewail Widewail began as the first company to focus solely on managed online review response with an eye for search optimization. Today, the Widewail suite of solutions leverage automation and industry expertise to directly manage customer and prospect conversations in both consumer reviews and social media, improving local search rankings. Widewail helps its clients deliver exceptional customer experiences through effortless customer engagement. For more information, please visit www.widewail.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lexus-partners-with-widewail-to-enhance-online-customer-experience-301064641.html SOURCE Widewail [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A woman weaving in a workshop at the Ccaccaccollo Weaving Co-operative, supported by Planeterra and G Adventures. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. The future of the planet is in our hands. PA Photo/iStock. It's true, a trend for responsible travel has been gaining traction for the past few years, accelerated by climate change campaigners like Greta Thunberg and scenes of horrifying environmental destruction, undoubtedly caused by human activity. But now the topic has even greater urgency: there are more of us on the planet and we have a growing lust for travel, so how can we make it work? While the pandemic has wreaked havoc with holiday plans, it's also provided us with an opportunity to stop and consider how we might explore and appreciate our world in the future, while keeping it pristine for generations to come. Experts suggest there will be a shift to travel in a more sustainable way, reducing carbon footprints, protecting the environment and ensuring host communities are rewarded economically. According to tourism charity The Travel Foundation: "The aim of sustainable tourism is to increase the benefits and to reduce the negative impacts caused by tourism for destinations." But what does that really mean? Here are five ways to put the thinking into practice. 1. Select a destination carefully Expand Close The future of the planet is in our hands. PA Photo/iStock. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The future of the planet is in our hands. PA Photo/iStock. Some countries thrive on tourism to boost their economies: without visitors, many businesses face collapse, and travel bans as a result of coronavirus have already resulted in a loss of jobs worldwide. Safari holidays are a fine example of travel as a positive force, where employment of local people in camps and related activities provides an incentive to protect both the environment and wildlife. Other destinations, however, have suffered from overtourism in the past. Fragile locations like the Galapagos and Antarctica can only handle a limited number of visitors - making small ship cruises a good option, while once-crowded cities are welcoming the temporary breathing space provided by Covid-19. 2. Stay in locally-owned accommodation Expand Close A woman weaving in a workshop at the Ccaccaccollo Weaving Co-operative, supported by Planeterra and G Adventures. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A woman weaving in a workshop at the Ccaccaccollo Weaving Co-operative, supported by Planeterra and G Adventures. PA Photo/Sarah Marshall. One way to ensure communities benefit from tourism is to stay in independent eco lodges and family-run B&Bs. Avoid internationally-owned hotel chains and resorts, unless they operate 'giving back' programmes, channelling funds into a destination. The TUI Care Foundation does excellent work in Cape Verde, for example, while the Sandals Foundation works alongside communities in the Caribbean. Many group tour companies, such as Explore, Exodus and Intrepid, employ guides from the places they visit. G Adventures goes one step further with its Planeterra Foundation, by supporting local entrepreneurs to set up businesses, which in turn benefit from tourism footfall generated by their tours. Spending money by visiting restaurants and cafes also helps boost a country's economy, so steer clear of all-inclusive resorts if you can. Or make a compromise: some properties, such as Ikos Oceania in Greece, have an agreement with local restaurants, offering meals at no extra cost as part of a Dine Out plan included in their stay. Read More 3. Don't visit exploitative attractions Expand Close A woman from the Karo tribe in Ethiopia's Omo Valley. PA Photo/thinkstockphotos. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A woman from the Karo tribe in Ethiopia's Omo Valley. PA Photo/thinkstockphotos. Travel provides an opportunity to witness new wonders and meet extraordinary people, but sometimes it's hard to strike a balance between authenticity and exploitation. Tribal tourism is a case in point: photographs of Ethiopia's exotic Omo Valley people were so intoxicating, they generated an industry of paying for pictures, diverting indigenous people from their typical way of life. Wildlife attractions should also be considered with caution. Fortunately, big companies such as Virgin Holidays have banned dolphin swims and activities involving creatures kept cruelly in captivity. Any attraction involving animal petting is also a no go - watch Tiger King on Netflix and you'll know why. 4. Limit your flights Expand Close Solo travel is a growing trend / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Solo travel is a growing trend We all know air travel has a detrimental impact on the environment; up until last year, aviation accounted for 2pc of global CO2 emissions, according to a paper published by the Nature Journal. But sometimes, planes are the only means available to reach a destination. A hiatus in flight schedules due to coronavirus will likely end an era of binge-flying - one positive to emerge from the crisis - but we still have the power to make greater changes through choice. Set a personal limit for the number of flights you plan to take in a year and choose direct routes where possible (most fuel is burned in take off and landing). Alternatively, choose a project certified by Gold Standard (goldstandard.org). 5. If you can, go by train Expand Close Orient Express: a level of posh far beyond Leslie Ann Horgan's most glamorous moments / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Orient Express: a level of posh far beyond Leslie Ann Horgan's most glamorous moments Public transport might be a source of Covid-related concern in the short term, but longer, spacious, comfortable train journeys could shape a future of slow and meaningful travel. Raileurope.co.uk is an efficient and simple train booking tool for planning journeys across the continent. If you want to go further afield, the seat61.com blog has excellent, up-to-date advice on different routes. And sometimes the journey is the destination, with epic rail routes accounting for standalone holidays. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express from London to Italy's famous floating city is a classic, and you only need to factor in an airfare one way... it's available to book again from the end of May. Sign up for our free travel newsletter! Like what you're reading? Subscribe to 'Travel Insider', our free travel newsletter written by award-winning Travel Editor, Pol O Conghaile. In support of recent business growth, Siklu announces the addition of Ilana Lurie as COO & CFO and Itzik Marcovich to serve as Vice President of Operations Ilana Lurie Siklu COO & CFO Itzik Marcovich Siklu VP of Operations SAN JOSE, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Siklu, a global leader in Fixed 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) technology for Gigabit Wireless Access, Smart City and security networks, has announced today the appointment of Ilana Lurie as New Chief Financial & Chief Operations Officer and Secretary of the Board and Itzik Marcovich as Vice President of Operations of the company. With the increasing demand for Gigabit connectivity Siklu's business and operations have ramped up significantly in the past year which led to this organizational change. Ms. Ilana Lurie is a seasoned executive bringing over 20 years of extensive experience in international finance and operations leadership, within both large technology companies as well as start-ups. Ilana is joining Siklu after her latest position at NovelSat, a leader in satellite communication technology, where she served as CFO, responsible for all financial aspects and operations oversight and serving as Secretary of the Board, leading a major debt restructuring process which significantly improved NovelSat financial health. Previous to NovelSat, Ilana held various senior financial executive positions for the Enterprise Services business of HP with $130M annual business, and Ness Technologies, including leading pre and post M&A activities. Ilana also serves as Director in Eltek and holds a BA and an MBA degree with a specialization in Finance and Marketing from the Hebrew University, Israel. Siklu's new VP of Operations, Mr. Itzik Marcovich, joined Siklu in 2011 as Director of Supply Chain with a vast experience of over 20 years in global operations, supply chain management and purchasing and is involved deeply in the day to day activities in the Siklu operations team. Prior to joining Siklu, Itzik was the head of subcontracting management in AudioCodes Ltd. where he established and expanded global production sites for a variety of high-volume product lines, manufactured in Israel, China and Taiwan. Previous to AudioCodes Itzik served as the head of subcontracting purchasing department at 'Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) - Components division, providing logistical support, repair service and spare parts to commercial airlines. Itzik holds a BA in Economics and Logistics management from the Bar Ilan University and an MBA from the Haifa University, Israel. "2020 has started as a successful year of growth for Siklu, and with COVID19 the race for reliable Gigabit Wireless Access has truly ramped up. Significant verticals have been seeing increased demand due to the outbreak, and it was important that we keep the momentum to accelerate our manufacturing and supply growth, ensuring product availability and increased inventory with the addition of these strong talented leaders to our headquarter management team," said Ronen Ben-Hamou, Siklu's CEO. "I have no doubt that Ilana and Itzik will bring great value in achieving our aggressive strategy to strengthen our leadership in the global mmWave market and expand to new vertical applications". About Siklu Siklu delivers multi-gigabit wireless fiber connectivity in urban, suburban and rural areas. Operating in the millimeter wave bands, Siklu's wireless solutions are used by leading service providers and system integrators to provide 5G Gigabit Wireless Access services. In addition, Siklu solutions are ideal for Smart City projects requiring extra capacity such as video security, WiFi backhaul and municipal network connectivity all over one network. Thousands of carrier-grade systems are delivering interference-free performance worldwide. Easily installed on street-fixtures or rooftops, these radios have been proven to be the ideal solution for networks requiring fast and simple deployment of secure, wireless fiber. www.siklu.com. Press Contacts Shiri Butnaru Dave Sumi Director of Marketing, Siklu VP Marketing, Siklu [email protected] [email protected] SOURCE Siklu Related Links http://www.siklu.com Assam cabinet on Tuesday decided that all those stranded people, who are returning to the state following the easing of lockdown restrictions from May 4, will have to undergo institutional quarantine for the first few days because of a spike in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive cases in the past few days. The state has reported 598 Covid-19 positive cases till Tuesday afternoon. Assam already has a strict policy, which requires all returnees to spend a total of 14 days in quarantine, with the first few days in an institution until the test results are available and the rest in isolation at home. On Tuesday, the cabinet approved the enforcement of strict quarantine for all returnees for 14 days, as we dont want community spread of the viral outbreak, parliamentary affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary told media persons after the meeting. In a bid to help folk artistes, who are facing economic hardships because of the ongoing lockdown restrictions, which have been imposed since end-March to contain the spread of the pandemic, the cabinet also decided to provide Rs2,000 to each of them for three months, beginning April. The cabinet directed all the deputy commissioners to stock adequate relief materials and repair embankments, as the onset of floods is likely from July, Patowary said. Ministers, who are in charge of Covid-19 management in the states 33 districts, have been entrusted with the additional responsibility of overseeing flood relief work in those districts, Patowary added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON By Express News Service Producer Anushka Sharma has hinted at a follow-up season to her popular Amazon Prime show, Paatal Lok. Released on May 15, Paatal Lok is an investigative crime thriller created by Sudip Sharma. The 9-part series stars Jaideep Ahlawat as a Delhi cop investigating the attempted murder of a journalist. You have to wait and watch to know more about season two. I dont want to divulge too much but lets just say its quite possible. Its too early to talk about it, but yes, if Amazon is willing to do it, definitely there will be a second season, Anushka told news agency PTI. We have always stayed true to stories that we want to tell and we will continue to do that. We hope for similar appreciation in the future as well, she added.Paatal Lok is the debut web production of Anushkas Clean Slate Films. She founded the banner in 2013 with her brother Karnesh Sharma. Global Fish and Seafood Market In Romania 2020-2024 The analyst has been monitoring the fish and seafood market in Romania and it is poised to grow by USD 145. 04 mn during 2020-2024 progressing at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period. New York, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Fish and Seafood Market in Romania 2020-2024" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05756633/?utm_source=GNW Our reports on fish and seafood market in Romania provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current Romania market scenario, the latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the expansion of the retail landscape and the demand for processed seafood. The fish and seafood market in Romania market analysis includes product segment and distribution channel segment. The fish and seafood market in Romania is segmented as below: By Product Fresh and chilled Ambient Frozen Others By Distribution Channel Supermarkets and hypermarkets Convenience stores Specialty stores Others This study identifies the rising awareness about the benefits of seafood consumption as one of the prime reasons driving the fish and seafood market in Romania growth during the next few years. The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our fish and seafood market in Romania covers the following areas: Fish and seafood market in Romania sizing Fish and seafood market in Romania forecast Fish and seafood market in Romania industry analysis Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05756633/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001 Judge told Mr Jones he has his 'deepest sympathies' for his 'unimaginable loss' Emily's dad sat in the gallery during hearing which Skana appeared via video link Eltiona Skana, 30, has been charged and detained under the Mental Health act A judge told a man grieving the murder of his seven-year-old daughter he had his 'deepest sympathy' as child's alleged killer appeared in court. Emily Jones was stabbed to death while with her parents in Queen's Park, Bolton, on Mother's Day. Eltiona Skana, 30, is charged with murder and currently detained under the Mental Health Act, Manchester Crown Court heard. Emily Jones was stabbed to death on Mother's Day in front of her father as she played in a park Emily's father, Mark Jones, sat in the public gallery watching the brief hearing during which Skana appeared via video-link from high-security Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire. Judge Richard Mansell QC, addressing Mr Jones directly, said: 'I'm going to say something to you personally. I can't imagine the pain you and your wife are going through at the moment. 'You have my personal, deepest sympathy and I'm sure the deepest sympathy of everyone involved in the court process. 'This case is clearly one that has a high priority. 'You have my deepest sympathy for what is an unimaginable loss.' Skana, wearing a black and white Adidas tracksuit top and with a silver crucifix and chain around her neck, spoke only to confirm her name and that she understood the proceedings. She was remanded until a further hearing in September, ahead of a possible trial date on November 23. Police pictured in a cordoned-off area at Queen's Park in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on March 23, where the seven-year-old died the previous day Emily, an only child, died shortly after the apparently random attack, which was witnessed by her father, with her mother also understood to be present in the park. Earlier on Tuesday, the defendant appeared at another brief hearing at Manchester Magistrates' Court via video-link from Rampton. Skana is also charged with an offence of possession of a blade - a craft knife - in a public place on the same date, March 22. She will next appear in court for a plea and pre-trial hearing on September 15. Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is facing the ire of the YSRCP for his road trip from Telangana back to the state, with the ruling party accusing him of violating the coronavirus lockdown and demanding that he be quarantined for 14 days. Naidu, who was stranded in Hyderabad for 2 months since the lockdown began in March, reached his residence in Amaravati by road on Monday amid a warm welcome by party leaders and workers. Earlier at Vijayawada, the leader of opposition stopped his convoy to wave at a large number of party activists and followers who jostled to greet him. YSRCP leaders alleged that Naidu violated the norms as social distancing was not maintained and the people who greeted him were not even wearing masks. Some also demanded that he be sent to quarantine for 14 days. "Since he came from a red zone area and crossed over from another state, he should be quarantined," said YSRCP leader G Srikant Reddy. A YSRCP leader from Kadapa sought action against Naidu for deliberately violating Covid-19 lockdown rules and also Epidemic Diseases Act and Communicable Diseases, Prevention and Control Act, 1988. In a letter to Director General of Police Gautam Sawang, the ruling party leader said Naidu's followers gathered around his convoy without maintaining physical distance and without wearing masks. The leaders of the ruling party and the main opposition have been indulging in political slugfest over Naidu's stay in Hyderabad. YSRCP leaders had taunted him for maintaining 'social distancing' by staying 300 km away from the state. They also slammed him for what they call playing politics over the pandemic by addressing press conferences over zoom app from his residence in Hyderabad. YSRCP leader Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said nobody had stopped the TDP chief from returning to the state but he preferred to remain in Hyderabad and when he finally returned he violated all lockdown norms. There was also a row before Naidu's return to Amaravati. It was on May 24 that the DGP had permitted him to return to the state. The TDP had even announced that Naidu would leave for Visakhapatnam on May 25 to console the families of the 12 people who died due to gas leak from LG Polymers on May 7. The party announced that he will leave for Vizag by a flight from Hyderabad at 10 a.m. However, he could not go to Visakhapatnam as the flight was cancelled following the decision by Andhra Pradesh government to allow resumption of domestic flight services from May 26. TDP leader K. Atchan Naidu alleged that the flight resumption was deliberately postponed by the Jagan Mohan government to stop the TDP chief from visiting Visakhapatnam. "The government did this under a conspiracy to prevent him from going to Vizag," he said and claimed that Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's tweet that the resumption of flights from Vizag and Vijayawada was postponed at the request of the state government was a proof of the conspiracy. YSRCP leaders wondered how the government can be blamed if the flight to Vizag was cancelled. "He could have gone to Vizag by road instead of coming to Amaravati," said Ramakrishna Reddy. TDP's senior leader and former minister Devineni Uma claimed that Chandrababu Naidu honoured all lockdown norms to seek permission to visit Visakhapatnam to call on the people affected by gas leak. "Why is the government afraid of his visit," he asked. The former minister said Chandrababu Naidu would soon visit Vizag to meet gas victims. "Whenever he goes to Vizag, it is bound to create tremors for YSR Congress Party leaders," he added. Mumbai, May 26 (IANS) One of India's moat wanted fugitives, Islamic telly evangelist and zealot Zakir Naik, who is currently based in Malaysia, continues to be engaged in propagation of radical Islamic activities and collection of funds from his wealthy contacts in the Gulf region to support his activities. Sources close to developments have revealed that Naik has reportedly got in touch with one of his old contacts, a prominent Qatari national, and requested him for a generous charity during the just concluded Ramadan period. The well known Qatari national has reportedly assured an amount of $500,000 to him. It is also learnt that this Qatari national, is a close associate of Naik and helps him contact local wealthy businessmen and charity organisations for collection of funds. It may be recalled that Naik is an Islamic preacher and televangelist from Mumbai. He is the founder of Islamic Research Foundation (IRP) and Peace TV, an Islamic TV Channel broadcast in Urdu and English from Saudi Arabia. He is also associated with several local radical Islamic organisations such as South Karnataka Salafi Movement and Al-Lisaan Islamic Foundation. Naik continues to maintain several bank accounts in Gulf countries, including Qatar and the UAE, for collection of such funds to evade scrutiny of the Indian government. He generally uses these accounts to transfer funds to his associates and network for activities by IRF and other associated organisations. The Indian government has since put a five-year ban on IRF. Naik is involved in preaching of radical Islamic ideology that has influenced a number of youth in India and abroad in adverse manner and some of them are found to have been motivated to join extremist organisations such as Daesh. Following are some of the instances, in which individuals influenced by Naik have joined terror organisations: i) Abdul Rasheed @ Abdulla and his wife Yasmin were radicalised while working in Zakir Naik-run Peace International School (Kerala). Subsequently, Abdul Rasheed motivated a group of 23 individuals to join him in leaving the country for Afghanistan to join Daesh. (ii) Mohd Ibrahim Yazdani and Mohd Uyas Yezdani, kingpin of ISIS-influenced Junood-ul-Khilafafil-Hind (JKF) module which plotted to carry out terror attacks in different parts of India, were influenced by Naik's speeches. The module was neutralised by the Indian agencies in July 2016. (iii) Naser Abubakar Yafahi @ Chaus joined ISIS-influenced JKH module after being radicalised by the preachings of Naik. Abubakar Yafahi was arrested in July 2016. (iv) IRF had provided scholarship to Abu Anas from Rajasthan, who intended to join ISIS and was arrested while he was leaving India for joining ISIS. (v) Afsha Jabeen @ Nickey Joseph, while based in Dubai was involved in facilitating recruitment for ISIS. She was influenced by Naik. She was deported back to India in September 2015. (vi) Two Bangladeshi terrorists, namely Nabris Islam and Rohan Imtiaz, who were involved in the July 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka, confessed to have been inspired by Naik. In view of his involvement in extremist activities, multiple non-bailable warrants (NBW) have been issued against Naik by the India authorities on charges of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and for money laundering. --IANS dpb/ Vietnamese enterprises awareness of EVFTA has been heightened significantly, and they have prepared to grab business opportunities and find a foothold in the supply chain. The EU on April 24 completed necessary internal formalities for EVFTA to take effect. MOIT said the agreement is expected to be ratified by the National Assembly this May. If everything goes as planned, EVFTA will take effect in July 2020. The benefits that EVFTA can bring are very clear, though they will be associated with great challenges. With Covid-19 breaking out, inhibiting global production and business activities, both Vietnamese and European businesses are holding their breath. EVFTA could be seen as the key to many doors that Vietnamese enterprises want, the director of a seafood company said. The 2018 PCI (provincial competitiveness index) report of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) showed that 88 percent of Vietnamese businesses had understanding about EVFTA, a considerable increase from the 83 percent in 2016. There has been no report for 2020, but experts believe the figure is nearly 100 percent. Vietnamese enterprises awareness of EVFTA has been heightened significantly, and they have prepared to grab business opportunities and find a foothold in the supply chain. Ha Tay Chemical Weave Co Ltd, a small footwear company with 600 workers, said previously, businesses struggled in the European market as they had to compete with many rivals, including China. However, in the last three years, European partners have become back to Vietnam and asked for cooperation. And it is not by chance. In 2017, or three years ago, was the time when Vietnam and the EU completed the check of legal and technical issues for EVFTA, and the EU proposed to split EVFTA into two separated agreements EVFTA and IPA. The director of Ha Tay said the UKs exit from the EU last January still has not affected the opportunity to take full advantage of the EUs preferential tariffs when exporting products to the UK, because there are still two years of transitional period. Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said he was pleasantly surprised about the deep understanding of the small enterprise. A precision engineering enterprise said after diligently participating in many popular conferences and workshops about EVFTA, the enterprise has found a business opportunity. In August 2020, after EVFTA takes effect, it will sign with German partners contracts on technology transfer and the export of some kinds of machines and equipment. In fact, Vietnams businesses not only are looking intently at preferential tariffs in EVFTA, but also paying attention to non-tariff issues. The news about CE standards for textile and garment exports to the EU discussed in recent days is an example. Kim Chi EVFTA implementation requires local firms to thoroughly grasp regulations Businesses and management agencies should be fully aware of the regulations and rights included within the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) before the trade deal fully comes into effect. Egypts health ministry says it is working hard to protect health workers on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic, adding it has designated a special 20-bed floor for infected staff in every quarantine hospital since the virus emerged in the country in February. The ministry said in a statement Monday that the virus has infected 291 health workers, including 69 physicians, and killed 11 -- the first time it has provided a tally of cases among medical staff. The figure is lower than the count provided by the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, which said early on Monday that over 350 doctors have contracted the virus and 19 have died. There have been repeated calls on the ministry to allocate special hospitals for infected healthcare workers amid a surge in cases and reports of delayed response from authorities or lack of beds at isolation hospitals. The ministrys statement quoted Health Minister Hala Zayed as saying that health authorities were working hard to protect medical staff facing the coronavirus and has adopted all necessary precautions to do so, noting that all staff members undergo tests before entering and leaving hospitals. "An immediate test is conducted for anyone showing symptoms while on duty. The ministry has intensified the [coronavirus] periodical tests carried out for medical staff, with 9,578 rapid tests and 8,913 PCR tests conducted so far," she said. Infection control teams at hospitals review protective equipment stock daily and ensure medical teams comply with infection control protocols to reduce infections among medics, she added. The ministrys statement came one day after three doctors were confirmed to have died of the virus. The deaths have sparked outcry online, with doctors and families of the victims accusing the ministry of medical negligence. Many hospital staff members have taken to social media to mourn the death of the three doctors. One of the doctors was thirty-two-year-old obstetrician Waleed Yahia, who worked at Cairo's Al-Munirah Hospital and whose family says had not received the necessary healthcare before his death. "Waleed's state was deteriorating every secondeach second couldve made a difference if he had received the healthcare he deserved," Yahias brother posted on Facebook late on Sunday. The health minister has ordered an urgent investigation into the physician's death and vowed to take necessary legal measures in case of negligence. Meanwhile, the Egyptian medical syndicate held the ministry "fully responsible" for the rise in coronavirus infections and deaths among medical staff which it said is the result of the ministrys inaction and negligence to protect them. The syndicate said in a statement early on Monday that the surge in cases is the result of the ministrys refusal to conduct early tests to detect infections among hospital staff or for workers who came in contact with positive cases, and its failure to swiftly offer places for treating infected workers. It urged all doctors to insist on their right to ensure that all protective measures are implemented before they start their work, including access to personal protective gear, receiving the necessary training to deal with coronavirus cases in triage or isolation hospitals, undergoing tests if they show symptoms or have come into contact with positive cases without taking the necessary protective measures, and access to necessary supplies and medicines. The syndicate reiterated its demand for designating special isolation hospitals for medics infected with the highly contagious virus. In a separate statement earlier on Monday, the health ministry said it has ordered health authorities to increase medical supplies at all hospitals to ensure the stock is sufficient to last for the long term. The ministry said 320 general hospitals nationwide have started to offer testing to people showing symptoms of the virus, in a bid to make it easier for patients to receive healthcare services and take some burden off fever and chest hospitals, which have been receiving coronavirus patients since the outbreak hit the country in mid-February. Search Keywords: Short link: ST. PAUL, Minn., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) resonates with the complaints of physicians frustrated in their care of COVID-19 patients by 'evidence-based medicine' and bureaucratic restraints imposed by outside third-parties. Evidence-based medicine (EBM), a term advanced by Canadian physician David Sackett, was introduced as a way to appraise medical literature. It was never intended to restrict the medical choices of physicians, but government and other third-party payers often use it to limit patient access to care. "Evidence-based medicine protocols can act like handcuffs, preventing the proper care of patients," said Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF, and author of two reports on EBM. "To save his patients from EBM protocols, New York City physician, Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell, made a public plea online for every hospital to change ventilator protocols because they were damaging lungs. But why did he, a physician, even have to ask for permission?" As a result of the protocols, Dr. Kyle-Sidell told MedScape he had to step down from the ICU: "We ran into an impasse where I could not morally, in a patient-doctor relationship, I could not continue the current protocols which, again, are the protocols of the top hospitals in the country." The New York Times released a video of several physicians nationwide who are questioning the one-size-fits-all treatment protocols and are concerned about harming their patients. Only one physician interviewed said physicians should not deviate from these protocols. The other physicians were already leaving them behind, clearly trying to save their patients rather than being worried about repercussions from the institutions that employ them. "COVID-19 has drawn attention to the dangers of one-size-fits-all evidence-based medicine protocols," said Brase. "Thankfully many doctors are throwing EBM to the wind to save their COVID-19 patients. They're talking to each other cross-country by Zoom and ignoring prescriptive third-party protocols that don't work for patients. This 'freedom to treat' should not change when COVID-19 is over." As evidence of successful care counter to current protocols, CCHF points to physicians delaying use of ventilators, putting people in respiratory distress on their stomachs in prone position with low flow oxygen, sharply reducing standard ventilator pressures to reduce lung damage, and prescribing hydroxychloroquine to keep patients from facing hospitalization and ventilation. SOURCE Citizens' Council for Health Freedom Related Links www.cchfreedom.org A day after Chief Minister said that no state can take manpower from Uttar Pradesh without his government's permission, Congress leader said that this is "absolutely absurd" and added that these people are not his personal property. "I think it's unfortunate. I think people are first Indian and then they belong to their states, and the decision on whether somebody goes to work from Uttar Pradesh to the rest of the country is not the Chief Ministers. It is the people of India and people of Uttar Pradesh. If a citizen of Uttar Pradesh wants to go and fulfill his dreams in Maharashtra or in Delhi or in Karnataka or anywhere else he should have the right to do so," Rahul said on Tuesday. "It is very unfortunate that the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh views India in such a way. These people are not his personal property. They are not the personal property of Uttar Pradesh. These people are Indian citizens and they have the right to decide what they want to do and they have the right to live the life they want to live. It is our job to support them to fulfill their dreams. It is not our job to say that you belong to me, you cannot go and work in Maharashtra. It's absolutely absurd position," he added. Adityanath had on Monday said that the state government will provide social security and insurance to labourers and no state can take manpower from Uttar Pradesh without his government's permission. "If any state wants manpower, they cannot take our people from the state without our permission as there were reports of misbehaviour with them in other states. We are taking full responsibility for labourers' social security. We will provide every kind of security to them including insurance. Wherever they will go, we will always stand by them," Yogi said. The Chief Minister said that skill mapping is being done in Uttar Pradesh and a commission will be set up for labourers to ensure employment for them. On Sunday, Adityanath had ordered the formation of a 'Migration Commission' for the purpose of providing the workers, who have returned to the state during the phase, with employment suited to their skills. Council member Kelsey Brackett said he could not vote to approve allowing the public back into city hall without seeing a plan he can read and know what the process will be. Public safety is one of the things we are charged with as a council, he said. Im not opposed to the process, I just dont know what the process is right now. Public works director Brian Stineman said his department has been taking measurements in council chambers. He said the council needed to specify when they planned to return to the council chambers and how much effort and money did they want to city to expend to make that happen. We could make individual pods if you want, but I dont know if that would be worth it, he said. Brackett said he is not in a hurry to get back into the chambers. He said opening the city offices first before opening council chambers is fine. He said he would prefer not to spend the money to modify the chambers. The council plans to revisit the issue during the June 4 meeting and vote whether to reopen city hall the following Monday. The council also discussed the process for hiring a new city administrator. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 07:12:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Two NASA astronauts will fly on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, the first launch of American astronauts on an American rocket from American soil since 2011. The mission team concluded the launch readiness review for the upcoming mission, dubbed Demo-2, on Monday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said Kathy Lueders, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, at a prelaunch briefing. NASA and SpaceX key managers have given the "go" for the launch, she said, adding the team continues to make progress toward the mission. "The only thing need to do is how to control the weather on the launch day," Lueders said. Liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, is scheduled for Wednesday at 4:33 p.m. Eastern Time from Kennedy's Launch Complex 39A. The two astronauts are scheduled to arrive at the ISS about 24 hours after launch. The spacecraft is designed to do this autonomously, but astronauts aboard the spacecraft and the station will be monitoring approach and docking, and can take control of the spacecraft if necessary, according to NASA. After successfully docking, Behnken and Hurley will be welcomed aboard station and will become members of the Expedition 63 crew. They will perform tests on Crew Dragon in addition to conducting research and other tasks with the space station crew. The mission duration has not been announced yet. NASA said it will be determined once on station based on the readiness of the next commercial crew launch. Enditem The chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly has said that todays meeting of the Dails Covid-19 committee is not about pointing the finger or apportioning blame. Health Information and Quality Authority chief executive Phelim Quinn is expected to raise major shortcomings in the oversight of care for the most vulnerable citizens in nursing homes, the people most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. He is also expected to point out that the current model of private residential care for older persons has no formal clinical governance links with the Health Service Executive. There will be plenty of time for recriminations, Mr Daly told RTE radios Morning Ireland. Today is about getting a picture of what occurred. There was a shared responsibility for the sector, he said. Earlier on Newstalk Breakfast Mr Daly had said that it had been a particularly challenging period for the health service generally, but that the nursing homes sector had been literally at the frontline of the pandemic. Ultimately this is not about finger-pointing, this is about learning from the mistakes that were made. Mr Daly said there were four issues Nursing Home Ireland will be highlighting before the Covid-19 Committee today. One was the issue of testing, there was insufficient testing of both residents and staff at an early stage, particularly given the large numbers of asymptomatic people in nursing homes. PPE obviously was a huge, huge issue - not just for nursing homes, for the entire health service - and that had a huge impact. We also suffered in the nursing home sector by what we would term aggressive recruitment by the HSE, very much in the early stages. The most significant issue, he said, was the fact that large numbers of people were transferred from acute hospitals into nursing homes without being tested. Clearly the health service was getting the acute hospital system ready for that surge - getting ICU beds ready - and that was the appropriate thing to do. But there was a blind spot, in terms of ensuring that those residents who were discharged should have been tested prior to discharge from the acute hospitals. Mr Daly said that nursing homes are still being asked to take patients from acute hospitals without appropriate testing. It's still an issue for us and that's unforgivable in my mind. Clearly what you don't know in terms of what you can't measure, you can't manage as it were. Mr Daly told RTE radios Morning Ireland that Ireland as a society had not been prepared for the global pandemic even though it was known, from the experience in Italy, that older people would be more vulnerable. Clearly lessons will have to be learned by all of us. Earlier: Nursing Homes Ireland to appear before Covid-19 committee By Digital Desk staff Nursing Homes Ireland will tell the Covid-19 committee today the sector was "exasperated" the government's focus in battle against the virus was "almost exclusively" on hospitals. Tadhg Daly will appear before the special committee to address what went wrong in nursing homes. The devastation caused by Covid-19 on the nursing home sector is one of the most poignant of all the tragedies associated with the pandemic. Almost half of all the deaths in Ireland from the disease occurred in these settings and there have been 264 care home clusters. In their opening statement, the NHI will say one of the key challenges they faced was the failure to test patients being discharged from hospitals to nursing home for the disease. Mr Daly said this happened because the health sector was preparing for an expected surge that never materialised. Mr Daly will also criticise the National Treatment Purchase fund, which is responsible for commissioning nursing home care, for "falling silent" as the homes incurred huge costs For its part, the Health Information Quality Authority will note that 80% of nursing homes are privately run and it says that because of this the HSE did not have a relationship with them. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has imposed a "deadline" of Thursday on the Queensland Labor government to lift border restrictions in the state or face a constitutional challenge to the closures in the High Court. Businessman and former politician Clive Palmer lodged documents in the High Court on Monday to challenge Western Australia's border restrictions on constitutional grounds, while Senator Hanson is supporting a similar challenge to Queensland's border controls. Senator Hanson said she intended to present the case to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and it was "full steam ahead". Pauline Hanson has spearheaded a legal challenge to the Queensland border restrictions. Credit:AAP She said she had given the Labor leader a deadline of Thursday to respond to a request to revoke the border ban before proceeding to the High Court. Democratic candidate Joe Biden's overtures to Republicans were central to his promise to "unify the country" and "restore the soul of the nation" when he launched his presidential campaign. But all has changed now he is the man most likely to be taking on Donald Trump. Although still pitching consensus, he is touting a "bold agenda" aimed at mollifying progressives who remain sceptical he will deliver enough on health, student debts and the climate crisis. The idea is to avoid repeating the 2016 defeat, when Hillary Clinton struggled to unite moderate supporters and backers of Bernie Sanders. The dynamics are different in 2020, with Democrats united in their antipathy towards Mr Trump. But Mr Biden's juggling of the left wing along with mainstream Democrats and independents and Republicans disgruntled with Mr Trump could end up as an unsuccessful attempt to be all things to all people. "It certainly seems like the approach that they're taking right now is trying to have it both ways," said Evan Weber, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a climate action youth organisation working with the Biden campaign. Republican pollster Whit Ayres countered that Mr Biden's "sweet spot" is the centre-left. Expand Close Bold agenda: Joe Biden aims to juggle the left wing and mainstream Democrats as well as the disgruntled Republicans and the independents / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bold agenda: Joe Biden aims to juggle the left wing and mainstream Democrats as well as the disgruntled Republicans and the independents "You've got to run on who you are," Mr Ayres said. "If he becomes a politician of the left, it's going to hurt his ability to consolidate the 54pc of Americans who voted for someone other than Donald Trump in 2016." Asked whether his recent moves mean he'll govern as a "progressive", Mr Biden said: "I'm going to be Joe Biden. Look at my record." Interviews reveal the nuances Mr Biden hopes can attract support in both directions. "I think health care is a right, not a privilege," he said on CNBC. But, he added, "I do not support Medicare for All" single-payer insurance. Mr Biden embraces some key principles of the Green New Deal sweeping climate plan as paths to "tens of millions of new jobs" but casts as impossible some progressives' goal of zeroing out carbon pollution over a decade. He has reaffirmed he wants Republicans' 2017 tax cuts repealed for the wealthiest individuals and corporations. But he prefers a 28pc corporate tax rate - still lower than before the cuts - and he has not embraced a "wealth tax" on the fortunes of the richest Americans. He opposes the Keystone XL pipeline while stopping short of backing an outright ban on fracking. The coronavirus pandemic has influenced Mr Biden's thinking as well. Once a senator who championed a balanced budget amendment, he's aligned with congressional Democrats pushing trillions of dollars in aid for states, local governments, business and individuals. He has also intensified his calls to rebuild the economy to reflect progressive values, including stamping out income inequalities baked into the pre-pandemic system. Aides say he is uniquely positioned for a wide coalition because voters prioritise experience and temperament, along with policy. Campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond said Mr Biden can stitch together otherwise irreconcilable parts of the electorate for one reason: Donald Trump. "We have a president now with no discernible political philosophy other than what benefits him," said Mr Richmond, a congressman. "Even people who are not as progressive (as Biden) and people who are more progressive at least like the consistency of knowing what a person believes in." Anti-Trump conservatives offer similar sentiments. "We are living right now... with the damage that can be done when a president is elected and thinks that he only has to answer to his base," said Jennifer Horn of the Lincoln Project, which has produced online ads to help thwart Mr Trump's re-election. In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down, unemployment was spiking and some policymakers were predicting an era worse than the Great Depression. The economic carnage seemed likely to doom President Donald Trumps chances at reelection. Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim. We are about to see the best economic data weve seen in the history of this country, he said. The former Cabinet secretaries and Federal Reserve chairs in the Zoom boxes were confused, though some of the Republicans may have been newly relieved and some of the Democrats suddenly concerned. Everyone looked puzzled and thought I had misspoken, Furman said in an interview. Instead of forecasting a prolonged Depression-level economic catastrophe, Furman laid out a detailed case for why the months preceding the November election could offer Trump the chance to brag truthfully about the most explosive monthly employment numbers and gross domestic product growth ever. Since the Zoom call, Furman has been making the same case to anyone who will listen, especially the close-knit network of Democratic wonks who have traversed the Clinton and Obama administrations together, including top members of the Biden campaign. Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman speaks during the daily briefing in the South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, to discuss President Barack Obama's fiscal 2017 federal budget. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Furmans counterintuitive pitch has caused some Democrats, especially Obama alumni, around Washington to panic. This is my big worry, said a former Obama White House official who is still close to the former president. Asked about the level of concern among top party officials, he said, Its high high, high, high, high. And top policy officials on the Biden campaign are preparing for a fall economic debate that might look very different than the one predicted at the start of the pandemic in March. They are very much aware of this, said an informal adviser. Story continues Furmans case begins with the premise that the 2020 pandemic-triggered economic collapse is categorically different than the Great Depression or the Great Recession, which both had slow, grinding recoveries. Instead, he believes, the way to think about the current economic drop-off, at least in the first two phases, is more like what happens to a thriving economy during and after a natural disaster: a quick and steep decline in economic activity followed by a quick and steep rebound. The Covid-19 recession started with a sudden shuttering of many businesses, a nationwide decline in consumption and massive increase in unemployment. But starting around April 15, when economic reopening started to spread but the overall numbers still looked grim, Furman noticed some data that pointed to the kind of recovery that economists often see after a hurricane or industrywide catastrophe like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Consumption and hiring started to tick up in gross terms, not in net terms, Furman said, describing the phenomenon as a partial rebound. The bounce back can be very very fast, because people go back to their original job, they get called back from furlough, you put the lights back on in your business. Given how many people were furloughed and how many businesses were closed you can get a big jump out of that. It will look like a V. Furmans argument is not that different from the one made by White House economic advisers and Trump, who have predicted an explosive third quarter, and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who said in late April that "the hope is that by July the country's really rocking again." White House officials were thrilled to hear that some of their views have been endorsed by prominent Democrats. I totally agree, Larry Kudlow, head of the White House National Economic Council, replied in a text message when asked about Furmans analysis. Q3 may be the single best GDP quarter since regular data. 2nd half super big growth, transitioning to 4% or more in 2021. He called Furman, whom he said he knows well, usually a straight shooter. Hats off to him. I have been saying that on TV as well, said Kevin Hassett, a top Trump economic adviser, who pointed to a Congressional Budget Office analysis predicting a 21.5 percent annualized growth rate in the third quarter. If CBO is correct we will see the strongest quarter in history after the weakest in Q2. Peter Navarro, a Trump trade and manufacturing adviser who's a Harvard-educated economist, called the high unemployment America is currently facing "manufactured unemployment, which is to say that Americans are out of work not because of any underlying economic weaknesses but to save American lives. It is this observation that gives us the best chance and hope for a relatively rapid recovery as the economy reopens." (Asked about his new fans in the White House, Furman responded, They get the rebound part, but they dont get the partial part.) A rebound wont mean that Trump has solved many underlying problems. Since the crisis started, many employers have gone bankrupt. Others have used the pandemic to downsize. Consumption and travel will likely remain lower. Millions of people in industries like hospitality and tourism will need to find new jobs in new industries. The scenario would be a major long-term problem for any president. But before that reality sets in, Trump could be poised to benefit from the dramatic numbers produced during the partial rebound phase that is likely to coincide with the four months before November. That realization has many Democrats spooked. In absolute terms, the economy will look historically terrible come November, said Kenneth Baer, a Democratic strategist who worked in a senior role at the Office of Management and Budget under Obama. But relative to the depths of April, it will be on an upswing 12 percent unemployment, for example, is better than 20, but historically terrible. On Election Day, we Democrats need voters to ask themselves, Are you better off than you were four years ago? Republicans need voters to ask themselves, Are you better off than you were four months ago? One progressive Democratic operative pointed out that recent polling, taken during the nadir of the crisis, shows Joe Biden is struggling to best Trump on who is more trusted to handle the economy. Trump beats Biden on the economy even right now! he said. This is going to be extremely difficult no matter what. Its existential that we figure it out. In any of these economic scenarios Democrats are going to have to win the argument that our public health and economy are much worse off because of Donald Trumps failure of leadership. The former Obama White House official said, Even today when we are at over 20 million unemployed Trump gets high marks on the economy, so I cant imagine what it looks like when things go in the other direction. I dont think this is a challenge for the Biden campaign. This is the challenge for the Biden campaign. If they cant figure this out they should all just go home. The Biden campaign seems to recognize the challenge. The way that Biden talks about the economy is not just tied to the Covid crisis, its also about the things that Donald Trump has done to undermine working people since the day he took office, said Kate Bedingfield, Bidens deputy campaign manager. But secondly, its also highly likely that under any economic circumstances in the fall, Trump is likely going to be the first modern president to preside over net job loss. Between now and Election Day, there will be five monthly jobs reports, which are released on the first Friday of every month. The June report, covering May, is likely to show another increase in unemployment. But after that, Furman predicts, if reopening continues apace, the next four reports could be blockbusters. You could easily have 1 to 2 million jobs created a month in those four reports before November, he said. He added, And then toward the end of October, we will get GDP growth for the third quarter, at an annualized rate, and it could be double-digit positive economic growth. So these will be the best jobs and growth numbers ever. Furman noted that there is one major obvious caveat: If theres a second wave of the virus and a really serious set of lockdowns, I wouldnt expect to see this. But I think the most likely case is the one I just laid out. When Obama ran for reelection in 2012, during the recovery from the Great Recession, he was able to point out that the unemployment rate was dropping about 1 point every year. But in a V-shaped recovery it would be much faster. The Trump argument will be hes producing the fastest job growth and fastest economic growth in history. If he has any ability to do nuance he would say, We are not there yet, reelect me to finish the job, Furman said. The Biden argument will be the unemployment rate is still 12 percent and even with those millions of jobs we are still down 15 million jobs and the only way for this to be fixed is new economic policies. Austan Goolsbee, a predecessor to Furman as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama White House, said the recovery would be more like a reverse check mark, rather than a V, and that Biden and Democrats would need to point out that the explosive numbers predicted for the late summer and fall will not erase all of the damage. I view it as Trump left the door open and five rats came into the kitchen and youre going to brag, Look I got two of the rats out? Goolsbee said. Theres a high risk you look completely out of touch if you still have double-digit unemployment rates. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who is close to Biden, said he's been studying numerous economic forecasts and isnt convinced a V-shaped rebound is certain. It seems pretty unlikely to me that were going to have a really robust recovery in the next few months, he said. Of course, we all hope there will be. Frankly, no matter what the recovery looks like, I expect President Trump to either take credit for things he had nothing to do with or to avoid blame for things he helped cause. Furman is an economist, but he had some strategic advice for the Biden campaign. Dont make predictions that could be falsified. There are enough terrible things to say you dont need to make exaggerated predictions, he said. The argument that we are in another Great Depression will look like it was overstated. Trump can say, Two million deaths didnt happen, Great Depression didnt happen, we are making a lot of progress. Article withdrawn: Twitterati demands Piyush Goyal's resignation after Shramik Special train heading from Gujarat to Bihar ends up in Bengaluru Several people on Twitter expressed astonishment at the scale of the mix-up with several of them criticising the administrative 'incompetence' that led to the incident. FP Staff May 26, 2020 20:31:13 IST Editor's Note: This article was based on an exclusive Deccan Herald report claiming that a Shramik special train from Gujarat to Bihar ended up in Bengaluru. As Deccan Herald has since taken down the report, Firstpost is also withdrawing its article. Updated Date: AMES, Iowa, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bulrushes Media LLC announces the launch of, "The Lincoln Family Photograph," a book chronicling the author's 25-year-long crusade to prove the authenticity of a large 19th century photograph which he bought from an amateur collector from Boone, Iowa in 1993, Morgan believes it is a previously unknown image of Lincoln, surrounded by his family and two others, gathered in the studio of Alexander Gardner. This is a controversial and daring claim, because every photograph ever taken of Lincoln is well-known and recorded in dozens of books by Lincoln scholars about our 16th President. Book cover is a 50/50 mix of two photographs within weeks of Alexander Gardner's camera. Back cover of The Lincoln Family Photograph Moses in the Bulrushes by Jay Peter Morgan If the photo is what the author claims, it would be the only existing photo of Abraham Lincoln with his family, taken in secrecy on the afternoon of Good Friday, the day Lincoln was shot--April 14, 1865. The strength of the author's argument is all the forensic, technical work he had tech experts to do identifying and validating the features of Lincoln and the other five members in the photo--Mary Lincoln, Robert and young Tad Lincoln, Elizabeth Keckley is behind Abe, and Mary Harlan--the daughter of Abe's very close friend Senator James Harlan from Iowa. Morgan has concluded, after two decades of research, that this photograph was planned to be a formal announcement by Lincoln and family of the engagement of Robert and Mary Harlan. (They postponed the wedding for three years after the assassination.) The visit to Gardner's studio was arranged without Mary Lincoln's knowledge. On the afternoon before Lincoln was shot, Mary thought that she was just going out with her husband for a carriage ride. The author diligently chronicles, with maps and records by witnesses, where Lincoln and Mary Todd went on Good Friday during their carriage ride when the Secret Service didn't know where they were. This book can change the history of Abraham Lincoln, especially his last day, which has been examined minute by minute (except for one to two hours in the afternoon on the final day of his life.) It will undoubtedly unleash a media storm as Lincoln fans and scholars debate where Morgan's history of that last day is true. Books are available at the website www.bulrushesmedia.com including a book plus framed museum-quality copies of the author's photographs. The video link below was created by an Iowa State University professor in 1996. It contains the four Lincolns from my Lincoln Family Photograph. https://youtu.be/e1zeDAs4Biw Media Contact: Bulrushes Media LLC Jay Peter Morgan 515-451-6878 [email protected] www.bulrushesmedia.com SOURCE Bulrushes Media LLC Related Links http://www.bulrushesmedia.com We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So before you buy or sell China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Limited (HKG:512), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling. What Is Insider Selling? Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market. We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But it is perfectly logical to keep tabs on what insiders are doing. For example, a Harvard University study found that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year. See our latest analysis for China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Insider Transactions Over The Last Year insider Hu Kaijun made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for HK$207m worth of shares at a price of HK$4.60 each. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at around the current price of HK$5.11. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. We do always like to see insider buying, but it is worth noting if those purchases were made at well below today's share price, as the discount to value may have narrowed with the rising price. The good news for China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings share holders is that an insider was buying at near the current price. Hu Kaijun was the only individual insider to buy shares in the last twelve months. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! Story continues SEHK:512 Recent Insider Trading May 25th 2020 There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying. Does China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Boast High Insider Ownership? Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. I reckon it's a good sign if insiders own a significant number of shares in the company. China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings insiders own about HK$8.8b worth of shares (which is 51% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders. So What Does This Data Suggest About China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Insiders? There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. Judging from their transactions, and high insider ownership, China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings insiders feel good about the company's future. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings. For example - China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of. Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. TOWIE co-stars Chloe Ross and Ella Rae Wise reunited for the first time since UK lockdown was imposed as they enjoyed a socially distanced walk in Chigwell, Essex, on Tuesday. The reality TV pair chatted out of the windows of their respective cars before heading into a local park for a catch-up. The change in lockdown rules from May 10 onward means people can meet with one other person from outside their household, as long as they maintain a two-metre distance, which Chloe, 27, and Ella, 19, stuck to. Sticking to the rules: TOWIE co-stars Chloe Ross (left) and Ella Rae Wise (right) were reunited as they enjoyed a socially distanced walk in Chigwell, Essex, on Tuesday Chloe cut a chic figure in a blush toned pair of cargo pants, teamed with a simple white pullover. She pulled her brunette tresses away from her face into a simple low ponytail and completed her ensemble with white trainers. Ella looked casual in a green checked jacket worn with denim jeans and black Converse trainers. She wore a Louis Vuitton bumbag slung over her chest and left her blonde tresses loose. Low-key: Chloe, 27, cut a chic figure in a blush toned pair of cargo pants, teamed with a simple white pullover Off-duty: Ella, 19, looked casual in a green checked jacket worn with denim jeans and black Converse trainers Social distancing: The change in lockdown rules from May 10 onward means people can meet with one other person from outside their household The reality stars could not contain their laughter as they doubled over in fits of giggles on their walk. While appearing in a deep conversation, the pair stopped still and faced each other, clearly happy to be reunited after months in isolation. The duo's walk comes after it was announced earlier this year that Chloe will no longer appear on The Only Way Is Essex. Back in January, a TOWIE spokesperson confirmed Chloe's exit from the long-running ITVBe reality show. Catching up: The reality TV pair chatted out of the windows of their respective cars before heading into a local park for a catch-up Out and about: Ella wore a Louis Vuitton bumbag slung over her chest and left her blonde tresses loose They told MailOnline at the time: 'We review our cast every series to ensure we're keeping the show fresh and relevant.' After being axed, Chloe insisted to OK! that viewers may see her return to screens in the near future. The media personality said: 'They've said to me that the door's always open so never say never.' In January 2019, series bosses axed 10 stars including Myles Barnett, Jon and Chris Clark, Chloe Lewis and Adam Oukhellou. The year before that Amber Dowding and Mike Hassini parted ways with the ITVBe favourite, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in October. What's so funny? The reality stars could not contain their laughter as they doubled over in fits of giggles on their walk Sweet: While appearing in a deep conversation the pair stopped still and faced each other, clearly happy to be reunited after months in isolation Advertisement Khloe Kardashian is selling her luxury Calabasas estate, DailyMail.com can reveal. The huge property, located in the exclusive gated community The Oaks, is set to hit the market for $18,950,000. The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom house is the first place that Khloe bought after ending her turbulent marriage to Lamar Odom in late 2013 and moving out of the home they shared. It's also just down the street from her sister Kourtney's mansion and only five minutes from her mother Kris Jenner's Hidden Hills home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Khloe has been self-isolating at the home with her two-year-old daughter True and ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson. But Khloe has decided it's time to move on and has enlisted the help of Beverly Hills real estate power broker Tomer Fridman to sell the luxury property. Khloe Kardashian is selling her luxury Calabasas estate, DailyMail.com can reveal. The huge property in the exclusive gated community The Oaks is set to hit the market for $18,950,000 Khloe, 35, bought the Mediterranean Revival house from pop star Justin Bieber in 2014 for $7.2 million but after renovating the property - including removing Bieber's graffitied skateboard ramp on the grounds - she aims to make a clear $10 million profit It's also just down the street from her sister Kourtney's mansion and only five minutes from her mother Kris Jenner's Hidden Hills home The outdoor area has a fire pit,n as well as a playground and a play house, believed to be for her toddler daughter True Khloe has enlisted the help of Beverly Hills real estate power broker Tomer Fridman to sell the luxury property The property includes a meditation trail dotted with oak trees and at the end, a swing overlooks the sweeping view The grounds of the 1.56 acre lot, Khloe has a range of flowers and lemon trees on the property Before Bieber, comedian Eddie Murphy had bought the house for ex-wife Nicole Murphy The home is the first place that Khloe bought after ending her turbulent marriage to Lamar Odom (together left in 2012) in late 2013. During the COVID-19 pandemic Khloe has been self-isolating at the home with her two-year-old daughter True and ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson (together right in December 2019) The spread features a large kitchen with an island, a library, a home theater, a swimming pool with a hot tub and a guest house. Khloe, 35, bought the Mediterranean Revival house from pop star Justin Bieber in 2014 for $7.2 million but after renovating the property - including removing Bieber's graffitied skateboard ramp on the grounds - she aims to make a clear $10 million profit. Before Bieber, comedian Eddie Murphy had bought the house for ex-wife Nicole Murphy. The stunning renovation project saw Khloe showcase the home on the front cover of Architectural Digest in 2016. She had brought in award-winning interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard to completely rejuvenate the house. The listing was first revealed on an episode of IGTV's real estate show Real Talk last Thursday - but the owner was not identified. The show is produced by West Hollywood based The Society Group, a luxury real estate PR firm representing the world's top agents, new developments and brokerages. The stunning renovation project saw Khloe showcase the home on the front cover of Architectural Digest in 2016 In September, 2019 Khloe's house was featured on reality show Flip It Like Disick in which Scott Disick, ex husband of Khloe's sister Kourtney, was seen discussing with Khloe how to remodel her swimming pool (pictured) The estate features a large kitchen with an island, a library, a home theater, a swimming pool with a hot tub and a guest house Khloe brought in award-winning interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard to completely rejuvenate the house. Pictured: Khloe sitting under her pool's pavilion With the help of interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Khloe completely rejuvenated the house after buying it from Justin Bieber. The noted designer has often posted photos of Khloe's home on his Instagram account Khloe's real estate broker said of the property: [It's] just absolutely incredible, complete privacy, I mean unless you're in a helicopter you're not seeing into this house ever' The house is 11,000 sq ft and has the 'most outrageous guesthouse' and an 'incredible' meditation trail However, DailyMail.com recognized the property as that owned by Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Khloe. Describing the property to The Society Group PR founder Alexander Ali, Fridman said the home is located in The Oaks, which is an 'uber exclusive neighborhood' in Calabasas. 'It's 54 custom estates up there and this is probably one of the most important properties up there, it's just under two acres, it's like 1.56 acres,' he said. 'It's the one with the gorgeous yard. It has real Hollywood history, it was owned initially when it was built by the ex wife of an uber celebrity (Eddie Murphy), he bought for her in the divorce, I sold that to a developer client of mine who redid it, then we sold it to a very, very young pop star who is very famous still to this day (Bieber). 'From the young pop star when he wanted to move on I sold it to one of my favorite, favorite, favorite clients, that I cannot mention her name, but the house was featured on the cover of Architectural Digest and it was actually her and her sibling, her sister who lives down the street, so they were both featured on the cover of Architectural Digest.' Fridman describes the home as 'sensational' and says it's just one of 16 ridge line properties in the community that sits on Malibu Canyon boasting 'the most breathtaking views'. The listing was first revealed on an episode of IGTV's real estate show Real Talk last Thursday - but the owner was not identified. The show is produced by West Hollywood based The Society Group , a luxury real estate PR firm representing the world's top agents, new developments and brokerages. However, DailyMail.com recognized the property as that owned by Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Khloe. Pictured: The Society Group PR founder Alexander Ali Fridman told Ali (pictured) the home as 'sensational' and says it's just one of 16 ridge line properties in the community that sits on Malibu Canyon boasting 'the most breathtaking views' One of the standout features of the mansion is the large pool in the backyard The reality star stands to make $10 million profit from selling the home The listing was first revealed on an episode of IGTV's real estate show Real Talk last Thursday - but the owner was not identified Fridman said: 'It's the one with the gorgeous yard. It has real Hollywood history, it was owned initially when it was built by the ex wife of an uber celebrity (Eddie Murphy), he bought for her in the divorce, I sold that to a developer client of mine who redid it, then we sold it to a very, very young pop star who is very famous still to this day (Bieber)' Fridman describes the home as 'sensational' and says it's just one of 16 ridge line properties in the community that sits on Malibu Canyon boasting 'the most breathtaking views' 'Just absolutely incredible, complete privacy, I mean unless you're in a helicopter you're not seeing into this house ever,' he said. Fridman said that's why celebrity buyers will love this property. 'They love the area, they love the pedigree of this particular house,' he added. Fridman, Chairman of Beverly Hills based The Fridman Group who boasts a $1.2 billion property portfolio and has $3 billion in career sales, says the house 're-imagined' when his last client (Khloe) bought it. The realtor says renowned interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard was brought in. 'We love Martyn, he's a visionary of chic, of fun and young. And then very recently in the last year portions of it were redone by Waldo Fernandez and Tommy Clements who we adore who are also Architectural Digest grade interior designers as is Martyn.' The house is 11,000 sq ft and according to Tomer has the 'most outrageous guesthouse' and an 'incredible' meditation trail. And for security loving celebrities the home is double gated with a guard gate to enter The Oaks community and a second 'massive' gate to get on to the estate itself The agent added: 'It also has an incredible path that's just dotted with oak that goes all the way to the top of your property and it's got like a little bit of a meditation area up there. It's like a different league, it's just a different world' Fridman said that's why celebrity buyers will love this property. 'They love the area, they love the pedigree of this particular house,' he added The reality star has a decked out glam room inside the six-bedroom, seven bathroom house Khloe's home also has a screening room. Designer Martyn posted a photo of the space, writing: 'With most of America settling in to watch the super bowl, I had to post this most scrumptious screening room I designed for the most delicious @khloekardashian .... this luxe room has one entire wall filled with a screen for up close viewing in the very best way. Koko takes comfort to a new level!' Describing the property Fridman said it's in The Oaks 'uber exclusive neighborhood' in Calabasas The agent added: 'It is super prestigious and you have every celebrity of the who's who up on those streets' 'It also has an incredible path that's just dotted with oak that goes all the way to the top of your property and it's got like a little bit of a meditation area up there. 'It's like a different league, it's just a different world.' And for security loving celebrities the home is double gated with a guard gate to enter The Oaks community and a second 'massive' gate to get on to the estate itself. 'It is super prestigious and you have every celebrity of the who's who up on those streets,' said Fridman. In September, 2019 Khloe's house was featured on reality show Flip It Like Disick in which Scott Disick, ex husband of Khloe's sister Kourtney, was seen discussing with Khloe how to remodel her swimming pool. He praised farmers last year, but reprimands fitness trainers now. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled When owners of fitness centres threatened to block the highway in protest against the continued closure of their businesses despite many other establishments opening, PM Igor Matovic said he would make it a crime. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement In the end they just slowed down the D1 highway to Bratislava on Monday morning and later met the prime minister to discuss the conditions of fitness centres opening. Yet Matovic is sticking to his idea of pushing through a law to ban the blocking of key road infrastructure, the Sme daily wrote. Critics of the idea were quick to point out that as an opposition MP, he did not object when protesting farmers blocked SNP Bridge in the centre of Bratislava in February 2019. Back then, he sent the message: These men have courage. Respect. Fitness centre owners sparked the idea The quarrel started when several fitness centres representatives announced on Friday, May 22 that they planned to block D1 highway in protest. Matovic wrote on Sunday evening that if they really planned on blocking the highway that he would make it a crime. Related story: Related story: Unpredictable, controversial, but the only one to defeat Smer. Meet Igor Matovic Read more The blocking of highways will lead to me having a law passed that will consider this act a crime, like in civilised countries, Matovic wrote on Facebook. Nobody will think that limiting the free movement of others and taking innocent people hostage will earn them advantages with impunity, he added. Road blockades are not rare A bicycle police officer patrols Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto on Sunday, May 24, 2020. Warm weather and a reduction in COVID-19 restrictions has many looking to the outdoors for relief. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto became the talk of the town on Saturday afternoon when images of a packed park showed a lack of physical distancing. On the afternoon, city officials estimated nearly 10,000 people stopped by the park, which is a cause for concern during a pandemic, but while there were calls on social media to ticket park-goers, Toronto Police admit theyre opting to not take a heavy-handed approach. For us as police officers we would prefer to engage with people in discussions that ensure compliance through education, said Toronto Police spokesperson Meghan Gray. While Ontario has yet to loosen restrictions which allow larger groups to form or encourage social bubbles, Gray noted they were cognizant that as the weather warmed up, they could see more people taking advantage of city amenities. As restrictions start to get lifted and the weather gets warmer we know that well see more people use the green space, but again we hope people will make responsible decisions which most of them are, she said. Tickets for failing to properly physically distance come with a $1,000 fine. This means people who are not from the same household should keep at least two metres of distance between each other. In early April, Toronto Police and the City of Toronto COVID-19 enforcement team led an enforcement blitz which resulted in 29 tickets being handed out and almost 2,000 people being warned. The idea of the initial ticketing blitz is not out of the ordinary...more resources are marshalled to a certain thing and to showcase how much a problem it is, said Andrew Furgiuele, an adjunct law professor at the University of Toronto. Its done to show that more resources will be allocated and people should change their behaviour and hopefully educate the public that police will ticket for this. Were in trouble guys. I just walked through Trinity Bellwoods quickly with a mask on and its PACKED. Seeing this everywhere. #secondwave @blogTO pic.twitter.com/aU1djhEoD4 Tyler (@Tylersdaytoday) May 21, 2020 Oh, come on, @marksaunderstps, weve been in this killer pandemic, told about physical distancing for months now. The time for education is over. Lets see some enforcement - visible examples made will change behaviour if the threat of actual illness doesnt. #topoli pic.twitter.com/G4LjvPuSAu David Hamer (@DavidHamer_1951) May 25, 2020 Enforcement officers need to get out and start giving tickets. Yesterday at Trinity Bellwood was completely unacceptable CarolM (@Carol_Lorrain) May 24, 2020 While Ontarians on social media were quick to call on police and the city to come down with the hammer on people, only four tickets were handed out for failing to maintain physical distancing. Furgiuele adds the sporadic ticketing can lead to some people taking advantage of the situation. Story continues The drawbacks are that if the inconsistency remains, you may end up with members of the population who dont take it as seriously, he said. Furgiuele adds that the initial announcement of the COVID-19 bylaws were used to try to outline the changing rules for the public, and for the most part it is working. Part of enacting the bylaw is to virtue signal to the public what needs to be done during the pandemic and quite frankly its worked for most people, he said. For those who are violating physical distancing laws, theyd have to typically showcase multiple times to police that theyre deserving of the $1,000 fine, according to police. In situations where weve seen multiple non-compliance, well issue a ticket under the bylaw, said Gray. She noted that for police to walk into a situation and ticketing thousands of people is not advisable given the disparity in numbers coupled with an ongoing viral pandemic. Police said they issued eight tickets on the Saturday at Trinity Bellwoods, all of which were for public urination. Gray adds that anytime they put additional focus on certain parks where people were congregating and not socially distancing the following days the message does tend to hit home. There were thousands of people who gathered there on Saturday...as we had more officers and the conversation on social and mainstream media was going on, there was a noticeable difference in crowd size on Sunday, she said. Ontarios associate chief medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe recommended people who were at Trinity Bellwoods park self-monitor for fourteen days and avoid being in contact with vulnerable people. Premier Doug Ford took it a step farther and recommended that every person who was there should go get tested. Both Mayor John Tory and Police Chief Mark Saunders were spotted at the park speaking to park goers, and trying to explain why physical distancing was needed. The City of Toronto said they responded by assigning more bylaw and police officers to Trinity Bellwoods on Sunday as part of an education and awareness blitz. Ensuring compliance through education and awareness remains the preferred method of engagement, but enforcement continues to take place if necessary, a city spokesperson wrote in an email. Changes are possible, city admits While Trinity Bellwoods is a hotspot for people to visit, the city said they hope people take advantage of other parks, many of which are experiencing far less traffic. If a park is crowded when residents arrive, we encourage them to visit a different park, or come back at a later time. Nearby parks in the area that did not see the same crowding over the weekend include Stanley Park and Alexandra Park, a city spokesperson wrote in an email. SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 21: People utilize social-distancing circles at Dolores Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 21, 2020. The Parks and Recreation Department painted the circles in the northernmost area of the park, but other areas have not been painted. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images) Torontonians may soon have physical distance measures literally drawn out for them, as the city is considering adopting socially-distanced circles like New York and California. . This will be piloted in Trinity Bellwoods Park, and staff will evaluate the effectiveness of this measure and may expand it to other destinations and high traffic parks in Toronto, a city spokesperson wrote in an email. Another option Furgiuele admits is that the city could institute having staff outside of parks and control the flow of traffic inside the park, so high traffic spots like Trinity Bellwoods dont get overwhelmed. Youd need a great number of city employees out there at all times, and it could stretch a citys resources quite thin as they go into debt, he said. While he understands the concept could result in a lot of manpower being used, Furgiuele notes its the best way to avoid too many people in close proximity in the park like last Saturday. Its going to be more respectful of the citizenry than have the police come immediately, youre still not in a place where the police are removed from the enforcement aspect, but this is a good option and limits large crowds he said. IOWA CITY, Iowa An employee at the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa, died Monday after battling the coronavirus during a six-week hospitalization that was chronicled and widely followed online. Jose Ayala, 44, died at St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids, said his friend, Zach Medhaug, who was in the room. It was really painful to watch, said Medhaug, who had been providing frequent Facebook updates on his friends condition. It was the third hospital where Ayala had received treatment since April 12, and his ups and downs had gained a following on social media in the six weeks since then. The story first drew attention when Medhaug frantically, and ultimately successfully, searched for Ayalas out-of-town relatives when Ayala was first in critical condition. Later, Medhaug raised money to pay for Ayalas transfer to St. Lukes after doctors at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics recommended that his treatment stop. Ayala is at least the fifth employee at the plant, Tysons largest pork processing facility, to die from complications of the coronavirus, according to workers advocates. The other deaths have included a 65-year-old laundry department worker, a 58-year-old Bosnian refugee, a 60-year-old Latino father and a refugee from Congo. The company earlier this month confirmed three deaths at the plant. A spokeswoman didnt immediately respond to request for comment. County officials have said that at least 1,031 out of the plants 2,800 workers have been infected by the virus. The outbreak has spread through the area and made Waterloo one of Iowas hardest hit cities to date. Meatpacking plants across the nation have suffered scores of outbreaks, and struggled to protect their workers while keeping the food supply strong. President Trump signed an order encouraging the plants to stay open, and companies say they have implemented new safety measures for workers. After initially rejecting calls to close, Tyson idled the plant in Waterloo April 22 before resuming production two weeks later with new safety protocols. Medhaug and Ayala worked together as maintenance employees at the plant for several years. Ayala was off work sick in early April after showing symptoms, and was seriously ill by the time he sought treatment at a Waterloo clinic. He was soon on a ventilator at Allen Hospital as Medhaug searched for his relatives, ultimately finding Ayalas father and others after a Facebook post quickly spread. After a week at Allen, Ayala was transferred to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for additional treatment that included prone ventilation. Medhaug tested positive for the coronavirus on April 20 as he was helping coordinate his friends care but experienced only mild symptoms. Ayala had long been breathing with the help of a ventilator and was unconscious, but Medhaug said he believed his friend could hear his voice on video calls. Doctors at UIHC believed that Ayala was unlikely to survive, and if he did, would not have a good quality of life. They also said that he might not survive an ambulance transfer to another hospital. But Medhaug and Ayalas family were not ready to give up, saying they believed he might defy the doctors predictions. Medhaug raised $1,200 to pay for the transfer earlier this month, and it went smoothly, he said. Ayala, a native of Laredo, Texas who moved to Waterloo about 12 years ago to work for Tyson, showed some improvement at St. Lukes before his condition worsened, Medhaug said. Medhaug said that he would remember his friends laugh and generosity, and that he was struck by the outpouring of support. It just shows how communities come together and help each other during trying times, he said. Medhaug returned to work at the plant this month. He praised the safety precautions now in place, including personal protective equipment for workers and hand sanitizing stations. Its a whole different atmosphere now, he said. She has vowed to focus on her health and make 'positive changes' in 2020. And on Tuesday, Rebel Wilson revealed she had set herself an ambitious weight loss goal for the coming months. The 40-year-old actress, who is usually quite guarded with her private life, wants to slim down to 75kg (11.8 stone, or 165 pounds). 'I'm trying to get to 75kg': On Tuesday, a slimmed-down Rebel Wilson revealed she had set herself an ambitious weight loss goal for the coming months Rebel told her Instagram followers: 'Even if you have to crawl towards your goals, keep going - it would be worth it. 'Try and give a little bit of effort each day, I know some days are frustrating as hell, you feel like giving up, you get annoyed at the lack of progress.' The Bridesmaids star then encouraged her supporters by saying: 'Good things are coming your way.' Kicking goals: Rebel works out six days a week with the help of a personal trainer. Pictured left in 2011, and right in January this year Rebel also said she was on a mission to get one of her films into production by the end of the year. It comes after the How to Be Single star announced she was going to make her health a priority. 'Okay so, for me 2020 is going to be called "The Year of Health",' Rebel wrote on Instagram on January 2. Fitness first: Rebel announced earlier this year that she was going to make her health a priority You go, girl! She wrote on Instagram on January 2 that 2020 would be her 'year of health' 'So I put on the athleisure and went out for a walk, deliberately hydrating on the couch right now,' she added. 'And [I'm] trying to avoid the sugar and junk food, which is going to be hard after the holidays I've just had but I'm going to do it! 'Who's with me in making some positive changes this year?' Trainer to the stars! Rebel's personal trainer, Jono Castano Acero (pictured), recently told E! News he had created a personalised program for the comedian Rebel has been working hard at the gym lately, and has enlisted the help of celebrity personal trainer Jono Castano Acero. Jono, whose mantra is 'results come through consistency', recently told E! News he had created a personalised program for the comedian. During a typical week, Rebel works on high-intensity interval training (HIIT), mobility, weights, resistance, technique and tempo, and has just one day of rest. If youve spent the quarantine working from home at length, you probably know it can be a real pain in the neck and back, and hips, and shoulders. After all, many of us dont have proper home office setups. Which means working from the couch or kitchen table, and that can get uncomfortable. But dont despair. There some things you can do to lessen the impact of an uncomfortable work-from-home situation and ease your aching joints. Here is what you need to know: Your couch is not a desk If youre working from your couch all day, thats got to stop. Couches, says Pete Mattis of ZAKTi Fitness in Queen Village, prevent you from holding proper posture essential for preventing neck and back pain. Think of your body as a chain. If one piece is off, the rest is off, he says. We look at that chain, and that wants to be stacked and organized as beautifully as possible. Often, says Alexis Tingan of Penn Medicine, that comes down to how your arms, elbows, knees, and hips are positioned. In general, he says, youll want to look for 90-degree angles at your joints: your elbows should be at a 90-degree angle when sitting at your desk, as should your hips and knees, and your feet should be flat on the ground. Your gaze should be as straight ahead as possible. If youre working while standing, that guidance is pretty much the same except your hips and knees should be straight. However, as Mattis notes, you want to make sure your feet are squared not standing like the statue of David with one hip cocked. The most important thing is to achieve optimal posture, Tingan says. If you have better posture, you have more energy and are more productive. How to buy a better desk chair There are a few things you should look for when choosing a good chair for your office, says Allison Sevillano, owner of the local consulting outfit Select Ergonomics. For starters, it should offer good lumbar support, have an adjustable back rest, and arm rests that adjust both up and down and in and out. It should also fit you well, meaning that the seat depth should be one to two inches shorter than the distance between the back of your knee and where your backside hits the back of a chair. Her favorite? The Steelcase Amia, which goes for upwards of $600 online. But you dont have to break the bank for proper seating, How to hack your existing chair A cheaper option: You may be able to modify what you already have. Chiropractor Dani Walsh recommends stuffing a firm pillow or rolled up towel in the small of your back for extra support in your existing office chair, or using an extra cushion on the seat to raise you up if you are sitting too low. And if your feet cant sit flat on the ground while sitting, try using a foot stool, a stack of books, or even plastic containers to even out your footing. Or you could ditch the office chair altogether, and go with an exercise ball, which cost around $20, as Don Rocklage of Philadelphia Chiropractic in Old City suggests. They can help you maintain good posture and prevent slouching. Or, consider an exercise ball chair, which allows you to slip your exercise ball into a more traditional office chair structure that provides some extra back support. Set up your workstation If you use a laptop, you know they arent the most comfortable equipment for eight or more hours a day. The key is raising it higher. Use a laptop stand or even a stack of books to prevent neck pain caused by glaring down at your screen. A better option, however, is to go for more of a desktop setup. Tingan recommends using an external monitor, keyboard, and wireless mouse. If not, he says, you are confined to a small space and are crunched in more than you ought to be. Even using a desktop computer may be better than a laptop. Your monitor should be propped up high enough so that the upper third of the screen is at eye level so you dont look up or down too much, Tingan says. Sevillano adds that the monitor should be about an arms length away and if you are using two monitors, the gap between them should be positioned at your nose, with both screens angled in slightly. Mouse-wise, Sevillano is a fan of roller or trackball mice, which let you control your cursor with your thumb so you dont have to move your arm around all day. And when it comes to your keyboard, dont use the built-in kickstands to prop it up if anything, you want the keyboard flat or sloped slightly downward to take pressure off your wrists. A keyboard tray, which attaches to your desk, may also help. Is a standing desk better? Yes. If youre not considering standing while you work, maybe you should, says Tingan or at least alternating between sitting and standing to break up the workday. Standing, can help correct the alignment of your back, spine, and neck, he says, all with the added benefit of burning more calories than sitting. Humans only in the last 200 or years or so have really been sitting for long periods, he says. Throughout most of history, we stand, walk, run, squat, and sit for a short period of time. The easiest way to get into the standing-while-working game, Sevillano says, is to work from a countertop. But if you need a desk option, VariDesk models (at about $300) are popular, and sit right on top of your existing desk plus, they adjust for both sitting and standing, so you can alternate throughout the day. If youre looking for something more permanent, there are a number electrically powered adjustable height standing desks from companies like Uncaged Ergonomics and Uplift. If you include a standing desk in your workspace, Sevillano says that it is important to not stand all day. A good rule is to stand for a maximum of 45 minutes and a minimum of 15 minutes every hour. Dont forget to move Make sure youre moving throughout the day. Mattis recommends moving around for two minutes for every half hour: That can mean talking a walk, stepping away from your desk, or doing some stretches to offset the effects of sitting. Mattis recommends daily stretches such as the kneeling hip flexor stretch and the lying side body twist, which can stretch out your hips and back effectively. Tingan adds that moves like lumbar extensions can help, too. Rocklage, meanwhile, says to hold an exercise band behind your neck and lean your head back to stretch your neck periodically throughout the day. But its not just your neck and back. Sevillano says that you should look at something that is 20 feet away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes. In addition to being a good chance to gaze longingly out the window, she says, looking away from your screen periodically can reduce eye strain by giving your eyes to refocus on something farther away. Youre more productive if you take a break than if you dont, Sevillano says. The body needs that movement to keep focus. READ MORE: Our best Philly tips: Read our most useful stories Expert sources: The Covid-19 patient was staying in the staff quarters inside the Raj Bhavan complex here. Bhopal: Kin of a staff in Raj Bhavan on Monday tested positive for Covid-19, pressing panic button in the official circle in Bhopal. Son of a staff in the Raj Bhavan, who was suffering from cold related ailments, tested positive for coronavirus, leading the state administration to launch a drive to conduct health screening of entire staff residing in the Raj Bhavan complex here. The Covid-19 patient was staying in the staff quarters inside the Raj Bhavan complex here. His family members have been quarantined following the development. The state government has begun investigation to find out the source of virus contracted by kin of the staff, official sources said. So far, we have not found contact sources of the infected person. That worries us, officials said. In another development, the central team which visited Bhopal, identified as Red zone of pandemic, recently to find out factors contributing to spurt in coronavirus cases in the state capital, has submitted its report to the state government a couple of days ago. The team which visited Jahangirabad, the epicentre of pandemic in Bhopal, has noted with concern non-cooperation by the local residents when health workers visited their homes to conduct health screening of the locals. Of the total 1,221 coronavirus cases reported in Bhopal, Jahangirabad alone recorded 332 confirmed cases. Madhya Pradesh has reported total 6,665 confirmed cases and 290 deaths till Monday afternoon. by Sumon Corraya Over 147 million Muslims marked the end of the holy month of fasting and prayer. The mosques were open, but worshippers kept a distance. Community celebrations were banned, but thoughts were for the sick and the dead. Card Patrick DRozario expressed wishes for abundant blessings, unity, peace, and happiness to families. Dhaka (AsiaNews) More than147 million Muslims in Bangladesh gathered in mosques today to pray and celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. However, the government banned group meetings and street celebrations in order to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Muslims came together across the country, from the Baitul Mukarram, the National Mosque of Bangladesh, to the smaller mosques, whilst keeping social distancing, to pray for an end to the world health emergency. Nimul Islam, a Muslim from Dhaka, said he took part in the prayer in the mosque" where we called for the end of the pandemic all over the world, and prayed for the healing of sick people and the eternal peace of those who died". Another Muslim named Liton Rahaman said that he never saw such a modest Eid in his 40 years, bemoaning the fact that we couldn't even go back to our village and celebrate [the holiday] in our home. Card Patrick D'Rozario, archbishop of Dhaka and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Bangladesh, addressed a message to our beloved Muslim brothers" who had to celebrate "among many limitations after the month of Ramadan. We are with you in prayer and affection, the prelate said, expressing the hope that Eid "will bring abundant blessings, unity, peace, and happiness to families. For Bishop Bejoy N. DCruze of Sylhet, who also heads the Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue, Eid is an occasion for "unity, peace, harmony, support and collaboration". It is his hope that "people of different faiths can take responsibility to care for our common home on this day of Eid by establishing a "balanced" relationship with creation. Yesterday the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina addressed the nation, calling for compliance with the measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes avoiding gatherings in which the virus can spread. Ms Hasina also called on Bangladeshis to show solidarity and closeness with each other, in particular with the poorest and most disadvantaged members of society. Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, said yesterday that the "Japan model" has effectively beaten coronavirus, as he lifted a nationwide state of emergency after seven weeks. He described how the "uniquely Japanese way" in which the country confronted the pandemic - unusually not including strict lockdown - had allowed it to escape the numerous outbreaks and high death tolls seen in several European countries and the US. Japan has had about 17,000 confirmed cases and 850 deaths, but has not implemented widespread testing. At a press conference yesterday, Mr Abe lifted the state of emergency in Tokyo, three surrounding prefectures and the northern island of Hokkaido, bringing those areas into line with other parts of Japan. He said: "We were able to bring the outbreak nearly under control in just a month and a half in a uniquely Japanese way. We demonstrated the power of the 'Japan model'." However, experts have struggled to specify what that model is or why it appears to have been so successful in this congested nation of 126.5 million people, which has the oldest population in the world. Mask-wearing, home-working and social distancing were all advised, but Japan's constitution prohibits a mandatory lockdown. Businesses, including restaurants, were allowed to choose whether they remained open or shut down, and only 0.2pc of the population were tested for the virus. "It is a mystery to everybody," said Tasuku Honjo, professor of immunology at Kyoto University and winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize for medicine, adding that there were "several theories" as to the reason for Japan's success. "One is that people in this country like to be clean. They wash their hands frequently and they do not kiss and hug", he said. Prof Honjo added that other suggestions were that the widespread BCG vaccination boosted Japanese people's immunity. And it was also possible that the genes of Asian people were more resistant to the virus than those of Caucasians. Another hypothesis was that Japan was hit by an early, weaker strain of the novel coronavirus before it was able to mutate. Other experts have suggested that Japanese authorities learnt their lesson after being criticised for a slow response to the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise liner, docked in Yokohama, which infected 712 passengers and crew, with 14 dying. Dr Kazuto Suzuki, professor of public policy at Hokkaido University, credited an early grassroots response to the outbreak with being a factor in Japan's relative success. Some 50,000 public health nurses trained to trace infections of tuberculosis or influenza were quickly mobilised to track coronavirus infections, allowing the authorities to isolate people who had the illness and halt its spread. "It's very analogue. It's not an app-based system like Singapore," Prof Suzuki said. "But it has been very useful." Prof Honjo still believes the government has been remiss in not carrying out large-scale testing to determine the number of people with the virus but not presenting symptoms. "The number of cases is falling, but we have to think a second or third wave will come, and we have to be prepared for that scenario," he said. Mr Abe said he would not hesitate to reimpose the state of emergency if that did happen. He also applauded the efforts of the public so far, asking for continued vigilance, and announced plans for a second extra budget to support businesses. Despite Japan's apparent success, Mr Abe's approval ratings have nosedived. And the lack of lockdown has not saved the Japanese economy, which is now in recession. ( Daily Telegraph, London) After all, the workings of political structures affect the entire population of Sri Lanka; more so for Tamils after the reports of horrific crimes that they had endured during the conflict phase. Their aspirations and political legitimacy are central to the whole question of reconciliation yet, fails to be adequately recognized in the melee of sovereignty, unitary state and symbolism of Sri Lankan 'nationalism'. by Harsha Senanayake South Asia is a region known for its diversity. The pluralism of the region is striking and when western notions of sovereignty, statehood and nationalism are imposed it precipitates in the end product of a potentially explosive situation. Sri Lanka's trouble began right from the days of colonialism and the well documented constitutional evolution process from Donoughmore Constitution of 1931 which was substantially revised through the Soulbury constitution of 1948 through which Sri Lanka attained independence and parliamentary democracy to the constitution in 1971 in which can be found the genesis of the Tamil-Sinhala conflict. The Sinhala only act of 1956 and the abrogation of safeguards of minority rights present in the old Soulbury constitution from the new constitution further heightened the divide between the two. The post-Anti-Tamil riots in 1983 phase saw the enactment of the Thirteenth Amendment which mandated the state to create provincial councils as a measure to accommodate the political aspirations of Tamil people. Post-2009, Sri Lanka has assured the promulgation of a new constitution as per the mandate that the present government headed by Maithripala Sirisena received in 2015. The new constitution is currently being drafted and it is well past its schedule which is causing much concern in political and academic circles. In this backdrop, the article seeks to examine the relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment in the post-war scenario constitutional building process. At the same time, the working of the mechanisms envisaged, so far, in the Amendment and the rationale for its shortcomings. The future of the Thirteenth Amendment itself in the new scheme of things. Just after the conclusion of the war in 2009, J. Uyangoda wrote about the political reforms that need to be undertaken in the post-conflict peacebuilding era, he presents the statements of the international community including that of the then Indian Foreign Minister S.M Krishna, who sought more devolution to the provincial councils in a bid to satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamils. At the same time, he notes the incentive that the government has to stall this process. He lists out four important reasons why the government may not move forward on this path. He notes, "First, Rajapaksa presides over a coalition of hardline Sinhalese nationalist parties opposed to any measure of regional autonomy for the Tamils. They are committed to preserving Sri Lankas unitary and centralized state and deny the existence of political grievances specific to ethnic minorities. Instead, they view the LTTEs separatist insurgency as being purely a terrorist problem that required a military solution. This type of coalition government is hardly a suitable vehicle for implementing political reforms to address Tamil ethnic grievances. Second, the fact that pressure for a political solution comes primarily from outside Sri Lanka, notably the West and India, is another reason for the Rajapaksa administration to delay devolution. Third, the governments military victory over the LTTE has reaffirmed the unitary character of the Sri Lankan state. Against this backdrop, it is unlikely the present regime will change the political framework of the state or appease ethnic minorities." (Uyangoda, J; 2010) Since then, Rajapaksa regime has been replaced by the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe coalition, but this ominous warning is yet ringing true, since the promised new constitution is still in pipe line and being continuously hindered. The problem stems from the powerful interests of the Buddhist clergy and the same Sinhalese nationalists who support Rajapaksa, seek to deny any claims to the Tamil minority. The root of this political struggle between Sinhalese and Tamils is Article 2 of Constitution which explicitly states "The Republic of Sri Lanka is a Unitary State" (Constitution of Sri Lanka;1978). The history of Sri Lanka since that time shows the frustration and dissatisfaction with which the Tamils view the constitution. The current nature of Unitary state allows the Sinhalese majority districts to send a majority. But the curious thing is the feasibility of such a unitary state in the face of a diverse nation such as Sri Lanka. Table 1: Population composition in Sri Lanka year2012 (Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Government of Sri Lanka available at Click Here) As can be noted from the table, the majority in Sri Lanka are the Sinhalese with 74% and Tamils form around 11%. But the picture drastically changes when a district-wise assessment is made. Table 2: Table of population composition district wise (Source: Department of Census and Statistics, Government of Sri Lanka) Clearly, the trend is hugely reversed in districts like Jaffna, where Tamils are the majority population. There are few other districts where the Sinhalese are lesser in numbers but by little margins with the Tamils. By making the state Unitary, this diversity is not captured in the political formulation. By making it parliamentary form of government, which ever style, there is bound to be a sizeable Tamil population representation in the parliament but it is highly unlikely that Tamil parties on their own can come to power at the centre, i.e the Tamils then become a permanent opposition with the field wide open for Sinhalese majority. The non-negotiable position of a unitary formulation of the state is a major hurdle to peacebuilding, which implies that even in Tamil dominated regions the writ of the majority governments at the centre will run roughshod. The answer to this vexed issue was, therefore, the introduction of Provincial Councils vide Thirteenth Amendment following the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accords, which provided an avenue for the people to channel their aspirations. Under the current re-working of the constitution, a glimpse of what it might contain could be seen here. The interim report of the Steering Committee established by the Constitutional Assembly of Sri Lanka delves on this issue of devolution of political power at a length in its report. Under chapter 2, the report makes it clear " The Steering Committee accepted the proposal that the Province be the primary unit of devolution. " and to satisfy the majority community, the committee proposes No Provincial Council or other authority may declare any part of the territory of Sri Lanka to be a separate State or advocate or take steps towards the secession of any Province or part thereof, from Sri Lanka.(Interim Report of the steering committee; 2017) thereby putting to rest any aspirations of Tamils in this regard. Post-2009, in the phase of reconciliation, the provincial councils were seen with a renewed emphasis. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won a landslide victory in the first election to the Northern Provincial Council. But the task of rebuilding the burned bridges has just begun. The council might have come into existence, but it still lacks the financial autonomy for it to make independent decisions. Given these issues, the new constitution does not yet seem to be in a position to undo the damage. Moorthy writes that one of the main thing lacking in the current structure is the principle of 'subordinate legislation'. This along with the implementation of a three-tier structure of government was envisaged during the Thirteenth Amendment but has remained on paper. But the larger concern regarding the Constitution is the promulgation itself. As he writes, firstly, there are no guarantees of a new constitution, but a mere tweaking of the existing one. This is because, under the scheme of things, a new constitution would mean a mandatory referendum and hence most likely defeat in Sinhala majority areas. Secondly, a possibility of the Tamils believing that their leadership had sold out to the government and thirdly, the Supreme court may step in to the issue to ascertain any circumvention of due process (Moorthy, S; 2017) The Thirteenth Amendment was challenged in the court and the honourable Supreme court delivered a positive verdict in the favour of the Amendment on these grounds: "1. No exclusive or independent power was endowed on the PCs; The Parliament and the President retained supreme power. 2. The legislative powers of the PCs are subordinate to the sovereignty of the parliament. 3. The structure of courts was not affected due to the absence of devolution of judicial powers. 4. Governor, the executive head of provinces, exercises his power as a delegate of the President. 5. Article 27(4), Directive Principle of State Policy favoured participation of local people in the government which is achieved by this devolution. 6. Parliament has unilateral power to dissolve the PCs without their Consent." These grounds have failed since they have left considerable powers in the hands of President and the Governor. Writing about the failure of the devolutionary mechanism, he further asserts that the government has no intention of making devolution occur since it is bound to stir up passions in the Sinhala majority districts. Noting in his conclusion that even if Sri Lanka comes up with a federal constitution, the minorities will be considered as a threat to the state. So, according to him, the solution would be to come up with a confederation of some sorts to accommodate these competing nationalisms. The literature available on this aspect is technical in terms of legalese and politics. The academic voices are no doubt important but at the same time, voices from below need to be heard. After all, the workings of political structures affect the entire population of Sri Lanka; more so for Tamils after the reports of horrific crimes that they had endured during the conflict phase. Their aspirations and political legitimacy are central to the whole question of reconciliation yet, fails to be adequately recognized in the melee of sovereignty, unitary state and symbolism of Sri Lankan 'nationalism'. Harsha Senanayake is a researcher at Social Scientists Association- Sri Lanka and a visiting lecturer at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has acquired a masters degree in International Relations from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University, New Delhi, India and a specialised degree in International Relations from the Department of International Relations, University of Colombo. Harsha serves as an AIPE fellow- TFAS USA. He has authored few books including The Changing Patterns of USA- Japan Security Relations: Case Study of Okinawa and The Human Security Discourse and Seeking Peace: Field Work Analysis Based on the Sri Lankan Civil War. CHICAGO and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Thumb Industries Inc. (Green Thumb) (CSE:GTII) (GTBIF), a leading national cannabis consumer packaged goods company and owner of Rise and Essence retail stores, today announced the expansion of its retail footprint in Illinois with the opening of Rise Niles, the companys eighth store in Illinois and 45th in the nation, on May 28. This is the third adult-use only store Green Thumb has opened in Illinois this year. The company has opened a total of six stores across the country year-to-date. Green Thumbs retail footprint in Illinois includes seven additional locations across the state: Rise Canton, Rise Effingham, Rise Joliet, Rise Mundelein, Rise Quincy, 3C Joliet and 3C Naperville. All but 3C Naperville offer adult-use sales. The company also has manufacturing facilities in Rock Island and Oglesby where it produces its high-quality branded products including Dogwalkers, incredibles, Rythm and The Feel Collection. We are thrilled to open our eighth store in our home state of Illinois and look forward to being active community partners and good neighbors in Niles, said Green Thumb Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ben Kovler. Our team remains nimble, diligent, and committed to fulfilling our responsibility for a safe and successful adult-use program in Illinois. We have continued to move forward through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis to provide jobs and much needed access to well-being through the power of cannabis during these difficult times, as demonstrated by the opening of Rise Niles, our fourth opening since the crisis began. Our retail team has pivoted quickly and efficiently as regulations evolve and we are profoundly grateful for their dedication and service to our customers. In April, adult-use cannabis sales remained strong in Illinois and reached over $37 million, topping sales from the previous two months. The state has reported approximately $148 million in adult-use sales since January 1 when cannabis was legalized for adults 21 and over. Experts estimate the Illinois market potential is $2.5 billion after maturation. Story continues Rise Niles will currently offer online pre-ordering for adults 21 and older. Orders may be made at www.risecannabis.com . Rise Niles is located at 9621 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Niles and will be open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. About Green Thumb Industries: Green Thumb Industries Inc. (Green Thumb), a national cannabis consumer packaged goods company and retailer, promotes well-being through the power of cannabis while giving back to the communities in which they serve. Green Thumb manufactures and distributes a portfolio of branded cannabis products including Beboe, Dogwalkers, Dr. Solomons, incredibles, Rythm and The Feel Collection. The company also owns and operates rapidly growing national retail cannabis stores called Rise and Essence. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Green Thumb has 13 manufacturing facilities, licenses for 96 retail locations and operations across 12 U.S. markets. Established in 2014, Green Thumb employs over 1,700 people and serves thousands of patients and customers each year. The company was named a Best Workplace 2018 by Crains Chicago Business and MG Retailer magazine in 2018 and 2019. More information is available at GTIgrows.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This press release contains statements which may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of GTI with respect to future business activities. Forward-looking information is often identified by the words may, would, could, should, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, or similar expressions and include information regarding the future direction and business objectives of GTI. The forwardlooking information in this news release is based upon the expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and views of future events which management believes to be reasonable in the circumstances and expectations relating to general economic and market conditions. Any forwardlooking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, GTI does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forwardlooking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forwardlooking information in this news release is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those express or implied. When considering these forwardlooking statements, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in GTIs public filings with the applicable securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, including the risk factors set out in GTIs annual information form dated July 10, 2018. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Investor Contact: Media Contact Jennifer Dooley Linda Marsicano Chief Strategy Officer VP, Corporate Communications InvestorRelations@gtigrows.com lmarsicano@gtigrows.com 310-622-8257 773-354-2004 Source: Green Thumb Industries A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bf58127e-51c9-4550-ae52-38e11df5d50e May 26, 2020 - (BRONX, NY) Montefiore Health System Albert Einstein College of Medicine have begun the next stage of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), to evaluate treatment options for people hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection. The new iteration of the trial, known as ACTT 2, is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. In March, Montefiore was the first New York location to join the multicenter trial, which evaluated remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral drug given intravenously. Preliminary results from the trial, announced last month and published on Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that patients with COVID-19 who received remdesivir recovered in 11 days on average compared to 15 days for patients in the placebo group--a statistically significant improvement. Of the 1,063 clinical trial participants, 91 of them, nearly 10%, were from Montefiore and Einstein. Following up on remdesivir's promising results, the trial is now studying remdesivir in combination with baricitinib or placebo in a double-blind, randomized trial. Baricitinib is marketed for reducing inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers want to know if baricitinib combined with remdesivir can prevent or reduce the hyper-inflammatory "cytokine storm" that can fatally overwhelm the lungs and other parts of the body in people with COVID-19 when their immune system reacts to coronavirus infection. "What concerns us is that in some people the immune response to coronavirus can be more deadly than the infection itself, and there is no known treatment for this yet," said Barry Zingman, M.D., professor of medicine at Einstein and clinical director, infectious diseases, at the Moses division of Montefiore Health System. "Including baricitinib in our trial may reduce COVID-19-related inflammation and combining baricitinib with remdesivir may yield an even more effective treatment option for people most severely affected by this illness." Dr. Zingman oversaw the original remdesivir study at Montefiore and is directing ACTT 2. Patients enrolled in ACTT 2 are hospitalized with a laboratory-confirmed coronavirus infection and lung complications, including rattling sounds when breathing, a need for supplemental oxygen, abnormal chest X-rays showing pneumonia, or the need for a mechanical ventilator. All patients will receive remdesivir intravenously for up to 10 days. Half of the patients will also be given baricitinib by mouth, with the remaining half receiving an identical placebo, both for up to 14 days. Remdesivir was developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. Baricitinib was developed by Eli Lilly and Company. ### About Montefiore Health System Montefiore Health System is one of New York's premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. It is comprised of 11 hospitals, including the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and more than 200 outpatient ambulatory care sites. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes. From the Montefiore-Einstein Centers of Excellence in cancer, cardiology and vascular care, pediatrics, and transplantation, to its preeminent school-based health program, Montefiore is a fully integrated healthcare delivery system providing coordinated, comprehensive care to patients and their families. For more information please visit http://www.montefiore.org. Follow us on Twitter and view us on Facebook and YouTube . About Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2019-20 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. students, 158 Ph.D. students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,800 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates . In 2019, Einstein received more than $178 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit http://www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube. Asian stocks rose for a second day despite escalating geopolitical risks, with Japan leading gains as the worlds third-largest economy reopens. Treasuries were flat in early trading after the three-day U.S. weekend, while the dollar was little changed. Shares in Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul rose more than 1%. Hong Kong opened firmer, showing signs of stabilizing after weekend unrest. Shanghai had more modest gains. Crude oil advanced to $34 a barrel in New York. Tensions between Washington and Beijing remain in focus with China condemning the U.S. for adding 33 Chinese entities to a trade blacklist, but without announcing any retaliatory steps. Meanwhile, China sought to reassure Hong Kong that its judiciary would remain independent under a new national security law. Cutting against the tensions are mounting signs that coronavirus infection rates are moderating. The Japanese government ended its nationwide state of emergency Monday, while a rise in a gauge of German business expectations provided another glimmer of hope for equity bulls. On the stimulus front, European Central Bank key policy maker Francois Villeroy de Galhau told a Paris conference that there is room to innovate and act rapidly and powerfully," signaling it could boost its emergency bond-buying program. Singapores Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat is expected to announce details of a fourth stimulus package. Recovery dynamics and potential drug developments are among the key reasons to be positive," said Chris Iggo, chief investment officer of core investments at AXA Investment Managers. That does not mean we should ignore the risk of second waves, prolonged weak growth and geopolitical issues." Here are some key events coming up: Earnings continue with companies including Nissan Motor, British Land, Royal Bank of Canada and HP Inc. Singapores parliament on Tuesday is expected to announce another stimulus package. Thursday brings the U.S. jobless claims reading for the week ended May 23. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell participates in a virtual discussion on Friday. These are the main moves in markets: Stocks Japans Topix Index rose 1.4% as of 10:30 a.m. in Tokyo. Futures on the S&P 500 were up 1.3% from Friday. Australias S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 1.3%. Kospi Index rose 1.3%. Hong Kongs Hang Seng Index rose 1.1%. Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4%. Currencies The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed. The yen dipped 0.1% to 107.86 per dollar. The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1423 per dollar. The euro was little changed at $1.0912. Bonds U.S. 10-year Treasury yields were little changed at 0.66%. Australias 10-year bond yields were little changed at 0.86%. Commodities West Texas Intermediate crude added 2.5% to $34.07 a barrel. Gold was little changed at $1,732.75 an ounce. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Pakistan may reinforce its lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus, officials said on May 25, amid a spike in infections and deaths three weeks after restrictions were lifted. Health authorities and regional governments expressed alarm as Pakistan's confirmed coronavirus caseload surged past 56,000, with nearly 1,200 related deaths. The number of confirmed cases has more than doubled from 23,000 on May 6, when the country lifted its lockdown. New reported cases appeared to spike over the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr this weekend. "We might go for a nationwide lockdown again because the virus is spreading rapidly," said Pakistan's Special Assistant for Health Zafar Mirza, and blamed the fresh wave of infections on the population not adhering to social distancing. "All warnings by the government were not heard." "This carefree approach can aggravate things and our health system can collapse," he added. Tens of thousands of people traveled by buses, trains, and cars to celebrate Eid in their ancestral towns over the weekend. Markets remained crowded with shoppers, few of whom wore face masks. "This situation cannot be left on its own," said Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of Sindh, Pakistan's worst-hit province. "There seems no option except reverting back to strict restrictions." When announcing the end of the lockdown, Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was compelled to make the decision for the sakes of several million people whose livelihoods were at stake. The concern remains that a prolonged lockdown could force more than half of Pakistan's 220 million population into poverty. The U.S. military said on Tuesday that Russia has deployed fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for eastern forces, adding to concerns of a new escalation in the conflict. "Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fire," the United States Africa command said in a statement it posted on its website and on Twitter. Libya's civil war has drawn in regional and global powers with what the United Nations has called a huge influx of weapons and fighters in violation of an arms embargo. Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt support the eastern-based Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army, which launched an offensive last year to seize the capital Tripoli. However, in recent weeks the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) has with extensive Turkish backing pushed Haftar back from his foothold in southern Tripoli and from some other parts of the northwest. The United States has played a less prominent role in the Libyan war than it did at an earlier stage, when NATO helped rebels overthrow the country's autocratic ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The statement said the aircraft had arrived from an airbase in Russia after transiting via Syria, where they were repainted to conceal their Russian origin. There was no immediate response from the Russian Defence Ministry to a request for comment. On Saturday, Russian fighters in Libya were flown out of a town south of Tripoli by their Libyan allies after retreating from frontlines in Tripoli, the town's mayor said. The LNA has denied any foreigners are fighting with it, but the United Nations said this month that Russian private military contractor Wagner Group had up to 1,200 people in Libya. "Russia has employed state-sponsored Wagner in Libya to conceal its direct role and to afford Moscow plausible deniability of its malign actions," the U.S. statement said. It quoted U.S. Air Force General Jeff Harrigian as warning that if Russia seized bases on Libya's coast, it would "create very real security concerns on Europe's southern flank". The statement said neither the LNA nor mercenaries would be able to "arm, operate and sustain these fighters" -- meaning fighter aircraft -- without the support they had from Russia. Last week the LNA announced it would be launching a major new air campaign against the GNA and said it had refurbished four war jets. Search Keywords: Short link: Moments after letting journalist Leslie Bennetts into her home for what would be Jennifer Anistons first interview after her public split from husband Brad Pitt, the actor cried. In 2005, Aniston sat down with Vanity Fair and candidly discussed her separation, and the effect it had on her. Asked about Pitts instant public displays of affection for his Mr & Mrs Smith co-star Angelina Jolie -- the two made no effort to hide their globetrotting holidays together -- Aniston admitted, The world was shocked, and I was shocked. She did, however, refuse to believe that Pitt cheated on her with Jolie, as had been widely speculated at the time. What we said was true, she said, and added, as far as I knew. She said, I choose to believe my husband. At this point, I wouldnt be surprised by anything, but I would much rather choose to believe him. There are many stages of grief, she said. Its sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open, in a waycracks you open to feeling. When you try to avoid the pain, it creates greater pain. Im a human being, having a human experience in front of the world. I wish it werent in front of the world. I try really hard to rise above it. Having to learn to live alone was difficult, Aniston admitted. Am I lonely? Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Am I confused? Yes. Do I have my days when Ive thrown a little pity party for myself? Absolutely. But Im also doing really well, she said. Ive got an unbelievable support team, and Im a tough cookie. I believe in therapy; I think its an incredible tool in educating the self on the self. I feel very strong. Im really proud of how Ive conducted myself. Also read: A recap of Jennifer Anistons rekindled friendship with Brad Pitt Through it all, Aniston rejected the idea that Pitt had left her for another woman. I dont feel like a victim, she said. Ive worked with this therapist for a long time, and her major focus is that you get one day of being a victimand thats it. Then we take responsibility for our own input. To live in a victim place is pointing a finger at someone else, as if you have no control. Relationships are two people; everyone is accountable. A lot goes into a relationship coming together, and a lot goes into a relationship falling apart. Shed say, Even if its 98 percent the other persons fault, its 2 percent yours, and thats what were going to focus on. You can only clean up your side of the street. Following the split, Pitt and Jolie appeared in a 60-page photo spread for W magazine titled Domestic Bliss. Aniston didnt know that Pitt conceptualised the feature and also earned a profit from it. Is it odd timing? Yeah. But its not my life, she said. He makes his choices. He can dowhatever. Were divorced, and you can see why. She added, I can also imagine Brad having absolutely no clue why people would be appalled by it. Brad is not mean-spirited; he would never intentionally try to rub something in my face. In hindsight, I can see him going, OhI can see that that was inconsiderate. But I know Brad. Brad would say, Thats art! And then Aniston delivered the byte that would be replicated for years. Theres a sensitivity chip thats missing, she said. Also read: Jennifer Aniston reacts to Brad Pitt crying while watching her acceptance speech: No! She continued, Im not interested in taking public potshots. Its not my concern anymore. What happened to him after the separationits his life now. Ive made a conscious effort not to add to the toxicity of this situation. I havent retaliated. I dont want to be a part of it. I dont have a halo that Im polishing here; everyone has their personal thoughts. But I would much rather everyone move on. I am not defined by this relationship. I am not defined by the part theyre making me play in the triangle. Its maddening to me... She concluded, I love Brad; I really love him. I will love him for the rest of my life. Hes a fantastic man. I dont regret any of it, and Im not going to beat myself up about it. We spent seven very intense years together; we taught each other a lotabout healing, and about fun. We helped each other through a lot, and I really value that. It was a beautiful, complicated relationship. The sad thing, for me, is the way its been reduced to a Hollywood clicheor maybe its just a human cliche. I have a lot of compassion for everyone going through this. Also read: Jennifer Aniston should be killed, wrote Harvey Weinstein in email when asked if hed harassed her Aniston recalled that on the one occasion she met Jolie, she told her that Pitt was very excited to work with her and that she hoped that they have a good time. She did, however, express hope that someday we can be friends again. Pitt and Aniston were married from 2000 to 2005. He tied the knot with Jolie in 2014, and their divorce was finalised in 2019. Aniston and Pitt reunited at the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where they were seen embracing and supporting each other, much to the delight of their fans. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Memorial Day Peace Caravan/Demonstrators Drive to Donate to Homeless in San Jose by Ruth Robertson Tuesday May 26th, 2020 9:10 AM On May 25, a Peace Caravan of activists drove in decorated cars through the streets of San Jose to demand human rights to health, housing, education, a living wage and all the components of a dignified life. The colorful caravan of about a dozen cars ended their protest at a homeless encampment where they made a donation and received thanks from Scott Wagers who serves and ministers to the city's unhoused. Photos by Simona Martin, Pro Bono Photo. Please credit the photographer. Participants in a Peace Caravan on Memorial Day say the holiday was established as a day to honor American service members who died in wars. But, they said on May 25th, glorification of war has never seemed more wrong than now, during this pandemic. "The money and resources we use for the military only feed endless wars and wreaks havoc overseas. Now, with COVID-19, we are putting the U.S. public, and the worlds health in peril," stated Charlotte Casey of the San Jose Peace and Justice Center. The Peace Center, established in 1957, organized a caravan to call out for social justice and demand human rights to health, housing, education, a living wage and all the components of a dignified life. People started decorating their cars at Peace Crossroads, the intersection of Stevens Creek and Winchester Boulevards in San Jose, at 3pm. It has been 17 years since lovers of peace have been gathering at the same intersection. By 3:20pm they were on their way, about a dozen cars all in a lineup, honking through the city streets, headed to downtown San Jose to donate to a homeless fund. Their caravan ended at the parking lot behind Roosevelt Community Center on East Santa Clara Street, where demonstrators met with volunteers from the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry (CHAM). There they toured the "Mercy Mobile" a van outfitted to deliver supplies to homeless camps in San Jose. Pastor Scott Wagers of CHAM has been called a game changer for the work he has done to help the homeless in San Jose. He welcomed the caravaners, thanking them for their energy and spirit along with their monetary donation. Homelessness is a growing problem in San Jose, and there have been regular sweeps by authorities at local encampments, he reminded the group. Despite hopes that the city would rent hotel rooms for the unhoused during the pandemic, the city did not respond to the appeals of advocates for the unhoused, he said. Demonstrators were left asking the question, if a pandemic like COVID-19 can't force the city of San Jose to once and for all reckon with homelessness, what can? Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX has raised $2.5 million in a strategic investment round from Polychain Capital along with Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of American cryptocurrency major Coinbase.The new funds will help the startup drive crypto adoption in India and propel it towards pushing the number of crypto adopters in India to 50 million.The investment will bolster CoinDCXs efforts in building a user-focused and secure exchange to support the growing demand for crypto in India. It will also be used to support its $1.3 million initiative for educational campaigns, meetup events, community engagements, and consumer campaigns. Part of the initiative will include a roll out of Academy, a blockchain and cryptocurrency learning program aimed towards first-time crypto traders.The recent months have shown that the cryptocurrency industry in India is finally getting the recognition it deserves from global corporations and investors We look forward to our investors continued counsel in building the most trusted and safe exchange for our users, said Sumit Gupta, the co-founder of CoinDCX.This is a follow-up investment for Polychain Capital in this platform after leading a $3 million Series A round, which also included Bain Capital Ventures and HDR Group and others. Coinbase Ventures investment is the first such investment in an Indian blockchain company. Following the lifting of an industry-wide banking ban by the Reserve Bank of India in February, CoinDCX witnessed 10-time growth in sign-ups in one week, 47 percent growth in trading volumes, 150 percent growth in daily active users in March alone. Moneycontrol wrote on May 15 that the business has been booming for these platforms as more investors show interest towards crypto assets and trading. (https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/coronavirus-pandemic-business-booms-for-crypto-exchanges-as-economy-takes-a-beating-5271251.html)CoinDCX competes with other crypto exchanges like WazirX and Unocoin. WazirX recently got acquired by Binance, another global crypto trading platform. Iranian news agencies on Monday reported that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in Khuzestan has visited the families of those injured with plastic bullets on May 23 during protests for lack of drinking water. In a video published by Fars News Agency, Seyed Abdolnabi Mousavifard, Khamenei's representative in the oil-rich province, is seen at the home of a young man whose leg was badly injured by anti-riot plastic bullets during the peaceful protest rally. Photos of the young man and his injured leg have widely been circulated on social media. The incident has turned into the hottest issue on Iranian social media in the past few days. "I'm here to apologize to this young man," Khamenei's representative tells the young man and his family in the video. Widespread protests shook Iran last November when security forces killed hundreds of protesters. Another wave of protests cannot be ruled out given the country's dire economic situation. Security forces fired tear gas and plastic bullets into the crowd of residents in Gheizaniyeh district, 45 kilometers from the provincial capital Ahvaz. The residents of the district had gathered in front of the district governor's office and then blocked a road in protest to their drinking water being cut-off. The Police Commander of Ahvaz claimed that the police had to use anti-riot plastic bullets when the protesters attacked the police with stones and sticks. President Hassan Rouhani on Monday instructed the Minister of Energy and the Governor of Khuzestan to take immediate measures to resolve the problem of drinking water in the district. The Governor, Gholamreza Shariati, has also apologized to the residents and promised to resolve their water issue within two weeks. Water shortage is a chronic problem in Gheizanieh, a district with 83 villages and a population of more than 25,000 as well as in many other areas of the province. Khuzestan, one of Iran's 31 provinces lies in the southwest of the country and is known for its ethnic diversity and a history of Arab separatism. The province is home to Yadavaran oil field and holds around 80% of Iran's onshore oil reserves and is rich in rivers and water reservoirs but suffers from underdevelopment, lack of drinking water and poverty in many areas. Khuzestan has also been hit hard by coronavirus and is currently one of the hotspots of the epidemic in the country that according to official figures has killed nearly 7,500 in the country since February. Two storm systems, one in the Plains and the other in Florida, brought copious amounts of rain and severe storms yesterday. Just south of Port St. Lucie, 10.65 inches of rain fell in just one day and produced major flooding on streets and roads causing some to have to abandon their vehicles. In Hollywood, Florida, 4 to 5 inches of rain fell just yesterday and 8.5 inches of rain has fallen since Saturday. The ground is saturated which caused additional street flooding there yesterday. Additionally, 80 damaging storms were reported from Wisconsin to Texas with five reported tornadoes, though the damage was reportedly caused by the storms. Today, the storm system in the Midwest will not move much but more rain and severe storms are expected for millions. The biggest threat today will be in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota where damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes are expected. PHOTO: This morning, six states from Nebraska to Texas are still under Flash Flood Watch for heavy rain that could cause additional flooding. (ABC News) This morning, six states from Nebraska to Texas are still under Flash Flood Watch for heavy rain that could cause additional flooding. Meanwhile, the Florida storm will slowly move into the Carolinas with the heaviest rain coming in the next 36 hours. Close to 2 to 3 inches of rainfall is possible from Florida to the Carolinas, and additional 2 to 4 inches of rain is expected from the Midwest south to the Gulf Coast. PHOTO: Close to 2 to 3 inches of rainfall is possible from Florida to the Carolinas, and additional 2 to 4 inches of rain is expected from the Midwest south to the Gulf Coast. (ABC News) But while the East is dealing with flooding and severe storms, the West is sweltering in another heat wave. Excessive Heat Warnings and a Heat Advisory have been posted from northern California down to Arizona including the San Francisco Bay area, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Temperatures today will reach near 100 degrees in northern California with some record highs possible there. For Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the worst of the heat moves into the Southwest deserts where some areas could see highs above 110 degrees. PHOTO: For Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the worst of the heat moves into the Southwest deserts where some areas could see highs above 110 degrees. (ABC News) Severe weather expected in the Midwest, heatwave continues in West originally appeared on abcnews.go.com YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory letter to Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia on the countrys national day, the Armenian PMs Office told Armenpress. The message says: I warmly congratulate you and the good people of Georgia on the countrys national day the day of the restoration of Independence. More than 100 years ago, on May 26, 1918, through the proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, the Georgian people expressed their determination to restore the statehood and move on the path of building a democratic society. Today as well Georgia remains committed to these values and continues building a modern and democratic state. The relations of the Armenian and Georgian peoples have been distinguished with a deep mutual respect and friendship for centuries, the best evidence of which are todays relations between the two countries. I assure you that the Armenian people follow friendly Georgias all achievements and success with a great joy, and Georgia has and will have a reliable friend and neighbor state like Armenia. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I highly value the effective cooperation between our governments in such difficult conditions caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, in particular the uninterrupted operation of cargo and the return of the citizens of Armenia and Georgia to their homelands. I am confident that its possible to overcome this crisis only through joint efforts. Using this chance I wish you all the best and good luck in your responsible activity, as well as wish good health and tenacity to the Georgian people at this difficult period. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Chinese and U.S. national flags flutter at the entrance of a company office building in Beijing. China will continue to defend its "national sovereignty and territorial integrity" in the face of pressure from the U.S., the vice president of a Beijing-based think tank said this week. His comments come amid criticism from the U.S. over plans for a new Hong Kong national security law that was introduced last week as China's parliament, the National People's Congress, kicked off its annual session. The bill has already sparked protests in Hong Kong, with some concerned that it will give Beijing more control over the city, which is a special administrative region of China. "China and the United States need to talk as equals on equal terms by respecting each other, rather than one country believing in imposing its will onto the other country," Victor Gao of the Center for China and Globalization said on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the proposal would be a "death knell" for Hong Kong's autonomy, while White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said America is likely to impose sanctions on China if the law is passed. Former lawmaker from Democratic Party, Emily Lau, said Hong Kong is "very anxious, angry and frightened," and big companies are "nervous" about the move. But Gabriel Wildau, senior vice president at Teneo Risk Advisory, said the bill's impact on large businesses will be limited, and the city will still have an edge over its competitors. "Even after this law, if enacted, Hong Kong is very likely to maintain the significant advantages it has enjoyed over the last several decades in the Asia Pacific region, compared to its would-be rivals like Singapore or Shanghai, as the main regional, business and financial hub," he added. On Friday, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) offered an emotional plea that has been rare among President Donald Trump's allies: to stop a senseless and counterproductive culture war over the wearing of masks during the coronavirus outbreak. On Monday, Trump reinforced his own role in subtly seeding that culture war. In perhaps his most overt effort to shun the wearing of masks, Trump retweeted a tweet from Fox News analyst Brit Hume ridiculing Joe Biden for appearing with a face mask during a Memorial Day ceremony in Delaware. "This might help explain why Trump doesn't like to wear a mask in public. Biden today," Hume tweeted about the former vice president. Trump apparently thought this was a message his supporters needed to consume. There are two apparent motivations for the retweet. The first is the more obvious: to ridicule his presumptive Democratic opponent, in which Trump was characteristically happy to join. The second is less obvious, but it becomes more so when you look at Trump's history with this issue: to suggest that people don't need to actually take this precaution - and to lift it up as a symbol of health officials' overzealous efforts to prevent the country from returning to business as usual. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first recommended wearing masks or face coverings in early April, Trump made a conspicuous point to say that the measure was voluntary. "So with the masks, it's going to be, really, a voluntary thing," he said. "You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it, and that's OK. It may be good. Probably will. They're making a recommendation. It's only a recommendation. It's voluntary." When Trump was pressed on why he wasn't wearing a mask himself, despite the guidance, he again reinforced the voluntary nature of it and suggested he didn't need one because he didn't feel ill. "Well, I just don't want to wear one myself. It's a recommendation; they recommend it. I'm feeling good," the president said, adding: "Somehow, I don't see it for myself. I just - I just don't. Maybe I'll change my mind, but this will pass and hopefully it'll pass very quickly." This explanation, of course, glossed over a reality of the coronavirus outbreak: that asymptomatic people can be carriers. The idea that a mask isn't necessary because the potential wearer has no reason to believe they're sick also ignores the benefit that masks could provide when it comes to contracting the virus oneself. Trump has clung to his own reluctance to wear a mask since then, even as White House officials have begun wearing them. Vice President Pence also declined to wear a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota a month ago, despite the hospital's policy requiring them and everyone around him donning them. He later admitted he should have worn one. Trump has continued to hold out for weeks though, declining to wear one when the camera is on him - including at a factory that produces masks - but putting one on at other points. In explaining his decision, Trump suggested he was holding out in public because he didn't want to allow reporters who have continually pressed him on the issue to win. "I wore one in this back area, but I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it," Trump said. The implication was pretty clear: When it comes to wearing a mask, public health isn't the only consideration. So, too, are pride and Trump's appetite for provocation. That message, perhaps better than anything, summarizes his attitude toward masks. Whatever can be gained by a president setting an example for the American people, there are other considerations. And it's not difficult to see the public consequences to this more laissez-faire approach to masks. In the days before Trump's Monday retweet, anecdotal images showed Memorial Day weekend revelers in places such as the Lake of the Ozarks flouting not just mask-wearing guidelines but also social-distancing guidelines. And polls have indicated that members of Trump's party are much more likely to flout the mask guideline. A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed 90% of Democrats thought Trump should wear a mask in public, but just 38% of Republicans said the same. As for their own mask-wearing tendencies, a poll in Minnesota last week showed 87% of Democrats reported wearing one while leaving home in the previous week, while just 53% of Republicans did. A national Gallup poll this month showed similar numbers: While 18% of Democratic-leaning voters said they never wore a mask, 46% of Republican-leaning voters said the same. It's impossible to say exactly what these images and numbers would look like if Trump had adopted a more stringent personal policy and attitude toward masks. Republicans tend to be more skeptical of government mandates, in general, so it's possible they'd buck the recommendation even if the president approached it differently. It's also possible that Trump's posture has actually pushed Democrats to embrace masks somewhat more, given their distaste for the president. That being said, Trump supporters' affinity for him is extremely strong, as he himself routinely reinforces (and more often than not exaggerates). It's hardly a stretch to argue that GOP adherence to the guideline would be much stronger if Trump urged people who support him to follow them. And this is a divide that is, as Burgum noted Friday, completely regrettable and unnecessary. Even if people don't opt to follow a voluntary guideline themselves, there is increasing evidence that flouting the guideline has become a point of personal pride - a symbol, even, of disagreeing with politicians' and health officials' supposedly draconian actions that are damaging the country and the economy. What's most inexplicable, though, is that wearing a mask is one of the simplest things to do - and something that could actually help when it comes to lifting those restrictions. Masks help people reemerge in society without infecting one another. And even if one is skeptical of that claim from health officials, donning them could help alleviate others' fears about reemerging themselves. A president taking part in the ridiculing of his opponent for participating in that process would only seem to make things more difficult. But at least Trump scored his political point. WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has notified Sens. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that it has closed insider trading investigations of their stock sales before the coronavirus pandemic crashed global markets, according to people familiar with the investigation. The notifications leaves open a Justice Department investigation into Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who earlier this month stepped down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after FBI agents seized his cellphone and executed a search warrant for his electronic communications. Loeffler's office and aides to Feinstein and Inhofe confirmed that the three senators were informed Tuesday afternoon that the Justice Department has ended an inquiry into their stock trades and that neither will be investigated further investigation. Burr spokeswoman Caitlin Carroll declined to comment. Aides for Feinstein and Loeffler previously acknowledged that the senators had been in contact with federal law enforcement and denied impropriety. Feinstein had been questioned by FBI agents about stock sales, which she has said were done by her husband and without her knowledge, a spokesperson said. Loeffler's office acknowledged that she had turned over documents related to stock sales she says she did not actively participate in. The ongoing investigation of Burr comes as he has fallen out of favor with President Donald Trump and his allies over his handling of the committee's sweeping, years-long investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election. This month, a person familiar with the investigation of Burr and other senators said investigators are examining the timing of Burr's trades and any communications concerning stock sales that he may have had with his brother-in-law and others. This person cautioned, however, that there are significant legal hurdles to bringing charges in such cases, particularly the Constitution's "speech or debate" clause, which covers many of the activities of members of Congress. Legal experts say any case against a sitting lawmaker will have significant challenges, because of prior legal rulings that bar prosecutors from admitting evidence related to lawmaker's official actions, such as statements by Burr about what and when he knew about the pandemic threat. Tom Mentzer, a spokesman for Feinstein, said this month that the senator in April was "asked some basic questions by law enforcement about her husband's stock transactions." The spokesman said Feinstein "was happy to voluntarily answer those questions to set the record straight and provided additional documents to show she had no involvement in her husband's transactions." Disclosure records show that Feinstein and her husband sold $1.5 million-$6 million worth of stock between Jan. 31 and Feb. 18. A spokeswoman for Loeffler said she had provided documents and information to the Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Senate Ethics Committee "establishing that she and her husband acted entirely appropriately and observed both the letter and the spirit of the law." "Today's clear exoneration by the Department of Justice affirms what Senator Loeffler has said all along - she did nothing wrong," said spokesman Stephen Lawson. The SEC was aware of Tuesday's actions by the Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said, but the status of its inquiry was unclear. The Justice Department has been investigating stock trades Burr made since March. The inquiry followed a review of public disclosures, first reported by the Center for Responsive Politics and ProPublica, that showed Burr and his wife sold 33 stocks worth between $628,033 and $1.72 million - including many in sectors hit hard by the pandemic, such as the hotel, restaurant and shipping industries. The Senate Intelligence Committee received numerous coronavirus briefings in the weeks leading up to the February sell-off, according to people familiar with the investigation. Burr's brother-in-law also sold significant shares in February, ProPublica has reported. From late February through mid-March, the stock market posted steep declines as the coronavirus reached the United States and states began implementing stay-home orders that hampered or shut down large segments of the American economy. JK-Tyre-Banner live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More JK Tyre on Tuesday said it has crossed 2 crore units production milestone of trucks and bus radial (TBR) tyres. The company had achieved the distinction of crossing the 1 crore production mark of TBRs in August 2016, JK Tyre said in a statement. Commenting on the feat, JK Tyre Chairman and Managing Director Raghupati Singhania said, As a pioneer and market leader, we remain committed to driving innovation and bringing products for our fleet customers that are high on efficiency, safety and cost effectiveness. The company will continue to work towards strengthening its position through technology and revolutionary sustainable mobility solutions, he added. The firm had recently launched 'Smart Tyre' technology, which monitors the tyre's vital statistics, including pressure and temperature. It had also launched the next generation of fuel-efficient 'Fuel Saver Technology' TBR tyres that save up to 8 per cent fuel in comparison to normal radial tyres, the statement said. S4Capital Buys LatAm Data Consultancy Digodat Sir Martin Sorrell's marcoms business S4Capital has acquired Latin American data and analytics consultancy Digodat and merged it with its programmatic media practice MightyHive. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Founded in 2015 by Alan Daitch and Mauro Giordano, Digodat provides a range of tools for digital analytics audits and implementation, site optimization, data visualization and insights, predictive modelling and data engineering. The company employs more than 50 data specialists across Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico, and is also a certified partner for Google Analytics, Google Cloud and Google Marketing Platform; and a consulting partner for Looker. Digodat joins MightyHive, which claims to have the capability to 'fill the digital measurement and analytics gap' for marketers around the world from its twenty offices in fifteen countries. Pete Kim, founder and CEO of MightyHive, says that as first-party data is part of the S4Capital 'holy trinity', the deal supports the business's vision of creating the 'leading digital-only, new era marketing services firm'. Sorrell adds: 'We are delighted to welcome both Alan and Mauro and their colleagues to S4Capital. Data and analytics are at the heart of our tech-led new age/new era model and we look forward to working with our clients in Latin America as they invest in deeper first-party data-driven content and programmatic capabilities'. Web sites: www.s4capital.com , www.digodat.com and www.mightyhive.com . An Air Force commander Tuesday said Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Miss., would continue to be used as a second basic training site at least through the end of September and that two other bases in Texas cant be ruled out as possible future alternatives. Maj. Gen. Andrea Tullos said Keesler has helped relieve pressure on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland by allowing commanders to reduce the chances of the coronavirus spreading by keeping recruits farther apart. A prepared statement from 2nd Air Force, which Tullos commands, said a decision to continue basic training at Keesler after Sept. 29 will be based upon COVID-19 conditions and the force generation needs of the Air Force. Top Air Force officials have said the service expects to be dealing with the pandemic for at least the next year. Goodfellow and Sheppard AFBs were studied along with Keesler as alternatives for basic training and I would not take them off the table, Tullos said in a conference call with reporters. I think any 2nd Air Force base that has technical training should be in consideration. As conditions arise that cause you to determine whether you need to set up additional training locations, each installation should be considered on its own merit. She said Vandenberg AFB in California was not an option, however, in part because it was so small. In a historic decision, the Air Education and Training Command opened Keesler as a second recruit training base April 7 to help reduce the number of trainees at Lackland, where several had fallen ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Keesler has long been a technical training base with instruction given in 160 career fields. Lackland had been the sole location for all Air Force basic training since 1968. Keesler was chosen to supplement Lackland because of its dorm space, medical capacity and proximity to Camp Shelby, a 134,000-acre training and logistics support base outside Hattiesburg, Miss., that is used by the Army Reserve, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Recruits sent to Keesler remain there for technical school instruction after basic training, eliminating the need to transport them elsewhere. Its first class of basic trainees started April 7 and recently graduated. On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus threat in San Antonio has Air Force creating new basic training site The AETC said Keesler would be the only other basic military training site during the pandemic, which had claimed 100,000 lives across the nation as of Tuesday evening. The decision to move some basic training there was a proof-of-concept plan to respond to the pandemic, and no recruit at Keesler has turned up positive for coronavirus, it said. The command did not say Tuesday how many had tested positive Lackland. It has said about half a dozen had tested positive by late April, not enough to disrupt training under a system adopted in mid-March to keep new arrivals separated from other trainees. As students report to Lackland, they move into a 14-day restriction of movement quarantine. Those units could be quarantined longer if its members tested positive for the virus. Starting in April, after a pause in new arrivals, their numbers were reduced to about 460 trainees per week. Previous cohorts had numbered 650 or more. With Keesler in the mix, trainees could be spaced out in dormitories at Lackland, sleeping nine feet apart. Tullos told reporters there were challenges at Keesler, chiefly replicating the many things Lackland does routinely, from providing medical care and clothing to new recruits to giving haircuts. At Lackland, that might take all of 30 seconds with no talking. And so there was some training that had to go on with the barbers because quite naturally they wanted to have some extended conversations with the recruits, and the military training instructors let them know that we werent really interested in socializing at that point in time, Tullos laughed. On ExpressNews.com: Coronavirus threat in San Antonio has Air Force creating new basic training site Issues that went well beyond the expected logistical hurdles, however, loomed in Washington. AETCs commander, Lt. Gen. Brad Webb, said last month there had been discussions in the Pentagon about stopping the influx of recruits into basic training throughout the armed services, and warned there are circumstances that could still force it to happen. In a visit to Lackland last month, Acting Undersecretary of the Air Force Shon Manasco said coronavirus-positive trainees could still force a shutdown if we saw such an influx of new recruits that were COVID-positive that we just couldnt fight through it enough and that we didnt have, really, the medical care to be able to support them in those quantities. There is historical precedent for expanding basic training to more than two bases. In 1966, the command moved recruits from Lackland who would later train at Lowry, Sheppard and Chanute AFBs for technical training. That order, given as the Air Force coped with a meningitis outbreak, helped reduce travel after basic training graduation. Sheppard, in Wichita Falls, is home to the Air Force's largest technical training wing, instructing pilots and enlisted aircraft maintainers from NATO allies as well as the U.S in a variety of fields ranging from telecommunications, propulsion and avionics maintenance to fuel, munitions and ground equipment. Just over 19,000 airmen graduate from there annually. Goodfellow, in San Angelo, annually trains almost 14,000 firefighters and specialists in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissanc and cryptologic language analysis. Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Sig, become a subscriber. sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe Public disclosure of COVID-19 cases is more effective than lockdowns South Korea is a standout in the current battle against COVID-19, largely due to its widespread testing and contact tracing; however, key to its innovation is publicly disclosing detailed information on the individuals who test positive for COVID-19. These measures prove more effective at reducing deaths among than comprehensive stay-home orders, according to new research from University of California San Diego, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago. The COVID-19 outbreak was identified in both South Korea and in the United States on Jan. 13. As of May 22, South Korea had 11,142 cases and the United States had 1,571,617. From day one of the spread of the virus, South Koreans received text messages whenever new cases were discovered in their neighborhood, as well as information and timelines of infected persons' travel. In a new National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper, researchers combined detailed foot-traffic data in Seoul from South Korea's largest mobile phone company with publicly disclosed information on the location of individuals who had tested positive. The results reveal that public disclosure can help people target their social distancing and this proves especially helpful for vulnerable populations who can more easily avoid areas with a higher rate of infection. "Our data shows that South Korea's public disclosure information was effective in changing citizens' behavior to drive down the rate of infection, without government-imposed lockdowns," said co-author Munseob Lee, an assistant professor of economics at UC San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy. "This pattern is particularly pronounced during the weekends and among those over the age of 60." Seoul, with almost 10 million inhabitants, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Yet, as of May 22 the city had only 758 confirmed cases and three deaths. "These numbers are remarkably low in comparison to cities of similar size," the authors of the NBER paper write. The city did not implement wide-spread social isolation restrictions; however, like other local governments in the country, the capitol provided inhabitants information in real time via text messages on individuals that had tested positive. In addition, the Seoul Metropolitan Government developed a dedicated website and a mobile app to enable residents to access real-time information. Loss of privacy and benefits of public disclosure A typical alert can contain the infected persons' age and gender, and a detailed log of their movements, which is based on contact tracing combined with data from cell phone and credit card records. This strategy was made possible because South Korean laws on managing and publicly sharing information on patients of infectious diseases changed significantly after the MERS outbreak in 2015. In the event of a national health emergency, the country's laws empower the Korea Centers for Disease Control Prevention to use GPS data, surveillance camera footage and credit card transactions to recreate infected persons' route a day before their symptoms showed. According to the authors, this publicly available data spurred significant changes in the commuting patterns of people: individuals were more likely to commute to the districts with less confirmed cases, and less likely to commute to the districts with more cases. "To be clear, disclosure of public information infringes upon the privacy of the affected individuals," said Chang-Tai Hsieh of the University of Chicago. "We do not attempt to measure the cost of the loss of privacy, but whenever such measures are available, they can be compared against the benefits of public disclosure we provide here." Comparing public disclosure to lockdowns To further measure the welfare effect of South Korea's strategy, the researchers used data on Seoul's resident movements and confirmed cases through the lens of standard epidemiology model augmented with economic geography to predict the spread of disease throughout the city. Their estimate is that over the next two years the current strategy in Seoul will lead to a cumulative 925,000 cases, 17,000 deaths (10,000 for those 60 and older and 7,000 for ages 20 to 59) and economic losses that average 1.2 percent of GDP. The researchers then took these results and compared them to a model of a partial lockdown in which there is no public disclosure. To be able to compare "apples to apples" the model projects that at least 40 percent of population would have to stay at home for about 100 days in order to have the same number of confirmed cases as in the full disclosure model. In this model, the number of cases remain the same, as designed, but deaths increase from 17,000 to 21,000 (14,000 for those 60 and older and 7,000 for ages 20 to 59) and economic losses increase from 1.2 to 1.6 percent of GDP. "Our research shows that public disclosure mostly helps the elderly more effectively target social distancing which in turn saves more lives, at least 4,000, according to our projections," the authors noted. Containing COVID-19 while mitigating economic suffering While death rates among the older populations are significantly higher under lockdowns, those under 60 suffer economic losses twice as high, compared to South Korea's current strategy. "The flow of people across neighborhoods generates economic gains from the optimal match of people with the place of work and leisure," said David Argente of Pennsylvania State University. "In the current strategy, individuals with a high health risk commuting to a neighborhood with many detected cases can change their commuting pattern, while individuals with low health risk can make a different choice." They added, the individuals who can easily substitute between working in the office and working at home can do that, while others where the substitution is costly can continue to commute to work. In contrast, a lockdown does not discriminate between individuals with different cost/benefit ratios for social isolation. In South Korea, the impact of the pandemic led to a 1.4 percent drop in real GDP in the first quarter of 2020. Still, the decline was much less than the 9.8 percent plunge in China, which enforced across-the-board lockdowns in large parts of the country. The authors concluded in the absence of a vaccine, targeted social distancing may be a much more effective way to reduce the transmission of the disease while minimizing the economic cost of social isolation. "We view the public dissemination of information in Korea as one way to accomplish that they write. "We are hopeful that perhaps there could be other more effective ways to target social distancing to get the maximum benefit for the least cost." ### This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Well done to fifth Year student Heulwen Dawson -Stanley whose short story was published in The Irish Times. Her story, entitled Smelly Wellies appeared in the Roddy Doyle Fighting Words supplement on Tuesday, May 12. It is also available to read online. This is a great achievement for Heulwen. A lot of students from all over Ireland submitted stories but only a small number were selected for publication in the Irish Times. Roddy Doyle, in his introduction to the Fighting Words supplement commented on the current uncertain times we are living in, he said: I worry, I wake up feeling anxious, before my feet are on the floor. I worry about the future, my familys, my own, the countrys. But I read the work in this new edition of Fighting Words and I stop worrying, or I worry a lot less. Because our future is in great hands. We at Ballymahon Vocational School are very proud of Heulwens achievement and we wish her well in her future literary endeavours. In our school, we continue encourage students to write creatively and we have many literacy initiatives that our students can engage in. Well done to Heulwen - you are a credit to Ballymahon Vocational School. P ensioners who invested in collapsed bond investor Basset & Gold today told of their horror at learning the company was investing their money in offering payday loans. The bondholders said they were told Basset & Gold invested their money in a range of small businesses and, some say, property. In fact, when the company collapsed last month putting 1800 pensioners money at risk, it emerged that nearly all the money was put into a payday lender called Uncle Buck. Uncle Buck collapsed, triggering the demise of Basset & Gold a few weeks later. Uncle Buck was accused in parliament by Stella Creasy MP of offering loans with an APR of 2500% in 2011 to vulnerable lenders. Investor Rob Sawyer said he was told the money was invested in London properties. Its disgusting, he said. I dont believe in profiting from other peoples misfortunes. Another added: I would never buy a dispossessed house, I would never profit from someone in financial distress. Its just the way I am. I was appalled to hear my savings had gone into this despicable activity. Another said: I was totally disgusted. The people taking on loans like this are in serious financial difficulty. They cant go to banks or building societies. It is just horrendous. On top of the fear that Ive lost savings that took me 30 years of work, its a double whammy. The Evening Standard spoke to seven of the investors, all of whom said they had no idea where the money was really going. One, a former City executive in his eighties, said: I do not have an ethical problem with payday lending, but I would never have invested in it because of the risk. I know many of them have gone bust and would never touch them with a bargepole. Their allegations of mis-selling appear to be backed by a Daily Mail article in October 2017 in which a reporter posing as a potential customer for Basset & Golds pensioner bonds asked what their money would be invested in. A transcript of the conversation sees the reporter allegedly told: We have a loan platform which contains SMEs. These are businesses that are based within the UK, and FCA approved where applicable. In fact, it appears nearly all the money was going into Uncle Buck. The whistleblower A former employee of Basset & Gold who was fired by the company claims to have warned City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, in November 2017 of Basset & Golds irregular activity. He worried the firm was deliberately targeting elderly people with potentially risky products which, he warned the regulator will have an negative affect (sic) on vulnerable pensioners. He said he and his fellow staff in the companys shared offices in Londons Blackfriars and Liverpool Street were told to tell customers the money went into hundreds of SMEs. While he did not know where the money was actually going, he warned that the claim was highly implausible. He also warned of his concerns that the staff did not appear to have any financial knowledge. He claims he was fired when he raised these issues with his superiors at B&G. He says he was not aware at the time that funds were going to payday loans but that he noticed several of his colleagues said they used to work in the call centre at Uncle Buck. The FCA declined to comment on the whistleblowers allegations, or why Basset & Gold had been allowed to continue selling bonds to the public from the time of his complaint in 2017 until May last year. A watchdog that didnt bite The regulator did say it had been taking action since 2018 over the promotion and selling of the bonds. It said that action culminated in Basset & Gold sending a letter to bondholders in January 2019 clarifying the truth about where their money was going. The letter declared their funds were invested in an unnamed FCA regulated lender (it did not name Uncle Buck) with only 2% going into property development. However, while the letter admitted this meant its investments were not diversified, in bold, it said the company was happy with the way that investment is performing and the underlying spread of loans across tens of thousands of borrowers provides strong levels of predictability and resilience. In fact, accounts for Uncle Buck state that in 2018 and 2019 it had seen a significant increase in consumer claims from clients successfully arguing that they were wrongly issued loans they could never pay back. In the two years to March 2019 just two months after Basset & Gold wrote to investors in praise of the predictability and resilience of its investments, Uncle Buck had paid out 816,000 in fees to the Financial Ombudsman and compensation to customers. The FCA, which regulated Uncle Buck, was far more concerned about Uncle Bucks finances than Basset & Gold appeared to be in that investor letter. The regulator told the Evening Standard: It was apparent in early 2019 that Uncle Buck was in a deteriorating financial position. Asked why, given its knowledge of that situation, it allowed Basset & Gold to issue such a reassuring statement to its bondholders, the FCA declined to comment. Sources suggested it did not have the authority to make it change the language. The FCA says it worked with Uncle Buck throughout that year to enable them to bring in more finance. We also strongly encouraged Basset & Gold plc to hold more capital to protect the interests of bondholders. None of that was apparent from the Basset & Gold letter to its investors. In May, 2019 Basset & Gold stopped selling bonds to retail investors and within a year it was dead. Basset & Gold executives could not be reached for comment. Uncle Buck founder, former Catford pawnbroker, Steve Murray, did not respond to requests for comment. Some 340,000 officers across Indonesia tasked with ensuring people observe rules issued to slow coronavirus spread. Indonesia has ordered the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops and police officers to enforce rules on wearing face masks and physical distancing, as the worlds fourth-most populous nation prepares to reopen its economy after a coronavirus lockdown. Armed forces chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said on Tuesday about 340,000 officers would be deployed in four provinces Jakarta, West Java, West Sumatra and Gorontalo to ensure the countrys safe transition to the new normal. The security personnel have been tasked with ensuring the public observe health guidelines prescribed by the government as cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, have continued to rise. They will be present in public places where people converge, including shopping malls, markets and tourist resorts, Tjahjanto told reporters. We will monitor people to ensure people are wearing masks, and are also maintaining a safe distance from others, he said. What we want is that people can do their activities, and at the same time stay safe from COVID-19. Indonesia, home to almost 270 million people, has so far recorded nearly 23,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,391 related deaths. Under the new rules, the capacity of shopping centres and supermarkets will be halved in terms of customers permitted. Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the measures would help protect peoples health and the economy. We want to remain productive while still safe from COVID-19, he said, after inspecting a shopping centre in the city of Bekasi. In the new normal, the military and police will watch crowds to ensure people become more disciplined. Widodo said he hoped that more stringent enforcement of physical distancing measures could lead to the flattening of the curve. The rate of transmission [of COVID-19] is declining in some provinces and we hope that it will continue with the massive deployment of soldiers and police on the ground, he said. Authorities have come under fire from public health experts since March for its belated response to the health crisis, while in recent weeks a string of regulatory backflips around social curbs, work and travel has resulted in widespread confusion. As local governments prepare to ease social restrictions in the coming week, the government also announced on Tuesday its new United Against COVID mobile app, which allows users to identify areas of high coronavirus risk. With his city experiencing a major hit from the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor of Manaus City in Brazil called out the country's president and accused him of being partly responsible for the increasing COVID-19 death toll in the country. Leading a city of more than 2 million, Mayor Arthur Virgilio Neto called for the resignation of Balsonaro. He also said that the president should keep his mouth shut and just stay home instead of continuously joining anti-stay-at-home rallies, Republic World reported. Moreover, Neto also told CNN that while Balsonaro's dream is to become a strongman, his wits is not up to the task. Neto's calls to the president follow the growing outrage in Brazil as the country's COVID-19 infections continue to rise and as they rank second, after the United States, as the country with most coronavirus infections. A Retaliation However, it is clear that Neto's attack on the president did not come unprovoked. In a footage of a cabinet meeting that happened back in April but was only released last week, Bolsonaro also cursed Neto due to the mass graves that the mayor dug up in order to cope up with the increasing death toll in the city lying in the heart of the Amazon. Based on the latest data Neto's city, Manaus has already reported at least 1,182 deaths out of 39,155 cases. Only on Saturday, there were 51 burials that were held for COVID-19 casualties in the city. Since the outbreak started Balsonaro has continuously tried to brush off the lethality of the killer virus, however, many have speculated that Bolsonaro's actions were more about protecting the economy rather than protect the lives of the people. Read also: Corpse of a Brazilian Widower Left to Rot on the Streets of Rio for 30 Hours According to CTV News, Neto expressed his frustrations during an interview outside a newly erected hospital in Manaus, which aimed to help in the sudden surge of COVID-19 cases.Neto said that the president's rhetoric on protecting the economy has affected his calls to isolate their city, thus causing the high number of cases. Neto also said that many people tend to listen to Balsonaro, thus, this makes him partially responsible for the coronavirus deaths in the country. Neto also questioned Bolsonaro's qualifications as the country's president and his capabilities to lead the 210 million residents of the Latin American Country. Bolsonaro in Rallies During the same afternoon of Neto's interview, Bolsonaro graced his supporters in another rally held in Brasilia, the capital of the Brazilian government. Bolsonaro was also seen not wearing a face mask amid the crowds. This also added to the piling grievances of Neto who said that the president soes not even know how to correctly use a facemask and increases spread of the virus by talking to people without a facial covering. The presidents's has been in constant appearances during anti-lockdown rallies almost on a weekly basis which has also earned the ire of other people who are worried amid the cases of COVID-19 in the country. Related article: Brazil's Indigenous People are Dying from Coronavirus With Limited Access to Healthcare @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Low-cost carrier Jin Air Co. said Tuesday it will resume flights on five international routes next month to cater to incoming passengers and meet cargo-carrying demand. Jin Air plans to restart flight services on routes from Incheon to Bangkok, Taipei, Narita, Osaka and Vietnam on June 1, to bring overseas Koreans, those studying abroad and businessmen to the country, the company said in a statement. The company said it will operate one to two flights a week to the five cities from June to also meet cargo-carrying orders, it said. Jin Air has suspended all of its international flights since April, as countries strengthened entry restrictions on incoming passengers to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. But seven domestic routes have been in service despite the virus outbreak. It offered flights on 32 international routes to cities that include Guam, Hawaii, Shanghai and Hong Kong before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the airline industry. Jin Air has 22 B737-800s and four B777-200ERs, all chartered planes. Korean Air Lines Co.'s parent Hanjin KAL Corp. holds a 60 percent stake in the carrier. From January to March, Jin Air shifted to a net loss of 45.77 billion won (US$37 million) from a net profit of 31.8 billion won, as the coronavirus outbreak cut into its bottom line. (Yonhap) A father has been accused of torture after his seven-year-old daughter's body was discovered in a garage at their Californian home. Officers from Stockton Police Department were dispatched to a home on Candlewood Way, in the early hours of Saturday morning to carry out a welfare check on a child. Deputies arriving at the scene found the 'unresponsive' body of Billie Williams in the garage. Paramedics were called but pronounced Billie dead at scene. Her father, Billey Williams, 30, was arrested and taken to San Joaquin County Jail. Seven-year-old Billie Williams (left) was found dead in a garage by Stockton Police Department. Her father Billey Williams, 30 (right), has been charged with a string of offences in relation to his daughter's death Williams was initially accused of homicide but records show he has since been charged with torture, willful cruelty to a child resulting in injury or death, and battery on a person. He is being held without bail. Officer Joe Silva said: 'Everyone's wondering how could this father do this to his small daughter?' local media CBS 13 Sacramento reported. The Police Department said the girl's exact cause of death is unknown but they believe the girl was 'severely abused', KRCA3 reported. Family members claim that CPS has had to intervene before, according to CBS13. Jelessa Davidson, little Billie's devastated aunt, said: 'The teachers, the CPS workers, family members... all failed. I feel like I failed her'. Family members claim that Child Protective Service have had to intervene before. One family member alleges that she would find Billie locked in the bathroom and forced to drink tap water It is not known who contacted the police but five other children and Billie's stepmother were inside the home at the time her body was discovered. The other children were taken in to CPS protective custody, police said. Both Billie's biological mother and stepmother have been spoken to by investigators, Silva added. A memorial service was held for Billie this weekend as devastated family members paid tributes to the youngster. He grandmother, Carolyn Bryant, said: 'She was robbed of her life. She was robbed of her innocence. I can't find words. The only thing I can find is pain right now.' Other family members have expressed disbelief that her father could be capable of such a crime. One said: 'I'm not trying to make my brother out to be an angel or anything like that, but from what I know of my brother he's a very sweet person.' Williams is next scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. Heavy traffic jams were reported in Ghaziabad at UP-Gate border near east Delhi on Tuesday morning after the city police restricted movement of vehicles to the national capital following an order by the district magistrate. The Ghaziabad district administration on Monday issued directions once again restricting the movement of commuters to Delhi and said they will be need passes if they wished to travel to Delhi. Those in exempted categories will be allowed to pass, they said. There were jams at the border as we conducted checks in compliance of the order by the district magistrate. We have opened the UP-Gate and Anand Vihar-Kaushambi border for commuters but they are allowed passage to Delhi only on the basis of passes issued by the administration, Anshu Jain, Indirapurams circle officer, said. So far, we have allowed passage to vehicles involved in essential service through the flyover at UP-Gate. So such vehicles entering Delhi without any hindrance. Below the flyover, we are trying to create separate lanes for different categories of commuters. The plan will be put in place after discussions, she added. Jaivir Singh from Vaishali in Ghaziabad, one of those stuck at UP-Gate, said he was not allowed entry to Delhi without a pass. I reached the border but was sent back as the cops said that I need to get a valid pass to go to Delhi. The Delhi government has opened offices and the Ghaziabad cops did not allow entry through my official identification card, Singh, who works with the municipal corporation of Delhi, said. So, I came back after waiting for about an hour. There was no point in waiting at the border in the scorching summer heat, he added. He added that for past about a week, the movement at the border was eased and there was no such issue. Like Singh, Neeraj Kumar also goes to Delhis Lajpat Nagar, where he works with a private company involved in sales of cars. The cops did not allow me entry to Delhi and I had to return back. They asked me to apply for passes in order to move to Delhi. Now, I have told my office to apply for passes. Till then I will have to wait, Kumar, a resident of Sanjay Nagar in Ghaziabad, said. Generally, we find jams at the border while coming home in the evening. Then, the cops make strict checks of ID cards and passes while allowing us into Ghaziabad jurisdiction from Delhi. But now they have started similar checks in the morning which has resulted in the jam at the UP-Gate border. Many commuters were told to return and not allowed entry to Delhi without a pass, he added. The Ghaziabad administration in an order on Monday evening had issued directions for restricting the movement citing that people travelling to Delhi were getting infected with Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and a number of such cases emerged, majorly in the month of May. Vehicles engaged in essential services have been allowed to move without any restrictions while doctors, paramedical staff, police and bank employees will be asked to produce their identification cards. Likewise, media persons and lawyers can also cross the borders after showing their identity cards. However, employees of private firms with offices in Delhi will have to apply for passes. The order also states that commuters are advised to leave Ghaziabad maximum by 9am and return only after 6pm. Officials said those wanting to travel to Delhi can apply for passes at http://164.100.68.164/upepass2/. The persons coming from hotspot areas of Delhi will not be allowed entry to Ghaziabad. Likewise, no one will be allowed entry to any hotspot areas in Ghaziabad. Even, anyone residing in hotspot areas of Ghaziabad will be allowed to move out except for those involved in essential services, the directions by the district magistrate, said. In a decision taken earlier on April 20, the district magistrate under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act had prohibited any travel between Ghaziabad and Delhi except for those involved in essential services or having valid passes. Officials said Mondays direction was an extension of the May 18 lockdown 4.0 guidelines issued by the Uttar Pradesh government. Under the May 18 directions of chief secretary RK Tiwari, commuters from Delhi, other than those from hotspots, were allowed to travel to the National Capital Region (NCR) areas of Noida and Ghaziabad and the district administration was asked to issue detailed directions in this regard. Yet another big pharmaceutical company, Merck, is joining the international race to make coronavirus vaccines, the company announced Tuesday. Merck, which has largely kept to the sidelines of the effort to make COVID-19 treatments, said it was buying Austrian vaccine maker Themis Bioscience and would collaborate with research nonprofit IAVI to develop two separate vaccines. The vaccine that newly-acquired Themis is on the cusp of clinical trials, while the vaccine being developed with IAVI is set to enter clinical studies later this year. Merck may be behind other companies developing vaccines - like Moderna and Johnson & Johnson - but as one of the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world, its two candidates could catch up and get rolled into larger trials via the National Institutes of Health (NIH) this year. It also announced a partnership with privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to develop an experimental oral antiviral drug against COVID-19, which may impair the virus's ability to make copies of itself once inside the human body. Merck did not disclose how much it cost to acquire Themis, a privately held company, or any other terms of the agreement. Shares for Merck got a modest 2.45 percent bump as markets opened Tuesday, before falling back to $77.26 by end-of-day. Most big pharmaceutical companies have already placed their bets on COVID-19 treatments, but Merck has been waiting for opportunities with proven track records, Chief Executive Ken Frazier said. Merck announced its three-pronged foray into the field of coronavirus vaccines and treatments with two candidate shots and an antiviral pill it's developing with partners 'We wanted to be in a position where we could choose things that have the right kind of characteristics to make a contribution for a virus that's likely to be with us for some time,' he told Reuters in an interview. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) lists 124 vaccines against COVID-19 that are being developed around the globe. They use eight different types of technologies - known as 'platforms' in the vaccine development world - which offer various advantages and disadvantages. Merck's two vaccine candidates both rely on a type of platform that take longer to develop, but may provide better protection because they trigger an immune response that alters the virus in such a way that it can't replicate itself very well. Both vaccines are designed to be delivered in a single dose. The Themis vaccine, developed in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, is based on a modified measles virus that delivers bits of the SARS-CoV-2 virus into the body to prevent COVID-19. It was developed in part through funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Merck said it moving quickly with this candidate and expects to start vaccinating volunteers 'within weeks.' The IAVI vaccine uses the same technology as Mercks Ebola vaccine ERVEBO, recently approved by the European Commission and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Shares for Merck saw a modest 2.45% bump as trading opened Tuesday, but fell back to $77.26 by end-of-day That candidate, which Merck is developing jointly with IAVI, is expected to start human trials some time this year, Frazier said. The US Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is backing the effort, but it's not clear how much funding was allocated to Merck and IAVI. Both vaccines are made using technologies that have resulted in licensed products, unlike some frontrunners, such as the rapidly developed vaccine from Moderna Inc, which is expected to start large, late-stage clinical trials in July. Last week, Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Merck's vaccine, and those from Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, were a month or two behind Moderna's, but may get added to large efficacy trials this summer as they wrap up early-stage studies. 'I think we'll be in a position to participate,' Frazier said. Merck intends to shoulder the cost of scaling up production of the vaccines before either has been proven to work, although it has not yet determined where they will be manufactured commercially, he said. Neal Browning receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of Moderna's potential vaccine for COVID-19 on March 16. Not yet in clinical trials, development timelines for Merck's two vaccines lag behind Moderna's, though not fatally so, Merck claims Doses of the Themis vaccine are already being made in France for clinical trials. Merck also plans to begin early production of the vaccine it is developing with IAVI at its plant in Pennsylvania. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Louise Chen said in a research note she expected Merck to be 'an important player in the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments landscape' and called the approach to pursue multiple vaccine strategies 'a good means to diversify risk.' Merck shares gained more than 1% in early trading, as the broader U.S. stock market jumped. Frazier said Merck had not signed any pacts with the U.S. government to deliver doses of either vaccine to Americans first, adding it was committed to making its vaccines accessible globally and affordably. Ridgeback's pill, EIDD-2801, is designed to block virus reproduction, and has shown promise in animal studies of multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. It has also been shown to be safe and well tolerated in early stage trials. Frazier compared it to Gilead Sciences' remdesivir, but it would be a pill, rather than an intravenous infusion. Efficacy trials will start later this year. 'If the drug works, we would be able to produce billions of doses,' Frazier added. The US has recorded more than 1.6 million coronavirus infections and over 98,000 deaths. People turned to making cocktails at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Kanok Sulaiman | Getty Images What's your tipple of choice during lockdown? While bars have had to close in response to the coronavirus pandemic, though some are mixing cocktails for takeout, sales of alcohol from retail outlets are much higher this year. And while beer and wine sales are up from last year in the U.S., it seems that people are increasingly turning to spirits during stay-at-home measures. Off-premise sales of spirits in the U.S. went up 34.1% from last year for the nine-week period ending May 2, according to Nielsen data, while wine sales went up 30.1% during the same time. Beer sales went up 12.6%. People are turning to home-made cocktails, according to Tom Spaven, brand director at Bacardi-owned gin brand Bombay Sapphire. "We've seen rises in (people making) really simple, two to three ingredient cocktails, anything from the negroni (to) the classic martini and we've seen a significant rise in sales of premium mixers," he told CNBC by phone. Gin is outstripping sales of spirits in general, with retail sales up 42.5% from last year for the nine-week period, according to Nielsen data. To be sure, the World Health Organization has made clear that drinking alcohol is not a way to stop Covid-19, and frequent or excessive alcohol consumption can increase the risk of other health problems. Bombay Sapphire launched its 'Create from Home' website during the coronavirus lockdown to encourage people to learn new skills. Bombay Sapphire Bacardi launched a group-wide "raise your spirits" initiative to donate $3 million to bar and restaurant workers who had lost their jobs during the pandemic, Spaven said. He also said there has been a "huge" spike in people buying drinks for home consumption. "We've taken advantage of that shift in behavior and people staying home, ordering cocktails and ordering bottles," Spaven told CNBC. Spaven said the popularity of gin started before lockdowns. It is "not just the top-quality bartenders, but really a lot of the mass audience in the U.S. getting into making cocktails at home and being less afraid to order something a little bit different," he said. Gin is popular because it's "more flavorful" than something like vodka, he added. At Pernod Ricard, classic brands like Absolut vodka, Malibu, Irish whiskey Jameson and single malt Scotch The Glenlivet have seen sales spikes, according to Kevin Denton, its U.S. head of mixology and education. People now have time to make cocktails and are keen to try new mixes, he said, but there's another reason they're popular. "There is a dimension of health consciousness that could also be driving these purchases. There's something about knowing everything that goes into your drinks that gives a person some measure of control controlling sugar intake, artificial ingredients and so on," he told CNBC by email. People are also ordering via sites like Drizly, an app that saw an estimated 300% spike in sales in March, largely driven by new buyers, after shelter-in-place orders were announced. Bottles of Jameson Irish whiskey, Havana Club rum, Beefeater gin, Absolut Vodka, and Olmeca tequila, all produced by Pernod Ricard SA. Bloomberg | Getty Images Macciza Macpherson remains in a stable condition in hospital A rock climber who was stranded on a cliff face for 23 hours after he slipped may need both feet amputated. Macciza Macpherson, 57, was completing a standard trek in the Blue Mountains on Sunday May 17 when a sling attached to his harness caught on a branch and threw him off balance. What was a 'simple and easy mistake' to make quickly became life-threatening as he tumbled 40 metres down a cliff face at Point Pilcher near Medlow Bath. Mr Macpherson, who has decades of experience climbing in the region, spent 23 hours on the ledge as temperatures plummeted to 6C and rescue crews worked to free him before he was finally airlifted to Westmead Hospital. Mr Macpherson's family told Daily Mail Australia he has since undergone two surgeries and has another two penciled in for later in the week to treat some of his extensive injuries. He remains in a stable condition but is facing months - possibly years - of intense rehabilitation to treat two shattered ankles, both of which could still potentially need to be amputated. The experienced climber (pictured with his children) spent 23 hours in plummeting temperatures as Police Rescue and paramedics worked to free him Mr Macpherson has never experienced so much as a broken bone during his time climbing 'In true dad fashion he didn't do a half-assed job,' his daughter, Shana Connellan explained. 'The team are doing their best to save both of his feet. At this stage, both ankles may require fusion or he may lose them,' she said. Some of his leg wounds will require skin grafts and free flap surgery, which carries a 50 per cent risk of infection and 75 per cent chance that the bone tissue will die by a lack of blood supply. The lacerations in his arm are muscle deep, meaning medical teams are still trying to clean the exposed bones before any further action can be taken. 'The pain has been quite intense, but he's getting a little better each day,' she said. Some of his leg wounds will require skin grafts and free flap surgery, which carries a 50 per cent risk of infection and 75 per cent chance that the bone tissue will die caused by a lack of blood supply The man fell 40 metres down the cliff at Point Pilcher near Medlow Bath in the NSW Blue Mountains Doctors predicted it will be at least three months from the date of his final surgery before he can even attempt to stand up, which is followed by rehab to relearn how to walk. Ms Connellan said her father first began experimenting with climbing in the 70s, but has spent much of his life since the '90s on cliff faces, including some of the most dangerous Australia has to offer. Not once in the decades since he first began climbing has he experienced so much as a broken bone, but he has always been aware of the risks involved. It was as simple as getting your pocket caught on a door handle. Macciza Macpherson 'He uses protective equipment in conjunction with the natural rock features to climb cliffs more than 100m tall,' she explained. But the accident could've happened to the best of climbers, Mr Macpherson told Daily Mail Australia. '[It was] similar to someone falling due to getting their pocket caught on a door handle or tripping on an uneven pavement,' he explained. He said a small piece of equipment must have been hanging from his harness and got caught on a part of the cliff as he moved further up, pulling him off the wall. Mr Macpherson's family (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia he has since undergone two surgeries and has another two penciled in for later in the week to treat some of his extensive injuries Mr Macpherson and his family said they were eternally grateful to the rescue crews who worked tirelessly to pull him to safety. 'What an incredible effort in what was challenging circumstances,' Ms Connellan said. 'We are forever grateful'. His friends and the climbing community have rallied behind him since the fall, and have so far raised close to $12,000 for his recovery fund. 'Macca is an icon in the Blue Mountains climbing community,' the fundraiser explained. 'He lives simply, climbs regularly, and enjoys sharing his knowledge and skills with many.' Mr Macpherson said any money leftover after he has recovered will be donated to the organisations which contributed to his rescue. Mr Macpherson and his family said they were eternally grateful to the rescue crews who worked tirelessly to pull him to safety UPDATE: Fugitive student said to have sought neighbor of 1st homicide victim Authorities across multiple states were continuing Tuesday afternoon to search for Peter Manfredonia, the suspect in two homicides who is believed to have traveled into northeastern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Police about 4 p.m. released the description of a compact SUV stolen Monday night near where the 23-year-old from Connecticut was last spotted. The vehicle is a black 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe with Pennsylvania registration KYW-1650. It was stolen about 9 p.m., state police said in what they described as an update to a be-on-the-lookout alert from Stroud Area Regional police. "At this point a connection cannot be confirmed, but the location of this theft is near the area Peter Manfredonia was last observed on surveillance video," the update states. "Anyone coming into contact with Peter Manfredonia or this vehicle is asked to call 911 immediately." The search for the 23-year-old senior at the University of Connecticut was in its fifth day Tuesday. Neither state police nor Stroud Area Regional police immediately released further information on the BOLO alert. UPDATE Stolen Vehicle, Black Hyundai Santa Fe bearing Pennsylvania registration KYW-1650. NOT CONFIRMED that Peter Manfredonia stole the vehicle, but it was taken from the area where he was last seen. Anyone with information should call 911 immediately and DO NOT APPROACH! pic.twitter.com/EBqFtRF7XX Trooper Petroski (@PSPTroopNPIO) May 26, 2020 Manfredonia is suspected of killing Ted DeMers, 62, in Willington, Connecticut, on Friday and Nicholas Eisele, 23, who was found dead Sunday in Derby, Connecticut. Authorities say he then forced Eiseles 23-year-old girlfriend into her car and fled the state with her. The girlfriend was found unhurt Sunday at a rest stop along Interstate 80 in Knowlton Township with her 2016 Volkswagen Jetta, police said. Manfredonia took an Uber to a Walmart in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday. Police discovered through interviews with the driver and from security camera footage that Manfredonia walked behind the store and onto railroad tracks, authorities said. Peter Manfredonia Manfredonia, who is believed to be armed with several guns stolen during a home invasion, was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and dark shorts and carrying a large duffel bag. Manfredonias parents in a statement through an attorney asked Monday evening that he turn himself in, and note he has struggled with mental health issues over the past several years. Connecticut State Police conducted a briefing on their investigation at 5 p.m. Tuesday outside their headquarters in Middletown, live-streaming the update on Facebook. In the briefing, Connecticut State Police went over the timeline of events since the first homicide victim was found Friday morning in Willington and the second victim was found Sunday morning in Derby. They asked anyone with tips on Manfredonias whereabouts to call the FBIs tip line at 203-503-5555. My message is to Peter directly, state police Lt. John Aiello said during the briefing. "Peter, weve talked to your family, weve talked to your friends and your roommates: All of them have said the same thing, that this behavior is out of the ordinary for you. We know this is not who you are. Peter, I want you to know that we are continuing our investigation. The one thing we are missing right now is you. We want you to be able to tell your story. We are here to listen to you. Your parents, your friends, all of us back here in Connecticut want a peaceful end to this Aiello continued, adding that Manfredonias family has retained an attorney to safeguard his rights. We are waiting to hear from you. We want to hear from you. Please call 911. Let us know where you are. We want to resolve this in a safe way. Please call us. We are waiting here to listen to you. Editors note: This article was updated to correct where police found the girlfriend of the second homicide victim and her Volkswagen Jetta. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Researchers at the University of California, Davis offers a significant advance in using magnetic resonance imaging to pick out even very small tumors from normal tissue. The work is published May 25 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Chemical probes that produce a signal on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to target and image tumors. The new research is based on a phenomenon called magnetic resonance tuning that occurs between two nanoscale magnetic elements. One acts to enhance the signal, and the other quenches it. Previous studies have shown that quenching depends on the distance between the magnetic elements. This opens new possibilities for non-invasive and sensitive investigation of a variety of biological processes by MRI. The UC Davis team created a probe that generates two magnetic resonance signals that suppress each other until they reach the target, at which point they both increase contrast between the tumor and surrounding tissue. They call this two-way magnetic resonance tuning (TMRET). Combined with specially developed imaging analysis software, the double signal enabled researchers to pick out brain tumors in a mouse model with greatly increased sensitivity. It's a significant advance. ." Yuanpei Li, Study Senior Author and Associate Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine, Comprehensive Cancer Center Two magnetic components The probe developed by the UC Davis team contains two components: nanoparticles of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO), and pheophorbide a-paramagnetic manganese (P-Mn), packaged together in a lipid envelope. SPIO and P-Mn both give strong, separate signals on MRI, but as long as they are physically close together those signals tend to cancel each other out, or quench. When the particles enter tumor tissue, the fatty envelope breaks down, SPIO and P-Mn separate, and both signals appear. Li's laboratory focuses on the chemistry of MRI probes and developed a method to process the data and reconstruct images, which they call double-contrast enhanced subtraction imaging or DESI. But for expertise in the physical mechanisms, they reached out to Professors Kai Liu and Nicholas Curro at the UC Davis Department of Physics (Liu is now at Georgetown University). The physicists helped elucidate the mechanism of the TMRET method and refine the technique. The researchers tested the method in cultures of brain and prostate cancer cells and in mice. For most MRI probes, the signal from the tumor is up to twice as strong as from normal tissue - a "tumor to normal ratio" of 2 or less. Using the new dual-contrast nanoprobe, Li and colleagues could get a tumor-to-normal ratio as high as 10. Li said the team is interested in translating the research into clinical use, although that will require extensive work including toxicology testing and scaling up production before they could apply for investigational new drug approval. Click here to read the full article. LONDON The COVID-19 crisis has forced fashion into some uncomfortable places, namely online or into unfamiliar, digital formats: With the traditional roster of physical shows canceled or postponed in all the major cities, brands, designers and fashion organizations are grappling with the challenge of how to telegraph their messages to the media, the trade and the public. The desire to have a live fashion event is so ingrained in the industrys consciousness that, to many, new digital ways of presenting are as daunting as a flight to the moon. Then there is Nick Knight, who for the past 30 years has believed that fashion is best viewed in motion, and that clothing doesnt need to be part of a live event to be scrutinized or appreciated. Here, the photographer, filmmaker and founder of the pioneering fashion web site ShowStudio talks about the tidal waves washing over the industry. WWD: When did you first think about making the switch from the static to the moving image, and why? Nick Knight: It first started back in the Eighties for me when I realized that what I was witnessing in my studio, when I was creating images for Yohji Yamamoto, was an amazing event. At that time, we had quite a small crew, and I thought, What a shame it is, there are only six people in the world seeing this as an event. Around 1987, I started filming all my sessions for posterity. At every shoot I put a video camera on a tripod, and everybody in the room would just forget it was there and get on with the shoot. I realized, looking back through the films, that clothes look really good in movement. Thats an obvious fact, but it hadnt really been the way that clothes were being portrayed at that time because magazines were the mainstay for showing fashion. But they didnt do movement, so their vision, from the outset, was compromised. WWD: How did your fashion films evolve from there? Story continues N.K.: By the mid-Nineties I was thinking of sending out a VHS cassette with short fashion films on it as a way of getting through to people saying, This is an exciting new way of seeing fashion, and then shortly after that, the Internet was born, almost as if by magic. There it was, a global distribution platform upon which anyone, without much money, could start communicating globally about fashion. Then I worked on ShowStudio for a couple of years and launched it in 2000. It was slightly ahead of its time technologically. When we launched, you couldnt live-stream in any meaningful way. Mobile phones did not have cameras. There was no Big Brother on television. ShowStudio was waiting for technology to catch up, which it did reasonably quickly. Our first live broadcast was in 2003, and via a webcam that was sending out a still image every minute, which isnt the most fun way of appreciating an event, but at least it did it. Then, we got better broadband and it eventually got to a point where you could stream video in real time. Everything sort of got going. Weirdly, the fashion industry has been one of the last industries to get going, which is kind of strange given that fashion is based on looking toward the future. WWD: Your first runway film was Alexander McQueens Platos Atlantis show in 2009. Thanks to Lady Gagas song at the end and her formidable Twitter following you broke the Internet. How did that change fashions attitude toward film? N.K.: A lot of young people discovered McQueen through that show, and he became synonymous with Lady Gagas world. As a marketing tool, it was brilliant. Immediately, he got 6.5 million more fans. Two years later after there being no shows online 70 percent of London shows were broadcast live or online. Things changed quite quickly at that point, and then Instagram, an image-based platform, was born. It became enormously popular for people to express themselves through imagery as opposed to words, and became a very useful platform for sharing fashion. It started doing live broadcasting and became an enormously important medium for promoting fashion and creativity. The balance of power had fundamentally changed. When youre looking at a magazine that has circulation of 100,000 or 200,000 versus an online platform with 12 million or 15 million followers, where would you rather put your ad? Then you realize that there are people who actually have 150 million followers, and theyre making even American Vogue look like a pamphlet. If youre Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner or Kendall [Jenner] who have such huge Instagram followings, thats a real power base. WWD: Not all fashion films take place on the runway. What other types of films do you make? N.K.: Fashion film comes from fashion photography, and if you look at fashion photography, its a non-narrative medium. Its about expressing a future-based desire. Its not saying, This is what you look like, its saying This is what you want to look like, or This is what you will look like. Its a future predictive medium, which makes it different from almost every other artistic medium in the world. However, it is, at its best, like fashion photography, a non-narrative medium. If you look at the fantastic Richard Avedon shots, theres no narrative there. Its just a moment of desire and style, beauty, elegance and aspiration crystallized by that photographer. WWD: Would you consider fashion film its own medium? N.K.: The period were going through at the moment reminds me of going from painting to photography. In the first 20 or 30 years of photography, serious photographers spent a lot of time trying to prove that they were as good as painters by imitating painting. People spent an awful lot of effort and time trying to make their work look like painting. They would brush on their emulsions to imitate the paintbrush strokes. The whole thing of pictorialism and the early part of photography was to justify it as a medium, saying its painting but a bit different. Then photography discovered modernism, the modern world, and it changed radically and stopped trying to look like painting. It started to become its own medium. Image-making, which is the medium were in right now, is not photography anymore. It takes in live performance, 3-D scanning, fashion film, a whole range of things we do at ShowStudio. But its a new medium of image-making, and were being forced to say, It looks a bit like photography. It doesnt. Photography is dead. Photography stopped when the digital revolution happened and image-making was born. I can pick up my iPhone now and take a picture, change the contrast and make it look 3-D. I can publish it instantly across ShowStudio and across different platforms to photography, which had to be published in a magazine or book. Today, you can take a picture and turn it into a new vision. Its not photography. Its something else. I was being slightly provocative when I say photography died, but thats not the medium we use anymore. If we acknowledge where we are with image making now, its a really exciting new medium that takes in things like virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, all these things are part of image-making. Theyre not part of photography. Once youre outside the parameters [of photography], working with artificial intelligence or 3-D scanning, youre creating imagery. Youre not creating photographs. These are things created with scanners and 3-D, and we should acknowledge that. WWD: Fashion has dragged its heels for years, using the same-old, same-old physical formats, live runway shows and print magazine spreads. Why has the industry been so slow to embrace the moving image, the manipulated digital image and other formats? N.K.: The power brokers in the fashion industry are largely of a pre-Internet generation. Theyre people in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Theyve been working for the system their whole lives, and it is a system based on the magazine and the sale of page spreads and the back cover. They really werent used to digital and they were also slightly technophobic. Technology seemed geeky to them and aesthetically it didnt fit into fashions cool, luxury elegance. Technology felt a bit like punk music when it first came out raw, aggressive and difficult. Technology also opened up the process of creating fashion, which, until then, had been in a bubble, with the whole idea that only 300 people could get into a fashion show. People were frantic trying to get into events, but the fashion industry didnt see them as something for the public. The industry has never really seen itself as talking to the public. It talks to itself, and slightly dismisses the public. There is this whole idea of fashion being for a certain elite and a certain sort of person. So if I talk about Jean Paul [Gaultier], or Miuccia [Prada], or Hedi [Slimane], you know who I mean. But if I walk into the street and say, Have you seen what Jean Paul is doing? Theyll say, Who? Fashion managed to put itself in the bubble: You have the depictions of people like Cruella de Vil as these haughty women, reinforced by the likes of Diana Vreeland looking down on people with an I know, and you dont attitude. That haughtiness became a mold for the fashion editor. But its very, very against whats happening now. WWD: Due to the impact of the coronavirus and a variety of other factors fashion has really only just begun to embrace the public, inviting people to seasonal runway events and presentations, and creating shows where young designers compete. N.K.: The generations that Im seeing graduating are all talking about sustainability, about the non-use of fur. I spend a lot of time with them, and their ideas are very much based on preserving the planet and not exploiting people. Thats very contrary to all of fashions thinking from the Seventies onward. Fashion has fallen out of the contemporary zeitgeist, and there is a younger generation of creative people who do not want to be looked down upon by the likes of whomever, and who are quite happy to show their process. They dont see magazines as where they want to work, or where they want to have their work shown. Theyre quite happy showing it on different platforms and across the Internet where they get straight through to their audience. WWD: What else are fashion students telling you? N.K.: This structure of showing fashion shows on a catwalk to a small, invited elite, it cant keep on, its unsustainable, the public doesnt want it. And the generation that should have it wants something else. Ive gone through 500 graduate portfolios this week, and the first word on every one of those briefs is, I want my collection to be sustainable. Theyre terrified of what weve done to the planet. Theyre terrified of the legacy were leaving behind. Fashion cant ignore that. And it isnt being ignored by the young designers. We have to really acknowledge that the medium of fashion has changed fundamentally, and this pandemic, as awful as it is, will force the long road of change onto the fashion industry. That is one thing Im very pleased about. Forcing a young designer to spend their money on a catwalk show is morally and financially wrong. Its not for the benefit of the designer and not the best way to get their message across to the public. WWD: New social distancing measures have meant that designers and brands are now being forced to show digitally, if they want to show at all this year. Is this the moment when the industry will consider the digital show as a viable alternative to the physical one? N.K.: There are a lot of young designers who I feel are unfairly pressurized into doing a catwalk show to get the support of the British Fashion Council. These foundations and organizations that look after fashion have been complicit in forcing young designers to spend an awful lot of money unnecessarily on a catwalk presentation. The industry is now suffering, like any other industry, from the massive changes that have been forced upon it. I think and hope that this will provide designers with the freedom to move beyond the catwalk to show the way they want to, when they want to and how they want to. Presentations and fashion films are just as exciting, and perhaps even more exciting, than the runway. If you talk to a designer like Gareth Pugh, he will say to you, Doing a fashion film, I can show a collection how I want it to be seen. Designers get very excited by the idea that they can do things in a different way, because they are creative people. They like doing things that are different and new, and I welcome the fact that we are now acknowledging and using the things that Ive been talking about for literally 25 years. WWD: What options do designers have in terms of presenting their collections this year? N.K.: They have to think about what sort of film their audience wants to see. Every designer has a different aesthetic and audience, and different ways of capturing an audience. In a way, the worry is ours, not theirs. Thats what they do. These are great innovators with very pronounced artistic visions. Thats why we enjoy seeing their clothes. When fashion weeks come along, its such a luxury and honor to be shown this outpouring of creative work. I know people are very negative about fashion weeks, and I agree with all that. But if you look at it in a different way, youre looking at the artistic outpouring of some incredible minds. Whether its Pierpaolo [Piccioli] at Valentino or Riccardo [Tisci] at Burberry. Youre looking at some of the most creative minds on the planet producing a vision for you. I dont think they have any worry of how theyre going to show. Theyll do that quite naturally. I think the only problem comes when people try to force them into a commercial, outdated structure. Itll be the ceos and commercial wings of the companies that will say, No you cant do that. Its all old system stuff they need to forget everything starting from now and move forward. Its a very exciting time. In a way, fashion has taken over from painting and film and music as the most zeitgeist-y, important, creative medium at the moment. We tend to work with young designers at ShowStudio to give them space to do something important. We just did this beautiful film which is coming out with Fredrik Tjaerandsen. He did dresses that look like beautiful balloons. Its incredibly timely, because you have these people in the balloons and they cant touch each other. Its about how isolated we are in our own little worlds, and we cant touch anymore. Hes a young designer who doesnt quite know if hes a fashion designer or an artist or whatever he wants to call himself. WWD: Can you talk about some of the brands and designers that are embracing change? The ones that see fashion films or the moving, digital image as a viable alternative to the runway show? N.K.: Twenty years ago, every commission I got from whatever fashion brand was always for a set of photographs. Now, every commission I get is a film. They want still imagery, too, but they want film. Everybody wants film. Every single brand now knows that they want film, because thats the medium they speak within. Thats taken 20 years to change fundamentally. On top of that, there are other things they want. Its interesting, whats happening at the moment because of the pandemic. Were not allowed to be in the studio, so Im doing my shoots across Zoom and Skype. Thats how were creating imagery, and in some ways it feels a lot more sane. I was creating imagery this way back in 2005, so its not new to me. Were not shipping large quantities of people and equipment around the world. We have to, at some point, say, Enough! We cant keep on pretending that its OK to catch private jets across the world and to ship clothes needlessly all over the planet, or for a huge brand to suddenly take us to Shanghai or Mexico to do a fashion show. Thats a hell of a lot of pollution going on. What a lot of people really dont want to see now is conspicuous wealth. Doing shoots across Zoom is totally appropriate. Were looking at a completely new way of seeing the world. With augmented reality and artificial intelligence, were looking at a new world. Its why Im so careful to say that photography has stopped and image-making has started. Image-making takes in whats going to happen next, and what happens next is incredibly exciting. I wish I was 18 again theres so much to do. Every great art movement comes from somewhere. We havent seen the art movement that comes from the Internet. We havent seen culture really, with confidence, express itself in this new medium. Partly because its only 25 years old and partly because its changing so fast. Were now fundamentally working on a different medium, which is free to access and global. There has never, ever been, in the entire history of our species, a way to speak to each other globally. Now and Im not saying its perfect were allowed to communicate globally as a species. That takes power away from the more traditional bastions of power, be it the government, data companies, etc., and the fashion industry has to find a way to deal with it. Its no longer about the power brokers. WWD: Is there any turning back? N.K.: I really hope not. Id like to see this as a turning point. I think it makes sense both creatively and in terms of the future generations that were leaving this planet to. I think itll make sense in terms of the satisfaction of everybody understanding fashion, rather than it being aimed at such a small audience. For ages now, fashion has felt like its not doing the right thing. There have been a lot of attempts to do things, and I think this pandemic will provide a [moment] to stop to reassess and say, Actually, lets do the things we want to do. Life is finite; lets do something we all love rather than something were forced to do to make some gentlemen in a suit more rich. In the end, you have to try and see life in a different way. Its not just about making more and more money. Id be very happy to see business and art divorced. Im sure everybody across the planet will be upset about that. There just has to be something that touches your soul, and thats what we ought to be aiming at now. I do think theres a spirituality in life, where we feel like were doing something right. The world is fundamentally changing. Youve got to look at the world were becoming, not ignoring and trying to look back in the past and say, I want it back there, because it was rosy 50 years ago. It wasnt, I lived through it. We need to be looking forward, and its really the responsibility for the artistic world to look forward and to shape the planet that we live on. For me, the most important thing is trusting the future, and for the artistic world to shape the future. We have to be shaped by artists, people who are concerned with the human condition. And we have to look at the future with optimism, intrigue, excitement not just fear or retro-thinking. Launch Gallery: Media People: Nick Knight Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A builder has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his two children by strangling them then spraying insulation foam down their throats. Laurent F, 56, who was born in France but lived in Dresden since 1992, was convicted Tuesday of murdering five-year-old Leo and two-year-old Maya in May 2019. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of his ex-wife Marieta, who was the mother of the two children. He will serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars. Laurent F, 56, (left) a French-born builder living in Germany, was jailed for life on Tuesday for the murder of his two children in May last year On the day of the murders, Laurent took photos of two-year-old Maya (left) and five-year-old Leo (right), Prosecutors said Laurent killed his children in order to get revenge on his ex-wife after she separated from him and damaged his ego. On the day of the murders, Laurent had been looking after the children took photographs of them both - Leo sitting on his bike and Maya licking an ice cream. Shortly afterwards he called Marieta, who agreed to come to his house later that day and bring cuddly rabbit toys that Maya had left at her house. Laurent then took the children home and strangled them. He then sprayed insulation foam down their throats, sealing their airways. After that he placed the children into bed, as if they were sleeping. When Marieta arrived at the property several hours later he refused to let her see the children, saying they were in bed. When an argument broke out he attacked her - hitting her over the back of the head with a large stone. Marieta, who is of Senegalese descent, survived the blow because she was wearing a wig and managed to crawl to the front door. Laurent then began strangling her until the fight was interrupted by a witness. Police and ambulance crews were called, but were unable to resuscitate the children. Marieta was taken to hospital. A coroner told the trial that the children died from a combination of 'massive, long-lasting compression in the neck area and airway [blockage]'. Laurent was examined by psychologists during his trial, and was found to be an aggressive narcissist who showed a lack of empathy. However, analysts ruled he was psychologically capable enough to face sentencing. Laurent's previous convictions included rape, arson and most recently drug smuggling when he was caught trying to take meth across the border from Poland in December 2018. The court heard that his construction business had also run into major financial difficulties, which he blamed on his ex-wife. Storms carrying large hail and damaging winds, including tornadoes, caused severe damage to parts of North Texas, officials said on May 23. The town of Bowie, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Fort Worth, was hit hard by one tornado about 9 p.m. on May 22, the National Weather Service confirmed. A weather service survey team concluded from damage patterns that the twister rated an EF1 with winds estimated at up to 95 miles per hour (153 kilometres per hour). City officials did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press, but Mayor Gaylynn Burris told the Bowie News that the storm damaged at least 50 businesses and at least that many homes in the town of more than 5,000 residents. A police statement said no deaths or significant injuries were reported. Severe storms also unleashed hail as large as softballs in the Wichita Falls area, about 110 miles (175 kilometers) northwest of Fort Worth, damaging roofs and vehicles. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Texas Windstorm The shelling took place near Bakhmut highway, Luhansk region on May 26, 2018 Militants responsible for death of two SBU officers in May 2018 Ukraine's Security Service Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) determined the personal data of the militants, who shelled from artillery the Ukrainian positions near Bakhmut highway, Luhansk region on May 26, 2018. Two employees of SBUs Alfa department died Colonel Ruslan Mulyar and Warrant Officer Yuriy Zhuralvev. Another two special forces fighters sustained injuries as the SBU reported. Ukraine's Security Service Militants responsible for death of two SBU officers in May 2018 Ukraine's Security Service Militants responsible for death of two SBU officers in May 2018 Ukraine's Security Service Militants responsible for death of two SBU officers in May 2018 Ukraine's Security Service Militants responsible for death of two SBU officers in May 2018 The Ukrainian counterintelligence established that a group of the terrorists, the so-called 3rd motorized rifle battalion of 4th detached motorized brigade of the people's militia of the Luhansk Peoples Republic (LPR) was headed by a native of Russia with nickname Shumer. Three partakers of the illegal armed formations were subordinated to him. Besides, it was established that this group is involved in the shelling of the detachments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Novoaidar and Slovianoserbsk areas of the Luhansk region. Within the criminal proceeding, the leader of the group and his subordinates are notified of the suspicion in the commitment of such crimes as terrorist acts and participation in the terrorist organization. The court provided permission to detain the persons of interest. The perpetrators were put on the wanted list. The militants face up to 15 years of imprisonment or a life sentence. On May 26, 2018, two officers of SBU Alfa Group died, one was badly wounded as a result of artillery shooting in the Luhansk region. Colonel Ruslan Mulyar was the native of Ternopil and served in the zone of Donbas Conflict since 2014. He had a wife and three children. Warrant Officer Yuriy Zhuravlev was native of Berdyansk, Zaporizhia region. How could lawyers in China better play their roles in national COVID-19 response and what are their views and suggestions on carrying out the Peaceful China initiative under the new circumstance? Gao Zicheng, a deputy to the 13th National Peoples Congress (NPC) and president of Beijing Lawyers Association, has been reflecting on this question recently. To find the answer, Gao spent 13 days visiting lawyer associations of 11 districts in Beijing, and received more than 1,000 questionnaires from the lawyers covering such topics as suggestions on the development of the industry and issues concerning peoples livelihood they encountered in their practice. We found that the COVID-19 epidemic had threatened the survival of a large number of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Deep down its much more than economic issues, but reveals more legal issues, he remarked. With a professional career of over 30 years, Gao always proceeds from the perspective of law when looking into something. For example, legal service must be in place when loan defaults and debt defaults caused by the epidemic occur, because they may bring lawsuit risks, said Gao, adding that if these problems are not handled properly, instabilities may ensue. He also said that the legal service industry should work proactively and play a due role, in a bid to resolve the conflicts. Gao has always been concerned over the long-term development of his industry. Every street, town and village in Beijing should have access to public legal services offered by relevant lawyers. It is the responsibilities of the lawyers, and the due social responsibilities of the industry at large, he noted. However, law firms are also market entities responsible for their own profits and losses. As the public legal services cannot bring in regular business incomes, the cost of these services are often neglected, he added. For this reason, he suggested introducing tax policies suitable for the industry, in a bid to ensure sustainability of its development. Gao also expressed that he would raise relevant motions at the third annual session of the 13th National Peoples Congress. The legal service industry is characterized by easy gathering of information and multiple channels. He found it important to make the best use of his advantages in daily practice and voice the public concern, and put forward reasonable suggestions from a professional perspective. In about 3 months, Gao made over 20 suggestions, covering topics such as preventing people from slipping back into poverty because of the epidemic and making better use of domestic demand to boost economy. A NPC deputy must live up to the expectations of the people. I still have a large amount of work to do, and I must delve deeper and focus more on the details, Gao said. Finding owners willing to pilot-test an onboard remotely-operated proactive hull cleaning unit wasnt easy, but when Jotun reached out to Wallenius Wilhelmsen, they found a partner who shared their vision for a more environmentally-responsible shipping industry. As the operator of a fleet of 126 RoRo vessels, 11 marine terminals and 71 processing centres around the world, Wallenius Wilhelmsen is a true global giant. And while the company has a long and proud history moving cargoes all over the world, Wallenius Wilhelmsen has also been a pioneer in seeking new ways to reduce its environmental impact. Holistic approach For the past decade, the company has produced an annual Sustainability Report, describing initiatives undertaken to reduce the companys emissions and safeguard life below the water line, among other target areas. According to Geir Fagerheim, SVP Marine Operations for Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the company has a holistic approach to reducing emissions that includes everything from weather routing to engine optimisation, hull coatings to sophisticated hydrodynamic hull, rudder and propeller design. In 2019, the company achieved a 11 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions from the year before, due in part to technical improvements, he said. Fagerheim added that Wallenius Wilhelmsen has also joined the Getting to Zero Coalition, an alliance of more than 90 companies across the maritime, energy, infrastructure and finance sectors, which are working together to develop commercially viable zero emission vessels by 2030. Achieving zero emission vessels wont be easy, but we recognise that by taking a collaborative approach to common challenges, we can accelerate the development of technologies that can make a difference, said Fagerheim. Jotun Hull Skating Solutions certainly fits that description, he added. Embracing new technologies Jotun Hull Skating Solutions consists of five solution components: a high performance antifouling coating SeaQuantum Skate; proactive condition monitoring; inspection and proactive cleaning with advanced underwater robotic Jotun HullSkater; high-end technical service and performance; and service level guarantees that fit the most challenging operations. In 2016, Jotun approached Wallenius Wilhelmsen to pilot-test the system on board one of their vessels. Fagerheim acknowledges that some at Wallenius Wilhelmsen were sceptical at first. The concept is a radically new approach to hull maintenance so our team had a lot of questions, said Fagerheim. However, once we learned that Jotun had developed a prototype in cooperation with Kongsberg and the Swedish technology company Semcon among other partners, we decided to participate, he added. Fagerheim notes that unlike most hull cleaning services, Hull Skating Solutions (HSS) is proactive, not reactive. By removing slime and fouling before organisms have time to firmly attach to the hull, HSS not only helps owners reduce fuel costs and corresponding emissions, it helps vessels stay in compliance with increasingly strict local and global regulations designed to protect marine ecosystems from alien invasive species, he said. The benefits of Jotun Hull Skating Solutions align perfectly with our business strategy and sustainability goals, he added. Pilot testing In 2017, Wallenius Wilhelmsen gave the HSS team access to the Talisman, a DWT 38500 RoRo carrier built in 2000. Geir Axel Oftedahl, Jotuns Business Development Director (Marine), explained that unlike reactive hull cleaning services offered at many ports, owners install the Hull Skater on board. High powered magnets attach the unit to the hull, allowing it to perform underwater inspections and proactive cleaning using HD cameras and a specially designed brush that does not damage the antifouling coating or release biocides into the water, he explained. The HSS Project Team applied antifouling test patches on the hull, installed the unit on board and provided training for crew members on maintenance, deployment, retrieval and storage of the unit. Once underwater, the unit is remotely controlled. We can operate HullSkater units all over the world from our control centre here in Norway, day and night, said Oftedahl. We learned that depending on the size of the vessel, cleaning and inspection can take between 2-8 hours, he added. Oftedahl noted that the companys multi-year pilot test with Wallenius Wilhelmsen (and other owners, including Berge Bulk and Maersk) provided the project team with valuable insight on what worked and what didnt. In addition to providing us the opportunity to test the unit under different operational conditions, Wallenius Wilhelmsen was also instrumental in helping us reach out to port authorities to ensure we could operate in compliance with local regulations, said Oftedahl. Port authorities Over the past two years, HSS has been successfully pilot-tested on vessels in different ports around the world. Today, Jotun is working to establish agreements with some ports which require documentation of a clean underwater hull prior to port call. Because HSS is a new technology, no uniform standards currently exist, said Oftedahl. Our relationship with our pilot partners has been enormously helpful in working through these issues, he said. Fagerheim acknowledged that reducing bunker costs, meeting the increasingly strict demands of cargo owners and complying with regulations on emissions and alien invasive species are all potent drivers for owners to improve vessel efficiency and environmental performance. But by being proactive and working in collaboration with suppliers, he believes the industry can achieve better results, faster. As we have seen with Jotun Hull Skating Solutions, a project that involved a broad range of stakeholders, collaboration can produce some game-changing technologies that get us one step closer to a more environmentally responsible industry, he noted. FACT BOX: Antifouling matters In August 2019, Jotun signed an agreement with Wallenius Wilhelmsen to provide its Hull Performance Solutions (HPS) anti-fouling coating system across 42 vessels in the leading shipowners advanced RoRo fleet. HPS combines premium SeaQuantum X200 antifouling with technical and digital solutions to accurately measure hull performance. The antifouling works to increase vessel efficiency, cut fuel costs and reduce CO2 emissions. Jotuns Hull Performance Solutions encourages participating vessels to install sensors to enable performance monitoring based on standardised principles (ISO 19030) for the measurement of changes in hull and propeller performance. As a company we are focused on enhancing sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of our operations maintaining clean hulls is a key enabler for that, explained Geir Fagerheim, SVP Marine Operations, Wallenius Wilhelmsen. On vessels where we have applied HPS, we have already seen significant, measurable reductions in speed loss over time, which saves fuel costs. We have opened a digital window onto how hull condition affects fleet-wide performance, efficiency and emissions, strengthening a culture of transparency and accountability, he added. Since the launch of HPS in 2011, Jotun Marine Coatings has collected data on hull performance from different types of vessels on different trades, creating one of the industrys most comprehensive data sets on hull performance.--TradeArabia News Service Almost Haunted Oregon Coast: Yaquina Bay Lighthouse Lore and Legends, Part 2 Published 05/25/2020 at 5:54 PM PDT By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff (Newport, Oregon) The Oregon coast town with two lighthouses has a rich history, and one of those lighthouses has quite the storied past even though it was only used for three years. The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport started up in 1871 and then shut down in 1874 as the Yaquina Head Lighthouse kicked into life. Yet after its closing, the little sentinel managed quite the run of drama throughout the decades, as people all around the state struggled to keep it from being torn down and it even gave birth to quite the ghost tale. (Above: Newport's lighthouse around 1900, ripe for a ghost story). In part one, Oregon Coast Beach Connection went through the first near 100 years of the historic attractions existence, as seen through the lens of local media coverage over those decades. See Landmarks and Legends of an Oregon Coast Lighthouse, Newport's Yaquina Bay, Part I. Part two picks up right at the centennial of the lighthouse, after it had been saved and after years of looking like it was haunted. Parts one and two fill in some intriguing details of the lighthouses history, but you can get a greater overview with Oregon Coast History: Newport's Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and Trying Times. 1971. 100-Year Anniversary of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. A few local papers run similar articles on the subject. Among the interviewees is a retiree from Minnesota named Fred Carriel who is close to 80 years old by this point and leads tours of the Oregon coast attraction. It apparently opened part time as a museum just after 1956, and even then was mostly a sea museum, featuring shells and examples of local sea creatures. There was, however, an old desk from the sea captain of a shipwrecked vessel near here, one that happened in 1888 according to Coos Bays The World. Lighthouse in the 1880s. Conversations with Carriel were a mix of interesting slices of Newport life back in 71 and not-so-accurate history of the lighthouse. For one thing, he told the newspaper that construction crews came up to this spot and started building the lighthouse by mistake. That flies in the face of now-standard documentation of how the land was purchased in 1870. While unsubstantiated either way, he told one newspaper reporter from Coos Bay the bricks from the basement floor of the place originally came from the first paved street in San Francisco. They were brought by sailing ship as ballast (a kind of counterweight at sea), and then hauled up to this spot by mule team. Another is the old ghost tale of Muriel. Originally, this was published in the local paper as a short story in 1899. It involved the daughter of a mythical lighthouse keeper going missing here after the lighthouse was shut down, and then a pool of blood being discovered with her handkerchief nearby. Ever since then, she purportedly haunted the area. Weird lights were supposedly seen up here at times, but that was simply odd lighting effects caused by city lights, the distant lighthouse at Yaquina Head and fog. Cariel did little to discourage the rampant paranormal tale, which workers for state parks seemed a little irritated by. One aide told the newspaper the whole story is completely untrue, but it was clear that Cariel entertained visitors with it. The tale got mixed up rather tightly with local history and the source forgotten for decades. Somewhere in the 80s the local history museum discovered the original short story, and finally ten years later regional media began publicizing that. Still, a few Oregon ghost books were written touting Muriels otherworldly presence before and after the discovery. In more than one article, state park employee Lee Hoffman noted the kooky questions about the ghost. Some visitors even ask why theyve painted over the blood on the stairway, he said. In 1972, the lighthouse was shut down for a couple of years as the real restoration began. Not much had been done before that, even though nearly 20 years before the lighthouse was saved on the premise locals would sooner rather than later start fixing it up. Oregon Capital Journal, 1976. 100 people gathered at the state park here on the central Oregon coast to celebrate a quiet dedication to the lighthouse. Among the attendees were Gov. Bob Straub (who flew in by helicopter) and some descendants of Charles Pierce himself. He was the original and only light keeper there. Straub talked about the sad fact there had once been a farewell party for the lighthouse. He said: but there will be no more parties here to celebrate the demise of the lighthouse. That was all nearly 50 years ago, and the lighthouse has only gained in popularity over the decades, featuring volunteer tour guides dressed in period garb and featuring items and furnishings duplicating life as it was back then. Its a vision much closer to that of Wilcoxs back then (see part one), a museum that gave you the feel of being in those lighthouse keepers quarters back in the 1870s. Entrance is free by donation. See yaquinalights.org for the latest hours. Hotels in Newport - Where to eat - Newport Maps and Virtual Tours MORE PHOTOS BELOW More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining..... Coastal Spotlight LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles Back to Oregon Coast Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted The "Contract 2.3" for the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima high-speed railway between Thailand and China is likely to be signed in October, said Thai Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob on Monday. Saksayam made the announcement after attending a virtual meeting of the 28th Thai-Chinese Joint Committee with Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission. The minister said the Thai and Chinese team had agreed that the contract, estimated at 50.6 billion baht (1.58 billion U.S. dollars), involves the cost of purchasing track, electricity systems and machinery, as well as procurement of train carriages and training. Under the contract, 80 percent of the payment will be made in the U.S. currency and the remaining 20 percent in Thai baht. There is a total of 14 contracts involved in the 253-km rail route from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima in the Northeast as a part of the Sino-Thai high-speed train project, linking Bangkok to Nong Khai, bordering Laos. Saksayam said depending on the COVID-19 pandemic situation, there is a possibility that the signing might take place earlier than October. The minister said that Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will preside over the signing ceremony at the Government House, and according to the plan, the first 253-km leg of the railway will commence service in year 2023. Thousands of holidaymakers risk losing their right to a refund as airlines plough on with plans to restart flights. A raft of UK carriers have now said they plan to resume summer routes despite government advice against foreign holidays and plans to quarantine travellers for two weeks. Many passengers with health concerns, and those unable to take extra time off work to abide by quarantine rules on their return, will not be able to go ahead with holiday plans. But, if they cancel, they could forfeit their cash. Industry experts are urging the Government to step in, while MPs are calling on airlines to recognise 'the terrible situation' holidaymakers face and guarantee refunds. Take off: A raft of UK carriers have now said they plan to resume summer routes despite government advice against foreign holidays and plans to quarantine travellers for two weeks Current rules mean travellers can only get their money back if the airline cancels their flight. Customers are not entitled to a refund if they cancel the trip themselves, even if advice against foreign travel remains in place. Last week, the Government said anyone entering the UK from June 8 will have to self-isolate for 14 days. All passengers arriving in the UK will have to provide details of where they are staying and anyone found breaching the rules in England faces a 1,000 fine. Airline bosses warned the plans could cripple the travel industry as they announced plans to restart international flights. EasyJet has said it will reopen its Gatwick to Nice route by June 15, and more are expected to follow. Ryanair has said it plans to resume 40 per cent of its service by July 1, while Wizz Air has said it hopes to offer a large summer network, with flights to Portugal by June 16 and Greece by July 1. ...and don't bank on your travel cover cash either Holidaymakers are being denied refunds worth hundreds of pounds for travel insurance policies they can't use. Unlike home and car insurance, where policyholders can get a partial refund if they cancel early, travel cover is typically non-refundable. This has left customers facing a lottery. The most generous firms are offering customers some, or even all, of their money back. Others have promised credit notes or said they will extend the cover for future travel. But many have said customers cannot have anything. Travel cover can be expensive for older travellers and those with medical conditions, particularly when travelling outside Europe. Barbara and Stephen Dudley paid 1,690 for a single-trip policy last December for their holiday to America in June. After the trip was cancelled in April, the couple, who live in Castleford, West Yorkshire, rebooked for next May. But their insurer Avanti refused to refund or extend their cover beyond January. Instead, it offered them a new discounted policy costing another 690, which they reluctantly accepted. Avanti has since extended its policies by 18 months but the couple are not eligible. Barbara, 62, says: 'I do not know how it can justify keeping so much of our money as well as tying us in. It made me feel as if I should be grateful for getting anything.' Insurers have already come under fire for refusing to pay claims for cancelled holidays and revoking cover for anything related to Covid-19. The Financial Conduct Authority says it expects firms to take 'appropriate action' when the value of insurance policies falls. This could be reducing premiums or partial refunds. Martyn James, from complaints website Resolver, says: 'Unlike flights or packaged holidays, there's no law governing refunds for insurance contracts if they become useless because you can't travel.' He recommends trying to negotiate with insurers and putting requests in writing. If you think you have been treated unfairly, contact the Financial Ombudsman. A spokesman for trade body the Association of British Insurers says: 'It is a commercial decision for insurers to offer full or partial refunds in light of Covid-19.' a.murray@dailymail.co.uk Jet2 and British Airways have said they are looking to restart flights by July, but British Airways is reviewing its options following government plans to quarantine passengers. Ministers hope to strike quarantine-free pacts with summer destinations such as France, Spain and Greece by August, and possibly as early as July, but holidaymakers could lose out if a compromise is not found. Martyn James, of consumer complaints website Resolver, says current plans 'set airlines against government advice'. He adds that 'a worst case scenario' could see airlines refuse even to offer vouchers or allow customers to rebook trips without charge. Karen Davies, 58, from Oldbury in the West Midlands, booked a trip to Corfu, leaving on June 24, with Jet2. But NHS radiographer Karen has been told to shield until the end of June, as she has the lung disease sarcoidosis. The Greek government has also said it is not accepting international flights until July 1. But Jet2 told her the flights are going ahead and, if she cancels, she will lose her 120 deposit. Karen says: 'The firm is hoping people will cancel so it can take the deposit. It's just a game it is playing.' Anyone who goes on holiday against government advice is unlikely to be covered by travel insurance abroad if they get sick Following Money Mail's intervention, Jet2 agreed to pay a full refund. A spokesman adds: 'We are continuing to proactively contact customers to discuss their options, one of which is rebooking their holiday to a later date.' Former Tory aviation minister Theresa Villiers is calling on airlines to issue refunds to those who no longer wish to travel. She tells Money Mail: 'If they [customers] can't take a flight because of the pandemic, not to mention the Foreign Office advice against all but essential travel, then they must get a refund. 'If airlines really want to look after their passengers they should be prepared to offer refunds.' She adds that quarantine measures should be 'targeted at Covid hotspots'. Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, says the Government's plans 'risk creating further confusion' and urged it to ensure airlines could refund customers. He adds: 'Some people with a holiday booked in the coming weeks may have to cancel their plans, without any entitlement to a refund, rather than face quarantine and a potential loss of work.' Kane Pirie, a former board director at the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and campaign leader of pressure group Right to Refund, says the proposals 'would only add to the legal disputes piling up by the billions already' over refunds. It is estimated that airlines are sitting on around 7billion in unpaid refunds as they face severe financial pressure from global travel restrictions. Around 20 per cent of Britons said they travelled abroad without insurance last year, according to the Association of British Travel Agents. Those that do have policies face lengthy battles to claim money from insurers if airlines won't pay out, while some may require a doctor's note. Anyone who goes on holiday against government advice is unlikely to be covered by travel insurance abroad if they get sick. EasyJet has confirmed it will continue to waive its rebooking fee for those wishing to change flights. A British Airways spokesman says: 'We follow all the guidance from the UK Government and global health authorities.' A Wizz Air spokesman says its flights to Portugal and Greece are along new routes and are not restarted flights and the company 'is working with and in full support of the Government'. A Ryanair spokesman says: 'For any cancelled flight, Ryanair is giving customers all of the options set out under EU regulations, including free moves and refunds in the form of cash or vouchers.' m.dilworth@dailymail.co.uk Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 05:29:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close QUITO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador faces an uncertain economic future marked by growing unemployment and slow recovery in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, analysts agree. Ecuador, which had seen a total of 37,355 cases of infection and 3,203 deaths from the disease by Monday, is one of the hardest hit countries in Latin America, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned is the "new epicenter" of COVID-19. In an interview with Xinhua, the former economy minister, Fausto Ortiz, said the country is in a "very complicated" situation that is likely to see the economy shrink between 6 percent and 10 percent this year, far more than the official government estimate of 4 percent. "What might happen following this great depression that we will have in 2020 is that it produces a rebound effect in the economy," said Ortiz. The South American country started the year with an accumulated fiscal deficit of 4 billion U.S. dollars that was then compounded by the lockdown and ensuing economic losses. In addition, the country's foreign debt has ballooned to 65 billion U.S. dollars and the price of oil, its main export product, tumbled from 60 U.S. dollars a barrel at the beginning of the year to 24 U.S. dollars per barrel. "Ecuador is going through a critical situation. Before the pandemic, it was already in an economic depression, and the pandemic is making that depression deeper and larger," said Ortiz. The economic and financial consultant predicts a slow recovery for Ecuador, with unemployment looming as the key "adjustment variable." Since March alone, the lockdown has wiped out 150,000 jobs, meaning a total of 500,000 to 700,000 jobs could be lost by the end of the year, said Ortiz. "Little by little people are going to be feeling the impact. We have to start getting used to having a little less income and stretching our money as far as it can go," Ortiz said. Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno has acknowledged the situation is dire, with the total fiscal deficit expected to reach 12 billion U.S. dollars: 8 billion in losses from the pandemic and 4 billion from the accumulated deficit. In a televised interview on May 22, Moreno said "a little more than a third of the projected total income that Ecuador presumed it would have to finance its budget has been lost. Never in the history of Ecuador has there been such a tough situation." The lockdown brought 70 percent of Ecuador's productive sector to a standstill. As recently as May 4, the sector began to resume activity under the "new normal" conditions of maintaining social distancing. Ecuador, which according to government estimates saw sales losses of nearly 12 billion U.S. dollars, has received a loan of some 1.4 billion U.S. dollars from multilateral lending agencies, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to deal with th health crisis. Moreno, whose final year in office began on Sunday, unveiled a series of economic measures to overcome the crisis, which have been rejected by unions and sparked social unrest. The measures include cutting the budget and wages, and introducing labor and financial reforms. According to political observer Fernando Casado, "the government's shock measures and counter-measures to tackle the crisis have not been enough." "They have protected the business owners instead of the workers, instead of the poor. That leads many people, who lost their jobs and have no chance to survive, to flout the lockdown," said Casado. Formal employment, which accounts for about 38 percent of the work force, will fall notably, as underemployment and unemployment rise, he said. As of January, 5.1 million of the country's 8.3 million economically active workers had no adequate employment, according to the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC). "It is a return to normality with fewer jobs and less money. We are going to be entering a situation of greater instability in the country that I'm not sure is socially sustainable," said Casado. President Moreno seems more optimistic. "I am hopeful, because after a crisis there always comes a time of recovery and reactivation. That is what the movement of the economic curve says," Moreno said. However, Moreno warned that in the absence of a recovery, Ecuador "will undergo bigger problems than we are now undergoing," and he urged the industrial sector to resume production in the post-pandemic new normal. Enditem Bob is an industry veteran who adds substantial value to our customers supply chains To better serve customers with integrated supply chain solutions across the globe, Crowley Logistics announced today that it has promoted Bob Goldenberg to vice president, commercial operations. In this new position, Goldenberg will report to Steve Collar, Crowleys senior vice president and general manager, logistics, and will continue to be based in the companys Miami office. He will be responsible for providing strategic direction and oversight to the entire commercial logistics team, including U.S. and offshore locations. Goldenberg will use his experience, technology and industry-knowledge to develop a comprehensive commercial strategy focused on increasing efficiencies and value adds in the global supply chain for Crowleys retail, apparel, perishable, pharmaceutical, breakbulk and general cargo customers. Bob is an industry veteran who adds substantial value to our customers supply chains, said Collar. Since joining Crowley last year, he has directed our efforts to grow our services globally and provides an elevated level of service to all of our customers throughout their logistics processes. Goldenberg joined Crowley as vice president, global development, in 2019 following a successful 30-year career with Econocaribe. He began in the traffic department before advancing to operations and sales, including national accounts. He became chief operating officer for the export division, a position he kept after the management team buyout that also made him part-owner. In 2013, following the ECU Worldwide acquisition, he was named chief procurement officer, the position he held until his move to Crowley. He holds a bachelors degree from the University of Florida in management. During his tenure at Econocaribe, Goldenberg helped to expand the business beyond limited warehousing and less-than-containerload (LCL) ocean exports within a small Caribbean footprint to global imports and exports for both full and less than containerload cargo, airfreight, customs brokerage and truck brokerage. Additionally, the company expanded from a single office to nine across the U.S. About Crowley Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 128-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family- and employee-owned company that provides marine solutions, energy and logistics services in domestic and international markets. Crowley operates under four business units: Crowley Logistics, a logistics supply chain division that includes ocean liner services; Crowley Shipping, which encompasses ownership, operations and management of conventional and dual fuel (LNG) vessels, including tankers, container ships, multipurpose, tugboats and barges; engineering; project management; and naval architecture through its subsidiary Jensen Maritime; Crowley Fuels, a fuel transportation, distribution and sales division that also provides liquefied natural gas (LNG) and related services; and Crowley Solutions, which focuses on global government services and program management, government ship management, expeditionary logistics and government-oriented freight transportation services. Additional information about Crowley, its subsidiaries and business units may be found at http://www.crowley.com. Lorena Bobbitt is a name that many Americans will never forget. She became notorious and made headlines in 1993 for cutting off her then-husbands penis with a kitchen knife. She was charged with malicious wounding and faced decades behind bars. She later testified that John Bobbit assaulted her that night and did so several times during their marriage. Lorena Bobbitt | Jeffrey Markowitz/Sygma via Getty Images The woman at the center of the sensational trial that gripped the nation still piques the publics interest today. Heres more on Lorena Bobbit, who now goes by Lorena Gallo, including her age, net worth, how long she was married to John, and what happened on June 23, 1993. Lorena Bobbits age Lorena was born in Bucay, Ecuador, on Oct. 31, 1970. She and her two siblings were raised in Caracas, Venezuela. After a family trip to the U.S., Lorena decided to move to the country. In 1987, she obtained a student visa and attended a community college in Virginia. The following year, she met John. How long Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt were together John Wayne Bobbitt | POOL/AFP via Getty Images After dating for a while, the pair tied the knot in 1989. The police were called to their home multiple times but it wasnt until the summer of 1993, when their relationship made front page news. In court, Lorena testified that she attacked him minutes after he assaulted her. I was crying and I just wanted to get a glass of water, she said, recalling that she went into the kitchen and picked up a knife before returning to their bedroom. I took the sheets off and I cut him, she told ABC News. Lorena fled the scene with the knife in one hand and Johns severed penis in the other. While driving to her friends home she tossed it out the window. The penis was located and doctors were able to reattach it. On Jan. 21, 1994, Lorena was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity and spent 45 days in a psychiatric facility. She and John divorced in 1995 after six years of marriage. What her net worth is today Lorena Bobbitt | Lorenzo Bevilaqua/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Today, Lorena has a daughter, Olivia, with her longtime partner, David Bellinger. The couple never married. I believe in marriage as an institution, of course, and I respect that, USA Today quoted her saying. It was my choice. He even says, If youre ready to marry, Ill just show up!' Lorena worked as a cosmetologist as well as a real estate agent. She founded the nonprofit Lorena Gallo Foundation, which is dedicated to providing support for victims of domestic abuse. There have been differing figures over the years of what Lorenas net worth is. However, most publications put it around $250,000. John Bobbitt is also worth an estimated $250,000 according to Celebrity Net Worth. In 2016, he appeared on an episode of Scandal Made Me Famous and revealed, I dont blame Lorena. We both hurt each other. I wish her the best. How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / UrbanGold Minerals Inc. ("UrbanGold" or the "Company") (TSXV:UGM) is pleased to announce it is expanding its land position in the Troilus area by entering into a definitive agreement with Quebec Precious Metals Corporation ("QPM"), pursuant to which it is acquiring the Chemin Troilus Property (the "Property"). The Property, consisting of 61 claims totaling 3,314 hectares, is adjacent to UrbanGold's current land package. As consideration for the acquisition of the Property (the "Acquisition"), the Company is issuing 800,000 common shares, making a one-time cash payment of $100,000 and assuming the pre-existing 2% net smelter return royalty. The Acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals, including approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. Easily accessible by road, the Property is located along the Troilus Gold Corridor, a favorable horizon where the former Troilus Gold Mine, the SouthWest gold Zone and the Cressida gold Zone are all located further along strike to the northeast. The new acquisition brings UrbanGold's total land package in the prospective Troilus area to 21,800 hectares. A map showing the location of the Property is adjoined and readers are invited to visit UrbanGold's website for more information. Qualified Persons QPM - Normand Champigny, Eng., Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and Jean- Sebastien Lavallee (OGQ #773), geologist, Vice-President Exploration, director and shareholder of QPM, both Qualified Persons under National Instrument 43 - 101 on standards of disclosure for mineral projects ("NI 43-101"), have prepared and approved the technical content of this release. UGM - Mathieu Stephens, P. Geo., President and Chief Executive Officer of UrbanGold, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101, has prepared and approved the technical content of this release. About Quebec Precious Metals Corporation QPM is a gold explorer with a large land position in the highly-prospective Eeyou Istchee James Bay territory, Quebec, near Newmont Corporation's Eleonore gold mine. QPM's flagship project is the Sakami project with significant grades and well-defined drill-ready targets. QPM's goal is to find the next gold mine in this territory. About UrbanGold UrbanGold Minerals Inc. is a precious and base metals exploration company with its activities focused in key gold prospective areas of Quebec. The corporation specializes in project generation supported by substantial exploration expertise. The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "UGM". Forward Looking Information This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements, including without limitation the closing of the definitive agreement and obtaining regulatory approval. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in UrbanGold's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. UrbanGold does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws. For further information: QPM Jean-Francois Meilleur President jfmeilleur@qpmcorp.ca Phone (514) 951-2730 Normand Champigny Chief Executive Officer nchampigny@qpmcorp.ca Phone (514) 979-4746 UGM Mathieu Stephens, P.Geo President and Chief Executive Officer mstephens@urbangoldminerals.com Jens Hansen, P.Eng Chairman of the Board jhansen@urbangoldminerals.com Phone (613) 299-0666 www.urbangoldminerals.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: UrbanGold Minerals Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591353/UrbanGold-Acquires-Key-Gold-Property-in-the-Troilus-Area-Quebec-Precious-Metals-Monetizes-Non-Core-Asset The Chinese nationals will have to pay for their return journey if they want to go back. New Delhi: With the number of coronavirus cases steadily rising in India, China on Monday announced repatriation of those of its nationals from India who want to return. International students, tourists and temporary business inspectors, who have faced difficulties in taking temporary flights back to China, can make use of this facility, its Embassy said. The Chinese nationals will have to pay for their return journey if they want to go back as well as agree to quarantine inspections on their return to their country. Incidentally, the past few days have also seen rise in border tensions between the two countries in the Ladakh sector although it seems unclear whether Mondays move has anything to do with that. In a statement in Mandarin, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi told its interested nationals, Temporary flight tickets and isolation fees for returning home are at your own expense. Air ticket prices are reasonably determined by airlines according to business model. The flight attendant bears all possible risks in the process of returning home, and consciously accepts various quarantine and epidemic prevention arrangements during the flight and after entry . Purchase of tickets shall be deemed as consent. It added, In order to ensure public health and safety, diagnosed, suspected cases, those who have fever and cough symptoms within the past 14 days, and those who are in close contact with new coronary pneumonia, please do not book and take flights. If the body temperature exceeds 37.3 degrees (inclusive) or there are suspected symptoms before boarding, the airline will refuse to board. The Chinese Embassy said that strict quarantine inspection will be carried out at the port of entry of the flight. The Embassy added that a passenger will be liable for endangering public safety if he or she conceals his illness and contact history or is found to have taken anti-pyretics and other inhibitory drugs during the quarantine. The passenger must agree to accept the Chinese Customs' sampling of nucleic acid and blood tests, the Embassy said. A coronavirus outbreak at a Washakie County nursing home has so far infected 21 people, the Wyoming Department of Health said Tuesday. Of the total, 12 of the patients are residents of the Worland Healthcare Rehabilitation Center, health department spokeswoman Kim Deti said. Another nine are staff. Of those nine staff, six have been logged as Washakie County cases. Two are classified as Big Horn and one as Hot Springs. That's because the health department counts cases based on where the patients reside, not where they might have been infected. Washakie County has so far recorded 27 confirmed cases of coronavirus along with four probable cases, health department figures show. That's the state's fifth highest total, even though Washakie ranks near the bottom in the state for total population. Health officials disclosed the outbreak on May 17. At the time, five staff and four patients were known to be infected. [May 26, 2020] Olive Introduces "The Grid" Allowing Employees to Work from Anywhere COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Olive, the company building healthcares AI workforce, announced today the launch of a new distributed, flexible work model called The Grid , effective immediately. The plan eliminates traditional workplace requirements, empowering employees to work wherever they are most effective. It is uncertain when or if the work environments employees once knew will return to how they were before the global pandemic. According to a recent Gallup poll , 62% of Americans are working from home, with 59% preferring to continue to do so, even after school and business closures are lifted. Leaders are being challenged to reimagine the workplace , and choose how to lead their companies into the future. As Olive shifted employees to work from home in early March, the company saw the change brought about by the global pandemic as an opportunity to reevaluate how to retain the best talent, ensure employee satisfaction and effectiveness, all while continuing to deliver their promise to the health sstem customers they serve. Monolithic offices are dead, Sean Lane, CEO of Olive said. We have adapted incredibly well since becoming a distributed, virtual team. We seem to be gaining momentum, and employees are finding new ways to connect every day. Olive is now embracing The Grid: a growth plan where we dont all have to be physically together to be a highly successful company. To Olive, being on the grid simply means an employee is actively working. The work model empowers employees to work wherever they most effectively drive the company mission forward, be that at home, in a cabin, on the beach, or in an office. The companys headquarters, referred to as The Hub, will remain in Columbus, Ohio, and dedicated teams will continue to work at AlphaSites: onsite AI command centers built within customer health systems across the country. Olive will begin to open Substations, or satellite offices, surrounding select AlphaSite metropolitan service areas and cities where 10 or more Olive employees are located within the continental United States. The first Substation will be in Baltimore, Maryland, with plans to open in August. The advantages of a flexible and distributed workforce are abundant, strengthening the health of both the company and its employees, all while enhancing connectedness to customers. As Olive plans to grow after a recent $51 million fundraise , the new work model makes it easier to scale by allowing the company to recruit the best talent for any given role. Prioritizing a distributed workforce over a monolithic headquarters also decreases global health risks and has a lower impact on the way Olive operates. Dispersed company presence also allows Olive to build stronger customer relationships, as well as establish roots and rich connections in technology communities across the nation. To view open positions and to apply, visit: www.oliveai.com/careers ABOUT OLIVE Olive is deploying the AI workforce built specifically for healthcare, delivering hospitals and health systems increased revenue, reduced costs and increased capacity. Olive automates repetitive, high-volume tasks and workflows, monitoring their performance, identifying improvements and finding opportunities for new work. Olive gives power back to providers through her ever-growing, unparalleled intelligence made up of shared memories, collective wisdom and global awareness, learning like a network so hospitals never have to solve the same problem twice. To learn more about Olive and our healthcare organization partners visit oliveai.com . Media Contact: Rachel Forsyth [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] NetSat: Four micro satellites measuring 10 cm x 10 cm x 30 cm in formation flight in an orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometers. At the Julius-Maximilians-University of Wurzburg, four micro-satellites are currently being prepared for take-off. They are to move in a formation and, for the first time in the world, independently control their three-dimensional arrangement in orbit. If an object like Planet Earth is to be captured completely without blind spots, it must be viewed from different directions and the image information must be combined. The techniques required for the optimal self-organization of a satellite formation in three-dimensional space are now being tested for the first time with four miniature satellites. "This opens up new perspectives for earth observation and climate research, but also for future communication networks," says Professor Klaus Schilling, head of the Department of Computer Science VII (Robotics and Telematics) at the Julius Maximilian University (JMU) Wurzburg. He developed the satellites with his team; he was supported by the European Union with the ERC Grant NetSat. Final refinement at the Center for Telematics The four smallest satellites weigh only four kilograms each. At the Center for Telematics in Wurzburg, they will receive their final tuning by the end of May 2020; presumably in August 2020 they will then be transported by a Russian Soyuz rocket into their orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometers. Long-term task planning will then be carried out from the operations center in Wurzburg. In contrast, reactions to deviations from the plan and the fine adjustment of the formation will be carried out autonomously by the software on board. What distinguishes the smallest satellites "Techniques for formation flight have so far only been investigated with two satellites," explains Schilling. NetSat should now achieve scientific breakthroughs in the necessary techniques for controlling a three-dimensional arrangement for optimal observations. For this purpose, the satellites have a very efficient electric propulsion system, manufactured by the Austrian company Enpulsion. In addition, the satellites have high-precision alignment capabilities with extremely small precision reaction wheels, supplied by S4 - Smart Small Satellite Systems and Wittenstein Cyber Motors. The radio link between the satellites enables data exchange on position, alignment and planned manoeuvres. "In combination with advanced control methods, this enables the coordination of this team of four to be realized," says the JMU professor. Background of the NetSat mission The NetSat mission was made possible by a prestigious award from the European Research Council (ERC) and the support of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs. Professor Schilling had received the ERC Advanced Grant 2012, which is endowed with 2.5 million euros, to achieve scientific breakthroughs in the field of control technology and space travel. The independent research institute "Zentrum fur Telematik (ZfT)" in Wurzburg was selected to implement NetSat because it has an outstanding test infrastructure for multi-satellite systems throughout Europe. At JMU, the NetSat satellites are also used for experiments on multi-satellite operation. Results will be used immediately The NetSat results are directly incorporated into the next Wurzburg micro-satellite missions for innovative applications in earth observation: TIM - Telematics International Mission: ZfT and JMU coordinate partners from five continents to realize an innovative 3D earth observation for volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and ship movements with nine satellites. The mission will be started in 2021 and is part of the Regional Leaders Summit (RLS), a network of the regions Bavaria, Upper Austria, Georgia (USA), Quebec (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Shandong (China) and Western Cape (South Africa). CloudCT Starting in 2022, the self-organization of ten miniature satellites will be used to characterize the interior of clouds using computer tomography methods. In this way, important parameters for climate models that have not yet been recorded will be obtained. The European Research Council is supporting this project with an ERC Synergy Grant of 14 million euros; research partners from Israel are involved in the project. "The exciting further use of the NetSat results is thus guaranteed," Schilling is pleased to say. "The micro-satellite measurement networks in orbit can quickly provide better bases for decision-making in emergency situations and for challenges such as climate change. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) Guwahati/Itanagar, May 26 : At least three people died and over 2,50,000 people of over 350 villages were affected due to floods and landslides in three northeastern states - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, officials said on Tuesday. Officials in Itanagar said that a woman and her two children were buried alive when their house came under heavy landslide at Arzoo village in Dibang Valley district on Monday night. Incessant rain for the last couple of days triggered the landslides and floods that left trails of large scale devastation in the entire state. Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu expressed deep shock over the loss of three lives and announced immediate release of ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to next of kin of the deceased. In Assam, around two lakh people of 230 villages in seven districts have been affected in the first wave of floods in the state. Assam State Disaster Management Authority officials said that National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force teams have already been deployed at 40 locations with equipments. In Meghalaya, incessant rain and cyclonic storms has wreaked havoc in parts of the mountainous state with over 2,000 people in 21 villages affected. Meghalaya Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Kyrmen Shylla said that five districts have been affected. Meanwhile, the Central Water Commission (CWC) of Jal Shakti Ministry on Tuesday issued a flood alert for the Brahmaputra river of Assam. The India Meteorological Department had earlier on Tuesday also warned of extremely heavy rainfall in Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Several parts of Assam and neighbouring states have been receiving heavy rains since super cyclone Amphan weakened last week. Chalabala/iStockBy JON HAWORTH, ABC News (BOSTON) -- A man has been arrested after allegedly stealing an American flag from a memorial commemorating service members who have given their lives in defense of the United States, lighting it on fire and then throwing the burning flag onto a police car. The incident occurred on Sunday at approximately 7:10 p.m. when officers assigned to patrol Boston Common in downtown Boston, Massachusetts, were approached by several members of the public saying that they had seen a man lighting fire to the American flag and then throwing it onto the roof of a Boston Police prisoner transport wagon. The car was parked near the fountain inside the park and was unoccupied at the time of the incident. Officers responded to the scene and arrested 40-year-old Daniel Lucey who confirmed to the authorities that he had lit the flag on fire and thrown it onto the police car as a form of protest. Over the weekend, 1,000 flags were planted on Boston Common by a small group of volunteers who organized a social distancing-compliant version of the annual flag garden, according to ABC News Boston affiliate WCVB-TV. Officers noted that the suspect was in possession of several other flags which appeared to be similar to the ones which are planted in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument over Memorial Day weekend to commemorate the Massachusetts service members who have given their lives in defense of the United States of America, the Boston Police Department said in a statement posted to social media. While speaking with the officers about the incident, the man then proceeded to spit at the authorities and hit one responding officers shoe with saliva. The suspect was arrested and placed in custody at the scene of the incident. Lucey is scheduled to appear in Boston Municipal Court on charges of Disorderly Conduct, Assault and Battery on a Police Officer, Malicious Destruction of Property and Malicious Destruction of Historical Monuments. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. With all 50 states in some stage of post-pandemic reopening, many museums are back welcoming visitors to art- and history-filled halls. Doing so signals a return to "normal" in many communities but it may also help plug the economic hole created when almost every museum in the country closed its doors in response to COVID-19 concerns. "All museum revenue related to admission, gift shop and cafe sales evaporated, along with event rentals," said Laura Lott, president and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums, which pegs the loss at $33 million a day. "As many as one-third of the nation's national cultural treasures may never reopen." While museums are moving forward with reopening plans, potential visitors are considering the options. "I'd feel OK about going to a museum that required masks and promised social distancing, temperature checks and staggered access with reservations only," said Amy Brenner Mitz of Maine. Others prefer to wait it out. "No thanks. Not worth the potential risks," said Alyne Ellis of Washington, D.C. Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak Museums that are opening are doing so with extreme caution and close attention to social distancing, health and safety. Here is a sampling of what visitors will encounter. Elvis Presley's Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee It's sexy when Elvis Presley croons about feeling his temperature rising in the classic "Burning Love." But now that the gates at Graceland are reopened, anyone with a fever 100.4 degrees or higher is not allowed to enter the shrine to the King of Rock 'n' Roll. In addition to mandatory temperature checks, the attraction is limiting entry to just 25 percent of normal capacity and encouraging guests to wear masks. It is using commercial-grade cleaners, including UV light sanitizer wands and disinfectant foggers, to sanitize the campus. The Mob Museum, Las Vegas The Mob Museum, The National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement, will reopen Sunday in downtown Las Vegas with reduced entry capacity, a mask requirement for all guests and pre-entry temperature checks. Story continues The museum has its own speakeasy and, while supplies last, will be giving each guest a complimentary bottle of ethanol hand sanitizer made in the on-site distillery. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland If it stayed closed through the end of the year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would be facing a $12 million loss in revenue. So the museum is eager to reopen to the public by June 15. "We have been blowing the doors off with virtual offerings on our website and reaching people where they are at this time," museum CEO Greg Harris told NBC News. "We think that will increase the number of people that now desire to visit the museum in person." When the doors do open, there will be timed entry, limited capacity and newly hired nurses at the entrance to take everyone's temperatures. The museum will reserve certain hours for at-risk groups such as seniors. Rock 'n' roll-themed masks will be provided to visitors who arrive without their own. Many touch screens will be turned off until the museum installs antimicrobial covers, and "The Garage," an exhibit that encourages visitors to play instruments and jam with others, will be closed. Ripley's Believe It or Not, Branson, Missouri Ripley's Believe it or Not! museum (home of the world's largest roll of toilet paper) opened over Memorial Day weekend with reduced capacity and new social distancing and sanitizing systems. The odditorium will then close for a few days to evaluate how the protocols are working out before opening for the summer season. Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, Springfield, Missouri The sprawling Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, adjacent to Bass Pro Shops' national headquarters, reopened over Memorial Day weekend after a nine-week closure. To accommodate social distancing, timed entries, enhanced cleaning procedures and limits on daily attendance, the attraction is extending its opening hours. Confined spaces like the swinging bridge are temporarily closed; interactive experiences, such as the penguin encounter, are being modified; and the museum is adopting the COVID-19 response plan developed by the Florida Aquarium in Tampa and the Infectious Disease Prevention team at Tampa General Hospital. Image: Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium (Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium) The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. All Smithsonian museums in Washington, including the National Zoo, remain closed, and no reopening dates have been floated. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York New York City's iconic Met said it plans to reopen in mid-August or whenever the city meets the phased-in reopening requirements. The museum's three locations The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Cloisters and The Met Breuer have been closed since mid-March. "The Met has endured much in its 150 years, and today continues as a beacon of hope for the future," President Daniel Weiss said in a statement last week. The institution will belatedly celebrate its 150th anniversary next year, he said. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming The 40-acre Buffalo Bill Center of the West reopened May 7 with added staff members during peak hours to keep surfaces in the center's five museums clean. Now that the south and east entrances to Yellowstone National Park are open, the museum is fine-tuning its new protocols and preparing to welcome more visitors. Kentucky Derby Museum and Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, Kentucky Museums, aquariums, zoos and distilleries in Kentucky cannot reopen before June 8. But in Louisville, key attractions, including the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, are already ringing up sales in their gift shops. Business groups have rallied behind Prime Minister Scott Morrison's push to revamp Australia's skills and training system and have called for a focus on digital technology, healthcare and construction. But the government faces warnings that a revival will require a real funding boost after years of cuts that have made vocational training the "poor cousin" of higher education, with spending on the sector at its lowest level in a decade. TAFE and the vocational education sector have faced funding squeezes and policy dysfunction for years. Credit:Rob Homer In a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday, Mr Morrison zeroed in on a vocational training system he said was "marred by inconsistencies and incoherence" and "unresponsive" to the needs of industry. He called for a rewrite of a national skills and workforce agreement to secure more accountability for government spending. Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott welcomed Mr Morrison's "JobMaker" manifesto and acknowledgement the skills and training sector was "too clunky", complex and slow to respond to skills needed by employers. Digging deep: An excavation last week for the remains of Red Hugh ODonnell in a Valladolid street Photos: Cultura y Turismo Valladolid The dig for of the remains of Red Hugh O'Donnell could be over after archaeologists discovered a skull and bones in the exact chamber identified as his burial site. The Irish historical hero's dying wish in September 1602, was to be buried in the Chapel of Wonders, at a Franciscan monastery in Valladolid in northwest Spain. Today, after a week-long excavation of a site on Constitution Street archaeologists have uncovered two coffins and at least one set of remains. The other coffin could be the original one which held the remains of explorer Christopher Columbus who was reinterned to Seville Cathedral. The Mayor of Valladolid Oscar Puente tweeted a photograph showing the excavated site with a human skull and long bones- believed to legs. He wrote: "In the chapel of Wonders, in the exact place where Red Hugh O'Donnell is believed to have been buried as well as Christopher Columbus, some remains and two coffins have appeared." Read More Historian Hiram Morgan, a UCC academic, said the discovery is fascinating and explained O'Donnell's remains should be easily identifiable - as he had no big toes. O'Donnell, who was one of the masterminds the Nine Years War from 1593 to 1603, suffered frostbite while hiding in the Wicklow mountains following a daring escape from Dublin Castle. Morgan also said if the discovery turns out to be O'Donnell, it could bring answers to the mystery surrounding his death or possible murder. "Nothing is certain until they do DNA, but his lack of big toes could certainly point the way. "Also, if they identify his bones, then they could do tests to discover why he might have died. "What disease he had or whether he was poisoned or had a parasite. "That would lay all that to rest. It's fascinating, and it would be brilliant if it turns out to be him. Along with his father-in-law Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, Red Hugh led arguably one of Ireland's most successful rebellions against the English in history. Red Hugh, an Irish nobleman, of the Donegal O'Donnell dynasty, died in Spain aged 29 while trying to secure a second wave of support from the Spanish against their shared enemy, England. After suffering defeat during the Siege of Kinsale, Red Hugh travelled to Spain to seek further support from King Philip III, but he died before he could. It is believed he contracted an infection, or according to others, he was poisoned by British spy James Blake, a merchant sailor from Galway. Blake claimed he had assassinated Reg Hugh on behalf of the Governor of Munster, George Carew. But historian Morgan said it is generally considered Blake claimed this just to "get some kind of benefit from Red Hugh's death." "He claimed he poisoned him, but there is no proof of that really." Interesting Morgan has revealed there is another Irishman buried in the same graveyard in Valladolid. "Somewhere beside Red Hugh O'Donnell is another Irishman William Burke, he was a contemporary of Red Hugh. Red Hugh made his chief of the Burke's of Mayo. But they both had to flee to Spain. He is buried in the same church, somewhere near Hugh. He survived in Spain longer than Red Hugh. Two for the price of one you could say. Or three if you count Columbus." Red Hugh led a colourful life, and his backstory has fascinated historians for centuries. Morgan believes the interest in Red Hugh is not surprising, as he was a classic hero. He says: "He was one of these Irish heroes who tried and very nearly succeeded, and he also has this great backstory. "He was captured by the British and managed to escape." The English used a ship loaded with beer and wine as a ruse to capture Red Hugh. They sailed it up the coast to Lough Swilly, pulling in to harbour near Rathmullan. They pretended to be merchants selling the wine and beer and managed to draw the young Hugh on board. He was captured, and as the O'Donnells had no boats to attempt a rescue, they could only watch as the ship sailed back around the coast to Dublin, where Red Hugh was imprisoned. Morgan explained: "His father-in-law, Hugh O'Neill, and others arranged his escape, and that was when he had to hide in the mountains. "When he got back to Donegal about a month later, they had to amputate his big toes. While Red Hugh O'Donnell fought and won many battles against the British and his bravery won the hearts of a nation, his love life was less successful. He married Rose O'Neill, the daughter of his ally Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone. The partnership was an unhappy one that never produced a child. Red Hugh tried twice to end the marriage before he eventually left for the ill-fated trip to Spain A new portal for Leaving Certificate students to register to receive calculated grades has been stress-tested to ensure it does not crash, the Department of Education has said. The Leaving Certificate exam was postponed this year due to the pandemic and students have been given the option to receive a calculated grade or sit the exam at a later date. More than 61,000 students were expected to have registered on the portal from 10am on Tuesday. The online portal will remain open for registrations until 10pm on Thursday. Department of Education and Skills Statement Department of Education and Skills Statement Statement 22 May, 2020 Following the publication of the Guidance for Schools on the Calculated Grades mo https://t.co/XUJZlEbW14 #etbireland ETBI (@ETBIreland) May 22, 2020 Director of operations and IT at the Department of Education, Andrea Feeney, told Newstalk FM that the new online portal is a one-stop shop for students. Ms Feeney said it has been stress-tested to prevent it from being overwhelmed. We have done a lot of stress-testing and we have been working with our internet service providers to make sure that that doesnt happen. When the portal closes on Thursday, we will provide that information to schools so that the schools can provide an estimated percentage mark and a ranking of each of their students. Students have to confirm the level of exam they would have sat, or they can change to a lower level. This is a really important step for #LeavingCert2020 - students can sign up from tomorrow Tuesday May 26 until Thursday at 10pm. Dont leave it until the last minute @ISSU4u @NPCpp https://t.co/19SFzejSUZ Joe McHugh (@McHughJoeTD) May 25, 2020 Schools have been asked to assist their students as much as possible but if anyone has trouble getting access online, there will be helpline support from midday on Tuesday. When registering on gov.ie/leavingcertificate, students must have their examination number, Personal Public Service number (PPS), email address and mobile phone number. Education Minister Joe McHugh said: Every school has been sent on the information to provide to their students so that they are able to complete the registration on the student portal. This is a brand new system that it has been necessary to introduce because of the decisions we have had to take as we respond to Covid-19 situation. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice said language students who are still in the State and who have completed the maximum two years permitted as a language student, but are unable to return home due to the pandemic, may remain as students until the end of the year provided they re-enrol in an online course of study for the remainder of the year. On Monday, for the first time, Brazil announced a larger number of deaths from COVID-19 in a single day than the United States. On Sunday, Latin Americas largest country recorded 703 deaths, while the US registered 617. The confirmed death toll in Brazil has already surpassed 23,000. The country currently has the second-largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, 367,906 in total. It trails the United States, which has 1,697,182 cases, and is just ahead of Russia with 353,427 cases. Brazil's testing rate, however, is significantly lower than that of both these countries, with only 3,461 tests per million inhabitants, compared to 44,587 tests per million inhabitants in the United States and 61,300 tests per million in Russia. An estimate based on parameters established by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicates that only one in 20 cases of COVID-19 is being reported in Brazil. This would translate into an actual number of cases exceeding 7 million. As a consequence of the uncontrolled spread of the virus, the country's precarious health care system is collapsing in every region. Cemetery workers place crosses over a common grave after burying five people at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Brazil, Wednesday, May 13, 2020. The new section of the cemetery was opened last month to cope with a surge in deaths. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) The state of Sao Paulo is the center of the disease, with 83,625 cases and 6,220 deaths. The city of Sao Paulo already has more than 90 percent of its ICU beds occupied, despite the hundreds of new beds opened in field hospitals. Thirteen hospitals in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo are already full and the disease is spreading more rapidly (up to four times faster) through the states countryside. In second place is the state of Rio de Janeiro, with 37,912 cases and 3,993 confirmed deaths. Like Sao Paulo, occupation of the ICU beds has also reached 90 percent, and there are more than 200 patients waiting for intensive care. There are also indications of high under-reporting of deaths in the state, suggesting twice the number recorded by the government. Nevertheless, the right-wing governors of these statesSao Paulos Joao Doria of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) and Rio de Janeiros Wilson Witzel of the Christian Social Party (PSC)are promoting a general resumption of economic activities. Doria plans to reopen by June 1, but stresses that 74 percent of the economy is already open and only 26 percent remains closed. Last week, he already met with retail associations to discuss their return. Witzel also presented a program to resume economic activities last week. He determined that once the ICU bed occupancy rate drops to between 90 and 70 percent, the reopening of commerce and the return of spectator sports, with up to 50 percent stadium capacity, among other things, will be allowed. On Monday, commerce was reopened in Duque de Caxias, the second city most affected by the coronavirus in Rio de Janeiro, bringing crowds to the streets and forming lines in front of stores. The justification presented by the government was totally absurdonce new hospital beds have been created, the health system can accommodate more sick people and, without tax revenues, there will be no money to pay doctors. The same trajectory, demanded by the capitalist class as a whole, is spreading throughout each state in the country. Last week, the reopening of businesses was announced by the governors of the Northeastern states who define themselves as left-wing: Flavio Dino, of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), governor of Maranhao, and Camilo Santana, of the Workers Party (PT), governor of Ceara. The state of Ceara is one of the most affected by the coronavirus in the country, with 36,000 cases and 2,400 deaths, more than half of them in the capital, Fortaleza. On Monday, the lockdown of the state of Para was suspended. It lasted for about two weeks and had low effectiveness, reaching a peak of just over 50 percent of social isolation. The neighboring state of Amazonas, which has seen the greatest calamities associated with the coronavirus and registered more than 1,000 new infections last Sunday alone, plans to reopen its businesses on June 1. Among the most criminal actions of the Brazilian bourgeoisie is the resumption of commercial activity in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. It was directly promoted by the president of the Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais (FIEMG), Flavio Roscoe, who said in an interview last week, There is no point in the functioning of industry if commerce is stopped. He continued, Activities, such as street commerce and stores with a small flow of people, do not offer real risk. If hand sanitizer is distributed at the doors and masks are worn, you are protected. Minas' industry did not stop at any time because of COVID-19... The risk of contagion in the state is one of the lowest in Brazil. Roscoe's allegations are based on a direct coverup of the facts. Thousands of victims of respiratory diseases have been buried in Minas Gerais without being tested for COVID-19. Data from the Ministry of Health and the Health Department of the state show that, compared to last year, cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome had a jump of 691 percent, and deaths of 838 percent. Roscoe himself was infected with the coronavirus after joining Brazils fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro's entourage on a trip to Washington in March, where he met with Donald Trump. Bolsonaro is the political leader of the bourgeois movement for the reopening of the country's economy and has defended a war against the lockdowns in the interests of industrialists and shareholders. Despite the deep crisis shaking the Brazilian state and his government, Bolsonaro has been able to promote the most reactionary and criminal policies associated with the coronavirus crisis, which will lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Brazilians. After the resignation of two health ministers, the Bolsonaro government succeeded in recommending chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for all COVID-19 patients last week. The protocol was signed by the interim Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello whom Bolsonaro calls doctor, even if he is not. Tests with hydroxychloroquine were suspended by the World Health Organization (WHO), after the release of a study by the scientific journal The Lancet that revealed that the substance was ineffective in treating the disease and increased the risk of death. But scientific evidence will not stop Bolsonaro in his promotion of chloroquine as the miracle cure of COVID-19, a central piece of his obscurantist campaign to reopen the economy, which is going full steam ahead. On Monday, he announced to a group of his followers that he will force the reopening of the countrys churches. They will join the series of services decreed as essential by the government over the past few weeks. Attacking judicial orders, Bolsonaro speaks openly about imposing his measures by force. In a Twitter post, Bolsonaro addressed the governors who have publicly stated that they will not comply with our Decree No. 10,344/2020, which includes gyms, barbershops and beauty salons as essential activities. He concluded with the dangerous threat: To challenge the democratic constitutional state is the worst path, it will bring out the undesirable authoritarianism in Brazil. The "undesirable authoritarianism" was expressed last Sunday in front of the Palacio do Planalto, the seat of the government. After flying over the Three Powers Square by helicopter, in a choreographed gesture, Bolsonaro went down to a demonstration. The hysterical far-right gangs were carrying banners expressing support for the armed forces and attacking the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro paraded among them without a mask for 40 minutes, taking pictures and holding children in his lap. He described it as another spontaneous [demonstration]. It's a sign that the people want freedom and democracy and they want the president to be allowed to work. This is a complete lie. These demonstrations are not spontaneous but engineered by groups directly linked to the state. They represent not the feelings of broad layers of the working class, but the interests of the Brazilian ruling class. Bolsonaro knows that his capitalist policies in response to the coronavirus crisisto let the population starve and the virus spread, killing thousandsare extremely unpopular and will generate waves of social opposition. He expressed this clearly in a videotape of a meeting with his ministers on April 22 which was released by court order last week. In it, he said: The fertile ground appears... some piece of shit raising the flag of the people it costs nothing. And that is the fertile ground: unemployment, chaos, misery, social disorder and other things. MONTREAL, May 26, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - HaiLa Technologies Inc., a Canada-based semiconductor start-up that has developed a low power communication technology for IoT, announced today that it has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Chrysalix Ventures. Other investors include Ecofuel Fund, TandemLaunch, a prolific university from California, and several angel investors including HaiLa's newly appointed CEO and President, Ole Christian Andersen. This financing will enable HaiLa to demonstrate manufacturability, secure first tier customers and partners, and set the stage to completely revolutionize the wireless sensor industry. "After winning the International Nokia Open Innovation competition last November and a plethora of other awards over the past 2 years, the HaiLa team are front runners in the IoT space with a commercially viable solution for low power and battery-less solutions using backscatter communication" says Richard MacKellar partner of Chrysalix Ventures. "We are excited to have the support of investors that prioritize environmentally sustainable technology. Together, we look forward to enable scalability for low power Wi-Fi IoT solutions in a world with unprecedented needs for wireless data collection" says Charlotte Savage, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of HaiLa Technologies. HaiLa's technology enables the use of existing ambient signals in the air as the carrier to ride its data on. This leads to a drastic decrease in power consumption which would either result in a much-extended battery life of devices, or enable energy harvesting solutions, allowing battery-free IoT devices for certain applications. Furthermore, HaiLa uses a proprietary and patented backscattering technique which allows modulation of digital sensor data on top of ambient signals of different protocols while maintaining the integrity of the signal to the original specific protocol. This ensures compatibility of HaiLa-enabled sensor tags to various existing wireless protocols, resulting in a drastic reduction in deployment costs and risks. "It's a real privilege to be asked to lead a company that's based on solid leading-edge patented technologies, a world-class team and high growth potential. As a serial entrepreneur having spent 30 years in the IC/EDA/IP & networking industries, I'm excited about the potential of HaiLa and how we can enable ultra-low power Wi-Fi IoT solutions" says Ole Christian Andersen. "We'll provide early access to the first HaiLa Wi-Fi IP core based on our backscatter technology by the end of 2020. This will enable companies to develop the next generation of ultra-low power chip-sets for IP over Ethernet over Wi-Fi in the IoT space." About Chrysalix Ventures Chrysalix is a global venture capital fund with a long history commercializing step-change innovation for resource intensive industries. They invest in intelligent systems, energy technology and resource productivity solutions to deliver outsized financial returns and environmental sustainability. https://www.chrysalix.com/about/ About EcoFuel Fund Ecofuel is a venture capital fund and a specialized and personalized accelerator dedicated to seed stage cleantech startups. Ecofuel Fund invests smart money in startups that develop and commercializes clean technologies. https://ecofuelaccelerate.com/ About TandemLaunch TandemLaunch is a seed investor and incubator focused on creating early-stage technology start-ups in collaboration with global universities and world-class entrepreneurs. www.tandemlaunch.com About HaiLa Technologies Inc. Founded in 2017 in Montreal, Canada, HaiLa Technologies Inc. is a low power Wi-Fi communication platform IP provider. Still head quartered in Montreal, HaiLa has recently expanded to offices in Copenhagen, Denmark and San Francisco, USA. www.haila.io Contact information: w: www.haila.io l: https://www.linkedin.com/company/haila SOURCE HaiLa Technologies Inc. Related Links http://www.haila.io The Delhi government has sent around 2.41 lakh people back to their home states in 196 trains from May 7 till Monday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday. Addressing an online media briefing, Sisodia said nearly 1.25 lakh people were sent to Bihar, 96,610 to Uttar Pradesh, 3,000 to Jharkhand, 2,500 to West Bengal and 2,100 to Madhya Pradesh. The Delhi government has paid the train fares in most of the cases, he said. Recently, the AAP dispensation and the Bihar government had engaged in a war of words over train fares of migrant workers. According to the deputy chief minister, lunch and dinner are being served to the needy people in the national capital at 2,500 camps set up by the Delhi government. San Francisco Greek fast-casual restaurant group Souvla has kept all its locations closed for the duration of shelter-in-place, but recently, they made one very special exception. According to Eater, one of their long-time regulars convinced Souvla's NoPa location to let him and his girlfriend onto their backyard patio for a surprise proposal. Sam Goldstein and Christa Simone had their first date at Souvla five years ago, where they dined on chicken salads and a bottle of rose. Goldstein had been planning to surprise Simone with a public proposal, but the pandemic threw a wrench in his plans. So instead, he emailed Souvla with a different sort of proposal in mind and the owners were happy to help. On the first day of resumption of flight services, which were suspended for two months, the Pune international airport, on Monday, handled arrival and departure of 17 flights till 8 pm. Pune airport director Kuldeep Singh said, As of 8pm, 672 passengers arrived in nine flights and 985 passengers departed in eight flights at Punes Lohegaon airport, said Singh. On Tuesday, 16 flights will operate from Pune airport while 15 flights scheduled earlier have been cancelled, according to Singh. A total of 34 flight operation movement is scheduled at the Pune airport this week, which includes flights coming from Delhi, Chennai, Cochin, Belgaum, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. To help in the smooth arrival of passengers at the airport, Pune police considered their boarding passes as digital passes for movement. Pune police commissioner in his tweet said, To facilitate flight travellers using private vehicles for pick and drop at the Pune airport, the boarding pass will be considered as digital pass and for taxi, commuters can use dial a rickshaw facility on WhatsApp number 9859198591 which provides sanitised vehicles at government rates. At airport, the officials took safety measures in view of the Covid threat. All the necessary safety arrangements for the passengers at the Pune airport have been done, as per coordination with the Pune district administration. We dont ask passengers to wear a PPE kit with full body coverall, hood while travelling for safety purpose. We require that the passenger should have green status on Aarogya Setu app, normal body temperature and wear face mask at all times, said Singh. Parking facility instructions given by the authorities state that All passengers at Pune airport must note that there is limited parking facility available. So no overnight and long term parking is currently available. While for the arriving passengers Pune airport authorities have instructed that, All arriving passengers are stamped on their hand and advised 14 days home isolation with self-monitoring of their health. The Pune airport is set to run the operations of a total 17 flights of which seven flights will operate daily, rest of the flights some will operate six or five days a week. The flight schedule will be updated regularly for the convenience of the passengers. Gunfire exploded in busy downtown street Tuesday afternoon, killing a 21-year-old man, injuring a boy and a female bystander, and sending onlookers screaming and running on a scorching summer day. Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at the scene near King Street West and Peter Street that the shooting appears to have been targeted though one of the victims, a 27-year-old woman, is believed to have been an innocent bystander. Another victim, a 15-year-old boy, was also sent to hospital after he was shot. Police said Tuesday night that both of the injured victims are expected to recover. By all indication, it looks like this female that was shot has absolutely nothing to do with this absolutely nothing, Saunders said. Because of the suspect just shooting randomly, an innocent person was caught in that crossfire. Saunders said it is very early in the investigation, but preliminary information is that the shooting took place as two of the victims were walking back to their vehicle, with another set of two people walking behind them. Occupants in a blue VW Tiguan, who had been waiting in their vehicle for as long as 40 minutes, then made a u-turn and began firing. The suspect vehicle had been deliberately waiting and then as soon as they had the opportunity they started the shooting, Saunders said. The suspect vehicle then headed westbound on Front Street, then northbound on Spadina Avenue. Saunders initially said the deceased victim was 16, but Toronto police later clarified that he was 21. Saunders said there is more than one person involved and police are looking for a driver as well as a shooter who got out on the passenger side. The homicide unit has been called in to investigate. Saunders said there are a lot of CCTV cameras in the area that will help with the investigation, but he is appealing to anyone who may have seen what happened to contact police. Tuesdays homicide is Torontos 18th fatal shooting. Police said they received multiple calls of a shooting at around 4 p.m. A fourth person was attended to by paramedics on scene, but details of their injuries were not immediately available. Police said they received reports of people screaming and running from the area. A firearm was also recovered after police arrived on scene; Saunders said investigators are now working to determine who that firearm belonged to. Toronto police are confirming suspect information and have not yet released any description. Employees at businesses in the area reported hearing or being told about a series of gunshots. I didnt hear (gunshots), but people were saying, some said five some said 10, said one employee who did not want to be identified. Nearby condo resident Frank Butty told the Star the area is typically a booming tourist spot. I never feel unsafe at night, even taking the back door from the alley, he wrote in an email. I heard about a dozen shots or more it was surprising how many. They were incredibly loud. I ran to the balcony door and did see a man carrying what I thought was a silver handgun walking backwards and screaming. He was screaming a lot, Butty wrote. Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1 Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing for the Star. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis A toddler has become a member of Mensa aged four and already knows all 50 American states and the alphabet in three languages. Talented Izaak Miller, from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, has an IQ of 154 - the top one per cent for his age range - and passed the admission test for the prestigious intelligence club aged three before being accepted last month, when his letter arrived on April 24. It is thought that both physicist Albert Einstein and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had an IQ of 160, although neither men completed a standard formal test. Izaak taught himself to read books at the age of two and can write the English, Greek and Arabic alphabet - despite having no Greek or Arabic heritage. Mother Michelle Nelson, 32, said 'he just loves language' and has already asked for books of the Russian alphabet. A toddler (pictured) has become a member of Mensa and already knows all 50 American states and the alphabet in three languages Four-year-old Izaak Miller (pictured with his mother and father) has an IQ of 154 - the top one per cent for his age range - and passed the admission test for the prestigious intelligence club aged three before being accepted last month Izaak has a reading age of seven and maths skills usually seen in the average six-and-a-half-year-old. He learned the the Greek and Arabic alphabet by teaching himself from YouTube videos. The elite group Mensa welcomes people whose IQ is in the top two per cent of the population. Most people score between 85 and 115 points, while only two per cent of the world population get above 130. Ms Nelson, a secondary school teacher, said: 'Izaak is my only child so going through the process of parenting I was shocked that one day he could just read. 'It was more from being outside with him and him reading signs on the bus and the Underground, reading names of stations and reading instructions on posters. 'People were looking at him and asking whether he was at school because they couldn't believe a child that young could read. Every time I walk out the house someone compliments him.' Izaak (above), of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, taught himself to read books by the age of two and can write the English, Greek and Arabic alphabet - despite having no Greek or Arabic heritage Mother Michelle Nelson, 32, said 'he just loves language' and has already asked for books of the Russian alphabet. Pictured: Izaak playing outside Ms Nelson has an eight-year-old step-daughter, Layla Miller, but raised her from when the youngster was three-years-old, so did not know what to expect during Izaak's early years. What is Mensa and how do you join? Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister, and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer. The society welcomes people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top two per cent of the population. Albert Einstein apparently had an IQ of 160, while former US presidents Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Bill Clinton also racked up very high IQs - mustering 128, 160 and 137 respectively. Napoleon Bonaparte scored 145 and Sigmund Freud had a score of 156. Children under the age of 10-and-a-half can join Mensa by submitting prior evidence of their IQ score being in the top two per cent. Adults and children over the age of 10-and-a-half, take the Mensa Supervised IQ Test. The youngest person to ever join British Mensa was Elise Tan Roberts in 2009 aged 2 years and four months. Advertisement Izaak can also count to 10 in Spanish, knows all the planets in order, and spends time putting alphabet blocks by corresponding items, such as 'A' next to his 'aquarium.' Ms Nelson added: 'I had to tell the nursery [about his Arabic] - they thought he was writing nonsense! They couldn't believe it because none of them know that alphabet.' Izaak took the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence test with educational psychologist Dr Peter Congdon. Dr Congdon recommended he gets tested again in two to four years to see how his IQ improves. His report described Izaak as 'a child of very superior general intelligence and scholastic attainments to match'. Because Mensa's tests can not be applied to under 10-year-olds, they must take an independent assessment beforehand as prior evidence for the application. '[Izaak] likes to ask questions and act like a teacher,' Ms Nelson added. In lockdown he has been performing science experiments, creating volcanoes with bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and food colouring, for instance. She said: 'It is exhausting - especially with lockdown - but rewarding. Every time I look at him I feel nothing but pride. 'People say to me he is going to go on to do fantastic things. I have high aspirations for him. I know he can achieve and do great things.' Ms Nelson said her and Izaak's dad Jon Miller, 31, an engineer, don't know where his love of learning came from - but just try to stop him getting bored. Pictured: Izaak playing outside Ms Nelson said people often assume his intelligence is because she is a teacher and picked up her love of learning. 'People thought I was home schooling him but I wasn't,' she added. 'He picks up everything like a sponge.' She said her and Izaak's dad Jon Miller, 31, an engineer, don't know where his love of learning came from - but just try to stop him getting restless. 'I teach children myself and the one worry for me, especially with boys, is that he doesn't get bored,' she said. For his birthday he asked for a telescope, and his mother insisted he has no interest in toys or films like Marvel or Spiderman. Pictured: The toddler completes a game 'He has the tendency to be lazy and I don't want him to be that cool kid where he feels it's not cool to be smart and suddenly he becomes lazy.' For his birthday he asked for a telescope, and his mother insisted he has no interest in toys or films like Marvel or Spiderman. 'There is no point trying to encourage him to play with these toys - he isn't interested,' she said. And despite his brains she insisted he retains a 'great sense of humour', telling jokes like: 'Where does a cow hang its paintings? In a moo-seum.' 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The force, to be drawn from among pensioners and the unemployed, is the brainchild of Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia and Antonio Decaro, mayor of the southern city of Bari. The civil protection unit, which manages the various volunteers helping to fight against the COVID-19 epidemic that has caused nearly 33,000 deaths in Italy, would be charged with the recruitment. They would answer questions and remind the public of social distancing rules, or the need to wear masks, in crowded areas such as beaches, parks and city streets. The volunteers would not be able to fine people. Decaro said Monday that some of these potential volunteers had already "helped deliver groceries or medicines to those who could not leave their homes during the crisis." "In this new phase, they will help control access to parks or markets, counting the number of people entering or leaving, or explaining the rules of access to beaches when they reopen," Decaro, who is also president of the Association of Italian Municipalities, said in a statement. Some authorities said they welcomed the idea of more help in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis as they struggle with crowd control at bars, cafes and beaches after two months of lockdown. "Civic assistants can be useful," said Paolo Truzu, mayor Sardinia's capital Cagliari, adding that he envisioned them helping on his city's beaches. Others, however, scoffed at the idea. "How can we think that 60,000 people found who knows where, trained who knows where will be going around Italy telling Italians what to do on the basis of rules that nobody understands?" asked former government minister Carlo Calenda, leader of the small centrist Azione party, on Twitter. "Is this normal and legitimate in a democratic country?" Giordano Masini, member of the pro-European Piu Europa (More Europe) party, said what Italy needed was more capable professionals. "We need doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers, educated people," Masini said. Technavio has been monitoring the automotive premium audio system market and it is poised to grow by USD 13.86 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 6% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005393/en/ Technavio has announced the latest market research report titled Global Automotive Premium Audio System Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. Alpine Electronics Inc., B&W Group Ltd., Bang Olufsen AS, Bose Corp., Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH, Dirac Research AB, Koninklijke Philips NV, Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp., and Stillwater Designs, are some of the major market participants. Although improved sound quality and control will offer immense growth opportunities, high cost associated with premium audio systems will challenge the growth of the market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Improved sound quality and control has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, high cost associated with premium audio systems might hamper the market growth. Automotive Premium Audio System Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Automotive Premium Audio System Market is segmented as below: Application Luxury Cars Mid-size Passenger Cars Geography APAC North America Europe MEA South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40855 Automotive Premium Audio System Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our automotive premium audio system market report covers the following areas: Automotive Premium Audio System Market Size Automotive Premium Audio System Market Trends Automotive Premium Audio System Market Industry Analysis This study identifies the development of speaker-less automotive audio system as one of the prime reasons driving the automotive premium audio system market growth during the next few years. Automotive Premium Audio System Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the automotive premium audio system market, including some of the vendors such as Alpine Electronics Inc., B&W Group Ltd., Bang Olufsen AS, Bose Corp., Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH, Dirac Research AB, Koninklijke Philips NV, Panasonic Corp., Sony Corp., and Stillwater Designs. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the automotive premium audio system market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Automotive Premium Audio System Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist automotive premium audio system market growth during the next five years Estimation of the automotive premium audio system market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the automotive premium audio system market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automotive premium audio system market vendors Table Of Contents: Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2019-2024 Five Forces Analysis Five Forces Summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Application Market segments Comparison by Application Luxury cars Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Mid-size passenger cars Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Application Customer Landscape Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Overview Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Alpine Electronics Inc. B&W Group Ltd. Bang Olufsen AS Bose Corp. Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH Dirac Research AB Koninklijke Philips NV Panasonic Corp. Sony Corp. Stillwater Designs Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005393/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ New Delhi: India and Australia are expected to make bilateral diplomatic history by signing an agreement for reciprocal access to military logistics facilities and other pacts aimed at developing alternative supply chains when the two sides hold their first virtual summit on June 4. The summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison, yet to be formally announced, will be held against the backdrop of heightened friction with China for both countries. It will be Modis first virtual bilateral summit and the first time several bilateral agreements will be concluded virtually since the Covid-19 outbreak, two people familiar with development said. The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), finalised at the 2+2 or combined dialogue of the foreign and defence secretaries in New Delhi last December, was to be signed during Morrisons visit in January, which was called off due to the Australian bushfires. With joint exercises and defence cooperation between India and Australia on the upswing, MLSA will remove the need for protracted negotiations for reciprocal access to logistics support every time a manoeuvre is organised, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. It will also improve interoperability between the armed forces of the two sides. Between 2016 and 2019, India has signed similar logistics exchange agreements with the US, Singapore, France and South Korea. While the conclusion of MLSA is significant as the two sides have been negotiating it for some time, there is greater buzz about agreements to be signed in science and technology, research, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and rare earth metals and critical minerals which are aimed at creating supply chains in strategic areas that are less dependent on China, the people said. Even before the Covid-19 crisis, the two sides were exploring the possibility of cooperating on rare earth metals such as lithium, neodymium and dysprosium, of which Australia has the worlds sixth largest reserves. More than 90% of Indias imports of rare earth metals, worth $3.4 million in 2016, come from China. The two sides will also look at enhancing their partnership in education as part of measures to shift the focus of Australian universities on the Chinese market, the people said. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, Australia was home to some 90,000 Indian students. Were also looking at agreements in the maritime sphere and water resources and negotiations are underway on some other issues. Research and collaboration on Covid-19 will also figure in the discussions, said one of the people cited above. Morrison has described India as a natural partner for Australia, and Australian high commissioner Barry OFarrell has said the two sides have had regular discussions about how they can shape the post-Covid world order. In this context, OFarrell said Australia supports Indias call for reforming the World Health Organization (WHO) after overcoming the Covid-19 crisis. While tensions between India and China are at a high following the standoff between their border troops in Ladakh, Australias relations with China too took a hit after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nitin Pai, director of the Takshashila Institution, said it made absolute economic sense for India and Australia to reduce the risk of their exposure to China even if the two countries were not grappling with tensions with China and the Covid-19 crisis. It makes a lot of sense to find a diversity of suppliers on one hand, and to find a diversity of customers for products on the other, he said, adding the existing geopolitical risks, the pandemic, and travel restrictions make it vital not to put all eggs in one basket and to build a diversity of economic partnerships. On Tuesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that he had spoken on telephone with his Australian counterpart Linda Reynolds and discussed the response of both sides to the Covid-19 pandemic and possible areas of cooperation. India-Australia strategic partnership provides a good base for both the countries to work together in dealing with the post COVID challenges. We are committed to take forward the initiatives of bilateral defence and security cooperation under the Strategic Partnership framework, Singh added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The White House will not meet its goal of having every nursing home resident and staff member tested for the novel coronavirus. Nearly two weeks ago, the Trump administration asked all states to meet the target by this week. A review by The Associated Press found that at least half of the states are not going to meet the deadline - and some aren't even bothering to try. Only a handful of states, including Rhode Island and West Virginia, have said they've already tested every nursing home resident. Many states said the logistics, costs and manpower needs are too great to test all residents and staff in a two-week window. Some say they need another week or so, while others say they need much more time. California, the most populous state, said it is still working to release a plan that would ensure testing capacity for all residents and staff at skilled nursing facilities statewide. And still other states are questioning whether testing every nursing home resident and staff, regardless of any other factors, is a good use of time and money. Two weeks ago, the White House asked that all states test every nursing home resident and staff member for coronavirus over the next two weeks. Pictured: Dr Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaks with reporters on May 22 Only a few states, such as Delaware, Rhode Island and West Virginia, have tested every resident. Pictured: President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump return to the White House in Washington, DC following their participation in a Memorial Day Ceremony, May 25 Some states they need another week while others say they don't have the resources or manpower to do what the White House is asking. Pictured: Residents from St. Joseph's Senior Home are helped on to buses in Woodbridge, NJ after an outbreak at the facility, March 25 'At this time it would be fairly useless to do that,' said Nebraska Chief Medical Officer Dr Gary Anthone. He added that the state would have to repeat the tests almost daily to get more than a snapshot in time, an dNebraska doesn't have the capacity when there are others who need to be tested. Anthone said the state was going to stick with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidelines, which call for testing individually when nursing home residents show symptoms or collectively if there is a new confirmed case of COVID-19 in a home. The varying responses by states to nursing home testing is another example of the country's patchwork response to the pandemic that also underscores the Trump administration's limited influence. The president has preferred to offload key responsibilities and decisions to states and governors, despite calls for a coordinated national response. 'All of this is probably not as well thought out as it could have been.' said Dr Jim Wright, the medical director at a Virginia nursing home where dozens of residents have died. 'It sounds more like an impulsive type of directive rather than one that has been completely vetted by providers on the ground.' On May 11, Trump heralded his administration's efforts to boost coronavirus testing and said the US had developed the 'most advanced robust testing system in the world, by far.' That same day, Vice President Mike Pence hosted a private conference call with the states' governors, during which White House adviser Dr Deborah Birx requested that each state target nursing homes to help lower the virus death toll. 'Start now,' Pence added, according to a recording of the call obtained by the AP. Trump said later that day at a news conference that he was thinking of making it a mandatory requirement. 'I think it's very important to do and I think, frankly, some of the governors were very lax with respect to nursing homes,' Trump said. Birx acknowledged Friday that the two-week recommendation was a challenge but said it was needed because of the particular vulnerability of nursing homes. 'We should never be discouraged by those who can't get it done,' she said. 'We should be encouraged by those who have shown us that it can be done.' Nursing homes residents, who are typically older and often have underlying medical conditions, have been particularly hard hit by the virus. More than 36,000 residents and staff have died from outbreaks at the nation's nursing homes and long-term care facilities, according to an AP tally. That equates to more than one-third of all deaths in the US that have been attributed to the virus. Nursing home operators have said the lack of testing kits and other resources have left them nearly powerless to stop the virus from entering their facilities because they haven't been able to identity silent spreaders not showing symptoms. The American Health Care Association, the main nursing home trade group, said more than half of its members said they were unable to test all residents and staff within two weeks because of a lack of access to testing. The group also estimates that testing every nursing home resident and staff member would involving testing nearly three million people at a cost of $440 million. Even with the tests, nursing homes struggle to find people to administer them and carve out enough time to perform them. New York, one of the nation's leaders in nursing home deaths, said this past week it has sent out enough kits to all nursing homes to test every resident though it remains unclear whether they will be done by the deadline. Delaware Gov John Carney announced a plan on May 5 for universal testing of all residents and staff in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, but the testing program is voluntary. On Friday, the state said three-quarters of long-term care facilities had requested testing kits, and that weekly testing of staff would be mandatory starting in June. Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris said meeting the White House's recommendation would mean testing 50,000 people in two weeks when it took three months for the state to test 150,000 people. 'It;s just not possible,' Harris said. Photo: (Photo : Facebook/Lorena Gallo Foundation) In 1993, Lorena Bobbitt was assaulted by her ex-husband, John Bobbitt, so she chopped off his penis with a kitchen knife. Americans will surely not forget the name Lorena Bobbitt for being notorious after she topped the headlines. Charged with malicious wounding and kept behind bars for decades, she testified later on that John Bobbitt assaulted her on that bloody night, and similar assaults also happened many times during their marriage. Read also: Jamie King's Husband Kyle Newman Accuses Her of Drug Addiction How Lorena Bobbitt and John Bobbitt met Lorena was born on October 31, 1971, in Bucay, Ecuador. She and her two other siblings grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. The family had a trip to the US, and she decided to move into the country. She obtained a student visa in 1987 and studied at a community college in Virginia, where she met John one year after. Lorena Bobbitt and John Bobbit incident In 1989, the pair got married. In the summer of 1993, their relationship made the front news after the police called their home multiple times. Lorena testified in court that she attacked her ex-husband minutes after he tried to assault her. She said she was crying and just wanted to get a glass of water, but when she got into the kitchen, she then picked up a knife and returned to their bedroom. She told ABC News that she took the sheets off and cut him. After that, she fled the scene with the knife still in her hands and her ex's severed penis on the other. While she was driving to her friend's house, she tossed John's private part out of the window, and the doctors were able to locate it and reattach it to John. Lorena was found not guilty by temporary insanity on January 21, 1994, so she was sent to a psychiatric facility where she spent her 45 days. In 1995, six years after their marriage, Lorena and John split up. Read also: Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green Divorce: 3 Signs That They Were Separating Lorena Bobbitt's net worth Lorena is now with her long-time partner, David Bellinger, but they never got married. They have a daughter named Olivia. Lorena told USA Today that she believes that marriage is an institution, and she respects that. She said that it was her choice. Her partner even told her that when she is ready to tie the knot, he would just show up. Read also: 9 Helpful Tips to a Long Lasting Marriage As a cosmetologist and a real estate agent, Lorena founded the Lorena Gallo Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to giving support for domestic abuse victims. Lorena's net worth is around $250,000, according to most publications. Celebrity Net Worth stated that John Bobbitt also has the same net worth. John Bobbitt appeared on an episode of "Scandal Made Me Famous" in 2016, where he said that he does not blame Lorena because they both hurt each other. He also said that he wishes Lorena the best. The police will deploy 3,000 agents to protect the local Parliament. Tensions are high in the city due to Beijings national security law. For HK Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the anthem bill does not threaten our freedoms. Hong Kong (AsiaNews) More than 30 trade unions have announced a general strike tomorrow against a bill that criminalises insulting Chinas national anthem. Student groups, including from secondary schools, plan to join the unions and boycott classes. Online, motorists are being encouraged to slow down traffic to block the main roads. Pro-democracy groups oppose the obligation to sing and show respect to Chinas national anthem. In their view, such a draconian measure violates the rights of the local population. Offenders could get up to three years in prison, and a fine of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars (US,450). The second reading of the national anthem bill is set to resume at the LegCo on Wednesday afternoon. Pro-democracy activists are hoping to repeat the protests of 2 June 2019, which saw tens of thousands of people besiege the LegCo building and force pro-Beijing lawmakers to put the bill on hold. The police will deploy 3,000 agents to protect lawmakers. The final vote of the anthem law is scheduled for 4 June, the day on which the victims of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989 are commemorated in Victoria Park. Hong Kong is the only place in China where the tragic event is remembered every year, but this year it might not occur because of the extension of the lockdown. Tensions are running high in the city. Hundreds of people took to the streets today to protest against Beijing's national security law. This was the first real rally after months under government restrictions that limited gatherings to eight people or less. Police arrested 180 protesters and at least 10 activists were injured and taken to hospital. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said that the bill, pushed for by Beijing, will not affect civil and political rights. Under the agreements between China and the United Kingdom, which controlled Hong Kong until 1997, the latter was granted a broad degree of political and economic autonomy until 2047. For pro-democracy protesters, Lam is guilty of accepting Beijing's interference in Hong Kong affairs. The authorities have faced repeated protests by anti-government groups for months. The latter began with the proposed extradition law, which was later withdrawn, but eventually morphed into a broader movement for democratic freedoms. Pacific Palisades, California--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Green Stream Holdings Inc. (OTC PINK: GSFI) ("Green Stream", "GSFI", or the "Company"), an emerging leader in the democratization of solar energy through innovative solar energy generation facilities and designs, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its community solar pilot project agreement with Genesis Petroleum Inc. ("Genesis"), a regional leader in the service station marketplace based in Suffolk County, NY. The expanded agreement provides for Green Stream to construct and install canopies at five Genesis service stations located in high-traffic areas with strong access to direct sunlight in the Long Island area. Each canopy is designed to harvest solar energy, which is then sold back into the local energy grid, with a share of the associated revenue stream going to Green Stream, from which fixed monthly payments will go to Genesis. "While this agreement has significant value in and of itself, it is also the beginning stages of a long-term strategy as it represents a pilot project to establish a case study we can take to similar businesses as we continue to scale our community solar model," stated Madeline Cammarata, President of Green Stream Holdings. "We know the model works for our investors. We know it works for Genesis, too. And, most importantly, we know it can work for thousands of locations across the country. This deal allows us to prove it, while driving clean renewable energy into the grid at competitive pricing." Management notes that the overall model provides for construction and installation of the solar canopies based on designs by the Company's partner, Morali Architects, the leading architecture firm run by renowned architect, Antony Morali. The Company has contracted Green Hybrid Energy Solutions, Inc, a top regional solar energy solutions company certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), to handle construction and installation of the canopies. Construction and installation costs will be heavily subsidized by federal, state, and local solar energy subsidies. The Company expects this agreement could be expanded to additional locations owned and operated by Genesis. Once completed and fully operational, these units and locations will represent a tangible revenue driver for Green Stream. In addition, operational success at these locations should help to attract additional partners interested in participating in the Company's roll-out while contributing to the financial, economic, and ecological well-being of their surrounding communities. Cammarata continued, "We are laying a foundation right now for something that can succeed on a much larger scale. The model works, and we have special technology, designs, and relationships that are necessary to the success of this model on a nationwide scale." About Green Stream Finance, Inc.: Green Stream Finance, Inc., a Wyoming-based corporation with satellite offices in Malibu, CA and New York, NY, is focused on exploiting currently unmet markets in the solar energy space, and is currently licensed in California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Colorado, Hawaii, and Canada. The Company's next-generation solar greenhouses, constructed and managed by Green Rain Solar, LLC, a Nevada-based division, utilize proprietary greenhouse technology and trademarked design developed by world-renowned architect Mr. Antony Morali. The Company is currently targeting high-growth solar market segments for its advanced solar greenhouse and advanced solar battery products. The Company has a growing footprint in the significantly underserved solar market in New York City where it is targeting 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of rooftop space for the installation of its solar panels. Green Stream is looking to forge key partnership with major investment groups in order to capitalize on a variety of unique investment opportunities in the commercial solar energy markets. The Company is dedicated to becoming a major player in this critical space. Through its innovative solar product offerings and industry partnerships, the Company is well-positioned to become a significant player in the solar space. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. That includes the possibility that the business outlined in this press release cannot be concluded for some reason. That could be as a result of technical, installation, permitting or other problems that were not anticipated. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Green Stream Finance, Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein. Except for any obligation under the U.S. federal securities laws, Green Stream Finance, Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Company Contact/Address Green Stream Finance Inc. & Green Rain Solar, LLC 16620 Marquez Avenue Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 Phone: 310-230-0240 For All Inquiries Contact: info@greenstreamfinance.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56546 ABC News One day after President Joe Biden appeared to cast doubt on whether the midterm election results will be legitimate without the passage of a new voting rights law, his vice president and press secretary worked to dispel any mistrust in the integrity of the vote. "Speaking of voting rights legislation, if this isn't passed, do you still believe the upcoming election will be fairly conducted and its results will be legitimate?" a reporter asked Biden Wednesday at a lengthy press conference marking the end of his first year in office. "Well, it all depends on whether or not we're able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election," Biden said. Minister of Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa has said his ministry developed a plan for re-opening mosques, noting that it will be reviewed by the government's coronavirus crisis management committee early next week. In a statement released on Tuesday, Gomaa added that this plan was prepared upon directives of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly before Eid Al-Fitr after citizens showed a great deal of awareness and commitment while performing Tarawih prayers during the holy month of Ramadan and Eid prayers, which had been limited to a small number of worshipers. The minister explained that heads of the ministry's religious and directorates' sectors were ordered to take all necessary precautionary measures to ensure a safe distance between worshipers at mosques. The government has shuttered mosques and churches nationwide last March in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus Meanwhile, Gomaa noted that the Endowments Ministry will begin Saturday to distribute 320,000 meters of prayer rugs to all directorates across the nation. Search Keywords: Short link: "When I get the email I will say that [Mr McGowan] is incorrect. "I think it's important not to elevate the language on this at the moment." Mr McGowan had said the ship was cleared to dock at Fremantle Port on May 22 by the federal Department of Agriculture despite the ship's master reporting to the Commonwealth that some crew members had high temperatures. "Were trying to get to the bottom of it, I dont want to point fingers at this point in time, we're just trying to work out whats going on," he said. "Obviously were very concerned and to a degree disappointed [the ship was allowed to dock]. "Clearly if theres cases of people reporting high temperatures on board, that should be reported and red flags should be raised." The Premier said there were still 42 crew on the ship who would be monitored by health officials. "I suspect it is probably more than likely that more crew members may become infected with the virus," he said. An investigation was under way as to why the approval was granted and why the Fremantle Port Authority was not informed crew on the ship were ill and only discovered the cluster through "word of mouth" on the ground. Late on Tuesday, the Australian Border Force released a statement that said it had completed all customs and immigration-related clearances but was not notified of any illnesses onboard the ship prior to its arrival in port on Friday. WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said half a dozen Fremantle Port workers had boarded the ship in recent days and were now self-isolating. The Al Kuwait docked in Fremantle. Credit:Cameron Myles He said no crew had disembarked the vessel prior to the testing despite having served their 14 day quarantine period at sea. "The crew are multi-national, there are two Australians amongst the 48 crew," he said. "The last port the vessel arrived from was the United Arab Emirates. "With merchant seamen there is a requirement that you have to quarantine for 14 days and in this instance once we became aware that there were people presenting as ill and they were given a very clear instruction that no one was to come ashore. "We need to maintain our vigilance, we need to be certain that any persons entering, living or operating within Western Australia do not come infected or do not spread the infection here." The ship was due to collect 56,000 sheep and was destined for Kuwait in the Middle East. The debacle comes as the final passenger from the Artania cruise ship was released from hospital in recent days after around 80 of the German-based cruise ship's crew and holiday-makers were struck down with the virus while the vessel was moored at Fremantle Port. "Straight away I had thoughts of the cruise ship saga," Mr McGowan said. "I thought these kind of situations were behind us. "I don't want this to become another Artania where we are dealing daily with this situation so what I think we need to do is learn the lessons of the Artania clean the ship, get the ship under way as soon as possible, deal with the health issues as quickly as possible." Health Minister Roger Cook said he didn't expect the virus to impact the livestock vessel crew as badly as it had the Artania, which had 800 people on board and three fatal cases. "I haven't received any reports as to their conditions, although you understand this isn't a ship full of older tourists, these are predominantly young merchant sailors so from that perspective they'll probably have flu-like symptoms for a few days while they make their way through the disease," he said. The European Central Bank (ECB) should not need to take into account the size of a country's economy when buying government bonds as part of its stimulus program, a member of the central bank has told CNBC. The comments by Banque de France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau come after the German constitutional court said earlier this month that the ECB should keep that link to avoid the risk of distorting markets. The ECB has been buying large amounts of government bonds as part of its wider effort to mitigate the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis. Its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP), announced in March, will see it buy 750 billion euros ($818 billion) by the end of the year. However, the program is different from other bond-buying initiatives, where the central bank links its monthly purchases to the size of a country's economy. Speaking to CNBC Tuesday, de Galhau said the stimulus program should remain flexible. "PEPP is not only about volume, its main innovation is its flexibility ... we are not bound to a fixed amount per month and we are not bound to predetermined partition through asset classes and through jurisdictions. So we are open on the volume, we are open on the end date, which is linked to the end date of the Covid crisis and in any case not before the end of this year, but still more if we want to guarantee the maximum efficiency of PEPP we shouldn't be bound to capital keys," he said. Twenty years after Linda Burney helped organise the iconic walk for reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the federal Labor MP fears there is not enough political will to achieve the next phase of Indigenous recognition. Ms Burney, who chaired the NSW Reconciliation Committee in 2000, vividly remembers the morning of the bridge march: "We had absolutely no idea if anyone would turn up." Federal Labor MP Linda Burney was a key organiser of the 2000 walk for reconciliation. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer She neednt have worried. Around 300,000 people turned out on that crisp May morning to support meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous Australians. "It was one of the most remarkable days of my life," Ms Burney said. (TNS) The concept of contact tracing may be new to many Ohioans during the coronavirus pandemic, but it's a process that health agencies have used for decades to help stop the spread of infectious diseases."The eradication of smallpox, for example, was achieved not by universal immunization alone, but by exhaustive contact tracing to find all infected persons," said Susan Varnes, the director of patient care at the Wayne County Health Department.The county health department performs contact tracing on a daily basis for a wide variety of communicable diseases, which are diseases that can be transmitted from one person to another either through contact with blood and bodily fluids, breathing in an airborne virus, or by being bitten by an insect.Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Wayne County Health Department had one full-time and one part-time communicable disease nurse dedicated to contact tracing. Two more nurses are now assisting to follow up with every confirmed case that is reported to the agency."They are very busy," said Varnes, who is helping with contact tracing on a part-time basis during the pandemic.Currently, the health department is managing contact tracing internally, but it has received numerous phone calls and emails from people wanting to serve as contact tracers. Their contact information is being saved and if the situation evolves, the health agency will reach out to them.The goals of contact tracing are to interrupt the ongoing transmission of the disease and reduce the spread of infection; alert contacts to the possibility of infection and offer preventative counseling or care; offer diagnosis, counseling and treatment to already infected individuals; and if the infection is treatable, help prevent reinfection of the originally infected individual.Contact tracing also helps the health care community learn more about the causes of a disease, its patterns of transmission and how it affects particular populations.An exhaustive contact tracing effort helped to eradicate smallpox in the mid-20th century along with universal immunization. Contact tracers found all infected individuals, who were then isolated and the surrounding community and contacts at-risk of contracting smallpox were immunized.The Wayne County Health Department doesn't learn about an infectious disease case unless that person seeks medical care and/or has lab work done.The majority of the health agency's case load (99.6%) falls under class B notifiable diseases AIDS, hepatitis, influenza and Lyme disease which don't have to be reported until the end of the next business day. Class A diseases, such as measles or meningococcal disease, require notification within 24 hours.An outbreak situation like COVID-19 is treated with high priority, according to Varnes. An aggressive investigative approach is implemented to contain the number of people affected and protect those at risk.Contact tracing happens on a daily basis, predominantly through phone calls, though some at-risk individuals receive a notification in the mail. Phone numbers and addresses come through a demographic report taken by the health agency of the infected person.The contact tracers will ask the infected person the last day she went to work, her occupation, when she got sick, and if she knows the source of exposure. Sometimes the patient is in the hospital and the health department will call to confirm the patient's status.In previous situations, the health department would have trouble reaching a spouse if they were in the hospital with their significant other. Since the hospitals are limiting visitors during the coronavirus pandemic, family members are usually home.Higher risk patients like health care workers are asked what patients they've seen, what other workers they've come in contact with, and if they work in a COVID-19 unit or in an emergency department.The Ohio Department of Health warned of scammers posing as contact tracers. The Wayne County Health Department and other legitimate health agencies will never ask for a person's Social Security or bank account information. The state health department also said to never click on a link or respond to a text saying you have been exposed to COVID-19.The Wayne County Health Department will only know if a person is positive for COVID-19 if they reach out to a health care provider. Varnes noted several populations in the county that likely won't reach out for testing and therefore will never be counted."Internally, we have them on our radar but we have to be careful not to discriminate," Varnes said. "The undocumented population may not reach out. Certain cohorts likely won't reach out for medical-related services unless extremely ill."Testing only provides a small window into the spread of the virus, but the unfortunate spread in several nursing homes has given the health department a better idea of how asymptomatic people can transmit the disease. These facilities locked down early before any confirmed cases of COVID-19, and Varnes said it's likely an asymptomatic worker brought the virus inside.They likely "carried it in innocently and unknowingly," Varnes said. "It's a good way to measure community spread with asymptomatic people. It's scary too."The outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019 began in Wuhan, China, in December. The first U.S. confirmed case was in Washington state on Jan. 21, and Ohio confirmed its first cases on March 9 in Cuyahoga County. Wayne County reported its first confirmed case on March 24. Reach Emily at 330-287-1632 or emorgan@the-daily-record.com . On Twitter: @mogie242 2020 The Daily Record, Wooster, OhioVisit The Daily Record, Wooster, Ohio at www.the-daily-record.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The long-term health effects of the virus are unknown, and Covid-19 survivors can face prolonged and uncertain recoveries. Experts at Mount Sinai Hospital predict that 25 percent to 40 percent of emergency medical workers and health care workers on duty in this pandemic will experience PTSD. To lessen the strain on hospitals in the first few weeks of the pandemic, people who thought they had the coronavirus were instructed to stay home until they could not breathe without assistance. As a result, paramedics were often called to help the sickest patients: those in severe respiratory distress, failure or arrest. In the first weeks of April, the number of cardiac arrests, many of them in Covid-19 patients, handled by Emergency Medical Services increased nearly fivefold compared to the same period last year. The chest compressions, positive-pressure ventilations, oxygenation and advanced airway insertion required in these cases can expel droplets of the coronavirus from the lungs into the air. These droplets from the sickest Covid-19 patients carry higher concentrations of virus than those of the more mildly ill. Exposure to this higher viral load increases the likelihood of transmission and the severity of the resulting illness. In the first months of the pandemic, personal protective equipment was scarce. N-95 masks that were never rated to be used longer than a few hours were worn eight to 16 hours at a time, stored in paper bags between shifts and reused until the seals gave out or bands snapped. There was no guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to clean them because single-use disposable masks were never meant to be cleaned. Disposable face shields were also reused or came from home. It wasnt uncommon to see providers wearing wood-shop respirators or chemistry-lab face shields. In response to these shortages, we providers watched the C.D.C. guidelines once evidence-based gold standards of personal protection become a sliding scale of increasingly less-safe options until supply chains are restored. It wasnt long until I saw a Photoshopped picture of the New York City E.M.T. patch reading Expendable Medical Technician. A domestic violence strategy has been adopted by Brisbane City Council amid criticism from opposition councillors that the document does not go far enough. The strategy was first called for last year by deputy opposition leader Kara Cook, and was unanimously supported at the time. Council drafted the strategy for domestic violence after a bipartisan motion last year. The draft document was submitted to council for approval at Tuesday's meeting, and while its intent and priorities were endorsed by the council, Cr Cook (Morningside) and independent councillor Nicole Johnston (Tennyson) questioned its impact. LNP councillor Fiona Cunningham (Coorparoo) welcomed the strategy, speaking about the devastating consequences of the Hannah Clarke murders on her community. Japanese consumers are spending more on masks, cleaning products and personal sanitizers while sales of makeup and motion sickness medicine take a major hit. Cosmetic companies are seeing demand plummet for lipstick, rouge and other beauty products as social-distancing becomes the new norm. According to Tokyo-based market research company Intage Holdings, on-year sales of lipstick fell 69.7% in the second week of May while cheek rouge dropped 47.4%. "Skin care becomes more important as people take measures against infection," Masahiko Uotani, president of cosmetics giant Shiseido told reporters on May 12 at its earnings conference. The company sees consumers with sensitive skin using more skin care products due to increased mask usage. Shiseido announced a 96% year-on-year dive in net income of 1.4 billion yen for the January-March quarter. The Japanese company has lately struggled with sales, especially in luxury brands popular with practically nonexistent Chinese tourists. The company said it will adjust to the pandemic-ravaged landscape by focusing on skin care and e-commerce, prioritizing the former as it sees little change in skin care routines. According to Uotani, "Skin care does not diminish" despite the coronavirus, and "consumers are more interested than ever in ethical [consumption]." He said Shiseido will speed efforts to promote ethical behavior and health conscious products. Consumer products maker Kao showed a 1% increase in net profit for the quarter ended March, thanks to surging sales of hand soap. But the Japanese company's cosmetics business saw a 12% drop in sales and 60% decrease in operating profit from a year earlier. Cosmetics comprise about 20% of total sales. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Uber India lays off 600 people, a quarter of its workforce in the country India oi-PTI New Delhi, May 26: Uber on Tuesday said it is laying off about 600 employees in India - about a quarter of its staff in the country - as business has taken a major hit amid COVID-19 pandemic. Uber India lays off 600 employees, earlier Ola let go of 1,400 amid Covid crisis | Oneindia News The development comes days after rival Ola had announced laying off 1,400 people from its rides, financial services and food business. Uber, in an e-mailed response, said the impacted positions include its driver and rider support operations, and other functions in India. Swiggy to lay off 1,100 employees due to COVID-19 impact "The impact of COVID-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India South Asia with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full-time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted," Uber India and South Asia President Pradeep Parameswaran said. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month, he added. Earlier this month, Uber had announced a reduction of customer support and recruiting teams by approximately 6,700 full-time employee roles and attributed the move to lower trip volumes and current hiring freeze. Parameswaran said each impacted employee will receive a minimum 10 weeks payout, medical insurance coverage for the next six months, out-placement support, and will be allowed to retain their laptops and given the option to join the Uber talent directory. "Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now, so we can look to the future with confidence. I want to apologise to departing colleagues, and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions...," he said. Uber has, in the past, spoken of the importance of the Indian market in its global business as a strategic market and for tech and engineering talent. In the past few weeks, a number of tech-led businesses like Zomato, Swiggy and ShareChat have announced layoffs as the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown dried up demand and ravaged businesses. COVID-19 could cost 135 mn jobs, push 120 mn people into poverty in India: Report Zomato has laid off 13 per cent of its 4,000-staff, while Swiggy said it will let go off 1,100 employees. ShareChat reduced headcount by 101 people. India had announced a nationwide lockdown from March 25, which left driver-partners of cab companies with no source of income as these firms were not allowed to operate. After 40 days of lockdown, some relaxations were provided in the third phase (May 4 onwards) and these companies were allowed to operate in orange and green zones. In the fourth phase (which ends May 31), these players have been allowed to operate in most areas (except containment areas) depending on state regulations. However, ride volumes have remained abysmally low compared to pre-COVID days. Industry watchers attribute the low demand volume to lack of trips that people make to offices, malls and airports. They are hopeful of demand picking up as more offices open and people resume work. Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, in an email to employees last week, had said the company's revenues had declined by 95 per cent in the last two months due to coronavirus pandemic. He had also made it clear that the prognosis ahead for the business is "very unclear and uncertain" and the impact of this crisis is "definitely going to be long-drawn for us". For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 16:29 [IST] ATHENS, Greece, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE: DSX), (the Company), a global shipping company specializing in the ownership of dry bulk vessels, today announced that on May 22, 2020, it signed a term loan facility with ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (the Lender), through six wholly-owned subsidiaries (the Borrowers), in the amount of US$52.885 million, divided into two tranches. The purpose of the loan facility was to combine the two loans outstanding with the Lender and extend the maturity of the loan maturing in March 2021 to the maturity of the other loan, maturing in June 2024. Diana Shipping Inc.s fleet currently consists of 41 dry bulk vessels (4 Newcastlemax, 13 Capesize, 5 Post-Panamax, 5 Kamsarmax and 14 Panamax). As of today, the combined carrying capacity of the Companys fleet is approximately 5.1 million dwt with a weighted average age of 9.69 years. A table describing the current Diana Shipping Inc. fleet can be found on the Companys website, www.dianashippinginc.com. Information contained on the Companys website does not constitute a part of this press release. About the Company Diana Shipping Inc. is a global provider of shipping transportation services through its ownership of dry bulk vessels. The Companys vessels are employed primarily on medium to long-term time charters and transport a range of dry bulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along worldwide shipping routes. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words believe, anticipate, intends, estimate, forecast, project, plan, potential, may, should, expect, pending and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, Company managements examination of historical operating trends, data contained in the Companys records and other data available from third parties. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies that are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond the Companys control, the Company cannot assure you that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in the Companys view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the severity, magnitude and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, including impacts of the pandemic and of businesses and governments responses to the pandemic on our operations, personnel, and on the demand for seaborne transportation of bulk products; the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for dry bulk shipping capacity, changes in the Companys operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for the Companys vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors. Please see the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Story continues Corporate Contact: Ioannis Zafirakis Director, Interim Chief Financial Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Treasurer and Secretary Telephone: + 30-210-9470-100 Email: izafirakis@dianashippinginc.com Website: www.dianashippinginc.com Investor and Media Relations: Edward Nebb Comm-Counsellors, LLC Telephone: + 1-203-972-8350 Email: enebb@optonline.net As of 5:45 p.m. Monday, May 25, the Tittabawassee River level was 15.95 feet and receding. This is below the flood stage of 24 feet. Temperatures over the next several days will see highs from 85 to 90 degrees with modest levels of humidity and the possibility for thunderstorms increasing throughout the week until Thursday. Residents and volunteers working outdoors should stay hydrated, take frequent breaks, and watch for signs of heat-related illness. Consult Before Pumping Water from Basement It is recommended that water not be pumped from flooded basements without first consulting a licensed building contractor or licensed restoration company. Grounds surrounding basement walls in flood-affected areas are still extremely saturated with ground water, which applies pressure against already-compromised or weakened foundations. Any water located in the interior of the structure equalizes that pressure. If pumped out too quickly, loss of that equalized pressure could cause basement walls to collapse. Please refrain from pumping out basements until the surrounding ground has dried. Alternatively, property owners should let the water drain naturally through the floor drain or consult a licensed restoration company who can advise on pumping the basement out safely. Licensed contractors and restoration companies will have the knowledge and expertise to determine if a flooded basement can and should have water pumped from it. Midland County residents who live in a township may contact their township supervisors office for a free assessment to determine if a basement should be pumped out or if the basement has noticeable structural damage. Construction Permits and Inspections for Flood-Damaged Properties and Infrastructure Property owners in Midland County are reminded that they should secure all required permits and inspections as they make repairs and replace infrastructure in their homes and businesses. The process for requesting these services is outlined below. Midland County: Residents in townships, the City of Coleman, or the Village of Merrill are encouraged to contact a licensed building contractor or restoration company to obtain the needed permits for their homes and businesses. To schedule an inspection or apply for a permit, contact the Township Code Authority of Midland County at 989-837-6521 or contact the appropriate department. Individual inspection departments can be reached as follows: Plumbing/mechanical 989-246-4817 Electrical 989-737-6375 Building 989-313-2168 To find building permit applications forms, building permit and inspection information coverage areas, and more, please visit www.townshipcodeauthority.com. City of Midland: To schedule a building inspection or apply for a building permit related to the recent flooding event in the City of Midland, residents should call the Building Department at 989-837-3383 and leave a voicemail message regarding their project or email the appropriate staff member. Individual inspectors can be reached as follows: Steve Taglauer, Chief Building Official staglaue@midland-mi.org Mike Streeter, Electrical Inspector mstreeter@midland-mi.org Jim Armstrong, Plumbing/Mechanical Inspector jvarmstrong@midland-mi.org For fire safety inspections and other plans related to fire safety, please contact Midland Fire Department Fire Marshal Tony Lelo at 989-837-3413 or alelo@midland-mi.org. To find City building permit applications forms, building permit and inspection information, and more, please visit www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/building. For fire department permit and inspection information, visit www.cityofmidlandmi.gov/fire. Fees will be waived for all City permits related to flood damage. Midland County Damage Assessment Midland County Emergency Management is taking damage reports for the recent flooding in Midland County. If you are a homeowner, business, or non-profit organization that has sustained any damage or loss as a result of the flood, please visit the Flood Damage Assessment Tool link at the following locations: Top of the County of Midland website: www.co.midland.mi.us Top of the City of Midland website: www.cityofmidlandmi.gov Via the direct link: https://arcg.is/1H00aG Residents and businesses are reminded to thoroughly document damage prior to demolition and restoration projects using written documentation, receipts, photos, and videos. This step is extremely important to assist in possibly receiving federal funding for Midland County. Once you click the link, you will be directed to a map. Enter the property address and search for the damaged property. When the property is found, a pop-up box will appear. Click the link Click here to fill out a damage report to be directed to the online form to report flood damage. The form takes approximately 5 10 minutes to complete and includes a section to provide photos of flood damage. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact 2-1-1 for assistance in completing the form. Volunteer Information All volunteers wanting to assist with flood cleanup in the greater Sanford area should report each day to one of two volunteer check-in locations: Sanford Family Pharmacy parking lot, 28 West Saginaw Road; or at the intersection of W. Center and Oak streets. Each volunteer will be assigned a clean-up site based upon their ability. Both volunteer check-in sites are open every day from 9 a.m. 5 p.m. To learn more about volunteer opportunities in Midland County or to find resources available for those affected by flooding, text UWS to 31996. Donation Information In collaboration with Dow and the Midland Emergency Operations Center (EOC), United Way of Midland County has created a process for those who wish to donate and those in need of items for flood relief. The Supplies Donations Plan provides a framework to collect and distribute donated items to those in need. The current list of items needed includes: Personal protective equipment (PPE) Cleaning supplies Food Water Personal care items Household goods Clothing donations will not be accepted at this time. Beginning Wednesday, May 27, the following locations will serve as both drop-off sites for individuals who wish to donate the items listed above and pick-up sites for individuals who need access to these supplies. These sites will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. at the following locations: West Midland Family Center, 4011 W. Isabella Road Coleman High School, 4951 N. Lewis Road Sanford Senior Center, 3243 N. West River Road Meridian Elementary School, 3343 N. Meridian Road North Family Center, 2601 E. Shearer Road Gladwin Parking lot behind Forge Fitness, 237 W. Cedar Avenue, Gladwin (Parking lot is at the corner of Arcade Street and Grout Street) Midland High School, 1301 Eastlawn Drive Bullock Creek High School, 1420 S. Badour Road Businesses or organizations who wish to donate items must first fill out the Supplies Donations Survey online at www.reliefmidland.org and click the link under Corporate Supplies Donations to complete a donation survey. United Way will be in contact with all survey submissions within 72 hours to discuss next steps. Urgent donations needs will be processed as soon as possible. Individuals should drop off donations only at the locations listed above. Businesses and organizations should complete the Supplies Donation Survey and should not simply show up at locations with donations. While well-intended, doing so can create confusion and ultimately cause more harm than good. The Supplies Donations Plan exists in order to get much-need items in the hands of those who need it most. Ongoing Safety Concerns for Dams, Lakes Due to imminent danger of flash flooding and further dam erosion and collapse, persons should not be in, on, or around the Edenville and Sanford Dams or walking and recreating in the Wixom and Sanford Lake beds. Rapid changes in water levels and ongoing flows from Beaverton Dam, the Tobacco River, and other tributaries are creating significant amounts of erosion to the dam structures still remaining. Health Information for Flood Clean-up Displaced residents who have not yet returned to their homes may do so, taking into consideration the safety of the structure and condition of utilities. The Midland County Department of Public Health urges residents to take precautions to protect themselves from the dangers of floodwater. Floodwaters contain many things that harm human health, so it is important to take all precautions possible during cleanup activities to protect from injury or disease. There are many resources available to help guide residents through this difficult process safely. Please visit the following sites for more detailed information on flood clean-up: https://www.co.midland.mi.us/HealthDepartment.aspx https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/floods/floodsafety.html https://www.epa.gov/natural-disasters/flooding Road Closures A number of street closures remain in effect throughout Midland County and a few in the City of Midland. Please visit www.midland911.org for a full list of street closures. Residents are advised to continue to obey all road closure signs and to stay clear of standing water, flooded areas, and debris left in the roadway. Do not attempt to drive or walk through standing water. Residents should take extra precaution where electrical items may be submerged. Debris Disposal Information The Midland Sanitary Landfill will be open to residential customers from 8:00 a.m. 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 24 and Monday, May 25 to dispose of trash, flood debris, and yard waste. The Landfill will then resume its regular operating hours, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. thereafter. Customers accessing the Landfill will be required to show proof of Midland County residency. Debris generated outside of Midland County will not be accepted. Due to the high anticipated volume of customers accessing the Landfill, wait times may be significant. In the City of Midland, residents may set flood debris and brush at the curb for collection. Crews will be working through Memorial Day weekend to provide collection to all areas of the city. Any debris at the curb should be considered contaminated with flood waters and a potential hazard. The Village of Sanford has dumpsters available downtown and volunteers available to assist with removal of items from residents vehicles. Curbside collection of flood debris will also be provided for village residents. Residents with flood debris should place their items at the curb for collection. Residents in other areas of Midland County should take flood debris and other items to the Midland Sanitary Landfill for disposal. Continue to monitor updates and conditions via the following resources: www.midland911.org www.cityofmidlandmi.gov Facebook channels for the following entities: Midland County Emergency Management (MI) Midland County 911 City of Midland, Michigan Municipal Government Twitter: @CityofMidlandMI Twitter: @MidlandCountyMI Call 2-1-1 Sign up for 911 text and email alerts through Nixle.com Shooting Leaves 2 Dead, 5 Injured at South Carolina Party Two people were killed and five others were injured in a shooting at a party in upstate South Carolina over the weekend, according to a news release issued by the Union County Sheriffs Office. Curtis Lamont Bomar, a 21-year-old from Spartanburg, died on the scene and Jabbrie Brandon, a 17-year-old from Union County, died at a hospital after the shooting that took place on May 23 night, reported the Associated Press. Some of the five people injured were bystanders. The party, held at three separate homes, had about 1,000 people in attendance, officials said. Deputies from the Union County Sheriffs Office arrived at the scene after receiving complaints about noise levels and parked cars on public roads. Deputies began towing some illegally parked vehicles about three hours after arriving on the scene, which was followed by someone yelling and then gunfire, reported AP. Witnesses said that as soon as the shooting began, partygoers started running away along the rural road and several people were trampled. You had the people that were hit and had gunshot wounds. We were trying to get to them and get EMS in there to help them, so very chaotic, said Major Scott Coffer from the sheriffs office. Two people were arrested for a lesser offense in connection to the crime but they could be charged with attempted murder and homicide, Coffer said. Investigators at the crime also found more than one firearm, meaning there may be more arrests later. When asked why the party wasnt broken up upon the deputies arrival at the scene, Taylor said the party wasnt illegal. From NTD News A Louisiana island President Theodore Roosevelt tried to save more than a century ago has been so damaged by the oil industry, so tangled with forgotten pipelines, gouged by canals and pockmarked by oil wells, that the state has finally decided to cut its losses and end a decades-long effort to restore it. But thats not before pouring nearly $20 million into East Timbalier Islands recovery, including more than $7 million spent on planning and designing an ambitious new project that the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority quietly canceled a few weeks ago. Its too far gone, said Darin Lee, a coastal resource scientist who manages the coastal protection agency's efforts to save East Timbalier, an uninhabited and rapidly eroding ribbon of sand about 40 miles south of Houma, and the two dozen other barrier islands protecting Louisianas coast. None of us wants to give up on this stretch of shoreline. Weve spent a lot of time there, and a lot of money. But its had a cascade of additional costs ... and its eroding very, very fast. The loss of East Timbalier would expose the 700-plus oil wells of Terrebonne and Timbalier bays to waves and storms they were not built to withstand. Also under East Timbaliers protection are the soft, marshy underbelly of Lafourche Parish, the mouth of Bayou Lafourche, a shipping channel that connects to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and the crowded docks of Port Fourchon, the service hub for 90% of the offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Anything we can put between us and a hurricane is good for us, said Windell Curole, manager of the South Lafourche Levee District. "Not having that island there, its a concern. Definitely a concern. Barrier islands are the first line of defense against hurricanes and storm surges. They act as speed bumps, taking some of the power from storms as they hurtle toward the mainland. Louisiana is investing heavily in them. The CPRA and other agencies put more than $800 million into bulking them up over the past 20 years. Despite that investment, Louisianas barrier islands are shrinking in number and size due to a host of factors erosion, rising seas, storm damage and subsidence, the natural compacting and sinking of the soil. But East Timbalier has eroded much faster, retreating by about 70 feet per year in recent decades. Now broken in two and less than 2 miles long, the island is a mere shadow of the long, sturdy chunk of land Roosevelt visited in 1915, eight years after he made East Timbalier one of the nations first wildlife sanctuaries. The protection didnt last. Most barrier islands are bereft of natural resources, but East Timbalier promised such a bonanza to oil companies that its federal protections were largely ignored and, in 1969, revoked. A slew of companies have drilled more than 160 wells in and around the island. Canals dug to locate fonts of oil were the first alteration that sped the islands unraveling. The canals allowed saltwater to seep in and the soil from the crumbling banks to flow out. In the 1960s, Gulf Oil, later subsumed by Chevron, built a 5-mile-long rock wall to protect its investments. It seemed logical: Drop hundreds of tons of rock to stop the pounding waves that threatened the wells. But the wall may have doomed the island. These rocks have consequences, Lee said. While it may have slowed shoreline erosion for a while, what you dont see under the water is the shore face, which continued to erode. Wave energy bounced off the rock and scoured out sand under the water line, making the bank steeper. "Eventually, the rocks collapsed, and they sit there, preventing recovery because no new sand can get back to the island," Lee said. And the steeper the slope, the faster and harder the waves strike, amplifying the damage of every storm. Since the 1990s, about $11.2 million has been spent restoring the islands dunes and marshes. CPRA planned to spend $160 million more to rebuild the island with sand dredged from Ship Shoal, a vast underwater sandbank. The project would have tripled East Timbaliers size, bringing it to about 460 acres. But the rock wall, coupled with recent storms, sped erosion beyond the rates CPRA had calculated when it began designing the project years ago. With all the human-induced factors all going on, and then some breaches by minor storms, it just wasnt cost-effective to continue, Lee said. 'Bird Island' Roosevelt knew East Timbalier was under threat, but his main concern was poachers. Several bird species, including terns and other seabirds, had been brought to the brink of extinction because their plumage was in high demand as adornment on ladies hats. Called Bird Island by locals, East Timbalier crowded with nests in spring, and in late winter, pelicans were said to darken the sky when they rose in flight. At least, thats how it was in Roosevelts day. In 1907, the champion of conservation and father of the national park system signed an executive order making East Timbalier and three other Louisiana islands Breton, Tern and Shell Keys federally protected bird sanctuaries. In 1915, Roosevelt traveled to the islands with members of the Louisiana Audubon Society. He came away awestruck. To lose the chance to see frigate-birds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time, he wrote. Masterpieces they may have been, but they didnt stand much chance against the oil boom of the 1930s. Wells and pipelines popped up unimpeded for decades. In 1969, President Richard Nixon revoked Roosevelts order, formalizing what had already happened the crowded bird sanctuary had become a crowded oil field. Oil leases continued to change hands, from Gulf Oil to Pioneer to Greenhill and others. There were oil spills, the largest of which released 96,000 gallons in 1992 and prompted the islands first restoration effort. An environmental assessment in 1993 found the island had lost about 90 acres since the 1970s. East Timbalier is now owned by the state, but production is still underway through state oil leases. Covington-based Krewe Energy took over most of the wells in 2017. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The island likely has more oil flow lines buried under or around it than any other barrier island on the Louisiana coast, CPRA officials say. Many of the pipelines were abandoned, poorly mapped and had no clear owner when CPRA began planning to restore the island in 2016. "It looks like a spiderweb of lines," Kenneth Bahlinger, the project's manager, said in 2017. The density of pipelines meant CPRA couldnt dredge or dike the area, as it had done on similar projects. Doing so might cause an oil spill, fouling an area they were trying to restore, as occurred when a contractor at a barrier island rebuild in Barataria Bay accidentally cut a pipeline and released 5,250 gallons of oil. The planning budget ballooned as CPRA engineers wrestled the projects complexity. They had to go back to their funder, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a Washington, D.C., environmental nonprofit, and ask for an extra $2.2 million on top of the $5.6 million theyd already received. The foundation's full $7.8 million contribution came out of money paid by BP and oil rig owner Transocean to settle criminal cases over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. So far, about $7 million has been spent. The remainder will go to other nearby restoration projects. As for the birds of "Bird Island," there likely hasnt been a significant nesting population on East Timbalier in years, said Erik Johnson, Louisiana Audubons director of bird conservation. Its pretty far gone, he said. Given the rate of erosion and the other challenges, it hasnt had much attention from us. Tactical retreat CPRA is shifting its focus to the tiny islands between East Timbalier and the shore. Some of the money earmarked for East Timbalier is now funding plans to possibly build up Casse-tete and Calumet islands, about 3 miles to the north. Were looking at the idea of falling back and maybe move sand and stack it there, Lee said. Its not ideal, and doesnt offer the same protection to Port Fourchon and South Lafourche as East Timbalier, but we dont want to leave that area open to the sea. The foundation stands by CPRA, even if most of its money went to a lost cause. Like the Louisiana coast, the Gulf seafloor is rapidly eroding, research finds Louisiana's land loss crisis doesn't stop at the coast. New research has found that the seafloor extending from the Mississippi River Delta in In a statement, the foundation said it has great confidence in CPRAs ability to identify and implement appropriate coastal projects that ... will create a better future for the environment and the citizens of Louisiana. CPRA has no plans to hold oil companies responsible for the project setbacks or the continuing damage to East Timbalier. Executive Director Bren Haase said the companies operating on the island now didnt cause its most serious problems. And its not as simple as remove a rock wall and problem solved, he said. It had its impact. The sediment that was there is gone. Krewe Energy, the islands main well operator, did not return calls and emails. The Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, which represents the companies that built much of the islands oil infrastructure, declined to comment on East Timbaliers restoration challenges. Going after the oil companies is likely a lost cause, said Curole, the Lafourche levee manager. Sometimes you get cooperation with them; sometimes its just a head-on collision, he said. Lafourche did not join seven other coastal parishes Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Bernard, Vermilion, Jefferson, Cameron and Orleans in suing oil and gas companies for widespread environmental damage. The lawsuits, which charge that the companies failed to follow state law in drilling wells, building canals, disposing of waste and restoring wetlands, have encountered fierce opposition in the Legislature. On Wednesday, May 20, the Senate narrowly passed a measure aimed at killing the lawsuits. Critics say the lawsuits are chilling investment in Louisiana. A big settlement could fund an array of restoration efforts as money from the BP settlement, a main funder of coastal projects, dwindles. Meanwhile, the CPRA is bracing for more challenges from leftover oil and gas infrastructure and other rock walls embedded in the coastline. Though they were built to stop erosion, restorationists have discovered that rock walls often have the opposite effect over time. The one built around Wine Island, about 15 miles from East Timbalier, no longer has an island to protect. The wall helped scour out the island, leaving a circle of rocks ringing an empty stretch of water. Rock walls that once stabilized Raccoon Island of the Isle Dernieres Barrier Islands Refuge in Terrebonne Parish are now causing the same amped-up erosion and shore steepening that afflicts East Timbalier. Despite all the lessons learned, rock walls are still being built along the coast. Jefferson Parish plans to drop more than 62,000 tons of rock along Grand Isle to protect it from storm surges and erosion. With the public, theres a lot of attraction to using rocks to save the coast, Lee said. But rocks can have problems that we have to deal with later. East Timbalier is the poster child of that. +15 Building barriers: Inside the race to save Louisiana's first line of storm defense Ten miles from Louisiana's receding shore, on an island that was on the verge of sinking away, new land is growing at a rate of 200 feet per day. The latest: World Health Organization temporarily pauses hydroxychloroquine study due to safety concerns The World Health Organization has temporarily halted studying hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment due to safety concerns, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday. The decision was made after an observational study published Friday in the medical journal The Lancet described how seriously ill COVID-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die. Tedros said that an independent executive group is now reviewing the use of hydroxychloroquine in WHO's Solidarity Trial. The executive group represents 10 of the participating countries in the trial. "The review will consider data collected so far in the Solidarity Trial and, in particular robust randomized available data, to adequately evaluate the potential benefits and harms from this drug," Tedros said. "The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board." The trial, which involves actively recruiting patients from more than 400 hospitals in 35 countries, is a global research effort to find safe and effective therapeutics for COVID-19. Tedros added that the other arms of the trial are continuing. "This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in COVID-19," he said. "I wish to reiterate that these drugs are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria." Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist, said Monday the trial has only been using hydroxychloroquine, not the more toxic chloroquine. President Donald Trump said on May 18 that he was taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine. President Trump honors war dead in events colored by pandemic's threat President Donald Trump honored Americas war dead Monday in back-to-back Memorial Day appearances colored by an epic struggle off the battlefield, against the coronavirus. Eager to demonstrate national revival from the pandemic, Trump doubled up on his Memorial Day public schedule, while threatening to pull the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte in August unless North Carolina's Democratic governor gives a quick green light to the party's plans to assemble en masse. The U.S. death toll from the pandemic approached 100,000; North Carolina two days earlier reported its largest daily increase yet in COVID-19 sickness. Trump first honored the nations fallen at Arlington National Cemetery. Presidents on Memorial Day typically lay a wreath and speak at the hallowed burial ground in Virginia. But the coronavirus crisis made this year different. Many attendees arrived wearing masks but removed them for the outdoor ceremony in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Trump, maskless as always in public, gave no remarks. He approached a wreath already in place, touched it and saluted. Trump then traveled to Baltimore's historic Fort McHenry, where he declared: Together we will vanquish the virus and America will rise from this crisis to new and even greater heights. No obstacle, no challenge and no threat is a match for the sheer determination of the American people. He praised the tens of thousands of service members and national guard personnel on the front lines of our war against this terrible virus. His Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, chose Memorial Day to make his first public appearance in the two months since the pandemic opened up on the country. Biden emerged unannounced from his Delaware home to lay a wreath at a nearby park, with no crowd gathered to greet him. It was a milestone in a presidential campaign that has largely been frozen. Biden's words were muffled through a black cloth face mask. Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made, he said after. Never, ever, forget. City of Charlotte to provide "guidance" next month on RNC convention The city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina released a joint statement Monday addressing preparations for the Republican National Convention set to be held in August. We are working with stakeholders to develop guidelines for several large events planned for Charlotte in the coming months including the RNC and anticipate providing that guidance in June, the statement said. According to the statement, the city, county and other local entities will continue to plan for the RNC while respecting national and state guidance regarding the pandemic. In a series of tweets Monday morning, President Donald Trump threatened to pull the convention out of North Carolina if the state's governor did not "immediately" give on answer on whether the site of the convention would be allowed to be fully occupied. WHO officials warn countries not to become complacent with COVID-19 The World Health Organization said the downward trend of coronavirus cases didnt occur naturally, and is warning countries not to become complacent. Many countries have paid a heavy price in doing the measures that have needed to be done to suppress the transmission of this disease, and they deserve credit, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHOs health emergencies program, said during a Monday briefing. My concern right now is that people may be assuming that the current drop of infections represents a natural seasonality, and I think that's a dangerous assumption, he said. Ryan said its worrisome when people assume the downward trend occurred naturally. In reality, Ryan said, that has occurred because of very, very, very tough public health measures that have been tough on the population. Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO infectious disease epidemiologist, said there's a certain predictability of this virus, adding, anytime you become complacent and you think you know, it will surprise you. I understand very well and I am in the same boat as you we all want this to be over, but we have a long way to go," Van Kerkhove said. Ryan said removing pressure on the virus at this point and assuming the real next danger point is sometime in October or November is a dangerous assumption. Van Kerkhove said it could get worse if we have co-infection or co-circulation of influenza and COVID-19. That could complicate our understanding because if we dont have testing in place, we don't know what people are infected with. And so it could potentially flood the system, it could potentially overwhelm the system, she said. Honoring nation's fallen heroes looks a little different this year President Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to mark Memorial Day on Monday morning. As the nation observes Memorial Day in the midst of a global pandemic, the hallowed grounds at Arlington National Cemetery are also adapting to the situation. Masks, social distancing and other safety precautions have all become a part of the solemn rituals and pageantry at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well as the near daily funerals that still take place in the cemetery. The new reality: Only 10 family or friends are allowed graveside. As few troops as possible perform funeral honors. Distance is kept, and masks are worn. Even the ceremonial rifle platoon on hand to fire off their salute at the end of the service wore masks while the entire funeral party stayed physically separated from one another. Americans are crowding public places; officials fear spikes in cases At a glance, it may look like many Americans have long forgotten about the dangers of coronavirus. Crowds packed beaches in Florida, Maryland, Georgia, Virginia and Indiana over the weekend many venturing out without masks and others failing to keep their distance even as officials have tirelessly highlighted the importance of both in order to prevent another surge of cases. In Missouri, hundreds attended a pool party just days after a similar party in neighboring Arkansas caused a cluster of new coronavirus cases. Arkansas' governor said the state is now experiencing a "second peak." "You tell me how people act today, I will tell you the infection rate three days from now," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, emphasizing the importance residents' actions play in the spread of infections. But as health officials warn the deadly virus isn't yet contained, local leaders across the country are working to enforce regulations put in place for stores, bars and restaurants that have reopened. The commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Sunday urged Americans observing Memorial Day weekend to follow federal guidelines aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus. "With the country starting to open up this holiday weekend, I again remind everyone that the coronavirus is not yet contained. It is up to every individual to protect themselves and their community. Social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks protect us all," Dr. Stephen Hahn wrote in a tweet. In Houston, the mayor said authorities will begin enforcing capacity limits for bars and restaurants after the city received hundreds of complaints alleging violations. "The reality is that there are too many people who are coming together," Mayor Sylvester Turner said. "No social distancing, no mask. And then after this Memorial Day weekend is over they're going to be on somebody's job or in close proximity to somebody else." So far, infections in the country top 1,643,000 and deaths inch closer to 100,000. Spike of cases in Washington, DC As Americans push to return to normal lifestyles and the country continues lifting coronavirus restrictions, experts say many parts of the country are still not heading in the right direction. North Carolina recorded its highest single-day surge of new cases over the weekend and parts of Maryland, Virginia, Illinois and other states are still seeing a high number of infections, according to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator. In Washington, D.C., health officials are reporting a spike of new cases an increase that could be a setback for the criteria officials are using to decide when the city will begin its first stage of reopening. Until this weekend, Washington recorded 11 days of declining community spread of the coronavirus. The city said 14 days of decline were needed before they moved to reopen. Sunday would have been the 13th day of decline but instead there was a small spike over the last two days. But because the spike was a small one, health officials say they'll consider setting back to the 11th day of the decline instead of starting the count from the beginning. "We don't have to go to day zero," Director of the D.C. Department of Health, Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, said in a news conference call. There are two other factors officials will consider before reopening: A positivity rate of less than 20% and a hospital capacity of less than 80%. As of Sunday, the city's positivity rate is 19% and hospital capacity is at 74%. A 17-year-old dies in Georgia In Georgia, one of the first states to begin reopening, officials reported Sunday the state's youngest coronavirus death. The victim was a 17-year-old boy, according to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health. The boy had underlying medical conditions. The department didn't offer any further details. The boy's death is a grim reminder that while officials have cautioned elderly populations are at a higher risk for complications related to an infection, younger people fall victim to the virus as well. That includes the 5-year-old daughter of two Detroit first responders who died last month after being diagnosed with the virus. It also includes the 5-month old daughter of a New York firefighter, who died late April after spending a month in the hospital receiving treatment for the virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that while many young people who got coronavirus did not have serious problems, health experts are investigating a virus-related complication in children across the country, dubbed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Doctors said last week children who may have the syndrome need immediate attention and will probably need to be hospitalized. Symptoms may mostly include stomach pain and vomiting, along with fever and perhaps a rash, experts say. White House rolls out travel restrictions As U.S. officials try to get a handle on the spread of the virus, President Donald Trump announced Sunday he was suspending travel into the U.S. for people who had been to Brazil within the past two weeks. "I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to take action to restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were physically present within the Federative Republic of Brazil during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States," the President's proclamation reads. Brazil now is second to the U.S. with the highest number of coronavirus cases, recording more than 363,200 infections, according to Johns Hopkins. Over the weekend, the country recorded more than 15,000 new infections in just 24 hours. South Africa: Back to school prep underway across SA With just a week to go until Grade 7 and 12 learners return to the classroom under level 3 of lockdown, preparations are underway at schools across the country to ensure the safe return of pupils, come 1 June 2020. The doors of learning were shut as the country went on lockdown from 27 March 2020 in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has to date infected 22 583 South Africans and claimed the lives of 429 people. As the country marks day 60 of lockdown, delivery of personal protective equipment is underway, school desks are being deep cleaned and spaced out, in line with the social distancing protocols of a 1.5m distance between pupils. In Gauteng, School Management Teams (SMTs) have made their return to schools to pave the way for the return of teachers. Providing an update on the return of SMTs and teachers, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the provinces schools are ready to open their doors to teachers. We are preparing to welcome our Grade 7s and 12s from 1 June as Gauteng and thus far, all the measures we needed to put in place for all our Senior Management Teams have been met to the latter. We are now moving to the next phase to welcome teachers. After we welcome teachers, we will move to the most critical stage, which is stage 3 of welcoming learners. We will then be in a position to observe whether we can bring in other grades, said the MEC. Following the successful completion of deep cleaning, delivery of PPE and sanitisers at the various schools, Lesufi said by this Friday, all teachers should be at school. From our readiness point of view, we just want to ensure that the School Management Teams are back and receive the PPEs and on the basis of that, teachers will come back. We have 2 800 schools in Gauteng and we will get stock of how many schools have opened and then we will update you on the daily return of teachers, he said. GDE to hire replacement teachers On teachers that are not fit or ready to start, the MEC said these teachers have been given forms to fill in to declare their circumstances, which will allow the provincial department to kick-start the process of finding replacement teachers. E-learning alternative With many parents anxious about the return of children to schools, Lesufi urged them to make use of e-learning materials made available by schools as an alternative. We want to emphasise this one: there must be no parent that would rather have their child repeating a grade because they are scared. We say use all the channels that we have made available because we dont want a generation that will lose academic programme because of COVID-19. Besides, we dont know how long COVID-19 will be with us, Lesufi said. Special needs schools On the reopening of special needs schools, Lesufi said the sector may possibly follow a different approach, as the schools are in their nature small, with a limited number of pupils. We might open them completely. They have a few numbers and you may find that the entire school population is low. We are guided by the sector. For example, their PPEs are different because in some instance, touching cant be eliminated completely but we have procured their PPEs, Lesufi said. KZN postpones return to school In KwaZulu-Natal, the Provincial Education Department has temporarily postponed the return of School Management Teams and teachers to Thursday, 28 May 2020. This follows the assessment of cleaning and delivery of PPE to schools. It has since been discovered that although a sufficient quota of PPEs has been delivered to districts and circuits, it has not yet been transported to schools where it is needed most, said the Provincial Department. The postponement, however, does not apply to circuit managers and principals, who are key to ensuring delivery and receipt of PPEs at school level. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. MBABANE - Tough times call for tough decisions! Having suffered immensely due to COVID-19 and in an effort to save jobs, the Eswatini Beverages Limited (EBL) has proposed to cut salaries of all its employees by 10 per cent for the next 18 months. The company, which is part of global giant brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) family, is one of the countrys most affected companies due to the coronavirus pandemic after government implemented the COVID-19 regulations, which banned the production and wholesale of alcoholic beverages. Liquor is among non-essential products that government decided to suspend, especially its production and distribution. In our sister publication, The Times Sunday, the company revealed that about 224 000 bottles of beer in its warehouse would be destroyed due to the ongoing lockdown, which was effected as part of measures to fight the spread of COVID-19. The publication reported that the booze, according to calculations where each unit of bottle was charged at E17, was worth over E3.8 million. Expired It was gathered that the bottles that had expired included Sibebe Premium Lager, Castle, Hansa, Castle Lite, Castle Milk Stout, Black Label and Lion Lager. Worth noting is that the Swaziland Consumer Association, through its Chairman Bongani Bhanyaza Mdluli, made it known in our sister publication that such a scenario could have dire consequences for the company. Mdluli said there was need for government to consider that companies had risk policies that, if applied, could lead to job losses as the businesses might be forced to retrench staff. Indeed, EBL has confirmed that it has made a proposal to its employees to effect the salary cuts. EBL Head of Legal and Corporate Affairs Mpumelelo Makhubu confirmed the latest developments, but mentioned that at the moment the issue was at a proposal stage. (The) COVID-19 trading environment has proved to be one of the most challenging times in collective memory. As such, many businesses have had to take various measures to ensure their viability. At EBL, we had to stop all new production effective April 27, 2020, and sales effective April 16, 2020. The regulations issued have effectively shut down our entire beer business and broader value chain, said Makhubu when responding to a questionnaire sent by this publication. Makhubu said in order to protect the companys long-term viability, it was considering a temporary 10 per cent salary cut across all of its employees from July 1, 2020 until December 31, 2021. He said it was important to note that this was meant to save jobs. Additionally, as we investigate various measures to manage our financial constraints, we are also considering freezes to increases and benefits as well as other cost-cutting measures that directly affect our employees. This decision was not taken lightly. We empathise with the hardships that this will create for many of our colleagues. However, we fundamentally believe that in light of the shutdown and prohibition placed on our business this is the best course of action to help preserve the employment and wellbeing of our entire Eswatini team, said Makhubu. Assisted When asked on how the company had assisted the country in the COVID-19 fight, he stated that during this period, the purpose of bringing people together for a better world had never been more relevant. As such, he said the company had adapted its view on togetherness, in light of COVID-19 and responded to the needs of the country through donating to the National Emergency Response Committee, and installing water station units for hand washing in five high density rural towns in the country. We are also looking at other avenues for supporting the nation during this challenging period, and encourage other companies to continue supporting the national efforts against this pandemic, he emphasised. Options It should be noted that following the negative effects of the coronavirus on most companies, government, through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, issued labour options to consider as a means to mitigate the effects of loss of earnings by employees during the lockdown or during the entire period of the national emergency. In the recommendations, it was stated that no employer should consider retrenching any of their employees within the declared period of the lockdown. It was stated that any employer who was ordinarily planning to retrench staff during the period of the national emergency on the basis of prior arranged and/or on-going standard restructuring processes, should fully comply with the provisions of the Employment Act, No.5 of 1980. The news of the pay cuts is a disappointment to the employees as they have been enjoying salaries and benefits which came about in 2018 after an agreement where all wage and salary rates were increased by 6.5 per cent across the board. The increase came as a result of a collective agreement which was entered into by the Swazi Economic Improvement Workers Union and EBL, a deal which was agreed upon on August 8, 2018. According to the bargaining unit, which included conditions of service and salary increment, there was also to be an increase in certain allowances. This was to include ration or food allowance which was increased to E30. EBL is the leading beverages company in Eswatini. It manufactures, markets, sells and distributes a range of the worlds giant company AB InBev beer brands. Recently, AB InBev warned that some of its biggest three beer brands were bearing the brunt of a collapse in sales caused by COVID-19. Shutdown Reuters reported that as demand evaporated amid a global shutdown of bars and restaurants, AB InBev and rivals Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S were racing to find ways to cut costs to reduce the effect on profit. It was stated that so far AB InBevs more expensive products suffered less, but that longer-term, as the pain from a pandemic-induced recession spreads from blue-collar to white-collar workers, that could also harm the collection of niche premium labels that AB InBev has built up in past years. Furthermore, the company issued a statement to the effect that the impact of the pandemic had already been demonstrated by the companys global volumes in April 2020, which decreased by approximately 32 per cent, mainly due to the closure of the on-trade segment in most markets and government restrictions on some of their operations. Insurance In an interview with labour consultant Musa Hlophe, he stated that the scenario that the EBL employees and others were faced with was as a result of the failure by unions and government to implement a workers insurance fund. We have a parastatal like the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) in the country. So many employers have millions there. Employers, unions and government should have long engaged Parliament to finalise the fund I am talking about, he said. Hlophe mentioned that an employer who was now taking a short-cut to save employees jobs should be blamed for not having long engaged government to finalise the issue of the fund. We must remember that COVID-19 is not here to take away the rights of employees. Neither government or employers have seen the urgency to explore the fund route, he said. Meanwhile, the office of the minister of Labour and Social Security said it would give an update on all COVID-19 issues affecting employers and employees at a press briefing that will be held soon. A man was arrested Monday after his second standoff with police in roughly four months at a northwest Houston apartment, according to Houston SWAT Commander Larry Baimbridge. The man was not immediately identified, but he was charged with aggravated assault of a family member. Police were called to the apartment around 5 p.m. Monday in the 5600 block of Antoine. The man's girlfriend said he threatened to kill her at gunpoint. When responding officers arrived, the man locked the door and refused to come out, Baimbridge said. He said the man threatened to shoot himself if police entered, prompting calls for backup from Houston SWAT officers. SWAT negotiators could not coax him out of the home by talking over a loudspeaker. Eventually SWAT officers pitched a rock through his window, in an attempt to toss him a cellphone, Baimbridge said. That's when the man surrendered. "Once we broke the window, I guess he realized things were getting serious and decided to give up and come on out," Baimbridge said. Baimbridge did not know whether officers recovered a weapon in the home. If so, he said the man will likely face additional charges because he is a convicted felon. Police are also investigating the man's involvement in a reported sexual assault from earlier in the day, he said. Baimbridge added that four months ago, the same man led Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on a chase through the same apartment complex. "Roughly the same thing happened," he said. "They were able to go in and our canine located him hiding inside a closet... So he's got a history of doing this." julian.gill@chron.com Dr. Elnara Negri, who works in Sao Paulo City at the largest hospital complex in Latin America, advocates the use of the anti-coagulant drug heparin to treat complications caused by novel coronavirus. The hypothesis that blood clotting disorders may explain some of the worst symptoms of COVID-19, including respiratory failure and pulmonary fibrosis, was suggested in mid-April by researchers in Brazil affiliated with the University of Sao Paulos Medical School (FM-USP) via an article accepted for publication by the Journal of Thrombosis In less than a month, the topic had been highlighted in articles posted to the websites of Science and Nature, both of which are among the worlds leading scientific publications. One of the first scientists to report the thrombotic nature of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was Elnara Negri, a researcher and pulmonologist at Hospital das Clinicas, the hospital complex run by FM-USP the largest in Latin America and Hospital Sirio-Libanes, a leading private hospital also in Sao Paulo City. Around March 25, we were treating a patient whose breathing was rapidly deteriorating, Negri told Agencia FAPESP. When she was intubated, I observed that her lungs were easy to ventilate. They werent hardened and stiff, as youd expect in someone with acute respiratory distress. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that the patient had an ischemic toe. The latter condition has been referred to as COVID-toe and can affect all ten toes. It is caused by the obstruction of the small blood vessels that circulate blood in the feet. Negri observed a similar phenomenon many years ago in patients who underwent open heart surgery with extracorporeal circulation. In the old days, a device was used to pump oxygen into the blood, and clots would form inside the blood vessels. Id seen the condition before and knew how to treat it, she said. Negri prescribed heparin, one of the most widely used anti-coagulant drugs worldwide. In under 18 hours, the patients oxygen saturation improved, and her angry red toe regained a healthy pink color. The same effect was achieved with other patients treated at the Sirio-Libanes. Since that day, weve treated approximately 80 COVID-19 patients, and so far, none of them has died. Four are currently in the ICU [intensive care unit]. The rest are in the ward or have been discharged, Negri said. Most studies show that severe COVID-19 patients require 28 days of mechanical ventilation on average, whereas those treated with heparin typically improve after ten to 14 days of intensive care. An article by Negri and colleagues describing their clinical experience with the first 27 patients who were treated with the protocol developed at Sirio-Libanes is available on medRxiv as a preprint (not yet peer-reviewed) version. Pathological evidence Shortly after the first successful administration of heparin, Negri shared the finding with colleagues Marisa Dolhnikoff and Paulo Saldiva, pathologists at FM-USP who are coordinating the autopsies of patients who die from COVID-19 at Hospital das Clinicas. Using a minimally invasive technique developed during a project supported by FAPESP, the pathologists observed focal bleeding associated with mini-clots (microthrombi) in the small blood vessels of the lungs due to platelet clumping (more at: agencia.fapesp.br/32955 and agencia.fapesp.br/32810). Negri, Dolhnikoff, Saldiva and colleagues recently wrote to the editor of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, describing their findings. Entitled Pathological evidence of pulmonary thrombotic phenomena in severe COVID-19, this is the first article in the scientific literature to report this topic. Fully peer-reviewed and accepted for publication by the journal, the study could potentially revolutionize treatment of the disease. Paradigm shift SARS-CoV-2 was not the first coronavirus (CoV) to cause a public health crisis. The 2002-04 global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused almost 800 deaths, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has killed 850 people since 2012. Both are coronavirus diseases. Neither has reached Brazil so far. Patients with SARS or MERS develop a strong inflammatory reaction in the lungs, and this can lead to a condition known as acute respiratory distress, Negri said. The pulmonary alveoli, the tiny sacs in which carbon dioxide is exchanged for oxygen, fill up with dead cells, pus, and other inflammatory substances, hardening the lung tissue and impairing oxygenation of the organism. COVID-19 is different, at least initially, Negri added. SARS-CoV-2 does not cause severe inflammation of the lungs but does cause desquamation of the alveolar epithelial tissue. The epithelial cells die after being infected, fall into the alveolar lumen and leave the basement membrane exposed, she said. The organisms defense system thinks the region is raw or ulcerated and assumes theres a risk of hemorrhage, triggering a storm of interleukins [proteins that act as immune signalers] and what we call a coagulation cascade. The platelets begin clumping together to form clots and plug the leak. The clots block the lungs small blood vessels and cause microinfarcts (cellular death or tissue necrosis). The regions of tissue that die due to a lack of blood supply are replaced by scar tissue in a process called fibrosis. In addition, microthrombi at the alveolar-blood vessel interface prevent the passage of oxygen to smaller arteries. This explains why COVID-19 patients may not have difficulty breathing even though their oxygen saturation is low. Many come to hospital walking and talking and very soon have to be intubated, Negri said. If the intravascular clotting is not rapidly treated, microinfarcts and fibrosis tend to spread throughout the lungs. Opportunistic bacteria and fungi may infect the damaged tissue and cause pneumonia, as SARS-CoV-2 leads to a decrease in the number of immune cells (lymphopenia). The patient may develop acute respiratory distress at the end of this process. Heparin helps avert this outcome via two mechanisms. Negri found that the drug dissolves the microthrombi that prevent oxygen from flowing from the alveoli to the pulmonary blood vessels and contributes to the regeneration of the vascular endothelium, the layer of epithelial cells that line the interior of blood vessels. Damaged endothelium is like a road full of potholes. It hinders the flow of blood and leads to more clotting. This creates a snowball effect, Negri said. A third possible mechanism of action of heparin was described by a study recently conducted at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) with FAPESPs support. In vitro experiments by the biomedical scientist Helena Bonciani Nader and colleagues showed that heparin brings about a 70% reduction in cell invasion by SARS-CoV-2 (more at: agencia.fapesp.br/33200). There may be an anti-viral effect, which should be investigated in greater depth. As I like to say, were changing tires without stopping the car, Negri said. In Negris opinion, however, many lives may have been lost because patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were treated from the start as cases of acute respiratory syndrome and placed in ICU beds with lower levels of hydration and more intense mechanical ventilation. These two approaches worsen the thrombotic condition. We need to change the treatment paradigm, she said. Negri would like heparin to be administered as soon as the oxygen saturation level falls below 93%, which may happen between the seventh and tenth days after the onset of flu-like symptoms and can be detected by a physician in a private or public clinic. Its pointless to buy the drug from a pharmacy and swallow a pill, she warned. That will have no therapeutic effect and could cause bleeding. It must be injected, and a medic must calculate the right dose. It should be stressed that heparin has significant effects on various physiological processes, and if the drug is administered without medical supervision, it can endanger the patients life. Self-medication and failure to take side effects into account are particularly hazardous in the case of treatment for COVID-19. Definitive evidence A randomized clinical trial will be needed to demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of heparin in COVID-19 patients. This means there need to be two randomly chosen groups with similar characteristics, only one of which receives the drug. The results for this group are then compared with the outcomes for the group not given the drug. The FM-USP researchers plan to begin this project shortly, in partnership with colleagues at the University of Toronto (Canada) and the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands). They are only waiting for approval from the Ethics Committee at Hospital das Clinicas and Brazils National Research Ethics Committee (CONEP). The trial will entail giving heparin to patients who come to the outpatient clinic with low oxygen saturation levels and seeing if treatment with the anti-coagulant can avoid the need for mechanical ventilation, Negri said. The article Pathological evidence of pulmonary thrombotic phenomena in severe COVID-19 by Marisa Dolhnikoff, Amaro Nunes Duarte-Neto, Renata Aparecida de Almeida Monteiro, Luiz Fernando Ferraz da Silva, Ellen Pierre de Oliveira, Paulo Hilario Nascimento Saldiva, Thais Mauad, and Elnara Marcia Negri can retrieved from onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jth.14844. UW Libraries Names Alternative Textbook Grant Recipients University of Wyoming Libraries recently awarded alternative textbook grants to six faculty members to implement open educational resources (OER) in their classes this fall. The alternative textbooks resulting from the grants are projected to save UW students more than $24,200 each semester. With the Alt-Textbook Grant Program, University of Wyoming Libraries not only hopes to encourage the creativity and innovation that we have seen in past applicants but also, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, to provide an affordable and accessible alternative to a traditional textbook as students continue to rely on online resources, says Hilary Baribeau, digital scholarship librarian. By creating open textbooks and course materials, alt-textbook grant recipients help to meet student needs during this stressful time. Grants are awarded to instructors who adopt, adapt or create new alternative textbooks or other materials for their courses. Grant awards range from $1,000 to $3,000. The grant recipients are: College of Arts and Sciences -- Meredith Minear, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. Minear teaches Biological Psychology and has three primary goals with the creation of her OER: create, test and share the use of 3D brain models that can be used to both create neuroanatomy virtual reality content and 3D printable physical models; develop a phone-based augmented reality app that can be integrated with either 3D printed brain slices or simple physical pieces that can be cut out of foamboard using a downloadable pattern; and create a public repository to host these downloadable 3D models, animations and open source programs, as well as written and video tutorials in their creation and use. -- Tiger Robison, an assistant professor in the Department of Music. Robison teaches Aural Theory I and will create an open textbook that will replace current course materials. The textbook will include original melodies and aural drills. The course exists at Wyoming community colleges and will serve as a model and shared resource across the state. -- Simone Runyon, an assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. Runyon teaches Introduction to Petrology. She will create OER that will include 3D models of rock samples and paired scanned thin sections with descriptions of the textures, mineralogy, locality of collection and rock name for students to complete homework assignments, laboratory assignments and to study for exams without access to original materials. College of Engineering and Applied Science -- Chengyi Charlie Zhang, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. Zhang teaches Construction Documents and will create OER content to replace the current textbooks. The content will include short answer, test, quiz and discussion questions; a test bank and in-class and homework activities; and supplementary materials that include videos, short films, presentations and readings. College of Health Sciences -- Kym Codallos, an associate lecturer in the Division of Social Work. Codallos teaches Immigration, Social Justice and Social Work and will adopt a current existing OER resource, titled Intercultural Learning (Jones, Miles and Gopalkrishnan, 2019), as the primary text and guidebook for the course. This study-abroad course will take students to the Texas-Mexico border where they will look at and experience institutions that promote, support and inhibit immigration and social justice. Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources -- Corrine Knapp, an assistant professor in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. Knapp teaches Theory and Practice of Transdisciplinarity and Co-Production and will create open access videos of interviews with transdisciplinary researchers and stakeholders. The videos will complement other assigned open access readings and create a flipped classroom that will stimulate in-class discussions and activities. UW Libraries will award another round of grants for the 2020-21 academic year. Proposals for that award period are due Oct. 14. The grant award peer review committee will prioritize proposals for high-enrollment classes and those that include UW and community college partnerships. For more information, visit https://uwyo.libguides.com/oer/grants. The New Jersey judge who was previously suspended for asking an alleged rape victim if she could have closed her legs during the attack will never serve as a judge in the state again. The state Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision Tuesday removing John Russo Jr. from judicial office and permanently barring the former Ocean County Superior Court judge from presiding over a New Jersey courtroom again because of repeated and serious acts of misconduct committed by Russo, wrote Chief Justice Stuart J. Rabner, who authored the opinion on behalf of the high court. The decision was expected after a three-judge panel recommended in January to remove Russo from the bench for violating the Code of Judicial Conduct on at least four occasions most prominently when he asked an alleged rape victim a series of questions that the the states Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct (ACJC) described as wholly unwarranted, discourteous and inappropriate. Russo began questioning a woman about her efforts to stop the alleged assault as she appeared in court in Ocean County in 2016 seeking a restraining order against the man who allegedly raped her. "Do you know how to stop somebody from having intercourse with you? he asked her, according to a transcript. After the woman said run away or try to get away, Russo asked if there was anything else she could have done. Block your body parts? Russo asked. Close your legs? Call the police? Did you do any of those things? Rabner, the states top judge, wrote in the opinion that it would be inconceivable that Russo could preside over domestic violence or sexual assault matters in the future after those comments. No reasonable victim could have confidence in a court system were he to preside over those kinds of cases again, the chief justice wrote. Russo, who previously served as mayor Toms River, apologized through his attorney for the remarks during a Supreme Court disciplinary hearing in July 2019. However, Russo claims, according to the opinion, that he was trying to help a demoralized witness on cross-examination and get her re-engaged in the hearing, but the court wrote that that explanation does not square with the record. No witness, alleged victim, or litigant should be treated that way in a court of law, Rabner wrote. ... Judges set the tone for a courtroom. Especially when it comes to sensitive matters like domestic violence and sexual assault, that tone must be dignified, solemn, and respectful, not demeaning or sophomoric. (Russo) failed in that regard. An attorney representing Russo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The opinion outlines three other instances in which Russos actions as a judge showed a pattern of misconduct and unethical behavior. In 2016, Russo threatened a mother in a paternity case with financial penalties when she wouldnt disclose her address. Russo then remarked: Hes going to find you, maam. Were all going to find you. (Russos) disturbing comments and questions were insensitive, threatening, and discourteous, and they reflected poorly on his temperament, Rabner wrote in the courts opinion. In a guardianship case involving his ex-wife and their son, Russo asked a high-level court employee who worked in the same courthouse as him to help him reschedule the case in another county. The opinion said Russo should have worked through his attorney to request that his personal matter be rescheduled. The final misconduct charge against Russo was for decreasing the amount a man had to pay in back child support. The judge said in court he went to high school with the man and then subsequently decreased the amount owed from $10,000 to $300 based solely on uncorroborated financial information supplied by the defendant, according to the opinion. Rabner wrote that the incident, raised doubts about Russos impartiality. The state Supreme Court wrote in their decision to remove Russo from office and bar him from future judicial positions that the four incidents viewed together have lasting consequences. His pattern of misconduct and unethical behavior not only undermined the integrity of different court proceedings but also impaired his integrity and the Judiciarys, Rabner wrote. His overall behavior reflects a lack of probity and fitness to serve as a judge. And his conduct breached the publics trust. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. The firing tests are planned to be completed by May 30. Ukraine is starting the second stage of testing of the Neptune land-based cruise missile system at the Alibey Training Ground in the south of Odesa region. "Today, the next stage of the tests of the RK-360MTS Neptune cruise missile system produced at Kyiv's Luch State Design Bureau will start at the Alibey training ground! Fire tests are set to be completed by May 30," as reported by the Ukroboronprom state concern's press service. Read alsoUkraine successfully tests new radar (Video) It is noted that previous testing amid e-warfare interference with the involvement of aviation was held a month ago. UNIAN memo. The Neptune missile system is a land-based cruise missile system with an anti-ship missile, designed to defeat battleships such as cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, landing ships, tank landing ships and transports, which operate independently and in naval groups and landing units, as well as coastal radio-contrast targets, amid favorable and adverse weather conditions, at any time of day and year, under active enemy fire and e-warfare resistance. The devastated family of a nurse who suddenly died during a shift at a mental health unit are searching for answers about his final moments. Praween Maharaj's family claim they were told the 49-year-old died from a 'medical episode' at Liverpool Hospital, in Sydney's south-west, on April 17. But they've since learnt Mr Maharaj's death came after a physical struggle with a patient, who was known to have violent outbursts. 'I am going to miss him every day,' his wife Sharmil told Nine News. Praween Maharaj (centre, with his daughters) died while on shift at a Sydney Hospital on April 17 Mr Maharaj's wife Sharmil (right) said 'I am going to miss him every day' 'Anyone who goes to work should return safely home to their family.' Ms Maharaj and the couple's daughters are seeking answers amid their grief. Charisma, 23, claimed no one has 'come forward' to tell them the truth about her father's death, Sydney Morning Herald reported. 'We want to know whether he suffered and how we can be told one day that there was a patient involved in some way, and then it was a 'medical episode',' she said. NSW Police, SafeWork, the hospital and the nurses union have all launched investigations into Mr Maharaj's death. The cause of death is yet to be determined by the coroner. Praween Maharaj's family claim they were told the 49-year-old died from a 'medical episode' at Liverpool Hospital, in Sydney's south-west, on April 17. But they've since learnt Mr Maharaj's passing came after a physical struggle with a patient, who was known to have violent outbursts NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes said the union was told there had been physical contact with a patient on the day Mr Maharaj died. On the condition of anonymity, sources told the Sydney Morning Herald the patient was known to have violent outbreaks and had a nicotine addiction. Patients were normally allowed to go outside to smoke but the unit was effectively in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. It's understood a struggle ensued after the patient attempted to retrieve cigarettes which are stored in a draw of an enclosed room. It's reported Mr Maharaj may have hit his head. Ms Maharaj and the couple's daughters are seeking answers amid their grief A nurse said she rushed in after hearing banging and Mr Maharaj lowered himself to the ground, where he had a seizure. A South Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson extended their condolences to the Maharaj family. 'We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of the mental health nurse and we are providing them with every support during this distressing time,' the spokesperson said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia. 'The District is conducting a Root Cause Analysis investigation which will include full disclosure to the family of its findings. 'The family also has the opportunity to be involved in the process of the investigation. 'As our internal inquiry is progressing, SafeWork NSW and police continue their investigations and the matter has been referred to the Coroner, we are unable to provide further comment.' Police deal with drug-affected aggressors daily and if they can't handle it appropriately, then maybe it's not the job for them, a Victorian judge has suggested. Judge Trevor Wraight is due to sentence Senior Constable Ross Fowler next week for striking a handcuffed man in the back. Ross Fowler outside court on Tuesday. Credit:AAP The 51-year-old's lawyer, Geoffrey Steward, told the court that Fowler was a magnificent officer who could lose his job if he was punished too harshly for the February 2016 incident which happened while he and a colleague were arresting a man at a home in Frankston. In March a jury found Fowler guilty of recklessly causing injury but not guilty of the more serious charge of intentionally causing injury. At the Charleston Marina, scientists recently gathered copepod plankton, which are tiny aquatic crustaceans not more than 2mm in length, and studied them under the high-speed video. They aimed to determine their movement mechanisms. Copepods are the dominant components of plankton. The interest of Univ. of Oregon's Inst. of Marine Biology researchers Richard Emlet and George von Dassow was piqued by a student's discovery of barnacle larvae's swimming mechanism. They published their paper in the Univ. of Chicago Press Journals' Biological Bulletin documenting the Acartia copepod species' mechanism for aquatic movement. Von Dassow says that they use an elastic material as a paddle to swim and escape the viscosity of the water. Like barnacles, the copepods form from their cuticle a temporary fan-shaped structure made from extra-cellular filaments that serve as paddles for their legs. They are made of exoskeletal meshwork which has an opening and closing movement lasting less than 10ms per cycle of the swim stroke. They make arc-like and sweeping movements that cause a burst of speed, which helps the copepods escape danger. Von Dassow explains that unlike us, small creatures such as plankton experience water as a very sticky medium, something akin to a human if they were to swim in thick syrup. To compensate, copepods have larger limbs that are more powerful and harder than living tissue. Von Dassow compares it to birds having large and vaned feathers. University of Texas Port Aransas Marine Science Institute researchers have also used high-speed videos to study copepod movement in 2003. Still, they did not delve into the mechanisms by which the animals accomplish it. Von Dassow shared that their study is curiosity-driven scientific research, which is what marine labs are for. He says that the study was tricky since copepods can be easily physically damaged due to their delicate bodies. He says that a lot of their recordings were made with the copepods placed in a petri dish having a glass coverslip at its bottom. The movements are in the range of 10 milliseconds per cycle, which requires a camera with an ability to record 8,000 frames in a second. Standard videos have a speed of 30 frames a second or 33 milliseconds in between each frame, which is too slow to capture the copepods' movements. Furthermore, it is also not possible to aim the microscope; they would just have to wait for the copepods to enter the field where the camera is pointed. For every 10 to 100 attempts, von Dassow says they would catch only one significant glimpse worth studying. The movements where key sequences were recorded are seen in only one in every one thousand attempts. The study's findings encompass the movement of adult and pre-adult Acartia stages. As with many insects, these animals live for roughly one month, according to von Dassow. He adds that the movement mechanism is ecologically vital because small predators like crustaceans eat these animals up to the largest baleen whales. Their rapid escape mechanism may be crucial for survival, and not merely a useless faculty since the mechanism is expensive energetically. Warsaw, May 26 : The number of deaths caused by the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland has reached 1,007 by Monday evening. With official infection numbers still increasing linearly, reaching 21,631, Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski declared that the peak of the epidemic in the country has passed, Xinhua reported. "The peak of the epidemic is behind us and is now rather crawling on instead of snowballing," he told news website Wirtualna Polska. Szumowski said earlier that he expected a decision on lifting the compulsory mask-wearing in public spaces on Tuesday. Infection numbers have been steady at around 300 to 400 new confirmed cases every 24 hours for several weeks, with some days reaching 500. The southern province of Silesia remains Poland's epicentre for new cases of the coronavirus, with miners especially susceptible to the epidemic. Other large-scale industries were also reported to be hotbeds for the virus. In the voivodeship (region) of Greater Poland in the west of the country, a furniture manufacturing plant reported almost 300 cases over the weekend. Meanwhile, schools have partly reopened to receive pupils up to the age of 9 for daycare, without scheduled classes. "Parents who need to return to work and cannot stay home with their children will be pleased with the care offered in schools," said Education Ministry spokesperson Anna Ostrowska at a press conference. "As we do in pre-schools, we will constantly monitor the situation." According to a report from radio station RMF, most parents have decided to keep their children home in the current situation, with an estimated 10 per cent of eligible pupils in Warsaw having returned to school on Monday. TIANJIN, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Tianjin Port imported a total of almost 2.02 million tonnes of soybeans from January to April this year, up 66.9 percent year on year, according to Tianjin Customs on Monday. The imported soybeans will be used for oil pressing and feed processing. As domestic pig production and marketing have gradually returned to normal, the demand for feed has increased significantly, driving the rapid growth of soybean imports at Tianjin Port. Imports of soybeans from the Americas amounted to almost 2.01 million tonnes, accounting for 99.4 percent of the total soybean imports at Tianjin Port. TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / GlobeX Data Ltd. (SWISF)(SWIS.CN) ("GlobeX" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted cyber security and Internet privacy solutions for secure data management and secure communications, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter Of Intent with a conglomerate representing more than 2000 cybersecurity resellers in Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Guatemala to sell all of the Company's cybersecurity, data recovery and secure communications services, DigitalSafe, PrivaTalk, PrivaTalk Messenger and Custodia. The parent company of the conglomerate is based in Madrid, Spain and the Company is also working on getting the Spanish firm on board for all its 1000 resellers in Spain. Alain Ghiai, CEO of GlobeX Data said: "We are very pleased with our discussions with this partner, representing over 2,000 cybersecurity resellers throughout Latin and Central America. Cybersecurity is gaining importance due to the vast cyber-attacks and the fact that post COVID-19, the world will embrace a higher degree of remote work locations. This in turn encourages hackers to attack all mobile devices, especially ones that are not securely connected through public wifi hotspots. With this distribution, we can target all of Latin and Central America, as this is also a hot spot for cyber-attacks. We are looking forward to formalize this agreement in the next month or so and start training the first resellers in June or July of this year." According to a study by lookingglasscyber.com, Latin America is vulnerable to hostile cyber activity, especially as the region develops economically and technologically. As the region's economies become more technically adept, cyber security practices are currently failing to keep up with advancements in digitization. Cybercrime, cyber espionage, and hacktivism have all targeted Latin America. According to cybersecurity-insiders.com, Colombia is on the list of top 5 countries most hit by cyber espionage and Mexico is on the list of the top 6 hit by malware infection. According to Insighcrime.org, online scams, ransomware attacks and phishing email schemes have proliferated in Latin America amid the coronavirus pandemic, exposing the dangers hackers pose to people, banks and governments. If the past is any indication, Latin America is largely unprepared for this new wave of cybercrime. Story continues About GlobeX Data Ltd. GlobeX Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure data management and secure communications. The Company distributes a suite of secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery, document management, encrypted e-mails, and secure communication tools. GlobeX Data Ltd. sells its products through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. GlobeX Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide. On behalf of Management GLOBEX DATA LTD. Alain Ghiai President and Chief Executive Officer +1.416.644.8690 corporate@globexdatagroup.com For more information please contact GlobeX Data at corporate@globexdatagroup.com or visit us at https://globexdatagroup.com. For more information on DigitalSafe visit us at: https://digitalsafe.com. For more information on PrivaTalk visit us at: https://privatalk.com. Forward Looking Information This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. GlobeX cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond GlobeX's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in GlobeX's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, GlobeX undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. SOURCE: GlobeX Data Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591430/GlobeX-Data-Signs-LOI-With-Largest-Cybersecurity-Distributor-in-Mexico-Central-and-Latin-America Canadas energy patch is under considerable pressure after the latest oil price collapse. For the first time in history, the North American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark price plunged into negative territory last month. It has since bounced back to be trading at US$34 a barrel, while the international Brent price is at US$36. Why did oil prices collapse? The latest price collapse can be blamed on a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia occurring at the same time a demand shock emerged because of the coronavirus pandemic. The recovery in oil prices can be attributed to Moscow and Riyadh electing to end their price war and OPEC as well as its allies committing to new production cuts. The latest round of cuts include non-cartel members, aside from key allies such as Russia, including prominent petroleum producers like the U.S. and Canada. The goal of the latest round of production reductions is to shave somewhere around 20 million barrels daily off global oil output, or roughly a fifth of total global output. OPEC and its allies, including Russia, have committed to 9.7 million barrels, with the remainder coming from other global oil producers Oil demand is falling It isnt only unfavourable conditions on the supply side that are impacting oil prices. The coronavirus pandemic and related government measures aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus sparked a dramatic demand shock. Oil consumption has fallen dramatically. Analysts estimate that it is up to 20% lower than at the end of 2019, equating to a reduction of around 20 million barrels daily. There are signs that oil demand will fall further. The global economy is facing its worst headwinds since the Great Depression because of the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Late last month, the IMF slashed its earlier optimistic 2020 GDP growth forecast of 3.3%. It believes that global GDP will contract this year by 3% but return to growth in 2021. Poor outlook for oil prices Story continues Such a sharp economic contraction bodes poorly for oil prices, indicating that they will remain lower for longer than many industry pundits predicted. It is for these reasons that WTI is trading in a band at around US$30 per barrel regardless of the latest production cuts. More worrying is the spat earlier this year between Riyadh and Moscow. It highlights the considerable risks associated with betting on higher oil prices in a world where a mammoth supply glut has weighed on prices since 2015. The latest OPEC plus agreement only occurred because of the economic damage inflicted on Saudi Arabias and Russias petro-economies. The only glimmer of hope for oil prices is the litany of production cuts in North Americas energy patch and expected flood of bankruptcies. This will see the U.S. lose its mantle of being the worlds largest oil producer, handing it back to Saudi Arabia. Canadas oil patch is in trouble Weaker oil prices have sharply impacted Canadas oil patch. This is especially apparent when it is considered that the Canadian heavy oil benchmark price Western Canadian Select (WCS) trades at a deep discount to WTI, which is currently around US$8 per barrel. The considerable apathy surrounding bitumen prices and Canadas oil sands has forced the closure of the Canadian Crude Oil Index ETF. This was the only exchange tradable fund for investors seeking exposure to Canadian heavy oil prices. Oil sands unpopularity coupled with a sharply weaker price will weigh on major bitumen producers like Cenovus (TSX:CVE)(NYSE:CVE). Oil sands typically have higher breakeven prices than forms of conventional and shale oil production. During the last oil price collapse, Cenovus was essentially pumping crude at a loss. For the first quarter 2020, oil sands were responsible for 80% of Cenovuss production. On a worrying note, Cenovuss operating netback, a key measure of profitability, for its heavy oil assets was $1.93-$3.06 per barrel sold. A decline in oil prices, as witnessed during the second quarter, and/or an increase in blending and transportation costs would see Cenovus pumping heavy crude at a loss. These headwinds saw Cenovus report a $1.8 billion first-quarter net loss compared to a $69 million profit a year earlier. For these reasons, Canadas third-largest oil sands operator is a stock to avoid. The post Will the Latest Oil Production Cuts Save Canadas Energy Patch? appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading Fool contributor Matt Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020 The sun rises with SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule sitting atop a Falcon 9 rocket at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (SpaceX Photo / Ben Cooper) Mission managers have cleared the final paperwork for SpaceXs first-ever crewed launch, aimed at sending two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The stage is now set for the first NASA mission to send humans into orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011. Only one big question remained after todays launch readiness review, which looked at all the technical issues surrounding Wednesdays scheduled liftoff from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Were burning down the final paper, Kathy Lueders, manager of NASAs commercial crew program, told reporters during a teleconference. All the teams were go, and were continuing to make progress toward our mission. Now the only thing we need to do is figure out how to control the weather. Todays weather forecast called for a 60% chance of scrubbing the launch due to concerns about rain and clouds at the launch site. The weather was rainy at the Cape today, but Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer for the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base, said the outlook was improving. If I was to issue the forecast today, right now, we would probably be down to a 40% chance of violation. So we have some hope for launch day, McAleenan said. In addition to the conditions at the launch site, mission managers have to consider what the weather is like at sea, in case an emergency comes up and the astronauts have to abort the flight. That part of the forecast is also iffy, McAleenan said. He said the backup days for launch, May 30 and 31, had a better probability of launching, and lower risk numbers across the Atlantic. The countdown clock officially begins running on Tuesday morning but the two astronauts who are due to ride the Dragon, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, will have a relatively light day, consisting of technical briefings mixed with rest and relaxation. Story continues On Wednesday, theyll get a wakeup call at 9 a.m. ET, have breakfast and then receive a weather briefing at about 12:20 p.m. ET. After the briefing, theyll put on their custom-fitted SpaceX spacesuits, walk out from the Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at about 1:15 p.m., climb into the Dragon capsule at 2 p.m., and close the hatch at 2:38 p.m. Lueders said launch-pad workers have been nose-swabbed and tested to check for COVID-19, and theyll be outfitted in a way thats meant to protect Hurley and Behnken from infection. They look like ninjas there because, you know, with the SpaceX folks, youve got to have it be looking cool, she joked. Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceXs vice president for build and flight reliability, said the launch team will be closely monitoring the weather forecast for the launch site as well as the ocean recovery zones as the clock ticks down. A crucial decision point will come at T-minus-45 minutes, when the go-ahead is due to be given for arming the Dragons launch escape system and fueling up the Falcon 9 rocket with highly refined kerosene and liquid oxygen. If all goes as planned, the Falcon 9 will light up its engines at 4:33 p.m. ET (1:33 p.m. PT), kicking off whats expected to be a 19-hour flight to the space station. Along the way, the astronauts will get a couple of chances to steer the Dragon manually using touchscreen panels. But for most of the flight, including the station docking, the Dragon will be under autonomous control. Clipnsave: timeline of events leading up to launch, since its a topic of interest at the briefing. pic.twitter.com/DDN3V8Jfaf Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 25, 2020 Assuming that the weather cooperates, the next big uncertainty has to do with how long SpaceXs first spacefliers will stay at the station. The primary purpose of the mission is to demonstrate the Dragons performance for future crewed flights. But right now there are only three other crew members at the space station, which typically has a crew of six. Hurley and Behnken may be called upon to put in a tour of duty thats longer than originally scheduled and help out with tasks including a couple of spacewalks. That schedule is a little bit in flux, Koenigsmann acknowledged. Obviously NASA will tell us when theyre ready to go, anywhere between six weeks and 16 weeks. The flight back will bring the astronauts down to an Atlantic Ocean splashdown and recovery. In an interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the return was the part of the mission that he was most worried about due to the asymmetry of the Dragons back shell. Weve looked at this six ways to Sunday, so its not that I think this will fail, Aviation Weeks Irene Klotz quoted Musk as saying. Its just that I worry a bit that it is asymmetric on the backshell, and you could have a strange sort of roll coupling as you come in if you turn too much. I think this is low risk, but thats what I would put as my biggest concern. When Koenigsmann was asked about Musks comments, he said he didnt have any special concerns in advance of the launch. Im at the point right now where Im actually worried about the weather, and thats a good sign, Koenigsmann said. More from GeekWire: Bahrain-based Eskan Bank has started returning the April instalments for all the citizens with housing loans, reported BNA. This comes following the Cabinet decision to postpone the instalments due for the Bahraini bank for six months, and to stop the collection of rent from tenants and beneficiaries from the shops owned by the bank, for a period of three months, starting from April. Eskan said it had completed all coordination procedures with other banks that are cooperating in providing housing financing and added that all the sums will be returned to the citizens within the next few days. The Eskan Bank praised the order of HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salam Al Khalifa and the directives of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, to postpone the installment payment, within efforts to reduce the economic impacts of the coronavirus on the citizens, and support the commercial activities during this period, reported BNA. The bank affirmed that the two decisions prove the keenness of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the government to face the economic impacts of the pandemic, expressing hope that the virus will be eliminated soon, and life will be back to normalcy, it added. Shares in Latin America's largest airline plunged on the New York and Santiago stock exchanges on Tuesday after LATAM filed for bankruptcy in the US. LATAM has suffered a drastic slump in business due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit travel and tourism all over the world. Last month the airline scaled back operations by 95 percent. "LATAM entered this crisis as a healthy and profitable group of airlines," chief executive Roberto Alvo said in a statement. "But we're subject to exceptional circumstances that have provoked a collapse in the global demand for our services and we're currently operating about five percent of our passenger flights." He added: "We've had to take difficult but necessary measures to guarantee our long-term sustainability in these extraordinary times." The shares opened with a drop of close to 50 percent on the NYSE, but recovered quickly before stabilizing at around a 35 percent drop. Having been suspended for three hours at opening in Santiago, they had lost 36 percent by the close. The news came after Chile's government said it was considering a bailout to help LATAM, whose headquarters is in the capital Santiago. LATAM ended 2019 with liabilities, including debt, worth almost $18 billion. The decision to file for bankruptcy means "the company can now sit down and renegotiate these debts," Alvo told the online version of the Pulso newspaper. "The law in the US allows us to unilaterally terminate a number of contracts, for example aircraft lease contracts." He said this would allow the company to "adapt to a new demand situation." Earlier on Tuesday, Alvo said the company had "entered into a voluntary reorganization under Chapter 11 protection in the United States." Chapter 11 proceedings allow a company that is no longer able to repay its debt to restructure under court supervision without pressure from creditors. - 'No help for owners' - Chile's government said it would study the possibility of bailing out LATAM. "Here there is a country decision that we have to take," said Chile's finance minister Ignacio Briones, before adding that "the government will evaluate whether it is convenient and opportune to contribute to the LATAM reorganization process." Speaking to Radio Cooperativa, Briones said the government would decide whether and how to bail out LATAM. "Any (state) help to a company is not help for the owners," he said. However, in a statement he said that LATAM "is a strategic company for Chile," noting that it directly generates 10,000 jobs and indirectly helps employ 200,000 people through 2,000 suppliers. He also pointed to the company's importance to industrial imports, agricultural exports, tourism, mining and the connectivity of a country that stretches over 4,000-kilometers (2,500 miles) from north to south. Ten days ago, LATAM announced it was laying off 1,400 out of its 42,000 employees in South America. After it announced bankruptcy proceedings, the Chilean-Brazilian airline said there would be no immediate impact on passenger or cargo flights. Last week the company said it would start gradually restarting its operations from June. "We believe that the Chilean government's help and that of other governments is essential," added Alvo. The news came just two weeks after Latin America's second largest airline, Colombia's Avianca, also filed for bankruptcy in the US to reorganize its debt "due to the unpredictable impact" of the pandemic. The International Air Transport Association has forecast a $15 billion loss in revenue for Latin American airlines this year. Before the pandemic, LATAM -- a merger of Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM -- flew to 145 destinations in 26 countries, operating around 1,400 flights a day. Ace broadcaster and actor, Mikki Osei Berko, has thrown his support behind television stations in Ghana that show pornographic content. Mikki Osei Berko, also called Dada Boat, believes the television networks are justified to show x-rated adult materials because of the lax regulations on showing foreign contents in the country. It could be recalled that GHOne TV on Thursday, April 9, 2020, aired a pornographic material on its late night show, Duvet, which also coincided with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's nation address on COVID-19 pandemic. Although the General Manager of GHOne TV, Nana Aba Anamoah issued an offical statement apologizing on behalf of the station, many Ghanaians slammed the management for permitting an x-rated content on their TV network. But, according to Mikki Osei Berko, he does not fault GHOne TV or any television network that decides to imitate what GHOne TV did because the State authorities have allowed foreign culture to override that of the nation. ''The national problem is that we don't understand our culture. We don't even know we have a culture for us to even teach our generations or ourselves. We don't even know our heritage and that is one of the major problems we have as a country. So, we don't know the direction we're taking. We don't even have a direction because if we have a direction, we would know our culture'', he exclaimed. To him, there should be an overhauling in the media landscape for media organizations to project Ghana's culture by showing 100 percent local content, but until that is done, he sarcastically gave GHOne TV thumbs-up for showing pornographic content. ''I support the TV station. Yes! Because everybody is doing what he or she likes. If everybody is doing what he or she wants and you too you know what to do to attract people, why don't you do it? Because there's no regulation. I know there is a regulation that permits the broadcast of appropriate content; but in this country, to a large extent, the laws are not applied,'' he stressed. ''Where does pornographic content stems from? It's a foreign culture. If we are to direct TV stations to show contents that are Ghanaian, they won't show pornography. Then again, it will offer employment'', Dada Boat added. Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Face masks should be mandatory in public places, according to a member of Ireland's Covid-19 Expert Advisory Group. Damien Nee is a patient representative on the Covid-19 Expert Advisory Group. Read More He said that Ireland should follow countries like Germany, France and Spain in making face masks mandatory in public. Speaking on RTE PrimeTime he said: "They should be obligatory, especially going into any food shop, because that will ensure that the pandemic does not rise up rapidly again. "But when I look at all the wise countries that have coped well, it's a core element. It's central to their successfully coping with the growth of coronavirus,. "If you're a busy-body and you say to somebody going on coughing in a crowded shop at the moment, 'you should wear a face mask', you'd been told what to do with yourself. 'I don't have to, I can do anything I like'. That shouldn't be allowed." Expand Close Simon Harris. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Simon Harris. Photo: Steve Humphreys Read More Minister for Health Simon Harris, also on the show, said that there are numerous lines of thought on the issue. "We've had some scientists vehemently argue it should be mandatory, others saying 'absolutely not'," he said. "I've heard from different patient groups and different advocacy groups I know some people with autism, for example, might find the sensation of a mask uncomfortable, people with allergies, they're not suitable for people under 13. "The expert advisory group is made up of a range of people. They have discussions, and they make advice to national public health emergency team chaired by the Chief Medical Officer, and the government has accepted the chief medical officers advice in this regard." The Government he said, are worried that people might perceive face masks as "magic" repellent of the coronavirus. "We have given very clear guidance that if you are using public transport, or if you're in an indoor space, particularly a space where you can't socially distance, you should wear a face covering. "I know the Chief Medical Officer is worried about the idea that people think it's a kind of magic shield from Covid-19 and it's not that it's an additional measure. "I would use it (a face mask), absolutely for public transport or if I'm in a shop and I encourage people to so." Professor Luke O'Neill, from the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin also backed the use of face masks. "Even simple cloth masks can be highly effective, the evidence has got stronger and stronger and like last week they showed coronaviruses are trapped by cotton masks, the common cold is a coronavirus. "That's all the evidence we need. We know the mask traps all the droplets, we know the droplets contain the virus so it's obvious to wear masks, especially if you can't maintain the two meters," he said. "If there's a risk of breaching two metres we should all be wearing masks." There has also been a concern that the mandatory use of face masks would result in a shortage of supply for medical-grade masks for frontline workers. In a statement to Prime Time, the Department of Health said that the global market for medical grade masks is exceptionally competitive, and that the HSE has established a major supply line with China and has other supply sources, including from increased domestic production. It added that the HSE is currently distributing approximately 900,000 to surgical face masks daily across the health service. However, Hugh Hunt, Sales Director for an Irish company involved in the distribution of PPE said that he could not understand the worry that there would not be enough masks for medical staff. "I just don't understand that at all. I mean, there's so much supply there that we can get in the millions on a weekly basis. Over the last two weeks we've imported approximately 12 million masks," he said. "It's very easy to get them now. There's no shortage. Even airfreight, getting them in, which we can bring them in on a regular basis, so in approximately seven days we could get 15 million masks, they're coming from Far East and they're medical grade masks. " How Cyclone Amphan, in the middle of a pandemic, has rendered the city of Kolkata and its neighbouring districts handicapped, with shattered homes, severed communication channels and people in search of hope. On 20 May, I woke up to photographs and videos of a 33-day-old puppy adopted by my uncle and aunt on the other side of town, allowing me to blissfully ignore Cyclone Amphan warnings jostling for space in my inbox. Thoughts of new toys, puppy food and pillow beds crowded my mind that Wednesday, as I tried introducing my three-year-old Labrador Retriever to his baby brother over video call. On the second floor of my 60-year-old home in south Kolkata, the sun was still alive and kicking a common phenomenon brought about by new life on earth even when a storm was brewing to monstrous proportions in our backyard. The (short-lived) rose-tinted filters on my eyes sugarcoated the dark skies outside my window and masked the stench of piling neighbourhood filth that had been hurled into the air by winds that were only whistling so far. Clearly, oblivion and complacency are among the many privileges afforded to us by our pucca houses, until I found out that perhaps this time, even that might not be enough to ferry us safely to the other side of the storm. By the time we were done with lunch, our WiFi had started to fumble, deferring delivery and receipt of messages. By four o'clock, both our dogs had sought shelter under furniture and in corners of their respective homes, where the rumble of the storm and battering of the rain were less audible. By 6.30 pm, phone lines and communication channels in our home were dead and the lights had begun to flicker ominously too. For the first time in my life, I caught myself feeling, smelling and touching a storm as it seeped in through bolted doors and windows. Hearing and watching it was simply not enough, it demanded our undivided attention. The asbestos sheet capping our three-storey ancestral home amplifies every drop of rain into what I call 'The Monsoon Orchestra'. It's my attempt at romanticising the otherwise dreadful, nagging phenomenon, occupying over a half of our calendars, to make it mildly more palatable. With the arrival of Amphan, I witnessed the roof threatening to break free and take off into the whirlpool in the sky. It's the same roof that had withstood the tyranny of Aila in 2009, a cyclone that left behind scars still visible in the subconscious of our everyday lives. Even after losing steam by a notch, and turning into an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm' from a super-cyclone, Amphan was set to bring about more than ten times the wreckage witnessed over a decade ago. "I am really scared. The roof will fly off any minute now," said my mother-in-law, who had turned blue in the face. I was almost defiant in my dismissal of the idea, unwilling to harbour thoughts that refused to seem outlandish anymore. As I walked into our terrace-cum-balcony, the winds bellowed and whiplashed, forcing me to take support of the walls and every other heavy object on the way. The flower pots had been overturned and the space was flooded till the ankles. Someone's window glass exploded in the distance, or maybe it was one of ours, I couldn't tell; the canopy of trees enveloping our neighbourhood's sky showed cracks exposing ghastly red clouds. In about a minute, or perhaps ten (as time had warped into an unrecognisable lump), I saw the hutment behind my house get hacked neatly into two by a giant tree that snapped from its roots. Shrieks emerging from underneath the debris were carried by the speeding winds and broadcast right into our homes floating a few feet above. As the wires and cables snapped too, a hollow of wet, pitch black swallowed us whole. I ran back into the living room and hugged my dog, as a heavy wooden door came nearly unhinged. This is how it ends, I thought to myself, and prayed to whoever would listen for my dogs to get miraculously saved, and find a loving new home once the nightmare ended. As I type this on my laptop 18 hours after electricity was properly restored in our home, my mind keeps flitting back to the moment I walked back into my room (which is where I am right now) after the storm had passed. It looked distinctly different from how I last saw it five hours ago. The passage leading to my room had flooded, with debris of unknown objects floating around and lodging themselves between our toes. On opening the door, I could hear the rain splatter onto my bed in echoing thuds rippling through the dark. Or perhaps it was the winds, now sluggish and exhausted, but just as cold. A gaping hole that once used to be a part of the ceiling stared right back at me, the ghoulish red of the sky bleeding all over me and my belongings that lay shrivelled like the wrinkling skin of an old man. My bed, books, clothes were all soaked to the bone. A tightly shut wooden window was now standing ajar, with the curtains and walls dripping from every last inch. It took me a good while to realise that the sky above my head had literally come apart, chipping away at our roof and blowing away a chunk of it. Just when we thought that the world could possibly sink no further after being ravaged by a fatal virus, our only shields of protection against the contagion the brick walls insulating us had been left battered and blown into smithereens. On venturing out the following morning in search of help, we passed by scenes of unprecedented devastation: uprooted trees, shattered buildings, splintered electric poles and listless, numb faces that had forgotten how to express or feel. "Ei gacch ta shoraate ektu shahajjo korben, dada? (will you help us move this tree, dada?)" I asked a local rickshaw-puller, who sat on one of the dismembered branches of the tree's corpse. He looked at me with blank eyes and pointed to the remains of what seemed to be his once-faithful carriage, now buried under a pile of dead leaves and wood. I didn't have an answer; we decided to take a different route. Hours later, as I watched the two kind repairmen who agreed to help us restore the missing pieces of our ancient, weather-beaten house at work, I reminded myself, yet again, to never take my privileges (especially the roof over my head) for granted. Pardon my pessimism, but if 2020 isn't out to kill us already, it surely means to teach us a lesson or two in humility. As we stumble into day five since Amphan's visit, the clear blue skies have done little to reassure us of a normalcy stable or long enough to rebuild our homes, towns and villages. Relatives, friends and acquaintances continue to remain out of reach and possibly in an impenetrable darkness with communication channels hacked to death. People wearing masks are rebelling on the streets, pleading for a way back to their mundane old lives, which now seem like distant realities, if not impossible dreams. With politicking ensuing over the 80 dead and millions displaced in Bengal, people are left in the lurch yet again, caught in the inescapable crossfire of a brutal ongoing pandemic and the ghost of a deadly natural disaster. Despite financial services being categorized as an essential service, the HDFC Life Insurance Co. Ltd management decided to let all its employees work from home during the nationwide lockdown. As the government eased restrictions, the insurer is gradually opening its branches, though its headquarters in a Mumbai red zone remains shut. As of now, 236 out of the 421 branches are open. In offices that seat a large number of employees, the company has only half or one-third of employees at work. We are ensuring that there is no overlap between shifts. One shift is about five hours. So, if one team goes down because of a covid-19 positive case, then at least the other team can continue to function," said Vibha Padalkar, managing director and chief executive officer, HDFC Life. It is also working on getting customers to use its digital platform. Except for hardware issues, nothing really requires employees to be at the office, Padalkar said. The company is opening its branches with skeleton staff, despite the rise in covid-19 cases, as a confidence-building measure for its customers. People walking into our branches are usually the ones who speak in regional languages and may require handholding. Also, for premium payments, some people prefer paying in person to avoid online fraud," she said. HDFC Lifes online services were put to test during the pandemic. While insurance agents were traditionally the biggest source of acquiring new customers for life insurance firms, most of the new business during the lockdown was driven by digital channels. Sales through our digital channel grew 13% in March and April, and did better than other channels. The agency channel held on (mostly flat) in April with people engaging over the phone. Besides 40% of our customers are HDFC Bank account holders and they buy using Net banking," she said. Padalkar said demonetization in November 2016 kick-started the digital initiative but the ongoing lockdown will further push people to switch to digital. I am sure customers will start buying insurance policies online, too, especially small-ticket term plans. In fact, 50% of our sale in April was term plans and digital had a big role to play," she said. The company will soon launch a frontline digital tool, Wise, which will allow agents to acquire new clients digitally in the virtual presence of a HDFC Life representative. Through Wise, the agents will be able to make a pitch and if the customer is interested, a company representative will join the call to ensure authenticity. Questions like surrender charges, changing the nominee or any other concern can be answered through Wise. With the screen-sharing option, even videos can be played to handhold the customer. If all goes well, telemedical tests, too, can be done on-call. It will also generate a transcript of the call and email it to the customer," said Padalkar. Wise is an end-to-end tool developed by the insurer, which will help its business in a post-covid India. The tool is expected to go live within a month. HDFC Life has around 7,500 agents who typically get new customers through in-person communication, but now they are being trained online through an internal app on how to use Wise. Padalkar acknowledged that interacting with prospective customers on calls may not work as people are wary of the increasing number of cybercrimes. The coronavirus pandemic, in a way, has pushed life insurers to simplify the process of claim settlement and maturity payouts. And, now with social distancing being the new normal, physical visits to branches will go down considerably. According to Padalkar, the company was already working on provisioning for this under life easy, which allows claimants to upload all the documents online. It is a happy coincidence that we were working on this tool (Wise) and it was already in the test phase. So, we are focused on ramping this up big time," she said. HDFC Life will leverage Wise to bring its business back on track. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Topics Hours after Gov. Charlie Baker said the surge of coronavirus cases in Massachusetts is behind the state, Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. agreed. In planning for the citys future after pandemic, Mayor Joseph Petty also announced the formation of the Worcester Economic Recovery Committee. The committee will be made up of industry-specific subcommittees from economic sectors, including cultural institutions, development and real estate, financial services, manufacturing and health. Discussion will include best practices, guidance from the city and state, and explore possible collaborations for initiatives such as group purchasing of personal protective equipment. The subcommittees will also relay issues and challenges to the steering committee. This is about starting to discuss issues businesses are seeing, even though it may not be over for several weeks to come," Petty said. Well be reshaping our economy and be planning ahead to seize opportunities that may present themselves. Worcester saw 15 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday which increased the total within the city to 4,000. The 15 new cases represented a fraction of the 70 new cases daily the city had been averaging entering this week. It does seem like we're on the other side of the surge locally, Augustus said. To further illustrate the decline of cases in the city, Dr. Eric Dickson, the CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, will join Augustus, Petty and Director of Public Health Dr. Michael Hirsh for Thursdays press conference to discuss the coronavirus within Worcester. Worcesters hospitals are caring for 198 COVID-19 patients, an increase of one since Memorial Day. The number of patients in the ICU is 84, up two. There were also four new deaths from Monday, increasing the total to 256. Within the hospitals 309 employees have tested positive, which is no change from Monday. The number reported by the city on Memorial Day was incorrect, Augustus said, after UMass Memorial Medical Center incorrectly reported their total. Despite the encouraging numbers, city officials emphasized the importance of following guidelines like social distancing and wearing masks. That works. It just works, Augustus said. And as we go into this and more reopening phases, phase one, phase two, etc. People need to keep wearing the masks, keep doing social distancing even as we have more opportunities to get out and about. Amid the positive numbers, Augustus also announced an outbreak of the virus within the Sams Club distribution center on Tobias Boland Way with 19 new cases. The facility is not open to the public and will remain open as the company works with the city to determine the next step, Augustus said. Last month, while Walmart dealt with 81 cases of the virus in its store in the same area, Sams Club reported nine positive tests. Augustus said since that time, Sams Club has a 24-hour nursing presence in the facility and a clinical professional providing mental health guidance. For now, Augustus said, the city believes the facility is doing everything in their power to prevent the spread. They really have stepped up since the last outbreak, Augustus said. Augustus also said all emergency communication employees have been tested for the virus after two contractors who cleaned one of the two facilities tested positive for coronavirus. This just reminds us how important they are to our safety and our community, and how theyve continued to show up and provide those emergency services, Augustus said. We thank them, recognize them and appreciate them today. Related Content: A security person standing behind a glass shield checks the identity of a passenger at the airport as domestic flights resume operations after nearly two-month lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic in New Delhi. (Image: AP) Morris Law Group, headquartered in Boca Raton, FL, received the award for Best Specialist Wealth Preservation Law Firm - Florida from US Business News Legal Elite Awards 2020. Morris Law Groups founding partner, Stuart R. Morris, Esq., CPA, B.C.S. is pleased to announce that Morris Law Group was selected as a winner of the US Business News Magazines Legal Elite Awards for Best Specialist Wealth Preservation Law Firm in Florida for 2020. Morris Law Group (http://www.law-morris.com), a South Florida estate planning and wealth preservation law firm located in Boca Raton, has received the Award for Distinction in Estate & Tax Planning 2020. US Business News announced the winners of the 2020 Legal Elite Awards this May. Morris Law Group specializes in providing personalized, discreet estate planning and wealth preservation solutions for its clients, including probate and trust and estate administration, estate and tax planning, asset protection, and business and succession planning. According to Mr. Morris, We are honored to receive this award and distinction from US Business News. At Morris Law Group, our wealth preservation attorneys are committed to serving our clients with customized estate and tax planning strategies to protect their wealth and meet their financial goals, now and in the future. Our clients benefit from Morris Law Groups attorneys legal and tax expertise to evaluate both personal and business planning needs. We build long-term relationships and advise clients on the most advantageous approach to meet their goals. According to US Business News, All winners for the awards were the result of months of research and analysis from US Business News dedicated awards team. As a result, each and every winner was chosen on merit only, and can take great pride from the fact that they were selected for their success. To find out more about the Legal Elite Awards, please visit the US Business News website (https://www.usbusiness-news.com/legal-elite-awards-2020) for a full winners list. Morris Law Groups staff and attorneys are available to serve clients at their convenience either in person, by telephone or video conference. For more information or to schedule an appointment with an attorney, please contact Morris Law Group (https://www.law-morris.com/contact-us) or call (561) 750-3850. About Stuart R. Morris, Esq., CPA, B.C.S., Founding Partner, Morris Law Group Attorney Stuart R. Morris is board-certified in Wills, Trusts and Estates and is a Certified Public Accountant. He founded Morris Law Group in 1991, and practices in estate and gift tax planning, probate and trust administration, wills and trusts, business structuring and succession planning, asset preservation planning, domestic and international tax planning, and special needs planning. Mr. Morris is one of Worth magazines nations Top 100 Attorneys and a Florida Super Lawyer, named to Florida Trends Florida Legal Elite, was selected as a winner of the Legal Elite Awards from U.S. Business News, and is recognized as a Top Attorney in Palm Beach & Martin counties by Palm Beach Illustrated. He received an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, the highest rating afforded an attorney, from Martindale-Hubbell. He is a member of The Florida Bar, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the American Bar Association. About Morris Law Group, Wealth Preservation Attorneys Morris Law Group, a South Florida law firm with four conveniently located offices, provides personalized, discreet services to help protect their clients wealth now and in the future. The Morris Law Group team of knowledgeable and qualified attorneys and professionals has more than 150 years of combined experience in managing complex estate planning, tax planning, trust and estate administration, and business structuring and succession planning for clients. An AV Preeminent-rated law firm by Martindale Hubbell, Morris Law Group is adept at translating these strategies into easy-to-understand, jargon-free language, so clients can make informed decisions about their Wealth Preservation Solutions. Contact Morris Law Group at http://www.law-morris.com or call (561) 750-3850 for more information. About US Business News Magazine US Business News is the definitive magazine for CEOs, top-tier management and key decision makers across the United States. Created to inform, entertain, influence and shape the corporate conversation across the nation through high-quality editorial, in-depth research and an experienced and dedicated network of advisers, US Business News provides their readership with the most authoritative and current analysis of the major changes affecting the corporate landscape, and the latest deals and topical issues dominating the corporate universe. ### OTTAWAThe Liberals upcoming gun control legislation will allow municipalities to effectively ban handguns within their boundaries while setting national standards on how the weapons can be stored and used. While stopping short of a national handgun ban, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair told the Star that new rules will allow municipalities to rule that handguns cannot be legally stored in their jurisdictions. And Blair made clear that the federal government is willing to work directly with cities like Toronto who have called for tougher handgun regulation, potentially doing an end-run around premiers who oppose the new rules. My first goal is to work collaboratively with the provinces and territories But we also recognize that the third order of government, municipalities, have a very significant role to play in this, Blair said in a recent interview. I understand in some parts of the country they may decide not to do anything. But that is unfair to a municipality that really feels strongly that (they) need to do more. And so we will work with them to find ways in which we can support them to do more. The Liberals campaigned in 2019 on a promise to allow municipalities the ability to further restrict or ban handguns. That legislation has been delayed as COVID-19 put other federal priorities on the back burner. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that as a first step the government would move to ban assault-style weapons such as the AR-15 rifle. While that could be done via regulation, the Liberals said further gun control measures requires legislative changes something that cant be done while this minority Parliament isnt meeting due to the pandemic. Gun control advocates and some big city mayors including Torontos John Tory have called for a national handgun ban, arguing that leaving the matter up to individual municipalities would create an ineffective patchwork of policies that would do little to address the problem. When asked how effective a Toronto handgun ban would be if criminals could find a gun in neighbouring municipalities, Blair said the scenario was an oversimplification. We are going to impose very strong restrictions on the possession, the storage and the use of handguns everywhere in Canada, Blair, Torontos former police chief, said. But we recognize there are some jurisdictions with greater vulnerabilities, and we want to empower those jurisdictions to impose additional restrictions. For example, they may say they dont want a firearm to be stored within their boundaries. They may say that (handguns) can only be stored at a range. They may say where ranges can be located in their municipality. And they can impose additional restrictions than the regime we impose that will respond to specific vulnerabilities in their community. While Tory supports a national ban, he told CBC last year a citywide ban might be enough to make a difference. Even while the city largely remains on lockdown due to COVID-19, Toronto has already seen 167 shootings so far in 2020, including 17 deaths. Ontario Premier Doug Ford bashed the Liberals gun-control plans earlier this month, saying the federal government is going after law-abiding gun owners rather than cracking down on gun running along the Canada-U.S. border. The problem is not the legal gun owners. We need to target the smugglers and we need to throw the book at these gangsters out there terrorizing our streets and the federal government has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to buy back legally-purchased guns I cant help but think that money could be put to much better use hunting down the violent criminals and stopping illegal guns at our borders, Ford told reporters on May 2. Blair told the Star that the new regulations will include additional tools for police and border security officers to crack down on gun smuggling, as well as stricter penalties for those caught bringing illegal guns into the country. The law will also crack down on diverted guns legally-purchased guns that are then resold to criminals with more significant penalties. Blair said there will also be new restrictions on importing ammunition, including large capacity magazines, which he called a significant factor in gun crimes. Read more about: Credit: CC0 Public Domain Results from a study of adults with kidney failure suggest that taking both short-acting benzodiazepines and opioids may put patients at an especially high risk of dying prematurely. The findings appear in an upcoming issue of CJASN. Increasing use of opioids in recent years has led to rising numbers of deaths and hospitalizations due to overdoses. In light of this opioid epidemic, it is important to understand whether other medications interact with opioids to elevate risks for patients. A team led by Mara McAdams-DeMarco, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) looked to see if such an interaction exists for benzodiazepines (also considered tranquilizers or sedatives), which are some of the most commonly prescribed medications in the United States. The study included 69,368 US adults with kidney failure who initiated hemodialysis in 2013 or 2014. Many patients with kidney failure have physical and psychiatric conditions that are treated with benzodiazepines, and they are also 3-times more likely to be prescribed opioids than the general population. "We sought to quantify the synergistic impact of benzodiazepines and opioids on mortality among patients initiating hemodialysis," said Dr. McAdams-DeMarco. During a median follow-up of 16 months, 15,175 patients (30%) died. Medicare claims data revealed the following: Within 1 year of hemodialysis initiation, 10,854 patients (16%) were dispensed a short-acting benzodiazepine and 3,262 patients (5%) were dispensed a long-acting benzodiazepine. Among those who were dispensed a benzodiazepine, co-dispensing of opioids and short-acting benzodiazepines occurred in 3,819 (26%) patients and co-dispensing of opioids and long-acting benzodiazepines occurred in 1,238 (8%) patients. Patients with an opioid prescription were 1.66-fold more likely to be subsequently dispensed a short-acting benzodiazepine and 1.11-fold more likely to be subsequently dispensed a long-acting benzodiazepine. Patients dispensed a short-acting benzodiazepine were at a 1.45-fold higher risk of dying during follow-up compared with those without a short-acting benzodiazepine; among those with opioid co-dispensing, the risk was 1.90-fold higher. In contrast, long-acting benzodiazepine dispensing was associated with a 16% lower risk of dying compared with no dispensing of long-acting benzodiazepine; there was no differential risk by opioid dispensing. "The potential risks associated with short-acting benzodiazepines should always be weighed against their therapeutic benefit and patients undergoing hemodialysis who are currently undergoing treatment with short-acting benzodiazepines should consider other treatments when clinically appropriate," the authors wrote. "Furthermore, providers caring for patients undergoing hemodialysis should be given the tools needed to implement a collaborative, team-based approach for deprescribing of short-acting benzodiazepines, particularly for patients who are likely to use opioids." An accompanying Patient Voice editorial provides the perspective of a woman who describes herself as a kidney patient, a chronic pain patient, and an allied healthcare provider. "I am encouraged to see the crisis of palliative care being addressed in the kidney population," she wrote. More information: "Benzodiazepines, Co-Dispensed Opioids, and Mortality Among Patients Initiating Long-term In-Center Hemodialysis," "Benzodiazepines, Co-Dispensed Opioids, and Mortality Among Patients Initiating Long-term In-Center Hemodialysis," DOI: 10.2215/CJN.13341019 "A Patient's Perspective on Bezodiazepines, Co-Dispensed Opioids, and Mortality Among Patients Initiating Long-term In-Center Hemodialysis," DOI: 10.2215/CJN.05150420 E-commerce marketplace Flipkart and Karnataka State Mango Department and Marketing Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday, enabling mango farmers sell their fresh produce online through the Flipkart platform Bengaluru: E-commerce marketplace Flipkart and Karnataka State Mango Department and Marketing Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday, enabling mango farmers to sell their fresh produce online through the Flipkart platform. This mango season, consumers would have access to various varieties of the fruit across the districts of Bengaluru urban, Kolar, Haveri, Hubballi-Dharwad and Belgaum, Flipkart said in a press release. Under the MoU, the farmers would be provided market access to consumers, creating a potential revenue stream during these testing times. Flipkart said it would provide its marketplace platform to the Mango Board Farmer Producer Organisations/ sellers, growers and traders by enroling them on the platform. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak The company would further provide training and capacity-building of how to use the app and other user interfaces, the release said, adding that along with the Mango Board, Indian Post Offices would function as the last- mile delivery operation partners during this season. "By coming together with the Mango Board, the government of Karnataka and the Indian Post Office, we are extending our capabilities to support the farmer community and also have consumers enjoy the mango season - something which they look forward to each year," Flipkart Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said. "This partnership brings out the true potential of e-commerce and we are glad to play a key role in uplifting the community and helping in increasing farmer's income," Kumar said. Consumers can place orders on Flipkart's platform for several varieties of mangoes, including Alphonso, Badami, Apoos, Banganpalli, Kesar, Neelam, Himam Pasand, Sendur and Mallika, in batches of 3 kg. The State Mango Board offers significant capabilities and a distinctive business model by acting as a nodal agency bringing Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) for growers/traders, thereby alleviating the conditions and creating a viable market for their produce, secretary to horticulture department and the board chairman Rajendra Kataria said. Both Flipkart and the Karnataka State Mango Board have actively collaborated to achieve significant business solutions to introduce the farmers to a potential market through e-commerce, Kataria said. Flipkart said it has partnered with various FMCG and retail companies over the last few months to bring a wider range of essentials on its platform. With this partnership, the company is foraying into the Farmer Producer Organisation's community further contributing to supporting the livelihood of mango growers and the farmer community. President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with elder statesman, Niger Delta Leader, and former Minister of Information, Edwin Clark, as he turns 93 years old. The presidents congratulatory message was conveyed in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Tuesday. Mr Adesina quoted the president as giving glory to God for the gift of long life and sound mind bestowed on Mr Clark. Mr Buhari noted that the elder statesman had continued to command the respect and admiration of Nigerians from different walks of life. READ ALSO: He urged the nonagenarian to continue to work for the cohesion and progress of the country to the best of his ability for many decades. The grand old man marches on, and we pray to God to continue to strengthen him for the good of the country, and to serve as a beacon for all those who admire him, he added. (NAN) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 14:01:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HO CHI MINH CITY, May 26 (Xinhua) -- An old tree suddenly uprooted in a schoolyard in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday, leaving one student dead and 12 others injured, Vietnam News Agency reported. The sixth-grade students were standing in line heading to their class when the nearby tree fell. When the emergency force arrived, one victim had stopped breathing, while 12 others were found with broken arms, legs, and spine injuries, besides others, according to the report. Many parts of Ho Chi Minh City received heavy rainfall on Monday afternoon. Some 22 million Vietnamese students only returned to school early this month after a prolonged break since late January due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in grades between four and 11 in Ho Chi Minh City started returning to campus on May 8, according to Vietnam News Agency. Enditem China says some "political forces" in the United States have taken bilateral relations hostage and are pushing the world's two biggest economies towards "a new Cold War." Speaking on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Wu said "a political virus is spreading in the United States" which is "using every opportunity to attack and smear China." Wang said China has no intention to either change or replace the U.S., and that the U.S. should abandon its "wishful thinking of changing China and stopping 1.4 billion people in their historic march toward modernization." (Reuters) - European shares hovered near a 11-week high on Tuesday, with UK markets surging after a long weekend, as businesses worldwide gradually reopened following a months-long lockdown. The pan-European STOXX 600 rose 1.2%, trading just below its March 10 high. Returning from a bank holiday, UK's FTSE 100 .FTSE surged 1.9% as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday Britain will reopen thousands of high street shops, department stores and shopping centres next month. [.L] Aston Martin (AML.L) soared 40.7% after the UK luxury carmaker confirmed that Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, would become its chief executive officer. Europes travel & leisure stocks .SXTP jumped 5.8% after a report said the German government wants to end a travel warning for tourist trips to 31 European countries from June 15 if the coronavirus situation allows. British Airways owner IAG (ICAG.L) jumped 16.4%, low-cost carrier easyJet Plc (EZJ.L) and cruise liner Carnival Plc (CCL.L) gained about 12%. Germanys Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) extended gains after the government threw a 9 billion euro lifeline. Any news on reopening of the economy and lack of stories about a second wave are going to be seen as a positive for markets, said Marija Veitmane, senior multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets. What is interesting is that analysts are increasingly expecting Q2 to be the trough. But I would caution by saying that markets are still very, very fragile. The STOXX 600 has climbed nearly 30% from its mid-March lows, as hopes of further policy support and improving economic data fuelled hopes of a faster economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. All eyes will be on the European Commissions release of its recovery plan on Wednesday to gauge the progress of a Franco-German proposal for a 500 billion euro grants-based coronavirus recovery fund. Paris-headquartered shopping centre operator Klepierre SA (LOIM.PA) jumped 9.4% after saying it had reopened 80% of its European malls and hopes to reopen 90% of them within 10 days. French carmakers Renault SA (RENA.PA) and Peugeot SA (PEUP.PA) jumped 6% and 3% respectively as President Emmanuel Macron said support for the hard-hit car sector will be massively amplified. Sources told Reuters that Renault and Nissan Motor Co Ltd (7201.T) have shelved plans to push towards the full merger and will instead fix their troubled alliance. German payments firm Wirecard AG (WDIG.DE) fell 1.6% after it postponed the publication of final 2019 results for a third time, citing delays in finalising audit procedures. As the coronavirus pandemic continues and the economic devastation worsens, many Chicago-area high school students have picked up jobs as essential workers to help out parents who have lost jobs or income. At the same time, theyre dealing not just with the emotional toll COVID-19 is taking on them and their communities but the awareness that their jobs could put them in the viruss path. Police have caught a father riding a motorbike across a field with his two-year-old child perched on his lap. West Midlands Police said the 28-year-old male handed the youngster to family members after realising he was being shadowed by the police helicopter in Coventry on Sunday. The mini-moto rider then allegedly tried to flee the police chopper before being stopped by officers in Old Church Road, in the north of the city, where the bike was also seized. An image taken from footage recorded by the air unit was released by officers this evening. West Midlands Police said the 28-year-old male handed the youngster to family members after realising he was being shadowed by the police helicopter in Coventry, on Sunday The man has since been reported for prosecution for careless driving and riding the bike in a dangerous condition, the force said. A referral has also been made to social services in connection to the child, police added. The incident was one of several in which a total of nine off-road bikes were seized during a dank holiday weekend crackdown. Sergeant Mitch Darby, from West Midlands Police, said: 'It's hard to believe anyone would expose any child, let alone their own, to such danger. 'The child was balanced precariously on the rider's lap, obviously with no helmet or protective clothing, as he rode across grassland. 'It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened had he lost control or the child fallen from the bike. West Midlands Police tweeted the image saying officers 'spotted a man tearing up a park with a toddler balanced on his lap' 'Apparently the bike was a birthday present but we've now seized it and will be looking to crush it. 'Bikes like this cannot be ridden legally on public land; they can only be ridden on private land with the landowner's permission. And they cannot be ridden on our roads. 'We will continue our offensive against illegal off-road bikers throughout the summer. We know they are the bane of our communities and people want us to take action. I hope operations like this show we're listening and acting on their concerns.' Two quad bikes were also stopped and seized on the A34 in Shirley on Sunday afternoon, including one being ridden the wrong was down the carriageway. A 19-year-old was arrested for aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving. He has been released under investigation pending advice from the CPS. The other seven bikers have all been summoned to court for driving offences and their bikes seized. Maori and Pasifika who have not been able to quit smoking may need more support to move from smoking to vaping, researchers from the University of Otago and Maori public health collective Hapai Te Hauora have found. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 16 people who identified as Maori or Pacific ethnicity, or both, who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, and who currently used electronic nicotine delivery systems (also known as e-cigarettes or vapes). They found people who had been unable to quit smoking would be able to switch to vaping more easily if they found vaping more satisfying and were exposed to fewer smoking cues. Their research provides some of the first information available on the uptake of electronic nicotine delivery systems among Maori and Pacific people who smoke, and comes ahead of new Government legislation governing the sale and marketing of vaping products. The research is published in the international journal, Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Co-lead author Lizzie Strickett from Hapai Te Hauora says that while we know vaping is likely to be much less harmful than smoking, that does not mean people will find it easy to switch. Senior authors Andrew Waa and Professor Janet Hoek from the University's Department of Public Health, say the findings reinforce the need to ensure that vapes are only sold by knowledgeable retailers who can help smokers find a device that will completely replace smoking. Mr Waa notes: "Some of our participants struggled to learn how to vape. They need better quality advice from expert retailers to give them the best possible chance of switching from smoking to vaping." Of New Zealand's 600,000 smokers, around 166,000 are Maori and 57,000 Pasifika. Smoking prevalence among Maori is 2.6 times higher than among non-Maori and lung cancer rates are three times higher. The authors say factors such as the effects of colonisation, barriers to healthcare and lower socio-economic status all contribute to the disparities in smoking prevalence. Co-lead author Dr Lindsay Robertson, from the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago in Dunedin, says people moving from smoking to vaping should be advised to expect a different physical experience. "People need to understand that vaping will not be the same as smoking, and should be encouraged to persist, even when they feel nostalgic for smoking." Study participants found whanau provided helpful advice and information, though exposure to others' smoking made their transition to vaping more difficult. Stephanie Erick, Kaiwhakahaere General Manager of the National Tobacco Control Advocacy Service at Hapai Te Hauora, noted the powerful role that collective support and change within whanau could play with Maori and Pasifika who smoke. "Although people found the sight and smell of others smoking very tempting, they were also encouraged by those they knew who had switched to vaping. Using successful switchers as role models could support transition to vaping among Maori and Pasifika who smoke, as could promoting the financial benefits of switching." The researchers hope their findings could inform practical changes, such as setting standards for vape retailers, providing resources that fill information gaps and offering practical guidance, all of which could address challenges their participants encountered. Mr Waa says Maori and Pacific participants had clear ideas of what they would find helpful, including strong whanau support and access to high quality, reliable information. "A strength of this research is its focus on reducing disparities in smoking prevalence and achieving the goal of all New Zealanders becoming smoke-free by 2025." ### The research was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. By PTI PATNA: Bihar's Food and Consumer Protection Minister Madan Sahni has courted a controversy when he ignored social-distancing norms while honouring Jyoti Kumari, who cycled 1,200 km from Gurgaon to bring her injured father home in Darbhanga. A video clip showing the minister exalting the 15-year-old girl in presence of a large number of villagers standing in close proximity in gross violation of the social distancing norms has gone viral on social media. Sahni is a JD(U) MLA from Gaura Bauram assembly constituency in Darbhanga district. The opposition has slammed the minister for giving a go-by to the key social distancing requirement against coronavirus and demanded action against him. The JD(U), however, refused to make any comment other than stating that the minister himself can speak on the issue. Repeated attempts to reach the minister for his comments did not fructify. Sahni had on Monday gone to meet and honour Jyoti Kumari at her native village Sirhulli under Singhwara block of the district where the minister gave clothes and an envelop containing Rs 5,000 as gift, besides revering both the girl and her father -- Mohan Paswan -- by offering them shawl and garlands. While Sahni was honouring them, he was surrounded by a crowd. Though the Darbhanga district administration officials are tight-lipped over the issue, the opposition RJD and Congress lapped it up and demanded action against the minister for violating social-distancing norm which the state government has been asking people to follow vigorously as protection against the virus. Demanding action against Sahni, senior Bihar Congress leader and MLC Prem Chandra Mishra said, "The minister violated the norms of social-distancing framed and vigorously advocated by the state government. Action has been taken against several persons for violating the norm. Following the same rule, action must be initiated against the minister. "As a minister, it is his responsibility to follow the social distancing norm, but he indulged in cheap publicity for political gains. Its a serious matter and action must be taken against him. "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who talks about rule of law should clear his stand on the issue," Mishra said. Senior RJD leader and party legislator Bhai Virendra said action must be taken against the minister. He claimed the minister swung into action only after our leaders -- Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav -- lavished praise on the girl. JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan refused to comment on the matter. It would be appropriate if he (minister) himself comment on the event, he said. "You better ask the question to him (minister) as it does not relate to party matters. If Sahni has done something in his individual capacity, then it will be better to take his comment," Ranjan said. The girl is currently staying at a quarantine centre close to her Sirhulli village. She has caught the world's attention after she bicycled her injured father 1,200 km to reach her native village from Gurugram more than a week ago. Her indomitable feat drew praise from Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump. A teenager has been rushed to hospital after a stabbing in south London. An air ambulance landed in Burgess Park, in Southwark, at around 6.40pm after police received reports of a teenager suffering stab injuries. The victim, thought to be in his mid-teens, was rushed to hospital for treatment. His condition is not thought to be life-threatening, a Met Police spokesman said. There have been no arrests and enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing, a spokesman said. Pictures taken beside Burgess Park show a police cordon in place as officers remain at the scene. Anyone with information that could assist police has been asked to call 101 or tweet @MetCC and quote CAD 7135/26May. A Pakistani man, who was allegedly trying to mobilise Sikhs against India over Kashmir in England, attacked the Guru Arjan Dev shrine in Derby on Monday morning. The man was later identified and arrested for causing damages worth thousands of pounds at the Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara, around 200 km from London. The gurdwara described the vandalisation a hate crime and in a statement said that "an individual entered the gurdwara premises causing thousands of pounds of damage. We can confirm that no individual was injured and that the clean-up process has begun." The CCTV footages showed smashed glass doors of the gurdwara, glass shards scattered all over the floor and a man inside the premises. The man also left a note in broken English mentioning Kashmir on the walls of the gurdwara, according to the communique received by New Delhi. "Try to help Kashmir people otherwise problem everyone," the message read, along with a phone number. "This hate crime or any sort of crime against a Sikh will never deter us in our practice of seva (service) and simran (prayer). We will continue the service for the community with langar and continue to stream live nitnem (daily prayers). We will ensure the safety of all our sevadars (volunteers) and employees," the shrine authorities said. Attacks on Indians and Indian-origin people in London are rampant. Last year in August, Indians and people of Indian origin, who had gathered outside the Indian High Commission in London to celebrate the 73rd Independence Day of India, were abused and pelted with eggs and water bottles by Pakistan-sponsored protesters. (Inputs from IANS) Swimming has been banned indefinitely at Dublin's iconic Merrion Strand after its polluted waters were declared a health hazard for the fifth year in a row. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said the waters were being fouled with raw sewage, dog dirt and filthy drain water. Likely effects on swimmers and other water sport enthusiasts could include skin rashes and gastric illnesses. There will also be disappointment for people looking to four other beaches for an escape from lockdown or a summer staycation. Portrane in north Co Dublin and Clifden in Co Galway have received similar "poor" ratings for the fourth year in a row and will be declared no-go areas for bathers from next year if they do not improve this summer. Another two beaches, Ballyloughane in Co Galway and Lilliput lakeside beach at Lough Ennell, Co Westmeath, have also received warnings after their water quality was rated "poor" for the first and second year in a row. Notices advising against swimming will be erected at the latter four from next Monday, when the official bathing season begins, but Dublin City Council will have to implement an outright ban at Merrion Strand. If conditions improve, the council can apply to have the beach reinstated as an official bathing site, but that is not expected for several years. A task group was set up last year, but multiple sources of the pollution have to be addressed and then two years of clean samples produced. That means firstly cleaning two heavily polluted streams that flow on to the beach. The EPA said: "These streams are polluted by a combination of misconnections where domestic plumbing goes into the wrong pipe and goes directly into the stream; leaks, spills and overflows from wastewater collection systems; and run-off from roads." It added: "Other potential sources of pollution that need more investigation include urban wastewater discharges, birds and dogs." EPA director Micheal Lehane said it was regrettable the waters had to be declared off-limits. "Local authorities must remain vigilant to ensure public health is protected and to identify and fix sources of water pollution which impact on our beaches," he said. "The declassification of Merrion Strand after five years at 'poor' status is disappointing, and action must be taken to ensure that no other bathing water is declassified in future." By contrast, three other Dublin beaches were classified for the first time, including the famous Forty Foot at Sandycove which received an "excellent" rating; Sandycove beach itself, which rated "good", and White Rock Beach in Killiney, which rated "excellent". The performance of beaches generally around the country was good, too, as 95pc of the 147 officially designated bathing sites passed the quality test, with 72pc of them rating as "excellent" and a further 16pc rating as "good". Beach-goers are being asked to help keep them that way by bringing home all their rubbish and food waste, cleaning up after their dogs and reporting any pollution. In total, there were 50 pollution incidents at beaches last year, mainly caused by urban wastewater, agriculture and septic tanks. On May 5, the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) declared the president of the bank, Akinwunmi Adesina, innocent of corruption allegations raised by some whistleblowers within the bank. The committee, headed by Takuji Yano, the institutions Japan Executive Director, described the 16-count allegations against Mr Adesina, who is seeking another five-year term, as spurious and unfounded. Regardless, on May 22, the United States, which is a member of the bank, expressed deep reservations about the integrity of the Committees process and called for a fresh in-depth investigation of the allegations. In a letter to the chairperson of the banks board of governors, Niale Kaba, the Secretary, U.S. Department of Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, faulted the committees decision to totally exonerate Mr Adesina of all allegations. Mr Mnuchin said it was not yet time to make such a declaration, until an independent outside investigator of high professional standing has undertaken an evaluation of the facts of the allegations. PREMIUM TIMES on Monday published details of the allegations against Mr Adesina, Nigerias former agriculture minister. This newspaper has exclusively obtained the full report of the ethics committee, and the articles it relied on to make that determination. The committee based its approach on the banks Article 3 of Resolution No. B/BG/2008/11 which contains the AfDBs Whistleblowing and Complaints Handling Policy. The article empowers the ethics committee to conduct a preliminary examination of a complaint or allegation received by it to determine whether it is based on apparently solid justifications, with a view to submitting it to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors. If the preliminary examination of the complaint or allegation reveals it was frivolous or not based on any objective and solid facts, the resolution empowered the Committee to dismiss it. On the other hand, it says if the preliminary examination of the complaint or allegations revealed facts capable of establishing violations of the Code of Conduct, the Committee is empowered to submit the complaints or allegations to the Chairperson of the Bureau of the Board of Governors for further examination. Timelines of probe The committee said it received an email from the Group of Concerned Staff Members on January 19, 2020, titled Disclosure of Acts Related to Alleged Breach of the Code of Ethics by an Elected Officer. A copy of the mail was sent to the Director of the Integrity & Anti-Corruption office (PIAC) of the Bank, the Chairperson of the Audit and Finance Committee. The committee said it drew the attention of the board of directors of the bank to the petition. It said to determine which, between the Audit and Finance Committee (AUFI) of the Board and the Director of the Integrity and Anti-corruption Office (PIAC), had the legal mandate to handle the complaint, a restricted meeting of the Board was held. On February 4, the committee approached the general counsel of the Bank to seek not only further clarification on its mandate but to solicit the legal advice on the admissibility of the petition form as filed. The meeting was in addition to the oral evidence received by the Committee from the Director of the Anti-corruption & Integrity Office, and the Banks Auditor-General. The following day, the committee said it held an informal meeting and conducted a point-by-point examination of all the allegations to confirm their substantive validity. At the end of the meeting, the committee said it resolved to write to the petitioners to request additional documentation to clarify their allegations. On February 7, the committee said it sent a copy of the petition to Mr Adesina and demanded his official response. On February 14, the Committee sent an email to the petitioners to request additional information to sustain their allegations. However, in its response the following day, the petitioners declined the committees request, opting to maintain the anonymity of its members. It argued that providing any further evidence would uncover the identities of its members. Advertisements On February 10, Mr Adesinas legal counsel sent a letter to the committee on the matter. A similar letter was also sent on March 10. However, the committee said it decided to ignore the letters on the ground that Mr Adesina did not inform it the letters were from his legal representative. Between February 27 and April 9, the committee said it held about five meetings to examine the 16 allegations contained in the petition received. On April 8, the committee received a memorandum from Mr Adesina conveying his response to the petition, which was transmitted to the Board of Governors, accompanied with other documents on the matter. Committees conclusion On completion of the preliminary review of all the allegations in the petition, the Committee in its report to the Chairman, Board of Governors, dismissed them, having established they were not based on any objective and solid facts pursuant to Resolution No. B/BG/2008/11. Besides, the Committee drew the attention to Article 4 of Resolution No. B/BG/2008/11 which vests in the Chairman of the Board the sole prerogative to act in consultation with other members to finally determine whether or not a reasonable basis exists to pursue the allegations against Mr Adesina further. China on Tuesday said it is planning to send flights to India to evacuate students, tourists and businessmen facing "difficulties" in the country in view of the novel coronavirus pandemic. A Chinese embassy spokesperson said the decision is in sync with China actively providing assistance to its overseas citizens. In consideration of the development of the epidemic situation in India, the Chinese side is planning to dispatch temporary flights to India to bring back its citizens including students and tourists who are "facing difficulties" in India, Chinese Embassy Spokesperson Ji Rong said. "The Chinese government attaches great importance to the health and safety of overseas Chinese nationals," she said replying to a question on the issue. The move to evacuate its citizens comes in the wake of India emerging as the 10th worst-hit country by the deadly virus, which has infected nearly 1.45 lakh people in India. The coronavirus, which was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has spread to over 190 countries, infecting over 55 lakh people and taking the lives of 3.5 lakh people. India had evacuated around 700 Indians from Wuhan in February. On Monday, the Chinese embassy issued a notice informing its citizens in India about its plan to evacuate them. The notice in Mandarin said people treated for coronavirus infection or having symptom of the infection like fever and cough in the last 14 days should not take the special flights. "Through the unified arrangement of the ministry of foreign affairs and relevant departments, the Chinese diplomatic and consular missions in India will assist international students in India, tourists, temporary business visitors who have difficulties and are in urgent need to take a temporary flight back home to China," according to the notice. It suggested that people from some other countries may also be evacuated. The notice said the cost of flight ticket and quarantine in China will have to be borne by the evacuees. "If your body temperature exceeds 37.3 degrees (inclusive) before boarding or if you have suspected symptoms, you will be refused boarding by the airline," the notice said. China's decision to evacuate its citizens from India also comes at a time when troops of both the countries are locked in a tense standoff in the disputed areas of Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh for over two weeks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that another round of coronavirus relief legislation is likely and may happen in the next month or so, but he again insisted that it will be narrower than the $3 trillion package passed by House Democrats earlier this month. Many of you are asking, what next? I think theres likely to be another bill. It will not be the $3 trillion bill the House passed the other day, but theres still a likelihood that more will be needed, McConnell said at an event in Louisville, Kentucky, according to The Hill. The Senate is out of town this week and scheduled to return to Washington on June 1. Republicans have said they want to pause and assess the effectiveness of the trillions in emergency coronavirus funding already provided by Congress, and some White House advisers have questioned whether another round of spending will be necessary. We cant keep propping up the economy forever. We do need to begin to re-engage, to develop our activity again, McConnell said at another event Tuesday. The ultimate solution is to begin to get back to normal. The keys to getting fully back to normal, he said, would be testing, treatment and a vaccine. The House-passed HEROES Act included more aid for state and local governments, an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits and another round of direct payments to households. Republicans have declared the bill dead on arrival, and McConnell on Tuesday again derided the package, which included many other provisions, as a left-wing wish list." That aint going to happen, he reportedly said of the $3 trillion legislation. McConnell has advised President Trump that the next coronavirus measure should not be larger than $1 trillion, The Hill says. Republican requirements: McConnell has not laid out a detailed GOP plan for a next phase of coronavirus relief beyond saying that it be more narrowly focused and must shield businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits. It ought to be very carefully targeted to correct the mistakes that we certainly made in passing a multitrillion-dollar bill in one week, he said Tuesday, adding that there are some other needs that need to be met." Story continues McConnell also said that he supports targeted aid to state and local governments, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, but that the next round of funding cant be used to address pre-existing fiscal troubles. Republicans including President Trump have objected to bailouts for blue states that they say have racked up large unfunded pension liabilities or other debt due to mismanagement. McConnell denied advocating allowing states to declare bankruptcy, the Courier-Journal reported. The Senate Majority Leader last month told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route, drawing a sharp backlash from governors and Democratic leaders, who warned that allowing such bankruptcies would worsen the economic damage from the pandemic. McConnell on Tuesday reportedly described that as just a suggestion, not a policy recommendation. The bottom line: Republicans remain split over the next coronavirus bill, including how big it should be, how quickly it should happen, what it should include and whether theres even a need for it. So while McConnell signaled that another bill will be in the works, theres still a long way to go, and the pressure on Republicans is only likely to mount as we get closer to the end of July, when the $600 weekly unemployment benefit is set to expire. Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter. Australian medical students will be taught basic mental health training to recognise and respond to the extra stresses associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The federal government on Wednesday will announce $690,000 for the Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand to support mental health first aid training for all medical students. Health Minister Greg Hunt is promising more help for medical students to be able to identify mental health problems. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Using case studies, videos and other resources, the course covers the signs and symptoms of mental health problems, where and how to get help and what sort of help has been shown by research to be effective. As well as learning to recognise others problems, the course will remind Australian medical students to monitor their own mental health and wellbeing. " " Flavored e-liquids on display during Vape Jam UK 4 in London, England. John Keeble/Getty Images If you're a tobacco user these days, you may already be familiar with e-cigarettes. They're the electronic battery-powered devices that heat a fluid, aka e-liquid or vape juice, which contains nicotine and other ingredients to create an aerosol that's inhaled, in place of the smoke that conventional cigarettes produce by burning tobacco leaves. E-cigarettes are rising in popularity, with 10.8 million adult users in the U.S., according to a study published Oct. 2, 2018 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Part of the attraction may be that they're not perceived as being as hazardous to health as conventional smoking, since users don't get the cancer-causing tar found in conventional cigarettes. Add to that the allure of the sweet-tasting flavorings available for addition to the e-liquid, and people such as U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb worry it may all be too appealing to youthful users. Advertisement But that pleasant taste may have a downside, researchers say. In a study published Oct. 18, 2018 in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, scientists from Duke and Yale universities found that chemical flavorings for vanilla, cherry, citrus and cinnamon interacted with solvents such as polypropylene glycol and glycerol in the e-liquid, to form new compounds called acetals, which can trigger irritation and inflammation when inhaled. According to the Duke Medicine press release, the interaction occurs even before the e-liquid is heated. "We simply don't really know what long-term effects these compounds (and many other compounds in e-cigarette liquid) have on the airways," says Hanno Erythropel, a postdoctoral associate at the Yale Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science and a co-author of the study. "Many of the additives to e-liquids have GRAS status, which means generally regarded as safe. But that is based on ingestion and on dermal (skin) exposure. There isn't much knowledge about what these compounds might do in the airways and lungs. That is true for all vapers, young and old." What Are You Actually Smoking? "I think the main takeaway is that the assumption that e-liquids are a final and stable product is challenged by our work," says Erythropel, who adds that scientists already know that further reactions take place during the heating step. All of this means that the initial list of ingredients for e-liquid "is likely different from the final e-liquid composition, which in turn is different from what the user is exposed to in the generated aerosol." How that might affect vapers' bodies isn't yet clear. "When inhaled, these compounds will persist in the body for some time, activating irritant pathways," said Sven-Eric Jordt, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine and a senior author of the paper, in the press release. "Over time, this mild irritation could cause an inflammatory response." But Erythropel notes that while such irritation could be a risk for users with asthma, the researchers have other concerns as well. "If this reaction can take place that creates a more irritating compound (or possibly more toxic), what other reactions can take place that might cause increased risk for users? We simply don't know. I would add that long-term effects of vaping on the airways and the whole body are generally unknown given how young these devices are, independent of the final composition of the e-liquid. But the fact that these more irritating compounds form is certainly not reassuring in that regard." Robert Strongin, a professor of organic chemistry at Portland State University who wasn't connected with the Duke-Yale study, says in an email that the study breaks new ground. "The reaction between the aldehyde flavors and the solvents on heating is very basic organic chemistry, totally reasonable," he says. "It creates a new set of chemicals that had not received a lot of attention to date. Their formation is not at all surprising, but hadn't been reported previously. Our earlier studies showed an analogous reaction with solvents and formaldehyde." Strongin says that just as users aren't aware of these new chemicals being created in e-liquid, scientists similarly don't know much about the effect of those chemicals on the body. "We know very little or nothing about the flavoring additives or even much about the solvents as far as their inhalation toxicity, especially as chronically used in e-cigarettes," Strongin says. "Chemicals safe for ingestion are not necessarily safe for inhalation. Inhaled organic solvents and flavorings bypass processing by the stomach and liver. Lung tissue is different. Just because we can eat flavor molecules doesn't mean at all that it's OK to inhale them." "We don't fully know the health risks of the flavorants," says Ilana Knopf, director of the Public Health and Tobacco Policy Center at Northeastern University. "We also don't know the health risks of inhaling the solvents but this study shows we don't know what happens when they're combined." Erythropel says that more research is needed on the chemical changes in e-liquids and what health effects they may have. "One of the things we are currently looking at is the general toxicity of these compounds toward mammalian cells, although we of course don't expect them to be deadly poisonous, knowing that some of the acetals we found are considered GRAS," Erythropel says. "It's still an important piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, I think there will need to be more systematic research on the possible reactions taking place within e-liquids, which is quite a challenge given the speed at which new flavors enter the market on a daily basis (there are an estimated 7,000+ flavors on the market at the moment)." "Based on that knowledge, future regulatory efforts should target specifically the more reactive chemicals added to e-liquids," he says. Now That's Interesting In October, the FDA issued a warning letter to a company for marketing an e-liquid that the FDA said contained two chemicals that are active ingredients in prescription medicines for erectile dysfunction. "There are no e-liquid products approved to contain prescription drugs or any other medications that require a doctor's supervision," FDA commissioner Gottlieb explained in a press release. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 16:05:50|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HEFEI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese research team announced that it has developed a "super material" with superior properties to ceramics and metals, promising to be a greener alternative for engineering plastics in fields of automobiles and aerospace. According to a new report published in the international journal Science Advances, the density of the new material is only one-sixth of that of steel. With outstanding strength and toughness, it is capable of withstanding temperatures from minus 120 degrees Celsius to 150 degrees Celsius. The research team was led by Yu Shuhong, a professor with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, capital of the eastern province of Anhui. Yu said the new material was created on cellulose nanofiber (CNF), one of the most abundant all-green resources that can be derived from plants or produced by bacteria. Less than one ten-thousandth of a human hair in diameter, the CNF at the microscale is stronger than steel. However, macroscale materials composed of the CNFs become much weaker. Therefore, how to construct high-performance CNF materials remains challenging for global scientists. The researchers found that the new material's superior properties come from a 3D nanofiber network produced from glucose by biosynthesis methods. It shows a multilayer structure at the micron level. "(The structure is) similar to a layer stack of spider webs," team member Guan Qingfang told Xinhua. Guan said when subjected to an impact of 100 kph, the structure can instantly absorb and dissipate the huge amounts of energy, without deformation or cracks, which is superior to ceramics, plastics and aluminum alloy. According to the research, the material could be used for automobiles, aircraft and precision instruments, particularly for aerospace applications, such as optical lens bracket for the lunar rover which requires lightweight, high strength and stability under extreme temperatures. Cellulose also made the material cheaper, greener and possible to replace engineering plastics, the researchers said. Enditem Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday directed Chinas armed forces to strengthen training of troops and to be ready for war amid coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemics visible impact on the worlds most populous countrys national security. State media reports quoted the Chinese premier as saying that it was important to comprehensively strengthen the training of troops and prepare for war, resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and safeguard the overall strategic stability of the country. Xis speech comes amid rising tension with the US, frequent references by local politicians and diplomats of reunifying Taiwan, if necessary by force, and the likely implementation of a new and controversial security law meant to crack down on pro-democracy dissidents in the special administrative region of Hong Kong. Also Watch | Covid update: China prepares for war; IndiGo crew grounded; Karnataka temples Two days back, Chinas top diplomat Wang Yi, heavily criticised the efforts of some US politicians to fabricate rumours and stigmatise China to blame it for the pandemic. The US, Wang said, is pushing relations with China to the brink of a new Cold War. Chinese state councillor and foreign minister also rejected US lies over the coronavirus. Tension is also escalating with India with troops from the two countries clashing along different areas along the 3,488 kilometre-long disputed border especially, in Ladakh, in May. Both armies are said to have deployed additional troops in sensitive areas along the boundary with experts predicting a lengthy standoff. Xi said that Chinas performance in fighting Covid-19 has shown the success of military reforms and the armed forces should explore new ways of training, despite the pandemic. Xi, who chairs Chinas powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), made the comments at a meeting of the delegation of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and Peoples Armed Police Force (PAPF) on the sidelines of the annual session of the National Peoples Congress (NPC), the countrys parliament. Xi added that it was necessary to make preparations for military struggle, to flexibly carry out actual combat military training, and to comprehensively improve our militarys ability to carry out military missions. Xi, according to the state media, pointed out this epidemic prevention and control struggle is a practical test for national defence and military reform, fully embodies the effectiveness of the reform, and also puts forward new requirements for reform. Xis strongly-worded speech coincided with a series of unverified photographs and videos being uploaded on Chinese social media platforms showing Beijings second aircraft carrier -- the countrys first indigenously built one -- leaving its shipyard for a sail on Monday. The move, if verified, will mark the aircraft carrier, the Shandongs first known voyage in five months since being commissioned in December and later returning to the shipyard for maintenance, a state media report said. Separately, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday that a moderate and steady increase in the nations defence expenditure is right, proper, and necessary. It was announced last week that China has set its annual defence budget growth target at 6.6%, as compared to 7.5% last year. China has both economic and military development in mind and national defence should be developed in coordination with economic development, said Wu Qian, PLA spokesperson. Beijings homeland security and overseas interests are also facing some real threats, Wu added. The following editorial was published in the May 24 edition of the Detroit News: (TNS) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel have promised a vigorous investigation to hold accountable those responsible for the catastrophic Midland-area dam collapse. They'll need a wide net, and a willingness to look at the role their own shops played in enabling the disaster. Early indications are that Michigan residents, just as with the Flint water crisis, were again failed by government at all levels as well as by the private sector. The crumbling of the Edenville Dam Tuesday comes as no surprise. Federal regulators flagged the deficiencies of the hydroelectric structure more than two decades ago, and engaged in a long battle with the dam's owners to force improvements to spillways to make it safer. The owners insisted the structure could handle the worst storms and stubbornly fought making the necessary upgrades. The Federal Electric Regulatory Commission finally pulled the license of the most current owner, Boyce Hydro, in 2018 because of the high risk to life and property. But instead of making residents safer, it placed them in greater danger. The loss of the federal licenses shifted oversight to the states, and Michigan is one of the few state's whose regulations on dam safety are far less stringent than the federal standards. State regulators inspected the dam in January and expressed concerns about the ability of its spillways to handle a significant surge in water level. Last fall, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) rejected a request from Boyce to lower lake levels behind the dam out of concern such a move would endanger aquatic species. The dispute ended up in state court, where just three weeks ago Nessel asked that the higher lake levels be maintained at levels high enough to preserve the freshwater mussels that live in the lake, despite the previous concerns expressed by both state and federal inspectors. Just as in Flint, poor communication and conflicting regulations between state and federal agencies and misplaced bureaucratic priorities created a dangerous situation in Midland that should have been apparent. The company in a statement last week also said it was under pressure from homeowners around the lake to keep water levels high for recreational purposes. Still, Boyce has much to answer for. It should have improved the spillways to enable the dam to operate properly and safely. The state Legislature, too, has been aware for years that Michigan's regulatory standards for dams are inadequate, and has not moved to fix them. Now, Michigan must act swiftly to bring its regulations in line with those of the federal government. Dozens of small dams similar to Edenville are operating across Michigan. They should be immediately inventoried, and those that are not up to federal standards should be brought into compliance or shut down. And all state agencies should clearly understand that when the choice is between protecting human life or wildlife habitat, humans get the priority. What happened in Midland could have been prevented. The task ahead is to determine why it wasn't, and to put in place safeguards to ensure it doesn't happen again. Would-be radio amateur living in camper van during pandemic Business Insider reports on Kristin Hanes who with her partner Tom (studying for his ham radio licence) is living and traveling in a 1994 Chevy Astro van during California's stay-at-home order Hanes is editor-in-chief of 'The Wayward Home' and since 2016 she and Tom have been living in a sailboat. They started traveling in the Chevy Astro van even before the statewide stay-at-home order went into effect on March 19. They wanted to steer clear of populated areas after learning of how the virus was already spreading. It is kind of scary when youre living in a van to have a shelter-in-place order, Hanes told Business Insider. Tom usually works as an electrical contractor in San Francisco, but his work is paused in light of the pandemic. Hes studying to become a licensed ham radio operator for the time being. Read the full story at https://www.businessinsider.sg/what-its-like-california-couple-sheltering-in-place-van-2020-5 The Wayward Home https://www.thewaywardhome.com/ Besides being one of the most happening couples that Bollywood has seen, Riteish Deshmukh and his wife Genelia have time and again made sure that their fans stay entertained. Be it Riteish's new hairstyle or his way of washing utensils, every video of theirs tends to garner a lot of attention. But today, instead of going down that route, the couple took a moment to remember their father. The pain of losing someone so close to you is just unbearable. As we all know, Ritesh Deshmukh's father Vilasrao Deshmukh passed away in 2012. He was the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his untimely death broke the hearts of many, but this couple stood by their family and supported each other this whole time, which has been quite evitable. On 26th May 2020, which marks Vilasrao Deshmukh's 75th birthday anniversary, Riteish took to Instagram and shared a video where he was seen remembering his father while looking at his attire, a white kurta and Nehru jacket. One can hear Abhi mujh mein kahi baaki thodi si hai zindagi from the movie, Agneepath in the background. The video is heart-melting and along with this video, he added "Happy Birthday PAPPA... Miss you everyday!! #vilasraodeshmukh75. Even Genelia took to her Instagram handle and remembered her father-in-law, standing in front of his statue with folded hands. She captioned this picture with an emotional note and wrote Riaans teacher asked him What are you most proud of. His answer was. My Ajoba... You are our pride Pappa We feel your presence every day and know that you are looking after us wherever you are You live in us and we celebrate you every single day. Happy Birthday Pappa. Vilasrao Deshmukh was an Indian politician who served as the Union Cabinet Minister Of Science and Technology and also served as a Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Speaking of the couple, they are currently making the most of this lockdown with their kids in Latur, which happens to be Riteish's hometown. "Getting to meet them, and hear their stories, is just something super special. I know from speaking with other people that they enjoyed our presence just as much as we enjoyed theirs, and they inspire us to be better." Cadet Second Lieutenant Alexis Nyce. The mightiest of nations have fallen victim to Covid-19, and many predict problems for less developed nations. Yet Africa may surprise the world in managing this pandemic when the international community cannot step up to help. Granted, there are challenges and unknowns. Arguing for rapid development of a vaccine, philanthropist Melinda Gates describes the challenges in the developing world, including lack of access to water to practice handwashing, the inability to practice social distancing in dense townships and slums, and the difficulties of imposed lockdowns as people need to work and pick up food on a daily basis. Africa reports more than 100,000 cases in all, with more than 3,000 deaths. Of 54 countries, 12 report more than 2,000 cases including South Africa, Egypt and Algeria. Gates suggests that low case numbers are linked to lower rates of testing, and researchers question if the disease is less active in places with warmer temperatures. In Africa, some of the nations worst hit have posted relatively lower temperatures. Covid-19s fatality rate is higher among the elderly, and the median age in Africa is just under 20. Comparisons: African nations manage the pandemic; testing varies widely within and among nations (Source: WorldoMeters) Still, Africa may be resilient and the case of Ghana debunks suggestions that Africa cannot take care of herself during these trying times. Ghana has recorded more than 6,400 cases with about 30 deaths and 200,000 tests conducted so far. Rural clinics use drones, carrying samples to urban testing centers, reducing delivery time to about 30 minutes rather than hours required by car. The Zipline fleet in Ghana has the capacity to transport 15,000 tests from 300 flights in a day, reports Time, and drone technology speeds identification of the infected and contact tracing while also helping deliver medical supplies. Ghana also closed its international borders as of mid-March. Kotoka International Airport placed returning citizens and residents under a strict two-week quarantine for observation and testing. The nations two major cities imposed a partial lockdown for three weeks to ensure extensive contact tracing and testing. The World Health Organization lauded Ghana for these moves. Other African nations took similar steps, imposing complete or partial lockdowns as well as contact tracing. Reports suggest the lockdowns increased social interactions among family members and improved daily life. Some African countries followed developed countries in closing their borders indefinitely. Many increase testing, enforce social distancing and require face masks. Countries also stepped up cooperation with Rwanda, for example, declaring it could provide medical supplies and ventilators, some supplied by China, for others in need of such critical equipment. South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal and Ghana also report adequate supplies of test kits, again many supplied by China and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Covid-19 costs: Government debt as a percentage of nominal GDP is expected to rise (Source: Trading Economics 2018-2019) Covid-19 could be more treacherous for Africas economy, disrupting trade and financial inflows, as the International Monetary Fund predicts global growth to fall by at least 3 percent this year. For sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank projects economic growth between -2.1 and -5.1 percent in 2020, depending on success of pandemic mitigation measures. Economies heavily reliant on exports of commodities with drastic price declines, like oil including Nigeria and Angola could suffer the most. Likewise, countries that rely on tourism including Egypt, Morocco and South Africa can anticipate a decline in revenue. Covid-19 could add to public debt vulnerabilities. The ratio of general gross debt-to-GDP in sub-Saharan Africa has worsened since 2012 from 37 percent to 59 percent, and there could be more deterioration as domestic production levels and economic activities decline. This coupled with heightened fiscal deficit through huge spending to contain the disease and offset losses may make debt payments difficult. African governments offer stimulus packages, with South Africa, Ghana and others providing an array of soft loans, tax deferrals, tax assistance and relief for businesses to retain low-income employees. Ghana offered support for private and commercial customers to pay utility bills. Kenya, Ghana and others supply food items for vulnerable populations. In Ghana for example, several companies and institutions have joined in the manufacturing of hand sanitizers, local medicines that boost the immune system and personal protective equipment, or PPE. Masks made in Ghana rely on the colorful local textiles, increasing demand and sustaining jobs in the textile industry. Room to grow: Intra-regional trade increases knowledge transfer and value creation (Source: Brookings and UN Conference on Trade and Development) Africa, pushed to the wall, takes action even as most countries look inward, helping their own citizens before extending assistance to the rest of the world. Many countries have already announced plans to restrict exports of medical products as well as staple foods. For instance, Russia and Kazakhstan imposed quotas on exports of wheat, sugar, sunflower seeds and some food vegetables such as potatoes. Similarly, Vietnam, India and Cambodia reduced or banned rice exports to ensure local food security. Rice and wheat were the third leading imports for Ghana and Nigeria, respectively, in 2018, and sub-Saharan Africa is the worlds largest region for rice imports, according to the World Bank Related: 6 Obnoxious COVID-19 Spends For The Rich The African Development Bank projects the continents annual food import bill of $35 billion to rise to $110 billion by 2025, and this would weaken African economies, specifically agricultural and export jobs. Covid-19 could worsen matters, but Africa can control the trajectory. The crisis could offset inelastic tastes for foreign foods and curb preference for imported grains like wheat and rice, with Africa instead developing and marketing local crops. Most locally produced foods including yams, plantains, cassava, tomatoes, oranges, watermelons, among others are left to rot with little preservation or value-added processing. If Africans reverse course in this area, there could be both demand-induced supply for most import-substituted foods and supply-induced demand for value-added processing increasing crop production levels to sustainable levels, reducing dependence on imports while increasing food security. A new independent mindset and the will to increase productive capacities from all factors of production, especially labor, is required. Crops like maize and rice, which form a substantial proportion of food eaten and grown by Africans, could aid in food security and sustainability as farmers over the years have experimented with seeds that are high yielding and resistant to drought, pest and diseases. Patterns: Masks use textiles manufactured in Ghana (Source: Independent Ghana) Countries must now focus on buffer stock institutions and smaller, yet valuable food manufacturing companies many in ruins all over the continent. The reasons are many: low demand from the inelastic taste for foreign products, stiffer competition from foreign brands and, most importantly lack of national agendas. Too often, political parties when they come to power neglect projects undertaken by their opponents to help preserve and store excess food produced in Africa. Such local production would give rise to manufacturing jobs and sustained incomes, encouraging demand for local products. Africa, with self-reflection and appreciation, could rise above aid and become self-reliant after Covid-19. Only a few short months ago, the world thought of the virus that emerged in China as a distant challenge. Since then, Covid-19 has spread to almost every corner of the world. Each country has the opportunity to take charge of its destiny, handling the problem as they see fit. If the international community is inclined to help change the fortunes of Africans in a timely manner, that must be done through debt relief. Still, with great food insecurity predicted by the world, Africans and others must rise and take matters into their own hands. By Eric Ekobor-Ackah Mochiah via Yale Global Online More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: The plan calls for crews to remove more than 170,000 cubic yards of coal ash, transporting most of it to an IDEM-approved lined landfill at the R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield. About 26,000 cubic yards is slated for beneficial reuse, the company said. The coal ash ponds in Michigan City would be filled with non-contaminated soil, then NIPSCO would monitor groundwater nearby for 30 years. Work could start if approved later this year. Like restaurants and businesses across the country, places of worship must function at reduced capacity, operating at most to 25 percent. They are also expected to follow the government's guidelines once they are approved by local health officials to reopen. On Friday, Trump said he would override governors who would not allow places of faith to reopen. Churches must comply with guidelines that encourage attendees to wear masks and practice social distancing within the places of worship and establish cleaning and disinfection protocols. Essential activity Last Friday, Trump emphasized the significance of places of worship like churches, synagogues, and mosques, to Americans that provided essential services. He then cited that some governors in key states that deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential businesses to reopen. He added that not considering churches as essential was "not right", because he said that there were places that held society together to keep the people united. Trump sought to correct the injustice through declaring all worship services as essential. After Trump declared church services as essential activity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued their own guidelines for communities of faith to follow. This included certain restrictions like social distancing and wearing face masks. Health officials advised people against gatherings with more than ten people involved. Several states have already begun reopening with their own regulations. The draft so far discussed the reopening of the places of worship in phases. The first would limit gatherings to video streaming and drive-in services. The following phases would allow gatherings at reduced capacity and with social distancing. However, the new guidance was reported to have no discussion of these phases. The president added, "In America, we need more prayer, not less." Check these out! New guidelines Apart from reduced capacity, these places of worship are expected to function following basic mitigation measures such as maintaining a distance of 6 feet apart from others. Churches are encouraged by states to follow guidelines that offer remote and online services. Another recommendation was to conduct services outdoors to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission. The places of worship are also encouraged to write or draw visible markings for churchgoers to practice proper social distancing like seating them in alternating rows. The only exception would be family members who lived in the same household, who could sit together. Authorities also asked places of faith to modify certain practices like the Catholic communion, which required congregants to receive the communion items in the hand. Officials confirm that the Department of Health has three weeks to assess the impact of reopening of religious institutions, providing them ample time to prepare and reopen for the COVID-19 incubation period. The new guidelines included rules for screening congregants and staff alike, disinfecting shared spaces, shortening services, using disposable covers for seating areas like pews, discouraging shared items like prayer rugs, books, and cushions, and minimizing contact with congregants. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. A Navy ship recently turned its laser weapon system to the skies to take out a drone flying nearby as the service looks to counter aerial threats at sea. The amphibious transport dock ship Portland "successfully disabled an unmanned aerial vehicle" while it was in flight during a May 16 test at sea, the Navy announced in a news release. Video footage of the test appears to show the drone on fire before it suddenly disappears. Read next: Russia Sends Advanced Fighter Jets to Back Mercenaries in Libya The Portland was equipped with the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator for the at-sea test. The weapon system, which is expected to reach 150 kilowatts, was developed by Northrop Grumman. Capt. Karrey Sanders, the Portland's commanding officer, said in a statement about the test that the laser's capabilities are "redefining war at sea for the Navy." "By conducting advanced at-sea tests against UAVs and small craft, we will gain valuable information on the capabilities of the Solid State Laser Weapons System Demonstrator against potential threats," Sanders said. Thomas Rivers, program manager for the amphibious warfare program office, said in September -- when the Portland was being equipped with the new laser -- that other ships are likely to get similar weapons systems. The laser on the Portland, Rivers added, can be used not only to target drones but also small boats. The Iranians have used both to target U.S. ships. Last month, small boats swarmed and harassed U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels operating in the Middle East. And last summer, Marines on the amphibious assault ship Boxer jammed and destroyed at least one Iranian drone that flew within 1,000 yards of the Navy warship in the Strait of Hormuz. The new laser system the Portland is testing is expected to be five times more powerful than the 30-kilowatt Laser Weapon System, or LaWS, the Navy tested on the amphibious transport dock ship Ponce several years ago. Navy ships are facing an increasing number of threats at sea, the service said in the news release, including drones; armed small boats; and sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems. -- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins. Related: Lasers That Take Out Drones and Small Boats Could Be Mounted on More Navy Ships Your browser does not support the video tag. The New Orleans criminal defense attorneys at the Barkemeyer Law Firm are pleased to announce their team is now providing statewide criminal defense representation to clients across the state of Louisiana. For over 15 years, the firm has dedicated their efforts to helping those who have been charged with crimes get their lives back on track and protect their future. With this mission in mind, the Louisiana criminal lawyers at the Barkemeyer Law Firm aim is to keep their clients from being convicted and going to jail, help them maintain a clean criminal record, and keep them driving. "Being charged with a crime is often a scary and confusing ordeal. Many people who have had this experience find themselves at a loss about what their charges mean and what options they have for fighting them. Fortunately, I have fifteen years of experience with that, and my team stands ready to help those facing criminal charges clear their name and their record." Understanding that each client's criminal case is different, Barkemeyer Law Firm works hard to determine the details that might affect each one, including the facts of the stop and the terms of the search, witness statements, DNA, etc. and develop a clear winning strategy to fight their charges. Their team knows how to thoroughly examine all the evidence against their clients and takes each client through the arraignment, motions, trial, and sentencing process to ensure their rights are upheld and they obtain the best possible outcome. The New Orleans criminal defense attorneys at the Barkemeyer Law Firm stay ahead of the new technology and information so they can create successful defenses for their clients. We take pride in being the best criminal lawyers that we can be. We do that because we never want to see a client get wrongfully convicted. ABOUT BARKEMEYER LAW FIRM Barkemeyer Law Firm is a boutique New Orleans criminal defense attorney law firm. They have been members and supporters of the Louisiana State Bar Association, Louisiana Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers, and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Our law offices have successfully represented clients in Orleans, Jefferson, Lafayette, Plaquemines, St. John, St. Tammany, St. Charles Parishes, and many more. Our mission is to prevent our clients from going to jail and protecting their criminal record for their future. KABUL - The Afghan government announced it would free 900 prisoners on Tuesday, its single largest prisoner release since the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace deal earlier this year that spells out an exchange of detainees between the warring sides. The announcement came as a three-day cease-fire with the insurgents draws to an end. The Taliban had called for the truce during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. There are expectations that the prisoner release could lead to new reductions in violence, and Taliban officials say they are considering an extension of the cease-fire. A senior Taliban figure confirmed this to The Associated Press. If these developments, like the announcement of prisoner release continues, it is possible to move forward with decisions like extending the brief cease-fire and to move in a positive direction with some minor issues, the Taliban official said. The prisoners were being released from Bagram prison, where the U.S. still maintains a major military base, north of Kabul, as well as from the infamous Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the eastern edge of the Afghan capital. By late afternoon, the AP witnessed scores of men pouring out of the Bagram compound presumably the released prisoners. It was not immediately possible to verify their numbers or whether they were all Taliban members. The prisoner release is part of the U.S. deal with the Taliban, signed on Feb. 29 to allow for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan, bringing to an end the countrys protracted war and Americas longest military involvement. When the deal was signed, it was touted as Afghanistans best chance for peace after decades of war but political feuding in Kabul and delays in prisoner exchanges have slowed the deals progress toward intra-Afghan negotiations, considered the second and most critical phase of the accord. Under the deal, Kabul is to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the insurgents are to free 1,000 captives they hold, mostly government officials and Afghan forces, before intra-Afghan negotiations can begin. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had welcomed the Taliban cease-fire announcement during the Muslim holiday. Javid Faisal, a national security spokesman in Kabul, urged the Taliban to extend the cease-fire and said the government would release 900 prisoners on Tuesday. That would bring to 2,000 the number of Taliban prisoners released so far under the U.S.-Taliban deal. The Taliban say they have released 240 of captives they held. However, the Taliban have yet to confirm whether those released so far by the government were among the 5,000 names the insurgents had given U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of the Feb. 29 deal. A second Taliban official told the AP that those released so far were n fact on the Taliban list of demands, including the uncle of Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada. Key in deciding which names would appear on the list was Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a senior figure who had recently recovered from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Turabi was the much feared vice and virtue minister during the Taliban rule, known for beating men who were found listening to music or not attending the mosque. He once slapped a Taliban commander who spoke with a woman journalist. Both Taliban officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Many Afghans have expressed frustration at the slow and often stalled peace process; many have known only conflict in their homeland for the past several decades. If both sides stop this war and sit at the negotiating table ... maybe my youngest children will experience a good life, which we never experienced, said Sayed Agha, a truck driver from eastern Logar province who was wounded in April, caught in the crossfire during a battle between the Taliban and Afghan soldiers. I have spent my whole life in war, said Agha, 45. ___ Gannon reported from Islamabad. A nurse gets a swab ready at a temporary COVID-19 test clinic in Montreal, on May 15, 2020. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press) Accountability Group Calls for COVID-19 Transparency, Whistleblower Protection OTTAWAAn ad-hoc transparency group is calling on governments to make crucial records related to the COVID-19 pandemic open by default as a measure of accountability to the public. The Canadian COVID-19 Accountability Group urges public officials to proactively release documents concerning health and safety enforcement, scientific and public health research, and contracts, grants, and loans provided to companies and organizations. The coalition includes academics, lawyers and representatives of groups including the Whistleblowing Canada Research Society and Anti-Corruption and Accountability Canada. In a report released Monday, it said the COVID-19 pandemic has demanded dramatic action, both politically and financially, to slow the spread of the disease. An employee (L) at the Simons store explains health safety procedures to a customer, both wearing facemasks, on Sainte-Catherine Street, in Montreal, Canada, on May 25, 2020. (Photo by Sebastien St-Jean/AFP via Getty Images) But the coalition said public and private bodies have been less than transparent with the news media and the public about those actions. Canadians are being kept in the dark about everything from how much money is being spent to fight the pandemic to basic data about where the disease is spreading, said Ian Bron, an Ottawa-based accountability advocate and former whistleblower (on Transport Canada and marine security) who coordinated the groups effort. We know that when governments and corporations operate without public scrutiny, the potential for negligence, fraud, and misinformation dramatically increases. During a pandemic, that puts lives and scarce dollars at risk, Bron said. The group echoed a recent call from federal information commissioner Caroline Maynard for agencies to release pandemic-related records they create, without prompting. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday the government has emphasized transparency when announcing programs to address the effects of COVID-19. But we recognize theres always more to do in terms of openness and transparency, and we will continue to demonstrate that with Canadians, he said at his daily briefing. Because we know fundamentally theres an issue of trust and of confidence. If Canadians have confidence their government is working on their behalf to support them during the pandemic, they will continue to follow public health advice, which will be beneficial to everyone, he added. Treasury Board President JeanYves Duclos said Monday he has reminded colleagues and his officials to ensure whatever is possible is done concerning transparency, given the current challenges. Duclos, the minister responsible for the Access to Information Act, said he has spoken with the information commissioner about how the government can release more documentation proactively and use technology to improve openness. The accountability group seeks a clear declaration that Canadian governments will protect anyone who reports public or private-sector wrongdoing pertaining to health and safety, science or the misuse of public funds, particularly during the COVID-19 crisis. It also recommended creation of a COVID-19 ombudsman to advise and support Canadians wishing to disclose any wrongdoing they see. Even those in organizations with disclosure mechanisms, such as whistleblower hotlines, may not know of [or trust] them, the report said. They would benefit from support in choosing where to go, articulating their concerns and understanding what evidence they need to make a credible disclosure of wrongdoing. The report also called for an awareness campaign to educate employees about how to report wrongdoing concerning the expenditure of public funds related to the pandemic, as well as the non-disclosure or manipulation of information on COVID-19. The coalition acknowledged its recommendations are ambitious and will require work and consistent, steady leadership. Some can be enacted quickly while others, such as the development of comprehensive whistleblowing legislation, will require more time, it said. However, without these reforms, it will be difficult for citizens to hold bad actors accountable for their actions and inactions during the pandemic, as well as prevent future failures that could jeopardize both taxpayer dollars and Canadian lives. By Jim Bronskill Reno Omokri has queried President Muhammadu Buhari on the whereabout of loans taken under the current administration. Omokri expressed that the current administration has taken $39 billion in 5 years, a record borrowing in Nigerias history. Also Read: Buhari Responsible For Increase In COVID-19 Cases Omokri Alleges Omokri expressed that despite all the loans taken from other countries, Nigeria remains the headquarters for extreme poverty in the world. Advertisement He wrote: Dear General @MBuhari, You borrowed $39 billion in 5 years. No government in Nigerias history has borrowed that much. Nigeria is the world headquarters for extreme poverty. You built no schools for almajiri. The Naira is devalued. Where did the money go? The university staff union's plan for a national framework for campus-by-campus wage negotiations has been derailed just days before it was due to go to a ballot of all members. At least 17 universities including the University of NSW, the University of Sydney, RMIT, University of Melbourne and University, Deakin, Curtin, the Australian Catholic University and Central Queensland University have rejected the plan which included a proposal for wage cuts of up to 15 per cent. NTEU national president Dr Alison Barnes. Credit: Only three universities - Monash, La Trobe and the University of Western Australia - had agreed to it. National Tertiary Education Union national president Dr Alison Barnes said the union was appalled that university vice chancellors had combined to derail the national jobs protection framework which was designed to save 12,000 jobs. Tash Herz is hardly recognisable from her time on Married At First Sight. The 31-year-old bartender, who was unsuccessfully paired with Amanda Micallef on Nine's social experiment, recently bleached her jet black hair orange at Brixton Hair in Unley, Adelaide. It comes after the tattooed reality star debuted 12 sparkling new porcelain veneers on her upper teeth last month, worth a staggering $25,000. Look at her now! Tash Herz is hardly recognisable from her time on Married At First Sight earlier this year. Pictured left: Tash at her wedding in September 2019, and right: on Monday Tash displayed her latest makeover in an Instagram Story on Monday night. She tied her lightened hair back and emphasised her plump pout and veneers with bold red lipstick. Tash ditched her usual edgy style for a reserved black sweater and hoop earrings. Going blonde? The 31-year-old bartender, who was unsuccessfully paired with Amanda Micallef on MAFS, recently bleached her jet black hair orange at Brixton Hair in Unley, Adelaide A bold look! She tied her lightened hair back and emphasised her plump pout and veneers with a bold red lipstick In April, she revealed her expensive new teeth in an Instagram post. 'I didn't even realise that I never opened my mouth and smiled in photos before getting veneers,' Tash said, describing her newfound confidence. 'It helps when your dentist is a Libra sweetheart who causes you zero discomfort through the entire process and lets you choose the most obnoxious white for your shade preference.' Glowing! It comes after the tattooed reality star debuted 12 sparkling new porcelain veneers on her upper teeth last month, worth a staggering $25,000 Tash visited celebrity dentist Dr Deepan Duraisamy, a.k.a. Dr Dee, at Melbourne's Vogue Dental Studios. Australians will remember the hospitality worker for her short-lived and disastrous 'marriage' to Amanda Micallef on MAFS earlier this year. They were the franchise's first lesbian couple, but failed to hit it off and quickly split. Chile faces serious water shortages due to the climate crisis by Katie Cashman Despite its location on the Pacific Ocean and its many rivers and lakes, Chile faces serious water shortages due to the climate crisis. Chile is in the tenth year of a mega-drought covering more than three-fourths of its territory. Citizens are facing shortages and paying ever higher prices for water. The countrys main industry, agriculture, is suffering. Animals are dying in droves and once-fertile regions are turning into deserts. The main cause of this catastrophe is climate change. Temperatures are rising steadily, and rain- and snowfalls are declining. Glaciers are melting away. Chile has declared agricultural emergency zones in six of its 16 regions. The natural catastrophe is being aggravated by a policy problem: Chiles water-allocation system is market driven and only regulated lightly, so private-sector companies are in control. The result is high consumer prices for water. Whether private firms should own this vital resource is the topic of heated debate. Unless Chile addresses both its climate problems and its water-allocation system, the long-running water crisis will continue. Chiles Water Code of 1981 was established during the dictatorship of then President Augusto Pinochet. It declares that water rights can be owned and traded as property. Today, Chiles water utilities are owned by large multinationals, among them Suez Group (French), Aguas de Barcelona (Spanish) and Marubeni (Japanese). One aim of privatisation was to attract investment and expertise from global companies. This has happened, but at a high cost to the people. The commodification of water has not only led to high tariffs, but it has also undermined the idea that access to water is a basic human right that cannot be traded away. Under the current system, more than 40 government agencies are involved in managing water resources. This multitude results in weak and fragmented oversight. The General Water Directorate in the Ministry of Public Works is the main regulator. It maintains an information system known as the water cadastre, enforces national policy and awards water rights through an auction system. This focus is on market supply. It is neither ensured that people have access to water nor that ecosystems are kept healthy around water basins. The deficiencies in the current system have given rise to water activism. Citizens are fighting high water tariffs and protesting against shortages. For three decades, some political leaders have been trying to reform the Water Code. In 2014, senators tried unsuccessfully to renationalise water resources. Activists are currently campaigning to block mining companies from acquiring further water rights. The water debate is part of a wider discussion on reforming the countrys market-driven economic model. Chileans are debating a new constitution (see Javier Cisterna Figueroa in Debate section of D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2020/02). The idea is to rewrite the rules that have been in effect since the Pinochet dictatorship ended in 1990. Many advocates of a new constitution favour ending private control of water rights. Theme(s): Others. On behalf of the government, Minister To Lam told the National Assembly on May 23 that Vietnamese citizens residence will soon be managed using electronic data, specifically their identity numbers. A personal ID number can be used to access and update a citizens information on the national demographic database, which is shared between various government agencies. Commenting on the proposed changes to the residential legislation, Chairman of the parliaments legal committee Hoang Thanh Tung stated that the committee agreed with the overall content of the governments report on the need to overhaul the law. However, the committee asked the government to clarify a number of issues to ensure the feasibility of the new regulations, notably the issuance of ID numbers to nearly 80 million people. Currently only 18 million citizens have been granted ID numbers while the deadline for the issuance process is scheduled for December 2020. According to the legal committee, scrapping household registration books will have a tremendous impact on a wide range of procedures and policies, as appropriate measures such as these are needed to avoid disruption and to protect citizens legitimate rights and interests. On May 23, the National Assembly also discussed a draft resolution on special mechanisms for the development of Da Nang and revisions to the law on construction. FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) chief executive Christian Sewing said on Tuesday that markets were too optimistic in their assessment of a recovery from the coronavirus crisis. Its a bearish statement from one of Europes top bankers as key stock indexes have continue their climb from their lows in March. Sewing, speaking to investors attending an online conference, said that the real economic consequences of the crisis are still uncertain despite an ongoing market recovery. Yes, markets repriced, but in my personal view the underlying assumption for this recovery are a bit too optimistic, he said. Second- and third- order effects have not been fully priced in at this stage, he said. Nevertheless, Sewing highlighted the strengths of Deutsche, the host of the conference, noting that the positive momentum of the investment banking division continued in April and May, particularly in the areas of fixed income and currencies. Deutsche is in the midst of a major overhaul, shedding staff and exiting some business areas in an effort to reverse years of losses. Meanwhile, his rating among fellow Republicans, according to the poll, has suffered slightly, dropping from 79 percent three months ago to 71 percent now making Hogan, who has long been a favorite among Democrats in a largely blue state, more popular with Democrats than within his own party, according to the poll. The generator of the proposed DPIR-Net framework consists of 35 convolutional layers. Credit: SIAT Positron emission tomography (PET), an advanced medical imaging technique, has been widely used in various clinical applications, including tumor detection and neurologic disorders. Reducing the radiotracer dose could decrease the patient's radiation exposure in PET imaging. However, it could also increase the noise and then affect the image quality. Researchers from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed a direct PET image reconstruction network (DPIR-Net) using an improved Wasserstein generative adversarial network (WGAN) framework to enhance image quality. The proposed network used sinogram data as input and output high-quality PET images directly, reducing reconstruction time compared with the traditional model-based reconstruction networks. The researchers combined perceptual loss, mean square error, and the Wasserstein distance as the loss function, which solved the problem of excessive smoothness and loss of detailed information in the traditional network image reconstruction. They compared the proposed DPIR-Net method with the current popular methods. The results demonstrated that it could quickly reconstruct and obtain high-quality images from low-dose PET sinogram data and produce finer image details than other methods. The study was published in IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences on May 19. Explore further Scientists grade diabetic retinopathy automatically by machine learning technology More information: Zhanli Hu et al. DPIR-Net: Direct PET image reconstruction based on the Wasserstein generative adversarial network, IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences (2020). Zhanli Hu et al. DPIR-Net: Direct PET image reconstruction based on the Wasserstein generative adversarial network,(2020). DOI: 10.1109/TRPMS.2020.2995717 Aurora, Colo. (May 26, 2020) - In celebration of Asthma Awareness Month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized Children's Hospital Colorado's (Children's Colorado) Asthma Program with a National Environmental Leadership Award inAsthma Management. Children's Colorado was one of two hospitals to receive this distinction this year; the other was the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, Texas. Children's Colorado's Asthma Program was created in 2006. An interdisciplinary program, it works across the continuum of care from the community to the clinic to the emergency department and hospital to treat and support children with asthma and their families. The program includes physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers, patient navigators and health educators who work in the community with the families served by Children's Colorado. "We are deeply honored by this recognition from the EPA," said Monica Federico, MD, medical director of Children's Colorado's Asthma Program. "While our program was initially started to manage the population of children with asthma seen within the four walls of Children's Colorado, we learned over time that asthma, the most common chronic disease of childhood, cannot just be treated in the clinics and in the hospital or emergency department. As a result, we expanded our asthma program to meet the needs of children with asthma in the homes and communities where they live and go to school." Data show that the children who are seen for asthma at Children's Colorado are overwhelmingly under-resourced, with 50-80% qualifying for Medicaid due to limited income. Screening data show that the barriers most frequently identified include food insecurity and housing issues. Expanding asthma care into the community involved creating partnerships with primary care providers, schools and community organizations that support families and children. "Our goal is to provide a circle of support for children with asthma. This includes ensuring consistent asthma education in the clinic, in the community, in the schools and in the home," explained Melanie Gleason, physician assistant within Children's Colorado's Asthma Program. "Some of the ways that we accomplish this are through professional asthma education courses such as the Reach the Peak Asthma Educator course and community outreach train-the-trainer sessions for school nurses throughout Colorado." Both the home visit program, Just Keep Breathing, and the school program, AsthmaComp, use tools and rely upon support and training from the EPA. The home visit program worked with the EPA, local county health departments, and the City of Fort Collins Healthy Homes Program to develop the home assessment. The AsthmaComp school program uses the EPA's Tools for Schools Indoor Air Quality Framework in its work in schools in the Denver metro area and beyond. Both programs continue to work with representatives from the EPA on home remediation, the environment in schools and environmental interventions for families and children with asthma. "Asthma affects the quality of life of over 23 million Americans and their families," said EPA Regional Administrator Gregory Sopkin. "While controlling asthma is always critical work, it is now as important as ever, given the COVID-19 pandemic. We applaud the Children's Colorado team for their tireless efforts to improve the quality of life of pediatric asthma patients not only through medication, but also by helping families reduce indoor exposure to irritants such as secondhand smoke, as well as allergens from house dust mites, pests, mold and animals." Additional community partners of Children's Colorado's Asthma Program include the Children's Colorado Child Health Advocacy Institute, Colorado School Districts, Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Colorado Department of Education, American Lung Association, Hunger Free Colorado and Energy Outreach Colorado, among others. As part of Asthma Awareness Month and to showcase and spread best asthma care practices from both Children's Colorado and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, the EPA will host a webinar May 28, 2020. Information regarding registration for this webinar will be available at: https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq ### About Children's Hospital Colorado Children's Hospital Colorado is one of the nation's leading and most expansive pediatric healthcare systems with a mission to improve the health of children through patient care, education, research and advocacy. Founded in 1908 and recognized as a top children's hospital by U.S. News & World Report, Children's Colorado has established itself as a pioneer in the discovery of innovative and groundbreaking treatments that are shaping the future of pediatric healthcare worldwide. Children's Colorado offers a full spectrum of family-centered care at its urgent, emergency and specialty care locations throughout Colorado, including its location on the Anschutz Medical Campus, and across the region. The newly opened Children's Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs, is now the first pediatric-only hospital in southern Colorado. For more information, visit http://www.childrenscolorado.org, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. Children's Hospital Colorado complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. ATENCION: si habla espanol, tiene a su disposicion servicios gratuitos de asistencia linguistica. Llame al 1-720-777-9800. CHU Y: Nu bn noi Ting Vit, co cac dch v h tr ngon ng min phi danh cho bn. Gi s 1-720-777-9800. http://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/section-1557 CROMWELL The Town Council has adopted a declaration challenging Gov. Lamonts decision concerning which stores are allowed to remain open during the continuing coronavirus pandemic. The majority of the Republican-dominated council has pushed to speed up open the reopening of small businesses. In doing so, members called attention to Lamonts series of executive orders issued during the pandemic that allowed national retailers such as Walmart and Lowes to remain open while denying the same right to small, often family-owned businesses. The declaration which was adopted by a vote of 5-1 contends Lamonts delay in allowing small businesses to reopen is not justified either legally or realistically. The council last week voted 6-0 to have Town Attorney Kari Olson create a declaration that now will be sent to the governor, in hopes it will change his mind about accelerating the reopening of businesses across the state. Olsons draft reaffirmed the governors right to enact regulations reasonably necessary to lessen the spread of the virus and to protect the public. However, she challenged the decision to pick and choose which stores could remain open and those that must be closed, arguing the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires laws to be applied equally. Olson quoted from a ruling handed down May 13 by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which said in part, (I)ndiviual rights secure by the Constitution do not disappear during a public health crisis. James Demetriades, one of two Democrats on the council, voted against the declaration. Last week, he had supported asking Olson to create a draft. But he said Tuesday she had exceeded her charge by including a commentary regarding the legality or constitutionality of the governors executive orders. jmill@middletownpress.com By PTI KOLKATA: Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking deployment of more Army personnel to restore normalcy in cyclone-hit Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal. Claiming that the state government has "failed miserably" to cope with the disaster, the Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha said distribution of food and relief materials to flood-affected areas has been woefully inadequate. Chowdhury stated that large parts of the state have been inundated with the ingress of seawater and decomposed bodies floating around, which may cause a serious health hazard. He said Kolkata and many other parts of the state are still without electricity and critical patients are facing a severe threat to life. Chowdhury said more Army personnel should be sent to help restore normalcy while taking the state into confidence. Following the request of the state government last week, Army personnel were deployed for restoration work in Kolkata and neighbouring districts. Large areas of Kolkata and parts of its neighbouring districts continue to remain without power as electric poles and communication lines were blown away by cyclone 'Amphan' that hit the state on May 20. We learnt last week that God sends us help in many forms. We discovered that help comes to us in different forms; through expected and unexpected means. We also learnt that we can miss the help God sends to us because we do not realize what has been sent to us. We pray that no leader will miss the people God sends into his life to help him. God will send wonderful people into your life to help you achieve far more than you have imagined. We have already learnt that as much as God can send blessed people to help you, He can also send poor people to your aid. Well, God can also send a man of God into the life of a leader. A leader recognizes men of God who have been sent into his life. Failing to recognize the contribution a man of God makes to your life is the ungratefulness that does not attract a blessing. Notice the contribution of Elisha to this woman's life. Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, what shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, there is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. 2 Kings 4:1-7 Elisha was an agent of prosperity to the widow. Through his ministry, she was sustained and given the greatest help she needed at the time. She was a widow in debt. If she did not pay the debt, her sons were going to be made slaves. Can you imagine that! That would leave her with no one. She had already lost her husband. Through the help of Elisha her oil was multiplied, her bills were paid, her sons were delivered from slavery and her life was changed forever. One day, I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attending a Kenneth Hagin conference. In the middle of the conference, the Spirit of the Lord told me to honour Kenneth Hagin with an offering. But that night, Kenneth Hagin himself described how prosperous he was and how much money he had paid as tithes that year. I thought to myself, This man will not need my measly offering. That night, the Lord dealt with me and showed me how important it was to honour him no matter how small the offering was. The Lord showed me how I had benefited from Kenneth Hagin's ministry. But there was one thing that surprised me. God showed me how the car I used, the house that I lived in and the money I had, had come through Kenneth Hagin's ministry. He showed me that even the ability to travel to Tulsa, had somehow come to me through the ministry of Kenneth Hagin. As I thought through my life I realised how true it was. God had anointed me through his ministry and everything I had had come to me because of the anointing I received. I recognised that this was a man of God who had been sent into my life to help me. You see, a prophet is an agent of change! A prophet is an agent of prosperity! A prophet is an agent of promotion! And God had sent a prophet into my life. It was imperative that I honoured him because to refrain from honouring him was the same as not saying thank you. Indeed, it is our prayer that God will give grace to every leader to recognize those He has sent into their lives to help them! Culled from He that hath, to him shall be given; And he that hath not, from him shall Be taken even that which he hath www.daghewardmillsbooks.org [email protected] A total of 532 flights were operated on Day 1. In Delhi, 82 flights had to be cancelled on Monday The aviation map of India as seen on the live flight tracker Flight Radar24 at 8 am on Tuesday. New Delhi: A five-year-old boy who travelled alone from Delhi under the special category to reunite with his mother in Bengaluru after nearly three months, and a 28-year-old woman, with two infant twins, who flew from Delhi to her matrimonial home in Ahmedabad were among several stranded passengers in various parts of the country who managed to escape to their homes as domestic flights began on Monday after a two-month shutdown. A total of 532 flights were operated on Day 1. In Delhi, 82 flights had to be cancelled on Monday. Indians soar in the skies again! A beautiful live capture from flight radar24 shows how our skies look busy again as domestic civil aviation recommences in India from today. With Andhra Pradesh set to resume operations from tomorrow and West Bengal from 28 May, these numbers are all set to increase further, said minister of state for civil aviation Hardeep Singh Puri in a series of tweets. With people covered in masks, face shields and gloves, and airport and airlines staff in PPE kits airports across India had a completely new look. At New Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport, paramilitary and armed forces personnel, students, tourists and people who had failed to book tickets on the special trains were among the first few to take early morning flights. Besides, with Id-ul-Fitr falling on Monday, there was an unusual rush too for families to be together. However, due to limited public transport available, many had to shell out large sums to reach the airport. The first flight took off from Delhi for Pune at 4.45 am, while the first flight from Mumbai took off for Patna at 6.45 am. However, a huge number of last-minute cancellations by the airlines led to chaos, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across India. Aviation industry sources said altogether 630 of an estimated 1,150 domestic flights for which bookings had opened on May 22 were cancelled after some states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu allowed only limited operations or delayed reopening of their airports owing to a spike in coronavirus cases. The West Bengal government did not relent to a request by the civil aviation ministry to allow flights, and it was decided Sunday evening the state will gradually permit domestic flights from May 28 under strict guidelines. Andhra Pradesh too did not allow any flights on Monday, but will start them from Tuesday. Thousands of passengers reached airports since early in the morning on Monday only to be told by the airline staff that several flights had been cancelled, causing hardship to them. Some of them had travelled long distances, across states, to take the flights. Many people took to the social media to vent their anger. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh, among others, announced quarantine measures for passengers arriving at their airports. Some states have decided to put passengers in mandatory institutional quarantine, while others talked of putting them under home quarantine. A lawyer for the family of a Connecticut murder suspect has pleaded for him to surrender as the multi-state search for the college student continues. On Monday police had to dispel a rumour that Peter Manfredonia, a senior at the University of Connecticut, had been captured in New Jersey. A photo has now been circulated of a person matching his description walking along railroad tracks in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on Sunday wearing a white T-shirt, dark shorts and carrying a large duffel bag. Manfredonia is suspected of killing Ted DeMers, 62, and Nicholas Eisele, 23, before forcing Mr Eiseles girlfriend, also 23, into her car and fleeing the state with her. He is believed to be armed with several guns stolen during an earlier home invasion. The abducted woman was found unhurt on Sunday at a rest stop near Paterson, New Jersey, with her 2016 Volkswagen Jetta, police said. Fox 61 reports that Manfredonia was dropped off at a Walmart in East Stroudsberg by an Uber before heading off along the rail line behind the store. A lawyer for Manfredonias family, Mike Dolan, said the suspect has struggled with mental health issues and has sought the help of a number of therapists. Peter, if you are listening, you are loved, Dolan said at a news conference on Monday. It is time to let the healing process begin. Its time to surrender. You have your parents and your sisters and your familys entire support. So, Peter, from your parents, we love you, please turn yourself in. Security camera footage of a person believed to be Peter Manfredonia, spotted on train tracks near East Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania (Fox 61) The finance and mechanical engineering major from Sandy Hook was involved in charities born out of the town's 2012 school shooting tragedy. He is suspected of killing Mr DeMers and assaulting another man, possibly with a sword or machete, in Willington on Friday after they found Manfredonia walking along a road and offered him a ride back to his motorcycle. The second victim, Nicholas Eisele, was found dead at his home on Sunday in Derby, which is about 60 miles southwest of Willington. Mr Eisele, who worked with his father in a landscaping and irrigation business, was an acquaintance of Manfredonia. A map detailing Peter Manfredonia's multi state crime spree (Fox 61) Earlier on Sunday, a Willington man reported being held against his will by Manfredonia, who then left with food, several guns and the mans truck, which was later found abandoned near Osbornedale State Park, about a mile from Mr Eiseles home. The Manfredonia family have sent their condolences to all those affected. Connecticut State Police plan to hold a press conference on Tuesday. With reporting from the Associated Press Qu Chuncai, a woman living in Fangcheng county, Nanyang of central Chinas Henan province is taking a selfie in front of a newly-built high-speed railway station in the county, holding her three-year-old child with one arm. Its not the first time for her to visit the train station. I came here since the project commenced, just to share the construction progress with my husband, the woman said, who cant hide her joy when speaking of the grand facility in her hometown. Qus husband Song Hongquan is a businessman working in Wuhan, central Chinas Hubei province. He earns much from his inkstone business, but to go home was always a tough journey. Qu told Peoples Daily that her husband had to take a 6-hour train from Wuhan to Nanyang, and then spend about a quarter walking to Nanyangs bus station. Another two hours at least were needed before he finally took a bus home in Fangcheng county. Thanks to the opening of the Zhengzhou-Xiangyang section on the Zhengzhou-Chongqing high-speed railway last December, the time needed to travel from Fangcheng to Wuhan was reduced to 3 hours from 8. He can now enjoy Wuhan hot-dry noodles for breakfast in Wuhan and then come home for a bowl of stewed noodle (a specialty of Henan province) at noon, Qu said. Chinas high-speed rail construction is benefiting millions of people. Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng introduced on a May 19 press conference held by the State Council Information Office that a total of 3.2451 trillion yuan of fixed assets investment was made in the transport sector last year, with world-class projects such as the Beijing Daxing International Airport and Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway starting operation. According to Li, Chinas railway network spans over 139,000 kilometers, including 35,000 kilometers of high-speed rail. The total mileage of Chinas railway network is expected to hit 146,000 kilometers by the end of this year, reaching 99 percent of the cities with a population of no less than 200,000. The high-speed rail mileage will reach 39,000 kilometers, and China will still remain the worlds largest operator of high-speed railway. High-speed rails are changing peoples lives, turning their expectations into reality. The high-speed railway is just making it so convenient, said Xu Li, who always commutes between Beijing and Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to see doctors. The man can now go to Beijing in the morning after making online appointments and return to Hohhot on the same day. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou and Zhangjiakou-Hohhot high-speed railways have reduced the travel time between Hohhot and Beijing to 2 hours and 18 minutes from the previous 9 hours. Yimeng, a mountainous area in east Chinas Shandong province, is known for its local specialties and fertile environment. A planned cargo high-speed rail express is now turning the poor transportation in the region a thing in the past. Niu Qinghua, who runs e-commerce agricultural business in Yimeng, said that the high-speed cargo service, if used to transport peaches in Yimeng, will not only lower the cost, but also present better taste of the fruits, as the peaches can be picked when they are completely mature. Xingguo county in east Chinas Jiangxi province was one of the impoverished regions connected to the high-speed rail network last year. Not many people ran factories in my hometown as the transportation was poor, but now I must expand my factory because of the high-speed rail, said Liu Yanming, head of a garment factory in the county which employs 60 workers. Besides, 11 impoverished people now work at the factorys poverty-alleviation workshop. I had three business trips per month at most before as it took at least a day to go to Shanghai and Guangzhou. When the Nanchang-Ganzhou high-speed railway opens, it will only take a couple of hours to get to Guangzhou, so Ill go whenever I want, Liu noted, adding that more business trips will surely make his business better, and thus helping his fellow villagers pursue a better-off life. Amaravati, May 26 : A total of 48 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours in Andhra Pradesh took its total tally on Tuesday to 2,719. With one death reported from East Godavari district, the death toll in the state touched 57. The active cases in Andhra Pradesh now stands at 759, with 55 more persons cured and discharged on Tuesday. Total cured patients number 1,903. The state nodal officer reported that a relatively low number of positive cases were found with travel history to the Koyambedu market in Chennai. Only 4 such cases were reported in Chittoor district. The Koyambedu market, which has since been closed, was identified as one of the biggest spreaders of corona cases in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, where total tally has long crossed the 12,000-mark. Even as the state saw a decline in cases reportd from Koyambedu market, there has been a rise in coroan cases among foreign returnees to the state over the past few days. On Tuesday, authorities reported that 44 returnees from Kuwait, 3 from Abu Dhabi and 2 from Qatar have till date tested positive. The officer reported that 8,148 more samples were tested during the past 24 hours as against 10,240 during the preceding testing cycle. The state's average in terms of tests per million population stands at 6,043, below Delhi's 8,947, and Jammu and Kashmir's 9,940. However, in terms of tests conducted, Andhra Pradesh with 3,22,714 tests till date lags behind Rajasthan's 3,25,446 tests, and Maharashtra's 3,78,555 tests. In terms of mortality rate, Andhra Pradesh's 1.91 per cent ranks 12th among the states. Meanwhile, the cumulative tally of corona cases among returnees from other states remained static at 153. However, the active cases tally fell to 47 from 117, as 70 persons who came from Maharashtra were cured and discharged. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text A Texas doctor who moved to New York temporarily to assist in the fight against coronavirus has had $11,000 worth of personal items stolen from her hotel room, according to a report. Police sources told The New York Post that a woman who was believed to be in her 20s reportedly broke into the unidentified doctors room at the Brooklyn Hotel on Atlantic Avenue at around 9am on Saturday. According to the report, the suspect proceeded to steal around $11,000 worth of personal items from the room including jewelry and clothing. Sources told The Post that the victim was staying in the city to help treat coronavirus patients in the midst of the pandemic. The thief is said to have fled the room on foot after stealing the items and was last seen wearing a blue tank top and black pants, the report said. No suspects are said to have been arrested in connection with the incident. Last month a New York nurse who survived coronavirus was allegedly mugged on the way to work. The nurse who worked at Bellevue Hospital, was reportedly attacked by 15 thugs who beat her and stole her purse. The state currently has more than 360,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 23,000 deaths as of Monday. More than 190,000 recorded cases of the virus are in New York City alone. At the height of the outbreak, the state recorded 12,312 cases of the virus in one day on 4 April, according to a daily tracker by The New York Times. The number of new coronavirus cases per day in New York state is at the lowest they have been since the outbreak began, Gov Cuomo said on Friday. View of part of the Aeolian Archipelago. Credit: Dr Paolo Franchini Alterations to chromosomes are considered important in speciation (the process by which new species are formed). This is because several chromosomal rearrangements can make the genome of a few individuals in a population so different that they cannot successfully interbreed with the rest of the population. It is believed that, over time, this can lead to the evolution of two distinct species with different karyotypes (i.e. different sets of chromosomes making up the genome). In-depth testing of these ideas is now possible with advanced molecular technologies, which allow researchers to sequence DNA across entire genomes. In a new paper in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, researchers from the University of Konstanz, Harvard University and La Sapienza University of Rome, study wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) from several islands in the Aeolian archipelago off the coast of Sicily, Southern Italy. Their findings provide empirical support to the idea that a specific type of large-scale chromosomal rearrangements called "Robertsonian (Rb) fusions" play an active role in speciation. Elucidating the role of chromosomal rearrangements in speciation Chromosomal rearrangements are mutations within the genome of an individual, a population, or an entire species where large pieces of the genome change, for instance through duplication (where an entire chunk of a chromosome is duplicated) or inversion (where a part of a chromosome changes its orientation relative to the rest of the chromosome). "The most common type of chromosomal rearrangement to occur in the natural house mouse populations of Western Europe are Robertsonian fusions," explains Dr. Paolo Franchini, first author on the study and a researcher in the University of Konstanzs zoology and evolutionary biology research group led by Professor Axel Meyer. Robertsonian fusions are large-scale chromosomal rearrangements where two entire chromosomes fuse to form one very large metacentric (X-shaped) chromosome. "This type of rearrangement is known to play a considerable role in speciation," says Franchini. "And it happens to be very common in wild house mice, which makes them a perfect study system. The added advantage with the Aeolian mice is that these populations are very small and genetic mutations are likely to spread rapidly through the population of a given island." The wild house mouse populations in the Aeolian archipelago, which consists of seven small islands of volcanic origin, have different karyotypes characterized by different combinations of Robertsonian fusions. One of the main goals in studying these populations was to understand how these karyotypic distributions evolvedthat is, to reconstruct their evolutionary history. Single origin vs multiple independent origins "The main issue in this context is the origin of these distributions," Franchini explains. Interestingly, three of the Robertsonian chromosomes found in Aeolian island populations are also found in mice from central Italy. A previous study had therefore suggested that the mice from central Italy colonized the islands alongside human settlers, concluding that this is why these three Robertsonian fusions can be observed now in the Aeolian islands. This is what is referred to as the "single origin hypothesis." It postulates that these Rb fusions happened just oncein central Italyand spread from there. "What we were able to show in our paper is that the same chromosomal fusions can happen in different locations and independently from one another," says Franchini. Since Robertsonian fusions are known to play an active role in chromosomal speciation, understanding their origin and establishing whether they are occurring frequently and in different geographic locations or not can provide insights into the dynamics of speciation: "If the same chromosomal fusions occur much more readily than previously thought, then this would support a high mutation rate and, indirectly, a greater chance of Robertsonian rearrangements playing an active role in speciation." To distinguish these two hypotheses"single origin" and "multiple-independent origins"it is necessary to dig deeper into the genetic sequence of these Robertsonian chromosomes. Therefore, the researchers in this new study traced the origins and evolutionary history of the three identical Robertsonian chromosomes found in the island and mainland populations. Applying phylogenetic and population genetic approaches to genetic markers spread across the whole genome, they were able to show that this particular set of chromosomes originated at least twice in two different geographic locationsin the islands and in central Italy. This supports the "multiple-independent origins" hypothesis. Interplay of Robertsonian fusions and hybridization events The team were further able to show that some of the karyotypes observed in the island populations are in fact a product of hybridization events involving different mice with different sets of Robertsonian or standard chromosomes. "Ultimately, it is this interplay between the fixation of newly formed Robertsonian chromosomes and such hybridization events that shaped the distribution of karyotypes in the Aeolian archipelago," concludes Paolo Franchini. Whether these genomic mutations have an impact on the phenotypes of these mouse populations remains unknown. "This is the next step," says Franchini. "We know that, most of the time, mutations do something. Some Robertsonian fusions are very common across Europe, which suggests that some sort of selection in favour of these mutations might take place. This in turn suggests that these mutations could even be beneficial." However, what exactly the advantage of these fusions may be remains an open and fascinating question. Explore further What is a species? It could be difficult to reply if you work with aphids More information: Paolo Franchini et al. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of chromosomal races on islands: a genome-wide analysis of natural house mouse populations, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2020). Journal information: Molecular Biology and Evolution Paolo Franchini et al. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of chromosomal races on islands: a genome-wide analysis of natural house mouse populations,(2020). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa118 A Ghanaian man whose wife allegedly plotted with her lover to have him killed still showed his soft spot for her after she was reman... A Ghanaian man whose wife allegedly plotted with her lover to have him killed still showed his soft spot for her after she was remanded in Police custody for the second time by the Asokwa District Court in Kumasi. He was pictured handing money to his wife for her upkeep in prison following her second appearance in court on Friday, May 22. The 27-year-old woman called Mavis 'Maadwoa' Brepo, married to David Gator, 55, allegedly planned with her 50-year-old boyfriend, Patrick Asare, to kill her husband so they could settle down together. Mavis Brepo and Patrick Asare were reportedly arrested after an assassin they had called to do the job turned out to be the Manhyia Divisional Police Commander. Since their arrest, Gator has maintained her innocence, claiming that she was under the influence of a spiritual force when she planned with her lover to have her husband killed so they could both get married. The two suspects made their first appearance in court on Friday, May 8, 2020. Adom News reported that Gator who was in court with other family members assured his wife of his undying love as she cried profusely after the hearing. He also gave her an undisclosed sum of money and reportedly told her it was for her upkeep in prison while an investigation into the matter continues. The publication also claimed that Mr. Gator has long forgiven Mavis and appealed for the charges against her to be dropped so that he can take her back as his wife. The case was adjourned to June 3. William Sadleir, Chairman, Aviron Capital attends the premiere of Aviron Pictures' "Kidnap" at ArcLight Hollywood on July 31, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Todd Williamson/Getty Images William Sadleir, the former chairman of Hollywood's Aviron Pictures, was arrested on charges in California that he defrauded the federal Paycheck Protection Program. The Department of Justice said Sadleir applied for $1.7 million to finance Aviron entities and then used some of the relief funds for his personal expenses. The 66-year-old Beverly Hills man faces additional fraud charges out of New York, where the DOJ says he ran two schemes involving $75 million in investor funds. "He allegedly even went so far as to pose as a female employee of the sham New-York based company he created to further his illegal activity," an FBI investigator said in a written statement. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Hollywood producer William Sadleir, the former chairman and CEO of Aviron Pictures, is accused of defrauding the government out of millions of dollars meant for coronavirus relief, and of using nearly $30 million in investor funds for his personal use including buying a $14-million Beverly Hills Mansion. The 66-year-old was arrested on federal charges in both cases on Friday. In the California case, federal prosecutors said Sadleir applied for $1.7 million in coronavirus relief loans from the Paycheck Protection Program to finance Aviron payroll. Within days of receiving the funds, the Department of Justice alleges the money was transferred to his personal accounts to pay his and his wife's American Express cards, his car loan, and other personal expenses. In an unrelated case out of New York, which was also unsealed Friday, Sadleir is accused of running two even larger fraud schemes involving $75 million of Aviron investments. Aviron's films have included "Kidnap" starring Halle Berry, "Destination Wedding" starring Keanu Reeves, and "Serenity" starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. Sadleir was fired in December, but still filed 3 PPP applications on behalf of Aviron Story continues David Dinerstein, President, Aviron Pictures, Producer/Actor Halle Berry, William Sadleir, Chairman, Aviron Capital attend the premiere of Aviron Pictures' "Kidnap" at ArcLight Hollywood on July 31, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Todd Williamson/Getty Images Sadleir was fired from Aviron Pictures in late 2019, and people associated with the film production company told investigators that he currently has no role in Aviron Pictures or the related entities, according to the Department of Justice. Despite that, prosecutors said Sadleir had applied for PPP loans, which are intended for suffering small businesses, for three Aviron entities. All three applications claimed each company had 33 employees and monthly payroll expenses more than $200,000, according to the DOJ. On April 30, JPMorgan Chase approved the loan applications, and the money was wired to "nearly empty" bank accounts associated with the entities the next day, according to a DOJ statement. Then almost $1 million in the loan money was transferred to Sadleir's account at JPMorgan Chase, and later used to pay for expenses, including Sadleir's $40,000 car loan, prosecutors allege. "These funds were designed to be a lifeline to businesses struggling to stay afloat during the current crisis," Paul Delacourt, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said in a written statement. "The FBI is committed to maintaining the integrity of the PPP and will hold accountable those who cheat the system at the expense of American taxpayers." He is charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, and making false statements to the Small Business Administration. Sadlier is accused of posing as a woman to secure investments Sadleir is also accused of two even larger schemes out of New York, in which he is accused of misappropriating nearly $30 million in investments made to Aviron films for his own use, including using $14 million of the money to buy a Beverly Hills home. After BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust Fund invested $75 million in Aviron, the DOJ alleges Sadleir created the "sham entity" GroupM Media Services to conceal his fraudulent use of the investment funds. Sadleir assumed the fake identity "Amanda Stevens" to communicate by email with the BlackRock fund about its investment, according to the allegations filed in a Manhattan federal court. "He allegedly even went so far as to pose as a female employee of the sham New-York based company he created to further his illegal activity," FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a written statement. "Today's arrest serves as a reminder of the FBI's dedication to holding people accountable for egregious financial crimes of this nature." In the Manhattan case, Sadleir is charged with two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The BlackRock fund sued Sadleir for fraud in a New York state court in December, Reuters reported, which prompted Aviron to fire him. Sadleir has yet to issue a plea or a statement on the charges, and an attorney for Sadleir wasn't identified in the court files. Read the original article on Business Insider Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not allow students to go back to school until a coronavirus vaccine is available, even as some countries resume in-person classes. Without a vaccine, sending children to school spells disaster, Duterte said during a televised address late on Monday. I will not allow the opening of classes where students will be near each other, he added. Unless I am sure that they are really safe, its useless to be talking about opening of classes. Children were due to return to school at the end of August after classes for more than 25 million primary and secondary students were shut down in March as the contagion took a firm hold in the Philippines. But Duterte said the risk was too great, even if it held students back academically. For me, vaccine first. If the vaccine is already there, then its okay, he added. If no one graduates, then so be it. There is currently no vaccine available and no known treatment to cure COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus. Though researchers across the world have launched an unprecedented effort to quickly develop a vaccine, it is not clear when a viable candidate will be proven and distributed on a large scale. The coronavirus has not disappeared despite social distancing and it will continue to spread until there is a vaccine, infectious diseases expert Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security told Al Jazeera. We will have a second and even third wave if there is no vaccine, he said. We do know that coronavirus is, in general, accelerate their spread in the fall and winter as environmental conditions favour their transmission. There have been 14,319 confirmed coronavirus cases in the Philippines as of Monday, including 873 deaths, according to the Department of Health. Metro Manila and high-risk areas for infections are under relaxed lockdown until May 31, which has allowed some industries and business establishments to resume limited operations. Public school normally runs from June to April in the Philippines, but authorities pushed back the start for August 24 as cases rose and a strict lockdown brought most of the nation to a halt. But the Department of Education has stressed that school opening will not necessarily mean traditional face-to-face learning in [the] classroom. The physical opening of schools will depend on the risk severity grading or classification of a locality, it said when it announced the new academic calendar. In order to ease classroom crowding, the education ministry had announced a mix of distance-learning measures, including online classes, that would be used for the coming school year. But millions in the country do not have access to computers at home, which would be key to the viability of online classes. Some parents have turned to home-schooling their children, with the help of instructions from the schools. The pandemic has kept children around the globe home for months, but in-person classes have begun to resume in countries including South Korea and France. An Indiana man has given the fictional pirate Capt Jack Sparrow a run for his money when he was found sleeping in a raft drifting down a swollen river with a bottle of rum in his lap. The Midwestern swashbuckler, identified as 54-year-old Morris Ferguson, had to be rescued after floating 7 miles down the flooded Blue River in Crawford County on Sunday. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources shared photos of Ferguson's flimsy vessel drifting down the murky brown river toward a dam. Arrrgh you kidding?! Morris Ferguson, 54, may have been channeling his inner Capt Jack Sparrow when he was found asleep with a bottle of rum in his lap inside a raft floating down the Blue River in Indiana (pictured) Conservation officers tried to wake Ferguson up by shouting and blowing the whistle before the raft went over the Milltown Dam (pictured) 'Conservation Officers and the Crawford County Sheriffs Department likely saved a mans life today,' the agency's Facebook post stated. According to the Indiana DNR, Ferguson, from Pekin, as first identified by WBIW, was drunk and passed out in his raft 'with a bottle of rum in his lap.' After getting multiple calls about the slumbering rum enthusiast, conservation officers Neal Brewington and Jim Schreck responded to the scene but were unable to reach him with throw bags, or wake him up by yelling and blowing a whistle from the bank. Two other officers, Dennis Talley and Logan Hodges, then launched a boat and their colleagues set up a tag line across the river to stop the raft with the unsuspecting Ferguson 'from going over the boiling Milltown Dam.' Ferguson was found washed ashore and was booked into the county jail on a charge of public intoxication A short time later, a Crawford County sheriff's deputy spotted the hapless rafter who had washed ashore a couple of miles above the dam, and was able to safely reach him. Following a medical evaluation, Ferguson was booked into the county jail on a charge of public intoxication. According to jail records, Ferguson remained behind bars as of Tuesday afternoon in lieu of $3,000 bond. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey announced $500,000 from the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund has been allocated to organizations that provide out-of-school child care in the state. The funding will support extended hours and enrichment programs to meet the increased demand of child care for families while students distance learn and parents or guardians work. The organizations will continue to support students in their social and emotional development and help them stay on track academically. Arizona kids need a safe and secure environment while they learn remotely and parents go to work, said Governor Ducey. The organizations receiving this funding will ensure families have access to child care and students can continue to learn and safely engage with others. My thanks to everyone working to support Arizona kids and families, and to those who have generously donated to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund. This funding will support ten organizations across the state, including: Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley (27 locations) Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson Boys & Girls Clubs of Casa Grande Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Arizona Boys & Girls Club of Flagstaff Boys & Girls Club of Round Valley Boys & Girls Club of Bisbee The CLUB for YOUth Kingman Cobre Valley Youth Club Patagonia Youth Enrichment Center "On behalf of Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley, we express our sincere gratitude to all of the foundations and companies who have invested in Governor Duceys AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund. Staying true to our mission to serve those who need us most, our Clubs have been open these past 8 weeks caring for the children of our essential workers throughout this crisis," said Marcia Mintz, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley. "As businesses re-open, Valley employees can continue to depend on the Clubs to be there for summer programming thanks to this investment in our organization." "During this crisis, with this AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund support, we are able to hold true to our mission to serve the young people that need us most, said Debbie Wagner, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson. This special grant will help us to continue connecting with Club members through virtual Club On-the-Go webcasts and tutoring, providing Club On-the-Go Activity Kits, and serving children of front-line vital employees and first responders. Thank you for helping us to provide much needed programming to our Club kids and all those we are able to support through these emergency relief efforts. "Thank you to the AZ Coronavirus Relief team and Governor's office. Your gifts and support at this time empowers us to keep moving forward together with strength and confidence, knowing that we can keep doing what we have always done whatever it takes to put kids first, said Mark Cox, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Flagstaff. The CLUB for YOUth is honored to receive this grant from the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund. The majority of our donations during this time have stopped, this money will help maintain our ability to serve our members without fear of having to close our doors, said Bill Ward, CEO of the CLUB for YOUth. During these uncertain times, we have remained open to provide care of the children of parents who are required to work. We assisted members with their out-of-school packets. With restrictions lifting, we are seeing an increase in our daily attendance. On behalf of the Cobre Valley Youth Club Governing Board and the Globe & Miami families, we want to express our appreciation to the office of the AZ Governor Ducey, said Alexis Rivera, Treasurer of the Cobre Valley Youth Club Governing Board. With this grant award we will continue providing essential and crucial services for those kids in need. Our goal is to create a safe and secure place for our future generation, a second home during this fickle period. In March, the Governor and the Boys & Girls Club announced emergency operational funding to support Arizona families while students learn remotely. The partnership enabled state funding to compensate Boys & Girls Clubs to provide expanded services to Arizona families, while encouraging and leveraging private donations from individuals, corporations and foundations. The Boys & Girls Clubs in Arizona extended youth development program hours to accommodate current youth members and children of health care workers, public safety and those from other essential industries. BEVERLY HILLLS, Calif.Hustler Hollywood has announced that it has begun to officially reopen stores across the country in select locations that had been closed due to the COVID-19 virus. The latest store to reopen is located in Fresno, California. Each Hustler Hollywood location will be regularly cleaned and sanitized per the CDC guidelines, as well as offering hand sanitizing stations upon entrance and throughout the boutiques. Social distancing guidelines will continue to be followed by limiting the number of customers in-store. The retailer kindly asks all customers who wish to enter the store to wear a face mask and encourage them to pay with credit cards to minimize contact. Trying on apparel and lingerie is prohibited as fitting rooms will remain closed to customers. "With restrictions easing throughout the country and after ensuring that we can meet all recommended guidelines for operating safely, we felt that it was time that we opened our store in Fresno. We have new guidelines and protocols in place for our employees, along with customers, and we will do everything we can to continue to provide a safe and clean environment in which to shop, " said Philip Del Rio, vice president of retail. The retailer will also continue to provide customers with curbside pick-up service that will be available daily from Noon to 8 p.m. at its Fresno location at 333 E. Shaw Avenue for those customers who chose this option. Customers can phone the store directly at 559-374-6952, place an order, and have it delivered to them curbside without having to leave their car or enter the store. For those not sure as to what they might want to purchase, they can visit the company's website HustlerHollywood.com for products. Hustler Hollywood will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and make updates as needed. For more information and a full list of store re-open dates, please visit the store closure updates page. The first Hustler Hollywood opened in 1998 on the famed Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, making this the company's 21st year in business. Arithmetic occasions the fiercest struggles. Simon wants David to learn his numbers. He already knows all the numbers, David says, and names a few: 134 and 7 and 4623551. Simon takes this as insolence, and proof that David cant count. (Actually, he can.) In The Schooldays of Jesus, his guardians enlist a tutor, who tries to explain numbers to David by putting a white pill next to a white pill and a red pen next to a blue pen to show that each set shares the common property of twoness. Maybe the pills do, David replies, but the pens dont, because one is blue and the other red. Every object in the world is subject to arithmetic, the tutor insists. Not water, the boy counters. Or vomit. The tutor never comes back. If this were a graduate seminar in metaphysics, David might stand a better chance. His responses arent nonsensical; theyre nominalist, which is to say that David, like certain Anglo-American philosophers, cant or wont accept the reality of abstract numbers. To him, objects exist only in their singularity, and numbers are objects too. They dont have to be used to count; they need not line up in sequence. David rejects the gift of a watch because it fixes the numbers in a circular order. Nine oclock may be before 10 oclock, he says, but nine is neither before nor after 10. Simon and the tutor, by contrast, are Platonists: They believe in numbers and their relationships as eternal, universal truths. Coetzee never uses formal philosophical language, but this clash of viewpoints plays a particularly important role in The Schooldays of Jesus. A desperate Simon enrolls David in an Academy of Dance, even though Simon suspects that the place traffics in mumbo-jumbo. It teaches dance as a mystical practice having something to do with numerology. Davids dance teacher rejects arithmetic as too lowly, too utilitarian, to bother with. The numbers you have in mind, she tells the parents, the numbers we use when we buy and sell, are not true numbers but simulacra. They are what I call ant numbers. True numbers live among the aloof stars, and dance calls them down to earth so they may live among us. David immediately reveals himself to be the greatest dancer the school has ever seen. After Davids death (this is not a spoiler; its in the title of the final book), the school director tells Simon that David was his master, not his pupil. When David danced he was somewhere else, and if you were able to follow him you would be transported to that place too not always, but now and again, the man says. Rotimi Jolayemi, aka Oba Akewi, Nigerian journalist has been charged by police for inciting annoyance and hatred against minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed. Press secretary to the ministry of information and culture, Joe Mutah said, It is not everything that the minister will react to, when he minister was unavailable for comment. The journalist was charged 17 days after he was arrested in Osun state and has been in detention ever since, Daily Trust reports. Advertisement Jolayemi, who is the vice-chairman of Osun state chapter of Freelance and Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria was alleged by police to have shared an audio file on WhatsApp back in April. The journalist was therefore charged for contravening Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes Act 2015, according to the charge sheet marked FHC/ABJ/CB/104/2020. Read Also: Curfew: Lagos Police Descend On Journalists, Detain TVCs Correspondent Prosecuting Counsel, Joseph Offor, signed the charge sheet, which alleged the journalist sent the audio file to a WhatsApp group named Ekan Sons and Daughters The message went viral and was posted for the purpose of causing annoyance, insult, hatred and ill will to the current Hon. Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed, according to the charges. The Vietnam Coast Guard on Monday captured a vessel captained by a Thai national ferrying some 1.7 million liters of undocumented diesel oil in Vietnams waters. A commander of Vietnams Coast Guard Region 3 High Command a military unit based in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province said that he spotted the suspicious vessel, named Siam Varich, during his sentry duty over the southern area of Vietnams Continental Shelf, about 90 nautical miles off Con Dao Islands. Phirom Sukpheng, a 57-year-old Thai, was found to be the ships captain. He failed to present to Coast Guard officers any proof of purchase for the oil as well as an operating license for the tanker. The 11-member crew of Siam Varich also failed to provide any certificate of competency upon inquiry. According to the Thai captains testimony, the oil was brought to Vietnamese waters for sale. He admitted his actions were in violation of international and Vietnamese laws. The oil has an estimated worth of around VND15 billion (US$645,000). This is one of the largest arrests by the Vietnam Coast Guard this year. Since January, the Coast Guard Region 3 has intercepted seven vessels operating in a similar fashion. Vietnam Coast Guard officers inspect smuggled oil discovered on sea vessel Siam Varich off Con Dao Islands, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, Vietnam. Photo: Duc Dinh / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Minister McEntee attends meeting of Ministers for European Affairs News Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee, T.D., will join her EU Ministerial colleagues today by videoconference, for a meeting of Ministers for European Affairs. Ministers will discuss the EU plans for a comprehensive economic and social recovery, including an adjusted Multiannual Financial Framework and the accompanying recovery instrument. Ministers will also focus on coordination in the de-escalation of containment measures across the EU. Ahead of the meeting, Minister McEntee said: The EU will be central to the recovery strategy of all Member States. Our citizens want and expect the EU to be ambitious and transformative in its response to this unprecedented crisis. I commend the strong support and solidarity continuing to be demonstrated at EU level, including the recent EU crisis response package of economic and financial assistance totalling more than 540 billion. I look forward to the Commissions detailed proposals for a Recovery Fund and revised Multiannual Financial Framework which are due to be published shortly. These proposals will hopefully provide renewed impetus to the efforts to agree a new EU Budget for the period 2021-2027, one in which Ireland will continue to prioritise the importance of maintaining and safeguarding the CAP. Minister McEntee also highlighted some of the EU measures that are helping Ireland respond to the Covid-19 crisis: Two State Aid packages have been approved by the EU for Ireland, both worth 200 million, which allows us to support our affected companies and those who have lost their jobs because of this crisis. The EU is supporting farmers and fisherpersons by approving state aid measures for their sector, by making the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund more flexible and approving measures for private storage aid for the dairy and meat sectors. Medical research and innovation has also been supported by the EU, including funding a project coordinated by Irish company Hibergene Diagnostics, which has now developed a rapid molecular diagnostic test for the coronavirus which just received the CE mark. | Next Item Residents and businesses in Central Michigan communities that were submerged when two dams failed sued the operator of the dams and two state agencies charged with overseeing the structures on May 22. A second class-action suit was filed the same day against Boyce Hydro Power LLC and manager Lee Mueller, the Midland Daily News reported. The lawsuits came as more residents were forced to evacuate their homes after being overwhelmed by flooding along the Tittabawassee River and conjoining waterways. About a dozen people have left their homes in Spaulding Township where some roads and fields are under 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) of floodwater, but some in the community refused to leave despite warnings, Fire Chief Tom Fortier said. Water stood 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 1 meter) deep in some houses, Fortier said. The Tittabawassee became engorged late on May 18 when the aging Edenville and Sanford dams failed after heavy rain. The river crested the next day in Midland about 20 miles (32 kilometers) upstream from Spaulding Township leaving the small city and surrounding areas under several feet of water and forcing about 11,000 people to evacuate their homes. President Donald Trump declared an emergency on May 21. Several homes were damaged in Midland, but no one has been injured or killed. Selina Tisdale, a Midland city spokeswoman, said that displaced residents are allowed to return home if it is safe to do so. The flooded Tittabawassee and Shiawassee rivers flow into the Saginaw River, and thats presenting a danger for Spaulding Township, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Detroit. The river levels are so high, they are trying to find the lowest spot and that happens to be us, Fortier said. The National Guard and fire departments were filling about 3,000 sandbags to hold back the water. A lawsuit filed in federal court in Detroit alleges that the dams operator, Boyce Hydro, failed to operate, fix, or repair the dams in accordance with the established standard of care, resulting in catastrophic injury and damage to residents and their properties. The lawsuit also names the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages in excess of $75,000. FeganScott, a law firm that specializes in class action suits, is representing businesses and homeowners affected by the flooding. The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment from Boyce Hydro. Representatives of both state agencies declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Morgan & Morgan, Grant & Eisenhofer, and the Jenner Law offices, attorneys in the second lawsuit, say the flooding was preventable. Despite knowing the threat posed by these unsafe dams, the defendants allegedly refused to pay for much-needed repairs and upgrades, stated Frank Petosa, spokesman for the law firms. The nearly century-old Edenville Dam has been the target of lengthy investigations by federal regulators. Officials have said the Sanford Dam, built in 1925, was overflowing during the flooding but that the extent of structural damage wasnt known. Dow Chemical Co. is headquartered in Midland and it has a plant next to the river. When the river crested, the floodwaters mixed with containment ponds at the Dow plant and the company admitted the flooding could displace sediment from a downstream Superfund site, though it said there was no risk to people or the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said state officials would evaluate the plant and that Dow must to assess the Superfund site contaminated with dioxins the company dumped in the last century to determine if any contamination was released. On May 22, Dow and its foundation announced a $1 million donation for flood recovery efforts. Dow said $250,000 will go to an assistance fund to help Dow employees directly hit by the flooding and $250,000 will go to the United Way to provide resources for Midland County families affected by the flooding. Another $500,000 will be allocated for needs that surface throughout the recovery and rebuilding phase. Wixom Lake in Midland Countys Hope Township lost most of its water when the Edenville Dam failed. Glenn Harts home in Hope Township escaped the brunt of the flooding. But on Friday, the 66-year-old was removing debris from his property, including kayaks, boats and pieces of docks. Im trying to find who this belongs to, to make sure people get their stuff, he said. With more rain forecast early next week, officials are keeping their eyes on the skies and the ground. With the area being so wet, any added rain is a concern, said Nick Assendelft, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Water levels on two lakes Secord and Smallwood behind two other dams have been brought down somewhat to take pressure off those facilities so their conditions can be assessed, Assendelft said. The last thing we need now is for there to be another rain event anywhere close to what we had earlier this week. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Flood Michigan Pollution Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins a deliberation with deputies from Hubei Province at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- China will step up efforts in building a stronger protection network in the public health domain to better protect people's lives and health as the country is shifting to COVID-19 regular prevention and control. On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed fortifying the public health protection network as he was participating in a deliberation at the annual national legislative session with lawmakers from central China's Hubei Province, recently hard-hit by the epidemic. China's public health and medical service systems have played their key roles in dealing with the epidemic, but some weak links and inadequacies were also exposed, Xi said, urging prompt efforts to fix them. Xi stressed reforming disease prevention and control system; boosting the epidemic monitoring, early warning and emergency response capacity; perfecting the treatment system for major epidemics; and improving public health emergency laws and regulations. At the ongoing "two sessions" that also include the annual session of the country's top political advisory body, issues concerning public health security have become some of the most discussed topics, with national lawmakers and political advisors putting forward bills and suggestions to improve the country's public health system. In its annual work report, the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, or the top legislature, said it will prioritize legislation on public health this year. The committee said it will revise a slew of laws this year, including the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, and the Emergency Response Law. Chinese lawmakers and political advisors proposed improving the emergency response mechanism for major epidemics in a comprehensive way. Ge Minghua, an NPC deputy, suggested establishing of and improving on a unified and efficient leadership and command system, and a direct and automatically-triggered reporting mechanism for public health emergencies with unknown causes. His remarks were echoed by Ling Yun, another NPC deputy, who proposed that under the command system, command centers should be set up at different levels across the country. The lawmakers and political advisors also suggested enhancing the treatment system for major epidemics and strengthening the building of qualified public health teams. According to the government work report submitted to the national legislature for deliberation, China will increase inputs on the research and development of vaccines, medicines and rapid testing technologies. The country will also build more medical facilities for epidemic control and treatment, set up more mobile laboratories, ensure emergency supplies and strengthen public health and epidemic prevention at the primary level, the report said. Wang Chen, a political advisor and a renowned respiratory specialist, said China should enhance medical education by establishing a sound mechanism to attract talent to study medicine and foster more health care practitioners. He also suggested building a higher-level national institute of medical science, which can lead and coordinate overall medical research and innovation for the development of health and life sciences. Yue Xihuan, an NPC deputy and a community-level official, stressed the need to enhance the construction of public health teams at the primary level. "In the battle against the COVID-19 epidemic, community-level medical facilities have taken huge responsibilities for epidemic prevention and control, but these facilities are short on medical staff," said Yue. "We should increase the flow of medical professionals to the community levels and rural areas." Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 21:26:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GAZA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Hamas-run ministry of health said in a press statement that three new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip. The statement said that the total number of cases has risen to 58 in the Gaza Strip and that the new cases are of Palestinians held at quarantine centers who came two weeks ago from Egypt. Earlier in the day, Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila told a news briefing held in Ramallah that no new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Palestine for the fifth day in a row, adding that eight cases had recovered on Tuesday. So far, the total number of infected cases reached 605 in all Palestinian districts including five deaths and 483 recoveries. Life in the West Bank returned to normal as the Palestinian government decided to lift most of the tight precautionary measures. Enditem Andrew Elchuk was spring cleaning at his Saskatoon home after returning from a family trip to Europe when he got the news that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He had been feeling tired and short of breath. The notification from e-health confirmed his suspicions as to why. "It just felt really surreal," said Elchuk, who explained that climbing the stairs in his bi-level home became a task while he was sick. "I would have to take a break and catch my breath because it felt like I had just gotten off a stair climber at the gym." What would follow was a difficult month for his family: his wife, mother and father were all later diagnosed with the disease, with his father spending weeks in hospital. Now, with his family recovered, Elchuk has the opportunity to participate in a trial run by Canadian Blood Services seeing whether previously infected COVID-19 patients might hold clues to a future treatment. Submitted by Andrew Elchuk The four had been in Germany on what was supposed to be a near-month-long trip; they headed back to Saskatchewan on March 16, just week into their travels, immediately after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians abroad to come home. They self-isolated as a group and everything seemed fine at first. Then, Elchuk began developing symptoms. His father Paul ended up being hit by the virus the hardest, though. The 69-year-old was rushed to St. Paul's Hospital and stayed there alone for 28 days, on a ventilator for about half of his stay. "We didn't know intubation was so severe and that a lot of people don't come out of it," said Elchuk. "I'm very thankful that we're in Saskatchewan and not a place like New York where they would've had to make a decision between giving him a ventilator or a young person. "He probably would've died if we lived in a different part of the world." Paul lost 30 pounds and went from easily walking about 10 kilometres a day in Europe to making it 100 metres with a walker during rehabilitation. The Prince Albert man is still gaining back his strength and movement, now resting with his wife Christine at their cabin at Candle Lake. Story continues Submitted by Andrew Elchuk While scientists are still uncertain whether someone who has recovered from COVID-19 can become infected with it again, those who have gotten better and whose immune systems have made antibodies to fight the virus hold great interest to researchers trying to develop treatments. So, Canadian Blood Services is collecting blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients for a national clinical trial called CONCOR-1, which will test the safety and effectiveness of using that plasma to treat other patients. Elchuk said his brother told him about the study and he knew immediately that he wanted to participate. "A lot of people are really getting hit hard by this and it could be a year, year and a half, until we have a vaccine. So if there is something to do to help with an effective treatment then it kind of feels like it's a responsibility to do it," said Elchuk. "I kind of think of it as the least I can do." Elchuk was the perfect candidate for the trial. All participants must be men under the age of 67. He just had to wait until he was symptom free for 28 days. Submitted by Andrew Elchuk He signed up and was given an appointment within a few days. He said the full donation process took about 45 minutes. Now, he's waiting to find out if researchers can use his antibodies. Elchuk is one of more than a dozen individuals in Canada who have donated COVID-19 convalescent plasma so far. The first donation was done in Vancouver on April 29. Canadian Blood Services is now taking donations in Calgary, Charlottetown, Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Regina, Saint John, Saskatoon, St. John's, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. COVID-19 convalescent plasma has not yet been proven to be a safe and effective treatment for patients with the virus. "The results from the clinical trial will inform future decisions on the wider availability of convalescent plasma," said Canadian Blood Services on its website. "It will be an important contribution to research on a global scale that could help patients in Canada and around the world." You can sign up to take part in the trial online. Pune: Pune district administration on Tuesday met prominent Malayali community organisations in the city to rope in nurses who recently returned to Kerala from Gulf countries. According to Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, the issue of nurses leaving the city hospitals and roping in trained nurses and health care workers who recently returned to Kerala from the Gulf was discussed during the meeting with two prominent Malayali community organisations in the city. We have asked the proactive and prominent community members of Malayali community to appeal to the nurses from Kerala to not return to the Gulf countries. Our efforts will be to provide them better options here, said Mhaisekar. Many hospitals from Pune have reported that their nurses, especially from Kerala, have left for home and are unwilling to return due to the fear of Covid-19. He added that the community members were asked to request the nurses, who had returned from Gulf countries recently to Kerala, to come to Pune and work in private as well as government hospitals. I asked the community members to request these trained nurses and health care staff to come here and we are ready to help them, he added. BILLIONS FOR BILLIONAIRES Who Will Pay? Since we might need this stimulus money that is going to people now to get businesses back on their feet again, well these stimulus packages for the most part are going to people who might starve or lose their homes without the stimulus money. However, some of the system is money is still going to billionaires because thats the way Republicans want it. They wouldnt pass the bill unless some of the money went to billionaires which is disgusting but typical Republican moves. BE RESPONSIBLE As our mothers would say, this is why we cant have nice things. Dozens of people crowding at the courthouse protesting the stay-at-home order in Delaware County and hardly any of them wearing a mask, all crowded together. If you want to do us a favor and help get Delaware County open again, stop the toddler temper tantrums and behave responsibly, please. TOO MUCH TO BEAR To The Bills Still Come In about the Ridley School District in Saturdays paper, I am 86 years old. I have paid school taxes since 1956. I paid my share. They should please stop at a certain time, a certain age. Enough already. I have to borrow the money to pay the taxes. I dont have that kind of money, being old. GET SOME HELP Joe Biden is the biggest Loser of all times. He is the dumbest, most ignorant excuse for a presidential candidate. What is wrong with him? He has a bad temper, especially when questioned about what he says. He is a very sick man who needs help instead of running for president. His family should try to get him help. What are they waiting for? Doesnt anyone care enough about him to understand whats happening? CUT THE CORD This is for the person in Sundays paper who was complaining about Comcast running The Shawshank Redemption a lot of times in every Adam Sandler movie. Comcast is just the conduit. They just supply the channels to your TV. The individual stations do the programming. Comcast has nothing to do with programming Turner Classic Movies, TNT. CBS, AMC, whatever. And if you are really that unhappy may I suggest you do what my husband and I did ten years ago. We cut the cord. We have a DVD player. We have shows on DVDs. We have excellent movies. When we want to watch a movie, we just pull it off the shelf go in the DVD player. We decide the time, we decide the day. We stream our news from the websites. Cut the cord and get a DVD player if youre that miserable. CUT OUR TAXES After reading Sundays about The Bills Come In, can someone please tell me how they can possibly think about raising school taxes? The kids have been out of school since the middle of March and the unemployment rate is over 40 percent. And where do these people think everybodys supposed to be getting this money to pay a tax increase? We should be getting a decrease in this coming school year, and not an increase. THREE STRIKES Years ago we had the Three Stooges Moe, Larry and Curly. Today we had the new three stooges Pelosi, Schumer and Schiff and those who believe in them. FLAILING GRADES I see Donald Trump has slapped Columbia University for having the nerve to come out with a study that doesnt match up with Donald Trumps thinking, if you can call it thinking. You know, Columbia is an Ivy League school just like Trumps alma mater and oh, by the way Trump said that if they ever release his grades he would sue them. So you can just take that as a perfect example of what youre dealing with this milquetoast president. THE PRIMOS POLITICIAN JOB KILLER Remember when Gov. Wolf ran for office? He cast himself is a businessman who knew how to create jobs. Well, his legacy is going to be the governor that killed more than a million jobs with his dictatorial stay-at-home orders. He must be so proud that a Vietnam veteran who has a family business of over 75 years in Wayne now has to go out of business because of Gov. Wolfs stupid restrictions. Thats your legacy, governor. Millions will be out of work because of you. A method to help improve testing for COVID-19, first promoted by a University of Otago researcher, is being used worldwide as countries struggle to manage high demand for testing. In early 2019, Drs Tim Hore (Otago) and Tomasz Jurkowski, from the University of Cardiff showed scientists how to purify genetic material from a wide range of sources using self-made magnetic nanoparticles for use in research and testing. They called the platform: "Bio-on-Magnetic-Beads" or "BOMB" for short and originally advocated the "do-it-yourself" system on the basis that it was much more cost-effective and flexible than existing solutions for purifying genetic material. It could also be scaled for processing hundreds of samples simultaneously using robotic instruments. Fast-forward to March 2020 and a few days prior to New Zealand's move to "lockdown", Dr Hore was contacted by Canterbury Health Laboratories (CHL) Scientific Officer, Dr Kylie Drake, a University of Otago alumna, who was actively looking for ways to purify the genetic material from the COVID-19 virus, so that it could be tested for diagnosis. Dr Hore explains that usually this is done using reagents supplied in a proprietary kit sold to testing laboratories. "This works fine under usual circumstances, but we now know that when a pandemic like this hits, companies are unable to keep up with demand, panic-buying occurs as countries try to secure testing for their people - and inevitably stocks run out. "Because of the limited reagent supply from companies and precipitous drop in air-travel it was harder and harder to get the required reagents in and New Zealand's ability to test for COVID-19 testing was severely threatened." Dr Hore adapted one of the protocols to isolate genetic material from the SARSCov-2 (COVID-19) virus. Dr Drake undertook all of the testing and validation required to make this a diagnostic test, so it was proven to work well in a clinical setting and as such could be implemented widely if needed. Dr Hore explains it resulted in a locally-developed, efficient and validated diagnostic method to purify the genetic material of the virus that did not rely upon foreign life-science companies for supply. "It gave District Health Boards a backstop, so that if the supply chain for reagents failed, we were still going to have a method to purify the genetic material from the virus so that it could be tested in patients." Fortunately however, the supply-chain has held up in New Zealand so the protocol has only been used in limited capacities, testing some frontline healthcare workers that needed rapid turnaround. Instead, the biggest impact of the work has been outside of New Zealand. Drs Hore and Drake published their protocol on the BOMB.bio website on April 4 and international interest has been steady since. "Researchers and clinicians from at least West Virginia and Oklahoma in the US, Cardiff, the Isle of Man, London, Norway, Estonia and Colombia are either using this protocol or modified BOMB protocols to undertake COVID-19 research or to do diagnostic testing," Dr Hore says. "We have also been invited by the UK's National Health Service COVID-19 Novel Testing Solutions Team to participate in web calls to improve resilience in diagnostic testing and there is even a team implementing mobile testing facilities from shipping containers (OpenCell London) that uses our method." Dr Drake emphasises the protocol would not have been used in New Zealand if it were not for Dr Hore. "Several of us were given the remit of finding an alternative RNA extraction method that used reagents we could readily source within New Zealand. I crowdsourced the issues on Facebook, by email to colleagues overseas and within New Zealand and out of all of them, Tim was the one who stood up and said 'let's do this!'." Infectious disease specialist, Professor David Murdoch from the University of Otago, Christchurch, explains Dr Hore's method is a useful alternative to other standard methods, especially at a time when lab supplies were running short globally. "Fortunately, New Zealand got on top of the pandemic quickly, so it wasn't needed here, but the situation could have been different had we had the large number of cases that some countries experienced." Needless to say it has made for a busy time for Dr Hore and he pays tribute to his PhD student, Tim Moser - "who has been working day and night in the laboratory for weeks now refining synthesis of the paramagnetic beads. "If required, he could produce enough reagents to purify the virus from more than 40,000 people per day - a tremendous achievement." Dr Hore also credits BOMB.bio co-founder Dr Jurkowski for developing the system further and pushing for diagnostic testing at his base in Cardiff and more broadly, the UK. "Tomasz has already significantly streamlined the protocol and has very quickly started to process many samples per day - with the aim to become thousands soon." Dr Hore says he is humbled by the impact of the work. "Tomasz and I started this work for purely academic reasons and to save money as we were establishing our laboratories, so it is very humbling to see it have direct relevance to New Zealand diagnostic testing and to now be used fighting COVID-19 worldwide." ### For further information, contact Dr Tim Hore Department of Anatomy University of Otago Mob +64 20 455 8896 Email tim.hore@otago.ac.nz Liane Topham-Kindley Senior Communications Adviser University of Otago Tel +64 3 479 9065 Mob +64 21 279 90654 Email liane.topham-kindley@otago.ac.nz Burma Myanmar Submits First Report to World Court on Provisional Measures to Protect Rohingya The Myanmar delegation led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (far left) attends a hearing at the ICJ in December 2019. / ICJ YANGONMyanmar submitted its first report on the steps it is taking to protect Rohingya from killings and other atrocities to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Friday as required by the courts January order on provisional measures. The ICJ, also known as the World Court, issued four urgent measures against Myanmar early this year requiring it to comply with the UN Genocide Convention and to report on its implementation of the measures, after Gambia filed a case at the court accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya. As the case could take years, the African nation requested that the court order the preliminary measures. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh in late 2017 after the governments security forces launched clearance operations in northern Rakhine State in response to a series of attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on police outposts. UN investigators said the operations had genocidal intent. Both the Myanmar government and military have denied the accusations. Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told the court in December that there was no genocide committed in Myanmar, as defined in international law, and described the Rohingya issue as an internal conflict. She added that the country was engaged in the repatriation of Rohingya and promotion of ethnic reconciliation, peace and stability in Rakhine State, and was holding its military accountable for alleged human rights abuses. In January, the United Nations highest court ruled that Myanmar must follow the provisional measures to protect Rohingya Muslims from killings and other atrocities while refraining from destroying evidence related to allegations of crimes against them. Going further than the measures requested by Gambia, the ICJ ordered Myanmar on Jan. 23 to report on its compliance with the provisional measures in four monthsthe deadline was Saturdayand then every six months thereafter. The World Courts Information Department confirmed to The Irrawaddy on Monday that Myanmar submitted the first report indicated in the courts Jan. 23 order on provisional measures on Friday. Locally, the Myanmar government has not made any official announcement about the submission of the report, or the contents of the report itself. The department said such reports are generally kept confidential. However, the Court still has the power to decide whether, in the present case, the Myanmar report should be made public, it added. The Myanmar military, which is in charge of all security forces, including those accused of committing atrocities against the Rohingya, told the media on Friday it had provided the government with everything needed to compile the report, as the military is investigating and preparing to open court-martial proceedings against soldiers accused of mass killings against Rohingya insurgents in 2017. The investigations were recommended by a Myanmar government-backed commissionThe Independent Commission of Enquiry (ICOE) set up to investigate alleged human rights violations in Rakhine State. The Myanmar Presidents Office declined to comment on the report submitted to the ICJ. While information on the contents of the report remains scarce, the Presidents Office publicly took a number of steps in April related to its compliance with the ICJs provisional measures order, issuing directives encouraging anti-hate speech activities, and ordering compliance with the Genocide Convention and the preservation of evidence of atrocities in Rakhine. However, Sam Zarifi, secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists, said on Friday that Myanmar could do more to prevent acts of genocide by implementing comprehensive legal and constitutional reforms. The commission pointed out that the government has yet to amend or repeal key laws that facilitate discrimination against the Rohingya, including the 1982 Citizenship Law, the 2015 Race and Religion Protection Laws and the 2014 Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Law. In its recent report condemning the Myanmar military for failing to deliver justice in the killing of journalist Ko Par Gyi while in military custody in September 2014, the commission said a number of provisions in Myanmars laws facilitate impunity for serious human rights violations committed by soldiers against civilians. No one has yet been held accountable for the journalists death. Accountability lies at the heart of prevention, and so long as the Tatmadaw [the military] remains unaccountable to the civilian authorities, the cycle of impunity for criminal atrocities within the country will continue, Zarifi said. Less than a week after issuing its provisional order in January, the ICJ announced the deadlines for the submission of Gambias initial pleading in the case, and for Myanmars reply, as July and January next year, respectively. However, the ICJ announced on Tuesday that in response to a request made by Gambia in April the court had on May 18 extended the deadlines by three months for both countries due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the order, the deadlines were postponed from July 23, 2020 to Oct. 23, 2020 for Gambia and from Jan. 25, 2021 to July 23, 2021 for Myanmar. According to the ICJ press release, Myanmars legal team indicated in a letter dated April 28, 2020 that although the Myanmar government did not consider the COVID-19 pandemic sufficient justification to postpone the deadlines, it neither supported nor opposed Gambias request and that it would be up to the ICJ to decide whether The Gambia ha[d] established a sufficient justification for an extension of time. This story was updated on Tuesday night to include the ICJs announcement on the extension of the deadlines. You may also like these stories: Abducted Villagers in Western Myanmar Blame Arakan Army Solar Investors Slam Myanmars One-Month Bid Deadline FALLS TOWNSHIP >> In an effort to be fiscally responsible while ridding Falls Township Community Park of Canada geese, the Falls Township Supervisors approved a multi-faceted, year-long geese mitigation plan at a one percent savings over 2021. Stepped up geese management efforts began in 2015 and have significantly reduced the number of geese at the park, Falls Township Parks and Recreation... FT. MYERS, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / NeoGenomics, Inc. (NEO), a leading provider of cancer-focused genetic testing services, today announced that Kathryn McKenzie, Chief Financial Officer and Bill Bonello, President Informatics Division, Director of Investor Relations, will be participating in virtual meetings at the 17th Annual Craig-Hallum Institutional Investor Conference on Wednesday, May 27, 2020. About NeoGenomics, Inc. NeoGenomics, Inc. specializes in cancer genetics testing and information services. The Company provides one of the most comprehensive oncology-focused testing menus in the world for physicians to help them diagnose and treat cancer. The Company's Pharma Services Division serves pharmaceutical clients in clinical trials and drug development. Headquartered in Fort Myers, FL, NeoGenomics operates CAP accredited and CLIA certified laboratories in Ft. Myers and Tampa, Florida; Aliso Viejo, Carlsbad, Fresno and San Diego, California; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and CAP accredited laboratories in Rolle, Switzerland, and Singapore. NeoGenomics serves the needs of pathologists, oncologists, academic centers, hospital systems, pharmaceutical firms, integrated service delivery networks, and managed care organizations throughout the United States, and pharmaceutical firms in Europe and Asia. For additional information about NeoGenomics, visit http://www.neogenomics.com/. Forward Looking Statements Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as the result of the Company's ability to continue gaining new customers, respond to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, offer new types of tests, integrate its acquisitions and otherwise implement its business plan, as well as additional factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 28, 2020. As a result, this press release should be read in conjunction with the Company's periodic filings with the SEC. In addition, it is the Company's practice to make information about the Company available by posting copies of its Company Overview Presentation from time to time on the Investor Relations section of its website at http://ir.neogenomics.com/. Story continues Forward-looking statements represent the Company's estimates only as of the date such statements are made (unless another date is indicated) and should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates as of any subsequent date. While the Company may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, even if its estimates change. For further information, please contact: NeoGenomics, Inc. William Bonello Director, Investor Relations (239) 690-4238 (w) (239) 284-4314 (m) bill.bonello@neogenomics.com SOURCE: NeoGenomics, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591378/NeoGenomics-To-Virtually-Participate-In-17th-Annual-Craig-Hallum-Institutional-Investor-Conference Hard-hit cancer charity Cancer Focus Northern Ireland is calling on the public to make a donation today to its emergency appeal to save its lifeline services for local people affected by cancer - both now and in the future. The charity's income has plummeted to critical levels and it is desperately worried that it will not survive the coronavirus crisis. Each year, Cancer Focus NI supports 6,000 cancer patients, their families and carers across Northern Ireland. The local charity is 90% dependent on fundraising but has had to cancel all its fundraising events and close its charity shops. As a result, it's facing an 80% loss of income over the next six months. It desperately wants to keep its doors open in the future so that it can continue with vital work in the community. Roisin Foster, chief executive of Cancer Focus NI, said: "Our hearts go out to people who are trying to cope with the anxiety of coronavirus on top of dealing with a cancer diagnosis and the impact of treatment. "While greatly reduced, our counselling and family support teams are still in contact with patients. They are seeing raised levels of anxiety - about treatment being delayed, about the increased risk of coronavirus for people with weakened immune systems, and about the loneliness and isolation of people facing terminal illness and bereavement without the usual networks of support. Expand Close Roisin Foster, chief executive of Cancer Focus NI / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Roisin Foster, chief executive of Cancer Focus NI "This, combined with suspending screening programmes, means that we are storing up considerable problems for the future - late diagnosis, more complex treatment, psychological impacts including bereavement - and all at a time when charities like ours are facing real concerns about our future," she said. "We fully appreciate that coronavirus is to the forefront of everyone's mind. But sadly cancer has not disappeared - and our services can change people's lives. Your donations are vital and every penny raised stays in Northern Ireland. Your support at this incredibly difficult time is extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. We can't continue without you." You can support Cancer Focus NI by making a donation today via cancerfocusni.org/appeal, text FOCUS 5 to 70660 to donate 5 or text FOCUS 10 to 70660 to donate 10 Sports nutritionist Emma Telford (23) lost her mum Lorna to cancer when she was a teenager. She lives with her dad David (57) and sister Evie (17) in Downpatrick. She says: As a teenager living with a mother who had cancer, I was not the most open, nor did I ever entertain the thought of speaking about how I felt. I was 13 when she was diagnosed and Evie was just seven. Expand Close A family picture of Emma and Evie with their late mum Lorna / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A family picture of Emma and Evie with their late mum Lorna I thought that as long as I didn't talk about cancer, it wasn't real and everything would be fine. As a result of my unwillingness to talk about my feelings, I'd often have brief moments of utter despair. All of a sudden there would be an explosion and I was no longer in control of my emotions. I'm someone who wants to be in control all the time so the concept of feeling sad or crying was not only alien, but felt like it wasn't allowed. Mum was ill for five years. She was an incredibly strong, determined lady and always drilled it into me that you should never lie down under cancer and that, as awful as it is and how unfair you may believe it to be, you must fight and remain positive, despite your emotions. You never give up because at the end of the day 'why shouldn't cancer come to me?' I struggled with questions over the years and to this day have a multitude of unanswered ones which, if I'm honest, scares me. I may never truly get the answers I am looking for. However, in time you learn to accept what has happened and focus on the good times. My memories are the most precious things I have and these are what get you through the difficult days. Rachel, from Cancer Focus NI's family support service, visited our house and talking to her was the best decision I've ever made. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I had to talk about death because it was in my face and there was no escape. In less than a year I'd come full circle, I'd embraced crying and had learnt that it was okay to not be yourself or to have a bad day. Rachel spent lots of time with Mum, too, helping her with many things including her eulogy. This must have been so hard to do, but Rachel was there to help Mum say goodbye in words to those she loved the most. When Mum was in the hospice, it was the most challenging seven weeks of my life and when it became evidently clear she was dying, her wish was for me to be with her, something I never thought I could do. I always panicked at the thought of living without Mum, being alone and not being able to say goodbye. What Rachel taught me is that you can talk and it truly helps. Rachel helped prepare a plan of how to cope with Mum's death. Every day is difficult and I miss Mum terribly but the work of Cancer Focus NI and the family support service is fantastic. They work with families to keep the memory alive of those who have died, through arts, drama or talking. The service is amazing and can help so many young children to understand what is happening when a loved one dies but in a way that is sensitive and easily understood. You meet other people in the same situation and feel supported and that you are not alone. It's amazing to know that when you feel your tomorrows are running out, there are people there for you to listen and support and walk with you every step of the way." Breast cancer survivor Sonia Moore (52), from Lurgan, is doing a Master's degree in fashion and textile retail management, inspired by the Cancer Focus NI art therapy sessions she took after her diagnosis. She also used the charity's counselling service. Sonia is appealing to everyone to support its emergency appeal. She says: My whole world crashed around me when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had surgery twice, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, Herceptin and am now on tamoxifen for 10 years. I went from working full-time to running to the hospital every other day. The treatments were gruelling and had a terrible effect on my body. I was then made redundant, so then I had financial problems, too. Not only had I my health to worry about but how was I going to pay my bills? Expand Close Life-changing: Sonia Moore at a Cancer Focus NI art therapy session / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Life-changing: Sonia Moore at a Cancer Focus NI art therapy session Around this time, I was signposted to Cancer Focus NI. Here I got counselling in my local area and benefit advice. Having an interest in art, I decided to go to their art therapy group. Well, for me it was life-changing. I didn't think I would be able to draw a straight line again. I was welcomed by Joanne, the art therapist, and this group became my lifeline. Every Thursday off, I went to meet my new friends and draw a bit. The people I met were all at different stages of their cancer journey and I found this helpful. There was no pressure and I always came away from it feeling great. Joanne encouraged me to apply for a course in art, which I did. I went on to complete a BTEC diploma in art and design, then a BA Hons in textile art, design and fashion at the Ulster University. My daughter was at the same university doing a degree in fine art. It was amazing to have this time travelling together and a shared interest with her. After completing my degree, I was selected as artist in residence for one year. I'm now doing my Master's degree. My life has been turned around. I always dreamed of going to university but never thought it would happen. I went from the depths of depression to living my dream. The support I received from Cancer Focus NI helped me to start living my life again. The friends I met at art therapy I now call my best friends. We can talk openly to each other about our feelings and support each other. My outlook has changed. I don't stress over the little things and enjoy life. Every day is a gift and I try to live in the moment. Thank you Cancer Focus NI for being there when I needed you and helping me to turn something negative into a positive." Helen Todd (38) began caring for her husband David (40) after he was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer. Helen lives with David and their son Josh (12) in Bangor. She is urging people to donate to Cancer Focus NI so the charity can continue helping people at one of the most stressful times of their lives. She says: When David was diagnosed it was all very sudden and a massive shock. As far as we were concerned he was perfectly healthy. He had the odd headache and sometimes couldn't remember a word, but nothing to cause any alarm. Expand Close Sticking together Helen Todd with her husband David and their son Josh / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Sticking together Helen Todd with her husband David and their son Josh Then one Sunday evening he had a tonic-clonic seizure, was taken to hospital in an ambulance and had a CT scan the next morning, which is when we found out he had a tumour. David had major brain surgery two weeks later but it wasn't possible to remove all the tumour. He has severe brain injury, brain tumour-related epilepsy and needs a lot of support. He's a very different person to live with and has chronic fatigue. Life revolves around hospital appointments these days. David had six weeks of daily radiotherapy, six weeks after brain surgery, and it was during this time that I got involved with Cancer Focus NI. It was just as well because David was extremely unwell during eight months of chemotherapy and I needed support. Our son Josh is very good and helps me with his dad. He's doing a really stand-up job. Josh has type 1 diabetes and has to have three glucose checks every night, so I have to get up with him. I realised I was going to need help and to make sure I was mentally well enough to look after David and began having counselling with Cancer Focus NI. I don't know where I would be without them. It was so refreshing to have someone say 'how can I help you' instead of 'how can I help David'. It was such a relief. I had counselling for six months and then felt I could go back to work full-time. Later on I went back to Cancer Focus NI for more counselling. I needed to get my head in a good place again. If you don't talk, your thoughts just fester and you don't learn to cope with it. Thank goodness a service like this exists. You never know when you might need them. I'd encourage everyone to give a donation, big or small, to this wonderful charity so they can continue their excellent work - it's a real lifeline for people like me." A North Carolina hair salon has refused to serve Tyson Food staff after hundreds of workers at a local plant tested positive for coronavirus. Some 570 employees at the chicken-processing plant - out of a workforce of 2,000 - tested positive for the disease this month, prompting the manager of SmartCuts in Wilkesboro to refuse entry to any of its employees. Hair salons were allowed to open over the weekend as part of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's plans to end lockdown, reported Huff Post. On May 20 Gov. Cooper revealed the state would transition to a Phase 2 safer-at-home recommendation. It went into effect on Friday, May 22, and meant restaurants, swimming pools, hair salons and retail businesses could all reopen. Some 570 employees at Tyson Foods - out of a workforce of 2,000 - tested positive for coronavirus this month, prompting the manager of SmartCuts (pictured) in Wilkesboro to refuse entry to any of its employees But when SmartCuts opened for business on Friday a sign on the door read: 'Due to the number of Tyson employees who have tested positive for Covid19, and given the close contact experienced during our services, we are unable to serve Tyson employees. 'We sincerely apologize for this decision, and we ask for your understanding,' Amy McGinty, a worker at Tyson Foods for 13 years, blasted the salon for treating her colleagues 'like a disease'. She told the website: 'They're getting our food, but they won't service us.' There have been 22,725 positive tests in North Caroline for coronavirus, and 737 deaths since the outbreak began in the state. A sign (pictured) on the door of the hair salon warned that employees at Tyson Foods would not be served. Its manager, Cathy, says they can claim $3 discount on haircuts from June 8 Cathy, the manager of the salon, declined to give her last name but said workers at the food plant were 'at risk'. She added: 'We respect their business, and we really appreciate that they're essential workers. But that puts them at risk.' She revealed Tyson workers would be allowed back from June 8, when they would be able to get $3 off the price of a haircut. Tyson Foods recently revealed it had reopened following a deep clean because 570 of its 2,244 full-time and contract employees had tested positive for Covid-19. The Tyson Foods chicken-processing plant in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, pictured above, reported that 25.4 percent of its employees had tested positive for coronavirus It is likely one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the state and affected 25.4 percent of the facility's workforce. Meat processing plants have become major outbreak hotspots across the country with more than 14,000 cases among workers causing concern for the nation's food supply chain. Companies say they have increased safety measures but unions have issued a warning that the federal safety guidelines can be ignored, leaving workers at risk. Tyson Foods, pictured a plant in Springdale, Arkansas, has said that they have implemented stricter safety measures but as outbreaks in its plants worsened this week, unions voiced concerns that the new procedures do not have to be implemented putting workers at risk Tyson Foods said that the majority of the workers who tested positive in the Wilkesboro plant were not showing symptoms and if they had not been tested 'otherwise would not have been identified'. The company had tested 2,007 employees at the plant for the virus between May 6 and May 9. The other employees were tested by the the county health department or through their health care provider. 'We are working closely with local health departments to protect our team members and their families, and to help manage the spread of the virus in our communities,' said Tom Brower, Tyson's senior vice president of health and safety. Tyson Foods employees in Texas claim 300 workers tested positive for coronavirus and forklift truck driver at plant has died A forklift operator in a Tyson Foods plant in Sherman, Texas, has died of coronavirus. The man in his 50s became the first person in Grayson County to die from the illness. He had been tested for coronavirus a few days before but was still awaiting results. All employees at the plant were tested last week but remain in work until they receive results. An anonymous worker told CBS that people are being asked to leave the plant and quarantine as their positive results come in. Employees at the plant say that nearly 300 workers as the plant have tested positive. Advertisement The company added that those who test positive will be placed on paid leave and will not return to work until 'they have met the criteria established by both the CDC and Tyson'. Two of the three plants at the facility had already been temporarily shut down for cleaning after the outbreak in the plant was first reported in April. Tyson had announced on May 14 that it was conducting a second temporary shutdown of its Fresh Plant 2 facility which had been complete on Tuesday. The Fresh Plant 1 facility was operating on a limited basis having reopened following cleaning. The company has temporarily closed at least seven facilities across the country for deep cleaning including three in Iowa, and one each in Indiana, Nebraska and Washington. According to Statesville.com, there have been 3,500 infected workers in those plants. Tyson Foods is among the food processing companies forced to implement stricter health and safety procedures against the coronavirus as it battle to keep its plants open. The company has introduced daily clinical symptoms checks for employees and provided nurse practitioners on site and enhanced education. JBS has also introduced heightened safety measures including temperature checks and facemasks but workers fear it is not enough. According to CBS News, there are now more than 14,000 coronavirus cases in at least 181 meatpacking plants across the US. There have been at least 54 worker deaths. Unions have voiced concerns that the new safety measures taken do not have to be properly implemented. Extensive guidance issued last month by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that meatpacking companies erect physical barriers, enforce social distancing and install more hand-sanitizing stations, among other steps. But the guidance is not mandatory. 'It's like, "here's what we'd like you to do. But if you don't want to do it, you don't have to",' said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president and director of the food processing and meatpacking division for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Tyson has already closed at least seven plants temporarily for deep cleaning but the outbreaks continue. An employee at a plant in Texas died as he awaited his coronavirus test results Tyson Foods confirmed Wednesday that 570 of its 2,244 full-time and contract employees have been infected in the Wilkesboro plant, pictured above. Two sections of the plant had been closed temporarily for deep cleanings after the outbreak started in April OSHA's general guidance plainly says the recommendations are advisory and 'not a standard or regulation,' and they create 'no new legal obligations'. But the guidance also says employers must follow a law known as the general duty clause, which requires companies to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards. Coronavirus outbreak hits Kraft Heinz plant in Missouri that is the sole producer of Oscar-Mayer bologna The Kraft Heinz processing plant in Kirksville, Missouri, announced on Wednesday that several workers have tested positive for coronavirus The facility is the sole plant that makes all the Oscar-Mayer bologna sold in the United States. Michael Mullen, the senior vice president of corporate affairs at Kraft Heinz, said a 'handful' of employees' were affected. They are in self-quarantine at home with full pay, he added. The plant employees about 900 people in Kirksville. Advertisement Critics say that rule is unlikely to be enforced, especially after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April aimed at keeping meat plants open. The closure of meat processing plants across the country is having a drastic effect on the nations's food supply chain. Limited closures and worker absenteeism also mean that the facilities are not able to process the same amount of produce being supplied by farmers. Amid the meat processing plant closures, there have been reports of farmers euthanizing cattle and pigs, while dairy farmers have been discarding milk supply due to distribution problems. School and restaurant closures have also directly impacted demand. Chairman of Tyson Foods John Tyson recently commented that 'the food supply chain is breaking' as he warned that 'millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain' and that 'there will be limited supply of our products available in grocery stores until we are able to reopen our facilities that are currently closed'. 'In addition to meat shortages, this is a serious food waste issue,' he added. 'Farmers across the nation simply will not have anywhere to sell their livestock to be processed, when they could have fed the nation. Millions of animals chickens, pigs and cattle will be depopulated because of the closure of our processing facilities.' Despite this, shares in food processing companies such as Tyson and Kraft Heinz are slowly rebounding after plummeting in mid-March, even as new plant outbreaks emerge. In another Tyson Foods plant in Texas, a forklift operator became the first person in Grayson County to die from coronavirus this week. This Tyson Foods plant in Sherman, Texas, also has an outbreak. All employees at the plant were tested last week but remain in work until they receive results, an employee says Employees at the plant say that nearly 300 workers at the plant have tested positive, CBS reports. The man, who was in his 50s, had been tested for coronavirus a few days before his death but was still awaiting results. He felt short of breath and drove himself to the hospital where he suffered a cardiac arrest. Every worker at the Tyson Foods Plant in Sherman had been tested last week but they all continue to work as they await the results. The company said it has begun testing the temperature of employees before allowing them inside the building. 'I mean today they were just coming basically as they were getting results in, they were coming and getting people and escorting them out of the building and telling them to go on a 2-week quarantine,' one anonymous employee told CBS. 'So basically, all they're doing is walking up to you and saying, "Hey, I need you to come with me". And they walk you to the door almost like you're being fired, which to me would be like humiliation.' Employees added that some 1,000 tests have come back negative but they are still awaiting the result of hundreds more. A coronavirus outbreak was confirmed in this Kraft Heinz plant in Missouri Wednesday. The facility is the sole plant that makes all the Oscar-Mayer bologna sold in the United States The company said it would not release the number of positive cases in the plant until all results are in. 'We are saddened by the loss of any Tyson team member and sympathize with their family at this difficult time. At Tyson Foods our top priority is the health and safety of our team members,' said Tyson spokesperson Derek Burelson. A new outbreak was also reported Wednesday in a Kraft Heinz plant in Missouri. The Kirksville facility is the sole plant that makes all the Oscar-Mayer bologna sold in the United States. 'A handful of Kraft Heinz employees in our Kirksville, Missouri factory have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) and are in self-quarantine at home with full pay,' Michael Mullen, the senior vice president of corporate affairs at Kraft Heinz, told the Kirksville Daily Express. 'We have taken all necessary steps to identify and notify individuals who worked closely with these employees. We have taken several proactive measures to ensure the wellbeing of our people and to help reduce the risk of virus exposure or transmission.' The plant employs around 900 people. On a petition by an Agra trader asking for interest on loans to be waived during RBI's EMI moratorium, the Supreme Court has sent a notice to the central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) following a petition seeking relief on interest being charged during the duration of EMI moratorium. An apex court bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MR Shah will hear the case next week. Gajendra Sharma, an optical shop owner from Agra, had named the Union Home Ministry and the RBI in a petition challenging the provision under the apex bank's EMI moratorium directive which allowed interest liabilities to accrue. The petition filed before the Supreme Court on May 2 sought direction to the Centre and the RBI to provide relief in repayment of loan by not charging interest during the EMI moratorium period. On May 8, the Supreme Court had allowed two weeks time to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to seek instructions on the issue. The top court had also permitted serving a copy of the petition to lawyers and the Centre. In his petition, Sharma stated that charging interest on loan amount during the moratorium period "is completely devastating, wrong and in a way has taken away the benefit of imposing moratorium". ALSO READ: COVID-19 relief by RBI: Home loan rates set to fall to 15-year low "In the present scenario, when all the means of livelihood have been curtailed by the Government of India by imposition of complete lockdown pan India... the Petitioner being a citizen of India has no way to continue his work and earn livelihood, imposition of interest during the moratorium will defeat the purpose of permitting moratorium on loans," the petition stated. To provide relief to borrowers amid the coronavirus lockdown, the RBI had declared a moratorium on instalments for all agricultural, retail and crop loans falling due between March 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020. Sharma had sent a request to ICICI Bank for availing this moratorium against his home loan of Rs 37.48 lakh from the bank. While his request was granted, Sharma was informed that interest on the outstanding value of the loan shall continue to accrue during the moratorium. In an e-mail to Sharma, ICICI Bank had said that the accrued interest will be added to the outstanding principal amount, and interest thereon shall be calculated on the total amount outstanding under the loan account. "This will result in an increase in residual tenure of the loan. If the loan tenure cannot be extended, the EMI amount will increase," the mail had said. ALSO READ: EMIs deferred! RBI extends loan moratorium by another 3 months Sharma had stated in his petition that his earnings have come to a standstill due to the lockdown, and he is not in a position to pay the EMIs on his home loan. He had further said that he "is paying the salaries to his employees, without any work and income", as directed by the Home Ministry. "...the countrywide lockdown has been further extended for two more weeks and therefore, the Petitioner will not be in any position to start his work in near time. This has created immense burden upon the Petitioner's budget as apart from paying EMI on home loan, the Petitioner has moral obligation to pay his employees during lockdown and also to manage financial aspects of his home and family," the petition to the apex court had said. The Supreme Court had dismissed earlier petitions in this regard on grounds that the petitioners "are not borrowers and are not being affected". Sharma had said that he is a borrower directly affected by the RBI's EMI moratorium and associated stipulations. ALSO READ: 'No, Thank You': Less than 10% bank borrowers avail 3-month EMI moratorium Small businesses can apply to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce for a one-time grant to support economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Small businesses can apply to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce for a one-time grant to support economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. The national business association launched its Canadian Business Resilience Network Small Business Relief Fund on Monday, and is offering up to 62 grants valued at $10,000 to small enterprises feeling economic pressures caused by the global pandemic. "Small-business owners put everything they have into their businesses, and these grants will help give a little bit back to them," chamber president Perrin Beatty said in a news release. Through the program, which is in partnership with digital customer relationship management company Salesforce, selected business owners can use the grant to cover salaries, pay for protective equipment, or adapt business models to continue commerce. The grant is targeted toward small, for-profit businesses that have been operating for more than two years. Businesses must have between two and 50 employees and annual revenue between $150,000 and $5 million. Businesses from across Canada are invited to apply. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The application period opens June 1 on the fund website (www.canadianbusinessresiliencenetwork.ca) and closes June 12. Successful businesses will be announced in late June or early July, and funds transferred shortly after. "We care deeply about the challenges small businesses across Canada are facing as a result of the pandemic and recognize that they have been hit especially hard," said Margaret Stuart, Salesforce Canada region manager. "With this initiative, our focus is supporting the resilience of Canadian small-business owners and helping them recover." Business owners must demonstrate how the grant could support the recovery of a business from challenges related to the pandemic, support long-term success and contribute to the community at large. The Canadian Business Resilience Network was founded by the chamber with support from the federal government to help businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a co-ordinated, business-led campaign focused on providing business owners tools needed to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on their operations, on the economy and local communities. SAN JOSE, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, and Biognosys, a leading developer of next-generation proteomics solutions, announce they are continuing their collaboration to advance data independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry-based workflows. Together, the companies have developed a workflow for accurate and flexible label-free protein quantitation and proteome profiling in plasma matrices. The introduction of Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 480 mass spectrometer and new Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 240 mass spectrometer, in combination with the Biognosys PQ500 kit, has driven the delivery of a streamlined, simplified workflow that provides increased depth of coverage and sensitivity for analysis of blood-derived samples. In addition, the novel FAIMS DIA method, enabled with Thermo Scientific FAIMS Pro interface, uses Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry (FAIMS) to fractionate ionized species before analysis by the mass spectrometer, resulting in enhanced selectivity, higher reproducibility and greater proteome coverage in DIA analyses. Quantitative analyses can be further refined using the Biognosys PQ500 kit to implement Thermo Scientific SureQuant Targeted Assay Kits, enabling the rapid quantification of 500 plasma proteins. The single workflow enables efficient development and deployment of targeted methods to streamline the discovery of new insights through quantitative proteomics in translational and clinical laboratories. "Researchers are delving into the proteome more than ever before, opening doors into potential new therapies and study areas, but revealing complex analytical challenges to overcome," said Daniel Lopez-Ferrer, senior manager, proteomics, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Through our ongoing collaboration with Biognosys, we are now able to offer the FAIMS-DIA and SureQuant workflows which, used in conjunction with the Biognosys PQ500 kit, simplify experimental processes." Lukas Reiter, chief technology officer, Biognosys, said, "Our continued work with Thermo Fisher aligns with Biognosys' overall mission of transforming life sciences with the next generation of quantitative proteomics solutions. With the Thermo Scientific FAIMS Pro interface coupled with the Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 480 mass spectrometer, Biognosys can profile more than 10,000 proteins from the human HeLa cell line with single-shot FAIMS-DIA. This corresponds to an estimated 80 percent of its expressed proteome." Thermo Fisher Scientific will showcase outcomes of the collaboration and its newest products and software solutions in a company-hosted virtual event, vLC-MS.com, from May 26-28, 2020, and at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Reboot Program, from June 1-12, 2020. About Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. Media Contact Information: Laura Bright Thermo Fisher Scientific +1 562-335-8318 [email protected] Janice Foley BioStrata +1 617-823-5555 [email protected] SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Related Links https://www.thermofisher.com Health Minister Robin Swann has said Tuesday's report of no Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours was a sign of the progress made in tackling the pandemic. However, he urged the public not to get complacent with the easing of some lockdown measures as there was still a risk of a second wave of the virus. "There are no grounds whatsoever for complacency. That will be an insult to all those who have sadly lost their lives and those who are in mourning," he said. Referring to Boris Johnson's under-fire adviser Dominic Cummings, Mr Swann reminded the public not to lose sight of the fact Northern Ireland was still in the midst of the pandemic. He described Mr Cummings actions "ill-judged", saying it had become a distraction from the key public health message. He said there have been "damaging implications" of Mr Cummings' actions. "I believe there is no person, no position or point of privilege that is above the guidance and the regulations. Don't let someone you love or someone you don't know suffer the consequences of your actions," he added. The minister also announced an expansion of testing facilities. Addressing issues at Clifton Nursing home in Belfast, Mr Swann said discussions were underway for a new provider and his department had been involved in this for some time. He says an inquiry into care homes in NI will be a thing for the future. Read More Tuesday, May 26 was the first day since March 18 there was no report of a Covid-19 death. It comes just a day after the Republic of Ireland also announced it had no deaths. On Monday there were 928 tests for the virus carried out on 687 people, resulting in 28 positive cases. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 4,637. The Northern Ireland death toll remains at 514 people. Here's how Tuesday unfolded: New Delhi: In a significant judgement, the Bombay High Court today lifted the ban imposed on women from entering the sanctum sanctorum of Haji Ali dargah here, saying it contravenes the fundamental rights of a person. 1.Bombay HC lifts ban on women's entry in the inner sanctum of Haji Ali dargarh The court has, however, stayed its order for six weeks following a plea by Haji Ali Dargah Trust, which wants to challenge it in the Supreme Court. 2. Caught on video: Man beaten to death after fight over Golgappas in Delhi, 2 accused arrested Two youths have been arrested for allegedly beating to death a mechanic in a fit of rage over a tiff during purchasing of golgappas in northwest Delhis Bhalswa Dairy area earlier this month, police said today. 3. Fresh Scorpene data leaked: Australian newspaper uploads fresh documents related to underwater warfare system of Scorpene Australias The Australian newspaper today uploaded a fresh tranche of leaked documents relating to information about operating instructions of underwater warfare system of the six Scorpene submarines which are being built in India by French firm DCNS. 4.Sheena Bora murder case: New audio clips reveal how Peter Mukerjea, Indrani misled Rahul; CBI includes tapes in probe Fresh tapes emerged on Thursday uncovering the conversations among Indrani Mukherjea, Peter Mukerjea and Rahul Mukerjea. The taped conversations allegedly indicate that there was an attempt to cover up the Sheena Bora murder case. 5. Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar among top 10 highest paid actors; Salman ranked at 14th, Amitabh 18th King Khan does it again! Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan is ranked 8th on the Forbes list of 20 of the Worlds Highest Paid Actors 2016, while Akshay Kumar is at 10th, Salman Khan at 14th and Amitabh Bachchan is placed at 18th on the list. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. WASHINGTON The Justice Department notified three senators on Tuesday that it will not pursue insider trading charges against them after an investigation into stock transactions from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic did not find sufficient evidence they had broken the law, according to a person briefed on the investigations and congressional aides. The department contacted lawyers for Senators Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia; James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma; and Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. All three had sold substantial amounts of stock in late January or early February when lawmakers were being briefed on the novel coronavirus threat but before the pandemic began roiling financial markets or was fully understood by the public. Law enforcement officials appear to still be investigating Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina, whose own mid-February stock sales have drawn scrutiny from the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission. This month, F.B.I. agents seized Mr. Burrs cellphone. For the other senators, the notifications are likely to begin lifting suspicions that have lingered since mid-March, when they disclosed the trades in mandatory Senate filings. At a time when millions of Americans were losing their jobs and markets had plummeted, even the possibility that members of Congress had used their positions to protect themselves financially prompted cries for resignations and investigations. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 26, 2020 | PADUCAH By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 26, 2020 | 10:41 AM | PADUCAH A Paducah man was arrested after a standoff Monday at a home that lasted several hours. The Paducah Police Department says the incident in the 3500 block of Buckner Lane began at 7:30 a.m., when 44-year-old Wade Alexander called his sister to the home and an argument ensued. Alexanders sister said he pointed a shotgun at her and threatened to kill her, her boyfriend, himself and police officers. She told officers he also threatened her with a knife. About two hours later, Alexander allowed his sister to leave the home. She then contacted her mother, who called police. Officers were also able to safely remove Alexanders 19-year-old nephew, who was asleep in the home's basement. The departments Crisis Negotiation Team arrived a short time later and tried unsuccessfully to communicate with Alexander via telephone, a bullhorn and the departments bomb robot. Officers closed Buckner Lane between Sycamore Drive and Friedman Avenue, telling neighbors to stay inside their homes or leave the area. The departments SWAT team was deployed and removed Alexander from the home at around 5:30 p.m. without incident. During a search of the home after Alexanders arrest, detectives found a shotgun, a handgun and a knife. Alexander was arrested and charged with kidnapping, first-degree wanton endangerment and third-degree terroristic threatening. He was booked into McCracken County Regional Jail. Vietnamese citizens repatriated from Japan landed at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi, May 25, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 340 Vietnamese citizens stuck in Japan due to the Covid-19 pandemic flew home Monday from the Narita International Airport in Narita City. The flight, organized jointly by Vietnamese and Japanese authorities, landed at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport, a Foreign Ministry statement said Monday. The returnees included people in difficulties, children under 18, the elderly, the sick, those with underlying conditions, pregnant women, overseas workers whose visas had expired and students who had completed their studies in Japan. All the arrivals underwent medical examinations and were quarantined on arrival as per Vietnams Covid-19 control protocol. The Vietnam Airlines flight to Japan that brought the citizens back also delivered a shipment of medical masks as a gift from Vietnam. This is Vietnams second repatriation flight from Japan. On April 22, Vietnam had brought home nearly 300 citizens as well after delivering some medical supplies. Japan declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic in April. The order has been lifted in most provinces in the country with the number of new cases plummeting. The country has recorded more than 16,581 infection cases and more than 830 deaths due to the novel coronavirus. Vietnam will continue to deploy commercial flights to bring citizens home based on the citizens demand and isolation capacity in the country as well as the development of the pandemic. To date, around 4,000 Vietnamese citizens have been repatriated from many countries, including the worlds biggest epicenters like the U.S. and Russia. Proceeds of the crime had been siphoned off and laundered or concealed, or layered and integrated into the main financial system through the acquisition of properties. His wife Bindu Kapoor has been charged with being aware of the source of monies that were being routed through these companies. YES Bank former managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Ravneet Gill told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that the bank had sanctioned huge amount of credit to many corporate that were facing significant stress and liquidity issues. An ED chargesheet quoted Gill as saying that the private lender on March 31, 2019, had put out a credit watch list naming several large corporate/borrowers, including Reliance Group, Essel Group, Cox & Kings, Dewan Housing Finance, Omkar group, Radius Developer and others. In this watch list, the bank took a contingency provision of Rs 2,000 crore as a measure of prudent accounting and transparency, said the ED chargesheet. The chargesheet also contained statements made by other bank executives, alleging that co-founder Rana Kapoor had overruled objections by risk teams while extending loans to realty companies RKW Developers and Belief Realtor owned by DHFL promoters. It was classified as a red-flagged account in November 2019, on the ground of non-commensurate progress in the project vis-a-vis the amount disbursed. "Of the total sanctioned loan of Rs 1,700 crore, Rs 750 crore was disbursed on the same day of sanction, according to a senior executives statement cited by ED. The official said the bank had to cancel the additional loan of Rs 950 crore after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started special audit of the account. The special court of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has taken cognizance of the first chargesheet filed on Friday in connection with money laundering charges against Kapoor, his family members and their three companies. This is a complex case of financial frauds and there are many interlinked transactions and entities. "These transactions have by design been conducted in a convoluted manner. "Therefore, there are various indirect co-relations and suspected quid pro quo that will come in light only after thorough investigation," ED said. It further said that Kapoor and family were controllers of financial institutions that are among the biggest in India and therefore enjoy immense clout and influence. "Therefore, they are capable of designing very complex structure to hide their impropriety, the ED said. According to the ED, the huge scam was brewing for many years during the tenure of Kapoor. It is evident that the accused person knowingly indulged in these criminal activities and its consequent generation of proceeds of crime. The end beneficiaries of these transactions were Kapoor and his family members, along with associates, the report noted. ED explained how Kapoor misused his official position to gain undue financial benefit for him and his family. The proceeds of the crime generated in this case travelled to main holding companies, including Morgan Credit, YES Capital and also to its subsidiaries Doit Ventures and RAB Enterprises. The entire proceeds is Rs 5050 crore, it said. ED charged Kapoor for layering and parking kickbacks received in exchange of sanctioning of loans and alleged that he was the controlling authority and decision maker during the material period when the fraud was perpetrated. Proceeds of the crime had been siphoned off and laundered or concealed, or layered and integrated into the main financial system through the acquisition of properties. His wife Bindu Kapoor has been charged with being aware of the source of monies that were being routed through these companies. She was hand in glove with her husband, using the account of these companies and helping siphon off multiple accounts of other 100-plus subsidiaries and utilising and projecting them untainted. "She was an abetter of the crime, thereby being actually involved in laundering", the report said. Gill, too, had talked about several inherent risks with the DHFL-promoted projects, which were at a nascent stage. They required approvals from various authorities for higher floor space index and also from slum dwellers for rehabilitation. The standard process stipulated by the bank for valuation was waived and no end-use certificate was sought from the borrower. Besides, there was a large upfront expenditure with proportionately high debt financing. The large portion of internal approvals would be realised towards the latter stage of the project. On the RBI moratorium, Gill said the core equity tier quarter (CET1) of the bank started to sink and stood at 8.7 per cent as on September 30, 2019. It was low compared to peer banks, given that the bank had to set aside capital for growing provisioning. He said the bank and the regulator were concerned that when the December quarter earnings were disclosed and given that no fresh capital was in place it could result in large deposit outflow and impair the banks future viability. Photograph: PTI Photo Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story stocks' without revenue, let alone profit. And in their study titled Who Falls Prey to the Wolf of Wall Street?' Leuz et. al. found that it is 'quite common' for investors to lose money by buying into 'pump and dump' schemes. In the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, my choice may seem old fashioned; I still prefer profitable companies like Overseas Education (SGX:RQ1). While that doesn't make the shares worth buying at any price, you can't deny that successful capitalism requires profit, eventually. In comparison, loss making companies act like a sponge for capital - but unlike such a sponge they do not always produce something when squeezed. See our latest analysis for Overseas Education How Quickly Is Overseas Education Increasing Earnings Per Share? The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so share price follows earnings per share (EPS) eventually. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. Overseas Education managed to grow EPS by 15% per year, over three years. That's a good rate of growth, if it can be sustained. I like to see top-line growth as an indication that growth is sustainable, and I look for a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin to point to a competitive moat (though some companies with low margins also have moats). Overseas Education reported flat revenue and EBIT margins over the last year. That's not a major concern but nor does it point to the long term growth we like to see. You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart. SGX:RQ1 Income Statement May 26th 2020 In investing, as in life, the future matters more than the past. So why not check out this free interactive visualization of Overseas Education's forecast profits? Story continues Are Overseas Education Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders? Personally, I like to see high insider ownership of a company, since it suggests that it will be managed in the interests of shareholders. So as you can imagine, the fact that Overseas Education insiders own a significant number of shares certainly appeals to me. In fact, they own 66% of the company, so they will share in the same delights and challenges experienced by the ordinary shareholders. To me this is a good sign because it suggests they will be incentivised to build value for shareholders over the long term. In terms of absolute value, insiders have S$81m invested in the business, using the current share price. That's nothing to sneeze at! It's good to see that insiders are invested in the company, but are remuneration levels reasonable? A brief analysis of the CEO compensation suggests they are. For companies with market capitalizations under S$285m, like Overseas Education, the median CEO pay is around S$511k. Overseas Education offered total compensation worth S$383k to its CEO in the year to . That seems pretty reasonable, especially given its below the median for similar sized companies. While the level of CEO compensation isn't a huge factor in my view of the company, modest remuneration is a positive, because it suggests that the board keeps shareholder interests in mind. It can also be a sign of a culture of integrity, in a broader sense. Should You Add Overseas Education To Your Watchlist? As I already mentioned, Overseas Education is a growing business, which is what I like to see. Earnings growth might be the main game for Overseas Education, but the fun does not stop there. Boasting both modest CEO pay and considerable insider ownership, I'd argue this one is worthy of the watchlist, at least. It's still necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 4 warning signs with Overseas Education (at least 1 which is significant) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process. You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here is a list of companies with insider buying in the last three months. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. By Nelson Bocanegra BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian seamstress Nazly Penagos got an unusual offer from her boss: come live inside the Bogota factory to reduce the chance of getting sick with the novel coronavirus. The owner of the Hechizoo factory, which normally employs 70 to produce high-end upholstery, has installed bathrooms, a kitchen and beds to house eight of the 17 employees who have returned to work, as Colombia gradually reopens its economy after two months of quarantine. "It's been good, because I don't go out onto the street," said Penagos, who only goes home on weekends. "I have a small daughter and I wouldn't like to be coming and going and - you never know - take the infection home." While installing living quarters is a rare measure, thousands of Colombian factories and businesses are restarting operations. They are grappling with government delays in granting permission to reopen and worries about how to sell products to still-quarantined consumers in Latin America's fourth-largest economy. Sectors like construction, manufacturing and some retail have been allowed to gradually reopen by the government of President Ivan Duque, with limits on the numbers of employees. The country's lockdown - extended four times and set to last until May 31 - has also forced reinventions like the one at Hechizoo. The factory's managers are hopeful the addition of living quarters will keep the business afloat and avoid employee infections. The company is getting about 15% of its regular orders. "We decided to stay here permanently until we know what will happen," said creative director Jorge Lizarazo, who is also living at the factory and complained of unclear government instructions. "The uncertainty worries me...uncertainty is fatal for any business." Colombia's gradual reopening is similar to those taking place in Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile. South America is coronavirus' new epicenter, with Brazil the hardest hit. Europe, walloped by cases in recent months, has also begun reopening. Story continues "Thank God the company called us in to work," said construction manager Luis Alfonso Carranza at the site of a new apartment-office building in Bogota. "It affected us a lot. Our company didn't pay us so economically it was really hard." Carranza said he had not been paid for nearly two months and that his wife had also lost her job. LOTS TO SELL, FEW TO BUY Businesses told Reuters government authorizations to restart work have come slowly amid contradictory official announcements and their fears customers will purchase little while they remain largely stuck at home and restricted to buying basics. Another group of businesses - including beauty salons - can reopen from June 1 only with reduced capacity and masks. "It doesn't mean in any way that these sectors can operate from June 1, no, it's not like that, they have to comply with and validate the bio-safety protocols," Commerce Minister Jose Manuel Restrepo said last week. Frustrated manufacturers say their funds will soon run out. "The mayor's office gave us thumbs up to open the factory, with just 20 of the 60 people, but why should we make things if there's no one to sell them to?" said Elsa Zarate, manager of clothing factory Francotex. "At this pace we can't keep the employees. We only have funds through May 30." Around 1.6 million Colombians lost their jobs in March and the country's economy - usually one of the region's healthiest - is likely to contradict 5.5% this year, according to the government. More unemployment and less demand will exacerbate the recession, analysts including economic thinktank ANIF say, a prediction reflected in consumer confidence numbers which recently hit an all-time low. Leather fashion brand Mario Hernandez is turning to online shopping to try and alleviate store closures in Colombia, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica as its factory restarts work. "The big opportunity that we have is via the web page," said factory operations director Alba Luz Angarita. "People still have things to celebrate, even if families can't get together. They will always need a gift for someone." (Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Dan Flynn and Lisa Shumaker) Salman Khan spread some festive cheer on Eid by sending treats to 5,000 underprivileged families amid the coronavirus pandemic. Each special kit given out by Salman contained the ingredients to make sheer korma, an Eid special delicacy. Posting pictures of the supplies, Shiv Sena leader Rahul Kanal wrote on Twitter, Thank you @BeingSalmanKhan bhai for reaching out to 5000 families in your own special way on the occasion of Eid and spreading happiness...Humans like you balance the society,Thank you for the Eid kits distributed to one and all...special way of bhai wishing Eid !!! In another tweet, he added, This kit comprises of everything needed to make Sheer korma for more than 50 people...just a proud feeling to share that Being Haangryy has reached out to 25,000 families with dey ration and 5000 families with Eid kits given out by bhai. Thank you for making me a part of this team. Fans showered love on Salman for his sweet gesture. Man with golden heart, one fan wrote. Love u bhaijaan, another wrote. One Twitter user called him a real hero. East or west Salman sir is best love you sir, another wrote. Thank you @BeingSalmanKhan bhai for reaching out to 5000 families in your own special way on the occasion of Eid and spreading happiness...Humans like you balance the society,Thank you for the Eid kits distributed to one and all...special way of bhai wishing Eid !!! pic.twitter.com/7oTPPeXZMv Rahul.N.Kanal (@Iamrahulkanal) May 24, 2020 This kit comprises of everything needed to make Sheer korma for more than 50 people...just a proud feeling to share that Being Haangryy has reached out to 25,000 families with dey ration and 5000 families with Eid kits given out by bhaiThank you for making me a part of this team Rahul.N.Kanal (@Iamrahulkanal) May 24, 2020 Earlier, Salman launched a food truck - Being Haangryy - to ensure that the less-privileged are not faced with starvation. The truck has been moving around the city of Mumbai, providing large bags of ration to the needy. Also see: When Kartik Aaryan borrowed hairstylists t-shirt for stage performance, changed on the road. Watch Salman has also provided financial aid to 25,000 daily wage workers of the film and television industries. He took their account numbers from the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and transferred money. Meanwhile, Salman also had another treat in store for his fans on Eid. He released a new song titled Bhai Bhai, which promoted the message of communal harmony. Sung by the actor himself, the video was shot with minimal crew at his farmhouse in Panvel. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The formula could help to find people lost at sea (Getty) A new computer algorithm could speed up the process of finding people lost at sea, potentially saving thousands of lives, researchers have said. Every year, thousands of people die at sea in ship and plane accidents, and finding them rapidly is crucial as survival chances plummet after six hours. The algorithm combines movement patterns with data about ocean currents, making it far faster to track down objects or people lost in the sea. Read more: Man lost at sea survives because of his jeans Professor George Haller, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH), said: Our hope is this method will become a standard part of the toolkit of coast guards everywhere. The researchers identified paths along which objects on the surface of the sea tend to float and checked their theories using U.S. Coast Guard data. They found that buoys and manikins thrown into the water gathered along predictable curves in the water. Objects tend to move along predictable curves (ETH) Lead author Dr Mattia Serra, now at Harvard University, Boston, said: Our work has a clear potential to save lives. "Our results are rapidly obtained, easy to interpret and cheap to implement. Read more: Indonesian teen lost at sea for 49 days prayed every day Using sea-surface data, Dr Serra and colleagues identified a phenomenon they dubbed TRAPs (TRansient Attracting Profiles). Mathematical results showed these are a few special curves, or short-term trajectories, along which objects on the surface will float. Invisible to the naked eye, they can be extracted and tracked from instantaneous ocean data using the researchers methods. This enables quick and precise planning of search paths. Current operations use models based on sea dynamics, weather prediction and on site observations to produce a missing persons probability map. But these are notoriously unreliable owing to changing tides and coastal currents, along with challenging conditions. Haller said: Of several competing approaches tested in this project, this was the only algorithm that consistently worked in situ. A local artist is beating lockdown blues by brightening up the day for random strangers through an unusual picture postcard lottery. Co Down artist Leslie Nicholl should have been putting the finishing touches to an exhibition of his work for the Open House Festival in his home town of Bangor this August to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Society. Instead, he has decided to work on a new "travelling exhibition" creating a series of postcard-size drawings which he plans to post free to a list of random addresses taken from an old phone book. During May, he has created 14 postcard drawings inspired by his own travels through Europe with his wife Elaine. He intends to add another 10 to his collection and will post them to addresses, selected using a pin, from a 2010 telephone directory. He says: "When the Open House Festival exhibition was cancelled I just thought 'I'm not going to be beaten' but I wasn't sure what I was going to do in lockdown. "I had run out of canvasses and paper for painting but I had some writing paper. Expand Close Leslie's drawings of film-maker and artist Derek Jarmans garden / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Leslie's drawings of film-maker and artist Derek Jarmans garden "My wife Elaine and I love travelling and we can't even do that now. "We would be very old-school and send postcards from our travels, and it was Elaine who suggested doing drawings as gifts for people and I thought I could use the writing paper I have as postcards." Leslie, who was also an art teacher and head of department in Gransha High School in Bangor for 30 years, is a prolific artist. His work is currently part of collections held in Dublin, London, Poland, America, Japan and South Korea. He also has work on show at the Imperial War Museum. His postcard drawings will each have a title and explanation on the back and will be simply signed 'Nicholl'. He explains: "The drawings on the postcards and envelopes are based on places both of us have visited and loved. "I plan to open an old phone book and stick a pin on the page and wherever it lands, that is the address I will use. "I can only hope when people receive them that they don't think, 'What is this load of old crap?' and throw them out." The drawings have been inspired by artwork and places he and Elaine have seen while on their regular travels through the museums of Europe. He adds: "This is an unimaginable nightmare people are going through and it is the good things people are doing for one another that have moved me so much. "I don't plan to be the Bangor Banksy which is why I have put my surname on the postcards and who knows, maybe in years to come, when I am long gone, they could be worth something? "I will be posting them in the next few weeks and if they survive, that's great and if they don't, then that's fine, too. Hopefully some people will appreciate them." When his 24 cards are complete, Leslie hopes to create a new collection of paintings based on the cards for an exhibition to be held when galleries are finally able to reopen. New moderate income housing program could be on the way to Long Beach Press Release May 26, 2020 Health experts, LGU officials express support for Bong Go's filed bills to strengthen healthcare system amid COVID-19 pandemic During a Senate health committee hearing on Tuesday, May 26, the Department of Health and Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines have expressed their support for bills filed by Senator and Chair of the Committee on Health and Demography Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go which seek to strengthen the country's healthcare system. Some of the bills tackled include measures seeking to improve the process in increasing the bed capacity of the government hospitals, address the lack of quarantine facilities, establishment of sub-national laboratories and to strengthen the country's disease surveillance and epidemiologic investigation system, among others. During the hearing, Quirino Governor and ULAP President, Dakila Carlo E. Cua, expressed agreement with the proposed measures, saying that ULAP fully supports the empowerment of the DOH to increase bed capacity of hospitals in the country. The ULAP President also expressed support to President Rodrigo Duterte's and Senator Go's call to help overseas Filipino workers during these times of pandemic. "Dapat po natin sila tulungan. We are doing our best to accommodate and welcome home our new age heroes, our OFWs," Cua said. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also stated similar support to further empower the national and local governments in dealing with public health emergencies. He added that he also supports measures which seek to complement the number and protect health professionals from occupational threats associated with their job. Also, League of Provinces of the Philippines President and Marinduque Gov. Presbitero Velasco, Jr. also expressed support for the bills. Health experts from the Association of Municipal Health Officers of the Philippines, the Philippine Hospital Association, Philippine Medical Association, Philippine Alliance of Patient Organization, and the National Privacy Commission, among others, also manifested their support for the proposed measures. Among Go's filed bills, Senate Bill (SB) 1226, or the proposed DOH Hospital Bed Capacity and Service Capability Rationalization Act, aims to authorize the Department of Health to increase the bed capacity and service capability of its retained hospitals and to allow it to promulgate evaluation and approval guidelines. During the hearing, Go lamented the poor hospital bed-to-population ratio of the country, saying that "general hospital beds to the population was one is to 1,142, exceeding the ideal ratio of one is to 1,000." He added that DOH hospitals are constrained by the lack of adequate staffing, maintenance and operating resources to fully provide the quality of health care that their patients deserve. Go also filed SB 1259 or the "Mandatory Quarantine Facilities Act of 2020" which mandates the establishment of quarantine facilities in every region in the country. According to Go, quarantine mechanisms are a long-established public health strategy in order to prevent transmission and should be part of the standard precautions that should be taken to prevent the spread of any infectious disease. "Nakita naman po natin na ginagawa ng gobyerno ang lahat para rumesponde sa krisis. Nagtayo agad ng quarantine facilities sa iba't ibang lugar gamit ang available infrastructure na meron na tayo," Go said. "Pero kung mayroon na tayong nakahandang pasilidad para sa ganitong mga krisis o sakuna, mas mabilis at mas mabisa nating mapoprotektahan ang kalusugan ng kapwa nating Pilipino. The proposed measures filed aim to address this need and establish quarantine facilities all throughout the country," he added. The Senator also seeks to strengthen the country's efforts in disease surveillance and epidemiologic investigation. SB 1528 filed by Go intends to amend Republic Act 11332, also known as the "Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act." Go cited several key areas that need amendments during the hearing including changes addressing the lack of sub-national laboratories; mandating the establishment of hotlines where the public can report a public health concern; and mandating the assistance of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the conduct of contact tracing, among others. Meanwhile, Secretary Duque also admitted that the Philippines' testing capacity in view of the coronavirus pandemic is the "number one weakness" in the country's health system. According to the health chief, there is a need to increase the number of sub-national laboratories to ramp up the country's testing capacity. Ending the hearing, Go acknowledged the need to improve the country's capacity in addressing pandemics like COVID-19. "We hope that the measures we have discussed today will address some of our weaknesses and gaps in handling public health emergencies," Go said. "Let the pandemic be a lesson to all of us and use this experience to improve our health system," he added. 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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Maureen Gibbons tried to go to Arlington to mourn her husband, but traffic from the presidents motorcade snarled the nearby roads too much. Her son John Gibbons kept apologizing, she said, when they had to turn away. At the World War II Memorial she kept her pink-and-white-flowered mask on and kept her distance from others. At her age, 78, she said, she has to be careful. Her daughter-in-law Bonnie Gibbons joined them after taking photos of the memorial, thinking of all the places her father had fought for the Navy, such as Midway and Okinawa. He had three brothers who fought in the war as well, she said, but they all came home. Pune: Sassoon General Hospital, under focus for high mortality rate during April, continues to report higher number of Covid-19 deaths. According to statistics shared by the health department, the government-run hospital has mortality rate of 35.42% as on May 26 even as the Pune Municipal Corporation figure remains at 5.09%. Dr Ajay Chandanwale, the hospital dean, was transferred to Mumbai as joint director, directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on April 17. Dr Chandanwale was replaced by Dr Murlidhar Tambe as the acting dean of BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital. The hospital administration has been maintaining from the beginning that most patients who were admitted came at a very critical stage. According to Pune divisional commissioner Deepak Mhaisekar, of the 264 Covid deaths in Pune, 89% had pre-existing ailments while 11% did not have any other illness. Most of them who died after contracting Covid were senior citizens, said Mhaisekar. On the high mortality rate, Mhaisekar said, the Sassoon mortality rate had peaked in the middle of April and things are relatively better now. It is true that the mortality rate at Sassoon as compared to other hospitals is high as maximum number of critical patients are visiting the hospital. According to Mhaisekar, of the 125 patients who are critical and in ICU, 47 are in Sassoon alone. As of May 25, Pune reported 5,181 progressive positive cases out of which 2,182 were active and still admitted in hospitals. The city also reported 264 deaths and as of Monday, there were 179 critical patients. Out of these Sassoon hospital alone had reported 446 positive cases out of which 158 are still in hospital as active cases and out of those 57 are in critical condition. Out of the 264 deaths reported in PMC limits, 139 were reported from Sassoon alone. Wentworth returns for its 8th season in late July. Joining the cast this season are Kate Box (Upright, Les Norton, Rake) as former top dog Lou Kelly; Zoe Terakes (Janet King, The End) is trans character Rebel Reb Keane, Jane Hall (Neighbours, House Husbands) is the new General Manager, Ann Reynolds and Vivienne Awosoga (Neighbours, The Time of our Lives) as Judy Bryant. As previously confirmed the show also sees the return of Pamela Rabe as Joan The Freak Ferguson. Foxtel previously announced a June return for the show, along with a Foxtel Con fan event which obviously cannot proceed under current restrictions. Wentworth, still the reigning Most Outstanding Drama at the Logie Awards, is available on Foxtel and Foxtel Now but not on Binge. Wentworths season 7 finale had fans on the edge of their seats with a siege that saw inmates murdered by a corrupt guard, new life born amongst the chaos and a much loved inmate take her final breath all before the final jaw dropping scene revealing Joan The Freak Ferguson is very much alive. When Wentworth returns in 2020, the prison community is still reeling from the aftermath of the bloody siege with a new leader at the helm and four heritage characters from the original Prisoner series set to enter the compound. International broadcasters including 5STAR (UK) and TVNZ (New Zealand) are scheduled to roll out the next chapter within days of Foxtels unveiling, with many more global territories set to follow. Season 8 cast includes: Leah Purcell (Rita Connors), Pamela Rabe (Joan The Freak Ferguson), Kate Atkinson (Vera Bennett), Katrina Milosevic (Sue Boomer Jenkins), Robbie Magasiva (Will Jackson), Kate Jenkinson (Allie Novak), Bernard Curry (Jake Stewart), Rarriwuy Hick (Ruby Mitchell) and Susie Porter (Marie Winter) along with new cast members Kate Box (Lou Kelly), Jane Hall (Ann Reynolds), Zoe Terakes (Rebel Reb Keane), Vivienne Awosoga (Judy Bryant) and support cast Jacquie Brennan (Linda Miles) and David de Lautour (Dr. Greg Miller). Wentworth is a Fremantle production for Foxtel with Fremantle Director of Scripted, Jo Porter and Foxtels Senior Drama Consultant, Penny Win as executive producers. Pino Amenta is series producer for season eight. The directors are Kevin Carlin, Beck Cole, Fiona Banks, Corrie Chen, Roger Hodgman and Mat King. The writers are John Ridley, Kim Wilson, Pete McTighe, Max Conroy and Marcia Gardner, who is both script producer and writer. Season 8 is supported by funding from Film Victoria. 8.30pm Tuesday July 28 on FOX Showcase. Updated. Over 8 billion Thai internet records have leaked from their largest cell network AIS as security researchers discovered the leak, which is now safe, but just how much damage did it do? Read More: Apple's Siri Continues to Listen to Conversations, Despite Last Year's Controversy How Did This Happen? The largest cell network in Thailand AIA has recently removed a database offline that was leaking out billions of real-time internet records on its millions of Thai internet users. Justine Paine, a security researcher, said in a blog post that he was able to find the database which contained several DNQ queries and Netflow data that doesn't need a password to access. From the database, Paine was able to tell or "paint a picture" about what an internet-user at home does in real-time. Paine was able to alert the AIS, which promptly opened the database on May 13. Still, after not receiving any news from AIA in a week, he resorted to reporting the massive leak to Thailand's national computer response team or commonly called ThaiCERT, in which they were the ones to contact AIS about the leakage. Contacting ThaiCERT did the trick, and the database was no longer accessible a short time after. The database's owner is still incognito, and Paine was able to report to TechCrunch that the kind of records that could be found on the database could only come from someone who was able to monitor internet traffic as it comes through the network. However, there is no easy way to differentiate if the database belongs to the internet provider or one of its many subsidiaries. Read More: Sam Battle Hacked Nintendo's Legendary Power Gloves for his Modular Synth Setup to Play Electronic Tunes Important Details DNS queries can be a side-effect of using the internet as a whole. You get them by visiting a website, and the browser of your choice converts the web address to a unique IP address. By doing so, it tells the browser exactly where the web page is located on the internet. Thankfully, DNS queries do not store private messages, emails, sensitive details, etc. Instead, it shares which websites you access as well as the various apps that you generally use. DNS queries can still pose a significant problem for high-risk people like activists and journalists. Internet records could be used to identify sources who prefer to remain anonymous. Those are just one of the examples, but surely there are more that could be used for nefarious means. Thailand's internet surveillance laws grant authorities to sweep access to internet user data. The country has the most severe censorship laws in Asia, which forbids any scrutiny against the Thai royal family, national security, and certain political issues. Paine used the data to show how anyone with access could learn a number of things from a single internet-connected household, such as what kind of devices they owned, the antivirus they use, preferred browsers, and most frequently used social media apps and websites. Advertisers also find DNS data a gold mine to potentially target specific ads your way. Read More: Brand New Laser Can Twist; Robot Dog Can Do More Than Herd Sheep And New Bionic Eye Grants Vision 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. MOSCOW, May 26 (Reuters) - Retail sales in Russia fell more than expected in April, while unemployment jumped above forecasts during a dire first full month of coronavirus lockdown for the country, data from statistics service Rosstat showed on Tuesday. Russia's economic health is in focus after a slump in the price of oil, its key export, and the coronavirus pandemic combined to batter the rouble and prompted the central bank to slash rates to prop up the economy. Retail sales, a barometer of consumer demand that is Russia's main driver of economic growth, fell 23.4% in April from a year before and shrank by 28.5% month-on-month. Analysts polled by Reuters in late April had on average expected retail sales to decline by 15% year-on-year. Rosstat data last week showed industrial output shrank 6.6% in April, driven by a drop in the manufacturing sector as the lockdown paralysed most Russian business activity. Economic indicators deteriorated in April as the coronavirus outbreak gained momentum in Russia, which now has the third-highest number of cases globally. The Russian central bank has signalled its readiness to sharply cut its key rate, now at 5.5%, next month. Lower rates are designed to support the economy by making lending cheaper and reducing the appeal of bank deposits. Rosstat also said the number of people unemployed rose to 5.8% of the workforce in April, up from 4.7% in March, reinforcing concerns about worsening living standards. Analysts had forecast unemployment of 5.5%. (Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber and Elena Fabrichnaya; Editing by Alexander Smith) US Africa Command says planes were repainted to camouflage their origin as Moscow calls for immediate truce and talks. The US military accused Russia of deploying fighter aircraft to Libya repainted to camouflage their origin in support of mercenaries fighting for eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftars forces. The allegation came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday told a Haftar ally that Moscow backed an immediate ceasefire and political talks that would culminate in united governing authorities. The United States fighter jet accusation against Russia raises concerns of a new escalation in the nine-year-long conflict, despite Lavrovs call for a truce. Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close air support and offensive fire, the US Africa Command (Africom) said in a statement. NEWS: Russia deploys military fighter aircraft to Libya "For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now." Gen. Townsend Release: https://t.co/HpLdwUJxcr Photos: https://t.co/raTal1LKPa pic.twitter.com/dVtsWKPYZ5 US AFRICOM (@USAfricaCommand) May 26, 2020 The US statement said the aircraft arrived in Libya recently from an airbase in Russia after briefly stopping in Syria, where they were repainted to conceal their Russian origin. The Russian defence ministry said it would not comment right now on the Africom statement. But Andrei Krasov, a member of the defence committee in Russias lower house of parliament, dismissed the allegation as fake news. On Wednesday, Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the upper houses international affairs committee, said Russia had not sent military personnel to Libya. Interfax news agency cited Dzhabarov as saying that the Russian upper house of parliament had not received a request to approve such a dispatch. Moscow has long denied any involvement in Libyas conflict. The fighting in Libya has drawn in regional and global powers with what the United Nations described as a huge influx of weapons and fighters in repeated violation of a 2011 arms embargo. Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt support Haftars self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which launched an offensive 13 months ago ago to seize the capital, Tripoli, from the the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). However, in recent weeks the GNA has, with extensive Turkish military backing, pushed Haftar back from his foothold in southern Tripoli and other parts of the northwest. Hundreds of Russian military contractors were reportedly evacuated into central Libya during the past few days after retreating from fighting on the capitals front lines. Tip the scales US Army General Stephen Townsend described the Russian planes as fourth-generation jet fighters. Russia is clearly trying to tip the scales in its favour in Libya, he said. Just like I saw them doing in Syria, they are expanding their military footprint in Africa using government-supported mercenary groups like Wagner, he added, referencing the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group, which the UN said last month had 1,200 fighters in Libya. The US statement said Russia had used Wagner to conceal its direct role and to afford Moscow plausible deniability of its malign actions. US Air Force General Jeff Harrigian warned if Russia seized military bases on Libyas coast it would create very real security concerns on Europes southern flank. A member of Libyas GNA forces seen after they took control of the strategic al-Watiya airbase last week [Hazem Ahmed/Reuters] The statement added neither the LNA or foreign mercenaries would be able to arm, operate and sustain these fighters [jets] without support from Russia. Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed in Tripoli reported people in the town of Bani Walid, a city 150km (93 miles) southeast of the capital, said 1,500 foreign mercenaries were now based there. The question now is whether theyre going to leave the country after the news theyre being re-deployed and provided advanced fighter jets, he said. Talk is cheap Meanwhile, Russias foreign ministry said in a statement that Lavrov conveyed a message to Aguila Saleh Issa, speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives who is aligned Haftar, that he wanted an immediate ceasefire and political negotiations in Libya. Analysts questioned the motive behind the Russian call for a truce and negotiations. Russia is on the back heel with Haftar and the recent military victories by the western-backed government, so it is advantageous for Russia to call for talks which creates some space for retreat and re-positioning, said William Lawrence, a professor at the American University in Washington, DC. Mansour el-Kikhia, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said Lavrovs call was disingenuous. The Russians have supplied aircraft all along under the guise of spare parts. Talk is cheap, ultimately what is the reality on the ground? They might withdrawal their forces, but their military hardware will get in one way or the other, directly or through Egypt or some other source, el-Kikhia told Al Jazeera. Its a zero-sum game. Neither the Russians nor the Turks are willing to give up their gains in Libya, nor the Egyptians either. I assure you if Haftar loses more territory than Egypt will intervene, too Its a catastrophe. This war is going to last another 15-20 years. IEDs targeting civilians The announcements came as the UN mission in Libya strongly condemned what it called the use of improvised explosive devices against civilians in the Libyan capital. A statement released late on Monday voiced alarm about reports that residents of the Ain Zara and Salaheddin districts in southern Tripoli had been killed or wounded by IEDs placed in or near their homes. The statement did not name who was believed responsible but came after the GNA on Monday accused Haftars forces of planting land mines in houses before pulling back from positions in the south of the capital, killing two civilians on Saturday as they returned home in Salaheddin. This grotesque transformation and deterioration of the conflict that has occurred while families were seeking the safety and comfort of their homes for the Eid holiday demonstrates deliberate targeting of innocent civilians, the UN statement. These acts, which serve no military objective, provoke extreme fear among the population and violate the rights of innocent civilians who must be protected under international humanitarian law. As Katy Independent School District closed out its school year, it recognized some of its hardworking and committed employees from the 2019-2020 school year. Each year, Katy ISD has the honor of recognizing outstanding employees for their contributions and impact on the district as well as for our students. These individuals exemplify who we are and represent the best in their category. a district release stated. The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks! Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics. The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc. The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics. The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates. Access to college recruiters and advisors its harder to line up higher education. Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family. Vote View Results New York UPS driver Mark McGee had seen the German shepherd tied up to a stake while on his travels before. Over the months, he had become familiar with Carl Pritchards rural house and taken notice that the dog had been left outside in the cold. Upon closer inspection, McGee noticed the animals leg had been injured, as if it had been shot off, as he described it to WTEN in Albany. I did a double take, he said. Im like youve got to be kidding me. McGee reported the abuse to the Susquehanna SPCA Animal Cruelty Task Force, and they soon found out the horrifying truth of what had happened. Troop C: This is Zoe, she was found last week missing her left limb. Veterinarians in Otsego County believe she chewed New York State Police Veterinarians realized that the most likely explanation was that the dog, which was named Zoe, had chewed it off due to the pain caused by an untreated tumor. As the New York State Police reported in a Facebook post, she was found with no food and water, living outside in a plastic pet crate with hay inside. Stacie Haynes, executive director of the Susquehanna SPCA, drove Zoe straight to the Cornell Veterinary Hospital. Thats where we found the x-rays showed bones in her stomach and thats why we can safely assume that she ate her leg, Haynes told WTEN. After treatment, the organization took to social media to address the results of the terrible treatment that Zoe had endured. We share these graphic photos and her story because we want to highlight the very sad fact that animals like Zoe are in our communities suffering and we need your help to combat the inhumane treatment of animals, they wrote. The organization included photos of Zoes left leg, which had been completely gnawed off, with only a bloody stump remaining. It wasnt just the animal rescuers who were overwhelmed by the apparent cruelty and neglect on the part of the owner; the veterinarians who treated Zoe were equally shocked. Dr. Joan Puritz of the Oneonta Veterinary Clinic, who also treated Zoe, told the AP, The leg was probably injured and she was trying to take care of it herself Ive never seen anything like this. The more they delved into Zoes situation, the more the vets realized the risk that the leg surgery posed; she was found to be anemic with a heart murmur, which at her age made putting her under anesthetic a potentially deadly option. However, they found a fatty growth in her shoulder, which the UPS driver had noticed previously, and worried that it might be cancerous. It turned out to be benign, however, Haynes told WTEN, It still has to be removed though because it has moved from her shoulder to her chest and is around her arteries. Despite her ordeals, Zoes kind and loving spirit quickly won over all her carers. Zoe managed to make it through surgery, surprising everyone with a quick recovery. In addition to confirmation that her growth wasnt cancerous, the SPCA was able to report something even better. She will now live a spoiled life in peace with her foster, soon-to-be adoptive family, they explained on their Facebook page. Though Zoe will never get back the leg she lost, she will have a loving forever home where she will be treated the way she deserves. As for her former owner, he was charged by New York State Police with torturing and injuring animals, failure to provide proper sustenance, and failure to provide appropriate shelter for dogs left outdoors. The SPCA hopes this shocking case with a happy ending will make everyone aware of the abuse going on around them and that they will do just what this UPS driver did: if you see something, say something. The online registration of Leaving Cert candidates for the new calculated grades process got off to a busy start today. Within three hours of the opening on the gov.ie/leavingcertificate portal, 17,000 of the 61,000 candidates had registered. The portal will remain open until 10pm on Thursday. All Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied students are being asked to register, even if, ultimately, they decide that they dont want to receive the calculated grades. Read More Importantly, signing up to provides an opportunity for candidates to confirm the level at which they want to be assessed in the subject. Students can stick with the same level higher, ordinary, foundation - at which they entered for the traditional exams or they can drop down a level. While students generally stay at the level at which they originally entered, it is not unusual for candidates to drop down a level, in the run up to, or on the day of the exams itself. This is particularly a feature in maths. Teachers need confirmation of subject level information so they can provide an estimated mark/class ranking for students at the appropriate level. Schools have been contacting students about the registration process and, when they log in, they will be asked for their exam number, public service number (PPS), which they will use to create a personal identification number (PIN), email address and mobile phone number Education Minister Joe McHugh said schools had been asked to assist their students as much as possible but if anyone had trouble getting access online, there was helpline support. He urged students not to leave it until the last minute and there was a tight timeframe. We need every student to register so that the new system can operate smoothly, he said. The calculated grades system is replacing traditional summer Leaving Cert exams, which were deemed not possible because of the logistical difficulties associated with Covid-19. If students are not happy with their grades under this process, there will be an opportunity to sit exams at a later date November is the earliest mentioned- but it will be too late for college entry this year. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Having demonstrated an effective containment strategy, Kerala plans to turn the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity. On the fourth anniversary of his government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday revealed a slew of measures to woo global investors to the state. The CM termed the state the safest place in the world. He also announced a timeline for the launch of key projects including K-Fon -- slated for December this year -- and 14 industrial parks. The government also plans to start value and logistics parks at four centres in the state. When the Covid-19 crisis ends, there will be new possibilities and opportunities. The government views this as a chance to attract new investments and ventures, he said.After the pandemic, he said, global businesses would shift from the practice of concentrating in a few countries. Kerala has already started steps to explore the emerging scenario. The state has sent letters to Indian missions abroad seeking their support to pool in investments. A committee will be formed with the chief secretary as its chairman to advise the government on investment and business matters. Representatives of industry bodies in Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the US will be included in the committee. Nominees of foreign companies having presence in the country will also be part of it. The CM spoke in detail about the reforms brought in to make Kerala an investment-friendly destination. He said the government will also conduct large-scale farming activities and massive sapling-planting simultaneously with Covid-control measures. Various development programmes will also resume without waiting for the end of the pandemic. Pinarayi said his government had implemented development programmes despite back-to-back disasters hitting the state, starting with Cyclone Ockhi in 2017. 4-yr-progress card 2,19,154 homes built under Life Mission Rs 2,450 cr: Punargraham project to build homes for fishers 1.43 lakh title deeds distributed; target is 2 lakh 380 km: Length of rivers revived as part of Haritha Keralam Rs 50,000 cr: Projects to be implemented outside the budget Rs 54,391 cr: KIIFB-approved projects Rs 23,409 cr: Welfare pension distributed 100 women recruited for the first time to the Kerala Fire and Rescue Services 4,752 schools became IT enabled 14,000 schools were provided broadband internet connection Chennithala terms LDF govt a disaster TPuram: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Monday dubbed the LDF government as a disaster while responding to tall claims made by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the development front as his government completed four years. Chennithala, who also turned 64 on the day, told reporters at his official Cantonment House here that the government will be forced to renew its pledge to voters during the remainder of its term. The Congress leader, while sounding upbeat on an excellent showing by the Opposition UDF in the forthcoming local body polls, accused the government of complete inaction on the Rebuild Kerala initiative launched in the wake of the flood havoc. DALLAS May 25, 2020 Scientists have known for a decade that cells that fuse with others to perform their essential functions such as muscle cells that join together to make fibers form long projections that invade the territory of their fusion partners. But how the thin and floppy polymers involved in this process propel mechanically stiff protrusions has been unknown. In a new study published online today in Nature Cell Biology, UT Southwestern scientists outline the mechanisms behind the formation of these projections, focusing on the interaction between two proteins known as actin and dynamin. The findings, they say, offer insight on a key cellular process thats essential for the conception, development, regeneration, and physiology of multicellular organisms and may eventually lead to new treatments for a rare muscle disease. Cell fusion involves three main steps, explains study leader Elizabeth Chen, Ph.D., a professor in the departments of molecular biology and cell biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center whose research focuses on this process. First, adhesion molecules draw cell membranes together, but leave a gap between cells; next, one cell extends fingerlike projections that invade the other cell; finally, so-called fusogenic proteins bring the cells membranes even closer to touch and merge. For that middle step, Chen says, research from her lab and others has shown that a protein called actin plays a key role in forming projections. However, actin forms floppy and thin polymers, known as actin filaments, each with a diameter of only 7 nanometers. How these thin filaments become mechanically rigid enough to push out projections that invade other cells was unclear. To solve it, Chen and her colleagues studied actins interaction with dynamin, a protein that can release energy from specific chemical bonds found throughout cells. One of dynamins roles is to pinch off newly formed vesicles that bring cargo into cells, by forming a structure around the neck of the vesicles protruding in from the cell membrane. Although previous studies have shown that dynamin and actin were associated with each other in many cellular structures, how they work together has remained a mystery for two decades. Using fruit fly muscle cells as a model system, Chen and her team started by observing muscle cell fusion in embryos genetically engineered to not make any functional dynamin. They found that without dynamin function, not only could these cells no longer merge, they also couldnt form the normal projections, suggesting that dynamin plays a key role in this step of the process. The researchers then used microscopy to take a closer look at how purified dynamin and actin proteins interacted when they were mixed in equal parts. They found that the actin filaments appeared to be organized into bundles held together at regularly spaced intervals by dynamin, the latter of which forms a helix when multiple dynamin molecules assemble together. Surprisingly, rather than the dynamin helix wrapping around the actin filaments, the filaments bind to the outer rim of the helix, with each helix capturing up to 16 filaments. Although this experiment shows that dynamin has the capacity to capture and hold multiple actin filaments into stronger bundles, Chen says, fully occupied dynamin helices are unlikely to last long in cells, where ample energy sources that can cause these dynamin structures to dissolve into individual units is abundant. Sure enough, when the researchers added energy sources to the dynamin-actin mix, the dynamin helices did come apart, but not in a synchronized fashion. While fully assembled helices broke apart, others remained keeping the actin bundles together while allowing new filaments to emanate from areas unbound by dynamin. Such a dynamic process ultimately leads to the formation of multiple interconnected parallel actin bundles, hence further increasing the mechanical strength of the actin network, says Chen. Experiments in cells showed that the dynamic actin bundling process was critical for cells to form projections and fuse with other cells. Although Chen and her colleagues used muscle cells as their model system, Chen notes that the interplay between actin and dynamin they discovered here could play a key part in other types of cell fusion, such as between bone-resorbing cells or between immune cells. Defects in this process could also be responsible for some rare disorders such as centronuclear myopathy, a condition in which muscle cells form fibers that are too small. Previous research has shown that multiple genetic mutations in dynamin can cause this disease. We are interested in looking at how the human mutations are blocking the fusion process, which could eventually lead to novel ways to intervene and help these patients, Chen says. ### Other UTSW scientists who contributed to this research include Ruihui Zhang, Donghoon M. Lee, Marcel Mettlen, Michael E. Abrams, Peter Keene, Pratima Pandey, Benjamin Ravaux, Jonathon A. Ditlev, Michael K. Rosen, Neal M. Alto, and Sandra L. Schmid. This work was supported by several National Institutes of Health grants (R01 AR053173, R01 GM098816, R01 GM095977, R01 GM42455, R01 GM104032, R01 AI083359, and R01 GM127673); an American Heart Association Established Investigator Award; a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholar Award; Welch Foundation grants (I-1823 and I-1704); an HHMI and Simons Foundation grant; a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Award; and an HHMI Faculty Scholar Award. About UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institutions faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 2,500 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 3 million outpatient visits a year. A pair of reality stars connected Sunday as Joe Exotic's husband Dillon Passage helped Too Hot to Handle's Bryce Hirschberg celebrate his 30th birthday over the weekend on a boat in Marina del Rey, California. Passage, 24, took to Instagram Stories with footage from aboard the vessel in the luxe oceanfront locale in Southern California over the holiday weekend. Passage described Hirschberg: 'Birthday boy. The man, the myth, the legend. Marina Del Rey, bitches.' New friends: A pair of reality stars connected Sunday as Joe Exotic's husband Dillon Passage, 24, helped Too Hot to Handle's Bryce Hirschberg celebrated his 30th birthday over the weekend on a boat in Marina del Rey, California The reality stars - who both have emerged from Netflix shows, were with one another throughout much of the bash, and Passage kissed Hirschberg's cheek at one point. Also in attendance was Hirschberg's Too Hot to Handle costar Harry Jowsey, People reported. In the beachfront Los Angeles neighborhood, restrictions were gradually being lifted amid the coronavirus shutdown. TMZ reported that the boat bash rotated 15 guests in two-hour increments. The remaining guests were dispersed amid the dock and beach at the Memorial Day Weekend celebration, which extended until 5 a.m., according to the outlet. Fast friends: The reality stars - who both have emerged from Netflix shows, were with one another throughout much of the bash TV stars: The Tiger King personality reached out to Bryce after seeing him on the streamer Passage - who is Exotic's third husband after they wed in December 2017 - initially reached out to Hirschberg to congratulate him after Too Hot to Handle debuted last month, and Hirschberg invited him to the birthday party, according to the outlet. At one point in the event, the reality stars conducted a toast to the freedom of Joe Exotic, 57. The zookeeper remains in custody in connection with his 22-year prison stint in Oklahoma in connection with a 2017 murder-for-hire plot of his business archival Carole Baskin; and numerous wildlife law violations. Winter wedding: The men tied the knot in December of 2017 [May 26, 2020] Elana Rubin Formally Appointed As Independent Chair Of The Afterpay Board SAN FRANCISCO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Elana Rubin will transition from Interim Chair to Chair of the Afterpay (ASX: APT) Board effective immediately. Elana has advised of her intention to retire from the ME Bank Board following its June 2020 Board meeting and will remain as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of ASX listed companies, Telstra and Slater and Gordon. Anthony Eisen, CEO and Managing Director of Afterpay commented on behalf of the Board: "Following an extensive global search by Spencer Stuart, a premier executive search and international leadership advisory firm, the Board deemed that Elana was best placed to lead the Board of Afterpay. Her significant contribution as a Director since March 2017, backed by her outstanding performance in her capacity as Interim Chair, made Elana the most compelling choice. Her ongoing stewardship and focus on good corporate governance will continue to deliver value to shareholders. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Elana and thank her for her decision to formally accept the role of Chair." APPOINTMENT OF SHARON ROTHSTEIN TO THE AFTERPAY BOARD Sharon Rothstein has been appointed as an independent Non-Executive Director of Afterpay and will formally join the Board on 1 June 2020. Sharon is based in the US and presently sits on the Board of Yelp Inc, a New York Stock Exchange listed company that provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover connect, and transact with local businesses of all sizes. Sharon is to be appointed as an independent Non-Executive Director of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), with effect from 1 June 2020. IHG is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is one of the world's leading hotel companies, with approximately 5,900 hotels in more than 100 countries. Sharon also serves as an Operating Partner at growth equity firm, Stripes Group. Prior to that she was the Executive Vice President, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Starbucks Corporation for five years, following her position as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sephora, a specialty beauty retailer. Sharon has held senior marketing and brand management positions with Godiva, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Nabisco Biscuit Company and Procter & Gamble. Sharon holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Elana Rubin, Chair of Afterpay commented: "We are delighted that Sharon has agreed to join the Afterpay Board. Her expertise and experience across leading consumer brands will add significant value to the Group and complement the skills that already exist within our high calibre team. Sharon's background will provide the Board and management with key retailer insights and will also assist us in developing new relationships and networks globally. We look forward to Sharon commencing with us in June." CLIFF ROSENBERG TO RETIRE FROM THE AFTERPAY BOARD Cliff Rosenberg tendered his resignation as a Non-Executive Director of Afterpay with effect from 24 May 2020. Elana Rubin, Chair of Afterpay commented: "Cliff has had a long association with Afterpay and was a key advisor throughout the very early stages of Afterpay's evolution. His contribution to the business and the Board has been invaluable and he remains a major supporter of Afterpay and its future prospects. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Cliff for his substantial contribution to the Group and his unwavering commitment over four years. We wish him all the best for the future." Cliff Rosenberg, Non-Executive Independent Director of Afterpay commented: "It has been a real honour and privilege to have worked with Elana, Anthony, Nick, my fellow board members, and the exceptionally talented Afterpay team. To see the company grow into a global leader in the buy now pay later space in just a few years has been amazing and I look forward to the team continuing this success in the years to come. AUDIT, RISK AND COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE UPDATE Independent Non-Executive Director Pat O'Sullivan has assumed the role of Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. Authorised by: Anthony Eisen CEO & Managing Director [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] New Delhi, May 26 : Online bus ticketing platform redBus has recently introduced a pre-registration feature that helps users keep track of the opening of their desired bus routes amid the prevailing uncertainty over permit for inter-city operations. The concept emerges from the need to keep anxious travellers informed of available options, especially for routes leading to their desired destination. To register for this service, users will have to provide basic contact details, such as phone number and e-mail ID, along with the desired route they seek to keep track of, on a single-page document. Once registered, users can also share this feature across various social media platforms with friends and family looking for similar long distance travel. Registered users will immediately be informed via e-mail, SMS, push notifications once resumption of services takes place. Travellers will soon also be able to avail the pre-registration feature through the redBus app and website, where they will receive a 'Notify me' button when the buses on their desired/searched routes are not available. Demand for inter-city bus travel has been building up steadily since nationwide lockdown began, with millions of travellers seeking to reach their desired destination. In its own survey by redBus, 59 percent of travellers indicated that they are planning an outstation travel within one month of travel restrictions being lifted. However, the opening of the Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) and private bus operators of each state will likely occur at varying times depending on their control over the COVID-19 pandemic. To help users skip the tedious task of keeping a watchful eye on the resumption of bus services by independent operators and states, the pre-registration feature from redBus, offers convenience through notifications, once the route they seek to travel opens up. Speaking on the launch, Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus, said, "As we near the end of the nationwide lockdown, we strongly believe that the 'pre-registration' feature will go a long way in helping anxious travellers be informed on the opening up of their specific routes and enable them to book tickets conveniently at the earliest possible time. This pre-registration service coupled with the steps taken by our bus operator partners to ensure safety measures during travel, from sanitization of the bus to social distancing, is sure to help bus travellers undertake their intercity commute in a safe and convenient manner." -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text In the time of the 1918-19 influenza, the world was very different. Of course, there was no internet, TV or social media. In fact, there wasnt even any radio until a few years later. All the news was provided by the newspaper and almost all long-distance transportation was by rail or ship. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion In the time of the 1918-19 influenza, the world was very different. Of course, there was no internet, TV or social media. In fact, there wasnt even any radio until a few years later. All the news was provided by the newspaper and almost all long-distance transportation was by rail or ship. Weve come a long way in most aspects of life in the ensuing century. But as we face the COVID-19 pandemic, two crucial areas of society need to move forward. Although much modern health care is technology-based, almost no client-doctor interaction uses technology. In fact, its so antiquated that most medical interface with clients is through an actual meeting between a doctor and patient often causing patients to waste hours away from work or school, or by travelling large distances. The same is true in our legal and judicial systems, which remain horribly expensive and inaccessible. Some of this has to do with the need to produce mountains of largely irrelevant paper documents. Lawyers must file reams of paper, and accused, litigants and their lawyers and witnesses must wait for hours, days, weeks or months. The Canadian health and legal systems are products of our culture of "hurry up and wait." The commercial world moved on more than two decades ago, and government is finally on the cusp of major transformational change. But the client interfaces in law and medicine remain as moribund as they were in the time of the 1918 influenza. Yet within weeks of the onset of COVID-19, weve seen doctors using phones, internet and messaging services to meet and diagnose patients. Many, if not most, consultations with family doctors are for routine matters. They require physicians to do simple in-office tests such as blood pressure, pulse, temperature and breathing, usually coupled with a discussion to render either a diagnosis or a request for more sophisticated tests. The biggest complaint and challenge to a publicly funded health-care system such as Canadas is in the initial interface with a family doctor or specialist. The client has to take hours out of their life only to have a brief discussion with the family physician (who either makes a diagnosis, orders more tests or refers to a specialist). Much of this work can be done faster and more effectively using a routine internet interface between doctors and their patients. The patient can do this from home, their office or even from a hotel far away. If theres a need to physically see a doctor it can be arranged, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. The cost savings and increased client satisfaction would be enormous. It would also reduce the strain on hospitals, where patients wait in emergency rooms for hours to see a doctor, often for something that could have been diagnosed remotely. Many of us have smart watches, which can monitor our heart rate far more effectively than a doctor listening for a few moments. And blood pressure machines are common in many homes. Its only a matter of time before more consumer-based testing will be offered, making remote diagnosis even easier. Think of the benefit in rural areas and First Nations communities how much it would improve lives. In Canada, we spend millions transporting people from remote communities to see physicians. It would make far more sense to have the initial diagnosis done via internet. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The same is true with our court systems, which are still largely based on 100-year-old systems of in-person hearings. We even follow this process for mundane matters such as contesting a traffic ticket, posting bail for a minor offence or for a small claims court. All of these and the plethora of motions seen in any major litigation or criminal trial require in-person attendance. This has made our court system unduly expensive and inaccessible to most. It has also made it intolerably slow, as dates must be organized months or even years in advance. Courts and lawyers have been reluctant to embrace technology when it comes to representation, communication and court appearances. But thats where amazing improvements can be made by adopting routine teleconferencing technology. Lets hope the experiments in the health-care and legal systems brought about by COVID-19 help drag these services into the 21st century. Randy Boldt is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Troy Media The lockdown removal will happen in a "very very gradual" and calibrated manner, Maharashtra Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta said on Tuesday even as he cautioned of a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases and that steps will be taken up accordingly. He said whenever relaxations will be given, people will be duly informed two days or so in advance so that there will be no panic in moving out. The ongoing lockdown will be in force in Maharashtra till May 31. "If you see, the lockdown removal is going to be very very gradual and calibrated. Lockdown cannot be reversed in one go. It doesn't happen suddenly," Mehta told reporters during a briefing held online. He was accompanied by principal health secretary Pradeep Vyas and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner IS Chahal during the press conference. Noting that the lockdown removal is a "huge" policy initiative that has to be thought out well through, Mehta said the government has a team of senior officials led by additional chief secretary (finance) which is strategising on how to ease the lockdown. The top bureaucrat said the first thing that weighs on the government's mind before easing the lockdown is the extent and acceleration of infection in a particular area. "The second thing that weighs on our mind is, once you remove the lockdown, there definitely, definitely I repeat, there will be a surge in cases. "Let's not remain in any fool's paradise that the cases will not surge. The minute you remove the lockdown or relax the lockdown, there will be a surge in cases of course," he added. The chief secretary noted that Maharashtra has managed to keep the death rate low in the state and has access to best medical advice. "Now, if we have to maintain the low death rate and take it down further, the issue is do you have enough health infrastructure to manage the surge? So, whenever you remove lockdown these things are kept in mind," he added. Mehta said at least 95 per cent COVID-19 cases in the states are concentrated in 25 municipal corporation areas. He said the government will be mindful which corporation areas have the healthcare facilities available which can take care of possible surge in case there. "We have still kept one precaution in place that there will be no inter-district movement because the danger is that the cross infection can be very heavy. "In case you want to move, we said there has to be a quarantine facility in place. However, within the district you are permitted to move,"" he added. He said that the lockdown period has given time for authorities to increase the number of beds of COVID-19 patients. Mehta said the government is looking at opening things which are needed/necessities. "However, I can assure you one thing that as we ease the lockdown, which will happen in a calibrated manner, we will be informing in advance that two days down the line this will open, then further two days down the line that will open. "So that people get the time to prepare, there is no panic moving out," he added. When asked about the World Health Organisation deciding to temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments, Pradeep Vyas said the Maharashtra government will go ahead with the Indian Council of Medical Researchs (ICMR) guidelines on its dosage. "The (hydroxychloroquine) doses which were suggested by ICMR are different from what WHO was suggesting. So, we are going ahead with the ICMR suggested doses and guidelines. And we have no adverse reaction," he added. He said the cases of serious side effects of consumption of hydroxychloroquine in India has been "only three" in the country. "So, the advantage outweighs the potential risk and in a monitored view it can be given," he added. Civic chief Chahal said the BMC had prepared a standard operating procedure to pack and dispose of bodies of COVID-19 victims. "We have appointed class 4 staffers at (civic-run) Nair, Sion and KEM hospitals the staffers have been asked to do only the job of packing the bodies on 30 minutes and disposing them of in the next 30 minutesthe (bodies) congestion issue at hospitals will be dealt with," Chahal added. Cockroach infestations, residents left to wallow in soiled diapers, COVID-19 patients allowed to wander around, forceful feeding of the elderly, and a culture of fear to use supplies because those cost money. Those are some of the horrifying findings uncovered by Canadian Armed Forces personnel dispatched to help in five Ontario nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic. In a searing 23-page military report by Brig. Gen. Conrad Mialkowski made public Tuesday, Ontarios troubled long-term-care system where 1,538 residents and six staff members have died of COVID-19 is laid bare. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who alerted Premier Doug Ford to Mialkowskis revelations, expressed outrage at the situation in the four for-profit homes and the one non-profit facility. I was sad. I was shocked. I was disappointed. I was angry. I believe we are talking about a situation that clearly is a reality associated with COVID-19 but has also existed for quite some time, Trudeau said. We need to take action as a country. Ford, who was visibly upset as he spoke with reporters during his Queens Park teleconference, said a provincial coroners investigation has begun and its findings could be referred to police for possible criminal charges. The premier, who has already promised an independent commission to examine the long-term care crisis, conceded a full public inquiry may be on the table. I dont believe its just five. We have to do a deep, deep dive into all the homes and were going to need the resources to do that, Ford said, adding all nursing homes must be stabilized as quickly as possible and requesting federal help. I inherited this system. The buck stops with me. I take full ownership. My job is to fix a broken system thats been broken for decades. Were going to fix the system, no matter what it takes, no matter what cost, he said. Did we know the absolute extent until I read this report? Not at all. It was gut-wrenching. Its appalling, its disgusting what has happened. Asked why it took the military to blow the whistle when Ontario has 175 inspectors for 626 nursing homes, the premier appeared to fault his governments own inspection regime. Yes, inspections happen and these folks come in there, but it took the military to be there 24/7 every single day, he said. Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton, who installed temporary management in two other homes in North York and Sutton on Monday, said COVID-19 pushed nursing homes over the brink. But an outraged NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, pointing to investigations by media outlets like the Star over the years, said this is not news that some nursing homes are inhumane. We cannot allow Doug Ford to waste another second. We need inspections. We need takeovers of all homes that are not safe, said Horwath. This was happening in long-term care and everybody knew it. Some 1,650 troops were deployed in response to provincial calls for help to care for residents in the homes about 250 in Ontario and 1,400 in Quebec. At the Eatonville Care Centre in Etobicoke, where the report said workers were afraid for their jobs, there were COVID-19 positive residents allowed to wander and not enough personal protective equipment to keep staff safe. Military personnel discovered a general culture of fear to use supplies because they cost money (fluid bags, dressings, gowns, gloves, etc.) as well as expired medication being used on patients. At least 42 people have died at Eatonville. Residents were not allowed to have an extra soaking pad for their beds if they became soiled and CAF members witnessed aggressive behaviour that they believed was abusive/inappropriate. At Scarboroughs Altamont Care Community, where 52 people have died, most residents were not getting three meals a day due to significant staffing issues. The military reported poor nutritional status due to underfeeding. A significant number of residents had pressure ulcers due to prolonged bed rest, in some cases for weeks. No evidence of residents being moved to wheelchair for parts of day, repositioned in bed, or washed properly. A common theme was a lack of staff, which meant little time to properly care for and attend to residents. At one home, staff were overworked, seem burned out and have no time off (some have not seen their families for weeks), the report said. At Pickerings Orchard Villa, cockroaches and flies were present while patients were left in beds soiled in diapers. One of the 69 deaths at Orchard Villa has been referred to the coroner for investigation. Respecting dignity of patients not always a priority. Caregiver burnout noted among staff, the report said. There was inadequate oxygen and inaccessible wound care supplies, as well as poor staff training that raised the risk of choking. Indeed, the report suggested that military personnel observed one incident that appeared to have contributed to a patients death. Code blue due choking during feeding while supine staff unable to dislodge food or revive resident, it said. Provincial officials said some of the five homes had a history of compliance problems with government standards for nursing and that there had been intensive conversations between them and the ministry. The officials could not say if any of the five were given telephone inspections by the ministry to avoid exposing inspectors to COVID-19. At North Yorks Hawthorne nursing home, the scene of 39 deaths, numerous fans were blowing in the hallways, increasing the spread of COVID-19. There were ants and cockroaches, residents were having skin breakdown from lying in soiled diapers, and N95 masks were given to staff without proper fit testing, increasing their risk of infection. Residents were getting painful pressure ulcers bedsores because they were not turned often enough in their beds, and the report details forceful feeding (of residents) observed by staff causing audible choking/aspiration. Patients observed crying for help with staff not responding for 30 minutes to over two hours, the military report on Hawthorne added. Staff report residents not having been bathed for several weeks. Bramptons Holland Christian Homes, where 11 people have died, is the lone not-for-profit home of the five. The military noted staff there moved from a COVID-19-positive unit to other units without changing protective gear, wearing the same pairs of gloves as they moved between patients and not washing their hands often enough. They also flagged leaving food in a patients mouth while the person was sleeping, aggressively repositioning a resident, and not assisting residents during meals, noting that in some cases, staff would rather write that the resident had refused the meal than help them eat. As of Monday, 39 members of the military working in the long-term care homes have tested positive for the virus 15 in Ontario and 24 in Quebec. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has said the military knew it was going into a high-risk environment when it deployed to long-term-care homes. There are 1,855 nursing-home residents with active cases of COVID-19, along with 1,355 workers who had been caring for them, and outbreaks continue in 150 of the provinces more than 600 long-term care facilities. Nursing home employees are the largest cohort of the more than 4,000 health-care workers who have contracted COVID-19 in the province. Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca tweeted that now, more than ever before, we need a full public inquiry into long term care deaths. Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1 Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie Read more about: French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled Tuesday an 8 billion-euro ($8.8 billion) plan to save the country's car industry from huge losses wrought by virus lockdowns, including a big boost for electric vehicles. The plan includes government subsidies for car buyers and longer-term investment in innovative technology, especially in battery-powered cars. ``Our country wouldn't be the same without its great brands - Renault, Peugeot, Citroen,'' Macron declared, and announcing a goal of making France the leading producer of ``clean'' cars in Europe. The 8 billion euros does not include a 5 billion-euro government loan guarantee under discussion for struggling Renault, or the millions the government has already spent on temporary unemployment payments to auto workers told to stay home for weeks to keep the virus at bay. As carmakers around the world face record slumps in sales, Macron met with industry representatives and unions at the Elysee presidential palace on Tuesday morning, notably to discuss the loan guarantee for Renault. He then visited supplier Valeo, which makes equipment for electric cars, at its factory in northern France, from where he detailed the wider rescue plan. The issue is politically sensitive, since France is proud of its auto industry, which employs 400,000 people in the country and is a big part of its manufacturing sector. The government wants carmakers to develop innovative products in France and keep jobs in the country. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said that carmakers must commit to bringing back manufacturing to France in exchange for the support, but unions are wary as the industry is in turmoil. The aid is expected to include government subsidies for consumers to buy a battery-powered car as well as other incentives for people to scrap their old car and buy a lower-emissions model. Auto sales in France fell by about 90% in April compared with a year earlier as showrooms were shut and factories suspended production. The country started easing restrictions on May 11 after two months of strict lockdowns. The plan to support the industry comes at a crucial time for carmaker Renault, which came into the virus crisis in particularly bad shape after the 2018 arrest of its longtime star CEO Carlos Ghosn. Le Maire said Monday its survival is at stake and that the government _ which owns 15% of Renault _ would not require Renault to keep all its French jobs and facilities in exchange for the rescue funds, in order to allow the company to adapt to the economic situation. Renault and Nissan have scheduled an announcement Wednesday that is expected to address the future of their alliance. Renault unions say they have been summoned to a meeting Thursday on how the carmaker will cut 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in costs, and expect that will lead to factory closures and job losses in France. French carmakers won billions in bailout funds after the 2008 financial crisis and benefited from a government bonus plan that encouraged consumers to buy newer cars, though that didn't prevent thousands of job cuts. PSA Group, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, came into the current crisis in better shape, after years of cost-cutting under CEO Carlos Tavares. PSA reported record profits last year, but has also seen sales plunge amid virus lockdowns. It is in the process of merging with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to create the world's fourth-largest auto maker. The French government owns a 12% stake in PSA through the state investment bank. Carmakers in other countries are also struggling. U.S. automakers haven't received direct government help yet but car dealers and auto suppliers can apply for low-interest loans. Some U.S. some politicians don't want to bail out carmakers again after they got huge bailouts after the 2008 financial crisis. In Germany, automakers are pressing for car purchase incentives to support major employers and prevent layoffs. The idea is opposed by some legislators in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party and by an expert council of economists, who advised tax breaks and lower energy costs for all companies instead of singling out one industry for help. A decision on the issue could come as early as next week. Italian-American Fiat Chrysler, which has its corporate headquarters in the Netherlands and its financial base in Britain, confirmed this month a request for an Italian state-backed loan worth 6.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion). The move set off debate in Italy over whether such money should be made available to companies with legal headquarters overseas. Britain's government is considering bailing out companies whose demise would disproportionately affect the economy, on a ``last resort basis.'' The Financial Times reported Sunday that Jaguar Land Rover was among those approaching the government to acquire stakes as part of a broader manufacturing bailout. Steve Turner of the Unite Union said action is needed to bolster major employers and their supply chains. ``There is no more time to lose if we are to prevent a tsunami of job losses from sweeping through communities this summer,'' he said. Search Keywords: Short link: A high-grade, near surface gold opportunity in a mining-friendly jurisdiction Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA) (NYSE:SA) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of a 100% interest in the 3 Aces gold project in the Yukon, Canada from Golden Predator Mining Corp. for 300,000 Seabridge common shares, potential future cash payments totalling $2.25 million, and continuing royalty participation in the project by Golden Predator. Seabridge Gold Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said the 3 Aces Project is a first rate exploration play with the potential to host a high grade commercially-viable ore body. "We think 3 Aces is a worthy addition to the three outstanding exploration opportunities we already own in British Columbia, Nevada and the Northwest Territories. Golden Predator has done an excellent job of demonstrating the exploration potential at 3 Aces, confirming the project's positive metallurgy and establishing excellent relationships with local First Nations and communities." The acquisition agreement provides for additional payments to Golden Predator of $1 million upon confirmation of a 3 Aces NI-43-101 compliant mineral resource of 2.5 million ounces of gold and a further $1.25 million upon confirmation of an aggregate mineral resource of 5 million ounces of gold. The agreement also grants Golden Predator a 0.5% net smelter royalty on the project. "Our current plan is to assemble and evaluate the wealth of data developed by GPY for the targets in the Central Core Area with a view to initiating an aggressive drill program next year," Fronk said. 3 Aces is a district scale, orogenic-gold project consisting of 1,536 claims covering approximately 350 km located in a readily accessible part of southeastern Yukon (see map). The target concept for this project is consistent with some of the biggest and richest gold deposits in the world, including the California Mother Lode Belt, Juneau Gold Belt, Murentau in Uzbekistan and Obuasi in Ghana. Historical work has identified a broad area of gold-in-soil extending more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) along strike and recent drilling in the Central Core Area has progressed to a point where, with additional exploration drilling, the property could potentially advance to an initial resource with exceptional grade. The Property is on the eastern margin of the Selwyn Basin, a thick package of sedimentary rocks extending across the Yukon and host to several enormous base metal deposits (Howard's Pass District). Hyland Group host rocks, the basal unit of the Selwyn Basin, are interbedded clastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks exposed near a regional tectonic boundary. Polyphase fold and fault systems overprint the stratigraphy, creating ideal traps for gold-bearing fluids expressed as quartz veins. At 3 Aces, discrete quartz veins containing arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite and free gold are found within a broad zone of gold-bearing iron carbonate-clay alteration envelopes which will be targeted in our exploration. Past drilling has encounted a significant number of gold rich zones on the stratigraphic/structural contacts at 3 Aces. By early 2019 the project had completed about 300 holes; 37% of these encountered +5.0 g/t gold intersections and 27% have returned +8.0g/t gold. Many of these holes were close-space off-sets on high-grade veins that crop out, but all veins identified in the Central Core Area have encountered high grade intersections. Significant effort was expended by Golden Predator to ensure that sampling of these high grade, nuggety intervals produced reliable and repeatable assay results. A sampling protocol is now in place to achieve reliable results. The following table summarizes selected intervals from previous drilling. Hole ID DH Type From (meters) To (meters) Intercept (meters) Gold Grade (g/T) Spades High Grade Zone 3A16-032 RC 16.76 27.43 10.67 32.86 3A16-042 RC 17.53 24.38 6.85 25.61 3A16-044 RC 17.53 35.05 17.52 3.65 3A17-100 RC 19.05 25.91 6.86 20.15 3A17-124 RC 6.10 10.67 4.57 58.75 3A17-132 DD 20.00 33.30 13.30 6.69 3A17-127 RC 12.95 19.05 6.10 22.30 3A17-133 DD 23.80 40.00 16.80 20.50 and 57.50 65.00 7.50 13.92 3A17-138 DD 7.50 15.50 8.00 50.40 3A17-157 DD 19.00 23.20 4.20 20.04 3A17-208 RC 0.76 5.33 4.57 81.35 3A17-209 RC 2.29 23.62 21.33 18.33 3A17-211 RC 1.52 9.91 8.39 14.05 3A17-218 RC 5.33 18.29 12.96 14.19 3A17-220 RC 1.52 15.24 13.72 43.02 3A17-224 RC 1.52 11.43 9.91 21.81 3A17-238 RC 0.76 9.91 9.15 41.03 Hearts Zone 3A16-048 RC 96.01 104.39 8.38 6.39 3A16-054 RC 38.86 58.67 19.81 4.76 3A16-055 RC 51.05 60.20 9.15 9.37 3A16-082 DD 42.67 60.96 18.29 16.75 3A16-084 DD 103.98 115.82 11.84 1.72 3A16-085 RC 86.87 96.01 9.14 8.65 3A17-203 RC 10.67 30.48 19.81 3.32 Other Occurrences 3A17-143 DD 12.70 32.00 19.30 16.15 3A17-144 RC 5.33 52.58 47.25 1.11 3A17-147 DD 13.00 15.50 2.50 15.51 and 18.50 22.00 3.50 21.44 3A17-275 RC 40.39 48.77 8.38 5.24 3A18-335 DD 16.20 33.06 16.86 1.35 3A17-175 RC 32.00 33.53 1.53 36.33 Seabridge Gold holds a 100% interest in several North American gold resource projects. The Company's principal assets are the KSM and Iskut properties located near Stewart, British Columbia, Canada and the Courageous Lake gold project located in Canada's Northwest Territories. For a breakdown of Seabridge's current mineral reserves and resources by project and category please visit the Company's website at http://www.seabridgegold.net/resources.php. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, nor their Regulation Services Providers accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. All reserve and resource estimates reported by the Corporation were calculated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Classification system. These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. This news release includes certain forward-looking statements or information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding: (i) the potential of the Property to host a high grade commercially-viable ore body; (ii) the timing of the initiation of any drill program at the Property; and (ii) the Company, with additional exploration drilling, potentially being able to advance the property to an initial resource with exceptional grade, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's plans or expectations include regulatory issues, discontinuity or otherwise unexpected geology at the Project, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Rudi Fronk" Chairman and CEO For further information please contact: Rudi Fronk, Chairman and CEO Tel: (416) 367-9292 Fax: (416) 367-2711 Email: info@seabridgegold.net To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56531 Newly proposed way to define cardiac state looks to provide a warning sign of the disease, with implications for wearable devices WASHINGTON, May 26, 2020 -- Affecting up to 4% of patients older than 65 years, atrial fibrillation ranks among the most common heart conditions. Described by health professionals as an "irregularly irregular" heart rhythm, episodes of atrial fibrillation continue to prove difficult to predict. An international team of researchers, led by Boon Leong Lan, at Monash University Malaysia, has proposed a way to define cardiac state and has studied the dynamics of the state before the cardiac rhythm changes from normal sinus to AF rhythm and vice versa. The work, appearing in Chaos, by AIP Publishing, and based on critical transition theory, looks to provide an early warning for those with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with potential implications for future wearable devices. The paper points a path forward for better screening for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and may lead to more successful interventions when an atrial fibrillation episode has started. "The flickering of the cardiac state could provide an early warning for the onset of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation for patients who are wearing a device that can measure the heartbeats accurately to monitor their cardiac state," said Lan. "This early warning would be useful if there is a medicine that the patient could take to prevent the onset." It is not obvious how the cardiac state should be defined using just the electrocardiogram time series data. Lan said that their definition of the cardiac state, which is based on the changes between successive beat-to-beat intervals, was inspired by his previous work. He and his collaborator previously discovered that the distribution of the beat-interval changes can discriminate subjects with sustained atrial fibrillation from healthy ones very well. Their new approach shows the cardiac state flickers back and forth between near normal and near atrial fibrillation states, resulting in a bimodal distribution of states before atrial fibrillation starts or terminates. Others have proposed that dynamical transitions in a host of different realms from climate to stock markets to medicine are preceded by critical slowing down as the tipping point is reached. In critical slowing down, the rate of recovery from even a small perturbation approaches zero. Lan and colleagues found that critical slowing down did not precede the onset of atrial fibrillation. Lan is optimistic their method of defining the state of a complex system can be adapted to study critical transition in other chronic episodic diseases, such as epileptic seizure, asthma and ulcers, and other complex systems like an electrical power system or climate system. He and his group are currently studying the changes in the brain state before epileptic seizures using their approach. ### The article, "Flickering of cardiac state before the onset and termination of atrial fibrillation," is authored by Boon Leong Lan, Yew Wai Liew, Mikito Toda and Suraya Hani Kamsani. The article will appear in Chaos on May 26, 2020 (DOI: 10. 1063/1.5130524). After that date, it can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5130524. ABOUT THE JOURNAL Chaos is devoted to increasing the understanding of nonlinear phenomena in all areas of science and engineering and describing their manifestations in a manner comprehensible to researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/cha. Spanish archaeologists believe they've found the final resting place of one of Ireland's most famous rebels, more than 400 years after he was buried in a chapel in the city of Valladolid. The find has been described as very significant by Dr Hiram Morgan from UCC's School of History, who is acknowledged as one of the world's leading experts on Red Hugh ODonnell, one of the great tragic heroes of Irish history. He said the Spanish have information which led them to pinpoint the remains of the chapel which they are currently excavating at a site in the city of Valladolid, the country's former capital which is north-west of Madrid. They have already discovered several bones on the site and it's believed it's only a question of time before they confirm some belong to Red Hugh, who famously fought against the English before being forced to flee to Spain after the ill-fated 1601 Battle of Kinsale. While the bones will have to be identified through DNA, the search will be made easier because of frostbite. When he escaped from Dublin Castle in January 1592, he hid out in the Dublin/Wicklow Mountains with a companion, Art O'Neill. Both got frostbite, which killed O'Neill. When O'Donnell got back to Donegal a month or so later he had to have two of his big toes removed, Dr Morgan said. He said he is very confident that the Spanish are very close to discovering and confirming the remains of O'Donnell. A lot of famous people were buried in the chapel. It is also believed that some of the remains of Christopher Columbus were buried there, but Dr Morgan said most of them were later removed and re-interred in the city of Seville. Getting DNA to prove a match to Red Hugh could even involve asking Donegal crooner Daniel O'Donnell to help out. They could test him for instance as he would still have the same type of DNA as Red Hugh. There is also a Spanish Duke called Hugo O'Donnell who is still alive and his would also be similar, Dr Morgan said. He added that a companion of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Mick MacWilliam-Burke, also escaped to Spain around the same time and it is believed he is also buried in the remains of the Valladolid chapel. A week-long excavation of Constitution Street in Valladolid in northwest Spain has revealed the walls of what is believed to be the Chapel of Marvels where [Red Hugh] ODonnell was buried in September 1602. https://t.co/3ixrOOWhEd Matthew Whitten (@AdmiralWhitten) May 26, 2020 When O'Donnell's bones are DNA matched then pathology will be able to finally put to bed the story of whether he died after being administered poison by an English spy. Awaiting an audience with Spanish King Philip III, Red Hugh died in the Castle of Simancas in September 1602 and was buried with full honours by the Spanish in nearby Valladolid. There were allegations that he was poisoned, but the most reliable sources point to it being natural causes. He had been sick with a fever for 17 days during which time he coughed up a tapeworm. It is quite likely he got the tapeworm when he was on the run from the English some years earlier, Dr Morgan said. Red Hugh along with his father-in-law, Hugh O'Neill, fought a nine-year war against the English. Initially, both men's forces made significant gains against the English. However, they failed to join up with the Spanish expeditionary force and lost the Battle of Kinsale. After that O'Donnell left from Castletownsend to seek further Spanish assistance, Dr Morgan said. Civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in connection with the Elgar Parishad case, was shifted to Taloja jail from Delhi on Tuesday. He will be kept under quarantine before being moved to the prison. Navlakha was taken into custody by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) on April 14 after he surrendered before the agency in Delhi. However, due to the lockdown, he could not be brought to Mumbai, where the case is being probed. After almost a month, the government relaxed the rules of travel, allowing Navlakha to be brought to the city. He was produced before the special NIA court in Mumbai on Tuesday, following which he was taken to Taloja jail. He has been remanded in judicial custody till June 22. We will follow the protocol for any new admission. As per the procedure, he will be sent to the quarantine centre at Gokhale High School in Taloja, said SH Kurlekar, superintendent of police, Taloja jail. Navlakha will be kept under quarantine for 14 days. Meanwhile, his partner Sahba Husain alleged mischief behind Navlakhas transfer from Delhi to Mumbai. She claimed that a plea for interim bail for Navlakha was scheduled for hearing on Wednesday, and just before that he was taken to Mumbai without intimating his family or legal team. It was only after seeking permission from the court that Navlakha could call her. Navlakha, along with other activists, has been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly having Maoist links and being involved in the Elgar Parishad gathering on December 31, 2017, which triggered caste-based violence at Koregaon Bhima in Pune the next day. Rose Byrne as feminist icon Gloria Steinem replete with memorable mane in "Mrs. America." (Sabrina Lantos/FX) Mrs. America, a limited series about the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment, has won acclaim for fantastic performances from some of the finest actresses in the business including Cate Blanchett, Margo Martindale, Rose Byrne, Tracey Ullman and Uzo Aduba. But no one should overlook the shows most valuable supporting players: the wigs. Not since The Americans concluded its run has a drama series made such spectacular use of hairpieces. The Mrs. America hair team had to re-create dozens of diverse looks of the 1970s, from Betty Friedans silver-streaked shag to Phyllis Schlaflys stiff meringue-like updo to Gloria Steinems face-framing mane. For women on both sides of the issue, hair is a source of pride and insecurity and hair salons are a crucial meeting space where they discuss relationships, family, work and politics. It was a massive undertaking, said hair designer Anne Morgan, who had to contend with 98 characters in wigs, some of them in multiple looks. Because the wigs would take six to eight weeks to create, she started designing looks for the major characters in early 2019, months before the series went into production in Toronto and figuring out who would make which character's wigs based on where the actresses were living at the time and who theyd worked with before. Once filming was underway, hair department head Rick Findlater and a team of stylists took over day-to-day styling of the wigs. Morgan regularly worked 90-plus hours a week during the five-month shoot. Ive done some very tough shows, she said. But this had major challenges. So many women, so many wigs, and really, just not enough hands. Here's a look at how she created some of the show's most eye-catching wigs. Hair designer Anne Morgan on the set of "Mrs. America." (Sabrina Lantos/FX) Gloria Steinem Arguably the most crucial wig in the series is the one worn by Byrne as feminist leader Steinem. When the actress signed on to play the cofounder of Ms. magazine probably the most readily identifiable figure in the series she felt strongly about one aspect of her characters look. Story continues "None of the costumes were going to work until we got the hair right. Its so distinctive. I was obsessed, she said. Morgan was on the same page. That is a major head of hair, she said. "Sometimes you take the approach of getting an essence and sometimes you try to be spot on. With someone like Gloria Steinem, its important to be spot on. Both Morgan and Byrne immediately thought of wigmaker Martial Corneville. (Byrne knew him because of his work with Glenn Close, her costar on Damages.) His process involves making a plaster cast of someones head, as you would to build prosthetics, and using it to create a customized wig form that can be used for meticulous day-to-day styling on set. What that allows for is an exactitude someones head, their hairline, where their ears are in a form thats three-dimensional, said Morgan. She started by putting together an image board, pulling as many references as possible. The goal was not just to include photos of Steinem head-on, looking perfect. Instead, Morgan said, she looked for different contexts and an array of angles from the back, from the side, in movement. In addition to still photos, she pulled videos of Steinem speaking. Three different wigs were created for the Steinem character one for young Gloria in a flashback; a long, highlighted wig worn by Gloria throughout the early 70s; and a darker, slightly shorter wig worn later in the series. It was important to Morgan to get the texture right hair that tended to get a little frizzy and would have been ironed straight in the early 70s. I asked to have a body wave put into it so it would go frizzy. I knew we would be in the humidity of Toronto. It needed to look real. (In contrast, Blanchett had an immobile, helmet-like wig designed by Kerry Warn and made by Peter Owen to play traditionalist Schlafly.) Once Corneville created the Steinem wig, Morgan fine-tuned the cut, taking out some volume so it wouldnt overwhelm Byrnes face. It was a lot of hair, and when we first put it on Rose, we were like, Get the razor in there, and just cut the [expletive] out of it really so that it moves, she said. There was also the matter of Steinems trademark highlights. Morgan gave Corneville specific instructions about the colors to use in the wig, then tinkered to make them pop. But it had to be subtle. I needed it to not look like a balayage, or a contemporary chunky highlight. It was very delicate. There was a diffusion so it wouldnt look skunk-like. Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan in "Mrs. America." (Sabrina Lantos/FX) Betty Friedan As pioneering feminist Friedan, Ullman wore several gray-streaked wigs made by Owens using wavy hair cut into a shag. "I love Betty Friedans hair, because it feel like it had a grounded earthy quality to it," said Morgan, noting that Friedan, though not considered conventionally attractive, seemed to have fun with makeup and hairstyles and presented herself with playful confidence. "I thought she was beautiful." In fact, for budget and continuity reasons, they couldn't quite keep up with the pace of her hairstyles in the 70s: "We didn't change Betty's hair as much as Betty changed her hair," Morgan said. In a devastating twist, Betty's third wig estimated cost: $9,000 was lost by FedEx. The production even sent someone to North Carolina to attempt to retrieve it, to no avail. "It was a travesty," Morgan said. Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm in "Mrs. America." (Sabrina Lantos/FX) Shirley Chisholm Morgan was struck by the short, top-heavy wig that Chisholm began wearing during her historic run for the White House in 1972. "We call it a helmet not so much because it was a helmet but because it was kind of like an instant persona. It made her taller and more of a presence in the room. I thought that was really interesting. Hair is such a psychological study of a person," she said, pointing out that Chisholm opted to wear a wig at a time "when the natural hair movement was identified with Black Panthers." Since Chisholm was the only character who regularly wore wigs in real life, Morgan shopped for wigs in Los Angeles and New Orleans. She also worked with wigmaker Victoria Wood to create a gray wig worn by Aduba during a scene in which Flo Kennedy (Niecy Nash) visits a dejected Chisholm, under investigation by federal authorities and still hurt by the lack of support from the women's movement during her presidential campaign. "We wanted to be respectful of her strength and showing her with her natural hair was not a negative thing, it was her in her most honest, vulnerable place, having a conversation with her close friend." Melanie Lynskey as Rosemary Thomson. (Sabrina Lantos/FX) Rosemary Thomson Morgan said the poodle-like wig worn by Melanie Lynskey while portraying the lesser-known ERA opponent was her favorite. Perhaps that's because the short, functional look was inspired by her mom's hair during the time period portrayed in "Mrs. America." She even asked her mother for pictures from when she was pregnant with her brother and frazzled-looking in the early '70s, but only recently told her why. "I love that hair, because it looks completely real," Morgan said. "Remembering what my mom's hair was like when I was growing up it's good that it's flawed." GREENBELT, Md., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Five years after NASA's MAVEN spacecraft entered into orbit around Mars, data from the mission has led to the creation of a map of electric current systems in the Martian atmosphere. "These currents play a fundamental role in the atmospheric loss that transformed Mars from a world that could have supported life into an inhospitable desert," said experimental physicist Robin Ramstad of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "We are now currently working on using the currents to determine the precise amount of energy that is drawn from the solar wind and powers atmospheric escape." Ramstad is lead author of a paper on this research published May 25 in Nature Astronomy. Earth has such current systems, too: we can even see them in the form of colorful displays of light in the night sky near the polar regions known as the aurora, or northern and southern lights. Earth's aurora are strongly linked to currents, generated by the interaction of the Earth's magnetic field with the solar wind, that flow along vertical magnetic field lines into the atmosphere, concentrating in the polar regions. Studying the flow of electricity thousands of miles above our heads, though, only tells part of the story about the situation on Mars. The difference lies in the planets' respective magnetic fields, because while Earth's magnetism comes from within, Mars' does not. Planetary magnetic fields Earth's magnetism comes from its core, where molten, electrically conducting iron flows beneath the crust. Its magnetic field is global, meaning it surrounds the entire planet. Since Mars is a rocky, terrestrial planet like Earth, one might assume that the same kind of magnetic paradigm functions there, too. However, Mars does not generate a magnetic field on its own, outside of relatively small patches of magnetized crust. Something different from what we observe on Earth must be happening on the Red Planet. What's going on above Mars? The solar wind, made up largely of electrically charged electrons and protons, blows constantly from the Sun at around a million miles per hour. It flows around and interacts with the objects in our solar system. The solar wind is also magnetized and this magnetic field cannot easily penetrate the upper atmosphere of non-magnetized planets like Mars. Instead, currents that it induces in the planet's ionosphere cause a pile-up and strengthening of the magnetic field, creating a so-called induced magnetosphere. How the solar wind powers this induced magnetosphere at Mars has not been well understood until now. As solar wind ions and electrons smash into this stronger induced magnetic field near Mars, they are forced to flow apart due to their opposite electric charge. Some ions flow in one direction, some electrons in the other direction, forming electric currents that drape around from the dayside to the nightside of the planet. At the same time, solar x-rays and ultraviolet radiation constantly ionize some of the upper atmosphere on Mars, turning it into a combination of electrons and electrically charged ions that can conduct electricity. "Mars' atmosphere behaves a bit like a metal sphere closing an electric circuit," Ramstad said. "The currents flow in the upper atmosphere, with the strongest current layers persisting at 120-200 kilometers (about 75-125 miles) above the planet's surface." Both MAVEN and previous missions have seen localized hints of these current layers before, but they have never before been able to map the complete circuit, from its generation in the solar wind, to where the electrical energy is deposited in the upper atmosphere. Directly detecting these currents in space is infamously difficult. Fortunately, the currents distort the magnetic fields in the solar wind, detectable by MAVEN's sensitive magnetometer. The team used MAVEN to map out the average magnetic field structure around Mars in three dimensions and calculated the currents directly from their distortions of the magnetic field structure. "With a single elegant operation, the strength and paths of the currents pop out of this map of the magnetic field," Ramstad said. The Red Planet's destiny Without a global magnetic field surrounding Mars, the currents induced in the solar wind can form a direct electrical connection to the Martian upper atmosphere. The currents transform the energy of the solar wind into magnetic and electric fields that accelerate charged atmospheric particles into space, driving atmospheric escape to space. The new results reveal several unexpected features particular to MAVEN's goal to understand atmospheric escape: the energy that drives escape appears to be drawn from a much larger volume than was often assumed. Solar-wind-driven atmospheric loss has been active for billions of years and contributed to the transformation of Mars from a warm and wet planet that could have harbored life into a global cold desert. MAVEN is continuing to explore how this process works and how much of the planet's atmosphere has been lost. This research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, and NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project. NASA is exploring our Solar System and beyond, uncovering worlds, stars, and cosmic mysteries near and far with our powerful fleet of space and ground-based missions. For video and images, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2020/mars-electric-currents SOURCE NASA Related Links http://www.nasa.gov BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are in favour of bringing forward tax relief measures worth at least 5 billion euros to help companies and consumers recover more quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, a document showed on Monday. Merkel's coalition government, which in March approved an unprecedented 750 billion-euro rescue package to shield Europe's largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus, is due next week to present additional stimulus to sustain the recovery. In a position paper seen by Reuters, lawmakers from Merkel's conservative bloc called on several measures to reduce the tax burden for the private sector, including making it simpler to offset losses against tax and speeding up already agreed tax cuts BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are in favour of bringing forward tax relief measures worth at least 5 billion euros to help companies and consumers recover more quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, a document showed on Monday. Merkel's coalition government, which in March approved an unprecedented 750 billion-euro rescue package to shield Europe's largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus, is due next week to present additional stimulus to sustain the recovery. In a position paper seen by Reuters, lawmakers from Merkel's conservative bloc called on several measures to reduce the tax burden for the private sector, including making it simpler to offset losses against tax and speeding up already agreed tax cuts. "The abolition of the solidarity surcharge is to be brought forward to July 1 and should apply in full," it said, referring to a tax introduced after the countys reunification. The document, prepared by lawmakers from Merkel's conservatives, is to be discussed on Tuesday during a closed-door meeting of the CDU/CSU parliamentary bloc. Germany's coalition parties agreed last year to abolish the 'soli' - a tax surcharge introduced in 1991 to help finance the cost of reuniting West and East Germany - for more than 90% of taxpayers from January 2021. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the co-governing Social Democrats has already suggested bringing this forward to July, which would cost the state around 5 billion euros. But Scholz is against granting the relief for all taxpayers. The German stimulus package is expected to include relief for municipalities struggling with lower tax receipts, cash handouts for families with small children as well as further funds for companies with fewer than 250 employees. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Giles Elgood) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. An estimated 445 people were killed by exposure to bushfire smoke over the Black Summer fires, while 3340 were admitted to hospital due to heart and lung problems and 1373 people attended emergency departments due to complications with asthma. The extra health costs associated with the premature loss of life and admissions to hospitals was estimated to be $2 billion, Professor Fay Johnston, a specialist in environmental health at the University of Tasmania, told the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements. The estimates, presented in evidence to the royal commission, are based on modelling of the impact of ultra-fine particles - those smaller than one 1000th of a millimetre - in bushfire smoke that lingered over around 80 percent of the Australian population over the summer. The estimates did not include further costs to society such as loss of time at work or school, the commission heard. Nor did the health impacts include the significant impact of increased stress or the disruption to treatment plans or medication regimes or even of the loss of regular exercise. In mid-May, Mexican authorities mentioned that if authorized safety precautions were in effect, the automotive industry might depart from the coronavirus lockdown before June 1st. Japanese automotive manufacturers Toyota, Nissan including Honda said they are slowly relaunching in Mexico as the country's car industry restarts in accordance with a wider economic reopening, amid the increasing number of new infections of coronavirus. Those three Japanese companies have been unable to disclose specific dates for the re-launch. On Monday, Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd confirmed in a news website that they were planning to restart business slowly and last Friday, Honda Motor Co Ltd announced it had started a phased return to operations. In a message to their employees, United States automotive parts manufacturer Lear Corp instructed 600 workers to report on Monday for duties at their Rio Bravo factory in northern Mexico responsible for supplying to Daimler AG and Ford. The factory had been the location of a coronavirus outbreak in which Lear said 18 employees were killed. The corporation said that it was introducing security measures however no production in any Mexican factory had begun. According to three Lear workers, they had served at Rio Bravo over the weekend. Lear offered a 300-peso ($13.30) compensation for every 12-hour shift on Saturday and Sunday, in a message addressed to employees who had accomplished mandatory training. Since the outbreak entered the nation in late February, Mexico has reported a record of 68,620 new infections and 7,394 fatalities, raising fears about reopening the country too early. Last week, the state governor of Puebla, home to valuable Volkswagen and Audi manufacturing facilities, said such circumstances "do not exist" for reopening the automobile industry. Check these out! Mexico reopening amid coronavirus fears Earlier this month, Mexico published guidelines for reopening operations in the automotive, construction as well as mining divisions, pressing forward with restarting the country amid a rising COVID-19 pandemic national tally and doubts about contaminated work places. Made public overnight, Mexico's directives, mandate businesses to apply guidelines for exiting the COVID-19 lockdown to health departments. Whether they can begin operational activities, companies would then be informed within 72 hours. The steps to lift restrictions follow increasing U.S. tension to reopen facilities that are crucial to U.S.-based distribution networks, particularly in the large automotive industry. As one of the actions to protect employees, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said businesses will have to answer a broad questionnaire. "Today they can start doing the paperwork so that companies in the construction, transport and mining industries can start their activities, beginning with their health protocols," Lopez Obrador said in his daily news conference. The government has said that the directives would result in a gradual reopening following a so-called traffic light system implemented by the officials. Guwahati/Kohima, May 26 : The return of hundreds of home-bound people from southern and western India to the North-East has led to a rise in COVID-19 positive cases in the region, especially in Assam, where 102 fresh corona patients were reported in the past 24 hours, taking the total count to 616 on Tuesday night, ministers and officials said. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a series of tweets said of the 616 positive cases till Tuesday night, 547 are active cases. As many as 62 people have been discharged from hospitals, while four have died and three migrated to other states. Sarma said 90 per cent of the Covid-19 patients in the state have been reported from the quarantine centres across the state's 33 districts. However, health officials said there are positive cases found in some districts outside the quarantine centres. Sarma said in Guwahati that the abrupt rise in corona cases is due to the return of 60,000 people, mostly from southern and western India, to Assam after the Home Ministry withdrew the interstate transport restriction on May 4. Meanwhile, two more persons who escaped from the Don Bosco School quarantine centre at Ramnagar in Silchar in south Assam were apprehended by the police at Algapur railway station on Monday night. Earlier, three patients had fled from a quarantine centre in Guwahati. They were later arrested. Poor quality of food and other difficulties are said to be the reasons behind the escape of people from the quarantine centres. The mountainous state Nagaland, which until Sunday was Covid-free state, on Tuesday, registered a fresh case, taking its tally to four patients since Monday. Nagaland Health Minister S. Pangnyu Phom tweeted that a returnee from Chennai has been tested COVID-19 positive at Kohima. With this, four people, all returnees from Chennai, have tested positive for the virus. In Manipur, three more persons tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the state to 39, with 35 active cases. Health officials in Imphal said all the people, tested COVID-19 positive, returned to the state during the past three weeks from different parts of India, mostly southern and western regions of the country. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said a person, who had travelled from Chennai along with the 14th case, has turned out to be COVID-19 positive. The patient is currently in Resubelpara under institutional isolation and medical observation. With the fresh detection, the hill state has recorded 15 positive cases out of which 12 have recovered. In Tripura, 15 people have tested positive during the past 24-hours, taking the state's total Covid-19 positive tally to 209, including 162 Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and their kin, with active cases count of 42. Of the 15 fresh cases, 14 recently returned to Tripura from Maharashtra and one belongs to a family member of a jawan of 86th Battalion BSF. Minneapolis police sprayed chemical irritants at demonstrators Tuesday night as marchers protested the death of a black man allegedly at the hands of police. PHOTO: Tear gas is fired as protesters clash with police while demonstrating against the death of George Floyd outside the 3rd Precinct Police Precinct, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the death of a man identified as George Floyd shortly after he was apprehended by Minneapolis police Monday, after disturbing video emerged on social media showing a police officer with his knee on the man's neck as the man repeatedly yells out, "I can't breathe." PHOTO: Protesters and police face each other during a rally for George Floyd in Minneapolis, May 26, 2020. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP) "I can't breathe, please, the knee in my neck," the man said in a video showing a police officer pinning him to the ground. "I can't move ... my neck ... I'm through, I'm through." Protesters gathered Tuesday evening at the Third Precinct and also at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, the site where the incident occurred, Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP reported. PHOTO: Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd outside the 3rd Precinct Police Precinct, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) A KSTP chopper crew estimated thousands were in attendance, the station said. PHOTO: Protesters march on Hiawatha Avenue while decrying the killing of George Floyd, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) A photo posted to social media appeared to show broken glass at the Third Precinct station house, and protesters reportedly chanted, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe," in reference to the incident. PHOTO: In an image made from video posted to Facebook, a Minneapolis police officer kneels on the neck of a man identified by a family attorney as George Floyd, May 25, 2020. Floyd died shortly after the incident. (Darnella Frazier via Storyful) The Minneapolis Police Department announced Tuesday morning that the FBI will be a part of the investigation into the death. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said Tuesday that he pledged the department's full cooperation with any investigations. Earlier Tuesday, the mayor of Minneapolis tweeted that all four responding officers involved in the incident have been terminated. Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated. This is the right call. Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) May 26, 2020 "Being black in America should not be a death sentence," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference Tuesday morning. "For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man's neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you're supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense." Story continues MORE: Father and son charged with murder of unarmed black man Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia Frey called the incident "awful" and "traumatic," saying, "it serves as a reminder of how far we have to go." In a statement on Facebook, Frey added that, "I believe what I saw and what I saw is wrong on every level." "To our Black community, to the family: I'm so sorry," he wrote. PHOTO: George Floyd is pictured in an undated photo released by the office of Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump. (Courtesy Ben Crump Law) Police did not identify the man who died, but Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing his family, said he was George Floyd. "We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck," Crump said in a statement. "This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge." "We will seek justice for the family of George Floyd, as we demand answers from the Minnesota Police Department," he added. "How many 'white black' deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends?" Joe Biden tweeted about the tragedy Tuesday night, writing: "George Floyd deserved better and his family deserves justice. His life mattered. I'm grateful for the swift action in Minneapolis to fire the officers involved they must be held responsible for their egregious actions. The FBI should conduct a thorough investigation." George Floyd deserved better and his family deserves justice. His life mattered. I'm grateful for the swift action in Minneapolis to fire the officers involved they must be held responsible for their egregious actions. The FBI should conduct a thorough investigation. https://t.co/n1tdiUba0x Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 27, 2020 Jovanni Thunstrom, owner of Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis, confirmed to ABC News that Floyd worked at his bistro as a security guard for more than five years. "This hurts," Thunstrom said. "I loved him like a brother." He described Floyd as beloved by customers and employees alike, saying he often worked extra hours and never complained. He was not working there at the time of his death due to COVID-19 closures. Thunstrom said he first learned of Floyd's death when another security officer texted him saying he had seen a disturbing video and that it sounded like Floyd. "It broke my heart. He didn't deserve that, and the way he got killed, the officer had no compassion," Thunstrom said. "I feel bad because when you know for someone for so long, it's different when you see it. It looks so disturbing. That police officer could have saved his life. He couldn't breathe." "I wish I was there. I would've done something," he said. "I don't want him to be another statistic." PHOTO: Mourners gather around a makeshift memorial, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 in Minneapolis, near where an black man was taken into police custody the day before who later died. (Jim Mone/AP) MORE: Gregory McMichael, ex-police officer charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery, had service weapon suspended in 2019 Four Minnesota lawmakers, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Tina Smith, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Betty McCollum, released a joint statement Tuesday night calling for accountability in the death of Floyd. In a letter to U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, they say they are demanding thorough investigations at all levels...into the events that led to this tragedy. While we understand that the facts are still coming to light, and that state and local authorities are reviewing the case, we believe that the seriousness of the incident requires additional independent oversight by law enforcement at all levels," the joint letter said. "We urge you to ensure that all evidence is quickly secured, including all video footage, and to aggressively pursue justice. Mr. Floyds death appears to be yet another horrifying instance of excessive force leading to the death of African Americans across this country," the lawmakers wrote. Klobuchar, a former prosecutor in Hennepin County where the death took place, also called for a "thorough outside investigation" into the incident in a statement on Twitter. "We heard his repeated calls for help. We heard him say over and over again that he could not breathe. And now we have seen yet another horrifying and gutwrenching instance of an African American man dying," Klobuchar said. "Every single person in every single community in this country deserves to feel safe. As the Mayor of Minneapolis noted, this tragic loss of life calls for immediate action." My statement on the officer-involved death in Minneapolis: pic.twitter.com/HUoGfXEj7R Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) May 26, 2020 She added that "justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country." PHOTO: Men gather outside a grocery store Tuesday, May 26, 2020 near where a black man died in police custody Monday night in Minneapolis. (Jim Mone/AP) The police union representing the officers did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment Tuesday. The Minneapolis Police Department said Monday that officers were initially called to the scene "on a report of a forgery in progress" in a statement on their website. The statement added that officers were advised that the suspect "appeared to be under the influence" and that he "physically resisted officers." He later "appeared to be suffering medical distress" and officers called an ambulance. He was transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance, "where he died a short time later." The police department said there were no weapons of any type used by anyone involved in the incident and no officers were injured. They started throwing tear gas at the protesters. Now they are following protestors with drones and sandbag guns. pic.twitter.com/9iOko8cUE6 Hey you, wait me. (@BananaRamaNahh) May 27, 2020 ABC News' Stephanie Wash contributed to this report. This report was featured in the Wednesday, May 27 episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast. "Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts. Protesters clash with Minneapolis police following death of black man seen pinned down in video originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Advertisement A white woman dubbed Central Park Karen has been fired from her senior position at a New York investment firm after a video showed her calling the cops on an African-American man who asked her to put a leash on her dog. Amy Cooper, 41, was terminated from her job as head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton on Tuesday, having been placed on administrative leave a day earlier. Earning up to an estimated $170,000 per-year, the company came to the decision following an internal investigation into footage of Cooper hysterically dialing 911 on former Marvel Comics editor Christian Cooper, 57, on Monday, claiming an African American man is threatening my life. 'Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately,' the company said in a tweeted statement. 'We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.' Hours earlier, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had blasted the Canadian-native as a racist in response to coverage of the incident, which took place in the wooded area of the park known as The Ramble . 'The video out of Central Park is racism, plain and simple, de Blasio tweeted Tuesday, 'She called the police BECAUSE he was a Black man. 'Even though she was the one breaking the rules. She decided he was the criminal and we know why. This kind of hatred has no place in our city,' the mayor continued. Following the backlash against Coopers actions, New York State Lawmakers Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and Senator Brian Benjamin introduced new legislation Tuesday that would make falsely reporting an incident as a hate crime illegal, should it pass. While the NYPD say theyll not be pursuing charges against Cooper, the New York City Commission on Human Rights has announced that its launching its own investigation into the matter, calling the incident 'unacceptable'. Amy Cooper, 41, has since apologized and has been placed on administrative leave from her job as head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton after the confrontation with bird watcher Christian Cooper, 57, in Central Park. She called the cops and told them an African-American man was threatening her life after he simply asked her to put her dog on a leash on Monday Christian Cooper is an avid birdwatcher who noticed the dog unleashed in a wildlife protected area in Central Park but he claims when he asked her adhere to rules, she refused. He told NBC News: 'If the habitat is destroyed we wont be able to go there to see the birds, to enjoy the plantings. The only way they can keep the dog from eating the treat is to put it on a leash. At some point, she decided Im gonna play the race card, I guess' Before her termination was announced, Cooper told CNN she wanted to publicly apologize to everyone, and insisted she isnt a racist and didnt intend to inflict any harm on the African-American community. I'm not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way, she told the network. I think I was just scared. When you're alone in the Ramble, you don't know what's happening. It's not excusable, it's not defensible. Cooper says that now the video has sparked widespread outrage online, her 'entire life is being destroyed right now'. The incident has since been cited as yet another example of white people calling the police on African-Americans for unnecessary reasons, in acts many interpret to be fueled by racial prejudice. I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things, Cooper, a Harvard graduate, later explained to NBC New York. We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and Im just not going to participate in that, he continued. I'm not going to participate in my own dehumanization.' When asked if he would accept Coopers apology, Christian, a senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications, said if it's genuine and if she plans on keeping her dog on a leash in the Ramble going forward, then we have no issues with each other. Cooper has since conceded to CNN that she knew walking her dog unleashed in The Ramble was against the rules. 'He was running in an open field. This man, he was bird-watching. He came out of the bush,' Cooper said of Christian, claiming he was 'screaming' at her. Christian, meanwhile, says the dog was 'tearing through the plantings', and he was not screaming at the dog walker, he 'was actually pretty calm,' the wildlife preservation advocate said. Footage of the heated exchange was first shared by Christian and his sister, Melody Cooper, a writer and director on HBO's Two-Sentence Horror Stories. It begins with Cooper, nicknamed 'Central Park Karen' by social media users, stroking her rescue pet Henry then marching toward the camera, demanding: 'Please stop, sir I'm asking you to stop.' Amy Cooper was terminated from her job as head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton on Tuesday, having been placed on administrative leave a day earlier Footage emerged of her hysterically dialing 911 on former Marvel Comics editor Christian Cooper, 57, on Monday, claiming an African American man is threatening my life The woman is seen petting her pooch then suddenly asks the man to stop filming but when he doesn't stop she marches directly up to him with a stern message AMY COOPER'S APOLOGY Amy Cooper told NBC after 11 million viewers watched her call the police on Christian Cooper and claim 'there's an African American man threatening my life': 'I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone, especially to that man, his family. 'It was unacceptable and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone who's seen that video, everyone that's been offendedeveryone who thinks of me in a lower light and I understand why they do. 'When I think about the police, I'm such a blessed person. I've come to realize especially today that I think of [the police] as a protection agency, and unfortunately, this has caused me to realize that there are so many people in this country that don't have that luxury.' Advertisement Christian, a Harvard graduate who served as the president of the school's Ornithological Club in the 1980s, claimed in a Facebook post that he alerted Cooper to signs that states dogs cannot be walked in The Ramble without a leash as it's an area that protects wildlife. Christian claimed she replied that the dog runs are closed and her pet 'needs his exercise'. Christian explained in a Facebook post that he replied: 'All you have to do is take him to the other side of the drive, outside The Ramble, and you can let him run off leash all you want.' She replied: 'It's too dangerous.' 'Look, if you're going to do what you want, I'm going to do what I want, but you're not going to like it,' Christian responded. Cooper later told CNN that she 'didn't know' what Christian meant by that, adding 'when you're alone in a wooded area, that's absolutely terrifying, right?' Christian then beckoned the pooch toward him and pulled out 'dog treats I carry for such intransigence'. But he stated he didn't get a chance to toss any treats 'before Karen scrambled to grab the dog' and yelled: 'DON'T YOU TOUCH MY DOG!' 'That's when I started video recording with my iPhone, and when her inner Karen fully emerged and took a dark turn...' he wrote on Facebook Monday. In the clip he responds: 'Please don't come close to me' several times as the woman asks him to stop filming then tells him she's calling the cops. When Christian invites her to 'please call the cops', she responds, 'I'm going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life.' Christian responds to the dog owner: 'Please tell them whatever you like.' She is then heard saying: 'I'm in The Ramble and an African-American man with a bicycle helmet, he is recording me and threatening my dog.' She pauses for a moment then continues: 'I'm am in Central Park, there is an African-American man. He is recording me and threatening my dog.' There is another pause as the woman listens to the other end of the phone line then she suddenly sounds hysterical. 'I'm sorry I can't hear,' she cries. 'I'm being threatened by a man in The Ramble, please send the cops immediately' 'I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life,' she says as she gets closer to the man she apparently fears. The man tells her to say whatever she wants The woman repeats to cops that an African American man is recording her dog but after a brief pause she becomes hysterical and claims he's threatening her and her dog The man says thank you and stops filming as soon as she attaches her dog to a leash Christian wrote on Facebook that he offered the dog treats then things 'took a dark turn' After a brief pause she responds to the operator: 'I'm in Central Park in the Ramble, I don't know.' In the Ramble Central Park, New York City, dogs must be restrained at all times a sign states At that point the woman clips the dog onto a leash and Christian responds: 'Thank you' and stops filming. His sister Melody Cooper responded to a Twitter user that as soon as the woman leashed the dog, he said thank you, stopped filming and 'went about his business'. 'This kind of entitlement dog walking happens weekly in The Ramble,' she added. Christian, a board member of the NYC Audubon Society, later explained to NBC: 'If the habitat is destroyed we wont be able to go there to see the birds, to enjoy the plantings. 'The only way they can keep the dog from eating the treat is to put it on a leash. At some point, she decided Im gonna play the race card, I guess.' Christian says he continued to film the woman because he wasn't going to be intimated. Police said they responded to the call but both Christian and Cooper were no longer there. They said a call came in for a dispute, inside of Central Parks Ramble, around 8am but no report was filed and no arrests were made. Sergeant Mary Frances ODonnell said no one has come forward to police since. Melody explained that her sibling 'started filming her because she refused to put her dog on a leash and he sensed she was going to go full on Karen. And she did.' In a tweet on Tuesday afternoon, the lawyer husband of political adviser Kellyanne Conway, George Conway, revealed that he studied alongside Christian Cooper at Harvard. 'So it turns out that I'm a college classmate of the Central Park birdwatcher who videoed the lying racist dogwalker. It's a small world,' he tweeted. Christian Cooper went on to work at Marvel Comics from 1990 to 1999 as an associate editor, according to his LinkedIn profile. He's credited as working on the series 'Blade: The Vampire Hunter', 'The Punisher', and for creating and writing 'Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins' and 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy'. He now works as a senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications and sits on the board of the New York City Audubon Society, a non-profit dedicated to protecting wildlife and habitats. His father, Francis Hedgeman Cooper, was a long-serving science teacher in Long Island and a prominent civil rights activist in New York, before his passing away in 2019. He led the organization Congress of Racial Equality on Long Island during the 1960s and remained active in the fight for equality right up until his death, aged 86. Amy Cooper, a native of Canada, meanwhile, studied at the University of Waterloo in Ontario from 1998 to 2003, graduating with a degree in actuarial science. She then completed her masters in business administration in analytical finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2009. She started working at Franklin Templeton in 2015, and has previously worked at AIG, Citi, Lehman Brothers and Willis Towers Watson. When asked if he would accept Coopers apology, Christian, a senior biomedical editor at Health Science Communications, said if it's genuine and if she plans on keeping her dog on a leash in the Ramble going forward, then we have no issues with each other. Franklin Templeton issued a statement saying she has been placed on administrative leave The rescue shelter where the woman is believed to have adopted the dog from said she returned the dog after social media users accused her of choking the dog Adding to Cooper's woes, president of the Central Park Civic Association, Michael Fischer, is urging Mayor de Blasio to permanently ban her from the park. Fischer called Cooper's actions 'a disgusting display of intolerance', and said such behavior should 'never, ever be accepted in the City's public domain like Central Park'. 'The Central Park Civic Association condemns this behavior and is calling on Mayor de Blasio to impose a lifetime ban on this lady for her deliberate, racial misleading of law enforcement and violating behavioral guidelines set so that all can enjoy our citys most famous park,' he said, according to the NY Post. He added that his association has received a multitude of complaints from local residents who were equally as outraged by the woman's actions as he was. While the NYPD have said they aren't pursuing charges against Cooper, Fischer has urged the mayor's office to take action. 'The police, we know theyre busy and maybe they dont need to be the ones taking the action,' Fischer said. 'Maybe the mayor needs to take the action and go through the process of not allowing her in the park unless she goes for rehabilitation and gets help.' The community activist says his organization has not yet reached out to any city agencies regarding the incident, but he will be doing so in the coming days. A Manhattan DA candidate vowed to make sure Christian would not become yet another victim of the criminal justice system that has been criticized for disfavoring poor black Americans. 'This is serious. Happened today in Manhattan. As a public defender for over a decade, I have tried cases where the Manhattan DA uses a "hysterical 911 call" as categorical evidence of guilt. Usually there's no video like this to refute it,' Eliza Orlins explained. 'What happens: White lady calls the cops on Black man. Cops believe her. He gets arrested and then arraigned. Outrageous bail gets set. His family cannot afford to buy his freedom. He gets sent to Rikers Island, where he sits for any number of days, months, or years. 'Eventually the case resolves in some way--gets dismissed or he takes a plea to the charge or a lesser offense to get out because he's threatened with doing serious time. Meanwhile, he's potentially lost his job, his home, his children. Right now, it is even worse. 'People are sitting on Rikers Island on the basis of nothing more than an accusation (like in this video!) with the added risk of contracting COVID-19. So, we can call out these Karens," but also we need a Manhattan DA who is committed to real reform. I will be that DA.' Manhattan DA candidate Eliza Orlins vowed to make sure Christian would not become yet another victim of the criminal justice system that had been criticized for disfavoring poor black Americans Orlins' tweets evoked memories of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy killed in 1955 after Carolyn Donham accused him of assaulting her, as well as the Central Park Five. Specifically, the teenagers dubbed the Central Park Five were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in the New York City park. They were convicted in 1990 and each served sentences from five years to 15 years before they were exonerated. Social media users called for the woman in Monday's video to be fired. In response, she was placed on administrative leave on Monday night. 'We take these matters very seriously and we do not condone racism of any kind,' Franklin Templeton stated on Monday. 'While we are in the process of investigating the situation, the employee involved has been put on administrative leave.' Throughout the video the dog is seen flailing around seemingly eager to be free of Amy Cooper's restraint as she grabs the harness by the neck without attaching a leash. It led to calls from social media for the dog to be removed from her care due to concerns she was choking it. Viewers of the video contact Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue which later said the dog had been returned. 'Thank you to the concerned public for reaching out to us about a video involving a dog that was adopted from our rescue a few years ago,' they wrote on Facebook. 'As of this evening, the owner has voluntarily surrendered the dog in question to our rescue while this matter is being addressed. 'Our mission remains the health and safety of our rescued dogs. The dog is now in our rescues care and he is safe and in good health. We will not be responding to any further inquiries about the situation, either.' Speaking to NBC New York on Monday, Cooper said: ''I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone, especially to that man, his family. 'It was unacceptable and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone whos seen that video, everyone thats been offended everyone who thinks of me in a lower light and I understand why they do. 'When I think about the police, Im such a blessed person. Ive come to realize especially today that I think of [the police] as a protection agency, and unfortunately, this has caused me to realize that there are so many people in this country that dont have that luxury.' Falsely reporting an incident as a hate crime should be criminalized, say New York lawmakers in new legislation, as city's Commission on Human Rights launches investigation into Amy Cooper Falsely reporting an incident as a hate crime could be criminalized in New York if new legislation proposed Tuesday is passed a consideration spurred by a now infamous viral video of a white investment banker hysterically dialing 911 on an African-American birdwatcher. The incident, involving Amy Marie Cooper, 41, and former Marvel Comics editor, Christian Cooper, 57, has been cited as the latest example of a white person weaponizing the police against a person of color. In the footage widely shared on Monday, Christian, a Harvard graduate and board member of the New York City Audubon Society, is heard asking Cooper to leash her dog in an area of Central Park known as The Ramble to help preserve bird habitats. Cooper responds by calling law enforcement, frantically claiming that an African American man is threatening my life. Police did respond to Central Park, but no arrests were made and both Cooper and Christian had left by the time they arrived. Following the backlash against Coopers actions, New York State Lawmakers Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and Senator Brian Benjamin have now introduced legislation to criminalize any similar acts across the state in the future. In the past year, we have seen many instances throughout both New York State and the country of people calling 911 on black people who are going about their everyday lives, only to be interrupted by someone calling the police for reasons that range from caution, to suspicious inkling to all out hated, Ortiz wrote in the bills justification. Following the backlash against Coopers actions, New York State Lawmakers Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (left) and Senator Brian Benjamin (right) have now introduced legislation to criminalize any similar future acts across the state The incident, involving Amy Marie Cooper, 41, and former Marvel Comics editor, Christian Cooper, 57, has been cited as yet another example of a white person weaponizing the police against a person of color State Sen. Benjamin, meanwhile, called the incident frightening and voiced his shock at such an occurrence happening just blocks away from where many of my constituents live. This woman was so willing to fabricate a story despite being filmed, he said, as reported by PIX11. I worry that if she had not been filmed, this woman may have been given the benefit of the doubt, and that this man could have faced serious, perhaps life threatening consequences if the police had arrived. While the NYPD say theyll not be pursuing charges against Cooper, the New York City Commission on Human Rights has announced that its launching its own investigation into the matter. At a time when the devastating impacts of racism in Black communities have been made so painfully clearfrom racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes, to harassment of essential workers on the frontlinesit is appalling to see these types of ugly threats directed at one New Yorker by another, Sapna Raj, deputy commissioner of the Law Enforcement Bureau at the Commission on Human Rights, told the NY Post. Efforts to intimidate Black people by threatening to call law enforcement draw on a long, violent and painful history, and they are unacceptable. We encourage Ms. Cooper to cooperate with the Commission and meaningfully engage in a process to address the harm that she has caused, Raj added. The Commission on Human Rights has issued a letter of inquiry to Cooper, requesting her cooperation in a pre-complaint intervention. While the body cannot bring about criminal charges, it does have the authority to implement hefty fines for any perceived violations of human rights law, and can award compensatory damages to victims, including emotional distress damages. The Commission can also order trainings on the NYC Human Rights Law, changes to policies, and develop restorative justice relief such as community service and mediated apologies, in lieu of or in addition to fines and monetary relief, the department said. Amidst the fallout, Amy Cooper has been fired from her job at the investment firm Franklin Templeton. The Central Park Civic Association has also called for her to be banned from the park for life. Concern was also raised for Coopers rescue dog, who appeared to be flailing around and trying to free itself from her grasp as she hauled the dog up by its neck harness. She has since surrendered the dog back to Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue. Central Park birdwatcher says actions of white investment banker Amy Cooper, 41, who called the cops on him when he asked her to leash her dog were 'definitely racist' - but urges people to stop sending her death threats Christian Cooper, whose video of a white investment banker calling the police on him over the Memorial Day weekend went viral on Monday, has urged people to stop sending the woman death threats. The birdwatcher acknowledged the apology of 41-year-old Amy Cooper but said her actions were still definitely racist. I think her apology is sincere, Christian told CNN on Tuesday night. I'm not sure that in that apology she recognizes that while she may not be or consider herself a racist, that particular act was definitely racist. And the fact that that was her recourse at that moment - granted, it was a stressful situation, a sudden situation - you know, maybe a moment of spectacularly poor judgment. But she went there and had this racist act that she did. Earlier Tuesday, Amy Cooper told the network she wanted to publicly apologize to everyone for her actions, insisted she didnt mean any harm to Christian or the African-American community. I'm not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way, she told the network. I think I was just scared. When you're alone in the Ramble, you don't know what's happening. It's not excusable, it's not defensible. Cooper said that since the video sparked widespread outrage online, her 'entire life is being destroyed right now'. Christian Cooper, whose video of a white investment banker calling the police on him over the Memorial Day weekend went viral on Monday, has urged people to stop sending the woman death threats Earlier Tuesday, Amy Cooper told the network she wanted to publicly apologize to everyone for her actions, insisted she didnt mean any harm to Christian or the African-American community In the hours that followed, Cooper was branded as a racist pure and simple by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio in a scathing tweet. The admonishment was followed by a tweet from her employer, investment firm Franklin Templeton, who announced she had been fired as head of insurance solutions with immediate effect, following the conclusion of an internal investigation. I think her apology is sincere, Christian told CNN on Tuesday night. I'm not sure that in that apology she recognizes that while she may not be or consider herself a racist, that particular act was definitely racist Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton, the companys statement read. While the NYPD say theyll not be pursuing charges against Cooper, the New York City Commission on Human Rights has announced that it is launching its own investigation into the matter. State lawmakers have also introduced new legislation that would make falsely reporting an incident as a hate crime as many have accused Cooper of illegal, should it pass. When asked if he believed Cooper was a racist, Christian told CNN: I cant answer that. Only she can answer that. And I would submit probably the only way she's going to answer that is going forward. How she conducts herself and, you know, how she chooses to reflect on this situation and examine it. Speaking to NPR, Christian elaborated: Now, should she be defined by that, you know, couple-of-seconds moment? I can't answer that. I think that's really up to her and what she does going forward. Christian said hes been stunned by the amount of attention the video has received in the last 24 hours. He had been hoping to appear on CNN alongside Cooper to help bring a close to something that has snowballed quite significantly, though she didnt respond to the networks invitation. The 57-year-old said hes sure Cooper has been inundated with messages, just as he has, but he urged anyone from reaching out to remain civil and be careful with their words. I am told there has been death threats and that is wholly inappropriate and abhorrent and should stop immediately, he said. I find it strange that people who were upset that ... that she tried to bring death by cop down on my head, would then turn around and try to put death threats on her head. Where is the logic in that? he said. Where does that make any kind of sense? Anti-Russian rhetoric in Ukraine has only grown louder after the change of power in that country a year ago, when Vladimir Zelensky was elected president, Russias Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said. "Rhetoric has visibly toughened," he said in an interview with the Vecher (Evening) with Vladimir Solovyov program on the Rossiya-1 television channel. "So, it would be have to say that anything has changed in Ukraines foreign policy after the change of power in Kiev." "Moreover, we wrote in one of our press statement not long ago in response to Ukraines chest-thumping allegations that it had once again barred Russia from doing something that he had a feeling that the only priority of Ukraines foreign policy was opposing Russia in all possible formats," TASS cited the Russian diplomat as saying. May 20 marked a year since Vladimir Zelenskys inauguration. In 2019, he swept a convincing victory in the runoff presidential election, with 73% of votes. Her Netflix stand-up special Nanette made her an overnight sensation. But on Tuesday, Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby admitted she's never watched the live comedy performance. During an interview on The Project, the 42-year-old revealed: 'I haven't seen Nanette. I was there, I'm well aware of what it was.' 'I haven't seen Nanette!' On Tuesday, Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby revealed she hasn't watched her Netflix stand-up special She continued, telling host Peter Helliar: 'Imagine watching your own show with other people. Would you do that?' Hannah won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special and a prestigious Peabody award, both for Nanette, last year. The comedian's appearance on The Project comes as she prepares to launch her new Netflix comedy special Douglas. She told The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday that she is worried the new show could fail because her first special Nanette became a global sensation. 'Imagine watching your own show': During an interview on The Project, she revealed: 'I haven't seen Nanette. I was there, I'm well aware of what it was' 'After a show like Nanette, that wasn't supposed to be successful, the fact that it was meant maybe I'm not a great judge of expectations,' she told the publication. She added: 'So what I did with Douglas was just accept it very much could fail.' Hannah also explained the new special, Douglas, is very different to Nanette, which dealt with homophobia and difficult issues. Exciting! The comedian's appearance on the show comes as she prepares to launch her new Netflix comedy special Douglas 'I am fresh out of trauma, had I known trauma would be so popular in the context of comedy I would have budgeted a bit better,' she joked to the paper. The show, which is named after one of Hannah's beloved dogs, was filmed in Los Angeles back in February. According to the Netflix synopsis of the show, Hannah took Douglas 'for a walk across the planet, finishing up in Los Angeles, and recording her second stand-up special'. TEL AVIV An Israeli court ruled Tuesday that a former principal of a Jewish girls school in Australia accused of sexually assaulting her students has been faking mental illness for years and is fit to face extradition proceedings. Australia has been trying to extradite the former principal, Malka Leifer, for about six years on 74 charges of sexual assault, but her lawyers have argued that she was mentally ill and unable to stand trial. In her 40-page ruling, Judge Chana Lomp of the Jerusalem District Court said that Ms. Leifer had been impersonating someone with mental illness. My conclusion is that the respondent is able to stand trial and the extradition proceedings should be resumed in her case, Judge Lomp wrote. PARIS - Frances government is injecting more than 8 billion euros ($8.8 billion) to save the countrys car industry from huge losses wrought by virus lockdowns, and wants to use the crisis to make France the No. 1 producer of electric vehicles in Europe. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The headquarters of French carmaker Renault is pictured in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, Monday, May 25, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron is set to unveil sweeping new measures to rescue France's car industry, hammered by virus lockdown and the resulting recession. The issue is politically sensitive, since France is proud of its auto industry, which employs 400,000 people and is an important part of the country's remaining manufacturing sector. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) PARIS - Frances government is injecting more than 8 billion euros ($8.8 billion) to save the countrys car industry from huge losses wrought by virus lockdowns, and wants to use the crisis to make France the No. 1 producer of electric vehicles in Europe. Starting next week, consumers can get up to 12,000 euros from the government for buying an electric car under the historic plan unveiled Tuesday by French President Emmanuel Macron. Our country wouldnt be the same without its great brands Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Macron said, decrying an unprecedented crisis for the industry that has seen production plunge more than 90% in France alone. The logo of French carmaker Renault is pictured at the Flins plant of French carmaker Renault in Aubergenville, west of Paris, Monday, May 25, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron is set to unveil sweeping new measures to rescue France's car industry, hammered by virus lockdown and the resulting recession. The issue is politically sensitive, since France is proud of its auto industry, which employs 400,000 people and is an important part of the country's remaining manufacturing sector. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena) Carmakers and governments around the world are grappling with similar losses. Politicians are divided over whether and how to bail out an industry that already won billions in government support a decade ago after the 2008 financial crisis and that was already facing major new costs and disruption with growing demand for autonomous and cleaner cars. Macron's 8-billion-euro plan includes a 5-billion-euro French government loan guarantee under discussion for struggling French automaker Renault, but not the millions the government has already spent on temporary unemployment payments to auto workers told to stay home for weeks to keep the virus at bay. The new plan includes government subsidies to encourage consumers to scrap their old cars and buy lower-emissions models, and longer-term investment in innovative technology. Macron set a goal of producing 1 million electric cars in France by 2025. Our country should embody this avant-garde, he said. "We need not only to save (the industry) but transform it." The logo of French car maker maker PSA is seen outside a technical center Tuesday, May 26, 2020 in Villacoublay, west of Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron is set to unveil on Tuesday new measures to rescue the country's car industry, which has been hammered by the virus lockdown and the resulting recession. The issue is politically sensitive, since France is proud of its auto industry, which employs 400,000 people in the country and is a big part of its manufacturing sector. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) Macrons plan appears ambitious. Battery-powered cars are still only a fraction of auto sales in Europe, though manufacturers are focusing on them to meet the European Unions carbon emissions targets. The biggest European maker of battery-powered and plug-in hybrid cars is Germanys BMW, followed closely by Renault, but U.S.-based Tesla sells more than either, according to trade magazine EV Volumes. Germany is also the biggest European market for electric cars, and the countrys manufacturers are ramping up their offerings. French unions blockaded a Renault plant in western France on Tuesday, fearing fallout from the virus could lead to widespread job losses and factory closures. Bailouts a decade ago included a government bonus plan that encouraged consumers to buy newer cars, though that didnt prevent thousands of job cuts. Renault is expected to announce a $2.2 billion cost-cutting plan to unions this week, and Macron said that the Renault loan guarantee is contingent on keeping open two key French factories. French President Emmanuel Macron, center, wearing a protective face mask, visits a factory of manufacturer Valeo in Etaples, , northern France, Tuesday May 26, 2020. Emmanuel Macron announced a 8 billion euro ($8.8 billion) plan Tuesday to save the country's car industry from huge losses wrought by virus lockdowns, including a big boost for electric vehicles. The plan includes government subsidies for car buyers and longer-term investment in innovative technology, especially in battery-powered cars. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP) France's auto industry employs 400,000 people and is a big part of its manufacturing sector, but shuttered showrooms and suspended production as the virus swept across the country in March. The country started easing restrictions on May 11. The plan to support the industry comes at a crucial time for carmaker Renault, which came into the virus crisis in bad shape after the 2018 arrest of its star CEO Carlos Ghosn. The French finance minister warned that the company's survival is at stake, and Renault and Nissan have scheduled an announcement Wednesday that is expected to address the future of their alliance. PSA Group, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, is in better shape after years of cost-cutting under CEO Carlos Tavares. PSA reported record profits last year, but has also seen sales plunge amid virus lockdowns. It is in the process of merging with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to create the worlds fourth-largest auto maker. U.S. automakers havent received direct government help yet but car dealers and auto suppliers can apply for low-interest loans. Some U.S. some politicians dont want to bail out carmakers again after they got huge bailouts after the 2008 financial crisis. In Germany, automakers are pressing for car purchase incentives to support major employers and prevent layoffs. The idea is opposed by some legislators in Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative party and by an expert council of economists, who advised tax breaks and lower energy costs for all companies instead of singling out one industry for help. A decision on the issue could come as early as next week. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Italian-American Fiat Chrysler, which has its corporate headquarters in the Netherlands and its financial base in Britain, confirmed this month a request for an Italian state-backed loan worth 6.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion). The move set off debate in Italy over whether such money should be made available to companies with legal headquarters overseas. Britain's government is considering bailing out companies whose demise would disproportionately affect the economy, on a last resort basis. The Financial Times reported Sunday that Jaguar Land Rover was among those approaching the government to acquire stakes as part of a broader manufacturing bailout. And supercar maker McLaren Group on Tuesday said it would cut 1,200 jobs - a quarter of its workforce. ___ This story has been corrected to show that a loan to Renault is part of the rescue package. ___ Angela Charlton in Paris, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report. An artist has kept himself busy during coronavirus lockdown by creating a gigantic kookaburra sculpture which performs the native bird's famous laugh. Farvardin Daliri built the four-and-a-half-metre tall bird while social distancing in Bellbowrie, south-west Brisbane. The structure, which is eight-and-half metres from the tail to the beak, is made with rounded steel bars which are locked together. 'Then on the top of the holographic steel bars which are light enough to travel, I put natural materials like bamboo skins which are being treated and painted,' Dr Daliri told ABC Radio. 'It forms a nice shape of the kookaburra with feathers and a moving jaw.' The bird's jaw moves up to its beak as its iconic laugh, also known as the 'bushman's alarm clock', booms. Video footage shared to the artist's Facebook page showed the kookaburra bellow as it was wheeled along a suburban street. 'The lower beak hangs with a motor that pulls a shaft up and down, with a sound effect that is also in-built, so the kookaburra can laugh for everyone to hear,' Dr Daliri said. Locals and neighbours intrigued by the bird and its distinct sound have been invited around for 'sticky beak', while following social distancing guidelines. Dr Daliri told Daily Mail Australia locals have been inquisitive over the structure after seeing the bird tower over his backyard fence. The sculptor explained he chose to bring the kookaburra to life because it is uniquely Australian. 'The kookaburra is Aussie cultural icon,' Dr Daliri said. 'When it laughs, it becomes part of our culture about having a sense of humour.' Farvardin Daliri built the four-and-a-half metre tall native bird while social distancing in Bellbowrie, south-west Brisbane Dr Daliri was brought up in Iran and moved to Australia in 1984. He divides his time between Townsville and Brisbane. The kookaburra, which took five months to build, was created for the Townsville Cultural Festival, which he founded. Dr Daliri said the festival is about unifying the local community and he believes the kookaburra is the perfect bird to deliver the message. 'Australia has some cultural uniqueness which includes kookaburra and koala. Whether you talk about Dreamtime, or settlement,' he explained. 'It becomes a very useful creature that can make us all feel as one. 'No one can say why it's laughing, it just laughs for the sake of laughing. 'The icon of the kookaburra represents the message of the festival.' The structure, which is eight-and-half metres from the tail to the beak, is made with rounded steel bars which are locked together The kookaburra will be driven from Brisbane to Townsville at the end of July to encourage tourism and celebrate the festival amid the coronavirus pandemic. The festival has altered their plans due to social distancing restrictions brought in by the health crisis. Dr Daliri said the festival would be themed 'laughter' due to the rough start to the year. 'Around this kookaburra we are holding laughing sessions. If they don't know how to laugh kookaburra can teach them,' he said. 'We will have the last laugh with kookaburra once we're done with corona[virus].' The festival, which promotes community spirit through dance, music, food and fun, is due to celebrate its 26th anniversary in 2020. The National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), the regulator of Nigerias film industry, popularly known as Nollywood, has adopted virtual platforms as part of film censoring and classification process amidst the Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown. Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director, NFVCB, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja. According to Mr Thomas, the virtual operation is to present an opportunity to classify movies and video works produced before the COVID-19 lockdown which has totally halted the motion picture sector. We understand it has been a challenging period for us as a nation with the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic. I encourage our filmmakers to keep the spirit high and take all necessary precautions as advised and directed by relevant government bodies and agencies. However, in order to keep the system running so as not to jeopardise the business interest of stakeholders, the board now operates virtually from its headquarters here in Abuja. Should they have any finished film/video work for censorship during this period, they can get such works to us through an online process, he said. The NFVCB boss explained that after paying prescribed fees, a film producer can proceed to the Bank and generate a Remita payment receipt and the prospective film/video can be uploaded to Google Drive, Vimeo or any similar channel. READ ALSO: He explained further that the link and access password should thereafter be forwarded to the NFVCB, or such film/video work should be sent to verification@nfvcb.gov.ng. for further directives. The NFVCB boss regretted the harsh realities of the pandemic on the global economy, including the creative sector and the motion picture industry in particular. He, however, expressed hope that the tough time would soon pass in all aspects of national life and urged Nollywood stakeholders to adhere to precautionary measures prescribed by health authorities toward preventing Coronavirus. He extolled the Federal Government, health institutions and governments of affected states, for being proactive and steadfast in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. We must be hopeful and prayerful and at the same time be thankful to all the medical teams and other stakeholders battling the pandemic for the safety of all. We should always remember and support them in our prayers, especially the medical teams, the police and other security agents keeping the peace, Mr Thomas said. NFVCB is a Federal Government agency that regulates the films and video industry in Nigeria. The Board is empowered by law to classify all films and videos whether imported or produced locally. It is also the duty of the Board to register all films and videos outlet across the country and to keep a register of such registered outlets, among other functions. (NAN) A protester walks by a restaurant open for take-out business as fellow protesters gather outside the Capital Complex in Harrisburg on April 20. They are calling for Gov. Wolf to reopen up the state's economy during the coronavirus outbreak. Read more Is it better to dig a strong foundation or build a solid house? Say that again. You cant build a solid house without a strong foundation. Theyre inseparable. The question is ridiculous. Its not as ridiculous as you might think. The United States is currently embroiled in a vitriolic political debate over a question that is just as nonsensical should we favor public health or the economy? It plays out as a contest between relaxing COVID-19 lockdowns cautiously based on public health advice and repealing them quickly to encourage economic growth. Disease mitigation and economic revival are both, of course, desperately needed, but they are inseparable. Just as a house cant be solid if the foundation isnt, an economy cant be healthy if the population isnt. A house with a weak foundation may seem substantial but only until a storm hits. An economy without a robust public health infrastructure may seem prosperous but only until widespread illness strikes. If we have learned anything from the horrors of this pandemic it is that lesson. Economies dont flourish despite public health. They flourish because of it. It is a lesson that is hardly new. We have seen it demonstrated time and time again over the centuries. To take a local example, in 1793 an epidemic of yellow fever brought the economy of Philadelphia to a halt as business activity ceased. Sound familiar? Those who could, left the city or avoided visiting, including such notables as President George Washington and Vice President John Adams. Years later, mosquitoes were identified as the source of transmission, leading to preventive measures and eventually to a vaccine. Yellow fever epidemics no longer threaten our lives and economy. Mosquito control came to the rescue again in the early 20th century to conquer the greatest obstacle to completion of the Panama Canal. The spread of yellow fever and malaria from mosquitoes sickened thousands of workers and almost brought construction to a standstill. More recently, the Ebola epidemic of 2013 and 2014 not only took thousands of lives but also stunted economic growth in several West African countries. The SARS outbreak in 2003 crippled tourism, an economic engine for Hong Kong, as did MERS for South Korea in 2015 and H1N1 influenza for Mexico in 2009. It is not just during epidemics that economies need strong public health support. Research across countries shows that those with weak health systems have more difficulty sustaining economic growth. It also shows that countries whose populations enjoy better health status tend to have higher incomes. Today, it is public health that will support recovery from the economic devastation of COVID-19 lockdowns. Reopening state economies without measures like testing, contact tracing, and disease tracking risks waves of disease resurgence that could lead to even greater economic disruption and the need for new lockdowns. Public health support can lay the foundation for a more sustainable economic revival. Relaxing lockdowns too rapidly may not even help in the short-term. Recent polling shows that just 23% of Americans would be comfortable going out to eat or visiting a shopping mall. Only 12% would be comfortable attending a concert. Business wont return to anything approaching normal until the public is reassured that it is truly safe to venture out, and only continued public health support and guidance can provide that reassurance. As we have learned over and over in the past, economies need strong public health foundations to grow and thrive. No one benefits if our reopened economy is built as a house of cards. Robert I. Field holds a joint appointment as a professor of law at the Kline School of Law and a professor of health management and policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. He is an expert in public health law and policy and a member of The Inquirers Health Advisory Panel. Further easing of coronavirus lockdowns pushed global equities higher on Tuesday, with optimism stoked by the reopening of bars, cafes, pools and beaches outweighing China-US tensions that have hurt the dollar. While countries including Brazil, Chile and Russia are enduring rising death tolls and infection rates from COVID-19, an increasing number of governments are seeing figures tail off. "Once again, the markets embraced an optimistic outlook... setting aside fears over the long-term economic impact of the pandemic and the ever-growing tensions between the US and China to focus on another round of global easing measures," said Connor Campbell, analyst at trading group Spreadex. Adding to the broadly positive outlook was optimism about progress on a possible vaccine, which would allow the shattered global economy to start bouncing back. But Chris Iggo at AXA Investment Managers warned, "That does not mean we should ignore the risk of second waves, prolonged weak growth and geopolitical issues." Wall Street, where the New York Stock Exchange trading floor reopened after two months of closure, finished higher, with the Dow gaining 2.2 percent to 24,995.11. "US stock markets are gearing up for a strong start to the week as further lockdown easing and some more promising vaccine news lifted sentiment after the bank holiday weekend," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA Europe. Key European markets were all one percent or more higher at the closing bell, with London playing catch-up after a strong eurozone performance on Monday, though its gains were capped by a rising pound. Earlier, Asian markets had closed higher, with Tokyo rising more than two percent, and Hong Kong up 1.9 percent as city leader Carrie Lam sought to reassure investors. She said fears that Hong Kong's business-friendly freedoms were at risk from a planned Chinese national security law were "totally groundless". But OANDA's Erlam warned that whatever good news may be looming on the COVID-19 front stood to be undermined by worsening relations between Washington and Beijing, which he said "will be a constant headwind for stock markets". US President Donald Trump warned that Hong Kong could lose its status as a global financial center if the proposed Chinese crackdown goes ahead. Critics fear the law could be a death blow to the city's treasured liberties, which are crucial to making it an international financial center on a par with New York and London. Oil prices pushed on with their recovery, having suffered a spectacularly bad April when WTI crashed below zero. The reopening of economies and a massive cut in output by some of the world's top producers has helped the US benchmark WTI virtually double in value this month. - Key figures at around 2040 GMT - New York - Dow: UP 2.2 percent at 24,995.11 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 1.2 percent at 2,991.77 (close) New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.2 percent at 9,340.22 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 1.2 percent at 6,067.76 (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 1.0 percent at 11,504.65 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 1.5 percent at 4,606.24 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.9 percent at 2,999.22 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.6 percent at 21,271.17 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 1.9 percent at 23,384.66 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.0 percent at 2,846.55 (close) West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.3 percent at $34.35 per barrel Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.8 percent at $36.17 per barrel Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0984 from $1.0898 at 2100 GMT Friday Dollar/yen: DOWN at 107.54 yen from 107.71 yen Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2335 from $1.2191 Euro/pound: DOWN at 89.04 pence from 89.39 pence burs-jmb/cs A cyber attack last week shut down hundreds of Israeli websites and impacted an Israeli research institute developing a coronavirus vaccine. According to CBN News, the attacks were not meant to steal information but to hamper vaccine development. Israeli officials said the attacks caused no damage. Some of the websites targeted in the attacks were replaced with a video stream of Israeli cities being bombed and a message that threatened Israel. The Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) said Thursday it was a superficial defacing of websites of private bodies in Israel done via a single storage firm hosting those websites. Its unclear who is responsible for the cyber attacks, but an Israeli news station suggested Iranian hackers may have been involved. Israel and Iran have been engaged in cyber warfare after Israel allegedly knocked out Irans port computers, shutting down traffic at Irans Shahid Rajee port terminal. That attack is presumed to come in retaliation for an Iranian hacking attempt on Israeli water distribution networks, but Iran has denied involvement in that hacking attempt. Hackers had tried to cripple computers that control water flow and wastewater treatment in Israel. Israeli Water Authority officials detected the cyber attack before there was any damage. Israel isnt the only country being targeted in cyber attacks on vaccine research organizations. The U.S. reported earlier this month that state-sponsored Chinese hackers were targeting U.S. labs and the United Kingdom reported that Russia was trying to hack some of its research labs. "There is nothing more valuable today than biomedical research relating to vaccines for treatments for the coronavirus," said Jon Demers, the head of the Justice Departments National Security Division. "It's of great importance not just from a commercial value but whatever countries, company or research lab develops that vaccine first and is able to produce it is going to have a significant geopolitical success story." Photo courtesy: Getty Images/Motortion Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner. South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has granted approval to Samsung to use the Electrocardiogram (ECG) feature for measuring heart rhythms on the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The feature is already available on Apple Watch globally. The Samsung Health Monitor app also received clearance for blood pressure measurement and users will be able to conveniently measure both ECG and BP, giving them a better picture of their overall health. "When you pair the advanced hardware of Galaxy watches with innovative software solutions, you can create unmatched experiences such as in this case, convenient and accessible health check-ins for millions of users across the world," TaeJong Jay Yang, Corporate SVP and Head of Health Team, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics said in a statement. The ECG feature uses advanced sensor technology on the Galaxy Watch Active2 and will enable users to measure and analyze their heart rhythm for irregularities indicating Atrial Fibrillation (AFib). To measure the ECG, a user just need to open the app and place his smartwatch arm on a flat surface, and then place his fingertip of the other hand on the top button of the smartwatch for about 30 seconds. The Samsung Health Monitor app will be available on the Galaxy Watch Active2 within the third quarter and will progressively expand to upcoming Galaxy Watch devices. "This marks just one way in which Samsung is pioneering to give everyone a simple, convenient and informed picture of their overall health and wellness," said Jay Yang. The establishment houses 834 beds, which will be occupied by patients who require oxygen-therapy treatment. The corresponding coverage will benefit insured and uninsured patients residing in Lima and Callao. El Centro de Aislamiento Villa Mongrut atendera a pacientes, asegurados y no asegurados, que necesiten tratamiento de oxigeno terapia en Lima y Callao. pic.twitter.com/izYO6ovqN0 New York City is a shadow of its pre-pandemic normal. Like Shell, many residents are out of work, out of money, out of patience and out of sorts. Reassessments are happening throughout the country, but nowhere else are they as sharply focused as here, in the nations most populated, most dense, most diverse metropolis where more than 21,000 have died. Even with all the chaos, filth and struggle, nostalgics have long mourned every change in what they called the vanishing city. But calls to the citys mental health hotlines have surged. Whether they have left, or whether they have no option to leave, New Yorkers are having to ask themselves whether the city they love is really still livable. By Sean D. Hamill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Armstrong County Coroner Brian Myers caused a stir this past week when, in a Sunday night rant he posted on Facebook, he accused the state of posting untruths and misleading statistics about COVID-19 death figures for his county. Even though the state had corrected the problem reducing the number of COVID-19 deaths in his county from six to two on its daily report before he posted his concerns, he hinted at some ulterior reason for the states error. As to their motives behind inflating the numbers, I havent a clue, he wrote. His post went viral or at least as viral as a coroners post from a county with a 72,000 population can and quickly served as a Rosetta stone for various conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and how the state and hospitals and politicians generally are handling the crisis. As of Friday, his post had been shared more than 7,000 times and had generated nearly 1,000 comments, including from at least one other coroner. Thanks for speaking up Brian. I feel your frustration, Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha wrote in a comment that was liked or loved 150 times. The Coroners and Medical Examiners in PA have reported data for all deaths based on what county the death actually occurred. This includes opiate deaths, violet [sic] deaths, etc. And now, for some reason, the DOH are counting the deaths by where the deceased lived and NOT where they died. Very misleading, incosistant [sic] and inaccurate. The state says there is no ulterior motive. Its only trying to post daily death data on COVID-19 that is as accurate, and helpful, as it can get. State Department of Health spokesman Nate Wardle wrote in an email answer to questions that counting peoples deaths by the county of their official residence and not necessarily where they died is something that the state has always done, and for good reasons. County of death will present an inaccurate picture of mortality by county due to the fact that the majority of deaths occur in hospitals and some counties have more hospitals than other counties, meaning that residents of one county may live their entire life in one county but die in a hospital in another county, he wrote. The state has always kept data differently than coroners and medical examiners, he wrote, because the laws outlining coroners and medical examiners duties require they investigate all deaths within their counties. The states duty is to show the most accurate picture of a diseases spread. Presenting deaths by county of residence presents a more balanced picture of disease burden, he wrote. The confusion among coroners and others who see ulterior motives in how the state is reporting death data has its roots in a decision the state made at the beginning of the pandemic in March. Back then, the state decided that it wanted all of the states death certifiers primarily coroners, funeral directors, medical examiners and doctors to start using the states first ever Electronic Death Registration System, or EDRS, to file death information. The state had been working on developing the system for five years as a way to simplify reporting, which has been a hodgepodge of methods by different death certifiers, including many who were still faxing in paper death records. The states web page for EDRS says that is is still implementing the phase-in of its operation, having concluded phase 1 by getting all coroners, medical examiners and funeral directors up to speed, and that it will eventually get medical-related certifiers online at a future date. It turned out that future date was the beginning of the pandemic, and coroners say not only doctors, but some coroners and funeral directors were not ready, and few medical offices had even been trained in how it worked. Lycoming County Coroner Chuck Kiessling, president of the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association, said the problem with the EDRS system is that because so many medical offices were not trained on the system it is cumbersome for them. Veteran Lycoming County Coroner Charles Kiessling Jr.thinks a new system introduced by the state for reporting coronavirus deaths was cumbersome. Kiessling said he has heard doctors complain that they dont have time to watch a bunch of training videos the state offered them in lieu of in-person training. The doctors barely have time to complete a death certificate. Its just not realistic for the Department of Health to do this this way, he said. Its all well and good to mandate it, but your numbers are never going to be accurate until everyone is trained on its use. The state also declared in March that it would not take any more paper records for deaths because everyone who certifies deaths has to use EDRS. However, some doctors and funeral home directors refused to use EDRS, Kiessling said, and are still sending in paper records, and state employees have to type those into the system anyway. Theyve made exceptions to get them into the system, he said. At the same time, to get the quickest information on COVID-19 deaths, the state also was using a separate reporting system to track infectious diseases known as that National Electronic Disease Surveillance System or NEDSS, the same system that tracks other infectious diseases including the flu. That system takes in all lab test results, which is the starting point for a COVID-19 case. Once someone dies, the state would match that up with the case that was begun on NEDSS, which would only have the location of where the person died typically. If that death occurred in a nursing home, NEDSS only had the address of the nursing home. EDRS, on the other hand, would include that persons official residence, which may not be the nursing home because that person may not have lived there very long. Until this past week, the state was recording all nursing home deaths based on the case identification program on NEDSS, meaning all nursing home deaths were counted based on the location of the nursing home. When the state switched to EDRS, some of those nursing home deaths were switched to another county because thats where a persons official residence was. Beaver County, for example, saw its county death count drop overnight from 83 to 70 cases, presumably because at least 13 of the 76 people who lived at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center the nursing home with the states worst outbreak had official residences in other counties. NEDSS would have also listed a hospital or a doctors office as the location of a death, Mr. Wardle noted, but we would find out the actual residence during our case investigation, which was not necessarily the case with nursing homes because that could be a residence. This week the state started reporting nursing home deaths two different ways, as a result of the switch to the EDRS system. For the counts of COVID-19 deaths by county, the state is counting nursing home deaths by the county of their official residence. For the counts for each nursing home, the state is counting them by deaths in the nursing home because that data now is coming directly from the nursing homes. That switch of counting nursing home deaths two ways may have helped explain why Mr. Myers county count two weeks ago jumped to six from the two cases of COVID-19 deaths he knew about in Armstrong County. In the states release of data on nursing homes, it revealed that Parker Personal Care home in Armstrong County had anywhere from one to four deaths (the state does not reveal an exact number for a nursing or personal care home unless there are five or more deaths). Those residents who died at Parker may have had official residences outside the county, like the nursing home residents in Beaver County. The state has said that it is not double-counting deaths a criticism from some and seeks to avoid that, something Myers said he agrees with. Im not saying they are double-counting, he said. There was never proof that that was happening. And though his Facebook post made some people believe he was fanning the conspiracy of purposely inflated numbers by the state, or some move by hospitals to get paid more for COVID-19 deaths, he insists that was never his goal. Nobody is fudging the numbers, he said. No hospitals are doing it for funding. Thats not happening. The whole series of comments dismayed him enough, he said, that, thats probably why Ill never post anything on Facebook again. The state last week began an effort to respond to coroners request to have a hand in providing more accurate information by offering to let them access the same data they are using on EDRS for COVID-19 deaths. Kiessling thinks is it smart to let coroners play a check and balance role for the states data. Of course, if they had followed my lead two months ago and let the coroners take the lead [in death reporting on COVID-19 cases] we wouldnt be in this mess, he said. If theyd had all of death certifiers report to the coroners, wed have all the demographic information, where they died, how they died, and it would be more accurate. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2020) Russia calls on Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to refrain from using force amid reports of clashes on the border between the two countries and Moscow is ready to mediate the dispute if a request is made, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. "The situation on the border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, not for the first time, has unfortunately escalated. We urge our allies to engage in dialogue, to refrain from using force as much as possible, and we have offered to mediate. We believe the sooner the situation calms down, the better, and we told our allies that today," Lavrov said after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Shootouts on the partially-demarcated border between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have become increasingly common in recent weeks. The latest incident, which resulted in border guides from both countries opening fire on one another, took place on Sunday after Tajik farmers reportedly tried to graze cattle on Kyrgyz territory. In a separate incident that took place on May 8, residents from Kyrgyzstan's southern Batken region and Tajikistan's northern Sughd province began throwing rocks at each other. The situation escalated after both sides opened fire, which lead to Tajik border guards shelling their Kyrgyz counterparts with mortar rounds. Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the CSTO security alliance, which aims to strengthen regional security. Russia currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the organization, of which Armenia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are also members. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 348,000 people worldwide. More than 5.5 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations' outbreaks. Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 1.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 98,717 deaths. Today's biggest developments: NHL announces plan to resume play California reopening hair salons, barbershops in 47 of state's 58 counties 'The door is open' to hold Republican convention in Florida, governor says UK authorizes experimental drug remdesivir for COVID-19 patients Here's how the news developed Tuesday. All times Eastern. Please refresh this page for updates. 6:39 p.m.: NHL announces framework to resume play The National Hockey League, on hiatus since March 12, announced its intention to restart team training camps by mid-July in preparation for an amended Stanley Cup playoffs to be held in two "hub" cities. Twenty-four of the league's 31 teams will return to the ice to vie for the Stanley Cup, up from the 16 teams that usually make the playoffs. Each of the two conferences will conduct its games in a "hub" city to be selected from among Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver, league officials said. The top four teams in each conference will play a round-robin series to determine seeding, while the conference's remaining eight teams will play a best-of-five qualifying round, with the winners joining the top seeds for the playoffs' first round. Story continues Game dates and series formats are yet to be announced and will depend on medical conditions and government regulations. "We are hopeful the Return To Play Plan will allow us to complete the season and award the Stanley Cup in a manner in which the health and safety of our players, on-ice officials, team staff and associated individuals involved are paramount," Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. Officials with the National Basketball Association, whose season runs roughly parallel to the NHL's, are holding exploratory talks with The Walt Disney Company, ABC News' parent company, about resuming the NBA season at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, in late July, league officials say. This report was featured in the Wednesday, May 27, 2020, episode of Start Here, ABC News daily news podcast. "Start Here" offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, the ABC News app or wherever you get your podcasts. 6:10 p.m.: Ford pauses production at Kansas City plant A little more than two weeks after reopening its Kansas City plant, Ford Motor Co. has paused production after one of its workers tested positive for COVID-19, the automaker announced Tuesday. Production of the Ford Transit van at the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri, is temporarily paused until a deep clean is completed, the company said. The plant also manufactures the F-150 pickup truck. [Our] protocol calls for us to deep clean and disinfect the employees work area, equipment, team area and the path that the employee took while at the plant today," the company said in a statement. "We are notifying people known to have been in close contact with the infected individual and asking them to self-quarantine for 14 days. After closing its U.S. factories in mid-March, Ford resumed production at most plants, including Kansas City, on May 18. New safety protocols include maintaining six feet of distance at workstations, wearing masks and, in some cases, face shields, and temperature scans upon entering the building. 5 p.m.: California reopening hair salons, barbershops in most counties Hair salons, barbershops can now reopen in 47 of California's 58 counties, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, as the state moves into "phase three" of its reopening. "Forty-seven counties have self-attested to having plans of action as it relates to PPE, having the adequate number of testing ability to cohort individuals who have tested positive, or who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive," he said. PHOTO: Cyclists ride along the Venice Beach boardwalk on May 25, 2020 in Venice, California. (Amanda Edwards/Getty Images) Retail stores can also reopen with proper safety modifications, and places of worship can open with 25% capacity or 100 people maximum, he said. Guidelines for childcare and summer camps are expected to be released on Wednesday while plans for the television and film industry are expected to be announced this week or over the weekend, Newsom said. Nearly 100,000 Californians have been diagnosed and more than 3,800 have lost their lives due to the virus, Newsom said. Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis. 3:31 p.m.: 'The door is open' to hold GOP convention in Fla., governor says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signaled his openness to hosting the Republican National Convention in Florida. This comes after President Donald Trump on Memorial Day tweeted a threat to move the convention from North Carolina if the southern state's "Democrat Governor," Roy Cooper, wouldn't guarantee that a "full attendance in the Arena" would be allowed in August. MORE: Coronavirus lockdowns spark acts of resistance despite warnings of health consequences De Santis said Tuesday, "Florida would love to have the RNC. Heck, I'm a Republican, it would be good for us to have the DNC in terms of the in terms of the economic impact when you talk about major events like that." "The door is open, we want to have the conversation," he said. MORE: I took the contact tracer training, and here's what I learned But DeSantis also urged that the state would "abide" by any safety restrictions to host the event in an alternative venue. "So my posture on all this is we should try to get it done as best we can and in accordance with whatever safety requirements," he said. "But you know, his government will be talking about the safety restrictions, the president's government, so if he's going to do a convention obviously he's gonna want to abide by whatever they're saying. So if we can get that done and do it in a way that's safe, that would be a huge economic impact for the state of Florida." PHOTO: A woman orders food at the window of a restaurant in Miami Beach, Miami, May 19, 2020, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images) North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Mandy Cohen, has sent a letter to Republican National Convention CEO Marcia Lee Kelly, requesting "a written plan" for how to "approach the COVID-19 safety aspects of the convention." The letter -- obtained by ABC Raleigh station WTVD -- comes in response to the president's tweet on Monday, and confirms that the RNC and state officials in North Carolina were in talks about convention planning as recently as Friday. MORE: Faces of the coronavirus pandemic: Remembering those who died "We also discussed on Friday the need to plan for different levels of impact of COVID-19 so the RNC convention logistics could be tailored to the COVID-19 situation we find ourselves in at the end of August," Cohen wrote. She urged the RNC to consider "several scenarios" as they continue to move forward with planning. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday afternoon, "it's OK for political conventions to be political, but pandemic response cannot be. Already, we've been in talks with the RNC about the kind of convention that they would need to run and the kind of options that we need on the table." PHOTO: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper listens to a question during a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, N.C., May 20, 2020. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP) "We have asked the RNC to present to us in writing their proposal," Cooper said. "We asked NASCAR to do the very same thing, and NASCAR did a good job this weekend of executing their plan of face coverings, of social distancing, signage, cleaning." North Carolina has over 24,000 people diagnosed with the coronavirus. At least 766 people have died. PHOTO: Tyler Page works to disinfect and protect Sharky's Place in Raleigh, N.C., May 22, 2020, before reopening. (Robert Willett/The News & Observer via AP) Cooper warned Tuesday, "over the weekend we saw our highest one-day increase in positive cases and our highest day of hospitalizations yet." "This virus remains a serious threat and we cannot let our guard down," Cooper said. 3:10 p.m.: Virginia to require face coverings in public Everyone ages 10 and above in Virginia must wear a face covering when inside or at a public place starting this Friday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said. PHOTO: People wait in line to be tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Arlington, Va., May 26, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) This includes while on public transportation, while inside all personal care and grooming establishments, and while inside food and beverage establishments. Exceptions are for eating, drinking and exercising, as well as if health conditions prevent residents from wearing a covering, he said. Law enforcement will not have a role in making sure that people wear masks, Northam said. Virginia has over 39,000 cases of the coronavirus. At least 1,236 people have died. 2:20 p.m.: Chicago ramps up contact tracing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that the city is ramping-up community-level contact tracing with a new $56 million request for proposal (RFP) to expand contact tracing. Lightfoot said 85% of the funds will be directed to support at least 30 organizations that are neighborhood-based or service residents most impacted by COVID-19. MORE: In Chicago, coronavirus isn't the only problem black and Latino residents face: Reporter's Notebook At least 600 people will join the contact tracing team, the mayor said. Chicago has over 42,000 cases of COVID-19. Illinois has over 110,000 cases. PHOTO: A sign is displayed on a business across the street from the Chicago Cubs home stadium of Wrigley Field, which has been closed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions in Chicago, May 20, 2020. (Joshua Lott/Reuters) 11:57 a.m.: Over 600 TSA employees test positive A total of 614 TSA employees have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the agency. More than 400 of those employees have since recovered from the virus. Six TSA employees have died from the virus. PHOTO: A TSA worker waits for travellers at the Pittsburgh International Airport, May 7, 2020, in Pittsburgh, Pa. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images, FILE) The TSA last week said it's rolling out adjusted rules for traveling during the pandemic. Flyers are now permitted to bring a hand sanitizer container that's up to 12 ounces in their carry-on bags. Also, instead of handing their paper or electronic boarding pass over to the TSA officer, travelers can place the boarding pass directly on the scanner. 10:30 a.m.: NJ can resume pro sports In New Jersey, where over 155,000 people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, schools can hold outdoor graduation ceremonies beginning July 6, as long as they comply with social distancing, Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted on Tuesday morning. Guidance will be released on Wednesday, he said. MORE: What is R0 for the COVID-19 virus and why it's a key metric for re-opening plans Murphy also tweeted that the state's professional sports teams can resume training and competition, "if their leagues choose to move in that direction." "We have been in constant discussions with teams about necessary protocols to protect the health and safety of players, coaches, and personnel," Murphy said. New Jersey now has 23 cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) , a coronavirus-related illness in children. MORE: Mom of child recovering from COVID-related, multi-inflammatory disease speaks out: What parents should know The children range in age from 1 to 18. All of them required hospitalization. "Children with this syndrome may require intensive hospital care. It is important that parents take steps to prevent children from being exposed to COVID-19," said New Jersey's Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli. "Physical distancing from others, using face coverings, and practicing good hand hygiene are the best ways to prevent COVID-19. Common symptoms include persistent fever, irritability or sluggishness, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, rash, conjunctivitis, enlarged lymph node on one side of the neck, red cracked lips or red tongue, swollen hands and feet. "Health care providers have noted that this inflammatory syndrome can also be characterized by severe inflammation of the heart, blood vessels, the gastrointestinal tract, or other organs, believed to be caused by a reaction to the coronavirus," the New Jersey Department of Health said in a statement Tuesday. "The syndrome has features like Kawasaki disease and Toxic-Shock Syndrome." 8:14 a.m.: Coronavirus cases top 115,000 in Africa More than 115,000 people in Africa have now been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to a count kept by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 46,000 of those patients have recovered from the disease so far, while at least 3,471 others have died. South Africa is the country with the highest number of confirmed cases on the African continent -- more than 23,000 -- and its port city of Cape Town is the epicenter. However, Egypt has the highest number of deaths, nearly 800. PHOTO: A man, wearing a face mask to protect against the novel coronavirus, speaks to a woman in a building in Bo-Kaap neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa, on May 23, 2020. (Nardus Engelbrecht/AP) Although around half of all African nations have community transmission of the novel coronavirus, Africa is the least-affected region globally in terms of the number of cases and deaths reported to the World Health Organization. "Of course, these numbers don't paint the full picture," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during Monday's press briefing. "Testing capacity in Africa is still being ramped up and there is a likelihood that some cases may be missed. But even so, Africa appears to have so far been spared the scale of outbreaks we have seen in other regions." 7:25 a.m.: UK authorizes experimental drug remdesivir for COVID-19 patients The United Kingdom's medicines agency has authorized the use of the experimental drug remdesivir for coronavirus patients in the country. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency announced Tuesday that it would support the use of remdesivir, made by U.S. biopharmaceutical company Gilead, to treat adults and adolescents hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19. "We are committed to ensuring that patients can have fast access to promising new treatments for COVID-19," Dr. June Raine, the agency's chief executive, said in a statement. Remdesivir will be provided to the U.K. National Health Service free of charge by Gilead and will be for patients with "high, unmet medical need determined by a physician," according to the agency. The drug will also continue to be used in the country's clinical trials. PHOTO: An ampule of the antiviral drug remdesivir is pictured during a news conference at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, Germany, on April 8, 2020. (Ulrich Perrey/Pool via Reuters) Gilead originally developed remdesivir to treat patients with Ebola virus disease. However, the antiviral medication has been tapped as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Although clinical trials are still under way across the globe to determine whether remdesivir is in fact effective against the novel coronavirus, the initial data is promising. Preliminary results released last month from an NIH trial on more than 1,000 people severely sickened with COVID-19 in 75 hospitals around the world showed that those who received remdesivir recovered 31% faster than those who were given a placebo. 6:58 a.m.: Russia reports record daily spike in coronavirus deaths Russia said Tuesday that it has registered a record 174 coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide toll to 3,807. The latest daily increase in COVID-19 fatalities shatters the country's previous record of 153 new deaths reported on Sunday. However, the overall tally is still considerably lower than many other countries hit hard by the pandemic. Russia's coronavirus response headquarters also reported 8,915 new cases of COVID-19 over the same 24-hour period, placing the country's count at 362,342. PHOTO: A man rides a scooter in Moscow, Russia, on May 25, 2020. (Pavel Golovkin/AP) The latest daily caseload is down from a peak of 11,656 new infections reported on May 11, during which Russia registered over 10,000 new cases per day over a 12-day period. Since then, the daily number of new infections has hovered around 9,000 per day. Russian President Vladimir Putin began easing the nationwide lockdown earlier this month, despite a rising number of cases at the time. Over the weekend, Brazil surpassed Russia as the country with the second-highest number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the world, behind the United States, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. 6:02 a.m.: UK minister resigns over senior aide's lockdown controversy A junior minister of the United Kingdom's parliament has resigned over the controversy surrounding British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's closest aide, Dominic Cummings, who flouted nationwide lockdown restrictions back in March. Douglas Ross stepped down from his post as parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland on Tuesday, saying in a statement, "There was much I still hoped to do in this role but events over the last few days mean I can no longer serve as a member of this government." I haven't commented publicly on the situation with Dominic Cummings as I have waited to hear the full details. I welcome the statement to clarify matters, but there remains aspects of the explanation which I have trouble with. As a result I have resigned as a government Minister. pic.twitter.com/6yXLyMzItJ Douglas Ross MP (@Douglas4Moray) May 26, 2020 Ross' resignation comes on the heels of a press statement made by Cummings, in which he admitted to driving his child and ill wife more than 250 miles with from their London home to his parents house in northern England at the end of March during the lockdown. He said he didn't make any stops along the way. "I was worried that if my wife and I were both seriously ill, possibly hospitalized, there is nobody in London that we could reasonably ask to look after our child and expose themselves to COVID," Cummings said at a news conference Monday. PHOTO: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top advisor, Dominic Cummings, leaves his residence in north London on May 26, 2020. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images) Upon arriving at his parent's home, Cummings said he developed symptoms of COVID-19 while his wife began feeling better. Their 4-year-old son also fell ill and spent a night in the hospital but ultimately tested negative for the virus. As they recovered, Cummings said he sought "expert medical advice" and was told it was safe to drive his family back to London in mid-April. He maintained that he acted "reasonably and legally" and said he doesn't regret what he did. "While the intentions may have been well meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr. Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked," Ross said in his statement Tuesday. "I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit sick relatives because they followed the guidelines of the government. I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior advisor to the government was right." Johnson, however, has stood by his chief adviser, saying on Sunday that he believes Cummings acted "responsibly, legally and with integrity." 5:24 a.m.: US reports over 19,000 new coronavirus cases More than 19,000 people in the United States were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The country also reported over 500 new deaths from the disease on the same day. The United States is, by far, the hardest-hit nation in the coronavirus pandemic. New York remains the worst-hit U.S. state, with at least 362,764 diagnosed cases and 23,488 deaths, according to the latest data from the New York State Department of Health. What to know about coronavirus: How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map 3:50 a.m.: Latin America's largest airline files for US bankruptcy protection Latin America's largest airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday as the travel industry reels from the impact of lockdowns, quarantines and other restrictions imposed by governments around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic. LATAM Airlines Group said it and its affiliated companies in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States sought bankruptcy court protection in New York. "The U.S. Chapter 11 financial reorganization process provides a clear and guided opportunity to work with our creditors and other stakeholders to reduce our debt, address commercial challenges that we, like others in our industry, are facing as a group," the Santiago, Chile-based company said in a statement Tuesday. "It is very different from the concept of bankruptcy in other countries and is not a liquidation proceeding." PHOTO: In this file photo taken on July 25, 2016, an agent of LATAM Airlines stands by the counters at the airport in Santiago, Chile. (Esteban Felix/AP) LATAM Airlines CEO Roberto Alvo said the group is "committed to continuing flying." The bankruptcy filing won't affect efforts to return to regular operations and the company will respect its commitments with cargo customers. Travelers with existing tickets, vouchers and air miles can still use them. "Given the impact that that COVID-19 generated crisis has had on the aviation industry, LATAM has been forced to make a series of extremely difficult decisions in the past few months," Alvo said in a video message Tuesday. "These have been taken with the objective of ensuring the protection of the group, continuing operations and meeting commitments." LATAM Airlines is South America's biggest carrier by passenger traffic. It operated around 1,300 flights per day and transported a record 74 million passengers last year, according to the company's more recent annual report. "We are focused on looking towards a post-COVID future and centered in our business's transformation," Alvo said, "so that we may adapt to a new world and a new and evolving way of flying, where the health and safety of our passengers and employees is the first priority." ABC News' Dee Carden, Kendall Karson, Alina Lobzina, Amanda Maile, Bonnie Mclean, Sarah Shales and Eric Strauss contributed to this report. NHL announces plan to resume season with amended playoffs amid COVID-19 pandemic originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Mukesh Ranjan By Express News Service RANCHI: The highway kitchens set up by Jharkhand government has been feeding more than 25, 000 migrants every day returning to their homes walking on their foot, on bicycles, buses and private vehicles. The Jharkhand government has set up a total of 94 such community kitchens on these highways at a distance of every 20-km. On an average, more than 250 migrants commuting on these roads, are being provided with food. If counted together, it will make more than 25,000 meals every day at all the highway kitchens, said Food Director Sanjay Kumar. Self Help Groups (Sakhi Mandal) of Jharkhand State Rural Promotion Society have been roped in to run those kitchens in their areas by district administrations, he added. Besides, Ranchi administration has set up kitchens at police stations. Unable to walk or use his left side, Garry Hamnetts stroke left him with difficult challenges to face. While at a friends house for dinner, Garrys face started to droop and his arm became limp. Luckily his friend knew the signs of a stroke and immediately called for an ambulance. Garry was taken straight to Tauranga Hospital where he received urgent care. When Garry came around, he found himself in the acute stroke ward after being unconscious for five days. It was during this time that Garry was introduced to Jessica, a Stroke Foundation Community Stroke Advisor (CSA). That initial contact was fantastic. You feel lost when you first find out that youve had a stroke and worry about how youre going to be able to cope," says Garry. "Jessica shared lots of information about how to manage life after a stroke and helped not only me, but also my family through this difficult process." Garry completely lost the use of his left side which meant that he was confined to a wheelchair for a number of weeks. This was a huge challenge for him, as prior to his stroke he was running 5km every day. Finding out I would have to use a wheelchair was devastating. A lot of people who have a stroke fall into a downward spiral of negativity and at the start, I did too. But with Jessicas help, he was able to regain lost confidence. I started to remind myself how lucky I was that I had made it through my stroke and started to think more positively. Jessica was incredibly supportive and offered me comfort when I was feeling lonely. Some people dont have family support, which is why the CSA service is so important." With help around him and the confidence and determination to recover, Garry told hospital staff that he would walk out of Tauranga Hospital. He worked closely with his physio team and Jessica, who gave him the encouragement to keep going and to get stronger. Sure enough, on May 20, 2019, he walked out of Tauranga Hospital. My friend said shed film me walking out of hospital, but she forgot to press the record button, so I actually had to do it twice!" says Garry. Garry then set an ambitious goal to walk to the top of Mount Maunganui to celebrate being able to walk again and having overcome a huge personal hurdle. A year after his stroke, he walked to the top of the Mount and now even aims to walk 10km every day. Garry has even been keeping up his 10kms each day during all the COVID-19 Alert Levels. With his block around 2.5kms long, he has been determinedly making the walk four times a day. I know every crack in the pavement now! Since his stroke, Garry has learned a lot through Stroke Foundations CSA service about simple changes he could make to his lifestyle to better manage his health. My stroke really was a wake-up call for me. I never expected to find myself in that situation, says Garry. The Stroke Foundation is the only national charity in New Zealand focused on the prevention of and recovery from stroke. Dedicated to reducing the incidence of stroke, improving outcomes, and supporting those affected by stroke, they provide an invaluable service in our community. Stroke is the leading cause of serious adult disability with over 9,000 New Zealanders experiencing aa stroke each year, and over 64,000 stroke survivors currently living with the effects of stroke. With the annual number of stroke survivors expected to increase by 40 per cent in the next decade, the Stroke Foundations service is vital to ensuring clients live a full and happy life after stroke. The charity has been making sure stroke survivors and their families are supported during all the Alert Levels, and has been keeping the public aware of the signs of stroke through online and television advertising. While Community Stroke Advisors and Return to Work Advisors have not been able to meet with clients face-to-face during Alert Levels 3 and 4, they have kept in touch over the phone and where possible, video called all existing and new clients to ensure that they received the best possible support. Now at Alert Level 2, the team will continue helping to rebuild the lives of stroke survivors and in some cases, it may be possible for home visits to resume, providing it is safe to do so. TECT funding was sought by the Stroke Foundation to support the delivery of the free, front-line Community Stroke Advisor services in the Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty regions. Cee Kay, General Manager for the Midland Region at the Stroke Foundation ,says they are appreciative of TECTs $25,000 grant, which will help go towards the operational and salary costs associated with the CSA services, costing almost $190,000. Thanks to TECTs support, CSAs are able to visit clients in their homes, discuss and develop plans to meet stroke survivors needs and achieve individual goals like Garrys. They provide support, information and advice to build knowledge and skills, liaise with stroke clubs, community and recreational groups, and network in the community to ensure stroke survivors, their whanau and carers are getting the right services. "We are so appreciative of TECTs funding which allows us to provide a brighter future for stroke survivors. To learn more about the Stroke Foundation of New Zealand, visit www.stroke.org.nz. More parts of India are under locust attack now. The migratory pests have invaded eastern Maharashtra where four to five villages have come under attack from the locusts. The locusts are known for feasting on all sorts of plants and standing crops. The district and agriculture department personnel in Maharashtra have initiated chemical spraying on crops and vegetation to save them from the migratory pests. Also Watch: Crop-eating locusts wreak havoc in Rajasthan & MP The swarm of desert locusts entered the state from Amravati district. It then went to Wardha and now it is in Nagpurs Katol tehsil, Joint director of agriculture department, Ravindra Bhosale, told news agency PTI. He further said that locusts do not travel in the night. The migratory pests travel during the day time and fly as per the wind direction. Locusts are very dangerous to all types of vegetation. They feed on green leaves and known for devouring crops spread across on acres of land, he added. In Uttar Pradeshs Mathura, the district administration has formed a task force to deal with any potential locust attack in the district. The administration decided to go for early preparation keeping in view the growing locust threat. After crossing Pakistan, swarms of locusts entered India through Rajasthan on April 11. On Monday, locusts entered some residential areas of the Jaipur city. Mathura district magistrate said 200-litre Chloropyriphos has been kept as a reserve and its sellers in the area were advised not to supply the chemical outside the district. He said over a dozen tractors mounted with sprayers were kept on standby and fire brigade department asked to remain alert. The Union environment ministry had already warned in a statement last week that locust swarms have entered Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. There is an alert for national capital Delhi. It said Rajasthan is the most affected state and added the swarm has entered the country earlier than expected. The United Nations has warned that armies of locusts swarming across continents pose a severe risk to Indias agriculture this year. Increasing demand for medicine amid the COVID-19 pandemic has helped most pharmaceutical enterprises report positive business results in the first quarter of this year. Employees enter the entrance gate of DHG Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (Photo: cafef.vn) Pharmaceutical stocks have attracted investors since the outbreak of the disease due to rising need for medical equipment and drugs, as well as forecasts that the pandemic may be prolonged due to the long timeline of vaccine manufacturing. DHG Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG), the largest Vietnamese pharmaceutical firm by market capitalisation and revenue, recorded the highest profit among the listed pharmaceutical firms in Q1 at 177 billion VND (5 million USD). This represented an increase of 31 percent year-on-year, fulfilling 27 percent of the yearly target. DHG was followed by Pymepharco Joint Stock Company (PME) and Imexpharm Corporation (IMP) with 75 billion VND and 41 billion VND, up 8 percent and 13 percent against last year, respectively. Imexpharm expects its business to grow strongly thanks to the ethical or prescription drugs (ETC) channel. Revenue in 2020 is expected to reach 1.75 trillion VND, up 23.3 percent from the same period last year. Pre-tax profit is estimated to reach 260 billion VND, up 17 percent. Therefore, the company has completed 17 percent of this years revenue plan and 20 percent of the profit plan. Shares of IMP decreased by 14.5 percent from an all-time high of 62,000 VND per share, recorded on February 24, to 52,900 VND per share on May 25. In Q1, Agimexpharm Pharmaceutical JSC (AGP)'s revenue increased slightly by 1.2 percent year-on-year to 131 billion VND. However, profit dropped by nearly 12 percent to 8.2 billion VND. The pharmaceutical industry is also expected to grow strongly thanks to the ageing Vietnamese population and the increasing demand for health care services, especially in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the pandemic may bring advantages to the industry in the short term, but if it is prolonged, it will harm supplies of imported raw materials from China. This will force pharmaceutical enterprises to switch to importing from other regions at higher prices. Binhdinh Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment JSC (DBD) said more than 80 percent of the main raw materials for the company's products were imported from China. But due to the disease, many factories in China had to halt operation, it said. Domesco Medical Import-Export JSC (Domesco) also said it was facing a production halt and interruptions in some products that rely heavily on imported raw materials from China. Although recording positive earning results, many pharmaceutical stocks could not maintain the uptrend and have been retreating recently. After reaching early 100,000 VND per share at the end of January, shares of Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG) quickly decreased to hover at around 90,000 VND. Compared to early this year, DHG has recorded a decrease of about 6 percent. Ha Tay Pharmaceutical JSC (DHT) surprised investors as it surged to nearly 60,000 VND per share in early February while in previous months, its shares hovered at a price of less than 50,000 VND per share. However, DHT has dropped deeper since then, closing on May 25 at 45,000 VND per share. According to Nguyen Hong Khanh at Vietnam International Securities Co (VIS), pharmaceutical shares are often traded thinly as most stay in the hands of a few insiders, which makes it easier to push prices. As pharmaceutical stocks have a low free transfer rate, price movements in the short term will be unpredictable, especially if the demand increases sharply, Khanh said./.VNA Vietnam makes big investments in biomedical pharmaceutical research Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Cong Tac emphasized the significance of long-term investment in research. A general view of a Roma slum is seen during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Miskolc By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary aims to lift a state of emergency spurred by the coronavirus crisis on June 20, its justice minister said on Tuesday, as the government prepared a bill ending the power to rule by decree which drew international condemnation. Right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban obtained the powers without a time limit in a vote by parliament where his party holds a two-thirds majority, drawing European Union criticism about democratic backsliding in Budapest. Orban said earlier that parliament could at any time cancel the special powers to manage the country without parliament's consent, which he said were necessary to curb the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fall-out. Asked to clarify whether that meant the special powers would also end on June 20 in addition to the standard state of emergency invoked to tackle a crisis, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the two "by definition go hand in hand." Justice Minister Judit Varga, announcing the June 20 target for lifting the emergency in a Facebook post, described the international criticism as "unfounded attacks". She added: "We expect (our critics) to apologise for waging a smear campaign instead of cooperating on defence (against the coronavirus)." Parliament, dominated by Orban's Fidesz party, was expected to vote to rescind his emergency powers in the coming weeks. Hungary reported a total of 3,771 coronavirus cases and 499 deaths as of Tuesday, fairly low numbers compared with other EU countries due to an early and strict lockdown, which the government has been gradually easing since early May. Orban's power to rule by decree continued with parliament in session. His latest decree stipulated government approval for major foreign stakes in domestic firms until the end of 2020. Orban, who has extended his influence over most walks of life in the central European country during his decade in power, faces his toughest challenge as the economy is expected to slide into a coronavirus-induced recession this year. (Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Mark Heinrich) Russia has sent advanced MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter aircraft to back its mercenaries in Libya's civil war, the head of U.S. Africa Command said Monday. The charge by Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, confirms allegations by Libya's Government of National Accord in Tripoli that Russia is doubling down on its support for a rebel group in what has turned into a proxy war involving U.S. allies on either side of the conflict. Read next: This Historic Colt 1911 Pistol Carried at Iwo Jima Is About to Go Up for Auction "Russia is clearly trying to tip the scales in its favor in Libya," Townsend said in a statement, which did not indicate any immediate plans for a U.S. counteraction. "For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict," he said. "Well, there is no denying it now. We watched as Russia flew fourth-generation jet fighters to Libya -- every step of the way." Townsend said the deployment of MiG-29s -- along with other aircraft already sent by Moscow -- is meant to back the Russian state-sponsored private military contractor known as the Wagner Group. He has repeatedly warned of the group's spreading influence in Africa; it is believed to be owned by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has close ties to President Vladimir Putin. Russian fighter jets were recently deployed to Libya in order to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors (PMCs) operating on the ground there, May 26, 2020. (U.S. Africa Command) The Russian mercenaries have lined up on the side of the so-called Libyan National Army. led by Khalifa Haftar, a former Libyan field marshal who lived for nearly two decades in the U.S. and gained American citizenship. The LNA holds sway in much of eastern Libya but has recently suffered a series of setbacks in its long-stalled attempt to take Tripoli from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord. Haftar has the backing of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, while NATO ally Turkey has increasingly deployed air and naval assets in support of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj's GNA. Townsend said the deployment of the MiG-29s threatens a major escalation by Russia in the increasingly complicated civil war. "Just like I saw them doing in Syria, they are expanding their military footprint in Africa using government-supported mercenary groups like Wagner," said Townsend, who previously served as commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria and Iraq. "Russian military aircraft are likely to provide close-air support and offensive fires for the Wagner Group PMC," AFRICOM officials said in a release. It added that the fighter aircraft arrived in Libya from an air base in Russia after transiting Syria, "where it is assessed they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin." "Russia has employed state-sponsored Wagner in Libya to conceal its direct role and to afford Moscow plausible deniability of its malign actions," officials said. Those actions, they added, have spiked casualties on both sides of the conflict, "The world heard Mr. Haftar declare he was about to unleash a new air campaign" in statements last week, Townsend said, adding, "That will be Russian mercenary pilots flying Russian-supplied aircraft to bomb Libyans." In the AFRICOM release, Air Force Gen. Jeff Harrigian, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe-Air Forces Africa, said Russia's long-term goal in Libya could be to set up a permanent base on the coast to threaten NATO's southern flank in the Mediterranean. "If Russia seizes basing on Libya's coast, the next logical step is they deploy permanent long-range anti-access area denial (A2AD) capabilities," Harrigian said. "If that day comes, it will create very real security concerns on Europe's southern flank." In his Senate confirmation hearing in 2019, Townsend warned that Wagner Group paramilitaries were active in the Central African Republic as part of an effort by Putin to spread influence in the sub-Sahara. Townsend also noted that Russian mercenaries believed to be from the Wagner Group -- dubbed "little green men" in the so-called "hybrid warfare" directed by Moscow -- were used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine to provide Putin with a semblance of deniability that the Russian military was involved. On at least one occasion, Wagner Group mercenaries are believed to have attempted to take direct action against U.S. troops. In February 2018, Russian mercenaries combined with the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an attack on an outpost in Syria's eastern Deir al-Zour province, which was held by U.S. troops and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. The attacking force was repelled with heavy losses by troops on the ground from U.S. Special Operations Command, backed by Marine artillery and U.S airstrikes, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee in March 2018. Before the attack began, the Russian high command was contacted, and "they assured us it was not their people," Mattis said. He said he gave Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, directions "for the force, then, to be annihilated -- and it was." In February 2016, Prigozhin, dubbed "Putin's chef" for his large catering business, was indicted, along with three of his companies and 12 employees, by a federal grand jury empaneled by then-special counsel Robert Mueller for allegedly running "troll factories" that attempted to interfere in U.S. politics, including the 2016 presidential election. In a 191-page report last September, Vietnam Veterans of America charged that the same troll factories run by Prigozhin were continuing to target service members, veterans and their families online with "hateful and divisive messages." The posts by bogus groups posing as legitimate veterans organizations were seeded with messages and false news reports intended to "gin up hatred, anger and discord in the U.S.," said Kristofer Goldsmith, VVA chief investigator and main author of the report. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Related: US Says Russia Aggravating Libya Conflict Through Mercenaries We listen to local police and fire departments scanner traffic, but sometimes miss crimes, wrecks, fires or other incidents, especially if they happen overnight. If you know of something were not covering yet, please let Managing Editor Jeff Pownall know by emailing him at jeff.pownall@lufkindailynews.com, or submit a news tip online by visiting lufkindailynews.com/tips. Privacy Concerns Key Details Redacted Critics Urge More Oversight Not a Brand New Thing (TNS) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing back hard against bipartisan criticism of a hastily awarded contract that put a little-known North Texas technology company in charge of the states effort to track down people who may be exposed to the coronavirus.The company, MTX Group, asserted in its bid for the $295 million contract with little evidence that it had extensive experience doing contact tracing in several U.S. states.Governor Abbott pointed to MTXs experience in implementing COVID-19 response systems including contact tracing in other states, Abbott spokesman John Wittman said, listing 10 states that include New York, Florida and Massachusetts. Importantly, every aspect of this contract is being paid for with federal funds.Wittman also said Abbott had gotten assurances that the privacy of Texans would be respected under the terms of the deal a major concern of conservative activists who have grown increasingly critical of the Republican governor.MTX has declined repeated requests for interviews and has refused to answer questions about the work it has done in other states. According to a published report, the company had about 200 employees as of late last year, most of them in India.Meanwhile, legislators from both parties caught off guard by the massive contract continue to heap criticism on the quick bid solicitation process, the lack of transparency and concerns over the civil liberties of people who will get calls from the contact tracers.According to the Department of State Health Services, which will oversee the contract, bidders were given about two days to put together proposals that were due on May 7. The multimillion dollar contract was signed by acting Health and Human Services Commissioner Phil Wilson on May 13. Thats the same day Austin-based lobbyists Dean and Andrea McWilliams list as the start date for lobby deals with MTX they each report to be worth $50,000.East Texas Rep. James White, R-Hillister, said legislative oversight of the contract is needed and on Friday he called on Abbott to convene a 30-day special session so that such momentous decisions get a proper vetting at the Texas Capitol. White said it didnt matter to him that the money came from Washington, telling Hearst Newspapers we continually need to be good stewards of that money.I am concerned about privacy. I am concerned about the amount of monies that are being extended with very minimal legislative oversight and engagement, White added. Weve got to get in the foxhole with the governor. Weve got to own up to this. This is nothing that we can wait (on).Wittman said the state has made clear that MTX must protect the personal privacy of Texans subject to contact tracing.As Governor Abbott has said, your personal health information belongs only to you, and only you get to decide what can be shared, Wittman said.The company also said in its proposal that it could use outsourcing to get more contact tracers, but the bid documents require a U.S.-based workforce and Wittman said only Texans will be hired for contact tracing.The contract has stirred controversy since Hearst Newspapers first reported on it a week ago. On Friday, health authorities finally released a redacted copy of the $295 million contract, blacking out large portions of MTXs bid proposal.An unredacted version of the contract, obtained by Hearst Newspapers, shows the extent of the censorship of the companys bid: blocked out descriptions of its hiring process, the numbers of employees that could be brought on board, the contact tracing platform that will be used and visualizations of the app that shows how the company will help keep track of infected people, people they interacted with and family members.Though state officials have said the company would likely hire no more than 1,000 contact tracers, MTX said in its proposal that it can source well beyond 5,000 agents if required. The model currently proposes 4,500 as MTX believes our calls center and contact tracing platform can help reduce agent requirements.Those sentences were redacted from the version released to Hearst Newspapers.DSHS spokesman Chris Van Deusen said the agency allowed MTX to decide what could be released for now from their proposal.The redactions were made by MTX for information claimed as proprietary, Van Deusen said. As is usual in records requests involving a third party, we dont take a position on whether or not the third-party information is proprietary.He said the Attorney Generals Office has been asked to rule on whether to leave those sections blacked out or allow the public to see them. The Attorney Generals Office will also review the contract as required under state law for deals over $250 million.Kim Weatherford, a business consultant in Dripping Springs, said he helped advise the company last year after it first arrived in Texas. He said its qualifications seemed extensive, but it didnt have any experience in Texas, and was struggling to win contracts around Salesforce technology, where it specialized.By late last year, he said, it appeared to be shedding employees.They realized very quickly that the Salesforce competition was pretty stiff here, he said. I think thats why most of their Texas people left.Weatherford said the company focuses on systems integration, or linking various IT systems and services together.Before the pandemic, the company had about 20 to 25 people working in Texas, according to three people with direct knowledge. Its contracts in other states typically ranged from a few hundred thousand dollars to between $1 million and $2 million, the people said.Democratic state Rep. Donna Howard of Austin, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, questioned whether MTX had the experience and background to perform such a vital task.We need to have something that has a certain amount of assurance here that we have people who know what theyre doing, Howard said We dont have time to waste here. People will die if we dont get this right.In a video posted two weeks ago to LinkedIn, CEO Das Nobel said the companys COVID-19 solutions were being used in 17 states. He added, We bring speed to the table.Recently, government agents asked MTX to help with call center agents, Nobel said. Well be announcing that well be looking to hire 25,000 call center agents across the country. These agents can work from home whether you were recently fired or you lost your job or are in college looking for internships. You all can participate in this.The company has not made clear where those call center agents will be dispatched. Texas needs up to 1,000 additional tracers. MTX wrote in its bid proposal that it is currently providing the same contact tracing and call center solution in New York City. It said the city will be adding 15,000 call center agents, but doesnt say it will be hiring those positions.Its contract for $46 million in New York is with the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. None of it has been spent to date, according to a citywide database.Van Deusen, the spokesman for the health department, said the company is not hiring contact tracers in New York, but is building out the technology for the center there and providing IT support around scheduling and workflow. Those components will be similar here, he said.The company has been working for several state and local health agencies since the pandemic began, mostly to develop and oversee a contact tracing app.Van Deusen said the company finished building out the Texas call center this week, and tracers are being trained.Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, said the governor spoke with lawmakers again on Tuesday, fielding questions about the contract and assuring that the tracing program is voluntary and bound by health privacy laws. Though Oliverson had not seen the contract on Wednesday, he said the governor did not raise anything that he took as a concern.He indicated that this company had a track record, had worked here in Texas, Oliverson said. I got the impression that it was not a brand new thing that popped up overnight.He added: The last thing you want is a lengthy RFP (request for proposal) that awarded the contract to someone that has no presence in the state and then has to develop the infrastructure from scratch. Original artwork depicting the moment the asteroid struck in present-day Mexico. Credit: Chase Stone New simulations from Imperial College London have revealed the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck Earth at the 'deadliest possible' angle. The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere. Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago. Drawn from a combination of 3-D numerical impact simulations and geophysical data from the site of the impact, the new models are the first ever fully 3-D simulations to reproduce the whole eventfrom the initial impact to the moment the final crater, now known as Chicxulub, was formed. The simulations were performed on the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) DiRAC High Performance Computing Facility. Lead researcher Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "For the dinosaurs, the worst-case scenario is exactly what happened. The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This was likely worsened by the fact that it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles. "Our simulations provide compelling evidence that the asteroid struck at a steep angle, perhaps 60 degrees above the horizon, and approached its target from the north-east. We know that this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact, because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywherethe very thing that led to a nuclear winter." The results are published today in Nature Communications. Crater creation The upper layers of earth around the Chicxulub crater in present-day Mexico contain high amounts of water as well as porous carbonate and evaporite rocks. When heated and disturbed by the impact, these rocks would have decomposed, flinging vast amounts of carbon dioxide, sulphur and water vapour into the atmosphere. The sulphur would have been particularly hazardous as it rapidly forms aerosolstiny particles that would have blocked the sun's rays, halting photosynthesis in plants and rapidly cooling the climate. This eventually contributed to the mass extinction event that killed 75 per cent of life on Earth. The team of researchers from Imperial, the University of Freiburg, and The University of Texas at Austin, examined the shape and subsurface structure of the crater using geophysical data to feed into the simulations that helped diagnose the impact angle and direction. Their analysis was also informed by recent results from drilling into the 200 km-wide crater, which brought up rocks containing evidence of the extreme forces generated by the impact. Peak performance Pivotal to diagnosing the angle and direction of impact was the relationship between the centre of the crater, the centre of the peak ringa ring of mountains made of heavily fractured rock inside the crater rimand the centre of dense uplifted mantle rocks, some 30 km beneath the crater. At Chicxulub, these centres are aligned in a southwest-northeast direction, with the crater centre in between the peak-ring and mantle-uplift centres. The team's 3-D Chicxulub crater simulations at an angle of 60 degrees reproduced these observations almost exactly. The simulations reconstructed the crater formation in unprecedented detail and give us more clues as to how the largest craters on Earth are formed. Previous fully 3-D simulations of the Chicxulub impact have covered only the early stages of impact, which include the production of a deep bowl-shaped hole in the crust known as the transient crater and the expulsion of rocks, water and sediment into the atmosphere. These simulations are the first to continue beyond this intermediate point in the formation of the crater and reproduce the final stage of the crater's formation, in which the transient crater collapses to form the final structure (see video). This allowed the researchers to make the first comparison between 3-D Chicxulub crater simulations and the present-day structure of the crater revealed by geophysical data. Co-author Dr. Auriol Rae of the University of Freiburg said: "Despite being buried beneath nearly a kilometre of sedimentary rocks, it is remarkable that geophysical data reveals so much about the crater structureenough to describe the direction and angle of the impact." The researchers say that while the study has given us important insights into the dinosaur-dooming impact, it also helps us understand how large craters on other planets form. Co-author Dr. Thomas Davison, also of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "Large craters like Chicxulub are formed in a matter of minutes, and involve a spectacular rebound of rock beneath the crater. Our findings could help advance our understanding of how this rebound can be used to diagnose details of the impacting asteroid." Explore further It was microbial mayhem in the Chicxulub crater, research suggests More information: Collins, G.S., Patel, N., Davison, T.M. et al. A steeply-inclined trajectory for the Chicxulub impact. Nat Commun 11, 1480 (2020). Journal information: Nature Communications Collins, G.S., Patel, N., Davison, T.M. et al. A steeply-inclined trajectory for the Chicxulub impact.11, 1480 (2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15269-x At one point, Cooper took the cellphone from Brittany Covington while it was still streaming live to her Facebook, Lanier said. He then turned the phones camera onto the bound-and-gagged victim and captured footage of Covington slapping him, according to the prosecutor. Cooper then instructed Covington to hit him again, she said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 12:09:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WELLINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy on Tuesday, which will enable New Zealand scientists to contribute to global research efforts and explore the potential of vaccine manufacturing capability in New Zealand. The COVID-19 vaccine strategy aims to secure a vaccine -- safe, effective and in sufficient quantities -- at the earliest possible time. It will ensure that New Zealand has detailed knowledge of key international research efforts and an ability to assess promising vaccine candidates as they emerge, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement. "The COVID-19 vaccine strategy outlines how New Zealand will contribute to global efforts by ramping up our own capability, working with the international community and supporting our Pacific neighbors in the deployment of a vaccine once it becomes available," Peters said. Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods said New Zealand has quality researchers and a high performing research, science and innovation sector with a long history of working with colleagues across the globe to tackle complex global problems. "It's vital that we contribute to international research efforts as well as ramp up our own research and manufacturing capability," Woods said. Health Minister David Clark said the development of a safe and effective vaccine is a crucial tool in the control of COVID-19 worldwide and a global effort is well underway to develop and test various vaccine candidates. The COVID-19 vaccine strategy will ensure that all stops are pulled out in New Zealand to advance discovery, development, testing and supply of a COVID-19 vaccine, the statement said. The government has allocated 37 million New Zealand dollars (22.7 million U.S. dollars) to the COVID-19 vaccine strategy. New Zealand will also advocate internationally for the equitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, with a particular focus on ensuring the Pacific Island countries can access it when needed, it said. Enditem Even in the last hours before Schapelle Corby's fate was sealed in a Balinese court room, Australians seemed to confirm one thing yesterday: this really was just like the Melbourne Cup. In underground food halls, city workers rushed down their lunch and watched her on the big screens; in pubs and clubs in the suburbs, they turned their backs on poker machines and looked up from their beers. Whether believing her guilty or innocent, anticipating her imminent freedom or expecting a lifetime in jail, her countrymen and women were united in wanting to watch. It was the drug case that stopped a nation. A few minutes glued to a television to see out a commitment that had roped them in quickly then dragged on for eight months. Even the Prime Minister, John Howard, declared yesterday that the entire nation "feels for this girl", although he implored Australians to trust the Indonesian justice system. In front of a 50-inch plasma TV screen, on the seventh floor of the Market Street David Jones store, 30-year-old city worker Nina heard the verdict at 1.34pm - and silently started to weep. About 20 others were standing beside her, and a dozen more watching on 15 smaller screens, but Nina was so embarrassed to be spotted crying she did not want to give her full name. "I just feel very sad. I really do. That's all." This scene - men and women of all ages and backgrounds riveted to televisions - was repeated in shops, hotels, airports, offices, homes across the land. These sentiments will be heard further today. John Howard had foreseen this phenomenon and predicted its powerful impact when he called on the nation to prepare for and accept whatever verdict was handed down. Ramu R By Express News Service KOCHI: Kochi-based artist Ameen Khaleel is using his art to express what has missed societys eyes during this lockdown. As many as 23 digital artworks he put together, featuring everything from nature to isolated burqa-clad women, gives a viewer many perspectives about the world around us. Before starting the project, I collected around 500 photographs of women in burqa against various contexts, like beaches and public institutions. Lines and images created using pigment prints and acrylic colour are later layered with the photographs to create a special effect, he says. The women are looking up at the skies as if in hope for a better day in a series called separated kiss, and in few other frames, their features and clothes have been elongated or tweaked to make them more prominent to the viewers eye. Ameen Khaleel Elements of nature like water and sunlight have also played a major role in shaping up his work. I paint under the sun, in the heat and wash the layers off with water. Certain parts are peeled off in the process, often creating a new pattern for me to work with, he said. The idea to add digitally transferred images to paintings first occurred to Ameen in 1999 after his exhibition in France. I got a feeling that my art needed to develop further to represent the contemporary world. This thought created a sort of identity crisis and I took a seven-month break. This gave me many fresh ideas. My passion for photography must have also inspired me to mix it with the art I do, he said. The interactions that he had with a couple of fashion designers about T-shirt printing during his time at the Cholamandal Artists Village in Chennai gave him many technical insights too. Back then, working with digital prints was time consuming and expensive compared to now. But I was satisfied and it helped me love my work, he said. PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The Indian Merchants Association (IMA) has donated 150 food packages for the most vulnerable in society and plans to donate an additional 100. The Department of Community Development, Family & Humanitarian Affairs, which falls under the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (Ministry VSA), is very pleased with the donations that have been coming in to help the less fortunate during the COVID-19 crisis and expresses its gratitude to the Indian business community. On May 16 IMA started with distributing 50 food packages. The IMA collected and donated an additional 100 over the past weekend. IMA plans to collaborate with Community Councils to donate a further 100 food packages. Persons are reminded, those needing assistance should fill in the digital Social Impact Assessment Form by going to the following link for the digital registration system: http://onlineservices.sintmaartengov.org/covid19/SIAForm.aspx The Social Impact Assessment Form is available on the Government Website for download on smart phones, desktops, or laptops. The forms can also be filled in online and submitted for processing. There are several sections on the form that needs to be filled in such as Section 1 Personal data, Section 2 Financial/Employment data, and Section 3 Basic Needs Assessment. (This story has been updated to correct the name of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.) EDENVILLE TWP, MI First came the failure of the Edenville Dam. Then came the flood of lawsuits. At least three different proposed class action lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts on behalf of residents and business that are claiming losses that resulted from the dam failure, according to the filings and news releases from attorneys involved in the cases. Each lawsuit is tied to flooding that resulted from up to 7 inches of rain in Midland, Saginaw and surrounding counties. The flooding damaged homes and forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate. One power dam was destroyed and another severely damaged. This entirely preventable disaster has upended the lives and businesses of thousands, forcing residents into crowded shelters amid a pandemic and shutting down already-suffering businesses during a recession, said attorneys representing the proposed class in one lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court . We believe this is yet another case of corporate interests putting profits over people. Despite knowing the threat posed by these unsafe dams, the defendants allegedly refused to pay for much-needed repairs and upgrades. Instead, we allege they chose to try to conceal the deteriorating condition of the dams. Its unacceptable, and we will fight to hold them accountable for the tremendous and devastating harm they have caused, attorneys Frank Petosa of Morgan & Morgan, Elizabeth Graham of Grant & Eisenhofer, and Rob Jenner of Jenner Law P.C. said in their statement. The attorneys filed their lawsuit in U.S. District Court as did the law firm FeganScott, which accused dam owner Boyce Hydro; the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy; and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources of failing to operate, fix, or repair the dams in accordance with the established standard of care. Thousands of lives have been dramatically altered, said Beth Fegan, one of the founding members of FeganScott. The fact is, the collapse of the Edenville Dam could have been avoided if the operators had simply followed the requirements of their dam license, which was intended to protect life and property. The operators chose not to increase spillway capacity, and now, small business owners have lost their livelihoods and thousands of families are homeless. A third lawsuit filed in the state Court of Claims says the actions of the state of Michigan, through EGLE, contributed to the flooding disaster and would have been averted were it not for the states wrongful conduct. A spokesman for EGLE said in an email to MLive that the department is not commenting on the particulars of pending litigation, but said the agency was handed regulatory authority for the Edenville Dam in October of 2018 after decades of failed efforts by federal regulators to get the dams owner to comply with federal safety standards. Once EGLE was handed responsibility, the agency began by receiving and reviewing decades worth of records and inspection reports that had been previously unavailable because they were protected under federal critical infrastructure laws," the EGLE statement said. "During the subsequent 18 months, EGLE ... completed an initial inspection of the structure that assessed its current condition ... reviewed decades of federal files, reports, recommendations, correspondence (and other documents and) maintained a constant dialogue with the owner and consultants to obtain information and analysis critical to determining the dams ability to meet state regulations. EGLE Communications Manager Hugh McDiarmid Jr. said the department also commissioned a comprehensive analysis of the dams structural integrity and ability to meet state safety rules that was expected to be but was not completed in March. That report was the critical step in determining whether the structure was capable of meeting the state standard for spillway flow. EGLE had not received that report at the time the dam failed. EGLE regulators conducted a cursory" inspection of the Edenville Dam on October 4, 2018 and found the structure in fair condition. They wrote there were no observed deficiencies that would be expected to cause immediate failure of the dam," but a spokesman said last week that the agency did have strong concerns that the dam did not have enough spillway capacity. In 2018, federal energy regulators pulled the Edenville Dam operators license out of concern the spillway couldnt pass enough water to avert a failure during a historic flood. EGLE assumed regulatory authority for the 96-year-old dam in late 2018 after its license to generate hydropower was revoked. In a 2018 filing, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission characterized dam owner Boyce Hydro as chronically non-compliant with regulatory requests to upgrade the dam. FERC wanted Boyce Hydro owner Lee Mueller, of Las Vegas, Nev., to build additional spillways to reduce the risk of failure. After days of heavy rain across the region, the Edenville Dams earthen dike collapsed on May 19 at the south end of Wixom Lake north of Midland and sent the lakes waters and the Tobacco River hurtling south toward Midland and beyond. The situation was compounded when floodwaters soon after overtopped the Sanford Dam. In the Court of Claims lawsuit that names the state as defendant, attorney Micheal Pitt said four property owners who experienced serious property owners are victims of the states failed oversight of and regulatory actions with respect to the Edenville Dam. One couple, whose home sits along the Tittabawassee River, downriver from both the Edenville and Sanford dams, lost several boats, two sheds and many chairs and tables, the lawsuit says. Another party to that lawsuit is Jim Sperling, a member of the Edenville Township Board of Trustees, who claims floodwaters and mud totally submerged his and his wifes home basement and flooded their living and dining areas with six feet or more of water, causing severe damage to their home. President Trump approved an emergency declaration on Thursday, May 21 for areas affected by the water. Feds warned years ago Edenville Dam couldnt handle a historic flood How a spring rainstorm became a 500-year flood event in mid-Michigan Our whole life is gone, says woman whose Sanford home was washed away in Midland floods With Brazil emerging as one of the world's most infected countries, President Jair Bolsonaro is deflecting all responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, casting blame on mayors, governors, an outgoing health minister and the media. By contrast, he portrays himself as a clear-eyed crusader willing to defend an unpopular idea that shutting down the economy to control Covid-19 will ultimately cause more suffering than allowing the disease to run its course. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor The Battle of Fort Sumter lasted from April 12th to April 13th, 1861, and is generally considered to be the event that sparked the beginning of the American Civil War. The battle itself mostly consisted of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina. Back then, the Confederate Army didnt exist yet, so the bombardment was done by the South Carolina militia. After the bombardment, the United States Army returned fire and subsequently surrendered. All of these events marked the beginning of the Civil War. The Secession Of South Carolina In 1860, South Carolina declared its secession from the United States, and they demanded that the US Army abandon Charleston Harbor, where its facilities were situated. On December 26th of the same year, Robert Anderson, the Major of the US Army, moved his small battalion from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. This was done because Fort Moultrie was considered to be too vulnerable, while Fort Sumter was built on an island and allowed for better defense. The US President at the time was James Buchanan, and he tried sending supplies to Major Anderson and his army by using a merchant ship. However, the ship was discovered by South Carolina soldiers and seized by the authorities after being fired upon. They also seized all Federal property in that area. The only place left under US command was Fort Sumter. This naturally led to a situation that was starting to resemble a siege more and more with each passing day. During this time, the Confederate States Army was formed, and they placed a new Brigadier General in the Charleston area. This general was P. G. T.Beauregard, and his first order of command was to reinforce the area around Charleston harbor. This was, of course, aimed at Fort Sumter. The soldiers that were trapped in the fort were living under extreme conditions. They were running short of food, supplies, and men. Their morale was slowly deteriorating while waiting for the Union soldiers to come to their aid. The Battle That Lasted 34 Hours Abraham Lincoln was elected for US President on November 6th, 1860, and one of his first assignments included the resupply of the soldiers stationed at Fort Sumter. It was a crisis that needed to be dealt with immediately because of the rising tensions in the area. Lincoln notified the Governor of South Carolina, Francis W. Pickens, that he would be sending supply ships to Fort Sumter. However, this did not achieve good results, because as soon as they got the note, the Confederate Army demanded that Fort Sumter should be evacuated. Major Anderson refused to evacuate, which was the start of the battle. On April 12th, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., the Confederate Army started to bombard the fort using artillery batteries placed around the harbor. The US army placed in the fort returned fire, but they were outnumbered and outgunned. Only 34 hours after the bombardment started, Major Anderson agreed to evacuate the fort. There were no casualties on either side. After this battle, the US Army received support from the North and the South to start further military action. Lincoln called for volunteers in order to suppress the rebellions caused by the secession of other southern states. These states also joined the Confederacy, and these events led to the start of the Civil War. Advertisement Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday. He is refusing to end New York's lockdown for at least a few more weeks and claimed last week small businesses were 'hanging on' New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been blasted as a 'liar' for claiming that struggling small businesses are 'hanging on' and are prepared to stay closed for 'months' yet as he continues to cling on to the city's lockdown despite mounting calls to reopen. New York City saw just 63 hospitalizations for suspected COVID-19 cases on Monday, less than a tenth of the number on March 20 when the city went into lockdown, but still de Blasio and Cuomo refuse to say when the city will reopen again. In an interview with WNYC radio on Friday, de Blasio claimed: 'Ive talked to lots and lots of business leaders, especially the smallest businesses. 'Theyre very worried about their futures understandably, but they also are hanging on and they know it can be a matter of months until theyll be back in action.' The remark has been met with outrage by small business owners who say they are barely still surviving. Some called his remark 'outrageous' and particularly offensive from someone who owns two homes in Park Slope, an expensive neighborhood in Brooklyn. Hundreds of businesses have joined together to form a coalition to reopen the city. Some have taken it into their own hands to reopen because they simply cannot afford to stay closed any longer, and they have received summonses from the NYPD. Many are now asking why mega retailers like Costco and Walmart have been allowed to stay open throughout the pandemic while smaller stores that are able to enforce social distancing practices more seamlessly have been forced shut. Bruce Backman, spokesman for Reopen New York, the coalition, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday: 'I think it's a power grab... you have to wonder, how much lobbying are the big box stores doing to keep themselves the only ones in business? 'When have we ever forced people to go to three stores to buy everything? It's like the Soviet Union.' Others demanded to know which businesses de Blasio had spoken to that said they were surviving. 'This is not the conversation I've had with moms and pops,' Julia Marsh tweeted in response to the mayor's comments. Another blasted de Blasio as a 'liar', while Senator Simcha Felder, the Democratic State Senator for New York's 17th District, said: 'Small business owners are bleeding and dying. 'I have yet to hear the Mayor's explanation. Small businesses cannot last another day let alone 6 months. 'Maybe if I was renting out 2 Park Slope homes I'd understand. De Blasio owns two homes in Park Slope which he rents out for more than $100,000 a year while he and his wife live for free in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side. He is still collecting rent from his tenants, saying they were employed and able to pay their rent. 'Out of all the things that have come out of his mouth, this is the most outrageous. 'He lives in a de Blasio land. That is the furthest thing from the truth. He is not in touch with reality and all he has to do is walk down a commercial corridor to understand what is happening to our small businesses. 'He is setting up the city for failure. Hes going to leave City Hall in the worse condition that this city has experienced since World War II and the Great Depression,' councilman Mark Gjonaj told The New York Post. De Blasio and Cuomo refuse to address why New York City cannot reopen yet despite mounting losses in the commercial sector. Major landlords collected just 20 percent of their normal income in April and May, and leaders in the hospitality industry say they predict job losses of up to 68 percent. 'For leisure and hospitality, including restaurants and hotels, the downturn equates to a virtual apocalypse a job loss of 68 percent. Staten Island restaurateurs Max Calicchio and Alison Marchese (left) and an employee from Aunt Butchie's (right). They are all begging the local government to let them start making money again 'Theres a great concern that many of these jobs are lost. The slow reopening is not going to help the restaurant sector,' E.J. McMahon of The Empire Center added. The number of new hospitalizations and deaths every day has lowered consistently for weeks. There were 73 deaths on Monday across the entire state of New York and every other region has been told it can reopen this week. Mid-Hudson reopens today and Long Island will reopen tomorrow. New York City, according to the officials, still does not have enough contact tracers or hospital beds to reopen. There is mounting pressure to reopen New York City from small businesses Another 800 contact tracers and 420 hospital beds are needed before the city can reopen, by the officials' standards. 'The mayors policies are crushing our businesses, but even worse they are destroying New York. 'We the small business owners and worker, who are the lifeblood of the citys economy and its dreams for the future are pleading with him to trust us to open our businesses safely, before it is too late. 'These policies are counterproductive, cruel and they are indiscriminately targeting our working and middle classes. 'They are exacerbating the gap between rich and poor,' Backman, of Reopen NY, a coalition of 300 small businesses, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. His comments have been echoed by others in Staten Island - which has the lowest numbers of anywhere in the city but is still closed - and other elected officials. Some victims of a recent herders/farmers conflict in Uwheru Kingdom, Delta State, have received N700, 000 each from the state government, an official has said. Uwheru, an Urhobo kingdom in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, is made up of 21 communities including Orhoro, Erovie, Agadama, Urede, Egbo, Owarovwo, Ogode, Oreba, Avwon, Iwhouvbe, Iwhodja, Ode, Oguname, Owarie, Iwhegbo and Iwherhe. PREMIUM TIMES recently reported the travails of members of the community, who have suffered several attacks, including rape and maiming, from the rampaging herders for over two decades. In February 2020, at least 10 of their kinsmen were gruesomely murdered by suspected herders. When our reporter visited the community in March, the residents said the community had been experiencing similar attacks for over two decades, but that of February was the deadliest. The elders responded by banning the consumption of beef to underscore their aversion for cattle whose grazing had brought the assailants to their community. One of the survivors, Julius Osieta, lost his elder brother to the February attack and now takes care of the widow and their seven children. The widow is still crying. We have been trying to calm her down but all to no avail, he said in March. According to him, the seven children have stopped going to school because the family cannot afford the cost. Intervention After PREMIUM TIMES visit in March, the state government pledged financial support for the families of the deceased. Also, the state government promised to open an education trust fund to sponsor the education of children of the victims. However, the payment was not made until after this newsapers report on May 3. This newspaper gathered that, as of Monday (May 25), eight out of the 10 families affected have been paid. The remaining two persons, according to the Chairman of Agadama, Sunday Inovogoma, who provided this information, are yet to provide any valid means of identification necessary for the opening of a bank account. The chairman assured that once they provide an account number, the money will be paid into their accounts. Speaking with our reporter on Monday, Mr Osieta said he received the money few days ago. READ ALSO: Mr Osieta, who expressed relief, disclosed that part of the money will be used to enrol the children in school while the remaining will be invested in a business to cushion the family needs. I will put some of it in a business for the children and their mother to have something every time. Demand for justice The cry for justice for victims and the security of the people is still a major demand after the governments intervention. I feel better but the government should help us protect our community, Mr Osieta told our reporter. Restating the peoples demands, Mr Inovogoma, said: All what we need is justice and that the government should put an end to the attacks. When PREMIUM TIMES reached out to the state government in March, it declined comments. Meanwhile, after publishing the story, the secretary to the state government, Chiedu Ebie, said investigation is still ongoing. Advertisements Mr Ebie, who spoke with our reporter in a telephone interview, said: Police is investigating the matter. The herders crisis is a problem across the country. They will continue to investigate. Speaking on efforts to secure the communities, Mr Ebie said the state authorities have held security meetings and increased the policing of the area. We have had series of security meetings to see how we can stop and curb the menace but it is not akin to Delta State alone. It is a nationwide problem, he said. He added that the state government has donated N10 million for the Education Trust Fund and the cheque has been issued to the elders of the community, saddled with the responsibility of managing it. LOS ANGELESAs he watched the broadcast last night of the Best Actor presentation from the 2020 GayVN Awards in January, DeAngelo Jackson couldnt contain his emotion. He covered his face with his hands, broke into a smile, clasped his palms together in thanks and then rubbed his eyes. He was living the experience all over again. I was floored. I thought to myself, Gather yourself, DeAngelo, gather yourself to be able to go up there and speak, he shared during the world premiere streaming broadcast of the 2020 GayVN Awards presented by ManyVids, exclusively on GayVN Stars. Jackson won Best Actor for his role in Icon Males Blended Family, becoming the first man of color to receive the honor. Im not speaking just for myself; Im speaking for African American males. So for me, it was emotionalI thought, Wow. For me it was groundbreaking, because I thought of uswhen I say us, I think of African Americansnot being looked at as just being a fetish, just being a BBC or big black cock. So when I made my speech, I knew I had to gather myself to say something that resonated toward all of us, he says. Yeah, its porn, but its a stepping stone. You can go from porn into greater heights. So for me, I was floored; I could not believe I won that category at alland its not just for African Americans, its me being a man of colorso Latino, Asian American, whatever the case may be, I was the first. I was like, What?! Im like bursting the door openand I wasnt being dramatic when I said Im the first like Sydney Poitier or Halle Berry to win. Thats the way I feel. I feel emotionalIm not being viewed as just a fetish for my body part. Jackson was joined last night by fellow winning performers Cade Maddox (Performer of the Year), Nic Sahara and Alex Riley (who shared the Best Newcomer award), along with legendary director Chi Chi LaRue (who helmed Falcons Love and Lust in Montreal, which won Best All-Sex Movie). Also joining were red carpet host (and former CockyBoy) Liam Riley, along with Trophy Boys (and nominees) Riley Finch and Brock Bankswho smiled throughout the broadcast and talked about his quarantine. I just got a new puppy, so thats been very busy. Ive been puppy training, so thats been exciting, he shared, which was fitting given his memorable puppy play role in the well-received video that opened the award show (and once again drew laughs from everyone). Ive been working out a lot, and Ive been stretching my hole a bunch. Its been so much funIm getting prepared for when I come back. The broadcast (like the award show) was hosted by Alec Mapa, with GayVN Awards Show executive producer Gary Miller moderating and asking questions. The GayVN Awards were held January 20, 2020 at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Like Jackson, Maddox was equally emotional as he watched himself win the award, his voice quivering once again as he talked about his experience from four months ago. I wasnt expecting it; this just brought back the excitement and the tears to my eyes again. It was like a couple times on stageand even backstageI caught myselfI just got very emotional. It was very exciting. Not expected at all, but very exciting, a very great feeling. Jackson pointed to the screen with his hands and nodded in agreement when the broadcast showed Maddoxs emotional backstage interview, where the performer noted that the win was only a beginning: It means I really have to step up my game for this year, right? You have to do better than the last year. Thats my thing. Maddox was pressed by Mapa about one of the things he said during his on-stage speech when he thanked boyfriend Kevin Benoit: So Cade, you have a boyfriend and you said its a lot to be with somebody like you. Get more specific. Give us the dirt. Why is it hard dating Cade? Maddox didnt miss a beat: Well, what I meant by that is it takes a lot for someone to date someone in this industry. You cant be very emotional, you cant be very jealous. It takes a lot. I know every time I have to go leave for a scene, I can see it in himits not the best feeling in the world, telling your boyfriend (when you leave). But hes greathes a big supporter, hes helped me a lotthats a thank you I had to say. Mapa continued: So what do you do to make up for it afterwards if theres a bad feeling? Is it a trip to the Cheesecake Factory? Or do you have to buy a hat? Smiled Maddox: Oh, he loves desserts, so we get all kinds of dessert all the time. We went to Menchies last night. Mapa asked if Cades boyfriend was with him (he was), and if he could peek in and say hello (he could). Hi handsomenow tell us, what is it like to see him? Have you actually watched him film a scene? Or do you just go, Youre at work now honey, Ill gonna wait in the taxi. Benoit proved to be a good sport: Well, I dont wait in the taxi, I dont take a taxi, he replied matter-of-factly, eliciting laughs. I just watch the trailers to make sure its alright, and then Im like, Okay, lets promote it. The two then hugged and kissed to the delight of viewersand Benoit wasnt the only special guest star that Maddox brought on. He also frequently lifted up their two little dogsRosco, a Jack Russell mix; and Bruno, a chug (pug and chihuahua mix). That delighted viewers who showed up in the chat room, which included GayVN Award winner Ricky Larkinwho won Best Bi Sex Scene in January and was up for three more awards, including Performer of the Year. So awesome to have got this nomcongrats Cade! he shared in the chat. Younger and better-looking Gerard Butler! Larkin also had praise for LaRue (Chi Chi is the GOAT he wrote in the chat), who was happy to see all of the winners celebrated again. The director reflected on his career and noted that the show and the accolades never get old. I love all the guys that were in it. I said it beforeit feels like an extended family to me, being on sets with boys and the crew and stuff. Its my happy place, it really is. Its finding new talent and doing these movies. These ownerspeople like Tim (Valenti) and Jon (Blitt) from Icon and Noirlet me come up with these crazy ideas and do me. Were putting together some really amazing stuff, and you cant do this without the boys. A lot of people call me Mama Cheech. Im fighting for the mama label with mr. Pamthis is really where I belong. It is. mr. Pam was also in the chat, encouraging and congratulating her peers every step of the way (including Gawd damn thats a hot outfit. Nice DeAngelo!!! and Aww love you Cade!!!). She was particularly taken by hearing Sahara talk about the Best Group Scene win for NakedSwords Five Brothers, which she directed. The scene also included Jay Dymel, who passed away last year. Pam was amazing at directing all of us, and (Jay) was a major player in the movie. So really this whole movie, I dont know how it would have happened without him. Me and Jay became really close, especially when he went to Florida, and when we went to Las Vegas to go film, Sahara shared last night. It really hit home because we became so close, just even as friends. If I ever needed anything, he was always there for me. So I think it was pretty appropriate to thank him and just be grateful on his behalf, because I know thats what he would have wanted, and he would have wanted the party to go on. Shared Pam in the chat: Love you Jaythank you Nic. Mapa also offered his sympathies: Im so sorry for your loss, and its true that there was emotion showing and in your voice, and I think your dear friend we lost was with us that night, said the host. Im sure hes looking down on you proud from that big gay porn set in the skyhe would want you to be happy and he would want you to celebrate friendship. Sahara wasnt done, as he also shared the Best Newcomer win with Alex Riley. Riley showed up last night wearing the same sharp outfit he won inand also brought along his award. I was so surprised, shared Riley. I was sitting right next to Ashton (Summers) at the Helix table, and we were listening to who they were going to call for Best Newcomereveryone was looking to see if I was going to win it. I wasnt expecting it. Seriously, it was the biggest shock of my entire life, literally. Like when I went on stage, after getting shoved up there to go because they said, Hey, you won! Get up there! I literally couldnt breathe. Ive never experienced anything like that, it was crazy. My breath was just taken from me. It was a really great moment. Miller then turned his attention to Sahara, noting how he was a Trophy Boy at the 2019 ceremony and now had two wins to complete a meteoric rise. Crazy, really. I wasnt expecting it at all. I got choked up again. I forgot to thank a lot of people, like Dominic Pacificohes the one that actually got me into porn, and Icon Male, definitely forgot to thank them, Sahara said. There was a lot going through my head, and it was just running 10,000 miles a minute. I wasnt prepared for sure for any mind of a speech or anything like that, and I didnt really know what I was facing. It was absolutely crazy, and Im so glad that this journey has brought me here. Mapa then chimed in: This is the great thing about the GayVN Awardsyou never know whats gonna happen, and I can honestly say as a gay man, this is the most shocking tie since Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn both won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Immediately added Sahara: And (Alex is) great! Hes gorgeous and hes a very strong performer, so theres no reason why he shouldnt have gotten that award as well. For Riley, the feeling was mutual. I think the same thing about you! I was like, Yes! I got tied with the best person. You know what I mean? People may think, Oh, it was a tie. Dont you feel bad that it wasnt just you? No, heck nothats awesome! Thanks guys! Nic, I love you! Also in attendance was Valenti, president and CEO of Falcon Studios Group and NakedSword. He was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame in January, and was equally thankful last night. I was incredibly grateful. Sometimes its not the easiest business to be inthis was really sweet, it was really nice, he said. This was so much fun. I love this show! GayVNs are always so much about love and encouragement and whats coming next, so lets keep doing it! Mapa was also moved by Valentis speech: I think its an extraordinary situation, because nowadays porn is so accessible. Tim and I are of an age where it was hard to get gay porn, and when youre out in the middle of nowhere thinking youre the only gay person in the world, you feel like a weirdo, you feel less than. Theres a lot of shame associated with that, and what Tim has done is he supplied the content for people who couldnt get it, who didnt have easy access to it. Now we have it at the press of a button, and its due to people like Tim that made that possible, so I was so glad Tim that you got recognized. It was the most well-groomed Ive ever seen you. (Added Valenti with a laugh: I know, right?!) The broadcast started with footage of arrivals on the red carpet in January, featuring Riley along with co-interviewer Christiana Cinn. I think the red carpet has gotten bigger and bigger throughout the years. Everybody keeps bringing their fashion game more and more each year, so its really exciting to see, shared Riley. We get to see everybody arriving, and theyre really excitedmost of them have not even been to GayVNs yet, so its really great to film. And I feel comfortable now to the point where I just get to have fun with it. Mapa was equally happy for him: How does it feel to be the red carpet reporter of the only red carpet where theyre ever gonna give a shit what gay porn stars are wearing? Riley responded with a smile: I was a model, so Ive gotten interviewed by a lot of people, and Ive just taken that advice. And then traveling and working with Shangela as her assistant, I got a full crash course in PR and media and how to talk to people on the red carpet, so its become a lot of fun. Riley also praised GayVN for attracting musical acts for the show, with the two performances by King Princess being broadcast last night. She is super talentedand for a live band to be at the GayVNs I think just added a whole new element to the show. It was amazing, it was fun to watch, he said. I always feel like we should aim super high, because you never knowtheres people who will just say yes, like Cardi B was just a huge unexpected yes (for the 2019 AVN Awards). The more that these people keep showing that sex work is real work and that the sex industry is real and alive, just like the Oscars, I think more people are open to doing it. LaRue agreed: When I saw that Cardi B was playing at the AVNs, I was just like Fucking A, man! I remember one of the first ones, there was a folding table where there was cheese and crackers, there were folding chairs and like this makeshift little stage. And I used to be the performance, for like how many years Gary? For like five years? (Miller quickly replied: A long time ago, you did the Sam Kinison version of Wild Thing at the AVN awards.) Fans will be able to view the 2020 GayVN Awards on demand after the world premiere. The 2019 GayVN Awards Show is also available to view now at the GayVN Clip Store at GayVNStars.com. GayVN Stars, which officially launched this past January, is a subscription-based community tailored specifically for the needs of adult entertainers. Its a space where creators may monetize their content without the fear of censorship, discrimination, account suspensions or shadow-bans. Creators may charge a subscription fee to view their content, or make their posts available free of charge. Sign-up for the platform is free at stars.gayvn.com. T4S Partners and ITUp have partnered bringing, up until now, an unprecedented level of OutSystems training to the United States. ITUp is the #1 worldwide OutSystems Training Partner and with T4S Partners brings over 60 years of accumulated experience with OutSystems Platform technology, the worlds leading Low Code platform for building enterprise solutions. We are partnering with ITUp to expand our OutSystems digital transformation offering suite so that prospective OutSystems users as well as current customers can participate in a structured virtual classroom experience as well as at our on-site training center of excellence in Denver, CO. With this offering, participants can become OutSystems professionals in a matter of weeks. With regards to the partnership Rob Ash, CEO of T4S Partners commented, T4S is extremely excited about our partnership with ITUp. As the premier OutSystems training partner, ITUp embodies the value that we strive to deliver to our clients. T4S has established a Training Center at our facility in the Denver Technology Center. For the time being, training classes will be delivered only on a Virtual Basis. When we get to a more normal operating environment, we will deliver OutSystems training on both a virtual and classroom basis. We have been delivering OutSystems training worldwide, including in the US, since 2016. Still, we wanted to expand our presence in the market, being this partnership the first step in our strategy, says Luis Campos, ITUps CEO. T4S provides its clients with top-notch OutSystems solutions and services and was looking to complement their offer with training services. They wanted to empower their customers in adopting a disruptive Technology with confidence and efficiency. We look forward to working together, building a strong foundation for the expansion of the OutSystems community in the US Market. - Luis Campos, CEO, ITUp About ITUp ITUp Is an OutSystems Training Partner that believes OutSystems provides the worlds leading low-code platform for the enterprise. ITUp links training services with people capacity services. Challenging you and your team and has an 83% certification success rate! Find out more about ITUp and T4S Partners at https://t4spartners.com/partners/ or https://itup.pt/. About T4S Partners T4S Partners, Inc. is an IT & Business Solutions consulting firm specializing in Application Transformation, Enterprise Service Management, and Cloud Enablement. T4S experience helps clients drive efficiency and growth by effectively connecting systems, processes, and people. For further information, please visit http://www.t4spartners.com/. Press Contacts Don Shearn Marketing Manager T4S Partners Phone: 303-918-4775 don.shearn@t4spartners.com Adrian Cordova Inside Sales/Marketing T4S Partners Phone: 720-386-2949 adrian@t4spartners.com Filipa Duarte Ramos Executive Office ITUp Phone: +1-888-668-2919 filipa.ramos@itup.pt Facing Expulsion for Calling Out His University Ties to Chinas Communist Party: Drew Pavlou Shares His Story How is it that Drew Pavlou, a 20-year old student who peacefully protested his Australian universitys ties to the Chinese Communist Party, is now facing expulsion? Why do Drew and his lawyer describe his recent disciplinary hearing as a kangaroo court? And, what compels him to keep going, despite being slandered and receiving death threats for his human rights advocacy? In this episode, we sit down with Drew Pavlou, who was elected Senator at the University of Queensland to represent the undergraduate student body. This is American Thought Leaders , and Im Jan Jekielek. Jan Jekielek: Drew Pavlou, so great to have you on American Thought Leaders. Drew Pavlou: Thanks so much, Jan. Thank you so much. Mr. Jekielek: Drew, its almost the middle of the night here for you, and youre having some really long days these days, so I really appreciate you squeezing in a longer interview. Mr. Pavlou: No, its okay. Im happy to do it. Mr. Jekielek: Youre in a remarkable situation. On the one hand, you were elected as a student senator at the University of Queensland (UQ) on the platform of human rights in China and closing Confucius Institutes. Now, the university has assembled a 180-plus page document to explain why you should be expelled, and you just had a hearing a few days ago. Tell me your story, Drew, what happened here? Mr. Pavlou: I lead that first protest back in July at the University of Queensland basically calling for my university to divest from its relationship with China [and] close its Confucius Institute, while the Chinese government was perpetrating such terrible human rights abuses in Hong Kong, Tibet, and those terrible human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslims of China. We were basically calling for our university to cut ties with this dictatorship until these human rights abuses were well addressed. It was a peaceful sit-in. We were aiming to be disruptive, but we were always aiming to be peaceful. We had a peaceful sit-in rally on one of the busiest days of the year on campusthe campus Market Day, July 24and supporters of the Chinese government responded with violence. They cant tolerate any form of dissent, I suppose. When you look at the imagery of what happened on the day, I was sitting down leading a peaceful protest and [there came] men who were in their late 30s, wearing sunglasses, wearing masks, taking steps to conceal their identities. One man was talking into an earpiecethis was sort of a coordinated attempt to disrupt our rally with violence. I support Professor Clive Hamiltons belief that these men werent students. These men who assaulted us on the day were in fact sent by the [Chinese] consulate in Brisbane to disrupt our campus protests, and to try and suppress our freedom of expression [and] freedom of speech, using violence to intimidate and bully us into submission. This was, in my belief, a coordinated attempt by the Chinese Consulate in Brisbane to violently attack university students peacefully demonstrating in Australia against the Chinese governments human rights abuses. It was a really remarkable day. I was punched in the back of the head while my back was turned; other students were charged [and] slammed to the ground. A number of Hong Kong students were actually bitten; a security guard was bitten by one of these guys. They were never identified as students; they were never charged by police; they seemingly vanished into thin air. You would think that the Universitys response to this terrible, terrible violence would be to defend our right to freedom of speech and expression, condemning the violence by supporters of the Chinese government. But in factit has since come out in documentson the afternoon of that violence, the university was sending emails off to the consulate for review and evaluation before posting. The University was preparing their public statements, sending them to the consulate for review, and then after obtaining permission by the Chinese Consulate, publishing [those] statements. The University was coordinating its public relations response to the protest with the Chinese Consulate, and they were in close coordination with the Chinese Consulate against me and against other students who had supported the Hong Kong side. The next day, Consul General Xu Jie, the Chinese Consul General in Brisbane, put out a statement basically praising the Chinese students who had assaulted us as patriotic. He condemned the protest organizers as separatists. I had been named in the Global Times a day before as the protest organizer, so he was labeling me as a separatist. As we all know, thats one of the highest crimes to the Chinese government. It carries the death penalty in China. So when I was labeled as a separatist, it was in some respects almost a Chinese government fatwa against me, encouraging people to attack me, threatening me in Brisbane, Australia. I had hundreds of death threats sent to me. My social media was inundated with these threats. The really remarkable fact of all this is that Consul General Xu Jie is not just a diplomat. The University of Queensland, my university, one month before this violence, appointed him as an Honorary Professor. He was appointed to the faculty. The University of Queensland, in an absolutely unprecedented move, appointed a serving member of the Chinese government to its faculty, and this was thus a professor at the university encouraging violent attacks against me and other students, endorsing such attacks as patriotic. Now, did the University of Queensland ever say anything about Xu Jie? Did they ever follow up against him? Did they ever try and remove him from his faculty position for endorsing violent attacks on students who were simply trying to peacefully express their views that [are] critical of the Chinese government? The university never once condemned Xu Jie; never once attempted to remove him from his position. To this day, 11 months later, hes still ensconced in his position at the University of Queensland. Xu Jie faced absolutely no consequences for endorsing violent attacks on students. [I am] just simply an undergraduate student who criticized quite vocally the universitys relationship with the Chinese government. The University of Queensland has now hired out two international law firms to prepare a 186-page exposure dossier, and they didnt stop there. Theyve produced further submissions, some of them totaling 60-70 pages, outlining the case for my expulsion.The University, on top of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on these two international law firms against me, is now hiring public relations crisis management teams. Why not just drop the case? Its so clearly a politically motivated vendetta to try and appease their masters in Beijing. Why not simply drop the case? You dont have to spend these hundreds of thousands of dollars on this ridiculous insane vendetta. These are taxpayer dollars, student fees, and theyre using it [to try] to crack down on an Australian student who has simply expressed himself peacefully on campus in a way that the Chinese government has objected to. I suppose the Consul General Xu Jie complained to the university when I took him to court trying to seek a protection order after he endorsed those violent attacks on me and encouraged people to send death threats against me. I tried to take him to court seeking a protection order simply so that I would be safe in my own home in Brisbane, and he probably complained to the university. He probably said, Your continued ability to attract students from China probably relies on you cracking down on the student here; making sure he stops embarrassing us. I think the Consul-Generals basically given the university an ultimatum, If you want Chinese students to continue to study at the University of Queensland in the future, you have to make sure that the campus is not this politically sensitive place where people are criticizing the Chinese government. And I think the University of Queensland [knows] that this is a billion dollar question when we look at this over the long term. The university relies on Chinese students for 20 percent of its income. If the Chinese market tomorrow dried up because the totalitarian government in China decided, Well, UQ is too politically sensitive to allow students to study at, [and] if that market disappeared overnight, UQ would be made bankrupt; insolvent. So when the Chinese Consul General in Brisbane says, Jump, the Vice-Chancellor asks, how high? Indeed, last week when an Australian Senator, James Paterson, released whistleblower documents from within UQ, we found out that the Vice-Chancellor, Peter Hj, was actually afforded $200,000 in Australian dollarsI think $130,000 in US dollars. He was afforded this huge, huge bonus on top of an already million dollar salary in part for meeting his KPI of deepening relations with China. When it says, deepening relations with China, what does that mean? It means deepening relations with the Chinese [Communist] Party State, because ultimately in China, the totalitarian government calls the shots. Mr. Jekielek: Im stunned. Ive seen a lot working with the Epoch Times. Weve been covering human rights in China for 20 years, so definitely Ive seen a lot. This is so preposterous in some sense. Of course, the university is saying that this is not politically motivated at all. Mr. Pavlou: Well, look at the 186-page expulsion dossier, and what are the allegations outlined in the case for my expulsion? They include such ridiculous petty stuff. For example, I used the pen in a store on campus to make a note, I put the pen back on the shelf without paying, [and] I exited the store. That is one of the allegations that the University of Queensland is seriously mounting against me in their attempt to expel me. They seriously want the public to believe Im being expelled from the University of Queensland for using a pen in a store on campus, taking a note, putting it back on the shelf without paying, and leaving the store. What was the cost of this pen? Maybe 80 cents? I didnt even steal it; I put it back on the shelf; I took a note. Its fundamentally not about the pen. Its about me threatening billions of dollars in revenue for the University of Queensland in the future, because I am a vocal critic of the Chinese government on campus, and the Chinese government will not tolerate any form of dissent even in foreign countries, on foreign campuses. Its a complete farce. Mr. Jekielek: Fascinating. This is a very interesting time to be talking to you, because from what Ive seen, you have a lot of support among students in Hong Kong. Weve known the situation in Hong Kong has been getting more difficult, but now not less than 24 hours ago we learned that it looks like Beijing is going to completely unravel one country, two systems. Have you heard from any of these students in Hong Kong? Mr. Pavlou: Yeah, Ive been in contact with quite a number of Hong Kongers over there. Im so lucky to have the support of so many Hong Kongers. I completely totally support them. I really cant wait to one day visit Hong Kong, although I probably will not be let in by the Chinese government at this stage. The past 24 hours have just been remarkable. Its really the death knell for one country, two systems. We all knew one country, two systems was dead years ago, but now this is the final nail in the coffin. It is Xi Jinping attempt to murder Hong Kong democracy once and for all. This national security legislation will allow the Chinese government to send in Ministry of State Security police to hound and round up dissidents [and] send them to mainland torture facilities. It fundamentally destroys the rule of law in Hong Kong; it destroys its status as an autonomous city state; [and] it subordinates the city almost totally to Beijings imperial control. Its a colonialist project. When I try to make this issue salient to Australians, I ask people to try and step into the shoes of an ordinary Hong Konger or an ordinary Uyghur, an ordinary Tibetan or an ordinary Chinese person, and I ask the Australian to reflect upon what it must feel like to live in fear of a midnight knock on the door from the Ministry of State Security . For a social media post, you might disappear off the face of the earth into some terrible torture prison; you might be left dead in a ditch simply for expressing yourself freely around the wrong person. Maybe this wrong person hears you utter a joke about the governmentnobody ever sees you again. Try and inhabit the shoes of an ordinary person who would live with that daily fear and insecurity, and reflect upon what that must feel like. If you dont feel an overriding sense of injustice to the very core of your bones, then I dont think youre a human being. If you dont have a heart, you dont feel just this raging sense of injustice at the fact that an ordinary person just like you and I would have to live constantly in a state of fear, fear that they may be tortured, disappeared, [or] murdered for no reason other than the fact that they live under a totalitarian rule, and the powerful exercise total power and control without any checks and balances. Mr. Jekielek: Drew, I dont like to use this term, but the mask has come off for the Chinese Communist Party at this moment. Do you think that somehow strengthens your case? Mr. Pavlou: Well, I think the entire world is really waking up to the reality of Xi Jinpings China. I mean, China under the Chinese Communist Party, has always been a really brutal place. Since Mao, millions have been slaughtered by this terrible party. But I guess for a long time, many people around the world deluded themselves, even after Tiananmen, [saying] China will liberalize. China will change. It will democratize as they enter the global trading system [and] their markets open up. Xi Jinping, like you said, basically shows the world the unvarnished reality of this regime. People sometimes try and claim, Well, China was never this bad before Xi. Well you know before Xi, there were still people being executed for their organs. There were still ordinary people being persecuted for their religious practices. There were still terrible labor camps and torture camps dotted around the country with millions of people oppressed and persecuted. Xi Jinping just takes the mask off just that little bit more. He just shows the brutality of the Chinese state in a more naked way. The world has woken up to that. [There has been] his brutal crackdown in Hong Kong, his terrible terrible persecution of the Uighur Muslims, which I believe constitutes genocide, his crackdown on Tibet, [and] his roundup of dissidents. Of course, we cant forget the Chinese Communist Partys attempted cover up of the Coronavirus pandemic, which I think ultimately doomed the world to terrible catastrophe with hundreds of thousands of lives lost. The world is really waking up to the naked reality of this regime. Its a terrible insecure dictatorship. Its a totalitarian, ultra-nationalist state that believes other countries should be subordinated to its rule. It believes that the Han race must reign supreme over China and possibly Asia, so you see the suppression of ethnic minorities [and] the racist hounding of Africans in China. This is a racist, totalitarian, [and] in many ways, fascist state. It bears all the hallmarks of a fascist state. It looks almost like the Nazi Party looked like in the 30s. We already see the concentration camps, we already see the book burnings, the torture, the murders, the disappearances, the emergence of totalitarian rule. This looks like Nazi Germany in the 30s. Mr. Jekielek: Drew, what is the status of your case right now? Mr. Pavlou: Right now, as I record this interview, its nearly midnight on Friday. We walked out around midday. On Wednesday, we walked out on the kangaroo court hearing against me. So its now been two and a half, nearly three days since we walked out. Not a single word of communication has passed between us and the university. The university has not told us whether they continued the hearing, [what] they found against me, [or] whether Ive already been expelled. We literally have no idea what the university is up to. Its been nearly three days, and Ive got no idea whats happening. Mr. Jekielek: Tell me when you say you walked out on the kangaroo court, what actually happened in there? Mr. Pavlou: We walked in, and we saw that not one, but two international law firms were represented. The university had contracted out this very prestigious Australian law firm that acts internationally, MinterEllison. They had contracted MinterEllison to mount the prosecution against me. And they contracted Clayton Utz, another prestigious Australian law firm that also acts internationally. They contracted Clayton Utz for legal advice. So two law firms were contracted out by the university for the hearing. My lawyer raised the problem that the majority of the disciplinary board that would be deciding on my expulsion were actually paid employees of the university. How can we in any way expect an independent judgment when the board is made up of paid employees of the university? The University of Queenslands lawyers with MinterEllison put forward their final submission just a day before the hearing, outlining the University of Queenslands official opinion. Its an official direction to the disciplinary board that I should be expelled. So what had happened was, the University of Queensland had brought in these two huge high powered law firms, extremely expensive law firms, to direct university employees on a disciplinary board to expel me. My lawyer, Anthony Morris QC is a Silk, which is like a Queens Counsel [QC]. We call them a Silk in Australia. Its like a senior barrister, the best of the best lawyers around. Im very lucky that hes thankfully representing me pro bono, because I could not afford the $10,000 that [he could] charge. Im just a 20 year old. Im very lucky to have one of the best lawyers in the country representing me. UQ had brought in these huge, high powered law firms against me that stack the books against me, and so Tony in his professional opinion said to me, Theres no point [in] legitimizing this process by being here, because it is fundamentally rigged. Its fundamentally procedurally unfair. There is no reason to not walk out. We must walk out. I of course concurred with him, because Im not in the business of trying to make these guys look good by cooperating with this sort of sham kangaroo court. Why would I even engage with that type of process that is completely rigged against us? Im not going to give them the legitimacy that they crave and want, because it does not deserve that at all. Mr. Jekielek: Now, youre still a university senator, right? Mr. Pavlou: Let me tell you, its very, very awkward sitting on the University of Queensland Senate, with the people who drafted up this expulsion dossier against me. Mr. Jekielek: The whole case is just so fascinating, and you were actually elected by a considerable margin on exactly the platform of removing the Confucius Institute, which is a significant contributor to the funding and status. Mr. Pavlou: Yeah, I was elected by thousands of students to represent them. They elected me on a platform that included at a very fundamental core level opposing the Chinese government and opposing its human rights abuses and opposing the University of Queenslands links to the Chinese government. Simply for representing the students who voted for me, now the University of Queensland is trying to expel me. They didnt just expel me actually; they even threatened me with jail time recently. We tried to use court documents from my case against Xu Jie, that we believe were very relevant to my defense, because these documents proved coordination between the university and the Consul. We tried to use such documents in my expulsion hearing, and the University of Queensland directed its lawyers at Clayton Utz to send me a huge letter threatening to immediately open contempt of court proceedings against me, something that in my state would carry a three year prison sentence as a penalty. So the University of Queensland was actually threatening to prosecute me and seek jail time against me to try and stop me from using documents relevant to mounting my defense. So, yeah, its an absolutely remarkable case of trying to suppress freedom of speech on campus. Mr. Jekielek: Weve had a number of guests on the show who have basically said that there is possibly a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic, as horrible as it is. Now I would extend that to what the Chinese Communist Party is doing in Hong Kong, unraveling the one country two systems. [The silver lining] is that a lot of people around the world, in addition to the students at University of Queensland, are waking up to the reality of the Chinese Communist Party. Something that is a relatively new phenomenon just over the past few years perhaps. Now, what is it that you would tell people out there in the world? How should they understand this? Mr. Pavlou: Look, this is fundamentally a government that operates concentration camps on a scale not seen since the Holocaust. Weve not yet seen a perfect dictatorship like this, where they are so adept with surveillance technology [and] control over the Internet that they can wield almost total and complete power over every single minute detail of peoples lives. This is the Orwellian society we always had nightmares about. For me, fighting for human rights is such an essential part of life. Im a history student at the University of Queensland, and reading about the international communitys atrocious inaction in the face of things like the Rwandan genocide, the terrible genocide of the Bosnian Muslims, I was always shocked by cowardice of so many of our international leaders, political business leaders. I always sort of tried to promise myself when this type of terrible human rights catastrophe inevitably rears its head again in history, I wouldnt be one of those cowardly people who knowing what was happening would look the other way. If you believe that human beings should be treated with respect and dignity, you must oppose the Chinese Communist Party, and you must oppose the Chinese government. The Chinese government is very fond of using the line: Those are Western values. Human rights are sort of a Western concept. That is absolutely rubbish. We are talking about a very fundamental idea that all human beings hold equal worth and value, and therefore should be treated with respect and dignity. They should be free from imprisonment, torture, murder. How is that a Western ideal? That is a universal ideal. No human being anywhere would ever want to be subject themselves to torture, murder, imprisonment, for no reason. No one would ever want that to happen to themselves or their family. These are universal ideals. No one wants to face this type of suffering and oppression. If you believe that human lives are precious, then fight against this Chinese government. Think about whether its moral to trade with this government while it operates concentration camps, while it persecutes Uyghurs, while it carries out genocidal policies. Will you be able to look your children or your grandchildren in the eye one day and say: I knew what was happening. I knew that there were 1.5 million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps. I knew that hundreds of thousands if not millions of Tibetans were being oppressed and slaughtered by the Chinese government. I knew that the Chinese government was bashing and beating students in the streets of Hong Kong. I knew that practitioners of Christianity, Islam, and Falun Gong practitioners in China were being persecuted simply for their religious belief. If you knew all these things, and yet you decided to look the other way, will you be able to look your grandchildren or your children in the eye? Will you be able to look at yourself in the mirror? Will you be able to sleep at night? I believe we bear more responsibility for what occurs in this world. Human rights dont stop at the border. We cant just simply say, Its not our problem that people are being slaughtered for no reason. Simply these people were born in another country, so its no concern to us. What is the moral justification for believing that because someone was unlucky in the lottery of birth to be born under totalitarian rule, that their life doesnt matter. Theres no rational or moral justification for that. Its simple selfishness. Its simple cowardice, I think, in the face of moral crisis. This is the moral catastrophe, the moral crisis of our time. One of the most terrible humanitarian catastrophes weve ever faced as human beings in all of human history. And if you believe that human lives should be valued and protected, fight against this government. Ask yourself whether youre complicit in its atrocities by doing business with it. I think we should talk about a boycott divestment sanctions campaign against this government. Mr. Jekielek: To your point, basically we have all these situations that you describe in China. The reality is that the Chinese people face these moral questions [of whether to stand up or not]. Ive heard people describe this situation, in fact someone very close to me, as the and then they came for me moment, right? With coronavirus, because of the way the policy was applied or not applied. Mr. Pavlou: Well, even if we set the pandemic to one side for the moment, that principle, and then they came for me, and there was nobody left to speak out, that principle does apply, because today, its Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, ordinary Chinese people. Tomorrow, it will be others. The peoples of Africa will be next, as their countries are colonized with debt diplomacy. Australia will be next, Southeast Asia will be next, Europe will be next. The whole world will ultimately be threatened by this totalitarian dictatorship because its an ultra-nationalist totalitarian dictatorship. It believes in aggressive expansion. It believes that other countries should be subordinated. We will ultimately suffer as a result of this government. The famous Churchill quote, The appeaser is the one who believes the crocodile will eat him last is very true. You can appease this government, but the crocodile eventually eats you too. Mr. Jekielek: You have this groundswell of student support from the people that elected you, but not all students. Theres actually a UQ Union President who is kind of calling into question your mental health. Im wondering why you think that is happening. Mr. Pavlou: Yeah, well people who follow me on Twitter and Facebook will have seen. I posted footage of the President of the Student Union labeling me as schizophrenic and mentally unhinged in a live TV interview he did. He did that interview in his presidential office while being paid by students. So he was using time students have paid for, not representing students, not doing the work of the Student Union, but actually just defaming me by labeling me mentally unhinged and schizophrenic. These are very terrible. These are very defamatory attacks and also quite vicious. Powerful people in the university administration [and] the Student Union are doing anything and everything in their power to defame me, slander me, and to try to get rid of me. Its very dirty politics. Luckily, Im being exposed to it early, because thats what politics is like. Im not really scared of these people, because I go up against the Chinese government. This is a government that kills people. I dont necessarily care at the end of the day what [a] big boy in the UQ Union Presidency says about me and maybe says a few mean words about me. Boohoo, Im not gonna cry. Im not a Uyghur in a concentration camp. Im not a Hong Konger being beaten and shot in the streets of Hong Kong. Im not facing the terrible, terrible injustices all the people are facing for speaking out. So Im not going to cry when the Student Union President and the university administration tries to silence me so they can uphold their status quo. Ill fight tooth and nail against it, but Im not going to cry, because fundamentally for a lot of people, politics is a lot more brutal. If youre a Uyghur, youre a Hong Konger, youre a Tibetan, [or] youre an ordinary Chinese person, politics is far, far more brutal. Mr. Jekielek: Well, such a pleasure to have you on, and I wish you the best of success in everything. Mr. Pavlou: Thanks so much. I just hope, more and more, we can fight to uphold freedom of speech and fight to uphold human rights in China, internationally, everywhere. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. (Natural News) Due to fears that a salad bar might become a vector for the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), a grocery store chain in Missouri replaced the salads with cereal, candy and even alcoholic beverages. Dierbergs Markets, a grocery store chain based in Chesterfield, Missouri, with several locations in the rest of the state, has allowed its stores to repurpose the grocerys salad bars. Several stores have even used the opportunity to fill the salad bars with something unique to their store. Listen to the Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, shares how he is able to avoid buying overpriced eggs by owning his own chickens. Dierbergs stores putting personal spin to empty salad bars A crisis wasnt going to get in the way of our teams creativity, said Jamie Collins, Vice President of Advertising and Marketing for Dierbergs. Rick Rodemacher, store director of a Dierbergs in Manchester, Missouri, said that his store tried putting fresh foods in the salad bar, but the stores sales didnt improve. So instead, he came up with an idea to fill the bar with liquor bottles and beer cans. The display also has a sign with the word salad crossed out. Rodemacher said the reaction from the stores customers has been generally positive, saying that they have been getting a kick out of the display. Rodemachers stores display, which may have started out as something humorous, turned into a phenomenon. Many of the states 24 other Dierbergs have erected their own displays in the now-empty salad bars, including a tiki bar and a cereal bar. Pictures and videos of these displays have circulated on social media platforms, gaining the store a lot of support. At first we were worried that it wouldnt come across the right way, but its been really well received, said Rodemacher about his stores own display. The sales are not nearly what the salad bar sales were, but bringing a smile to peoples face is worth it. My grocery store has replaced the salad in the salad bar with. liquor. pic.twitter.com/eGemUkvbj8 Emily A. (@emzorbit) May 19, 2020 Restaurants with salad bars adapting to new normal The coronavirus pandemic has put the countrys salad bars and buffets in a predicament over hygiene. (Related: Americas food system in shambles in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.) The pandemic has fully upended the countrys restaurant industry salad bar chains, cruise ship and casino buffets and all-you-can-eat Indian and Chinese restaurants. For example, Souplantation, or Sweet Tomatoes, a chain of buffet-style restaurants with salad bars in Southern California, permanently closed all its 97 stores. However, as states are beginning to roll out reopening strategies, restaurants with salad bars are beginning to adapt to catering to customers in a more hygienic fashion. Sizzler, a restaurant chain known for its steaks and its craft salad bar, has begun reopening dine-in services in Arizona. For its salad bar, it has chosen to bring the salads tableside to reduce the risk of contaminants being shared among customers. This, according to Sizzlers COO, would allow customers to choose their Sizzler favorites. Frischs Big Boy, a hamburger chain with 110 locations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, also has a soup, salad and breakfast bar. The self-serve salad bar, according to Frischs CEO, will be replaced for the time being with a build-your-own salad option, which the restaurants employees will prepare and serve for the guests. Buffets are encountering the same problem, especially since the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) new best practices for restaurants is strongly recommending salad bars, buffets and other self-service stations to discontinue operations until proper infection control and social distancing protocols can be placed. Read up on how other restaurants in other states are handling the coronavirus pandemic at Pandemic.news. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com Edition.CNN.com NBCNews.com HuffPost.com FDA.gov A team of doctors from Bihar governments animal husbandry department on Tuesday confirmed reports of mass death of bats near Ara in Bhojpur district. The swab samples of the dead birds are being sent to Patna for testing and doctors said any reason for their death could only be attributed after the test reports are obtained. The team of doctors visited Tarari, 55 km south from Bhojpur district headquarter of Ara after getting information about the death of hundreds of bats there. As per locals, a large number of bats were found dead in Tarari on Monday, following which the animal husbandry department was informed. The district animal husbandry officer Dr Sidh Nath Rai said that the team of six doctors who visited the incident site on Tuesday reported about the death of around 200 bats there. He said that the swab samples of dead bats have been taken and it will be sent to the Institute of Animal Health and Production situated in Patna for testing. The bizarre incident has generated even more curiosity as it comes amidst the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic which has been linked to bats. For Coronavirus Live Updates The district animal husbandry officer said he could only speak about the reason of the deaths after getting the medical report from Patna. However, he said that the incident does not seem to be connected with bird flu. Bats are mammals and bird flu is not known to spread in high temperatures like at the present. The dead bats have been buried five to six feet deep in the ground following all the medical procedures. The incident site and all the nearby places were also sanitised. The Washington Post "Post Reports" is the daily podcast from The Washington Post. Unparalleled reporting. Expert insight. Clear analysis. Everything you've come to expect from the newsroom of The Post - for your ears. - - - India's coronavirus caseload has surpassed 150,000, with another single-day high of more than 6000 reported today. The spike comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government prepares a new set of guidelines, with the fourth phase of the two-month-old lockdown across the country set to end on Sunday. India is experience a large wave of COVID-19 infections. Credit:Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg The Health Ministry reported 151,767 cases on Wednesday, a jump of 6387, with 4337 deaths - an increase of 170 in the past 24 hours. It said 64,426 people have recovered from the virus. Most of the cases are concentrated in five of India's 28 states. An increase has also been reported in some of the country's poorest eastern states as migrant workers returning to native villages from large cities have begun arriving home on special trains. India eased lockdown restrictions earlier this month, allowing shops to reopen and manufacturing to resume. Some trains and domestic flights began operating again. Metro services, schools and colleges, and hotels and restaurants are shuttered nationwide. Restaurants in the center in Rome, Italy on May 25, 2020 suffer from the absence of tourism the during phase 2 of the measures to contain the spread of Covid-19. Never heard of "travel bubbles" or "air bridges"? Read on because what you learn just might save your summer vacation now that we are in the coronavirus era. With little clarity on when the pandemic might end, many Europeans have already given up on the idea of a summer getaway. But some countries, desperate to salvage this year's travel season and eager to jump-start their economies are slowly reopening their borders and offering a glimpse of what travel might look like now. The pandemic, which has killed more than 300,000 people around the world, was a hammer blow to the travel industry as country after country went into lockdown, closing borders and grounding flights. But with lockdowns around Europe slowly getting lifted, some countries are toying with the idea of establishing special "travel corridors" or "travel bubbles." The idea is to allow people from countries with low levels of infection to travel freely, with no requirement to endure a 14-day quarantine at their destination. The European nations of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have already created what they are calling a "Baltic travel bubble," allowing one another's citizens to travel among the three states without having to self-isolate on arrival. All three countries managed to contain their viral outbreaks with only dozens of deaths. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told NBC News the "bubble" is important for the country's tourism sector, which makes up five percent of its gross domestic product, or GDP, and is the first of its kind in the European Union. For nationals of other countries, quarantine restrictions will still apply, he said. A similar idea was floated Monday by British Transportation Minister Grant Shapps, raising the hopes of Britons eager for sun-splashed European getaways after nearly two months in lockdown. Shapps said he was considering what he called "air bridges." These, he said, would enable people from countries with lower levels of infection to come to the United Kingdom. Greece, a major beach destination for Europeans said Wednesday that citizens of Balkan and Baltic countries, Germany and regional neighbors such as Israel and Cyprus are expected to be in the first wave to be allowed to enter the country without going into quarantine, but could be subject to random testing. Some countries might be excluded depending on the situation with their coronavirus outbreaks, Greek officials said. However, the European Commission warned last week against discriminatory agreements as borders reopen. It said countries should allow travel from all regions of the E.U. with similar epidemiological conditions. The idea of "tourist corridors" within Europe also does not sit well with Italy whose historic sites and Mediterranean coast normally make it a popular summer destination. Italy suffered one of the worst outbreaks in Europe, one that killed more than 32,000 people. "It's against the spirit of the European Union," Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Monday. Once the pandemic is under control, he said, all member states should open their borders and all should follow the same rules. Italy said last week it would be ready to welcome European tourists as of June 3. Tourism makes up 10 percent of the European Union's total economy, according to the European Commission. For some countries, it is one of the central pillars of the economy. For example, nearly 20 percent of Croatia's GDP comes from spending by foreign tourists by far the largest share in the E.U., according to the commission. The country, which is desperate for international visitors to start flocking to its famed Adriatic beaches, managed to contain the outbreak with just under a hundred deaths. ''If there was no coronavirus, we'd be open as usual at the end of April," Drazen Bonkovic, 43, who runs a restaurant on the picturesque island of Hvar, said. "If we don't have foreign guests, this season will be a disaster," he added. On Tuesday, the country entered into a quarantine-free travel bubble with neighboring Slovenia, which had a similarly low number of coronavirus deaths. Experts agree that travel bubbles and corridors are a possible solution to saving this year's tourism season, but say that there are issues to consider, such as maintaining the consistency of restrictions and regulations within a bubble. "Will anyone from another country who needs medical care be covered while in the bubble?" said Richard Butler, emeritus tourism professor at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. "Are restrictions on things like group size or activities, the same throughout, and will visitors be treated the same as the host population?" Transparency and certainty will be critical, ensuring that travelers are fully informed before they make any arrangements, Butler said. With uncertainty still swirling around whether the virus might rebound when borders open, some countries are focusing instead on domestic tourism. The French government has launched a #ThisSummerIAmVisitingFrance hashtag. "We are working with the regions to promote destination France," Tourism Minister Jean Baptiste LeMoyne said last week. Italy, too, is working to encourage domestic travel, announcing a 500 euro ($540) holiday subsidy to be spent on summer holidays in the country. "Overall, if rates of infection keep dropping, the second half of the summer is savable, particularly for the bubbles and corridors, and domestically, but even one or two flare-ups and lockdowns will pretty quickly kill off tourist travel even if governments do not do so," Butler said. Highlights Reliance unveiled its e-commerce platform JioMart in India days after testing the app in Maharashtra The company claims that the items available in JioMart are 5 percent below MRP Zomato and Swiggy had started delivering groceries in various cities during the lockdown due to coronavirus. The number of coronavirus cases is steadily rising in India despite a two-month lockdown imposed by the government. Due to the rise in cases, people are too scared to step out of their homes even for some essential chores like getting grocery items and vegetables. However, technology has a perfect solution to this as there are a couple of e-commerce platforms relentlessly delivering essential items across the country. So if you haven't ordered grocery items online, here are the apps and e-commerce websites you should head to for home delivery of grocery items. Jio Mart Reliance unveiled its e-commerce platform JioMart in India days after testing the app in Maharashtra. JioMart is just like any other grocery-delivery platform, which gives you an option to choose from a wide range of products and get it delivered at your doorstep. The company claims that the items available in JioMart are 5 percent below MRP. You will have to first check whether the services are available in your area by entering the Pincode. Once you get the confirmation, you can make an account on the website and place your order. JioMart will take around two days to deliver your items and it may be increased if there is a surge in orders. JioMart is currently available in the web version. Reliance will hopefully launch a mobile version soon. Zomato and Swiggy The food-delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy had started delivering groceries in various cities during the lockdown due to coronavirus. They had partnered with various retails stores such as Vishal Mega Mart and others to make things available at your doorstep. They also have a good range of products to choose from and sometimes there are buy one get one offers running too. However, your order shouldn't weigh more than 12kgs. Swiggy and Zomato take around one to two hours to deliver products. Along with delivering grocery items, they are also delivering food. So one can avail both the facilities. Amazon and Flipkart The e-commerce giant Amazon and Flipkart were granted permission to deliver essential items by the government. However, now that the restrictions have been eased, Amazon and Flipkart have resumed the delivery of non-essential items including mobile phones and other important items as well. BigBasket and Grofers The supermarket apps BigBasket and Grofers have always been into grocery delivery services but due to the lockdown, these apps were more in demand. However, the surge in orders made it difficult for these apps to accept new orders and fulfill demands. But now with many emerging options, BigBasket and Grofers are back in form. BARRY The body of a Missouri woman swept away by rushing creek water has been recovered, and the man who drove into the low-water crossing has been arrested on a DUI charge. Pike County Sheriff David Greenwood said sheriffs deputies and Barry firefighters were called at 10:18 p.m. Sunday about a car that had stalled in a Hadley Creek a low-water crossing at 275th Avenue. DALLAS, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For years Exceptional Emergency Centers has been recognized as the gold standard for Freestanding ER's in Texas. In this time of the global pandemic, the company looks to be the industry leader and model for safety and cleanliness within the ER industry. "We are living in unprecedented times. As a company we always look to the needs of our patients first and foremost. Their satisfaction is our #1 priority," said Bruce McVeigh, Chief Operating Officer. "We challenged our doctors and staff to look at new ways to increase cleanliness and safety for our patients. I believe our team has done that to a level that sets the bar higher than any other ER or hospital around." The Exceptional Emergency Center's team researched what changes other ERs and hospitals were undergoing, consulted with industry experts, and followed the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations, in order to determine the top ways to ensure cleanliness and safety in all our ER care centers across Texas. Changes have been made to every inch of the facilities. Focusing on the way surfaces are cleaned, contact with patients and guests, processes for admitting patients, and other safety programs, including enhanced sanitation guidelines, staff training, cleanliness inspections, and more. "People trust us with their healthcare needs and the needs of their loved ones," said McVeigh. "We owe it to them to be the cleanest and safest emergency care center anywhere, and that's exactly what we are." "We want to ensure that our patients do not wait to get care. It is vitally important that our patients feel safe in order to receive the care they need; and that is what Exceptional Emergency Centers are founded on. The best care for the best patients." About Exceptional Emergency Centers: Exceptional Emergency Centers provide high-level emergency care with little or no wait time, state-of-the-art equipment, a fully equipped lab, and on-site CT & X-ray services. Our facilities have a team of Board-Certified ER Physicians and highly experienced and welcoming nurses. Open 24/7 we are dedicated to providing the highest quality ER care. www.EER24.com Media Contact: Syed Ali Marketing Director [email protected] 469-341-7800 Ext 6 Related Files Exceptional Emergency Center.jpg SOURCE Exceptional Emergency Centers Last week, the Armenian government approved the bill on making amendments and supplements to the law on referendum, accelerating the procedure for revoking and resuming a scheduled expression of will. If earlier a referendum could be held no earlier than 50 and no later than 65 days after the end of the state of emergency or martial law, at the current initiative of the Cabinet of Ministers, it is enough for the president to sign the corresponding decree within three days after the state of emergency is lifted and set a new voting date. The initiative ignores the epidemiological or humanitarian consequences that may occur during the adaptation period after the state of emergency is lifted, but it satisfies the interests of power structures aimed at faster political decision-making. Last week, two main topics were in the spotlight in Armenia. The first thing is linked to unpromising intermediate results of the fight against COVID-19. The second topic is scandals and accusations linked to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his family. The prime ministers apparatus stably explains problems with the spread of COVID-19 with the complex international epidemiological situation and the overburdened national health system. Armenia's PM Nikol Pashinyan could not comment on Armenia's former Ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan's statements, who accused him of carrying out entrepreneurial activities and laundering financial resources. During another Facebook live stream, Pashinyan limited himself to two incoherent remarks, asking not to contact him again with a request to comment or refute this kind of information. Ex-president Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law Mikayel Minasyan is far from being the most popular person in 'post-revolutionary' Armenia. However, his words prompted the active part of society to pay attention to the Pashinyan family's sources of income. Criticizing the prime minister for his inexperience in dealing with seasoned corrupt officials, Minasyan publicized unconfirmed information suggesting the existence of a large corruption system centered on Pashinyans wife Anna Hakobyan and her charitable foundations. According to skeptics, Hakobyans business became shared in the republic's successful financial sectors, as well as in diaspora projects outside Armenia through the entrepreneurial activities of charitable foundations. The legislation on foundations in Armenia has already been amended and they can engage in economic activities. And given that Pashinyans wife is pursuing an active informational policy in the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper, it is possible that the funds created under Hakobyan's leadership can be turned into a political tool through which corrupt oligarchs can 'pay off' from prosecution. Hakobyan herself added oil to the flames, saying that she doesn't care about the origin of the money invested in her funds. The focus of the referendum on no confidence in the judges of the Armenian Constitutional Court and its chairman Hrayr Tovmasyan should have been the idea of justice and the fight against embezzling elements of the previous regime. But over the past three weeks, not a single day of Nikol Pashinyan has been without excuses. If in the first ten days of March Pashinyan was confident that more than 1.5 million people would support the draft amendments to the Constitution, now the threat of a boycott has loomed over the referendum. Now Pashinyan is not at all sure of the outcome of the voting. Local protest actions near the Central Bank building, the government building, in rural communities and medical facilities serve as an indicator that it's not the time for voting. However, perhaps Pashinyan fears that if the referendum is not held at least this year, then he can completely forget about it in the future, as the country will be busy with the consequences of the pandemic. Opponents of Pashinyan's idea are corrupt elites who do not want to change anything in their lifestyle. Armenian oligarchs are annoyed by the fact that they are forced to "buy the right" to continue doing business in the country. Therefore, any scandal such as fraud involving the import and export of smuggled diamonds or cigarettes will certainly be fueled with one goal - destroying the reputation of "people's tribune" Pashinyan. It is premature to talk that the coronavirus crisis in Armenia is about to be overcome soon, therefore it is important for Pashinyan to concentrate the public's attention on the processes on which his political future depends. Without a referendum, the prime minister will not be able to influence Armenia's judicial system, and accordingly, will not be able to complete the criminal proceedings initiated against the previous leaders, and therefore will not be able to guarantee his re-election. The political exposure flywheel cannot be started at will. This requires regular public opinion measurements. Pashinyan needs to demonstrate to his opponents as soon as possible that people on the street are ready to support him, despite the fact that the government has mobilized police forces everywhere. CHICAGO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Winsightthe producer of the National Restaurant Association Show, the Restaurant Leadership Conference, Restaurant Directions and Global Restaurant Leadership Conference, and the parent company of Technomictoday announces a special one-time-only event, Restaurant Recovery Summit (RRS), that will occur Nov. 17-19, 2020, at the Sheraton Dallas in Dallas, and virtually around the world. Leaders of major restaurant companies will be sharing their views on the ongoing coronavirus crisis, and the steps needed to recover from it. Already signed on to speak are David Gibbs of Yum! Brands, who stepped into the CEO role as the crisis was beginning; Ritch Allison of Domino's, whose delivery model and value offerings have weathered the storm; and Paul Brown, who is building a multiservice restaurant company with Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic, Jimmy John's and Rusty Taco. Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. The agenda will focus on 10 key areas of the restaurant business that are rapidly evolving: consumer experience; off-premise; labor; safety, sanitation and security; technology; supply chain; finance; menu evolution; engagement/loyalty; and operations. C-suite executives from the biggest restaurant companies in the world and the fastest-growing emerging brands will share their stories from the year that was, and their plans for the future. The in-person version of RRS will be supported by a virtual component that streams recorded sessions to operators all over the world. The virtual component will occur in parallel with the live event and the weeks after so that suppliers and operators with travel bans in place can still participate. In the event the live conference cannot go on, the virtual event will still happen. "One of the lessons of history is that calamity inspires innovation," said Chris Keating, head of conferences for Winsight. "The restaurant industry is full of creative entrepreneurs who can work together to inspire the greatest comeback in business history." Winsight is proud to launch this event with the support of the National Restaurant Association, which will be sharing policy initiatives with the Winsight audience. In addition, the event will support the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, created by the National Restaurant Association's Educational Foundation, to help restaurant industry employees experiencing hardship in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Major industry suppliers have pledged their support to this conference and to the recovery of the industry. The Founding Sponsors are The Coca-Cola Company, IFFCO, NCR Corporation, PepsiCo Foodservice and Unilever Food Solutions. Additionally, Chowly, Ecolab, Nestle Professional, Certified Angus Beef, Hormel Foods Corporation, Procter & Gamble, NuArx, OpenCity and Welbilt have already signed on. Winsight remains diligent in ensuring the health, safety and security of all attendees and are working to exceed guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and local health organizations. In addition to several new safety measures, Winsight will be creating a contactless event and has implemented an attendee capacity limit to ensure proper social distancing. To learn more about RRS, https://restaurantrecoverysummit.com/ To read RRS's Safety Statement, https://restaurantrecoverysummit.com/rrs-safety-statement Contact: Britta Baarstad, [email protected] About Winsight, LLC Winsight, LLC is a business-to-business information company serving the restaurant and noncommercial foodservice, convenience and petroleum retailing and grocery industries. Winsight provides research and analytics, branding solutions, face-to-face opportunities, lead generation initiatives, and content marketing services through products including subscription data products, reports, research tools, research programs, fully custom studies, conferences, custom marketing services, meetings, print and digital trade media. To learn more, www.winsightmedia.com. SOURCE Winsight, LLC Related Links www.WinsightMedia.com Let evidence, not talk radio, determine whether the outbreak started in a lab By Ali Nouri View(s): View(s): The president and his secretary of state made a startling claim last week: that there is enough evidence to suggest with a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the source of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. That declaration followed a frenzy of activity of cable TV and talk radio. On April 15, Fox News reported that sources believe patient zero worked at the laboratory and then went into the population in Wuhan. The next day, Rush Limbaugh ran an episode of his show titled All the Coronavirus Taboos You Cant Talk About in which he reiterated the patient zero-Wuhan lab theory. Several days after that, Rudy Giuliani pushed the connection on his radio show where his guest even proposed that the subsequent spread of the virus to other countries was a malicious and deliberate act by China. A week after that, President Trump would make his announcement. The only problem is that neither the intelligence nor the science supports the claim. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence which oversees the work of all 17 intelligence agencies issued a statement indicating that it is still studying whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan. During a recent confirmation hearing, both Senate Intelligence Committee member Angus King and Director of National Intelligence nominee John Ratcliffe indicated they had not seen intelligence to suggest that the outbreak began in a laboratory. Intelligence coming from allied nations threw more cold water on the notion, indicating that its highly unlikely that the coronavirus outbreak was spread as a result of a laboratory accident. Beyond the lack of intelligence to support it, the notion is also unsupported by scientific experience. While the Institute of Virology in Wuhan does conduct research on deadly coronavirusesas do numerous other facilities around the globethe odds of an accidental release from the lab are far lower than the odds of transmission on the outside. Thats because far fewer individuals come into contact with coronaviruses in a laboratory setting, as opposed to those outside the lab who regularly come into contact with horseshoe bats that carry coronaviruses. That includes villagers living in the proximity of caves in Yunnan, Chinathe source of the original SARS virus in 2002. They not only come into contact with bats that harbor coronaviruses related to SARS, but have even been shown to be infected by them. Even if safety was substandard at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as suggested by State Department cables, any protective gear and laboratory safety training is better than nonewhich is what those on the outside that come into contact with bats have protecting them. Thats why scientists have been sounding the alarm for years that these exposures in natural settings could cause the next SARS-like pandemic. Then there are all of those individuals who traffic in wild animals and those who purchase and consume them. Much has been said on how not all of the early cases of SARS-CoV-2 can be traced to the Huanan seafood market. But that doesnt preclude the possibility of transmission from other markets and other sources in Wuhan. The lesson to be learned here is that the transmission of pathogens from animals to humans is a regular occurrence and that we need to conduct more disease surveillance, globally, to find viruses at their source and to stop their spread. In addition, we must be vigilant about restricting wild animal trade. It is inexcusable that China, despite knowing that the 2002 SARS outbreak originated in bats, continued to allow trade in bats and other wild animals. Our leaders ought to learn from these mistakes and take steps to prevent the next pandemic, instead of diverting our attention to unsupported sensationalist theories spread by cable TV and talk radio. (Ali Nouri is president of the Federation of American Scientists.) Courtesy Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Faridabad: A CISF jawan, posted in the Delhi metro network security unit, today allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself from his service pistol. Officials said the incident was reported from Mewala Maharajpur station on the violet line at about 7:40 AM. Constable Alpesh Rathod was found lying in a pool of blood after he allegedly shot himself from his force pistol. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered into the incident to ascertain the circumstances as to why Rathod took the extreme step, an official said, adding that some family dispute might have led him to take the extreme step. Rathod, a native of Gujarat, had joined the Central Industrial Security Forces Metro security unit in October 2014 and is survived by his wife and a one-year-old daughter. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 8 Trend: On May 8, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Arif Alvi made a phone call to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Pakistani President Arif Alvi extended his congratulations on the occasion of a recent videoconference of the Non-aligned Movement dedicated to fight against coronavirus which was held on the initiative of President Ilham Aliyev. He hailed the importance of the conference in terms of strengthening efforts to combat the pandemic. President Ilham Aliyev noted that the event made a significant contribution to consolidating solidarity and international cooperation between the countries. The heads of state expressed their confidence that the two countries will continue to support each others stance at the international level. During the telephone conversation, President Ilham Aliyev and President Arif Alvi highlighted the measures taken to combat the coronavirus and exchanged views on prospects for bilateral ties, including the development of economic and trade relations between the two countries. A man who spent 37 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of rape is now starring in the new season of Americas Got Talent (AGT). Archie Williams was arrested in 1982, and imprisoned in a Louisiana prison the following year, but was released in 2019 after new evidence proved he was innocent. Mr Williams was sentenced to life in prison, after being convicted of attempted murder, aggravated rape and aggravated burglary, but always maintained his innocence. According to CNN, there was no trace of any of his fingerprints at the crime scene, but Mr Williams said that as a poor black kid, I didnt have the economic ability to fight the state of Louisiana, in an interview before his AGT performance. In the 1990s, the Innocence Project took on Mr Williams case, and in 2019 his fingerprints were analysed by a new evidence system, that determined he was innocent, according to the outlet. In his audition for AGT, Mr Williams sang Dont Let the Sun Go Down on Me, to a standing ovation from both the judges and the crowd. During the interview before his performance, Mr Williams said that to help him get through the struggles of prison, he would sing, and added: This is how I got peace. The now 58-year-old revealed that while he was in prison, it was a dream of his to perform on the show. I watched Americas Got Talent in prison and I would visualise myself there, Mr Williams said. I always desired to be on a stage like this, and now Im here, he added. After the performance, the judges, Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandell and Sofia Vergara gave him a standing ovation, and Mr Cowell praised his performance. I will never, ever listen to that song the same way after you sang that, Mr Cowell said. This is an audition I will never forget for the whole of my life, Archie. Mr Williams audition will be shown on NBC at 8pm on Tuesday 26 May. (Photo: Will You Be Able to Travel to Europe This Summer?) The covid-19 pandemic has been tumultuous and tragic around the world. Europe has been especially hard-hit, as have certain parts of the United States, like New York. Countries in Europe including Italy, Spain, and France, saw high death rates from the virus, and they also underwent strict lockdowns. Many of these countries also happen to be very dependent on tourism, and as lockdowns are lifting and some of the coronavirus fears are subsiding, these countries are left wondering how to balance public health with the restart of the economy. If you're looking forward to traveling this summer you have extra worries to add on to everything you already have to consider when you travel abroad. Typically when you travel abroad you have to make sure you have the right documents and immunizations, and you have to familiarize yourself with any health hazards specific to your destination. Now that's all compounded by the need to social distance and potentially wear a face mask. While none of us know for certain what the summer will hold in terms of travel, the following are some things we do know about European trips and restrictions as things stand at this moment. Which Countries Are Easing Restrictions? Some people say they will not feel comfortable traveling for a long time, and especially internationally. That's not the case for everyone. Several European countries have moved in recent weeks to reopen bars, restaurants, shops, and other venues that are important for their local economy and are also appealing to tourists. Some countries have also said they are easing travel restrictions, but that doesn't necessarily mean Americans can head to these places right away. The following are some of the countries that have started to ease restrictions: Austria says that initially, it will open borders for travel with neighboring countries as long as they have a decline in virus rates comparable to their own. On June 15, borders will open with Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and the Czech Republic, for example. Cyprus says it will start resuming airport and seaport operations between June 8 and July 13 in phases. Beaches and museums will start opening on June 1. France is set to reopen borders with Germany and Switzerland on June 15, but there isn't a date announced for non-essential travel from any other countries. Greece said the earliest they will reopen borders to international tourists would be July 1, but direct flights from the UK are set to restart on June 1. As it stands right now, all arrivals into Greece have to self-isolate for 14 days. Italy has been both incredibly hard-hit by the virus and the lack of tourists that usually fuel a big chunk of their economy. They are planning to reopen borders to tourists on June 3. Sicily has said that once it's safe to return, they will subsidize travel for both domestic and international tourists. Spain hasn't announced a date for reopening borders, but a lot of the country's hotels were allowed to start opening on May 11. It's expected that travel to the Balearic and Canary Islands will be among the first to open up. On May 13, the European Commission issued guidance for resuming travel in a safe way that also takes the economic ramifications of reduced travel into consideration. Among the guidelines was the requirement that tourism restoration is based on epidemiological evidence showing a decrease and stabilization in Covid-19 for a sustained period. Individual organizations and businesses will be taking steps to help keep travel safe. For example, when possible, passengers will be asked to buy tickets and make reservations online, as well as checking in online. Places where there tend to be crowding, may rearrange seating and tables to create distance, and fewer passengers might be allowed to board trains, ferries, and busses. Passengers who aren't in the same family or household may be distanced from one another, and transportation staff will be required to have adequate personal protective equipment. Travel Bubbles Baltic states are creating what is being called travel bubbles, meaning citizens can move freely between them. A travel bubble is something being explored in other regions as well. Essentially the idea behind these bubbles is that residents of a group of countries where the virus rates are low and manageable can move freely between these countries. However, for those people who come from outside the "bubble," there may be restrictions and quarantines. How Can You Be Safe If You Travel? If you do travel to Europe this summer, or anywhere else, there are things you'll need to do to protect yourself as well. First, just being aware of the risks is a big one. When you're aware of the risks based on your destination and activities, you'll be able to take the proper steps. At a minimum, wear a face mask when you can't maintain distance from other people. Try to stay six feet away from others at all times, since Covid-19 primarily spreads through respiratory droplets. While you can contract the virus from touching an infected surface, it's much less likely, and the CDC says it's not the main way the virus spreads. Airlines are taking a set of precautions on their own to protect against the spread of covid. Some of these include requiring facial coverings for all staff and passengers and spacing out seating to block certain seats. If you're going to stay at a hotel, many of the big chains have already announced their plans for post-covid travel. These businesses are following strict cleaning and sanitation guidelines, but even so, bring your own wipes and hand sanitizer if you plan to travel anytime in the coming months. You'll want to wipe surfaces that people touch often. While there are indications travel could resume, including internationally, it's important people not let down their guard during this time. You should practice social distance and make smart, logical decisions to protect yourself because until there is a vaccination, covid-19 will remain present. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 MILAN (Reuters) - Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo is expected to give a preliminary green light at a board meeting on Tuesday to a state-backed 6.3 billion euro ($6.9 billion) three-year loan for Fiat Chrysler, a source close to the matter said. Fiat Chrysler (FCA) earlier this month said its Italian unit was working with Rome and Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's biggest retail bank, to obtain state guarantees on a loan facility designed to help the group's operations in the country and the whole Italian automotive industry. Before the loan is granted, FCA's Italian unit will need to complete the approval process with Italy's export credit agency SACE, through which the state provides its guarantee, and then obtain a final authorisation and conditions for the loan from the Treasury. The loan would be part of more than 400 billion euros in bank credit that Italy is making available to businesses under an emergency liquidity scheme to support the economy in the face of the coronavirus emergency. To qualify, companies must agree not to pay dividends this year. FCA has cancelled its 1.1 billion euro planned dividend on 2019 earnings. ($1 = 0.9178 euros) (Reporting by Valentina Za, additional reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; writing by Giulio Piovaccari; editing by David Goodman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) By Peter Y. Paik The controversy over Joe Biden's recent remarks has brought attention to a contradiction in the Democratic Party that is bound to have major repercussions in the presidential campaign. The Democratic nominee caused offense when he declared that blacks who vote for Trump are not black, implying that they are betraying their racial identity. He was roundly criticized for violating the taboo whereby a white person may not define any aspect of an identity held by a minority group. But the controversy has also drawn attention to an issue that could undermine the coalition that the Democrats hope to ride to victory in 2020: the crime bill of 1994, which was written by Biden himself and signed into law by then President Bill Clinton. The bill, which put an additional 100,000 police on the streets, increased the number of crimes that could result in the death penalty and boosted funding for federal penitentiaries by almost $10 billion, met with popular approval. The country was then reeling from high rates of violent crime, with the murder rate reaching the second-highest ever recorded in 1991. Crack cocaine had become widespread in impoverished areas during the 1980s, leading to bloody turf wars between rival gangs in predominantly black neighborhoods in New York, Newark, Philadelphia and other cities. Calls for federal action came from leaders of the black community, where many young lives were being lost to street violence and to drug addiction. Even current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, leading congressional advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement, voted in favor of the bill. Clinton went on to preside over a historic decrease in crime rates. The policies of the federal government were bolstered by city-level innovations such as the introduction of broken windows policing. By the time Clinton left office in 2000, the murder rate had dropped by 38 percent. The rate of violent crime dropped by 25 percent. Indeed, the number of murders per 100,000 went down to levels not seen since 1965. Cities that had been written off as graffiti-streaked and crime-ridden wastelands, like New York and Washington, D.C., began to revive as middle-class professionals moved back in. But in recent years, elite white Democrats have shifted so far to the left on matters of race that they are now more supportive of black identity politics than the average black voter. Indeed, liberal whites are more likely than blacks to view racism as the most urgent problem in American society. Matthew Yglesias speculates that one of the biggest reasons for this has to do with the beliefs of elite Democrats trickling down into the rank and file, which as late as 2014 believed there was no need for major initiatives to address racial inequality. But one of the consequences of the increasing focus on systemic racism has been to turn Democrats against one of their most outstanding policy achievements of recent decades. Indeed, as historian Michael Flamm , the long period of political dominance that the Democratic Party had enjoyed since the Great Depression came to an end because of increasing fears of crime and disorder. Crime rates began to surge in the 1960s. The number of robberies went up in New York from 6,600 in 1962 to more than 78,000 in 1972. Violent crimes doubled between 1960 and 1969. TV news footage of riots in Detroit, Los Angeles and Newark heightened the sense of personal insecurity across the country. Most tragic and painful for intelligent and capable liberal politicians was the fact that their expansive efforts to improve the lives of the poor coincided with the surge in crime rates, leaving them vulnerable to charges that they were indifferent to the safety and wellbeing of ordinary tax-paying Americans. Republicans like Ronald Reagan, by presenting themselves as tough on crime, were able to unseat popular Democratic officeholders. Bill Clinton came into office determined to overcome the vulnerability of Democrats to the charge that they were weak on crime. He not only succeeded at the level of symbols, but also achieved something that no tough-talking Republican president was able to do: actually bring down crime rates. Democrats are determined to end mass incarceration, which they condemn as racist. While harsh sentencing laws merit reconsideration, their refusal to take seriously the issue of law and order shows that they have unlearned the lessons that had come at such a bitter price during the 1960s. Peter Y. Paik is HK professor of the humanities at Yonsei University. He is the second cabinet minister to test positive after housing minister Jitendra Awhad was diagnosed last month. Mumbai: Maharashtra PWD minister and former chief minister Ashok Chavan, who has tested positive for coronavirus, was on Monday admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai. He was moved to the city hospital in a cardiac ambulance from Nanded. According to sources, the minister has been admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital. The decision to move him to Mumbai came after the 61-year-old veteral leaders oxygen level started fluctuating. He had attended some meetings in the last week in Mumbai before travelling back to his home district in Marathwada. He was seen waving at people as he boarded the ambulance for Mumbai from Nanded. Permissions for an air ambulance reportedly could not be procured. His condition has been described as asymptomatic. He is the second Cabinet minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to test positive after housing minister Jitendra Awhad was diagnosed last month. Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Monday reported 2,436 new Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 52,667. The overall death toll in the state has gone up by 60, including 38 from Mumbai, to 1,695. However, the number of the recovered patients rose by 1,186 in the day to 15,786. Out of the total deaths, 38 deaths were recorded in Mumbai, 11 in Pune, three in Navi Mumbai, two each in Thane and Aurangabad city and one each in Solapur, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ratnagiri. Additionally, one death of a Bihar resident occurred in Mumbai. Ben Affleck is taking his relationship with girlfriend Ana de Armas seriously. Is the "Gone Girl" actor ready to take the next big step for their relationship? A Big Step A source close to Ben Affleck told Us Weekly that he wants his children to spend more time with the "Knives Out" actress. Does this mean he's ready to take their relationship to a new level? "He wants the kids to spend time with her so they can get to know her," the source said, emphasizing that Affleck is serious about de Armas. The insider added that the children of the Oscar-winning actor -- whom he shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner -- spent the night in his home in Los Angeles. His daughters Violet, 14, and Seraphina, 11, and his son Samuel, 8, spent the Memorial Day weekend with their dad and his girlfriend. The former "Batman" star and his girlfriend were out and about with his kids on Saturday, May 23. They were seen walking around Brentwood, California with the actor's German shepherd, De Armas' little pup Elvis, and Garner's dog Birdie. All of them were wearing protective masks amid the growing world health crisis. Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas are definitely trying to be part of each other's lives. Letting his children meet Ana is definitely a big move for Affleck. While many are speculating that the two are taking on the more serious road about their relationship, only time can tell what's next for the new couple. A Second Chance At Love After 10 years of marriage to Garner, Affleck found himself in trouble. His problem with alcoholism got worse. While they may no longer be married, Jennifer has always been there for Ben -- helping him recover. However, during his interview with "Good Morning America" earlier this 2020, Affleck spoke about his plans for the future. He was hopeful that he would find love again. "I would love to have a relationship that is deeply meaningful and one to which I could be deeply committed," Affleck said. When asked where he sees himself in five years, Ben shared that he sees himself being sober and spending more time with his children. The actor-turned-director also said that he would have made three to four movies he truly finds interesting. What struck the audience the most, however, was his message of hope about getting a second chance at love: "Five years from now, I will be in a healthy, stable, loving, committed relationship." How It All Began Affleck and the De Armas star met in the set of their upcoming movie "Deep Water." The two were first spotted shopping together at a local department store in the hometown of Ana in Cuba. At that time, the two were just taking a break from the filming of their movie. Apparently, they were still trying to get to know each other. However in March, Us Weekly broke the news that the "War Dogs" actress and Affleck are officially a couple. An eyewitness told the outlet that the couple was "making out" while waiting behind the security line in the airport in Costa Rica. Although neither Affleck nor de Armas confirmed their relationship, their PDAs speak for them. A Syrian fighter, hired by Russia, fighting for the forces of Khalifa Haftar, as been killed in battle, although it is not know specifically where he fell writes Brocar Press. A Syrian fighter was killed in Libya, the first among those recruited by Russia to fight as a mercenary in Libya for the Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar against the Ankara-backed Government of National Accord. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did not provide details on the identity of the mercenary, though reported on Sunday that it had documented the first death of a mercenary recruited by Russia to fight in Libya alongside Haftar. The Observatory reported that the fighter had been killed during battles in Libya, adding that 450 Syrian mercenaries had been recruited from Raqqa, Homs, Lattakia and Hassakeh. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:54:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BELGRADE, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A China-Europe freight train carrying hundreds of tons of medical equipment arrived in Serbia from China on Tuesday. "The train delivered medical equipment to Belgrade today, which the Republic of Serbia bought from China for the fight against coronavirus," the Serbian government said in a press release. "The cargo includes protective masks, protective suits, gloves, goggles, visors and other equipment," it said. The train left Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on May 9, loaded with 294.42 tons of anti-epidemic supplies, China Railway previously told Xinhua. Enditem Srinagar, May 26 : Doctors at the SMHS hospital in Srinagar staged a token protest on Tuesday against the alleged police high handedness with their colleagues. Several incidents of police harassment of doctors by way of stopping them from performing their professional duties have been reported over the last one week. On Saturday, a Srinagar based cardiologist Dr Maqbool had complained that the police stopped him from reaching a hospital to attend an emergency case. He alleged that the police roughed him up and detained him. "Entire world is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, doctors are dealing with the situation with their lives, the doctors can't stay in their homes, they have to attend their patients, but the police does not understand all this," he said. "I appeal to the administration and the police to allow us free movement," he added. On Tuesday, the video of a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in Bandipore went viral in which he is accusing policemen of stopping his car and preventing him for discharging his professional duties. Meanwhile, IG kashmir police Vijay Kumar told IANS that police officials have been asked to ensure smooth movement of the COVID warriors especially doctors and paramedics. He said the police officials will hold meetings with the CMOs and request them to brief the doctors and paramedics to cooperate with the police. New Delhi, May 26 : Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that calling him a 'dramebaaz' is Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's view, adding that he made the short documentary of the migrant workers walking to highlight their pain and sufferings. Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, Rahul Gandhi said, "My motive was only to speak to poor, labourers and what they have in their heart." He said to be true, "I get to learn from their knowledge". I keep on helping. And if she gives me permission then I shall carry their luggage and not only of one person but of 10-15 people. My only motive is to help the people of the country." The Congress leader said that he made a short film to "feel the pain of the migrant labourers and listen to their plight. It has a very big impact. They are our strength and future. And if we don't help these people then whose help we will do." Taking a dig at Sitharaman, Rahul Gandhi said "And it is Finance Minister's view (to call me dramebaaz), it is ok, and I thank her. And if she wants me to go to Uttar Pradesh then I shall go on foot and help the others if she gives me the permission." The Congress MP from Kerala's Wayanad was responding to a question over Sitharaman calling him a dramebaaz for meeting the migrant workers in the national capital earlier this month near Sukh Dev flyover in south east Delhi. Sitharaman had referred to the Congress leader meeting migrant workers as 'dramebaazi' during a press conference last week. Rahul Gandhi arranged for the transportation of the migrant workers, who were walking from Haryana to their homes in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi. He also released a 16 minute documentary on Saturday morning including his conversation with the group and demanded that the government transfer Rs 7,500 into the bank accounts of the labourers and farmers. --IANS aks/bg -- Thanks and Regards Anand Singh Special Correspondent IANS (Indo-Asian News Service) Mobile: +91-9643464275 Travellers skipping between Australia and New Zealand as part of the planned Trans-Tasman bubble will be able to purchase more duty-free booze in Australia, under a proposal from the industrys lobby group. Australian Duty Free Association president Richard Goodman says the government is giving supportive initial consideration to his organisation's request to increase the duty free limits for passengers travelling to Australia to bring them in line with travellers to New Zealand. Under existing limits, travellers can purchase more duty-free alcohol when visiting New Zealand than they can when travelling to Australia. The duty free industry is calling for an increase in alcohol limits for those travelling to Australia. Credit:iStock The New Zealand limit is three bottles of spirits plus six bottles of wine, or 12 cans of beer. But travellers to Australia are limited to 2.25 litres of any alcohol, which is three bottles of wine, or about two bottles of spirits. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Turkeys export of leather goods to Kazakhstan rose by 6.2 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to over $8.8 million, the Turkish Ministry of Trade told Trend on May 26. In April 2020, export of leather goods from Turkey to Kazakhstan declined by 22.2 percent compared to April 2019 and amounted to slightly over $1.1 million. From January through April of this year, export of leather goods from Turkey to world markets slid by 19.2 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $469.4 million. The export of leather from Turkey made up 0.9 percent of the country's total export over the reporting period. In April 2020, Turkey exported the leather goods worth over $54.4 million to the world markets, which is 61.6 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Meanwhile, Turkeys leather export amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. During the last twelve months (from April 2019 through April 2020), Turkey exported leather goods in the amount of over $1.5 billion. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Scientists show, for the first time, how protein synthesis in an ancient organism could have inspired the molecular tools used by modern organisms In cells, protein is synthesized based on the genetic code. Each protein is coded by the triplet combination of chemicals called "nucleotides," and a continuous "reading" of any set of triplet codes will, after a multi-step process, result in the creation of a chain of amino acids, a protein. The genetic code is matched with the correct amino acid by a special functional RNA aptly named transfer RNA or tRNA (which, incidentally, is itself composed of its own type of "codes"). An enzyme called "aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase" or aaRS accurately assigns a specific amino acid to the correct "code" through a tRNA by recognizing unique structural components called 'identity elements' on the tRNA. In the case of the amino acid alanine, the identity element for recognition by the enzyme alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AlaRS) is an unlikely base pair "G3:U70," present in the minihelix structure (amino acid-accepting upper half region) of tRNA. Considering its importance in the recognition of the code, the base pair is popularly known as the "operational RNA code." The evolution of this complex tRNA-aaRS system is a fascinating enigma, as the existing evolutionary evidence suggests that the upper half of the tRNA containing this operational code appeared earlier in evolutionary history than the lower half part that binds to the triplet code of mRNA. Interestingly, in a primitive microorganism, Nanoarchaeum equitans, the genes coding for each AlaRS subunit and are split, with the two genes being separated by half the length of the chromosome. This interesting fact inspired a team of scientists at Tokyo University of Science, led by Prof. Koji Tamura, to hypothesize that these split forms of AlaRS in N. equitans might be connected with the evolutionary history of aaRS enzyme activity. Prof. Tamura emphasizes the significance of their study, published in Journal of Molecular Evolution, in the evolutionary context, "AlaRS- shows the G3:U70-independent addition of alanine to RNA minihelix regions. Our data indicate the existence of a simplified process of alanine addition to tRNA by AlaRS early in the evolutionary process, before the appearance of the G3:U70 base pair." The aforementioned minihelix parts of tRNAs were previously known to function as the region of occurrence of addition of amino acids by many aaRSs. To understand the interaction process of the minihelix (minihelixAla) of alanine-specific tRNA (tRNAAla) and AlaRS subunits, the researchers cloned the coding sequences of and subunits of N. equitans and then purified the synthesized proteins. The researchers noticed that, at a relatively high concentration, AlaRS- alone was capable of adding alanine to both tRNAAla and minihelixAla. Then also observed that AlaRS- alone interacts with the end of the alanine-accepting region of tRNAAla, but not with the G3:U70 base pair. This was in stark contrast to prior knowledge regarding tRNAAla and AlaRS system. In brief, when both AlaRS- and AlaRS- were present, AlaRS behaved in a G3:U70-dependent manner, but working alone, AlaRS- could add alanine to tRNAAla and minihelixAla in a G3:U70-independent manner. The researchers deduced that "the G3:U70 may be a late-arriving 'operational RNA code,' relevant to later alanylation systems incorporating further specificity through the evolution of the AlaRS- subunit." So, what makes the findings of this study so important? Prof. Tamura explains the significance of the striking results of their research, "our findings reveal for the first time that a G3:U70-independent mechanism of alanine addition exists. Furthermore, using 'RNA minihelix' molecules, which are considered to be the primitive form of tRNA, we could also illuminate the 'morphology' of tRNA before the evolutionary appearance of the G3:U70 base pair.'' While discussing the broader implication of their study, Prof. Tamura comments thoughtfully "The breakthroughs in science almost always came from the curiosity-driven research, and the results of our study approach the mystery of the origin of life. It has the potential to transform many areas". His team is now focusing on an extensive structural analysis using the mutants of N. equitans AlaRS-, but their current findings, published in August issue in printing and selected as the cover of the August issue, are enough to give cause to rethink chapters scientists that have believed to be fundamental in evolutionary history! ### Reference Title of original paper: G:U-independent RNA minihelix aminoacylation by Nanoarchaeum equitans alanyl-tRNA synthetase: an insight into the evolution of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases Journal: Journal of Molecular Evolution DOI: 10.1007/s00239-020-09945-1 The full paper, provided by Springer Nature SharedIt, can be accessed at https://rdcu.be/b32lR. About The Tokyo University of Science Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan's development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators. With a mission of "Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society", TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today's most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field. Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/ About Professor Koji Tamura from Tokyo University of Science Professor Koji Tamura is a Professor at the Department of Biological Science and Technology at the Tokyo University of Science. He is a renowned researcher with 14 years of experience in teaching. His research involves multidisciplinary study of the origin of life on Earth. His area of interest lies in the subjects like analysis of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases mediated aminoacylation of tRNA and its relationship to the origin of the genetic code, peptide bond formation on the ribosome. He has more than 40 publications in prestigious international journals. Website: https://kojitamura.web.fc2.com Funding information This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17K19210. GREENWICH Greenwich Public Schools students will be honored with Community Service Awards for contributing their countless volunteer hours during a ceremony on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The awards ceremony will be held virtually through a Zoom meeting. To access on a computer, use the link at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87972768847 and to access by phone, dial 646-558-8656 and punch in the identification number 879 7276 8847. Russias answer to the American GPS system is stalled because sanctions have cut off essential supplies of electronic components needed to build new satellites. Not just the Glonass satellites but satellites in general. This is not a new problem because the lack of Western electronic and mechanical components began five years ago and now that shortage is threatening to gradually shut down the Glonass system and other tech-dependent operations as well. Back during 2014 Russia was beginning to replace the older Glonass M series with an upgraded Glonass K. The Glonass M satellites have a useful life of about seven years and currently 13 of the 24 Glonass satellites in orbit are older than that and in danger of failing at any time. In effect, the Glonass network is living on borrowed time. Two of the Glonass M satellites have been placed in reserve (non-operational) status and are being kept in orbit to give other failing Glonass M birds some kind of back up. The new Glonass K satellites have a lifespan of 10 years but only one is in orbit and two were under construction when the sanctions hit. These can be completed but only by scrounging up the needed components by using locally made substitutes or by smuggling (at great cost) the needed items. There are also two older Glonass M satellites ready for launch. Any more Glonass M or K birds will have to wait for sanctions to end or Russian firms finally finding a way to produce the components or persuading Chinese firms to do so. Neither prospect is likely. The sanctions will only be lifted if Russia withdraws from Crimea and eastern Ukraine (Donbas). Doing so would be a serious setback for the current government and is not yet seen as a possibility. The last Glonass M satellite is ready for launch but that will only partially deal with the fact that most of 23 Glonass M satellites in orbit are approaching the end of their seven year lifespan. Between 2002 and 2011 Russia put 33 Glonass M and one Glonass K satellites into orbit at a cost of $3.2 billion. Now only eleven Glonass M and the one Glonass K are still operational and have not exceeded their useful life. Since 2012 Russia has spent another $1.9 billion on Glonass since 2012 and launched only 11 Glonass M and one Glonass K satellites. Russia expects to launch its one remaining Glonass M and two Glonass K satellites in 2020. After that there is nothing left to launch. The shortage of Western components has also delayed the building and modernization of ground support facilities for the Glonass system. With access to the Western components Russia can build three Glonass K satellites a year. At the moment that production is stalled. There is not enough money to finance research and construction of Russian plants that produce the Western components. There is also a shortage of qualified Russian researchers and engineers to develop and build the Western made components. Such an effort is very expensive and time-consuming and even then the Western components would still be cheaper and more reliable if they were once again available. Over the next five years more of the older Glonass M satellites will fail and so will the global reach of the Glonass system. By 2030 the Glonass system, in general, will likely cease to function. The lack of Western electronic components has slowed down Russian satellite production and launch activity in general. More and more Russian communications and spy satellites will wear out and fail, leaving Russia without much in the way of satellite communications or earth surveillance capabilities. By 2030 Russia may be able to produce all the needed satellite components locally but that will mean Russian satellites will revert to older tech and reduced capabilities. Glonass was at full strength (24 satellites) in 1996, shortly after the Cold War ended. That meant the end of the regular financing for Glonass. Maintaining the system required launching replacement satellites every 5-7 years. By the end of 2002 only seven Glonass birds were still operational. Eventually the Russian economy recovered and provided funds for a series of launches in 2003 that increased the number of active satellites to twelve. That went to 18 by the end of 2007 and Russia had 24 Glonass satellites in orbit by 2011 with the system again fully operational by 2012. As a result Glonass was the first real competitor for GPS. However, Glonass was not completely functional until 2016 because of delays in building all the ground control stations. The cause was a lack of Western components. The money for Glonass is coming from a Russian government that does not want to be dependent on the American controlled GPS system. But the money is only there because of high oil prices. Most commercial Glonass receivers in use are actually combined GPS/Glonass receivers. Russia will have to put billions of dollars into Glonass over the next few years to keep the system fully operational and then spend even more money to maintain the satellite network. The sanctions have crippled that effort and forced Russia to consider whether it really need their own satellite navigation system. YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of emergency situations informs that on May 26, as of 08:15, the roads across Armenia are mainly passable. The ministry told Armenpress that only the road leading to the Amberd Fortress is open, and the road to Lake Kari is partly covered with clear ice. The Georgian side reported that the Stepantsminda-Lars highway is open only for trucks. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Advertisement The odd history of the U.S. Army's massive off-road land trains has been revealed, shining a light on the massive Cold War relics. In the 1950s, the Army commissioned a series of increasingly advanced over-land trains that could haul equipment though the wilderness to build remote early-warning radar stations, as detailed this week by The Drive. The Distant Early Warning Line, or DEW Line, was a vital defensive measure to detect Soviet bombers flying over the North pole, the shortest route to North America. But the stations were to be built hundreds of miles from any roads -- leaving Army engineers the challenging problem of how to transport tons of material for their construction. The VC-22 was quickly assembled in a little more than a month. This is impressive considering it was one of the longest (if not the longest) off-road vehicle ever built at the time, with its six cars (including the locomotive) measuring a total of 274 feet Inventor R.G. LeTourneau was born in 1888 and started off as an ironmoger before going on to invent a wide array of heavy equipment, including the land trains used by the US Army The original VC-12 Tournatrain is seen using articulated joints to maneuver logs through a street The first model, used for logging, was the VC-12 Tournatrain (above) which had a simplified dashboard and controls The Army turned to Texas-based LeTourneau Inc, the heavy equipment manufacturer founded by R.G. LeTourneau. The company had developed land trains for the logging industry, using an innovative diesel-electric hybrid drive. Rather than use a drive train, the engine spun an electric generator that was used to power electric motors that powered each wheel independently. The first of these designs was the VC-12 Tournatrain, which consisted of a power truck with a 500-hp Cummins VT-12 engine, and three 20-ton trailers. In 1954, the company demonstrated VC-12 to the US Army Transportation Research and Development Command, or TRADCOM, proposing that the system would be useful for logistics operations in the Arctic with some modifications. TRADCOM offered funding to create the TC-264 Sno-Buggy, which had eight huge 120-inch mounted in pairs, creating a massive surface area that prevented the heavy equipment from sinking in snow. The hub motor system - LeTourneau had spent the early 1950s perfecting a sort of diesel-electric drivetrain for multi-wheeled heavy-machinery. The system used a combustion engine to spin an electric generator that powered motors on each wheel The Sno-Buggy's (above) massive tires were later used on the famous Bigfoot monster truck, after the owner bought them in a Seattle junkyard for $1,000 The Sno-Buggy's massive tires were later used on the famous Bigfoot monster truck, after the owner bought them in a Seattle junkyard for $1,000. First unveiled in June 1954, the Sno-Buggy was sent to Greenland for testing. Success resulted in a contract for the VC-22 Sno-Freighter, which served successfully in construction projects in Canada in 1955. The following year, however, a fire in the power generation unit put the VC-22 out of service, and it was hauled from Canada to Alaska, where its remains can still be seen sitting next to the Steese Highway outside of Fairbanks. In late 1954, the Army Transportation Corps asked LeTourneau to combine the features of his original logging Tournatrain and Sno-Buggy into a new vehicle, which the Army dubbed the Logistics Cargo Carrier, or LCC-1. In late 1954, the Army Transportation Corps asked LeTourneau to combine the features of his original logging Tournatrain and Sno-Buggy into a new vehicle, which the Army dubbed the Logistics Cargo Carrier, or LCC-1 (above) An abandoned LCC-1 is seen in Whitehorse, Yukon, where it helped build remote radar bases The LCC-1 combined the wheels of the Sno-Buggy with the power system of the Tournatrain to produce a 16x16 vehicle with one locomotive and three cars capable of handling a load of 45 tons. It was handed over to the Army in March 1956, and continued testing in snow at the TRADCOM proving grounds in Houghton, Michigan. The LCC-1 continued in service throughout the 1950s, working on projects in Greenland and Canada. The LCC-1 was so successful that in 1958 the Army contracted for a larger version, the TC-497 Overland Train Mark II -- the ultimate land train ever constructed. Unlike its predecessors, the TC-497 included a number of features that allowed it to be extended to any length. LeTourneau's ultimate creation, the TC-497, could haul 150 tons of cargo at 20 mph for nearly 400 miles The TC-497 had four 1,170-hp Solar 10MC engines, one in the 'control car' and three others spread through the train Whereas the LCC-1 had a single 600-hp engine, the TC-497 had four 1,170-hp Solar 10MC engines, one in the 'control car' and three others spread through the train. New power trailers could be added at any point along the train, which provided power to the independent motors powering each wheel. In another innovation, each of the the TC-497's wheels was independently steerable, and would begin turning when they reached the same point where the control car was when it initiated the turn. While older models had a turning radius of nearly half a mile, and could not easily be steered around obstacles, the TC-497 was able to make nearly 90-degree turns on a dime, threading around obstacles like a snake. In another innovation, each of the the TC-497's wheels was independently steerable, and would begin turning when they reached the same point where the control car was when it initiated the turn While older models had a turning radius of nearly half a mile, and could not easily be steered around obstacles, the TC-497 was able to make nearly 90-degree turns on a dime, threading around obstacles like a snake The TC-497 never left the Yuma Proving Ground after it was made obsolete by heavy-lift helicopters Final specifications for the TC-497 were completed in 1960, and construction took most of 1961. After preliminary testing, it was handed to the Army in February 1962, and shipped to the Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. In total the train now stretched over 570 feet, and on flat ground it could carry 150 tons of cargo at about 20mph. However, the world's most advanced land train was made obsolete before it could ever see service, when in 1962 the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane heavy-lift helicopter debuted with a lift capacity of 20,000 pounds. The TC-497 sat unused at the Yuma Proving Grounds for years, until most of it was sold off for scrap. The control car at Yuma is the only part that remains. It still holds the world record for the longest off-road vehicle ever constructed. In March, Montefiore was the first New York location to join the multicenter trial, which evaluated remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral drug given intravenously. Preliminary results from the trial, announced last month, show that patients with COVID-19 who received remdesivir recovered in 11 days on average compared to 15 days for patients in the placebo groupa statistically significant improvement. Of the 1,063 clinical trial participants, 91 of them, nearly 10%, were from Montefiore and Einstein. Following up on remdesivir's promising results, the trial is now studying remdesivir in combination with baricitinib or placebo in a double-blind, randomized trial. Baricitinib is marketed for reducing inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Researchers want to know if baricitinib combined with remdesivir can prevent or reduce the hyper-inflammatory "cytokine storm" that can fatally overwhelm the lungs and other parts of the body in people with COVID-19 when their immune system reacts to coronavirus infection. "What concerns us is that in some people the immune response to coronavirus can be more deadly than the infection itself, and there is no known treatment for this yet," said Barry Zingman, M.D., professor of medicine at Einstein and clinical director, infectious diseases, at the Moses division of Montefiore Health System. "Including baricitinib in our trial may reduce COVID-19-related inflammation and combining baricitinib with remdesivir may yield an even more effective treatment option for people most severely affected by this illness." Dr. Zingman oversaw the original remdesivir study at Montefiore and is directing ACTT 2. Patients enrolled in ACTT 2 are hospitalized with a laboratory-confirmed coronavirus infection and lung complications, including rattling sounds when breathing, a need for supplemental oxygen, abnormal chest X-rays showing pneumonia, or the need for a mechanical ventilator. All patients will receive remdesivir intravenously for up to 10 days. Half of the patients will also be given baricitinib by mouth, with the remaining half receiving an identical placebo, both for up to 14 days. Remdesivir was developed by Gilead Sciences, Inc. Baricitinib was developed by Eli Lilly and Company. About Montefiore Health System Montefiore Health System is one of New York's premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. It is comprised of 11 hospitals, including the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and more than 200 outpatient ambulatory care sites. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes. From the Montefiore-Einstein Centers of Excellence in cancer, cardiology and vascular care, pediatrics, and transplantation, to its preeminent school-based health program, Montefiore is a fully integrated healthcare delivery system providing coordinated, comprehensive care to patients and their families. For more information please visit www.montefiore.org . Follow us on Twitter and view us on Facebook and YouTube . About Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2019-20 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. students, 158 Ph.D . students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program , and 265 postdoctoral research fellows . The College of Medicine has more than 1,800 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates . In 2019, Einstein received more than $178 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore , the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu , read our blog , follow us on Twitter , like us on Facebook , and view us on YouTube . Click here to view a video of Dr. Zingman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLhOsg8LCSU&feature=youtu.be SOURCE Montefiore Health System; Albert Einstein College of Medicine Related Links https://www.einstein.yu.edu New Delhi: Union Minister D V Sadanand Gowda, who was at the centre of a controversy for not undergoing quarantine on arrival from Delhi by a flight in Bengaluru on Monday, defended him on Tuesday (May 26) issuing a statement on Facebook. Gowda clarified that he was wrongly painted to have not followed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of lockdown, and attached the copy of addendum issued by GOK on May 23. The minister said that an attempt was made to make his official visit to Bengaluru a controversial one despite his being a Union Minister handling Pharmaceutical Dept, an essential wing fighting COVID19, adding "There are some misleading reports that I disobeyed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) of Lockdown." "I would like to clarify that I followed the SOP, which exempts Ministers, Officers on duty from being quarantined. I am attaching the copy of addendum issued by GOK on May 23, for your perusal. Being in government, we ministers, officers, doctors, healthcare workers, police, security personnel, sanitising workers, govt staff and public representatives have to be in the field helping people," he said. The Union Minister said, "At any cost, essential services have to be continued. On many occasions, we face hazardous situations. But we have to carry out our duty," adding " There may be some shortcomings in this big war against Corona. But let us focus on a lot of positive things which are happening all around." He noted, "For the first time, the world is facing such a dangerous virus and people are still learning how to grapple with it. In comparison with most of the developed countries, hope we all agree, India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has fared extremely well in containing the spread of disease. You all know, how the whole world applauded India's effort." Talking about the availability of essential medicines and fertilizers, Gowda said, "I would like to state (as a Minister of concerned departments) there is enough stock in the country. Production has been brought back on track. Also, supply chains have been restored." "In this COVID19 situation, we in responsible positions, have been undergoing COVID19 test regularly. Happy to share with you small information that the result of my latest Covid19 test, which was carried out yesterday, is negative," he added. The minister also appealed to people to take precautions to avoid infections, wear face masks and follow social distancing norms, especially when going out. Notably, the Union Minister was at the centre of a controversy on Monday after he did not undergo quarantine on arrival from Delhi by a flight in Bengaluru as stipulated, but defended it, saying he came under the exempted category being in-charge of pharmaceuticals, an essential sector. The Karnataka government also came to his defence and stated that the Centre had issued orders exempting such people handling essential sectors from quarantine norms. The Minister, also Bengaluru North MP, drove off in an official car without undergoing institutional quarantine as mandated by the Karnataka government for air travellers, triggering a controversy with several people taking to social media accusing him of violating norms while others saying rules are only meant for citizens and not for VVIPS, including ministers. The Minister said he has not come in contact with anyone and there were only 11 passengers in the flight. THE man appointed to head up a Government-established price-watch group for the waste industry was paid a daily rate of 900 (ex Vat) last year. MoneyWhizz author and financial expert Frank Conway is chair of the Price Monitoring Group, set up to monitor the ongoing cost of residential waste collection to homeowners across Ireland. It was set up by former Communications, Climate Action and Environment Minister Denis Naughten in 2017. Figures published by the department show Mr Conway, trading as Communimax, received 22,140 for his work as chair of the group. A spokesman at the department said Mr Conway was appointed by Mr Naughten "on the basis of his dual expertise as a consumer and financial expert, therefore a tender procedure was not used". "The Price Monitoring Group, and Mr Conway's role as chair, was originally due to conclude in July 2018. "However it has been extended a number of times with the continued operation of the group due to be examined as part of the development of our next national waste policy, 'A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy', prior to the end of 2020. "The department considers the work of the group to be invaluable as there is no other body currently monitoring prices in the domestic waste collection market and therefore the group provides a valuable resource to the department and indeed to the wider public." Figures also show that Mandy Johnston, a former government press secretary under Bertie Ahern, received 950 per day and in total 1,900 for communications advice for the waste campaign. Sony has launched a lightweight, compact camera with a 20.1MP 1.0-type Exmor RS CMOS sensor. However, it is not a new RX: the new ZV-1 was designed with content creators in mind. It has a side-mounted LCD touchscreen, as well as the OEM's latest directional mic that is compatible with its own wind-screen. Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here Sony has introduced a new kind of compact digital camera specifically aimed at vloggers and other similar creators. The ZV-1 has a 1.0-type sensor with a ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T* lens; however, unlike its siblings the RXs, it has a 24-70mm range with an f-stop of 1.8-2.8. This choice facilitates 2-mode bokeh (or Background Defocus) that blurs the shot save on a given subject. which even has its own dedicated button on this new model. The ZV-1 also has an up-to-date BIONZ X processor, as well as Sony's prized (optical) SteadyShot and Eye AF (auto focus) tech. It is delivered through Hybrid AF, which incorporates phase-detection AF (PDAF) and contrast-detection AF. However, the new camera's most distinguishing feature may be its LCD screen. It is attached via a hinge to the side of the ZV-1, and has a 7.5-inch diagonal length, a 270-degree swivel and a touch panel besides. It can be used to control the device's 4K recording, which it does in XAVC-S with full pixel readout and without pixel-binning. It also packs an in-built directional 3-capsule mic, designed to capture audio from all necessary angles. This mic has a standard 3.5mm input and its own fuzzy little wind-screen. The Sony ZV-1 will start to become available from June 2020, and is priced at US$799. However, the OEM is offering a discount of $50 off this price that will be in effect until June 28, 2020. File pic: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Nepalese counterpart Khadga Prasad Oli Tensions have been simmering between India and Nepal for the last six months, and have intensified recently with the neighbouring countries vocally taking potshots at each other. Nepal Prime Minister KP Olis rhetoric of late has been accusing India of spreading the novel coronavirus in Nepal by allowing patients to enter the country through illegal channels. In his first address to the Parliament after the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, Oli had even said the Indian virus looks more lethal than Chinese and Italian now. During the same address, Oli released a new political map of Nepal showing areas of Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as a part of its territory, and sought constitutional status to the map. India rejected the map, saying the move is not based on historical facts and evidence. New Delhi also stated that this act was contrary to the bilateral understandings on the resolution of the territorial issue through dialogue. "Such artificial enlargement of territorial claims will not be accepted by India," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement. The longstanding Kalapani issue had reinvigorated in November last year when New Delhi released the new political map of India following the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into Union Territories. In response, Kathmandu had asserted that the Kalapani area situated in the country's far-west lies within the Nepalese boundary, after the new political map issued by India showed the Kalapani region as part of its territory. What is the Kalapani border dispute and why is it causing souring of ties between the two neighbouring nations, lets find out: What is Kalapani border? Nepal has two tri-junctions with India the Lipulekh Pass in the west and Jhinsang Chull in the east. The one under dispute currently is the Lipulekh Pass, which is located in Kalapani area at the border of Uttarakhand with Nepal. The marker shows the Kalapani region at the border of Uttarakhand and Nepal (Image: Google Maps) Kalapani is a 35 square kilometre area in the hill states Pithoragarh district, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Why is it disputed? The Nepalese government has claimed that the Lipulekh Pass belongs to them as mentioned in Sugauli Treaty, which was signed between the British East India Company and Nepal in 1816. The Treaty identified River Kali as Nepals boundary with India. The river has many tributaries, the confluence of which takes place at Kalapani. While Nepal claims the origin of the river in Lipulekh Pass to be the main Kali and hence is asserting territorial rights to it, India claims that River Kali begins in Kalapani as this is where all its tributaries merge, and is exerting claims on the area to the east of it. Why is Kalapani significant? The Lipulekh Pass serves as an important vantage point for India to keep a track of Chinas movements. The pass also serves as a trading route between India and China as well as a pilgrim route to Tibet. Why is Kathmandu upset? India and Nepal have, by and large, enjoyed friendly relations in keeping with the 1950 peace treaty, which said, There shall be everlasting peace and friendship between India and Nepal. The two governments agree to respect the complete sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of each other. According to Nepals ambassador to India, about 98 percent of Nepals border disputes with India are already settled. However, in 2015, Kathmandu grew upset as it claimed that the Indo-China bilateral agreement to increase trade via Lipulekh pass was signed bypassing its authority. Tensions between India and Nepal have now flared up over the territorial rights over Kalapani. Nepal said it has written to New Delhi to resolve the issue earlier too, but India was apparently not ready. The two countries are yet to finalise a date for dialogue on the Kalapani issue. What has intensified the dispute? On May 8, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a road connecting the Lipulekh pass with the Kailash Mansarovar route in China. Not only has Nepal protested the move, it is also considering putting up a security post in the area. Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has maintained that the road going through Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district "lies completely within the territory of India". Asserting that the newly inaugurated road follows the pre-existing route which is used by pilgrims of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, the MEA said, "Under the present project, the same road has been made pliable for the ease and convenience of pilgrims, locals, and traders." Besides, Indian Chief of Army Staff General MM Narwane has said that Nepals protest against the Indian road built in Uttarakhand was at the behest of someone else, hinting at Chinas hand behind the protest. How does this impact Indo-Nepal ties? Indo-Nepal ties had received an impetus after Nepal was invited as a SAARC member to PM Modis swearing-in ceremony. Modi had also visited the Himalayan nation as a part of his neighbourhood first commitment. India had offered unconditional help during the earthquake that had ravaged Nepal in April 2015, even though the Indian media coverage had drawn flak from various quarters. However, the bilateral ties deteriorated considerably after the 135-day trade blockade in 2015, which was caused due to protests by ethnic communities after Nepal adopted its new constitution in September 2015. Nepal alleges that India had a role in the economic blockade. In addition, Indias shifting interest from SAARC to BIMSTEC and BBIN has upset Nepal; even as Delhi is displeased with Kathmandu joining Beijings Border Roads Initiative (BRI), which India has boycotted on several fora. Moreover, demonetisation was a blow to Indo-Nepal relations as Nepal had Rs 33.6 million Indian currency in its formal bank channels alone. A border dispute, left unaddressed at a time when Nepal is reducing its economic dependence on India with the help of China, could push Kathmandu further into the arms of Beijing, as well as invite China to intervene on the issue. Beijing: The Chinese capital Beijing will launch campaigns to address the issue of "problematic" maps that don't portray China's territory "correctly" including its claims over Taiwan and the South China Sea, and rectify the mistakes, the state media reported on Tuesday. Thirteen Beijing municipal departments, including the Beijing cyberspace administration, will launch the 2020 annual campaigns inspecting problematic maps, demanding that map compilation companies, map publishers and map users as well as online map service providers self-examine and rectify, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources said on Tuesday. Relevant departments will investigate maps that incorrectly portray China's territory, endanger national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, or harm the nation's security and interests. If the circumstances are serious, relevant people will face criminal punishment, state-run Global Times report. "Problematic maps refer to those that do not portray China's territory correctly, covering the inclusion of the island of Taiwan, the national boundary lines on Taiwan Island, clear delineation of the Diaoyu Island and islands in the South China Sea and nine-dash line. China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam claim parts of it. Last year, China ordered the destruction of three lakh maps for not showing Arunachal Pradesh and Taiwan as part of its territory. The maps were printed for export to different countries. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 04:47:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIRUT, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Hezbollah leader on Tuesday expressed his rejection to any change to the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFL) in Lebanon, Al Noor radio channel reported. "The Americans and Israelis have always wanted to make the UNIFIL operate in Lebanon without coordination and cooperation with the Lebanese army," Hassan Nasrallah said during an interview with Al Noor. "We will not allow any violation of Lebanon's sovereignty," Nasrallah added. The Israeli UN ambassador said earlier this month that Israel wants UN peacekeepers to have access to all sites, adding the UN Security Council must be immediately informed of any block of their freedom of movement. Enditem AP The husband of a leading protester campaigning to reopen North Carolina has said he and his fellow protesters are willing to kill people as they fight to overturn their states lockdown order. Adam Smith, whose wife Ashley was arrested at a recent protest in the state capital of Raleigh, said in his video that the only just response to the lockdown was to treat it as a fight against tyrannical government domination. I want my kids to look back on our country and say man, what a great nation. The whole world looked to them during that time when the new world order tried to take over, and America said no. Were taking up arms, its time for us to fight against this, were not gonna stop, he said. It comes as Donald Trump threatens to move this summers Republican National Convention away from North Carolina unless Governor Roy Cooper makes moves to reopen the state in time. The Reopen NC group, of which Ms Smith was a co-founder, claims to have amassed 68,000 members since it was formed on 7 April. On its Facebook page, the groups organisers wrote: We stand for The Constitution. We are mostly business owners and employees that are losing our income and denied our right to provide for our families. We have come together to demand action from their elected officials. Rally with us at The Capitol/Governors Mansion/Legislative building every Tuesday. But Mr Smiths video goes beyond simply calling for freedom to unambiguously endorse defending it with weapons if necessary. If you wanna go to the full force time, we have the forces to retaliate, and thats really, at the end of the day, the only thing thats gonna secure our freedoms is our willingness to step up and fight, he said. Mr Smiths reference to the new world order touches upon a conspiracy theory that has circulated for decades among the so-called patriot movement and other fringe groups. In its most common form, the theory holds that there a shadowy global cabal led by the United Nations is plotting to impose an authoritarian, even totalitarian transnationalist government that will rob Americans of their freedom. Story continues While Mr Smith does not do more than allude to the new world order, his monologue touches on many of the core ideas shared by patriot and anti-government groups: that only via armed self-defence and a willingness to kill or be killed can patriotic Americans guard against the tyranny of those in power. Do we want to pick up arms? Do we want to kill anybody? Of course not, nobody wants to take lives. We dont wanna kill anybody. But are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay our lives down? We have to say yes. Is that violence? Is that terrorism? No its not terrorism, Im not trying to strike fear into the hearts of people by saying Im gonna kill you. Im gonna say If you bring force, were gonna bring force. If you bring guns, were gonna bring guns. If youre armed with this, were gonna be armed with this. Mr Smiths sentiments are apparently shared by some of the anti-lockdown protesters lately gathering in other states. Protesters in Michigan entered the state capitol building visibly armed, haranguing lawmakers who took to wearing bulletproof vests. And in Washington state, a large protest in Olympia was attended by far-right activists who have themselves called for violent attacks of various kinds. Calling the executive orders that imposed the lockdown insane, Mr Smith gave his bottom line on why the threat of violence was so crucial. Thats why America has been free, and thats why we remain free. Because we are willing to step up and fight against the forces of tyranny. I feel like our members are going to be asked to evaluate on the spot whether that makes it safe, she added. The reality is, thats not our field of expertise. The union leaders also expressed concern that much of the industry seems focused on audiences, but that there is less discussion about safety for performers, who often work in very close conditions both backstage and onstage. Almost all of the conversation that I have seen about theater is focused on when audiences will feel comfortable coming back, Shindle said. The needle that we have to thread is being able to tell stories onstage while keeping people safe. She added, Im sure, at some point, theres going to be some fantastic director who wins a bunch of awards for staging an Arthur Miller play as a comment on living in the post-Covid age, and the actors will wear masks and gloves and everybody will sit there looking at this piece of theater in a whole new way because theyve done this creative staging. But we also want people to be safe when theyre not wearing masks and gloves. Its not clear how much Equitys concerns will slow down the resumption of theater in America, because that timetable is already quite slow: Many states are not yet allowing live theater, and across the country professional theaters, including the commercial producers on Broadway, now believe they are not likely to resume until early next year. Barrington Stage, one of the theaters that will need Equitys cooperation to proceed this summer, remains optimistic. Julianne Boyd, the theaters artistic director, said in an interview after the unions news conference that she still hopes to stage the one-man play Harry Clarke indoors in August, as well as an outdoor concert version of South Pacific. The theater, in the Berkshires, would insist on social distancing for audiences and performers, and, for the indoor venue, has purchased new devices that will spray disinfectant on seats and in bathrooms between performances; a ventilation system will increase the recirculation of fresh air. Were going to follow all Equity guidelines, and were hopeful that we will get approval, Boyd said. Were still hopeful that we can work something out. A section of anti-Ruto lawmakers has refuted claims that there are plans to impeach the Deputy President. Led by Kieni MP Kanini Kega, Cherangany Joshua Kuttuny and his Navakholo counterpart Emmanuel Wangwe, the MPs said impeaching William Ruto is not part of the Jubilee Party agenda. Kanini, who is said to be the author of the motion, termed the reports as far-fetched, fertile imaginations and a scheme to rouse public emotions. We have no motion or intentions to impeach DP Ruto; in fact its not part of our agenda. As Jubilee, we are focused on helping the President achieve the Big Four since he has only two years remaining, Kega told journalists at parliament buildings on Monday. We are a team helping the President to deliver the Big Four, BBI and handshake, he added. Asked why he had been accompanied by DPs critics Cherangany Joshua Kuttuny and Emmanuel Wangwe, Kanini said they were meeting just for tea. Kuttuny echoed Kegas sentiments saying as Kieleweke faction of the Jubilee Party, their work is to support President Kenyatta deliver on his promises to Kenyans. One of the Presidents agenda is to not to impeach his deputy. As his troops, we have no such instructions to do and we do not intend to go that route, the Cherangany lawmaker said. Kieni, who is poised to take over the National Assembly Majority leaders seat from Garissa Township MP Aden Duale, said those spreading such information are seeking sympathy from Kenyans for discrediting and disrespecting the president. This comes after Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, a DP ally, alleged that the Kieni lawmaker had drafted a motion to impeach Ruto. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday told an ally of Libya's eastern commander Khalifa Haftar that Moscow backed an immediate ceasefire and political talks that would culminate in united governing authorities. Lavrov conveyed that message to Aguila Saleh Issa, speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives, in a phone call, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Issa is aligned to General Khalifa Haftar who controls the east of the country which opposes the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. The U.S. military earlier on Tuesday accused Russia of deploying fighter aircraft to Libya to support Russian mercenaries fighting for eastern forces, adding to concerns of a new escalation in the conflict. There was no immediate response from the Russian Defence Ministry to a request for comment. Search Keywords: Short link: Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:29:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADEN, Yemen, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A senior security official and five of his bodyguards were killed as their vehicle ran over a land mine in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout on Tuesday, a government official told Xinhua. "Unknown militants apparently planted a land mine that struck a vehicle carrying a senior security official along with his five bodyguards in Hadramout province," the local government source said on condition of anonymity. The roadside bomb blast resulted in the assassination of Saleh Bin Ali Jaber, the security director of Shibam district located in the west side of Hadramout, he said. The director of Shibam's district was leading a security campaign to track down suspected terror elements in the area before the incident, the source added. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the roadside bomb blast. But militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch are active in the region and often use roadside bombs to target government officials as well as Yemeni security forces. The Yemeni government-controlled provinces, including Hadramout, are witnessing growing activities of extremist organizations that take advantage of the ongoing conflict in the impoverished Arab country. Enditem Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband says there is some hope his wife could come home, after the supreme leader of Iran announced 3,000 people are being pardoned as part of Eid. Richard Ratcliffe told Good Morning Britain today that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is enjoying spending time with her daughter on video calls since being released from an Iranian jail. He revealed that she has been playing dolls with her five-year-old daughter Gabriella over Skype. Her husband said Nazanin could find out if she is one of the pardoned as early as Wednesday. Speaking on GMB he said: 'We are on the cusp of potentially good news. 'Nazanin's lawyer was being brought down in front of the prosecutor's office tomorrow to get a decision on her clemency. So she could be on that list, we don't know yet.' Mr Ratcliffe said legally his wife should be on the list 'because she meets all the criteria', adding that the family is 'hopeful'. 'Nazanin's been under lockdown for eight weeks,' he said today. 'No one can visit her because she's a high level political prisoner.' But he added: 'It's lovely to be able to speak on Skype to her.' And he said that during the disruption of the coronavirus crisis, their daughter has been able to play with her mother over video chat. 'For her the disruption has been mitigated by having Nazanin on the phone and playing dolls with her on Skype,' he said. Mr Ratcliffe said that although he felt 'euphoric' when he heard his wife could finally be released, he is preparing for the worst. Pictured: Richard and his daughter, Gabriella, speak on Skype to Nazanin who is being held in Iran 'It would be great if we could become a normal family,' he said. 'There's a possibility we'll find out on Wednesday there's a chance we'll find out in the next couple of weeks if it doesn't happen in the next couple of weeks we need to think it hasn't happened. 'Part of me needs to prepare for the fact she might sent back to prison and then keep on campaigning and pressuring the government.' He renewed his call for the government to do everything they can for his wife, despite Boris Johnson being consumed by the coronavirus pandemic. 'He's got a lot going on and the government always does have,' he told the programme. 'It's clear the Foreign Secretary is following this case closely. When I met the Prime Minister back in January he was clear he wanted to do everything he could but after four years part of me doesn't trust that it will happen.' Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport while taking her young daughter to see her parents in April 2016. She was sentenced to five years in prison, accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denies. She was later afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which argues that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law. While it may seem like forever, the first cases of the deadly respiratory disease COVID-19 were identified less than five months ago, and states just over two months ago began widespread school closures to slow the spread of the new coronavirus that causes the disease. That means education leaders are grappling with how to safely reopen schools in the coming months amid a still-evolving understanding of how the disease infects and affects children, and how best to prevent them from carrying it to others. If the idea is that were going to keep the schools closed until we have a vaccine, which is the most likely way that this pandemic will end, then conservatively, were talking about another 18 months at the earliest, said Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician and the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Childrens Hospital, in a city that weathered one of the earliest U.S. outbreaks, but that would mean that kids would spend two years in a distance learning environment. Think about what that means for a 5-year-old or 6-year-old. Even a child from a well-to-do family is going to suffer detriments, but for low-income kids, the effects are going to be enormous and carry forward through the childs entire life. So we cant take a wait-and-see attitude. Here are a few questions to help education leaders think about the virus as they consider reopening school buildings. 1) How can the coronavirus affect your students? Lets back up a bit. COVID-19 comes from a newly discovered coronavirus, part of a family of spiky, spherical-looking viruses also responsible for illnesses from the annoying common cold to the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Different members of the coronavirus family affect children differently. Your common everyday cold viruses account for 17 percent of all outpatient respiratory infections among adolescents in the United States, and 6 percent of U.S. children hospitalized for serious lung infections. Its still unknown how many children contracted the first SARS (COVID-19 is technically SARS-CoV-2) and the Middle East syndrome virus was not prevalent at all among children worldwide during a two-year global study. Young people, and especially school-age children, seem to be more resistant than adults to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Fewer of them have caught the virus, and of those, more than a third have shown no symptoms. Studies have found children to be less likely than adults to show severe breathing problems, and more likely to show symptoms like fever, coughing, sneezing, and stomach upset, in line with other common childhood illnesses. Only 3.6 percent of all U.S. coronavirus cases so far have been of those under age 18. Of the more than 98,000 Americans who had died from COVID-19 as of May 20 , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates only 176 were younger than 25, including 10 infants through age 4; 14 children ages 5 to 14, and the rest ages 15 through 24. The Pediatric COVID-19 U.S. Case Registry at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, which has tracked more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases among U.S. children this spring, found about 1 in 5 needed to be hospitalized, and none had died as of May 21. Take all these studies with a grain of salt, though, because children overall have been significantly less likely to be tested for the novel coronavirus because they tend to show fewer and milder symptoms that can be mistaken for other common illnesses. They also have been less likely to be part of large-scale studies exploring COVID-19s effects, which tend to focus on older and more vulnerable groupsthough there is some evidence that black and Native American children and those with existing respiratory problems like asthma may be at higher risk of serious illness than other students. The exclusion of children from COVID-19 clinical trials is a tremendous lost opportunity to generate timely knowledge to guide treatment of pediatric populations, argued Thomas Hwang, a pediatric researcher at Boston Childrens Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Hwang and his colleagues found that of 275 COVID-19 treatment studies started by early April, only 30 have included patients younger than 18. And as more time passes, researchers are discovering some children have longer-term complications from the virus. 2) Are children exposed to coronavirus likely to get a later disease, even if they dont get sick immediately? Earlier this month, health experts raised concerns about a severe and at times deadly immune reaction in children and young adults exposed to the coronavirus. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, has been likened to toxic shock syndrome, in that childrens immune systems seem to go into overdrive after being exposed to the virus. In more than 200 cases across 20 U.S. states and other countries, children and young adults experienced high fever for several days, stomach pain and upset, red eyes and rashes, and swelling of the hands and feet, as well as the heart and other organs. Most did not have active COVID-19, but did test positive for antibodies to the virus, suggesting they had been exposed to the virus a few weeks before. Some researchers theorize that the same strengths in childrens immune systems that seem to make them less vulnerable to a COVID-19 infection can also make hyper-immune responses more likely. At least three children have died from the inflammatory syndrome, but unlike COVID-19, MIS-C is treatable with steroids and antibody therapies if identified early and most children recover completely. 3) Can children spread COVID-19 even if they dont get sick? For common childhood illnesses like colds and flu, people become contagious around the same time they start to feel sick, making it more likely a sick student will stay home from school. But COVID-19 has spread so quickly in part because people become contagious up to five days before they feel sick, and more than 40 percent of infections have come from people who had no symptoms. Case studies of so-called super spreaders during the infection have found one person who is shedding virus particles can infect dozens of people in an indoor space like a restaurant or music hall. And a new, not-yet-peer-reviewed study in Germany suggests kids can shed just as much virus as adults . Its very easy, for an epidemiologist, which I am myself, or an infectious disease expert, to say it represents too much of a risk because kids could easily be a vector for disease or are a vector. We dont know how big a vector, so lets just keep the schools closed, Christakis said. That focuses only on the contagious part of this equation. But theres so much more at stake that has to be taken into account. We need to have a broad array of the table analyzing what we know. And we by no means know everything to make the best-informed decision. Its hard to tell how infectious children actually are compared with adults, because they havent had as much opportunity to spread the disease. A majority of children who tested positive for COVID-19 were living with someone who had the disease first . An analysis of 700 studies found children seemed to have lower rates of transmitting COVID-19 and were very rarely the first case in a new outbreak. One of the huge caveats in all this research is that children are the most isolated group in the population, because no one that is under the age of 15 is an essential worker, theyre not much out in the community. So its a big black box right now, said Erin Bromage, an associate biology professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth who teaches on the ecology of infectious diseases. An April study in China found children under 15 about a third less likely to contract the coronavirus than older people, but predicted that when schools open they would be exposed to three times as many people, putting them at the same risk as adults. Some children in France and South Korea have contracted COVID-19 since schools in those countries reopened, but it was not clear that all students in the outbreaks had actually gotten the virus at school. In Australia, for example, officials tracked what happened to nine students and nine staff members who were confirmed to have COVID-19 and were exposed to other students and staff at 15 schools. While 735 students and 128 staff members came into close contact with the students while they were contagious, the researchers found only one elementary school student and one high school student may have contracted the virus from school. No teachers became ill from school. Siouxsie Wiles, a microbiologist and expert on superbug diseases at the University of Auckland, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the cluster of infections could have been driven as much by parents gathering and chatting at drop-off and pick-up as by teachers and students passing the infection in class. All that means school leaders and teachers will need to be alert to gatherings of parents, not just students, and act on even mild symptoms, according to Danielle Dooley of the National Childrens Hospital in Washington, D.C. Right now, theres not even a baseline [of child infection rates]. If we want to reopen things, people have got to have access to testing that is coordinated and easily accessible if you start developing symptoms. So that you can know really rapidly if you have the disease and then can set quarantine, she said. Yet she noted that schools will still need to set up procedures for when and how often to test students, keeping in mind that a third of infected children may have no symptoms and at least 40 percent of COVID-19 infections have been found to come from carriers with no symptoms. Theres just a lot of questions that are unanswered about that, and I think youd get into a lot of resource issues too, on whether all schools could actually do [ongoing testing], Dooley said. There have been no studies so far about how often and how widely schools would need to test students, either for a fever or for the virus itself, for such a screening to be effective, Dooley said. While some coronavirus tests now can return results in 15 minutes, they can only be run one at a time, making them impractical for schools to use on every student daily, but more useful to stop an emerging outbreak as students start to develop symptoms. Bromage agreed, noting that schools will also need to push a massive culture change among parents: We absolutely need to be keeping symptomatic kids out of school. Thats going to be a big one that parents need support on, to not give kids a dose of Tylenol to bring their fever down or a cough suppressant and send them to school sick. Thats about as bad as we possibly can do. Everybody needs to be on board with this, to understand that a child that is sick cannot be in school. 4) How can schools limit infections? Schools can be a hot spot for the coronavirus, but that seems to have less to do with how infectious children are and more to do with the structure of the schools themselves, which in many places have narrow travel spaces, inadequate ventilation, and crowded classrooms . Why is that important in a school? Because its easy to think about the risk of shared objects and surfaces, which we can see students touch (or, in the case of the youngest, put into their mouths or noses). Its harder to think about the air students and teachers sit in, breathe in, speak in even when no one is sneezing or coughing. Erin Bromage, a biology professor and comparative immunologist at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, noted that the risk of infection goes up the longer people sit and speak together in an indoor room, even if they are socially distanced. A single uncovered cough can spread viral particles across a room; Wiles, in New Zealand, noted that several prior outbreaks of COVID-19 were traced back to indoor areas that included loud talking or singing. A sick student running around outside on the playground may be less likely to spread infection than that same student sitting in a classroomparticularly if he happens to be sitting near an air conditioner uptake vent. The data that does exist suggests that outdoors is much safer, certainly from a viral transmission standpoint, than indoors, said William Massey, assistant professor for public health and human sciences at Oregon State University. And if we think about the school environment, being outside on the playground, whether it be for recess or for outdoor class periods, is going to be a reduced risk as compared to being on the bus, sitting indoors in a classroom, touching the doors. That may run counter to plans in many districts to cut out recess or other outdoor times to limit potential virus transmission on equipment and prevent students from getting too close to each other. But the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that careful hygiene practices, including regular handwashing and cleaning equipment, and mitigate the risk. And new research suggests time in the sun may be helpful for killing the virus on surfaces. If we deprived [students] of those things [like recess], were also depriving them of health and learning opportunities. And so I think we can get creative with solutions to minimize and mitigate transmission risk, but also ensure that were giving our children what they need, Massey said. Order, sovereignty will be maintained in West Bank - PNA PM Shtayyeh denounces 'Israel's annexation plans' (ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MAY 26 - The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is decided in maintaining ''order and its sovereignty in the West Bank while defending at the same time the civil rights of Palestinians'', said Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh. The prime minister was referring to the recent decision announced by President Mahmoud Abbas to end agreements, including security ones, with Israel and the US due to the Jewish State's intention of annexing parts of the West Bank, in the wake of US President Donald Trump's peace plan. ''This is an important battle'', the premier said. ''A battle on the national existence of Palestine in its territory and on the prevention of the Israeli annexation of Palestinian land through the expansion of settlements''. A Queensland senator has accused the federal government of "co-ordinating an attack" on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's border closures ahead of the state election in October. Ms Palaszczuk has repeatedly said she would rely on advice from the country's longest-serving chief health officer, Jeannette Young, when it came to deciding what to do on the borders. BORDER WAR: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (left); NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Credit:AAP The state's roadmap to easing restrictions indicates interstate travel could be up and running by July, depending on health advice. Dr Young said July was the goal, but that could be pushed back past September if NSW and Victoria were still seeing the virus spread without a known source. This summer, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will launch a rover designed to collect samples of the Martian surface and store them until they can eventually be brought back to Earth. When they arrive, according to a former NASA scientist, theyll be quarantined and treated as though they are the Ebola virus until proven safe. His statement caused a minor media sensation, and understandably so. In the midst of one pandemic, Americans arent ready for another imported from outer space. But ready or not, the U.S. and other spacefaring nations need to start updating planetary-protection measures for a new era of spaceflight. In the years ahead, NASAs Mars initiatives will likely be emulated by other countries. Ambitious private space companies are eager to follow with their own robots (and perhaps, eventually, humans). Clearer safety guidelines are essential both for protecting Earth and for ensuring that a wary public is comfortable with humanitys next steps into the solar system. No one knows, of course, if theres life elsewhere in the universe. But as far back as the mid-1950s, scientists were thinking about ways to prevent alien lifeforms from contaminating the Earth (and vice-versa). In 1967, the Outer Space Treaty codified a consensus that member states should avoid adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter. When the Apollo 11 astronauts returned from the moon in 1969, they were immediately sealed in a decontamination chamber for three weeks, on the off chance that they had conveyed lunar micro-organisms to Houston. Theres no telling when and where the next pandemic will emerge. But with a little care, NASA and its partners can all but guarantee that it wont be extraterrestrial. In the years that followed, planetary-protection guidelines were gradually updated. The Committee on Space Research (or COSPAR), a global research group, came up with non-binding protocols for various types of missions, and wisely requested that any non-terrestrial replicating entity that is, a lifeform remain contained on landing. At NASA, the Office of Planetary Protection ensures that these and other guidelines are followed when planning new missions. But while these rules worked well enough when NASA was mostly focused on protecting other planets, theyre turning out to be incomplete or obsolete in an era of one-of-a-kind missions like the Mars sample return. In 2018, a review by the National Academy of Sciences found that there did not appear to be a solid scientific basis for some of the agencys planetary-protection rules. And even as it prepares to launch the new Mars rover in July, NASA has yet to come up with policies on how to safely distribute any returned samples to scientists. Meanwhile, private space companies increasingly have the technology and ambition to make Mars visits of their own. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, says he hopes to send a crewed mission there in 2024. If the company manages to meet that unlikely deadline, it might be able to avoid planetary-protection requirements altogether. At the moment, no federal agency has jurisdiction to authorize and supervise such a mission. Among other problems, that regulatory gap places the U.S. out of compliance with the Outer Space Treaty. Addressing these issues is essential, and not just to avoid a real-life Andromeda Strain. For one thing, steps taken by the U.S. now will be adapted by COSPAR and become a non-binding global standard, which should help ensure that this new space age is a safe one. At the same time, a public scarred by the coronavirus is likely to be wary of any space missions that require Ebola-level containment strategies. If NASA and other spacefarers want to assure people that they shouldnt be worried about Martian Ebola, they need to prove that their safety efforts are as failsafe as their engineering. For a start, NASA should reassess its planetary-protection measures in light of recent technological advances, and make sure it fills any gaps. It should also establish a standing forum devoted to updating those policies as circumstances warrant. Imposing safety requirements on private space companies is a trickier issue that ultimately will require congressional action. But in the meantime, NASA should link planetary-protection compliance to eligibility for federal contracts. Theres no telling when and where the next pandemic will emerge. But with a little care, NASA and its partners can all but guarantee that it wont be extraterrestrial. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics COVID-19 USA An online briefing called by unions covering Australia Post (AP) last Thursday night underlined their indifference to the dangers facing workers at the publicly-owned mail service amid the pandemic. It signalled the willingness of the unions to enforce the sweeping cuts to jobs, wages and conditions being demanded by management on the pretext of the coronavirus. The national event, which was attended by several thousand workers, was the first held by the Communication Electrical and Plumbers Union (CEPU) and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) since the COVID-19 crisis began. Opening the meeting, Shane Murphy, CWU national president and CEPU vice-president, declared it would discuss very important issues. There was no report, however, on the number of workers infected with the virus, where they were employed and whether they had made a full recovery. Only after at least one member asked in the chat field how many workers had tested positive, CWU national secretary Greg Rayner said there had been no new infections since April. He revealed, however, that 24 AP workers remained in isolation. Rayner did not indicate whether the workers had been tested and were awaiting results or how they were potentially exposed to the virus. He claimed that those previously infected had fully recovered. In an April 4 email to members, Murphy had reported that 11 postal workers in Sydney alone had contracted COVID-19, at least four of them while they were on the job. No further information has been provided to workers since then. AP was designated an essential service by the federal Liberal-National government, meaning that employees were forced to continue working throughout the lockdown measures imposed to combat the spread of the virus. As infections were recorded, the unions ensured there was no disruption to operations, despite the absence of mass testing among workers and the fact that they were initially not provided with hand sanitiser and personal protective equipment. The lack of information on the pandemic set the tone for the meeting. The union officials prevented workers from speaking and from putting motions. Comments made in the chat field could not be seen by all participants. As a result, statements and inquiries from members were vetted. Most of the 260 questions raised were not answered. A motion by some members calling for the meeting to allow all workers the right to speak was not reported to participants or voted upon. Questions about the pandemic, including the absence of on-site testing, were ignored. Most of the meeting focused on a vast pro-business restructure announced by AP management last month and associated discussions about a new workplace enterprise agreement. The management overhaul includes abolishing priority mail deliveries, reducing letter delivery in metropolitan areas from daily to once every two days and extending delivery times for intrastate letters to five days. The changes are aimed at slashing costs and transforming the company into a profitable parcel-delivery service to hasten long-standing plans for privatisation. Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate described them as the largest overhaul of work practices in over two decades, raising the spectre of mass sackings and the further casualisation of the workforce. Management and the unions already have enforced attacks on conditions over the past three months, changing rostered start times on the pretext of allowing social distancing in mail sorting facilities. This means later start times of 6:30am rather than 6am for some workers, and 9am for others. This has increased workloads, giving employees less time to finish their beats despite a higher volume of parcel deliveries, and reduced overtime and penalty rate wage payments, which must be paid before 6:30am. Postal workers are still having to deliver junk advertising mail, which is highly time-consuming, but lucrative for AP. The union officials who spoke at the meeting primarily complained that they had not been consulted prior to the announcement of the restructure. These claims are a transparent sham. APs plans for a sweeping overhaul have been on the public record for years. Moves to slash letter delivery and transform AP into a parcel-delivery service were revealed in a 2018 review, details of which were published by the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year. The unions are seeking to divert anger behind appeals to the Labor Party opposition to block legislative changes required for the restructure, even though Labor has played a central role in the corporatisation of AP and mass sackings at the company. The unions have initiated a toothless online petition, appealing to the government and management. At the same time, the union is working with Communications Minister Paul Fletcher. Murphy revealed that officials have held backroom meetings with him, supposedly to ask which changes would be permanent and whether they are in preparation for privatisation. Murphy complained that despite verbal assurances that the changes were temporary, the unions had not been given any written guarantees. In reality, the unions are fully prepared to enforce the dictates of the company and the government, as they have for decades. The primary concern of the union bureaucrats is that they are adequately consulted, i.e., that their role as an industrial police for management, from which their privileges derive, is maintained. This was highlighted in an answer to a question during the meeting. A worker wrote: Restructuring in the past led to the destruction of hundreds, if not thousands of jobs. Any new round of restructuring will lead to further cuts in jobs/conditionsthis is what the letter from AP to members prior to this meeting is threatening. What does the union propose to do about this? Phil Kessey, a CEPU official, replied in a private answer, ensuring no one else in the chat could see. He said the union would: Campaign and fight reforms that are not agreed. We are not averse to sensible changes to save jobs but we will fight blind cost cutting! Kesseys response, and previous statements from Rayner and Murphy, demonstrate that the unions will present management attacks as measures necessary to combat the pandemic, and will seek to bully workers into accepting them. This is a continuation of the unions decades-long collaboration with management in the gutting of workers conditions. This included the enforcement of 900 sackings announced in 2014, and another 1,900 job cuts the following year, along with other measures, such as the increased use of contractors. The conduct of the briefing and the suppression of the democratic right of workers to speak is a warning of what is being prepared. The unions are seeking to prevent any discussion among workers, because their aim is to prevent a genuine fight against the attacks of management, the government and the entire political establishment. The meeting underscored the need for AP workers to form independent organisations of struggle, including rank and file committees, to defend their interests. These would be tasked with fighting to ensure that all workers are provided with protective equipment and that mass testing is immediately rolled out among AP employees. Rank and file committees could organise broad industrial and political action, mobilising the strength of APs workforce against the restructure. They could break the isolation imposed by the unions, by uniting with other workers who are being propelled into struggle, including health employees, teachers and construction workers. Above all, postal workers need a new political perspective that rejects the subordination of their jobs and safety to profit interests. A socialist program is required, aimed at establishing a workers state that would place necessary services, including AP, along with the banks and major corporations, under public ownership and democratic workers control. This is the only means of ensuring a full-time job with decent conditions for all employees and a safe working environment. ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Thanks to the COVID19 and the agility of Brookfield EuroSwiss management, the Swiss holdings and asset management giant, breaks its own record of revenue in relative to this time of the year and demonstrates significant and sharp take off, of the profits since the beginning of the year. With no bank involved as quick response was a must, Brookfield EuroSwiss injected over 2.5 Billion EUR within less than a month. When the COVID19 just started Brookfield - EuroSwiss analysts was among the pioneers to recognize the up coming demand for medical devices and masks. Thanks to its agile management quick shift has been made and massive resources has been invested in purchasing billions of medical products, among them: Masks, breathing support machines, thermometers and more. Quick enough Brookfield EuroSwiss become one of the most trusted, COVID19 related, medical devices provider. While Brookfield Euroswiss injected over 2.5 billion EUR, the required capital to finance the transactions, BrideBond Securities was leading the logistic operations, purchase and provided billions of COVID19 prevention and treatment medical devices almost to any continent. Once again Brookfield EuroSwiss demonstrates that next to its solid portfolio, including Real Estate, infrastructures, and technology being Alert and response immediately, results significant influence on profits as just happened in Brookfield-EuroSwiss. The big beneficiaries are of course Brookfield Investors and Bridgebond - Securities share holders. With credibility and Swiss record of success for over 50 years and billions of fund that accumulated in to Brookfield EuroSwiss balance, it is sure interesting to follow and see what will be the next opportunity Brookfield management will notice few steps before everyone else. Till then, the investors can be happy and satisfied, Brookfield made it again, despite the COVID19. Media contact Company: Brookfield Euroswiss Contact: Alisa Lungu Address: Zurich Froschaugasse 58001 Zurich, Switzerland Email: info@brookfield-euroswiss.com Website: https://www.brookfield-euroswiss.com/ Story continues SOURCE: Brookfield Euroswiss View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591379/Brookfield-Euroswiss-Crossed-the-48-Billion-Euro-and-Breaks-Its-All-Time-Revenue-Record-for-This-Period-of-the-Year WASHINGTON - The chief watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services, being replaced as part of President Donald Trump's purge of inspectors general, told lawmakers on Tuesday that freedom from political intrusion is "a key safeguard for the programs we oversee." Christi Grimm, HHS's principal deputy inspector general, spoke out for the first time since she was excoriated by the president for a report from her office that found "severe shortages" earlier this spring of supplies to help hospitals cope with the novel coronavirus pandemic. Grimm defended that inquiry and its findings, telling members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that it was warranted, though she said the department has since addressed some of the problems it identified. "Personally and professionally, I cannot let the idea of providing unpopular information drive decision-making in the work we do," Grimm said, speaking calmly as the sole witness at a briefing conducted by videoconference. Calling independence "the cornerstone of what any office of inspector general does," she said government watchdogs must "go right down the middle in providing facts and letting facts take us where they may." A career employee with the HHS inspector general's office for more than two decades, Grimm said Tuesday that she and colleagues are pursuing 14 additional reviews of the administration's response to the pandemic, which has resulted in more than 1.6 million cases across the country of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, and more than 98,000 deaths as of Tuesday. Inquiries, she said, are exploring the operation of the Strategic National Stockpile of emergency supplies, the development and distribution of tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the process by which the Food and Drug Administration approved tests developed by outside laboratories. They also are delving into safety issues in nursing homes, which account for a disproportionate share of cases and deaths; the role of the HHS agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid; and further work on hospitals' preparedness. "We are operating as we did on May 1," the date Trump announced a replacement for her as the agency's top official, Grimm said. "We are plowing ahead." The two-hour briefing was laced with partisanship, with members of the minority party repeatedly complaining that the committee should have convened in person for a formal hearing. They prodded Grimm to address issues beyond her office's scope, such as why the pandemic shut down the U.S. economy. And they suggested that the findings on hospital shortages were inflated. "I am deeply concerned with the flawed methodology," said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee's top Republican. Democrats, meanwhile, condemned Trump's reaction to the report. The committee's chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York said the president "personally attacked Ms. Grimm - and for no valid reason. . . . [I]t seems clear that he just wanted everyone to pretend there were no challenges in our health-care system." Rep. Jackie Speier of California said she was concerned that such White House reactions could prompt inspectors general to "feel they cannot provide any bad news without fearing they will lose their job." Inspectors general are internal watchdogs appointed to keep an independent eye on the agencies they are assigned to monitor. In Grimm's case, she had been HHS's principal deputy inspector general since January, a role that put her in charge of the office for which she has worked since 1999. She said her office monitors 300 programs in the sprawling department. She still is in charge for now, until the assistant U.S. attorney Trump has nominated to replace her is confirmed. Grimm appeared to be speaking to the committee from her office, with an HHS flag and an American flag as a backdrop. Her pending replacement makes her one of five inspectors general the president has deposed since early April. She and two others were removed on Friday nights, a time long favored by administrations eager to minimize attention to controversial White House actions. The others the president removed were in charge of monitoring the intelligence community and the departments of Defense, Transportation and, most recently, State. Most of the five had been critical of the administration's response to the pandemic. One had a role in a document that contributed to the House vote in mid-January to impeach the president. Their removals have ignited outrage from congressional Democrats, good-government advocates and a few Republicans. The issue spilled into the presidential race Tuesday, with a statement from the campaign of former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee. "Instead of addressing the glaring, persistent shortages in testing and protective equipment identified by his own administration almost two months ago, Donald Trump has . . . shirked responsibility and blamed others instead of doing the work needed for us to stop this virus, save lives and safely re-open our economy," said Kate Bedingfield, a Biden campaign spokeswoman. Grimm was the lead author of the April 3 report that said hospitals were facing a "severe shortage" of testing kits and protective gear, hampering their ability to help contain the virus. The report was based on a survey of 343 hospitals in 46 states during five days in late March, and its conclusions contradicted White Houses assertions that the nation was well-fortified with virus-fighting necessities. The survey found that some hospitals were so desperate for masks that they resorted to scrounging them from auto-body shops and nail salons. At least one hospital, it found, was making its own hand sanitizer by mixing gel used for ultrasounds with alcohol from a nearby distillery. The day the report came out, Trump was asked about it during a White House coronavirus briefing. He flatly characterized it as "wrong" and asserted, "We are doing a better job [at testing] than anybody else in the world." He demanded to know from reporters in the briefing room when Grimm had been appointed and focused on the fact that she had been in the office during the Obama administration, even though her tenure had begun nearly a decade before the start of that presidency. Twenty-eight days later, Trump moved to replace her and nominated Jason Weida, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston, as the permanent replacement for the previous HHS inspector general, who retired last year. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has opened the door to a workplace agenda that could lead to the biggest change in a decade. For the moment, however, he is promising a process, not a policy. Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to bring businesses and unions together to find a path out of the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Morrison makes no commitment other than to gather unions and employers together to work on a deal. Australia has such a long history of acrimony over workplace law that the mere prospect of change is a political risk. Some stocks are best avoided. We don't wish catastrophic capital loss on anyone. Imagine if you held Xinchen China Power Holdings Limited (HKG:1148) for half a decade as the share price tanked 90%. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 16% in the last 90 days. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 10% in the same period. We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson. Check out our latest analysis for Xinchen China Power Holdings There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time. Looking back five years, both Xinchen China Power Holdings's share price and EPS declined; the latter at a rate of 52% per year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 37% compound annual share price fall. The relatively muted share price reaction might be because the market expects the business to turn around. With a P/E ratio of 58.60, it's fair to say the market sees a brighter future for the business. The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail). SEHK:1148 Past and Future Earnings May 26th 2020 Dive deeper into Xinchen China Power Holdings's key metrics by checking this interactive graph of Xinchen China Power Holdings's earnings, revenue and cash flow. A Different Perspective While it's certainly disappointing to see that Xinchen China Power Holdings shares lost 4.2% throughout the year, that wasn't as bad as the market loss of 8.2%. Of far more concern is the 37% p.a. loss served to shareholders over the last five years. While the losses are slowing we doubt many shareholders are happy with the stock. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Xinchen China Power Holdings better, we need to consider many other factors. Case in point: We've spotted 5 warning signs for Xinchen China Power Holdings you should be aware of, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored. Story continues Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Civic group members fighting for the reinstatement of a dismissed Samsung Electronics worker hold a protest in front of company Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's residence in Seoul, May 24. Screen capture from YouTube. By Park Han-sol Civic group members who claim to support former Samsung Electronics employees have been drawing public criticism for their unruly behavior when they protested in front of company Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's residence in Seoul. In a three-minute video uploaded May 24 by the YouTube channel YeondaeTV, a dozen members from the organization are seen cooking pork belly while drinking, singing loudly and playing guitar outside of Lee's home. The civic group has called for the reinstatement and compensation of Kim Yong-hee, a former Samsung employee who was dismissed in 1995 for allegedly attempting to form a union. Kim has been staging a protest on top of a 25-meter-tall traffic camera tower near Samsung headquarters in Seoul, for nearly a year. The group joined Kim in protests in Gangnam until the beginning of this month. However, they changed the location of their rally to the area in front of Lee Jae-yong's residence, May 21, and since then have staged binge-eating strikes and occupied the area with tents. In the protest video re-uploaded on May 26, the text explains that the footage had to be blurred and edited "due to an anonymous request." Screen capture from YouTube The video was taken down on May 25 after receiving criticism but was re-uploaded the next day with the image blurred and the text reading "yes, we cooked pork belly and drank beer. We also sang and had debates. We will upload a video of us debating as well. How barbaric of us, am I right?" One user commented, "How can one call this a protest when they are drinking and making a scene outside of a private residence?" Others also called out the organization for its "shameful" acts and questioned its efficacy in garnering sympathy. Cargo has washed up on beaches after a Singapore-flagged ship lost 40 shipping containers in rough seas off the coast of New South Wales. The APL England was en route from China to Melbourne on Sunday when it hit wild weather about 73km south-east of Sydney. Large swell caused the ship to roll and stacks of containers destabilised and fell into 2km-deep water, forcing the vessel to turn around and head towards Brisbane. Incredible images show several containers hanging precariously over the edge of the vessel. Unusual cargo has started to wash up on beaches after a Singapore-flagged ship lost 40 containers off the coast of New South Wales About 40 containers filled with goods such as household appliances, building materials and medical supplies fell into 2km-deep water About 40 containers filled with goods such as household appliances, building materials and medical supplies fell into the ocean, Australian Maritime Safety Authority general manager of operations Allan Schwartz said. People live along Sydney's coast have started finding some of the cargo, including packets of surgical face masks and medical protective gear from China. NSW Maritime executive director Alex Barrell said boxes of flexible ducting, commonly used in heating and cooling systems, washed ashore at beaches in Sydney's east on Tuesday. 'These are consistent with items on the ship's cargo manifest, along with building supplies, protective equipment, plastic bottles and aircraft seats,' Mr Barrell said in a statement. 'Thankfully, no hazardous materials are reported in what fell overboard.' Mr Schwartz said reports were received of face masks washing up between Magenta Beach and The Entrance on the NSW Central Coast. 'These correlate to drift modelling of debris and are consistent with items listed on the ship's cargo manifest,' he said. The ship lost the cargo on Sunday while en route from China to Melbourne, with the incident forcing the ship to turn and head toward Brisbane The Singaporean-flagged APL England hit rough seas about 73km south-east of Sydney causing stacks of containers to destabilise 'We will be managing any further collection and safe disposal of debris from this ship as part of our marine pollution responsibilities,' Mr Barrell. AMSA officers boarded the ship on Tuesday to check the ship's structural and operational condition following the collapse of the container stacks. Authorities expect to know the outcome of the inspection and have confirmation of the next steps on Wednesday morning. This will include if and how the ship can be brought safely into the Port of Brisbane. Incredible images showed several containers hanging precariously over the edge of the ship NSW Maritime is advising coastal councils between Sydney and Gosford on dealing with the containers and their contents 'Once the ship is safely in port we will begin our investigation which will focus on the safety of the ship, including whether cargo was appropriately stacked and secured on board the ship, and any potential breaches of environmental pollution regulations,' Mr Schwartz said. The APL England suffered a temporary loss of propulsion in heavy seas about 75km southeast of Sydney, which caused it to roll. A few dozen containers tumbled overboard in waters about 2km deep while another 74 were damaged, leaving nine containers protruding from the ship's starboard and port sides. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was also notified and will investigate. The APL England - under different management - previously lost 37 containers in the Great Australian Bight in August 2016, also due to heavy rolling in rough seas. Swiss sex workers have drawn up a list of rules which they say minimises the risk of transmitting coronavirus in brothels, in hopes that the country's ban on the industry could soon be lifted. It comes as Switzerland's adult industry has been heavily hit by the pandemic, after the government placed a temporary ban on prostitution two months ago to help stop the spread of the virus. The plan to reopen the industry, prepared by the organisation ProKoRe, suggests that sex positions which allow for a safe distance between faces, such as 'doggy style' and 'reverse cowgirl', are advisable. An association representing Swiss sex workers has drawn up a list of rules which they say minimises the risk of transmitting coronavirus in brothels, in hopes that the country's ban on the industry could soon be lifted (File image) These positions reduce the risk of transmission of the virus in water droplets, Swiss media outlet Watson reported. Both 'doggy style' and 'reverse cowgirl' allow for the woman to face away from her sexual partner, avoiding face-to-face contact. Other measures for protecting the health of sex workers include ventilating rooms for at least 15 minutes after each customer, and washing bed sheets and hand towels at a temperature of at least 60 degrees each time. It also recommends sex workers to wear a mouth and nose covering at all times. Gloves, condoms and disinfectants would also be provided at the brothels and each session should be kept to 15 minutes. The document also advises against workers touching the personal belongings of customers, such as a jacket. Customer contact data would be recorded for the purpose of tracing and kept for four weeks. The document calls for the lifting of lockdown restrictions for sex workers to coincide with the next easing of measures on June 8. ProKoRe urged the Swiss government to lift the restrictions as a matter of urgency, stating that the current ban was giving rise to illegal sex work and creating safety issues. Other measures for protecting the health of sex workers include ventilating rooms for at least 15 minutes after each customer, and washing bed sheets and hand towels at a temperature of at least 60 degrees each time (File image) Prostitution in Switzerland is legal and regulated, while trafficking, forcing people into prostitution and most forms of pimping are illegal. As part of the measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, Switzerland temporarily banned prostitution from March 16. A Thai woman was arrested on March 24 for not closing her establishment in Rheineck in the canton of St. Gallen, and was fined 1,500 Swiss francs (1,200). Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Another 350 people in the country have contracted the viral coronavirus disease, the Department of Health reported on Tuesday, as the number of deaths near the 900 mark. This is the highest number of cases reported in a single day since April 6, when the country logged 414 new cases. The agency said the nationwide COVID-19 tally is now 14,669 while the death toll is at 886 after 13 more succumbed to the illness. From the total number, 10,371 are active cases or are currently experiecing the illness. Meanwhile, 89 more have been cured of COVID-19 bringing recoveries to 3,412. The Department of Foreign Affairs also listed 18 new confirmed cases among overseas Filipinos in 47 countries, raising the infected toll to 2,635. No new deaths were recorded keeping fatalities at 328 while recoveries rose to 905 with 16 additional survivors. From the number of infected Filipinos abroad, 567 were verified by the DOH. Some 1,401 are still undergoing treatment, DFA added. Healthcare workers with COVID-19 The DOH also said 26 more healthcare workers caught the coronavirus while ten more have been cured. The total infected medical frontliners now stand at 2,420 while survivors are 1,163. The new tally means 17 percent of the nationwide count are healthcare workers or one out of every six cases is a healthcare worker. The death toll has remained at 31 since May 10, the DOH noted. The agency said 879 nurses, 682 doctors, 148 nursing assistants, 89 medical technologists, 45 radiologic technologists and 304 non-medical staff tested positive for COVID-19. Some 1,226 are also active cases. A World Health Organization official said infections continue in hospitals despite having enough personal protective equipment possibly due to improper removal of gear. "When you are doffing PPE, you have a high chance that you may be contaminated by the virus so before and during and after removing PPE, you need to pratice hand hygiene," said WHO Technical Officer Dr. Takeshi Nishijimaduring from the Western Pacific Region during the DOH online briefing. He advised health personnel to rinse hands with an alcohol-based solution when changing out of their protective gear, as well as other infection prevention measures. The department earlier warned that more cases are expected to be recorded as the country's COVID-19 testing capacity continues to increase. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the government has already reached its end-of-month target of 30,000 tests conducted daily. There are 34 laboratories in the country that can conduct COVID-19 tests, the DOH said. The coronavirus has infected nearly 5.5 million people globally and killed more than 346,000 others according to the John Hopkins University. OTTAWAShould Elizabeth May stay out of the Green Partys leadership race? Some contenders think so, and say the former Green leader is breaking her pledge to remain neutral in the race for the job she held for 13 years. But May says she is merely helping boost candidates from under-represented groups in a bid to make the Greens a more diverse political movement. Mays presence in the leadership contest flared into a debate amongst Greens in recent days after Toronto-based candidate Annamie Paul shared plans to co-host a virtual tour with the former leader to raise money and discuss issues with party members. An online notice for the first event on Sunday says May is not endorsing anyone in the race, but that she will help equity-seeking candidates raise money. Paul is a Black woman. David Merner is one of four contenders to have paid the initial $10,000 entry fee the total fee is $30,000 and met other criteria to become an official candidate. He says the party needs clearer rules about how May will help some of competitors raise money, and that he thinks it would be wiser for May to stay out completely. There are big advantages to (former) leaders staying neutral. One is they can be a unifier after the campaign is over. Another is they can work with whoever wins, Merner said. He added that Paul has raised more money than other candidates early in the race. Of $24,995 in contributions directed to leadership candidates in March, $12,010 went to Paul, according to filings with Elections Canada. Its very unusual for somebody to come out and support the front-running fundraiser in the race. Its an unfortunate situation and the party needs to clear up the rules, said Merner. Other declared candidates who have not yet joined the official list share Merners concerns. Quebec Green Leader Alex Tyrrell said Mays involvement skews the race because of her significant influence with party members after so many years at the head of the movement. Dimitri Lascaris, a Montreal lawyer who is also vying for the leadership, suggested there are ways the party could help candidates from under-represented groups that dont involve an intervention by the former leader. For instance, the party could lower the $30,000 entry fee for these candidates, he said. I share some sympathy with both sides, he said. There are legitimate questions about fairness, but I think there also is a need for the party to assist equity-seeking candidates. May told the Star she is not breaking her pledge to remain neutral in the race, and that she was asked by interim leader Jo-Ann Roberts to help raise money for candidates identified by the party as members of under-represented groups. The partys definition of groups that are under-represented in the House of Commons includes visible minorities, women and sexual minorities, Roberts said. May said she has already discussed holding events with Amita Kuttner, an official candidate from British Columbia who identifies as gender nonbinary, as well as Meryam Haddad, a Syrian immigrant and lawyer in Montreal who announced her leadership bid on Friday. May said she is also open to doing a town hall event that isnt a fundraiser for candidates like Merner, who is a white man. It tends to be the case that white men with careers in whatever field have networks to draw on to fundraise, she said. Raising $30,000 in a pandemic is no walk in the park, as far as Im concerned ... Its the candidates that are coming from backgrounds that represent greater diversity in the party that are going to have the bigger challenges. Roberts, the Greens interim leader, told the Star the party has no rule preventing May from endorsing or opposing any candidates in the race, but May said she promised party brass last fall she would stay neutral. I dont think it would be the right thing because of grassroots democracy, said May. Paul, Kuttner and Haddad defended Mays willingness to help them raise the money to secure spots on the leadership ballot as part of a push to make the Green Party more diverse. One analysis of candidates in the 2019 federal election found the Greens had the fewest visible minority candidates of any major party. Given that the Green Party is the least diverse ... it recognizes that it needs to be proactive if it wants things to change, because it hasnt changed organically, Paul said. I am woman, Im a lesbian, Im an immigrant, I am a woman of colour, said Haddad. And I dont feel represented in politics. So any change that the Green Party or Elizabeth May can do to increase this shows leadership in Canadian politics. Read more about: The man, 41, was driving south about 3:10 a.m. when someone in another car fired shots near the bridge over the Little Calumet River, state police said. Highlights: NeoGenomics will commercialize the InVisionFirst-Lung liquid biopsy test in the United States NeoGenomics will establish a minority ownership position in Inivata, with an option to buy the entire company NeoGenomics will have a seat on the Inivata Board of Directors FORT MYERS, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / NeoGenomics, Inc. (NEO) (the "Company"), a leading provider of cancer-focused genetics testing services, announced today that it has formed a strategic collaboration with Inivata to commercialize the InVisionFirst-Lung liquid biopsy test in the United States. InVisionFirst-Lung is a ctDNA NGS liquid biopsy assay testing 37 genes relevant to the care of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The test covers all National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline-recommended genomic drivers with FDA-approved targeted therapies for NSCLC. InVisionFirst-Lung results are delivered within seven calendar days from blood draw and the test is covered by Medicare and various private insurance payers for patients with advanced NSCLC meeting certain clinical criteria. As part of the collaboration, NeoGenomics will be making a $25 million minority ownership investment in Inivata, with an option to buy the company outright. The $25 million investment will be paid in two installments of $12.5 million. NeoGenomics will also have a seat on the Inivata Board of Directors. In addition, NeoGenomics and Inivata will seek opportunities for collaboration with biopharmaceutical companies around Inivata's liquid biopsy platform drawing on both companies' technology and expertise. "We are pleased to announce this exciting collaboration with Inivata and to offer our clients a high-quality liquid biopsy alternative for advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients. We expect this test to be an attractive option for clients pursuing liquid biopsy testing, given a highly competitive turn-around time and Medicare coverage" said Douglas M. VanOort, Chairman and CEO of NeoGenomics. "As a leading provider of tissue-based lung cancer testing in the United States, NeoGenomics is well-positioned to commercialize this liquid biopsy test as part of our comprehensive suite of testing solutions for non-small cell lung cancer." Story continues "We are also pleased to be making a minority investment in Inivata, with an option to buy the company. Inivata has developed an innovative, proprietary technology platform and a promising oncology test platform, including both InVisionFirst-Lung and RaDaR test, the newly launched personalized assay for the detection of residual disease and recurrence." About NeoGenomics, Inc. NeoGenomics, Inc. specializes in cancer genetics testing and information services. The Company provides one of the most comprehensive oncology-focused testing menus in the world for physicians to help them diagnose and treat cancer. The Company's Pharma Services Division serves pharmaceutical clients in clinical trials and drug development. Headquartered in Fort Myers, FL, NeoGenomics operates CAP accredited and CLIA certified laboratories in Ft. Myers and Tampa, Florida; Aliso Viejo, Carlsbad, Fresno and San Diego, California; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and CAP accredited laboratories in Rolle, Switzerland, and Singapore. NeoGenomics serves the needs of pathologists, oncologists, academic centers, hospital systems, pharmaceutical firms, integrated service delivery networks, and managed care organizations throughout the United States, and pharmaceutical firms in Europe and Asia. For additional information about NeoGenomics, visit http://www.neogenomics.com/. About Inivata Inivata is a leader in liquid biopsy. Its InVision platform unlocks essential genomic information from a simple blood draw to guide and personalize cancer treatment, monitor response and detect relapse. Inivata's technology is based on pioneering research from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge. Its lead product, InVisionFirst-Lung is commercially available and offers competitive sensitivity and turnaround, providing molecular insights that enable clinicians to make more informed treatment decisions for advanced NSCLC patients. Inivata has also launched the personalized RaDaR assay - allowing the highly sensitive detection of residual disease and recurrence. Inivata is partnering with pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies and commercial partners in a range of early and late stage cancer development programs. The Company has a CLIA certified, CAP accredited laboratory in Research Triangle Park, NC and R&D laboratories in Cambridge, UK. For more information, please go to www.inivata.com. Follow Inivata on Twitter @Inivata. Forward Looking Statements Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as the result of the Company's ability to continue gaining new customers, respond to the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, offer new types of tests, integrate its acquisitions and otherwise implement its business plan, as well as additional factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 28, 2020. As a result, this press release should be read in conjunction with the Company's periodic filings with the SEC. In addition, it is the Company's practice to make information about the Company available by posting copies of its Company Overview Presentation from time to time on the Investor Relations section of its website at http://ir.neogenomics.com/. Forward-looking statements represent the Company's estimates only as of the date such statements are made (unless another date is indicated) and should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates as of any subsequent date. While the Company may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, even if its estimates change. For further information, please contact: NeoGenomics, Inc. William Bonello Director, Investor Relations (239) 690-4238 (w) (239) 284-4314 (m) bill.bonello@neogenomics.com SOURCE: NeoGenomics, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591342/NeoGenomics-Enters-Strategic-Collaboration-with-Inivata-to-Commercialize-InVisionFirstR-Lung-Liquid-Biopsy-Test New Delhi, May 26 : Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said 2,41,169 people have been sent back to their hometowns through 196 special trains from the national capital between May 7 and 25. Speaking to the media, he also said that 18 trains carrying about 30,000 people will go on Tuesday. "Because of the lockdown, the migrant labourers were already left without any job or income. The Delhi government ensured that those in Delhi should consider themselves as Delhi people. The Chief Minister (Arvind Kejriwal) has requested everyone to stay back, but there were some people who wanted to go home," Sisodia said. The first special train for migrants left on May 7 from Delhi. "Between May 7 and May 25, 2,41,169 people, most from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have been sent to their homes in the 196 special trains," the Delhi Finance Minister said. Among the total, 1.25 lakh people were from Bihar and 96,000 from Uttar Pradesh. People have also been sent to other states including Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. Sisodia said the Chief Minister is keeping an eye on the data and the movements of the people. "People were brought for screening and were taken to railway stations. Our aim was that no one should walk to reach their homes." Sisodia also said that in most of the cases, the payments were done by the Delhi government and not a single amount was charged from the migrants. "We request that people should wait for their turn. At least 2,500 camps are distributing food and about 10 lakh people are provided food." Thousands of migrants are stuck in big cities with no money or jobs after the sudden announcement of the lockdown in March. Now, they are being sent to their homes on trains by the Centre. A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar met chief minister Uddhav Thackeray amid speculation of a rift in the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi coalition, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said there was no need to worry about the stability of the state government. Pawar reached Matoshree - the Thackeray residence - after meeting Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. There was speculation that Pawar was not happy with Thackerays handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, and that the chief minister was unhappy with the NCP chiefs stance on resumption of economic activities in Maharashtra. In a bid to end such speculation, Raut tweeted, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar met at Matoshreee last evening for 1.5 hours. There are some who are spreading false stories about the stability of this MVA govt. That is nothing but heartburn. This government is stable. Dont worry. The Thackeray government has been criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis. The former chief minister led a protest last week against the state government. Fadnavis is scheduled to address the media via video conference on Tuesday evening. BJP leader Narayan Rane, who was earlier in the Shiv Sena, also met the governor on Monday and demanded the imposition of Presidents Rule in the state, accusing the MVA government of failing to tackle the Covid-19 crisis. He demanded that all government hospitals should be taken over by the military as the existing system had failed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NewLeaf Brands Inc. (CSE: NLB) (OTC: NLBIF) (FSE: 0NF) ("NewLeaf Brands" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has officially appointed Dr. Aubrey Oliver ND, RBT to be its newest advisor. Dr. Oliver is a Jamaican registered Functional Holistic doctor and a graduate of Ashford University in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In recent years, Dr. Oliver was the Coordinating Physician with Caribbean Clinical Research Associates on the first clinical research of its kind which dealt with CBD oil, nano liposome, and alcohol-based forms to find out the absorbency efficacy on healthy cells. Additionally, Dr. Oliver is a certified bioenergetics therapist for cell regeneration and rejuvenation while activating the patient's own stem cells. He is a healing arts specialist with an interest in cannabis and phytonutrients and focuses on a holistic approach towards adrenal exhaustion and aging issues, oncology, infectious diseases and biotoxin illnesses, as well as blood sugar and blood pressure issues. Damon Michaels, Co-founder of Mydecine and COO of NewLeaf ,remarked, "We believe working with Dr. Oliver is going to help us expand the cutting edge of Mydecine in many ways. With Dr. Oliver's extensive knowledge for treating people with homeopathic medicine, developing research groups, and understanding unique route administration, we will be able to take the fungi formulations in development to a whole new level." Dr. Oliver is a strong, well-known member of the Jamaican community and will be working with Mydecine to find ways for the Company to expand its efforts into the Caribbean nation. Dr. Oliver remarked, "I'm grateful and humbled to be announced as an advisor with Newleaf Brands. Over the years, I have been looking for the right vehicle to be able to make a powerful healing impact on my beloved island nation of Jamaica. When I understood the path that Newleaf Brands was going down to advance medicine in order to help many, it was a no brainer for me to join this innovative group. I am happy to now be a key asset to contribute to developing things like a treatment facility and setting up a program for patients and clinicians in our beautiful paradise." About NewLeaf Brands NewLeaf Brands Inc. is the parent company operating innovative product divisions in the Naturally Sourced Therapies (NST) space. While controlling a variety of Psilocybin and hemp-derived CBD brands that design, manufacture and distribute cutting-edge products, NewLeaf Brands Inc. further enhances its portfolio with numerous cultivation properties, retail locations, and other land assets. NewLeaf Brands Inc. is the progressive and innovative Naturally Sourced Therapies (NST) lifestyle group known around the globe. Focusing on the rapidly emerging psilocybin and psychedelic medicines market, the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary 1220611 B.C. Ltd. (operating as Mydecine Group) ("Mydecine") is a vertically integrated company engaged to utilize the vast medicinal, health and wellness capabilities of the various compounds found in mycology as a whole. Established to parallel the early emergence of the industry, Mydecine aims to be a pioneer in the cultivation, processing, product development, and research and development of mycology's exciting compounds through its three divisions, "Mydecine Farms," "Mydecine Wellness" and "Mydecine Labs." Furthermore, the Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries in the hemp-derived CBD space, We are Kured LLC, Drink Fresh Water LLC, Relyfe Brand LLC, Fresh Water CBD LLC and TeaLief Brand LLC have quickly developed into market leaders and maintain extensive retail and cultivation land investments in the United States. For further information about NewLeaf Brands, please consult the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or visit the Company's website at www.nabrandsinc.com. The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof. This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to completion of planned improvements at both the Canadian and US sites on schedule and on budget, the availability of financing needed to complete the Company's planned improvements on commercially reasonable terms, planned occupancy by the tenant-growers, commencement of operations, differences in yield on expected harvests, delays in obtaining statutory approval for marijuana production plans, issues that may arise throughout the grow period, outdoor crops affected by weather, the ability to mitigate the risk of loss through appropriate insurance policies, and the risks presented by federal statutes that may contradict local and state legislation respecting legalized marijuana. There are no assurances that the business plans for NewLeaf described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell securities and the Company is not soliciting an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. These securities have not and will not be registered under United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person unless so registered, or an exemption from registration is relied upon. On Behalf of the Board of Directors: Joshua Bartch Chief Executive Officer [email protected] For further information contact: Corporate Communications [email protected] +250-488-6728 SOURCE NewLeaf Brands Inc. PIT adjustments to amplify consumer spending, illustration photo The National Assemblys Standing Committee has officially approved the personal income tax (PIT) deduction based on dependents. Accordingly, the deduction for taxpayers will be raised from VND9 million ($390) to VND11 million ($480) per month, while the deduction for each dependent will be lifted from VND3.6 million ($160) to VND4.4 million ($190). The new scheme is expected to be applied right away for this years tax period and aims to cushion distressed taxpayers in the face of a staggering economy. It is applicable for employment income only, not for capital gains and investment income. According to Nguyen Tan Tai, manager of Tax and Corporate Services at Grant Thorton Vietnam, under the withholding mechanism, companies only collect taxes on behalf of local tax authorities as they are the source of income. That is to say, the change on tax deduction should bring benefits directly to individual taxpayers because it will ease the pressure for them, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic difficulties imposed by it. In the long run, this policy can bring positive impacts to business, including foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), as it can promote consumers spending due to an increase in their net earnings, and plays its part in driving up the economy. At Grant Thorton Vietnam, we will apply the new reduction when the new PIT deduction scheme is effective. The benefits of the new policy will go directly to our employees, said Tai. Nguyen Van Phung, director of the Department of Tax Administration at Large Enterprises from the General Department of Taxation, told VIR that PIT will be applied to all employees, including those who work for FIEs. Accordingly, the new PIT deduction is applicable from January 1, 2020. Hence, for employers finalising PIT on behalf of their employees at the year-end tax period in 2021, if employees tax liability is less than the sum of tax paid during the year, they can claim a refund. A representative from Everpia JSC, which runs the popular bedding brand Everon and entered Vietnam 25 years ago with factories in Hanoi, Hung Yen, and Dong Nai provinces, told VIR that the majority of its employees would benefit from the newly adopted PIT. As a South Korean firm operating in Vietnam, we closely follow the Vietnamese tax policy. The deduction for taxpayers is consistent with market volatility and current economic struggles, and is a boon for our employees. The new measure, on the other hand, might have little spillover effects on some businesses which cover PIT for expats. WK Vina, an FIE focusing on construction, confirmed with VIR that salaries of its foreign employees will not be significantly affected since they are higher than the PIT deduction threhold. Increasing deduction for PIT would lower tax revenue significantly. The Ministry of Finance estimates that if the proposal is implemented, the budget will lead to an approximate reduction of VND10.3 trillion ($448 million) in annual revenue. However, more than one million employees will avail themselves of the new relief measure. Furthermore, the deadline for payments of PIT will be extended to December 31, 2020 as per Decree No.41/2020/ND-CP dated April 8, which is applicable to individuals and business households working in the eligible business lines. Apple Inc plans to reopen about 100 US stores, mostly with curbside pickup but some with walk-in service, the company said on Tuesday. Apple shuttered stores worldwide as the novel coronavirus pandemic spread but has slowly opened them based on local health data. Earlier this month, the company reopened a handful of stores in Alaska, Idaho and Alabama. Under Apples new procedures, stores with walk-in service will require customers and employees to undergo temperature checks and wear masks before entering. Apple will provide masks to customers who have none. Social-distancing ... Data Systems International (DSI), an industry leader in supply chain software, works diligently to provide strategic advice for companies on how to adapt to changes and resolve issues that disrupted supply chains across the globe due to COVID-19 complications. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) published a survey in March, 2020 compiling feedback from US companies (55%manufacturing & 45% non-manufacturing) regarding the impact of COVID-19 on their supply chains. More than 80% of respondents to the survey initially claimed they encountered disruptions in their supply chains, though an updated report cited 95% of participants had encountered disruptions. According to James Spivey, DSIs RVP of US Sales East, supply chain health can be measured by two key factors: 1) revenue and 2) capital expenditures (capex). Recently, companies have been predicting lower revenues by 20-30%, and companies are adjusting to lower capital expenditures due to the downturn in revenues. The month of March 2020 was telling for supply chains, and by April almost every phase of supply chains around the globe were impacted. Some companies reacted quicker than others, including distilleries which were able to pivot from making spirits to producing hand sanitizers within a week. This adaptation was able to fill a need for a market struggling to meet customer demand, and was also importantly able to provide essential products to first responders. Through the resource of e-commerce, this adaptation also allowed the distilleries to distribute their products via partnerships with local stores or directly to customers (by way of curbside pickup). With the expected decreases in revenues across the high majority of industries, it is noteworthy to mention that some sectors including food, beverage, and tobacco manufacturing expect to see an increase in revenues. The expectation for revenue boosts is primarily centered around markets in the United States where the vast majority of the supply is produced. However, due to the pandemic, sectors where manufacturing is not occurring in the U.S. has caused normal lead times to go up 200%, which will have a disruptive impact on the U.S. supply chain and manufacturing sectors. According to Spivey, another adaptation U.S. companies will employ to reduce their risk will be to begin the process of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., which will increase supply chain strength greatly. He notes the repatriation of manufacturing will occur globally as foreign manufacturers have proven to be risky and unreliable during the coronavirus pandemic. Many companies will turn to supply chain technologies like DSIs Cloud Inventory to increase the adaptability of their supply chains. This worldwide disruption brings to light an opportunity for companies to examine where inefficiencies and challenges exist in their supply chains, and find new solutions to effect positive change. DSIs Cloud Inventory provides solutions for addressing the four core areas of the supply chain which includes: 1) Productivity; 2) Compliance; 3) Inventory Optimization; 4) Revenue Generation. Additionally, the Cloud Inventory platform allows companies to integrate with multiple systems, vendors, and customers, providing critical supply chain visibility. When visibility is maximized, supply chains are better able to adapt to unexpected scenarios such as a pandemic. 1. Productivity In terms of productivity, companies must digitize their inventory information and leave paper processes behind. Most manual processes which exist today provide little visibility, and siloed systems with no external integration come up short when providing complete visibility that is necessary to properly manage supply chains. DSI solutions provide workers with real-time information for capturing and reporting, can validate when work is completed efficiently, and eliminate time-consuming mistakes that result from paper or manual processes. DSIs platform enables the work force with automated tools which companies will realize have several productivity benefits including lower operating expenses (less labor required for the same output), general efficiency, and happier customers as a result of less errors and faster shipments. 2. Compliance When companies invest in compliance and their access to important data, it is paramount that the information is secure and private. According to DSIs James Spivey, Blockchain will continue to gain speed in a post-COVID-19 world. Leveraging secure solutions to track data will be key to achieving compliance. As products move through supply chains, key data is captured, and updates to blockchain technologies occur to ensure a complete chain of custody. DSIs compliance solution uses a partnership with DocuSign to ensure suppliers and vendors are meeting contracted SLAs, which can be validated in real time against original contracts. 3. Inventory Optimization The most successful supply chains have efficient inventory optimization. Information within the supply chain must be as real-time and accurate as possible and captured whether it is inside or outside of the warehouse walls. Implementing automation with regard to collection of data at the point of execution is key to reacting to changes, and digitizing information is vital. Digitizing a supply chain and its activities provides data points that can create a digital twin of the supply chain. This allows analysis to occur to identify bottlenecks through Business Intelligence tools which allow for quicker identification and remedy of problems. Real-time supply chain information also means having the correct amount of inventory in the correct location at the correct time and reducing stock-out impact. Having accurate information on-hand will empower field employees to get the job done faster, as well as empower the back office to make key business decisions that will optimize the movement of inventory and productivity. 4. Revenue Generation To survive and thrive in future supply chain disruptions, the need to digitize supply chains has never been greater for companies. Once organizations implement solutions that enable real-time visibility and better fulfillment processes, their entire supply chain will be better optimized and therefore more profitable. Increased revenue will arise from reduced labor costs, reduced carrying costs for inventory due to better tracking of inventory, reduced handling costs, and eliminating manual data capture, entry, and unnecessary touchpoints. Investments in supply chain tools have a proven ROI record and have repeatedly shown to increase cash flow. Not only will investing in supply chain management platforms like DSIs Cloud Inventory help a company to become more profitable, it will also ensure a company is set up to be flexible enough to adapt to inevitable future supply chain disruptions like the world has been experiencing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. (CNN) - The new US travel ban on Brazil may affect the diplomatic and economic relationship between the two countries, Sao Paulo Gov. Joao Doria told CNNs Isa Soares on Tuesday. In my opinion, my personal opinion, even the diplomatic and economic relationship with the US will be affected by Mr. Trumps decision, Doria said. The ban is scheduled to go into effect Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. ET and will limit the entry of any foreign nationals, including Brazilians, who traveled to the country within the past 14 days. Doria said President Jair Bolsonaro was undermining his message and that of governors who represent some of the states hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With the example of the president of Brazil, everything is more difficult to us, he said, because when local authorities ask people to stay home and use masks, the president sends the opposite message. He goes to the streets without masks. A wrong behavior and wrong indication. This is very sad for Brazil and makes everything more difficult [for] the governors in the states of Brazil, Doria said. In fact, we have today two viruses to combat in Brazil: the coronavirus and Bolsonaro virus." Bolsonaro has frequently dismissed the threat of the coronavirus and has said the financial impact of preventive measures, such as social distancing and quarantines, will be worse than the virus itself. The behavior of President Bolsonaro is the wrong behavior. He is against social isolation. Hes against orientation of the science, Doria said, adding the priority should be saving lives before saving the economy. Doria denied Sao Paulos health care system was near collapse at the moment, saying hospitals have received ventilators and the necessary support, and that the situation "is under control." The state of Sao Paulo has the highest cases in Brazil, with more than 83,000 infections and 6,220 deaths, according to the latest data from the Brazilian health ministry. This story was first published on CNN.com, "US travel ban will affect relations with Brazil, Sao Paulo governor says" Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 (11:42 am) - Score 1,472 UK ISP Ecom (Electronic Communities) has confirmed that the first customer has just been connected to their new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the rural Buckinghamshire community of Ledburn, which was achieved with help from the Governments gigabit voucher schemes. Last August we reported (here) that Ecoms FTTP network, which until recently only covered a business park (Interchange Park) in Newport Pagnell, had grown to include around 250 premises in Whitchurch and some surrounding areas (e.g. Dunton, Creslow). At the time the provider had just connected up a new full fibre cabinet outside the Parish of Mentmore (that parish includes the nearby but sparse rural hamlets of Crafton and Ledburn) and were hoping to cover 1,000 premises by the end of 2019. Unfortunately Ecom havent yet been able to tell us if they ever achieved that target but the roll-out itself has, despite the COVID-19 crisis (telecoms engineers have key worker status), continued and theyve now extended their fibre all the way into the tiny remote rural community of Ledburn (c. 2km north of Mentmore). Meanwhile the ISP is currently accepting expressions of interest for a future expansion toward Wing and Wingrave (Buckinghamshire) and Highmoor Cross (Oxfordshire). Homes on the new network typically take packages from 300Mbps (36 inc. VAT per month) and all the way up to 1Gbps (200Mbps upload) for 96 on a 12 month term. Meanwhile installation costs are generally covered by the Gigabit Voucher Schemes. Admittedly this may be a smaller project than most but its important not to understate just how difficult it is to do what Ecom has done for some of the smallest rural communities. Factories seen in an industrial park in the southern province of Long An. Photo courtesy of Long Hau Industrial Park. Supply of ready-built factories and warehouses in southern Vietnam will increase by 28 percent this year to 2.7 million square meters. As more companies arrive from China after the pandemic, supply will rise by 25 percent to two million square meters in the north, real estate consultancy CBRE said in a recent report. It added that the trend of companies seeking to reduce supply chain dependency on China is likely to benefit Vietnam. "Surging demand from foreign manufacturers seeking to relocate to Vietnam and a desire to commence operations as soon as possible are driving demand for ready-built industrial properties," said Thanh Pham, associate director of research and consulting services, CBRE Vietnam. Hieu Le, director of the firm's industrial leasing services, said demand for warehousing has been mainly driven by e-commerce companies who are expanding storage space and distribution networks. After the pandemic is contained, the average asking rent for warehouses would increase by 4-11 percent, he noted. "There is growing consumption and distribution of groceries and fresh foods, which are set to accelerate occupier demand for temperature-controlled storage." Analysts have said Vietnams industrial real estate could benefit from foreign investors moving production out of China. Apple, Google and Microsoft are reportedly making plans to begin production in Vietnam this year. Customers have found some Apple wireless earbuds AirPods Pro carrying the Assembled in Vietnam label rather than the traditional Assembled in China tag. Vietnams average industrial land price is 43 percent lower than that of Thailand and 54 percent lower than that of Malaysia, and its corporate income tax rate of 20 percent is among the lowest in Southeast Asia, according to a report by securities brokerage VNDIRECT. The countrys many trade deals, especially the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, which is set to come into effect this year, would be another factor in attracting foreign investors, it added. Vietnam has 260 industrial parks with an occupancy rate of 76 percent, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Another 75 are under construction. A mother from Ohio was charged with murder after a 7-year-old boy died at his own home, the stepfather was charged with endangering children, according to ABC 6. Victim of abuse The police officers from Columbus responded to a call about a child who appeared to have drowned on May 23, around 8 p.m. The police found the child, Fabian Maldonado-Cortez unresponsive. The child was immediately taken to Nationwide Children's Hospital, he was in a critical condition and was unfortunately pronounced dead around 10 p.m. The investigators concluded that the boy had suffered severe abuse which ultimately led to his death., according to ABC 6. The child's mother, Oneida Maldonado-Cortez, 24-years-old, was charged with murder and the child's stepfather, Jose Emanuel Santos Perez, 37-years-old, was charged with endangering children. According to the court documents reported by WBNS, Maldonado-Cortez admitted that she did beat the boy multiple times and she never took him to the hospital to recover. Santos Perez told the authorities that he saw Maldonado-Cortez beat the child with different objects for months, but he was too afraid to call the police because he does not want her to go to prison. Also Read: Suspect Who Dumped Bodies of Two Sisters With Bags on Their Head Arrested According to the authorities, the child had several wounds and lacerations, but it was not clear if the boy drowned when they found him. Similar Incident In December 2012, a 7-year-old boy from Las Vegas was beaten to death by his mother and stepfather, all because he did not read his Bible. The suspects, Markiece Palmer and Dina Palmer were charged with murder and numerous counts of child abuse and neglect, according to the Daily Mail. The 7-year-old boy, Roderick Arrington, was immediately taken to the University Medical Center. He was unconscious when he arrived and his brain was swelling, the died in the hospital after 24 hours. The family moved to Las Vegas from Illinois. The boy lived with his grandmother and father before he was taken by his mother and stepfather. The stepfather, Markiece Palmer, told the authorities that he had spanked the boy for lying about reading a Bible verse and for not finishing his homework. He claimed that the child slipped and hit his head on the floor. According to the details of the arrest report, the boy had extensive injuries, including bruises all over the boy's body and open wounds on his buttocks, which is a result of being beaten with a leather belt. The authorities reported that the boy was also violently shaken by his stepfather. When the child was unresponsive, the mother called her pastor, who then told her to call 911. She then told the authorities that she had hit her son repeatedly with a paddle and belt in November, and she called them "whoops." The two suspects admitted that they had beaten the child for not reading the Bible and for not finishing his homework. The couple was jailed without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. In the United States, more than four children die daily due to abuse and neglect, according to DoSomething.Org Over 70% of the children who died are below 3-years-old. Every year, around 2.9 million cases are reported. A report also showed that 80% of 21-year-olds who experienced abuse as a child has at least one psychological disorder. Related Article: Woman Murders Autistic Son After Multiple Attempts By Pushing Him Into Canal @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Kennedy Agyapong says in Ghana farming does not bring money and it is only those who pray to be poor that venture into it. When you wake up in the morning and you pray that God let me be poor, then you go into farming, he told Joy News. He explained that whenever he hears people who are supposed to do something better for their lives say they are going into farming, he just laughs. The Assin Central legislator said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration is always paying lip service to farming while telling the youth to go into farming. He vowed to not attempt farming again. I challenge the government; what are the inputs for you to go into farming? They are just talking. Ive been there and Im telling you, if I go to university, I will not go into farming. Hell no! Ken Agyapong said. He continued: If you make money in Accra and you tell me you are going to farm . . . I failed at farming not because of my management but because of litigation". The MP further cautioned businessmen and women not to establish businesses in the villages because folks in the village are clever in terms of thievery. The moment you establish the business in that village, they think you are stupid. The villagers . . . you think you are going to create jobs for them [but they think] you are stupid, he said. They will mess you up, he stressed. Ken Agyapong spoke about how his fish pond was haphazardly operated, including other businesses, all of which discouraged him about setting up businesses in the villages. He believes that any person who wants to be serious in life should leave the village for a bigger town or city and start hustling. The MP challenged his host: If you are serious, I will invite you [to] my village to come and work there". Source: ghanaweb Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Standardbred Canada (SC) has extended the deadline for microchipping Standardbred racehorses to December 31, 2021 as a result of restrictions in place due to COVID-19. All standardbreds racing in Canada will be required to be microchipped in order to race as of January 1, 2022. SC ID Technicians are currently working in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia and are wearing Personal Protective Equipment and working under Public Health Guidelines, practicing proper health and safety protocols, when they visit farms and training centres, to ensure the health and safety of our members. Farm visits can be scheduled by contacting the ID Technician in your region, or members can complete a location report for their stable: Maritimes Provinces: Stephen MacLeod (902)897-5156 Quebec and Ontario (East of Napanee): Daniel St-Jacques (514)290-4114 Ontario (West of Napanee): Mike Pennington (416)580-3683 Western Provinces: James Mohorich (604)649-1119 Standardbred Canada has been microchipping horses since January 2019 and the process has been found to be much easier on the horses and more efficient for owners, breeders and trainers. For foals, the cost of microchipping remains in the registration fee. For horses that are already Freeze Branded, the cost is as follows: 1 4 horses: $45/each 5 9 horses: $35/each 10 or more horses: $30/each To read about the background and process of microchipping, or watch a video on microchipping, https://standardbredcanada.ca/content/microchipping-guideline-policy-and... click here. Microchip Scanners Scanners can also be purchased from Standardbred Canada and are offered at a discounted price for members. The Universal HomeScan Reader reads and displays the horses' microchip number and temperature. This device requires two AA batteries and will sell for $80 for members of Standardbred Canada and $95 for non-members. The Universal WorldScan Reader Plus offers faster microchip reading detection and is equipped with USB or wireless Bluetooth connectivity, which allows for easy electronic transfer of Microchip ID to your computer. The Universal WorldScan Reader Plus also reads the temperature of the horse and will sell for $375 for SC members and $450 for non-members. If you wish to purchase a scanner, contact Linda Bedard at Standardbred Canada at (905) 858-3060 x 238 or [email protected]. Microchip App Last October SC launched a Microchip ID app which can be used with the Universal WorldScan Reader Plus microchip readers from Merck/HomeAgain. SCs Microchip ID app under the SC Mobile brand can be downloaded from the Apple Store (Apple) or the Google Play Store (Android) by searching Standardbred Canada Mobile. For more information on the SCs Microchip ID app and microchipping, click here. On Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2018, New Yorkers reelected Andrew M. Cuomo to a third term as their governor. They did not crown him king; they did not grant him dictatorial powers; and they absolutely, positively did not cede to him any of their constitutional rights. Now, however, hes reigning like a king, issuing orders like a dictator, and running roughshod over peoples most fundamental freedoms. Why, for heavens sake, are New Yorkers and their elected legislators letting him get away with it? One would think the entire state has been mugged, drugged, and zapped into zombies. By declaring a state of emergency because of the coronavirus on March 7, Cuomo assumed extraordinary power over every New Yorkers life. Invoking the Executive Law, supplemented in part by the action of a sharply divided legislature four days earlier, Cuomo has unilaterally modified or suspended at least 262 laws and regulations and issued 26 executive orders. Most alarming, hes eviscerated numerous federal and state constitutional rights in the process. Unless the legislature or the judiciary intervenes, Cuomos dictatorship wont even begin to expire until April 30, 2021. Even if there was a legitimate argument for his assumption of emergency powers and thats debatable theres no reason to continue indulging him today. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that a full one-third of those infected by the coronavirus experience no symptoms whatsoever. And, among those who do have symptoms, less than one-half of one percent die. Local outrage While thats certainly nothing to scoff at a single death is, after all, a tragedy neither is it anything close to the doomsday scenarios that gave rise to Cuomos regal reign. Nor does it provide a rational basis for trampling on peoples constitutional rights, or plunging what had been an historically vibrant economy into a near depression. Last week, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis wrote to Cuomo urging him to allow dentists to resume treating patients for all of their dental needs. Think about that for a moment. Things have descended to such a level of absurdity that people need Andrew Cuomos approval to get their teeth fixed! As Louis F. DeSantis, a Staten Island-based prosthodontist, and former president of the Richmond County Dental Society, understandably complained, I have patients actively breaking down and what would have been continued care is becoming urgent care. Also last week, several Staten Island restaurant owners told the Advance that unless Cuomo allows them to reopen very soon, theyll be out of business for good. Rob DeLuca, of DeLucas Italian Restaurant in Tottenville, ordered a thousand signs proclaiming in part: Attention Gov. Cuomo!!! Youre killing our businesses. Our families need to eat. Our employees need to work. Noting that most of his fellow restaurateurs spend 80-100 hours a week to make their businesses a success, he said, Were taking a stand as small business owners and restaurateurs. Weve worked our entire life to get here and weve sacrificed so much and we cant lose it now. Enough is enough Myriad other businesses are in the same boat, all waiting word from Cuomo as to when and under what conditions they can resume making a living. Houses of worship cant reopen until Cuomo says so. Catholic Churches cant resume Masses or dispense the sacraments unless Cuomo gives them the okay. Schools cant reopen until Cuomo approves. People can only assemble under the conditions and circumstances he prescribes. Cuomo this; Cuomo that. Enough is enough! Andrew Cuomo has this allegiance thing all wrong. Hes the peoples servant, not their master; He owes service to the people, and allegiance to the state and federal constitutions; The people owe him nothing. There are hopeful signs. Calling for an end to Cuomos emergency powers, Assembly minority leader Will Barclay (R. Fulton) recently warned, One-person rule is not how our system of government was ever designed to run. Meanwhile, Hoganwillig, an upstate New York law firm, has initiated suit in federal court challenging Cuomos disturbing and gross abuse of authority. Its 51-page complaint, bolstered with almost 200 supporting documents, presents a very persuasive case. And on May 13, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a stay-at-home order that Gov. Tony Evers had issued a month earlier, holding that he abused his authority. Whether Cuomos actions have been good, bad or somewhere in between is irrelevant. Nor does it matter that he may be no worse than other governors elsewhere. What matters is that his dictatorship is starkly alien to representative government. It must end now. Daniel Leddys column On the Law appears weekly. Follow him on Twitter. His email address is column@danielleddylaw.com. New Delhi: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has warned of strict against the people who allegedly vandalised the sets of Malayalam film Minnal Murali on Sunday. The set, resembling a church, was erected on the banks of river Periyar in the outskirts of Kochi. The alleged miscreants found the set to be hurting religious sentiments as it was built near a temple. In a Facebook post, the leader of a right-wing group called AHP, Hari Palode, congratulated a district leader of "Rashtiya Bajrang Dal" for destroying the set raised in the sand bed of Periyar in Kalady, near a temple. He has also posted photos of alleged vandalism on his timeline. The case prompted a sharp reaction from CM Vijayan and he said, "Such an act should not have happened in our state," reports news agency PTI. Referring to the incidents of targeting film sets and crew of movies in other parts of the country allegedly by certain 'communal elements' as part of implementing their communal agenda, the Chief Minister said, "This was not accepted by the people of this country." "All these are done by a particular sect of communal element in our country. A common sentiment prevails against them in the country," he said. Noting that the movie set was constructed in March by spending lakhs of rupees and shooting was stopped due to lockdown, Vijayan sought to know, "what religious sentiment was hurt" due to the erection of the film set there. "Everyone knows why such a set was created. Kerala is not a place for such communal elements to indulge in vandalism. Strong action will be taken against this act," he added. According to a report in Zee Hindustan, one person was taken into custody on Monday in connection with the case by Perambavur Police. Expressing anguish over the attack, actor Tovino Thomas, who headlines Minnal Murali, said that the "contractual set" of film "was destroyed by a group of "racialists". The first schedule of the film was in progress in Wayanad when this for the second schedule was constructed in Kalady. The shooting could not take place due to the lockdown. "For this, we had the rightful permission from the authorities concerned. And as we were about to start shooting in this set which was built on a considerable cost, the whole country went into lockdown, following which our shoot was paused, just like all others", Tovino said. "It is during this prevailing uncertainty that this contractual set was destroyed by a group of racialists. The reasons they cite for this unceremonious act are not understood to our senses till now," the actor wrote on his Facebook page. "We have heard of movie sets being vandalised by religious fanatics in northern parts of the country. Now, its happening to us right here. It has caused us a lot of distress, and even more of anxiety. We have decided to go ahead with the legal proceedings," he said. Tovino also tweeted that the team has decided to go ahead with a legal proceeding. It has caused us a lot of distress, and even more of anxiety. We have decided to go ahead with the legal proceedings. #MinnalMurali pic.twitter.com/myYXNWnm1n Tovino Thomas (@ttovino) May 25, 2020 Producer Sofia Paul also reiterated the same point as Tovino and said it was wrong to do so as it was a labour of two years. (With PTI inputs) External Affairs Minister (MEA) S Jaishankar on Tuesday conducted a review meeting of Vande Bharat Mission with the aim to ramp up the scale of the repatriation exercise and enhance its efficiency. New Delhi [India], May 26 (ANI): External Affairs Minister (MEA) S Jaishankar on Tuesday conducted a review meeting of Vande Bharat Mission with the aim to ramp up the scale of the repatriation exercise and enhance its efficiency. Just concluded a detailed review meeting of Vande Bharat Mission. Thank Team MEA, Ministry of Civil Aviation, DMA, Air India, MHA, Bureau of Immigration for their participation and contribution. The focus of the meeting was to ramp up the scale of VBM and enhance its efficiency, S Jaishankar wrote on Twitter. Arrangements being made for amnesty beneficiaries in the Gulf and Naval evacuation of our fishermen in Iran will happen in June, he added. He also said that Air India will shortly shift to direct ticketing to facilitate bookings abroad. Besides, the Centre is working with state governments for more efficient use of cumulative quarantine capacity. Last week, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that upwards of 20 thousand Indian citizens have been brought back to the country under the mission so far and the number will rise further in the coming days. The MEA recently announced that the second phase of the mission has been extended to June 13. The second phase of this mission began from May 16 onward and this phase will last till June 13. We are looking to bring back our nationals from 47 countries on 162 flights in this phase, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava has said. (ANI) For all the latest National News, download NewsX App The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has shot down demands from Indias mobile operators to set a tariff floor, arguing that no action should be taken until the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has been contained. Indias three largest mobile operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea argue that the measure would make tariffs affordable for consumers and sustainable for operators. Following the redefinition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR), operators in India now face substantial tax increases and claim the price floor would help to safeguard their profits in lieu of government relief. In a letter to TRAI, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) which represents Jio, Airtel and VIL argued that given the financial pressure on the sector and the fact that ARPU and tariffs of the Indian telecom sector are the lowest in the world, floor pricing is imperative to ensure that the sector is sustainable, and is in a position to bear the deferred spectrum and AGR dues. COAI began pursuing a tariff floor in December 2019, prompting TRAI to open a public consultation on the matter. It would have marked the first time Indias government intervened to set a minimum price across any sector, but the request was dropped in March 2020 after the CCI (Competition Commission of India) and the Policy Commission declared that it would likely have a negative impact on competition while ensuring operators continued to profit. Speaking to The Economic Times, COAI director general Rajan Mathews said that the body was now demanding that TRAI hold open house discussions online in order to address the issue so that this critical avenue is not put at risk at this critical juncture. The body argues that Covid-19 crisis has amplified the need for healthy industry capable of investment, and that a price floor would aid this. However, TRAI chairman RS Sharma effectively dismissed this request, arguing that the current upheaval as a result of Covid-19 (coronavirus) meant that protecting consumers was paramount, saying: "it may be a better option that any further discussion on the issue is held after the lockdown is completely lifted and normalcy is restored. TRAI is always open to discussion, and has initiated a consultation on the issue on the demand of industry before the pandemic engulfed the country and the whole world. With changed circumstances, most consumers are in severe distress, added Sharma. The regulator has noted that while operators are only demanding a floor tariff for data, it would be open to discussing a similar system for voice services as well as a price ceiling. The light plane banked sharply to circle back over the plains. The pilot had spotted something below: antelope, first one, then many, the stragglers of a million-strong migration across this vast wilderness. But there are other wonders out here on the savanna. A trio of extremely rare Nubian giraffe lumber by, the seldom-seen, majestic giants casting long shadows over the grasslands. "There's only a few hundred left in the world," said Albert Schenk, of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), surveying the landscape below. "So you're seeing something spectacular," he added. This is South Sudan: one of Africa's wildlife Edens, a global biodiversity hotspot wedged between the continent's tropical jungles and dry, desolate deserts. But it's almost never seen by outsiders. Ruinous civil wars have left South Sudan with few paved roads or airstrips. It is the size of France but huge swathes are isolated or impenetrable. These are some of the least-explored, and most remarkable, wild habitats in Africa. - Against the odds - South Sudan boasts Africa's biggest wetland, the Sudd, and its largest intact savanna, a stretch of untouched wilderness east of the White Nile that reaches all the way to Ethiopia. Every year, some 1.2 million antelopes and gazelles cross this enormous ecosystem -- at 95,000 square kilometres (37,000 square miles), it is the size of Hungary. The mega-herds leave miles-long scars in the grasslands, clearly visible from the sky. In scale and scope, the migration is rivalled only by the fabled wildebeest crossing in the Mara and Serengeti. But South Sudan is also custodian to hardy populations of lions, elephants and countless other endangered species that survived -- against all odds -- decades of war and near-decimation by poachers. - Vanishing species - "There are still wild animals in South Sudan," said former wildlife minister Alfred Akwoch Omoli, the shelf behind him decorated with miniatures of elephants and giraffes. "It may be the envy of other countries that we have such animals." This natural heritage, however, is under constant threat, and wildlife conservation, where it is done at all, is difficult and dangerous. Researchers and rangers contend with rebel militias and well-armed poachers in remote, often lawless terrain where government control is weak. Some 15 percent of the country is national parks and reserves, land in theory protected by law, but overseen by an underfunded wildlife department stretched too thin to police its realm. On the day an AFP team visited Boma National Park, before the coronavirus pandemic, rangers unfurled two leopard skins seized from a local man who caught the endangered cats in a snare. "There used to be plenty of wildlife here, living close to the community," William Til, the acting park warden in Boma, deep in the country's eastern interior, told AFP. "Before the war people would use dogs, or spears, and just catch a few animals, and were satisfied with that. But now with automatic rifles, it's become harder for wildlife. Bigger species have vanished from the area." In the decades-long war for liberation from Sudan, zebras and rhinos, once abundant in the southern region that became the new nation of South Sudan in 2011, were hunted to extinction. Antelope and giraffe were slaughtered to feed soldiers on all sides. Elephants -- numbering some 80,000, 50 years ago -- were wholesale massacred for ivory to fund the fighting. Their numbers are reduced to an estimated 2,000 today. - Sights on safari - Protecting the country's wildlife isn't a burning priority for the fragile state, which only this year formally ended a six-year civil war that killed close to 400,000 people. However the government is aware of the benefits it could bring. South Sudan?s tattered economy is hinged on oil and any other ways of generating jobs and revenue -- such as conservation management or ecotourism -- will be critical in future, Omoli said. "What does it (the wildlife) do? It brings tourists... They will pay the money, and the money will be used for development," Omoli, who was replaced in February when South Sudan formed a new coalition government, told AFP. South Sudan takes inspiration from neighbours like Uganda and Rwanda. Also convulsed by past conflict, today they are safe and popular destinations for tourists and their holiday money. A viable tourism sector could take years, even decades, to develop and would require significant outside investment, likely to be scarce given the impact that the coronavirus has wreaked on the global economy. - Conflict conservation - Schenk said that maintaining peace and security, which has so far eluded South Sudan in its short and troubled history, was critical to wildlife and habitat protection. Years of conservation and community work at Boma National Park derailed in 2013 when fighting erupted between government and rebel forces, turning the savanna into a battlefield. The rangers deserted, and the park warden was executed. "Our compound was completely looted," said Schenk, of the field site WCS established in Boma in 2008 to spearhead their programme. "The only thing left was the concrete slabs on which we had our safari tents. We had to build it all up again." But a peace deal was signed in September 2018, halting armed combat, and aerial surveys and camera traps revealed all was not lost. The wildlife endured, hiding out in mighty swamps and dense bushland, just as during past conflicts. And the great columns of antelope and gazelle that first put South Sudan on the global conservation map continued their circular movements. - Cause for hope - The country's wild reaches keep throwing up surprises, too, buoying optimism for the future. In recent years, rare and elusive species like bongos, painted dogs and red colobus monkeys have been photographed by conservation group Fauna and Flora International, inviting speculation about what else lurks in this underexplored land. "There's a hell of a lot more out there than we know yet," said Schenk. Last year, the US government donated $7.6 million to a three-year programme to protect wildlife and spur economic opportunities in the Boma-Bandingilo landscape, including through ecotourism. WCS has also co-drafted legislation to expand protection to the migratory corridor between Boma and Bandingilo national parks -- critical given oil and mineral claims in the area, and "pressure" to open habitats to exploration, Schenk said. Til, patrolling on foot in his fatigues, clings to hope that conservation will one day "help in bringing development" to this remote corner of South Sudan, where lions growl in the darkness. "We're not giving up," he said. Intertwining hoof paths by a million migrating antelope across the underexplored landscape of South Sudan Many endangered species survived -- against the odds -- decades of war and near-decimation by poachers About 15 percent of South Sudan is national parks and reserves, land in theory protected by law, but overseen by an underfunded wildlife department Game wardens with leopard skins, confiscated from bush hunters in surrounding rural communities who poach for subsistence and traditional trophies Protecting the country's wildlife isn't a burning priority for the fragile state but the government is aware of the benefits it could bring A viable tourism sector could take years, even decades, to develop in South Sudan and would require significant outside investment Alleged foreign poachers accused of assault on Russian border guards go on trial flickr.com/ allochka22ru 19:12 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) A court in Nakhodka, a town in the Primorsky Krai, will proceed with a case against three alleged foreign poachers charged with assault on the Russian boundary officers in the Sea of Japan, the press service of the Prosecutor Generals Office reports Tuesday. Indictment against the foreigners is approved, the statement reads. According to case papers, in September 2019, boundary officers of the Federal Security Services (FSB) Primorsky Krai Directorate patrolling the Sea of Japan found a poaching foreignfishing vessel, reportedly under the North Korean flag. Alleged poachers actively resisted during the vehicle check that resulted in personal injuries of four officers including a gunshot wound of one of them, the Investigative Committee reported earlier. As part of COVID-19 mitigation mission of Country, CSIR has strategized its R&D to develop, integrate, scale-up, and deploy necessary technological interventions for combating Coronavirus pandemic in the country. Considering the multifarious problems created by coronavirus, which require interventions, the CSIR under the guidance of its Director General, Dr. Shekhar Mande has formed five verticals to coordinate various research activities into Digital and Molecular Surveillance, Drugs & Vaccines, Rapid and Economical Diagnostics, Hospital Assistive Devices & PPEs, and Supply Chain and Logistics. Since testing is vital component in COIVD-19 mitigation, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu a constituent laboratory of CSIR has partnered with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to develop and scale-up a new Reverse Transcriptase-Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) based COVID-19 diagnostic kit for which a formal MOU has also been signed between CSIR-IIIM, Jammu and RIL. COVID-19 RT-LAMP test is a nucleic acid based test carried out from nasal/throat swab sample from patients. The test recipe has been developed and successfully demonstrated using synthetic templates. It is rapid (45-60 min), cost effective and accurate test. It has been tested with a small number of patients samples and validating the kit on more number of patient samples is planned and will be done together with RIL. The advantage of this test is that the RT-LAMP based COVID-19 kit components are easily available and these can be completely manufactured in India. While the, the current COVID-19 testing is done by real-time PCR their components are mostly imported. Further these tests are expensive; require highly trained manpower, costly instruments and a relatively high-end lab and cannot be deployed at remote locations in quarantine centers, airports and railway stations, etc. On the other hand, the RT-LAMP test can be done in a single tube with minimal expertise in a very basic lab setup like mobile units / kiosks for testing at Airports, Railway Stations, Bus Stands and other public places. The end detection of the test is a simple colored reaction, which is easily visible in UV light, and now is being modified such that it can be detected in regular light. After testing the accuracy of the kit, on a much larger number of patients, CSIR-IIIM and RIL will jointly approach ICMR for approval. RIL plans to rapidly scale up the tests for the larger population and use it for easy, rapid and widespread diagnosis for COVID-19 detection for the larger interest of society. With the formal launch of the RT-LAMP based diagnostic test, the COVID-19 testing will not only be more rapid, cheap, easy and accessible but also would go a long way quickly isolating the infected individuals and mitigating the spread of virus. Dr. Ram Vishwakarma, Director and Dr. Sumit Gandhi, Principal Scientist from CSIR-IIIM and Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, R&D and Dr. Manish Shukla, General Manager R&D from RIL side are monitoring this project. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Devastated by cyclone Amphan almost a week ago, several villages on remote islands of the Sunderbans and the coastal belt in West Bengal are now facing an acute drinking water crisis but authorities claim 70% of the water connections have been restored The Sunderbans is the worlds largest mangrove delta and home to more than 4.5 million people. It is spread over two districts - South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas and has 102 islands of which 54 are inhabited. The cyclone destroyed dozens of pipelines that used to supply drinking water to the islands surrounded by rivers fed with saline tidal water from the sea. Salt water from these rivers has gushed into the villages through breaches in the embankments filling up the sweet water ponds and hundreds of tube wells still remain submerged in saline water even six days after the calamity. I need to walk for nearly 30 minutes, stand in a queue behind more than 50 minutes, fill up a bucket and an earthen pitcher from the only functional tube well in the area and then walk back home, said Swapna Sardar, 36, a resident of Rangabelia village in Gosaba, a block in South 24 Parganas district that has been totally devastated by the storm. Hundreds of villages in several blocks such as Gosaba, Kultali, Kakdwip, Namkhana, Patharpramima in South 24 Parganas and Minakha, Sandeshkhali, Hingalganj and Hasnabad in North 24 Parganas have been devastated. Many are still inundated. There is an acute shortage of drinking water. Nearly 16 km of embankments have been breached and storm surge have destroyed the sluice gates. Saline water has gushed into the villages inundating the ponds and tubewells. We are providing water pouches. Huge drums filled with water are being distributed in the villages in vehicles and boats, said Manturam Pakhira, Sunderban affairs minister. Locals in the villages said that dozens of tube wells are lying defunct for a long time. While some have not been repaired since they were destroyed by cyclone Aila in May 2019, many others became useless when cyclone Bulbul hit in November 2019. Many others became non-operational due to poor maintenance and no maintenance. There were three tubewells in my village. But only one work is functional now. Repeated appeals to the local MLA have not yielded any results. Now after the cyclone there is crowding near the tubewells every day, said Antara Mahata, a resident of Gobindarampur village in Kakdwip block. Most ponds will have to be emptied and treated before they are filled again for the water to become fit for drinking. We will have to treat the ponds with lime and potassium permanganate before monsoon so that fresh water can fill them up again. Dozens of pumps have been deployed to drain out the water that has inundated the villages. We also need to clean the tubewells, said S Mitra, BDO of Gosaba. While most of the islands in the South 24 Parganas part of the Sunderbans are battling a drinking water crisis, one island in the same district has put up a starkly different picture despite being equally hit. It is the Sagar Island at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal. Every year the island hosts lakhs of people from across India during the Ganga Sagar mela. The infrastructure that has been developed to handle such huge congregation has come handy for the district administration while facing the crises Amphan during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. During the Ganga Sagar mela we have to produce water pouches for millions of pilgrims every day. Machines that can produce water pouches are already installed and huge water tankers of the public health engineering department were already there on the island. Those have been deployed. We are much better off, said Sudipta Mandal BDO of Sagar. The saline water that has gushed into the villages has also killed all the sweet water fish including rohu, kalta and pangash. Dead fish could be seen floating in ponds Gobindarampur village in Kakdwip two days after the cyclone. Villagers had to collect the dead fishes and dump them. The dead fish had to be collected and buried. We will have to drain out the salt water from the ponds and treat the bed with lime. Once the monsoon starts the ponds will be again filled with fresh rain water. But it would take some time to rear fish as we had seen after cyclone Aila, said Sudam Roy, a resident of Rangabelia village in Gosaba where dozens of such ponds have been destroyed. On Tuesday the government said 70% of water connections in the Sunderbans have been restored. In the remote islands of the Sunderbans we are sending water pouches everyday which are being distributed. Also water tankers are being sent on boats to the islands. 70% of the water connection has been restored. The main problem is electricity. If electricity is restored water connection will come. That is being simultaneously restored, said P Ulaganathan, district magistrate of South 24 Parganas. He did not say how long it would take to restore normal drinking water supply across all the islands. [May 26, 2020] NVIDIA Stockholder Meeting Set for June 9; Individuals Can Participate Online SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NVIDIA today announced it will hold its 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders online on Tuesday, June 9, 2020, at 11 am PT. The meeting will take place virtually at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/NVIDIA2020 . Stockholders will need their control number included in their notice or proxy card to access the meeting, and may vote and submit questions while attending the meeting. Non-stockholders are welcome to attend by going to the above link and registering under Other Attendees. The matters to be voted on at the meeting are set forth in the companys Proxy Statement filed on April 29, 2020, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Proxy Statement is available at A replay of the 2020 annual meeting webcast will be available until June 23, 2020, at www.nvidia.com/proxy . About NVIDIA NVIDIA s (NASDAQ: NVDA) invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI the next era of computing with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world. More information at http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/ . For further information, contact: Robert Sherbin Simona Jankowski Corporate Communications Investor Relations NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Corporation [email protected] [email protected] 2020 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA and the NVIDIA logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. UPDATE (5/28/2020 - 11:54 a.m.): A spokesperson from Mobile Police Department confirmed Thursday three of the arrests: We can confirm that Luther, Fountain and Williams have been arrested and charged with insurance fraud in connection to the towing investigation, said the spokesperson. They are being charged with deceptive business practices where they misrepresented the cost of service for a tow, in other words for overcharging customers. A fee scale was set but they charged beyond that amount, intentionally inflating the prices with the insurance companies. UPDATE (5/28/2020 - 10:00 a.m.): Chadwick Fountain of A+ Towing handed himself in to authorities at around 9:15 a.m. Thursday morning, according to the Metro Jail log. He is accused of four counts of Insurance Fraud 1st and two counts of Insurance Fraud 2nd. UPDATE (5/27/2020 - 2:30 p.m.): Danny WIlliams of Southport towing was charged with six counts of Insurance Fraud 1st at just before 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the county jail log. UPDATE (5/27/2020 - 12:35 p.m.): Alan Luther, who is charged with 10 counts of insurance fraud 1st, handed himself in to the Mobile County Sheriffs Dept. Wednesday afternoon, according to the county jail log. Original Story: Criminal warrants were issued last week to the owners of four Mobile towing companies, the latest installment in the long-running dispute between the citys wrecking businesses and local law enforcement. In total, 28 warrants were issued Friday to four men for a combination of Insurance Fraud 1st and Insurance Fraud 2nd, according to the Mobile County Sheriffs Office. Chad Fountain, the owner of A+ Towing, was issued with warrants charging him with four counts of Insurance Fraud 1st and two counts of Insurance Fraud 2nd. Danny Williams of Southport Towing was issued a warrant charging him with six counts of Insurance Fraud 1st, while the owner of Cashers Wrecker Service, Wilbert Casher, is wanted on warrants charging him with six counts of Insurance Fraud 2nd. Lastly, Alan Luther, owner of Heroes, was issued a warrant charging him with 10 counts of Insurance Fraud 1st. None of the four have handed themselves in to law enforcement, according to the MCSO jail log. Efforts to reach the four men were unsuccessful. The citys towing issues arose last summer after local law enforcement accused several towing companies of price gouging customers and charging them more than legally allowed in the citys towing ordinance. Not long after announcing the probe into the industry, AL.com discovered that the Mobile Police Department impound lot was also overcharging customers for towing services and storage, and had been doing so since at least late 2015. Some in the towing industry claim the practice has been going on for more than a decade. In response, MPD Chief Lawrence Battiste said the department would immediately change its internal practices, but assured the actions were not criminal. Fridays criminal warrants come months after the father and son owners of SOS Towing were indicted by a Mobile County grand jury. Gary Smith Jr. and Gary Smith Sr. have been facing charges since being arrested and charged by MPD in September. The two men also had four tow trucks taken under controversial civil asset forfeiture laws. The trucks were ultimately returned after a Mobile circuit judge said the seizure was unlawful. The Mobile County District Attorneys office appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. A decision is yet to be made in that case. The Smith mens next court date in the criminal trial is set for July 14, according to Alabama court records. MIDDLETOWN The periodic appearance of rusty railroad cars covered in graffiti in the downtown area gives visitors and motorists a negative impression of the city, Middletown officials say. Problems began after the Providence & Worcester Railroad was acquired by Darien-based Genesee & Wyoming in 2016, according to Mayor Ben Florsheim and Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce President Larry McHugh. City leaders have been trying to persuade the railway to stop resting its freight cars between deKoven Drive and Route 9 for some time. They are visible to passing motorists for as long as 14 days, both men said. McHugh said the railway should not use the area as a freight yard. The cars issue has plagued the city since the prior administration, Florsheim said. The official reasoning has been, We dont have anywhere else to put them, which didnt seem to be that good of an explanation, especially with the coming and going. The coming and going was unpredictable. Its been many, many conversations with them, with a halfhearted response in many cases, he said. The Press reached out to Genesee & Wyoming Regional Coordinator, Northeast Region, Debra-Ann Bocash; and Director of Public Projects Jacob Smith by email and phone for comment on this story, but didnt receive a response by print time. McHugh said the cars have been sighted along deKoven from Washington Street/Route 66 to the intersection of Union Street. Between 68,000 and 70,000 motorists drive up and down Route 66 daily, he added, making the issue a big concern. All they see is 30 to 40 freight cars with graffiti all over them. The line was not made as a drop-off, he said. The city and rail line had a great relationship early on, McHugh said. When Florsheim looked into the issue after he took office, his administration pushed pretty hard on the railroad company, and, eventually, the cars disappeared for a time. It looked like they were going to be gone. Over the years, officials began to feel they had made progress in negotiations, then the cars returned, he said. Its been kind of sporadic since then. It changed a little bit when it changed hands. Florsheim has seen up to a dozen freight cars at a time from his office, which has a view of Route 9 north and south. Other times, there are none. You look right out on it from City Hall. I was seeing it every day those first few weeks, said Florsheim, who, like McHugh, has received myriad complaints from visitors to the downtown, residents, and those who pass by the area. McHugh has also fielded the publics dissatisfaction. A lot of people I get emails from are just compelled I dont live in Middletown but I drive through it every day. I really hate having to look at this train, people tell him, Florsheim said. Former mayor Dan Drew worked on the issue during his tenure. In the past, McHugh said, hed see just a couple of cars, but most recently, the Genesee & Wyoming cargo train was there between one and two weeks. Its unseemly and doesnt look good, McHugh said. If the railroad company would rest its cars closer to Main Street, along Rapallo Avenue, however, he would be satisfied. The tracks are parallel to the Connecticut River and Route 9, which separates the area from the water. Ideally, the mayor would like to find a short-term solution in conjunction with Genesee & Wyoming, which leases the tracks from the U.S. Department of Transportation, owners of the property. Unless theres another operational use for these tracks, they have the right of way, Florsheim said DOT officials have told him. Once the issue is resolved, the mayor hopes the rail line could boost tourism to and from the shoreline, calling the railroad a transportation asset. These rail tracks right in the middle of our downtown have a lot of potential, said Florsheim, who has been a part of preliminary conversations about whether the Essex Steam Train and Valley Railroad in lower Middlesex County would be interested in connecting to the city one day. Meanwhile, Florsheim hopes to come to an agreeable solution to the problem. A big part of why these cars are being used for storage is because theyre really not being used for very much else right now. Every once in a while, youll get cargo usage, but it invites the question: If we get rid of the cars, what comes next? It points us toward what we think the solution might be, which is, if we find another use for the tracks, were not going to have this blight issue anymore, the mayor said. The gateway to Middletowns downtown is somewhat marred by the cars appearance, both men said. On some level, I hope peoples impressions of the city arent being informed by something ultimately such a small issue. At the same time, small issues can be big when it comes to how were pitching ourselves to folks we want to invite into downtown and have them come to our businesses, Florsheim said. Florsheim and McHugh hope all parties can arrive at an agreeable solution, wondering if theres a way theyd be willing to entertain any kind of arrangement that would allow us a little bit more control over whats happening in our backyard, the mayor said. UW Receives $750,000 for Wold Chair John Wold, center, and his wife, Jane, started the University of Wyomings first endowed academic chair, the Wold Centennial Chair in Energy, in 1990. (Wold Foundation Photo) The John and Jane Wold Centennial Chair in Energy is being generously repositioned by the Wold Foundation to become a $3 million University of Wyoming endowed position. The Wold Foundation is adding $375,000, which will be doubled by state matching funds, to significantly elevate the impact of the Wold Chair on energy research and teaching at UW. The $375,000 gift from the Wold Foundation will amplify the prominence of the Wold Chair -- the universitys first fully endowed academic chair, which was funded by John and Jane Wold in 1990. The mission of this premier chair is to provide leadership in computational, mathematical, geological and geophysical aspects of energy research. Our parents, John and Jane Wold, started the University of Wyomings first endowed academic chair, the Wold Centennial Chair in Energy, in 1990, says Peter Wold, of the Wold Foundation. My brother, Jack Wold, and sister, Priscilla Longfield, and I are very excited for the Wold Foundation to partner with the University of Wyoming. Our dad was a leader in entrepreneurship, academia and industry. Our parents shared a love for Wyoming, its great energy resources and the university. The Wold Foundation promotes charitable, scientific and educational programs, with preference given to Wyoming citizens and Wyoming youth. John and Jane Wold were latter-day pioneers in Wyoming, says outgoing UW School of Energy Resources (SER) Executive Director Mark Northam. UW has been proud to have pioneers in the field of petroleum engineering hold this chair. The School of Energy Resources looks forward to awarding this reinvigorated chair to a leader in petroleum technology focused on areas that will yield long-term benefits for the state, says incoming SER Executive Director Holly Krutka. We are grateful to the Wold family for their continued support and partnership with Wyomings university. The Wold Chair has brought recognized academic leaders in the field of energy to UW. It was first held by Richard Ewing, a professor in mathematics, chemical engineering and petroleum engineering, who was an internationally recognized authority in oil reservoir mathematics and large-scale computing, as well as the founder and co-director of the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute. The most recent Wold Chair was held by Norman Morrow, a professor in chemical and petroleum engineering. His work in developing low-salinity flooding to unlock the secrets of oil and gas reservoirs and subsurface processes has been applied throughout the world. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and also received the Society of Petroleum Engineerings Improved Oil Recovery Pioneer Award. In addition to being talented educators, candidates for the Wold Chair are expected to have achieved the highest level of scholarship; to demonstrate mentorship and leadership skills; and to have an outstanding international reputation among their peers. The position will involve statewide engagement and service. "The SARS outbreak was almost a mirror image of what's going on now with Covid-19. There were issues with space, issues with equipment, and issues with ventilators. I credit a lot of my John Jay courses with helping me get through this Covid-19 crisis because I've been able to apply a lot of what I learned in class on the field." Islam is just one of many John Jay College students who are battling on the front lines against the coronavirus while continuing to work to earn their degree. He receives his master's degree this month, having managed to balance his work, family obligations, and education; all in the shadow of a global pandemic. (Read more about Khalid Islam) He's not alone. Other John Jay students, many who live and work in communities of color hit hardest by Covid-19, are also on the front-lines. Their stories of studying while saving lives and keeping New Yorkers safe are inspiring examples of sacrifice and resilience. Rosa Jimenez '20 is an EMT working in the Bronx, the borough with the highest infection and mortality rates in New York City. While studying full time in her senior year at John Jay, Jimenez has seen firsthand how the virus is impacting families, communities, and medical professionals. "I've seen so many doctors and nurses end up with Covid-19. It's concerning when you look at the patient's chart and you recognize the name," says Jimenez. Between shifts, Jimenez studies for finals. It's her last semester and she's not letting the coronavirus or the shift to distance learning stop her momentum. (Read more about Rosa Jimenez) Estefania Solis '20, a transfer student from Panama, is a Presidential Intern at John Jay and a member of the National Guard. When Covid-19 spread across New York City, her Guard unit was called into full-time action. Estefania's life rapidly transformed from that of a typical student attending class and an internship to that of an active duty National Guard member contributing to a critical and heartbreaking mission of transporting the remains of those who have lost their lives to the virus. "My community has been affected because some friends have had to fly back to their home countries and struggle with financial hardships, others have been laid off, many have gotten sick. I am grateful I have the chance to help and not stay at home when so much needs to be done." The virus has altered all of her current and future plans, from summer job opportunities to her coursework. Balancing the internship, the National Guard, and her college work was initially overwhelming and Solis thought she wouldn't be able to complete her classes. But her professors stepped up and worked with her to make sure she finishes the semester and doesn't lose momentum towards graduation. (Watch Estefania in her own words) Matthew Hart '20 plans to graduate this summer, taking six courses this semester to keep on schedule. He is also serving in the National Guard at Covid-19 testing sites and food distribution centers. "The juggle is very difficult. There are times when you just want to sleep, but then you remind yourself that you have to get your homework assignment done." Despite the struggle, Hart tries to keep a positive attitude and is committed to finishing his undergraduate education. He's slated to start working on a master's degree in the fall at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. (Read more about Matthew Hart) All these students rose to the challenge these past few months, facing the danger of Covid-19 head-on while staying on the path to graduation. Their commitment to public service and to their communities centers them on a course to become tomorrow's leaders. John Jay College is proud to honor these students and their classmates from the Class of 2020 in a virtual celebration to mark the end of the semester on Wednesday, May 27. The celebration will include pre-recorded remarks from special guests including CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, The Honorable Charles Schumer, United States Senate, The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Lt. Governor, The Honorable Letitia James, NYS Attorney General, among others. About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York is a Hispanic Serving Institution and Minority Serving Institution offering a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. John Jay is home to faculty and research centers at the forefront of advancing criminal and social justice reform. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College engages the theme of justice and explores fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu and follow us on Twitter @JohnJayCollege. SOURCE John Jay College of Criminal Justice Related Links http://www.jjay.cuny.edu RICHMOND, Va. - A Virginia school board defended its transgender bathroom ban before a federal appeals court Tuesday, as a transgender man barred from using the boys bathroom in high school argued that the policy discriminated against him and violated his constitutional rights. A judge ruled last year that the Gloucester County School Board had discriminated against Gavin Grimm, but the board appealed that ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. David Corrigan, a lawyer for the school board, said school officials treated Grimm with respect after he began transitioning from female to male during high school, accommodating his request to use male pronouns and to be called by his new name. Grimm had chest reconstruction surgery and hormone therapy. He also obtained a Virginia court order and Virginia birth certificate declaring his sex as male in 2016, when he was in 12th grade. Grimms lawsuit alleged that the school board violated his equal protection rights as well as Title IX, the federal policy that prohibits gender-based discrimination. But Corrigan argued that the law protects against discrimination based on sex, not gender identity. Corrigan said that because Grimm had not undergone sex-reassignment surgery and still had female genitalia, the boards position was that he remained anatomically a female. Our position is, its a binary concept, that you have males and females, Corrigan said. Joshua Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the board treated Grimm differently than other students when it required him to use separate but unequal facilities either bathrooms that corresponded with his biological sex female or private bathrooms. They were stigmatizing and humiliating, Block said. Its stigmatizing to be excluded from the facilities that everyone else uses. Grimms lawsuit was once a federal test case that drew national attention. He graduated in 2017 from Gloucester High School, located in a mostly rural area about 60 miles (95 kilometres) east of Richmond. The hearing was the latest step in a yearslong legal battle. Grimms lawsuit was supposed to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. But the high court hearing was cancelled after President Donald Trump rescinded a directive issued during the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, that students can choose bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity. U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen in Norfolk ruled in August that the board discriminated against Grimm. (T)here is no question that the Boards policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender noncomformity, Allen wrote. The three-judge panel that heard the case Tuesday did not indicate when it would issue a ruling. The arguments were held remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. After the hearing Tuesday, Grimm, now 21, said he hopes that this case and others pave the way to ensure equal rights for transgender people. The harm that needs to be mitigated now is the harm that the trans community at large faces, especially trans children in public school who are still facing this kind of discrimination every day, Grimm said. For me, victory looks like children getting to use the bathroom thats appropriate for them. By PTI CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the additional public prosecutor to get instructions from authorities on a plea from the mother of Nalini Sriharan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to permit her daughter and husband to talk to his mother and sister through WhatsApp for 10 minutes daily. The court, while issuing the directive, orally observed that when authorities were already allowing inmates in jail to talk to their relatives what is the problem in allowing Murugan and Nalini to talk to his mother. The court then posted the matter to Thursday. A Division Bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice PT Asha was hearing a habeas corpus petition (HCP) from S Padma, Nalini's mother. The petitioner, while referring to the death of the father of Murugan in Sri Lanka on April 27 2020, said his request to watch the last rites of his father over WhatsApp video was not granted by the Tamil Nadu government. She further submitted that Nalini spoke to her over phone on April 28 and requested her to file an application to the prison authorities and the Home Department for permission to talk with Murugan's mother and his sister, who is in London, through WhatsApp for 10 minutes daily. As per her request, the petitioner said she filed an application to the prison authorities on May 4, but till date no decision was taken by the authorities, "which is violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution." Hence, the petitioner sought a direction to the authorities to grant permission. Besides Nalini, her husband Murugan, A G Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran and Robert Pyas are serving life imprisonment for their role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 by an LTTE suicide-bomber at nearby Sriperumbudur. They were initially sentenced to death, but later it was commuted to life imprisonment. Peace! Fellow patriotic Sierra Leoneans, I am sending this message from my home town, Lunsar in the Marampa chiefdom of Port Loko district, for the kind attention of all Sierra Leoneans, whether they live in the country or outside. This message comes to you on behalf of members, supporters, and sympathizers of the Peoples Democratic League (PDL), and is meant to prick the conscience of the international community, and particularly every Sierra Leonean, to wake from the slumber and take action for the good of humanity. This historic day today, May 25, 2020 is historic and is celebrated globally to reaffirm African peoples commitment to Pan-Africanism, as well as the total liberation and unification of the African continent in all spheres-political and socio-economic. It was on 15 April, 1958 a year after the independence of Ghana that African leaders and political activists held their first conference as independent African States, in Accra. Those present in that gathering were leaders and representatives from Ghana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon. The conference, which was called by Ghanas President Osagyfo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, laid the foundation for the African Liberation Day. African Freedom Day was declared in Accra, Ghana on 15th April, 1958 and 25th May, 1963 was declared African Liberation Day, to replace the African Freedom Day. The African Liberation Day therefore symbolizes total liberation of all territories of the African continent and determination of Africans to free themselves from the clutches of foreign domination and exploitation. Fellow patriotic Sierra Leoneans, on this day of African liberation, I and members and supporters of the Peoples Democratic League (PDL) join compatriot Africans on the continent and the diaspora in observing this day. I salute this years theme: Sanctions on Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Cuba are act of war. The US unilateral sanctions against Africa, Venezuela and Cuba have created unnecessary humanitarian crisis, whereby the governments of those affected countries are deprived of everything necessary to take care of the wellbeing of their people. This must be resisted to save lives and move away from the dependency syndrome to become truly independent and prosperous society. It is no mistake that we mark this historic day as a traditional, grassroots, democratic, Pan-African, socialist-leaning Party, to salute the courage and bravery of those who fought and sacrificed in order that Africa can free itself from the yoke of foreign domination and to assert itself as a totally liberated continent. African Liberation Day has helped to raise political awareness in African communities across the world. It has also been a source of information about development in Africa. Sierra Leoneans have felt the blight of tribalism, sectionalism, banana politics and visionless agendas. We have fought eleven year senseless, brutal fratricidal war, which left us traumatized and devastated, in terms of human and economic losses. These are not the marks of freedom or what independence from colonialism means. Out of this experience that the PDL is appealing to all Sierra Leoneans to eschew violence and stop supporting leaders that have no vision for our country and Africa. We must stand as a proud nation, reflecting on the aspirations of the founding fathers of our country, for peace, democratic good governance, justice, rule of law and prosperity. Other African countries like Rwanda, Madagascar, Burundi, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Botswana, for instance, are forging their own paths to progress. This is what is called independence and patriotism. Sierra Leone should copy the experience of those countries, and work for the general well-being of our nation. After all, Sierra Leoneans have no place they can call their home except Sierra Leone. On behalf of the Peoples Democratic League (PDL), I salute African Liberation Day and look forward to work for the actualization of the goals set-out by the Pan-African movement, for peace, unity, development and prosperity of Africa. Long live the freedom of the African continent! I now come to the issue of the Peoples Democratic League (PDL) and our resolved to transform into a full-fledged political party for Sierra Leone. Four years ago today, on May 25, 2016 the Peoples Democratic League was re-launched as a third and alternative political platform to the failed political system or status quo in Sierra Leone. In that historic event, which was largely attended by representatives from all districts of the country and the media, I announced our readiness to start the process of registering the PDL as a political party. It would be interesting for Sierra Leoneans to know that since it submission of application to the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) in 2016, the PDL is yet to be officially declared a full-fledged political party for Sierra Leone. The Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) is one of the legacies left behind by the Government (1996-2007) of the late President Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. The institutional mandate and independence of the Political Parties Registration Commission are enshrined in the 1991 multiparty Constitution of Sierra Leone. The idea of establishing the PPRC was mooted out of a desire for consolidation of peace after years of one party tyrannical rule and violent past; and the desirability for a free, fair, peaceful and well-regulated election and the avoidance of political discord, as provided for by the Political Parties Act, 2002, which gave birth to the PPRC. The PPRC has two main objectives, which include: 1. The Registration and Regulation of the conduct of political parties in accordance with sections 34 and 35 of the 1991 multiparty Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone. And, 2. The Registration and Supervision of the conduct of political parties in accordance with the 1991 multiparty Constitution and the Political Parties Act of 2002. This message serves also, to draw once again the attention of the international community to the naked violation with impunity, of our constitutional human rights and democratic freedoms, by the PPRC (Political Parties Registration Commission) in Freetown. Indeed, it is intended to vent out our legitimate grievance against the unconstitutional, intimidatory, undemocratic, hatred and diabolic tools employed by the PPRC in the PDL political party registration process. We want to place it in history that the PDL is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Freetown, as a pro-democracy and human rights group. On August 17, 2016 we submitted an application letter to the PPRC in Freetown requesting political party registration, to allow us participate in the 2018 elections and beyond. On July 18, 2017 the PPRC issued a provisional political party registration certificate to the Peoples Democratic League and on September 8, our constitution was published in the Sierra Leonean government Gazette for sixty days (60 days) as provided in the 1991 multiparty Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Regulations of the PPRC. Sixty days lapsed and without any objections from the public against the PDL. Throughout that period, no objection was raised against the PDL, either from another political party or general public. Besides, intelligence reports gathered intimated that the late Justice Hamilton was under pressure from big party gurus of the former ruling cabal not to issue the PDL with final political party certificate (video and audio recordings available) until after the 2018 elections. When approached by journalists, the late Justice Hamilton, who then was the Chairman for the PPRC, unabashedly told the media that his Commission was having problem with its printing machine and therefore the delay to issue PDL registration certificate (Audio recording available). Besides these self-confessed contradictions, the Public Relations Officer of the PPRC, Lucian Momoh went to a local radio station in Freetown to announce that the PDL had already fulfilled all necessary requirements for final political party registration certificate to be issued to the Movement either 8th or 9th November, 2017. These revelations did not stop the PPRC from being subjected to the whims and caprices of corrupt, avaricious and greedy politicians, whose stock in trade is to muzzle the opposition in Sierra Leone. At a meeting called and held on 6th December, 2017 at the PPRC conference room, the Chairman of the Commission, the late Justice Hamilton made it very clear that his office had never received any objection against PDLs application for political party registration certificate. In that tense meeting unfortunately, the then ruling APC and opposition SLPP were invited, and no media or civil society group was visible, which made us to be suspicious of a sinister agenda on play to disenfranchise PDL and its members and supporters. This practice was never applied to any other political party registration process in Sierra Leone, except the PDL. It is also never practice in a civilized society. Our understanding of the provisions of the 1991 multiparty Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone is that even if there was an objection against registration of the PDL, that should only be raised 60 (sixty) days after publication of our Constitution in the Sierra Leone Gazette. To all intents and purposes, the PPRC hatred for the PDL was part of a grand conspiracy to mortgage the countrys democracy; this violated also the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and is at variance with the practice of transparency and decency in a democratic dispensation. In a democracy, free, fair and credible election is one of the key components to enhance participation of the people in governance; to ensure government accountability and encourage political competition through multiparty. An election can best be ascribed as credible only when the rules, regulations and laws governing the electoral process are followed accordingly. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights; that the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family are the fountain of freedom, justice, and peace in the world; and that human rights are universal, independent and indivisible. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights established that the authority to govern shall be based on the will of the people as expressed in periodic and genuine elections, free and fair elections. That is to say, the authority of government can only derive from the will of the people through constitutional provision. The will of the people towards changing one government after the other can only be expressed in genuine, free and fair elections, which are organised at regular intervals on the basis of universal, equal and secret suffrage. Going by the chronicle of our engagement with the PPRC since August 2016, it is clear that the PPRC has treated the PDL and its registration process to become a political party discriminately, and these too violated universal principles of democracy, including: 1. The constitutional and democratic right of the PDL and its members to participate in the governance of Sierra Leone; and equality to vote and be voted for in elections. The criterion for participation in the government of Sierra Leone is determined in accordance with the provisions of the 1991 multiparty Constitution and in consistent to Sierra Leones international obligations. 2. The right of the PDL to be registered as a full-fledged political party for the purpose of participating in elections. 3. The right of the PDL and its members: a. To express political opinions without interference. b. To seek, receive and impart information and to make an informed choice. c. To move freely within the country in order to campaign for election. d. To campaign on an equal basis with other political parties, including the party in governance. 4. The right of PDL candidates for election, equal opportunity to the mass media, particularly the mass communications media, in order to put forward their political views. 5. The right of PDL candidates for election to security and protection of their lives and property. 6. The right of the PDL and its members, to the protection of the law and to a remedy for violation of political and electoral rights. 7. The inclusion of electoral rights within the human rights subject to international protection was explicitly made through the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 21, which states: a. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. b. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. c. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. 8. The protections for human rights recognized under the Universal Declaration, that are defined and extended through the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Covenant, or ICCPR), a binding treaty adopted under United Nations auspices. The ICCPR also guarantees various civil and political rights associated with elections, including the freedoms of opinion and expression (Article 19), peaceful assembly (Article 21), and association (Article 22). The Covenant also clarifies the extent and under what circumstances restrictions can be placed on their exercise (Articles 19.3 and 21) viz., if the restrictions are based in law and are socially necessary. 9. The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR, or Banjul Charter) in 1982, which came into effect in 1983. The treaty expressly recognizes various civil and political rights, including the freedoms of conscience (Article 8), information (Article 9), lawful association (Article 10), and assembly (Article 11). The right to participate in government (Article 13) is expressed in terms very similar to the corresponding provisions in the global and other regional treaties. 10. The 2001 ECOWAS protocol, which declares that the human rights set forth in the ACHPR and other international instruments apply in the political realm, including with respect to the activities of political parties and freedom of association and assembly. All these cherished principles were denied to the Peoples Democratic League by the PPRC in Freetown. It is unacceptable that a fundamental human right to belong to a political party of ones choice, and the right to vote and be voted for in an election were denied to the PDL and its members by those entrusted with the responsibility to uphold and respect the 1991 multiparty Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone. If democracy is all about the rule of law and respect for human rights, the 1991 multiparty Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone that guarantees all these cherished principles must be seen to be upheld in the first place. The PPRC, which we believe was carved out of the 1991 Constitution, should be seen upholding the right and democratic freedoms of Sierra Leoneans equally, to create or belong to the political parties of theirs, and to vote and be voted for in elections. Despite all odds and hatreds, we stood the test of time and challenged the sorry state PPRC in Freetown. Our cry for respect for our constitutional human rights and democratic freedoms, which are enshrined in the 1991 multiparty Constitution of the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a credibility test case for the international community. History is replete with corrupt public officers whose path to corruption began with pawning the integrity and dignity of the people, for a life of opulence and immorality. Sierra Leoneans must therefore, remain vigilant in defence of our democracy. As a peaceful and grassroots democratic organ, the PDL has made series of complains to national institutions that are believe are supposed to help defend and promote democracy, peace and human rights in Sierra Leone. But the silence and inaction to address our complains make it difficult for anyone to deny the fact that these institutions are not concerned about the peace, democracy and human rights in the country; but to sing and dance to the whims and caprices of traitors to the conscience of the Sierra Leonean nation. These institutions include: the Human Rights Commission, 50-50 Womens Group, Legal Aid Board, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of National Security, Campaign for Good Governance, State House, Parliament, the Inter-Religious Council, United Nations Development Programme, Civil Society Movement, Ministries of Internal Affairs and Political and Public Affairs, Sierra Leone Bar Association, Public Sector Reform Unit, National Commission for Democracy, All Political Parties Association, members of the Diplomatic Core, the media (local and international), Fambul Tok and more. We have also sent complaint letters to the United Nations, the White House in Washington, United Nations Human Rights Council, European Union, African Union, ECOWAS, the Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Council, yet the injustice on PDL registration process persists with day-in-and-day-out violation of our constitutional human rights and democratic freedoms, by the PPRC. We want to make it known to the international community that the PPRC was never interested in promoting democracy in Sierra Leone. We believe the international community knows what it took them to restore Sierra Leones peace and democracy. We are all witnesses to how the PPRC has serially assaulted on the constitutional right and democratic freedom of hundreds of thousands of PDL members, supporters and sympathizers and disenfranchised these Sierra Leoneans during the 2018 elections. In other words, the PPRC deliberately single out our members, supporters and sympathizers for deprivation of their nationality and participation in the democratic process. The issue at stake is not whether the PDL has been issued with a provisional registration certificate; or documented in the Sierra Leone government Gazette, guilty or not, but whether PPRC handling of PDL registration was done in accordance with the process specified in the Sierra Leonean 1991 multiparty Constitution. I want to take this opportunity once again to warn the PPRC to desist from taking further actions that may push us further down the slippery slope towards a protracted legal battle whereby the Sierra Leonean masses will have no other alternative but to defend their constitutional human rights and democratic freedoms. The PPRC must be made to know that it is a beneficiary of the 1991 multiparty Constitution, which the PDL worked so hard, sacrificed so much towards its enthronement. The Peoples Democratic League owes its humble beginning from the shame and disgrace brought to the Sierra Leonean people by the evils of one party dictatorship rule. We put God Almighty Allah first in our activities and its the aim of the PDL to lead Sierra Leone to a God-fearing nation. The PDL shall remain inclusive by given opportunities to all Sierra Leoneans, especially the poor and vulnerable communities and groups. PDL is a forward-looking political organ which dares to be different from the rest. PDL is a grassroots Organisation whose membership abounds in every corner of Sierra Leone. PDL is not a platform to promote political and ethnic bigotry, or whipping-up parochial sentiments. We have no other country we can call our God-given home and have nowhere to go and contest elections except Sierra Leone. Our non-participation in the March 2018 general elections had great impact on the outcomes. We had, had the belief that PDL participation in the 2018 March elections would go a long way to heal national wounds, help create an enabling environment for understanding and to contribute to the development and transformation of Sierra Leone. As stated before, the Peoples Democratic League is not an apron string to any other political party and it is not a proxima. What makes us difference is that ours is a people-oriented and not party-oriented. We look at what the Sierra Leonean people want and not what the PDL as a political organ wants. In other words, the PDL represents the people, and not the people represent the PDL. We are therefore, not in politics for the fun of it. What motivated us has been a sense of patriotism and love for Sierra Leone. We are in politics because we want to be at the vanguard of the change the country so badly needed to move forward. We despise the culture of greed, corruption, confrontation, tribalism and backward mentality, which infests traditional politics. And we reject the stale and blind conformism of outdated policies and prejudices that are holding the Sierra Leonean nation hostage. We want assure the international community of our commitment to peace and democracy, which are prerequisites for development and transformation. That we count on the prompt action of the international community to save our democracy, and to ensure that the PPRC does a noble service to Sierra Leone and to humanity by upholding the constitutional human rights and democratic freedoms of the PDL. This is a naturally acclaimed demand and we want to state clear that, the PDL will not compromise its integrity to any designs. We demand that the PPRC gives us our political party registration certificate without any delay or condition attached. Long live PDL! Sender: Alimamy Bakarr Sankoh Leader and National Chairman Peoples Democratic League PDL For and on behalf of the PDL members, supporters and sympathisers ATLANTA, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Expression Therapeutics has announced that it has received clearance by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed following review of its Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for clinical testing of its novel lentiviral vector-based gene therapy ET3 for hemophilia A. Hemophilia A is the most common severe congenital bleeding disorder and afflicts approximately 1 in 8,000 people. Without treatment, severe hemophilia is crippling and fatal by late adolescence to early adulthood. The ET3 gene therapy developed by Expression Therapeutics combines innovative platform technologies in protein bioengineering and tissue-directed expression. ET3 consists of autologous mobilized peripheral blood stem and progenitor cells transduced with a recombinant lentiviral vector, encoding a bioengineered coagulation factor VIII transgene designed for highlevel expression at low vector copy number. In the ET3 trial, subjects will be preconditioned with low-dose stem and immune cell suppressing agents prior to receiving a single infusion of ET3. The high-expression factor VIII can correct the bleeding tendency in hemophilia A. The duration of ET3 activity is expected to be the normal lifetime of the patient. Expression Therapeutics expects to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial titled ET3-201 at Emory University and enroll patients shortly. "We are extremely pleased that the FDA has granted permission to proceed with this clinical study," said Trent Spencer, Ph.D., President of Expression Therapeutics and Director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Program in the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Emory University. Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell lentiviral gene therapy is currently the only approach that offers the possibility of permanent cure of hemophilia A and provides an opportunity to reach both pediatric and adult populations. "We are very excited to get the hemophilia A clinical trial underway, the first of six gene therapy products currently under development at Expression Therapeutics," said Mohan Rao, Ph.D., CEO of Expression Therapeutics. Expression Therapeutics is a biotechnology company based in Atlanta. The current therapeutic pipeline includes advanced gene therapies for hemophilia A and B; neuroblastoma, T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, and acute myeloid leukemia (AML); and primary immunodeficiencies such as hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). For inquiries, please contact: Ashley Walsh Director of Corporate Development Expression Therapeutics 1860 Montreal Road Tucker, Georgia 30084 [email protected] +1 312.637.2975 SOURCE Expression Therapeutics Related Links http://www.expressiontherapeutics.com Gardai are investigating a shooting in Co Meath on Monday night. Gardai said they received reports of a man who had been shot near the entrance to Clonee village near the M3 motorway around 10:40pm. It's understood the shooting involved one or two cars that were abandoned at the scene after a number of people were seen fleeing from the area. The male victim was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The area has been sealed off as gardai interview witnesses in the area. No arrests have been made. President Donald Trump salutes after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, in honor of Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2020, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon/AP) On a day typically marked by parades, solemn ceremonies and barbecues, communities across Southern California this year donned face masks and turned instead to TV screens and computer monitors to honor those who lost their lives in service to our nation. On a livestream that began at dawn, police, veterans and active duty military men and women took turns reading the names of their fallen peers. At Forest Lawn Memorial Park, bagpipes played to empty grounds and an audience online. More than a dozen vintage warplanes took to the sky, soaring in formation over Riverside National Cemetery and numerous hospitals and memorials across Los Angeles and Orange counties. Before a mural of the resurrected Christ, in a chapel adorned with gold and blue butterflies, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez offered prayers for the fallen as well as a tribute to the almost 100,000 who have died during the pandemic. At the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood, where local leaders and families traditionally gather before 90,000 graves for one of the regions largest ceremonies, a handful of speakers and performers gathered in different corners of the sprawling grounds. Drones and cameras operated by KABC-TV Channel 7 stitched together an event that was broadcast live to living rooms and cellphones. Viewers were reminded that Los Angeles County is home to more veterans than any other county in our nation. U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael Leeney spoke about the many healthcare workers today risking their lives to save others. He also called upon memories of first responders during 9/11 who ran into burning buildings as others ran out. These heroes have much in common with the people that we honor today, Leeney said to the cameras. On this Memorial Day, as we continue to honor those who fell in combat for our country, let us also pause to remember all those who have sacrificed themselves while in the service of others. There could be no more noble gesture than that. Story continues The coronavirus loomed over the weekend as Californians searched for meaning in such a physically distanced world. Los Angeles County reported 1,047 new COVID-19 cases and 12 additional deaths Monday, bringing the total confirmed cases to 46,081 and fatalities to 2,116. Across the state, 94,361 people have tested positive, and more than 3,770 have died. While veterans and families went to great lengths to remember their loved ones, others sought to celebrate the unofficial start of summer and sought comfort along recently reopened trails and beaches. Although crowds for the most part were mindful of keeping their distance, officials had to shut down popular hiking trails such as Eaton Canyon in Altadena, after too many people showed up Sunday and failed to follow public health guidelines. Thousands of beachgoers also hit the sand across L.A. County, which cautiously reopened its beaches to walking, jogging and swimming. Officials estimated more than 800,000 people went to the beach last weekend when the ban was first lifted a number that dwarfed crowds for previous Memorial Day weekends. I think a lot of people are feeling cooped up, said Nicole Mooradian, public information officer for the countys Beaches and Harbors Department. Its somewhere to go versus just walking around the neighborhood. At popular areas such as Venice Beach, authorities said most people seemed to be following the rules of no sunbathing, no umbrellas and no plopping down on the sand with coolers and large groups of friends. The crowds have been under control, according to the Pacific Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, but officers urged folks to wear face masks when not in the water. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also reminded residents on Monday that fighting the coronavirus "demands the strength and sacrifice of not just our service members, but every single one of us. On Memorial Day, we honor the brave Americans who paid the ultimate price to defend our freedom and offer our gratitude to everyone who has fought for us. Their courage inspires us in the battle against COVID-19 their sacrifice is a reminder of our duty to serve one another. pic.twitter.com/JUVSGZGiEU MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) May 25, 2020 As his pre-recorded address played during the ceremony at the Los Angeles National Cemetery, Garcetti donned his U.S. Navy cap and stood before a small gathering in Boyle Heights, where a humble memorial honors the many Mexican Americans who have served this country. For more than 70 years, residents and community leaders have gathered on Memorial Day at this bustling five-point intersection known as Los Cinco Puntos. Built in the years after World War II, this towering concrete pillar has long been a symbol of pride for the Eastside community. More than 500,000 Latinos fought in the war, including 350,000 Mexican Americans, who have the highest percentage of Medal of Honor winners of any minority in the United States. The annual observance usually includes an overnight vigil during which various community groups stand guard for 24 hours a tribute and reminder of this large but sometimes overlooked military community on this side of town. This year, the vigil was three hours, and a handful of local leaders gathered to pay their respects. Juju Sands, whose father, Ruben Amaro, served in Vietnam, said that it was tough to scale back this years ceremony but she thinks of the three World War II veterans, all in their 90s, who attended last year with dozens of others in the community, and knew it was in everyone's best interest to take precautions. She was thrilled when she heard Garcetti would make a personal appearance, and she wasnt surprised that many people from the neighborhood still came by that morning. Hugs were replaced by distant hellos, and smiles and greetings remained behind face masks. All were grateful to see the decorated wreaths and their community still remembered on this day. We can't hold each other. We can't be as close to each other, Garcetti said. I just ask this of all Angelenos: Call a family ... that you know. Reach out. Maybe drive over, and from your car, let them know how much you love them and how every single day yes, this is not a happy Memorial Day, it is a solemn Memorial Day it is with pride that we remember those who have served. Back in Westwood, officials from the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System also mourned eight hospitalized veterans who died of COVID-19. Nearly 5,000 veterans and employees have been tested so far to help contain the disease, "and we've sent teams of nurses into L.A. County to help nursing homes in need," the medical centers director, Dr. Steven Braverman, said in his remarks. Leeney, deputy commanding general of the 40th Infantry Division, closed his comments by recalling the many doctors, medics and nurses who sacrificed their lives while treating others on the battlefield. He told the story of Jack Williams, a U.S. Navy pharmacists mate who was only 20 when he landed in Iwo Jima 75 years ago. On March 3, 1945, under intense enemy fire, Williams dragged a Marine, who had been hit by a grenade, to a shallow depression to treat his wounds. Williams used his own body as a shield and was shot four times himself, yet he continued to provide care, Leeney said. After he treated that Marine, Williams dressed his own wounds and then proceeded to treat another wounded Marine, despite his own immense pain." Later that morning, as he was treating more of his unit, Williams was hit by a sniper's bullet and killed. In addition to Williams and other heroes who have died in combat, Leeney reminded his virtual audience that enemy fire is not the only killer. It is little known, for example, that influenza would kill nearly 16,000 U.S. soldiers in France during World War I. Another 30,000 American service members died later in stateside hospital camps from that disease, he said. These men and women could've very well isolated themselves safely in their homes during that pandemic, but they knew they had an important job to do, a mission to accomplish, and we remember that they were intent to serve their country. He bowed his head. Taps echoed across the mostly empty cemetery. The color guard performed from a safe distance. Across Southern California, "Amazing Grace" could be heard on computer and TV screens by all who were listening. The spiral of violence in Bihars Gopalganj district continues even amid the Covid-19 lockdown as unidentified assailants on Tuesday shot dead a close relative of controversial JD(U) MLA from Kuchaikot, Amrendra Pandey alias Pappu Pandey, a day after the MLAs elder brother and his son were arrested for the murder of three members of an RJD leaders family on Sunday. Tuesdays killing took place at Repura village under Hathua police station in Gopalganj district. This is ninth murder in the last five months in the district. The deceased was identified as Shashikant alias Munna Tiwari (45), a contractor, and a cousin of the MLA. Agitated over the incident, villagers blocked a stretch of the National Highway 28, demanding immediate arrest of the killers and the transfer of the Hathua station house officer (SHO), who they alleged was hand-in-glove with the criminal elements. The deceaseds sister Kiran Devi said the incident took place right outside Tiwaris house. She said four assailants on two motorcycles reached the spot and fired at him from point blank range. For Coronavirus Live Updates We are investigating the case. The reason could be a dispute over contracts. Preliminary investigation suggested that the deceased had bagged a contract of Rs 40 lakh to construct a pond, Gopalganj SP Manoj Tiwari said. On Sunday evening, assailants had killed three members of an RJD leaders family. The RJD leader, JP Choudhary, who was also injured in the firing, is being treated at Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in the state capital. Five persons, including the MLA, his brother Satish Pandey and nephew Mukesh Pandey were booked for the triple murder. The next day, Satish and his son Mukesh Pandey, chairman of Gopalganj district board, were arrested. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Meanwhile, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the state government to arrest the MLA. He also visited the PMCH in Patna to enquire about the health of JP Choudhary. I give an ultimatum to the state government to arrest the absconding MLA within two days. Otherwise, my party workers and I will march to Gopalganj and launch an intensive agitation, Yadav said. Racting to Yadavs ultimatum, JD (U) spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad said, The rule of law prevails in Bihar. The present dispensation doesnt differentiate between common people and the high and mighty. And Tejashwi Yadav should also know that it is Bihar of 2020 and not 1990. New Delhi: Lorena Bobbitt is a name that the United States wont forget ever. She and her husband John Wayne Bobbitt featured in headlines across the world in 1993, after she cut off his private part after he allegedly raped her. Thirty years later, Lorena Bobbitt is trending big time on the internet and suddenly, her story has piqued the interest of many. One of the deadliest cases has been made into a film and hence, the search for who is Lorena Bobbitt is currently so massive. Its titled 'I Was Lorena Bobbitt' and premiered on May 25 on Lifetime. After being abused and raped by her husband John for years, Lorena Bobbitt had on June 23, 1993, cut off his private part with a knife while he was asleep at their home in Manassas, Virginia. She was raped that day too. She later left the apartment, drove to a roadside field and threw it away, as per her confession in a court trial. And, then she informed the police about what happened during the night and where the part could be found. Lorena Bobbitt was later arrested a court trail followed suit. Meanwhile, John Wayne Bobbitt underwent an operation to attach the private part back after it was found after hours of search. After the trial, John Bobbitt was later acquitted of rape. The jury also found Lorena not guilty of the crime later. They divorced after six years of marriage. Lorena Bobbitt has made quite a few appearances on television after that while John Bobbitt starred in a few adult films. The couples story has been presented by actors Dani Montalvo and Luke Humphrey in 'I Was Lorena Bobbitt'. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announcing the Fortitude Budget in Parliament on 26 May. (Photo:YouTube screengrab) SINGAPORE The government has unveiled a $2 billion scheme to create almost 100,000 opportunities in jobs, traineeships and skills training, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Tuesday (26 May). Speaking in Parliament to unveil the $33 billion Fortitude Budget, Heng said the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package (JSP) will support the immediate needs of workers, and raise their skills for future jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The supplementary budget is the governments fourth package of COVID-19 related financial measures. Heng said that the JSP will create 40,000 jobs, 25,000 traineeships and 30,000 skills training, for workers with different skill levels and career aspirations. Some 15,000 jobs will be created in the public sector, meeting long-term needs in early childhood education, healthcare and long-term care. The opportunities to meet short-term needs will include jobs related to COVID-19 operations, such as healthcare declaration assistants and swabbers. Government agencies will be working with the private sector to create another 25,000 jobs, with openings in roles ranging from computer engineers to machine operators. On the 25,000 traineeship positions targeted this year, trainees may be placed in jobs with host companies by the end of their training periods. Of these, 21,000 will be from the SGUnited Traineeships programme, and another 4,000 from a new SGUnited Mid-Career Traineeships scheme. The former programme is aimed at first-time local job seekers, where Workforce Singapore funds the training allowances with host companies for up to a year. More than a thousand host companies have indicated strong interest in the scheme, noted Heng, and the public sector is also keen to offer new traineeship opportunities. On the Mid-Career Traineeships scheme, agencies will work with interested companies to provide traineeships for mid-career job seekers and opportunities for them to learn new skills and switch to new careers. Story continues (ILLUSTRATION: More jobs and skills opportunities under Fortitude Budget/Ministry of Finance) The third component of JSP, or the SGUnited Skills programme, will allow some 30,000 job seekers to upgrade their skills while looking for a job. Participants can take industry-relevant and certifiable training courses full-time at subsidised rates. They will be able to use their SkillsFuture Credit for the courses, which will be held by companies and Continuing Education Training (CET) Centres, including Institutes of Higher Learning. Apart from being given attachments or participation in company projects, these participants will also be given a training allowance of $1,200 a month during their training. Employers will be given additional incentive to hire local workers who have gone through eligible traineeship and training schemes. The incentive for eligible workers aged 40 will be doubled to cover 40 per cent of monthly salary over six months and capped at $12,000 in total. For eligible workers under 40, the incentive will cover 20 per cent of monthly salary over six months and be capped at $6,000. Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has agreed to Hengs request to chair the National Jobs Council to oversee the implementation of the JSP. The National Jobs Council will be focussed on creating jobs and building deep skills. This important effort will be integrated with the work of the Future Economy Council on the overall upgrading of our economy, through the Industry Transformation Maps in each cluster, said Heng. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related stories Singapore unveils $33 billion 4th Budget as part of COVID-19 response COVID-19: New Bill seeks to force landlords to waive rentals for severely impacted SMEs COVID-19: Extra $2.9b for firms to keep workers employed Heng Swee Keat COVID-19: Government to set aside additional $13 billion in Contingencies Funds Another $800m for COVID-19 Support Grant: Heng Swee Keat ( Chen Xiangmei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) who works in the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Photo credit: cnr.cn ) By Guo Chen BEIJING, May 26 -- As a military deputy to the 13th National Peoples Congress (NPC), Chen Xiangmei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) who works in the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), believes that how to deal with the outbreak of new infectious diseases, especially how to improve the prevention and control measures to new infectious diseases from a legal perspective has being emerging as a major and urgent task. At present, China has only unsystematic laws and regulations targeting at public health and medical administration, including the Law of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, Frontier Health and Quarantine Regulations of the PRC, and Regulations on Preparedness for and Response to Emergent Public Health Hazards from China. However, it is quite difficult to coordinate these legal acts in terms of detailed rules and regulations. In this regard, Academician Chen Xiangmei said she believes that the existing laws and regulations in public health should be sorted out, and a specified national public health law should be promulgated to systematically prevent and respond to public health emergencies and safeguard the security of people. Around the above, she put forward three suggestions: First, accelerating the research on the basic law of public health, to systematically standardize and optimize the response mechanism for major public health emergencies, and to improve the proactive emergency response system; Second, with regard to public health emergencies, such as new infectious diseases, major natural disasters and chemical accidents, the coordination mechanism among health administrative departments, epidemic prevention departments, medical institutions and scientific research units shall be clarified, to ensure quick and effective identification and report of emergencies, and prompt measures are taken; Third, hunting for and eating wild animals are supposed to be included in the new national public health law. President Trump spent part of Memorial Day taking shots at Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Penn.), calling him an "American fraud," misrepresenting his voting record, and spelling his name wrong, all in one tweet. Lamb, a Marine Corps veteran, represents Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District. The state's primary is next week, and Trump took the opportunity to praise his opponent, Republican Army combat veteran Sean Parnell, while slamming Lamb. "Sean Parnell is an American Hero," Trump tweeted. "Connor Lamm has proven to be an American fraud, and a puppet for Crazy Nancy Pelosi. He said he would NOT vote for her for Speaker, and did. Will kill 2A. Voted to impeach (on nothing). A TOTAL & COMPLETE Sean Parnell Endorsement!" Lamb was one of more than a dozen Democrats to not vote for Pelosi as speaker of the House in 2019. In response, Lamb tweeted that Trump and other Republicans have been "lying about my record since the day I became a candidate. It hasn't stopped, and it won't stop, until we beat them at the ballot box in November." More stories from theweek.com Demonstrators, police clash during protest over George Floyd's death Trump keeps falsely accusing Joe Scarborough of murder, and it's long past weird Jimmy Kimmel dings Trump's 'brazen hypocrisy' on golfing, calls America's mask war 'the dumbest standoff ever' By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) - A group of tech companies is working on a patch about the size of small bandage that could be worn to monitor for the elevated body temperatures that can sometimes signal the onset of COVID-19. The patch would be powered by a specially designed microchip that will be made in Minnesota at a chip factory operated by SkyWater Technology in collaboration with Ohio-based chip design firm Linear ASICs and New York investment firm Asymmetric Return Capital. The patch is intended to be worn on the skin and to connect wirelessly to a smart phone to monitor a person's body temperature, the companies said. The group aims to produce a device to monitor temperatures remotely that can be manufactured in high volumes. "This will be especially important as we head into flu season later this year," Bryan Wisk, a founding partner at Asymmetric Return Capital, said in a statement. The work is part of a broader partnership with two other firms: Software maker SensiML, a subsidiary of QuickLogic Corp, and Upward Health, a provider of in-home health care. The companies hope to use artificial intelligence to analyze signals such as the sounds of coughs to identify unique patterns for COVID-19 symptoms. Those findings could then be used create sensor-based systems that could screen for the virus and slow its spread. There is tremendous need for better pre-diagnostic screening tools as return-to-work measures are put into place across the U.S. and worldwide," Chris Rogers, the chief executive of SensiML, said in a statement. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) PCS NULU Straight Bourbon We want to give everyone the knowledge and history of how liquor has shaped the world and our country, says Hyden. Each one of our spirits are a part of this history and we show why they have become what they are from 200 years of American history. Prohibition Craft Spirits, or PCS Distilling Company, launches its newest spirit, NULU Straight Bourbon Single Barrel, on Memorial Day, May 25th. NULU Straight Bourbon is the fifth spirit brand in the PCS family of spirits. Bottled at cask strength, the new NULU Straight Bourbon is unfiltered and single barrel. That means you get to taste exactly what comes out of the barrel and its not easy to find that feature on the shelf, says Harrison Hyden, Master Distiller with Prohibition Craft Spirits. While there are always experimental batches and new things to offer at the bar and gift shop, the NULU Straight Bourbon completes and compliments the set. Prohibition Craft Spirits began with the dream to take people on a journey through history. We want to give everyone the knowledge and history of how liquor has shaped the world and our country, says Hyden. Each one of our spirits are a part of this history and we show why they have become what they are from 200 years of American history. When branding the NULU Bourbon, the two things PCS set out to do was to educate the public about prohibition and show off the citys roots. Our labels are all named after local neighborhoods and we want to show our pride in our city and how it has really been a part of prohibition, says Hyden. The NULU products are considered the companys signature brand, which is why, according to Prohibition Craft Spirits Founder and President Keith Hazelbaker, It was only natural to use NULU. Along with other bars and restaurants, Prohibition Craft Spirits has had to face unique challenges over the past couple of months. While they have been selling more sales by the bottle with special gift shop hours, they had to close the tour, bar, and event hall. Adapting to the new normal, PCS introduced their own line of hand sanitizer by re-purposing one of their stills to make bulk sanitizer. We really wanted to get our hand sanitizer out to the public out of necessity. It is important for everyone to be healthy, and we want to make sure we are a part of the solution, says Hyden. Prohibition Craft Spirits hand sanitizer is priced at cost because of the importance it serves in the communitys well-being. Set to reopen during Phase 3 of Kentuckys Healthy at Work schedule currently set for July, Prohibition Craft Spirits is looking forward to being able to open the rest of the facility back up. We feel good [about being able] to keep our patrons safe and comfortable when that happens, says Hazelbaker. While changing the tour to include more history and give people more exciting things to enjoy, Hyden says, ...everyone just wants to get back to work and showcase our new bourbon! NULU Straight Bourbon Single Barrel will be available for purchase in the PCS gift shop and bar, as well as at any of the 4 Total Wine locations throughout Kentucky, with plans to release it to smaller liquor stores over the next few weeks. Soon, PCS will be selling products on their website and are optimistic that this will help with sales at their gift shop. It has been a long time coming and we are excited to see how the public reacts to its release, says Hazelbaker. Get access to everything we publish when you sign up for Outside+. 6:00 pm, Friday August 28, 2020. Every few seconds, another trail runner leaves Chamonix, France, assuring 10 meters of spacing. Each runner is wearing a mask. With 2,200 participants, a human ribbon soon stretches 22 kilometers down the valley, and up and over the big climb of 1,653-meter-high Col de Voza. At the first aid station in the village of St. Gervais, runners discover that Plexiglas barriers separate them from the volunteers. Its a dystopian picture in which the organizers of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc wanted no part. And so, last Wednesday, race organizers took a pass on trying to implement the governmental health requirements that would have been required for this years race to take place. In doing so, the worlds largest gathering of trail runners, sometimes nicknamed trail runnings Super Bowl, fell victim to the tiny virus thats barely one one-hundredth the size of a human cell. The worlds largest gathering of trail runners, sometimes nicknamed trail runnings Super Bowl, fell victim to the tiny virus thats barely one one-hundredth the size of a human cell. UMTB joins hundreds of trail races around the world that are cancelling this season. In the United States, its a list that includes the prestigious Californias Western States Endurance Run and, as of last Saturday, Colorados Hardrock 100. The unprecedented decision for the 17-year-old series of six races came amid other challenges for UTMB. Starting on March 17, UTMBs 15 employees were forced to work from home during the government-ordered pandemic lockdown. The stay-at-home order, backed by fines and strict oversight, lasted seven weeks. Race founders Catherine and Michel Poletti worked from their home in Chamonix. Its been a difficult time, Catherine Poletti confessed. Were a very connected team. Its not the same, she half-joked, When youre each at your own coffee maker instead of gathering around the one in the office! Not a Real UTMB During their lockdown, the UMTB team studied how they might organize a race that respected the required virus barriers. For the 100-mile UTMB race, they explored the possibility of altering the event to host 1000 runners, leaving in waves of 200 every half hour. But, the concept was rife with pitfalls. How would they choose who got to run? Who would shoulder the costs of the larger-than-normal tents and additional volunteers needed at more than a dozen locations? Then there was the question of masks, that would be required if the spacing between runners was less than 10 meters. Can you imagine, Poletti said, Asking runners to run around Mont Blanc, wearing masks? In the end, its not a real UTMB. Its not in the spirit of trail running. One of the greatest joys of running an event like UTMB is the atmosphere created when so many athletes come together in one place, said Emily Schmitz, a Hoka-sponsored athlete from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, who now lives and trains in Bogota, Colombia. Schmitz ran UTMBs 56-kilometer OCC race last year. UTMB is a time to share our love for the sport, to spend time with one another, and run together. When we lose these aspects, Schmitz said, We have lost the essence of what the event itself means. UTMB is a time to share our love for the sport, to spend time with one another, and run together. When we lose these aspects, Schmitz said, We have lost the essence of what the event itself means. Trail runners come to UTMB from all around the world, Poletti explained. They dream of the start with thousands of runners, Vangelis Conquest of Paradise playing, the crowds in Chamonix, fans lining the villages through which they pass. And, of course, they dream of their return to Chamonix as heroes. That UTMB, Poletti, explained, Is impossible for us this year. Race organizers were able to return 55 percent of the entry fee to participants, and UTMB allowed runners to donate that amount to one of nearly a dozen charities, if they wanted. In announcing the decision, UTMB named four principles that were pivotal to them: the health and safety for participants, a full and complete experience, taking advantage of the long-held mountaineering option of turning around when conditions are unsuitable, and, finally, solidarity and equity, neither of which were available this year, due to the uneven training and travel opportunities that currently exist. Fears of Another Outbreak In the three countries through which UTMB passes, governments and citizens remain edgy. Borders are still closed, though there is hope that EU-countries will allow cross-border travel soon. Travelers from overseas, however, may need to quarantine for several weeksor might not be allowed in, at all. UTMB was, in short, at the mercy of a global pandemic and government policies designed to keep their citizens as safe as possible. Even if UTMB had attempted to offer their annual series of races, they would have faced another challenge: fear. Its not clear that runners would have wanted to take part. Chamonix-based mountain guide Jon Bracey, also a strong trail runner with top finishes in a number of races, noted that, At present there is still a large amount of concern and fear about Covid-19. Its impossible to predict how the situation will evolve during the next three months. Sean Vanhorn, a competitive trail racer, might have perfectly captured the emotional rollercoaster that many are experiencing during the Covid era: One moment I think everything is fine, the next, I think we are all going to die. Sean Vanhorn, a competitive trail racer and ski mountaineering racer from Carbondale, Colorado, might have perfectly captured the emotional rollercoaster that many are experiencing during the Covid era: One moment I think everything is fine, the next, I think we are all going to die. Vanhorn was planning to run UTMBs 100-kilometer long CCC race this year. Behind the Scenes, The Inevitable Financial Hit The UTMB organization is, by far, the biggest trail-running event to fall to the global pandemic. The events week-long stats place it more in a league with a multi-day rock festival than a trail race. By one estimate, the 10,000 racers add about $13,000,000 to the local economies around the Mont Blanc region. Add to that 20,000 supporters and an estimated 100,000 spectators, and the scale of the impact starts to become clear. The events cancellation is a body blow to a tourist region that is already reeling from dramatic Covid-induced losses. The larger UTMB race company, like others around the world, is sure to be financially impacted. The Chamonix-based UTMB race is now part of the UTMB group, which owns five international races as well as having a controlling interest in the Ultra-Trail World Tour. All of those entities have suffered cancellations, and its likely more are to come, as well. One thing is certain: race organizers will be spending years recovering to more stable ground. Racersand UTMBLook to New Challenge Across the globe, trail runners who normally take part in races are recalibrating plans. US trail runner Katie Schide, who currently lives and trains in southern France, was one of the top-ranked runners in the world headed to UTMB this year. Like so many others, shes finding herself returning to her roots. Races are a fun goal to train towards, she said, but I still love running, training, exploring and testing my limits just as much without a start or finish line. Its a good mindset to have, for trail runners in the Covid era. Start and finish lines, it seems, may be few and far between in the months ahead. Bogota-based Schmitz is keeping it local. This is a great time to get to know your own neighborhood, nearby parks or other training resources that you have close to home. Ill take the time to do things I normally dont have time forstrength work, core work, and foam rollingto name a few. Vanhorn, meanwhile, has FKTs or Fastest Known Times, on his mind, and is eyeing Colorados massive Nolans 14, a remote trail run that summits 14 of Colorados 14,000-foot peaks. Hell also try to set a few FKTs of his own. His hope for this summer? That, others are able to find joy in their running even though the events they have dreamt about have been cancelled. UTMB, for its part, plans to offer up something different for the coming summer that will be both virtual and physical. Poletti told Trail Runner that the organization would offer an event she described as, People coming together for a cause greater than UTMB, whether they are in Oman, California, China or here in Chamonix. UTMB, for its part, plans to offer up something different for the coming summer that will be both virtual and physical. Poletti told Trail Runner that the organization would offer an event she described as, People coming together for a cause greater than UTMB, whether they are in Oman, California, China or here in Chamonix. UTMB plans to announce the concept soon. Im really sad for both runners and race organizers, mentioned Poletti, who said she had recently spoken with Western States Race Director Craig Thornley. Now is the time to do something for all of trail running. Meanwhile, Colorado trail runner and author Brendan Leonard, who blogs for Outside Magazine under the name Semi-Rad, was planning to run UTMBs CCC trail race this coming August. Hed still like to run and hopes to make it to Chamonix in 2021. What is he doing with those extra 365 days now available for training? I have basically just decided to write off 2020, focusing on staying safe and surviving so I can do all the things I wanted to do this year in 2021 instead, said Leonard. My plan, I guess, is to be one year older when I do the CCC. I have a few ideas for routes Id like to do within driving distance of my house, but mostly Im just trying to be creative to keep myself from getting boredrunning every street in my neighborhood in Denver, running trails at night to minimize contact with other people and looking back at old photos and reminding myself that this isnt forever. Doug Mayer is Contributing Editor for Trail Runner. PHNOM PENH -- When the coronavirus outbreak became a global pandemic in March, millions of people followed conferences and news broadcasts to understand this threat. Sorn Sreynuch, 36 and a mother of two, also wanted to find out more. But while people around the world quickly got used to hearing and saying coronavirus dozens of times a day, Sreynuch had to first figure out how to actually say the word: as a sign language interpreter, she had no dictionary to fall back on to. She quickly went on YouTube to search for a new sign for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. She was looking for something that would encapsulate the disease and the global threat it posed. Then, I asked deaf [colleagues], what sign should I gesture to make deaf people understand COVID-19, Sreynuch said. I explained to them that the disease is related to lungs and breathing, and I tell them how to protect themselves, washing hands and so on. They helped to create a new sign that is supposed to be understood by other deaf people [in Cambodia]. In an interview with VOA Khmer, she explained the meaning of the symbol that they came up with. This represents the earth, the world, she said, clenching her left hand to perform the sign while moving her open right-hand palm around the fist, and this shows its spreading all over the world. There are officially more than 520,000 people with disabilities in Cambodia, nearly 4 percent of the population. Of those, more than 40,000 are deaf, according to the latest official number, the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2014. Others have estimated the number to be as high as 80,000. Not Enough Translators Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2012 called for Cambodian television stations to create programming to accommodate deaf people. And last year, he called on TV stations to include sign language on screen when broadcasting news programs, saying he would monitor them. Yet, things are slow to change. There are only about half a dozen professional sign language translators to serve the 25 provinces and the capital Phnom Penh, according to Korn Maly, Sign Language Project Manager at the Deaf Development Programme. A number of other people were able to perform basic sign language and translate but did not pursue this as part of their professional career, she said. In Cambodia, deaf people often face difficulties in accessing information, employment, or even seeking basic services. Being a professional sign language translator, Sreynuch said, she tried to empower deaf people by giving them important information to protect themselves and live a decent life. In addition to interpreting news, she also translates short education video clips, she said. And in late April, the Ministry of Health requested her to translate at the weekly COVID-19 press conference.Its very demanding during this COVID-19 period, Sreynuch said while getting ready to drive with her motorbike to a local TV station some twenty-four kilometers away. She had been requested to translate a broadcasting news program into sign language, she told VOA Khmer. Sreynuch said deaf people faced some similar hurdles to illiterate people. If they do not understand sign language, it can be hard for them to participate in society. If they learn sign language, its like those who can read and write: they can work and participate in society. So they are equal to others, she said. Sitting on a bench in a pavilion at her office among bamboo trees and enjoying a gentle breeze, she recounted how she came to be one of only a handful of professional interpreters in the country. Sreynuch is not the only person in the family who knows sign language: Her mother cooked for deaf people, and this is how Sreynuch discovered her passion for sign language. Now 60 and retired, her mother used to work for a local organization that supports people with disabilities in Phnom Penh. Back then, Sreynuch was 14 years old and began to make friends with deaf people who visited her home. She learned some basic signs from her mother. When we want to interact with them, we automatically try to learn their language, Sreynuch said. In 2002, Sreynuch attended a two-year sign language training program, including a course to become a professional translator. Its the second batch of the program, which she said had only three students, including her sister and one other student. Briefly after, her sister married and moved to France with her husband. The other student, now working at Krousar Thmey of National Institution for Education, conducts research for Cambodian sign language. The human resource in this sector is scarce, Sreynuch said. She explained that a range of factors were at play, such as a lack of interest and that the profession doesnt bring in much income. Sometimes, she said, she would interpret sign language for deaf people at hospital, at court, and during employment recruitment. But it is personal moments that thrill her most. Sreynuch recalled her excitement when she provided sign language translation to a deaf couple's wedding early in her career. I am happy because I could witness their moment of a happy marriage, she said, adding that she for example explained what the haircut ceremony meant. Without the interpretation, they can only see what is happening but they dont know what is going on. With my translation, when there are fun moments they laugh too, she said. Employment Opportunities Deaf people in Cambodia tend to work in the automobile repair and maintenance industry, makeup and hairdressing, in the garment industry, and in restaurants and cafes. Socials Coffee and Humanity cafe in Phnom Penh aims to generate employment opportunities for the deaf and non-verbal community. Of a total of 12 staff members, it currently employs five deaf people. Koy Socheata, a 25-year-old-barista at Socials Coffee and Humanity, is one of them. With the translation help of her colleague Seng Theary, she talked to VOA Khmer about how her life changed when she learned sign language. Before I knew sign language, I didnt know others. I didnt have the opportunity to be part of the people around me. I felt I was alone. But that changed when I started to learn sign language. she said. Never before did I know that there could be a place for deaf people to work. Socheata learned sign language at a school in Krousar Thmey when she was 14. She finished high school in 2016 and began her studies at Asia-Europe University (AEU). But she had to drop out after the second year, because the courses were designed for non-deaf students and she could not catch up. The classes at universities in Cambodia do not have any sign language translators. Socheata believes that special education through sign language is a much better option than trying to avoid vulnerabilities by keeping them at home, she said. A lot of parents love their deaf children, so they usually dont allow the [deaf] children to go to school, she said. They keep the [deaf] kid at home so that they feel safer. If still unable to communicate once the kid goes to school, parents are often afraid [of danger]. But that was a fallacy, she said, explaining that it was empowering for deaf people to study and work. She urged parents to also send their deaf kids to school. Her colleague Phem Vengheng, 22, started working at the cafe in 2018 after graduating from high school. Both he and his sister are deaf, among four siblings. Their parents sell pork at a market in Phnom Penh. My knowledge has broadened, he said. Before I learned sign language, I thought I am deaf - so Id better stay at home to avoid facing problems. I didnt know there were opportunities out there for me. Now Venghengs perception has changed. I want to be a teacher. I want to teach the deaf, because there are deaf who do not have the opportunity to go to school. Their parents dont send them school. I want to transfer my knowledge to them, he said. Operation Manager Heng Sreynak, who is not deaf, told VOA Khmer that the cafe set up a 6-month sign language class when first opening the shop in 2018. At first it was very hard because I knew nothing about sign language, she said. I try to learn from them [deaf staff] and our teachers. Sreynak knows to value unique skills deaf people bring to the shop. They have a good eye, she said. They quickly catch up with what we are doing. Stigma, Misconceptions and Risks Before working at Socials Coffee, Sreynak said she barely knew anything about the deaf community. I used to wonder how the deaf communicated with each other. But after I get to know them here, I learned that they have their own language and they also attend schools, she said. Sign language helps connect us. This broadening connection between deaf and non-deaf, Sreynak said, also extended to customers. She said customers often tried to learn sign language from their staff. They ask the speaking staff how they can gesture signs, and then they perform those signs and communicate directly with the deaf barista, she said. Like verbal languages, sign languages around the world differ depending on the country or region. Some countries discovered their sign languages more than a century ago, but in Cambodia it was only developed in the 1990s when different rights organizations began gathering deaf people and helped to structure the language. Some countries have more than one sign language depending on the local region or even village. But Korn Maly, the current DDPs Sign Language Project Manager, said an international sign language made it possible for deaf people around the world to understand one another. Estonias Bolt is one of Ubers biggest competitors in the European ride-hailing market. (Bolt) Estonias Bolt, one of Ubers biggest competitors in the European ride-hailing market, has raised 100m (88m) in funding to prepare for a post-coronavirus world. Even though the crisis has temporarily changed how we move, the long-term trends that drive on-demand mobility such as declining personal car ownership and the shift towards greener transportation continue to grow, said chief executive Markus Villig on Tuesday. Bolt, which currently operates in more than 150 cities across Europe and Africa, said it had recently accelerated the expansion of its food delivery service and launched a service that helps goods vendors offer same-day delivery. It also launched Bolt Protect, which is aimed at essential workers. Its cars are fitted with protective plastic sheeting that limits the airflow between the driver and its customers. READ MORE: London estate agent Foxtons to resume viewings with social distancing The funding round comes just a few months after the company raised 50m (44m) from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, was valued at over $1bn in a funding round in 2019. The company did not disclose its latest valuation. The ride-hailing start-up is near identical to Uber (UBER) in function. But while Uber has raised tens of billions since it was founded in 2009, Tuesdays haul from Naya Capital Management, a global investment manager, brings Bolts total raise to around 300m. Bolt launched in London last June and was profitable in approximately two-thirds of its global markets prior to the coronavirus crisis. Villig has previously extolled the benefits of raising less money, noting that it helped his firm focus on growing sustainably. READ MORE: Aston Martin shares leap as CEO replaced by Mercedes chief Ubers lavish bankrolling, on the other hand, has created a bloated company with a culture where nobody cares about costs, Villig said. Villig, who founded Bolt in his native Estonia in 2013 when he was just 19, said on Tuesday that the company was happy to be backed by investors that support our long term view and dont buy into the mindless spending thats become so common in Silicon Valley. I am more confident than ever that our efficiency and localisation are a fundamental advantage in the on-demand industry, he said. As of May 23, 57 people had died of COVID-19-related illness across six long-term care facilities in Niles, IDPH data showed. Most of the people who died were residents of two nursing homes: Niles Nursing and Rehabilitation, which reported 24 deaths, and Generations at Regency, which reported 19 deaths, according to the IDPH data. Gurugram: The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) will incur expenses for waste collection in Faridabad, where the lockdown has further hit cash-strapped local civic bodys revenues, said officials on Monday. MCG officials said the Faridabad civic body was further short of funds and unable to pay the tipping fees to the waste collection concessionaire Ecogreen Private Limited for April. Subsequently, the Haryana government directed MCG to pay tipping fees to Ecogreen on behalf of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) from this month. The state government asked us to pay our waste concessionaire the tipping fees for the MCF starting this month. Accordingly, we have complied and started helping MCF monetarily, said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG. In August 2017, the MCG, MCF, and Haryana government signed a joint-agreement with Ecogreen for the door-to-door collection of waste in Gurugram and Faridabad. As part of the agreement, the two civic bodies have to pay Ecogreen 1,000 for every tonne of waste collected as tipping fees on a monthly basis. According to Ecogreen officials, they collect around 1,200 tonnes of waste from Gurugram every day and 900 tonnes from Faridabad. The MCF pays around 2.5-3 crore for waste collection in Faridabad and MCG pays 3.5-4 crore every month, depending on the final load. Singh said the MCG is paying the tipping fees on behalf of the MCF as a loan, and the Faridabad civic body is expected to pay the sum back when their finances are more stable. In 2010, just two years after its formation, the MCG had lent 150 crore to the MCF. A decade later, MCG officials said these dues are yet to be cleared and added that they wouldnt be funding MCF for any other aspect besides waste collection, unless the state government states otherwise. MCF was formed in 1993. MCF is facing a financial crunch presently. Although they didnt list an exact reason, I believe that to ensure the continuity of services, the state government asked MCG to pay Ecogreen on behalf of MCF. Ultimately, these funds between the MCG and MCF have to be settled and we will be paying MCG for all pending dues, said Yash Garg, commissioner, MCF. Garg said the MCG is only paying funds for waste collection and nothing else, as it is one of the primary signatories in the agreement between Ecogreen, and the two civic bodies. The Haryana government has issued a circular stating that the MCG would be paying tipping fees on behalf of MCF. It is simply an understanding between two municipal corporations, said an official spokesperson for Ecogreen. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Photo: Dee Ashley/Flickr Here's the most recent top news you may have missed in Dallas. Woman dies in Dallas shooting A woman died at an area hospital after being shot Monday night in the 6100 block of Royalton Drive, Dallas police said. Read the full story on WFAA. With public libraries closed, Dallas ISD helping build at-home libraries for K-6 students The official end of school for Dallas ISD students is Wednesday, but nearly all at-home distance learning wrapped up last week. District leaders have come up with a new setup to help encourage reading during the summer. Read the full story on WFAA. 24-year-old taken into custody after 1 killed outside Uptown nightclub, Dallas police say He had been escorted out of the club multiple times before the shooting occurred, police said. Read the full story on WFAA. Dallas mayor's milk initiative hands out 1,000 gallons on first day Dallas-based Borden Dairy delivered the milk Monday morning to the Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center in West Dallas. Read the full story on CBS DFW. 3 dead after suspected street racer runs red light, slams into car at Dallas intersection Three people are dead after a violent crash in west Dallas. It happened around 1:45 a.m. along Hampton Road. Read the full story on CBS DFW. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. (Photo : Screenshot from: Motorola Razr 2 Facebook Page) A new version of the Motorola Razr may be launching this year and it may just fix some of the biggest concerns everyone had with the Moto Razr back in February. Foldable smartphones made their debut in 2019 with the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and now it looks like Motorola is jumping on the bandwagon as the Moto Razr will be getting a sequel with upgraded specs that could be announced sooner than we think. Read Also: New Coronavirus-Themed Malware Can Disguise as Excel Spreadsheets That Allows Hackers to Access PCs Remotely Motorola Razr 2 to launch this year with 5G compatibility and upgraded specs The news broke out about the newer version when an executive from Lenovo revealed details about the upcoming sequel. General Manager for Lenovo South Africa, Thibault Dousson made an appearance on the podcast "Reframed Tech" and said that an all-new Motorola Razr could come around September according to Android Authority "There's a new iteration [of the Razr] coming out. From what I understand, there's one in September, I think, coming out. A whole new Razr," Dousson said on the 18-minute long podcast. The new Razr might also be powered by Qualcomm's 5G Snapdragon 765 processor and have a 2,845mAh battery as told by XDA Developers. This will also come with a new outer camera and is rumored to be 48-megapixels which is a huge improvement from the current 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel cameras. It might also sport an 8GB RAM and 56GB internal storage. According to reports from The Verge, "While these are all welcome improvements in the specs department, it's unclear if this rumored new Razr will feature any changes to its signature folding mechanism - like a less creaky hinge, changes to prevent bumps and lumps from appearing on the screen, or improvements to stop the screen from peeling away from the laminate layer." Read Also: Warning: New Banking Malware 'Anubis' Knows You're Looking at Your Phone's Screen; Hackers Breach New iOS Boosted and upgraded specs These details will all be a huge improvement on the previous version of the device, especially on the 710 chipsets that were found in the original Razr. In comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip uses a Snapdragon 855 which is more powerful than the 765 but it doesn't have 5G connectivity. However, reports suggest that Samsung will be using the 865 when it launches its new 5G foldable phone set this year. Assuming that all of these leaks and reports are accurate, the Motorola Razr 2 will be more powerful when it comes to the specs of non-foldable smartphones when it launches in September. Still, a big question lingers as to whether or not these upgrades will be enough to beat Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 2 with its triple-lens rear camera, or even the foldable the Google Pixel. We'll all probably wait for a couple of months before Motorola actually announces something abut the new Razr. Hopefully, all will be worth it. Read Also: Samsung Combines Dual-Pixel and Tetracell Pixel-Binning for the First Time in 50MP Camera with Faster Autofocus 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Chinese national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region fly above the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, China, Aug 5, 2019. Photo:Xinhua China said on Monday that it would take "all necessary measures" to firmly counter and retaliate against the US' threatened sanctions over a national security law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), lambasting the US for blatant interference in China's internal affairs. "If the US insists on hurting China's interests, China will definitely take all necessary measures to firmly fight back," Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a press briefing when asked about the US' threats of sanctions against China. White House National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said on Sunday that the US government will likely impose sanctions against China if the latter implements its national security law, according to CNBC. Specifically, O'Brien said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might not certify that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy, which could result in sanctions against China. US officials have made similar threats before, following persistent social unrest in Hong Kong last year. Chinese officials have harshly criticized the US for interfering in China's internal affairs. "Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong. Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs. What legislation the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region makes, and how and when [it is implemented] are entirely within China's sovereignty. The US has no qualification to point fingers and interfere," Zhao said on Monday. Zhao did not specify what countermeasures China would take. In December 2019, China announced the first wave of sanctions against the US over its involvement in social unrest in Hong Kong. The move included barring visits of US warships and aircraft to the city, and sanctioning several US-based non-governmental organizations including the National Endowment for Democracy and Human Rights Watch. A draft decision on establishing and improving the HKSAR's legal system and enforcement mechanisms to safeguard national security was submitted to the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on Friday, and a final decision is expected later this week when the two sessions conclude. Chinese officials have maintained that the decision was targeted at a narrow category of actions that jeopardize national security, and that it will not affect the HKSAR's high degree of autonomy nor the rights and freedoms of residents in the city. Amaravati, May 26 : Alleged violation of lockdown rules by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu while returning from Hyderabad after more than two months, sparked a row with the leaders of ruling YSR Congress Party demanding that he be sent to quarantine. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president, who was 'stranded' in Hyderabad since the lockdown began in March, reached his residence in Amaravati by road on Monday to a warm welcome by the party leaders and workers. Earlier at Vijayawada, the leader of the opposition stopped his convoy to wave at a large number of party activists and followers who jostled to greet him. YSRCP leaders alleged that Naidu violated the lockdown norms as social distancing was not maintained and the people who greeted him were not even wearing masks. Some went to the extent of demanding that he be sent to quarantine for 14 days. "Since he came from a red zone area and crossed over from another state, he should be quarantined," said YSRCP leader G. Srikant Reddy. A YSRCP leader from Kadapa sought action against Naidu for deliberately violating Covid-19 lockdown rules and also Epidemic Diseases Act and Communicable Diseases, Prevention and Control Act, 1988. In a letter to Director General of Police Gautam Sawang, the ruling party leader said Naidu's followers gathered around his convoy without maintaining physical distance and without wearing masks. The leaders of the ruling party and the main opposition have been indulging in political slugfest over Naidu's stay in Hyderabad. YSRCP leaders had taunted him for maintaining 'social distancing' by staying 300 km away from the state. They also slammed him for what they call playing politics over the pandemic by addressing press conferences over zoom app from his residence in Hyderabad. YSRCP leader Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said nobody had stopped the TDP chief from returning to the state but he preferred to remain in Hyderabad and when he finally returned he violated all lockdown norms. There was also a row before Naidu's return to Amaravati. It was on May 24 that the DGP had permitted him to return to the state. The TDP had even announced that Naidu would leave for Visakhapatnam on May 25 to console the families of the 12 people who died due to gas leak from LG Polymers on May 7. The party announced that he will leave for Vizag by a flight from Hyderabad at 10 a.m. However, he could not go to Visakhapatnam as the flight was cancelled following the decision by Andhra Pradesh government to allow resumption of domestic flight services from May 26. TDP leader K. Atchan Naidu alleged that the flight resumption was deliberately postponed by the Jagan Mohan government to stop the TDP chief from visiting Visakhapatnam. "The government did this under a conspiracy to prevent him from going to Vizag," he said and claimed that Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri's tweet that the resumption of flights from Vizag and Vijayawada was postponed at the request of the state government was a proof of the conspiracy. YSRCP leaders wondered how the government can be blamed if the flight to Vizag was cancelled. "He could have gone to Vizag by road instead of coming to Amaravati," said Ramakrishna Reddy. TDP's senior leader and former minister Devineni Uma claimed that Chandrababu Naidu honoured all lockdown norms to seek permission to visit Visakhapatnam to call on the people affected by gas leak. "Why is the government afraid of his visit," he asked. The former minister said Chandrababu Naidu would soon visit Vizag to meet gas victims. "Whenever he goes to Vizag, it is bound to create tremors for YSR Congress Party leaders," he added. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Debjani Dutta By Express News Service PUDUCHERRY: Pondicherry University, a central university has barred students who participated in protests against fee hike and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) from claiming the Post Graduate scholarships given to students on the basis of merit and merit cum means for each semester. A circular issued by K Deven, Coordinator (Academics) on May 22 and posted in the Universitys website restricts the award of scholarship to only those who have 70 per cent attendance and have not participated in any protest during the previous semester. The Heads of departments have been directed to ensure that these conditions are fulfilled among the eligible students before sending the list of claims from students. The order is applicable to students of 53 departments who were admitted for Integrated courses in 2014-19, 2015-2020, 2016-2021, 2017-2022 and 2018-2023 and two year Post Graduate courses in 2017-2019 and 2018-2020. Most of the students had participated in protests against fee hike and Citizenship Amendment Act and now they are being denied scholarship. It is anti-student and anti-constitutional decision by university to punish the students for demanding a campus inclusive of economically and socially weaker section, said Parichay Yadav, President of Pondicherry University students council. The scholarships is given to meritorious students and students who participated in protests cannot be denied the scholarship. The council in a representation to the University , through Dean of Students welfare maintained that it is the right of students to scholarships provided on basis of merit as well as constitutional right to protest peacefully . Since a lot of students are from economically weaker sections to depend on scholarships pay their semester fee. The University has targeted not only the constitutional right but also has displayed its anti-poor attitude. It is inhuman , said Yadav adding that the student council will move court challenging the order , if the order was not withdrawn immediately. New Delhi: Delhi reported 412 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Tuesday, taking the citys tally to 14,465 cases, according to the daily health bulletin released by the Delhi government. The number of new cases in the state fell below 500 for the first time in week, with the highest number of 660 recorded on May 22, but the respite may prove to be all too brief . On Tuesday, 12 more deaths were added to the total, taking the toll of the viral infection in the city to 288. These are the deaths that get added to the total after a review by the three-member death audit committee to establish that the primary cause of death was indeed Covid-19 rather than potentially fatal co-morbidities. The positivity rate the percentage of people who test positive has gone up to 10% from 7.6% on May 18, when Delhi recorded 299 cases, which is one of the lowest numbers reported on a day this month. The average positivity rate over the last week has been 11.5%, with the highest of 13.8% recorded on Monday. Delhi has already reached the second of the three scenarios for which a five-member expert committee had advised the chief minister to prepare -- when the city records 100 cases a day, followed by 500 a day and finally when the daily tally reaches 1,000. Delhi is likely to start reporting 1,000 cases a day within the next two weeks or even sooner, said a senior official from Delhi government, on condition of anonymity. Thats because air and train travel to and from the city has resumed and more public restrictions will be loosened at the end of Lockdown 4.0 on March 31, which will make it difficult to enforce norms such as social and physical distancing The numbers are likely to go up now that markets have opened up and people are travelling. However, the numbers also depend on the testing criteria, if more people are tested the numbers would be higher. So, it is not the numbers that we should be worried about, it is the number of deaths. We have to ensure early detection and treatment to prevent deaths, said Dr Jugal Kishore, head of the department of community medicine at Safdarjung Hospital. If current trends follow, around 30% of these 1,000 expected cases a day, or 300 people, would need admission each day. All of the 2,000 beds in Lok Nayak Hospital, the biggest hospital dedicated for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, also have facility to provide oxygen. Only about 0.4% people need ventilator support, according to Delhi government data which closely mimics the national average. Currently, there are 4,462 Covid-19 beds in the city, 429 ICU beds, 343 beds with ventilators, and 2,632 beds with oxygen support are available in the city hospitals. Another 5,716 beds are available in 19 Covid Care centres in the city. Delhi health secretary Padmini Singla informed Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday that the government has ordered 28 ventilators and 435 oxygen concentrators (machines that selectively remove nitrogen from the ambient air to concentrate the oxygen to about 93%). Around 30,000 personal protective equipment kits in addition to the existing 50,000 and 3.5 lakh N95 masks have been ordered. The meeting was attended by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and senior officials from the health department. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Carson Ray Peters, the man accused of killing his wife, her sister and another man in north Alabama over the weekend, has surrendered to federal law enforcement, police announced Tuesday afternoon. Peters, 58, is being charged with multiple counts of capital murder, according to the Decatur police department. Peters accused of fatally shooting his wife, Teresa Lynn Peters, 54, of Danville; her sister Tammy Renee Smith, 50, of Danville; and James Edward Miller, 55, of Laceys Springs, according to the police. A fourth person was injured and taken to a hospital for treatment. Peters turned himself in to U.S. Marshals at Decaturs Riverwalk Marina around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen told a news conference. The shootings happened Sunday night in the Danville area of Morgan County, which is part of the city of Decaturs police jurisdiction. If convicted, Carson Peters could face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. Carson Peters was taken into custody this afternoon when he surrendered to U.S. Marshals at Riverwalk Marina in Decatur, said Emme Long, a police department spokeswoman. The man will be taken to the Morgan County Jail. April Hanner, 41, was also arrested today on a felony charge of hindering prosecution in connection with the case, Long said. Described by police as Carson Peters significant other, Hanner is accused of helping the man avoid capture. Hanner was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Piedmont and is being transported back to Decatur on charges of first-degree hindering prosecution. Allen said authorities are still investigating how Peters and Hanner separated. If convicted, Hanner could face up to a decade in prison. Teresa and Carson Peters were going through a divorce, court records show. Just days before the deadly shooting, the woman asked that her husband be held in contempt of court. Police are still looking for a black 2013 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck in connection with the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sean Mukaddam at 256-341-4167 or email smukaddam@decatur-al.gov. This story was last updated at 5:50 p.m. PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 16:02:04 May 26, 2020 Wireless wearable biosensor (Philips Biosensor BX100) receives 510(k) clearance from the FDA and CE mark to help monitor COVID-19 patients in hospital, with first install at OLVG Hospital in the Netherlands Further enhances Philips portfolio of devices, software and services for identifying patients at risk for deterioration while limiting exposure to help improve staff and patient safety and preserve valuable personal protective equipment Amsterdam, the Netherlands Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its wearable biosensor (Philips Biosensor BX100) to help manage confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients in the hospital. The next generation wireless wearable biosensor enhances clinical surveillance in the Philips patient deterioration detection solution to help clinicians detect risk so they can intervene earlier and help improve care for patients in lower acuity care areas. The solution has already received CE mark, and is currently in use with the first install at the OLVG Hospital in the Netherlands to help manage the triage and clinical surveillance of COVID-19 patients. The Philips Biosensor BX100 is designed to address a new approach to vital signs measurements, supporting surveillance of higher acuity patients moving from intensive care units into lower acuity general care areas of a hospital. The lightweight, disposable biosensor is a 5-day, single-use wearable patch which can be integrated with a scalable hub to monitor multiple patients across multiple rooms. Built to incorporate into existing clinical workflows for mobile viewing and notifications, the device requires no cleaning or charging. The medical-grade wireless wearable biosensor, intended for use by healthcare professionals on patients 18 years of age and older, adheres discreetly to the chest to collect, store, measure and transmit respiratory rate and heart rate every minute the top two predictors of deterioration as well as contextual parameters such as posture, activity level and ambulation. OLVG, a top clinical, referral and training hospital in the Netherlands is responding to the COVID-19 emergency situation by remotely monitoring patients in isolation rooms who are diagnosed or suspected of COVID, but dont need ventilation. To meet the hospitals need to support COVID-19 patients in isolation, OLVG has implemented Philips patient deterioration detection solution comprised of data-driven intelligent analytics software (IntelliVue GuardianSoftware) for early warning scoring, advanced patient monitors (EarlyVue VS30), and the Philips Biosensor BX100 wearable sensors. During this unprecedented time of COVID-19, the Philips Biosensor BX100 helps provide rapid deployment for clinical surveillance to help decrease risk of exposure of healthcare workers while acquiring frequent patient vitals, and easing the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), said Peter Ziese, General Manager Monitoring and Analytics at Philips. The biosensor is an integral component in our Patient Deterioration Detection solution which helps aid in the identification of the subtle signs of deterioration in a patients condition at the point of care, hours before a potential adverse event would occur. With the help of this new biosensor, we can continuously and remotely monitor patients, which is especially important on the COVID-19 wards, said Florian van der Hunnik, Chief Nursing Information Officer and team leader of the COVID-19 ward at OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam. Because we cannot walk in and out of the patient rooms without protective gear, we welcome this innovation as it helps improve how we can do our jobs better. The Philips next generation wearable biosensor is part of the Philips comprehensive portfolio of solutions to address patient deterioration , supporting general care around the world with smart clinical intelligence. For more information on how Philips is addressing the Coronavirus globally, please visit the Philips centralized COVID-19 hub . For further information, please contact: Kathy OReilly Philips Global Press Office Tel.: +1 978 221 8919 E-mail: kathy.oreilly@philips.com Twitter: @kathyoreilly Pieter van Meer Philips Benelux Tel.: +31 6 25 2690 65 Email: pieter.de.meer@philips.com About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 81,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter . Attachments New Delhi [India], May 27 (ANI): Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, hit out at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on his government's decision to ask people to pay for institutional quarantine facilities in Kerala, terming the move a "betrayal" of the state's healthcare model. "Expecting our returning pravasis, many of whom have lost their jobs, to pay for their quarantine is not only sad but a betrayal of the Kerala healthcare model whose success the govt has been basking in," Tharoor said in a tweet. Earlier, Vijayan said that his government will not be able to bear the expenses of providing quarantine facilities in Kerala. "People will have to pay for institutional quarantine facilities in the state. It is not applicable at present. The state will introduce different ranges and a lesser amount for financially backward people. Lakhs of people will be coming to Kerala and the government will not be able to bear the expenses of all. All people in institutional quarantine should pay," he said. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala has recorded 896 positive COVID-19 cases so far, including 532 cured/discharged/migrated. (ANI) A handout photo made available by Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) shows President Tsai Ing-wen speaking at DPP headquarters in Taipei, May 20, 2020. EPA Earlier this month, a person familiar with the probe of Burr and other senators said investigators are examining the timing of Burrs trades and any communications concerning stock sales that he may have had with his brother-in-law and others. This person cautioned, however, that there are significant legal hurdles to bringing charges in such cases, particularly the Constitutions speech or debate clause, which covers many of the activities of members of Congress. A new social distancing squad armed with thousands of CCTV cameras will be the eyes and ears of the NSW government, monitoring passengers across Sydney's rail network. The 80-strong team will work to ensure strict new physical distancing measures are maintained on trains, with a quarter of staff accessing up to 11,000 cameras across the city's stations. The challenges of maintaining social distancing on public transport were underlined on Tuesday afternoon when real-time traffic monitoring website Anytrip estimated about 400 bus and train services were at capacity. Staff at the Rail Operations Centre in Alexandria monitor the network. Credit:Kate Geraghty Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the squad would form the "eyes and ears" of Sydney's train network. He said the team members will request people adhere to physical distancing on the train network but would not be "COVID cops" issuing fines. A 24-year-old Hamilton man is facing numerous charges after allegedly fleeing police as officers investigated the theft of vehicles from Burlington and Hamilton. Det. Scott Heyerman of the Halton police Burlington Street Crime Unit said the vehicle thefts began in September of last year with a truck stolen from Hamilton. Most recently a motorcycle was stolen from a Burlington residence in April. An investigation of these vehicle thefts as well as drug trafficking resulted in a search warrant being executed at a suspected Burlington drug house in the Burloak Drive and New Street area on Friday, May 22. While two men were arrested on various drug-related charges Heyerman said another man was able to escape. The detective alleged that as Halton police approached the residence, a pickup truck parked out front, which Heyerman says was stolen, took off and nearly struck two officers. Further investigation resulted in police returning to another residence in the Burloak Drive and New Street area on Monday, May 25 where they located a man sleeping in a vehicle. Heyerman alleged that when plain-clothed officers approached and identified themselves the individual attempted to flee again by getting onto a nearby motorcycle. He had to be tackled off the motorcycle, said Heyerman. Our goal was not to allow him to go mobile. As a result of the investigation police seized a stolen pickup truck, a stolen motorcycle, a stolen Ontario licence plate and 16 grams of methamphetamine. Police said the seized drugs had an estimated street value of $1,120. A 24-year-old from Hamilton has been charged with two counts of flight from a peace officer, dangerous driving, three counts of property obtained by crime, possession of a controlled substance and two counts of breaching probation. He is being held in custody pending a bail hearing. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Halton police at 905-825-4747 ext. 2342 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). The Prosecutor Generals Office notified suspicion to a person who incited ex-interpreter of former Prime Minister of Ukraine Stanislav Yezhov to commit the state treason as the office reported. We notified suspicion to a citizen of the Russian Federation, head of operations section of the 74th intelligence center of the Chief Directorate of the General Staff of Russias Armed Forces in the incitement of a citizen of Ukraine to commit state treason, the message said. According to the investigation, an employee of the intelligence agencies of Russia in 2017 involved a citizen of Ukraine for private cooperation and he was occupying the position of the deputy head of protocol of the prime minister of Ukraine that time to get information, which disclosure might inflict damage to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine. The official was recognized guilty in the commitment of the state treason in favor of the Russian special service and got a real sentence. In September 2019, he was passed to Russia within the exchange. The pretrial investigation continues. It is held by the Chief Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine under the procedural guide of the Department on crimes committed in terms of the armed conflict, Prosecutor Generals Office, and operational escorting of the Counterintelligence Department of the Security Service of Ukraine. As it was reported earlier, counter-intelligence officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) uncovered an official of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers who was working in the interests of the intelligence of Russia. SBU detained Stanislav Yezhov, the assistant of Volodymyr Groysman, the Prime Minister of Ukraine. On December 22, 2017 Shevchenkivsky Court of Kyiv arrested Yezhov for two months without a right for bail. In autumn 2018, the arrest of Yezhov was extended. However, Holosiyvsky Court of Kyiv released Stanislav Yezhov after pleading guilty. A Facebook ad celebrating frontline workers in the coronavirus pandemic used stock images and mocked-up posts, it has been revealed. The ad, which highlights the real Facebook group 'Cheers for the frontlines!', began airing nationally in April and features a feel-good montage of supposed posts celebrating healthcare and other essential workers. However, none of the posts in the television ad appear in the actual Facebook group, according to an NBC News analysis of the private group, whose membership has soared to 11,000 in response to the ad. In a statement to DailyMail.com, a Facebook spokesperson said the company relied on mocking up content that 'mirrors real activity' in the group. The ad, which highlights the real Facebook group 'Cheers for the frontlines!', began airing nationally in April None of the posts in the television ad appear in the actual Facebook group, and were instead mocked up with licensed images posted under the names of Facebook employees Mark Zuckerberg pushes ahead of Warren Buffett to become America's third wealthiest man Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pushed ahead of Warren Buffett to become America's third wealthiest man. CEO Zuckerberg has seen his worth hit $80 billion - from $54.7 billion - after stock in the social media giant soared by by nearly 48 per cent over a two month period between March and May. That puts him ahead of billionaire and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet, who has seen his net worth rise by 0.8 per cent, a report released last week says. Buffett also gave charities $15 billion between 2014 and 2018; Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan gave $1 billion. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stays the richest after his net worth jumped from $113 billion to $147.6 billion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates stays in second place. A devastating jobs report released earlier this month revealed 20.5 million jobs were lost nationwide and the unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent in April - the highest rate since the Great Depression. Advertisement The ad features the 'Cheers For The Frontline' Facebook group, which seeks to spread positive energy and cheer with workers on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis. Other than the group's administrator, the Facebook posts that were featured in the ad were posted under the names of current and former Facebook employees, according to a search of their profiles. As well, the pictures featured in the ad appear to come from a variety of sources, including public Facebook and Instagram posts, tweets, and stock photo collections. Facebook said the images, which include photos of Toronto grocery workers and nurse anesthetists in Tampa, Florida, had been licensed for the ad. Adeel Khan, whose husband and her son were featured in the commercial, told NBC News that a marketing company paid them 'not much at all' to license the photo, but said she had no idea it would be used in a Facebook ad. In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: 'Our goal was to show support for frontline health workers by featuring the outpouring we've seen for them on Facebook.' 'To work within the constraints of Covid-19, we consulted with the group's admin and used content that mirrors real activity happening in this Facebook Group.' The company says that it used the names of Facebook employees on the posts out of privacy concerns. Facebook paid an estimated $6.5 million to reach nearly a quarter billion people with the ad, according to advertising analytics firm iSpot.tv. The ad aired during popular programs such as the ESPN Michael Jordan documentary series The Last Dance and has more than 9 million views on YouTube. It is one of several ads that Facebook has produced recently highlighting its Groups feature during the pandemic. It is not the first time that Facebook has been accused of deceptive marketing practices. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen above in a file photo Facebook paid an estimated $6.5 million to reach nearly a quarter billion people with the ad It is one of several ads that Facebook has produced recently highlighting its Groups feature during the pandemic It is not the first time that Facebook has been accused of deceptive marketing practices. In January, Teen Vogue published a glowing profile of five female Facebook employees that turned out to be sponsored content. Facebook also paid the Daily Telegraph, a British broadsheet, to run a series of positive articles, it was revealed in April. Americans marked a Memorial Day like no other Monday as the coronavirus pandemic upended traditional commemorations and forced communities to honor the nations military dead with smaller, more subdued ceremonies like car convoys and online tributes instead of parades. On the weekend that marks the unofficial start of summer, U.S. authorities warned beach-goers to heed social-distancing rules to avoid a resurgence of the disease that has infected 5.4 million people worldwide and killed over 345,000, including nearly 100,000 Americans, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Memorial Day commemorations were cancelled or toned down across the country. Veterans, along with nursing home residents, have made up a significant portion of those who died in the U.S. outbreak. The 37,000 American flags traditionally placed on the Boston Common to honor Massachusetts military members who died in service were replaced with just 1,000 flags, to limit volunteers and onlookers. The city of Woodstock, Georgia, held its remembrance ceremony online. American Legion Post 316 Commander Julian Windham recognized military members aiding in the global fight against the virus. Even when the enemy is an invisible virus, or a microscopic germ, the sacrifices made are just as meaningful, Windham said. The ceremony, which included readings, vocal performances and gunshots from a ceremonial rifle team, had been filmed over a series of days last week and later edited together, Windham said. In Chicago, a neighborhood group thats been holding a parade for more than a half century also moved its event online, with video clips from previous years and messages from special guests, including veterans and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In the suburb of Lisle, a convoy of vehicles from area fire departments and VFW posts drove silently through village streets in what officials said was a safe and unique way of observing the holiday. Fallen military members were honored in New York City with car convoys and small ceremonies this year rather than parades to conform with lockdown restrictions. Its something were upset about, but we understand, said Raymond Aalbue, chairman of the United Military Veterans of Kings County, which usually puts on a parade in Brooklyn. Theres no reason to put anybody in harms way, he said, adding its really cutting quick to the heart of all the veterans. On New Yorks Long Island, a small group of veterans saluted, wearing masks and spaced several feet apart, as a parade of cars passed beneath a large American flag. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined a private ceremony at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan, with both the sacrifices of military members and the current challenge of coronavirus on his mind. Over 100,000 Americans will lose their lives to this COVID virus. How do we honor them? We honor them by growing stronger together, he said. We want to make sure we remember them and thank our heroes today. Tens of thousands of Americans still headed to beaches and parks, relieved to shake off some pandemic restrictions. Missouris health director issued a dire warning Monday after photos and video showed weekend revelers partying close together. One video posted on social media showed a crammed pool at Lake of the Ozarks, with people lounging and playing close together, without masks. Many of those seen in the video were young people, who may not experience symptoms. When they then carry the virus and transmit it to a more vulnerable person, this is when we tend to see the long-lasting and tragic impact of these decisions that are being made, said Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson called such high-risk behavior irresponsible and dangerous. Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said she was very concerned about scenes of people crowding together. In the Tampa area along Floridas Gulf Coast, the crowds were so big that authorities closed parking lots to stem the flood. In Texas, videos of people packed together tubing and drinking on the Comal and Guadalupe rivers also raised concerns. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Washington, United States/Brasilia, Brazil Tue, May 26, 2020 09:45 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda17a0d 2 World US,Brazil,coronavirus,virus-corona,SARS-CoV-2,COVID-19,pandemic,health,COVID-19-death-toll,COVID-19-infection Free The White House on Monday brought forward by two days restrictions on travel to the United States from Brazil as the number of deaths from the new coronavirus in the South American nation surpassed the US daily toll. A White House statement amended the timing of the start of the restrictions to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 26 (0359 GMT on Wednesday, May 27) instead of May 28 as in the original announcement on Sunday. Two days earlier, Brazil overtook Russia as the world's No. 2 coronavirus hotspot after the United States. Washington's ban applies to foreigners traveling to the United States if they had been in Brazil in the last two weeks. Brazil's coronavirus deaths reported in the last 24 hours were higher than fatalities in the United States for the first time on Monday, according to the health ministry. Brazil registered 807 deaths and 620 died in the United States. Brazil has 374,898 cases, behind the US with 1.637 million. Total deaths in the US has reached 97,988, according to Reuters tally, compared with Brazil at 23,473. The White House did not give a reason for bringing the travel restriction forward. The US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration issues, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The travel ban was a blow to right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has followed the example of US President Donald Trump in addressing the pandemic, fighting calls for social distancing and touting unproven drugs. "It undermines Bolsonaro's claim to have built a relationship with Trump and Brazil is now seen as a privileged ally of the United States," said Creomar de Souza, at Brasilia-based consultancy Dharma Political Risk And Strategy. Bolsonaro has played down the gravity of the pandemic from the start calling the novel coronavirus a "little cold." In the early stages, Trump said he believed the virus would soon go away. The White House said the travel ban on Brazil would help ensure foreign nationals do not bring additional infections to the United States, but would not apply to the flow of commerce. Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien said he hoped the ban would be temporary. The Mizoram government has allowed returnees clearing rapid antibody tests to be placed under home isolation, due to an inadequate number of quarantine centres in the state, a senior official said. The administration has encouraged home quarantine for Mizoram residents returning from outside provided they meet the requirements laid down in the standard operating procedure as government facilities might not be enough to accommodate all the returnees, Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo said. "Returnees seeking home isolation must apply to the district-level COVID-19 task force after obtaining permission from the medical officer or the district medical board, subject to clearance of rapid antibody test upon arrival at any designated quarantine centre," he told PTI on Monday. The applicant should also furnish the recommendation of the local-level or village task force, certifying the availability of dedicated bedroom and toilet facilities for the person(s) to be placed under home quarantine, Chuaungo said. The guidelines for home quarantine issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be strictly observed during the home isolation period, he said. The state government is taking all necessary steps to ensure screening of returnees by employing rapid antibody test and other measures at entry points to Mizoram or at the quarantine centres, the chief secretary said. The state government has set up more than 500 quarantine centres, including 170 community halls offered by churches, to accommodate around 14,000 people, a COVID-19 task force official said. However, the administration needs facilities to accommodate at least 20,000 people if all the stranded Mizoram residents return to the state, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex walks through a minefield in Angola, echoing his mother's visit. (WireImage) Prince Harry has maintained a royal link to a cause close to his mothers heart as he praised a landmark clearance charity for working throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Harry, 37, wrote to the Halo Trust, telling them they were keeping the light of our common humanitygoing. Diana, Princess of Wales, was a supporter of the charity and made a famous visit to partially cleared Angolan minefield in 1997 to highlight their work. Harry, Dianas youngest son, retraced her steps in 2019, making an emotional pilgrimage to the minefield his mother toured in the city of Huambo. Its now been transformed into a wide residential road, complete with a school. Harry wrote in his letter: In these trying times, hope comes from the light of our common humanity. Nowhere is that light burning brighter than at the Halo Trust. As countries closed their borders, lockdowns came into force and international travel became harder, many might have chosen to suspend operations. Instead, Halo kept open a presence in all 25 of its country operations. Read more: Prince William says becoming a parent brought back painful memories of Princess Diana's death Diana, Princess of Wales, walking through the landmine area in Huambo in 1997. (Getty Images) Harry also praised the charity for responding to the pandemic and changing and adapting some of its work. Halo has been providing ambulances and logistics to medical authorities in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau. In Syria and Burma, the charity has been providing hygiene kits, personal protection equipment and health education to camps for families displaced by conflict. Harry added: The fact that you can operate across conflict affected countries like Afghanistan is also a precious resource in the face of a disease that recognises no frontlines. Read more: Royal family talk mental health: William, Kate, Harry and Meghan on their own struggles Diana was a supporter of Halo Trust and her work has been carried on by Prince Harry. (Getty Images) It is at times like this that the work and efforts of people like you prepared to do whatever it takes to help, serve and protect others shines through. In sometimes hazardous and dangerous situations, your commitment to your communities and people who need your help is remarkable. Story continues I am hugely proud to be able to support such an extraordinary organisation. Read more: How royals around the world are protecting themselves against coronavirus Prince Harry with the Halo Trust in Cahora Bassa, Mozambique in 2010. (Getty Images) The letter was shared by the Halo Trust on its website. James Cowan, Halos chief executive officer said: It is very thoughtful of the Duke to write to HALO staff in this way. Not many people realise we do more than landmine clearance. In responding to Covid we have the skills and equipment to respond. And above all we can operate in some very dangerous places with the trust of the local people. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are in lockdown in Los Angeles, where they have chosen to start the next chapter of their lives outside the senior royal roles they had carried out together. They are living with their son Archie as they plan their next steps, which will include a non-profit organisation called Archewell. A scientist is at work in the VirPath laboratory in Lyons, France, on Feb. 5, where researchers are trying to find an effective treatment against COVID-19. (Jeff Pachoud / AFP via Getty Images) Garlic and sesame oil will not, we repeat, will not safeguard you from the new coronavirus, unless the garlic keeps others at a safe distance. Nor is bathing in bleach a good idea. The myths traveling the social media circuits about COVID-19 are sometimes ludicrous and occasionally dangerous. Yet at the same time, the evolving advice from experts about this novel threat has left the public uncertain what to believe. The news media havent always helped matters by publicizing seemingly dramatic findings prematurely or without adequate vetting or context. Scientists are churning out papers at an unprecedented rate, resulting in useful new information as well as a fair amount of confusing and/or contradictory messages. Medical and biochemical researchers, universities and businesses promote new studies that are often not ready for prime time, or they give opinions that arent based on real evidence. Other scientists helpfully jump in to counter problematic reports, but dont attract the same level of attention. On a recent weekend, Fox News trumpeted that it had exclusively learned about a San Diego biotech company that claims to have an antibody that provides 100% inhibition of the new coronavirus. We want to emphasize there is a cure. There is a solution that works 100%," the CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics told Fox. But the network didnt present any data to support this claim, nor anyone from outside the company to offer perspective on the discovery. Sorrento may indeed have found the miracle cure weve all dreamed of. But not only has the company not published any study of its antibody, there has been no clinical trial in animals or humans yet. Nevertheless, the companys stock price rose after the Fox story and several commenters demanded fast action by the FDA to approve the new therapeutic. Society isnt nearly science-literate enough. So when theres news about studies of a potential therapys effect on animals such as with the Oxford University vaccine candidate many readers and viewers see an imminent solution. Theres too little heed paid to the saying among scientists that mice lie and monkeys exaggerate in other words, what works with animals frequently doesnt translate into success with humans. Story continues Heres another example. In early April, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist suggested that ocean waves might contain virus and spray it many feet through the air. She was quoted by the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune warning about the risks of surfing or even walking along the coast. Her theory was based on her years of expertise on pathogens in the surf, not on any measurement of whether the virus could be found in seawater or ocean spray. A week later, Kim Prather walked back her comments, which The Times also reported. But on social media, people who hadnt heard the later news continue to warn each other about the study that had found dangers of being in or near the ocean. HealthNewsReview.org, a website devoted to critiquing health and medical journalism, has found a lot to criticize lately. One main concern, said the websites publisher Gary Schwitzer, is how many preprints of studies are suddenly being picked up as big news. These preliminary reports which havent yet been subjected to peer review and found rigorous and important enough to publish have been available online for years, largely so that scientists could get early feedback on their work from other experts. The papers that are ultimately deemed worthy of publication are often modified before they appear in a medical journal. Thats why news reporters generally waited for the vetted articles to be published by journals. Now those papers provide an unending source of interesting fodder about the biggest story in many decades, mixing worthwhile material with the occasional questionable conclusion or flawed methodology. With a surge of new preprints coming online, there is a danger of creating a deluge of seesawing information about COVID-19 that leads the public and its elected representatives down misleading paths. Articles written for lay people should explain how preliminary the results are, Schwitzer says. Multiple expert sources should be consulted to give the preprint a critical eye, and if they say it sounds dubious, perhaps it isnt news after all. Often, journalists do all of this work. Occasionally, they dont. One widely reported preprint warned that people might need to stay much farther than six feet away from each other while exercising outdoors, because of how air moves in the slipstream behind a runner or bicyclist. The study was based on mathematical modeling, not on any measurement of viral levels, and it doesnt suggest that someone running in the path of an infected person faces increased risk, yet the researcher was advising people to maintain greater distances than many would even find possible. Some publications included strong caveats about the report; others didnt. Other well-publicized preprinted studies that have been blasted by critics include one by Stanford University researchers on antibody tests, which reported that many more people appeared to have been infected with the coronavirus than had been believed, and one led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which warned that a mutated version of the new coronavirus was of urgent concern because it might be more contagious. This publication broke the latter story; others countered with pieces that featured the critics. Even published studies shouldnt be accepted unquestioningly, says Ivan Oransky, founder of Retraction Watch, which does what its name implies: report on published studies that are corrected, retracted or that otherwise are doubted. The French study cited as evidence for using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 a dubious practice that President Trump has touted was criticized for a variety of methodological and ethical problems. More robust studies found that the drug made no difference in death rates, and one study was halted because of the drugs side effects on patients. This is a confusing and terrifying time. The pandemic calls for speeding up science in ways that seemed impossible a few years ago, but the scientific world is commendably doing it. And we as journalists make a major effort to bring readers the most important news as quickly as possible. But when sketchy or premature information makes the rounds, the public is misinformed, sometimes in dangerous ways. When does fast science become problematic science? COVID-19 is testing us on that question and many more. Just remember that the rush to publish can take us down a road to nowhere. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 21:07:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HELSINKI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Tuesday that the would-be EU recovery fund must set tough conditions to recipient countries. "It must promote the joint targets EU countries have committed themselves to," Marin said in an interview with the Finnish news agency STT. She listed green growth, digitalization, competitive edge and rejuvenation of industries as some of the conditions of the recovery fund for EU countries that suffer from the COVID-19 crisis. Regarding whether the assistance could be in the form of loans or direct support, Marin repeated the Finnish stand that "each country must take responsibility of its loans," but added that when the economic environment has been so significantly changed due to the COVID-19 crisis, "there must be preparedness to talk about new kinds of solutions." She however said she had endorsed the loan approach in a recent phone call with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. The prime minister said the "new instruments must be transparent and clearly defined," noting that Finnish parliament will ultimately decide the country's participation and the kind of instruments acceptable to Finland. Last week, France and Germany suggested a 500-billion-euro fund for helping EU countries to curb the negative impact of COVID-19 crisis, based on grants and common borrowing. The so-called "frugal four" -- Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden -- which focused on loans, instead of grants, later criticized the idea. Enditem Dubai will begin allowing free movement and business activity to restart from tomorrow, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed says. Starting tomorrow there will be no restrictions on movement or business operations between 6am and 11pm, the Dubai media office said in a press release. Some retail and wholesale businesses will be allowed to reopen, subject to further sterilisation operations and social distancing measures, the media office tweeted. Those will include cinemas, indoor gyms and education and treatment centres for children. Business and tourism hub Dubai allowed malls to reopen at limited capacity during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that began on April 24. Dubai also has allowed dine-in restaurants and cafes to resume business at 30pc capacity and public parks to reopen with restrictions. The announcement reverses a measure taken last week by the United Arab Emirates to extend its nationwide curfew by two hours after reporting an increase in daily cases of the coronavirus. The UAE reported 822 new cases yesterday, taking the cumulative total to 30,307, with 248 deaths. Yesterday's statement added that Dubai's airport also will begin to receive returning residents and travellers in transit as of tomorrow. The UAE, which had suspended entry of non-Emirati residents on March 19, said last week it would start allowing in those with valid residencies stranded abroad whose families are in the UAE as of June 1. The country halted regular passenger flights and closed most public venues to combat the disease. But like other Gulf Arab states it saw the virus spread among low-income migrant workers living in overcrowded quarters, leading it to increase testing. Reuters Delta College has signed new transfer agreements with 25 Michigan colleges and universities, making it easier for students to complete essential courses before transferring to a four-year institution. Through the agreements, Delta students can transfer more credits in the areas of biology, business, criminal justice and psychology. The agreements outline major-specific courses that students should complete while enrolled at Delta. A five-year-old girl was alone in the kitchen of her family home in Cork City when a burglar entered the house and began to go through a purse. That was the allegation made by Detective Garda Rory OConnell during an objection to an application for bail made by 37-year-old Graham OMahony of no fixed address at Cork District Court. It was further alleged the childs mother came downstairs and walked into the kitchen where the intruder verbally abused her before leaving. Defence solicitor, Diarmuid Kelleher, stressed that these were allegations and that there is a presumption of innocence. He said: Mr OMahony strenuously denies these allegations. The defendant did not apply for bail when he was first arrested and remanded in custody on April 5. Because of coronavirus restrictions he has like other prisoners been on 23-hour lockdown. Mr OMahony complained today this is affecting his mental health, that he is not getting to see the prison psychiatrist, has no visitors and is not getting his medication. Judge Olann Kelleher refused the bail application. He said the accused man is quite entitled to apply for bail but that he did not meet the required threshold. He remanded Mr OMahony in custody for a further two weeks. I would recommend that he would get any medical treatment he requires, Judge Kelleher said. Sergeant John Kelleher said the Garda file has been sent to the DPP. Mr OMahony will appear in court by video link from prison on the next occasion, June 9. He is charged with entering a house on March 25 at Edward Walsh Rd, Togher, Cork, as a trespasser and attempting to steal by searching the owners purse on the kitchen table. Det. Garda Rory OConnell said an intruder arrived in the house at 8.30pm. It is alleged he entered through an unlocked front door and entered the kitchen and picked up a purse and went through the contents when a five-year-old girl was on her own in the kitchen. "It is alleged the childs mother came down the stairs and that he verbally abused the mother and then left the house. It is feared by gardai that if released on bail he would commit further serious offences. When arrested by gardai he disclosed he was taking heroin. We believe he will commit further serious offences to feed his drug habit, Det Garda OConnell said. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on higher ed -- from closing campuses to emptying dorms to canceling graduation ceremonies. The coronavirus and higher ed is the topic of PennLives Coronavirus Q & A at noon Tuesday on Facebook Live. The coronavirus likely will have lasting effects on colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, including forcing many to beef up their online courses as a viable option to the on-campus experience. But it could lead to a complete rethinking of how colleges and universities interact with students in the post COVID-19 world. John Sygielski, president of Harrisburg Area Community College, and Lewis Thayne, president of Lebanon Valley College, will discuss the changes they see coming to higher education in the commonwealth as well as across the nation. And theyll talk about how both students and faculty are adjusting to the new norm of COVID-19. Join us on todays Coronavirus Q & A on PennLives Facebook Live. Quality local journalism has never been more important. You deserve the best. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. And please subscribe to Battleground PA to stay abreast of the issues in the 2020 elections! Coronavirus: hospital de Ate comenzo a atender con 50 camas de UCI para infectados. Foto: ANDINA/Difusion. WASHINGTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for the Advancement of Research and Innovation in Trauma (CARIT) announces its launch as the 501(c)6 non-profit organization. CARIT seeks to establish the coordination and funding necessary to enable innovation in trauma treatment, to harness scientific concepts and discoveries from multidisciplinary scientific fields and ensure that these innovations are brought to bear for trauma, emergency, and pre-hospital care. CARIT now has one of the world's leading research universities, Indiana University, as its founding member. Any organization (academic, industry or non-profit) conducting or supporting research in trauma and emergency care or developing trauma-relevant products is eligible to be considered for membership in CARIT. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a member, please contact us here. About the Coalition for the Advancement of Research and Innovation in Trauma The Coalition for the Advancement of Research and Innovation in Trauma (CARIT) is a consensus-driven, multi-disciplinary alliance of industry, academic and research institutions, treatment professionals, non-profits, professional societies, and others whose shared goals are to incentivize innovation, facilitate research, and augment R&D funding for unmet needs in trauma, emergency, and pre-hospital care in order to improve treatment and to reduce mortality and morbidity. Together, CARIT members will call upon the federal government to reinvigorate its commitment to trauma and emergency care research through a multi-year advocacy and education campaign. CARIT activities are managed by The Conafay Group, a Washington, DC based government relations firm. For more information, visit: www.caritrauma.com About Indiana University Founded in 1820, Indiana University is one of the world's foremost public institutions. With more than 112,000 students and 19,000 employees statewide, IU continues to pursue its core missions of education and research while building a foundation for the university's enduring strengths in teaching and learning, world-class scholarship, innovation, creative activity, community engagement and academic freedom. Bloomington is the flagship campus of the university, and each one of IU's seven campuses is an accredited, four-year degree-granting institution. IU's world-class researchers have driven innovation and creative initiatives that matter for 200 years. From curing testicular cancer to collaborating with NASA to search for life on Mars, IU has earned its reputation as a world-class research institution. Supported by $680 million last year from our partners, IU researchers are building collaborations and uncovering new solutions that improve lives in Indiana and around the globe. IU researchers are involved in pioneering trauma-care research for example: Precision Trauma Care Physician researchers at the IU School of Medicine and partnering institutions are working to better understand why some patients recover and are more likely to die after traumatic injury, even when those injuries are very similar. Elucidating what factors contribute to trauma-related morbidities such as multi-organ dysfunction and sepsis can help predict which patients are at greater risk of suffering these secondary effects of trauma. The goal is to be able to deliver more targeted trauma care and ultimately, save more lives. Traumatic Brain Injury Indiana University School of Medicine is recognized as a national leader in the research, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of traumatic brain injuries and mild traumatic brain injuries, also known as concussions. Faculty investigators at IU School of Medicine and partnering organizations utilize innovative approaches to better understand the causes of concussions, in addition to interventions, to improve the overall treatment and recovery of individuals with TBI. Trauma Regeneration and Rehabilitation/Military Medicine Program Focusing on developing patient-specific interventions, these investigators are working to treat patients sustaining musculoskeletal injury, specifically injuries that result in acute and chronic musculoskeletal disease. These treatment goals include acute interventions, regenerative interventions for both bone and muscle, and eventually identifying the optimal means of rehabilitation for the patient to resume a normal lifestyle. The primary goal is to enable military personnel to lead normal, productive lives and perform daily activities comparable to their non-injured cohorts, but an important secondary goal is the potential to return to active duty status and continue their military service. About The Conafay Group The Conafay Group, is a life-sciences government relations firm based in Washington D.C. that serves as Washington counsel and coalition manager for CARIT. The team specializes in representing life sciences companies, universities, and other organizations in the biomedical space before the federal government and associated stakeholders. Services include developing a strategy to secure federal non-dilutive funding, congressional and agency relationship building, alliance development and policy lobbying. For more information, visit: www.caritrauma.com SOURCE The Coalition for the Advancement of Research and Innovation in Trauma (CARIT) Related Links http://www.caritrauma.com New Delhi: Fracas over the running of Shramik Special trains between the Maharashtra government and the Ministry of Railways refuses to die down. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday (May 26) took to social media to say that his ministry planned to run 85 trains out of 145 till 6 PM but only 27 could be run as the state government failed due to lack of passengers. The Railway Minister urged the Maharashtra government to help his ministry to facilitate poor workers to reach their homes. 6:00 PM 145 85 , 27 Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 26, 2020 Earlier in the day, Goyal tweeted, "On request of Maharashtra Govt, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers." In another tweet, he said, "I request Maharashtra government to fully cooperate in ensuring that the distressed migrants are able to reach their homes and bring passengers to stations in time, and not cause further delays. It will affect the entire network and planning." Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, however, said that "Centre's protocol to take permission from Nodal officers of different states for movement of migrants was followed by us. Railway dept was unable to fulfill criteria of plying 150 trains daily. Piyush Goyal is trying to cover up Railway Dept's failure." Earlier, the Railways had issued statements saying that it planned 125 trains for evacuating migrants from Maharashtra on May 25 but the state government was only able to give information for 41 trains till 2 am, adding "Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled." "After meticulous planning and sustained effort, the Railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26," a statement issued by the Railways said. According to the Railways, 68 trains were planned to depart for Uttar Pradesh, 27 to Bihar, 41 to West Bengal, one each to Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala and two each to Odisha and Tamil Nadu. Over the past two days, a political slugfest over Shramik Special trains had begun between Goyal and the Maharashtra government with the state alleging that not enough trains were being provided to them. On Sunday night, Goyal said, "We are ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to Maharashtra." Commenting on it on Monday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut tweeted, "Maharashtra government has given you a list of workers who wish to return home. The only request is that the train should reach the station, as announced earlier." A grieving father whose family was murdered in one of Australia's worst massacres is still desperately searching for answers into what happened. Peter Miles, 61, shot dead his grandchildren, Taye, 13, Rylan, 12, Ayre, 10 and eight-year-old Kayden, their mother Katrina and his wife Cynda, before turning the gun on himself at the family's farm in Osmington, Western Australia on May 11, 2018. The children's father and Katrina's ex-husband Aaron Cockman has alleged Miles' family had a history of violence prior to the mass killing which had drawn the attention of authorities. He is fighting for a public inquest as he believes the the Family Court of Western Australia played a role in fuelling the family conflict in the lead-up to the mass killing. The bereaved father (pictured) is calling for a public inquest into his children's deaths to prevent similar family tragedies Peter Miles (second from left in suit and blue tie) killed his wife, Cynda, (back right), his daughter Katrina Miles (left in red dress) and her four children aged from eight to 13 (pictured left to right Rylan, Kayden, Taye and Ayre) before shooting himself In his letter to the WA Attorney General, Mr Cockman asked why the state and its Coroner would not want to investigate what happened. 'I am writing to you personally to ask you to insist that the WA Coroner carry out a full and transparent inquest into the seven deaths of members of my family,' Mr Cockman wrote. 'I do not believe I should have been put in the position of having to request this - I think this is something that the whole community expected, given the extreme and public nature of the tragedy, and I think that everyone should want to find out any possible ways of preventing a repeat of such an event, rather than carrying out a secret inquest that doesnt investigate some of the most obvious and important aspects of this case. 'Why would there not be one into such an extreme set of murders when there is a clear opportunity that it might illuminate ways to protect future generations of our children?' The murder of Mr Cockman's family shocked the nation. It was the worst mass shooting Australia has seen since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania which led to mass gun reform. At the time of the murder-suicide Mr Cockman had been locked in a bitter custody battle over his four children. Miles (centre) is pictured with his four grandchildren, his daughter Katrina (bottom-right)and wife Cynda Aaron Cockman (pictured in August 2018) has alleged the Miles family had a history of violence - which included the killer grandfather's son taking his own life He said Miles had paid about $100,000 in legal fees for his daughter and the litigation had heightened tensions within the family and caused them to 'spiral out of control'. The bereaved father claimed Katrina meanwhile - who he broke up with in mid-2014 - had threatened to kill both herself and the children they shared by crashing into a tree. Mr Cockman has alleged the Miles' family had a history of violence prior to the mass killing. Mr Cockman said Miles' son took his own life and had previously burned down a shed during a family dispute, according to The Australian. The grisly murder-suicide at a remote farm house (pictured) in Western Australia shocked the nation. It was the worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 It is also alleged Miles's own father had tried to kill him. A month before his family's massacre, Mr Cockman was on Facebook accused of stalking and harassing by Katrina but the court allowed supervised visits and he was given favourable reports. A week before May 11, Mr Cockman went to the cinemas to watch the new Avengers movie with his children and estranged wife. Katrina home-schooled her four children at the farm after they moved there when her marriage broke up. Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. Russias Energy Minister Alexander Novak is discussing with oil firms on Tuesday the possible extension of the current oil production cuts beyond June, sources with knowledge of the meetings agenda told Reuters. The OPEC+ group pledged in April production restrictions of 9.7 million bpd in May and June, before easing the cuts to 7.7 million bpd for July through December. As part of the OPEC+ deal, Russia pledged to cut its production to 8.5 million bpd in May and June from a February 2020 baseline, or by around 2 million bpd, or by 19 percent, from February 2020, Novak told Interfax in an interview last month. The discussion of the possibility of extending the current level of cuts after June could be a sign that Russia is open to further support the rebalancing of the oil market after the price crash and coronavirus hit the economies of all oil-producing countries, including Russia. Russia has said it would hold regular meetings with its oil firms to take stock of the deals implementation, and todays meeting is part of those regular updates. Earlier today, sources told Russian news agency Interfax that minister Novak would discuss the OPEC+ cuts with the top managers of the local oil firms. According to reports from last week, Russia is almost complying with its share of the cuts, with its crude oil production averaging 8.72 million bpd in the first three weeks of May, as per Reuters estimates. This is close to the 8.5-million-bpd quota, especially considering Russias far-from-perfect track record in complying with the cuts. Novak said on Monday that the market would rebalance by July, thanks to improving demand and quicker-than-expected production cuts from OPEC+ and from producers outside the pact. The effect of the OPEC+ deal is undoubtedly positive, Vladimir Putins Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told Russian media on Tuesday, noting that largely thanks to the deal, the oil market avoided a much more negative scenario. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: 26.05.2020 LISTEN We are living in unprecedented times. COVID-19 has swept throughout the world, and governments globally have taken drastic measures to stop the spread in an attempt to save lives. In February 2020, as African countries watched Asia and Europe begin the implementation of lockdown, a study by Survey54, an automated mobile-led data collection platform, found that approximately 80% of Africans interviewed felt almost immune to the virus as they were yet to hear of any confirmed cases on the continent. This did not last long and by Mid-March, lockdown procedures were initiated across Africa. Despite the swift response, lockdown came with many challenges that drastically affected a continent which heavily depends on the informal sector. With roughly 90% of Africans now concerned for their finances, the sentiment towards COVID-19 has shifted drastically. No one and nowhere seems to be immune from the impact of this pandemic, as was made evident when, one week into the nationwide lockdown, South Africa was downgraded to junk status. Other African countries including Tanzania and Angola are now said to also be experiencing economic instability as a result of this pandemic. Despite the uncertainty that has been brought about by the pandemic, tech-enabled companies have witnessed increased demand from individuals, businesses, and even governments who seek to bridge existing communication and logistics gaps . Businesses globally have started to prioritise digital transformation strategies to ensure business continuity. To complement this reliance on technology, surveys and insights studies are being conducted across Europe and the US to help businesses understand customer needs and attitudes. However, gathering this information within Africa has proven to be difficult due to a lack of infrastructure. Survey54s AI mobile technology enables businesses to get the answers they need to make decisions based on up-to-the-minute data in areas that are otherwise difficult to reach. Stephan Eyeson, CEO and Co-Founder of Survey54, says, Our AI mobile technology enables businesses to get the answers they need during these uncertain times. Stephan Eyeson, CEO and Co-Founder of Survey54 A study conducted by Survey54 across the continent found that almost 70% of survey participants in Nigeria no longer felt safe to go food shopping, a sign that customer behaviour is indeed changing and further indication that by looking into data and insights, African businesses and those operating on the continent have the opportunity to find innovative ways to cater to the needs of consumers in an efficient and informed manner. Businesses can make use of services such as Survey54 for consumer insights to improve product offerings and strengthen their overall marketing and communications strategy in times of uncertainty. Survey54 offers businesses relevant and timely data on countries within Africa that can help validate assumptions and stress test strategies even during nationwide lockdowns. Following their recent COVID-19 consumer perception study across Africa, Eyeson revealed some interesting findings including the fact that almost 55% of Nigerians decided to spend more time on personal development by taking online courses, perhaps proving that this is a chance for more unconventional modes of education to take root in the country. With 93% of the people who took the survey fearing for their finances during the lockdown, the question is whether these newly acquired skills will lead to a paradigm shift in terms of job creation and income generation after the pandemic. In South Africa, it was found that 72% of survey takers felt financially affected by the pandemic, whereas amongst Ghanaians, this number dropped to 46%. This stark contrast of figures could suggest organisations would be mistaken for generalising the impact of the pandemic across the continent. Moving forward, businesses and countries on the continent must strategize on short-, medium-, and long-term goals using accurate and up-to-date customer data. Eyeson suggests that Further research, leveraging real-time opinion polls and audience sentiment, should be conducted on the ground post-COVID-19 to identify opportunities that the pandemic has inadvertently presented us with. For further information on the impact of COVID-19 in emerging markets report, or to find out more about Survey54, go to https://survey54.com/ The fundamental principle defining credible elections must reflect on free expression of the will of the people and not the law. No eligible citizen shall be denied the right to vote or disqualified from registration as a voter, according to the UDHR Article 21. Ghana, the first country in sub-Sahara Africa to gain her independence doubles as the first country to use GenKeys biometric technology to register and verify voters register since 2012. GenKeys biometric solution in partnership with a Ghana-based STL Supertech have successfully helped Ghana Electoral Commission for the biometric the verification process for 2012 and 2016 parliamentary and presidential election. The same biometric voters' register has also been used three times for District Assembly Election and recent 2019 Referendum. Qualitatively if not quantitatively, no other country in the world has deployed biometrics at such scale in seven successive elections. Despite Ghanas success story with BVR, the current administration under President Nana Akufo-Addo has schemed up plans to discredit GenKey and STL solution. To make their excuses sound palatable to enable them to execute their ill-conceived disdain, the EC is saying, the system and machines are outmoded, they didnt have the password to login to the system, their IT people dont have the know-how to work with the system, and even the cost to maintain the system is more expensive than compiling a new register. The EC now-infamous decision to compile a new register is a historical scheme planned by the New Patriotic Party. It is certainly a political calculation in terms of the timing coinciding of confirmation of NPP at the helms of an affair. Beyond that, Im convinced that much of the back and forth over the voter register is its own form of political theatre which NPP had played since 1992. There are no denying facts about the dangers posed to human health by the Covid-19, and it is stupidity rather than courage to fail to recognise danger when it is close upon you. But most authoritarian governments do not see the scope of the problem, and they will do anything provided that keeps themselves in power. The NPP-led government has demonstrated that the only way they can win the 2020 election is through the rigging, and by disenfranchising huge numbers of eligible voters. That is why EC keeps on insisting that they will compile the new voters register without taking into consideration human health. EC is taken us back to the colonial era when only a section of the population was eligible to vote. What is the logic of being a Ghanaian, age 18 or above and cannot vote? Yet EC and the government have come out with their definition of who is a Ghanaian where the laws are so clear on the definition of a Ghanaian. Citizenship in Ghana is a question of law and is governed by the Citizenship Act, 2000. The law outlines 3 main categories of nationality, namely, citizenship by birth, registration through marriage and by Naturalization. Aside from these three (3) main categories, one can become a citizen of Ghana through foundling and adoption, can also hold dual-citizenship. Nationality by Birth Under the Ghanaian law, nationality by birth is determined by the date and year the person was born. All persons born before 6th March 1957 and in the confinement of British Gold Coast are citizens by virtue of birth. Those born after independence are also Ghanaians. Anyone who has one of the parents or grandparents born in Ghana is also a Ghanaian. Nationality by Registration and Marriage Where a person is a citizen of any country, such a person may become a citizen of Ghana by application and approval. Such a person must be of good character, resident in Ghana for at least 5 years (or a shorter period in special circumstances) before the application and must be able to speak an indigenous Ghanaian language. Nationality by Neutralization A person is a citizen of Ghana by neutralization where such a person has applied to the Minister and approved by the President of Ghana. Such a person becomes a citizen after the certificate of neutralization has been issued and oath of allegiance sworn to. Dual Nationality Dual Nationality is acceptable under the Ghanaian laws. This means that a Ghanaian can hold citizenship in any other country and still hold citizenship in Ghana. However, a person with dual nationality cannot hold certain public offices and cannot be a Member of Parliament or Speaker of Parliament. The Supreme Court of Ghana has given reasons that people with dual nationality cannot hold public offices because of the issue of conflict of interest, national security, and state allegiance to Ghana and confidentiality. The above description of being a Ghanaian means, one can be a Ghanaian-British, Ghanaian-American, Ghanaian-Nigerian, Ghanaian-Togolaise, Ghanaian-Burkinabe, Ghanaian-Ivoirian, etc. Therefore Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia conclusion that our voters' register contains more than 76,000 Togolaise and other nationals is a political gimmick. Can Dr. Bawumia tell us today that none of his ministers and appointees has held any other nationality apart from Ghana? NPP Historical Doubts of Voters Register and Electoral Commission NPP challenged the results of 1992 election held to usher in the Fourth Republic of Ghana. After demanding a new voters' register and threatened to boycott the 1996 general election if their demands were not met, the US stepped in February 1994 to provide funding for the printing of new voters' card. Unfortunately, the NPP lost the election massively. won the presidency in his second attempt. In 2002, H.E. J.A. Kufuor as the president, the voters' register was renewed and was subsequently used to conduct 2004 and 2008 elections. But as soon as NPP lost the 2008 election, they mounted another fierce defence of the necessity for a new register, this time biometric register. The demand for a new voters' register surfaced again when candidate Akufo lost bitterly to H.E. John Mahama in both 2012 election and the 8 months election petition. First, NPP argued that John Mahama didn't win the election per their calculation. During the landmark election, apart from NPP claiming they were the winner, they at the same time argued that John Mahamas winning was as results of bloated voters' register. In May 2015, H.E. John Mahama appointed Mrs. Mrs Charlotte Osei to replace Dr. Afari-Djan as EC Commissioner. The first criticism came from the then Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul. He was followed by Richard Dela Sky and other, supported by Ghana Bar Association, who filed a case at the apex court seeking an interpretation of Article 70(2) and 91(3) of Ghana 1992 Constitution, whether the President had the constitutional right to appoint the Chairperson of the EC. Hon. Kennedy Agyapong took to the national television accusing the Chairperson of giving out sex for that position and vowed to use any means necessary to get her removed. Then in July 2016, the then NPP National Womens Organizer Mrs. Otiko Djaba, renewed the debate over allegations that the EC Chairperson indeed was appointed because she granted sexual favours. Intensifying their demand, NPP sent 30-page electoral reform documents to the EC, arguing their usual 'over-bloated' voters register and demanded a new credible one for 2016 election. The Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition listed 9 points ultimatums to the EC, in which they demanded that the compilation of the new register should be done by an independent internationally reputable firm before 7 December 2016. The then Vice-Presidential Dr Mahamudu Bawumia was on errant claiming the voters register contained over 76,000 Togolese and some other national names. The NPP campaign manager, Mr MacManu, addressing a press conference was so empathic about their analysis, turned out to be a hoax. They went further to appeal to the British Government, European Union and United Nations to coerced John Mahama government to heed to their demand. The Conspire to Remove Mrs. Charlotte Osei, EC Commissioner In a much ado about nothing, the bloated register won candidate Nana Akufo-Addo the presidency over the incumbent. From there on, the story about over bloated register wasnt their priority. Their priority was to get rid of the EC Chairperson to pave the way for their ill-conceived disdain. The conspiracy to replace Mrs. Charlotte Osei with Mrs. Jean Mensah was hatched. On 13 July 2017, some faceless so-called workers of EC petitioned the President for the removal of EC Chairperson. In a six-page petition filed by their counsel, Mr. Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, the group accused the EC boss of misconduct, citing breaches of some provisions of the 1992 Constitution as well as the Public Procurement Act, Act 663, all 27 charges were listed against the lady. The President upon receiving the petition referred it to the Chief Justice, who also determined a prima facie evidence against the EC boss and recommended her removal. The ambiguity about the removal procedure of the EC Chairperson has affected the functional independence of the EC. New Patriotic Party implicitly conspired to remove Mrs Charlotte Osei to enable them to have control of the Electoral Commission. The presidency surreptitiously hatched a scheme to appoint Mrs Jean Mensah as the Chairperson and Dr. Bossman Asare as the first deputy. Since assumption of office both have been doing the dirty jobs for the government. At one time, Dr. Bossman Asare in his response to NDC seeing him as a threat to democracy, he said, I think if there is anyone who is becoming a threat or a potential threat to the democracy we are practising in our country, then I will rather say that it is the posture of the NDC.. I believe no academic scholar will behave like this. The largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress, backed by the three other strongest opposition parties, on the other hand, have rejected EC frenzies excuses. They believe the current voters' register is credible because it is the same register that was used to bring the current president to power. They also argue that if the same register has been used six times, albeit periodic limited registration, what makes it so bad to be rejected? Similarly, the naysayers argue why EC didnt begin compiling new voters register when NPP, the advocators of a new register, came to power in 2017 but waited at the last minute? And it doesnt make any sense considering the time to the general election. Also, the costs involved in compiling a new voters register, the supply of hardware and software and to train own personnel is unnecessary. Besides, most people are tired of wasting their time to go through a whole new registration exercise is unneeded. Also, EC is relying on NPP majority at the parliament to pass the CI-91 which exclude the use of old voters card and birth certificate as an identification document. NDC and other parties, CSO believe that could disenfranchise many Ghanaians to vote. The opposition parties, including NDC, CPP, PPP, PNC, APC and others have threatened to resist any attempt by EC to compile new voters register. They have shown their red colours through massive demonstrations in Tamale and Kumasi. The third demonstration was kept on hold awaiting the outcome of meeting with Eminent Advisory Committee, EC, IPAC and CSO on 30 January 2020. The meeting between the Eminent Advisory Committee, EC, IPAC and CSO, failed to brokerage the differences between EC and NPP and allies on one hand, and NDC and allies on the other and supported by CSOs. One could conclude that EC had already made up their mind ahead of the meeting. EC is relying on Article 45(a) of 1992 Constitution to compile voters register. Although EC operates as an independent body without any directive from anybody, according to Article 46 of the 1992 Constitution, EC has a wrong interpretation of Article 45(a). That article mandated then EC to compile a new voters register, successive EC would revise it periodically. Therefore, anyone who argues the EC has the power to compile a new voters register has not read the constitution very well. The EC bent on compiling a new voters register is because NPP thinks our voters' register is bloated and contain names of other nationals. As I have indicated there the NPP is wrong and EC is following blind argument. On the other hand, EC and NPP are intimidating supporters of other parties not to register, and on the other, no registration, no vote. They also know very that any effort to challenge them in court will not see the light of the day because NPP has parked their favourites at the courts. Long Live Ghana Long Live 4th Republic Written: Lewis Kwame Addo Amsterdam [email protected] Disclaimer: "The views/contents expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of Publisher. The Publisher will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article." President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the death of the Saturday Editor of Daily Telegraph, Waheed Bakare. The President, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, described Bakares death as a loss, not just to the media, but to the entire nation. President Muhammadu Buhari commiserates with the media industry, particularly Nigeria Union of Journalists and Nigeria Guild of Editors, over the passing of the Saturday Editor of New Telegraph, Waheed Bakare. The President sends condolences to family of the deceased, and management of New Telegraph Newspapers, describing the editors death as a collective loss to the media and the nation that he served passionately with his talent. The President prays that God will receive the soul of the departed, and comfort all that mourn him, the statement said. Although the Covid-19 pandemic continues to decimate active horizontal rigs in the US, the Permian Basin is emerging as the last surviving epicenter of drilling activity, a Rystad Energy analysis of Baker Hughes data shows. The total horizontal oil rig count fell to 218 rigs last week, a 65% decline from the peak of 624 rigs seen in the middle of March 2020. Horizontal gas drilling was down to 67 rigs last week, which is 56% below the previous peak seen in June 2019. Rig count is widely considered to be one of the most important indicators of investment appetite by E&Ps. Not only does it illustrate the actual drilling activity in the market, but it is also a key metric of consumer confidence, closely related to price developments. Two fundamental activity trends persist. The Permian has systematically increased its market share in nationwide horizontal oil drilling, reaching 74% as of last week, while gas-focused drilling has increased its market share in total horizontal activity, taking up a 23.5% of the drilling pie. The current 65% cumulative decline will likely widen further as we still expect around 50 additional horizontal oil rigs may be lost in the next few weeks, says Artem Abramov, Rystad Energys Head of Shale Research. The horizontal oil rig count decline rates are getting shallower, with the two-week decline rate moderating to 18.7%, down from the 25.6% rate seen three weeks ago. Yet the cumulative decline from peak-activity has set another record. In the two previous downturns in 2015 and 2016, cumulative decline only reached 53% to 54% before recovery was initiated. The number of counties with active horizontal oil drilling, meaning that they have at least one rig active, fell to 42 in the US, with 25 in Texas and 15 in the Permian. A closer look at county-level trends reveals that it is, in fact, two major counties in the whole of the Permian which have exhibited relative resilience in activity Eddy County with only a 28% decline from peak activity, and Midland County with a 48% decline from peak activity. Related: Turkey Headed For An Unexpected Victory Libya's Oil War All other major and mid-size counties have seen declines of more than 60% with some, such as Ward, Pecos, Andrews and Culberson, having lost 80% to 100% of their active rigs. The combined share of Eddy and Midland counties in basin-wide horizontal drilling has increased from 25% in the middle of March to 41% at present. Other liquid basins already exhibit much steeper cumulative rig activity declines. Eagle Ford stands out as having the shallowest cumulative decline of 70%. Horizontal rig activity in South Texas has declined from 80 rigs at the beginning of the year to only 24 rigs, largely thanks to ConocoPhillipss decision to maintain robust drilling activity and build its drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells inventory. The Bakken, SCOOP & STACK and the DJ basin lost 75% to 80% of their active rigs in the last 10 weeks, while activity in the Powder River Basin is down from 18 rigs to two. A gradual downward adjustment in horizontal gas rig activity has also continued. Most of the significant declines in the last few weeks have come from Marcellus, specifically from the southwestern portion of the basin. As of now, horizontal drilling activity in all major gas basins is observed at or below maintenance activity requirements and the potential from the DUC inventory has largely been depleted. By Rystad Energy More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A 'combative' elderly man has been arrested for pulling a fake gun on Victorian paramedics coming to his aid as he lay in bed. The 82-year-old was about to be taken to hospital from a home in Cairnlea about 1pm on Monday when he pulled the revolver from behind his pillow and turned on the two paramedics taking care of him. The paramedics took the gun from the man and handed it to police, who will investigate once the man's medical condition improves. He was believed to be having a neurological episode. An elderly patient allegedly produced a gun while he was being treated by Ambulance Victoria paramedics at his Melbourne home on Monday. Pictured is an Ambulance Victoria vehicle Victorian Ambulance Union general secretary Danny Hill told Melbourne radio 3AW the man became combative, but luckily the male paramedic was able to disarm him. 'He's leapt onto the patient and then he could disarm him,' he said. 'I spoke to one of the paramedics, he said in a flash the gun was pointed directly at him and he couldn't believe it. 'Luckily he reacted in the right way, saving himself and others.' Victoria Police have since said an imitation firearm was involved in the incident. Mr Hill is relieved no one was injured in the 'terrifying' and dangerous incident. Paramedics had gone to the home to treat a man who was experiencing a medical condition 'Our members work in an uncontrolled environment ... you go in and just don't know what people have in their homes, their bedrooms, knives and swords and all sorts of things,' he said. 'An 82-year-old man lying in his bed is probably not one you'd expect to produce such a dangerous weapon.' He was told by the paramedics the patient had shown no prior warning signs. 'I don't think the paramedic believed the patient was trying to cause him harm and may have been the result of confusion,' he said. Mr Hill said it will be up to police as to whether charges will be laid against the elderly man, who was arrested at the home and taken to hospital for assessment. 'The firearm was taken from the man by paramedics and handed to police,' a Victoria Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia. 'No one was injured in the incident and police expect to interview the man when his medical condition improves.' This undated photo provided by Warnell Vega, 33, in May 2020 shows him with his daughter, Aaryelis in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Vega collapsed at home April 19, 2020 from a large clot blocking a lung artery. Doctors at Mount Sinai Morningside think it was coronavirus-related. Vega, 33, a lunch maker for New York City school children, spent a week in intensive care on oxygen and blood thinners, which he's been told to continue taking for three months. "I just have to watch out for any bleeding, and have to be careful not to cut myself," he said. (Warnell Vega via AP) First came a high fever, drenching sweats and muscle aches. Then, almost a month later, a weird numbness that spread down the right side of her body. Darlene Gildersleeve thought she had recovered from COVID-19. Doctors said she just needed rest. And for several days, no one suspected her worsening symptoms were relateduntil a May 4 video call, when her physician heard her slurred speech and consulted a specialist. "You've had two strokes,'' a neurologist told her at the hospital. The Hopkinton, New Hampshire, mother of three is only 43. Blood clots that can cause strokes, heart attacks and dangerous blockages in the legs and lungs are increasingly being found in COVID-19 patients, including some children. Even tiny clots that can damage tissue throughout the body have been seen in hospitalized patients and in autopsies, confounding doctors' understanding of what was once considered mainly a respiratory infection. "I have to be humble and say I don't know what's going on there, but boy we need to find that out because unless you know what the pathogenic (disease-causing) mechanism is, it's going to be tough to do intervention," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, remarked during a medical journal interview last month. Doctors and scientists at dozens of hospitals and universities around the globe are seeking answers while trying to measure virus patients' risks for clots and testing drugs to treat or prevent them. Gildersleeve said health authorities "need to put out an urgent warning about strokes" and coronavirus. Not knowing the possible link "made me doubt myself" when symptoms appeared, she said. Some conditions that make some COVID-19 patients vulnerable to severe complications, including obesity and diabetes, can increase clot risks. But many authorities believe how the virus attacks and the way the body responds both play a role. "COVID-19 is the most thrombotic (clot-producing) disease we've ever seen in our lifetime," said Dr. Alex Spyropoulos, a clot specialist and professor at Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York. Clotting has been seen in other coronavirus infections, including SARS, but on a much smaller scale, he said. This May 6, 2020 photo provided by Darlene Gildersleeve, 43, of Hopkinton, N.H. shows her at a Manchester, N.H. hospital. Gildersleeve thought she had recovered from COVID-19. Doctors said she just needed rest. And for several days, no one suspected her worsening symptoms were relateduntil a May 4 video call, when her physician heard her slurred speech and consulted a specialist. "You've had two strokes,'' a neurologist told her at the hospital. (Darlene Gildersleeve via AP) Scientists believe the coronavirus enters the body through enzyme-receptors found throughout the body, including in cells lining the inside of blood vessels. Some theorize that it may promote clotting by somehow injuring those vessels as it spreads. That injury may cause a severe immune response as the body tries to fight the infection, resulting in inflammation that may also damage vessels and promote clotting, said Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart hospital in New York. It's unclear how many COVID-19 patients develop clots. Studies from China, Europe and the United States suggest rates ranging from 3% to 70% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients; more rigorous research is needed to determine the true prevalence, the National Institutes of Health says. Prevalence in patients with mild disease is unknown and the agency says there isn't enough evidence to recommend routine clot screening for all virus patients without clotting symptoms, which may include swelling, pain or reddish discoloring in an arm or leg. Some hospitals have found 40% of deaths in COVID-19 patients are from blood clots. Spyropoulos said that's been true at his 23-hospital system in the New York City area, Northwell Health, which has treated over 11,000 COVID-19 patients. Cases there have dropped by almost half in the past month, allowing more time for research before an expected second and maybe third wave of infections, he said, adding: "We're racing against time to answer the key clinical questions." Patients hospitalized with any severe illness face increased risks for clots, partly from being bedridden and inactive. They commonly receive blood-thinning drugs for prevention. Some doctors are trying higher-than-usual doses for prevention in hospitalized coronavirus patients. A few have used powerful clot-busting medicines typically used to treat strokes, with mixed results. In guidance issued May 12, the NIH said more research is needed to show whether that approach has any benefits. Fuster was involved in preliminary research on nearly 2,800 COVID-19 patients at five hospitals in the Mount Sinai system. A look at their outcomes suggests slightly better survival chances for virus patients on ventilators who received blood thinners than among those who didn't. Although the results are not conclusive, all COVID-19 patients at Mount Sinai receive blood thinners for clot prevention unless they are at risk for bleeding, a potential side effect, Fuster said. Some COVID-19 patients, like Gildersleeve, develop dangerous clots when their infections seem to have subsided, Spyropoulos said. Patients treated at Northwell for severe disease are sent home with a once-a-day blood thinner and a soon to be published study will detail their experiences. Spyropoulos has been a paid consultant to Janssen Pharmaceuticals, makers of Xarelto, the drug's brand name. In addition, Northwell is taking part in a multi-center study that will test using blood thinners for clot prevention in COVID-19 patients not sick enough to require hospitalization. This April 2020 photo provided by Warnell Vega, 33, shows him in a hospital in New York. Vega collapsed at home April 19 from a large clot blocking a lung artery. Doctors at Mount Sinai Morningside think it was coronavirus-related. Vega, 33, a lunch maker for New York City school children, spent a week in intensive care on oxygen and blood thinners, which he's been told to continue taking for three months. "I just have to watch out for any bleeding, and have to be careful not to cut myself," he said. (Warnell Vega via AP) In a small study published May 15, University of Colorado doctors found that combined scores on two tests measuring clotting markers in the blood can help determine which patients will develop large dangerous clots. One test measures a protein fragment called D-dimer, a remnant of dissolved clots. High levels sometimes indicate dangerous clots that form deep in leg veins and travel to the lungs or other organs. Dr. Behnood Bikdeli of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center, said D-dimer levels in many of his COVID-19 patients have been alarmingly high, as much as 50 times higher than normal. Concerns about blood clots in COVID-19 patients prompted a recent 30-page consensus statement from an international group of physicians and researchers. Bikdeli is the lead author. It says that testing to find clots that require treatment includes X-rays or ultrasound exams, but poses a risk for health care workers because the virus is so contagious. Bikdeli said he fears when protective gear was more scarce, some dangerous clots were undiagnosed and untreated. Social distancing may make people more sedentary and more vulnerable to clots, particularly older adults, so doctors should encourage activity or exercises that can be done in the home as a preventive measure, the statement says. Warnell Vega got that advice after collapsing at home April 19 from a large clot blocking a lung artery. Doctors at Mount Sinai Morningside think it was coronavirus-related. Vega, 33, a lunch maker for New York City school children, spent a week in intensive care on oxygen and blood thinners, which he's been told to continue taking for three months. "I just have to watch out for any bleeding, and have to be careful not to cut myself," Vega said. Gildersleeve, the New Hampshire stroke patient, was also sent home with a blood thinner. She gets physical therapy to improve strength and balance. She still has some numbness and vision problems that mean driving is out, for now. Doctors are unable to predict when or whether she'll regain all her abilities. ''I'm trying to remain positive about recovering," she said. ''I just have to be patient and listen to my body and not push too hard." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Representative image A passenger onboard a Chennai-Coimbatore IndiGo flight on May 25 tested positive for COVID-19. On May 25, over 130 passengers arrived in Coimbatore from Chennai and Delhi after the Centre allowed resumption of domestic flight services and all of them underwent the necessary test for coronavirus in line with the health protocol guidelines of the Tamil Nadu government. Though the other passengers tested negative, they are likely to be home quarantined for 14 days, officials told PTI. Swab test results on May 26 revealed that the 24-year-old man had contracted the virus, following which he was shifted to the ESI Hospital. Follow our LIVE Updates on the coronavirus pandemic here He was working in the room service wing of a star hotel in Chennai. Though Coimbatore witnessed a positive case after a gap of 21 days with this latest one, it will be added to the Chennai count, health department officials said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Domestic air services resumed in the country on May 25, after a gap of two months when a coronavirus-induced lockdown was enforced in the country on March 25, shutting down various sectors, including rail and aviation. In a statement Indigo confirmed the news: "We received confirmation from the Coimbatore airport doctor that a passenger who travelled on 6E 381 from Chennai to Coimbatore on 25th May evening, has tested positive for COVID-19. He is currently quarantined at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. He was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission." "All our aircraft are regularly sanitized as a standard operating procedure, and the aircraft operating this flight was also immediately disinfected as per protocol. The operating crew has been grounded for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff," it added. Follow our full COVID-19 coverage here (With inputs from PTI) Vietnam issued the much-awaited Decree 35 on guidelines for implementing the Law on Competition. The Decree gives clear definitions of mergers and acquisitions as well as the thresholds for triggering such transactions. The regulation went into effect on May 15, 2020, and will give businesses much needed clarity on M&A functions. Vietnam recently released Decree 35/2020/ND-CP, providing guidance on the Law on Competition, which went into effect in July 2019. The Decree gives guidance on specific thresholds for merger notifications, anti-competition agreements, and market dominance among others. Decree 35 took effect on May 15, 2020. Clarification on Mergers and Acquisitions The Decree particularly provides clarification on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). As per the Law on Competition, a merger is defined as the transfer by one or more enterprise(s) of all its lawful assets, rights, obligations, and interests to another enterprise and at the same time terminates the existence of the merging enterprise(s). An acquisition is a purchase of all or part of the assets of another enterprise, sufficient to control or govern and enterprise or business line of the acquired organization. Definition of control Decree 35, gives a clear definition of the control or influencing part of the organization involved in the M&A. We highlight them below: The acquiring company gains ownership of more than 50 percent of charter capital or more than 50 percent of the total voting rights of the acquired company; The acquiring company gains ownership or the right to use more than 50 percent of the assets of all or one business line of the acquired company; or The acquiring company has one of the following rights: the right to indirectly or indirectly decide on the appointment, dismissal or removal of a majority or all board members, chairman of the board, and the director or general director of the acquired company The right to decide on amending or supplementing the Charter of the acquired company; or The right to decide on important decisions regarding business operations of the acquired company, including the form of business organization, the industry, business lines, location, and business model, adjusting the scope of and business lines and selecting and using the business capital of the acquired company. Therefore, in such a situation, the company acquiring the other will be subject to a merger notification requirement. As per Decree 35, the thresholds that trigger a merger notification are: For enterprises other than above, a notification must be sent to the newly formed National Competition Committee (NCC) prior to a transaction. The thresholds are: Total assets of one of the parties in Vietnam is at least VND 3,000 billion (US$128 million); Total turnover of one of the parties in Vietnam is at least VND 3,000 billion (US$128 million); The value of the transaction is at least VND 1,000 billion (US$43 million); or The combined market share of the enterprises is at least 20 percent of the relevant market. Preliminary and official appraisals After submitting a notification to the NCC, within 30 days the NCC will issue the results of the preliminary appraisal notifying that the M&A transaction is permitted or is subject to an official appraisal. The preliminary appraisal will typically be done in 30 days, but an official appraisal may take an additional 90 days and be extended by another 60 days. As per Decree 35, if the NCC does not provide a response within 30 days, the M&A transaction will be allowed. Anti-competitive agreements Decree 35 also clarifies certain conditions where an anti-competitive agreement would not be considered: For businesses in the same relevant market the combined market share of the enterprises intending to participate in the agreement is less than 5 percent; For businesses that intend to participate in the agreement in different stages of the same production chain, distribution, and supply of specific goods and services the market share of each participating enterprise is less than 15 percent. Decree 35: Details welcomed by businesses The government is also likely to issue further clarification on the National Competition Commission and its establishment as well as further guiding documents on the competition law. Decree 35 gives further guidance and clarity for businesses interested in M&As in Vietnam. As Vietnam kick starts the economy post COVID-19, M&A activity is likely to gain further traction. Investors should be aware of the latest regulations and seek professional advice if intending to invest in M&As. Growth held back by the impact of the Covid-19 crisis in the 4 th quarter 2019/20: current EBITDA 1 expected in line with market forecasts, free cash-flow under control A comfortable cash position The FIGEAC AERO Group (ticker: FGA), a leading partner for major aerospace manufacturers, has today released its annual revenue figures for financial year 2019/20. Unaudited figures in m Q4 2018/19 Q4 2019/20 Chg. (%) Org. chg. (%) 12 months 2018/19 12 months 2019/20 Chg. (%) Org. chg. (%) Aerostructures 101.29 88.4 -12.8% -14.6% 372.2 387.5 4.1% 1.3% Other business activities 12.77 10.4 -18.4% -19.4% 55.7 54.1 -2.9% -3.6% Total revenue 114.06 98.8 -13.4% -15.2% 427.9 441.6 3.2% 0.7% Annual growth exceeds that of the aerospace sector The 4th quarter got off to a good start, but business activity then slowed down considerably in March when the Covid-19 virus began to spread and the governments of countries in which the Group operates began to introduce quarantine measures. So, in the midst of this unprecedented public health crisis, FIGEAC AERO's business volumes contracted by 25% in March and revenue for the 4th quarter of financial year 2019/20 came to 98.8m, which is 13.4% lower year-on-year. At constant scope and exchange rates, the Group's quarterly revenue fell by 15.2% (-14.6% for the Aerostructures division). FIGEAC AERO's full-year 2019/20 revenue thus amounted to 441.6m, reflecting an increase of +3.2% (0.7% at constant scope and exchange rates). The Aerostructures division, which accounts for 87.7% of the Group's total revenue, generated 387.5m revenue and remains the overall growth driver (+4.1% reported), while the Group's other business activities2 turned in revenue of 54.1m (-2.9% reported and -3.6% like-for-like). The Group therefore proved resilient even as the aerospace sector was already being hit hard by: the crisis surrounding the Boeing 737 Max, which is unprecedented in the history of aerospace, the delayed certification of the Boeing 777X, slower production rates on aircraft such as the Boeing B787 and Airbus A330, the fact that production rates have levelled off on the Airbus A350, the discontinuation of the Airbus A380 and Bombardier's CRJ. Covid-19, production sites gradually ramping up While lockdowns were being imposed worldwide to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, affecting FIGEAC AERO's business activity, the Group introduced all the precautionary and social distancing measures needed and reinforced its health and safety protocols so that its employees could resume their work in safe and secure conditions. Production sites are now gradually ramping up and the Group hopes to reach the production rates announced by its clients as quickly as possible. As a subcontractor, FIGEAC AERO remains dependent on aircraft deliveries which are still uncertain given the financial health of airlines at present and the time it will take for air traffic to pick up again. Outlook Profitability in financial year 2019/20 will automatically be affected by the decline in business activity in March, but FIGEAC AERO still expects EBITDA to be roughly in line with consensus forecasts. Free cash-flow at 31 March 2020 remained under control thanks to the performance action plans launched at the start of the financial year and that had already begun to pay off in the second half. Given the uncertainty about the duration and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on the aerospace sector, FIGEAC AERO is suspending the medium-term guidance set out in its 2021/24 business plan and is currently unable to issue any guidance for financial year 2020/21. In such challenging circumstances, we continue to hold trade talks even though trade itself has slowed down somewhat. FIGEAC AERO still has full confidence in its business model and in its ability to gain market share, especially in North America. Cash preservation a priority The Group is determined to lower its operating breakeven point and maximise its cash position: permanent adjustments to the workforce thanks to part-time work arrangements, payroll taxes and bank payments postponed (government measures), tight control over the working capital requirement (inventory adjusted, supply chain secured, strict control over trade receivables), an OPEX and CAPEX reduction plan (non-essential spending and investment projects either postponed or cancelled, outsourced services brought back in-house where possible). an ongoing plan to repatriate parts manufactured by suppliers. Other measures are being considered to adapt our production facilities and cost base in response to this lasting crisis. As part of the GIFAS (Groupement des Industries Francaises Aeronautiques et Spatiales, representing the French aerospace sector), the Group is also taking part in the preparation of specific support measures for the sector, including an industry-wide plan geared particularly to aerospace suppliers, that the government is set to announce by 1 July. As far as liquidity is concerned, the Group's cash position stood at 120m at the end of the first half and will still be very comfortable at end-2019/20, thereby enabling it to refinance its debt and remain a going concern. The Group has nevertheless submitted an application to its banks for a state-guaranteed loan (Prets Garantis par l'Etat - PGE) to benefit from favourable terms and conditions on offer and to shore up its cash position to face this lasting crisis. FIGEAC AERO is confident it can renew relations with its long-standing banking partners and thus secure its continued development. A strengthened cash position combined with a comfortable cash cushion at 31 March 2020 will give the Group at least 2 years of visibility for its activities and planned refinancing arrangements. Agenda: 7 July 2020, 2019/20 full-year results (after trading) ABOUT FIGEAC AERO The FIGEAC AERO Group, a leading partner for major aerospace manufacturers, specialises in producing light alloy and hard metal structural parts, engine parts, landing gear and sub-assemblies. FIGEAC AERO is a global group operating in France, the USA, Morocco, Mexico, Romania and Tunisia. The Group generated annual revenue of 442m in the year to 31 March 2020. FIGEAC AERO Jean-Claude Maillard Chief Executive Officer Tel.: (0)5 65 34 52 52 Abdelkader Benchiha Head of Institutional Relations VP IR & Public Affairs Tel.: (0)5 81 24 61 90 / abdelkader.benchiha@figeac-aero.com ACTUS Finance & Communication Corinne Puissant - Analyst/Investor Relations Tel.: (0)1 53 67 36 77 / cpuissant@actus.fr Manon Clairet - Press Relations Tel.: (0)1 53 67 36 73 / mclairet@actus.fr 1 Current EBITDA = current operating income + depreciation and amortisation + net provisions - Before the breakdown of R&D expenses capitalised by the Group by type 2 Oil & Gas, Mechanical Engineering, Surface Treatment and Assembly ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: xZ1yZ8luZWiUxpprksZtZ2aZZ2+Ux5WaZmSXnJVrZZ/GcG5hxm+VZ8aZZm9km2pq - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-63654-fga-ca-2019_20-vdef-uk.pdf The Democratic Houses Heroes Act would extend the $600 supplement through January. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed to let it lapse. Whats really needed is a policy geared to the likelihood that high unemployment, especially in the low-wage service sector, is here to stay, and holds those workers harmless for a longer term while still making it worth their while to take job offers that gradually become available. One proposal, by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), would let people who accept jobs keep $450 of the $600 weekly benefit for some time. The Chicago economists suggest that the federal government provide its supplement in the form of a percentage of workers pre-layoff earnings, rather than a fixed dollar amount. This would approximate 100-percent wage replacement in most cases, they argue, without requiring expensive new technology. [May 26, 2020] Arizona Virtual Academy & Insight Academy of Arizona to Celebrate 2020 Graduates with Online Commencement Ceremonies As most brick-and-mortar schools around the country struggled to become fully integrated online this past spring due to coronavirus, Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA), and Insight Academy of Arizona (ISAZ), two online public schools serving K-12 students throughout the state, will cap off their school year by celebrating the Class of 2020 in a pair of online-only commencement ceremonies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005011/en/ AZVA and ISAZ are inviting all families and friends worldwide to join the celebration. This year, ISAZ will graduate nearly 250 students, many of whom have been enrolled at ISAZ their entire high school career. AZVA will graduate over 150 students as well. Collectively, the class reports having been accepted to colleges and universities across Arizona and beyond, including: Northern Arizona University, University of Arizona, Yavapai College, Pima Medical Institute, and Dixie State University. "Our students have worked so hard and we can't wait to celebrate with them at their well-deserved graduation," said AZVA and ISAZ Head of School Dr. Kelly Van Sande. "It's been a very challengng year for Arizona students, so anything we can do to establish a sense of normalcy will really help." For ISAZ, Elizabeth Donsbach, Evan Rodabaugh, and Joseph Meek will serve as Co-Valedictorians and Noah Tidball will serve as Salutatorian. Elizabeth Donsbach plans to attend Yavapai College while Evan Rodabaugh plans to continue studies at DeVry University. Joseph Meek is undecided but aspires to become a criminal attorney and politician. For AZVA, Justin Green will serve as Valedictorian and plans to Arizona State in the fall working towards a master's degree in Astronautical Engineering. He hopes to one day work for NASA on a crewed mission to Mars. Jacob Voita is Salutatorian. He will attend Grand Canyon University to study Computer Information Systems. He has received GCU's highest academic scholarship. All honored students, as well as Dr. Van Sande, will be available for media interviews. Students enroll in virtual school for a number of reasons, including those looking to escape bullying, those looking to get back on track academically, or those looking for an alternative to the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom setting. ISAZ and AZVA students access a robust online curriculum in the core subjects and a host of electives and attend live virtual classes every day taught by state-licensed teachers. Details of the graduation ceremonies are as follows: WHAT: Arizona Virtual Academy 2020 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Wednesday, May 27, 2020, 4:00 PM MT CONTACT: For any questions, please contact 866-339-4946 WHAT: Insight Academy of Arizona 2020 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Thursday, May 28, 2020, 4:00 PM CONTACT: For any questions, please contact 928-925-0863 About Arizona Virtual Academy Arizona Virtual Academy (AZVA) is a Cognia-accredited, full-time online public charter school that serves Arizona students in kindergarten through 12th grade. As part of the Arizona public school system, AZVA is tuition-free and gives parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12, Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information visit azva.k12.com. About Insight Academy of Arizona Insight Academy of Arizona (ISAZ) is an AdvancEd-accredited, full-time online public school that serves Arizona students in grades 7-12. As part of the Arizona public school system, ISAZ is tuition-free and gives parents and families the choice to access the curriculum provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about ISAZ, visit az.insightschools.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005011/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton, the company said in a statement. Update: The president of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has condemned people carrying out pranks while using farm machinery as grossly irresponsible. The warning comes as videos on TikTok show people carrying out pranks with the equipment. TikTok said its safety team is carrying out an investigation. A spokesman added: The safety of users is our top priority, and we do not allow content that encourages or replicates dangerous challenges that might lead to injury. Our safety team is investigating, and we will take appropriate action in line with our community guidelines. IFA spokesman Niall Madigan told the PA news agency it is highly unsafe to operate farm machinery or drive a tractor while making videos at the same time. Mr Madigan said in one video a man can be seen sitting on the bonnet of a tractor while it is cutting silage, and in another two tractors can be seen trying to overtake each other on a road. You cant do two things at once operating heavy, serious machinery and being on your phone at the same time these things are not compatible, he said. He added: Not only are you putting yourself at risk, youre putting other road users and people at risk. We have already had eight farm-related deaths this year that is eight too many as far as we are concerned. I would urge people not to put themselves and others at risk for the sake of getting views on TikTok. IFA president Tim Cullinan said farm employers and contractors should make such behaviour a sackable offence. This practice is grossly irresponsible and is an accident waiting to happen. I am disgusted that people could be so casual and have no regard for the dangers involved in what they are doing. All farmers and contractors need to make it clear to their employees that engaging in these practices is a sackable offence, he said. Earlier: 'Disgrace': IFA hits out at social media users recording videos using farm machinery By Digital Desk staff People who operate farm machinery are being urged not to endanger their lives and the lives of others for the sake of social media. The warning, from the Irish Farmers Association, comes as videos on Tik Tok show people carrying out pranks with the equipment. Eight people have been killed on Irish farms so far this year. IFA President Tim Cullinan says the actions of those involved are a disgrace. Mr Cullinan said he saw one film where someone standing on a trailer taking a video of the driver of a tractor. He said: To have individuals themselves putting themselves in danger and putting other people in danger, I think its an absolute disgrace. And I am appealing to those people that are doing this to stop it immediately. In a statement on the IFA website, Mr Cullinan added: This practice is grossly irresponsible and is an accident waiting to happen. I am disgusted that people could be so casual and have no regard for the dangers involved in what they are doing. Too often, people are not willing to act responsibly and identify the risks. All farmers and contractors need to make it clear to their employees that engaging in these practices is a sackable offence. Latam Airlines Group SA, Latin Americas largest air carrier, sought bankruptcy court protection in New York after the Covid-19 pandemic grounded flights across the region. The Chapter 11 petition allows Latam to keep operating while the Chilean carrier works out a plan to pay creditors and turn around the business. Latam, whose shareholders include Chiles Cueto family and Delta Air Lines Inc., is operating on a reduced schedule and has commitments for a bankruptcy loan of as much as $900 million. The money is coming from shareholders including the Cuetos, the Amaro family and Qatar Airways, according to a company statement. Latam also has about $1.3 billion in cash on hand. Airlines the world over -- and those in Latin America in particular -- have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, which triggered travel bans and made people reluctant to fly. Avianca Holdings SA, the largest air carrier in Colombia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier in May, burdened by the sharp drop in fliers and its own onerous debt load. Latams affiliates in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina arent part of the bankruptcy case, which was filed in the Southern District of New York. Still, the impact will be felt widely, with Santiago-based Latam previously serving more than 70 million passengers a year on more than 300 aircraft. It also carried more than $7 billion of debt. Latam has already eliminated more than 1,850 jobs in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in recent weeks from its global workforce of about 40,000 people, after cutting 95% of its passenger operations. In some bankruptcy scenarios, an airline can reject aircraft leases, and Latam has more than 20 jetliners on order from Airbus SE and half a dozen from Boeing Co. Exceptional circumstances have led to a collapse in global demand and has not only brought aviation to a virtual standstill, but it has also changed the industry for the foreseeable future, Chief Executive Officer Roberto Alvo said in a statement. Latam listed assets of more than $21 billion and total liabilities of almost $18 billion in its bankruptcy petition. So far, Latam hasnt had access to government bailout packages designed help offset virus-related distress. Talks are underway with governments in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru about additional financing and assistance, the airline said. The Chilean government will evaluate the convenience and opportunity to contribute to the success of Latams process, the Finance Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Brazilian Ban The task was made more urgent this past weekend by U.S. President Donald Trumps order to restrict non-U.S. citizens arriving from Brazil to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Brazil accounts for about a third of Latams revenue. Latam traces its roots to Lan Airlines, founded in Chile in 1929 and privatized in 1989 during the last years of the Pinochet dictatorship. Latam was born in 2012 after Lan announced plans to merge with Tam for about $3.3 billion two years earlier. The Cueto family -- which is Latams largest shareholder and holds two seats on its board of directors -- acquired a stake in 1992 and control of the business in 1994. At that time, another major shareholder was current Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who sold his own 26% stake early in his first term as president in 2010. Last year, Latam signed a $2.25 billion pact to sell a stake to Delta Air Lines, expanding Deltas footprint in South America. The Chilean carrier has been planning to gradually ramp up flights over the next two months, with the goal of reaching 18% of pre-crisis capacity in July. Latam retained Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as legal counsel, FTI Consulting Inc. as financial adviser and PJT Partners Inc. as investment banker. The case is Latam Airlines Group SA, 20-11254, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). Poprad/tatry Airport, Poprad, Slovakia [ TAT / LZTT ] If you are planning to travel to Poprad or any other city in Slovakia, this airport locator will be a very useful tool. This page gives complete information about the Poprad/tatry Airport along with the airport location map, Time Zone, lattitude and longitude, Current time and date, hotels near the airport etc... Poprad/tatry Airport Map showing the location of this airport in Slovakia. Poprad Airport IATA Code, ICAO Code, exchange rate etc... is also provided. Poprad Airport Info: Poprad Airport IATA Code: TAT Poprad Airport ICAO Code: LZTT Latitude : 49.0687 Longitude : 20.248 City : Poprad Country : Slovakia World Area Code : 483 Airport Type : Small Poprad Airport Address / Contact Details : Poprad-Tatry Airport (TAT), Poprad-Na batizovskej ceste, Slovakia Timezone : Europe/Bratislava Poprad/tatry Airport Timezone : GMT +01:00 hours Current time and date at Poprad/tatry Airport is 20:28:38 PM (CET) on Thursday, Jan 20, 2022 Looking for information on Poprad/tatry Airport, Poprad, Slovakia? Know about Poprad/tatry Airport in detail. Find out the location of Poprad/tatry Airport on Slovakia map and also find out airports near to Poprad. This airport locator is a very useful tool for travelers to know where is Poprad/tatry Airport located and also provide information like hotels near Poprad/tatry Airport, airlines operating to Poprad/tatry Airport etc... IATA Code and ICAO Code of all airports in Slovakia. Scroll down to know more about Poprad/tatry Airport or Poprad Airport, Slovakia. Poprad/tatry Airport Map - Location of Poprad/tatry Airport Load Map Slovakia - General Information Country Formal Name Slovak Republic Country Code SK Capital Bratislava Tel Code +421 Top Level Domain .sk This page provides all the information you need to know about Poprad/tatry Airport, Slovakia. This page is created with the aim of helping travelers and tourists visiting Slovakia or traveling to Poprad Airport. Details about Poprad Airport given here include Poprad/tatry Airport Code - IATA Code (3 letter airport codes) and ICAO Code (4 letter airport codes) Coordinates of Poprad Airport - Latitude and Longitude (Lat and Long) of Poprad/tatry Airport Location of Poprad/tatry Airport - City Name, Country, Country Codes etc... Poprad/tatry Airport Time Zone and Current time at Poprad/tatry Airport Address and contact details of Poprad/tatry Airport along with website address of the airport Clickable Location Map of Poprad/tatry Airport on Google Map. General information about Slovakia where Poprad/tatry Airport is located in the city of Poprad. General information include capital of Slovakia, currency and conversion rate of Slovakia currency, Telephone Country code, exchange rate against US Dollar and Euro in case of major world currencies etc... TAT - Poprad/tatry Airport IATA Code and LZTT - Poprad/tatry Airport ICAO code Credit: CC0 Public Domain The invention of the chirped pulse amplification technique by Strickland and Mourou in 1985 has boosted the peak power of ultrashort laser pulses to an unprecedented level, which have found broad applications in fundamental science, industry and medicine. However, such high power lasers are usually obtained at the near-infrared wavelength of about 0.8 micron. The extension to the mid-infrared band (2-20 microns) is of great interest to broader applications. At present, the generation of mid-infrared laser pulses based on conventional optical technologies is limited by the frequency bandwidth, energy gain, and damage threshold of the optical crystals, which make it challenging to achieve high-intensity low-cycle mid-infrared laser pulses. In a new paper published in Light: Science & Application, scientists from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China and University of Strathclyde, UK proposed a new scheme to efficiently generate mid-infrared light pulses of near-single-cycle with a few millijoules in energy by use of a plasma medium. This scheme adopts two terawatt-level short-pulse lasers initially with wavelength of ~0.8 micrometers, which are incident into an underdense plasma channel with a certain time delay. One of them is used as a driving laser to excite a laser wakefield in the plasma, which appears as a few moving plasma density bubbles behind the driving pulse. Another laser pulse as the signal pulse co-propagates with the driving pulse with a certain time delay, so that it is loaded at the head position of the second plasma bubble. This signal pulse is modulated by the plasma bubble and its frequency will be down-shifted rapidly. After a propagation distance of about 2 millimeters, it is effectively converted into a near-single-cycle mid-infrared light pulse with a center wavelength of about 5 microns, and its conversion efficiency is as high as about 30%. "An interesting aspect of our scheme is that the obtained mid-infrared pulse parameters, including pulse energy, central wavelength, pulse duration, carrier phase, and even polarization state, are tunable by changing the parameters of the incident laser pulse and plasma," said Zheng-Ming Sheng, one of the lead authors of the paper. "Compared with traditional optical crystal materials, plasma-based optical methods can sustain extremely high power and intensity laser pulses," added Su-Ming Weng, another lead author of the paper. "This makes the plasma-based optical method unique in the manipulation of ultrashort high power lasers." "Our scheme can be realized on a laser system with a kilohertz repetition rate, thereby providing a stable and efficient method to generate mid-infrared light pulses with millijoules, relativistic intensity, and near single cycle for wide applications," said Jie Zhang, one of the coauthors, the laser plasma program leader in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. More information: Xing-Long Zhu et al, Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas, Light: Science & Applications (2020). Journal information: Light: Science & Applications Xing-Long Zhu et al, Efficient generation of relativistic near-single-cycle mid-infrared pulses in plasmas,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-020-0282-3 A protester holds up a banner with the words Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time at a protest in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, on May 24, 2020. (Song Bilung/The Epoch Times) Hong Kong Protesters Preparing to Take Their Fight to Citys Legislative Building A possible clash between Hong Kong protesters and local police is in the offing as the citys government pushes ahead with legislative debates on a controversial national anthem bill. Hong Kongs legislature, the Legislative Council (LegCo), will convene at 11 a.m. local time on May 27 for a second reading of the national anthem bill, according to a press release, which stipulates that anyone in Hong Kong found guilty of actions such as singing the [Chinese] national anthem in a distorted or disrespectful way could face fines of up to HK$50,000 ($6,440) and three years in prison. The city, a former British colony, was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, with the express guarantee that its autonomy and basic freedoms be preserved. But Beijings influence has increasingly creeped into local politics. The push for a national anthem law in Hong Kong was mandated by Beijing in late 2017, when the standing committee of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature adopted the decision to add the law to Annex III of Hong Kongs Basic Law, the citys mini-constitution. This paved the way for a local bill to be drafted. According to the citys legislative process, the bill needs to pass three readings before it is brought to a vote. Andrew Leung, current LegCo president, has set aside about 30 hours of debate time from Wednesday until June 4, for the second reading, according to Hong Kong media. The first reading was completed in January 2019. The bill has been criticized by rights groups, including British NGO Hong Kong Watch and New York-based Human Rights Watch. The U.S. State Department also expressed concerns about the bills impact on the freedom of expression in its 2019 Hong Kong Policy Act Report. On the messaging app Telegram, a popular platform for Hong Kong protesters to discuss future plans, netizens have proposed stopping the legislative process by surrounding the LegCo building beginning at 9 a.m. local time on May 27. Some posts also called on people to drive their cars to stop the flow of traffic near the LegCo building, in case protesters need to slow down police reinforcement. The last time Hong Kong protesters staged a protest at LegCo, in July last year, they stormed and vandalized the building in an effort to pressure the government into scrapping an extradition bill that would allow the Chinese regime to transfer individuals to the mainland for trial. Later in September, the government announced that the bill was fully shelved. And on June 12 last year, protesters surrounded LegCo in an attempt to stop the second reading of the extradition bill. The demonstration successfully forced the legislature to cancel its scheduled debate that day. But in response to the swarm of protesters, police fired pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets to disperse themsparking public anger that drew millions to the streets in subsequent protests. Hong Kong police are already preparing for potential protests. Around 6:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, many water barricades appeared on roads near the LegCo building, sealing off areas including the Citic Tower situated opposite LegCo. Water barricades nearby Hong Kongs Legislative Council (LegCo) building on May 26, 2020. (Song Bilung/The Epoch Times) The planned protest on Wednesday is also in part voicing opposition to Beijings proposed national security law, which opens up the possibility of Beijings security agencies setting up operations in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), a pro-democracy labor and political group, is calling on workers to go on strike or take leave on Wednesday, to stand up against Beijings proposed security law. In a statement, HKCTU said that the Chinese regime has betrayed one country, two systems, the framework which Beijing promised to rule Hong Kong while allowing autonomy. The union said it wished for Hong Kong to fully govern itself, and that Hongkongers will perish if they remain silent. Chen Daoxiang, the commander of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong, threatened on Tuesday that Chinas military was ready to safeguard national security in the city, in an interview with Chinas state-run media. Some Hong Kong protesters are calling for the U.S. military to offer assistance. In a small protest inside the IFC shopping mall on Monday evening, protesters shouted out slogans such as Destroy the Chinese Communist Party, and Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong. Two protesters hold up signs as they take part in a protest at IFC shopping mall in Hong Kong on May 25, 2020. (Song Bilung/The Epoch Times) Some of them put up placards urging the U.S. military to come to the city to protect Hong Kong people. The Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times contributed to this report. Allan Joseph McLean February 15, 1945-March 7, 2020 Allan Lofty McLean grew up in Jericho near Oatlands, a small rural town about 50 kilometres north of Hobart. He had very fond memories of his early childhood where he attended primary school. He moved to Hobart to attend high school aged nine years 10 months but it was in his early school years at primary school that he developed his love of teaching, tutoring his three younger sisters Colleen, Margaret and Christine. He came from fairly poor circumstances and was immensely proud that, by using his brain and hard work, he was able to reach the pinnacle in research and teaching in medicine. He was equally proud of his Scottish heritage. He was a standout student from the beginning, collecting bursaries to attend the selective Hobart High School from 1956 to 1961. There, he played cricket, Australian rules football and rowed for the school. It was also at Hobart High that he gained his name Lofty, indicating the vertical challenges of his habitus a name that followed him (with some honour) throughout his life. Allan left Hobart High as dux in final year age 16 years, but he never forgot those heady days (the best school of all, as the school song rang) and as his dementia worsened that was all he would talk about. ILO acts upon a plea by 10 central trade unions objecting to the ordinances proposed to temporarily scrap labour laws in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, along with other labour law changes. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has expressed deep concerns over the recent labour law amendments by state governments. The ILO has acted upon a plea by 10 central trade unions earlier this month, objecting to the ordinances proposed to temporarily scrap labour laws in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, along with executive orders issued by at least 10 states to increase the daily working limit to 12 hours from eight hours, along with other labour law changes. Please allow me to assure you that the ILO Director-General (Guy Ryder) has immediately intervened, expressing his deep concern at these recent events and appealing to the PM to send a clear message to Central and state governments to uphold the countrys international commitments and encourage engagement in effective social dialogue, Karen Curtis, ILOs chief of Freedom of Association Branch under the International Labour Standards Department, said in a letter to trade unions on May 22. The letter said the ILO will keep the central trade unions informed about any observations or comments that may be made by the Indian authorities on the matters that you have raised. The ILO acknowledged the complaint raised by the unions in light of measures being taken by a number of state governments to undermine labour legislation and international labour standards. The Congress-affiliated Indian National Trade Union Congress, Left-affiliated unions such as All India Trade Union Congress, Hind Mazdoor Sangh, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, All India United Trade Union Centre, among others, had flagged concerns to the ILO on May 14 through an e-mail. On Monday, the trade unions sent out another communication to the ILO, attaching all the documents related to the proposed labour law changes by states. We feel that at this very turbid and uncertain situation, the ILO must powerfully and effectively intervene to prevail upon the Government of India to refrain from such exercise of abrogation of all basic labour rights unilaterally trampling underfoot the basic concept of social partnership and tripartism as espoused by ILO, the unions said in their petition. Earlier this month, the ILO, responding to the sweeping changes in labour laws proposed by states, had asked the authorities to ensure that all such relaxations adhere to global standards and are effected after proper consultation. India is one of the founding members of the ILO, which came into existence in 1919. The Indian Parliament has ratified 47 conventions of the ILO, some of which relate to working hours, labour inspections, equal remuneration, and compensation in case of injuries, among others. Last week, a government official had said the Union labour and employment ministry will object to the proposed changes of the States to scrap labour laws, which is pending for the approval of the Centre in the form of an ordinance. Some states announced relaxing or doing away with major labour laws in order to attract investment. The Uttar Pradesh government has proposed an ordinance exempting firms from almost all labour laws for the next three years. The Gujarat government has announced it will follow in UPs footsteps and allow new companies setting up shops over the next 1,200 days to be exempt from major labour laws. Provisions related to minimum wages, women and children and timely payment of wages have been kept intact. The Madhya Pradesh government has notified changes in labour laws to do away with the need to avail multiple licences for hiring contract workers and setting up factories. It has exempted firms from welfare provisions under the Factories Act, 1948, along with replacing inspections with third-party certification and giving exemptions from industrial relations laws. At least 10 states have increased the working hours in India from 8 to 12 hours. These are Maharasthra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh. The Karnataka government has hiked the daily working limit to 10 hours. Some of the orders have been challenged in the local courts. In fact, recently, the Uttar Pradesh government withdrew an order increasing the daily working hour limit in manufacturing units from 8 to 12 hours. It was in response to a notice issued by the Allahabad high court on a public interest litigation challenging the legality of the order. The conference saw the participation of 23 Vietnamese agriculture, food and drinks enterprises, and introduced products suitable for consumers of Yunnan province and the broader Chinese market. According to Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency Vu Ba Phu, economic activity and trade between Vietnam and Chinas Yunnan province has seen positive results but has yet to match the potential and strengths of both sides. He noted that although Vietnam and China, including Yunnan, have essentially contained the coronavirus outbreak, traditional trade promotion activities via direct interaction between the two countries enterprises have yet to return to normality. As such, the online conference is an opportunity for Vietnamese agro-food exporters to maintain trade connections and promote their products to Yunnan enterprises and consumers. Phu underlined that the quality and appearance of many Vietnamese products have been improved recently to meet the stricter requirements of Yunnan consumers, while remaining competitive on price. According to Hu Soujin, an official at the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam, the two sides need to step up trade promotion activities in both traditional and online ways in order to further strengthen their trade ties. Liu Guangxi, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade in Yunnan, said he expects the two sides to promote trade further so that trade cooperation between Vietnam and China, and Yunnan in particular, will increase in the near future. Baker County Circuit Judge Matthew B. Shirtcliff informed the state Supreme Court on Tuesday that he will not dismiss the preliminary injunction he granted earlier this month, finding Gov. Kate Browns emergency coronavirus orders "null and void.'' "I have elected to stand by my original ruling,'' Shirtcliff wrote to the lawyers involved in the case and copied the Supreme Court. "I will not be vacating the May 18, 2020 Order Granting Preliminary Injunctive Relief and Denying Motion to Dismiss or taking other action.'' The Supreme Court will now accept further legal briefs until June 2 before it decides whether it should uphold or dismiss Shirtcliffs preliminary injunction. The governor won an emergency hold on the injunction, allowing her executive "Stay Home Save Lives'' orders to remain in effect until the states high court hears the merits of the case. The state now has until Thursday to file arguments in support of its push to dismiss Shirtcliffs injunction. The 10 churches and 21 others who sought the injunction will have until next Tuesday to respond. Shirtcliff stands by his preliminary injunction, finding governor's emergency coronavirus orders "null and void,'' he wrote in a one paragraph response. "Oral arguments or other future actions will depend on additional orders of the Supreme Court,'' according to Todd Sprague, spokesman for the court. "Once the briefs are filed, there is not a specific timeline for a decision.'' Shirtcliff ruled last week that the governors executive orders in response to the pandemic exceeded a 28-day limit adopted by state lawmakers and were no longer valid. His decision came in response to a suit filed by 10 churches, the nonprofit Pacific Justice Institute and 21 others against the governor. Shirtcliff is the only judge seated in Baker County, where the suit was filed. Within hours of Shirtcliffs ruling, the governors office appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court to keep Browns emergency orders in place, arguing that Shirtcliff overstepped his authority and his legal reasoning was flawed. That night, the court put a hold on the injunction. On Saturday, the Supreme Court issued whats called an alternative writ of mandamus, ordering the trial judge to either dismiss the injunction or explain why he shouldnt. The courts direction showed it found the governor had made a serious challenge to the injunction. If the court thought the governors petition was frivolous, it would have thrown out the petition, said Steve Kanter, a retired law professor and dean emeritus at Lewis & Clark Law School. Legal observers said they didnt expect Shirtcliff to back down from his ruling. The churches successfully argued in Baker County that state law ORS 433.441 limits public health emergencies to 14 days, or up to 28 days maximum, and because COVID-19 is a public health crisis, that limitation applied. They also argued that the governors social gathering restrictions violated their constitutional right to the freedom of religion and assembly. But the governors attorney countered that Brown declared a state of emergency under a different state law, ORS 401.165, which continues indefinitely. The Oregon Nurses Association has joined in to support the governors move to dismiss the injunction. Conservative activist Kevin Mannix, former legislator and gubernatorial candidate, who was allowed to intervene in support of the churches suit against the governor on behalf of the nonprofit group Common Sense Oregon, praised Shirtcliff for standing by his ruling. We will now have the opportunity to fully engage with the Governors representatives in front of the Supreme Court,'' Mannix said in a statement. "We will make the case that the rule of law in Oregon allows continued standard regulation of public health matters, but it does not allow the Governor extraordinary powers to close down businesses and churches, beyond 28 days from the original declaration of a public health emergency.'' -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian https://twitter.com/maxoregonian Subscribe to Facebook page Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter The producers and studios behind the CBS show Criminal Minds, one of the longest running network dramas, have been sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing amid numerous complaints of on-set sexual assault. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County yesterday, claims that over a period of 14 years, director of photography for the series, Gregory St. Johns, used his position of power to create an unchecked hostile work environment in which he subjected production crew members to frequent sexual harassment, including touching and caressing numerous employees. Its claimed that St. Johns, who was ousted from the show in 2018, habitually groped men on the groin and behind, and kissed and caressed their necks and shoulders. Hes said to have doted on certain men and treated them more favorably, provided they acquiesced to his attention. To those who resisted, the suit says, St. Johns allegedly retaliated in common patterns of behaviour, which included the silent treatment, social ostracism and unfair criticism. In more than a dozen instances, men were fired for complaining about his behaviour, the suit claims. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County yesterday, claims that over a period of 14 years, director of photography for the series, Gregory St. Johns (right), used his position of power to create an unchecked hostile work environment in which he subjected production crew members to frequent sexual harassment, including touching and caressing numerous employees. Its claimed that St. Johns habitually groped men on the groin and behind, and kissed and caressed their necks and shoulders. Hes said to have doted on certain men and treated them more favorably, provided they acquiesced to his attention' (Criminal Minds cast shown above) The executive production team - including showrunner Erica Messer; executive producer Harry Bring; executive producer John Breen Frazier; director Glenn Kershaw; and unit production manager Stacey Beneville are also accused of being complicit in the abuse, by purportedly condoning his behavior and ignoring subsequent complaints. The suit also blames the Walt Disney Co., ABC Signature Studios Inc., CBS Studios Inc, who oversaw the shows 15-year run on screens, for failing to take action. Defendants executive team not only had actual and constructive knowledge of St. Johns abusive conduct, they condoned it, the lawsuit states. No necessary steps to prevent sex-based harassment and discrimination were taken over the years, nor were appropriate corrective actions. Instead, the executives fired anyone who resisted or who tacitly evaded St. Johns advances or abuse. Investigators at the Department of Fair Employment first launched a sexual assault probe in March 2019, following a complaint made by Anthony Matulic, a former technician who says he resisted one of St. Johns attempts to slap his behind, and was later fired for his protests. Matulics complaint was followed by more than a dozen more, including one lodged by Dauv McNeely, an employee of the video playback department, who says he corroborated allegations against St. Johns before being similarly dismissed. The suit also blames the Walt Disney Co., ABC Signature Studios Inc., CBS Studios Inc, who oversaw the shows 15-year run on screens, for failing to take action Investigators at the Department of Fair Employment first launched a sexual assault probe in March 2019, following a complaint made by Anthony Matulic, a former technician who says he resisted one of St. Johns attempts to slap his behind, and was later fired for his protests The executive production team - including showrunner Erica Messer (left); executive producer Harry Bring (right); executive producer John Breen Frazier; director Glenn Kershaw; and unit production manager Stacey Beneville are also accused of being complicit in the abuse, by purportedly condoning his behavior and ignoring subsequent complaints The lawsuit also claims that St. Johns was only forcibly ousted from the show in October 2018, following a report from Variety that crew members had repeatedly complained about his behavior, but that management had failed to take action. According to the complaint, St. Johns was given an enhanced severance when he was dismissed. All people in California have the right to make a living free from sexual harassment, Department of Fair Employment Director Kevin Kish said in a statement Tuesday. Companies and leaders who protect harassers and retaliate against those who complain violate the law. The state agency is seeking damages for all production employees who were subjected to alleged harassment. Criminal Minds aired its final episode in February of this year. Disney, ABC and CBS have not yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment. Richard Grenell Confirms He Will No Longer Serve as US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell has confirmed he will not be returning to his post as the U.S. ambassador to Germany. Grenell, who also recently served as acting director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), confirmed reports on Sunday that he will no longer be returning to Berlin. True, Grenell wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet from a reporter with The Daily Wire, who wrote that the news outlet reported two months ago that he was stepping down from his ambassador role. Grennell, 53, who has spent little more than two years in the job, will be leaving his post in the coming weeks. According to German news agency DPA, he is expected to be replaced by Robin Quinville, deputy chief of mission at the embassy. The news follows the U.S. Senates confirmation Thursday that President Donald Trump ally Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) will take on the role as the permanent director of national intelligence. He was narrowly confirmed with a final vote of 49-44, and is expected to enter office next week. Grenell congratulated Ratcliffe on his new role, saying, You will be the best DNI ever! The post of director of national intelligence, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, oversees the 17 U.S. civilian and military intelligence agencies including the CIA. Grenell has been the U.S. ambassador to Germany since 2018. Before that, he was the U.S. spokesman at the United Nations in the George W. Bush administration, including under then-ambassador John Bolton. Since May 2018 he has largely supported Trumps foreign policy priorities, and the reasons behind his departure are unknown. President Trump described Grenell as a superstar on Sunday in an interview with Sinclair Broadcasting. What Richard Grenell has done for this country is incredible, Trump said, seemingly referring to Grenells role in declassifying the names of Obama administration officials who requested the unmasking of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. He sent a copy of the declassified list of the officials in a note to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). earlier this month. [May 26, 2020] United States District Court in Los Angeles Appoints Michael M. Eidelman, Esq., as Special Master to Oversee Sale of the L'Ermitage Beverly Hills Hotel; Eidelman Retains Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC as Exclusive Real Estate Advisor Attorney Michael M. Eidelman, Shareholder and Chair of the Corporate Reorganization, Bankruptcy and Insolvency group at Vedder Price P.C., was recently appointed by the United States District Court for the Central District of California to serve as the Special Master overseeing the sale of the L'Ermitage Beverly Hills hotel. Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC has been retained as the exclusive real estate advisor to run the sale process. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005757/en/ L'Ermitage Beverly Hills Hotel Entangled in the international money laundering scandal involving the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the Malaysian development fund known as 1MDB, the L'Ermitage Beverly Hills, acquired by Malaysian businessman Taek Jho Low in 2010, is among the assets restrained by the United States to be sold for the benefit of the people harmed by the acts of corruption. With the assistance of Keen-Summit and lawyers in the litigation, corporate, real estate and insolvency groups at Vedder Price, Mr. Eidelman will run a competitive auction and sale process in accordance with Court approved sale procedures. Bids will be solicited for the hotel in an open and transparent manner, creating a competitive marketplace to maximize value. The five-star, 116-room boutique hotel is the epitome of Hollywood glamour. Located less than a mile from the storied Rodeo Drive, it notably attracts an elite celebrity clientele. "The L'Ermitage BeverlyHills exudes a luxurious atmosphere and lavish lifestyle at a centrally located hotel," says Matthew Bordwin, Principal at Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC, real estate advisors for this offering. "We anticipate this sale to garner a massive amount of attention, not just because of the circumstances, but as a trophy property for hotel operators and investors globally. This sale offers the buyer the chance to own one of the top boutique hotels in Los Angeles." As the Court-appointed Special Master in United States of America v. All Business Assets of the Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills et al., and United States of America v. Real Property Known as Viceroy L'Ermitage Beverly Hills, both of which are currently pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Mr. Eidelman is vested with the exclusive right to oversee the sale process. Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC was engaged at the time of the appointment as exclusive real estate agents for this offering. The full offering details are available at www.LErmitageBeverlyHillsSale.com About Vedder Price Vedder Price is a thriving, 300-lawyer firm with seven offices worldwide, including Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Singapore. The firm offers a unique mix of finance, corporate, labor and employment, and litigation skills, including market-leading practices in global transportation finance, middle-market finance/M&A, executive compensation, employment class actions, bankruptcy and more. Vedder Price has enduring relationships with marquee organizations, and many of the firm's clients have been with the firm since its founding in 1952. For more information, visit www.vedderprice.com. About Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC: Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC is a real estate brokerage, workout and investment banking firm specializing in special situations, restructurings, bankruptcies and receiverships. With a particular expertise in workouts and restructurings, Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC represents property owners, retail and commercial tenants, commercial and industrial businesses, investors, developers, and creditors across various industries. Clients benefit from their reputation for excellence and integrity, extraordinary industry experience, in-depth market knowledge, time-tested business approach, deep industry relationships, workout and bankruptcy expertise, and exceptional execution capabilities. For more information about Keen-Summit Capital Partners, call 646-381-9222 or visit www.keen-summit.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005757/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to members of the press at the National Constitution Center in March. Biden drew criticism for a comment he made during a radio show that aired Friday saying black voters who back Trump "ain't black." Read more During my teen years in North Philly, we had a label for the guy who got a little too comfortable before he really got a chance to know you. We called him Joe Familiar. He was the guy who said things that mightve been appropriate coming from your cousin or your best friend. However, those same statements were not cool coming from Joe Familiar, because you and Joe didnt have the kind of relationship that allowed him to speak frankly about personal matters. Last week, during an interview on the Breakfast Club, a black-oriented syndicated radio show based in New York City, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden became Joe Familiar. And it wasnt a good thing. If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, Biden said during an interview with co-host Charlamagne tha God, then you aint black. The Breakfast Club airs in over 90 radio markets. It is simulcast on Revolt TV, the digital music cable network founded by Sean Diddy Combs. The show is beyond influential. It is essential content for African Americans, especially those in the younger demographic where Biden doesnt poll as well as he does with black seniors. So, when word got out that Biden was advising African Americans on what it means to be black, social media caught fire. Political skeptics ran into the streets yelling, I told you so. And Biden, who has often put his foot in his mouth during his long political career, was once again the poster child for liberal paternalism. To be clear, Joe Biden, as a white man, was wrong to assume that he could advise African American voters on qualifications for blackness. But just like the Joe Familiars of old, though Biden might not have been the right one to say what he said, that doesnt mean he was completely wrong. Donald Trump has major problems on race, and thats putting it mildly. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in January found that more than eight in 10 African Americans believe Trump is a racist and that he has made racism a bigger problem in America. Trump was sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent to blacks. He campaigned for a group of black and brown boys, the famous Central Park Five, to receive the death penalty for raping a white woman a crime they didnt commit. He called African countries sholes. He said very fine people were among those who marched with neo-Nazis during a violent confrontation in Charlottesville, Va., over Confederate monuments. And he seems increasingly indifferent to the life-and-death consequences of a virus that is disproportionately killing African Americans. So yes, its hard to imagine that black people would support Donald Trump. Yet, there are those who do. Not many, but some. Earlier this year, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that Trump had about a 14% approval rating among African Americans. That support split along gender lines, with 24% of black men approving of Trumps job performance, and just 6% of black women doing the same. Those numbers remind me of the misogyny I witnessed in the black community during Trumps run for the presidency against Hillary Clinton. There were black men particularly older black men who called my talk show at Philadelphias WURD radio and told me they were voting for Trump because they didnt believe a woman should be in charge. I didnt agree with them then and I dont agree with them now. Still, their support for Trump doesnt detract from their blackness. In reality, the African American community is incredibly diverse in terms of how we think and what we support. Whether we are Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, rich or poor, we are still black, and the fact that we dont always agree simply means we are still human. In my view, if you dont know whether youre for Biden or Trump, you might not understand whats happening in the world. You might not know whats affecting your life. You might not see whos good for you and whos not. But that doesnt mean you aint black. That just means you aint woke. Beijing 26 May : China on Tuesday downplayed the much-publicised evacuation of its citizens from India in the backdrop of the border tension between both the countries. Global Times, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, said that evacuation of Chinese citizens from India was a normal process and should not be linked with the border tensions. Published in English, Global Times also clarified that the news of escalation of tension on the India-China border was just media speculation. The paper wrote, "The voluntary repatriation plan should be seen as a normal service provided by the embassy to its citizens. Yet, some Indian media outlets have intentionally linked the normal operation to the recent border tension between China and India, fuelling a new round of irresponsible speculation that China may be preparing for an escalation of the border disputes." Earlier on Monday, in an urgent notice, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi had told its citizens residing in India that special flights would be available to fly them back home. The Chinese plans to evacuate its citizens was seen in the backdrop of the growing border tensions between India and China, besides the rising Covid-19 cases in parts of Western and Northern India. The notice said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made elaborate plans, especially for students and tourists who have been facing difficulty in taking flights to China A day later, Global Times hinted that the decision to evacuate Chinese citizens was taken to relieve the stranded students, tourists and businessmen in India. "On Monday, India became the 10th worst-hit country in the Covid-19 pandemic, with its number of coronavirus cases totaling nearly 140,000," it said. The newspaper further said that New Delhi should not misinterpret the move by China this time. After all, it was not long ago that the Indian government took similar actions to bring home its citizens stranded abroad. Government sources in Beijing said that both the countries should focus on improving bilateral trade amid the global economic crisis caused by the spread of the pandemic. "As a result of coronavirus shocks and other structural trade factors, China-India economic and trade exchanges are already stuck in an awkward situation. For instance, after changing its foreign direct investment policy to block potential takeovers from Chinese companies, the Indian government is reportedly considering clamping down on Chinese investors' access to the Indian market," the paper wrote. Space News space history and artifacts articles Messages space history discussion forums Sightings worldwide astronaut appearances Resources selected space history documents advertisements SpaceX crew first to forgo mission patch for launch since Gemini May 26, 2020 The first NASA astronauts to launch from the United States in almost a decade will also be the first American crew in 55 years to lift off wearing spacesuits that lack a mission patch. It is not that SpaceX's first mission to fly with astronauts does not have an official insignia in fact, it has two but rather, it was a choice made by the company to not add either patch to the pressure garments that crew members Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will wear when they board the Dragon spacecraft for launch. The commercial mission, dubbed Demo-2 (DM-2), will resume U.S.-based spaceflights from Kennedy Space Center in Florida since the space shuttle was retired in 2011. Although a relatively minor detail in the context of a technically-challenging and history-making flight, the absence of a mission patch on the astronauts' pressure suits breaks a colorful tradition that dates back to NASA's Gemini program. Up until the Demo-2 mission, 158 NASA crews donned spacesuits adorned with either an embroidered or silkscreened insignia representing both themselves and their flight's objectives before boarding an American spacecraft and lifting off for space. Further, all of the U.S. astronauts, and their international crewmates, who flew on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft during the nine-year interim between the space shuttle and commercial crew programs also wore emblems symbolizing their expeditions on the International Space Station, if not also a second patch for their Soyuz, too. Patch-work SpaceX officials have not commented on why a mission patch was left off the new spacesuits, but they have acknowledged the decision since at least 2018. It was therefore somewhat of a surprise when a year later Behnken and Hurley showed up for a press event at SpaceX's headquarters wearing a new insignia on their NASA blue coveralls. In October 2018, the two astronauts revealed the first patch representing their DM-2 mission. "The patch was a collaboration with Karen's, my wife's, nephew, Andy. He is a graphic artist and he and I spent many evenings on the phone talking about the patch and working through the different permutations," said Hurley in an interview with collectSPACE. "When I had time after those discussions, Bob and I would go back and forth as well." Andy Nyberg's finished design was shaped in the form of the Crew Dragon and included the symbols for the space capsule and its Falcon 9 rocket at the top of the patch. The silhouette of the International Space Station, the crew's destination, also featured on the emblem. Nyberg also included NASA's red vector, lifted from its logo, and the Commercial Crew Program's insignia to symbolize the return of a launch capability to the U.S. A silver star positioned over the patch's representation of the east coast of Florida highlighted where the Demo-2 mission will originate. Finally, stars on either side of the crew's names represented their respective family members. Behnken and Hurley each married fellow astronauts (Megan McArthur and Karen Nyberg) and each family has a young son. "It took several months, but it was a neat process, and we're pretty happy with it," Hurley said of designing the patch. Although they will not be wearing it for launch, Hurley and Behnken will lift off with 1,000 of the embroidered patches on board the Crew Dragon as mementos to distribute to team members after the flight. The design has also been produced in lapel pin and decal form, and may appear on the garments that the astronauts will wear while in orbit. Two-for-one, four for luck The Demo-2 mission gained its second patch a week before its scheduled launch. First seen as an embroidered badge in a photo posted to social media, SpaceX debuted its insignia for the mission as part of a redesign of its website on Friday (May 22). Like the crew's patch, SpaceX's emblem also depicts the silhouette of the space station and has a star positioned over the Florida launch site. Both elements are illustrated as being reflected off of an astronaut's helmet, as part of SpaceX's new spacesuit. The shoulders' up view of the astronaut is backdropped by an American flag. The patch also features a four-leaf clover, continuing a tradition that began with SpaceX's first successful orbital launch as a company in 2008. The emblem for that Falcon 1 flight was the first to include a clover for luck, and so all subsequent SpaceX patches have done the same. Cooper's custom The first NASA astronauts to wear a mission patch while launching were the 1965 Gemini 5 crew of Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad. After NASA denied permission for the Gemini crews to name their spacecraft, as the earlier astronauts (including Cooper) had done for their Mercury capsules, Cooper suggested that they borrow a military custom and design mission patches. The Gemini 5 insignia featured a hand-sewn conestoga wagon inscribed with the motto "8 Days or Bust," a reference to the mission's extended duration. The practice caught on, and creating a mission patch became a team building activity and a symbol that future crews embraced. Many new NASA astronauts considered it a rite of passage to see their name on a patch, though some of the most famous emblems in space history including the insignia for the Apollo 11 first moon landing omitted names to represent the team behind the mission. Behnken and Hurley have each launched on two previous NASA space shuttle flights wearing mission patches. Hurley's most recent mission marked the end of the shuttle program and was the last time a NASA crew launched from the United States, each with an STS-135 emblem sewn to the front of their spacesuits. Change of material The spacesuits that Behnken and Hurley will wear on SpaceX's Demo-2 mission are not entirely devoid of logos. Although lacking a mission patch, each custom-fitted suit features a tag on its right arm displaying the wearer's name and an American flag on the same shoulder. The left side arm includes NASA's official insignia and SpaceX's logo embroidered on a similar tag to the astronaut's name badge. Finally, centered on the suit's chest, is an embroidered version of NASA's shuttle-era logotype, known as the "worm." The red "N-A-S-A" appears to be sewn on the same type of material as the spacesuits' teflon-coated (polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE) outer layer. The American flag and the NASA insignia (the "meatball") also differ in material from earlier similar patches worn by U.S. astronauts. Historically, the flag has been nylon or embroidered like the space agency's logo. On SpaceX's suits the two emblems appear to be molded in PVC plastic, offering a more crisp appearance than fabric that is consistent with the sleek aesthetic of the overall pressure garment. SpaceX's Demo-2 crew members Bob Behnken (at right) and Doug Hurley walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a dress rehearsal for their launch, May 23, 2020. The astronauts' SpaceX-designed spacesuits omit a mission patch. (NASA/Brandon Garner) Bob Behnken's and Doug Hurley's DM-2 mission patch as designed by Hurley and his nephew, Andrew Nyberg, a graphic artist. (NASA) SpaceX's mission patch for the Demo-2 mission includes a four-leaf clover, continuing the company's tradition begun in 2008. (SpaceX) From Gemini 5 in 1965 to STS-135 in 2011, NASA astronauts wore these mission patches for 55 years of U.S. spaceflights. (NASA) NASA astronauts Doug Hurley (at left) and Bob Behnken (right) participate in a dress rehearsal for their launch at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 23, 2020, ahead of SpaceX's Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station. (NASA/Kim Shiflett) 2022 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:29:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SINGAPORE, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Tuesday that the government would further strengthen support for businesses on the 3Cs, which were cash flow, costs and credit, with its new budget, to help businesses get back on feet and reopen safely after the COVID-19 circuit breaker. Heng, who is also the minister for finance, said when announcing Singapore's fourth budget this year that the circuit breaker, which was put in place to bring down COVID-19 community transmission decisively, affected many businesses that could not operate offsite. The deputy PM said the Singaporean government would help businesses on cash flow through the Job Support Scheme (JSS), which supports firms in retaining and paying their workers. With the new budget, called the Fortitude Budget, the JSS will have three enhancements. Firstly, the duration of JSS payouts will be increased by one month for all firms. Secondly, firms that could not resume operations immediately after the circuit breaker, including retail outlets, gym and fitness studios and cinemas, will continue to get wage support from the government at 75 percent of the first 4,600-Singapore-dollar wages until August 2020 or when they are allowed to reopen, whichever is earlier. Thirdly, the government will refine the classification of firms in the different JSS tiers and increase the level of wage support for firms in sectors that are more severely impacted. As for support to businesses on costs, Heng said that the government would extend the Foreign Worker Levy waiver and rebate for up to two months for the businesses that would not be allowed to resume operations on-site immediately after the circuit breaker. Meanwhile, the government will defer the planned increase in Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution rates for senior workers by one year. CPF is a compulsory comprehensive savings and pension plan for working Singaporeans and permanent residents primarily to fund their retirement, healthcare and housing needs in Singapore. Besides, the government will expand rental relief for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), some of whom are facing difficulties with rental costs. It will also extend rental relief for government tenants. The Singaporean government will support business on credit by providing financing support for promising startups. "This will help them sustain their innovation and entrepreneurship journey," said Heng. He said that the government would set aside 285 million Singapore dollars to catalyze and crowd in at least another 285 million dollars in matching private investments. The new budget will commit a total of 33 billion dollars to support the next phase of Singapore's fight against COVID-19. Together with the previous three budgets, the government is dedicating 92.9 billion dollars or 19.2 percent of Singapore's GDP, to support its people in the battle. The overall budget deficit for the financial year 2020 would increase to 74.3 billion dollars, or 15.4 percent of GDP, said Heng, adding that it was the largest overall budget deficit in Singapore's history since its independence. Enditem The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia has issued a statement on the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on the Makuchyan and Minasyan vs Azerbaijan and Hungary case. The statement reads as follows: Today, on May 26, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Makuchyan and Minasyan vs Azerbaijan and Hungary, which is related to the release and glorification by Azerbaijan of Ramil Safarov, who brutally killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan. In 2004, in Budapest the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who was participating in a training course within the framework Partnership for Peace programme, murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan while he was asleep by axing him to death and attacked another Armenian officer Hayk Makuchyan. Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hungarian court, was transferred to Azerbaijan, where enforcement of the sentence should have been continued. However, immediately after the transfer Ramil Safarov was pardoned and glorified. In this regard the ruling stated: The court is particularly struck by the fact that, in addition to immediate release, upon his return to Azerbaijan R.S. was granted a number of other benefits, such as salary arrears for the period spent in prison, a flat in Baku and a promotion in military rank awarded at a public ceremony. The court has found violations of the 2nd (right to life) and 14th (non- discrimination) articles of the European Convention on Human rights by Azerbaijan. Its noteworthy that the ruling determined that the violation of those articles was interrelated, thus establishing that the impunity and glorification granted by the highest leadership of Azerbaijan to Ramil Safarov, who was convicted in the brutal murder on the grounds of hatred, had a causing link to the ethnicity of the victims. This ECHR decision is a ruling against Azerbaijan's policy of Armenophobia. It not only recognizes, but also adjudicates on the inadmissibility of the promotion on the state level of hate crimes committed against the Armenians by Azerbaijan. The ruling imposes a legal obligation to Azerbaijan to undertake such actions which will put an end to those violations of the European Convention of Human Rights and redress the effects. The Republic of Armenia views this ruling of the ECHR as a demand addressed to the authorities of Azerbaijan to restore justice in the dreadful murder of Gurgen Margaryan and end its racist policy towards Armenians. To this end, the Republic of Armenia will make consistent efforts in the relevant international bodies. The release of convicted murderer Ramil Safarov by the decree of the President of Azerbaijan and his glorification is a disrespect and affront to the standard of civilization and human dignity. Today, when those actions received their legal assessment, we more than ever are determined to prevent hate crimes and protect the security of the Armenian people in the region. We will continue to work relentlessly to achieve a peaceful and secure region free of hatred. Last updated on: May 29, 2020 13:12 IST 'It has been a phenomenal effort at all levels of the government.' 'People were working 15-16 hour shifts in the central government, in the state governments, in the districts....' IMAGE: A worker unloads food grain from a goods train in Jammu. Photograph: Alok Pathania/ANI Photo "We've faced all kinds of situations, but we figured out ways of overcoming them along the way," Union Secretary Parameswaran Iyer -- who heads the COVID-19 task force on supply chain and logistic management which has helped keep up the flow of medicines and food all over the country -- tells Sheela Bhatt in the concluding segment of a two-part interview. Part 1: Meet the man who ensured food supply during lockdown When there was a nationwide lockdown, how did you manage human resources? I would say we managed it quite well actually. We were troubleshooting to streamline the supply chain. At that point in time, we were functioning with skeletal staff. Since we have a very lean team, just four or five people, we would function from our control room in the ministry. I've been going there since the beginning. Of course, I have my regular job as well, which is sanitation and water so we were doing two things. One must remember that everyone, in all the ministries, has been working. It has been a phenomenal effort at all levels of the government. People were working 15-16 hour shifts in the central government, in the state governments, in the districts... Honestly speaking, the kind of effort people have put in, young district collectors and all, has been phenomenal. They are the ones in the front line; we are sitting here, trying to coordinate. Most of our communication is virtual though. We are using technology and are in touch on a daily basis through meetings. We have three or four people in my office; the rest of the group connects virtually via video conferencing. All our meetings with the private sector take place using technology. It went similarly with the state governments, with the collectors, with different stakeholders. For example, we had meetings with wholesale suppliers with the help of Mr Praveen Khandelwal (national secretary general, Confederation of All India Traders). We are trying to get the perspective of every single stakeholder -- from the packaging industry to the manufacturing industry to hygiene products, e-commerce... IMAGE: Labourers unload rice from a goods train in Guwahati. Photograph: Rupjyoti Sarmah/ANI Photo Paramji, there must be something wrong with the supply chain, otherwise, why would migrants struggle to get home? Why would they choose to walk thousands of miles instead of staying where they were? Our group includes the food ministry and the consumer affairs ministry. So far, over 50 lakh metric tonnes of food grains have been distributed nationally under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojna. I think the FCI (Food Corporation Of India) did a phenomenal job. Even today, more than 1.5 crore (15 million) cooked meals are provided every single day. This is happening through NGOs working for the government, big organisations and small organisations, so I don't think there was a big issue as far as availability of food was concerned. There may be isolated cases, of course, and we look into them whenever we get intimated. IMAGE: People queue to collect grains from a ration shop in Surat. Photograph: Ashok Munjani/ANI Photo I'll give you two examples. The ration moved and -- this is very significant -- there was a phenomenal effort to feed all the people and not just the migrant workers. There are many other factors as far as the migrant worker issue is concerned. There may be cases where migrant workers have set out to return home and some of them may have had limited access to food at some point during the journey. But all state governments across the country have made a phenomenal effort to feed the hungry. Every district has a nodal officer who coordinates with all the NGOs in the district. I want to mention again that 1.5 crore cooked meals are being provided every day. Apart from that, many states are giving additional free ration as well. IMAGE: Former prime minister H D Devegowda with Karnataka legislator Ramesh Kumar distributes ration kits to the needy at Hennur in Bengaluru. Photograph: Shashidhar Byrappa/ANI Photo States like Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat are giving ration packs. Many states are not drawing a distinction between those who have a ration card and those who don't. We also reached out with the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities and the ministry of social justice to make sure that two of the most vulnerable groups, the elderly and the disabled, are taken care of. The disabled found it difficult to go out and buy food, so we ensured home delivery. The elderly needed care givers, so we wanted to make sure it wasn't only bedside caregivers but also those who help in washing and cooking food. Even corporations have stepped up. Ahmedabad started Vegetable on Wheels, so home delivery became the norm in many cases. It has been a team effort. We have started calling the people on the supply front -- truck drivers, unloaders, port dockyard workers, swachhta workers -- Supply Warriors. So, Paramji, what went wrong then? Wrong in what sense? IMAGE: A migrant with his daughter walks towards his home in Bihar. Photograph: PTI Photo The image that comes to mind when one thinks of India today is lakhs of poor people walking hundreds and thousands of kilometres to reach home. How would you explain this? This issue is happening now, migrant people in urban areas trying to go home... what can I say? The assumption is that they want to get back to where they came from because of the pandemic. The government is facilitating that through the Shramik Expresses. Remember, the fight against the pandemic is ongoing and the migrant numbers are very big. There will be cases where everyone cannot be accommodated at one go. But all efforts are being made by the central and all the state governments. IMAGE: Migrant workers take a Shramik train to travel to Bihar. Photograph: ANI Photo Both the host and the receiving governments and the railways have risen to the challenge. I'm sure more trains and other transport mechanisms will be evolving as we go along. We have been discussing, particularly with the food ministry, how can they ramp up the provision of rations, how can they speed up the delivery of food grain, in the initial phases under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojna. We have also looked at this specific issue of delivery of food to the needy and the poor and the vulnerable. Can you share some examples of the people's enthusiasm to fight back in this kind of a crisis? Under very difficult circumstances, people are going above and beyond the call of duty. Postal workers, daakiyas, particularly rural daakiyas, are delivering medicine. Their work is particularly impressive. Another example that I can think of is the railway catering service -- they did a great job. They were supplying meals in local areas where people needed it. The IRCTC has got a big capacity and are willing to scale up to help. Then, of course, there are the pilots who have delivered medicines, whether it's the air force pilots who have flown to Ladakh and far flung areas or the civil aviation pilots and the entire crew... there are examples galore. And what about all the countless truck drivers and unloaders? In the beginning there was an issue -- railway cargo was lying at the stations, but workers were not available to unload it. Due to fear? Yes. For example, in Dimapur, Nagaland, there was a bit of a hold-up initially because there were lots of railway rakes that needed to be unloaded both for Nagaland and Manipur. We called up the chief secretaries of both states who coordinated with each other and the workers came in. In some cases, there were unloading problems because there were rakes which were carrying non-essential items and they blocked the railway sidings, so it was difficult to unload the rakes with the essential items. We've faced all kinds of situations. But we figured out ways of overcoming them along the way. Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Promoter Bharti Telecom on May 26 sold a 2.75 percent stake in telecom provider Bharti Airtel, raising more than Rs 8,433 crore (around $1.15 billion). "Bharti Telecom today sold 2.75 percent stake in Bharti Airtel to institutional investors through an accelerated book-building process in the secondary market," the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange. The sale proceeds would be utilised to fully repay the debt at Bharti Telecom which will become a zero-debt company, allowing it the stronger financial flexibility to provide any additional shareholder support Bharti Airtel may need, Harjeet Kohli, Group Director, Bharti Enterprises, said. JP Morgan India acted as the sole placement agent for the secondary placement. After the transaction, Bharti Group and Singtel (collectively promoter group) would continue to own a majority stake in Bharti Airtel at 56.23 percent, the company said. The allocation was done to over 50 accounts, with the top 10 getting 2/3rd of overall allocation, the company added. The stake sale was oversubscribed multiple times with healthy mix of all categories of investors, long only and hedge fund investors across geographies in India, Asia, Europe and the US, Airtel said. The sale was anchored by several existing and new shareholders and several marquee global mutual fund complexes, sovereign wealth funds, multi-strategy funds and domestic institutional investors in sizable quantities, the company said. New Delhi: Another employee has been found corona virus positive in Rail Bhavan. After the employee got corona positive once again the Rail Bhawan has been closed for the next two days Tuesday and Wednesday. This is the fifth case of Corona in less than two weeks in this railway headquarters building. Sources said that till May 19, the fourth class employee who came to office was found to be coronavirus positive on Monday. Nine people who came in contact with him in Rail Bhavan have been sent to isolation in the house. In this regard, an official said that the work of a class IV employee is to take files from one officer to another and thus he comes in contact with many people throughout the day. These infected files can go into the hands of the Chairman of the Railway Board and even the Union Minister of Railways and this is how the infection spreads. The case came to light at a time when a senior railway official was found corona positive on Sunday and this was the fourth case in less than a week at the railway headquarters. The senior officer concerned last came to work on 20 May. At least 14 officers working with him have been sent to isolation in the house. Also Read- 15 new positive patients found in Uttarakhand Take care of these things to avoid corona in the office 69 new cases of corona reported in Bihar, infection increasing due to arrival of migrants COEUR D'ALENE, ID / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Star Gold Corp. ("Star Gold" or the "Company") (SRGZ) is pleased to provide a detailed updated Report for its plans on its Longstreet Project. Commenting on the release of the update Report, David Segelov, President, Star Gold stated, "This Report provides a detailed examination of the Longstreet Project and more importantly outlines a pathway to proceed. It further provides context as to the risks, timing, mechanics of the Project and outlines some of the potential of the Project." The update Report is available on the Star Gold website at: Longstreet Project Update Report In January of 2010 Star Gold signed an agreement (the "Longstreet Agreement") to lease with an option to acquire from MinQuest, Inc. ("MinQuest"), 60 unpatented mining claims totaling approximately 490 hectares. The Company completed its first phase of drilling in 2011. On July 9, 2010, the Company and MinQuest entered into an amended agreement to add an additional 10 claims and expanded the total to 70 unpatented claims. In addition, Star Gold agreed to reimburse MinQuest for 5 claims leased from a third party, Roy Clifford. The Longstreet Property comprises 125 mineral claims (75 original optioned claims, of which 70 are unpatented staked claims and five claims acquired from local ranchers (Roy Clifford et al)), as well as 50 claims subsequently staked by Star Gold, covering a total area of approximately 2,500 acres (1,012 ha) (Figure 6-1). The claims are located within Sections 9-17, 20, and 21 of T6N, R47E, MDB&M (Mount Diablo Base Line & Meridian), Nye County. The entire 125 claims (the 5 claims covered by the Clifford Lease are not subject to the Longstreet Agreement) comprise the Longstreet Property. On July 25, 2017, MinQuest assigned, conveyed and transferred to Great Basin Resources, Inc. ("Great Basin") all of the rights, title and interest of Minquest in and to the Longstreet Property and the Longstreet Agreement. Story continues Of the 50 claims staked by Star Gold, 38 are adjacent to the eastern boundary of the property and were staked with the objective of providing a site for potential leach pads planned for future development of the Main Zone (the "Leach Pad Claims"). The remaining 12 claims staked by Star Gold lie along a corridor leading from the main Longstreet property to the Leach Pad Claims. About Star Gold Corp. Star Gold is a gold exploration/development company with claims located within the Walker Lane belt. The Company is currently focused on developing its flagship property, the Longstreet Property. The Longstreet Property is located in Nye County, Nevada. Investor Contact: David Segelov Office: 208-664-5066 Cell: 646-626-3356 dsegelov@stargoldcorp.com info@stargoldcorp.com Disclaimers Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "future," "may," "will," "would," "should," "plan," "projected," "intend," and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Star Gold Corp (the Company) to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company's future operating results are dependent upon many factors, including but not limited to the Company's ability to: (i) obtain sufficient capital or a strategic business arrangement to fund its expansion plans; (ii) build the management and human resources and infrastructure necessary to support the growth of its business; (iii) competitive factors and developments beyond the Company's control; and (iv) other risk factors discussed in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov under "Search for Company Filings. SOURCE: Star Gold Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591343/Star-Gold-Corp-Provides-Update-for-Longstreet-Project You are here: China China's top political advisory body on Monday held a video conference during its ongoing annual session. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, attended the meeting. Twelve members of the CPPCC National Committee spoke at the meeting. Noting the important role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in fighting COVID-19, political advisor Huang Luqi called for building platforms for research on the combination of TCM and Western medicine for infectious disease prevention and control. Zhou Hanmin suggested deepening reform, strengthening inter-regional consultation and cooperation, promoting integration of metropolitan areas, optimizing the development environment of major cities, and improving urban governance capacity. Yan Xiaopei proposed the inclusion of international scientific and technological cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative into related national plans for the 2021-2025 period. More work should be done to raise the level of concentration of key industries in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and to put caps on the total coal consumption in those areas, said political advisor Liu Bingjiang. Incredible, astonishing, astounding, miraculous, unbelievable - one could empty a thesaurus of such synonyms to describe the life stories of David McBride and Helen Ward and still not capture their unique nature. And yet their stories will resonate with many conversant with life in Ireland in earlier times, when social mores were much different and numerous lives were lived out amid secrets and lies. For David and Helen, their lives were like the plot of some far-fetched novel with more twists and turns than even the best thriller writers could come up with. Both were 'foundlings', a quaint old term to describe children abandoned by their parents and brought up by others. David was found in a phone box in Dunmurry in 1962 and Helen discovered in identical circumstances in Dundalk six years later. Both were adopted and David's new parents later told him all they knew about him. Helen's adoptive family were less forthcoming, keen not to cause any bother. Read More What followed were desperate, parallel but unknown-to-each-other searches by the two to find out about their parents. It was just by sheer chance that the DNA of both was submitted to an online database and their relationship as brother and sister was discovered. Neither had ever had an inkling that the other existed. Now they had met, discovered that each had families of their own and now know who their parents were. Their births were the result of an affair between a married and older shop manager in Dublin and a young Catholic girl. In its way it was almost an archetypical story of its time - the mid-20th century in Ireland, where having a child out of wedlock was a social disgrace if discovered. As ever, it would be the woman who would be classified as having fallen; there were no Magdalene laundries for errant men, single or married. Being pregnant twice, what was the girl to do? The fact that in both occasions she (it is presumed, as both parties are dead) left the babies in identical bags and in identical circumstances, was that a desperate hint so that someone in authority might realise a connection, even at six years' remove? Who knows what went through that mother's mind, and it is wonderful that both David and Helen hold no grudge against her for her actions. What is known is that their mother never went on to have any other children. Did the affair ruin her life, leaving her unable to begin another relationship or ever discover what happened to the children she had abandoned? What part did her lover play in her later life? Was he just relieved that the adoption of the children freed him of any responsibility for them or acceptance of their existence? This is both a tragic story and one of great joy at how the siblings have found each other and are beginning a new chapter in their incredible lives. David and Helen's stories will be broadcast on national television next Monday and Tuesday and should make compelling viewing. Both had spent considerable periods of their lives seeking information about their parents but never thinking of any sibling. The searches came up against many obstacles, and it was only with the development of science allowing the interpretation of DNA which solved their riddle. At last the truth is out, and two people can now put their lives in perspective. They have closure in very personal crusades, and most people will wish them well for the future. Shea nut processing. Credit: Professor Jane Stout, Trinity College Dublin. Shea yields are likely to benefit from a diversity of trees and shrubs in parkland habitats in West Africa, according to a new study led by scientists from Trinity College Dublin. The findings have important implications for managing a crop that is typically harvested and sold by women in rural areas, and which helps finance education for children. Shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) grow in dryland savanna, forest and parkland ecosystems across an estimated 1 million km2 between western Senegal and north-western Uganda. Shea is an important agroforestry crop providing fruit near the end of the dry season; the nuts are processed into a nutritious butter that helps sustain an estimated 80 million people, as well as providing an income from local and global trade. Shea trees benefit from bees moving pollen between their flowers to produce fruit, but the new studyjust published in the Journal of Applied Ecology - found that in sites with low tree and shrub diversity, fruit production was severely limited by a lack of pollination. In higher-diversity sites, more honeybees were observed, and other bees visited flowers in greater numbers, boosting pollination services. The shea parklands are a long-established traditional food and fuel wood production system, but with growing population pressure and the introduction of the tractor, management has moved away from a shifting cultivation and pastoralist system to more intensive 'permanent' agriculture. This has resulted in a loss of fallow land and contributed to a degraded and fragmented landscape with a lower diversity of plants, which makes life hard for insect pollinators in the Sahel. The study recommends that when areas are cleared for cultivation, shrubs and trees that are beneficial to the local pollinators should be retained. Furthermore, measures to conserve pollinators in the region should target both honeybees and other bee species. In this video, Dr Aoife Delaney, Professor Jane Stout and Birdlife International Project Manager, Elaine Marshall, explain their findings and their impiications. Credit: Trinity College Dublin. The researchers involved in this new studyfunded by a Darwin Initiative grantcame together from Trinity and INGOs, BirdLife International and the RSPB, and conducted the work with local farmers, NGOs and academics in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The findings will be used to inform local conservation. Jane Stout, Professor in Botany at Trinity, and a senior author of the study, said: "In the face of a global biodiversity crisis, studies like this are crucial for demonstrating the everyday importance of biodiversity. We have shown that more biodiverse parklands support more pollinators, and this makes crops more productivebenefitting local peoples' livelihoods and well-being." Dr. Aoife Delaney, lead researcher, said: "Shea plays a special economic role in Burkina Faso. It is generally harvested and sold by women in rural areas and generates an income that is particularly linked to funding children's education, bringing wider societal benefits. The fruits ripen at a time of year when both food and money are scarcest, helping to tide families over. A woman processes shea butter in Ghana, 2015. Credit: Professor Jane Stout, Trinity College Dublin. "Nutritionally, shea provides essential nutrients and fats that are in short supply during the dry season, and safe-guarding the shea crop in the long-term is important for food security. Supporting pollinators and diverse plant communities in shea parklands also has secondary benefits as the majority of the trees and shrubs there benefit from pollination, including other fruit crops and species that are important for maintaining soil fertility." Already, BirdLife International and the Burkinabe partner Naturama are working to change the way shea resources are managed within the landscape and are promoting a farmer-led approach built on simple, low cost changes in land management to enhance biodiversity on-farm. This includes natural regeneration and planting of native trees and shrubs with multiple benefits for people, livestock, insects and birds; replacing agrochemicals with locally produced mulch and compost; and introducing apiculture for pollination and food / income. Together, the international team has produced biodiversity guidelines for Parkland Management that were adopted by the Global Shea Alliance, a 500-strong member organisation, which aims to increase sustainability across the shea value chain, both in the food and cosmetic industries. And, together with local partners, the team has been educating and increasing awareness around the important role of pollinators and undertaking training and capacity building with Burkinabe communities and in schools throughout the region. Elaine Marshall, project manager, said: "Our work supports the theory that when we improve plant diversity on farms we see an increase in pollinators and shea yield. We believe a landscape approach which protects these ecosystem goods and services also reduces the vulnerability of human populations across the shea belt. This work demonstrates the potential for ecosystem restoration to deliver healthier and more resilient stocks of natural capital, enhanced pollination services and improved capacity for adapting to the impacts of climate change. Restoring 'nature' should be considered as a core component of successful development aid strategy." Professor Juliet Vickery, RSPB's Centre for Conservation Science, said: "Retaining shrubs and trees can have multiple other benefits. It can help combat desertification in an area extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change and provide vital habitat for many of Europe's summer migrant birds that winter or stop over in the Shea zone on their way to and from sub-Saharan Africa." Explore further How planting a garden can boost bees, local food and resilience during the coronavirus crisis More information: Aoife Delaney et al, Localscale tree and shrub diversity improves pollination services to shea trees in tropical West African parklands, Journal of Applied Ecology (2020). Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology Aoife Delaney et al, Localscale tree and shrub diversity improves pollination services to shea trees in tropical West African parklands,(2020). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13640 This year, the world marks Africa Day under extremely difficult circumstances as we grapple with the global COVID-19 pandemic, which threatens to derail progress by African countries towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the targets set out in the African Unions Agenda 2063. African countries have demonstrated commendable leadership through a swift and coordinated response. The AU established a task force to develop a continent-wide strategy and appointed special envoys to mobilize international support. Its Peace and Security Council has also taken steps to counter the negative impact of COVID-19 on the implementation of critical peace agreements and reconciliation efforts. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention established a response fund, while the African Member States undertook robust measures to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate the socio-economic impacts. I welcome the African Unions support for my call for a global ceasefire to fight the COVID-19 pandemic an imperative that also reflects the AUs 2020 theme: Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africas Development. Armed groups in Cameroon, Sudan and South Sudan have responded to the call and declared unilateral ceasefires. I implore other armed movements and governments in Africa to do likewise. I also welcome the support of African countries for my call for peace in the home, and an end to all forms of violence, including against women and girls. About 20 African countries are scheduled to hold elections this year, some of which will be postponed due to the pandemic, with potential consequences for stability and peace. I urge African political actors to engage in inclusive and sustained political dialogue to ease tensions around elections and uphold democratic practices. The United Nations has just issued a policy brief outlining the impacts of the pandemic on Africa. We are calling for debt relief and action to maintain food supplies, protect jobs, and cushion the continent against lost income and export earnings. African countries, like everyone, everywhere, should also have quick, equal, and affordable access to any eventual vaccine and treatment. African governments, like all those around the world, can also use this moment to shape new policies that bolster health systems, improve social protection, and pursue climate-friendly pathways. Targeting measures to those employed in the informal sector, the vast majority of whom are women, will be an important step to recovery, as will leveraging womens full participation and leadership. The inclusion and leadership of young people will also be crucial every step of the way. On Africa Day, I reaffirm my total solidarity with the people and Governments of Africa in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and paving the way for recovery and a better future for all. [May 26, 2020] Fiverr Launches Follow-On Offering Fiverr International Ltd. (NYSE: FVRR) ("Fiverr") announced today the commencement of an underwritten public offering of $100,000,000 of ordinary shares pursuant to a registration statement on Form F-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fiverr also intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the ordinary shares sold in the offering at the public offering price, less underwriting commissions. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as lead book-running manager for the proposed offering of ordinary shares. BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and UBS Securities LLC are also acting as book-running managers for the proposed offering. The proposed offering of ordinary shares will be made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the preliminary prospectus may be obtained from: J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, via telephone: 1-866-803-9204 or via email [email protected] ; ; BofA Securities, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte NC 28255-0001, Attn: Prospectus Department or via email [email protected] ; ; Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, via telephone: 1-800-831-9146 or via email [email protected] ; or ; or UBS Securities LLC, 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019, Attn: Prospectus Department, via telephone at 1-888-827-7275 or via email [email protected] . A registration statement relating to the offering of ordinary shares has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet beome effective. The ordinary shares may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall it constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. About Fiverr Fiverr's mission is to change how the world works together. The Fiverr platform connects businesses of all sizes with skilled freelancers offering digital services in more than 300 categories, across 8 verticals including graphic design, digital marketing, programming, video and animation. In the twelve months ended March 31, 2020, 2.5 million customers bought a wide range of services from freelancers across more than 160 countries. Forward Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the proposed offering. All statements contained in this release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements that include the words "expect," "intend," "plan," "believe," "project," "forecast," "estimate," "may," "should," "anticipate" and similar statements of a future or forward-looking nature. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC (News - Alert)") on March 31, 2020 as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the SEC, including the registration statement relating to the offering, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements that we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release are inherently uncertain and may not occur, and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. In addition, the forward-looking statements made in this release relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this release. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005837/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] CHICAGO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A tentative class action settlement was reached by DeVry University Inc. ("DeVry") and Keller Graduate School of Management ("Keller") and a purported class of former students related to two advertising claims made by the schools between 2008 and 2016. The attorneys at Stoltmann Law Offices encourage Devry victims to carefully consider all of their legal options before deciding whether to remain in the class action, exclude themselves from it, or to object to it because it isn't fair or reasonable relative to the harm caused by DeVry. According to Chicago attorney Andrew Stoltmann: "Class action lawsuits many times lead to paltry settlements for those who have been cheated. Many DeVry students are saddled with over of $100,000 in student loan debt for what Senator Dick Durbin has described as a 'worthless' degree. Many are working 'McJobs' despite attending DeVry and incurring large sums of student loan debt. Our review of the terms of the class action settlement is that over 323,000 class members will divide a net recovery pot of less than $29.2 million. This means victims of DeVry's misleading advertising may receive less than $100 each. In some instances, they can receive additional money but not enough to make a meaningful dent in the massive outstanding debt and this 'kicker' just means other members of the class will receive less." According to Stoltmann, very specific, complicated steps must be taken by DeVry students in order to be excluded from this class action settlement and to avoid being saddled with this meager settlement. "DeVry students need to demand in writing they be excluded from the class action settlement, otherwise they will be barred from suing individually to secure a meaningful settlement that could potentially wipe out their debt. There are specific steps that must be taken by the former students in order to achieve this goal." Stoltmann Law Offices is currently representing 523 former DeVry students who are saddled with onerous, life altering debt. These claims are filed or being filed in individual arbitration claims for students of DeVry and Keller. All of these cases are being handled on a contingency fee basis meaning there are no attorney fees owned unless we win. Please call Stoltmann Law Offices at 312.332.4200 or visit www.StudentLoandebtSlave.com for more information about being excluded from the class action settlement or suing Devry. SOURCE Stoltmann Law Offices Related Links https://www.stoltmannlaw.com Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni has revealed that the newly constructed Damaturu International airport would kick start its first-ever test landing operation on Friday. Naija News learnt that Buni who disclosed this in Damaturu promised to complete the Nigerian Air Force housing quarters any time soonest in order to provide efficient service to the airport facility. The governor also commended President Buhari, the Nigerian military, and people of the state for their cooperation in fighting the insurgency in the Northeast region. The Damaturu International Airport will be test landed on May 29, and we are going to provide Nigeria Air Force (NAF) quarters there as we have already promised We are soon commencing on the quarters project and all other facilities will also be provided, This is quite reassuring and a clear sign that the madness called insurgency is coming to an end very soon, Buni said. While inspecting the newly established helipad, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Abubakar commended the governor for creating an enabling environment for NAF to carry out its operation smoothly. The CAS also expressed confidence that with the facilities in place, insecurity in the state would be addressed. I am very excited that Buni has been supportive to the air force and provided an additional land area where we are putting certain facilities that will add lots of value to what we are doing, I am very confident with what we have, it is going to be much easier for the air force to respond to any threats within Yobe, rather than going to Maiduguri and coming back. Share this post with your Friends on TRENTON A city man shot last month at the Kingsbury Towers died last week, becoming Trentons 13th homicide of the year. Terrence Horton was one of two men wounded April 14 around 6 p.m. at the Trenton high-rise. The second victim survived being shot in the foot. At the time, it was the citys seventh shooting in nine days. Horton died May 21, and his death was ruled a homicide, said Casey DeBlasio, a spokeswoman from the Mercer County Prosecutors Office. People left condolences on Hortons Facebook page. He was described as an affable man, known by the nicknames Chip and Longshoes, who enjoyed cooking and having fun. A friend recalled Horton crashing her mothers wedding. Im going to miss the days of you chasing my car down & jumping in the passenger side, cracking up and asking, Little sis, where are we going ? another person wrote on his Facebook page. You didnt even care about the destination, but then you always had me drop you off somewhere else.You werent even going anywhere. You just made up somewhere to go b/c you seen a car. I love your crazy @$$. Maaaaan! No arrests have been made in Hortons slaying. Police sources said at the time four possible suspects, described as black men, had been parked at the front of the Mercer County courthouse and fled down Route 29 following the shooting. Hortons death is the latest in a deadly stretch for the capital city. An activist warned Trenton could experience historic bloodshed after twice being rocked by serial spams of gunplay since Gov. Phil Murphy put the state on lockdown. Three people were killed on separate weekends, the first in April. Mayor Reed Gusciora instituted a curfew following the first bloody weekend. Since then, the curfew has been relaxed to 9 p.m. The violence has continued, as Trenton had five murders in a week. Watson Cogdell, 58, became the 12th homicide of the year after he was gunned down over Memorial Day weekend, in area of Sanford and Brunswick avenues. Before that, on Thursday, 19-year-old Raheen McKinnon, of Hamilton, was fatally felled On the 900 block of Parkside Avenue in the West Ward, and a 17-year-old Trenton boy was shot in the neck during the drive-by. The violent stretch started with the slaying of Robert Smith, 38, who cut down on Daymond Street the night of May 16, when someone shot into a large group gathered in the neighborhood. Two other men, former Bloods gangster Earlie Harrell and a 19-year-old Hamilton man, were also wounded in the triple shooting. Then two men were killed within hours of each other Monday, first 18-year-old Tayvion Jones and then 44-year-old Antwuan Bowens. Bowens was killed in the same neighborhood as Smith. Arrests have not been announced in either the Smith or Bowens cases. Horace Jones, Tayvions cousin, was quickly nabbed after the murder, fueled by a spat over women, police sources said. Also, just over the bridge in Bucks County, authorities reported that a Trenton man was shot Saturday night outside of a Pennsylvania hotel had succumbed to his wounds. Davon Frink, 25, was was one of several Trenton residents who rented rooms at the Holiday Inn Express on Cabot Boulevard, authorities told NJ Advance Media. Frink was found in the parking lot with gunshot wounds to his face and neck and died at a hospital, authorities said. A 94-year-old man died after allegedly being attacked in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood on the morning of Memorial Day, and a 53-year-old man is in custody in connection with his death, police said Tuesday. Officers responded around 8:15 a.m. Monday to a report of an assault in the first block of Elk Street and arrived to find the elderly victim suffering from a head injury. He was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries there, according to police. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 17:34 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda3720f 1 National COVID-19,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,coronavirus,Jakarta-COVID-19,anies-baswedan,Jokowi,Hadi-Tjahjanto,Idham-Azis,TNI,National-Police,PSBB,new-normal,large-scale-social-restrictions Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo announced on Tuesday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Police would be deployed to guard crowded places in preparation for the so-called new normal. During a visit to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle MRT station with TNI commander Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, National Police chief Gen. Idham Azis and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan on Tuesday, Jokowi said security forces would help to ensure that residents abided by physical distancing rules. Starting today, TNI and police personnel will be deployed in crowded places to make sure society continues to abide by the health protocols, he said at a press conference after the visit, adding that the personnel would be deployed in four provinces and 25 regencies and cities. Jokowi said the basic reproduction number (R 0 ) of COVID-19 had fallen below one in several provinces, indicating a decline in the transmission rate in those areas. Read also: Health minister issues new normal guidelines for workplaces Hadi said there were approximately 1,800 places that would be guarded by TNI and police personnel, including shopping malls, traditional markets, tourism spots and other places with high traffic. What we will do is ensure that health protocols are carried out with discipline. Firstly, we will ensure that everyone is wearing face masks. Secondly, everyone has to maintain a safe distance. And third, we will prepare places to wash hands or provide hand sanitizer, he said. Last week, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan decided to prolong large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) in the city for the third time. They will now last until June 4. At the press conference, Anies said that the administrations decision to stop or continue PSBB after that date would depend on how well Jakartans complied with the protocols over the next two weeks. These two weeks are the two weeks that will determine whether this will be the last period of PSBB or whether there will be another extension of PSBB, he said. On Saturday, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto issued new health protocols for workplaces to usher in the new normal. According to the official government count, Indonesia had 23,165 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 1,418 deaths as of Tuesday. (trn) WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Latam Airlines Group SA, one of the largest air carrier in South America, has filed for bankruptcy protection in New York amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has grounded flights worldwide. This Chapter 11 filing allows Latam to work with its creditors and other stakeholders to reduce its debt, access new sources of financing and continue operating. Latam, whose shareholders include Cueto and Amaro families and Delta Air Lines Inc., is operating on a reduced schedule. Cueto Group and Qatar Airways have committed $900 million in additional financing. Latam also has about $1.3 billion in cash on hand. The airline industry has been hardly hit by the coronavirus outbreak, as travel bans were enforced almost all over the world. LATAM and its affiliates will continue flying as conditions permit throughout the process. Latam's affiliates in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina aren't part of the bankruptcy case, which was filed in the Southern District of New York. 'LATAM entered the COVID-19 pandemic as a healthy and profitable airline group, yet exceptional circumstances have led to a collapse in global demand and has not only brought aviation to a virtual standstill, but it has also changed the industry for the foreseeable future,' said Roberto Alvo, Chief Executive Officer of LATAM. Latam has already laid off more than 1,850 employees in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in the past couple of months. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. The coronavirus outbreak caused Abundant Life Church to temporarily cease meeting on Sundays, but it hasnt stopped its population of some 2,200 from an outreach mission to locals in need. Among Abundant Life Churchs deeds is making hundreds of phone calls to seniors and delivering thousands of pounds of food and goods to charities. The church is closed (for Sunday services) and they need to reopen, but the reality is, weve never been closed. Were as busy as weve ever been, said Jeff Boxell, ALCs pastor of outreach and development. When services temporarily ceased in mid-March, church members began to reach out to their older population on a regular basis, asking if they had any needs such as groceries or prescription medicine. The mission progressed from there, as ALC was put in contact with the Clackamas County Sheriff chaplain. The county had a need to contact as many of the 33,000 seniors and vulnerable people in its area. Most are doing OK. With coronavirus, one of the big things is loneliness. They really appreciate the call, Boxell said. Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter ALC has partnership with many local charities, such as Catholic Charities. During the past three weeks, ALC has loaded up two trucks weekly with food donated by local organic growers, along with other essential goods. It delivered to Catholic Charities for distribution to refugee families in Portland. ALC puts out occasional calls to its churchgoers for non-perishable food, which is used to restock local food pantries. During a typical Easter service, ALC does a second collection that can raise as much as $70,000 to help local charities. But no Easter services this year meant pivoting. Instead, ALC asked its membership to give by filling their cars with food and household goods to aid Portland Rescue Mission. At each of its three campuses, cars lined up the afternoon of Easter. They filled a large U-Haul truck and two 15-passenger van with some 5,000 pounds of goods. Honestly, Ive been on staff at Abundant Life for 14 years, and its probably one of my favorite memories, Boxell said. -- Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. TORONTO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - XTM, Inc. ("XTM" or the "Company") (CSE:PAID) (FSE:7XT), a Toronto-based Fintech company in the challenger banking space, providing mobile banking and payment solutions around the world is pleased to announce it is leveraging the Interac Bulk eTransfer solution offered by RBC (TSE:RY) to help its business clients facilitate near real time payments. The solution allows XTM customers or Today mobile users to send funds in near real-time to any bank in Canada. Businesses wishing to push funds faster can send a batch file or use a XTM API with only a mobile phone or an email address and dollar amount as the required fields. No other information or banking details are required. Users can set up auto-deposit for a completely automated solution with no user intervention required to deposit funds instantly. XTM is also finalizing development enabling the Company to deliver an API that enables free bank to bank transfers for any business wishing to move money to consumers in via Interac Bulk e-Transfer. The solution will allow the recipient to choose any bank account to deliver the funds next business day using Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for free or within near real time usinng Interac e-Transfer for a small free. This is a first-of-its-kind free transfer service that allows the recipient to decide if they want next day funds for free or instant funds for a small fee. This will revolutionize the way businesses send payments by shifting the cost of the transfer from the sender to the recipient, if desired, instantly. "Deepening our relationship with RBC is critical to our success," commented Marilyn Schaffer, CEO. "Delivering real-time banking solutions, with Covid-19 changing the way individuals and businesses treat cash, makes XTM a catalyst in eliminating cash from the payment ecosystem." About XTM www.xtminc.com XTM is a Toronto-based fintech innovator in the challenger banking space, helping business and their workers expedite earnings payouts and reduce or eliminate banking fees and cash. With a global card issuing and payment platform, XTM provides free technology to businesses to automate and expedite worker payouts. XTM integrates businesses to a payment ecosystem that is coupled with a free worker mobile app and a Mastercard debit card with banking features. XTM drives enterprise value and delivers a positive user experience. This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (the "forward-looking statements"), within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, including expected performance of XTM, continuing increases in GDV, revenues or profits of XTM and its related programs, the expectation that business with which XTM does business will reopen in the expected timeline, the continuing trend toward electronic payment methods and the general conditions, revenues and performance of XTM. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, although not always, identified by words such as "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "project", "target", "potential", "schedule", "forecast", "budget", "estimate", "intend" or "believe" and similar expressions or their negative connotations, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. The CSE has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release, and the CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE XTM Inc. Related Links http://www.xtminc.com/ Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike has announced the resumption of the total lockdown of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas from Wednesday 27th May 2020. This was contained in a statement on his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, 26th May. In continuation of our struggle against the spread of COVID-19 in our State, we had planned to resume the total lockdown on Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas from Wednesday 27th May 2020. However, after a comprehensive review of the measures we have taken and further considerations placed before us by well-meaning members of the public, the State Security Council has decided to cancel the proposed lockdown on Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas. Advertisement In essence, no part of Rivers State is or will be under any lockdown from this moment and this will be so, except where it becomes necessary again. Read Also: Wike Orders Building Of School On Site Of Demolished Hotel As we all know, the regular washing of hands, religious wearing of face masks, keeping effective physical and social distance of between 1.5 to 2 meters from other people, completely avoiding touching of faces with unwashed hands, and cleaning of surfaces we regularly All bars, beer palours, or drinking joints, night-clubs, viewing centres, open markets and cinemas shall remain closed until further notice; Oil mill market in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area shall remain closed until further notice. In continuation of our struggle against the spread of covid-19 in our State, we had planned to resume the total lockdown on Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas from Wednesday 27th May 2020.#Lockdown #Broadcast Gov N E Wike Information. (@GovWike) May 26, 2020 However, after a comprehensive review of the measures we have taken and further considerations placed before us by well-meaning members of the public, the State Security Council has decided to cancel the proposed lockdown on Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas . Gov N E Wike Information. (@GovWike) May 26, 2020 In essence, no part of Rivers State is or will be under any lockdown from this moment and this will be so, except where it becomes necessary again.#Lockdown #Broadcast Gov N E Wike Information. (@GovWike) May 26, 2020 As we all know, the regular washing of hands, religious wearing of face masks, keeping effective physical and social distance of between 1.5 to 2 meters from other people, completely avoiding touching of faces with unwashed hands, and cleaning of surfaces we regularly Gov N E Wike Information. (@GovWike) May 26, 2020 (iv) All banks, motor parks, hotels, restaurants, shops, business centres, shopping malls, and offices must maintain social distancing and enforce the wearing of face masks in their premises. Gov N E Wike Information. (@GovWike) May 26, 2020 Advertisement Jason Segel is ready to move on to greener pastures after putting his Los Angeles home on the market earlier this month. The 40-year-old How I Met Your Mother star listed his home, located in LA's increasingly hip Los Feliz neighborhood, for $2.75 million. The spacious 2,523 square foot home was previously owned by iconic street artist Shepard Fairey. Moving on: Jason Segel, 40, listed his home in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood earlier this month for $2.75 million Segel is looking to move on after purchasing a much larger property located in Pasadena. The Mediterranean-style villa was constructed in the late 1920s and boasts many of its original architectural facets. The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor is hoping to make a profit after purchasing the home four years ago for $2.25 million, which was more than $400,000 over the initial asking price of $1.835 million. Stepping up: Segel is looking to sell the home after purchasing a much larger property located in Pasadena; pictured in September Famous history: The home was previously owned by street art icon Shepard Fairey; pictured in June 2019 The house's living area features elegant exposed wood beams and a vaulted ceiling, as well as hard wood floors. The nearly floor-to-ceiling windows provide abundant natural light and give an excellent view of the surrounding area. The inviting room also features and intriguing flower-like light fixture and built in bookshelves for easy display. Modest returns: The actor is hoping to make a profit after purchasing the home four years ago for $2.25 million, which was more than $400,000 over the initial asking price of $1.835 million Bright space: The house's living area features elegant exposed wood beams and a vaulted ceiling, as well as hard wood floors and nearly floor-to-ceiling windows Character: The inviting room also features and intriguing flower-like light fixture and built in bookshelves for easy display The home's galley-style kitchen features eye-catching cobalt cabinets that pleasingly contrast with the black wall tiles. The area also has ample counter space and top-notch appliances. Just off the kitchen is an intimate breakfast nook for small gatherings and casual meals, and there's also a larger, more formal dining room with ample views down into the living room. Blue mood: The home's galley-style kitchen features eye-catching cobalt cabinets that pleasingly contrast with the black wall tiles Cozy: Just off the kitchen is an intimate breakfast nook for small gatherings and casual meals Dining in style: There's also a larger, more formal dining room with ample views down into the living room The property features plenty of room for a large family or regular guests with its 4 bedrooms spread throughout the house and 3.5 bathrooms. The master bedroom includes a small balcony for communing with nature, along with an attached sitting room for work or relaxation. Outside the home is an expansive space for parties and gatherings, complete with built in benches and a kitchenette for meals and bartending. Spacious: The property features plenty of room for a large family or regular guests with its 4 bedrooms spread throughout the house and 3.5 bathrooms Stunning view: The master bedroom includes a small balcony for communing with nature Dual use: The bedroom also features an attached sitting room for work or relaxation Pictured: Maron Gebru, who was jailed after forcing his way inside a pensioners home in Birmingham A father-of-two who tricked his way into a terrified pensioner's flat before kissing her and exposing himself has been jailed for 18 months. Maron Gebru, 26, twice sneaked into the block of flats in Smethwick, Birmingham, where the 74-year-old woman lived alone in August 2017. The father, who admitted sexual assault, was jailed for 18 months by a judge today, who told him an immediate prison term was the only answer for what he had done. In the first instance, the victim had been waiting for a male relative in her ground floor flat when Gebru, unknown to her, rang the buzzer to the block's communal doors. The victim answered 'who is it?', to which a man's voice replied 'me', Birmingham Crown Court heard. Expecting a visitor, she buzzed the doors open, but when nobody knocked she opened her flat door, looking out into the corridor to see Gebru standing 'about two metres from her door'. 'She told the police he looked dirty and spoke in broken English,' Cathlyn Orchard, prosecuting, said. 'He put his hands together as if in prayer and said "please, please, please". 'She thought he needed help and she approached him.' Ms Orchard added: 'He turned to her and kissed her on the lips.' When police checked CCTV footage (pictured) it showed Gebru, originally from Eritrea in East Africa, in the corridor The victim tried to get back to her flat, but Gebru followed then 'leaned in very close and took hold of her hands'. 'She pushed him away [and] he continued to move towards her,' added Ms Orchard. 'She went inside her flat and tried to close her front door but he put his hand in the way to stop her and used force to open the door, then came inside her flat. 'She told him "you can't come in here", he got onto his knees and repeated [the comment] "please please, please". 'She told him her husband would be back any minute to try and scare him away.' Gebru walked to the door, but as he did so 'turned to face her and pulled down the zip of his trousers and exposed his penis'. As he left, the victim slammed the door behind him. When police checked CCTV footage it showed Gebru, originally from Eritrea in East Africa, in the corridor 'with his trousers undone'. Gebru returned a second time to the victim's front door, but was again told to leave. The CCTV also showed Gebru, minutes before the attack, following another resident into the block and once in the building's corridor, looking through the victim's letterbox. He was then recorded on camera, outside the block, 'gazing through the window of another flat'. The father, who admitted sexual assault, was jailed for 18 months by a judge at Birmingham Crown Court (pictured) today Gebru's image was circulated and following a media appeal, he handed himself in to police in June 2018. In an interview, he told officers he 'must have been drunk', had no reason to be at the flats, but answered 'no comment' when asked what he was doing there. 'He denied he would have gone to the flats for a sexual purpose but could not explain what he went there for,' added Ms Orchard. In a victim personal statement, read to court by the prosecutor, the pensioner said the incident had left her 'so frightened' she had been left a 'changed' woman. 'Every time her door knocks she's worried who's there,' added Ms Orchard. Simon Hanns, representing Gebru, said his client had arrived in the UK as a refugee from Eritrea in 2012. He added Gebru, from Newtown, was 'a family man' who was currently living with his partner and had not been in trouble since the 'unpleasant' incident. Judge Mark Wall QC, who declined to suspend Gebru's jail term, told him: 'This was a serious offence which has had a lasting effect on your victim. 'The only way of dealing with somebody who forces their way into the flat of an elderly person, living alone, in order to sexually assault them is an immediate sentence of imprisonment.' With nearly 40 million officially unemployed in the United States, state and local governments are preparing to throw workers and their families out of their homes and into the street. Across the US, moratoriums on eviction proceedings and home foreclosures, set in place during the onset of the pandemic, have either been lifted or are set to expire early next month. Nationally, there has been a patchwork of temporary safeguards for renters and homeowners invoked as tens of millions of workers lost their jobs in the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Some states, such as South Dakota and Wyoming, never had any protections in place. Others, including Florida, Mississippi, California, and Illinois are set to allow evictions to resume in early June. Cities are spending millions on rent assistance, only to see funds quickly drained by overwhelming demand. According to NPR, a rental assistance program in Houston, Texas ran out of funding in 90 minutes. Texas paved the way for other states after it lifted bans on evictions in place since March. On May 19, Texas courts were opened for landlords to file eviction proceedings against tenants. A mixture of emergency orders from cities and counties protect renters in metropolitan areas such as Austin, El Paso, Dallas, and San Antonio, but Houstonthe fourth largest city in the USand Fort Worth have issued no additional protective measures. Accordingly, Fort Worth and Houston will now be among the first major metropolitan areas in the country that will see a sharp rise in evictions, despite significant job losses. According to state figures, more unemployment claims were filed in Harris County, which accounts for about 98 percent of the Houston metropolitan area, than Dallas County and Travis County combined: 184,281 claims in the Houston area, compared to 92,380 in Dallas and 42,623 in Austin. Houstons City Council and Democratic mayor, Sylvester Turner, have done nothing to extend protections and have simply called on the state to extend protections. When asked about issuing orders like those in other Texas cities, Houstons attorneys office suggested it was not possible from a legal perspective. When local media reached out to city officials, they declined to offer any explanation. Many of the countrys largest cities are still under state moratoriums but have not passed local eviction measures. In Chicago, evictions have been halted until Illinois lifts its state of emergency, which is currently slated for the end of this week. In states like Florida, landlords have filed hundreds of eviction cases, waiting for the states moratorium to expire. In Hillsborough County alone, the home of Tampa, 250 cases have already piled up in courts waiting to be processed. Neighboring Pinellas County already has 190 cases pending. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended a moratorium for tenants and homeowners affected by the pandemic until August 20. For cases not related to COVID-19, evictions will resume June 20. Under Cuomos executive order, those who qualify for unemployment benefits or who are experiencing a financial hardship as a result of COVID-19 are temporarily protected from eviction. However, many point out that tenants will likely be required to prove that they qualify for the exemption. Attorneys and advocates argue that this burden of proof will leave many tenants vulnerable. In New York City, where it is estimated that as many as 25 percent of renters, who make up nearly two thirds of the population, missed their rent payment in May, an end to the eviction moratorium heralds an impending social disaster. Advocates for affordable housing say that millions across the US are at risk of homelessness. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance is needed nationwide to stave off a catastrophe. According to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, a majority of the nations 43.8 million renting households have lost income during the pandemic. Additionally, the fact that 40 percent of households making under $40,000 a year lost jobs in March spells ruin for a significant portion of the population. Renters must rely on a confusing patchwork of local laws and ordinances for security against eviction, which attorneys say have little or no legal precedent. Many attorneys say they are unsure what happens after state moratoriums are lifted, even in cities with eviction measures in place. Some worry that legal battles could ensue where tenants will struggle to mount a defense without any financial resources. In states like Florida, most renters are required to pay the amount of outstanding rent before they can fight an eviction. The federal CARES Act, passed with the support of the Democrats and Republicans in Congress in March, includes a hold on eviction proceedings and foreclosures nationally until late July, but the exemptions only apply to residents in properties that receive federal funding or assistance. The Urban Institute estimates that the law protects 12.3 million households, only 28 percent of renters and homeowners. Even when residents are protected by federal law, they could face challenges. Tenants and homeowners, without the aid of an attorney, could bear the burden of proving they are benefactors of federal or state protections. There are also reports of landlords illegally threatening tenants with evection despite federal rules, with some cases being held up in courts. It is important to note that even though many are still legally safe from eviction, rent suspension is virtually unheard of. Tenants unable to make rent payments report being fined with late fees that only place them closer to being kicked out of their homes once restrictions are lifted. At best, the mishmash of eviction moratoriums has delayed the eruption of evictions as rent payments pile up and workers lose their jobs and income. The number of eviction proceedings is expected to spike quickly but the ultimate impact will not be seen for many months. Eviction processes can take months before residents are forcefully removed from their homes by armed county sheriffs. Furthermore, those who have received short-term assistance from the one-time $1,200 stimulus check and a $600 expansion of unemployment payments will soon be told there is no money to pay for extending such initiatives. The impending social disaster in the US, triggered by the pandemic, lays bare the irrationality of the capitalist system. While it rapidly shoveled trillions of dollars to prop up Wall Street through the CARES Act bailout and quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve, the American ruling class has shown it is both unwilling and incapable of providing aid to millions during a public health crisis that has claimed the lives of over 100,000 people in America. Millions now face for the first time the prospect of homelessness, hunger, and joblessness while the wealthiest enrich themselves from social devastation. Brunswick, Halfmoon, Malta and Saratoga Springs are among fastest growing New York communities with a population of at least 10,000, according to the most recent data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The three Saratoga County municipalities and one Rensselaer County town are the only Capital Region communities to crack the statewide list of the 15 fastest growing towns or cities from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2019. The distinction puts them on a nationwide list of 678 fastest growing municipalities that was recently compiled by the bureau. Rolling landscapes, low taxes, a mix of housing and easy access to the Capital Regions urban center is what local officials site as the reasons why the four communities continue to show up on both the state and the nations fastest growing municipalities lists over the last 10 years. While the Capital Regions growth is small compared to the southern and western states, these three towns and a city stand out for the decade of growth. The newest population estimates were released as the 2020 Census is taking place and larger cities such as Albany and Troy are fighting to get a complete count that will turn around their recent population declines. Its all about location and the scenery about why people have moved into the town, said Brunswick Supervisor Phil Herrington, where the town's population jumped by 9.2 percent from 11,952 to 13,046 residents, according to the census bureau data. You can get everywhere - Saratoga, Albany - pretty much from here. Its a real pretty town out here, said Herrington, adding Highland Creek Condominiums is an example of the housing that attracts new residents. Halfmoon is tops, ranking fourth for percentage growth in the state, followed by Malta at fifth, Brunswick at seventh and Saratoga Springs at 11th. Nationwide, Halfmoon is 353rd for growth, Malta is at 471st, Brunswick is just behind at 485th and Saratoga Springs is 536th. Saratoga Springs' population grew 6.2 percent, from 26,568 to 28,512. Malta's grew 10 percent from 14,768 to 16,252. More Information Fastest growing towns/cities in state* Halfmoon - 21,514 to 24,635, 14.5 percent Malta - 14,768 to 16,252, 10 percent Brunswick - 11,952 to 13,046 residents, 9.2 percent Saratoga Springs - 26,568 to 28,512, 6.2 percent *For populations over 10,000 between 2010 to 2019 Source: U.S. Census Bureau See More Collapse Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen observes that a variety of housing stock - from single-family homes, to apartments, to farms - gives his Northway community an advantage in attracting new residents. Halfmoon grew the most in the Capital Region - swelling by 14.5 percent, from 21,514 to 24,635 residents. We have low taxes. We have a great environment, Tollisen said. Halfmoon, Malta and Saratoga Springs are stacked from south to north along the Northway corridor that before the coronavirus pandemic was packed with commuters headed to Albany. Tollisen said the challenge for his town is to provide the infrastructure to deal with the expanding population and the resulting demands. He said the town has focused on road improvements and is investing $2 million to connect to the county water system to provide a backup for its residents. The other municipalities in the states top 15 are led by the Hasidic majority village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, ranked first in the state and 101st nationally with growth of 31.7 percent. The town of Palm Tree, in which Kiryas Joel is located, ranked second statewide and 102nd nationally at 31.6 percent growth. By Trend Turkeys export of leather goods to Russia dropped by 28.4 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $43.5 million, the Turkish Ministry of Trade told Trend on May 19. In April 2020, export of leather goods from Turkey to Russia plunged by 68.2 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to slightly over $2.5 million. From January through April of this year, export of leather goods from Turkey to world markets slid by 19.2 percent compared to the same period of 2019 and amounted to $469.4 million. The export of leather from Turkey made up 0.9 percent of the country's total export over the reporting period. In April 2020, Turkey exported the leather goods worth over $54.4 million to the world markets, which is 61.6 percent less compared to the same month of 2019. Meanwhile, Turkeys leather export amounted to 0.6 percent of the country's total export. During the last twelve months (from April 2019 through April 2020), Turkey exported the leather goods in the amount of over $1.5 billion. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Take Inventory of Online and In-Person Payment Capabilities Install Self-Service Kiosks What to Consider Before Adding Hardware Governments are bracing for revenue shortfalls from the pandemic, with one model projecting a $900 billion decline in state budgets if the unemployment rate reaches 20 percent. Making matters worse, the pandemic shut down offices major points of sale for governments jeopardizing what revenue theyre still able to collect.Governments are moving their payment processes for taxes, fees and other functions online to maintain cashflow. But with government offices reopening, how are they going to slow the spread of the coronavirus when citizens start making in-person payments again?Most offices, if they offer off-premises transactions, will see fewer citizens walking in their doors to make payments than before the outbreak. One in four consumers are not at all interested in leaving their homes even as economies reopen, according to a PYMNTS.com survey.And digital payments are not a new trend. Citizens preference for digital payment options was already growing before COVID-19 made those options essential. Theres reason to believe that even once citizens have the option to make in-person payments again, more of them will still be going digital than pre-COVID-19.Still, citizens who lack access to banks or credit cards will need safe ways to make payments in cash. And offices will still see people coming in who simply prefer in-person transactions.But government offices dont need to become hot spots for the virus. Here are some ways they can change how they accept payments in- person to minimize the risk to their staff and their citizens.First, offices should assess what payment options each department still needs. Which critical services dont currently accept payments online or by phone? Which permits or licenses require citizens to bring a form to the office with their payment? Offices need to ensure these departments will allow citizens to keep doing business with the government agency with minimal disruption to services and cashflows.Even as offices are reopening, the focus shouldnt shift entirely to in-person payments. Governments should still consider adding online or pay-by-phone options where departments still need them.Offices are automating or streamlining other processes to help citizens complete their business remotely. For example, they can use online forms that embed payments, instead of a manual process where the user prints out a PDF, brings it to an office with payment, and the office prints out the permit or license.More offices will be adding payment kiosks to help keep cards, cash and checks from changing hands. Some offices have relied on outdoor kiosks to keep cash payments coming while theyve been closed. But even those that are only now adding kiosks will discover both short- and long-term benefits.Because they handle routine transactions more quickly than live employees, kiosks shorten lines, which promotes social distancing. Depending on their application, kiosks can help citizens help themselves with many tasks besides payment completing forms, searching records and billing information, etc. further reducing their interactions with staff. Weve seen kiosks s ave organizations hundreds of thousands of labor hours per year at the customer service counter, making it easy for customers to get in and out the door quickly.Once social distancing measures are lifted, kiosks will satisfy citizens growing desire to self-service. A survey found nearly 3 out of 4 people preferred to use self-service options , like self-checkout, over speaking with a live representative. And that portion is growing year after year.Like we just saw with digital payment platforms, COVID-19 safety concerns will have government entities rushing to adopt kiosks, but theyll be enjoying their advantages in efficiency and citizen satisfaction long after that original impetus is gone.Citizens are wary of touching PIN pads and swiping their cards where many others have. Its a fair concern: studies found that the virus can live on plastic surfaces for two to three days . In response, more governments are rolling out payment terminals that take contactless payments where payers dont swipe or dip their card but tap it or use a device like a smartphone in close proximity.Some governments are actively encouraging payers to use EMV payment, but payers may be switching to contactless payments anyway. An American Express survey found 58 percent of consumers who used contactless payments said theyre more likely to use them now than before the pandemic. The pandemic also reduced the likelihood that consumers will want to pay cash or insert or swipe a card at the point of sale.While some offices would be installing new hardware to allow contactless payments, many have payment terminals that are EMV-ready its just a matter of upgrading their service to activate contactless payments.Even if theyre accepting contactless payments, offices will want to keep their payment hardware as clean as possible where citizens touch the terminals a low-moisture alcohol-based wipe can help. To keep from damaging the devices, staff should avoid using abrasive cleaners or coating them with disinfectant. Offices should also use cleaning cards to disinfect where citizens dip and swipe on the terminals.Without kiosks or EMV-ready terminals, some offices might use their own touchscreen devices or tablets in their lobbies as a POS. Granted, it takes careful planning and close monitoring of the device to ensure the tablet is providing good service, and the application should be EMV-ready and allow for end-to-end encryption In the rush to go digital with payments, governments and agencies added different payment platforms on an as-needed basis to handle different transactions, for example, creating an awkward mix of software theyll have to untangle going forward.Unless governments are careful, this can happen again when they add in-person payment systems. Can the existing kiosk or terminal be upgraded to assume the new functions their offices need? Would a new system integrate with the governments existing software? Can a single platform handle payments both online and in-person?The pandemic is forcing governments to install more efficient, cost-saving payment processes albeit on a frenetic timeline. But the benefits go far beyond the short term. The solutions offices are using to keep citizens safer today will also provide them better service tomorrow.Forte Payment Systems, a CSG Company offers government agencies a broad range of payment solutions, including credit/debit card processing, ACH/eCheck origination, check verification, and fraud prevention. Through superior customer service and a modern payments stack, Forte is dedicated to helping governments of all sizes reduce transaction costs, mitigate risk, and increase efficiencies.For more information on payments best practices or to contact Forte, click here Cloth masks can prevent the spread of COVID-19 by blocking up to 99 per cent of infectious particles, according to scientists who analysed a century of mask studies. Canadian researchers report that cloth masks, particularly those with several layers of cotton, block viruses carried via microscopic particles in the air. Cloth layers reduce infectious particles, emitted by the wearer through coughs and sneezes, from travelling through the air and settling on surfaces, they say. Although no direct evidence indicates cloth masks reduce transmission of the virus itself, 'convincing' evidence suggests they reduce contamination of air and surfaces. An employee works on sewing the 2 tissue layers (cotton and polyester) of the face masks on April 30, 2020 in Annecy, France Some combinations of cloth, such as cotton-flannel, block more than 90 per cent of particles, they report, while a three-layer mask can reduced airborne transmission of microorganisms and surface contamination by up to 99 per cent. While the researchers don't guarantee cotton masks will prevent the wearer from becoming infected by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the new report helps clarify their efficiency when it comes to blocking infectious particles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US public health institute, advocates the use of cloth masks in a public space, although there is no substitute for clinically-approved masks in a hospital. 'Direct evidence about whether wearing a mask of any sort outside a health-care setting reduces actual transmission of COVID-19 is lacking,' said first author Catherine Clase, associate professor of medicine at McMaster University in Canada. 'This is why public-health decisions about public mask wearing have been difficult to make, and why they differ around the world. 'Our review suggests that cloth can block particles, even aerosol-sized particles, and this supports Canadian public health policy on the issue.' A worker tries on a boiler suit and face mask made at a garment factory in Russia last month People with lung conditions should NOT wear face masks People who have asthma or other lung conditions should not wear a face mask if it makes it difficult for them to breathe, experts say. Those with asthma or illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or cystic fibrosis may have to avoid masks or face coverings. Masks can make it more difficult to draw air into the lungs, trigger asthma for some patients and cause anxiety, therefore changing breathing patterns. People should wear a mask if they comfortably can, to protect themselves and others around them, but not risk their own health in the process. The UK government has also said: 'Face coverings should not be used by children under the age of 2 or those who may find it difficult to manage them correctly.' Advertisement While cloth does not stop the virus itself, it does block particles generated by speaking, eating, coughing, and sneezing, which carry the virus. Cloth blocks droplets more than five micrometres in diameter and aerosols a suspension of liquid particles, each less than five micrometres in diameter. This means a virus-laden particle emitted by an infected mask wearer is kept within the mask, and can't hang in the air or settle onto a surface. The research team examined a century of evidence on masks, and found strong evidence showing that cloth-based objects and cloth masks can reduce contamination of air and surfaces. Most of these studies looked at filtration efficiency, which is the ability of a material to block transmission, expressed as a percentage. The team said masks are not assessed separately for every pathogen, and filtration efficiency depends on particles of different sizes, regardless of which pathogen the particle contains. In 1962, researchers found that a mask made of three layers muslin-flannel-muslin reduced surface contamination by 99 per cent, total airborne microorganisms by 99 percent and bacteria recovered from the smaller particles and aerosols by 88 per cent to 99 per cent. Woman making homemade face mask with a sewing machine in her home while in quarantine. Evidence shows that cloth masks, particularly those with several layers of cotton cloth, block droplet and aerosol contamination of the environment Tailor Yalcine of Boulard Retouche prepares face protective masks in cotton sewn in his shop at the Daguerre district in Paris Another experiment in 1975 compared four medical masks and one commercially-produced reusable mask made out of four layers of cotton muslin. The mask was shown to reduce all particles by 99 per cent, compared with 96 per cent to 99 per cent for contemporary disposable medical masks. Even for the smaller aerosols, the cloth mask was comparable with the medical masks of the day, the researchers said. Because the filtration of cloth varies, cotton from common items of clothing, such as layers of scarf, sweatshirt and t-shirt, may only have a filtration efficiency between 10 to 40 per cent, another study from 2010 suggests. However, 2013 experiments showed just one layer of tea towel had a 72 per cent efficiency and one layer of T-shirt fabric 51 per cent. And more recently, a 2020 study claims some fabrics block 'clinically useful' percentages of transmission, even for aerosols and even in single layers, although multiple layers improve their efficiency. However, there can be one risky drawback from wearing multiple layers of cloth over one's face. Cotton protective face masks on display in a vending machine with a slogan reading 'masks here' at a subway station in Berlin 'In terms of making masks, it is important to realise that more layers will give more protection, both inward and outward, but will make it harder to breathe,' said Dr Clase. 'For this reason, it is not recommended that children under two and people with breathing difficulties wear masks.' While previous studies have potential to block viral particles, Dr Clase and her team stress that they homemade masks shouldn't be a substitute for medically certified personal protective equipment. 'We recognise the potential for unintended consequences, such as use of formal personal protective equipment by the general public, incorrect use of cloth masks, or reduced hand hygiene because of a false sense of security,' they write in Annals of Internal Medicine. 'These can be mitigated by controlling the distribution of personal protective equipment, clear messaging, public education, and social pressure.' Advocating that the public make and wear cloth masks also 'shifts the cost of a public health intervention from society to the individual'. 'In low-resource areas and for persons living in poverty, this is unacceptable.' A judge is to view CCTV evidence again in the case against veteran comedian Sil Fox, who is accused of groping a woman as he had a photograph taken with her on a night out. Judge Paula Murphy told Dublin District Court she would watch the video footage once more before deciding on a defence application to have the case dismissed. She will rule on the application tomorrow. Sylvester Fox (87) has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault on a woman at a bar in the south city centre on December 17, 2018. Evidence for the prosecution concluded at the non-jury court earlier this year. The court has heard Mr Fox agreed to a request for a selfie picture with the middle-aged complainant, who had been on a Christmas night out. The woman alleged he "put his hand on to my lap, on to my groin and he tickled my vagina, and doing so he said 'you will always remember where this picture was taken'". She claimed when she confronted him he said "you should be so lucky" and told her "this is ridiculous, this is stupid". Grainy The court heard Mr Fox told gardai the woman was a liar and trying to "ruin my name". Defence barrister Emer Ni Chuagain asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused. State solicitor Alva O'Herlihy said while CCTV had been shown, the footage was grainy, unclear and "not conclusive". She said the prosecution was not relying on this but on the evidence of the alleged victim. She asked the judge to view the footage again. Ms Ni Chuagain said it was clear the alleged victim's recollection had been incorrect in some respects and that "causes difficulties". She said the woman had denied she took some of photos that were on her phone but it was clear that they were all taken on that phone and not sent to her by someone else. The accused, who grew up in the Liberties but has an address at Wellington Lawn, Templeogue, sat in the dock area of the court while the lawyers for each side addressed the judge. The alleged victim was also present in court. If the judge does not dismiss the case, a date will need to be set for the trial to resume. Related Cos. Chairman Stephen Ross said the hotel and retail industries are being hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, as travel has been dramatically curtailed and retail businesses have been forced to close up shop. The crisis will force many retailers into bankruptcy, he said. That would add to a number of them, including department store chains Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and Stage Stores, and apparel maker J.Crew, that have already filed. "You are going to have such a flood of cases going to the bankruptcy court," Ross told CNBC Tuesday morning during an interview on "Squawk Box." "And these aren't really the type of bankruptcies that were induced by bad practices," he said. "It's really all driven by the pandemic." In addition to malls and shopping centers, Related owns residential and office space across the U.S. In New York City, it operates the glitzy Hudson Yards mall and the Shops at Columbus Circle both of which remain shuttered as the city, the hardest hit in the nation, continues to employ drastic measures meant to curb the spread of the virus. Hudson Yards, notably, is anchored by the now-bankrupt Neiman Marcus. Ross added he is most concerned about small business owners in the retail and restaurant business not being able to turn their lights back on. "Many of them probably don't have the wherewithal to reopen," he said. The retail bankruptcy filings also threaten thousands of more workers in an economy that has already suffered tens of millions of lost jobs. Meantime, Related's CEO, Jeff Blau, recently told CNBC that many of the company's retail tenants had been deferring rent payments, as they try to work through the crisis. By mid-April, he said Related had collected about 35% of April rents from its retail tenants overall. In its enclosed shopping malls, only about 20% of rent checks had come in, Blau said at the time. Retail real estate landlords such as Simon, Brookfield and Macerich have been grappling with how to operate their businesses when rent is not being paid on time. Today Georgian people mark Independence Day, commemorating May 26, 1918 the day when the Act of Independence was adopted and which established the First Democratic Republic of Georgia. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, no large-scale events will take place around the country, with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia marking the date with the countrys armed forces, on the base of the fourth mechanised brigade. "Over the past several years, May 26 has been marked as a large-scale public holiday," Prime Ministers spokesperson Irakli Chikovani said. "This year, due to the pandemic, we have to mark this very important holiday in a different style and avoid public gatherings," Agenda.ge cited him as saying. After being a part of the former Soviet Union, the country regained its sovereignty on April 9, 1991. SpiceJet technician dies after being stuck in aircraft's landing gear door at Kolkata airport AirAsia flight makes emergency landing at Kolkata airport after woman claims she has bomb Coronavirus: WB govt provides thermal scanners to Kolkata airport for surveillance Coronavirus: Infected person ignored Kolkata airport authority's advice to get admit in hospital Centre probes if Prashant Kishor took a flight during lockdown Watch: Honeybees swarm land on two flights at Kolkata airport Kolkata resumes domestic flights today amid COVID-19 lockdown India oi-Briti Roy Barman Kolkata, May 26: West Bengal government has resumed domestic flights in the state from 28 May. The state govt on Tuesday has issued guidelines for domestic air travel. According to the guidelines all passengers need to submit self-declaration forms on arrival and monitor their health for 14 days. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News Karnataka govt allows exemptions for ministers, airlines crew from quarantine norms On May 25, domestic flight operations across the nation was resumed after two months of nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 lockdown. West Bengal government issues guidelines for domestic air travel, all passengers to submit self-declaration forms on arrival and monitor their health for 14 days. Flights will resume in the state from 28 May. pic.twitter.com/wh2qfY9aeH ANI (@ANI) May 26, 2020 Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri on Twitter announced that domestic flight operations would start in a "calibrated manner". As west Bengal was badly hit by the cyclone Amphan the state govt delayed the flight resuming to May 28. West Bengal has started flights with a reduced schedule of 20 flights per day, the airport authority said. From protective gear for crew to aircraft deep cleaning: Airlines prepare to resume domestic ops However, many states expressed serious reservations to the Centre's decision to start the flight services. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh have announced their respective quarantine measures for passengers arriving at their airports. As part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic, Ghanas AE team will be providing food parcels to impoverished community members. The team has also chosen to reach out to another vulnerable group at this time: healthcare workers. Across the world, healthcare workers are risking their lives, and the lives of their family members, to continue to provide care in the face of COVID-19. In this broken world, healthcare workers are subject not only to physical illness, but also to the depths of mental anguish found within the human experience. In a nation like Ghana, the challenges seem insurmountable. Annual healthcare spending is a mere $ 67 per capita in Ghana, compared to $ 5,332 in Australia (World Bank). With a healthcare system that falls short of meeting the basic needs of its citizens, Ghana is utterly ill-prepared for this pandemic, and its frontline healthcare staff absolutely vulnerable. The team of AE Ghana, under the leadership of Bernard Sachie, will be donating medical supplies to the Kasoa Polyclinic, near Accra. The supplies, approved by Ghanas Food and Drug Authority, will include gloves, liquid soap, face masks, alcohol-based sanitizer and disinfectant. The team members who are authorised to deliver the supplies, will utilise their opportunity to encourage the clinics healthcare staff with the eternal hope found in Christ alone. Health care workers, who serve to bring healing to this world, are heroic indeed. But they are not heroes. They are humans who desperately need our prayers and support, now more than ever. Find out more about African Enterprise, its missions and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa via https://africanenterprise.com.au/stories/ New Delhi : Congress today said Odisha Chief Minister Navin Patnaik should apologise to a tribal man in his state who had to walk 10 km carrying his wifes body on his shoulder after failing to get a vehicle from a government hospital. Partys chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the incident was such a shocking one that the chief minister besides ordering an inquiry, should personally apologise to the man. Is this the Odisha that BJD promised for the people, where even basic dignity is denied to the people? he wondered. Authorities today ordered a probe to ascertain the circumstances which led to the incident. Locals found Majhi carrying his wife Amang Deis body along with his 12-year-old daughter. The 42-year-old woman had died of TB at the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna. Majhi has said despite all efforts, he failed to get any help from hospital authorities and had no other alternative than to wrap the body in a cloth and start walking to his village Melghara in Rampur block, about 60 km from Bhawanipatna. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Nasa and SpaceX are on course to make history on Wednesday as they launch two astronauts into space from US soil for the first time since 2011. Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will journey to the International Space Station (ISS) at around 9.30pm UK time on May 27, in a spacecraft built by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musks firm. It will also be the first time a private company has attempted to send astronauts into space. Heres everything you need to know about this mission. What is the purpose of this mission? Our sons version of Crew Dragon. I love it. pic.twitter.com/GIYRRMOXd4 Col. Doug Hurley (@Astro_Doug) April 30, 2020 The mission, known as Demo-2, will allow the US to once again send humans into space. According to Nasa, this is a demonstration mission to show SpaceXs ability to ferry astronauts to the space station and back safely. It is the final major step required by SpaceXs astronaut carrier, the Crew Dragon, to get certified by Nasas Commercial Crew Programme for more long-term manned missions to space. Who are Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley? Nasa astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in their spacesuits designed by SpaceX (SpaceX/Nasa/PA) Mr Behnken, 48, and Mr Hurley, 53, are experienced Nasa astronauts who have been involved in testing of the Crew Dragon capsule. Mr Hurley, who was a fighter pilot in the US Marine Corps, was on the final flight of the space shuttle Atlantis in 2011 before it was discontinued. Mr Behnken was a flight test engineer with the US Air Force before joining Nasa, and has spent just over 29 days in space, which includes 37 hours of spacewalking time. He will serve as the missions joint operations commander and take responsibility for the rendezvous, docking and undocking of the Dragon capsule, while Mr Hurley will be in charge of the launch, landing and recovery of the vehicle in his role as the Crew Dragon spacecraft commander. Story continues The two men will be wearing spacesuits designed by SpaceX with help from Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez. How will the astronauts get to the space station? Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 in the hangar at Launch Complex 39A pic.twitter.com/l758CdYXNQ SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 21, 2020 The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft with Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley strapped inside. Shortly after lift-off, the rocket will separate into what is called a first stage and a second stage. The first stage will return to a SpaceX landing ship which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, while the second part of the rocket continue the journey with the Crew Dragon. Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon will then separate from the second stage and travel at around 17,000mph before being in a position to rendezvous, and dock, with the space station 24 hours later. What will they do when they are in the space station? The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida (SpaceX/Nasa/PA) Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley will test the Crew Dragons environmental control system, the displays and controls, and the manoeuvring thrusters. They will also monitor the autonomous docking system during the approach to the space station, according to Nasa. The duo will become members of the Expedition 63 crew and perform further tests on the Crew Dragon along with other tasks related to the space station. But the pairs main mission is to conclude the validation process that is required by Nasa to ensure the spacecraft designed to carry astronauts can operate safely. How and when will they return? (PA Graphics) The Demo-2 mission is expected to last anything between one and four months. But Nasa said the duration of this mission would be determined by when the next commercial crew will be able to travel to the space station. The spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days. When it is time to return, the Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley on board and depart the space station. Shortly after firing up its engines to re-enter the Earths atmosphere, the spacecraft will deploy four parachutes to slow its descent and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida. SpaceXs recovery ship, called Go Navigator, will be waiting nearby to retrieve the duo and ferry them to Cape Canaveral. Why did Nasa stop sending astronauts into space? #LaunchAmerica: Were sending U.S. astronauts to the @Space_Station on a U.S. rocket from U.S. soil at 4:33pm ET on Wednesday, May 27. Heres how you can watch: https://t.co/ChRxWaIkNP pic.twitter.com/PXTBqcAD85 NASA (@NASA) May 25, 2020 In 2010, the US started to wind down its space shuttle programme which had carried astronauts into orbit for three decades with the aim of focusing on building technology for Moon and Mars missions. Nasa asked private companies such as Space X and Boeing to design the technologies which would allow passengers to travel to space, while opting to pay Russia to send American astronauts to the space station as an interim arrangement. Whats next? If Demo-2 is successful, SpaceX will be allowed to go ahead with more manned missions to the space stations as part of their 2.6 billion US dollar (2.1 billion) contract with Nasa. Boeing also has a similar deal with the space agency, worth 4.2 billion US dollars (3.4 billion), to send astronauts to the space station in its CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, although its vehicle is not expected to be ready until next year. The exterior of the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AFP / Getty Images) The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal from Trump administration lawyers who sought to preemptively block the release of any inmates from an Ohio prison who were at high risk for COVID-19. Over dissents from three conservatives, the court said it would not intervene for now. But the court left the door open for the administration to appeal again if and when the federal judge presiding over the case decides to require the release of certain inmates. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they voted to grant the administration's appeal. A federal judge in Cleveland had ordered the warden of a low-security prison to consider sending home, releasing or transferring some of the 837 inmates who were over age 65 or had medical conditions that put them at high risk. Last week, Solicitor Gen. Noel Francisco urged the justices to intervene in the Ohio prison case, Williams vs. Wilson. He argued that the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 curbed the power of federal judges to rule on disputes over prison conditions. "The government is currently facing numerous suits challenging conditions of confinement in federal prisons across the nation," he said, contending the prisoners' lawyers are seeking to require the wholesale release of inmates from low-security prisons by imposing "a constitutional six-feet-at-all-times rule" for social distancing. However, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union said it would be "a tremendous mistake" to intervene. "We commend the court for choosing to reaffirm the rights of the people incarcerated at Elkton prison, for whom a prison sentence must not become a death sentence," David Cole, the ACLU's legal director, said in response to Tuesday's order. "This is an extraordinary moment, and the lives of 2.3 million incarcerated people around the country are at serious risk from COVID-19. We must see more brave action from courts around the country to protect the lives of incarcerated people, staff who work in these facilities, and the communities they return home to. History will judge us based on how swiftly and boldly we act." Story continues The solicitor general's emergency appeal was filed with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees the 6th Circuit Court based in Ohio. Tuesday's brief order cited the "procedural posture" of the case as the main reason for denying the appeal. The Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in northeast Ohio has been hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak. By early May, nine inmates had died, and one in four of those tested were positive. A lawsuit filed on behalf of four inmates alleged that the conditions were inhumane and unconstitutional, with 2,500 inmates housed in cramped dormitory-style facilities, and crowded together when they slept, ate or bathed. In response, U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin on April 22 ordered the prison to evaluate its prison population and identify those who were at high risk because they were 65 or older or had medical conditions like asthma or a heart ailment that put them in danger if they contracted the virus. The prison subsequently said 837 inmates were in those categories. But officials later said only five of the inmates were suitable candidates to be confined at home or released. The lawyers who brought the suit expressed surprise, given that Atty. Gen. William Barr had told the federal Bureau of Prisons in late March to consider early release or home confinement in response to the virus. Frustrated, the judge issued a new order May 19 telling prison officials to send home or release the high-risk inmates or transfer them to another prison, or explain why they did not do so in each case. He said he wanted all the inmates to be reevaluated by Tuesday. In Tuesday's order, the justices noted the government appealed the April 22 order, but not the extra measures adopted May 19. For that reason, the court said it would allow the May 19 order to remain in effect, but that the Trump administration could seek another stay "if circumstances warrant." That might include, for example, an order from the judge requiring the release of a significant number of inmates. The BBC has announced that it will air two new documentaries about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on society. Fighting The Virus will see doctors and twin brothers Chris and Xand van Tulleken explore how medical professionals are responding to the virus outbreak. In the BBC One documentary Chris, who is a doctor in infectious diseases at a hospital in London, will discuss the front line healthcare response to the virus. Xand, who has been volunteering with humanitarian aid groups helping combat coronavirus, will explore how it has affected communities. He said: Every single person in the UK is involved in the response to the pandemic. It is the most far-reaching medical challenge in living memory and one of the largest in history. The NHS and patient care are at the heart of that as well as seeing the severity of the illness in its most extreme forms we wanted to capture the impact communities, especially those we hear less from struggling parents, homeless people, community groups to get a sense of the scale and complexity of the problems. The BBC has also commissioned Keeping Britain Fed, which will show how supermarkets have been ensuring that the public have access to food during the pandemic. Expand Close Cox will present the programme (Lia Toby/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cox will present the programme (Lia Toby/PA) Video of the Day Presenters Sara Cox and Ade Adepitan will visit food retailers to see how they have responded to the crisis. The BBC Two programme will also look at how shopping habits have altered as a result of the virus outbreak. Cox said: Like everyone else in the country, Ive learned over the past few weeks how much of a crucial role our supermarkets, small shops, suppliers and farmers play in keeping us fed in times of crisis. Im really excited to meet the key worker heroes at the very heart of this huge effort to provide us with our weekly shop from keeping shelves fully stacked and managing queues to delivering food to our door. Keralas coronavirus disease (Covid-19) death toll went up to seven after a 62-year-old woman died at the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital on Monday night, health officials said. They said the woman, a resident of Kannur, was a paralytic and was suffering from many other ailments. Her husband, who works in a market in Thalassery, has also tested positive. The source of infection is not yet traced. Many such cases have been detected in north Kerala in the last few days. A woman, who was injured after a jackfruit hit her on her head, tested positive in Kannur two days ago. Nobody had tested positive in her neighbourhood or house before her. Similarly, a man with a spinal injury later tested positive. Kerala had a good track record with effective tracking and surveillance measures but after expatriates and people stranded in other states started flocking to the state in large the number of Covid-19 cases shot up. At least one lakh people have returned to the state in the last two weeks. Officials say at least 80% of the recent cases are imported. There are around 1.80 million Kerala residents working in Middle-Eastern countries alone. At least 50 flights are expected from the Gulf this week as part of the Vande Bharat evacuation plan. Kerala was first in the country to report a Covid-19 case in January after a medical student returned from Chinas Wuhan. But it managed well in containing the virus in the first two stages with its effective intervention and surveillance. Another worry for the state is that at least nine health workers have been infected in the last three days. Out of the 896 Covid-19 cases reported in the state, 359 are active and around one lakh people are under observation. SC directs states to reach out to 10,000 kids orphaned due to Covid-19, pay compensation India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes Mask not required for children below 5: Govt issues revised Covid guidelines Rajasthans COVID-19 tally now stands at 7,376 India oi-Vicky Nanjappa Jaipur, May 26: Rajasthan on Tuesday recorded 76 new cases of coronavirus, officials said. The number of cases in the state now stand at 7,376 and fatalities at 167. "As many as 76 fresh cases were reported in the state," additional chief secretary (health), Rohit Kumar Singh, said. Coronavirus outbreak: Bihar to soon reach 3,000-mark; State govt blames migrant workers India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News Of the new cases, Jaipur recorded 16 followed by 13 in Udaipur, 12 in Jhalawar, 11 in Rajsamand, five each in Jhunjhunu and Bikaner, four each in Nagaur and Kota, three in Pali, two in Dholpur and one in Bharatpur, officials said. A total 3,606 patients have been discharged after recovering from the disease, they said, adding that there are 3,137 active cases in the state. Jaipur has recorded the maximum 79 deaths and 1844 positive cases in the state followed by 17 deaths and 1,271 cases in Jodhpur. Of the total positive cases in the state, 1,869 migrants that travelled from different parts of the country to Rajasthan have tested positive. India records 6,535 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24-hours, death toll climbs to 4,167 The entire state is under lockdown since March 22 and massive screening and search is underway to trace the contagion. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 12:24 [IST] Heavy debts inherited from government bailouts and other fund-raising moves will delay the airline industry's recovery from the coronavirus crisis, a trade body said on Tuesday. Global airline debts are set to rise by more than a quarter to $550 billion by the end of the year after governments announced $123 billion in total support, the International Air Transport Association said. That includes $67 billion of liabilities that must be repaid and $11.5 billion in equity financing. On top of the $123 billion from taxpayers, another $52 billion comes from commercial sources such as bank loans. With the amount of new equity raised dwarfed by debt the airlines have taken on, their balance sheets will on average be weaker when they emerge from the crisis. That means the industry's woes will last longer than the time it takes for passenger demand to recover, IATA said. "The treatment is creating a problem with the patient which will need to be dealt with once we get into the recovery period," Chief Economist Brian Pearce told reporters. "If we don't see any improvement in the restart period, we are certainly fearful that we are going to see a number of failures." The warning came as Chile's LATAM filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection. IATA data showed the lion's share of bailouts came in the United States and western Europe, where Germany has agreed a 9-billion-euro package for Lufthansa. "Airlines particularly in Latin America need strong government support," IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac told a news conference. IATA meanwhile urged governments to keep politics out of border controls after Britain and France became embroiled in a row over quarantine rules. France has signalled it will impose equivalent measures after Britain announced a 14-day quarantine for people arriving from mainland Europe. De Juniac said border restrictions related to the epidemic should be driven by science. "Tit-for-tat quarantine measures are unacceptable," he said, adding IATA would not comment on individual states. UK airlines have said the quarantine would be devastating for the airline sector. Britain says the measure is needed to slow the spread of disease. Search Keywords: Short link: Pull Quote How did the richest country in the world become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, with one person dying every 47 seconds? World-renowned intellectual and author Noam Chomsky called U.S. President Donald Trump a "sociopathic megalomaniac" whose leadership drove the U.S. to become "singularly unprepared" for the coronavirus pandemic. Chomsky's fresh criticism of the president came in an interview with Agence France-Presse published on Memorial Day. "The White House," said Chomsky, "is in the hands of a sociopathic megalomaniac who's interested in nothing but his own power, electoral prospects." Trump "doesn't care what happens to the country, the world," though he's still reliant on "his primary constituency, which is great wealth and corporate power," Chomsky said. The administration has "no coordinated plan" for addressing the pandemic, meaning the nation will see "a lot more" deaths from Covid-19 on top of the nearly 100,000 confirmed fatalities that have already occurred, he added. Setting the stage for the current situation is that Trump kicked off his administration by moving to take apart "the entire pandemic prevention machinery," including by "canceling programs that were working with Chinese scientists to identify potential viruses," Chomsky said. Another contributing factor to the flawed response, said Chomsky, is that the nation is "in the stranglehold of private control," an example of which is the lack of a national single-payer healthcare system. "It's the ultimate neoliberal system, actually," he said. While Chomsky predicted a recovery from the pandemic will come eventually and "at severe cost," the same cannot be said of the climate crisis. "There isn't going to be any recovery from the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of sea levels," he warned. Chomsky's fresh comments to AFP follow similarly scathing recent rebukes of the Trump administration. In an interview earlier this month with the Guardian, Chomsky was asked if Trump was "culpable in deaths of Americans." Pull Quote In the interview with Democracy Now!, Chomsky said Trumps speeches remind him of listening on the radio as a child to Hitler rallies, both in terms of the rhetoric and the adulation of the crowd. But Chomsky said that unlike Hitler, Trump has no agenda beyond feeding his ego. "Yes," responded, "but it's much worse than that, because the same is true internationally. To try and cover up his criminal attacks against the American people, which have been going on all of this time, he's flailing about to try and find scapegoats." Chomsky also recently took aim at Trump's policies that are worsening the climate crisis, telling Canada's National Observer last month that the U.S. president "wants to destroy the prospects for all organized human life. And in the near future. That's what it means to maximize the use of fossil fuels, to cut regulations that might diminish or restrict that danger." But as bad as Trump is, Chomsky noted that the groundwork was laid well before the failed business owner walked into the Oval Office. In an April interview with Democracy Now!, Chomsky said: Trump is taking a failing, lethal system and turning it into a monstrosity, but the roots were before him. Just think back to the reason why the pandemic occurred in the first place. Drug companies are following capitalist logic. They don't want to do anything. The neoliberal hammer says the government can't do anything the way it did in the past. You're caught in a vise. Then comes along Trump and makes it incomparably worse. But the roots of the crisis are pre-Trump. Pull Quote Chomsky says a contributing factor to the nations flawed pandemic response is "the stranglehold of private control," an example being the lack of a national healthcare system. The same with the healthcare system. Like we know that everyone knows they should know the basic facts. It's an international scandal: twice the costs of comparable countries, some of the worst outcomes. The costs were recently estimated by a study in The Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals. They estimated that the costs, the annualannual costs to Americans are close to half a trillion dollars and 68,000 lives lost. That's not so small. Going forward, Chomsky suggested there are lessons to be learned from the coronavirus crisis. "One lesson is that it's another colossal failure of the neoliberal version of capitalism. Massive failure," Chomsky told Efe last month. "If we don't learn that lesson," he said, "it's going to recur worse next time." Geneva, May 26 : A healthy and resilient ocean can help tackle climate change while providing sustainable food sources and jobs around the world. Half of the world's GDP is dependent on nature, according to the World Economic Forum, and more than three billion people rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. As countries begin to manage the economic and social impact of COVID-19, the ocean can be part of the solution. To fast-track the innovations necessary for a healthy ocean, the Friends of Ocean Action, with the World Economic Forum, will convene the first Virtual Ocean Dialogues. From June 1 to 5, heads of state and government, leaders from business, members of civil society and scientific communities will gather at a virtual summit to share innovation and solutions. It will give participants the opportunity to share and scale projects worldwide, accelerating their benefits. The event will be open to the public. "We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to achieve action for a healthy ocean, and with the Virtual Ocean Dialogues we are creating the opportunity to involve more people than ever before. No matter where you live and work in the world you can participate in these dialogues -- all you need is an interest in the future of two-thirds of our planet," said Kristian Teleki, Director of Friends of Ocean Action, World Economic Forum. Boosting ocean protection, tackling marine pollution, financing a sustainable blue economy and prioritizing data and science to feed billions will feature across the programme. The dialogues have been designed for communities around the world to connect and exchange ideas. During the event, finalists will be announced from the UpLink Ocean Solutions Sprint -- a competition to unearth great ideas to solve the critical challenges of illegal fishing and plastic pollution. UpLink is a digital platform to crowdsource innovations to accelerate delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is an open platform designed to engage anyone who wants to contribute to the global public good. "The global community needs ideas and leadership to maintain action for a healthy ocean. I am delighted to support the Virtual Ocean Dialogues and invite anyone with a concern for the ocean to participate in these critical discussions. All of our lives depend on a thriving ocean, and on fast-tracking solutions to rebuild a resilient global community. The health of our ocean underpins the oxygen we breathe, provides food and job security for billions, and is our greatest ally in tackling climate change. We must prioritize the ocean, and that is what this event aims to achieve," said Isabella Lovin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Environment and Climate for Sweden, and Co-Chair of Friends of Ocean Action. "The UN Ocean Conference has been postponed, but will be held in Lisbon as soon as conditions allow. To fill the gap in the calendar left by this postponement, the World Economic Forum and the Friends of Ocean Action have organised the Virtual Ocean Dialogues on 1-5 June. I have big expectations as to the quality and outcomes of these high-level, expert dialogues, and in the build-up to the UN Ocean Conference will ensure their findings are made available to all," said Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, and Co-Chair of Friends of Ocean Action. The Friends of Ocean Action is a coalition of 58 ocean leaders who are fast-tracking solutions to the most pressing challenges facing the ocean. Its members come from business, civil society, international organisations, science and technology. It is hosted by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Resources Institute. After another weekslong absence from public view, North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, has convened the countrys top military-governing body, outlining new policies for further increasing its nuclear capabilities and promoting top weapons officials, the Norths state-run media said on Sunday. New York Times reports in its article Kim Jong-un Moves to Increase North Koreas Nuclear Strength that Mr. Kims attendance at the meeting was his first public activity reported by the North Korean media in three weeks. A weekslong absence from public view last month prompted rumors that he might have health issues or other trouble, and the repeat this month sparked similar rumors. During the meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers Party of Korea, Mr. Kim was said to have promoted Ri Pyong-chol to vice chairman of the commission, expanding his influence. Mr. Ri has been in charge of building nuclear weapons and their delivery missiles. Mr. Kim also promoted nearly 70 general officers, elevating Pak Jong-chon, a career military commander specializing in artillery and missile forces, to vice marshal, only a year after he was made a four-star general and chief of the North Korean armys general staff. Both Mr. Ri and Mr. Pak were among North Korean officials whose roles appeared to expand under Mr. Kims government as he refocused on expanding his countrys nuclear and missile capabilities following the collapse of his diplomacy with President Trump. Set forth at the meeting were new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert operation, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency reported on Sunday. Taken at the meeting were crucial measures for considerably increasing the firepower strike ability of the artillery pieces of the Korean Peoples Army. The news agency did not say when the meeting took place, although it usually reports Mr. Kims public activities a day after they happen. Nor did it clarify what Mr. Kims new policies on his nuclear weapons might be. Since taking over his country following the death of his father and predecessor, Kim Jong-il, in 2011, Mr. Kim has accelerated his countrys nuclear weapons and missile programs. North Korea has conducted the last four of its six underground nuclear tests under his rule. It also flight-tested three intercontinental ballistic missile tests in 2017. Mr. Kim then switched to diplomacy, meeting Mr. Trump in Singapore in June 2018 and again in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February last year. But their meetings failed to reach an agreement on how to eliminate North Koreas nuclear weapons programs or when to ease United Nations sanctions against the North. In May last year, North Korea broke an 18-month hiatus in weapons tests, conducting 18 tests of mostly short-range ballistic missiles and rockets since. In December, it conducted two ground tests at its missile-engine test site to bolster what it called its nuclear deterrent. Mr. Pak at the time said that the data from the tests would help develop another strategic weapon. In December, Mr. Kim said that his country no longer felt bound by its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, and threatened to unveil a new strategic weapon. Mr. Kims weekslong absence from public view last month inspired speculation that he might be brain-dead or otherwise incapacitated. He dispelled such rumors by visiting a fertilizer factory on May 1. The military commission meeting was his first reported public activity since then. AIS plays down 8.3bn-record leak THAILAND: Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), Thailands largest mobile operator, has denied its users data are compromised as reported by an American online technology publisher, saying the logs only show an overall picture of internet use, not personal or sensitive information of its customers. technology By Bangkok Post Tuesday 26 May 2020, 08:59AM It was reported yesterday (May 25) AIS had pulled a database offline after 8.3 billion realtime internet records of millions of Thai users were leaked. Photo: Bangkok Post Saichon Sapmak-udom, chief of public relations, told Thai media the revelation by TechCrunch was a result of a test this month to improve its network. We insist no customer data are compromised, financial or anything else, she said. She added AIS valued customers privacy and had always complied with the highest international privacy standards. TechCrunch, which was acquired by online service provider AOL 10 years ago, reported yesterday (May 25) AIS had pulled a database offline after 8.3 billion realtime internet records of millions of Thai users were leaked. The article quoted security researcher Justin Paines, who blogged he had found a server of AWN, one of AIS subsidiaries, left exposed to the internet without authentication. It contained the database with DNS queries and Netflow data. DNS queries are demands sent from a users device to a DNS server asking for the URL of the website he wants to access. The process happens transparently behind the scene every time a user clicks a link and types a URL. DNS queries dont carry private messages, emails, or sensitive data like passwords, they can identify which websites you access and which apps you use... But that could be a major problem for high-risk individuals, like journalists and activists, whose internet records could be used to identify their sources read the article. Advertisers also find DNS data valuable for serving targeted ads. Netflow data contain the IP flow information of a network. They contain IP addresses, dispensed by ISPs, and if mapped with usage records kept by them, can identify a device. With access to the database, Mr Paine said that anyone could quickly paint a picture about what an internet user or their household does in realtime, the kind of devices they owned, which antivirus they ran, and which browsers they used, and which social media apps and websites they frequented. He claimed to have alerted AIS about the database on May 13 but received no response after seven days. He then told Thailands national computer emergency response team (ThaiCERT) on May 21 and the database was inaccessible shortly later. Interestingly enough, AWN had this DNS dashboard saved with a filter specifically looking at Facebook traffic. Its unclear why they would be particularly interested in who was going to Facebook, Mr Paines wrote. A man from Guatemala was the second immigrant who died due to COVID-19 complications while under the U.S. immigration custody, according to a recently published article. U.S. Immigration Custody The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that more than 1,200 have tested positive for the virus while they are under U.S. immigration custody. The agency added that they have screened roughly 50 percent of the 2,349 detainees. Last week, the agency reported that they are holding around 26,600 immigrants across the country both in local and private jail prisons which form the largest immigration detention system in the world. Their operation continues even amid the global pandemic and now they reviewing immigrants under their custody who are at high risk. The detention facility in the United States holds immigrants in the country who entered the country illegally. It could be passing illegally through the northern and southern borders or those who overstayed and still continued to work. They are now in the immigration custody and just waiting for the schedule of their deportation. First Immigrant Who Died Due to COVID-19 The first immigrant who died while under the U.S. immigration custody was Carlos Ernesto Escobar Majia from El Salvador who lived in the U.S. since the 1980s. He died due to COVID-19 complications earlier this month in a nearby hospital in San Diego. He was transferred from a for-profit prison ICE that holds more than hundreds of immigrants. Now, more immigrants are facing the same fortune as well while they are waiting for their deportation. The contagion in places like these is very rampant because of the space. Aside from the prison cells where it has recorded hundreds of infections in Latin America, ICE has now recorded thousands. The Second Immigrant Who Died Due to COVID-19 Complications While Under the ICE Another immigrant who was just waiting for his deportation back to his native land died recently while still under the ICE. The Guatemalan man was identified as Santiago Baten-Oxlag, 34 years old, who died at a hospital in Columbus, Georgia. In a statement released by the ICE, they said: "ICE is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of this incident, as it does in all such cases." Additionally, it is still unknown if Baten-Oxlag, who had been in custody since early March had pre-existing medical conditions. There are 16 other immigrants who tested positive at the Stewart Detention Center where Baten-Oxlag was detained based on the report. U.S. immigration authorities already notified the Guatemalan government about Baten-Oxlag's sudden death .They included the officers of the inspector general and professional responsibility within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Advocates and some lawmakers are calling on ICE to reduce its detainees as the number of immigrants under their custody who tested positive for the virus continues to spike. They firmly believed that detainees cannot protect themselves while they are in an environment where social distancing is not possible. Read related articles: The report is entitled Permian Basin Enriching Texas and was developed by the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. Were excited about the report, PBPA President Ben Shepperd told the Reporter-Telegram in a telephone interview. He added, This is different from other reports in that it focused on the Texas side of the Permian Basin. The report takes a comprehensive look at the data and Shepperd explained that was needed because, certainly these days everyone knows the Permian Basin and are well aware of the tremendous impact of oil and gas, not just in Texas but globally. But the contributions are not as well known. We felt it was important to try and paint a clearer picture of the impact. To get a better understanding of the industrys contributions, he said they needed to start with a baseline. If you dont know where youve been, youll never know where youre going, he observed. According to the report, Texas oil and gas producers directly contributed a record $13.4 billion to the Texas treasury through taxes and royalties, just beating the 2014 record of $13.3 billion. The record set in 2014 was driven by oil prices whereas in 2019 it was driven by production the price of oil had fallen 40 percent during that time while production was up 67 percent. The report found that in 2014, $6.4 billion or 48 percent came from the Permian Basin. By 2019, the Permian accounted for $9 billion or 67 percent of Texas oil and gas taxes and royalties. The thing that surprised me was the fact that, as much as Texas likes to brag about its oil and gas, all of the growth in the last five years has been in the Permian Basin, Dale Craymer, TTARA president, told the Reporter-Telegram by telephone. The states numbers are off the charts, but theyre off the charts because of the Permian Basin. That $9 billion paid by Permian producers is the equivalent of $312 for every man, woman and child in Texas or $937 for a family of three, what Craymer called a Permian Dividend for the rest of the state. If you look at the taxes Permian Basin producers pay, severance taxes yes, but also a lot of sales taxes about everything used to drill a well is subject to sales tax and property taxes, if you just focus on the Permian Basin, thats $900 per family the industry is paying that individuals dont have to, Craymer said. The industry generates enough revenue so that Texas doesnt have to ask other taxpayers to pony up. Those taxes fund education, roads, health care, he pointed out. The industry is, he said, Texas goose that lays the golden egg. Texas oil and gas industry was credited for the Texas Miracle that largely shielded the state from the Great Recession of 2008 and, despite the hard times the industry is going through now, Craymer said it will bring the state through the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have to take home the message that you need to be careful and dont take the industry for granted. The Permian Basin has generated tremendous dividends for the rest of the state, Craymer said. The industry is going through hard times and you need to be careful and do things to protect the industry its the gift that keeps on giving. Shepperd agreed, commenting, Dale mentioned the golden goose. We hope they dont pluck too many feathers. At a Glance Revenues from taxes and royalties paid by Permian producers in 2014 was $6.4 billion or 48 percent; in 2019 it was $9 billion or 67 percent Rigs Running: in 2014, half the states operating rigs were in the Permian; in 2019 over 70 percent of the states rigs were in the Permian, Oil Production: in 2014, less than half the states oil came from the Permian; in 2019 over 2/3 of the states oil was from the Permian Basin, and Natural Gas: in 2014, the Permian accounted for only 17 percent of the states natural gas production; in 2019, it was almost 40 percent. CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Australia will on Wednesday see Q1 numbers for construction work completed, highlighting a light day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Work is expected to sink 1.5 percent on quarter after falling 3.0 percent in the three months prior. China will release April figures for industrial profits; in March, profits plummeted 36.7 percent on year. Thailand will provide April figures for industrial production and unemployment. Output is expected to tumble 19.55 percent on year after sliding 11.25 percent in March. The jobless rate was 1.0 percent in the previous month. Finally, the markets in Indonesia remain closed on Wednesday for Eid-ul-Fitr and will reopen on Thursday. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. We believe in the power of our research-based and field-tested approach, and to be named a Top 20 sales training company year after year validates that core principle. Janek Performance Group has been listed as a Top 20 Sales Training Company for the seventh consecutive year by Selling Power. This distinction honors the worlds best-in-class sales training companies for excellence in helping sales leaders improve the performance of their sales teams. The list appears in the May/June 2020 issue of Selling Power magazine, which is published digitally. Were proud of once again being named to Selling Powers Top 20 Sales Training Company list, said Nick Kane, managing partner of Janek Performance Group. It speaks to our continued commitment to providing customized sales performance solutions as well as rolling out new, innovative training programs such as Selling Virtually, which has been very well received by our customers. Our training programs drive sales results and enable long-lasting, beneficial behavior change. According to Selling Power publisher and founder Gerhard Gschwandtner, sales training is more important than ever as salespeople adjust to selling during the COVID-19 pandemic. There could not be a better time to invest in sales training, says Gschwandtner. No matter what market you sell to, your salespeople need the right skills to close big deals while social distancing and working from home. The sales leaders who understand the importance of sales training are already on the upswing. Those who wait to invest in their team wont be able to catch up. All companies on the Top 20 list submitted a comprehensive application that included a detailed listing of their offerings for both training and retention, innovative solutions and services they have developed, and their companys unique contributions to the sales training marketplace. The main criteria used when comparing applicants and selecting the companies to include on this years list were: 1. Depth and breadth of training offered 2. Innovative offerings (specific training courses, methodology, or delivery methods) 3. Contributions to the sales training market 4. Strength of client satisfaction Selling Power magazine editors say the companies on the 2020 Top 20 Sales Training Companies list represent the best potential to help sales teams improve their performance and remain competitive in any selling environment. See the list at https://www.sellingpower.com/resources/2020/top-20-sales-training-companies. The award adds to Janeks other 2020 accolades a Gold Stevie for Best Sales Training Program of the Year and Top 20 Sales Training Company distinction from Training Industry. We believe in the power of our research-based and field-tested approach, and to be named a Top 20 sales training company year after year validates that core principle, Janek Performance Group managing partner Justin Zappulla said. We devote ourselves to completely understanding our clients unique needs and tailor our solutions to help them achieve their objectives and more. I am proud of these accomplishments, which are made possible by the dedication of our entire organization. About Selling Power In addition to Selling Power, the leading digital magazine for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Personal Selling Power, Inc., produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters (https://www.sellingpower.com/newsletters), as well as videos featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 3.0 Conference, which is attended by a total of more than 1,000 sales leaders each year. About Janek Performance Group Janek Performance Group is an award-winning sales performance solutions provider based in Las Vegas, NV. Our training and consulting services are field-tested with proven results in improving the sales skills and results of our clients, backed by ongoing research into the markets needs and best practices. We possess the ability to work with companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100 firms and have an established track record across countless industries and verticals. To learn more about Janek Performance Group, visit https://www.janek.com. Kerala, May 26 : The set of an upcoming Malayalam film, "Minnal Murali", has been vandalised and, according to actor Tovino Thomas, the attackers were "a group of racialists". The makers have decided to go ahead with legal proceedings. Tovino took to Twitter, where he shared a note and pictures of the destroyed set. He even shared a picture of the permission letter for the film's shoot. In the note, Tovino wrote about the incident that took place on Monday. "Minnal Murali's first schedule at Wayanad had been in progress when the set for the second schedule began construction began at Kalady. It was carried out by art director Manu Jagad and team, under special instructions by stunt choreographer Vlad Rimburg, For this, We had the rightful permissions from the concerned authorities," he tweeted. Image Source: IANS News He further shared that the set in question -- that of a church -- was built at "considerable cost". "And as we were about to start shooting in this set - which was built on a considerable cost, the whole country went into lockdown, following which our shoot was paused, just like all others'." The actor then said that the reason for the destructive action, shared by the group, was not clear. "It is during this prevailing uncertainty that this contractual set was destroyed by a group of racialists yesterday. The reasons they cite for this unceremonious act are not understood to our senses till now." Without naming any film or person, Tovino shared examples of the film set vandalism taking place in the northern part of the country. Image Source: IANS News "We've heard about movie sets being vandalised by religious fanatics in Nothern India. Now, it's happening to us right here. "It has caused us a lot of distress, and even more of anxiety. We have decided to go ahead with the legal proceedings," he wrote. -- Syndicated from IANS Pipeline 25 May 2020 The PuYun Hotel and Spa's scheduled opening in 2022 will add to URC's global portfolio of award-winning ultra-luxury hotels and resorts, including The PuLi Hotel and Spa, Shanghai, The PuXuan Hotel and Spa, Beijing and The RuMa Hotel and Residences, Kuala Lumpur, with eight further properties under development in Dubai, Bangkok, Phuket, Kota Kinabalu, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Xi'An and S hanghai. Located 45 kilometres northeast of Zhejiang province's capital Hangzhou and 130 kilometres southwest of Shanghai, The PuYun derives its name from the Chinese characters for beautiful un-carved jade; one that has been hidden away in the earth (mountain). Bearing the healing and restorative properties of its namesake, the resort will serve to invigorate both physically and emotionally those who discover it, offering a transcendent experience for guests in search of rejuvenation. Moganshan's cool mountain air and idyllic, natural setting has been drawing Shanghai's elites and their families from as early as the 1800s as a reprieve from the sweltering summer heat, thus earning its moniker "Hamptons of China". A dense bamboo forest, rolling tea plantations and serene lakes dominate the ethereal mountain landscape that has entranced so many that came before, providing a fitting all-year round escape for those seeking time off-the-rada r and the perfect foil for URC's one-of-a-kind, contextual interpretations of storied destinations in a luxurious resort setting. World-renowned British architect Sir David Chipperfield, sought after for his numerous award-winning masterpieces of startling simplicity and clarity of design, will honour the cultural narrative of the hotel's exceptional surrounds, while celebrating the natural beauty of its setting with his characteristic sensibility. The philosophy follows through the resort's interior, brought to life by long-time URC collaborator, Shanghai-based design firm MQ-studio. Each area within the resort exemplifies URC's hallmark design principles of a luxuriously understated, contemporary and soothing aesthetic, uniquely crafted with distinct accents of its colourful and rich natural environment, all while blending the interiors with architecture and nature within. The region's vibrant past and present as well as its artisan tr aditions will be transported into the context of today, allowing guests of The PuYun unprecedented access to the emotional properties of the environment through all aspects of the hotel, including the food and beverage and wellness offerings as well as the countless activities offered to its guests. URC's proprietary UR SPA will provide an all-encompassing wellness journey along with a yoga pavilion, two swimming pools and a fitness centre. Two restaurants and a lobby lounge will showcase resolutely local provenance, paired with exciting gastronomic innovations while discrete meeting, event, retail and wedding spaces will establish the hotel as the destination for holidaymakers and business travellers looking to escape from the hurried pace of city life. As with all of URC's properties, be it in Shanghai, Beijing or Kuala Lumpur, The PuYun embraces the guest experience philosophy of Hostmanship, premised on a guest-centric experience underpinned by genuine and intuitive care, with services designed around their needs. 24-hour check-in and check-out allows guests to linger longer while taking advantage of the many generous benefits including complimentary breakfast, high-speed WIFI, mini bar replenished daily, pressing services and much more. The number of coronavirus cases linked to a Vancouver fruit processing company climbed again Tuesday, with the outbreak spilling over to employees close contacts. Clark Countys public health department has now linked 84 coronavirus cases to the outbreak, up from 65 cases on Sunday and just 10 on Friday. As of Tuesday morning, 69 employees at Firestone Pacific Foods and another 15 people identified as close contacts of those employees had tested positive for COVID-19. It appears to be the Portland areas biggest workplace outbreak thus far, excluding the healthcare sector. Thats a pretty high attack rate, said Alan Melnick, Clark County health officer and public health director. Thats a lot of people. I think it reinforces the idea that this is a pretty contagious disease. The countys public health department is working with The Vancouver Clinic to have Firestone employees and close contacts tested. Melnick said that Firestone agreed to pay for the testing of employees, many of whom do not have health insurance. A total of 165 employees and 83 close contacts have been tested thus far. Several employees still need to be tested and additional testing of close contacts is expected to continue as well. Twelve county employees are aiding the public health department with contact tracing. Seven registered nurses are conducting case interviews with infected individuals, while five staff members are following up with the close contacts of individuals who have tested positive. Additional staff could be added to the contact tracing team if the numbers of infected individuals continue to increase. Josh Hinerfeld, CEO of Firestone Pacific Foods, said last week that one of the infected employees had been hospitalized but was doing OK. Melnick said that 18 employees that tested positive did not have symptoms when they spoke with the county. The outbreak was first discovered after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 on May 17. Clark Countys public health department interviewed that employee on May 18. They also became aware of two additional cases on May 18 linked to Firestone, which prompted the county to shut down the facility on Tuesday, May 19. Facility-wide testing of all employees began last Friday. Melnick said that Firestone had implemented some safety measures prior to the outbreak, but the county felt there were areas that needed to be addressed to better ensure employee safety. Clark Countys public health department is now working with Firestone and Washingtons Department of Labor and Industries to develop a plan to help the facility better align with new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were enough questions and concerns that we felt that they should not be operating, Melnick said. On Sunday, Firestone said its processing facility will remain closed until at least Thursday and will only reopen with the approval of the county health department. Employees and close contacts who test positive are being asked to quarantine for 14 days. Those employees would not be allowed to return to work until after the 14-day quarantine. Its going to have to be based on the disease itself, the isolation, the quarantine and we need to be satisfied and Labor and Industries needs to be satisfied that they have the appropriate safety measures in place," said Melnick about what needs to happen before Firestone reopens. On Saturday night, Washington state health officials suspended Clark Countys application to move to Phase 2 of its reopening because of the Firestone outbreak. Melnick said that it will be important for the county to continue to gather more information regarding the Firestone outbreak and be able to show that there hasnt been a community-wide spread stemming from the outbreak for Clark County to be able to move into Phase 2. Im going to have a discussion with the Department of Health," Melnick said. But if our numbers countywide remain low and were able to show that were able to contain this particular outbreak, yes, my recommendation would be to move to Phase 2. -- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. AMSTERDAM (dpa-AFX) - Philips Electronics NV (PHGFF.PK, PHG) said Tuesday it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or FDA for its wearable biosensor to help manage confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients in the hospital. The consumer electronics giant noted that the Philips Biosensor BX100 will enhance clinical surveillance in the Philips patient deterioration detection solution to help clinicians detect risk. This will enable the clinicians to intervene earlier and help improve care for patients in lower acuity care areas. The solution has already received CE mark. It is currently in use with the first install at the OLVG Hospital in the Netherlands to help manage the triage and clinical surveillance of COVID-19 patients. The lightweight, disposable biosensor is a 5-day, single-use wearable patch that can be integrated with a scalable hub to monitor multiple patients across multiple rooms. It is built to incorporate into existing clinical workflows for mobile viewing and notifications, and requires no cleaning or charging. The medical-grade wireless wearable biosensor is intended for use by healthcare professionals on patients 18 years of age and older. It adheres discreetly to the chest to collect, store, measure and transmit respiratory rate and heart rate every minute - the top two predictors of deterioration - as well as contextual parameters such as posture, activity level and ambulation. Philips noted that OLVG Hospital is monitoring patients in isolation rooms who are diagnosed or suspected of COVID, but do not require ventilation. To meet the hospital's need to support COVID-19 patients in isolation, OLVG has implemented Philips patient deterioration detection solution, comprised of data-driven intelligent analytics software (IntelliVue GuardianSoftware) for early warning scoring, advanced patient monitors (EarlyVue VS30), and the Philips Biosensor BX100 wearable sensors. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Four Minneapolis officers fired after the death of George Floyd, who died after being pinned down by a white officer. A Black man who yelled I cannot breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down with his knee in the US state of Minnesota died late on Monday, police confirmed, drawing outrage from community members and leaders, and leading to the officers termination. Video of the incident shows the police officer pinning down George Floyd, believed to be in his 40s, to the pavement with his knee on the mans neck for several minutes. Floyd was identified by prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who said he had been retained by the Floyd family. Floyd can be heard saying in the video: Please, please, I cannot breathe. The officer tells Floyd to relax. Floyd responds: I cant breathe. Please, the knee in my neck. The officer continues to hold down Floyd with his knee for several minutes, with Floyd pleading and asking for water. My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Please, please. I cant breathe, Floyd cries out, while moaning and trying to cough. Floyd eventually appears motionless under the officers knee. Those who were watching the incident unfold can be heard begging police to move off Floyd. Hes not f****** moving, an onlooker can be heard saying. Get off of his f****** neck. It is unclear what happened before and after the video was taken. FBI to investigate Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said during a news conference on Tuesday that the four officers involved in the incident were now former employees. The citys mayor, Jacob Frey, confirmed that the officers had been terminated, saying this is the right decision for our city. Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated. This is the right call. Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) May 26, 2020 In a statement earlier on Tuesday, the Minneapolis Police Department said its officers were responding to a report of a forgery in progress. After [the suspect] got out [of his car], he physically resisted officers, the statement said. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and note he appeared to be suffering medical distress. He was then transported to a nearby medical centre where he died a short time later, the department said. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehensive (BCA) said it was investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident. It added that it was sharing information with the FBI, which is conducting a separate federal civil rights investigation at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department. Arradondo has said he requested the FBI involvement after receiving additional information from a community source. He did not elaborate. The police officers involved in the incident were wearing body cameras, the Minneapolis police department said. The footage has not been made publicly available. Trauma on trauma Community members and leaders have expressed outrage over the incident, with many drawing comparisons to Eric Garner, an unarmed Black man who died in 2014 after being placed in a chokehold by New York City police and pleading: I cant breathe. That incident sparked nationwide protests. We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him to the police car and get off his neck, Crump, the Floyds lawyer, said in a statement on Tuesday. This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge, he added. How many while Black deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends? Nekima Levy Armstrong, a local lawyer and prominent activist, wrote on Facebook that this is trauma on trauma on trauma. We cant escape police violence even in a global pandemic, she added. Minneapolis Police officers killed a Black man last night by placing a knee on the back of his neck while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground. This is pure evil. This is what we are dealing with here. Eric Garner Part 2: Trigger warning: Graphic: https://t.co/beqIdpyGxe Nekima Levy Armstrong (@nvlevy) May 26, 2020 Minneapolis Mayor Frey called the incident wrong on every level. Being black in America should not be a death sentence, he said in a Facebook post. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense, he added. All I keep coming back to is this: this man should not have died To our Black community, to the family: Im so sorry. Others said that while the firing of the officers involved was a good first step, they should also be prosecuted. The actions of the officers involved are inexcusable and warrant swift consequences, said Leslie Redmond, the president, Minneapolis chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Their actions represent a dangerous precedent set forth by the racist, xenophobic, and prejudicial sentiment in our society against Black people. We witnessed a violation of our human rights, and we must hold all involved criminally accountable for the death of Mr Floyd, she said in a statement. Hundreds of protesters rallied in Minneapolis later on Tuesday to express outrage and demand greater action. Organisers urged participants to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic. Protesters chanted I cant breathe and no justice, no peace as they moved from the intersection where Mondays incident occured to the police precinct where the officers involved worked. Video of the protests showed police using tear gas on demonstrators. Police said some protesters damaged police vehicles and a window of a precinct. String of police killings Monday nights incident comes on the heels of several cases of Black men and women being killed by police or former law enforcement across the US. The FBI is investigating the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. Taylor, a Louisville emergency medical technician, was killed by police in the early hours of March 13 as she laid in her bed. Police said they were serving a warrant as part of a drug investigation when they returned fire from the apartment. Taylors boyfriend said he was firing in self-defence, believing his home was being broken into. No drugs were found in the apartment. One officer was injured. The US Department of Justice is weighing possible hate crime charges in the US state of Georgia over the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man, and the police handling of the case. Arbery was killed in February as he ran through a predominantly white neighbourhood in Glynn County, Georgia. The arrests of Gregory McMichael, a retired investigator for the local prosecutors office, and his son, both of whom are white, came more than two months after the incident and only after a video of the shooting went viral, raising questions about the handling of the case. Police have also since arrested the man who filmed the incident. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is also investigating the shooting death of Yassin Mohamed, a Sudanese American man, who was killed by police on May 9 after having several altercations with law enforcement in the 24 hours before his death. Police say they fired on Mohamed after he charged officers with a large rock. The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Georgia has condemned the incident and called for answers, including whether Mohamed was suffering from mental health issues. According to the Washington Post Fatal Force database, more than 1,000 people have been shot and killed by police in the last year. According to the database, Black Americans are killed by police at a disproportionate rate. African American adults are nearly six times as likely to be imprisoned or jailed than white adults, according to the Sentencing Project watchdog group. These racial disparities have given rise to Black Lives Matter, which was founded in 2013 and seeks to end police violence and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities. New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday (May 26) held a security review meeting with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs for over an hour. The Defence Minister is understood to have reviewed the ground situation in Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a face-off. Rajnath Singh was reportedly briefed about the Indian response to the Chinese troops' mobilisation. The meeting has decided that road constructions would continue and Indian fortifications and troop deployment must match those of the Chinese. The Defence Minister was briefed by Army Chief General MM Naravane about the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), two days ago after visiting Leh to take stock of the matter. In order to de-escalate tensions, Indian and Chinese troops held several rounds of talks since the border skirmish took place on May 5, but the two sides have still maintained aggressive posturing in the disputed border areas along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh. Top military sources said India has further increased its strength in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley -- the two contentious areas where Chinese army is learnt to have been deploying around 2,000 to 2,500 troops besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure. The presence of Chinese troops around several key points including Indian Post KM120 along the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley is reportedly the biggest concern for Indian military. The face-offs took place after the Chinese side objected to Indian road construction and development work. The situation in Eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage" following a meeting at the level of local commanders. Over 100 Indian and Chinese soldiers were reportedly injured in the violence, and the incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in North Sikkim on May 9. On May 22, Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh, and reviewed security deployment of forces along the Line of Actual Control with China. New Delhi, May 26 : Amid political speculation in Maharashtra, the Congress on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Modi to fight the corona pandemic, and not the opposition, alleging that the BJP is trying to destabilise the opposition government in that state. "Modi ji,instead of wasting time in destabilisling the opposition-run state government and creating a rift there, the Union government could have fought the pandemic... the country would have avoided seeing these days," tweeted Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. "Wake up and do not dream of pulling down the state government," tweeted Surjewala. The statement comes in the wake of BJP demanding President's rule in Maharashtra for mishandling the pandemic. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi in his press conference said: "Maharashtra is struggling because of its connectivity -- it is one of the most important assets for India and the centre of business. It's fighting a difficult battle and it is important that Maharashtra and its people get support from the government of India." Rahul Gandhi said "Our CMs (Congress-ruled states) say they are fighting a lonely battle. They understand and are confident what has to be done, but what is the Central government planning to do?" Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston The future of Europes most important motor show is under threat after the organisers rejected the conditions of a loan from the Geneva state council. The 2020 edition of the Geneva International Motor Show was cancelled in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, which organisers estimate cost them 11 million francs (9.2m). A loan of 16.8m francs (14.1m) was offered by the Canton of Geneva to cover the costs of the cancellation and plan for the 2021 event, but today, the Foundation that organises the event has rejected the loan based on the conditions attached to it. In a statement, the Foundation thanked the State Council for the draft legislation, but added: Unfortunately, the conditions attached to the loan, which, in particular, aim to completely outsource the show including its conceptualisation to Palexpo SA, are not acceptable to the Foundation. In fact, they are in contradiction to the statutes and especially to the purpose of the foundation formulated more than 100 years ago. The Foundation said that because this financial help will not be received, the 2021 show is very uncertain at the moment. It added that major exhibitors had instead encouraged it to plan for 2022 instead. The Geneva motor show is the largest event in Switzerland, attracting 600,000 visitors and 10,000 media representatives in 2019. In a major development on Tuesday, the Delhi Police Crime Branch is all set to file up to 20 chargesheets against Tablighi Jamaat members in the capital's Saket court. As per sources, the 20 chargesheets will be filed in batches with the first lot to be filed on Tuesday naming over 83 foreign nationals who attended the Markaz event. Sources added that as many as 2000 members will be accused in the 20 chargesheets. The Tablighi Jamaat event held at the Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi earlier in March led to an over 30% rise in the total COVID-19 cases in the country, with attendees, many of whom had come from foreign countries dispersing afterwards thereby increasing the geographical spread of the outbreak. READ | Plea seeking release of quarantined Tablighi Jamaat members withdrawn from Delhi HC Earlier on May 6, in a major relief to all Markaz attendees who were quarantined for over 35 days, the Delhi government ordered the release of 4000 Tablighi Jamaat members who have completed quarantine. Moreover, it ordered sending all those members who have been named in the Delhi police investigation to police custody. Remaining members were ordered to be sent back to their home states. READ | 'No need to raise Tablighi Jamaat anymore': Health Min Harsh Vardhan calls incident 'sad' Markaz attendees in quarantine Since the discovery of the Markaz cluster, all the attendees still at the venue were evacuated and sent to institutional quarantine centres in Delhi. After being tracked down, several attendees who had returned to their home states were released from their respective quarantine centres after testing negative twice consecutively. However, those who were lodged in Delhi's quarantine centres were not released, as per reports. READ | Tablighi Chief Maulana Saad urges Markaz attendees to 'co-operate with COVID authorities' Tablighi Jamaat's Covid-19 spread On March 30, it was reported that a religious programme was organised at Tablighi Jamaat's headquarters Markaz Nizamuddin mosque between 13-15 March which had over 3400 attendees from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan and from several states in India. After attending the meeting, prior to the nationwide lockdown but after the state's own order against such gatherings, 1500 of these attendees returned to several parts of the country leading to spread of the Coronavirus. The Delhi Crime Branch then booked the Markaz chief Maulana Saad for violating lockdown restrictions and allegedly provoking others to do so. In audio tapes accessed from the event, unscientific and anti-religion claims were made about the Coronavirus, and a faith-based bravado was propagated. Health Minister laments Markaz event Just days earlier, union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan had lamented the event, while expressing that he no longer wished to discuss it. "Enough has been discussed and debated about it. I feel bad to raise this issue every now and then. However, around the second week of March, when the virus was spreading very fast in the world and one and a half month had passed after the country reported the first case, even till then the number of cases in the country was very less," he said. "At that time, this unfortunate and sad incident took place. When it took place, there was no social distancing followed there. In Delhi, at that time, there was this situation where 10-15 people could not stand together. At that time, people from over 12 countries came there," the Health Minister added. Harsh Vardhan revealed that by the time the information was received a lot of people were removed but a lot had already moved before, following which there was a surge in the number of cases across the country. He added that different state governments and Home Ministry officials had helped a lot. READ | Delhi govt orders release of 4000 Tablighi members who completed quarantine: Sources Latin America's largest airline LATAM has filed for bankruptcy in the United States following a slump in business caused by the coronavirus pandemic. LATAM is the latest corporate victim of the health crisis which has brought air travel to a virtual standstill around the world. 'We have implemented a series of difficult measures to mitigate the impact of this unprecedented industry disruption, but ultimately this path represents the best option,' LATAM Chief Executive Officer Roberto Alvo said in a statement. The airline will continue to fly while it is in bankruptcy protection and its affiliates in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay were not included in the so-called Chapter 11 filing. A LATAM plane sits at Melbourne International Airport in Australia last month, during a slump in air travel which has forced the company to file for bankruptcy US carrier Delta Air Lines Inc is the biggest shareholder in LATAM, having last year paid $1.9billion for a 20 per cent stake during better times for the industry. LATAM said it had secured funding from other major shareholders, including the Cueto and Amaro families and Qatar Airways, to provide up to $900million. The company's affiliates in Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and the US have joined in the bankruptcy filing, the company said today. Chapter 11 proceedings allow a company that is no longer able to repay its debt to restructure without pressure from creditors. 'To the extent permitted by law, the group would welcome other shareholders interested in participating in this process to provide additional financing,' the airline said, adding it had about $1.3 billion in cash on hand. Last month, the Chilean-Brazilian airline said it was scaling back its operations by 95 percent in response to the global health crisis. It also announced hundreds of job cuts earlier in May. The airline said there would be no immediate impact on passenger or cargo flights. The firm joins Colombia's Avianca Holdings SA and Australia's Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd in bankruptcy protection as it seeks to restructure its debt. The International Air Transport Association has forecast a $15billion loss in revenue for Latin American airlines this year. Before the pandemic, LATAM - a merger of Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM - flew to 145 destinations in 26 countries, operating around 1,400 flights a day. On Friday the World Health Organization declared Latin America 'a new epicenter' of the coronavirus pandemic, as cases surge across the continent. The surge has been most prominent in Brazil, which now has the second highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases after the US. Latin America and the Caribbean have reported more than 41,000 virus deaths and over 766,000 total cases. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Dorotea Montoya, a pioneering pediatric nurse practitioner who was the mother of Espanola Moving Arts co-founder and political candidate Roger Montoya, has died at age 86. Known to her friends as Dottie, Dorotea Montoya was born Oct. 29, 1933, in Penasco. After graduating from Penasco High School, she studied nursing in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and in Albuquerque. She met her husband, Jose Amado Montoya, while working as a nurse in Colorado. The couple had six children and lived outside of Denver before moving to New Mexico. After being hired as a school nurse at Espanola Valley High School, Dorotea Montoya opened a clinic in 1983 aimed at curbing teen pregnancy. Through her wellness center, she provided a safe and nurturing environment for counseling that included abstinence training, sex education and comprehensive family planning services; treatment for teens with STDs; HIV/AIDS education; and a myriad of psychological, social and emotional health modalities, her son Daniel Montoya said in a statement. Among the numerous honors Dorotea Montoya received was the prestigious Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood of the Rio Grande in 1994. She was also honored as a legendary nurse by the state of New Mexico in 2004 and was given the 2017 school-based health care legacy award by the New Mexico Alliance for School-Based Health Care. Her real gift was understanding the vulnerability and potential of young people, Roger Montoya said in an interview. Roger Montoya was one of 10 CNN Heroes of the Year in 2019 and is running in New Mexico House District 40 to fill a vacancy created when Rep. Joseph Sanchez, D-Alcade, decided to run for office in New Mexicos 3rd Congressional District. Along with his partner, Salvador Ruiz-Esquivel, Roger Montoya a dozen years ago founded Moving Arts Espanola, which offers youngsters free dance, music, gymnastics and other classes, as well as complimentary meals. Vodafone IDEA recently partnered with Paytm to help users and merchants earn by selling prepaid recharges. Following that, both have partnered again to make prepaid recharges easier for feature phone users and non-digital savvy users. Vodafone IDEA users can recharge their prepaid accounts using their UPI ID through the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel which doesnt require a mobile-internet facility. Although, this facility is in partnership with Paytm, non-Paytm app users can also avail this service. Heres a step-by-step process to recharge a Vodafone IDEA prepaid account using UPI ID Step 1: Dial the USSD code *99*1*3# and the bank account number linked to mobile number is detected Dial the USSD code and the bank account number linked to mobile number is detected Step 2: Enter the registered UPI ID in the format {mobilenumber}.{operator_name}@paytm. Eg: 98********.vf@paytm Enter the registered UPI ID in the format Eg: 98********.vf@paytm Step 3: Enter the recharge amount and a remark which is optional Enter the recharge amount and a remark which is optional Step 4: Lastly, enter the UPI PIN and wait for the transaction to be successfully completed. In case users havent set up their UPI PIN, it can be done through USSD directly by dialling *99# Select the bank accounts linked with their mobile numberSet up the UPI PIN. This facility is aimed to help millions of consumers who use feature phones to top up their numbers without having the need to visit physical retail touchpoints. Commenting on the launch, Avneesh Khosla, Director-Marketing, Vodafone Idea Limited said: It is our constant endeavour to ensure that our customers remain connected and safe during these times. In the last 2 months we have a launched a slew of initiatives to help consumers stay connected. We believe that this partnership with Paytm will help facilitate a large number of our digitally unconnected customers to recharge through USSD without being dependent on mobile internet, any digital app or a physical retail touchpoint. Through this partnership we will be able to provide a simple and secure solution, enhancing the convenience factor to these pre-paid customers during very testing times so as to ensure that our consumers do not have to leave the safety of their homes to recharge their phones. In a diplomatic first, India and Australia are expected to sign an agreement for reciprocal access to military logistics facilities and other pacts aimed at developing alternative supply chains when the two sides hold their first virtual summit on June 4. The summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison, yet to be formally announced, will be held against the backdrop of heightened friction with China for both countries. It will be Modis first virtual bilateral summit and the first time several bilateral agreements will be concluded virtually since the Covid-19 outbreak, two people familiar with the development said. The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), finalised at the 2+2 or combined dialogue of the foreign and defence secretaries in New Delhi last December, was to be signed during Morrisons visit in January, which was called off due to the Australian bushfires. With joint exercises and defence cooperation between India and Australia on the upswing, MLSA will remove the need for protracted negotiations for reciprocal access to logistics support every time a manoeuvre is organised, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. It will also improve interoperability between the armed forces of the two sides. Between 2016 and 2019, India has signed similar logistics exchange agreements with the US, Singapore, France and South Korea. While the conclusion of MLSA is significant as the two sides have been negotiating it for some time, there is greater buzz about agreements to be signed in science and technology, research, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, and rare earth metals and critical minerals which are aimed at creating supply chains in strategic areas that are less dependent on China, the people said. Even before the Covid-19 crisis, the two sides had been exploring the possibility of cooperating on rare earth metals such as lithium, neodymium and dysprosium, of which Australia has the worlds sixth largest reserves. More than 90% of Indias imports of rare earth metals, worth $3.4 million in 2016, come from China. The two sides will also look at enhancing their partnership in education as part of measures to shift the focus of Australian universities on the Chinese market, the people said. Prior to the Covid-19 crisis, Australia was home to some 90,000 Indian students. Were also looking at agreements in the maritime sphere and water resources and negotiations are underway on some other issues. Research and collaboration on Covid-19 will also figure in the discussions, said one of the people cited above. Morrison has described India as a natural partner for Australia, and Australian high commissioner Barry OFarrell has said the two sides have had regular discussions about how they can shape the post-Covid world order. In this context, OFarrell said Australia supports Indias call for reforming the World Health Organization (WHO) after overcoming the Covid-19 crisis. On Tuesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh tweeted that he had spoken on telephone with his Australian counterpart Linda Reynolds and discussed the response of both sides to the Covid-19 pandemic and possible areas of cooperation. India-Australia strategic partnership provides a good base for both the countries to work together in dealing with the post COVID challenges. We are committed to take forward the initiatives of bilateral defence and security cooperation under the Strategic Partnership framework, Singh added. While tensions between India and China are at a high following the standoff between their border troops in Ladakh, Australias relations with China too took a hit after Canberra called for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nitin Pai, director of the Takshashila Institution, said it made absolute economic sense for India and Australia to reduce the risk of their exposure to China even if the two countries werent grappling with tensions with China and the Covid-19 crisis. It makes a lot of sense to find a diversity of suppliers on one hand, and to find a diversity of customers for products on the other, he said, adding the existing geo-political risks, the pandemic and travel restrictions make it vital not to put all eggs in one basket and to build a diversity of economic partnerships. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON AUSTIN, Texas, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Headspring , a leader in software strategy and development, has partnered with the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA) to develop a state-of-the-art system that will help protect and ensure donor health and plasma safety, accelerating the production of life-saving plasma protein therapies (PPTs) to treat patients with rare, chronic diseases. This new system will have a tangible impact on the plasma collection process and the patients who depend on PPTs. Headspring's CEO, Dustin Wells, shared, "We are excited and privileged to work with PPTA. As a mission-driven software engineering and consulting firm, the impact of the work we do is paramount. The opportunity to positively impact the world of healthcare is a true privilege, one that we take very seriously." Headspring will replace the legacy system and develop and maintain a single, fully responsive web application system that gives plasma collectors seamless access to two databases: the National Donor Deferral Registry (NDDR) and the Cross Donation Check System (CDCS). PPTA will benefit from their intimate knowledge of the particular challenges that medical device companies face, as well as their experience navigating the FDA's 510(k) submission process to bring modern medical products to market. "PPTA is looking forward to working with Headspring to develop this advanced system," remarked Joshua Penrod, PPTA Senior Vice President, Source and International Affairs. "It will enhance the plasma collection experience for donors and centers alike, especially during a time when lifesaving plasma donations are needed more than ever." Granting users and administrators access to both databases furthers PPTA's mission by getting sufficient human source plasma, collected from healthy donors, to millions of patients worldwide. About PPTA The Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA), a global industry trade association, represents the private sector manufacturers of plasma-derived and recombinant analog therapies (collectively known as plasma protein therapies), and the collectors of source plasma used for fractionation. PPTA also administers standards and programs that help ensure the quality and safety of plasma protein therapies, donors, and patients. About Headspring Headspring is a custom software development company, born and bred in Austin, TX, with partnerships across the country. From application development and enterprise architecture to full-on IT modernization, Headspring's solutions are designed to help their partners move faster, work better, and stand out in a shifting market. SOURCE Headspring Related Links http://www.headspring.com A protester uses milk to treat the sting of tear gas after police tried to disperse demonstrators in Minneapolis - Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune/AP Protests have erupted in Minneapolis after four police officers were fired over the death of a black man who was pinned down by a white officer, in a case that has drawn comparisons Eric Garner, the African American man who died in 2014 after being placed in a chokehold by police. Footage of the arrest on Monday night showed the man pleading "please, I can't breathe" with the officer, who then kept his knee on the man's neck for several minutes after he stopped moving. The man was identified as George Floyd by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury lawyer who said he had been hired by Mr Floyd's family. "We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck," Mr Crump said. "This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge." Protests broke out in the city on Tuesday night and police tried to disperse demonstrators campaigning for racial justice with tear gas and stun grenades. The footage of the arrest drew condemnation from officials across Minnesota, including from Senator Amy Klobuchar, the former Democratic presidential candidate. "Being black in America should not be a death sentence," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as he apologised to the black community. "For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man's neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, you're supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense," Mr Frey said. Police took on the protesters with stun grenades and tear gas - Carlos Gonzalez/AP Minneapolis police said the man matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case and resisted arrest. The video shows an unidentified officer kneeling on his neck and ignoring his pleas. "Please, please, please, I can't breathe. Please, man," Mr Floyd is heard telling the officer. Story continues Minutes pass and Mr Floyd man becomes motionless under the officer's restraint. The officer leaves his knee on his neck for several minutes more. The arrest drew the attention of several witnesses who gathered at the scene and became increasingly frustrated with the police as they watched Mr Floyd plead. In the footage, one bystander yells at the officers to check Mr Floyd's pulse, another points out that his nose is bleeding. My statement on the officer-involved death in Minneapolis: pic.twitter.com/HUoGfXEj7R Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) May 26, 2020 Medaria Arradondo, the Minneapolis Police chief, said the police policy for placing a suspect under control will form part of its internal investigation. At a press conference on Tuesday Mr Arradondo said he had been "up all night" reviewing the case and had made the decision to fire the four police officers involved. Mr Arradondo said that when he was appointed to lead the department, "I was very steadfast and strong on what our department vision, values and culture change would be moving forward. One of those pillars is sanctity of life," he said. Eric Garner, right, poses with his children during a family outing - Family photo via National Action Network The incident has led many to recall the Eric Garner case, where a New York City policeman said he was using a legal manoeuvre to force Mr Garner to the ground because he had resisted arrest. Mr Garner too was filmed pleading and saying he could not breathe. Mr Garner's autopsy report said the "chokehold" used by the police officer contributed to his death. The officers involved in Mr Garner's death were never indicted, sparking protests over racial injustice and police brutality around the US. The FBI is now conducting a separate federal civil rights investigation into Monday night's incident at the request of Minneapolis Police. The decision not to indict the officer involved in the death of Eric Garner sparked widespread protests - EPA The police department said it was called at around 8pm on Monday to investigate a report of a forgery at a business. Police officers found the unnamed man, believed to be in his 40s, matching the suspect's description in his car. "He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers," Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said. "Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress." Mr Floyd was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he soon died, police said. His name and cause of death will be released by the medical examiner in due course. Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are reviewing the officers' body camera footage. The agency said the officers' names will be released after they have been interviewed. FILE PHOTO: Thai Airways airplanes are parked at the tarmac of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Airways International Pcl on Tuesday submitted a request to a bankruptcy court for rehabilitation of its debt, the court said, which if approved would give the airline time to negotiate with its creditors. Earlier this month, Thailand's cabinet approved a plan to restructure the company. Along with all airlines, Thai Airways has been hard hit by the impact of the novel coronavirus. "Thai Airways submitted a request for rehabilitation with the Central Bankruptcy Court .... the court is reviewing the documents before accepting the request," the court's public relations office told Reuters. Approval would allow an automatic stay on debt repayment, allowing negotiation with creditors. Even before the coronavirus led to the grounding of flights across the globe, Thai Airways was in difficulty. It posted losses every year after 2012, except in 2016 and for 2019 reported losses of 12.04 billion baht ($377.3 million). On Monday, the airline appointed four new board members, including its former chief executive, Piyasvasti Amranand, who ran the airline from 2009 to 2012. Last week, the government reduced its shareholding in the national carrier to 47.86%, ending the airline's status as a state enterprise under Thai law. But as majority shareholder, the government still has a say. On Tuesday, Thailand's cabinet appointed deputy minister Wissanu Krea-ngam to lead a committee to represent the government in the rehabilitation process, government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat said. (Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat; editing by Barbara Lewis) Virgin Orbit's attempt to launch a rocket from the wing of a Boeing 747 off the coast of southern California on Monday may not have been successful, but for the company's tech team, it provided a mine of information which will propel the company towards a competitive future. The 21 metre rocket, known as LauncherOne, was attached to the wing of a Virgin 747 jet called 'Cosmic Girl', especially fitted-out for the mission. It took off on Monday from a runway in California's Mojave Desert, with a flight plan over the Pacific Ocean of just under an hour. The rocket was dropped by the plane from an altitude of 10,000 metres, at which point it was due to ignite, take off and place a test satellite into orbit. However, the engine shut down a "handful of seconds" later, causing the launch to fail. We've confirmed a clean release from the aircraft. However, the mission terminated shortly into the flight. Cosmic Girl and our flight crew are safe and returning to base, Virgin Orbit said in its official Twitter commentary on the launch. Virgin Orbit, a branch of the Virgin group, founded in 2012 by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, has not interpreted the aborted launch as a failure, the opposite in fact. CEO Dan Hart said prior to the event that achieving orbit on a first launch would be difficult, noting that, based on historical records, only about 50 percent of first launches of new vehicles are successful. "What we did today is really demonstrated the challenging aspects of air launch," he told Space News. "Even though it was not as long a flight as we'd liked, we did burn down quite a lot of the risks associated with flying, and learned a lot about how the vehicle behaves." Hart said that engineers will spend the coming weeks reviewing the data from the attempted launch. The results may lead to additional testing of the next rocket or other changes. He said that the second LauncherOne rocket is nearing completion at the company's factory, with several more in various stages of production. The company is looking to develop its capacity to serve government and commercial clients in the field of small satellites (300-500 kilos), a market that is quickly expanding. Unlike the usual vertical launches of rockets which require a special take off zone, the new method of transporting the rocket with a jumbo jet means it can take off from virtually any airport in the world. SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote a message to the Virgin team on Twitter, saying "Orbit is hard. Took us four attempts with Falcon 1," referring to his rocket launches into space. His latest attempt will take place next week in Florida, as he attempts to launch two astronauts into space aboard the Crew Dragon space shuttle. Companies also expected to pay NI contributions and 20 per cent of salaries Businesses will be barred from putting any more workers into the furlough scheme under plans to be unveiled by the Chancellor this week. The cut-off point comes amid fears within the Treasury that some companies will attempt to play the system so they can bring staff back part time. Rishi Sunak is also preparing to outline how much employers will have to pay towards their employees' wages from August. Firms are now expected to have to cover around a quarter of the 80 per cent subsidy - less than had originally been mooted. However, businesses have warned the curbs will still hit them hard. Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said: 'While the Treasury is keen to reduce its spend on the scheme, for firms that have tried to hold off using it and may now need to, this will be a bitter pill to swallow. 'As the scheme winds down, other measures to cushion costs will be necessary to support businesses as they try to return to work.' Mr Sunak has extended the Job Retention Scheme until the end of October, amid fears ending it any sooner could cause mass unemployment. The scheme is also being made more flexible to allow employers to bring furloughed workers back part time. But there are growing concerns about the cost, with the Office for Budget Responsibility estimating it could be as much as 84billion. The Treasury is believed to have considered the risk that employers could attempt to furlough millions more workers if the changes were announced, but said that the risk should not be exaggerated because the number of furloughed workers was now relatively stable. The last published figures showed 8million positions had been furloughed, roughly a quarter of the total jobs in the UK. But in a sign of good news for the Chancellor, the chief economist for the Bank of England has said the impact of the pandemic appears to be bottoming out and a 'modest recovery'. Andy Haldane said: 'If we've found our floor, and perhaps even nudged up from that floor, that's a cause for a little bit of cautious optimism.' The development in the Treasury's plans came as: Boris Johnson's bid to save Dominic Cummings suffered a big setback last night as a Mail poll found that 66 per cent of voters say he should resign; The scale of the Tory revolt over Mr Cummings became clear as almost 40 of the party's MPs called for him to resign; It emerged police had interviewed a witness who saw Mr Cummings allegedly breaking lockdown rules during his controversial visit to stay with his parents; The first drug for coronavirus was approved for Britain in what Mr Hancock described as 'the biggest step forward' since the beginning of the crisis; It emerged British officials are in talks with their Portuguese counterparts about a possible 'air bridge' deal for holidays; Families and friends could soon be allowed to meet up outside in bigger 'social bubbles' of up to ten; Companies will be barred from putting any more workers into the Government's furlough scheme, under plans to be unveiled by the Chancellor this week; Deaths from coronavirus have fallen to their lowest level for six weeks, boosting hopes for an end to lockdown. Yesterday no new deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland for the first time in ten weeks. Rishi Sunak is set to announce that companies will soon be banned from putting anymore employees into the Government's furlough scheme in plans to get Britain back to work Worst is over, says Bank The economic chaos caused by the pandemic may be bottoming out, says the Bank of England. Andy Haldane, chief economist at the central bank, said there were signs of 'stabilisation and a very modest recovery'. But he added the first half of the year was 'ugly' and it would be some time before the economy returns to its former strength. It follows the Bank's publication of a 'scenario' earlier this month, in which it warned the economy could shrink 14 per cent in the worst annual slump since 1706. Mr Haldane said: 'If we've found our floor, and perhaps even nudged up from that floor, that's a cause for a little bit of cautious optimism.' Advertisement Mr Sunak today held a video conference call with business owners who had been using the scheme for their employees. 'Great to take the time today to speak to people who've used the furlough scheme,' he said in a post on social media. 'I listened to business owners fighting to stay open and employees raring to return. This week we'll launch Phase 2: flexible furloughing which I hope will help get us back up and running.' Reacting to the claims, Craig Beaumont of the Federation of Small Businesses told the Financial Times that the Government needs to give firms advance warning before putting in place the measure. 'The vast majority of employers registering for the scheme are SMEs. These struggle with changes, so any ending should be announced in advance so they have time to plan, including those who are entering the scheme now as their business enters difficulty,' he said. 'The chancellor shouldn't announce and pull up the rope ladder at the same time; announcing now for August 1 would be best.' Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, warned last night that the furlough cut-off would hit companies hard. 'While the Treasury is keen to reduce its spend on the scheme, for firms that have tried to hold off using it and may now need to, this will be a bitter pill to swallow,' he said. 'As the scheme winds down, other measures to cushion costs will be necessary to support businesses as they try to return to work.' At the moment, furloughed employees are receiving 80 per cent of their normal pay up to 2,500 a month. The Government then reimburse employers for salaries, employer national insurance contributions and pension contributions. Mr Sunak has extended the Job Retention Scheme until the end of October, amid fears ending it any sooner could cause mass unemployment. There are growing concerns about the cost, with the Office for Budget Responsibility estimating it could be as much as 84billion. Revellers were seen packing onto a beach in Margate to enjoy the good weather on the Bank Holiday weekend after some lockdown measures were eased Commuters embarked on their journeys to work in slightly more busy tube train carriages this morning But this could change from August, with Mr Sunak expected to say employers must contribute 20 per cent of salary, with government contributions falling to 60 per cent. Companies would also be expected to pay NI contributions, draft details show. The move comes as business groups are braced for a wave of redundancies through the summer and beyond, as government support schemes are gradually withdrawn. The effect of the change could be substantial, with several firms saying they will not be able to pay the share because their employees won't be back at work. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Rolls-Royce have announced job cuts, just weeks after furloughing staff and signing up for taxpayer subsidies. What is happening to the furlough scheme? The multi-billion pound furlough scheme is being extended to October. Employees on the scheme will continue to receive 80 per cent of wages, up to a ceiling of 2,500 a month. Until the end of July, there will be no changes to the scheme whatsoever. From August to October there will be 'greater flexibility' so furloughed employees can return to work part-time. Businesses will be expected to share the costs of paying their salaries from this point - meaning some that remain largely shut will have to choose whether to make people redundant. Further details of the arrangements will be announced by the end of the month. Advertisement Yesterday supercar maker McLaren became the latest as it announced plans to axe more than a quarter of staff. The Woking-based firm, whose cars can fetch 2million, has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. It has been forced to suspend production and shut down Formula One races. Fears of an abrupt end to support have also led to redundancies at several small businesses that would not be able to pick up wage costs if the Government asked them to. One unnamed employee in an office based in London said that 35 out of 42 staff placed on furlough at the beginning of April would be made redundant by the end of June, while another's employer said that once it had to pick up some of the tab, people would have to go. The worker, who has been furloughed since March, was told that because of expected changes to the job retention scheme her position is being made redundant at the end of July. The total cost of the furlough scheme could hit 80 billion - the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned - and more than eight million people have been furloughed. Towns will face new local lockdowns: Schools, hospitals and even individual offices could be quarantined if the virus flares up By Sophie Borland Health Editor for the Daily Mail Schools, hospitals and even individual offices will be subject to 'local lockdowns' under plans to contain flare-ups of coronavirus. Ministers believe the proposals will allow them to nip any outbreaks of the virus in the bud without having to immobilise the whole country. Potentially the lockdowns could apply to entire towns but officials hope they will stem any outbreaks much earlier. Families and staff affected will be told to self-isolate for 14 days. The proposals will form a key part of the NHS's test-and-trace strategy, the full details of which will be announced by the Health Secretary Matt Hancock later today. He told the Mail: 'We are going to hunt down this virus wherever we find it. So far that's meant a national lockdown, and now we can target that much more.' Barrow-in-Furness (with 831 confirmed cases per 100,000) has the highest figure both for England and the whole of the UK with Mr Hancock specifically mentioning the town The proposals come as lockdown restrictions begin to be lifted, and after local outbreaks in towns including Weston-super-Mare and Barrow-in-Furness. Mr Hancock continued: 'NHS test-and-trace will help us move from a national lockdown to local lockdowns where there are flare-ups. 'So if there is a local flare-up, we will send in a team to work with local public health officials, who will act. This will help us control the virus while carefully and safely lifting the lockdown nationally.' Sources confirmed schools, care homes and offices affected by the lockdowns would be temporarily closed if needed. In the case of hospitals, officials would aim to keep some departments open if they were unaffected by the outbreak to ensure minimal disruption to patients. The test-and-trace strategy will see officials aiming to test as many patients as possible and then trace the spread of the virus while identifying local outbreaks. Matt Hancock said at Tuesday's Downing Street briefing that individual regions could face 'local lockdowns' if they experience a flare-up in cases Back in March, Public Health England suggested regional lockdowns could be applied to towns and cities if they were badly affected by the virus. But this is the first time ministers have confirmed they would enforce them on schools, hospitals or workplaces as part of a much more targeted approach. Even before the programme has started they were concerned about this week's spike in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, which may have been linked to the VE Day celebrations two weeks ago. Another flare-up has been identified in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, which local residents have blamed on people flouting social distancing rules. Mr Hancock said at yesterday's Downing Street press conference: 'I know there's been a specific problem in terms of flare-ups and in terms of the number of cases, particularly in Barrow-in-Furness. 'We will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups and we have a system that we're putting in place... to make sure if there is a local flare-up, we have a local lockdown. 'So local lockdowns will be part of the future system that we put in place as part of the NHS test-and-trace system.' Earlier in the press conference Mr Hancock was asked why the public should self-isolate for two weeks when they felt perfectly healthy given Mr Cummings had failed to stay at home when he had virus symptoms. The Health Secretary replied: 'They're not doing it for me, people are doing this for their loved ones.' Before the Coronado Bridge was built, the only way sailors could get to the naval base was through Imperial Beach. That route took thousands of motorists by Stardust Donuts on Palm Avenue and 7th Street where Cliff Arnold remembers charging 7 cents for a glazed donut and making $269 profit the first month he ran the store June 1967. I know what Im doing, Arnold, 74, said after a recent morning rush. Ive basically been at it my whole life. More than a half-century later, Arnold still sells donuts to sailors heading to Coronado. But now he charges $1.09 and makes more than $269 a month. Advertisement Arnold comes from a long tradition of donut shop owners. His grandmother opened one of San Diegos first donut shops, Keens Donuts off Pacific Coast Highway, in 1929. His parents ran Keens Donuts in Pacific Beach in the 1940s. Stardust Donuts hasnt changed much since Arnold and his brother Ed ran it back in the late 1960s. The menu is mostly the same, with their popular cinnamon rolls, cake donuts, and chocolate and glazed donuts. The same Fresh Donuts sign still lures drivers from Palm Avenue to the shops counter. But the shop has seen better days. The 2017 winter storm knocked a few letters from the classic sign. So now it reads, Fresh nuts. Arnold plans to repair the sign soon but hes in no mood to modernize. He doesnt have a website. So anything you find on the internet about me or this place has been put there by somebody else, he said. Ive read the reviews on Yelp. Some people think Im a real jerk and some people think Im just fine. And he doesnt plan to start accepting credit cards any time soon. I dont need to, Arnold said. Im selling enough donuts without having to take credit cards so why should I do it? Stardusts longevity stands in contrast to an increasingly changing Imperial Beach. The trailer park behind the store got turned into townhomes that sell for a half-million dollars. Across the street, a new strip mall has national chains like Starbucks, Five Guys, and Chipotle. But the donut shop remains the same. IMPERIAL BEACH, CA.- AUGUST 30, 2018,-Cliff Arnold with his days worth of donuts for sale. Star Dust donut shop in Imperial Beach is a family business that has been in business for 50 years. 2018 (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) Carlos Rojas remembers sneaking out of first period to buy cinnamon rolls when he was a student at Mar Vista High School in the late 90s. We had auto shop, so wed test drive a car and come get donuts, Rojas said. His favorite back then were the cinnamon rolls. Rojas, who is now 44 and owns a plumbing company in Imperial Beach, stopped by Stardust Donuts last week. He got cinnamon rolls. If I was going to a job site with more guys, I wouldve picked up more, he said. A few minutes later, Jaimie Guzman, 19, walked up to the counter. He also ordered cinnamon rolls. Ive been coming here since I was 2, he said. We had this little tradition every Saturday when theyd open my dad would buy donuts and walk back home. By the time we got home, wed finish like six donuts. No one knows how long Arnold will keep selling donuts. His brother Ed died five years ago so he runs the shop alone. The Arnold brothers bought the property in 1998 so hes not beholden to a landlord. Arnold doesnt have children or any other family he plans to leave the business to. So what will happen to the shop when Arnold decides to stop selling donuts? It dont matter to me, Ill be gone, Arnold said. But he doesnt plan to retire any time soon. Several people have offered to buy the lot but Arnold isnt interested. Or maybe their sales pitches havent been very effective. They come and say, Dont you want to retire and lay on the beach? and Ill tell them, If I want to lay on the beach, I can do that any time I want. The beach is right over there, Arnold said as he gestured toward the Pacific. IMPERIAL BEACH, CA.- AUGUST 30, 2018,- The original donut menu. Star Dust donut shop in Imperial Beach is a family business that has been in business for 50 years. 2018 (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or Twitter Chicago Has Deadliest Memorial Day Weekend in 5 Years Despite Illinoiss mandatory stay-at-home order that allows only limited outdoor activity and bans gatherings of 10 or more, Chicago experienced its deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years. Police said 10 people were shot and killed in the city, the highest total since 2015, according to local news outlet NBC5 Chicago. Authorities said at least 42 others were injured in shootings, including a 15-year-old boy who was taken to hospital in critical condition with multiple gunshot wounds to the face, chest, and abdomen after getting into a verbal argument with a driver. Chicago police said the first reported homicide of the weekend took place late Friday night, where a 41-year-old man was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper and lower body. Local television station WGN TV News reporter Courtney Gousman, in a clip posted on Twitter, detailed the final shooting of the deadly weekend: This was the last shooting of Memorial Day Weekend. It was around 11:30 last night, in Humboldt Park on Hamlin, near Augusta. Police tell us three people, a woman, and two men were shot standing outside. Shootings during last years Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago claimed seven lives and left 36 others wounded, according to the Chicago Tribune. It comes after Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown on Friday announced the launch of a Summer Operations Center (SOC) to cut down on gun violence and help enforce pandemic-related restrictions. Brown was cited by the Chicago Tribune as saying that the new initiative, which would see an increase in the number of police patrols, had the goal of reducing murders and shootings this summer. The SOC will be keeping an eye on the citys network of cameras and will even add some pop-up camera areas where we anticipate there might be trouble, Brown said, adding that this would better enable Chicago police to be on the lookout for large gatherings that are banned under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers executive order. Staying in home can be difficult, and many people may want to get fresh air and exercise, a City of Chicago COVID-19 website states. The Order allows outdoor activity, which includes walking, running, and biking. But the Order also bans gatherings of 10 or more people, as well as people being outdoors without observing social distancing. Pritzker, on April 23, announced an extension of the Illinois Stay at Home Order until the end of May, with the City of Chicago calling it a significant action taken to protect public health. Please be mindful of your neighbors and act with decency in your communities, the City of Chicago said on its website. Quito (AFP) - Demonstrators defied coronavirus restrictions to march in cities across Ecuador on Monday in protest against President Lenin Moreno's drastic economic measures to tackle the crisis. Moreno last week announced public spending cuts including the closure of state companies and embassies around the world, but trade unions Monday said workers were paying a disproportionate price compared to Ecuador's elite. "This protest is because the government is firing workers to avoid making the rich pay," Mecias Tatamuez, head of the county's largest union, the Unitary Front of Workers (FUT), told reporters at a march in Quito. Around 2,000 people marched in the capital, waving flags and banners and shouting anti-government slogans. The protesters wore masks and respected distancing measures recommended against the spread of the coronavirus that has caused at least 3,200 deaths in the country, making it South America's worst hit nation per capita. Authorities say more than 2,000 further deaths are likely linked to the virus. Demonstrations took place in several other cities, including Guayaquil, the epicenter of Ecuador's health crisis, where union leaders said hundreds marched through the city. Moreno ordered the closure of Ecuadoran embassies, a reduction in diplomatic staff and scrapped seven state companies as part of measures designed to save some $4 billion. He also announced the liquidation of the TAME airline, which has lost more than $400 million over the last five years. The government says the pandemic has so far cost the economy at least $8 billion. Public sector working hours have been cut by 25 percent, with an accompanying 16 percent pay cut. Moreno said on Sunday that 150,000 people had lost their jobs because of the coronavirus. Ecuador was struggling economically before the pandemic hit, due to high debt and its dependence on oil. The IMF predicts that the economy will shrink by 6.3 percent this year, the sharpest drop of any country in South America. Donald Kaberuka Donald Kaberuka is a Co-Chair of the UN Secretary-Generals High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement. He is the former President and Chairman of the ... more Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and former Finance Minister of Rwanda. He currently serves as Special Envoy of the African Union for the fight against COVID-19 and as a Special Envoy of the African Union on sustainable financing for the AU and funding for Peace in Africa. ARCHIVED - Covid cases Murcia and Spain Tuesday; No new cases and no deaths for Murcia Only 35 deaths in Spain and 194 new cases nationally Covid numbers remain virtually the same across the board in the Murcia Region today The last patient has left the Morales Meseguer Hospital in Murcia; this hospital has cared for 120 Covid patients since the outbreak began, the most of any hospital in the region, but said goodbye to its last patient yesterday. During the last 24 hours: No new cases No new deaths:This is the fifth consecutive day in the region without deaths No new cured cases. Total remains at 1251. No new patients in intensive care: the figure remains 4, the same as yesterday with 23 in hospital 164 remain at home in self-isolation The total number of active cases in the Murcia Region is 184. Spanish data Nationally the picture is as confusing as yesterday when the fatalities count dropped by nearly 2,000 (1918) due to new methodology in the manner in which the figures are reported by the 17 autonomous communities. Today the Ministry of Health announced that the number of deaths had increased by 283, although reported that there were only 35 deaths in the last seven days. The new system is attracting a lot of critical comment and confusion in the media as nobody really understands why deaths are being reported as in the last 7 days and not just as during the last 24 hours, but this appears to indicate that during the last 24 hours there were 35 fatalities. This latest set of figures brings the number reported today up to 27,117 as opposed to 26,834 on Monday and 28,752 on Sunday, which is the last set of data using the old system. Apparently of the 283 deaths added to the totals today, 157 correspond to the correction of data in Castilla La Mancha. The number of new cases is easier to follow, and the total in the last 24 hours is 194 new cases as opposed to 132 on Monday. The Ministry of Health is now quoting 236,259 total cases for Spain. Follow Murcia Today on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest news, events and information in the Murcia region: https://www.facebook.com/MurciaToday/ Turin Event since 2014 about the bliss of the Italian way of life - Epicurean experiences to enjoy our vida royal in full Turin style - Yoga, yogalates, pilates, Italian privates and more! Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Osoyoos Cannabis Inc. (CSE: OSO) ("Osoyoos" or the "Company") is pleased to announced that both of the Company's Vitalis Q-180 Series extraction systems (the "Extraction Systems") have been commissioned for operation and all requisite approvals from the federal and provincial regulators have been received for both processing and sale of materials. As previously disclosed in the Company's release, dated April 21, 2020, the Extraction Systems are located with a private licensed producer (the "LP") in Barrie, Ontario. One of the Extraction Systems is under a lease agreement with the LP and revenue has commenced under that leasing arrangement. The other Extraction System is part of a joint-venture agreement with the LP, whereby the Company shall receive 50% of the net profits derived from third-party tolling services. Mr. Graham Simmonds, Chief Executive Officer of Osoyoos, commented, "We are very excited to be officially up and running with our Extraction Systems." He continued, "We are also very pleased with the relationship we have developed with our LP partner and we strongly believe we will jointly be able to build a successful business with meaningful revenues. We are working with the LP's management team on our joint-venture business launch and marketing strategy and we hope to announce this in the near future." About Osoyoos Cannabis Inc. Osoyoos Cannabis Inc. has a joint-venture agreement with a private, vertically-integrated licensed producer under the Cannabis Act (Canada) to offer contract tolling extraction services to third-party businesses. The Company is also seeking out other opportunities within the cannabis industry both in Canada and internationally. For further information, please contact: Gerry Goldberg Executive Chairman (416) 460-3000 ggoldberg@osoyooscannabis.com DISCLAIMER & READER ADVISORY Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "may", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to the execution of the Company's business plan. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the parties. The material factors and assumptions include regulatory and other third-party approvals; licensing and other risks. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the parties are not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56553 A passenger onboard an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Coimbatore on Monday has tested positive for coronavirus. Domestic flight operations were resumed yesterday after being banned for more than two months due to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. IndiGo has grounded the crew for 14 days after the development came to light. The coronavirus positive case was detected on the Chennai-Coimbatore IndiGo flight 6E 381. The patient has been quarantined at ESI hospital in Coimbatore. While all his co-passengers have tested negative for COVID-19, they are likely to be quarantined for 14 days, reports stated. In a statement on Tuesday, IndiGo confirmed that it has received confirmation from Coimbatore airport doctor that a passenger on flight 6E 381 on May 25 has tested positive for coronavirus. The airline further stated that he was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures, including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission, IndiGo further said in his statement. "All our aircraft are regularly sanitised as a standard operating procedure and the aircraft operating this flight was also immediately disinfected as per protocol. The operating crew has been grounded for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff," IndiGo stated. As per instructions from Civil Aviation Ministry, domestic flights were resumed from May 25 after being banned under nationwide lockdown which was imposed on March 25. Airlines have been allowed to operate 33 per cent of flights in their summer schedule on capped ticket prices. The carriers have also been asked to ensure that ensure that passengers wear face masks, and that no food is served onboard planes. Aviation Ministry has asked travellers to declare that they are fit to fly through the Aarogya Setu app or a self-declaration form. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / EGF THERAMED HEALTH CORP. (TMED.CN)(OTC PINK:EVAHF)(AUHP.F) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it closed on the joint venture transaction with Green Parrot Labs Corp. ("Green Parrot"), previously announced on May 22, 2020. Pursuant to the announced Joint Venture and Share Purchase Agreement (the "Agreement") with Green Parrot and its shareholders, the Company has acquired a 40% equity interest in Green Parrot through the issuance of an aggregate of 7,800,000 of its common shares to the shareholders of Green Parrot. The Company also issued 200,000 common shares as transaction fees to an arm's length party. The securities are subject to certain pooling restrictions as disclosed in the May 22nd news release. Green Parrot is a private Delaware corporation with operations based in the Caribbean. Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, the parties will collaborate for the further development and commercial exploitation of the operations of Green Parrot in the Caribbean, which plans to offer wellness centres and research and development into biosynthesis pathways for psilocybin and cannabinoids. Ron McKenna, CEO of Green Parrot stated, "We're incredibly enthusiastic about working with EGF Theramed and appreciate the support they are providing to Green Parrot. Psilocybin laws in Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands are conducive to our business plan and we look forward to developing our business with fewer impediments than many other companies operating in the same area." He added: "The environment of the Caribbean is a huge draw for medical tourism, and we believe that our wellness centers will provide exceptional treatment for those with inflammatory bowel disease." David Bentil, the Company's CEO commented, "The Joint Venture with Green Parrot Labs represents a progression to our platform as we continue to expand our research and development work in the CBD and psilocybin arenas. Caribbean countries are working hard to provide a conducive working environment in the psychedelic space and their laws make conducting business in this area attractive." Story continues ABOUT GREEN PARROT LABS CORP. Green Parrot Labs is a company with operations based in the Caribbean and plans to offer wellness centres and research and development into biosynthesis pathways for psilocybin and cannabinoids. Psilocybin has drawn increasing attention in the last decade as a potential natural treatment for mental health conditions. The mental health market is estimated to rise to $240 billion USD by 2026, and 1 in 6 Americans are believed to suffer from mental health at any one point.1 In 2018, an article published by Johns Hopkins University recommended the government reduce psilocybin's status to a Schedule IV drug - one with low potential for abuse. The operations of Green Parrot plan to take advantage of the generous laws in Barbados, Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands towards medical tourism and research into rare compounds. Magic mushrooms grow naturally and may be legally cultivated and consumed in Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands, making the islands an excellent location to conduct research into the compound. Green Parrot plans to offer services that provide a tailored treatment program for individuals suffering from inflammatory bowel disease in specialized wellness centres. Medical tourism is well established in the Caribbean; cheaper rates of surgery for the same quality of treatment attract many visitors from the US and Canada. Barbados has one of the few licensed medical tourism facilities in the Caribbean, displaying its potential for future expansion. ABOUT EGF THERAMED HEALTH CORP. (CSE:TMED / OTC PINK:EVAHF / FRANKFURT:AUHP) EGF Theramed is a consumer technology company engaged in the provision of biomedical online services for monitoring and treating common health problems. The Company, through its subsidiaries, has assets and technologies used in the extraction and purification of botanical extracts and the creation of extract formulations, as well as medical monitoring device technology. The Company is working to collaborate with other companies for medical technology, equipment protocols and laboratory standard operating procedures. Through the Company's recent joint venture acquisitions, it has begun to research psilocybin and psychedelic extraction and processing for commercialization. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: EGF THERAMED HEALTH CORP. Doug McFaul Email: dmcfaul@emprisecapital.com Telephone: (778) 331 8505 Website: http://www.theramedhealthcorp.com CSE Micro-site: http://thecse.com/en/listings/technology/Theramed-Health-Corporation US OTC Markets (OTCQB): http://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/EVAHF/news Frankfurt Borse: https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/equity/egf-theramed-health-corp GREEN PARROT LABS CORP. Ron McKenna, CEO Email: ronald@greenparrotlabs.com Website: https://www.greenparrotlabs.com/ Disclaimers All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including with respect to: Green Parrot's plans to offer wellness centres and conduct research and development into biosynthesis pathways for psilocybin and cannabinoids; the development of Green Parrot's business with fewer impediments than many other companies operating in the same area; that Green Parrot's wellness centres will provide exceptional treatment or tailored treatment programs for those with inflammatory bowel disease; the ability of Green Parrot to take advantage of the generous laws in Barbados, Jamaica and the British Virgin Islands towards medical tourism and research into rare compounds; the ability of psilocybin to treat mental health disorders; the market for psilocybin treating mental health disorders; and the potential for future expansion of licensed medical tourism facilities in Barbados. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited those identified and reported in the Company's public filings under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law. 1 https://www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/behavioral-health-market https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/statistics/mental-health-statistics-uk-and-worldwide SOURCE: EGF Theramed Health Corp. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591338/EGF-Theramed-Health-Closes-Joint-Venture-with-Acquisition-of-40-Interest-in-Biosynthesis-and-Wellness-Company-Green-Parrot-Labs The sessions court has refused to grant anticipatory bail to a 33-year-old doctor, booked for sexually abusing a Covid-19 patient. The doctor is employed with a private hospital and was posted at a special ward for coronavirus patients. As per the complaint lodged with Agripada police station, on May 2, the accused allegedly misbehaved and sexually abused a 44-year-old male patient at an ICU ward. The patient, however, made a written complaint to the hospital administration after which the doctor was asked to give a written explanation. Later, the administration approached the Agripada police against the doctor. The doctor, who is put under quarantine, in his explanation to the hospital said that he had just responded to the sexual advances of the patient and the allegations of sexual abuse were false. The court refused to accept his defence and rejected his anticipatory bail petition. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Image: Twitter/ @moilyv When nations around the world have passed on the benefit of plunging oil prices to consumers, the Modi government has irrationally kept petrol and diesel prices at levels prevalent when crude prices had touched an all-time high of $107 few years back, former petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily said Tuesday. In a press statement, Moily said petrol was priced at Rs 71.41 per litre and diesel at Rs 55.49 a litre when during the UPA-2 regime international oil prices touched an all-time high of $107.09 per barrel. Currently, the cost of crude is $36.29, but diesel is priced at Rs 65.39 and petrol at Rs 71.26 in Delhi, he said. This has been done by the government raising excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 a litre and on diesel by Rs 16 per litre in two months to take away the gains arising from oil prices dropping to a two-decade low. "When all the economists of the world including India are canvassing for putting cash in the hands of the people, the present government is taking away the benefits which should have been passed on to them legitimately. This is quite an irrational decision," Moily said. "According to the data available, no other country is denying the benefit of reduction in crude prices to its people." Petrol & Diesel Rates Petrol Rate in Mumbai Current Petrol Price Per Litre View more Diesel Rate in Mumbai Current Petrol Price Per Litre View more Show Excise duty on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre when the Modi government took office in 2014 and that on diesel was Rs 3.56. At present, this incidence is Rs 32.98 a litre on petrol and Rs 31.83 on diesel - a result of successive duty hikes. Moily said the Congress-led UPA II had taken a conscious decision to do away with the administered price regime and to fix the prices of diesel and petrol in accordance with the benchmark international price. "The idea was to pass the benefit/liability in accordance with the market trend. This is a sound principle of economics and also done in the interest of the consumers and the economy of the country." "In the days of crisis in the economy, such as the onset of COVID-19, the government should have been more sensitive to the plight of the people and consumers as they are in great distress," he said. The senior Congress leader said even now, it is not clear to people as to which welfare programmes the excess money, garnered through excise duty hikes, has been ploughed into. "While the decision of the UPA was to reduce imports and go for indigenous production and make India self-sufficient in oil and gas by 2030, the present government has not invested in oil and gas exploration since 2014, to make India self-sufficient," he said. The UPA, he said, took conscious decision to establish refineries and strategic storage facilities and particularly to utilise the strategic storage facilities at Padur in Udupi, Mangalore and Vishakapatnam, which have an underground storage capacity of 5.33 million tonnes. "The present NDA government has not expanded these strategic storage facilities," he said. "Currently, the NDA government has started filling up these caverns which are just sufficient to store reserves of up to 10 to 11 days of emergency supplies while it is prudent to have reserves for at least 90 days." "Even after six years there has been criminal neglect on the part of the present government either to put up new refineries or setup more strategic storage facilities in the public sectors or even in the private sector," he added. The State Supreme Court has issued a new order that would open the way for the resumption of jury trials in early July. The order says jurors should bring masks to jury duty and court personnel should provide them one if they come without one. The order says six-member juries can be used in civil cases. The order says: On March 13, 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court declared a state of emergency for the Judicial Branch of Tennessee government and activated a Continuity of Operations Plan for the courts of Tennessee. See Tenn. Const. Art. VI, 1; Tenn. Code Ann. 16-3-501 to 16-3-504 (2009); Moore-Pennoyer v. State, 515 S.W.3d 271, 276-77 (Tenn. 2017); Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 49. This state of emergency constitutes a disaster for purposes of Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 49 and Tenn. Code Ann. 28-1-116. The Court hereby extends the state of emergency for the Judicial Branch of Tennessee government and the Continuity of Operations Plan for the courts of Tennessee. Unless otherwise noted herein, the provisions of this order shall remain in place until further order of this Court. On March 25, 2020, the Tennessee Supreme Court continued the suspension of in-person court proceedings and the extension of deadlines. On April 24, 2020, the Court modified the suspension of in-person court proceedings and further extended deadlines. Pursuant to the Courts April 24, 2020 order, the Court has reviewed and approved comprehensive written plans received from the majority of judicial districts to gradually begin the conduct of in-person court proceedings. Under the constitutional, statutory, and inherent authority of the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Court now further modifies the prior suspension of in-person court proceedings in all state and local courts in Tennessee, including but not limited to municipal, juvenile, general sessions, trial, and appellate courts, as set forth in this order. 1) The suspension of jury trials shall remain in effect through Friday, July 3, 2020. Any jury trial commenced after July 3, 2020, shall strictly comply with courtroom capacity and social distancing requirements applicable at the time of the trial. Jurors should be required to wear facial coverings as long as federal, state, and/or local guidelines recommend their use. If a juror does not bring an appropriate facial covering, a face mask shall be provided. In civil cases, jury trials shall proceed with a six-person jury absent a specific written request by one of the parties for a twelve (12) person jury, separate and apart from any demand for a twelve (12) person jury contained in a complaint or answer. The specific written request for a twelve (12) person jury must be filed no later than twenty (20) days prior to the trial. 2) Courts should continue to conduct as much business as possible by means other than in-person court proceedings. Courts are encouraged to continue and even increase the use of telephone, teleconferencing, email, video conferencing or other means that do not involve in-person contact. All of these methods should be the preferred option over in-person court proceedings. 3) Except as otherwise provided herein, the provisions of paragraph 3 of the Courts April 24, 2020 order, concerning comprehensive written plans of judicial districts, shall continue to govern, including the provision which allows courts to continue operating under the restrictions set forth in the Courts March 25, 2020 order. 4) Judges are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that core constitutional functions and rights are protected. Additionally, court clerks are charged with ensuring that court functions continue. See Tenn. Code Ann. 18-1-101 (2009); 18-1-105 (Supp. 2019). Court clerks are to work cooperatively and at the direction of the presiding judge of each judicial district to fulfill the court clerks obligation to facilitate continuing court function. Nevertheless, all judges and court clerks should continue to minimize in-person contact by utilizing available technologies, including alternative means of filing, teleconferencing, email, and video conferencing. 5) Any Tennessee state or local rule, criminal or civil, that impedes a judges or court clerks ability to utilize available technologies to limit in-person contact is suspended until further order of this Court. See, e.g., Tenn. R. Civ. P. 43.01. With respect to plea agreements for non-incarcerated individuals, this suspension expressly applies to those provisions of Tenn. R. Crim. P. 11 which otherwise would require the proceeding to be in person in open court. See, e.g., Tenn. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(1) and (2), 11(c)(2)(A). For purposes of implementing procedural matters during this time, the provisions of Rule 18(c) of the Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court are suspended to allow judges to issue general orders. 6) Judges offices and court clerks offices may limit in-person contact with the public during the period of suspension, but must remain open for business. If it becomes necessary to restrict physical access to judges or court clerks offices during the period of suspension, these offices shall remain accessible by telephone, email and fax to the extent possible during regular business hours. If available, drop boxes should be used for conventionally filed documents. 7) Deadlines set forth in court rules, statutes, ordinances, administrative rules, or otherwise that are set to expire during the period from Friday, March 13, 2020, through Sunday May 31, 2020, remain extended through Friday, June 5, 2020, pursuant to the terms of paragraph 7 of the Courts April 24, 2020 order. The Court anticipates that there will be no further extensions of these deadlines. 8) Attorneys and judges are encouraged to utilize the Online Notary Public Act, Tenn. Code Ann. 8-16-301, et seq., and the regulations promulgated by the Secretary of State at Sec. of State, Tenn. R. and Reg. 1360-07-03-.01. Additionally, Executive Order No. 26 issued by Governor Lee on April 9, 2020, addresses notary issues. With regard to court filings, declarations under penalty of perjury may be used as an alternative to a notary. The use of electronic signatures as provided under Rule 5B of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and Rules 46 and 46A of the Rules of the Tennessee Supreme Court is extended to any pleadings or documents to be filed or served by conventional means during the time that the state of emergency for the Judicial Branch remains in place. 9) The moratorium on actions by judges, court clerks, and other court officials to effectuate an eviction, ejectment, or other displacement from a residence is hereby lifted effective June 1, 2020. In all judicial actions or proceedings seeking to effectuate an eviction, ejectment, or other displacement from a residence, the person or entity seeking such eviction, ejectment, or displacement shall file with the court a declaration under penalty of perjury, substantially in the form attached hereto, declaring that the property is not subject to the restrictions and limitations of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) (Public Law No. 116-136). This declaration must be filed no later than ten (10) days prior to any hearing on the matter; if the declaration is not timely filed, the hearing may not proceed and shall be reset. If the property is subject to the restrictions and limitations of the CARES Act, the proceeding shall be continued until after expiration of any moratorium under the CARES Act. 10) Orders of protection and temporary injunctions that would otherwise expire during the period from Friday, March 13, 2020, through Sunday, May 31, 2020, are hereby extended through Monday, June 15, 2020. The Court anticipates that there will be no further extensions of this deadline. This order applies statewide to all courts and court clerks offices except administrative courts within the Executive Branch and federal courts and federal court clerks offices located in Tennessee. Under the terms of this order, the courts of Tennessee remain open, consistent with the Judicial Branchs obligation to mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19. Judges should work with local law enforcement and other county officials to ensure that, to the extent possible, courthouses remain accessible to carry out essential constitutional functions and time-sensitive proceedings. This order is intended to be interpreted broadly for protection of the public from risks associated with COVID-19. By John O'Donnell and Francesco Canepa FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European countries need to join forces to shield their banks from the coronavirus outbreak, one of the bloc's top regulators said on Monday, potentially using a 500 billion euro ($545 billion) EU recovery fund to do so. The remarks from Jose Manuel Campa, who leads the European Banking Authority (EBA), will rekindle a divisive debate about whether rich countries such as Germany should support banks of poorer neighbours such as Italy. Campa made his comments days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron proposed an EU recovery fund to help the bloc's worst-hit members to rebuild their economies after the coronavirus outbreak. "It would make sense to have a European approach to support banks," Campa told Reuters. "That could be in the form of a TARP-style precautionary recapitalisation. Here, the EU recovery fund could play a role," he said, suggesting that assistance could be aimed at banks that were fundamentally robust but hit by the coronavirus crisis. During the financial crisis of 2008, the U.S. government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) injected billions into the countrys banks. The EBA says that European banks have built a capital buffer of more than 430 billion euros, which should be more than enough to cover losses resulting from a rise in unpaid loans as businesses such as travel agents and restaurants struggle to ride out the pandemic. VULNERABLE However, some lenders - particularly in economies where the pandemic hit hardest, such as Italy and Spain - are more vulnerable than others. Berlin recently dropped its long-standing opposition to joint borrowing by EU countries, backing a 500 billion euro recovery fund to give grants to countries stricken by the outbreak. Extending that to banks, however, is likely to stir up stiff opposition. "I'm expecting a wave of NPLs (non-performing loans) in the next two or three quarters," said Campa, referring to unpaid loans. "How much is difficult to say." Story continues Campa was a junior economy minister in Spain at the beginning of the global financial crisis that later prompted Madrid to apply for an international bailout. To repair its financial system, Spain set up a so-called bad bank to deal with toxic loans. "The use of bad banks to segregate non-performing loans has proven useful," Campa said. "Germany had bad banks, while countries like Ireland used asset-management agencies in the same way. It could be used again." Germany, where unemployment is low and borrowers are less likely to default, has vehemently opposed any pan-European move, arguing that it would leave Germany on the hook for the problems of lenders in countries with mounting unpaid debts. "Banks are resilient and stronger than before the last crisis," said Campa. "But we don't know how the crisis will evolve. It is best to act sooner rather than later." (Writing by John O'Donnell; Editing by David Goodman) She demonstrated her singing talent with her star-making turn on American Idol years ago. Katharine McPhee proved she's nearly as capable a dancer when she showed off her moves to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's new single Rain On Me. The 36-year-old actress and dancer shared her take on the song with a dance filmed in her kitchen and posted to Instagram on Monday. Dancing up a storm: Katharine McPhee, 36, gave Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande a run for their money with her home kitchen version of the Rain On Me dance Katharine highlighted her svelte figure in a lustrous spotted pair of black high-waisted leggings. She showed off her taut midriff thanks to her gray cropped tank top with white stripes, and she wore her voluminous brunette locks down in gentle waves. The 5ft8in beauty stood in front of the doorway and started off her excerpt of the song in a literal fashion by swirling a silver umbrella in front of herself and then posing in profile before tossing it to the side. She did an impressive job of picking up the music video's original choreography, though Gaga and Ariana don't do that particular dance during the section of music she played. The song and its video, which was directed by Spy Kids auteur Robert Rodriguez, was released Friday. Fit figure: Katharine highlighted her svelte figure in a pair of black high-waisted leggings. Her gray cropped tank top showcased her taut tummy Rain, rain, go away: The 5ft8in beauty started off her excerpt in a literal fashion by swirling a silver umbrella in front of herself and then posing in profile before tossing it to the side Close enough: She did an impressive job of picking up the video's original choreography, though Gaga and Ariana don't do that particular dance during the section of music she played Visually stunning: The song and its video, which was directed by Spy Kids auteur Robert Rodriguez, was released Friday Last week, Katharine made an appearance on Access, where she shared that her husband David Foster has been like a 'father' to Prince Harry. My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry. Theyre like, theyre so cute. Theyre like father and son,' she told Access. The stage star was an acquaintance of Meghan Markle when the two attended Catholic school as children, but it wasn't until last year when Katharine was in London performing in the musical Waitress that the two struck up a true friendship. 'I did a couple of shows with her and she was always put together and great,' Katharine said of their school days, clarifying: 'I was never really close friends with her.' Royal connection: During an appearance on Access on Monday, McPhee shared: 'My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry. They're so cute. They're like father and son' Throwback: She went to Catholic school with Meghan Markle but the couples only became friends in London last year; Meghan and Katharine are pictured in a school musical together Prince Harry and Meghan initially moved to Canada earlier this year before flying the coop for Los Angeles. The ex-royals reportedly stayed at the Vancouver Island home of Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra after his old friend David set up the temporary arrangement. 'I felt honored that I was able to help Meghan there because I'm a Canadian and we're a Commonwealth country. It's important to us, so I grew up with that kind of sentiment,' David told DailyMail.com in January. Katharine and David married in London in June 2019 after a year earlier. Starting today, the Christian leaders announce the green light to entrances, for a maximum of 50 people. Respect for social distance and the obligation to wear personal protective equipment are fundamental. In the Islamic Republic, Shiite mosques and shrines reopen. Gradual easing also for the Saudis, who set the end of the lockdown on 21 June. Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Following the "evolution of the situation" in the Holy Land, the heads of the three Christian communities have announced the reopening of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It was closed over two months ago due to the pandemic again coronavirus. In a joint note, the Greek Orthodox patriarch Theophilus III, the Custos of the Holy Land Francesco Patton and the Armenian patriarch Nourhan Manougian stressed that "the holy place will be accessible again to the faithful for visits and prayers". For security reasons, the press release continues, and to prevent new outbreaks of Covid-19 "in the first phase, access will be limited" to 50 people at a time and the basilica will be accessible only to those who have no fever and have no flu symptoms. There is also an obligation to wear personal protection measures, including masks, and to maintain a safety distance of at least two meters. Finally, it is forbidden to touch or kiss stones or religious symbols, in addition to staff working inside. The Palestinian government has also ordered a general easing of the restrictive measures that have been in place for two months in the West Bank and Gaza. From today shops and commercial activities are back in operation, while tomorrow - at the end of the Eid al-Fitr festival - it will be the turn of state employees. The reopening, as anticipated, will also involve mosques, churches, public parks and transportation. The green light has also been given to cafes and restaurants, with restrictions that will be illustrated in the coming days. The general invitation of the Palestinian authorities is and remains that of "caution". Yesterday, some of the most important places of worship also reopened in Iran, including the main Shiite shrines, throughout the national territory. At the shrine of Shah Abdol-Azim, the faithful were able to enter by wearing masks and passing through a tunnel for disinfection; some employees measured peoples temperature at the entrances. Iranian state television broadcast images of people in tears running towards the publicly accessible sanctuary of Imam Reza. The government ordered the closure of schools, universities and all non-essential activities in March, after having registered the first victims of a new coronavirus at the end of February in Qom. For a long time, the Islamic Republic was Middle Eastern nation with the most cases. In Saudi Arabia, the easing of restrictions should start in the next few days and develop in three phases, which will culminate with the end of the curfew - with the exception of Mecca, where it will remain in force - starting from June 21. At the same time, the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages are suspended, pending further instructions from local authorities. The first step will be the reduction, starting from May 28, of the curfew which will no longer be more than 24 hours, but will begin at 3 in the afternoon and end at 6 in the morning. The green light will also be given to travel between regions and for some commercial activities. From Sunday 30 May the curfew will begin at 8 pm and internal flights will restart. Places of worship are also accessible to the faithful, while respecting social distancing and personal hygiene measures. Egyptians have withdrawn around EGP 9 billion ($567.4 million) from ATMs nationwide during the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, an informed source at the Central Bank of Egypt told MENA agency on Tuesday. The source said that amount had been withdrawn between Friday and Monday. They said the bank had underlined the necessity of supplying ATMs with cash to meet the needs of citizens, while committing to ongoing sterilisation of ATMs and bank branches. The Eid holiday, typically a time of increased consumer spending, began on Sunday. In addition, Egypt advanced the dates of public sector salary disbursements for May to take place from 18 May to 21 May via ATMS, instead of a previous date of 23 May. The CBE has been making efforts to maintain liquidity and avoid scarcity in the market amid the coronavirus pandemic, setting daily cash limits for deposits and withdrawals amid the outbreak. The central bank in March instructed banks to apply the limits on withdrawals and deposits as part of its preventive procedures against the outbreak and to avoid overcrowding, particularly during payroll and pension disbursement. The decision came after a total of EGP 3 billion ($189.1 million) was withdrawn unnecessarily from branches and ATMs during March, causing significant overcrowding, according to CBE Governor Tarek Amer. A daily limit for deposits and withdrawals is still in place; however, the central bank in April raised the limit for daily cash withdrawals from ATMs to EGP 20,000, up from EGP 5,000, and from banks to EGP 50,000, up from EGP 10,000. Search Keywords: Short link: In that spirit, let me say that I do not consider myself lucky. I do not believe I am lucky to have health care. I do not believe I am lucky to be able to receive food and packages without contact at my door. I do not believe I am lucky to have a teaching job for at least another year. I am, rather, a beneficiary of the wretchedly uneven health and income system that has enabled me to safely keep my distance. I am a beneficiary of a logistics network that forces some to work to bring me my food, even though it puts them in drastically increased danger. I am a beneficiary of someone else not having my job and thus living a life of greater precarity, even though he or she surely works just as hard as I do. There is no luck here. There is only being spared for no good reason. An air-ambulance helicopter crash in Ohio last year that killed three crew members revealed sweeping safety lapses and rule violations, federal accident investigators concluded Tuesday. The Survival Flight Inc. copter slammed into a wooded hillside in southeastern Ohio during snow squalls on Jan. 29, 2019, because of the companys inadequate management of safety, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a meeting to conclude its probe. Survival Flight didnt produce required risk analyses before each flight, didnt track whether other companies had rejected flying in deteriorating conditions and had a history of berating pilots who raised safety concerns, the NTSB concluded. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt used unusually terse language to describe an interaction with company management shortly before the meeting. It does bother me when people accuse us of having an agenda, he said. He urged the company to listen to the boards recommendations so that it could improve safety. Investigators were unable to determine whether the pilot on the helicopter got disoriented after entering snow showers or simply descended too low as she was attempting to turn back. But the findings painted a grim picture of Survival Flights operations. The air-ambulance helicopter was on the way to pick up a patient despite the fact that two other competitors had declined the job due to bad weather. Senior officials at the company were accused of screaming at employees who raised safety concerns and former employees alleged they were fired for doing so. Employees reported they believed they were under pressure to fly in dangerous conditions. A review after the crash by U.S. regulators found the company violated multiple rules, according to the NTSB records. The company believes the crew was well trained and performed all required preflight checks, said spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch. Nothing in the NTSB report says this was anything other than a tragic accident, Stubenrauch said, referring to preliminary information released by investigators. Addressing allegations that the managers pressured employees, he said: Weve always encouraged open communication and are confident that our employees discuss any issues or concerns with the appropriate staff. The pilot on the helicopter involved in the accident, Jennifer Topper, was just arriving to work before dawn when she accepted the flight, according to NTSB records. There was no evidence Topper checked the weather before taking off, according to NTSB records. Other officials at the company had earlier agreed to fly to a hospital to pick up an emergency room patient. Another pilot who had worked overnight said he had monitored the weather, but call records showed hed spend only 28 seconds doing so. The helicopter, en-route to a hospital in Pomeroy, Ohio, crashed near the town of Zaleski. Two other air-medical helicopter operations had refused the request because of low visibility, snow showers and a forecast for possible dangerous icing conditions, according to NTSB records. Survival Flight wasnt aware of the other companies decisions despite a requirement that it ask the hospital whether competitors had declined. Shortly before the end of the 22-minute flight, data records showed that the pilot turned right, then made a sharp left turn accompanied by abrupt maneuvers that would have bucked the aircraft. A cockpit recording captured Topper saying she wanted to change heading several minutes before impact, but the recording was of such poor quality most of her words couldnt be deciphered. The helicopter struck a wooded hillside and broke into pieces. The crash killed medical personnel Bradley Haynes, 48, Rachel Cunningham, 33, and Topper, 34. The helicopter twice flew through snow squalls shortly before the crash, an NTSB analysis found. While its possible to fly legally in light snow, the company wasnt authorized to operate when its pilots couldnt see the ground or when heavy snow posed a risk of freezing to the copter. The lack of adequate oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration contributed to the cause of the crash, NTSB found. The FAAs inspector for Survival Flight wasnt experienced in helicopter operations and had signed off on procedures that werent legal, NTSB said. A review of Survival Flights operations by the FAA after the crash found the companys riskanalyses, required before each flight, werent being done properly. The NTSB documented previous flights in poor weather that were apparently in violation of FAA regulations. If a pilot declined to fly, the chief pilot would call within about 10 minutes and would cuss out our pilots and belittle them, the NTSB quoted one as saying. He would yell so loud on the phone that you could hear it, just standing within earshot. Survival Flight is based in Arkansas and has bases there and in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Oklahoma, according to its website. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Scale Founders with team at corporate offices in Sherman Oaks, CA This recognition is a testament to our core values of prioritizing people and quality over profits, and building collaborative relationships with our employees based on trust, integrity, teambuilding and leadership. -- Ziv Haklili, Scale Co-Founder Scale Media, a tech-driven direct-to-consumer company, has been recognized as part of Forbes inaugural list of Americas Best Startup Employers for 2020. This prestigious award is presented by Forbes and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. Scale ranked #53 overall in a list of 500 businesses, and #2 in the Advertising and Marketing category that includes some of the most successful emerging companies in America. Forbes and Statista analyzed more than 7 million data points to identify the top Startup employers. In particular, three aspects of each company were assessed during the evaluation: employee reputation, employee satisfaction, and company growth. "This recognition is a testament to our core values of prioritizing people and quality over profits, and building collaborative relationships with our employees based on trust, integrity, teambuilding and leadership, said Ziv Haklili, CoFounder of Scale. We really focus on empowering them by leveraging their strengths and passions so they can realize their full potential. For the past five years, Scale has seen triple digit year-over-year growth while challenging industry standards and changing peoples approach towards health through cutting-edge science and a complete transformation of the end-to-end online shopping experience. Their proprietary eCommerce and digital marketing engine has powered and rapidly scaled concepts into multi-million-dollar consumer lifestyle brands, fueling their growing portfolio of 70+ products that help people live healthier lives. "We're thrilled and honored to be included in this Forbes list because it celebrates our talented team of brand builders working so hard to make Scale a trailblazer of the modern digital consumer experience, said Ben Flohr, CoFounder of Scale. We have a lot of exciting things in the works that will expand our mission to create meaningful connections between brands and consumers in ways that positively impact thousands of livesand are looking forward to working with our team to make that happen. Learn more about Scale at https://scale.tech/. About Scale: Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Scale is a tech-driven direct-to-consumer company that builds and deploys next-generation CPG brands in the beauty, health and wellness industries. Through their proprietary eCommerce and digital marketing engine, Scale transforms consumers end-to-end online shopping experience while increasing brand loyalty and retention. Since 2014, the company has rapidly powered and scaled concepts into multi-million-dollar consumer lifestyle brands, including 1MD, Hair La Vie, Simple Beauty, LiveWell, and Essential Elements. Today, Scales growing portfolio of 70+ products helps hundreds of thousands of people live healthier lives. Learn more at Scale.tech. Media Inquiries: press@scale.tech Contact: Carla Rivas, Scale "I was blown away by her knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for our industry, credit and borrowers. I knew I wanted to work with her," said Envoy COO, Kim Hoffman, CMB, AMP. Envoy Mortgage announced that Dani Hernandez is joining the company. Hernandez is a nationally recognized mortgage underwriting, guidelines and content creation expert. She brings substantial guideline knowledge to Envoy, having served most recently as a Consultant for Ludwig Plus and previously as Marketing and Communications Director for Freddie Mac, as well as a routine contributor for HousingWires blog, Ask the Underwriter. Hernandez has spent over five years working with superior mortgage fintech companies to create an unmatched user experience for borrowers and lenders. Her synchronized approach to the consumer mortgage experience supports digital mortgage technology to provide the most efficient loan process available. Hernandezs addition to Envoy will further cement the companys commitment to best-in-class operational workflow and defect free loan manufacturing. As a weekly Content Developer for HousingWires blog Ask the Underwriter, Hernandez submits articles and topics that achieve multiple top answers on Google and over 17,000 blog views each month, as she provides factual and impartial answers to loan originators and real estate agents. I met Dani two years ago at the NEXT conference in Dallas and was blown away by her knowledge, enthusiasm and passion for our industry, credit and borrowers. I knew I wanted to work with her! I am so proud that Dani chose to become part of what we are building at Envoy, said Envoy COO, Kim Hoffman, CMB, AMP. About Envoy Mortgage: Founded in 1997, Envoy Mortgage is an independently owned national mortgage lender headquartered in Houston, TX dedicated to serving retail originators exclusively to allow them to serve their customers and grow their businesses. As a Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie approved seller/servicer, Envoy offers a full menu of loan products with locations across the U.S. Licensed in 48 states, Envoy branches deliver outstanding customer service while offering a full menu of loan products with the tools, expertise and technology needed to support all functions of the mortgage process. More information is available at https://www.envoymortgage.com. Envoy Mortgage, Ltd. NMLS #6666. The problem for me was I ended up walking away with more questions than answers, said Tarver, whose district includes Advocate Trinity, in an interview. I couldnt tell them (my constituents) when or if the hospital was going to close, if it would be replaced ... There just was not a lot of clarity around the project except that they wanted these funds to help sustain some of the losses they experienced. New viruses being discovered are only the tip of the iceberg, according to a leading Wuhan-based virologist at the centre of Covid-19-related conspiracy theories because of her research on coronaviruses found in bats. The unknown viruses that we have discovered are actually just the tip of the iceberg, Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said in an interview to Chinese state television on Monday. She added it was important to carry out advanced research on pathogens. Shi is known as Chinas bat woman, as she has worked on coronaviruses found in the flying mammals for years, most notably inside abandoned mines in the southwestern province of Yunnan. She has kept a low profile since the Covid-19 outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, only occasionally commenting on social media, including once to deny that she had defected from China after the pandemic rapidly spread. According to the Communist Party of Chinas mouthpiece, the Peoples Dailys English website, Shi had reacted on February 2to a research article by Indian scientists implying the novel coronavirus possibly originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The 2019 novel coronavirus is a punishment by nature to humans unsanitary life styles. I promise with my life that the virus has nothing to do with the lab, she said on social media app WeChat. In a short interview with state television channel CGTN on Monday, Shi defended Chinas transparency in handling the outbreak and emphasised the need for more research on viruses. If we want to protect humans from viruses or avoid a second outbreak of new infectious diseases, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and then give early warnings, she said. And we must be able to store some drugs and reagents for detection, prevention or treatment for future prevention and control, Shi added. Like other leading Chinese scientists involved in epidemic control in China, Shi denied her institute was the origin of the novel coronavirus. Shi said her institute shared its data with the world and the WHO was well informed about breakthroughs. Later, we, along with two other medical institutes in our country, submitted the whole genome sequence of the virus to WHO on January 12, 2020, she said. At the same time, we also uploaded other sequences to a gene library called GISAID, which is used by governments and scientists around the world to identify pathogens, to develop vaccines and screen drugs. Earlier this month, Shi denied rumours of defecting to the West, saying on WeChat: Everything is all right for my family and me, dear friends! Posting nine recent photos, Shi added: No matter how difficult things are, it (defecting) shall never happen. Weve done nothing wrong. With strong belief in science, we will see the day when the clouds disperse and the sun shines. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Israeli authorities announced on May 26 that local company IDE technologies was chosen to construct the Sorek 2 sewage desalination plant in the south of the country. Israeli Hutchison Company, an affiliate of the Chinese Hutchison, was considered until recently the frontrunner for the tender, but American pressure against its candidacy evidently worked. Sorek 2 is expected to be one of the world's largest desalination plants, increasing Israels desalinated water production by 35% and lowering water costs. Five other desalination plants already operate in Israel, but Sorek 2 will be the biggest. A 2018 tender invited companies to bid on its planning, construction and operation for a period of 25 years. Israels Energy Minister Yuval Steinits said May 26, The bid by the Israeli firm was better by a significant margin, the price was cheaper by a significant margin than that of the other bidders including the Chinese, who did indeed reach the final stage. Still, the decision to pick the Israeli contender was reportedly also influenced by American pressure against Chinese involvement. The current and previous US administrations had pressured Israel over the past few years to limit its commercial relations with China in sensitive areas such as cyber technologies and infrastructure. The United States was disappointed over Chinese involvement in construction projects in the ports of Haifa and Ashdod. Two years ago, Israel agreed to an American demand to establish a special committee for examining and controlling foreign investments in the country. On May 12, one day before the visit to Jerusalem by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israel announced it would reconsider the participation of Hutchinson in the desalination tender, but the announcement evidently fell short of American expectations. On May 13, speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo referred obliquely to China, saying Israel is "a great partner. You share your information, unlike some other countries that try and obfuscate and hide information. And well talk about that country, too." According to reports, Pompeo raised the specific issue of Sorek 2 in his talks with Israeli officials. The Hutchinson issue has now been removed from the Israel-US agenda, but the issue of Jerusalem-Beijing ties is far from over. China has invested in many Israeli firms in recent years, including the largest food distributer in Israel, Tnuva. In 2019, when Israel first decided to privatize some of its electricity production, the China Harbor company bought shares in the Alon Tavor power station in the north of Israel. Currently, China Harbor is interested in buying shares in a second power station, this time in the south of the country. The Apostolic Nunciature in the Philippines has written to the countrys Catholic bishops to warn their communities against a person claiming to be close to the Pope and the Vatican. By Robin Gomes The Apostolic Nunciature in the Philippine capital Manila has alerted the countrys bishops against a certain Cristian Eduardo Tietze who is falsely claiming to be close to Pope Francis and Vatican officials. Tietze introduces himself as president of the Peace for Life Foundation. In a May-22 circular letter to bishops and diocesan administrators, Father Marvin Mejia, the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said that Monsignor Julien Kabore, charge daffaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila, has written to CBCP President, Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, warning dioceses and religious communities against Tietze. Father Mejia warned that the person is claiming to be close to the Holy Father and to the Holy See. Having learned about this questionable person, Father Mejia wrote, the Vatican Secretariat of State encourages all concerned to use maximum prudence in dealing with persons and groups when mention is made of the name of the pope and other curia officials. Several Philippine church leaders have warned the public in the past against a scheme that uses the name of bishops to solicit money from people and church institutions. In recent weeks, reports surfaced of scammers targeting Catholics amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Catholic Church of the Philippines has asked the faithful not to send cash donations without verifying with their diocesan chanceries. Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, Bishop Alberto Uy of Tagbilaran, and Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, Archbishop Emeritus of Cotabato have reportedly alerted the faithful regarding the scam. What do Covid-19, computer malware, the ice-bucket challenge, knife crime, fake news, STIs, and collapsing banks have in common? You've guessed it. They're all contagions. Now that we are in the middle of the biggest one in 102 years, epidemiologist Adam Kucharski's book, The Rules Of Contagion: Why Things Spread And Why They Stop, makes for timely reading. As our lives remain abruptly halted by the current global pandemic, mugging up on how contagions work feels oddly reassuring. Not that anyone, even the experts, can predict a pandemic's individual twists and turns. There is a saying within the epidemiology community: "If you've seen one pandemic... you've seen one pandemic." Instead, Kucharski, based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and with background in mathematics and banking, walks us through the history of contagion, and its broader rules. From biological pathogens and computer viruses to abstract ideas and beliefs, the outbreak curve will always follow the same path: spark, growth, peak and decline. Swine flu in 2009 had two peaks, in July and October, as did the last major pandemic in 1918-1919, when Spanish Flu infected 500 million people worldwide; the first wave in spring, the second, deadlier wave in autumn. It killed more people - 50 million, or approximately 2.5pc of the global population - than the First World War, but unlike the war, we don't talk about it. "There is no monument in London, Moscow or Washington DC," writes Laura Spinney in Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 & How It Changed The World. "The Spanish Flu is remembered personally, not collectively. Not as a historical disaster, but as millions of discrete, private tragedies." It was later revealed, via gene sequencing on a piece of preserved lung from one of the dead, that the flu had been avian in origin - H1N1 - before it mutated and jumped species. Yet until the 1990s, science was unaware that such cross-species transmission was possible. Expand Close Adam Kucharski / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Adam Kucharski Before Hippocrates took the Greek word 'epidemic' ('of the people') to specifically mean the spread of infectious disease, it used to refer to anything that spread quickly through society - rumours, ideas, hostilities. Nowadays, the original definition is once again apt, as we talk about financial contagion, and epidemics related to obesity, urban knife crime, loneliness etc; or, if related to fun and leisure - think 1970s hula hooping, 1980s Rubik cubes, 1990s Pokemon's 'gotta catch them all' - we call them 'crazes'. Suddenly everyone is doing it, until they aren't, and we have forgotten about them, other than as nostalgic cultural blips. In the digital age, going viral means attaining a global reach at lightning speed, which can be benevolent (like the ice-bucket challenge), and the holy grail of marketing departments keen to harness individuals to spread content far and wide by clicking, liking, sharing. Or it can be malicious and harmful. The Wanna Cry computer virus of May 2017 doubled its infection rate every hour, temporarily crippling the British health service network, and demanding ransom in Bitcoin. The concept of how contagion works was not much understood until relatively recently, when 19th century British doctor Ronald Ross made the connection between mosquitoes and malaria. Historically, there had been all kinds of inaccurate ideas about how diseases spread. Influenza is Italian for influence; in medieval times, it was thought that flu was influenced by astronomy, the position of the stars dictating the location of the next Ross spent 50 years studying the link between mosquitoes, stagnant water and malaria outbreaks. "Epidemiology is in fact a mathematical subject," he wrote in 1911. "And fewer absurd mistakes would be made if more attention were given to the mathematical study of it." With input from mathematician Hilda Hudson, his crucial realisation was, writes Kucharski, that "If the recoveries outpaced the rate of new infections, the level of disease eventually would decline to zero." He advocated mosquito control. His ideas took decades to catch on - malaria was not eradicated from Britain until the 1950s, and mainland Europe until 1975. The SIR model of disease transmission, where a population falls into three phases - susceptible, infectious, recovered - was further developed by Ross's medical contemporaries, William Kermack and Anderson McKendrick. Also in the early 20th century, medical statistician Major Greenwood gave us the concept of herd immunity, suggesting that an entire population need not be vaccinated to stop the spread of infectious disease; if most people have immunity, that's enough to halt its progress. (With Covid-19, the UK government initially adopted this approach, until someone did the maths, and realised how many people would die before herd immunity could be reached. It is currently being used in Sweden, whose population is seven times smaller than that of the UK, alongside a less stringent lockdown). Contagion transmission is all about R. In contagion modelling, R stands for Reproduction Number. That is, how many other people are infected by one person carrying a contagion: R for Covid 19 is two to three, for smallpox it's four to six, for chickenpox it's six to eight, and for measles, one person can infect up to 20 others. The R number is dependent on four factors, which Kucharski calls 'DOTS': the duration of time someone is infectious; the average daily number of opportunities they have to spread the infection; the probability of transmission; and the average susceptibility of others. "From HIV to Ebola, R makes it possible to quantify and compare transmission for different diseases," he says. Read More From financial contagions like the South Sea Bubble to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, from the epidemiologist who moved from health care in Africa to crime reduction in Chicago, and the marine ecologist who used his modelling of fish populations to create predictive models for Deutsche Bank, Kucharski shows how different types of contagion broadly follow similar patterns. As we wait for the current pandemic to flatten out and fade away, we are seeing how a disease contagion can spark a simultaneous contagion of fake news - as Covid-19 spreads globally, in its wake follows a raft of misinformation, xenophobia, fake science, fake news, fake 'cures'. And just as individuals have been asked to stay home to stop spreading the virus, media outlets have been asked to stop sharing false information. "In outbreak analysis," Kucharski concludes, "the most significant moments aren't the ones when we're right. It's the moments when we realise we've been wrong. Whether we want an innovation to take off or an infection to decline, these are the moments we need to reach as early as possible. The moments that let us look back to work out how outbreaks really happened in the past. Then look forward, to change how they happen in future." Omaid Hiwaizi, strategist & mathematician explains: The Simple Maths of an outbreak "Pandemic maths starts with a number - R - which is the average number of people who will catch a disease from any one contagious person. If this is more than one, it spreads quickly - if less than one, it spreads more slowly. "This is the infection equivalent of 'compound interest', where the numbers can increase wildly in a short period of time. If R is two and people interact a lot, in 30 days one person can infect 2x2x2... x2 (30 twos) = 107.374.1,824! "R changes in line with how the virus acts and with how people behave. If people are infectious for some time before they show symptoms, it increases R. If the infection affects them quickly, they have less chance to spread it to others. R is also affected by how the virus is transmitted - if it easily transfers from one person to another, through droplets which sit live on surfaces. "R changes with how people behave - how much they interact. If people interact a lot, it increases R. Equally, if we self-isolate and wash our hands, it brings R down. This is how we reduce the rate of growth of the pandemic. "With most viruses that haven't mutated, people can't be infected twice, so once most people have been infected, those who live are fine to carry on with life as normal. If the virus mutates, like the flu, people can catch the new strain and after a peak, the number of people infected goes down and settles at a low ongoing rate. This is 'herd immunity'. "The issue with this is the size of the peak. If the peak is too high, the number of serious infections will overwhelm health services. This is why it's important to 'flatten the curve' to keep the number of simultaneous serious cases to what health services can cover." (Newser) One of the government watchdogs recently stripped of authority by President Trump is leaving his job entirely. Glenn Fine is resigning his post as deputy inspector general of the Pentagon, reports CNN. Fine was in the news last month, though not for his Pentagon work. He had been placed in control of a panel of inspector generals overseeing how the government spends $2 trillion allotted for coronavirus relief. Trump removed him from that post on a bit of a technicalityhe demoted Fine from his job as acting inspector general of the Pentagon, which disqualified him from the coronavirus oversight position. Fine then returned to his role as a deputy inspector general for the Pentagon, and it's that position he is now resigning, per the New York Times. story continues below "It has been an honor to serve in the Inspector General community," Fine said in a statement. "The role of Inspectors General is a strength of our system of government. They provide independent oversight to help improve government operations in a transparent way." Trump has made no bones about ridding his administration of IGs from the Obama administration, saying at a press conference this month, "I offered most of my people, almost all of themI said, you know these are Obama appointees. If you'd like to let them go, I think you should let them go," per Axios. Trump recently fired IGs for the State Department and the intelligence community, and USA Today notes that he nominated a permanent inspector general for Health and Human Services after the acting director issued a critical report. (Read more Inspector General stories.) A new study reports anti-immigrant sentiment softened among both Leave and Remain camps after the 2016 referendum. London, United Kingdom There is a dominant narrative in the UK, certainly in liberal media circles and on the losing side of the 2016 European Union withdrawal referendum, that small-minded xenophobia was a major driving force behind Brexit. Anti-immigration themes were prevalent during the campaign, and parts of the discourse and rhetoric turned ugly. The win for the Leave movement was widely seen as a victory for right-wing populists. And the divisions that were entrenched during the referendum continue to split the UK, with more people identifying as either a Leaver or a Remainer than they do with any party political affiliation. But new research from a group of four universities suggests something that may seem counter-intuitive: Brexit actually changed peoples perspectives of immigrants for the better in both Remain and Leave-voting areas. Those who voted to leave the EU found their anti-immigrant attitudes softening because of feeling a greater sense of having taken back control, in the words of the campaign. But that was not all, according to the studys authors. Leavers and Remainers alike also felt a need to disavow the xenophobic views bandied about during the referendum, and in the process became genuinely less anti-immigrant. There is a really easy story to be told about people feeling reassured by a government taking back control, Professor David Hudson of the University of Birmingham, one of the authors of the study, told Al Jazeera. That logic can and does explain why Leavers attitudes have changed, but our results show that it does not explain why Remainers have also shifted to become more positive about migrants and immigration. The only answer that explained all the shift is this sense of people wanting to distance themselves from people and positions that they perceived as extreme and discriminatory and not okay, [Nigel] Farage being the archetypal example. And this is important, because the easy and simple story about take back control does not cut it. Nigel Farage, the right-wing populist who was then-head of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), faced criticism for his framing of immigration to the UK during the referendum campaign [File: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters] After Brexit, the study found, Remainers were 9 percent less likely to believe that migrants took jobs away from the non-migrant population, while Leavers attitudes softened by 4 percent about half of the amount. Those supporting Remain were 12 percent less inclined to believe that migrants increased the risk of terrorism, and 7 percent less likely to believe that refugees overwhelm public services, after the referendum. Leavers were 5 percent and 2 percent, respectively, less likely to agree with those two points. 180812070545640 The study, titled: A Populist Paradox? How Brexit Softened Anti-Immigrant Attitudes and published in the May issue of the British Journal of Political Science, was undertaken by researchers at the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway, the University of Essex, and University College London. That anti-immigrant sentiment decreased is important in its own right, but the key contribution of this research is that we explain why attitudes changed, the reports lead author, Dr Cassilde Schwartz of the University of Londons Royal Holloway, told Al Jazeera. People across the political spectrum experienced a backlash against nationalism and xenophobia. It is a testament to the democratic norms of this country that individuals self-corrected en masse in response to a political climate that they perceived as hostile or intolerant. That may come as little comfort to the victims of hate crimes, which surged in the aftermath of the referendum. Polish communities were particularly targeted in several attacks, including the distribution of leaflets describing them as vermin and racist graffiti outside a cultural centre in London. In the city of Leeds, a group of 20 youths attacked a Polish man, leaving him hospitalised. Between July and September 2016, 33 of the UKs 44 police forces saw record numbers of hate crimes, with more than 1,000 recorded in the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire police areas, and a further 3,000 in London in just three months. The violence was, however, a spike and quickly reduced, according to statistics from the UK Home Office. While increases in hate crime over the last five years have been mainly driven by improvements in crime recording by the police, there have been spikes in hate crime following certain events such as the EU Referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017, read the 2018-2019 Home Office report into hate crimes. Number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police by month, April 2013 to March 2019 [Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office] The latest study also holds lessons for politicians dealing with the many non-Brexit challenges currently faced by the UK, said Hudson. At a time of deep uncertainty, loss of control, fear especially of what is felt to be foreign and closing borders, the results of the paper suggest that there will be a backlash against excessive scapegoating and xenophobic positions, he said. This is true about COVID-19 but also more recently in the Home Secretarys reticence to waive the NHS migrant surcharge, which produced a reaction, especially considering the general mood towards the NHS, given the amazing and brave work front-line workers have been doing. There is a limit to populism that seeks to scapegoat foreigners if and when the public feels that it breaks social norms. The U-turn on the NHS surcharge for migrant health workers could very much be understood in this light. The government realised correctly that this would stretch peoples discrimination norms. The research was embedded into surveys taken two weeks before and after the referendum, and asked if respondents agreed with six key statements: refugees overwhelm services, refugees threaten culture, refugees do not improve the UK image, reduce number of migrants, migrants take jobs, and migrants bring terror. Respondents were sampled and weighted according to regionally specific demographics by age and gender, social grade, region, party affiliation, and newspaper readership, making the data representative of the adult population of the country as a whole, said researchers. Despite the divides that remain in British society, the research findings are good news and should reflect current feelings, said analysts. The fact that British people now have far more positive attitudes to migration is no surprise, Jonathan Lis, deputy director of the British Influence think-tank, told Al Jazeera. In the past four years, people have begun to understand just how much migrants have contributed to Britains society, economy and culture. It is just a shame that it took the national self-sabotage of Brexit to realise it. Follow James Brownsell on Twitter: @JamesBrownsell Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:14:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CHONGQING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality have pledged to enhance cooperation in employment and entrepreneurship. In an agreement signed Tuesday, the authorities decided to build an employment mechanism, where they will simultaneously publish information of employers and job seekers. They will also hold joint online and offline recruitment sessions. According to the agreement, the two sides will share employment website information and statistics, and exchange employment information of laborers, job-hunting graduates and retired military personnel on a regular basis. Sichuan and Chongqing will share an innovation and entrepreneurship service platform, and jointly build incubation bases for launching new businesses. Entrepreneurship training sessions will be held too, in addition to exhibitions, competitions and promotions. A job-seeking platform has been launched, with 13,000 employers offering about 600,000 jobs. Enditem (Newser) Over a period of three hours on Saturday, five US Postal Service mail carriers were shot with paintballs in what police are calling a series of attacks carried out by two men. The USPS' law enforcement division is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the paintball gunmen, Fox 5 DC reports. The afternoon attacks carried out in Washington, DC, and Maryland's Prince George's County left several of the USPS carriers with minor injuries, WTOP reports. (Read more paintball stories.) This illustration made available by SpaceX depicts the company's Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket during the uncrewed In-Flight Abort Test for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. (SpaceX via AP) NASA Astronauts Go Back to the Future With Capsule Launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.Its back to the future as NASA astronauts launch again from the United Statesaboard a retro-style Right Stuff capsule. Make no mistake: This is not your fathersor grandfatherscapsule. SpaceXs Dragon crew capsule outshines NASAs old Apollo spacecraft in virtually every way. The Dragons clean lines and minimalist interior, with touchscreens instead of a mess of switches and knobs, make even the space shuttles seem yesteryear. This fresh take on a vintage look will be on full display on May 27 when SpaceX plans to launch NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Stationa first for a private company. It will be the first astronaut launch from Florida since Atlantis closed out the space shuttle program in 2011, and the first American-made capsule to carry people into orbit since the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketwith the crew capsule atopwill soar from the same pad used for both of those earlier missions. Russias workhorse Soyuz capsules, still in use after more than a half-century, have kept NASA astronauts flying to the space station. While reliable, the Soyuz looks dated compared with the snappy Dragon. We want it to not only be as safe and reliable as youd expect from the most advanced spacecraft in the world we also want it to look amazing and look beautiful, said Benji Reed, a SpaceX mission director. SpaceX and Boeing, NASAs other commercial crew provider, opted for capsules from the start. Another early competitor, Sierra Nevada Corp., proposed a small space plane for astronauts but didnt make the final cut. NASA has since hired the company to haul space station supplies aboard its mini-shuttle starting as soon as next year. There was no need for another flying machine like the shuttle, which was built to haul hefty satellites and space station parts, said retired NASA manager Steve Payne. What were trying to do now is just taxi service up and down, and you dont need the huge semi anymore. You can use a sedan, Payne told The Associated Press. Yes, wings are nice. They give you more options as to where to land and a little more control, said Payne, a former Navy fighter pilot. But theyre not absolutely necessary. And since were trying to make this inexpensive and reusable and as simple as we can make it so that its cost-effective, capsules work. SpaceX based its crew capsule on its long-running reusable cargo capsule, also named Dragon, and ending space station missions with old-fashioned splashdowns. The two astronauts were deeply involved in the new capsules development over the past five years. In true test flight fashion, they offered suggestions and tweaked here and there, to benefit not just themselves but for future crews. Our goal through this entire process is to not turn the spacecraft into Bob and Dougs excellent machine, with a bunch of things that only Doug likes or only Bob likes, Behnken said. Although the fully automated Dragon has four seats lined up in a row, only the center two will be occupied for this especially risky test flight. A test dummy soloed on 2019s Dragon crew capsule debut. This Dragon now has a name, courtesy of its crew. Hurley and Behnken promise to reveal it on launch day, one of many traditions theyre set into motion as NASAs commercial crew program finally takes wing. The practice hearkens back to NASAs early days: Project Mercurys John Glenn became the first American to circle the Earth aboard Friendship 7; Gemini 3s Gus Grissom and John Young sailed into orbit aboard Molly Brown; and Apollo 11s Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins flew to the moon aboard Columbia. We have to save some suspense for the mission itself, Behnken said. Weve got something for you to look forward to on launch day. By Marcia Dunn Best-selling chef Alison Roman has emerged from her self-imposed exile after a bruising row with rival Chrissy Teigen, which saw her column in the New York Times put on hold. Roman, 34, wrote on Instagram that she was 'genuinely excited' to build on the lessons learnt from the saga, and told her 568,000 followers that in lieu of her cooking column she would be publishing a newsletter with recipes. 'I'm genuinely excited to turn this moment into positive, actionable change and so insanely grateful for even having that opportunity,' she wrote. 'This was a huge shake-up for me both personally and professionally, and I'm still processing so much, but know that I'm working on it and thinking about it 24/7. 'The issues brought to light by this whole thing won't be fixed overnight, and the healing process for many will be long, but I'm committed to doing the work to make it better.' Alison Roman took to Instagram on Tuesday, making her first social media post since the New York Times put her column on hold a week before. Roman thanked everyone for their support, and announced that she is launching a newsletter Roman's trouble began three weeks ago, when she accused Teigen, also 34, of having sold out. In a May 7 interview with The New Consumer, Roman said that Teigen's culinary empire 'horrifies me'. 'What Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me,' she said. 'She had a successful cookbook. And then it was, like: Boom, line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where its just, like, people running a content farm for her. 'That horrifies me and its not something that I ever want to do. I dont aspire to that. But like, whos laughing now? Because shes making a ton of f****** money.' Alison Roman says she is 'insanely grateful' for the chance to pause and reassess her career. In an Instagram post today, she announced she is launching a newsletter of recipes - but said she has not been able to return to cooking since her row with Chrissy Teigen Roman also attacked Marie Kondo for her products - leading to a swift online backlash, as critics noted that Roman had singled out two minority women. Initially the Los Angeles-born chef was defiant, tweeting on May 8: 'When women bully other women for being honest about money and how much they do or do not make, well, that's amore.' She later that day recanted, saying: 'I am not coming for anyone who's successful, especially not women. 'I was trying to clarify that my business model does not include a product line, which work very well for some, but I don't see working for me.' Teigen then replied, tweeting: 'I don't think I've ever been so bummed out by the words of a fellow food-lover. I just had no idea I was perceived that way, by her especially. And Marie, too. Marie is awesome.' She said that her brand, Cravings, was not a 'machine' or 'farmed content'. Roman accused Teigen of cheapening her brand with an expanding empire. Teigen's cookbook has topped the bestseller lists and blossomed into a homeware collection, which has also sold out. She concluded: 'I didn't "sell out" by making my dreams come true. To have a cookware line, to get to be part of that process from start to finish, to see something go from sketch in to my hands, I love that.' Roman apologized, tweeting that she had been 'flippant, careless' and saying that she was 'genuinely sorry'. But by May 10 the online furore had become too much, and Teigen said that she had been receiving abuse about her children. She said she was taking time away from Twitter, to let the row settle down. Roman then issued a further apology, in a long letter on social media. Teigen accepted. Roman issued a further apology on May 11, which Teigen accepted. The row continued to rumble, however, and a week later the New York Times put Roman's column on hold Yet the saga was not over. On May 19 it was confirmed that Roman's New York Times column had been put on hold. Teigen criticized the decision, saying she was 'not happy' with it. 'It just sucks in every way,' she said. Roman emerged from the fray on Tuesday with her Instagram post, which was 'liked' 11,000 times in the first hour. She announced that she was beginning a newsletter, describing it as something she had intended to do for the past three years. And she illustrated the post with a picture of food scraps, writing: 'I haven't been cooking and won't pretend I have, so here's a bowl of compost, which - a metaphor in there somewhere, I think!' The post was greeted with an outpouring of support. 'Miss you!' wrote one fan. 'Hang in there. You'll get through it,' wrote another. Another simply replied: 'You are doing great. Get cooking!' Novavax Begins COVID-19 Vaccine Trials After $388 Million Funding From Bill Gates-Backed Organization Novavax, a U.S. biotechnology company that received funding from a Bill Gates-backed organization, has started phase 1 of its clinical trials for a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine. The Maryland-based company said on Monday it is beginning human trials of the vaccine in Australia, and expects preliminary immunogenicity and safety results in July. The safety of the vaccine will be tested on 131 adult volunteers in Melbourne and Brisbane aged between 18 and 59, the company announced. Novavaxs research chief Dr. Gregory Glenn said the first phase of the trial will look for early signs of the vaccines effectiveness. We are in parallel making doses, making vaccine in anticipation that well be able to show its working and be able to start deploying it by the end of this year, Glenn said during a virtual press briefing from the companys Maryland headquarters. The first volunteer participating in the the phase 1 clinical trial received a dose of the vaccine Tuesday morning local time. The president and CEO of the late-stage biotechnology company, Stanley C. Erck, said in a statement that the first phase of the vaccines clinical trial is a significant achievement. Administering our vaccine in the first participants of this clinical trial is bringing us one step closer toward addressing the fundamental need for a vaccine in the fight against the global COVID19 pandemic, he said. We look forward to sharing the clinical results in July and, if promising, quickly initiating the phase 2 portion of the trial. The first phase of the clinical trial will be randomized, observer-blinded, and placebo-controlled, Novavax said. Novavaxs vaccine (NVX-CoV2373), which is a type of recombinant vaccine, will be developed by using genetic engineering to replicate harmless copies of the spike protein that covers the outer surface of the CCP virus and invades human cells. Novavax developed copies of the protein in giant laboratory vats of insect cells, which were extracted and purified by researchers who packaged the spike protein into virus-sized nanoparticles. The replicas of the spike protein are then injected into vaccine recipients to stimulate an immune response, including through the greater production of antibodies, which may provide longer-lasting protection against viral infection. The way we make a vaccine is we never touch the virus, Novavax told The Associated Press last month, adding that it looks just like a virus to the immune system. Novavax received its largest ever investment of $388 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), which was co-founded and set up in November 2017 with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Billionaire Bill Gates told Fox News Sunday last month that life in the United States will only return to normal when a vaccine for the CCP virus has gotten out to basically the entire world. We will eventually get a vaccine. Even before then, if we do the right things, well be able to open up significant parts of the economy, he said. Entering clinical trials is an important step on the path to delivering a safe, effective, and globally accessible vaccine against COVID-19, Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEO of Oslo-based CEPI, said in a statement. Vaccines provide our best hope of permanently defeating this pandemic, so it is encouraging to see rapid progress being made in the development of Novavax vaccine candidate. Our investment in Novavax allows us to focus on manufacturing in parallel with the clinical development of the vaccine, so that if the vaccine is proven to be safe and effective, we can make doses available to those who need them without delay, Hatchett added. Novavax said that if phase 1 is a success, it will begin phase 2 of its trial in multiple countries, including in the United States, which will assess immunity, safety, and COVID-19 disease reduction in age groups outside of 18 to 59. Reuters contributed to this report. Governor Nasir El-Rufai Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has warned that parents who enroll their children in the Almajiri education system stand the risk of prosecution and two years imprisonment. The governor stated this when he visited 200 Almajiri children repatriated from Nasarawa State and undergoing rehabilitation and optical screening at Government College, Kurmin Mashi, Kaduna, on Monday May 25. Almajiri is ideally a system of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria, where young children leave their homes to live with Islamic scholars and learn about the religion. However, the system has over the years been corrupted with thousands of such children roaming the streets begging for alms and food, and without any form of education. Speaking during the visit, the governor said any Islamic cleric who enrolls any child into the Almajiri system would also be prosecuted, jailed, and fined N100,000 or N200,000 per child. The governor while expressing his delight at the rehabilitation of the repatriated Almajiris, said the state has a responsibility to do whatever it can to give them hope and a better future. We will, therefore, continue to take delivery of every Almajiri pupil indigenous to Kaduna state for rehabilitation, treatment and enrollment into formal school nearest to where their parents live. We will continue to do this until we clear Kaduna state of the menace of Almajiri system, which is not education but the abuse of the privilege and future of a child. Our ultimate goal is for them to acquire formal education without depriving them of the opportunity to acquire Quranic education. They will continue their Quranic education but under the care of their parents and not under someone who does not know them or paid to look after them. he said. As states gradually reopen, people are excited to feel free to move around a bit more. Our news media report on every detail of every restriction being lifted. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the news cycle has been flooded with hospital capacity statistics, ventilator availability and even fun tips for staying at home. But we need more coverage of this countrys Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers where people are at extreme risk of contracting the virus. They rarely see hospitals, even when plagued with COVID-19 symptoms. Access to ventilators? Barely a chance. Testing? Unreliable tests are flaunted by jailers as showing concern for detained people. Soap is sometimes only available for purchase at the commissary. Quarantining in prison means that sick people are either grouped together, with no social distancing available, or they are put in solitary confinement. Why should we care? Besides the fact that all human beings should be treated with basic dignity, what happens in jails and detention centers does not stay there. They are breeding grounds for infection since they need so much help from outside the facilities to function. That is why our organization says, Free them all. This is a public health issue long in the making, and elected leaders are trying to sidestep it. Politicians enjoy high approval ratings as they appear to be caring for people. But both those detained and the staff of these centers are being left behind; nurses and corrections officers at these facilities have died from COVID-19. Family members and activists have been fighting ICE detention contracts for years. We demand that these issues be brought to light by the media, activist organizations, and individuals. If we are truly all in this together, we cannot leave so many behind. Jake Ephros, Montclair The writer is a member of New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees. War declared on the postal service Thank you for the recent Star-Ledger editorial, Trumps attempted murder of the U.S. Postal Service, in support of this agency. The postal service has been the victim of Republican strategies to starve the government for years. Im old enough to remember when local post offices were well taken care of and were community hubs. Now, the buildings look sad. Too many Americans believe that the postal service is not managing itself well and that a private business model would do better. There hasnt been enough written about why the service is in trouble, and how that trouble supports Republicans. Republicans do not have a winning message or set of policies that would appeal to most Americans, particularly Americans who do not watch Fox News. If they did, they wouldnt be attacking the USPS. Betsy Clarke, Mantoloking Unlike Cuomo, Murphy slow-walks virus testing Close to half of New Jerseys coronavirus deaths have occurred in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. When did state officials first realize we had a problem in these places? We know that Gov. Phil Murphy issued an order closing all schools on March 16. We also know that a state mandate to test all staff and residents of nursing homes did not go into effect until today, which is 71 days since the school-shutdown order. Follow-up testing is mandated no more than a week later. I am not an epidemiologist, but is even weekly testing sufficient to stop the spread in these homes? What if an employee takes a test on Monday, but gets infected on Tuesday and spreads the virus until the following Monday? How many residents would be infected? Im sorry. Ive just plagiarized some of the words of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at his May 18 briefing. He issued a twice-a-week testing mandate for staff on May 10. Why aren't New Jersey officials doing as much to mitigate the nursing-home deaths, and testing staff twice a week? Rick Short, Cherry Hill When is death toll no longer great success? During this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, most Americans are quite cognizant of the common good: We wear face masks and, frequently, gloves, and maintain social distancing to respect and to protect others. However challenging, we continue to stay at home for the same reason. What further complicates life in the United States is a failure of national leadership, planning and direction. Sadly, President Donald Trump is clearly incapable of caring about the common good: He refuses to wear a face mask in public; he ignores, or buries, the advice of public health and intelligence experts; he persists in blaming other countries or individuals for our present health crisis; and, he invokes the Defense Production Act to keep meat processing plants open but not for the purpose of ramping up coronavirus testing. As of this writing, approximately 4% of Americans have been tested. In the United States, we have a rich history of leaders who pursued the common good and sought to unify, not divide, us in times of turmoil. In late April, Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, declared 58,000 COVID-19 deaths at that time a great success story. As we approach a death toll of 100,000, what say we? Margaret OHara, West Orange Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters. Indian Army unfurls national flag in Galwan valley on New Year, images go viral Words cannot do justice: PM Modi's heartfelt message to soldiers on Indian Army Day Watch: Indian Army displays new combat uniform for the first time Fake: Indian Army has no plans of creating a Himachal Regiment India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: There is a message that is circulating on the social media about the creation of a Himachal Regiment. It is being claimed that the Army would be creating a Himachal regiment with its headquarters at Kangra. The Indian Army has said that this message is fake. There is no such plan of creating a separate Himachal Regiment. Request guard against misinformation and fake messages of this kind, the Army has also clarified. These social media messages are fake and untrue, the Army had further said. Fake: Govt has not promised a Rs 5,000 lockdown fund The fake message said that officers will get recruited from routine exams, but the jawans and JCOs will have their origins in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Pathankot in Punjab. It may be recalled that in 2019, Himachal Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur had urged Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh to create a Himachal Regiment, so that people of the state could be employed. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 16:57 [IST] Mumbai: The skies over six blocks in three districts of Maharashtra darkened on Tuesday as a swarm of locusts entered the state almost 17 years after the last locust invasion. A swarm of desert locusts, which is a type of a species of short-horned grasshoppers, flew across Vidarbhas Amravati, Wardha and Nagpur, and while major food crops are not under threat, as the sowing season is still a fortnight away, fruit orchards and vegetable farms are likely to be affected by the crop munching insects. They were spotted descending on orange orchards of Katol in Nagpur, as well as the neem trees in Morshi and Warud in Amravati. According to the state agriculture department the swarm is reported to be at least 10km long and 2km wide -- the insects are unique in the way that they change their behaviour from solitary to gregarious insects that forage for food together -- and the swarm has covered a distance of about 120 km in the past three days. ALSO WATCH | Crop-eating locusts wreak havoc in Rajasthan & MP The invasion began from Katol (in Nagpur) on Monday morning. While major crop damage is not expected since we are close to monsoon and sowing in these areas begins by June 7, orange orchards are threatened by this invasion. A 25% loss is being estimated as of now for those owing these orchards, said Ravindra Bhosale, divisional joint director agriculture, Nagpur division. As the swarm moves further south into the rural areas of Nagpur like Kamleshwar, hectares of cabbage, ladyfinger, cauliflower, and kidney beans crops are under threat. An escaping population of desert locusts made their way from Madhya Pradesh into Amravati district on May 24 due to the current wind direction and the presence of forest patches where they can grow and breed as well as citrus trees. Over 48 hours, they have covered to two more districts showing an unusual swarming behaviour, said Dr KL Gurjar, deputy director and national coordinator on mitigating locust attacks, Locust Warning Organisation, adding that the last time Maharashtra witnessed such an invasion was in 1993, in Dhule. Subhash Nagade, divisional joint director agriculture, Amravati division said the locust swarm has only exacerbated villagers woes who are already dealing with Covid-19 cases and the extremely hot weather. However, the government has been tackling the issue. While the locusts themselves pose no harm to humans, they can only be killed using chemicals. District officials, with the help of the fire department carried out hours-long drives of spraying pesticides across affected areas in all three districts in the intervening night between Monday and Tuesday. We learnt that the swarms were asleep on the citrus trees. The villagers were able to pin point the exact locations, and an overnight extermination drive saw thousands of dead insects across a 17-km stretch at Katol. However, on Tuesday morning, those that survived began swarming to other talukas, said Bhosale. We expect the invasion to be controlled within a few days in Maharashtra. However, another escaping population from MP cannot be ruled out, Gurjar said, adding that the wind direction was the reason behind such a possibility. Gurjar also said that efforts were on to control locust in Jaipur, Dausa and Karauli regions in Rajasthan and added that all state governments have been given instructions on how to control the fast migrating pest. The country is witnessing a severe locust outbreak active across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and now Maharashtra. These rapidly reproducing crop munching pests can fly up to 150km in a day. Central and state bodies have stepped up efforts to control the menace as it poses crop vulnerability and threat to food safety if the outbreak is not contained. Experts said the outbreak started due to heavy rain over east Africa and Arabian Peninsula due to warm waters in the western Indian Ocean in late 2019 with the swarm originating in the Horn of Africa, and entered India after breeding in Baluchistan, Iran and Pakistan. These warm waters were caused by the phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipolewith warmer than usual waters to its west, and cooler waters to its east. Rising temperatures due to global warming amplified the dipole and made the western Indian Ocean particularly warm, said Dr Roxy Mathew Koll, Senior Scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, adding that the locusts migrating to India may have found greener pastures due to above normal pre-monsoon rains during MarchMay for north and central India, including the Vidarbha region. Heavy rain triggers the growth of vegetation in arid areas where desert locusts can then grow and breed. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Vestaspace secured USD 10 million funding from US-based Next Capital LLC, an American investment and advisory firm to expand the reach of Vestaspace innovative solutions across India and the world. New Delhi: Indian space startup Vestaspace Technology on Tuesday said it will start launching over 35 satellites from September onwards to facilitate pan-India 5G service, with an aim to make the next-gen network operational by early 2021. Vestaspace Technologies founder and CEO Arun Kumar Sureban said a beta version of the next-generation satellite constellations is planned for September 2020, besides the launch of a fully operational constellation of satellites in early 2021 into Low-Earth-Orbit or Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit. We will be launching a constellation of over 35 satellites for pan-India coverage of 5G services. Through this, we are also trying to replace need of fibre network. Any 5G phone will be able to get signal from satellites directly. We expect to start operations in early 2021, Sureban said. The company is in talks with the Department of Telecom for spectrum in 28 Ghz band for 5G operations, he said. To solve the complex system and to provide 5G internet network solutions to the urban, rural and unserved regions, we have positioned 8 ground stations and 31,000 data receptors all over India. This is made possible with the help of accurate positioning and telemetry related activities, Sureban said. Vestaspace secured USD 10 million funding from US-based Next Capital LLC, an American investment and advisory firm to expand the reach of Vestaspace innovative solutions across India and the world. Sureban said the company has also been working with ISRO, NASA and other leading space agencies on various strategic projects which will help Vestaspace to expand globally. We will start operations in India first. We will provide service to telecom operators and internet service providers who will sell it further to end customers, he said. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. Measles can cause pneumonia, swelling of the brain and death. Very young children and susceptible adults are more likely to suffer from these complications. Like the coronavirus, it is spread person-to-person through droplets in the air. But the measles virus is about 10 times more transmissible than the coronavirus, and often deadlier. Vaccination coverage of up to 95 percent is needed to prevent measles transmission in communities. Before the pandemic, global measles cases were already surging, reaching an estimated 10 million in 2018 with 140,000 measles-related deaths a 58 percent increase from the previous two years. Although measles was all but eliminated in the United States in 2000, misinformation and a loss of public trust in vaccines resulted in 1,200 cases of measles in 2019 the highest number in almost three decades. In recent years, many measles cases entered the United States from foreign travel destinations. Now, with diminished vaccinations of children causing a wider gap in community immunity, there is clear and present danger that hard-won gains could be reversed. As schools start reopening their doors, vaccination rates among children could improve. However, school vaccination requirements are not ironclad; medical and nonmedical exemptions will leave some children unprotected. Public understanding of this risk and improved confidence in vaccines is crucial. And yet, the anti-vaccine movement has seized on the Covid-19 pandemic as a rallying point, inexplicably arguing against any vaccine that may be developed. The assertions are baseless and endanger public health. At the same time, other deadly scourges lurk in the shadows. Poliomyelitis, one of the most feared diseases of the early 1900s, was headed toward global eradication, with only a few remaining pockets of transmission in the world. Now these clusters are expanding. The Global Polio Eradication Initiatives interactive map indicates that polio cases have increased this year. Diphtheria, another deadly disease of the early 20th century, has resurged recently in places like Venezuela, Bangladesh and Yemen, where state failure, conflict or the displacement of populations have severely weakened public health systems. In an interview with Vatican Media, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations speaks among other things of his gratitude to Pope Francis for supporting his appeal for a global cease fire. By Andrea Monda "The pandemic should be a wake-up call. Deadly global threats require a new unity and solidarity," Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations emphasizes in an exclusive interview with Vatican Media. Recently you made an appeal for peace in the world, a world affected by the pandemic. This initiative links up once again with those taken by Pope Francis whom you have met at the end of last year, when you delivered a video message together who keeps asking to cease all wars. You said: The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war.. Why, do you think, is it so difficult to get this message through? First, I would like to renew my deep appreciation to Pope Francis for his support for my global ceasefire appeal and the work of the United Nations. His global engagement, compassion and calls for unity reaffirm the core values that guide our work: to reduce human suffering and promote human dignity. When I launched the ceasefire appeal, my message to parties to conflict around the world was simple: fighting needs to stop so that we can focus on our shared enemy COVID-19. So far, the call has been endorsed by 115 Governments, regional organizations, more than 200 civil society groups as well as other religious leaders. Sixteen armed groups have pledged to end violence. Millions of people have also signed an on-line call for support. But mistrust remains high, and it is difficult to turn these commitments into actions that make a difference in the lives of those impacted by conflict. My special representatives and envoys are working tirelessly around the world, with my own direct involvement when necessary, to turn expressed intentions into effective cease-fires. I continue to call on parties to conflict and on all those who can have influence on them, to place the health and safety of people first. I would also like to mention another appeal I have made that I consider essential: an appeal for peace in the home. Across the globe, as the pandemic spreads, we are also witnessing an alarming increase in violence against women and girls. I have asked Governments, civil society and all those who can help around the world to mobilize to better protect women. I have also appealed to religious leaders of every faith to unequivocally condemn all acts of violence against women and girls and to uphold the bedrock principles of equality. A few months ago, before the pandemic broke out, you said that fear is the best-selling brand. This is something which now, in these weeks, could be even more amplified. How, do you think, is it possible to fight the feelings of fear spreading among people, especially in these difficult times? The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a global health emergency. In recent weeks, there has been a surge of conspiracy theories and anti-foreigner sentiment. In some cases, journalists, health professionals, or human rights defenders have been targeted simply for doing their jobs. From the very beginning of this crisis, I have been advocating for solidarity within societies and among countries. Our response must be based on human rights and human dignity. I have also called on educational institutions to focus on digital literacy, and I have urged media, especially social media companies, to do much more to flag and remove racist, misogynist and other harmful content, in line with international human rights law. Religious leaders have a crucial role to play to promote mutual respect in their communities and beyond. They are well-positioned to challenge inaccurate and harmful messages, and encourage all communities to promote non-violence and reject xenophobia, racism and all forms of intolerance. Fear is certainly fostered by fake news, which, as you recently denounced, are spreading more and more. How is it possible to fight misinformation without risking to blot out fundamental freedoms and rights in the name of this battle People around the world want to know what to do and where to turn for advice. Instead, they have to navigate an epidemic of misinformation that, at its worst, can put lives at risk. I salute the journalists and others who are fact-checking the mountain of misleading stories and social media posts. In support of these efforts, I have launched a UN Communications Response initiative, under the name Verified, aimed at getting accurate, factual information to people while encouraging solutions and solidarity as we move from crisis to recovery. Religious leaders also have a role to play to leverage their networks and communication capacities to support governments in promoting public health measures recommended by the World Health Organization from physical distancing to good hygiene and to dispel false information and rumors. Among the groundless news that daily assail public opinion, currently there is a lot of criticism of UN agencies, as for example the World Health Organization (WHO). What is your opinion with regard to this? As we mourn the lives lost to the virus, we despair that many more will follow, particularly in places least able to cope with a pandemic. Looking back at how the pandemic unfolded, and at the international response, will be crucial. But, right now, the World Health Organization and the entire UN system are in a race against the clock to save lives. I am particularly worried about the lack of adequate solidarity with developing countries -- both in equipping them to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and to address the dramatic economic and social impacts on the worlds poorest. The World Health Organization, and the entire United Nations system have mobilized fully to save lives, stave off famine, ease the pain and plan for recovery. We set out a U.S.$7.6 billion Global Humanitarian Response Plan for the most vulnerable populations, including refugees and internally displaced persons. Donors have generously pledged close to $1 billion so far and I continue my advocacy to ensure that this plan is fully funded. Our country teams are working in coordination with Governments to mobilize funding, to assist health ministries on preparedness, and to support economic and social measures, from food security and home schooling to cash transfers and many others. Our peace operations continue to carry out their important protection mandates, and to support peace and political processes. The UN system network of supply chains has been placed at the disposal of developing countries, with millions of test kits, respirators and surgical masks having now reached more than 100 countries. We have set up solidarity flights to bring more supplies and workers to dozens of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. And since the beginning, I have mobilized the expertise within the entire UN family to produce a series of reports and policy briefs to provide analysis and advice for an effective, coordinated response by the international community. (https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/un-secretary-general) We are living in a time where attacks against multilateralism are multiplying. Do you think there is a need to strengthen peoples trust in international institutions? And how could this be done? The collaboration and contribution of all States - including the most powerful- is essential to not only fight COVID19 but also to address the peace and security challenges we are facing. It is also essential to help create conditions for an effective recovery in the developed and developing world. The virus has demonstrated our global fragility. And this fragility is not limited to our health systems. It affects all areas of our world and our institutions. The fragility of coordinated global efforts is highlighted by our failed response to the climate crisis, by the ever-increasing risk of nuclear proliferation, by our inability to come together to better regulate the web. The pandemic should be a wake-up call. Deadly global threats require a new unity and solidarity. You have openly commended the European initiative aimed at developing a vaccine for Covid-19. However, finding a vaccine might tempt someone to take up a dominant position within the international community. How can we avoid this risk? And even before finding a vaccine, what can be done in order to test the treatments that have proven to be of some efficacy? In an interconnected world, none of us is safe until all of us are safe. This was, in a few words, the essence of my message at the launch of ACT Accelerator the global collaboration to speed up the development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. This must be seen as a global public good. Not a vaccine or treatments for one country or one region or one-half of the world but a vaccine and treatment that are affordable, safe, effective, easily-administered and universally available for everyone, everywhere. This vaccine needs to be the peoples vaccine. How can we avoid having first rank and second rank countries in this fight against the virus? At any rate, there is a danger that the pandemic will widen the gap between rich and poor. How can we avoid this happening? The pandemic is exposing inequalities everywhere. Economic inequalities, disparities in access to health services and so much more. Poverty could rise by 500 million people the first increase in three decades. We cannot allow this to happen and this is why I continue to advocate for a global relief package amounting to at least 10 per cent of the global economy. The most developed countries can do this with their own resources, and some have already begun to put in place such measures. But developing countries need massive and urgent support. The International Monetary Fund has already approved emergency financing to a first group of developing countries. The World Bank has indicated that with new and existing resources, it can provide $160 billion of financing over the next 15 months. The G20 has endorsed the suspension of debt service payments for the poorest countries. I fully appreciate these steps, which can protect people, jobs and development gains. But even this will not be sufficient and it will be important to consider additional measures, including debt relief, to avoid prolonged financial and economic crises. Some say that after this pandemic the world will never be the same again. What could the future of the United Nations be in tomorrows world? The pandemic recovery brings opportunities to steer the world onto a safer, healthier, more sustainable and inclusive path. The inequalities and gaps in social protection that have been so painfully exposed will need to be addressed. We will also have an opportunity to place women and gender equality at the forefront to help build resilience to future shocks. Recovery also needs to go hand-in-hand with climate action. I have been calling on Governments to ensure that spending to revitalize economies should be used to invest in the future, not the past. Taxpayers money should be used to accelerate the decarbonization of all aspects of our economy and privilege the creation of green jobs. Now is the time to put a price on carbon and for polluters to pay for their pollution. Financial institutions and investors must take climate risks fully into account. Our template remains the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Now is the time to be determined. Determined to defeat COVID-19 and to emerge from the crisis by building a better world for all. Analysis of records of nearly 9.6 million Kaiser Permanente patients paints a clearer picture of COVID-19 infections in the Western U.S. Berkeley -- Hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the U.S. are enduring longer hospital stays and facing higher rates of intensive care unit (ICU) admission than patients in China, finds a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Kaiser Permanente. The results suggest that hospitals in the U.S. may be harder hit by the coronavirus pandemic than initially thought, as many forecasts of disease burden -- particularly the number of hospital beds and ICU units needed at the peak of infection -- are based on data out of China. "The hospital resources needed to meet the needs of severely ill patients are substantial," said Joseph Lewnard, an assistant professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley and lead author of the paper. "We found that observations from China may not provide a sufficient basis for anticipating the U.S. health care demand." The team analyzed the anonymized medical records of the nearly 9.6 million Kaiser Permanente members in Southern California, Northern California and Washington state. The study focused on 1,277 Kaiser Permanente members who were hospitalized with clinically- or laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 between the start of the year and early April. "Because Kaiser Permanente members receive comprehensive health care from a single provider network, we overcome many of the difficulties that arise in studies of diseases within the fragmented U.S. health care delivery system," said Lewnard. Despite the grim forecast for hospitals, the report does offer a glimmer of hope: Estimates of transmission intensity, based on extrapolations of infection rates from hospitalization data, indicate that the social distancing measures in the region are succeeding at "flattening the curve" of contagion. "When people engaged in protecting themselves and their communities through social distancing, their efforts translated into a substantial reduction in the transmissibility of the disease," said Vincent Liu, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Northern California and co-author of the paper. "Those efforts are going to be critical for this next phase, in which social distancing measures are gradually relaxed. We need our communities to stay really engaged, because these data show that even the actions of individuals and small groups can really impact the spread of the virus." The results appeared online May 22 in the The BMJ. Longer hospital stays, lower transmission rates Of the 1,277 Kaiser Permanente members who were hospitalized with COVID-19, 42% required care in the ICU, and 18% died from the disease. Modeling estimates based on observations in China usually assume that only about 30% of hospitalized patients will require ICU care. Similarly, the data showed that hospital stays lasted an average of 10.7 days for survivors and 13.7 days for non-survivors, compared to an average of 7.5 days among non-survivors in China. Troublingly, 25% of patients were hospitalized for 16 days or more. In comparison, a widely-used modeling study from Imperial College London projecting health care needs assumes an average stay of eight days. While the underlying reasons for these discrepancies remain unclear, the authors stress the need to collect data in different regions and under different health care settings and caution against heavy reliance on models based on data from other countries. "The spread of COVID-19 and its impact on local health care systems show differences across the world," Liu said. "Health care systems differ, and their capabilities and structure have an effect on the local response and the impact of the surge. So, it's really important to understand how our own data agree with, or in some cases differ, from the experience we've seen in other countries." Not surprisingly, the analysis also revealed that the virus tends to hit older people the hardest. Approximately 50% of hospitalizations were among adults aged 60 and older, and 25% were among adults aged 73 and older. Similarly, hospitalized men seemed to be hit harder than women: Hospitalized males over the age of 80 faced a 58% risk of death, and hospitalized females of the same age faced only a 32% risk of death. Estimates of transmission intensity over time yielded promising results. The team found that the transmission rate of the virus has decreased significantly, and the drop began slightly before statewide shelter-in-place orders went into effect in late March. This effect is likely due to the implementation of smaller-scale social distancing measures, such as local restrictions on gatherings and individuals' compliance with safety recommendations, in the weeks prior to the statewide orders, the authors said. However, while the data indicate that social distancing is succeeding, the authors warn that we shouldn't expect to return to normal anytime soon. "These data suggest that if we were to release all of our mitigation measures at one time, the disease would start rapidly spreading again," Liu said. "We have to be really strategic and vigilant about how and when we roll back our social distancing measures. It's going to require coordination between health care systems, community partners, government and public health agencies, academic institutions and industry." "We also need to be mindful of just how severe the disease is," Lewnard added. "We see an 18% overall fatality rate among all people who are getting hospitalized, and 42% end up in the ICU, so the impact of transmission in terms of severe disease and hospital burden is quite high." ### Co-authors of the paper include Michael L. Jackson, Mark A. Schmidt, Jean P. Flores, Chris Jentz, Scott Young and Jim Bellows of Kaiser Permanente; Britta L. Jewell of Imperial College London; and Graham R. Northrup, Ayesha Mahmud, Arthur L. Reingold, Maya Petersen and Nicholas P. Jewell of UC Berkeley. The study was funded by Kaiser Permanente. Viram Shah FAANG, an acronym coined by CNBCs Jim Cramer in 2013 has become a household term not only in the US but across the world, also in India. For the uninitiated, FAANG stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google, the technology behemoths that are reshaping our world. Combined, these companies have a market capitalization of $4.1 trillion. Apple, Google and Amazon have individually breached the elusive $1 trillion in market cap mark. To put that into context, a market cap of $1 trillion is larger than the GDP of 90% of the countries in the world. Throughout their lifetime, the underlying theme for all of these companies has been growth and innovation. As Jeff Bezos alluded to when he said Your Margin is my Opportunity, these companies have disrupted multiple industries and competitors by out-innovating and out-growing them. Now as they look to drive the next leg of growth and innovation, one commonality that stands out is - their focus on global expansion. In todays world a company cannot have a global presence without having a sizeable presence in India. The FAANG companies have realized this and all of them have India as a core part of their global expansion strategy. Lets look at some of the initiatives each of these companies are undertaking to expand their reach across the world and India. Facebook Facebook has recently been in the news a lot because of its massive bet on India via a $5.7 Billion stake purchase in Reliance Jio. This investment was also Facebooks largest overseas investment. Facebook has long been bullish on the India market but faced multiple regulatory challenges earlier. This investment will not only help Facebook navigate the regulatory environment better (with Jios support), but it also gives the company access to millions of Kirana stores across India through the Jio network. Facebook currently derives majority of its revenue from North America and Europe but with the recent investment in Jio, it has gained a strong foothold in the India market. The partnership aims to combine Reliances JioMart offering with Facebooks Whatsapp to create a product that allows Kirana stores to go digital with the services they offer. Apple For Apple, geographic expansion is not only relevant from the demand side, but also from the supply side. Since the majority of Apples manufacturing partners are based in China, it constantly gets caught in the ongoing US-China trade war. To reduce this reliance on China, Apple started diversifying its supply chain, mainly across India and Vietnam. Currently 30% of Apples Airpods are produced in Vietnam. Apple is also looking at potentially make $40 Billion worth of iPhones out of India. This would make Apple Indias largest exporter. On the revenue side of things, given the premium pricing Apple demands majority of its sales are still from countries in the West. To be able to penetrate the Asia market, Apple will need to tweak its product strategy for emerging economies. Amazon In 2019, Amazon generated $74 Billion (20% year-on-year growth) in revenue from its international business. This forms 27% of its total annual revenue. Leading this international growth are five key markets Turkey, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and India. India remains the largest opportunity and Amazon realizes this. Jeff Bezos in his January 2020 India trip talked about how Amazon will invest $1 Billion in its India operations to boost its business (Amazon has invested $6.5 Billion in India since 2013). Amazon recently announced that they would be hiring 50,000 temporary workers in India to meet a surge in online deliveries demand. They also launched their food delivery service called Amazon Food. This service will compete against the likes of Swiggy and Zomato. Along with India, Mexico and Australia are also important markets for the company and are estimated to contribute up to $2.9 Billion and $2.3 Billion to Amazons revenue by 2023. Netflix Netflix is the smallest FAANG stock in terms of market cap. The company faces very unique challenges in its bid to expand internationally. These challenges are in the form of local content licences and already existing competition. Unlike the other companies, Netflix needs to secure content deals region by region, and sometimes country by country to be able to launch their services in different markets. To add it, tough competition that offers home-grown content often already exists in many countries (for e.g. Hotstar in India). Despite these challenges, Netflix has expanded across 190 countries in 7 years. Their international expansion strategy is an interesting one. They took a phased approach to expansion. The company first focused on adjacent markets like Canada, then used the learnings from the first phase to expand into 50 other countries and in the last and third phase entered the rest of the 190 countries. Now as the growth for the US business has slowed down due to competition, it is the international subscribers that is leading the growth for Netflix. Netflixs growth in India is still in its early days, however it is growing rapidly. The companys India revenue increased by 700% year-on-year in 2019 and profits saw a 25x increase. Further, as one might expect, they have seen increased engagement on their product during the lockdown the time spent per user in India shot up to 80 minutes a day compared to 50 minutes a day pre-lockdown. Google (Alphabet) Googles core product its search engine is inherently global and already has a widespread global presence. It commands 30% of the $110 Billion global digital advertising market. Youtube is a large part of this digital advertising domination and is expected to contribute $9.3 Billion in 2020 revenues. In terms of geographic expansion Google says that it has just begun its foray into India and Southeast Asia and its re-entry into China. Googles partnership with JD.com (Chinas second largest e-commerce player) will allow it to try and re-establish itself in China. Google is also looking to take advantage of Chinas growing cloud market and is seeking to offer its cloud services out of data centers run by local Chinese companies. For countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil and Nigeria, Google is specifically focused on capturing users who are joining the internet for the first time primarily through their mobile phones. The company believes that there are exponential growth opportunities in this segment of users. Particularly in India the company has undertaken multiple initiatives to widen their presence. They opened a research lab in Bengaluru to focus on the advancement of computer science research in India. Google Pay is one of the largest UPI payments platforms in the country and has more than 67 million users. The company also recently launched its India-first reading app across the world. The app used to be called Bolo app, its an app aimed at helping kids learn better at home. The app was rebranded to Read Along and launched in 180 countries. Overall, as US growth saturates for these large technology companies, geographic expansion will be essential if they want to continue to out-grow and out-innovate other companies and improving their India presence will form a core part of this geographic expansion. (The author is CEO and Co-Founder at Vested Finance) Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Phuket beach cleanup nets 40kg of trash PHUKET: A small cleanup by just seven people at Mai Khao yesterday (May 25) saw some 40kg of marine debris and trash recovered from the beach in just two hours. environmentmarinepollution By Tanyaluk Sakoot Tuesday 26 May 2020, 11:54AM The small team collected more than 40kg of trash, mostly marine debris, from the beach in just two hours. Photo: Sirinath National Park The small team collected more than 40kg of trash, mostly marine debris, from the beach in just two hours. Photo: Sirinath National Park The small team collected more than 40kg of trash, mostly marine debris, from the beach in just two hours. Photo: Sirinath National Park The small team collected more than 40kg of trash, mostly marine debris, from the beach in just two hours. Photo: Sirinath National Park The small team collected more than 40kg of trash, mostly marine debris, from the beach in just two hours. Photo: Sirinath National Park The cleanup was organised by officers from Phukets Sirinath National Park, park chief Natthawat Nuisriram explained to The Phuket News. The cleanup began at 10am, with five park officers taking part and two local residents lending a hand, he explained. They collected about 40kg of garbage, mainly marine debris such as plastic and glass, pieces of foam, plastic water bottles and pieces of discarded fishing nets. About 80% of the garbage collected had been washed ashore from the sea, pushed onto the beach by the wind and waves, Chief Natthawat explained. Social distancing was maintained by the group while clearing the beach, he added. Even with the beaches here closed and tourism activities stopped due to the COVID-19 situation, beach trash remains a problem due to ongoing human behaviour. Nature can restore itself, but we must stop our selfish behaviour. Please stop allowing trash to go into the ocean, and make sure you do not leave any rubbish behind when you visit the beach after tourism activities are allowed to resume, he said. People should start to incorporate the five Rs of Respect, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Restore in their daily lives, and especially at home, Chief Natthawat said. It is a better way to live, and results in less garbage in the ocean and on the beach, he said. | By Deborah Kotz Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have begun testing an experimental stem cell therapy developed by Mesoblast Limited to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) who are on ventilators to help them breathe. Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD The trial, which is being conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and additional sites across the U.S., will involve a total of 300 patients randomized to receive either the drug remestemcel-L or a placebo in addition to the recommended standard of care to manage severe COVID-19 infections. The first patient in this national trial was treated at UMMC. The research, funded by Mesoblast, an Australian regenerative medicine company, is designed to determine whether the drug reduces the risk of death within 30 days after the onset of treatment and whether it reduces the number of days from a ventilator to recovery. This stem cell therapy is a potential new therapy in our treatment arsenal to battle COVID-19, said Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD, UMSOM professor of surgery and chief of the University of Maryland Congenital Heart Disease Outreach Program. There is an urgent need to find new life-saving therapies for our sickest COVID-19 patients who are suffering from ARDS and require ventilators. We are eager to see whether remestemcel-L can reduce mortality in these patients. Remestemcel-L is an experimental stem cell therapy developed for various inflammatory conditions, and it is believed to reduce inflammation by reducing the production of pro-inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. COVID-19 patients often become very ill from an escalated immune response, referred to as a cytokine storm, creating high levels of inflammation that can be fatal. The trial will include other hospitals in the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) that have COVID-19 patients who meet the criteria. "As we extend the reach of this study to other UMMS hospitals, we affirm our commitment as an academic health system to explore all avenues to improve the health of the people we serve," said Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA, president and chief executive officer of UMMS. "Our hope is that research efforts like this and others we are pursuing in the midst of a novel coronavirus pandemic will help save lives." Enrollment is expected to be complete within three to four months, with interim analyses planned that could result in stopping the trial early if the drug appears to be working well or not working at all. Potential adverse effects of the treatment include rejection of the cells by the body and other immune system reactions. The University of Maryland School of Medicine continues to take the lead in researching innovative new therapies including stem cell therapies, and we are part of an urgent national mission to provide potentially lifesaving options to patients, said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also executive vice president for medical affairs at University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor at UMSOM. Our faculty are engaged in a myriad of research efforts to identify and test innovative techniques to help in the fight against this horrible pandemic. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More More people are expected to give up public transport and switch to private mobility as a phase-wise easing of the national lockdown takes shape. This is pushing demand for pre-owned cars higher than ever. Enquiries for used cars have doubled during the lockdown period compared to pre-lockdown period, a consumer survey involving more than 1,000 customers and more than 100 dealers has shown. Two of Indias biggest used car entities from the organised sector Maruti True Value and Mahindra First Choice have reported a spike in demand over the past few weeks. Shashank Srivastava, executive director (sales and marketing) Maruti Suzuki said, Reduced income levels, higher anxiety levels among buyers and tendency to have a second car will push demand for vehicles having smaller ticket size. There has been an increase in level of enquiries for used cars. Enquiries for used cars have doubled during lockdown. From 19 percent during pre-lockdown enquiries have grown by 37 percent during the lockdown period for a particular vehicle. During the same period enquiries for a new vehicle dropped from 81 percent to 63 percent, according to a survey done by Mahindra First Choice Wheels-owned CarandBike, an online auto portal. Another survey done by used car trader Cars24 states, 50 percent of the respondents said that they will be purchasing pre-owned cars once the lockdown is over. In another interesting finding, 22.5 percent of the consumers who were planning to buy a new car last year would now prefer to buy pre-owned car because of their limited budgets. Indias used car market is estimated to have clocked 4.4 million unit sales in 2019-20. The new car market during the same year closed at 2.78 million units. The new car market will likely be hit by a phenomenon called downtrading wherein buyers switch to a lower-priced car than previously decided due to multiple personal reasons. The CarandBike survey further points out that though there is preference for a private vehicle ownership there has been a significant drop in enquiries for cars priced above Rs 7 lakh while demand for cars priced under Rs 3 lakh has picked up significantly. No new car sold in India can be bought for under Rs 3 lakh. The average price of a used car in India is around Rs 3.1 lakh. There is this phenomena called transfer of demand downwards which means people in the upper segment will buy the middle segment and middle segment will buy the lower segment and the lower segment buyer will buy a used car. All data points, for instance from China, suggest that people are preferring private transport instead of public transport. Till last year the average ticket size of a used car was on the increase. For us the average price was Rs 3,20,000 last year as against Rs 3,00,000 in FY19, added Srivastava. Every name on the BrandBucket marketplace is exclusively listed with BrandBucket. That means that all of our sellers are very responsive, making for quick domain transfers. A dedicated BrandBucket agent will manage your domain transfer from beginning to end, ensuring a secure and easy transaction. They will manage the receipt of the domain into one of BrandBuckets secure registrar accounts and then complete the transfer to you. 1. Verification and registrar choice After we receive the payment and verify it, we will reach out via email to confirm which registrar you want the domain transferred to. We also provide a link to our tracking system, where you can communicate with us, check on the status of your transfer, view your invoice, and download your logo files. In most cases, if a domain is moved between accounts at a single registrar, the transfer is quick and usually completes within 48 hours. If a domain changes registrars (in other words, you would like to move it away from where it is currently registered), the transfer is slower. The total transfer time can then be anywhere from 48 hours to 7 days. BrandBucket has vetted and supports the following registrars: GoDaddy Namesilo Uniregistry NameCheap Google Domains Network Solutions Name.com Dynadot Amazon Route 53 123 Reg Gandi 2. We request the name from the seller. Once we know where you would like the domain transferred, BrandBucket will request the domain from the seller. All of our sellers are very responsive, making for a quick process. 3. Transfer the name into your account As soon as we receive the name from the seller, we start the transfer into your account and guide you through the whole process. 4. Verify with the buyer that the transfer is complete Once we confirm that you have received the name, we consider the escrow process to be complete. Only then do we release payment to the domain seller. YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory letter to President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili on the countrys national day the day of restoration of Georgias state independence, the Armenian Presidents Office told Armenpress. The letter says: The friendship and mutual trust between the Armenian and Georgian peoples, formed as a result of close historical and cultural ties and cooperation, have proved their viability within the course of centuries, successfully overcoming all difficulties and serving as a base for the formation and development of Armenia-Georgia friendly relations. Especially today, at this difficult period caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the importance of close cooperation with our neighbor and friendly state is felt more clearly. I am convinced that we will be able to overcome this crisis facing the humanity with joint efforts. The Armenian President wished his Georgian counterpart success and good health, and peace and welfare to the good people of Georgia. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Broadway star Nick Cordero has been battling COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of a Los Angeles hospital for 56 days, and in that time, he has "defied the odds" his wife, fitness trainer Amanda Kloots, told her Instagram followers Tuesday. For almost two months, Cordero has been "fighting so hard" to get better, she said, despite facing multiple complications along the way. Calling Cordero "a fighter," Kloots added that she "can't imagine how exhausted he is, and how tired his body is," and said that his drive to get better has been an inspiration to her. "Nick has literally defied odds and I think there's something to that. You don't go through all of this to not make it through all of this," she said. "I think about how tired and exhausted he must be, and it helps me to be like, 'OK, if he can do it, I can do this.' I can keep fighting. I can keep hoping. I can keep cheering him on. I can keep singing." "So we are fighting, fighting, fighting every day," she continued. "Never giving [up]." Cordero, who appeared in Broadway's "Waitress" and "Bullets Over Broadway," went to the Cedars-Sinai emergency room on March 30 for what he believed was pneumonia. He was admitted to the hospital and later tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. To help his breathing, the 41-year-old actor was put into a medically-induced coma. "He didn't have a fever. He didn't have a cough. He had a sense of smell, he had a sense of taste, so we really didn't think it was COVID, especially his no preexisting conditions," Kloots told "Good Morning America" earlier this month. "Very shortly, after about only two days, he was on a ventilator." In April, doctors amputated Cordero's right leg after blood thinners used to help with clotting caused other problems, Kloots said. She also said that his lungs have been "severely damaged" by the virus, and during his time in the hospital, he has battled multiple infections. Although some days have been tougher than others, over the weekend, Kloots told her Instagram followers in one of her daily video updates that "day by day, hour by hour, he is getting better." Story continues "We're just hoping that he can come off some more medications and that his settings on machines can come down," she said. "Right now, we're just looking for slow, steady, small wins to keep him resting and recovering, which is great." Kloots, Cordero and their 11-month-old son Elvis recently moved from New York City to Los Angeles so that Cordero could star in a West Coast production of "Rock Of Ages," which he also starred in on Broadway. A GoFundMe account recently set up by friends to help Kloots and Cordero cover medical bills and make their new home in Los Angeles wheelchair-accessible has raised over $500,000. Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to show that Cordero went to the emergency room on March 30, not March 31. Broadway star Nick Cordero has 'defied the odds,' wife Amanda Kloots says originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com A nna Vakili has issued a statement denying reports she was in a "physical fight" after an alleged altercation in Hyde Park. Videos shared on Instagram and other social platforms appeared to show the 29-year-old, who starred in the fifth series of Love Island last year, involved in a fracas alongside her younger sister Mandi. While those posting and sharing the Instagram videos accuse Anna of dragging a 'teeange' girl involved by the hair, and Mandi allegedly kicking a person involved, the pharmacist has since spoken out on social media. Addressing her 1.2 million followers, Anna wrote: Since coming out of Love Island its become my normal for people to shout abuse at me in the streets and I have learned to turn a blind eye and remove myself from the situation. Love Island 2019 Reunion - In pictures 1 /21 Love Island 2019 Reunion - In pictures Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea Rex Features Greg O'Shea, Amber Gill, Michael Griffiths and Joanna Chimonides Rex Features Danny Williams, Jourdan Riane and Arabella Chi Rex Features Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard Rex Features Anna Vakili and Jordan Hames Rex Features Molly Mae and Tommy Fury Rex Features Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea Rex Features Molly Mae and Tommy Fury Rex Features Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard Rex Features Ovie Soko and India Reynolds Rex Features Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard Rex Features Molly Mae and Tommy Fury Rex Features Anton Danyluk and Belle Hassan Rex Features Amy Hart Rex Features Ovie Soko and India Reynolds Rex Features Amy Hart Beretta/Sims/REX Yesterday, I was having a picnic in the park with my sister, boyfriend and cousin when we were subjected to continuous verbal abuse from a group who came near us who were doing drugs. Wanting to remove ourselves away from them we packed up to leave, they came over swung at my cousin and threw her by the hair leaving her bleeding. Out of self-defence we had to get them off of her and leave. There was a large group of them and not many of us. Anna wrote an emotional message on her story / Instagram: annavakili_ She also accused the group of being in possession of a gun and trying to steal her sisters phone. She continued: I have never had a physical fight in my life!! The violent attack has been reported to the police. All these DMs and messages from people that werent even there. Why would we randomly attack anyone? Use your brains. Anna starred in last summer's Love Island / ITV We were attacked verbally and physically first because they knew me. Everything we done was to protect ourselves and my cousin. Cant even enjoy a picnic in peace. Ive just had enough. A representative for Anna told the Evening Standard: Anna and Mandi Vakili and others were involved in an unprovoked violent and verbal attack on Monday in Hyde Park which include Mandi and their cousin being hit and punched and the group of attackers attempting to steal their belongings. The very serious matter is now being dealt with the police as they were threatened with illegal weapons during the attack. Standard Online has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment. Anna has since shared another emotional post on her Instagram page, posting a picture of herself in tears at the allegations. Love Island 2019: Series 5 - In pictures 1 /65 Love Island 2019: Series 5 - In pictures Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 1 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 2 ITV ITV ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV Love Island 2019: Series 5, Episode 3 ITV I cant get out of bed, she wrote. Im exhausted and sick of the abuse since coming off TV. And now allegations from a small clip which isnt the full story. Witnesses saw they attacked us for no reason. Anyone else trying to enjoy themselves on a picnic and their little cousin gets attacked for NO REASON what would they do? Anna continued: Just because of fame you think you can tear people down. These people are winning I hope you are all happy that they will continue to treat people this way because they can get away with it as the victims I dont care about my image God knows the truth. The world is unfair, but God knows. Anna has returned to her job as a pharmacist during the coronavirus pandemic / Instagram: Anna Vakili After enjoying a brief romance with Jordan Hames on Love Island last year, Anna has since returned to her job as a pharmacist to help fight the coronavirus crisis Mandi has also claimed she was left with two physical injuries after the incident. Posting pictures on her Instagram story, she wrote: This is what she did to me a second before she kicked me, and not to mention my cousins face was pouring with blood from her nose. People will do anything to villiainise us because Anna is a public figure. Its not fair. Prime Minister Narendra Modis initial plan to defeat coronavirus in 21 days has failed and that has pushed him on the backfoot, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, urging the PM to play on the front foot. Stressing his point further, the Congress leader said there has been one lockdown after another, but that has not helped check the spread of the disease. The country is presently in the fourth phase of lockdown, which will end on May 31. The PM will accept that his first plan failed. The PM has gone on back foot, I request him to play on the front foot, said the Congress leader during a press interaction. Gandhi said he is not going to criticise what happened in the past as he has an interest in today and what will happen tomorrow. Two months ago the PM said that we were going to fight a 21-day fight against Covid-19. It was his expectation that we would defeat the virus in 21 days, said the Congress leader. The Wayanad MP said the aim of lockdown has not been achieved and the coronavirus cases are on the rise. He exhorted the government to tell the country what is the new strategy. We need an injection of money and capital, it will be fatal if we do not do it. The unemployment situation in the country has been compounded by the coronavirus problem, said Rahul Gandhi. Speaking about the migrants situation, the Congress leader said in his meetings with them he was told that they have lost faith. They have a sense of hopelessness, they have been left alone. They have told me hamara bharosa toot gaya (Have lost faith). I dont like hearing those words. I dont want a single Indian person to say those words. They are saying it more and more. Nobody should lose their faith. We can take action even now. Rs 7,500 should be given to workers every month, said Gandhi. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libya's border post of Ras Jedir recorded 1,965 citizens returning to their country from the Tunisia side between May 18 and 25, as part of the repatriation of Libyan nationals stranded abroad, the director of the International Bureau of Health Surveillance at the border crossing, Mokhtar al-Mansouri, said on Tuesday Taika Waititi and Ryan Reynolds have joined forces for an unexpected musical collaboration, in which the Kiwi filmmaker plays the guitar, while the Hollywood actor sings a song from James and the Giant Peach. (Skip to the 10 minute mark in the video above to hear the singalong) Waititi has been teaming up with a host of celebrities to read the Roald Dahl classic via video conference to raise money to fight COVID-19. In episode five, fans were treated to a surprising duet when Waititi showed off his musical prowess and back up singing capabilities while Reynold's performed the 'Eating the Peach' tune sung by Mr Centipede in Dahl's book. The recital was a hit with audiences, who raved about the "hilarious" pairing in the comments section on YouTube. "This is the best thing on the internet since lockdown," one comment read. "This made my whole life, thank you," said another. "Taika and Ryan having the jolliest of times while helping a good cause - could there be anything better?" asked a third. In previous episodes, Waititi has been joined by Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Benedict Cumberbatch and many others. New episodes of the series are being released three times a week on the Roald Dahl YouTube page, where viewers are encouraged to donate to Partners in Health, a health and social justice organisation fighting coronavirus with a focus on health systems in the most vulnerable communities around the world. Click here to watch all the previous installments of their reading... Newshub. 20-y-o man with COVID-19 charged with 2 counts of assault in beating of elderly nursing home patient Suspect's father says son shouldn't have been moved to nursing home; he's praying for the victim Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A 20-year-old man who was sent to a nursing home because he contracted COVID-19 was charged Sunday morning with two counts of "assault with intent to do great bodily harm" for repeatedly punching a 75-year-old patient who he was sharing a room with. Jaden Hayden of Ypsilanti, Michigan, has also been charged with "larceny in a building" and two counts of "financial transaction device, steal/retain without consent" for allegedly stealing credit cards belonging to Norman Bledsoe, an Army veteran and patient at Westwood Nursing Center in Detroit. "The alleged actions of this defendant are truly and uniquely disturbing. We must be able to trust our loved ones in specialty care facilities. I truly hope that the facts of this care are one of a kind," Prosecutor Kym Worthy said of the May 10 incident that Hayden videotaped on his cell phone and posted on social media. Hayden was arrested Thursday, six days after the incident, according to the Wayne County prosecutors office. Police in Ann Arbor and Detroit first learned of the attack after the public alerted them about the video that was being circulated on social media. The suspects father told Fox2 in Detroit that he's praying for the elderly victim and explained that his son has autism and several health issues. The 20-year-old Hayden was at a mental health facility in Ann Arbor where he reportedly complained that he was unable to sleep, was feeling anxious, and hearing voices. He was moved to Westwood Nursing Center on Detroits west side in early May after being diagnosed as having COVID-19. It shouldve never happened because he shouldve never been put in that environment, the father was quoted as saying. Had I known he was there I wouldve never have consented to it. Warning: Video shows graphic images of elder abuse, physical assault He never should have been housed... quarantined with the victim that he eventually assaulted. That should have never happened, WXYZ quoted the father as saying. The father also revealed that theres a pending case in Washtenaw County where his son allegedly assaulted a staff member at a group home. About the incident, the father said, That hurts to see that. What he did is wrong and (I offer) my apologies to the victim's family. The victim, a care home patient, was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The video, which showed the younger man relentlessly punching the elderly man in his face as the elderly man was lying on a bed and the beating continued after he sat up, went viral on social media. It absolutely shattered my heart. It just broke my heart how anyone could be capable of this kind of brutality, a Cleveland-area woman who alerted Detroit-area authorities after spotting the video om social media, told Fox2 in Detroit. How does this guy have free rein to go into other patients rooms and physically abuse them and no one is aware of it? Thank you to everyone for your assistance in bringing the senior home incident to our attention, the Detroit Police Department wrote on Twitter. The @detroitpolice is investigating the situation and an arrest has been made. Thank you again. President Donald Trump also responded to the video: Is this even possible to believe? Can this be real? the president wrote on Twitter. Where is this nursing home, how is the victim doing? TELEMMGLPICT000231528037.jpeg The Home Office has approached the Australian border force chief credited with helping end its crisis over migrant sea crossings. Chris Philp, the immigration minister, is understood to have contacted Roman Quaedvlieg, former head of Australian border force, to consult him over the countrys Operation Sovereign Borders which saw its patrol force turn back migrants on boats and return them to their port of origin. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Quaedvlieg said Britain needed to introduce similar measures if it wanted to significantly reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel to Britain. More than 1,600 have reached the UK already this year with just six per cent returned to France. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is already considering law and treaty changes to make it easier to return migrants at sea and on land to France, as previously revealed by The Telegraph. The contacts with Australian border force experts will, however, raise eyebrows because of the countrys hardline turnback policy which included rewriting Australias laws to place border policing ahead of asylum seeker rights. Mr Quaedvlieg said it had been controversial as critics claimed it flew in the face of refugee conventions but came as Australia faced a migrant crisis with 40 to 50 boats a month each with up to 200 on board entering Australian waters. Projections suggested it could hit 50,000 in a year but within a year of the policy being introduced the influx had been reduced from 2,629 a month to just 207. Mr Quaedvlieg said Britain could adopt three elements of the Australian operation starting with new powers to allow Border Force, Royal Navy and other immigration agencies to turn back and return migrants at sea or on land. The problem is that under your current law, you cant turn them back and UK immigration policy is such that if they are close enough to UK territorial waters, you have to take them, process them and/or resettle them, he said. Story continues We had that same legislative challenge in Australia. So what the Conservative Government did - and Priti Patel is thinking about in the UK - was to introduce a maritime powers act. This authorised our border protection minister and the officials from the various agencies to be able to intercept a boat and to make a reasonable determination that it was intending to breach Australian law whether customs, immigration or biosecurity and so turn them around. Mr Quaeudvlieg led the border force that he said harnessed all our aerial surveillance and maritime assets to interdict boats and turn them round, driving them back or where unseaworthy picking up migrants and returning them from whence they came. This was allied to bilateral agreements with countries including Sri Lanka, India and Vietnam to accept the migrants back - which for the Channel would mean renegotiating the Dublin Agreement to allow Britain to return migrants to France. Mr Quaedvlieg, whose Penguin book on the Operation is out next month, said the third prong was to create a single chain of command to bring together the key agencies of Border Force, immigration, police and National Crime Agency (NCA). All of the elements of sovereign borders were unified under a single taskforce with a single commander reporting to the minister, he said. We appointed a three star general with overall command and control who unified all the disparate elements into a whole. These are three primary mechanisms that the UK can introduce that will go to significantly reduce the flow of migrants across the Channel. It wont stop them but it will significantly reduce them. A Home Office spokesman said: The Home Office is working in collaboration with the French Government and relevant international law enforcement agencies to tackle this dangerous and illegal activity. We are also developing plans to reform policies and laws that will change the UKs overall approach to illegal migration and the associated criminality to stop these crossings completely. Tour de Force, by Roman Quaedvlieg, is published by Penguin Random House on June 2 Tourists will be able to visit Spain from the beginning of July without having to quarantine for two weeks, after the government eased coronavirus lockdown rules. The worlds second-most visited nation currently demands all foreign visitors isolate themselves for 14 days on arrival, but has decided to lift the controls in an attempt to revive its tourist industry for the holiday season. Prime minister Pedro Sanchez has said he wants Spain to establish reciprocal safe corridors with other countries in Europe, so long as they dont bring risks to our country. Spains foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said European Union members should agree to a common approach to open borders, adding that she would like to see a European definition of which countries should be deemed as safe. It remains unclear whether British holiday-makers will be able to visit Spain this summer. The government is bringing a 14-day quarantine for arrivals to the UK from 8 June yet transport secretary Grant Shapps has said air bridge arrangements could be established to allow trips to low-risk countries. Following Spains announcement it would lift quarantine from 1 July, Ryanair has confirmed its plan to ramp up flights to 40 per cent of its normal schedule from the same date. The airline said in a statement: Ryanair will be offering daily flights from countries all over northern Europe including Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Holland and Germany to the key holiday airports of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus from 1 July. Spain normally attracts 80 million visitors a year, with tourism accounting for more than 12 per cent of the countrys gross domestic product, so the summer season is crucial to possibilities of heading off a looming recession. Spain has recorded more than 28,000 coronavirus deaths, but has seen daily fatalities drop to fewer than 100 for the last week. People at La Barceloneta Beach in Barcelona on May 24, 2020 (AFP via Getty Images) The worst is behind us, Spains foreign minister tweeted. In July we will gradually open Spain to international tourists, lift the quarantine, ensure the highest standards of health safety. We look forward to welcoming you! Tourism minister Reyes Maroto added: It is perfectly coherent to plan summer vacations to come to Spain in July. Although bars and restaurants were allowed to open their outside spaces at half capacity from Monday, many in Madrid and Barcelona stayed closed as owners weighed the value of catering to just a few people. Some of those who did open were pessimistic. Its complicated, we are not going to be able to save the tourist season, unless (enough) foreigners come, said Alfonso Gomez, a restaurant owner in Barcelona. Government ministers are expected to discuss on Tuesday how to move forward with the gradual phasing out of the lockdown, amid growing tensions between regions and the central government. The current system might be loosened to allow a more tailored approach for each area. Spains cabinet was also due to announce 10 days of mourning to honour those dead from the pandemic. Additional reporting by agencies A 46-year-old Argentine woman, Elizabeth Toledo was raped and murdered in the city of San Fernando in December 2018. Her body wa... A 46-year-old Argentine woman, Elizabeth Toledo was raped and murdered in the city of San Fernando in December 2018. Her body was found naked on a mattress on the floor in an apartment in Buenos Aires, next to her parrot. As part of the evidence filed in the case last week, police recorded a statement from a police officer who said he heard the Toledo parrot shortly after the killing saying no, Por favour, soltame!" ("No, please, let me go"), Clarin reports. The police believe the parrot was repeating its owner's last words as she was allegedly beaten and raped by two housemates. The officer had been standing guard outside the murder scene when he heard what sounded like a woman screaming inside. He looked inside the apartment - but only found Toledo's naked and bruised body lying on a mattress on the floor, along with the green parrot in a cage. Evidence also includes witness testimony from a neighbour who claimed to have seen the parrot repeat the trick on a different occasion. That witness told police that the parrot once said 'por que me pegaste?' (why did you hit me?) after one of the men hit Toledo. 51-year-old Miguel Saturnino Rolon and 62-year-old Jorge Raul Alvarez are on trial for the rape and murder of 46-year-old Elizabeth Toledo in Buenos Aires in 2018. Head prosecutor Bibiana Santella has reportedly included the parrot's 'testimony' in the case file. Other evidence includes a bite mark from the victim's forearm which they say matches the bite of Rolon's teeth 'like a fingerprint'. Meanwhile DNA evidence found on Toledo's body will link Alvarez to the rape and killing, they allege. An autopsy showed that the victim has been beaten, raped, and strangled to death, according to Clarin. Ms Toledo rented a room to three men in the same house. Her housemates Miguel Saturnino Rolon and Jorge Raul Alvarez are the two who have been arrested in connection with the homicide. The third housemate was also arrested, but he was not at home when the alleged incident occurred. The trial's start date hasn't been revealed Senior officials believe the president may be able to be persuaded that protecting the peace agreement, which his administration sponsored and supports, will require a slower drawdown of forces, to give the Taliban an incentive to reduce attacks. Defense Department officials are also arguing to the White House that they cannot yet guarantee that Afghanistan will not again become a haven for attacks against the United States. Arguably the only clear-cut condition of the February deal, outlined in one of the secret annexes, is that the Taliban must publicly renounce the Islamic State and Al Qaeda before the full troop withdrawal begins. There are currently fewer than 12,000 troops in Afghanistan. The U.S.-led mission in the country is in the process of drawing down to 8,600 troops as part of the February agreement. This smaller American contingent will rely heavily on Special Operations forces and joint United States-Afghan cells, known as regional targeting teams, that are focused on counterterrorism missions across the country. Any reduction under 8,600 U.S. troops will be conditions-based after the U.S. government assesses the security environment and the Talibans compliance with the agreement, and in coordination with our NATO allies and partners, Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. Another factor that has contributed to Mr. Trumps desire for an early withdrawal is the coronavirus and its unchecked spread throughout Afghanistan after it crossed over the countrys western border from Iran. The Pentagon believes that at least 50 percent of Afghan security forces most likely have the virus, meaning that any training and joint operations between United States and Afghan forces have been paused, halting a key pillar of the American war effort, especially against Islamic State enclaves in the countrys east. But airstrikes against the group still continue. As part of the peace agreement, the U.S. military is shutting several bases. But the spread of the coronavirus has also accelerated the closing of smaller Special Operations outposts used by the elite units while operating alongside their Afghan counterparts. U.S. President Donald Trump says he has not set a target date for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, where a fragile U.S.-Taliban peace process has gained renewed momentum in recent days. The president's comments on May 26 come amid speculation he may make ending the United States' longest war a campaign issue ahead of November's election. "We're there 19 years and, yeah, I think that's enough.... We can always go back if we want to," Trump told a White House news conference. "I have no target. But as soon as reasonable." The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in February that lays out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for security commitments from the Taliban. But before reaching that final stage, the deal sets out an ambitious goal of reducing violence, a mutual prisoner exchange between the militants and the Afghan government, and intra-Afghan negotiations. The Afghan government freed 900 more Taliban prisoners on May 26 as a three-day cease-fire with the militants drew to an end at midnight. The break in fighting, which came into effect on May 24 to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, was for the most part holding out across the country, officials said. On May 25, authorities freed 100 prisoners from Bagram, north of Kabul. "We hope that the cease-fire will be extended, so that the process of prisoners' release can move on smoothly and also we would be able to start the face-to-face intra-Afghan talks sooner," Afghan National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal said on May 26. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen welcomed the release of the 900 prisoners as "good progress" and said the group would in turn free a "remarkable number" of prisoners soon. However, he said nothing about extending the cease-fire, which was to expire at midnight local time. Earlier, a senior Taliban figure was quoted as saying the group was considering an extension of the cease-fire "if these developments, like the announcement of prisoner release, continue." The U.S.-Taliban deal stipulates that Kabul free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the militants are to release 1,000 captives -- a move expected to lead to intra-Afghan negotiations. After the Eid prisoner releases, the Afghan government said 2,000 Taliban militants had been freed. The militant group has freed 245 security personnel, civil servants, and other people it had been holding. President Ashraf Ghani said the government was also ready to hold peace talks with the Taliban, seen as key to ending a nearly two-decade-long war. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has welcomed the cease-fire, but warned that the freed Taliban fighters should not return to the battlefield. Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission also cautioned the government against releasing Taliban militants who committed war crimes. The prospect of direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban gained a boost on May 17 when Ghani and his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, reached a power-sharing agreement nearly eight months after disputed elections that led to a parallel government and hampered efforts to broker a peace deal. The United States has about 12,000 troops in Afghanistan. Washington also pays about $4 billion a year to maintain Afghan security forces. Taliban militants control about half of Afghanistan's territory and have continued to carry out attacks since the U.S.-Taliban deal was signed. The Afghan government says at least 146 civilians were killed and 430 wounded in Taliban attacks during the Muslim holy month Ramadan, which ran from April 23 to May 23. With reporting by Reuters Frontier City will become the first Six Flags amusement park to reopen in the US, with visitors allowed to return to the attraction next Friday, June 5. The Oklahoma City park's general manager, Trevor Leonard, \announced the news Tuesday during an interview on Good Morning America, where he also revealed new safety protocols put in place to protect patrons amid the coronavirus pandemic. 'It's pretty exciting! ' Leonard exclaimed, before revealing that 'things are going to look a little different' at the park for the foreseeable future. Leonard explained that guests will have to book ahead online as tickets won't be available at the gate. Frontier City will become the first Six Flags amusement park to reopen in the US, with visitors allowed to return to the attraction next Friday, June 5 .@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Trevor Leonard, General Manager of Frontier City Six Flags, announces Six Flags' plan for their first theme park reopening. https://t.co/5FEZ833d5o pic.twitter.com/yxdRexa0fa Good Morning America (@GMA) May 26, 2020 'That way we can control the volume of folks in the park,' he stated, without revealing how many people will be allowed inside the attraction each day. Guests will also have their temperatures taken through a hi-tech screening device at the park's gates, and will also be required to wear masks at all times. Social distancing will also be enforced in the park, both on rides and lines. 'Lines for rides will be spaced out and marked, with each person standing six foot apart from another,' Leonard revealed, adding that 'every other row' on roller coasters and other rides will be empty. 'You'll only be riding with family. There won't be any strangers riding with you at first,' he declared. Guests will have to book ahead online as tickets won't be available at the gate in order to control the volume of people inside the Frontier City park All visitors aged two and above will be required to wear a mask inside the park at all times. All staff will also wear face coverings Lines for rides will be spaced out and marked, with each family standing six foot apart from others Meanwhile, all staff will be equipped with action packs consisting of masks, gloves and goggles, and exterior hand-washing and sanitizing stations have been installed. Additionally, a 'Clean Team' has been established, with the sole duty of 'continuously cleaning rides and hand rails'. Bathrooms and food areas will also be constantly wiped down and sanitized. The are 26 Six Flags parks across the country. Six Flag's Great Adventure in New Jersey will reopen its drive-thru safari park on May 30, but visitors will be unable to leave their cars. This means Frontier City is the first of Six Flags franchise to fully open again. Leonard told Good Morning America that the other parks are 'working with city, county and state health departments' to determine when it will be safe for them to allowed visitors back in. Frontier City will reopen on June 5, but there has been no announcement as to when the other 25 Six Flags parks will reopen to the public All guests will have their temperature screened as they arrive at the gates of Frontier City A 'Clean Team' has been established, with the sole duty of 'continuously cleaning rides and hand rails'. Bathrooms and food areas will also be constantly wiped down and sanitized Coronavirus cases in Oklahoma City have remained relatively low. Only 1,087 residents have tested positive to COVID-19, and 49 have died. Meanwhile, several other theme parks have begun to reopen as American continues to slowly emerge out of a two-month lockdown brought about by the highly-contagious virus. Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park in Wisconsin reopened for Memorial Day Weekend, as did Lagoon Amusement park in Utah. FunSpot in Orlando, Florida has also reopened, and sections of Universal Studios in the same city has also started to reopen sections. Universal is expected to open additional parts of its park on June 5, but has a blunt warning on its website. 'Note that any public location where people are present provides an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 and we cannot guarantee that you will not be exposed during your visit,' a message to visitors reads. A security employee checks the body temperature of a guest before allowing her to enter at the Universal Orlando's CityWalk on May 14. The theme park plans to open additional sections of the park on May 25 MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-hosts Mika Brzezinski, left, and Joe Scarborough. (Los Angeles Times) In July 2001, a 28-year-old woman named Lori Klausutis fell and hit her head on a desk at work in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. She was found dead the next morning. The medical examiner concluded that there was no foul play, and it later turned out that Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition. There would be no reason today to publicly discuss this tragic accident, but for the fact that Klausutis was at the time working on constituent services for Joe Scarborough, who served as a Republican member of Congress from 1995 to 2001 and now co-hosts MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Scarborough has become a favored target of President Trump, and Trump has repeatedly used Twitter to propound a baseless conspiracy theory spread by right-wing trolls that Scarborough was involved in the young woman's death. Last week, Klausutis' widower, Timothy J. Klausutis, wrote a letter to Jack Dorsey, the chief executive and co-founder of the social media platform, imploring the company to take down the false tweets. "My request is simple: Please delete these tweets," he wrote. "I'm a research engineer and not a lawyer, but reviewed all of Twitter's rules and terms of service. The President's tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) is a violation of Twitter's community rules and terms of service. An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed." Remarkably and yet not surprisingly Twitter on Tuesday declined the request. "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," a Twitter spokesperson said. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly." Story continues That statement is pathetic. I'm a longstanding Twitter user having joined the service in March 2007 and I understand that, like any giant social media platform, Twitter can be used for both good and ill. I know that Twitter has struggled with how to handle extraordinary cases like that of Trump, who regularly uses the platform to issue false, misleading, deceitful and even hateful information. I also know that Twitter has taken steps toward better labeling of false and harmful content. Last year, Twitter said it would flag tweets by politicians who violate its rules, but as of this writing, it has yet to do so for Trump's false statements about Klausitis. In March, it deleted posts by Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil about unproven coronavirus cures. On Tuesday, Twitter for the first time applied to Trump its policy of flagging misleading or potentially harmful tweets but it didn't touch the tweets about Scarborough. Instead, it added links to a pair of Trump screeds against voting by mail, sending readers to a collection of other tweets that refuted Trump's contention of rampant fraud. There is probable cause to ban Trump from the platform altogether. Such drastic action would no doubt please Trump's many critics, but it would also probably generate a needless backlash and merely drive the conspiracy mongering into the dark web. The solution in this case is simple: Delete the demonstrably false tweets which clearly violate Twitter's own policies and allow the family of Klausutis its privacy and its dignity. The fact that her widower should have to even make his anguished plea public and the fact that Twitter has, so far, shrugged it off speaks to the moral bankruptcy of our hyperpolarized age. Story Highlights 78% agree that downplaying threat causes public health risks 74% say exaggerating threat causes unnecessary harm to individuals, U.S. Public values media's watchdog role for coronavirus response WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Media bias is a great concern for Americans, and the implications of such bias for society are magnified when the nation is in crisis, such as the current coronavirus pandemic. A new Gallup/Knight Foundation survey finds that a majority of Americans are concerned about biased news coverage of the coronavirus situation, including reporting that downplays the threat but also reporting that exaggerates it. Democrats and Republicans diverge on whether exaggerating or downplaying the coronavirus threat is the greater risk. However, they generally agree that the crisis is worse than it needed to be, and that the news media should not wait for the crisis to ease before reporting on official actions that exacerbated the coronavirus situation. These results are from an April 14-20 Gallup/Knight Foundation survey focused on the coronavirus situation, part of Knight Foundation's Trust, Media and Democracy initiative. Public About Equally Likely to See Harm in Downplaying, Exaggerating Threat Americans believe it is critical for the news media to accurately assess the threat of the coronavirus to the nation and to individuals. They widely perceive that real harm is done to the country by overstating, or understating, the threat. Specifically, 78% of Americans strongly (60%) or somewhat agree (18%) that "any news organization that attempts to downplay the threat of the coronavirus puts the health of the public in jeopardy." But nearly as many, 74%, strongly (50%) or somewhat agree (24%) that "any news organization that attempts to exaggerate the threat of the coronavirus causes unnecessary harm to individuals and the country." Partisanship informs what type of skewed coverage is considered harmful. More than twice as many Democrats (84%) as Republicans (35%) "strongly agree" that coverage downplaying the threat is harmful, although majorities of all party groups at least somewhat agree. By contrast, twice as many Republicans (68%) as Democrats (34%) "strongly agree" that coverage exaggerating the threat is harmful. Again, majorities of all party groups strongly or somewhat agree. Partisans Agree: Situation Worse Than Necessary, Missteps Should Be Reported Americans, including those from all party perspectives, largely agree that the harm the coronavirus has caused to public health and U.S. society is worse than it needed to be. They also agree that the media should report now -- rather than after the crisis subsides -- on any statements or actions made by government officials that contributed to the problem. Seventy-two percent of Americans strongly agree (40%) or agree (32%) that the harm resulting from COVID-19 is worse than necessary. The percentages of party groups who agree range from 68% to 76%, with strong agreement similar among Democrats, independents and Republicans. Asked to choose among various scenarios for when -- or if -- news media should cover statements or actions from officials that contributed to making the crisis worse, 77% say the media should report on those immediately. This opinion is shared by solid majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans. Eleven percent say the media should wait to cover that information until the worst of the crisis is over, but should report before the fall elections. Just 2% say the media should wait, including until after the elections. Nine percent -- including 18% of Republicans -- say the media should not report such information at all. Implications Americans have been more likely to disapprove than approve of the news media's response to the coronavirus situation at a time when most other institutions' responses have been rated more positively than negatively. This may indicate that people do not see the media as getting coronavirus coverage quite right -- either drifting too far in the direction of downplaying the threat or too far in the direction of exaggerating it. The public recognizes the stakes are higher in coronavirus coverage, likely more than for other issues, given the pandemic's impact on public health, the U.S. economy and Americans' wellbeing. To the extent Americans believe the media is going too far to downplay or to play up the coronavirus, they may see the media -- in addition to elected leaders and public health officials -- as responsible for making the crisis worse than it needed to be. Nevertheless, the public still appears to value the media's watchdog role in investigating the decisions and statements made by public leaders and the extent to which those contributed to making the coronavirus situation worse than it could have been. The hearing world has taken note of such concerns. Writer Roxane Gays recent tweet in support Genuine question: how are the hearing impaired who read lips accommodated if everyone is wearing masks? got more than 5,000 likes and nearly 400 retweets. On the technical side, one solution that has gotten some buzz is a mask with a clear panel around the mouth. (Kisors son was thinking along these lines when he sent his mother a fishermans hat with a detachable vinyl face shield to wear when she goes out with his father.) After she created a version of such a mask, Eastern Kentucky University senior Ashley Lawrence offered to send one to anyone who needed it. She was so overwhelmed with requests that she now offers instructions on making the masks at home, adding a warning that they are not medical-grade. Fadnavis explains how Centre helped Maharashtra during coronavirus crisis India oi-Deepika S Mumbai, May 26: Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that the Centre, through various packages, has helped the state government. "The Maharashtra government is yet to spend financial aid provided by the Centre. I'm giving out the information today as there is an attempt to show that the Centre is not helping the state government," said Fadnavis at a press conference. "I really don't understand what is the priority of the state government, today the state needs assertive leadership, I expect Uddhav ji to take bold decisions," Fadnavis further said. CM Uddhav Thackeray meets Sharad Pawar, Sena says Maharashtra govt strong "Maharashtra has the maximum cases of the novel coronavirus. In the last one month, only 3,500 tests are done per day, out of which 32 per cent were tested positive. In the last 2-3 days, it has gone up to 40 per cent. Patients are not getting beds and there is no place to keep the corpses. People are dying on streets," he said. "Today, Rahul Gandhi said that his party is a part of the government and not of the decision-making team. It's a surprising statement. The moment they [Congress] realised that situation of Covid is going out of hand, they are planning to walk away from responsibility putting the blame on Uddhav Thackeray. Rahul Gandi's statement shows that Congress is running away from its responsibility," Fadnavis added. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News According to the Garib Kalyan package, food grains to poor were provided. Foodgrains worth Rs 4,592 crore was provided. Rs 1,308 crore was deposited in Jan Dhan accounts. Rs 116 crore was provided to senior citizen widows and specially-abled. One trains cost Rs 50 lakh. The Centre has given Rs 300 crore help to the state. An amount of Rs 1,148 crore was due to the state government from the centre in the form of tax returns, but we gave more than Rs 4,000 crore extra. Apart from this, Rs 9,069 crore was provided for agricultural produce. "As far as GST is concerned, every year compensation cess is provided to states. This year, the amount in that cess was low due to the low inflow of taxes. But still, the centre went out of the way and cleared amounts till November. In all, the centre provided Rs 28,104 crore to the state govt. Gandhi on Tuesday said the four phases of nationwide lockdown have "failed" and not given the results that Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected as he urged the Centre to spell out its strategy for "opening up" the country. The Congress leader expressed concern that if the government functions haphazardly during the non-lockdown period, the country will face a second wave of coronavirus which will be "extremely devastating". Chicago threatens to temporarily close churches that defy gathering restrictions Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The city of Chicago has threatened to temporarily close at least three churches that continue to violate the governors executive order by holding in-person worship services with over 10 people during the early phases of the citys coronavirus reopening plan. Chicago Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady sent letters to congregations on Saturday, informing them that if they continue to hold in-person worship services with over 10 attendees, the city has the authority under state law to force churches to comply with state orders. Such enforcement measures include a summary abatement, the letter reads. Arwady argued in the letter that the state has the power to order that a location be closed and made off-limits to the public to prevent the probable spread of a dangerously contagious or infectious disease until such a time as the condition can be corrected or the danger to the public health eliminated or reduced in such a manner that no substantial danger to the publics health any longer exists. In addition, as the Health Commissioner, I have the power and duty to cause all nuisances affecting the health of the public to be abated with all reasonable promptness, and general police powers to correct, by whatever means are necessary, any health hazard that presents an immediate risk to the life or health of one or more citizens of the City of Chicago. One of the churches that received the letter is Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church in Albany Park, a church that has sued for a temporary injunction against the state order but had its motion rejected by a federal judge. The Pentecostal church received an order from Arwady on May 15 directing it not to hold gatherings at its house of worship on North Bernard Street until public health officials indicate that it is safe to do so. However, the congregation reportedly held gatherings far in excess of ten individuals allowed by the Executive Order and was later issued an administrative notice of violation by the Chicago Police Department. Gatherings held contrary to the Executive Order can result in the unintentional spread of the disease to some of our most vulnerable residents. I appeal to you as a leader in your community and remain hopeful that you will work with me for the health, safety, and welfare of all Chicagoans, Arwady said in her letter. If you continue to operate in defiance of the Executive Order, the City will pursue all available legal remedies, including those outlined above. Any future gatherings conducted contrary to the Order will be considered a failure to abate and the City will take steps necessary to abate, including Summary Abatement. The conservative religious freedom nonprofit Liberty Counsel, which is representing Elim and other Romanian churches in the city, argued in a statement that the citys threat to conduct a summary abatement is tantamount to a threat to close or destroy churches. According to the Illinois Supreme Court, Summary abatement would mean to put down or destroy without process. This means the inspector can, upon his own judgment, cause the alleged nuisance to stop on his own authority and effect a destruction of property at his discretion, the law group noted, citing the case of City of Kankakee v. New York Cent. R. Co. The letter from the city comes as President Donald Trump stated last week that he wants state governments to allow churches to reopen as essential entities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines for church leaders to consider in their plans to reconvene in-person services as states relax COVID-19 restrictions. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on Friday that only outdoor and drive-in services will be allowed when under the next phase of its Restore Illinois plan. Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced on Friday that the city would enter phase three of the reopening plan in June as long as progress is made on key metrics. In between President Donald Trumps announcement that houses of worship should open and Memorial Day where we honor brave men and woman who fought and died for our freedom, Chicago threatens to close and even destroy churches, Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said in a statement. What a contrast. The executive orders from Gov. J.B. Pritzker are an insult to the First Amendment and to all Americans who understand the price and value of religious freedom. Each day the thug tactics to close churches in Illinois gets more bizarre and outrageous. The courts must stop this insanity. In the letter to churches, Arwady pointed out that the spread of COVID-19 in worship-service settings has been documented by the CDC. She cited the case of an Arkansas church linked to at least 35 cases of coronavirus among attendees and three deaths. This occurred as a result of just two individuals (index cases) participating in church events several days before they developed symptoms of nonspecific respiratory symptoms and fever, she noted. This outbreak highlights the likelihood for widespread transmission of COVID-19 at group gatherings, even before any participants show symptoms. Arwady also stressed that the city of Chicago itself has lost three faith leaders to Coronavirus. Other churches that received the letter from Arwardy threatening summary abatement include Metro Praise International and Philadelphia Romanian Church Chicago on Sunnyside Avenue, according to Block Club Chicago. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Metro Praise and Elim Romanian continued to hold services on Sunday. We are very disappointed with all of this, including not being considered as essential in the beginning, as a church, Metro Praise International Pastor Joe Wyrostek told a local NBC affiliate. Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church Pastor Chris Ionescu told NBC5 that there wont be a stand down on our part. Its only the city that escalates, he said. I wonder, if they threaten us with such extreme measures, what else is left? Authorities have released the name of a man killed Friday night in a shooting in Fairfield. The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the victim as Kenyada Juan Mitchell. He was 29 and lived in Saint Stephens, which is in southwest Alabamas Washington County. Jefferson County sheriffs deputies were dispatched at 10 p.m. to the 4100 block of Lloyd Noland Parkway after receiving multiple calls of shots fired. When they arrived on the scene, they found a white Dodge Avenger with Mitchell and a 26-year- old woman inside. Sgt. Joni Money said Mitchell had been shot. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 10:45 p.m. Witnesses told investigators the vehicle was traveling on Lloyd Noland Parkway when a white SUV similar to a Tahoe or Yukon began to follow them. The passenger in the SUV opened fire on the Avenger. When the Avenger came to a stop, they realized the driver had been struck. Authorities did not say whether the female passenger was injured. At this time the motive for the shooting is unknown, Money said. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriffs office at 205-325-1450. As the feud between the Maharashtra government and the Railways refuses to die down, the national transporter on Tuesday accused the state of not providing information about passengers as a result of which many Shramik Special trains could not be operationalised. In the latest development, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal took another pot shot at Maharashtra, saying 145 daily trains were demanded by the Shiv Sena-run MVA government. "These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers," he said in a series of tweets. I request Maharashtra Government to fully cooperate in ensuring that the distressed migrants are able to reach their homes and bring passengers to Stations in time, and not cause further delays. It will affect the entire network and planning. Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 26, 2020 The Railways said it had planned 125 trains to evacuate migrants from Maharashtra on May 25 but the state government was only able to give information for 41 trains till 2 am. "Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled. After meticulous planning and sustained effort, the Railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26," it said in a statement. "Till noon, 25 trains were planned from Maharashtra to run but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding of the first train could only commence at CSMT at 12.30 pm," it said. According to the Railways, 68 trains were planned to depart for Uttar Pradesh, 27 to Bihar, 41 to West Bengal, one each to Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala, and two each to Odisha and Tamil Nadu. Over the past two days, a political slugfest over Shramik Special trains had broken out between Goyal and the Maharashtra government, with the state alleging that not enough trains were being provided to them. Goyal on Sunday night said, "We are ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to Maharashtra. Since you have said that you have a list ready, that is why I am requesting you to please provide all information like from where the train will run, the list of passengers according to the trains, their medical certificate and where the train is to go, to the General Manager of Central Railway within the next hour, so that we can plan the time of trains." Responding to it, Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday tweeted, "Maharashtra government has given you a list of workers who wish to return home. The only request is that the train should reach the station, as announced earlier." "The Gorakhpur-bound train had reached Odisha," the Sena's Rajya Sabha member further said. Raut also asked Goyal if the Ministry of Railways had made any such list while running the Nagpur-Udhampur migrant train on May 14. Police have recovered the body of a man from the Credit River after five hours of searching. Peel Police received a call at 3:43 p.m. for a man entering the Credit River near the Credit Valley Conservation, located near Old Derry Road and Mavis Road. Police and fire crews arrived on scene shortly after the call was made to begin rescue efforts, Const. Kyle Villers said. We (then) brought in the Marine Unit, our dive team, we got a helicopter from the O.P.P., we try to leave no stone unturned in these kinds of situations, Villers said. Rescue crews located the body at around 9 p.m., Const. Kyle Villers said. The incident is considered non-criminal in nature. The victim was witnessed entering the water under his own accord, Villers said. The family of the victim has been contacted and no further information about the victim is being released. Margaryta Ignatenko is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @MargarytaIgnat1 The federal government has released details of Executive Order No.10 of 2020, four days after it was signed into law by President Moha... The federal government has released details of Executive Order No.10 of 2020, four days after it was signed into law by President Mohammadu Buhari. The details signals the implementation of Financial Autonomy for the State Legislature and Judiciary Order of 2020. With Buharis assent, the legislative and judicial arms of government in the 36 states of the federation will no longer have to wait on State governors for funds. In the details released on Tuesday by Umar Gwandu, Special Assistant on Media to Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, President Buhari said his decision was based on Section 5 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended). Details of the Presidents orders as follows: 1. Appropriation, Authorisation, Orders, etc: (a) Without prejudice to any other applicable laws, legislations and conventions at the State tier of Government, which also provides for financial autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary, allocation of appropriated funds to the State Legislature and State Judiciary in the State appropriation laws in the annual budget of the State, shall be a charge upon the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the State, as a First Line Charge. (b) The Accountant-General of the Federation shall by this Order and such any other Orders, Regulations or Guidelines as may be issued by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, authorise the deduction from source, in the course of Federation Accounts Allocation from the money allocated to any State of the Federation that fails to release allocation meant for the State Legislature and State Judiciary in line with the financial autonomy guaranteed by Section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended). 2. Determination of the Budget: Notwithstanding the provisions of any existing law, convention or regulation, other than the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as Amended), providing for appropriation or management of funds at the State tier of Government as follows: (a) every State Government of the Federation shall set up a Committee from the commencement of this Executive Order comprising the Commissioner of Finance, Accountant-General of the State, representative of the State Budget Office, Chief Registrars of State High Court, Sharia Court of Appeal and Customary Court of Appeal, (where applicable), the Clerk to the State House of Assembly and the Secretary of the State Judicial Service Committee or Commission; (b) where applicable, determine and ascertain from the Revenue profile of the State, a workable budget for each Arm of the State Government based on the request and needs of the Accounting Officers; and (c) the Committee shall be given and accorded legal recognition in the various relevant appropriation or Funds Management Laws of the States. 3. Creation of State Judiciary Budget Committee: (a) For the purpose of Appropriation to the State Judiciary, each State Judiciary of the federation shall set up a State Judiciary Budget Committee (in this Order referred to as a Committee) to serves as an administrative body to prepare, administer and implement the budget of the State Judiciary with such modifications as may be required to meet the needs of the State Judiciary. (b) The Committee shall consist of the State Chief Judge as the Chairman with the Grand Kadi, Sharia Court of Appeal, the President, Customary Court of Appeal, where applicable and two members of the Judicial Service Committee or Judicial Service Commission to be appointed by the Chief Judge, in consultation with other Members of the Committee, to serve as Members. (c) The Chief Registrar of the State High Court is to serve as Secretary. (d) The modalities for budget preparations and implementation shall include but not limited to the following: (i) upon the receipt of the Budget Estimates of the Fiscal Year for the State Judiciary, the State Judiciary Budget Committee shall invite all the Accounting Officers of the various Courts/Judicial Bodies to defend their budget estimates; (ii) the budget estimates for Courts and Judicial bodies shall be based on expenditure line items given to them by the State Judiciary Budget Committee which shall be defended before the State House of Assembly; and (iii) upon the appropriation of Funds, the State Judiciary Budget Committee shall on a monthly basis or as the case may be, request the Budget Office of the State to release the statutory allocation for the quarter or monthly and the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) shall be raised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the State for the release of the Fund to all the Heads of Courts/Judicial Bodies in line with the Appropriation Law. 4. Budget Preparation, Templates and Modalities: (a) Without prejudice to any existing budget templates in force in any State of the federation, the State Legislature and State Judiciary shall continue to maintain the strata of line consultations, inter Arms and inter-Agency pre-budget consultations and frontloading as is done in some States. (b) The budget templates and models in the schedule to this Executive Order shall apply to State Legislature and State Judiciary with modifications, in compliance with Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as Amended) and such other applicable Laws. 5. Appropriation and Supplementary Appropriation Law, etc: (a) At the commencement of this Order for implementation of financial autonomy for State Legislature and State Judiciary in line with section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), all States of the Federation shall include the allocations of the two Arms of Government in their Appropriation Laws. (b) Where Appropriation Law exists in any State of the federation before the commencement and implementation of this Order, such States shall amend their Appropriation Law to encompass financial autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary. (c) This Order expects States without Appropriation Law on the financial autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary to do so. 6. Special Allocation for the Judiciary: (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Executive Order, in the first three years of its implementation, there shall be special extraordinary capital allocations for the Judiciary to undertake capital development of State Judiciary Complexes, High Court Complexes, Sharia Court of Appeal, Customary Court of Appeal and Court Complexes of other Courts befitting the status of a Courts. (b) In this section, Other Courts includes Magistrate Courts, District Courts, Customary Courts and Area Courts. 7. Implementation of this Order: (a) Subject to section 8(1) of this Order, implementation of the provisions of this Order shall be carried out by the Presidential Implementation Committee in accordance with its recommendations. (b) To the extent as may be permitted by law, the Accountant-General of the Federation shall take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Order and implementation of the recommendations of the Committee, as may from time to time be made. (c) This Order shall be implemented consistently with States applicable laws that guarantee financial autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary and subject to the availability of funds. 8. Citation: This ORDER may be cited as the Implementation of Financial Autonomy of State Legislature and State Judiciary Order, 2020. 9. Commencement: This Executive Order shall take effect from this 20th Day of May 2020. Zombies In Betaal Are Also Vampires And Have Ghost Abilities On the other hand, Betaal, with its OTT release, gets a chance to explore more in the genre. However, it only pays attention to the visuals and repeats the formula script, which has repeatedly failed the genre. We meet an emotionally weak leading cast, from a greedy contractor to Vikram Sihori, who is haunted by his murderous past. It is evident that these characters are easily bound to be swayed by the evil in the tunnel. The creatures in Betaal are more of a mix of ghosts, vampires, mothership based aliens as well as zombies. We don't find out any details about the actual curse that has been bestowed on the land, except a few bits of detail that are needed for the plot. Even With Four Episode The Story Drags Through Run Time The show starts with a contractor trying to open up a sealed tunnel deep in a forest, dated back to the British Raj. Locals on the mountain oppose the construction, which in turn, leads the contractor to call in a military squad named CIPD, to help evacuate the villagers. When the tunnel is opened, the CIPD team loses half of its members after being attacked by the unknown creatures. For the next two episodes, we see them locked up in an armoury, trying to fend off the creatures with salt, turmeric and ashes. The story, which takes place only overnight, halfway through the series, still has more than six hours to go before the sunrise. In the first episode, Betaal managed to hook the audience with some good performances by Vineet Kumar Singh and Aahana Kumar, but quickly loses its plot with a mediocre screenplay. Betaal Uses All Horror Cliches From negotiating with ghosts for power to killing off all the characters in an effort to surprise the audience, the makers have tried every horror cliche and twist in the series. Instead of bringing the audience to the edge of their seat, it just adds unnecessary screen time, which could have been used to develop the plot. What makes it worse is, members of the team refuse to listen when the evidence is right in front of them. We see them fight with each other over and over again, only to pass on the commanding post. There is also an undertone of patriotism in the show, like mentioning the revolt of 1857, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the ongoing tension with Pakistan, which does not mix well with the story. Cast Gives Their Best Effort Apart from Vineet Kumar, Aahana Kumra, Jitendra Joshi, Syna Anand, Manjiri Pupala and Suchitra Pillai, all have done justice to their roles, making the four episodes worth a one-time-watch. Betaal ends on a cliff-hanger when the remaining alive members think they are out of the nightmare, they realise they have actually unleashed the curse upon the world. Overall Betaal is still watchable as compared to some of the other Netflix Indian content but, its high time the streaming giant invested in some good content creators. JERUSALEM - An Israeli court Tuesday ruled that a former teacher accused of sexually abusing her students in Australia is fit to stand trial for extradition, capping a years-long battle that has strained relations between the two allies and angered Australias pro-Israel Jewish community. The ruling was hailed by Malka Leifers alleged victims, who have accused their one-time school principal and Israeli authorities of dragging out the case for far too long. A July 20 extradition hearing was set by the court. OMG!!! Dassi Ehrlich, one of her accusers, wrote on Facebook. Too many emotions to process!!! This is huge! She accused Leifer of exploiting the Israeli courts for 6 years and causing delays that have lengthened our ongoing trauma! The Associated Press does not usually identify alleged victims of sexual abuse, but Ehrlich and two of her sisters have spoken publicly about their allegations against Leifer. The women say Leifer abused them while they were students at an ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne, and there are said to be other victims. In 2008, as allegations surfaced, the Israeli-born Leifer a trusted educator in an insular religious community left her position at the school suddenly and returned to Israel, where she has lived since. Australia requested Leifers extradition in 2014 on 74 charges of child sex abuse and more than 60 Israeli court hearings have followed. In Israel, critics say the legal proceedings have been marred by needless delays by Leifers legal team. Israeli police also have recommended charges of fraud and breach of trust be brought against former Health Minister Yaakov Litzman for suspicions he pressured ministry employees to skew Leifers psychiatric evaluations in her favour. Litzman, a powerful ultra-Orthodox politician, denies wrongdoing. After Australia filed its extradition request, Leifer was put under house arrest and underwent the beginnings of an extradition process that ended in 2016 when a mental health evaluation determined she wasnt fit to stand trial. But investigators later claimed to catch her leading a seemingly normal life and accused her of faking mental illness to avoid prosecution. Leifer was again arrested in early 2018 and the court asked for another psychological review. She has since been held in Israeli custody. In a statement, prosecutors Matan Akiva and Avital Ribner Oron said they were pleased the court had found Leifer had faked her mental incompetence. The removal of this obstacle that has stood in the way of any significant progress in this case will now enable the court to bring this matter to a timely and swift conclusion, they said. In recent years, leaders in Australia had expressed impatience over the slow pace of justice, and Australias prime minister raised the matter with Israels president during an official visit to Australia in February. Leaders in Australias pro-Israel Jewish community had also criticized the Israeli justice system. Australias attorney general, Christian Porter, called the ruling a positive sign, and said his government is strongly committed to ensuring that justice is served. At this time, the thoughts of the Australian Government are very much with alleged victims and hopefully this positive development will give them some confidence that proceedings in Israel are moving towards their aim of seeing proceedings commence in Australia, he said. Josh Burns, an Australian lawmaker who recently introduced a motion in Parliament demanding Israel extradite Leifer, said in a statement that Justice is finally arriving for the victims in Australia. We will all keep fighting until Leifer is in a Victorian courtroom facing justice, he said. Manny Waks, chief executive of Kol vOz, a Jewish organization that combats child sex abuse and has been representing the three sisters, said that all the discussion about Leifers mental state had distracted attention from the damage suffered by her alleged victims. They deserve our compassion, our support and now moving forward we expect the Israeli judicial system to move expeditiously, as quickly as possible, to ensure that any appeal and the extradition itself happens as soon as possible, he said outside the courtroom. ___ Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed reporting. Chris Evans has become a household name over the past decade during his run as Captain America. But the action star almost didn't play the all-American superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He recently revealed that he nearly quit acting due to severe anxiety, which was exacerbated by the magnitude of the iconic blockbuster franchise. Severe anxiety: Chris Evans recently revealed that he nearly turned down Captain America and quit acting due to severe anxiety The 38-year-old said on The Hollywood Reporter's podcast Awards Chatter that it began around the time Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer premiered in 2007. It didn't help that he was passed over for roles in Gone Baby Gone, Milk, Elizabethtown and Fracture. He also referenced his 2007 Danny Boyle film Sunshine going unnoticed, as he joked: 'Nobody sees my good movies.' Evans then recalled filming Puncture in 2010: 'It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set. Mini panic attacks: He then recalled filming Puncture in 2010: 'It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set' Big deal: The added pressure of a nine-film deal, big payday and inevitable fame almost made him pass on the role of Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) in the MCU 'I really started to think, "I'm not sure if this [acting] is the right thing for me, I'm not sure if I'm feeling as healthy as I should be feeling."' The added pressure of a nine-film deal, big payday and inevitable fame almost made him pass on the role of Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) in the MCU. He turned down opportunity to test multiple times, even when the salary went up and contract was reduced to six films. The Bostonian was then offered the part outright, over which he consulted with Robert Downey Jr, with whom he shared an agent. He continued: 'It was the best decision I've ever made, and I really owe that to [Marvel chief] Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake. To be honest, all the things that I was fearing never really came to fruition.' Leading man: The Bostonian was then offered the part outright, over which he consulted with Robert Downey Jr, with whom he shared an agent On fire: He also reflected on landing another Marvel role as Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) in the 2005 film Fantastic Four: 'I had just been dumped and I needed it!' Real heroes: The Knives Out star recently thanked real-life heroes on the PBS National Memorial Day Concert, along with George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow and more Evans ultimately went on to appear as the patriotic hero in 11 of the Avengers films, since debuting in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. He also reflected on landing another Marvel role as Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) in the 2005 film Fantastic Four: 'That was back when the superhero thing was just taking off. I had just been dumped and I needed it!' The Knives Out star recently thanked real-life heroes on the PBS National Memorial Day Concert, along with George Clooney, Gwyneth Paltrow and more. Evans can currently be seen as an assistant DA whose son is charged with murder in the crime drama miniseries Defending Jacob, the finale available Friday on Apple TV+. Genedata Biologics is a perfect fit for our approach, because we anticipate that the platform will be able to handle our bispecific engineering and TCR discovery and optimization workflows without any customization Genedata, the leading provider of enterprise software solutions for biopharmaceutical R&D, today announced that Gritstone Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapies, including a portfolio of T-cell receptor (TCR)-mimetic bispecific T cell engagers and TCR-based therapeutics, has implemented Genedata Biologics within their R&D organization. Genedata Biologics is a perfect fit for our approach, because it comes with built-in functionalities that support the specialized immuno-oncology applications we require. For instance, we anticipate that the platform will be able to handle our bispecific engineering and TCR discovery and optimization workflows without any customization, said Jonah Rainey, Ph.D., Head of Antibody Therapeutics at Gritstone Oncology. We are also looking forward to further automating our R&D processes and increasing throughput in our immunotherapy discovery programs. Gritstone Oncology will use Genedata Biologics, a purpose-built enterprise platform for biopharma R&D, to design, engineer, and validate next-generation antibody therapeutic molecules such as bispecific antibodies. Additionally, it will be used for advancing the R&D for multiple programs targeting cancer testis antigens and common mutations resulting in neoantigens. Genedata Biologics integrates all R&D workflows in a common workspace, giving the Gritstone teams comprehensive and real-time access to all relevant R&D data. Using the platform, Gritstone will automate R&D workflows, including molecular biology, screening, engineering, cloning, expression, purification, and analytics processes. Gritstone Oncology chose to operate Genedata Biologics as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This deployment option gives them an agile setup and increases operational efficiency, without the need to invest in the hardware and internal IT support required for an on-premise deployment. We are very pleased that Gritstone Oncology, an innovative leader in the field of personalized immunotherapies, has chosen Genedata to support their complex R&D processes, said Othmar Pfannes, Ph.D., CEO of Genedata. The Genedata Biopharma Platform is a game changer in biopharma R&D. We help companies stay at the forefront of innovation with our continual investment in developing the platform to address new requirements, such as for TCRs, CAR Ts or novel cancer vaccines. Our goal is to digitalize and streamline all R&D workflows so that our partners can fully exploit the value of their data as they hunt for the next generation of therapies. About Genedata Genedata transforms data into intelligence with innovative software solutions and domain-specific consulting services that automate complex, large-scale experimental processes and enable organizations to maximize the ROI in their R&D, spanning early discovery all the way to the clinic. Founded in 1997, Genedata is headquartered in Switzerland with additional offices in Germany, Japan, Singapore, the UK, and the US. http://www.genedata.com LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube Contact Miles Fisher-Pollard Genedata Public Relations Phone: +41 61 511 85 61 pr@genedata.com Disclaimer The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties related to contract cancellations, developing risks, competitive factors, uncertainties pertaining to customer orders, demand for products and services, development of markets for the Company's products and services. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. All product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to the Church of the Nativity, numerous iconic world landmarks reopened on Tuesday as the global economy eased its way out of lockdown. Two months of shutdowns decreed to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic have dealt businesses a devastating blow, particularly in trade, travel and tourism. But Wall Street indexes surged higher in early trading after trading resumed on the symbolic NYSE floor -- it has continued electronically -- for the first time since mid-March, to US President Donald Trump's delight. "Stock Market up BIG, DOW crosses 25,000. S&P 500 over 3000. States should open up ASAP. The Transition to Greatness has started, ahead of schedule," he tweeted. Trump has been urging state governors to roll back lockdown measures, despite the US virus death toll rising to 98,223, the world's highest. Other major economies in Asia and Europe took action earlier and have past the worst of the epidemic, but even they are easing slowly out of lockdown. For many countries, including hard-hit Italy and Spain, the summer season will be key to saving what is left of the tourism industry. But the novel coronavirus is continuing its spread. - 5.5 million infections - On Tuesday the number of confirmed infections worldwide passed the 5.5 million mark, according to an AFP tally of official sources. The number of declared cases in the world has doubled in a month and more than one million new COVID-19 cases have been registered in the last 11 days. More than 346,000 deaths have been recorded worldwide. Asian trading hub Singapore warned Tuesday its economy could shrink by as much as seven percent this year. EU leaders, meanwhile, will announce an unprecedented trillion-euro recovery package on Wednesday. The virus has also had an immense political impact, and not just on Trump, who faces a difficult re-election battle in November and has a deepening rift with China, where the new strain of the disease was first discovered. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government is in crisis and a minister has resigned after top Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings refused to apologise for driving his family across the country despite the lockdown. - Holy birthplace - But there were also signs of hope at some of the world's best known and symbolic destinations. In Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity -- built on the spot where Christians believe their saviour Jesus was born -- reopened its doors after more than two months. Once inside, Greek Orthodox Bishop Theophylactos kissed an icon while a priest scattered holy water in the grotto where Jesus is said to have rested in a manger. Palestinian authorities believe the COVID-19 virus came to Bethlehem with a group of Greek tourists -- such stories have devastated the travel industry worldwide. Nevertheless, in Italy -- once the global epicentre of infections after the virus spread to Europe from China -- the site of a previous natural disaster also reopened to visitors. The ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii, destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD and preserved through the centuries in a layer of ash, attracted four million visitors last year. It has now reopened, but foreign visitors are still prohibited to travel to Italy until next month, and locals from the Naples region found the site deserted. "It's only us guides, and journalists," sighed 48-year-old Valentina Raffone, noting a "sense of emptiness, of sadness" as if after a disaster on the scale of the city's end. Italian foreign minister Luigi di Maio said he is working with EU colleagues to agree on June 15 as a coordinated day for member states to reopen their borders and tourist regions. - Massive stimulus - "We should save what we can save of the summer, to aid our entrepreneurs," he said. Beyond tourism, the European Union is attempting to launch an unprecedented trillion-euro economic stimulus to speed the recovery from the pandemic. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will unveil her proposal Wednesday, but EU capitals are likely to argue over the details, and a coalition of four "frugal" northern states opposes too generous grants to the hard-hit south. The stakes are high. The European Central Bank warned that if EU members overspend to escape the crisis they could undermine market faith in their ability to remain within the single-currency bloc. Elsewhere, Russia recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll of 174 on Tuesday but said more than 12,000 people had also recovered over the past 24 hours. Health officials said Russia's total death toll had reached 3,807 and its number of cases had hit 362,342, the third-highest number of infections in the world after the US and Brazil. Nevertheless, President Vladimir Putin declared that "the peak can be considered passed" and ordered preparations for the delayed May 9 Red Square military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of Germany's surrender to be held on June 24. And in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said students will not to go back to school until a coronavirus vaccine is available -- a prospect that may be months or years away. burs-dc/dl [May 26, 2020] Lionstone Investments Appoints New Head of Analytics and Research Lionstone Investments is pleased to announce the appointment of Hans Nordby as head of analytics and research, reporting to Bryan Sanchez, chief investment officer. Hans is a dynamic leader with extensive experience in real estate research and data. Mr. Nordby brings more than 20 years of industry experience to the firm. Most recently, he was Managing Director at CoStar Group leading the portfolio strategy division where he had full responsibility for advisory services, analytics, forecasting, and risk management solutions. He drove the development of analytic tools that harness the power of big data for use by commercial real estate investors, developers, and government agencies. "We are delighted to welcome Hans Nordby to Lionstone Investments," said Bryan Sanchez. "Hans has extensive experience in real estate research and data, including many yers at Property and Portfolio Research, Inc., a leading real estate research group that played an important role in Lionstone's evolution. We look forward to Hans taking our analytics platform to the next level." Lionstone Investments was founded in 2001 as a real estate investment firm using proprietary analytics and data-driven research to execute its national investment strategies. Mr. Nordby will be based Boston, but he will spend significant time working in Lionstone's Houston headquarters. About Lionstone Investments Lionstone Investments is a data-analytics driven real estate investment firm that conceptualizes, analyzes, and executes national investment strategies using proprietary algorithms and advanced analytics to understand the changing ways people in America want to live and work - Places for Productive People. Lionstone Investments is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. Please visit our website at: LionstoneInvestments.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005679/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] After the resumption of domestic flights the previous day following a two-month suspension was marred by confusion and cancellations amid the reluctance of some states to allow inbound travel,operations on Tuesday were smooth, with airports handling 325 departures and 283 arrivals till the evening civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said. Around 41,673 passengers had flown until Tuesday evening, Puri said, the day after the suspension imposed for the coronavirus lockdown ended. Airports are abuzz, and passengers are back in the air. Operations have started in Andhra Pradesh from today. These numbers are all set to soar higher, the minister said, adding that a final report on the how the days flight operations went will be prepared after details come in at Tuesday midnight. On Monday, more than half the expected 1,100 flights had to be cancelled as airlines had to reconcile to the varying public health rules of various states and rework their flight schedules. According to civil aviation ministrys data, 428 flights departed on Monday ferrying 30,550 passengers. There were 404 arrival flights, which means 24 flights had departed just before midnight and would have arrived on Tuesday morning. The maximum number of flights took off from Karnataka with 67 flights ferrying 5,602 passengers of which 60 flights were from Bengaluru alone. The states agreed with the Centre on Sunday to allow a graded reopening of flight operations after putting in place local measures to quarantine and isolate passengers to avoid a spiralling of Covid-19 infections. The number of flights operating across airports were capped, with the Centre allowing only a third of domestic operations. Flights to and from West Bengal will resume on May 28 and those operating from Andhra Pradesh were scheduled to commence from Tuesday while Maharashtra allowed a limited number of flights to depart and arrive in Mumbai. According to the civili aviation ministry, 38 flights departed from Maharashtra on Monday, ferrying 5,124 passengers; they included 24 flights from Mumbai. One hundred and eleven flights took off from Delhi with 8,168 passengers. Concerns over the possible spread of the coronavirus disease following the resumption of domestic travel have been rife. On Monday, a passenger flying on an Indigo flight from Chennai to Coimbatore was found Covid-19 positive. We received confirmation from the Coimbatore airport doctor that a passenger who travelled on 6E 381 from Chennai to Coimbatore on 25th May evening, has tested positive for COVID-19. He is currently quarantined at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. He was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission, Indigo said in a statement on Tuesday. All our aircraft are regularly sanitised as a standard operating procedure, and the aircraft operating this flight was also immediately disinfected as per protocol. The operating crew has been grounded for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff, it added. The two-month suspension of flights has already left the civil aviation sector, globally and in India, reeling. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the airline industrys global debt could rise to $550 billion by the year-end. Thats a $120 billion increase over debt levels at the start of 2020. A tough future is ahead of us. Containing COVID-19 and surviving the financial shock is just the first hurdle. Post-pandemic control measures will make operations more costly. Fixed costs will have to be spread over fewer travellers. And investments will be needed to meet our environmental targets. On top of all that, airlines will need to repay massively increased debts arising from the financial relief. After surviving the crisis, recovering to financial health will be the next challenge for many airlines, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs director general and CEO. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON SARAJEVO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Medical professionals and experts from China and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have held a video conference, sharing their experiences in combating COVID-19, the Chinese Embassy in BiH said Monday in a statement. The Chinese participants were medical staff from Qilu Hospital of Shandong University in east China, who had been to Hubei Province, once the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. During the conference, Chinese experts shared their experiences on diagnostic and treatment methods, plasma therapy for critically-ill patients, ECMO therapy, monitoring asymptomatic patients, protecting medical staff and preventing imported cases, according to the statement. Experts from the two sides also interacted with the audience online, offering advice on protection, boosting immunity and maintaining physical and mental health. "The COVID-19 has been well controlled in BiH, and social order is gradually restored. However, some severe patients are still hospitalized," said Prof. Ranko Skrlbic, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Banja Luka, adding that China's achievements in the prevention and control of COVID-19 have also strengthened BiH's confidence in overcoming the epidemic. So far, BiH has reported 2,406 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 146 deaths. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. The Minerals Council of Australia is calling on the federal government to adopt a series of measures that, in the groups view, would guarantee the recovery of the mining sector once the covid-19 pandemic comes to an end. In a document titled Immediate Reform Priorities to Accelerate Economic Recovery, the MCA proposes targeted reforms that include lower taxes, faster project approvals, modern skills and flexible workplaces. Our world-leading minerals companies are hampered by regulatory duplication and overlap, while projects take too long to be approved denying regional communities jobs and investment, the Councils report reads. Expediting environmental assessments and approvals, reforming greenfields agreements and expanding incentives for exploration will also help realise and refresh the potential pipeline of new and expanding mining projects. According to the MCA, Australias company tax rate of 30% is too high, not internationally competitive and could put at risk mining investment. A potential mining investment pipeline of up to $100 billion of coal, iron ore, base metal, critical minerals and gold projects as well as tens of billions of spending to sustain the Australian mining industry cannot be taken for granted, the document states. With other mining nations significantly hampered by the covid-19 pandemic while Australian minerals companies continued to operate, Australias competitors will waste no time in attempting to increase their share of the recovery. The Councils paper highlights the fact that growing economies of highly populated nations such as India and Southeast Asia will recover and continue to grow with their expanding housing, infrastructure and manufacturing needs supporting higher demand for industrial metals such as steel, copper and aluminium. In their view, those are markets that the countrys mining sector could be targeting. By Mining.com More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: The House passed a version of the current bill in March. But this month, when the Senate took up the bill, senators approved a different amendment to it while narrowly rejecting another one about internet records, sponsored by Senators Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Steve Daines, Republican of Montana. A majority 59 of the 100 senators voted for the Wyden-Daines amendment, which would have banned the F.B.I. from gathering internet records using a type of FISA court order that permits collection of business records deemed relevant to a case. But it fell one short needed under Senate rules to attach it to the bill at that stage. Because the Senate modified the bill, it returned to the House for another vote. Galvanized by the close vote, privacy advocates like Ms. Lofgren used the opportunity to push House leaders for permission for an up-or-down vote on the same idea. Speaker Nancy Pelosi instructed Ms. Lofgren to negotiate with Mr. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to see whether they could arrive at compromise language that would narrow the Senate version. Over the holiday weekend, they agreed to limit the protection to Americans. It was not clear, however, how far the new rule would go, were it to be enacted into law. For one thing, the restriction would apply only to business records orders collected under a provision of law known as Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which allows the F.B.I. to collect such records deemed relevant to a terrorist investigation. (It is also one of the three provisions that have now partly lapsed, but would be revived and extended.) But the government has sometimes used a different provision of FISA, the pen register/trap and trace section, to gather internet metadata. Orders to install a pen register device have the same low standard as orders requiring the production of business records. Moreover, aides said the amendment would not explicitly lay out whether the proposed limit on using Section 215 business records orders would apply to situations where the F.B.I. does not know ahead of time whose data will be collected like when it may want to gather the addresses of all visitors to a website or viewers of a video. KYODO NEWS - May 26, 2020 - 10:48 | All, Coronavirus, World The head of the World Health Organization on Monday described the result of Japan's efforts in tackling the spread of the new coronavirus a "success." WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus made the assessment during a press conference in Geneva held in the wake of Japan's decision to lift a state of emergency in all parts of the nation after it was first declared in early April. Tedros praised Japan for stemming the epidemic in recent weeks, reducing the spread of infections from more than 700 cases a day at the peak of the outbreak, and for keeping the number of deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, at a relatively low level. But he stressed at the same time that it is important for people in Japan to continue practicing social distancing and taking other basic precautionary measures, rules that apply to all countries when strict restrictions imposed to fight the virus are loosened. Michael Ryan, the chief of the WHO's health emergencies department, said at the same press conference the world is still in the middle of the first wave of infections as the number of new cases is still increasing in African countries as well as Latin America and South Asia. Ryan warned that a second wave could occur in countries that have eased stay-at-home and other restrictions. On Monday, a Japanese advisory panel gave the go-ahead to the government's plan to end the emergency in Tokyo, its surrounding prefectures and Hokkaido, after determining such aspects as the number of newly reported cases over the past week and the availability of medical resources in those areas as satisfactory. The areas were the last among Japan's 47 prefectures that were still covered by the state of emergency declaration and the accompanying voluntary restrictions that requested some types of businesses to shut temporarily and for people to stay home as much as possible. Japan has avoided an explosive surge of COVID-19 infections with over 17,300 cases and 865 deaths reported across the nation as of Monday. The tally includes about 700 infections from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Yokohama in February. At the same press conference, the WHO said it is suspending its trial of hydroxychloroquine, a drug touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a possible effective weapon in the battle against the virus, because of safety fears. "The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the data is reviewed," Tedros said. The WHO cited a study from medical journal The Lancet that "estimated a higher mortality rate" in patients that were administered the drug. Trump claimed earlier in May he had used hydroxychloroquine to avoid contracting the coronavirus but said in a television interview on Sunday that he has "finished" taking the drug. Related coverage: Abe declares coronavirus emergency over in Japan Japan releases phased road map to fully reopen economy by August Japan to expand entry ban to visitors from India, 10 others On the Frontline Against China, the US Coast Guard Is Taking on Missions the US Navy Can't Do Competition with China has drawn more Pentagon resources to the Pacific, but the most visible U.S. military presence there... "Slouching all day burns more energy, puts your body under more stress, and by the end of the day can lead to you being really stiff, sore and tired," Dr. Petree says. Incorrect posture can cause headaches, neck pain, back pain and stiffness, something she sees quite often as a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. She advises, "To check your posture, sit where you are. Place your hands on your hips and roll your hips forward. Now you should be sitting on your "sit bones" with a small arch forming in your low back. Take a big deep breath and let your shoulders relax. It should be nice and easy to take a breath." When working on a computer, she says to keep your feet flat on the ground with your elbows down at your side and arms straight to the keyboard. Wrists should be flat, not flexed, and the computer monitor should be placed at eye level or lower. She advises patients to keep their posture in check by setting up an ergonomic workstation, ideally at a desk or table. "While you may have easy access to a standing desk at work, that's often not the case at home. If choosing to stand, you still have to assume proper posture. That includes not bending the knees, shifting to one side or rolling the hips." According to Dr. Petree, it's best to switch every hour from seated to standing as poor posture really takes a toll when you're seated for lengths of time. "Take a break if you need it. Video chat with friends and family during breaks. Find personal interaction where you can. That's part of keeping yourself well during these times." Overall, Dr. Petree stresses the importance of being gentle with yourself. "We're in unprecedented times," she said. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) established PCOM South Georgia in Moultrie, Georgia, in 2019. The campus offers a four-year medical program leading to the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree. For more information, visit www.pcom.edu. SOURCE Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine Related Links http://www.pcom.edu [May 26, 2020] SETi Releases Portable Air Purifiers with Violeds Technology for New Coronavirus Disinfection in Early June Sensor Electronic Technology, Inc. ("SETi"), the World's first compound semiconductor for UV LED solutions (Violeds) and Seoul Viosys (KOSDAQ: 092190)' subsidiary, announced that it launches portable air purifiers with Violeds technology, brand "VAC", to reduce infection from various harmful bacteria including new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in the air. The online sales of the products will be started in both South Korea and the United States in June at first, and SETi will also continue to respond to global corporate customer's demands and inquiries. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005383/en/ Air purification system with Violeds technology (Graphic: Business Wire) Violeds technology has been proven to sterilize 99.9% of new coronavirus in 30 seconds according to testing results. SETi will lead product promotion to provide consumers with quicker access to sterilization solutions until this urgent situation from the global spread of new coronavirus is stabilized. The company will continue to sell the products in cooperation with potential global partners in the future. In addition, it will expand online sales to Europe and Southest Asia in June along with ew portable surface sterilizers, brand named "VSM". The portable air purifier VAC with Violeds embedded in the air purification system sterilizes new coronavirus and various harmful bacteria. Conventional air purifiers and air conditioners collect various bacteria or viruses using only filters. Accordingly, since it couldn't completely filter the virus out, there is a high risk of secondary air infection. However, VAC prevents harmful bacteria growing on the filter and significantly sterilizes them by irradiating the filter using Violeds' light (photon) immediately after virus capture in the air. HEPA filter in purification system can filter out in general fine dust and droplets more than 0.3m but the viruses such as new coronavirus and SARS virus itself as small as 0.1m after the droplet is dried can pass through the HEPA filter as it is. Violeds technology provides a wide range of applications for air, water and surface sterilization, skin regeneration, insect trap and effective cultivation for horticulture. About SETi Sensor Electronic Technology, inc. (SETi), a division of Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys, is a company based in Columbia, South Carolina, founded in 1999 by four Ph.D., for research and development of compound semiconductors in the United States. In 2005, SETi received the investment and R&D fund from Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Viosys. For the development project, SETi is also working with the University of South Carolina and the University of California at Santa Barbara, adding depth to its research and development. Currently, SETi is the only company in the world that can produce UV LEDs from 200nm to 430nm. To learn more, visit http://www.s-et.com/en/. About Seoul Viosys Seoul Viosys (KOSDAQ: 092190) is a full-line solution provider for UV LED, VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser), the next-generation light source for 3D sensor and laser, and a single-pixel RGB "Micro Clean Pixel" for displays. Established in 2002 as a subsidiary of Seoul Semiconductor, it captured No. 1 market share in the UV LED industry (LEDinside, 2018). Seoul Viosys has an extensive UV LED portfolio with all wavelengths range (200nm to 1600nm) including ultraviolet rays (UV), visible rays and infrared rays. It holds more than 4,000 patents related to UV LED technology. Violeds, its flagship UV LED technology, provides a wide range of industries with optimal solutions for strong sterilization and disinfection (UVC), skin regeneration (UVB), water/air purification and effective cultivation for horticulture. In 2018, Seoul Viosys acquired RayCan, a leading optoelectronic specialist, to add the advanced VCSEL technology which supports smartphone facial recognition and autonomous driving, and has started its mass production. In January 2020, it introduced a disruptive "Micro Clean Pixel" that has the potential to be a game-changer in the display market. To learn more, visit http://www.seoulviosys.com/en/. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005383/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Ireland's Catholic bishops are making the case for the early reopening of churches for public Masses in a measured and safe way. Eamon Martin, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, said bishops were working on best-practice guidelines for the celebration of the sacraments. The bishops have produced a document with a checklist on physical distancing and hygiene to help parishes get ready for when people can attend Mass again. It will also support our continuing engagement with government and public health authorities, North and South, in making a case for the early resumption of the public celebration of Mass and the sacraments in a measured and safe way, said the archbishop. Places of worship are included in phase four of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, which is set to begin on Monday, July 20, when they can be opened with social distancing measures in place. In his Pentecost message, Archbishop Martin said he found it sad and disappointing that they were still unable to gather physically for Mass and the sacraments. We have all been making great sacrifices to protect health and life and to support the common good. But we miss meeting up as a parish community, he said. The framework document being finalised by the Bishops Conference will offer advice on the distribution of Holy Communion. Early next month the bishops will consider extending the current suspension of the Sunday Mass obligation, the sign of peace, and the use of holy water fonts. The bishops will also discuss the celebration of baptism, marriage, and the sacrament of reconciliation in the context of any ongoing restrictions. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said parishes all over Ireland had begun working on plans to be ready to open their churches as soon as it was safe to do so. When you think of Batman, you think about how a man with no superpowers gathering the courage to face off some of the most dangerous bad guys of the comic book world. In 2005, Christopher Nolan managed to bring the essence of the Dark Knight on the big screen when he joined forces with Christian Bale and introduced Batman Begins in our lives. He went through the trouble of describing the batmobile, his gadgets and even gave an explanation for why the costume looked the way it did. What you dont think about when you look at Batman is whether he should have nipples or not on his costume which he uses to fight crime! Even then, we were exposed to not one but two different suits with rubber nipples sticking out of the suit. What made it worse was that these suits were worn by two highly acclaimed actors of the time, Val Kilmer and George freaking Clooney. The idea of someone going out of their way to add something so unnecessary at best and humiliating at worst, was considered to be controversial back in 1995 when Kilmers Batman Forever first came out, was considered controversial when Clooney became Bruce Wayne in Batman and Robin in 1997, and it continues to be considered controversial even today. Well, its considered just silly now. But the question still stands, why? Why would you do that to the poor Caped Crusader? In an interview with Vice, director Joel Schumacher finally explained the reason but not before apologising for the mess he had created: "Look, I apologize," he said. "I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that. Such a sophisticated world we live in where two pieces of rubber the size of erasers on old pencils, those little nubs, can be an issue. It's going to be on my tombstone, I know it. Warner Bros When asked about whose decision it was to go ahead with the nipples, Schumacher said: Well, it was made by Jose Fernandez, who was our brilliant lead sculpture. If you look at Batman and Batman Returns, it was the genius, Bob Ringwood that created those suits, so by the time we got to Batman Forever, the rubber and techniques had gotten so sophisticated. If you look at when Michael Keaton appears in the first suit, you'll notice how large it is. It was brilliant but the best they could do at the time. Warner Bros By the time Batman Forever came around, rubber moulding had become so much more advanced. So I said, let's make it anatomical and gave photos of those Greek status and those incredible anatomical drawings you see in medical books. He did the nipples and when I looked at them, I thought, that's cool." Schumacher was responsible for the two films and both of them had bat-nips in them and if youd ask the guy if he liked what he did with the costume, he would say 'yes', or at least thats what he said back in 2017. Sets created for the upcoming period epic Prithviraj,starring Akshay Kumar, will be taken down, because the cost of maintaining them during the coronavirus lockdown was proving to be too high to bear. With no filming expected to take place before the monsoon, the filmmakers reportedly took the decision to destroy the Dahisar sets, YashRaj Films has confirmed. A Mid-Day report quoted a source as saying, The head honchos of Yash Raj Films had kept the set standing over the past two months, hoping that the situation would improve soon. However, with the rains only weeks away, it doesnt seem feasible to retain the set any longer. The makers are currently procuring necessary permission to have it pulled down. Akshay had filmed a major portion of the Chandraprakash Dwivedi-directed drama at the Dahisar set before the lockdown was announced, but some crucial sequences have yet to be shot. According to YashRaj, the sequences will now be shot at an indoor set, once filming is allowed to resume. Two sets were erected at Dahisar, according to the report. One was a palace and the other an arena in which an action sequence was supposed to be filmed. Also read: Akshay Kumar, R Balki shoot for Covid-19 awareness campaign at Mumbai studio, use all precautions. See pics Prithviraj was supposed to release around Diwali this year, with beauty queen Manushi Chhillar making her film debut opposite Akshay. Another of his films, Sooryavanshi, was ready for release in March, but was delayed. The actors Laxxmi Bomb is rumoured to be headed directly to a streaming platform. It was recently reported that Akshay filmed a Covid-19 awareness campaign at a Mumbai studio with director R Balki, having taken all the necessary precautions, including wearing masks and working with minimal crew. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Given the governments proposed spending cuts for overseas business trips and conferences, Vietnam should quickly adopting online investment promotion. Online investment promotion lines up perfectly with Industry 4.0 trends The prime minister is expected to enact a draft resolution this week on tasks and solutions to resolve difficulties for production and business, promoting disbursement of public investment capital, and ensuring social safety in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Under the resolution, expenditure on overseas business trips and conferences for the remainder of 2020 must be halved. The proposal would apply to ministries and central and local governments, excluding the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Health. It is estimated that this cost reduction will save tens of millions of US dollars for the state each year since ministries and local governments organise hundreds of business trips a year for experts and officials, mostly funded by the state budget. The prime ministers new order is a chance for the development of online investment promotion, which has become a trend among ministries and localities, and even businesses. According to Shirakawa Satoko, a representative from Japanese market of rental service factory provider, Kizuna JV Corporation, Japanese businesses and companies from English-speaking countries are continuing to explore the financing environment in Vietnam in general and Kizunas newly-built factories in particular via online methods. The current situation has thoroughly changed the working and operating methods of businesses. Numerous investors have plans to visit Kizuna workshops when international flights are reopened, Satoko said. Although this method will not fully replace traditional venues due to the specific characteristics of the industrial real estate business, Kizuna will still maintain and upgrade this model as an inevitable trend in the digital transformation era. Online investment promotion is not a new concept. Kizuna had already built its own hub, which is an online tool with e-library, e-business matching, and e-planning systems. Furthermore, it is also completing an e-serviced tool to help existing business partners register to use the supporting service and evaluate the service quality of workshops. This strategy is being widely utilised during the ongoing pandemic, in which the government implemented social distancing and has suspended international flights, thus freezing all direct investment promotion programmes. According to statistics from investment consultancy IPA Vietnam, at present the traffic on the companys website is more than four million. In the pandemic period, daily traffic to its website doubled and tripled compared to six months back, with an average of 3,000-3,500 visitors per day. Nguyen Dinh Nam, founder and CEO of IPA Vietnam, told VIR that the company has received around 25 emails asking for introduction to their products on the companys website and several additional emails seeking support for their investment projects. Connections between the company and partners have been carried out via email or online meetings on Skype. As of now, two business teams from Hong Kong and South Korea, as well as 20 others from Southeast Asia and Europe have expressed desire to work with IPA to support their investment projects in Vietnam, one of which is a UK technology group with a plan to develop a data centre, perhaps in Hanoi, in early 2021, Nam said. Cities and provinces are also making an effort to create friendly online channels for foreign investors. The northeastern province of Quang Ninh is an example, with its investment promotion agency providing updated information on opportunities and policies on its website in Vietnamese, English, Japanese, and South Korean. Furthermore, it posts videos to introduce the location as well as the business environment to potential investors. The central province of Phu Yen has been working on these models for a couple of years. Previously in 2018, a large number of investors were present at the assembly room of Phu Yen Peoples Committee for a web chat with VIR and readers about the provinces socio-economic development. It marked the initial step in connecting the mass media with Phu Yens investment-seeking journey, offering a new direction for the local investment promotion in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, a series of industrial park developers including Deep C, Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation, and BW Industrial Development JSC as well as agencies in such cities as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho are making efforts to enhance communication links to promote the image of Vietnam around the globe. Local businesses are also being proactive in arranging capital for new promotion channels. Agencies in cities and provinces will have to allocate part of their budgets for these upgrades. However, it is still much cheaper and more effective compared to organising offline events abroad. Every year, agencies in cities and provinces organise hundreds of investment promotion trips overseas with an average expenditure of VND1 billion ($43,478) per trip, said Phan Huu Thang, former director of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), and senior director of GIBC. They should use the money to invest in online investment promotion programmes and on-spot promotion events. These changes not only save time and expenditures for localities but also improve efficiency. Thang added that it is necessary to establish close co-operation between state agencies led by the MPI, as well as other relevant agencies across the country in order to avoid competition and duplication. Especially, it is urgent to build mechanisms for these activities in order to ensure transparency and avoid staff favouritism and coupling with close relationships to enjoy private benefits, Thang said. Last year the MPI, in collaboration with the Korea International Co-operation Agency, held the launching ceremony for a project on the development of the national investment information system (NIIS) for the private sector. The project aims to build data on foreign investment in Vietnam and overseas investment, to serve as the foundation for the formulation of investment policies. Moreover, it will integrate and share data with other national information systems and develop searching tools and provide information for investors and businesses about investment and business in Vietnam. The project is expected to contribute significantly to improving the investment and business climate, strengthening transparency, as well as attracting more foreign investors to Vietnam. VIR Kim Oanh Four Minneapolis police officers were fired Tuesday, authorities said, amid protests and outrage after a viral video showed one of them kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man who cried that he could not breathe and later died. A bystander's video of the incident on the city's south captured George Floyd telling the officers "I cannot breathe" as he is pinned to the ground, and as an increasingly distraught crowd of onlookers pleads with the officer to move his knee. The officers involved in the incident have not been identified, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, announced Tuesday afternoon that their employment had been terminated. "It is the right decision for our city, the right decision for our community. It is the right decision for the Minneapolis Police Department," Frey said at a news conference with Police Chief Medaria Arradondo. "We've stated our values, and ultimately we need to live by them." The Minneapolis Police Department originally said Floyd, who was stopped Monday night on a report of a forgery, had "physically resisted officers." In a Tuesday interview with local outlet North News, Frey said, "it became clear that the original statement was not accurate." Arradondo said during the news conference that he had decided to ask the FBI to investigate after receiving "additional information" about the incident from a community source, but he declined to elaborate. Calling in the FBI was "the very clear and obvious choice when you watch the footage provided in the civilian video," Frey said in the North News interview. "For five minutes we watched as a white officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man who was helpless," the mayor said. "For five whole minutes. This was not a matter of a split-second poor decision." The quick dismissals of the officers contrast with several previous high-profile incidents, including the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York. After other deadly encounters between civilians and police, officers involved have often retained their jobs for a time - including the police officer recorded with his arm around Garner's neck, who was fired five years later. Minneapolis-area law enforcement has faced criticism in recent years over its use of force. In a 2016 incident that drew widespread condemnation, an officer with the suburban St. Anthony Police Department shot and killed 32-year-old Philando Castile during a traffic stop, the aftermath of which was streamed live on Facebook. And in 2017, a Minneapolis police officer fatally shot 40-year-old Justine Damond after she called 911 to report a possible assault near her house. Damond's death followed the acquittal of the officer who killed Castile, exacerbating the already tense relations between law enforcement and the community. Floyd's death came amid a national conversation about the rush to judgment of unarmed black men, both by police and civilians. This month, authorities in Georgia arrested two white men after one in February shot and killed a black jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, telling police they believed he was involved in local burglaries. A prosecutor initially argued the actions of the men, father and son Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael, were in accordance with the law. On Monday and Tuesday, social media users were consumed with the story of a white woman, Amy Cooper, who called 911 on a black birdwatcher who asked her to leash her dog in New York's Central Park, telling a dispatcher that he had threatened her life. In Minneapolis on Monday, two police officers approached a parked vehicle in the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South about 8 p.m., according to security footage reviewed by The Washington Post. After a brief struggle with the driver, who appeared to be Floyd, they placed him in handcuffs and sat him against the wall of the Dragon Wok restaurant. Dragon Wok owner Rashad West provided The Post with nearly two hours of footage of the incident. Before police arrived, three people were seen in the footage walking out of the nearby Cup Foods convenience store, and one spoke with the people in the vehicle. Billy Abumayyaleh, whose teenage son works at the market, told The Post that his son "confronted the man about a fake $20 bill" before contacting police. Abumayyaleh said his son tried to intervene when the officer put his knee on Floyd's neck but was stopped by another officer, who pushed him away. Darnella Frazier, who filmed the police encounter with Floyd, was on her way to visit friends when she saw the incident unfolding outside the Cup Foods market. She quickly began recording the encounter in a 10-minute video later shared to Facebook. "When I walked up, he was already on the ground," Frazier said in a different Facebook video. "The cops . . . they was pinning him down by his neck and he was crying. . . . They wasn't trying to take him serious." As more people gathered around the encounter, the man pleaded that his whole body was in pain. Frazier recalled that his face was being pressed so hard against the ground that his nose was bleeding. "You're going to just sit there with your knee on his neck?" one bystander said on the video. Minutes later, the man appeared to be motionless on the ground, his eyes closed and head lying against the road. "Bro, he's not even f------ moving!" one bystander pleaded to police. "Get off of his neck!" Another asked, "Did you kill him?" Later, the unconscious man was loaded onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. Bystanders who remained in front of Cup Foods pointed at the two officers and said the incident would haunt them "for the rest of your life." "The police killed him, bro, right in front of everybody," Frazier said on Facebook. ". . . He was crying, telling them like, 'I can't breathe,' and everything. . . . They killed this man." The case will be separately investigated by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which, according to the Star Tribune, investigates most in-custody deaths. The agency said in a statement that it would present its findings to the county prosecutor's office for review. As it circulated late into the day Tuesday, the video continued to draw denunciations. In neighboring St. Paul, Mayor Melvin Carter, a Democrat tweeted that it was "one of the most vile and heartbreaking images I've ever seen," adding, "This must stop now." Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., described the incident as "yet another horrifying and gut-wrenching instance of an African American man dying." She called for "immediate action," including a thorough outside investigation and accountability for those involved. "Justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country," she said in a statement shared on Twitter. Floyd was a father and a security guard who worked at Conga Latin Bistro and had previously lived in Texas, said Jovanni Thunstrom, the restaurant's owner. He described Floyd as the kind of employee who would go out of his way to help a customer, offering a safe ride home to those who had too much to drink and once helping a woman who locked her keys in her car. "When I heard the news, I saw the video, I couldn't believe it was him," Thunstrom told The Post, calling Floyd a "brother" and a friend. "He was a great person, a great worker. I'm going to miss him." Thunstrom said he could not understand the officers' treatment of Floyd. "They are supposed to serve and protect, but Floyd didn't get either," he said. "He didn't get served or protected. He got choked." Hundreds of people gathered along Chicago Avenue on Tuesday night, standing in the rain for hours at the spot where Floyd had his fatal altercation with police. They waved signs reading "Abolish the Police" and "I Can't Breathe." "Say his name," they chanted again and again. "George Floyd." A large crowd marched to the city's 3rd Precinct police headquarters, where some protesters clashed with officers clad in riot gear. Tear gas was fired to disperse the crowd, according to the Star Tribune. Adding to the tensions were concerns about the novel coronavirus. With cases on the rise, Minneapolis remains under a "safer-at-home" order, but city officials said Tuesday that they would not try to stop protesters from gathering to speak out and express their anger at Floyd's death. At the protest, many wore masks - many distributed by organizers who sought to keep the crowd safe - but there was little effort made to keep healthy distances. "It's scary to come down here in the middle of the pandemic, but how could I stay away? How could any of us stay away?" said Anita Murray, who visited the scene with her 6-year-old daughter. Murray, who is Mexican American, said she felt it was important to bring her daughter to the scene as a lesson about "unfairness in the world." "She's little, but I hope she remembers this," she said. "Hopefully, she will remember this as a turning point for good." - - - The Washington Post's Holly Bailey and Jared Goyette in Minneapolis and Julie Tate and Mark Berman in Washington contributed to this report." Gov. Phil Murphy insisted Tuesday people are still barred from hosting indoor gatherings of more than 10 people because of the coronavirus pandemic and said theres no exemption for houses of worship. His statement comes as the State Police said citations were issued for two services in Clementon and two services in Berlin over the weekend, including one that had more than 100 people, officials said. This is a question of doing it responsibly and doing it at the right time, Murphy said at his regular briefing in Trenton. At least up until now if somebody has more than the amount of gathering capacity that weve got, which is 10 people indoors, and communion is being served, we would ask, respectfully, to not do that, he said. People are allowed to gather outside in groups of up to 25 people as long as they social distance. Also, Murphy said church services could be done from cars. But the governor said people should be responsible and limit close contact, which includes finding new ways to distribute communion. The governor encourages religious institutions to offer religious services, including communion, in safe and responsible ways, Murphy spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro said. Churches in some states have prefilled communion cups to avoid person-to-person contact, for example. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage The news was announced as New Jerseyans experienced a much different Memorial Day weekend, which is typically the unofficial start of the Shore season. Murphy marked an annual Memorial Day tradition Monday of remembering service members who have died by noting some of the states veterans fought in combat, but ultimately succumbed to the pandemic. Over the weekend, Murphy said day-care centers could reopen sooner than later in New Jersey as the state continues to roll back restrictions put in place to blunt the spread of the virus. He also announced on Friday hes signed an executive order allowing public and private recreational campgrounds in the state to reopen. Gatherings of up to 25 people will now be allowed outdoors including for church gatherings and fitness classes as well as for outdoor recreational businesses like charter and fishing boats, driving ranges, and outdoor batting cages, under an executive order Murphy signed. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. ALBANY Sister Mary Ellen Owens had not served lunch to the blind man at the Sacred Heart Church soup kitchen in North Albany in two weeks, ever since his guide dog, a black Lab named Marjean, died. For more than a year, the guide dog led him from the bus stop on Broadway a block away. Now, he was bereft over the loss of his companion and the independence the dog provided. His friend, a blind woman, said he was out of practice using his cane and did not feel comfortable navigating city streets without his beloved Marjean. The coronavirus pandemic had slowed the process of fostering and training guide dogs, creating a backlog and delay for a new dog for the man, his friend said. I get to know the people who come each week and learn about their lives. I miss them and worry about them when they dont show up, said Owens, 69, a Sister of Mercy for 51 years and a retired elementary school principal. For the past two years, she has run food pantries on different days at both St. Marys Church downtown and at Sacred Heart Church, which also offers a soup kitchen each Wednesday. Before the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, the Friendship Table at Sacred Heart consisted of a hot meal cooked and served by volunteers on china plates with silverware and tablecloths in the church auditorium -- infused with a sense of dignity and service. The clients filled a dozen round tables, six to a table, and would linger after their meal was finished to share stories. They were in no rush to leave and lingered over dessert and a second cup of coffee. After finishing their meals, some seniors whiled away the afternoon by playing cards. Now, to slow the spread of COVID-19, there is no more Friendship Table. Volunteers wear face masks and latex gloves and keep at least six feet apart. On a recent day, they filled 70 box lunches for takeout with a grilled chicken sandwich, cooked peas, Goldfish crackers, fruit cup and juice boxes. It is still served with love, just at a proper social distance. Owens often repeats her pandemic mantra: Life has changed, not ended. Well do whatever is necessary, but I miss seeing the people at the kitchen door, saying thank you for their meal, said Kathy Purello, 70, of Guilderland, a mother of seven and grandmother of six. She has been the volunteer cook for the Friendship Table for the past six years after retiring from running the school lunch program at St. Teresa of Avila Elementary School for 20 years. I can tell the people really miss their social hour because they loved that connection over a meal each week. It was their community, said volunteer Mary Bousquet, 60, of Rensselaer. This is my favorite part, Owens said, as she pushed a cart stacked with box lunches up a ramp and out onto the sun-splashed sidewalk. It was 11:30 a.m. and eight people had lined up early socially distanced and wearing face masks for the meal. There is a community that has taken root here, a place of welcome for people often shunned by society and broken by loneliness and loss; addiction and disease; poverty and unemployment; mental illness and lifes grinding hardships. The numbers have risen sharply during the coronavirus pandemic. There are grandmothers rearing young children; refugee families from war-torn countries; low-wage workers who lost their jobs in the pandemic; homeless people who appreciate new socks and underwear tucked into their bag of food. Those in need find their way here to St. Marys and Sacred Heart for sustenance and companionship, and perhaps a few moments of grace. They come to be in the presence of a woman who has dedicated her life to works of mercy. For more stories and to share yours about people helping during the pandemic, join our Facebook group. Sister Mary Ellen is out here whether its rain or shine. Shes friendly and upbeat no matter what, said Marilyn, one of the regulars at Sacred Heart. She has such a caring way about her. Shes wonderful and she works very hard, even though shes no spring chicken, said Nancy, a retired school bus driver who carried her lunch to a shaded bench in a pocket park across the street. She was joined by a friend, another senior woman. They wore straw hats and ate slowly. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Theyre my picnickers, Owens said, as two other women sat on the stone steps of the church and chatted over bites of grilled chicken. Owens rises at 5:15 a.m. and starts each day with morning prayers. I ask God to give me strength and to watch over all these vulnerable people I see each day, she said. She offers a special devotion to the founder of her religious order, Catherine McCauley, an Irish-Catholic lay woman who ministered to the poor in the streets of Dublin beginning in the 1820s. She later entered the sisterhood and established the Sisters of Mercy in 1831. I pray to Catherine, who walked the streets of Dublin to serve the poor. I ask her to be with me as I walk the streets of Albany to serve the needy, said Owens, the youngest of five children. She grew up in Rensselaer. Her mother was a homemaker and her father worked as a Rensselaer firefighter. He took a second job as a night shift pressman at the Times Union and the Daily Gazette to pay for a parochial school education for all five kids. For every story of misfortune brought about by the pandemic, Owens has witnessed a counterweight: random acts of kindness and an abundance of goodness. A monthly donation of non-perishable food more than doubled in May courtesy of parishioners of St. Pius X in Loudonville. More than 75 cars filled with food items were unloaded by four teenaged volunteers. Tables in the Sacred Heart auditorium were stacked high with packages of pasta, boxes of cereal, cans of soup, boxes of granola bars, cases of bottled water and juice. They also received donations of CDTA bus passes and gift cards to McDonalds. The generosity has been overwhelming, Owens said. A couple Sisters of Mercy from across the country sent me checks. I just burst into tears. Our volunteers are so committed, too. They keep me going. Near the end of the lunch period, the blind man moved slowly up the sidewalk from the bus stop. He held tightly to the arm of his friend, a blind woman who clutched the harness of her guide dog, a black Lab named Licorice, who led the way. Welcome back, Ken, Owens said. We missed you. Paul Grondahl is director of the Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former TimesUnion reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com There were no hugs or high fives, but buzz and chatter were plentiful among the year 11 and 12 students of Mount Alexander College on Tuesday. Brenton Henry wore a face mask for his first day back at Mount Alexander College. Credit:Jason South Returning to school for the first time in two months, friends Eloise Klassen, Haniyah Abdousaid and Kyla Bokelunde were all pleased to be back, for different reasons. Eloise said she was excited to see her friends, and even her teachers. Haniyah had a lot of questions for her teachers about things that she wasnt able to clarify while learning from home. Somrita Ghosh By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Steep bills being charged by private hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients have been met with severe backlash from the relatives and kin of the admitted. Some took to Twitter to express their difficulties in paying the large amounts being charged. The Morning Standard spoke to two such families whose kin were admitted to Max Hospital in the national capital. The families shared their experience and hiccups in terms of paying the bills. Surender Gaur, whose brother was admitted at the same hospital, added that they were charged with Rs 4.08 lakh of which he is yet to pay around Rs 30,000. They had charged us Rs 70,900 just for PPE kits They also charged a hefty fee on per day visit of a specialised doctor who hardly visited seven times, whereas in the bill it shows 22 times. Per day charge was said to be Rs 30,000 and the two days he was admitted to the private ward we were charged Rs 55,000. The senior doctor whose scheduled visit has been mentioned in the bill never showed up. It was a junior doctor who visited, he stated. The bill which was seen by the reporter indicated that the per-day charge of a PPE kit varied between Rs 4,300 and Rs 8,900. The billing slip of another patient also showed that the hospital charged Rs 8,900 per day for a single PPE kit. Surender added that the authorities had offered him a discount on the total billing when he questioned the breakup for nine days his brother was admitted. I am associated with the Delhi Police and had dialled the helpline number when the administration was not giving me any logical reasoning behind the billing procedure. Probably thats why they offered me a discount, which I refused to accept. I have asked for a proper bill, Surender noted. Pritam Singh, a retired government employee whose wife, aged 53, was admitted on May 6, said that the hospital authorities did not alert him about the hospital fees and charges during the time of admission. There was no clarity on what the charges would be per day. My wife succumbed to the virus as she was a dialysis patient on May 11. The hospital asked for Rs 80,000 per day just for a ventilator. The bill came to around Rs 4 lakh and I had to pay in cash because thats what they were accepting. Whatever the bill stated, we paid, there was no other option, Singh added. The reporter tried seeking a response from the hospital authorities multiple times to no avail. A government health department official had no response when he was asked if there is any plan on introducing a price cap on Covid treatment at private hospitals. A models social media accounts have been targeted by trolls after its presumed she died in a fiery plane crash. Zara Abid, 28, was on board a plane which crashed in Pakistans city of Karachi on Friday, the BBC reported. In total, 97 people on board the Pakistan International Airlines plane, which crashed in a busy neighbourhood destroying residential properties, died. There were only two survivors. Ms Abid, a Pakistani model and actor, is presumed to be dead as her name was not on the list of survivors, the health department told The Express Tribune. But it hasnt stopped vile trolls attacking her social media accounts which have since been taken down. In conservative Pakistani society, women in the public eye are often targeted on social media for being immoral or not following the strict guidelines of Islamic practices. It's believed Zara Abid, 28, died in a plane crash. Source: Instagram/ Zara Abid One man on Twitter referred to the model as a Pakistans porn star. "Allah Pak doesn't like those women who are showing their body parts to everyone and jannat (heaven) is only for pure men and pure women, another man tweeted. However, not everyone was without sympathy over the models reported death. They dont know your story, they have never walked in your shoes. Im sure you are in a better place. May Allah bless you with the highest place in Jannah, one woman tweeted. Ms Abid has been attacked by trolls online. Source: Instagram/ Zara Abid More than two dozen homes were damaged as the airliner roared in, leaving a tangle of severed electric cables and exposed rebar. A broken wing rested against the side of a home, an engine on the ground nearby. The jet fuel set the wreckage ablaze, along with homes and vehicles, sending black smoke into the sky, a Reuters witness said. Wreckage of the plane sits in a Karachi street. Source: AAP Crowds rushed to the site relatives searching for loved ones, rescue workers and the curious. Scores of ambulances and fire engines jammed the narrow, debris-cluttered streets. One rescue worker told Reuters two bodies were found with oxygen masks on. Many bodies pulled from the wreckage were charred beyond recognition. Story continues The airline's chief executive said on Friday the last message from the pilot indicated a technical problem. A team from Airbus was due to arrive to investigate, a PIA spokesman said. with Reuters Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Delilah Fishburne is the teenage daughter of the famous American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, Laurence Fishburne, and Cuban-American movie actress Gina Torres. Delilah started making headlines on websites and magazines even before she was born, thanks to her multimillionaire Emmy-winning father. Image: veryceleb.com Source: UGC Laurence's daughter was born in the United States in June 2007. The 13-year-old is of Afro-American ethnicity from her paternal side with multiracial Cuban roots from her mother. Her parents divorced in 2017 after almost 15 years of marriage. Laurence Fishburne and Delilah Fishburne have occasionally appeared together in movies. She is also the granddaughter of Laurence John Fishburne, Jr., a juvenile corrections officer and Hattie Bell Crawford, junior high school science and mathematics teacher. Her father is a graduate of Lincoln Square Academy located in New York. Below are some other quick facts about Laurence' daughter; 1. Delilahs parents are Laurence Fishburne and Gina Torres Image: pinterest.com, @Aneshia Source: UGC Delilah was born to former Hollywood power couple Laurence Fishburne and Gina Torres. Laurence has been in the movie industry since 1968 after he made his first appearance in the romantic American drama series, "One Life to Live." Over the years, Laurence has landed significant roles in various Hollywood projects. He is also among the most celebrated American actor best accredited for the science fiction movie, "The Matrix Trilogy" in which he portrayed an iconic role of Morpheus. Her mother, Gina Torres, is equally famous. She emerged into the public scene as Brenda in a romantic comedy movie "I Think I Love My Wife" alongside Chris Rock. The couple has also acted in several projects together. Laurence and Gina had tied the knot at New Yorks The Cloisters Museum in an extravagant event. The ceremony was conducted on 22nd September 2002 after some years of a secret romantic affair. However, after almost 15 years, the two confirmed their divorce on 2nd November 2017 due to some misunderstanding. The court then finalized their divorce on 11th May 2018. READ ALSO: What happened to Montana Fishburne, Laurence Fishburne's daughter? 2. Gina Torres' daughter Delilah Fishburne birthday is on 15th June On 8th January 2007, her fathers spokesman, Alan Nierob, announced that the pair were expecting their first child together. Laurence and his estranged wife decided to give their bundle of joy little media attention so that she could enjoy a normal life, just like every other child. For this reason, the couple did not reveal her exact date of birth. However, sources show that she was born on 15th June 2007. She celebrates her birthday every year. 3. Delilahs siblings Delilah has two elder half-siblings, a model sister Montana, and a brother, Langston from her fathers ex-wife Hajna O. Moss. Her sister Montana is a Playboy model and has also graced the cover of Black Men Magazine. 4. Delilah Fishburne is not disabled Most people have been asking, does Delilah Fishburne have special needs? As of 2020, there is no confirmed information about Delilah Fishburne illness. She is currently living with her mother and studying in an elementary school. There are also no reports about Delilah Fishburne's disability. 5. Delilah comes from a rich family She is only 13 years old with no source of income, and thus it is hard getting the actual net worth. Nonetheless, her celebrity father Laurence has an estimated net worth of $20 million, and her actress mother Gina Torres net worth is about $5 million. Looking at her parents' enormous net worth, Delilah is a multimillionaire by birth, and she is likely to inherit a colossal amount of fortune. 6. Delilah Fishburne is single Image: sandrarose.com Source: UGC Laurence Fishburne daughter Delilah is currently single and has no boyfriend. She is still a child and, therefore, it's a bit early to talk about her a relationship. READ ALSO: Dwayne The Rock Johnsons daughter Simone signs with WWE Delilah Fishburne craved a place in the stories of many news websites and magazines since she was young. This is attributed to the accomplishment and global reputation of her dad, who is an A-listed Hollywood star. Her parents have been trying to keep her away from public scrutiny. Most of her details, including education and body measurements, are shrouded in secrecy. READ ALSO: What happened to Tila Tequila? Latest updates in 2020 Source: TUKO.co.ke Minneapolis: Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of a black man who died in police custody were fired on Tuesday, US time, hours after a bystander's video provoked widespread outrage with footage that showed the man pleading he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted about the firings, saying "This is the right call". The man's death on Monday night after he struggled with officers is under investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement authorities. It immediately drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after he was placed in a choke hold by police and pleaded for his life saying he could not breathe. Frey apologised to the black community early on Tuesday in a post on his Facebook page. Two New Mexico students have made the 56th class of U.S. Presidential Scholars, which is honoring 161 high school seniors across the country for their accomplishments. They are Mireya Cosima Sanchez-Maes of Mayfield High School in Las Cruces and Zachary J. Auster of Albuquerque Academy. It is my privilege to congratulate the Presidential Scholars Class of 2020 on their outstanding academic achievement, community service, and leadership, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement. These exemplary young people have excelled inside the classroom and out, she said. And, while they are facing unprecedented challenges as they graduate from high school into a world that looks much different than it did just a few months ago, their determination, resilience, and commitment to excellence will serve them well as they pursue their next steps. A White House commission selects the students annually based on academic success, artistic and technical excellence, essays, evaluations and transcripts, as well as evidence of community service and leadership, organizers said in a news release. More than 5,300 candidates were ruled eligible for this years program, established in 1964. Two are chosen from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and U.S. families living abroad, as well as 15 are chosen at-large, plus 20 in the arts and 20 more in career and technical education, according to a news release. The 2020 class will be recognized for their outstanding achievements this summer, as public health circumstances permit, organizers said. A complete list is available at http://www.ed.gov/psp. We welcome suggestions for the daily Bright Spot. Send to newsroom@abqjournal.com. New Delhi, May 26 : The Indian Council of Medical Research on Tuesday said it will continue using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) medicine as prophylaxis for COVID-19 disease. Speaking at a press conference, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General (DG) of the ICMR, told the media that the Council found the drug very effective and having less side effects for prophylaxis consumption. The clinical trial of the HCQ on COVID-19 patients was suspended by the World Health Organisation on Monday. Talking about the issue and latest guidelines about HCQ in which its usage was widened, Dr Bhargava said, "COVID-19 is an evolving field. We don't know which medicines are working and which are not. There are lots of drugs that have been repurposed for use in COVID whether prophylaxis or as treatment. HCQ is a very old anti-malarial drug that was being widely used and it continues to be widely used. It is safer." Bhargava said the biological plausibility of HCQ was also supporting that it is possibly an antiviral drug. "We did some invitro study in labs and found that it has antiviral properties. This drug became suddenly popular when the American government also started using it and they got-fast track approval or emergency use authorisation. We also thought that it may be a useful drug for prevention of COVID." The DG said taking the biological plausibility, in vitro data and safety level of the drug, the ICMR had recommended it for empiric use under strict medical supervision about one-and-a-half months ago. "We also conducted a study on it. During these 6 weeks, we got data of observational studies -- case control studies and observational studies -- in different cohorts in India." The studies were done at AIIMS, ICMR, and also in three public hospitals in Delhi. Bhargave, however, said that randomized trial of the drug was not possible. "Looking at the data of these studies, we found that it may be working and without major side effects except nausea, vomiting and palpitations occasionally as per the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission results of all people taking HCQ are being monitored," said Bhargava. "It should be continued when there is no harm and some benefit may be there. We have clearly advised that it should be taken with food and not empty stomach. We also advised that we need to do one ECG during its use as prophylaxis. "Looking at the risk benefits, we have found that our frontline workers should be given it, but they must use PPE. Very soon a study will be published on this," said Bhargava. By IANS NEW DELHI: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that calling him a 'dramebaaz' is Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's view, adding that he made the short documentary of the migrant workers walking to highlight their pain and sufferings. Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, Rahul Gandhi said, "My motive was only to speak to poor, labourers and what they have in their heart." He said to be true, "I get to learn from their knowledge". I keep on helping. And if she gives me permission then I shall carry their luggage and not only of one person but of 10-15 people. My only motive is to help the people of the country." The Congress leader said that he made a short film to "feel the pain of the migrant labourers and listen to their plight. It has a very big impact. They are our strength and future. And if we don't help these people then whose help we will do." Taking a dig at Sitharaman, Rahul Gandhi said "And it is Finance Minister's view (to call me dramebaaz), it is ok, and I thank her. And if she wants me to go to Uttar Pradesh then I shall go on foot and help the others if she gives me the permission." The Congress MP from Kerala's Wayanad was responding to a question over Sitharaman calling him a dramebaaz for meeting the migrant workers in the national capital earlier this month near Sukh Dev flyover in south east Delhi. Sitharaman had referred to the Congress leader meeting migrant workers as 'dramebaazi' during a press conference last week. Rahul Gandhi arranged for the transportation of the migrant workers, who were walking from Haryana to their homes in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi. He also released a 16 minute documentary on Saturday morning including his conversation with the group and demanded that the government transfer Rs 7,500 into the bank accounts of the labourers and farmers. The government owes more than $123million to hundreds of unaware Australians who have unclaimed entitlements. The State Revenue Office has more than a million unclaimed entitlements across Victoria, ranging from as little as $20 all the way up to $994,994 - the biggest single entitlement - which is owed to a Mulgrave woman. The money is made up of share dividends, salaries and wages, proceeds from a sale, or rents and bonds that have been unclaimed for at least 12 months. The State Revenue Office has more than a million unclaimed entitlements across Victoria ranging from as little as $20 all the way up to $994,994 - the biggest single entitlement - which is owed to a Mulgrave woman (stock image) About $412,610 is also awaiting collection from a woman in Brighton East, while another in Ardeer has $259,828 waiting for her. One man from Ivanhoe East as 70 entitlements that have yet to be claimed which come to a total of $16,888. The office also revealed the areas across Greater Melbourne that are owed the largest amount of money from the government. Residents in Richmond are owed $958,894 from 6,234 entitlements and Doncaster are owed $578,609 from 3,168. Footscray residents are owed $433,888 from 2,529 entitlements, Hoppers Crossing with $347,916 from 3,553 and Eltham with $284,951 from 2,562. The areas in regional Victoria owed the most money are Geelong with $2.7 million from 25,137 entitlements, Ballarat with $1.28 million from 11,296 entitlements and Bendigo with $1.1 million from 11,069 entitlements. The money is made up of share dividends, salaries and wages, proceeds from a sale, or rents and bonds that have been unclaimed for at least 12 months (stock image) Treasurer Tim Pallas encouraged all Victorians, businesses and community groups to search the State Revenue Office online database. 'You will know within seconds if you're sitting on an unexpected windfall,' he said in a statement on Monday. Last financial year, the State Revenue Office reunited $16.6 million with its rightful owners. New Delhi: Uber India on Tuesday announced to lay off around 600 full time employees due to impact of the coronavirus crisis. The affected employees would be from across driver and rider support among other functions, President for Uber's India and South Asia businesses, Pradeep Parameswaran, said in a statement. "The impact of COVID-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted," he said. Parameswaran noted that the reductions are part of the previously announced global job cuts this month. "Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now so that we can look to the future with confidence. I want to apologise to departing colleagues and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber, the riders, and the driver partners we serve in India," he said. According to the company, the employees would be paid around 10 weeks of salary, along with medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support. So far, Uber has globally laid off over 6,700 employees. The development comes just days after the OLA announced to lay off 1,400 employees as revenues fell 95 per cent in two months. The President of the University of Limerick, Dr Des Fitzgerald, has announced his intention to step down as President. Staff, students and other stakeholders were informed of the decision by email this Tuesday afternoon. In a statement, UL confirmed that Dr Fitzgerald will end his term later this year and that the Governing Authority of the University will shortly begin an international recruitment process to select a replacement. Dr. Fitzgerald, a medical doctor, says he had taken the decision to resign in the context of Covid-19. Unfortunately this virus will directly impact my ability to serve the university and limit my ability to fully engage once we get our community back onto the campus, he said in a letter sent to the Chancellor of UL, Mary Harney. Dr Des Fitzgerald has announced his plan to step down as President of UL. He has been thanked for his contribution to the University and, in particular, for his leadership in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Read the statement in full here: University Of Limerick (@UL) May 26, 2020 Dr Fitzgerald was appointed as President of UL in late 2016 and commenced his term of office in early 2017. Prior to his appointment, he had held leadership positions in a number of leading academic institutions and was Vice President for Research and Vice President for Health Affairs at UCD. I believe that during my term as President, my colleagues and I have made important progress on key issues including successfully taking the first steps in establishing a campus in the city, developing our healthcare programmes, growing our research output and increasing the Universitys engagement in education globally. We also agreed an ambitious strategic plan for the University which in the context of Covid-19 will require some further review, but which remains an important vision of what UL can become in the years ahead, he said. Dr Fitzgerald added he is proud of the role UL has played during the Covid-19 crisis. I am particularly proud of ULs response to the COVID-19 crisis, in recognising its gravity early, in rapidly and successfully moving online and in contributing to the fight against the pandemic in our community. The Universitys management showed great foresight in moving quickly and the academic and support staff have shown great skill in bringing a difficult year for them and our students to a successful end. In a statement, he warned the Covid-19 crisis would shape the future of the university sector for the next decade and beyond. Covid-19 will force universities across the world to re-examine both their business and academic models. Significant changes and investment will be required to support the sector. He said it was vital that the new government stepped up to the plate to protect the university sector in Ireland as it would play a crucial role in the economys recovery. Dr Fitzgerald says hes confident that with the right support now, the future for UL remains bright. The very existence of UL is testimony to the can-do attitude of the people of the Mid-West region who overcame enormous obstacles to secure its development. That same spirit will be vital in the years to come but I have no doubt the importance of UL to the region and to the broader economy will grow significantly in the years ahead. The Chancellor of the University of Limerick, Mary Harney, has paid tribute to Dr Fitzgerald describing him as a transformational president. I regret that he has had to take this decision as a result of Covid-19. Highlights of his time in office include the very ambitious Strategic Plan (UL@50) which he oversaw together with the fulfilment of a decade long dream to secure a prime city centre site for the university in Limerick and a step change in the delivery of research programmes and an increase in the Universitys research funding. And in recent months, Des led the universitys successful response to the Covid-19 crisis, she said. Politicians and people in a position of authority in Irish society need to lead by example regarding the observation of Covid-19 rules, according to Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, responding to images of the Taoiseach meeting up with friends in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Yesterday, a spokesperson for the office of Leo Varadkar said he was in the park on Sunday with his partner and two friends, in line with public health guidance, and within a safe distance of State lodgings in the park. Speaking to Radio Kerry today, Deputy McDonald says that leaders have a responsibility not to add confusion to existing rules being observed by the public: "I did understand that the advice was not to have picnics. I know they are having picnics. "I just take the general view that for the head of government, for anyone in elected office, y'know, you need to add clarity, and not confusion." A video emerged over the weekend on Twitter of Mr Varadkar meeting friends with his partner Matthew Barrett, in the popular Dublin park. It has not been confirmed when the video was taken. Photos have also emerged on social media of the Taoiseach in the park with his partner and two friends. In a statement, spokesperson for the Taoiseach said: "The Taoiseach was in the Phoenix Park with his partner Matt and two friends on Sunday Afternoon, in line with public health guidance. He was within 5km of the Stewards Lodge, where he is staying during the Covid Emergency." The spokesperson added the Taoiseach was staying at Stewards Lodge as it has secure office and video conferencing facilities. He is paying a nightly fee to stay there. Independent India has occasionally seen a war of words between two neighbouring states over distribution of river water or a blame game over pollution. The novel coronavirus crisis and the migrant workers' issue is seeing a fight of a different kind between the governments of two big distantly located states Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Soon after Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said that it was not time for politics, and that he and others should keep away from it, his close confidante and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana compared Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to Adolf Hitler. Accusing the Uttar Pradesh chief minister of committing atrocities on migrants, Raut said that Adityanath's actions were similar to those Hitler committed against Jews in Germany. The ruling dispensation in Uttar Pradesh hit back sharply on the Thackeray government. The fight is only escalating. In this rhetorical war, the facts have been lost somewhere in between. But one thing is clear: both the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and the Adityanath government are trying to convey a message to their domestic social constituencies that they care for them in times of crisis. As it is, Thackeray is leading an uneasy coalition. There are reports of fresh signs of cracks in the ruling coalition. Besides, the number of COVID-19 positive cases are the highest in Maharashtra. In fact, Maharashtra accounts for one-third of the total number of cases in India. Yogi, on the other hand, is going strong. His latest order that states wanting to employ migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh will have to seek nod of the parent state, has created quite a stir. There is a political angle to that also. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are to take place in January-February 2022, which means that the election process will actually start in November-December next year and the state and political parties will get into the election mood much earlier than that. Along with Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur will also go to the polls around the same time. But no state election gets bigger than the UP election. Besides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an MP from the state, and the BJP rules the state with three-fourth majority. It is believed 2020 would be lost in fighting coronavirus. But the way an incumbent state government fights the novel coronavirus and the measures it comes out with welfare and otherwise for its people would decide the way the electoral wind could blow when polling is held a year later. While issuing a directive that a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh must be registered with the parent state before being hired by other state, the state government has also constituted an employment and social security commission for workers. So far, over 24 lakh migrant workers have returned to Uttar Pradesh. It has been doing a skill mapping of all those who returned to the state, and as on Monday, it released a data skill set of around 15 lakh workers how many of them were mason, plumber, carpenter, IT technician, driver, beauty parlor and saloon workers, paramedics and pharma sector workers, automobile mechanics, etc. The idea is to create a database of its own whereby the states commission would work as a placement agency for various organs of the state and private sector players coming to the state. The purpose is to help workers find employment closer to their home and if some other state wants workers from Uttar Pradesh, it will get the data as well as a ready supply of manpower. Adityanath's office tweeted that Uttar Pradesh is the first state to be mapping the skills of its people, provide them employment and social security. .@UPGovt / , Yogi Adityanath Office (@myogioffice) May 26, 2020 , / , Yogi Adityanath Office (@myogioffice) May 26, 2020 Lofty, idealistic plans, are something easier said than done. But then there are numerous instances when people have kept patience with the government whose intent an purpose seems trustworthy to them. Skill mapping is official. But the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh is unofficially making an estimate of caste and community profile of those returning home. As per those estimates most of the people who have returned home belong to Dalit, Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) and Other Backward Caste groups. Increased support of these communities and caste groups propelled the BJP to power at the Centre in 2014 and 2019, and in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. A senior functionary in the Uttar Pradesh government told Firstpost: This is not about 25 lakh individual but 25 lakh families. Each family would roughly have 4-5 members and that number if translated, say into votes, could be huge. We are doing everything possible to provide relief to them. The COVID-19 crisis has further strengthened chief ministers resolve to take Uttar Pradesh to another level. Since in a democracy, one has to face elections every five years and win popular confidence, an eye on the next election would obviously be there. There is nothing wrong as long as the government of the day is doing everything possible within its command to safeguard interests of its people. (Adds "$" sign in headline) May 26 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX said on Tuesday that it raised $346.2 million in a new round of funding, a day before it launches two American astronauts to the International Space Station. The private rocket company's launch of its first crewed mission on Wednesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will put an end to the U.S. space agency's nine-year hiatus in human spaceflight. The launch, which will be attended by President Donald Trump, is crucial for Musk, SpaceX and NASA. A successful flight will mark a milestone in the quest to produce reusable spacecraft that can make space travel more affordable. Musk is the founder and chief executive officer of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Inc. Including the latest round, the company has raised more than $567 million and is valued at about $36 billion, according to a CNBC report. (Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva) Siliguri (West Bengal) [India], May 25 (ANI): The Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, were seen exchanging sweets with their Bangladeshi counterparts Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Fulbari border on Monday. "We have good relations with Bangladesh and we share a very special bond with them. As a tradition, we offer sweets to them on the occasion of Eid," said SK Paul of 51 Battalion of BSF, while speaking to ANI. Eid-ul-Fitr marks the conclusion of the holy month of Ramzan, which is a month of fasting and prayer for the Muslim community. This year, Eid is being celebrated amid the extended nationwide lockdown enforced to contain the spread of COVID-19. (ANI) BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kyowa Kirin, Inc., an affiliate of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. (Kyowa Kirin, TSE: 4151) a global specialty pharmaceutical company, today announces the presentation of results from a post hoc pooled analysis assessing the impact of baseline dyskinesia (pre-existing dyskinesia before istradefylline treatment) on the safety and efficacy of NOURIANZ (istradefylline) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experiencing "OFF" episodes or "OFF" time. Dyskinesia is recognized as the most frequent adverse reaction in istradefylline treatment.1 The findings showed patients had reductions in "OFF" time and increases in "ON" time without troublesome dyskinesia regardless of the presence of dyskinesia at baseline. Patients with baseline dyskinesia before starting NOURIANZ were more likely to experience dyskinesia as an adverse event (AE) during treatment than those who did not have dyskinesia at baseline, but both groups on NOURIANZ experienced a reduction in "OFF" time and an increase in "ON" time without troublesome dyskinesia. These findings were presented during the 6th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN). The pooled analysis examined subgroup data from 2,719 patients with PD taking levodopa-containing products with or without other anti-PD medications who experienced "OFF" episodes, either with baseline dyskinesia (+BL-dyskinesia) or without baseline dyskinesia (BL-dyskinesia) prior to the addition of istradefylline or placebo to their treatment regimen. Data were pooled from eight randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical studies. In the studies, patients received a daily 20mg or 40mg dose of istradefylline or a placebo for 12 or 16 weeks. The primary endpoint for these trials was change in "OFF" time as reported in patient-completed diaries, with AEs recorded throughout.2 Primary analyses from these studies showed that the use of istradefylline as an adjunctive treatment to levodopa/carbidopa in adult patients with PD experiencing "OFF" episodes was associated with a decrease in "OFF" time and an increase in "ON" time without troublesome dyskinesia.1 Results from the post hoc subanalysis of the eight pooled studies demonstrated that dyskinesia was reported by more patients as an AE during the trials by patients with baseline dyskinesia versus patients without baseline dyskinesia, regardless of whether they received istradefylline or placebo. Dyskinesia as an AE during the studies was reported by 14.1%, 24.7% and 25.9% of patients with baseline dyskinesia (+BL-dyskinesia) receiving a placebo or 20 mg/day or 40 mg/day of istradefylline, respectively, versus 3.5%, 4.4% and 8.4% of patients without baseline dyskinesia, respectively. Reduction in "OFF" time and increase in "ON" time without troublesome dyskinesia were greater with istradefylline than with placebo, which was consistent with previous studies.2 "Uncontrolled, involuntary movements commonly known as dyskinesia can be very troublesome in patients with PD, especially those patients who experience 'OFF' episodes," said Dr. Stuart Isaacson, MD, Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Boca Raton, Florida. "The results being presented at EAN suggest that dyskinesia is observed more often in patients with baseline dyskinesia before istradefylline was added to the treatment regimen and that the overall efficacy of istradefylline was not affected by patients' baseline status. We believe these data can be helpful to physicians as they make treatment decisions and may provide insight into the appropriate use of NOURIANZ in the treatment of 'OFF' time in patients with PD." While these data provide further information, physicians should continue to monitor patients for dyskinesia or exacerbation of existing dyskinesia during NOURIANZ treatment. The most common adverse reactions with an incidence 5% and occurring more frequently than with placebo were dyskinesia (15%, 17%, and 8%), dizziness (3%, 6%, and 4%), constipation (5%, 6%, and 3%), nausea (4%, 6%, and 5%), hallucination (2%, 6%, and 3%), and insomnia (1%, 6%, and 4%) for NOURIANZ 20 mg, 40 mg, and placebo, respectively. NOURIANZ is the first and only adenosine A 2A receptor antagonist approved in the U.S. as an adjunctive or "add on" treatment to levodopa/carbidopa in adult patients with PD experiencing "OFF" episodes.3 Parkinson's disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement and occurs when cells in the brain, which produce the chemical dopamine, become damaged or die. Dopamine signaling is an important component of the pathways in the brain that control movement.4 In patients with PD, dopamine loss is often treated with levodopa/carbidopa or other medicines that help regulate dopamine.5 Over time and as the disease progresses, these treatments may become less effective, and symptoms return before it's time for the next dose of medicine. These periods when symptoms return are known as "OFF" episodes or "OFF" time.6 Please see NOURIANZ indication and Important Safety Information below. Indication NOURIANZ (istradefylline) is an adenosine receptor antagonist indicated as adjunctive treatment to levodopa/carbidopa in adult patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experiencing "OFF" episodes. Important Safety Information Warnings and Precautions Dyskinesia: NOURIANZ in combination with levodopa may cause dyskinesia or exacerbate pre-existing dyskinesia. In controlled clinical trials (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 4), the incidence of dyskinesia was 15% for NOURIANZ 20 mg, 17% for NOURIANZ 40 mg, and 8% for placebo, in combination with levodopa. One percent of patients treated with either NOURIANZ 20 mg or 40 mg discontinued treatment because of dyskinesia, compared to 0% for placebo. Hallucinations / Psychotic Behavior: Because of the potential risk of exacerbating psychosis, patients with a major psychotic disorder should not be treated with NOURIANZ. Consider dosage reduction or discontinuation if a patient develops hallucinations or psychotic behaviors while taking NOURIANZ. In controlled trials (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 4), the incidence of hallucinations was 2% for NOURIANZ 20 mg, 6% for NOURIANZ 40 mg, and 3% for placebo. In patients treated with NOURIANZ 40 mg, 1% discontinued because of hallucinations, compared to 0% for placebo and 0% for patients treated with NOURIANZ 20 mg. Impulse Control / Compulsive Behaviors: Patients treated with NOURIANZ and one or more medication(s) for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (including levodopa) may experience intense urges to gamble, increased sexual urges, intense urges to spend money, binge or compulsive eating, and/or other intense urges, and the inability to control these urges. In clinical trials, 1 patient treated with NOURIANZ 40 mg was reported to have impulse control disorder, compared to no patient on NOURIANZ 20 mg or placebo. Drug Interactions The maximum recommended dosage in patients taking strong CYP3A4 inhibitors is 20 mg once daily. Avoid use of NOURIANZ with strong CYP3A4 inducers. Specific Populations Pregnancy: Based on animal data, may cause fetal harm. Hepatic impairment: The maximum recommended dosage of NOURIANZ in patients with moderate hepatic impairment is 20 mg once daily. Avoid use in patients with severe hepatic impairment. Adverse Reactions The most common adverse reactions with an incidence 5% and occurring more frequently than with placebo were dyskinesia (15%, 17%, and 8%), dizziness (3%, 6%, and 4%), constipation (5%, 6%, and 3%), nausea (4%, 6%, and 5%), hallucination (2%, 6%, and 3%), and insomnia (1%, 6%, and 4%) for NOURIANZ 20 mg, 40 mg, and placebo, respectively. You are encouraged to report suspected adverse reactions to Kyowa Kirin, Inc. at 1-844-768-3544 or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch. Please see Nourianz Full Prescribing Information, here. About Kyowa Kirin Kyowa Kirin commits to innovative drug discovery driven by state-of-the-art technologies. Kyowa Kirin focuses on creating new value in four therapeutic areas: nephrology, oncology, immunology/allergy and neurology. Under the Kyowa Kirin brand, the employees from 36 group companies across North America, Europe and Asia/Oceania unite to champion the interests of patients and their caregivers in discovering solutions wherever there are unmet medical needs. Since 2018, the company has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for three first-in-class medicines. You can learn more about the business of Kyowa Kirin at https://www.kyowakirin.com. About NOURIANZ (istradefylline) tablet NOURIANZ is an orally administered, selective adenosine A 2A receptor antagonist approved in the U.S. for adjunctive treatment to levodopa/carbidopa in adult patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experiencing "OFF" episodes. The product has been marketed in Japan under the brand name NOURIAST since May 30, 2013. In Japan, NOURIAST is indicated for the improvement of the "wearing-off" phenomenon in patients with Parkinson's disease on levodopa-containing preparations. About Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor symptoms such as tremors, rigidity, slow movement and postural instability. It is thought to be caused by progressive degeneration associated with decreased levels of dopamine in certain parts of the brain, i.e., the substantia nigra and striatum. NOURIANZ and NOURIAST are trademarks of Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd. 1 NOURIANZ (istradefylline) Prescribing Information [Package Insert]. Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.; 2019. 2 Isaacson SH, Hattori N, Truong D, et al. Impact of Baseline Dyskinesia on the Safety and Efficacy of Istradefylline, an Adenosine A2A Receptor Antagonist, in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: a Pooled Analysis of 8 Clinical Studies. Data presented at: 6th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology: May 23-26, 2020; Virtual. 3 FDA approves new add-on drug to treat off episodes in adults with Parkinson's disease. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2019). https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-new-add-drug-treat-episodes-adults-parkinsons-disease. Accessed April 2020. 4 Parkinson's Disease. National Institute on Aging. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/parkinsons-disease. Accessed April 2020. 5 Schapira AH, Emre M, Jenner P, Poewe W. Levodopa in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Eur J Neurol. 2009;16:982989. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2009.02697.x. 6 Hickey P, Stacy M. Available and emerging treatments for Parkinson's disease: a review. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2011;5:241-254. doi: 10.2147/DDDT.S11836 Contact: Lauren Walrath, Senior Director, Public Affairs North America, [email protected] SOURCE Kyowa Kirin, Inc. Related Links https://www.kyowakirin.com Rose McGowan took to Twitter on Sunday to slam a New York Times journalist over questions the reporter allegedly sent Joe Biden's accuser, Tara Reade. The actress accused Lisa Lerer - who is also a political analyst for CNN - and the publication of 'twisting' the public's mind by asking a series of questions that ranged in topic and covered several moments in Reade's life. 'New York Times 'journalist' sent these questions to Joe Biden's accuser, Tara Reade,' McGowan said in tweet. 'The public needs to see how @llerer and the #NYT plan on twisting their minds. Now you can all see their tactics & how far they will go.' Rose McGowan accused Lisa Lerer - who is also a political analyst for CNN - and the publication of 'twisting' the publics mind by asking a series of questions to Tara Reade 'New York Times 'journalist' sent these questions to Joe Biden's accuser, Tara Reade,' McGowan said in tweet. 'The public needs to see how @llerer and the #NYT plan on twisting their minds. Now you can all see their tactics & how far they will go' Included in the tweet were a series of questions allegedly sent to Reade, though it is unclear how they came in McGowan's possession. Biden has denied all allegations brought forth by the woman. Several of the questions ask her about various moves across the country she made, whether they be for career endeavors or for relationship problems. Reade was allegedly asked to describe the type of activism her mother participated in and also asked if a testimony from her ex-husband Ted about her mother hitting her, was accurate. Another question asked what her application process was like for Julliard, while another asked for her to provide a date when she was at Pasadena City Community City College. Included in the tweet were a series of questions allegedly sent to Reade, though it is unclear how they came in McGowan's possession. Biden has denied all allegations brought forth by the woman Several of the questions are specifically about her ex-husband Ted Dronen while others asked about other relationships she was in Several of the questions are specifically about her ex-husband Ted Dronen while others asked about other relationships she was in. Numerous questions asked for details about Reade's financial problems, including whether she struggled to make payments to friends for a car they let her use. One questions even asked her to respond to allegations from landlords about her leaving property in disarray and owing them money. In a different question, Lerer would tell Reade that several people told her that the woman had been dating a Russian man online in the spring of 2019. Lerer asked for Reade to confirm that information. In a different question, Lerer would tell Reade that several people told her that the woman had been dating a Russian man online in the spring of 2019. Lerer asked for Reade to confirm that information She followed that question up with one about three Russian individuals Reade (pictured in the tweet) followed on Quora, asking how she came to know of them She followed that question up with one about three Russian individuals Reade followed on Quora, asking how she came to know of them. 'On Quora, you followed three Russian individuals Andrey Davydov, Dima Vorobiev and Alex Korolev,' Lerer allegedly said. 'How was it that you came to know of them and follow them?' Lerer has not addressed the legitimacy of the questions on Twitter but there were those who slammed her for them. 'This whole thing from the @NYTimes is disgusting but the last questions - involving interrogating Tara Reade about whether she committed the crime of "following three Russian individuals on Quora" and demanding an explanation - is just deranged,' declared The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald. Even as the state and the Union railway ministry continued to blame each other over the issue of Shramik Special trains for migrants, 27 trains left from various stations across Maharashtra until Tuesday evening with migrant workers to their hometowns. The railways said it was ready to operate 145 Shramik trains to ferry migrant workers back to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Kerala. However, in the evening, Union railway minister Piyush Goyal evening tweeted that of the 85 trains that were scheduled to be leave the state by 6pm, only 27 had been operated due to non-arrangement of passengers by the state government. I request the Maharashtra government to please help us to take the poor labourers to their homes, part of Goyals tweet read. According to Central Railway (CR), the first train left from the state at 12.30pm. Eighteen trains had to depart from Maharashtra by noon, but the departure could not happen owing to lack of passengers. The first boarding for the train started at 12.30pm. The passenger movement is very slow on part of the state government. said Shivaji Sutar, chief public relation officers, CR. Home minister Anil Deshmukh however, has alleged that the railway ministry sent 34 Shramik trains to ferry migrants to West Bengal despite the eastern state requesting Maharashtra government not to send any trains until Tuesday in the wake of Cyclone Amphan. Deshmukh has said that WB chief secretary Rajiv Sinha had written a letter to the railway ministry on May 22 over the issue. Now rail minister Piyush Goyal is blaming Maharashtra for not departing the trains notified to originate from our state. He should not indulge in this cheap politics, Deshmukh has said. Maharashtra transport minister Anil Parab has also slammed the Centre and alleged that the trains were scheduled at the last minute to defame the state government and to depict its incapability. Parab has said that Maharashtra had sought 172 trains over the next few days, but after chief minister Uddhav Thackerays address, in which he said the trains are not enough, the railway ministry sent a schedule at 2.30am on Tuesday for trains to depart from Maharashtra before 12 noon. The Railway ministry had sent the schedule at 2.30am for trains that left Maharashtra before 12pm the same day. The police personnel have been under stress owing to the Covid duty. It is not possible for trains to depart before 12pm at such a short notice. This has been done to defame the Maharashtra government and to show that the Centre is providing trains but the state is not able to send migrants, Parab said in a video statement. The minister also alleged that the railway ministry provided 43 of the 48 trains together sought by the state, despite knowing that only two trains would leave for West Bengal due to the weather condition there. In all, we had sought 48 trains for West Bengal to ferry migrants in the coming days, but 43 trains were scheduled for departure on a single day. The West Bengal government had requested us that only two trains daily will be allowed to enter to the state owing to the weather conditions there and we had accepted their request. By scheduling 43 trains, the Centre wants to portray that they want to provide trains but the Maharashtra government does not have the administrative strength to send migrant labourers. Even as confusion over the departure of the trains prevailed, hundreds of migrant workers along wih their families gathered outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus(LTT) and waited In queues to enter the railway station premises. State minority affairs minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik On Tuesday night asked Goyal to stop playing mind games. Mr @PiyushGoyal, you said that you have alloted 49 trains for migrants from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai. The DRM at LTT says only 16 trains can be released.You must come clear on this issue, stop playing dirty politics and mind games. People have gathered there hoping that all 49 trains will leave as promised by you. You must now make sure that all 49 trains take these migrants to their respective destinations, the minister tweeted. Selbyville, Delaware, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The worldwide specialty PACS market recorded a remuneration of USD 2.6 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to gain substantial proceeds over the forecast period, growing at a CAGR of over 6 per cent through 2026. Some of the fundamental factors contributing towards the prolific growth of this industry includes elevating geriatric population, mounting prevalence of various disease, increasing government initiatives prompting the deployment of healthcare IT solutions, and growing utilization of medical imaging modalities like CT, X-ray, etc. The market, according to this report, has been bifurcated into types, deployment methods, components, and end-user segments, whose complete analysis in terms of individual market shares and sizes, and future prospects have been addressed in the document. Additionally, technological trends across various regions like North America, APAC, Europe, and others have also been summarized in the report. In fact, according to Organization for economic Co-operation and Development, the count of CT scanners in Australia massively rose from 39.14 units per million inhabitants in 2009 to 67.20 units per million inhabitants in 2018. Likewise, the number of these CT scanners in Mexico grew from 2.86 units in 2002 to 5.83 units per million inhabitants in 2018. These statistics have eventually supported the growth of specialty PACS market over the years. However, it has been touted that the financial crisis and data security and privacy concerns have been laying negative influence on the burgeoning market statistics. Request Sample copy of this Report @ https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/2633149/ A PACS, or Picture Archiving and Communication System, is an electronic image management program which is mainly used across the healthcare organizations for the purpose of medical imaging. It is used to privately store and digitally transmit electronic images and clinically related reports. Besides, it constitutes of applications suitable for viewing databases, images, and framework along with offering the user with one unified system. This program can help healthcare establishments to eliminate the need of physically filing and storing sensitive information and report. Regional insights: The overall specialty PACS industry is diversified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of the World. North America has been poised to emerge as a lucrative growth ground for the specialty PACS market given the growing conduction of medical imaging tests and several diagnostic imaging centers, in line with the early adoption of technologically advanced imaging systems. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is also likely to exhibit high CAGR over 2020-2026 attributing to the surging incidence of chronic diseases considering the expanding ageing population and massively rising deployment of imaging modalities in the economies such as India and China. To access a sample copy or view this report in detail along with the table of contents, please click the link below: https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-specialty-pacs-market-size-research Specialty PACS Market Type Analysis (Revenue, USD Million, 2016-2026) Radiology PACS Cardiology PACS Pathology PACS Opthalmology PACS Womens Health PACS Others Specialty PACS Market Deployment Method Analysis (Revenue, USD Million, 2016-2026) On-Premises Web/Cloud-Based Specialty PACS Market Component Analysis (Revenue, USD Million, 2016-2026) Software Services Hardware Specialty PACS Market End-User Analysis (Revenue, USD Million, 2016-2026) Hospitals Ambulatory Surgical Centers & Clinics Diagnostic Imaging Centers Others Specialty PACS Market Regional Analysis (Revenue, USD Million, 2016-2026) North America U.S. Canada Europe UK Germany Asia Pacific China India Japan Latin America Brazil Mexico Rest of the World Specialty PACS Market Competitive Landscape Analysis (Revenue, USD Million, 2016-2026) IBM Corporation Mckesson Corporation Agfa Healthcare Carestream Health Philips Healthcare Sectra AB Siemens Healthineers Novarad Corporation Infinitt North America Intelerad Medical Systems Incorporated TABLE OF CONTENTS: Chapter 1. Executive Summary 1.1. Market Snapshot 1.2. Global & Segmental Market Estimates & Forecasts, 2018-2026 (USD Billion) 1.2.1. Specialty PACS Market, by Region, 2018-2026 (USD Billion) 1.2.2. Specialty PACS Market, by Type, 2018-2026 (USD Billion) 1.2.3. Specialty PACS Market, by Deployment Model, 2018-2026 (USD Billion) 1.2.4. Specialty PACS Market, by Component, 2018-2026 (USD Billion) 1.2.5. Specialty PACS Market, by End-User, 2018-2026 (USD Billion) 1.3. Key Trends 1.4. Estimation Methodology 1.5. Research Assumption Chapter 2. Global Specialty PACS Market Definition and Scope 2.1. Objective of the Study 2.2. Market Definition & Scope 2.2.1. Scope of the Study 2.2.2. Industry Evolution 2.3. Years Considered for the Study 2.4. Currency Conversion Rates Chapter 3. Global Specialty PACS Market Dynamics 3.1. Specialty PACS Market Impact Analysis (2018-2026) 3.1.1. Market Drivers 3.1.2. Market Challenges 3.1.3. Market Opportunities Chapter 4. Global Specialty PACS Market Industry Analysis 4.1. Porters 5 Force Model 4.1.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.1.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.1.3. Threat of New Entrants 4.1.4. Threat of Substitutes 4.1.5. Competitive Rivalry 4.1.6. Futuristic Approach to Porters 5 Force Model (2016-2026) 4.2. PEST Analysis 4.2.1. Political 4.2.2. Economical 4.2.3. Social 4.2.4. Technological 4.3. Investment Adoption Model 4.4. Analyst Recommendation & Conclusion Chapter 5. Global Specialty PACS Market, by Type 5.1. Market Snapshot 5.2. Global Specialty PACS Market by Type, Performance - Potential Analysis 5.3. Global Specialty PACS Market Estimates & Forecasts by Type 2016-2026 (USD Billion) 5.4. Specialty PACS Market, Sub Segment Analysis 5.4.1. Radiology PACS 5.4.2. Cardiology PACS 5.4.3. Pathology PACS 5.4.4. Opthalmology PACS 5.4.5. Womens Health PACS 5.4.6. Others Chapter 6. Global Specialty PACS Market, by Deployment Model 6.1. Market Snapshot 6.2. Global Specialty PACS Market by Deployment Model, Performance - Potential Analysis 6.3. Global Specialty PACS Market Estimates & Forecasts by Deployment Model 2016-2026 (USD Billion) 6.4. Specialty PACS Market, Sub Segment Analysis 6.4.1. On-Premises 6.4.2. Web/Cloud-Based Chapter 7. Global Specialty PACS Market, by Component 7.1. Market Snapshot 7.2. Global Specialty PACS Market by Component, Performance - Potential Analysis 7.3. Global Specialty PACS Market Estimates & Forecasts by Component 2016-2026 (USD Billion) 7.4. Specialty PACS Market, Sub Segment Analysis 7.4.1. Software 7.4.2. Services 7.4.3. Hardware Chapter 8. Global Specialty PACS Market, by End-User Related Report: Global Ophthalmology PACS Market Size by Regional Forecasts 2018-2025 Global Ophthalmology PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) Market to reach USD 213.1 million by 2025; as per new research report. Rising aging population, increasing patients of eye diseases, growing adoption of teleophthalmology and lack of ophthalmologists are the major factors which are driving the growth in the Global Ophthalmology PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) Market. About US: Market Study Report, LLC. is a hub for market intelligence products and services. We streamline the purchase of your market research reports and services through a single integrated platform by bringing all the major publishers and their services at one place. Our customers partner with Market Study Report, LLC. to ease their search and evaluation of market intelligence products and services and in turn focus on their company's core activities. If you are looking for research reports on global or regional markets, competitive information, emerging markets and trends or just looking to stay on top of the curve then Market Study Report, LLC. is the platform that can help you in achieving any of these objectives. Misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading as fast as the virus itself, posing a threat to public health With cat photos and sometimes scathing irony, Mathieu Rebeaud, a Swiss-based researcher in biochemistry, has nearly tripled his Twitter following since the coronavirus pandemic began. With 14,000 followers, he posts almost daily, giving explanations on the latest scientific research and, in particular, aims to fight misinformation that spreads as fast as the virus itself. He is among a growing number of doctors, academics and institutions who in recent weeks have adapted and amplified their scientific messaging in hopes of countering what has been termed an infodemica deluge of information, including widespread false claims, which experts say can pose a serious threat to public health. To cut through the noise however, it is imperative to work quickly and maximise social media engagement to get simple prevention messages across to the public, according to researchers and specialists. "In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories provide complete, simple, seemingly rationalistic and watertight explanations," Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius, a University of Helsinki researcher, said. "This is in stark contrast to the available scientific knowledgecomplex, fragmented, changeable and contestedand to the actions of political decision-makers and state authorities, which appear haphazard and self-contradictory," she added. In February, British medical journal The Lancet warned that "the rapid dissemination of trustworthy information" was needed most during a period of uncertainty. This includes transparent identification of cases, data sharing and unhampered communication, as well as peer-reviewed research, it said. Rigorous and time-heavy scientific studies and publications, however, compete with the immediacy of social media and a public often demanding firm and definitive answers. "How do we communicate in this context of radical uncertainty?" asked Mikael Chambru, a scientific communication specialist at France's University of Grenoble Alpes. No choice Jean-Francois Chambon, a doctor and director of communications at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said he had no choice but to forcefully deny a widely shared video in March accusing the institution of having "created" the new coronavirus. "We must go to any lengths" to debunk the lies, he said. The institute created a web page dedicated to educating the public about the virus, Chambon said. "We realised that there was a lot of 'fake news' on the subject," he added. The Pasteur Institute currently has a combined 16,000 new subscribers a month on its social media networks, he said, compared with 4,000 before the pandemic. Doctors, academics and institutions have adapted their scientific messaging in hopes of countering what has been termed an infodemic about coronavirus Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, chairman of the ethics committee at France's National Centre for Scientific Research, agreed that the scientific community must counterattack in such situations. "We don't have a choice," he told AFP. Earlier this month, the Red Cross launched what it said was the first global network of social media influencers to battle misinformation and spread lifesaving content about the pandemic. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has entered into an agreement with Facebook to transmit information directly to users via personal message services. But it is often individual doctors and researchers who can have a strong influence online. Dutch microbiologist Elisabeth Bik tweeted a one-sentence summary of a vast study on the effects of antiviral drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine last week, just hours after its release. Her tweet"Each drug combination was associated with *lower* survival and more ventricular arrhythmias."sparked a lively and wide-ranging debate online. Education Scientists involved in the debate want to forge a "culture of science" among the public to help them understand what they hear and read, Chambru said. Rather than simply imposing the view of a leading authority without any explanation, they aim to help people understand how science works including the need for studies to abide by rules and standards, he added. "The position of authority would be extremely unpopular with the public," Ganascia agreed. Rebeaud, the biochemistry researcher popular on Twitter, said he was much less present on social media before the pandemic but had felt drawn to defend science. The battle however feels unbalanced, said the researcher, who works at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. "Dismantling nonsense takes 10 times more energy than spreading it," he said, agreeing with the findings of a 2018 study by the magazine Science which noted that "lies spread faster than the truth". Some scientists have called for a review of science education so that the public is less permeable to false information. Information campaigns "cannot be perceived as an exclusive antidote to fight fake news," Italian communications researcher Mafalda Sandrini said. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP The son of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov bought two apartments in Manhattan, TURAN said. "Early in 2015, Dunja Mijatovic, then OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, wrote a letter to Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan's foreign minister, conveying her concerns about the case of journalist Khadija Ismayil, who had been arrested for her investigative reports on govenrment corruption and kleptocracy, including the country's first family's involvement. "In the letter, I noted that Ismayilova has serious health issues and requires continuing professional medical care." Mijatovic said in a written statement to a Congressional panel held in Washington D.C. in December 2015. The letter to Mammadyarov was never responded to... In her second letter to Azeri authorities in late February, Mijatovic requested permission to attend Ismayilova's trial. "I noted reports that members of the independent press and civil society had been denied access to the courtroom. No permission to attend the trial was granted," she informed the Congress members. As Mijatovic was trying to reach out the foreign minister that summer to seek his support on behalf of the jailed anti-corruption journalist, little did the world know then that Mammadyarov's own family was busy purchasing lavish apartments in Manhattan, New York's resonant heartbeat. According to the New York Tax Department records, obtained by TURAN's Washington correspondent, in the summer of 2015, the foreign minister's eldest son Emin Mammadyarov purchased not only one, but two apartments in Manhattan, paying slightly over $4.2 million U.S. dollars in total, in all-cash deals. Following a recent social media discussion on Mammadyarov family's wealth and their Manhattan apartments, which was first broke by journalist Javansir Hasanli, TURAN's U.S. correspondent has reached out to New York authorities for more details regarding the deeds of the 31-year-old son of the minister. According to official records, during the months of June-July Emin Mammadyarov purchased two apartment units (PH2K and PH3K) at Manhattan's former Trump Place buildings located at 120 Riverside Blvd. Built in 2004 by the Trump organization the building is 21 floors, and it has an suite amenities including an indoor pool, fitness center, sauna and Jacuzzi, a private landscaped roof deck which overlooks the Hudson River. It is also close to New York's Central Park. Last year, the name Trump Place came down from the buildings facade after condominium owners voted to have the name removed. It is not clear how young Mammadyarov could pay huge sums for luxury units in Manhattan. TURAN's correspondent has tried to reach out to him for comment via phone and social media but never heard back. Mammadyarovs family are not new to New York as the current foreign minister used to once serve at Azerbaijani mission at UN in the early 1990s. In recent years though, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Azerbaijan was hit by numerous corruption scandals, while the minister himself has been accused of mismanagement and bribery in the local media The U.S. real estate market is a favorite money-laundering vehicle for foreign kleptocrats, given that in our globalized world, kleptocracy is no longer bound by geography. In fact, much of that stolen wealth weaves its way through the international shadow banking system and ends up in the U.S. property market, with consequences for the western democracy and economy. As for Mammadyarov, in his 2019 interview dedicated to 100th Anniversary of the Diplomatic Service, the foreign minister told the state-run Azertac News Agency that "I think that the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic would be proud of us if they could witness the development of modern Azerbaijan." It isn't too hard, however, to imagine the founding fathers' reaction to kleptocracy in action in independent Azerbaijan, where high level officials and their cronies can enjoy the benefits of the freedom and legal protections of rule of law abroad, the very rights that they deny to their own citizens at home," TURAN reported. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:21:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Syria registered on Tuesday 15 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 121, the health ministry said in a statement. All the new cases are those who returned from abroad as part of the government's effort to bring back stranded Syrians, said the ministry. A total of 41 have been cured while four died, the ministry added. The ministry has been updating the infection statistics on a daily basis as some infected Syrians have been brought back from outside the country. Local media said that the trips to bring back Syrians stranded abroad have been suspended. China has offered help to Syria to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. On April 15, a batch of China's donation, including 2,016 COVID-19 test kits, arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus. On April 23, a video-conference was held between Chinese and Syrian medical experts for sharing the experience in fighting COVID-19. Enditem New Delhi: Fish export from India, the world's fourth largest exporting nation, is likely to decline by 5-10 per cent in 2019-20 due to demand compression in the wake of COVID-19 crisis, Union Fisheries Minister Giriraj Singh said on Tuesday. The country had exported fish valued Rs 46,589 crore during the 2018-19 fiscal. The US, Middle East, UK and China are main export destinations for fish. On number of COVID-19 positive fishermen, the minister said the Centre does not have a separate data, but would collate it from state governments. "As per the latest inputs, there is not much impact on exports. There would be maximum 5-10 per cent fall in exports," Singh told media while sharing information about the new scheme Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY). A final report on export status expected in June. There is a gap of 3-4 months after fiscal year to collate the fish export data. The shipments were affected during initial days of the nationwide lockdown clamped to fight Covid-19 disease. But the situation began to improve after the government exempted fishing activities from the lockdown rule from mid-April onwards, he said. The shipments to key destinations, including China, are happening now, Singh added. A senior Fisheries Ministry official said that sluggish global demand because of the lockdown in some countries has impacted the country's exports. But, now the situation has begun to improve and normalcy in exports are expected soon. Asserting that there is huge potential to increase India's fish exports in the coming years, the minister said the government plans to promote export of seaweed and ornamental fish. Seaweed and ornamental fish cultivation will be promoted through self help groups in the coming days, he said, adding that the Centre is working in 2-3 states on seaweed. Besides, the minister said export-hub will be created in north India especially in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where export varieties fishes like prawn cultivation will be promoted in saline water. "So far, south India was a major export hub for fishes. Now, north India too will emerge as an export hub," he said, adding that modern technology will be adopted in improving fisheries sector. About the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), Singh said about Rs 20,050 crore will be spent under the scheme in next five years to make the fisheries sector robust. The target of PMMSY is to enhance fish production to 22 million tonne by 2024-25 from the current level of 13.75 million tonnes in 2018-19. It mainly aims to create fisheries infrastructure, reduce post-harvest losses, modernise and strengthen value chain and double export earnings to Rs 1,00,000 crore. Besides, it also aims to encourage private investment and generate about 55 lakh jobs over next five years, he added. Ministers of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Poultry Sanjeev Balyan and Pratap Chandra Sarangi as well Fisheries Secretary Rajeev Ranjan were present at the conference. More African countries should heed the UN call for a global ceasefire to push back deadly COVID-19, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Trend reports citing Xinhua. Marking Africa Day, the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union (AU), on May 25, 1963, the UN chief said in his message that the COVID-19 pandemic "threatens to derail progress" which would enable countries to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and development targets set out in the African Union's Agenda 2063. The AU has established a task force to develop a continent-wide strategy and appointed special envoys to mobilize international support, said the UN chief. Its Peace and Security Council has also taken steps to counter the negative impact of COVID-19 on the implementation of critical peace agreements and reconciliation efforts. He noted that the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established a response fund, while African member states have undertaken "robust measures to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate the socio-economic impacts." Guterres welcomed the AU's support for his global ceasefire call, an imperative that also reflects the AU's 2020 theme: "Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development." "Armed groups in Cameroon, Sudan and South Sudan have responded to the call and declared unilateral ceasefires. I implore other armed movements and governments in Africa to do likewise. I also welcome the support of African countries for my call for peace in the home, and an end to all forms of violence, including against women and girls," he added. Some 20 African countries are scheduled to hold elections this year, some of which are likely to be postponed due to the pandemic, with potential consequences for stability and peace, noted the secretary-general. "I urge African political actors to engage in inclusive and sustained political dialogue to ease tensions around elections and uphold democratic practices." Last week, the UN issued a policy brief outlining the impacts of the pandemic on the continent. "We are calling for debt relief and action to maintain food supplies, protect jobs and cushion the continent against lost income and export earnings. African countries, like everyone, everywhere, should also have quick, equal and affordable access to any eventual vaccine and treatment." An opportunity now exists, for African governments to "use this moment" to shape new policies that bolster health systems, improve social protection and pursue climate-friendly pathways, he said. Targeting measures to those employed in the informal sector, the vast majority of whom are women, will be an important step to recovery, said Guterres, as will empowering women to ensure their full participation and leadership. "The inclusion and leadership of young people will also be crucial every step of the way," said Guterres. Delhi government has issued guidelines for people travelling via train, bus, private vehicle or plane, in the wake of coronavirus. Delhi has registered 14,053 number of coronavirus cases and 276 deaths, according to the latest data from Health Ministry. Hence, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has decided to take preventive measures in terms of domestic travel to contain the spread of the deadly virus. Delhi has been reporting 500 or more fresh cases every day for the last one week. Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: India sees 6,535 new COVID-19 cases, 146 deaths in 24 hours Delhi currently has 88 containment zones. According to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, there are currently 4,500 beds available for COVID-19 patients in both private and government hospitals. He said that in Delhi, most COVID-19 patients are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. The chief minister said the government has decided to reserve 1,500 beds for COVID-19 patients in state-run GTB Hospital. Here is a list of rules that passengers need to keep in mind for domestic travel: 1. Only asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to travel. 2. Asymptomatic travellers will have to ensure that they will self monitor their health for 14 days. 3. In case an asymptomatic traveller develops coronavirus' symptoms later, then he/she will have to inform Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) or state helpline number. 4. All travellers will have to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile devices. Those found symptomatic will be isolated and taken to the nearest health facility. They will be assessed for clinical severity at the health facility, according to the guidelines. 5. Thermal screening at exit points shall be arranged in Deli airport. 6. The Delhi government has made mandatory for all travellers to wear masks and carry hand sanitisers. Also read: Delhi temperature: 44 degrees and climbing; no relief until Friday Also read: Coronavirus update: Himachal Pradesh extends lockdown in 3 districts till June 30 Egypt detected 789 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, its highest toll in a single day, hitting the 18,000 infections mark to report a total infection tally of 18,756, the health ministry announced. The ministry also reported 14 new deaths, bringing the total deaths from the virus to 797. The statement said that 127 patients, have been discharged, bringing the total number of recoveries to 5027. Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in the statement that the number of people whose test results have turned from positive to negative, including the 5027.recoveries, has now reached 5606. Despite lockdown measures imposed in March to contain the spread of the virus, Egypts infections tally continued to spike after it reached its 1,000 infections toll milestone on 4 April following the detection of its first case on 14 February. Egypt hopes currently imposed stricter measures during the Eid Al-Fitr religious holiday, including extending its curfew hours and a full suspension of public transportation, would help in curbing the spread of the virus. The nationwide curfew currently begins at 5 pm instead of a previous 9 pm since Sunday through next Friday. The extension comes under measures to curtail the spread of the virus during Eid Al-Fitr, which officials say poses a risk of a surge in infections due to traditions of gatherings during the festive feast. Last week, officials suggested that the real number of coronavirus cases could be higher than number of cases officially detected. Egypt's Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said during a Thursday event attended by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi that the real number of coronavirus infections in Egypt could be over 71,000. He added that the number of confirmed cases in the country is predicted to reach 20,000 this week, reasoning the outbreak estimates to a "hypothetical model". Egypt appears adamant to gradually re-open the economy despite a rise in infections to recover main sources of foreign currency, including tourism and remittances from Egyptian expats. Egypt has signaled in the past few weeks that it is looking to pull back on some of the heavy restrictions introduced in recent months, and has urged people to maintain social distancing and other preventive measures when these changes are made. It said it will make wearing facemasks in public places mandatory starting 30 May, with violators facing hefty fines The curfew will be revised again after Eid Al-Fitr to begin at 8 pm to 6 am starting May 30 for two weeks, marking the gradual reopening of a country heavily affected by the pandemic's repercussions. Malls and shops will be allowed to reopen all week until the beginning of the curfew. As of mid-June, the state will announce a gradual resumption of several activities, including sporting clubs and youth centers, while following precautionary measures against the virus, according to the government. This may also include the gradual reopening of places of worship. Egypt announced earlier this month a three-stage plan that will see life gradually return to normal as the country learns to coexist with the coronavirus. The first stage, effective now, entails strict measures to prevent a resurgence of the virus, with two other stages, applied when Egypt sees a decline in new cases, seeing medium and relaxed measures. Search Keywords: Short link: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a law 'to counter the Zionist regime's hostile actions against peace and security,' Mehr reported. According to the law, all executive organs of the country are obliged to take action within the general policies of the Islamic Republic and use regional and international capacities to counter the hostile actions of the Zionist regime including the crimes against oppressed people of Palestine, the Islamic countries and Iran. The new law also confronts the role of 'Israel in disrupting the regional and international peace and security and its widespread and systematic violations of human rights, including war crimes, terrorist acts, electronic warfare, the use of heavy and prohibited weapons against civilians, human siege, settlements, displacement of Palestinian people, efforts to annex other parts of Palestine, the occupation of the Palestinian territory and parts of Syria (Golan), Lebanon and other occupied territories,' Mehr said. The law was adopted by the Iranian parliament in open session on May 18, 2020, and was approved by the Guardian Council on May 20. Farmers are lamenting the loss of vital crops as Western Australia mops up after a large part of the state endured two days of wild weather from a once-in-a-decade storm. As remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Mangga clashed with a cold front and trough, the state was lashed by gusts that reached about 130km/h in some areas, as well as heavy rain, flooding, high tides and significant beach erosion. The storm caused widespread damage. Emergency services responded to hundreds of calls for help after roofs were torn off buildings and many trees were uprooted, smashing into cars and homes. More than 60,000 properties suffered power outages across WA, with about 1900 properties still without electricity. he American economy is deteriorating "with alarming speed," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said recently , signaling that the government's response to COVID-19 put people in a difficult financial situation . Though Powell predicts this problem is temporary, a closer look at growing unemployment numbers shows that America might not bounce back quickly once the lockdowns end.To young people in school or who have recently graduated, the current situation might seem like a minor obstacle. But to older siblings who suffered during the 2008 recession, a broken economy doesn't sound like a minor problem at all. As a matter of fact, they might already be despairing over what they should do next.As college students and recent grads watch unemployment numbers grow, they might wonder if the skills they learned in college will be enough to get a job.Economic anxiety that would lead them into a master's program to sharpen their skills, however, would be a mistake. Returning to school to avoid a bad economy might be tempting, but the lessons of the previous generation should turn them against another degree. Betting on a more prosperous future by getting deeper in the red doesn't always pay off . And, in North Carolina like many other states, whether students can even return to campus isn't clear yet. A year of online classes might not be worth the tuition payments.Instead of signing up for another student loan, what should a student or recent graduate do?If you take a critical look at what you've learned in college and feel that your set of skills won't make you competitive enough to get a job, consider how you can get new skills online and avoid debt. Google , and Hubspot , for example, have a mix of paid and free courses you can take that will make you more employable. From software development to basic digital tool training, those online classes offer students and recent grads a golden opportunity to stay relevant.By earning valuable marketing certificates and a variety of important skills such as video and social media marketing, SEO, public relations, branding, Google and Facebook advertising, proficiency in Google Analytics, and content drafting, you will be much more competitive when the labor market warms up again.Scammers will try to lure people with "make money from home" schemes that sound too good to be true. However, there are still plenty of legit ways young people can make money without leaving their homes.Using programs like VIP Kid, DaDa, GoGoKid, and EnglishHunt, which allow college graduates to teach English online to foreign students, young Americans can teach homebound students in China, South Korea, and Brazil who want to improve their English. Doing so can also show future bosses that you're a self-starter and can handle unfamiliar situations.For young people without a degree, companies like Cambly, QKids, and Palfish give English speakers the chance to use their fluency to help others to develop their English speaking skills. While compensation might be less than what's paid to college graduates, it might be an interesting way to put yourself to work.As more Americans rely on grocery delivery services, those who are not known to be particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus can take on delivery gigs by working for Instacart or Shipt.While precautions should always be taken to avoid infection and the spread of viruses, the opportunity is there for those willing to help people in need. If you're homebound because you're done with school or taking classes online, this is the ideal side gig.Other ways of making some cash while waiting for things to go back to normal include teaching tech-related skills to seniors.While there aren't many opportunities online to find students, you can join groups such as Nextdoor and market your classes to neighborhood seniors who might be willing to pay to learn new technologies such as Zoom.You can also offer other skills on similar sites such as Handy or TaskRabbit , especially if you have experience in mowing the lawn, painting, or even house cleaning.In addition to taking on gigs and online courses that can help you improve your resume and keep you afloat during the pandemic, you could also use some of your extra free time to reconsider your career goals.Oftentimes, we take steps toward a goal that might seem good at the beginning but doesn't always take us where we thought we were headed.When re-evaluating your past professional decisions, ask yourself whether you're confident you would be able to make money or get a job in your desired field by simply relying on the skills you've built up to this moment. If the answer is "no," it might be time to look into ditching passion-driven career goals for hard work, as Cal Newport explains in his book, So Good They Can't Ignore You Explaining that passion only comes after you put in the hard work to become good at something, he debunks the idea that following our passion is what makes us stand out.Newport wrote. Instead,To get there, Newport argued, mindful professionals should "adopt the craftsman mindset" and ask themselves "what can I offer the world?" Answering that question might be the key to identifying exactly what it will take for you to become a valuable professional.Whatever you do, remember that spending money in a crisis is a recipe for disaster.Even if you have access to easy credit to continue with your education, nobody can guarantee you'll get a job in a bloated and extremely competitive labor market. Instead of entering a new economic recovery phase without real-world working skills and less money, why not save some while forced to stay put?At the end of the day, employers will feel much more compelled to hire people who have put their time to good use during the lockdown by working instead of simply waiting or getting deeper in the red for a degree that might not make a huge difference Chile registered a new high for coronavirus cases on Monday, with nearly 5,000 infections in 24 hours, including two ministers in President Sebastian Pinera's government. Health authorities announced 4,895 new infections in the South American country and 43 deaths. Public Works Minister Alfredo Moreno and Energy Minister Juan Carlos Jobet said they were among those with the disease. "I have been informed that the Covid-19 test I had a few days ago was positive," Moreno said on Twitter, adding that he had no symptoms so far. The 63-year-old minister had placed himself in quarantine after one of his staff tested positive. Jobet also tested positive after starting to quarantine preventatively on Saturday, "when he experienced mild symptoms, which could be associated with the disease," a statement from the Energy Ministry said. The 44-year-old minister "has had no direct contact with President Sebastian Pinera or other cabinet members in recent days," the statement said, without specifying how he became infected. Three other ministers, who had self-quarantined after being in contact with infected people, all tested negative and resumed work. Chile suffered a surge in infections last week, prompting the government to order the lockdown of Santiago. The capital is the main focus of the pandemic in Chile, with 90 percent of the country's 74,000 cases. Last week, the Senate was closed after three senators tested positive for the coronavirus. Sessions were held by video conference. It's clear that barring strong political intervention, our universities and institutes of technology are largely on their own as they face into turbulent financial waters. As a senior administrator put it: "The Department of Education will save one or two colleges from drowning, but the rest will have to learn to swim for themselves." Read More The plea for a 508m lifeboat for our higher education institutions (HEIs) has come up against a cold dose of reality. "There is no commitment or expectation of additional funding for the education sector at the present time," according to the higher education funding unit in the Department of Education and Skills (DES). The unit pointedly said that "pending future decision-making by government in respect of all of these issues, all additional costs/offsetting of revenue losses would need to be met from within existing budgetary allocations and through cost-saving measures/prioritisation of expenditure". The correspondence speaks volumes. A strong case for a "financial support package" to help the colleges through "this crisis" was made by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the statutory policy advisory body which regulates the sector and distributes State funding. Seeking a "significant government intervention", the HEA told the department that "the recovery of the Irish knowledge-based economy is dependent on the delivery of highly skilled graduates". Student enrolments increased by 9pc from 2013 to 2018 even though the sector was still recovering from the reduction in core State funding since austerity measures were introduced. To make up the shortfall, many institutions expanded their intake of overseas students, invested in student accommodation, pursued other commercial activities, and sought from philanthropic funding. "The fees earned from international students have been cross-subsidising the student contribution and State funding required to educate Irish third-level students and progress national research projects," added the HEA letter. The impact of Covid-19 will amount to 244m this year and 264m next year - but this does not take account of the social distancing measures that will be necessary when colleges reopen. For instance, a 500-seat lecture hall would be reduced to 50 participants in a two-metre social distancing scenario. Before reviewing the official response, it's worth looking at the dynamics of Budget negotiations. All levels of education feel they are the most important and in need of additional resources. But in its protracted discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), the DES has to balance the case for extra finance for higher education against other priorities. All departments know there is no point in going to DPER with an unrealistic pre-Budget shopping list and then having to pare it back for a further round of hard talks. The negotiations this year will be the toughest yet. This is because health will take an even bigger slice of the Budget and because political demands for extra spending on housing, transport and climate action have to be met. In its response, the DES held out little prospect of receiving anything approaching 500m. Compensating for loss of income would change the relationship between the State and universities, it suggested. In other words 'be careful what you wish for' - as it might lead to greater State control and loss of autonomy. Instead, the department wants much more detail about individual college finances. It wants to introduce a "traffic light" system to indicate if and when any college is about to crash a red light into a liquidity crisis. Only then would a rescue be launched. The response has obviously disappointed the colleges which will be looking to politicians for help. Funding of higher education is a battered can that has been kicked down the road too often. Few politicians want to raise fees or introduce a loans scheme. Increasing the national training fund levy on employers is a partial solution but that has reached its limits. Meanwhile, investments made by university foundations are taking a hammering on the stock exchange and philanthropists won't be as generous in the future. So that leaves the State to fall back on. Some academics are pinning their hopes on Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin's plan for a separate Department of Higher Education and Research. But the Greens also want to put their stamp on education and may not readily agree to a separate higher education ministry, especially if it means getting rid of the Department of Children. It is four years since the Cassells report, which put forward a student loans scheme as an option. The politicians couldn't agree on it. Now an economic evaluation of various funding models is under way, supported by the EU. The study will be substantially complete by the autumn and could have far-reaching consequences. Decisions taken in the next few weeks and months will dictate the health of higher education in Ireland. The system will survive but for the future of our young people and our country it has to do more than merely survive - it has to thrive. John Walshe is an education consultant The US and Russia are most nuclear-armed nations in the world, and if no new treaty is signed before February 2021, then both nations will have no real limit to nukes each nation can muster. Time is running out as the last chances to forge a new arms control treaty which keep a cap in for another fifty years, to keep the nuclear genie in the bottle, according to AP News. According to Time, US President Donald Trump will extend a 'New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty' that should be followed up at the soonest by Feb. 5. This should be drafted, early in Trump's second term, or when the next president of the United States is elected. China's role in the treaty Trump wants China to be part of the treaty before finally signing the treaty. One hindrance to Trump's acceptance of Russia's offer to extend any nuclear treaty after five years is the threat of China that seems intent on adding more nukes to its arsenal. President Trump does not agree with a treaty that allows flights to spy on other nations, and if this is the case which the US shall decide not to sign on the nuclear accord. All these permissible observation flights would be allowable will include 30 other countries. What Trump wants is a commitment from China to enter a nuclear arms treaty, as a three-nation affair to monitor China as well. But so far, the move is still in its initial stages for now. Marshall Billingslea, the special envoy for the president will negotiate a mutually acceptable accord for both nations. Talks will begin as the first calls to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made arrangements to go over specifics needed to draft an acceptable treaty. Also read: Aircraft Carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt Will Be Putting China in Place as It Blatantly Harass US Assets According to Telegraph Herald, Billingslea said it will take time to do and Russia needs to bring China in, as a tripartite agreement to binding the CCP into a treaty on nuclear arms control. According to Alexandra bell, the current pandemic makes it hard to manage actual person to person discussions, also catching up on the new START treaty that will end on the 5th of February next year will be imperative. Criticism over President Trump's reelection, handling of the pandemic with all economic woes caused by lockdowns has taken more time than expected. Add up the blaming of China for the pandemic, and he does not want to deal with Xi Jinping. A spokesman for China, Geng Shuang said that China does not want a treaty, hence it does not want to participate, according to Business Mirror. The American special envoy still says that Beijing will come to the table eventually as a world power. The new START accord will impose limits on the nuclear arsenals of both nations. Without this, the US will have no idea how many nukes Russia has, said Rose Gottemoeller. For the US, getting China to enter a treaty will be easier after the pandemic crisis, though Russia has more nukes by far. Time is getting close, and a new US and Russian arms treaty is needed, but will this administration or the next will get insurance for the next 50 years against nuclear weapons? Related article: Five Iranian Fuel Tankers Entered Venezuela Waters Despite US Ships' Warning @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Pithoragarh: A 53 -year-old woman died at a Covid-19 quarantine centre in Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district, health officials said on Tuesday. Authorities have instituted an inquiry to determine the cause of her death. The woman had recently returned to her village in the hilly district from Haldwani in Nainital district, following which she had been quarantined. Dr Bhagirathi Gunjan, chief medical officer Pithoragarh said that the woman had been quarantined at at Khoyam Jerthi village in the district after she returned from Haldwani on May 22. She said, on the directions of the district magistrate, an inquiry was initiated into the death of the woman on Monday evening. It is not clear how she died. A team of doctors has been sent to the area to investigate the death and determine its cause. Her post mortem result will clarify the circumstances under which she died, she said Rajendra Singh Danu, gram pradhan (village head) of Khoyam Jerthi, said the woman was quite healthy while at the quarantine centre but she collapsed on Monday evening following which local doctors declared her dead. It seems that she likely died due to a heart attack but her post mortem result will reveal the exact cause, he said. On Monday, a six-year-old girl at a quarantine centre in Nainital districts Betalghat area died after she was allegedly bitten by a snake. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Greek police have revealed the horrifying contents of a 'rape kit' that was discovered after a serial sex attacker dubbed the Beast of Kavos was arrested last week. The stash of items, found close to where 47-year-old Dimitris Aspiotis was arrested on Friday, included a loaded shotgun, knives, pliers, and two screwdrivers. Also included were several mobile phones, power banks and a solar charging panel, an oil lamp and candles, along with a pair of black gloves. Greek police have revealed the contents of a horrifying 'rape kit' that was discovered close to where serial sex attack Dimitris Aspiotis - known as the Beast of Kavos - was arrested Aspiotis was arrested on Friday last week on the island of Corfu accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an Albanian woman at knifepoint Aspiotis was arrested after falling down a cliff while trying to run from police near the town of Lefkimmi, breaking his back in the process. He is now under guard in Corfu hospital, where he is recovering from his injuries before he can be hauled to court. The homeless man was previously convicted of a string of attacks on women on the Greek holiday island and sentenced to 52 years in 2012. However, he was released back on to the island in August last year after a change in the law - despite warnings from police. Aspiotis targeted female visitors on the island, included at least four Britons. Police believe there may be more than 100 victims. A stash of weapons found close to where he was captured included a loaded shotgun, two rounds of ammunition, five knives, two screwdrivers, pliers and secateurs Also included in the stash were several mobile phones and power banks, a solar charging panel, candles, lamps and a pair of black gloves Officers say his latest victim is an Albanian woman who was visiting the island with her partner earlier this month. She went missing overnight on May 5, and police found her in a hut four days later. The woman told officers that a man had forced her into the woods at knifepoint and held her in the hut, while forcing her to perform 'indecent acts'. Officers launched a hunt for the perpetrator - who they say in Aspiotis - before discovering him last week. After being spotted by officers, police say he ran and jumped over a steep cliff towards a beach below - fracturing his leg, hip, spine and rupturing his kidney. Officers cordoned off the beach while a rescue team was brought in to get him off the cliff face. As police closed in on Aspiotis he ran and jumped over the edge of a steep cliff, falling 100ft and breaking his back in the process It took 50 officers and rescue workers three hours to free him from the cliff-face so he could be arrested. He is now recovering in hospital, after which he will be hauled to court Pictures show officers carrying him away strapped to a back-board. Greece's Hellenic Police said more than 100 officers were involved in the search, which included dogs and the Coast Guard. 'I have to congratulate all the police officers for the zeal and honesty they showed in their research and professionalism at all stages of this difficult operation,' a police spokesman said. 'They were working in very difficult conditions for many days in the forest, often endangering their own health.' Police said that when Aspiotis was arrested he was found wearing a bum-bag with two phones inside it. Searches of the area where he was found then uncovered the stash of weapons and equipment, which included a sleeping bag and other items for surviving outdoors. Articles Sorry, there are no recent results for popular articles. HCMC quarantines 303 people from Europe Passengers from Europe arrive at Tan Son Nhat International Airport PHOTO: HCMC CDC The health authority of HCMC has sent 303 people arriving from Europe to the citys quarantine centers to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2. Among them, three people suffering from cancer and heart diseases were put in quarantine at a hospital. All the passengers entered Vietnam through the Tan Son Nhat airport in HCMC on May 24, Nguyen Hong Tam, director of the HCMC Center for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed on May 25. One of them is a foreigner and the rest are Vietnamese citizens. They live in different European countries but flew to Vietnam from the Netherlands with a stopover in France. According to new regulations in the city, all passengers arriving in HCMC will be tested four times during their 14-day mandatory quarantine period. COVID-19: Vietnam reports no community transmission for 40 days No more new COVID-19 cases were reported in Vietnam in the past 12 hours from 18:00 on May 25 to 6:00 on May 26, making the tally remain at 326, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. Students wash their hands with sanitizer May 26 also marked the 40th consecutive day Vietnam has gone through without community transmission. Among the infections, 186 cases are imported and quarantined after entering the country, 272 have recovered fully and no death has been reported. At present, 54 patients are being treated at centrally and locally run medical facilities, with seven testing negative for SARS-CoV-2 once, and four twice or more. A total of 14,739 people having close contact with patients or entering Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions have been quarantined at hospitals, concentrated establishments, and home./. Australian outlet notes prudent low-cost Vietnamese approach to combating COVID-19 The Conversation, a renowned Australian news website, published an article on May 25 outlining the prudent and low-cost approach taken by Vietnam to fight the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The article states that a notable exception to all of the grim statistics regarding the pandemic globally in recent weeks has been Vietnam. At the time of publishing, the country only has 55 active COVID-19 cases with zero deaths. Indeed, for 21-day consecutive days between April 16 and May 7, there were no new cases reported in the nation. Moreover, it is worth taking into account that the country is one of the poorest in Southeast Asia, with a GDP per capita that barely reaches US$2,500, a figure 13 times less than Italy and 25 times less than that of the United States. In addition, it also shares a 1,444km-long border with China and is heavily reliant on Chinese imports and exports. Finally, the nations population is roughly 100 million, making it one of the most densely populated places worldwide. The article puts forward the case that wealth has not been a significant factor in the ability of a country to successfully combat the virus. Given the nations precarious financial health, the Government has been keen to avoid jeopardising local health services by making sure that the disease never became too widespread to curb. As opposed to relying on recommendations made by the World Health Organization with its stage one to four model, the Vietnamese Government took swift action by taking the highly prudent approach of assuming the possibility of a full-blown pandemic. The article details how Vietnam decided to seal its northern border when the number of COVID-19 cases in China sharply increased during the last week of January. Indeed, January 28 saw major tourist destinations such as Da Nang and Nha Trang stop receiving Chinese tourists. In contrast, a similar ban was issued in the US on February 4, although plenty of exceptions and range of discretions were granted to airlines out of a fear of immediate and significant economic drawbacks. By February 26, the country had limited the number of COVID-19 cases to 16, all of whom went on to make a successful recovery. Despite initial success, early March saw a mixture of tourists and Vietnamese nationals returning to the country bringing the virus with them, therefore initiating a second wave of infections. This led to authorities imposing a 14-day quarantine on all foreign arrivals as of March 21, as well as on all establishments they visited. Local administrations meticulously traced every single person who may have possibly been affected, swiftly moving to quarantine entire streets as well as villages out of the fear of future outbreaks of the epidemic. The article also lavished praise on the prudent Vietnamese approach to containing the epidemic following the decision to impose a quarantine at the end of March. Restaurants, cafes, shops, and businesses catering to the public were quickly shut down and street vendors were told to remain at home. Although the initial decision was seen as heavy-handed, especially in cities and regions where there were no active cases, the move was ultimately an integral part of the successful Vietnamese strategy to take on the COVID-19. Elsewhere, Vietnamese scientists were able to develop their own test for the COVID-19 as early as January, later improving it to be able to provide results within 80 minutes with a 90% accuracy rate. In March, there tests were being produced on a massive scale and were marketed abroad at a reasonable price. Finally, the article notes the nations practical activities to support those hardest hit by the pandemic. Some of the measures saw local authorities provide free face masks and rice to people via rice ATMs located in major cities. Moreover, the government began to offer monthly benefits to those with no unemployment insurance. While the future remains uncertain, the Vietnamese example reminds us that having extensive financial resources is neither necessary nor sufficient to successfully fight an epidemic, the article concluded. Foreign experts quarantined and tested in Quang Ngai Harmonia hotel staff are told how to prevent COVID-19. Photo nld.com.vn Fifteen foreign experts who came to work at Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company (located in Dung Quat Economic Zone) were tested for the novel coronavirus as soon as they arrived at a Nang Airport on Sunday afternoon, Ho Minh Nen, director of central Quang Ngai Province's Centre for Disease Control said. On Sunday afternoon, the centre sent blood and throat samples of these foreign experts to Nha Trang Pasteur Institute to test for COVID-19. Among them, 13 came from Croatia and two from Italy both COVID-19-affected countries. These experts were also moved to Harmonia Hotel in Binh ong Commune, Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Province, for quarantine given by the local authority. The hospitals quarantine area has been set up with three medical check stations at the entrance. The provincial police in co-ordination with Binh Son District police supervised around the clock to ensure security and control the number of people entering and leaving the quarantine area. At the hotel, disinfection and medical examinations were carried out at the entrance before experts had moved to the quarantine area. As planned, from the end of May, Quang Ngai Province will receive foreign experts (expected to be over 1,000) from many countries. They will come to participate in the overall maintenance of Dung Quat Oil Refinery (about 350 people) and support to complete the installation at Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company (over 700 people). All foreign experts must undergo medical checks according to current regulations and follow quarantine requirements given by the local authority. Vietnam reports one new imported COVID-19 infection Vietnam reported one new imported COVID-19 case on May 25 evening, bringing the tally to 326, according to the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control. The 20-year-old female student who flew home from France on May 24, was being quarantined immediately after landing at Ho Chi Minh Citys Tan Son Nhat Airport. She is receiving treatment at the Cu Chi Hospital for COVID-19 in the city after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Of the total 326 confirmed cases, 186 are imported ones who were quarantined right after entering the country. The country went through 39 consecutive days without community transmission. Also on May 25, five patients were declared to have recovered from the disease. Right now there are 15,412 people in quarantine across the country, including 58 at hospitals, 8,523 at others quarantine establishments and 6,831 at home./. Vietnam named best COVID-19 fighter browser not support iframe. The US news website Politico has ranked Vietnam the best performer worldwide in the fight against COVID-19. The ranking is based on the COVID-19 impacts on public health and economic outcomes. Politico has mapped the performance of 30 leading countries by plotting their health and economic outcomes and grouping them based on whether they have instituted light, moderate or severe restrictions. Vietnam is a frontrunner regarding both public health and economic outcomes. Vietnam had recorded only approximately 300 cases out of a population of 95 million, without any deaths, Politico said. The countrys economy is predicted to grow by 2.7 percent in 2020, making it the overall best COVID-19 performer globally, it added. Vietnam has so far confirmed 325 COVID-19 infections, including 185 imported cases. With no new cases reported on May 25 morning, the nation remained clear of transmissions of the disease for 39 consecutive days./. 272 COVID-19 patients given all-clear Five more COVID-19 patients have been given the all-clear, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control reported on May 25. Among them, four were passengers on a flight from Dubai that landed at Can Tho International Airport on May 3. They are now in a stable condition and will continue to be quarantined for the next 14 days. As of May 25, 272 of Vietnams 325 COVID-19 patients had fully recovered. The remaining 53 are being treated at health facilities. Thailand enters race for COVID-19 vaccine Thailand is conducting tests on macaque monkeys as it races to produce a cheaper, alternative COVID-19 vaccine that it hopes will be ready by 2021, a top researcher said May 25. Dr Suchinda Malaivitjitnond, Director of the National Primate Research Center of Thailand, said the testing phase on the macaque monkeys came after trials on mice were successful. They are working in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania in the US using a new technology based on mRNA, a type of genetic material never used before to make a vaccine. Thailand was the first country outside China to detect an infection in mid-January. It has so far reported over 3,000 cases and 57 deaths. Meanwhile, Malaysia reported 172 additional infections on May 25, rising nearly threefold compared to the previous day. It was the highest daily jump and the first day of three-digit increase of infections in the country in the last three weeks. So far, the country reported a total 7,417 cases, with 115 fatalities. Some 5,979 patients have recovered, accounting for 80.6 percent./. Over 340 Vietnamese citizens return home from Japan Vietnamese citizens at Narita airport Over 340 Vietnamese citizens living in Japan were brought home safely on May 25. The trip was arranged by Vietnamese and Japanese authorities, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, and national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines. Passengers included children under 18, the elderly, the ill, pregnant women, workers whose visas and labour contracts had expired, and students. After landing at the Noi Bai International Airport, they underwent health check-ups and were then quarantined. On the outbound flight, Vietnam Airlines carried a batch of medical masks from the Vietnamese Government for the Japanese people. Depending on Vietnamese citizens wishes, the quarantine capacity in localities, and the situation surrounding the pandemic, Vietnamese authorities, representative agencies overseas, and airlines will arrange more commercial flights to bring more Vietnamese home, in line with the Prime Ministers directions./. Indonesia faces spike in births driven by COVID-19 lockdowns Indonesia is facing a baby boom as lockdowns induced by COVID-19 cut access to birth control, said the national family planning agency (BKKBN). By early next year, Indonesia - the world's fourth most populous country - could see 420,000 more babies born than would otherwise be expected, the agency estimated. The figure is based on 10 percent of its 28 million member nationwide family planning practice having trouble getting birth control recorded in March. About 4.8 million babies are born annually in Indonesia, a country of nearly 270 million. Many clinics have shut, while those that remain open have limited the number of people they serve, said the agencys chief Hasto Wardoyo. The one-month decline in contraceptive use alone could push up pregnancies by 15 percent, or around 420,000 pregnancies, within a month to three months, according to BKKBNs estimate. A further drop within three months will increase pregnancies by up to 30 percent, or above 800,000, within another few months. The absence of contraception, Hasto noted, may cause unwanted pregnancies, which could take a psychological toll on women and have longer-term repercussions, such as stunted development in children of poor families that cannot afford proper nutrition. The pandemic is "bad timing" for women to get pregnant, as many are unable to obtain proper health care services, Hasto said, urging couples to use contraceptive methods./. Indonesia to apply new normal scenario The Indonesian Government may soon ease restrictions on socioeconomic activities and prepare to carry out the next action plan given that COVID-19 is yet to be brought under control, including the application of a new normal scenario. Secretary of Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Dwi Wahyu Atmaji said the government has thoroughly discussed the scenario and decided to initially apply it to the State civil apparatus (ASN). He stressed that while the word is yet to find a vaccine for COVID-19, people must remain vigilant. Socioeconomic activities, however, should not remain stagnant for too long. The government and people need effective measures to cope with the pandemic while ensuring necessary activities continue. There are three notable components in the new normal scenario, he said. Firstly, a flexible working arrangement will be implemented, in which public employees can work from offices, homes, or elsewhere. Secondly, health protocols will be carried out, such as social distancing at work, wearing masks, and washing hands to prevent transmission. Thirdly, the application of information and communications technology will be improved. He also noted that the application of the new normal scenario depends on directives from the countrys COVID-19 taskforce./. Indonesian Finance Minister: No trade-off between health and economy A dentist in Surabaya, East Java, wears complete personal protective equipment before examining a patient (Photo: Antara) Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on May 24 that Indonesia would not compromise on the health of its people to reboot the country's economy. There is no trade-off between health and economy. Both are like conjoined twins which are not separated, Sri Mulyani said. That was why the government's first step in COVID-19 mitigation was to earmark 75 trillion Rp (5 billion USD) specifically for health care, according to the minister. Major aid packages sourced from the State budget are being used to purchase medical materials and equipment, and upgrade 132 hospitals for COVID-19 treatment. The government has also decided to provide a 15 million Rp incentive to medical specialists, 10 million Rp to physicians and dentists, 7.5 million Rp to nurses, 5 million Rp to other medical staff members, and 300 million Rp in case of death of medical workers. A total of 405.1 trillion Rp has been disbursed to the battle against COVID-19./. Thai PM orders investigation into state quarantine kickbacks The Prime Minister of Thailand has ordered an investigation into alleged state quarantine kickbacks in order to take further tough action against the wrongdoers. Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered an investigation into the hoteliers claim that a group of people have demanded kickbacks from them if they want their facilities to be chosen as state quarantine centers according to the news report. He vowed to take tough action against such wrongdoers who are taking advantage of business operators during this difficult time. Dr Thaweesin Witsanuyothin, spokesman for the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, has confirmed that the center has never sent anyone to demand a kickback for turning a place into a state quarantine facility, to accommodate Thai people returning from abroad. He urged any hotel operator with knowledge of the alleged practice to file a case against the people who demanded a kickback from them./. Berlin Mayor appreciates Vietnamese expats charity work Duong Thi Bich Ngoc (centre), head of the Sen Vang charity organisation, presents the gifts to Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Muller (R). Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Minh Vu stands on the left Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Muller lauded the Vietnamese communitys charitable activities in Germany while receiving 10,000 face masks and 10,000 pairs of gloves from Sen Vang (Golden Lotus) charity organisation on May 25. The event saw the attendance of Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Nguyen Minh Vu and representatives of Berlin agencies. At the event, Muller thanked the Vietnamese organisation, saying its donations are practical and meaningful gifts to Berlin and people particularly amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For his part, Vu noted that the Vietnamese Government and localities have shown their solidarity with the German people by sending face masks and other medical supplies. He said that despite facing difficulties caused by the disease, Vietnamese expatriates in Germany have not only supported each other but also initiated campaigns to join Germans in fighting the pandemic. These campaigns have attracted the participation of Vietnamese nationals across Germany, with thousands of face masks, medical equipment, and food delivered to organisations, hospitals and rest homes in the European country, the ambassador said. These activities demonstrate the communitys sense of responsibility for their second home, he added. According to statistics from the embassy, there are some 125,000 Vietnamese or Germans of Vietnamese descent living in Germany./. Regional solidarity key to cope with COVID-19: experts The article has praised Vietnam as a low-cost effective COVID-19 response. Regional solidarity among ASEAN members is key to effective COVID-19 response, said Nehginpao Kipgen - Executive Director at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) - and Aakriti Bansal, a research assistant at the centre, in a recent article posted on Thailands Bangkok Post. The writers said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has not faced anything like COVID-19 in the recent past. The optimal way for ASEAN to deal with the pandemic is to stand united and come together as a region, they wrote. The article highlighted the holding of a special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on April 14 as one great leap forward for the region, which included the 10 ASEAN members, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Vietnam has since extended some support in the form of medical equipment, which included specialised protective clothing, medical masks, testing systems, and test kits worth 304,000 USD to Laos and Cambodia, the article said, praising Vietnam as a successful low-cost model for containing the outbreak. The article went on that Vietnams low-cost model focuses on selective but proactive prevention because of a lack of resources and has been largely effective thus far. Other ASEAN member states should attempt to implement this low-cost model, as the method has worked for Vietnam with a decline in the number of cases, it went on. The article also suggested ASEAN conduct more tests and identify as many cases as they can within their borders, as well as respond collectively and proactively as a bloc through coordination, comprehensiveness, information sharing, and effective policy-making, while developing cost-effective models like making cheaper test kits to flatten the curve./. Thailand prepares for next phase of lockdown easing Thailand reported one more fatality of the COVID-19 on May 25, raising the total to 57. On the day, the country confirmed two new infections, of them one had close contacts with a patient, and the other returned from Russia. A total of 3,042 cases have been reported in Thailand so far, with 2,928 given the all-clear. Although the COVID-19 situation in Thailand has shown positive developments, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) on May 22 adopted the National Security Councils proposal of extending the state of emergency until June 30. The proposal responds to developments of the global pandemic and allows time for the preparation of further lockdown easing at the start of next month. Thailand has also taken one step forward towards developing a vaccine for the disease. Director of the Chulalongkorn University's Centre of Excellence in Vaccine Research and Development, Dr Nakorn Premsri said that vaccine development involves the synthesising of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) in monkeys, which began on May 23. The trial will last three months and is expected to finish in late August. If the trial is successful, the research team will use the best viable antibodies from these primates to produce 10,000 doses of vaccine for human trials. "That will kickstart the test in humans, which will see at least 5,000 volunteers receive two injections each," he said./. Cambodian workers affected by COVID-19 to receive support About 55,000 garment-textile workers and 4,300 others working in the tourism sector in Cambodia, who have become jobless by the COVID-19 pandemic, each will receive monthly financial support worth 40 USD through their Wing Specialised Bank accounts next week. The Ministry of Labours spokesperson Heng Sour said the government has already allocated its budget to 126 factories and 53 hotels that have registered for support to their workers, the Khmer Times reported. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, approximately 300-350 million USD has been delivered to different economic sectors. Meas Sok Sensan, spokesperson of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said that this fund is not only for workers who have lost jobs but also for poor families affected by the economic downturn. Figures unveiled by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia showed that 180 factories have suspended their operations and 60 others are also in the pipeline, affecting more than 150,000 workers./. Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. The global plunge in oil prices, instigated by Russia and Saudi Arabia, hit just before Covid-19 ground the world to a halt and paralyzed demand for fossil fuels. As the pandemics economic crisis leaves millions of Americans out of work, the industry, now in the early stages of recovery, has another front to contend with. While it would seem like common sense to cheer the revival of an industry crippled through unprecedented circumstances and currently worth about $181 billion to the U.S. economy by 2018 figures, it has proven a particularly divisive idea in recent weeks. Debate in Congress has raged as certain members push a political agenda to support renewable energy, which represents just 11 percent of the total U.S. energy use. "Democrats won't let us fund hospitals or save small businesses unless they get to dust off the Green New Deal," Senator Mitch McConnell said. South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third ranking Democrat in the House, salivated at how the pandemic crisis is an opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision. That vision clearly entails using the Covid-19 outbreak as an opening to push more green energy programs, tying up stimulus efforts, and turning a blind eye to hundreds of thousands of laid-off workers in the traditional energy sector. Cities like Houston, Texas, are highly reliant on the gas and oil industry. This city alone could lose as many as 300,000 jobs in the sector as a result of the coronavirus. The oil shale industry, already brought to its knees by the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, has seen rising debts, oil well closures and even bankruptcies as it tries to survive both global political turmoil and slack demand due to the coronavirus, headwinds that lead to U.S. oil prices diving below zero for the first time. Yet, instead of making the sound bet in support of critical existing energy infrastructure, certain politicians are gambling on supplanting this proven commodity with unproven renewables. The move can only be viewed as a purely ideological posture that will undermine the strength and timeline for economic recovery, while abandoning hundreds of thousands of workers ready to get back on the job. Of course this comes at a time when most Americans have just been socked in the wallet; across the country, over 30 million have lost jobs or been furloughed, with sad expectations of more unemployment yet to be reported. The costly subsidies and infrastructure investments associated with renewable energy bring a burden that will undermine economic recovery and impact American workers efforts to regain footing in this crisis. The so-called Green New Deal put forward by hard-left congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could cost as much as $93 trillion according to the American Action Forum. At a time when our nation just accumulated trillions of dollars in debt in federal relief efforts, piling on more debt for unproven and quixotic delusions of a green energy renaissance shouldnt even be on the table. Democrats cheered the recent drop in oil prices, but now is not the time to capitalize on losses in favor of pushing green energy. The American oil and gas industries employed over 1.1 million people in 2019, and the rural towns that rely on the industries suffered greatly with the price drop earlier this year. These communities are resilient. Theyve proven oil can make a comeback after setbacks in the past, and anaylsts rightly point out the US oil industry is "poised for a comeback" yet again. While there may be volatility in oil prices, this is an unprecedented event and one that can and will be overcome. With the lack of supply and reliability facing the renewables sector, only in the most fanciful fantasies of its most ardent adherents is it ready to take over from traditional energy. Using Covid-19 as a vehicle to invest in renewable energy is an irresponsible ploy that detracts from the crisis the American people currently face. It will increase national debt, disrupt supply, increase costs for consumers, and leave hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans vulnerable to prolonged layoffs. Consumers and communities require affordable, available energy to bounce back from this economic devastation. A recovery effort that neglects American workers and the traditional energy sector weve relied on throughout the crisis, in favor of unreliable and unproven renewable energy, will fail both the economy and the American people. Gerard Scimeca is an attorney and co-founder of CASE, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a free-market oriented consumer advocacy organization. Younger farmers and farmers living in the east and south-east are more likely to breach EU rules on use of nitrates on their farms, according to a new study. A report by the Economic and Social Research Institute also found that farmers with a history of exceeding permissible levels of nitrate on their land as well as farmers with smaller holdings are significantly more likely to violate the regulations. It found that farmers in Waterford had the highest propensity to be non-compliant. Farmers in Kildare, Tipperary and Wexford are also likely to have above-average levels of non-compliance. ESRI researchers analysed data provided by the Department of Agriculture on farmers who had exceeded legal limits on the use of 170kg of nitrogen from livestock manure per hectare between 2006 and 2015 to examine if they could predict the identity of likely offenders. The limit is equivalent to two dairy cows per hectare, although some farmers can apply for a derogation up to a maximum of 250kg of nitrogen per hectare Around 2,000 farms violate limits of the use of nitrates on average each year. Although the number of offenders is a relatively small proportion of the countrys 130,000 farms, the report said breaches of EU regulations on the use of nitrates on farms reduced water quality and results in financial penalties being imposed on farmers. It said farms with previous violations were also likely to reoffend. ESRI behavioural economist and one of the main authors of the study, Peter Lunn, said the purpose of the study was to understand why farmers continue to breach EU nitrate regulations, despite high detection rates and increasing penalties. Penalties are multiplied threefold for a second offence detected within three years of the original offence. Repeated breaches can result in the entire loss of a single years Single Farm Payment which averaged 9,414 in 2018. Dr Lunn said the results, while not surprising, signalled that many violations were not due to small changes in behaviour but reflected substantial changes to farming practice. Overall the findings are consistent with the view that regulatory violations are most likely when a farm business undergoes substantive change, perhaps via an alternative business model, expanded production or the buying or selling of land, Dr Lunn said. He said non-compliance among farmers in the east and south-east of the country was higher than average as they tended to be farms with more fertile grassland where farmers may be more likely to expand their operations to meet short-term market conditions. Smaller farms were more likely to breach the nitrate limits as any change to the farm business was likely to bring them over the permitted level. Dr Lunn said the findings could be used to assist in the design and targeting of interventions, such as warning letters, aimed at improving compliance. Intervention may be more successful when they are well-timed, reminding farmers of their obligations when changes to business practice are being considered, such as when trading livestock or engaging an advisor, said Dr Lunn. Acker, Americas oldest wine shop and the largest fine and rare auction house in the world, announced on Monday the opening of its web auction dedicated to help furloughed sommeliers. In the wake of widespread restaurant closures and the subsequent employment loss of wine professionals around the globe due to COVID-19, Acker partnered with the United Sommeliers Foundation to host an auction raising money for the foundations robust grant program, which provides immediate financial assistance to sommeliers in need. The auction, which launched on Monday, May 25th, will accept bids on the hundreds of lots in the sale through Sunday evening, May 31st, concluding with a live online close starting at 8pm ET, presided over by chairman and auctioneer, John Kapon. Collecting consignments direct from numerous wineries, both in Europe and in the United States, in addition to generous donations of prestigious bottles by private collectors, the auction contains a potential $350,000+ of wines and experiences sure to bring out bidders with charity in mind. Acker, as well as many of the French producers, have also donated lots to benefit the Union de la Sommellierie Francaise for furloughed French sommeliers, with those lots properly denoted as well. Highlights of the consignments direct from Europe include bottles from Domaine Dujac, de Montille, Fourrier, H. Lignier, Meo-Camuzet, Domaine du Pegau, Pierre Peters, CVNE, Vega Sicilia, Weingut Keller, and many more. Not to be outmatched, donations from prestigious United States wineries include Bond, Chateau Montelena, Colgin, Hundred Acre, Jordan, Kistler, Mayacamas, Opus One, Peter Michael, OShaughnessy, Quilceda Creek, Screaming Eagle and many, many more. Several of these producers have also provided experience lots including a tour of Champagne house Laurent Perrier, an exclusive virtual tasting from Lokoya, and a custom vertical owc and tasting from Taittinger otherwise unavailable to consumers. Some of the worlds most esteemed collectors searched deep in their cellars to offer highly coveted bottles from Rayas to Roulot, Leroy to Le Pin, and Chateau Palmer to Dom Perignon. Even renowned importer, Martine Saunier has donated two bottles of legendary and rare Henri Jayer from her own personal collection to this worthy cause. The auction can be accessed through Ackers live bidding platform at bidlive.ackerwines.com or via the companys bidding App for iPhone or Android. The generosity weve witnessed from collectors, Domaines and wineries both of weve known for years and have not previously worked with has been outstanding, said Acker Chairman, John Kapon. Seeing so many from every corner of the globe come together for this cause has reaffirmed my belief that wine is truly a uniting force in the world. I am so looking forward to the live close of this sale, getting bidders engaged in a final flurry of activity on Sunday night, as we support the sommeliers who have assisted us, in business and in pleasure, during the regular course of our lives. We are honored to have partnered with the United Sommeliers Foundation for this occasion. Donations to the United Sommeliers Foundation will continue being accepted after the auctions close. Donation and bidding inquiries can be directed to Ackers Auction Department at auction@ackerwines.com. To learn more about the United Sommeliers Foundation visit http://www.unitedsommeliersfoundation.org. The Union de la Sommellierie Francaise website is http://www.sommelier-france.org. The auction season continues for Acker with a live online Spirits-only auction in Hong Kong on May 28th, with another two-day sale in Hong Kong on June 11th and 13th and also in New York on June 24th and 25th. Acker is always accepting wines for consignment. Weekly web auctions are closing every week. Acker is hosting Virtual Vintage Tastings with John Kapon on Zoom on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8pm ET and Fridays at 12:30pm ET with some of the food and wine worlds most interesting guests. For more information, email info@ackerwines.com. About Acker Established in 1820, Acker is the oldest wine shop in America and the world's largest fine and rare wine auction house. Since third generation wine merchant John Kapon, Chairman of Acker, started the auction business in 1998, the house has gained worldwide recognition. Acker offers a vast array of services, including cellar consultations, a deep retail inventory of fine and rare wine for immediate sale, first class wine education amenities, in-store tastings daily, and its ne plus ultra fine and rare wine auctions. 3K Shares Share It took a pandemic to reveal the secret. It took a pandemic to realize the importance of health care workers. Ironic, isnt it? It took a pandemic to know what doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, laboratory technicians, and environmental services personnel go through every day. Yes, this is what they do every day. Surprise, surprise! Every day we head to work early in the morning sometimes before the sun is up, not knowing what the day holds for us. We do not walk into empty buildings that are waiting for employees to fill them with life. Instead we walk into a building where things never stop, where the goal is to provide and keep lives. We are greeted by people who are walking the other direction after a long shift. Some can smile at you; others cannot. Maybe it is the fatigue, maybe its what they have witnessed overnight, and that thing they witnessed will stay with them and carry on forever. So not being able to smile and greet is totally understandable. It took a pandemic from a respiratory pathogen to enlighten people that health care workers can be at risk of getting sick because they are doing their jobs. Maybe the thought was we were immune to other pathogens, and this one broke us. No, my dear readers, long before this, we have been dealing with other pathogens that might put our lives in danger. When we see patients with bloodborne pathogens like HIV and hepatitis just to name two, we dont get to say no. I will pass on operating on this patient, and move to the next one. We happily take care of them and do not discriminate. The internist who is examining, the surgeon who is cutting, the nurse who is putting an IV, the phlebotomist drawing blood, the environmental services personnel who is cleaning the blood; all these people are scared and are at risk of contracting the disease, but that never stopped them! They keep at it with passion. Yes you might say they signed up for this, I agree, but I would argue that even signing up for this takes a lot of courage and resilience. Signing up to study long hours, to carry big loans, to spend sleepless nights in a row at the hospital, to risk contracting diseases every day, and to take a job at the hospital dealing with such risks daily; all this takes courage and sacrifice. It took a pandemic to realize the toll of the job on health care workers. Now everyone is talking about mental health and how this virus will cause not only physical burnout but also a mental one! We also report on suicide because of the pandemics horrifying scene. Suicide and mental health problems are not new outcomes and creations of this pandemic. Suicide among medical students, residents, and physicians has been on the rise for a while now. In fact, a meta-analysis from December 2019 (before the pandemic) has shown that suicide among physicians is higher than the general population, particularly women physicians and that the rate of physician suicide in the U.S. is higher than that in Europe. The scariest part in all this is that the problem never uncovers itself until its too late. There is some kind of power within health care workers that makes them hide their real feelings. They just smile through the process until they are alone, and then, everything turns ugly. As maternal-fetal medicine specialists, we deal with high-risk pregnancies, whether it is because of maternal morbidities or fetal anomalies. It is our job to try to achieve a healthy pregnancy for both mom and baby. When you are giving a patient bad news about her pregnancy potential or her current pregnancy, tears start to well up, the air in the room starts feeling heavy, and you feel like you are the devil for giving the bad news. All this, my readers, is something we carry home with us, and it has a toll on our mental health. I know in this day and age access to health care has changed, technology and available resources online have sometimes created doubts and decreased trust in health care. I also know that some health care workers are seen as highly paid people (sometimes), that you can avoid seeing by just finding the answer online. But I hope this pandemic has brought back the confidence and trust in health care workers because at the end of the day there is nothing that can replace scientific facts given by someone who spent years studying and treating patients to be able to give optimal care. Finally, it took a pandemic to reveal the secret of what health care workers are doing every day of their lives. This is no secret at all, but we chose to ignore its importance and validity until a pandemic hit us. Now that the secret is out, I hope that respect for the health care workers recommendations grows, especially with states opening back. Maybe now that people know how it affects the hospital workers, they will think twice before dismissing mitigation efforts. Sarah Araji is an obstetrics-gynecology physician. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Hotels in Northern Ireland remain in "limbo" as venues across the border plan to reopen in July, it's been claimed. The Republic's hotels are due to open on July 20, but some reports have suggested that the lifting of restrictions on that date could be accelerated. No dates are given for reopening hotels or other businesses in the Executive's reopening roadmap. Bridgene Keeley, director of family-run company McKeever Hotel Group, said the industry here was at a disadvantage. Her company, which owns the Dunadry, Corr's Corner, Dunsilly and Adair Arms in Co Antrim, is preparing for the reopening of its Dillons Hotel in Letterkenny on July 20. She said: "I think tourism is part of an all-island agenda and therefore I think Northern Ireland hotels should open at or around the same time as the Irish hotels. "Not allowing hotels to reopen at the same time would have a significant impact on NI's ability to attract the staycation market and would be at great disadvantage and may impact NI tourism's ability to bounce back quicker." Economy Minister Diane Dodds has said she is aware of the concerns of the hotel industry here around the lack of certainty over reopening dates. Ms Keeley added: "We have been working hard for the past number of weeks to ensure the safety and security of all our guests and staff at the hotels when we return. Some examples of this is we have ordered numerous hand sanitising stations around the hotel, screens for reception, and looking at measures to reduce high touch points." The NI Hotel Federation said interest in staycations had grown since a timeline for reopening had been given in the Republic. Chief executive Janice Gault said: "Consumer sentiment shows a willingness to travel on the island of Ireland, with the desire to have a holiday growing week on week. "This is an opportunity that we are missing out on, with the lack of certainty giving rise to considerable frustration for hoteliers north of the border, as we are unable to take bookings and have had to reject inquiries. "In reality, domestic tourism will be the only viable market this year and it is disappointing if local hotels are not in a position to take bookings at this time. "It is important to note the date July 20 was always an indicative one for hotels in the south and may yet move to an earlier date." She added: "The current land of limbo that we find ourselves in really is the worst of all worlds." The closures imposed by the virus provide an opportunity for "meditation and reflection" on Christ's teachings to mature "in faith and vocation". The crisis is "violent" but "transitory" and humanity will emerge "stronger". The return to faith, the maturation of a domestic Church with the contribution of the Holy Spirit. From religious leaders the common commitment against extremism and violence. Baghdad (AsiaNews) - There is "a certain similarity" between the condition of the disciples after the death of Jesus "stuck in the house" for "fear of the extremist Jews" and ours today, "locked in the house" for fear of the Covid-19 pandemic and the fear of being "attacked" by the virus. However, "on the fiftieth day everything changed for them, writes the Chaldean primate, Card Louis Raphael Sako in a reflection sent to AsiaNews, ahead of the Feast of Pentecost next Sunday 31 May. Drawing a parallel between the disciples then and the present world, the Cardinal stressed that their lockdown was an occasion "for meditation and reflection" on the teachings of Christ in order to mature "in faith and vocation". "Anxious and fearful" due to the lack of safe spaces "we also experience segregation in the home and a social distance" writes Card Sako. But, he warns, "the coronavirus crisis, although violent, is transient and transitory" and humanity has already experienced "other violent crises in the past, emerging stronger". In this period "a return to faith" and "clinging to Christian spirituality, prayer, fasting, at the service of charity" emerged. At the same time "there is a domestic Church that matures, takes root in faith and commitment, manifests the desire to access communion and the reopening" of places of worship. "We - he warns - are preparing for this step" even if "our world will no longer be as before the coronavirus". For the cardinal, there is a parallel between the apostles "after the descent of the Holy Spirit" and us Christians today, called to "return with strength to our faith, to our values, to our healthy family relationships, to our social commitments". In this task we will be helped by the Holy Spirit whose "illuminated vision" will allow us to observe and evaluate "with a more complete and profound gaze" and will help to "overcome the crisis with our faith, our values, our charity and solidarity. Addressing the international community, the Chaldean primate recalls that it is the job of governments to "provide food, medicine and services" to the population instead of "making weapons and seeking to control the world economy". This virus must be a "propitious occasion" to "improve human solidarity" and strengthen the principles of "mercy, love, peace, respect, justice" without looking at the professed faith, the color of the skin, gender. School curricula must "consolidate human brotherhood" and, in this sense, the teaching contained in the document signed by Pope Francis and the imam of al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib is fundamental. Finally, the Chaldean patriarch turns to the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other faiths called to "take the challenges of the coronavirus seriously " for "cultural, economic and social change". He concludes, "we must treat extremism and every thought that drives violence" by continuing on the common path of "love, tolerance, coexistence and defense of human rights". By Kazeem Ugbodaga Nigerias Coronavirus cases have surpassed 8,000 mark after the nation recorded 229 fresh cases of the virus on Monday. According to figures released by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Nigeria now has 8,068 confirmed cases. In todays figures released by the NCDC, Lagos topped with 90 new infections, with Katsina ramping up 29 new cases and Imo, 26 fresh infections. Kano recorded 23 new cases; FCT, 14; Plateau, 12 cases, Ogun, nine cases; Delta, seven cases, while Borno and Rivers recorded five cases each. Others are: Oyo, four cases; Gombe, three cases; Osun, two cases, Anambra, one case; Bayelsa, one case. The nation recorded seven new Coronavirus deaths, taking the total to 233 deaths. Also, 2,311 Coronavirus patients who survived the virus have been discharged. How States Stand Jenkintown Road closed from Monday through May Hours after President Donald Trump was spotted Monday partaking in public Memorial Day remembrances without a face mask, he hopped on Twitter to retweet a Fox News commentator criticizing former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, for wearing one. "This might help explain why Trump doesn't like to wear a mask in public," Brit Hume, Fox News's senior political analyst tweeted Monday evening, sharing a picture of Biden at a Delaware veterans memorial earlier that day. In the photo, which documents Biden's first public appearance since mid-March, most of the 77-year-old's face is obscured by a black mask and a pair of aviator sunglasses. Hume's tweet sparked instant backlash from a number of critics on the left. By early Tuesday, Hume was still trending on Twitter as detractors questioned whether he valued Biden looking "cool" more than encouraging efforts to slow the spread of the potentially deadly novel coronavirus that has now killed more than 97,000 Americans. Trump, however, appeared unbothered by the outcry and shared the tweet to his 80.2 million followers Monday night. Trump's retweet came at the end of a holiday weekend defined by dueling optics. As officials urged social distancing and the number of reported covid-19 deaths in the U.S. crept closer to 100,000, viral photos and videos emerged showing beaches, pool parties and raceways packed with crowds raucously celebrating the long weekend. But the contrasting approaches to Memorial Day appeared most obvious in the actions of the nation's leaders - the president and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee - as they paid public tributes on Monday to lives lost in past wars. Trump, who has largely steered clear of being seen in public and at the White House wearing a mask, was barefaced as he participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and while speaking later at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. At Arlington, Trump was joined by first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Mark Esper - all of whom were seen without masks. Meanwhile, Biden and his wife, both wearing black masks, left their neighborhood for the first time in more than two months to lay a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veteran's Memorial Park. Members of Biden's staff and security detail also sported face coverings during Monday's outing. For many, the conflicting images of Trump and Biden marked yet another flash point in the ongoing culture war over the practice of wearing masks, which has become widely politicized as Republicans and Democrats have clashed over how to reopen the country amid the pandemic. Protests and incidents of violence have grown nationwide as some call orders mandating face coverings government overreach. A handful of Republican leaders, meanwhile, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have implored their constituents to not view the face coverings as political statements, but rather as a necessary tool to help contain the virus. "I would really love to see in North Dakota that we could just skip this thing that other parts of the nation are going through, where they're creating a divide - either it's ideological or political or something - around mask versus no mask," Burgum said at a news conference Friday. During a Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," DeWine stressed that what people do now "directly impacts others." "This is not about politics," he said. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday defended Trump's tweet, maintaining that the president was "not shaming anyone." She also said Biden's decision to wear a mask on Memorial Day "didn't strike [Trump] as a very data-driven decision" and questioned why the former vice president wasn't wearing a mask in recent videos that showed him speaking inside his home next to his wife, Jill Biden. "It is a bit peculiar, though, that in his basement right next to his wife, he's not wearing a mask, but he's wearing one on wear outdoors when he's socially distant," McEnany said of Biden. "So I think that there was a discrepancy there." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that Americans wear face coverings while in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus. "Keep the covering on your face the entire time you're in public," the CDC's guidelines state. On Monday, Hume and Trump were at the center of the escalating debate about masks. Critics went after the pair for calling out Biden while simultaneously praising the former vice president's decision to adhere to official health guidelines. "Presidents lead by example, and wearing a mask helps protect others," TJ Ducklo, a Biden campaign spokesman, told The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan. "Donald Trump should try it, because his failure to act early on producing [personal protective equipment], on ramping up testing, and implementing a coherent national response to this crisis has cost thousands of Americans their lives." Ronald Klain, an adviser to Biden, hit back at Hume on Twitter with a nearly identical message. "A President takes measures to protect others. That's what a mask does," Klain tweeted. "That's what a competent President would have done, months ago: on testing, on PPE, on social distancing," he continued. "And many fewer Americans would be grieving today." As the reactions poured in Monday, Hume doubled down on his criticism of Biden, writing incorrectly that the Bidens had gone to a cemetery and suggesting that the masks were largely for show. "Uh, he was visiting a cemetery and had been in quarantine for weeks," Hume tweeted in response to one critic. "The video showed no one within six feet of him beside his wife. So what was the mask for, other than to virtue signal?" In another tweet, Hume wrote, that Biden "got you to think he was showing concern, so I guess the mask served it purpose." Much like his original tweet, Hume's responses were heavily ratioed as detractors pointed out inconsistencies in his argument. For instance, several people noted that Biden was seen Monday coming within six feet of his security. TORONTO, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Health Coalition, which has released major reports annually on the state of long-term care in Ontario in recent years, expressed its frustration upon reading the description of infection control practices at the facilities to which military personnel were dispatched. The Coalition has called on the Ford government repeatedly to improve access to PPE, take concrete measures to address critical staffing shortages, improve infection control and training and workplace safety, take concrete measures to isolate residents who test positive, intervene in homes that have incompetent or negligent management, and show coherent coordinated leadership in this sector rather than leaving it to voluntary arrangements between provider companies. See repeated press releases over the last two months here: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/resources-analysiscovid-19-resources-analysis-of-the-ford-governments-response/ (scroll to media releases). The Coalition is not alone. Advocates from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and other seniors organizations, unions and health professionals have all been speaking with one voice in calling for these measures, yet improvements have been late, inadequate, or nonexistent, and there still is no coherent strategy, coalition spokesperson Natalie Mehra reported. We are beyond frustrated, she said. Thousands of staff and residents alike have been infected with COVID-19, almost 1,500 residents and staff have died, yet we are still waiting for a coherent coordinated plan from Ontarios government to intervene actively in long-term care homes with outbreaks. Aside from individual staff transgressions, which require proper management of staff and proper training, there are clear systemic issues here. We have repeatedly raised the issue of staff being required to wear the same PPE from resident to resident or patient to patient until it is visibly soiled. This would have been completely unacceptable prior to COVID-19 and yet it is routinely the case in homes and hospitals that say that they are complying with Public Health Ontarios directives and guidelines, she noted. Shortages of PPE and incompetent and negligent management are compounded by the leadership failure in our provincial government which should have applied the precautionary principle and taken much more active measures to improve the standard of infection control, workplace safety and access to PPE. Long-term care homes were in a crisis of understaffing prior to COVID-19 and the situation has been worsened as staff have left, are off work in isolation, and as many have had to choose one home out of several at which they worked part-time, she reported. Stories of inadequate care levels are frequent, particularly in homes with outbreaks, but also in others. This was the case across the board prior to COVID-19, now the inadequacy of staffing and care is beyond description. The Coalition reiterates its call of recent weeks for immediate measures to stabilize the workforce and improve safety as follows: From our provincial government we need a coherent plan including concrete measures to improve PPE supply and infection control, to stabilize the workforce, and leadership and coordination to stem the tide of infections that is sweeping through our health care facilities, reiterated Ms. Mehra from the Coalitions call last week insisting that the following not to be delayed by a commission into long-term care: Better infection control including better access to PPE . Reusing surgical masks patient after patient, resident after resident, would have been totally unacceptable before COVID-19. Woefully insufficient access to N95 masks continues to be a major problem and there are shortages of other equipment. There needs to be a clear plan from the government to improve the supply of PPE or develop our own. Leaving it to industry to do voluntarily has so far been insufficient. Standards for infection control must be improved and staff need the appropriate equipment, enough supply and proper training in order to follow them. Staff who are infected must be supported to isolate at home. The directive allowing health care facilities to require staff to work who have tested positive but are asymptomatic is dangerous and should be changed. Testing of all residents and staff must be completed in long-term care homes, retirement homes, and congregate care facilities (and shelters). Testing, tracking and isolating people who test positive is shown to have stopped the spread of COVID-19 in other countries. It must happen here. Access to PPE using the precautionary principle must be implemented in long-term care, hospitals, home care and across the health care system as soon as possible. . Reusing surgical masks patient after patient, resident after resident, would have been totally unacceptable before COVID-19. Woefully insufficient access to N95 masks continues to be a major problem and there are shortages of other equipment. There needs to be a clear plan from the government to improve the supply of PPE or develop our own. Leaving it to industry to do voluntarily has so far been insufficient. Standards for infection control must be improved and staff need the appropriate equipment, enough supply and proper training in order to follow them. Staff who are infected must be supported to isolate at home. The directive allowing health care facilities to require staff to work who have tested positive but are asymptomatic is dangerous and should be changed. Testing of all residents and staff must be completed in long-term care homes, retirement homes, and congregate care facilities (and shelters). Testing, tracking and isolating people who test positive is shown to have stopped the spread of COVID-19 in other countries. It must happen here. Access to PPE using the precautionary principle must be implemented in long-term care, hospitals, home care and across the health care system as soon as possible. Ramp up testing using our provinces full public capacity . Public hospital laboratories that are not currently doing COVID-19 testing and have unused capacity should be ramping up testing. We need a clear honest plan from the provincial government that assesses our full capacity to test (including all the public hospitals, not just those that are currently testing) and immediately gets them to start getting the pieces in place to ramp up to our provinces real full capacity the testing, tracking and isolating to stop the spread of COVID-19. There must be a coherent plan to get the supply or develop it and transparency about what is happening with supply. Retirement homes are suffering serious COVID-19 outbreaks as are congregate care settings and shelters. They should be subject to the same rigorous systematic testing as long-term care homes have been. . Public hospital laboratories that are not currently doing COVID-19 testing and have unused capacity should be ramping up testing. We need a clear honest plan from the provincial government that assesses our capacity to test (including all the public hospitals, not just those that are currently testing) and immediately gets them to start getting the pieces in place to ramp up to our provinces real full capacity the testing, tracking and isolating to stop the spread of COVID-19. There must be a coherent plan to get the supply or develop it and transparency about what is happening with supply. Retirement homes are suffering serious COVID-19 outbreaks as are congregate care settings and shelters. They should be subject to the same rigorous systematic testing as long-term care homes have been. Understaffing in long-term care is critical and must be addressed . The provincial government cannot rely on long-term care homes in crisis to get themselves out of crisis. There must be a coherent plan, led by our government, to step in with a set of coordinated, concrete measures to get staff into the homes that have lost staffing levels due to sickness, having to choose one part-time job, staff leaving etc. Leaving it to the providers to forge voluntary arrangements among themselves is not sufficient. Staff need a permanent improvement to their wages and access to full-time hours. This cannot be voluntary and there is no path to stability without the provincial government undertaking these measures. The Minister of Long-Term Care must use her powers under the Long-Term Care Homes Act to revoke licences and appoint new management in long-term care homes that have uncontrolled outbreaks and evidence of negligence and poor practices. . The provincial government cannot rely on long-term care homes in crisis to get themselves out of crisis. There must be a coherent plan, led by our government, to step in with a set of coordinated, concrete measures to get staff into the homes that have lost staffing levels due to sickness, having to choose one part-time job, staff leaving etc. Leaving it to the providers to forge voluntary arrangements among themselves is not sufficient. Staff need a permanent improvement to their wages and access to full-time hours. This cannot be voluntary and there is no path to stability without the provincial government undertaking these measures. The Minister of Long-Term Care must use her powers under the Long-Term Care Homes Act to revoke licences and appoint new management in long-term care homes that have uncontrolled outbreaks and evidence of negligence and poor practices. Transfers to hospitals . Where there are long-term care homes in crisis without sufficient staff to provide proper palliative care and proper care to meet residents needs, residents should be transferred to public hospitals which are not in crisis for safe and proper care, subject to their right to consent. . Where there are long-term care homes in crisis without sufficient staff to provide proper palliative care and proper care to meet residents needs, residents should be transferred to public hospitals which are not in crisis for safe and proper care, subject to their right to consent. Bring in family caregivers and retired nurses as soon as possible: Starting in areas where there has been little spread of COVID-19, with strict testing/contact tracing capacity, PPE supply and training in infection control families must be allowed back into long-term care homes. In other areas, primary family caregivers need to be able to be involved as partners in their families care. The pool of nurses that the RNAO has recruited to help should be utilized if they have not already been. Starting in areas where there has been little spread of COVID-19, with strict testing/contact tracing capacity, PPE supply and training in infection control families must be allowed back into long-term care homes. In other areas, primary family caregivers need to be able to be involved as partners in their families care. The pool of nurses that the RNAO has recruited to help should be utilized if they have not already been. Institute a minimum care standard in long- term care: There has been deep consensus for decades that the rising acuity (complexity and heaviness of the care needs) of long-term care residents requires more care. This cannot be left to operators to do on their own and resources, both financial and human, need to be provided to support this. There cannot be further delay in beginning to move to a 4-hour average minimum care level for residents in long-term care to protect their safety and the safety of staff. The coalition is also calling for the halt of any expansion of for-profit long-term care. The Coalition is drafting a framework for the re-entry of family caregivers into long-term care homes to be released in the next few days. For more information: Natalie Mehra, executive director, 416-230-6402 (cell). Former YES Bank managing director and chief executive officer Rana Kapoor used the lender as his personal fiefdom to carry out illegal activities and was the architect of a financial fraud aimed at creating wealth for himself and his family, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed in a charge sheet filed against the co-founder. The 62-year-old former banker, the first MD-CEO rank executive of a private bank to be charge-sheeted for suspected money laundering, was accused of impropriety, illegality and rampant misuse of power in what the central agency described as the hallmark of a scam that had been brewing for many years. Practices followed by the YES Bank under Kapoors regime promoted a poor credit and compliance culture, centralisation of power and lack of institutionalisation, putting it in a situation where its survival came into question, said the document filed on May 6, a copy of which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times.YES Bank had assumed a very large exposure (relative to its net worth) to many entities that were facing significant stress and liquidity, it said. Contacted over the phone, Kapoors lawyer Subhash Jadhav refused to comment on the charge sheet. Kapoor was arrested on March 8 in connection with the illegalities at YES Bank during his stint as the head of the lender. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slapped a moratorium on the bank and superseded its governing board the same month, and co-opted State Bank of India (SBI), the nations largest lender, to rescue it. The ED, which investigates money laundering offences, has claimed that during his tenure, Kapoor was instrumental in sanctioning loans worth 30,000 crore, out of which accounts worth 20,000 crore turned into a non-performing asset. Kapoor, it has been alleged, accepted illegal gratification while granting loans and money was diverted through these companies. A Mumbai court took cognisance of EDs chargesheet on Saturday, summoning Kapoor, his wife and daughters in the case of money laundering on June 5. The ED charged that Rana Kapoor, who co-founded the bank in 2004 and was MD-CEO till January 2019, had acted as the prima donna, chief conspirator and the architect of a scam aimed at diverting public money to create wealth for himself and his family. Rana Kapoor perpetrated the entire scam by firstly taking money out of YES Bank under the garb of debentures and loans, by abusing his position in the bank and secondly, receiving kickbacks/gratification for the same, the ED charge sheet said. The agency has pegged the proceeds of crime at 5,050 crore. But it is a complex case of financial fraud with a web of interlinked transactions and entities and the quid pro quo will come to light only after thorough investigations, it said. As the national capital of Delhi is crawling back to normalcy with many relaxations in place, a deadly fire has taken place. On Tuesday morning a call was received by the Keshav Puram fire station at 8:34 am post which 23 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames which happened to engulf a footwear factory in Delhi's North West region. Read: Fire breaks out at slums in Delhi's Tughlakabad; no casualties reported About the incident Brijpal Bharadwaj, the deputy chief fire officer, said that the basement along with the first, second and third floors have been engulfed in a massive fire. As of now, the flames have been doused at the basement and the first floor. As the factory is locked up from all its three sides, the entry is only possible from the front gate. "Fire fighting is occurring from only the front side but as a precautionary measure, we have stationed two fire tenders on stand by mode, on the backside of the factory also. We have sent one line of fire officers inside the building as well to bring the situation under control. Some firefighters are also dousing the fire by spraying the water with high pressure from the building located opposite to the affected shoe factory," he added. Read: Afghanistan government releases 100 Taliban prisoners during 3-day Eid ceasefire The lockdown has certainly come to the rescue of hundreds of workers and the owner of the factory who were not present at the site when the fire broke out, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. This, fortunately, further led to no casualties and no trappings. "We have spoken to the owner who said that the factory was not functioning because of the existing lockdown. The operation of dousing the fire will take close to 4-5 hours as the fire had been uniformly spread across the floors of the building. However, most of the situation has been brought under control," the deputy chief fire officer added. The cause of the fire is yet to ascertained. Although the fire was massive in nature, due to the efforts of the firefighters, the flames couldn't reach the adjacent buildings in the area. Another similar incident took place miles away at Tughlaqabad village where 250 huts were gutted to fire. It happened late Monday night after which 28 fire tenders rushed to the spot and got the situation in control. Read: Fire at Noida Authority office, several files gutted Read: Jhansi fire brigade asked to be ready with chemicals after sudden movement of locusts R etail sales remained deeply depressed in May as a result of a coronavirus lockdown that has prompted a collapse in consumer spending. According to a monthly survey by the CBI retail sales have hovered around 12 year lows for the second month in a row as retailers battle for survival. The distributive trades survey by the employers organisation shows a net balance of -50 per cent of retailers reporting rising sales in May, only a slight improvement from -55 in April. The survey revealed that financial pressures are the number one worry for the sector with 80 per cent of retailers reporting cash-flow difficulties. The CBI has called on the government to implement further measures to help the sector. Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief economist, said: "The retail sector is at the sharp end of a crisis, with many businesses up against it. "The governments support packages are making a real difference, with more shops reporting that jobs have been furloughed, rather than lost. The furlough system will need to adapt as more businesses open their doors in the months ahead. "As we gradually reopen the economy, retailers may yet need more support from the government if demand falters." The ruling Chinese Communist Party is planning to send primary, secondary, and kindergarten teachers from schools in Hunan, Anhui and other provinces to Hong Kong to conduct "teaching instruction," RFA has learned. The ministry of education in Beijing plans to send some 60 "teaching instructors" from Hunan, Hainan, Anhui,and Liaoning provinces to schools in Hong Kong and the former Portuguese enclave of Macau, mainly in the subject areas of history and language. The plan is detailed in directives posted to official websites by provincial education bureaus in Hunan, Hainan, and Shanxi. The teachers are being sent to teach patriotic education to schoolchildren in the two cities, according to online recruitment notices. The program has been under way for some time, but is attracting renewed concerns as Beijing gears up to impose draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong following months of mass anti-government and pro-democracy protests, according to the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper. The Hunan directive was issued to education authorities in Changsha, Hengyang, Zhuzhou, and Chenzhou cities of April 4, ordering them to recruit teachers to spend a year in Hong Kong and Macau over the next three years. Their duties will include "preparing lessons, observing classes, evaluating courses and conducting teaching demonstrations ...evaluating teaching materials and teacher training," the notice said. "Please select excellent teachers with strong political stances, rich teaching experience, outstanding business skills, and good coordination and cooperative skills," the directive said. Hunan -- the birthplace of late supreme leader Mao Zedong -- has been selected as one of a number of revolutionary and patriotic education hubs in a pilot scheme under President Xi Jinping, the Apple Daily said. Following the party line Sources told RFA that the plan makes sense if Beijing intends to "re-educate" the people of Hong Kong to toe the party line from an early age. "They are staking out territory in the realm of education, which means they are catching them young, and instilling ideas into them that the Chinese authorities find acceptable," a teacher from the central city of Henan told RFA on Tuesday. The recruitment drive comes amid a public outcry at Beijing's plans to impose a draconian sedition and subversion law on Hong Kong, bypassing the city's legislature, claiming that anti-government protesters had engaged in "terrorist activities" in recent months. Beijing revealed plans on May 21 to send its feared state security agents into Hong Kong to pursue people suspected of "sedition," "subversion," or of doing the work of 'foreign forces' during the city's months-long protest movement. In a move that many say signals the end of Hong Kong's promised autonomy and traditional freedoms of speech and association, state security police from mainland China will be allowed to set up shop in Hong Kong to fulfill their duties under the new law, according to a precis of the decision supplied by state-run Xinhua news agency. A statement from 253 parliamentarians and policymakers from 29 countries on Tuesday issued a statement condemning the plan. "This is a comprehensive assault on the city's autonomy, rule of law, and fundamental freedoms," the statement, led by former UK foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and former Hong Kong government Chris Patten, now Lord Patten of Barnes, said. "It is the genuine grievances of ordinary Hong Kongers that are driving protests," the statement said. "Draconian laws will only escalate the situation further, jeopardising Hong Kongs future as an open Chinese international city." Rifkind said the national security law was "the most serious threat to the people of Hong Kong ... since 1997," when the former British colony was handed back to China. Lam rejects criticism But chief executive Carrie Lam dismissed international criticisms on Tuesday. "No country would allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way," Lam said. "Hong Kong has not been able to legislate locally in 23 years and, as I have mentioned before, in the foreseeable future it would be difficult for us to go for local legislation. That is why the NPC is taking responsible action [to legislate]," Lam said. National security legislation has been shelved in the city since 2003 after mass protests on the streets shocked visiting Chinese officials. But China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), which is entirely under the control of the ruling party, now says it stands ready to enforce the legislation. Hong Kong garrison commander Chen Daoxiang said, in comments reported by the South China Morning Post on Tuesday, that [The garrison] will implement, according to law, various tasks delegated by the party and the people, and has the determination, confidence and ability to safeguard national security and development interest as well as Hong Kongs continuing prosperity." Pro-democracy lawmaker Alvin Yeung said Chen was promising to enforce a law that should be an internal matter for Hong Kong. "This is in breach of the spirit of the Garrison Law," Yeung said. "The troops stationed in Hong Kong should stick to the principle of non-interference in Hong Kong's affairs." Hebei scholar Zhang Fengshu said that, far from wielding "a high degree of autonomy," Lam's administration is now effectively a puppet government under the direct control of Beijing. "Actually, the [state security police] have been operating in Hong Kong for a long time, but this hasn't been made public," Zhang said. "Now they are looking to go public and legalize [these operations]." Proposed law widely condemned The proposed national security law has been widely condemned by foreign governments and rights groups as a breach of China's obligations under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, a U.N.-registered treaty governing the handover. Rights groups said the law will mean Beijing can ensure that only voices and activities that toe the party line will be allowed in Hong Kong, which was promised a continuation of its traditional freedoms of the person, publication, and association under the handover agreement. The proposed legal move comes at a time when the U.S. is reviewing, under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, whether to continue to treat Hong Kong as a separate jurisdiction from China, given Beijing's growing insistence on wielding direct political power in the city. Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. CEBU City logged 96 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. The new cases came from Barangays Lahug (one), Sawang-Calero (one), Tejero (one), Camputhaw (one), Labangon (three), Guadalupe (one case), Basak San Nicolas (two cases) Duljo (eight), Punta Princesa (four), Mabolo (one), Tinago (16), Poblacion Pardo (21), Pasil (12), Basak-Pardo (nine), Calamba (one), Sambag 2 (three), Suba (one), Ermita (one), Tisa (one), Bulacao (two), Cebu City Jail (one), Lorega (one), Day-as (one), Mambaling (two) and Inayawan (one). The City Government released 63 Covid-19 positive patients from Barangay Labangon after they tested negative during a repeat swab test. They went home with 25 kilos of rice each. Labangon Barangay Captain Vic Buendia said 39 residents who tested positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic are still in the Barangay Isolation Unit. They will undergo a second swab test and if the result comes out negative, they will be released, he said. Cebu City has 1,992 Covid-19 cases with 97 recoveries and 23 deaths. Mandaue City also logged five more Covid-19 cases on May 26. According to the Facebook post of the Mandaue City Public Information Office, three are inmates of the city jail while the other two are a 60-year-old woman from Barangay Opao and a 39-year-old man from Barangay Cabancalan. The Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office has decontaminated the houses of the two patients, while it continues to conduct contact tracing. Mandaue City has 234 Covid-19 cases with eight recoveries and four deaths. In Talisay City, Barangays Laray, Tanke and San Roque reported one case each. According to the Facebook page of Mayor Gerald Anthony Gullas Jr., the patient from Barangay Laray is a family member of a resident who earlier tested positive for the disease. Gullas said the latest patient had been placed in an isolation facility where she was swabbed. She will be moved to a Covid-19 facility, he said. Story continues The patient from Barangay Tanke was also placed on isolation and swabbed after he displayed influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms. The patient from Barangay San Roque is currently admitted at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City. Talisay City has 44 Covid-19 cases with one recovery and six deaths. Cebu Province also logged three new Covid-19 cases on May 26. Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said the patients, who are all male, hail from different local government units (LGUs) in the south. The first patient, a 59-year-old male dialysis patient who originally hailed from Malabuyoc, died last May 23. The patient had been staying in Cebu City since April 23. The second patient is a 39-year-old male detainee of the San Fernando Police Station who was admitted at the VSMMC for hypertension on May 18. Garcia said the patient is in stable condition. "Na-admit man ni, gi-andam na og pagpauli ngadto sa (He was confined and now theyre preparing for him to return to) San Fernando," she said. The third patient is a 46-year-old man from Talisay City. As of May 26, Cebu Province had 126 Covid-19 cases. New coronavirus infections spiked to a new 24-hour high of 350 for the month of May, just five days before the community quarantine in the country is set to end. The total case count nationwide as of 4 p.m. on May 26 is 14,669. The Department of Health (DOH) also reported 13 new deaths, which brought the death toll to 886. The DOH said 89 more patients have recovered from the disease, increasing the total number of recoveries to 3,412. The country has 10,371 are active cases. Globally, the novel coronavirus, or Sars-CoV-2, has infected more than 5.3 million people, including 342,029 who had died as of May 25. (PAC, KFD, JCT, RTF, MVI, JTM of SunStar Philippines, JKV) Champawat (Uttarakhand) [India], May 26 (ANI): Around 1,500 Nepali citizens stranded in India due to coronavirus induced lockdown returned to the Himalayan nation through India-Nepal border at Banbasa here on Monday. "Around 1,500 citizens of Nepal crossed the border today. They had come here from different parts of India," said Lokeshwar Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP), Champawat. This comes days after hundreds of stranded Nepali migrant workers gathered in Champawat district to protest against the Nepal government. These migrant workers raised slogans against Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and urged the government of the neighbouring country to take them back. (ANI) What happened A holiday weekend, a new week, and a new coronavirus vaccine candidate -- these three factors helped spark a new stock rally Tuesday, and cruise line stocks Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL), Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE:NCLH) are key beneficiaries of the optimism today. In 1 p.m. EDT trading, shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings stock are up a whopping 15.0%, with Carnival (up 12.7%) and Royal Caribbean (up 13.8%) shares not far behind. So what The Memorial Day holiday featured news stories and social media reports, too numerous to count, of crowds of people emerging from the Great Lockdown and pouring out of their homes to enjoy the start of summer. Across the country, Americans barbecued, attended outdoor concerts, and swarmed to public swimming pools and beaches. While potentially bad news for coronavirus trackers, the stories demonstrate that people are eager to get back out and enjoy life again. This bodes well for the cruise industry once the CDC lifts its no-sail order, which is currently expected to happen in July. Even this morning, there was news that could encourage the CDC not to extend its ban on cruises: Yet another COVID-19 vaccine trial is starting up, this time at Novavax, joining a slate of more than 120 various vaccine candidates currently in either clinical or preclinical trials. The odds hopefully favor one or more of these vaccines proving both safe and effective against SAR-CoV-19 ... eventually. Now what But will a vaccine arrive soon enough to save the struggling cruise industry? The earnings report out of Royal Caribbean gave new hope to investors last week that it might. The quarterly results showed that the company, with $3.3 billion in "liquidity" and a cash burn rate of less than $275 million per month, probably has enough cash in the bank to keep itself afloat through June of next year should the no-sail order stretch out that long. And this is key. With shares of Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian Cruise Line down 60%, 68%, and 71%, respectively, over the past 12 months, rightly or wrongly, investors today are grading these stocks pass-fail. "Pass" means they think the stocks will survive; "fail" means they think bankruptcy is the more likely option. Based on this weekend's news, many investors are giving all three stocks a pass and bidding up the shares accordingly. PAN-AFRICAN UNITY MOVEMENT AGAINST SECOND SLAVERY (PANUMASS) Email: [email protected] ; +232-31-511915 25th May, 2020 Freetown, Sierra Leone. West Africa Call For The Lifting Of All Unilateral Sanctions That Obstruct The Humanitarian Responses Of Sanctioned States From: PANUMASS Greetings from the Pan-African Unity Movement Against Second Slavery (PANUMASS), as we join our brothers and sisters worldwide to mark 57th anniversary of the formation of the African Liberation Day, on 25 May 1963. This Day is a special occasion set aside not only to remember and honor those who sacrificed their lives serving the Africa, and to reaffirm Africans love for the continent as well as their commitment to realising the goal of Pan-African unity. It is also to honor the current African leaders who continue to face serious challenges on the continent. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary social distancing, Africans across the continent and the diaspora people will honor the memory of the fallen. Life has to continue but with the necessary steps needed to keep all safe and healthy. This date, which is considered as Africa Day, is, like all historic days, a moment of pride, reflection and meditation. The Pan-African Unity Movement Against Second Slavery (PANUMASS), is extremely proud to join the rest of Africa to honour this day, of African Liberation Day, 2020. We are also marking the birth of a struggle-the triumph over colonialism, racism and the obnoxious apartheid enclave. We are singing and beating the drums of a United Africa, which is open to all oppressed and whites advocate against imperialist onslaught on Africa. Though there are attempts to prop the status quo against the unity of Africa, there can be no doubt that the New Africa, which we are about to launch will send shocking waves to the enemies of the continent. The history of the struggle of the African people is in our blood; it is in our marrow. Same also, the history of Africans in the diasporas would be extremely incomplete without the unification of the African continent under a unified government. Today, as we mark the African Liberation Day, we are bound to dig our history of racism, oppression, exploitation, violent wars, aggressions, degradation and dehumanization. We remember the pains, tribulations, suffering and misery we are forced to go through during the obnoxious slave trade. The concept of African Liberation Day (ALD) was born in April 15, 1958, when a historical meeting of African leaders gathered at Accra Ghana for the first Conference of Independent States to discuss the state of the African continent and the impact of colonialism. Represented were governments from Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, The United Arab Republic, representatives of the National Liberation Front of Algeria, and the Union of Cameroon. In recognition April 15th was dubbed Africa Freedom Day. Five years later, on May 25, 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 32 leaders of independent African States met to form e the Organization of African Unity (OAU). By then more than two thirds of the continent had achieved independence, mostly from imperial European states. At this meeting, the date of Africa Freedom Day was changed from April 15 to May 25th, and Africa Freedom Day was declared African Liberation Day (ALD). On this historic date, this forum calls for Africas relationship with the Caribbean and Latin America to be reinvented to make bridge our historic connections. Africas relationship with Cuba in particular is dated as far back as during the obnoxious slave trade, whereby over one and a half million retired African slaves were resettled to Cuba, and who today are very essential of that nations history and revolutionary transformation. The historic relationship between Africa and the Caribbean cannot be swept away and this, we have to fight hard for its growth and strength, just as when Cuba helped many countries to free themselves and gained national independence in Africa. The battle for the independence of African countries, such as Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, the list is endless, would not have been achieved within a shorter period had it not been the role of hundreds of thousands of Cuban combatants in the just struggle against colonialism, apartheid and foreign domination on the continent. Thousands of Cubans paid the supreme sacrifice fighting for the liberation of Africa. Thus Cuba solidarity with Africa is a moral duty, so also Africa owes Cuba a moral responsibility to fight for an end to US blockade and other hostile behaviours against the Caribbean nation. Africa owes Cuba a historical duty since the end of the cruel slave trade. From the African land in which they worked and fought voluntarily and selflessly, they only took back to Cuba the remains of their fallen comrades and the honor of having fulfilled their duty, to borrow the word of Commandant Fidel Castro, when he commented about Cubas combatant role in the African liberation frontlines. Cubas solidarity with Africa did not stop at the liberation frontlines, but its continuing in the midst of the painful, unjust, wicked and criminal US blockade against the Cuban people, in other sectors like education, health, agriculture and development of the continent. This day should therefore serves to show appreciation to Cuba for her relentless efforts, which manifest in the form of sharing with Africa whatever little available to help the African people. Cuba has committed herself to accompany Africa achieve lasting peace, stability and prosperity. The African Union (AU) has declared the theme for this years commemoration of the African Liberation Day to be- SilencingTheGuns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development and Intensifying the Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic. This theme fits in the current circumstance, especially in the context of COVID-19, which is having a debilitating impact of millions of lives and wrecking havocs on national economies across the continent and the wider international community. Africans should wake up and face those things that lead to the obstruction of development and realization of Pan-African unity. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread across the continent, it is urgent that African leaders should coordinate unified response to combat the devastating pandemic. The liberation struggle that continues today deals with the challenges posed by corruption, bad governance, economic disarray, poverty, injustice, wars, violence, insecurity and the steady erosion of the dignity of the continent. Our experience confirms that Africa cannot move forward if the right policies are not put in place and absence of favourable conditions for socio-economic development. One of those policies that are at variance with peace, stability and development on the continent is the establishment of the so-called AFRICOM, which in actual fact strives to achieve US military superiority in the world. Currently the US has 29 unmandated and unwanted military bases in 15 African countries, including Djibouti (2 Bases), Kenya (3 Bases), Uganda, Tunisia, Niger (6 Bases), Gabon, Mali, Cameroon (2 bases), Ghana, Burkina Faso, Libya (2 bases), Senegal, Somalia (5 bases), Ascension Island, and no one really knows their relevance to the host countries. Africans would have to deal also with foreign terrorists, who are trained, recruited, armed, funded and backed by foreign powers. Thievery mentality of former French colonial masters of the wealth of Franco-phone African countries is another cause for alarm. It is estimated that France is stashing out of former French colonies of the sum of 400 billion dollars every year as colonial tax. The African Union would have the arduous tax of ending Africas political adolescence tied to the purse strings of imperialism-a crippling dependency syndrome. Africa should not give in any of its territories to be used either as a military base or staging posts to launch attacks against other countries. This is what exactly AFRICOM is about, to build and expand US military might across Africa, and this must be resisted for the sake of peace, stability, security and development. Currently, the U.S. has imposed cruel, unilateral and criminal sanctions against 39 countries around the world. The strongest sanctions are against the countries of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Russia, China and Nicaragua. On the African continent, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Sudan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia, South Sudan, Cote dIvoire, Liberia and Rwanda, in addition to Zimbabwe. These sanctions constitute act of criminal war, designed to punish whole peoples. All of these countries under US unilateral sanctions are members of the United Nations, and have a right to their own self-determination, independent national sovereignty and democratic self rule. This forum of the Pan-African Unity Movement Against Second Slavery (PANUMASS) is in solidarity with these countries as they battle to exist as free, peaceful and prosperous nations on earth. Unity against unilateral sanctions against the countries of Africa will lead to the total emancipation of the continent against foreign domination. Unity is strength, so says the wise African adage. Our advocacy network believes that for Africa to be respected and treated equally, we have to abandon all negativity things that are at variance with peace and development. We need unity badly in Africa for peace and security. This forum joins the call for the immediate and complete lifting of those measures that hinder countries to respond to the Corona virus pandemic; and to reject the politicization of the pandemic. This is a naturally acclaimed demand to save lives. God save Africa! God save friends of Africa!! Sender: Alimamy Bakarr Sankoh Interim Chairman Pan-African Movement Against Second Slavery PANUMASS Nick Culver worked for years to get to this point, endlessly practicing his French horn, performing, and studying theory, all to graduate this month with a music degree from Michigan State University. For most of us, the big event at the end of college is wearing a cap and gown and walking in a graduation ceremony in front of our family. For Nick, the pinnacle of his studies was the final recital in front of his peers. But because of COVID-19, he couldnt even practice with his accompanist, much less perform for an audience. What should have been the high point of his college career was him playing alone on a stage to an empty concert hall with a virtual audience. It was also crippling to look at my four years and say, This is what it has amounted to, he said. Nicks special few can perform Irremediable Breakdown by Nathan Pawelek solo to an unseen audience but his feeling of emptiness is common to millions of people who were expecting senior proms, graduation ceremonies, and final performances. It doesnt make the feeling any easier, but cognitive science has an explanation. Its called the peak-end rule. Regardless of how long, hard, painful, or happy an experience was, your judgment of that experience will be determined by the most extreme moments or what came last. The peak-end rule is why going to Disneyland evokes memories of the time you met a real-life princess or the day ending with a parade and fireworks not the long lines and high prices. Its why companies send you thank you cards when you buy something or condolence cards when your pet dies. That way, your last memory isnt spending money or putting your dog down. These peak-end moments make such an impact on us because they elevate moments of happiness, instill pride by capturing us at our best, provide insight into ourselves, and connect us to each other, such as with parades, weddings, baptisms, and graduations. And for poor Nick, you take away the events created to give affirmation, fundamentally changing the college experience. Colleges and universities have other problems namely, how to gather large numbers of students in lecture halls, cafeterias, and stadiums without infecting them but leaching the graduation experience of the peak-end will have a dampening effect on how alumni remember their college experience, leading to lower college ratings and alumni giving. Already, were seeing ill effects in the recent graduates. Members of the high school class of 2020 report feeling lost. College students, lacking the traditional transition from campus to adulthood, are losing their support network without receiving the expected boost that comes with the public displays of parental pride. Even worse, some were pushing toward finals with graduation as a reward. Now thats gone, and so is their motivation. Todays trauma and burnout will likely lead to generation at greater risk of developing clinical anxiety and depression. Not having a physical graduation or the activities that typically accompany it did a number on my ability to accurately perceive my own life and the future, mainly in that my actions only existed in a vacuum, said Nick. There were entire groups of people I realized I would not see again, and many individuals that I wished I could spend time with and collaborate with. Obviously, feeling lost is nothing compared to graduating during a pandemic and into the worst job market since the Lindy Hop was popular. But that doesnt make this any less real for the 3.7 million people graduating high school and the 3.9 graduating college. Theyll feel the absence of the pomp and circumstance for the rest of their lives. Were human, and we adapt. Some colleges are holding graduation ceremonies on Minecraft. Sallie Mae is holding a virtual graduation. Both Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey are offering virtual commencement addresses to the Pandemic Class, and Michelle Obama is hosting a virtual prom. Some schools are even mailing their graduates caps and gowns with their diplomas and - I kind of like this touch - yard signs and commemorative face masks. This creativity provides hope for us all. No matter how long this goes on, we, too, go on. Lilly Kofler is vice president of Behavioral Science and is the U.S. lead of Hill+Knowlton Strategies Behavioral Science Unit. Her column is distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Science and technology are basic parts of modern life. In the 21st century, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) school program is more important than ever, and not just for future scientists and engineers; it is essential for every student. STEM schools in Kenya are committed to the promotion of contemporary STEM education in the country. Image: instagram.com, @ksom_sint_paulus Source: UGC In our current educational climate students aren't achieving in most subjects; especially math and science. Our children don't see the connection between what they do in the classroom to what they can do when they grow up nor how their academic achievement can get them there. If we want to great our future workforce, there is a need for stakeholders in the education sector to consider integrating the STEM model in the curriculum. STEM model schools in Kenya STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of an inter-disciplinary and applied education approach in the collective academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It challenges students to make the critical connection between everyday problems and solutions that can be provided by research, science and innovation. Image: instagram.com, @mit_stemm Source: UGC STEM education in Kenya has adopted the Multi-Sectoral Public-Private Approach. In this case, the government, through the Vision 2030 STEM Project, has joined forces with the private sector and the public benefit organization to drive the STEM education agenda in the country. The initiative is aimed at mobilizing partners around the STEM Model School Program as a strategy to inspire the youth in pursuit of STEM-related careers at middle and higher levels of education. STEM model schools inspire learners to excel in science and mathematics through programs, policies and processes within and outside classrooms. Two schools per county are set to be transformed into model centres for promotion of science-related subjects across the country. The Ministry of Education's Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Kenya said in total 94 schools will benefit from the initiative. A STEM hub will be introduced in each of these schools where students can work on projects and carry out science activities. READ ALSO: Braeside School admissions, fees structure, location and contacts List of STEM schools in Kenya STEM schools are still in the introductory phase in the country as most private and public schools are yet to integrate this model in their curriculum. However, there are a few schools that have already embraced this model. Here are some of the STEM model schools: 1. STEM International School STEM International School is a Kenyan founded school and is one of the best STEM schools in Kenya. It is located in Karen, Nairobi. The school has attracted and currently hosts students from 16 countries as it steadily grows. The institution uses an American Curriculum, with a strong emphasis on STEM Education from Preschool 12th grade. Students at STEM International School enjoy the benefit of being in a small class setting. Image: facebook.com, @tinkereducation Source: UGC If you want to enroll in this institution, fill out the application forms to get your child shortlisted for the next school year. After that, you will meet with the representatives from the school to guide you on the on-boarding process. Once the child has been accepted, you will get an admission letter. The school fees range between Kshs. 347,000 to Kshs. 786,000 per academic year. Weekly boarding is available for 6th 12th Grade students at a fee of Kshs. 120,000 per semester. Transport and meals are included in the fee. Check out the institution's website for more details. READ ALSO: Hillcrest International School admissions and fee structure 2. Caplora Academy Caplora Academy is the best STEM academy in Africa. It is located at Strathmore University. Parents who enrol their children in this institution do not have to choose between tiring commutes to classes and settling for what's best in the neighbourhood. The institution makes tutoring programmes accessible from the comfort of home that is conducted by top educators in the field. Besides, the institution conducts experiments, simulation, and apprenticeship to expose students to the STEM world. If your child is aged between 6 and 13 years, you can enrol them in the primary mathematics class at a cost of $35 per week. High school students aged between 13 and 18 years can be enrolled in biology, chemistry, physics, each at a cost of $35 per week. If your child is aged between 8 and 18 years, you can enrol them in the robotics and internet of things class at a cost of $50 per week. Check out the institution's website for more details. READ ALSO: Potterhouse school students portal, admissions, fees structure 3. Tinker Education Tinker Education was established in 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya to foster youth in STEM education in East Africa. The school is located On Trafford Driveway, off Ngong Road in Nairobi, Kenya. Tinker STEM courses are prepared for children aged between 4 years and 18 years. Courses offered include basic coding, intensive coding, game programming, stem and life science, and The Internet of Things (ToT). Image: facebook.com, @tinkereducation Source: UGC Once enrolled, the new students take a pre-assessment to diagnose their individual strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction. They are then allocated to the appropriate level and class. The institution charges monthly fees for the classes. The fees vary depending on the course and the required consumable resources of the lessons. Check out the website of the institution for more details. READ ALSO: Light International School fee structure, location, contacts Science is everywhere; technology takes up almost every aspect of our lives. Help your child build his future today by enrolling them in one of the STEM schools in Kenya today. READ ALSO: Rosslyn Academy fees, scholarships, location, contacts Source: TUKO.co.ke Equipped with Karma's racing-inspired E-Flex platform suitable for both road and track day applications, the AWD performance prototype aims to achieve 1,100 HP. A combination of attributes including 10,500 lb-ft (14,000 Nm) wheel torque, electronic torque vectoring and front and rear mounted dual electric motors will generate superior power and handling for the test vehicle. Front and rear dual electric motors and a flat-floor 120 kWh battery provide the prototype with optimal near 50/50 weight distribution and up to 400 miles of all-electric range. The AWD performance prototype's electric motors already have over a million miles of testing in Karma's current product, the award-winning luxury electric 2020 Revero GT. Dynamic and static testing are part of Karma's comprehensive validation process to ensure the car will meet customer and partner expectations and demands in global markets. Karma engineers recently conducted dynamic testing at California's exclusive Thermal Club race track, among other performance circuits and conditions. "Physical prototype testing is an important landmark for Karma, and an exciting milestone for all involved," commented Kevin Zhang, Chief Technology Officer, Karma Automotive. "We aim to make sure the platform is capable of achieving leading standards in the supercar sector and is superior in every sense." The prototype demonstrates Karma's vision for future products, in addition to showcasing mobility solutions available to other OEMs, startups and automakers who wish to develop their own all-electric high-performance vehicles. Michael Jones, Karma's Sr. Director of Body & Chassis Engineering, who has begun the task of fine-tuning the new prototype, along with Karma's engineering team at the Thermal Club, stated, "The first time this prototype was on the track was a special moment. We've followed the development phase from ideation to creation of our E-Flex platform to testing in our prototype." Karma's platform can be applied to both track day and street car iterations, while providing the instant torque, handling and sustainability of an all-electric vehicle. It can be retrofitted to existing products and developed for new electric supercar applications; both for Karma and prospective partners. Innovation, coupled with luxury and pioneering spirit, is an integral part of Karma's DNA, and the AWD performance prototype is a testament to this driving force. Karma also recently announced plans to build the Revero GTE, an all-electric, twin motor variation of its Revero GT, which will see its first results in Spring 2021. About Karma Southern California-based Karma is more than just a car company. Although we are best known as a creator of soul-stirring luxury electric vehicles, Karma has emerged as a high-tech incubator offering innovators a perfect platform to prove their emerging technologies. Founded in 2014, Karma is reinventing the traditional retail-based automotive business model by opening its engineering, design, customization and manufacturing resources to other companies looking to speed product development, access new technology, or make their products more luxurious. The Revero GT, Green Car Journal's 2020 Luxury Green Car of the Year is a luxury electric vehicle powered by dual electric motors that embodies Karma's goals of offering leading automotive design, technology, customization and an outstanding customer experience. Our retail partners in North America are now delivering the Revero GT to retail customers and will begin offering a performance version, the Revero GTS, later in 2020. Every Revero is created with great individual care and world-class craftsmanship at the Karma Innovation and Customization Center in Moreno Valley, Calif. For more information, visit www.karmaautomotive.com, or www.karmanewsroom.com. SOURCE Karma Automotive Related Links www.karmaautomotive.com "Its just such a variety of people in need, Patrick said. While provisions were put in place to slow evictions and utility shutoffs through at least June 1, Patrick encourages those in need to reach out to Catholic Social Services or other nonprofits as soon as possible, adding that a proactive approach can prevent problems when bills come due. Some individuals and families that have never struggled in the past have been forced to ask for assistance. She said there shouldnt be a stigma about using available resources, which could keep families afloat during difficult times. Everyone, at some point, is going to need help, she said. Were here to help and to serve people in their time of need. Maj. Mark Anderson of the Salvation Army said it is also providing rent and utilities assistance, and the nonprofit has seen a slight increase in the number of requests this spring. Were trying to make sure that those who have been affected by COVID-19 are able to balance their finances and get help if they need it, he said. KANSAS CITY, Kan. - A suspect is hospitalized after an officer-involved shooting Monday morning in Kansas City, Kansas. According to the KCK Police Department, officers were doing an area check in a public parking lot in the 600 block of South 71st Terrace aroud 7:40 a.m. Local news stations are running a segment produced by Amazon touting its efforts to keep warehouse employees safe from the coronavirus. The segment includes pre-recorded footage of its fulfillment centers, interviews with workers and a prewritten script for anchors to read on air, according to an Amazon release. It promises to give outlets a "first look" at how the company is keeping "its associates healthy and safe and still able to keep packages flowing." The testimonials included in the package differ greatly from the conditions described by Amazon warehouse employees during the pandemic. Since March, tensions have been growing between Amazon and workers at its facilities across the country, as the number of positive cases and deaths from the coronavirus continues to rise. Amazon has previously said it's gone to "great lengths" to keep workers safe, but workers continue to say the company hasn't done enough. It's unclear how many television stations ran the segment. At least two stations promoted the segment on Twitter, while other TV reporters on Twitter called out Amazon for sending them the pitch. link to tweet Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, criticized Amazon on Twitter, referring to the segment as "propaganda" and calling on the company to provide sick leave to warehouse employees, which garnered a response from Amazon's public policy account. link to tweet An Amazon spokesperson disputed claims that the segments were crafted as an attempt to reframe the story about its warehouse working conditions. "We welcome reporters into our buildings and it's misleading to suggest otherwise," the spokesperson said in a statement. "This video was created to share an inside look into the health and safety measures we've rolled into our buildings and was intended for reporters who for a variety of reasons weren't able to come tour one of our sites themselves." Company-produced segments such as these, often referred to as video news releases, aren't a new phenomenon and they aren't unique to Amazon. News outlets are often provided video news releases by companies, PR firms and advertising agencies to aid with the reporting process or to run the content as a segment on its own. The practice has been criticized because it may not be clear to viewers that the segment was produced by a company. For example, in the Amazon segment this week, some local anchors credited the producer of the piece without disclosing he works for Amazon. The spokesperson said Amazon was transparent that the material was coming from the company. The video was not promotional material and no one who participated in the video was paid, the spokesperson added. A.J. Bayatpour, a reporter with Madison, Wisconsin's WKOW, told CNBC that Amazon pitched the story to the outlet last week, but WKOW declined to run the segment. While the outlet has received video news releases before, Bayatpour said the Amazon segment stood out because it included a script, "all the way down to the anchor toss." "If it was just b-roll, it would be similar to the video news releases we've seen before," Bayatpour said in an interview. "But my news directors made clear that this is not something that we should run." I felt quite emotional when I heard that the Government would be giving an additional $550 per fortnight for six months to people on the Jobseeker payment (formerly Newstart) as we entered a very difficult time where hundreds of thousands of people would suddenly be losing work. West Australians line up at a Perth Centrelink amidst some of the worst unemployment figures in recent history. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola I thought about the unnecessary desperation and suffering that people in our community have been through. The single mothers going without meals so they can feed their children, people choosing between their medication or dinner and those living in unsafe situations because there are no rental properties that you can afford when you are living so far below the poverty line on $40 a day. Ive been campaigning, alongside the community, for an increase to Newstart for a very long time - a payment that hasnt had an increase in real terms since 1994. Ive been hearing from people about what they are doing with the increase eating better, looking after their health, buying medication and a range of other things that will also help them find work. Now it breaks my heart that the Morrison government plans to reduce Jobseeker back to below poverty levels at the end of September. I consider this reckless, unfair and fiscally irresponsible. Every country is experiencing the coronavirus pandemic differently. Thats never been more evident than in the public uproar over a road trip taken by Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnsona very English scandal that would probably not be a scandal at all in the U.S. Cummings isnt just any adviser. He was the director of the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum and coined the influential slogan take back control. Last year, as Johnsons senior adviser, he led the prime ministers ultimately successful effort to get Brexit done. Hes known for his disheveled appearance, is often portrayed as a dark Svengali figurethink Karl Rove or Steve Bannonand was played by Benedict Cumberbatch in a so-so HBO movie. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cummings is currently in hot water over a drive he took from London to his parents home in Durham, 260 miles away, on March 27. This was four days after the government ordered citizens to remain at home and avoid all nonessential travel in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Cummings explanation for violating this order is that his wife had developed coronavirus symptoms that day, and he felt it was likely he too would soon contract the virus. (Several of Cummings colleagues, including the prime minister, had already tested positive.) In order to secure care for his 4-year-old son, he traveled to his parents estate, where he stayed in a separate cottage and where his sister and nieces could provide child care. The following day, he developed symptoms. Advertisement Advertisement Families all over the world are having to face the dilemma of who will look after their children if both parents become ill, and the British governments own stay-at-home guidelines state that parents should follow the rules to the best of your ability, however, we are aware that not all these measures will be possible. Harder to explain is a drive Cummings took with his wife and child to Barnard Castle, 30 miles from his parents home, on April 12, after he had recovered. He says they spent 15 minutes outside the car, where they were spotted by passersby, who made a complaint to the police. Cummings said he made the drive in order to test his eyesight, which had been affected by the virus, before making the longer drive back to London, and that the family maintained social distance from others while out of the car. (Maybe driving 30 miles is not the best way to test if you can see?) Advertisement Advertisement They returned to London the next day, and Cummings was back at the office the day after that. Cummings wife, Mary Wakefield, an editor at the Spectator magazine, would later write a column describing his illness in vivid detail, without mentioning the road trip. Theres also the odd matter of whether Cummings edited an old blog post to make himself look more prescient about the coronavirus. Advertisement Advertisement The story of the trip broke last week and the response has been explosive. There are widespread calls to fire Cummings, including from a number of Conservative MPs and traditionally pro-Johnson media outlets. Cummings maintains he did nothing wrong, and the prime minister is so far sticking by him. On Tuesday, Douglas Ross, the undersecretary of state for Scotland, resigned from Johnsons government over the prime ministers refusal to sack Cummings. The Durham police have opened an investigation into Cummings alleged violation of lockdown rules. (Thousands of people have faced small fines for violating rules in the U.K. since the lockdown began.) Advertisement Advertisement The scandal is a little hard to understand for those of us in a country where governors are proudly taking photos of themselves in crowded restaurants with the support of the president. Yes, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner took some flak for ignoring federal guidelines to travel to New Jersey for Passover, but it was a much smaller story, and there were no calls for anyones resignation despite them having a much worse excuse. The Cummings story is a reminder that Americas lockdown has been far laxer and more haphazard than many other countries. Advertisement Advertisement A few factors explain why Cummings behavior prompted such a backlash in the U.K. One is that Cummings is a highly controversial figure who made a lot of enemies over the course of the Brexit saga, including within his own party. Second, the Johnson government was already under fire for being late to recognize the severity of the threat and order a nationwide lockdown, a delay that might have cost thousands of lives in the country that now has the highest death toll in Europe. The Cummings affair symbolizes the governments lackadaisical and sometimes contradictory response. Advertisement Advertisement Third, always on the lookout for official hypocrisy, the British media found a perfect example in Cummings of a member of the political elite not obeying the rules it imposed on citizens. As Ross put it in his resignation statement, I have constituents who didnt get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who did not visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government. I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right. As Brits flocked to beaches over the weekend, some told reporters that they felt justified given Cummings own flouting of the rules. What Cummings did is not quite analogous to going to a crowded beach, but the bigger point is that the Johnson government appears to be losing the trust of citizens as it struggles to keep the virus under control. Someone as skilled at reading public opinion as Cummings ought to understand that. For more of Slates news coverage, listen to What Next. For months, Isaac Bencomo tended to sick migrant children who entered his El Paso pediatric emergency room, immigration agents waiting for them just outside the doors. It was very emotional in the sense that you can see in their faces that theyre distressed, theyre afraid and scared, said Bencomo, a pediatric intensive care nurse who now works at San Antonios Childrens Hospital. It was an experience for all of us working in that emergency room. To see the halls lined with (Customs and Border Protection) agents escorting these little asylum-seekers. READ ALSO: Protesters say detained immigrant families given impossible choice That was in 2018, and even though the number of migrant children detained in the U.S. and arriving at border hospitals has dwindled, Bencomo continues to aid migrant children. Hes become the go-to liaison between medical volunteers and the government agencies to protect and aid migrants stranded at the border and vulnerable to the coronavirus. A Mexican immigrant and U.S. legal permanent resident, the 27-year-old moved to San Antonio this February on a travel assignment and became a regular volunteer at the migrant encampment in Matamoros, Mexico. There, hundreds of asylum-seekers are living in makeshift tents as they wait for court proceedings, part of the Remain in Mexico program rolled out by the Trump administration last year. Courtesy photos by Isaac Bencomo. / Though Remain in Mexico is largely on hold, thousands who arrived when it was in full swing are still scattered along the border in Mexico, waiting for their next hearings, which have been postponed to June 19 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The migrants in Matamoros, mostly Central American and Mexican families, live in tents made up of tarp and garbage bags. Already vulnerable and living in close quarters, the volunteers knew early on that the migrants could easily catch and spread the virus. Their poor health and hygiene at the encampment also increases their chances of falling gravely ill from the disease. OnExpressNews.com: Immigrants languish in detention as immigration courts close from coronavirus fears So far, no migrants there have tested positive for the coronavirus. Bencomo, with his Mexican ties, began helping Global Response Management volunteers coordinate with the local and state Mexican government agencies to establish hand-washing stations, temperature checks and other protective measures as early as February. GRM is a medical nonprofit whose volunteers have been providing medical aid from trailers for nearly as long as the camp was formed. Bencomos work led to the encampments first and only volunteer-run field hospital, erected at the end of April. It has coronavirus and antibody tests, as well as oxygen concentrators, portable x-ray machines and ultrasound technology. Its staffed around the clock and has 20 beds. I felt a sense of relief and satisfaction knowing that Matamoros is the only place that has something like this set up(along the border for migrants), he said. Courtesy photos by Isaac Bencomo. / And as the Trump administration closed the countrys borders in response to the pandemic, Bencomo mediated with Mexican government agencies, successfully allowing GRM to still cross its volunteers, medical supplies and equipment for the camp. Hes now GRMs government liaison to Mexico. Bencomo was born in Mexico City but grew up on the border in Ciudad Juarez. At 4 years old he got a student visa to attend school in El Paso. He later received his bachelors and masters degrees at the University of Texas-El Paso. A hospital in El Paso sponsored his work visa, and last fall, he obtained a green card. He says he counts himself lucky to have been born into a family on the border that could afford to send him to school in the U.S. My experience has been a lot less challenging than theirs, he said of the migrants in Matamoros. But ultimately I could very well have been one of those kids that I would care for in the ER. It was simply luck that I was born to a family that I was born into. READ ALSO: U.S. citizens with undocumented family members arent getting coronavirus aid In 2018, Bencomo was selected to be part of a Mexican delegation to a new leaders fellowship with the British Council. Bencomo makes the four-hour drive to the border nearly every week after his shifts at the hospital. These days, he doesnt cross to Matamoros because it would require a 14-day quarantine period afterward - preventing him from going to work at the Childrens Hospital. But he still goes to Brownsville, to meet with the volunteers and plan next steps to aiding the asylum-seekers. He said his contract with the hospital expires next week, and he plans to visit the encampment with much more frequency. Even after we overcome this pandemic, those people are going to still be at risk. They will continue to be in a vulnerable state, facing very uncertain realities. And with governments in nations trying to collect themselves after the impact of this pandemic, there will be even less resources to go around for the needs of refuges ad asylum-seekers across the world, he said. Its very important to understand that yes, everyone is hurting during these times. But its also important to acknowledge that these people who are already living in situations of vulnerability, will continue living that same reality. Silvia Foster-Frau covers immigration news in the San Antonio, Bexar County and South Texas area. To read more from Silvia, become a subscriber. sfosterfrau@express-news.net | Twitter: @SilviaElenaFF (Natural News) Dont even start to try to downplay the Swine Flu pandemic now, just because theres a new fear trending in America. The CDC themselves are still putting out warnings about H1N1pdm09 flu virus circulating seasonally in the United States, causing significant illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths. Oh yes, they are, but thats only because Obama is no longer in office. In the spring of 2009, the virus reared its ugly head in the USA and quickly splattered its way, pandemic-style, around the world. And just like novel coronavirus COVID-19, the new H1N1 virus was a lab-made concoction and combination of flu virus genes never before identified in any animals, including humans. Nobody young had immunity to this pharma-made combo-virus, but some elderly folks had some antibodies from exposure to the old H1N1 strains. Vaccines were useless against it, as were flu shots. After the illness had already peaked a second wave, and exited the USA, the pharma thugs finally came out with a toxic jab. Too little too late. Sixty million cases took out over 12,000 humans and put them six feet under. No lockdowns. No closed businesses. No social distances rules, laws, or Leftists freaking out. Definitely NO blaming Obama. Lamestream fake news media absolutely loved Obama, still does. There were also no travel bans, stopping US citizens from spreading the dirty, lab-made pig flu around the world. Damn those evil little engineers in their white lab coats. CDC estimates nearly 600,000 people DIED during the first year of circulation of H1N1 pandemic worldwide Does anyone even remember? In 2009, over 60 million Americans were infected with SWINE FLU H1N1, with 275k hospitalizations and 12,500 deaths yet no media panic, no blaming Obama, no travel ban, no lockdowns. Over 80 percent of deaths from swine flu occurred in humans under 65 years old, the complete flip of novel-coronavirus statistics. Swine flu also featured respiratory infections and complications that lead to deaths. Finally, in August of 2010, WHO claimed it was all over. Nothing more to worry about, but the virus still circulates as a seasonal influenza. Go figure. Should we all still be terrified, and go crawl under our beds for 3 months, while our businesses go bankrupt and we run out of food? Why didnt we all get banned from traveling anywhere, or arrested for going to the park with our children then? Did the Democrats fear crashing the economy even worse than the housing bubble of 08? Oh no, wouldnt want to see Obama get blamed for spreading Swine Flu around the world either. Then he wouldnt have won in 2012, right? Its all fear-based propaganda. Heres more: Here are the top 13 fears from the propaganda fear plan embedded in our brains over the last decade 1999 Y2K will destroy everything! The computers will all explode and the nuclear weapons will launch by default. 2001 Anthrax will annihilate us all! Remember how NPR pushed out just how the Anthrax Terror Unfolded. 2002 West Nile Virus will kill everybody (deadly mosquitoes everywhere)! 2003 SARS will eliminate us all. 2005 Bird Flu is a doomsday pandemic. 2009 Swine Flu wrecks havoc. 2012 Mayan Calendar predicts Dooms Day (Countdown to the End of the World)! 2013 North Korea to start WW III. 2014 Ebola will eat everyone alive from the inside out. (Remember the US purposely imported doctors who had Ebola into Atlanta and New York.) 2015 ISIS is taking over. 2016 Zika virus is coming! (Remember the Zika Virus SuperBowl scare?) 2017 The Russians are Taking Over! 2020 COVID-19 will wipe out the world! Fear is big business in the USA, and so is the dirty vaccine industry. And there are reasons, folks, to never, ever get vaccinated again. Vaccine science isnt what it used to be, and it used to be weak in the first place. Dont trust these dirty vaccines pushed by Bill Gates, Merck, and the rest of the globalist, biotech, genetic engineers that embed deadly virus strains with mercury and aluminum in vaccines that send children into convulsions (think multi-vial influenza vaccinations here). Tune your internet dial to Preparedness.news for ways to protect your family with the right food, supplies, ammo, weapons, and the Bill of Rights. Sources for this article include: CDC.gov Preparedness.news NaturalNews.com Breitbart.com NaturalNews.com Preksha Mehta Commits Suicide As per an India Today report, Preksha ended her life on Monday night, but the family got to know about it only in the morning. Apparently, her father was the first person to see her. She was rushed to the hospital, but was declared brought dead. Prekshas Last Instagram Story A few hours before her death, she shared a note on her Instagram story that read, "Sabse bura hota hai sapnon ka mar jana (The worst is when your dreams die)." (sic) Her Last Insta Post Preksha's last Instagram post was a selfie, which was captioned, "Meri Taraf Aata Har, Gham Phisal Jaaye, Aankhon Mein Tum Ko Bharun, Bin Bole Baatein Tumse Karun " The Actress Was Under Depression It is being said that the actress moved to her hometown before the lockdown and was under stress due to work. Preksha Left A Suicide Note The actress has also reportedly left a suicide note, but hasn't given the reason for her extreme step. The Hira Nagar police station in charge, Rajeev Bhadoriya was quoted by Spotboye as saying, "Preksha was a TV actor and was in the city since the lockdown. We are investigating the case further to know the reason behind her suicide." Latest News First major rate move of 2022 as ANZ cuts variable Despite expectations that rates will rise, the first big move of the year is a cut 70% of Aussies pessimistic about their chances of getting on the property ladder Mortgage franchise giant releases data suggesting that Aussie Dream is out of reach for young people A Sydney-based mortgage brokerage committed to community service has passed the $100,000 mark in donations made to charities in the five years since its establishment in 2015. The Loan Lounge was founded on the principle of giving back, but has upped its philanthropic work even more since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cabramatta brokerage donates 10% of its trail income each month to charities such as A21, which help survivors of human trafficking and slavery. The group also sponsors four children from Uganda, Thailand and the Philippines with the funds. The childrens pictures have been put up on the office wall to serve as a reminder of whats most important to the business. We call this our freedom wall and we hope that over time, the entire wall will be filled with stories of freedom. The giving gives purpose to each day and impacts generations to come, said Loan Lounge principal Nathaniel Truong. One of the brokerages loftiest goals is to get to a place where it can sustainably give $1 million per year towards helping to abolish human trafficking. Our vision is to see a world where sustainable businesses are driven by helping people and making a difference, said Truong. The brokerage's principal is not only recognised for his charity and community work, but for his success as a mortgage broker. In 2017, Mortgage Professional Australia (MPA) magazine named him in their annual list of Young Guns. To Truong, the charity work goes hand in hand with his duties as a mortgage broker, as both stem directly from a desire to help others and make a difference in peoples lives. The Inspire Aviation Foundation has become the custodian of the Naval Air Station Atlanta Archives after their donation by the Naval Air Station Atlanta Reunion Group. This group is comprised of U.S. Navy veterans who served at NAS Atlanta from 1941 to 2009; many of them contributed to the archive with donated photographs, newspaper clippings and artifacts which all related to their time at the former NAS Atlanta. The reunion group formed in 1959 when the air base moved from its original location in Chamblee, Georgia (now Dekalb-Peachtree Airport) to a consolidated airfield with the U.S. Air Force in nearby Marietta (now known as Dobbins Air Reserve Base). The first NAS Atlanta reunion took place in 1960 and they have continued each year ever since. NAS Atlanta formally ceased operations in 2009, handing over its facility to the National Guard. The NAS Atlanta archives include hundreds of fascinating original photos, base programs and directories, promotional literature, along with engineering and architectural drawings for the construction of the original WWII-era Naval Air Station in Chamblee. The Inspire Aviation Foundation plans to digitize the original photographs and documents for future access and exhibition and to properly store the originals. This requires a specific photographic process and archival preservation supplies to store the paper documents. Once the project is completed, the Inspire Aviation Foundation will develop a historical ground tour for the airport (DeKalb-Peachtree Airport) with an accompanying book about NAS Atlanta and its legacy as its guide. The material from the NAS Atlanta Reunion Group Archive will contribute to the production of an exhibit at the future Atlanta Air and Space Museum, dedicated to NAS Atlanta and modern-day Dekalb-Peachtree Airport. The projected cost for this conservation and photography project is $3,500, and the Inspire Aviation Foundation would very much appreciate contributions to help preserve these important documents and images for generations to come. You can donate by clicking HERE Inspire Aviation Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to bringing a world-class air and space museum and educational center to the Atlanta metro area. It recently conducted the next step in this development process with the launch of a master study to evaluate the feasibility of the museum and educational campus at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. Delhis directorate general of health services on Monday passed an order issuing guidelines for domestic travel via flights, buses or trains for passengers. In its order, the officials concerned have been asked to ensure compliance of guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in letter and spirit. As per the guidelines issued by Delhi government, passengers found with moderate or severe symptoms will be admitted to dedicated coronavirus COVID-19 health facilities, while those with mild symptoms will be given an option for home isolation or being admitted to a government or private COVID-19 care centre. The order said that all asymptomatic passengers will be advised 14-day home isolation. The Delhi government has also identified the agencies responsible for mandatory thermal screening and other medical checks at different public transport terminals. For domestic air travelers arriving in Delhi, checks will be the responsibility of the airport health officials (APHO) and Safdarjung hospital has been designated to serve as the link hospital. For bus travelers arriving at Maharana Pratap and Anand Vihar inter-state bus terminals, the Delhi transport department will be the concerned agency, with Aruna Asaf Ali hospital and Dr Hegdewar Arogya Sansthan serving as links. For train passengers, the Northern Railways will be the concerned agency, with its own hospitals serving as links, besides two others. Here is the list of guidelines: - No quarantine or isolation for asymptomatic passengers, however, they will have to monitor their health by themselves for a period of 14 days - If any asymptomatic passenger develops symptoms within the advised period, he/she shall inform the district surveillance officer or state/national helpline- 1075 - Symptomatic patients will be assessed for clinical severity of symptoms at the nearest health facility - Passengers with mild symptoms can opt for either institutional or home quarantine - Passengers with severe or moderate symptoms will be mandatorily be housed at COVID-19 dedicated health facility - Kim Chiu bravely responded to the bashers who accuse her of being proud of her foolishness - That criticism came after she made a full song based on her much-criticized statement during the #LabanKapamilya live streaming - The actress explained that she does not care if people say to her proud ka sa kabobohan mo because she knows she is not harming and hurting anyone - Kim added that learning how to laugh and make fun of your past mistakes is essential in getting through problems in life PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed Kim Chiu made a meaningful response to the bashers who accuse her of being proud of her foolishness. That criticism came after she made a full song based on her much-criticized statement during the #LabanKapamilya live streaming. According to Kim, she does not care if people say to her proud ka sa kabobohan mo because she knows she is not harming and hurting anyone. She added that learning how to laugh and make fun of your past mistakes is essential in getting through problems in life. PAY ATTENTION: Shop with KAMI! The best offers and discounts on the market, product reviews and feedback Life is a cycle of Ups and Downs; it is a matter of how well we ride through that smooth and bumpy road. Kapit lang!!! Some say, proud ka sa kabobohan mo. I don't care. Kailangan lang ng acceptance. It just shows that we are all the same; we make mistakes; we are human, and as a Filipino, tinatawanan lang din natin ang pagkakamali natin lalo na pag nalampasan mo na ang problema at alam mo sa sarili mo na walang kang inapakang tao. Looking back ang sarap nang pagtawanan at nasabi mo sa sarili mo. Salamat hindi ka sumuko. salamat sa inyo sa leksyong hatid nito sa buhay ko, Kim posted on Instagram. PAY ATTENTION: Enjoyed reading our story? Download KAMI's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major Filipino news! KAMI previously reported that Kim released the full song on YouTube and it went viral quickly. Kim Chiu is a famous actress and endorser in the Philippines. She broke through in showbiz by joining Pinoy Big Brother. Her boyfriend is fellow actor Xian Lim. Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters! Source: KAMI.com.gh Artists illustration detailing the structure of FBOTs. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF The 'Cow' is not alone; with the help of W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii, astronomers have discovered two more like itthe 'Koala' and a similar mysterious bright object called CSS161010. This trio of fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) appear to be relatives, all belonging to a highly-luminous family that has a track record for surprising astronomers with their fast, powerful bursts of energy. The 'Koala,' which is a nickname derived from the tail end of its official name ZTF18abvkwla, suddenly appeared as a bright new source in the optical sky before disappearing within just a few nights. A team of astronomers at Caltech realized this behavior was similar to the 'Cow' and requested radio observations to see if the two were connected. "When I reduced the data, I thought I made a mistake," said Anna Ho, graduate student of astronomy at Caltech and lead author of the study. "The 'Koala' resembled the 'Cow' but the radio emission was ten times brighteras bright as a gamma-ray burst!" Ho and her research team's paper is published in today's issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Another cosmic explosion of this type, CSS161010, fascinated a team of astronomers led by Northwestern University. Based on radio observations, they calculated this transient launched material into space faster than 0.55 times the speed of light. "This was unexpected," said Deanne Coppejans, postdoctoral associate at Northwestern University and lead author of the study on CSS161010. "We know of energetic stellar explosions that can eject material at almost the speed of light, specifically gamma-ray bursts, but they only launch a small amount of massabout 1 millionth the mass of the Sun. CSS161010 launched 1 to 10 percent the mass of the Sun to relativistic speedsevidence that this is a new class of transient!" Coppejans and her team's paper is published in today's issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. These three strange events make up a new subtype of FBOTs, which first dazzled the world in the summer of 2018 when the 'Cow,' short for AT2018cow, exploded in the sky. Three months later, Ho's team captured the 'Koala.' Though the 'Cow' was the first to make world headlines, CSS161010 was actually the first FBOT discovered with luminous radio and X-ray emission, but astronomers did not know how to interpret these findings yet. "At that time, there was really no theoretical model that predicted bright radio emission from bright FBOTs," said Coppejans. "It wasn't until we conducted follow-up radio and X-ray observations that the true nature of CSS161010 revealed itself. Seeing it at these wavelengths is important because the data showed we were looking at something new and highly energetic." What makes these luminous FBOTs strange is they look like supernova explosions, but flare up and vanish much faster. They're also extremely hot, making them appear bluer in color than your standard supernovae. Also, while these new FBOTs explosions are just as violent as long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and can also launch outflows at relativistic velocities, their observational signatures are different in that they are surrounded by a lot of circumstellar matter. And unlike GRBs, the 'Cow' and CSS161010 contain hydrogen. "We don't see these two elements in GRB-supernova spectra because we think GRBs come from dying stars that were 'stripped' of their hydrogen and helium envelopes prior to collapsing into a new black hole," said Ho. Artists illustration comparing FBOTs to normal supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF Origin of Luminous FBOTS The two teams used Keck Observatory's Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) and DEep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) to characterize the host galaxies of the 'Koala' and CSS161010; they found both FBOTs come from low-mass dwarf galaxies, just like the 'Cow.' "The host galaxy of CSS161010 is so small that only a 10-meter class telescope like Keck can collect enough light to allow us to physically model the emission," said co-author Giacomo Terreran, postdoctoral associate at Northwestern University's CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research for Astrophysics). "Remarkably, the Keck data showed the host galaxies of CSS161010, the 'Koala,' and the 'Cow,' while tiny, are actively forming stars, indicating their home base has a very small stellar mass typical of dwarf galaxies." "This likely indicates the dwarf galaxy properties, such as the metallicity or formation history, might allow some very rare evolutionary paths of stars that lead to the most violent explosions," said Coppejans. While both teams attribute the explosions of massive stars as the most likely cause of these new FBOTs, another possibility still under consideration is they originate from stars being devoured by black holes. If so, this new class of FBOTs could be key in the hunt for medium-sized black holes, which have yet to be detected. In general, the more massive a galaxy is, the heavier its central black hole; following this trend, it is expected that dwarf galaxies are candidates for hosting intermediate mass black holes. "One idea is that FBOTs could be the flare of a star being ripped apart by an intermediate mass black hole. If this is the case, then they could potentially be beacons to help find these elusive black holes," said CSS161010 co-author Rafaella Margutti, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University and faculty member of Northwestern's CIERA. While the origin of this type of FBOT is still hotly debated, the new data provide fresh insight on how they may have formed. "The observations prove the most luminous FBOTs have a 'central engine'a source like a neutron star or black hole that powers the transient," said Margutti. "It's not yet clear if these bright FBOTs are rare supernovae, stars being shredded by black holes, or other energetic phenomena. Multi-wavelength observations of more FBOTs and their environment will answer this question." Methodology and Next Steps Due to their extremely rapid rise to maximum light, these rare FBOTs are difficult to detect. But recent developments in high-cadence optical surveys scanning huge swaths of the sky every night make the hunt for rare, short-duration transients more feasible. The key to determining their true nature is to conduct follow-up multi-wavelength observations. The 'Koala' was first detected using the Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory. Ho's team then used the Hale Telescope to obtain spectra, followed by the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to conduct radio observations. CSS161010 was first captured by the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey and independently discovered by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae. Coppejans and her team then conducted follow-up radio observations with the VLA and GMRT, and X-ray observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The radio emission is produced by the shock wave of the material slamming into the surrounding medium at more than 0.55 times the speed of light, but the X-ray emission cannot be explained this way. The team speculates they might be directly seeing the central engine in X-rays, like in the 'Cow.' "One lesson learned is while FBOTs have proven rarer and harder to find than some of us were hoping, in the radio band they're also much more luminous than we'd guessed, allowing us to provide quite comprehensive data even on events that are far away," said Daniel Perley, senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University's Astrophysics Research Institute and co-author of the 'Koala' study. "These observations of the 'Koala' and CSS161010 show how much we can learn from radio and X-ray observations of FBOTs," said Ho. "The challenge going forward is to delineate different FBOT subtypes and to develop more precise vocabulary. It's exciting to help investigate a new and unexpected phenomenon. In science, you sometimes don't find what you were expecting to find, but along the way you uncover new directions." Explore further Astrophysicists capture new class of transient objects More information: Anna Y. Q. Ho et al. The Koala: A Fast Blue Optical Transient with Luminous Radio Emission from a Starburst Dwarf Galaxy at z = 0.27, The Astrophysical Journal (2020). Anna Y. Q. Ho et al. The Koala: A Fast Blue Optical Transient with Luminous Radio Emission from a Starburst Dwarf Galaxy at z = 0.27,(2020). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab8bcf D. L. Coppejans et al. A Mildly Relativistic Outflow from the Energetic, Fast-rising Blue Optical Transient CSS161010 in a Dwarf Galaxy, The Astrophysical Journal (2020). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab8cc7 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal , Astrophysical Journal Letters Nebraska State Troopers have arrested four people following a pursuit and search of the Gibbon area that ended Monday evening. The Sunday evening pursuit, in which the driver of a Chevrolet Camaro reached a speed of 174 miles per hour while attempting to flee a traffic stop, had ended in Gibbon. A trooper had been able to deploy spike strips during the pursuit, which led to the Camaro becoming disabled near Gibbon High School. All three occupants of the vehicle fled the scene on foot. At approximately 7:30 p.m. Monday, Troopers received information that a suspect being sought in relation to the pursuit was attempting to leave the area in a Jeep Patriot. Troopers performed a traffic stop on the vehicle as it was leaving Gibbon on Highway 30. Inside the vehicle, troopers located the suspect, Tyler Liles, 22, of Creve Coeur, Illinois. The driver of the Jeep Patriot, Kyle Buss, 26, of Pekin, Illinois, had traveled to Gibbon in an attempt to transport Liles and the two others out of the area. Liles and Buss were both arrested. By PTI ALIRAJPUR: Defying the social distancing norms, over 1,000 people gathered at the marriage function of a revenue officer at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district, police said on Tuesday. An FIR has been registered against the 24-year-old groom, Kanu Chouhan, who is currently posted as 'patwari' (village-level revenue officer) in the state's Betul district, they said. The wedding function was held on Monday in Alirajpur's Bilasa village where none of the attendees wore masks, and they were dancing without following the social distancing guidelines to check the spread of COVID-19, a police official said. "Somebody filmed the event on mobile phone and informed the police following which security personnel also shot a video of the function. A case has been registered against the groom under Indian Penal Code Section 188, Alirajpur's Superintendent of Police Vipul Shrivastava said. No arrest has been made so far as offences under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) are bailable, another police official said. Its considered one of Pa.s best hospitals, but one registered nurse allegedly made it a very uncomfortable place for a female patient in a great deal of pain. According to state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the nurse did so by allegedly switching and stealing the patients OxyContin pain medication at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. In fact, the womans pain got so intolerable, she kept one of the pills the accused nurse gave her and convinced the hospital to test it, according to the AG. The pill came back as the sedative Lunesta, which the patient wasnt prescribed. Meanwhile, OxyContin and its generic counterpart, Oxycodone, remain a prized and very valuable narcotic on the black market amid the ongoing opioid crisis. READ MORE: The nurse, identified as Tiffany Hafner, 28, of Pittsburgh, is in hot water, facing charges of neglect of a care dependent person, drug offenses and theft, Shapiros office announced. The story was reported by TribLive.com, which adds these details: Hafners arrest was the result of an investigation launched in November after authorities learned that she was allegedly replacing her patients prescription Oxycodone pain medication with the sedative Lunesta, according to authorities. Hafner is also accuse of bringing in the Lunesta from outside the hospital. Said Shapiro: As weve seen in this crisis, we owe a debt to the thousands of medical professionals in Pennsylvania who are enduring a prolonged crisis to save lives and keep us safe, but when someone abuses that trust we will hold them accountable. This defendant abused her position when she stole medication from a patient and left them in pain. We will not tolerate the neglect of the vulnerable Pennsylvanians. Hafner was released on her own recognizance following arraignment. She faces a preliminary hearing on July 23. READ MORE: Boy, 9, shot in head inside Pa. home; weapon missing: cops Pa. police break up DJ parking lot party of 250 people, many without masks 3 men accused of forcing Pa. woman to perform sex acts to pay off debt: cops Pa. sports bar fights back as liquor license suspensions spread in lockdown crackdown Man stabbed in chest outside Pa. Sheetz in dispute over womans lost purse: cops Pa. man who falsely claimed to be veteran blew up in Iraq learns fate for stealing real veterans valor Cadaver dog on boat finds missing 10-year-olds body in Pa. river Huge fentanyl bust on Pa. Turnpike shows opioids are booming amid coronavirus lockdowns Suspect fleeing Pa. police goes missing after plunging into river Wild Pa. police chase of serial burglary suspect caught on tape Pair of Sheetz bandits wear carved-out watermelons as face masks: cops 10-year-old Pa. boy falls into river while playing with older children; search is fruitless so far Person of interest in Pa. womans Mothers Day shooting arrested in 2nd killing: reports Accused DUI driver faces homicide charges in unborn babys death in violent Pa. crash Injured Appalachian Trail hiker triggers hours-long rescue in PA Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Talon Metals Corp. (TSX: TLO) ("Talon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the discovery of new geophysical anomalies that highlight the potential for a 1 km extension of nickel-copper sulphide mineralization at the Tamarack Nickel-Copper-Cobalt project ("Tamarack Project"), located in Minnesota, USA. The Tamarack Project comprises the Tamarack North Project and the Tamarack South Project. Summary As part of the Company's Winter 2020 Exploration Program, the Company completed a Surface Electro-Magnetic ("Surface EM") geophysical survey over (i) the Company's existing resource area as a control survey; and (ii) an area extending 1 km south of the Company's resource area to identify new exploration targets. Within the existing resource area, the Surface EM confirmed a long linear target at a depth of 400 meters to 500 meters, which corresponds with the depth of the existing high-grade mineralization. The Surface EM survey south of the Company's resource area identified a continuous string of anomalies along a 1 km path at a depth that is consistent with mineralization found in the Company's resource area (Figure 1 - L8200, L8000, L7800, L7600 and L7400). These Surface EM anomalies connect the resource area's massive sulphides to other massive sulphides previously discovered 1 km to the south of the resource area. This indicates that larger connected resources may exist within this region of limited drilling. "We have always hoped that Surface EM would be able to help identify mineralization at the Tamarack Project," said Brian Bengert, Talon's Geophysicist."Historically, this project area has been hamstrung by near surface conductive features that have shielded the targets below. Using the combined knowledge gained over the years on this project, we created a low-frequency, large loop survey design, and novel time series processing methods that allowed us to penetrate these shielding conductors and identify the EM signatures of the Tamarack sulphides at depth. This robust methodology could prove to be a very cost-effective way to make new discoveries along the 18-kilometer Tamarack Intrusive Complex. As part of the next program, we plan to expand the Surface EM survey north of the resource area, where other high-grade nickel (e.g., 9.95% Ni) has already been intercepted. The success of Surface EM at the Tamarack Project is an exciting development, and the Company will make it a high priority to test these targets during its next drill program." Henri van Rooyen, CEO of Talon, continued:"The geophysical survey results of the winter 2020 exploration program could be the turning point for exploration at the 18-km Tamarack Intrusive Complex: we have tested a suite of geophysical techniques that we used to model an exploration target that coincides with the approximate location of the high-grade massive sulphide unit in our resource area. It therefore follows that we can now cost-effectively and rapidly expand our search radius to explore areas in the vicinity of similar high-grade nickel intercepts with the goal of discovering entirely new massive sulphide bodies. This is what we are gearing up for." Technical Discussion - Surface EM In December, the Company completed a Surface EM survey over the Tamarack Zone (resource area) and 164 Zone (the area 1 km south of the Company's resource area). A large 1400 meter by 2000 meter fixed loop was laid out and data was collected on east-west lines with a 200 meter line spacing and stations located every 50 meters. The objective was to calibrate the survey to the known mineralization within the Company's resource area (Tamarack Zone) and identify if similar conductors exist further south. The data from this Surface EM survey delineates a long linear conductive anomaly extending from the Tamarack Zone (resource area) to the massive sulphide intercepts within the 164 Zone (1 km south of the resource area) (Figure 1). This fits the electro-magnetic signature of the conductor that corresponds to the high-grade massive sulphide unit observed within the known resource area. Figure 1: Plan view map of the Tamarack Zone (resource area) and 164 Zone (1 km south of the resource area) showing the location of the Surface EM survey. The solid red line shows the location of the interpreted conductive anomalies. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2443/56575_98b4321144e0282e_002full.jpg Figures 2 and 3 show a conductor below the FGO/MZNO footwall contact in the surface electro-magnetic profiles of lines L8600 (A-A') and L8400 (B-B') within the Tamarack Zone (resource area). Of note, Figure 4 also shows a similar conductor below the FGO/MZNO footwall contact in the surface electro-magnetic profiles of line L8000 (C-C') located within the 164 Zone (1 km south of the resource area). Figure 2: Cross-section looking north at line L8600 (A-A') located over the high-grade Massive Sulphide Unit (MSU) and Semi-Massive Sulphide unit (SMSU) mineralization within the Tamarack Zone (resource area). The Surface EM anomaly corresponds to the conductive mineralization at depth (with the conductor being at an approximate depth of 320 meters). Refer to Figure 1 for location of L8600. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2443/56575_98b4321144e0282e_003full.jpg Figure 3: Cross-section looking north at line L8400 (B-B') located over the high-grade Massive Sulphide Unit (MSU) mineralization within the Tamarack Zone. The Surface EM anomaly corresponds to the mineralization at depth (with the conductor being at an approximate depth of 500 meters). Refer to Figure 1 for location of L8400. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2443/56575_98b4321144e0282e_004full.jpg Based upon historical drilling, the 164 Zone (1 km south of the resource area) and the Tamarack Zone (resource area) appear to share the same geology, and now show a similar conductor at a depth of 450 meters (Figure 4), just meters below the interpreted FGO footwall contact. In addition, this Surface EM anomaly connects the resource area's sulphide mineralization to the mixed and massive sulphides previously intercepted approximately 1 km south of the Company's resource area, where limited drilling has been conducted (see Figure 1). Figure 4: Cross-section looking north at line L8000 in the 164 Zone (1 km south of the resource area) showing the location of the conductor with respect to the Surface EM anomaly (with the conductor being at an approximate depth of 425 meters). Refer to Figure 1 for location of line L8000. To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2443/56575_98b4321144e0282e_005full.jpg Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Qualified Persons Please see the technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of the Tamarack North Project - Tamarack, Minnesota" with an effective date of March 12, 2020 prepared by independent "Qualified Persons" (as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Leslie Correia (Pr. Eng), Andre-Francois Gravel (P. Eng.), Tim Fletcher (P. Eng.), Daniel Gagnon (P. Eng.), David Ritchie (P. Eng.), Oliver Peters (P. Eng.), Christine Pint (P.G.) and Brian Thomas (P. Geo.) for information on the QA/QC, analytical and testing procedures at the Tamarack Project. Copies are available on the Company's website (www.talonmetals.com) or on SEDAR at (www.sedar.com). The laboratory used is ALS Minerals who is independent of the Company. Lengths are drill intersections and not necessarily true widths. True widths cannot be consistently calculated for comparison purposes between holes because of the irregular shapes of the mineralized zones. Drill intersections have been independently selected by Talon. Drill composites have been independently calculated by Talon. The geological interpretations in this news release are solely those of the Company. The locations and distances highlighted on all maps in this news release are approximate. Dr. Etienne Dinel, Vice President, Geology of Talon, is a Qualified Person within the meaning of NI 43-101. Dr. Dinel is satisfied that the geophysical data collection, processing, analysis and interpretation were completed using standard industry operating procedures and methodologies. Dr. Dinel has reviewed, approved and verified all of the technical information disclosed in this news release. About Talon Talon is a TSX-listed base metals company in a joint venture with Rio Tinto on the high-grade Tamarack Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Project located in Minnesota, USA, comprised of the Tamarack North Project and the Tamarack South Project. Talon has an earn-in right to acquire up to 60% of the Tamarack Project. The Tamarack Project comprises a large land position (18km of strike length) with numerous high-grade intercepts outside of the current resource area. Talon is focussed on expanding its current high-grade nickel mineralization resource prepared in accordance with NI 43-101; identifying additional high-grade nickel mineralization; and developing a process to potentially produce nickel sulphates responsibly for batteries for the electric vehicles industry. Talon has a well-qualified mine management team with extensive experience in project management. For additional information on Talon, please visit the Company's website at www.talonmetals.com or contact: Sean Werger, President Email: werger@talonmetals.com Telephone: 416-361-9636 Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical fact that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Such forward-looking statements include statements relating to the potential for a new discovery at Tamarack, including a 1 km extension of nickel-copper sulphide mineralization at the Tamarack Project, the potential that larger connected resources may exist within the region of limited drilling 1km to the south of the resource area, the ability to identify the EM signatures of the Tamarack sulphides from surface which could prove to be a very cost-effective way to make new discoveries at Tamarack, the ability to cost-effectively and rapidly expand the Company's search radius to explore areas in the vicinity of similar high-grade nickel intercepts with the goal of discovering entirely new massive sulphide bodies and future exploration plans and drill targets. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56575 The first of five Iranian tankers carrying much-needed gasoline and oil derivatives docked in Venezuela on Monday, Caracas announced amid concern in Washington over the burgeoning relationship between countries it sees as international pariahs. In a statement delivered on state television, Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami said the convoy was an expression of the Venezuelan people's "self-determination" and praised Tehran's friendship at a time of need. "What great fortune to have Iran in these times," said the minister, surrounded by members of the military leadership. Earlier, El Aissami triumphantly shared images on Twitter of the first ship, "Fortune" arriving at El Palito refinery on Venezuela's northwest coast. "We keep going and WINNING!" El Aissami wrote. The United States has closely monitored the shipments, concerned that Iran and Venezuela -- both under US sanctions -- were taking their longstanding ties to another strategic level. The Iranian tankers have run the gauntlet of US warships arrayed off the Venezuelan coast after Washington announced last month it was stepping up its naval presence, arguing there was an increase in organized crime. Tensions between Washington and Caracas remain high following Venezuela's disruption last month of an abortive military assault by a group of mercenaries coordinated by a private US security company. The US has stepped up sanctions against socialist President Nicolas Maduro and his inner circle, recently offering a $15 million reward for Maduro accusing him of masterminding a drug-smuggling ring. Washington and more than 50 other states accuse Maduro of stealing 2018 elections and instead recognize his opposition rival Juan Guaido as interim president. - Vital shipment - The vital shipment arrives at a time of chronic fuel shortages in the crisis-wracked South American country, exacerbated by the coronavirus lockdown. In Caracas, where drivers lined up for hours to fill their tanks, Tehran's helping hand was viewed with a mixture of hope and suspicion. Osvaldo Rodriguez, 22, doubts the fuel "is for us," but instead destined for those with their hands on the levers of power in Venezuela. "If gasoline is sold at the same price as abroad, nobody will be able to afford it," he said, alluding to Venezuela's minimum wage of $4.60 a month. Gasoline is currently selling for up to three dollars a liter on the black market in Caracas, unheard of in a country where motorists are used to filling up for practically nothing. "We have no shortage of oil! Supposedly we are sitting on five billion barrels of it underground. But there's no gasoline," said Teodoro Lamonte, 50, as he slowly rolled his car along a line outside a service station. Venezuela boasts the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but production has plummeted under the current regime and its oil exports have been hampered by US sanctions. The Fortune arrived in Venezuela's territorial waters on Saturday night, escorted by the Venezuelan navy. The navy on Twitter said its ships were escorting a second tanker, the Forest, which it said entered the country's waters early Monday. The other Iranian tankers -- Petunia, Faxon, Clavel and Forest -- will arrive in the next few days, state television said. The fleet is carrying around 1.5 million barrels of gasoline, according to press reports. Tehran had warned of "consequences" if the US stopped the ships from reaching their destination. Iran and Venezuela have had close relations since the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez took power in Caracas in 1999. Venezuela has been in recession for six years, its economy in shambles and its citizens struggling with shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicines. US sanctions have targeted Venezuelan oil exports, starving Caracas of vital income. Venezuela is almost entirely dependent on its oil revenues but its production has fallen to roughly a quarter of its 2008 level. Maduro's government blames that on US sanctions, including against state oil company PDVSA, but many analysts say the regime has failed to invest in or maintain infrastructure. Falling oil prices since 2014 have exacerbated Venezuela's economic crisis. Last month, the oil ministry revealed that the price of Venezuelan crude had fallen to its lowest level in more than two decades, at less than $10 a barrel. Last year it averaged $56.70. With everything going on in the world at the moment, sticking to your goals can be a bit tough. But in a recent Instagram post, actress Rebel Wilson has shared an empowering message that her fans have praised her for. "Even if you have to crawl towards your goals, keep going x it will be worth it." she starts by saying. "Try and give a little bit of effort each day... I know some days are frustrating as hell, you feel like giving up, you get annoyed at the lack of progress... But good things are coming your way." "What are your goals this year? Ill be honest with you guys - with my 'Year of Health' mission Im trying to get to 75kgs and career wise am trying to get one of my movies into production before the end of the year!" Both Nicki Minaj and Cardi B have been the bad girls of the mainstream industry taking a strong approach to mainstream music that is dominated by men. Nicki Minaj previously started with HipHop but slowly transitioned into pop while it seems Cardi B is trying to stay as close to her genre as possible. In a lengthy post on Azealia Bank's Instagram story, the artist started shooting fire at Nicki Minaj once again after the success of the new "Say So" remix. The post was aimed to drag both Nicki Minaj and Doja Cat down saying that Nicki's beef with Cardi B all came down to basic jealousy. Azealia Banks is back at it again at Nicki pic.twitter.com/mQJCsB0wkh May 25, 2020 Azealia Banks on Nicki Minaj According to Azealia Banks, another thing that the artist finds funny is how Nicki has been beefing with Cardi B for being bad for black women but she is now quite because she has her "white b***h" on her side (referring to Doja Cat). Azealia Banks starts calling out Nicki Minaj saying "you're a p***y b***h" telling Nicki to get "outta here" continuing her statement with how she should have gone straight to Queen Radio and put that "b***h" where she belongs. The star then continued to say that she should put that "b***h" all the way down in the "South African emerald mine" where the white girl belongs. Doja Cat and her involvement According to Complex, these comments most likely made a reference to the most recent controversy that is surrounding Doja Cat, who apparently made racist remarks back then while appearing at a certain "alt-right" or those incel-type community chat rooms. According to Azealia Banks, looking back at the whole situation, it seemed like she was just jealous of Cardi B having more swag than her. She also continued to say that she even made an entire radio show saying how Cardi B is bad for black women in general. This is not actually the very first time that Azealia Banks has gone public with her beef with Nicki Minaj. Back in 2017, she was still taking shots at her before apologizing. She then eventually threw shade once again later on despite promising to never do it again. Read Also: Is Elon Musk and Grimes' Baby Really Named X A-12 Musk? Is This Legal? Tweet Shows Picture of Baby with Face Tattoos Dave Chappelle's dirty secret Her most recent comments included talks about the majority of famous partners she has had relationships with even after going after both of them. She even decided to go after the popular comedian and well-known celebrity Dave Chappelle saying that she should probably ruin his marriage by telling the whole world that they both f**ked. All of this was on her Instagram Story and she continued to say that why should she keep secrets for anyone? Azealia Banks even gave out an invitation to the comedian saying that he is welcome to "f**k" her any time saying that that was some good black "d**k." Read Also: [PewDiePie] Felix is Now Ripped: What's His Secret By Sunday, May 24, Tropical Cyclone Mangga had already transitioned to an extra-tropical storm and was affecting the southwestern coast of Australia. When a storm becomes extra-tropical, it means that a tropical cyclone has lost its "tropical" characteristics. The National Hurricane Center defines "extra-tropical" as a transition that implies both poleward displacement (meaning it moves toward the north or south pole) of the cyclone and the conversion of the cyclone's primary energy source from the release of latent heat of condensation to baroclinic (the temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses) processes. It is important to note that cyclones can become extra-tropical and retain winds of hurricane or tropical storm force. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued Severe Weather Warnings in Western Australia on Sunday as the extra-tropical system tracked in a southeasterly direction. The final warning for Mangga came on May 23 at 5 pm EDT (2100 UTC), when it was located near latitude 21.6 south and longitude 104.7 east, about 525 nautical miles west of Learmonth, Australia. Mangga was moving southeast at a speedy 44 knots (51 mph/81 kph) and had maximum sustained winds of 35 knots (40 mph/65 kph). NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible look at the extra-tropical low-pressure area along the southwestern coast of Western Australia on May 24. The center of circulation was difficult to pinpoint in the visible image, captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, an instrument that flies aboard Aqua. On May 24, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Severe Weather Warning called for "Damaging, locally destructive winds and abnormally high tides for people in Central West, Lower West, South West, South Coastal, South East Coastal, Great Southern, Central Wheat Belt and parts of Gascoyne and Goldfields districts." The extra-tropical low-pressure area passed over the southwestern part of the state on Monday, May 25 as it continued to weaken and move back over open waters of the Indian Ocean. ### By Rob Gutro NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Himachal Pradesh government has authorised district magistrates to extend the curfew on their discretion. The cabinet in a meeting held on May 23 has authorised district magistrates to extend curfew under Section 144 for more than two months up to June 30 if the situation so requires, a spokesperson said. The government spokesperson said a curfew had been imposed in the entire state from March 24 in wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. Accordingly, the concerned district magistrates issued orders under Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in their respective districts to impose curfew. The spokesperson said the district magistrates cannot impose curfew in their respective districts for more than two months. However, since two months have elapsed and the coronavirus pandemic has still not be overcome, it was felt that there may be need to extend it further, he said. The present curfew will stay in force till May 31, 2020, after which district magistrates will take a call on whether to extend the curfew. SOLAN, HAMIRPUR EXTEND CURFEW So far, curfew has been extended in two districts Solan and Hamirpur by the district magistrates concerned. The hill state has so far recorded 223 cases of coronavirus, including five causalities. A spurt was witnessed in Covid-19 cases after May 4 with 183 people testing positive for the virus. Hamirpur was the worst-hit district with 63 cases followed by Kangra with 59 cases. Thirty cases have been reported in Una, 20 in Solan, 18 in Chamba, 11 each in Mandi and Bilaspur, six in Shimla, four in Sirmaur, and one in Kullu. As many as 63 people have recovered. Three men and two women have died of the contagion so far. The state has conducted around 24,000 tests for Covid-19 so far. Ramberg/iStockBy JULIA MACFARLANE, ABC News (LONDON) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons adviser Dominic Cummings insists that he did not break any rules amid calls for him to resign for traveling to visit his parents property in late March, and revealed that he did not offer his resignation to the prime minister, nor did he consider doing so. Johnson is dealing with a political storm amid the coronavirus pandemic, as it emerged last week that Cummings allegedly broke lockdown rules in March and April. In a press conference -- special advisers in the U.K. have a strict code of conduct which usually forbids them from making speeches or statements or taking part in political activities -- Cummings insisted no rules were broken when he took his wife, who was showing symptoms for COVID-19, and his 4-year-old son, more than 250 miles north of London to Durham where his parents own a farm and a cottage on the grounds. Cummings said he and his family self-isolated there. Addressing accusations that he was flouting the rules he helped to devise, he said: "Its not just a simple matter of regulations. The regulations describe various exceptional circumstances where it may not be possible to follow the rules." Cummings said he fell ill with coronavirus after he had arrived in Durham, but the family continued to self-isolate together at his parents cottage -- away from their main house -- for 14 days. He said the driving factor behind his decision was to be closer to relatives in case he caught the virus from his wife, which would leave his 4-year-old son with two ill parents to care for him. He added that he did not seek child-care support from his family members while in Durham. He said driving with a "full tank" of petrol in his car to an isolated location where his family members could have looked after his son if necessary was "the safest thing to do" under the circumstances. He added: "If I had stayed in London and something similar had happened, I would have had to get someone else there and expose them to danger." Government advice stipulates that if a member of someone's household falls ill or starts to show symptoms of coronavirus, then they "must stay at home for at least 7 days, but all other household members who remain well must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days." Cummings is believed to be one of the key proponents of the governments "stay at home" strategy. An alumnus of the Brexit Vote Leave campaign of 2016, Cummings has been central to Johnsons leadership campaigns and the recent general election in December 2019 that led to a decisive Johnson victory. In his statement, Cummings admitted that he had been spotted by a member of the public near the town of Barnard Castle on April 11. A joint investigation by two British newspapers claimed that one of his parents neighbors in Durham spotted Cummings and his family. The neighbor told the Daily Mirror: "I was really annoyed. I thought its ok for you to drive all the way up to Durham and escape from London." On Sunday, Johnson himself took over the daily afternoon coronavirus briefing to address the crisis -- adding that he had spent almost six hours discussing the chronology of events with Cummings, and that he had concluded that no rules were broken and he had in fact acted "responsibly, legally and with integrity." Upon his return from Number 10 on Sunday night, Cummings was filmed walking to his house and met with angry neighbors and bystanders. Earlier in the day, a van parked outside Cummings house with a large screen playing a satirical video of Johnson and his cabinet members statements urging the public to "stay at home." Outrage continued to grow, with lawmakers taking to Twitter on Sunday evening and Monday morning to share the emails they were receiving from angry constituents who had made sacrifices to be without their families in order to abide by the rules. One Conservative MP -- from Johnsons own party -- told BBC radio he had received more than 100 emails from constituents saying the scandal "hit a raw nerve." While the majority of cabinet members have tweeted their support for Cummings, a growing number of Conservative MPs have called for him to resign. The Daily Mail, a rightwing newspaper that is usually sympathetic to Johnsons administration, published a scathing front page on Monday morning, with an editorial calling for Cummings to either resign or be fired. The row also received concerned statements from scientists involved in advising the government on its coronavirus response. Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours, said that Cummings actions had undermined efforts to fight the virus and claimed that "more people are going to die" as a result. A statement Saturday from the Prime Ministers Office at Number 10 Downing Street refuted claims in the media that the Durham Police had contacted the Cummings family, saying that "at no stage was [Mr Cummings] or his family spoken to by the police." But minutes before Cummings press conference Monday, the Durham Constabulary issued a new statement: "We can confirm that on April 1, an officer from Durham Constabulary spoke to the father of Dominic Cummings." Meanwhile, on the heels of Cummings press conference, a junior minister of the United Kingdom's parliament has resigned. Douglas Ross stepped down from his post as parliamentary under-secretary of state for Scotland on Tuesday, saying in a statement, "There was much I still hoped to do in this role but events over the last few days mean I can no longer serve as a member of this government." Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Azerbaijan violated the Convention by releasing an extradited officer who had murdered an Armenian soldier during training in Hungary, ECHR ruled. The case Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan and Hungary concerned the presidential pardon given to a convicted murderer and his release following his transfer from Hungary to Azerbaijan to serve the rest of his sentence. R.S., a military officer from Azerbaijan, killed an Armenian military officer and attempted to kill another one when they were attending a course in Hungary in 2004. The case also concerned more generally the heros welcome given to R.S. in Azerbaijan upon his return. In todays Chamber judgment in the case the European Court of Human Rights held: by six votes to one, that there had been no substantive violation by Azerbaijan of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights; unanimously, that there had been a procedural violation by Azerbaijan of Article 2 of the Convention; by six votes to one, that there had been no procedural violation by Hungary of Article 2; by six votes to one, that there had been a violation by Azerbaijan of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken in conjunction with Article 2, and unanimously, that neither the Azerbaijani nor Hungarian Governments had failed to comply with Article 38 (obligation to furnish necessary facilities for the examination of the case). The Court found that although Azerbaijan had clearly endorsed R.S.s acts, not only by releasing him but also by promoting him, paying him salary arrears and granting him a flat upon his return, it could not be held responsible under the stringent standards of international law which required a State to acknowledge such acts as its own. Moreover, those acts had been part of a private decision and had been so flagrantly abusive and far removed from the official status of a military officer that the Court could not see how his commanding officers could have foreseen them or how Azerbaijan could be responsible for them just because he was a State agent. However, it found that there had been no justification for the Azerbaijani authorities failure to enforce the punishment of R.S. and to in effect grant him impunity for a serious hate crime. Moreover, the applicants had provided sufficient evidence to show that R.S.s pardon and other measures in his favour had been ethnically motivated, namely statements by high-ranking officials expressing their support for his conduct, and in particular the fact that it had been directed against Armenian soldiers, and a specially dedicated page to R.S. on the President of Azerbaijans website. The Court considered that Azerbaijan had assumed responsibility for the enforcement of R.S.s prison sentence upon his transfer, and from that point on, it had been called upon to provide an adequate response to a very serious ethnically-biased crime for which one of its citizens had been convicted in another country. Given the extremely tense political situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the authorities should have been all the more cautious. Instead of enforcing R.S.s sentence, however, he had been set free and treated as an innocent or wrongfully convicted person and bestowed with benefits that had not apparently had any legal basis under domestic law. Moreover, the Court was not convinced by the reasons submitted by the Azerbaijani Government for R.S.s immediate release. As concerned the alleged unfairness of the criminal proceedings, the Court found that R.S. had been tried in Hungary before courts at two levels, which had handed down well-reasoned decisions. In any event, if R.S. had considered his trial unfair, he could have, but had not, lodged an application with the European Court against Hungary once the criminal proceedings against him had come to an end. As to R.S.s personal history and mental difficulties, they could hardly justify the Azerbaijani authorities failure to enforce the punishment of one of their citizens for a serious hate crime. In any case, his mental capacities had been thoroughly assessed during his trial in Hungary by medical experts who found that he had been able to understand the consequences of his actions at the time. Indeed, the subsequent decision to promote R.S. would clearly suggest that the Azerbaijani authorities had deemed him fit to continue to serve in the military and that he had not therefore suffered from a serious mental condition. The Court noted that the Hungarian authorities had followed to the letter the procedure set out in the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons when extraditing R.S. No tangible evidence had been brought before the Court to show that the Hungarian authorities had unequivocally been aware or should have been aware that R.S. would be released by Azerbaijan. The Court held, unanimously, that Azerbaijan was to pay the applicants, jointly, 15,143.33 pounds sterling (GBP) in respect of costs and expenses. This Chamber judgment is not final. During the three-month period following its delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. As reported earlier, Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31, 2012, from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentenceand with no expression of either regret or remorsefor the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004. As expected, Ramil Safarovs return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyevs government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon. Prerov Airport, Prerov, Czech Republic [ PRV / LKPO ] If you are planning to travel to Prerov or any other city in Czech Republic, this airport locator will be a very useful tool. This page gives complete information about the Prerov Airport along with the airport location map, Time Zone, lattitude and longitude, Current time and date, hotels near the airport etc... Prerov Airport Map showing the location of this airport in Czech Republic. Prerov Airport IATA Code, ICAO Code, exchange rate etc... is also provided. Prerov Airport Info: Prerov Airport IATA Code: PRV Prerov Airport ICAO Code: LKPO Latitude : 49.4833 Longitude : 17.4667 City : Prerov Country : Czech Republic World Area Code : 418 Airport Type : Medium Prerov Airport Address / Contact Details : Prerov Airport (PRV), 751 24 Prerov, Czech Republic Timezone : Europe/Prague Prerov Airport Timezone : GMT +01:00 hours Current time and date at Prerov Airport is 20:28:38 PM (CET) on Thursday, Jan 20, 2022 Looking for information on Prerov Airport, Prerov, Czech Republic? Know about Prerov Airport in detail. Find out the location of Prerov Airport on Czech Republic map and also find out airports near to Prerov. This airport locator is a very useful tool for travelers to know where is Prerov Airport located and also provide information like hotels near Prerov Airport, airlines operating to Prerov Airport etc... IATA Code and ICAO Code of all airports in Czech Republic. Scroll down to know more about Prerov Airport or Prerov Airport, Czech Republic. Prerov Airport Map - Location of Prerov Airport Load Map Czech Republic - General Information Country Code CZ Capital Prague Currency Koruna (CZK) 1 CZK = 0.047 USD 1 USD = 21.387 CZK 1 CZK = 0.041 EUR 1 EUR = 24.226 CZK More CZK convertion rates Tel Code +420 Top Level Domain .cz This page provides all the information you need to know about Prerov Airport, Czech Republic. This page is created with the aim of helping travelers and tourists visiting Czech Republic or traveling to Prerov Airport. Details about Prerov Airport given here include Prerov Airport Code - IATA Code (3 letter airport codes) and ICAO Code (4 letter airport codes) Coordinates of Prerov Airport - Latitude and Longitude (Lat and Long) of Prerov Airport Location of Prerov Airport - City Name, Country, Country Codes etc... Prerov Airport Time Zone and Current time at Prerov Airport Address and contact details of Prerov Airport along with website address of the airport Clickable Location Map of Prerov Airport on Google Map. General information about Czech Republic where Prerov Airport is located in the city of Prerov. General information include capital of Czech Republic, currency and conversion rate of Czech Republic currency, Telephone Country code, exchange rate against US Dollar and Euro in case of major world currencies etc... PRV - Prerov Airport IATA Code and LKPO - Prerov Airport ICAO code Governor reports Cancun, Riviera Maya highly searched for, hoping to have tourism considered an essential activity Cancun, Q.R. Governor Carlos Joaquin reports that progress is being made regarding the gradual reopening of the tourism industry, which he notes, hes hoping to have considered an essential activity. After meetings with businessmen from the tourism sector, including presidents of hotel associations and city mayors, he says they continue to review sanitary measures and protocols for the states adaptation to the new normal. He says tourism is an essential activity for the state because it generates employment and development and from there, there is significant growth toward the entire pyramid of the state economy. The state government has created a mandatory health and sanitary certification program that guarantees compliance with health security measures by state tourism companies. Joaquin says the state is hoping to be able to reopen tourism internally on June 1, with around 30 percent of hotel employees, then maybe by June 8, they can begin to receive tourists. Carlos Joaquin expressed that the expectations to receive visitors are reflected in the possibilities of reservations above 40 and 50 points, adding that on Expedia, a recent report shows the Cancun, Riviera Maya region are the top three searched for regarding international hotel accommodations and that Cancun is fifth for flight reservations. However, we need to be very careful, he said explaining that this week, he will present a reopening plan, together with businessmen, noting that obviously, the health emergency is not over. What we have done is flatten the curve and we will have to keep part of the population in isolation. They will not be able to go out to the streets every day as was done previously, he warned without detailing which part of the population will remain in isolation. By Tibisay Romero and Deisy Buitrago VALENCIA, Venezuela/CARACAS (Reuters) - The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela has moored at a port serving the El Palito refinery, the oil minister said on Monday, and Refinitiv Eikon data showed a second vessel had entered its waters. Iran is providing Venezuela with 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and refining components in a move criticized by U.S. authorities as both countries are under U.S. sanctions, according to the governments, sources and calculations by TankerTrackers.com. Refinitiv Eikon data showed that the tanker Fortune docked at one of El Palito's berths around 1 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela's economy vice president and recently named oil minister, thanked Iran for sending "fuel, additives and spare parts" to increase fuel distribution and boost refinery output in the gasoline-starved country and criticized U.S. sanctions. "We are fortunate to be able to count on Iran in these times," El Aissami said from El Palito, calling the Fortune a "symbol of the brotherhood and solidarity" between Iran and Venezuela. "We cannot allow any world power to act like a super-police." A second vessel, the Forest, entered Venezuelan waters on Monday and was also heading to El Palito, according to its trajectory shown on the Eikon data. A third tanker, the Petunia, was approaching the Caribbean. A senior Trump administration official said earlier this month Washington was considering a response to the shipments. A Pentagon spokesman said last week he was not aware of any military move planned. The first two vessels did not appear to face interference. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to requests for comment on Monday, an American holiday. Venezuela is suffering gasoline shortages due to the near-collapse of its 1.3 million barrel-per-day refining network after years of underinvestment, as well as U.S. sanctions aimed at ousting socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Story continues Venezuela's refining network in May increased its joint crude processing rate to about 215,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 110,000 bpd in March, following the arrival of spare parts supplied in flights by Iran's Mahan Air, according to three people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 146,000-bpd El Palito refinery is now restarting its fluid catalytic cracker, a key unit for finished fuel production, one of the people said. The 187,000-bpd Puerto la Cruz refinery, which serves Venezuela's eastern region, remains out of service, the people said. (Reporting by Tibisay Romero in Valencia, Mircely Guanipa in Maracay, Marianna Parraga in Mexico City and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas; Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Luc Cohen; Editing by Mark Potter, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool) Lucknow, May 26 : Various districts in Uttar Pradesh have now started putting up posters outside the houses of those who have been kept in home quarantine, particularly migrant workers. People in quarantine, however, resent the move because it adds to the social stigma of being the corona carriers. Agra Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar said the quarantine posters were put earlier also in a few districts, but the government has now reiterated that it in view of the influx of the migrants, quarantine posters should be put up. The Uttar Pradesh government had stated in its May 1 order that the quarantine posters should be put outside the houses of all new entrants into the state, including the migrant workers who have returned in the past few weeks. Districts, including Agra, Aligarh, Bareilly, Hapur, Chitrakoot, Ghazipur, Etah, Gonda, Mathura, Lalitpur, Varanasi and Pratapgarh, have already covered most of the houses. In a bizarre example, officials have pasted the quarantine notice on a tree in front of the hut of a migrant worker in Ayodhya because the house did not have a boundary wall. A senior official said that special attention needs to be given to rural areas as the system in remote areas is not robust and strict observance of home quarantine is the key to curb the novel corona virus infection. Mainpuri District Magistrate, Mahendra Bahadur Singh, said that 1,500 posters have been pasted in a day and the process is on. "Around 5,000 migrant workers have returned to the district till now and all gram panchayats have been informed about it. Their homes, where they are quarantined, will also be painted with a cross mark for easy identification," he said. Aligarh District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said that he has directed his officials to ensure 100 per cent compliance in pasting these posters within a week. The aim is to ensure strict home quarantine so the returnees from other states, which are around 17,000 in the district, observe the quarantine protocol. The village monitoring committees, headed by the respective village head, have been given the responsibility of monitoring the houses where migrant returnees have been quarantined. Health officials will also make regular visits. Migrant workers, however, are resenting the pasting of quarantine posters. "There is also a stigma attached to us and we are looked upon as corona carriers. With these posters, we are being made to feel like criminals," said Mahendra Singh of Sultanpur who is presently under home quarantine. An attorney for the family of UConn murder suspect Peter Manfredonia has urged the alleged killer to give himself up. Manfredonia is being hunted by Connecticut state police and the FBI after allegedly killing two people with a machete knife before abducting another woman, who was rescued alive on Sunday. The 23-year-old UConn senior was last seen walking along railroad tracks in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Family lawyer Mike Dolan said 'it's time to surrender' after promising Manfredonia that 'your entire family loves you' and that 'nobody wants any harm to come to you'. 'It is time to let the healing process begin. From your parents - we love you. Please turn yourself in,' he said. Police describe Manfredonia as a 6ft 3in white man who should be considered armed and dangerous, dismissing a rumor last night that he had been captured. Police are hunting UConn senior Peter Manfredonia (pictured) left and right), 23, who allegedly killed two people and was still on the run last night Family lawyer Mike Dolan (pictured) said 'it's time to surrender' after promising Manfredonia that 'your entire family loves you' and that 'nobody wants any harm to come to you' The search for Manfredonia spans three states and more than 100 miles of territory Manfredonia is suspected of killing 23-year-old Nicholas Eisele (left) and 62-year-old Ted DeMers (right) before forcing Eisele's girlfriend into her car and fleeing Connecticut Manfredonia is suspected of killing Ted DeMers, 62, and Nicholas Eisele, 23, before forcing Eisele's girlfriend into her car and fleeing the state with her. The 23-year-old woman was located in her Volkswagen Jetta near Paterson, New Jersey on Sunday and was not hurt, police said. Authorities have not named her. Manfredonia was separately seen carrying a duffel bag near train tracks in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, around an hour further west on Interstate 80. The alleged killer is thought to be armed with several guns stolen during a home invasion. Family lawyer Dolan said Manfredonia had struggled with mental health issues and 'sought the help of a number of therapists'. 'You have your parents' and your sisters' and your family's entire support. So, Peter, from your parents, we love you, please turn yourself in,' he said. Manfredonia, a finance and mechanical engineering major, is accused of killing DeMers and assaulting another man in Willington on Friday, after they found him walking along a road and offered him a ride back to his motorcycle. The other man suffered severe wounds described as sword or machete wounds, state police said. The second victim, Nicholas Eisele, was found dead at his home Sunday in Derby, which is about 60 miles south-west of Willington. State police described Eisele, who worked with his father in a landscaping business, as an acquaintance of Manfredonia's. The medical examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine cause of death. Manfredonia was last seen walking along railroad tracks in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, wearing dark shorts and carrying what appears to be a duffel bag Manfredonia is wanted in connection with the death of Ted DeMers (pictured left, and right with his wife Cynthia), of Willington, Connecticut Police were led to Eisele after they found out the suspect had driven to Derby on Sunday Earlier on Sunday, a Willington man reported being held against his will by Manfredonia, who then left with food, several guns and the man's truck. The truck was later found abandoned near Osbornedale State Park in the early hours of Sunday morning. Eisele's family set up an online fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses and far exceeded the goal of $10,000 in just a few hours. On the page, friends and family shared memories, including his love of his mother's German shepherds, Trooper and Sandy. The car Manfredonia is suspected of stealing from Eisele was found in New Jersey at the Pennsylvania border on Sunday afternoon, police said. Connecticut State Police on Sunday released a photo of the 2016 black Volkswagen Jetta which bears a Connecticut license plate with the number CT AU78524. Police said that the driver's side of the car has a bumper sticker paying tribute to the 26 victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, which took place in Newtown. Manfredonia, a senior at the University of Connecticut, was last seen in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Police in Willington, Connecticut, on Friday are seen above gathering evidence near the area where the grisly murder and assault took place Earlier on Monday, the FBI announced that agents would be helping with the manhunt for Manfredonia The University of Connecticut on Sunday released a statement confirming that records show Manfredonia is enrolled as a student in the joint school of engineering/school of business program. Manfredonia first enrolled at UConn in the fall of 2015, and is a senior. 'He is not attending summer courses, and had not been living on the UConn campus either at the time of the incident in Willington or during recent semesters,' UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said. Reitz said the university is in contact with authorities to provide assistance that might help the investigation. 'The university expresses its deepest, most heartfelt sympathies to the victims and their families in this horrible, incomprehensible tragedy,' Reitz said. 'They are all in our thoughts.' When asked if the university knew of any problematic behavior by Manfredonia in years past, she said the university couldn't discuss specific individuals and cases. She did say, however, that 'UConn strives to do everything possible to identify and engage with students of concern and to provide them with all the assistance and resources we can both for their own well-being and that of the wider community'. The Ouija Board of Stock Market Indices Trump-supporters felt anxiety as they watched recent White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefings. In the face of disruption, disease, and death, the president confidently hyped stock market averages as victory. In an April briefing, Trump was unequivocal: "The market is smart. The market is actually brilliant...they're viewing it like we've done a good job. They view it that way." This disconnect from lives ravaged by death, unemployment, zombification of cities and towns, and an unknown future is hard to bear and set aside. For loyal supporters, it is especially painful since oppositional media often rebuke Trump's showcasing the stock market as evidence of his success: "[During his presidency] Mr. Trump has obsessed over the daily gyrations of the stock market like no president before him. He trumpeted its relentless rise as a validation of his leadership, his financial acumen and his policies. Disappointing days were the fault of Democrats, the media or the Federal Reserve" (The New York Times). President Trump's Basic Motivation How can we understand Trump's monocular view? What drives his steadfast trust in economics? If you are thinking strictly along familiar lines of money, politics, power, or greed, you miss the central emotional determinant: love. A Family Business Ninety percent of American businesses are family-owned. However, only three percent of family businesses make it to the fourth generation. The Trumps are part of this uncommon breed. Theirs is a powerful history of anchoring family attachment, security, and love through business. Family First is the antecedent of America First. When President Trump's father, Fred C. Trump, Sr., was almost thirteen, he suddenly lost his father, Friedrich, to the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. Living in Queens, N.Y., the president's grandmother, Elizabeth, with three children, faced economic catastrophe. Teenage Fred began work as a carpenter and rescued the family. Fred and his mother formed a real estate company, Elizabeth Trump & Son. Fred was so young that his mother had to sign the checks. Fred C. Trump, Sr. ultimately became one of the leading real estate builders of Queens and Brooklyn, N.Y. A further powerful piece of history is that Fred's father, Friedrich, in Germany, lost his father (1877) when Friedrich was close to adolescence. With the family in dire economic straits, adolescent Friedrich was sent to a distant city, apprenticed to learn a trade. Considering that President Trump was abruptly sent away to military school at age 13, we are left with the striking history of three generations of Trump males meeting adversity in early adolescence and mastering it (Roth, 2020). Finding His Father's Love through Work From earliest childhood, Fred Trump, Sr. took Donald to his construction sites. Summers off from school were spent with Dad on the job, and with Fred Trump, Sr., that meant seven days a week. Throughout those years, Donald learned the skills of construction and its finance. During college, Donald managed a housing development in Cincinnati, which he ultimately sold, and soon joined Elizabeth Trump & Son full-time for five years. Donald Trump: "Fred C. Trump wasn't the kind of dad who took us to the movies or played catch with us in Central Park[.] ... Instead, he'd take me to his 'Let's make the rounds,' and we'd be on our way[.] ... He was ... a little remote, until I joined his business. That's when I really got to know him[.] ... My father always trusted me. He'd been in business for fifty years, but he'd never let anyone else in the company sign his checks until I came to work[.] ... He had absolutely no doubt about my ability. His faith gave me unshakeable confidence[.] ... My father gave me knowledge ... knowledge that became instinctive[.] ... I love relating to [my kids] just the way my father related to me through a passion for work well done" (Trump and McIver, 2004). "My father loved his work[.] ... So, he would not say [to me] 'work, work, work' ... [b]ut I would see that he enjoyed what he did. And I learned that way not so much by his words but by his actions" (Fisher and Kranish, April 2016). Not surprisingly, Donald Trump, Jr. has described the evolution of his love for his father in similar terms, even down to "It wasn't a 'Hey Son, let's go play catch in the backyard" kind of relationship[.] ... It was 'Hey, you're back from school, come down to the office.' (The upstairs home [in Trump Tower] was only an elevator ride away from the downstairs office)[.] ... So, there was a lot of time spent with him[.] ... But it was on his terms. You know, that tends to be the way he does things" (Kranish and Fisher, 2016). Like Fred Trump, Sr., this work-fathering relationship included learning construction skills, and the same on-the-job-fathering was experienced by Eric and Ivanka (Roth, 2020). Tiffany's recent Georgetown law school graduation evoked a warm endorsement from the president: "Just what I need is a lawyer in the family!" The bond between President Trump and his father was expressed through business for as long as Fred Trump, Sr. lived, and perhaps a bit beyond. Donald's eulogy at his father's funeral in 1999 began with him telling the attendees, "My father taught me everything I know. And he would understand what I'm about to say. I'm developing a great building on Riverside Boulevard called Trump Place. It's a wonderful project" (Horowitz, 2016). Trump probably could feel his father's beyond-the-grave happiness at hearing Donald's plans "like father, like son." Builder as Rescuing Hero Donald Trump's significant building projects involved Herculean challenges economic, political, architectural, and cultural. His ventures often reversed decay (the Commodore and blighted neighborhood became the Hyatt complex), awakened potential (Trump Tower), generated life (acres of Manhattan's Westside Penn Central Railroad Yards lying fallow), brought vision (40 Wall Street reinvented), rescued New York City's bureaucracy (Central Park Wollman Skating Rink), or restored in Trump's words a "beat-up, overgrown Rembrandt" (Mar-a-Lago). Trump's books are often framed as economic mentoring guides: The Art of the Deal; How to Get Rich; Think Big; Never Give Up; or that great hopeful tempter of titles, Think Like a Billionaire. Even The Apprentice was guidance on how to be the best in business. Rescuing America Family protection and love through economics is now extended to the nation. In part, this motivation explains the president's hurt and anger at being misunderstood by the media: "Heav'n has no Rage like [scorned] Love to Hatred turn'd" (Congreve, 1697). But, importantly, despite dismay at President Trump's clinging to the Dow through COVID-19, his supporters remain undaunted, because emotionally, they feel the unspoken, underlying, loving devotion. As I explain in my book (Roth, 2020), in "Trumpspeak," affective communication is effective communication. He means it when he says: "I love America!" For President Trump, whose integrative imagination soars, economic-family-love now encompasses our entire nation. Sheldon Roth, M.D., a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is author of recently published Psychologically Sound: The Mind of Donald J. Trump. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr. After several years, these numbers will allow wildlife managers to estimate changes in key wildlife populations over time. With paddlers help, Indiana DNR may also gain insight into new locations where these wildlife are living, according to its website. These new forms of consumption are extensions from 8 bigger categories that cover a wide range of city life, including shopping, sports, culture, and technology. Places involved including the city's landmark shopping district in the Chunxi Road neighborhood, the heritage building block Kuanzhai Alley, the newly finished open air music park, and the city's iconic panda breeding base. Roadshows will be held to elaborate on the 8 new categories. Local officials, including the director of the publicity department of Jinjiang District and deputy district mayor of Shuangliu District, will explain plans to upgrade Chunxi Road blocks and the airport area. The list of new scenes and products are integrated in a digital map. The multimedia map, first of its kind in China since the outbreak of COVID-19, aims to improve the exposure of the listed scenes and products to potential investors and partners. Moreover, an action plan to boost spending with these new consumption forms will be announced at the event. According to the plan, every year, Chengdu aims to attract 200 brands to set up their first China store in the city, and sign more than 40 consumption projects that are worth over 100 million yuan each. The goal is to have over 50 influential new consumption scenes that have both Chengdu characteristics and international style by 2022. Business leaders and celebrities from home and abroad, including former creative director of NIKE Simon Collins, two-time Emmy Awards-winner Mark Zaslove, representative director of Ito-Yokado Tomihiro Saegusa, and Chengdu native rapper Wang Yitai, voice their support via videos to Chengdu's ambition of becoming an international consumption center. To achieve the goal, Chengdu pledged in March to continuously publish a total of 1,000 new scenes and 1,000 new products such as those mentioned above to the world, creating opportunities for enterprises, as well as more options of good life for millions of residents in the city. SOURCE National Business Daily Cookie Preferences Cookie List Cookie List A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website when visited by a user asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. 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You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated sale of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website. Russian historian accused of student murder to stay in detention until late September Mikhail Telekhov, RAPSI 12:58 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) The St. Petersburg City Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal against extension of detention of history professor Oleg Sokolov charged with killing his postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko and arms trafficking until September 23, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts reports. Defense asked to release Sokolov and put him under house arrest because of the coronavirus epidemic. However, the court upheld a lower courts decision. The Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg extended detention of Sokolov in March. According to investigators, rescuers pulled the 63-year reader out of a local river early on November 9 and hospitalized. Womans severed hands and a nonlethal pistol were found in his backpack. Other parts of her body were found in his flat. The man was arrested when left the hospital the next day. He voluntary surrendered. The victim was identified as Anastasia Yeshchenko, the 24-year postgraduate student of the St. Petersburg State University and Sokolovs partner. The professor pleaded guilty. He said that he gunned the woman and broke up her body. Sokolov is a historian and ideologist of reconstruction of Napoleonic period battles. He has been conferred the Legion of Honor, the French national award instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte. People walk past shops in the shopping street Hohe Strae during the coronavirus crisis on May 23, 2020 in Cologne, Germany. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images) Germany Divided Over Plans to Nix Rules Despite Outbreaks BERLIN (AP)Germanys federal government and state governors squared up on May 25 for a battle over plans to end pandemic-related restrictions despite fresh clusters of cases across the country. The country has seen a steady decline in the overall number of COVID-19 cases. Measures were imposed 10 weeks ago to limit personal contacts, and as restrictions have slowly been lifted, there have also been case spikes across Germany linked to slaughterhouses, restaurants, religious services, nursing homes, and refugee shelters. The countrys current raft of coronavirus measures is due to expire on June 5. Over the weekend, the governor of the state of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, said he hopes to lift the blanket rules on social distancing on June 6 and replace them with more targeted measures. Germanys 16 states are responsible for imposing and lifting restrictions, and all currently have physical distancing requirements and an obligation to wear masks on public transit and in shops. Thuringias new approach would raise pressure on other states to ease their rules further. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters that Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to continue bravely and carefully with easing restrictions, but pushed back against the idea that all measures will be lifted. We want to hold onto the fundamental rules for distancing, hygiene, and contact restrictions, Seibert said, adding that Merkel favors binding orders. Seibert cited recent outbreaks following a Baptist service in Frankfurt and at a restaurant in the countrys northwest as examples of what can happen if rules arent followed. Following Ramelows announcement, the neighboring state of Saxony said on May 25 that it, too, is aiming for a paradigm change on pandemic rules from June 6 if infections remain low. At the same time, the interior minister of Bavaria, the state that has seen the most coronavirus infections and borders Thuringia to the south, called Ramelows plans irresponsible. We will certainly not stand by and watch Ramelow carelessly destroy great successes in the fight against the highly dangerous coronavirus, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told the Funke media group. Merkel is due to hold talks with governors on May 27. Federal and state officials agreed earlier this month that restrictions would be reimposed if there are more than 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in a city or county within a week. As it stands, Germanys public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said on May 25 that several states reported no new cases overnight and that the overall total grew by only 289. The seven-day reproduction factor, defined as the mean number of people infected by an infected person, remained under 1 at 0.93, indicating a contraction of new cases. Health Minister Jens Spahn cautioned, however, against giving the impression that the pandemic is over. Spahn told tabloid paper Bild that on the one hand, we are seeing whole regions where there are no new reported infections for days. And on the other hand, local and regional outbreaks, in which the virus is spreading quickly again and immediate intervention is required. As the pandemic ebbs, officials across Europe are on the lookout for any spike in the number of infections that could indicate a second wave. There have been several clusters of COVID-19 among slaughterhouse workers in Germany in recent weeks, prompting a government pledge to crack down on conditions in the industry. Many workers in German abattoirs are migrants from Eastern Europe employed by subcontractors. They often live in shared housing and are transported to and from the slaughterhouses by shuttle bus, increasing the likelihood of infection. On May 25, Dutch regional health authorities said that 147 of 657 employees at a meat processing plant across the border in the Netherlands tested positive for COVID-19. They said 79 of those infected live in Germany, while 68 are residents of the Netherlands. In other, non-connected outbreaks in Europe, a mine in the Czech Republic stopped work after tests of about 2,400 people revealed 212 with the coronavirus, mostly miners and their family members. And across the continent in Portugal, health officials said tests of 346 people at the warehouse near Lisbon returned 121 positive cases. Wary of a new resurgence of the coronavirus, authorities said theyre carefully monitoring the outbreak at the warehouse, a national distribution center for supermarket goods. By Frank Jordans A major fire broke out in the slums of Delhi's Tughlakabad area at around 1 AM on Tuesday (May 26) gutting around 1,000 shanties. At least 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to control the raging inferno. Rajendra Prasad Meena, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South East, told ANI, "We received information about a fire at around 1 am at slums in Tughlakabad. All police staff reached here immediately. It is being said that around 1,000-1,200 shanties caught fire." According to a fire official, the department got a call regarding the fire incident at around 12:15 am. SS Tuli, Deputy Chief Fire Officer of South Delhi Zone, said that around 30 fire tenders were rushed to the area to douse the massive fire. He added that the fire is now under control and the fire department officials are trying to find out the reason behind the fire. "Around 30 fire tenders are at the spot, the fire has been brought under control. Cause of fire yet to be ascertained. No casualty reported," said Tuli. The situation is now fully under control and no casualty has been reported so far A student resolution expressing support for the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement was voted down at the University of Warwick in England, after opposition from mainland Chinese students. Why it matters: The charged politics of China's actions in Hong Kong are spilling over to university campuses thousands of miles away, raising questions for students and university administrators about how to protect democratic values. Background: Huge protests have rocked Hong Kong over the past year, as millions of residents have pushed the city's government to table a controversial extradition bill with mainland China and establish universal suffrage. Chinese state media in the mainland, where information is heavily censored, have portrayed the protesters as the violent pawns of "hostile foreign forces." Many Chinese oppose the protest movement. China's treatment of Hong Kong has repeatedly violated the terms of the U.K.'s handover of Hong Kong back to China in 1997, including a provision that promised universal suffrage in the city by 2017. Details: On February 3, the University of Warwick student union met to discuss a motion that would condemn the "abhorrent human rights abuses of the Hong Kong Police Force and the Hong Kong SAR Government." A student from Hong Kong said, "we have no choice but to seek help from the international community." "I ask all students from the University of Warwick to stand with Hong Kong," said another Hong Kong student. "Today we are trying to speak out against the Chinese government." University of Warwick students who self-identified as coming from mainland China argued against the resolution. "The student union should not take part in any political stance and should remain neutral," said one Chinese student. "If you ask the students to vote tomorrow, because the number of Chinese students in this university is very large, I guess they will vote against it," said another. What happened: The Hong Kong resolution failed, with 2,041 votes against and 971 votes for, according to a tally posted to the university website. The resolution caused a huge surge in student voter turnout, with about 2,000 more students than usual casting their votes approximately equal to the number of "no" votes. During the 2019-2020 academic year, there were a total of 11 resolutions that were put to an all student vote. Each of those resolutions, with the exception of the Hong Kong resolution, was voted on by around 1,000 students; most passed by a wide margin. The Hong Kong resolution was voted on by 3,000 students. It was the only resolution in the 2019-2020 academic year that related to China. Context: The University of Warwick has about 27,000 students. Of those, around 3,200 are Chinese international students, according to the university website. Chinese students comprise the largest group of international students in Britain, with around 120,000 Chinese international students currently studying at universities there. The big picture: Chinese international student organizations in several countries have courted controversy for attempting to harass dissidents or shut down activities perceived as critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese embassies and consulates maintain close relationship with Chinese student groups, providing funding, occasional political directives, and even paying them to attend pro-China demonstrations. Mainland Chinese students and Hong Kong students have faced off at numerous universities around the world in the past year, including in Australia and the U.S., as the protests in Hong Kong grew more heated. Go deeper: China plans sweeping national security law for Hong Kong WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. New software designed to help manufacturers better predict and adjust costs may assist organizers one day with huge events such as the Olympic Games. Innovators at the Indiana Next Generation Manufacturing Competitiveness Center, or IN-MaC, created the software to help manufacturers better predict overall costs and the costs associated with layout alternatives and adjustments to their manufacturing processes. This software came after I spent 15 years in the composite manufacturing world and saw wonderful products being produced that ended up being too expensive to bring to market, said Jan-Anders Mansson, a Purdue distinguished professor of chemical and materials engineering who serves as co-executive director of IN-MaC. This software is a predictive cost-modeling tool aimed to help manufacturers better understand the overall costs of producing a product, and how changes to the manufacturing process can affect those costs. The software tool uses a drag-and-drop palette of process steps that allows a user to vary the manufacturing process line with alternate configurations, such as equipment, robots and employees, to see how changes affect the final cost of the product. Each process step is characterized by cost parameters which can be adjusted to study the effects on overall manufacturing costs. This software helps manufacturers strategically plan their operations and then evaluate changes, all within the scope of understanding how everything affects the total cost, said Ben Haley, the lead network engineer for IN-MaC, who worked with Mansson to develop the technology. Haley also reconfigured the software to share with the International Olympic Committee. He used data from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro to demonstrate how the software could help event planners determine costs and configurations when dealing with crowds, security, transportation arrivals and other parameters. Mansson is the head of the Manufacturing Design Laboratory, a part of the Indiana Manufacturing Institute (IMI), located at Purdue Research Foundations Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette. The software and its continued development are part of several projects underway at IN-MaC and IMI focused on the future of manufacturing, as well as proposed future efforts supported by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Haley said the team is working on a web version of the system, along with connecting it to real-time data sensors on manufacturing equipment. The team also is exploring ways to integrate machine learning and deep learning into their solution. The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization filed a registered copyright for the software. OTC is housed in the Convergence Center for Innovation and Collaboration in Purdues Discovery Park District, adjacent to the Purdue campus. About Purdue Research Foundation The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Established in 1930, the foundation accepts gifts; administers trusts; funds scholarships and grants; acquires property; protects Purdue's intellectual property; and promotes entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Purdue. The foundation manages the Purdue Foundry, Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, Purdue Research Park, Purdue Technology Centers and University Development Office. In 2020, the IPWatchdog Institute ranked Purdue third nationally in startup creation and in the top 20 for patents. The foundation received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org. For more information about involvement and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information about setting up a presence at Purdue, possibly in the Purdue Research Park or Discovery Park District, contact the PRF Economic Development Office at parksinfo@prf.org. Writer: Chris Adam, cladam@prf.org Sources: Jan-Anders Mansson, jmansson@purdue.edu Ben Haley, bhaley@purdue.edu He received 13 disciplinary write-ups over a three-month span and was placed on a professional development plan over what he claimed was retaliation for pushing back on board staffing directives he did not believe were in students best interest. Rajasthan on Tuesday recorded 76 new cases of coronavirus, officials said. The number of cases in the state now stand at 7,376 and fatalities at 167. "As many as 76 fresh cases were reported in the state," additional chief secretary (health), Rohit Kumar Singh, said. Of the new cases, Jaipur recorded 16 followed by 13 in Udaipur, 12 in Jhalawar, 11 in Rajsamand, five each in Jhunjhunu and Bikaner, four each in Nagaur and Kota, three in Pali, two in Dholpur and one in Bharatpur, officials said. A total 3,606 patients have been discharged after recovering from the disease, they said, adding that there are 3,137 active cases in the state. Jaipur has recorded the maximum 79 deaths and 1844 positive cases in the state followed by 17 deaths and 1,271 cases in Jodhpur. Of the total positive cases in the state, 1,869 migrants that travelled from different parts of the country to Rajasthan have tested positive. The entire state is under lockdown since March 22 and massive screening and search is underway to trace the contagion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A black vehicle with an open door in side of the road. Image taken during summer. The driver is needing for help or giving assistance for example. cardooropenabandonedincidentvehiclebackgroundfrontskywhiteasphaltassistanceautobeautifulblackblueemergencyhappenhelplookingnatureoneoutdoorparkroadroadsidesceneryseatsidestolenstopsummertraveltripwheelwindowShow more Shutterstock / Jne Valokuvaus Some cities are seeing an increase in car-related crimes as Americans use their cars less. In one case, Seattle police returned a car to an owner who didn't even know it'd been stolen. New York City and Los Angeles have seen upticks in auto larceny of 67% and 17%, respectively. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Americans are driving far fewer miles than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic. That's been great news for the environment, and the air is the cleanest in some places it's been in decades. But there's a trade-off: a spike in automotive-related crimes. "You might as well put a sticker on the window that says 'come take my stuff,'" Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles County sheriff, told NBC News, which first reported on the increase in car theft and burglary. In LA, vehicle larceny is up 17% since the start of the year compared to 2019. And in New York, it's risen 67%. Crime usually rises in-step with the springs' thaw, but the auto-larceny uptick is notable given a decrease in overall crime. And with most American cities still under some form of shelter-in-place order, the coronavirus might not be finding ideal situations to spread, but car thieves are finding empty cars that don't move much these days. That means they're easy prey. NYPD auto larceny stats NYPD In Seattle, cops located and returned a stolen car to its owner who didn't even know it had been stolen, according to CNN. "With the stay home order, people aren't driving their cars and don't realize they've been stolen," a Seattle officer said. Other cities, like Dallas, have been lucky so far. The North Texas city saw a 20% a drop in stolen cars from March to April, but Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall says her department is ready should that trend change to match peers like Austin, which has also seen an uptick since the pandemic began. "For any criminal taking this opportunity to believe that you will be successful committing crimes in this city, I have a message for you: We're coming for you. We're looking for you. We are waiting on you," she said in a video statement in March. Read the original article on Business Insider About a week ago, NASA Associate Administrator Douglas Loverro stepped down and said hed made an undisclosed mistake during his seven months on the job. Will that slow down the selection of a company to create the lander that is supposed to set humans down on the Moon by 2020? AL.coms Lee Roop reported last month the three finalists for that job include an Alabama-based company -- Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville. Todays Down in Alabama news briefing also looks at a rescue at Little River Canyon and the COVID-19 lockdowns effect on tourism in Montgomery. Get this post and more in your weekday Down in Alabama newsletter by subscribing here. You can also hear Down in Alabama each weekday on the device of your choice: Click here for the Spotify podcast page Click here for the Alexa skill page on Amazon Click here for the iTunes podcast page Click here for the Stitcher podcast page WASHINGTON - George Valentine sat hunched on the bottom step of his Capitol Hill rowhouse, a bald man in black sweatpants staring through the open front door, too breathless to speak. It was about 1:30 p.m. on the last Wednesday in March, and he was waiting for the ambulance he had called to arrive. George's son, Darrell, was upstairs in his bedroom, trying to get some space from his father's demands - to walk the dog, to bring him medicine, to find the thermometer. It did not occur to the 20-year-old that George, a fit man who worked tirelessly as Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser's deputy legal counsel, had contracted a lethal new virus. Everything was still fresh; so little known. Darrell had just come downstairs and begun to complain when the medics rushed in wearing masks and carted his father away. Two days later, on March 27, George died of covid-19 at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He was 66. That same week, another black man who worked for the District, Kenneth J. Moore, had begun feeling feverish and short of breath. Moore, who counseled and guarded delinquent children, called his doctor. The physician told him he might have pneumonia and instructed him to take cold medicine and self-quarantine, just in case. By March 28, Moore could hardly inhale, said his fiancee Lisa Epperson, and the couple decided to try a good night's rest before taking him to the hospital. The next morning, Moore somehow showered and dressed but was too breathless to make it to the car. Epperson called 911. Moore, a towering man whose fierce expression belied his devotion to many, died of covid-19 on April 1 at George Washington University Hospital - five days after George Valentine and four miles away. He was 52. According to their relatives, friends and co-workers, Valentine and Moore were loved and loving, serving as powerful role models to the young people around them. Yet they were also black men living during the coronavirus pandemic, and in the calculus that decides who is likely to survive or die, that fact alone made them exceptionally vulnerable. Although mortality statistics that cross-reference race and gender are unavailable, a recent study showed men are more than twice as likely as women to die of the virus. And, as the U.S. toll from the pandemic nears 100,000, African Americans are much more apt to die than whites, with predominantly black counties accounting for 60% of all U.S. coronavirus deaths. In the District, the virus has been especially lethal to people of color. More than three-quarters of D.C.'s 440 covid-19 victims have been black. It has robbed the community of pastors and professionals, fathers and mentors in a city where black men are already imperiled, dying 15 years earlier than white men on average. The fact that more blacks live in poverty, in polluted higher-density neighborhoods, with poorer access to health care and jobs that put them in more frequent contact with others in part accounts for the disparity in mortality from covid-19. So do preexisting conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, from which African Americans suffer disproportionately. But Ibram X. Kendi, a history professor and founding director of American University's Antiracist Research & Policy Center, rejects the suggestion by some politicians and public health officials that blacks are somehow culpable for contracting the virus. Too many Americans, in denial about the existence of racism, Kendi said, "have been taught to believe that the group that is on the dying end of a racial disparity is to blame for their own deaths." "In fact, he said, "there is no evidence to support that black people make poorer health choices, when controlling for factors like class and availability of care, than any other racial group." Epperson, whose fiance Moore suffered from high blood pressure, has her own way of putting it: "It shouldn't have to be about black, white, Indian or blue. Caucasians have a lot of obese people, too; they have a lot of people with these issues." Although some seem to think that placing blame grants immunity from the virus, or permission to care less about who it kills, "when it hits your home, you get a different perspective," Epperson said. "It's different because it's you, and it was someone you loved." --- George Valentine began his life languishing in a Korean orphanage. Then Veronica Valentine read a story in the Informant, the newspaper published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, urging congregants to adopt the children of African American soldiers and Korean women who had been abandoned after the Korean War. Veronica and her husband Alexander Valentine, a high school band director who already had grown children, wanted a child they could raise together. In 1957, the 3-year-old they named George, filled that hole. "A child needs love regardless of who were the parents, and it is this love we want to give to George," Veronica told a reporter for a local newspaper. During George's first months in Sarasota, Florida, Josephine Stinson, his 8-year-old niece, watched as her small uncle scooped up meals with his hands and slept under his bed. He was embraced by his new family, Stinson recalled, but "sometimes he would feel like he was different because he was adopted. I said, 'Don't put that in your heart, George.' " But being adopted also seemed to serve as a challenge to succeed, Stinson said. Valentine attended Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, and then catapulted himself into Harvard Law School, graduating in 1980. On trips to visit relatives in Miami, he would hang out on South Beach, rocking an afro and partying at the iconic oceanfront Clevelander Hotel, where he returned often during his life. That was a side of Valentine to which many of his new colleagues were not privy. The man they knew in his first job at the D.C. Office of the Corporation Counsel and later at the Office of the Attorney General, where he served as head of civil litigation for decades, was affable but sober-minded and politically savvy. "He knew the lawyers in the District who would sue the District - which ones were credible and formidable and which ones were not," said Irv Nathan, who worked with George during his tenure as D.C. Attorney General under former mayor Vincent Gray. "He knew their characters, who would play straight with you and who wouldn't. All of that made a tremendous difference when George gave advice." Valentine was zealous in his role defending the city against lawsuits, ranging from slip-and-fall cases to employee lawsuits to wrongful convictions, a master litigator who saved the city millions of dollars. But Natalie Ludaway, who supervised Valentine's work for D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, also remembers his generosity, both with his money, purchasing a block of holiday luncheon tickets for lower-paid staff, and with his knowledge, thoughtfully mentoring the young lawyers who worked for him. "George recognized that he was blessed . . . and George also gave back. He did it without boasting. The right way," said Ludaway. Several years ago, Valentine confided to his closest friend, Rick Knight, that he was thinking about becoming a foster parent. "It was as if for him, everything had come full circle," Knight said. Darrell was a 16-year-old dance student at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts when his social worker told him about a lawyer who was interested in being his foster parent. The two met over pizza at Matchbox where Valentine, dressed in a dark gray suit as though he'd just come from work, captivated Darrell with his easy humor. A month later, Darrell moved in with Valentine on C Street NE. Together, they frequented Gold's Gym and shared a love of movies, hurrying to see "Moonlight" when it hit the theaters. The coming-of-age film, which follows the life of a young black man in Miami as he tries to come to terms with being homosexual, spoke to foster father and son, who were both gay. "When I told him that I was gay it made him even more happy and thrilled to be a part of my life," Darrell said. "That's really where we bonded." From the start, Valentine introduced Darrell as his son and treated him as such, explaining the importance of developing grit and cautioning Darrell to stop wasting his money on Apple gadgets. Darrell was afraid to trust, but Valentine persisted; he wasn't going anywhere. He finally adopted Darrell last year. "Something that really stood out to me is that being a foster kid you constantly feel like you don't belong," Darrell said. "With George, I always felt like I belonged." But like most fathers and sons, the two sometimes quarreled, and at the end of March there was tension over a curfew that Valentine was trying to impose. After he began feeling ill on March 20, Valentine repeatedly asked Darrell to help him find a thermometer and take Cuddles, their pit bull/lab mix, for a walk, but Darrell was angry and said he stayed in his room. He knew Valentine suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, but it didn't occur to him that his father had contracted the new virus. By Sunday, Valentine's fever seemed to subside, and he felt well enough to go to the office, his great-nephew, Todd Valentine, said. He went in Monday, too, to tie up loose ends and help review telework policies for the pandemic. But on Tuesday he nearly passed out from fatigue, he told Todd, and had lost his sense of smell and taste. Late on the morning of Wednesday, March 25, he texted Todd to bring him a thermometer and a blood pressure cuff and walk Cuddles. Todd jumped into gear. Anything for George, who had been a surrogate dad to him after Todd's father was murdered in a Miami robbery. "Hey, I have some stuff," Todd called up when he arrived, but George cautioned him not to come any further. Todd left a bag with orange juice at the top of the stairs and walked Cuddles, then left on an unsuccessful hunt for a thermometer. Two hours later, George messaged Todd that he was in the hospital. He would never see his great-uncle again. --- Kenneth Moore was a divorced father of three, and Lisa Epperson was happily single when her girlfriend kept insisting she wanted her to meet the counselor and guard she worked with at the city's Youth Rehabilitation Services. When they finally met in 2009, the attraction was immediate. Epperson liked the fact that Moore was tall, at 6-foot-4, because at 5-foot-9 she was, too. And she appreciated his dutiful nature as a juvenile corrections officer because it reminded her of her time in the Army. "Everybody knew that Moore was going to take care of everything that needed to be done," she said. He was so visibly preoccupied with guiding his youthful charges, three sons and two stepsons and watching over Epperson that people who didn't know him were often wary of the barrel-chested man with the near-perpetual frown. "I would call him my big teddy bear because he was so sweet," said Epperson. "But when people would see him, they'd be like, 'Oh my God.'" Sometimes, Moore would lay awake worrying about whether he'd taken care of everything or if they'd have enough money. She'd roll over and look at him. "Well, I ain't," Epperson recalled saying. "You're going to need to think for both of us because I'm going to sleep." His sense of responsibility for others likely aggravated his high blood pressure, Epperson said, but had taken root in his youth. His father died when he was young, and Moore tried to fill his shoes, pledging to be the protector of his mother and three younger siblings. He also dedicated himself to keeping the streets in his Southeast Washington neighborhood clean, leading brigades of children to pick up trash, she said. He treated Epperson's sons the same as his own. "He was strict but it was always with love. He wanted them to talk, and he liked talking to them." The focus was never on doing for them, but teaching them to do for themselves. When one decided to buy a car, Moore explained to him how to build credit and talk to the dealer, Epperson said. (His eldest son, Kenneth Moore Jr., and two living siblings could not be reached for interviews.) Moore also mentored and advised troubled teens on the job at the New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel, Maryland, the Youth Services Center in Northeast D.C. and the now-closed Oak Hill Youth Detention Center. "There aren't a lot of people who can help these kids," Epperson said. "Kenneth knew where they were coming from; they respected him." Moore also was devoted to the woman he liked to introduce as "my Southern girl" or "my church girl," due to Epperson's soft Alabama accent and deep Christian faith. If it was snowing or her car was in the shop, Moore would drive Epperson to her job at the Food and Drug Administration and pick her up, too. During late nights at work, he would call home to make sure the alarm was on. "When I tell you he was a man above men, he was," she said. The couple, who were common-law spouses, had recently decided to get married next year. In August, they purchased their first house together, a gray brick ranch in Fort Washington, Maryland, with an expansive new kitchen and a lovely deck and backyard. At cookouts, Moore commanded the grill for barbecue while Epperson made the sides. Epperson had suffered a brain aneurysm a couple of months before their move, so Moore made it all happen on his own. He later took Epperson to Marlo Furniture to pick out a custom memory-foam sofa with fluffy pillows and glass tables to match. Long before the pandemic, Moore had always been wary of illness, storing Lysol and disinfecting wipes in his car and latex gloves in his pocket to pump gas. He would change his shirt and put it in a bag each day before entering the house. Before the ambulance took him away that Sunday, he had looked at Epperson and told her to be strong. He had it covered. "This isn't going to take me out," he said. --- On March 27, Mayor Bowser stood behind a plastic-shielded podium outside the D.C. Department of Health to give an update on the unfolding pandemic. She began by announcing that someone in the Office of Legal Counsel had died but did not mention Valentine by name. "My prayers right now are with his family, his entire team, and of course we will be supporting them during this very difficult time," she said. News of Valentine's death created concentric circles of pain. At the outer ring were the many colleagues and casual friends Valentine had made during nearly four decades at the center of the city's civic life. That included Natalie Ludaway, whose husband, Duane Albury, a 59-year-old sales executive, died suddenly the same day as Valentine. Albury also had chronic conditions, which ran in his family, she said, but she wondered about the role of stress as an aggravator in the lives of successful black men. "You don't get to be a black man at a senior level in this country without having to triple-prove yourself," she said. Near the center of the circle was Rick Knight, who canceled plans for dinner with Valentine as the pandemic bore down. "I missed that opportunity to see my best friend for the last time," he said. His great-nephew, Tony Neal, remembers how they'd don their turquoise jerseys and head to a sports bar together to cheer for their hometown Miami Dolphins. His voice heavy with grief, Neal said that he chooses to view his great-uncle's death as "a temporary pause" before they meet again one day. The family expects to find some small comfort in spreading Valentine's ashes across his beloved South Beach. As for Darrell, the 20-year-old lives without his father in the rowhouse on C Street, spending his days regretting the last words they shared. He had wanted space and now that space was a void. Who would teach him how to be a man? --- Researchers Magda Jean-Louis and Alice Crites contributed to this report. SEOUL, May 26 (Reuters) - Both North and South Korea violated the armistice agreement that governs their shared border when their troops exchanged gunfire on May 3, the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) said on Tuesday. A multinational UNC special investigation team concluded that troops from both sides had violated the agreement, which has been in place since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. The UNC, which is commanded by an American general, oversees affairs in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war. North Korean troops in a guard post committed a violation when they fired four rounds of 14.5mm ammunition at a UNC guard post on the southern side of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that divides the DMZ, the UNC said in a statement. South Korean and U.S. officials have said they believe the gunshots were an accident, but the UNC said "the investigation was unable to definitively determine if the four rounds were fired intentionally or by mistake." North Korean military officials acknowledged the receipt of questions from the investigators, but have not provided an official response, the UNC statement said. North Korea has not commented publicly on the incident. South Korean troops also violated the armistice agreement when they fired two volleys of gunfire back toward North Korea half an hour later, the UNC concluded. South Korea's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Josh Smith, Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Editing by Angus MacSwan) The foreign ministers of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are deeply concerned by the Chinese governments plan to plant a secret police force in Hong Kong and round up democracy advocates. They said as much in a joint statement on Friday. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The foreign ministers of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are "deeply concerned" by the Chinese governments plan to plant a secret police force in Hong Kong and round up democracy advocates. They said as much in a joint statement on Friday. Not only that: U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo issued a statement of his own, strongly urging China to reconsider its disastrous proposal for Hong Kong. Li Xueren/Xinhua/Zuma Press/TNS Files Chinese President Xi Jinping In Beijing, meanwhile, the National Peoples Congress continued to study the governments plan to crack down on street demonstrators who are defending local civil rights. In Hong Kong itself, democracy advocates launched a fresh wave of demonstrations. Chinas Communist government has withheld the mailed fist during a year of vociferous resistance in Hong Kong. Demonstrations against a proposed Hong Kong measure to extradite local criminals to the mainland provoked small demonstrations in March 2019, reaching a crescendo in June and continuing sporadically ever since. Thirty years ago, the Chinese Communist Partys fuse was much shorter. Democracy demonstrations that started April 15, 1989, in Beijings Tiananmen Square were put down in blood with tanks and infantry beginning on June 4. That brutal action gave the party a bad reputation around the world and among some of its own people. This time around, the party has been more patient, apparently hoping the Hong Kong democracy movement would run out of steam. A more mature, confident ruling group might negotiate with Hong Kong representatives and find a solution that could serve all parties. China, however, doesnt work that way. One can almost imagine the laughter in Beijing when it was announced that Canada was "deeply concerned" and the U.S. was strongly urging reconsideration. The democracies did not lift a finger when Deng Xiaoping rolled the tanks into Tiananmen Square in 1989, and they will do no more this time if Xi Jinping lowers the boom on Hong Kong. There has been no sign yet that the Hong Kong democracy protesters have aroused public sympathy on the Chinese mainland. Taiwan is cheering them on, but that is only an embarrassment to the masters of Beijing, not a threat to their power. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. In principle, Canadians support democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. The full force of Canadian governmental press releases will be deployed in that cause. But Canada has other fish to fry in China. A more mature, confident ruling group might negotiate with Hong Kong representatives and find a solution that could serve all parties. China, however, doesnt work that way. Two innocent Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, have been in Chinese prisons since Dec. 10, 2018, held as hostages to compel Canadas release of a Huawei executive who is resisting extradition to the United States to face fraud charges. Canada, meanwhile, fills Chinas mills with raw materials and China fills Canadian shops with consumer products. Canadas main aims in China are to bring its hostages home and to protect its commercial opportunities. Neither aim is advanced by forceful action in support of Hong Kong civil rights. The strongest card the Hong Kong movement holds is worldwide sympathy. Beijing is weak only in the sense that it doesnt want another Tiananmen Square on its record. China imprisons dissidents because it does not know what else to do. If Canada, with other democracies, could induce the masters of Beijing and the activists in Hong Kong to negotiate with each other, that could be constructive, but that seems a vain hope. Apart from that, deep concern is about all Canada has to offer. An Iranian oil tanker has arrived in the Venezuelan city of Puerto Cabello, home to the Latin American nation's biggest oil refinery. Oil workers posed with both Iranian and Venezuelan flags after the Fortune dropped anchor on May 25. Four more Iranian vessels are expected to bring gasoline to oil-rich Venezuela whose own fuel production has crashed. The United States has imposed sanctions on both countries. New Delhi: As many as 960 foreigners, members of the Tablighi Jamaat, who came to India on tourist and e-visas, are liable to face jail term of up to five years, Delhi Police have asserted in the High Court. Submitting the status report on a clutch of petitions to release the foreigners, the Delhi Police pointed out that 960 foreigners violated the conditions of their visas by joining the religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin, and are hence culpable for prosecution under Section 14 of the Indian Foreigners Act, 1946. "That participation in Tablighi Jamaat by these foreign nationals, who had entered India on Tourist Visa, was in violation of the provisions of the Visa Manual 2019 and as such the act made them liable to be prosecuted under Section 14 of The Foreigners Act, 1946," maintained the status report filed by DCP (Crime) Joy Tirkey. Section 14 provides for penalty for contravention of provisions of the Act, and prescribes a jail term of maximum five years. Citing the Visa Manual, the Delhi Police told the High Court that a tourist visa is meant only for visiting India for recreation, sight-seeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, attending a short term yoga programme, short duration medical treatment, including treatment under Indian systems of medicine etc., and no other purpose or activity. "Visa shall NOT be granted to preachers and evangelists who desire to come to India on propaganda campaigns, whether on their own or at the invitation of any organization in India (sic)," highlighted the status report, corroborating the foreigners have breached the conditions of their entry and stay in India. The police added that on April 2, the Ministry of Home Affairs blacklisted 960 foreigners, present in India on tourist visas, for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat activities. "Further, the MHA had also directed DGPs of all concerned states/UTs and CP, Delhi Police to take necessary legal action against all such violators, on priority, under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Disaster Management Act, 2005," it stated. Opposing the release of the foreigners without directly saying it, the Delhi Police submitted in the HC that nobody has been arrested so far or has been detained in connection with the FIR lodged for the Markaz congregation at Nizamuddin in February-March. The Delhi Police added that the FIR, registered under penal charges of attempt to commit culpable homicide and provisions of the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases Act, is being investigated on a day-to-day basis so that a final report can be submitted in the trial court as soon as possible. The report also blamed Jamaat leader Maulana Mohd Saad, saying he had allowed a huge gathering to assemble inside a closed premises, over a protracted period of time, without any semblance of social distancing or provision of masks and sanitizers and thereby caused a situation where Covid-19 may spread and threaten the lives of the inmates and the general public at large. "The menace and hazard of Covid-19 viral infection during large gatherings was verbally conveyed to Maulana Mohd. Saad and the management of Markaz on several occasions, including during meetings held in the police station in this regard...They deliberately, wilfully, negligently and malignantly disobeyed the lawful directions promulgated in this regard. Written notices were also issued to Maulana Mohd. Saad and the Markaz Management. However, they refused to pay any heed," lamented the Delhi Police report. The High Court will take up the matter on May 28 on a plea by the petitioners to shift them from institutional quarantine to an alternate accommodation. Last summer when this years budget was passed, the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal monitor, pushed City Hall to prepare for a downturn by provisioning funds for a fiscal storm. They estimated a recession would reduce revenues by $20 billion over three years, much more than the citys reserves. Now, a recession is here and both corporations and the government will have to pare back costs and budgets. New York City finds itself in a precarious position where a budget that has doubled in under 15 years now has little cushion for a fall, with a more than a $9.7 billion shortfall expected over the next 18 months. In order to maintain city services, the government will have to move beyond cuts: It will have to become more efficient and innovate. We can use this opportunity to herald an era of lean government in New York City. Ineluctably, expenditures education and CUNY, health and social services and uniformed services will be reduced. Yet, while municipal austerity will shrink the operations, they dont need to reduce the services provided. Budget tightening can economize government and make it adapt to demands through innovative thinking and technology. The concept of lean thinking was first studied by the researchers James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones, who defined the paradigm that had been systematized by Toyota to produce vehicles beginning in the 1930s. Lean manufacturing in Japan reworked factory processes through incremental innovation. Iterative processes allowed for smaller-batched deliveries and swifter responsiveness from product changes as a result of customer feedback. Government typifies a methodology to solving problems thats described as waterfall. But why build 1,000 cars of the same model and style if youre unsure it will sell and you can build and test with 10 cars, then improve and build 100 more, making changes based on your experience with the first group, and then repeat that process? In practice, this means focusing on the end consumer to test variety and consumer preferences before and after scaling. Whereas Fords assembly line could produce only one model for a given period, the Model T, the Toyota Production System could verify or invalidate the assumption that consumers wanted an attribute more cargo space, for example and then test the change in a small batch of cars and scale it into production. Pursuing a lean government is one of the ways in which to balance the budget. At its philosophical core, its about doing as much as possible with as little as is available. This is the ethos that has fueled startup growth in Silicon Valley and in New York: Maximize results with fewer people and less time and resources. The value that is produced isnt defined by whats saved, it is still defined in terms of quality and informed by the customer or in this case the citizen and its often realized with the help of technology. In a $89 billion budget, pension benefits which make up 18% are fixed costs and debt service, which is 7% of the budget, can only be restructured so much. But for the other large city expenses 28% for education, 18% of social services, 10% for uniformed personnel such as cops and firefighters, and 9% for general services reductions in staff and resources are fiscally inevitable. Understanding how the government operates and delivers its services allows for inefficiencies to come to light. Waste and efficiency in government are a consequence of defective data, excess or delayed processing, underutilized employees, overproduction of inventory and travel. The commonality is that they are misallocations of time. Consider how tech can solve these issues in obvious ways: Excess email and underutilization of employees can be reduced through digital project management tools that make work easier. Data management time and burdensome inventory can be resolved through machine learning platforms. Responsible AI can help identify which areas are of highest risk for traffic, crime, fires, and sanitation if personnel is cut. Travel time can be reduced by defaulting to videoconferences. Paper waste can be eliminated through better digital document management and data collection through online forms. The solutions are limitless and dont require expensive procurement projects for custom software. They require secure, turnkey software that lives in the cloud. These solutions are available as software-as-a-service platforms that are built to solve the same problems hundreds of governments across the U.S. are solving at the same time. Where technology advances efficiency, lean thinking is the convergence of efficacy. This means creating better processes for decision-making at government agencies and programs. By operating in small-batches, the government can disentangle unnecessary management oversight and complexity processes that require approval and signatures and involve management employees at every step. That, in turn, motivates government workers and frees up time for higher-value activities. Likewise, setting metric-driven goals will align priorities and forces government workers to ask, is this the best way to do this and is this working? Just as a car company wouldnt build 1,000 new cars for an untested market, the government shouldn't bulk hire employees or allocate considerable resources to an untested program. New York states Department of Motor Vehicles is a good example of lean thinking. A priority on customer service has moved operations online, while an emphasis on key performance metrics wait times and citizens served has produced visible whiteboards for all visitors to see as they wait. It represents the core philosophy of lean, that is, focusing on the end userthe citizen. Being lean as a business requires a single-minded focus on the customer a zeal that is the hallmark of todays leading companies, from Amazon to Apple. Lean government demands a citizen-centric, systems-wide approach to taking up the most intractable problems and budget deficits like the one the city is facing now one that it hasnt faced since the 1970s. Cities and states around the country have set up lean offices over the past decade. These include Iowa's Office of Management which has a division that trains all agencies on lean management processes and Wisconsin's Department of Administration which works with all state agencies to find lean solutions to issues while tracking efficiency metrics in the process. A budget crisis shouldnt result in the elimination of essential services for New Yorkers. The old way of doing things has passed, and getting out of this hole will require a leap towards leaner, technology-driven government. The Nigeria Governors Forum will on Wednesday meet to discuss the issue of financial autonomy for the states judiciary and legislature, code-named the Executive Order 10, 2020. A statement issued by Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Head, Media and Public Affairs, NGF, on Tuesday in Abuja indicated that the consultation would be the 9th in the series of teleconference meeting held by the governors since the lockdown, occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19. President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, signed into law, an Executive Order, granting financial autonomy to the legislative and the judicial arms across the 36 states of the country. The order also mandated the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct from source, amount due to state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state for states that refuse to grant such autonomy. Mr Bello-Barkindo said the meeting, which will take place at 2 pm, will have in attendance, all the 36 states governors, via Microsoft Team from their various states. Among the issues to be reviewed are a number of critical national questions that revolve around the financial autonomy for the states judiciary and legislature code-named the Executive Order 10, 2020. READ ALSO: The governors will also touch issues around the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) ownership, the controversial National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Bill. Also to be discussed is the restructuring of states loans and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) deductions, which have been a recurring decimal on the governors table. As usual the governors will be given an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, as well as review a letter from the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 as it relates to the pandemic draft regulations, he said. Mr Bello-Barkindo added that there would also be a general update on the efforts of the Coalition Against COVID-19. (NAN) Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Iraqi militia based on the Lebanese Hezbollah, has called for its members to begin operations inside Saudi Arabia in an effort to bring down the ruling Saud family. Kataib Hezbollah is the most pro-Iran militia in Iraq and has been active in Iraq since 2003 after the U.S. removed the Saddam Hussein government. Kataib Hezbollah grew enormously after 2014 when the Iraqi government allowed the formation of more militias to oppose the ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) invasion. Kataib Hezbollah is deliberately modeled on the original Lebanese Hezbollah that was created in the 1980s, with the help of Iran, to protect Lebanese Shia during a 1975-90 civil war. Hezbollah's military and political power grew since the 1980s due to financial and military aid from Iran. Much of this aid came in from neighboring Syria, which became an Iranian ally in the 1980s. Hezbollah is increasingly unpopular in Lebanon, where they exist as a separate military and political entity that constantly tries to impose its will on the entire country. That is difficult because Hezbollah only has the support of about a third (the Shia portion) of the population and even the Lebanese Shia are growing tired of Iranian domination and interference. Iraqis are aware of these developments in Lebanon and Kataib Hezbollah is accused of working for Iran to achieve Iranian control over Iraq. The head of Kataib Hezbollah was killed along with Quds commander Qassem Soleimani back in January. Now the United States is offering a $10 million reward for information about the location of Mohammad Kawtharani, the senior Lebanese Hezbollah in Iraq, where he coordinates Iranian support for and control of Kataib Hezbollah. More and more Iraqis are turning against Iran-backed groups in Iraq, where local media are less intimidated by pro-Iran militias and are openly mocking things like the Iranian practice of creating fictitious pro-Iran militia via the Internet. This is typical Iranian propaganda and once had a large following in Iraq. As Iran uses more violence in its efforts to gain control over Iraq, more Iraqis lose their long-held illusions about Iranian goals in Iraq. The growing popular anger in Iran against the religious dictatorship also sends a message to Iraqis that even Iranians dont trust or like the Iranian government. Both Iranians and Iraqis are defying the Iranian government thugs in both countries and tearing down or defacing posters and billboards promoting the Iranian government and its policies. In Iraqi many local governments are banning pro-Iran posters. Iran has taken note of this and has recently decided to reduce the use of violence by pro-Iran militias against Americans or ant-Iran Iraqis. There seem to be some doubts and uncertainty within the small circle of Iranian clerics that rule Iran. Official Iranian policy is still the expulsion of American forces from Iraq and Syria, the destruction of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian States as well as the overthrow of Saud family rule in Saudi Arabia. Faltering Finances As bad as the economic situation is in Iraq, it is worse in Iran. This is having side effects. So far in 2020 Iranian losses from Israeli airstrikes in Syria have been so severe that Iran cannot afford to keep replacing missiles and structures lost to these attacks. Iranian mercenaries and Iran backed militias in Syria are responding to the continuing Israeli airstrikes by moving to better protected locations. The units involved are near the Iraqi and Israeli borders as well as Aleppo. Iran continues to repair airstrike damage and expand facilities near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. Storage areas on the Syrian side of the border are being built underground. This may not prove very effective because Israel has plenty of ground-penetrating bombs and even exports them. None of these bunker buster bombs have been used against Al Bukamal yet. The Israelis usually wait until such new facilities are completed and full of weapons before attacking them. This way the maximum, and most expensive, damage is inflicted. Despite the greater distance from Israel the Israelis keep bombing Al Bukamal and this can be seen clearly from the Iraqi side of the border. The Iranians would like to build some of these facilities on the Iraqi side of the border but Iraq has banned that. The Iraqi ban works because it is pointed out that storage sites on the Iraqi side would get hit by American and Israeli airstrikes. The Americans would admit to their air attacks while a number of unknown attacker airstrikes would be Israeli. The Al Bukamal border crossing is vital for the Iran-to-Mediterranean land route. This road is essential to supporting any Iranian military expansion in Syria and Lebanon. Financial problems have caused Iran to cut back on support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and pro-Assad Iranian mercenaries in Syria. Iran sees this as a temporary setback but most Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese and Israelis would like to make it permanent, May 25, 2020: Iraq and Saudi Arabia are currently the two largest oil exporters in OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and together produce over 16 million barrels a day, most of it for export. These two nations can force world oil prices up if both reduce exports. Iraq rarely agrees to that because of heavy dependence on oil income. The two largest non-OPEC states, the U.S. and Russia, together produce 25 million barrels a day, but the U.S. consumes most of the 15 million barrels a day it produces. Russia often cooperates with the Saudis in trying to control oil prices but in 2020 has been reluctant to do so. As a result a Saudi-Iraq coalition is the best hope of boosting prices and the Saudis are willing to help out Iraq economically if Iraq will cooperate in an effort to boost oil prices. May 24, 2020: With oil prices under $30 a barrel Iraq is calling on Arab Gulf oil states to give or lend Iraq billions of dollars to keep their government operating. Iraq is more dependent on oil income than any other Gulf nation. But because of lower oil prices the Iraqi GDP is expected to shrink nearly ten percent in 2020. In April the government got $1.4 billion in oil revenue. The monthly government payroll is $4.5 billion. The 2020 government budget is $135 billion but taxes, mainly on oil income, fall short by $40 billion. The amount most ne obtained elsewhere. The Gulf states are willing to help, but only if Iraq can reduce the Iranian operations in Iraq and control the corruption. Most Iraqis agree with both of these demands but there are doubts that the current Iraqi politicians can deliver. Despite a year of violent anti-corruption protests and national (parliamentary) elections that have most politicians denouncing corruption, not much has changed. Its not that Arab states cannot reduce corruption because several Gulf states have. The UAE is now less corrupt than Israel and Saudi Arabia is carrying out reforms. So why not Iraq? Unless the Iraqi politicians can demonstrate real change the Arb oil states are reluctant to provide the emergency cash. If Iraq cannot get the loans it will not be able to pay salaries and pensions that a fifth of the population depends on. Most of the salary and pension payments are actually bonuses or adjustments. A lot of this is bribes and outright theft. So how the government actually makes the cuts, if no loans are obtained, will reveal how serious the current politicians are about reducing corruption. May 23, 2020: In the north (Kurdish controlled Dohuk province) Turkish F-16 jets again bombed a group of PKK (Turkish Kurd separatists) gunmen who had established themselves in a Christian Kurd village. The Kurdish airstrikes are usually against targets just across the border in Kurdish Iraq. Turkish troops will still briefly cross the border and then return to Turkey. Troop incursions are not as frequent as air or artillery strikes but they are a regular occurrence along this border. In some months there are about one of these airstrikes a week. Most of the time there are only one or two a month. The Iraq and Kurd government insist there are few or no PKK left in Iraq. The Turks are not convinced and insist that Iraq ensure there are no PKK bases in the north. PKK does still operates up there and thats why Turkish troops sometimes cross the border to collect more evidence of that. Turkey claims to have killed 1,400 PKK and Islamic terrorists so far in 2020, mainly during cross border operations in northern Iraq. May 22, 2020: U.S. intelligence convinced their Iraqi counterparts that a man Iraqi police had recently arrested was not the new ISIL leaders who replaced ISIL founded Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. Since the late 2019 death of Baghdadi in Syria Iraqi security forces have been looking for senior ISIL officials in Iraq. When Baghdadi was killed the American commandos also captured a lot of ISIL documents detailing senior ISIL officials and that made it easier to identify these key ISIL personnel and hunt them down. There is one common problem, most of these senior ISIL officials use an alias and a fictional biography. This makes them harder to find and provides some protection for their families. The Baghdadi documents made it easier to ID these guys or at least find out where they usually operated and what their special skills were. May 20, 2020: In the north (Saladin, or Salahuddin, Province) security forces and Iraqi intelligence detected and dismantled an ISIL terrorist network. This organization was responsible for attacks further south, in Shia majority areas but its base of operations was in Sunni majority Salahuddin Province. May 16, 2020: In eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor province) another Israeli airstrike hit the Iranian weapons storage near the Al Bukamal crossing into Iraq. There were several large explosions, not all of them missile warheads. At least seven Iranians (or Iranian mercenaries) were killed. May 13, 2020: In the north (Kirkuk province) more locals are calling for the autonomous Kurds that control most of northern Iraq be returned to power in Kirkuk. In 2017 the national government used a force of soldiers and pro-Iran PMF militias to drive the Kurdish forces out of Kirkuk. This province, and its oil wells, were claimed by the Kurds in defiance of the national government. The Kurds took complete control of Kirkum in 2014 when approaching ISIL forces threatened to take Kirkuk and it was the Kurds who prevented that and led the effort to drive ISIL out of Mosul and northern Iraq. Until 2017 the more effective Kurdish counter-terrorism efforts kept ISIL and other Islamic terrorists out of Kirkuk. But once the national government decided to force the Kurds out of Kirkuk the security declined and ISIL became a regular presence. In the autonomous (since the early 1990s) Kurdish provinces to the north ISIL were unable to operate. Since their defeat in 2017, surviving ISIL forces have established base areas to operate from in the area between Baghdad and the Kurdish controlled north. Most ISIL bases are in the Hemrin Mountains, which extend from Diyala through northern Salahuddin province and into southern Kirkuk province. ISIL terrorism is often very selective with little or none of it falling on known friends of ISIL who pay taxes or provide recruits. ISIL still attacks Kurds in Kirkuk but prefers to go after police and PMF militias. .The Iran-backed PMF units are the most hated by ISIL as they are also fanatics, anti-ISIL fanatics and resistant to bribes and intimidation. So are the Kurds of autonomous northern Iraq. The national government is still trying to work out a deal with the Kurds to improve security in Kirkuk province without making that province part of the autonomous Kurdish region. May 10, 2020: The French carrier De Gaulle is in the Persian Gulf and its aircraft are carrying out airstrikes in Iraqi against ISIL targets. NATO, mainly American, warplanes are still based in Iraq and regularly attacking ISIL targets. May 1, 2020: In the north (Salahuddin, Province) elements of two PMF brigades were attacked by over a hundred ISIL gunmen in four different locations. The attacks were repulsed and the ISIL attackers took their dead and wounded with them. The PMF lost ten men. April 24, 2020: In the north (Kurdish controlled Dohuk province) about a thousand Turkish troops entered Iraq in trucks and armored vehicles and went after PKK camps in the remote Haftanin Valley north of the provincial capital Dohuk. The Turks believed there were several hundred PKK gunmen hiding in the valley and encountered gunfire as they advanced. The Turks on the ground had air support and the PKK men concentrated on slowing the advance. The PKK camps were abandoned and the PKK personnel fled through the forests to camps in other valleys in the area near where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran meet. When it was all over one Turkish soldier had been killed, three wounded and at least twelve PKK fighters killed and many more wounded. The retreating PKK force took their wounded, and possibly some of their dead with them. Much equipment and some documents were left behind in the abandoned camps. Turkey has shut down most PKK activity in eastern Turkey and Syria. So far in 2020 most (77 percent) of the Turkish attacks on PKK have occurred in northern Iraq, mainly in the autonomous Kurd areas. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL May 26, 2020 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Bristol-Myers BMY, Roche RHHBY, AstraZeneca AZN, Merck MRK and Johnson & Johnson JNJ. Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog: Pharma Stock Roundup: BMY, JNJ, RHHBY and More The FDA granted approval to Bristol-Myers & Roches PD-L1 inhibitors, Opdivo and Tecentriq for expanded lung cancer indications and AstraZeneca /Mercks Lynparza for prostate cancer. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson announced plans to permanently discontinue sale of its talc-based Johnsons Baby Powder in the United States and Canada. Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories: J&J Discontinues Talc-Based Baby Powder Sales in U.S./Canada: J&J said that it is permanently discontinuing sale of its talc-based Johnsons Baby Powder in the United States and Canada. The company said that the demand for the product has been declining, blaming it on misinformation around the safety of the product amid a barrage of legal challenges. J&J faces thousands of lawsuits, which claim that its talc-based products, primarily its baby powders, cause cancer. There have been verdicts against J&J in its talc lawsuits. J&J has consistently denied allegations and insisted that talc-based products are safe and do not cause cancer. FDA Approves Bristol-Myers& Roches Drugs for Expanded Lung Cancer Indications: The FDA granted approval to Bristol-Myers dual immunotherapy Opdivo plus Yervoyas first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors express PD-L11%. The approval was based on data from part 1a of the phase III CheckMate -227 study. In the study Opdivo + Yervoy showed superior and durable long-term overall survival versus chemotherapy. This is the fifth indication for which FDA has granted approval to Opdivo + Yervoy combination. Story continues The FDA also approved Roches Tecentriq a first-line treatment for metastatic NSCLC in patients whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression. The approval was based on data from the phase III IMpower110 study. This is Tecentriqs fourth approval for a metastatic NSCLC indication. The FDA also approved Bristol-Myers multiple myeloma treatment Pomalyst (pomalidomide) for patients with AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. FDA Approves AstraZeneca/Mercks Lynparza for 4th Cancer Type: The FDA approved AstraZeneca and Mercks Lynparza for HRR gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The approval was based on data from the phase III PROfound study. Lynparza, was until now approved in three tumor types ovarian, breast and pancreatic and pancreatic cancer is the fourth tumor type for which Lynparza is now approved. AstraZeneca Gets $1B Funding from BARDA for Coronavirus Vaccine: AstraZeneca announced that it has received more than $1billion in funding from BARDA to help produce the vaccine which it is developing with Oxford University. Last month, AstraZeneca entered into an agreement with Oxford University for the global development and distribution of the Universitys potential recombinant adenovirus vaccine, now known as AZD1222, to prevent COVID-19. AstraZeneca secured the first agreements to supply at least 400 million doses and plans to begin the first deliveries of the vaccine from September 2020. AstraZeneca has also agreed to provide the United States with up to 300 million doses. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca also said that it has the capacity to produce one billion doses if the vaccine is approved and continues to increase capacity further. AZD1222 is currently being evaluated in a phase I/II study, which began last month. Data from the study is expected to be released shortly. If the data is successful, late-stage studies with 30,000 participants are expected to begin in a number of countries. The FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) to AstraZenecas Enhertu for HER2-mutant metastatic NSCLC. The BTD was based on data from the ongoing phase II ESTINY-Lung01 study. This is the third BTD for Enhertu, with the first BTD granted in 2017 for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Last week, the FDA granted BTD to Enhertu for HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer. Enhertu was approved for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in December 2019. Meanwhile, AstraZenecas Bevespi Aerosphere was approved in China, as a maintenance treatment to relieve symptoms in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Bevespi Aerosphere is a fixed-dose, long-acting dual bronchodilator in a pressurized metered-dose inhaler device, which is already approved in the United States, EU and several other countries. Novartiss SMA Treatment Zolgensma Gets Approval in Europe: The European Commission granted approval to Novartis gene therapy, Zolgensma to treat babies and young children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Zolgensma was added to Novartis portfolio with the 2018 acquisition of AveXis. Zolgensma was approved by the FDA last year for the treatment of pediatric patients less than two years of age with SMA. The NYSE ARCA Pharmaceutical Index declined 0.37% in the last five trading sessions. Large Cap Pharmaceuticals Industry 5YR % Return Here is how the nine major stocks performed in the last five trading sessions. Last week, AbbVie rose the most (3.4%) while Merck declined the most (4.4%). In the past six months, Lilly has risen the most (29.6%) while Merck declined the most (10.7%). (See the last pharma stock roundup here: FDA Updates for LLY, AZN, MRK, BMY and SNY) What's Next in the Pharma World? Watch out for regular pipeline and regulatory updates next week. Today's Best Stocks from Zacks Would you like to see the updated picks from our best market-beating strategies? From 2017 through 2019, while the S&P 500 gained and impressive +53.6%, five of our strategies returned +65.8%, +97.1%, +118.0%, +175.7% and even +186.7%. This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon. From 2000 2019, while the S&P averaged +6.0% per year, our top strategies averaged up to +54.7% per year. See their latest picks free >> Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Johnson Johnson (JNJ) : Free Stock Analysis Report AstraZeneca PLC (AZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Roche Holding AG (RHHBY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Merck Co., Inc. (MRK) : Free Stock Analysis Report BristolMyers Squibb Company (BMY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research The Kano State government on Monday announced that two more patients had died from coronavirus (COVID-19) complications, bringing the total fatalities in the state from the disease to 38. The state Ministry of Health in its late Monday tweet also said the state has discharged one more patient, bringing the number of those so far discharged to 134. The ministry, however, did not provide more information on the patients who died on Monday as well as those discharged. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday also confirmed additional seven deaths in Nigeria. The agency also did not mention the state (s) where the deaths occurred. But officials in Kano and Jigawa confirmed that six of the deaths occurred in their states, two in Kano and four in Jigawa. READ ALSO: The NCDC on Monday also announced 229 new confirmed cases across the country with Kano having 23, taking the total confirmed cases in Kano to 919, second only to that of Lagos, Nigerias epicentre of the virus. President Muhammadu Buhari had locked down Kano for additional two weeks to check the spread of COVID-19 in the state. However, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje amended the directive by allowing shops to open and congregational prayers to hold on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The state council of Ulamas had criticised the governors decision to lift the ban on public gathering, warning that the decision could increase the spread of the disease in the state. Himachal was on the brink of being declared Covid-free when the state witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases from May 4. Confident that the state had seen the last of the deadly disease, Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur had said the state will become Covid-free by May 5. However, it seems the state is in for a long-drawn battle as the Covid-19 tally of the state has already crossed the 200-mark and cases continue to increase relentlessly. THE SECOND WAVE Himachal had reported its first Covid-19 case on March 20 in Kangra. On April 23, the toll stood at 40 cases, including one fatality. It seemed the worst was behind the state, when no cases were reported till May 3. However, the spell was broken after Himachal opened its borders to facilitate the return of those stranded in other states, triggering a second wave. From May 13, the Shramik special train also started ferrying Himachal residents from Mumbai, which significantly contributed to the spike in cases. FASTER DOUBLING, SLOWER RECOVERY Special secretary (health) Nipun Jindal said at present, the doubling rate of Covid-19 cases in Himachal was 5.9 days, which is troubling as the national average is 15.1 days. Just a week ago, the doubling rate of the disease in Himachal was 10.7 days. The doubling rate sharply increased after a sudden spike in cases after May 20, when Himachals Covid-19 tally crossed the 100-mark, two months (61 days) after it recorded its first case. However, the 200-mark was breached within four days or 65 days after the first case was reported in the state. Over the week, 125 people have tested positive for the disease in the state. The fatality rate of the state is 2.38% against the national average of 2.57%, Jindal said, adding the recovery rate was 30% against the national average of 41%. However, the states testing rate is 3,554 people per million, which is better than the national testing rate of 2,488 per million, Jindal said. 90% CASES ARE RETURNEES Around 90% of the cases recorded during the second surge are returnees. Most of them have travelled back from Mumbai and Delhi. Others came back from Chennai, Bangalore, Goa, West Bengal and Gujarat. As per government data, around 1.30 lakh migrants have returned to the state since April. Around 6,000 people have returned in Shramik special trains while others travelled in private vehicles and buses deployed by the state government. ALL RETURNEES IN INSTITUTIONAL QUARANTINE The silver lining amid the grim readings is that most of the returnees found positive were institutionally quarantined and there is no community transmission. Only one case of community transmission has been reported from Chamba where a Covid-19 positive man infected four others. WORST HIT, COVID-FREE DISTRICTS Hamirpur, Kangra and Una are the worst hit districts in the state accounting for 68% of the cases. Till date, Hamirpur has reported 63 cases, followed by Kangra with 59 cases and Una with 30 cases. Kangra has the highest population while Hamirpur has the highest population density in the state. A significant number of people in both states are working in other states. WHAT LIES NEXT? The Covid-19 cases in the state are likely to increase in the coming days. Till date, the state has tested 28,000 samples for Covid-19. Given, the large number of returnees who are yet to be tested, there seems to be no relief in the near future. The state government has now authorised district magistrates to extend the lockdown, if the situation requires, till June 30. Our Divisions Copyright 2021-22 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. LONDON (Reuters) - Aston Martin confirmed on Tuesday that Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, would become chief executive on August 1, replacing Andy Palmer who stepped down on Monday. The Financial Times newspaper reported over the weekend that Palmer would step down, before he had been informed. A source familiar with the situation had also confirmed to Reuters the planned move. "The board has determined that now is the time for new leadership to deliver our plans," Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin Lagonda's Executive Chairman said. The company said Moers, who will be based at its headquarters in Warwickshire, had built a reputation for transforming businesses in tough environments during his 25 years in senior roles at Daimler. Germany's Daimler AG owns a 5% stake in Aston Martin and supplies the carmaker with Mercedes-AMG engines. Aston Martin, famed for being fictional secret agent James Bond's car of choice, has seen its share price plummet since floating in October 2018. The 107-year old British luxury carmaker earlier this month posted a deep first-quarter loss after sales dropped by almost a third due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) Quantzig, a leading analytics advisory firm that delivers customized analytics solutions, has announced the completion of its free resource that highlights the steps to build a successful analytics-driven Voice of Customer (VoC) program. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005397/en/ Voice of customer analytics focuses on analyzing the customer's voice to better understand their perspectives and analyze factors affecting their decisions. It also leverages advanced analytics techniques such as text analytics, sentiment analysis, speech analytics, and web and social media analytics to integrate customer datasets and gain a comprehensive view of the customer's voice. Having said that it's essential to note that VoC analytics programs not only help to transform the way businesses work but also present a whole new gamut of opportunities for modern enterprises. Leveraging the voice of customer data can help businesses to understand their brand's perception by analyzing the overall effectiveness of their offerings. Request a FREE demo to get started. To make customer-centric decisions that aim to enhance customer experience businesses must gather and analyze their customer's opinions. Collecting feedback from your customers is as simple as asking them questions to understand their expectations. There exist many ways using which business can unearth valuable information from their customers, to help you get started our customer analytics experts have listed few widely accepted methods using which business can decipher their customer's voice. "The use of customer feedback forms can not only help you gather VoC data but also analyzes customer satisfaction levels based on their scores or comments," says a customer analytics expert from Quantzig. Request a free proposal to know more about the benefits of Voice of Customer analytics and its use cases. 5 Steps to Build a Successful Voice of Customer Analytics Program Gather customer data from disparate sources The first step in building a successful voice of customer program revolves around establishing the goals of the program followed by gathering the data from relevant sources. A detailed assessment of all customer touchpoints will help businesses to identify the best methods to capture and optimize customer data obtained from disparate sources. Turn data into insights To fully understand the information encapsulated in VoC data, you must first transform complex datasets into a more structured dataset that can be queried by analysts and consumed by sophisticated machine learning algorithms to extract actionable insights. Analyze insights to better understand customer needs To address the growing customer expectations, businesses need to turn data into insights and analyze them to better understand their customers' needs and preferences. The use of technologies like BI tools, real-time monitoring, and reporting dashboards can help organizations to analyze VoC data to determine common trends and identify customer pain points. Contact us to get your free copy of this resource that illustrates the top five steps to build a successful VoC analytics program. Leverage analytics to determine factors influencing customer feedback Leveraging advanced analytics solutions to perform root cause analysis helps businesses to analyze real-time VoC data to determine factors influencing customer feedback. The insights gained can be further leveraged in making decisions and implementing new policies for product and service improvement. Build a multi-channel voice of customer analytics program The final step in the successful implementation of a VoC program revolves around converting the datasets obtained from multiple touchpoints into accessible datasets. Businesses can use customized dashboards to visualize customer data and translate it into actionable insights that could help them make crucial business decisions. You might also be interested in similar free resources from our COVID-19 resource center: The US Meat Supply Chain Is Broken: Here's Why Retail Inventory Management: 5 Methods to Tackle Surplus Stocks About Quantzig Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 15 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on our engagement policies and pricing plans, visit: https://www.quantzig.com/request-for-proposal View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005397/en/ Contacts: Quantzig Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 538 7144 UK: +44 208 629 1455 https://www.quantzig.com/contact-us Thailand logs three new COVID cases, no deaths THAILAND: The government confirmed three new coronavirus cases all quarantined returnees and no additional deaths today (May 26), a health ministry spokesman said. CoronavirusCOVID-19deathhealth By Bangkok Post Tuesday 26 May 2020, 12:35PM Commuters stand in line to enter a train station already filled to capacity because of social distancing rules at rush hour in Bangkok yesterday (May 25) as Thais continued their return to work following the lifting of restrictions to halt the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Photo: AFP The new cases were people who had recently returned to Thailand from abroad and were already in quarantine, said Taweesilp Visanuyothin, a spokesman for the COVID-19 Administration Centre. The new patients either had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic. Dr Taweesilp said that the first case is a Thai masseuse aged 51 who returned from Russia on May 12 and was quarantined in Chon Buri province. She had no symptoms but tested positive for the disease yesterday. The two others are Thai men aged 45 who returned from work in Kuwait on May 24 and were quarantined in Samut Prakan province. They were coughing and tested positive yesterday. The three cases are of working age and have mild or no symptoms. This concerns us. However, they were quarantined and tested. This process is necessary, the spokesman said. Of the 3,045 accumulated cases, 2,929 have recovered, including one patient who was released in the past 24 hours. Fifty-nine patients remained at hospitals. The death toll remained at 57. Dr Taweesilp said that over the past four weeks, most of the country 65 provinces had recorded no new COVID-19 cases. The situation is improving thanks to public cooperation. Now we are heading towards the third stage of easing business and activity lockdowns. It is likely to cover higher-risk businesses and activities. They may resume with strict disease control measures, he said. Global COVID-19 cases stood at 5.59 million, up by 89,779 over the past 24 hours, with 347,873 deaths, an increase of 1,185. The United States had the most cases at 1.71 million and the most deaths at 99,805. The fashion influencer who was accused of 'cutting the line' to get a COVID-19 test early in the pandemic and then didn't self-isolate after testing positive is in the midst of yet controversy, and this one has nothing to do with COVID-19. Arielle Charnas, who has more than 1.3 million Instagram fans, came under fire in March month after documenting her coronavirus test on her Instagram and then faced more outrage when she revealed she had left her home in New York City and traveled to the Hamptons with her family before her self-isolation period was up. Now the 32-year-old is being called out once again on Instagram, but this time it's by Southampton florist Mark Masone, who has accused her of not paying for floral arrangements she ordered and then lying about it to save face when he blasted her in public. Uh-oh: Fashion influencer Arielle Charnas, 32, is being accused of not paying for flowers she had delivered by Southampton florist Mark Masone Feud: Masone called her out on Instagram, saying that he delivered five orders to her and two weeks later, she cancelled payment and claims she never got them Chiming in: Charnas responded, calling it a 'miscommunication' and claiming she never spoke to Masone or anyone at his business Mark took to Instagram to blast Charnas and accuse her of bad behavior this week. The post has since been deleted, but not before screenshots were shared on Twitter by writer Sophie Ross. Mark alleged that Charnas had placed five orders for Mother's Day, all of which were delivered. But two weeks after the holiday passed, Arielle 'stopped payment and is saying they never got delivered.' 'Normal people would call the next day [if they weren't delivered],' he wrote. 'I have been in business for 30 years. I would hard for my money and I have a family I have to feed. I don't work for free and I am sure Arielle doesn't either. 'She comes off so nice and innocent. We all know that's not true,' he added. 'She comes off so sweet and innocent but she is not. This is disgusting behavior to do this to a business especially during a pandemic that we are going through. My advice is stay far far away from her. If she did it to me then she will do it do you too.' Charnas was soon alerted to the post and responded with a comment denying any wrongdoing. 'She comes off so nice and innocent. We all know that's not true,' Masone said Back and forth: Later, an associate claimed that she spoke to Charnas directly and discussed the flower orders 'It sounds like you've had a miscommunication with someone on my team because I've never spoken to you or anyone at your business before. But I'm happy to speak on the phone and resolve it in a mature and reasonable way,' she wrote. Soon, a woman named Monique Wisniewski chimed in. Monique, a local esthetician and friend of Mark's, said she was working with the florist to help him out and spoke to Charnas 'directly.' 'I explained when I called you that most ... orders would not be filled by Mother's Day. You were extremely understanding, actually VERY understanding,' she wrote. 'After YOUR idea of combining 2 orders that were being delivered to the same address, I assured you ALL arrangements would be beautiful, and the next 3 delivered the next day. You could not have been more understanding. So it seemed. 'Next your assistant is questioning everything to the owner Mark, then disputing charges?!' she went on, asking doubtfully whether she doesn't communicate with her own assistant. 'Don't ever lie to me,' she concluded. 'You spoke to ME.' Called out: Monique Wisniewski disputed Charnas' claims, saying: 'Don't ever lie to me. You spoke to ME' Burned: 'The last thing YOU need is more bad press,' Monique wrote Mum: Charnas has not responded further, and the original Instagram post has been deleted Yikes... Charnas has faced a bit of backlash lately for 'cutting the line' to get a COVID-19 test and then fleeing to the Hamptons just eight days later Commenters quickly began calling Charnas out, urging her to pay the bill. When some questioned why she wouldn't be ordering her own Mother's Day gifts and would have her 'team' do it, Monique reiterated that it was Arielle she spoke to. 'Unless her "team" pretends they're her when ordering for her own family,' Monique wrote. 'She's disgusting. And a liar.' Since Sophie's post about the exchange began earning attention on Twitter, Mark has deleted the post and hasn't further addressed the situation on Instagram nor has Charnas shared any more comments on her own page. Charnas has been fielding criticism from all sides since mid-March, though none of it appears to have dinged her follower count. The drama began when she posted a video on Instagram saying she was ill and detailing her symptoms, which she feared might be coronavirus. But, she said, her doctor only told her to treat herself at home and 'quarantine herself' and didn't offer a test because at that time, they were particularly hard to come by, with not enough for everyone experiencing symptoms. After reaching out to Dr. Jake Deutsch, though, Charnas was in a car with her husband Brandon, pulling up to a clinic as a health professional performed the test through the window. Later, she updated followers to say that while a flu test came back negative, she tested positive for COVID-19. Sick: Charnas first revealed her symptoms on Instagram in March Taking them through it: She recorded her trip to a Manhattan clinic to get tested Privileged: She used a personal connection to get tested, calling a doctor friend who told her to come to his clinic though tests are being limited to the general public 'I wanted to give you all a health update,' she wrote. 'This morning, I learned that I tested positive for COVID-19. 'While the virus seems to be everywhere that you turn, it's meaning and importance completely changes when it affects you personally. But she's special! Charnas continued to post smiling photos in cute outfits, despite apparently being so sick that she warranted one of a limited number of coronavirus tests 'Now that I've officially tested positive, here is my plan per the recommendation of my doctors: Continue to quarantine/self-isolate, get lots of rest and drink fluids, get in touch with the family and friends that I've been in close contact with over the past 2 weeks so they can be even more diligent in their own self-quarantine and look out for any symptoms.' 'We are truly living in an unprecedented time, but if social media has shown us anything in the past couple of days, it's that we are all in this together.' Critics quickly piled on, accusing her of 'cutting the line' to get a test. At that time, many other people across the country were being denied tests despite showing similar symptoms, and critics didn't like that she used personal connections to skirt around the rules. Charnas addressed those who were upset that she managed to get a test, but mistook the anger as being about her ability to access healthcare when others can't rather than the fact that she used a powerful connection to get a test that is being rationed for the most vulnerable. 'I realize that there are many individuals, both in New York City, and nationwide, who do not have the ability to receive immediate medical care at the first sign of sickness, and access to care is #1 priority in a time like this.' Update: She later told followers she tested positive and tried to address the anger that she got a test when so many other people are being turned away What happened to isolation? Charnas traveled to a rental home in the Hamptons just eight days after her positive test 'It is the responsibility of our government offices to ensure all American can access necessary tests and I acknowledge how lucky I am to have had that access.' However, the diagnosis didn't appear to have stopped Charnas from doing whatever she wanted to do, despite strong warnings from doctors and epidemiologists. Ignoring calls to self-isolate for 14 days, Charnas has continued to live in close quarters with and hug and kiss her family, and she also kept using the services of a nanny. Others in her house got sick. Charnas said her husband was ill as well, and she also seems to have inadvertently revealed that the nanny was still working and had the virus too. 'Poor nanny has to work even when shes contracted a deadly virus from her rich boss,' writer Sophie Ross wrote. According to Charnas, she and her nanny 'got sick together.' Holding her accountable: In a viral Twitter thread, New York-based writer Sophie Ross called Charnas out, slamming her for her 'dangerous and bizarre behavior' And just eight days after her diagnosis, on March 26,she left her New York City apartment, went down the elevator, walked past her doormen, got into a car, and drove out to a rented home on Long Island, possibly stopping at a gas station or rest stop along the way and exposing even more people to the disease. 'She literally LEFT her palatial manhattan apartment so she could get Hamptons content,' Ross wrote. 'Arielle says she called her doormen to tell them they (aka COVID PATIENTS) were going to come down in the elevator and walk through the lobby. Apparently the doormen cleared everything out for them so they could leave for Hamps. 'I assume the family stopped to get gas,' Ross added. 'At this point, since Arielle hasnt self-isolated, its safe to assume the entire Charnas family is infected, given her story. They just commuted from Manhattan to Long Island for literally zero reason. The Hamptons have 8 ICU beds. 'Its also important to note that Arielles Hamptons house is a rental. This entire infected family is just...contaminating someones house right now. Also, Arielle admitted she got WiFi installed yesterday. Exposing a Spectrum worker too, Im sure.' Who cares? Being ill didn't stopped Charnas from posting sponsored content, appearing in TikTok videos, or cuddling with her family, exposing each of them to the virus Unsurprisingly, furious comments poured in, blasting Charnas for her dangerous behavior. 'The virus can stay in your body for another 14 days after you have recovered,' wrote one commenter, reacting to a photo of her outside in the Hamptons. 'WTF is this?' 'Wow. Wow. Wow. Shocked and Sad you all couldnt stay quarantined to slow the spread when you posted sooo much about staying home. Youre probably still shedding. Ive been a big fan for a long time and this makes me sad,' wrote another. Another accused her of 'setting such a bad example to millions of followers.' Yet another chided: 'Ive always thought you were out of touch ... but this proves it. When they say Stay home. they mean STAY HOME! It doesnt mean go to your various homes in various places.' Others called her 'selfish' and 'irresponsible,' with one writing: 'Are you that out of touch with reality? People like you are the reason why we will all be dealing with this for months to come. Very disappointing and shameful.' As long as she's happy: Just eight days after testing positive, Charnas left her NYC doorman apartment to stay at a rental home on Long Island, exposing countless people along the way Author and podcast host Kate Kennedy weighed in as well. 'I almost thought I must be misunderstanding the situation because it seems to crazy and illogical,' she said. 'To post your active neglect for the rules to all of the people who are stuck inside in less desirable circumstances because they are trying to avoid people like you, but you're the one with the actual virus.' In addition to her sense of entitlement and her flagrant disregard for the rules and the health and safety of others, Charnas is also being criticized for minimizing the seriousness of the virus. Though those who are affected have experienced a range of severity in symptoms, Charnas appears to be one of the luckier ones, since the virus hasn't stopped her from posting plenty of social media content. But critics say that by broadcasting that after putting on such a show of getting the test in the first place Charnas let people believe that the virus is no big deal. Exposed: Followers noticed that her nanny was still with the family but Charnas claimed that she and her nanny got sick 'together' Not lying! Charnas has denied that she made up the positive diagnosis for attention Sorry, not sorry! Charnas faced furious backlash on social media, but her follower count didn't take a hit After taking her test, Charnas was quickly 'back to normal posting as per usual playing with her kids, hanging around her nanny etc,' Ross pointed out. She posted TikTok videos with her allegedly also-sick husband, snuggled her children, and shared #OOTD images of her clothes. She's promoted loungewear, 'unboxed and posted a new Louis Vuitton purse,' and dressed up in designer outfits. 'Arielles now back to posting (in Chanel ofc!) as if nothing happened,' Ross wrote. 'No apology. No acknowledgement of the 1000s of former fans asking for answers. No accountability. Arielle flounced around NY with COVID in front of her 1.3 million followers. Disgusting, irresponsible, etc.' In the immediate aftermath, Charnas responded to commenters who speculated that she faked having coronavirus for attention, denying that that was the case. Then, in April, she finally issues a video apology on her Instagram Stories. 'I just wanted to come on here and say, Im sorry. I never in a million years wanted to hurt anyone, and were not bad people,' she said, breaking down in tears as she spoke. In the family: The Instagrammer and her husband have two daughters together Staying inside: Charnas, a fashion influencer, claimed she was quarantining herself Rules don't apply to her! She made the trip just eight days after getting her positive test results, ignoring warnings that she should quarantine herself for 14 days 'Im sorry for anyone that Ive offended or hurt over the last couple of weeks. Were just trying to navigate through this difficult time as Im sure so many people are, and Im just sorry that I let down my community in any way.' She then went on to reveal the toll that the backlash has taken on her family, opening up about the cruel threats that they have received in the wake of the controversy. 'Right now Im just trying to focus on my family because weve been receiving horrible threats,' she said. 'I just felt it was time for me to share my truth, which I did, and its now out 'Ive made every effort to do the right thing throughout this process and I just hope that you all can see that despite the mistakes that Ive made. 'Im thinking of you all and I hope everyone stays safe and healthy.' As well as posting the videos on her account, the fashion influencer shared a written statement on her main feed, echoing the sentiments made in her videos while also trying to justify the decisions that she made, explaining that they were made 'in the best interest of her family and her community.' Speaking out: In early April, she posted a tearful apology video on Instagram Fear: In the videos, the 32-year-old New Yorker revealed that she and her family including her young daughters have received death threats as a result of the bitter online backlash Apology: 'I just wanted to come on here and say, Im sorry. I never in a million years wanted to hurt anyone, and were not bad people,' she said, breaking down in tears as she spoke 'I am not writing this to make excuses and I am not searching for validation,' she began. 'I want to share the truth behind the story and above all else, express my sincerest remorse. 'I apologize to anyone that I unintentionally harmed in the course of my decision making.' She went on to explain that her actions had been largely influenced by the 'fear, panic and worry' that much of the country faced, while insisting that much of the criticism aimed at her has come as a result of 'misinformation.' 'I've been accused of falsifying my own test results which is unequivocally untrue,' she wrote, before adding that her 'entire family including her two young daughters' have faced 'death threats' because of the uproar over her actions. She explained that her decision to document her symptoms and her subsequent COVID-19 test experience was 'done with the intention to keep a sense of normalcy during a time when everything felt upside down,' adding that she did not believe what she was experiencing was the coronavirus because her symptoms were so different to those being written about in the news. She added that she wanted to share her own experiences in an effort to encourage others who might be feeling the same way to contact a medical professional. Offering answers: The influencer hit back at those who accused her of faking test results, but explained the reasoning behind many of her other controversial decisions in the post With regard to her decision to ask a doctor friend to secure a test for her something that prompted outrage on social media and beyond Charnas said that she did so out of 'desperation' as an 'anxious mother.' Describing herself as being 'incredibly fortunate to have had such prompt access to medical care,' she added that she continued to document her symptoms and her test because 'it's what she always does.' She then addressed the bitter backlash over her admittance that her children's nanny had also contracted the virus while working with the family, insisting that she and her husband had not been 'recommended childcare guidelines to help them figure out how to care for their girls.' Charnas added that their nanny was given the option to return home, but said she chose to quarantine with the Charnas' rather than risk 'potentially infecting others' insisting that the childcare provider is 'part of the family' and would have been paid whether or not she had stayed on working. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 18:33:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People take exercise in Hawalli Governorate, Kuwait, on May 26, 2020. Kuwait on Tuesday reported 608 new cases of COVID-19 and seven more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 22,575 and the death toll to 172, the health ministry said in a statement. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua) KUWAIT CITY, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait on Tuesday reported 608 new cases of COVID-19 and seven more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 22,575 and the death toll to 172, the health ministry said in a statement. Currently, 15,097 patients are receiving treatment, including 196 in ICU, according to the statement. The ministry also announced the recovery of 685 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 7,306. The Kuwaiti government has imposed a full curfew in the country to curb the rapid rise of coronavirus cases. Kuwait and China have been supporting each other and cooperating closely in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Kuwait donated medical supplies worth of 3 million U.S. dollars to China at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, while China has been facilitating the procurement of medical supplies by Kuwait. On April 27, a team of Chinese medical experts visited Kuwait to assist the Arab country's anti-coronavirus fight, sharing with Kuwaiti counterparts their experience and expertise in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 18:45:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KAMPALA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Tuesday started a phased opening as it eased restrictions imposed in March to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Private transport, shops, hotels and restaurants resumed operations with strict observation of social distancing guidelines and wearing face masks. Judith Nabakooba, minister for information, communications, technology and national guidance said in a tweet that motorists, shops, hotel and restaurants owners must heed to the guidelines issued by President Yoweri Museveni and the ministry of health. "Motorists, hotel and restaurants owners should follow the set rules and not be caught on the wrong side of the law," said Nabakooba. According to the guidelines, each private vehicle is supposed to have a maximum of three people including the driver. They must all wear face masks. Private transport however is still banned in the country's border districts in a bid to limit the spread of the virus from neighboring countries. According to government guidelines, public transport will be opened on June 4 and passenger service vehicles would only be allowed to carry passengers up to half of their capacities. All passengers will be expected to wear face masks. Education institutions will also open on June 4, but only candidate students would be allowed to attend class because of the social distancing measures. All the other restrictions like closure of the country's borders except for cargo transport still remain in place, according to the government. Uganda currently has 222 cases of COVID-19, out of which 69 have recovered and the country has reported no death, according to the ministry of health. Enditem RTHK: WHO shelves hydroxychloriquine trials for now The World Health Organization said on Monday it had "temporarily" suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloriquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19 being carried out across a range of countries as a precautionary measure. The decision came after the publication last week of a study in the Lancet indicating that using the drug on Covid-19 patients could increase their likelihood of dying, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference. Tedros said that the executive group of the so-called Solidarity Trial, in which hundreds of hospitals across several countries have enrolled patients to test several possible treatments for the novel coronavirus, had as a precaution suspended trials using that drug. "The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board," Tedros said. "The other arms of the trial are continuing," he stressed. Hydroxychloroquine is normally used to treat arthritis but pronouncement from public figures including President Trump -- who announced last week he is taking the drug -- has prompted governments to bulk buy the medicine. Brazil's health minister also recommended last week using hydroxychloroquine, as well as the anti-malarial chloroquine, to treat even mild Covid-19 cases. The Lancet study found that both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia. And neither drug benefited patients hospitalised with Covid-19, according to a Lancet study, which looked at the records of 96,000 patients across hundreds of hospitals. Tedros stressed on Monday that the two drugs "are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria." WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan meanwhile told Monday's briefing that the WHO-backed Solidarity Trial had been looking only at the effects of hydroxychloroquine and not chloroquine. The decision on suspending enrolment for trials using hydroxychloroquine was "a temporary measure", she said. "We're just acting by precaution," WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan agreed. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. File Photo Wuhan: A leading Chinese virologist has said that the corona virus is just a "small case" and the beginning of the problem. Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a suspected Chinese institution, warned of new viruses in an interview on Chinese state television. CoronavirusShi Zhengli is also called the 'Bat Woman' of China. Xi Zhengli said that the government and scientists should be transparent about their research on the virus. Advertisement She said that it was very sad when science was politicized. "If we want to save human beings from the next contagious disease, we have to gather information and warn about unknown viruses in living things," she said. Coronavirus "If we don't study unknown viruses, it is possible that another infectious disease could spread," Shi said. It is to be noted that this interview of Shi Zhengli has been aired at a time when the annual meeting of key Chinese leaders is about to begin. There, many countries around the world are viewing the Chinese lab in Wuhan with suspicion. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said that there was strong evidence that the corona virus had spread from Chinese labs. However, China and the Wuhan Institute of Virology deny the allegations. Pakistan on Tuesday said that 176 Pakistanis stranded in India due to the current coronavirus lockdown will return home on Wednesday through the Attari-Wagah border. India like many other nations in the world has imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus which has created havoc around the world by infecting 5,543,439 and killing 347,836 people. These 176 Pakistanis were stranded in different Indian states including Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Delhi due to the extended lockdown and closure of Attari-Wagah border following the outbreak of coronavirus, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. In line with the Prime Ministers directions, for safe and smooth repatriation of stranded Pakistanis, the High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi remained in close contact with the Indian side and the Foreign Office has been coordinating with other national authorities in Pakistan, the FO added. It said the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi also facilitated and coordinated logistics for transfer of these Pakistanis to Attari from more than twenty different Indian cities, amid the lockdown. More than 400 stranded Pakistanis have been repatriated from India through Attari-Wagah border since March 20, 2020. The ongoing efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue till the repatriation of all remaining stranded Pakistanis, the FO said. Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that more than 110,000 Pakistani stranded in various parts of the world wanted to come back. Pakistan has till now witnessed 57,705 cases of coronavirus, with 1,197 deaths. Venezuela has 1,177 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths, but rights groups say the real numbers are much higher. The Venezuelan healthcare system is grossly unprepared to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, further jeopardising the health of Venezuelans and threatening to contribute to spread of the disease, human rights groups and healthcare experts said on Tuesday. Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins Universitys Centers for Public Health and Human Rights said in a new report that ensuring that sufficient humanitarian aid reaches the Venezuelan people is urgently needed. Venezuela so far has 1,177 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths, but the real numbers are believed to be much higher, given the limited testing and access to reliable information. The humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the breakdown of the health system have created dangerous conditions conducive to rapid community spread, unsafe working conditions for health personnel, and high mortality rate among patients in need of hospital treatment, said Kathleen Page, a physician and faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Centers. Venezuelas lack of capacity to confront the COVID-19 pandemic may drive people to try to leave the country, further straining the health systems of neighbouring countries and imperilling regional health more broadly, Page said. According to the report, Venezuelas health system has collapsed amid shortages of medications and health supplies, interruptions of basic utilities at healthcare facilities, and the emigration of healthcare workers has led to a progressive decline in healthcare operational capacity. The report also stressed that humanitarian aid is urgently needed to assist the Venezuelan people. Venezuelan citizens waiting outside the Venezuelan consulate in Quito, Ecuador to return to their country [Jose Jacome/EPA] According to the Global Health Security Index, Venezuela ranked among the countries least prepared to mitigate the spread of an epidemic in 2019. The Venezuelan government declared a state of emergency on March 13 and instituted a nationwide quarantine on March 17, restricting movement and mandating the closure of all non-essential businesses. The report notes that the lockdown measures are enforced by police, armed forces, a special police force called FAES, and armed pro-government gangs leading to arbitrary arrests and harassment. On March 17, President Nicolas Maduros government requested an emergency $5bn loan from the International Monetary Fund to combat the epidemic, which the IMF rejected, stating there was no clarity regarding the official government recognition by the international community. On Tuesday, the European Union with the support of the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration held an online international donors conference to raise funds for Venezuelan refugees, migrants and host communities. More than five million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 due to political instability and economic collapse that has left many unable to obtain basic goods. The conference is expected to result in millions of euros in pledges that will fund humanitarian assistance and development projects in Venezuela. Video PlayerClose Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins a deliberation with deputies from Hubei Province at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, May 24, 2020. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) As the "two sessions" continue, Chinese President Xi Jinping specially joined a group discussion with national lawmakers from central China's Hubei Province Sunday afternoon, showing his great care for the COVID-19-hit province and its resumption of production. After hearing the remarks of five deputies with the Hubei panel to the National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature, Xi commended the vital contributions and enormous sacrifices made by the people in Hubei and its capital city Wuhan in fighting COVID-19, and expressed his sincere appreciation. As the province hardest hit by the virus and with the longest span of restrictions, Hubei faces major difficulties in reviving its economy, Xi said, urging the province to accelerate production resumption while going all out to implement regular epidemic prevention and control. Photo taken with a mobile phone shows cured patients waving goodbye to medical workers before leaving the Leishenshan hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 4, 2020. [Photo by Gao Xiang/Xinhua] Help from Around the Nation After months-long arduous efforts, China has achieved a decisive victory in the battle to defend Hubei and Wuhan by rallying the support of the entire country, including sending over 42,000 medics nationwide to aid Hubei. "We mobilized from around the nation the best doctors, the most advanced equipment and the most needed resources to Hubei and Wuhan, going all out to save lives," Xi said during his deliberations with deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Friday. Fighting COVID-19 became Xi's top concern after the epidemic hit Hubei. On March 10, he flew to Wuhan and inspected the epidemic prevention and control work. He has chaired a number of key meetings to direct the country's COVID-19 prevention and control efforts and production resumption. Shifting to COVID-19 response on regular basis, the whole country is stepping up efforts to help Hubei return to normal. Members of the national medical team pose for a photo after arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, April 6, 2020.[Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei] Continued Policies, Measures Xi said Hubei should implement targeted policies for key industrial chains, leading enterprises and major investment projects, work hard to solve various difficult problems in production resumption, and help companies, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises solve their practical difficulties. The central and state organs as well as central state-owned enterprises should continue to expand their support for Hubei's revival after the epidemic, implementing all policies and measures, and delivering results and benefits in Hubei on an early date, Xi said to the Hubei panel of lawmakers. In late April, a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, China's top leadership, discussed and endorsed a series of policies supporting the economic and social development in Hubei. According to the government work report delivered to the ongoing NPC session for deliberation, China will implement a package of policies to support Hubei's development, helping it ensure employment, public wellbeing and normal operations, and spurring the full recovery of economic and social activities there. Chen Yilin, chairman of Hubei Long Boat Salinization Co., Ltd., has been busy planning to build a new diaphragm plant to reduce the cost of producing small bags of salt. Through a few online applications, his company was granted a one-time credit of 50 million yuan (about 7 million U.S. dollars) for the project by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest commercial lender. "Having such a large amount of credit so soon has really solved my urgent need," said Chen. The China Development Bank, a major development finance institution, said the bank would increase its loans to Hubei this year. After a pairing-up aid of provincial-level regions to help cities in Hubei fight COVID-19 in the past months, many provinces continued supporting Hubei in production resumption. An online investment promotion event for Wuhan held on May 15, saw central state-owned enterprises sign contracts of 37 projects worth more than 180 billion yuan, which will help the city optimize its economic structure and gain new growth momentum. China's foreign ministry will hold a global promotion event at a proper time for Hubei and explore a fast track for essential personnel to go to Hubei and Wuhan to support the production resumption, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of the NPC session on Sunday. Geely Auto Group in east China's Zhejiang Province said it has helped dozens of its suppliers in Hubei to resume work through various channels. Chinese e-commerce firms such as Alibaba and JD.com have also participated in selling agricultural products for Hubei. Alibaba announced in April that it would purchase crayfish worth 1 billion yuan from Hubei. People stay at a shop of a commercial street in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 30, 2020. [Xinhua/Shen Bohan] Sales Promotion, Job Opportunities In early May, nearly 1,000 students from Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute in east China's Jiangsu Province sold special agricultural products of Hubei online, including oranges and tea, to help Hubei recover. "This is a famous orange from Hubei's Zigui County. It is seedless, juicy and sweet," said Chen Jiajia, a student of the institute with 1 million fans, advertizing the orange to the online audience. Liu Jincun, Party chief of the institute, said the students' livestreams helped sell 105,000 kg of oranges for Hubei. As a major labor export province, Hubei has about 6 million migrant workers. Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Fujian have been organized by the central government to help Hubei boost employment. Shandong, which sent a medical team to assist Hubei's Huanggang City, took the lead in signing a cooperation agreement to provide more than 2,000 jobs for migrant workers from the city. In mid-May, the first batch of migrant workers left Huanggang for their workplaces in Shandong. Weng Xinnian, a migrant worker from Huanggang, got a job at Jinan Dali Foods Co., Ltd. in Shandong. "I'm so excited. The company provides dining and accommodation for us. I can earn around 5,000 yuan per month now," he said. The Ministry of Education launched moves to pair up universities in Hubei with 76 universities across the country to help graduates in the recovering province find jobs or start their own businesses. (Source: Xinhua) [May 26, 2020] Plus Power's 185 MW Kapolei Energy Storage Project Selected by Hawaiian Electric in State's Largest Renewable Energy Procurement HONOLULU, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Plus Power, an independent developer of utility-scale battery storage projects, today announced that its 185 MW/565 MWh Kapolei Energy Storage project (KES) was selected by the Hawaiian Electric Companies as part of the utility's transition to renewables. Today's announcement follows the second phase of a highly competitive RFP process in which Hawaiian Electric selected 16 renewable energy and battery storage projects located across three islands. Plus Power's KES project is located in Kapolei on the island of Oahu, and is the largest battery storage project selected by Hawaiian Electric. The lithium-ion battery project is ideally located on roughly eight acres of land in the Kapolei Harborside industrial project, where it will interconnect at a critical Hawaiian Electric substation. The project will provide load shifting and fast-frequency response services to Hawaiian Electric, enhancing grid reliability and accelerating the integration of readily available renewable energy. The June 2022 completion of the KES project will ensure that the AES coal plant the last- remaining coal-fired generation in Hawai'i will end operations in September 2022, supporting the state's goal of shifting from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable energy generation. "Plus Power is honored and excited to work with Hawaiian Electric to implement this ground-breaking project," said Bob Rudd, Lead Developer at Plus Power. "At 185 MW/565 MWh, the KES project will provide the scale necessary to transition away from coal and to accelerate Hawaii's path toward 100 percent renewable energy. We look forward to working closely with all stakeholders to realize this project and deliver its economic and environmental benefits to the people of Oahu." Plus Power started work on KES in early 2019 in cooperation with the project's landowner, Kapolei Properties, an affiliate of the James Campbell Company. "Plus Power's selection as an energy storage provider for Hawaiian Electric is a very welcome and important step in meeting the state's renewable energy needs. We're excited to have them at Harborside," said Steve Kelly, President of the Kapolei Properties Division of the James Campbell Company. The KES project received unanimous support from the local Neighborhood Board and approval of its Conditional Use Permit-Minor from the City and County of Honolulu. Situated in I-2 (Industrial) zoning outside the Tsunami Evacuation Zone, the KES project site is an optimal location for new energy infrastructure. Construction of the Kapolei Energy Storage facility is anticipated to start in summer 2021, subject to approval from the Hawai'i Public Utilities Commission. The project will contribute to the local tax base and create a significant number of local construction and operations jobs. For more information, visit www.kapoleienergystorage.com. About Plus Power Plus Power develops utility-scale energy storage projects that enable a more efficient and reliable electrical grid. The Plus Power team, led by seasoned executives from the renewables and energy storage industry, is accelerating the deployment of transmission-connected battery storage throughout the United States. Based in Houston, San Francisco, and New York, Plus Power operates at the nexus of energy, technology and finance. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plus-powers-185-mw-kapolei-energy-storage-project-selected-by-hawaiian-electric-in-states-largest-renewable-energy-procurement-301064931.html SOURCE Plus Power [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) Two people were killed when their car was struck by a truck at an intersection in central Pennsylvania over the Memorial Day weekend, authorities said. State police in Adams County say the car was heading north when it was hit by the westbound truck in Union Township just before 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The county coroner's office responded and pronounced 68-year-old Carole Dutterer and Carly Dutterer dead at the scene. Police said a male passenger in the car survived. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. --Sign up for PennLives newsletters Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. CarDekho CarDekho has laid off employees and slashed salaries as the automobile portal looks to tide over the disruptions caused by COVID-19 pandemic that has badly hit the Indian auto sector. While the company did not comment on the number of employees being laid off, reports suggest the number is as high as 200. When contacted, Girnarsoft Group - that runs CarDekho - said COVID-19 has led to disruptions across industries and auto is one of the worst hit sectors. "We were constrained to look at rightsizing and salary cuts in a few businesses given period of slow recovery and in some cases permanent change in pattern of consumer spends," it said in an e-mailed statement. The company said through the month of March till recently, teams across the board took measures to control costs, including the leadership team taking voluntary salary cuts effective April. According to the reports, salaries have been slashed by 12-15 per cent depending on the pay packages, while senior management has taken a 45 per cent salary cut. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show "To help this transition, we not only cover the impacted employees financially but have also set-up an intermediary support system to guide them towards opportunities inside and outside the organization. We are also encouraging and are providing well-rounded support for entrepreneurial opportunities with the organisation. These are testing times and we hope we come out of this much stronger than before," it said. In the past few weeks, a number of tech-led businesses like Uber, Zomato and Swiggy have announced layoffs as the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown dried up demand and ravaged businesses. Last week, Ola had said it is laying off 1,400 staff from rides, financial services and food business, while ShareChat handed pink slips to 101 employees. According to a survey by industry body Nasscom, about 90 per cent startups said they are facing a decline in revenues, and about 30-40 per cent indicated temporarily halting their operations or in the process of closing down. About 70 per cent startups surveyed said they have a cash runway of fewer than three months, the most affected being the early stage and mid-stage start-ups. With businesses seeing significant impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic, startups are forced to freeze hiring, slash salaries and lay off people to steer through the crisis. Popular OAP, Daddy Freeze has expressed that there is a need to review how weddings are conducted in Nigeria. He aired this view while reacting to Soso Soberekons statement that he would be asking for a refund if he attends a wedding and the couples go-ahead to divorce. Also Read: Soso Soberekon Reveals Plans To Ask For Aso-Ebi Refund If Citing example of people getting married during the Coronavirus pandemic in a low key style, Daddy Freeze expressed that this should be the recipe for weddings after the current pandemic. Advertisement See his tweet below: LONDON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, partners with EcoDataCenter to build an ultra-low-carbon-footprint data centre at the heart of their HPC colocation in Falun, Sweden. With the goal of being one of the most sustainable data centres in the Nordics, Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure Building Operation, Galaxy VX UPS with lithium-Ion, and MasterPact MTZ are just some of the solutions ensuring the colocation facility stays on-mission for climate positivity. Additionally, Schneider's Connected Services Hub provides remote monitoring and 24/7 access to EcoDataCenter's critical facility. In need of reliable power management that would ensure customer-server uptime and energy efficiency, EcoDataCenter partnered with Schneider Electric. "With the solutions coming from Schneider Electric, we expect to achieve a PUE of 1.15 and combining that with renewable power, we will make sure that we are one of the most sustainable data centres in the Nordics and hopefully in the world," says Mikael Svanfeldt, Chief Technology Officer for EcoDataCenter. Sustainable digitization with EcoStruxure solutions Schneider Electric integrated EcoStruxure for Cloud & Service Providers into EcoDataCenter's new build. With EcoStruxure as an open architecture, EcoDataCenter was able to seamlessly connect existing hardware, software, and monitoring through the platform's analytics and services. EcoDataCenter now has connected sensor and meter data generating analytic reports on the data centres operational efficiency and its sustainability index. Connected Services Hub now remotely monitors critical sensors, and also gives EcoDataCenter 24/7 expert remote monitoring and troubleshooting by Schneider Electric's team of service engineers. When building a data centre, EcoDataCenter considers the well-being of the community. With the monitoring, efficiency, and connectivity that EcoStruxure provides, EcoDataCenter is able to recycle the facility's heat waste to local utilities. EcoDataCenter uses that efficiency to give back to the local grid, allowing them to go beyond net-zero emissions and achieve climate positivity. Two Uniflair Turbocor Chillers add to facility climate control, supplementing the usually low Nordic temperatures, especially during summer's humidity. Within EcoStruxure's architecture, four Galaxy VX UPSs support 1,250 kW of customer load in its 99% efficiency ECOnversion Mode. This backup power frees up energy that can be diverted to clients. "Schneider Electric is honored to partner with EcoDataCenter to deliver its vision to be the world's first climate positive colocation data centre," said Christina Backlund, VP Secure Power, Nordic and Baltics at Schneider Electric. "Working together, EcoDataCenter and Schneider have proved it is entirely practical for a well architected data centre to be both efficient and resilient whilst meeting sustainability goals, in this case benefitting the environment as well as the local community." To understand more about the solutions and results, access all details in the customer story. About EcoStruxure EcoStruxure is our open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity for our customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level. This includes Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics & Services which are supported by Customer Lifecycle Software. EcoStruxure has been deployed in almost 500,000 sites with the support of 20,000+ developers, 650,000 service providers and partners, 3,000 utilities and connects over 2 million assets under management. From energy and sustainability consulting to optimizing the life cycle of your operational systems, we have world-wide services to meet your business needs. As a customer-centric organization, Schneider Electric is your trusted advisor to help increase asset reliability, improve total cost of ownership and drive your enterprise's digital transformation towards sustainability, efficiency and safety. About EcoDataCenter EcoDataCenter builds and operates data centers for colocation, HPC and Hyperscale with the ambition to set a new standard in the industry for sustainability and safety. EcoDataCenter's first campus is located in Falun, but the goal is to become a leader in the Nordic region and to compete with the world's largest data centres. EcoDataCenter recently purchased Fortlax, as a first step towards becoming a Nordic giant. EcoDataCenter's main owner is Areim, since 2018, which with the ownership of EcoDataCenter wants to create a new investment segment in the real estate market. https://ecodatacenter.uk/ About Schneider Electric At Schneider Electric, we believe access to energy and digital is a basic human right. We empower all to make the most of their energy and resources, ensuring Life Is On everywhere, for everyone, at every moment. We provide energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. We combine world-leading energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services into integrated solutions for Homes, Buildings, Data Centers, Infrastructure and Industries. We are committed to unleash the infinite possibilities of an open, global, innovative community that is passionate about our Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. https://www.se.com/uk/en/ Discover Life Is On Related resources: Follow us on: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Blog Hashtags: #EcoStruxure #Colocation #LifeIsOn SOURCE Schneider Electric UK Related Links https://www.se.com/uk Lian Chikako Chang and her husband, Drew Harry, agree on the big picture when it comes to minimizing their 3-year-olds risk of exposure to the coronavirus. They both work in the tech industry and neither is an essential worker, so they have been following Californias shelter-in-place rules and going outside only for curb-side pick up for groceries once a week or brief bouts of exercise. They take their son to local parks on weekdays, because it is less crowded than on weekends. We mostly are aligned, said Chikako Chang, 39, who has been quarantined in San Francisco. But she and her husband still fight about the little things. The couple had a disagreement recently about whether their preschooler should use a public restroom at the park. To me, obviously thats off the table, Chikako Chang said. But my husband is less interested than I am in having our son poop in a Ziploc bag. Before the pandemic, a couple probably would not have needed to have a discussion beforehand about whether their child could use a public restroom. But now, decisions small and large require negotiation, and many spouses are finding that the virus is revealing fundamental differences in their personalities and belief systems. General Electric Companys GE unit, GE Renewable Energy, yesterday announced that it has received a contract to supply onshore wind turbines to Powerica Ltd. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed by the parties involved. It is worth noting here that General Electrics share price increased 0.9% on May 21, eventually closing the trading session at $6.48. Powerica engages in providing power solutions for standby, prime power and conventional diesel-related applications. Also, it owns as many as 11 winds farms in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Inside the Headlines As noted, GE Renewable Energy will supply 38 units of 2.7-132 onshore wind turbines to Powerica. Of these, 19 onshore wind turbines will be delivered at Powericas wind farm based in Rajkot while the rest will be supplied to Khambaliya wind farm. Both projects can collectively can generate 102.6 MW of energy. The wind turbines are expected to work efficiently in Gujarat, which has low wind speed conditions. This contract has helped build a healthy relationship between GE Renewable Energy and Powerica. Other Contracts Won Recently In May 2020, GE Renewable Energy received a contract to supply 52 units of 3 MW platform onshore wind turbines. The other party to the contract was Fina Enerji. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The wind turbines will be delivered to Fina Enerjis wind farms located in Pazarkoy, Baglama, Tayakadin and Yalova. These wind farms collectively can produce 193 MW of energy. In April, GE Renewable Energy secured a service contract from DIF Capital Partners. Per the 10-year deal, the company will be responsible for servicing 122 GE 1.56-82.5 turbines. It is worth mentioning here than GE Renewable Energys revenues in the first quarter of 2020 increased 26% year over year. The improvement was primarily driven by onshore wind turbine including deliveries of 731 new unit and supply of 219 repower kit. Zacks Rank, Price Performance, Estimate Trend and Competitors General Electric currently has a market capitalization of $56.2 billion and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Debt reduction efforts, portfolio-restructuring actions and digital business might support the companys performances in the quarters ahead. However, the coronavirus outbreak is expected to severely hurt its second-quarter performance especially that of GECAS and Aviation. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. In the past 60 days, General Electrics earnings estimates for 2020 and 2021 have changed. Currently, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its earnings is pegged at 4 cents for 2020 and 36 cents for 2021, reflecting decline of 91.5% and 48.6% from the respective 60-day-ago figures. General Electric Company Price and Consensus Story continues General Electric Company Price and Consensus General Electric Company price-consensus-chart | General Electric Company Quote The companys share price has decreased 45.4% in the past three months compared with a 19.7% decline recorded by the industry. Three competitors in the industry, ITT Inc. 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(ITT) : Free Stock Analysis Report General Electric Company (GE) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Researchers have found evidence of injury in the placentas from 16 women who tested positive for COVID-19 while pregnant, pointing to a new complication associated with the deadly disease. The type of injury seen in the placentas shows abnormal blood flow between the mothers and their babies in the womb, according to the study published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology. The researchers from Northwestern University in the US said the findings, though early, could help inform how pregnant women should be clinically monitored during the pandemic. Most of these babies were delivered full-term after otherwise normal pregnancies, so you wouldnt expect to find anything wrong with the placentas, but this virus appears to be inducing some injury in the placenta, said Jeffrey Goldstein, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University. It doesnt appear to be inducing negative outcomes in live-born infants, based on our limited data, but it does validate the idea that women with COVID should be monitored more closely, Goldstein said. This increased monitoring might come in the form of non-stress tests, which examine how well the placenta is delivering oxygen, or growth ultrasounds, which measure if the baby is growing at a healthy rate, said study co-author Emily Miller, assistant professor at Northwestern University. Not to paint a scary picture, but these findings worry me, Miller said. Previous research has found that children who were in utero during the 1918-19 flu pandemic, which is often compared to the current COVID-19 pandemic, have lifelong lower incomes and higher rates of cardiovascular disease, the researchers said. Flu doesnt cross the placenta, Goldstein said, so whatever is causing life-long problems in those people is most likely due to immune activity and injury to the placenta. Our study, and other studies like it, are trying to get on the ground floor for this exposure so we can think about what research questions we should be asking in these kids and what can or should we do now to mitigate these same types of outcomes, Goldstein added. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. ) Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter The Portuguese holiday island of Madeira has announced it will pay for all tourists to have a coronavirus test on arrival. The archipelago, along with its sister island Porto Santo, is set to open to international travellers again from July 1. But to be allowed in, tourists will either have to present documentation showing they've had a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours prior to arriving in Madeira or show they're in the clear from a free test administered upon arrival. The Portuguese holiday island of Madeira, pictured, has announced it will pay for all tourists to have a coronavirus test on arrival According to the Madeira tourism board, the islands are focusing on positioning themselves as 'Covid-safe destinations' and are working with SGS, the 'world leader in hygiene certification', to ensure 'good practice across the destination to minimise risk in the wake of the pandemic'. It adds that Madeira was a pioneer in Portugal in 'developing good practices to deal with Covid-19'. In a statement, the tourism board said: 'These three initiatives, to cover testing costs, partner with SGS in certification and develop a good practices document, underpin the destinations determination to ensure a safe tourism location for all visitors. 'The Portuguese outpost of Madeira has had very few cases of Covid-19 and acted quickly to control the virus on the archipelago (Portugal has been widely praised for its rapid response). At present, Madeira has registered 90 cases of Covid-19 with 67 of them in patients who have recovered. There have been no deaths 'It is an island in the Atlantic, with relatively low visitor and transit numbers, which makes Madeira an exceptionally safe holiday option.' Madeira is a short-haul destination from the UK with a flight time of three and a half hours. Its sub-tropical climate means it is warm all year round. Outside of the capital, Funchal, the island is sparsely populated and its striking and lush landscape has been classified as a Unesco World Natural Heritage site since December 1999. The tourism board added: 'A gentle, safe, and relaxing destination, with excellent healthcare facilities. Madeira has been popular for centuries with UK travellers, who have visited these average climes to optimise health and wellbeing. 'Recently referred to as Europes adventure capital with numerous world-class outdoor pursuits, from canyoning to trail running, it is perfect for those who have increased their fitness levels during lockdown. Madeira's sister island of Porto Santo, which is also set to open to international tourists on July 1 'Porto Santo, the stunning beach island off Madeira, only two and half hours away by ferry, was the first beach in Europe to officially reopen after Covid-19 and has the added benefit of therapeutic sands with scientifically proven properties to ease all manner of ailments. 'There are currently no restrictions to travel between the two islands.' At present, Madeira has registered 90 cases of Covid-19 with 67 of them in patients who have recovered. There have been no deaths. Scientists believe the coronavirus enters the body through enzyme-receptors found throughout the body, including in cells lining the inside of blood vessels. Some theorize that it may promote clotting by somehow injuring those vessels as it spreads. That injury may cause a severe immune response as the body tries to fight the infection, resulting in inflammation that may also damage vessels and promote clotting, said Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart hospital in New York. China has committed "a crime against all of humanity" by deliberately spreading the virus around the world while at the same time, spreading disinformation about its human-to-human properties in the early days of the outbreak, said Gordon Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China and The Great U.S.-China Tech War. The Communist Party of China has not only acted recklessly, but also maliciously, to bring other countries to a fair playing field after the outbreak occurred in Wuhan in late 2019, Chang told Kitco News. Chinese leaders admitted that the coronavirus was human-to-human transmissible only on January 20, but doctors in Wuhan knew no later than the second week of December that it was H2H, human-to-human. If Beijing had said nothing during that five of so weeks, that would have been grossly irresponsible. What we know during that period is that they tried to convince the world that it was not human-to-human, he said. Beijing also tried to convince other countries to not impose travel restrictions and lift quarantine measures on arrival, he added. If after having seen the coronavirus cripple China, if [Xi Jingping] wanted to level the playing field by spreading the disease elsewhere, he would have done exactly what in fact he did, Chang said. The World Health Organization (WHO) is also responsible for failing to contain the coronavirus sooner, Chang noted. Theyve been complicit because in the WHO, the leaders there knew it was human-to-human transmissible. We know that because Maria Van Kerkhove, who is a senior WHO doctorimmediately she knew that it was H2H. She told her superiors. They shut her down, he said. The WHO Tweeted on January 14, 2020, that preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCov) identified in #Wuhan, #China. At the same time, Van Kerkhove gave a press briefing in Geneva warning of the opposite of the WHOs position at the time, according to a report published by The Guardian. On trade, U.S.-Sino relations are not about to improve, Chang said. I dont think there should be reconciliation [between China and the U.S.] because China has killed tens of thousands of Americans, and this was a deliberate act, Chang told Kitco News. China now has a commanding lead in the tech war over the U.S., especially in the wireless telecommunications space. KABUL -- Afghan authorities say they have released 100 Taliban prisoners as part of the government's response to a three-day cease-fire the militants called to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Eid al-Fitr holiday. The 100 Taliban prisoners were released from Bagram, north of Kabul, on May 25 as "a gesture of goodwill to advance peace efforts, including an extended cease-fire and the immediate start of direct talks" with the militants, National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal wrote in a tweet. Faisal posted photos of the freed militants inside a bus. The three-day truce started on May 24, a move swiftly welcomed by the government, which reciprocated by announcing plans to free up to 2,000 militant prisoners. "There have been some minor security incidents today," Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said. "In general, there has been no major violation of the cease-fire today." Faisal told AFP that authorities plan to release prisoners in batches of 100 daily, adding: "We hope this will eventually lead to a lasting peace that the people of Afghanistan so much desire and deserve." In February, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement aimed at ending the longest military action in U.S. history. The deal lays out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for security commitments from the Taliban. It also stipulates that Kabul must free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the militants are to release 1,000 captives -- a move expected to lead to intra-Afghan negotiations. President Ashraf Ghani said the government was also ready to hold peace talks with the Taliban, seen as key to ending a nearly two-decade-long war. The latest release of Taliban prisoners brings to 1,100 the number of militants freed since early April, an official at the National Security Council told RFE/RL, while the militant group has freed 245 members of security forces, civil servants, and other people it had been holding. In an address to the nation marking Eid al-Fitr, Ghani announced he would "expedite the Taliban prisoner releases," while urging the group to press ahead with the release of Afghan security personnel it holds. A presidential spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, later on May 24 tweeted that Ghani initiated a process to release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture" in response to the Taliban's announcement of a cease-fire during Eid. Sediqqi added that the government "is extending the offer of peace and is taking further steps to ensure success of the peace process." However, Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission cautioned the government against releasing Taliban militants who committed war crimes. The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad, described the cease-fire as "a momentous opportunity" to accelerate a stalled U.S.-Taliban peace process. "Other positive steps should immediately follow: the release of remaining prisoners as specified in the US-Taliban agreement by both sides, no returning to high levels of violence, and an agreement on a new date for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations," Khalizad wrote on Twitter. The prospect of direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban gained a boost on May 17 when Ghani and his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, reached a power-sharing agreement nearly eight months after disputed elections that led to a parallel government and hampered efforts to broker a peace deal. The United States has about 12,000 troops in Afghanistan. Washington pays about $4 billion a year to maintain the Afghan military. Taliban militants control about half of Afghanistan's territory and have continued to carry out attacks since the deal was signed. Afghan intelligence service spokesman Javid Faisal said on May 23 that at least 146 civilians were killed and 430 wounded in Taliban attacks during Ramadan. With reporting by AFP and AP Riot police detain protesters in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, as hundreds took to the streets to march against Beijing's proposed tough national security legislation for the city, on May 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) An Apology No Canadian Prime Minister Should Have to Make Commentary Mr. Speaker, it is my painful duty to rise here today to apologize for the Canadian governments failure to stand with the people of Hong Kong in their hour of need. This chamber has seen many apologies for historical wrongs. Some say too many. Years ago we had a prime minister who rejected the concept of such apologies entirely, saying, I do not think the purpose of a government is to right the past. It cannot rewrite history. It is our purpose to be just in our time. He did not deny that the matter under discussion, the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War, had been wrong, or that lessons could and should be learned from it. But he questioned the value of an apology especially for the behaviour of others. As novelist and historian George MacDonald Fraser put it acerbically when British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for the Irish Potato Famine: I didnt know he had caused it. This clever remark does not exhaust the issue. There is a legal and even moral continuity in governments that makes it appropriate to apologize for their actions even when the individuals in question have gone on to their reward or punishment. We do so for the sake of honesty and honour, principle and prudence. Thus, the man who as Opposition leader urged Pierre Trudeau to apologize for Canadas Japanese internment later became prime minister and did so himself. And perhaps unexpectedly, U.S. President Ronald Reagan made a similar apology for Americas similar internment. One reason for acknowledging past wrongdoing is not instrumental. If we believe the truth shall make us free, then we must acknowledge the truth just because it is the truth. When a Canadian prime minister apologized for turning away Jewish refugees from Hitler, one relative of Holocaust victims said: It will not bring back my relatives, or offer me any solace. Instead, it will whitewash a government that did nothing to help the Jews who were fleeing the Nazis and ignored the type of anti-Semitism that was endemic in Canada until the 1970s. But to say something was wrong is not a whitewash. And nothing can bring back her relatives. All we can do is say the Holocaust was wrong and we acted to stop it too late. The other reason for making apologies is instrumental. We learn from our errors because we face them. When the same prime minister apologized for Canadas turning away of the Komagata Maru, a commentator rejected it because we potentially lose the ability to make the point that the Komagata Maru continues to be as relevant today as it was in 1914. But this argument is feeble. To deny that it was wrong will not make it easier to draw whatever lessons need to be drawn today. Quite the reverse. These considerations also do not exhaust the issue. Historical apologies can become facile or worse. They can drift dangerously from acknowledgement of a failure to live up to our ideals into a repudiation of those ideals, a denunciation of our own civilization. We might apologize for the Crusades, or the discovery of the New World, and expect nothing in return. Yet where are the apologies for failing to stand up to Hitler? Or Stalin? Or Pol Pot? If historical apologies become sanctimonious, lachrymose, and mechanical, they may become a dangerous source of pride, not humility. We had another prime minister far too ready to apologize for the behaviour of others without making allowance either for circumstance or human frailty. Except his own. But a smug assumption that nothing of the sort could possibly have happened had I been there means that, instead of learning from history, we condemn ourselves to repeat it. Which we did in 2020. Which is why I must now apologize for Canadas blindness to the evils of communism in general and the suppression of freedom in Hong Kong in particular. Some saw it coming as early as 1997. But when the British agreed to terminate the 99-year lease, apologizing for colonialism seemed more important than defending freedom. And then a decent interval elapsed and when the crisis came, we had other things on our minds. In 2020, taking advantage of a pandemic they had done much to worsen, the Chinese communists struck at the freedoms of Hong Kong that they had promised to respect. And our government said little and did nothing. One can plead various extenuating circumstances. There was not much we could do. We had yet again unilaterally disarmed militarily and morally. China was a great power and we were not. We had trade interests. They were holding our citizens hostage. It was a slow, relentless process and the bad guys were bound to win eventually. But to allow such considerations to dictate our conduct was, at bottom, not prudence but cowardice. As in the 1930s, the predominant failure was not of observation or intellect but of nerve. We knew, and pretended we did not. For that I apologize. I apologize because it was wrong then. I apologize because the temptation still exists and is still wrong. I apologize because it helped condemn people to slavery. And I apologize because it encouraged aggression. As in the 1930s, so in the early 21st century successful small aggressions begot bigger ones. We did not stand up to Japan when it struck Manchuria, Mussolini when he invaded Ethiopia, or Hitler when he assailed Czechoslovakia. Instead, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain lethally dismissed the latter as a quarrel in a far away country, between people of whom we know nothing. And so we had to fight when Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland. Hong Kong and China are far away even in our globalized world. But its not true that we knew nothing of them or of the quarrel. Many Canadians have family or business ties with both. And if we knew not the quarrel between communism and freedom, it is because we chose not to know. Hindsight lets us see the precise path from the remilitarization of the Rhineland to war in September 1939. But the general progression was predictable, and we pretended it was not. Just as, when we did not stand with Hong Kong, we should have foreseen the consequences for Taiwan and beyond. For that I am profoundly sorry. Not because it could not have happened if I had been there, but because it could. We are all prone to error and weakness, and we must all learn to stand courageously for truth. Instead, in 2020 we failed the people of Hong Kong, we failed the world, and we failed ourselves. I am sorry. John Robson is a documentary filmmaker, National Post columnist, contributing editor to the Dorchester Review, and executive director of the Climate Discussion Nexus. His most recent documentary is The Environment: A True Story. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A heat wave continued to scorch Delhi on Tuesday with the maximum temperature breaching the 46 degrees Celsius-mark in some areas while the average maximum temperature was 45 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The heatwave is expected to last till Wednesday with similar temperatures. According to the IMDs forecast, the maximum temperature is expected to fall to 42 degrees Celsius on Thursday with the possibility of the development of thunder. On Friday, the temperature is forecast to fall further to 39 degrees Celsius with the possibility of dust storm or thunderstorm. More relief is expected on Saturday and Sunday when the maximum temperature is expected to remain between 34 and 35 degrees Celsius before rising to 38 degrees on Monday (June 1). Dust storms and thunderstorms with winds gusting up to 60 kilometres per hour is likely over the National Capital Region on Friday and Saturday, said Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting centre of the IMD, according to PTI. On Tuesday, the Safdarjung Observatory recorded a high of 44 degrees Celsius while the weather stations at Palam, Lodhi Road and Aya Nagar recorded maximum temperatures at 46.2 degrees, 44 degrees and 45.6 degrees Celsius respectively around their areas. The IMD has issued an orange warning for parts of Delhi on Tuesday for a heat wave. A red warning is issued for a severe heat wave. Much of north, northwestern and central India including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are facing heatwave conditions. Jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso have caused 2,500 schools to close since 2017, depriving 350,000 children of a proper education, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. In a 102-page report, the rights monitor said it had documented 126 attacks on schools, teachers and students, more than half of which occurred last year. At least 12 teachers have been killed and others have been abducted or tortured, it said. Those killed include five teachers shot at a primary school, two teachers who were beheaded, and a retired volunteer teacher who was gunned down as he tutored children. Armed Islamists are not only committing war crimes, but are undoing years of progress in improving childrens access to education, said Lauren Seibert, who authored the report. The attacks have had major consequences for youngsters, including trauma, increased child labour and risks of child marriage for girls, the report said. The investigation is based on interviews with more than 170 people, including 75 teachers, 35 current and former students, as well as witnesses of attacks and relatives of victims. Around 900 people have died in Burkina Faso since 2015 when jihadists, crossing from neighbouring Mali, began to carry out attacks, often inflaming deadly inter-community tensions. Nearly 840,000 people in the impoverished Sahel country have fled their homes. In Burkina Faso, Mali and neighbouring Niger, around 4,000 people lost their lives last year due to jihadist or jihadist-associated violence, according to UN figures. Tung Chee-hwa, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said online here Monday that the national security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) only targets heavy crimes and illegal activities, therefore people of Hong Kong can rest reassured. Tung pointed out that there are rumors and false claims about how Hong Kong will lose all "democracy and freedom" and its "status as an international financial center," and even about the death of "one country, two systems" once a national security law is enacted in Hong Kong. These claims are baseless and unfounded rumors intending to invoke panic and fear, he said. Tung reiterated that the important principles of establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR are clearly stated, including upholding "one country, two systems" and safeguarding the legal rights of Hong Kong residents. Tung emphasized that over the past 20-plus years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, Hong Kong's way of life and its capitalist system have remained unchanged, with more freedoms than at any time in history. Public polls have shown that "one country, two systems" is widely supported by people of different social backgrounds and political views, he said. The national security legislation has undergone meticulous review and careful consideration, and it will not affect the freedoms of speech, press, and other freedoms guaranteed by the Basic Law, said Tung. Tung said the national security legislation for Hong Kong is necessary in three aspects. Firstly, the national security legislation is to safeguard national security. Tung said since the turmoil arising from the proposed amendments to the fugitive offenders ordinance began last year, some in Hong Kong have openly called for "independence" and "self-determination," colluded with foreign forces, and begged for foreign interference in the affairs of Hong Kong. What's more worrying is how some anti-China forces in the West have distorted the truth and openly supported anti-China radicals in Hong Kong, he said. Those people have only one real purpose: to contain China's peaceful rise, said Tung. "We can no longer tolerate how foreign forces have conspired with radicals in Hong Kong to put at risk China's sovereignty, its authority and the legitimacy of the Hong Kong Basic Law. Hong Kong has a constitutional duty to safeguard national security," Tung said. Secondly, the national security legislation is to ensure the stability of Hong Kong. Tung said for more than 20 years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the legislation for Article 23 of the Basic Law has remained incomplete, making Hong Kong a weak link in national security and an easy target for hostile foreign opportunists to disrupt public order and jeopardize social and economic interests. In particular, the endless demonstrations and protests have led to a chaotic disruption in social order, a decline in consumption, a depressed market, and a recession, he said. Against this backdrop, politicians of the opposition continue to condone and prescribe illegal behavior, and even threaten to filibuster any government proposals and motions for public funding if their demands are not met, Tung said. "Are we willing to see a non-functioning legislature, a government that cannot govern effectively, a disorderly society, and a disintegrating Hong Kong that many people have once worked so hard to build up brick by brick?" he asked. Thirdly, the national security legislation is to ensure Hong Kong's peaceful way of life. Tung pointed out that in the past year, endless violent and illegal activities in the social unrest have made people live in fear, anxiety and frustration. For instance, on weekends, people have had to monitor traffic conditions and find out if roads are blocked or on fire, he said, adding that in public, people have had to speak carefully not to reveal their political stance. "I believe Hong Kong people are fed up," he said. At present, Hong Kong needs to come together with all the hearts and minds, instead of invoking fear, said Tung. The national security legislation for Hong Kong can effectively prevent, stop and penalize disruptive activities and help restore social order in Hong Kong, he added. "Only under a peaceful, stable and socially harmonious society can we live and work productively and be free to pursue our dreams in life!" said Tung. Tung pointed out that ensuring national security is not only a constitutional duty of the HKSAR government but also a civic duty of the Hong Kong community to commit to the responsibility, support the initiative and publicize its importance. Tung called for support for the proposal of national security legislation in Hong Kong, promote national security through education, and have full confidence in "one country, two systems." "China values and cherishes Hong Kong. Now is time for us to demonstrate our will to uphold 'one country, two systems," protect our national sovereignty, and contribute to Hong Kong's long-term stability and prosperity. I'm sure people who love Hong Kong will live up to the expectation!" Tung said. She's been playing Marilyn Chambers on Home and Away for more than 30 years. So it's only fitting that Emily Symons was one of the first actors back on set after the COVID-19 pandemic forced production to shut down nine weeks ago. The 50-year-old shared a photo to Instagram on Monday of herself returning to work. A very different Summer Bay! Home and Away's Emily Symons (left) was one of the first actors back on set after the COVID-19 pandemic forced production to shut down nine weeks ago. Pictured on Monday with makeup artist Sheldon Wade (right), who wore a surgical mask 'First day back after nine weeks! So happy to see my Home and Away family again especially you @sheldonfx,' she captioned the photo. Emily looked stunning in the picture, having just been transformed into Marilyn with her signature bouffant hairdo and glamorous makeup. She posed alongside makeup artist Sheldon Wade, who was wearing a surgical mask, a new measure which has been implemented during the health crisis. Home and Away resumed filming on Monday at Channel Seven's studios in Eveleigh, Sydney. Back to work! Filming resumed on Monday after a nine-week break. Because episodes are recorded several months in advance, the program's broadcast schedule in Australia and the UK was not interrupted Strict hygiene measures are being implemented to ensure the safety of the cast and crew, including regular temperature checks. Scripts have been rewritten to allow for social distancing between the actors. A Seven spokesperson said: 'A range of measures will be in place to minimise risk for the cast and crew, to be overseen by dedicated safety officers. Precautions: Strict hygiene measures are being implemented to ensure the safety of the cast and crew, including regular temperature checks. Pictured: Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart 'The measures include temperature check on arrival, increased hygiene practices and rigorous cleaning schedules. 'Scripts will be reworked to reduce closer contact, in constant consultation with the cast and crew to ensure the health and safety of all.' Outside shoots have also been suspended for now, which means there will be no filming taking place in Palm Beach. New normal: Scripts have been rewritten to allow for social distancing between the actors. Pictured: Emily Symons with Lynne McGranger (right) before the production shutdown Production had been temporarily shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. 'Seven Studios advised today that it would halt filming of Home and Away immediately,' a network spokesperson said at the time. 'It confirmed that no cast or crew had tested positive for COVID-19, but that the decision was made due to the increasing logistical hurdles related to the COVID-19 situation.' Because episodes are filmed several months in advance, the program's broadcast schedule in Australia and the UK was not interrupted. TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With the inauguration of the Combined Interagency Operations Center (CCOI) and the Airspace Sovereignty Protection Law, President Juan Orlando Hernandez reassured his commitment to continue the war against international drug trafficking "Thanks to the new CCOI and the implementation of the new law to protect our airspace we are closing opportunities to organize transnational crime to continue their illegal activities that so much damage has done to society" stated President Hernandez. The CCOI and the new law enhance the capacity of the security forces to fight transnational crime particularly in La Mosquitia, a remote heavy jungle area bordering with Nicaragua, which conditions are attractive for opening new routes for drug trafficking to the United States market. CCOI counts with the collaboration of the US Southern Command. It is integrated to the 911 Emergency National System, the National Direction of Intelligence and Investigation, the National Police, the Prosecutor General and the Tactic Investigation Agency. Additionally, the Airspace Sovereignty Protection Law counts with the cooperation of the Northern Triangle countries (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala), the United States of America, Mexico, Colombia and the interim President of Venezuela, Juan Guaido. The initiative will energize the process to identify aircrafts that do not fulfill national and international parameters. It will provide detail information of the location, identification, tracking, interception and signaling of an aircraft that requires protection or if it is suspicious of illegal activities. The law is in harmony with existing international civil aviation conventions, such as The Chicago Treaty (1944) and the Montreal Treaty adopted in 1971 to prohibit and sanction behaviors that could jeopardize the safety of civil aviation. With the entry into force of the new law, the activation of the CCOI, and other efforts such as the extradition law approved when President Hernandez was leading the National Congress, allowing the extradition of 22 drug lords to the USA, Honduras is at the forefront of the war against transnational crime. For more information visit our web site: www.sedena.gob.hn SOURCE Government of the Republic of Honduras Parents of a UConn Student Suspected in Killings Plead for the Manhunt to End in His Surrender As multiple police agencies search for a University of Connecticut student in connection with the killing of two people and an abduction, his family is pleading for him to surrender. Peter Manfredonia, 23, is suspected of killing one man and seriously injuring another on Friday morning in Willington, Conn., state police said in a news release. He is also a suspect in the killing of a male acquaintance in Derby, Conn. Peter, from your parents, who love you, please turn yourself in, the attorney for Manfredonias family, Michael Dolan, said in a news conference Monday night. Manfredonia was last seen Sunday night in Pennsylvania. Law enforcement in three statesincluding police, Connecticut State Police, and the FBIare searching for Manfredonia, who is believed to have moved through Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania over the course of the weekend. As police cautioned the public in a Facebook post not to approach him, Manfredonias family hopes for a more peaceful resolution. Now Peter, if youre listening, you are loved. Your parents, your sisters, your entire family loves you. Nobody wants any harm to come to you, Dolan said. It is time to let the healing process begin. Its time to surrender. You have your parents and your sisters and your familys entire support. Dolan said the Manfredonia family asked him to express their condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have been injured and have suffered over the past several days by the events that have led to Peters flight from the area. Two Killings and An Abduction Manfredonia is suspected of killing a 62-year-old man and injuring another man with an edged weapon on Friday morning in Willington, Conn., state police said in a statement. On Sunday, Nicholas J. Eisle, 23, was found dead in his Derby home, according to Trooper First Class Christine Jeltema. Eisle was an acquaintance of Manfredonia, who appears to have stolen a black Volkswagen Jetta from Eisles home, state police said. Police believe another person might have been in the home too and was later found unharmed in Paterson, N.J., according to state police. The person identified Manfredonia. The individual is now back with their family in Connecticut, Jeltema told CNN. The Volkswagen Manfredonia was believed to have been driving was found in New Jersey near the Pennsylvania border, police said. Manfredonia is also suspected of having stolen another car, long guns, and pistols from a home in Willington, on Sunday, according to police. The car was found abandoned in a state park. State police cautioned that he is armed and dangerous. A UConn Senior With The Support of His Parents Police said a motive for the attacks is still unclear. Manfredonia was a senior at the UConn joint School of Engineering/School of Business Management and Engineering for Management program, UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said. He was not attending summer courses and has not been living on the campus, Reitz said. The university is in contact with state police and providing any assistance and information they can, Reitz said. The university expresses its deepest, most heartfelt sympathies to the victims and their families in this horrible, incomprehensible tragedy. They are all in our thoughts, said Reitz. Dolan said that Manfredonias family has been supporting him through mental health concerns. You wont be surprised to hear that Peter has struggled with mental health issues over the past several years, Dolan added. He sought the help of a number of therapists and hes had the support of his parents and loved ones to help him through those struggles. The-CNN-Wire & 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. " " This status of Marcus Aurelius stands on Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. Jupiterimages/Getty Images Marcus Aurelius (121 to 180 C.E.) never meant for his "Meditations" to be published, let alone read and quoted by truth-seekers for millennia. The slim volume captures the private thoughts of an ancient Roman emperor and dedicated student of Stoic philosophy as he led armies to battle against barbarian invaders and watched millions of his subjects die from a plague of smallpox. Written nearly 2,000 years ago, "Meditations" resonates so deeply with modern readers because Marcus Aurelius proffered answers to some of life's biggest questions how to be a good person, how to deal with adversity, and how to rein in emotions and focus on what really matters and he does it with short, easily digestible, highly quotable nuggets of Stoic wisdom. "Stoicism from its very beginning is designed to be a philosophy to be lived, not just studied," says William O. Stephens, philosophy professor at Creighton University and author of "Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed." "Meditations is intended to be a practical guide. And the kinds of challenges that Marcus faced in Ancient Rome are not all that far removed from the human circumstances and challenge that we face today, including 'the plague.'" Here is Stephens' take on five potentially life-altering pieces of advice from Marcus Aurelius: Advertisement 1. "Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself." A central tenet of Stoicism is that you can only control yourself your own actions and reactions not outside circumstances or other people. In the same vein, you can't judge other people's actions as "good" or "evil," because you don't know their motivations. "Stoics believe that other people act in accordance with what they judge to be good for themselves at the time," says Stephens. "Maybe they've been betrayed by a friend or are worried about a sick relative, so they're distracted about what they should be focused on." Even when people act in ignorance and those actions hurt you, it doesn't make sense to think the worst of other people, because ultimately you don't know their hearts and minds. Instead of holding up a mirror to other people to show them their faults and vices, turn inward and reflect on your own thoughts and actions. "In your own reactions, be strict," says Stephens. "Exercise Stoic virtues like patience, understanding, and cooperativeness, and flex them every day like they're muscles. Focus on your errors and think about correcting them. Count on yourself and love other people." Bonus quote: "It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own." Advertisement 2. "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." From the Stoic point of view, the existence of adversity or "impediments" to our success and happiness should not be seen as hardships, but as challenges. Even the events and conditions that seem objectively "bad" divorce, financial failure, illness, death are not in themselves "evil." They are part of an interconnected whole, a living cosmos that is directed by divine providence. "Impediments are just raw material that the cosmos is providing you and giving you the opportunity to rework and transform by activating your own resources: your mind, intelligence and reason," says Stephens. Marcus Aurelius knew adversity intimately. Of his 13 children with his wife Faustina, only three lived into adulthood, says Stephens. He never aspired to be emperor, but ruled over a vast domain constantly under attack internally and externally. The thoughts recorded in "Meditations" weren't outward advice, but self-directed reminders of how to use his own adversity and loss as fuel for self-transformation. One of the most poignant allegories in "Meditations" for grit in the face of adversity is that of an unquenchable fire. A roaring fire doesn't care what you throw at it perfectly aged pine logs or a rotten and soggy limb. "The fire takes whatever fuel you throw into it and grows stronger," says Stephens. Bonus quote: "It's unfortunate that this has happened. No. It's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed by it." Advertisement 3. "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one." For a Stoic like Marcus Aurelius, there is a sense of urgency to life. Your one and only task is to become the most virtuous person you can be more wise, courageous, just, friendly and self-controlled and that self-improvement project is going to require decades of work. "Putting off that moral project until tomorrow is nothing but laziness and self-delusion," says Stephens. "You have to practice and apply these virtues every single day if you're going to make progress. You can't become virtuous overnight." Bonus quote: "It's a disgrace in this life when the soul surrenders first while the body refuses to." Advertisement 4. "You shouldn't give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don't care at all." For Stoics, emotions are not some outside force that "happens" to you. Something can't "make you sad" or "make you angry." Instead, emotions are a choice. When someone provokes you or tries to hurt you, you can choose to feel angry. Or you can do as the Stoics teach and choose calm rationality. In "Meditations," Marcus Aurelius uses the example of someone insulting you and criticizing your behavior. For a Stoic, there are only two possible responses to this. First, you need to dispassionately examine if what they say is true or false. If it's true, says Stephens, then you should actually thank your insulter and urgently get on with fixing your flaw. "If it's false and you know that it's false, then what's there to get upset about?" asks Stephens. "In neither case is it rational to respond with anger. That's the kind of cognitive therapy that a Stoic applies to insults." Bonus quote: "The best revenge is not to be like your enemy." Advertisement 5. "Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn't matter." Marcus Aurelius was the last of what are known as the "Five Good Emperors" of the Roman Empire. He oversaw a far-flung state encompassing 75 million people stretching from Egypt to England. If you think your to-do list is long, imagine his! As with all of us, Marcus Aurelius had to decide every day how to spend his limited energies, time and attention. And as a Stoic, he tried to remind himself what he could realistically control and what he could not, what was virtuous and what was trivial. "What you can control are your own beliefs, judgements, and your own intention and goals," says Stephens. "These you take complete responsibility for. You don't have the power to transform the moral character of other people, but your moral progress is entirely up to you." Bonus quote: "It's all in how you perceive it. You're in control. You can dispense with misperception at will, like rounding the point." HowStuffWorks earns a small affiliate commission when you purchase through links on our site. Now That's Crazy The 2006 movie "Gladiator" made up the character of Maximus, but the bad guy Commodus was the real son and heir of Marcus Aurelius and a real nutjob. Stephens says that for sport, the megalomaniacal Commodus used to shackle together a bunch of prisoners, cut off their feet and then "fight" them as if they were a mythical beast. Ministro de Defensa, junto al titular del @MininterPeru y el alcalde de la @muni_lavictoria, llego al emporio de Gamarra, donde la @PoliciaPeru y las Fuerzas Armadas realizaron esta madrugada un operativo de control para asegurar el orden y recuperar el principio de autoridad. pic.twitter.com/ef6GBnz0jo A national program that offers financial incentives so that low-income consumers can purchase more fruits and vegetables has shown great success in Oregon, according to a recent Oregon State University study. The Double Up Food Bucks program is one of many produce-incentive programs that pair with SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program commonly referred to as food stamps. For every dollar SNAP recipients spend on eligible foods at participating farmers markets and grocery stores, they get an additional dollar they can put toward more Oregon-grown fruits and vegetables. In OSU's study, 91% of program participants surveyed reported buying more fruits and vegetables. Nearly 70% reported eating less processed food; 81% said they had more food available at home; and nearly 88% said they felt healthier because they were eating more fresh produce. The study analyzed survey data from 1,223 people at 42 farmers markets across Oregon. "I think this evaluation demonstrates that this program works for low-income consumers, and it's great for farmers," said study author Stephanie Grutzmacher, an assistant professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Grassroots programs to incentivize low-income shoppers to purchase locally grown produce at farmers markets began around 2006 in locations such as Washington, D.C., New York and Michigan, Grutzmacher said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture liked the idea and started to provide grants for new programs. Oregon received one of those grants in 2015 to implement a statewide program, and since then the state Legislature has provided money to continue the program, though that funding is not permanent. The study also examined people's perceptions of farmers markets and how those perceptions affected their experience with Double Up Food Bucks. Perceptions varied significantly between different demographics. "A lot of people have a really wide range of experiences with farmers markets; some people perceive them to be really homogenous spaces for well-to-do people, and others perceive them to be really community-centered and accessible," Grutzmacher said. "Both of those things can be true, and everything in between can be true." Adults ages 55 and older were more likely to view farmers markets as more expensive than where they normally shopped, which meant they saw less value in the Double Up Food Bucks voucher than people who considered farmers markets affordable. Though the study wasn't able to analyze shoppers by specific ethnicity, non-white shoppers were more likely to report overall health improvements than white shoppers. Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables "is one of those 'should' things that people carry around a lot," Grutzmacher said. "I think when this program makes that produce more accessible to them and gives them more purchasing power, people are able to cross a 'should' off their list and they're able to roll that into their perception that their health is better." To address the disparity in perception and experience, Grutzmacher would like to see program organizers at both the market and state level design targeted outreach strategies to increase participation among groups of people who don't perceive the vouchers to be as useful. For people who are not familiar with farmers market pricing or style, she said, organizers could host market tours to help them learn which vegetables are in season or how to make the most cost-effective choices. Educators could even hold cooking demonstrations at the market. She pointed to the example of SNAP To It, a program started a few years ago by the OSU Extension Service in Clackamas County to lead monthly tours during market season. "I think they can really shape people's perceptions of things like affordability by providing extra educational resources at the market," Grutzmacher said. The study used survey data collected by Farmers Market Fund, which runs the Double Up Food Bucks program under the leadership of executive director Molly Notarianni. Lead author was OSU global health Ph.D. student Briana Rockler, working under professor Ellen Smit and Grutzmacher. ### First lady Melania Trump at a wreath laying ceremony with President Donald Trump at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington in commemoration of the Memorial Day holiday in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., May 25, 2020. Erin Scott/Reuters First Lady Melania Trump has urged Americans to wear face masks in public, but chose to forgo wearing one herself during Memorial Day events on Monday. Since early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that all Americans wear some form of face mask in public places where social distancing is difficult. Last month, the first lady released a photo of herself wearing a mask and urged Americans to follow the CDC's guidance. At one point on Monday, Melania held the hand of a military aide while not wearing a mask a clear violation of social distancing protocol. Other Trump administration officials, including the president, also failed to wear masks. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. First lady Melania Trump has urged Americans to wear face masks in public, but chose to forgo wearing one herself during Monday's Memorial Day events with her husband. Since early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that all Americans wear some form of face mask in public places where social distancing is difficult. Despite the president's refusal to wear a mask, the first lady has echoed the CDC's call by releasing a video and social media posts urging Americans to wear masks and posting a photo of herself donning a mask. "As the CDC studies the spread of #COVID-19, they recommend people wear cloth face coverings in public settings when social distancing can be hard to do," she wrote in social media posts. "Remember, this does NOT replace the importance of social distancing." But since then, the first lady has eschewed wearing a mask herself. On Monday, Melania like her husband didn't wear a mask while attending Memorial Day events at Arlington National Cemetery and at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. While the first lady stood several feet away from most event attendees and staff, at one point she held the hand of a military aide who helped her step off a stage, violating social distancing protocol. Story continues The White House didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Trump has largely refused to wear a mask, insisting that he and those who come in close contact with him are regularly tested for the virus. Vice President Mike Pence was forced to apologize for refusing to wear a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic's headquarters earlier this month. Later on Monday, the president shared a tweet mocking former Vice President Joe Biden for wearing a mask during a public Memorial Day appearance. First lady Melania Trump, not wearing a mask, is escorted by a military aide during a Memorial Day ceremony at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., May 25, 2020. Joshua Roberts/Reuters Read the original article on Business Insider Indian cotton exports could also limit shipments from rivals such as the United States, Brazil and Australia to key Asian buyers such as China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Mumbai: Cotton exports could rise to 4.7 million bales in 2019/20, up 12 percent from the previous estimate, as a fall in the value of the rupee to a record low made shipments competitive, a trade body forecast. Higher exports by the worlds biggest cotton producer could put pressure on global prices, which are trading near their highest level in more than two months. Indian exports could also limit shipments from rivals such as the United States, Brazil and Australia to key Asian buyers such as China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The rupees fall has made Indian cotton the cheapest in the world and attractive for Asian buyers, Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India (CAI) said. Indian cotton was sold at around 62 cents per pound on a cost and freight basis (C&F) to Asian buyers such as Bangladesh, while the supplies from the United States were available at around 70 cents, Ganatra said on Monday. The South Asian country exported 4.2 million bales in 2018/19, the lowest in a decade. India is expected to produce 33 million bales in the marketing year ending 30 September, down 7 percent from the previous estimate, the CAI said. Sowing of winter crop was possible this year due to availability of water. Many farmers did not wait for the last picking of cotton. They uprooted cotton plants to make space for winter crops, Ganatra said. Despite lower production and higher exports, India will have ample surplus due to a steep fall in the consumption, which the CAI said could drop to 28 million bales in the current year, down 15 percent from the previous estimate. Rise in cyber-attacks and increase in mandatory legislation regarding cyber security drive the growth of the global cyber insurance market PORTLAND, Oregon, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Cyber Insurance Market by Company Size (Large Companies and Small & Medium-sized Companies) and Industry Vertical (BFSI, IT & Telecom, Retail & E-commerce, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government & Public Sector, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026." According to the report, the global cyber insurance industry was estimated at $4.85 billion in 2018, and is expected to hit$28.60 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 24.9% from 2019 to 2026. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities- Rise in cyber-attacks and increase in mandatory legislation regarding cyber security drive the growth of the global cyber insurance market. On the other hand, lack of standardized policies curbs the growth to a certain extent. Nevertheless, development of products and services and progress in emerging economies are anticipated to usher in multiple opportunities in the near future. Download Sample Report: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/1705 The large enterprises segment to dominate by 2026- Based on organization size, the large enterprises segment accounted for more than two-thirds of the global cyber insurance market revenue in 2018, and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Large companies often purchase cyber insurance policies for protection against cyber-attacks and other risks which, in turn, has fueled the growth of the segment. At the same time, the SMEs segment is expected to portray the fastest CAGR of 27.2% by the end of 2026. The fact that small- and medium-sized enterprises are more susceptible to cyber-attacks has driven the segment growth. The BFSI segment to lead the trail- Based on industry vertical, the BFSI segment contributed to one-fourth of the global cyber insurance market share in 2018, and would maintain the lion's share by 2026. Rise in incidences of data breaches in large volumes of customer data has augmented the growth of the segment. Simultaneously, the government & public sector would showcase the fastest CAGR of 27.5% during the estimated period. This is due to increase in cyber liabilities, data theft, identity fraud, and cyber-attacks, which has left cyber insurance coverages at the forefront of corporate governance in public sector companies. Enquire For Discount: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/1705 North America garnered the highest share in 2018- Based on region, North America held the major share in 2018, reaping more than two-fifths of the global cyber insurance market. Increase in data breach, cyber extortion and disruptive events across business sectors in this province have driven the market. The Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, is predicted to register the fastest CAGR of 26.9% till 2026. Rapid technological developments such as automated production & technical processes and growing adoption of internet of things along with, stringent regulatory landscape for data protection have been driving the Asia-Pacific cyber insurance market. Frontrunners in the industry- American International Group, Inc. Munich Re, Zurich Lockton Companies, Inc. Aon plc AXA Berkshire Hathway Inc. Allianz Lloyd's of London Ltd. The Chubb Corporation Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: Global Health Insurance Market Expected to Reach $4,475 Billion by 2026 Global Trade Finance Market Expected to Reach $56,065.7 Million by 2026 Travel Insurance Market Expected to Reach $37.0 Billion By 2027 North America Travel Insurance Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Europe Travel Insurance Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Italy Travel Insurance Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount: Auto Insurance Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Property Insurance Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 About Us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): 1-800-792-5285, 1-503-894-6022, 1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on LinkedIn and Twitter Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg Gracias @SecPompeo por la cooperacion ofrecida al Peru en equipos medicos para enfrentar la pandemia Covid-19 y por el compromiso para seguir trabajando juntos en temas de preocupacion regional como la salida a la crisis en Venezuela y la lucha contra el narcotrafico. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to do away with his penchant for appointing old people into government. According to a statement by the National Public Relations Officer of the student union, Azeez Adeyemi, he appointment of prof Ibrahim Gambari as the new chief of staff was described as a round peg in a round hole. However, the statement insisted that there are many Nigerian youths with outstanding intelligence who can also contribute to the development of the country if given the opportunity to serve. Statement below: Advertisement President Buhari has continued to push the youth away by not considering them worthy of appointments. This attitude towards the youth by President Buhari is a major source of worry to all Nigerians. President Buhari can get good hands from the pool of intelligent, outstanding and successful Nigerian youths both within and outside the country. Many Nigerian youths have proved themselves extraordinary through their outstanding performances in various chosen careers. These youths both within and outside the country are contributing in no small measure to the development of Nigeria. Playa espanola del Mediterraneo. POSTED BY: THE CORNER 25TH MAY 2020 Today 25th may, Spain is taking another step towards the new normal. A large part of the country, up to 29 provinces (out of a total of 50), plus the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, are now entering Phase 2. Meanwhile, Madrid, which is the countrys economic driver, Barcelona and Castilla y Leon, the areas most affected by the pandemic, are moving into Phase 1. Image Credit: Wing Medical work is only one side of the industry, however. Alphabet subsidiary Wing wants to see drone deliveries used for everything, including fresh bread and hot coffee. The company started with a small service in the outskirts of Canberra, Australia. It then expanded to Helsinki, Finland and Christiansburg a small town in the US state of Virginia before launching a second site down under in Logan, just south of Brisbane. Last month, the company announced a dramatic increase in the number of customers using its service. Weve seen a 350 percent increase in signups globally, Keith Heyde, the manager for Wings operations in Virginia told Engadget. The company made more than 1,000 deliveries in a two-week period, a Wing spokesperson added, helped by a significant rise in Virginia orders. Mockingbird Cafe, a bakery based in Christiansburg, joined Wing earlier this year and sold 50 percent more pastries than it would in-store on a normal weekend. Brugh Coffee, another new business on the Wing platform, sold twice as much cold brew as it typically did in-store. If I do nothing and I try and fight whats going on right now, my business will be taken out, Luke Brugh, co-founder of Brugh Coffee told Engadget. I think I just understand thats a part of life. If I want my business to stay around, I have to figure out how to adapt and stay connected with my customers. Still, its a tough time for Brugh Coffee. The company is an independent roaster and has lost wholesale clients because of the pandemic. Luke still works at the store (the cafe portion is called the Brew Lab), preparing the stock that Wing employees pick up each morning. He also accepts remote orders, submitted through an app called Cloosiv, and leaves them for customers on a table outside. Weve been impacted, he explained. Ive had to lay off a couple of people, a couple of our part time people. The partnership with Wing, then, is a small but indispensable revenue stream. Everybody in the hospitality industry is struggling right now, and so this just gives us another way to reach our customers, Brugh added. Luke Brugh, co-founder of Brugh Coffee. Wing The uptick in Wing deliveries isnt surprising. Many people are stuck at home and battling boredom at the moment. A fresh coffee or bagel can be a rare highlight in an otherwise uneventful week. If that was something that was in somebodys routine every day, [Wing] is kind of an opportunity to get it, Brugh explained. Unsurprisingly, the products that people are buying have changed, too. Demand for toilet paper, snacks and first-aid items, including band aids and eye drops, have surged in Virginia. Anything that can keep a child entertained, such as chalk, has also increased in popularity since the start of the pandemic. This is a trying time for kids, as well, Heyde said. So being able to order your kid a toy and have a little bit of enjoyment that way is a nice thing we can provide for the community. For the average person, there's little downside to a drone delivery service like Wing or the recently launched Matternet, UPS and CVS partnership. That's because at least for now there's no extra charge for choosing a UAV over a traditional truck or in-store pick up. "For now, the service is paid for by CVS, and there is not a premium delivery fee paid by the recipient," a Matternet spokesperson told Engadget. "Wing currently does not charge customers or merchants a delivery fee at any of our locations around the world," a Wing spokesperson added. Is that financially viable long-term? Probably not, however the industry is still nascent and, for now, establishing consumer trust and adoption is arguably more important than short-term revenue. A fresh coffee or bagel can be a rare highlight in an otherwise uneventful week. Drone deliveries feel like they were made for the pandemic. But most operators, including Wing, have had to make a few adjustments since the arrival of COVID-19. The Alphabet subsidiary has a work from home policy for anyone that doesnt need to go outside. Merchant-supplied goods are wiped down and disinfected to eliminate any remnants of the virus. Wings warehouse employees, meanwhile, are told to wear protective gloves and face masks, stay six feet away from each other and participate in regular health and temperature checks. Say a customer orders a loaf of bread, Terrance Bouldin-Johnson, Head of Australian Operations at Wing explained, My team gets that order and it pops up on the screen. They grab the bread, put it into our package and seal it up. They request the drone and walk outside. The drone hovers above and they hook [the package] on. It then flies to the customer, lowers the package and returns. In that entire process they dont interact with any other human. Matternet-developed UPS drones are now flying from a CVS in Florida. UPS Matternets hospital payloads are given a similar wipe down. Nothing dramatic, Raptopoulos explained. Just adding a bit of precaution to make sure we dont, in that handover, receive or transmit the virus. Zipline, meanwhile, is following the World Health Organization (WHO)s guidelines and encouraging everyone to wear masks both at work and home. It also has two distinct teams with completely separate shifts. That way, if someone were to catch the virus, theres another shielded unit that can keep working. Drone deliveries are clearly helpful in a crisis. But they are, for now, a technological rarity that relatively few people around the world can access. Thats because the regulation and public acceptance varies wildly between different countries. Wing and UPS Flight Forward, for instance, have been granted air carrier certificates by the FAA. Known as Part 135, this crucial clearance allows both companies to fly drones beyond a pilots visual line of sight in the US. Without that certificate, companies have to obtain an FAA waiver, which usually mandates a secondary observer or backup aircraft. Some drone operators have been granted this exception by participating in the governments Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP), a research program that seeks to safely explore the further integration of drone operations. (Wing and UPS Flight Forward have both been involved in the IPP scheme.) But there are complications. As Supply Chain Drive notes, airline operators typically use planes that have received their own certification. Matternet drones havent received this clearance yet though the company is going through the process now which limits where UPS Flight Forward can operate. If you have a type certified aircraft, and we expect to have it here [with the M2 system], and then UPS has their Part 135 certificate, that allows you to operate on a much larger scale and at a much faster pace of authorization from the FAA, Raptopoulos said. Back in December, the FAA proposed a remote ID system to monitor and safely integrate drones into national airspace. DJI called the system deeply flawed and overly complex, expensive and intrusive. Nevertheless, the FAA has pushed forward and selected eight companies, including Wing, to help it refine the exact technology requirements. Commercial drone companies will need to keep up, therefore, with the evolving rules and regulations to merely maintain their operations in the US. And thats just one country. Every region has unique policies and societal expectations to grapple with. Its no surprise, then, that drone deliveries have taken so long to truly take off worldwide. The coronavirus pandemic could grease the wheels of change. Policymakers are generally moving faster and green-lighting projects that could help the fight against COVID-19. In addition, more people are now using drone delivery services both in a medical and consumer capacity which will increase awareness and, perhaps, acceptance. The reason weve been pursuing drone delivery for several years now is because we feel that theres massive upside for the public in the end, Raptopoulos said. Theres massive value for society. And crises like now just make this crystal clear. Bouldin-Johnson added: If we have five more deliveries than we wouldve normally had, and all of those people have great experiences, then that means we have five more people that like us than we would have had if COVID-19 wasnt happening, right? A police investigation has today been launched after a small team of officers unsuccessfully attempted to break-up a 300 person-strong illegal 'rave' - which later ended in reports of a stabbing. More than a dozen officers rushed to the lockdown-defying party in Paston, Peterborough, last night, where they found hundreds 'intoxicated' party-goers gathered in the street around vehicles, including a sporty Audi R8. Police were initially called around 8.20pm, around two hours after the Prime Minister's chief aide Dominic Cummings defended his 260 mile trip to Durham from London, which he claims was within lockdown rules. However, officers did not show up until around 10pm due to a 'number of incidents in Peterborough', and when they did, they were unable to move the gathering due to the 'sheer number of intoxicated people'. The rave, which took place in the Sheepwalk housing estate, continued while a small team of officers were at the scene. But specialist officers were then called to the scene an hour later, around 11pm, after reports of a stabbing. A police investigation has today been launched after a small team of officers unsuccessfully attempted to break-up a 300 person-strong illegal 'rave' - which later ended in reports of a stabbing. Pictured police at the scene of the incident in Paston, Peterborough, last night Police say they were unable to move the gathering due to the 'sheer number of intoxicated people'. Pictured police at the scene of the incident in Paston, Peterborough, last night When police arrived they found hundreds 'intoxicated' party-goers gathered in the street around vehicles, including a sporty Aldi R8 (pictured) Cambridgeshire Police say officers and paramedics were unable to locate anyone with injuries, and no-one with stab wounds has since attended a local hospital. The 'rave' continued until around 1am, when the music was finally switched off. An investigation has now been launched. Superintendent Adam Gallop, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: 'We understand local residents were concerned, and some frightened, by the large gathering last night. 'We will be conducting enquiries in the area over the coming days so residents may notice an increased presence. We will also be conducting patrols in the area to prevent any further similar incidents. 'There is a line between organising community events to build morale in this challenging time, and the events of last night which very clearly were not acceptable. 'The local policing teams will continue to work with all our communities to advise, guide and, where necessary, enforce guidance and legislation. 'We are investigating the source of the gathering and how it came to be of such a scale. 'Where any offences have been committed we will take action, but due to the scale of the event and the number of enquiries we need to carry out this could take some time.' Police were initially called at about 8.20pm with reports of seven or eight cars and 20 to 30 people gathered in Sheepwalk. Due to other operational commitments and ongoing incidents, officers were not able to attend until around 10pm, when the ambulance service reported a collision in Sheepwalk whereby a pedestrian had suffered minor injuries. They also reported a 'rave' of up to about 300 people in the street. Police were initially called at about 8.20pm with reports of seven or eight cars and 20 to 30 people gathered in Sheepwalk. Pictured police at the scene of the incident in Paston, Peterborough, last night It was later deemed police had insufficient officer numbers to be able to safely move people on from the area. At 11pm people gradually started to leave the area, however about an hour later there were reports someone had been stabbed. Further officers were deployed, including specialist units, to support ambulance crews and locate the reported stabbing victim. No one with any injuries was identified at the location, nor had they presented themselves at hospital. Approximately 16 police officers were instructed to stay at the location to monitor the situation and deal with any specific disorder or threats to life, and to engage with those present to advise them to go home. Just after 1am the majority of people had left the area, with music turned off and all people cleared from the area by about 1.30am. Officers remained at the location until about 4am and will be carrying out patrols of the area throughout the week. The incident follows a similar incident in Leeds, where up to 200 revellers were last night seen hugging and inhaling 'hippy crack' during a 12-hour illegal rave at a nature reserve before it was broken up by police for breaching lockdown rules. Shocking footage shows the revellers hugging, dancing together, drinking and breathing in laughing gas from balloons. The party-goers - most in their late teens and early 20s - trampled over nests and destroyed wildlife on Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve, in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Flouting coronavirus social distancing rules the party-goers had to wade through the River Aire to access the nature reserve, which is on an island. People are pictured having descended on the nature reserve in Leeds, West Yorkshire, for a rave Firefighters rescued one female raver who got into difficulties in the water as she crossed the river and police made three arrests. Sound equipment, mixing decks, lights and gazebos where set up on the island secretly on Monday afternoon and police and fire crews were sent to Kirkstall after several local residents reported loud music and big crowds near Redcote Lane, Kirkstall. Officers arrived to find people wading through the River Aire to get across the water and try and access the nature reserve. The police helicopter was also dispatched to the area and was seen flying low over parts of Kirkstall, Bramley and Burley until midnight, more than five hours on from the first reports about the incident. As well as the arrests police seized sound equipment, the revellers were still seen dispersing at 5am today. Russian prosecutors are seeking 18 years' jail time for the ex-US marine accused of being a spy after he allegedly stole state secrets to send to American intelligence. The trial of Paul Whelan, 50, came to a close Monday, with both sides making their closing arguments and prosecutors calling on the court to sentence him to 18 years in a strict Russian prison colony, just short of the maximum 20-year sentence for espionage. Whelan was accused of being a US spy after Russian agents reportedly caught him with a memory drive of state secrets. The former US marine has maintained his innocence, saying he was tricked by an FSB agent friend who gave him the memory drive telling him it contained vacation photos. He has been held since December 2018 in the notorious Lefortovo prison in Moscow - known for housing suspected spies and high-profile prisoners. Tensions have mounted between the US and Russia over the case, with the former denying Whelan is a member of US intelligence and speculation growing that Moscow is looking for a high-profile prisoner swap. The trial of Paul Whelan, 50, (pictured in prison in October) came to a close Monday, with both sides making their closing arguments and prosecutors calling on the court to sentence him to 18 years in a strict Russian prison colony, just short of the maximum 20-year sentence for espionage The trial, which was held behind closed doors at the Moscow City Court, was wrapped up Monday around two months after it started back in March. Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told reporters the defense team was 'in shock' over the hefty sentence requested by prosecutors. He said Whelan reacted calmly to the 'very harsh' demand and handled it 'with dignity' after he was accused by Russian prosecutors of being 'at least a colonel' in the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Zherebenkov said Whelan had pleaded his innocence in court and said he 'did not do any spying and was not collecting any secret information.' 'If the situation does not get politicised, if the sentence is determined in an objective, fair way, there should be an acquittal as the defence asked for,' Zherebenkov added. A verdict and sentencing is expected to be announced on June 15. Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov (pictured last year) told reporters the defense team was 'in shock' over the hefty sentence requested by prosecutors Whelan said he was visiting Moscow for a friend's wedding when he was arrested in his hotel room by Russia's FSB security service in December 2018. At the time he was working as a security director for the American auto parts supplier BorgWarner but had previously served in the Marines, which he left on a bad-conduct discharge in 2007. The case has been shrouded in secrecy with Russia not publicly saying what Whelan has been accused of. However, details of the case have emerged through Whelan's lawyer and through the Russian media. According to reports, he is accused of stealing state secrets to pass back to Washington. Whelan has protested his innocence and his lawyers have said he was framed by a friend of 10 years who works for the FSB. The friend allegedly visited him in his hotel room and gave him a memory card that he thought contained photos of a recent vacation together. Whelan (pictured in the Marines) said he was visiting Moscow for a friend's wedding when he was arrested in his hotel room by Russia's FSB security service in December 2018 Pictured in a defendants' cage in 2019. He has been held in custody in a Moscow jail since then accused of being a US spy The drive actually contained classified materials and moments later the FSB raided the room and arrested Whelan, his lawyers have said. Whelan believes the friend set him up because he owed the ex-marine over $1,000 for two iPhones, Zherebenkov said. The friend has not been named by Whelan's lawyers but his family have identified the individual as a Russian agent called Ilya Yatsenko. Russian newspaper Kommersant last week reported that Yatsenko works as a major in the powerful Department 'K' of the FSB and that the agent appeared in court twice during the trial. Whelan, who traveled to Russia on vacation for many years, has urged the US government to step in with a prisoner swap. Speculation has mounted that the US could exchange the former marine, who holds Irish, British and Canadian citizenship, for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko who is currently being held in the US on drug smuggling charges. The US has made several calls for Moscow to release Whelan and blasted the nation for what it has described as Cold War-style tactics. Prince Harry has thanked staff at the landmine charity supported by his mother Princess Diana for 'doing whatever it takes to help, serve and protect others' in 'trying times.' The Duke of Sussex, 35, wrote to 8,500 members of staff for the Halo Trust, saluting workers for continuing their efforts across warzones in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. He wrote: 'It is at times like this that the work and efforts of people like you - prepared to do whatever it takes to help, serve and protect others - shines through.' The duke made an emotional pilgrimage to Africa last year to retrace the steps of his mother Diana, who famously walked through a partially cleared Angolan minefield in 1997 to highlight the trusts efforts and the threat of the military munitions. The Duke of Sussex, 35, penned a letter of support to the HALO Trust to praise workers for their dedication to clearing landmines during the coronavirus pandemic. The charity hit the headlines around the world after Princess Diana walked through a minefield during a visit to Angola in 1997 In the letter, Harry praised charity workers, writing: 'In these trying times, hope comes from the light of our common humanity. Nowhere is that light burning brighter than at the HALO Trust. 'As countries closed their borders, lockdowns came into force and international travel became harder, many might have chosen to suspend operations. 'Instead HALO kept open a presence in all 25 of it's country operations.' He went on: 'HALO might just have stuck to its care role, but I would like to salute you for pivoting so quickly to meet the challenges unexpectedly presented by the pandemic. Prince Harry praised the charity for it's work, saying he 'saluted' workers for 'pivoting' to meet new challenges 'The fact that you can operate across conflict affected countries like Afghanistan is also a precious resource in the face of a disease that recognises no frontlines.' He added: 'In sometimes hazardous and dangerous situations, your commitment to your communities and people who need your help is remarkable. I am proud to be able to support such an extraordinary organisation.' Halo has 8,500 staff in 25 countries and territories and has been providing ambulances and logistics to medical authorities in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau. Prince Harry visited a minefield during a visit to see the work of the landmine clearance charity on his royal tour of Africa last year In Syria and Burma, the charity has been providing hygiene kits, personal protection equipment and health education to camps for families displaced by conflict. Halo Trust chief executive James Cowan in September accompanied Harry in Huambo, Angola, to the area where his mother took the same 54-yard stroll 22 years earlier. Diana never saw her work to help outlaw landmines come to fruition as she died later in the same year as her visit to Angola, a few months before the international treaty to ban the weapons was signed. The Duke and Meghan Markle, 38, are currently living in Los Angeles, having stepped back from royal duty in March The site has since been transformed into a wide residential road called Avenida 28 de Maio - but is affectionately known among locals as Princess Diana Street. Wearing body armour, the Duke of Sussex visited a mine clearance site nearby and set off a controlled explosion there. Halo is a non-political charity that helps communities across the world remove the deadly devices from their land. - with reporting from Vivienne Clarke The Irish Hairdressers Federation wants hairdressers to be able come back to work earlier than planned. It is recommending the Government open salons on June 29. Currently, hairdressers are due to open on July 20 - during phase four of the Governments plan to reopen society. The organisation represents over 400 salon owners across the country, which employ over 5,00 stylists. Irish Hairdressers Federation (IHF) incoming president, Danielle Kennedy says the sector is ready to open more quickly. Saloons are already very sanitary environments, she said. We already are very well equipped to take that level of hygiene and those hygiene standards just up to the next level. Were already well equipped for contact tracing as well. So were one of the industries that can adapt very, very easily to the Governments protocols in order to reopen earlier. Ms Kennedy told RTE radios Morning Ireland that there would be no walk-ins, customers would be seen by appointment only and would have to answer screening questions such as if they have been out of the country recently and if they had a temperature. The IHF will present comprehensive recommendations to the government this week pointing out that they could reopen in a manner that was safe for both customers and clients. Our customers want us to open, a salon is a very positive environment. There is a positive bond between a stylist and their client. Ms Kennedy pointed out that in other countries salons had reopened after six to eight weeks, but that in Ireland it will have been 18 weeks on July 20. Salons are already well equipped to operate within guidelines with high levels of sanitisation. We can easily adapt, she added. The 1m and 2m physical distance issue will also have a major impact, she said. This will be the distance between clients, she explained, as staff will wear PPE while working with a client. Ms Kennedy said she did not anticipate visors would be worn as staff primarily work with the back of a clients head. PPE is the easy bit, the main thing is operating the social distancing. A 'supercharged' 5G trial with internet download speeds of up to 3 gigabits - or 375 megabytes - a second is about to go public in Australia for the first time. Telstra has launched public trials of its 5G evolutionary technology called mmWave or 'millimetre wave', which offers never before seen download speeds in Australia. The 'supercharged' 5G network will reportedly offer download speeds which are three times faster than the best NBN connection. Telstra users on the Gold Coast and Parramatta will be the first in Australia to test the new technology from Tuesday. The launch coincides with a major milestone reached ahead of schedule in Telstra's fast-tracked 5G roll-out, which is now available in 47 cities and towns across Australia. Telstra's Wi-Fi Pro device (pictured) users will be able to test the new mmWave 5G network More than eight million Australians in 700 suburbs now have 5G coverage in a technology roll-out fast-tracked due to the coronavirus crisis. 'A year ago, chief executive Andy Penn announced our target to hit 35 cities and it is incredibly exciting to announce that we were not only able to hit this but also ahead of schedule this is a huge achievement,' Telstra network engineering executive Channa Seneviratne said. 'This year is all about 5G, so we are making sure we do everything we can to make sure as many Australians as possible have access to 5G as quickly as possible.' The mmWave technology is earmarked for further expansion next year following a government spectrum auction. 'We want to get some more temporary licences from the government. We'd obviously love to get a site working in Melbourne,' Mr Seneviratne told News Corp. 5G technology has been rolled out to 47 cities and towns across Australia so far. Pictured are telecommunications workers upgrading a mobile cell tower in Sydney He was tight-lipped on how fast mmWave technology users will be able to download files or stream videos. 'We're not going to quote speeds at this stage,' he said. 'We'll start to see download speeds six to eight times the speed of 4G. The 5G network currently offers about twice the speed of 4G.' The $599 5G Wi-Fi Pro mobile modem is Australia's first mobile broadband device that's mmWave ready for the next iteration of 5G due to rollout at scale in 2021. 'mmWave is going to be a big part of our 5G future and with the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro we are offering customers a device that will be able to take advantage of the next iteration of 5G as soon as it arrives,' product and service design executive Andrew Stormont said. A 'supercharged' 5G trial of mmWave technology will be launched in Australia on Tuesday Ghanas Ambassador to the United States of America, Baffour Adjei Bawuah has disclosed that some 33 Ghanaians have died from COVID-19 in that country. Quite a number of Ghanaians have been affected and indeed we have 33 people who have been verified to have died from the disease in New York alone, he said. He further disclosed that about 300 Ghanaians who are stranded in the US have requested for assistance to return home. Among the category of those he said had registered with the embassy for a possible evacuation, are Ghanaian government officials who were on official assignments in the US before the closure of the countrys borders. He said some Ghanaians on government scholarships in the US are also included in the list. At the moment, about 300 people [Ghanaians] have expressed a situation where they believe that they are stranded and therefore want to come back home andwe are liaising with the US government particularly in connection with some [Ghanaian] students and some officials who came here and are stranded. The students, in particular, are now living with host families and that has put a bit of pressure on these families but we are reasonably certain that by the end of this week, we would have been able to relay to the US government enough [information] for those people to be brought home, he in an interview with Accra-based GHOne TV on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. 200 Ghanaians stranded in South Africa In a separate interview on the same station, Ghanas High Commissioner to South Africa, Ayisi Boateng also disclosed that 200 Ghanaians have also registered with the Ghana mission to be airlifted back home. We had a circular from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration that we should look for Ghanaians who are stranded so I sent the letters out and we had a little over 200 people registering to come back home which we have submitted to the Ministry for further directions and we are waiting for further directives on that, he added. Government yet to decide on plan to bring Ghanaians abroad home Charles Owiredu Meanwhile, the Ghana Government is yet to decide on whether all Ghanaians abroad will be brought back home amid the COVID-19 induced border closure. We don't have a decision to bring in all Ghanaians, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Charles Owiredu noted during a press briefing on Tuesday morning. He, however, explained that government may treat the repatriation of Ghanaians stranded abroad in phases. The government cannot make a decision saying all of these people should come in at the same time. It is going to be very chaotic if you look at the numbers So the decision was taken that let's start with those from Kuwait. ---citinewsroom Neil Langberg & Nancy Linn drive global RP awareness and accelerate research. It is especially gratifying to be working with the internationally-recognized center of excellence at the University of Pennsylvania and the world-renowned leaders in the conduct of clinical and translational research The Relapsing Polychondritis (RP) Foundation has announced a generous gift to establish the Penn Relapsing Polychondritis Fund, which will support a unique partnership between the University of Pennsylvania RP Program and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC). With support from Race for RP, Nancy Linn and Neil Langberg, the Penn Relapsing Polychondritis Fund will expand these exceptional programs that will improve care for patients with RP. RP is an understudied, underdiagnosed, and undertreated systemic inflammatory disease that causes the body to attack its own cartilage and can prove fatal if left untreated. The absence of any clinical trials or other high-quality clinical research in relapsing polychondritis has greatly hampered advancing therapies and outcomes for patients with this rare disease, says Dr. Peter A. Merkel, MD, MPH, Chief, Division of Rheumatology at University of Pennsylvania and principal investigator of the VCRC. As a patient, I am extremely pleased the Foundation has implemented its plan to support research to advance a cure for relapsing polychondritis, said Nancy Linn, Chair of the Relapsing Polychondritis Foundation. She added, It is especially gratifying to be working with the internationally-recognized center of excellence at the University of Pennsylvania and the world-renowned leaders in the conduct of clinical and translational research. The Penn RP Program represents the RP Foundations unwavering commitment to powerful research initiatives that improve patient care and relentlessly advance the path to a cure, said David Bammert, President of the Relapsing Polychondritis Foundation. It also provides our philanthropic partners with the unprecedented opportunity to support substantive RP research programs as well as the Foundations awareness and educational initiatives. The Penn RP Program will allow researchers to pursue important projects, including the development of a world-class referral center to examine the impact of the microbiome on RP disease activity. Eligible patients will be enrolled in a longitudinal study using the existing infrastructure of the VCRC, which is comprised of an integrated group of academic medical centers, patient support organizations, and clinical research resources dedicated to conducting clinical research, with participating centers around the United States and Canada. At the University of Pennsylvania, patients with RP will have the opportunity to be evaluated by multiple subspecialties in a coordinated patient-centered manner. Along with Dr. Merkel, patient evaluations will be led by Dr. Shubhasree Banerjee, a faculty member in the Penn Division of Rheumatology who received prior advanced training in the evaluation and management of RP. # # # About Relapsing Polychondritis Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a debilitating and sometimes fatal systemic inflammatory disease characterized by recurrent inflammation of cartilage and other tissues throughout the body. The disease affects multiple organs, particularly cartilaginous structures such as the ears, nose, airways and joints as well as eyes, skin, heart valves and brain. The cause of RP is unknown and there is no cure for RP. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/RP_Poster. About Relapsing Polychondritis Foundation The RP Foundation's purpose is to facilitate education, awareness and research initiatives that improve the quality of life for patients with RP. For more information, visit https://www.polychondritis.org. About Race for RP Race for RP supports research and awareness programs for relapsing polychondritis and related diseases. For more information, visit RaceforRP.org or Facebook.com/raceforrp/. Follow Race for RP on Instagram, @RaceforRP. About the Penn Vasculitis Center and the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium Under the direction of Dr. Peter A. Merkel, the Penn Vasculitis Center is an internationally recognized center of excellence for the care and management of patients with all forms of vasculitis. The Center conducts cutting-edge clinical and translational research in vasculitis. The Center also hosts the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium, the worlds foremost clinical research infrastructure for vasculitis, and a founding member of the NIH Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, an integrated group of academic medical centers and patient support organizations dedicated to conducting clinical research. The VCRC conducts clinical trials, large observational studies, biomarker and genomic investigations, epidemiologic analyses, and other forms of research in over 100 centers worldwide. (TRAVPR.COM) Bangkok - May 14th, 2020 - As travellers are embracing the new normal of travel and hotels are preparing to welcome guests back, Avani Hotels & Resorts is rolling out new health and safety measures across its portfolio. Named AvaniSHIELD, the programme will see all 32 properties in 18 countries gradually adopt a range of heightened hygiene and sanitising standards to ensure the health and safety of guests and team members. The primary initiatives will be driven by the adoption of new technology, such as digital check-in/check-out as well as concierge service, copper protection coating, UVC light and HEPA-grade air purifiers, all in compliance with the guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Our life has been impacted, but our spirit to travel will never fade, said Javier Pardo, Vice President of Operations for Avani Hotels & Resorts. The implementation of new health and safety standards adds an additional layer of protection by bringing peace of mind to Avani guests and team members, as well as emphasising our commitment to ensuring health and safety, without compromising on service quality. Not stopping at these measures, we are currently reviewing additional initiatives focusing on rebuilding the environment and the health of the planet threatened by climate change, such as our zero-trash programme and carbon footprint reduction measures, he continued. Touchless Service Contactless greetings to practice physical distancing, Avani team members will be relying on country-specific hand gestures, such as the traditional Thai wai greeting; Korean jeol bowing; the hand-over-heart gesture, and even the Vulcan salute popularised by Star Trek. Digital pre-arrival check-in & check-out after filling out registration cards on their mobile devices on the way to the hotel, guests will find their room key waiting for them at reception. Prior to check-out, guests will be able to settle their bill via a secure online payment system and receive the receipt via email a secure as well as environmentally-friendly solution. Digital Concierge App a live chat solution enabling direct contact with guest service will be launching soon, as well as allowing guests to browse menus, order in-room dining and book off-property experiences. Safety & Hygiene Technology Cu+ Copper Protection Materials high touch surfaces such as door handles and elevator buttons will be covered with anti-microbial copper protection film (copper has been used as a disinfectant since the times of ancient Egypt). Research indicates that SARS-CoV2 virus survives the least amount of time on copper, in addition to a halo effect extended to surrounding surfaces. Ultra Violet C Sterilisation Front Office will be utilising UVC sterilisation boxes to disinfect key cards, stationery and other high touch objects. Guests can request a complimentary mobile device disinfecting service. In addition, the housekeeping team has begun testing a cleaning method with UVC light as an extra layer of protection after cleaning which is proven to kill germs and bacteria with 99.99% effectiveness. HEPA-grade Bio Filter select properties will be adding HEPA-grade Air Purifiers as an extra step in the standard guest room and gym cleaning process. These can remove airborne viruses, bacteria and allergens of 0.01 micron (10 nanometres) in size with 99.99% effectiveness. Disinfectant of Incoming Objects all hotels will also be setting up disinfectant processes to sanitise incoming luggage, boxes and supplies. The Extra Mile for Guest & Team Members Safety Even before the outbreak of 2019-nCoV, Avani has been working closely with Ecolab and will continue doing so to ensure that all materials and measures adhere to Ecolab, WHO and, for chemical treatment, EPA standards. As an extra precaution in the post-Covid-19 world, each Avani hotel will employ the following efforts: A dedicated AvaniSHIELD Agent responsible for implementing new cleaning protocols, as well as ensuring the latest health and safety guidelines are communicated to the team in a timely manner. The role will also include monitoring the overall health of Avani team members and conducting training sessions on new health and safety regulations. Breathing Room After cleaning, each guest room will be sealed for 24 hours a resting period during which time the housekeeping team cannot enter. This waiting period will become mandatory prior to allocating rooms to guests. All new or existing partners, suppliers and third parties such as tour operators and transportation service providers will need to comply with the new safety measures, regular sanitising and ensuring guest protection in compliance with Avanis Trusted Partner Programme. For Thailand hotels, these must be in line with the guidelines of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), an organisation working with multiple government bodies in setting up Thailand Safety and Health Administration (SHA). At the restaurants, buffets will be replaced with a la minute food preparation focusing on freshness, safe food handling and Avanis zero waste initiative. Culinary teams are being retrained in food preparation in the post-Covid-19 world. Additionally, restaurants will be spacing out tables to practice physical distancing, and walk-in guests will be asked for their contact details to facilitate contact tracing. Menus will be available digitally or via QR code on a smartphone. AvaniFit Gyms will be following the physical distancing rule, ensuring that only a small number of guests are exercising at a given time, providing a breathing period after each use, and implementing new sanitising measures such as anti-viral coating. Avani is also looking into in-room workout gear and training videos. Avani has also released an internal protocol regulating the use of protective face masks, frequency of temperature checks and a disinfection process for team members entering work premises, with measures varying by country. While all team members will be required to wear certified protection masks, to lighten the mood Avani has launched a Smile through The Heart initiative encouraging the team to let their personality shine through by decorating and personalising face masks. About Avani Hotels & Resorts Launched in response to a growing global group of discerning world travellers whose priorities are service, style and value, Avani Hotels & Resorts is a contemporary, upbeat brand that delivers the perfect balance. With a focus on good sleep, effective social spaces, locally sourced sustenance and genuine service. Avani welcomes guests to over 30 properties in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Seychelles, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand and Laos, with a pipeline of further openings in Australia, Asia, Indian Ocean and the Middle East. Plan your dream getaway or celebrate that special occasion for a lesser price by claiming incredible offers on hotel booking from Avani Hotels & Resorts. Avani is part of the DISCOVERY loyalty programme. www.Avanihotels.com | Facebook www.fb.com/Avanihotels | Instagram @Avani_Hotels #Avanihotels | YouTube www.youtube.com/Avanihotels For media enquiries, please contact: Adhiyanto Goen Director of Public Relations Avani Hotels & Resorts E: agoen@minor.com Natasha Rhymes Group Director PR & Communications Minor Hotels E: nrhymes@minor.com Mark Thomson Senior Director of Public Relations & Communications Minor Hotels E: mthomson@minor.com ### A third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety or depression, Census Bureau data shows, the most definitive and alarming sign yet of the psychological toll exacted by the coronavirus pandemic. When asked questions normally used to screen patients for mental health problems, 24% showed clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder and 30% showed symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. The findings suggest a huge jump from before the pandemic. For example, on one question about depressed mood, the percentage reporting such symptoms was double that found in a 2014 national survey. The troubling statistics were released last week in a tranche of data from the Census Bureau. The agency launched an emergency weekly survey of U.S. households at the end of April to measure the pandemic's effects on employment, housing, finances, education and health. In the most recent data release, 1 million households were contacted between May 7 and 12, and more than 42,000 responded. Buried within that 20-minute survey, U.S. officials included four questions taken nearly word-for-word from a form used by doctors to screen patients for depression and anxiety. Those answers provide a real-time window into the country's collective mental health after three months of fear, isolation, soaring unemployment and continuing uncertainty. New York, which had the worst coronavirus outbreak in the country, ranked 12th nationwide in terms of share of adults showing symptoms. Nearly half of Mississippians screened positive for anxiety or depression - a staggering number. By contrast, in Iowa, just over a quarter screened positive. Some groups have been hit harder than others. Rates of anxiety and depression were far higher among younger adults, women and the poor. The worse scores in young adults were especially notable, given that the virus has been more likely to kill the elderly or leave them critically ill. Those results reflect a deepening of existing trends: rising depression, stress and suicide among young adults. "It's been a problem many have been studying with no clear answers - whether it's social media or the way this generation was reared or just a greater willingness to talk about their problems," said Maria Oquendo, a professor psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. "What's worrying is the effect this situation is clearly having on young adults." As universities and schools look to reopen, they must take mental health into account, said Paul Gionfriddo, president of the advocacy group Mental Health America. "There's been plenty of talk about spacing desks apart and classroom ratios but not much at all about mental health support," Gionfriddo said. "For one thing, we have to do much more mental health screening among young people." The toll has also hit the poor much harder, according to the Census Bureau data - throwing into even sharper relief mental health disparities that have long existed. When asked, for example, how often they worried uncontrollably in the past week, 60% of those making $150,000 or more said they didn't struggle with it at all. Meanwhile, those numbers were almost inverted among people making less than $25,000 a year - with only 32% saying they didn't struggle with uncontrollable worry and 23% saying they worried uncontrollably nearly every day. Throughout the crisis, lower-income people have struggled more with unemployment, food scarcity and low-wage jobs that don't allow them to work from home and that offer few financial and physical protections. The findings by the Census Bureau echo growing evidence of accumulating mental harms among Americans. Nearly half of Americans reported the coronavirus crisis is impairing their mental health, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released in April. A survey by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention found people are experiencing anxiety and sadness more often than before the pandemic and are talking about mental health more frequently. Researchers have projected that without intervention, the country is poised to experience a rise in suicides, substance abuse and overdose deaths. "It's understandable given what's happening. It would be strange if you didn't feel anxious and depressed," Oquendo said. "This virus is not like a hurricane or earthquake or even terrorist attack. It's not something you can see or touch, and yet the fear of it is everywhere." The mental health questions were taken from two screening tools called PHQ-2 and GAD-2, used by some primary care doctors to screen patients for depression and anxiety. They were included in the Census Bureau's emergency coronavirus project - its official name is the 2020 Household Pulse Survey - at the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, officials said. Not everyone who screens positive on these tests has clinical depression or anxiety. A Washington Post analysis of research studies on the topic found that about half of those who screen positive on the PHQ-2 in normal times have major depressive disorder. That percentage is lower for the GAD-2. The Census Bureau plans to conduct the survey every week for three months, which could yield valuable data on how Americans' experience of this pandemic may change. But the initial results raise questions about what the government plans to do about a looming mental health crisis. When such screening tools are administered in a hospital or doctor's office, clinicians are usually obligated to follow up with patients who screen positive by conducting in-depth tests and connecting them to therapy and psychiatrists. When asked about following up with respondents to the Census Bureau survey, CDC official Stephen Blumberg said, "It is not feasible, nor would it be appropriate, to provide any health advice to respondents on the basis of their responses." Mental health experts say the government has a responsibility to address on a wider national scale the problems highlighted by the survey. Even before the pandemic, mental health care in the country was severely underfunded and riddled with problems of access, disparities and insurance roadblocks. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress appropriated trillions of dollars in emergency funds, but almost none of it has gone toward mental health programs and clinics. "If you measure a problem, presumably it's because you want to do something about it," said Oquendo, former president of the American Psychiatric Association. Doctors don't diagnose patients with cancer, for instance, only to send them on their way, she said. "Now that the government knows how widely people are suffering, the question is what are they going to do about it." If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). Crisis Text Line also provides free, 24/7, confidential support via text message to people in crisis when they text to 741741. With traders facing trouble in bringing business back on track during lockdown, a delegation of the Akalgarh Market Association and the Manna Singh Nagar Manufacturers Association met deputy commissioner of police (DCP-traffic) Sukhpal Singh Brar on Tuesday and apprised him of the problems being faced by traders in shifting even a small quantity of goods from one place to another. The delegation was led by chairman of the Akalgarh Market Association Arvinder Singh Tony and president of the Manna Singh Bagar Manufacturers Association Gurinder Singh Jolly.. The traders suggested that the traffic police should stand by their side at this time of crisis and should not stop traders from shifting a small quantity of goods from one place to another on two and four-wheelers. Patron of the market association Maninderpal Singh (Prince) Middha said, We are not demanding that the traffic police should allow us to carry goods on commercial vehicles without documents, but the police should not harass traders if they are shifting a small quantity of goods from one place to another o two-wheelers or cars. Middha said DCP Brar has assured support to the traders so that traders could revive their business without facing any harassment at the hands of the traffic police. New Delhi, May 26 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs on Tuesday and reviewed the ground situation in Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese trops are locked in a face-off. Sources said the meeting continued on for over an hour. Singh was briefed about the Indian response to the Chinese troops mobilisation. It was clarified during the meeting that the Indian Army will hold its fort as talks to defuse the situation would continue in parallel. It was also decided in the meeting that road constructions must continue and Indian fortifications and troop deployment must match those of the Chinese. Earlier, Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army held several meetings to resolve the situation in eastern Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control. However, no breakthrough was reported till Monday. The previous meeting took place on Sunday, but many things remained unresolved, said sources, adding more commander-level talks are likely to resolve the issues. Sources said there have so far been five rounds of talks between military commanders on the ground without much progress. A top Indian Army officer told IANS: "No breakthrough. Status quo is maintained." He said the situation will be resolved, but Indian Army will continue with its construction work along Line of Actual Control. Sources said there has been a troop build-up on both sides and that there are at least three places where there has been an eyeball-to-eyeball situation since May 5. Both sides have deployed over 1,000 troops at four places along the Line of Actual Control. The Indian Army is keeping a close watch on the Pangong Tso sector of eastern Ladakh and the Galwan Valley region, where the Chinese have enhanced their deployment. Other than the extremely volatile Pangong Tso sector in the wake of the recent escalation are Trig Heights, Demchok and Chumar in Ladakh which form western sector of the India-China frontier, which are also under strict vigil. The disengagement took place in eastern Ladakh after troops came to blows on May 5 and were involved in a face-off till the morning of May 6 when troops from both sides clashed, leaving several injured. Sources said there is a massive troop build-up by China on their side, not too far from the point of the standoff. It was also observed that enhanced patrolling is being carried out by China in Pangong Lake. They have also increased numbers of boats. The face-offs took place after the Chinese side objected to Indian road construction and development work. However, Indian Army has maintained that there is no continuing face-off at the Pangong lake and that there is no build-up of armed troops in the area. On Friday, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh, and reviewed security deployment of forces along the Line of Actual Control with China. He held a meeting with Northern Command (NC) chief Lieutenant General Y.K. Joshi and the 14 Corps commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and other officers to know the ground situation at forward locations along Line of Actual Control. (Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in) A migrant worker, his wife and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter travelled from Mumbai to the village of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP), surviving on nothing but water. Ashish Vishwakarma, a carpenter who lived with his family in Nallasopara and worked at Vidyavihar, had been out of work since March 22 because of the lockdown. With most of their neighbours returning to their villages, the Vishwakarmas decided to do the same. For Rs 6,000 he got a place on a truck for himself and his family, to make the journey to UP. He was told there would be 35 others in the truck, but ultimately, there were about 50 people. The truck was to leave at night. Then there were rumours that they have found Covid-positive patients in my area so the truck left in a hurry in the afternoon, Vishwakarma said. They left Mumbai on May 10 and in the rush, the Vishwakarmas were not able to organise any food for themselves. All the hotels along the way were shut and the family survived on only water for the duration of the journey. We had some powdered milk for our daughter. We needed clean water to mix that also. She cried a lot all the way as it was unbearably hot, he said. They reached Jaunpur on May 14. At present, the Vishwarmas are staying in a field adjacent to their house, to distance themselves from the rest of the family, which includes Vishwakarmas two-and-a-half-year-old son who has been living in Jaunpur with his grandparents. In the village, the family is surviving on food theyd bought earlier. We havent been buying vegetables. We dont have any farmland in the village, said Vishwakarma, who hopes to return to Mumbai once regular train services become operational. He said he has seen two to four trucks with migrants arrive in Jaunpur each day. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Her boyfriend James 'Arg' Argent recently admitted he is a cocaine addict and has suffered two near-fatal overdoses. And Gemma Collins appeared to be trying to keep her spirits up as she showcased her slimmed-down frame in a new Instagram snap. The TOWIE star, 39, displayed the results of her two stone weight loss as she posed in a baby blue striped top with a dark leaf print. Looking good: Gemma Collins, 39, appeared to be trying to keep her spirits up as she showcased her slimmed-down frame in a new Instagram snap The GC also sported a pair of blue skinny jeans while she let her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders. Posing with one hand on her hip, the former Celebrity Big Brother star wore a light pallet of makeup for the photo. Gemma was inundated with positive comments from her followers with one writing: 'Looking good Gem', while another added: 'You are just beautiful inside and out'. The TV star also shared a photo of herself grinning in a baby pink robe as she posed with her debut fragrance Diva Pink. Radiant: The TV star also shared a photo of herself grinning in a baby pink robe as she posed with her debut fragrance Diva Pink Gemma credited 250 slimming jabs for her three stone weight loss, which she gained one stone back of during a holiday. It comes after Arg, 32, admitted he is a cocaine addict, and has been heavily using the drug for seven years. Speaking to The Sun, the reality TV star admitted he suffered two near-fatal overdoses at his home last year, and Gemma called emergency services after his family feared he was dead. Arg says he is now in recovery after spending ten weeks at a Thailand boot camp, after calling his best friend and former TOWIE co-star Mark Wright for help when he reached rock bottom over Christmas 2019. Admission: Gemma's boyfriend James 'Arg' Argent has admitted he is a cocaine addict, and has been heavily using the drug for seven years Speaking about his first overdose in October which triggered paranoia and psychosis, Arg said: 'I locked myself in my house and took drugs for three days straight on my own in the pitch black.' Adding that he regularly spent 500 a week on his cocaine habit, Arg said of his first overdose: 'I was at rock bottom. My heart was beating out of my chest, my nose was bleeding, I was shaking and my breathing was terrible. 'My family were banging on the door screaming, 'Open up' but I wasn't answering the door to anyone. They feared I'd overdosed and was dead in the house.' Fears: The reality TV star, 32, admitted he suffered two near-fatal overdoses at his home last year, and Gemma called emergency services after his family feared he was dead (pictured together in 2018) Lean on me: It was after he found himself alone on Christmas Day 2019 and using cocaine that he decided things had to change, calling his best friend and former TOWIE co-star Mark Wright for help It was Gemma who called the emergency services who forced the door. After tests it was agreed Arg did not need to go to hospital and could stay with his parents, but just two months later he overdosed again on the night before his 32nd birthday, as he admitted 'my addiction was so bad I couldn't stop myself.' The second time he was hospitalised over fears for his heart, with Arg revealing that his worried friends took his phone away while he was in hospital in case he called his dealers. It was after he found himself alone on Christmas Day 2019 and using cocaine that he decided things had to change, calling his best friend and former TOWIE co-star Mark Wright for help. 'Spirit animal': Arg recently posted a throwback snap of his ten-week stint in rehab at a boot camp in Thailand Fame: Arg also explained during the interview that he first dabbled in drugs when he first shot to fame with Mark in TOWIE in 2010 Mark got his friend in touch with the owners of a Thailand boot camp, with Arg travelling there on New Year's Eve, staying for ten weeks and losing five stone in weight. He now attends an out patient facility near his Essex home regularly. Arg also explained during the interview that he first dabbled in drugs when he first shot to fame with Mark in TOWIE, but his loved ones only found out he had a problem when he was declared missing in 2014, after failing to turn up for a flight to Majorca for a paid appearance. Determined: The TV star started his fitness journey by taking part in swimming the English Channel in Sink Or Swim for Stand Up To Cancer in 2019 (pictured) Revelation: Arg recently addressed his staggering weight loss as he shared a before and after photo on Instagram earlier this month. Arg recently showcased his staggering weight loss as he shared a before and after photo on Instagram earlier this month. Arg posted a picture from a recent run, alongside a photo of himself at pal Elliott Wright's son's christening in April last year. The reality star captioned the post: 'I'm making progress, Inside & Outside One day at a time'. Dozens of the Arg's celebrity pals applauded him for his efforts, while also encouraging him to stay motivated. Support: Dozens of the Arg's celebrity pals applauded him for his efforts, while also encouraging him to stay motivated Arg is currently in lockdown without Gemma as the couple, who have had an eight-year on-off relationship, continue to isolate separately. Last month, the TV personality took to Instagram to lament how much he was missing the self-proclaimed diva with a romantic throwback snap of the pair in Paris. In the image, the on-off couple locked lips against the dazzling backdrop of the Eiffel tower at night. Sharing how much he's missing being without his reality star girlfriend, James penned: 'Lockdown absolutely sucks without you GC but I understand you have to entertain the nation & put a smile on peoples faces at this difficult time! #imissyou #wellmeetagain.' COGIC, churches hit hard by coronavirus say they wont reopen as disease not yet contained Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Despite a call from President Donald Trump that governors reopen houses of worship right now, churches whose predominantly black and Hispanic congregations have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic say they will remain closed because the virus has not yet been contained. The Church of God in Christ, Americas largest Pentecostal denomination with some 8.8 million members who are predominantly black, released a statement Friday in response to Trumps call, noting that their reopening will be guided by the advice of state and federal public health agencies. The past few months have been a season of great difficulty for our nation and our world. The United States has endured several viral pandemics in the previous 100 years. Still, there has never been a time when a viral illness has wrought such a profoundly negative impact on our communities as COVID-19, the Coronavirus, COGIC, led by Bishop Charles Blake Sr., said. The Church of God in Christ family has been no exception. Bishops, superintendents, pastors, and lay members have succumbed to this disease, leaving their families and churches devastated by their untimely passing, it continued, acknowledging the denominations significant loss to the coronavirus which has disproportionately impacted black and Hispanic communities. The group noted that the CDC and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases admonish us to stay home and to wear appropriate face coverings and engage in social distancing if we absolutely must go out because containment of the coronavirus, which has killed close to 100,000 people in the United States as of Tuesday morning, has not yet been achieved. The CDC and the NIAID have developed mathematical models to monitor the number of newly confirmed cases and deaths resulting from the virus. They have used these models to track the pattern of sickness and death. The data will help them determine when containment has been achieved and when it is safe to resume public gatherings, including church services and other religious activities, the denomination said. The number of new cases and deaths continues to increase. Based on the data available to them, the CDC and NIAID recommend that the present precautionary measures remain in place. We agree and caution pastors to delay re-opening churches at least through the end of June, if not later. Even when regular activity is allowed to resume, it must be done cautiously and methodically in phases. Several states have decided to relax restrictions and permit regular activities in defiance of these recommendations. These premature re-openings will once again put tens of thousands of our COGIC saints in harms way. We urge you, our pastors, to adhere to the recommendations of the CDC and NIAID and to refrain from prematurely opening your churches and congregating in your buildings before we have credible and substantiated evidence that it is safe to do so." As the CDC urged religious officials to defer to the directive of state and local governments on Friday, President Trump said in a press briefing that houses of faith, including churches, synagogues, and mosques are essential services and called for their immediate reopening. Today I am identifying houses of worship churches, synagogue and mosques as essential places that provide essential services, Trump said. Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and other houses of worship. Its not right. He further threatened to override governors if they did not follow his order to reopen churches. I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now, he said. If theres any question, theyre going to have to call me, but theyre not going to be successful in that call. Bishop Paul Egensteiner, who leads the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told his leadership team in a letter shared with CP that while he agrees that the church is essential, churches in his synod would remain closed until more accurate information on the virus is available. In a recent report by The Christian Post, Egensteiner highlighted how the coronavirus had devastated the synods parishes in New York City, particularly those serving Latino communities Here at the Office of the Bishop, we received news that President Trump has deemed churches and other houses of worship essential and has called on governors across the country to allow these places of worship to reopen this weekend. Meanwhile, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced that beginning May 21st, religious gatherings of no more than 10 people will be allowed statewide, he said. We know we are essential, but it is not essential to gather in person at this time. One of our congregations lost over 44 members to the coronavirus crisis. We would like to protect our ministers, lay leaders, members and communities from also experiencing such abundant devastation, loss, and grief. This virus is a silent assassin that cannot be seen; we must protect each other and proceed with caution. We are monitoring this situation so that we may continue to make educated decisions and provide you with accurate information. Miles McPherson, senior pastor of the popular Rock Church in California, also agreed that churches are essential but felt reopening now is premature. I am glad that churches are finally being acknowledged as essential. Churches have long been the cornerstone of our communities, from serving the community, to being a place for people to gather and worship God, to honoring lost loved ones. The community often turns to their local church in a time of need. No one can find hope in the aisle of a department store or by sitting in a restaurant. Churches specialize in offering hope and spiritual support through prayer and counseling. We look forward to churches across the US being able to open again and provide that much needed hope and service to their communities, he said in a statement to CP. As for this Sunday, we need a bit more time to have things in place so that attendees can worship in a socially distant setting. We will continue to follow the County's guidelines implemented during this time. We look forward to worshiping together in person as time permits. Other pastors, including Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel, a multi-site church in Gainesville, Georgia, have praised the push by President Trump calling for the reopening of churches. They argue that it should be left up to the churches, and not government officials, to decide what to do with their First Amendment right. Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the presidents push for the reopening of all churches in conflict with the advice of public health experts irresponsible and reckless. President Trumps demand that governors allow all houses of worship to reopen this weekend is irresponsible and reckless and tragically, will lead to more deaths. Trumps cynical pandering to his religious extremist base is putting the health and well-being of the American people in jeopardy, Laser said in a statement Friday. Decisions about how, when and if houses of worship can offer in-person services must be left to state and local public health officials who are familiar with the unique situations they face. President Trump has no power to override the nations governors in this area. In addition, the Constitutions religious freedom protections prohibit the government from granting special privileges to religion that cause harm to others. Accordingly, we call on state officials to ignore Trumps dangerous demand." The CDC acknowledged in a statement Friday that while gathering in person is important for religious communities, it may not always be feasible and churches should listen to the guidance of the public health leaders in their localities. Gathering together for worship is at the heart of many faith traditions. Because there are several published reports of COVID-19 outbreaks sparked by large gatherings, both non-religious and religious in nature, the recommendations released today will help guide faith communities while respecting their fundamental right to gather for worship, the health agency said. Implementation should be guided by what is feasible, practical, and consistent with the needs and religious beliefs of each community. Decisions and strategies on reopening are implemented at the state, tribal, local, and territorial levels based on their phased reopening plan. Each locale is different, and individual jurisdictions have the authority and local public health data and information needed to protect their communities without discrimination against religion. A new report from the Skagit County Public Health Department in Washington state, recently published by the CDC, shows how quickly the coronavirus spread after a choir practice became a superspreader event for the disease that infected 86% of attending members and killed two of them. Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle, an independent Baptist church led by Pastor Justin Gazaway in Ringgold, Georgia, that restarted in-person services on April 2 while following social distancing guidelines, was also forced to suspend those in-person worship services for the foreseeable future on May 11 after learning several families had contracted the virus. Despite being the first US state to lock down residents, the number of Californians contracting coronavirus is growing at a higher rate than in many other parts of the country. The statewide stay-at-home order came into place on March 19, and could remain until August, according to USA Today. As of Monday (local time), California had at least 94,558 confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than 3,000 hospitalisations and 3,795 deaths. Despite being the first US state to lockdown residents, the number of Californians contracting coronavirus is continuing to rise. Source: Getty Images It has the fourth highest number of coronavirus cases of any state, but on Monday reported the most number of new cases with 2,382 more people testing positive for the virus. The state failing to limit its rate of infection stems from two problems, University of California epidemiologist Dr George Rutherford told the Los Angeles Times. Many residents are still leaving their homes to go to work, with others fed up with the lockdown and eager to go outside, he said. Most coronavirus cases were essential workers A study by the University of California discovered 89 per cent of those who have contracted the deadly virus were essential workers who needed to leave their homes to work, such as cleaners, restaurant staff and grocery store employees. Crowds were seen flocking to beaches and parks over the long weekend, with officials claiming many were wearing masks. Source: Getty Images Despite the increasing tally, state officials announced on Monday (local time) that in-store shopping and places of worship can now reopen at 25 per cent occupancy capacity, as long as people keep a 1.8metre social distance between themselves. Dr Rutherford told the publication opening up the economy, and therefore relaxing the lockdown rules, will put people at risk. Make no mistakethe more the economy opens up, the more people are going to die, he said. Scenes from the Busy Bee Diner in Ventura, one of the many restaurants that have reopened for Memorial Day Weekend. Source: Getty Images You have to be really careful to minimise that number and make sure its not on the backs of all the poor people who are doing the frontline jobs who are going to get the most exposed. Crowds were seen flocking to beaches and parks over the Memorial Day long weekend, with officials claiming many were wearing masks. Story continues Residents are allowed to head out to exercise, but they must keep moving. A restaurant has copped a wave of backlash after hosting a crowded pool party for the Memorial Day weekend. Source: KMOV-TV A restaurant in Missouri has copped a wave of backlash after hosting a crowded pool party during the public holiday. Video footage filmed on Saturday shows hundreds of people drinking and swimming at Backwater Jacks Bar & Grill at Osage Beach while disregarding social distancing rules, St Louis station KMOV-TV reported. The venue advertised the Zero Ducks Given Pool Party on Facebook prior to the event, naming the featured DJs and claiming extra precautions and safety measures were taken to provide a safe environment. with Reuters Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Apple Inc. reportedly registers LLC under Ukraine's jurisdiction media 19:56, 26.05.20 6196 There has been no official confirmation yet. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer confirmed her husband made a failed attempt at humor over the weekend after a comment he made to a docking company drew criticism from conservatives. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Tad Dowker, owner of NorthShore Dock LLC, said a man called the company a few days before Memorial Day weekend asking if he could put his boat in the water. According to Dowkers post, when office staff said the company started working three weeks late so that was not going to happen, staff told him the caller said, I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference? The post said they were moved to the back of the waiting list. Related: Memorial Day boat launch claim sparks controversy as conservatives question Gov. Whitmer Whitmer said her husband, Marc Mallory, went up north to their familys second home in Elk Rapids this weekend for a night or two to rake leaves. She said when he called beforehand about the boat, he jokingly asked if being married to me might move him up in the queue. He thought it might get a laugh, she said. It didnt. And to be honest, I wasnt laughing either when it was relayed to me, because I knew how it would be perceived. He regrets it, I wish it wouldnt have happened and thats really all we have to say about it, she continued. The remarks were shared widely among conservative circles on social media as critics questioned why the governors family would make the request while the rest of the state remains under a stay-at-home order. Following the governors comments, Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox said in a statement that using your wifes political office to score favors is not a laughing matter. "The only joke here is that Governor Whitmer doesnt seem to understand how serious it is for a family member to misuse your office, she said. State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, called the remark a double standard in a Facebook post, which he later took down after his staff was contacted by the Senate Majority Leaders office. In a Monday interview, he said Whitmer tried to cut in line in front of Michigan citizens. The Detroit News reported the companys Facebook page, which is now private, said Mallory had inquired about install availability and responded respectfully and with understanding. Whitmer issued an executive order May 18 that allowed much of the Northern Michigan economy to reopen ahead of Memorial Day weekend. However, she also urged people to think long and hard before traveling to Northern Michigan from places with high counts of the coronavirus. Whitmer said she wouldnt liken her own experience to those who have lost loved ones or their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, but noted she and her family have weathered graphic threats and misinformation being spread about them. COVID-19 has been a tough chapter for us all, she said. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Read more on MLive: Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus Tuesday, May 26: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Gov. Whitmers relationship with Republican leaders is at an all-time low. Now they need to solve a $3.2B problem together. A Pakistani man was arrested on Monday (May 25) for vandalising Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurdwara in England's Derby. The man also posted a message seeking support for Pakistan on Kashmir before vandalising the Gurdwara A Pakistani man was arrested by police in England's Derby for vandalising Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara in the city on Monday (May 25). Before vandalising the Gurdwara, the man whose identity is still unknown, posted a message seeking support for Pakistan on Kashmir. Sources said that Derby police is also probing a possible association of the man with other groups. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and some other Sikh organisations have condemned the horrific act. "Shocking news of vandalism of Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurudwara in Derby, the UK by a man of Pakistani origin, whos been arrested. Such intolerance and hatred must end if humanity has to survive, especially when the world is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis (sic)," CM Singh tweeted. Local media reported that the crime took place at 8.30 am local time. The front doors of the Gurudwara were smashed by the man. Confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona neared 16,800 on Tuesday, according to new state figures. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases across Arizona is 16,783, the Arizona Department of Health Services said Tuesday in its daily tally. The total number includes people who have recovered. The state said 807 people in Arizona have died from COVID-19. There was one death reported today. Across Pima County, 2,075 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed, up 29 cases from the day before. Among the 2,075 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pima County: 593 people ages 65 and older; 299 people between 55 and 64 years old; 360 people between 45 and 54 years old; 725 people between 20 and 44 years old; 97 people 19 years old and younger. No age was available for one coronavirus patient in the county. There have been 173 known COVID-19 deaths in the Tucson-metro area, according to the state health department. No new deaths were reported in Pima County today. There have been 273,070 coronavirus tests given across Arizona, with 5.6% of them showing positive for COVID-19, the state says. The 807 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Arizona include: 633 people 65 years old and older; 95 people between 55 and 64 years old; (Photo : Kim Hong-Ji on Reuters ) [BREAKING] Samsung Heir Summoned in Court for Allegedly Bribing Officials to Win Succession (Photo : Kim Hong-Ji on Reuters ) [BREAKING] Samsung Heir Summoned in Court for Allegedly Bribing Officials to Win Succession Samsung Electronics Co. Vice Chairman and heir of the company Jay Y. Lee is now under facing scandalous claims by South Korean court officials. The vice-chairman will be facing court trials soon after authorities question his connection on the alleged accounting fraud, bribery, and the 2015 merger deal between two Samsung affiliates. Samsung heir turns to court after issues on bribery and controversial 2015 deal As reported via Reuters, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office called in Lee on Tuesday, May 26, due to alleged claims of his connection over illegal acts inside the company. Samsung's de facto leader and supposedly heir of the company was said to be connected to bribing a friend of former President Park Geun-Hye to help him tighten the grip on his position on the company. At this time, he was also preparing to take over from the ailing former patriarch Lee Kun-hee. Bloomberg reported that the billionaire heir already apologized on national TV when the scandals of his succession started to stir up. However, that did not end the investigations that were scheduled for the heir. Prosecutors are expected to investigate Lee's illegal acts in the 2015 merger deal between construction firm Samsung C&T and fashion and theme-park operator Cheil Industries Inc. Not only that, but it is also likely for the court trial to tackle the alleged financial fraud that happened at Samsung's Biologics Co. As of now, Samsung has not yet released any confirmations or denials on whether these are the cases that will be investigated in court. The United States hedge fund Elliott Management and other investors were the first ones to question the involvement of Lee on mysterious illegal acts done inside the company. They imply that the billionaire has been doing these acts in order to keep his name in the company and to maintain the succession. Samsung's issues on succession On May 6, Lee had already given justifications that he will not surrender his position to his children. "I do not plan to pass down my role to my children," the younger Lee, who is also known as Jay Y. Lee, told reporters at the time. "This is something I have thought about for a long time but have been hesitant to express openly. It was because not only is the business environment difficult, but I felt it would be irresponsible to speak on succession issues when I myself have not been properly proven yet," he added. His father was left incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014. Samsung has around 15% of the country's entire economy. Aside from that, it is the world's leading smartphone maker and a vital supplier of memory chips and display screens. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 02:40:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISSAU, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Guinea-Bissau on Monday received a third batch of medical supplies donated by China's Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations to support the country's COVID-19 response, the World Food Program (WFP) in Guinea-Bissau said in a press release. This batch of material includes 2,496 test kits, 12 thermometers, 28,550 masks, 5,000 medical gloves, 810 face shields, 50 protective glasses, 1,000 protective suits, one body temperature scanner and two ventilators. "This donation is very important to improve the working conditions and the protection of health care workers who find themselves on the front line in this fight," WFP Representative in Guinea-Bissau Kiyomi Kawaguchi said, adding that "Guinea-Bissau needs medical equipment, because there is a risk of inventory shortage." In addition, Dionisio Cumba, coordinator of Guinea-Bissau's Health Emergency Operations Center, welcomed the gesture of solidarity from the two Chinese foundations which continue to support Guinea-Bissau. "This equipment will allow the national laboratory to process and analyze COVID-19 infection tests more quickly," he said. Cumba said no COVID-19 test was done on Monday due to the lack of materials at the national laboratory. So far, Guinea-Bissau has reported 1,178 COVID-19 cases, including seven deaths and 42 recoveries. President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo has extended the state of emergency until May 26, and the wearing of masks is mandatory in all public spaces. Enditem LOS ANGELES Religious services in California will look much different under rules unveiled Monday that limit attendance to 100 people and recommend worshippers wear masks, limit singing and refrain from shaking hands or hugging. The state released guidance under which county health departments can approve the reopening of churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship. They have been closed since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Its not immediately known how soon in-person services will resume. Counties that are having success controlling the virus are likely to move quickly. Others with outbreaks such as Los Angeles County, which has about 60% of Californias roughly 3,800 deaths may choose to delay. The guidelines ask worshippers to wear masks, avoid sharing prayer books or prayer rugs and skip the collection plate. They also say to avoid large gatherings for holidays, weddings and funerals and warn that activities such as singing or group recitation negate the benefits of social distancing. The guidelines say even with physical distancing, in-person worship carries a higher risk of transmitting the virus and increasing the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths and recommend houses of worship shorten services. Each county will have to adopt rules for services to resume within their jurisdictions and then the guidelines will be reviewed by state health officials after 21 days. The guidelines include limiting gatherings to 25% of building capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower. In Los Angeles County, Rabbi Shalom Rubanowitz of the Shul on the Beach in Venice Beach said he hopes his congregation can meet for this weeks Shavuot holiday, to celebrate when Jews received the Torah. The congregation will have to figure out how to provide temperature checks and provide a place for individual prayer books and shawls. Orthodox Jews do not use technology during the Sabbath and may not carry most personal items. Some church leaders arent eager to reopen. The Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco and head of the local NAACP chapter, led a protest Monday against reopening. We are not going to be rushing back to church, he said by phone, noting that many leaders of his denomination have been sickened or died nationwide. Freedom of religion is not the freedom to kill folks, not the freedom to put people in harms way. Thats insane, he said. Many have been eagerly waiting an announcement on religious services after Newsom began relaxing constraints on stores and other secular outlets as part of a four-phase plan to reopen the economy. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange announced last week that it is phasing in public Masses beginning June 14, starting with restricted numbers of worshippers. At first, choirs will be banned, fonts wont contain holy water and parishioners wont perform rituals where they must touch each other. We know that God is with us, but at the same time we have to be careful and make sure that we protect each other in this challenging time, Bishop Kevin Vann said Friday. Some 47 of the states 58 counties have received permission to move deeper into the reopening by meeting standards for controlling the virus. The state on Monday cleared the way for in-store shopping to resume statewide with social distancing restrictions, although counties get to decide whether to permit it. Some places of worship around the country opened over the weekend after President Donald Trump declared them essential and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines for reopening faith organizations. In California, most houses of worship have complied with social distancing, making do with online, remote and a few drive-in services. In the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archbishop Jose Gomez called on parishes to celebrate Pentecost a major religious day for many Christians next Sunday by holding food and blood drives. I think it is important for all us of to be aware that this is a very dangerous illness, and we are making sure that everything is OK when we come back and celebrate the Eucharist together, he said. But several thousand churches have vowed to defy the current stay-at-home order on Pentecost, arguing they can do so safely. Two church services that already were held without authorization have been sources of outbreaks; one in Mendocino County and the other in Butte County. Newsoms cautious approach to reopening has angered opponents who claim the rules violate religious freedoms. A Pentecostal church in San Diego County lost a federal appeal Friday in its quest to reopen immediately. The South Bay United Pentacostal Church of Chula Vista immediately filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The nonprofit Center for American Liberty, which has filed several lawsuits over church restrictions, said the guidelines dont go far enough. Newsom lacks authority to dictate to Californias faithful, how they may worship, said Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco lawyer and the groups CEO. Let people who wish to worship safely and together, do so. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death. As of Monday, California had at least 94,558 confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than 3,000 hospitalizations and 3,795 deaths. The state is still seeing troubling COVID-19 flare-ups. More than 150 employees at a Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, an industrial city south of Los Angeles, contracted the coronavirus. Imperial County, across the border from Mexico, has seen a surge. Two inmates from the California Institution for Men in San Bernardino County died Sunday from what appear to be complications related to COVID-19. ___ This story corrects the spelling of Pentecost. ___ Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed to this report. An illustration of Virgin Orbit's "Cosmic Girl" airplane with an orbit-capable rocker, LauncherOne, strapped to its wing. Virgin Orbit Virgin Orbit's first rocket launch failed due to an unexplained problem after it had a "clean release" from the Cosmic Girl jumbo jet. The airplane and flight crew safely returned to the base in Mojave, California, after the launch attempt on Monday. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared support with the company on Twitter, writing that the Falcon 1 took four attempts before orbiting around the Earth. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. After postponing its long-awaited rocket launch by a day, Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket had a successful release from a jumbo jet. However, an unidentified problem forced Richard Branson's orbital launch company to terminate the mission shortly after the jet, called the Cosmic Girl, dropped the rocket into the air. Virgin said in a series of tweets that Cosmic Girl and its flight crew had safely returned to their base in Mojave, California. The company also said that an unspecified "anomaly" occurred shortly after the rocket's engines ignited. "After being released from the carrier aircraft, the LauncherOne rocket successfully lighted its booster engine on cue the first time the company had attempted an in-air ignition. An anomaly then occurred early in first stage flight, and the mission safely terminated," the company said in a press release shared with Business Insider. "The carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl and all of its crew landed safely at Mojave Air and Space Port, concluding the mission." According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who closely follows spaceflight activity, the drop of the rocket occurred at a spot above the North Pacific Ocean. "First launches are tough," McDowell said in a tweet. A Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) system located in Los Angeles reportedly captured what appeared to be the breakup of the rocket, according to footage shared on Twitter. Story continues 'Orbit is hard' The LauncherOne rocket attached to the Cosmic Girl jumbo jet. Virgin Orbit Elon Musk sent his condolences to Virgin for the failed launch attempt. "Sorry to hear that. Orbit is hard. Took us four attempts with Falcon 1," the SpaceX CEO said in a tweet, referring to the aerospace company's first launch system that rocketed a payload into orbit around Earth. "We appreciate that, Elon. We're excited about the data we were able to get today," the company responded on Twitter. The launch was originally scheduled for Sunday, but Virgin Orbit postponed it to Monday morning out of an "abundance of caution" because a sensor had been "acting up," the company said on social media. Ahead of Monday's launch, Virgin Orbit said on Twitter that it felt "more ready than ever" to launch the rocket. Despite the disappointing failure, Virgin Orbit noted its test flight wasn't entirely awash. "The company successfully completed all of its pre-launch procedures, the captive carry flight out to the drop site, clean telemetry lock from multiple dishes, a smooth pass through the racetrack, terminal count, and a clean release," the press release said. In a tweet, Virgin added that the "goals today were to work through the process of conducting a launch, learn as much as we could, and achieve ignition. We hoped we could have done more, but we accomplished those key objectives today." The company also indicated that it's ready to try again, sharing a photo of its next fully built rocket in a hangar. In the press release, Virgin said its next rocket was in "final stages of integration" at a manufacturing facility in Long Beach, Calif. "Our next rocket is waiting. We will learn, adjust, and begin preparing for our next test, which is coming up soon," CEO Dan Hart said in the press release. Read the original article on Business Insider The airline easyJet has announced the planned resumption of further routes from Belfast International Airport from June 15 (Gareth Fuller/PA) The airline easyJet has confirmed the resumption of further flights from Belfast International Airport. Flights due to start from June 15 go to destinations including London Gatwick and Edinburgh, as well as Faro in Portugal. The airline is introducing new safety measures to run the flights including enhanced aircraft cleaning and disinfection, and mandatory use of face masks. There will also initially be no food service on board flights, all of which operate on a short-haul network. Last week easyJet announced a small number of domestic flights would resume. EasyJet will continue to work together with its airport partners and relevant authorities to allow our customers in Northern Ireland and across the UK to travel safely once flying resumes Ali Gayward, easyJet This latest announcement includes further weekly frequencies resuming on routes to Bristol and Newcastle, flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow, London Gatwick and Liverpool to resume daily, and a small number of flights to Faro to restart. Ali Gayward, easyJets UK country manager, said: Were delighted to be able to confirm even more flying from Belfast from June 15. EasyJet will continue to work together with its airport partners and relevant authorities to allow our customers in Northern Ireland and across the UK to travel safely once flying resumes. All passenger flights at Belfast International Airport have been cancelled since March following the Covid-19 outbreak. Of Northern Irelands three airports, there are just a small number of connections to London for passengers operating from Belfast City and City of Derry. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) says Azerbaijan was wrong to release a man convicted of killing an Armenian national while the two were on a NATO training course in Hungary. The Strasbourg-based court said on May 26 in a 6-1 vote that there had been no justification for the Azerbaijani authorities' failure to enforce the punishment of Ramil Safarov "and to in effect grant him impunity for a serious hate crime" following his conviction in Hungary for the 2004 murder of Gurgen Margarian. Safarov was sentenced to life in prison in a 2006 trial for hacking the sleeping Armenian military officer to death with an ax during a NATO Partnership for Peace training mission. Safarov admitted to the murder, saying Margarian had urinated on an Azerbaijani flag and otherwise "insulted" his country. However, in 2012 Hungary extradited Safarov back to Azerbaijan to complete his sentence. Upon his arrival, he was promptly pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev, freed from his sentence, and given a hero's welcome. His back salary was paid and he was given an apartment. Relatives of the murdered Armenian officer said they took the case to the ECHR for justice, not compensation. There were hoping the court would rule against Hungary for the extradition of Safarov and Azerbaijan for its release of the convicted murderer. In its ruling, the ECHR said it "found that there had been no justification for the Azerbaijani authorities' failure to enforce the punishment of R.S. [Ramil Safarov] and to in effect grant him impunity for a serious hate crime." "Moreover, the applicants had provided sufficient evidence to show that R.S.'s pardon and other measures in his favor had been ethnically motivated, namely statements by high-ranking officials expressing their support for his conduct, and in particular the fact that it had been directed against Armenian soldiers, and a specially dedicated page to R.S. on the president of Azerbaijan's website," it added. The court said that while Azerbaijan had "clearly endorsed" Safarov's actions, the ECHR stopped short of holding the country responsible for what it called "a private decision" that was "so flagrantly abusive and far removed from the official status of a military officer" that the country could not be responsible just because he was a state agent. Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a bloody war in the 1990s over the ethnic Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, with a shaky Russia-brokered cease-fire the only guarantee of peace since 1994. Russia, the United States, and France are the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which acts as a mediator in resolving the crisis. The group has been struggling for years to mediate a solution to the situation. The court exonerated Hungary in its ruling, saying courts there had handed down "well-reasoned" decisions, while the extradition "followed to the letter the procedure set out in the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons." The court held, unanimously, that Azerbaijan was to pay the applicants, jointly, 15,143.33 British pounds in respect of costs and expenses for the case. smartTrade Technologies, a pioneer in multi-asset electronic trading solutions, announces that its multi-asset big data analytics solution, smartAnalytics, has won the RegTech 2020 award for Best Transaction Cost Analysis Solution for Best Execution. Regulations such as MiFID II with its best execution obligations have illustrated the need for a robust technology platform to analyse performance data across multiple liquidity providers and trading venues and provide evidence of compliance as well as reporting requirements. smartAnalytics' ability to store and analyse big data enables users to inspect trading and overall system performance, analyse client or trader behaviour and usage, survey market abuse and manage liquidity provider relationships. smartTrade's solution generates an integrated detailed Best Execution Report for each trade that users can access from their User Interface (UI). They can also retrieve execution details with snapshots of available books and used books, as well as timestamps of the original and all child orders. Users can access pre-built reports such as volumes and fill ratios to rejection analysis, last look times, costs of rejection, and decay analysis reports. "We are honoured to be recognised by the RegTech Insight Awards Advisory Board and Jury for delivering outstanding technology which helps clients fulfil their regulatory requirements," commented David Vincent, CEO of smartTrade Technologies. "smartTrade has put a specific focus on providing additional reports and analytics to allow our clients to further improve their Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA), transparency and trading effectiveness." About smartTrade Technologies: smartTrade Technologies, pioneer of multi-asset electronic trading solutions, offers innovative technology allowing you to focus on your trading and grow your business while quickly adapting to changing market requirements. smartTrade provides agile end-to-end trading solutions supporting Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Equities, Derivatives, Cryptocurrencies and Money Markets. Our solutions offer connectivity to over 130 liquidity providers, aggregation, smart order routing, order management, pricing, distribution, risk management and fully customizable HTML5 user interface. smartTrade works with a variety of clients ranging from banks, brokers and asset managers to corporate firms. LiquidityFX for Foreign Exchange and smartFI for Fixed Income are provided as a fully managed and hosted service, colocated in all the main marketplaces globally. smartAnalytics, our multi-asset Big Data analysis solution, allows the creation of historical or real time dashboards and reports to interact more effectively with markets and end customers. For more information, visit www.smart-trade.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005366/en/ Contacts: Lara Michel Head of Marketing smartTrade Technologies lmichel@smart-trade.net U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will headline the Texas Democratic Partys convention in June but she wont be stepping foot in Texas. The convention was converted to an all-virtual setup due to coronavirus concerns. Its set to start Monday on platforms such as Facebook Live. Pelosi will be one of the partys most prominent speakers in recent years. Her selection highlights the partys growing importance to national politics as it seeks to take control of the longtime Republican-held state House for the first time since 2003 by flipping nine seats. Other speakers will include several Texas representatives: Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe, Planned Parenthood Texas Votes Executive Director Dyana Limon-Mercado and Texas 23rd Congressional District candidate Gina Ortiz Jones. The Democrats in the runoff race to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar and longtime state Sen. Royce West also will face off in their first debate June 2 as part of the convention. Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox The convention originally was supposed to be held at San Antonios Convention Center, but the party chose to go digital as the pandemic worsened in March. Meanwhile, the Texas GOP plans to hold their convention in person in Houston in July with additional safeguards. At the national level, President Donald Trump threatened Monday to pull the Republican National Convention out of North Carolina if the states Democratic governor doesnt immediately sign off on allowing a full-capacity gathering in August. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday on Fox News Channel that convention planning takes months and suggested a state thats loosened more restrictions could host. He went on to praise reopenings in Texas, Florida and Georgia. The Democratic National Convention already has been from July until August, and its leaders are more open to the idea of it unfolding virtually. The Associated Press contributed to this report. After a bruising campaign to persuade allies to dump Chinese giant Huawei, President Donald Trump can start to take stock on how effective or pointless his efforts have been. In short, it's a mixed bag. Countries in Eastern Europe that rely heavily on U.S. military protection through NATO have taken the toughest line. Among big Western countries, the picture is varied, with Germany so far stopping short of hard restrictions on Huawei. Some countries are undecided while others, like Denmark, have taken surprisingly tough measures. After a year of debating 5G risks, all European Union countries are meant to tell the bloc's executive branch in Brussels before the summer how they plan to implement new security measures. The measures come after EU countries in January adopted a joint strategy for governments to limit Huawei's market dominance and ease up on using Chinese equipment. Several countries have since turned that strategy into law, and cybersecurity authorities are set to release a progress report by end-June. In the coming months, some countries may yet decide to tighten or loosen their approach, with telecoms operators playing a key role. The CEOs of giants including Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica urged governments in mid-March to "ensure that corresponding costs are compensated through adequate measures, including fiscal measures. Here's a closer look at how European countries have responded to the Trump-led campaign on Huawei: Friends to the east Early on in the debate, Washington secured the support of Romania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and the Czech Republic, all of which have signed joint statements or memorandums with the U.S. government on 5G security. These are nonbinding, political pledges that, if implemented, would cut market access to suppliers that are subject to foreign interference, lack transparent corporate ownership structures and violate international ethical norms and intellectual property protections. Story continues While the statements send a clear signal, they have little value if they are not backed up by law forcing telecommunications companies to abide by their terms. In Poland, the government in past weeks fast-tracked legislation on 5G security to make sure the next spectrum auction would include tougher rules on high-risk vendors, overriding the telecoms regulator. Warsaw's digital minister said in February the country would restrict high-risk 5G telecoms vendors in ways that go beyond security controls proposed by the EU. In Estonia, parliament has passed amendments to its Electronic Communications Act that would require operators to coordinate with the countrys communications authority on 5G rollout. That means input from the country's security and intelligence services, opening the door to more restrictive measures against high-risk vendors. The Czech Republic proved a strong advocate of the U.S. approach on the European stage, anchoring the "Prague Principles" that built a Western consensus around Chinese vendors. Germany, Trump's (almost) Waterloo If any capital has been hard to persuade, it's Berlin. The German government was one of the first to be courted by U.S. diplomats about the issue and quickly rebuffed their arguments. Skepticism about Washington's allegations against Huawei fueled Berlin's caution, but so did the government's trauma of U.S. surveillance practices and the hacking of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone years earlier. What's more, Germany's leading operators Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have existing 4G telecoms networks that rely on Huawei for well over half of their total makeup. The German government also fears that barring the Chinese vendor would heavily damage its ties with China, its largest trading partner. However, the debate is ongoing. After months of pressure from parliament and Merkel's smaller coalition partner, the interior ministry earlier this month proposed a draft law, seen by POLITICO, that would increase security requirements for 5G suppliers, including granting that ministry new powers to block nontrusted suppliers from the market. But it's unclear how the government plans to assess suppliers' trustworthiness. Merkel's allies in the government are still skeptical of any hard restrictions on using Chinese equipment. The real meat is in how this gets done, and who decides on trustworthiness, said Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute. Were dithering and allowing companies to create insecure networks. France's tech sovereignty ambition France has sought to take a leading role on 5G security in Europe as part of efforts to put itself front and center of international affairs. The country already had national security checks on operators cybersecurity policies and on their use of vendors in key parts of its networks. Last year, it added provisions in its national telecoms laws that allow the prime minister's office, through the cybersecurity agency, to block operators' use of "RAN" network equipment like base stations and antennae if doing so would harm national security. Since the beginning of December, operators must obtain an authorization from the prime minister for any deployment of base stations, Guillaume Poupard, the countrys chief cybersecurity official, said in February. That means the government, through Poupard, can block deployment if they don't like the supplier of the kit. We consider telecommunication operators as critical operators," Poupard said. "They have to work with us in order to protect our networks. They cannot only try to make money." France's model which avoids naming Chinese vendors is one of heavy government oversight and intervention over the 5G rollout process. Huawei has sought to nudge Paris' decision-making by promising millions of investment in a first-of-its-kind European manufacturing base. But a diplomatic spat involving Beijing's ambassador to Paris has caused tension between the two countries, with little news on the factory plans since the pandemic hit. Battleground states Several European countries stand out in their strategic importance both for Huawei and the U.S. government. Italy, the EU's third-largest economy, early last year expanded its "golden power rule," a trade defense tool that allows the government to block contracts between operators and equipment vendors. At the end of last year it passed legislation on a cybersecurity "perimeter" that would impose new requirements on telecoms and IT services used in "strategic" sectors. The government is now finalizing a list of businesses, sectors and government organizations that would fall under the tighter regime. In Belgium another strategic country because it houses NATO headquarters and the main EU institutions intelligence services advised the government to limit the use of "non-trusted suppliers" and officials are drafting the legal provisions that are expected to cut Chinese vendors at least from "core" network parts. The Dutch government, seen as traditionally close to the U.S. on cybersecurity and intelligence issues, in December adopted new provisions that allow it to ban vendors from the market if there is a suspicion that they could sabotage a network or that have close ties or legal obligations to foreign governments that harm security. The Netherlands earlier flagged that it would require operators to ban high-risk vendors from "core" networks. The undecideds These capitals have mostly tested Trump's patience. Many governments are still consulting with telecoms companies, intelligence services and regulatory agencies about proposing legal changes that would box out high-risk vendors. That's the case in Madrid, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Vienna, Helsinki and other capitals. In Spain, the economy minister in February said she was preparing legal acts, but the country since then faced delays and had to push back a spectrum auction. Meanwhile, Spanish telco giant Telefonica said it would reduce the amount of Huawei kit in new networks (but still procure the Chinese vendor), while Orange said it would use ZTE, Huawei and Ericsson in Spain. In Sweden, home of Huawei's main competitor, Ericsson, and in Finland, where European challenger Nokia is based, the governments are still making up their minds on how to beef up security regulations in the telecoms market. The surprise state In Denmark, the government is preparing legislation that would define its entire 5G network as critical infrastructure, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told newspaper Berlingske in May. It would put core, noncore and other parts of networks under tough security requirements. Copenhagen's approach would reshape the telecom market, but the government has yet to call out specific vendors. We have not yet defined the objective criteria in the legislation. But when we look at the choice of supplier as an area of security policy, then that means the security alliance that we are part of and have our roots in, Frederiksen said. The move came after a diplomatic storm between China and Denmark over Huawei's role. The Chinese ambassador to Denmark in December reportedly said a trade deal between the Faroe Islands (an autonomous part of Denmark) and China would be dropped if Huawei was not able to secure contracts for the rollout of 5G on the island. Britain goes Europe's way on Huawei The United Kingdom was leading the EU discussion on 5G security until it left the bloc in February. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the end of January announced the government will allow Huawei to sell equipment for 5G networks but keep its access limited to peripheral, non-sensitive parts of the network. It also imposed a cap of 35 percent on Huawei's market share a type of measure that, so far, no European government has copied. Above all, Britain's relationship with the U.S. is shaping its policy on 5G security. That includes calls for a hard reboot of its approach to China. The Huawei debate is exposing perhaps a wider, very difficult discussion about our relationship with China, which we today perhaps have been in a little denial about, the chairman of the defense committee in the U.K. House of Commons Tobias Ellwood told POLITICO in a recent interview. He added: As much as the Americans are wanting us to stay away from the Chinese, the bigger question for all of us is: How did we get here? Work is underway in identifying global companies in sectors ranging from electronics, auto components and medical equipment to shift part of their existing or incremental manufacturing to India. The first moves are underway. US mobile device maker Apple Inc is looking at shifting nearly a fifth of its production value from China in the next four years and around seven per cent in the next 12 months. Home-grown Lava International is shifting its entire export production from China to India and even relocating its design centre. German health footwear company Von Wellx is also moving its entire production from China to somewhere in Agra. This may be just the start, but these shifts are partly the result of the governments aggressive pitch to woo global companies to reduce their dependence on manufacturing in China. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has been urging businessmen to convert the worlds hatred for China into an economic opportunity for India. Work is underway in identifying global companies in sectors ranging from electronics, auto components and medical equipment to shift part of their existing or incremental manufacturing to India. Gadkari is even offering land to potential investors along major highway corridors. The first big policy salvo was the March announcement of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, offering a tax incentive of 4 to 6 per cent on incremental sales for electronics manufacturers, especially mobile device players, on export revenues for five years. Says Hari Om Rai, chairman of Lava International: With the governments PLI scheme, the cost disadvantage between India and China has been bridged. So there is no reason to produce in China. States and public sector units are adding their voices to the governments clarion call. The Karnataka government has set up a special investment promotion task force headed by the chief secretary focused on attracting investment and to woo disenchanted MNCs looking to shift their manufacturing bases from China. The committee will identify sectors, provide incentives and offer fast-track clearances to such investors. State-owned BHEL recently floated a global expression of interest inviting companies to partner them and leverage their facilities and expertise to manufacture in India. Will this be enough when many other countries are also in the race? After all, despite occasional noises in India, it was Vietnam that capitalised in leveraging the opportunity thrown open by the US-China trade war. According to a study by Nomura, of the 56 companies that relocated from China between April 2018 and August 2019, only three came to India, compared to 26 in Vietnam, 11 to Taiwan and eight to Thailand. The governments plan could also run up against the salvo from US President Donald Trump who has threatened companies like Apple Inc with a new tax to discourage them from shifting their China production to India and Ireland rather than the US. If Trump makes good on this threat, manufacturing in India might not be that attractive anymore for US MNCs. Even if the threat is an empty one, there is a general recognition that the Indian government has to do much more. Says Renuka Ramnath, founder and MD of PE firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management: The one big lesson that Covid-19 has taught is risk mitigation. "We can get manufacturers to move from China to India, but in order to do that, we have to have the same costs of production as well as ease of doing business. That remains the big challenge. The auto components industry exports over $17 billion annually and claims it is competitive with China on labour costs. But the problem lies elsewhere. Sunjay Kapur, chairman of Sona Comstar and vice-president of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association, points out that only cost will not bring production away from China. "The reason original equipment manufacturers shift component manufacturing, from one country to another is based on ease of doing business, technology capability and costs. Simplifying complex land acquisition laws for factories and pushing labour reforms - which the government is trying to do - reducing power costs and supporting R&D (as China does) are among the basic requirements to induce businessmen to consider India, he adds. Even the PLI scheme has come under scrutiny. Many point out that the cost disadvantage in making mobile devices ranges from 9 per cent to 26 per cent vis-a-vis China and Vietnam. So far, the incentive is too little to export profitably. A contentious issue appears to be the governments move to disincentivise import of old machinery currently being used by MNCs in China. Only 40 per cent of the value of such machinery will be taken into account in calculating the investment threshold required by these companies to qualify for incentives. Foreign players say since they are merely shifting capacity from China rather than creating incremental capacity, they should not be penalised for not making fresh investment on machinery. There are others concerns too. For instance, an industry veteran says Samsung has already made heavy investments recently in setting up a plant from which 30 per cent will be exported. But to be eligible for the PLI scheme, Samsung has to make incremental investment every year from now on for the next five years totalling Rs 1,000 crore. Without that, the previous large investment gets no incentive. Most global investors say India is overestimating the size of the shift of companies from China. It will be a gradual process. At the moment most global companies are severely impacted by Covid-19 and are concentrating on preserving cash. "Shifting now to a new country requires fresh investments, says a CEO of a leading global private equity investor. Global investors say India would do better to focus on identifying non-oil and non-metal products for which it has high dependence from China and incentivise local manufactures to produce them in India at competitive prices. As an analyst says Why should India be importing virtually all its vitamin C from China? "We have a vibrant bulk drug industry; they should be given sops to become competitive. Opposition parties and campaign groups have accused ministers of hypocrisy over their attitude to NHS staff and care workers, as the government attempts to bring in much tighter immigration controls for the UK. Boris Johnsons government wants to end freedom of movement rules with the immigration bill which passed its first Commons hurdle last week as part of the move towards a points-based immigration system. Although the Home Office is yet to flesh out how a points-based system would work in detail, a new visa is expected to allow doctors, nurses and health professionals from overseas to work in the NHS. However, experts have warned a new points-based system would bar many of the workers considered low skilled despite performing vital frontline roles protecting peoples lives during the coronavirus pandemic. So exactly how dependent is the UK on health and care staff from overseas? And what will happen if the influx of key workers from overseas is seriously restricted? How many foreign nationals work in the NHS and social care? Around 153,000 workers in NHS England report to have a non-British nationality 13.1 per cent of its total workforce, according to a 2019 parliamentary report based on NHS England data. However, not all staff across the NHS have their nationality recorded. More detailed, UK-wide analysis by the Nuffield Trust think tank based on ONS data on the number of health and social care workers actually born overseas shows the true extent of the nations dependence upon foreign-born workers. Around 818,000 people born abroad made up 19 per cent of all workers across health and social care in the UK in 2018-19 almost one fifth of all workers in the sector. Migrants make a particularly vital contribution to hospitals. According to the Nuffield Trust analysis, 23 per cent almost one in four of all hospital workers were born outside the UK. Is the UK becoming more or less reliant on foreign key workers? Foreign-born workers accounted for almost 50 per cent of the rise in the UKs health and social care workforce between 2009/10 and 2018/19, according to Nuffield Trust analysis. An immigration crackdown around 2010 had caused a slowdown in workers coming from outside Europe, but the NHS and social care sector has been largely able to respond to shortages because of the free movement of labour across the European Economic Area. The sector has grown by more than 446,000 workers over the past decade, with more than 221,000 of these workers born overseas. People born in EU countries and in the rest of the world each accounted for around a quarter of the increase. What happens if the influx of key workers from overseas is curbed? Labour has argued that the planned salary threshold of 25,600 sends a signal that anyone earning less is unskilled and unwelcome to come to Britain to work. Mark Dayan, policy analyst at the Nuffield Trust, warned the changes could cause a harmful slowdown in migration. Without foreign workers, NHS and care home staffing shortages would be almost unimaginable, he said. For the vast majority of roles in social care a points-based system is going to be a significant barrier and that remains a real concern, Mr Dayan told The Independent. For doctors and nurses who do meet the salary and qualification requirements there are still deterrent factors to them coming to the UK, such as the thousands of pounds they could have to pay, depending on whether they have children. Recent research by the IPPR think tank found that 66 per cent of the EU migrants currently working in health and social care in the UK would be ineligible for a skilled work visa under government plans. NHS staff at Aintree University Hospital join national clap for carers event (AFP/Getty) Could the NHS lose current staff from overseas? The Home Office brought in a 12-month free visa extension for some existing foreign NHS staff in March but it does not include some workers such as porters and cleaners who will have to pay thousands of pounds to stay in the UK. Campaigners want the free, year-long extension to cover all key workers to avoid the risk of losing staff whose visa is about to expire. Satbir Singh, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said: Just a few weeks ago this government was referring to those excluded as low-skilled and unwelcome. But they have proven over the last few months that they are the backbone of our society. Polling suggests the public largely shares that view. A YouGov survey for the JCWI found 54 per cent of people are in favour of loosening immigration restrictions for key workers. (Newser) The parents of the University of Connecticut senior wanted in two murders are urging him to give himself up. "You are loved," a lawyer for Peter Manfredonia's family said at a Monday night press conference, directly addressing the 23-year-old. "Your parents, your sisters, your entire family loves you. Nobody wants any harm to come to you. Peter, from your parents, We love you. Please turn yourself in.'" Manfredonia is suspected of attacking two men, one fatally, with a sword or machete Friday before breaking into a home, holding the homeowner captive for days, stealing his guns and truck, and then killing an acquaintance Sunday, stealing his vehicle, and kidnapping his girlfriend, who was found unharmed later that day in New Jersey. The murders took place in Connecticut; Manfredonia was last seen Sunday night in Pennsylvania, on foot. story continues below The family attorney said Manfredonia was a former honors student and athlete, but had struggled with mental illness "over the past several years." He said family, as well as therapists, had been trying to help him, the Daily Beast reports. "Its time to let the healing process begin," the lawyer said. "Its time to surrender." Police are warning that Manfredonia is armed and dangerous, and anyone who spots him should not approach but rather call authorities immediately, the Connecticut Post reports. The FBI is assisting authorities in all three involved states with the manhunt. (Read more murder stories.) Last week, a new name broke into Apples most-downloaded social networking apps. Among the usual suspects of Instagram, Facebook and TikTok appeared an app called Stepchickens, with a cryptic blue selfie as its logo. The image has become nearly ubiquitous on TikTok, as tens of thousands of users have changed their avatars to show their loyalty to its subject: Melissa Ong, the 27-year-old mother hen of the platforms largest and most powerful cult, the Step Chickens. Cults on TikTok arent the ideological ones most people are familiar with. Instead, they are open fandoms revolving around a single creator. Much like the stans of pop figures and franchises, members of TikTok cults stream songs, buy merch, create news update accounts and fervently defend their leaders in the comment sections of posts. The biggest difference is that TikToks cult leaders are not independently famous. Theyre upstart creators building a fan base on social media. Ms. Ong represents a relatively new kind of influencer, one who has seized a time of great isolation and idleness to capture the interest of a rapt user base. Evangelical pastors respond to Trumps call for churches to reopen CDC releases health guidelines for worship services to resume Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Evangelical pastors and leaders expressed their gratitude for President Trump Friday after he urged the Center for Disease Control to release guidelines for reopening houses of worship. At my direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance for communities of faith. Im identifying houses of worship churches, synagogues and mosques as essential places that provide essential services, the president said at news conference on Friday. The president said he also plans to override governors who are not allowing churches to reopen. Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship thats not right. So Im correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. Agreeing with Trump, the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of New Season church in Sacramento, California, wrote that the spiritual health of our nation is essential. Churches can reopen safely with all CDC recommendations in place. Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, thanked the president for federally recognizing this truth. Jentezen Franklin, author and the senior pastor of Free Chapel, a multi-site church based in Gainesville, Georgia, also praised the president's comments, in a post on Twitter, saying, Thank you Mr President! @realDonaldTrump you always have the back of people of Faith!!! We appreciate this very much. We will use wisdom about reopening but its our call, not the governments!!!! Franklin added. On Friday, the CDC released interim guidelines encouraging church staff as well as attendees older than age 2 to wear masks. It also said churchgoers should remain 6 feet apart, whether standing in a line or seated. While the CDC acknowledged that millions of Americans embrace worship as an essential part of life," it also cautioned that gatherings present a risk for increasing the spread of COVID-19." The CDC guidelines also advise churches to temporarily limit the use of prayer books and hymnals that are touched by multiple people, and to cease using a communal cup for communion. It also encouraged churches to add outdoor services or additional in-person worship times so that the number of congregants attending each service is reduced. Pastor Miles McPherson of Rock Church in San Diego said in a statement to The Christian Post that he's glad "churches are finally being acknowledged as essential," but added that his church won't be reopening on Sunday. "... The community often turns to their local church in a time of need. No one can find hope in the aisle of a department store or by sitting in a restaurant. Churches specialize in offering hope and spiritual support through prayer and counseling. We look forward to churches across the U.S. being able to open again and provide that much needed hope and service to their communities," he said. "As for this Sunday, we need a bit more time to have things in place so that attendees can worship in a socially distant setting. We will continue to follow the county's guidelines implemented during this time. We look forward to worshiping together in person as time permits," McPherson added. The Rev. Johnnie Moore, a commissioner at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, wrote that virtually every church, synagogue & mosque, etc. has been totally responsible. "And they WILL BE responsible, deliberate & patient in reopening, he added. The 40,000-member Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, announced that it will be reopening services on May 31, which is Pentecost Sunday. I didnt want to come back looking like a MASH unit, Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood, told Faithwire. When people come back, we want it to be a Prestonwood experience, a true worship experience The video shows a woman coming toward the man and then calling the police. Twitter/Melody Cooper A woman has been fired from a global investment firm after a video showed her calling the police on a man who had asked her to put her dog on a leash. A video with more than 29.6 million views shows the woman, later identified as Amy Cooper, threatening to tell the police that "there's an African American man threatening my life" and then doing so. Cooper later apologized in interviews with NBC New York and CNN, saying she was "not a racist" and that she felt threatened during the encounter. As the backlash mounted, the investment firm Franklin Templeton said it was investigating the incident, and later announced Cooper would be fired. It did not name Cooper, but NBC New York reported that she was the woman in question. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A global investment firm has fired a woman after a video circulated of her calling the police on a man who had asked her to put her dog on a leash. The video showed Amy Cooper, who is white, approaching a man later identified as Christian Cooper, who is black, and threatening to call the police. (It is a coincidence that the two have the same surname.) She asked him to stop filming her and said she would call the police to report an "African American man threatening my life," which she then did. The police responded but ultimately took no action. The video started a firestorm on social media, which led Amy Cooper to apologize in a statements to NBC New York and CNN. Franklin Templeton Investments, a US asset-management firm, initially said an employee had been placed on leave as the company investigated the situation. It did not name the woman, but NBC reported that Amy Cooper was the staffer in question. On Tuesday afternoon, around 24 hours after the incident occurred, the woman was fired. "Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton," the investment firm said in a statement on Twitter. Story continues As of early Tuesday, the video had over 29.6 million views on Twitter. It showed a woman, wearing a mask, petting a dog in a wooded area. The video was said to have been filmed in the Ramble area of New York City's Central Park, where dogs are required to be on a leash; the dog in the video was not. The woman walked toward the camera holding the dog by the collar and asked a man not to film. He told her: "Please don't come close to me." She then got closer and said she would call the police and the man said, "Please call the cops." "I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life," she then said. The man said, "Please tell them whatever you like." The woman then said on the call that an African American man with a bicycle helmet was recording her and "threatening myself and my dog." She then shouted, sounding upset: "Please send the cops immediately." You can watch the video here: Melody Cooper, a screenwriter who is Christian Cooper's sister, said she posted the video to Twitter after getting it from him. She wrote that her brother had "politely" asked the woman to put her dog on a leash while he was out bird-watching. A New York Police Department representative told Insider that the police were called to the Central Park Ramble over a reported assault but did not make any arrests. In a call with NBC New York on Monday, Amy Cooper said she "humbly and fully apologizes to everyone who's seen that video." "I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone, especially to that man, and his family," she told the outlet. "It was unacceptable, and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone who's seen that video, everyone that's been offended everyone who thinks of me in a lower light, and I understand why they do." Cooper said the man had offered her dog a treat, which made her feel "threatened," but that she "overreacted." Visitors exploring the Ramble section of New York City's Central Park in September 2012. The area, known for bird-watching, is protected. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews "When I think about the police, I'm such a blessed person," she said. "I've come to realize especially today that I think of [the police] as a protection agency, and unfortunately, this has caused me to realize that there are so many people in this country that don't have that luxury." She later told CNN that she was "scared" when Christian Cooper tried to offer her dog a treat. "I'm not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way," Amy Cooper told CNN, adding that she wanted to "publicly apologize to everyone." Christian Cooper told NBC that he kept filming as he did not want to be intimidated by the woman. "I am not going to participate in my own dehumanization," he said. "I am not going to feed into this." He said that he had offered the dog a treat after she refused to put the dog on a leash and that she then grabbed the dog and he started recording. Christian Cooper spoke with NBC New York about the incident in Central Park. NBC New York "We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and I'm just not going to participate in that," he said. Melody Cooper posted a follow-up tweet on Tuesday morning in which she thanked people for their concern and said her brother was "fine." "My brother & I are so grateful for your concern! He is fine and left to continue birding after she leashed the dog, as he politely requested. "I wanted folks to know what happened to make sure it never happens again from her. All she had to do was put her poor dog on the leash." Read the original article on Business Insider Photo: (Photo : Photo by Ekrulila from Pexels) It might have taken 30-year-old mom, Brittney Hinkley, from Central Texas, 12 years to finish college, but it sure is worth it. An article from KWTX said that just this weekend, this mom finished her dream degree in a pinning ceremony at the Temple College. She completed Surgical Technology, a degree she has been dedicating a lot of effort to since 2011. READ ALSO: Mother and Daughter Duo Graduates Together How mom finished her dream degree Hinkley first entered college in 2008, after graduating from high school. She was enrolled at El Paso Community College and was taking a degree in education. A few years later, she decided to take a break. In 2011, Brittney decided to go back to college. However, she changed her focus to taking surgical technology. She was studying while working as a patient specialist at the same time. She continued studying and taking prerequisites for surgical technology. She was juggling work and school at the same time but was determined that she would finish. Few years after coming back to studying, Brittney learned that she was pregnant with her first child. On the 20th week of the pregnancy, they discovered that her baby has spina bifida - a condition that sometimes causes partial or complete paralysis. Because of this, Brittney had to stay in bed for the rest of her pregnancy. That also meant she had to forego attending school in person and to work. Hinkley says it took a huge loss on her plans, but her husband and relatives were very supportive that soon they can say that the family's mom finished her degree. While taking care of her first-born, Oliver, Brittney was taking online classes and finished some of it during the two years that she had to take a break. In 2016, Hinkley had her second son, Theodore. While taking care of her children, she continued with online classes and was still eyeing to finish her dream degree. Along with these challenges, Brittney also had to think about how she can afford the surgical technology program of the Temple College. In 2019, her family was able to save up, and she could be part of the program. She did this while working at the Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest Center. Mom wants to be an inspiration to children Hinkley says, the ride going to achieving her dream degree was bumpy. It was filled with challenges. However, she was able to overcome this with the support of her husband and family. She also says that the support of her instructors was inspiring; that is why she kept going. After twelve years of waiting for the momentous finishing off her degree, Hinkley had to take part in a slightly different one because of the COVID-19. She still considers this an unforgettable one. Something that she hopes her children will never forget as well. Hinkley says, "I can only hope it inspired them never to stop chasing their dreams, no matter how big or small." READ ALSO: Mom Makes Giant Cinnamon Rolls, Feeds Frontliners and Helps Food Banks The family's plan after mom finished her dream degree Now that Brittney has finished the surgical technology program, she had an offer in a hospital in Maine and has accepted it. The entire family is moving to Maine soon, so she will not be able to attend the traditional ceremony of the Temple College in August. Krishnava Dutt By The suspension of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings for a year raises concerns for various stakeholders. IBC has arguably been one of the crown jewels of reforms and has helped India jump a few notches on the ease of doing business index. If the intended consequence of the suspension was to protect India Inc. from a stringent legislation for NPA resolution and prevent companies from being acquired at rock-bottom valuations, we may need to take a closer look to see whether intent and effect will actually converge. IBC has been strenuously positioned as a tool for restructuring rather than for recovery. Prior to it, the modes of restructuring were primarily limited to the failed SICA, provisions under Section 391 of the Companies Act, 1956, and the then-applicable RBI guidelines. SICA has been repealed and the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, have folded into the Companies Act 2013 (the Act). After the suspension, avenues for rehabilitation are currently only under the Act and RBIs Prudential Framework for Resolution of Stressed Assets (June 7 Circular). Both are inhibited by their own limitations, which makes them fall short of being an all-encompassing rehabilitation programme. The scheme under the Act or the June 7 Circular only binds the creditors and shareholders if they are a party to it. The sweep of the resolution plan under IBC is far more comprehensive and binds all stakeholders. It has the ability to whitewash all past liabilities (including statutory liabilities) and give the corporate debtor a fresh start. Concessions in the form of extension of time for obtaining government approvals are an added benefit not available under the Act or the June 7 circular. Billions of dollars have been stuck in non-performing companies. The IBC came as a beacon of hope for freeing the money. It allowed some of these companies (where at least the assets were of good quality) to be put back into profitable operation. Though there have been valid concerns raised by investors on the timelines being extended much beyond the stipulated mandate, empirical data has shown the IBC to be the most effective resolution framework till date. Further, Covid has and will create a large pool of distressed assets across the globe. Investors will naturally be attracted to jurisdictions where there is certainty. One view can be that all the good assets in India have already been taken up in the first phase and there may not be too many meaningful distressed assets left. This ignores the fact that a good performing asset pre-Covid may slip into good NPA now. But the debate cannot be restricted only to the absence of distressed good assets in India. The IBC is essentially a framework for restructuring. Bottlenecks did exist, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) and the Centre consistently demonstrated remarkable proactiveness to remove these bottlenecks regularly after receiving inputs from stakeholders. The intent to suspend IBC is, at one end of the spectrum, a socio-economic one to prevent companies from being acquired at abysmal valuations through adversarial action of the creditors, and at the other end to prevent the system from choking up with countless cases. Needless to mention, action against defaulting companies is in any event available under the debt recovery tribunals/civil courts/ arbitration or even SARFAESI Act. Interestingly, jurisdictions in the EU and UK are also considering or have already implemented partial suspension of insolvency proceedings. However, this article is not delving into the nuanced differences both in the law and the socio-economic topography between them and India. Even if the argument was to prevent acquisitions at pandemic valuations, the below-mentioned three-pronged approach may be considered by the Centre as a lifeline to struggling companies: (i) Allow applications to be filed under Section 10, which the defaulting company (or its shareholders) can submit under the IBC for its own rehabilitation; (ii) Introduce the framework for allowing pre-packaged resolutions to enable companies and creditors to negotiate an acceptable restructuring package and implement the same through the judicial supervision of NCLT; (iii) As a corollary to the pre-packaged resolutions, suspend the controversial Section 29A (which prevents promoters from participating in resolutions). This would give flexibility to the lender community and the stressed companies to agree on the extent of credit concessions. The same would have been blessed by the NCLT through a judicial process to expand the binding nature of the restructuring package to all stakeholders. This would allow the company to restate its obligations to an acceptable level and allow continuity of the business. Whilst the extent of the economic impact of Covid-19 is still being assessed, there is little doubt about its enormity. The ominous cloud of recession or at least a hitherto unexperienced economic slowdown requires a robust framework for rehabilitation more than ever before. It is the healing balm that the economy needs more than ever. To shut that door would be like keeping a critical patient hanging outside the ICU with neither certainty nor hope for recovery. Krishnava Dutt Managing Partner,Argus Partners (krishnava.dutt@argus-p.com) Just one quarter of pupils in year 10 and 12 will be allowed to return to schools to see their teachers at any one time, according to new Department for Education guidance. Boris Johnson said when he announced his road map for easing lockdown that he wanted secondary school students in England who are facing exams next year to have some face-to-face time with staff before the summer holidays. But the new guidance shows that in order for schools to adhere to social distancing rules the number of pupils allowed back will be capped at 25 per cent of normal levels. As a result, the Government has made clear that remote learning provision must remain in place for the foreseeable future. Boris Johnson, pictured in Number 10 yesterday, has said he wants all secondary school pupils facing exams next year to have some face-to-face time with teachers before the summer holidays Primary schools are due to start their phased reopening from June 1 with secondary schools following suit from June 15 When Mr Johnson set out on May 10 his plan for easing lockdown he said he wanted to see the phased reopening of primary schools from June 1 and for some level of secondary education to also return. The Government wants all pupils in year 10 and 12 to get some learning support from teachers before the summer break, starting from June 15 at the earliest. But the latest Government guidance shows schools are being told to massively restrict the number of pupils returning on any one day. 'We are asking secondary schools to offer this face-to-face support to supplement the remote education of year 10 and year 12 pupils, which should remain the predominant mode of education during this term for pupils in these year groups,' the guidance states. 'Our assessment, based on the latest scientific and medical advice, is that we need to continue to control the numbers attending school to reduce the risk of increasing transmission. 'Therefore, schools are able to have a quarter of the year 10 and year 12 cohort (for schools with sixth forms) in school at any one time. 'Any plans that secondary schools have made for pupils to return earlier in June should be amended to commence from 15 June.' The Government has also published a list of measures which schools can take to try to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Those measures include cleaning hands more often than usual, ensuring good respiratory hygiene by promoting the 'catch it, bin it, kill it, message and cleaning frequently touched surfaces often using detergents and bleach. Schools have also been told to try to minimise 'contact and mixing, as far as possible'. That means keeping pupils in small groups for face-to-face support and 'keeping those groups as consistent as possible whilst in school'. The reopening of schools has been subject to weeks of wrangling between ministers, trade unions and councils with the latter repeatedly expressing safety concerns. The latest guidance comes after some councils told secondary schools that they do not have to reopen on June 15. Six local authorities told The Telegraph they would let local schools make their own decisions about when to reopen. More than 50 councils have voiced opposition to restarting reception, year one and year six classes on June 1. Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, said: 'The people best placed to lead and decide on the timing of young people returning to school are the teachers themselves, working with their governors, communities and ourselves. 'We will back them and work with them to deal with the consequences of their decisions. Secondary schools should be treated no differently.' Both Solihull and Staffordshire councils suggested their advice would likely not change for secondary schools on June 15, leaving the decision to teachers. Education is a devolved matter which means the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments can take their own decisions on when schools should reopen. The body of a four-year-old girl found dead in Brisbane's east on Monday, who police allege was killed by her father, could have been dead in the home for two days. Emergency services attended the home on Bent Street, Cannon Hill, about 9.20am on Monday after receiving a triple zero call, where they found Willow Dunn dead. Forensic officers comb the Bent Street house on Monday. Credit:Darren England/AAP Though police allege that 43-year-old Mark James Dunn murdered the girl two days earlier, "on or about" Saturday, May 23, court documents show. Officers declared a crime scene on arrival and cordoned off the street for much of the day on Monday, with about 10 police cars and two ambulances descending on the home. Ludhiana police with the help of Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) doctors have made an exercise module for the police personnel on field duty during the coronavirus lockdown. As per the police officials, some of the police personnel have complained of body aches and pain in neck and joints. With the help of the new module, they can do exercise two to three times a day to relax their muscles while performing their duty. Dr Shekhar Singhal and Dr Ajay Kumar have made a three-minute exercise module for the same. DUTY HOURS STRETCHED Ghumar Mandi police post in-charge sub-inspector Kulbir Singh said, Amid the lockdown, our duty hours have been stretched. We are performing duty for 12-13 hours daily due to which we are facing physical problems, including body aches and pain in neck, joints and back. Despite these problems, we cannot ignore our duty. Dr Shekhar Singhal said they are giving demonstration of the brief workout to the police personnel on frontline duty. The exercises include stretching of neck, leg muscles and patting self on the lower back, he said. Deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) Akhil Chaudhary said the department has already launched a physiology helpline and a mobile medical unit for the police personnel. [May 26, 2020] 75% Of Cybersecurity Pros Say Remote Work Drove Dramatic Change in Financial Services Cyber Programs, FS-ISAC Poll Finds RESTON, Virginia, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), an industry consortium dedicated to reducing cyber risk in the global financial system, today announced that 75 percent of cybersecurity professionals representing financial institutions around the world made dramatic changes to their firm's cybersecurity programs to cope with the rapid shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a poll conducted by FS-ISAC. FS-ISAC polled 871 cybersecurity professionals from financial institutions around the world at its Virtual Summit on May 19, which gathered more than 3000 cybersecurity professionals in the financial services industry. The poll gauged which trends driven by the pandemic had the most impact on their cybersecurity programs. Key findings include: Digital banking tools were ready to securely handle a huge increase in volume as only three percent of respondents saw these tools driving significant program changes Eleven percent of respondents said third party risk concerns led to dramatic change Forty-six percent reported their financial institution is likely to invest more in cybersecurity post-pandemic "The accelerated shift to remote work has fueled a rapid evolution of the cyber threat landscape," said Steve Silberstein, CEO of FS-ISAC. "As the effects of this pandemic continue to unfold, CISOs and cybersecurity teams are constantly adaptig their cybersecurity programs to meet a new reality that is everything but normal." To support its nearly 7,000 members in sharing information about cyber threats, including those derived from the pandemic, FS-ISAC launched the FS-ISAC Intelligence Exchange in April 2020. The platform includes a new cyber intelligence sharing app and a secure chat function for real-time communication and collaboration. Since its launch, more than 6,000 users globally have adopted the new platform. For more information about the Intelligence Exchange, please visit our website . Note to the Editors FS-ISAC polled its members at its 2020 Virtual Summit held on May 19, 2020. The survey gauged which trends driven by the pandemic had the most impact on financial institutions' cybersecurity programs. Registered attendees represented financial institutions from more than 50 countries, including the USA, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, India, and Singapore. The percentages are based on a total of 871 responses. About FS-ISAC The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) is an industry consortium dedicated to reducing cyber risk in the global financial system. Serving financial institutions and in turn their customers, the organization leverages its intelligence platform, resiliency resources, and a trusted peer-to-peer network of experts to anticipate, mitigate and respond to cyberthreats. FS-ISAC has nearly 7,000 member firms with users in more than 70 countries. Headquartered in United States, the organization has offices in the United Kingdom and Singapore. To learn more, visit www.fsisac.com . To get clarity and perspective on the future of finance, data and cybersecurity from top C-level executives around the world, visit FS-ISAC Insights . Contacts for Media: Adriana Villasenor, FS-ISAC 703.343.0329 [email protected] Meredith Zaritheny, Prosek Partners 646.818.9251 [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1172447/FS_ISAC_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A large COVID-19 research project uses SMART-TRIAL to gather data on Iceland's wellbeing during the Coronavirus pandemic Unnur Anna Valdimarsdottir The COVID-19 Resilience COHORT is a one-of-a-kind study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and well-being of Icelanders. The novel virus has impacted many lives and this project aims to understand peoples behaviors and their physical and mental health during the pandemic. The project Resilience cohort is undertaken by scientists at the Center of Public Health Sciences at the University of Iceland, in collaboration with the Medical Directorate of Health, the Chief Epidemiologist of Iceland, several foreign research institutions, and supported by the Icelandic government and SMART-TRIAL. The pandemic has left the world with unprecedented challenges and according to the WHO the crisis has been generating stress throughout the population. Research programs are needed to significantly advance the understanding of the effects of the pandemic on peoples physical and mental health. All Icelanders, 18 years or older, are invited to participate in the COVID-19 Resilience Cohort. Using eConsent and the Icelandic national electronic identification (Rafraen skilriki or Islykill), participants sign their informed consent digitally. The Resilience Cohort study takes advantage of the SMART-TRIAL electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) system for data collection and management. The system automatically sends participants a web-based questionnaire on their mental and physical health, exposure to COVID-19 related factors within the family, change in lifestyle and social interactions. The participants are then prospectively followed in subsequent study waves and by record linkage to the nationwide health registers. We knew we wanted to conduct a COVID-19 study early on in the Pandemic to better understand the larger societal and public health consequences of COVID-19. The process from idea to study setup to data collection has been quick and SMART-TRIAL has enabled us to do this smoothly. Having utilized the data management system previously for a large study similar to this one, we knew we could rely on SMART-TRIAL to handle our requirements on data security, integration and usability. Unnur Anna Valdimarsdottir, Principal Investigator and professor of epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland SMART-TRIAL is the primary tool for data collection in this project. VP of Global Business Development, Jon Ingi Bergsteinsson added, We are immensely proud to be able to offer SMART-TRIALs data collection capabilities to support such an important project. In order to better understand the societal impact of COVID-19 , and to better prepare for future pandemics, we need to gather as much information as possible. But this can be a daunting task, especially during times of social distancing. This is where the combination of eConsent and SMART-TRIALs integrated ePRO via email and SMS are of great use for this project The US is learnt to have asked Israel to sever ties with China, especially in areas with security risks. IMAGE: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in Beijing. Photograph: Etienne Oliveau/Pool via Reuters China's onetime cosy relations with Israel are now in steep decline and in line with a pattern which is emerging from Japan to India where China appears to be on an unexplained path of aggression. The Jerusalem Post, quoting a United States official with knowledge of talks on the matter, said in a report that Washington, DC had last week asked Israel to sever ties with China, especially in areas with security risks. Even during his trip to Israel on May 13, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had asked Tel Aviv to reconsider some of its joint projects with Beijing. The recent pressure from US marks an escalation of the heightened feud between Washington, DC and Beijing over the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. It also focuses on the establishment of a more robust review process for foreign investments that could pose risks, and a reduction of reliance on China for emergency equipment in light of the pandemic, jeopardizing ties between Jerusalem and Beijing. Chinese companies are operating in Israel today in deals reaching more than $20 billion and more is on the way. Jerusalem has gone so far as to even allow Chinese companies that do business in Iran to compete for major infrastructure projects in the State of Israel. As per media reports, the US request is based on two motivations. The first seems to be a desire to punish China for hiding news of the original outbreak of the novel coronavirus from the world and then not doing enough to stop it from reaching US shores. US President Donald Trump, for example, has long called COVID-19 a 'Chinese virus', going so far as to accuse President Xi Jinping for standing behind a 'disinformation and propaganda attack on the United States and Europe'. 'It all comes from the top,' Trump tweeted last week. 'They could have easily stopped the plague, but they didn't!' Earlier this month, Pompeo told ABC's This Week that there is 'enormous evidence' that the virus came from a Chinese lab in Wuhan, the original site of the outbreak,' he added. The US is upset with China and wants it to pay a price. The best way to do that is to hurt its pocket and to get American allies like Israel to reconsider their trade and joint infrastructure projects with China. The second motivation is the fear from Chinese espionage. Back in 2000, after the cancellation of the planned sale of the Phalcon AWACS China, Israel made a decision not to sell Beijing any military equipment. It was a decision based on an ultimatum that if Israel continued selling weaponry to China it would lose American support. The US and Israel share some of the most sensitive intelligence with one another. In addition, American defense contractors sell Israel some of the most classified military hardware and weapons in the US like the F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter jet. The US is concerned that with China building most of Israel's infrastructure -- roads, trains, tunnels, ports and more -- it will eventually gain access to the lines of communication through which Israel and the US communicate intelligence with one another. That is something that Washington, DC will not tolerate. "I don't think polite deflection will cut it anymore," he stated. "This is a high priority for the US," a senior State Department official was quoted as saying by the Post. "Israel's government now includes two former chiefs of Staff -- Gabi Ashkenazi and Benny Gantz -- who more than others, understand the importance of Israel-US ties. "China is an important trade partner for Israel and we hope it will remain that way but clearer lines need to be drawn and there is no better time to do so than the present," the official added. By PTI MUMBAI: Hundreds of migrant labourers were seen outside major railway stations in Mumbai and in surrounding region on Tuesday, expecting to board north-bound trains. Crowds of men, women and children were seen outside Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Bandra, Borivali and Panvel stations. Shramik speicial trains were scheduled to leave from these stations, a police official said, admitting that it was impossible to enforce social distancing in such situations. Police were deployed in large numbers at all these stations, he added. NCP leader and Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik claimed that the railway ministry had earlier promised 49 trains from LTT -- from where many Bihar and UP- bound trains normally leave. However, railway officials later said only 16 trains will depart, which led to swelling of crowd, Malik alleged. Toronto police have arrested two teenagers in connection with nine bank robberies across the GTA in January. Police say that, between Jan. 5-7, a lone male suspect was reported entering four banks in Toronto and York Region while concealing his identity with a mask. The suspect pulled out a handgun, threatened the employees and customers, and demanded cash, police said in a news release on Tuesday. Between Jan. 9-15, police say two male suspects entered five banks in Toronto and York Region while concealing their identities. One of the suspects pulled out a handgun, threatened employees and customers, and fled the scene in a car after taking cash, police said. Police did not say how much money was stolen. On Saturday, police arrested a 17 year old, of Toronto, and charged him with 14 counts of robbery with a firearm, 14 counts of disguise with intent, 14 counts of pointing a firearm, and five counts of conspiracy to commit indictable offence. He appeared in court on Sunday. On Monday, police arrested Roel Lloyd, 19, of no fixed address, and charged him with four counts of robbery with a firearm, four counts of disguise with intent, four counts of pointing a firearm, and two counts of conspiracy to commit indictable offence. He appeared in court on Tuesday. Jacob Lorinc is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Stars radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @jacoblorinc Bihar Board 10th Result 2020 declared: The Bihar Board released the Class 10 exam results today (Tuesday, 26 May). The results were likely to be released on Monday, but got delayed due to last-minute arrangements. Bihar Board 10th Result 2020 declared: The Bihar Board released the Class 10 exam results today (Tuesday, 26 May). The results were likely to be released on Monday, but got delayed due to last-minute arrangements. The BSEB announced the results of Class 10 students after scrutiny of the answer copies of students who scored the highest marks. The Bihar Board started verifying the answer scripts of top-scoring students after an incident in 2016, where toppers did not know answers to basic questions. The verification process of half of the toppers has been completed. As soon as the process for all the 38 districts is over, BSEB will declare the Class 10 results. Once declared, students can check their Class 10 Bihar board examination 2020 results on biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in as well as biharboard.online and via SMS. The board completed the compilation process of marks after the submission of evaluation results to it. The Bihar Board Class 10 examination 2020 was held from 17 to 24 February. The results were scheduled to be announced by March but the evaluation of more than 15.29 lakh answer scripts was postponed till 3 May due to the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. The evaluation process began on 6 May. Here's how to check your result: Step 1: Visit the website of Bihar Board - biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in Step 2: On the home page, click on the 'Results' Step 3: Tap on Class X Matriculation results Step 4: Select your stream and click on 'Result' Step 5: You will be directed to a new page where you will have to key-in your credentials Step 6: Enter the captcha text Step 7: You can now check and download your BSEB Class 10 Result 2020. Students can also check their BSEB Class 10 Results 2020 via SMS. For this, you will need to go to the message option of their phone and type - BSEB10 -space- ROLL NUMBER and send it to 56263. Last year, the Bihar Board Class 10 Result pass percentage was 80.73 percent. Bihar board Class 12 Result 2020 was released by BSEB on 24 March. The story of the man who was blamed for introducing heroin to Ireland came to a very low-key end on Saturday evening when his body was cremated after a secret ceremony in Mount Jerome. It is understood that a small crowd was present for the final chapter in the sordid tale of Larry Dunne at Mount Jerome Crematorium at Harold's Cross on the capital's southside. No death notice giving details of Dunne's final arrangements was published and the former drug trafficker's local Church of the Holy Shepherd in Churchtown was not given any details of the cremation. When contacted by the Herald yesterday, Dunne's older brother Christy 'Bronco' Dunne would not confirm whether he was in attendance at Mount Jerome at the weekend and simply said: "It is history now." Larry Dunne (72) died at 3pm on Monday of last week in St James's Hospital where he was being treated for catastrophic self-inflicted stab injuries. He had been rushed to the hospital from his home in Carrickmount Drive in Rathfarnham a day earlier. Dunne - one of the most notorious criminals in the history of the State - was in the advanced stages of a battle with lung cancer. Despite his reputation which was enhanced when he famously said "if you think we're bad, wait till you see what's coming after us" after he was handed a 14-year jail sentence for heroin dealing in March, 1985, Dunne had not been an active criminal for well over a decade or more. Dunne introduced heroin into Ireland in the late 1970s after it became widely available in Europe following the Iranian revolution. He had more than 40 criminal convictions, including for the sale and supply of heroin and cocaine. In 1985, Larry was jailed for 14 years for distributing heroin, marking the end of his family's reign in the trade. He was found guilty after a circuit court trial in June, 1983, but he had absconded on the opening day of the case and the trail continued in his absence. The trial was told that when gardai raided Dunne's corporation house they found heroin, cocaine and cannabis resin. Although unemployed, the drugs baron had moved to a home in the Dublin mountains then worth IR100,000 in 1982 while on bail for his offences. In his absence Dunne was found guilty of being in possession of drugs for supply. Dunne had fled to Portugal but he was arrested there and then extradited back to Ireland where he was given the 14-year sentence on March 25, 1985. He was one of the first drug dealers in Ireland to use more junior criminals to carry drugs for him - often for very little cash reward - a trend that continues in organised crime to this day. It is understood that the then flashy and ultra-rich drugs trafficker gloated when other criminals said that "Larry doesn't carry" but obviously his luck ran out when he was busted by gardai and in his latter years Dunne lived a modest and quiet life in the working class Carrickmount Drive housing estate. Busted This was the same property where he was busted with the drugs 40 years ago and when arrested all that he said to gardai was "Look, I'm accepting responsibility for everything and that's all I'm saying". In time, bigger drugs traffickers such as Christy Kinahan and John Gilligan would emerge but 40 years ago, Larry Dunne was Ireland's number one drugs trafficker. In an era long before the Criminal Assets Bureau was set up, the criminal who had been born into abject poverty in a flats complex in inner city Dublin in February 1948, loved to flaunt his wealth from his heroin trafficking enterprise and he drove expensive cars and lived a champagne lifestyle. On September 13, 1847, Mexico was involved in a war against America that has been raging on for 16 grueling months, lost six, young heroes at Cerro de Chapultepec. The Mexican teenage military cadets died protecting the military academy during the Mexican-American War. The cadets were aged 13 to 19 and are remembered today as a symbol of the country's national pride. The nation erected the Los Ninos Heroes Monument at the entrance to Chapultepec Park. The War The Chapultepec Castle was converted as a military academy in 1833 and it was left abandoned for nearly two decades. The academy was placed at a strategic point where the soldiers could easily protect Mexico City on its west side from invaders. The castle stood at 200 feet and was naturally fortified by its surrounding landscape. The war between the two nations began after America recognized Texas' independence in 1846. The Mexicans refused to acknowledge the annexation of the Republic of Texas, leading to a border dispute. Mexico made an effort to purchase the disputed land, a notion rejected by the American government. Elected President James Polk sent Major General Zachary Taylor to seize the territory. The Mexicans killed a dozen of the general's force and captured 50 before they proceeded to burn an American fort on the Rio Grande. The move forced American President Polk to call Congress to declare war with Mexico. The declaration was approved on May 23, 1846. In 1847, the Americans were near conquering Mexico City. The American forces, led by General Winfield Scott, targeted the academy on Chapultepec Hill-he believed it to be the key to capturing Mexico City. The United States' military forces assembled a war council on September 11 and launched an attack. When the war broke out, the academy had dozens of teenage cadets. Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana commanded the Mexican Army to defend against invasion. However, his forces were easily outnumbered. General Nicolas Bravo, commander of the troops in Chapultepec Hill, ordered his men to evacuate to safety. Roughly 1,000 men, with some as young as 13 years old, fled the castle. The Brave Only the six young cadets refused to surrender and fought to the death to protect the coveted base. They met the American forces head-on and died during the clash. Juan de la Barrera, 19, was the son of an army general. He became a cadet at the hill when he was 12-years-old. At the time of the attack, Barrera was a lieutenant and a part-time instructor at the academy. He protected the gun battery. Francisco Marquez, 13, was the youngest. He expressed his intentions to join the ranks when his mother remarried a cavalry captain. He entered the academy eight months before the invasion. He defended the academy's east flank. Agustin Melgar was the son of a lieutenant colonel in the Mexican Army. He was raised by his sister after both of their parents died. He enrolled to the military program in November 1846. He defended the north side of the castle alone. Fernando Montes de Oca, 15, entered the academy in early 1847. He was the only cadet left to defend the fort from inside. Vicente Suarez, 14, was the son of a cavalry officer. He served as an officer cadet at the military academy at the time of the attack. Juan Escutia, who was aged 15 to 19, entered the academy just four days before the attack. He is often portrayed as a second lieutenant. His records were lost in the war. All six of the heroes died of gunshot wounds while defending the hill, except Juan Escutia. According to accounts, he was the last one left alive. Refusing to surrender, he pulled the Mexican flag and jumped off a cliff after wrapping himself in it. His body was found beside his corpse of his friend, Francisco Marquez. Want to read more? Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Accusing the BJP of spreading rumour that Presidents rule will be imposed in Maharashtra, state minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Tuesday asserted that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government is strong and stable and will complete its term. Malik expressed confidence that numbers (of MLAs) are in favour of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising theShiv Sena, NCP and Congress, and said the three parties are united. "The government is strong and stable. The numbers are in favour of MVA. The three parties are united," Malik, who is NCPs national spokesperson, told a channel. "But, people in the BJP have been spreading rumours since past few days that Presidents rule will be imposed in Maharashtra, that this government will go, he said. The Maharashtra government has been strictly adhering to the Centres guidelines on combating COVID-19, he said. The number of people tested and traced in Maharashtra is highest in the country, he claimed. "Our government is performing well...the BJP is spreading rumours...our government is strong, Malik said. On Monday, BJP's Rajya Sabha member Narayan Rane met Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari and demanded imposition of President's rule in view of the Shiv Sena-led state government's "failure" in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. Rane told reporters that the MVA government has messed up administrative affairs in the time of the unprecedented crisis. Concerns over coronavirus have changed everything from the ways we socialize and work to the ways we order food. Restaurants hungry for customers have been forced to adapt. VOAs Arash Arabasadi brings us a good news story from Rome, where a hands-off approach may bring back business. Almost exactly a year ago, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, stood on the porch of the Grand Hotel, beaming as the governor affixed her signature to historic auto insurance legislation they had cut through partisan disagreements to achieve. Today, I think, is a model for how we can and must continue to move forward, Whitmer said at the time. This bipartisanship shows divided government does not have to look like Washington D.C., it can be a Michigan brand based on our dedication and fidelity to solving problems for the people we serve. But that spirit of collaboration has eroded over the last year, fracturing the once-functional relationship between Whitmer and Republican leaders at a time when experts say they must to work together to fill a $3.2 billion budget hole stemming from the economic effects of COVID-19. A brief chronology of head-butting events since that bipartisan revelry on the worlds largest porch: As John Sellek, longtime Republican politico and founder of Harbor Strategic Public Affairs put it, I think its safe to say its one of the worst relationships in the history of Michigan state government. The relationship has definitely been better, according TJ Bucholz, president and CEO of the progressive Vanguard Public Affairs. I think that they are certainly at an impasse at the absolute wrong time, he said. According to the latest numbers from the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference last week, the state is facing a $3.2 billion hole in the current budget, which started Oct. 1, 2019 and runs through Sept. 30, 2020. Thats because the effects of the coronavirus have hit the economy, depleting sales and income tax revenues. And the governor and legislature are already butting heads over how to address the lost revenue. Whitmer has made some immediate cost-cutting moves, like furlough days for state employees. But asked this week about starting the process of making budget cuts, she instead said she was looking for flexibility and additional resources from the federal government. Every state in the nation is confronting a budget crisis. Every single one of us. This is not about politics; this is a fact of covid-19 has ravaged our economies and every state in the nation has confronted this. This is why Im working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to try to get congress to complete this," Whitmer said. The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill with $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments last week. However, according to National Public Radio its been panned as dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate, and the President Donald Trump administration has already warned of a veto. In Michigan, House Appropriations Committee Chair state Rep. Shane Hernandez, R-Port Huron, said if the federal government does step in, they can always make changes. Right now, hes looking to the governors office for a spending reduction plan, and quickly. The more time we take, the more funding that has gone out and is committed and the less options we have of how were going to reduce the current-year budget, Hernandez said. Heres the procedure for addressing lower-than-expected revenues, per state law. The treasury department and state budget director notify the governor of the shortfall. The governor prepares an order reducing expenditures, then presents that recommendation to the House and Senate appropriations committees. The House and Senate appropriations committees must approve the order within 10 days for it to take effect. Or, the legislature could pass whats known as a negative supplemental that takes the money out of the budget. Like any bill, that would need the governors signature. Either way, as Hernandez put it, There is no way to do it without a collaborative process. Mitch Bean, former director of the House Fiscal Agency, has gone through budget reductions before, dating back to under former Gov. John Engler. Its not unusual, he said, for parties to hit up against balance of power issues. There's always some level of acrimony between the governor and the legislature. That's the way the process works, Bean said. In the past, the governor and legislature have always worked through those problems. That's the way its always been in the past. Now this time, I dont know, Bean said, noting the situation was unique. The head-to-head between Republican legislative leaders and the governor is exacerbated by election-year politics. First, members of the House are up for election this year, with Republicans and Democrats vying for the majority, which Republicans currently hold. In almost any two-year election cycle you will see year one starts off with a clean state, the two parties try to work together... and then you just see a general, gradual decline into year two, and it gets more rapid the closer we get to the election, Sellek said. This time, though, he said that decline in the relationship started earlier than ever. And then theres the presidential election. Michigan Republicans are backing incumbent President Donald Trump while Whitmer is a campaign co-chair for presumed Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden. Shes also in the mix for consideration as the vice presidential nominee. It is complicated by Gov. Whitmers ambition to be Joe Bidens running mate, because Republicans see an opportunity to kill her in the cradle, is what I'd say, said Bucholz. Making her look bad here at home could stop her in her tracks, he said. Right now, Whitmer is exercising a lot of unilateral power under the state of emergency. She acted alone to issue the stay-at-home order. She acted alone to decide when to close businesses and is acting alone as she issues orders reopening sections of the state and the economy. But both Bucholz and Sellek say she needs a working relationship with the legislature, long-term. While she doesnt need Mike Shirkey and lee Chatfield now, shes going to need them later. And how you act now, and how you deal with them now is holistically important, Bucholz said. BOSTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- BitSight , the Standard in Security Ratings, today announced it has appointed Tim Adams to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Jay Roxe to Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Adams joins BitSight from biotechnology company ObsEva where he held the same role, while Roxe most recently served as Vice President of Product Marketing, Adoption and Operations at healthcare IT firm athenahealth. "Tim and Jay both bring a wealth of experience, leadership and proven track records of results in their respective fields that will help shape the company as we build for scale in the years ahead," said Stephen Harvey, CEO, BitSight. "BitSight's solutions are invaluable to a growing number of organizations managing cyber risk, and it is imperative that we have the executive leadership in place to manage our expected growth -- both are key to guiding that growth." Adams brings over 30 years of financial and operational leadership to the role of CFO at BitSight, including experience as CFO of publicly traded companies. While at ObsEva, Adams guided the firm through its IPO in 2017. He also held the roles of CFO at Demandware, which was sold to Salesforce for over $3 billion, and CFO at athenahealth. Adams began his career as a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers and holds an MBA degree from Boston University and a BS in Accounting from Murray State University in Kentucky. "In these times more than ever, cybersecurity is business-critical for every organization across every industry," said Adams. "The team at BitSight has built a strong business based on an innovative solution set that addresses key security challenges. I am eager to lend my expertise scaling fiscal operations across public and private organizations to help BitSight grow." In the role of CMO, Roxe will tap his more than two decades of experience in cloud product and marketing leadership in IT and cybersecurity to drive strategy and execution across all of BitSight's marketing functions and teams. Prior to athenahealth, Roxe served as Senior Director of Product Marketing at Rapid 7. He holds an MBA degree from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BE in Computer Science from Princeton University. "BitSight is the only company positioned to transform the way that all organizations from businesses and investors to governments and insurers measure and manage cyber risk to protect and secure our future," Roxe said. "I look forward to contributing to the BitSight story as it enters a new phase of accelerated growth." About BitSight BitSight transforms how organizations manage cyber risk. The BitSight Security Ratings Platform applies sophisticated algorithms, producing daily security ratings that range from 250 to 900, to help organizations manage their own security performance; mitigate third party risk; underwrite cyber insurance policies; conduct financial diligence; and assess aggregate risk. With over 2,100 global customers and the largest ecosystem of users and information, BitSight is the Standard in Security Ratings and was honored as a 2020 Most Innovative Company by Fast Company. For more information, please visit www.bitsight.com , read our blog or follow @BitSight on Twitter. SOURCE BitSight "The first is: will any proposal make jobs more secure for working people? That's really important we don't want to go back to what it was like pre-pandemic where one in three workers didn't even have sick leave," she said. "The second measure is making sure that working people get their fair share of the nation's wealth." The conditions place a significant constraint on Mr Morrison's plan when Liberal MPs are seeking far greater changes to the workplace regime to give employers more freedom to negotiate wages and conditions with workers. Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to reform industrial relations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen One Liberal backbencher said it was too early to tell whether the agenda would produce significant change but that Mr Morrison was right to start the process without stipulating the final outcome. Loading Another Liberal MP said the result could "tweak" the industrial relations system when the problem was the system itself. While some Liberals want to scale back the power of the Fair Work Commission to regulate wages and conditions, some employers want to rewrite the rules of the "better off overall test" that ensures workers cannot be worse off in any changes to enterprise agreements. Mr Morrison said he would not prescribe the outcome on the "better off overall test" and would leave it to employers and unions because it would be up to them to make sure any agreement was sustained and maintained over the long term. "What I'm trying to do differently about this process is not run out there with an IR shopping list," he said. "I haven't seen that work in my political experience in the time I've been in the Parliament." While Mr Morrison said he was offering unions and employers a way to "get everyone back in the room" and build on the united effort in the COVID-19 crisis, others dismissed the chances of serious change. The Opposition said it would back any changes that created more jobs, delivered higher wages and gave workers more rights. "Let's be clear: all the government has done so far is book a room. This is not an IR agenda it's a series of meetings," said Labor workplace spokesman Tony Burke. Loading Labor welcomed Mr Morrison's decision to set aside the Ensuring Integrity Bill, which was meant to crack down on rogue unions, but said the government did not have the numbers in the Senate to pass the bill anyway. The Australian Industry Group backed the process and Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott said workers would benefit if enterprise agreements restored the ambitions of the Hawke and Keating governments to tie conditions to productivity. "We know from history that that system created higher wages, and if we could get back to that system then I believe Australians will have more secure jobs, better workplaces and higher wages," she said. "The system has become too complicated it's too hard to get enterprise agreements done, there are too many things in them." Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter has been speaking to Ms McManus several times each week and will consult the union movement on the membership of the five working groups. Two of the five working groups will focus on industrial awards and enterprise agreements amid concerns that complex rules make it too difficult for unions and employers to gain results. A third group will examine casual employment including the far-reaching consequences of a Federal Court decision last week that found long-term casual workers could seek entitlements including annual leave. With big employers under fire for not paying workers their agreed rates, the fourth working group will consider compliance with the regime as well as enforcement against unions that breach the law. The fifth group will seek a deal on enterprise agreements for "greenfields" projects to encourage new investment. Queen Elizabeth II has several royal titles, but being the Queen of England is not one of those. In February 1952, the then-25 Princess Elizabeth became Queen after her father King George VI lost his battle against lung cancer at the age of 56. The royal family held the official coronation ceremony after one year, during which more than 3 million people lined up from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace to show their support to the new Queen. Despite ruling the monarchy at a very young age, she overcame all the tragic moments and proved that she is a great example of true public service. Currently, she is considered as the longest-reigning Queen and longest-reigning living monarch. Most people refer to Her Majesty as the Queen of England. However, while she technically rules England, it is not the title she has been holding on for years. England's dependency as a sole, separate state since 1707 makes the Queen's title different, and the last official Queen of England was Queen Elizabeth I. When she died in 1603, James Stuart of Scotland became King James I of the United Kingdom. It means that as soon as he succeeded the throne, all the three separate kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland became united for the first time under a single reigning monarch. Since then, the United Kingdom only has one King or Queen. So instead of Queen of England and Queen of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth II's full and simplified title is "Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." Queen's Other Titles, Awards Royal watchers has been surely confused for years now. Queen Elizabeth II's current title is just one of the numerous names and awards she has been holfding on for years. When Her Majesty was born, her title was Her Royal Highness, Princess Elizabeth of York. Nonetheless, her title ever since she became the crowned Queen is "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith." Back in 1975, she received the "Golden Pheasant Award." It is considered as the highest distinction of the Scout Association of Japan. Meanwhile, in April 2013, Sir Kenneth Branagh presented an honorary BAFTA award to the Queen in a ceremony at Windsor Castle for her "lifelong support of the British film and television industry." Queen Elizabeth II was able to garner more unofficial titles from other countries with all her royal engagements outside the monarchy. The Salish Nation in Canada awarded her the title "Mother of All People," while Jamaicans unofficially refer to her as "Missis Queen" or "The Queen Lady." In New Zealand, specifically by the Maori people, she is unofficially known as the "White Heron." In addition, the Channel Islands and the Solomon Islands also established titles for her -- the Duke of Normandy and the Queen of Solomon Islands and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, respectively. Omar Believes Sexual Assault Claims Against Biden, But Would Still Vote for Him Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she believes Tara Reades sexual assault claim against former Vice President Joe Biden, but would still vote for him in the upcoming election if it means preventing a second term for President Donald Trump. Theres a lot of unsavory stuff. It is troubling, I do believe Tara Reade, I believe its important for us to give space for women to come forward and share their stories, Omar said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times. It takes years and years for sexual assault survivors to come forward. Justice can be delayed, but it should never be denied. Omar said that if it were up to her, Biden wouldnt be the Democrats nominee for the November election, but noted that she would vote for him against Donald Trump. Following criticism over her comments in the interview, Omar on May 25 wrote in a tweet that believing survivors is consistent with her values and added that the Sunday Times interview was conducted on May 6 and that the quotes arent always in context. Believing survivors is consistent with my values, she wrote. Yes, I endorsed against Biden and I didnt pick him as our nominee. With that said, in this interview I did on May 6, we talked about that and quotes arent always in context. I will vote for him and help him defeat Trump. (L) Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Del., on March 12, 2020, and (R) President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on April 5, 2020. (AP Photo) The Minnesota congresswoman didnt provide further details on the context of her quotes. Reade filed a report with police on April 9, in which she said she was a victim of sexual assault, but did not name Biden. The court filing stated, Subject-1 disclosed that she was the victim of a sexual assault which was committed by Subject-2 in 1993. She told The Associated Press that the former vice president and presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee pushed her against a wall in the basement of an office building on Capitol Hill in 1993 before sexually assaulting her. At the time of the incident, Reade was working for Biden while he was a U.S. senator representing Delaware, his home state. Reade is one of several women who came forward in early 2019 to accuse Biden of inappropriate touching, hugging, or kissing. In April last year, Biden collectively addressed the allegations from the seven women in a Twitter post in which he pledged to be more respectful of peoples personal space, but has denied Reades claims against him. Speaking to MSNBC in an interview earlier this month, the former vice president said he didnt remember Reade and that anyone who believed her allegations probably shouldnt vote for me. Well, I think they should vote with their heart, and if they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldnt vote for me. I wouldnt vote for me if I believed Tara Reade, Biden said. Look at Tara Reades story. It changes considerably. And, I dont want to question her motive, I dont want to question anything other than to say the truth matters. This is being vetted, its been vetted, and people, scores of my employees over my whole career. This is just totally, thoroughly, completely out of character. And, the idea that in a public place, in a hallway, I would assault a woman? I mean, its justIanyway, I promise you. It never happened. Tara Reade poses for a photograph during an interview in Nevada City, Calif., on April 4, 2019. (Donald Thompson/AP Photo) On May 22, the lawyer representing Reade said his firm is no longer representing her but noted the decision to do so wasnt motivated by doubt that she was assaulted by Biden. Our decision, made on May 20, is by no means a reflection on whether then-Senator Biden sexually assaulted Ms. Reade, Douglas Wigdor said in a statement sent to news outlets. On that point, our viewwhich is the same view held by the majority of Americans, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Pollhas not changed. Wigdor, who donated in 2016 to then-candidate Donald Trump, said he believes Reade has been unfairly portrayed by the media, with most stories intended to victim-shame and attack her credibility on unrelated and irrelevant matters. The lawyer didnt disclose the motivation for dropping Reade as a client but said the firms lawyers genuinely wish Ms. Reade well and hope that she, as a survivor, is treated fairly. Google is joining other companies is planning for a return to the office as COVID-19 cases decline, but its strategy may be more elaborate than most. Company chief Sundar Pichai has outlined a roadmap that will still have most employees working from home for the rest of 2020. As a resultthe company is providing a $1,000 allowance to staff to help them buy computers, office furniture and other equipment needed for remote work. While that might not cover everything, it should ease the burden for workers who dont have everything they need. Provided all goes well, the return will start on July 6th with necessary employees showing up on a rotating basis with about 10 percent capacity. A worker may only come in once every two weeks, Pichai said. Those rotations will increase to 30 percent by September if things go smoothly. There will be rigorous safety measures including social distancing and cleanliness, and only those who absolutely need to come into the office will be asked to show up. Office appearances will be voluntary for everyone else throughout 2020. Some of this approach is shared with companies like Facebook. However, its apparent that Google wont embrace remote work as enthusiastically as Twitter, which will let most staff work from home indefinitely. Some of the internet giants successes came from chance encounters in the office, Pichai explained, and workers might not want to lose that human connection. Google is studying the effects of the sudden shift to working from home and aims for more overall flexibility that could include more remote work, but its not yet ready to abandon physical offices just yet. B.J. Bishop is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother who is a reading tutor in a primary school near her home in east central Minnesota, where she enjoys watching the diverse array of wild animals that visit her yard to eat the fruit from her trees. She has published her new book Moonlight Magic: an enchanting mystery for children of all ages. What goes on when the sun goes down in a small east central town? The stores are closed, Main Street is dimly lit, and there is no traffic. A few restaurants and gas stations are open, but no one is walking around town and it is getting late. The moon is starting to shine across the river that flows through town. Its moonbeams are shining into the windows of the library that sits on a little hill near the back of town. But there is something very different about this moon; the beams are bright and strong. They are reflecting off the river into the library windows and glistening with colors and some sounds! What can that be? Published by Page Publishing, B.J. Bishops engrossing book is a delightful addition to any childrens library. Readers who wish to experience this work can purchase Moonlight Magic at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. ANN ARBOR, MI - Funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide money to the Ann Arbor Housing Commission for 41 new vouchers for non-elderly people living with disabilities. The housing commission received $421,648 from HUD for the vouchers, making it the largest award for non-elderly disabled (NED) vouchers in the state of Michigan. The commission competed for and was awarded 135 non-elderly disabled NED vouchers in 2018 and 2019, making the new voucher allocation a 30% increase from HUD as part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, Ann Arbor Housing Commission Executive Director Jennifer Hall said. This voucher funding will enable 41 additional families with a member with a disability to stabilize their housing situation, Hall said. Without a voucher, Hall said most low-income families pay more than 50% of their income on rent and utilities. With a voucher, the family will pay 30% of their income on rent and utilities and the voucher will pay the rest. The AAHC will pull eligible families from its existing waitlist for the vouchers, Hall said, noting that she expects to open the waiting list later in the summer, posting details on its website and notifying local nonprofit agencies and community groups. The Ann Arbor Housing Commission currently has 370 families on its waiting list for vouchers. Of those, 128 are self-identified as non-elderly disabled eligible. Overall, HUD approved nearly $77 million in a fourth wave of CARES Act funding, supporting up to 8,300 additional vouchers. The NED vouchers enable non-elderly disabled families to lease affordable private housing of their choice. NED vouchers also assist individuals with disabilities who often face difficulties in locating suitable and accessible housing on the private market. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. READ MORE: Affordable housing discussion causes drama on Ann Arbor City Council Ann Arbor looks to attract more affordable housing by aligning DDAs target income goals Two high-rises with affordable housing preferred for Ann Arbors Y Lot site, city says New Ann Arbor council should honor affordable housing pledge, advocates say The rainbow motif can be read any number of ways. The text Our Magic Hour, which is collective not individual, prompts the viewer to think communally its inclusive. When you view the work, youre thinking of the people around you, perhaps even the surrounding group of strangers who might be around you on the tram or the bus. Part of what makes this piece so successful is its location and the message - theres a great irony to it, because its positioned just above the freeway on Citylink. When it illuminates at night, many people who view it would be crawling along in traffic on their way home from work. Im not sure if peak hour in Melbourne would be described as magic hour, but I reckon it might prompt some life questions for people sitting in their cars. Ugo Rondinone's Our Magic Hour in Cremorne. Credit:Brett Boardman Theres also that idea of the magic hour or the golden hour, first light or dusk when things seem magical, a duplicity and the way that the artwork would mean something different depending on when you viewed it, what time of day, and maybe whats going on in your personal life at the time. Thats the magic of the work its simple but also complex and provocative. In the day you almost have to look for it and know its there, but at night its like, wow! Ive never seen it in the morning, because Im not an early bird or I wasnt back then. But I imagine it would be different again signalling the beginning of a magic new day. The government is yet to take a final decision on the evacuation of Ghanaians stranded abroad as a result of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) and the closure of borders. We dont have a decision to bring in all Ghanaians, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Charles Owiredu said at a press briefing on Tuesday morning (May 26, 2020). He, however, explained that the government may treat the repatriation of Ghanaians stranded abroad in phases. The government cannot make a decision saying all of these people should come in at the same time. It is going to be very chaotic if you look at the numbers So the decision was taken that lets start with those from Kuwait. He the 230 Ghanaians who were welcomed into from Kuwait last Saturday was part of the first category. This group that we call the first cohort, they are the ones that the decision was taken by Cabinet to allow them to come in. The second category comprised of people who travelled outside the country on their own and are willing to pay for their flight home and the cost of quarantine. The third category of people included persons who were outside the country on behalf of the state. This category also includes students who are on government scholarships. The final category has travellers who lack the financial wherewithal to return home. The little money that they had on them, they started using them so now they are broke. We say they are destitute. As a result, even if you provide an aircraft and ask these people to pay, they cannot pay, Mr. Owiredu explained. In the meantime, the Deputy Minister said the various needs of Ghanaians abroad will be handled on a need basis. Missions dont have the money that will be used for such situations [to cater to all Ghanaians abroad]. What we have asked the missions to do is that as and when these requests comewe quickly take action to make sure Ghanaians in such jurisdictions dont suffer. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Snr. Col. Wu Qian, the spokesperson for the delegation of the PLA and PAP to the third session of the 13th National People's Congress answers reporters questions in Beijing on May 26, 2020. BEIJING, May 26 The scale and structure of Chinas defense budget is reasonably determined in accordance with the level of national economic development and defense demand, said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, the spokesperson for the delegation of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and the Peoples Armed Police (PAP) Force on Tuesday during the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, when interviewed by the media. According to media reports, the national budget for defense spending in 2020 will increase by 6.6 percent over the previous year. As President Xi Jinping has said, We should ensure both development and security and be ever ready to protect against potential dangers in time of peace. This is a major principle underlying the Partys governance. China adheres to the balance of development and security, the unification of a rich country and a strong military, the coordinated development of national defense and economic construction, and reasonably determines the scale and structure of national defense expenditure in accordance with the level of national economic development and defense demand, Wu said. In other words, when we do the defense budget, we should take both economic and security factors into consideration, he added. He pointed out that recently China has been facing new risks and challenges in the field of national security, and from the international perspective, hegemonism and power politics pop up now and then, unilateralism prevails in some countries, geopolitical risks have risen, and the international security system and order have been impacted. It can be said that the world is not peaceful. And from the domestic perspective, Wu said, the security threat is diversified and complex, the anti-secession struggle situation is even more severe with the Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party authorities building themselves up by pulling in foreign forces and going further and further along the path of separatism. Furthermore, Chinas homeland security and overseas interests are also facing some real threats, Wu said. On the issue of national security, we should keep a sober mind and be prepared for war in peace time, he stressed. At the same time, the increase in defense spending is also in line with the need of the Chinese military to fulfill more international responsibilities, he added. With the development of the Chinese military, the international community's expectation for it to provide more public security products is correspondingly rising. The Chinese military is proactive in supporting the United Nations peacekeeping operations, has sent 35 naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia to carry out routine escort missions, and actively participates in international disaster relief, which has won widespread praise from the international community, Wu stated. Maintaining a moderate and steady growth in defense expenses will be conducive to promoting the Chinese military to live up to the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, actively fulfill the international obligations of the armed forces of a major country, and make more contributions to building a better world of lasting peace and common security, he said. Wu stressed that China firmly follows the path of peaceful development and pursues a defensive national defense policy, China's defense expenditure is open and transparent, and the expenditure level is reasonable and moderate. Wu pointed out that compared with the security demand for safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, the demand for safeguarding its own construction and development, as well as the demand for fulfilling its international obligations and responsibilities as a major country, China's defense expenditure is still much lower. It is reasonable and necessary that China's defense spending increased moderately and steadily, Wu summed up. The United States is a nation bound together by ideals, Leung said. We believe that all are created equal and have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Dont pass up the chance to support those values, to strengthen our ideals. Talk to your children about what it means to be an American. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office arrested 56-year-old Christopher Keys and are investigating the robbery that he initially reported on May 19 A Georgia Christian school teacher has been charged for solicitation of sodomy after local authorities looked into a robbery and kidnapping that was spawned from a rumor 'circulating around Facebook.' The Bibb County Sheriff's Office arrested 56-year-old Christopher Keys and are investigating the robbery that he initially reported on May 19. They shared in a Thursday press release that the office had received an inquiry about a rumored 'carjacking and kidnapping' that took place on Wednesday at the CVS Pharmacy on 1600 block of Forest Hill Drive. Bibb County investigators determined that no such incident took place at the CVS but had been working on an incident with the same victim, identified as Keys. According to an incident report, deputies met with Keys at the Regency Inn & Suites for calls about an armed robbery. Keys claimed that he had been in the motel when he heard a knock at his door. Once he opened the door, two masked men robbed him of his wallet, house, truck and work keys, and a cell phone. One of the men was armed, Keys told deputies. They were investigating a rumor of a carjacking at a CVS but determined that no such incident took place. But according to an incident report, deputies met with Keys at the Regency Inn & Suites for calls about an armed robber on March 19 He told authorities that he was able to get his cell phone back only after a stranger retrieved it from a nearby Walmart parking lot. Keys explained to deputies that he was supposed to meet a man in his hotel room, having responded to an ad on Craigslist. An investigation revealed that Keys had been frequently visiting the hotel since January. At the time of the initial report, Keys allegedly told deputies that he didn't want the details of the robbery to get out. He also told them not to speak with his family. Keys explained to deputies that he was supposed to meet a man in his hotel room, having responded to an ad on Craigslist. An investigation revealed that Keys had been frequently visiting the hotel since January Keys is said to have told deputies that he was going to tell his father that he had been kidnapped from another location and brought to the motel, according to the release. Keys is a Bible youth pastor in the area and a 'former' teacher for the Tattnall Square Academy, a private Christian school in Macon. He was listed on the school's website, but has since been removed - only appearing on a link for the school's blog. A spokeswoman for the school referred to him as a 'former teacher.' 'Tattnall Square Academy was only recently made aware of the charges against our former employee, Christopher Keys,' Alyssa Huntt, director of communications and public relations, explained to The Telegraph. 'We have no comment or information regarding the matter about which he is accused.' In the Facebook post obtained by LGBTQ Nation, the neighbor's post revealed that Keys accused two black men of robbing him. RADNOR, Pa., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Avantor, Inc. (NYSE: AVTR) ("Avantor" or the "Company"), a leading global provider of mission critical products and services to customers in the life sciences and advanced technologies & applied materials industries, today announced the closing of the previously announced underwritten secondary offering of 51,750,000 shares of the Company's common stock held by certain of its stockholders (the "Selling Stockholders") at the public offering price of $16.25 per share, including the full exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase up to 6,750,000 additional shares of common stock. No shares were sold by the Company. The Selling Stockholders received all of the proceeds from this offering. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan served as the joint book-running managers and as representatives of the underwriters for the offering. Guggenheim Securities and Jefferies served as co-managers for the offering. A registration statement, including a prospectus, relating to this offering has been declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction. The offering of these securities was made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus may be obtained from: Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department at 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282 or by telephone at 1-866-471-2526; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone 1-866-803-9204 or by email at [email protected]. About Avantor Avantor is a leading global provider of mission critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. We operate in more than 30 countries and deliver an extensive portfolio of products and services. We set science in motion to create a better world. Global Media Contact Allison Hosak Senior Vice President, Global Communications Avantor +1 908-329-7281 [email protected] Investor Relations Contact Tommy J. Thomas, CPA Vice President, Investor Relations Avantor +1 781-375-8051 [email protected] SOURCE Avantor and Financial News Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said that while she will support 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden in his White House bid, she also thinks it is important to believe survivors of sexual assault, including a woman who has leveled allegations against the former vice president. Omar appeared on "Good Morning America" on Tuesday morning and responded to questions about a recently published interview with the Sunday Times of London in which she said she believed Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer for Biden who has accused him of sexual assault during her time in the office. Omar said that the interview quoted in the Sunday Times of London was several weeks old, and given before ABC News and other outlets reported on Reades past and instances in which she's accused of exaggerating her credentials as an expert witness in sexual assault cases. As a result, defense attorneys in California are reportedly now trying to determine if those comments in court amount to false testimony. MORE: Under oath, Biden accuser Tara Reade cited Bidens work for women; defense attorneys now question her other testimony Omar did not take a firm stance on whether she still believes all aspects of Reade's allegations. Instead, she said it's possible to support Biden in his presidential run while still creating a space for survivors to come forward. "There's obviously parts of what she has said that have been corroborated and parts that haven't, that is not my place to litigate her story," Omar told "GMA" of Reade's allegations against Biden. "I think it's important when someone says they have been assaulted and they see themselves as survivors that we, as we have been saying, believe survivors." Biden and his closest advisors have vehemently denied Reade's allegations. "What matters is the truth ... And the truth of the case is nothing like this, ever, ever happened. She has a right to be heard. But then it should be vetted and the truth ultimately matters. And I give you my word, it never, ever happened," Biden said earlier this month. Story continues MORE: Trump defiant amid backlash, security concerns over tweeted video of Rep. Ilhan Omar Omar campaigned against Biden during the Democratic primary race, throwing her support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt. But now, as Biden has emerged as the Democratic presidential candidate, Omar said she will still vote for Biden to combat President Donald Trump's reelection efforts. PHOTO: Rep. Ilhan Omar appears on 'Good Morning America,' May 26, 2020. (ABC News) Omar also appeared on "GMA" to promote her new book, "This is What America Looks Like", which was released Tuesday. In the book, Omar details her journey to Congress, beginning with the outbreak of war in her Somalian hometown all the way to her time serving in the U.S. Capitol. Omar made waves when she was elected to Congress in 2018, the largest freshmen class of women ever elected to Congress. Her book begins in Somalia, where Omar, the youngest of seven, fled her hometown after a gunmen raided her compound. She resettled with refugee status in Virginia, attained a college degree, became a community organizer and eventually, ran and was elected to Congress. MORE: Ilhan Omar gets standing ovation at town hall after Trump attacks In the book, Omar details intimate experiences from her time in Somalia, including being questioned by gunmen outside her home in an experience that made her fearful for her life. "Reliving those moments and getting the opportunity to tell these stories in my book has both been difficult and therapeutic," Omar told "GMA." "I realize now that going through something like that and facing death at such a young age, I am transformed into someone who really doesn't have the patience to sit around and expect someone to come and save me, but to work and create a life that is purposeful in pursuing peace and justice around the world." Omar is the first Somali-American, first African refugee, and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Omar quickly emerged as a face of the 2018 freshmen Congressional class. She is one of the four members of the all-female "squad" of representatives alongside Tlaib, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. Rep. Ilhan Omar will support Biden, but said it's important to 'believe survivors' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com On This Day The Day Myanmars Capital Erupted Into Race Riots Downtown Yangon in British colonial days. YANGONOn this day in 1930, a clash over dockworker jobs broke out between Indian and Myanmar laborers in Yangon (then Rangoon). The violence lasted several days, escalating into large-scale anti-Indian riots across the country and resulting in the deaths of over 120 people, most of them Indian. The incident was the first of two major outbreaks of rioting between the Indian and Myanmar communities in that decade. In early May 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression, the British firm operating Yangons port employed Myanmar workers in an attempt to break a strike organized by its Indian workers who were demanding a pay rise. Later, the company reached an agreement to raise the Indian dockworkers wages, and dismissed the Myanmar workers. Violence ensued when the Indian workers returned to take up their jobs. News of the Myanmar workers being beaten by the Indian dockers spread across Yangon, fueling anti-Indian sentiment. The capital, which was in a state of ruin due to an earthquake three weeks earlier that killed more than 50 people, was further rocked by the brutal violence between the two communities. According to B.R. Pearns A History of Rangoon, many deaths occurred during the rioting; the official report placed the number of fatalities at 120, but in some quarters this was regarded as an underestimate. Though many politically aware people suspected the British government of instigating the riots to distract Myanmar and Indian people from their economic woes, the violence soon spread to towns big and small across the country. In Yangon, where the Indians were in the majority at the time, the Myanmar rioters were led by Buddhist monks and bus drivers. Police and British troops thus raided monasteries, seizing swords and sticks. Indian people accused local newspaper Thuriya (The Sun) of instigating the riots, and threw stones at the newspapers office, sparking another round of violence. The riots in Yangon lasted for several days, only ending when Indian and Myanmar political leaders, government officials, community elders and senior Buddhist monks intervened. A riot settlement committee formed by the British governor decided that Burmese and Indian laborers should share the jobs at the Yangon Port. The anti-Indian riot led to the emergence of Doh Bamar Asiayone (the We Burmans Organization), which promoted nationalism and anti-colonialism. The Asiayone was joined by Yangon University student leaders including Ko Nu (who would later become Prime Minister U Nu) and Ko Aung San (later independence hero General Aung San). A second round of anti-Indian rioting broke out in 1939. You may also like these stories: The Day Myanmars Most Esteemed Foreign Monk Passed Away The Day the First British Missionary Entered Myanmars Buddhist Order The Day Myanmar Experienced the Socialist Eras First Demonetization Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant indicated on Tuesday the government will issue separate guidelines for people arriving in the state from Maharashtra, which has the maximum number of cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country. We are thinking of bringing in a different set of SOP for people who will be coming from Maharashtra as 90% of the [Covid-19] patients in Goa are from Maharashtra, Pramod Sawant was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. The comment came after 11 people, who arrived from Mumbai on Saturday on the Rajdhani Express, reported positive for Covid-19. Goa has so far registered 67 cases of the coronavirus disease, all of whom arrived in the state within the last two weeks after inter-state travel restrictions were eased. Out of the 67 patients, 19 have recovered. Another person tested Covid-19 positive on Monday. The patient travelled with another person who came to Goa and tested positive two days ago. Vishwajit Rane, Goas health minister, had said on Sunday that he will request the chief minister to implement stringent measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. In view of upsurge of cases in the state via railways, roadways and others, I will be meeting the Honble Chief Minister @DrPramodPSawant to brief him on the present status in order to curb the rising cases. We will be requesting Honble CM to implement stringent measures (sic), Rane had tweeted on Sunday. (With agency inputs) BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: International Financial Corporation (IFC) is working with the government of Uzbekistan to plan future projects, Regional Manager for Central Asia of IFC Cassandra Colbert told Trend. Colbert said that IFC is helping the government structure and tender a public-private partnership (PPP) to develop a 1,200-1,500 MW gas-fired power plant in the Syrdarya region. This is an important project for both IFC and Uzbekistan. This large-scale PPP will help modernize Uzbekistan's aging power infrastructure and supply both residents and businesses with steady electricity. It will also significantly increase efficiency of the use of gas, contributing to reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. The new equipment will make the power sector more flexible, creating a better environment to introduce intermittent renewable-energy sources. In March 2020, IFC together with the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, and the PPP (public-private partnerships) Development Agency organized an online investor conference, which brought together more than 100 participants - including investors, financial institutions, and other stakeholders - who were familiarized with the Syrdarya projects scope and transaction structure, Uzbekistans power sector, and its PPP regulatory framework. "The investor conference highlighted transparent and competitive tender process that we expect will attract interest from a number of market-leaders from across the world," she said. Colbert said IFC is looking to invest in areas such as energy, manufacturing, services, and agribusiness. In the financial sector, we will continue to focus on financial institutions that lend and lease to support small and medium-sized enterprises. "We are also helping the government establish and develop a strong pipeline of PPPs. There is great potential for PPPs in several sectors, including power and transport. Along with other international financial institutions, we are also supporting the governments privatization programs in the banking and chemical sectors," she stated. The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global institution dedicated to supporting the private sector in emerging markets. The corporation works with more than two thousand private enterprises around the world. In fiscal year 2019, the company provided more than $19 billion in long-term funding to developing countries. In doing so, the corporation has attracted the strong potential of the private sector to eradicate extreme poverty and improve global prosperity. Recently, IFC and Ipak Yuli Bank of Uzbekistan signed an agreement allowing the bank to better manage currency risks and increase local currency financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, which play a key role in the economic development of Uzbekistan. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini The authorities in Burundi say the ruling partys candidate has been elected as the new president. The electoral commission said Evariste Ndayishimiye won almost 70% of the vote in last weeks poll. The retired general will take over from President Pierre Nkurunziza, who has led Burundi since 2005. The former leader is widely expected to maintain a lot of influence. The main opposition party has expressed doubt about the official results, which suggest its candidate, Agathon Rwasa, only gained a quarter of the votes - mostly in its traditional stronghold in the west. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Sydney family and friends of Australian pop music executive Peter Ikin, who died in mysterious circumstances in a Paris hotel more than 11 years ago, have welcomed news that his former lover will face trial in France on murder and forgery charges. Alexandre Despallieres, 52, settled a lawsuit with Mr Ikin's Sydney family in 2009 after he claimed he was the sole beneficiary of the former Warner Music boss' $20 million estate. Alexandre Despallieres, left, with Elton John and Peter Ikin. However, a French judge ruled last week that Despallieres would face trial for first-degree murder and forgery. He has until the end of the week to appeal against the decision. Despallieres, 20 years younger than Mr Ikin, 62, had enjoyed the high life with his lover and his celebrity friends. A groom from Uttar Pradeshs Moradabad area, who was on the way to solemnise his nikah (wedding) with a girl in Uttarakhands Nainital district on Tuesday, was not allowed to enter the state by police officials as he had not sought permission from the authorities concerned, said police. The groom waited for hours at the border, refusing to return home without his bride. He said it would be embarrassing for him at the village to return alone. Kayam, 23, the bridegroom who hails from Dilaari area in UPs Moradabad, arrived in a car at about 8.30 am with his two brothers at UP-Uttarakhand border under Soorya police outpost in Kashipur area of US Nagar. He was on the way to Haldwani in Nainital district to solemnise his nikah with Rubeena of Bhanbulpura area (Haldwani) on Tuesday, police said. When stopped by police and asked to show permission to enter the state, Kayam only showed the permission from the brides side that was obtained from Nainital district administration. When he failed to show his own permission, he was denied the entry to Uttarakhand. My nikah with Rubeena had been fixed six months earlier which was to be held on Tuesday noon in Haldwani. But police didnt allow me to go there due to lack of permission and advised me to go back, Kayam told local media. If he goes back without bride it would be very embarrassing for him in front of the relatives and villagers in his area, he added. I wont go back without my bride. Police asked Kayam to inform the brides relative to come at the border with the bride and solemnise nikah there. After conducting nikah, he can go back to his village with the bride. Police also spoke to relatives of the girl and advised them to organise the nikah at the border as over a dozen weddings have already taken place during lockdown at the border in the district. Kayam, dressed in grooms attire, kept on waiting at the border for girls relatives to show up. When the bride and her relatives didnt show up till 5 pm, Kayam left for Thakurdwara, which is around 4 km from the border on UP side to wait for the bride at one of his relatives homes. It is necessary to have proper permission for crossing the border during the lockdown. The groom didnt have permission from his side. Instead, he was showing us permission from the brides side. That is not acceptable as both sides should have permission. So we didnt allow him to enter the state, said Chetan Rawat, in-charge, Soorya police outpost in Kashipur area of US Nagar. Crankworx Whistler has been cancelled for the first time since the event's inception in 2004 due to the impacts of Coronavirus. While it was announced earlier that Cranworx Innsbruck has been postponed to September 30, 2020, restrictions laid out in Phase 3 of the BC Restart Plan have led to the cancellation of Crankworx Whistler. The plans, released on May 15, include a continued ban on the gathering of more than 50 people until the virus is more under control due to a vaccine, treatment or widespread immunity. With none of these options looking likely by August, the decision has been made to cancel the event for 2020. We caught up with Crankworx General Manager Darren Kinnaird to understand more about the decision, what goes into planning the Crankworx World Tour, and what he thinks the future of mountain bike racing will look like. I imagine it was a difficult decision to cancel your flagship event, how many years has Crankworx Whistler been running? 16 years. This would have been number 17. What were some of the scenarios that you considered prior to cancelling the event? Postponing, no fans, trying to do things like that But none of them really seemed feasible or in the spirit of what Crankworx Whistler is. Based on the guidelines and what the province is saying, it wasnt feasible to host the event. At Crankworx Rotorua, Torquato Testa had to miss the Slopestyle due to New Zealands quarantine policy. What was that event like for your team and did you have any idea how much the pandemic would change this season at that point? No. At the time, when we left for Rotorua at the end of February, and it feels like a lifetime ago even though it was only about two months ago, the news about coronavirus in BC was that there was a woman who had flown to Vancouver to Toronto with coronavirus and that anyone on the flight should be aware. When we got back from Rotorua there was evidence that this was something that people were concerned about but not a major big deal.There were a few things we had to work through and deal with in Rotorua and there were some rumours that Sea Otter and other early events would have to shift their dates, but really at the time we had no idea what the scope of this would be. And I dont know that anyone did to be honest. Its pretty bizarre. I hope it's the most surreal and challenging thing that most of us live through our lives. Its definitely been pretty crazy. Could you take me through the time between getting back from Crankworx Rotorua and making the decision to postpone Crankworx Innsbruck? When I got home I think I had one day in the office and it became pretty clear that it might be best to work from home. Two or three days later everyone was working from home. There were a few calls with Innsbruck, about them being close to Italy and the challenges they were facing there. Things just changed so quickly, going from it being possible to do the event in June to Okay, whats the backup plan, to Okay that is the plan and figuring out what day would make the most sense for Innsbruck. They had a calendar of events that were pre-booked already for the fall so we finally settled on a weekend that was really one of the few that worked for Innsbruck before you start getting too far into the fall. Lots of conversations, discussions, and trying to figure out what is best for all involved. Are you hopeful that youll be able to run Innsbruck September 30-October 4? Im super hopeful to be honest. This fall, if all the mountain biking things that are planned happen, my goodness, it is going to be crazy, unreal, and awesome. Here in BC were really seeing positive signs and it generally feels like what were hearing from Innsbruck and Austria is that things are going quite well there too. There was a lot of demand for riding when they started opening again and Ive seen videos of people at the bike park in Innsbruck riding the Dual Slalom course. The trail crew is building a bunch of new trails and working on stuff there, so thats super exciting. Im really hopeful that were going to be able to pull this off. How will you and your team be analyzing the situation in Innsbruck as we get closer to the date? Do you already have a Plan A, B, C in place? What do they look like? There are a number of factors including International travel, but all we can really do is rely on the health professionals and government guidance here and in Austria and then take the recommended safety and health measures that have guided us so far. I think both BC and Austria have done really well so far and the advice and science that theyre following seems to be right. Were seeing really good flattening of the curve here and over there as well.Well cross our fingers and hope that continues and that people continue to social distance, get outside, ride their bikes safely and hopefully, in time well see an end to this and we can get back to big festivals and big events and mountain bike racing and all that fun stuff. If we back up a bit, what goes into organizing an event like Crankworx? How far in advance are you planning for Crankworx Whistler? What are some of the steps that happen throughout the year? Right after the event we go into planning for the following year mode, collecting and gathering all the results and data and sharing that with all of our stakeholders. Then we take some time as a group to sit down and figure out what our key goals are for the following year, for the whole tour. Then from there, were always planning for Whistler, always planning for Innsbruck and always planning for Rotorua. There are just different times of the year when the focus gets more intense on one event over the other. At times theres crossover. Usually were already planning for Rotorua even before Crankworx Whistler has even happened in a given year. We're constantly working on and constantly planning and constantly talking to our different stakeholders and looking to the future to improve and make it bigger. How big is the team? There are ten of us full time in the office. Or nine right now since one person is on maternity leave. Its a small team but we have a great group of part-time contractors that we work with as well. Its a very passionate and dedicated team and Im very lucky to work with them all. As an event organizer, what has this period been like for you? Its been different. Obviously were all working from home and using different technologies to connect. For the most part, its been pleasant. Weve been having Friday apres online and playing different games on Friday afternoons. We meet every morning online for coffee and try to keep things as normal and as real as possible. Its been shockingly still really, really busy. At times busier than if we were in the office, which has been strange. Its been a challenge but really enjoyable in a strange way. What plans had already been made at this point for Whistler, over two and a half months out, that will have to be undone? There arent necessarily things that need to be undone, but this was supposed to be the tenth anniversary of Red Bull Joyride, so that will have to happen next year instead. It's hard to believe its been ten years. I think its just little things like the special things being planned around that. We had some different ideas of where we wanted to do different events and try new things but fortunately, there were no shovels in the ground on anything yet and so nothing that really needed to be undone and we can keep those surprises for 2021. How are you dealing with title sponsors for events and brands that have already booked space for Whistler? Whats the financial impact? Were super lucky that we have a lot of great partners involved that make Crankworx Whistler happen. Theyve all been super supportive as weve tried to navigate through all of this. Theyre all looking forward to getting back to normal life, doing Crankworx, being a part of. Everyone has been super supportive and wants to be back involved in 2021 and for the most part a lot of them are looking to be with us in Innsbruck, so were looking forward to that. Weve seen a lot of creativity come out of this pandemic, has your team come up with any creative ideas or changed the way they do things? This has given us a lot of time to think and reflect. Were fortunate that our team rarely ever thinks inside the box and is constantly looking to push the edge, try new things, and really challenge the status quo. I think over the past 6-7 weeks, thats what weve been contemplating and well see where that leads us.Weve been doing some different things and were still working on some things. Maybe Ill leave it at that. What are your thoughts on 2021 events? Do you think we will see a return to our regular race season? Im super hopeful we will. I think we still have a long way to go. I think different parts of the world are handling it differently right now. Here theyre saying no major large scale events until theres a vaccine or a solution or some sort of a cure and I think thats generally going to be consistent around the world. Hopefully, there is a solution that comes up in the next calendar year and were able to get back to mountain bike racing as we know it, where people can attend and be a part of it and enjoy the festival atmosphere of Crankworx, because that festal and culture are a big part of what makes Crankworx so special. I dont want to put a date on it, but we will be doing this one day again soon. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump depart the White House on May 25, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) Florida Republicans Want to Host National Convention if Trump Moves It From North Carolina Florida Republicans said theyll gladly host the Republican National Convention if President Donald Trump decides to move it from North Carolina. The Republican Party of Florida would welcome the opportunity to host the Republican National Convention, Joe Gruters, chairman of the Florida GOP, said in a statement. Florida is committed to ensuring a safe, secure, and successful event for President Trump and all attendees. Florida is Trumps home state and the largest swing state, the party said in arguing the event should be held in the southern state. Trump on May 25 threatened to move the convention unless North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, promises to let Spectrum Center fill to capacity. The convention is scheduled for four days in late August. Cooper is in shutdown mood and wont guarantee full attendance in the arena, the president said, adding: In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space. A Cooper spokesperson said the state is relying on data and science to protect our states public health and safety. The Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Nov. 13, 2019. (Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images) Liz Harrington, the Republican National Committees national spokesperson, said on May 26 that it takes months to plan the convention, and staff members are already on the ground in Charlotte. We need assurances from Gov. Cooper that we can hold this event as planned, Harrington said. Officials want to keep the event in Charlotte, but without the assurance of having more than 10 people there, the current limit due to social distancing regulations, theyll assess their options. Trump later on May 25 said he has zero interest in moving the convention to his resort in Miami, in part because the ballroom isnt big enough, adding that Republicans want to stay in North Carolina. Asked later that day about Trumps statements, Vice President Mike Pence said in an appearance on Fox that states around the country, including Texas, Florida, and Georgia, have made tremendous progress on reopening their communities and reopening their economies. If needed, he said, the convention will be moved to a state thats further along in reopening. BAY CITY, MI - Not ready to give up the holiday weekend treats? Check out this weeks batch of local favorites for Takeout Tuesday in Bay County. 4 / 17 The Real Seafood Company restaurant is on the water at Uptown. Real Seafood Company Oysters, lobster and fresh fish are on the menu at Real Seafood, located at 199 Uptown Drive. Theyre open for takeout Tuesday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Place your order by calling 989-778-1500. Dan Staudacher (9/16/04) From left, Angeline Zavala, an employee at Mama Lupo's, serves-up a three scoop cone of white chocolate almond, English toffee, and caramel cashew ice cream to Donna Pafford of Essexville. Mama Lupos Homemade Ice Cream Mama Lupos, located at 200 N. Henry St., is now open for business. Theyre open daily 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Patrons can order curbside or place walk-up orders outside the store. Prices and flavors are posted on their Facebook page. Patrons are asked not to come into the store or use their picnic tables. The store is cash-only right now, but they hope to soon offer payment through an app. All orders will be wrapped or lidded. Lathan Goumas | The Bay City Times A detail of the garlic breadsticks served at Roma's Family Restaurant on Broadway St. in Bay City, MI on Thursday July 28, 2011. Romas Family Restaurant In the mood for comfort food? Visit 1209 Broadway for homemade bread, calzones and hand-tossed pizzas. Romas is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Call 989-892-2233 to order, and pick up your food from the walk up window on the south side of the restaurant. Bob Baumhower will soon open one of his sports-themed restaurants at The Shoppes at Bel Air. AL.com file Having earned raves in downtown Mobile, Chef Chris McElhaney is opening a new Dumbwaiter location on Section Street in Fairhope. Mike Brantley, AL.com Cook Out is a rising national burgers-and-shakes chain, and Mobile will get its first one on University Boulevard near the University of South Alabama. Cook Out The popular LoDa Bier Garten in downtown will soon have a twin: A second Bier Garten is opening on Cottage Hill Road at the former Hungry Owl restaurant property. LoDa Bier Garten A new Rock-n-Roll Sushi will open at the much-anticipated Publix shopping center in the Midtown area. Rock-n-Roll Sushi The Dublin Irish Pub and Eatery is taking over the Old Shell Road property that once housed Wedgies. Facebook Soul Bowlz is newly arrived on Old Shell Road, featuring smoothies and nutritious fruit bowls. Soul Bowlz New Orleans-based Ruby Slipper Cafe will open downtown this summer. NOLA.com Bier Garten Bier Garten, located at 8 State Park Drive, is now offering its full menu to-go. Theyre open for curbside and takeout Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call 989-684-1331 to place your order. Shannons Firehouse Feeling like some burgers and fries? Head over to Munger-based Shannons Firehouse, located at 56 E. Munger Rd. Theyre open Monday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesday through Thursday from 11:30 to 7 p.m. Get your weekend takeout on Friday from 11:30 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. Call 989-659-2683 to place your orders. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. Read More Takeout Tuesday has Bay Countys best sushi, turkey and burgers Takeout Tuesday in Bay County has barbecue and cold brewed coffee on the menu Try Taste of Bay City for Cinco de Mayo and Takeout Tuesday in Bay County Takeout Tuesday has sandwiches, pizza and more to offer in Bay County Try one of these 5 Bay County restaurants for Takeout Tuesday 5 more Takeout Tuesday restaurants to try in Bay County A mother-of-two has shared what she believes to be the 'perfect' lunchbox for her school kids - complete with salad wraps, salami stick, oat slice, biscuits, crisp bread, tin of tuna, a banana and a carton of fruit juice. The woman, from Brisbane, shared a picture showing what she usually packs for her 11-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son for school but not all parents agreed with the choices she made. 'This is what I've come up with for my kids with optional DIY wraps with a salad mix, feta cheese, olives, cherry tomatoes and diced salami with Italian dressing,' she said in Budget Friendly Meals Australia Facebook group. 'They never eat their sandwiches so I gave up.' A mother-of-two has shared what she believes to be the 'perfect' lunchbox for her school kids - complete with salad wraps, salami stick, oat slice, biscuits, crisp bread, tin of tuna, a banana and a carton of fruit juice Alongside the salad mix and wraps were eight other items, which included sweet and savoury snacks. 'Please don't judge it's somewhat healthy,' she said, with a laughing emoji. Her thread was met with hundreds of comments, with many saying her selection 'looks great' while others thought she packed 'too much food' for her youngsters. 'That's a lot of food. My 11-year-old old has a sandwich, yoghurt and piece of fruit. Sometimes a bar or biscuits instead of yoghurt,' one mother said. Another added: 'Too much food over six hours. Kids wanna play with friends, not sit and eat all lunch. You should keep them for after school snacks. [During school], it should just be a piece of fruit, a snack and a lunch.' However, others said their kids are big eaters too so they normally pack plenty of options in their lunchboxes. 'My Mr 13 is a huge eater also. Doesn't have a full indicator,' one parent said. Several people said her kids were very 'lucky' to have 'yummy options' while others admitted they 'couldn't afford my child to eat this much for lunch'. 'Considering there's kids starving at school because parents just don't send food or can't afford to, I'd say yep! they're definitely covered in almost every food group here! Very lucky kiddos. You're doing great mumma,' one woman added. One mother revealed she packs cut cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, capsicum sticks, cheese, ham, corn chips with dip and rice balls shaped as rabbits for her three-year-old son One mother shared the lunchboxes she packs for her six and eight year old kids - which includes wraps, sandwiches, salad, cherry tomatoes, chicken strips, banana, mandarin, cheese and crackers, and fruit juice Other mothers with 'fussy' children shared their creations, including one who packs her six-year-old biscuits, grapes, cucumber sticks, and a piece of lamington (left) while another parent packs her seven-year-old daughter tuna, pastry scrolls and cut up fruit pieces (right) One super organised mother created the ultimate lunchboxes for her kids - complete with boiled eggs, ham, carrot and celery sticks, pretzels, yoghurt, cut up fruit pieces and more One parent said her son refuses to eat sandwiches so she makes him brioche buns or croissants with ham and cheese filling (left) while another mother packs her five-year-old Cheezos, cabanossi, cheese cubes, fruit juice, meat balls, apples and fruit juice (right) Many parents shared their own 'perfect' lunchboxes, with one mother revealing she packs cut cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, capsicum sticks, cheese, ham, corn chips with dip and rice balls shaped as rabbits for her three-year-old son. 'It's funny, he is a lot less fussy at daycare than he is at home! But our centre has a strict no junk food rule so he doesn't really get a choice,' she explained. Some quickly asked her how she gets her toddler to eat tomatoes and raw capsicum, to which she replied: 'I just offered it to him until he finally tried it... now he asks for them as snacks.' Another mother said she packs her 'fussy' six-year-old biscuits, grapes, cucumber sticks, twiggy sticks, chocolates, and a piece of lamington. One parent said her son refuses to eat sandwiches so she makes him brioche buns or croissants with ham and cheese filling, along with a muesli bar, peanuts, mandarin, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Another mother said her seven-year-old daughter is 'quite picky' so she usually packs tuna, cut up fruits and vegetables, rice crackers, pastry scrolls and homemade jelly. 'She's quite picky so I'm get limited on what to give her. She won't eat sandwiches and tends to not get any dairy products in her lunch. Really hoping she doesn't get tired of tuna,' she said. HONG KONGDemand for virtual private networks in Hong Kong surged more than six-fold last Thursday as Beijing proposed tough new national security laws for the financial hub, reflecting concerns over internet privacy, according to a VPN provider. Atlas VPN said installations of the tool that helps people bypass web restrictions surged again on Friday, up more than three-fold from the previous day, while search interest in the keyword term VPN rocketed 1,680 percent on May 21 from a day earlier. Search interest in the word VPN hit a record high on Friday, it added, citing data from Google Trends. Hong Kong was returned by Britain back to Chinese rule in 1997 and is governed under a one country, two systems framework that guarantees it a high degree of autonomy not seen in mainland China, which is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including freedom of speech. Protesters march during a demonstration against Article 23 and bans on freedom of association in Hong Kong on July 21, 2018. (VIVEK PRAKASH/AFP via Getty Images) The former British colony also enjoys unrestricted internet access, unlike on the mainland where the likes of Google, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked. Beijings plans to directly enact national security legislation sent a chill through financial markets and drew a swift rebuke from the international community, including governments, human rights and privacy groups who fear it could lead to increased surveillance and censorship by the CCP of the Hong Kong people. Hong Kong police said they arrested more than 180 people on Sunday, when authorities fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse anti-government protests over the planned security legislation. Related Coverage Tear Gas Fired as Hong Kong Protesters Return to Streets Against Chinas National Security Law If Hong Kong falls under the same digital restrictions as Chinese citizens in the near future, then we can expect an even higher interest in VPN services, said aid Rachel Welsh, Chief Operating Officer of Atlas VPN. The CCPs security legislation targets secession, subversion, and terrorist activities against the one-party state, and could see CCP intelligence agencies set up bases in Hong Kong, one of the worlds leading financial hubs. Pro-Beijing Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials have sought to reassure investors their interests would not be harmed and said the laws would only target a minority of troublemakers who had posed imminent danger to Chinas national security. Hollywood red carpets look for coronavirus makeover A conceptual rendering by Los Angeles, California event planners 15|40 Productions of what a socially distanced red carpet for movie premieres and awards show might look like in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) era By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It could be a long while until you hear that Hollywood red carpet staple, "And who are you wearing tonight?" Red carpets, the lifeblood of movie premieres and award shows, thrive on the buzz of glamorous actors, show-stopping gowns and screaming fans. But as Hollywood grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the red carpets of the near future will look very different - if they happen at all. Crowded with photographers, A-list stars, publicists and fans begging for selfies, red carpets are a crucial element in the Hollywood publicity machine. But what makes them so compelling to watch is what makes them so difficult to manage in the era of social distancing. "Everybody is desperate to get back to a normal version, where we get to be with people in person, shoulder to shoulder," said one Hollywood publicist who preferred not to be named. "I don't see it coming back fully until we've got some kind of vaccine. Who knows when people are going to want to engage physically in personal interactions, let alone the travel to get to those places?," the publicist said. A big test will come in July when Christopher Nolan thriller "Tenet" for AT&T Inc's Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co's live-action "Mulan" are scheduled as the first big film releases since the new coronavirus shuttered movie theaters worldwide and studios moved the rollout of dozens of films to the end of 2020 or into 2021. Warner Bros. and Disney have not announced their publicity plans for the two movies, nor have the organizers of television's Emmy Awards, which are due to take place in Los Angeles in September. PLEXIGLASS AND PENS Los Angeles event planners 15|40 Productions, which has designed more than 200 Hollywood premieres, is consulting with several studios on plans that incorporate social distancing. "We took the red carpet and we had to re-envision how it would work post-quarantine and keeping people apart," said Craig Waldman, president of 15|40 Productions. Story continues TV crews and photographers, who usually elbow for room, would be separated into pens divided by plexiglass, while distance barriers would keep media people at least six feet (two meters) away from actors. Celebrities would interact with fans via giant LED screens. "Having a live fan element is going to be a thing for the future, once a vaccine is found," said Waldman. That means a big reduction in media outlets on the carpet, and plenty of masks. "I don't know that we will see Emmy-nominated actresses walking the Emmy red carpet wearing masks," said Hollywood Reporter writer Chris Gardner. "I do think some people - maybe photographers, also journalists - may have to ask questions through masks." The biggest unknown is whether A-listers will turn up. Mike Zimet, whose New York security company's client list includes actors Alec Baldwin and Lin-Manuel Miranda, says tight safeguards will need to be in place. "I know one (celebrity) I'm protecting right now is staying away from everything," said Zimet, who doesn't expect red carpets to return in New York until fall, or possibly winter. Zimet said celebrities "have to decide if your health, of the family and yourself, is worth it." Meanwhile, publicists have been getting creative with virtual premieres and interviews in which actors appear on Zoom or Skype from their homes. It's worked well for small-budget films, cutting travel costs and allowing actors to be more relaxed. "They are not in an uncomfortable chair with lights all around them. It's more like chit-chatting with a sort of new friend they have just met on their computer," said a publicist who has organized several virtual events. But it's a far cry from the excitement of a bustling red carpet. "This virtual premiere is quite, quite strange," British actress Kristin Scott Thomas said on Zoom from a sofa at home, promoting her film "Military Wives." "It's just as frightening but just a hell of a lot more comfortable because you're wearing your own dress," she giggled. (Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine and Alicia Powell; editing by Jonathan Oatis) The View Pacific Resort in Surfers Paradise, where Carlow teen Cian English was killed A teenager and two young men have been charged with the murder of an Irish teen who died after suffering horrific injuries in Australia over the weekend. Cian English (19), originally from Carlow town but who was living with his family in Brisbane's eastern suburbs, suffered traumatic injuries when he fell from a balcony at the View Pacific Resort in Surfers Paradise. It was initially thought that the young man had died in a tragic fall but later it emerged that he fell trying to escape the men who had been staying in a unit above his. Beating It is understood that a video of the beating the young man received is being circulated on the social media platform Snapchat. Two men and a teenager have been charged with his murder and two of them with armed robbery on the Gold Coast - 74kms from Brisbane. Expand Close Cian English / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Cian English The trio charged with the murder of Mr English had their cases mentioned in court for the first time yesterday. The accused - Jason Ryan Knowles (22), Hayden Paul Kratzmann (20) and Lachlan Paul Soper-Lagas (18) - were not required to appear in court. Mr Soper-Lagas did not appear via video link in Beenleigh Magistrates Court yesterday when his charges - one count of murder, two counts of armed robbery and two of deprivation of liberty - were briefly mentioned. His case will be mentioned again today. Mr Kratzmann's and Mr Knowles's cases were briefly mentioned at Brisbane Magistrates Court, where they were adjourned for a committal call at Southport Magistrates Court on August 4. Police allege the teenager was trying to escape being robbed by the three men at knifepoint, for his clothes and footwear, when he fell to his death. He had been at the Gold Coast with a friend who was also assaulted. Gold Coast Police were called to an apartment complex at Surfers Paradise at 3.15am on Saturday where Mr English's body was found. The teenager moved to Brisbane around eight years ago with his parents Siobhan Webster, originally from the Tullow Road, Carlow town, and Vincent English, from Mortarstown, Kilkenny Road, Carlow, and older brother Dylan. The young man's late grandfather John English, who was originally from Wexford, was well known for his hurling prowess and worked in various local authority departments. Mr English's father Vincent worked as an accountant for several years before the family moved to the Cayman Islands. He worked for Digicel and is now chief executive and executive director of a company called Megaport. Mr English's mother Siobhan works at Brisbane Children's Hospital, while Dylan also works at Megaport. Carlow Town Hurling Club said: "Committee, members and supporters of Carlow Town Hurling and Camogie Club would like to extend its sincere and heartfelt sympathy to the English and Webster families on the tragic passing of their beloved Cian." A local politician, who did not wish to be named said: "Both the Webster and English families are the nicest people and absolutely the salt of the earth. The whole town is devastated for them and I know obviously that the families are heartbroken." LOS ANGELES, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nurses Pub (www.thenursespub.org), the leading non-profit support group for nurses and nursing students, announced the opening of new opportunities for corporate partnerships. Corporations and businesses can now demonstrate their support of the nursing community by underwriting some of the non-profit organization's activities. The Nurses Pub supports nurses at all career levels, including nursing students and those considering entering the profession. Programs includes: Single Parent Support Group for Nurses and Students Scholarships for Nursing Students Mentoring and One-On-One Career Counseling Ted Talk Tuesdays for Nurses Resume Writing Services Online Yoga and Exercise Classes Especially for Nurses Tutoring for Nursing Students Recruiting Goal of 100,000 New Nurses Worldwide Immediate Assistance for Homelessness and Other Sudden Crises "As a non-profit, we depend on the support of our corporate partners in order to continue to offer the services we provide to the nursing community," said The Nurses Pub Founder and CEO, Mona Clayton, MSN, RN. "While this pandemic has stretched our resources to the limit, we will never turn away any nurse or nursing student in need." Partnerships are available at several levels, to allow any businesses or individual to provide valuable and needed assistance to the nursing community. "Now, more than ever, nurses need your support," Clayton said. "After countless years of helping those in need, now our nurses on the frontlines now need your help. I urge you to consider supporting the nursing community and these healthcare superheroes." To learn more about partnership opportunities, contact The Nurses Pub, a 501(c) non-profit organization, at: [email protected], or through the website at: www.thenursespub.org, or call: (562) 537-1646. ABOUT: The Nurses Pub is a non-profit 501(c) organization headquartered in Los Angeles, initially formed to help single mothers and students from underserved communities discover a career in nursing. The organization now provides a wide variety of resources to both students and nursing professionals worldwide. CONNECT: Facebook: facebook.com/thenursespub Website: thenursespub.org MEDIA CONTACT: Innovation Agency [email protected] SOURCE The Nurses Pub Related Links http://www.thenursespub.org Travel stocks including Ryanair and Aer Lingus-owner IAG surged as summer getaway hopes resurfaced on the back of a number of European countries relaxing their travel restrictions and destinations saying theyre open for holidays. Spain has joined the likes of Italy, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus in removing visitor restrictions and planning to reopen hotels and beaches for the July-August peak family holiday season. Ryanair trumpeted the news by effectively lighting the blue touch paper on a new fare war and saw its share price jump by nearly 12%. Rival EasyJet was up 19%, Aer Lingus owner IAG jumped 22%, tour operator TUI surged more than 30% and shares in German airline Lufthansa rose nearly 7%. The German carrier is hoping the European Commission will swiftly approve its agreed 9bn bailout from the German government, but Ryanair said it will appeal the funding move. Ryanairs group CEO Michael OLeary said the illegal state aid will allow Lufthansa to engage in below-cost selling and distort competition in the European airline market. Lufthansa said about a third of head office staff at its Eurowings low-cost subsidiary will need to go as part of overall efforts to return the entire group to profitability. Industry group the International Air Transport Association or IATA has warned of a near 30% surge in overall airline debt this year, which it said could weigh down airline recovery. It said the airline industrys global debt could rise to $550bn (505bn) by the end of 2020; $120bn more than where debt levels stood at the beginning of this year. It said nearly $70bn of the new debt would be made up of government loans, deferred taxes and loan guarantees; with the remainder comprised of commercial loans, capital market debt, debt from new operating leases and accessing existing credit facilities. Government aid is helping to keep the industry afloat. The next challenge will be preventing airlines from sinking under the burden of debt that the aid is creating, said Alexandre de Juniac, IATAs director general and CEO. In total governments have committed to $123bn in financial aid to airlines. Of this, $67bn will need to be repaid, IATA said. Over half the relief provided by governments creates new liabilities. Less than 10% will add to airline equity. It changes the financial picture of the industry completely. Paying off the debt owed governments and private lenders will mean that the crisis will last a lot longer than the time it takes for passenger demand to recover, said Mr de Juniac. Meanwhile, EasyJet has said its chief financial officer Andrew Findlay plans to leave the company next year. The British airline made the announcement just days after Mr Findlay, and other board members, survived an attempt by the airlines founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou to oust him. A team led by scientists from the Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS/Universite de Paris)* have shown that French prehistory was punctuated by two waves of migration: the first during the Neolithic period, about 6,300 years ago, the second during the Bronze Age, about 4,200 years ago. This study, published in PNAS on May 25, which looked at the genomes of 243 ancient individuals over 7,000 years, demonstrates how admixture between native hunter-gatherers and the first Anatolian Neolithic migrants, who brought with them a lifestyle based on agriculture, persists to this day in the genomes of French people. Admixture of the Neolithic populations with those from the Pontic steppes**, who arrived 4,200 years ago in what is now France, also left a lasting imprint, with the Y chromosome of the majority of French men still bearing the signature of men from the steppes. ### Notes * This work also involved researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap), and several laboratories: PACEA (CNRS/Universite de Bordeaux/Ministere de la Culture), Archaeology and Ancient History: MediterraneanEurope (CNRS/Universite de Strasbourg/Universite de Haute Alsace), the Archaeology Research Unit for Mediterranean Societies (CNRS/Universite Paul Valery Montpellier 3/Ministere de la Culture/Inrap), Trajectories. From sedentarisation to the state (CNRS/Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne/Inrap/Ministere de la Culture), Works and Archaeological Research on Cultures, Spaces and Societies (CNRS/ Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures/Ministere de la Culture) and Cultures and Environments Prehistory, Antiquity, Middle Ages (CNRS/ Universite Cote d'Azur), College de France, ANTEA-Archeologie Habsheim, Service Archeologie Sete agglopole mediterranee, Frontignan. There is plain evidence of what came next, however, from a video recorded by someone in a group of witnesses who stood a few feet away. In it, the white officer appears impassive, almost bored, as the suspect gasps for breath. He is unmoved as witnesses curse and plead with him to get off the suspects neck, as they warn that the mans nose is bleeding, that he cant breathe, that he isnt resisting. Nor does the officer relent when an ambulance medic arrives and checks the mans neck for a pulse. Enchanted Forests plan to reopen for private, single-family tours has been rejected before it could begin to materialize. The storybook-themed amusement park south of Salem had come up with the idea as owners search for a way to bring in revenue during the coronavirus pandemic that has kept the attraction closed since late March. Two weeks ago, Susan Vaslev, co-manager of Enchanted Forest, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the park was angling to reopen to individual groups of up to 10 people from the same household. Each group would essentially have the park to itself for a few hours, and employees would clean the rides and touched surfaces behind them. On Tuesday, Vaslev said that plan had been rejected by state officials. Enchanted Forest's plan to do private family social distancing tours, even one in the park at a time, was denied by the governor's office, Vaslev said. At this point, we are not allowed to be open even to one family at a time. Some Oregon businesses started reopening May 15, as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown allows counties to begin Phase 1 of the states reopening plan. However, gatherings of more than 25 people are still prohibited and several kinds of businesses including amusement parks must remain closed. Thats left Enchanted Forest in a tight financial situation, leaving its owners to question whether the amusement park will stay in business long enough to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2021. Vaslev said the park is doing everything it can to reopen, but safety remains its top priority. We under no circumstances want to give the impression that were trying to reopen in an irresponsible manner, Vaslev said. Regardless of how you look at it, I dont think its going to be business as usual at all this season. --Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Johannesburg, 26 May 2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a new kind of African consumer who is already displaying fundamental shifts in consumption and purchase behaviour driven by factors such as heightened health awareness, a focus on quality and safety, a renewed desire to stay at home and a tight wallet squeeze. As a result of this a recent Nielsen industry webinar Navigating the New Normal discussed the realities and effects of this rapidly evolving outlook. Speaking during the webinar Nielsen Africa MD Bryan Sun outlined the consumer evolution since the onset of the pandemic and the fact that crisis-buying patterns have accelerated the adoption of permanent behaviour change. As the prospect of looming lockdowns first hit, consumers realised they needed to stock up which saw a spike in-store visits, stockpiling of shelf staples and growing basket sizes. However, as restricted living became more commonplace, there was a change in behaviour with consumers seeking out products without putting their health at risk. We have therefore seen growth in online shopping, declining store visits and a rise in out of stocks. Supply chain challenges have also driven consumers to be less price-sensitive on high demand packaged goods or those that guarantee hygiene standards, explained Sun. The expectation is that once quarantines lift and consumers return to business as usual they will continue to operate with a renewed consciousness about health, which will remain for a long time. There will also be shifts in the way consumers perceive products with the increased importance of safety and efficacy claims, and a willingness to spend more on hygiene needs and healthy foods. Global perspective The webinar also presented findings on Nielsens recent COVID-19 syndicated online survey which was conducted in over 70 countries across the globe and produced interesting comparative data and insights for Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Nigeria & South Africa) as compared to the rest of the world. The study revealed that 75% of SSA consumers are now more concerned about their families versus the global average of 48%. In addition, 83% said they were following information multiple times a day - significantly higher than the global average of 75%. Looking at the impact of the severe limitations on out of home activities; 51% of SSA consumers said they were cooking more at home versus 39% globally, and significantly more said they worked more at home versus the global average. In terms of the impact of the epidemic on their out of home and shopping activities, 46% SSA consumers said they are visiting malls less often versus the global average of 32%. Despite perceptions that Africa lagged behind in terms of online behaviour it has in fact seen incredible behaviour changes with major increases in the use of social networking, online reading, listening to music and video streaming. Future mindsets As countries move from restricted living to precautionary living, Nielsen has also created an in-depth view of current and future SSA consumer mindset and purchase patterns based on learnings from other markets: Heightened health awareness will drive consumers to be less price sensitive on high demand packaged goods or those that guarantee hygiene standards as food safety becomes paramount to consumers. The renewed desire to stay at home and the preparation of home meals might require brand extensions and a need to address declining store visits, growth in online and proximity shopping. As consumers are impacted by less income and smaller purchasing wallets, value for money offerings and more aggressive promotions over that of just in-store promotions - are needed. eCommerce growth has reached double digits in many countries with Italy at 82%, China 50%, and Korea 30% where older shoppers are trying eCommerce for the first time. Technology catalysts are driving behavioural change and will penetrate the market despite previous scepticism around this platform. Looking to the future, Sun commented that the path to recovery means retailers must urgently look at factors such as pricing mechanisms and brand relationships in order to maintain and strengthen consumer trust in their brand. Successful retail regeneration across the continent, following the impact of COVID-19 on the African consumer and retail landscape, will rely on an agile and innovative response that sets the groundwork for a future unlike any we have ever known. After a five-day hospital stay, with no visitors, she was finally discharged. But a few days after she returned home, her wound became infected, and she had no choice but to return to the hospital to have the incision reopened and cleaned. The doctors in the emergency room recommended that she spend the night in the hospital, but there was a limit to how much anxiety she could tolerate. She insisted that she be shown how to care for the wound at home. The coronavirus may still be spreading at epidemic rates in 24 states, particularly in the South and Midwest, according to new research that highlights the risk of a second wave of infections in places that reopen too quickly or without sufficient precautions. Researchers at Imperial College London created a model that incorporates cellphone data showing that people sharply reduced their movements after stay-at-home orders were broadly imposed in March. With restrictions now easing and mobility increasing with the approach of Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer, the researchers developed an estimate of viral spread as of May 17. RELATED: Texas man dies of COVID-19 in Iowa It is a snapshot of a transitional moment in the pandemic and captures the patchwork nature across the country of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Some states have had little viral spread or "crushed the curve" to a great degree and have some wiggle room to reopen their economies without generating a new epidemic-level surge in cases. Others are nowhere near containing the virus. The model, which has not been peer reviewed, shows that in the majority of states, a second wave looms if people abandon efforts to mitigate the viral spread. "There's evidence that the U.S. is not under control, as an entire country," said Samir Bhatt, a senior lecturer in geostatistics at Imperial College. The model shows potentially ominous scenarios if people move around as they did previously and do so without taking precautions. In California and Florida, the death rate could spike to roughly 1,000 deaths a day by July without efforts to mitigate the spread, according to the report. Other models released in recent days captured a similarly mixed picture. The PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia used county-level forecasts that found much of the country was in decent shape for reopening, but worrisome areas remain, including Houston, Dallas, South Florida and Alabama. On this Memorial Day weekend, some people will visit areas that may not have had much exposure to the virus, said David Rubin, director of PolicyLab. "This is the first test of the system," Rubin said. "Those areas that succeed this weekend are going to succeed because they've developed strong regulations on how they're going to do this." RELATED: A hairstylist who worked while showing symptoms exposed 91 to COVID-19 The Imperial College researchers estimated the virus's reproduction number, known as R0, or R naught. This is the average number of infections generated by each infected person in a vulnerable population. The researchers found the reproduction number has dropped below 1 in 26 states and the District. In those places, as of May 17, the epidemic was waning. In 24 states, however, the model shows a reproduction number over 1. Texas tops the list, followed by Arizona, Illinois, Colorado, Ohio, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Alabama and Wisconsin. When the R naught is below 1, it means the virus is hitting a lot of dead ends as it infects people. Someone who is infected but who follows social distancing rules or stays quarantined until recovering has a good chance of not infecting anyone else. The challenge is finding a way to reopen the economy with sufficient care to prevent the reproduction number from going over 1. This has become a geographically complex pandemic, one that will evolve, especially as people increase their movements in coming weeks. Laws and health regulations vary from state to state, county to county and city to city. There are communities where wearing facial coverings is culturally the norm, while in other places it is rejected on grounds of personal liberty or as refutation of the consensus view of the hazards posed by the virus. Political leaders have traded executive orders for appeals to individual responsibility and judgment. Even as they touted reopening water parks and beaches, some governors told their citizens not to enjoy their new freedoms too much. In a hotspot in western Iowa, "families need to make their own decisions," said Matthew Ung, chair of Woodbury County's board of supervisors. "You don't have to act one way or another because of what the government says," he said. "Look out for you and your family." About 250 miles away in Minneapolis, municipal leaders are not counting on individual responsibility alone. The mayor, Jacob Frey, this week signed an emergency regulation requiring people older than 2 to cover their faces while at "indoor spaces of public accommodation," including schools and government buildings. "We are not criminalizing forgetfulness, but we will be cracking down on extreme selfishness and disregard for the health and safety of fellow Minneapolis residents," Frey said in an interview. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, this week said he would allow only alfresco dining when restaurants and bars resume in-person service June 1. That led to an outcry from owners who said they had been preparing for weeks to seat people inside, setting up plexiglass partitions and purchasing special filters to arrest tiny particles. "None of us believed it was going to be patio only, especially in Minnesota when it rains all summer long," said Brian Ingram, the owner of Hope Breakfast Bar in St. Paul, Minnesota, a popular joint known for its mantra, "Believe in Breakfast." In Mississippi, where the Imperial College model predicts infections are on the rise, Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said he was ready to reopen the last few businesses that remain closed in the state - including racetracks and water parks. "We will be out of the business of closing down anybody, I hope," Reeves said. But he said that in consultation with public health officials, he is keeping restrictions on seven counties with higher case loads. In a news conference Thursday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, defended her decision to reopen concert venues, movie theaters and other businesses despite rising case numbers. "We cannot sustain a delayed way of life as we search for a vaccine," she said. "Having a life means having a livelihood, too." That said, she promised that "if we start going in the wrong direction, we reserve the right to come back in and reverse." The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said the state is preparing for a potential surge by increasing testing and constructing a 401-bed covid-19 care site in Memphis that was finished this week. David Aronoff, director of the Vanderbilt University infectious disease division, said the medical school is working with the state to track hospitalizations and deaths and is monitoring for a second surge. "We're watching for that really closely, but we haven't seen that just yet, which is reassuring," he said. Experts in Tennessee are also concerned about people from other states beginning to flock to Nashville and Memphis on summer vacations. If a surge happens, Aronoff said, "the tricky part will be putting the toothpaste back in the tube" by shutting down again. In Texas, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he consults with doctors and experts from area hospitals, "and what they tell us is that we're reopening too fast, and we're reopening in the wrong order." Local jurisdictions in Texas do not have the authority to issue more stringent restrictions than the state, which began aggressively reopening this month. So Dallas has focused on messaging. The county has a daily "covid-19 risk level" that is currently red, for "stay home, stay safe." Officials are working on seals that businesses can display to indicate they are meeting local public health guidelines, not just state mandates. The Imperial College estimates for Texas are in line with internal modeling conducted by university experts advising state leaders. Rebecca Fischer, an epidemiologist at Texas A&M University and part of a team partnering with the governor's office, said the daily caseload was fluctuating, but "it looks like we're not cresting a peak and coming down the other side." A week ago, Texas reported a single-day high in new cases as well as deaths - about 14 days after the beginning of the state's phased reopening. The state has now reported more than 52,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths. Decisions about whether new chemicals entering the Australian marketplace pose a danger to consumers or workers will be left in the hands of private industry from next week, as a major overhaul of chemical regulation takes effect. The Herald can also reveal changes to the rules will allow companies to classify more chemicals as "very low risk", meaning they can be introduced without public disclosure or first telling the regulator. Experts are concerned about the new self-regulation regime. Credit:Getty Images Cancer Council Australia, public health experts, environmentalists, academics and unions have expressed alarm about the new system, with fears it could unleash the next toxic chemical disaster on the public. Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith from the National Toxics Network branded the changes a "disaster in the making". Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Health Secretary Franciso Duque III on Tuesday supported the reopening of classes in August despite the absence of a vaccine against coronavirus, in contrast to an earlier pronouncement of President Rodrigo Duterte. "Sa ngayon, tingin namin ay ligtas naman po kung bubuksan natin ang klase by August 24," he said during a virtual Senate hearing. [Translation: For now, our view is that it's safe for classes to open by August 24.] Duque's statement came a day after Duterte said he did not approve of the opening of school classes until there was an available vaccine against the coronavirus disease. Duque said it is safe to start classes amid the COVID-19 crisis as long as minimum health standards, such as physical distancing, wearing of face masks, and disinfecting of classrooms, will be observed. He said the Department of Education has "many measures in place" to ensure the safety of students should they go back to school on August 24 the date set by Education Secretary Leonor Briones. "We hope the vaccines will be available at the soonest possible time. But habang wala pa, siguraduhin lang natin ang minimum health standards are met to mitigate the risks to our school children," he added. [Translation: We are hoping the vaccine becomes at the soonest possible time. But while it is not yet available, we should ensure minimum health standards are met to mitigate the risks to our school children.] The health chief also said that DOH continues to review data in barangays, saying that schools located in areas with a number of COVID-19 cases also have to undergo localized quarantine. But the Palace stood its ground, saying face-to-face classes will remain suspended until a vaccine becomes available and community quarantine restrictions are lifted in the area. "Habang wala pang bakuna at habang wala pa tayo sa new normal 'yung wala na pong community quarantine hindi pa rin po tayo magkakaroon ng face-to-face na mga klase," Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual press briefing on Tuesday. [Translation: While there is no vaccine and community quarantine is lifted, we cannot hold face-to-face classes.] The Department of Health maintained that the stand of Health Secretary Francisco Duque does not contradict what the President said. "Tama sinabi ng ating Presidente na hindi niya hahayaang magbukas ang klase sa darating na pasukan hanggang wala pang bakuna sa COVID-19," Health Spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media briefing Tuesday afternoon. "Ito rin ang position ni Secretary Duque nang sabihin it is safe to open classes this August as long as minimum health standards are met. Hindi po ito magkasalungat." [Translation: Our President was right when he said he will not allow class to open in the future while there is no COVID-19 vaccine. This is also the position of Secretary Duque when he said it would be safe to open classes this August as long as minimum health standards are met. These are not contradictory.] Vergeire clarified that schools would only be allowed to open if they meet the minimum health standards set by authorities. "Ngunit kung hindi natin mapapanatili na safe ang ating paaralan because we do not observe the health standards or base sa ating assessment na it will be unsafe, hindi natin bubuksan ang mga paaralan hanggang wala pang bakuna laban sa virus," Vergeire said. [Translation: But if we cannot guarantee that the school is safe because we do not observe the health standards or based on our assessment, it will be unsafe, we will not open the schools while there is no vaccine against the virus.] All parts of the country remain under varying degrees of community quarantine depending on the number of COVID-19 cases. There are four levels of community quarantine enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), modified ECQ, general community quarantine (GCQ), and modified GCQ. Once community lockdowns are lifted, the country will remain under the "new normal" or continual observing minimum health standards. Duque also backed the proposal of DepEd to explore online learning after Briones said the resumption of classes will not require full physical attendance of students, stressing that online learning is still a viable option. However, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said shifting to e-learning is unrealistic as majority of the country's population does not have access to internet. "The internet in the country remains the most expensive yet the slowest among Asian countries. I do not see how virtual classes being proposed by the DepEd can be effectively implemented across all sectors. The poor will be at a disadvantage here," he said in a statement. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) More stranded overseas Filipino workers have been brought home, while charter flights are continually being arranged after the president ordered the immediate repatriation of stranded OFWs. According to Overseas Workers Welfare Administrations Hans Cacdac, around 9,000 OFWs have been sent home since last week, as the agency continues to arrange more flights. Cacdac told CNN Philippines News.PH on Tuesday, that the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to send home 24,000 stranded OFWs in Metro Manila, greatly helped in their transport efforts. With the presidential directive, na-heighten yong pagsasagawa ng charter flights [the organization of charter flights was heightened]. We mounted 18 yesterday, and we mount about the same number today, he said. Cacdac added that the number of provincial buses has also doubled, and more sea vessels will sail starting on Wednesday. He noted that there were a couple of challenges that halted the repatriation of the OFWs, including undergoing the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine, swab testing, and the delays in the issuance of quarantine clearances. RELATED: Govt agencies urged to fix delays in issuance of quarantine clearances for OFWs OWWA assured to bring home all the stranded OFWs back to their provinces. Were booking flights for people who cannot be booked at the moment. And we will book some more flights in charter voyages till everybody leaves, Cacdac said. Duterte reminded local government units to welcome returning OFWs as he met with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Monday night. Hindi naman sila lahat nagkasakit [not all of the OFWs have the virus]. It is very cruel actually to deny them to go home, he said. High school helps create visors and face masks Members of staff at Notre Dame Catholic High School have been busy producing PPE for the NHS and other frontline workers. Jane Buck, Head of Technology at Notre Dame, reports. In March we became aware of an appeal sent out by the University of East Anglia (UEA) Research team. They were requesting support from companies and establishments who have access to 3D printing to print PPE components for the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust (NNUH). Rachel Holden, a Design and Technology teacher at Notre Dame High School, registered with the UEA to help with the production of the 3D printed essential parts. The Design and Technology department joined forces with Hexatomic, a local engineering design company. In addition to the 3D printers owned by the department, Hexatomic kindly supplied us with two additional 3D printers that have a printing bed large enough to produce the visor shield frames; this has enabled us to maximise production. The 3D printers have been printing around the clock and to date we have supplied 1600 visor shield frames, which have all been manufactured according the specification provided by the UEA. The team at the UEA then add the visor shield to the frame and closely liaise with NNUH to ensure the products meet the required standards. Ear Comfort Bands have also been manufactured using the 3D printers from Notre Dame High School. We have also had support from the Norwich branch of Royal College of Midwives who have also purchased PLA filament to ensure production has been able to continue. In addition to 3D printing components for PPE, members of staff across Notre Dame High School have also been busy sewing for the NHS and other key workers. This has included making scrubs, face masks, uniform wash bags and headbands. We are extremely grateful to lots of staff and members of the wider Catholic community who have also contributed to the effort by donating fabrics such as bed sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases. Thank you to all involved. Pictured above is some of the production equipment and the PPE produced by Notre Dame High School Eldred Willey, 26/05/2020 She has been showcasing her bikini range while locked down at home. And Montana Brown was her own best advertisement, as she put on a busty display in a pink and grey polka post bikini in her latest Instagram post on Sunday. The former Love Island star, 24, flashed a beaming smile as she posed for a smiling selfie, before switching to a more sultry and smouldering pose. Beaming: Montana Brown was her own best advertisement, as she put on a busty display in a pink and grey polka post bikini in her latest Instagram post on Sunday The reality star joked that the reason behind her two expressions was how she feels when people rush her to eat, she said: 'Me being a slow eater enjoying my food vs. my friends saying are you going to finish that? Montana's bikini was a stylish triangle-style, and featured tie detailing in the middle. The swimwear designer wore her blonde locks swept up into a half-up half-down style, while accentuating her pretty features with a soft pallet of make-up. Wow! The former Love Island star, 24, flashed a beaming smile as she posed for a smiling selfie, before switching to a more sultry and smouldering pose Montana has been keen to show of her self-designed range while spending time at home during the coronavirus crisis. On Sunday, she looked perfectly at ease as she modelled a selection of swimwear pieces for @swimsociety on Instagram Stories. Montana looked incredible as she posed up a storm before dancing in her kitchen for her at-home shoot to showcase the range, which is sold at Asos. Doing it: Montana modelled an array of flesh-flashing bikinis as she danced around her kitchen for an at-home shoot on Instagram on Sunday She picked her favourite to post on her grid, a cute pink polka dot two-piece which highlighted her incredible shape. Montana teamed it with Adidas socks and chunky trainers. She wrote in the caption: 'This is my cleaning the house outfit wbu?' Dotty: She picked her favourite to post on her grid, a cute pink polka dot two-piece which highlighted her incredible shape Montana also looked sensational in another two-piece, a black bikini set which had a keyhole detail. And there was also a sensational white plunging one-piece which she posed on her bed in, while holding a giant flower. Larking around she pretended the flower was a phone and said: 'Hello!' I'm on the phone: And there was also a sensational white plunging one-piece which she posed on her bed in, while holding a giant flower Hot: Despite not being able to go out and do a fashion shoot - Montana still managed to make everything look incredible, mixing this bikini with the Nike x Dior collabo trainers Swim Society is designed in collaboration with Montana and Skinnydip and recently Montana said she was worried about how the pandemic would affect business. Taking to Instagram with a short video, the beauty modelled one of her latest designs as she expressed her concerns. 'As a small business owner this is a really uncertain time and I was SO excited to share with you our next drop but we will be having a delay on everything,' she told fans. Suits her: Montana seemed to love this spotty pink bikini the most as she posed in it more than the others Who needs the beach? Montana makes the perfect model for the range as she basked in a ray of sunlight 'Absolutely gutted but I understand everyone is hurting by all of this as its a scary time for everyone. Just sending everyone lots of love and positivity at this hard time.' Montana is currently single following her split from model Elliott Reeder in January. She's sworn off dating for the foreseeable future after admitting she's still close and in regular contact with her ex-boyfriend. 'I'm taking a break from dating for now 100 per cent. I'm a bit nervous to go off into the big wide world now,' she told MailOnline in February. 'I was in a long-term relationship and we're still really close and I know I'm definitely not ready for anything. This time is for focusing on work. 'I am such a grandma, I'm not much of a party animal. My happy place is when I'm at home with my hair up watching a film in the comfort of my own home, so it can be hard to meet someone.' She's got the moves: She partied up a storm from the comfort of her kitchen * Each year thousands of schools in the United States participate in the National Geographic Bee using materials prepared by the National Geographic Society. The contest is designed to motivate students to learn about the world and how it works. Students in grades four through eight are eligible for this entertaining and challenging competition. With a top prize of a $50,000 college scholarship-plus other prizes-the contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography. Students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools are participating in the 2020 National Geographic Bee. There are three levels of competition: school, state, and national. This year the Amity Middle School champion was Dan Mowerman, who took a written test to qualify to represent Amity Middle School in Bethany at the state level of the National Geographic Bee. Standing, from left, Quinn Cunneen, Gregory Hofstatter, Michael Crisci, Mark Sheehe; kneeling, from left, Dan Mowerman, Benjamin Wang, Adrian Frankiewicz, Moorea Santulli. * Sacred Heart Academy student Michelle Chacko 22 recently took a short-term medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic with Handfuls of Hope. This organization was founded by individuals who had been involved in a series of short-term missions in the DR and who then began connecting other groups and organizations to do the same so as to make a lasting impact in that country. Her work involved translating and communicating, and taking people wherever they needed to go for medical reasons, whether to a pharmacy, to a lab, or to a medical appointment. She also assisted with basic medical procedures such as taking temperature and blood pressure, and visited villages to distribute food and interact with the villagers, including playing with the children. She is the daughter of Manoj and Reshma Chacko. They reside in North Haven. Five CMU Security and Privacy Papers Receive IEEEs Test of Time Award May 26, 2020 Having a paper accepted to a high-caliber conference is a great accomplishment. Having one of those papers withstand the test of time is even better. Five papers co-authored by Carnegie Mellon researchers presented at past IEEE Security & Privacy (S&P) symposia more than fifteen years ago were awarded IEEEs Test-of-Time Award at this weeks annual conference. The IEEE S&P symposium initiated the Test-of-Time Award last year to recognize papers that have made a lasting impact on the fields of security and privacy. Nine papers received the award this year. Listed below are the five papers that received the IEEE Test-of-Time Award this week. Distributed Detection of Node Replication Attacks in Sensor Networks (IEEE S&P 2005) Authors: Bryan Parno (CyLab & ECE), Adrian Perrig (CyLab), Virgil Gligor (University of Maryland, now at CMU) This paper observed that in some networks, an attacker can capture a legitimate network node, extract its secrets, and then introduce many clones of that node back into the network. This gives the attacker significant influence over the network, allowing it to, for example, suppress legitimate alarms or subvert additional nodes. Detecting such a threat is quite difficult, since the clones have all of the access and authentication tokens the original trusted node did. To counter this threat, the study introduces a pair of protocols designed to detect replication via "emergent algorithms, which produce a network-level property via the independent actions of many nodes. This adversary model and problem formulation captured the community's interest, and led to some remarkable follow on work, both in sensor networks, and in other contexts, e.g., detecting fake accounts in social networks. Random Key Predistribution Schemes for Sensor Networks (IEEE S&P 2003) Authors: Haowen Chan (CyLab), Adrian Perrig (CyLab), Dawn Song (CyLab) This study helped advance security of communications between devices in the Internet of Things (IoT). Building off a paper from 2002 Community interest arose from the study as researchers started to embark and propose a series of ever-improved systems. This research also helped to popularize the threat model of multiple-node compromise in sensor networks and IoT. Efficient Authentication and Signing of Multicast Streams over Lossy Channels (IEEE S&P 2000) Authors: Adrian Perrig (CMU), Ran Canetti (Boston University), J.D. Tygar (UC Berkeley), The core contribution of this paper is TESLA, a system for authentication of broadcast messages, also referred to as multicast streams. In order for secure broadcast authentication to be authenticated, only the sender can create the authentication information, and all the receivers can verify but not create the authentication. This asymmetry is difficult to achieve in an efficient manner. TESLA used time to achieve asymmetry, where a message is authenticated with a secret key that will be made public at a later point in time. Over the past 20 years, the TESLA authentication system was used in a variety of real-world applications. Today, TESLA is being considered for the authentication of satellite navigation messages. Practical Techniques for Searches on Encrypted Data (IEEE S&P 2000) Authors: Dawn Song (UC Berkeley, formerly CMU), David Wagner (UC Berkeley), Adrian Perrig (CMU) This study presented the first efficient construction to enable an untrusted server to perform a search on encrypted data without leaking the search term. With the emergence of cloud computing, the paper inspired a wealth of follow-up research to further improve search operations, but also to support a variety of operations on encrypted data. With these systems, a user can perform operations on encrypted data in the cloud, without needing to trust the cloud operator. A Sense of Self for Unix Processes (IEEE S&P 1996) Authors: Thomas A. Longstaff (CMU SEI), Stephanie Forrest (Univ. of New Mexico), Steven A. Hofmeyr (Univ. of New Mexico), Anil Somayaji (Univ. of New Mexico) The impact of injustice and bullying have always been themes of bestselling childrens and young adult author Kelly Yangs work. But the author said she was still shocked when she experienced two coronavirus-related hate incidents this spring. A longtime educator, Yang was conducting an online writing workshop over Instagram Live in late March when the class was bombarded with bigoted comments. In case there was any doubt that racism is happening against Asian Am, here it is, she tweeted afterward. This is not ok! Today I went on Instagram Live to give a free online writing class to teens to support the community during this time of #Covid19 #SchoolClosures and I got called a Chinese virus. In case there was any doubt that racism is happening against Asian Am, here it is. pic.twitter.com/P9i6nyfP66 Kelly Yang (@kellyyanghk) March 23, 2020 A month later, another troubling moment occurred while Yang was visiting a dog park near her Bay Area home. She later tweeted a video that appeared to show two adults heckling her with anti-Asian slurs. The video received thousands of views. I am shaking. I went to the dog park to walk my dog. These people came very aggressively towards me (without a mask), called me an oriental & told me to go back to where I came from. I asked her to pls stop coming towards me, she wouldnt stop, finally I had to get out my camera. pic.twitter.com/deFxcMBGlN Kelly Yang (@kellyyanghk) April 25, 2020 It is not lost on Yang that the vitriol she experienced during both of these incidents is similar to the anti-Chinese xenophobic bullying experienced by the main character in her new young adult novel Parachutes, which was released Tuesday, May 26. The book explores the story of Chinese exchange student Claire Wang after she heads to the United States to finish high school. While Claire revels in her newfound freedom, she and her Filipino American host sister, Dani De La Cruz, both experience a traumatic moment that almost derails their futures. Story continues We spoke to Yang about Parachutes, parenting in the age of COVID-19 and what can be done to support teen survivors of sexual assault. Author Kelly Yang. (Harold de Puymorin) NBC Asian America: You have had a rough spring with two public incidences of coronavirus-related racism. You are also a mom of three kids under 13. How have you been talking to them about whats been happening? Kelly Yang: With what happened at the dog park, two of them were with me, so there was no way I could hide it from them. They had heard it and they had seen it. But they were confused because we hadnt taught them the term oriental. We hadnt taught them that people say go back to where you came from they thought she meant go back to our house. One good thing was that we were able to have these long conversations about racism and the history of Asian Americans in the United States and why people might be feeling frustrated right now. Of course, there is never a just reason for racism, but it is important to talk about what is happening. NBC Asian America: There was also an incident that occurred while you were teaching one of your online workshops. You later learned the person who called you a slur was a teen themselves. Yang: There was an incident in the class where a couple of teenagers started putting really disturbing words up. They called me a Chinese virus several times. I saw it flash on my phone during the class and I thought Oh my god, what do I do? The next class I had a serious discussion on corona racism and what we can all do to step up. NBC Asian America: How should parents talk to their kids about what to do when they witness something like this? Yang: First, we have to understand that teenagers are learning and growing. But as parents, we have to start having that awkward conversation with our kids and say: "This happened to an author. What would you have done if you were in that class?" Youd be surprised at what kids will tell you it happens more often than we think. NBC Asian America: Many readers may not be familiar with the parachute student phenomenon which is when teens from China and other parts of Asia come to the United States for high school. Why did you want to write about these students? Yang: I was living in Hong Kong for the last 15 years and I taught writing there. A lot of kids I taught ended up becoming parachutes. It was fascinating to understand their unique struggles and also the common struggles they shared with other immigrants. What happens when there is something that is totally unjust that happens to you? What do you do? It is just harder because you are on your own. NBC Asian America: Youve mentioned that this book took 17 years to write because it brought up a lot of painful memories. What was it like dealing with those emotions? Yang: That was really challenging. I was sexually assaulted when I was in Harvard Law School. I was only 17 when it happened and I didnt want to talk about it afterward because the whole experience not only of getting sexually assaulted but also then navigating the process of getting any sort of justice from the school was just so traumatizing to me. Recently, my alma mater Harvard Law School asked for a donation for my 15th reunion, a class Ill always share with the guy who sexually assaulted me when I was a teenager and completely got away with it. THREAD pic.twitter.com/UhyFIafgwH Kelly Yang (@kellyyanghk) May 14, 2020 I went to college when I was 13 and then I was one of the youngest women to ever go to law school. I never expected that this would happen to me. So going from that and making my way to this amazing institution, you just dont think this will happen to you there. It was so traumatizing that No. 1, I didnt want to become a lawyer and No. 2, I didnt want to revisit what happened for a long, long time. It wasnt until 2014, when the Department of Education found that Harvard Law School had violated Title XI and also later following the Harvey Weinstein case and seeing the women who came forward, that I got the courage [to write about what happened]. NBC Asian America: Youve said that this is the book you wished you had as a teen. What do you hope young survivors take from Parachutes? Yang: I really want the story of Dani and Claire to not only help teenagers better understand the world, but to change it. And we can also shine a light on people in power and the roles they play in rape culture, simply by the decisions they make every day. I also want them to know how much power they have because when something happens, you feel really powerless to speak up. The things for me that really turned things around was seeing the power of women standing together and speaking our truth together. It was a critical moment during the Harvey Weinstein investigation and it was a critical thing with Harvard Law School, because I always thought I was the only one. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Department of Justice has extended visas for international students studying English in Ireland until the end of the year. According to Marketing English in Ireland (MEI), the representative body for the majority of language schools in Ireland, more than 10,000 students were forced to stay here due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. The Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan had previously announced the extension of visas that were due to expire between 20 May 2020 and 20 July by two months. Now, the visa extensions apply to the end of the year. However, Minister Flanagan pointed out that the students can stay on provided they re-enrol in an online course of study for the remainder of the year. MEI has confirmed that most colleges are now offering online courses, and students should contact their college directly to make any necessary arrangements. Students will be required to register to re-enrol in an online course of study until the end of the year. These students must re-register once the Registration Offices reopen. The registration office in Burgh Quay in Dublin is closed and will only reopen when it is safe to do so, in line with Governments Roadmap. When the Registration Office reopens, priority will be given to those seeking to register for the first time. International language students are allowed to study English here for a maximum of two years. During that time, they are also allowed to work in casual employment for a maximum of 20 hours per week during school term and 40 hours per week during holidays. Due to the many Covid-19 closures, most of them lost their jobs, but the Covid-19 Unemployment payment was made available to them. It was also announced today that any students who left the State before completing their studies due to Covid-19 may return and resume their studies. The duration of their absence will not count towards the two-year maximum period of English language study allowed. Announcing these measures, Minister Flanagan said: "I understand and recognise the difficulties that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on all immigrants, and in particular our international student population. "Im therefore pleased to be able to announce these new measures to support students which I hope will provide some welcome assurance and certainty for the coming months. "We will continue to keep the situation under active review as matters evolve in our national response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) With just a few session days left in the legislative calendar, the Department of Finance seeks swift passage of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, otherwise known as the CREATE Act. Under the proposed measure, all businesses will only need to settle 25 percent of their net taxable income starting July if the measure is approved in Congress, a big reduction from the current 30 percent rate. Finance Assistant Secretary Tony Lambino told CNN Philippines the passage of the bill will bring the Philippines closer to the regional average, in the process attracting more foreign investments. "A drop from 30 percent to 25 percent is actually a 42 billion reduction in our revenues in the second half of 2020 alone, 625 billion for the succeeding five years," Lambino said in an interview. "This is really the first time the Department of Finance of the Philippines has proposed to the Philippine Congress a revenue-eroding tax reform measure. But we need it, and this is something that will really help our businesses." Lambino said the government is looking to offer both tax and non-tax incentives for 'highly desirable' foreign investors who will serve public interest. "If a company needs something other than tax incentives, we should be able to negotiate," Lambino said. "The jobs that will be created from these investments should be high value jobs. We are looking at high-tech sort of investments that will bring new research and technology in the country." Lambino added that government may offer 'superior incentives' to investors setting up in less developed areas of the country, to make sure jobs "go to the areas in the country where they are needed most." When asked what was the probability of the CREATE bill being implemented this July, Lambino said there is much going in their favor, adding that the House has already passed the bill on third and final reading, but time is short. "The bill is a certified bill by the President, so second and third reading can happen on the same day," Lambino said. "House Ways and Means Chairman Joey Salceda has also said he is willing to forgo bicam and adopt a Senate version that is fiscally responsible." Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez also expressed support for the immediate passage of the CREATE bill, saying this will help the Philippines attract foreign investors moving out of China. "We have started to study what shall make them invest in the Philippines and find out what would be a tailor-fit incentive that would be meaningful for them," Lopez said in a briefing on Tuesday. "These things were also giving, so were giving it a fight and we want to compete of course in this arena." The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of the largest umbrella of business organizations in the country, has also called on the Senate and House of Representatives to accelerate the enactment of the bill into law. PORTLAND, Oregon, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Cyber Insurance Market by Company Size (Large Companies and Small & Medium-sized Companies) and Industry Vertical (BFSI, IT & Telecom, Retail & E-commerce, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government & Public Sector, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026." According to the report, the global cyber insurance industry was estimated at $4.85 billion in 2018, and is expected to hit $28.60 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 24.9% from 2019 to 2026. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities- Rise in cyber-attacks and increase in mandatory legislation regarding cyber security drive the growth of the global cyber insurance market. On the other hand, lack of standardized policies curbs the growth to a certain extent. Nevertheless, development of products and services and progress in emerging economies are anticipated to usher in multiple opportunities in the near future. Download Sample Report: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/1705 The large enterprises segment to dominate by 2026- Based on organization size, the large enterprises segment accounted for more than two-thirds of the global cyber insurance market revenue in 2018, and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Large companies often purchase cyber insurance policies for protection against cyber-attacks and other risks which, in turn, has fueled the growth of the segment. At the same time, the SMEs segment is expected to portray the fastest CAGR of 27.2% by the end of 2026. The fact that small- and medium-sized enterprises are more susceptible to cyber-attacks has driven the segment growth. The BFSI segment to lead the trail- Based on industry vertical, the BFSI segment contributed to one-fourth of the global cyber insurance market share in 2018, and would maintain the lion's share by 2026. Rise in incidences of data breaches in large volumes of customer data has augmented the growth of the segment. Simultaneously, the government & public sector would showcase the fastest CAGR of 27.5% during the estimated period. This is due to increase in cyber liabilities, data theft, identity fraud, and cyber-attacks, which has left cyber insurance coverages at the forefront of corporate governance in public sector companies. Enquire For Discount: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/1705 North America garnered the highest share in 2018- Based on region, North America held the major share in 2018, reaping more than two-fifths of the global cyber insurance market. Increase in data breach, cyber extortion and disruptive events across business sectors in this province have driven the market. The Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, is predicted to register the fastest CAGR of 26.9% till 2026. Rapid technological developments such as automated production & technical processes and growing adoption of internet of things along with, stringent regulatory landscape for data protection have been driving the Asia-Pacific cyber insurance market. Frontrunners in the industry- American International Group, Inc. Munich Re, Zurich Lockton Companies, Inc. Aon plc AXA Berkshire Hathway Inc. Allianz Lloyd's of London Ltd. The Chubb Corporation Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: Global Health Insurance Market Expected to Reach $4,475 Billion by 2026 Global Trade Finance Market Expected to Reach $56,065.7 Million by 2026 Travel Insurance Market Expected to Reach $37.0 Billion By 2027 North America Travel Insurance Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Europe Travel Insurance Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Italy Travel Insurance Market: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount: Auto Insurance Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Property Insurance Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 About Us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): 1-800-792-5285, 1-503-894-6022, 1-503-446-1141 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on LinkedIn and Twitter SOURCE Allied Market Research A day after residents of a Greater Noida west township held a protest against the authoritys decision to seal the entire society after three positive Covid-19 cases were reported from the housing complex, the district administration has redefined the containment zones for high-rises. According to Uttar Pradesh government guidelines, any residential area with multiple cases will become a containment zone and will be sealed for a period of 21 days. However, in a statement released by the office of the district magistrate Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj on Tuesday, the radius of the containment zone will now depend on the number of cases. In consultation with the state government, containment zones have been redefined for multi-storied buildings and societies in urban areas. If a single case is reported in a multi-storey society, only that particular tower will be sealed, and if more than one case is reported, the previous rule will be applicable according to which sealing radius will be 500 metre for containment and 250 metre for the buffer zone, the order said. The order further stated that in case towers of the same society fall outside the 500 metre radius, they will not be considered as part of the containment zone. Residents of various high-rises have welcomed the district administrations move. It is very difficult for high-rises that have thousands of people living in them to have them sealed. Its a question of their livelihood. People in hot spots cannot even get administrative passes. Not all societies have grocery shops within their premises, thus creating further problems, Abhishek Kumar, president, NEFOWA, a Greater Noida West association of high-rises, said. The administrations decision comes 24 hours after residents of Supertech Ecovillage had held a protest on Monday evening when their society had been sealed. The United Nations, formerly the League of Nations, came into being on June 26, 1945, its name suggested by Franklin D Roosevelt, the president of the United States. The Charter of the United Nations Conference on International Organisation was signed in San Francisco by 46 nations which quickly rose to 51. It was felt to be a necessity after the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the ideal of all nations being united for the common good was one that was inspirational and welcomed throughout the world. The initial goals were impressive and principled. As its second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjold, put it: "The United Nations was created not to lead mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." The hell he had in mind was the hovering threat of further atomic warfare, widespread poverty, particularly in the developing world, and death from starvation and treatable diseases. These were among the many areas that the UN tackled with some success. Peacekeeping has also been one of its successes, and thousands of Irish soldiers have worked abroad with the UN. The goals in 1945 were fourfold: maintaining world peace and security; developing relations among nations; fostering co-operation on international problems; and providing a forum for bringing the countries together. Almost 75 years on, the UN has grown to include 193 nations. It is now seen by many as an inflated behemoth, having cost the world more than half a trillion dollars (458bn) over its lifetime. And as its 75th anniversary approaches criticism continues and mounts. It has been accused of being unable to prevent conflicts such as the war in Darfur, and criticised for allegedly supporting Palestinian militancy and anti-Semitism. Scandals have been rife and include child sexual abuse by peacekeeping forces in places such as Cambodia, Bosnia and Kosovo. It was forced to acknowledge that its workers had been involved in bringing a 2010 cholera epidemic to Haiti. And allegations of corruption in the Security Council and in the oil for food programme in Iraq have been raised. Charges of moral relativism have been levied, and some of the UN's token gestures have enraged nations, such as the decision of the general assembly to hold a period of silence in honour of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il following his death in 2011. No such respect was shown to Vaclav Havel the leader of the Czech Republic, who died the day after Mr Kim. The UN has been accused of being too closely aligned with China during the current pandemic and has refused to allow Taiwan to join as a member. It is also giving extraordinary power to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Somalia in the area of human rights, despite their own serious shortcomings. In recent years, the UN's activities have wasted money and bordered on puerile. In 2016, the cartoon and film superhero Wonder Woman was named honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women in support of the UN's goal of achieving gender equality. It provoked the ire of some UN staff who claimed she was too sexualised and not culturally sensitive enough. Signatures were collected, protests took place during the ceremony, a walkout ensued and ultimately she was stripped of her title. Other farces include appointing Winnie the Pooh as an honorary ambassador for the International Day of Friendship in 1997 and Tinkerbell was made an "honorary ambassador of green" to raise awareness of environmental issues in 2009. One would have assumed such risible tokenism would have been a lesson to the UN, but last week, still marvelling at the wonder of its own creation, it issued a list of words that should be extinguished from our language. Not in the least deterred by an ongoing global catastrophe, the crusaders against "wrong-think" in the UN have decreed that certain words in the English language discriminate against "a particular sex, social gender or gender identity". Guidelines and a training toolkit are available to the interested. So "mankind" becomes "humankind", "chairman" is "chair", and businessman, landlord, and others also change. Most astonishing is that "husband" and "wife" are to be replaced by "spouse". This insult to freedom of speech has been welcomed by the politically correct brigade. A bit of a heroine to me because of her forays into "courageous intersectionality", is Titania McGrath (aka Andrew Doyle) the holder of a parody Twitter account. Not to be outdone by the UN, Titania has suggested "father" should become "oppressive parent", "mother" should become "non-oppressive parent", "woman should be referred to as "victim", "man" as "rapist" and "boy" as "rapist in waiting". This is an outstanding example of mockery by the absurd. On the face of things, it appears that the UN has moved a long way, and in a reverse direction, from the high ideals and aspirations it espoused in 1945. It is preoccupied with politically correct trivia while most people in the world are living in the shadow of death. The UN, thanks to its fatuous meddling with language, has become a laughing stock. Patricia Casey is consultant psychiatrist in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, UCD Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Just about a year ago, voters in Hong Kong sent a loud and clear message to Beijing: They would not lose the freedoms they enjoyed. In fact, pro-democracy forces there won 389 of 452 parliamentary seats in that election more than 3 times their previous total. Even more, the results were seen as overwhelming support for the pro-democracy protesters that had been filling the streets of Hong Kong for weeks. At the time, I wondered out loud how Xi Jinping and his Communist cadres would respond. I feared then, and even predicted, that Beijing would not sit idly by. Though distracted for a few months by the global pandemic they largely caused, its become clear that Eye of Sauron has turned its attention back to Hong Kong. On Thursday, Chinas National Peoples Congress announced it will deliberate a new law for, and I quote, establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for Hong Kong in order to, and of course they would claim this, safeguard national security. What this means in plain English is that Communist dictator Xi Jinping has had enough of Hong Kongs trouble and has decided to put an end to their independence. Unfortunately, there is little the rest of the world can do about it. At least, Beijing thinks so, and its hard to blame them. After all, it already dictates terms of surrender to global corporations like Apple and the NBA. It can apparently cow the European Union into changing its findings on COVID-19 so not to criticize China. Its able to silence any protest from Muslim nations about its cultural and physical genocide of millions of Chinese Uighurs. No wonder they expect to get away with this too. To review how we got to this point, when the British handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, a unique one country, two systems regime was established that would make Hong Kong part of China, but also maintain its own local government, economic and social systems, etc. At the time, China and the U.K. agreed the arrangement would last for 50 years. Im no mathematician, but were not even halfway there yet. Its hard to imagine that anything short of an unprecedented global outcry will cause China to back off. The natives of Hong Kong have no doubt about the seriousness of this threat. As Hong Kong lawmaker Tanya Chan told NBC News, I recall the time when I was young, and I believed in one country, two systems, and we were going to showcase to the world that Hong Kong people can rule Hong Kong. But now, Im not yet 50 years old and suddenly all is gone. Despite this show of force and so much that we hear, China is a lot weaker than it appears. Economic growth there is at its slowest pace in nearly three decades of modern record-keeping. Throw in a sinking labor force and the added economic impact of COVID-19, and Chinas Communist Party has a big problem on its hands. Their only source of legitimacy has been economic growth. For the past 40 years, the Chinese people have been asked, over and over, to trade certain freedoms away for increasing prosperity. The fragile balance is sure to collapse if that prosperity goes away. Its no coincidence that Xi Jinping doubled down on his own cult of personality and cracked down on religious freedom just as Chinas economy began to slow. The renewed call to Chinese nationalism from Beijing effectively distracted the population from growing economic worries and offered an effective pretext for cracking down on Hong Kong protestors, many of whom see their protesting as an outworking of their Christian faith and as something for which they are willing to die. Because so much of the Christian activity in China flows through Hong Kong, an assault on Hong Kong is rightly seen as part of the larger war on Chinese Christianity. We must pray for Hong Kong, including the hundreds of thousands of Christians there. We must pray against the power of Beijing and Xi Jinping. We must pray that world leaders will show the backbone that has been sorely lacking when it comes to China relations over the past decade. There must not be business as usual with such a brutal regime. This piece was originally published at BreakPoint Highlights The Mi 18W Dual Port charger offers two USB-A ports. The combined charging output is rated at 18W. Xiaomi has priced it at Rs 599. Xiaomi has been busy bringing some of its fan-requested accessories from China to the Indian market. After launching a couple of IoT products and audio accessories, Xiaomi has now introduced its dual-port charging adapter in the Indian market. The adapter is meant to be used with smartphones and is priced at Rs 599. The adapter will be on sale on Xiaomi's website. As the name suggests, the Mi 18W Dual Port charger has two USB-A ports for power output. The charger is rated at a combined output of 18W, which means you can either charge a single device at speeds of 18W or lose the fast charging speeds if going for charging two devices simultaneously. Xiaomi states that the adapter is Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 certified. When it comes to safety, the adapter is certified by BIS. Moreover, Xiaomi states that the adapter has surge protection of 380V, which should prevent damage to your connected devices in cases of voltage fluctuations. If your smartphone supports 18W fast charging, or to be specific, Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 standard, then you can avail fast charging speeds. Xiaomi's website says that one can charge smartphones as well as power banks with the adapter, although plugging in your smart wearables also shouldn't cause troubles. Along with the dual-port charger, Xiaomi has also announced the Mi Precision Screw Driver set. The product comes with a set of 24 anti-rust precision bits and houses them in an aluminium alloy box. The screwdriver set is available for purchase on Xiaomi's website at a price of Rs 999. Prior to these accessories, Xiaomi announced a couple of high-profile products under the Mi series, the biggest one being the Mi 10 5G. The Mi 10 5G is Xiaomi's most expensive flagship smartphone in the country as of now and offers some of the best specifications you will see ins smartphones. Some of the highlight features on the Mi 10 include a Snapdragon 865 chipset, a 108-megapixel main camera, 30W fast wired and wireless charging, as well as a 90Hz curved AMOLED display. Xiaomi also announced the Mi True Wireless Earphones 2 in India at a price of Rs 4,500, offering smart playback controls, decent battery life and promise good audio quality. The Mi Box 4K also joins the list, offering the same features its Smart TV counterparts offer. The Mi Box 4K runs on stock Android 9 TV OS and can stream content in 4K as well as HDR10. The Mi Box 4K is priced at Rs 3,499. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, seen in 2019, said that California schools won't reopen until it can be done safely due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) To the editor: California schools cannot reopen until the state addresses several important concerns. ("Most California school districts plan to open in the fall. Here's how it would work," May 20) First, what is the true incidence of multi-system inflammatory syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease in children that is probably associated with COVID-19? If one in 10,000 children exposed to the coronavirus end up with this syndrome, and there are 73 million children in the United States, that means we will need at least 7,300 intensive care unit beds available for them. There are only 350 pediatric ICUs (PICUs) in the U.S., and half of them have fewer than eight beds. In an average year, 4,800 kids get Kawasaki disease and require PICU treatment. Respiratory syncytial virus also fills our PICUs in the fall. What if there is an overlap? Do we have a plan to accommodate all critically ill children? Can we reverse-engineer adult ICU teams so that they can treat children? Can we develop protocols so that adult intensivists can be virtually supervised by our limited number of pediatric ICU physicians? What is our plan if our pediatric units are full? We need an emergency plan to assure PICU bed availability or a backup plan with adult ICU specialists. Until plans are in place, prudence demands that we continue flattening the curve by not opening our schools. Howard C. Mandel, M.D., Los Angeles The writer is president of the Los Angeles City Health Commission. .. To the editor: The superintendents of the six largest school districts in California wrote to lawmakers stating that they cannot risk the health and safety of students and staff by returning to the classroom prematurely without adequate testing and a clear understanding of the impacts of coronavirus on young people. Given that multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children has been linked to COVID-19, I am deeply concerned that if schools reopen in the fall, we will see a dramatic increase in the number of children afflicted by coronavirus-related ailments. Story continues Until we have a better understanding of the effects of the coronavirus on young people, we should not endanger our children by sending them to school in the fall. Rob Demonteverde, Brea .. To the editor: Great news to hear that California schools are working on plans to reopen in the fall. However, we all know that things are not going to be the same. What shall we call this new form of education? May I suggest "spatial ed?" Joe Kevany, Mount Washington Three sections of camps in Bangladesh blocked off by authorities after confirmed infections among refugees hit 29. At least 15,000 Rohingya refugees are under quarantine in Bangladeshs vast camps, as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections there rose to 29. Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Rohingya who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement in the area in April. Despite this, the first cases in the camps were detected in mid-May. None of the infections are critical. Most hardly show any symptoms. Still, we have brought them in isolation centres and quarantined their families, Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in the surrounding Coxs Bazar area told AFP news agency on Monday. He said narrow roads to three camp districts where the majority of the infections were detected have been blocked off by authorities. 200515070825239 The 15,000 Rohingya inside these so-called blocks faced further restrictions on their movement, he said. This comes as charity workers expressed fears over being infected in the camps as they worked without adequate protection. Two of the areas under isolation are in Kutupalong camp, home to roughly 600,000 Rohingya. We are trying to scale up testing as fast as possible to make sure that we can trace out all the infected people and their contacts, Bhuiyan said. Seven isolation centres with the capacity to treat more than 700 COVID-19 patients have been prepared, he said, with officials hoping to have just under 2,000 by the end of May. But, according to Nay San Lwin, co-founder of Free Rohingya Coalition, there are not enough ICU beds and ventilators available for refugees and the local community in Coxs Bazar region. Very worried Mahbubur Rahman, chief health official of Coxs Bazar, said authorities hoped this week they would double the number of tests being performed daily, which stand at 188. He said further entry restrictions have been imposed on the camp, with a 14-day quarantine in place for anyone visiting from Dhaka. We are very worried because the Rohingya camps are very densely populated. We suspect community transmission (of the virus) has already begun, Rahman told AFP. Emergency teams worked to contain the spread of the virus in the worlds largest refugee settlement [File: Shafiqur Rahman/AP] Bangladesh on Monday had a record single-day spike in coronavirus cases, with 1,975 new infections, taking the toll to 35,585 cases and 501 deaths. In early April, authorities imposed a complete lockdown on Coxs Bazar district home to 3.4 million people including the refugees after a number of infections outside of the camps. Charity workers and activists have raised concerns about the lack of hygiene and protection in the camps. As the camps are overcrowded, social distancing is almost impossible, Lwin told Al Jazeera. There is also a lack of awareness about the virus, he added, after local authorities cut off access to the internet in September to combat, they said, drug traffickers and other criminals. Many are unaware of how this disease spreads, how to prevent and contain, Lwin said. Unlike global citizens, their suffering is a bit more than others. Others can access information to prevent from being infected, but Rohingya in the camps are not even allowed access to information. More than 740,000 Rohingya fled a brutal 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar to Coxs Bazar, where some 200,000 refugees were already living. Additional reporting by Saba Aziz: @saba_aziz. Scott Kane went 38 years without ever touching a gun. That streak would have continued had it not been for the coronavirus. In March, fearful of the harassment his wife and child experienced over their Asian ancestry, Kane found himself in a California gun shop. His March 11 purchase of a 9mm would have been the end of the story, were it not for a political standoff over shutdown orders and background checks. Now Kane, a former supporter of gun-control measures and AR-15 bans, is frustrated by the arduous process that has denied his family a sense of security. The pandemic has made the soft-spoken software engineer an unlikely Second Amendment supporter. "This has taken me, a law-abiding citizen with nary an unpaid parking ticket to my name, over a month," he told the Washington Free Beacon. "Meanwhile Joe Bad Guy has probably purchased several fully automatic AK-47s out of the back of an El Camino in a shady part of town with zero background checks." Receipts reviewed by the Free Beacon show Kane first purchased a firearm on March 11 from Sportsman's Warehouse in Milpitas, Calif. Santa Clara County shut down the shop before Kane's 10-day waiting period was complete. No end date was given for the order, but a California law giving buyers just 30 days to pick up a gun remained in effect. Kane was stuck in a legal limbo that only grew worse. ..... Mumbai, May 26 : In a blistering counter-attack, the Congress' Maharashtra unit on Tuesday alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states like Gujarat are suppressing Covid-19 data and indulging in politics during the ongoing pandemic. While Gujarat is not conducting enough Covid-19 tests, all BJP-administered states in the country are concealing the real coronavirus data, state party Spokesperson and General Secretary Sachin Sawant claimed. "The Gujarat High Court has lambasted the Gujarat healthcare system terming the hospitals there as worse than dungeons and compared the situation to a sinking ship like 'Titanic'. The situation is near-identical in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh," Sawant told media persons. Taking a swipe at Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, the Congress leader advised his BJP to "first look at the failed Gujarat model" before criticising this state. He pointed out that the Gujarat HC had taken suo moto cognizance of a doctor's complaint and come down heavily on the Gujarat healthcare system which is paralysed, exposing the inefficiency of the BJP government there. Adding to this was the state Advocate-General's submission to the court that "more tests may lead to 70 per cent of the population testing Covid-19 positive, thereby creating a fear psychosis among the people". With the current population of Ahmedabad estimated to be 78 lakh, and with 70 per cent potentially Covid-19 positive, there could be a minimum 40 lakh patients only in that city, Sawant said, adding the BJP has no right to criticise the Maharashtra government. "In Maharashtra, the government is working scientifically, not indulging in clapping, lighting lamps or clanging plates. The situation is tough now, but when the Opposition points it out, the government takes suitable steps. Corona is the enemy of humanity, but the power-hungry BJP leaders in the state and Centre consider the state government as its enemy," said Sawant sharply. Against this, he recalled how the entire state including the (then) Opposition Congress-Nationalist Congress Party stood by Fadnavis when he was the state CM, though his party president Chandrakant Patil made irresponsible statements then. In the same vein, Sawant urged the BJP leaders including Fadnavis, Narayan Rane and Subramaniam Swamy to cooperate with the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, arrange for funds to be released from the Centre, more trains for migrants and other forms of assistance in public interest. New Delhi, May 26 : Commuters had a harrowing time on Tuesday morning after the Ghaziabad district administration sealed its border with the national capital, with the vehicular traffic queuing going up to over one kilometre. The people travelling in their vehicles were stuck in heavy traffic at the Ghaziabad border. The long vehicular queue was witnessed from both the sides of the district near the Ghazipur mandi, that connects Delhi with Ghaziabad on National Highway 24. The district administration in an order on Monday had said, "In Ghaziabad district, there is an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the last few days. A large chunk of these cases are linked to those who travel between Delhi and Ghaziabad." "Hence, on the recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer, the district administration has decided to seal the Delhi-Ghaziabad border until further orders," the order read. The administration said that the people employed in essential services will be allowed. Doctors, paramedical staff, police, media personnel and bank employees will not need passes. Their identity cards will be enough. The officials of the third and fourth grade working with the central and Delhi government offices where 33 per cent attendance system is in place, are required to produce temporary passes from their offices to gain entry into the district and their identity cards alone would not be considered. The order also stated that till the time the central and Delhi government employees don't get proper passes their ID cards will be valid to travel. Even the advocates have been allowed to travel to Delhi. The order also asked the government employees to enter Delhi before 9 a.m. and return to Ghaziabad after 6 p.m. The order also stated that in case of emergency. residents willing to get e-passes will have to apply. Such applications will be assessed and then e-passes issued, it said. (Natural News) mRNA vaccines also called genetic vaccines arise from an innovative biotechnology approach that turns the bodys cells into molecular factories to produce proteins that activate a pathogen-specific immune response. The technology holds great promise but also presents significant risks which are not yet fully known. Summary of whats in this article: mRNA vaccines promise an intriguing new platform for immunization that does not rely on the growth or harvesting of pathogens from animal tissue. This offers mRNA vaccines several key advantages over traditional vaccines. Research into mRNA vaccines is still in its infancy, even though various biotech pioneers have been working on ways to achieve mRNA vaccines for around two decades. It is very likely that yet more decades of research will be required to achieve acceptable levels of safety and efficacy. mRNA vaccines can be produced far more rapidly, safely and uniformly than traditional vaccines. Production can be easily scaled up, and there is zero risk of introducing live pathogens into the body of the patient, since these vaccines dont use weakened pathogens in the first place. There are very real risks associated with mRNA vaccines including enhanced inflammation and auto-immune reactions, where the bodys cells are inadvertently programmed to attack critical proteins required for normal health (such as hormones). The profit-motivated rush to deploy mRNA vaccines to prevent the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus is causing regulators and researchers to skip (or accelerate) many critical steps in quality control and clinical trials. This is likely to result in catastrophic consequences unintended side effects if such vaccines are granted approval for widespread deployment without proper long-term clinical trials. mRNA vaccines could be maliciously exploited to weaponize vaccines to target critical physiological functions in humans. This is similar in effect to RNA interference technology which is a gene suppressing innovation that has been studied for use as an insect-killing pesticide technology in crops. Although the mechanisms of mRNA vaccines and RNA interference technology are very different, they can achieve many of the same outcomes such as induced infertility or death in targeted organisms, which could include humans. Technically, this could also be exploited to target specific genetic subgroups of humans such as those of African descent. The best current application of mRNA vaccines seems to be found in personalized medicine cancer treatment applications, where vaccines are customized to teach the bodys immune system to attack and kill cancer cells. A reasonable tolerance risk for mRNA vaccine side effects would be proportional to the mortality risk of the pathogen or disease condition the vaccine is treating. For example, if stage IV cancer kills 80% of patients, and a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine cures 50% of patients while killing 5% of patients, the lives-saved-to-patients-killed ratio is 10:1, which would arguably be a reasonable risk to assume. However, if an mRNA coronavirus vaccine is widely given to healthy individuals who are at very low risk of mortality to begin with, then if the mRNA vaccine kills 1 in 1,000 of those people (for example), the vaccine might cause far higher mortality figures than the pathogen itself. Video discussion of the same points in this article: How mRNA vaccines work hint: Theyre not really vaccines at all The term vaccine is actually a misnomer. The mRNA approach doesnt infect the body with a weakened (attenuated) virus but rather commands the bodys cells to manufacture specific molecules that trick the immune system into thinking a pathogen is present. In the context of vaccines, these molecules are called antigens, and when these antigens are produced inside the bodys cells and subsequently presented to the cell surface, the immune system, in ideal circumstances, sees these antigens as invaders and builds an active immune response to eliminate those antigens. If the antigens are structured in a way that resembles the targeted viral pathogen such as the Wuhan coronavirus the bodys immune response should offer protection against the actual coronavirus. With mRNA vaccines, whats injected into the body isnt a weakened virus or even selected antigens but rather protein coding instructions that tell your bodys cells how to make the antigens on their own. (That process is called translation.) Its sort of like writing down and delivering to someone a set of instructions for building a catapult to protect the castle. Instead of building catapults and delivering them to the castle, youre telling the inhabitants inside the castle how to build their own catapults to fend off invaders. Heres a simplified diagram of this process from Curevac.com, one of the many companies pursuing mRNA vaccines against the coronavirus: As Curevac explains on its website: With our mRNA technology, we instruct the human body to activate its own defense mechanism. To that, we use the natural messenger substance mRNA that contains the construction manual needed to produce proteins. We program this messenger substance with the information about one protein of the coronavirus and inject it into the human body. The body recognizes the protein produced by our cells as something unknown and activates its immune cells to produce antibodies and T-cells against it. In this way, we imitate the natural viral infection and activate the endogenous defense system. In theory, mRNA vaccines offer extraordinary advantages over traditional vaccines. Theyre safer to manufacture and a lot faster to make. Theyre clean (i.e. they will not contain latent viruses found in the animals used to grow traditional vaccines) and typically require no adjuvants or other toxic additives in order to work as intended. Furthermore, they can direct the body to manufacture almost any protein imaginable. Thats how it works in theory, of course. But they also present enormous risks, and if the deployment of mRNA vaccines is rushed, the results could be catastrophic. Additionally, mRNA vaccines can be maliciously deployed to deliberately trick the human body into attacking its own critical functions such as fertility, neurological function, cell repair and other critical processes. This is explained in more detail below. The following video, from CureVac, is actually a fairly good overview of the mRNA platform and its promise. Keep in mind this is a greatly simplified promotional video and it of course doesnt really get into the potential risks or side effects: Five risks of mRNA vaccines The big problem with mRNA vaccines is that human biochemistry is incredibly complex, and the bodys synthesis of tens of thousands of different proteins is remarkably delicate and easy to throw out of balance. Many people dont realize this, but proteins are not merely structural components of the body (such as muscle tissue), they are also messengers (such as hormones), transport vehicles, enzymes, antibodies and many other types of molecules necessary for good health. Injecting the body with mRNA strands which are essentially protein synthesis instructions could theoretically unleash catastrophic unintended consequences in the body, which could include causing destructive self-reinforcing feedback loops that either diminish necessary protein synthesis or cause runaway excessive protein synthesis. These side effects can potentially lead to at least five negative outcomes: 1) Sudden onset of autoimmune disorders that cause the bodys immune system to attack its own cells. (See more details below.) 2) Heightened inflammation in the body, resulting in a hyper-inflammatory response in some people, leading to secondary effects such as neurological damage, organ failure or cancer. This is also sometimes called an enhanced inflammatory response. 3) A heightened risk of blood clotting in response to mRNA strands circulating in the blood outside the bodys cells. This can lead to potentially fatal episodes of stroke or serious cardiovascular events. 4) Immune response interference due to the presence of unintended RNA fragments being translated into unintended proteins, leading to a vast array of negative possible outcomes including molecular deficiencies that can result in various diseases and syndromes including hormonal / endocrine disorders, infertility, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders and many more. 5) In the case of self-replicating mRNA vaccines using viral components, an inability to stop a runaway process thats replicating out of control in the body. This could theoretically occur when the mRNA snippets are pushed into cells via virus replicon particles (VRP), for example, or using other viral delivery methods that rely on viral replication machinery. On the other hand, self-replicating mRNA vaccines allow for injection doses to be incredibly small, since the mRNA coding material is self-replicating, and this could lead to safer vaccines with far smaller dosing requirements compared to traditional vaccines. In addition to these five major risks, there are also enormously important questions about mRNA vaccines and some of the problems they might encounter in the body: 1) What happens if the desired protein folding goes awry? Without proper folding, the proteins never achieve their desired functionality. In the case of antigens, improper folding would render the structure useless and would not impart immunity. The mRNA translation into a protein is only part of the process of building a protein. The folding of the protein is another big part. Perhaps this has already been resolved by the very capable scientists working on this platform, but its a question that deserves further exploration. 2) How do the antigens produced inside the cell efficiently get transported to the outer membrane of the cell? This answer seems to be confidently answered by experts in this area, but it raises a second round of questions regarding cell membrane permeability which we already know is altered by electromagnetic exposure from sources such as 5G signals from cell towers. Notably, mRNA vaccine researchers are well aware of the phenomenon known as electroporation, because it is used alongside gene gun approaches in an attempt to insert self-replicating RNA payloads into cells, as you can see mentioned in this study on mRNA vaccines. 3) What happens if the mRNA snippets get fragmented and only partial instructions are delivered to the ribosomes, resulting in translation of partial proteins? This could, in theory, cause the body to see these partial proteins as pathogenic invaders, even when portions of those proteins might match critical molecules the body needs, such as hormones or enzymes. The end result could be that the immune system gets activated against the bodys own necessary molecules or cells. In other words, this is the autoimmune disorder scenario mentioned in the list above, and it opens up a Pandoras Box of catastrophic consequences that might be impossible to anticipate. 4) How might mRNA vaccines be maliciously weaponized as a depopulation platform to achieve globalist goals of depopulation via forced infertility? If mRNA can encode for the synthesis of any desired protein, its a simple matter to use the platform to build hormone-resembling antigens that would teach the human body to attack specific hormones necessary for reproduction and gestation. This, in turn, would theoretically result in widespread female infertility, thereby achieving globalist depopulation goals through vaccine-induced autoimmune infertility. Manufacturers of mRNA vaccines no doubt say all these risks can be mitigated. While that might be true after perhaps 40 years of research and trials, the complexity of the body screams out for additional long-term research on this platform perhaps 25 years more not a rushed vaccine that skips animal trials and compresses many years of typical safety research into just a few months. Importantly, many of the theoretical side effects of an mRNA vaccine would not become apparent until months or years after the initial injection. These adverse events are likely to be systemic, not acute, and would not become apparent in short-term clinical trials. This is a critical issue to grasp, since mRNA vaccines are right now being rushed through short-term clinical trials, leaving open the possibility of long-term unintended side effects that were not anticipated by vaccine manufacturers or FDA regulators. Advantages of mRNA vaccines They dont need to be grown in animal organs or chicken eggs, eliminating the risk of cross-species contamination of the vaccine. mRNA vaccine makers currently claim that their vaccines dont require the use of inflammation-inducing adjuvants, which are widely known to be responsible for many of the toxic effects of present-day vaccines. Because the vaccine doesnt consist of pathogens, there is zero risk of live pathogens accidentally being injected into the patient, contributing to further spread of infectious disease. This has occurred numerous times with classic vaccines. mRNA vaccines are much easier and faster to produce than traditional vaccines. Their manufacture is also easily standardized, with far greater purity and quality control potential than with vaccines which are made from animal tissue. The injection doses can be orders of magnitude smaller than for traditional vaccines. When mRNA vaccines are specifically programmed to target a patients pathogenic cancer tissue, the customized mRNA vaccine can be incredibly effective at teaching the body to destroy cancer cells. This is sometimes referred to as a cancer vaccine, although the label is misleading. Its actually a form of personalized medicine where the body is aided in the selective destruction of the very specific cancer cells which are replicating in that patients body. More details about the possible risks of mRNA vaccines Heres a summary of the current situation with mRNA vaccines, courtesy of the University of Cambridge and its phg Foundation: There is still a lot of work to be done before mRNA vaccines can become standard treatments, in the meantime, we need a better understanding of their potential side effects, and more evidence of their long term efficacy. In other words, mRNA vaccines hold very high long-term promise, but they are nowhere near being ready for large-scale commercial production and administration into billions of people, even though that seems to be the goal of the Moderna corporation and those pushing for a rapid vaccine response to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the known risks of mRNA vaccines include: The possibility that mRNA fragments might, through some currently unknown process, enter the cell nucleus and alter the genome of the host. mRNA vaccine companies currently claim this is impossible, but the history of medicine is full of examples of arrogant scientists making catastrophic assumptions about the human body that turned out to be overly optimistic. Because mRNA fragments code instructions for protein synthesis in the body, mRNA vaccines could be used to inject the body with Trojan Horse payloads of other proteins that are intended to carry out a long list of nefarious ill effects in human hosts, including infertility. This is crucial to note because the W.H.O. approved vaccines administered to young women in Africa have already been found to be laced with HCG, an infertility chemical designed to help achieve global depopulation. Given that many of the most noted vaccine proponents are also depopulation advocates, the exploitation of the mRNA platform to achieve infertility or accelerated deaths cannot be discounted. Some types of mRNA vaccines called self-amplifying inject the body with viral replication machinery to force the body to keep replicating the encoded proteins for an extended period of time, making it impossible to stop the process once the injection has taken place. The immune response may be far larger than intended, as the body sees the introduced mRNA fragments as evidence that the body is under attack from a pathogen. Unintended effects: the mRNA strand in the vaccine may elicit an unintended immune reaction, explains the phg Foundation (Univ. of Cambridge). And as Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in a TEDxBeaconStreet conference in 2013: mRNA creates an immune response. Why? Because a virus is made of mRNA. Like the flu. So if we inject mRNA in a patient, what happens? Your body thinks you just got the flu. And its not very good for our drug, because you know all the symptoms of the flu. Not super nice and the problem of going very high in dose, as you go around your body, you have a ton of side effects. There exists a very well known risk that mRNA material introduced into the body may produce autoimmune reactions, where the bodys cells are essentially programmed to attack other healthy cells. From, mRNA vaccines a new era in vaccinology, published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in 2018, authored by Norbert Pardi and colleagues: recent human trials have demonstrated moderate and in rare cases severe injection site or systemic reactions for different mRNA platforms A possible concern could be that some mRNA-based vaccine platforms54,166 induce potent type I interferon responses, which have been associated not only with inflammation but also potentially with autoimmunity. Another potential safety issue could derive from the presence of extracellular RNA during mRNA vaccination. Extracellular naked RNA has been shown to increase the permeability of tightly packed endothelial cells and may thus contribute to oedema. Another study showed that extracellular RNA promoted blood coagulation and pathological thrombus formation In other words, having RNA floating around in the blood, outside the cells which is how mRNA vaccines are administered caused blood clotting, which also happens to be one of the deadly side effects of COVID-19 itself. Autoimmune reactions have also been noted in the research. mRNA vaccines are far easier and faster to produce than traditional vaccines and they dont use animals to grow diseased organs All this raises the question: If the purpose of mRNA vaccines is to program the bodys cells to manufacture antigens which are then recognized by the immune system, why not just inject the body with antigens in the first place and skip the need to hijack the bodys protein synthesis machinery? As PublicHealth.org explains on its How vaccine work page, it seems clear that injecting antigens would be a more direct route to desired levels of immunity rather than injecting mRNA instructions that tell the bodys cells to produce the antigens: A vaccine works by training the immune system to recognize and combat pathogens, either viruses or bacteria. To do this, certain molecules from the pathogen must be introduced into the body to trigger an immune response. These molecules are called antigens, and they are present on all viruses and bacteria. By injecting these antigens into the body, the immune system can safely learn to recognize them as hostile invaders, produce antibodies, and remember them for the future. If the bacteria or virus reappears, the immune system will recognize the antigens immediately and attack aggressively well before the pathogen can spread and cause sickness. So why not just inject the body with antigens instead of going through the indirect route of injecting the body with protein synthesis instructions (i.e. mRNA) that tells the body to produce the antigens? The answer, it seems, comes down to ease of production. Its relatively fast, easy and cost effective to synthesize mRNA sequences compared to creating antigens outside the body. As stated in mRNA vaccines a new era in vaccinology, published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in 2018: mRNA vaccines have the potential for rapid, inexpensive and scalable manufacturing, mainly owing to the high yields of in vitro transcription reactions. The University of Cambridge phg Foundation adds: A major advantage of RNA vaccines is that RNA can be produced in the laboratory from a DNA template using readily available materials, less expensively and faster than conventional vaccine production, which can require the use of chicken eggs or other mammalian cells. In other words, mRNA sequences can be quickly and cheaply produced in large quantities, without involving the use of live animals, egg yolks or other animal-derived components. Many people dont know, for example, that vaccines manufactured today are made from African Green Monkey kidney cells, which are acquired by first capturing and imprisoning monkeys, infecting them with deadly diseases, murdering them and harvesting their kidneys to be processed and inserted into vaccines. The mRNA platform avoids the use of animals in the manufacturing process, although animals are still used in medical experiments for vaccine development and safety testing. Effectively, mRNA vaccines might be the clean vaccines that many vaccine skeptics have been demanding for years. No adjuvants, no animal organs, no stealth viruses. Just snippets of code, made mostly with simple nucleic acids. Synthesis of mRNA materials to be used in mRNA vaccines Instead of being grown in infected animals or animal tissue, mRNA strands are synthesized in a laboratory and dont involve the handling of infectious agents or unknown viral pathogens that may exist in a latent form in animals. Thus, mRNA vaccines are are some ways inherently safer to manufacture, handle and administer than traditional vaccines. There exist numerous companies that synthesize mRNA strands for various purposes, including vaccine research. One such company is called TriLink Biotechnologies (https://www.trilinkbiotech.com) which offers custom mRNA synthesis. Via their website: We manufacture non-coding RNAs and provide tailored synthesis at milligram to multigram scales, with lengths ranging from a few hundred nucleotides to greater than 10 kilobases. TriLink has a large collection of modified nucleotides that can modulate innate immune recognition to maximize activity for your specific application From the TriLink Antigen mRNA page: mRNAs can be engineered for the quick and cost-effective production of virtually any protein. They can also induce strong immune responses without the risks associated with some live virus vaccines and so are an effective mechanism for delivering vaccine antigens. Whether delivered ex vivo (for example, to dendritic cells) or administered in vivo using a delivery vehicle such as an endosome, exogenous mRNAs can be recognized by pattern recognition receptors in cells and so act as their own adjuvant. Another mRNA synthesis company called SystemBio.com describes their in vitro mRNA synthesis technology as follows: When you want instant expression after transfection into cells, deliver your gene-of-interest as an mRNA made with SBIs mRNAExpress mRNA Synthesis Kit. Designed to generate in vitro transcripts for transfection of mammalian cells, micro-injection into oocytes, in vitro translation, and other related applications, this high-yield kit can produce 2040 g of high-quality mRNAs in one standard reaction, and comes with a number of performance-enhancing features. The phrase, Designed to generate in vitro transcripts for transfection of mammalian cells means youre synthesizing mRNA snippets in a lab, to be later injected into mammals (animals or humans). Overlooking the obvious: The human immune system already knows how to do this, without needing any injections The (very) big picture in all this is often overlooked by everyone. They miss the forest for the trees because your body already possesses mRNA nanotechnology that can identify pathogens and destroy them. Its part of the immune system with which you were born. Your immune system is fully capable of astonishing feats of self preservation, but only if it is properly fueled with the nutrients and elements it needs to perform as designed. Vitamin D deficiency causes immune suppression, and a person who is vitamin D deficient likely wont respond very well to an mRNA vaccine no matter how advanced the technology. Zinc, selenium and magnesium are critical elements that tend to be deficient in those with poor immune function. Supplementation with these minerals allows the immune system to reach its full potential, rendering mRNA vaccines largely obsolete. In effect, we might say that mRNA vaccines are the creation of a deluded society that has censored the truth about nutrition for so long that almost everyone believes we have to become medical mechanics to fix all the bodys problems using advanced nanotechnology and expensive breakthroughs. But in reality, your immune system functions for free and you were born with it. Sadly, most people refuse to nourish their immune systems with the necessary components to support effective function. And almost no one in any position of authority or power will dare recommend nutrition when theres so much money to be made from vaccines and patented pharmaceuticals. What if the answer to the coronavirus were as simple as recommending vitamin D and zinc? If we were only wise enough to allow our own internal nanotechnology to do its job, we wouldnt have to try to hijack the bodys cells using elaborate, expensive and risky medical interventions. In the same way that the lottery is a tax on people who cant do math, vaccines are medicine for those who dont understand nutrition. Sources for this article include: Nonviral delivery of self-amplifying RNA vaccines https://www.pnas.org/content/109/36/14604 mRNA vaccines a new era in vaccinology https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243 phg Foundation, University of Cambridge https://www.phgfoundation.org/briefing/rna-vaccines Vaccines.news https://vaccines.news/2017-11-10-bombshell-science-paper-documents-the-depopulation-chemical-covertly-spiked-into-vaccines.html The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has spread to Bengals rural areas with nearly 200 migrant workers who recently returned from other states testing positive for the infection, and the numbers likely to rise as more arrive. The trend is similar to that noticed in Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the other states where a large number of migrant workers have returned from more affluent states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab. According to a senior official of the West Bengal health department, 76 people tested positive for Covid-19 in rural areas of Howrah district; 67 in the rural areas of Malda; 46 in Hooghly district and 30 in Uttar Dinajpur over the past three days. Several cases have been reported from the rural areas of Birbhum, Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas district as well, he said, requesting anonymity. Almost all of the rural residents who tested positive were migrant workers who returned from other states, especially Maharashtra, officials said. More than a dozen trains have entered Bengal so far, carrying migrant workers, students and tourists stranded in other states because of the lockdown imposed to curb the disease. No Shramik Special trains entered Bengal between May 20 and 26 because of cyclone Amphan but more trains are likely to arrive from Maharashtra and other states over the next few days. A spokesperson for southeastern railway said on Tuesday that the division had no word until 6 pm of any train from Maharashtra coming to Bengal on Wednesday. According to a state government official who did not want to be named, the Bengal government urged Maharashtra to delay sending those trains because Bengal is yet to recover from the devastation caused by the cyclone, but to no avail. In my district, the spike is due to the migrant workers testing positive. All of them are asymptomatic. Besides, we are testing aggressively, with an average of over 3,000 tests per million populations. Tracing such asymptomatic patients and keeping them isolated is primary on our agenda, said Malda district magistrate Rajarshi Mitra. In Malda, nearly three dozen people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the remote Kaliachak area, bordering Bangladesh. All of them recently returned from other states, including Maharashtra. In Hooghly district, 22 migrant workers tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday in the remote rural areas of Khanakul. Others are from Singur, Tarakeshwar, Jangippara, Chanditala and Dadpur all rural areas in the Hooghly district. They returned from Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan, officials said. In Nadia district, after 10 persons from rural areas tested positive in the past four days, Krishnanagar MP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Mahua Moitra said in a video message: I urge migrant workers who have returned recently to strictly maintain home quarantine norms. I am getting many reports that a section of migrant workers are moving out of their homes in the evening and are socialising. Please stop doing this. Schools are being requisitioned and they would be turned into quarantine centres for the migrant workers soon. The spread of Covid-19 had so far been restricted to Kolkata and the urban areas of the neighbouring districts of Howrah, Hooghly, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas. With this recent spread to new areas, only three of Bengals 23 districts now remain green zones where no case has been detected so far. This has also resulted in a political blame-game. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Left are accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of not being prepared and of mismanagement. The Mamata Banerjee government has proved to be a total failure in containing Covid-19. It is due to their mismanagement that they are not ready to accept the sons of the soil, worsening the plight of the workers whowent to other states in search of work, BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh alleged. Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is an MP from Berhampore in West Bengal, echoed Ghosh. On the one hand, the government has been apathetic towards migrant workers and on the other, proper arrangements have not been made for the testing of those who are arriving, Chowdhury said. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen tried to deflect the blame. Migrant workers are not being transported in the right way. The lockdown was unplanned, giving migrant workers no chance to return, and now the workers are being sent back in crowded trains. They are even using the middle berth in three-tier compartments. The Centre is responsible for creating this mess, Sen said. Chennai-based virologist T Jacob John said Bengals tally is expected to rise sharply over the coming days.Till May 25, Bengal recorded 3,816 cases of Covid-19. Infections through migrant labourers are central governments gift to West Bengal. The spread of Covid-19 could not have been prevented and the hitting of the rural areas is inevitable. But it could have been delayed. The speed has been accelerated by the inflow of migrant workers in large numbers, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Wall Street ended the week prior to the three-day U.S. Memorial Day holiday with solid gains. Major bourses climbed more than 3% during the week as investors mostly shrugged off rising U.S.-China trade tensions and were hopeful that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on corporate earnings will be mostly short-lived. Whats more, markets are widely expected to continue the northward journey when traders return from the Memorial Day holiday weekend. This is primarily because of improving signs of consumer behavior during the weekend, which drew big crowds at beaches and casinos and resulted in an uptick in hotel bookings. In fact, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data showed that nearly 250,000 travelers passed through the checkpoints last Saturday and Sunday, well above 87,534 travelers since mid-April. Similarly, hospitality firm STR showed that hotel occupancy jumped to 32.4% for the week ended May 16, up from 21% for the week ended Apr 11. Many U.S. states lifted restrictions imposed to counter the spread of the virus just in time for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Notably, Texas has allowed activities at bars and increased seating capacities at restaurants across the state. Among other states, Indiana has started allowing gatherings of up to 100 people, Alaska has allowed bars, restaurants and gyms to reopen, and North Carolina has let restaurants reopen. Mississippi has allowed casinos to reopen, West Virginia permitted outdoor activities, and beaches at New York, New Jersey and Delaware have also reopened. STR senior vice president Jan Freitag, in fact, has said that all 50 states have at least partially reopened, so slow weekly demand growth should continue with more leisure activity around the country. Nonetheless, new developments pertaining to coronavirus treatment is another reason why the stock market is expected to scale higher. American biotech company Novavax, Inc. NVAX began its first human study of its experimental coronavirus vaccine on May 25, and expects preliminary results of the trial in July. In its Phase 1 clinical trial, Novavaxs novel coronavirus vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 that includes Matrix-M adjuvant has been helpful in boosting immune responses. Story continues Once the Phase 1 trial is successful, Novavax said that the Phase 2 trial will begin in many countries including the United States and it will assess immunity, safety as well as focus on COVID-19 disease reduction among a broader age range. By the way, another biotech company Moderna, Inc. MRNA reported positive results for its coronavirus vaccine trial last week. All 45 participants successfully developed coronavirus antibodies. Meanwhile, Moderna announced a 10-year partnership with Swiss contract drug maker Lonza to ramp up production of the experimental coronavirus vaccine. Such positive news, nevertheless, will beat U.S.-China tensions, which in fact did show signs of escalation over the Memorial Day weekend. 5 Big Stock Winners Given that the stock market is expected to trade higher on optimism surrounding a coronavirus vaccine and increasing consumer activity in the wake of easing lockdown measures, investing in stocks that make the most of such bullish trends seems prudent. These stocks flaunt a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy). Extended Stay America, Inc. STAY owns, operates, develops, and manages hotels in the United States. It serves customers in the mid-priced extended stay segment. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. Its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is a whopping 227.8%. In the past five-year period, the company has returned 4.6%. Domino's Pizza, Inc. DPZ operates as a pizza delivery company in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Stores, International Franchise, and Supply Chain. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the next quarter and current year is 10.7% and 14.2%, respectively. For the next year, the companys expected earnings growth rate is at 7%. Papa John's International, Inc. PZZA operates and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants under the Papa John's trademark in the United States. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current quarter and year is 53.6% and 23.1%, respectively. For the next year, the companys expected earnings growth rate is 29.2%. Moderna develops therapeutics and vaccines based on messenger RNA for the treatment of infectious diseases. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the next five-year period is 33.6%. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX, known for developing and commercializing therapies for treating cystic fibrosis, has provided $500,000 to Partners HealthCare to enhance testing capacity vital to limiting the spread of this virus. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #1. The companys expected earnings growth rate for the current quarter and year is 65.9% and 65.1%, respectively. For the next year, the companys projected earnings growth rate is 17.2%. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Biggest Tech Breakthrough in a Generation Be among the early investors in the new type of device that experts say could impact society as much as the discovery of electricity. Current technology will soon be outdated and replaced by these new devices. In the process, its expected to create 22 million jobs and generate $12.3 trillion in activity. A select few stocks could skyrocket the most as rollout accelerates for this new tech. Early investors could see gains similar to buying Microsoft in the 1990s. Zacks just-released special report reveals 8 stocks to watch. The report is only available for a limited time. See 8 breakthrough stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Dominos Pizza Inc (DPZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Papa Johns International, Inc. (PZZA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Extended Stay America, Inc. (STAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Broadway industry leaders have said that their theaters will remain shuttered at least through Labor Day. Many believe that January is the earliest likely reopening date. The industry is seen as one of the most difficult to reopen because Broadway shows are often populated by tourists and seniors, two groups who seem likely to return to Times Square more slowly than others, and because of the close quarters onstage, backstage and in the audience. With tourism down dramatically, New Yorkers are more important than ever to the industry, which seeks to retain its core audience even as visitors to the city become scarce. Of New York State voters polled, only 39 percent of people who attend Broadway shows with some frequency said that they would be very likely or somewhat likely to see a show if it were to open around Sept. 1. When asked if they would attend by the end of the year assuming the theater took all the precautions that the respondent deemed necessary that number jumped to 57 percent. The poll involved 796 New York State voters, and it had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 points. Thats not all of their regular customers, but its a sizable group, said Don P. Levy, director of the research institute. Theres an audience, theres a market. Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League, a trade organization representing producers and theater owners, said she was not surprised that a core group of people were expressing an interest in returning by the fall. News Yuma, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey declared May 2020 Military Appreciation Month to recognize the sacrifices made by our nations military personnel and their families to protect our safety and freedom. This month and year-round, Arizona is grateful to the women and men of the U.S. Armed Forces, said Governor Ducey. The soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen continue to serveat home and abroadto protect our security, safety and freedom. Thank you to all military personnel and their families for their strength and bravery, and for the sacrifices they make every day to protect our nation. View the proclamation: WHEREAS, the Armed Forces of the United States continues to serve as a unified team, at home and at installations throughout the world, ensuring our own security and the security of our allies and fostering the settlement of international differences by peaceful processes; and WHEREAS, enlightened understanding and unwavering support of our Armed Forces by an informed American people are vital to the strength and vigor of our Armed Forces; and WHEREAS, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guardsmen, from whom we ask so much, are the cornerstone of our military might and richly deserve to have a special day set aside in their honor; and WHEREAS, Arizona is forever grateful for the sacrifices of time and treasure made each day by Arizonas Armed Forces families; and WHEREAS, our citizens owe an eternal debt of gratitude to our Armed Forces members. NOW, THEREFORE, I, Douglas A. Ducey, Governor of the State of Arizona, do hereby proclaim May 2020 as MILITARY APPRECIATION MONTH IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Arizona GOVERNOR DONE at the Capitol in Phoenix on this fourteenth day of May in the year Two Thousand and Twenty and of the Independence of the United States of America the Two Hundred and Forty-Fourth. ATTEST: SECRETARY OF STATE Evariste Ndayishimiye declared winner of presidential vote, but main opposition pledges to contest result in court. Burundis longtime President Pierre Nkurunziza has congratulated the governing partys hand-picked successor on a large victory in the countrys presidential election, though the main opposition has pledged to contest the result in court. The election commission on Monday declared Evariste Ndayishimiye, a former army general chosen by the CNDD-FDD party as heir to Nkurunziza, the winner of the May 20 poll with 68.72 percent vote. I warmly congratulate the President-elect General Major Evariste Ndayishimiye for his large victory which confirms that the great majority of Burundians adhere to the projects and the values he embodies, Nkurunziza, who chose not to run after 15 years in power, posted on Twitter. We are privileged witnesses to history. May God bless Burundi! Agathon Rwasa, Ndayishimiyes main challenger in a race contested by seven candidates, came in a distant second with 24.19 percent of the vote. His National Freedom Council (CNL), however, has rejected the results, alleging cheating by the CNDD-FDD. CNL spokesman Therence Manirambona said on Monday his party was putting together a legal complaint to submit within days so that the court can take a decision on the massive fraud that marked this electoral farce. The CNDD-FDD defeated the CNL by a similar margin in the legislative elections held on the same day. The polls went ahead with scant regard to the coronavirus outbreak following a tense campaign marked by violence and arbitrary arrests. They also proceeded without the presence of international observers. On May 8, 12 days to the polls and before the scheduled arrival of an East African Community mission to the country, the government said the regional blocs observers would have to be in quarantine for 14 days, effectively ruling them out of the election process. Ndayishimiye is expected to be sworn in for a seven-year term in late August, when Nkurunzizas term ends. Nkurunziza has been in power since 2005, and his final years in office have been racked by turmoil. His controversial decision to seek a third term in the last election in 2015 sparked mass unrest, violence and an opposition boycott. Burundi is tightly controlled by the governing party and its youth wing has been linked to a forceful crackdown against the governments critics. State security forces have been accused by rights groups and the UN of crimes against humanity and abuses such as torture, disappearances, sexual violence and executions. Ndayishimiye is set to inherit a deeply isolated country, under sanctions and cut off by foreign donors, its economy and national psyche damaged by the years of unrest. It remains to be seen how much influence Nkurunziza will exert going forward, and how freely his successor can reign. Nkurunziza was this year elevated by Burundis parliament to the rank of supreme guide for patriotism and he will continue to be chairman of the governing partys powerful council of elders. A South Carolina couple is doing their part to continue music education in schools throughout the state. Tom and Gensie Waldrop of Seneca run TomGen Music for Middle Schoolers, an organization which collects new and used band instruments to donate to schools with few resources or no budget for instruments. Recently, the two made donations of over 100 instruments combined to Carver-Edisto Middle School, Denmark-Olar Middle School, and Sandy Run K-8. In September of 2019, Vanessa Smith, Carver-Edistos new band director, started an Instruments in the Attic drive via Facebook for students who were not in the position to rent or buy instruments. Smith put out the call to action for those who could, to donate any instruments they still had around or knew of, to the band. The Facebook post was shared over 150 times to various platforms, personal pages and private groups. Word eventually reached a current member of the Clemson Tiger Band who shared it with his friends and from there, the request was passed along until it landed in the TomGen inbox. The Waldrops met as members of the Clemson Tiger Band in 1974 and have been involved with schools bands since then. Tom Waldrop contacted Smith, and within a few weeks, Carver-Edisto received a donation of 45 new, used or repaired instruments, including flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tubas and snare drums. Additionally, Smith said TomGen was also able to include drumsticks, brand new mouthpieces for each brass instrument, and valve oil and cork grease to last the band program the rest of the school year. Tom and Gensie were invited as the special guests at the schools annual Winter Holiday Concert and received a standing ovation from the Carver-Edisto Middle School community for their contribution. Smith said she and the students were very grateful for the love that was shown from the Waldrop family keeping the arts alive one instrument at a time. With this donation, it is my hope that more students will be able to join the band program and not have to worry about the troubles of not being able to afford an instrument, Smith said. Research studies show that music provides an avenue for creativity and self-expression and by participating in music, it naturally adds richness to the quality of life. Smith said that to a majority, the band is not just another class elective to add to a schedule. To students, the band becomes their family, their peace of mind, the only way they stay out of trouble, their therapy session, their motivation to be a better person, their motivation to make better grades in school, the only opportunity they have to go on a field trip, the only constant in their lives, or simply put, the best thing that has ever happened to them, she said. All students want to have the feeling of being a part of something, so why not let it be band! The Waldrops said when they first heard of Carver-Edistos need for instruments, as they do with all donation requests, they began asking around to nearby schools to verify their need. While checking for Carver-Edisto, the needs of Denmark-Olar Middle School became known to the charity. They contacted the band director in Denmark, Shelly-Ann Munroe, and offered assistance to their band as well. Tom and Gensie were able to deliver 40 instruments to Denmark-Olar Middle School in January 2020. Johnathan Gore, Director of Bands at Sandy Run K-8 School in Swansea, learned of TomGen Music through Vanessa Smith. He sent an email message requesting help. The Waldrops said the school was in need of all types of band instruments but was in particular need of flutes and clarinets. Gore said TomGen was able to deliver 58 instruments in total to Sandy Run K-8 on May 6, 2020. Even though the school was closed due to COVID-19, the instruments were unloaded from TomGen Musics truck and trailer and placed in the band room while maintaining social distancing guidelines. This generous donation supplied us with flutes, clarinets, alto saxophones, a french horn, trumpets, trombones, one baritone, one tuba, and one drum kit, Gore said, The variety of instruments supplied through this disbursement ensures that we have the in-house capability of outfitting our scholars with quality instruments. He went on to say that the difficulties of the current time would have made it even harder for new students to join the band program. We are still navigating through these unprecedented times, Gore said. We don't yet know how the residual effects of the economic shut down will constrain district and family finances. The process for applying for this donation started way before the pandemic, but the value of this gift is incalculable, he said. Most recently, the organization was contacted by North Middle School and the two plan to make a donation to them as well. With other donations to schools in the SC Upstate, Louisiana, and Georgia, TomGen Music has provided over 200 instruments in the past 2 years. Tom Waldrop says that delivering instruments to schools is the most enjoyable part of the job. The students are always excited and the school staff members are so appreciative, he said. One school principal even danced a jig and handed out hugs to everyone. Tom-Gen Music is able to offer their instruments through the donations to them of both used instruments or money. Instruments have been donated mostly by friends from the Tiger Band or from members of their church. Monetary donations are used to purchase instruments or shop supplies. In addition to shopping on eBay, Facebook or antique shops, they find these instruments through friends in Bamberg, Columbia, Clemson and Virginia. Instrument repair shops in Anderson, Myrtle Beach, Beaufort, Atlanta and Seneca teach them basic repair techniques as well as donate instruments. The owner of Paul Effman Music in Long Island, New York, gives them the opportunity to purchase his retired rental instruments at a highly discounted price. Tom described the company as his angel for instruments. Since 2013, approximately 20 percent of the instruments have come from donations and 80 percent have been purchased out of the couples pocket. Waldrop said unfortunately, the charity may not be able to continue fulfilling all requests in the future. As a two-person operation, they are not able to repair instruments quickly and their stock of playable instruments is now very low. They ask for those who can to make donations to the charity through their website, tomgen-music.org. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Police in Iran has arrested the father of a thirteen-year-old girl today for murdering his daughter as an act of "honor killing", after she fled her parents home with an older man. The thirteen-year-old girl was killed with a sickle in the city of Hovigh, Talesh county, northern Iran. Her father was detained after widespread reaction to the tragedy across the country and on social media. Speaking to the Islamic Republic official news agency, IRNA, on Tuesday, May 26, Hovigh district Governor, Kazem Razmi, announced that the murderer was in custody and an investigation into the case was underway with details to be made public after the judicial procedure. "The suspect, charged with murder, is currently in prison, and authorities are working to complete the case and address its various dimensions," Razmi added. Meanwhile, the province of Gilan's deputy for social affairs has announced that the prosecutor's office and the Welfare Department have also stepped in to investigate the case. Earlier, local media reported the brutal murder of the thirteen-year-old schoolgirl in Talesh by her father. The father cut her head with a sickle while she was asleep. The victim had just returned home after eloping to marry her beloved man. The thirteen-year-old, Romina Ashrafi had fallen in love with a man in her hometown and after her father vehemently opposed their marriage, fled with him, local media reported. Following a complaint by the families of the two, security forces detained Romina and her boyfriend. In the meantime, even though Romina had repeatedly warned that her father was a temperamental person and her life was in danger, she was handed over to her father as required by Islamic Republic laws. According to another local website, Khazaronline, Romina's return led to ever-increasing tensions and disputes, "As the father could not cope with his daughter's eloping, he decided to kill her. On May 21, as other members of the family were away, the father brutally cut Romina's head while she was asleep", Khazaronline said. Based on other reports, the father, sickle in hand, surrendered himself to the police and confessed to killing his thirteen-year-old daughter. The deputy of the province of Gilan's Welfare organization for social affairs, Reza Jafari, described the murder as "an example of blatant violations of children's rights" and said, his department "will make every effort to ensure the rights of the child. Furthermore, based on Article 5 of the Children Protection Act, the Prosecutor's office has also stepped in to investigate the case". Although Romina's father has been arrested, according to Article 220 of the Islamic Penal Code, as the guardian of the murdered girl, he will not be punished by death. Many on social media speculate that he will receive a light sentence. At the same time, the Maidan website has interviewed the man who had eloped with Romina. His name is Bahman, and he is 35-year-old. Many are also asking why he is not detained for having a relationship with a 13-year-old. Again, what has saved him so far is Islamic law that considers a 13-year-old girl ready for marriage. The tragic murder of the teenager in love and her brutal beheading is the top issue on Persian-speaking cyberspace. Her funeral announcement, also signed by her father, has been widely circulated and criticized on social media. Meanwhile, Rokna News Agency wrote that the Islamic Republic Deputy President, Masoumeh Ebtekar, has cited Hassan Rouhani issuing a "special order" to investigate the murder. Every year in Iran, women, and girls are killed by their male relatives under the guise of defending their honor. The exact number of the so-called honor-killings in Iran is not known, but in 2014, a Tehran police official reported that 20 percent of murders in Iran were honor killings. "According to statistics, in 2013, 18.8 percent of homicides were motivated by honor and religion-related excuses, and the provinces of Khuzestan, Fars, and East Azarbaijan are among the provinces with the highest number of such homicides", Khabar Online reported. Authorities have identified the person killed in a three-vehicle crash on Route 1 in North Brunswick early Sunday as a 19-year-old Jamesburg woman. Felicity Eden was killed in the 4:10 a.m. crash on the southbound side of the highway near a large shopping center anchored by a Walmart, the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said Monday. A spokeswoman for the prosecutors office on Monday declined to say if anyone else was injured or describe how the crash occurred. The crash, which closed Route 1 for more than seven hours, remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call North Brunswick police officer Jason Zier at 732-247-0922 or Det. Jonathan Berman of the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office at 732-745-4328. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. A school in Virginia has defended banning a transgender man from using the male bathrooms. In 2016, when he was in 12th grade, former Gloucester County School student, Gavin Grimm, underwent chest reconstruction surgery and hormone therapy, in addition to obtaining a court order and birth certificate that declared his sex is male. Despite the court order, the school banned Mr Grimm from using the boys bathroom for the remainder of his time as a student there, and was found to have discriminated against him by a judge, in a hearing in 2019. US District Judge Arenda Wright Allen, ruled last August that the board discriminated against Mr Grimm by not allowing him to use the boys bathroom. There is no question that the Boards policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender nonconformity, she said. Recommended Transgender woman at centre of civil rights case dies before ruling Under the policy, all students except for transgender students may use restrooms corresponding with their gender identity. Transgender students are singled out, subjected to discriminatory treatment, and excluded from spaces where similarly situated students are permitted to go, Ms Allen added. The school has appealed Ms Allens ruling and are having their hearing heard by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. The hearing is taking place remotely, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The schools lawyer, David Corrigan, argued that the board supported Mr Grimm by using his preferred pronouns, but said that because he had not undergone sex reassignment surgery, they felt his sex was female. Mr Corrigan said: Our position is its a binary concept, that you have males and females. Joshua Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the school treated Mr Grimm differently to other students, when they forced him to use a different bathroom. Mr Block said that they were stigmatizing and humiliating, and added: Its stigmatizing to be excluded from the facilities that everyone else uses. Additional reporting by Associated Press. A new federal grant will allow young scientists to delve into the mechanisms of emotional eating and preeclampsia and other disorders not considered "classic" metabolic diseases. "The grant provides Pennington Biomedical with the opportunity to establish a new research focus that should be a big benefit for the state of Louisiana, which has a disproportionately high incidence of metabolic diseases," said Jacqueline Stephens, PhD, Professor and the primary investigator on the new grant. "This grant is perfectly aligned with the research center's mission and fully embraces the importance of understanding the basic mechanisms that regulate metabolic health. This research is vital to helping solve the epidemic of obesity and its related illnesses," said John Kirwan, PhD, Executive Director. "The COBRE will provide for the development and training of the next generation of independent scientists." The five-year COBRE grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is expected to fund four research projects per year. The initial studies include: Research by Susan Burke, PhD, Assistant Professor of Research at Pennington Biomedical, will investigate lipid metabolism - how fats are broken down and burned - in the pancreas. This includes examining the cells that make and secrete insulin. Reduced fatty acid oxidation, a result of poorly functioning pancreatic cells, may increase fat storage in other places like the kidneys, liver, heart, and muscle. Accumulation of lipid in the wrong tissues results in a number of serious health issues. The project will provide critical insights into the contributions of pancreatic lipid metabolism during aging and obesity. Studies by Jenny Sones, DVM PhD, Assistant Professor of Theriogenology in Veterinary Clinical Sciences at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, will determine how reproductive fat tissue contributes to preeclampsia, a condition of dangerously high blood pressure that can occur during pregnancy. Worldwide, greater than > 75,000 women and 500,000 infants die as a result of preeclampsia each year, and the numbers are rising. In the United States, preeclampsia impacts approximately 8 percent of pregnancies. Maternal obesity is a major risk factor for preeclampsia. In order to prevent, predict, and treat this life-threatening disorder, a better understanding of maternal obesity is needed. The study will investigate the contribution of fat tissue to preeclampsia. Research from the laboratory of Dr. Emily Qualls-Creekmore, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director, Behavioral Neurosciences at Pennington Biomedical, will seek to identify the neural circuit and molecular mechanisms that link metabolism and anxiety. It is known that specific neurons, or nerve cells, can drive eating for pleasure and also modulate anxiety. This research will use state-of-the-art methodology to reveal new mechanisms that the brain uses to integrate the influence of emotion on appetite. These studies may help in finding a treatment for anxiety-associated eating disorders All of the projects fall within the center's core mission to study disorders where metabolism clearly affects the incidence and progression of chronic diseases that reduce human life and health spans. "It's a logical extension of the research we're already doing and builds on our unique institutional strengths," Dr. Stephens said. "For example, we provide the core services our postdocs need to further their research interests. Those services include cutting-edge technology and technical procedures - microscopy and imaging of cells and tissues, cell culture facilities, comparative biology, mouse metabolism and behavior, genomics and transgenics." The COBRE grant will also fund mentoring and training for Pennington Biomedical's young scientists and help them establish themselves so they can eventually secure their own research funding. Pennington Biomedical has an established and proven system for training and mentoring junior faculty. The additional training focus in this grant award includes genomics (single-cell RNA sequencing) and light-sheet microscopy. Genomics provides a way to look at different parts of individual cells and identify patterns of gene expression, which helps researchers pinpoint the cells that affect obesity and other metabolic diseases. Light-sheet microscopy is a technology that offers faster, higher-resolution imaging - down to the subcellular level - than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography (CT). A substantial part of the Pennington Biomedical's success for training and mentoring junior faculty has been due to COBRE awards led by Dr. Thomas Gettys entitled "Mentoring Obesity and Diabetes Research in Louisiana." Gettys is a Pennington Biomedical professor and serves as director of its Nutrient Sensing and Adipocyte Signaling Laboratory. He helped launch several successful researchers, who now have their own independent, NIH funding. Getty's COBRE to date has won $24.8 million in scientific grant awards. "The hope and the aim is to repeat that success with this new COBRE award," Dr. Stephens said. ### The Army Corps of Engineers and the Port of New Orleans are recommending dredging to 50 feet the access to nearly 2 miles of the port's Uptown wharves on the Mississippi River, which will allow the port to compete with other Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic ports to load and unload major ocean-going vessels. Access to the the port's Milan Street and Louisiana Avenue wharves is now limited to ships with drafts of 35 feet or less. At the Nashville Avenue wharf, the draft varies between 35 and 45 feet. The present Napoleon Avenue draft is 45 feet. The project is estimated to cost just over $9 million for the initial dredging, which would be conducted in two phases five years apart, with the Corps picking up 65% of the cost and the port paying the remaining 35%. Dredging to maintain the 50-foot access would cost an estimated $730,000 a year, which would be paid for by the port. Most of the dredging would be done by the port's existing dredge contractors. There are no plans to capture and reuse the sediment to build wetlands, as is done as part of maintenance dredging projects at locations further downriver. Instead, the material would simply be dumped in the river's main channel adjacent to the docks, which is about 200 feet deep. The area in front of the wharves would actually be dredged to 54 feet, to allow for sediment to fill in part of the new depth between required re-dredging periods. In April, the Corps issued a report describing the project and concluding that the dredging would not pose a significant environmental impact to natural resources or to the public. The initial feasibility study says most of the work would be conducted in the first phase of the project, and would not begin until congressional approval, expected no earlier than mid-2022. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The one glitch included in the report is a potential problem with the Napoleon Avenue wharf. The Corps found that the slope of the riverbank beneath that small section of wharf does not meet its stability standards, and will have to be upgraded before the second phase of dredging can begin. The port will likely be required to remove sediment that has shoaled atop rock riprap beneath the wharf. It will also have to pay to install new bracing of the wharf structure. The Corps concludes that the dredging project's benefits would add up to about $35.9 million a year, when measured against the annual average of the initial cost of dredging and then annual cost of maintaining the deeper dock access. The benefits include avoiding the cost to shippers of having to use smaller vessels, or having to unload some cargo from ships with drafts too deep to use the present wharves. The Port of New Orleans ranked No. 4 among U.S. ports in total cargo handled in 2017, with 96.3 million tons, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In 2018, it ranked sixth, with 93.3 million tons. The Port of South Louisiana, which includes facilities along 54 miles of the river in St. Charles, St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes, ranked first in the nation in 2018, with 275.5 million tons of cargo. The Corps will make an initial decision on whether to approve the dredging project on Aug. 28, but reviews by other layers of Corps engineering infrastructure will not be completed until late February 2022. If the Corps' chief of engineers then approves the project, his report will be submitted to Congress, which must still authorize and appropriate funding for the project. More information about the project is available at the Corps' New Orleans office web site. This story was changed on May 27 to include the correct existing depths of the Port of New Orleans Uptown wharves. President Trump doubled down on his insinuation that 'Morning Joe' host and former congressman Joe Scarborough murdered a woman who worked for him in 2001 telling reporters 'there's no statute of limitations' and calling her death 'very suspicious.' The president was asked about a series of tweets that shared a conspiracy theory about Scarborough being responsible for the death of Lori Klausutis, who worked in a Florida district office for Scarborough when he was in Congress. Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart problem and fell. The president has floated that Klausutis was murdered by Scarborough, insinuating they carried on an affair. 'A lot of people suggest that,' Trump said late Tuesday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden. 'And hopefully someday people are going to find out,' he continued, calling it a 'very suspicious situation.' 'Very sad and very suspicious,' Trump said. A reporter then asked Trump if he had seen the letter written by Lori Klausutis' widower Timothy, which begged Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to remove the president's tweets because they were hurtful to the late aide's family members. 'Yeah, I have,' Trump said of the letter. 'But I'm sure ultimately they want to get to the bottom of it and it's a very serious situation.' President Trump doubled down on a conspiracy theory he's been sharing on Twitter suggesting that 'Morning Joe' host Joe Scarborough killed a Congressional aide who worked for him when he was a U.S. House member White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tried pointing a finger at Joe Scarborough when she was asked why President Trump was tweeting a conspiracy theory that Scarborough had killed a Congressional aide in 2001 Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' was a former member of Congress and in 2001 one of his staffers was found dead in a Florida satellite office after she fell. The staffer, Lori Klausutis, had an undiagnosed heart problem Timothy Klausutis (pictured), the husband of the late Lori Klausutis, has asked Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey to remove President Trump's tweets that allege she was murdered by her boss Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Trump then echoed his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, who had tried to point a finger at Scarborough when asked why Trump kept repeating the conspiracy theory. 'I also saw a clip with Joe and Imus where they were having a lot of fun at her expense and I thought it was totally inappropriate,' Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden. Earlier, McEnany had referenced a clip Scarborough talking with morning radio show host Don Imus. 'In 2003, on Don Imus' show, it was Don Imus and Joe Scarborough that joked about killing an intern, joked and laughed about it,' McEnany said. 'That, I'm pretty sure was pretty hurtful to Lori's family and Joe Scarborough himself brought this up with Don Imus and Joe Scarborough himself can answer it.' McEnany wasn't sure if Trump had seen Timothy Klausutis' letter to the Twitter CEO. 'But I do know our hearts are with Lori's family at this time,' the press secretary said. When McEnany was asked about the president's behavior she tried to turn the controversy back on Scarborough, as reporters protested, with ABC News' Jonathan Karl muttering 'this is pretty nuts' at one point. The reporter tried pointing out that Timothy Klausutis had been upset by what Trump had been tweeting, not anything Scarborough did. 'Please delete those tweets,' Timothy Klausutis pleaded in the letter to Dorsey. 'My wife deserves better.' But McEnany continued to focus on Scarborough, lashing out at him for making 'false accusations.' 'This morning or yesterday Mika accused the president of being responsible for 100,000 deaths in this country,' the press secretary said, referencing Scarborough's wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski. 'That's incredibly irresponsible. They've dragged his family through the mud. They shoould be held account for their falsehoods.' 'Joe Scarborough should be held to account for saying people will die for taking hydroxychloroquine,' McEnany went on. Scarborough, a former Republican, and Brzezinski, who's more politically liberal, were friends with Trump, but had a falling out, and are among his most vocal critics. They've been especially critical of the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has left nearly 100,000 Americans dead. They've also chided Trump for touting hydroxychloroquine, which remains an unproven remedy for COVID-19. Mika Brzezinski took to Twitter and said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was lying about Joe Scarborough making a joke about a dead intern. The clip shows Don Imus making the joke, but it sounds as if Scarborough laughed Joe Scarborough (right), with his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski (left), served in Congress as a Republican, but has become a vocal critic of President Trump. In recent weeks, Trump has tweeted a conspiracy theory about Scarborough murdering an aide Mika Brzezinski continued to call out President Trump as she pushed him to delete the tweets about her husband Joe Scarborough's Congressional aide who died after experiencing a heart problem and fall On Tuesday afternoon, Brzezinski took to Twitter to push back on McEnany's assertion that Scarborough was laughing about the death of an intern. 'The Press Secretary is lying. IMUS made the callous joke in 2003 during a break and then repeated it on air. Joe was embarrassed and said, "What are you going to do?" trying to move on to talk about the show,' Brzezinski wrote. 'No lies can cover up the hatefulness of Donald Trump,' she added. A clip from the back-and-forth shows Imus originating the joke, but it sounds like Scarborough laughed. 'Donald Trump has no decency and refuses to show a trace of humanity toward a grieving widower,' Brzezinski also tweeted. 'No lies can deflect the awfulness of his behavior. History will judge harshly those who defend this cruelty and callousness.' Twitter had already refused to take down Trump's tweets on the topic. 'We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,' the spokesperson said. 'We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.' President Trump continued to tweet about Lori Klausutis' death on Tuesday, again suggesting that Joe Scarborough may have been behind her death For weeks, President Trump has pushed a conspiracy theory on his Twitter account, suggesting a Congressional aide for Joe Scarborough, then a Republican congressman, died in a suspicious way These three tweets, two from President Trump and one from Donald Trump Jr., are referenced in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey penned by Timothy Klausutis, the widower of Joe Scarborough's staffer who died in his Florida Congressional office in 2001 Timothy Klausutis wrote to the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey (pictured), but a Twitter spokesperson said Tuesday that the site would not be pulling Trump's tweets The New York Times obtained a copy of Timothy Klausutis' letter. As Timothy Klausutis recounts in the letter, Lori Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition and fell and hit her head on her desk at work, where her body was found the next morning. Lori Klausutis died at age 28 in 2001. She had an undiagnosed heart condition and fell and hit her head at work Lori Klausutis was 28-years-old when she died in 2001, and was a staffer in the Florida office of Rep. Scarborough, who resigned from Congress later that year. Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have repeated a conspiracy theory that Scarborough, now the host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' was responsible for her death. He was in Washington at the time. In a May 12 tweet, the president wrote, 'When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so,' Trump tweeted. 'Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn't it obvious? What's happening now? A total nut job!' the president added. In a May 4 tweet Trump wrote, '"Concast" should open up a long overdue Florida Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough,' he said, referring to NBC's parent company, Comcast. 'I know him and Crazy Mika well used them beautifully in the last Election, dumped them nicely, and will state on the record thathe is "nuts." Besides, bad ratings!' the presidenet continued, referencing Scarborough's co-host and wife Mika Brzezinski. When MSNBC's public relations tweeted that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden was going to come on 'Morning Joe' to talk about the sexual assault allegations made against him by former Congressional staffer Tara Reade, Donald Trump Jr. chimed in, 'What show is Joe going to go on to discuss Lori Klausutis?' These are the specific tweets Timothy Klausutis asked Dorsey to delete from the platform. 'I have mourned my wife every day since her passing. I have tried to honor her memory and our marriage. As her husband, I feel that one of my marital obligations is to protect her memory as I would have protected her in life,' he wrote in the letter. 'There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died. I realize that may sound like an exaggeration, unfortunately it is the verifiable truth. Because of this, I have struggled to move forward with my life,' he continued. He talked about how he didn't want Lori's niece and two nephews, who never met their aunt before she died, to meet her this way. On Saturday, President Trump also tweeted about Lori Klausutis' death, suggesting it should be investigated Donald Trump Jr. complained abut Kara Swisher's opinion piece for The New York Times, in which she agreed with Timothy Klausutis that President Trump's tweet on his late wife's death should be removed from Twitter 'I'm a research engineer and not a lawyer, but reviewed all of Twitter's rules and terms of service. The President's tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) - is a violation of Twitter's community rules and terms of service,' he argued. 'An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed.' 'I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain,' Timothy Klausutis wrote. Brzezinski said last week that she also planned to have a conversation with Dorsey over the president's tweets. 'Donald, you're a sick person, you're a sick person,' she said on 'Morning Joe,' before turning her attention to Twitter. 'Twitter, you shouldn't be allowing this, and you should be taking these tweets down and you should be ashamed of yourself, you will be hearing from me on this.' Twitter lets Trump's tweets fly by arguing that he is a public figure and what he writes is news. As of Tuesday morning, Trump's tweets remained on the website - and he continued to tweet about Lori Klausutis' death. 'The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus,' the president wrote Tueday morning. 'In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most.' 'So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I wont bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?' the president added. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted to complain that the New York Times was calling for the president to be censored. 'The NY Times is calling for Twitter to censor the Pesident of the United States. If they can push for that who wont they try to censor next?' Trump Jr. wrote, misspelling president. 'If they can push for that who wont they try to censor next?' 'Given silicon valleys leftist tendencies you all better watch out, they are coming for all of you,' he added. Kara Swisher, the reporter who penned the column that first referenced Klausutis' letter, had argued that the company needed to step in and play a bigger, truth-telling role. 'The company tends to be hands-off when a Trump controversy erupts, relying on a tenet that he is a public figure and also that it cannot sort out what is truth and a lie and is therefore better off letting its community argue it out,' she wrote. 'While that might work when it comes to some issues, it has broken down here.' Swisher said banning Trump from Twitter, like some have suggested, would be 'too drastic,' and labeling the content misinformation wouldn't stop the spread of the lie. 'I am supportive of the suggestion Mr. Klausutis makes in his letter to simply remove the offending tweets,' she wrote. Days after being praised by all walks of society over the decision of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine broad to provide Sehri and Iftari to Muslims, controversy has gripped the board decision as Bajrang Dal has demanded the resignation of CEO Shrine Board Ramesh Kumar within 72 hours. Speaking to Republic Media Network, Bajrang Dal President Naveen Sudan said, We are demanding the resignation of Shrine Board CEO Ramesh Kumar and demand apology from CEO for hurting sentiments. We demand that money of the shrine board cannot be used for a particular community. It should be used for Amarnath Yatra, Buddha Amarnath Yatra, Machail Yatra but no for Iftaar parties." Naveen added that at this time of the pandemic, all festivals including Natratras, Vaisakhi and others are not being celebrated. He added that lakhs of rupees which were spent on this Iftar and Sehri should have been used to feed poor and needy at this time of disaster. He further added that we will meet Lieutenant Governor J&K Girish Murmu tomorrow demanding the resignation of CEO in 72 hours. In case he there is no resignation, we will burn the effigy of CEO in all districts, he added. Read: AHP & Bajrang Dal allegedly trash 'Minnal Murali' film church set; Kerala CM to act Vaishnodevi CEO provides Sehri, Iftari Earlier, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine board (SMVDSB) Katra had decided to provide Sehri and Iftari to over 500 Muslims quarantined at Aashirwad Bhawan in Katra during the holy month of Ramzan. CEO, SMVDSB Ramesh Kumar said, In the month of Ramzan, the Board has been working overnight to provide Sehri and Iftari to our Muslim and other meal to the different people quarantined across Katra town, since March 10, 2020. Read: In Pakistan, husband kills wife for not serving hot food for Sehri; arrested We are running a quarantine centre at Aashirwad Bhawan, which has a capacity of 500 beds. Since its the holy month of Ramzan and the government of Jammu and Kashmir has been bringing back its residents from different parts of the country, we converted Aashirwad Bhawan in Katra into a quarantine centre in the month of March, Kumar had said. Read: Afghanistan government releases 100 Taliban prisoners during 3-day Eid ceasefire Read: People offer Eid prayers at home in Punjab, Haryana Press Release May 26, 2020 Hontiveros: Don't just flatten the curve, 'raise the line' by adding more hospital beds "To win this fight against COVID-19, efforts to flatten the curve of new cases should be accompanied by measures to raise the line of our health system capacity." This was the remark of Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday as she pushed for the augmentation of the country's healthcare system as part of preparations for the possible resurgence of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections and for future public health emergencies. "Kasabay ng physical distancing at community quarantine ang pagpapalakas din dapat ng kapasidad ng ating mga ospital para matugunan ang ating pangangailang pangkalusugan," she added. During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Hontiveros explained that raising the line means improving health care capacity by providing quarantine facilities and additional beds in government hospitals. She furthered that under normal circumstances, hospitals run by the Department of Health (DOH) already exceeded the World Health Organization's recommended standard of bed occupancy of 80-85%. This problem, according to her, is aggravated by the pandemic and government's inaction will put patients at more risk. "Increasing our bed capacity is a prerequisite for lifesaving treatment for Filipinos," she said. "Kung wala tayong magiging aksyon dito, para na rin nating ipinahamak ang ating mga kababayan." However, under current regulations, a public hospital can only increase its bed capacity through legislation. Since the previous Congress, the Senator has pushed for the passage of Senate Bill No. 863 or the DOH Hospital Bed Capacity Rationalization Act that aims to grant DOH the power to set and approve the bed occupancy rates of its retained hospitals. Inherent in this authority is the responsibility to formulate guidelines that will be used for evaluating and rationalizing bed capacity. "This would enable us, in the Senate, to look at its implications for allocating appropriate funding to allow public hospitals to effectively provide quality services." she said. Hontiveros said that the passage of this bill will not only save lives in this time of health emergency, but will ultimately serve the health care needs of the Filipinos from this point forward. "Sa ganitong paraan, wala na tayong nakikitang mga pasyenteng nagtitiis sa mga pasilyo, wala ng buhay na nasasakripisyo dahil hindi tinanggap sa ospital' na 'puno na', at mas maraming Pilipino ang matutugunan ang pangangailang pangkalusugan, may pandemic man o wala," she concluded. New Delhi: In the midst of escalating border tension between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control, Indian government sources on Tuesday (May 26) said the standoff between armies of two nations is sensitive but not dangerous. The development comes even as a number of the high-level meeting took place in Delhi on the Chinese build up on its side of the LAC. WION has also learnt that both sides are in communication at the diplomatic, local level to resolve the current situation. While both Delhi and Bejing are tight-lipped, it is only after Global Times, the Chinese govt mouthpiece first officially confirmed that "Chinese border defence troops have enhanced control measures in the Galwan Valley region". Galwan valley is in Chinese occupied union territory of Ladakh. The Global Times report claimed that the latest fracas at Ladakh was due to a planned move of New Delhi to seize Chinese territory by building a structure, New Delhi said that Beijing hindered Indian patrols in the area in the recent past. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said, "All Indian activities are entirely on the Indian side of the LAC. In fact, it is the Chinese side that has recently undertaken activity hindering India's normal patrolling patterns. The Indian side has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management." Explaining that Indian troops are fully familiar with the alignment of the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border areas and abide by it scrupulously, the MEA said, "We are deeply committed to ensuring India's sovereignty and security." While Ladakh face-off caught the attention, the recent face-off in Naku La, Sikkim and other places across the LAC has been a worrisome development. After the 2-month long Doklam crisis in 2017, both established a mechanism of informal summits alternating between the two countries to resolve any problems that may arise. In the first informal summit in Wuhan in 2018, both sides gave guidance to forces and committed to working for the common objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas. This was reiterated again in the Mamallapuram informal summit that took last year. New York Memorial Day weekend in New York City usually marks the beginning of a vibrant summer to come. People set up smoky barbecue grills on stoops and in parks. They rush to the city's sandy shores when beaches open. They wait on line no, not "in line" to ride the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. They ride bicycles up and down bike paths across the city. They collect the neighborhood kids and head to the public pools. The weekend serves as a peek into what the city will look like in the coming months. A taste of summer that keeps New Yorkers looking forward. But this year Memorial Day weekend occurs under the shadow of the coronavirus. For nearly three months, the city has been a shell of itself. The virus has hit New York especially hard, quickly turning this dense, energetic city into the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. There have been more than 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the city and more than 20,000 New Yorkers have died. The virus, shining a bright light on pre-existing inequities, has been especially devastating in black and Latino communities, making them home to the highest rates of virus deaths in the city, according to the New York City Health Department. The pandemic has also created a hunger crisis. Nearly 1 in 4 New Yorkers needs food, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. New Yorkers also need money: Unemployment claims have spiked 2,637 percent in the city since March. Wealthier areas of the city haven't experienced the same level of devastation. They have not seen it either: Many residents of the wealthiest neighborhoods have flocked to vacation homes in the Hamptons or other beach towns and upstate hamlets. The New Yorkers who remained were the same New Yorkers who would normally host those stoop barbecues, starting Friday afternoon and through dusk on Memorial Day. They are the ones who sell the hot dogs, drive the ice cream trucks, staff the lifeguard stands, drive the city buses, care for our elderly and clean the boardwalks. They hold jobs that were essential before this crisis and that continued to be instrumental in keeping New York City humming. These are also the New Yorkers who have lost their lives. People like Ferdi German, a subway car inspector for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Nita Lee, a Florida transplant who helped care for a generation of AIDS patients in the 1980s. Raymond Copeland, a sanitation worker from the South Bronx. Dr. Julie Butler, a Harlem veterinarian who never turned a patient away. Idris Bey, a former Marine and an emergency worker who responded to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. The Bronx's own Fred the Godson, an incisive rapper with a big heart. Memorial Day was established as a national holiday by Congress in 1971 as a way to honor the fallen soldiers of all wars. But before then, the city celebrated Decoration Day, which began three years after the end of the Civil War in Waterloo, New York. Businesses would close and flags flew at half-staff to remember the lost soldiers of that war. By the end of the century, people across several states would spend the end of May decorating the graves of the dead with flowers. This Memorial Day, New Yorkers might not be able to strike a match and light their grills. Children would have to stand 6 feet apart from one another for the ice cream truck. Beachgoers might only dip their toes in the sand instead of jumping into the first waves of summer. The raucous laughter of city children playing at public pools would not be echoing from blocks away. People will not be able to enjoy the delicious homemade burgers by the neighborhood cook, stoops would be emptier than normal and those venturing out would have faces covered. But New Yorkers have a reputation to uphold. We take care of one another. We can be shaken but not broken. We don't give up and we do not run. We know that better days will arrive. Bars, restaurants and stores will reopen. Being New York tough is about being ready for the new tomorrow, whatever that tomorrow looks like. For the duration of the COVID-19 crisis, Please Explain is coming to you five days a week. Musicals contribute an average of $400 million to the Australian economy each year. As the coronavirus pandemic ensues, the industry is grappling with how to generate a profit in the era of social distancing. In today's episode, senior culture writer Nathanael Cooper joins senior journalist Jacqueline Maley to discuss the future of Australia's musical theatre industry. Our supporters power our newsrooms and are critical for the sustainability of news coverage. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 17:20:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Introducing national security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is of tremendous importance to the practice of "one country, two systems." The draft decision of the National People's Congress on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security is under deliberation at the national legislature. Safeguarding national security is the core of "one country, two systems" and the foundation for its existence, as only when national security is ensured can there be enduring prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. Regrettably, the HKSAR still has obvious legal loopholes in safeguarding national security. For example, national security legislation in Hong Kong under Article 23 of the HKSAR Basic Law has been stigmatized and demonized and is yet to materialize until now, while there are severe deficiencies in the institutional building, enforcement capacity and power allocation in the HKSAR for safeguarding national security. The prominent national security issues in the HKSAR shall not be left unaddressed forever, and measures must be taken to prevent external interference in Hong Kong affairs. Those "Hong Kong independence" advocates and violent radicals who commit secession, subversion and terrorism, though small in number, must be brought to justice. Only in this way, can order be restored in Hong Kong. Facing the grim national security situation in the HKSAR and the fact that the region cannot complete relevant legislation on its own, establishing and improving at the national level the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security is imperative, pressing, justified and legitimate. Enditem Sweden has registered more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths after shunning lockdown in favour of more relaxed social distancing. The country reported a total of 33,843 cases on Monday and 4,029 deaths, with a death rate that now stands at 399 per million inhabitants. That is far in excess of other Nordic nations such as Norway with 47 per million, Denmark on 97 and Finland on 55. But it is still better than Europe's worst-hit nations which did go into full lockdown, including Britain and Italy, both at 542 per million, and Spain at 615. Sweden's coronavirus death toll stood at 4,029 on Monday after a rise of 31 fatalities in a day (pictured, a graph showing the country's daily death toll) Sweden has also reported a total of 33,843 cases after a daily rise of 384 (pictured, a graph showing daily case totals) - putting it well ahead of other Nordic countries State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has defended his approach, saying the economic costs of lockdown were not worth the health benefits. Sweden has still suffered a major economic setback - with GDP forecast to shrink by 7 per cent this year, marking its worst recession since 1940. However, that is markedly better than the Bank of England's prediction for the UK which is a 14 per cent contraction in GDP this year. That would mean the country suffering its deepest recession since 1706. Sweden has kept schools open for those aged under 16 throughout the pandemic, along with cafes, bars, restaurants and retail businesses. Instead of staying at home, people were asked to respect social distance and increase their personal hygiene such as hand-washing. Mr Tegnell has admitted mistakes were made in Sweden's approach, including not providing enough protection to care homes. Ninety per cent of Sweden's virus deaths have occurred in the over-70s. State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has defended his decision not to go into full lockdown, saying it will be better for the country in the long-term But he has defended his decision not to go into lockdown, and cautioned against running comparisons of country's death and case data. 'In Sweden, anybody who has the diagnosis of COVID-19 and dies within 30 days after that is called a COVID-19 case, irrespective of the actual cause of death,' he said. 'And we know that in many other countries there are other ways of counting that are used.' Tegnell has repeatedly insisted that stricter measures would not have saved more Swedish lives. Three-quarters of those who have died have been either in nursing homes or receiving at-home care. Tegnell noted that a ban on visits to nursing homes was introduced in mid-March, but said elderly residents needed regular contact with their carers - who were believed to have spread the virus around many nursing homes. Sweden shunned the full lockdown imposed by most other European countries - keeping shops, restaurants and bars open in favour of social distancing (pictured, a mall in Stockholm) 'I'm really not sure that we could have done so much more,' he said in a weekend interview with Swedish Radio, acknowledging nonetheless that the country had ended up in a 'terrible situation that highlights the weaknesses of our elderly care.' He said care homes had initially failed to respect basic hygiene rules that could have curbed the spread of the disease, but said the situation had since improved. The Board of Health and Welfare meanwhile insisted Sweden's nursing homes were functioning well. It noted that a total of 11,000 nursing home residents died in January-April this year, compared with 10,000 during the same period a year ago. And Tegnell told reporters Monday that the overall situation in Sweden 'was getting better,' with a declining number of people being admitted to intensive care units, a drop in the number of cases being reported in nursing homes, and fewer deaths in nursing homes. This comes as the High Court is expected to pass an important ruling on Friday, on who has the power to recall MPs from the National Assembly following an urgent application by Chamisa and his lieutenants to stall further recalls of MPs by Khupe. Metro Video Services The man accused of shooting a guest Sunday at the Post Oak Hotel has been identified as Kevin Rafael Wright, a 31-year-old from Georgia, according to Houston police. He has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he shot Jason Robbins, of Louisiana, around 5:30 a.m. following a verbal spat, police said. Wright opened fire from the hotel entrance, striking Robbins four times as he was leaving, according to court records. Both men were hotel guests. Family Carers Ireland, Carlow/Kilkenny Resource Centre has announced a new free online counselling service available to family carers funded through the Dormant Account Fund administered by Pobal. The service was set up in recognition that family carers often live with higher levels of anxiety, depression and stress than the general population. A recent study reveals that 48% of carers are diagnosed with mental ill health and 68% of carers felt that their health had suffered as a result of their role as a family carer. This pressure on family carers is amplified in the current crisis as fear for vulnerable loved ones is much greater. There are 7,747 family carers in Kilkenny. Family carers save the State billions of euro each year by caring for loved ones at home and significantly easing pressure on the health care service this has never been more important than during the current pandemic. Our Careline has been inundated with calls from family carers who are struggling with their emotional well-being at this time," said Mary Walsh, Carer Supports Manager, Family Carers Ireland, Carlow/Kilkenny Resource Centre. "With much of the supports and services now closed the demands of their caring role and the additional challenges faced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is taking its toll on their mental wellbeing. Family Carers Ireland is pleased to announce the introduction of a free online counselling service to help support our members. The counselling service offers a safe, non-judgemental space for family carers to talk about and work through any problems or difficult feelings they are experiencing such as stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, burnout or depression with a qualified professional. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, no face-to-face counselling is taking place in Ireland, however family carers can engage with a qualified counsellor by phone or through a secure video link. The new service is one of many supports that family Carers Ireland has put in place including liaising with other national bodies to deliver services to vulnerable family carers across its network. Family carers wishing to avail of this service or who need support with any other aspect of their caring role, can contact the National Freephone Careline 1800 24 07 24 or see familycarers.ie for more. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - GMV Minerals Inc. (TSXV: GMV) (the "Company" or "GMV") is pleased to announce that it has filed for a drill permit to test the Little Hat Mountain for gold mineralization. It is the second highest topographic feature on the property after Mexican Hat (MH) Mountain and is underlain by the same suite of rocks. Currently, the Company is in the final stages of a new resource calculation incorporating the last eleven drill holes into the proposed Mexican hat pit design. Ten of the eleven holes intercepted gold bearing intervals above the Company's resource cut-off. More importantly, these new drilled areas were previously calculated as waste in the Company's initial PEA. Upon receipt of the new resource data, the Company will embark upon the development of a newly updated PEA which shall be further explained in an upcoming news release. The Mexican Hat Deposit, in part, occupies a strong magnetically depressed area underlying MH Mountain (750m x 260m) and is well defined by a suite of gold pathfinder elements in soils downslope from the deposit, including Au, Ag, Cu, As, Sb, Bi, Hg, S, Sr, Te, and Se. Some of these elements can be seen dispersed for kilometres into the valley. The Little Hat target is defined by a near surface magnetically depressed area (500m x 400m) and has a well-defined suite of gold pathfinder elements in soils downslope from the peak, or in annulus-shaped distribution downslope from near the peak. This includes all of the elements found in soils around the Mexican Hat deposit, and includes a more extensive distribution of Cu, Sr, at lower concentrations, and Te, and Bi at higher concentrations. To access the Mexican Hat and Little Hat soil geochemistry on topography with magnetic anomalies please click the following link: https://www.gmvminerals.com/projects/maps-sections/ Table 1. Peak concentrations of gold pathfinder elements in soils. Pathfinder Mexican Hat Soils ppm Little Hat Soils ppm Background ppm Au 2.37 0.18 0.003 Ag 0.67 0.34 0.09 Cu 189 85 28 As 36.7 16.1 4 Sb 6.3 4.7 0.3 Bi 1.9 2.7 0.7 Hg 0.128 0.074 0.030 S 400 400 30 Sr 292 89 20 Te 0.21 0.29 0.07 Se 0.50 0.40 Nd Nd = Not detected. It is believed that the low magnetic zones represent hydrothermally altered rocks favoring the destruction of magnetic iron-bearing minerals and the formation of hematite (non-magnetic), the key indicator of mineralization at Mexican Hat. The abundance of gold pathfinder elements in the proximal soils further supports this target. A program to test this target will initially consist of four angled drill holes. The drill program will commence as soon as permits are received and in observance of any restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr. Ian Klassen, CEO commented, "We have been planning to drill test the Little Hat for some time now. This target has all the same markers as its larger cousin located a few hundred meters to the north. We feel this is an excellent opportunity to extend the areas of known mineralization within our property holdings." Impact of COVID-19 GMV Minerals is carefully monitoring the public health impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on a daily basis. Our first priority is the health and safety of our communities, shareholders, contractors, employees and other stakeholders. The GMV team has been working closely to ensure all the correct protocols and safety precautions are in place. Management continues to work remotely and they have kept in regular contact with our stakeholders (who remain safe at home with their families), our investors and interested parties. The Company will continue to monitor the evolving COVID-19 situation and will continue to act proactively to protect the health of its workforce. Dr. D.R. Webb, Ph.D., P.Geo., P.Eng. is the Q.P. for this release within the meaning of NI 43-101 and has reviewed the technical content of this release and has approved its content. About GMV Minerals Inc. GMV Minerals Inc. is a publicly traded exploration company focused on developing precious metal assets in Arizona. GMV, through its 100% owned subsidiary, has a 100% interest in a Mining Property Lease commonly referred to as the Mexican Hat project, located in Cochise County, Arizona, USA. The project was initially explored by Placer Dome (USA) in the late 1980's to early 1990's. GMV is focused on developing the asset and realizing the full mineral potential of the property through near term gold production. The Company recently updated its inferred mineral resource to 32,876,000 tonnes grading 0.616 g/t gold at a 0.2 g/t cut-off, containing 651,000 ounces of gold. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS ________________________________________ Ian Klassen, President Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information please contact: GMV Minerals Inc. Ian Klassen Tel: (604) 899-0106 Email: info@gmvminerals.com NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES - This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management of the Company regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements except as may be required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56535 A member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, also known as the Old Guard, wears a face mask as he places flags in front of each headstone for "Flags-In" at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Thursday, May 21, 2020, to honor the nation's fallen military heroes ahead of Memorial Day. Read more We are better than this. Those were the words going through my head this Memorial Day weekend, as the country honored its military dead, but failed to honor the nearly 100,000 souls who perished from COVID-19. At a time when we pay tribute to those who died for our country, the president spent the weekend tweeting vicious attacks against political opponents. On a holiday meant to symbolize one nation, indivisible (did Donald Trump ever learn that line from the Pledge of Allegiance?), the president was tweeting false murder allegations against a talk show host who criticized his handling of the pandemic. And inspired by Trumps mask-resistance, huge crowds partied around the country without protection. Meantime, the Trump administration released a new testing strategy Sunday that will further split the nation while practically guaranteeing a virus resurgence. READ MORE: Lesson from South Korea: You can hold a democratic election under coronavirus | Trudy Rubin We are better than this, as so many first responders and volunteers have proved nationwide by their dedication to fellow citizens. But that can be hard to remember with a president who is determined to divide. If you need a reminder of what leadership looks like in a crisis, read The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larsons new book about Winston Churchills stewardship in 1940 and 1941, during the dark days when it looked as if the Nazis would invade Britain. Churchills genius was his ability to unify his beleaguered people. There are plenty of leadership examples among U.S. allies. Prime among them is New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who addresses her team of five million locked down citizens from her residence daily on Facebook Live video. She is trying to forge an us, not an us vs. them mentality in a crisis, as she did when standing with Muslim victims of the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch. Even Boris Johnson, the deeply flawed British prime minister who mishandled the pandemic initially and caught the virus, addressed his public directly on the need to obey lockdown rules. (To see how seriously Britons take these rules, note that Johnsons top aide is in deep trouble because he broke them.) The perfect symbol of the British attitude is the story of Capt. Tom Moore, the 100-year-old veteran who became a national hero by raising $40 million for Britains beloved National Health Service (NHS) by pacing the length of his 82-foot patio 100 times on his walker. Even Queen Elizabeth II sent him a mash note. America has had this united spirit before in crises. We can do better than a leader who tweets hatred and lies as more Americans die. Which brings me to the most infuriating aspect of Trumps divisiveness. The United States has a wealth of the worlds best scientists, hospitals, and laboratories. Yet the presidents mishandling of COVID-19, his delayed response and downplaying of its seriousness, cost thousands of American lives. And the Trump administrations new strategy again, in contrast to so many of our allies will cost thousands more lives. This so-called strategy again holds individual states responsible for planning and carrying out all coronavirus testing, without clear national direction. Once again, the feds will supposedly be the supplier of last resort, but past promises have failed or been fulfilled too late. The president once again pits states against each other, competing for supplies and facing inadequate supply chains. You cant leave it up to the states to do it for themselves, Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, told the New York Times. This is not the Hunger Games. But sadly, the Hunger Games seems just what the White House has in mind. The president has made clear his belief that testing is overrated, and his disdain for blue-state mayors and governors whose sick and dying constituents didnt vote for him. He has also made clear his disrespect for rules of social distancing and masking, thus encouraging a culture war in which mask-wearers are regarded as the enemy. Not for Trump the impassioned plea of North Dakotas GOP governor, Doug Burgum, Stop this senseless mask war. READ MORE: Spain goes partly back to work with a message: test, test, test | Trudy Rubin We are better than this. Other countries have figured out national testing strategies that have crushed the virus, not merely paved the ground for serious new outbreaks when they return to work. And our country has rallied to crises before. Never, at a time of grave peril, did any U.S. president incite civil insurrection against his own countrymen. Abraham Lincoln, who presided over a civil war, famously called on the nation in his Second Inaugural to bind up its wounds with malice towards none, with charity for all. Trump had the unfettered hypocrisy to sit in front of Lincolns huge memorial statue for an interview, and then counter everything that great man stood for. But we are better than that. The majority in this country want a leader who can bind up our wounds and provide the leadership to crush this pandemic. Unfortunately, Trumps divisiveness will cause many more deaths before that election battle is waged five months from now. Beachgoers setup along the beach at a safe social distance while enjoying the weather at Margate City Beach on Saturday, May 23, 2020. The Jersey Shore opens up for the first holiday weekend amid the coronavirus. Read more The New Jersey Shore is reopening, and that means many people are starting to think about whether summer down the Shore is a salvageable plan. Its true that short-term rentals will be happening this summer in both New Jersey and Delaware, but it wont exactly be business as usual. Here are some questions about how things will go this summer. Can I rent a house down the Shore this summer? Yes, its allowed. In New Jersey, most municipalities are allowing rentals to begin on Monday, June 1, though a few places opened up a bit earlier. In Delaware, Gov. John Carney is lifting his states ban on short-term rentals and eliminating its quarantine for out-of-state residents. Both take effect Monday. READ MORE: Can I go to the beach? What you need to know before you even think about heading down the Shore. What if I rented a place but now dont feel it is safe to go. Can I get my money back? This is where things get difficult. The owner has the final say as to whether or not a cancellation will occur, said Clay Rossiter, who manages the rental department for Fox Real Estate in Ocean City, N.J. So it may be about appealing to the owners to see if there could be an amicable settlement. There may be other solutions. I have asked my owner if he or she would consider maybe moving the funds that have been put in place this year for, say, July, and move them to next year, giving them a lease in 2021, without a refund," he said. ASK US: Do you have a question about the coronavirus and how it affects your health, work and life? Ask our reporters What if I rented a place, but the owner wants to cancel? "In these cases, the tenant has the right to enforce the lease, but the effort it would take is not worth the fight, Rossiter said. In this case, your best bet may be to find another property. SEARCH OUR FAQ: Your coronavirus questions, answered What if I used a short-term rental platform to book a stay? VRBO and Airbnb are the two leading short-term rental platforms. They have slightly different policies when it comes to refunds. Reservations with Airbnb made before March 14, with a check-in date before June 30, can be canceled before check-in for a full cash refund or travel credit. Reservations for stays made after March 14 will not be covered under our extenuating circumstances policy, except where the guest or host is currently sick with COVID-19, Airbnbs policy reads. VRBO says that it is asking owners to offer a full credit for the amount already paid, even outside a cancellation window, which can be applied to future bookings at the property. VRBO says it is strongly encouraging property owners and managers to issue at least a partial refund for situations in which a flexible credit cannot be accommodated. READ MORE: How to wear a mask at the beach (properly) Can I rent a house with people I dont usually live with? Its best to exercise caution on this one. Both New Jersey and Pennsylvania have been loosening restrictions, which also means social restrictions. On May 22, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said all counties in the commonwealth would move to the yellow phase by Thursday, June 4. During the yellow phase, were able to see other people, though caution and social distancing are going to be part of our lives for some time to come. While New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy extended the number of people allowed at outdoor gatherings from 10 to 25, and said you can have, say, a barbecue with friends as long as you still have physical distance from each other, he reiterated that indoor gatherings are still limited to 10. And with everything else, be extra careful if you, or someone you want to go with, has a preexisting health condition, is older, or is in another at-risk group. What other things may be different now? One is method of payment. Almost all will be curbside and remote check-in and checkout, said Chris Bezaire, president of the Cape May County Association of Realtors. Owners and cities are also widening the time frame between check-in and checkout to ensure more time for intense cleaning and make sure everything is properly sanitized. Bezaire also said tenants might be required to bring pillows, blankets, sheets, and towels, using their own instead of others. And, it might be worth doing a thorough cleaning yourself once you get to a property. READ MORE: I have to cancel my summer travel plans. What are my rights? Will I get a better deal because of the pandemic? I havent seen a reduction in prices, said Frank Shoemaker of Berger Realty in Ocean City. They are probably going to be about the same. When should I rent? It depends. Shoemaker says that if you know you are going to rent, its best not to procrastinate. Once more things start opening up, it is going to get busier selection-wise, he said. If people want something they may want to think of booking now rather than wait until the last minute. But on the other side of this, dont let the frenzy of feeling cooped up rush your decision. We dont know yet what the effects will be of reopening; the guidance has been changing week to week. Ultimately, you have to make a choice that you feel safe making. And remember: Theres always next year. 26.05.2020 LISTEN The management of COA FS, a Ghanaian alternative medicine company is unhappy at media reports suggesting that it has manufactured covid-19 cure. The company has indicated that contrary to media reports, the COA FS herbal medicine has not been approved as treatment and management of coronavirus. According to the company, COA FS was part of the herbal products submitted to the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, AkuapemMampong for evaluation towards the management of Covid-19. A release signed by its Client Relations Officer, Deladem Kisseih said, COA Herbal Center further dissociates itself from leaked reports suggesting that independent tests conducted on COA FS Food supplement confirm that the product is not contaminated, the release said. The report on the independent test, which was conducted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been extensively reported by some media houses and online portals, creating the erroneous impression that COA Herbal Center is influencing such a media campaign, it added. It would be recalled that in April this year, the FDA ordered the recall of all batches of COA FS Food Supplement, manufactured by the Centre of Awareness (COA) Herbal Centre, from the Ghanaian market, over contamination. FDA had in a statement indicated that contaminated products posed serious health hazard including risk of kidney disease. COA FS says it is strictly adhering to the Food and Drugs Authoritys directives and not engaged in any media war. We wish to state that COA Herbal Center, acting upon the directive of the FDA has since ceased production, recalled our products from the market, and submitted the same to the FDA which was safely disposed of on the 22nd of May, 2020, it added. It noted that the leaked test results from the Food Research Institute, which is under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is one of the results of the numerous trial samples sent to the institute and the Centre for Plant Medicine Research for analysis, to try our lines after major renovations. We, therefore, want to state unequivocally that, we are not behind such publications and as a genuine organization, which cherishes the rule of law, we would not do anything that will undermine the authority and power of the FDA. Indeed, a meeting with stakeholders and government will be held this week to deliberate on the recommendation by the Center for Plant Medicine Research and the way forward. The question is, why would COA FS engineer such publications to preempt Tuesday's meeting? This media campaign is the handiwork of some diabolic minds who don't wish COA FS well. It must, therefore, be on record that COA Herbal Center is strictly complying with directives by the Food and Drug Authority (FDA). We have recalled all the specific batch numbers from the market as directed by the FDA. Furthermore and more importantly, the company has embarked on several steps to ensure that its manufacturing site in Cape Coast conforms to the best hygienic practices in the world. The production site in the Central Region has seen some major facelifts that will ensure that COA FS products are produced under strict hygienic conditions which conform to international best practices, the release said. We want to state that, COA Herbal Center is committed to delivering quality, effective, efficient, and efficacious product to consumers and will, therefore, comply with all directives by the FDA. Currently, the product is off the market. We, therefore, urge the general public to disregard the current media publications regarding the tests and wait patiently for the FDA's final report, which is recognized by law, it added. ---Daily Guide Jerusalem, May 26 : The Israeli health ministry has reported 17 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number in the country to 16,734. After four consecutive days without death cases, the ministry on Monday reported two new fatalities, bringing the death toll from the COVID-19 to 281, Xinhua reported. The number of patients in serious condition decreased from 44 to 41, out of 115 patients currently hospitalized, the lowest number of hospitalized patients since March 12. The number of recoveries increased by 154 to 14,307, while the active cases decreased to 2,146. Earlier in the day, the Israeli transport ministry announced the full resumption of the state's railway system on June 8. China and Israel have cooperated on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 11, the Tel Aviv Municipality Hall, a landmark in the Israeli city, was illuminated with the colours of China's national flag, showing solidarity with China in the fight against the novel coronavirus. On March 19 and April 1, two video conferences were held between Chinese doctors and Israeli counterparts to share experience in containing the virus' spread and treatment of the infected patients. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Grand: The bar at the Leopardstown Inn, one of the pubs in the Loyola Group which is taking an action against FBD INSURER FBD says it intends to ask judges at the Commercial Court not to hear additional legal actions taken against it by publicans who say their cover is not being honoured until cases now under way are decided. The move to manage the case load is an indication of the scale of legal actions the insurer is facing from publicans over its refusal to pay out on business interruption cover for losses resulting from the Covid-19 outbreak. The request for a stay is up to the court and has not yet been considered. Earlier, several test actions by publicans over whether their insurance policies with FBD cover the disruption in their trade caused by Covid-19 were admitted to the fast-track Commercial Court. Mr Justice David Barniville was told there could be as many as 1,000 pubs and bars all over the country affected by the dispute. Analysts at Davy said the situation means it is now more likely that FBD will be unable to pay a dividend to shareholders this year, even though pub policies represent only a small proportion of FBD's overall business. FBD says it has applied for a stay - or pause - on all other similar legal proceedings with the aim of using a case now up and running to seek a determination in court to the overall question of whether losses due to Covid-19-related closure, claimed by publicans, are covered by their FBD policy under the business interruption clause. "The case in question will allow the issue of cover to be decided in a single set of court proceedings, therefore avoiding each pub owner concerned having to take their own legal actions and incurring the related costs," FBD said. At the High Court yesterday several test actions by pub owners over whether their insurance policies with FBD cover the disruption in their trade caused by Covid-19 were admitted to the Commercial Court. It arose after the insurer refused to provide them with cover since the pandemic resulted in the closure of pubs in mid-March. The pub owners claim their policies with FBD include a clause that states owners will be indemnified if their premises are closed by order of the local authority or Government if there are "outbreaks of contagious or infectious diseases on the premises or within 25 miles of same". The Waveny Care Center recently opened a satellite facility to house those with the coronavirus, who can leave the hospital, but still need care this past week. Thankfully, this long awaited isolation unit has been approved and will begin accepting COVID-19 patients from regional hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and our local community on Thursday May 21, 2020, said Russell R. Barksdale, Jr., president and CEO of the Waveny LifeCare Network, prior the opening. National Guard personnel set up the equipment in an empty building at Silver Hill Hospital in April. The opening has been delayed by insurance issues, according to Barksdale and state Rep. Thomas P. ODea. Shortly after the first positive COVID-19 case in New York City, and Westchester County, the network reached out to Silver Hill, and the state Department of Health to propose adding the closed Acute Care Unit on Silver Hills campus to Wavenys license in order to provide a COVID-only isolation facility. While hospital COVID related admissions seem to have plateaued in recent days, they are still high, according to a release from Waveny. The number of tests and number of positive COVID-19 cases still continue to rise and many epidemiologists are already forecasting a second wave, as local communities begin to reopen. The unit is designed to provide: A safe harbor for residents released from the hospital who require medical and physical rehabilitation after continued treatment for COVID-19; A quarantine solution for hospital and nursing home patients with the coronavirus to protect those who havent already been infected; Relief for local hospitals to reduce their bottleneck of COVID-19 patients who no longer require to be in the hospital but who are unable to care for themselves at home, thus allowing hospitals to resume normal activities like elective surgeries, outpatient testing, and other invasive procedures that were being delayed. Employing a sufficient number of specialized nurses and nurses aides to provide the highest level of care 24 hours per day, seven days per week is always a limiting factor in health care, said Terry Henry, vice president of communications at the network. Handling the level of patient acuity, extreme isolation protocols, behavioral health, and other secondary complications related to respiratory, cardiovascular, and physical therapy requires a highly trained, and highly functional team of professionals as well. Our deepest commitments are to ensure that above all, each patient is given the best recovery opportunity, and receives the highest possible continuity of clinical support. Mortality rates for these clients have been way too high even with consideration given to the over 80 age cohort, and their severe comorbidities, and acuities, Barksdale said. We believe a specialized unit will be their best chance for full recovery, and be able to address the future needs of our great community. British health officials have told companies offering Covid-19 antibody tests to stop processing blood samples from patients in the UK, MailOnline can reveal. Private tests to see whether people have already had the disease and recovered are now available from various online pharmacies from around 69. Superdrug became the first high street retailer to offer the service and numerous websites offer similar tests, including Lloyds Pharmacy. Now the Government, which has previously been accused of trying to take control of coronavirus testing among the public, has slammed the brakes on private tests. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has confirmed it has told firms to stop analysing the blood samples people submit for testing. 'Patient safety and public health are our main priorities and it is in the interests of everyone for antibody tests to be as reliable and meaningful as they can be,' a spokesperson told MailOnline. 'There are several UK providers of testing services who offer Covid-19 antibody testing using a fingerprick sample of capillary blood collected in a small container. 'We are asking all providers of laboratory-based Covid-19 antibody testing services using capillary blood collected by a fingerprick to temporarily stop providing this service until home collection of this sample type has been properly validated for use with these laboratory tests. 'Use of unvalidated sample types may lead to unreliable results and as such we are working closely with the service providers, laboratories and test manufacturers to resolve the regulatory and patient safety issues. 'People who have purchased one of these sampling kits, and received an antibody test result, should not consider the result to be reliable and should not take any action on it. 'This does not affect rapid point of care tests or laboratory tests performed using venous blood.' At least two labs that process antibody tests using finger-prick samples are known to be affected by the move. The news comes after Public Health England's testing tsar, Professor John Newton, last week urged people not to pay for private tests and to wait for official ones. And it comes after US health body the Centers for Disease Control warned antibody tests for Covid-19 may be wrong up to half of the time. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has confirmed that they have told firms to stop analysing the blood samples that people in the UK submit for testing Private tests to see whether people have already had the disease and recovered are now available from various online pharmacies from around 69 (stock photo) WHAT IS AN ANTIBODY TEST? An antibody test is one which tests whether someone's immune system is equipped to fight a specific disease or infection. When someone gets infected with a virus their immune system must work out how to fight it off and produce substances called antibodies. These are extremely specific and are usually only able to tackle one strain of one virus. They are produced in a way which makes them able to latch onto that specific virus and destroy it. For example, if someone catches COVID-19, they will develop COVID-19 antibodies for their body to use to fight it off. The body then stores versions of these antibodies in the immune system so that if it comes into contact with that same virus again it will be able to fight it off straight away and probably avoid someone feeling any symptoms at all. To test for these antibodies, medics or scientists can take a fluid sample from someone - usually blood - and mix it with part of the virus to see if there is a reaction between the two. If there is a reaction, it means someone has the antibodies and their body knows how to fight off the infection - they are immune. If there is no reaction it means they have not had it yet. Advertisement The Government has bought 10million tests from pharmaceutical giant Roche and will start using them on NHS and care staff from this week. The MHRA and Department of Health officials are expected to meet tomorrow to discuss the issue. The way antibody tests work is that someone takes their own blood sample, or a medical professional takes it for them, and that is posted off to a lab. There, qualified technicians analyse the blood to look for antibodies for the coronavirus, which are immune system substances created when someone is infected with the virus. People then receive a result in which the presence of antibodies - a positive result - indicates they have already had the virus, or the absence that they have not. The lab analysis stage is now being blocked by the MHRA, MailOnline understands. The best-known company providing antibody tests, Superdrug, voluntarily stopped issuing its tests last week because of immense demand, so it could get through all the ordered samples. It did not confirm whether the MHRA rule had affected its service. A spokesperson said: 'We have been contacted by MHRA and are in ongoing discussions with them.' Lloyds Pharmacy is also believed to have been affected by the decision but did not confirm this. Antibody tests for COVID-19 may be wrong up to half of the time, according to updated information from the Centers for Disease Control. A graphic reveals how the test can spot fewer than half of true positive cases, depending on how widespread the infection is HOW CAN ACCURATE TESTS BE INACCURATE? Antibody tests with what could be considered a high level of accuracy can still produce large margins of error if only a small proportion of a population has been infected. A 95% specific test, for example, will always produce five false positive results from a group of 100 people. Even if it is sensitive enough to detect all the people who have genuinely had the disease, it will still return five false positives, and the effect this has on the results of a survey can be large if the number of true positives is low. If the prevalence of antibodies is low - for example, only 5% of people in the group have had the illness - the results could end up half wrong. The 95% test, in that situation, would be expected to return 10 positives - five of them right, five of them wrong. This means the functional accuracy of the test, known as its true predictive value, is only around 50%. The effect of these false positives is magnified if the prevalence of the virus in the population is low, and less noticeable if the prevalence is high. For example, if 30% of the population have been infected, those five false positive results would be counter-balanced by 30 true positives, making the test more like 85 per cent accurate. A more specific test can reduce this effect; by comparison a 99.9% specific test would return one wrong result per thousand - 100 per million. Advertisement Andy Sloman, a managing director at the company, said: 'We are working closely with our partners and regulators and have taken the decision to temporarily pause the LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor COVID-19 antibody testing service pending further guidance. 'The health and safety of customers is our top priority, particularly during such a difficult and uncertain time. 'We are following the developing advice and guidance on COVID-19 antibody tests from the government and medical professionals closely.' The move comes after the Government's testing tsar, Professor John Newton, last week urged members of the public not to pay for antibody tests. Professor Newton, a medical director at Public Health England, told Parliament's Science and Technology Committee on Friday that curious members of the public should wait until the Government could carry out approved tests on them. The Government announced on Thursday that more than 10million antibody kits were being bought from pharmaceutical firm Roche for use in hospitals and care homes. It comes after high street chains including Superdrug began to offer a home antibody test kit for 69. Although the test it is using has been part-approved by PHE, Superdrug is asking people to take their own blood samples, which PHE has not approved. The test is still legal however, and people can make their own decision about whether to take it. When asked about the new home tests, Professor Newton said better tests would be available to the public soon. He warned: 'The public need to be aware that those tests are not the same as those we have evaluated and approved for use. 'The laboratory-based tests have a much higher standard of accuracy. We wouldn't recommend at the moment that people rely on the tests that are becoming widely available. 'My advice would be to wait until we have better tests which will be available in a similar form very soon, though they are still under evaluation at the moment.' Antibody testing has been ongoing throughout the pandemic and more than 230,000 people have been tested in a bid to try and work out what proportion of the population has had the virus. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last week announced that early results suggested almost one in five people in London - 17 per cent - have already had the coronavirus, according to surveillance testing. Health Secretary Matt Hancock last week announced that early results suggested almost one in five people in London - 17 per cent - have already had the coronavirus CDC WARNS ANTIBODY TESTS ARE WRONG UP TO HALF THE TIME Antibody tests for Covid-19 may be wrong up to half of the time, according to updated information from the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC now warns antibody testing is not accurate enough for it to be used for any policy-making decisions, as even with high test specificity, 'less than half of those testing positive will truly have antibodies'. It urges caution with the test results as many false positives could lead people to believe they have an immunity to coronavirus and act accordingly. Health care providers may need to test patients at least twice to give a more accurate reading, the new guidance posted to the CDC website adds. Antibody studies, also known as seroprevalence research, are considered critical to understanding where an outbreak is spreading and can help guide decisions on restrictions needed to contain it. There is currently a high level of inaccuracy in the testing, however, caused by how uncommon the virus is within the population. If the infection has affected only a small number of people tested, it will have a magnified margin of error, the CDC explains. It means that even a test with more than 90 per cent accuracy can still miss half the cases if only five percent of the population has been infected. Advertisement Meanwhile the rate across the rest of the UK appeared to be around five per cent, he said, which would equal 2.85million people. But none of the tests have so far been considered good enough to diagnose people on an individual basis - to tell them the results. Tests made by giant pharmaceutical firms Roche and Abbott, however, have now been approved by the Government and will start to be used on medical and care staff this week. It comes after it was revealed last night by the US CDC that antibody tests for Covid-19 may be wrong up to half of the time. The CDC now warns antibody testing is not accurate enough for it to be used for any policy-making decisions, as even with high test specificity, 'less than half of those testing positive will truly have antibodies'. It urges caution with the test results as many false positives could lead people to believe they have an immunity to coronavirus and act accordingly. Health care providers may need to test patients at least twice to give a more accurate reading, the new guidance posted to the CDC website adds. Antibody studies, also known as seroprevalence research, are considered critical to understanding where an outbreak is spreading and can help guide decisions on restrictions needed to contain it. There is currently a high level of inaccuracy in the testing, however, caused by how uncommon the virus is within the population. If the infection has affected only a small number of people tested, it will have a magnified margin of error, the CDC explains. The way this maths works is that a 95 per cent specific test, for example, will always produce five false positive results from a group of 100 people. Even if it is sensitive enough to detect all the people who have genuinely had the disease, it will still return five false positives. If the prevalence of antibodies is low - for example, only five per cent of people in the group have had the illness - the results could end up half wrong. The 95 per cent test, in that situation, would be expected to return 10 positives - five of them right, five of them wrong. This means the functional accuracy of the test is only around 50 per cent. This effect is magnified if the prevalence of the virus in the population is low, and less noticeable if the prevalence is high. For example, if 30 per cent of the population have been infected, those five false positive results would be counter-balanced by 30 true positives in the 100. A more specific test can reduce this effect; by comparison a 99.9 per cent specific test would return one wrong result per thousand - 100 per million. Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack arrive for Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on May 14, 2020. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images) Australia Curbs CCP Virus Outbreak by Decoupling From the Chinese Regime Commentary Health officials in the Australian state of New South Wales announced on March 12 that they expected 20 percent of the states 8 million residents to be infected by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Extrapolating from this data model, up to 5.1 million people in all of Australia could have been hit by the first wave of a nationwide outbreak presumably lasting between 12 and 22 weeks. However, more than two months later, the total confirmed cases of CCP virus infection in Australia was 7,139, and there were 103 deaths, as of May 27. The difference between the estimated number and the actual number is stark. An Effective Way to Contain the CCP Virus In a COVID-19 webinar held by the Australian Academy of Health and Medical science on April 29, infectious disease expert Sharon Lewin attributed this low fatality rate to Prime Minister Scott Morrisons decision to bar or quarantine travelers from China starting Feb. 1. University of Melbourne professor Shitij Kapur, who led the panel, agreed with Lewins point. He compared Australias result with that of Canada. He said, For the first 16 days of this pandemic we were within 10 cases of each other And then something changed in late March. Today Canada has 45,000 cases, and we have 6000. Just a month ago we both had 4000, so that tells us how quickly all of this could have changed, Kapur said. The conclusions of the experts above were drawn based on visible phenomena, knowing that the CCPs concealment of the outbreak has caused the spread of the virus worldwide. I would suggest another factor in Australias unexpectedly lower number that may be just as, if not more, important: decoupling from the CCP and disclosing the truth about the source of the CCP virus. The Australian government and media exposing the CCPs infiltration and threats have prevented the Chinese regime from further meddling in the countrys affairs. Recently, the Australian governments determination to investigate the source of the virus is essential to containing the pandemic. This is a critical move to expose the fact that the pandemic was caused by the CCPs initial coverup of the outbreak. A Push for Independent Investigation Morrison is determined to push ahead with calls for a global inquiry into the origins of the deadly virus for two purposes. He insists that Australia is committed to an investigation into the spread and origins of the CCP virus. With the investigation, the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) is under scrutiny for its slow response during the early outbreak. Morrison wasted no time in seeking support for an international investigation into the pandemiche made overnight phone calls to U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Morrison believes that an independent inquiry is a fairly obvious and common-sense suggestion. After all, since the outbreak was reported to the WHO on Dec. 31, the virus has caused more than 5.6 million infections and more than 350,000 deaths worldwide. According to the South China Morning Post, government records from Nov. 17, 2019, suggest that the first confirmed case may have been a 55-year-old Hubei resident. When the world is anxious to learn the truth about the CCP virus, the regime responds with paranoia. Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye warned that Australias pursuit of a global COVID-19 probe could spark a Chinese boycott of Australian tourism and agriculture. In response to the explicit threat from Chinese Ambassador Cheng, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the comments were disappointing and that the governments position wouldnt change. Australia is no more going to change our policy position on a major public health issue because of economic coercion or threats of coercion, than we would change our policy position in matters of national security, Birmingham said. The trade minister also confirmed the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson, had called the ambassador to discuss his comments. On April 27, Foreign Minister Marise Payne also rejected any suggestion that economic coercion is an appropriate response to a call for such an assessment, when what is needed is global cooperation. Health Minister Greg Hunt said an independent inquiry was in the interests of Australia and the world. Foreign affairs spokesperson Penny Wong also said that the opposition Labor Party supports the governments calls. The world wants to understand the origin of COVID-19, and the world is entitled to understand that, Wong said, adding that the inquiry was the right thing to do for humanity. Labor leader Anthony Albanese also backed the governments calls for a review into the origins of the virus. He was quoted in PerthNow as saying: Its important that an element of that relationship be transparency. Australia wants a positive relationship with China but its got to be built on a level of trust and transparency. The Daily Telegraph in Australia published an article referencing a 15-page dossier compiled by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, saying the document shows that China deliberately covered up evidence of the virus [COVID-19] early on in a pure case of negligence. The document states that Chinas secrecy amounted to an assault on international transparency. Speaking to CNBC, Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EUs executive arm, said she would like to see China work together with her organization, and others, to get to the bottom of exactly how it emerged. The spread of the virus and even the development into a pandemic was caused precisely by the CCPs concealment of the outbreak since the beginning. The global request for an investigation of the source of the virus is for good reasons. The Australian governments firm request for the investigation is clearly probing into the crimes of the CCP, and the CCP knows it well. Recognize the Evil of the CCP On April 28, Peter Hartcher of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote an opinion article: Ambassador Cheng Jingye has done Australia a great service and shown us the true face of the Chinese governments feeling for Australia. The Chinese Communist Party for years has been working systematically to undermine Australias sovereignty. To take over our political system, in the words of Australias former national security adviser and ASIO chief, Duncan Lewis. But the Chinese regime always kept the smiling mask of friendship in place. President Xi Jinping told Australias Parliament in 2014 that the two countries should be harmonious neighbours who stick together in both good times and bad times. Well, the bad times are now upon us, courtesy of the made-in-China pandemic. And what has Chinas official representative in Canberra done? Ambassador Cheng has openly threatened Australia with trade boycotts. He said the idea of an inquiry was dangerous. As for the foolishness of Chengs position, its threefold. First, hes been foolish enough to expose the reality of Beijings intentions towards Australia. The CCP seeks dominance, through any means possible. But, to now, the partys functionaries have delivered their threats and pressure tactics in private and coercion has never been declared openly. Now we all see the truththere is no goodwill, only gangsterism. Second, its a pretty inept piece of Wolf Warrior diplomacy because hes huffing and puffing after the house has already blown downChina has already done more damage to our economy than any boycotts could, says Rory Medcalf, head of the ANUs National Security College. And third, Chengs comments are foolish because an open attempt to intimidate Morrison can only serve to rally Australia around the Prime Minister. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg described Chinas latest criticisms of Australia as ludicrous. We wont bow to economic coercion, we will continue to talk up in Australias national interest and we wont trade off health outcomes for economic outcomes, he told Sky News. Previously, reports of Chinese government-backed global property giant Greenland Group and Chinese-owned Risland Australia shipped tons of supplies of essential medical items back to China through January and February. What has caused the turning point in Australias outbreak? Yuanhua Li, a scholar residing in Australia, commented that the global outbreaks have the general public and the government of Australia awakening to the CCPs lies and gangster-like behavior. Indeed, the disaster caused by the CCPs lies has a corrosive effect on Australia. It has clearly demonstrated the speedy awakening of the entire nation. Decoupling From the CCP Is Decoupling From the CCP Virus It can be seen that countries and regions that are close to the CCP have had bigger problems with the CCP virus than those who arent close. This is no coincidence. Decoupling from the CCP is being considered by many countries now. Separating from the CCP economically, strategically, and morally makes sense on many levels. For Chinese people, decoupling from the CCP takes the form of withdrawing from its party organizations, namely, the Chinese Communist Party, the Communist Youth League, and the Young Pioneers. They view withdrawing and decoupling as the best ways to protect themselves from the consequences of the various evils begotten by the CCPincluding the CCP virus. More than 356 million Chinese people have withdrawn from the above CCP organizations. For anyone in any country, to disavow and denounce the CCPwhether out loud or simply in ones heartis to take a big step toward a positive future, especially at this critical juncture. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. LAS VEGAS, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Calling all CAPAddicts! As the community reopens and forges ahead into its new norm, the Las Vegas staple, Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, is gearing up to serve the community bigger and better than ever before. On the heels of being named a Top Workplace for 2020 by The Review-Journal and Business Press, Capriotti's is looking for motivated, ready-to-learn candidates to join its family with open positions ranging from team members to general managers. The Top Workplaces 2020 honor is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage , LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 drivers of engaged cultures that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few. "While our community is in a state of change, we are committed to providing some sense of comfort and stability by offering the same extraordinary hand-crafted subs and salads our fans have always loved and we couldn't do it without our much-admired shop teams," said Ashley Morris, CEO of Capriotti's. "We are so honored to be recognized by these employees and the Review Journal and Business Press as a top workplace. At Capriotti's we're a family and our people, their health and safety (and fun!) come first. We look forward to adding to our team with fresh perspectives and like-minded values to help us support the Las Vegas community when it's needed most." The award-winning sandwich chain is committed to a people-first culture with safety measures in place to prioritize the health and wellness of employees. These measures include, but are not limited to wellness checks before every shift and implementation of strict sanitation, handwashing and health wellness policies. On top of creating a safe atmosphere for employees, Capriotti's offers a wide range of incentives and development programs including: GM/Shift Lead Development Program : This program is designed to fuel employees' professional and personal growth, bringing in both inside expertise from company leaders and outside expertise. : This program is designed to fuel employees' professional and personal growth, bringing in both inside expertise from company leaders and outside expertise. CapsCares : Giving back is at the core of our culture. CapsCares is a philanthropic effort to give back to communities in which it resides. From supporting the Las Vegas Rescue Mission to sponsoring the Tim Tebow Foundation's annual "A Night to Shine" event, employees have an opportunity to make a difference. : Giving back is at the core of our culture. CapsCares is a philanthropic effort to give back to communities in which it resides. From supporting the Las Vegas Rescue Mission to sponsoring the Tim Tebow Foundation's annual "A Night to Shine" event, employees have an opportunity to make a difference. Shop Contests: Capriotti's is all about having fun! Corporate shops often host contests, creating friendly competition between shops and offering incentives like cash prizes (gift cards), luncheons, paid time off, etc. Capriotti's is all about having fun! Corporate shops often host contests, creating friendly competition between shops and offering incentives like cash prizes (gift cards), luncheons, paid time off, etc. Shop PopUp Visits from HQ: Employees have access to corporate as representatives from HR regularly pop in to shops around Las Vegas to "thank you" to employees with treats like coffee, pizza, donuts, etc. Employees have access to corporate as representatives from HR regularly pop in to shops around to "thank you" to employees with treats like coffee, pizza, donuts, etc. Engagement Surveys : Capriotti's is a growth-minded company and is always looking for ways to improve with the help of its employees. Through engagement surveys, Capriotti's employees can share both blind spots and bright spots directly with the leadership team. Through these surveys, the brand has changed uniforms, the way birthdays are celebrated and more. : Capriotti's is a growth-minded company and is always looking for ways to improve with the help of its employees. Through engagement surveys, Capriotti's employees can share both blind spots and bright spots directly with the leadership team. Through these surveys, the brand has changed uniforms, the way birthdays are celebrated and more. Commitment to the Las Vegas Community : The brand is committed to being leaders in the community, striving to help make Las Vegas a better place. Corporate team members volunteer with local non-profits like the local chapter of the National Restaurant Association through paid community service hours to help make the Las Vegas restaurant scene a great place to work and dine. Every year, the The Review-Journal and Business Press hosts an annual survey which recognizes the best workplaces in Las Vegas. Energage CEO, Eric Rubino speaks to the importance of maintaining a positive company culture saying, "In times of great change, it is more important than ever to maintain a connection among employees." He adds, "When you give your employees a voice, you come together to navigate challenges and shape your path forward based on real-time insights into what works best for your organization. The Top Workplaces program can be that positive outcome your company can rally around in the coming months to celebrate leadership and the importance of maintaining an employee-focused culture, even during challenging times." For more information, to sign up for job updates in your community and to view and apply for open positions, visit https://capriottiscareers.com/. About Capriotti's Sandwich Shop Founded in 1976, Capriotti's Sandwich Shop is an award-winning national franchised restaurant chain that remains true to its 40-year tradition of slow-roasting whole, all-natural turkeys in-house every day. Capriotti's cold, grilled and vegetarian subs, cheese steaks and salads are available at more than 100 locations across the United States. Capriotti's signature sub, The Bobbie, was voted "The Greatest Sandwich in America" by thousands of readers across the country, as reported by AOL.com. Capriotti's fans can also download the CAPAddicts Rewards app for iOS and Android, where they can earn and redeem rewards. Capriotti's plans to grow to over 500 locations by 2025. For more information, visit capriottis.com. Like Capriotti's on Facebook, follow on Twitter or Instagram. About Energage Energage offers a fully unified SaaS platform, plus support and professional services, to help organizations recruit and retain the right talent. As a B-Corporation founding member, Energage has committed itself to the purpose of making the world a better place to work together. Based on 14 years of culture research, the engine behind 51 Top Workplaces programs across the country, and data gathered from over 20 million employees at 60,000 organizations, Energage has isolated the 15 drivers of engaged cultures that are critical to the success of any business, and developed the tools and expertise to help organizations measure, shape and showcase their unique culture to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. For more information, please visit energage.com. Follow us on Twitter @teamenergage and Facebook and LinkedIn @energage. Contact: Marissa Pasillas, Fishman Public Relations, [email protected] or 847-945-1300 SOURCE Capriotti's Sandwich Shop Related Links http://www.capriottis.com A newly built house Luotuowan, located in Fuping County, in Baoding, a city in North China's Hebei Province, used to be a typical, poverty-stricken village in the Taihang Mountains. The village has undergone tremendous changes since the Chinese government implemented a series of beneficial policies. The villagers have been able to shake off poverty, and they have begun to live happy lives. Deep in North China's Taihang Mountains, Fuping is one of the country's old revolutionary bases. In 2013, nearly half of the residents lived in poverty. In Luotuowan, a village in Fuping County, 428 of the 608 villagers lived in poverty when Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, visited at the end of 2012. Xi checked on the progress of local poverty-alleviation efforts, and he visited needy households in Luotuowan and Gujiatai. "The most arduous and heavy task facing China in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society is in the rural areas, especially the poverty-stricken regions," Xi said during his visit. He made the remarks after he heard officials' reports on local economic and social development. A well-off China won't come if people in rural areas can't live a well-off life, Xi said. Central authorities are highly concerned about poverty-alleviation work, Xi said. He urged all local Party and government organs to fulfill their responsibilities to quickly lift people out of poverty. Between 2013 and 2018, China allocated more than 840 billion yuan (US $120 billion) from the central budget to help poor people with minimum living allowances, medical aid and temporary relief to support people in extreme poverty. Numerous policies designed to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and to alleviate poverty, have been implemented throughout China. Thanks to China's great efforts to reduce poverty over the years, the village has taken on through rapid development an entirely new look. Xi told the villagers of Luotuowan that, with confidence, people can turn yellow soil into gold. His remarks encouraged the villagers to strive for a better life. A commercial street in the village Rising Income In recent years, the village has endeavored to develop its forestry, tourism and fruit-growing industries, and the efforts have resulted in the locals earning greater incomes and improving their living standards. In 2012, the villagers' annual per-capita income was a mere 950 yuan (US $135). The per-capita income rose to 4,000 yuan (US $571) in 2017. In 2019, the villagers' per-capita income exceeded 13,000 yuan (US $1,857). In addition, 57 families owned a car. Luotuawan is adjacent to Fuping Tiansheng Bridge Scenic Area, in the east, and Shanxi Mount Wutai, in the west. The beautiful forest in the village serves as a natural oxygen bar, and is a good foundation for the continued development of tourism. "General Secretary Xi told us to find the right way to bring the people out of poverty, by adjusting policies to conditions, in a scientific manner, in 2012. Rural tourism is the development route we selected, based on the situation in our village," said Gu Ruili, the village's Party chief. On June 7, 2018, Luotuowan Hotel, in which the village invested, began operating. In May 2019, the local homestay tourism project, in cooperation with the village and Fuping Fuyu Company, began. There was an average of 500 visitors a day. "The project is operated by Fuyu Company and our village, as a stakeholder. Not only can the villagers get jobs, but they will also get a share of the profits," Gu explained. Tang Zongxiu, a 74-year-old grandmother in the village, has been employed as a cleaner, and the person responsible for planting flowers, since the homestay tourism project trial in May 2019. She now has a monthly income of 2,100 yuan (US $300). "The villagers can have a job if they want. The income from work, a monthly pension of 108 yuan per person and an annual subsidy for land transfer of 4,000 yuan (US $571) is enough to make ends meet," Tang said. In addition to tourism, the harvesting of edible fungi and alpine apples, two major targeted anti-poverty industries, are also doing well in the village. None of the 75 edible fungi greenhouses in the village is idle, and 80 percent of the apple trees on the 350 mu (23.33 hectares) of land, scattered over the hills, had produced fruit in 2019. "People used to earn their income by farming in the mountains, but now they can prosper by doing various jobs in the village," said Liu Huage, first secretary of the village. "The ideas of the villagers have changed. It has become the consensus among them to live comfortably by their own hands." A villager laughs after receiving some pork during the dividend conference. Rebuilding Houses In 2015, Fuping County launched its rural reconstruction and upgrading project. All of Luotuowan's 277 households were resettled in new houses that were bright, spacious, and which had plumbing and central heating. The village has undergone a makeover including its cultural square, drama stage, folk-culture museum, specialty stores, inns and wineries, the bean curd workshops and the street for local snacks to accentuate the village's unique charm. Tang Rongbin, an elderly resident, and his wife, Gu Baoqing, received Xi into their home during his inspection tour of the village on December 30, 2012. "It had snowed heavily in the mountains the day before, and the roads were covered with thick snow. We had never thought that General Secretary Xi would tramp toward us through the snow," Gu said. At that time, Gu and her family lived in a poky house with outmoded furniture, crowded together, and some belongings scattered on the floor. Xi chatted with the elderly couple as he sat cross-legged on a heated earthen bed with them. He learned more about their personal information and living conditions, and he asked if they had any wishes. "I want to renovate our house," Tang Rongbin told Xi. During the reconstruction project, the elderly couple's dream came true, and they moved into a new, two-story building equipped with facilities like underfloor heating. "To ease our concerns about electricity costs, the local government also gives us electricity subsidies for heat," Gu said, adding that people's lives are getting better and better under Xi's leadership. The village's roads, which were narrow and had potholes, also received a facelift. The once-dirt roads are now covered with asphalt, and as a result the village is cleaner and people can drive their cars to their homes. To celebrate Spring Festival in 2020, every household hung a red lantern in front of their door, and more were placed on both sides of the street, as well as on the drama stage. Different colors lighted the small village, which presented a most wonderful picture as night fell. A girl in the classroom Better Life Since 2016, the elderly (aged 60 or better) in Fuping County have been reimbursed in full for their medical expenses. In early 2018, Chen Deyin, Tang Zongxiu's husband, was diagnosed with a gallbladder condition during a free physical examination organized by the village. Chen needed minor surgery at the county hospital. Thanks to the rural medical insurance policy, the medical bills, which would have been expensive for them, were exempted. The couple only had to pay 80 yuan (US $11.43) for travel and food. The village holds cultural events every weekend to enrich the residents' leisure lives, and to provide diverse activities to tourists. Cultural performances, such as yangko, square dances, folk songs and operas, are organized to bring charm to people's lives. On January 5, 2020, Luotuowan Industrial Development Co., Ltd, the village's collective enterprise, held a lively dividend conference, and each registered villager was allotted 7.5 kilograms of black pork. "We now no longer need to worry about food, clothing and housing. With medical insurance and a profit-sharing plan, everyone lives on easy street," Gu said. Noting that 2020 is the year China plans to finish building a moderately prosperous society, in all respects, Gu underscored that the village will continue to develop rural tourism, establish a brand of high-quality agricultural products, and sell the specialties at good prices via an e-commerce platform. Also, the village plans to expand the photovoltaic industry. These measures will consolidate the results of poverty alleviation and help villagers live better lives. The yangko team Photos Supplied by Xu Wenyan and Li Quan (Source: Women of China English Monthly May 2020 issue) Moriah College has become the second eastern Sydney school to close on Tuesday after a student tested positive for COVID-19. The Queens Park school closed at 12.30pm on Tuesday after it learned one of its primary school students had tested positive for COVID-19. Waverley College, which is located within 1.5 kilometres of Moriah, evacuated its senior school campus earlier in the day when parents of a year 7 student informed the school he had also been diagnosed with coronavirus. Students leave Moriah War Memorial College at Queens Park. Credit:Louise Kennerley An email to Moriah parents said it was "important that students go directly home". Wellington, New Zealand--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - New Zealand Energy Corp. (TSXV: NZ) ("NZEC" or the "Company") provides a further update pursuant to the blanket relief granted by the Canadian Securities Administrators, and the press release issued by the Company on 28 April 2020, from the filing dates for certain Company documents. On 28 April 2020 the Company announced it would file its annual financial statements for the 2019 financial year, and the related managements discussion and analysis and reserves data, normally required on 29 April 2020, on or before 12 June 2020. The Company confirms there have been no material business developments, other than as disclosed in the Company's press releases and previous filings, and further confirms members of the company's management and other insiders are subject to an insider trading black-out period. On behalf of the Board of Directors "James Willis" Chairman New Zealand Energy Corp. New Zealand Energy Contacts Email: info@newzealandenergy.com Website: www.newzealandenergy.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56540 A 100-year-old World War II veteran survived his battle with coronavirus after spending 58 days in the hospital. Lloyd Falk was one of the first Covid-19 patients at Henrico Doctors Hospital in Virginia. He was admitted on March 24 with symptoms of the virus and was finally discharged last week. Falks wife of 74 years also tested positive for coronavirus, but she did not survive and died weeks before her husband finally left the hospital. Despite losing his wife of 74 years to the virus a few weeks ago, Mr. Falk continued to stay strong, defying the odds and surviving his fight against COVID-19, the hospital wrote in a Facebook post. As Falk left the hospital, medical workers lined the hallway and clapped as he was wheeled out, honoring the veteran and his late wife. A Dublin conservationist has called for the State to intervene to stop the iconic Bewley's Cafe on Dublin's Grafton Street from closing. Damien Cassidy is chairman of the Save Bewley's Cafe Campaign, and has said heritage buildings like Bewley's should really belong to the people of Dublin. He was speaking at a rally outside the well known city landmark yesterday, which is currently closed because of Covid-19 restrictions. Earlier this month it was announced that it would close its doors permanently with the loss of 110 jobs because of a combination of factors, including high rents and operating costs, coupled with the loss of footfall. This, the company says, has rendered the operation unsustainable. The historic restaurant and cafe, known as Bewley's Oriental Cafe, has been an iconic Dublin landmark since it opened its doors in 1927. "Bewley's Cafe Grafton Street Limited confirms that the management of the Bewley's Cafe on Grafton Street has written to staff to inform them that it is with deep regret and great sadness that it is likely to be necessary to permanently close the cafe over the coming weeks," the company said in a statement on May 6. The cafe is owned by artist Paddy Campbell. It is a protected structure and a landmark for generations of Dubliners and visitors to the capital alike. Heritage However, with annual rents of 1.5m, the impact of the lockdown was effectively a final nail in the coffin for the establishment, a source said. Conservationist Damien Campbell said the State needs to introduce laws where heritage buildings are not "up for grabs". "This is a Dublin icon. It is a heritage building, and any heritage building should belong to the people of Dublin," he said. Dubliner Ray Quiqley also said he believes the cafe should be saved. "The amount of rent is very high. How is any business supposed to survive at this time and pay that rent?" he said. "We've bailed out the banks before, and now it's time to bail out Bewley's," he added. Mr Quigley said he was a daily visitor to the cafe, and as well as the cafe and interaction with the staff he enjoyed the stained glass windows by artist Harry Clarke. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:59:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Three Russian sailors captured by pirates on April 19 in the territorial waters of Benin have been released, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Tuesday. The three crew members of the Portugal-flagged container ship Tommi Ritscher were released on Saturday, when they took a charter flight from Lagos to Frankfurt in order to continue their journey back to Russia, Zakharova said in a statement. The sailors remain in good health, she said, adding that Moscow thanks everyone who has contributed to the rescue of the Russians from captivity. Enditem She was one half of the first lesbian couple to ever tie the knot on Married At First Sight Australia. And with her groundbreaking series just days away from being aired in the US, Tash Herz has expressed her disappointment at the vile 'homophobic' backlash already being directed towards both her and her 'bride' Amanda Micallef. The brunette revealed that the pair had both copped abuse after the show was teased in a promo. Shocking: Married At First Sight lesbian brides Tash Herz and Amanda Micallef have copped vile 'homophobic' backlash after a promo for the show was aired in the US 'Our series of MAFS streams in the US on Lifetime in three days and the homophobia is already BLAZING which just makes me real proud of the response from Australia,' Tash wrote on Instagram on Monday. Accompanying her post was a selfie of the 31-year-old bartender taken in the rear vision mirror of her car. Tash looked stunning as she debuted her new hair and dyeing her raven coloured locks a ravishing shade of red. 'Our series of MAFS streams in the US on Lifetime in three days and the homophobia is already BLAZING which just makes me real proud of the response from Australia,' Tash wrote on Instagram on Monday Shocking and offensive comments were left under a promo on Lifetime's Instagram page this week. In the footage, Tash and Amanda are seen exchanging their commitment vows at their wedding ceremony. 'OMG so disgusting, so sinful and so unnatural,' one viewer wrote. Another added: 'Man and woman is the way god intended'. Vile: Shocking and offensive comments were left under a promo on Lifetime's Instagram page this week '...this is a sin in god's eyes...' shared another. Meanwhile, plenty of fans rushed to praise the brides and producers of the series for including a same-sex wedding in the show. 'That's so sweet, every love story deserves a chance,' wrote one. Showing support! Meanwhile, plenty of fans rushed to praise the brides and producers of the series for including a same-sex wedding in the show Another added: 'Finally we see all realities of love. Love is love... It's so wonderful to watch and guess what folks, it's what real life is like,' Tash starred in the seventh Australian season of the hit franchise, which is the very first to be aired in the US. The series will premiere on Lifetime on May 27 and air on Wednesdays and Thursday nights at 9pm, until all 36 episodes are shown. A first! Tash starred in the seventh season of the Australian franchise, which is the first to be aired in the US. The series will premiere on Lifetime on May 27 The controversial season delivered many scandalous moments, including the first couple to ever be booted out of the experiment. Hayley Vernon voted to stay with 'husband' David Cannon out of 'spite' and to punish him for cleaning the toilet with her toothbrush. But expert John Aiken intervened, telling Hayley the program had 'standards that we must adhere to' before forcing her to leave. Scandal: The controversial season saw David Cannon (left) and Hayley Vernon (right) become the the first couple ever to be booted out of the experiment Hayley was also involved in a love triangle after she admitted to kissing Stacey's 'husband' Michael Goonan, although he claimed to be too drunk to remember the incident which happened off-camera. Meanwhile, Stacey and Michael's relationship was plagued with cheating rumours after Mikey Pembroke claimed he slept with her at a dinner party. Only one of the 12 couples have continued their relationship since leaving the show. 'There are standards that we must adhere to': Expert John Aiken forced Hayley and David to leave after she voted to stay out of 'spite' and to punish him for cleaning the toilet with her toothbrush Returning bride Elizabeth Sobinoff found love with hunky Seb Guilhaus, and the couple remain together despite being forced apart for the last two months due to interstate travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Elizabeth is holed up at her parents home in Newcastle, while Seb remains at this apartment in Adelaide. Elizabeth told The Daily Telegraph at the start of the month, that they call each other every hour, in addition to texting when they wake up and before bed. Still going strong: Only one of the 12 couples have continued their relationship since leaving the show. Returning bride Elizabeth Sobinoff (right) told The Daily Telegraph at the start of the month that she and Seb Guilhaus (left) are in 'constant contact' to keep up their long-distance relationship Meanwhile, Michael has found love with another castmate, professional dancer KC Osborne. The pair have been dating for three months and are residing at Michael's Melbourne home during the coronavirus pandemic. Since leaving the experiment, Tash has moved on and found love with girlfriend Madison Hewitt. Two people from New Orleans remain missing in the waters near Perdido Pass, Alabama, after a call went out to the Coast Guard that three swimmers were in distress on Sunday afternoon. UPDATE: Two bodies found after two New Orleans swimmers went missing in Perdido Pass The Coast Guard Sector Mobile release said they received the distress call about the three lost swimmers from New Orleans just before 6 p.m. in a water passage near Orange Beach, Alabama. Only one of them has been rescued. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up A report from FOX 8 said on Monday afternoon that the rescued swimmer is 28-year-old Jasmine Brundy of Chalmette, who was found by a nearby boater. Emergency Medical Services took her to a hospital, and Brundy's condition is unknown at this time. The two still missing were identified as Ryan Guy, 28, and Darius Robinson, 22. Anyone with information is urged to call the Coast Guard at (251) 441-6211. The spread of Covid-19 has completely changed the way the world functions. From daily routines to long term plans, everything now depends on the mercy of when all this ends. But while the lockdown has been tough on everyone, children have suffered a heavy casualty. The announcement of the nationwide lockdown in India resulted in schools closing which effectively disrupted learning for thousands of children. But there is hope. Had a pandemic like this emerged ten years back, millions of students would have lost crucial time in their learning process; but not so in 2020. Owing to easy access to technology and the internet, many private schools were able to quickly launch online learning programs for their students. Zoom classes have now become the norm. However, the transition to remote teaching and learning wasnt as easy for government schools. Yet, some states took the lead in this regard and prioritized the education of government school students during the lockdown. Himachal Pradesh is one such state. Himachal not only became one of the first states in India to launch a formal online education program for all grades in government schools, but it also beat many private schools. Within a week of the lockdown being announced, the Government of Himachal Pradesh started planning for online learning assuming long-term closure of schools. Within a week, the state launched a program called Har Ghar Pathshala, with a vision to convert every home into a school. For the first time in the country, a state government leveraged online channels to educate students at such a scale. The program was designed to be simple and accessible to all. The technology used had to be easy to comprehend for all stakeholders involved in the program, from the Department of Education, teachers, students to parents. To this end, the state decided to leverage a form of technology that is ubiquitous: WhatsApp. To ensure all students are connected to their teachers, a drive was launched to collect phone numbers of students in order to create school-level WhatsApp groups and connect as many schools and students as possible through WhatsApp. At the end of one week, 95% of nearly 15,000 schools were connected with the Department of Education and close to 70% of 8 lakh students were connected with their teachers. Next, the Department had to decide the academic content for the program. In the absence of any readymade digital content, it was an onerous task to create appropriate academic content for 12 classes across subjects. While the state leveraged some freely available online resources from academic partners (like Pratham, TicTac Learn and Sampark Foundation), more than 100 teachers were tasked to create content, lesson plans, and practice worksheets specifically for the program. To ensure students could access content easily, the state government created a simple website overnight to host all learning material and act as a one-stop repository. The content for each day was uploaded a day before, circulated to all officials every day at 8.30 am, and through the chain of WhatsApp groups, reaches students between 9.30 and 10 am. Classes would begin right after. During the day, teachers remained in constant touch with their students, resolved their queries, and even called them to provide more clarity on the more complex topics. A monitoring unit was formed in the state to track how the programme was being implemented. Multiple review meetings were held to decide on daily course corrections. To reach every student in the state, even those who were facing trouble accessing the learning material, the government planned for broadcasting the same content through television and radio. By the third week of the launch, more than 60% of all students studying in government schools in the state had visited the website at least once. Daily average users ranged between 2-4 lakh and the website received over 3.3 crore page views. Close to 42,000 teachers submitted daily reports about their days activities where they indicated to have answered more than 7.5 lakh queries by students every day. The state also conducted online training for teachers every week to strengthen their teaching skills and improve the quality of their interactions with students. Close to 53,000 teachers started participating in these training sessions and more than 28,000 courses have been completed till date. For the first time in India, a state government used an AI-based bot to proctor practice tests of all students in grades 1-8. More than 80,000 students attempted the exam with 74% of all questions answered correctly. To be sure, the program did face several challenges such as internet connectivity, access to smartphones for all students, insufficient internet data packs, etc. However, initiatives like these show the potential for embedding alternative modes of teaching for future generations and making the education system more resilient. Covid-19 has definitely made the adoption of technology by the government faster, and the system more responsive to the needs of beneficiaries. Could the use of technology in education become the new normal? Ankur Bansal is Co-Founder and Mohit Bahri is Senior Manager at Samagra. Your browser does not support the audio element. Vietnams Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung has requested an urgent probe into the alleged bribery of Vietnamese officials by Tenma Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japans plastics manufacturer Tenma Corporation. Minister Dung told reporters on Monday afternoon that a team had been immediately established by the ministrys inspectorate to investigate the Tax Department and the Customs Department of the northern province of Bac Ninh, where Tenma Vietnam is located. Meanwhile, the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Vietnam Customs were requested to report on recent allegations in Japanese media about bribes paid by Tenma Vietnam Company to the tune of VND5 billion (US$214,600) to avoid paying corporate and value-added taxes. Tenma Vietnam was established in 2007 in Bac Ninh Province with a charter capital of $35 million, fully contributed by the parent corporation in Japan Tenma Corporation which was founded in 1949. The Vietnam business of the Tokyo-based company specializes in manufacturing and trading plastic molding components and plastic molds. Tenma Corporations sales in 2018 were JPY84.8 billion (US$787 million) with 7,557 employees worldwide, according to its annual stock report. Tenma Vietnam has recently been in the limelight after Japanese media, including Asahi Shimbun newspaper, reported that the Vietnamese subsidiary gave bribes of VND5 billion to Vietnamese customs officials. The firm paid Vietnamese customs officials in Bac Ninh VND2 billion ($85,800) to escape a value-added tax of JPY1.79 billion ($16.6 million) in June 2017, Asahi Shimbun reported. The bribe had been approved by Tenma Corporations chairman Kento Fujino before it was given, according to the report. The Vietnamese companys employees then proceeded to bribe Bac Ninhs customs officials VND3 billion ($128,800) to have tax arrears lowered from JPY80 million ($742,100) to JPY2.62 million ($24,300) in August 2019, Asahi Shimbun reported. The allegation that Bac Ninh tax officials received money from Tenma Vietnam was a unilateral report from Japanese media, Ngo Xuan Tong, director of the Bac Ninh Tax Department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. The companys chief accountant confirmed that there was no such an expense, Tong said. The Bac Ninh tax leader added Tenma Vietnam is qualified to enjoy tax incentives so there is no reason for it to make such a payment. The provincial tax department had reviewed all related records, while Bac Ninh police had also worked with officials implicated in the alleged bribery from the provincial tax department and Tenma Vietnam to investigate and clarify the facts of the case, according to Tong. Meanwhile, Bac Ninh authorities are waiting for the CEO of Tenma Vietnam, who has not been able to return to Vietnam due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, to verify reports published in Japanese media, Tong said. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! In these days of working from home and social-distancing, Zoom has become one of the most popular ways to communicate. According to the FBI in Springfield, its also become a favorite tool for nefarious uses. The platform for virtual meetings and events has skyrocketed in use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools, businesses and organizations have used it millions of times to connect people in multiple locations. But the FBI has received more than 195 reports of incidents throughout the United States and in other countries in which a Zoom participant was able to broadcast a video depicting child sexual abuse material. Although most meetings are available only to those with a specific link, those internet addresses are being shared online and used by people not intended to be a part of the event. An FBI spokesman said such activity is considered a violent crime, because every time child sexual abuse material is viewed, the child is re-victimized. Those who inadvertently see such material are potential victims as well, according to the agency. Internet safety experts say there are steps that can be taken to help prevent such acts, including: Not making meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control admittance of guests. Not sharing a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted or publicly available social media post. Providing the link directly to specific attendees. Managing screen-sharing options. In Zoom, screen-sharing should be changed to host only. An administrator or host of a Zoom meeting in which questionable material was broadcast is asked to contact the FBI but not destroy or delete any computer logs until directed by law enforcement agents. If the meeting was recorded, the FBI can provide assistance in removing it from a device. The FBI can be reached at 1-800-225-5324 or anonymously online at tips.fbi.gov. David C.L. Bauer Advertisement By Godwin Akor, Makurdi Secretary of the Benue State Action Committee on COVID-19 and Commissioner for Health, Doctor Sunday Ongbabo, has said Governor Samuel Ortoms proactive steps against COVID-19 have helped the state not to record any death since the pandemic started. Ongbabo who spoke to journalists on the achievements of the committee, urged Benue people to appreciate God for giving Governor Ortom the wisdom to be proactive on all the issues concerning the fight against Coronovirus. Advertisement The commissioner said of the 200 persons tested so far, only six have tested positive with four of them treated and discharged. Ongbabo expressed optimism that the two remaining persons would soon be discharged, adding that the entire people of the state need to be proactive to make the state COVID-19 free. He said the understanding demonstrated by the persons that reported the case of the Kano yam seller who contracted the virus was exemplary and noted that Mrs Rebecca Apedzan and Edward Manger were celebrated when they were discharged because they were also exemplary in conduct. The expert on emergency health problems said with the help of Governor Samuel Ortom, a world class laboratory is being built at the state owned university and pointed out that when completed, the laboratory would be the best in the entire West African region. According to him, vehicles and beds have been donated Dr Ongbabo said the Benson Abounu led Action Committee on COVID-19 has put machinery in motion to make Benue one of the states that would not record any death as a result of the disease, stressing that the people would eventually record success if they continue to observe the protocols laid down on the prevention of the pandemic. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal Dorotea Montoya, a pioneering pediatric nurse practitioner who was the mother of Espanola Moving Arts co-founder and political candidate Roger Montoya, has died at age 86. Known to her friends as Dottie, Dorotea Roybal was born Oct. 29, 1933, near Penasco. She was one of 13 children of Demetria and Maximiliano Roybal. After graduating from Penasco High School, Roybal studied nursing in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and in Albuquerque. She met her husband, Jose Amado Montoya, while working as a nurse in Colorado. The couple had six children and lived outside of Denver before moving to New Mexico. After being hired as a school nurse at Espanola Valley High School, Dorotea Montoya opened a clinic in 1983 aimed at curbing teen pregnancy. Through her wellness center, she provided a safe and nurturing environment for counseling that included abstinence training, sex education and comprehensive family planning services; treatment for teens with STDs; HIV/AIDS education; and a myriad of psychological, social and emotional health modalities, her son Daniel Montoya said in a statement. Among the numerous honors Dorotea Montoya received was the prestigious Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood of the Rio Grande in 1994. She was also honored as a legendary nurse by the state of New Mexico in 2004 and was given the 2017 school-based health care legacy award by the New Mexico Alliance for School-Based Health Care. Her real gift was understanding the vulnerability and potential of young people, Roger Montoya said in an interview. Roger Montoya was one of 10 CNN Heroes of the Year in 2019 and is running in New Mexico House District 40 to fill a vacancy created when Rep. Joseph Sanchez, D-Alcade, decided to run for office in New Mexicos 3rd Congressional District. Along with his partner, Salvador Ruiz-Esquivel, Roger Montoya a decade ago founded Moving Arts Espanola, which offers youngsters free dance, music, gymnastics and other classes, as well as complimentary meals. Hong Kong police are shutting down city streets to deter protests as Chief Executive Carrie Lam warns the public their rights are not absolute and new legislation is needed to restore market confidence. Sweeping national security laws designed to "prevent, stop and punish" dissent in the Chinese territory are being drafted in Beijing at the National People's Congress this week. "We are a very free society, so for the time being, people have the freedom to say what they want to say," Lam said on Tuesday. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, speaks while wearing a protective mask during a news conference in Hong Kong. Credit:Bloomberg "If we want to protect the majority of people and a small minority of people are going to breach the law to organise and participate in terrorist activities then of course we have to have the legislation. Nearly two months have passed since 53-year-old Talina Galloway vanished from her home in Wagoner, Oklahoma, leaving behind her purse and vehicle. Were really worried about her, Talinas niece, Chantel Jones, told Dateline. This is not her character. She would not let us worry like this. Talina Galloway Chantel told Dateline she spent most of her summers living with her Aunt Talina in Indiana. Several years ago, Talina moved to Wagoner with her husband. He died suddenly two years ago, but she remained in Wagoner where she works for Microsoft from home. Chantel said her aunt was in contact with her boss on March 27. Its the last contact anyone had with her, she added. Earlier that week, one of Talinas close friends who also lives in Wagoner, Marty Angus received a text message from her. She wasn't feeling well, and she would get back to me when she felt better, Marty told KRJH. Ive been calling, texting. Theres just no answer. Her phones been off since the 7th." According to an April 7 post on Talinas Facebook page, she believed she had COVID-19. The post stated that she would not go to the hospital, but instead take some time away to deal with it. On April 12, Talinas roommate reported her missing to the Wagoner County Sheriffs Office. According to the report, Talina left home without her purse or wallet. Her roommate said Talinas car was still in the driveway. Wagoner County Sheriff's Office Sergeant Jeff Halfacre said the circumstances of her disappearance are troubling. It seems out of her character to just leave and not contact anyone for a long time," Halfacre said. Were continuing to investigate and hope to bring her home safe. According to the Wagoner County Sheriffs report, investigators believe Talina may have used rideshare services to a location in Arkansas, but they were not able to verify if she was picked up. Were doing everything we can to look for her from a distance, but its hard because were all in different states, Chantel said. Theres a group there passing out fliers and searching the best they can, but its hard. Story continues Talinas friends and family have not all been able to gather to search for Talina due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but friend Nicole Bellenfant Carr told Dateline she believes they will find her with the help of social media. Thousands of people are looking for her who dont even know her, Nicole said. But Talina captured their hearts - thats the magic of Talina. Both Nicole and Chantel told Dateline they believe someone knows something about Talinas disappearance and hope this person will come forward with information. My friend Talina is like feeling the sun on both sides of my face, Nicole said. She is warm and radiates positivity and she is exactly what the world needs right now. We just need to find her. Talina Galloway is described as 57 tall and about 200 pounds. She has a distinct tattoo of a sun symbol on her right wrist. If you have any information about Talinas whereabouts, call the Wagoner County Sheriff's Office at 918-485-3124. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the country is reopening, businesses and managers of public buildings are concerned about ongoing decontamination. While hand cleaning and sanitizing is important, an optimal way to decontaminate is by using a gas that is a true gas (not a liquid spray or fog) that gets dispersed throughout the air space and completely and thoroughly kills the virus in the air, in the air ducts, and on all exposed surfaces, while leaving no harmful chemical residue. Certified Mold Free Corp Gary Rosen, PhD "When you hire a cleaning crew to decontaminate, how can you know that all of the surfaces have been cleaned? Impossible," says Gary Rosen, PhD, president of Certified Mold Free. "With a gas, you can measure the levels in the air and know that if they are at an established level, that the gas has killed the virus, based on government studies. Only with a gas can one guarantee 100% complete and effective coronavirus disinfection." Gary Rosen, President of Certified Mold Free Corp (CMF) is a PhD biochemist (UCLA) and is also a State of Florida authorized training and exam provider for the Florida DBPR Mold Licensing program. Dr. Rosen teaches solutions that are Green, Chemical-Free, EPA/CDC recommended methods of decontamination. He has also developed a training program in response to the pandemic for industry people who are decontaminating homes, offices, cars, yachts and commercial/public buildings. Certified Mold Free has been using chlorine dioxide gas as part of their mold practice for over 5 years, and is now using it and recommending it for decontaminating coronavirus. It is the same technology used in the Federal Government buildings to decontaminate after the anthrax attacks in 2001. Chlorine dioxide gas, along with other products and methods that Gary Rosen teaches, are safe to use even in food prep areas. PUREVISTA PRODUCTS PureVista product line is a stabilized and safe method of deploying a true chlorine dioxide gas. Different size canisters are available depending on the area(s) to be treated. Certified Mold Free also offers safety monitors and masks with filters, as well as provides consulting to customers as to how to best deploy the gas for the area(s) being treated. WEBINAR TRAINING, FREE TO LOCAL GOVERNMENTS To understand the dangers of misusing toxic chemicals, and to understand what products are both safe and effective to use, Certified Mold Free offers webinar training weekly, and the fee is waived for local governments. For more information on chlorine dioxide products and on the webinar training, contact [email protected]. PRESS CONTACT: Linda Rosen Certified Mold Free Corp (954) 614-6860 [email protected] www.free-mold-training.org SOURCE Certified Mold Free Corp Related Links https://www2.free-mold-training.org Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Red Light Holland Corp. (CSE: TRIP to commence trading on May 28) ("Red Light Holland" or the "Company") a company focused on the recreational truffles market, is pleased to announce that it has appointed Bruce Linton, one of the world's foremost executives in the cannabis industry, as the Chairman of its Advisory Board. Mr. Linton has significant experience helping companies transition from a tightly regulated medical market to a robust recreational market. Mr. Linton is the founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth"). Under Mr. Linton's leadership, Canopy Growth was the first cannabis producing company in North America to be listed on a major stock exchange (TSX) and included on a major stock index (S&P/TSX Composite Index). Canopy Growth was also the first cannabis-producing company to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Linton has developed a global network of contacts in the regulated substance industry, along with a deep understanding of emerging markets, both of which Red Light Holland hopes to leverage as it positions itself for expansion into the recreational truffles market. "We are extremely pleased to have Mr. Linton serve as the Chairman of the Advisory Board. He is a visionary with a vast global network of connections, and the business acumen necessary to assist Red Light Holland in developing new business opportunities," said Todd Shapiro, the Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and Director of the Company. Bruce Linton added, "I've always liked Todd. He has a strong work ethic, and takes pride in being genuine and delivering on his promises. Red Light Holland's progress to date, including its receipt of approval to list on the CSE, is another example of the strong leadership I am proud to back. As an early investor in Todd's vision, and Red Light Holland, I am looking forward to mentoring Todd and advising his strong team in this emerging psychedelic space." For additional information on the Company: Todd Shapiro Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and Director Tel: 647-204-7129 Email: todd@redlighttruffles.com Forward-Looking Statements Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "potential", "believe", "intend" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56594 A junior minister in the Boris Johnson government resigned on Tuesday as the controversy over the prime ministers chief adviser breaking lockdown rules continued to fester, despite the aide giving a detailed account of his actions on Monday. Douglas Ross, minister for Scotland, referred to millions of people following government instructions to stay at home, while aide Dominic Cummings travelled over 260 miles to Durham in north-east England from London with family in end-March. Ross said: I havent commented publicly on the situation with Dominic Cummings as I have waited to hear the full details. I welcome the statement to clarify matters, but there remain aspects of the explanation which I have trouble with. As a result I have resigned as a government Minister. While the intentions may have been well-meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked. I have constituents who didnt get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didnt visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government. I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right, he wrote in his resignation letter. Attempts by Johnson and Cummings to brazen out the row were met by furious headlines, not only in the left-leaning newspapers such as The Guardian and Mirror, but also Conservative-supporting mass circulation tabloids such as the Daily Mail. Church of England bishops, who joined calls for the advisers resignation, said on Tuesday they had received death threats. Cummings sought to justify his movements even when he and his wife had coronavirus symptoms, but questions remained after he was provided a rare forum in Downing Street to address the press on live television on Monday. Critics say if millions had interpreted the curbs as he did and moved about, UK would have been in a far worse situation than it is today it already has the biggest death toll in Europe with 36,914 deaths and 261,184 cases as of Monday evening. Stephen Reicher, expert on the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, deplored the row and its impact on public trust in official advice to deal with the pandemic. He told Sky News: One of the central messages that we gave to Government, one of the central points that we made was that the way we have gotten through this pandemic to date is by acting together, by thinking in terms of we, of whats good for the community. Millions of people up and down the country have done precisely that in very difficult circumstances, agonising circumstances around their families and thought What is good for us as a community? I think the real problem here is that not simply in what Cummings did but in the messaging that the Prime Minister put out. The lesson was, forget about the we, its about I. Now, thank God, the public at large didnt take that attitude, the public at large, as I say, made those major sacrifices, but it threatens to undermine that sense of community if a figure as prominent as Dominic Cummings and if the Prime Minister himself starts undermining that we message and starts talking about I, Reicher added. Managers at nursing homes outlined their difficulties in sourcing PPE for staff (Neil Hall/PA) Staff at nursing homes had to wear painters overalls and goggles and relied on protective equipment from a local vet as they struggled to get stock, it has been revealed. The huge backlog in personal protective equipment (PPE) forced hundreds of nursing homes in Ireland to introduce contingency measures. Correspondence between the Department of Health and Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) was given to members of the special Covid-19 Oireachtas committee on Tuesday. In a survey carried out by NHI on April 7 and 8, managers at nursing homes outlined their difficulties in sourcing PPE for staff. One stated they are using painters overalls, painters goggles and surgical masks. Another said they had received eye protection from a local school, overalls from a vet as well as face masks purchased from a dress masker. Others spoke of being exhausted worrying about the supply of PPE while another said the staff were threatening to leave if we cannot provide them with the appropriate PPE. The survey was sent to the health department. Sinn Feins David Cullinane said the correspondence between NHI and the Department of Health illustrate concerns raised by NHI CEO Tadhg Daly. Mr Daly has criticised the States response to nursing homes, accusing the Government of leaving residential facilities and residents isolated. Mr Cullinane said nursing home staff using painters overalls was profoundly shocking. Sinn Feins Louise OReilly told the committee staff in the nursing home sector were left begging for assistance and PPE from the State. She said the Department of Health provided committee members with copies of its correspondence with NHI, which ran into hundreds of pages, less than two hours before the committee began. You were flooded with patients and starved of staff, Ms OReilly added. We need to stop this game of blaming everybody and accept the fact that we are not doing enough and we have never done enough Fergus O'Dowd, Fine Gael TD Mr Daly told Ms OReilly the surge that was expected in hospitals materialised in the nursing home sector. He added that there should have been a national plan to deal with nursing homes. Ms OReilly added: At the time they were preparing the acute hospitals they were transferring large number of patients from there in to the nursing home sector and they were not tested. Fine Gaels Fergus ODowd told Mr Daly the privately-funded nursing home sector has a lot of money to buy PPE, to pay for testing as well as extra staff. The TD also said Mr Dalys accusation that State organisations left the nursing home sector isolated was patently untrue. I believe (the State) did assist you and I believe you could have done lot more for yourself and you didnt do that, Mr ODowd added. We need to stop this game of blaming everybody and accept the fact that we are not doing enough and we have never done enough. Social Democrat co-lead Roisin Shortall said there were a series of policy failures in nursing homes. She added: The first is the two-tier health service, the second is social care being treated as the poor relation of the health service and the third is the fact that nursing homes are regarded as a good investment opportunity as opposed to a central element of the health care service. Sage Advocacy executive director Mervyn Taylor told the committee that over recent decades the States approach to residential care of older adults has been one of retreat in favour of private providers. He said: The State, having outsourced the service, practised sectoral distancing while the public, notwithstanding the excellent service provided by many facilities, has grown increasingly wary of the dark side of private investment in human vulnerability. Meanwhile, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) said an inspection will be carried out at Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk, Co Louth, on Wednesday. I will be speaking at the COVID-19 Committee in Leinster House today in the session with the HSE and HIQA. Tune in around 2pm on Oireachtas TV.https://t.co/sbPazCw7t4 pic.twitter.com/b09Pbp3kKF Ruairi O Murchu (@ROMurchu) May 26, 2020 Concerns were raised by deputies in the Dail on Tuesday as 22 residents of the home have died with coronavirus since April 1. Sinn Fein TD Ruairi OMurchu said demand is growing from families for an inquiry into what happened at Dealgan House. Mary Dunnion, chief inspector of social services with HIQA, said: A review of the situation at that setting has begun and we have completed meetings with relatives of the families there and we will be carrying out an inspection there tomorrow. Dr Colm Henry, the HSEs chief clinical officer, later told the daily Covid-19 media briefing that there had been a huge diversion of resources to the nursing home sector. He said no differentiation had been made in the funding approach to the private and public sector homes. There has been a huge diversion of resources to the nursing home sector both public and private, he said. Private nursing homes alone we have now proved in excess of 27 million euro worth of PPE and thats over 11,500 deliveries. We have had difficulties with PPE and we have had difficulties with testing right through our narrative here in this pandemic, but we havent differentiated our PPE approach or testing approach. ST. LOUIS The American Revolution was far away from the 700 people of this wilderness trading village. Mostly of French origin, they were little disposed to care about Bunker Hill or Valley Forge. American commander George Rogers Clark and a small band of frontiersmen had managed to run the lonely British sentries from Cahokia and Kaskaskia in 1778 with little effort or gunfire. Local merchants such as Charles Gratiot rewrote their customer lists, betting on the Americans. But the war would find St. Louis, at least for a day, because of imperial scheming in Europe. Great Britain wanted to flank the rebellious American colonies and snatch vast Louisiana from Spain, which ruled the former French colony with a soft touch and few troops. Spain saw a chance to grab some of the land east of the Mississippi River from the English, who were distracted by the pesky insurrection on the Seaboard. In two palaces far away, maps pointed to St. Louis as a place of value. By March 1780, the trader grapevine brought word that the British were recruiting Native American warriors from around the Great Lakes to attack St. Louis. Don Fernando de Leyba, the Spanish lieutenant governor here, ordered construction of a stone tower near present-day Fourth and Walnut streets on the ridge overlooking the river-hugging village. Local residents, slave and free, dug trenches vaguely around what would become the Gateway Arch grounds. Just to the west were the common planting fields. More rumors floated down the Mississippi River. Leyba expanded the local militia and ordered up the small garrison from Ste. Genevieve. On May 25, 1780, St. Louisans celebrated the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi by relaxing in the common fields, picnicking on wild strawberries. British officers and their warrior allies watched the frolic from nearby woods and figured their stealth had held. Shortly after noon the next day, the British force of perhaps 600 caught a few farmers outside the line before its screaming charge from the north was stopped cold by heavy musket fire from the trenches and steady blasts from five cannon in the tower. Stunned by the defenders readiness, the warriors never reached the trenches and, after a few more half-hearted feints, retreated. The Americans in Cahokia brushed off a smaller attack. Prudently, Leyba kept his force of 300 from charging after the warriors, who returned upriver in a hurry. Accounts of casualties vary wildly. The British claimed to have killed 68 in and near St. Louis. Leyba reported 21 killed and 25 taken away as prisoners. Later research suggests only six were buried in the St. Louis churchyard, although others were buried in the outlying countryside. The British never tried again for St. Louis, where relief gave way to anger that the episode had spoiled the trading business. Leyba was upset with his ungrateful charges when he died a month later of a sudden illness. St. Louis remained a colonial outpost until 1804, when the United States took over through the Louisiana Purchase. Tim O'Neil is a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Contact him at 314-340-8132 or toneil@post-dispatch.com Global Times, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, said that evacuation of Chinese citizens from India was a normal process and should not be linked with the border tensions. Beijing: China on Tuesday downplayed the much-publicised evacuation of its citizens from India in the backdrop of the border tension between both the countries. Published in English, Global Times also clarified that the news of escalation of tension on the India-China border was just media speculation. The paper wrote, "The voluntary repatriation plan should be seen as a normal service provided by the embassy to its citizens. Yet, some Indian media outlets have intentionally linked the normal operation to the recent border tension between China and India, fuelling a new round of irresponsible speculation that China may be preparing for an escalation of the border disputes." Earlier on Monday, in an urgent notice, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi had told its citizens residing in India that special flights would be available to fly them back home. The Chinese plans to evacuate its citizens was seen in the backdrop of the growing border tensions between India and China, besides the rising Covid-19 cases in parts of Western and Northern India. The notice said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made elaborate plans, especially for students and tourists who have been facing difficulty in taking flights to China A day later, Global Times hinted that the decision to evacuate Chinese citizens was taken to relieve the stranded students, tourists and businessmen in India. "On Monday, India became the 10th worst-hit country in the Covid-19 pandemic, with its number of coronavirus cases totaling nearly 140,000," it said. The newspaper further said that New Delhi should not misinterpret the move by China this time. After all, it was not long ago that the Indian government took similar actions to bring home its citizens stranded abroad. Government sources in Beijing said that both the countries should focus on improving bilateral trade amid the global economic crisis caused by the spread of the pandemic. "As a result of coronavirus shocks and other structural trade factors, China-India economic and trade exchanges are already stuck in an awkward situation. For instance, after changing its foreign direct investment policy to block potential takeovers from Chinese companies, the Indian government is reportedly considering clamping down on Chinese investors' access to the Indian market," the paper wrote. Study: Interstate School Merger Beneficial But 'Untenable' With COVID-19 CLARKSBURG, Mass. A 37-page report released presented to Clarksburg and Stamford, Vt., last week lays out the pros and cons of an interstate school district merger. The report by Public Consulting Group looks at a broad range of factors and challenges in such a merger and comes to the conclusion it can be beneficial to both towns if "done thoughtfully." "PCG believes the proposed merger model is both educationally and fiscally sound," the report states. It recommends a governing body of seven with three from Stamford and four from Clarksburg; teacher licensure and retirement through Massachusetts; standards-based curriculum; special education on the Massachusetts guidelines; and better uses of existing space in the two schools and expansion of enrichment offerings. On the more problematic side is complicated funding issues as Massachusetts and Vermont have very different educational aid formulas and the building issues at Clarksburg School. This is the second study commissioned by the Interstate Merger Committee that is made up of officials and volunteers in both communities. The school merger proposal goes back several years and arose from a Vermont law that forced school districts to combine to streamline governance and finances. Stamford, on the Massachusetts border, looked south at the invitation of Clarksburg officials. Voters in both towns as well as both state legislatures have encouraged further discussion and funded the studies so far. The report was presented at a joint town meeting on Thursday that had to be held via teleconference because of novel coronavirus pandemic. About a three dozen people logged in for the meeting. The pandemic is another obstacle at the moment that officials note will likely delay any merger process and creates a level of uncertainty on available funds. "Our conclusion is that the hurdles that currently exist likely make a viable merger untenable in the immediate future. PCG has concerns that start-up costs for a merger may be more of an expense than either district can bear right now, even if it means a merger will most likely result in longer term savings," the report states. "There's a lot of deep information in the report," she said. "The first phase was looking at 'is this feasible.' On this report, we highlighted those areas that we thought were most critical to understand or to unpack based on what we learned in the last phase and started to map out what a path forward might look like in each of those areas and specific recommendations for next steps." PCG spoke with more than 50 stakeholders and officials in both states' education departments. The study looked at several scenarios including doing nothing, tuitioning Stamford students, fully merging, regionalization within the North Berkshire School Union, and the possibility for Clarksburg to close and send students to North Adams. "The interstate merger really does seem like the best sort of solution for now and that's where we dug into a number of different areas," Preston-Sicari said. Of import is physical condition of Clarksburg School. The town rejected a school building project several years ago but last year approved $500,000 in debt exclusion funding to address critical issues. The School Committee recently decided to put off submitting a statement of interest to attempt another building project because of the financial uncertainties caused by the pandemic. "Before anything else, there has to be a plan to make the required changes and upgrades and remodeling of the Clarksburg School that has to happen," said PCG's David Driscoll, former state commissioner of education. "There are serious issues including ADA and access issues, and we know about the expenses and so forth and repairs have been made with some of the money that's been allocated, but that's the No. 1 issue." Stamford has fewer building issues but there is a question of who owns the school building, which also houses the town offices, town library and Stamford Seniors activities. Both buildings' town libraries should be assessed for educational access. The use of both schools is seen as a way to address a number of space shortcomings by turning Stamford into a prekindergarten to Grade 2 early education center and sending the older students up to Grade 8 to Clarksburg. "This would certainly allow us to address the prekindergarten issue, which is a big issue for our town, said North Berkshire School Union Superintendent John Franzoni. "I think as the report says over 90 percent of school districts in Massachusetts have a prekindergarten program. We do not have one right now." The merger agreement would identify a new collective bargaining unit of teachers from both schools. Vermont teachers with three years experience to be grandfathered into Massachusetts certification. Future teachers would automatically be part of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System. These actions would require language changes and a discussion of health benefits. PCG's MaryEllen Hannon said the study looked at existing interstate school districts there are two Vermont/New Hampshire districts now and a third being considered in recommending a governance structure. "The governance structure that we're recommending is four members of Clarksburg and three members of Stamford with two-thirds majority [five votes] on important issues that have to be decided," she said. "Therefore one town does not get to dominate any decisions being made. It needs to be a collaborative focus and conversation." At least one member from both towns would have to be present to take a vote and even in a simple majority vote, at least one affirmative vote from each town would be required to pass. Each town is also recommended to have a voting member on the NBSU committee. Such a structure would avoid a situation as happened in the former Adams-Cheshire Regional School District when the committee voted along town lines to close Cheshire School, causing a great deal of friction between the two communities. The next steps would be seeking legal assistance in writing an agreement and legislation, should the towns vote to move forward. And working with tax attorneys to determine how property taxes might be affected. Franzoni said the towns have been able obtain grant funding in the past to pay for the studies but the pandemic has greatly changed the state's financial picture. "I think given the current situation it might be a little more challenging but it would certainly be something we have to leave to our school committees and select boards to ask them for approval because obviously budgets are a little uncertain right now," he said. "We'll have to explore what funds are available to to cover legal or other process would be incurred going forward with any further work." Stamford school officials were hesitant to consider another special town meeting vote until Clarksburg makes a decision, particularly about its building. Clarksburg has scheduled its annual town meeting in June; Stamford's was held in early March. "Right now, I feel Stamford's in a holding position until Clarksburg decides what they want to do with their building," said School Board Director Barb Malinowski. Director Helen Field agreed, saying "it does seem a little awkward to ask Stamford what they want to do until we hear back from Clarksburg. So it sounds like we're in a holding pattern on two different levels both the virus, COVID-level finance issues and waiting for Clarksburg." But Field didn't think the research would be outdated soon so would still be useful if the merger took longer than anticipated. The PCG consultants encouraged both schools to consider implementing recommendations including long-term capital plans, possible shared opportunities and, for Clarksburg, exploring regionalization with NBSU or North Adams. "We from PCG strongly believe that really some type of action is needed," said Preston-Sicari. "Remaining as is may not be a long-term solution for either community." SPRINGFIELD From the day the first veteran tested positive for COVID-19 at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, now-suspended Superintendent Bennett Walsh informed state officials of the outbreak, asked for help when 25 percent of the staff called in sick and may have been suspended for communicating the problems to the citys mayor. On Tuesday, Walshs lawyer and uncle, former District Attorney William Bennett, held a press conference outside in the parking lot of the Biergarten to explain his clients position. He also released 19 documents showing multiple emails Walsh sent to the department of Veterans Services and state Executive Office of Health and Human Services informing them about the outbreak and the growing issues with staffing. I have waited for state officials to acknowledge that he did indeed request the National Guard and that he fully informed state officials of the circumstances that required him to do so, Bennett said. Because they have remained silent, I want to set the record straight. Walsh did not attend the press conference but let his lawyer speak for him. Earlier Walsh had released two written statements denying any mismanagement or wrongdoing and offered sympathy to the families of the veterans who have died of COVID-19. Tuesdays statement came as Health and Human Services officials announced two more veterans at the Soldiers Home have died of COVID-19 over the long weekend. Of the about 210 veterans who were living at the home since the outbreak began, 76 have died of COVID-19 and the cause of an additional death is unknown. There are also 75 additional veterans who have tested positive for the coronavirus. 5/26/2020 - Springfield - Bennett Walshs attorney, former Hampden District Attorney William Bennett, discusses the coronavirus outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home last month. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican) Gov. Charlie Baker and officials for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services said they learned of the crisis on the weekend of March 28, after at least eight veterans had already died, when Mayor Alex B. Morse contacted his office. Human Services Deputy Secretary Daniel Tsai sent a team of experts to the home on March 30, and before noon they placed Walsh, whose annual salary is $122,299, on leave. Bennett said he believes Walshs conversation with Morse was the reason he was placed on suspension. State officials were livid that Walsh had talked to local officials about the situation at the Soldiers Home without their prior approval. It triggered an unusually heated response from state officials that resulted in his suspension, Bennett said. They called in Val Liptak, CEO of Western Massachusetts Hospital, to take over the administration of the Soldiers Home, developed a clinical team of experts and brought in about 160 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to augment the staff, many of whom were out sick with COVID-19. It took at least six weeks to stabilize the situation. In that time nearly three-quarters of the residents living at the home when the outbreak began contracted the coronavirus; more than a third of the total residents died. In his previous statements, Walsh said he kept state officials at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Department of Veterans Services and Department of Public Health abreast of the growing crisis. When he asked for assistance from the Massachusetts National Guard, Walsh said, the request was denied. Walsh also filed for a court injunction to prevent the Board of Trustees from holding a meeting to discuss his employment shortly after he was placed on leave, arguing he would not be able to defend himself. A judge granted a temporary restraining order that halted the meeting. A full court hearing on the injunction has been delayed until July. All inquiries about the Soldiers Home, including those to members of the facilitys board of trustees have repeatedly referred to Brooke Karanovich, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. She declined to answer specific questions about the press conference due to the four ongoing investigations but did release a statement about the outbreak. The Baker-Polito administration is committed to serving its veteran residents of the Holyoke Soldiers Home safely, and along with the Legislature has increased their budget by 14% since 2015. It is imperative that the Soldiers Home in Holyoke provide a safe environment for the veteran residents, and the dedicated staff who serve them," she said. "The tragic situation at the Holyoke Soldiers Home is a reminder of the insidious nature of COVID-19, a virus that is having a devastating impact in our communities and long term care facilities. We are deeply saddened by the extent of the outbreak and the loss of life. The circumstances that led to the heartbreaking situation at Holyoke Soldiers Home including management and oversight are the subject of a full and impartial investigation ordered by the Governor, led by Attorney Mark Pearlstein. The other investigations are being conducted by state Attorney Maura Healey, Inspector General Glenn Cunha and U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. Legislators are also calling for a joint hearing about the crisis. Veterans Services Secretary Francisco Urena, who is the direct supervisor of the administrators at the states Soldiers Homes in Holyoke and Chelsea, has not commented about the crisis. He remains in his job, and on Monday he posted at least three different Memorial Day related messages to his Facebook page. Multiple people agreed the home suffered from chronic underfunding and consequently was understaffed. Walsh was appointed as superintendent in 2016, about 18 months after the retirement of one his predecessors, Paul Barabani, who said he could not remain because of what he felt was a lack of state funding. There are currently four investigations looking into the outbreak at the Soldiers Home, and some could result in criminal or civil charges. They are being conducted by Gov. Charlie Bakers office, state Attorney Maura Healey, Inspector General Glenn Cunha and U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. Legislators are also calling for a joint hearing about the crisis. A study released last week by the Pioneer Institute, a public policy research group, examined staffing levels at the Soldiers Home and said they met or exceeded federal standards but were inadequate to provide proper care for the residents who often needed more assistance because they suffered from dementia, limited mobility or needed help with eating. But when the homes trustees asked Walsh in March about staffing plans if the coronavirus hit the Soldiers Home, the superintendent replied that there was adequate staffing and the managers worked with four agencies to bring in extra nurses if employees were sickened by the virus. That plan failed and staff took drastic measures to combine wards, which many officials said, which caused overcrowding and may have contributed to the spread of the virus. Bennett only talked about the short-staffing caused when so many people called in sick, he did not comment about overall staffing at the home. This is a breaking story. MassLive will update with more information and details soon. Related Content: BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Elnur Baghishov - Trend: As many as 1,787 people have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours in Iran, said Kiyanush Jahanpur, spokesman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Trend reports citing the ministry. According to Jahanpur, 57 more people have died from the coronavirus over the past day. Jahanpur added that the condition of 2,567 people is critical. So far, more than 837,000 tests have been conducted in Iran for the diagnosis of coronavirus. Iran continues to monitor the coronavirus situation in the country. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 139,500 people have been infected 7,508 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 109,400 have reportedly recovered from the disease. The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19. The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. Philadelphia Insurance Companies, which designs, markets and underwrites commercial property-casualty and professional liability insurance products for select industries, has announced that it will donate $1 million to organizations and community relief funds responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution will go to organizations throughout the US addressing food and economic insecurity, as well as those delivering critical medical and social services, the company said. We are directing our funding to support those most vulnerable to the economic and health-related impacts caused by the pandemic, said Bob OLeary, chairman and CEO of Philadelphia Insurance Companies. So many people, social service providers and businesses need help now more than ever. As this virus continues to spread globally, the needs of communities and responders are growing, and we want to do as much as we can to address the evolving needs. G ermany is preparing to give its citizens the right to travel across Europe on holiday from the middle of June under a plan that will help efforts to revive tourism on the Continent. Reports today said a blueprint to be put to the German cabinet tomorrow will recommend the removal of a travel warning introduced to stop trips to other countries in the EU. If approved, the change will give Germans the green light to visit any of the countries, as well as Britain and the four nations that are part of the Schengen passport-free zone so long as the national policies in each of the countries permits entry. The move came as the Czech Republic today opened its border crossings into Germany and Austria and follows an earlier easing of checks on borders connecting Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It also follows an admission last week by Germanys foreign minister Heiko Maas that the country wants to ease its continent-wide travel warning from June 15. However, Chancellor Angela Merkels government is planning to extend the application of social-distancing rules within Germany until June 29 to ensure its success in containing coronavirus is not jeopardised. Todays disclosure will give a further lift to Europes tourism industry which has been helped by announcements from Spain and Italy that they will be welcoming foreign visitors this summer. In a further boost today, Spains foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez urged EU members to agree a common approach to re-establishing freedom of travel in the Schengen Area. Italy: Shops and bars reopen after two months of Coronavirus lockdown 1 /34 Italy: Shops and bars reopen after two months of Coronavirus lockdown A woman gets her hair done at a hairdresser in Milan AP A woman wearing a protective mask holds a cup at a restaurant in Piazza Navona REUTERS Gondoliers wearing a face mask ride a gondola by the San Toma embankment on a Venice canal as they resume service AFP via Getty Images People have lunch at a table partitioned with plexiglas at the Goga Cafe AFP via Getty Images Municipal Police Officers wearing a face mask, control from the spanish Steps at Piazza di Spagna in Rome AFP via Getty Images People have drinks at a cafe terrace on Piazza del Duomo AFP via Getty Images A worker prepares a store on the reopening day at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Milan Reuters Bikers pose in front of the Colosseum in Rome on the day Italy eases its coronavirus lockdown AP A woman wearing a face mask walks past a shop, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Rome, Italy REUTERS A worker cleans on the reopening day at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Milan REUTERS People walk on the Pincio Terrace at Villa Borghese park in Rome AFP via Getty Images A sign indicates a discount on shoes at La Rinascente department store, which is due to reopen with social distancing measures applied, after it was closed due to the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Milan, Italy, Reuters People line up to enter a Hermes luxury shop AFP via Getty Images People sit on the shore, as the country begins a staged end to a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Naples, Italy Reuters Italian bishop Francesco Micciche celebrates mass at the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rom AFP via Getty Images Market vendors protest rules that do not allow them to restart their activity, at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade in Milan, Italy AP Customers wait in front of a luxury shop in Milan, Italy AP Clients get their hair done at a hairdresser in Milan, Italy, AP A woman serves customers in a restaurant REUTERS A shop assistant re-arrange goods at the Rinascente department store in Milan, Italy AP A woman wearing a face shield drinks coffee at a cafe as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Rome REUTERS People wearing a face mask and shield walk across the Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan AFP via Getty Images A customer has a his hair washed before a haircut at a hairdresser's saloon in Rome AFP via Getty Images A cafe reopens as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Venice, Reuters Gran Caffe Chioggia in St Mark Square prepares for its reopening REUTERS Customers check their smartphone at the Rinascente department store in Milan AFP via Getty Images She told Spanish radio that restarting cross-border travel should be decided collectively, even if countries in the EU are phasing out lockdowns at different dates, and that Spain is eager to welcome tourists. Her comments came a day after she announced the 14-day quarantine for travellers arriving in Spain would end in July. Meanwhile, the Greek islands have begun reopening this week by allowing domestic tourists ahead of the admission of international tourists from July. Regular ferry services have restarted and cafes and restaurants are back in business as the countrys low infection rate prompted the government to start the holiday season three weeks earlier than the expected June 15 date. Social-distancing regulations and passenger limits will apply on ferries and at restaurants to prevent new infections. State-run health services to tackle coronavirus are also being expanded to the islands, with intensive care units being set up on Lesbos, Samos, Rhodes, Zakynthos, and Corfu. There are similar facilities on Crete. In other developments, the French prime minister Edouard Philippe has promised that its health workers will receive large pay increases as part of an overhaul of its hospital system prompted by the coronavirus crisis. FERNDALE, Mich.Nalpac, one of America's leading adult distributors, has announced that it is partnering with Evolved Novelties as the company focal point for week four of Nalpac's F*ck Covid19 Campaign. During week four of the F*ck Covid19 Campaign, Nalpac and Evolved Novelties have teamed up to offer some attractive bundle deals, daily social media giveaways, and two live webinars. Nalpac is running a special Evolved Novelties bundle promotion starting May 25 and running through June 25, 2020. Any customer who purchases the designated Evolved Novelties bundle promotion will receive free products. "As we continue to navigate through unchartered waters, we want to help our customers in every way we can. At Nalpac, we are starting with affordable products that will fit into any retail space. We are excited to be partnered with Evolved Novelties this week and hope everyone takes a minute to watch some of their popular products on Dicks with Don," said Amy Lazzara, Nalpac creative director. Nalpac is presenting two helpful webinars for Evolved Novelties, hosted by Lucy Vonne D'Olimpio; the first on May 28, at 4 PM ET/1 PM PT and then on May 29, at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT. Attendance for the webinars is limited, so those wishing to attend are advised to RSVP now to save a place. Retailers and others can also catch Burt from Evolved Novelties on the latest webisode of Nalpac's exclusive web series Dicks with Don. This episode features the Luminous Collection to gently illuminate the bedroom, Also featured is Zero Tolerance Thump & Grind Rechargeable Stroker with three varying speeds, and warming to 104 degrees for added pleasure and sensation. Additionally spotlighted is Adam & Eve Eve's Rechargeable Thrusting Rabbit. The beautiful emerald green rabbit has three separate controls and ten thrusting functions, including both speeds and patterns. Evolved Novelties sets itself apart by offering a limited five-year manufacturer's warranty on all products. To see the sixth webisode of Dicks with Don, visit Nalpac's YouTube Channel. Nalpac's F*ck Covid19 Campaign is planned to run for more than fifteen consecutive weeks and will feature a different manufacture and promotions each week. Each week, participating manufacturers are offering various deals in combination with orders. Nalpac will also be making a big social media push during the F*ck Covid19 promotion with original content and extra giveaways to keep people engaged and excited about starting to reopen their stores and businesses. Nalpac customers with questions about the F*ck Covid19 Campaign can contact their Nalpac sales representative. New prospective Nalpac customers can email [email protected] to get an account set up. To sign up for the Nalpac email newsletter and take advantage of significant savings, special promotions, and online education tools, visit Nalpac's blog at Nalpac.us. Nalpac offers more than 22,000 items now, including PPE, to retailers at a wholesale price. For more information on Nalpac, visit the company website Nalpac.com and follow it through social media for daily updates on Twitter @NalpacWholesale, on Facebook, on Instagram @Nalpac and its YouTube channel. Rapper Kwaw Kese says he is contemplating seeking asylum in the United States of America (USA), where he is currently stuck because of the closure of the countrys borders and airports as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. According to him, he has given himself up to the end of the month to concretise that decision. He made the revelation on Twitter, indicating he would go ahead to do that if government doesnt come to his aid. Im gonna seek asylum by end of the month if Ghana government dont (sic) come and take me from here, the rapper tweeted. Kwaw Kese is part of a number of Ghanaian musicians who are stuck abroad. The rest reportedly include Sarkodie, D-Black, Pappy Kojo and others. They left Ghana before President Akufo-Addo announced the closure of the countrys borders and airports. Some of his followers mocked him over his rant, saying he is not even needed in Ghana. Meanwhile, there are rumours that government is working behind the scenes to fly back home some Ghanaians who are stuck outside the country and are willing to return. But it is yet to be confirmed if any search move has happened. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Our employees are committed to providing families across the country with delicious, fresh berries, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that they and their families stay safe and have their food needs met during this time. Reiter Affiliated Companies (RAC), the largest fresh multi-berry producer, reinforces commitment to supporting the health, happiness and wellbeing of their farmworker community as they continue working to keep food on Americas tables during the coronavirus pandemic. During these trying times, farmworkers contributions are more critical than ever, said Ana Martinez, Wellbeing Manager for RAC. Our employees are committed to providing families across the country with delicious, fresh berries, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that they and their families stay safe and have their food needs met during this time. Recognizing proper nutrition is key to health and the rising stress associated with recent shopping trends, Sembrando Salud is collaborating with Food Banks across California to provide fresh food. "Food Share is proud to partner with Sembrando Salud and Reiter to provide fresh produce to farmworkers in Ventura County, said Monica White, Food Share's President & CEO. Farmworkers provide an essential service in our community. We are happy to be a part of ensuring that they, too, benefit from the healthy fresh foods that their hard work enables us all to enjoy." 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To learn more about Reiter Affiliated Companies, please visit: http://www.berry.net About Reiter Affiliated Companies Reiter Affiliated Companies (RAC) is the largest fresh multi-berry producer in the world, growing Driscolls proprietary varieties of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries year round in the United States, Baja California, Central Mexico, Portugal, Morocco, Canada and Peru. The Reiter family began farming in the San Francisco Bay Peninsula and by the turn of the century had migrated south into Watsonville and the Santa Clara Valley. By the late 1970s, operations expanded into Southern California where the headquarters is today. The company values of Honesty, Fairness and Respect line the corridors of every office, guiding and leading business principles and decisions. Those decisions have resulted in the organizations position as an industry leader, adopting health and wellbeing programs, opening primary health clinics and partnering with local organizations to improve the quality of life for the farmworker community. Were thrilled that our partnership with CQL will provide our sales and service support team with the ability to fulfill orders faster . . . Weller Truck Parts, a national remanufacturer and distributor of medium and heavy-duty drivetrain products and parts across America since 1973, engaged CQL to design and build its new B2B ecommerce platform. As the leader in the heavy-duty truck parts replacement industry, Weller expanded its relationship with CQL to support its growing customer base, partners, and employees. CQL is a leading digital commerce agency specializing in the design, buildout, and integration of eCommerce platform solutions with unparalleled technical and creative expertise. Weller engaged CQL based on their unparalleled ability to boost B2B sales with expert UX design and custom integration technologies. Its an endeavor that the Weller sales team has been looking forward to for some time. It was time. With our tech support lines taking on more and more calls, we knew we needed a solution to support our customers, streamline our on-line experience, and increase our B2B sales. Were thrilled that our partnership with CQL will provide our sales and service support team with the ability to fulfill orders faster and streamline the ordering process for our staff while increasing sales, says Mark Huizinga, Director of IT at Weller Truck Parts. CQL designed and developed a new website for Weller Truck with the goal of providing a scalable web solution to support its growth. Working with the Weller team has been a great opportunity for us to partner with a long-term client and share our commerce experience and team depth, says Scott Robertson, Managing Director, Commerce Strategy and Innovation at CQL. The new platform will support and expedite Wellers orders and returns process providing same-day, fully remanufactured truck transmissions and parts. The new ecommerce platform and content management tools will seamlessly integrate with existing systems leveraging the existing architecture, APIs, and investment. The platform will also support the internal technical skills of the Weller Truck Parts team by allowing easy modifications and scaling for the future. In the coming days, the CQL team will work alongside the Weller Truck Parts teams for quality assurance testing to ensure optimal performance of the new site and features. CQL is a digital commerce agency that connects inspiring brands with the people who love them. We serve retailers and manufacturers with a cross-discipline team that delivers strategic insights, design-thinking, and unparalleled technical expertise. For more information on CQL and its digital solutions, visit http://www.cqlcorp.com. For 92 years, Weller Truck Parts has continued to serve customer needs and provide a quality product. They have the largest inventory in North America and offer support before and after the sale to ensure your satisfaction. If you would like more information about CQL or are interested in their services please call 616.365.1000, or email info@cqlcorp.com. Turkeys COVID-19 death toll reached 4,397 as of Tuesday after 28 new deaths were reported in 24 hours, according to the countrys health minister. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that Turkey also recorded 948 more confirmed cases, bringing the total to 158,762. More than 121,500 people with the virus have recovered in Turkey, and the number of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care continues to decline, according to Health Ministry statistics. Turkey ranks ninth worldwide for number of confirmed cases, and 14th in the number of virus-related deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Experts suspect infection rates globally are higher than reported. Tuesday was the final day of a four-day nationwide lockdown for Turkeys 83 million residents. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the stay-at-home order would be the countrys last round. Erdogan is expected to ease restrictions and announce new policies later this week. The Turkish government has relied on limited weekend and holiday lockdowns in large cities to prevent infections among most of the population and required people age 65 and above and under age 20 to stay at home. SOURCE: AP Originally live streamed on May 25th, 2020 at 10am PST. www.twitter.com/soarfinancial - make sure to follow us & click on the #Gold #Canada #Yukon #askVGCX https://twitter.com/soarfinancial/status/1264963391224864768?s=20 || Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX: VGCX) Guest: John McConnell, President & CEO Victoria Gold Corp. is ramping up production at the Eagle Gold Mine in the Yukon Territory. Commercial production is just around the corner. We caught up with President & CEO John McConnell to discuss the harsh Yukon winter, #COVID implications, exploration and also balance sheet related matters. Soar Financial Group CEO Kai Hoffmann also asks questions by the fintwit community. More info at www.vitgoldcorp.com Follow Us! Twitter: http://twitter.com/soarfinancial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soarfinancial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soarfinancial/ Website: http://www.soarfinancial.com SF Live is a new format by Soar Financial Partners. The goal is give short company updates and more importantly get investors engaged directly with the companies. Intro Music: "Endless Motion" by Bensound.com Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only and not to be regarded as investment advice whatsoever. By Investment Trends Editorial Special to kitco.com www.kitco.com/news/investment-trends/ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. - Emperor Mansa Musa, the 14th-century emperor of Mali is regarded as the wealthiest man of all time - Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, but the Malian emperor is the richest man ever - Mansa Musa, who ruled from 1312 to 1337, was worth over R7 trillion having made his fortune from gold and salt PAY ATTENTION: Click See First under the Following tab to see Briefly.co.za News on your News Feed! Businessman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world. He is the wealthiest man in modern history with a net worth of $149.4 billion (R2.6 trillion), but not the wealthiest man of all time. According to BBC, Mansa Musa, the 14th-century emperor of Mali, is believed to be the richest man ever with a net worth of $400 billion (R7 trillion). Briefly.co.za noted that the emperor, who made his fortune from gold and salt, ruled from 1312 to 1337. Rudolph Butch Ware, associate professor of history at the University of California, said it is almost impossible to describe how wealthy and powerful the ruler truly was. Mansa Musa, who was born in 1280 into a family of rulers, inherited the throne when his brother Mansa Abu-Bakr abdicated to go on an expedition. The emperor was able to grow his kingdom under his rule, annexing 24 cities, including Timbuktu. However, after his death in 1337 at the age of 57, the empire which was taken over by his sons could not be held together, leading to its fall. READ ALSO: Zodwa Wabantu wants her bae back already, she's willing to beg him In other news, The CEO and owner of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, may become the world's first trillionaire by 2026 and not any time soon as many media reports claim. It should be noted that the only wealthy man close to Bezos mouth watery $143 billion (R2.5 trillion) net worth is Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, who is valued at about $102 billion (R1.8 trillion). Born in New Mexico in 1964, the Amazon chief has always been passionate about computers and that influenced his decision to study computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton University. Some years into school, he quit and started an online bookshop from his garage called Amazon in 1995. The initial success of the business was inspiring as it sold across 45 countries within the first 30 days. Enjoyed reading our story? Download BRIEFLY's news app on Google Play now and stay up-to-date with major South African news! Source: Briefly News Along with the rest of the UK, she was soaking up the sun on Monday. And Nicola Roberts made sure she looked her very best for her socially distanced stroll with her pals along the River Thames for the Bank Holiday. The flame-haired beauty, 34, looked incredible in high-waisted shorts with a tight black top while showing off her sensational frame and donning a designer bag. Glowing: Nicola Roberts made sure she looked her very best for her socially distanced stroll with her pals along the River Thames for the Bank Holiday Nicola was glowing as she stepped out with no make-up on to show off her glowing complexion which stood out against her trademark red hair. She was sure to show off her figure in the sun as she sported a tight black top with the tiny shorts to sure her figure was on full display. She paired the low-key look with an envy-inducing 2,450 Christian Dior Saddle Bag adorned with the iconic brand's monogram. The stunner detailed how she has been spending lockdown - as she admitted she has been getting her steps in over the past 64 days. Check me out: The flame-haired beauty, 34, looked incredible in high-waisted shorts with a tight black top while showing off her sensational frame and donning a designer bag Nicola added a caption on the shot reading: 'Bank holiday strolls. I swear I have done my whole lifes walking amount again in the last 8 weeks!... 'Beautiful day Also, well aware of how basic this river picture is'. Her latest posts come just weeks after Nadine Coyle hinted that Girls Aloud could be set to reunite for their 20th anniversary in 2022. A vision: Nicola was glowing as she stepped out with no make-up on to show off her glowing complexion which stood out against her trademark red hair A vision: Nicola added a caption on the shot reading: 'Bank holiday strolls. I swear I have done my whole lifes walking amount again in the last 8 weeks!' Nadine told The Sun: 'Theres been loads of conversations and people now are getting in contact, like,"What do we do?" Its still early.' While she said on Angela Scanlon's Thanks A Million podcast: 'Im 34 years old so to think that Ive been doing anything for 20 years is shocking, isnt it?' Nadine's hint comes in contrast to her words earlier this year when she said it would 'take a lot' for the band to reunite for their 20th anniversary in 2022. London-focused estate agent Foxtons is reopening some branches and gradually restarting physical property viewings from this week as the UK begins to exit the coronavirus lockdown. The company, which shut down all its branches on 23 March, hopes to reopen them by 1st June, when it also will begin to bring back some of its 750 furloughed workers to their 'modified offices'. Meanwhile, some of the 350 employees who were working from home will continue to do so 'where it is possible to do so effectively'. Back to work: Foxtons will begin to bring back some of its 750 furloughed workers to their 'modified offices' from the 1st of June Foxtons said that while people are still encouraged to view properties virtually, physical viewings and valuations will start again gradually 'under tightly controlled conditions with social distancing in place'. 'There will be a restriction on the number of people attending viewings with participants only able to attend if they confirm in advance they are not infected or displaying symptoms of Covid-19,' the company said. Foxtons agents will be using 'appropriate' PPE, including hand sanitiser, face coverings and gloves when visiting properties. It comes as the FTSE 250-listed firm famous for the Mini Coopers driven by its teams saw commissions from sales fall 61 per cent in the eight weeks between 23 March and 15 May as the market effectively ground to a halt. Commissions from lettings fared a bit better, falling by 40 per cent, with overall commissions down 44 per cent compared to last year. Foxtons shares closed 4.8 per cent higher at 43.80p on Tuesday. The estate agent said their offices have been modified to be in line with guidance issued by the Government and Propertymark, the estate agency industry body. Branches will have social distancing procedures throughout, enhanced office cleaning, and Covid-19 training to 'engage appropriately with customers'. In April, Foxtons tapped investors for 22million by selling an early 20 per cent stake in the business. Foxtons said that, following April's successful fundraiser, it now had a net cash balance excluding lease liabilities of 37.1million. It added that it was too early to predict the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its full year results as there still was 'significant uncertainty' over how long the London residential sales and lettings market will continue to be impacted by the pandemic. Former General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) David Ofori Acheampong has asked the government to do widen consultations before reopening schools in the wake of the Covid-19 measures. He told Alfred Ocansey on Sunrise on 3FM Tuesday that the safety of school children and Ghanaians in general must be the topmost priority for government in taking the decision to reopen schools. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that stakeholder consultations are taking place on the way forward toward the easing of Covid-19 restrictions so that the social and economic lives of Ghanaians can go back to normal I expect these consultations to conclude this week, he said at a virtual national Eid-ul Fitr celebration on Sunday, May 24, adding: So that I can announce to Ghanaians a clear roadmap for easing the restrictions. We have to find a way back, but in safety, for we cannot be under these restrictions forever, the President said. Ghana recorded 156 new cases of Covid-19 raising the figure to 6,964, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said on Tuesday, May 26. Mr Ofori Achemapong stated that there is the need to look at the safety measures before one can say that we can go back. I believe that it is right that we are talking about bringing life back to normal but the point is that if safety is not the key ingredient then there will be a serious [problem] in our country. Meanwhile, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Deputy Education Minister in charge of Basic and Secondary Education, says the Ghana Education Service (GES) is currently engaging stakeholders on a possible reopening of schools. Schools were closed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as part of the measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The president placed a ban on all gatherings including political rallies, church service and large funerals due to the pandemic. Source: 3news Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video CHESTERTON, Ind., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hogan Consulting Group is pleased to announce its new name and branding. From this point forward, the company will be known simply as Hogan. To make the strongest impact, Hogan has also updated its logo and branding, and launched a new website. The new website can be viewed at https://hogancg.com . The site includes an updated logo, as well as new content to convey the breadth and depth of services Hogan delivers in end-user computing and virtualization so businesses can offer employees the ability to work anywhere on any device, a necessity during the pandemic. "We had the same logo we launched the company with over 16 years ago, and our web presence was looking dated," said Mike Hogan, President of Hogan. "It was definitely time for a comprehensive branding update that would help us better communicate the value we bring to our clients now and in the future," he added. In addition, the company enhanced its digital persona on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Hogan is a leading provider of virtualization and cloud strategies. These solutions allow clients to improve their business agility, boost user productivity and operate remotely with the highest levels of security. "Because of our commitment to clients and the feedback we received, we coined the phrase 'Impact Technology,' said Hogan. "Rather than just providing traditional information technology services, it became clear clients hired us because of the positive impact we had on their business. It is an honor to work with top companies who rely on us for high-level technology consulting, as well as our managed services approach," he added. Headquartered in Chesterton, IN, Hogan has regional offices in Carmel, IN, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY. The firm is 100% employee-owned and provides IT consulting and managed IT services to leading industries across the country including construction, energy and utilities, financial services, healthcare, higher education, insurance, legal services, and manufacturing. Hogan's mission is to design and deploy secure, anytime access and strategic direction to mission-critical business applications and data to enable productivity from anywhere in the world. More than IT, Hogan delivers Impact Technology. Media Contact: Mike Hogan, President Hogan 850 Sidewalk Road, Suite 201 Chesterton, IN 46304 Direct: 219-921-1141 Web: www.hogancg.com SOURCE Hogan Consulting Group Related Links https://hogancg.com Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with NCP president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Tuesday while asserting that the state government is "strong". The two leaders met for about one-and-a-half hours late Monday evening, Raut said while dismissing speculations about the Thackeray-led government's stability. The Sena Rajya Sabha MP, however, did not reveal what transpired between the two leaders. The meeting between Thackeray and Pawar took place after the NCP chief met state Governor B S Koshyari on Monday morning. NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting for one-and-a-half hours. "Those doubting about the stability of this government are doing so out of their own grudge. This government is strong," Raut tweeted in Marathi. Earlier, Pawar met Koshyari on Monday morning, following which the NCP claimed the meeting took place on the invitation of the governor and no political issues came up for discussion. However, the timing of the meeting is significant as it took place against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents of MVA. Pawar was one of the key leaders from Maharashtra who had openly complained about Koshyari's "intervention" in the functioning of the state administration. Recently, senior BJP leader and former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis complained to the governor about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the Covid-19 crisis. Click here to read the full article. Whats the way forward for Spanish-speaking TV players in a post COVID-19 landscape? Executives from four of the regions biggest players ViacomCBS, Spains Movistar Plus and RTVE, and Colombias Caracol Television thrashed out possible scenarios on Tuesday at an Iberseries online panel. Their answers are hardly industry footnotes. After English and Mandarin, Spanish-language scripted production now doubles French or German in volume of titles, according to a March 2020 Ampere Analysis study, a point picked up on the panel. A post-COVID 19 future looks likely to be spoken rather more en espanol. Five tentative conclusions and there was a fair degree of consensus from the panel, an industry centerpiece for Iberseries: More from Variety The Bigger Picture I assume a global context with six-to-eight big players, playing globally, after recent mergers, said Guillermo Borensztein, VP of sales and co-production, ViacomCBS International Studios. The immediate future is one of atomization of offer, a concentration in demand, above all from these big players with own OTTs. Sometimes theyll link up with local players, who will also team with local or pan-regional platforms to face up to new challenges. A succinct diagnosis. Co-Production, Fluid Alliances This was one point of large agreement since it affected all four panelists. Companies are likely to work more, not less, together in the future. In part this will be a question of pragmatism. With international travel more of a challenge, content producers will look more to overseas production partners to help shoot international scenes, suggested Catalina Porto, executive director of production, Caracol TV. Story continues In a longer-term, international and national alliances will flourish, Movistar Plus director general of original content Alex Martinez Roig predicted. In production, these would be mostly project-by-project, however. We dont need huge [framework] alliances for everything we develop every year, he added. If youre interested and Im interested, lets make a title together. Well do it better and quicker and for spectators it will be much more powerful. The Power of Local Content One key, maybe the key to the panel, was the gamut of recent series screened during the panel by the four companies. Borensztein showcased Los Internacionales, one of the most robustly international of ViacomCBS Intl. Studios recent series from its multilateral co-production Spains The Mediapro Studio, Argentinas Cablevision-Flow, Miami-based Olympusat to its stars, Argentinas Cecilia Roth and Colombias Juan Pablo Shuk, both stars in Spain to its action, straddling Colombia and Argentina, and genre: A crime thriller, the most travelled of fiction program types. The series won its timeslot bowing on Argentine broadcast network Telefe on May 20. Porto, by contrast, screened a promo of Chichipatos, a Dago Garcia series produced by Caracol TV with a strong local appeal starting with its Columbian title Porto had to explain what it meant to the panels Spanish-speaking online audience. Despite or because of that, it rated No. 1 on Netflix in Colombia from a May 15 release. The challenge is how to find an audience in a globalized TV market, said Lopez Puig. One key for RTVE can be not to lose local referents, he added. Whether Malagas mean streets (Malaka), or the towering high Pyrenees (La Caza: Monteperdido), Spanish elements have been to the fore in high-profile recent RTVE series. Theres No Going Back Whatever the worlds like post COVID-19, theres no return to the Old Normal. This has been an re-apprenticeship said Borensztein who, driving down on detail, added that the past months had questioned the need to attend international markets in person. Movistar Plus and the industry at large had put into place communications in matter of weeks innovations which might otherwise have taken four years, agreed Martinez Roig. Creating IPs Los Internacionales could become a franchise, Borensztein enthised. La Unidad, Movistar Plus anti-terrorist squad thriller and its biggest banner series first half 2019, could still be seen 20 years from now, Martinez Roig hoped. Series on Movistar Plus tend to be ever more British, six or so episodes, he said. The challenge was to find hits which lasted longer on grids, he added. Creating long-running IPs was the answer. Distribution: The Pending Question One of the biggest original content investors in the world, plowing more than $10 billion into own shows in 2019, according to Ampere Analysis, Viacom/CBS can ring the options on distribution, whether on its own platforms, with third parties, or on third-party platforms, Borensztein said. For Movistar Plus, Were local but can be global, though in a different way [from platforms]. In the next months or years, the need to do business or construct alliances regarding the purchase of rights in various territories will become all the more apparent, said Martinez Roig. Theres a question whether fiction can survive on linear channels, said Lopez Puig. As a public broadcaster, RTVE is pretty well tasked to make it and support the national industry. The key is how to position it afterwards, he suggested. That question becomes all the more important given the appeal of Spanish series in global markets. Globalization for Spain, Lopez Puig suggested, has been a two-way street. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government is launching a review into Huawei Technologies Co. as officials draw up a plan to reduce the Chinese tech giants involvement in new generation mobile networks over the next three years. The British moves follow an announcement from the Trump administration this month of fresh U.S. curbs on Chinas largest technology company. The U.K. now needs to look again at the potential impact that fresh U.S. sanctions against Huawei could have on British networks, officials said. That review will be conducted by the governments National Cyber Security Centre. The security and resilience of our networks is of paramount importance, a spokesperson for the British government said in an email. Following the U.S. announcement of additional sanctions against Huawei, the NCSC is looking carefully at any impact they could have to the U.K.s networks. Huawei represents a political headache for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. His administration decided in January to give Huawei a limited role in 5G wireless networks and fiber, while capping its market share and restricting it from the network core, which sees and controls sensitive information. But President Trump and his team reacted with dismay to Johnsons decision, souring relations between the two allies at a time when Britain is seeking to strike a new trade deal with the U.S. as it leaves the European Union. The U.S. warned allies that Huawei poses a security threat, saying the companys technology could be vulnerable to Chinese spies. Huawei has always denied these allegations. Senior members of Johnsons Tory party also raised concerns over his plan to allow Huawei a role in so-called non-core parts of the 5G network. British officials have now been asked to draft a plan to reduce Huaweis involvement in 5G to zero by 2023, according to recent reports in British newspapers, confirmed by a person familiar with the matter. Our priority remains to continue the roll-out of a reliable and secure 5G networks across Britain, Huawei Vice-President Victor Zhang said. We are happy to discuss with NCSC any concerns they may have and hope to continue the close working relationship we have enjoyed for the last ten years. Story continues Johnson Huawei Plan at Risk; U.K. Set to Rethink China Ties Chinas handling of the coronavirus pandemic triggered calls from prominent members of Britains ruling Conservative Party for a rethink of the push for closer ties between the two countries. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it could not be business as usual with Beijing after the pandemic. Tories have warned that it will be harder for Johnson to get his 5G plans through Parliament in the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. David Abang is a certified welding inspector, project management professional, corporate member of Nigerian Society of Engineers, registered metallurgical engineer, and married father of six currently working as the manager of Environmental Research and Services in the NNPC Research and Development Division in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He has published his new book Destined to Lead: a gripping and potent homage to a beautiful cultural heritage. Man and culture are two interwoven realities. The place of legends in cultural sustainability has remained paramount, as societies are able to fashion out the best forms they could take in the future from the much they have learned. This is the shoe that David E. Abang, the author of this work entitled Destined to Lead, has worn for the African nation of Mbube. David has taken a great deal of time and effort to narrate in prose form the beautiful cultural heritage of the people of Mbube from the perspective of festivals that bonded them together, especially during Lijie Wuturo (Festival of the King), which was an opportunity not just to celebrate the peoples king in whose life the peoples destiny was tied, but also to celebrate people who exuded legendary qualities during wars, in farming, hunting, and the like. We see how Lishani, the son of Ashero, a warrior of Ketuen Kingdom, rose to stardom through the influence of his father. His rising popularity aroused the attention of the dreaded king of Ketuen who became afraid that the prediction of Akello the soothsayer would come to pass. Lishanis affairs with the princess of Ketuen was the last straw that broke the camels back; Lishani narrowly survived death in the hands of the kings executioners and found himself in a strange place. He met several others who had suffered injustice in the hands of the tyrannical king. He raised men of war and staged revenge against the king of Ketuen, which led to his overthrow. David made his points very clear in simple grammatical constructions that woo the reader to follow the message step by step to the end. He has done this in the most didactic manner, employing a method that is captivating to people of all class. This is a beautiful, insightful, creative, and highly scholarly masterpiece to all those who thirst for the revival of traditional cultural values and mutual coexistence. -Rev. Fr. Prof. Jake Omang Otonko Published by Page Publishing, David Abangs engrossing book is a lyrical homage to a rich and ancient culture. Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Destined to Lead at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. When he first saw the now-notorious photos of Trinity Bellwoods the popular downtown park that drew hordes of sun worshippers over the weekend Dr. Andrew Petrosoniak had the same gut reaction as many others who vented on social media: Anger. Disappointment. Frustration. But then he started thinking about solutions. Petrosoniak is an emergency room physician at St. Michaels Hospital with a research interest in using the science around behavioural psychology, risk perception and change management to design better health-care spaces. He wondered: how can we leverage this research in the COVID-19 response? Are those people at Trinity Bellwoods getting the right messages from public health officials? And does pandemic shaming help us get to where we want to be? So Petrosoniak logged onto Twitter and instead of tweeting his frustrations, he shared some thoughts for how we can do better as we transition into this next phase of our pandemic reality. The Star spoke with him Monday and asked him to expand on his ideas. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. What was your reaction to the angry response people had to those images from Trinity Bellwoods park? It was also my initial reaction and Im sure many of my colleagues shared that initial negative response. Its the easiest reaction to have: to convey anger to the people that were there. And its fine to have that emotion. You should acknowledge it, let it out. But if youre then going to use that as a mechanism for behaviour change whether we call that pandemic shaming or taking a hardline approach generally the evidence wouldnt support that its going to have a long-lasting effect. Why dont you think pandemic shaming could work in changing behaviour? We should accept that pandemic shaming is likely going to happen, because thats just an emotional response and we have ready access to social media But we should then move past that and think about some constructive strategies that are grounded in evidence for helping people, for helping all of us. Because were in this together. If Im angry about (being shamed or) the fact that authorities have told me that Im going to have to continue to stay inside well actually, anger has been shown to reduce your risk perception, so you become more likely to engage in risky behaviour when youre angry, in contrast to fear. So if we look at pandemic shaming, its just like any other strategy that weve seen for shaming other behaviours. If there is a net gain for people personally theyll just continue that behaviour, but theyll go underground, unless they see more broadly how they might have an alternative path. We see that with harm reduction strategies, like providing safe injection sites. Whats your assessment of the public health messaging that went out prior to this weekend, which everyone knew would be sunny and likely draw people outdoors? We heard on Friday and Ill paraphrase the leadership here: Its going to be really nice, dont congregate. That in itself is about as useful as saying, Im going to try and lose weight; its not meaningful. Its well-intentioned, but the challenge is that people need clear, specific blueprints. People who spend time studying change management they talk about scripting your critical moves. Tell people, We realize that this is hard, we know youre going to want to go to the park, but heres your own personal checklist (for doing it safely): do you have your hand sanitizer? We want you to be walking, running or playing rather than congregating in one area. And then, you need to provide people with a why and a how. We worry that by having you guys all be around each other, theres more chance for people coming into close contact. So heres how might you be able to (do it safely). On Twitter, you mentioned that one thing public officials could do to help people gather more safely in parks is by creating circles an innovation already adopted by some American cities, where circles are drawn on the grass to show people where they can gather safely. Yet Toronto Mayor John Tory said these types of solutions will be difficult to enforce (the city said Monday it will introduce a pilot project in Trinity Bellwoods of circles painted on the grass). What do you think? I hear what hes saying, that not everybody will abide by that. But I bet you most people will. We use this (design strategy) in our work space (at the hospital), where we have lines on the ground. They can also serve as an opportunity for people to redirect others and say, Hey, listen, do you mind staying in your own circle? Its that visual cue. If we strive for perfection then I dont think well get anywhere; perfection is the enemy of good in this case and I think we might have a better outcome if we try it. Because whats the alternative? The alternative would be to just let people congregate as they wish. We need some guidance to help risk-stratify our own lives. And so, if designs can be put in place to allow (certain activities) happen more easily, and with the least amount of disruption, then people will gravitate to that. Make the default thing the easiest thing. And we do know that defaulting is a very powerful strategy to get people to do things. What does the research tell us about risk perceptions, and how can we use that understanding to help us navigate our new COVID reality? One thing to highlight and we all struggle with this is this idea of either Im being safe or Im being unsafe. I think thats really something we need to get away from. We can be extremely safe, we can be somewhat safe and we can be less safe, but its a spectrum. So if the choices are either staying in versus going out and spreading COVID, theres a lot of space in between there, where people can continue to live their lives. So if we continue to create a false dichotomy, then were going to run into real problems with people eventually getting fed up, particularly if they perceive others to be giving up. Like for instance, with this weekend I dont know the numbers, but I bet you most people still observed appropriate physical distancing and many people stayed home. Probably more than 10,000 people (the number of people estimated to have gone to Trinity Bellwoods) stayed home. And yet the vast majority of coverage focused on Trinity Bellwoods so as soon as people start to feel like other people are not doing things, then their risk perception goes down and theyre more likely to engage in risky activity. But if they keep getting reassured by authorities, and by the media, that most of the people are still doing things to keep everybody safe then that will help guide people in the right direction. Do you think too much of the public health messaging so far has been framing risk as binary: certain activities or places being either safe or unsafe, versus being situated along a spectrum of risk? Yeah, I do. But maybe appropriately so, because there was so much uncertainty early on. We didnt have a good sense of what was happening; we were trying to keep people as safe as possible. So really the work by the authorities was to tell everyone we need to all buckle down and any activity outside of the house was deemed unnecessary. But that was in that moment. Risk is also contextualized, based on whats happening around you. Walking outside has a risk, but walking outside for me, on my street where theres no one else around, versus walking outside in a war zone: those are two of the exact same activities and yet the risk is vastly different. So we should understand that risk involves not only the action, but the environment surrounding the person we were taking a binary approach to risk and that seemed reasonable. But as (we move toward reopening), recognizing that risk is a spectrum is really important because then people can pick exactly where they feel like they can live along that spectrum. Its emotionally reasonable to criticize people but, practically speaking, it does nothing to help them the next time it happens. Because the next sunny day, theres going to be a lot of people who want to go to Trinity Bellwoods or wherever. Help them make a better decision, one that might still have risk. Because if we think that there are only spaces with zero per cent risk or 100 per cent risk, then were fooling ourselves. Theres a spectrum and being outside in the park on a nice sunny day might not be the worst thing, especially if the alternative is 30 people in a backyard or at a house party. Bloomberg photo by Andrey Rudakov. Russia, OPECs key ally in the deal to cut oil production and ease a global glut, sees the market balancing in June or July. Around the world, producers have lowered global oil supply by 14-15 million barrels a day so far, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in a statement Monday. Non-OPEC+ countries, including Canada, Norway and the U.S., have contributed with cuts of around 3.5-4 million barrels per day, RIA Novosti reported earlier, citing an unidentified person with knowledge of the ministers speech. New Delhi : JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and two other students did not misuse interim bail conditions and cooperated with the probe in a sedition case relating to the alleged anti-India slogan-shouting at the university campus in February, Delhi Police on Friday told a court here. The Special Cell of Delhi Police made the submission in reply to the applications seeking regular bail for the three accused in the case before Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh, who reserved the order on the accuseds pleas for tomorrow. Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said the three accused have cooperated during the investigation and they have not misused their interim bail. The probe agency also told the court that if granted bail, there must be certain conditions imposed on the accused as the investigation was still going on in the matter. Kanhaiya, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who are out on interim bail, had moved the court for regular bail. Kanhaiyas move came after the Delhi High Court on August 17 had refused his application for regular bail and asked him to approach the sessions court for the purpose. He was granted interim bail by the high court on March 2 for six months which is scheduled to expire on September 1. While granting interim bail to Khalid and Bhattacharya on March 18, the trial court had observed that the role attributed to Kanhaiya does not appear to be different from the allegations levelled against the two accused. The court had granted the relief to the duo on furnishing of a personal bond in the sum of Rs 25,000 with one surety of the like amount, which was complied with by them following which they were ordered to be released till September 19. It had also directed Umar and Anirban not to leave Delhi without permission during the period of interim bail and make themselves available before the investigating officer as and when required for the probe. The high court had earlier granted interim conditional bail for six months to Kanhaiya asking him not participate actively or passively in any activity which could be termed anti-national. Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12 on sedition charges in connection with an event on the campus on February 8 where anti-national slogans were allegedly raised. Umar and Anirban were arrested later. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The resumption of domestic flight operations on Monday after a two-month gap got off to a turbulent start with 630 flights being cancelled and passengers kept in the dark about the decision. As a result, thousands of fliers across many cities were left in the lurch when they reached the airport, only to find out that their flights were not taking to the skies. My flight was scheduled at 5.30 am and I reached the Delhi airport early enough. It was during the screening that the officials said my flight has been cancelled. Ive come all the way from Faridabad and the next flight is tomorrow morning. I am still trying to figure out the procedures. I dont have any relatives nearby, so I have to wait here, said a passenger who did not wish to be named. Delhi reported the highest number of cancellations at 80. The IGI airport was scheduled to handle a total of 125 departures and 118 arrivals on Monday. While officials blamed states like West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh that withdrew their consent for operations, sources said low passenger load factor was also a major factor for cancellations. An industry source said many flights were carrying less than 80 passengers. The decision by states to enforce a 14-day quarantine also led to a lukewarm response from travellers. Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted that 532 flights operated on Monday carrying 39,231 passengers. Many air passengers took to Twitter to air their woes. A flier from Mumbai, Devendra Nath Tripathi, tweeted, AI 809 cancelled without notice from Mumbai.. kindly confirm the next schedule.. there is total anarchy at Mum Airport.. no announcement no water no toilet. What is the GOI doing ?? The scene was no different in Bengaluru. M Raja, a porter from Kolar, said, I started at 12 am to reach Bengaluru early in the morning for a flight to Goa by Air Asia. My 10-year-son is in Goa. I have also booked a return ticket at 2 pm by Indigo. Only when I reached the airport did Air Asia let me know my flight was cancelled. Ive spent Rs 4,570 to book onward and Rs 9,413 for return tickets. Now Air Asia will keep my money in a credit account. If I cancel my Indigo ticket, I will get Rs 2,500 only. Dr Sreedevi C, a PG student at Hyderabads Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences, is worried as she wont be able to report for the start of the PG programme on time. We reached the Bengaluru airport at 5.30 am for the 8 am flight (AI 516), but our flight was cancelled. If they had informed us through SMS or mail, we would have booked tickets through another airline. It is tough to get a PG seat in medicine. We now stand to lose it for no fault of ours, she rued. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Seoul, South Korea Tue, May 26, 2020 12:00 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda1cd86 2 World South-Korea,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-quarantine,SARS-CoV-2,virus-corona,jail-term Free A South Korean man was jailed for four months on Tuesday for breaking coronavirus quarantine rules, authorities said, in the country's first such prison sentence. South Korea endured one of the worst early outbreaks of the virus -- at one point the second-worst-hit nation after mainland China -- but appears to have largely brought it under control thanks to an extensive "trace, test and treat" program. Life in the country is returning largely to normal and hundreds of thousands of South Korean pupils have gone back school after a delay of more than two months, in a process being closely watched as parts of Europe start to re-open. The jailed man, 27, was arrested in April after breaking the quarantines rules twice. He left his residence while under 14-day self-isolation and was then moved to a quarantine facility, where he was again caught leaving without permission. The man was "convicted of violating the Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention Act, and was given four months in jail", an official at the Uijeongbu District Court told AFP. Prosecutors had requested a one-year prison sentence. South Korean authorities are stepping up measures to try to prevent outbreaks recurring following a nightclub cluster earlier this month, and from Tuesday people are obliged to wear masks when using public transport and taxis nationwide. In February, the country's National Assembly passed a law imposing maximum sentences of one year in prison or a 10-million-won ($8,000) fine for deliberately breaking infectious diseases quarantine. Officials in the east Asian nation of 52 million announced 19 new cases Tuesday, taking its total to 11,225. (Bloomberg Opinion) -- An awkward question hangs over the Covid-shuttered world of Downing Street. At his daily morning meeting, Boris Johnson, back to full duties after suffering a serious bout of the virus, recently asked who was in charge of relaxing Britains lockdown plan, with all of the risks and uncertainties that entails for a government. There was just silence, an insider told the Sunday Times newspaper. He looked over at Mark Sedwill (his top civil servant) and asked, Is it you? The official replied, No, I think its you, prime minister. Sedwill was right. The U.K.s leader enjoys some of the strongest centralized powers in Europe and yet, paradoxically, the man who fought so hard to gain control of his party and Britains destiny is reluctant to take responsibility. Before the crisis, Johnson ruled as a near-absolute monarch, often through his eccentric but effective adviser (and key Brexit strategist) Dominic Cummings. In a tale familiar to English court politics down the centuries, the arrogant outsider resented by lesser talents has himself become a hindrance to the man he serves. Cummings, one of the architects of Britains lockdown, bent the rules by driving his sick wife and child 250 miles to his familys northern home, where he may or may not have breached self-isolation to walk in local beauty spots. Hitherto, an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons and the trouncing of Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party in the December election had boosted the prime ministers natural self-confidence, and a cabinet largely composed of inexperienced unequals reinforced his dominance. The Coronavirus has changed everything. It has seen Johnson dither over using his executive power to lay down the law. True, most democratic leaders find life-and-death decisions unnerving, but the prime minister has made too many missteps for Britains emergence as the the sick man of Europe to be seen as mere bad luck. The U.K. has an unwelcome lead in the continents league table of fatalities, in part due to its role as a transport and business hub. But Johnsons administration bears the blame for failing to lock down as quickly as Germany, for prematurely terminating track and tracing of the infected in March, and for allowing hospital patients to be discharged untested into care homes for the elderly. Story continues Voters have given Johnson the benefit of the doubt so far out of sympathy for his own near-death encounter with Covid-19. But the prime minister, while a convincing advocate for social distancing, still sounds uncertain on many big calls. No. 10 staffers and his chief ministers lack confidence. His acolytes are already looking over their shoulders at a likely public inquiry into their handling of the emergency. An unfamiliar crisis that demands fast, big-state solutions plays more easily to the strengths of social democrats or even paternalist Conservatives. Johnson, a carefree libertarian by instinct, at first ignored the peril, expecting others to take responsibility for a threat that seemed more tangential than finalizing a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union. Personal foibles matter too. Johnsons absence from five key meetings in the initial stages of the pandemic is a matter of record. There are crude metrics (still evolving) that suggest Scotlands devolved government has performed even worse during the outbreak, but perceptions are otherwise and they matter. The left-leaning Scottish nationalist leader, Nicola Sturgeon, cuts a more commanding figure, happy to tell her fellow citizens what to do (or in the case of following Johnsons lead in easing the lockdown, what not to do). Britains muddled approach to immigration, a central policy area for the Conservatives, is equally perplexing. While the contagion was still spreading, the U.K. permitted free entry from China, Italy, Iran and other countries with high infection rates. Johnsons Brexit vision is of an outward-looking Global Britain, not the protectionist Little England imagined by his enemies, and that rendered him reluctant to pull up the drawbridge. Now his government has lurched in the opposite direction, devising a draconian regime that will force all U.K. arrivals to self-isolate for 14 days. The policy looks unworkable. Similarly, Johnson suggests that Brits wear masks while going about their business, but his inner libertarian makes him reluctant to give this guidance the force of law. Another area of confusion is his marriage of convenience with his frazzled health secretary, Matt Hancock, whose unhappy lot is to run a department that prepared for the wrong pandemic: influenza. The prime minister sometimes gives the appearance of neither backing him nor sacking him as one senior Whitehall figure puts it. More cynical souls think the health secretarys political life is being held in reserve to offer up for sacrifice after a punishing public inquiry. What of the charge, leveled since the Brexit referendum campaign, that Johnson is averse to expertise? This is a cheap shot, since the prime minister is clearly deferential to SAGE, the committee of scientists advising government. If anything, he has listened lately to more cautious advisers on reopening the economy in an attempt to stave off a second spike of the virus. But fallible scientific opinion has to be balanced against economics and politics, and thats a prime ministers call. Jeremy Hunt, a former long-serving Conservative health secretary, claims that SAGEs advice to end contact tracing back in March was one of the biggest failures of scientific advice to ministers in our lifetimes. In the end, people will judge a leaders competence by their impact on them and their families. It should be a priority to get children back to school by June 1, not least to allow their parents to return to work. But the teaching unions are obstructive, the devolved governments of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are going their own way and many parents are fearful. Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, needs louder support from his prime minister, a first-class salesman when he puts his mind to it. And here is the Boris anomaly: The prime minister is a brilliant election campaigner but, as Londons mayor, he left it to his team notably Edward Lister, now No. 10s chief of staff to do the heavy lifting while he took the credit, gave the speeches and swung gaily on a zip wire over the Thames. A mayor can wield personal power fitfully, but national government requires a consistent driving will to get things done. Overreliance on Cummings personal and political has damaged Johnson at a time of jeopardy. The lesson surely is to better develop and deploy his cabinet talent rather than gamble so much on a single consigliere. Today, the machinery of state needs a clarifying moment and clearer division of roles than the present buck passing. The modus operandi of the current government is that civil servants must be kept in check, lest a blob of resistance hobbles Johnsons and Cummingss plans on Europe or anything else. That is no recipe for cohesion. The prime ministers character wont change. While an aversion to nannying and a low boredom threshold are foibles, they also explain his personal appeal. But the Covid-19 crisis means the PM can be neither the one-man show of the Brexit wars, nor a figurehead, leaving the hard work to others. The job is prime minister and the clue to success is in that title. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Martin Ivens was editor of the Sunday Times from 2013 to 2020 and was formerly its chief political commentator. He is a director of the Times Newspapers board. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Black Pearl Mail, the provider that transforms email into a smart digital marketing tool, today announces two important industry award wins. The company won a Bronze Stevie Award in the Business to Business Services category for its Insights Module in the 18th annual American Business Awards (Stevies) program. Furthermore, Black Pearl Mail CEO Cherryl Pressley was also awarded a place on CRNs esteemed 2020 Women of the Channel List. Weve worked hard to bring our customers a solution that provides valuable insights, said Pressley. These insights make email communication smarter and validate which strategies work best when it comes to a companys communication efforts. Winning this award is a great testament to the hard work we put into this, and continues to propel us forward to offer even more to our customers this year. Released in August 2019, Black Pearl Insights acts as a smart email companion, providing the user quick and easy analytics on whos opening, reading, clicking links or ignoring it altogether. With more and more communications being conducted digitally, it's easy to get lost into todays unique shuffle. Insights removes the guesswork by revealing exactly when and how someone engaged with a message. Giving the user the ability to easily adapt their messaging strategy to send the right message at the right time. Customers using Insights have access to the data needed to set them apart when using email as a marketing tool. The real-time data helps empower them to know when and how to execute on their next communication. In addition to the Stevie Awards, the company is celebrating CEO Cherryl Pressleys ranking on the CRN Women in the Channel for 2020. The well-deserved honor showcases Cherryls contributions to channel advocacy, growth, thought leadership, and dedication to the IT channel. During her 15+ years in the channel, she has paved the way for the next generation of women to succeed in ways that werent available a generation ago. We couldnt be more proud of Cherryl, said Nick Lissette, founder and CTO of Black Pearl Mail. What she has done for Black Pearl Mail since coming aboard has made her skills and value to the channel quite apparent. Her insights are invaluable and were so glad she is part of the Black Pearl Mail family. Were all looking forward to seeing where Cherryl leads us in the future. To learn more about Black Pearls Mails Insights or to schedule a demo, please visit: http://www.blackpearlmail.com. About Black Pearl Mail Founded in 2014, Black Pearl Mail is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that helps companies increase their brand and grow revenues through smarter email and real-time insights. Black Pearl has been engineered to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft's O365 as well as G-Suite and on-premise email systems. By providing companies with powerful email signatures, simplified email signature management, analytics and the ability to use everyday email as a digital marketing channel, Black Pearl Mail is amplifying what companies can do with email, one of their most-used, and least-utilized tools. The company is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with a growing R&D hub in Wellington, New Zealand. To learn more, please visit http://www.blackpearlmail.com. Media Contact Kristin Hege kristin@conveycommsagency.com On Monday morning, Leah Romain stomped through the dandelions in the Ecole Robert Browning schoolyard to peek inside her empty first-floor classroom. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. On Monday morning, Leah Romain stomped through the dandelions in the Ecole Robert Browning schoolyard to peek inside her empty first-floor classroom. She immediately spotted her art book. As she scanned the rest of the room, her eyes came across a pack of bandages on her teachers desk easily accessible for the inevitable second-grader slips, trips and falls. Tears started to stream down the seven-year-olds face. Leah Romain, 7, is missing her Grade 2 classmates while she completes her school year at home. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) "It just made me miss school so much," Leah said, recalling her thought-process, hours after she and her mother, Heather Romain, visited the school on a morning walk around Winnipegs Westwood neighbourhood. One of upwards of 210,000 K-12 students whose classes were disrupted two months ago, owing to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Leah longs for a return to the regular school day. Students have been trying to make sense of the pandemic, distance learning and the sudden inability to attend birthday parties. Their developing brains are processing uncertainty while the adults around them take deep breaths to maintain their own sanity and reassure them of a life beyond the lockdown. When it first started, I was really, really, really sad and I had one dream about time at school, and I woke up crying a little bit." Grade 2 student Leah Romain Leah has kept busy by bouncing on the trampoline, biking outside and playing in the "mud kitchen" with her siblings. She said, sometimes, she feels motivated to do school work; other days, she just feels sad. "When it first started, I was really, really, really sad and I had one dream about time at school, and I woke up crying a little bit," she said, adding she misses her friends and teachers. "On the face screen, we cant really hug and play together that much." Romain recalls watching her oldest tear-up in March during her first weekly virtual show-and-tell; Leah has since proudly shown her class her younger siblings, the family dog, and the dance uniforms she was supposed to wear to her spring recital. Some days, Leah is motivated to do school work while other days, sadness creeps in. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) "It just hits you as a parent, like a ton of bricks, how important their school community is to them," said Romain, who has been operating a licensed home daycare as she takes care of her three children. Richard Kruk, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Manitoba, said its important to recognize children have lost their once-reliable routines and supports at school. They may deal with this newfound stress by hiding their emotions or making outbursts, he said. "Reassurance can go a long way," said Kruk, who trains school psychologists, "and listening to kids and giving them the space to express their feelings." Parents should stress emotional and social well-being over schoolwork during this time, he added. Leah Romain's Grade 2 schoolwork sits on her kitchen table Monday. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press) A recent Association for Canadian Studies report on the social impacts of COVID-19 on youth found respondents were both scared of catching the virus and as a result, having a harder time sleeping and feeling anxious. The study, which was undertaken by ACS in partnership with Experiences Canada and the Vanier Institute of the Family, polled 1,191 youth between ages 12 and 17 in Canada. Its margin of error is plus or minus three points. Upwards of 70 per cent of respondents in all age categories reported missing school "somewhat" or "a lot." Respondents also overwhelmingly expressed COVID-19 negatively impacted their school year. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. A trip to Ecole Robert Browning drove home how much Leah Romain, seen peering into her Grade 2 classroom, is missing school. (Supplied) Grade 12 student Kendra Martinussen said shes found being away from her friends and teachers the most difficult; when the Thompson teen sees a friend in town, Kendra said she feels as if shes a dog whose owner has just come home. "Some days, Im pretty sad about it just kind of upset and frustrated, grads gone, proms gone. But when I really look at it, Im just so thankful that my familys healthy," said the 17-year-old, who attends R.D. Parker Collegiate. "Thats the biggest picture right now: we're all healthy, we're all safe and we're all happy." maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie O weak person, you who are both ashes of ashes and decaying of decaying, speak and write what you see and hear. But you are shy about speaking and simple in explaining and unskilled in writing those things. So speak and write those things not according to human speech or human inventiveness but according to the extent that you see and hear those things in the heavens above in the marvelousness of God. O woman, speak those things which you see and hear. Write those things not according to yourself or by the standards of another person, but according to the will of the one knowing, the one who sees and arranges all things in the secrets of His own mysteries. Hildegard of Bingen, from Scivias From Gregory the Great in The Book of Pastoral Rule to Henri Nouwen in In the Name of Jesus, many writers and thinkers have cautioned Christian leaders about the dangers of ambition and the allure of the limelight. Pastor and author Dan White Jr. shared his story of battling this temptation ... You have reached the end of this Article Preview You have reached the end of this Article Preview To continue reading, subscribe to Christianity Today magazine. Subscribers have full digital access to CT Pastors articles. 1 Highlights Future Apple AirPods could bring Ambient Light Sensor for heart rate monitoring The feature could be included in AirPods in the next 2-3 years The sensor could help monitor blood oxygen level and heart rate of users Apple has always been big on including health monitoring features in its line-up of products, and now a new report claims the company could take things a notch up by adding Ambient Light Sensors in future versions of its AirPods to monitor data such as blood oxygen level and heart rate. This is according to DigiTimes which reports ASE Technology could be involved in manufacturing the sensors, and these sensors could find place in the new model of AirPods in the next couple of years. The publication claims Apple is expected to incorporate ambient light sensors (ALS) in next-generation AirPods devices in the coming 1-2 years, and Taiwan's ASE Technology may handle the backend process for the new component. As a GSMArena report rightly points out, we've seen similar technology used in the Galaxy S9, which uses a sensor that shines a light through the user's skin to measure the variations in their heartbeat. However it will be interesting to see how Apple manages to include the technology in a product that's the size of the Apple AirPods. Although, once it becomes real, the feature could of great to use to users. Apple could very likely use the light sensors to monitor blood oxygen levels to check a person's health and underlying conditions. But before we get too excited about this rumoured feature, it would be prudent to note that the leak shared by DigiTimes comes courtesy of a supply chain source, and as such, the product in question could very easily be a prototype that is currently under testing and may never really end up making its way to the market in the future. However, considering that this isn't the first time we are hearing of incorporation of new health-related features in future AirPods, we may just end up seeing this feature become reality in the years to come. Earlier, we have also heard that Apple's AirPods portfolio is set to expand with more than one product allegedly in the works. Ming-Chi Kuo, a renowned analyst for TF International Securities, had recently released a new investor note that underscores Apple's plans for next-generation AirPods models and upcoming over-ear headphones. Kuo has noted AirPods 3 will enter mass production during the first half of 2021 while the AirPods Pro 2 production will begin as early as late 2021. But its over-ear headphones are likely ready to undergo mass manufacturing this summer, per Kuo. In his note to investors, Kuo has predicted Apple's high-end over-ear headphones will enter mass production sometime during the middle of 2020. This means the headphones should be ready for market release by late summer or early fall this year. However, the impact of the disruptions caused by COVID-19 pandemic has not been gauged for the prediction. Some previous rumours have suggested Apple is developing premium-range over-ear headphones under the Beats brand, which will be available in two variants. With aviation services between countries still not functioning, a return for the crew to their native land was indeed a very bleak hope. But recently, Prithviraj, director Blessy and the crew returned to the country in a special flight and entered quarantine. In a very recent post just three days ago, Prithviraj had shared that even his quarantine room was stacked up with workout materials. Now, today, the actor has shared a picture of himself with the note: "One month since we finished the last of the bare body scenes for #Aadujeevitham. On the last day, I had dangerously low fat percentage and visceral fat levels. Post that..one month of fuelling, resting and training my body has got me here. I guess my crew whove seen me a month ago when I was at my weakest, and way way below my ideal weight will be the ones truly surprised." He has also added, "Thanks to @ajithbabu7 my trainer/nutritionist and Blessy chetan and team for understanding that post THAT day, shoot will have to be planned with enough time allocated for my recuperation. Remember..the human body has its limits..the human mind doesnt! " In the end, Prithvi has also tagged his friend and popular star Dulquer Salman with the tag #Trainingdoneright. Apparently these days, Dulquer is headstrong in helping his friends keep their workout schedules up to the mark, and has been motivating them. It seems Prithviraj has joined them too. KRAKOW, Poland, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Selvita (WSE: SLV), one of the largest preclinical contract research organizations in Europe, reported today its first quarter 2020 financial results and provided a corporate update. The company continues its dynamic growth and reports backlog for 2020 of EUR 21,8 million, indicating a 41% increase to the values reported a year ago. The increase in the value of signed contracts in the Services segment amounted to 48%. For the first three months of 2020, Selvita reports consolidated revenues of EUR 7 million, up by 41% on a year-on-year basis, thus confirming very good preliminary estimates published on April 29, 2020. What is quite remarkable, despite the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the company has managed to strengthen its position in the global CRO market, especially among US customers considered the largest biotechnology market in the world. Commercial revenues in the Services Segment amounted to EUR 5.8 million in 1Q 2020, indicating a 46% increase as compared to same period previous year. The Bioinformatics Segment's (Ardigen, where Selvita holds 54,7 percent of votes at the General Meeting of Shareholders) commercial revenues increased by 33% and amounted to EUR 0.7 million. Company's EBITDA profit reached EUR 1.7 million and was by 52% higher than in Q1 2019, with a profitability margin of nearly 24%. The net result increased by 92% reaching EUR 0.8 million. These results, demonstrate that Selvita has not only maintained but in fact exceed its planned rate of growth. - We're sticking to the plan and not slowing down our pace of development. We're maintaining high revenue dynamics, at the same time increasing EBITDA margin, which in Q1 2020 has increased by nearly 2 p.p. The results we managed to achieve in the past quarter are particularly satisfying, due to the global economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 pandemic. So far, it looks like Selvita successfully went through this difficult time. We implemented safety measures in order to secure the health and safety of our employees and managed to maintain business continuity in all projects. In this uncertain environment, we were able to strengthen our position among foreign customers, especially on the U.S. market. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have realized the need for geographical diversification of outsourced services. Selvita skillfully fits into these changing trends on the preclinical CRO market - comments Bogusaw Sieczkowski, co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer at Selvita. External revenues from the services commissioned by US customers increased in Q1 2020 by 175% and already constitute over 25% of the entire Services Segment revenues. At the same time, revenues from the services commissioned by customers from the United Kingdom increased by 74%. Services contracts from these two largest global biotech & pharma markets include both drug discovery and regulatory research. Increasing customer recognition for the high quality of services and competences offered by Selvita team results in further contracts. As on May 21, the backlog in the Service Segment amounted to EUR 18.0 million, i.e. was 48% higher than same time previous year. Out of which, nearly EUR 14.0 million concerns the services in the area of drug discovery and EUR 3.5 million in regulatory research. - The continuously growing backlog, demonstrates that during the pandemic, despite the restrictions placed on international travel and cancelation of industry events, we are able to acquire new contracts efficiently. With most of global business activity going virtual, the geographical barriers have disappeared and we can build our position on the international market on an equal level with other providers - emphasizes Bogusaw Sieczkowski. In addition to increasing revenues, Selvita's new strategy also assumes maintaining a stable EBITDA margin and over EUR 230 million of market cap in 2023. For this purpose, in 2020-2023, the company intends to execute investments worth up to EUR 75-90 million, which will be allocated to acquisitions and organic development. In order to execute the strategy, Selvita plans to raise approx. EUR 21 million by issuing up to 15% of the share capital in a Follow-On offering. Approximately 80% of the proceeds will be allocated for acquisitions. One of the elements of the strategy execution will be the creation of Selvita Research Center in order to secure own research space necessary for further growth. The Company has already made a first step towards execution of this aim, and signed a preliminary contract for a plot of land in the neighborhood of its current laboratories. The initiation of the investment is planned for 2021. About Selvita Selvita is a CRO (Contract Research Organization) Company providing multidisciplinary support in resolving the unique challenges of research within area of drug discovery, regulatory studies, as well as research and development. The company was established in 2007 and currently employs ca. 500 professionals, of which over 1/3 hold PhD title. Selvita is headquartered in Krakow, Poland, with a second research site in Poznan, Poland and foreign offices located in Cambridge, MA and South San Francisco, in the U.S., as well as in Cambridge, UK. The company has a proven track record of successfully completed projects and customers in 40 countries. Majority of Company revenues come from pharma, biotech, chemical and agrochemical companies from the US and Europe. Selvita is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE:SLV). For more information, please see www.selvita.com. Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements, including, among other things, statements regarding the guidance from management and financial results. Selvita cautions the reader that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which might cause the actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Selvita, or industry results, to be materially different from any historic or future results, financial conditions, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition, even if Selvita's results, performance, financial conditions, and the development of the industry in which it operates are consistent with such forward-looking statements, they may not be predictive of results or developments in future periods. Given these uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of publication of this document. Selvita expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this document to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, unless specifically required by law or regulation. Contact details: Investor Relations contact: [email protected] Media contact: Natalia Baranowska [email protected] +48-784-069-418 SOURCE Selvita Subsidiaries of SOEs like Jetstar Pacific, Angkor Air, DAP-Vinachem, and Petrolimex Laos will come under special financial supervision. Several of Vietnam's largest SOEs were put under special financial supervision by the State Auditor General A report submitted by the State Auditor General to the National Assembly has pointed out shortcomings in the management and utilisation of state capital at 235 companies under 36 groups and corporations last year. These 235 companies showed signs of financial insecurity. Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Ltd. (TKV) was named first in the report, with 24 subsidiaries on alert, including Vinacomin Environment Co., Ltd., Vinacomin Machinery JSC, Vinacomin-Mong Duong Coal JSC, Vinacomin Halam Coal JSC, and Vinacomin-Vangdanh Coal JSC. The list contained other big names, including Jetstar Pacific Airlines and Angkor Air under Vietnam Airlines; Ninh Binh Nitrogenous Fertilizer Co., Ltd., Habac Nitrogenous Fertilizer and Chemical Co., Ltd., DAP Vinachem under Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem); or Petrolimex Laos One-member Co., Ltd. under Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex). Additionally, some companies have yet to build internal policies on money management and reported poor performance. Parent companies Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (VICEM) and Saigon Industry Corporation (CNS) reported VND331.7 billion ($14.4 million) and VND230 billion ($10 million), respectively, in average monthly deposit balance. Overlapping ownership in enterprises within the same group also remains a persistent issue. The report highlighted that six companies in TKV contributed capital into Vinacomin-Campha Thermal Power JSC, two groups poured money into Vinacomin-Nong Son Coal and Power JSC, and the same status in Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUD), raising the risk of collusion. Besides, groups and corporations are too slow to divest from non-core businesses. These include Vietnam National Tobacco Corporation (Vinataba) which has not gotten rid of its real estate and Petrolimex which has not divested its banking arm PGBank. The State Auditor General also highlighted a lot of violations in investment usage, which caused increasing capital expenses and extending construction times, while some projects cannot even operate. Ethanol Binh Phuoc factory owes VND1.623 trillion ($70.56 million) in principal and interest to various banks (as of the end of 2018). Some projects have been approved without environmental impact assessment reports or raised total investment by a huge margin, like Bung River 2 hydroelectric project which increased capital by VND2.867 trillion ($124.65 million), while Ban Chat hydroelectric project raised it by VND7.334 trillion ($318.87 million) and Trung Son hydroelectric project by VND1.324 trillion ($57.57 million). VIR Nguyen Huong Some SOEs seek to restore state governing policy Many state-owned corporations (SOEs) have asked to be put under the management of ministries as they were in the past. The proposal has been described by VCCI chair Vu Tien Loc as a "step back in the reform process". Olivia Newton-John's daughter Chloe Lattanzi showed off her bikini body in a throwback photo on Monday. But the pop star and actress's sexy post was overshadowed by one chilling detail. Fans were left shocked to see a small shark swimming behind Chloe as she posed in the sea with her girlfriend, Jaala Ruffman Easterling. Watch out! Olivia Newton-John's daughter Chloe Lattanzi showed off her bikini body in a throwback photo on Monday. But the pop star and actress's sexy post was overshadowed by one chilling detail - a small shark in the background 'Ya not scared of [the] shark behind ya? Be careful,' one fan asked the comments section. Another added: 'Is that a shark behind you?' 'Be careful!' Fans were quick to comment underneath the Instagram post after noticing a shark lurking in the background One follower simply left a scared emoji. Chloe's pal Jaala commented on the post, writing: 'Yes there is a shark behind us and yes we love her.' Meanwhile, Chloe's Grease star mother Olivia didn't mention the shark, but commended the girls on how good they look in the image. 'Gorgeous girls': Chloe's Grease star mother Olivia didn't mention the shark, but commended the girls on how good they look in the image Familiar face: Chloe is the daughter of Australian star Olivia Newton-John (pictured) 'Gorgeous girls,' she wrote. At the end of last month, Chloe revealed that she's set to launch a new show starring her father Matt Lattanzi. New project: At the end of last month, Chloe revealed that she's set to launch a new show starring her father Matt Lattanzi Alongside a bikini selfie posted to Instagram, the 34-year-old explained that she wanted to introduce her fans to the other side of the family. She wrote: 'I've got a cool show I'm producing right now that I can't wait to premiere on YouTube.' 'I hope you guys are ready to meet the Lattanzi clan. You know the Newton-Johns... get ready to meet the crazy part of my DNA. Besides me of course.' The actress added, 'Love you dad' and tagged her actor father. Chloe is no stranger to reality shows - she finished her run on the Australian edition of Dancing With The Stars earlier this year. The Catholic Church continues to plan for a full reopening of churches in Ireland and a return to Mass and the Sacraments. By working with health authorities, it will also make a case for early resumption of the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments In a Pentecost message to the Archdiocese of Armagh and Diocese of Dromore, Archbishop Eamon Martin says it is sad disappointing that restrictions have gone all the way through the Easter Season and congregations are still unable to gather physically for Mass and the sacraments. The Archbishop of Armagh and the Primate of All Ireland said that everyone has been making 'great sacrifices' to protect health and life and to support the common good. He states in the letter, "we miss meeting up as a parish community. Thankfully our sacrifices are bearing fruit and the number of deaths and ICU admissions from Covid-19 is continuing to decline. I want to thank you for the work you are doing at local level to plan for the full re-opening of parish life and worship. Please work closely with your priests so that your parish stands ready to respond quickly when the public health authorities tell us it is safe to begin gathering together again for Mass inside our churches." The Archbishop thanked those who responded to his call for ideas to help draft a National Framework Document to maximise consistency across the dioceses and parishes of Ireland. He comments, "at the Standing Committee of the Bishops Conference yesterday (meeting for the first time over video call) the Bishops agreed to refine this framework further to include a helpful checklist for parish priests and Covid-19 Parish Support Teams on physical distancing and hygiene. This will help you evaluate progress made to date and guide any necessary improvements in practice within your parish." The Framework Document will offer guidance on a number of important liturgical issues such as the distribution and reception of Holy Communion; advice for concelebrants, deacons, altar servers; best practice for extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and others who assist at Mass. At the forthcoming Episcopal Conference meeting in early June the Bishops will consider extending the current suspension of the Sunday obligation, the Sign of Peace and use of Holy Water fonts. They will also discuss the celebration of Baptism, Marriage and the Sacrament of reconciliation in the context of any ongoing restrictions. Archbishop Martin states, "it is hoped that the National Framework Document will help guide our ongoing preparations at parish and diocesan level. It will also support our continuing engagement with government and public health authorities north and south in making a case for the early resumption of the public celebration of Mass and the Sacraments in a measured and safe way. "God bless you and your families this Pentecost weekend. Please stay safe. And pray safe!" he concluded. Mumbai, May 26 : The film "PM Narendra Modi" has completed one year of release, and its producer Sandip Ssingh says the entire course of the project -- right from the making to the release as well as the ensuing controversy -- was a leaning process. The film captured PM Modi's journey from a tea seller to the leader of the nation. "PM Narendra Modi" faced a lot of controversies due to the subject and release timing, which was close to the Lok Sabha election of 2019. Election Commission of India stopped the release of the film until the polls got over as the film's running before or during the polls could violate the code of conduct of elections. Sandip told IANS: "I think I have gained experience from everything that I had to deal with during the release of 'PM Narendra Modi'. I had to face objections from the opposition party, Election Commission, court, CBFC, followed by film critics and memes on social media -- you name it!" He added: "We finished shooting the film within 35 days -- that too in several parts of the country. Everyone was scared of the film and that is why politicians were against it. Every opposition party thought that if the film releases they will lose the election. Modi ji did not tell me to make the film in his support. We decided to make the film because the journey of the individual is very interesting and inspiring. Today, people are making a biopic of late Jayalalitha (former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu). There is no problem in that. But the world had a problem with our film. The fact is several filmmakers tried to make a biopic on Modi ji, only we managed to make it, release it and create a buzz around it." Directed by Omung Kumar, the film features Vivek Oberoi as PM Modi, along with Manoj Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Boman Irani, Zarina Wahab among others. Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize announced on 20 May 2020 that South Africa had recorded its first neonatal death where the child tested positive for COVID-19. Much remains unknown about the babys birth and death, but Mkhize revealed that the child was born prematurely and died two days after. According to Mkhize, both the mother and baby tested positive for the coronavirus. Mkhize did caution that it is important to appreciate the complexities of the underlying condition of prematurity. In other words, we dont yet know the full extent to which COVID-19 contributed to the babys death. While the death of a baby is a devastating blow for parents, the details of this case may be scientifically significant. By all accounts, COVID-19 and the coronavirus that causes it are going to be around for a while. At least another seven months, and perhaps eighteen months or more. There are many things that we still do not understand about the virus, including what it means for pregnant women and their babies. Coronavirus transmission from mother to baby Can the baby get the virus or COVID-19 while in the womb, or are they protected? Are newborns more susceptible to catching the virus if delivered by Caesarean section? Until recently, the few small studies that have been published involving women who get COVID-19 in late pregnancy have so far found no evidence of the virus being transmitted between mother and child before birth. This was despite an early research letter by doctors from Wuhan and Chongqing which theorised that such transmission could be possible. However, the many confounding factors in these studies meant it was difficult to rule out the possibility that babies were infected with the coronavirus after birth. More recently, doctors in Toronto, Canada have reported a case which they describe as probable case of congenital SARS-CoV-2 infection in a liveborn neonate. In other words, they have stronger evidence to suggest that transmission of the coronavirus may be possible between an infected mother and baby. The case study was peer-reviewed and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. As these researchers noted: Cases of suspected perinatal SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported; however, in light of infrequent testing, the possibility of specimen contamination from infected maternal sites, the questionable validity of serologic testing, and a lack of standardized definitions for congenital, intrapartum and postpartum transmission, more evidence is needed to ascertain the route of transmission and to determine whether in utero transmission has in fact occurred. How threatening is COVID-19 to newborn babies? Depending on how good the data is from the neonatal case in South Africa, it may add to the global scientific understanding about whether and how the virus may be transmitted between pregnant women and their babies. Another major concern, though, is that a newborns death has been linked to COVID-19. While there have now been a few cases reported of children under 9 years old dying of COVID-19 after being infected by the coronavirus, such fatalities remain low. Reports of children who get COVID-19 are harrowing, but in one study, researchers said that they are somewhat encouraged by what they saw. Researchers at Rutgers University in the United States said that the mortality rate for paediatric ICU patients was 4.2% compared to published mortality rates of as high as 62% among adults who are admitted to ICUs with COVID-19. Children also had lower incidences of respiratory failure. If the death of a newborn baby in South Africa can be conclusively linked to COVID-19, this may add to our understanding of the risks the coronavirus may pose to such children. Awaiting a full report from Western Cape paediatricians MyBroadband asked the Minister of Health for comment regarding this article. A spokesperson referred us to the Western Cape Government, stating that they are still awaiting a full report from the provincial government. A spokesperson for the Western Cape Minister of Health referred our query to clinicians for comment. When we followed up on the query, the spokesperson explained that the paediatricians report is still outstanding. ATLANTA - Neither public rivals nor personal friends, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Stacey Abrams spent years climbing parallel ladders at Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Capitol. They are now Georgias most influential African American women. Bottoms, the 50-year-old Atlanta mayor, is a top surrogate for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Abrams is the 46-year-old voting rights activist who nearly became the first black female governor in American history. Now, the pair occupy the same political intersection: Bidens list of potential running mates. That potential has highlighted the different styles of the two lawyers-turned-politicians. Abrams embraces the possibility of the vice presidency and, already having acknowledged her own presidential aspirations, openly touts how shed help Biden win and govern. Bottoms, while not sidestepping the talk, plays the more traditional role of loyal party lieutenant. While the possibility of being up for the same job could stoke conflict, Abrams, Bottoms and their associates instead frame their national profiles as a boost for black women. I see them leading in very different ways because of the positions they hold, and I adore them both, said state party chairwoman Nikema Williams. Its inspiring to watch two black women from the South be elevated. Beyond Abrams and Bottoms, Biden is believed to be considering other women of colour as his running mate, including California Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Val Demings of Florida. In separate Associated Press interviews, Abrams declared Bottoms an extraordinary mayor and called herself proud to be an Atlanta citizen under her leadership, while the mayor praised Abrams authentic leadership, especially on behalf of underrepresented voters. I cant say were close personal friends, Bottoms said, adding that she sees their roles as outgrowths of the civil rights history that surrounds them in Martin Luther King Jr.s hometown. Atlanta has always been a special place where people of colour are able to break traditional moulds and change the landscape of who we are as a country. Unquestionably the more widely known of the two, Abrams was floated as a presidential candidate herself after her unsuccessful 2018 governors bid. She parlayed that narrow loss into an invitation to deliver the 2019 response to President Donald Trumps State of the Union address. Throughout 2019, she was a regular stop on Democratic contenders visits to Georgia. In recognition of Bidens stature as former vice-president, Abrams visited him in Washington last year, but she didnt endorse until May 12, well after Biden emerged as the presumptive nominee. Before that, she willingly fielded questions about joining him on the ticket. As a young black girl growing up in Mississippi, I learned that if I didnt speak up for myself, no one else would, Abrams said recently on NBCs Meet the Press. She told the AP days before her endorsement that shed put my resume against anyone elses. She noted her state legislative work included international relations and highlighted her 2018 success in drawing hundreds of thousands of new voters to the polls. Bottoms, meanwhile, was among Bidens earliest endorsers. She recalled writing in a leather-bound campaign journal, I feel vulnerable, having declared loyalties among such a crowded field. That shouldnt be confused with regret, she said, citing Bidens experience and the goodness of who he is. The mayor was a precinct captain in overwhelmingly white Iowa, where Biden finished an embarrassing fourth, before going on to the Southern states that reversed his fortunes. She didnt run away when he was down, said Tharon Johnson, a Bottoms confidant. Asked what shed bring to the ticket, Bottoms, a former judge and city councillor, noted that shes served in each branch of government, with her executive tenure overlapping with a massive cyberattack on city governments technology infrastructure and now the COVID-19 pandemic. Youve got to have proven leadership thats been tested in the midst of crisis, she said. As Abrams remains a favourite of many progressive activists, Bottoms has gotten a prominent mention from influential black leaders like House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who is close to Biden, and Biden campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond. The different approaches reflect how Bottoms has operated mostly within existing political machinery while Abrams has sought to build her own. Three years ago, Abrams was the Georgia House minority leader building her 2018 campaign for governor; Bottoms was a city councillor running for mayor. Abrams had impressed Capitol circles but faced such skepticism as a statewide candidate that many older, white Democratic power brokers backed a white state representative from the Atlanta suburbs. Bottoms, conversely, had the backing of outgoing Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, himself once viewed as a potential governor. Abrams primary opponent not an Atlanta resident endorsed Bottoms, while Abrams stayed on the sidelines. Bottoms, in turn, didnt wade into the governors primary, but campaigned for Abrams later against Republican Brian Kemp. Theyve just operated in different spaces, said Williams, the state party chairwoman. Both politicians have shown signs of practicality. Bottoms benefited from Reeds help in 2017, but shes since distanced herself from her predecessor, whose administration has been the subject of a federal criminal probe. She was among the big-city mayors to blast Trumps immigration policies, and she ended the city jails contract with federal immigration enforcement. Shes leading the U.S. Conference of Mayors efforts on the census and housing policy. And while Abrams calls for significant changes in U.S. social and political structures, she spent her tenure at the Capitol as an unapologetic pragmatist cutting deals with Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and GOP House leadership. For her part, Bottoms says she has a good working relationship with Kemp, who defeated Abrams. And while her style is more low-key, Bottoms makes clear that she has no problem with Abrams direct approach to ambition. I dont think theres ever anything wrong with touting and highlighting your work, she said. What I do on my day-to-day work hopefully shows the type of leader I am. ___ Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game. O'Leary calls state aid for Lufthansa 'illegal' Irish no-frills airline Ryanair said Tuesday it will appeal against Germany's temporary partial nationalisation of rival carrier Lufthansa, arguing the rescue deal constitutes "illegal state aid" that distorts competition. Berlin had launched Monday a nine-billion-euro ($9.8-billion) rescue of Lufthansa under a deal that sees it take a 20-percent stake of the coronavirus-ravaged group. "The German government continues to ignore EU rules when it suits them to subsidise large German companies, but then lectures every other EU government about respecting the rules when they ignore them," said Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary in a statement. "Ryanair will appeal against this latest example of illegal state aid to Lufthansa, which will massively distort competition and level playing field into provision of flights to and from Germany for the next five years." The Dublin-based carrier had meanwhile taken a 600-million loan earlier this month from the UK government's COVID Corporate Financing Facility, as the deadly COVID-19 outbreak grounded planes worldwide and sparked a collapse in global travel. Ryanair however argues that the facility, which is designed to help coronavirus-hit companies and is adminstered by the Bank of England, does not compare to Lufthansa's rescue package. "Lufthansa is addicted to state aid. Whenever there is a crisis, Lufthansa's first reflex is to put its hand in the German government's pocket," said O'Leary. The Irish travel giant had announced last week that its annual profit fell as the coronavirus halted traveland the airline had bet on jet fuel prices being much higher ahead of an oil-price crash. Net profit including exceptional items sank almost a third to 649 million euros in the year to March 31, as global lockdowns heavily impacted the end of the period. Since the middle of March the airline has been operating only 30 flights per day between Britain, Ireland and the rest of Europe. Ryanair is meanwhile cutting 3,000 pilot and cabin crew jobs, or 15 percent of staff, mirroring moves by airlines globally to save cash in the face of collapsing demand. Explore further Ryanair logs annual profit but warns on virus chaos 2020 AFP Drinking water and electricity supply has been restored in large swathes of Kolkata ravaged by Cyclone Amphan even as some parts of the city witnessed protests over lack of essential services. IMAGE: Cable TV engineers work to restore the services that have been damaged due to super cyclone Amphan, in Kolkata. Photograph: PTI Photo According to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sources, the restoration work is on at a war footing and they are hopeful that all the roads will be cleared of uprooted trees either by tonight or Wednesday morning. "Our job is almost complete. Now the issue of power restoration is being looked into by CESC. They have assured us that the power would be restored in remaining areas by Wednesday morning," a senior KMC official said. Lakhs of people were rendered homeless as cyclone Amphan cut a path of destruction through half-a-dozen districts of West Bengal, including state capital Kolkata,on May 20, blowing away shanties, uprooting thousands of trees and swamping low-lying areas. Large areas of the city continue to remain without power as electric poles and communication lines had been blown away by gusting winds. Unlike the last five days, the city reported scattered protests on Tuesday. Agitators at Garia and Behala in south suburban Kolkata blocked roads with branches of uprooted trees and placed barricades to restrict the movement of vehicles to press for their demands. "Six days have passed, but electricity is yet to return to our area. We don't know when it will return," said a resident of Garia. People blamed the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) for not being able to restore power supply, and claimed that no official of the private utility had visited the locality so far. "We have contacted the local administration and the local police station to apprise them of our problems. No help is forthcoming from any quarter so far," another resident said. People in Behala also demonstrated against increased water prices amid rising mercury levels. At Seoraphuli town in Hooghly district, Congress leader Abdul Mannan took to the streets protesting against CESC's failure to restore power supply. He blocked the arterial G T Road. Police tried to convince the Congress leader to lift the blockade but Mannan said, "I will not leave the area till CESC officials come and rectify the situation". "Diabetic patients who are dependent on insulin are not being able to get their daily dosage of shots as refrigerators are not working due to no electricity," a protester said. The Army was deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring districts on Saturday, hours after the West Bengal government sought its help for immediate restoration of essential infrastructure and services in the state. Contending that 80 per cent of all essential services have been restored in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday sought the cooperation of people for bringing the cyclone-hit state back on its feet. Mobile and internet services are yet to be restored in several parts of South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts. Now that the coronavirus has compelled the judiciary to step firmly into the digital world, the next question would be to sustain the progress towards artificial intelligence (AI). The government and scientists have told us that we have to learn to live with the virus. So the judiciary must also adapt its ways to the new trend. There are some initial fears. The Bar Council of India (BCI) has stated that litigants are unable to get justice through virtual courts. It has also remarked that the legal profession is being hijacked by a few prosperous law firms that are digitally ... In addition to choosing candidates on June 2 (or earlier, if youre casting your vote via mail), voters will also vote on two proposed charter changes. To help voters make up their minds, The Inquirer asked four locals to share why theyre voting yes or no on these ballot questions. Vote Yes: Workers should not fear for their jobs when they ask their employer to follow the law. As a longtime retail and fast-food worker at big companies like Burger King, Wawa, and Target, and as a member of One Pennsylvania, a statewide grassroots community organization dedicated to change in social and economic justice, I know firsthand the need for a permanent Department of Labor in Philadelphia. Time and time again, workers like me see our employers violating our rights but do not know where to turn. We know that reporting the issue to corporate will yield dismissive responses at best or retaliation in the form of cut hours or job loss at worst. Turning the Mayors Office of Labor into a permanent Department of Labor will ensure it has the resources and stability to more powerfully enforce the important labor laws that groups like One Pennsylvania have fought for and won. For example, the Target store I worked at until recently did not consistently follow the Fair Workweek law after it went into effect April 1. Two of my coworkers were given brand-new schedules with less than 24 hours notice even though the law requires two weeks. I took the violation to a higher-up, who acknowledged that HR was indeed in the wrong and promised to follow up. But that never happened; the situation was never mentioned again. Moments like this can leave an employee feeling defeated and alone. A fully resourced Department of Labor would provide a place to turn to address these situations that are too common for so many of us. Many companies claim to be retaliation free, but their actions confirm otherwise. Workers should not fear for their jobs when they ask their employers to simply follow the law. The Department of Labor will protect the rights of Philadelphia workers, keeping us healthy, properly paid, and safe at work. This is what the people of Philadelphia need. Vote yes on Ballot Question 1. Binta Keita is a member of One Pennsylvania and has been a retail and fast-food worker for the last five years. Vote No: Philly politics are already corrupt. Lets not make government bigger. Philadelphians should vote a resounding no on this question. First, City Council has been plagued with corruption the past few years with several of its members being federally indicted. Bobby Henon, a sponsor of this legislation, is one such person. One of the cosponsors of the bill, Kenyatta Johnson, is another. It should be obvious, but officials under federal indictment for corruption should not be leading the charge on enforcing laws that involve financial determinations of city unionized employees especially since one of the crafters of the legislation is under federal indictment for allegedly weaponizing city agencies and city unionized employees, and squeezing Childrens Hospital for financial gain. Second, the director of the office would have an annual salary of close to $180,000. This does not include the salaries of a yet-to-be-determined number of employees for the office. Given the current economy, an expanding city bureaucracy should be avoided at all costs. Finally, consider the condition of the citys overall financial health. While the city did register a $438.6 million surplus in the 2019 fiscal year, the citys financial strategies are in dire need of help. For example, while the Government Financial Offices Association suggests a fund balance of 17%, last year, Philadelphias was only 9% of its general funding. Moreover, the citys fund balance as a percentage of revenues was ranked 24th out of the top 25 largest cities. Additionally, there are concerns over looming pension obligations, rising deficits for the School District of Philadelphia, high poverty rate, large fixed costs, and weak tax base. In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic ramifications, in a city plagued with corruption among its highest government officials and serious economic concerns, expanding the Philadelphia bureaucracy is a disastrous idea. Chris Tremoglie is a student at the University of Pennsylvania. He is chairman of the Penn Political Unions Conservative Caucus and vice president of the UPenn Statesman. Vote Yes: Political volunteering is a constitutional right. I had big plans for after I retired from city government. Quarantining was not among them. Political volunteering was. With limited exceptions, the citys nearly 30,000 nonelected employees are prohibited by the 1951 Philadelphia Home Rule Charter from volunteering in the campaign of any candidate for federal, state, or local office. Nearly 70 years later, it is time to allow employees to exercise what I personally believe is their constitutional right as private citizens. Thats why I urge city voters to approve Ballot Question #2. Would permitting off-duty volunteering open the floodgates for political influence and coercion inside City Hall? I am confident it will not. In my four years as chief integrity officer, I encountered thousands of city employees deeply committed to serving the public with integrity and with no regard to partisan politics. They obey political activity rules that are more restrictive than in most other cities. But for those who remain skeptical, the proposed charter amendment strikes a fair and reasonable balance. No volunteering would be permitted for candidates for city office or for state legislative seats that represent any part of Philadelphia; during working hours, using city equipment or city titles, or in a city building; by employees whose jobs could involve elections-related work; or to engage in any political fund-raising besides personal contributions. The Board of Ethics can be counted on to rigorously enforce the rules and punish violators with newly increased monetary penalties. Significantly, the board supports Ballot Question #2. In these perilous times, as federal and state officials make critical decisions on issues such as COVID-19 relief and public education funding, I am grateful I can freely volunteer for non-local candidates who share my values and priorities. I wish the same for my former colleagues. Ellen Mattleman Kaplan was chief integrity officer with jurisdiction over executive-branch employees until her retirement in February. Vote No: Allowing political activities could put some employees at risk, lead to corruption To put it as simply as possible: Political activity and city government should never mix. Period. Thats why every Philadelphian should vote no on the ballot question that would allow city workers to take part in political activity. First, it is unfair to workers. No employees should ever be put in a position where they believe their jobs could be at risk, or they could be passed over for promotion, if they dont participate in politics especially if they might not agree with whom or what they are being asked to support. A no vote makes sure they will never face this pressure. Second, it opens up the door to political corruption something our city, sadly, already has issues with. How can citizens be guaranteed that workers arent playing politics on their dime? How can we know decisions arent being made with an eye toward helping one politician or another? We cant so we must vote no. Third, it creates an environment where city government might not hire the best person for a job, but simply the most politically active. What we will have then is a government that works best for the politicians, but worse for taxpayers. That is another reason we must vote no. Protecting workers. Preventing corruption. Ensuring the best government for taxpayers. If those are the types of things you believe our city should be doing, you must vote no on allowing political activity by city workers. Martina White is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 170th District and was elected in 2015. She is chairwoman of the Philadelphia Republican Party. Use finance options to your advantage | Learn how to use credit and debt. Picking up a property mortgage that you can definitely pay off and then earn more out of whether from rental or sale is one such bet. They key is to know your limits and plan accordingly. For credit cards, pay the balance and earn cash backs or points whatever banks terms are. These can then be used for other purchases. (Image Source: Reuters) Digital payments player Worldline India has seen a 60 percent drop in its merchant transactions in April compared to the previous month because of the lockdown, the company said in a report on May 26. The month-on-month transaction volume and value dipped by over 60% in April 2020. However, with relaxations being introduced, several locations are seeing a good rise in digital transactions, the report said. While April saw a massive fall, March, too, had also seen a 10 percent drop in transactions and 12 percent decline in the amount of money paid in comparison to 2019. The company, which manages more than 10 lakh merchant terminals countrywide, blamed the lockdown and Janata Curfew, called on March 22, for the fall. Analysing the transaction trends for the first quarter of this year, Worldline said that it saw the most transactions in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad. Among the states, Maharashtra led the race followed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Grocery, restaurants, petrol stations and apparel stores drove the maximum number of transactions. Just like in the United States, where many shops were not expected to reopen even after restrictions were eased, India, too, would see the death of quite a few merchant outlets, Sunil Rongala, vice president for strategy, innovation and analytics at Worldline, said while analysing the broader consumption trends globally and in India. While private consumption will recover partially in the medium-term, it will be a while for it to recover to pre-lockdown levels because there is going to be a dip in discretionary spending caused due to layoffs, the negative wealth effect caused by markets tail-spinning and general uncertainty in the economy, Rongala said. There would be more contactless transactions and QR codes would continue to be in demand, especially among small merchants. Further, below Rs 2000 transactions would go contactless at PoS terminals as well, he added. Islamabad: The 19th SAARC Summit will be held in Islamabad on November 9 and 10, Pakistan announced on Friday. The Prime Minister of Pakistan (Nawaz Sharif) has invited the leaders of SAARC Member States to grace the Summit with their presence and is looking forward to welcoming them in Islamabad, the Foreign Office here said in a statement. However, it remains unclear whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Pakistan for the summit given the strain in bilateral ties over the issue of cross border terrorism. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had visited Pakistan earlier this month for the SAARC Home Ministers meeting during which the chill in ties was evident while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley skipped the ongoing SAARC Finance Ministers meeting and instead sent Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das to represent India at the meet. Pakistan Foreign Office said that nine observers of SAARC have also been invited to attend the summit. The preparations for successfully hosting the summit in Islamabad are being made by Pakistan, the statement said. In order to give impetus to the process of preparations, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry today inaugurated a SAARC Summit Cell at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The SAARC Summit Cell is headed by Ambassador Amjad Sial, who is a senior diplomat and Pakistans nominee for the next SAARC Secretary General. The SAARC Summit Cell will closely work with all stakeholders and concerned authorities in Pakistan. It will also liaise with the member states, SAARC observers and the SAARC secretariat for organisation of the summit, the statement said. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is comprised of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Health bosses are facing a fresh care home scandal as it emerged nine residents of a nursing home owned by disgraced Runwood Homes have died with Covid-19. Efforts are under way to appoint a new company to run Clifton Nursing Home in north Belfast after Runwood Homes failed to improve infection control measures first identified last April. It is hoped this will mean residents will not have to move to new accommodation during the pandemic. Care home safety campaigner Julieann McNally said the emerging crisis in the north Belfast home has galvanised calls for an inquiry into the official response to prepare care homes across Northern Ireland for the Covid-19 pandemic. She continued: "Now is the time for Health Minister Robin Swann to finally terminate all contracts with Runwood Homes." Ms McNally also urged him to commission an investigation into company's operations over the years in Northern Ireland. She also hit out at a decision by the Belfast Trust to place a 64-year-old nurse in the home, despite the fact it was battling a deadly Covid-19 outbreak and was not meeting minimum infection control standards. The nurse is currently fighting for her life in hospital after she contracted Covid-19. The daughter of the nurse last night expressed her horror at the latest revelations about the home. "It makes me sick to think that nine residents have died and someone saw fit to let my mum work in there," she said. "I have questions I wanted answered, I have questions for the Health Minister that I want answers to." Read More Meanwhile, solicitor Kevin Winters has also said the situation at Clifton Nursing Home has reinforced the need for an inquiry into care homes. Mr Winters is representing a number of families with loved ones affected by the crisis at Clifton Nursing Home and said one family is distraught as they have been left in limbo over the health of their mother. He also hit out at the fact that care homes have admitted new residents known to have Covid-19, without informing families of existing residents of the heightened risk to their loved ones. "I think this highlights a complete communication failure across the whole system, which breeds suspicion and a lack of trust," he said. "Whilst the news of new ownership of Clifton Nursing Home is welcome, it doesn't really address immediate concerns on the ground. "One family has asked repeatedly for their mother to be tested for Covid-19, but despite purported assurances, nothing has happened. "They have nil confidence and they can't see how things will just change overnight. "For them, the damage is done. Their mother went in there for respite only and in reasonable health. "Since then, they have gone to a funeral home to make arrangements for her passing - that's an extraordinarily depressing turn around in the space of a few weeks." Read More Runwood Homes has been at the centre of a series of high-profile scandals in recent years. In June 2018, the Commissioner for Older People published the findings of his investigation into Dunmurry Manor, now renamed Oak Tree Manor, which contained a devastating series of failings and resulted in a PSNI investigation. Months later a nursing unit at Rose Court in Ballymena shut amid claims of a staff walkout over concerns for the safety of residents. And in 2019, regulators closed another, Ashbrooke Care Home, with immediate effect amid "serious concerns for life". The home was subsequently allowed to reopen under the name Meadow View. A spokeswoman from the Department of Health last night said relocating residents from Clifton Nursing Home was unavoidable and health bosses are working hard to address the situation. Runwood Homes said that 29 of the 89 residents of Clifton Nursing Home were diagnosed with Covid-19. It said the nine residents who died all had pre-existing or underlying health conditions "and we extend our sincerest condolences to those families affected". Twenty other residents have since recovered, the statement said. "The RQIA visit did raise an issue with management oversight at a local level, this was in the latter stages of a very difficult time for the service and the wider sector," it continued. "All staff worked incredibly hard to maintain good standards of care within the service. "At no point, was resident care noted to be anything but of a good standard and the willingness and professionalism of staff is acknowledged." The company said the home has always had a good stock of personal protective equipment, which was distributed by the health service and "is exactly the same as that found in hospital settings and came from the same supply source via Belfast HSC Trust". "We provided a full overstock of supplies at Clifton Nursing Home," a statement added. "To provide details regarding infection control - The total number of residents diagnosed with Covid-19 was 29. We had 89 residents living with us at Clifton Nursing Home. We have three separate units in this service two units had the virus and one remained, and continues to be, completely clear, indicating positive infection control in line with transmission being managed. " Of the 29 residents positive, we have 20 residents who have now recovered from the virus, testament to the care delivery. All residents have been re-swabbed and only two remain under the care of the COVID-19 team and appear to be recovering well." Veterans who found themselves trapped on the beaches of northern France during the epic rescue efforts at Dunkirk have recalled their fight for survival 80 years on. Raymond Whitwell, from Malton, North Yorkshire, was 20 years old when he joined the army in September 1939 before being sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and later to Belgium when the German advance began. Raymond Whitwell, from Malton, North Yorkshire, was called up to the army in September 1939 at the age of 20 (Steve Parsons/PA Archive) He was told to make his way to Dunkirk in France where more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were rescued from the beaches and harbour between May 26 and June 4, 1940. Code-named Operation Dynamo, the evacuation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German soldiers during the six-week Battle of France. British soldiers on their return to England after being evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk (PA Archive) Now 101 years old, Mr Whitwell recalled seeing the desperate and chaotic situation unfolding. I looked out and thought this is not for me, Im not going to get away, he said. We were told it was every man for himself. We were waiting to be safely brought back to England but nobody knew what was happening. In a bold move for survival, Mr Whitwell decided to travel to Lille, where he met with another British officer and around 18 English nurses who were also desperately trying to get home. They made a long and slow train journey to Cherbourg in north-western France, some 300 miles away, where the group found a Dutch fishing boat on the harbour that was making its way to Southampton. Mr Whitwell managed to escape France around mid-June, nearly three weeks after the evacuation of Dunkirk. Mr Whitwell, who also fought in North Africa and then the Battle of Arnhem, said he has visited Dunkirk numerous times since. 101-year-old veteran Raymond Whitwell, from Malton, North Yorkshire (Steve Parsons/PA Archive) I would stroll around the town, its an amazing feeling, he said. A feeling of relief that I got away. What we saw was so vivid in those days that you dont forget. We were totally in the dark and we didnt know what was happening, but I knew I was always going to survive, I had that in mind. Story continues Jeff Haward, 100, from the Isle of Grain, in Kent, fought from Dunkirk in 1940 to D-Day in 1944 with the 1/7th Middlesex Regiment. Mr Haward said his machine gun battalion was positioned along the Comines Canal, where they stopped the Germans from advancing into Dunkirk while British troops were getting away. He made his way into Dunkirk after attempts to be rescued at the beaches proved fruitless, all while the Germans heavily shelled the area. Mr Haward managed to escape after spotting a coaster a shallow-hulled ship used for trade lying on its side on the beach. The crew were burning oily rags to give the Luftwaffe the impression that it had been hit, he said. When I got on I was so tired I immediately fell asleep the next thing I know someone was shaking my shoulder saying we are coming into Folkestone. I remember there were lovely ladies waiting on the shore with bread and jam. Describing the emotions he felt at Dunkirk, Mr Haward said: I was frightened, my mind went all blank. I tried to imagine that it wasnt happening, like it was a bad dream. Eric Taylor, 99, from Helston in Cornwall, was in the 7th Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment, who were part of the 51st Highland Division, dubbed the forgotten heroes. Eric Taylor, 99, from Helston in Cornwall, was in the 7th Batt Royal Norfolk Regiment (Christina Bowden) The division defended Dunkirk and the coast while troops got away. Our orders were to defend and not surrender, he said. Mr Taylor, was among thousands of men who were captured at St Valery en Caux in France as prisoners of war (PoW) and forced to march to Germany where they were dispersed into camps. Mr Taylor was a PoW for five years, and watched as many other captured men died on the Long March, in which allied PoWs were marched across northern Germany away from the advancing Soviet army from January 1945. We lost several men to frostbite, we had a severe winter, he said. We buried them but we dont know where. It was a very sad time, nobody knew where we were going, everything was in chaos. The veterans make regular trips to historic sites from the Second World War to pay their respects to their comrades who did not come home. But planned trips this year, organised by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, have been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions. Dick Goodwin, vice president of the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, said: Centenarians Jeff, Ray and Eric are fabulous examples of the bravery shown by our armed forces during the Second World War. Days after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries in Uttarakhand came up with 'Modi Aarti' to praise the Prime Minister, they have a new post-lockdown plan: a Modi temple, complete with Prime Minister Modi's idol. The particular 'Modi Aarti' has been written along the lines of the religious hymn of Hanuman Aarti in praise of the Prime Minister. Written by a BJP supporter, the Modi Aarti was launched on May 22 at a function organised by Uttarakhand BJP MLA MLA Ganesh Joshi and presided over by Uttarakhand Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat. The words of this Modi Aarti is filled with praises for the Prime Minister-- from the decision on revoking Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir to providing hydroxychloroquine to the US and his initiative to fight terrorism and corruption in the country. "Prime Minister is God to me. I worship Modi ji daily as he gives positive energy. What's wrong if we are praising him?" Joshi told News18, adding that he will erect a statue of Prime Minister Modi once the coronavirus crisis ends. "Even US President Donald Trump is in awe of him. I have done nothing wrong in launching his aarti and will soon build a temple with his idol in it after the lockdown," Joshi told The Hindustan Times. Joshi believes that the Prime Minister works 18 hours a day which, he says, indicates that he is 'blessed with some divine power'. My initiative to build a temple dedicated to him is just to pay respect to him," Joshi said. Congress, which is the main opposition party in Uttarakhand, had strongly criticised the BJP for allegedly insulting religious sentiments by its move. Congress state vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana asserted that it is hence proved once again that the BJP has loads of 'andh bhakts.' Shares of Aston Martin surged Tuesday after the famed British car brand announced the head of Mercedes-Benz's performance division as its next CEO. Tobias Moers, chief executive of Mercedes-AMG, will succeed Andy Palmer, who is stepping down effective immediately after leading Aston Martin since 2014. Moers will begin Aug. 1, the company said Tuesday. Shares of Aston Martin on Tuesday jumped about 40% on the London Stock Exchange before leveling off at about 43.50 pence (54 cents), up roughly 23%. The company went public with shares at 19 in October 2018. Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin executive chairman, said in a statement Tuesday that the company's board "determined that now is the time for new leadership to deliver our plans." Bartender Rebecca Strapp talks to a customer at the sidewalk walkup at Garage on E. Passyunk Avenue on May 14. Pennsylvania has allowed bars and restaurants to sell cocktails to go during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more Consumer confidence has collapsed amid the coronavirus pandemic and isnt getting a lift from states re-opening their economies, according to nationwide surveys. Daily surveys of more than 6,000 Americans by Morning Consult shows that consumers started to sour on the economy before state shutdown orders. Lifting those restrictions hasnt boosted their confidence. And consumers views track more closely with nationwide developments rather than those in a particular state, the data show. If you think about what its going to take for the U.S. economy to rebound, its going to take some sort of a change in health outcomes at the national level, even for various states to start seeing a rebound in consumer spending," said John Leer, a Morning Consult economist. Consumer spending drove the U.S. economy before the coronavirus crippled it, representing more than two-thirds of economic output. The collapse was highlighted earlier this month when federal data showed that retail sales fell by a record 16.4% from March to April. With nearly 40 million Americans seeking unemployment benefits, state governments are under increasing pressure to ease restrictions on businesses that were meant to slow down the virus, which has infected more than 1.6 million Americans, killing close to 100,000. READ MORE: 2.1 million Americans filed for unemployment last week. Pa. benefit payouts top $10 billion. But the findings from Morning Consult, a data intelligence company, suggest that reopening economies alone wont pry open consumers wallets. The surveys showed that consumers were already losing optimism by March 19, before any states issued stay-at-home orders. Similarly, confidence stabilized across most states in mid-April, before the first states began reopening their economies. Leer said three conditions are needed for consumers to start spending again: stores need to open, consumers must feel safe entering those places, and they need the money to make purchases. Reopening economies or reopening shops addresses that first criterion, but it doesnt necessarily satisfy the latter two, he said. The Morning Consult Index of Consumer Sentiment scores are based on answers to five questions that consumers are asked during more than 6,000 daily interviews. The state-level data use a 30-day rolling average and it is weighted to age, gender, education, and race/ethnicity, among other demographics. Consumer sentiments have stabilized recently but are still well below levels seen in March. In Pennsylvania, consumer confidence fell 34.3 points between March 1 and May 15 when it sat at 80.5. Economic outlooks dropped 32.5 points to 79.3 in New Jersey. Confidence levels in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were among the lowest in the country, ranking 13th and 14th from the bottom, respectively. The Conference Board, a nonprofit business membership and research group, released its own measure of consumers assessments on Tuesday. It reported that U.S. consumer confidence has stabilized but continues to be at its lowest in nearly six years, the Associated Press reported. The groups confidence index hit 86.6 in May, up slightly from 85.7 in April but down from 130.7 in February. GOP lawmakers seek to outlaw mail-only elections RALEIGH Republican lawmakers filed legislation last week to ban mail-only elections and tighten oversight for voting by absentee ballot. House Bill 1169 would permanently ban the State Board of Elections from shifting to all-mail elections and sending ballots to voters who did not request to vote. The bill, filed Friday, May 22, would tighten oversight and reporting requirements for absentee ballot witnesses, but it would reduce the number of witnesses needed to sign a ballot from two to one, as well as letting voters submit absentee ballots by email, fax or a new online portal. The move comes one day after the state Board of Elections request for emergency powers was shot down by the state Rules Review Commission. The board asked for the authority to delay hearings for candidate challenges and election protest appeals, as well as move some election dates and the deadline for voter registration. The board no longer would need legislative approval to change deadlines for accepting absentee by-mail ballots and deadlines to complete and report the sorting of ballots by precinct. The request specifically excluded the redistricting process. The board argued it needed the emergency powers to protect voters, poll workers and public health. It cited the need to quickly prepare absentee ballots. But its request was unanimously rejected as ambiguous, unnecessary, and outside of the boards statutory authority. Republicans lambasted the board after the ruling, accusing members of trying to flip a swing state with a back-door attempt to rewrite election laws. But H.B. 1169 grants the board some of its requested items. The state Board of Elections had endorsed reducing or eliminating the required number of witnesses, allowing fax and email ballot submissions, funding the postage for absentee ballots, and moving the deadline to count mail-in ballots after election day. Voters deserve consensus bipartisan efforts to improve our elections systems, and this General Assembly will provide the necessary funding and reforms to effectively administer elections in the 2020 cycle, N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said in a news release. H.B. 1169 would allocate federal coronavirus relief funds and matching federal funds from the Help America Vote Act to help counties support in-person voting and shoulder the increased costs of absentee ballots. It aims to help recruit precinct officials with temporary flexibility measures. We appreciate that the General Assembly has taken our recommendations to heart and put forward a bill that ensures accessible, safe and secure elections in 2020, said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, in a statement. This is a positive step forward for North Carolina voters. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Another 45 foreign returnees tested positive for Covid-19 in the State on Monday. This takes the total number of expatriates tested positive for coronavirus to 62. All the 62 cases were recorded in the past 48 hours (Saturday 9 am to Monday 9 am), the media bulletin said. Of the 62 tested positive, 41 are those who returned from Kuwait, three from Qatar and one from Saudi Arabia.A total of 1,469 expatriates have arrived in Andhra Pradesh as part of the Centres Vande Bharat Mission as well as the Amnesty Programme of the Kuwait government so far. The first flight under Vande Bharat Mission landed in Vijayawada on May 20 from London with 145 passengers. The flights -- both under Vande Bharat Mission and Amnesty Programme of Kuwait -- are scheduled to arrive in the State till June 3. Another 1,000 expatriates are expected to return to the State in the coming days. Though the State started receiving expatriates from May 20, the worst fears of the government came true with 17 of foreign returnees testing positive for Covid-19 on Sunday and 45 on Monday. Adding to the worries of the administration, as many as 56 Non Resident Telugus (NRTs) who returned to Krishna district from Saudi Arabia and kept under quarantine were found presentive symptomatic for Covid-19 on Monday. A total of 144 NRTs arrived in the district and they are quarantined at Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technology (RGUKT), Nuzvid. Among the NRTs, 56 were found presumptive positive for the virus when they are examined with TrueNat machines, officials said. The flights were operated from various countries, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, London, Manila, Kuala Lumpur to Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam airports and from there they were shifted to quarantine centres in their native places. Covid-19 tally in Andhra Pradesh increased to 2,824 with another 44 cases reported in the last 24 hours till 9 am on Monday.Of the 44 new cases, seven, including five from Chittoor and two from Nellore, have a travel history of visiting Koyembedu wholesale market in Chennai. With another 104 patients (two from Maharasthra) discharged till Monday evening, the total number of those recovered in the State now stands at 1,944. According to officials, a total of 60 people were discharged in Kurnool on Monday evening. No deaths were reported. The number of active cases in the State is 824. NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- AdvantageCare Physicians (ACPNY), one of the largest primary and specialty care practices in the New York area, today announced a partnership with the City of New York to increase access and availability for COVID-19 testing. This follows a similar partnership announcement on Saturday, May 23rd between ACPNY and the State of New York by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to expand testing. New York State and the City of New York's partnerships with AdvantageCare Physicians will establish more than 20 new testing sites at medical offices downstate, including testing centers in low-income and minority communities. Currently, New York has more than 760 testing sites across the state, according to the governor's office. During his press conference announcing the partnership, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said, "We have a new partnership to announce today,AdvantageCare Physicians is stepping up, joining the fight and we are so thankful to themThank you to everyone at AdvantageCare, this is another great step forward making testing easier, making it more available and free." Through these partnerships, ACPNY will be able to open additional community testing sites, helping expand the City's overall testing reach into hard-hit neighborhoods. ACPNY testing locations will be supplied with necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), testing kits, and increased lab capacity to accelerate testing and keep clinicians and patients safe. "ACPNY has a unique presence in New York City neighborhoods, especially in underserved and low-income communities, communities of color, and communities where our frontline, essential workers both live and work," said Dr. Navarra Rodriguez, President and Chief Medical Officer at ACPNY. "From early on, we have been addressing COVID-19 treatment and testing disparities while combatting the chronic illnesses that put patients at even greater risk. We are confident these partnerships will lead to even more testing sites across New York, providing the proper care and peace of mind we desperately need. We applaud Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo for their leadership during this crisis, and for acknowledging the critical need to expand testing capacity in our communities." As a member of the EmblemHealth family of companies, ACPNY maintains multiple locations throughout New York's designated COVID-19 "hot spots," including New York City communities hardest hit by the pandemic. More than 50 percent of the nearly half a million patients served by ACPNY are black or Latinogroups that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19and more than 70,000 are insured by Medicaid. "ACPNY has always met people where they are," added Dr. Rodriguez. "Our medical teams and staff both work and live in the communities we serve and are invested in their wellbeing. We have always been a trusted resource for hardworking New Yorkers, and we will be there for them long after this crisis is over." For the safety of patients, testing sites will not be available for walk-in appointments. Those seeking COVID-19 tests will first need to receive direction from a physicianeither through a telehealth appointment or phone calland then schedule for in-person testing within 24 to 48 hours. Following a virtual visit, diagnostic tests (swab or point of care) and serologyto be determined by a clinical screeningwill be offered at these ACPNY locations. Regardless of insurance coverage, there is no out-of-pocket cost to patients for the test, and it's also free for any uninsured New Yorker. In partnership with the City of New York, ACPNY will be working to increase community testing at additional ACPNY locations over the coming weeks. Testing sites will include medical offices operated by BronxDocs, an affiliate of ACPNY. ACPNY TESTING LOCATIONS OPEN MAY 26, 2020 INCLUDE: Harlem: 215 West 125th St., New York, NY 10027 10027 Upper East Side: 215 East 95th St., New York, NY 10128 10128 East New York : 101 Pennsylvania Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11207 : 101 Pennsylvania Ave., 11207 Flatbush: 1000 Church Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11218 11218 Bay Ridge: 740 64th St., Brooklyn, NY 11220 11220 Bedford Williamsburg : 233 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11205 : 233 Nostrand Ave., 11205 Rockaway: 29-15 Far Rockaway Blvd., Far Rockaway, NY 11691 11691 Forest Hills : 96-10 Metropolitan Ave., Flushing, NY 11375 : 96-10 Metropolitan Ave., 11375 Clove Road: 1050 Clove Road, Staten Island, NY 10301 10301 Richmond Avenue at the Mall: 2654 Richmond Ave., Staten Island, NY 10314 10314 Babylon : 300 Bay Shore Rd., North Babylon, NY 11703 : 300 Bay Shore Rd., 11703 Hicksville : 350 South Broadway, Staten Island, NY 10310 ACPNY TESTING LOCATIONS OPEN JUNE 1, 2020 INCLUDE: Washington Heights : 4337 Broadway, New York, NY 10033 : 4337 Broadway, 10033 Kings Highway: 3245 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11229 11229 Flushing North: 140-15 Sanford Ave., Flushing, NY 11355 11355 Jamaica Estates: 180-05 Hillside Ave., Jamaica, NY 11432 11432 Richmond Hill: 125-06 101st Ave., Jamaica, NY 11419 11419 BronxDocs: 932 Southern Boulevard, The Bronx , NY 10459 ACPNY TESTING LOCATIONS OPEN JUNE 8, 2020 INCLUDE: Duane Street : 52 Duane St., New York, NY 10007 : 52 Duane St., 10007 Crown Heights: 546 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11225 11225 Cambria Heights : 206-20 Linden Blvd., Cambria Heights, NY 11411 : 206-20 Linden Blvd., 11411 Elmhurst : 86-15 Queens Blvd., Queens, NY 11373 TESTING SITE INFORMATION: Testing sites will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST . . Diagnostic testing is for individuals who meet CDC and state and local guidelines on who should be tested, including first responders, health care workers, those with symptoms of COVID-19, and those who are asymptomatic but may require testing. While patients who are tested are awaiting results, they should follow CDC guidelines and take steps to help prevent the virus from spreading to people in their home and communities. and take steps to help prevent the virus from spreading to people in their home and communities. Expected turnaround for ACPNY to process tests is two to three days. The ACPNY provider will receive the results and communicate them to the patient. For questions regarding testing and appointments, please call ACPNY's dedicated COVID-19 screening and testing hotline at (866) 749-2660. For testing and appointments at BronxDocs locations, please call (646) 680-5200. AdvantageCare Physicians' COVID-19 Relief Efforts With more than 400 doctors and providersmany of whom speak multiple languages, including Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, and French CreoleACPNY is committed to supporting communities impacted by COVID-19 with relief efforts that fill financial and supply chain gaps where it matters most. To date, ACPNY clinics have been working alongside hospitals and NYC testing centers to screen and test people for COVID-19, while maintaining services that provide the critical chronic care management that non-COVID-19 patients continue to need. Several of ACPNY's medical offices are co-located with EmblemHealth Neighborhood Care, which provides referrals to community-based resources and offers free health and wellness programs, including diabetes management and support groups. ACPNY recently announced a partnership with Medly Pharmacy to provide courier delivery of prescription medications to patients. In addition, virtual appointments are available for patients who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, as well as for regular primary and specialty care visits. For more on ACPNY's ongoing COVID-19 relief efforts and additional health and safety measures, please visit https://www.acpny.com/live-well/coronavirus. About ACPNY AdvantageCare Physicians, one of the largest primary and specialty care practices in the New York area, provides quality, personalized care that is focused on the whole patient. With medical offices across the five boroughs and Long Island, AdvantageCare Physicians takes a team-based approach to care where physicians work with nurses, social workers, nutritionists, behavioral health specialists and other professionals. Visit www.acpny.com to learn more. SOURCE AdvantageCare Physicians Related Links http://www.acpny.com SPRING CREEK A northeastern Nevada outdoor recreation business is much more than simply a bottom line or a dollar value. Battle Born Wildlife was started in 2017 and consists of five people: some family all friends every member sharing the love of the outdoors. The company created by Jacob Roumanos, David Collins, Anthony Collins, Gretchen Plank and Ben Braunstadter specializes in videography of the outdoors primarily hunting and hunting apparel. Currently in the season of shed hunting, the group often hikes to a number of locations in search of a variety of antlers, which just so happen to be the company logos on their apparel both elk and mule deer. We all grew up together and went to middle school together. We have been friends for a long time, said Jacob Roumanos. We all have a passion for being outdoors and hunting, and we want to share that passion with everyone. The company designs its own logos and chooses the materials, which it outsources to have stitched or sewn. Valley Boot & Shoe Repair (1344 Idaho St. in Elko) stitched some leather-patch hats for us, Roumanos said. Currently, Battle Born Wildlifes lineup of hats, T-shirts, hoodies and beanies are available on the company website, battlebornwildlife.com, where some examples of shorts films and hunting videos are available to watch. We also sell our apparel at Gun World & Archery, Roumanos said. The group usually hosts a tag-result party to raise money for Nevada Outdoorsmen in Wheelchairs but had to cancel during the recent Nevada Division of Wildlife big-game draw for 2020 due to COVID-19. We plan on doing it again next year, Roumanos said. We are possibly doing a gun raffle online this summer. Battle Born Wildlife is a reminder of the importance of family and friends sharing a passion and spending time together and apart during a difficult crisis. If anyone wants to get outdoors, hunt, fish, hike, take photos, video their passions or purchase some new gear, visit battlebornwildlife.com and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram or stop by Gun World & Archery, at 2516 Noddle Lane, in Elko. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ENCINITAS, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On any given Thursday during the school year, volunteers gather at Venture Church in Encinitas, CA, in order to pack 50 bags full of food. The food is distributed in partnership with local two local elementary schools. The weekend food bags provide children - whose families have come upon hard times - with proper nutrition during their weekend away from school. Convoy of Hope trailer with 35,000 lb of food pulls into Venture Church to support food drive. "When the COVID-19 shelter in place was implemented, we weren't exactly sure what to expect from any of our programs. In order to remain agile and to fill any need, I implemented a Rapid Response Team comprised of our church family," said Troy Martin, Lead Pastor of Venture Church. By the month of April, the Rapid Response Team had seen the demand for the weekly food bags grow to nearly 200 bags every week. Additionally, many families who attended the church and lived in the local community began looking to the church for assistance. "Our rally cry during the crisis has been to Love the 760 (#LoveThe760 on social media), and in doing so we haven't said no to an opportunity to serve as much of the community as we can," explains Martin. On May 30, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Venture Church will once again extend its example of loving the local community. Martin expanded, "Venture Church has partnered with Convoy of Hope and their effort to feed 10 million meals nationwide. Last week, a fully loaded Peterbilt truck with a 40' trailer dropped off over 35,000 lb of food and supplies. On May 30, Venture Church - 777 Santa Fe Dr. Encinitas, CA 92007 - will be providing essential baby items, paper products and over 600 bags of meals." Go to www.venturechruch.tv to donate to the Venture Church COVID-19 response. Kathie Bloom [email protected] 760.452.0893 Related Files #LoveThe760.pdf Related Images convoy-of-hope.png Convoy of Hope Convoy of Hope trailer with 35,000 lb of food pulls into Venture Church to support food drive. SOURCE Venture Church Related Links http://www.venturechruch.tv State secrecy has worsened since the Andrews government was elected, with new figures showing a steady year-on-year decline in the release of information by Victorian departments and agencies. Years after Labor promised to end the culture of secrecy surrounding freedom of information in Victoria, a five-year review has found the number of people receiving full access to documents spiralled down between 2014 and 2019, while delays, complaints and rejected freedom-of-information requests have continued to rise. Daniel Andrews. Credit:JAMES ROSS The findings have prompted an unprecedented call by the states FOI watchdog for a revamp of the state's freedom-of-information system. I think its fair to say that the Victorian FOI Act would benefit from a substantial overhaul, Information Commissioner Sven Bluemmel told The Age. A pennant from the 1913 centennial from Spectator reader, Murray Aikman. There hasnt been much to celebrate with the coronavirus pandemic continuing to force the cancellation of public events across the city, the country, and around the world. On May 8, the 75th anniversary of VE-Day, one of the biggest moments of jubilation from the 1900s, there was no major commemorative event in Hamilton. Victoria Day weekend went off without public displays of fireworks. Last weekend, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders would have blown out the downtown with the regiments bagpipe band to mark a change of command. But not this year. Local commemorations have been affected, Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger said in a statement earlier this month. Be this as it may, these observances are as important to us as ever. It may involve online or virtual experiences or celebrations. It may mean in-person celebrations at a later date. Be assured we will find ways to observe this (VE-Day), and other events of local and national significance, during the pandemic. Well see what happens in these dragged on days of social isolation. At some point rescheduled anniversaries conflict with new ones. These things can be a bit forced, just like someone blowing out candles months after the persons birthday. Yet, there was a time when celebration was so enthusiastically endorsed in Hamilton that temporal considerations were even fabricated for the sake of a big party. Take the City of Hamiltons Centennial celebrations of 1913, something I was reminded about by Spectator readers who sent me photos of souvenirs from the event. As many have noted over the years, there is no way the year 1913 could possibly be construed as a centennial year for Hamilton. The community became a police village in 1833 and a city in 1846. The significance of 1813? Nothing. It seems an alderman at the time cooked up a tall tale that George Hamilton, the father of Hamilton, came to the Head-of-the-Lake in 1813. Thats a bit of a stretch for two reasons: Most hold that he came to the area in 1815 after purchasing 257 acres in what was known as Barton Township. And, even if he did arrive in 1813, so what? He didnt get involved in laying the groundwork for the city until a couple of years later. Perhaps there was not the questioning in those times like there would have been today, says Murray Aikman, who has a pennant from the event hanging in humorous reminder at his home. I think the centennial was tied to the city taking off in terms of progress, the industrialization, the availability of electricity. They were kind of pounding their chests a little bit. Looking through a 340-page hardcover book produced for the occasion, there can be no other conclusion than people were getting a little carried away with boosterism. The book, Hamilton Canada its History, Commerce, Industries and Resources, even features a portrait photo of George Hamilton that was later revealed to be a fake. As the late Margaret Houghton pointed out in the first volume of her book series, First Here, no photo exists of the man who started the city because the first photographer to come to Hamilton had arrived in 1842 and George Hamilton died in 1836. So to review: The city, in 1913, hosted a major 100-year celebration for a city that was only 67 years old. People rallied around a top-hatted, big bearded portrait of the founder of Hamilton that was actually a photo of somebody else. They hosted parades, festivities and even took on a bizarre Ripleys believe it or not feat of constructing a house in one day. And the commemoration was all built on a deception. Talk about fake news. Well, in 1946, the city did get it right with a legitimate centennial. And there was an even bigger celebration, the largest the city had ever seen. After six years of world war, and troops finally returning home, everyone was hungry for a major party. But there was one minor setback. Gov. General Viscount Alexander, who was brought in to give the commemoration some regal authority, apparently became confused about why he was there. In his speech from the front of Hamiltons old City Hall, he looked out at the assembled crowd and officially opened James Street by mistake. Well, hopefully when the pandemic ends and people can walk in crowds again the city will host an even bigger celebration. And we wont be deterred by missteps weve had with these things in the past. Did you know? I was driving around the Mountain the other day and came upon the ironic scene of a CAA tow truck in need of roadside assistance. It was jacked up with a wheel removed from the back. The driver wasnt around. Not sure where he went. It reminded me that Hamilton was the first city in Canada to establish an automobile club. It was the brainchild of John Moodie Jr., who brought the first automobile to the city in 1898. The Hamilton Automobile Club was created in 1903 and the organization now known as CAA South Central Ontario has expanded exponentially since then. And one expects, with all that growth, its own broken down tow trucks would not be stranded for long. Dubai: Fortune, the first Iranian oil tanker to reach five oil tankers, has reached the beach near Venezuela's El Palito refinery. Venezuela's oil minister has given information in this regard. Another oil tanker forest is also reported to have entered the border of South American country. Both oil-rich countries like Iran and Venezuela are facing sanctions imposed by the US. Iran is supplying 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and refining petroleum materials to Venezuela under a contract. However, the US has strongly condemned this supply. As the second oil tanker reached Venezuela in the forest on Monday morning, the navy there took it into its security circle. The Venezuelan Navy itself has given this information on Twitter. Venezuela's oil minister Tarek Al Aisami shared a photo of Fortune coming off the coast on Twitter. Aisami said that the movement of ships would continue. The Trump administration official had said that Washington could take action on the movement of ships, ignoring trade that was under US sanctions. But last week, a spokesman for the US Ministry of Defense said, he has no information about any action from the US military. Also Read- PM Johnson to open schools in Britain from June 1 Can corona hurt the placenta in a pregnant woman? You can do workouts in the gym by adopting these methods while avoiding corona Singapore confirms 344 new COVID-19 cases on May 25, lower number due to less tests conducted Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 344 new cases of COVID-19 infection as of 12pm on May 25, bringing the total to 31,960. The lower number of cases today is partly due to fewer tests being conducted, MOH said in a press statement. Photo courtesy: Facebook/Lawrence Wong Majority of the cases continue to be Work Permit holders residing in dormitories because of extensive testing in these premises. Of these, 99 per cent are linked to known clusters. There are six cases recorded in the local community, with four being Singaporeans/Permanent Residents. The number of new cases in the community has increased from an average of four cases per day in the week before, to an average of seven per day in the past week. This is partly due to our active surveillance and screening of nursing home residents and pre-school staff, which have picked up more cases in the past week, MOH said. Meanwhile, 862 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. Bosky Khanna By Express News Service BENGALURU: As the country struggles to contain Covid-19, Bengaluru and its health officials have earned praise. The Central Government has recognised Bengaluru as a model city in Covid-19 management. The city shares the crown with Jaipur, Indore and Chennai. While Bengaluru took the cue from Kerala in contact tracing, which they had done during Nipah and Covid-19, no city from Kerala was put on the privileged list. The tech-capital was appreciated for the methods adopted in ensuring that the graph did not rise, by using technology to the optimum. Bengaluru was also appreciated on how the cases have been handled and the treatment methods. Government officials here are now sharing their success story with other cosmopolitan cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Ahmedabad. State Health Minister B Sriramulu was informed of this on Monday morning by the Centre. Bengaluru till Monday saw 274 positive cases with 149 discharges and nine deaths. The City has a population of 1.3 crore and the BBMP has created 23 containment zones Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department, told The New Indian Express that Bengaluru was recognised because of the methods adopted to ensure the number of positive did not rise exponentially. The Central Government noted the promptness in contact tracing and quick action to seal down areas where cases were reported. We start tracing primary and secondary contacts from four to five hours when a patient is found positive, this was appreciated, he said. Citing the example of Padarayanapura, BBMP officials said this slum was the first to be sealed. This stern decision ensured cases did not spread to other areas as had happened in Dharavi in Mumbai. We also started testing primary and secondary contacts and even random sampling, even before the Centre made it a norm, which was recognised, Akhtar said. Special mention was given to the Sachidanand Committee which closely examines all cases and suggests the best treatment model. Early training disseminated by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences to all health professionals was also appreciated. The Centre also recognised Victoria Hospital as a role model for the treatment methods adopted, usage of ventilators, dividing Covid-19 and non-Covid patients. The hospital also ensured that the staffers treating patients did not leave the premises by providing them proper accommodation. PRAISE FACTORS Swift declaration of containment zones Establishment of fever clinics and Covid-19 hospitals Use of technology and field staff in contact tracing Creating teams of medical experts for better treatment Bengaluru followed Kerala model in contact tracing In support of recent business growth, Siklu announces the addition of Ilana Lurie as COO & CFO and Itzik Marcovich to serve as Vice President of Operations Ilana Lurie Siklu COO & CFO Itzik Marcovich Siklu VP of Operations SAN JOSE, California, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Siklu, a global leader in Fixed 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) technology for Gigabit Wireless Access, Smart City and security networks, has announced today the appointment of Ilana Lurie as New Chief Financial & Chief Operations Officer and Secretary of the Board and Itzik Marcovich as Vice President of Operations of the company. With the increasing demand for Gigabit connectivity Siklu's business and operations have ramped up significantly in the past year which led to this organizational change. Ms. Ilana Lurie is a seasoned executive bringing over 20 years of extensive experience in international finance and operations leadership, within both large technology companies as well as start-ups. Ilana is joining Siklu after her latest position at NovelSat, a leader in satellite communication technology, where she served as CFO, responsible for all financial aspects and operations oversight and serving as Secretary of the Board, leading a major debt restructuring process which significantly improved NovelSat financial health. Previous to NovelSat, Ilana held various senior financial executive positions for the Enterprise Services business of HP with $130M annual business, and Ness Technologies, including leading pre and post M&A activities. Ilana also serves as Director in Eltek and holds a BA and an MBA degree with a specialization in Finance and Marketing from the Hebrew University, Israel. Siklu's new VP of Operations, Mr. Itzik Marcovich, joined Siklu in 2011 as Director of Supply Chain with a vast experience of over 20 years in global operations, supply chain management and purchasing and is involved deeply in the day to day activities in the Siklu operations team. Prior to joining Siklu, Itzik was the head of subcontracting management in AudioCodes Ltd. where he established and expanded global production sites for a variety of high-volume product lines, manufactured in Israel, China and Taiwan. Previous to AudioCodes Itzik served as the head of subcontracting purchasing department at 'Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) - Components division, providing logistical support, repair service and spare parts to commercial airlines. Itzik holds a BA in Economics and Logistics management from the Bar Ilan University and an MBA from the Haifa University, Israel. "2020 has started as a successful year of growth for Siklu, and with COVID19 the race for reliable Gigabit Wireless Access has truly ramped up. Significant verticals have been seeing increased demand due to the outbreak, and it was important that we keep the momentum to accelerate our manufacturing and supply growth, ensuring product availability and increased inventory with the addition of these strong talented leaders to our headquarter management team," said Ronen Ben-Hamou, Siklu's CEO. "I have no doubt that Ilana and Itzik will bring great value in achieving our aggressive strategy to strengthen our leadership in the global mmWave market and expand to new vertical applications". About Siklu Siklu delivers multi-gigabit wireless fiber connectivity in urban, suburban and rural areas. Operating in the millimeter wave bands, Siklu's wireless solutions are used by leading service providers and system integrators to provide 5G Gigabit Wireless Access services. In addition, Siklu solutions are ideal for Smart City projects requiring extra capacity such as video security, WiFi backhaul and municipal network connectivity all over one network. Thousands of carrier-grade systems are delivering interference-free performance worldwide. Easily installed on street-fixtures or rooftops, these radios have been proven to be the ideal solution for networks requiring fast and simple deployment of secure, wireless fiber. www.siklu.com. Press Contacts Shiri Butnaru Dave Sumi Director of Marketing, Siklu VP Marketing, Siklu [email protected] [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1172630/Ilana_Lurie_Siklu_COO__CFO.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1172629/Itzik_Marcovich_Siklu_VP_of_Operations.jpg Related Links http://www.siklu.com SOURCE Siklu Loading the player... Coronavirus: WHO stops trial of hydroxycloroquine due to safety concerns The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. Hydroxycholoroquine has been touted by Donald Trump and others as a possible treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The U.S. President has said he was taking the drug to help prevent infection. Himachal Pradesh extends lockdown in 3 districts till June 30 The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to extend the lockdown till June 30 in three districts, including Hamirpur, Solan and Shimla. The state government has authorised all district magistrates to extend the lockdown measures beyond the current phase ending on May 1. In the past three weeks, Himachal Pradesh saw a surge in coronavirus cases due to the influx of people to their homes. Coronavirus outbreak: Govt develops 'intelligent testing strategy' to check spread across states With the milestone of one lakh tests per day being achieved, the government is now developing a strategy to further increase the capacity. Infrastructure is currently being developed to enhance the testing capacity up to 2 lakh tests per day in the coming days. There are 609 testing labs across the country as of now. It includes 431 public and 178 private labs. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is continuously scaling up its testing facilities for COVID-19 by giving approval to government and private laboratories. ICMR has already expanded its testing criteria to include returnee migrants and other frontline workers. Mukesh Ambani's youngest son Anant debuts in Jio Platforms as director Jio Platforms, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has been making headlines for roping in marquee names such as Facebook, General Atlantic, KKR among others as investors. But there is one big piece of news that they haven't announced. Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, has been formally inducted into the family empire. The 25-year old debuts as additional director in Jio Platforms. "This happened just a week before the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," say sources. Mukesh Ambani's youngest son Anant debuts in Jio Platforms as director India first quarter GDP growth likely to be weakest since 2012: Reuters poll India's economy began slowing last year, but a countrywide lockdown implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 25 halted economic activity completely. The poll of 52 economists, taken May 20-25, indicated India's economy grew at 2.1% in the March quarter from a year ago, its weakest since comparable records began in early 2012, and sharply slower than 4.7% in the prior three months. Lockdown extensions 'economically disastrous', 'create medical crisis': Anand Mahindra Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Monday said lockdown extensions are not just economically disastrous but also create another medical crisis. While acknowledging that choices are not easy for policy makers, he said a lockdown extension will not help. He was referring to an article that highlighted "the dangerous psychological effects of lockdowns & the huge risk of neglecting non-COVID patients". Coronavirus lockdown impact: Uber lays off 600 employees in India Photo taken on Aug. 5, 2019 shows China's national flag and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) on the Golden Bauhinia Square in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaochu) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- To introduce national security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is an important endeavor to safeguard national security and ensure the long-term stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, overseas experts have said. A draft decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security is under deliberation at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC). Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said that "Cambodia consistently adheres to the one-China policy and considers affairs of the HKSAR as the internal affairs of the People's Republic of China." He said the draft decision, with a view to safeguarding national security and sovereignty in accordance with the Chinese constitution and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, is the sovereign right of China as an independent country. "It is Cambodia's wish to see the HKSAR continue to enjoy progress and prosperity in peace, stability, harmony and free from foreign interference," Kuong said. Children ride bikes in Hong Kong, south China, March 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Lo Ping Fai) Gerishon Ikiara, a scholar at the University of Nairobi, said that "the issue of safeguarding national security legislation is China's internal affairs." The recent violence in Hong Kong exposed loopholes in its legal system and the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms in maintaining national security there, said Ikiara. "It is urgent and important to end the chaos in Hong Kong through stronger national security legislation," said the Kenyan scholar, adding that the "one country, two systems" principle has been and will continue to be an important prerequisite for its long-term prosperity and stability. A resident signs in a street campaign in support of national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Hong Kong, south China, May 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaochu) On the basis of the Chinese constitution and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the introduction of national security legislation for the HKSAR helps prevent and control national security risks and safeguard the rule of law, prosperity and stability in Hong Kong, said Ong Tee Keat, founding chairman of the Center for New Inclusive Asia Studies, a think tank based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Noting that safeguarding national security is the basis for the "one country, two systems" principle, Ong said that it is a sovereign right of any independent country to introduce legislation for the sake of safeguarding national security. Other countries, for whatever reason, have no right to intervene, he added. Fabio Massimo Parenti, a professor of international studies at Lorenzo de' Medici - Italian International Institute, said "we all know the lack of legal codification in Hong Kong, above all, in relation to national stability and security issues." "The draft decision on Hong Kong is legally appropriate and coherent with the situation in HKSAR," he said. The Chinese central government is going to help the Hong Kong local government and provide legal instruments preventing Hong Kong from new turmoil and strengthening the country's security and unity, he added. ATLANTA Neither public rivals nor personal friends, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Stacey Abrams spent years climbing parallel ladders at Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Capitol. They are now Georgias most influential African American women. Bottoms, the 50-year-old Atlanta mayor, is a top surrogate for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Abrams is the 46-year-old voting rights activist who nearly became the first black female governor in American history. Now, the pair occupy the same political intersection: Bidens list of potential running mates. That potential has highlighted the different styles of the two lawyers-turned-politicians. Abrams embraces the possibility of the vice presidency and, already having acknowledged her own presidential aspirations, openly touts how shed help Biden win and govern. Bottoms, while not sidestepping the talk, plays the more traditional role of loyal party lieutenant. While the possibility of being up for the same job could stoke conflict, Abrams, Bottoms and their associates instead frame their national profiles as a boost for black women. I see them leading in very different ways because of the positions they hold, and I adore them both, said state party chairwoman Nikema Williams. Its inspiring to watch two black women from the South be elevated. Beyond Abrams and Bottoms, Biden is believed to be considering other women of color as his running mate, including California Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Val Demings of Florida. Image: Stacey Abrams speaks to the crowd of supporters announcing they will wait till the morning for results of the mid-terms election at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta (Lawrence Bryant / Reuters file) In separate Associated Press interviews, Abrams declared Bottoms an extraordinary mayor and called herself proud to be an Atlanta citizen under her leadership, while the mayor praised Abrams authentic leadership, especially on behalf of underrepresented voters. I cant say were close personal friends, Bottoms said, adding that she sees their roles as outgrowths of the civil rights history that surrounds them in Martin Luther King Jr.s hometown. Atlanta has always been a special place where people of color are able to break traditional molds and change the landscape of who we are as a country. Story continues Unquestionably the more widely known of the two, Abrams was floated as a presidential candidate herself after her unsuccessful 2018 governors bid. She parlayed that narrow loss into an invitation to deliver the 2019 response to President Donald Trumps State of the Union address. Throughout 2019, she was a regular stop on Democratic contenders visits to Georgia. In recognition of Bidens stature as former vice president, Abrams visited him in Washington last year, but she didnt endorse until May 12, well after Biden emerged as the presumptive nominee. Before that, she willingly fielded questions about joining him on the ticket. As a young black girl growing up in Mississippi, I learned that if I didnt speak up for myself, no one else would, Abrams said recently on NBCs Meet the Press. She told the AP days before her endorsement that shed put my resume against anyone elses. She noted her state legislative work included international relations and highlighted her 2018 success in drawing hundreds of thousands of new voters to the polls. Bottoms, meanwhile, was among Bidens earliest endorsers. She recalled writing in a leather-bound campaign journal, I feel vulnerable, having declared loyalties among such a crowded field. That shouldnt be confused with regret, she said, citing Bidens experience and the goodness of who he is. The mayor was a precinct captain in overwhelmingly white Iowa, where Biden finished an embarrassing fourth, before going on to the Southern states that reversed his fortunes. She didnt run away when he was down, said Tharon Johnson, a Bottoms confidant. Asked what shed bring to the ticket, Bottoms, a former judge and city councilor, noted that shes served in each branch of government, with her executive tenure overlapping with a massive cyberattack on city governments technology infrastructure and now the COVID-19 pandemic. Youve got to have proven leadership thats been tested in the midst of crisis, she said. As Abrams remains a favorite of many progressive activists, Bottoms has gotten a prominent mention from influential black leaders like House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who is close to Biden, and Biden campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond. The different approaches reflect how Bottoms has operated mostly within existing political machinery while Abrams has sought to build her own. Three years ago, Abrams was the Georgia House minority leader building her 2018 campaign for governor; Bottoms was a city councilor running for mayor. Abrams had impressed Capitol circles but faced such skepticism as a statewide candidate that many older, white Democratic power brokers backed a white state representative from the Atlanta suburbs. Bottoms, conversely, had the backing of outgoing Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, himself once viewed as a potential governor. Abrams primary opponent not an Atlanta resident endorsed Bottoms, while Abrams stayed on the sidelines. Bottoms, in turn, didnt wade into the governors primary, but campaigned for Abrams later against Republican Brian Kemp. Theyve just operated in different spaces, said Williams, the state party chairwoman. Both politicians have shown signs of practicality. Bottoms benefited from Reeds help in 2017, but shes since distanced herself from her predecessor, whose administration has been the subject of a federal criminal probe. She was among the big-city mayors to blast Trumps immigration policies, and she ended the city jails contract with federal immigration enforcement. Shes leading the U.S. Conference of Mayors efforts on the census and housing policy. And while Abrams calls for significant changes in U.S. social and political structures, she spent her tenure at the Capitol as an unapologetic pragmatist cutting deals with Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and GOP House leadership. For her part, Bottoms says she has a good working relationship with Kemp, who defeated Abrams. And while her style is more low-key, Bottoms makes clear that she has no problem with Abrams direct approach to ambition. I dont think theres ever anything wrong with touting and highlighting your work, she said. What I do on my day-to-day work hopefully shows the type of leader I am. Most of the people in Pakistan are acting upon an old proverbial; do as Romans do when in Rome. by Ali Sukhanver Most of the people do not know that the recent talks between the Indian and Chinese military have ended after adding more tension to the situation and now things are heading towards a serious break down in relations between the two countries. In fact people are paying no attention to any issue now a days because they have a more important matter to think over; the matter of Covid-19. They spend their time on thinking about the days without pandemic; those were really the golden days. In shape of Covid-19, our very colorful world has come under the ominous clouds of murky, gloomy darkness. We all are in a strange state of confusion. No one knows what is going to happen next. Uncertainty and ambiguity give birth to fear and insecurity. Lock down or no-lock down; no one knows what is safer, what is better. Even the print and the electronic media are at the height of helplessness with reference to information and awareness in this respect. As far as the social media is concerned, it has never been trust worthy and reliable. China in Pakistan What a beautiful days we have lost; children, getting up early in the morning and running to their schools, young boys and girls speeding to their colleges and universities and mothers making breakfast for them and packing their lunch boxes and men rushing to their jobs. The evenings were more colorful, more enthusiastic. Shopping malls and marriage halls and even the tea-stalls along the roadside were so much crowded that it was always a difficult job to get some sitting space. All that hustle and bustle was a multidimensional source of happiness and prosperity for everyone linked with that system of life. The sale-boys, the computer-operators, the loaders and un-loaders, the technicians, the decorators and the shopkeepers; everyone was getting benefit of that business activity. Most of the people in Pakistan are acting upon an old proverbial; do as Romans do when in Rome. At some places you find everyone wearing a mask on face, gloves on hands, observing a strict social distancing, all the time having a hand-sanitizer in trouser pocket but at the same time there are some places where people ignore all these precautions. The reason is very simple; most of the people are not clear about the consequences of not observing the lock down or of ignoring the precautionary steps. Some say that this lock down is going to stop the cycle of life permanently and some are of the opinion that this lock down shall guarantees the lives of a few people by sacrificing the lives of the majority; and this philosophy seems prevailing the most. A very common opinion about this pandemic is that in Pakistan, the intensity of Covid-19 is not as severe as it is in the European countries; it could be because of the severity of weather in the region or due to some extra-ordinarily strong immune system of the people. Some are of the opinion that this all hue and cry about the hazards of the pandemic in Pakistan is nothing but an effort of getting more and more financial aids and monetary relaxations from the international donor organizations. Some pseudo-intellectuals are propagating a very innocent ideology of their own that this all is a part of the vaccine-conspiracy prepared by Bill Gates type of world-saviors. GatesNotes is the name of a blog run by Bill Gates. Through this blog he keeps in touch with the common people who look towards him as the children look towards the sun. A few weeks back, he wrote in his blog, One of the questions I get asked the most these days is when the world will be able to go back to the way things were in December before the coronavirus pandemic. My answer is always the same: when we have an almost perfect drug to treat COVID-19, or when almost every person on the planet has been vaccinated against coronavirus. Realistically, if were going to return to normal, we need to develop a safe, effective vaccine. Whatever be the story behind the spread of the Covid-19, the gist of the matter is that the whole world is facing the worst consequences of this pandemic; socially, psychologically, financially and certainly emotionally. And the countries like Pakistan, though at present in a comparatively safe position, are going to be the worst victim to it if not properly taken care of. The loss could be more severe in monetary shape than in form of life losses. For the last two months things are in a stand still position. All businesses, all factories, all manufacturing units and even the government and private offices are closed. There is a strict ban on opening markets and shops. A few shops of vegetable and meat and a few grocery stores are given permission of catering the needs of people for a limited time period. Restaurants, barber shops, book shops and even the motor workshops are also closed. This situation badly affected the labor class and the daily wagers though the government has taken all possible steps to provide them financial help and food items of daily use but the severity of the situation could not be minimized. Ultimately the government had to relax lock-down into a smart lock down particularly in the fields which are directly linked with the daily wagers and the labor class. The most serious problem here is the missing fear of Covid-19. Most of the people are taking this pandemic as an attack of routine seasonal virus; they are very much confident that things would return to normal very soon. But in spite of all this confidence, courage, fearlessness and bravery, there is a very dark side of the situation hidden from the eyes of the people. For the last two months our children are away from their books and their studies. But the good side of it is that we have succeeded in making ventilators of our own; our researchers are just at the verge of discovering some magic-treatment for the disease; our doctors, paramedical staff, law-enforcement agencies have proved their worth. In short if Bill Gates has any plans of making the world a slave to his vaccine; we, the Pakistanis have arranged to keep us out of that queue of the vaccine-needy ones. We are confident that we would be the survivors as well as the saviors. Some Florida residents who have made unemployment claims may have had personal data stolen, officials said Thursday. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has notified 98 people who were part of a data breach associated with unemployment claims, agency spokeswoman Paige Landrum said in an email. Officials didnt say when the breach occurred, how many people were affected or what information was taken. The breach was addressed within one hour of officials learning of it, Landrum said. In an abundance of caution, the department is making available identity protection services at no charge to affected individuals, Landrum said. Victims have been advised to report any unauthorized activity on their financial accounts. The DEO has received more than 2 million claims seeking unemployment benefits from Floridians since the coronavirus pandemic caused mass business closings around the state, though only 1.6 million claims have been verified. Just under 1 million jobless workers in Florida have been paid more than $2.6 billion in benefits. State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, expressed concern about the breach Thursday in a letter to Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter. Satters department oversees information technology for other state agencies. Given the agencys (DEO) track record with processing unemployment applications, Im sure you will understand the great concern I have that all remedies have been quickly taken and that Floridians can be assured that their personal information is now secured and will be protected from future attacks, Stewart wrote. The DEO has not received any reports of malicious activity, Landrum said. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Cyber Florida 09:10 Five Indian peacekeepers, who laid down their lives while serving in United Nations peacekeeping missions last year, are among 83 military, police and civilian personnel to be honoured this week with a prestigious UN medal awarded posthumously for courage and sacrifice in the line of duty. Major Ravi Inder Singh Sandhu and Sergeant Lal Manotra Tarsem, who served with the UN Mission in South Sudan; Sergeant Ramesh Singh with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon; Private Johnsion Beck with the UN Disengagement Observer Force and Edward Agapito Pinto, who served in a civilian capacity with the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in Congo, will posthumously receive the Dag Hammarskjold Medal on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers observed on May 29. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will lay a wreath to honour all the UN peacekeepers who lost their lives since 1948. He will then preside over a ceremony at which the Dag Hammarskjold Medal will be awarded posthumously to 83 military, police and civilian peacekeepers, who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2019. The world organisation said this year, the challenges and threats faced by its peacekeepers are even greater than ever, as they, like people around the world, are not only coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, but are also supporting and protecting the people in the countries they are based in. They are continuing their operations to the best of their abilities and supporting the governments and the local populations, despite the risk of COVID-19, it said. The theme for this year's Day is "Women in Peacekeeping: A Key to Peace" to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is commemorated to pay tribute to the uniformed and civilian personnel's invaluable contribution to the work of the world organisation and to honour more than 3,900 peacekeepers who have lost their lives serving under the UN flag since 1948. India is the 5th largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping. It currently contributes more than 5,400 military and police personnel to the UN peacekeeping operations in Abyei, Cyprus, Congo, Lebanon, the Middle East, Sudan, South Sudan, Western Sahara as well as one expert to the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia. Bringing honour to India with her service, Major Suman Gawani of the Indian Army, a Military Observer, formerly deployed with the UN Mission in South Sudan won the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award in 2019, the first year the prestigious award has gone to a peacekeeper from India. Gawani, along with Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo, a Brazilian Naval officer working in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, were named joint winners of the United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year 2019 Award. The award recognises the dedication and effort of an individual military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of UN Security Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in a peace operation context, as nominated by Heads and Force Commanders of peace operations. -- PTI iWatch Africa has petition the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service over what it described as dangerous online attacks on Ghanaian journalists. This forms part of the NGOs effort to counter online abuse of journalists and rights activists in Ghana. iWatch Africa has officially submitted a complaint against three individuals who threatened journalists; Manasseh Azure Awuni and Afia Pokua online to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police in Accra for further investigation. In a press statement signed by Gideon Danso, Director of iwatch Adrica stated that: "Abuse of journalists and rights activists within the digital space in Ghana is increasing, a phenomenon, experts say could have a profound chilling effect on journalism and can ultimately negatively impact one of the tenets of a democratic society, press freedom." "We are of the view that the individuals captured in the petition to the Police CID violated the Criminal Code, 1960 (ACT 29) Section 17regarding provisions relating to the use of threats in Ghana." Read the full statement below iWATCH AFRICA PETITIONS POLICE CID OVER INDIVIDUALS WHO THREATENED JOURNALISTS ONLINE iWatch Africa has officially submitted a complaint against three individuals who threatened journalists; Manasseh Azure Awuni and Afia Pokua online to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police in Accra for further investigation. The petition which was presented to the Director-General of the Police CID, COP Isaac Ken Yeboah, on Friday, May 22nd is part of iWatchs broader effort to counter online abuse of journalists and rights activists in Ghana. Over 600 separate instances of abuse and harassment online were collected and analysed by iWatchs digital rights desk within the first quarter of this year. Abuse of journalists and rights activists within the digital space in Ghana is increasing, a phenomenon, experts say could have a profound chilling effect on journalism and can ultimately negatively impact one of the tenets of a democratic society, press freedom. We are of the view that the individuals captured in the petition to the Police CID violated the Criminal Code, 1960 (ACT 29) Section 17regarding provisions relating to the use of threats in Ghana. Their names are currently withheld due to the ongoing nature of the case and we are ready and prepared to assist the police in all their investigations. iWatch Africa remains committed to developing protocols for reporting online abuse of journalists and rights activists; as well as community management and content forum moderation. Journalists continue to play a crucial role in deepening Ghanas democracy and we all have a responsibility to protect them. Signed Gideon Sarpong Director, iWatch Africa Source: Josephine Acheampomaa/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Kerala on Tuesday reported 67 coronavirus cases, the highest in a single day since the outbreak in January resulting in the chief minister sounding a note of caution against the lowering of guard and easing of surveillance at this critical juncture as it may lead to community transmission of the disease. Among the new cases, 27 are foreign returnees, 30 are arrivals from other states and 10 were people who contracted the disease within the state from the infected, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He added that Palakkad district had reported 29 cases on Tuesday-- the maximum in the state. Out of Keralas total 963 Covid-19 cases, 415 are active. The number of persons under observation has risen to over one lakh while 7 people have died due to the disease. When asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhis observation that lockdown has failed to serve its purpose, the CM said he did not agree with it. I feel lockdown helped to contain the spread. Even before the Centre imposed it, Kerala started implementing it. So we cant blame the lockdown, he said. For Coronavirus Live Updates Talking to newsmen earlier in the day, Gandhi said the two-month-long lockdown failed to serve its purpose as cases spiked in this period. He also asked the Modi government to spell out its Plan B to handle the crisis. Vijayan said he agreed that the centre did not intervene effectively to address lockdown-induced problems. I agree with the Centres intervention to lessen the woes of the lockdown affected people, was inadequate. States were not heard properly and compensated, Vijayan said. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 The CM also criticised railway minister Piyush Goyals statement that the state was not keen on bringing back its people stranded in other parts of the country. You cant send trains without informing the state. We had a couple of such experiences. This will sabotage our preparedness. Such a statement was least expected from a union minister, Vijayan said, adding people of the state knew him well and he did not want a certificate in this regard. Your tax-deductible gift today powers our reporters and keeps us independent. We rely on you, our reader, not paywalls to stay funded because we believe important news and information should be freely accessible to all. Start your day with LAist Sign up for the Morning Brief, delivered weekdays. Subscribe Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily newsletters. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now. Earlier this year, Emma Shinn moved to a big, hillside house outside of San Diego to work at Camp Pendleton. A Marine judge advocate who transitioned in 2016, Shinn said the move to a new city and new house has been a little stressful. But she's been comforted by the reaction she's received as she reconnected with Marines who knew her before she transitioned. "They knew me as the old Captain Shinn," she said, sitting at the dining room table in her new house. Now as she reconnects with her old colleagues, she said they accept her and don't treat her any differently. "Everyone in the unit has welcomed me with open arms," she said. A recent study from UCLA showed that two-thirds of cisgender active duty military personnel support transgender service members. That number goes up among service members who identify as women or people of color. Shinn -- who also serves as president of SPART*A, a national support group for transgender service members -- said the survey results don't surprise her. She recently bumped into a Marine she hadn't seen in years. "I salute, and he pulls over just a little bit and he rolls down the window, and he says 'Emma,' and he calls me over," she said. "And it was this really amazing, fantastic experience to have my name and who I am validated." 'SOMETHING I HAD BURIED VERY DEEP' Shinn joined the service in 1994. In 2004, she was deployed as an infantry platoon sergeant to Iraq. She didn't know any other trans people in her platoon. She hadn't transitioned yet. "That was something I had buried very deep," she said. "I am 100 percent confident that if I was in that same situation today, I would be a better platoon sergeant than I was in 2004 and 2005. Being able just to be whole, and to be authentic with your troops." "Whenever you're not bringing your whole self, people can spot that distance," she said. In 2016, President Obama allowed transgender people to serve openly in the military. But in 2017, through a series of tweets-turned-policy, President Trump said allowing transgender people to serve would be costly and disruptive. Now, transgender people can't join the military if they've medically transitioned or been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. People like Emma Shinn can stay in the military if they had enlisted before the policy change. STRONG SUPPORT ACROSS ALL FOUR BRANCHES The policy seems at odds with the science, said Shannon Dunlap, the UCLA PhD student who cowrote the study showing wide support for transgender servicemembers. Her study -- funded by the Department of Defense -- showed strong support across the four branches of the military and across racial lines and sexual orientation. "This broad support from cisgender, heterosexual, and LGB service members really just speak to the valuable contributions that diversity does bring to the United States military," she said. The study found servicemembers who identified as gay, as women, or people of color were more likely to accept transgender people in the military. Black and Latinx service members reported some of the highest support for transgender people -- 69% and 75%, respectively, compared to 64% of white people. Eighty-two percent of people of all races identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual said they supported transgender servicemembers. Dunlap attributes this support to the ongoing fights for equality for many marginalized groups. "They really have historically gone through great lengths to serve honorably in the U.S. military, and they experience the same stressors," she said. 'WE ARE LOSING FOLKS FROM OUR RECRUITING POOL' The military historically has been one of the largest employers of transgender people in the country. Many of them are not serving openly. "It looks like discrimination. It looks like stigma. And it's a real lack of those protections and resources that are afforded to their cisgender counterparts," said. SPART*A's Emma Shinn said the ban on open transgender service is affecting military recruitment. She said potential soldiers are asking themselves a hard question: is joining worth not transitioning? "We are losing folks from our recruiting pool in a time where recruiting is challenging," she said. Shinn says living authentically as herself has made her a better member of the military. Before she transitioned, she lived two lives: a Marine Corps life and a private life. "And never the twain shall meet," she said. "It's like this nagging pressure, this itch that you just can't scratch, that wears on you. And some days, that itch may be more persistent than others, but it's there until you transition and that itch goes away." This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans. Funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. WE LOVE TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS President Vladimir Putin said Russia has passed the peak of the coronavirus epidemic and ordered preparations to resume for military parades marking the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory. Moscow and other cities should stage the postponed May 9 Victory Day parades on June 24, "given that the situation in the country as a whole, in most regions and in the Armed Forces is stable, and that it is stabilizing in many places after the peak of infections," Putin told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a videoconference Tuesday. The Kremlin had planned particularly grand commemorations for the 75th anniversary this year, before Putin was forced in April to postpone the nationwide events as the coronavirus spread. The annual Red Square parade in Moscow involving thousands of troops and Russia's most sophisticated weapons has long been an occasion for him to project a sense of power and national pride. With Russia's economic activity declining by a third during a two-month nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of the epidemic, the Kremlin is now seeking to limit the fallout. The rate of new infections has started to slow in Russia, which over the weekend slipped to third place in the number of total cases globally, after Brazil and the U.S. Diagnoses rose 2.5% in the past day to 362,342. Russia reported a record 174 deaths in the same period, taking the total to 3,807. The Kremlin is considering holding both the parade and a referendum that would open the way for Putin to remain in power until 2036, RBC website reported last week, citing four unidentified officials. The referendum, which was planned for April 22 before the epidemic derailed it, initially seemed to be a formality after parliament and the Constitutional Court took less than a week to rubber-stamp the changes endorsed by Putin that allow him to seek two more six-year terms when his current one ends in 2024. However, the economic decline due to the restrictions and a plunge in demand for oil, Russia's main export, have caused Putin's approval ratings to slip, according to the Levada Center and FOM polling services. Levada last month reported Putin's approval rating fell to the lowest level in two decades. French President Emmanuel Macron had accepted Putin's invitation to leaders of wartime allied nations to join him on Red Square for the May 9 parade. It's unclear how many world leaders will be present on the new date, which marks the 75th anniversary of the first victory parade held by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin as troops began returning home following the defeat of Nazi Germany. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev accepted Putin's invitation to attend the parade during a phone talk Tuesday, according to his presidential website. While Putin told Shoigu that "the peak for us has passed, according to the specialists," he also ordered him to take "the strictest security" measures to reduce any risks for participants. Mass marches known as "Immortal Regiments" of members of the public in memory of relatives who fought in the war will take place a month later, on July 26, because it's not possible to observe social distancing at these events and more time is needed for the virus to subside, Putin said. They had also been planned for May 9. SHANGHAI, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Unifive Technology Group is pleased to announce that the Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center was recently launched in the Science and Technology Innovation Center, located in the Shanghai Bay area. The center launched as an initiative out of the Global Blockchain Value and Application Seminar held on May 22, which brought together experts in the field. The seminar was chaired by Li Jingnan, vice chairman of the China Blockchain Ecological Alliance. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Yangtze Delta Region Institute of Tsinghua University, Shanghai Development Research Foundation, Shanghai Bay Area Tech Innovation Management Committee, China Internet Industry Chamber of Commerce Agricultural Internet Branch, and Unifive Technology Group. Sun Yinliang, director of the Shanghai Bay District Management Committee and Secretary of the Party Committee of Shanyang Town in Shanghai Jinshan District and Cao Xianfeng, executive deputy director of the Shanghai Bay District Management Committee and mayor of Shanyang Town in Shanghai Jinshan District attended the seminar. Experts, blockchain economists, and brand experts from well-known university blockchain laboratories, as well as representative public chain founders and entrepreneurs, discussed the impact of blockchain technology in value and application on future society, developing trends, and future market opportunities including technology, application, ecology, innovation, carrying and influence. Currently, the Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center has employed its first 16 experts including: Zheng Yannong from the Development Research Center of the State Council and former secretary-general of World Development Institute; Qiao Yide, vice chairman and secretary-general of Shanghai Development Research Foundation; Wu Yunda, party committee member and deputy secretary of the Zhejiang Yangtze Delta Region Institute of Tsinghua University; Wang Yingjie, chairman of the Agricultural Internet Branch of China Information Industry Chamber of Commerce; Ning Zhong, professor of the School of Management at Fudan University; Li Jiang, science and technology expert and former CTO of Microsoft China; Keith Chan, community director of Greater China; Chu Jiahai, UCOT co-founder and executive director of China-Australia Blockchain Association; Xian Junxing, head of the Deloitte Asia-Pacific Blockchain Lab and a partner in financial technology; Gao Chengshi who holds a Ph.D. in cryptography; Shi Xingguo, founder of the superblock chain and inventor of the global parallel chain technology; Wang Yingshuai, head of China's blockchain future talent development program under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China; Dr. Hou Longfeng who holds a Ph.D. in energy data mining from French National Lyon School of Applied Sciences; Tian Li, the former chairman of Shanghai Watch; Lu Rong, former senior vice president of Asia Pacific for Honeywell; and Wang Xiaomeng, founder of the Yoo Ecology Group. "We are pleased to bring all of these experts together at the Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center," said Jingnan Li, CEO of Unifive Technology Group. "The seminar that launched this great initiative is aimed at the explorers, and institutes and organizations that gather in the blockchain world to develop paths. In the future, every valuable blockchain will be more widely recognized and applied, and blockchain technology will also truly empower more manufacturing companies, thereby creating a high-quality ecological environment that meets both manufacturing and financial technology standards and ultimately promotes the positive and healthy development of the entire fintech industry." Going forward, the Global Blockchain Value and Application Research Center will launch a "Global Blockchain Value and Application Ranking" twice a month. The first list will be selected from 20 candidate blockchains, including public chains, alliance chains, and private chains, and released globally on June 22, 2020. As part of the evaluation criteria, experts adopted the blockchain evaluation index system, which includes an evaluation of technology, innovation, application, carrying, ecology, and influence and ranks candidates on a scale from A to D and 12 levels from A+ to D-. Those wishing to be future candidates should contact [email protected]. About Unifive Technology Group Unifive Technology Group is one of the earliest companies in China to carry out blockchain research and practice. It is China's leading comprehensive group company integrating cutting-edge technology, research and development, application landing, industrial integration, and technology. For more information, visit Unifivemedia.com. Related Images global-blockchain-value-and.jpg global blockchain value and application seminar in Shanghai The seminar was chaired by Li Jingnan, vice chairman of the China Blockchain Ecological Alliance. global-blockchain-value-and.jpg global blockchain value and application center global blockchain value and application center launched in Shanghai Bay Area Related Links China.com China Economic Times: SOURCE Unifive Technology Group Related Links http://Unifivemedia.com Ring, Nest, SimpliSafe and eight other manufacturers of internet-connected doorbell and security cameras have been alerted to "systemic design flaws" discovered by Florida Tech computer science student Blake Janes that allows a shared account that appears to have been removed to actually remain in place with continued access to the video feed. Janes discovered the mechanism for removing user accounts does not work as intended on many camera systems because it does not remove active user accounts. This could allow potential "malicious actors" to exploit the flaw to retain access to the camera system indefinitely, covertly recording audio and video in a substantial invasion of privacy or instances of electronic stalking. The findings were presented in the paper, "Never Ending Story: Authentication and Access Control Design Flaws in Shared IoT Devices," by Janes and two Florida Tech faculty members from the university's top institute for cybersecurity research, L3Harris Institute for Assured Information, Terrence O'Connor, program chair of cybersecurity, and Heather Crawford, assistant professor in computer engineering and sciences. Janes' work informed vendors about the vulnerabilities and offered several strategies to remediate the underlying problem. In recognizing the importance of the work, Google awarded him a $3,133 "bug bounty" for identifying a flaw in the Nest series of devices. Other vendors, including Samsung, have been communicating with Janes about recommended solutions to fix the vulnerability. The flaw is concerning in cases where, for example, two partners are sharing a residence and then divorce. Each has smartphone apps that access the same camera. Person A removes Person B's access to the camera, but that is never relayed to Person B's device. So Person B still has access even though it has been revoked on the camera and Person A's smartphone and the account password has been changed. The Florida Tech team found that this happens largely because the decisions about whether to grant access are done in the cloud and not locally on either the camera or the smartphones involved. This approach is preferred by manufacturers because it allows for the cameras to transmit data in a way that every camera does not need to connect to every smartphone directly. Additionally, manufacturers designed their systems so users would not have to repeatedly respond to access requests, which could become annoying and lead them to turn off that security check, were it in place, or abandon the camera altogether. And the security is further complicated by the fact that the potential malicious actor does not need advanced hacking tools to achieve this invasion, as the attack is achievable from the existing companion applications of the devices. "Our analysis identified a systemic failure in device authentication and access control schemes for shared Internet of Things ecosystems," the paper concluded. "Our study suggests there is a long road ahead for vendors to implement the security and privacy of IoT produced content." The devices where flaws were found are: Blink Camera, Canary Camera, D-Link Camera, Geeni Mini Camera, Doorbell and Pan/Tilt Camera, Merkury Camera, Momentum Axel Camera, Nest Camera Current and Doorbell Current, NightOwl Doorbell, Ring Pro Doorbell Current and Standard Doorbell Current, SimpliSafe Camera and Doorbell, and TP-Link Kasa Camera. Though fixes will originate with the manufacturers, if you have one of the aforementioned cameras, it is important to update to the current firmware. Additionally, customers concerned about their privacy after removing additional users should always change their passwords and power cycle their cameras. The paper is available under the Publications section at https://research.fit.edu/iot/. ### The Novagen DNA testing center is built and developed by a team of experts with many years of experience in the fields of DNA Technology, Molecular Genetics, Genetic Analysis, Biochemistry, DNA Inspection, Genomics, Bioinformatics, Pharmaceuticals and Biomedical. The managing director of this center is Dr. Dang Tran Hoang, a doctorate graduate in biotechnology at the Kochi University of Technology from Japan, and a graduate of Hanoi University of Pharmacy. Dr. Dang Tran Hoang is an expert in the fields of Molecular Biology, Genetic Analysis, DNA Technology, genomic research and next-gen sequencing system (NGS). DNA testing is the process of verifying a blood relationship between two people by comparing specific DNA markers in each person's genome. This process allows Novagen to determine the blood relationship between relatives in the family, including father, child, mother, siblings, sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew. DNA testing is considered an integral part of administrative procedures, such as the process of accepting a father for a child, the procedure for making a birth certificate when the parents are not registered for marriage, the process of naturalization for children if dad is a foreigner. Novagen is offering DNA testing services that focus on gene identification services, DNA testing, prenatal DNA testing, genetic testing and NIPT noninvasive prenatal screening. The Novagen testing laboratory is meeting the ISO 9001: 2015 standard and is the first company to apply 27 loci testing technology in DNA testing. The results are processed using the world's latest DNA testing and analysis software (GeneMapper ID-X) and are approved by a scientific council of laboratory examiners. DNA testing technology has evolved to the extent that it can be widely used to address life's problems such as verifying blood relationships, adopting an illegitimate son by a father, finding relatives, and screening for abnormalities. NIPT fetal defects., said Dr. Dang Tran Hoang, director of Novagen DNA center. Novvagen is equipped with a comprehensive system of modern DNA analysis equipment imported from the USA, South Korea, and Europe such as aseptic clean room system, machine Techne (UK) 3PrimeX PCR, and Applied Biosystems 3500 Series Genetic Analyzer. The staff is comprised of leading experts in Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, Medicine who are committed to providing DNA testing services with accurate results, absolute reliability and confidentiality of customer information. A multi-step system that controls the entire process of DNA extraction and analysis has helped minimize the possibility of human error. To ensure accuracy, each test at the center is repeated 2 times. Customers of Novagen can access various types of testing and services such as DNA tests for father and son, DNA test for the birth certificate, DNA tests for illegitimate son, prenatal DNA test, non-invasive fetal DNA test, DNA tests for mother and children, DNA testing for Bowel DNA, DNA tests for grandparents and grandchildren, DNA tests for relatives, screening for non-invasive birth defects, sequencing of new generation NGS gene. At Novagen, they are always researching for innovation and they are constantly updated with the latest technological advances in DNA sequencing in the world. Customers of this center can choose to get their results in as little as 4 hours or they can choose to wait 2 days. Eager customers who want to quickly see their results will have to pay a fee of 6,000,000 VND if they want to get them in 4 hours or 5,000,000 VND if they can wait for 12 hours. MEDIA CONTACT Address 1: 68 Trung Kinh, Cau Giay, Ha Noi Address 2: 112 Trung Kinh, Cau Giay, Ha Noi Phone: 0987.666.081 Email: xetnghiemnovagen@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XetNghiemADN.NOVAGEN/ Behance: https://www.behance.net/hoangvnu Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hoangvnu/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoangvnu/ A UK company analysed footage of the robbery in which detective garda Adrian Donohoe was shot dead to help gardai identify the vehicle used in the fatal shooting, a court has heard. This morning the jury in the trial of Aaron Brady, who denies capital murder, was hearing evidence in relation to reconstructions carried out by members of Acuity Forensics Ltd. Matthew Cass, a forensic imagery analyst, said that gardai asked for their assistance in identifying certain vehicles captured on CCTV in the vicinity of the murder. This included carrying out a reconstruction of the movements of one vehicle during the robbery at Lordship credit union on January 25, 2013. The experts also reconstructed CCTV footage taken from Sharkey's Bar, Clogherhead two days earlier, located close to where a Volkswagen Passat was stolen in the nearby Hillcrest estate. A Volkswagen Passat was used in the credit union robbery. Det Gda Gareth Kenna told the court that a number of different vehicles were used for the reconstructions. In the first demo, outside Sharkey's bar, three BMW vehicles were involved. One of these the court heard was a vehicle belonging to Suspect A, who the prosecution say was involved in the robbery but cannot be named for legal reasons. CCTV footage was then played of the reconstruction which was carried out in October 2017. Three vehicles- a Volkswagen Passat 08-D model, a Peugeot 508, and a new generation 11-LH Volkswagen Passat- were used in the reconstruction outside Lordship credit union. All of the examinations were carried out at night time to ensure there were similar conditions to the original footage, the court heard. CCTV footage from one camera showed a vehicle blocking the exit during the robbery, while two other camera angles showed the vehicle driving from the scene in the direction of the Ballymacscanlon roundabout. Det Gda Kenna said that limited information was given to the experts from Acuity to prevent any potential bias. The witness said it was his understanding that they carry out a blind assessment "so that they know nothing about the case and vehicles" of interest other than the footage they are being asked to view. Acuity director Matthew Cass, who was giving evidence via video link, also explained to the court how the company operates. The forensic imagery analyst said that they are given evidence from the CCTV system to undertake an analysis without any prior knowledge of what vehicles may or may not have been used. He agreed with prosecution counsel Lorcan Staines that he has received commendations from Chief Constables and Judges for his work. Mr Cass said that he did not have any "real expert input" in relation to the reconstruction for this investigation and that he mainly acted as a facilitator between his colleague Andy Wooller and gardai. His role included instructing the driver of the vehicle where to position the cars for the reconstruction. Mr Cass told the jury that he was an independent expert and that his evidence was for the court. He added that he may be instructed by the prosecution or defence but that he was an impartial expert. The court heard that the reconstructions were organised by gardai. The jury of six men and seven women will continue hearing evidence tomorrow morning. Aaron Brady, of New Road in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, has pleaded not guilty to the capital murder of Adrian Donohoe (41), who was then a member of An Garda Siochana acting in the course of his duty, at Lordship credit union in Bellurgan, Dundalk, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013. The accused also denies robbery of approximately 7,000 in cash and assorted cheques from Pat Bellew at the same location on the same date. his friend, Leonard Chiteka, were arrested for allegedly conning Chinese company of US$50 000 in a mining licensing deal. Former ZANU PF Central committee member, Munyaradzi Right Banda andhis friend, Leonard Chiteka, were arrested for allegedly conning Chinese company of US$50 000 in a mining licensing deal. Banda and Chiketa appeared at the Harare magistrates court yesterday charged with fraud.They were not asked to plead when they appeared before magistrate Barbra Mateko, who remanded them to July 28 on $2 000 bail each. The State led by Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleges that sometime in August 2019 World Wide Belt and Road Mining Development Corporation Zimbabwe was looking for a mining site along Nyamukwarara River in Manicaland. The court heard that Li Bowen, a Chinese national, told Banda and Chiteka that the chairman of World Wide Belt and Road Mining Development Corporation Zimbabwe was looking for a license to mine gold in Manicaland. It is alleged that Chiteka went to No.6 Phillips Avenue, Avondale in Harare where he told him that he could facilitate acquisition of a special mining license. Chiteka also allegedly indicated to the firms chairman that he was working along with Banda an officer in the Zimbabwe National army. Further allegations are that Chiteka teamed up with Banda and managed to convince the Chinese firms chairman that they could facilitate the acquisition of the gold mining license in Manicaland. They also allegedly asked for US$50 000 cash for the facilitation of the mining license. Prosecutor Mutizirwa alleges that Chiteka and Banda requested World Wide Belt and Road Mining Development Corporation Zimbabwes chairman to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement and Mandate Letter for the processing of the license. Acting upon the misrepresentation, the chairman of the said company allegedly gave Banda and Chiteka US$50 000 cash for the services. The International Labour Organization (ILO) will release the latest projections of the impact that the COVID-19 outbreak is having on workers and businesses worldwide. The ILO Monitor fourth edition: COVID-19 and the world of work, and accompanying press release, will be released on Wednesday 27 May at 14.00 Geneva time (12.00 GMT). This new report will outline the devastating effect the crisis is having on youth employment. It will also look at the impact on labour markets of measures to create a safe return to work. EMBARGO: The report and all associated materials will be under STRICT EMBARGO until Wednesday 27 May at 12:00 GMT (14:00 CET). For further information and to arrange media interviews, please contact the ILO Department of Communication: [email protected] MANISTEE COUNTY, MI Authorities have released the names of those involved in a murder-suicide in Manistee County. Aundre Lamont Hernandez II, 28, of Bear Lake, died at the scene in the 4300 block of Potter Road in Onekama Township at 7:30 a.m. on May 24. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Manistee County Sheriffs Office. Police investigate murder-suicide with 3 crime scenes in Manistee County According to witnesses, someone pulled into the driveway and shot Hernandez before driving off. A search of the area began. The suspect, identified as Stephen Gene-Henry Shawnoskey, was later located by Michigan State Police in Wellston where he attempted to car-jack a vehicle. Shawnoskey ran into a wooded area and shot himself before he could be arrested, MSP said. The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Police Department, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and local emergency workers assisted with the investigation. UPDATE: 9:45 P.M. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27: Peter Manfredonia was found and taken into custody in Maryland. *** NEWTOWN The attorney representing the family of a University of Connecticut student wanted in connection with two homicides says hes suffered from mental health issues for years, but the deadly crime spree came out of nowhere. On Tuesday, Peter Manfredonia remained on the run believed to be in the Poconos area of eastern Pennsylvania after police say he killed two people in Connecticut, including shooting his former Newtown High School classmate in the head, according to the states chief medical examiner. In an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, attorney Michael Dolan said Manfredonias parents had been in regular contact with him until the series of events began on Friday. His father, Robert Manfredonia, is facing charges of his own, according to Lt. Aaron Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Newtown Police Department. Robert Manfredonia, 54, of Newtown, is free on $50,000 bond after being charged in April with second-degree sexual assault, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and two counts of providing alcohol to a minor. According to his warrant, Robert Manfredonia provided alcohol to two underage teen girls in Newtown on April 10. One of the girls also told investigators they smoked a little weed, the warrant stated. After one of the girls left, Manfredonia groped the other teen, the warrant stated. When confronted the next day by the girls mother, Manfredonia did not deny or dispel the allegations, the warrant stated. Dolan said he was not aware of the charges against Robert Manfredonia. Robert Manfredonia declined to comment when reached Tuesday. Efforts to reach Peter Manfredonias mother, Jeanette, were unsuccessful. Dolan did not know when the last time Manfredonia spoke to his parents, but said they had a heightened concern about his history of mental health issues when they heard about the alleged crime spree. He certainly did have mental health issues, but he had no history of violence, Dolan said. This really came out of nowhere. His parents, who are divorced, are cooperating with the investigation, Dolan said. Peter Manfredonia grew up in his familys former home on the same Sandy Hook street as Adam Lanza, according to property records. According to posts on his social media feeds, Peter Manfredonia supported Sandy Hook charitable organizations that formed to end gun violence after Lanza killed 20 students and six educators in 2012. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all of the families and people impacted by the shootings and attacks linked to UConn student Peter Manfredonia, a statement reads from Sandy Hook Promise. We can confirm that he participated in an athletic event in 2019 and chose Sandy Hook Promise as one of his fundraising recipients. We hope he surrenders peacefully to the authorities and that no one else is hurt or killed. Peter Manfredona was recently living in an off-campus apartment in Storrs, according to Dolan, who did not know if he had any roommates. Dolan said hes trying to use the media to reach out to Peter Manfredonia, who was last seen in Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon and is considered armed and dangerous, according to police. On behalf of the family, Im pursuing every avenue to reach their child, including cooperation with police, Dolan said. Manfredonia, an accomplished football player and track athlete at Newtown High School where he graduated in 2015, is a senior at the University of Connecticut, where he is a finance and mechanical engineering student. Stephanie Reitz, a UConn spokeswoman, declined to comment whether Manfredonia had a disciplinary record at the school. UConn President Tom Katsouleas said in a statement that the university has been working with Connecticut state police and other agencies to help in the search for Manfredonia. The horrific and incomprehensible loss of life is reminiscent of so many other tragedies at so many other places around the country and the world, Katsouleas said. Though rare, we have been sadly reminded that none are immune from such random acts, and that they dont always happen somewhere else. Lt. John Aiello, commanding officer of the Connecticut state police Eastern District Major Crimes Squad, addressed Manfredonia during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the agencys Middletown headquarters. Peter, weve talked to your family. Weve talked to your friends and your roommates. All of them have said the same thing that this behavior is out of the ordinary for you, Aiello said. We know this is not who you are. While Aiello urged for Manfredonia to surrender, Pennsylvania state police said the fugitive has continued to elude authorities. Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Anthony Petroski said a black Hyundai Santa Fe with Pennsylvania license plate KYW-1650 was stolen around 9 p.m. Monday from the area where Manfredonia was last seen. However, he said police have not confirmed whether Manfredonia stole the vehicle. Bahamonde said Newtown police have increased their manpower for each shift and have taken a defensive standpoint in case Manfredonia returns to Connecticut. Bahamonde said Newtown police have assisted state troopers in conducting some searches in town, including at Robert Manfredonias Queen Street residence. Manfredonia was last seen Sunday afternoon in eastern Pennsylvania near the Poconos. The Pennsylvania state police said Manfredonia used an Uber to flee into East Stroudsburg Sunday afternoon after ditching a woman he kidnapped in Connecticut and her car at the New Jersey border. Pennsylvania state police have released an image of Manfredonia walking along railroad tracks carrying what appeared to be a large duffel bag shortly after he was dropped off by the Uber. Pennsylvania state police said they believe the bag is filled with guns Manfredonia is accused of stealing during a Connecticut home invasion over the weekend. It remains unknown what sparked the alleged crime spree that began Friday when police say Manfredonia attacked two men with a type of machete in upstate Connecticut. However, a source close to the investigation said Manfredonia was on his way to meet a former girlfriend when his motorcycle broke down in Willington. Theodore DeMers offered Manfredonia a ride on his ATV when police say the 62-year-old man was attacked with an edged weapon. A second man who came to the aid of DeMers was critically injured, police said. By Tuesday, officials said he was in stable condition. Chief Medical Examiner James Gill said DeMers death was caused by sharp force and chop injuries of head with sharp force injuries of torso and extremities. The manner of death was classified as homicide, Gill said. On Sunday, a Willington man reported being held captive by Manfredonia, who stole his guns, food, supplies and his truck during a home invasion, according to police. A few hours later, police recovered the stolen truck in Derby, setting off an extensive search that led authorities to a Roosevelt Drive home about a mile away. Police said video surveillance showed Manfredonia walking directly toward Nicholas Eiseles home between 5 and 6 a.m. Sunday. Eisele also graduated Newtown High in 2015 and was described by police as an acquaintance of Manfredonia. Gill said Eiseles cause of death was gunshot wounds of head. Gill said Eiseles manner of death was ruled homicide. By the time police arrived, Manfredonia had fled and kidnapped Eiseles girlfriend in her 2016 Volkswagen Jetta. The woman and the car were recovered later Sunday in New Jersey. Police said the woman was unharmed and returned to Connecticut where she was interviewed by investigators. Staff writers Ben Lambert, Rob Ryser and Kendra Baker contributed to this story. Anyone with any information is asked to call Derby police at 203-735-7811, state police at 860-896-3200 or the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI. Any sightings of Manfredonia should be called in to 911. Huge swarms of desert locusts are destroying crops across western and central India, prompting authorities today to step up their response to the country's worst plague in nearly three decades. Drones, tractors and cars have been sent out to track the voracious pests and spray them with pesticides. The locusts have already destroyed nearly 125,000 acres of cropland. 'Eight to 10 swarms, each measuring around a square kilometre (0.4 square miles) are active in parts of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,' the government's Locust Warning Organisation's deputy director K.L. Gurjar told AFP. The insects caused massive damage to seasonal crops in both states, devastating many farmers already struggling with the impact of a strict coronavirus lockdown. In this photograph taken yesterday a resident tries to fend off swarms of locusts from a mango tree in a residential area of Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan In this photograph taken yesterday, swarms of locusts are seen on top of a residential building in Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan People wait in a line to board a train that will take them to their home state of Uttar Pradesh, during an extended lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Mumbai, India today. India has become the fourth most-affected country They destroyed harvests in the agricultural heartlands of neighbouring Pakistan in April, before entering Rajasthan. Smaller swarms are also active in a handful of states across India, Gurjar said. A swarm of 40 million locusts can eat as much food as 35,000 people - or six elephants - according to UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. Residential areas in the state capital Jaipur were overwhelmed by the insects as bewildered locals banged on pots and pans to try and ward off the insects. Experts warn the situation could worsen with more expected to reach India via Pakistan from the Horn of Africa in June. Heavy rains and cyclones enabled unprecedented breeding and the rapid growth of locust populations on the Arabian peninsula early last year, according to the United Nations. India has not seen locust swarms on this scale since 1993 when it experienced a widespread plague, the warning centre said. Locusts destroy crops in some parts of Rajasthan close to the border with Pakistan most years, but it is rare for the insects to move further into the state. Wind patterns have been pushing the swarms southwest, the locust warning centre said. Coronavirus infections rose by 6,535 in India today, leading the country to become the fourth most affected by the virus worldwide. The South Asian nation now trails only Russia, Brazil and the US on total number of cases. Despite its new ranking, New Delhi has continued to maintain a relatively low death rate. Today health ministry officials reported a total of 145,380 coronavirus infections and a death toll of 4,167. They said that Indias death rate stood at 0.3 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to what they said was a world average of 4.4. It may be a couple of weeks before we really see an increase, Burman said. Were going to be a little more methodical to ensure that we keep you safe. As of Tuesday, the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa System had reported 115 confirmed COVID-19 cases among veterans and 14 deaths, according to a tracker on the VAs national website, accesstocare.va.gov. That is more deaths than were recorded combined in the rest of Iowa (6), South Dakota (2), Kansas (1) and Wyoming (0), and also more than in such large VA health care systems as Los Angeles and San Diego. Seventy-seven Nebraska-Western Iowa patients have recovered, while 24 are still being treated, according to the website. Three VA employees reportedly tested positive. Nationally, the VA lists 13,347 known positive cases among veterans, and 1,133 deaths. In his video, Burman said veterans visiting clinics in Nebraska and western Iowa will still be required to wear masks. If they dont have one, a mask will be provided. PUNE, India, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global point of use water treatment systems market size is anticipated to witness significant growth on account of the increasing levels of water pollution, attributed to the rise in urbanization and industrialization, coupled with the increasing importance of clean water. As per a recent report by Fortune Business Insights titled, "Point of use water treatment systems market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Product Type (Under The Counter Filters, Counter Top Filters, Pitcher Filters, Faucet-mounted Filters, and Others), By Category (RO Filters, UV Filters, Gravity Filters, and Others), By Application (Residential and Light Commercial) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027," the market value stood at USD 17.30 Billion in 2019 and is anticipated to rise at a CAGR of 8.1% to reach USD 32.20 Billion by 2027. The outbreak of COVID-19 is expected to have a significant impact on the growth of the market. The year-on-year growth rate is estimated to decline for the next two years as compared to the earlier. Therefore, the market is expected to grow at a lower CAGR during the forecast period. Point of use water treatment systems market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016-2027 The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this, too, shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. Some industries are struggling, and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic. We are making continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreak across industries to help you prepare for the future. To Get the Short-Term and Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on this Market. Please Visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/covid19-impact/point-of-use-water-treatment-systems-market-102814 List of key Companies Profiled in the vendors in the Point of Use (POU) Water Treatment Systems Market Research Report are: Global Water Solutions Ltd. ( USA ) ) Panasonic Corporation ( Japan ) ) Best Water Technology Group ( Austria ) ) Katadyn Group ( Switzerland ) ) General Ecology Inc. ( USA ) ) A. O. Smith Corporation ( USA ) ) Culligan International Company ( USA ) ) LG Electronics ( South Korea ) ) Kent RO Systems Ltd. ( India ) ) Eureka Forbes Ltd. ( India ) ) Brita LP ( USA ) ) Unilever PLC (UK) Helen of Troy Limited ( USA ) ) Coway Co. Ltd. ( South Korea ) ) Pentair PLC ( USA ) ) Other vendors The Report Answers the following Questions? How fierce is the competition of the market? What are the key trends, and current industry developments of the market? Which strategies are executed by market players? How far is the success rate? What is the impact of smart purifiers on the point of-use water treatment system market? Drivers & Restraints: Advent of Smart Water Treatment Systems will Add Impetus to Market The increasing levels of water pollution, rise in prevalence of water-borne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, malaria, anemia, dengue, and others, and the rising importance of clean drinking water are the major point of use water treatment systems market growth drivers. In addition to this, the implementation of advanced technology in terms of water purification systems primarily focuses on removing harmful contaminants, and complete water purification for home and light commercial buildings, thereby adding impetus to the market. On the negative side, water purification systems such as ultra-violet filters and reverse osmosis filters are expensive and the maintenance costs of such systems are also high. This poses a major challenge to the market. Nevertheless, the introduction of the Internet of Things and the advent of smart point of-use water treatment systems may create lucrative growth opportunities for the market in the coming years. Browse Summary of This Research Insights with Detailed TOC: ttps://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/point of-use-water-treatment-systems-market-102814 Segment: RO Filters Segment to Dominate Owing to High Preference for Treating Hard Water Based on category, RO filters segment dominated the market was dominated in 2019 on account of the highly advanced membrane filtration technology that guarantees 99% of the germ removal from water, thereby offering pure water. Besides this, RO filters are also considered to be the best solution for treating hard water. However, the UV filters segment earned a 22.8% share in the market. Regional Analysis- Asia Pacific to Register Fastest Growth Rate Owing to Increasing Adoption of Water Treatment Systems Asia Pacific earned the largest point of use water treatment systems market share and is expected to rise at a CAGR of 9.7% in the forecast period. Factors attributed to the growth of this region are rising awareness about the advantages of water treatment systems. In addition to this, China is one of the major consumers of water treatment systems. This is followed by Japan, Australia, and South Korea. Other regions such as North America and Europe are anticipated to register considerable growth in the foreseeable future. In 2019, the market in North America earned USD 4.29 billion on account of the presence of large commercial manufacturers and the well-established distribution network in the region. Competitive Landscape- Key Players Invest in R&D of Better Water Treatment Systems for Better Revenue Generation Currently, the market is fragmented on account of the presence of many players. A majority of players are engaging and investing massively on research and development of several point of-use water treatment system products with higher efficiency and at reasonable operational costs. Such initiatives taken by companies will help them gain a competitive edge in the market. Some of the key Industry Developments of the Point of use water treatment systems market are listed below: February 2019 Brita, a German water purifier company entered India with its latest range of water purifiers called "MyPure Max". Brita also invested an esti9mated USD 5.3 million and more into this new project located in India to launch its products at low prices, thereby expanding its portfolio across the Indian market. December 2019 A new water purifier was introduced by Kent RO systems with the latest zero wastewater technology. Kent RO Systems aims at reducing the wastewater and recycle as much water as possible, without compromising with the mineral contents. Quick Buy Point of use water treatment systems market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/102814 Detailed Table of Content: Introduction Research Scope Market Segmentation Research Methodology Definitions and Assumptions Executive Summary Market Dynamics Market Drivers Market Restraints Market Opportunities Key Insights Key Emerging Trends in Global Market Latest Technological Advancements Insights on Regulatory Scenario Porters Five Forces Analysis Key developments: Acquisition, Collaboration, Strategic Partnership, and Joint Venture Global Point of use water treatment systems market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Product Type, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Product Type Under the counter filters Counter top filters Pitcher filters Faucet-mounted filters Others Global Point of use water treatment systems market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Category, 2016-2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast By Category RO filters UV filters Gravity filters Others TOC Continued!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/point-of-use-water-treatment-systems-market-102814 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Water and WasteWater Treatment Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Segment (Chemicals {pH Conditioners, Coagulants & Flocculants, Disinfectants & Biocidal Products, Scale & Corrosion Inhibitors, Antifoam Chemicals, Other Chemicals}, Equipment {Biological, Filtration, Sludge Treatment, Disinfection, and Other Equipment}, Services), By Application, and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Water Clarifiers Market Size, Share, and Industry Analysis, By Type (Flocculants, Organic Coagulants, Inorganic Coagulants, Ph Stabilizers), By Application (Municipal, Pulp & Paper, Textiles, Petrochemicals, Metals & Mining, Others), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026. Liquid Waste Management Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Source (Residential, Commercial & Industrial), By Industrial (Paper & Pulp, Chemical & Petrochemicals, Food & Beverages, Textile & Tannery and Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Industrial Filtration Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Air & Gas Filtration, and Liquid Filtration), By Filter Media (Activated Carbon, Fiberglass, Nonwovens, Metals, Filterpaper, and Combination Filters), By Application (Food & Beverage, Power Generation, Semiconductors & Electronics, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Healthcare, Metals & Mining, Paper & Paints), and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Water Chiller market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Scroll, Screw, Centrifugal), By Capacity (0 100 Kw, 101 350 Kw, 351 700 Kw, >700 Kw) By Industry (Plastic & Rubber, Food & Beverage, Chemical & Petrochemical, Pharmaceuticals and Other) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Water Treatment Chemicals Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Coagulants & Flocculants, Corrosion & Scale Inhibitors, pH Adjusters & Stabilizers, Anti-foaming Agents, Biocides & Disinfectants, Others), By End-Use Industry (Municipal, Oil & gas, Mining, Power, Paper & Pulp, Food & Beverage, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 About Us Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them to address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data. At Fortune Business Insights, we aim at highlighting the most lucrative growth opportunities for our clients. We, therefore, offer recommendations, making it easier for them to navigate through technological and market-related changes. Our consulting services are designed to help organizations identify hidden opportunities and understand current competitive challenges. Contact Us: Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US: +1-424-253-0390 UK: +44-2071-939123 APAC: +91-744-740-1245 Email: [email protected] Fortune Business Insights LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Read Press Release : https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/point of-use-water-treatment-systems-market-9949 SOURCE Fortune Business Insights Increasing modernization across enterprises has led to the growing adoption of BYOD trend. The need to manage personal mobile devices and monitor wireless networks is expected to support the enterprise mobility market growth. Additionally, factors including employee convenience, productivity, and work interoperability are driving enterprises to enable a flexible work environment. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/352 The enterprise mobility software segment is poised to grow at a CAGR of above 15% during the forecast period. The growth is driven by growing need to secure corporate data and mobile devices in the company. The mobile security management software helps in securing corporate data, device protection, application security, and manage the access to corporate network. This also provides advanced security to mobile devices with insufficient security measures. The laptop segment in the enterprise mobility market is anticipated to grow at a highest growth rate of nearly 20% till 2026. Major corporate employees use laptops for business work as these devices provide the required performance capabilities. Laptops also support large-scale data processing and communication applications. Employees majorly leverage laptops for portable and easy accessibility. In addition, it can also connect remotely to the corporate network by using enterprise collaboration software. The demand for cloud-based enterprise mobility solutions is growing across organizations due to increasing popularity of SaaS-based solutions. Employees need to travel frequently for business requirements while a few employees work remotely from home. Companies are required to monitor the use of corporate network to ensure privacy and flexibility. The cloud-based enterprise mobility solution helps companies to monitor and manage these remote devices and utilize network resources to focus on business productivity. The adoption of enterprise mobility management solutions across the retail sector is rising significantly, registering around 15% growth through 2026. Well-established retail enterprises are adopting enterprise mobility solutions for securing retail data, POS devices, and endpoints. Retailers are leveraging location analytics to collect data from remote locations, focus on optimizing store performance, and provide better customer experience. These solutions allow retailers to monitor and manage the retail network. This help companies to eliminate the need for additional security solutions and reduce the capital expenditure. The Asia Pacific region is predicted to dominate more than 25% enterprise mobility market share by 2026. Organizations across China, India, and South Korea are using enterprise mobility solutions to protect wireless networks and secure mobile devices. In addition, companies in the region are developing innovative solutions for enterprise customers. Major players providing enterprise mobility solutions are VMware Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Blackberry Limited, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, etc. Companies operating in the market are focusing on the development of innovative enterprise mobility solutions. The vendors are continuously identifying enterprise requirements and developing these solutions as per the business environment. This is expected to support the enterprises' demand for enterprise mobility solutions to safeguard their IT infrastructure. Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/352 Table of Contents (ToC) of the report: Chapter 3. Enterprise Mobility Market Insights 3.1. Introduction 3.2. Industry segmentation 3.3. Industry landscape, 2016 - 2026 3.4. Impact of COVID-19 outbreak 3.5. Enterprise mobility evolution 3.6. Enterprise mobility industry ecosystem analysis 3.7. Technology & innovation landscape 3.7.1. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) 3.7.2. AI embedded enterprise mobility 3.7.3. Rollout of 5G communications 3.8. Regulatory landscape 3.9. Global 3.9.1. The ISA/IEC 62443 standard 3.9.2. North America 3.9.2.1. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 1996 (U.S.) 3.9.2.2. Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), 2000 (Canada) 3.9.3. Europe 3.9.3.1. General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 3.9.3.2. Data Protection Act, 1998 (UK) 3.9.4. APAC 3.9.4.1. Information Security Technology- Personal Information Security Specification GB/T 35273-2017 (China) 3.9.4.2. Secure India National Digital Communications Policy 2018 Draft (India) 3.9.5. Latin America 3.9.5.1. National Directorate of Personal Data Protection (Argentina) 3.9.5.2. The Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD) 3.9.6. MEA 3.9.6.1. Law No. 13 of 2016 on protecting personal data (Qatar) 3.9.6.2. Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on the use of ICT in Healthcare (UAE) 3.10. Industry impact forces 3.10.1. Growth drivers 3.10.2. Industry pitfalls & challenges 3.11. Growth potential analysis 3.12. Porter's analysis 3.13. PESTEL analysis Browse Complete Table of Contents (ToC) @ https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/enterprise-mobility-management-market About Global Market Insights, Inc. Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: +1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: sales@gminsights.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661916/GMI.jpg SOURCE Global Market Insights, Inc. Radio amateur and friend missing in Victoria Radio amateur Russell Hill, 74, and family friend Carol Clay, 73, were last reported being seen on March 20 On May 23 ,the Sydney Morning Herald reported: Carol Clay, 73, and family friend Russell Hill, 74, have not been seen since they embarked on a camping trip to Wonnangatta Valley, about 250 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, on March 19. Mr Hill, an amateur radio enthusiast, contacted one of his friends on March 20, telling him that he was setting up camp, but could not talk for long as it was getting dark. Source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/missing-persons-squad-combs-bushland-in-victoria-s-high-country-20200523-p54vsi.html On May 25, 7 News reported: Scott McDonald, an avid camper himself, claims he saw the pair camping at Pikes Flat, about a month before they went missing. The 74- and 73-year-old went missing from the Wonnangatta area on March 20. McDonald said the two friends introduced themselves to him after he set up camp next to them, adding he chatted to Hill, but not so much to Clay. Russell had some wires strung up in the tree and we were asking him what it was but he was using the ham radio, he said. Source: https://7news.com.au/news/vic/missing-victorian-campers-russell-hill-and-carol-clay-seen-camping-together-month-before-disappearance-c-1057655 Daily Mail report of April 20 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8235585/Police-look-vehicle-missing-camper.html The Canberra Region Amateur Radio club report Russell Hill could hold the callsign VK3VZP which is listed to a Russell A. Hill in Victoria https://www.facebook.com/180046592200330/posts/check-your-logs-please-assist-police-in-a-missing-persons-casepolice-have-ended-/1372159999655644/ (Los Angeles Times) Elon Musk is a billionaire who will, on occasion, tweet ridiculous things, act impulsively, display a prodigious ego and act as if the law doesn't apply to him. And now he's throwing a tantrum that threatens the state's ability to move safely and smartly out its current lockdown. It would be great if we could just ignore Musk as he broadcast his sometimes trenchant, sometimes bizarre musings to 34 million Twitter followers. ("I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house.") But he's also the leader of Tesla and Space X, which employ thousands of people. On Monday, Musk defied Alameda County health department orders and reopened Tesla's electric car manufacturing plant in Fremont, tweeting Monday afternoon, "I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me." Insisting that Gov. Gavin Newsom had given "essential" businesses permission to reopen, the company said on its website Saturday that it would restart the Fremont factory in keeping with a plan developed in consultation with county officials and modeled after its "smooth and healthy" operations in Shanghai. The problem is that Alameda County hasn't signed off on that plan. Instead, county health officials have said they'd like Tesla to hold off for a few days until they see results from the county's first steps to ease its shelter-in-place order. That delay seems reasonable, given how volatile the pandemic has been. Nevertheless, it was too much for Musk; on Saturday, he tweeted that he was "moving Tesla's headquarters and future programs" to Texas or Nevada "immediately," and the company sued the county for allegedly violating its constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law. We get it, it's hard out here for an entrepreneur! And for everybody else. Unemployment is skyrocketing and the economy is in free-fall, largely because of the restrictions that were designed to prevent COVID-19 from overwhelming the healthcare system. But getting back to the pre-coronavirus status quo won't be easy, given the risk that the pandemic will flare up again and force more lockdowns. That's why the decisions on which businesses and activities resume when need to be made by people who are accountable to the public, not billionaire CEOs who threaten to pull up stakes when they don't get their way. Or any business owners who, like Musk, consider themselves better judges of the public good than the government. Newsom's May 4 executive order explicitly gives local governments the authority to adopt more restrictive COVID-19 measures than the state's orders where necessary. Alameda County's steps need to be reasonable, and it needs to get businesses open as soon as it is safe to do so. But that's the county's call to make, not Musk's. PORTLAND, Ore., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to urgent questions flooding in from small business owners, experts at The Caputo Group are sharing their client advice with the community during weekly webinars and Q & A sessions. The webinars take place every Thursday at noon, covering the latest information from official sources that directly impact the health and security of small businesses. "We're excited to have two representatives from Senator Merkley's office with us to answer pressing questions for the small business community," said Hunter Caputo, CEO of The Caputo Group. This week, they welcome special guest speakers from Senator Jeff Merkley's (OR, D) office: Jake Oken-Berg , Sen. Merkley's business liaison , Sen. Merkley's business liaison Allison Hunt , Sen. Merkley's economic policy lead This week's webinar will cover: Federal economic relief updates the HEROES Act Emerging economic policy for Oregon's recovery To register for the 60 minute webinar, please visit: http://www.caputo-group.com/covid-19-sb-webinar/ The Caputo Group offers additional resources on their website to help small to midsize businesses navigate COVID-19. Through the website, business owners can sign up for a free personalized consultation from experts in restaurants, cannabis, brewing, construction and more. "With so many businesses struggling we've created this webinar to assist small businesses in the NW and beyond," said Hunter Caputo, CEO of The Caputo Group. Visit The Caputo Group at http://www.caputo-group.com/ for regular updates so you can stay informed of your rights and responsibilities as an employer as well as economic relief legislation. About The Caputo Group: Caputo Group, a local, family-owned Professional Employer Organization (PEO), offers complete support services for small to midsize businesses so they can focus on their craft. For over 25 years, The Caputo Group has saved NW business owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential compliance issues and lawsuits. Because they remove so many business tasks, the majority of their clients have seen their businesses grow by an average of 15%. CONTACT: Katherine Tice (503) 944-9782 [email protected] SOURCE The Caputo Group Related Links http://www.caputo-group.com Hungary aims to lift a state of emergency spurred by the coronavirus crisis on June 20, its justice minister has said, as the government prepared a bill ending the power to rule by a decree which drew international condemnation. An anti-coronavirus defence bill adopted on March 30 by the Hungarian parliament enabled right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban to rule by decree until his cabinet declared an end to its state of danger declared on March 11 owing to the COVID-19 crisis. Orban had argued that ruling by decree allowed him to respond quickly and effectively during the emergency. Orban said on Tuesday that Parliament could at any time cancel the special powers to manage the country without parliaments consent, which he said were necessary to curb the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout. Asked to clarify whether that meant the special powers would also end on June 20 in addition to the standard state of emergency invoked to tackle a crisis, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said the two by definition go hand in hand. Justice Minister Judit Varga, announcing the June 20 target for lifting the emergency in a Facebook post, described the international criticism as unfounded attacks. She added: We expect [our critics] to apologise for waging a smear campaign instead of cooperating on defence [against the coronavirus]. Parliament, dominated by Orbans Fidesz party, was expected to vote to rescind his emergency powers in the coming weeks. Hungary reported a total of 3,771 coronavirus cases and 499 deaths as of Tuesday, fairly low numbers compared with other European Union countries due to an early and strict lockdown, which the government has been gradually easing since early May. Orbans power to rule by decree continued with parliament in session. His latest decree stipulated government approval for major foreign stakes in domestic firms until the end of 2020. Orban, who has extended his influence over many walks of life in the central European country during his 10 years in power, faces his toughest challenge as the economy is expected to slide into a coronavirus-induced recession this year. Flash A further 92 COVID-19 patients have died in the past 24 hours in Italy, bringing the country's toll to 32,877 out of 230,158 cases of infection, the Civil Protection Department said on Monday. Nationwide, the number of active infections dropped by 1,294 to 55,300 cases. Of those who tested positive for the new coronavirus, 541 are in intensive care, 12 fewer compared to Sunday, and 8,185 are hospitalized with symptoms, down by 428 patients from Sunday. The rest, 46,574 people, or about 84 percent of those who tested positive, are quarantined at home with no or only mild symptoms. Recoveries rose by 1,502 compared to Sunday, bringing the nationwide total to 141,981. Meanwhile, Italy started serological screening tests at the national level on Monday on a sample of 150,000 people to better understand how much the virus has spread across the resident population, and to ramp up the fight against the pandemic. The screening will be carried out by some 700 volunteers of the Italian Red Cross through 21 regional operative centers under the coordination of a national support center, the Health Ministry stated. The sample of the population, selected with the help of the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), includes six different age groups categorized according to gender, employment profile and region of residence. The highest number of tests will be carried out in northern Lombardy (13,000), Veneto (13,000), Emilia Romagna (12,000) and Piedmont (10,000) -- the four regions most affected by the pandemic -- followed by the others according to their epidemiological situation. Each person will take part in the screening on a voluntary basis only, and his/her personal data would remain anonymous and protected, the Health Ministry specified. In case the serological test is positive -- suggesting the person has been exposed to the coronavirus and is developing immunity (even without symptoms of the disease) -- a swab test would follow to confirm or dismiss the result. In related news on Monday, Italy's Regional Affairs Minister Francesco Boccia warned that the easing of restrictions on inter-regional movement -- planned on June 3 -- might be postponed if Italians were not to behave prudently in their social life. This warning came after gatherings of people -- in several cases not respecting social distancing rules and not wearing face masks -- were seen in nightlife areas in some cities on Saturday and Sunday, including in northern Milan, Brescia (the seaside city of Rimini), some areas in Rome, and Messina in Sicily, according to the respective local authorities. "We were not surprised by what took place last weekend," Boccia told La Stampa newspaper in an interview. "It is understandable for people to be eager to stay outdoors after two months (of lockdown). However, we cannot forget we are still in the COVID-19 pandemic. "Most citizens are respecting the rules and they are outraged at seeing the behavior of the few (who do not)," he stressed. He explained that next weekend the government will evaluate the latest data on the contagion and it might deem it "unavoidable to take all the necessary time" before allowing inter-regional movement again. The spread of the virus has perceptibly slowed down in recent weeks after first striking the country in late February. On May 18, the ten-week lockdown imposed on March 10 was further eased and shops, restaurants, bars, barbershops, beauty salons, museums and beachfront operators were all allowed to reopen on condition that they respect the rules on social distancing and regularly disinfect their facilities. SANTIAGO, Chile - Intensive care units in Chiles hospitals are nearly at capacity amid a flood of coronavirus patients, authorities said Tuesday, and doctors are having to make wrenching choices over which patients should get available beds. Health officials said 95% of the countrys 2,400 ICU beds are occupied even after a doubling of capacity from the levels in March. They announced plans to add 400 more critical care beds in the coming days. This is an extraordinarily difficult time, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. A nation of 18 million people, Chile has the third most coronavirus cases in the region, after Brazil and Peru, with an average of 4,000 new infections reported daily. About 15% of the cases require hospitalization. That is forcing Chilean physicians to face a dilemma that previously confronted doctors in hard-hit nations like Italy and Spain: Which patient with coronavirus should be given the last available bed? Khaty Barriga, mayor of the populous commune of Maipu, said there was only one respirator free for use Tuesday at the El Carmen de Maipu hospital. His area is part of the Santiago metropolitan region, which has had more than 80% of the nearly 78,000 coronavirus cases and just over 800 deaths recorded in Chile. Dr. Claudia Vega, head of the hospitals ICU, had said Monday in a television interview that right now I am choosing which bed is going to be vacated and choose the right person, which is the right one. May God enlighten me in this, she said. The Chilean Society of Intensive Medicine, which consults with hundreds of hospitals and clinics daily, said the occupancy of critical care beds in the greater Santiago area stood at 97%. A report from the University of Chile said the increase in new cases suggests a possible complete saturation of the system this week. The Santiago region is home to 8 million people, who have been under mandatory orders for isolation at home for 11 days. Except for a 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew, residents are allowed to obtain permission online to venture outside to perform necessary tasks, such as grocery shopping and taking pets for brief walks. A senior minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet has hit out at the Kolkata Mayor for not seeking suggestions of party veterans and experienced ministers while dealing with the destruction caused by the super cylone Amphan last week. State Consumer Affairs Minister Sadhan Pandey said the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Firhad Hakim, should have convened a meeting of senior party functionaries after the cyclone ravaged the metropolis. It is unfortunate that the Kolkata mayor didnt seek suggestions and advice of senior party leaders and experienced MLAs. He should have call a meeting to discuss how to rebuild Kolkata and seek our suggestions on the matter, said Pandey. Pandey said that as no collective effort is not in place, he has decided to start rebuilding work in affected areas in his constituency on his own. It is immaterial whether I am happy or not. What matters is that people are suffering. Since, he (mayor) has not invited senior party MLAs and leaders for suggestions, I have decided to work alone for my people. Hakim, however, said Pandey should have reached out to him directly if he had any suggestion on the matter. It is not the time for me to consult each and every individual in this crisis. They should be on the streets to resolve issues of the people rather than attending closed-door meetings. I think that such times of devastation, I should be out solving peoples problems instead of conducting meetings. I would rather appreciate people like her (pointing towards a sweeper) who is not sitting in a chamber for meetings, but working hard to clear the roads of Kolkata, a visibly annoyed Firhad Hakim said. With the combined power of three hurricanes, Cyclone Amphan devastated large parts of Kolkata and adjoining districts of South and North 24-Parganas on May 20. Though electricity and essential services have largely been restored in Kolkata and the municipal towns, people are still complaining about irregular drinking water supply. Locals staged protests in several of the city demanding immediate restoration of drinking water supply and spoke out against the administrations alleged lapse in restoring normalcy in the metropolis. Hakim, however, said water supply has been restored in areas under KMC. When told that due to lack of electricity in some areas, water supply has been badly affected, the mayor said, Restoring electricity is not my responsibility. There are departments who are looking into the crisis. Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had requested people to cooperate with the state government in normalising situation. So far the death toll due to Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal has risen to 86. Klausutis said in the letter, sent last week, that his wife had an undiagnosed heart condition, fell and hit her head on her desk at work. He called her death the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with" and said he feels a marital obligation to protect her memory amid a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died. 05/26/2020 Photo (c) sesame - Getty Images The longer the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic goes on, the more scientists studying the virus learn new things about it. Many of these new things overturn previous assumptions. For example, an early assumption was that the coronavirus was highly contagious. It is, scientists say, but only from a small number of people who get it, not from the majority who get sick. A recent article in Science magazine cites data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and interviews with researchers that suggest most of the cases of COVID-19 can be traced to so-called superspreader events, where 30 or more people are gathered in an enclosed space. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) linked an outbreak in a migrant worker dormitory in Singapore to almost 800 cases. The gatherings dont have to be huge to become superspreader events. Live music locations in Osaka, Japan are believed to have contributed to as many as 80 infections, and 65 cases are linked to Zumba classes in South Korea. The scientists say thats why there have been so many outbreaks at nursing homes, ski resorts, prisons, hospitals, and churches. Social distancing and avoiding large groups The takeaway from this latest research suggests policies of social distancing and canceling sporting events that attract arenas full of people may have kept the toll from the virus from being even worse. At the same time, the scientists interviewed for the article say other restrictions might be eased. If you can predict what circumstances are giving rise to these events, the math shows you can really, very quickly curtail the ability of the disease to spread, UCLAs Jamie Lloyd-Smith told the magazine. The study of the diseases spread has led scientists to a rather startling conclusion. A few people with the virus appear to give it to nearly everyone they come in contact with. Others dont spread it at all. Adam Kucharski, a scientist at LSHTM, estimates that about 10 percent of COVID-19 cases lead to 80 percent of the spread. Beyond advising people to avoid being in large groups, the researchers say their efforts are aimed at being better able to predict the risk of infection. In doing so, they say mitigation efforts can be more precisely targeted and not shut down wide swaths of the economy. New Jersey native Bill Stepien helped Gov. Chris Christie win two terms. He just got a higher-profile role to do the same for President Donald Trump. Stepien, who had been White House political director before joining the Trump campaign in December, was announced Tuesday as deputy campaign manager of the presidents re-election effort. In his former role, Stepien worked to organize the re-election efforts on the state and local level, made sure the president was on the ballot in all 50 states, and oversaw the delegate selection for the 2020 Republican National Convention in August. Stepien also was working for other Republican candidates, including Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd Dist., who switched parties. As we enter the most important stretch of the campaign, it is important to have seasoned and steady people on our leadership team, each with their own strengths, and each with an unwavering focus on victory," Campaign Manager Brad Parscale said. Stepien had been national field director for Trumps first presidential campaign after managing Christies two runs for governor. He was named state Republican chairman in 2014. But Christie severed ties with Stepien as the Bridgegate scandal unfolded and investigators found emails between him and some of those involved. Stepien was never charged, and the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned the convictions of two former Christie aides. Another New Jersey native, Michael Glassner, serves as chief operating officer of the Trump re-election committee. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control wants to make it easier for some bars, wineries, distilleries and breweries to sell alcohol to-go during the coronavirus pandemic, but there are local hurdles. Businesses that primarily sell alcohol and do not have their own kitchens will now be allowed to sell beverages to-go in sealed containers as long as they partner with a food-providing business and sell alcoholic beverages in conjunction with a meal. In Napa County, though, the relaxation of regulations only further contributed to confusion around mixed messages from state officials, according to David Morrison, the countys director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services. State guidance has been somewhat contradictory, Morrison said Tuesday. While Stage 2 reopening says that wineries, following appropriate precautions, may reopen to serve alcohol with a sit-down meal, the states COVID-19 website says wineries are not permitted to operate now. The state is going two different directions. We are very aware of (the new regulations), he said. Pouring a glass of wine and pairing it with food essentially amounts to a wine tasting, Morrison explained, still forbidden in Napa County. Further complicating things are individual winery use permits the majority of which expressly disallow meal service, and many of which do not allow for any kind of food service on winery premises. Its a kind of gray area for wineries, C. Mondavi CEO Judd Wallenbrock said. It isnt clear how the use permit for Charles Krug, C. Mondavis flagship property and the oldest winery in Napa Valley, will play into the relaxation, he added. Can we open up our pizza oven and have people sit at the tables outside? Were inclined to think so, and were prepared to do that, but were trying not to do anything (out of compliance) or that would make people hesitate, Wallenbrock said. The winery is conscious of how the Napa community might respond to its reopening, he continued, and wants to make sure its crossed the is and dotted the ts. The relaxations might better aid bars and breweries businesses whose models are more compatible with food service. Even for Napa Countys downtown, standalone tasting rooms, most of which can serve food because they do not require use permits, the new regulations arent of much help, according to Adam Housley, owner of Housley Winery. His downtown tasting room has been offering curbside pickup and delivery since mid-March, and though he commended the ABC for its work to help businesses, the most recent round of relaxations from the state dont make a lot of sense, he said. For us, its like our customers can already take bottles of wine to go, so how is this different? Housley said. I can serve one glass to go if I have food inside? In some ways, that opens up more opportunity for contamination, especially if you dont normally serve food. Hes been frustrated by the states reopening phases, which included restaurants but not tasting rooms as part of Stage 2. Theres been ample time for tasting rooms to prepare as restaurants have, Housley said. ABC Director Jacob Appelsmith acknowledged that businesses have suffered during shutdowns. We have heard directly from these businesses that the notices of regulatory relief can give them a boost and help bring more people back to work, he said in a statement on Friday. The ABC has also allowed alcohol-selling businesses to expand their footprints to areas like parking lots and sidewalks to promote physical distancing, offer free delivery and complete transactions for alcohol via walk-up windows and slide-out trays. Housley, for his part, said hed been in communications with the ABC and with Napas Chamber of Commerce as well as local law enforcement to discuss the idea of loosening open container laws in downtown Napa during the day from Thursday through Sunday. The city of Sonoma makes a similar allowance on its downtown square, he said, and doing the same in Napa could help to ensure patrons can adequately distance from one another. This could be the busiest summer ever for Napa, and I want people to be safe, Housley said, nodding to the tourism that could spill into the county from other parts of the Bay Area as reopening progresses. Consumers could get a taste of wine from a tasting room two ounces or less, Housley added and then window shop until its time to return to their tasting. Bay City News Service contributed to this article. Contact Sarah Klearman at sklearman@napanews.com New York New Yorkers marked Memorial Day with car convoys and small ceremonies instead of big parades as the coronavirus reshaped the solemn holiday, blending tributes to virus victims and frontline workers with the traditional remembrance of the nation's war dead. In a year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, veterans wore masks and saluted while standing at social-distancing intervals at observances shrunk by virus precautions. At the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan the former aircraft carrier USS Intrepid Gov. Andrew Cuomo honored both veterans and essential workers on a Memorial Day he called "especially poignant and powerful." In Rochester, officials looked ahead to the construction of the city's War on Terror Memorial. In Long Island's Nassau County, a small group of veterans in masks saluted flag-bedecked vehicles at a car parade and wreath-laying that was closed to the public but streamed online. In Brooklyn, about 30 to 40 cars, including an old-style checkered cab, rode along the route usually covered by marchers at the United Military Veterans of Kings County parade. They finished by circling a Veterans Affairs hospital, many honking their horns, and laying a wreath near monuments at the hospital's fence. "We weren't sure if we were going to be able to do anything," said parade chairman Raymond Aalbue. But he said he didn't want the parade "to die on my watch." He said this year's Memorial Day observance also honored people working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 virus fight. "All day long we're thinking about these health care workers and first responders and essential workers who are putting their lives on the line, daily, and have been doing that for a couple of months now to keep us safe," said Allbue. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. "We owe them a very deep debt of gratitude for all they've done all these months." Elsewhere in the borough, Mayor Bill de Blasio joined a wreath-laying at the Brooklyn War Memorial. The Democratic mayor said it was "a different kind of Memorial Day, but our appreciation for the heroes who gave their lives for our country has never been stronger." As the holiday approached, Cuomo loosened coronavirus-related restrictions last week to allow small public gatherings initially just for Memorial Day observances and religious services. He extended the eased rules Friday to all gatherings after the New York Civil Liberties Union sued, saying that if it was safe to gather to honor veterans and practice religion, the Constitution requires the same right be extended to other gatherings. The rules now allow get-togethers of as many as 10 people, provided that participants stay at least 6 feet away from one another or cover their faces when unable to maintain that distance. New Delhi, May 26 : "Expedition Asia" host Ryan Pyle loves travelling and filming in India, and says there is a unique wildness to the nature of the country. "I love filming in India. I love travelling in India. I made a beautiful television show called 'Tough Rides' in India back in 2012. I rode a motorcycle for 54 days and 14,000 kms all over India. I love spirituality and all the different cultures of the country. I love the different cuisines, the history, architecture... I love it all. India is not only one of my favourite places to shoot, but also one of my favourite places to travel. So a trip to India is always high on the list of things that I need to do," Pyle told IANS. Recently, the Canadian adventurer and TV host shot for an episode of his new series "Expedition Asia With Ryan Pyle" in Manali. Looking back at the experience, he said: "I filmed one episode of the show, it involved a few days of trek. I can tell you it was incredibly challenging. India has a wildness to its nature that is truly special. The mountains are accessible in and around the valley, but they are not easy. The trekking is challenging. The weather can play tricks on you. It is a true adventure destination." Asked about special memories from his Manali trip, he said it was getting a shave on a street side. "I love Manali. It is the adventure capital of India. I went for a street shave. There are a lot of barber shops in the street. I always go there and get a shave. There is no better place in the world to get a shave than on the back streets of Manali," he said. Pyle hopes to come back to India after the coronavirus pandemic eases a bit. "I hope to come back to India as soon as possible and shoot. I hope I get to do another season of my new show 'Expedition Asia With Ryan Pyle'. It will be fun to come back to India and do another series as soon as the world passes through this COVID-19 virus that we are dealing with. My heart goes out to all the Indian people at the moment who are under lockdown. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. Once this virus pandemic is over, hopefully very soon, I do hope to comeback and reconnect with amazing friends in India," he said. For "Expedition Asia With Ryan Pyle", the host explored destinations in India, Philippines, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand and Malaysia. The show airs in India on Discovery, Discovery HD and newly launched app Discovery Plus. The Motorola Razr 2 may include the Snapdragon 765 SoC, according to a new leak. This information comes from XDA Developers, as the site shared some details about the upcoming foldable. The Snapdragon 765 is expected to fuel the Motorola Razr 2 The source claims that the phone will come with a code-name smith, and the model name XT2071-4. The Snapdragon 765 has also been mentioned, as the chip that will fuel the Motorola Razr 2. XDA Developers also claim that the phone will include a 2,845mAh battery, along with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The company also plans to upgrade a rear-facing camera, it seems. Advertisement The device will, allegedly, include a 48-megapixel camera, with the ISOCELL Bright GM1 sensor. The front-facing camera will feature a 20-megapixel sensor, though we dont know which one just yet. Android 10 will come pre-installed out of the box, by the way. Motorola is also expected to bring various improvements to the Quick View display. The company will hopefully use UTG (Ultra Thin Glass) this time around. The source also claims that the second-gen Razr is in development for China and North America. The device may arrive to Europe and other markets, though, of course. Advertisement Lenovo did confirm, recently, that the second-gen Motorola Razr will support 5G connectivity. Chances are that the device will support only sub-6GHz 5G networks, though. The second-gen Razr may not support mmWave 5G networks Packing mmWave antennas into the body of the Motorola Razr 2 may not be possible. That means that the phone may not support mmWave 5G networks, such as Verizons Ultrawide Band network. XDA Developers do note that the information shared here may change. This is early info, as the device is not expected to arrive anytime soon. The Motorola Razr 2019 arrived in November last year, while its successor is expected to arrive in September. Advertisement The Motorola Razr is one of the very few foldable phones in the market at the moment. The device does have its fair share of issues, though, mainly in regard to its build. Motorola is expected to improve the device in a number of ways this year, as its overall design managed to win over a lot of people. For that reason, we dont think the design will change all that much. The Motorola Razr 2 will have plenty of competition in the market this year, though. The Galaxy Fold 2 is expected to arrive in August, while several Chinese smartphone OEMs are expected to present their foldable handsets. YEREVAN. We did not boycott the National Assembly (NA) sittings; we have said that now we are leaving and waiting for political and legal assessments. Edmon Marukyan, leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party and its parliamentary faction, stated this in a conversation with journalists in the NA on Tuesday, referring to the fact that after the brawl in the legislature, the Bright Armenia faction did not take part in the parliamentary sittings, but has now returned. "The political assessment was made immediately after my speech by the Prime Minister, who roughly said: 'We have done well, we will spread to the asphalt at the entrances!' And the legal assessment was on Saturday that the initiation of a criminal case is denied; we came after that. We wanted to see if these halls of power are ready to learn from their mistakes, to condemn the wrongdoers in themselves, and not to engage in crew actions, Marukyan added. Most people will need to be registered and it might take time, but in the next few weeks you will see progress. We have paid $200 000 to date. We need to know where those people live so that we can connect to them, he said. A screen on a truck showing Johnson outlining the rule that Cummings is accused of breaking AFP/Glyn KIRK Johnson faces the threat of his government's authority being undermined in the heat of a health crisis that has claimed nearly 37,000 lives in Britain and thrown one of the world's top 10 economies into its biggest downturn of modern times. Cummings was already a lightning rod for many Britons over his role in orchestrating the 2016 Brexit campaign that eventually saw Britain pull out of the European Union after nearly 50 years on Jan 31. But he is also Johnson's trusted adviser, helping him become prime minister a year ago and then choreographing Britain's delayed exit from the European bloc. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pictured with his top adviser Dominic Cummings, who allegedly British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pictured with his top adviser Dominic Cummings, who allegedly broke lockdown rules AFP/Tolga AKMEN Politicians of all stripes have been joined by scientific advisers and even some members of the clergy in condemning Cummings for driving across the country with his wife - while she was suffering from the virus - when the official advice was to stay at home. "If you give the impression there's one rule for them and one rule for us, you fatally undermine that sense of 'we're all in this together'," scientific adviser Stephen Reicher told ITV. "NOT A GREAT SIGN" Johnson told the nation on Sunday that Cummings - who like the British leader also developed COVID-19 - was following his paternal instincts by dropping off his baby son at his grandparents' house while he and his wife were sick. "I think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent," Johnson said. But the ConservativeHome website published a rolling list of members of Johnson's Conservative party who have publically called for Cummings to be dismissed. It had 16 names on Monday - still too few to challenge Johnson's 80-seat majority in parliament. Yet the Politico website noted that the list's publication "in itself is not a great sign for the prime minister". Education Secretary Gavin Williams did a round of morning TV and radio interviews on Monday saying that Cummings "did not break the rules or the law". The newspapers seemed unconvinced. The popular Daily Mirror website said the UK lockdown "was dead in the water" because Cummings was flouting its rules. The right-wing Daily Telegraph said Johnson's defence of Cummings has "led to questions about whether people should now follow their instincts rather than the rules". "MORAL QUESTIONS" Cummings is an enigmatic figure with an unconventional dress style and direct approach that has endeared him to Britons who are fed up with political grandstanding and the ruling elite. His role in masterminding the Brexit campaign has been made into a movie that further fed the legend of his political prowess. But the sight of Cummings being heckled by his neighbours outside his home on Sunday and fighting through a crowd of reporters on his way to his car on Monday morning - "Out of the way," he shouted several times - could drain Johnson's credibility at a pivotal point. Britain is just starting to emerge from its coronavirus lockdown and the government wants everyone to keep observing social distancing rules in the coming months. Leeds bishop Nick Baines accused Johnson of treating Britons "as mugs". "The moral question is not for Cummings - it is for the PM and ministers/MPs who find this behaviour acceptable," the bishop tweeted. Johnson was set to chair a virtual cabinet meeting focused on a gradual lockdown easing and then possibly speak to reporters later Monday. Politico said the "judgment inside Downing Street is that all of the above is just noise". Spains Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has dismissed the commanding officer of the Guardia Civil in the Madrid region, Diego Perez de los Cobos, due to loss of trust and confidence, EFE reports quoting ministry sources. The same sources have denied that the security operation set up at Pablo Iglesias home has played any role in the decision to fire Perez de los Cobos (1). Instead, sources familiar with the matter have indicated that the reason for the dismissal might be the report which the Guardia Civil sent to the Madrid court currently probing the Spanish governments representative in the region, the official who authorised the street march on occasion of International Womens Day earlier this year (2). Indeed, a Madrid judge is considering bringing charges against Jose Manuel Franco for neglect of duty following a complaint by lawyer Victor Valladares. The Guardia Civils document makes a number of accusations against Fernando Simon, the head of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, claiming he is responsible for several crimes. The report argues that Simon was aware of the gravity of the impending public health crisis three days before the march was staged because he had referred to data about it in a meeting with the organisers of an evangelical congress that was due to be held in Madrid between March 19-21 and the Health Ministry had decided not to allow. The Guardia Civil pointed out a contradiction between the caution that Simon advised in the case of the religious event and the laxity he showed with the demonstration on IWD. The document also mentions that on February 14 the WHO had issued a warning against holding public events that might draw large crowds. Furthermore, the report claims the Guardia Civil had asked the Centre for Health Alerts to share all the information they had on Covid-19 ahead of the march, all to no avail. The PP and Ciudadanos will request Marlaskas appearance in Parliament After hearing the news about Diego Perez de los Cobos, the PP rushed to announce that they will be asking the Spanish government specifically, minister Marlaska to appear in the lower chamber to explain the decision. PP leader Pablo Casado stated that we demand transparency and reject arbitrariness and he went on to accuse the Minister of the Interior of dismissing Perez de los Cobos because of the Guardia Civil investigation into the case of the demonstration on March 8. The conservative leader praised the work of the Guardia Civil and warned that the Spanish government cannot be so toxic as to ruin the good name of the Guardia Civil. In fact, he stated that dismissing Perez de los Cobos was an attack on the Guardia Civil. Ciudadanos also insisted that Marlaska must appear before the Spanish parliament to explain the real reasons for sacking Perez de los Cobos. Edmundo Bal, the Ciudadanos spokesman in the lower chamber, claimed that there are many unanswered questions. EFE reports that in a press conference Bal wondered about the real reasons why the head of Madrids Guardia Civil has been fired in the current situation, precisely when we need certainty rather than the opposite and law enforcement agencies are playing such a key role in keeping the pandemic in check. Perez de los Cobos led the Spanish police operation against Catalonias independence vote Perez de los Cobos was appointed commanding officer of Madrids 4,800-strong Guardia Civil in April 2018, when he was promoted by the PP government. Prior to that he had been tasked with coordinating the Spanish police effort aimed at preventing Catalonias independence referendum on 1 October 2017 and, ultimately, his testimony in court was key to the conviction of the Catalan independence leaders. On 23 September 2017 Colonel Perez de los Cobos was ordered to oversee the coordination of the various police forces in Catalonia (Spanish Police, Guardia Civil and Catalonias Mossos dEsquadra) with a view to preventing the independence vote from going ahead. In the days leading up to October 1, it became apparent that Perez de los Cobos and Major Josep Lluis Trapero, the commander of the Catalan police force (Mossos dEsquadra), did not see eye to eye. In fact, the various law enforcement agencies acted in their own separate way on the day of the vote. When Perez de los Cobos was called to testify as a witness in the trial against the Catalan leaders, he questioned the performance of the Catalan police and blamed police chief Josep Lluis Trapero for the Catalan officers lax attitude. In contrast, Perez de los Cobos played down the baton charges by Spanish police and Guardia Civil [against unarmed Catalan voters] and he declared that at no point had they taken action against peaceful voters, elderly members of the public or children. ___________ Translators notes: (1) Spanish VP Pablo Iglesias has recently seen a number of rowdy protestors gather outside his home in Galapagar, near Madrid, which has prompted the Spanish authorities to assign him a Guardia Civil security detail. (2) On March 8 this year large crowds marched in the streets of Madrid city to celebrate International Womens Day. The demonstration possibly contributed to Madrids massive Covid-19 outbreak and some have argued that the regional authorities should have stopped the event. MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's biggest edible oil conference has been postponed as cases of the novel coronavirus rise in the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils, the organisers said on Tuesday. Globoil India 2020 in Mumbai, originally scheduled in September, will be rescheduled to Oct. 30th to Nov. 1 and held in the coastal state of Goa, organisers Teflas and trade body Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) said in a statement. Mumbai, India's financial capital, has reported nearly 32,000 infections, more than a fifth of all cases reported in the country. Globoil India, held annually over the past 23 years, attracts around 1,000 industry players from more than two dozen countries, according to B.V. Mehta, executive director of the SEA. India primarily imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and soyoil from Argentina and Brazil. It also buys sunflower oil from Ukraine and small volumes of canola oil from Canada. Malaysia has cancelled its biggest palm oil conference for the first time in 31 years after initially postponing it to June due to uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; editing by Jason Neely) Chairman, Bayelsa COVID-19 Task Force, Inodu Apoku, on Tuesday announced that an average of 25 samples are sent on a daily basis to University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), for testing. Mr Apoku, who is also the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, made this known to newsmen in a statement in Yenagoa, the state capital. Our surveillance is gathering momentum by the day and we are testing more cases daily. We now use the UPTH COVID -19 Laboratory. In the past weeks, we have been sending an average of 25 samples daily to this facility. Most of these samples are contacts of confirmed cases, he announced. On the confirmed new case in the state by the NCDC on Monday, the chairman said it had brought the total number of cases in Bayelsa to 12. This new case is a 48-year-old business woman who resides in the heart of Yenagoa. READ ALSO: She visited one of our hospitals with complaints of fever, cough and Malaria that started three weeks earlier. Even though she was feeling a lot better, she requested for a COVID-19 test. The State Rapid Response team investigated her case and collected samples for testing even though she denied any travel history. The patient has since been evacuated for further treatment at one of our Isolation Centres. She is currently clinically stable and receiving optimal medical care, Mr Apoku explained. (NAN) As Turkeys frail economy reels from the compounding blows of the global coronavirus pandemic, there is mounting speculation that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) may gamble on snap elections to retain its 18-year grip on power. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put the kibosh on such rumors over the weekend: We have three years before us to implement our programs and to rekindle emotional bonds with our people, he told a virtual gathering of all 81 provincial chapters of the AKP. Under normal circumstances presidential and parliamentary elections are due to be held in 2023, the centennial year of the founding of the modern republic by Kemal Ataturk. But there is little doubt that the 65-year-old who has towered over Turkish politics for almost three decades is feeling the heat. Just think about it, some people who I gave jobs to during my premiership are attacking us in different ways. For goodness sake, you are just a minister. Do you think you could take a single step without the approval of the prime minister? Who are you conning? he groused. Erdogan was alluding to Ali Babacan, his former economy minister who by sticking to IMF strictures in the early years of AKP rule helped steer the Turkish economy to stellar growth, helping in turn to cement his former partys electoral fortunes. Erdogan clearly felt stung that Babacan was taking the credit for the once booming economy. In doing so, the usually combative Erdogan betrayed signs of fear, reckoned veteran pundit Rusen Cakir in an editorial posted on MedyaScope TV. Since launching his Deva Party the acronym means "cure" in Turkish Babacan has begun to create something of a buzz. Criticized for being too meek, notably when he failed to speak up against the 2017 referendum that eased Erdogans path to one-man rule, the 53-year-old nicknamed bebecan or "baby face" because of his youthful looks is changing his ways. He is taking ever bolder swipes at the government and its informal coalition partner the far-right nationalist leader, Devlet Bahceli over corruption, economic decay and an appalling human rights record during appearances on opposition news channels long shunned and bullied by the AKP. In an interview with popular anchor Cuneyt Ozdemir streamed live over YouTube last night, interest was so high that Ozdemir extended the one-hour show by an extra 60 minutes. Asked what his first order of business would be if he were to come to power, Babacan responded, One of the most important problems of the country is freedom. Creating an atmosphere is a matter of political will, as simple as snapping ones finger. As simple as saying, Hey the media, journalists, from here on you are free, write what you will, we will no longer interfere. A slick mini documentary with English subtitles posted on May 17 and featuring Babacan in different settings on a bike, in a coffeehouse and at Ataturks mausoleum to the sound of Billie Eilishs No Time to Die is believed to have been what triggered Erdogan. It has been viewed more than 1.8 million times so far. For now, Babacan and former AKP Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who formed his own Gelecek or Future Party, hardly pose a threat. According to a May survey by Ankara-based Metropoll, neither party scores above 2% when swing voters are not factored into the results. But with the economy consistently rated as Turks top worry, the AKP and Erdogans popularity are steadily slipping with both hovering above 30%, various polls suggest, particularly among younger people. Others however show Erdogan holding steady at 50% or so. The median age in Turkey is around 32, with 18 to 31-year-olds accounting for more than one third of the electorate. By conservative estimates, some four million people will become eligible to vote in 2023, says Nezih Onur Kuru, a political analyst and doctoral candidate at Istanbuls Koc University. Thats the real problem for leaders like Erdogan and Bahceli, who have a hard time attracting the youth, particularly from the middle classes, Kuru told Al-Monitor in a telephone interview. The children of pious Erdogan voters do not harbor the same grievances as their parents who mobilized around bans on the Islamic headscarf imposed by Turkeys once powerful generals. At the same time, they are unable to jump up the social ladder in the way their parents did, because the economy is doing so badly, he said. They are also less likely to be drawn by Erdogans polarizing and often Islam-themed rhetoric. Recent studies show that the more access people have to university education the more secular minded they grow. As such, the AKP may be a victim of its own success, Kuru observed. In the past decade, the number of university students in Turkey has nearly trebled from three to eight million. Babacan has a good resume. His image is not that distant from that of a modern secular individual. He can draw votes from across the ideological and ethnic lines, and his record on the economy and calls for a return to parliamentary democracy increasingly resonate, Kuru said. Should he along with Davutoglu decide to join forces with the constellation of opposition parties that dislodged the AKP from the metropolitan municipalities in Istanbul and Ankara, Erdogan and Bahceli could face big trouble. With this in mind, Bahceli has called for amendments to the political parties law that currently allows lawmakers to cross party lines. The leader of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has offered to lend enough of his own lawmakers 20 each to Babacan and Davutoglu so they can respectively have enough to form a parliamentary group. The lifeline could prove critical in the unlikely event that early elections are held because in order to qualify to run, a party has to have formally established itself in at least half of all 81 provinces and six months prior to an election. Having a parliamentary group allows a party to circumvent this rule. Kilicdaroglu threw a similar lifeline to Meral Akseners Iyi or Good Party in the June 2018 parliamentary elections. The Istanbul rerun in which Erdogan sought to wrest Istanbul after losing it in March 2019 and claiming fraud displayed Erdogans determination to retain control. But it backfired spectacularly, with the CHP's Ekrem Imamoglu romping to victory with an 800,000-vote lead. This was largely due to Kurdish support, which will become even more critical in future elections as their share of the population continues to grow. But Erdogan continues to play hardball, notes Sinem Adar, a Mercator fellow at the Berlin-based SWP think tank, replacing dozens of democratically elected Kurdish mayors and sabotaging opposition mayors efforts to serve their constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staying in power for those running Turkey has become a matter of life and death among different factions and for different reasons, Adar told Al-Monitor. But cracks within the ruling alliance are beginning to show, as when Erdogan shot down the possibility of early elections and his lieutenants dismissed Bahcelis talk of tweaking the political parties law. Every time they resort to dirty tricks they prove how big a threat these new political parties pose. The electorate at large perceives these panicky moves as a further sign that the ruling alliance is collapsing, said Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "The real test for Babacan and Davutoglu is whether they have enough momentum and courage to push back or fold under pressure, which is in any case sure to grow, Erdemir told Al-Monitor. Editors' note: June 28, 2020. This article been updated since its initial publication. Appointment 26 May 2020 Vinay is a senior HR leader with rich experience in business building, culture transformation, and he has been successfully anchored HR initiatives in the areas of OD, business restructuring, talent management, shared services, and succession planning in Telecom, BFSI, Education, Aviation and Hospitality industry. Prior to this, Vinay has worked with IndiGo, India's largest passenger airline as Associate VP-HR, Head- HR for International & Domestic Airport Operations and Customer Services. Previously, Vinay served the nation as Major- Defence Instructor/Troops Commander from 1992 to 2004 at Indian Army and started his new innings with corporate as HR Leader with Hughes Communications India Limited in 2005 and after that, he has worked with companies like Aviva Life Insurance, XSEED Education and InterGlobe group. He is an alumnus of the National Defense Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, and XLRI, Jamshedpur. A teacher in Victoria has tested positive to coronavirus as 400,000 students return to school full time. The teacher from Keilor Downs College, in Melbourne, tested positive to coronavirus last Friday. Principal Linda Maxwell took to Facebook to inform parents, students and staff of the diagnosis. 'Please do not be alarmed but one of our staff has tested positive to COVID-19 in a community test,' she said. 'They have not been at school at all during this time so there is no action required at school. 'We have not been asked to close for cleaning and there are no contacts at school.' A teacher from Keilor Downs College, in Melbourne, tested positive to coronavirus last Friday Principal Linda Maxwell took to Facebook to inform parents, students and staff of the diagnosis Ms Maxwell said the staff member would not be allowed to return to the school until the Department of Health and Human Services allows it. The staff member contracted the illness while teaching remotely. Students from kindergarten to Year Two and students in Year 10, 11 and 12 returned to face-to-face learning on Tuesday in Victoria. The rest of the students will return on June 9. The state's Education Minister James Merlino said at 5pm on Monday 17,500 education staff had been tested for coronavirus. He said that despite the return to school there would still be changes in place - such as no excursions or school camps. Drinking from water fountains is also banned. A Department of Education and Training spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'The DHHS investigation determined there was no need for the school to close or for staff or students to take any further precautionary action as the staff member did not attend the school while ill. 'We wish the staff member a speedy recovery.' It comes as two schools in Sydney shut down on Tuesday after two students tested positive for COVID-19. Parents of students at Moriah College in Queens Park were notified of the positive test by letter after the school was informed by NSW Health at 11.15am on Tuesday. 'The college received confirmation from NSW Health shortly before noon that a student in our community has tested positive to COVID-19,' a Moriah College spokeswoman said, Daily Telegraph reported. The state's Education Minister James Merlino said at 5pm on Monday 17,500 education staff had been tested for coronavirus 'We have now activated our COVID-19 Positive Diagnosis School Response Plan. The student was in attendance on our campus, on Thursday May 21, 2020.' The student was on school grounds last Thursday and students have been sent home as contact tracing begins. The college has been shut to undergo a deep clean and sanitation. It is expected to reopen next week. The news comes after a Year 7 student tested positive at Waverely College, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. The news comes after a Year 7 student tested positive at Waverely College, in Sydney's eastern suburbs Students from kindergarten to Year Two and students in Year 10, 11 and 12 returned to face-to-face learning on Tuesday in Victoria. Pictured: Prep teacher Rachel Gathercole teaches kids at Lysterfield Primary School about hand sanitiser Parents collected their children from the Catholic boys' school on Tuesday morning. Fees for the exclusive school cost up to $15,600 a year. State premier Gladys Berejiklian said earlier this month that a return to full-time face-to-face learning is safe, but admitted there could be a spike in cases as a result. She also said it would be 'common' for some schools to 'shut down temporarily' if a student tests positive. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services for comment. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Norman Harsono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 13:40 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda22046 1 Business Indonesia,cheap-gas,signing,pgn,PupukIndonesia,SKKMigas,Pertamina-Hulu-Indonesia,PMI Free Eleven companies have signed agreements with gas producers to buy cheap natural gas as part of the governments incentive to boost Indonesias economic growth. Four manufacturers and seven gas distributors will, respectively, purchase gas at US$6 per million British thermal unit (mmbtu) and $4 per mmbtu directly from oil and gas fields. The distributors will then resell the gas at $6 per mmbtu to manufacturers located farther away from the source. The 11 companies will receive over 330 billion British thermal units per day (bbtud) worth of cheap gas, over half of which will be distributed to two subsidiaries of state-owned fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Indonesia, PT Pupuk Sriwidjaja and PT Pupuk Kujang Cikampek, the Upstream Oil and Gas Special Regulatory Taskforce (SKK Migas) announced on May 20. Pupuk Indonesia spokesman Wijaya Laksana said Pupuk Sriwidjaka and Pupuk Kujang were working with the government to complete the administrative procedures for securing the cheap gas. We have no problems. We will follow the existing mechanisms, he told The Jakarta Post on Monday The Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ministry previously laid out plans to provide 1,188 bbtud worth of cheap gas for 197 manufacturers in spurring Indonesias manufacturing sector growth, which makes up one-fifth of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP). Indonesias Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a gauge of the nations manufacturing activities, fell to 27.5 from 45.3 recorded in March, the worst decline in the survey's nine-year history, market consultancy IHS Markit announced earlier this month. A number above 50 reflects an expansion and below 50 indicates contraction. The manufacturers, which include seven gas-intensive industries such as fertilizer- and steel-making, are slated to receive the cheap gas from 2020 to 2024. The manufacturers are eligible to buy gas at $6 per mmbtu, below the market average $8 per mmbtu. For the remaining volume, we are finalizing agreements [with] buyers and sellers, said SKK Migas head Dwi Soetjipto on Wednesday, reassuring that the incentives mechanism would not affect gas producers incomes. The cheap gas incentive works by cutting state-owned tax revenue (PNBP) in the upstream oil and gas industry. A representative from the Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA), which groups major gas producers in the country, told the Post on Monday that members had held talks with SKK Migas over the incentives mechanism. Basically, the mechanism is already quite good; it does not reduce oil and gas companies revenues and for that reason, companies have to work closer with SKK Migas on the details, said IPA executive director Marjolijn Wajong. Gas distributor PGN signed an agreement with national gas producer Pertamina EP one of Indonesias major gas producers on May 20 to purchase gas at $4 per mmbtu, down from the usual $5.33 per mmbtu price tag. PGN, which is Indonesias largest gas distributor, plans to sell the gas to industrial clients in South Sumatra, West Java and North Sumatra. PGN will distribute 90 bbtud to South Sumatra and West Java and 7 bbtud to North Sumatra until 2024. West Java province is the companys biggest consumer of industrial gas. The period of this adjusted gas price may be extended, depending on the governments decision, said PGN commercial director Fariz Aziz in a statement issued following the agreements signing. According to the governments cost-benefit analysis, the incentive would cost the government Rp 121.78 trillion ($804.31 million) in forgone non-tax state revenue but generate Rp 125.03 trillion from energy subsidy savings. Based on these estimates, the government will receive a net income of Rp 3.25 trillion from the cheap gas incentives, said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif. Ravaged by the coronavirus disease, Maharashtra, which has seen the most number of cases and deaths on account of Covid-19, witnessed a political war of words as well as a degree of uncertainty over the stability of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government on Tuesday, even as the ruling dispensation expressed confidence in its strength and performance. The day saw a set of three separate but inter-related developments. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, stepped up its attack on the state governments handling of the pandemic ; while denying it was seeking to destabilise the government, party functionaries say the situation is ripe for Presidents rule. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Congress was not the key decision-maker in the state prompting allegations that the Congress is seeking to distance itself from the state government of which it is a part. And amid speculation about his meeting with the CM and governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar claimed the government is safe and accused Fadnavis of being impatient. The Shiv Sena claimed the meeting between Pawar and Thackeray as routine. Speculation over the fate of the government picked up on Monday when Pawar -- widely considered the key architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi , comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress, formed after the 2019 assembly elections met Koshyari and also had his third meeting in the span of weeks with Thackeray, who is under criticism for his handling of the pandemic. Pawars meeting with the governor came in the wake of r calls to the constitutional head of the state by BJP leaders including BJP Member of Parliament and former CM Narayan Rane to dismiss the government and recommend Presidents rule in the state. The meeting with the governor was a customary meet. We are all focusing on coronavirus pandemic,. Pawar said . In an interview to NDTV, he termed Fadnavis an impatient man. There are no differences in the MVA, there is no doubt that the government will last for the entire term. Its surprising that BJP thinks the government unstable. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, a key intermediary between the coalition partners, said that Pawar met Thackeray to discuss the future course of action for the state government and measure to be taken to tackle Covid-19. If we take Pawar sahebs suggestions and guidance on these matters then what is the harm. The countrys prime minister too takes his guidance. But even as the two senior partners in the government sought to allay uncertainties, Rahul Gandhis remark in the course of a press conference over the central governments handling of the pandemic created a stir. When asked about the situation in the state, Gandhi pointed out that as one of the most connected places in the country, the virus was going to act aggressively in Maharashtra. He added that the state was one of the most important assets India had, that it was the centre of business, and the Government of India must support Maharashtras people and government. He then added, I would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but, we are not the key decision maker in Maharashtra. We are the key decision maker in Punjab; we are the key decision maker in Chhattisgarh, in Rajasthan, in Puducherry. So, there is a difference between running a government and supporting a government. In the assembly of 288 members, the MVA enjoys the support of 170 legislators, which include 56 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the Sena, 54 from NCP, 44 from Congress, and a range of smaller parties. The BJP has 105 seats and claims to have the support of 13 other legislators. Fadnavis, however, used Gandhis comment to accuse the Congress of shirking responsibility, besides alleging that the state government is losing grip over the situation. He claimed that it would fall due to its own internal contradictions, listed out the Centres support to the state, and said that Maharashtra needed assertive leadership and bold decision-making. Fadnavis, who is currently the leader of opposition in the state assembly, claimed that the Centre had given the state nearly 28,000 crore in the last three months through food subsidies, devolution of taxes, direct benefit transfer, assistance for migrant labourers and health equipment. But he added that the state government had little grip over the situation. In Mumbai, people are dying on the streets, hospitals are overcharging but there is no control of the situation. The number of coronavirus cases and fatalities is alarming in Maharashtra. When asked about whether the BJP is seeking to oust the government and demands for Presidents Rule, Fadnavis said: We are in no rush to form the government. We are focussing only on battling coronavirus. The governor makes observations and independently reports to the centre...We will, however, continue to pressurise the government to wake up and address the grim situation before them. Back in Delhi, after two meetings of the BJPs core group that deals with the state, party leaders said while the BJP is not in any rush to stake claim to forming the government, it will prefer Presidents rule. Now the situation in the state is very precarious. So we have approached the Governor to convey our concerns, said a senior functionary who asked not to be named A second functionary, familiar with the thinking in the party, said the BJP does not want to do anything which will create a perception that it is seeking to topple the government. The situation in the state is for all to see. The way the government has handled the pandemic, its response is a testament that it has failed to offer support to the people during this grave challenge. Our party workers have exposed the situation in hospitals, these are our prime concerns, the second functionary said. Responding to the demands for Presidents rule, Senas Raut said, If the Opposition feels that measures are not being taken for tackling the coronavirus pandemic and Presidents rule should be imposed, then Gujarat is fit for it. Gujarat is ruled by the BJP and is also facing a serious threat from the disease. As of Tuesday night, the fatality rate in Gujarat was 6.2% compared to Maharashtras 3.3%. It seems that BJP does want to destablise the government despite their denials in public or at least prepare ground to create a strong perception that the MVA government is failing to tackle coronavirus. However, numbers in the assembly are strongly in the favour of MVA allies; there is no scope of defection by MLAs at this stage. Even for the governor to send a negative report to the centre saying the state government has failed, he will need to substantiate it. There also has to be a strong public sentiment against this government in civil society, which is frankly not there, said Surendra Jondhale, political analyst. Forty-four flights operated with 4,224 passengers from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) on Tuesday, day 2 of resumption of air services.On Wednesday, the airport scheduled 50 flights for operations. The airport saw 25 departures [3,114 passengers] and 19 arrivals [1,110] operated by six airlines, a Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson said. According to MIAL, the highest passenger load capacity at Mumbai airport was seen on the Mumbai- Delhi route. Smooth operations of domestic civil aviation. Our airports have handled 325 departures & 283 arrivals with 41,673 passengers till 5pm on 26 May 2020, the 2nd day after recommencement of domestic flights. Final report for the day will be prepared after details come in at midnight, tweeted aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The first flight departed from CSMIA at 6.30am to Ranchi, while the first flight arrived at 8.20am from Lucknow. While IniGo operated 20 flights, SpiceJet operated 10 flights, Air Asia, Air India and Vistara operated four flights each and Alliance Air operated two flights. According to airport officials, the passenger flow was smooth on Tuesday unlike Monday when many passengers had to return home after learning about their flight cancellations only after reaching terminal 2 (T2) of CSMIA. MIAL spokesperson said that flights operated with around 65% occupancy. The situation at Mumbai airport on Tuesday was much better as compared to Monday. All the flights which were scheduled to operate from Mumbai operated with 60% to 65% occupancy. The Maharashtra government has also introduced some relaxations, with the quarantine period for passengers arriving to the city being reduced to seven days instead of 14. This will boost air travel in the coming days, said the spokesperson A Dehradrun bound IndiGo passenger said, Apart from having smooth flight journey, my experience at Mumbai airport was commendable, as the authorities have done a great job and are ensuring that all the norms are being followed by the passengers. . MOUNT PLEASANT, MI -- Nurses at McLaren Central Michigan Hospital are planning to hit the picket lines Tuesday. The picket, which will observe social distancing guidelines, will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, The Michigan Nurses Association announced in a news release. This is the first informational picket that has been held in protest of McLarens policies since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the union. However, the picket may not be the last. This is the latest escalation in a series of growing tensions between nurses and other health care workers at hospitals across the state and the McLaren Health System. Nurses are advocating that the hospital provide improved COVID-19 protections and more transparency to workers. McLaren registered nurses have been working with an expired contract throughout the COVID-19 crisis, so they are also also asking their employer to agree to a fair contract that will allow the hospital to recruit and retain quality RNs in the long term, the release states. Mid-Michigan nurses union pushes McLaren Health Care for coronavirus protections Workers say they are frustrated with McLarens policies and continued refusal to implement a salary cap on executive compensation to reinvest those resources in the frontlines, the release reads. According to recent tax information, McLarens CEO makes over $6.9 million annually, the release states. Coalition leaders previously asked executives to cap their salaries at $1 million annually, identifying $8.4 million that could be saved to be reinvested, according to the union. With nurses are on the front lines, RN Jaime Peska said the CEO should not have a multi-million dollar salary. "Our hospital should be putting patients before profits, Peska said. Unions demand McLaren hospital executives take pay cuts rather than enact layoffs According to a prior news release, McLaren sent a letter to the unions on May 15 refusing to provide frontline healthcare workers with the information they requested about how much in grant funding the hospital has received for the pandemic and details about PPE inventory. This resulted in widespread condemnation by ten unions, the release states. Nurses at McLaren Central filed an unfair labor practice charge against McLaren National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, May 20. If there is a second wave of COVID-19, the hospital needs to be able to recruit and retain quality RNs in order to keep our patients, safe Registered Nurse Sam Sherwood said. Shela Khan Monroe, vice president of labor and employment relations at McLaren, has said information has been shared with unions through weekly update meetings, departmental meetings and several union negotiation sessions. Through our community hospitals and other subsidiaries, McLaren has worked with each of the 24 labor unions and 36 bargaining units across our system since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Khan Monroe said Thursday, May 21. It is unfortunate that the unions have chosen to try to leverage this crisis environment when stressors on our health care institutions are at an all-time high and unemployment rates in our communities are skyrocketing to make baseless allegations to put pressure on employers. Currently, the hospital is asking nurses at McLaren Central to take pay raises that are less than cost-of-living adjustment, according to the union. According to the release, McLaren executives have not provided frontline workers with as much hazard pay or COVID-19 paid leave as other hospitals. Workers at McLaren can get additional paid time off if they test positive for the virus. The release states other health systems have provided additional paid time off for employees without as many restrictions as McLaren has. OPEIU healthcare workers at McLaren Macomb have also scheduled a socially distant informational picket in Mount Clemens for Thursday, June 4, according to the release. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 23:06:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The following are the schedules for the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) and the third session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on Wednesday. -- NPC deputies will hold group meetings to deliberate documents including the work reports of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. -- Presidium of the third session of the 13th NPC will hold its third meeting. -- The Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee will hold a meeting. -- The third session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee will hold its closing meeting. Enditem Rep. John Ratcliffe, (R-Texas), is sworn in before a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images) Former Congressman Ratcliffe Sworn In as Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was sworn in as President Donald Trumps director of national intelligence on May 26, replacing acting Director Richard Grenell. Ratcliffe, a Republican who was confirmed by the Senate last week on a 4944 party-line vote, had served the U.S. Houses 4th Congressional District in Texas before being named to the intelligence position. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed the swearing-in, which took place in Washington. Grenell swore Ratcliffe in at his new office, according to Fox News. Ratcliffe is the sixth Senate-confirmed director of national intelligence in U.S. history. The position was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and the director oversees 17 intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who recently became acting Senate Intelligence chairman this week, said Ratcliffe understands the director of national intelligences crucial role. Ratcliffe formerly served as a federal prosecutor. He said being a U.S. attorney was the best job he ever had and loved that it was an apolitical position. I stood up always to represent the United States of America. Never one party or another. And I very much view that as this role for the DNI, he said. I look forward to treating every member, Republican and Democrat, exactly the same way. And frankly being out of politics. Trump originally nominated Ratcliffe for the position last year, but Ratcliffe withdrew his name after fierce opposition from senators, including some Republicans. Lawmakers who previously opposed the nominee threw their support behind him this time around, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell at an event in Geneva, on March 18, 2019. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) Grenell, who served as acting director of national intelligence for three months, had simultaneously served as U.S. ambassador to Germany; hes also leaving that post. He earned accolades from some for declassifying information related to an investigation into retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who in late 2016 was then-President-elect Trumps incoming national security adviser. Some senators are pushing for additional declassifications, including any unmasking applications made by Obama administration officials from January 2016 through January 2017. The Department of Justice recently moved to dismiss the case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI but in recent months said he wanted to withdraw the plea. Justice Department officials said the interview of Flynn by FBI agents in early January 2017 wasnt part of a legitimate investigation, citing how FBI officials were prepared to close the probe into Flynn, before Peter Strzok, a high-level FBI agent, rushed to keep it open before going to interrogate Flynn with another agent. Strzok was later fired after hundreds of text messages came to light revealing rampant anti-Trump opinions. The partner of a Miss Universe finalist who tragically took her own life has shared a heartbreaking tribute to the 23-year-old. Amber-Lee Friis was one of 20 finalists in the 2018 Miss Universe New Zealand competition and travelled to Thailand as part of the experience. The Miss World New Zealand Facebook page confirmed Ms Friis had passed away suddenly on May 18. Her partner, Lane Conroy, has shared a touching tribute to the young whom he lived with in West Auckland after having met eight years ago through friends. 'She was my soul mate,' Mr Conroy said on Monday, according to Stuff. Amber-Lee Friis had spent two months under strict lockdown orders in New Zealand following a whirlwind trip to America with her boyfriend (pictured together) in January Ms Friis loved the beach and spending hours in the water was a favourite pastime, along with riding her pink dirt bike Mr Conroy's sister Jaime who was a good friend of Ms Friis said would be sorely missed. 'We were just so thankful to have had her in our lives. She loved my brother and we loved how much she adored him. She was just amazing and we shared a special connection,' Jaime said. A tribute including a drive through Auckland to picturesque French Bay was organised before a ceremony was held at Waikumete Cemetery for Ms Friis on Monday. 'We spent a lot of time at French Bay, for a year we went there almost every day,' Mr Conroy said. He said she loved the beach and spending hours in the water was a favourite pastime, along with riding her pink dirt bike. 'She had a giggle and laugh that no one could mimic and she just lit up the room. Even when she wasn't in the best place, she made sure she was there for others.' Ms Friis started an online fashion label with Mr Conroy in early March as the coronavirus crisis swept the globe. She confessed it had been difficult to get the business off the ground during the pandemic. 'Due to the virus outbreak we are restricted from receiving bulk shipment orders, so clothing is limited for the time being,' she told followers of the brand on March 26. Pictured: Amber-Lee Friis who took her own life aged just 23 Devastated friends of Ms Friis paid tribute to the 'feisty and kind soul' in the wake of her tragic death 'What a great time to start a company! Said no one ever.' The loss of her 'mother figure' during the COVID-19 lockdown was equally as devastating. Ms Friis said she felt 'part of [her] heart' was taken when she learned Ms Olason died after 16 months of trying to recover from a devastating stroke. 'Mumma K, you were who I needed when I was younger,' she confessed in a touching tribute on April 14. She credited Ms Olason for 'giving [her] the courage to join a male dominated course' and thanked her for 'showing which boys to stay away from'. Ms Olason, just 43 when she died, would often pick Ms Friis up when she was young and arguing with her mother, offering her shelter and a shoulder to cry on. 'You were the mum I called my second mum, and I knew I could always count on you. 'I promise to keep our promises,' she said. One friend, who helped to organise the tribute, shared a video of the pair giggling while laying in a field, and said it was her 'favourite memory' of them On May 12, just six days before her tragic death, Ms Friis shared a photo to her business Instagram account with the caption: 'Young and naive'. The photo featured a girl standing between two paths, one offering the 'happiest place on earth' with green grass, rolling hills and sunshine, while the other path was dark and empty. A week before that, she'd shared a photo of a butterfly trapped in a cage and captioned the post as 'conformity'. Devastated friends of Ms Friis paid tribute to the 'feisty and kind soul' in the wake of her tragic death. On Monday, she was farewelled in an emotional send off where friends revved their cars causing plumes of pink smoke to billow into the air. The group made banners and signs telling Ms Friis to 'fly high' and promising to always love her. The up-and-coming runway model was a finalist for Miss Universe New Zealand in 2018, and was candid about her tough upbringing and struggles with confidence after she was bullied as a teenager Hope Neilson, who helped to organise the tribute, shared a video of the pair giggling while laying in a field, and said it was her 'favourite memory' of them. 'Forever in our hearts... One of the happiest days ever,' she wrote on the post. In the February before her death, Ms Friis shared a tribute to rocker Keith Flint, who took his own life in March 2019. She spoke of attending his final concert, where they shared an intense moment. 'I could feel his energy and his burning spirit connecting with me,' she said. 'He [previously] stated that when he is at an age were he's comfortable with his existence and simply doesn't want to go through the hardships of growing old, when he's satisfied with his life achievements, he will exit life on a high note and on his own terms.' Ms Friis previously spoke of her torment growing up in Auckland, where her cohort bullied her for having 'slanty eyes' and tanned skin. She was called 'Chimoan' and developed poor eating habits which saw her weight skyrocket to 96kgs by the time she was 16. On Monday, she was farewelled in an emotional send off where friends revved their cars causing plumes of pink smoke to billow into the air Her friends made banners and signs telling Ms Friis to 'fly high' and promising to always love her 'Never in a million years' did she consider one day landing the coveted title of Miss Universe. At just 15 years old, Ms Friis moved out of home with her boyfriend and studied mechanics while working three nights a week at Pizza Hut to make ends meet. At the height of her career, she told Stuff there were nights she'd go hungry because there was no food to eat as a teenager. 'I remember sitting in my room one night and thinking how hard life could be. At a young age you feel the world is weighing on your shoulders,' she said. 'I had a negative outlook on everything. I pictured myself as being an angry, fat, old lady but then I thought: This is not what I want to be like,' she said. Ms Friis was represented by The Talent Tree model agency, who said they were 'devastated' by the young woman's passing Determined to get back on top of her weight once and for all, she joined a gym - and within six months had slimmed down and toned up. By sharing her story, she wanted young women to draw hope from her experiences after she found the strength to turn her life around. 'I was like a lost sheep before I started writing down goals and started focusing on what I wanted to do. I felt stuck and helpless. No one ever has to feel that way,' she said. New Zealand Police confirmed they attended a sudden death on Monday. The case has been referred to the Coroner. Ms Friis was represented by The Talent Tree model agency, who said they were 'devastated' by the young woman's passing. 'We've lost a beautiful young lady who is going to be sorely missed,' said owner Tracey-Maree Houia. Miss World New Zealand CEO Nigel Godfrey described her as 'feisty', 'genuine', and said 'her heart was most definitely in the right place'. 'When she came to us, she was incredibly honest about her background and her upbringing and the challenges she had gone through. And that's what made her in our eyes somebody who would really benefit from the journey - and she did.' If you need help call Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia or 0800 543 354 in New Zealand for confidential support. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 00:08:34|Editor: Wang Yamei Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese lawmakers have proposed formulating a foreign states immunities law following malicious litigations filed against China over its COVID-19 response. The move will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens as well as foreign investors, said Ma Yide, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and a law researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. It will also counteract malicious litigations raised in countries like the United States towards China over the COVID-19 response, Ma told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of the annual NPC session. He said the lack of such a law has emerged as a prominent issue in the current epidemic as some countries, led by the United States, tried to shift the blame for their own governments' incompetence on COVID-19 response. Some groups and individuals in some countries even cited the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of the United States to bring litigations to the Chinese government and relevant departments, he added. "This has trampled on the internationally recognized principle of sovereign immunity, and is also a show of hegemony and power politics," Ma said, stressing the necessity and urgency for China to formulate a foreign states immunities law. China follows the principle of absolute immunity of foreign states and their property, thus Chinese litigants are unable to sue foreign governments from domestic courts, while Chinese governments have often been sued in foreign courts, he added. Ma suggested adopting a limited immunities principle, which is more commonly found in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union countries. From a long-term perspective, adopting a limited immunities principle will show a responsible manner of the Chinese government to foreign investors, ensure stable expectations for the protection of their investments, and facilitate China's new round of opening-up and the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, he said. Over 35 lawmakers from the NPC Beijing delegation have endorsed the proposal, which has been accepted by the session and forwarded to special committees of the national legislature for study. Enditem The Government Inspectorate says many wrongdoings in a fertilizer plant expansion project of state-run chemical group Vinachem resulted in losses of over VND2.89 trillion ($124 million). It said in a recent release that the expansion project involving Ha Bac Fertilizer Plant in the northern province of Bac Giang has seen costs ballooning 44.9 percent to $568 million. Hanichemco, formally Ha Bac Nitrogenous Fertilizer and Chemical Company Limited, used loans to fund more than 80 percent of the expansion costs, leading to high interest and therefore losses, the inspectorate said. The project began in 2010 and was completed in 2015. Although the company, a subsidiary of the Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem), did not have the ability to increase its investment, its proposal was still approved by Vinachem, which was a contravention of construction regulations. The company also violated regulations on bidding and evaluation; and had increased the total investment amount without grounds, leading to accumulated losses of VND2.89 trillion ($124 million) as of June 2019. There are signs of criminal irresponsibility causing grave consequences that needs to be punished, the inspectorate said. Hanichemco, one of the first producers of fertilizers in Vietnam which was established in the 1960s, started recording worsening balance sheets after its expansion was completed in 2015. The expansion is one of 12 ailing projects of state-owned companies that have been identified as resulting in losses of trillions of dong (VND1 trillion = $43 million). As many as four of the 12 are construction and expansion projects of fertilizer plants belonging to Vinachem. In September 2017, Vietnam party leaders had dismissed the then Vinachem chairman, Nguyen Anh Dung, from all positions in the Communist Party of Vietnam for allowing major wrongdoings to happen with the four projects. MONTREAL - National Bank of Canadas net income plunged 32 per cent in its second quarter as it put aside five times the provisions for credit losses than it did a year ago due to the economic storm triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Montreal-based bank said after markets closed that its net income amounted to $379 million for the period ended April 30, compared with $558 million in the same quarter last year. But after the trough observed in April, the gradual reopening of Quebec the main market of the sixth-largest bank in the country suggests better days are ahead, said president and chief executive officer Louis Vachon. If we look forward, the economic outlook for the province remains favourable, with its healthy public finances, its diversified economy, less indebted consumers and a well-developed financial support system for local businesses, he said Tuesday during a conference call. The bank says its diluted earnings per share for the period ended April 30 stood at $1.01, down from $1.51 at the same time last year. Operating revenues increased 15 per cent to $2.04 billion, with increases coming from all sectors. Analysts expected the bank would report diluted earnings per share of 94 cents on $1.99 billion of revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv. The bank said the companys drop in net income stemmed from the higher amount of money it had to allocate for credit loss provisions amid COVID-19. That amounted to $504 million, up from the $84 million in the same quarter last year. Vachon told analysts that the bank started the quarter off on the right foot before containment measures to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus were a game-changer. In mid-March, we began to experience the impact of a decline in activity as authorities encouraged Canadians to stay at home, he said. The bottom of the barrel came the week of April 6, when new mortgages were down about 35 per cent compared with the same period a year ago, said Lucie Blanchet, executive vice-president for personal banking and client experience. The virus has prompted most financial institutions to set aside large sums to offset bad debts. In Quebec, where the pandemic was most severe, Desjardins Group set aside $324 million in its first quarter ended March 31 to cope with credit losses, an amount almost three times higher than a year ago. At the end of the second quarter, National agreed to allow customers to defer payments on about 114,000 mortgage loans, personal loans, student loans and credit cards. The bank said it does not expect an increase in bad debt provisions in the coming quarters. In the personal and commercial banking segment, Nationals profits plunged 72 per cent to $65 million as it set aside $301 million in credit provisions. Wealth management profits increased 21 per cent to $141 million as its allowance for credit losses was only $4 million. National earned $159 million from financial markets after its provisions for bad debts was $162 million, while it earned $74 million from the international segment with $32 million in provisions. Despite a drop in profits, National did not reduce its quarterly dividend, which remained at 71 cents per share. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:NA) A South Jersey state senator has called on the commissioner of the Department of Corrections (DOC) to resign and if not, the legislator is asking Gov. Phil Murphy to fire the department head over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the states prison system. State Sen. Mike Testa, R-Cumberland, recently wrote in an op-ed published in several New Jersey newspapers that Marcus Hicks should step down as the DOCs commissioner due to his ineffective leadership during the pandemic that has created unnecessary risk to the health and lives of inmates, guards and other employees, as well as the families they go home to. If Hicks does not resign, Testa wrote: Gov. Murphy should fire him. He said Monday he first became concerned when constituents who worked in the prison system were telling him that inmates were being transported to South Jersey prisons as the virus was beginning to devastate the northern region of the state. Speaking to the correctional officers who are my constituents, they have just lost full faith and confidence in their commissioner to keep them and their family members safe, Testa said in a phone interview. In the op-ed, Testa wrote that Hicks failed to prioritize the health conditions inside the prisons or control the rampant spread of the contagion. He did little to plan and prepare for the pandemic even after it was crystal clear the virus would wreak havoc within the walls of state prisons," the senator wrote. "These failures leave the walls when correction officers end their shift go home to their families. Hicks did not respond to emails seeking comment. Testa is the first public official to call on Hicks to resign, as pressure has mounted from attorneys and advocates on the DOC and other state officials regarding their handling of the health crisis. So far, 43 inmates and at least three correctional officers have died with COVID-19. Last week, New Jersey Together, a non-partisan North Jersey organization made up of faith groups and non-profits, called on Murphy to terminate officials responsible for the states response in correctional facilities. An NJ Advance Media investigation for NJ.com earlier this month found a spiraling death rate of inmates and troublesome conditions described by inmates, officers and civilian staff within the states prison system that the state did not address proactively. New Jersey has continually had the highest death rate in the country among prisoners throughout much of the pandemic, according to an analysis of national data compiled by The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan news organization that covers the criminal justice system. Gov. Murphy has rarely commented at his daily press briefings on how the coronavirus has impacted the states prison system or the death toll behind bars. Hicks has only publicly spoken once since the first DOC employee tested positive for the virus more than two months ago. The governors office declined to comment. The DOC did not respond to multiple requests for comment. However, a spokesman for the governors office forwarded a letter written Monday by William Sullivan, the president of PBA 105, the states largest corrections union, which represents almost 5,500 officers, that says the union is not seeking for Hicks to resign. In the letter, the union applauded Hicks for steps he has taken to curb the impact of the virus over the last two months, including temperature checks at the facilities, cancelling visits early on and giving them proper personal protective equipment, among other things. As the Union President I commend Marcus Hicks and his staff for the Hundreds of phone calls weekly, thousands of emails and constant communication, the letter says. In the op-ed Testa called on more testing of inmates and employees within the DOC as only 609 inmates out of around 18,000 were tested as of mid-May. The DOC ramped up their testing over the last week and have now tested more than 5,700 inmates, 970 of which were positive for COVID-19. Nearly 750 employees have tested positive for the virus. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Jacqueline Jossa and Dan Osborne put on a united front on Tuesday as they headed on a family day out in Kent. Joined by their daughters, Ella, five, and Mia, 23 months, the couple shirked their marital woes to enjoy time with their kids - during which he was not wearing a wedding ring yet she was seen with her engagement ring in place. The EastEnders actress, 27, has been in the centre of headlines since revealing she 'needs time and space' but has stressed she hasn't split from her husband of three years and slammed claims he has been messaging other women. Heading out: Jacqueline Jossa and Dan Osborne put on a united front on Tuesday as they headed on a family day out at her new Kent home Put a ring on it: Jacqueline was still sporting her engagement ring while Dan's ring finger was bare During the day out, Jacqueline's pretty diamond engagement ring was fully visible. Dan meanwhile was not wearing his wedding ring. Last month, he assured fans all was well when he was seen without his ring by saying: '[I] dont wear it when Im training', however on Tuesday he was evidently away from the gym, sparking questions over the jewellery's absence. In the midst of the day out, Jacqueline took to Instagram to reveal she had saved a dying magpie the previous day. She admitted that before her time on I'm A Celebrity she would not have felt capable of doing so. On Sunday, former TOWIE star Dan, 28, broke his social media silence amid reports over the state of his relationship. Serious stuff: Joined by their daughters, Ella, five and Mia, 23 months, the couple shirked rumours of marital woes following her relocation to enjoy time with their kids Daddy dearest: Dan was laden with toys for the day of fun with his kids and wife Having a giggle: Jacqueline seemed amused by her girls' antics Casual: Dan was sporting a summery ensemble for his family day out amid their woes Ruff times: She cradled the dogs while her eldest walked in front Flying away: In the midst of the day out, Jacqueline took to Instagram to reveal she had saved a dying magpie the previous day. She admitted that before her time on I'm A Celebrity she would not have felt capable of doing so The fitness enthusiast took to Instagram to reveal he was spending time with his son Teddy, six - who he shares with ex Megan Tomlin. Jacqueline also took to Instagram to snap pictures with the couple's daughter. The post comes amid claims the Bexley native's marriage to Dan has become 'unworkable' during the coronavirus lockdown. Rumours have been swirling over what prompted Jacqueline to move out, with The Sun reporting that Dan had been caught messaging other women. However, a source told MailOnline that this wasn't the case. It had also been claimed that Jacqueline had moved out without telling Dan, but a spokesperson for the actress told MailOnline: 'Any suggestion of a secret move out or similar is completely and utterly untrue.' Prepared for everything! Dan clutched a Tupperware box seemingly filled dog treats Mama's coming! She was packing into the car with her rucksack On the up: It's thought both the kids have moved out with Jacqueline while Dan has been spending time with his son Teddy Daddy's girl: The back of leg featured one of Dan's tattoos portraits of his children Sweet: The couple are parents to daughters Ella and Mia (pictured) while Dan also has son Teddy, six, from a previous relationship Jacqueline Jossa and Dan Osborne's relationship timeline 2013: Jacqueline and Dan spark up a romance after meeting at an awards ceremony, while his ex Megan Tomlin is still pregnant with his son Teddy August 2014: The couple announce they're expecting their first child February 2015: Jacqueline and Dan welcome baby daughter Ella June 2015: Dan proposes to Jacqueline on a romantic getaway to Greece June 2017: Jacqueline and Dan tie the knot at Cheshire Manor House with many of her EastEnders co-stars in attendance April 2018: Jacqueline and Dan briefly separate after he is accused of cheating with Love Island's Gabby Allen, which they both deny May 2018: The couple announce the birth of their second child Mia October 2018: Jacqueline and Dan confirm they've reunited after a challenging few weeks March 2019: Dan is hit by claims he kissed Love Island's Alexandra Cane in a nightclub, which both denied December 2019: Dan is hit by claims he had a threesome with CBB stars Natalie Nunn and Chloe Ayling, which he strongly denied, while Jacqueline was in the I'm A Celebrity jungle December 2019: Jacqueline was reportedly left furious when campmate Myles Stephenson offered new details about his now-ex Gabby's relationship with Dan December 2019: Dan apologised to Jacqueline for mistakes that 'almost cost his marriage' in a lengthy social media post after they reunited following her winning stint in the I'm A Celebrity jungle January 2020: The couple's romance seems to be back on track as they jet to Dubai for a romantic getaway May 2020: Jacqueline announces a break from social media, days before reports she and Dan have split Advertisement It's thought both the kids have moved out with Jacqueline while Dan has been spending time with his son Teddy. The couple's relationship has been plagued with cheating allegations and tensions between the pair have reportedly been taking their toll. But Jacqueline took to Instagram earlier to clear up the rumours, stating: 'I need some time. There is no split. No divorce. We are working together not against each other.' She made the statement after a source told The Sun: 'Jac and Dan have had their problems but lockdown magnifies everything. She needs breathing space. Engrossed: Ella was checking in on her iPad as she walked behind her mum and dad Clearing it up: But Jacqueline took to Instagram earlier to clear up the rumours, stating: 'I need some time. There is no split. No divorce. We are working together not against each other' Keeping it low-key: Jacqueline sported a grey cotton ensemble Investigating: It has been suggested that Jacqueline and Dan will 'reassess' their relationship once the lockdown period is over and normality resumes 'Jac and Dan have had their fair share of problems for the past couple of years but obviously lockdown magnifies everything. There's still a lot of love there but quite simply, Jacqueline needs some breathing space.' The publication reported that Jacqueline has found it quite distressing dealing with speculation regarding the state of their marriage. It has been suggested that Jacqueline and Dan will 'reassess' their relationship once the lockdown period is over and normality resumes. Work hard: It has been suggested that Jacqueline and Dan will 'reassess' their relationship once the lockdown period is over and normality resumes Who let the dogs out? Their pooches were part of the day out Haha! The puppies seemed to be keeping the family happy Off out: Earlier this week, she revealed she would be taking a break from social media, as she told her followers she needed to 'take some time' They also believed it was unhealthy for the children to see them arguing while all holed up in their 1 million home together. Jacqueline and Dan married on 24 June 2017 at Cheshire Manor House with many of her EastEnders co-stars in attendance. The couple met and started dating in 2013, and got engaged two years later four months of the birth of their first child. Earlier this week, she revealed she would be taking a break from social media, as she told her followers she needed to 'take some time.' Ready for action! Dan was holding a tent to protect the tots from the sun Way back when: Jacqueline and Dan married on 24 June 2017 at Cheshire Manor House with many of her EastEnders co-stars in attendance Holding on tight: Dan was juggling Mia and his car keys as they packed up their car The couple were thought to be giving their romance a fresh start after Dan apologised for doing things he wasn't proud of in the relationship. Dan lamented his past behaviour, which he did not specify, in a candid post reflecting on the last decade and seemingly referencing his recent cheating scandal. He was rocked by cheating claims after it was alleged he engaged in a threesome with his Celebrity Big Brother co-stars Natalie Nunn and Chloe Ayling last year, which he strongly denied. Tough times: Dan lamented his past behaviour, which he did not specify, in a candid post reflecting on the last decade and seemingly referencing his recent cheating scandal Novavax NVAX announced that it has enrolled the first set of patients in a phase I/II clinical study of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373. The study is being conducted in two portions phase I and II. The phase I portion will enroll approximately 130 healthy participants, aged 18 to 59 at two sites in Australia. Preliminary data from the phase I portion of the study is expected in July and the phase II portion is expected to begin quickly if the phase I data are promising. Novavax plans to conduct phase II portion in multiple countries including the United States. The study is being funded by The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a global organization based in Oslo. Novavax is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock currently. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The news comes as several pharma/biotech companies speed up efforts to make a vaccine for COVID-19, which has infected more than 5.5 million and killed more than 3,40,000 people globally. Apart from Novavax, Moderna MRNA, Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer PFE and partner BioNTech have initiated human/clinical studies on a coronavirus vaccine. Last week, Moderna announced encouraging data from phase I study on the coronavirus vaccine candidate and plans to start a phase II study soon. J&J JNJ and Vaxart plan to initiate clinical study on a coronavirus vaccine in the second half of 2020.Several other vaccine candidates are in pre-clinical stage of development. In the United States, two organizations, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are providing funding to companies involved in making drugs/vaccines. Last week, AstraZeneca (AZN) received more than $1billion in funding from BARDA to help produce a coronavirus vaccine, which it is developing in is a phase I/II study with Oxford University. AstraZeneca has also agreed to provide the United States with up to 300 million doses of the vaccine, if approved. CEPI has also provided funding of millions of dollars to biotechs including Moderna, Novavax, CureVac and Inovio and several universities to accelerate the development of vaccines against COVID-19. Story continues Meanwhile, other than vaccines, several drug/biotech companies are working on making new antibodies and drugs to combat the disease. The lead candidate is Gileads GILD investigational antiviral candidate, remdesivir, which is being evaluated in phase III studies to treat COVID-19. Vir Biotechnologys VIR investigational monoclonal antibodies, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, are expected to directly go to phase II clinical studies sometime in 2020. Larger companies like Pfizer, Biogen, Lilly, Glaxo GSK and Amgen have signed collaborations with smaller biotechs to co-develop antibody therapies to treat COVID-19. Separately, many marketed drugs like Sanofi,/RegeneronsIL-6 inhibitor Kevzara, Roches IL-6 inhibitor, Actemra, Incyte/Novarts JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor, Jakafi, AstraZenecas BTK inhibitor, Calquence, Amgens PDE4 inhibitor, Otezla among others are being evaluated to treat respiratory complications associated with COVID-19 or to treat critically ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients, which is also the need of the hour. Also, the FDA has granted emergency-use authorizations to hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir to treat the disease. Chloroquine is already approved for treating malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Notably, hydroxychloroquine is currently being evaluated in studies for the treatment of COVID-19. 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(GILD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (VIR) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research A model who is feared to have died in the Pakistan plane crash last week has received online abuse posthumously. Trolls on Twitter shared images of Zara Abid, 28, attacking her for her 'sinful' outfits and modelling career, with religious radicals saying she will be punished in the afterlife. Abid is believed to have been one of the 98 people on board the Pakistan International Airlines aircraft that crashed into a residential area in Karachi on May 22. While she has not been named, officials have said only two people survived the crash, and manifest records and her friends appear to have confirmed she was on the flight. Her social media profiles - Instagram, Facebook and Twitter - have all been taken down since, although it is unclear if this was done by her family following the abuse. Zara Abid, 28, is believed to have been on the plane that crashed in Pakistan on Friday into a residential area in Karachi As news began to spread that it is believed she was one of the people to have died in the crash, a number of social media accounts belonging to religious radicals questioned Abid's faith, suggesting she would be punished in the afterlife for her profession and lifestyle. A number shared modelling pictures of her as apparent examples to back their claims. One user, posing under the name 'Irfan', wrote: 'Those people who are saying that she will be in paradise after plane crash accident then being Muslim I would tell them ALLAH Pak doesn't like those women who are showing their body parts to everyone and jannat is only for pure men and pure women.' Another, Zarwan Ali, tweeted: 'I really didn't wanted to do it but some people are ignorant and are now using Zara Abid death to defend her profession and lifestyle. 'Sorry that can't be defended that is prohibited and those who kept telling her that she is doing Haram did right thing. Still do dua for her.' One user posting under the name 'Irfan' shared pictures of Zara Abid, saying 'Allah Pak doesn't like those women who are showing their body parts', suggesting should would not be allowed into paradise Another radical user, Zarwan Ali, called people ignorant for defending her lifestyle, saying that it is prohibited Abid had worked with some of Pakistan's most recognisable fashion brands and was even set to make her acting debut later this year In Pakistan's conservative society, women are expected to be modest, but those in the public eye often find themselves on the wrong end of moral derision online. In response to the abusive tweets, however, people jumped to her defense, rebuking those who were criticising her and her career. 'And this is another example that Allah honors whom he wills. None of us know who is closer to God. Stop judging people and focus on your actions. May Allah forgive us and get us out of this difficult situation,' wrote twitter user Esra Bilgic. A similar message and sentiment was shared by many other users who mourned the model. Many pointed out that the plane crash had happened as the country was preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr, suggesting she was now closer to God. Abid had worked with some of the most recognisable fashion brands in Pakistan, and in January won 'Best Female Model' at the Hum Style Awards. She was also set to make her debut as an actress later this year, the BBC said. Abid has been the target of online abuse since news broke that she is believed to have been on the plane that crashed, with some religious radicals saying she would be punished in the afterlife for her profession A bank executive and at least one other passenger were pulled alive from the wreckage of the Airbus A320 which crashed after an engine failure on Friday, with 98 passengers on board. Bank of Punjab president Zafar Masood was dragged from the smoking debris of the Pakistan International Airlines flight after it smashed into a residential area in Karachi. At least two people aboard survived, according to the country's health department, revising an earlier statement that three were alive. But the other 95 passengers and crew are believed to have died. A bulldozer works in the wreckage of the Pakistan International Airlines crash today after the Airbus A320 smashed into a residential area of Karachi on Friday This was the scene as emergency crews rushed to the scene of the plane crash in the Model Colony in Karachi 'Thank you so much. God has been merciful,' Mr Masood, the banker who was in seat 1C said, according to officials who spoke to him in hospital after the crash. The other known survivor was named as Muhammad Zubair. Witnesses said the flight from Lahore had made three failed attempts to land at Jinnah International Airport before ploughing into the Model Colony area of the city on a fourth landing attempt. Pakistan's civil aviation authority said the plane had 91 passengers and a crew of seven. The pilot told air traffic control that he had lost both of his engines and a recording has emerged of the captain making a final mayday call before the crash. The Airbus A320-214 model uses a CFM56 engine made by CFM International, a joint venture between US-based General Electric and France's Safran. A photo of the aircraft on approach also shows that the landing gear is still up and black scorch marks under each engine. The air traffic control recording starts after the pilot has lready made one failed landing attempt. The plane had been flying from Lahore to Jinnah, which usually takes 90 minutes, before it went down in the Model Colony area as it began its final approach to land at Karachi airport Safety record of the Airbus A320... There have been 119 aviation incidents and accidents across the Airbus A320 fleet. The narrow-body airliners are designed and produced by Airbus, and the first A320 was launched in 1987. The fleet's first crash happened just a year later in 1988 after the captain of an Air France Flight 296 delayed applying full power as he climbed away, crashing into trees beyond the runway. Four further crashes happened in the 1990s, including in Bangalore, the Vosges mountains, Warsaw, and the Philippines. Nine incidents took place in the 2000s and a further 13 happened between 2011 and 2019. It is believed that 18 of the accidents have been fatal, including more than 1,400 deaths. A total of 47 hull loss incidents - when the plane is damaged beyond repair - have occurred among the fleet. Advertisement The pilot says: 'We are proceeding direct, sir - we have lost engine'. 'Confirm your attempt on belly,' the air traffic controller said, offering a runway. 'Sir, mayday, mayday, mayday, mayday Pakistan 8303,' the pilot said before the transmission ended. Videos uploaded on social media show the plane's final moments as it steadily descends to the shrieks of terrified residents. Witnesses say the plane was so low they felt the walls of their houses tremble and saw the plane tilted on one side. Plumes of smoke smothered the skyline after the Pakistan International Airlines plane smashed into houses among the poor and densely populated area of Model Colony that is two miles from the airport. The A320 can carry up to 180 passengers, depending on how its cabin is configured. The Airbus had been flying from Lahore to Jinnah, which usually takes 90 minutes, before it went down in the Model Colony area as it began its final approach to land at Karachi airport. Lemon Tree Music, the same smart cookies that found Tash Sultana and Tones and I, signed them up. Theyve toured the world and are big in Netherlands. The Pierce Brothers have toured the world and are big in Netherlands. "Wed jump around, hit things with sticks and run around the street to make people look," says Jack. ARTISTS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 The Pierce Brothers "We only have a steady pay-cheque when were touring." The Ringwood East lads are Australias unofficial gold record-holders from albums purchased by impressed pedestrians and fans at shows: about 45,000. They now have a new single, Kanko. "Its our first release in two years, were stoked!" chirps Pat. Kanko is a mountain they visited in Japan and the name of Jacks dog. But their national tour is off. Jack had to cancel his New Zealand wedding, too. This messed up plans for Kankos video, which they were going to film in the New Zealand mountains; they made do with Jacks home recording studio and mixed in with footage from the road, says Pat. Qiang Chang, first author of the egg white liquid report holding sample of the egg white hydrogel and liquid in Malcolm Xings lab at the University of Manitoba. Credit: Xing Devices flexible enough to be worn in comfort, sensitive enough to measure a pulse and transparent and thus barely noticeable are an attractive prospect for a range of applications from monitoring biometrics to hands-free user interfaces. However, the material properties required remain a tall order. Much research has focused on the possibilities of synthetic conductive polymers or conducting nanomaterials combined with flexible or stretchy substrates, but none so far have been able to simultaneously meet the electronic, optical and mechanical demands of these applications. Now, reporting in Advanced Functional Materials researchers in Canada and China suggest that a substance derived from egg whites could outperform other more economically and environmentally costly alternatives. Basic phase transitions Malcolm Xing, a researcher at the University of Manitoba in Canada, first turned his attention to egg whites while pondering bioadhesives. "One day when I cracked an egg to prepare for egg-based food, I found the egg white, transparent and sticky, always remained on the inner shell," explains Xing. Further investigation revealed that a hydrogel binding material formed from the egg white could withstand the weight of 6-kg masses, even underwater. But further surprises arose when the egg white amino acid chains crosslinked in the hydrogel were not set. Xing and his collaborators found that the same alkaline solution used to form the hydrogel when added to egg white eventually went on to trigger a further phase transition back to a liquid that had just the high transparency, ionic conductivity and low viscosity that could benefit flexible electronics. The proteins in egg whites are rich in carboxy groups, as Xing and his collaborators had observed in previous research. When an alkaline solution is added, these form carboxyl ions, changing the electrostatic interactions at play between the molecules so that they rearrange and crosslink, forming a gel that is stable in dilute alkaline solution. However, when this hydrogel remains steeped in a basic environment, it begins to hydrolyze, which changes the structures of the amino acid chains again, forming a liquid. "To our knowledge, we are the first to report this Janus role of alkaline solution, possessing construction and destruction faces, in the whole liquid-solid-liquid transition process of egg white," says Xing. Beating the competition Both nanomaterial composites and conductive polymers are limited to a transparency of around 90%. Stretch is also a problem. Nanomaterials can provide conducting pathways through a stretchy material that is not normally conducting, but they are prone to aggregation, and stretching the material can lead to breaks in these pathways. Combining something like a conductive polymer with a stretchy elastomer is problematic due to mismatches in material properties, which leads to hysteretic changes in behavior. Another solution the researchers investigated is metal liquids, where the low viscosity prevents problems with mechanical mismatches, but their transparency is limited further, to around 85%. Xing, Feng Lu and their collaborators in the University of Manitoba in Canada and the Southern Medical University in China characterized the egg white liquid that formed from the hydrogel and measured an ultrahigh transparency of 99.8%. Xing attributes this to the high percentage (95%) of the substance that is water, which is itself transparent. The network that then contains this water in the hydrogel is partly reflective, but since this collapses during the gel-sol transition, the liquid is even more transparent than the hydrogel. The transition to a liquid also increases the conductivity from 16.9 S m-1 to 20.4 S m-1. The firmer hydrogel can be easily 3-D printed before it liquidizes, which is convenient when producing hybrid structures with elastomers for stretchy electronic devices. When the liquid is encapsulated in elastomer channels, the material produced has a resistivity that increases with strain as the cross-sectional area decreases, and the hysteresis of this hybrid material after repeated stretching and relaxing is an impressively low 0.77%. "The negligible hysteresis was the big surprise when we adopted the egg white liquid as a conductor in wearable electronics, because it's not easy to obtain this kind of performance with this plain material and design," says Xing. The researchers exploited these strain-responsive electronic properties in a range of devices. They demonstrated a wrist pulse monitor that could determine finer details of vascular function such as the radial augmentation index and pulse transit time. They produced a user-interface consul that could read facial expressions and drive a radio-controlled toy car with a flick of the wrist. Finally, they incorporated the egg-white liquid and elastomer structures into triboelectric nanogenerator devices that turn on an LED in response to clapping. Future research will focus on developing the egg white liquid as a smart material for soft robotics and artificial muscles. Explore further A stretchable, compressible sensor for wearable electronics and soft robots More information: Qiang Chang et al. Protein Gel's Phase Transition: Toward Superiorly Transparent and HysteresisFree Wearable Electronics, Advanced Functional Materials (2020). Journal information: Advanced Functional Materials Qiang Chang et al. Protein Gel's Phase Transition: Toward Superiorly Transparent and HysteresisFree Wearable Electronics,(2020). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201910080 2020 Science X Network India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported COVID-19 fatality rate in India lowest among badly-hit countries: Govt India pti-PTI New Delhi, May 26: The COVID-19 fatality rate in India is 2.87 pc, the lowest among countries badly hit by the pandemic, the government said on Tuesday even as the death toll rose to 4,167 and the number of coronavirus cases climbed to 1, 45,380 in the country. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that no major side-effects of antimalarial drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been found in studies in India and its use can be continued in preventive treatment for COVID-19 under strict medical supervision. Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said from 3.38 per cent in April, the fatality rate in the country has come down to 2.87 per cent as against 6.4 per cent globally, and attributed the timely lockdown, early detection and management of coronavirus infection cases as the main reasons for the low death toll. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News The country has been registering 6,500 new cases daily for five days in a row and is among the 10 top nations worst hit by the pandemic. "For India, the fatality rate is as low as 2.87 per cent, one of the lowest among countries which have reported high number of COVID-19 cases," Agarwal said. Fadnavis explains how Centre helped Maharashtra during coronavirus crisis Responding to a question on why the country's death rate is one of the lowest in the world, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava told a press briefing that there is no substantiative factor behind it. "We have surprisingly found a low fatality rate in India and which is a very good thing. Ultimately we are interested in a patient surviving whether he gets COVID-19 or not. "There are several hypothesis such as we are living in bad hygiene, have higher immunity and have been given certain vaccines like BCG and those for tuberculosis, but these all are hypothesis and we cannot say anything clearly on any factor," he said. Agarwal, however, said that the country's graded response to COVID-19 and timely identification of cases along with their clinical management played a major role in keeping the death rate low. "If cases are detected on time they do not turn serious and to the extent automatically the fatality rate will be low," he said. Responding to a question on whether we are declaring early victory by comparing fatality rate with other countries, Agarwal said, "We are not declaring any victory, if you remember we have always said that we are in a battle.Whatever relative success we get today we will lose if we relax. We are neither immune to the world nor to the virus." He also said that when they are showing the relative comparisons with other countries, it is not even comparing the differences of resources in which India has always acted upon. "We are not even taking into account that how densely populated we are as a country, with those additional constraints at our disposal. When we had started working, decisions were taken at the highest level at the right moment. When countries went ahead with a lockdown at relatively later stages, India went ahead with the lockdown. "We started working with every community, with every citizen and we brought them together in this battle. What we are trying to highlight is that we have been able to manage it so far but the battle is not over. It is along drawn battle and it will be successful when we have support from every citizen of the country," he said. Referring to the WHO Situation Report 126 dated May 25, Aggarwal said that France has a fatality rate of 19.9 per cent followed by Belgium at 16.3, Italy at 14.3, UK at 14.2, Spain 12.2, Sweden 11.9, Canada 7.6, Brazil 6.3, the US at 6.0, China 5.5 and Germany at 4.6 per cent. Further, India has 0.3 deaths per lakh population as against the 4.5 deaths globally, which is among the lowest in the world, Agarwal said. "This has been due to lockdown, timely identification and management of COVID-19 cases," the official said. When asked if there has been community transmission of the disease in the country, Bhargava said, "We have very clear cut containment areas which are red zones where the sero-prevalence is being studied and before the findings come out it would not be wise to comment on community transmission." Responding to a question over the WHO suspending the testing of the Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in COVID-19 patients temporarily in its global study following safety concerns, Bhargava said no major side-effects of the drug have been found in studies in India and its use should be continued as prophylaxis for COVID-19. "We found there were no major side affects except for nausea, vomiting, palpitation occasionally. Hence in our advisory we have recommended that it should be continued for prophylaxis as there is no harm. Benefit may be there," Bhargava said adding it has been "clearly advised that HCQ should be taken with food, not on empty stomach". "We also emphasised that one ECG should be done during the treatment. We expanded use of HCQ from healthcare workers to front-line workers also, considering the potential benefits," Bhargava added. Sources said that the Union Health Ministry also shot off an email to WHO over the HCQ clinical trial issue. "It was conveyed to the WHO that perhaps all the reports have not been considered before suspending the trials. The same would be true of other drugs in the trial where differing reports are also coming and the ICMR which is leading the solidarity trials in India has also not been consulted," a source told PTI. Meanwhile, the Union health ministry on Tuesday suggested five states --Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh -- reporting a surge in COVID-19 cases over the last three weeks to analyse the trends in containment zones and adopt course correction measures through proper implementation of micro-plans. Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan held a high-level review meeting through video conference with the chief secretaries, health secretaries and National Health Mission (NHM) directors of these states and asked them to focus on effective containment strategy such as perimeter control, diligent house-to-house survey through special surveillance teams, testing, active contact-tracing and effective clinical management. Referring to the WHO Situation Report 126 dated May 25, Agarwal said Belgium has 81.2 death per lakh population while Spain has 61.5 deaths per population and UK has reported 55.3 deaths per lakh population. Italy, France, Sweden, US, Canada, Brazil and Germany have 54.3, 42.3, 39.3, 29.3, 17.2, 10.5 and 10.0 deaths per lakh population respectively. Agarwal further said that while Belgium has reported 800.72 deaths per million, Spain, Italy , UK, France, US and Russia have reported 614.95, 542.24, 541.98, 434.59, 295.22 and 24.96 deaths per million respectively. "India has reported only 3.08 deaths per million. Further, the trajectory is relatively flat, there is no spike in the curve," Agarwal said showing a graph to present global perspective: death per million population (as per European CDC situation update dated May 25). The recovery rate has improved from 7.1 per cent in March when the lockdown was initiated to 11.42 per cent during the second phase and 26.59 per cent in the third phase to 41.61 per cent now. For every one lakh population, there are 10.7 coronavirus cases in India so far as against 69.9 globally. Spain tops the tally with 504.6 cases per lakh population followed by Belgium at 499.8, US 486.8, UK at 390.4, Italy 380.4, Sweden at 328.6, Canada at 226.9, Germany at 215.3 and France at 212.3 per lakh respectively. The Armenian government indicated on Tuesday that it still has no plans to re-impose a nationwide lockdown despite the accelerating spread of coronavirus in the country. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said the government will instead toughen penalties for people and businesses not following safety rules which it believes can stop the growing number of new coronavirus cases. Administrative measures taken to date will be toughened further, he said, adding that law-enforcement and sanitary authorities will step up their inspections of businesses, buses and taxis. Speaking at a joint news briefing with Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinian and Health Minister Arsen Torosian, Pashinian again called on Armenians to frequently wash their hands, wear face masks in all enclosed spaces and practice social distancing. We are confident that if these rules are followed our epidemiological situation will not only improve but also gravitate towards an end, he said. So we continue to believe that our main task and message is to tell our dear compatriots that following these rules is very important and even obligatory. Dialogue with citizens remains the key element of the governments fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, added Pashinian. It means that no economic restrictions are expected anytime soon, explained Avinian. We switched [in April] to the model of a decentralized fight, which means that each of us has to contribute to this fight and to protect themselves and their loved ones. Every effort will be made to avoid the return to a nationwide quarantine, he said. But that requires us to be as disciplined as possible. The government is thus essentially sticking to its strategy of tackling the epidemic despite a significant increase in new coronavirus cases registered in Armenia. The Ministry of Health said in the morning that the total number of cases rose by 289 to 7,402 in the past day. It also reported 4 more fatalities which raised the official death toll from the virus to 91. According to Torosian, 310 infected people were in a critical or serious condition as of Tuesday evening. The minister repeatedly warned last week that Armenian hospitals treating such patients will soon run out of vacant intensive care beds. Pashinians government imposed a nationwide lockdown in late March, ordering the closure of most nonessential businesses and seriously restricting peoples movements. But it began relaxing these restrictions already in mid-April. Although the daily numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections steadily increased in the following weeks, most sectors of the Armenian economy were reopened by May 4. The government went on to lift its ban on public transport and allow kindergartens, shopping malls, indoor restaurants and gyms to resume their work. Opposition figures and other critics say that the authorities ended the lockdown too soon and never enforced it properly in the first place. They also accuse Pashinian of trying to dodge responsibility for his poor handling of the coronavirus crisis with regular statements to the effect that ordinary Armenians must share with their government responsibility for tackling the epidemic. We will overcome the epidemic as soon as there is a change in citizens epidemiological behavior, the prime minister insisted on Tuesday. We dont know of any other method. The sum of the bail for Duhar is 168,000 hryvnia ($6,258) Open source A person of interest in the case of the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet, nurse of one of the airborne battalions Yana Duhar was released on bail, as RBK-Ukraine reported. Pechersk district court of Kyiv released on bail suspect in the organization of the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet, Yana Duhar, the message said. The sum of the bail for Duhar is 168,000 hryvnia ($6,258). At the end of December 2019, the lawyers of suspect Duhar stated about the falsification of evidence and illicit arrest. Recently, they provided the court with witnesses who stated the alibi of the suspect on the day of the murder. As we reported, National police detained the persons of interests in case of the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet. They are also notified of suspicion. On December 13, 2019, the Pechersk district court of Kyiv chose the restrictive measure in the form of the 24-hour house arrest for military nurse Yana Duhar. Later the court changed the restrictive measure for Duhar. She is obliged to stay under the house arrest from 8:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. She will be able to work and serve in the military unit at another time. On February 5, 2020, the court extended the arrest of Yana Duhar until April 4, 2020. Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sheremet was killed in Kyiv in the morning of July 20, 2016. His car exploded in the citys downtown. The vehicle belonged to his civilian wife, Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainska Pravda outlet Olena Prytula; she was not in the car at the moment. The Ukrainian police qualified the explosion as intentional homicide. Then Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko assumed the murder could be the part of some greater plan, perhaps designed by the Kremlin. The key version of Sheremets murder was his professional activity. ain said 14-day quarantine measures for passengers will be lifted from July 1 The budget airline group has now launched a sale for flights in July and August confirmed plan to ramp up flights to 40 per cent of its normal schedule confirmed plan to ramp up flights to 40 per cent of its normal schedule Ryanair has announced that it will ramp up its flights from July 1 after Spain confirmed that its borders would be open to tourists from the same date. The budget airline, which grounded most its flights until 'at least July' earlier this month, confirmed its plan to ramp up flights to 40 per cent of its normal schedule to 'key holiday airports' in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. The company has launched a sale for flights in July and August with one-way fares starting from 29.99 euro (26.71) in a bid to kick-start demand for travel amid the coronavirus pandemic. Since mid-March, Ryanair has operated a skeleton daily schedule of 30 flights per day between the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe. Ryanair has announced that it will ramp up flights to 40 per cent of its normal schedule to the 'key holiday airports' in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. (Stock image) Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary (pictured) had to cut up to 3,000 jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic However following the announcement made by the Spanish government, the airline will now ramp up its services. On Monday, Reyes Maroto, Spain's tourism minister, announced that the requirement for overseas visitors to go into quarantine for 14 days would be lifted from July 1. His comments came after politicians in France took fire at the UK's plans to bring in a tough new quarantine regime requiring travellers to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving to the UK. In a televised statement to the nation Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: 'Spain receives each year more than 80 million visitors. 'That's why I'm announcing to you that from the month of July the entry of international tourism to Spain will restart in safety. 'Foreign tourists can now start planning their holidays here.' This followed announcements by other popular tourist destinations that coronavirus restrictions will be eased in the coming weeks.' The move comes in the same week Spain announced that the requirement for overseas visitors to go into quarantine for 14 days would be lifted from July 1. Pictured: Sun-seekers flock to El Arenal beach in Spain People enjoy the sunshine at the El Arenal beach as the country begins to ease its way out of the coronavirus lockdown Revellers sit at a terrace at a restaurant in Barcelono, Catalonia, Spain, today as the country begins to relax its lockdown rules Beach-goers play volleyball on El Arenal beach as Spain announces that it will welcome tourists from July 1 Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said: 'After four months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines. 'Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much-needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations for July and August before the schools return in September. What are the UK's quarantine rules and how will they be enforced? The government has said that people arriving in the UK from June 8 MUST self-isolate for 14 days to help slow the spread of coronavirus. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the measure would 'reduce the risk of cases crossing our border'. People will be required to tell the government where they plan to self-isolate. The rule will be enforced by random checks and fines of up to 1000. Border Force chief Paul Lincoln said those who did not have their own accommodation to self-isolate in would be provided facilities by the government, at their own expense. The announcement sparked a row with British holidaymakers hoping to go abroad this summer, while airlines slammed the new measure as 'effectively killing air travel'. The government is now considering 'air bridges' to allow tourists to travel without quarantining to countries that have low infection rates. The new measures will be renewed every three weeks from when it is introduced. Lorry drivers, seasonal farm workers, and coronavirus medics will be exempt. Advertisement 'Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from July 1, and we have a range of low fare seat sales, perfect for that summer getaway, which we know many parents and their kids will be looking forward to as we move out of lockdown and into the school holidays.' He insisted that all Ryanair flights will operate with new hygiene guidelines in place. These include all passengers having to wear face masks in airports and on board aircraft, and having to ask cabin crew for permission to use the toilet facilities to avoid queues. Mr Wilson added: 'We look forward to welcoming millions of Ryanair passengers and their families back on board, and flying them on holiday as Europe's economies begin to recover from these difficult recent lockdowns, which have been so successful in reversing the spread of the Covid-19 virus.' Other airlines have also announced plans to boost flight numbers. EasyJet announced last week it will resume flights from June 15 with a mainly domestic schedule in the UK and France. British Airways is due to launch 'a meaningful return to service in July', while Jet2.com is to resume its flight programme at the beginning of that month. The UK is to impose a 14-day quarantine requirement for anyone arriving in the country from June 8, but the rules will be reviewed every three weeks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock previously warned that foreign holidays for UK residents are unlikely this summer. Under the new 28-page guideline issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) anyone who is not travelling or working in an airport will be not be allowed inside the terminal. Passengers will also be required to wear face masks and wash their hands while inside the terminal. In May, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary cut up to 3,000 jobs but vowed to refund 25 million out-of-pocket customers amid the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Mr O'Leary said his stricken airline was facing a backlog of 25 million customer refunds. Investigators petition for detention of suspects in southern Moscow shootup RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 15:00 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) Investigators filed a motion with Moscows Chertanovsky District Court to detain three alleged participants of a gunfight in southern Moscow, RAPSI was told in the court on Tuesday. The suspects Maxim Yevlampyev, Herman Titenok and Vadim Rusanov are transferred to court. The hearing is expected to begin soon. On May 24, the shootup occured at a parking lot near a residential complex in the southern Moscow. One of the shooting participants was injured. A criminal case was opened over murder attempt committed from molester motives, arms trafficking and hooliganism committed by a group of people. Over 15 persons involved in the conflict and witnesses were questioned; searches were conducted in the suspects places of living, according to investigators. PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 19:01:07 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 822 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / GlobeX Data Ltd. (OTCQB:SWISF)(CSE:SWIS) ("GlobeX" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted cyber security and Internet privacy solutions for secure data management and secure communications, is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter Of Intent with a conglomerate representing more than 2000 cybersecurity resellers in Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Guatemala to sell all of the Company's cybersecurity, data recovery and secure communications services, DigitalSafe, PrivaTalk, PrivaTalk Messenger and Custodia. The parent company of the conglomerate is based in Madrid, Spain and the Company is also working on getting the Spanish firm on board for all its 1000 resellers in Spain.Alain Ghiai, CEO of GlobeX Data said: "We are very pleased with our discussions with this partner, representing over 2,000 cybersecurity resellers throughout Latin and Central America. Cybersecurity is gaining importance due to the vast cyber-attacks and the fact that post COVID-19, the world will embrace a higher degree of remote work locations. This in turn encourages hackers to attack all mobile devices, especially ones that are not securely connected through public wifi hotspots. With this distribution, we can target all of Latin and Central America, as this is also a hot spot for cyber-attacks. We are looking forward to formalize this agreement in the next month or so and start training the first resellers in June or July of this year." According to a study by lookingglasscyber.com , Latin America is vulnerable to hostile cyber activity, especially as the region develops economically and technologically. As the region's economies become more technically adept, cyber security practices are currently failing to keep up with advancements in digitization. Cybercrime, cyber espionage, and hacktivism have all targeted Latin America. According to cybersecurity-insiders.com , Colombia is on the list of top 5 countries most hit by cyber espionage and Mexico is on the list of the top 6 hit by malware infection. According to Insighcrime.org , online scams, ransomware attacks and phishing email schemes have proliferated in Latin America amid the coronavirus pandemic, exposing the dangers hackers pose to people, banks and governments. If the past is any indication, Latin America is largely unprepared for this new wave of cybercrime.About GlobeX Data Ltd.GlobeX Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure data management and secure communications. The Company distributes a suite of secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery, document management, encrypted e-mails, and secure communication tools. GlobeX Data Ltd. sells its products through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. GlobeX Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.On behalf of ManagementGLOBEX DATA LTD.Alain GhiaiPresident and Chief Executive Officer+1.416.644.8690corporate@ globexdatagroup.com For more information please contact GlobeX Data at corporate@ globexdatagroup.com or visit us at https://globexdatagroup.com For more information on DigitalSafe visit us at: https://digitalsafe.com . For more information on PrivaTalk visit us at: https://privatalk.com Forward Looking InformationThis news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. GlobeX cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond GlobeX's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in GlobeX's prospectus dated May 8, 2019 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available on www.sedar.com . Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, GlobeX undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.SOURCE: GlobeX Data Ltd. Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (27) Banjul, Gambia (PANA) Leading human rights activist of The Gambia, Madi Jobarteh, has urged his compatriots to stand up, create and protect their future which begins with the final draft constitution A forensic engineering firm is warning that using foggers to disperse disinfectants a common practice as businesses reopen after COVID-19 closures may cause permanent damage to electronic equipment. Atlanta-based Envista Forensics released a paper last week cautioning business owners to turn off all devices and cover them before fogging. If thats not possible, skip the fogging and apply disinfectants by hand instead, said Mark Ewing, major loss practice leader for Envista in Chicago. Ewing said studies by the Environmental Protection Agency show that the chemicals most commonly used to spray disinfectants are corrosive and can damage sensitive electronic equipment. I think sometimes companies dont really know how reactive, chemically, those defoggers can be, Ewing said in a telephone interview. They are focused more on what can we do to disinfect and kill the coronavirus?' Ewing said a chemist for the company alerted team members to the potential problem after spotting an article on FlightGlobal.com, a trade publication for the airline industry. It included photographs of maintenance workers for Royal Jordanian Airlines spraying disinfectants inside aircraft cabins and cockpits. In the paper written by forensic materials scientist Carlos Garcia, Envista said while some materials such as doorknobs, light bulbs and countertops may be able to withstand exposure to disinfectants, electronic components may not. In a September 2014 technical brief, the EPA reported that personal computers exposed to chlorine dioxide, methyl bromide and ethylene bromide experienced higher rates of functional failure than a control group that was not exposed. One of the highest failure rates came from a popular COVID-19 fogging disinfectant: chlorine dioxide. Envista noted that all of the fogging agents contain water. A drop of mineralized water on an unprotected electronic circuit board will cause corrosion and lead to electrical failures, the Envista report says. Some circuit boards, depending on their design specifications, are protected with a conformal coating. Therefore, some boards will suffer little to no degradation from exposure to corrosive disinfectants, while others will exhibit significant deterioration. Envista said it believes that repeated fogging of electronic equipment will cause material degradation and functional failures. Its a great tool in the toolbox, but not the only one, said Envista Marketing Manager Amanda Emery. It should only be used for certain materials, and in a certain way, to even be successful. The last thing business owners want to go through right now after all of this is having to submit a claim for deteriorated equipment extending the business interruption theyve already faced. Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines each promoted their use electrostatic sprayers to apply disinfectants to decontaminate aircraft. The devices add a charge to particles that makes the disinfectant cling to surfaces. Southwest Airlines on April 22 posted a video on its website showing a maintenance worker using a hand sprayer to apply disinfectant in an aircraft cabin and directly onto uncovered instruments in the cockpit. The airline said the electrostatic technology is different that the foggers that work by saturating the atmosphere with droplets that slowly settle on surfaces. It puts out a very fine mist that has a wraparound effect around objects that are hard to reach so it is very effective in applying in a very consistent and effective manner, said Brian Bond, director of aircraft appearance, says on the video. Southwest Airlines said it as ordered 100 of the electrostatic sprayers and will put them to use as the airline resumes normal operations. The airline did not respond to a request for comment. About the photo: Shown is a screen shot of a Southwest Airlines promotional video about its decontamination procedures. CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico Officials in a Mexican border city are tightening checks on travellers coming from Texas, saying they fear U.S. visitors may be helping feed a spike in COVID-19 cases. Municipal and state officials in Matamoros, together with Mexicos National Guard began setting up checkpoints Saturday at the three border crossings to question U.S. citizens and residents coming from Brownsville, Texas. City official Jorge Mora Solaldine said only one person will be allowed per vehicle and people will have to prove they have essential business, such as work or medical care. At least 180 people were turrned back at a single point on Saturday, according to city officials. Mexico and the U.S. announced in March that they were closing the border to non-essential business, but enforcement has been spotty in some places and there were few if any checks on those coming into Matamoros. Commercial traffic, critical to the economy on both sides of the border, has continued on a large scale. The municipality of Matamoros, with a population of roughly 500,000, has reported 323 confirmed infections of the new coronavirus and 29 deaths, while Cameron County on the other side of the border has recorded about 700 cases and 32 deaths among its roughly 420,000 people. The U.S.-Mexico border is the most transited in the world, with many people normally crossing almost daily for work or school. Residents and officials on both sides have asserted that travellers from across the border were bringing the infection. In Nogales, Sonora, some people temporarily blocked the crossing from Arizona with their vehicles in March, accusing the Mexican government of failing to screen people coming from the U.S. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness and lead to death. From the United States Attorneys office: SHERMAN, TX - The United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced today the resignation of United States Attorney Joseph D. Brown, effective May 31, 2020. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as United States Attorney and to work with some of the finest prosecutors and support staff in the country. I am very proud of our accomplishments, said Brown. Under Browns leadership, the Eastern District played a major national role in carrying out President Trumps Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse by focusing prosecution resources on the illegal prescribing and dispensing drugs by doctors and pharmacies and cracking down on the international and domestic drug supply chains that have devastated communities, both urban and rural, throughout the United States. In 2018, the Eastern District of Texas led the nation in the extradition of defendants out of Colombia for drug related crimes. Our efforts to stop the deadly supply of drugs before they reached U.S. soil also extended into Mexico and other parts of South America, said Brown. In 2019, Browns office led the state of Texas and was fourth in the nation in the number of high-level, sophisticated organized crime cases indicted pursuant to the Justice Departments Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program. By 2020, the number of criminal defendants prosecuted in the Eastern District increased 24% from levels of just two years before, with a 40% increase in violent crime prosecutions and a 100% increase in the number of illegal immigration prosecutions. Additional drug enforcement efforts included the prosecution of numerous pill mill physicians involved in the illegal distribution of opioid prescriptions. Brown successfully prosecuted Dr. Howard Diamond of Sherman for illegally distributing opioids, securing a 20-year prison sentence in 2018. We must win the fight against opioid abuse in order to save our country. But in order to be effective, we must be willing to prosecute all facets of the expansive network that feeds these destructive drugs into our communities. Players both big and small must meet equal justice under the law, said Brown. Brown secured a Project Safe Neighborhood grant of $100,000 for the Paris Police Department, stood up Violent Crime Task Forces in the Sherman and Beaumont divisions of the District and created an Appellate Section within the United States Attorneys Office. Browns tenure as United States Attorney also included increased disaster preparedness trainings for law enforcement, public corruption prosecutions, and strengthening relations between, local, state, and federal law enforcement through the Eastern District. Brown will be pursuing opportunities in the private and public sectors. Im excited about the next chapter, said Brown. There are many exciting opportunities on the horizon and some of those will become apparent in the coming days. Brown, 50, was appointed by President Trump to the position of United States Attorney in 2018. He had previously served as Grayson County District Attorney. I want to thank President Trump for allowing me the honor of serving as United States Attorney, said Brown. The President has led important efforts to fight crime and keep us safe, and I fully support those pro-law enforcement measures. I also want to express my deep gratitude to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz for their support. Brown currently resides in Grayson County with his wife Megan and their two daughters. chris.moore@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/chris_moore09 By Peter Hobson LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) has set aside C$232 million ($168 million) to cover costs relating to the closure of its metals business and investigations of its metals trading practices by U.S. regulators, it said on Tuesday. The disclosure was made as Scotiabank announced a 41% profit fall in its second quarter to April 30. Scotiabank, Canada's third-biggest lender, had said in February that the U.S. Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were investigating its metals trading activities. The bank's management last month told staff it would close the metals operation, one of the most venerable names in bullion trading with a history stretching back to the 17th century. Scotiabank said on Tuesday that it "continues to respond to requests for information related to these investigations and is engaging in settlement discussions with the applicable authorities". "The bank has reserved C$232 million in respect of these matters as well as certain costs related to the wind-down of the metals business," it said. Scotiabank was for years the world's biggest lender to the physical precious metals industry, but it downsized the business in 2018 after failing to sell the operation. It remains one of the five banks that settle gold trades and one of 12 marketmakers that provide liquidity in the London market. It is also a participant in daily auctions that set a globally used gold benchmark price. ($1 = 1.3814 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Peter Hobson Editing by David Goodman) Former prisoner Caleb Valeri (pictured with Melissa Goodwin, who has been accused of carrying out sexual acts with another inmate) sent a series of vile and abusive messages to the mother of his child An up-and-coming rapper caught up in a prison sex scandal also sent a series of abusive and threatening messages to the mother of his child. Caleb Valeri, 24, sent the profanity-laced messages to his ex-partner Tiana-Lee Matapuku last year - threatening to 'slap the s**t out of' her as well as sending her a picture of a coffin. The former inmate allegedly dated corrections officer Melissa Goodwin, 25, who on Monday was stood down after being accused of carrying out five sexual acts with a prisoner behind bars. Goodwin has been charged with public office misconduct and engaging in a relationship with an inmate, causing a safety risk - although none of the charges are in connection to Valeri. The rapper, from St Clair in Sydney's west, sent the menacing messages to Ms Matapuku in November when discussing an upcoming cruise trip Valeri had planned for their child. His verbal tirade began when Ms Matapuku asked who the child would be accompanied with on the cruise, The Daily Telegraph reported. 'Mother f*****, dont ask questions,' Valeri said. 'If you werent my sons mum Id jump on your head & you can go court (sic) baby girl, but Ill win the war.' He followed that message about a minute later with the line: 'Dont even reply back you ugly f***, Ill come to your house and slap the s*** out of you and whoever else wants it.' Scroll down for video Valeri, 24, sent the messages last year to his ex-partner - threatening last year to 'slap the s**t out of' and sending her a picture of a coffin 'If you werent my sons mum Id jump on your head & you can go court (sic) baby girl, but Ill win the war,' Valeri told his ex-partner Pictured: The vile texts sent by Valeri to the mother of his child in November of last year Ms Matapuku then called police, who was arrested at his home. He has pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harrass or offend and driving while disqualified. He also admitted to driving while disqualified after telling police 'I shouldn't be driving' when he was pulled over for a random breath test on August 22 last year. There is no suggestion that Goodwin was aware of the messages. Valeri also pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified after telling police 'I shouldn't be driving' when he was pulled over for a random breath test Goodwin - who was stood down from her role last month - allegedly had sexual encounters with a prisoner on five occasions Goodwin had already been suspended by Corrective Services NSW over her alleged relationship with Valeri (pictured) Valeri's relationship with Goodwin led to her being stood down from her job at Silverwater's Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Sydney's west earlier this month. Goodwin and Valeri are understood to have been in a relationship for several months but their romance started following the bikie's release from jail. Corrective services workers are required to inform their employer of relationships of any nature they have with former inmates. As such an investigation into Goodwin was launched earlier this month during which time she was suspended from her role. Goodwin is accused of having a jailhouse romance with 21-year-old inmate Corey London. London has been a regular before the courts ever since he became an adult and has even boasted on Facebook about his time in lock up. He also refers to himself as a 'korrupt gangster', a sergeant at arms and has posed for photos brandishing a sharp knife. The Afghan government said it would free 900 prisoners on Tuesday, its single largest prisoner release since the U.S. and the Taliban signed a peace deal earlier this year that spells out an exchange of detainees between the warring sides. The announcement came as a three-day cease-fire with the insurgents draws to an end. The Taliban had called for the truce during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. There are expectations that the prisoner release could lead to new reductions in violence, and Taliban officials say they are considering an extension of the cease-fire. A senior Taliban figure confirmed this to The Associated Press. If these developments, like the announcement of prisoner release continues, it is possible to move forward with decisions like extending the brief cease-fire and to move in a positive direction with some minor issues," the Taliban official said. The prisoner release is part of the U.S. deal with the Taliban, signed on Feb. 29 to allow for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan, bringing to an end the country's protracted war and Americas longest military involvement. When the deal was signed, it was touted as Afghanistan's best chance for peace after decades of war but political feuding in Kabul and delays in prisoner exchanges have slowed the deal's progress toward intra-Afghan negotiations, considered the second and most critical phase of the accord. Under the deal, Kabul is to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the insurgents are to free 1,000 captives they hold, mostly government officials and Afghan forces, before intra-Afghan negotiations can begin. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had welcomed the Taliban cease-fire announcement during the Muslim holiday. Javid Faisal, a national security spokesman in Kabul, urged the Taliban to extend the cease-fire and said the government would release 900 prisoners on Tuesday. That would bring to 2,000 the number of Taliban prisoners released so far under the U.S.-Taliban deal. The Taliban say they have released 240 of captives they held. However, the Taliban have yet to confirm whether those released so far by the government were among the 5,000 names the insurgents had given U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of the Feb. 29 deal. A second Taliban official told the AP that those released so far were n fact on the Taliban list of demands, including the uncle of Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada. Key in deciding which names would appear on the list was Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a senior figure who had recently recovered from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Turabi was the much feared vice and virtue minister during the Taliban rule, known for beating men who were found listening to music or not attending the mosque. He once slapped a Taliban commander who spoke with a woman journalist. Both Taliban officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Every morning, Isaac Calpito sets the stage in the East Hampton living room of his friend Stephanie DiTullio. Mr. Calpito, 39, is dressed, often, in sparkling yoga tights and a tank top that show his muscles to good advantage. His main prop is an iPhone. At 11 a.m. sharp, accompanied by a new playlist chosen by Ms. DiTullio (a.k.a D.J. Steph), he turns on Instagram Live and welcomes thousands of housebound fitness buffs and at least one Real Housewife, all of whom tune in to take part in (or at least watch) Mr. Calpitos Torchd workout. For 45 minutes, the music pumps as he cycles through push-ups and squats, giving cheeky tough-love directions. At a time when its difficult to introduce a new product or a business, Torchd has become, rather organically, the breakthrough workout of the stay-at-home era. Mr. Calpito has been leading the classes virtually since March 17. Last week, about 2,500 people tuned in every day. The video of each class remains accessible on Instagram for 24 hours, and he said an additional 17,500 people typically tune in during that time. (On three occasions, Mr. Calpito has broadcast on a split screen that showed the actress Vanessa Hudgens and Lisa Rinna, a star of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, doing their Torchd workout. Each of those classes attracted about 8,000 live viewers. The last time Mr. Calpito featured Ms. Hudgens, more than 250,000 people watched during the 24-hour period.) Pune, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global cryptocurrency market size is predicted to reach USD 1,758.0 million by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.2% during the forecast period. The growing inclination of individuals in developed countries towards virtual currency exchange methods will have a tremendous impact on the market during the forecast period. The integration of blockchain technology in cryptocurrency for fast, secure and effective transactions will bolster healthy growth of the market in the forthcoming years, mentioned in a report, titled Cryptocurrency Market Size, Share and COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Component (Hardware, Software), By Type (Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, Ether Classic, Others), By End-use (Trading, E-commerce and Retail, Peer-to-Peer Payment, and Remittance), and Regional Forecast, 2020 2027 , the market size stood at USD 754.0 million in 2019. Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/request-sample-pdf/cryptocurrency-market-100149 An Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on this Market: The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic. We are taking continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreak across industries to help you prepare for the future. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this Market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/cryptocurrency-market-100149 Market Driver: Rising Popularity of Digital Currency to Augment Growth The rising trend of cryptocurrency has led to the acceptance of digital coins such as Bitcoins, Litecoins, Ethers, and more. The easy and flexible transactional method offered by cryptocurrency has facilitated the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) activity provisions across the world. For instance, Bank of Thailand and Central Bank of Uruguay have applied for the toolkit to its CBDC evaluation process. The toolkit delivers a guide for the countries to make progress quickly and analyse CBDC as an exchange medium. Furthermore, the increasing investment in blockchain and cryptocurrency by major companies will enable speedy expansion of the market. For instance, in October 2018, Qtum Chain Foundation, an open-sourced blockchain application platform based in Singapore announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) China to deploy blockchain systems on the AWS cloud. The partnership will allow help AWS users to use Amazon Machine Images (AMI) to develop and publish smart contracts easily and efficiently. Also, the introduction of unique digital currencies by eminent companies will influence the market positively in the foreseeable future. For instance, in June 2019, Facebook, Inc. announced the launch of a digital currency named Libra. Libra will enable customers to buy things or send money to others and cash out Libra online or at grocery shops. Market Restraint: Raging Coronavirus to Sway Market Potential The outbreak of COVID-19 has negatively impacted the global economy. The regression in the stock market has directedly created concerns for the bitcoins. For instance, 12 March 2020, the price of Bitcoin fell below USD 4,000 after a sharp decline in the S&P Index in the U.S. The market crash has incited an increase in investment capital by blockchain companies to compensate for the losses. Giant blockchain analytics, Elliptic, Chainalysis, and CipherTrace declared that they have cut-price and reduced staffs or intend to do so in the immediate future to lessen the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. For instance, CipherTrace has decreased the jobs of the advertising and marketing departments. Whereas Elliptic has eliminated 30% of the workers in the U.S. and the U.K and Chainalysis has planned to reduce employees' wages by 10% to mitigate the risks. Speak to Analyst: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/cryptocurrency-market-100149 Regional Analysis: Existential Players to Promote Growth in North America The market in North America stood at USD 250.9 million in 2019 and is predicted to proliferate in the forthcoming years. The growth in the region is attributed to the rising popularity of bitcoins in the US. The presence of major eminent players will foster growth in the region during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period owing to the technological developments and acceptance of virtual currency in Japan. The growing collaborations among key players will significantly boost the cryptocurrency market growth in Asia Pacific. For instance, in January 2020, Z Corporation, Inc. and TaoTao, Inc. announced a joint venture with the financial service agency to expand its presence by confirming regulatory compliance in the Japanese market. Key Development: January 2020: Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange company that provides a platform for trading various cryptocurrencies announced the acquisition of WazirX Bitcoin exchange based in Mumbai, India. With this acquisition, Binance will be able to expand its business portfolio in India. List of the Key Companies Operating in the Cryptocurrency Market are: Binance.com. (Malta) Bitfury Group Limited (The Netherlands) BitGo, Inc. (United States) Bitmain Technologies Ltd. (Saint Bitts LLC) (China) Coinbase (United States) CoinDesk.com (United States) Intel Corporation (United States) Ripple Labs, Inc. (United States) Xilinx (United States) Quick Buy Cryptocurrency Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/100149 Detailed Table of Content Introduction Definition, By Segment Research Approach Sources Executive Summary Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities Emerging Trends Key Insights Macro and Micro Economic Indicators Consolidated SWOT Analysis of Key Players COVID-19 Impact Analysis Global Cryptocurrency Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2016 2027 Key Findings / Summary Market Size Estimates and Forecasts By Component (Value) Hardware FPGA ASIC GPU Others (Paper Wallet, Web Wallet, etc.) Software Mining Software Exchanges Software Wallet Payment Others (Vaults, Encryption, etc.) By Type (Value) Bitcoin Ether Litecoin Ripple Ether Classic Others (Dogecoin, Moneor, Dash, etc.) By End-use (Value) Trading E-commerce and Retail Peer-to-Peer Payment Remittance By Region (Value) North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa Latin America TOC Continued..!!! Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/cryptocurrency-market-100149 Have a Look at Related Research Insights: Quantum Cryptography Market Size, Share and Global Trend By Component (Hardware & Services), By Services (Consulting, Support and Maintenance, Integration and Deployment), By Applications (Application Security, Network Security, Database Encryption), By Industry Verticals (Banking, Finance Services, Insurance, Consumer Good and Retail, Government & Defence, Healthcare and Life sciences, Telecom and IT) and Geography Forecast till 2025 Blockchain in Retail Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Component (Platform, Services), By Provider (Application and solution provider, Middleware provider Infrastructure, Protocol Provider), By Organization Size (Large Enterprises, Small & Medium Enterprises) Others and Regional Forecast, 2019-2026 Blockchain in BFSI Market Size, Share And Global Trend By Type (Private Blockchain, Public Blockchain, Consortium Blockchain), By Application (Smart Contracts, Security, Trade Finance, Digital Currency, Record Keeping, GRC Management, Identity Management and Fraud Detection), And Geography Forecast Till 2026 Blockchain Technology Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis by Product Type (Vertical Solutions, Blockchain-as-a-Service), Deployment, Industry Vertical (BFSI, Energy & Utilities, Government, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Telecom, Media & Ent., Retail & Consumer Goods, Travel and Transportation), and Regional Forecast 2018-2025 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data. At Fortune Business Insights, we aim at highlighting the most lucrative growth opportunities for our clients. We therefore offer recommendations, making it easier for them to navigate through technological and market-related changes. Our consulting services are designed to help organizations identify hidden opportunities and understand prevailing competitive challenges. Contact Us: Fortune Business Insights Pvt. Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Phone: US: +1-424-253-0390 UK: +44-2071-939123 APAC: +91-744-740-1245 Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com Fortune Business Insights LinkedIn | Twitter | Blogs Read Press Release https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/cryptocurrency-market-9952 Sweden has defended its response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and pushed back strongly against the idea it prioritized the health of its economy over that of its citizens. The Scandinavian country took a relatively soft approach to fighting the coronavirus, one that attracted international attention. Large gatherings were banned but restaurants and schools for younger children have stayed open. The government has urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied. Despite that, Sweden reported more than 76,000 layoffs since March. Furthermore, with 70 percent of Swedish exports going to the EU, shutdowns in Germany, UK and other main markets are expected to his Swedish exports considerably. "It is a myth that life goes on as normal in Sweden," Foreign Minister Ann Linde told foreign reporters in Stockholm. "There is no full lockdown of Sweden, but many parts of the Swedish society have shut down. Many Swedes are severely affected." The country has paid a heavy price, with more than 4,000 fatalities from COVID-19. That's almost 40 deaths per 100,000 population, compared with about 10 per 100,000 in neighboring Denmark and over 4 per 100,000 in Norway, which imposed a strict lockdowns early on. Additionally, Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson addressed the controversial issue of the EU recovery funds promoted by Germany and France. "We also see a need for some kind of recovery fund and we can discuss the size. I think that the numbers that have (...) so far have been part of the discussion (...) are very high, so I think that needs to be discussed," she said. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. Footy WAG Rebecca Judd has revealed the music of Powderfinger reminds her of one of the happier times in her life. She explained on the 3pm Pick-Up on Monday that the Australian rock band's songs take her back to her glory days in the mid-2000s. At the time, her husband, retired AFL star Chris Judd, was at the top of his game playing for the West Coast Eagles. Takes her back: Footy WAG Rebecca Judd (pictured) has revealed the music of Powderfinger reminds her of one of the happier times in her life Rebecca, 37, said: '[It] brings back all the memories. This was kind of around the time when Juddy and I were living in Perth. He was playing for the West Coast Eagles. They were the golden years. 'We were winning pretty much every match, he was best on ground, he won a Brownlow, he won a premiership at that time. 'And that whole era when I look back, the soundtrack is Powderfinger. So when I hear that now, I get the tingles.' Nostalgia: She explained on the 3pm Pick-Up on Monday that the Australian rock band's songs take her back to her glory days in the mid 2000s. Pictured with Chris Judd in November 2018 Good times: At the time, Rebecca's husband, Chris Judd (right), was at the top of his game playing for the West Coast Eagles. Meanwhile, she was making headlines as Australia's most glamorous WAG. Pictured on September 20, 2004 in Melbourne Rebecca and Chris, 36, met at a pub in Perth almost 17 years ago when they were both teenagers. They married on New Year's Eve in 2010 and share four children, son Oscar, eight, daughter Billie, five, and three-year-old twins Tom and Darcy. Chris left the West Coast Eagles for Carlton in 2008, and the Judds have lived in Melbourne ever since. Happily ever after: Rebecca and Chris, 36, met at a pub in Perth almost 17 years ago when they were both teenagers. They married on New Year's Eve in 2010 and share four children, son Oscar, eight, daughter Billie, five, and three-year-old twins Tom and Darcy It comes after Powderfinger performed their first concert in a decade to raise funds for those in the music industry affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Frontman Bernard Fanning and bandmates Ian Haug, John Collins, Darren Middleton and Jon Coghill performed a 40-minute set of hits, streamed live on YouTube on Saturday night. The five musicians were performing remotely from different locations. Favourites: It comes after Powderfinger performed their first concert in a decade to raise funds for those in the music industry affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured in 2010 Renault will not rush to name Daniel Ricciardo's replacement for 2021. Amid rumours the parent carmaker is in serious financial trouble, Australian Ricciardo decided recently to switch next year to McLaren. Team boss Cyril Abiteboul told Dutch media including De Telegraaf and Ziggo Sport that there is no rush to name a successor. "We first need to know how our car is doing, and we haven't driven a race yet," he said. "The performance of the car also determines what type of driver we are looking for, so I want to take the time before we make that choice. It may take several months." Big names like Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas are linked with the seat, but Abiteboul said it is too early to chase that speculation. "First we need information, then we can make the choice for the driver," he said. "That is important because the driver we take will not only drive for us in 2021 but also in 2022 when the new rules are introduced." There are two schools of thought about how coveted the 2021 Renault seat will be. Firstly, the Enstone team will be a beneficiary of the reduced $145m budget cap. "It is a very complex topic while we are in a phase in which new agreements will begin, so a balance must be found between the interests of the teams," said Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera. "I understand that for teams with very high investments in the technology, it (reduced budgets) can become a constraint that may reduce interest," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. At the same time, talented young test driver Jack Aitken - like Ricciardo - decided to leave Renault. "I'm not shocked by Daniel's departure," he told Racer. "I'm not sure that Renault is making the necessary investment in the junior program. I felt that I had no chance of progressing. "There were also many rumours that Fernando would be coming. They need a team leader and I thought 'What's the use of being here?'" Aitken, 24, added. (GMM) Concerns are held for up to six Fremantle Port workers who boarded a live export ship before an outbreak of COVID-19 on the vessel was confirmed. It comes amid growing tension over whether state or federal authorities were responsible for workers boarding the Al Kuwait, en route from the United Arab Emirates, after news emerged some of the crew had been unwell. WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson says a report from the vessel was submitted to the federal Department of Agriculture advising some of the crew had fevers on Wednesday. The ship arrived in WA two days later. Six of the 48 multinational crew have since tested positive to the virus. Concerns are held for up to six Fremantle Port workers who boarded a live export ship before it was confirmed six crew members tested positive for coronavirus. Source: AAP Premier Mark McGowan is angry the federal Department of Agriculture allowed the Al Kuwait to berth, given the ship had lodged a pre-arrival report saying three crew members were sick. He said it was lucky no one got off the ship but it was unfortunate others had boarded the vessel. Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the situation was handled correctly. "I have asked my department to go back and double check and triple check to make sure that every protocol has been adhered to," Mr Littleproud said. No crew members were permitted to disembark and all federal department staff who attended the vessel wore full personal protective equipment. Concerns are held for up to six Fremantle Port workers who boarded a live export ship before an outbreak of COVID-19 on the vessel was confirmed. Source: AAP "The Human Biosecurity Officer was also not notified there was any issue of concern," the state government said in a statement. Mr McGowan said he was concerned for the local workers and their families. "We would have hoped that more red flags were raised that there were people who were sick on board so we could have been prepared," he said on Tuesday. A police car is seen parked next to the Al Kuwait on May 26, 2020. Source: AAP Mr McGowan said he didn't think information was deliberately withheld "but we certainly need to review the protocols". "We're very concerned and to a degree, disappointed," he said. The port workers are being isolated and contact tracing is under way while the six crew who tested positive are being quarantined at a Perth hotel. Story continues The remaining 42 are well and remain on board the vessel. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. Assam government on Tuesday lifted the ban on sale and consumption of pork in the African Swine Fever (ASF)-affected districts with certain conditions. Nearly 16,000 pigs have died since April in 10 of the 33 districts in the state due to ASF, which has been detected for the first time in the country. The state government had banned sale and consumption of pork in the affected districts on April 25 following the spike in deaths. After consultations with veterinary experts and veterinary department officials, we have decided on certain relaxations in sale and consumption of pork and pork products. I am sure this will provide relief to pig farmers and piggery owners, agriculture minister Atul Bora said during a press conference. The minister said that within the affected districts, sale and consumption has been banned in epicentres of the ASF disease as well as infected and surveillance zones. Inter-district and inter-state sale, purchase and transfer of pigs, pork and pork products also wont be allowed, Bora informed. The state government has declared seven areas in Biswanath, Dhemaji, Sibsagar, Jorhat and Kamrup (Metro) districts as epicentres of ASF. An area within 1 km radius of these epicentres is considered as infected zone and an area within 10 km of the infected zone as surveillance zone. We welcome the governments move as it will provide some relief to pig farmers. But there should be strict monitoring of sale in the affected districts, said Manoj Kumar Basumatary, president of North East Progressive Pig Farmers Association (NEPPFA), an organization of pig farmers. The government should also consider giving financial assistance or fodder to farmers in affected districts and there should be more testing of samples to ensure that the disease doesnt spread further, he added. African Swine Fever is a highly contagious haemorrhagic viral disease of domestic and wild pigs. It can spread by live or dead both domestic and wild- and through pork products. According to 2019 census, Assam has a pig population of 21 lakh and thousands of farmers across the state are involved in the piggery sector. US pharmacy chains are preparing for a sharp uptake in flu vaccinations later in the year, amid fears of a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak. The organisations who own CVS, Walmart, Walgreens and Rite Aid have all said that they are expecting a surge in flu shots, according to Reuters. They will all be increasing their orders for the vaccinations later in the year, to make sure that anyone who needs one, will be able to receive a shot. Vaccine maker Seqirus told the outlet that the demand for flu vaccinations has gone up 10 per cent this year, and GlaxoSmithKline revealed that they are ready to increase production. Although the flu shot does not protect against coronavirus, officials have said vaccinating against it will help healthcare facilities manage the load if the US is hit with a second wave of Covid-19 patients. The CDC estimated that in the 2019-2020 flu season, there were up to 740,000 people hospitalised with the flu, and between 24,000 to 62,000 deaths. Vanderbilt University Medical Centre infectious disease expert Dr William Schaffner, told Reuters that were in for a double-barrelled assault this fall and winter with flu and Covid. Flu is the one you can do something about. Recommended US fears coronavirus and flu collision after CDC raises suspicion David Ross, Seqirus vice president of commercial operations for North America, added: As we look at immunisation this coming fall, it will play an enormous role in this battle against Covid-19. In Australia, which is already in its flu season, drive through centres have been set up, in order to administer mass vaccinations and ease the burden on hospitals. Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Disease, added that medical centres in the US may need to to set up drive through clinics in time for Autumn. My goal is that every single vaccine dose that gets made gets into somebodys arm to protect them. I dont want any vaccines left on the shelves or in doctors offices, Ms Messonnier told the outlet. The flu shot does not protect everybody that gets it, because its specific formula is chosen months before it is ready for immunisation, but Ms Messonnier said that more vaccinations will help burden the load on hospitals. Even if it protects 35 to 40 percent of the population, its a lot better than zero, she said. According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 1.6 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 98,371. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Tamilla Mammadova Trend: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has joined forces with Switzerland and Austria to distribute 23,000 protective face shields to 23 municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Racha-Lechkhumi-Kvemo Svaneti and Guria regions of Georgia, Trend reports via the UNDP. As reported, the deliveries are part of a larger initiative that has already seen 16,000 face shields distributed to ambulance crews and other front-line emergency workers, with support from the European Union. The protective gear is manufactured by CaucasPack, a local plastic packaging company that swiftly retooled its production to respond to the pandemic, in the process protecting the jobs of 99 company employees. Under the new initiative, the face shields will be transferred to UNDPs partner civil society organizations in the 23 targeted municipalities and distributed to civil servants, front-line healthcare workers, vocational teachers and students, volunteers, civic activists, small business operators and vulnerable groups. UNDP has been working since the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak, in partnership with the government, donors and other partners, to extend support to vulnerable and marginalized groups. With guidance from the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, UNDP has worked through local and regional development programs funded by Switzerland and Austria to undertake an information campaign in Georgias rural and remote municipalities involving the distribution of leaflets and posters on COVID-19 prevention and stickers for marking social distancing. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356 What happened Shares of several global automakers were rising on Tuesday, as auto factories around the world continued to ramp up after shutting down in March amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's where things stood for these three companies' stocks as of 2:30 p.m. EDT today, relative to their closing prices on Friday. Ford Motor Company NYSE:F) General Motors NYSE:GM) Honda Motor NYSE:HMC) So what Nearly all automakers shut down their factories in North America in March amid efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. Those factories are now reopening, vehicles are shipping to dealers for the first time in almost two months, and early signs are that consumer demand is looking good. Here's where efforts to resume production in North America stand for each of these three companies. Ford Ford has followed a phased approach to restarting production in North America. Its parts depots reopened on May 11, all but two of its assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada reopened on May 18, and those last two (Flat Rock in Michigan and Oakville in Ontario) reopened yesterday. For now, all of those factories are running at a slower pace than they were before mid-March. Factories that had three 8-hour shifts of workers reopened with two; all others reopened with just a single shift for now. The restarts haven't been without hiccups. Ford briefly halted production on May 19 at two key plants, Dearborn Truck in Michigan and Chicago Assembly in Illinois, after workers tested positive for the virus. Production at the Chicago factory was halted again the next day, after supplies of seats from a nearby Lear (NYSE:LEA) plant ran short. (Lear later confirmed that its plant had closed for cleaning after a worker tested positive for the virus. It has since reopened.) Mexico's government has been slower to reopen the country, but Ford was expected to restart one of its two factories in Mexico this week. That factory, in Hermosillo, Sonora, produces the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ sedans and is expected to begin production of the new Bronco Sport shortly. Ford's other Mexican factory, in Cuautitlan Izcalli, is being retooled to make the electric Mustang Mach-E. General Motors General Motors restarted production at its pickup factories in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Flint, Michigan, on May 18. The company plans to reopen its remaining factories in the U.S. and Canada gradually over the next few weeks, while ramping up production at the truck plants. GM's plan makes sense or two reasons: First, its dealers are running short of full-size pickups, which were selling well before the virus outbreak. Second, pickups are extremely profitable products, and will help to restore GM's cash flow as it ramps up its other factories to full speed. GM's plan hit a snag last week, however. The Wall Street Journal reported that crucial parts from some of GM's suppliers in Mexico weren't yet arriving in sufficient quantities to support the additional shifts of workers that GM had planned to add at the Flint and Fort Wayne factories this week. Those additional shifts are now scheduled to start on June 1. GM has three assembly plants and one engine factory in Mexico; all began reopening on May 21. Honda Honda resumed production at its factories in the U.S. and Canada on May 11. It has eight assembly plants in the U.S. and two in Canada, and an additional four factories that build parts and components. All are currently up and running. Honda hasn't yet said when its factory in Celaya, Mexico, will reopen, but the company said last Friday that it was preparing to restart the plant. Now what For investors in auto stocks (and not just in these three companies), now we wait and see: How many buyers will show up for the vehicles that are now rolling out of their restarted factories? Early signs are that demand for new cars, trucks, and SUVs in the U.S. is looking a bit better than expected. But it'll be another week or two before we can get a clear read on the current pace of sales in the United States and the implications for the automakers. Stay tuned. Potential sightings of an elderly couple missing in Victoria's high country are being explored by police. Carol Clay, 73, and family friend Russell Hill, 74, have not been seen since they embarked on a camping trip to Wonnangatta Valley, about 250 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, on March 19. Missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay. As hopes of finding the pair diminished, police have appealed for information to confirm three potential sightings that may have occurred days after the last radio contact with the couple. Mr Hill was last heard from via HF radio on March 20 where he told a friend in the amateur radio community he was at Wonnangatta Station in the Victorian Alps setting up camp before dark. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey announced Tuesday Western Alliance Bank has donated $150,000 to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund, supporting Arizonas medical professionals and families in need. The fund has received more than $8.2 million in donations, which will be used to help mitigate the medical and economic impact of COVID-19 in Arizona. Arizonas business community continues to step up to provide aid where its needed, said Governor Doug Ducey. This generous donation will support medical personnel and Arizonans in need as the state works to return stronger. My thanks to Western Alliance Bank and all of our partners for doing their part to help Arizonans. Western Alliance Banks donation is part of a larger $2 million commitment that will go to nonprofit and community organizations in Arizona, California and Nevada that are working to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on local communities. Arizonas portion totals more than $900,000$150,000 of which is dedicated to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fundand will expand access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for first responders, combat food insecurity, aid struggling small businesses, support pediatric care and assist some of the states most vulnerable. Our communities face unprecedented health and economic challenges from the coronavirus, said Kenneth Vecchione, President and Chief Executive Officer of Western Alliance Bank. We are a people-first organization, and that we are able to help others from firefighters and front-line healthcare workers to small businesses and hungry families who need support right now is meaningful to all of us. Thats why were proud to support Governor Duceys AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund. A first round of grant funding from the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund was recently approved for nonprofit organizations totaling nearly $1,500,000. Grant announcements will be made as disbursements are finalized. The first round of funding focuses on the following efforts: Keeping students safe and on-track with learning, with a special emphasis on children of essential workers, first responders, families with limited income, foster children and children with special needs; Preventing hunger and ensuring access to meals and adequate nutrition through food banks and local food pantries statewide; And providing services and care for senior citizens and other adults who need extended care at home, especially those with limited incomes, to ensure that Arizona residents with special needs and their caregivers have continuity of care and support. The Governor established the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund as part of the Arizona Together initiative, connecting individuals and businesses to resources, raising money for community organizations and providing information on volunteer opportunities. Other contributions to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund include a $5 million gift from the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation; $1 million from Michael Bidwill, Chairman and President of the Arizona Cardinals; $1 million from Jerry Simms, owner of Turf Paradise Race Course; and contributions from Arizona Public Service (APS), Southwest Gas, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Waymo, VanTrust Real Estate, Valley Toyota Dealers and Salt River Project (SRP). Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund can learn more about how to contribute at ArizonaTogether.org. Drs. Steven White and Brad Haines Provide Custom Cosmetic Dentistry in Charlotte, NC Porcelain veneers are a common solution for patients seeking to improve the look of their teeth without having to undergo significant dental surgery. Respected dentists, Drs. Steven White, Brad Haines, and Colton Fischer are enhancing the health and aesthetics of patient smiles through cosmetic dentistry in Charlotte, NC. The practice, White and Haines Advanced Dentistry, located in Cornelius, NC, offers a wide range of cosmetic dentistry services with the goal of improving aesthetics and function to patient smiles. Some of the most common treatments include porcelain veneers and dental implants. I believe this is the best dental office I have ever been to. They treat me like family here, says a cosmetic dentistry patient of White and Haines Advanced Dentistry. Ive had full mouth veneers and crowns done. My overall confidence level has been boosted drastically. Now I can smile with confidence and it has boosted my morale significantly. Porcelain veneers are a common solution for patients seeking to improve the look of their teeth without having to undergo significant dental surgery. Porcelain veneers are thin covers for the front of teeth that mask imperfections and give the appearance of straight, healthy teeth. The procedure can often be completed in just two appointments and, with proper care, can result in an improved smile for many years to come. Often, patients who receive porcelain veneers experience a drastic increase to their confidence as they no longer feel self-conscious about their smile. In some cases, the veneers can even enhance oral function by improving bite alignment. While porcelain veneers are an effective form of cosmetic dentistry to enhance a smiles aesthetics, dental implants are another cosmetic dentistry treatment that can be used to both improve the appearance and functionality of the bite. Dental implants replace missing or failing teeth by giving patients sturdy and lifelike new teeth. With proper oral care, these dental implants can provide decades of stability and restoration, giving patients confidence and a normalcy to life that is virtually unparalleled by other dental treatments. White and Haines Advanced Dentistry offers many forms of cosmetic dentistry treatments, dependent on a patients goals and needs. Other forms of cosmetic dentistry that can be performed at the practice include: Teeth whitening Same-day crowns Invisalign Lumineers Snap-On Smile Patients in need of cosmetic dentistry in Charlotte, NC, are encouraged to schedule an appointment to discuss porcelain veneers, dental implants, or other life-changing treatment with Drs. White, Haines, and Fischer. The practice in Cornelius, NC can be reached by visiting their website at http://www.drswhiteandhaines.com or calling 704-896-9535 to schedule an appointment. About the Doctors White and Haines Advanced Dentistry is a general dental practice offering personalized dental care to patients in Cornelius, NC. Dr. Steven White offers more than 20 years of experience in general and cosmetic dentistry. He has served as a mentor at the Nash Institute for Dental Learning as well as an instructor with the Advanced Aesthetics Program. Dr. Brad Haines was named a Top 40 Dentist Under 40 in Incisal Edge Magazine and brings more than a decade of experience in general and cosmetic dentistry. Dr. Colton Fischer brings a patient-centric approach to care, participating in programs that give back to the community including the North Carolina Dental Society Foundations Missions of Mercy (MOM). Drs. White, Haines, and Fischer strive to understand each patients unique set of goals to help them reach a healthy smile and they are members of the American Dental Association, Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation and Charlotte Dental Society, among many others. To learn more about Drs. White, Haines, or Fischer, or the services they offer at their practice, please visit their website at http://www.drswhiteandhaines.com or call 704-896-9535 to schedule an appointment. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany asserted Tuesday that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, not President Donald Trump, should have to answer questions connected to the presidents own tweets falsely claiming a conspiracy around the death of Lori Klausutis. Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition when she died after falling and hitting her head on her office desk in Florida nearly 20 years ago, when she worked for Scarborough, a former Republican congressman. Klausutiss widower, Timothy Klausutis, recently pleaded with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to take down several recent tweets in which Trump attacked Scarborough by repeating long-debunked conspiracy theories alleging foul play surrounding her death. Twitter, which has resisted removing tweets by world leaders even if they violate the sites standards, said Tuesday that it wont delete the tweets. Pressed by reporters on why the president continues to spread false narratives around Klausutiss death sparking emotional trauma for her husband and family McEnany deflected by blasting Scarborough and his cohost and wife Mika Brzezinski for a litany of false headlines. Scarborough and Brzezinski, who frequently interviewed Trump in 2015 and 2016 during his White House bid, have been highly critical of his administrations coronavirus response, which McEnany brought up in response to questions on Trumps tweets about Lori Klausutis. Brzezinski, McEnany said, accused the president of being responsible for 100,000 deaths. They should be held to account for their falsehoods. But several of the presidents tweets targeting Scarborough had nothing to do with the hosts comments on coronavirus. When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isnt it obvious? Whats happening now? A total nut job! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020 Trump has hinted at an affair and suggested murder and a cover up involving Scarborough who was 900 miles away at the time of Klausutiss death, which was ruled an accident by law enforcement and a medical examiner. Trump on Tuesday morning questioned whether law enforcement would seek answers to obvious questions surrounding her death. But McEnany said she had no details on any future announcements on the presidents action" when asked if Trump was formally asking the Department of Justice or Florida authorities to investigate the accident again. McEnany pointed to a 17-year-old clip on former WFAN/MSNBC host Don Imuss show in which Scarborough laughs after Imus joked that the former congressman told him that hed had sex with an intern and killed her. She argued the president wasnt the first to suggest conspiracies and described Scarboroughs actions on the clip, unearthed by the conservative Media Research Center, as callous and cruel. McEnany said she was unaware of whether Trump had seen the letter from Klausutiss widow, who said the president had perverted the memory of his dead wife for perceived political gain. Our hearts are with Loris family at this time, McEnany said. While Twitter has updated policies to flag posts for misinformation, it has resisted calls to take down tweets of world leaders and newsmakers. In a blog explaining notices on tweets that may violate Twitters rules but remain on the site in the publics interest," the company last year said that government officials and political figures ... have outsized influence and sometimes say things that could be considered controversial or invite debate and discussion. A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable. Related Content: We think of the freedom to move as a sign of privilege. In the United States, passing a driving test, owning a car, and getting a passport are milestones that signal modernity and freedom. Wealth also enables travel abroad: Countries with higher income produce more international tourists. Likewise, we think of restrictions on movement as the domain of the underprivileged, like the current and formerly incarcerated. And, more generally, there are millions of people around the world who aspire to migrate but experience involuntary immobility because of restrictive state policies. Advertisement But the pandemic seems to have changed who is on the move. Governments around the world have advised people to self-isolate, but who is able to follow this advice? In the United States, it is largely the richest 25 percent who can work from home. As the New York Times observed weeks ago, the middle class swift shift to virtual life has been striking. White-collar workers at large companies are likely to be some of the last to return to the office, if they do so at all. They may even be thriving at home, finding previously elusive downtime and investing in new hobbies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, essential workers continue to be mobile. People working in manufacturing, food services, and health carenone of them can work from home. These front-line workers are not just disadvantaged in terms of class: Theyre disproportionately women, minorities, and immigrants. Advertisement Advertisement In this world of white-collar quarantine, is immobility the new marker of status? We might be tempted to conclude from this that the worlds first truly global event has not only changed who is on the move, but also fundamentally altered the relationship between mobility and privilege. But this conclusion would be premature. For starters, there have always been (at least) two sides of immobilitynot just involuntary immobility but also privileged immobility. The involuntarily immobile include 40 million internally displaced people across the world who are unable to return home, or to leave the country where they reside. But alongside the hundreds of thousands who would migrate if they could, but cant, there are millions who dont want or need to leave home to improve their lives or escape violence. Advertisement On the flip side, there are also different kinds of mobility. Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman offered two metaphors for such people on the move: tourists and vagabonds. The former travel because they want to, the latter because they have no choice. Mobility can be adventurous, free, and modern. It can also be threatening, exclusionary, and limited. Even when mobility is forced, it doesnt look the same for everybody. As the Venezuelan refugee crisis teaches us, the rich can choose where to go, while the poor have limited options. Advertisement Whats more, mobility doesnt always work the same locally and globally. The authors of this piece live and work in the United Arab Emirates, which continues to operate repatriation flights for Emiratis abroad, many of them relatively wealthy. Once back home, they will self-quarantine. To leave, they must commit afterward to staying put. Nonelite migrant workers within the UAE, by contrast, risk financial ruin if they leave their essential jobs. To stay, they have to move around the cities where they work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mobility, then, is not just about movement. Its also about how that movement is represented and experienced. Health care workers are some of the most visibly mobile in this pandemic, receiving applause in cities across the world. But while the deaths of front-line doctors in the U.S. and China are causing outrage, blue-collar front-line workers might be more aptly described as sacrificial than essential. And across the gulf from us, millions of Indians have been forced to migrate after losing their livelihood as a result of the coronavirus lockdown but face threats of being shot on sight if they violate quarantine. While many who had previously been mobile have become immobile, the coronavirus hasnt fundamentally changed the underlying logics of mobility and privilege. This suggests mobility per se might not provide such a good gauge of privilege. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead, we can think of the aspiration to be mobile (or immobile), and the ability to realize that goal. The privileged are those whose aspirations match their abilities. The privileged immobile, for example, want and manage to stay put. At the same time, wealthy Americans who want to move around continue to do so. Meanwhile, others experience a mismatch between their aspirations and abilities. At least some of the more than 39 million Americans who have recently filed for unemployment would rather be out working but are now stuck at home. And front-line workers living paycheck to paycheck continueif reluctantlyto be mobile. The match between aspiration and ability is a tell of privilege. So, too, is the cost of the mismatch for our physical, financial, and emotional well-being. Advertisement How, then, should we think about mobility and privilege in the time of coronavirus? We can start by looking at the conditions that allow people to be mobile as well as immobile. We certainly feel privileged in wanting and being able to write and teach from home. But many have to stay put because they have lost their jobs. For them, immobility is not as desirable. Both mobility and immobility have different causes. Advertisement They also have different consequences. Many are happier and report working more efficiently from home. But it is women, in particular, who shoulder many of the burdens that come with self-isolation. Under lockdown, domestic violence and female genital mutilation have also risen. We yet have to understand the long-term consequences of this moment for whether were seeing a return to dated gender relations. And for those who have lost their jobs or who cannot travel home, the fallout may be severe. In the months and years to come, it is these divergent consequences that will reveal who was and was not privileged, not whether they stayed home. Memorial Day weekend plans were tossed aside in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday evening when an EF1 tornado twisted through the area. Damage included mostly fallen trees, but downed fences and roof damage were reported across northern Bexar County, particularly in the Wildhorse subdivision on the city's northwest side. There were no immediate reports of injuries or fatalities. A downed tree following the storms around San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday night. Image via Twitter/TortiousTroII Gerard Petereit who lives in the Wildhorse subdivision in northwestern Bexar County told KSAT-TV the swirling debris that was pelting his home "sounded like you were in a dumpster or trash can with debris hitting it all the time." "It literally sounds like you're standing next to a train," Petereit said, according to KSAT-TV. EF1 tornadoes can produce winds up to 112 mph and cause moderate damage such as removing sections of roofing from homes. After a storm survey of the area, the National Weather Service (NWS) for San Antonio determined that this tornado most likely packed winds up to 100 mph. "A damage survey conducted this afternoon confirmed an EF1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph touched down in the Wildhorse subdivision in San Antonio Sunday evening. Straight-line wind damage also occurred on Talley Road," the NWS San Antonio said. CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP The NWS San Antonio said more information will be provided on Tuesday. "A robust line of storms went through southern Texas, Sunday night, bringing damaging winds across a wide swath, stretching from the Rio Grande Valley to central sections of Texas. Occasionally, embedded bowing segments within lines of storms such as these can yield brief, "spin-ups" that can cause brief tornadoes," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio said. The NWS issued a tornado warning for areas north of San Antonio at 8:04 p.m. CDT lasting until 8:30 p.m. CDT. Story continues Tornado Warning including Leon Valley TX, Helotes TX, Alamo Heights TX until 8:30 PM CDT pic.twitter.com/n48uEfqooO NWS Tornado (@NWStornado) May 25, 2020 Storms in northern Texas gave drivers a difficult time on Memorial Day. Wet highways and urban flooding caused cars to hydroplane on the DFW Metroplex on Monday. Many cities across the South Central states have already recorded more than their average amount of rainfall for the entire month of May. This week, many of the same locations may be able to repeat that feat as another heavy rain event sets up over the region. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. The man whose wife allegedly plotted with her lover to have him killed still showed his soft spot for her after she was remanded in Police custody for the second time by the Asokwa District Court in Kumasi. He was pictured handing money to his wife for her upkeep in prison following her second appearance in court on Friday, May 22. The 27-year-old woman called Mavis 'Maadwoa' Brepo, married to David Gator, 55, allegedly planned with her 50-year-old boyfriend, Patrick Asare, to kill her husband so they could settle down together. Mavis Brepo and Patrick Asare were reportedly arrested after an assassin they had called to do the job turned out to be the Manhyia Divisional Police Commander. Since their arrest, Gator has maintained her innocence, claiming that she was under the influence of a spiritual force when she planned with her lover to have her husband killed so they could both get married. The two suspects made their first appearance in court on Friday, May 8, 2020. Gator who was in court with other family members assured his wife of his undying love as she cried profusely after the hearing. He also gave her an undisclosed sum of money and reportedly told her it was for her upkeep in prison while an investigation into the matter continues. The publication also claimed that Mr. Gator has long forgiven Mavis and appealed for the charges against her to be dropped so that he can take her back as his wife. The case was adjourned to June 3. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A 90-year-old man from Kulgam district, who had tested positive for coronavirus, died on Tuesday,taking the COVID-related death toll in Jammu and Kashmir to 24, an official said. The man was also suffering from hypertension, pneumonia, fever and breathlessness,the official said. An official of the SKIMS hospital here said, "A 90-year-old male patient, who was referred from GMC Anantnag on Monday, died early this morning.He had tested positive for COVID last (Monday)night." The official saidthe Kulgam district administration has been informed about the man's death for initiating contact tracing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The widower of a former congressional staff member for Joe Scarborough has asked Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey to delete tweets by President Donald Trump furthering a baseless conspiracy theory about his wife's death. "My request is simple: Please delete these tweets," Timothy Klausutis wrote in a letter to Dorsey, seeking his intervention as Trump continues to suggest that Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida who is now an MSNBC host, was responsible for the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis. In a statement Tuesday, Twitter expressed sympathy for the Klausutis family but gave no indication Trump's tweets would be deleted. "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," the statement said. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly." The existence of Klausutis's letter was reported in an opinion piece in The New York Times. With no evidence, Trump has continued to push a conspiracy theory that Scarborough, while a member of Congress, had an affair with his married staffer and that he may have killed her - a theory that has been debunked by news organizations including The Washington Post and that Timothy Klausutis called a "vicious lie" in his letter to Dorsey. On Tuesday morning, Trump went on Twitter again to advocate the "opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough," which he said was "not a Donald Trump original thought." "So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won't bring them up now!" Trump added. "Law enforcement eventually will? The White House declined to comment beyond Trump's latest tweets. Authorities determined that Lori Klausutis suffered an abnormal heart rhythm and died after collapsing and striking her head. She was discovered in Scarborough's office in Fort Walton Beach, on her back with her head near a desk, according to a 2001 police report. "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him - the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain," Klausutis said in the letter, dated May 21. "My wife deserves better." Klausutis argued that Trump's tweets violate Twitter's community rules and terms of service. "An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed," he said. Neither Twitter nor the White House immediately responded to a request for comment. Scarborough, who was 900 miles away in Washington on the day Klausutis died, and his co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, have both expressed outrage on the air in recent days - saying that Trump's false accusations were most hurtful to Klausutis's family. Brzezinski called Trump a "cruel, sick, disgusting person" and said he was using the episode to distract from the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, Scarborough and Brzezinski addressed the episode on air, reading both the letter and the New York Times opinion piece by Kara Swisher that referred to it. Trump has repeated his baseless accusations about Scarborough on several occasions in recent weeks. Among the tweets cited in Klausutis's letter in one from May 12. "Did he get away with murder?" Trump asked of Scarborough. "Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly ? Isn't it obvious? What's happening now? A total nut job !" - - - The Washington Post's Craig Pittman and Anne Gearan contributed to this report. This is the shocking moment a young Italian woman threw her baby through the air in a hotel lobby after a row with her boyfriend, leaving the infant in an intensive care ward. The unnamed mother, who is staying in the hotel after becoming stuck in Romania by the Covid-19 lockdown, threw her baby on the floor in a furious rage following a row with her partner. The incident was filmed by the hotel's CCTV camera in the city of Timisoara in the western Romanian county of Timis, where the mother was being accommodated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the shocking moment a young Italian woman threw her baby through the air in a hotel lobby after a row with her boyfriend, leaving the infant in an intensive care ward According to local media, the unnamed Italian woman was staying in the hotel since giving birth at the Bega Maternity Hospital two months ago. She had arrived in Timisoara shortly beforehand to visit her 38-year-old Romanian boyfriend and father of the baby. According to local media, the baby was born prematurely and remained under the care of doctors at the Bega Maternity Hospital, which was declared a support hospital for COVID-19 cases. They were later transferred to the Louis Turcanu Hospital before she was released. But the young mother was unable to return to Lombardy in Italy during the pandemic and was forced to remain in a hotel where the cost of her stay was being paid for by her parents, according to reports. The unnamed mother is pictured being escorted by police. According to local media, the unnamed Italian woman was staying in the hotel since giving birth at the Bega Maternity Hospital two months ago The mother had arrived in Timisoara shortly beforehand to visit her 38-year-old Romanian boyfriend and father of the baby The baby's father visited them frequently, but they reportedly argued before the incident. The infant was checked by a neurosurgeon to make sure it had not suffered a serious injury to its head and spine, and was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, according to local media. The baby was placed in a hospital's ICU unit, but has reportedly been discharged since, although it continues to be treated at the Louis Turcanu Hospital with the father staying close at hand. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Italian mum, who has a three-year-old child in Lombardy, is reportedly being held in a pre-trial detention centre as the investigation continues. New Delhi, May 26 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Centre's response on a plea highlighting restrictions, due to sealing of borders, on movement for permissible activities in the national capital region (NCR) amid the Covid-19 pandemic. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and M.R. Shah, took up the matter through video conferencing and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to take instructions from the authorities concerned. The bench asked the petitioner's counsel to serve the copy on the Solicitor General, who could get response from the Centre and the Delhi government. The top court will hear the matter next week. Advocates representing Haryana and Uttar Pradesh informed the bench that they have already filed response on the matter. The counsel representing Uttar Pradesh cited Covid-19 cases in Delhi and Noida and insisted that authorities are taking necessary precautions. "Let the affidavit filed by the state of Haryana and state of Uttar Pradesh be brought on the record," said the court. The plea argued that residents of NCR who have family members or loved ones residing on either side of the inter-state border within the NCR are facing harassment in crossing the border, especially in medical emergencies, access to hospitals/healthcare professionals and essential needs. The plea was filed in the top court alleging that sealing of borders within NCR, violated the new guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs. On May 15, the top court sought response from Centre, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana. The plea urged the top court to pass a direction declaring these restrictions by the district administrations of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as unconstitutional. It cited the April 29 order of district administrations in Haryana, applicable to Gurugram and Sonepat. The plea also highlighted the May 3, public statements by the district administrations of Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad. Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, the Dean of Academic Affairs, Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, has urged African leaders to have faith in African researchers to find a cure and effective treatment for Covid-19. He said COVID-19 was a reality and that the Continent needed research that was science tailored to combat it. Dr Antwi-Danso made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the occasion of the African Union (AU) Day celebration on the theme Silencing The Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africas Development. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the COVID-19 pandemic had reached a milestone in Africa, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases. The virus has now reached every country on the continent since the first case was confirmed in the Africa region on 14 February in Egypt. Dr Antwi-Danso noted that COVID-19 was a reality and that there were all kinds of theories surrounding it, but where it comes from does not matter, and that how to mitigate its effect was what mattered. He urged African leaders to stop worrying about the cause and where COVID-19 came from, and that they should stop the non-scientific way of looking at the disease. In Africa, traditionally, some herbal medicine had been used to treat some viral diseases such as common cold, he noted adding that Coronavirus had being in existence since time immemorial, however, COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) was a new strand. With regards to efforts by countries to develop COVID-19 vaccines, Dr Antwi-Danso forecasted that when the vaccine had been successfully developed, one would be asked to have COVID-19 vaccine card, before he would be issued with a visa to travel to other countries, just like the Yellow Fever Vaccine card. Concerning the AU Day, Dr Antwi-Danso said there must be programmes on that Day or towards that Day, which would make people to understand the essence of Union. He said such an occasion must imbibe in the people the spirit of loving that Day. The AU must work towards African unity, we have no choice. Africa is the only continent that has no choice not to integrate. We need to integrate and unfortunately we are hiccupping very badly because of pockets of instability. We must kick instability away from our shores, the Dean said. He urged the AU to resist certain western values that were useless such as gayism and lesbianism, which were being forced on the Continent. Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity on 25 May 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world. The organisation was transformed into the AU on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa, but the holiday continues to be celebrated on 25 May. 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. Featured Video Actor Himansh Kohli recently flew to New Delhi from Mumbai to be with his family after the restriction on domestic flights was finally lifted on Monday. He gave details about his travels to SpotBoye and mentioned how he even bought two tickets for himself for added safety. Himansh was stuck in Mumbai ever since the coronavirus lockdown was announced in the country. I wanted to go home ever since the lockdown was announced, but I could not. I planned to travel via road but I wasnt sure about the situation on the highway. But then I read that domestic flights were set to resume, and as soon as I got a notification that bookings were open, I booked my tickets, he said. Himansh added that he was nervous about his flight getting cancelled but he reached home safe and sound. The actor said that while the two tickets may seem wasteful, he did it to keep himself safe. Once inside the plane, everything looked just like before. However, there was no food provided; only a bottle of water. While lavatories were accessible, we were advised against using them. I had booked two seats for myself the middle and window seats to minimise contact with anyone. I understand it might seem wasteful but our life is more important, he said. Also read: When Kartik Aaryan borrowed hairstylists t-shirt for stage performance, changed on the road. Watch I felt lucky and fortunate that I reached Delhi safely. My dad came to pick me up, but there were no hugs at the airport or at home. He also sanitised the car once we reached home, and everyone was like Go, take a shower first. My parents are very happy to see me, he added. Himansh recently featured in the video of the song Tenu Vekhi Jaavan, sung by Shahid Mallya and Asees Kaur. Tenu vekhi jaavan was love at first listen. The video is beautifully shot and I had great fun working with the team. Hope people like the video as much as we liked making it, said Himansh, who starred with former beauty queen Shivani Jadhav in the video. The song has been composed by Bharat Goel and penned by Rashmi Virag. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Blog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (135) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (348) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (442) Jan 2014 (547) Feb 2014 (476) Mar 2014 (526) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (469) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (443) Oct 2014 (472) Nov 2014 (497) Dec 2014 (536) Jan 2015 (539) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (582) Apr 2015 (658) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (924) Nov 2015 (802) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (866) May 2016 (947) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (967) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (809) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (935) Jul 2019 (950) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (849) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (789) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (812) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (754) Nov 2021 (683) Dec 2021 (693) Jan 2022 (454) Lufthansa announced over the weekend that it would resume flights from mid-June to 20 destinations. (Boris Roessler/picture alliance via Getty Images) After weeks of negotiations, Lufthansa (LHA.DE) and the German government finally agreed on the terms of the airlines 9bn (8.05bn, $9.8bn) bailout on Monday. The terms of the rescue package include the German government taking a 20% stake in the airline with the option of increasing that to 25% plus one share. However, the European Commission is yet to approve the deal. A Bloomberg report on Tuesday cites sources as saying that the Commission will demand Lufthansa give up prime landing slots to ensure it is not getting an unfair advantage over competitors. The EU Commission will certainly feel the heat from Ryanair CEO Michael OLeary if they do wave this bailout through without extracting a heavy price from Lufthansa, which has been badly run for several years now, said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. READ MORE: Coronavirus: Stocks rise as shops in England to reopen next month Still, the fact that Lufthansa is now better armed to withstand the crisis, coupled with the news that travel bans may be dropped in time for some semblance of a summer vacation period, have given stocks across the travel sector a boost. Lufthansa (LHA.DE) shares were up 4.9% in Frankfurt. Tui (TUI1.DE) shares were also up by double digits, while British Airways owner IAG (IAG.L) shares were up nearly 15% in early trading. EasyJet (EZJ.L) also gained nearly 12%. Lufthansa announced over the weekend that it would resume flights from mid-June to 20 destinations. Spain said on Monday that it would allow tourists to return from July, while Germany aims to lift its travel warning, in place since 17 March, for 31 European countries from the middle of June. According to a foreign ministry draft paper seen by German media, tourists will be able to visit Germany from all EU member countries, plus the UK, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. The proposal still needs approval, and restrictions could be reintroduced if a second wave of the virus hits. Story continues "The revitalisation of tourism is important for both travellers and the German tourism industry as well as for the economic stability in the respective destination countries," the paper from the Foreign Ministry said. READ MORE: Coronavirus: Government to create bespoke bailouts for 'strategically important' firms Strength in this sector underscores confidence among investors that economies are reopening, and consumers are keen to travel, said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com. If the summer holiday season can be saved it would be a big plus after most of us wrote it off. The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo Chairman Seung Myung-ho delivers welcoming remarks during the Korea Forum 2020 co-hosted by the two dailies at the Shilla Hotel, Seoul, Tuesday. The chairman noted the importance of active discussions among various sectors to come up with effective responses to challenges posed in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon By Do Je-hae Escalating clashes between the United States and China will require Korea to prepare new diplomatic and economic strategies, a former foreign minister said during the Korea Forum co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo, Tuesday. The annual forum was held at The Shilla Seoul hotel under the theme of "Post-pandemic: crisis or opportunity?" with a smaller number of dignitaries present to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Yoon Young-kwan, who served as foreign affairs and trade minister during the Roh Moo-hyun administration from February 2003 until January 2004, highlighted the need for Korea to shift its economic paradigm to respond to a possible "new Cold War" between the U.S. and China in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. "So far, Korea has got to where it is by taking active and efficient advantage of the benefits of globalization and free trade. But now we have reached a situation where such a premise can no longer be sustained. Things are now going in the opposite direction," said Yoon, a professor emeritus at Seoul National University's Department of Political Science and International Relations. Going beyond export-led growth "That's why we need to revise our past strategy based on globalization. Exports-led growth is also being dented; therefore, the government should strengthen domestic demand and actively push for reshoring. In particular, excessive economic dependence on any particular country is never desirable." The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo Chairman Seung Myung-ho, center, and VIP guests look at photos of frontline health workers on display outside the forum's main venue, Tuesday. Prime Minsiter Chung Sye Kyun, left, and Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the main opposition United Future Party, were among some of the VIP guests at the Korea Forum 2020. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun Korea needs social inclusiveness, 'flexicurity' for post-pandemic future Preventive medicine expert stresses importance of home care The Korea Forum 2020 [PHOTOS] The former foreign minister noted that Japan's reshoring policy was a good example. "In Japan, the government supports half of the relocation costs for big companies, and two-thirds for small- and medium-sized firms," Yoon said. President Moon Jae-in also underlined reshoring as one of the highlights of his economic response for the post COVID-19 pandemic world, aiming to build Korea into a "world factory of high-tech industries" by attracting not just investment from overseas but also helping Korean companies return from abroad. For this to succeed, Yoon underscored the importance of a more flexible labor market and raising Korea's competitiveness in high-tech industries. "At times like this, our economic system needs to be more flexible and efficient. It should not be rigid. That's why we need labor reform and improvement in corporate governance. Only then, can we induce large companies to return and create jobs here. At the same time, efforts should be made to secure several outstanding industrial sectors that the world envies and only Korea has." Careful approach to US-China conflict The scholar also advised Korea to take a cautious diplomatic approach in dealing with pressure from the rising U.S.-China tension. "There will be increasing pressure from both sides," Yoon said. "We need a principled approach based on transparency and rationality. Also, Korea should separate Korean Peninsula issues from the U.S.-China conflict as much as it can." He also proposed the government focus on certain cooperative issues with North Korea, such as on health matters related to COVID-19, as a realistic measure to improve inter-Korean ties. "Rather than pushing for various economic projects, we should pick and choose, such as health and medical cooperation. Korea's global image is very good due to its successful quarantine drive and medical diplomacy, so this is a good time to convince the U.S. and the international community." Former foreign minister Yoon Young-kwan, professor emeritus of Seoul National University, speaks at the Korea Forum 2020, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon The Korea Forum 2020 gathered experts from academia, business and government to discuss various challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Now we must prepare for the changes expected after the pandemic. The immediate concern is to control the COVID-19 spread and tackle the employment crisis faced by individuals, and bankruptcy of companies," said Seung Myung-ho, chairman of The Korea Times and the Hankook Ilbo. "The government, politicians, scholars and civic society need to put their heads together to turn this crisis into an opportunity." Now India is bracing for what comes next. While the lockdown slowed the spread of the novel coronavirus, experts say, it did not succeed in flattening the curve. Instead, the number of fresh cases is rising. India ranks fourth in the world in the number of new cases a day: Only Russia, Brazil and the United States are adding more. India has more than 150,000 cases. Molly-Mae Hague is certainly making the most of her 21st birthday in lockdown. The Love Island star was lavished with gifts on the milestone birthday by her beau Tommy Fury, including a puppy who she is due to meet in two days. Although the new pooch wasn't there to greet Molly-Mae on the day, Tommy did surprise her with a handwritten note and Louis Vuitton dog carrier, which range from between 1,880 and 2,080. Surprise! Molly-Mae Hague was lavished with gifts on the milestone birthday by her beau Tommy Fury on Tuesday, including a puppy who she is due to meet in two day The social media influencer shared a snap of the note on her Instagram Stories, which read: 'Dear Mummy, I can't wait to meet you in a few days. 'Until then have the best birthday and I know Daddy will be spoiling you rotten love you loads. Your son, Mr Chai. Woof woof. xx' Also in shot was the designer dog carrier and a pack of puppy pads. New addition: Although the new pooch wasn't there to greet Molly-Mae on the day, Tommy did surprise her with a handwritten note and Louis Vuitton dog carrier, which range from between 1,880 and 2,080 Cute! Tommy appeared to have stuck to a pink theme to decorate for Molly-Mae's birthday Couple: Molly-Mae and her other half met on the 2019 edition of the hit ITV2 dating show, where they came runners up behind Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea Molly-Mae covered her mouth in shock as she came downstairs to see that Tommy had decorated their apartment in pink 21 themed balloons. The reality star admitted was 'speechless' as she noted the effort her beau had gone to, to make her day special while in lockdown. Molly-Mae's kitchen table was covered in wrapped presents and gift bags as well as a three-tier cake which featured an iced version of her toy, Ellie-Belly. Ellie-Belly is a stuffed elephant which Molly-Mae has had since birth and the toy made several cameos during her time on Love Island. Oh my! Molly-Mae covered her mouth in shock as she came downstairs to see that Tommy had covered their apartment in pink 21 themed balloons Birthday girl: Molly-Mae's kitchen table was covered in wrapped presents and gift bags as well as a three-tier cake which featured an iced version of her toy, Ellie-Belly One of the gift bags contained a dazzling 4,3000 Cartier Love Ring, which Molly-Mae proudly flaunted on her finger after unwrapping it. Tommy didn't just treat his ladylove to an array of designer goodies, he also showed off his sentimental side by creating a collage of snaps of them together. The blonde beauty also received a lavish gold cake from her fake tan brand, Filter by Molly-Mae, as well as bouquets of flower from her gal pals. Unreal: The reality star admitted was 'speechless' as she noted the effort her beau had gone to, to make her day special while in lockdown Exciting: Molly-Mae came downstairs to see her table laden with gifts and cake Molly-Mae and her other half met on the 2019 edition of the hit ITV2 dating show, where they came runners up behind Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea. After leaving the villa Molly-Mae and Tommy quickly moved into together in Manchester into the open-plan flat they now share. Earlier this week the couple celebrated Tommy's 21st birthday in lockdown, as Molly-Mae went all out with decorations and gifts. Wow! One of the gift bags contained a dazzling 4,3000 Cartier Love Ring, which Molly-Mae proudly flaunted on her finger after unwrapping it Treats! The blonde beauty also received a lavish gold cake from her fake tan brand, Filter by Molly-Mae, as well as bouquets of flower from her gal pals (TNS) With the coronavirus death toll still mounting, Santa Fe, N.M., startup Legacy Concierge LLC hopes to ease the pain a bit for victims families with free electronic estate resolution services.The company, which developed a proprietary software platform to rapidly identify all electronic records of deceased people, works with attorneys, fiduciaries and families to recover online assets and erase the extensive electronic footprint most people leave behind after passing away.We want to help families going through the unexpected loss of loved ones, said Legacy Concierge founder and CEO Betsy Ehrenberg. Death by the pandemic can happen so quickly, and while medical folks at first said the victims would be mostly older people and those with pre-existing conditions, were seeing people 45 or 50 years old in the prime of their lives passing away. The losses are horrific, and if we can help families in their time of mourning, were happy to do it.The company usually charges fixed fees to use its auto-grab software technology to search the Internet for all electronic records of the deceased, compile it into a full report for the family, and then notify all companies that manage online assets or records of the person who passed away to retrieve those assets and erase the electronic records.Those fees are usually paid by the attorney managing estate resolution, the estate of the deceased person through a fiduciary or the families themselves.We want to provide those services now at no cost to families with loved ones who passed away from the coronavirus, Ehrenberg said. Well do it as a courtesy to families, because its the right thing to do.Ehrenberg built the cloud-based, software-as-a-service company with a team of engineers and software specialists over five years. She launched the service in July 2019, managing more than 100 different accounts since then while working with about 300 companies that maintain online files and services to get electronic records erased. That includes everything from financial institutions, brokerage houses, credit unions and credit reporting companies to government agencies, insurance firms and even shopping sites, social media and email services.Resolving the electronic legacy of deceased people is critical in todays hyperconnected world. Most individuals have more than 160 places in the cloud where their electronic footprint resides when they die, and those unmanaged records and assets can cause a lot of heartache and problems for people left behind, Ehrenberg said.That includes the pain of constant reminders about loved ones, be it through email or online messages about everything from a magazine subscription that a lost relative or friend maintained to a request for a deceased person to donate to a charitable institution they regularly contributed to.The problem becomes much more insidious when it comes to financial assets and online identities. Hackers and thieves are constantly raking the Internet to steal personal information and commit fraud, including opening bank accounts and credit cards in the name of deceased people, filing false tax returns and more.Fraudsters use information of deceased people to create a new persona, Ehrenberg said. There was one who created a fund-me site to collect money from donors for families and then took all the donations. Its horrible.An estimated $58 billion in assets go unclaimed annually because successors dont know how to locate digital assets and electronic records of the deceased, and more than 13% of all deaths result in identity theft, Ehrenberg said. The Federal Trade Commission received more than 320,000 reports about identity theft of deceased people in 2017.Legacy Concierge has helped locate and retrieve a lot of unknown assets for families since launching last summer, many of them checks cut by insurance companies for people over the years who never cashed them before passing away. Over time, that money gets turned over to state treasuries as escheated, or abandoned, money that families often dont know about.Sometimes its just $2, or $24 being held, Ehrenberg said. But we found one with $177,000.Legacy Concierges automated online service saves a lot of money for families, because attorneys can spend more than 100 hours searching for all electronic records manually, often at $300 an hour or more.Estate planning attorney David Slonim of Slonim & Lemieux LLP said Legacy Concierge is providing a critical service in the modern online world.I used to advise the families coming into my office for a probate administration of their loved one that they should check their postal mailboxes for information about the deceaseds various accounts, Slonim wrote in an email. Now we regularly advise the clients that they need to access email accounts, social media accounts, digital asset banking accounts (think PayPal or Bitcoin), and even home appliance accounts.Online thieves can find ways to access all those things, Slonim said.Imagine losing the password to a connected homes A/C, oven, fridge or even washing machine, he said. If these are not secured, a nefarious individual could not only have access to a persons home and other secured information, but also turn the home into a digital poltergeist. It is in uncertain times, more than any other time that brands and companies want to know about the shifts that are taking place in consumer behaviour. The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted the global economy, forcing businesses to navigate in uncharted waters. In the current scenario, research can be an enabler for brands and let them keep track of changing consumer sentiments as well as consumers expectations from brands. Thus, it is crucial for companies and brands to align their marketing, communications and branding strategies and keeping the innovation pipeline ready, even during a crisis. Murtaza Bakir, Country Manager, India and Sri Lanka, Mintel, speaks to Adgully about how brands can adapt/cater to consumers effectively and ensure brand loyalty during COVID-19 times and beyond. There must be a lot of challenges when it comes to conducting research with social distancing, etc. How are you currently conducting your research? Is everything done online through your panels? What about focus groups, are you using new technology to do that research? Mintel is the expert in what consumers want and why. As the worlds leading market intelligence agency, our analysis of consumers, markets, new products and competitive landscapes provides a unique perspective on global and local economies. At Mintel, we cover 38,000 product launches a month. Every day, we ask thousands of people for their opinions. We track consumer spending across 34 markets. In India, each of our consumer reports across Food & Drink, Lifestyles and Beauty and Personal Care, includes an exhaustive sample size of 3,000 consumers across Metro and Tier 1 to 3 cities throughout the 4 main regions. We conduct face-to-face research in 6 local languages to ensure data you can rely on. And our expert local analyst team and category experts analyse this data to give strategic recommendations for companies and brands. In the current scenario, COVID-19 has changed the way people communicate and do business, and Mintel is no exception. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we have reviewed our consumer research process globally, including India, where we were primarily using a face to face collection method. We took a decision to adopt an online methodology, which removes the need for close interaction between interviewers and the public and so allow all involved to comply with social distancing measures. Our clients look to us to provide insights and recommendations to drive their business decisions. During this time of uncertainty, we want to ensure that Mintel continues to be a thought leader and our local and global expert analyst team from 34 markets globally interact and share knowledge to ensure that all critical insights, strategies and recommendations are provided to our clients to thrive in these challenging times. Mintels proprietary COVID-19 tracker across the globe is an apt example of this. Brands and clients are postponing launches due to COVID-19. Are they really keen to conduct new research as there is no likelihood of new brand launches happening for the time being? What kind of research are brands undertaking now? Our data shows that companies are spending more time on our research platforms now compared to the same time last year, our service teams are busy helping clients navigate through these times. It is important for any brand to re-evaluate their portfolio and what these shifts in consumer behaviour might mean for their brand. For some, it might mean bring forward launches they might have planned for the future, while for some it might mean delaying a few launches and perhaps tweaking them. That would depend on what the brand and product proposition is. In both cases, research will be necessary to be able to make informed decisions. Mintel started tracking the COVID-19 impact on consumer behaviours and market shifts as early as February 2020, starting from China, when the country was in a serious situation amidst the pandemic. We realised that COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on businesses over brands and we quickly started conducting research and sharing insights via thought pieces on our blog, exclusive insight reports and running COVID-19 sessions for our clients both in India and globally to help provide any insights or guidance for their brand repositioning, product innovation or market opportunities. As said, Mintel is the expert in what consumers want and why, and our quick response and deep local expertise has and will help our clients to overcome the present uncertain situation. Are you also conducting any research to understand the new behaviour of the consumers and what kind of new normal one is expecting post the lockdown? Any special study being done across categories? As mentioned earlier, our clients look to us to provide insights and recommendations to drive their business decisions. During this time of uncertainty, we want to ensure that Mintel continues to fulfil this role by demonstrating that we are able to adapt even in challenging times. As experts in what consumers want and why, we are working hard to be your trusted source of truth and guidance when it comes to COVID-19s impact on global consumer behaviour. In order to consistently monitor consumer sentiment during the COVID-19 outbreak, Mintel is conducting proprietary research among Indian consumers (and globally) on a fortnightly basis. We have already published a series of insights and tactical recommendations coming from our local and global category experts. We are closely tracking the current shifts in consumer sentiment and buying behaviour, to the future impact on markets worldwide and whether or not industries can expect to recover relatively quickly or experience long-term effects. Our research indicates, the situation currently is changing rapidly and consumer preferences and sentiments will be evolving as we speak. For example, in our first three waves of research in India, when it comes to using hand sanitizers, we have seen that the percentage of consumers using them changing: Wave 1 as of 31st March - 77% of respondents Wave 2 as of 20th April - 65% of respondents Wave 3 as of 29th April - 61% of respondents Our team of local category experts are continuously analysing this and providing insights and recommendations for brands and companies. As a research expert, what are the 5-key measures one should take up for the economy and the industry to come back to track? Although the market and consumers are playing an important role in shaping the economy industry, the situation right now is very dynamic as mentioned above and we are not in the right position to comment on this topic. However, what we can say is that, based on our market research and data tracker on COVID-19 related content, consumers want that feel-good factor more during this time of uncertainty and change. This is, in fact, was one of the key learnings taken from Mintels global analysts as a result of the global recession during 2007-8. For example, in the UK, some of the biggest winners of the last recession were absolute luxuries, the likes of premium skincare and sparkling wine. They are products that no one actually needed, but did a great job of lifting peoples moods in tough times. Companies and brands need to think about more fundamental, long-term shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviours, not just focus on the short term changes. There is no doubt that some products (such as sanitizers) will see a quick win, but the really smart brands are the ones who look at how to win consumer favour in the long run. Your sample panel is the backbone to conduct all your research. How are you collaborating with them and conducting the research? Are you getting full cooperation during these times to get the best output from them as there are many challenges? Our methodology remains robust. Our earlier set of 16 cities in offline research is a good representation of urban India. However, the online methodology gives us an opportunity to further enhance the methodology by widening the lower-tier city coverage. This means that we will be able to capture a wider spread of responses. Our online surveys are programmed by our team of in-house experts, who use a variety of checks to exclude respondents that attempt to speed through the survey too quickly or provide non-logical responses. What mantra would you suggest that brands should follow as even after the lockdown is lifted it is going to be a long haul to recover fully? According to Mintel 2030 Global Consumer Trends, there are 7 key consumer drivers that have been identified: Well being Surroundings Technology Rights Identity Value Experiences These trends are still relevant even during the COVID-19 situation. The same drivers of consumer behaviour apply to the wider Asia-Pacific just as much as they do in India, whether there is a crisis or not. The key is to take any opportunity crisis-induced or otherwise and use innovative thinking to identify new ways to use technology to solve lifes issues. To understand what consumers want and why, is the key, of course. That is why, following the logic that you need to advertise your way out of a recession, we believe you need to research your way out of a crisis. It is important to think about the long term and not have knee jerk reactions that cater just to the short term. Certain shifts in consumer behaviour that take place will continue to prevail even after the lockdown has been lifted, whereas others might not. It is important to closely monitor these shifts and continue to innovate to meet the evolving needs of consumers. The Chief of Air Staff, Sadique Abubakar, Monday announced in Maiduguri that ventilators locally fabricated by the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) scientists are now ready for the treatment of COVID-19 and other respiratory-related diseases. Mr Abubakar, an air marshal, said the ventilators were jointly fabricated by the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and NAF. He made this announcement while hosting a Sallah luncheon for frontline troops of the NAF at the headquarters of Air Task Force Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri. He also said, whilst sustaining the fight against the seen enemy, NAF personnel must also maintain vigilance and ensure strict adherence to the guidelines and protocols to overcome COVID-19, which is the invisible enemy of humanity. He said NAF had distributed reusable face masks to all staff as well as Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and ventilators to the NAF Hospital in Maiduguri. The NAF engineers, in collaboration with the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, had equally developed locally-produced emergency ventilators that had been tested and made ready for use, which would be unveiled during the week, he added. He said the locally fabricated ventilators are meant to complement governments effort in the fight against COVID-19. The NAF, despite the challenges of competing demands for resources and the COVID-19 induced lockdown had through pragmatic logistics planning and foresight, maintained the tempo of its operations, not only in the North-east, but also in other parts of the country. He stressed the need for robust synergy among security agencies to consolidate on the gains recorded in the fight against insurgency and other criminal activities in the country. He also said the contributions of Air Task Force Operation Lafiya Dole has shaped the war against insurgency in the North-east and provided freedom of action for the ground troops. He said working in synergy with sister services and other security agencies, (we) would continue to evolve new methods and emplace new strategies aimed at eliminating all forms of criminal elements in the country. We have kept the pace in training of both air and ground crews, developed the regiment specialty to defend our bases and increased the force structure of the service, whilst building more accommodation and office infrastructure to cope with the growth. Our units are flying the NAF flags across the country. The latest of these is in Lafia, where the 22 Quick Response Wing was recently activated with the injection of additional Special Forces (SF) personnel. The air chief disclosed that a new unit would soon be established in Damaturu, where a helipad had been constructed along with refuelling facilities. He revealed that to further boost the air component operations in the North-east, NAF would very soonget the Air Force flying in Damaturu as well. We will make sure they have a refuelling facility and a force protection element in Damaturu so that our ground troops, should be able to refuel their aircraft in Damaturu and continue the fight without necessarily coming back to Maiduguri. On the essence of the luncheon, the air chief said, These get-togethers foster comradeship and give us the opportunity to commend ourselves in the duty of securing our nation against criminal elements. Zulum Responding as a special guest of honour at the Sallah luncheon, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, commended the NAF. He lauded NAF on its efforts in the health and education sector of internally displaced persons in the state. The governor requested for further support in protecting farmers across the state during the coming farming season. We earnestly solicit the support of the Nigeria Air Force in terms of protection of our farmers to enable them to actively engage in this years farming season, he said. Were nationwide and still going full steam ahead. We're still buying loans and our pricing is very competitive, said Fisher. We're consistently in the top two or three in the 15-year pricing models for conventional loans and extremely comparable in the conventional and agency 30-year as well. Transitioning to this model meant some changes. Non-QM teams were retrained to work with traditional loans and personnel working out of the two main offices in New Jersey and Arizona were transition to work from home. Many were already working remotely, so tactically, the move came without any major challenges, said Fisher. One thing that hasnt changed is their commitment to service levels. Redeploying staff to new avenues helped the lender weather the storm shockingly well. In fact, Arc Home Loans saw increased interest and production from brokers with the month of April breaking records for broker packages, submissions and funding. Brokers have been intrigued by our qualified mortgage offerings and after seeing where we met our competition in price and service, they were excited about it, he said. As for the return of the non-QM, Fisher is optimistic. While some experts are not expecting the market to return until later this year or early next, he is hoping for comeback a bit sooner. There have been some signs of non-QM lending creeping back into the market, with some lenders slowly returning. Eight decades after he formulated his General Theory, John Maynard Keynes remains a demigod to many liberal economists. Keynes trickle-up theory is seen by them as a panacea for the migrant working class affected by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Keynes suggested that to kickstart a stagnant economy, the government must boost demand by cutting taxes, increasing government spending and putting money in the pockets of the middle-class. Keynes disciples in the Opposition are criticising the finance minister (FM)s package for not making direct money transfers into the accounts of the poor. The government has already extended substantial support to the rural poor, including migrant workers. The rabi crop has been purchased by the government at the cost of Rs 75,000 crore which has benefitted over 90 million farmers. Additionally, Rs 19,000 crore has been deposited into the bank accounts of eligible farmers under PM Kisan. A crop insurance bill of Rs 6,000 crore has been paid. Women from over 300 million poor families have been receiving Rs 1,500 over three months in their Jan Dhan accounts. To top this, the FM announced the allocation of a little over Rs 1,00,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) taking the total man-days available for the rural poor to 300 crore. Estimates by economists suggest that around Rs 12,000 have gone directly into the accounts of every single poor family through these measures. All this came from the Centre, with the states doing their bit. Yet, there is distress manifested in the large-scale flight of migrant workers from destination states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana to the home states of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and the Northeast. There has been a lot of politics over this. The migrant issue in such circumstances is complicated. And it isnt unique to India. Many countries in Europe such as Spain, Germany, Italy and France are struggling with issues of farm workers who migrate in the harvest season from Eastern European countries. Host countries are torn between fear of losing harvests, fear of importing infection and a fear that predates the pandemic that of foreigners taking jobs. Populists sense opportunity as the economic fallout solidifies political battle lines, according to a piece in The Guardian. Indias migrant population is over 130 million. Their movement en masse back to their home-states would have been an unmitigated disaster. To prevent this, the Centre turned its attention to agriculture and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Over 44% of Indias workforce is dependent on agriculture. The governments decision to allocate Rs 1 lakh crore for farm-gate infrastructure development is to ensure that the workforce is engaged in productive agricultural activity. Of the rest, 70% of jobs are provided by the MSME sector. The government gave the sector high priority by arranging additional easy lending options to the tune of over Rs 400,000 crore. Compared to the fiscal measures taken by other G20 countries, India has done better than most. According to an International Monetary Fund report, the aggregate fiscal measures as a percent of GDP are in two dimensions spending and revenue measures; and loan, equity and guarantee measures. Germany, which topped the fiscal relief chart had announced 1% of GDP in additional spending and 6% in loan guarantees. India, with a stimulus package of 10% of GDP, is well ahead of its G20 peers. It must be remembered that while a section of the migrants undertook their homebound journey, a large number stayed back. There are two important reasons for it. One, the appeal to employers by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi to continue paying wages; and two, the governments stimulus to MSMEs and agriculture. Migrants have been supported by states and non-governmental organisations during the lockdown. Yet, their anxiety to get back to their families and villages has pushed many to defy the lockdown and set off home. To manage this migration, a coordinated approach was needed between the Centre and the states, and between destination and origin states. Uttar Pradesh has set an example by arranging to ferry not only its own migrants, but also those bound for neighbouring Bihar, in over 1,200 buses. It alone received and transported over two million workers to their destinations. Gujarat has quickly arranged trains for these migrants while Maharashtra has been found wanting. The role played by the Indian Railways is exemplary. It has so far transported over two million migrants to their home states. Bihar and West Bengal are two states that did not show enough interest in receiving its own migrants, leading to huge numbers being stranded in Mumbai and Delhi. Madhya Pradesh, though neither a destination nor a home, has come forward with 1,000 buses to help the migrants reach their destinations. Leo Varadkar, former PM of Ireland, joined European Union leaders a few weeks ago supporting the movement of cross-border agriculture workers. Back home, he was critical of a Dublin fruit company for bringing in Bulgarian workers to pick strawberries. Similarly, the Opposition criticises the Centre for the migrant crisis, while the origin or destination of the migrants is in the states under its control. What we need today is collective federal action to address the migrant issue, not the political blame game we are witnessing. Ram Madhav is national general secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party, and director, India Foundation With additional data inputs from Rajat Sethi The views expressed are personal New simulations from Imperial College London have revealed the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck Earth at the 'deadliest possible' angle. The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere. Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago. Drawn from a combination of 3D numerical impact simulations and geophysical data from the site of the impact, the new models are the first ever fully 3D simulations to reproduce the whole event -- from the initial impact to the moment the final crater, now known as Chicxulub, was formed. The simulations were performed on the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) DiRAC High Performance Computing Facility. Lead researcher Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "For the dinosaurs, the worst-case scenario is exactly what happened. The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This was likely worsened by the fact that it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles. advertisement "Our simulations provide compelling evidence that the asteroid struck at a steep angle, perhaps 60 degrees above the horizon, and approached its target from the north-east. We know that this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact, because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywhere -- the very thing that led to a nuclear winter." The results are published today in Nature Communications. Crater creation The upper layers of earth around the Chicxulub crater in present-day Mexico contain high amounts of water as well as porous carbonate and evaporite rocks. When heated and disturbed by the impact, these rocks would have decomposed, flinging vast amounts of carbon dioxide, sulphur and water vapour into the atmosphere. The sulphur would have been particularly hazardous as it rapidly forms aerosols -- tiny particles that would have blocked the sun's rays, halting photosynthesis in plants and rapidly cooling the climate. This eventually contributed to the mass extinction event that killed 75 per cent of life on Earth. advertisement The team of researchers from Imperial, the University of Freiburg, and The University of Texas at Austin, examined the shape and subsurface structure of the crater using geophysical data to feed into the simulations that helped diagnose the impact angle and direction. Their analysis was also informed by recent results from drilling into the 200 km-wide crater, which brought up rocks containing evidence of the extreme forces generated by the impact. Peak performance Pivotal to diagnosing the angle and direction of impact was the relationship between the centre of the crater, the centre of the peak ring -- a ring of mountains made of heavily fractured rock inside the crater rim -- and the centre of dense uplifted mantle rocks, some 30 km beneath the crater. At Chicxulub, these centres are aligned in a southwest-northeast direction, with the crater centre in between the peak-ring and mantle-uplift centres. The team's 3D Chicxulub crater simulations at an angle of 60 degrees reproduced these observations almost exactly. The simulations reconstructed the crater formation in unprecedented detail and give us more clues as to how the largest craters on Earth are formed. Previous fully 3D simulations of the Chicxulub impact have covered only the early stages of impact, which include the production of a deep bowl-shaped hole in the crust known as the transient crater and the expulsion of rocks, water and sediment into the atmosphere. These simulations are the first to continue beyond this intermediate point in the formation of the crater and reproduce the final stage of the crater's formation, in which the transient crater collapses to form the final structure. This allowed the researchers to make the first comparison between 3D Chicxulub crater simulations and the present-day structure of the crater revealed by geophysical data. Co-author Dr Auriol Rae of the University of Freiburg said: "Despite being buried beneath nearly a kilometre of sedimentary rocks, it is remarkable that geophysical data reveals so much about the crater structure -- enough to describe the direction and angle of the impact." The researchers say that while the study has given us important insights into the dinosaur-dooming impact, it also helps us understand how large craters on other planets form. Co-author Dr Thomas Davison, also of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "Large craters like Chicxulub are formed in a matter of minutes, and involve a spectacular rebound of rock beneath the crater. Our findings could help advance our understanding of how this rebound can be used to diagnose details of the impacting asteroid." The work was supported by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), (STFC) DiRAC High Performance Computing Facility and the Natural Environment Research Council. Here's the tea: A business with up to 500 possible flavor combinations of freshly brewed drinks recently opened in San Antonio with more locations on the way. HTeaO is a Texas-brewed business, which offers a menu of iced tea flavors from super sweet to decaffeinated options. The business also allows customers to build their own blends. The chain has amassed a following across the state and now San Antonio is getting a taste. The new 22127 Bulverde location celebrated a grand opening on May 22. CEO Justin Howe says another location will be opening on Huebner and teased a third local store. RELATED: San Antonio's second Lick ice cream shop is opening downtown next week For now, fans are lining up at the North Side store to try out popular flavors like Sweet Mint, Sweet Coconut and Sweet Blueberry Green. They can also mix half and half flavors to create up to 500 possible combinations. Howe says the mixtures customers come up with usually organically creates a secret menu of combinations with different drink names known to each market. The Alamo City will have its own set of locally loved favorites in no time, he said. To start, the menu is made up of half sweet and half unsweet flavors. There's everything from regular sweet tea to Wild Raspberry and Watermelon. Customers can top it off by adding two ounces of fresh fruit, like strawberries and blueberries, for 75 cents. Citrus topping options are free. Sizes range from small cups to a gallon. Howe says the usual order is a 44-ounce cup, which sells for $2.79. He described the experience inside his stores like being in a "tea playground," where customers can self-serve to create their perfect mix. He said the "secret sauce" is the purified water and ice that's used for the drinks. Each location is equipped with a water plant to produce large amounts, so customers can also supply their homes or offices with HTeaO water and ice. The tea room also offers perks, like daily half price happy hours from 2 to 4 p.m. and free drinks for uniformed first responders. The San Antonio location was originally planned to open in March, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. While Howe is disappointed the usual blowout celebration was not feasible to introduce his company to San Antonio because of the pandemic, he said the turnout for the "safe opening" was "phenomenal." Madalyn Mendoza covers news and puro pop culture for MySA.com | mmendoza@mysa.com | @maddyskye 26.05.2020 LISTEN The Abeka District Magistrate court has remanded into police custody Victor Stephen Kankam, the landlord who allegedly shot and killed his tenant. The suspect is to return to court on June 8, 2020. The accused earlier told the police that his action was in self-defence after the deceased failed to vacate a two-bedroom house he was occupying at Ofankor in Accra. Earlier on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police command, DSP Afia Tenge said the police were still investigating the case. If in the course of investigations and other issues come up, the police will also not hesitate in proffering other charges against him, she said. She also noted that the police were still trying to identify a possible motive for the alleged crime. DSP Tenge described the incident as being strange to the police. The incident took place last Sunday, May 24, 2020, at Ofankor Spot M after the landlord allegedly shot the tenant for refusing to vacate a room rented out to him. The victim was pronounced dead after he was rushed to the hospital. A search conducted of the suspect's room revealed two pump action guns loaded with 7 and 8 cartridges each in addition to 32 live cartridges. Four spent shells were also retrieved. The body of the deceased has been deposited at the Police Hospital mortuary for preservation and autopsy. ---citinewsroom To the editor: During this time of dealing with a novel virus and a global pandemic, we need to trust our health care providers more than ever. We trust and expect that they abide by the professional principles that guide their role. The education of physicians and nurses is rooted in science-based studies, evidence-based practice and evolving research. I expect and trust that my health care provides practice their profession using reliable, reputable and peer-reviewed data from which to base their decisions for my care. I do not want my provider taking medical advice from a politician. A letter written by Michigans Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) to providers reminded them that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has not been proven as an effective treatment for COVID-19 patients, based on ongoing and current reports from the FDA. It warns that inappropriate prescribing of HCQ can lead to negative outcomes for COVID-19 patients as well as to shortages of the drug for patients with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. These are factual statements and the letter is a valid reminder to all providers that they must follow professional ethic and principles. When providers are pressured to practice outside of their professional standards, guidance from regulatory organizations is needed, supportive and helpful for the providers. So why are politicians recommending and promoting specific drugs for COVID-19 against the recommendations of FDA? And why are politicians, like Rep. Annette Glenn, pressuring Michigans LARA to retract its letter to providers? And why are these non-medical people jumping to unfounded and erroneous conclusions based on inadequate information to insist on the value of HCQ? It appears that when the president began to declare that HCQ was the miracle drug treatment for COVID-19 patients, the analytical and scientific debates about the drug were drowned out by partisan debates. Is it that our politicians apparently need to either jump on the bandwagon in an effort to sustain the presidents unproven, hope-inducing proclamations or risk being left behind in the wake of his false narratives? Science, facts and research matters! Providers must do their job to care for our citizens using valid science, facts and research. MARIE JOHANSEN Midland The New Patriotic Partys National Organiser, Sammy Awuku says the embarrassing defeat of the opposition NDC in the 2016 general elections was nothing but lack of vigilant on their part. He indicated that it will be impossible for the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Identification Authority (NIA) to rig the elections in favour of the ruling party. We have never relied on the Electoral Commission since 1992In today's Ghana, it will be a miracle and an accident in history for the Chairperson of the EC and her Commissioners to rig the elections for a political party; it will be difficult, he said while contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM morning show Kokrokoo last Friday. Sammy Awuku urged the opposition party to rather focus on how to be vigilant at the polling stations instead of making unfounded allegations. The NDC failed to be vigilant in 2016 and that led to their defeat. NDC, I can confidently tell you; they couldn't collate their results in 2016 They didn't even know where they lost and where they won, Mr Awuku said, adding that you can't blame the EC for your inability to open your eyes. NDCs Allegations The NDC, at two press conferences, said activities being undertaken by the NIA and the EC ahead of the 2020 polls were all geared towards rigging the elections for the governing party. The opposition party had earlier posited that the use of the Ghana card and passport as evidence of identification during registration despite the limited number of Ghanaians who have these requirements, was unfortunate. National Chairman of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and NDC's Director of Elections, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, at two separate media briefings, said the EC Chairperson and Executive Director of National Identification Authority intended to rig the elections by denying about 11 million Ghanaians majority of them from the stronghold of the NDC the Ghana Card which would enable them to take part in the EC's planned compilation of new voters register. They contend that the decision by the EC to use the Ghana Card and passport as the only required documents to get registered as voters was a calculated plan as part of the rigging process as many people would be disenfranchised. As we predicted, the Ghana card registration process by the NIA has been very slow such that till date, the process which commenced with a pilot in late 2017 and was supposed to be completed in one year, has been able to register only 11,062,055 out of about 19 million Ghanaians (15 years and above) who are eligible to be registered. Even more bizarre is the fact that out of this 11 million Ghanaians who have been registered, only 7,074,048 have been issued with cards (per NIA's own website https:nia.gov.gh) as at 2nd May, 2020, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo explained. Sammy Awuku, however, disagreed with the claims. He pointed out that under no circumstance would the ruling party even consider the idea. NDC shouldn't think the EC can rig the electionThe NPP reject the NDC's accusation that we are in active connivance with the Electoral Commission and the NIA, he said. May 26 : Thiruvananthapuram: Giving the lie to the CPI(M)-led LDF governments claim that Fair Code did not stand to gain monetarily from the BevQ mobile app, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday produced documents to show that Fair Code will indeed receive 50 paise for each token issued by BevQ. Fair Code is a Kochi-based start-up tasked with developing a mobile app christened BevQ to create a virtual queue system for online sale of liquor through the states beverage outlets and counters to be set up at private bar hotels. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Chennithala said that bar hoteliers had given an undertaking to reimburse Bevco at the rate of 50 paise per each token dispensed through the BevQ app for sale of liquor over counters at private bar hotels. Excise minister T P Ramakrishnan had earlier refuted the oppositions claim that Fair Code stood to gain 50 paise for each token issued through BevQ. Considering the large number of sales expected to be made through the various liquor outlets and counters, the opposition alleged that Fair Code would make crores of rupees each month. However, refuting the oppositions claim, the excise minister had asserted that the charge of 50 paise per coupon would be paid to Bevco, not Faircode. The undertaking given by bar hoteliers, a copy of which Chennithala shared with the media, however gives the lie to the ministers claim. Point 4 of the undertaking says that bar hoteliers would reimburse share of expenses for the virtual queue management system which works out to 50 paise per token including sms charges. Point 5 says that the expenses will be paid to the solution provider (Fair Code Technologies) by the corporation (Bevco) initially and that bar hoteliers will pay the share amount at the rate mentioned in point 4 to Bevco. The opposition UDF had earlier alleged corruption in the LDF governments decision to task Fair Code with developing the app for online sale of BevQ. After appearing as the sinister Professor Snape in two Harry Potter films, actor Alan Rickman didnt feel compelled to return to play a character that he believed was nothing more than an unchanging costume. But then JK Rowling told him a secret about Snape, one that would only be revealed to fans many years later. She told him the meaning behind the word always. As part of a special feature commemorating the conclusion of the Harry Potter franchise in 2011, Rickman narrated the story to Empire magazine. I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time. On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes. He continued, Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands. It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo. Also Watch | Avengers: Infinity War has more in common with Harry Potter than youd expect At the end of the Harry Potter saga, it is revealed that the antagonistic Professor Snape was, in fact, fighting to protect Harry from the evil Lord Voldemort, all because he was in love with Harrys mother, Lily. In the books (and films), when Professor Dumbledore learns of Snapes affection for Lily Potter, he asks, After all this time? Always, said Snape. Also read: When Daniel Radcliffe said Harry Potter turned him into an alcoholic, revealed details about sex life Rickman in 2011 had also told HitFix that Rowling had given him one tiny, left of field piece of information about Snape. He said, It helped me think that he was more complicated and that the story was not going to be as straight down the line as everybody thought. If you remember when I did the first film shed only written three or four books, so nobody knew where it was really going except her. And it was important for her that I know something, but she only gave me a tiny piece of information which helped me think it was a more ambiguous route. I told Alan what lies behind the word 'always'. https://t.co/NHTJ5J6kxb J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 18, 2016 When Rickman died in 2016, a fan asked Rowling what it was that she told him about Snape. She replied, I told Alan what lies behind the word always. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The US Supreme Court is seen in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined a Justice Department request to halt a lower court order requiring new measures to slow the spread of coronavirus at an Ohio prison where nine inmates have died from Covid-19. The top court announced its decision in an unsigned order that cited procedural matters. Three of the court's conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, said they would have granted the request. The court said the DOJ could seek review of the order again "if circumstances warrant." U.S. District Judge James Gwin last month ordered the Bureau of Prisons to identify and transfer prisoners vulnerable to coronavirus at the low-security Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Ohio. The government identified 837 medically vulnerable inmates but did not transfer any out of the prison, prompting Gwin last week to order the government to expedite its process. The Justice Department, representing the Bureau of Prisons, asked the Supreme Court to halt the original order. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the Justice Department's request before the court. In a statement, ACLU national legal director David Cole said he commended the top court "for choosing to reaffirm the rights of the people incarcerated at Elkton prison, for whom a prison sentence must not become a death sentence." Justin Long, a spokesperson for the BOP, declined to comment, citing a policy against commenting on pending litigation. Prisons have served as fertile ground for coronavirus, which spreads quickly in indoor settings in which people are gathered in close quarters. Older people and those with chronic conditions are particularly vulnerable, health authorities say. Those at Elkton are housed "cheek by jowl, in dormitory-style rooms of approximately 150 persons each," Cole wrote in a brief submitted to the justices. "Though well aware that social distancing is an indispensable means of protecting themselves, they are powerless to use it," Cole wrote. "The result has been a severe COVID-19 outbreak lasting months, causing the deaths so far of at least nine people and infecting hundreds more among prisoners and staff." - Touched by Njeri's story, Waihiga and his team resorted to finding a rental house for her where they paid a month's rent and bought her foodstuffs and other necessities - The mother of one disclosed that her six-month-old daughter had contracted the flu due to the cold - The 26-year-old revealed she was born on that piece of land which was now termed illegal and hoping the cessation of movement could end soon for her to relocate to upcountry Journalist Waihiga Mwaura and his crew have touched the hearts of many after offering a helping hand to a homeless woman. Waihiga and his crew were out on duty filming an investigative story when he led his crew to rescue Yvonne Njeri and her six-month-old baby, Precious. READ ALSO: My greatest gift: Mike Sonko, wife celebrate adopted Satrine Osinya on his birthday READ ALSO: Nairobi: 3 children reject mother who abandoned them while still toddlers: "She isn't our mother" Njeri, a hairdresser, revealed they were living out in the open with the baby being shielded by a makeshift structure. Speaking to the Citizen TV anchor, she disclosed her six-month-old daughter had contracted the flu due to the cold. READ ALSO: Mchezaji wa Cameroon, Joseph Bouasse aaga dunia kutokana na mshtuko wa moyo The heartbroken mom narrated how her hairdressing job had come to an end after her customers were forcefully evicted leaving her with no source of income. She hoped that things would go back to normal and the cessation of movement would end soon in order for her to move back to the village with her family. Touched by the painful story, Waihiga and her crew resorted to finding a rental house for Njeri and supported her with the month's rent. They also bought her foodstuffs and essential items for her and the daughter to ensure they were comfortable. READ ALSO: Kenyans urge CocaCola to grant beautiful girl pictured drinking their beverage an advertising deal Yvonne Njeri and her baby spending their night outside after their house was demolished. Photo: Citizen TV. Source: UGC The 26-year-old was born and raised up in the piece of land which the government claimed was acquired illegally. According to Njeri, Precious has a heart problem and this got worse when they were forced to live in the cold. She started experiencing breathing problems. "The child has a chest problem. From the day they began the forced evictions, she started having breathing problems. She is a baby and is supposed to always keep warm. Life right now is bad. We don't even have diapers. I am literally using rags as nappies on my child," said Njeri. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Corona has ruined our daily lives | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Tue, May 26, 2020 08:16 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda11690 2 World Mongolia,coronavirus,COVID-19,SARS-CoV-2,virus,COVID-19-lockdown,COVID-19-vaccines Free Mongolia will maintain strict coronavirus regulations until a vaccine is found, the prime minister said Monday, raising the prospect of the country being locked down for months to come. Wedged between Russia and China, landlocked Mongolia on March 12 become one of the first countries to close its borders in the face of the growing global epidemic. Universities, schools and kindergartens are closed until September, conferences and public protests are banned, children under 12 are not allowed in malls or restaurants, and facemasks are mandatory. "The country will keep the quarantine rules until a vaccine becomes available," Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa told reporters in the country's parliament. He did not provide more details about what measures would remain in place, but said he did not know when borders would reopen. Despite the announcement, he said parliamentary elections will be held as scheduled on June 24. Scientists around the world are rushing to find a vaccine for the virus that has killed more than 340,000 people and infected over five million in 196 countries and territories. Mongolia has recorded a low 140 cases, with most imported from Russia. The returnees were put under strict quarantine for three weeks. The country has sent planes to repatriate Mongolians abroad, but thousands remain stranded in other countries. Only vulnerable groups -- including pregnant women, seniors, children with their parents, and people with serious health issues -- are allowed to return, with authorities saying Mongolia lacks the capacity to handle everyone. HACKENSACK, N.J., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hackensack Meridian Health, the state's largest and most comprehensive health network, has reached a major milestone in its COVID-19 research: 1,000 patients have been administered the latest investigative treatments over the course of the pandemic. From antiviral drugs to immunotherapies, to the potential treatment properties of antibodies in the blood of COVID-19 survivors, the patients have been treated over the course of 10 clinical trials, as well as through compassionate use and expanded use access. The trials include treatments from major pharmaceutical companies as well as investigator-initiated research aimed at turning the tide against the coronavirus pandemic. The investigators and clinicians have worked on the trials across the network, and virtually round-the-clock. Hackensack Meridian Health experts have been involved in the work since the earliest stages of the pandemic. "We are proud of the dynamic research and clinical impact we are achieving in our health network," said Robert C. Garrett, FACHE, chief executive officer of Hackensack Meridian Health. "Our physicians and scientists are propelling us as we continue to be a progressive leader of positive change amid this pandemic." "We are working hard to evaluate these treatments as the cases continue to present at our health network," said Ihor Sawczuk, M.D., M.D., FACS, president of Hackensack Meridian Health's Northern Market, and the chief research officer of the network. "We're proud of our efforts, and how much has been accomplished in a short amount of time." The 1,000 patients have been administered these treatments in lieu of a vaccine or fully tested drug for the newly-discovered SARS-CoV2, which Chinese authorities announced they discovered in December. At Hackensack Meridian Health, the number of patients receiving access to these latest treatments is expected to grow with enrollments in the coming days and weeks. The trials include: CYNK-001 . The CYNK-001 immunotherapy made by Celularity, Inc. is aimed at bolstering patients' immune response, and is approved in cancer applications. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also recently authorized the therapy as an investigational new drug for use in adult COVID-19 patients, amid the spreading pandemic. John Theurer Cancer Center will be the first site in the Phase I/II clinical trial, which will assess its effectiveness in treating infected patients. Hackensack Meridian Health is the first to test this therapy for COVID-19. . The CYNK-001 immunotherapy made by Celularity, Inc. is aimed at bolstering patients' immune response, and is approved in cancer applications. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also recently authorized the therapy as an investigational new drug for use in adult COVID-19 patients, amid the spreading pandemic. John Theurer Cancer Center will be the first site in the Phase I/II clinical trial, which will assess its effectiveness in treating infected patients. Hackensack Meridian is the first to test this therapy for COVID-19. Remdesivir . An antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences to respond to Ebola and Marburg viruses, the therapy is currently being investigated at five sites: Hackensack University Medical Center, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, JFK Medical Center, Bayshore Medical Center, and Ocean Medical Center (totaling three trials). HUMC is conducting two Phase III trials, one evaluating the safety and effectiveness in severe COVID-19 cases, and the other in moderate cases as compared to standard of care. JFK, Jersey Shore, Bayshore, and Ocean are conducting an expanded access treatment protocol in the hospital for the coronavirus cases. Additionally, across the network compassionate use of the drug is allowed in pediatric and pregnant cases. . An antiviral drug developed by Gilead Sciences to respond to Ebola and Marburg viruses, the therapy is currently being investigated at five sites: Hackensack University Medical Center, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, JFK Medical Center, Bayshore Medical Center, and Ocean Medical Center (totaling three trials). HUMC is conducting two Phase III trials, one evaluating the safety and effectiveness in severe COVID-19 cases, and the other in moderate cases as compared to standard of care. JFK, Jersey Shore, Bayshore, and are conducting an expanded access treatment protocol in the hospital for the coronavirus cases. Additionally, across the network compassionate use of the drug is allowed in pediatric and pregnant cases. Acalabrutinib . A medicine approved to treat mantle cell lymphoma, a kind of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and made by AstraZeneca is also being tested. Hackensack Meridian Health is the first to test this kinase inhibitor. . A medicine approved to treat mantle cell lymphoma, a kind of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and made by AstraZeneca is also being tested. Hackensack Meridian is the first to test this kinase inhibitor. Sarilumab . A monoclonal antibody by Regeneron intended for arthritis treatments is being tested. The adaptive, Phase II/III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessing the efficacy and safety of the treatment in COVID-19 patients is open and enrolling at Hackensack University Medical Center, JFK Medical Center, and Jersey Shore University Medical Center. . A monoclonal antibody by Regeneron intended for arthritis treatments is being tested. The adaptive, Phase II/III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessing the efficacy and safety of the treatment in COVID-19 patients is open and enrolling at Hackensack University Medical Center, JFK Medical Center, and Jersey Shore University Medical Center. Tocilizumab . An immunosuppressive drug used to treat arthritis manufactured by Genentech. The trial at HMH enrolled patients at Hackensack University Medical Center. . An immunosuppressive drug used to treat arthritis manufactured by Genentech. The trial at HMH enrolled patients at Hackensack University Medical Center. Hydroxychloroquine . The immunosuppressive drug used to treat and prevent malaria was investigated at JFK Medical Center as a COVID-19 preventative among high-risk healthcare workers. Patients are no longer being enrolled in this trial. . The immunosuppressive drug used to treat and prevent malaria was investigated at JFK Medical Center as a COVID-19 preventative among high-risk healthcare workers. Patients are no longer being enrolled in this trial. Convalescent plasma Hackensack . HUMC is recruiting recovered and recovering COVID-19 patients to test their blood for antibodies in response to the virus. Patients with promising titers of antibodies will be asked to donate plasma, which may be helpful for sick COVID-19 patients. This trial is unique to HUMC. . HUMC is recruiting recovered and recovering COVID-19 patients to test their blood for antibodies in response to the virus. Patients with promising titers of antibodies will be asked to donate plasma, which may be helpful for sick COVID-19 patients. This trial is unique to HUMC. Convalescent plasma network-wide. Sites across the Hackensack Meridian Health network are taking part in the FDA/Red Cross-led National Expanded Access Program. The trials have specific criteria, following various guidelines at different phases of the investigational process, and are under the guidance of the Hackensack Meridian Health Office of Research Administration (ORA), which set up a research committee in the earliest days of the pandemic. For more information on the ORA, reach out to Cheryl Fittizzi, vice president of Research and Regulatory Affairs, at [email protected]. ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care. Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children's hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin; a behavioral health hospital Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick. Additionally, the network has more than 500 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has more than 34,100 team members, and 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves. The network's notable distinctions include having four hospitals among the top 10 in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and being named to Becker's Healthcare's "150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2019" list. The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, the first private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years, welcomed its first class of students in 2018 to its On3 campus in Nutley and Clifton. Additionally, the network partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to find more cures for cancer faster while ensuring that patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it. Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies. For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org. SOURCE Hackensack Meridian Health Related Links http://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org The management of COA FS, a Ghanaian alternative medicine company, have indicated that contrary to media reports, the COA FS herbal medicine has not been approved as a cure for coronavirus (Covid-19). According to the company, COA FS was part of the herbal products submitted to the Centre for Plant Medicine Research, AkuapemMampong for evaluation towards the management of Covid-19 . A release signed by its Client Relations Officer, Deladem Kisseih said, COA Herbal Center further dissociates itself from leaked reports suggesting that independent tests conducted on COA FS Food supplement confirm that the product is not contaminated, the release said. The report on the independent test, which was conducted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has been extensively reported by some media houses and online portals, creating the erroneous impression that COA Herbal Center is influencing such a media campaign, it added. It would be recalled that in April this year, the FDA ordered the recall of all batches of COA FS Food Supplement, manufactured by the Centre of Awareness (COA) Herbal Centre, from the Ghanaian market, over contamination. FDA had in a statement indicated that contaminated products posed serious health hazard including risk of kidney disease. COA FS says it is strictly adhering to the Food and Drugs Authoritys directives and not engaged in any media war. We wish to state that COA Herbal Center, acting upon the directive of the FDA has since ceased production, recalled our products from the market, and submitted the same to the FDA which was safely disposed of on the 22nd of May, 2020, it added. It noted that the leaked test results from the Food Research Institute, which is under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is one of the results of the numerous trial samples sent to the institute and the Centre for Plant Medicine Research for analysis, to try our lines after major renovations. We, therefore, want to state unequivocally that, we are not behind such publications and as a genuine organization, which cherishes the rule of law, we would not do anything that will undermine the authority and power of the FDA. Indeed, a meeting with stakeholders and government will be held this week to deliberate on the recommendation by the Center for Plant Medicine Research and the way forward. The question is, why would COA FS engineer such publications to preempt Tuesdays meeting? This media campaign is the handiwork of some diabolic minds who dont wish COA FS well. It must, therefore, be on record that COA Herbal Center is strictly complying with directives by the Food and Drug Authority (FDA). We have recalled all the specific batch numbers from the market as directed by the FDA. Furthermore and more importantly, the company has embarked on several steps to ensure that its manufacturing site in Cape Coast conforms to the best hygienic practices in the world. The production site in the Central Region has seen some major facelifts that will ensure that COA FS products are produced under strict hygienic conditions which conform to international best practices, the release said. We want to state that, COA Herbal Center is committed to delivering quality, effective, efficient, and efficacious product to consumers and will, therefore, comply with all directives by the FDA. Currently, the product is off the market. We, therefore, urge the general public to disregard the current media publications regarding the tests and wait patiently for the FDAs final report, which is recognized by law, it added. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. This week's liftoff of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is a complicated, high-stakes endeavor. Take Mission Control. The astronauts won't just be talking to Houston throughout their mission. They'll also be talking to Hawthorne, Calif., home to Elon Musk's SpaceX. The private company owns the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft that will propel Hurley and Behnken to the International Space Station. So control rooms in three time zones Florida, Texas and California will be involved. And their flight, scheduled to launch Wednesday at 3:33 p.m. CT, is actually a test flight. It's the final major milestone before SpaceX receives NASA certification to begin more routine launches to the space station. Ken Ellis/Staff graphic More on the Crew Dragon: 'The beginning of a new era:' NASA astronauts prepare to fly in a capsule once again Its a joint project years and countless hours of work in the making, with both NASA and SpaceX helping with program costs, vehicle development and crew training. The final preparations started almost two weeks ago. Here is a glimpse at the timeline, with details on the expected launch and overall mission objectives: May 13: Quarantine Hurley and Behnken went into quarantine. While this is standard protocol to prevent carrying a virus into space, their quarantine has additional safeguards due to the new coronavirus. All who interact with Hurley and Behnken during their two-week quarantine are being screened to ensure they dont have a fever or other COVID-19 symptoms. The astronauts themselves, as well as anyone in direct, close contact with them, are being tested for the virus. May 20: Travel Hurley and Behnken left their homes in the Houston area and flew on a NASA plane to Florida. They are staying in crew quarters at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center. May 22: Static fire test SpaceX secured the Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top, to the launchpad and then fired the rocket engines, just to make sure everything is working appropriately. May 23: Dress rehearsal Hurley and Behnken donned their suits and were driven to Launch Complex 39A, which was previously used for Apollo missions (including Apollo 11) and space shuttle missions. The astronauts rode an elevator up the access tower, walked across the crew access arm and then climbed into the spacecraft. They closed the door and practiced the pre-launch sequence. May 27: Launch day Its the scheduled launch day (though there could be inclement weather that postpones the launch. Backup windows are available Saturday and Sunday). To prevent spreading the new coronavirus, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is asking that people stay home. They can watch the launch at nasa.gov/nasalive or at spacex.com. May 27: T-4 hours and 15 minutes SpaceX, NASA and the astronauts will have a weather briefing, and then Hurley and Behnken will get suited up in their white-with-black-trim spacesuits. The suits are designed for safety, but also to look cool, said Benji Reed, the SpaceX director of crew mission management. "It's just something that we want to make sure is very inspiring as well, but above all it's designed to keep the crew safe." May 27: T-3 hours Hurley and Behnken will be transported to the rocket in a Tesla Model X electric SUV, thanks to another one of Musks companies, and prepare for launch. Design note: like the astronauts spacesuits, the Tesla and the rocket are white and black. Preparing for launch: Astronauts find ways to talk to their kids about the joy - and risks - of blasting off into space May 27: 3:33 p.m. CT If all systems are a go, Hurley and Behnken will become the first NASA astronauts in nine years to launch from U.S. soil into orbit. The last space shuttle launch was July 8, 2011, and NASA has since relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to reach the space station. Firing Room 4 at Kennedy Space Center oversees countdown. Once the engines ignite, the SpaceX control room at its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., leads Mission Control functions. NASA has employees at Kennedy Space Center and in California weighing into decisions involving risk factors, such as weather, and it provides the satellites for communicating with Hurley and Behnken. NASA and its government partners would also provide search and rescue assistance if its needed. If something goes wrong, NASA has the final say over anything dealing with crew. NASA and SpaceX really have a collaborative role from well before launch all the way through the entire mission, said Zeb Scoville, NASAs lead flight director for the Demo-2 mission. We need them. They need us. This is absolutely teamwork and cooperation. The first part of the vehicles ascent relies on nine first-stage Merlin engines. These will propel the rocket upward for roughly 2 minutes before the first stage separates (with the rockets second stage, powered by one Merlin Vacuum Engine, taking over) and makes its way back to Earth. The rockets first stage should gently touch down in a vertical landing on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Atlantic Ocean 9 minutes and 22 seconds after liftoff. Roughly 12 minutes into the flight, the rockets second stage will separate and the Crew Dragon spacecraft will use its Draco thrusters to steer toward the International Space Station. May 27 afternoon/May 28 morning: Testing The Crew Dragons life support systems are among the systems to be tested during its less-than-24-hour journey to the space station. And while the vehicle is fully autonomous, Hurley is tasked with testing its manual controls. May 28: ISS Houstons Johnson Space Center will become the lead Mission Control center as the Crew Dragon approaches the space station and prepares to dock. It will dock autonomously. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, along with cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will welcome Hurley and Behnken aboard the International Space Station. The Demo-2 crew expects to stay onboard for at least one month and up to 119 days, helping with space station maintenance and experiments. The Crew Dragon will be monitored to see how its solar arrays hold up in space (all solar arrays degrade a bit in this harsh environment) and to see how well it can function as a lifeboat should something go wrong and the crew need to take shelter or require a speedy return to Earth. One to four months later: Return to Earth Hurley and Behnken will return to the Crew Dragon and autonomously undock with the space station. Following their reentry into the Earths atmosphere, the spacecraft will deploy two drogue parachutes that help stabilize it and then four main parachutes that further slow down the spacecraft before it lands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. Within one hour, a ship is expected to recover the spacecraft and help the crew out of the capsule. Fundamentally this is what SpaceX was founded for, said Reed. Our goal is to take people to space, to make life multi-planetary. andrea.leinfelder@chron.com twitter.com/a_leinfelder Song Ho-keun, a chair professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology, speaks during the Korea Forum 2020, hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo, at the Shilla Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon By Kang Seung-woo Korea needs to build an inclusive society and adopt "flexicurity" in preparation for the post COVID-19 era, according to Song Ho-keun, a chair professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech), Tuesday. Flexicurity is a term coined in Denmark to describe a system that promotes both flexibility and security in the labor market. Praising the country's disease control measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the renowned sociologist called on the nation to adopt new concepts regarding economy and growth. "In the wake of COVID-19, we could successfully respond to the virus thanks to the nation's social inclusiveness that I believe is higher than that of any other country including so-called advanced ones. In addition, 'flexicurity' for example, the government-offered emergency disaster relief funds is helping people pull through the pandemic," Song said during the Korea Forum 2020 at the Shilla Seoul. The annual forum is hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo. He said the pandemic showed that contemporary civilization and its key achievements, such as mobility and global networking, has limits, adding a paradigm shift will come with more focus on contactless services, regional integration and ecology. When it comes to e-commerce and online services, Song said Korea is well equipped with infrastructure for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so it needs to create opportunities in areas where occupational structure is expected to be affected. The United States says Moscow has deployed military jets to Libya to provide support for Russian mercenaries helping a local warlord battle the North African country's internationally recognized government. The Russian military aircraft flew to Libya via Syria, where they were repainted to disguise their identity, the U.S. Africa Command said in a statement on May 26. "For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now. We watched as Russia flew fourth-generation jet fighters to Libya -- every step of the way," said U.S. Army General Stephen Townsend, commander of AFRICOM. AFRICOM said the Russian jets had arrived in Libya recently. It did not say how many aircraft were transferred. Vagner Group, a private military contractor believed to be close to the Kremlin, has been helping Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's forces in their fight against the Government of National Accord (GNA). A UN report earlier this month estimated the number of Russian mercenaries at between 800 and 1,200. Moscow has denied the Russian state is responsible for any deployments. There was no immediate comment from Russia's Defense Ministry following the latest U.S. accusations. But Andrei Krasov, deputy head of the Defense Committee in the lower house of Russia's parliament, the State Duma, rejected the U.S. claim as "disinformation," according to the Interfax news agency. The United States posted 15 photographs of what it said were the Russian jets in Libya. Townsend said that neither Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) nor Vagner had the ability to operate and finance the jets without Russian government support. "Russia is clearly trying to tip the scales in its favor in Libya," he said. Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil war since a NATO-backed popular uprising ousted and killed the countrys longtime dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, in 2011. Haftar, who controls the eastern part of the country, is now seeking to capture the capital, Tripoli, and his LNA is battling GNA forces. The conflict has drawn in multiple regional actors, with Russia, France, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates backing Haftar's command. Turkey, which deployed troops, drones, and Syrian rebel mercenaries to Libya in January, supports the government in Tripoli, alongside Qatar and Italy. In a phone call with Libyan parliament speaker Aguila Saleh on May 26, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "there needs to be a constructive dialogue involving all the Libyan political forces" and "an immediate cease-fire," according to Russia's Foreign Ministry. Haftar and the GNA have held several rounds of peace talks in France, Italy, Russia, and Germany, but they have failed to reach an agreement to end the fighting. U.S. Air Force General Jeff Harrigian said that if Russia seized bases on Libya's coast, it could potentially deploy permanent capabilities to deny area access. "If that day comes, it will create very real security concerns on Europe's southern flank," he said. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro faces supporters as he leaves the official residence of Alvorada palace, in Brasilia, Brazil. (AP) Rio De Janeiro: With Brazil emerging as one of the worlds most infected countries,president Jair Bolsonaro is deflecting all responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, casting blame on mayors, governors, an outgoing health minister and the media. By contrast, he portrays himself as a clear-eyed crusader willing to defend an unpopular idea that shutting down the economy to control COVID-19 will ultimately cause more suffering than allowing the disease to run its course. The refusal of governors to fall into line with his decree allowing gyms to open, he said, verged on authoritarianism. Confronted with a travel ban imposed on Brazil by the U.S. because of widespread COVID-19, one of his advisers called it press hysteria. Since the outbreak started, the Brazilian leader has avoided acknowledging the potential effects of his actions, particularly in undermining local leaders stay-at-home recommendations. A rare exception came in mid-April, as Bolsonaro appointed a new health minister tasked with sparing the economy from the coronavirus. Reopening commerce is a risk I run because, if it (the virus) gets worse, then it lands in my lap, he said. Less than two weeks later, as Brazils death toll blew past 5,000, he told reporters, Youre not going to put on my lap this count that isnt mine. Almost a month on, the death toll in the country of 211 million has more than quadrupled, to 23,473, and continues to accelerate. The Brazilian Supreme Court determined that states and cities have jurisdiction to impose isolation measures. So Bolsonaro on May 7 walked purposefully across the capitals Three Powers Plaza to the top court, a tight cluster of ministers and business leaders in tow, and demanded local restrictions be tempered. Some states went too far in their restrictive measures, and the consequences are knocking on our door, he said, adding that tens of millions of Brazilians have lost their income. He has repeatedly singled out some local leaders by name. When governors defied Bolsonaros subsequent decree that gyms, barbershops and beauty salons be allowed to operate as essential services, he accused them of undermining the rule of law and suggested the move would invite undesirable authoritarianism to emerge in Brazil. On Saturday night, Bolsonaro ventured into the capital of Brasilia to lead by example, this time eating a hot dog bought from a street vendor. Video he posted to Facebook showed supporters snapping selfies and calling him by his nickname Myth! while those in self-quarantine in overlooking apartments banged pots and pans in protest. A May 17-18 poll by XP/Ipespe found 58% of those surveyed rated Bolsonaros pandemic response as bad or terrible, and only 21% as good or excellent. Governors fared more than twice as well in both counts. The poll had a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points. Latin Americas largest nation has confirmed about 375,000 COVID-19 cases, more than any nation except the U.S., and experts say that figure is a significant undercount due to insufficient testing. The strain on Brazils underfunded hospitals has pushed them to the brink of collapse in multiple states and prevents some patients from getting treatment. Havoc and heartache are unfolding beneath a void of leadership, according to Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazils Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials. Two health ministers have left office during the pandemic, making Brazil the worlds only nation that can claim such distinction, he said. Brazil is completely incapable of dealing with and responding to this crisis as this crisis should be responded to with complete leadership, clear messages, political stability and unity, Lago said. Thats not the case here. Basically, what were seeing is a complete lack of seriousness and competence. The far-right leader fired his first health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, for supporting governors restrictions. In his departing address, Mandetta referred to Bolsonaro in what he later confirmed to magazine Epoca was an allusion to the Albert Camus book The Plague. The novel about a diseased city includes a passage that says those who did not believe in the plague were first to die because they took no precautions. Bolsonaros second minister, Nelson Teich, resigned about a month later after openly disagreeing with Bolsonaro over chloroquine, the predecessor of the anti-malarial often touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a viable treatment. Bolsonaro in his 17-month tenure has often expressed open admiration for Trump and the U.S. Trump would have to fire his governments top expert on the virus and the experts successor, attend anti-pandemic rallies and expand chloroquine treatment to approach the level of crisis incompetence shown by Bolsonaro, Ian Bremmer, the president of political consultancy Eurasia Group, said on Twitter this month. Weeks after praising chloroquine and directing the Army to ramp up production, Bolsonaro admitted last week that there is no scientific evidence of its effectiveness, but said the nation is at war, and it is better to fight and lose than not fight at all. The country still has only an interim health minister: a general with no health experience whatsoever before April. In the capital on Sunday, pro-Bolsonaro supporters staged a small demonstration in front of the presidential palace, as they have for several weeks. Bolsonaro joined and once again lifted children in his arms. He shared a video from a helicopter flyover of the demonstration that revealed a sparsely occupied plaza. There were perhaps 1,000 people in attendance, in a city of 3 million. One banner read Lockdowns kill more than the Chinese virus!!! That same day, Trump prohibited entry to the U.S. of foreigners coming from Brazil. Trump had already banned certain travellers from China, Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Iran. He has not moved to ban travel from Russia, which has the worlds third-highest number of infections. Bolsonaros special adviser on international affairs, Filipe Martins, tweeted that the ban was the natural result of Brazils large population. There isnt anything specifically against Brazil. Ignore the hysteria from the press, he said. Bolsonaro shared Martins comment on social media but has not commented on himself. Upon leaving the presidential residence Monday morning, Bolsonaro declined to answer reporters questions. One supporter grabbed his attention, and she begged him to launch a massive publicity campaign to improve his negative image abroad. The global press is leftist, Bolsonaro explained coolly, then outstretched his arm fully to point at journalists. After Bolsonaro got into his car, his supporters turned toward reporters, blasting them as trash and communists, making obscene gestures and threats. Mainstream media outlets Globo and Folha de S.Paulo later announced they would stop covering Bolsonaros informal press conferences outside the residence due to concern for their journalists safety. Melissa Leong was noticeably absent during Monday night's episode of MasterChef. The Back To Win judge returned on Tuesday, after taking the night off due to a bout of sinusitis. While many fans were excited to see their new favourite judge return, others were simply mesmerised by her most dramatic accessories to date. 'She's back and her earrings are fabulous!' On Tuesday, judge Melissa Leong (pictured) returned to MasterChef Australia and fans rejoiced 'Melissa is back with a vengeance. Earrings girl,' one fan wrote. Another wrote: 'Melissa is back and she lookin' boss as usual.' 'Oh I'm so happy Melissa's back,' a third commented, while a fourth rejoiced: 'Melissa is back and her earrings are fabulous.' 'Also hello Melissa, and Melissa's earrings. I've missed you both,' another joked. 'Thank goodness she's back!' Judge Melissa Leong (and her bold earrings) have won Masterchef Australia fans over However, some fans appeared a little overwhelmed by Melissa's taste in extravagant, eye-catching jewellery. One fan asked: 'What Aztec or Mayan temple did Melissa find her earrings in?' 'Can't even pay attention to the challenge tonight because of THOSE earrings,' another joked. 'Melissa's earrings are the size of dinner plates!' While many fans were excited to see their new favourite judge return, others were simply mesmerised by her dramatic accessories 'Melissa's earrings are the size of dinner plates! OMG She rocks them though,' commented another fan. Another added: 'I think Mel's earrings need their own show.' Melissa was noticeably absent on Monday, but the 38-year-old old quickly explained her absence with an Instagram post, revealing she had fallen ill with a bout of sinusitis and due to the show's new COVID-19 safety measures, a doctor had to clear her before she returned to set. MasterChef continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to extend the loan moratorium facility by another three months till August 31 could backfire on the microfinance industry as this could spoil the credit culture of even willing borrowers, a section of microlenders fear. The moratorium for the March-May period made perfect sense since everything was shut due to lockdown. But now that most of the activities are back to normalcy and payments are slowly getting normalised, this extension was not needed and could even prove to be counter-productive to the sector, said Kishor Kumar Puli, Managing Director and CEO of Pradakshina Fintech, an NBFC based in Hyderabad. Puli was earlier running an MFI called Trident Microfinance. Since most borrowers of MFIs are from low-income segments, it is difficult to restore the credit culture once the payments go off the track, Puli said. In 2010, during the Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis, the sector had witnessed a significant deterioration in credit culture. That time, local politicians had encouraged borrowers to stop repayments to MFIs. Last Friday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had announced an extension of the moratorium scheme by another three months in the context of the economic environment. Das also announced a few more measures to make liquidity available in the banking system and push credit to industries. These include permission to lending institutions to convert the accumulated interest on working capital facilities over the total EMI deferment period of six months into a funded interest term loan, hiking the group exposure limit to 30 percent from 25 percent for enabling corporates to meet their funding requirements from banks, relaxing export credit rules and permission for Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to roll over Rs 15,000 crore refinance beyond the earlier permitted 90 days. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Microfinance institutions are slowly limping back to activity after a two-month-long lockdown. Most MFIs have seen their collections improving over the last one week as borrowers are getting back to normal business activities following lockdown relaxation in states. We are getting reports of collections picking up in most places. Most of MFI borrowers are people running small businesses like local Kirana stores or vegetable shops. These shops have begun to function normally in most places, said P Satish, executive director of Sadhan, an organisation of microlenders. MFIs are institutions which lend small-ticket loans to low-income borrowers for 20-22 percent for 18-24 months. Till December, all MFIs including NBFCs and not-for-profits have a total loan outstanding of Rs 1,05000 crore to 56 million borrowers. MFIs typically borrow from banks and other NBFCs to onlend to their customers. The lockdown had made it difficult for MFIs to do collections from borrowers. MFIs typically collect payments in cash on a weekly basis. Back-to-back moratorium Also, MFIs are concerned whether banks will follow the RBI cues and extend the moratorium to microlenders while MFIs give the same to their borrowers. In the last round, banks were hesitant to give moratorium on our payments but later they agreed following RBI intervention. This time we will have to see how banks respond, said Satish. According to him, MFIs are yet to get moratorium from SIDBI and Mudra. Banks agreed to give moratorium to NBFCs after multiple meetings with the RBI top brass. Although banks have started giving moratorium to MFIs, they are doing it only on a case-to-case basis to microlenders. This would mean that even when MFIs face a drastic fall in collections, they need to keep paying back to banks. After the RBI has extended the moratorium facility, MFIs have begun writing to banks seeking the moratorium facility. Banks are yet to respond. Australia's New Century Resources is in exclusive talks with Brazilian mining giant Vale to take over its troubled nickel and cobalt mine in New Caledonia under a proposed deal that contains a financial contribution from Vale and possible support from the French government. New Century chief executive Patrick Walta said the company had entered into a 60-day exclusivity period to negotiate the acquisition of a 95 per cent ownership stake in Vale's Goro mine in the south-west Pacific nation, which has been plagued by problems, delays and cost blow-outs for Vale since mining operations began there in 2011. New Century boss Patrick Walta. Credit:Eddie Jim Under the proposed deal, Melbourne-based New Century would be effectively paid to take ownership of the Goro mine, with the value of financial contributions from Vale and the potential forgiveness of debts from the French state estimated to be in the vicinity of $1 billion. Mr Walta would not discuss the terms of the confidential deal but told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald he was confident in the prospects of the mine, especially once the asset was simplified following the removal of the on-site nickel oxide refinery, the cause of some of the mine's troubles. Crime Patrol actor Preksha Mehta has passed away at the age of 25. The actor committed suicide at her residence in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. As per media reports, Preksha Mehta hanged herself from the ceiling of the fan on May 25, 2020. Preksha Mehtas body was found by her family members, the next day. Reports also suggest that the actor has left a suicide note, however, the content of the note have not been disclosed yet. The suicide note reportedly doesnt contain the reason of her taking his harsh step. Preksha Mehta reportedly was suffering from depression due to no work amid the Coronavirus pandemic. To stay with her family amid this crisis the actor reportedly had returned to her hometown. As per media reports, her last message on Instagram was Sabse bura hota hai, Sapno Ka Mar jaana. ALSO READ| 'Crime Patrol' Actor Shafique Ansari Passes Away After Battling Cancer The news of her demise was confirmed by one of her closest friends Richa Tiwari, who is also an actor. Taking to Instagram, Richa shared a picture of Preksha Mehta and wrote a heartfelt note for her. The note says how there are many secrets hidden behind a smile. Richa Tiwari added how many people do not understand if someone is actually happy when they smile. ALSO READ| Couple Commits Suicide In UP's Badaun She further mentions how Preksha Mehtas last status was Nothing is worse than the death of someones dream. Richa Tiwari concluded her note saying how mental health awareness should be provided to everyone along with physical health. She expressed how deeply saddened she is because of the incident saying that she has lost a family member. Have a look at the post shared by Richa Tiwari here: ALSO READ| Releasing Director's Cut Of 'Suicide Squad' Would Be 'incredibly Cathartic': David Ayer About Preksha Mehtas professional Career Preksha Mehta began her acting career at quite a young age as a theatre artist. In the year 2017, Preksha starred in the Star Pluss television show Meri Durga. In the same year, she appeared on Sony Tvs crime show namely Crime Patrol. She appeared on the show frequently playing supporting characters. Not only that, but Preksha Mehta also essayed the role of Chidiya in the 2018 Bollywood movie Sakha. ALSO READ| 'Suicide Squad' Director David Ayer Says It's Not His Call As #ReleaseTheAyerCut Trends (Promo Image Source: Preksha Mehta Instagram) Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. Known as Chinas 'Batwoman', the Deputy Director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the first-known person of the lot to discover the gene sequence for COVID-19 has issued a spine-chilling statement that viruses that are now being discovered are just the tip of the iceberg. She further called for international support in the fight against future epidemics that could be as dangerous as COVID-19. Shutterstock Shi Zhengli or the 'Batwoman' was given the title after years of virus-hunting ventures in caves in search of bats particularly. In fact, she too advocates that the common animal trade of bats, civets, among other wildlife stock in China clearly led to an exposure of all these viruses to humans and their potential outcomes like COVID-19. Shutterstock As China exercises censorship even on biology today, in an attempt to only get state-approved reports on COVID-19 out open in the world to maintain state-sanctioned narrative. Things weren't so strict in science academia a few years ago. This is when she had co-authored a paper that contained a public warning that the SARS virus outbreak heralded a new era in the cross-species transmission of severe respiratory illness with globalisation leading to rapid spread around the world and massive economic impact. Shutterstock Although public health measures were able to stop the SARS-CoV outbreak, recent metagenomics studies have identified sequences of closely related SARS-like viruses circulating in Chinese bat populations that may pose a future threat," the paper added. Shutterstock Now, she says, that other outbreaks are far more likely given the circumstances in China. The report hints towards the risks of China's wet markets as they continue to function even today. It said: "Chinese food culture maintains that live slaughtered animals are more nutritious, and this belief may enhance viral transmission." Shutterstock If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious-disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings, Shi Zhengli told CGTN in an interview. Coincidentally, the Wuhan lab where Shi works happens to be the lab that is suspected of having accidentally leaked the virus on humans. Since there is no concrete evidence, one only assumes what must have happened at this point. Dr. Shi further insists that the possibility of the virus originating from her lab doesn't exist, as the genetic code of COVID-19 does not match the coronaviruses her team was working on and yet the lab has time and again failed to provide the sequences that they have been working on as evidence. We believe, that at some point China will have to open gates for some sort of investigation if they want better relations with other countries. Across the world, as the novel coronavirus pandemic spreads, country after country has wrestled with how to respond. Borders have been closed. Businesses are shuttered. Neighbors are distanced. But what about the plight of those who are nationless? And those who have no safe place to go? They are the most vulnerable to the pandemics spread and the least able to fight against it. But they also have the most to teach us about how to weather this crisis. The refugees resettled among us have already experienced the challenges that Americans are newly facing: the unexpected disruption of daily life, constant anxiety and lack of basic necessities. Lets seek guidance from their example and, in return, acknowledge how much theyve already given us. First and foremost, refugees can teach us resilience. So many of them have retained a fighting spirit, despite living through the unthinkable. Liliana Lemani, who has lived in Kansas City since 2017, spent 12 years in a Namibian refugee camp. In her native Democratic Republic of Congo, she had been beaten. Her infant daughter was killed in front of her. Her husband was brutalized. The family was homeless and without food. Yet they persevered, arriving in the United States in 2017 and starting anew in Kansas City. Lemani secured a small business grant and opened her own sewing business, creating garments from African cloth. She has embraced educational opportunities and now speaks seven languages and sells her clothes nationwide. Her story is not an outlier. Rates of entrepreneurship for refugees surpass those of native-born Americans, according the bipartisan nonprofit, New American Economy. Statistics from the organization show that, as of 2015, 13% of refugees resettled in the U.S. had started their own businesses. The rate of American entrepreneurship in the same period was just 9%. If refugees can find financial stability and success after tragedy, Americans can certainly do the same after the pandemic. Second, refugees continuously help those in need despite having very little themselves. As founder of the nonprofit KC for Refugees and as a family physician in Kansas City, I have seen countless refugee families share resources and expertise, and lend a helping hand. Kansas City resident Abdul Bakar, who once fled Somalia and came here as a refugee, is now delivering food to the elderly who live alone, checking on the vulnerable and providing whatever help he can since the pandemic started. Despite his diabetes, hes helping out, wearing a mask and gloves as he provides support. Hes one of many such examples. Refugee community leaders are delivering food baskets, paying utility bills and chipping in to pay rent for those whove lost jobs in Kansas City. Nationwide, many refugees are also on the pandemic front lines. In 2018, according to New American Economy, 15.6% of refugees worked in health care, the populations second most popular profession. More than a fifth are personal care aides, and 14.2% are registered nurses. More than 11% are nursing assistants and 8.2% are physicians. Refugees who are newly resettled and just getting a foothold in the country are also more likely to work in service, factory and warehouse jobs that put them at high risk of infection. They are also much younger as a group than the general population, so are more likely to be working. Thats certainly true here in Missouri, which will soon have a greater percentage of adults over 65 than the national average. We need them now, but we will certainly need them even more in the future. As the pandemic continues to spread, we cannot forget the packed refugee camps that are most at risk. I urge Americans to donate to relief organizations that are providing testing kits and personal protective equipment to those who are stateless after fleeing. But I also urge us to remember the refugees who have resettled in our communities. Their experience, wisdom and capabilities can guide us through these trials. In return, lets acknowledge all they have done and will continue to do for their adopted country. Our borders may be closed, but we can still open our hearts. Dr. Sofia Khan is the founder of KC for Refugees and a recipient of the 2016 Peace Award from the Crescent Peace Society. She practices medicine in Kansas City. President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that Hong Kong's role as a global financial center would be put at risk of China insists on imposing a strict political crackdown as his administrations offered to pay to relocate Hong Kong firms to the U.S. Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow made the offer in comments about moving costs Tuesday amid tense political moves that could strip away some of the island's political autonomy. Kudlow said the United States would welcome back any U.S. companies in Hong Kong or on China's mainland. President Donald Trump is 'displeased' with China's moves to impose a new security law in Hong Kong and said it could threaten Hong Kong's status as a 'financial hub' 'We will do what we can for full expensing and pay the cost of moving if they return their supply chains and their production to the United States,' he said. U.S. companies have spent decades setting up in China in order to gain access to the huge Chinese market. The president, who regularly touts his good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, also weighed in with some new rhetoric, delivered through his press secretary. 'He said to me that he's displeased with China's efforts and that it's hard to see how Hong Kong remain a financial hub if China takes over,' McEnany said at a White House press briefing Tuesday. She was asked about the crackdown at a press briefing, as top Trump economic advisor called Beijing's actions 'very disturbing.' Riot police stand on guard in the middle of the Causeway Bay area during the the protest. Violence, arrests and use of water cannon returned to Hong Kong streets with hundreds of protesters marching in Hong Kong Island against China's plans to impose a national security law. Rioters resume protests against National security law in Hong Kong, China - 24 May 2020 Hong Kong police arrests a protester during demonstrations against the draft bill. Hong Kong police fired teargas and pepper spray onto demonstrators after thousands took to the streets in Causeway Bay protesting against Beijing? declaration that it intends to impose national security laws 'He said to me that he's displeased with China's efforts and that it's hard to see how Hong Kong remain a financial hub if China takes over,' said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany A woman wearing a face mask is reflected on an electronic foreign currency exchange rates in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 25, 2020. Asian shares are mostly higher, with Tokyo stocks gaining on expectations that a pandemic state of emergency will be lifted for all of Japan. But shares fell in Hong Kong on Monday after police used tear gas to quell weekend protests over a proposed national security bill for the former British colony People cross a road in the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay of Hong Kong on May 23, 2020. A proposal to enact new Hong Kong security legislation was submitted to China's rubber-stamp in Beijing on May 22, state media said, a move expected to fan fresh protests in the semi-autonomous financial hub Cadets from Hong Kong Police Academy perform daily ritual of Flag Raising Ceremony at the Golden Bauhinia Square in the morning.May-26,2020 Hong Kong It suggested the U.S. may seek to punish China on the trade front while also acknowledging such a move could also set back Hong Kong, where China is seeking to squelch a longstanding independence movement. Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow said early Tuesday China was making 'a big mistake' with planned national security legislation on Hong Kong and pledged Washington would pay expenses of U.S. firms that wanted to shift operations from the territory or China. Kudlow, speaking to Fox News Channel, called Beijing's actions toward Hong Kong 'very disturbing.' 'China is making a big mistake, frankly,' he told Fox Business Network separately. Beijing's proposed security law would reduce the territory's separate legal status. China's parliament is expected to approve it by Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is due to release a congressionally mandated assessment on whether Hong Kong enjoys sufficient autonomy to justify continued U.S. special economic treatment, said last week the legislation would be the 'death knell' for its autonomy. Trump has warned of a strong reaction and national security adviser Robert O'Brien said the legislation could lead to U.S. sanctions and threaten Hong Kong's status as a financial hub. Kudlow also said that while Trump's 'Phase 1' trade deal with China reached in January was intact for now, the president was so 'miffed' with Beijing over the novel coronavirus and other matters it was not as important to him as it once was. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbying group urged Beijing to de-escalate the situation, saying it would be 'a serious mistake' to jeopardize Hong Kong's special status. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann, Lisa Lambert, Daphne Psaledakis and David Brunnstrom; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; writing by David Brunnstrom; editing by Jonathan Oatis) Minn. allows all churches to reopen after Catholics, Lutherans threaten to defy orders Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Days after Minnesotas Catholic and Lutheran churches publicly declared they would defy Gov. Tim Walzs order restricting in-person services to not more than 10 people, the state has announced it's lifting that limitation to let larger groups gather for worship beginning Wednesday. At a press briefing Saturday, Gov. Walz announced that churches will be able to hold services starting Wednesday if they follow social distancing guidelines and limit the gatherings to not more than 25% of a buildings capacity, MinnPost reported. The governor has recognized that churches can reopen safely and carefully in the same way as malls and other business operations, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which along with Sidley Austin LLP had written to Waltz about his pervious order violating the First Amendment, said in a statement Saturday. Last Wednesday, The Minnesota Catholic Conference and The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod had also sent separate letters to the governor saying they would defy the reopening order. We were disappointed to find that instead, you allowed retail and other non-critical businesses to open, setting a plan in place for bars and restaurants to reopen while limiting churches to meetings of [10] people or fewer, the Lutheran body wrote in the letter. In the absence of a timeline or any other assurances that churches will soon be able to reopen, we find that we must move forward with our religious exercise in a safe manner. After the governors change of mind following a meeting with church leaders, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis expressed gratitude. We are grateful that Governor Walz entered into respectful dialogue with us, recognized the spiritual needs of our faithful, and agreed that it is possible to resume worship services safely and responsibly, Hebda said. Hopefully, our experience of constructive dialogue can serve as a roadmap for churches across the country suffering from similar inequities, whether intended or unintended, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rev. Dr. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod, said the ability to meet responsibly in person to worship God and support one another is invaluable to our community of faith. He continued: We cherish the churchs stewardship of the gospel and sacraments that enables Christians to live out their daily vocations as citizens contributing to the public good and serving their neighbors in love. We are grateful that Minnesota decided to reopen churches, without needing to resort to legal action. We will remain prayerful and watchful, so that this agreement is just the beginning of a return to full, safe and responsible, in-person worship. On Friday, President Trump spoke to the Center for Disease Control about releasing guidance for reopening houses of worship as essential operations. At a press conference, Trump said, At my direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance for communities of faith. Im identifying houses of worship churches, synagogues and mosques as essential places that provide essential services. Trump also said he plans to override governors who are not allowing churches to reopen. Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship thats not right. So Im correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. A total of 428 domestic passenger flights operated on Monday, clarified the on Tuesday, hours after Civil Aviation Minister said 832 flights operated on the day. An excel sheet issued by the ministry on Tuesday evening stated that 428 domestic flights carrying 30,550 passengers departed for their destinations on Monday. It also showed 404 of the 428 flights arrived at their destinations on Monday itself. Remaining 28 flights reached their destinations on Tuesday (after midnight) after departing from their origin city on Monday (just before midnight). The ministry's clarification came on Tuesday after Puri said on Twitter, "Airports are abuzz and passengers are back in the air. 58,318 passengers flew to their destinations on 832 flights on the first day, 25th May till midnight." A departure is considered as one "flight". Puri had quoted the 832 "flight movements" - which is a sum of departures (428 in this case) and arrivals (404 in this case) - of Monday as "flights". Meanwhile, the figures shared by the ministry through the excel sheet on the total number of Monday's flights were lower than the figures shared by Puri on Monday evening. On Monday evening, Puri had said on Twitter, "From no domestic passenger flights yesterday to 532 flights and 39,231 passengers today, action has returned to Indian skies." IndiGo, India's largest carrier that had around 50 per cent share in the domestic market in the pre- era, said on Monday it is operating just above 200 flights per day till May-end. Vistara said on Tuesday it operated 20 flights on Monday. Air India officials said they operated approximately 60 flights on Monday. All carriers except GoAir operated their flights on Monday and Tuesday. On the night of May 24, the central government announced that there will be no domestic flights in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh on Monday and major airports like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad will handle a reduced number of flights from Monday onwards. The airlines, which were allowed to operate one-third of their pre- domestic services from May 25, had to further truncate their flight schedules on Sunday night leading to cancellations. After a two-month suspension due to the pandemic, domestic flights resumed in India on Monday. International scheduled commercial passenger flights remain suspended in India. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday hit back at BJP MP Narayan Rane's demand for President's rule in Maharashtra, saying Gujarat's performance in handling the COVID-19 crisis is "worse", hence it deserves to be put under the central rule first. Without specifying any party or leader, Raut said the opposition should get "quarantined", and that their efforts to destabilise the Maharashtra government could boomerang. However, senior BJP leader and former minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said though the COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra is "grim", it does not qualify for President's rule. For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here Rane, who is the Rajya Sabha member, on Monday met Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari and demanded imposition of President's rule in view of the Shiv Sena-led state government's "failure" in tackling the pandemic. Reacting to it, Raut said, "If you go by the Gujarat High Courts strictures on tackling the COVID-19 crisis, the states performance is worse compared to Maharashtra." "If the Presidents rule has to be imposed, the Centre should start with Gujarat first," Raut told reporters. He also dismissed speculations over the 'stability' of the three-party (Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) alliance government in Maharashtra. CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH "It is better that the opposition should get quarantined. Their efforts to destabilise the Maharashtra government could boomerang. The opposition is yet to find a formula to bring down this government," the Sena's Rajya Sabha member said. On NCP chief Sharad Pawars meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday, Raut said, Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought advice from Pawar. There should be no objection to Pawar making any suggestions or discussing issues with Thackeray." Meanwhile, Mungantiwar said the opposition BJP in Maharashtra is not of the opinion that President's rule should be imposed in the state. "The situation in Maharashtra is grim, but it does not qualify for Presidents rule. We feel the current state government is not serious enough to tackle the situation, the BJP leader told a news channel. There are enough resources with Maharashtra to contain the coronavirus spread, but the state government is "not making enough efforts," he claimed. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 18:42:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia on Tuesday received 1 million yuan (about 140,100 U.S. dollars) worth of medical supplies from China's Ministry of National Defense in the fight against COVID-19. The medical supplies included masks and protective suits, according to the Mongolian Defense Ministry. "It is gratifying to note that as a result of joint efforts of the Mongolian government and people, Mongolia has succeeded in preventing local transmission of COVID-19," Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui said in a speech during the handover ceremony of the donation. "Earlier this year, the Mongolian government and people, including the defense ministry and armed forces, extended a helping hand to the Chinese people during a difficult time when the pandemic was imminent. This has demonstrated the deep cooperation and friendly relations between armed forces of Mongolia and China," said Chai. "The Central Military Hospital of Mongolia has been playing an important role in preventing and fighting COVID-19. I am happy to receive the much-needed prevention supplies for workers of the hospital," Mongolian Defense Minister Nyamaa Enkhbold said, expressing his deep gratitude to the Chinese side. As of Tuesday, Mongolia has confirmed 141 COVID-19 cases, including four non-nationals. All the confirmed cases were imported. There have been no local transmissions or deaths reported in Mongolia so far. Enditem A group of researchers from Russia and France has demonstrated how stem cells in the lungs can be readily infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), leading to significant defects in their regeneration capacity and more severe coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Their manuscript is currently available on the preprint server bioRxiv*. The emergence of a novel human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 has turned into a global health concern since its spread is facilitated via droplets, as well as by contaminated hands or surfaces. Unlike endemic/seasonal human coronaviruses, we are now fully aware of how SARS-CoV-2 can sneak into the lower respiratory tract and give rise to a severe respiratory failure with high case fatality rates. Consequently, COVID-19 develops due to the infection of epithelial cells found within the two major compartments of the lungs: the conducting airways that warm and cleans the inspired air and the gas-exchanging alveoli that are basically the workhorses of our respiratory tract. Both the conducting airway and alveolar epithelial cells are specified by relatively slow renewal; however, the pool of cells can be swiftly reconstituted by multipotent stem cells following the infection, injury, or inflammation all commonly observed in respiratory diseases. How SARS-CoV-2 enters the cell The entry of coronaviruses into human cells depends on the binding of the viral spike proteins (S-proteins) to cellular receptors, as well as on S-protein priming by host cell proteases. SARS-CoV-2 uses angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for cell entry, which is found throughout the lungs, but predominantly concentrated in type II alveolar cells. Furthermore, TMPRSS2 and FURIN proteases are used for S-protein priming. SARS-CoV-2 viruses binding to ACE-2 receptors on a human cell, the initial stage of COVID-19 infection, conceptual 3D illustration credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock The expression of the aforementioned SARS-CoV-2 entry factors can be analyzed in detail by using publicly available RNA-seq datasets. In short, RNA-seq technology represents a sequencing technique that employs next-generation sequencing (NGS) to reveal and quantify RNA in biological samples. In order to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 can also infect lung stem cells, researchers from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Universite Paris-Saclay in France analyzed the expression of viral entry factors in different epithelial stem cells by utilizing publicly available RNA-seq data. Cell expression in mice and men Albeit SARS-CoV-2 can infect lung cells and instigate severe respiratory failure, this distinguishing characteristic of COVID-19 is at odds with recent reports based on single-cell RNA sequencing. The latter indicates that merely a small fraction of epithelial cells in the lower respiratory tract express SARS-CoV-2 entry factors. This is why study authors reanalyzed the data in these studies in order to detect ACE2-expressing cells. Due to the limited data on lung stem cells in humans, the researchers turned their attention to the data from mice. Nonetheless, the pattern of SARS-CoV-2 entry factor expression in different human and mouse epithelial cells is highly similar, implying that mice datasets can be objectively used for the analysis of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors in humans. The expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors was analyzed only in basal, club, and ciliated cells, because the number of other types of cells in the full-length scRNA-seq dataset was exceptionally low. Slow recovery of lung epithelium in COVID-19 "We demonstrated that different lung epithelial stem cells expressed SARS-CoV-2 entry factors and thus could be infected by SARS-CoV-2", study researchers explain their main discovery in a paper currently available on bioRxiv preprint server. "This ability may account for the slow reconstitution of the lung epithelium during and after SARS-CoV-2 infection and may partially explain the severity of the disease", they add. The authors also proposed that the expression of ACE2 and other SARS-CoV-2 entry factors might be underestimated as a result of 'drop-out' events - i.e. when a gene is detected in one cell but not in another one. This usually occurs due to extremely low mRNA input, as well as the stochastic nature of gene expression. "The expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry factors may be a general feature of lung stem cells, making these cells probable targets of SARS-CoV infection in humans", emphasize study authors. Therefore, the infection of stem cells, followed by their loss, can give rise to a decreased capacity for epithelial regeneration of the lung, which could, in turn, serve as a determinant of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity. Some researchers have already highlighted the efficacy of stem cells in the treatment of severe respiratory issues tied to COVID-19. Findings in this paper may bring us one step closer to the targeted treatment of this severe viral disease. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian police targeted a staunch opponent of President Jair Bolsonaros push to lift measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in one of the worlds disease hot spots, searching the residence of the Rio de Janeiro state governor on Tuesday. The federal prosecutors office said in a statement that Gov. Wilson Witzel, a former federal judge, was personally targeted by the 12 search and seizure warrants in Rio and Sao Paulo states. An ongoing investigation pointed to irregularities in contracts awarded for the construction of emergency field hospitals in Rio, and involved health officials, police said in a statement. Witzel has promised eight emergency field hospitals, but only one, near the Maracana football stadium, has opened. Witzel expressed indignation at what he called an act of violence against the democratic state, and accused the president of being behind the operation. An act of political persecution is beginning in this country, Witzel told reporters. What happened to me will happen to other governors considered to be enemies. While Brazil becomes the new global epicenter for the pandemic, Brazils federal and state governments remain at odds over how best to confront the virus. Bolsonaro has openly challenged many governors measures for containing the virus spread, with Witzel a primary target. The Brazilian leader has accused governors of inciting panic among the population with what he claims are excessive stay-at-home recommendations and restrictions on commerce that he says will wreck the economy and produce worse hardship than the virus. Bolsonaro, for his part, has been accused of attempting to improperly meddle with the federal police for political or personal ends, a claim made by former Justice Minister Sergio Moro when he resigned last month. Moro has said Bolsonaro told him on multiple occasions that he wanted to replace the head of the federal police with someone who could facilitate access to investigations and intelligence reports allegations at the heart of an investigation the Supreme Court authorized on April 27. The presidents communications director, Fabio Wajngarten, said on Twitter that Witzel was trying to misrepresent the facts by accusing Bolsonaro of using federal police against his opponents. Carla Zambelli, a federal lawmaker who is close to the president, said in an interview Monday with Radio Gaucha that the federal police force was investigating governors for crimes related to coronavirus contracts. While she didnt say which governors were being investigated, Witzel pointed to comments from lawmakers aligned with Bolsonaro as evidence there had been a leak and an attempt to build a narrative that will never be confirmed. Bolsonaro, speaking in the capital Brasilia, denied any prior knowledge of Tuesdays raid. I learned about it now, Bolsonaro told reporters. Congratulations to the federal police. On May 14, federal prosecutors launched a separate operation looking at the states COVID-19 response, serving 25 search and arrest warrants in Rio and neighbouring Minas Gerais states. Federal prosecutors said then that a group of businessmen had sought to take advantage of the new coronavirus pandemic and diverted some 3.95 million reais (over $725,000) in public resources through contracts for the construction of field hospitals. Rio is one of the states most affected by COVID-19, with more than 4,000 deaths and almost 40,000 confirmed cases. Brazil has recorded nearly 375,000 cases, second only to the United States, and nearly 23,500 deaths, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. The fragility of the health system and trouble implementing quarantine measures have caused many deaths, said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. The political crisis between the federal and state governments only strengthens the human drama in the pandemic __ AP photographer Eraldo Peres contributed to this report from Brasilia. The national average ACT score is 20.7, our state average is 18.9, and the average score at our local district is 21.0. As far as college admission is concerned, for the vast majority of high school students and colleges the standard test scores play very little role. The test scores are most valuable when applying for merit scholarships. The question is how many students in this forum are taking advantage of their perfect or close to perfect scores? The letter, which appeared on the website of the Atlantic Council, did not specify what prompted concern among the former ambassadors. But John Herbst, the U.S. envoy to Kyiv from 2003 to 2006 and now director of the think tanks Eurasia Center, said it was motivated by leaked recordings of years-old phone conversations between then-Vice President Joe Biden and Petro Poroshenko, Ukraines president at the time. The research, which was conducted prior to the Coronavirus outbreak amongst 774 financial institutions and banks across the US, UK, Singapore, France, Germany, Hong Kong and UAE 1 , shows a maturity of API adoption and calls for the harmonization of regulations between geographies. Key findings include: Open banking is on the up in 2020 compared to 2019 2 : The percentage of financial institutions looking to leverage open APIs has substantially increased in the US (+23%) and UK (+17%), while Singapore (+1%), France (-1%) and Germany (-4%) are relatively stagnant since our research in 2019. The percentage of financial institutions looking to leverage open APIs has substantially increased in the US (+23%) and UK (+17%), while (+1%), (-1%) and (-4%) are relatively stagnant since our research in 2019. Improvements in the overall customer experience accelerate API adoption : The US (45%), Hong Kong (42%) and France (36%) are leading the way in harvesting this benefit of Open APIs (UAE: 32%; Germany : 20%; Singapore : 20%; UK: 19%). Overall, 41% of global banks say that they are 'still in the early stages of adoption', so it's difficult to measure the impact of Open Banking on their business so far. : The US (45%), (42%) and (36%) are leading the way in harvesting this benefit of Open APIs (UAE: 32%; : 20%; : 20%; UK: 19%). Overall, 41% of global banks say that they are 'still in the early stages of adoption', so it's difficult to measure the impact of Open Banking on their business so far. Regulation is perceived to be tighter than a year ago and industry or government support is required to foster innovation: Almost half of those audited believe that regulations are holding back innovation. 48% state that 'regulation is too tight' - 10% more than 2019 - and the same percentage (48%) believe there is 'not enough government or industry support to foster innovation', particularly so in Hong Kong (62%), France (50%) and Singapore (49%), compared to 38% in the UK. Almost half of those audited believe that regulations are holding back innovation. 48% state that 'regulation is too tight' - 10% more than 2019 - and the same percentage (48%) believe there is 'not enough government or industry support to foster innovation', particularly so in (62%), (50%) and (49%), compared to 38% in the UK. A call for harmonization: 83% of financial institutions and banks agree that regulations regarding fintech innovation should be harmonized across different geographies. 83% of financial institutions and banks agree that regulations regarding fintech innovation should be harmonized across different geographies. Cost of fintech research and development is of concern in some regions: Cost of R&D in the US, UAE and APAC regions is highlighted, more so than in the UK. ( USA : 55%; Hong Kong : 55%; Singapore : 51%; UAE: 46%; France : 43%; Germany : 34%; UK: 33%). Simon Paris, CEO at Finastra said, "It's encouraging to see Open Banking maturing on a global scale, but it's still seen by many to be in its teenage years, with scope for creating even greater opportunities. We believe it will be the first step towards Open Finance which will see the next wave of innovation in financial services being created through collaboration on open platforms, like FusionFabric.cloud, using open APIs and open software solutions. "Currently banks and technology vendors are rightly focused on business continuity and keeping their workforces safe. We've also seen many of these firms moving with amazing pace to bring innovative solutions to market, with the help of technology, to support customers in this new environment. As we come through this situation together, we must endeavor to emerge stronger, and it will be interesting to see how Open Banking and collaboration accelerate when this outbreak ends." To see the findings summary report, click here Notes to editor: Research was conducted online at the end of January 2020 , amongst 774 financial institutions and banks across United States , UK, Singapore , France , Germany , Hong Kong and UAE. These financial institutions represent a gross total of just over USD$4.7 trillion in turnover over the last 12 months, employ over approximately 4.9 million staff and have approximately 110 million client/customer/member relationships. Comparative analysis was made from results from a similar survey run by Finastra in 2019 which was also conducted online in the UK, US, Singapore , France and Germany (March - May 2019 ). Definitions used in the survey: Open Banking: Open Banking is a series of reforms to make the banking sector more competitive. It brings changes to how banks handle their customers' financial information, putting control back in the hands of the customer. It means that customers can opt to share their financial information with authorized providers, to gain access to new services and innovation to help them manage their money better. Open application programming interfaces (open APIs): A computing interface to a software component or a system, that defines how other components or systems can use it. Aids open access for developers to build software. Fintech collaboration: The collaboration between financial institutions or banks with technology providers to help improve the customer experience while also reducing operational cost. About Finastra Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com For further information please contact: Caroline Duff Global Head of PR T +44(0)20-3320-5892 E [email protected] finastra.com SOURCE Finastra Related Links https://www.finastra.com/ The 2020 presidential election is less than five months away. While the news cycle is still dominated by the pandemic and the economic consequences of the lockdown, the public needs to learn more about what is at stake for U.S. foreign policy in the upcoming contest. The Trump administration has taken some high-profile and controversial positions in world affairs. Now the electorate deserves to know where the presumptive Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, stands on these matters. To date, no clear Democratic foreign policy platform has emerged. To make an informed choice in November, it is important for the public to gain insight into Bidens estimation of world affairs and his plans for the future of American foreign policy. A list of questions may help the candidate decide whether and how he intends to differentiate himself from President Trump. It is insufficient for candidate Biden simply to repeat that he used to be vice president and therefore has experience. He should instead tell us what he will do with that experience if he wins in November. Will he change our foreign policy? How? First and most importantly, we need to know how candidate Biden views China. Even before the pandemic, critical views on China were spreading -- a reaction against Chinas mistreatment of American firms, its military ambitions in the Pacific, and its human rights abuses domestically. Will Biden take steps to defend the autonomy of Hong Kong? What is his red line there? Would a Biden administration continue or reverse the Trump efforts to block the expansion of Chinese technology firm Huawei into sensitive security networks? Secondly, President Trump broke ground by engaging in direct talks with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in the hope of ratcheting down tensions in Northeast Asia and reaching a denuclearization agreement with North Korea. Would a President Biden speak directly with Kim? Third, with regard to Iran, President Trump chose to walk away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal on Iran's nuclear program, and has instead pursued a so-called maximum pressure campaign in response to Tehrans malign ambitions in the region, including its ballistic missile program. Would a Biden administration support the continuation of the arms embargo on Iran, due to expire in October? Will it continue the full sanctions regime? Or will it return to the Obama administrations practice of providing financial support to Tehran? Fourth, the Trump administration made good on a long-standing bipartisan American promise to move our embassy to Jerusalem. If he becomes president, will Biden maintain the American Embassy in Jerusalem, recognizing that city as the capital of the state of Israel? Will he also maintain the Trump administrations recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights? If he intends to undertake dramatic changes in these matters, the American electorate deserves to know. Fifth, the Trump administration has asked our European partners to carry their fair share of NATO costs by meeting their 2014 Wales Pledge commitment to spend 2% of their GDP on defense. Some countries are on track to reach that goal, but others are not. Notably, Germany is not only underspending but is scheduled to reduce its defense spending even further. Will a Biden administration continue to ask Europeans to cover more of the costs of their own defense, rather than expect American taxpayers to do so? Sixth, with regard to Russia, the Trump administration has faced years of accusations of proximity to Moscow, even though it has maintained a set of tight sanctions. Will a Biden administration be tougher on Russia? In what ways? Or will it take another shot at the sort of reset with Moscow undertaken when Biden was Vice President? Seventh, how will the Biden policy toward Latin America differ from President Trumps? Will a Democratic administration continue the pressure against the Maduro regime in Venezuela? Or will it reverse course on Cuba? Trump has succeeded in eliciting cooperation from Mexico to limit migration pressure. Is that policy consistent with the Biden vision, and if not, what changes would a Democratic administration carry out at the southern border? For the American electorate to evaluate the prospect of a Biden presidency, we need answers to these questions. All these topics have been widely debated. None should come as a surprise. We know where the Trump administration stands. It is time for candidate Biden to break his silence and share his approach to these core foreign policy decisions. Russell A. Berman is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. He formerly served as Senior Advisor on the Policy Planning Staff in the Department of State. The views expressed are the authors' own. The World Health Organization called for temporarily stopping trials on the antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine after numerous global experiments deemed it unsafe and potentially causing deaths. According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director-general, due to the results of a recent study, they would pause hydroxychloroquine trials to prevent further harm to patients. The paper published in the medical journal, The Lancet, showed people taking the drug were put at a higher risk for heart complications and even death. On Monday, Tedros said that they would impose the temporary halt of hydroxychloroquine trials while the data safety monitoring board reviewed and evaluated the drug's safety. He added that the usage of the drug for patients with malaria and auto-immune diseases were still permitted. Furthermore, they claim only to halt the usage of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for treating COVID-19. Meanwhile, other treatments in the WHO's solidarity trials are still being followed. Some of the drugs in the trial include remdesivir and a combination therapy used for treating HIV. Countless trials are proceeding using the two drugs for COVID-19. However, neither proves to be counted as an appropriate treatment for the disease. The US National Institutes of Health is also currently working on trials to determine whether the drug, when administered with the azithromycin, can prevent severe effects from coronavirus infections. Also Read: COVID-19 Patients Treated with Hydroxychloroquine Show No Significant Difference to Those Who Did Not Receive It Game Changer Turned into Possible Danger Since the mid-1950s, hydroxychloroquine has been licensed for use in the US. Moreover, it is listed by the WHO as an essential medicine. US President Trump has backed the use of hydroxychloroquine during the coronavirus pandemic despite the lack of evidence of its effectiveness. The president touted the drug as a 'game-changer' and said that he's been taking hydroxychloroquine himself to protect against the virus. FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn previously reported that while clinical trials were ongoing to tell whether the drugs are safe and effective against COVID-19, harmful side effects of the medications should be considered. Furthermore, health care professionals were given warnings to perform meticulous individual patient screening, monitoring, and decision-making to help diminish the likelihood of those risks. Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that more than 27 percent of coronavirus patients died, compared to an 11.4 percent death rate in those who were not treated with the medications. Increased Risk for Heart Problems and Death On April 24, the US Food and Drug Administration issued concerns regarding the use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial. Due to reported risks of heart rhythm problems, they cautioned the use of the said drugs. In the study where scientists used hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients, no benefit was determined. Furthermore, no advantage was seen whether the drug was used by itself or with a macrolide on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19. They reported that each of the drug regimens used in the study was correlated with a decreased chance of survival. Additionally, an increased frequency of heart conditions such as ventricular arrhythmias was determined when the drug was used for the treatment of COVID-19. Read Also: Fingers Pointed at Hydroxychloroquine as Coronavirus Patient Dies From Heart Attack Le Thi Trang started her mission to protect red-shanked douc langurs in central Vietnam in 2013. Photo courtesy of Le Thi Trang. Le Thi Trang is one of 10 global conservationists honored as Hotspot Heroes by the U.S.-based Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). CEPF, which enables civil society to participate in and benefit from conserving some of the worlds most critical ecosystems, said the honorees were chosen from the hundreds of civil society organizations that have received grants from the fund in the 10 global biodiversity hotspots where it is currently active. The Hotspot Heroes and the nongovernmental organizations they work for are making outstanding contributions to the conservation of the hotspots, it said. They exemplify "the kinds of dedicated, dynamic people who work to ensure that intact ecosystems can continue to sustain flora and fauna and provide clean air, fresh water, healthy soils, sustainable livelihoods, resilience to climate change and much more." Trang is the vice director of the GreenViet Biodiversity Conservation Center, a Da Nang-based non-government organization that does biodiversity research. She has been honored for her efforts to protect the Son Tra Peninsula, which acts as a natural shield for the central city of Da Nang, and hosts Vietnam's largest population of the endangered red-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus). The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. "Trang was at the center of the Son Tra campaign, bringing dynamism, creativity and inexhaustible energy. The work of Trang and GreenViet is an inspiration to me," said Jack Tordoff, CEPF managing director, who oversees the fund's investments in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot, including Vietnam. The campaign to protect the peninsula's biodiversity, including the red-shanked douc langurs from the perils of poaching and the tourism boom, was launched in 2013. It has saved most of red-shanked doucs in danger of extinction. Trang was part of the GreenViet effort to study the number of douc langurs for conservation purposes, raising public awareness of the necessity to protect the rare species and consulting with the city government to implement urban planning and tourism projects that do not damage the ecosystem. Trang said images of the langurs were posted on banners at bus stops in the city, raising awareness among the community and the tourists on the need to protect the species. Vietnam is home to around 1,000 red-shanked doucs, including 300 in Son Tra. The langurs are threatened mostly by poaching. They are identified as endangered by the International Union of Conservation for Nature and listed in Vietnams Red Book of rare animals that must be protected. Also known as "costumed apes" due to their striking appearance, the monkeys were first detected on Son Tra in 1969. They mostly live in troops of five to 10 at altitudes of 100-600 meters, but some live right by the sea. "Trang and GreenViet are changing the way people in Vietnam value nature," said Langrand. "They are bringing together communities, businesses and government to protect important ecosystems that are key to the countrys future." Trang graduated from the Da Nang University of Technology with a degree in environmental engineering in 2009. Then she volunteered for a local organization investigating and reporting wildlife-related crimes in central Vietnam. In 2013, she joined GreenViet and started her mission to protect Son Tra and the population of endangered red-shanked douc langurs. Kentucky Couple Killed in Car Accident After Leaving Sons High School Graduation A tragic car accident involving a Kentucky family of four left both parents dead, according to multiple sources. The family was identified as Nancy Barnett, 53; her husband Lyndon Barnett, 56; and sons Michael Barnett, 26; and Dalton Barnett, 18, who had just graduated high school. The Barnetts had just left Fleming County High School (FCHS) on May 23 where they were celebrating Daltons graduation when they collided with a pickup truck, Kentucky State Police said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. Nancy was pronounced dead at the scene and Lyndon was transported to the University of Kentucky Medical Center (UKMC) in Lexington, where he died of his injuries. Dalton and Michael were being treated at UKMC, FCHS principal Stephanie Emmons said. The two people in the pickup truck were not injured, police said. There was a car accident involving [Dalton] and his family shortly after his graduation ceremony, Emmons wrote in a statement. We have learned that his mother, Nancy Barnett, and his father, Lyndon Barnett, both passed away as a result of the accident. Please continue to uplift his family through your thoughts and prayers during this time, she added. In a joint statement, Emmons and Fleming Superintendent Brian Creasman said Dalton is a sweet young man who has plans to go into the military, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. He is always a joy to be around and his family has always been very proud of him. Nancy wore a shirt to the ceremony that read, Senior Mom: Some people wait their entire lives to meet their inspiration. I raised mine. Class of 2020. This speaks volumes to the kind of mother Nancy was and to the Barnetts and how proud they were of their family, Emmons and Creasman told the newspaper. The Barnetts mean a lot to our Fleming County Community and we will be here to support Dalton and his brother as they face the difficult times ahead. In a recent Facebook post, Nancy shared a photo of Dalton in his cap and gown with the caption: So proud of my senior. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reached out to the schoolulance, offering prayers and assistance, reported the Herald-Leader. Nancy and Lyndon were married for more than 35 years and celebrated their anniversary in late March, according to a statement on Facebook where she wrote, 35 years ago today I married my best friend and love of my life Happy Anniversary Johnson I Love You. The car accident is currently under investigation. The Associated Press contributed to this report. From NTD News Reuters By Clement Rossignol and Francois Lenoir BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium's railways are testing smart cameras with sensors to ensure its workers wear masks and maintain their distance to stop the spread of the coronavirus. From next week, so-called intelligent cameras will be installed in five strategic points in the offices of Belgian rail infrastructure operator Infrabel, where technicians would normally come together, such as the cafeteria. A warning will sound if people are too numerous, do not have a face mask or get too close. "We must ensure that our staff complies with the various social distancing guidelines. This is why we are setting up a number of devices based on artificial intelligence," Benoit Gilson, Infrabel's strategy director, told Reuters on Monday. Using AI software available online, Infrabel said it had developed a way to interpret camera images for the purpose of COVID-19 protection. The company will employ an algorithm to calculate if workers are too close or wearing a face mask. In a demonstration on Monday, staff seen on camera were shown on a giant screen as stick figures whose distance apart could be measured in metres. On another screen, a camera detected if a worker entering a room was wearing a mask. "The whole issue of distance (between individuals) is (managed by) a mathematical model that we developed," said Daniel Degueldre, head of Infrabel's information technology team. The company, which has 11,000 employees, said it had already been working on ways to use sensors to protect technicians working on the Belgian railways by placing cameras on helmets that would alert staff in an accident. That know-how was reappraised to fight coronavirus. Responsible for Belgium's 3,602 km (2,238 miles) of rail lines, Infrabel manages one of the world's most dense rail networks. (Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Giles Elgood) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Years after the fact, Hannah is trying to understand what happened in 1991-92 on the island of her childhood, off the coast of Western Australia. Back then, she had returned to look after her sick mother, taking up a teaching post in the local school, when the isolated rural community caught a religious fever that centred around a 14-year-old referred to as Mary (the name is a clue). Ian McEwans On Chesil Beach sits in our literary memory as a place where past trauma can wreak damage, so it makes sense that the name is shared by academic Catherine Noske in The Salt Madonna; there is an abundance of concealed trauma on Chesil Island. For many religious people, the act of believing in something that cannot be seen is itself a sign of faith. When birds start falling from the sky and crops suddenly appear in a town already suffering from poverty and where jobs are being laid off, people turn to faith and religion. Widowed Father John, who is seeing visions of his wife, says he will help people in their time of need; he hands out loaves and fishes, and asks townsfolk to come to church, where he performs baptisms. Credit: Mary becomes a sign of hope and salvation as the town gradually becomes untethered. Sins against children happen when people in positions of authority are not made accountable, and in hindsight Hannah feels bad that she didnt do more for Mary. Noske moves subtly through the difficulty of pinpointing where it started. Sustained throughout the narrative is the question of what level of responsibility we have to minors who are not in our direct care. The community has secrets; dubious behaviours go unreported, and the threat of violence is constant. A father refuses to sign scholarship forms that might allow his daughter entry into a city school. The air is full of mute masculinity that responds only to alcohol and fists. In the end, Noske writes, they had no one but themselves to fill the hole theyd shaped in their own lives, nothing at the centre of it but fear and blame. P eople with a faulty gene linked to dementia may be twice as likely to exhibit severe coronavirus symptoms, new research indicates. Scientists have said the ApoE4 gene, found in people of European ancestry, is linked to a greater risk of severe Covid-19, even when they were not affected by dementia. The findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, suggest that some people may be genetically predisposed to be more severely affected by the strain sweeping the world. However Alzheimers Research UK said the study should be interpreted with caution and more research is needed. Study leader David Melzer, a professor of epidemiology and public health at Exeter University, said: Several studies have now shown that people with dementia are at high risk of developing severe Covid-19. This study suggests that this high risk may not simply be due to the effects of dementia, advancing age or frailty, or exposure to the virus in care homes." A gene mutation might pose an increased risk of severe Covid-19 symptoms / AFP via Getty Images He added: The effect could be partly due to this underlying genetic change, which puts them at risk for both Covid-19 and dementia. Data from 500,000 people was analysed for the study which was collected by UK Biobank. Scientists found those who carry two faulty copies of the ApoE4 gene are at double the risk of being severely affected by Covid-19 infection than those who do not have this genetic mutation. One in 36 people of European ancestry are thought to have two faulty copies of this gene. Italy: Shops and bars reopen after two months of Coronavirus lockdown 1 /34 Italy: Shops and bars reopen after two months of Coronavirus lockdown A woman gets her hair done at a hairdresser in Milan AP A woman wearing a protective mask holds a cup at a restaurant in Piazza Navona REUTERS Gondoliers wearing a face mask ride a gondola by the San Toma embankment on a Venice canal as they resume service AFP via Getty Images People have lunch at a table partitioned with plexiglas at the Goga Cafe AFP via Getty Images Municipal Police Officers wearing a face mask, control from the spanish Steps at Piazza di Spagna in Rome AFP via Getty Images People have drinks at a cafe terrace on Piazza del Duomo AFP via Getty Images A worker prepares a store on the reopening day at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Milan Reuters Bikers pose in front of the Colosseum in Rome on the day Italy eases its coronavirus lockdown AP A woman wearing a face mask walks past a shop, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Rome, Italy REUTERS A worker cleans on the reopening day at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Milan REUTERS People walk on the Pincio Terrace at Villa Borghese park in Rome AFP via Getty Images A sign indicates a discount on shoes at La Rinascente department store, which is due to reopen with social distancing measures applied, after it was closed due to the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Milan, Italy, Reuters People line up to enter a Hermes luxury shop AFP via Getty Images People sit on the shore, as the country begins a staged end to a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Naples, Italy Reuters Italian bishop Francesco Micciche celebrates mass at the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rom AFP via Getty Images Market vendors protest rules that do not allow them to restart their activity, at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade in Milan, Italy AP Customers wait in front of a luxury shop in Milan, Italy AP Clients get their hair done at a hairdresser in Milan, Italy, AP A woman serves customers in a restaurant REUTERS A shop assistant re-arrange goods at the Rinascente department store in Milan, Italy AP A woman wearing a face shield drinks coffee at a cafe as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Rome REUTERS People wearing a face mask and shield walk across the Vittorio Emanuele II shopping mall in Milan AFP via Getty Images A customer has a his hair washed before a haircut at a hairdresser's saloon in Rome AFP via Getty Images A cafe reopens as Italy eases some of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Venice, Reuters Gran Caffe Chioggia in St Mark Square prepares for its reopening REUTERS Customers check their smartphone at the Rinascente department store in Milan AFP via Getty Images Study co-author Dr Chia-Ling Kuo, of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in the US, said: This is an exciting result because we might now be able to pinpoint how this faulty gene causes vulnerability to Covid-19. This could lead to new ideas for treatments. However, Dr Carol Routledge, director of research at Alzheimers Research UK, urged caution when interpreting these findings. Commenting on the research, Dr Routledge, who was not involved in the study, said: We dont yet know how this Alzheimers risk gene might make people more susceptible to the virus. Despite the large study group, only 37 people with the risk gene tested positive for Covid-19, and we must be careful about the conclusions we draw from such small numbers. These findings will need to be followed up with further research to see if this link could present avenues for new treatments. Prof Tara Spires-Jones, deputy director at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, added: An important limitation of the current paper is that this type of observational study cannot prove that the ApoE4 gene is the cause of the observed increased risk of Covid-19. The scientists did a thorough job of trying to control for other things associated with ApoE4 that could account for the risk, but it is still possible that there is an unknown related factor causing the increased risk. One of the United States' healthiest and most loved alcoholic beverages is heading Down Under. Lion Australia has secured the rights to import and distribute White Claw Hard Seltzer after striking a lucrative deal with its maker Mark Anthony Brands International. The beverage has taken the US by storm since its 2016 launch and attracted a cult following for its popular perception as a 'healthy alcohol' drink with less calories and sugar, which sparked nationwide shortages. Thirsty Australians will get their first taste of the alcoholic seltzer water drink in October, which will initially be available in mango, natural lime and ruby grapefruit flavours with a 4.5 per cent alcohol content. The hugely popular White Claw brand is heading to Australia just in time for summer White Claw dominates the US seltzer category with three fifths of the $2.5 billion market, almost triple the size of its nearest competitor. 'The popularity of White Claw cannot be disputed,' Lion Australia managing director James Brindley said in a statement. 'Despite the fact the product has not actually been available in Australia up until now, it has well and truly earned its place in popular culture and is the market leader globally in this exciting new category. 'It is the most sought-after beverage brand in the world right now.' Anthony Brands International chief executive Davin Nugent added: 'We are thrilled to be working with Lion and excited to take the first steps with them into the emerging seltzer category in Australia.' Among the first three flavours to be launched in Australia will be the popular mango (pictured) The partnership expands Lion's presence in the alcohol market as the maker of popular beers such as XXXX Gold, Tooheys Hahn, James Boag, James Squire and Little Creatures. White Claw's Australian market debut will come a year after the launch of Lion's own hard seltzer brand Quincy. 'It is a natural fit for our growing portfolio of adult beverages beyond our core beer range and taps into a number of consumer trends around lower calorie and lower sugar products,' Mr Brindley said. 'We believe the seltzer category represents a significant growth opportunity for Lion over the coming years and we are looking forward to bringing the biggest seltzer brand in the world to Australia.' The new deal with Mark Anthony Brands International boosts Lion Australia's presence in the alcohol market as the maker of beers such as XXXX Gold. Pictured is the Castlemaine Perkins Brewery, maker of XXXX Beer in Brisbane White Claw is available in nine flavours in the US, including black cherry, raspberry, lemon, tangerine, watermelon and Pure Hard Seltzer. The brand is extensively marketed on social media through a string of viral online videos which included the slogan 'Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws,' coined in a clip by YouTube comedian Trevor Wallace. An Obama administration economist has reportedly left Democrats concerned about President Trump's re-election prospects with his prediction about the state of the economy leading up to November. Speaking to a group of Republican and Democratic officials in early April, Politico reports Jason Furman, who was chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Obama, surprisingly asserted that "we are about to see the best economic data weve seen in the history of this country." As the coronavirus pandemic takes a devastating toll on the U.S. economy, bringing the unemployment rate to the highest level seen since the Great Depression, Furman continues to predict a "partial rebound" on the horizon, comparing the situation to the economic aftermath following a natural disaster and telling Politico that "you could easily have one to two million jobs created a month in those four reports before November." He added, "And then toward the end of October, we will get GDP growth for the third quarter, at an annualized rate, and it could be double-digit positive economic growth. So these will be the best jobs and growth numbers ever." This assumes re-openings continue across the country and a second wave of coronavirus doesn't prompt major lockdowns. Although Politico notes that a "rebound won't mean that Trump has solved many underlying problems," Democrats are reportedly "spooked" by the idea that the president "could be poised to benefit from the dramatic numbers" ahead of the 2020 election, with one former Obama White House official pointing to Trump's positive polling on the economy and arguing, "This is the challenge for the Biden campaign. If they can't figure this out they should all just go home." Read the full report at Politico. More stories from theweek.com Demonstrators, police clash during protest over George Floyd's death Trump keeps falsely accusing Joe Scarborough of murder, and it's long past weird Jimmy Kimmel dings Trump's 'brazen hypocrisy' on golfing, calls America's mask war 'the dumbest standoff ever' [May 26, 2020] Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy to Celebrate 2020 Graduates with Online Commencement Ceremony As most brick-and-mortar schools around the country struggled to become fully integrated online this past spring due to coronavirus, Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy (MGLVA), an online public school serving K-12 students throughout the state for the last 7 years, will cap off their school year by celebrating the Class of 2020 in an online-only commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 28. MGLVA is inviting all families and friends worldwide to join the celebration. This year, MGLVA will graduate nearly 250 students, many of whom have been enrolled at MGLVA their entire high school career. Twenty-six students will graduate with a cumulative GPA above 3.5. Collectively, the class reports having been accepted to colleges and universities across Michigan and beyond, including Wayne State University, Northern Michigan University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Grand Valley State University, and Macomb Community College to name a few. "It's been a very challenging year for Michiga students so anything we can do to establish a sense of normalcy will really help," said MGLVA Head of School Kendall Schroeder. "Our students have spent most of their school career online so even though they were looking forward to our normal in-person graduation, they can easily adapt to an online ceremony during these unique times." Fawn Muraske, Leyton Pritchard and Andrew Porter serve as Valedictorian and Co-Salutatorians respectively. Fawn plans to attend Ferris State University. Andrew is considering Wayne State University or U of M-Dearborn, and Leyton is undecided at this time. These students, as well as Mr. Schroeder, will be available for media interviews. Students enroll in virtual school for a number of reasons, including those looking to escape bullying, those looking to get back on track academically, or those looking for an alternative to the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom setting. MGLVA students access a robust online curriculum in the core subjects and a host of electives and attend live virtual classes every day taught by state-licensed teachers. Details of the graduation ceremony are as follows: WHAT: Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy 2020 Graduation Ceremony WHEN: Thursday, May 28, 2020, 6:00 p.m. EDT CONTACT: For any questions, please contact 855-380-2480 About Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy Michigan Great Lakes Virtual Academy (MGLVA) is a full-time, online public charter school, authorized by Manistee Area Public Schools and serves students in grades K through 12. MGLVA is tuition-free, giving parents and families the choice to access the engaging curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's leading provider of K-12 proprietary curriculum and online education programs. For more information about MGLVA, visit mglva.k12.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005015/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday widened the scope of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a fisherman from Ratnagiri by asking the state to give details of testing facilities in all districts in the purview of the petition. The PIL had sought directions to set up full-fledged Covid-19 testing facilities in Ratnagiri after a rise in the number of persons returning from Mumbai and Pune which were declared hotspots of the novel coronavirus. The plea had stated that in light of the growing number of suspected Covid cases, the state should set up additional testing facilities in Ratnagiri. A division bench of chief justices Dipankar Datta and K K Tated, while hearing the PIL by Khalil Ahmad Hasanmiya Wasta, a 58-year-old fisherman, through video conferencing, was informed by advocate Rakesh Bhatkar that since the state allowed intra-state travelling during the lockdown, around 60,000 people from Mumbai and Pune had arrived in the Konkan region namely Ratnagiri, Raigad and Sindhudurg. Bhatkar had further submitted that before the lifting of travel ban there were only seven Covid-19 positive cases in Ratnagiri, however the same went up to 108 after migrants and students returned from Mumbai and Pune. He added that as swab samples were being sent to Sangli and Miraj which are 237 km away, reports of suspected coronavirus infected persons were getting delayed and hence, full-fledged testing labs should be set up in Ratnagiri to avoid the delay. After hearing the submissions on Tuesday, the court sought to know the status of such testing facilities in each district and directed government pleader Priyabhushan Kakade to take instructions regarding the same and inform the court on the next date of hearing on May 29. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Call Now To See If Your Area Is Available ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Findit, Inc. a Nevada Corporation (OTC PINK:FDIT) owner of Findit.com, a full service social networking management platform which provides online marketing services, has areas available right now to accommodate pool builders and pool building companies throughout the United States that are looking to improve their overall online presence. Findit has an online marketing program for pool builders and pool building companies that is specific to the locations and services that pool builders want to offer potential customers in certain areas. The purpose of these campaigns is to improve overall indexing with tangible search results in Google, Yahoo, Bing and Findit along with branding throughout social networking sites. These campaigns run on a recurring, monthly basis to help achieve this goal. Findit campaigns are set up to produce organic, sustainable, and tangible search results that over time can help increase your lead generations while reducing your cost per lead. This is different from pay-per-click marketing strategies that many pool building companies and pool builders are using. Our team of content writers and search engine optimization specialists are highly skilled and able to create content for you both on your website, if you like, and off-site to improve your positioning in search results. Each time this occurs, you are removing a competitor that used to be in that search spot and replacing it with your name. Clark St. Amant of Findit stated, "We currently have an on-going monthly marketing campaign with a pool builder here in the Southeast that has been working with Findit for several years. Because of the tangible search results they have received, they have expanded their marketing campaign to include additional towns and areas that they offer pool building services in to improve overall search results online for more areas." A key component of Findit's marketing packages for pool builders and pool building companies is content creation. Crafted content is created on a daily basis that is posted and shared for search engines to index and for social networks to see. Creating this fresh content continuously gives search engines content to index as well as content for us to share throughout social media, engaging your target audiences. The content that is being created typically includes in a single post, text that describes the services that you offer so search engines know how to index your content, a video link, photos from your photo galleries, and a backlink to your website. By creating individually crafted content targeting each service you provide in the areas you provide them in, search engines can prioritize you above your competitors when it comes to pool building, pool design, pool installation, and pool construction services in the areas that you service. Our customers have been with us for several years and continue to have us lead their overall online marketing strategy because of the tangible search results that have been created through our campaigns. Findit online marketing campaigns are limited to one service provider for a specific service in a given area. Once we take on a pool builder or pool building company that services a specific location, we do not take on another pool builder or company in that area. This limits any competitors from hiring Findit to compete against you while we are working on your campaign. This is very different from pay-per-click marketing campaigns where your competitors can simply go online and outbid you for certain keywords - this does not happen with a Findit campaign. Get started today with your own Findit online marketing campaign. We have areas throughout the United States and other countries available now. Due to the on-going monthly marketing campaign with Carolina Pool Consultants of Denver NC, we do not have the Greater Denver NC area and most of the surrounding towns available. About Findit, Inc. Findit.com which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit, Inc., is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increase in brand awareness of our members. Findit, Inc., trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTC Pinksheets. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Findit, Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed. CONTACT: Clark St. Amant 404-443-3224 SOURCE: Findit, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591384/Findit-Offers-Online-Marketing-Services-To-Pool-Builders-and-Pool-Building-Companies Lviv Airport prepares to resume flights 16:40, 26.05.20 6673 The airport may start servicing flights as early as June 15. Several European leaders have sent personal letters to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days warning him against annexing parts of the West Bank, Israeli and European officials tell me. Why it matters: Netanyahu is hoping for a green light from the U.S. to move ahead on annexations as early as July 1, but the letters from the leaders of Italy, France, Spain and the U.K. are signals of the strong international pushback Israel would face. What they're saying: French President Emmanuel Macron wrote Netanyahu on Monday "in the spirit of friendship," to say that "unilateral steps in the West Bank... will undermine the stability in the Middle East." Only dialogue with the Palestinians and a just and balanced solution will give Israel peace, security and stability," according to the text of the letter, seen by Axios. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote a similar letter in coordination with the French, European and Israeli officials told me. It's unclear if German Chancellor Merkel also wrote to Netanyahu. The Spanish and Italian prime ministers also stressed that any steps taken by Israel must result from negotiations with the Palestinians and comply with international law. The big picture: The coalition deal that allowed Netanyahu to form his new government says he can bring "the understandings with the Trump administration" on annexation up for a vote in his Cabinet or the Knesset as early as July 1 but only with the full agreement of the White House. The latest: Netanyahu said on Monday that the July 1 deadline wont change. Go deeper: Palestinians say agreements with U.S. and Israel void due to annexation plans. Infiniti Research is a leading provider of market intelligence services to businesses around the globe. For over 15 years, Infiniti has been helping companies across industries to identify key market challenges and strategize to meet the changing market demands. Since the coronavirus outbreak, experts at Infiniti Research have also been working closely with several pharma companies to plan for the contingencies ahead. Request a free brochure for more insights into our COVID-19 support solutions for pharma companies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005583/en/ An Additive Manufacturing Market Client Maximized Revenue Flow and Realized Savings of Over 3.8 Million. (Graphic: Business Wire) "The global additive manufacturing industry is expected to witness substantial growth through 2022, owing to the increasing developments in additive manufacturing technologies, "says a manufacturing industry expert at Infiniti Research. The rising investments into R&D, coupled with the introduction of new combinations of printing materials are expected to spur the development of new equipment and applications, thereby bolstering the growth of the additive manufacturing market. On the flip side, the high cost involved in implementing additive manufacturing machines, lack of skill required for mass production, and unavailability of suitable materials for production are expected to hinder the additive manufacturing market growth. To stay relevant in the competitive market landscape, chief marketing officers, or CMOs, need to glean more insights from customer data with the help of market intelligence. Get in touch with an expert to know more about how our market intelligence solutions can be tailor-made to combat your business challenges. Infiniti's client, an additive manufacturing firm, based out of Spain faced challenges in meeting the upfront capital expenditures for machines and facilities necessary to support additive manufacturing. Some of the other key challenges that Infiniti helped the client address includes: Difficulties in ensuring consistent quality and reliability of products produced through additive manufacturing techniques. Technological constraints in terms of materials, process implementation, post-processing, and quality assurance Digital threats across each stage of the design and manufacturing process Shortage of well-trained and skilled technicians familiar with additive manufacturing technology Rigid adherence of engineers to establish design principles Read the complete success story for more insights into our approach and the key results obtained. Growth strategies for big pharma companies are increasingly dependent on expansion into emerging markets. Request a free proposalto know how we can help support your market expansion plan into emerging markets. About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit:https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005583/en/ Contacts: Infiniti Research Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 844 778 0600 UK: +44 203 893 3400 https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us The rebound of WTI from below zero back into the $30s led to a wave of bullish trading, with energy stocks rallying in response. One renowned industry expert recently celebrated the return of $30 oil: Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2020 But the enthusiasm in no way reflects the true state of the U.S. oil industry. Shale drillers were collectively unprofitable even when oil prices were twice todays levels, and are drowning in red ink with WTI at $30 per barrel. The poor economics predate the global pandemic and the market downturn. For instance, large U.S. oil drillers spent a combined $1.18 trillion over the past decade, but only generated $819 billion in cash flow from their operations, according to Evercore ISI and the Wall Street Journal. In other words, oil drillers are more than $350 billion in the hole over a ten-year period. For much of that time, oil prices were trading at $50 per barrel or higher. Between 2015 and 2019, more than 200 North American oil and gas companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The pace of bankruptcies actually accelerated last year as investors began to sour on the industry. Again, that predated the pandemic. At $30, the financial blood-letting will continue. Roughly 73 E&Ps in the U.S. could be forced into bankruptcy this year if oil remains stuck at $30 per barrel, according to Rystad Energy. Another 170 companies would go under in 2021. If oil falls back below $30 per barrel again, the number of bankruptcies would climb even higher. I dont think $30 oil saves a lot of those producers who are sitting in the emergency room on a gurney waiting on a heart transplant, Buddy Clark, a lawyer at Haynes & Boone, told the FT. There are more bankruptcies to come. In the first quarter, the top 39 publicly-listed U.S. independent shale companies posted a combined $26 billion in losses, due to a wave of write downs, Rystad data shows. The second quarter is going to be dramatically worse since the first three months of the year only partially captured the market crash. Related: Putin To Bail Out Russian Oil Industry The pain is visible in the rig count, which is now at historic lows. Last week, the industry shed another 21 rigs, 13 of which came from the Permian basin. At 237 active oil rigs, the rig count is now down by more than 65 percent since March. U.S. oil production fell to 11.5 mb/d in mid-May, but U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette estimated the shut ins have already topped 2.2 mb/d. Some of that could come back online. Most of the production that was to be shut is now already shut, and producers count down until the day they will be able to recover some of the output thats put on ice, Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of Oil Markets at Rystad Energy, said in a statement. It is going to be a slow path to recovery though. But the steep drop in drilling quickly leads to production declines. According to ShaleProfile Analytics and Bloomberg, U.S. oil production from major shale basins would plunge by more than a third to under 5 million barrels per day if drilling came entirely to a halt. Of course, drilling wont cease entirely, but the analysis illustrates how swiftly shale wells tend to decline. This has been the problem of U.S. shale since its inception. Its no secret that shale wells decline precipitously after an initial burst of production. As a result, keeping production aloft requires a certain amount of continuous drilling. Growing production requires a more aggressive level of spending and drilling increases. Whatever money comes out of the ground must be reinjected into the next well. This dynamic meant that the promise of huge profits proved to be a mirage in most cases. Industry critics have pointed out these problems for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic, the collapse of demand, low oil prices, and a crippled shale industry has brought these problems to the forefront. The upshot is that we may have already witnessed the peak of U.S. shale. February was peak shale, Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit told the Wall Street Journal. Yergin has been a shale booster for years, so that declaration will not go unnoticed. By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: This is a great step forward for our COPD patients. We expect that this same-day symptom feedback loop will help prevent a worsening of symptoms, and will provide us the ability to head off any problems before they escalate, said Andrew Martin, MD, Chair, Pulmonary Medicine at Deborah. Deborah Heart and Lung Center, New Jerseys only specialty heart, lung, and vascular hospital, and an Alliance member of the Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, has announced the introduction of remote patient monitoring for patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a growing and devastating disease and is the third leading cause of death in the United States. An estimated 16 million American adults are diagnosed with the condition every year, and another 12 million people are believed to be undiagnosed. COPD is a progressive disease with restricted airflow causing difficulty breathing, coughing, and wheezing. Patients diagnosed with COPD require physician monitoring to prevent the disease from progressing. With the expansion of telemedicine and remote monitoring services prompted by the Coronavirus epidemic, Deborah has instituted a new remote patient monitoring services platform. Called HGE Care the remote monitoring platform is designed for COPD patients who have been discharged from the hospital and are recuperating at home. This is a great step forward for our COPD patients who are particularly vulnerable after a hospital stay, said Andrew Martin, MD, Chair, Pulmonary Medicine at Deborah. In order to provide the absolute best health outcomes for our patients, when they are discharged they will be set-up on their smartphones with a secure, private communication with our contact center, so they can report on their symptoms daily. If there is a change in a patients status, the contact center will immediately alert us, and the patient will receive a call from their physician for further follow-up. Dr. Martin added: We expect that this same-day symptom feedback loop will help prevent a worsening of symptoms, and will provide us the ability to head off any problems before they escalate. HGE Health, the platforms developer, points to HGE Care as a critical bridge between patients and physicians. We know that patients discharged from the hospital are highly vulnerable and clinically fragile, said Michael J. Markus, Ph.D., CEO, HGE Health. Partnering with a hospital like Deborah allows us to support these patients on their journey to health. The HGE Care Contact Center is staffed by pulmonary nurses and healthcare coordinators and operates from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Built on clinical protocols developed and supported by 17 years of research, the Companys technology has compiled the longest-running and worlds largest longitudinal data set of COPD symptoms, interventions, and clinical management to help physicians provide care for a diverse COPD and pulmonary patient population. About Deborah Heart and Lung Center Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, NJ is an 89-bed teaching hospital that specializes in the diagnosis, research, and treatment of heart, lung, and vascular diseases, as well as providing outpatient cardiology services for children. Deborah is consistently recognized as a leader in patient care and innovative healing, and is an Alliance Partner of the Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. Deborah has a high rating from the Center for Medicare Services and is ranked among the top hospitals in New Jersey for patient satisfaction; and a 3-Star Society of Thoracic Surgeons rating for both coronary artery bypass and aortic valve surgeries, which ranks Deborah among the top 7% of cardiac surgery programs in the country. For more information visit http://www.DemandDeborah.org About HGE Health Headquartered in Fort Washington, PA, HGE Health harnesses its deep experience in chronic disease management and digital health in pulmonary disease, telemedicine, and mobile health to develop a clinical services platform that delivers better care faster at a much lower cost for patients, physicians and payors. Built on clinical protocols developed and supported by 16 years of research, the companys technology has compiled the longest-running and worlds largest longitudinal data set of COPD symptoms, interventions, and clinical management to help physicians provide care for a geographically and socio-economically diverse COPD and pulmonary patient population. New Delhi, May 26 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed 30 employees of LG Polymers India Ltd to supervise "round-the-clock safety measures" at its sealed plant in Visakhapatnam, where a gas leak early this month killed 12 people. A bench comprising Justices U.U. Lalit, M.M. Shantanagoudar and Vineet Saran was hearing an appeal of the LG Polymers against the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which directed that nobody, including the directors of the company, should be allowed inside the premises and that it should be completely seized. The High Court had allowed only the members of the committees appointed by the state government. It had also asked the directors of the company not to leave the country without its permission. "We permit the petitioner to give a list of 30 personnel as discussed. Upon such names being given to the District Collector, those persons shall be afforded access to the plant round-the-clock to maintain adequate safety measures", said the top court. The bench said the ad interim direction will continue till the High Court considers the matter. "The High Court may, thereafter, pass appropriate directions", added the bench. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the LG Polymer, submitted that a complete seizure or sealing of plant/ premises will have tremendous adverse consequences. Rohatgi submitted that the temperature of the plant cannot be allowed to go beyond 25 degree Celsius. If, because of lack of adequate attention or safety measures, the temperature goes beyond 25 degree Celsius, the situation can have some ill-effects. "At least 28 technical personnel and two administrative officials/in-charge must be given emergency access to the plant/premises at any given point of time so that adequate safety measures are undertaken round the clock", added Rohatgi. It was further submitted that at the intermediate stages of manufacture, the polymers that the company manufactures can have toxic effects, and therefore adequate safety measures have to be undertaken every time. He further submitted that the premises in question also house the administrative and law offices of the company and in case the entire premises are seized/sealed, the operation of the company will stand seriously prejudiced. "Though, prima facie, we see force in the submissions, considering the fact that the compliance report was directed to be filed by May 26 and the matters may be taken up on May 27 & May 28, we give liberty to the petitioner to place all these issues and aspects for consideration by the High Court", said the top court. Rohtagi submitted that inspections to be carried pursuant to the directions issued by the High Court must be in the presence of officials of the company so that adequate assistance as well as complete knowledge about the processes undertaken by the petitioner could be highlighted. Twenty-year-old Jarrod Elphick wept openly in court on Wednesday afternoon before being released on bail - charged with stealing $100 from a man in his wheelchair at an ATM in Sydney's CBD. Just before midday on Sunday, Julian Stewart, 42, who has cerebral palsy, was making a withdrawal from an ATM on George Street. Jarrod Elphick, 20, wept openly in court after allegedly stealing from a man in a wheelchair. Credit:Nine News Mr Stewart noticed two males in the enclosed alcove area at the ANZ branch where the machine was situated. It was alleged that, after completing his withdrawal from the machine, Mr Stewart was approached by Mr Elphick who snatched the cash from his hands, while 20-year-old Nathan Laidlaw kept lookout. In the United States, 32 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in the November presidential election, according to the Pew Research Center. This makes them the largest minority voter group for the first time. While former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump's campaigns are coming up with their own voting strategies, one thing is certain: The Latino vote is powerful. Latinas represent a large portion of the voting population Founding executive director of immigrants' and workers' rights group Voces de la Frontera Christine Neumann-Ortiz said she was gathering Latina women to encourage Latinos to start voting. She said that women tend to care about issues like healthcare, education, and immigration reform. She added that the support of the Latinas, as well as their disapproval, would definitely manifest into votes. Gender studies professor Christina Bejarano at Texas Woman's University observed that Latinas tend to pay more attention to politics than their male counterparts. She added that they also tend to be more supportive of certain candidates. President of polling firm EquisLabs Stephanie Valencia believed that Latinas would most likely organize and engage others in their community to vote with them. Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign reached out to the Latina voters, and while she lost the election, she won the overall Latino vote. However, compared to former President Barack Obama's support in 2012 during his campaign, she underperformed. Bejarano said that with presidential campaigns, candidates need to "strategically mobilize" the voting population, which was a challenge due to the lack of access to voting and a lack of motivation to participate. Check these out! Betting on Trump or Biden? Latino Decisions released a survey that examined the impact of COVID-19 on Latino voters. States with high Latino populations like California, Nevada, Texas, among others. In February, 73% of the voters said they were almost certain they would be participating in the presidential election. Over the recent months, the figure plummeted to 60%. Stephen Nuno, communications director and senior analyst of the firm, said their interpretation of the poll was that, judging by the way things were with the recent months, Latinos would most likely not participate in-person voting this November. He said that Biden would have to put in the extra effort to win the Latino voting population, especially since he was fresh from backlash for his immigration policies. Advocates pointed out that Latino voters might be "disenchanted" given Biden's association with the Obama administration and the deportations that happened under the term. Co-founder of United We Dream Cristina Jimenez said that Biden waited too long before he made any initiatives for immigration. Her organization helped support the protection of young immigrants through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which was launched during the Obama administration. Jimenez said that Biden hardly recognized at the beginning of his campaign what the impact of the past deportations meant for the minority communities he was trying to win over. She added that he did not acknowledge the harm under the Obama administration. While it remained unclear if he could win the Latinos over, already Biden has pledged to loosen immigration bans and improve the asylum-seeking process in the country after announcing his immigration plan in December last year. Trump on the other hand has gained praises for his support in the Latin labor communities and his fair approach on the minority groups.. The explosion of Covid-19 cases in meat factories has exposed the meat industry, and Irish society, to some uncomfortable truths. In a Dail debate last Thursday the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, revealed how workers in meat plants account for a staggering 94pc of all workplace-related cases of Covid-19. It is understandable that meat factories are difficult places to control the spread of a viral disease like Covid-19. But when you compare the level of exposure in hospitals and nursing homes, where medical staff and carers are dealing with Covid-19 'super-spreaders' on a daily basis, it is extraordinary that meat-plant workers end up being the worst-affected employees in the country. Agriculture Minister, Michael Creed, defended the sector following sustained questioning by a number of TDs, particularly Brian Stanley and Francis Duffy. He claimed that it was in meat plant bosses' own interests to keep their staff healthy and safe. But the figures clearly prove that there has not been enough done to protect the health of these employees. Claims by employers that their foreign workers just weren't taking the situation seriously don't cut any ice either. If a worker in any business blatantly flouts health and safety regulations, it's grounds for dismissal. Workers sharing accommodation or transport was another issue raised, but again protocols can be put in place by any large employer to ensure that anything that jeopardises the welfare of other staff is addressed. Examples cited in the Dail of workers being expected to use just one mask a week and being called from their sickbeds to return to work paint a poor picture of the meat processing sector. Minister Creed was grilled as to why he didn't have figures outlining how many meat factories had been inspected by the Health and Safety Authority. Concerns Despite concerns being raised about the situation in meat plants by local representatives nearly two months ago, there was a grand total of zero meat plant inspections by the HSA in relation to Covid-19 as of May 18. The lack of urgency to tackle the situation by either the State authorities or the industry itself mirrors the indifference shown by wider society to the issue. There has been wall-to-wall coverage of every angle of Covid-19 imaginable in print and on the airwaves for nearly three months. But I have never seen an interview with a meat plant worker in the Irish media. Meat plants have never missed a beat during this pandemic, on the basis that they are an essential sector. As Minister Creed put it in the Dail debate, keeping the meat factories going was "crucial to keep supermarket shelves stocked, to keep people with a supply of safe food". However, we know that over 90pc of the meat output from Irish plants is exported. So who were we really keeping the plants open for? Granted, farmers with stock ready to kill needed to keep them moving. But at what cost? If the 828 positive cases in meat plants had been Irish citizens, would we have been as accepting of this logic? Again, Minister Creed tried to downplay the dependence of meat plants on foreign workers, stating that the "overwhelming majority" are "citizens of European Union countries", which was a nice catch-all to cover all the Romanians, Bulgarians, Lithuanians and whoever else makes up the numbers. Despite what Donald Trump would have us believe, there's no sign of a vaccine for Covid-19 any time soon. The fastest vaccine that was ever developed was for Ebola, and that took five years to get across the line. In the interim, we can't stay hiding under the bed. Instead, we need to start thinking about how we gradually inoculate ourselves. If the younger section of our population were able to develop a level of immunity to the disease, it would be a stronger barrier to transmission than any social distancing. Perversely, the 16,000 meat plant workers may end up being one of the first blocks of immunity in our communities. Their youth and general fitness means that they could have a level of immunity that will stop the disease in its tracks. The least they deserve is the same level of concern about their welfare as we expect for the rest of society. It's time for the double standards to end. COLLEGE PARK, Md., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With summer on the horizon, people have begun thinking about vacation plans. And many are trying to figure out how it's all going to work this year, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend so much of life. This summer will be undeniably different than previous ones, but taking that time off is as important as ever, says J. Gerald Suarez, professor of the practice in systems thinking and design at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. "COVID-19 has melted our concept of normalcy and turned our traditional vacations and leisure activities into a high-risk proposition," says Suarez. "Seeking a 'safecation' begins with our desire to reinvigorate our spirit and recharge our soul, and this can happen anywhere we are." The emotional toll of the pandemic and the mix of powerful emotions it is triggering such as fear, guilt, worry caused by the loss of life, financial vulnerability and job insecurity are like a psychological Molotov cocktail, Suarez says. Add to these worries the responsibility of homeschooling their children, daily house tasks, adapting to new technologies and the demands of virtual work, and it can get to be a bit much. All of these factors play into why taking advantage of that time off is so necessary, Suarez says. "We've lost our sense of stability, and the demarcations between home life and work life are blurred," says Suarez. "We've been working in overdrive with no transitions and decompression time from work to our home." Pandemic-era vacations won't be like the ones we are used to, Suarez says. But the reasons why vacations are important and the benefits they offer remain unchanged. Flatten the curve, not your dreams. Indulging your fear initiates a cycle of unproductive worry. Worry exists in our imagination through images and narratives of something going wrong, says Suarez. We can channel that energy and gain a sense of control if we change the images to desired positive outcomes. Planning a vacation gives us permission to dream, and its details give us a sense of control and something to look forward to with anticipation and excitement. Put yourself on digital quarantine. Disengage from stressful activities and place your needs at the top of your list of priorities, Suarez says. Reduce the overstimulation and bombardment of information brought to us by social media. Disconnect from technology and reconnect with yourself. View the world through the eyes of a traveler. Recalibrate your perspective and appreciate the moment with mindfulness. Traveling forces us to see differences among things that are similar or familiar. We can accomplish the same by looking at our surroundings through the eyes of a traveler, Suarez says. Changing your patterns and performing your routine in a different room in the house can help in creating a modified experience in your habitual setting. These simple tasks may stimulate and invigorate you in unexpected ways, he says. Creating a modified vacation experience must be done with a sense of optimism, embracing the possibilities of your surroundings and most importantly trusting your resiliency to adapt and derive joy from it. Here are some first steps Suarez recommends to move in that direction: Explore nature Read books not related to work Take on new physical fitness challenges Rearrange the furniture in your house, give it a new look Engage the family in fun and interactive activities Go to Smith Brain Trust for related content at http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty-research/smithbraintrust and follow on Twitter @SmithBrainTrust. About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, specialty masters, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia. Contact: Greg Muraski at [email protected] SOURCE University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business A Delhi court Tuesday extended by 30 days the judicial custody of Safoora Zargar and Meera Haider, Jamia Coordination Committee members booked under the stringent anti-terror law -- Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act -- in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in February. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana remanded them to further custody till June 25 after they were produced before him through video conferencing from Tihar jail. Haider is a PhD student and Zargar is a MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia. Besides Haider and Zargar, Jamia student Gulfisha Khatoon, activist Khalid Saifi, former Congress councilor Ishrat Jahan and suspended AAP councilor Tahir Hussain were also produced before the court through video conferencing. Police had moved an application seeking to extend the judicial custody of Haider, Safoora and Hussain for 30 days and till June 14 for Jahan and Saifi. While the court allowed the police plea for Haider and Safoora, it said the applications for the rest will be taken up on the day their judicial custody would expire. It put up the matter for further hearing on May 28. Saifi and Ishrat are in judicial custody till May 30 and the judicial custody of Hussain will expire on May 29. Police said in its application that there was sufficient evidence against the accused persons to be charge sheeted under the invoked sections of UAPA, other sections of IPC and other acts in the case. The application was moved as District and Sessions Judge of Patiala House Courts had passed an order on May 22 that Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana shall deal with the entire remand work pertaining to UAPA, SC/ST Act, PMLA Act, Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, Drugs and cosmetics Act and Official Secrets Act. This comes after the Delhi High Court had issued notices to both the Centre and the Delhi government over continued detention of Khatoon, 25-year-old MBA student under UAPA when the Special Courts which can extend her custody have not been functioning due to coronavirus-induced lockdown. The police on Tuesday clarified before the local court that for the purpose of the extension of remands, the District Judges had deputed duty Metropolitan Magistrates in jails situated in Delhi and the remand of the accused persons were extended in terms of the directions issued by the High Court. Advocates Akram Khan and Ritesh Dhar Dubey, appearing for Haider and Khatoon respectively, had earlier told the court that the accused have been falsely implicated in the case. Advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing for Khatoon, had said that she has been falsely booked under the anti-terror law. The accused have also been charged under sedition, attempt to murder, murder, criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc. Jamia Alumni Association President Shifa-Ur-Rehman, Jamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha and Umar Khalid have also been booked under UAPA in the case. Khalid has not been arrested yet. According to the FIR, the communal riots from February 23-26 was a "pre-meditated conspiracy" and hatched by Khalid and his associates. All the associates were linked to two different groups, FIR said. It further claimed that as per the pre-planned conspiracy, Khalid had given provocative speeches at various places and appealed to the Muslim minority community gathering to block roads and other public places during the visit of President of US Donald Trump so that the propaganda may be flashed at an international platform that Muslim minority community in India was being tortured. In order to achieve these objectives, on February 23, riots occurred in different areas of Delhi and in furtherance of the nefarious designs, on February 23, 24, the two groups started riots in different parts of north east and Shahdara districts of Delhi which continued till February 26, the FIR alleged. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured. Fresh Meeting Tanha, however, was allowed to have fresh legal interviews with his counsel after he claimed that police refused to move out of the room during the meeting held earlier. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana directed the investigating officer to make necessary arrangements for the meetings and render all possible assistance to Tanha's counsel for an effective legal interview, keeping in mind the right of privileged communication between counsel and her client. The court had on May 20 allowed his counsel to meet with him during police custody. The application, moved by advocate Sowjhanya Shankaran, said as per the court's order, she was allowed to have a meeting with Tanha during police custody. It claimed that although the investigating officer permitted her to conduct the interview, but police refused to move out of the room and denied the opportunity to converse in private with Tanha. The application sought fresh directions to the police officials to allow her to conduct legal interview with her client Tanha outside hearing of the police officials. During the hearing, Additional Public Prosecutor said that the conversation between client and his counsel is a privileged communication and for effective legal aid and assistance a certain degree of privacy was required for conducting legal interviews. According to the police, Tanha, a resident of Abul Fazal Enclave in Shaheen Bagh, is a member of the Students Islamic Organization and was part of the Jamia Coordination Committee which spearheaded protests against the new Citizenship Amendment Law. Jamia Coordination Committee members Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider, President of Jamia Alumni Association Shifa-Ur-Rehman, suspended AAP Councillor Tahir Hussain have also been booked under the anti-terror law in the case. Tanha, 24, is a third-year student of BA in Persian language and was also recently arrested by the police in a separate case related to riots in the Jamia area in December last year. He was named as an accused in the FIR. Tanha is a close associate of Khalid, Imam, Haider and Zargar who had been key organisers of anti-CAA protests and subsequent riots, the police had said. On December 15 last year, protesters torched four public buses and two police vehicles as they clashed with police in New Friends'' Colony near Jamia Millia Islamia during a demonstration against the amended Citizenship Act, leaving at least 40 people including students, policemen and fire fighters injured. May 2020 Update on Ipsos activity during Covid-19 pandemic Paris, 26 May 2020 - At the general meeting of shareholders, to be held on the morning of Thursday May 28th in Paris, the General Management of Ipsos will present the company's activity as it has been developing since March 2020. On April 23rd, Ipsos published its First Quarter revenue, which recorded a total growth of 1.5%, while indicating that it has been "operating since the third week of March in a very different market", marked by a steep decline in orders. The latter was explained by an unprecedented and significant wave of postponements and cancellations and the drop of new orders. In April 2020, the net contract balance decreased year-on-year by more than 60%, illustrating the brutal and massive consequences on the economic activity of the pandemic and the lockdown. May 2020 marks the beginning of the lockdown easing, at least in the strictest form. Ipsos' new orders, fueled partly by specific projects linked to Covid-19, are close to last year's level even if they will most likely remain slightly lower. Compared to April, the book of orders is less impacted by cancellations and postponements and should drop around 15% overall, a decrease 4 times lower than that observed in April. For the first five months of 2020, the book of orders shows a decrease slightly above 10%. Over the same period, turnover has followed a very similar trend, which is consistent with the outlook at the beginning of the lockdown last March. It is too early to measure what will be Ipsos' activity in 2020. It is however encouraging to note that, beyond the specific Covid-19 contracts won with public or private institutions, the dialogue has continued between Ipsos teams and our main 25 international clients managed through the program "Ipsos Global PartneRing". With those clients, this resulted in orders higher for the past two weeks than in the same weeks of the previous year. This positive development follows a consecutive ten-week period of decline. Many of the companies Ipsos works with wish to strengthen their innovation plans, have a better understanding of new customers' behaviours and develop new communications. The market in which Ipsos operates wakes up as the reopening progresses. Every organisation, every institution needs to have fresh, relevant, accurate, understandable information on what is happening in Society, the new market developments and, ultimately, establish new connections with people and various audiences. The second quarter is of course difficult. Despite the improvement of Ipsos' performance in May, sales, income and margin will be lower than in 2019. However, if continued in June, the improvement of the activity in recent weeks should allow Ipsos to improve its performance in the second half. ABOUT IPSOS Ipsos is the third largest market research company in the world, present in 90 markets and employing more than 18,000 people. Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 business solutions are based on primary data coming from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques. "Game Changers" - our tagline - summarizes our ambition to help our 5,000 clients navigate with confidence our world of rapid change. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and the Mid-60 index and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service Attachment People with a faulty gene linked to a greater risk of dementia, may also have increased chances of developing severe COVID-19, according to a large-scale study which may lead to new ideas for treatments against the deadly infectious disease. The study, published in the Journal of Gerontology, Medical Sciences, found high risk of severe COVID-19 infection among those who carried two faulty copies of the APOE gene termed e4e4. Researchers, including those from the University of Exeter Medical School in the UK, assessed data from the UK Biobank -- a large long-term study investigating the respective contributions of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure to the development of disease in over 5,00,000 people. The scientists found that one in 36 people of European ancestry have two faulty copies of the APOE gene, which they said can increase risks of Alzheimer's disease up to 14-fold, and also increase risks of heart disease. In the current study, the scientists found that carrying these gene mutations doubles the risks of COVID-19 -- even in people who had not developed these diseases. Previously, they had found that people with dementia are three times more likely to get severe COVID-19. However, the researchers said dementia patients are not one of the groups advertised to shield -- or shelter in place -- on health grounds. The scientists speculated that part of the increased risk effect may have been exposure to the high prevalence of the virus in care homes. But based on the current study's findings, they said a genetic component may also be at play. According to the researchers, people with the APOE e4e4 genotype were at double the risk of developing severe COVID-19, compared to those with the common e3e3 form of the gene. They said a majority of people in the population, and in the sample size, have not yet been exposed to the virus. From the analysis, the scientists said 2.36 per cent of participants with European ancestries had the ApoE e4e4 faulty gene. But 5.13 per cent of those who tested positive for COVID-19 had this gene variant, indicating that the risk is doubled compared to e3e3. "This is an exciting result because we might now be able to pinpoint how this faulty gene causes vulnerability to COVID-19. This could lead to new ideas for treatments," said Chia-Ling Kuo, study co-author from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in the US. The researchers believe that increasing disease risks that appear inevitable with ageing might actually be due to specific biological differences. They said this could help scientists understand why some people stay active to age 100 and beyond, while others become disabled and die in their sixties. While several studies have shown that people with dementia are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19, the authors of the current research believe that this may not simply be due to the effects of dementia, advancing age or frailty, or exposure to the virus in care homes. The effect, according to study co-author David Melzer, could be partly due to this underlying genetic change, which puts people at risk for both COVID-19 and dementia. "Further investigation is needed to understand the biological mechanisms linking ApoE genotypes to COVID-19 severity," the scientists concluded in the study. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An undated transmission electron micrograph of a novel coronavirus particle, the virus which causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient. [Photo/Agencies] The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the target of COVID-19 virus conspiracy theories, did not possess the novel coronavirus before the outbreak, nor did it have the intention or the ability to create the virus, a senior virologist told China Daily on the sidelines of the annual national legislative and political advisory sessions. Hence the conspiracy theories claiming the virus had escaped the institute's high biosecurity lab, which was modeled after ones from Europe, is "pure fabrication", said Yuan Zhiming, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan Branch and head of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory. He also made it clear that no pathogen leaks or personnel infection accidents have ever occurred at the P4 lab. Since the COVID-19 epidemic began, some foreign politicians and media outlets have made accusations with no evidence that the institute's biosafety level 4 lab, also known as the P4 lab, had manufactured the virus and accidentally released it to the world. Yuan, also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said such accusations constitute "unwarranted speculation that violates scientific consensus and most importantly, totally contradicts objective facts". The institute first received samples of the coronavirus on Dec 30. On Jan 12, the institute was one of the entities authorized by the National Health Commission to publish the full genome sequence of the virus to the world, he said. On Feb 19, The Lancet medical journal published a joint statement by 27 scientists from eight countries concluding that the novel coronavirus had a natural origin. On March 18, a paper published by the journal Nature Medicine, by virologists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, also stated the coronavirus is "not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus". "All analyses of the SARS-CoV-2 genome by global researchers have proved that it is entirely new and is different from already known viruses," Yuan said. "There is also no information within the novel coronavirus genome indicating it was man-made." "With regard to designing and creating an entirely unknown virus, it is beyond the current capability of any laboratory of our institute. We have never engaged in, nor will we ever engage in trying to design and construct a new virus," he said. US Africa Command said Russia has introduced fighter aircraft to Libya to tip the scales in the countrys civil war, a move the command characterized as a step toward a possible security threat to NATO. Reports first emerged last week that a Russian MiG-29 had been spotted at al-Jufrah airbase in western Libya. Satellite imagery also led to speculation that Russian Su-24s were being stored in hangars at al-Khadim airbase in the countrys east. AFRICOM said in a press release that Russia delivered the aircraft via Syria, where they were painted to camouflage their Russian origin. The command said the jets will likely be flown by Russian pilots providing air support to Wagner paramilitary fighters and Khalifa Hifters self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) in his stalled campaign against the UN-backed government in Tripoli. Russia is clearly trying to tip the scales in its favor in Libya, AFRICOM commander US Army Gen. Stephen Townsend said in Tuesdays statement. Townsend likened the move to Russias support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his countrys civil war, which has ensured the Kremlins military position on the Mediterranean. Russias Wagner paramilitary fighters have backed Hifters offensive against Tripoli, seat of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), with mixed results. Townsend previously told Congress in January that if Russia obtains bases in Libya and introduces long-range weapons systems, it would pose a security risk to NATO, limiting the alliances access to its southern flank. Gen. Jeff Harrigan, commander of US air forces in Europe and Africa, called the introduction of anti access/area denial systems Russias next logical step in Libya. Representatives of both the UN-backed GNA and Hifter's rival LNA said last week that Russian aircraft had been introduced to the conflict on Hifters side. Head of Hifters air force Saqr al-Jaroushi warned on Thursday of the largest aerial campaign in Libyan history and declared Turkey-backed forces in Libya to be legitimate targets. Russias move may encourage a further response from Turkey, which earlier this year introduced Syrian mercenary fighters into the conflict in support of the GNA, in what Townsend called a serious escalation. Jaroushis announcement came after GNA forces captured the LNAs Watiya airbase, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli, marking the worst setback for Hifters forces since launching their offensive against the western capital in April last year. The GNA also claimed to have captured a Russian-made Pantsir mobile air-defense system after allegedly destroying two others. Brian Castner, Amnesty Internationals senior crisis adviser for arms and military operations, called the introduction of Russian fighter aircraft a major escalation. The new MiG-29s are a major step up from the very few old MiGs and L-39s that had been flown by both sides in the conflict, Castner told Al-Monitor. The Russian aircraft also have the capability to shoot down Turkeys drones. These Russian aircraft have killed large numbers of civilians in Idlib and other places in Syria. So our concern is that Tripoli not become a new Idlib, Castner said. Tushar Burman At 12 am midnight on the 27th of May 2020, Aarogya Setu Indias digital contact tracing app will go open-source and be uploaded to a public GitHub repository. Initially, the Android client code will be available, which will be followed in two weeks by the iOS client (for Apple devices) and KaiOS code (for Jio feature phones). The back-end code for servers that process the data provided by Aarogya Setu users, will also be open-sourced at a future date. This is a significant step forward toward transparency in the collection and usage of sensitive data about COVID-19 patients. India currently leads the world in cases of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). CEO of NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant announced at a press conference that Aarogya Setu has been installed 114mn times, reached out to 9 lac contacts and represents a contact tracing app that is larger than the sum total of all other apps used in other countries. The impressive statistics continue: 50mn installs in 13 days, 100mn in 41 days. More than 3000 hotspots at the sub-post office level have been identified thanks to the app, and 1264 potential hotspots predicted, according to a press release by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MEITY). Stressing the critical importance of digital contact tracing, he said 24% of contacts identified by Aarogya Setu tested positive, allowing for rapid treatment and control of spread. Kant also thanked several private parties by name for their volunteer efforts in building the app. The gaps in Aarogya Setus privacy protections, data usage and perception of intent have been concern areas for activists, with the Internet Freedom Foundation being at the forefront of efforts to address these issues. There have been small victories: The government backtracked on mandating usage of the app during lockdown 3.0 to merely advisable in lockdown 4.0. However, this effort still left loopholes open to pressure non-government entities and private organisations to compel employees to use the app. Since its introduction on 2 April, the Aarogya Setu app has been criticised for overreach in terms of data collected (it collects Bluetooth contact data as well as location data). The authorities responsible for the development of the app have always maintained that data is anonymised and shared only in case of a positive COVID-19 identification. In a recent interview with Firstpost, security researcher Elliot Alderson said to potentially be useful, a contact-tracing app needs to be downloaded and used by a lot of people. To ensure adoption of the app on a large scale among the population, you need to gain their trust. Publishing the source code is one way to get this trust. Alderson had recently uncovered some bugs of moderate concern, which were quickly addressed by MEITY. What does open-sourcing mean for Aarogya Setu? According to Kant, 98% of Aarogya Setu installs are on Android devices, which explains the initial release of the Android client source code for the app. The app has been open-sourced with the Apache 2.0 license, which means other parties may freely use and change the code, as long as a notice of the change is carried with the code. NITI Aayog and MEITY (Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology) are inviting programmers to look at the code, find bugs and suggest changes and improvements. According to Kant, open-sourcing a government app that operates at this scale has never been done before. Neeta Verma, Director General of NIC also announced a bug bounty program across three categories, each carrying a bounty of Rs 1 lac. Again, this is claimed to be unprecedented for a government app. With the source code of the client and server elements of Aarogya Setu being open to public scrutiny, criticisms of potential privacy issues should eventually be put to rest, and fixes verifiable. Simultaneously, the privacy policy for Aarogya Setu has also been modified to remove a clause against reverse engineering, which is no longer relevant. At the press conference, MEITY Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney repeated that the app does not exchange personally-identifiable data, and only uploads data to the server in case of a positive identification. He added that this is a step toward developing confidence in the apps efforts. An open-source model also allows for other countries that may be exploring digital contact tracing to get a boost by adopting already-mature, secure and publicly-validated code. Principal Scientific Advisor K. Vijay Raghavan specifically mentioned the applicability of this code to other countries. The questions that remain Open-sourcing Aarogya Setu is a confidence-boosting step and hard to argue with. Public availability of code means that the apps operation can be verified to be secure. Once the server code is available for review, the loop should close. However, questions of legality remain. At this point, the government encourages, but does not mandate the use of Aarogya Setu. But this does not mean other entities such as the Airports Authority of India, the Indian Railways or private organisations wont. On Monday, schools in Australias New South Wales province officially reopened, signalling a return to normal that the country, which has seen around 7,100 coronavirus disease cases and 102 deaths, hopes to achieve in stages by July. On Tuesday, two private schools in Sydney, the states biggest and most important city, closed after a student tested positive in each; both schools had already opened last week after the state decided it was alright to do so because the number of cases was declining. To be sure, the response to the schools having to close so soon after opening (and, hopefully, temporarily) has been just what it should be even, non-hysterical, and pragmatic. The states education minister said school closures brought about by students testing positive were something we are going to have to live with, according to a report in The Guardian. Four other Australian states, including Queensland, have also resumed face-to-face schooling (as it is now called; another coinage necessitated by the pandemic). On Monday, news agency AP reported Queenslands premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as saying that we have to take each day as it comes. Somehow theres nothing that quite signals a return to normal as well as children attending school does as parents can vouch, it changes the entire rhythm of households in the morning (and not always for the better, but thats another story). Denmark reopened schools in April. Japan opened some in May, as did Korea. Even China reopened schools in Wuhan, where it all began, in May. There are reports that India plans to reopen schools in July, at least for some classes. Thats the beginning of the term in some parts of the country (including Delhi). Schools reopen earlier in other parts of the country; in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, for instance, the school term starts in June, but given the disease burden in these states (Maharashtra has the highest and Tamil Nadu the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases in the country) that seems unlikely. Still, open they will all have to at some time. Online education privileges the privileged and excludes others. Schools and classrooms try to provide as level a playing field as they can (many fail, and that, too, is another story). Sure, interventions are possible; the state can provide devices (tablets or laptop computers) but it cannot ensure that all students are in an environment that is conducive to learning. Schools, good old-fashioned brick-and-mortar schools, with face-to-face schooling, are still the best way to do that. What does science say on pandemics and school closures? A review of epidemiological studies published in BMJ suggests that closing schools does seem to reduce the transmission of influenza. While the coronavirus disease is not the flu, it can be safely assumed that school closure will reduce its transmission too. However, theres still no authoritative research on the role of children as transmitters of the coronavirus disease. There are papers suggesting that they dont get infected much; do not show symptoms even if they are; and are not as contagious as adults who are infected but none of these are established facts as yet. These are important questions to answer especially knowing that older people are more vulnerable to Covid-19, and that many children in India still continue to live in joint families, or in nuclear families with at least one parent of a parent being a member of the household. And these are just some of the variables administrators and policymakers will have to factor in while taking a call on how and when schools should be reopened. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Sree Chandana M and Ritika Arun Vaishali By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: After some hiccups, domestic flights resumed in Andhra Pradesh as the first flight landed at Visakhapatnam International Airport from Bengaluru at 6.30 am on Tuesday. It brought home 113 passengers, most of whom are from Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts. My son was staying alone in Bengaluru when the lockdown was announced and all his friends had left for their hometowns. Though we appealed for a four-wheeler permission, it was denied. After a lot of confusion with the Civil Aviation Ministry canceling some flights, I am happy to finally reunite with my son, teary-eyed Subhadra, a lab technician at King George Hospital, said. The passengers were tested for temperature, asked to fill a form with their details and health condition at the airport and, then, sent to the district Covid-19 reception centre at Port Kalyanamandapam for swab tests. All of them were advised to stay in isolation for 24 hours as their results were awaited. Once the passengers reach home, they should report to their respective ward volunteers or ANMs who will further report to tahsildars. Meanwhile, confusion prevailed at Vijayawada airport as those who arrived in a flight from Bengaluru, awaited clear instructions from the officials before they could exit the airport. They complained that instructions for sample testing were not given by the officials. Everything was so disorganised. The officials didnt have ready answers when we asked them how long do we have to stay under quarantine. Every state has a different set of rules, and that we understand. We expected someone to explain the process followed in Andhra Pradesh. The officials only asked us to get in the district-wise buses at the airport, Arun, a flyer, said. I have come here (to Vijayawada) for a business meeting. I have a confirmed return flight tomorrow. But they say I need to be in quarantine today. How can I do that when I have a meeting to attend? If they had clarified this earlier, I would have kept an extra day in hand, Ravindra lamented. It was sometime before Krishna sub-collector Dhyanchnadra HM cleared the passengers doubts. He elaborated: The passengers will be taken to quarantine centres in their respective districts where TrueNat and swab collection tests will be conducted. On the basis of the TrueNat results, the passengers will either be allowed to go home or shifted to Covid-19 hospitals. Results of the tests done by RT-PCR method (swab tests) will also be communicated to the officials concerned. While it was compulsory for all passengers to go to quarantine centres by APSRTC buses, only a few were allowed to go in personal vehicles due to severe health issues. A total of 128 passengers arrived in Vijayawada from Bengaluru in two flights, while 116 left for the Karnataka capital in two more services. From Chennai, 28 reached Vijayawada and 20 departed to Chennai. Likewise, 94 arrived and 140 departed to New Delhi.There was a similar confusion in Vizag airport as only those from the district were tested, while the others were asked to report to officials in their respective districts. We are sending everyone to their respective districts in government vehicles and they should report to health officials there. However, we suggest everyone to stay isolated for 24 hours. If any passenger tests positive, everyone will be sent to isolation. However, 14-day home quarantine is a must for every passenger to contain the spread of the virus, tahsildar Veni said. The passengers grew impatient when they were kept waiting for a long time while being shifted from the airport to the district Covid-19 reception centre. We reached Bengaluru airport at 8 pm on Monday and havent had food since then. There are pregnant women and infants among us and we were kept waiting from 6.30 am. Though the officials are doing a commendable job, but it is important that they are a little more organised, especially with pregnant women, infants and the elderly, said Nikhil, a passenger. Three more flights landed at Vizag airport with flyers from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi.Meanwhile, the passengers who left for other states were also screened along with their luggage. SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India operated flights on the first day. Spandana app While confusion prevailed among many due to the cancellation of flights, many expressed concerns on the poor development of Spandana app, as it crashed frequently. I was trying to apply for clearance on Spandana as it is mandatory, However, I spent hours on the app as it crashed very frequently. If the government is making it mandatory, they should also ensure that the app is user-friendly. The developers should keep in mind that even elderly people use it, Sandeep, a flyer, said Travel advisory You cant book air tickets unless you first register on spandana.ap.gov.in. Here are the State governments guidelines for flight travel to Andhra Pradesh Airlines to permit bookings for domestic services only when Spandana clearance is available People arriving from low corona incidence areas to be tested, stay in home quarantine for 14 days. If they test positive, will be treated on a case-by-case basis Everyone arriving from Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh should be in institutional quarantine for seven days Passengers from Bengaluru arrive at Vijayawada in the first flight domestic flight to reach the city. Express Video | @Ravindra_TNIE @xpressandhra pic.twitter.com/ONWY927KH4 The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) May 26, 2020 I have come here (to Vijayawada) for a business meeting. I have a confirmed return flight tomorrow. But they say I need to be in quarantine today. How can I do that when I have a meeting to attend? If they had clarified this earlier, I would have kept an extra day in hand, Ravindra lamented. It was sometime before Krishna sub-collector Dhyanchnadra HM cleared the passengers doubts. He elaborated: The passengers will be taken to quarantine centres in their respective districts where TrueNat and swab collection tests will be conducted. On the basis of the TrueNat results, the passengers will either be allowed to go home or shifted to Covid-19 hospitals. Results of the tests done by RT-PCR method (swab tests) will also be communicated to the officials concerned. While it was compulsory for all passengers to go to quarantine centres by APSRTC buses, only a few were allowed to go in personal vehicles due to severe health issues. A total of 128 passengers arrived in Vijayawada from Bengaluru in two flights, while 116 left for the Karnataka capital in two more services. From Chennai, 28 reached Vijayawada and 20 departed to Chennai. Likewise, 94 arrived and 140 departed to New Delhi.There was a similar confusion in Vizag airport as only those from the district were tested, while the others were asked to report to officials in their respective districts. We are sending everyone to their respective districts in government vehicles and they should report to health officials there. However, we suggest everyone to stay isolated for 24 hours. If any passenger tests positive, everyone will be sent to isolation. However, 14-day home quarantine is a must for every passenger to contain the spread of the virus, tahsildar Veni said. The passengers grew impatient when they were kept waiting for a long time while being shifted from the airport to the district Covid-19 reception centre. We reached Bengaluru airport at 8 pm on Monday and havent had food since then. There are pregnant women and infants among us and we were kept waiting from 6.30 am. Though the officials are doing a commendable job, but it is important that they are a little more organised, especially with pregnant women, infants and the elderly, said Nikhil, a passenger. Three more flights landed at Vizag airport with flyers from Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi.Meanwhile, the passengers who left for other states were also screened along with their luggage. SpiceJet, IndiGo and Air India operated flights on the first day. Spandana app While confusion prevailed among many due to the cancellation of flights, many expressed concerns on the poor development of Spandana app, as it crashed frequently. I was trying to apply for clearance on Spandana as it is mandatory, However, I spent hours on the app as it crashed very frequently. If the government is making it mandatory, they should also ensure that the app is user-friendly. The developers should keep in mind that even elderly people use it, Sandeep, a flyer, said Travel advisory You cant book air tickets unless you first register on spandana.ap.gov.in. Here are the State governments guidelines for flight travel to Andhra Pradesh Airlines to permit bookings for domestic services only when Spandana clearance is available People arriving from low corona incidence areas to be tested, stay in home quarantine for 14 days. If they test positive, will be treated on a case-by-case basis Everyone arriving from Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh should be in institutional quarantine for seven days. MANAUS, Brazil - As the white van approached Perfect Love Street, one by one chatting neighbours fell silent, covered their mouths and noses and scattered. Men in full body suits carried an empty coffin into the small, blue house where Edgar Silva had spent two feverish days gasping for air before drawing his last breath on May 12. It wasnt COVID, Silvas daughter, Eliete das Gracas insisted to the funerary workers. She swore her 83-year-old father had died of Alzheimers disease, not that sickness ravaging the citys hospitals. But Silva, like the vast majority of those dying at home, was never tested for the new coronavirus. The doctor who signed his death certificate never saw his body before determining the cause: cardiorespiratory arrest. His death was not counted as one of Brazils victims of the pandemic. ___ This story was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. ___ Manaus is one of the hardest hit cities in Brazil, which officially has lost more than 23,000 lives to the coronavirus. But in the absence of evidence proving otherwise, relatives like das Gracas are quick to deny the possibility that COVID-19 claimed their loved ones, meaning that the toll is likely a vast undercount. As ambulances zip though Manaus with sirens blaring and backhoes dig rows of new graves, the muggy air in this city by the majestic Amazon River feels thicker than usual with such pervasive denial. Manaus has seen nearly triple the usual number of dead in April and May. Doctors and psychologists say denial at the grassroots stems from a mixture of misinformation, lack of education, insufficient testing and conflicting messages from the countrys leaders. Chief among skeptics is President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly called COVID-19 a little flu, and argued that concern over the virus is overblown. Asked by a reporter about the surging number of deaths on April 20, Bolsonaro responded, Im not a gravedigger, OK? He has resisted U.S. and European-style lockdowns to contain the virus spread, saying such measures arent worth the economic wreckage. He fired his first Health Minister for supporting quarantines, accepted the resignation of a second one after less than a month on the job, and said that the interim minister, an army general with no background in health or medicine, will remain in charge of the pandemic response for a long time. In a cabinet meeting last month, a visibly enraged Bolsonaro insulted governors and mayors enforcing stay-at-home measures. The presidents political followers are receptive to his dismissal of the virus, as determined as he is to proceed with life as usual. On a recent Saturday in Manaus, locals flocked to the bustling riverside market to buy fresh fish, unaware of the need for social distancing, or uninterested. As swamped intensive-care units struggled to accommodate new patients airlifted from the Amazon, the faithful returned to some of the citys evangelical churches. Coffins arriving by riverboat did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of young people at clandestine dance parties. And in the streets, masks frequently covered chins and foreheads rather than mouths and noses. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause severe illness such as pneumonia and lead to death. The new sickness made its way to Manaus in March, in the middle of the rainy season. At least thats when health officials first became aware of it in the capital of Amazonas state, which is at once remote and international. One precarious road connects the city to the rest of Brazil, and other municipalities are hours away by boat. But tropical fauna and flora normally draw tourist cruises up the Amazon, and business people fly in from around the world, to visit its free trade zone. Just last October, Manaus sent a delegation to China looking for investors. The citys first virus fatality was reported on March 25 and deaths have surged since then. But due to a lack of testing, just 5% of the more than 4,300 burials performed in April and May were confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to city funeral statistics. To accommodate its swelling number of coffins, the public Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery razed an area of tropical forest to dig dozens of trenches in the rust-colored soil for burials. These mass graves sparked anger toward city officials among families of the deceased. Why did their loved ones bodies have to be buried in such a way, they asked, if there was no evidence the deaths were caused by COVID-19? Das Gracas was among those who had hoped that her father could have a proper sendoff. But it wasnt to be. The white-suited men informed her that his coffin would be sealed, a precaution taken now regardless of cause of death. He would be sent to the public cemeterys refrigerated container to await burial. A person cant even die with dignity, das Gracas, 49, said through tears. Hes going to spend the night in the freezer when we could be doing his wake at home! Home wakes are no longer permitted. But workers from SOS Funeral, which provides free coffins and funeral services to those who cant afford them, have found homes packed with relatives touching the bodies of loved ones, hugging each other and wiping away tears with ungloved handsa potentially contagious farewell. Overwhelmed emergency services have encountered similar reluctance to acknowledge viral risk. Ambulance doctor Sandokan Costa said patients often omit the mention of COVID-19 symptoms, putting him and his colleagues at greater risk. What has most struck me is peoples belief that the pandemic isnt real. Costa fell ill with the virus in late March but has worked non-stop since recovering and is astonished to see his fellow citizens on the streets acting as though nothing is going on. There is a stigma attached to the new disease, he said. Coronavirus has become something pejorative. Health care officials attribute much of that to Bolsonaros handling of the pandemic. Rather than take precautions, Bolsonaro has supported the use of chloroquine, the predecessor of an anti-malaria drug that U.S. President Donald Trump has advocated for treatment of coronavirus and is taking himself to ward it off. Bolsonaro ordered the Armys Chemical and Pharmaceutical Laboratory to boost its chloroquine production despite a lack of clinical proof that it is effective. A large study recently published in the Lancet medical journal suggests that the malaria drugs not only do not help but are also tied to a greater risk of death in coronavirus patients. In Manaus, scientists stopped part of a study of chloroquine after heart rhythm problems developed in a quarter of people given the higher of two doses being tested. Visiting the hard-hit Amazon capital was a priority for Bolsonaros second health minister, Nelson Teich, who donned a body suit to tour several hospitals. But he resigned days later after disagreeing with the presidents demand that the ministry recommend chloroquine be prescribed to patients with mild coronavirus symptoms. Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima, a Bolsonaro ally, downplayed the virus at first. Theres huge hysteria and panic, Lima said March 16, three days after the first virus case in Manaus was confirmed in a woman who had travelled from Europe. That same day he declared a state of emergency, but his first measures were limitedcancellation of events organized by the state, suspension of classes and prison visits. For the rest, he recommended avoiding crowds and good hand washing. It was only on March 23, when his state had 32 cases including local transmissions that he ordered the suspension of non-essential services. But the restrictions were never imposed on the citys industrial zone. A month later, hospitals in Manaus were overwhelmed with thousands of cases and hundreds of dead. In late-April the governor announced plans to progressively reopen commerce, but backed down as the death toll continued to climb. This month, he told the Associated Press in an interview that the unusual surge in deaths can only be explained by the outbreak. Theres no doubt that the majority (have died) because of COVID-19, Gov. Lima said as he sat in a vast but empty meeting room in the state government headquarters in Manaus. We dont have any other explanation for this if not COVID. He admitted lack of testing makes it nearly impossible to have a clear idea how many people in the state are infected. But even with vast under-reporting, Amazonas state has the highest number of deaths by COVID-19 per capita in the country with more than 1,700 fatal victims. Poor and crowded neighbourhoods have been particularly affected. Unable to afford private consultations and fearing the chaos of the public health system, many only sought medical help when it was too late. Others preferred to die at home rather than alone at a hospital. Limas administration has come under fire for spending half a million dollars (2.9 million Brazilian reais) to buy 28 ventilators at quadruple the market price from a wine importer and distributor. The breathing machines were deemed inadequate for use on coronavirus patients after inspections by the regional council of medicine and Manaus health surveillance office. Lima denies any wrongdoing. Asked if he would have done anything differently to confront the virus, the governor shook his head. Even if I had stopped it (economy), if I had closed the city for 30 days, no one goes in and no one goes out. At some point I would have had to open and at some point the virus would have gotten here, he said. The virus has, in the meantime, spread upriver from Manaus, creeping into remote towns and indigenous territories to infect indigenous tribes. The sparsely populated but vast rainforest region is completely unprepared to cope. Some towns cant get oxygen tanks refilled or dont have breathing machines, forcing nurses to manually pump air into lungs. When they do have machines, power cuts frequently shut them down. Many patients are being airlifted to Manaus, the only place in the state of 4 million people with full intensive care units. Although health experts warn that the pandemic is far from over in the Amazon region, or the rest of the country, national polls show adherence to lockdowns and quarantines falling, and a growing number of Brazilians are neglecting local leaders safety recommendations. Every day there are different messages coming from the federal government that clash with measures by the cities and states, and with what science says said Manaus-based physician Adele Benzaken. A public health researcher who until last year lead the HIV/AIDS department at the Health Ministry, Benzaken already has lost four colleagues in the pandemic. Meanwhile, misinformation and disinformation about the virus is swirling, some of it shared by the president himself. On May 11, Instagram labeled one of his posts as fake news after he falsely claimed a state had seen a drop in respiratory disease this year. Facebook also blocked one of his posts in March that showed him praising the healing powers of chloroquine to supporters. One false claim circulating on social media said the death rate in Manaus plummeted the day after the health ministers visit. Another purported to show an empty coffin being unearthed at Manaus cemetery, implying the city was inflating its death toll. But the photo was taken in Sao Paulo three years ago. Still, the messages take root and spread like jungle foliage. My opinion is that theyre making this up and trying to make money from it Israel Reis, 54, said outside Manaus fish market. He didnt specify who they might be. Reis, who recently lost his job in an electronics maintenance company due to the pandemic, spoke without a mask and said he of course agrees with Bolsonaro the severity of the pandemic is exaggerated and death toll inflated. He recently advised his nephew against seeking help at the local health clinic for an earache. Any dizziness and theyll say its that thing, he said, referring to the virus. One recent late afternoon, a group of paunchy middle-aged men seated in plastic chairs on the sidewalk debated measures to fight the virus. The street bar, just a few blocks from a police station in downtown Manaus, was operating in violation of state COVID-19 restrictions, yet officers in a passing squad car didnt even slow down to reprimand them. Icy beer provided relief from the sweltering heat, and tropical insects had begun sounding their pre-dusk drone. The men, too, were getting worked up. Put on your mask! yelled one friend. I dont need one! screamed another, Henrique Noronha. Noronha, 52, argued that only the elderly and those with health problems should stay home as Bolsonaro affirms -- and the fit should return to normal. Despite his age and full figure, Noronha didnt believe hes at risk. This virus came to clean things up, he said. But Ill be fine. ___ AP writer David Biller contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro. AP photographer Felipe Dana contributed in Manaus. We request all parties to respect the principals of operational diplomacy to safeguard humanity at this need of the moment. Editorial A group of Sri Lankans working in Kuwait have been brought to Sri Lanka and many of them have been infected with the coronavirus. Unfortunately, the Kuwait officials and the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in Kuwait have taken careless steps to send these Sri Lankans back to Sri Lanka without any medical examination. In Kuwait This incident demonstrates the harsh reality of diplomatic relations and the deteriorated administrative system of the Sri Lankan embassies abroad. Most of the people who work in the embassies maintained by the taxes of the people of this country do not care about the service of the people but their comfort. According to the framework by Paul Kreutzer, there are ten principals in operational diplomacy, national interest, credibility, clarity, comprehensiveness, understanding, perceptiveness, circumspection, confidence-building, decisiveness, and perseverance. Where are these operational principles gone? Indian General KA Muthanna described diplomacy as the conduct of international relations by negotiation and engendering goodwill and mutual trust rather than by force, propaganda, or recourse to law. Teach us, how can we maintain the goodwill and mutual trust if our men and women are being discriminated? Is that because we are people of a poor nation? Even though Sri Lanka is a poor country, it has cared for the thousands of foreign nationals who were unable to leave the country due to covid-19 pandemic. When they needed help the people in Sri Lanka stood by them without hesitation. We, the people in Sri Lanka have been treated fellow travellers and others stranded in Sri Lanka due to pandemic equally and respectfully. True, we are poor. We dont have adequate funding and income to fulfil the basic needs of our citizens. But our poverty did not hinder the suffering of the other. However, it is very sad how the richest countries in the world treat foreigners working in those countries. Labour Minister of Romania Violeta Alexandru Sri Lankans have been treated very badly by Kuwait officials. It is a very sad state of affairs. It is also a demonstration of the corrupt nature of Kuwait's selfish aims. Most of the Sri Lankan expatriates who have been sent to Sri Lanka without having undergone any basic medical examinations are working as housemaids in Kuwait. Most of them work for very little remuneration. Kuwait authorities have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their lives. It is a fundamental duty of man to do to another man in this unfortunate moment. In this case, we call on Kuwait and other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere to respect that basic quality of humanity. Contrarily to what Kuwait did to us, another incident involving Sri Lankan expatriates was reported from Romania. 36 Sri Lankans who were working at a textile factory in Botosani, Romania, was fired recently. One of them is infected with the coronavirus. The local government in the area abandoned them but central government took the firm decision to help Sri Lankans. The patient was immediately rushed to the hospital and the rest were quarantined. After the quarantine period is over, the authorities in Romania are making arrangements for new job opportunities. Labour Minister Violeta Alexandru and the Romanian authorities should be commended for their restless efforts in the face of various hardships due to the pandemic. This action is admirable. This is a sign of genuine diplomacy. Covid-19 poses many challenges for us. What is important is that all countries should come together and work together to stabilize the global order. The only way to control the disease is to eliminate the possibility of spreading the virus as early as possible. At least preliminary medical examinations should be carried out and the relevant reports should be submitted to the relevant authority before people are taking from one place to another. Therefore we request all parties to respect the principals of operational diplomacy to safeguard humanity at this need of the moment. While our nation is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent catastrophe caused by Amphan Cyclone in the East, and now there's a new menace brewing. The states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh are being troubled by locust swarms that have originated from swarms matured in Iran and Pakistans Balochistan. Reuters What are locusts? Locusts are insects originating from the family of grasshoppers. Theyre essentially known to be solitary creatures and mind their own business. While theyre normally not dangerous, in certain climatic and environmental conditions they experience rise in serotonin levels and start breeding in exceeding numbers forming large swarms. In normal conditions locusts are innocuous, however, they soon turn nomadic and migrate in huge numbers. What is a locust plague? When this population rises, they become rather uncontrollable. With a denser population, they together attack crops and destroy them completely. The adults are powerful fliers and they can travel great distances, consuming most of the green vegetation wherever the swarm settles. Reuters According to Wikipedia, Locusts have formed plagues since prehistory. The ancient Egyptians carved them on their tombs and the insects are mentioned in the Iliad, the Bible and the Quran. Locust swarms have devastated crops and been a contributory cause of famines and human migrations. More recently, changes in agricultural practices and better surveillance of locations where swarms tend to originate, have meant that control measures can be used at an early stage. The traditional means of control are based on the use of insecticides from the ground or the air, but other methods using biological control are proving effective. Locust attack in India In India, first of such locust swarming cases were spotted in Dausa district of Rajasthan on May 20, and in a matter of 5 days, this has spread across 200 kilometres till Ajmer. They have now spread to states in Uttar Pradesh too. Reports have revealed that the species of locust attacking crops in India are desert locusts, that are known to be the most harmful of the lot. In Rajasthan, 16 districts are affected, in UP 17 and Madhya Pradesh has reported one of the worst attacks in 27 years. The swarms are expected to enter Delhi through Rajasthan-Haryana border. The central government has set up teams with state agricultural development and making use of chemical sprays to control them from entering the city. Reuters Locusts, by destroying ready crops, can truly devastate the already difficult lives of farmers in India and impact the food security of our nation. According to Food and Agricultural Organisation -- who has also issued the warning -- one square kilometre swarm of locusts with an average population of 40 million can eat the food of as much as 35,000 people in a day. Authorities in Venezuela celebrated Monday as the first of five Iranian gasoline tankers arrived in the country, bringing badly-needed fuel supplies. Workers at the El Palito refinery welcomed the docking of Iranian tanker Fortune. Four more tankers are expected over the coming days. The Iranian tankers hold what analysts estimate to be enough gasoline to supply Venezuela for two to three weeks. Venezuela sits atop the world's largest oil reserves, but it has to import gasoline because production has crashed over the last two decades. Critics blame corruption and mismanagement by the socialist government led by President Nicolas Maduro. The fuel shipments are arriving in the face of stiff sanctions imposed by the United States on both Venezuela and Iran. They mark a new era in the burgeoning relationship between the two countries, which are labelled by the US as repressive regimes. Washington accuses Iran and other nations of propping up the Maduro regime. The White House criticised Joe Biden for wearing a mask at an outdoor Memorial Day ceremony but not while "in his basement" doing television appearances with wife Jill Biden. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany described administration guidelines for the coronavirus as donning a mask outdoors as "recommended but not required." Because Mr Biden kept his distance from others at the wreath-laying event, Ms McEnany called his decision to cover his face "not data-driven." The Bidens wore black masks as they laid a wreath with a white ribbon at a memorial for the Second World War and Korean War veterans in Delaware. That image was a stark contrast to Donald Trump and Melania Trump, who did not cover their faces at Fort McHenry in Baltimore or Arlington National Cemetery. "It's a bit peculiar that he doesn't wear a mask in his basement" while seated close to Ms Biden during interviews, the press secretary said. When asked whether Mr Biden was just following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) mask guidelines, Ms McEnany replied: "It's recommended but not required." Mr Trump's top spokesperson said the president, who has declined to cover his face during trips to 3M and Ford facilities in recent weeks, said he is "open" to doing so but only if circumstances warrant it. The president reportedly has said behind the scenes that he think he would look foolish donning a face covering. (Bloomberg) -- GoPro Inc.s chief hardware designer Danny Coster left the camera maker earlier this year after joining from Apple Inc.s design team four years ago. After nearly four years at GoPro where Danny was instrumental in transforming our design function, Danny decided to take his career expertise and family back to his native New Zealand to begin a new chapter of his life, a spokesman for San Mateo, California-based GoPro told Bloomberg News. Costers last day at the company was in February, the spokesman added. In April, GoPro cut more than 20% of its workforce, shifted its sales strategy away from physical retail to direct-to-consumer, and cut its 2020 financial guidance due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Still, action camera hardware is key to GoPros future, and the departure of Coster means the loss of an influential product and design leader. Read more: GoPro Cuts More Than 20% of Workforce, Changes Sales Strategy Coster joined GoPro in 2016 as vice president of design, and his departure from Apples famed industrial design team was one of the first for the Cupertino, California-based technology giant. After he moved, several other veteran team members left, including longtime leader Jony Ive. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. The calendar is moving toward June, which signals the start of hurricane season, and Lake Houston area residents are searching for ways to prepare. Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District, said the prediction indicators in the Atlantic Basin show that it could be an above-average season. HURRICANE SEASON AND COVID-19: NOAA predicts an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year An average season in Atlantic Basin over approximately the last 30 years features about 12 named storms that have winds that reach at least 40 miles per hour, Lindner said. Hurricane season lasts from June 1 through the end of November. The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration has forecast 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 of which could be hurricanes. Of those, three to six are projected be considered major hurricanes that have winds of at least 111 mph, according to NOAA. Last year there were 18 named storms, Lindner said. Although predictions show there could be several named storms, it does not necessarily mean they will have a large impact or make landfall, he said. We have to prepare every year because, as we know here, as we saw last year and as we saw back in 2017 with Harvey, it only takes one storm to cause us big problems, Lindner said. Predictions this year show the potential for more activity near the Caribbean, which could potentially threaten Central America and eventually move the Gulf of Mexico or toward Florida, although they have not seen those paths in a while, Lindner said. The last four years of storms have usually developed close the United States coast and made landfall or developed near the Bermuda area, according to Lindner. Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda were both inland flooding events caused by heavy rain. Impacts of storms are individual to the storm itself and there are too many parameters that characterize what impacts each storm will have until it has formed, Lindner said. He added there is no way to determine what will happen in the future based on what has happened recently with storms, but people should be prepared for all of the hazards these storms could present. More Information Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman's office provides the following recommendations for preparing for a hurricane. Prepare by stocking up on supplies including food, bottled water, protective clothing, medications, flashlights, important documents, first aid necessities, road maps and maintain a full tank of gasoline. Create an emergency plan for the household and review it with everyone in the home. Have an emergency contact with an out-of-state friend or family member so they can check on your location. Follow instructions from authorities in regards to evacuations and other safety measures by checking through radio, television or other media outlets that provide emergency information. Plan an evacuation route before the hurricane. Important documents, including ID cards and other vital information, should be placed in a secure and waterproof container. If you have pets, keep essentials for them handy including food, medications, toys and other needs. See More Collapse CORONAVIRUS: Using cellphone data, national study predicts huge June spike in Houston coronavirus cases Lindner said named storms present a three-pronged hazard wind, rain, and storm surge and each storm has its own. To prepare, Lindner said its important to understand that a lot of preparedness information is generic. Keep in mind that a preparation kit should be built around the individual and household needs. That can include whether the household is in an evacuation zone, whether individuals choose to shelter in place, and if pets or small children are in the house. We have to be careful that we dont forget the other factors that come along, especially with hurricanes, and that is the wind factor and also the potential for the storm surge near the coast, Lindner said. So we havent dealt with those two factors here in southeast Texas really since [Hurricane] Ike back in 2008. He recommends watching weather forecasts at least once a day during this season. Flood insurance is also suggested by Lindner even if your household is not in a floodplain. If you have specific medications you need, or if you have a pet, or if you have young children, all of those circumstances require certain things in that kit to make things easier and better when you go through a storm or in the aftermath of a storm, Lindner said. The Harris County Flood Control District does have its own flood warning system that covers a large portion of the region that provides real-time water level information from creeks and bayous which can be found at www.harriscountyfws.org. By signing up, individuals can receive notifications about a set water level designation at particular gauges. For individuals in the Lake Houston area, Lindner recommends checking flood warnings in the East Fork and West Fork of the San Jacinto River. savannah.mehrtens@chron.com Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat (Photo: Screencap from live telecast) SINGAPORE The government will set aside an additional $13 billion in the Contingencies Funds, which is specifically for urgent and unforeseen expenditure needs. This is on top of the total $3 billion that is usually set aside each year in the Contingencies Fund and Development Contingencies Fund. Announcing this in Parliament on Tuesday (26 May), Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said, This will allow the government to respond quickly to any unforeseeable developments arising from COVID-19. This could include public health or fiscal measures that have to be put in place quickly, if the medical or economic situation deteriorates. We will do our best to avoid this, but we must be prepared for any eventuality. With the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an unprecedented level of uncertainty. It is uncertain how the pandemic will evolve, if there will be a second or even third wave, and if, and when, vaccines will be available. The uncertainty on the medical front is fuelling the uncertainty in the global economy, Heng explained. The use of the Contingencies Funds is subject to proper governance and accountability. Under the Constitution, the Minister for Finance may make advances from the Contingencies Funds if the minister is satisfied that there is an urgent and unforeseen need for the expenditure, and the President concurs with the making of such advances, Heng said. Thereafter, the amount advanced shall be included in a Supplementary Supply Bill or Final Supply Bill, which will be presented to and voted on by Parliament, as soon as practicable. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related stories Singapore unveils $33 billion 4th Budget as part of COVID-19 response COVID-19: New Bill seeks to force landlords to waive rentals for severely impacted SMEs COVID-19: Extra $2.9b for firms to keep workers employed Heng Swee Keat COVID-19: $2 billion package to create 100,000 opportunities for workers Heng Swee Keat Another $800m for COVID-19 Support Grant: Heng Swee Keat ATLANTA, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company Gas and the Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation are donating $1 million toward academic expansion and efforts to provide greater equity in healthcare led by Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). This gift, part of MSM's Expansion into the Future Initiative, enables the medical school to strengthen its academic offerings and research enterprise, including its budding Natural Products Research Center and the development of an Emerging Pathogens Research Team focusing on topics such as coronaviruses. "As our communities continue to be impacted by the coronavirus and work to recover from what has become a global health crisis, Southern Company Gas recognizes the immediate need to support institutions seeking solutions while addressing critical health equity issues," said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company Gas. "We support MSM's cutting-edge research and education model, which fosters greater inclusion in not only healthcare, but ultimately our entire society." According to a study led by amfAR and the Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access and data from the U.S. Census Bureau, black Americans represent 13.4% of the U.S. population, but counties with higher black populations account for more than half of all COVID-19 cases and almost 60% of deaths. MSM's efforts to improve diversity in the medical profession, research into health challenges facing minority communities and service to underserved communities play a critical role in addressing racial inequality. The academic expansion initiative will provide the campus community with state-of-the-art facilities that effectively integrate technology and foster collaborative learning among students, faculty, and staff. It will also support MSM's research portfolio focused on infectious diseases such as COVID-19, as well as cancer, cardiovascular disease and neuroscience, among other topics critical to improving the health of underserved communities. "Our existing virology research's success may help to establish an even larger U.S and global structure examining emerging pathogens of all types and how we can identify and address them," says Professor Vincent C. Bond, chair of the Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Immunology at MSM. "Our integrative approach to health care allows us to translate the discoveries made in labs, to the bedside of patients, and then to the communities we serve." Recently celebrating its 45th anniversary, MSM has made monumental strides increasing the class size of each of its degree-granting programs, including the Medical program, Graduate Education in Biomedical Sciences, Graduate Education in Public Health and Physician Assistant Studies. Higher education plays a critical role in driving economic wellbeing; however, studies have shown one approach to ending the cycle of poverty caused by our nation's long history of racial inequity considers quality education and healthcare. This is why earlier this year Southern Company Gas and its parent company, Southern Company, announced plans to donate $50 million to historically black universities and colleges to support career readiness and develop future leaders. For more information on Southern Company Gas' efforts to support COVID-19 relief, visit scgcares.org. About Southern Company Gas Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America's premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.2 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states and approximately 700,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com. About the Southern Company Charitable Gas Foundation The Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to supporting those who are transforming lives by tackling complex challenges with revolutionary vision. Every year, the Charitable Foundation donates millions of dollars in grants to organizations that align with Southern Company Gas' values and that passionately work to improve the lives of the communities the company serves. As an independent, nonprofit philanthropic foundation, the Southern Company Gas Charitable Foundation is funded solely by Southern Company Gas through shareholder dollars. About Morehouse School of Medicine Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), located in Atlanta, GA exist to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities, increase the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce, and address primary health care through programs in education, research, and service, with emphasis on people of color and the underserved urban and rural populations in Georgia, the nation, and the world. MSM is among the nation's leading educators of primary care physicians and has twice been recognized as the top institution among U.S. medical schools for its dedication to the social mission of education. The faculty and alumni are noted in their fields for excellence in teaching, research, and public policy, and are known in the community for exceptional, culturally appropriate patient care. Morehouse School of Medicine is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctorate and master's degrees. SOURCE Southern Company Gas From reopening schools and rescheduling exams, to India and Chinas role in vaccine development, and why reverse migration may have set the country back by 15 years read these and more in todays India dispatch. Expert Speak Its not a problem if schools are the last to open: When online teaching modules may not be viable for many institutes, when most state governments are struggling to reach a consensus on the when-what-how of reopening schools and rescheduling exams, ... Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Americas second oldest fast-food restaurant chain has emerged from bankruptcy for a second time in the past 24 years. Krystal Restaurants LLC, which began in Chattanooga in 1932 and is famous for its small, square hamburgers, has been acquired by an investment group organized by Fortress Investment Group LLC, an affiliate of the Japan-based multinational holding company SoftBank Group, and Golden Child Holdings, which also manages and Pizza Hut and other restaurants. The new owners bought Krystal's assets from the bankruptcy court last week after the restaurant chain filed for bankruptcy in January. Thomas Stager, CEO of Golden Child's Pizza Hut operations and chief operating officer of Golden Child Holdings, has been named president of Krystal. "The new partnership is excited to continue growing the brand, maintaining an overriding focus on enhancing customer experience," Angela Johnson, Krystal's vice president of marketing, said in an announcement of the new ownership and management. "Even during this unusual time, our iconic brand continues to perform well and we see exceptional opportunities for growth looking ahead." When it filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization petition in January, Krystal operated 182 company-owned restaurants across Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Arkansas. In addition, franchisees own and operate 116 Krystal restaurants. The company, which is now headquartered in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody, was founded in Chattanooga in 1932, and is the oldest quick-service restaurant in the South. Only White Castle, which started in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, is older than Krysal among fast-food restaurant chains still operating in the United States. Krystal previously filed for bankruptcy in 1997 due to millions of dollars of employee claims for unpaid overtime. Krystal was acquired out of bankruptcy that same year by Port Royal Holdings in a $145 million deal. The company was later sold and relocated its headquarters from Chattanooga to Atlanta in 2013 when it was purchased by the private equity firm Argonne Capital. Fortress Investment Group is a global investment manager based in New York and with offices in Atlanta and has approximately $43.5 billion of assets under management as of Dec. 31, 2019. Terms of the latest purchase were not disclosed and followed an unsuccessful auction for the Krystal assets earlier in May. Stager, who becomes the third CEO for Krystal in the past six months, has worked in helping to revitalize Pizza Hut and Arby's, according to a release from Krystal announcing his appointment. 2020 the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.) Visit the Chattanooga Times/Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at www.timesfreepress.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Bharti Airtel fell 3.40% to Rs 572.85 on the BSE after the counter witnessed block deals in early trade today, 26 May 2020. On the BSE, the counter clocked a volume of 16.39 crore shares as against its average trading volume of 6.06 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock fell 5.38% to hit a low of Rs 561.10 on BSE in early trade today. On the NSE, the counter clocked a volume of 3.13 crore shares compared with its average trading volume of 1.75 crore shares in the past one quarter. The stock fel 4.11% to hit a low of Rs 568.60 on NSE in early trade today. In the F&O segment, Bharti Airtel's 28 May 2020 futures were currently trading at 572.65, a discount of 0.2 points compared with the spot price of 572.85. On the options front, the Airtel's option chain for 28 May 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 31.68 lakh contracts at the 600 strike price. Maximum put OI of 14.21 lakh contracts was seen at 550 strike price. The media reported that Bharti Telecom, promoter of Bharti Airtel, will sell $1 billion worth of stake in the mobile operator through a block deal on Tuesday. The block deal involving 2.75% stake sale would be conducted at around Rs 558 per share. The floor price marks a discount of 5.90% to the company's stock price of Rs 593 on Friday. The move will reportedly help the telecom major in becoming debt free. Bharti Telecom held 38.79% stake in Bharti Airtel as on 31 March 2020. Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. The telecom major reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 5327 crore in Q4 March 2020 (Q4 FY20) as against net profit of Rs 107.20 crore in Q4 March 2019 (Q4 FY19). The exceptional charge of Rs 7004 crore during Q4 March 2020 comprises of a charge on account of reassessment of regulatory cost. Net sales jumped 15.1% to Rs 23,722.70 crore during the period under review. The company said its average revenue per user (ARPU) rose 25.20% to Rs 154 in Q4 FY20 from Rs 123 in Q4 FY19. The company total customer base increased by 4.9% to 42.3 crore customers in Q4 March 2020 from 40.3 crore customers in Q4 March 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rumours have long swirled of a row between the Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan Markle at the royal wedding two years ago. Now it is claimed that the spat centred on whether Princess Charlotte and the other young bridesmaids at Meghan's marriage to Harry in May 2018 should wear tights. Society bible Tatler details the alleged fall-out in a profile of Kate, 38, in its latest issue. It also carries claims that Kate feels 'exhausted and trapped' by the increased workload following the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's decision to step back from royal life. The profile, titled Catherine the Great, quotes one unnamed friend who claims Kate wanted to follow 'protocol', with the bridesmaids, including Charlotte, then three, wearing tights but Meghan disagreed. Rumours have long swirled of a row between the Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan Markle at the royal wedding two years ago. Pictured: The Duchess of Cambridge with Princess Charlotte leaving St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle after the wedding in 2018 Now it is claimed that the spat centred on whether Princess Charlotte and the other young bridesmaids at Meghan's marriage to Harry in May 2018 should wear tights. Pictured: Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Meghan Markle's friend, Canadian fashion stylist Jessica Mulroney hold bridesmaids hands as they at the wedding The profile, titled Catherine the Great, quotes one unnamed friend who claims Kate wanted to follow 'protocol', with the bridesmaids, including Charlotte, then three, wearing tights but Meghan disagreed. Pictured: Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex emerge from the West Door of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle 'There was an incident at the wedding rehearsal,' the source said. 'It was a hot day and apparently there was a row over whether the bridesmaids should wear tights or not. 'Kate, following protocol, felt that they should. Meghan didn't want them to.' Pictures from the wedding at St George's Chapel, Windsor, appear to show the six bridesmaids with bare legs, while photographs from Prince William and Kate's wedding in April 2011 show bridesmaids wearing tights. Another friend of the Cambridges said Kate feels exhausted as she and William, 37, are forced to take on more royal duties after Harry, 35, and Meghan quit the family at the end of March. The couple, who also have sons George, six, and Louis, two have made several appearances by video link during lockdown, while Harry and 38-year-old Meghan are setting up their new life with son Archie, one, in Los Angeles. A source claimed: 'Kate is furious about the larger workload. 'Of course she's smiling and dressing appropriately but she doesn't want this. She feels exhausted and trapped. She's working as hard as a top CEO, who has to be wheeled out all the time, without the benefits of boundaries and plenty of holidays.' Society bible Tatler details the alleged fall-out in a profile of Kate, 38, in its latest issue (pictured) Another told Tatler: 'Meghan and Harry have been so selfish. William and Catherine really wanted to be hands-on parents and the Sussexes have effectively thrown their three children under a bus. 'There goes their morning school runs as the responsibilities on them now are enormous.' However, royal sources said yesterday that the claim that Kate is unhappy about her workload is false. The profile was written by Anna Pasternak, the author who made her name in 1994 with Princess In Love, a book about Princess Diana's five-year affair with former army officer James Hewitt. It was claimed in November 2018 that Meghan had reduced Kate to tears over Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid's dress. The Daily Telegraph reported that two sources said the Duchess of Cambridge was crying after a dress fitting with Charlotte. 'Kate had only just given birth to Prince Louis and was feeling quite emotional,' a source claimed. During lockdown, William and Kate have made up for a lack of official royal duties by using the latest technology. They joined residents of a Cardiff care home for a virtual game of bingo and 'visited' the children of key workers at a primary school in Burnley. Meanwhile Harry and Meghan are living in a 14.5million villa in Beverly Hills. Set in 14 acres, is owned by Hollywood tycoon Tyler Perry, 50. The couple are believed to have moved into property, which has eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, under an arrangement organised through TV host Oprah Winfrey. Prior to locating to the duchess's home city, Meghan and Harry had been staying in a 10million mansion on Vancouver Island, Canada. A Kensington Palace spokesman said: 'This story contains a swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations which were not put to Kensington Palace prior to publication.' The Sussexes have been approached for comment. See the full feature in the July/August issue of Tatler, available on digital download and newsstands tomorrow. As if the coronavirus epidemic were not enough, health official are now on alert for a new mystery disease that appears to be spreading among children in a dozen countries including the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has labeled the disease "Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children" or MIS-C, shorthand for "we do not know what this is." Jeong Eun-kyeong, the head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, "We look up MIS-C infections overseas to come up with a reporting procedure. This is part of efforts to quickly identify and respond if cases are detected here." Identifiers include high fever of over 38 degrees Celsius persisting for more than 24 hours, increased inflammatory particles in the blood, two or more severe infections of the intestines that require hospitalization, and coronavirus infection or exposure to the virus within the past four weeks. Cases are classified as MIS-C only if no other likely pathogen can be found. The first MIS-C infection was detected in the U.K. late last month. Since then, around 450 cases were found in the U.S., Spain, Italy and other countries. One fatality each occurred in the U.K. and France, while at least five children have died in the U.S. No MIS-C cases have been detected in Korea so far. LOS ANGELES, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- International Cannabrands Inc. dba Radiko Holdings (CSE: RDKO) (the "Company") is very pleased to announce that Renee Gagnon has agreed to be nominated for election to its Board of Directors at the next annual meeting of shareholders. Steve Gormley, CEO of the Company commented: "It is with great pleasure that we make this announcement today. I am grateful to our General Counsel, Scott Reeves, for introducing me to Renee, and I am certain her vast experience and resources will significantly contribute to the Company's advancement. Ms. Gagnon is a force in the world of legal cannabis, and we very much look forward to having her on our team." Renee is a serial entrepreneur and cannabis pioneer. She is both the first transgender CEO of a publicly traded cannabis company and the first female one. Emerald Health was the 4th Federally sanctioned Licensed Producer in Canada, and at its peak broke $1B CAD market cap. Renee has made use of her decade of Federal licensing experience (four licenses to date), and most recently founded a Canadian psychedelic startup. While standing in nomination for Radiko's Board of Directors, Renee is eager to work alongside the Company and continue her mission of advancing every aspect of the legal cannabis industry while providing opportunities for women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color. Ms Gagnon commented: "Steve and I share the belief that diversity at every level of an organization is paramount to building and supporting a well-rounded team. I have deep respect for the leadership at Radiko and believe strongly that they are poised for growth. I'm delighted to be joining their Board and eager to lend my expertise." Additionally, the Company wishes to announce that an Annual General and Special Meeting (AGM) of International Cannabrands Inc. dba Radiko Holdings will be held virtually on Monday, June 29, 2020. Shareholders will be entitled to participate and vote at the Meeting. Materials related to the meeting will be mailed to shareholders on May 26, 2020, and will be posted on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.radikoholdings.com. About Radiko Holdings International Cannabrands Inc. dba Radiko Holdings (RDKO) is a CBD and cannabis-focused brand portfolio, leveraging the potential of the plant by offering best of breed products that naturally complement today's consumer lifestyles. The Company's mission is to build and market a diversified portfolio of cannabis and CBD brands, with strategic manufacturing and distribution partnerships to support better EBITDA and margins. RDKO markets products with THC content where that practice has been legalized at the state level through either medicinal or recreational use. RDKO also markets products containing CBD in the US and internationally. The Company believes as the legal cannabis and CBD markets evolve, high-quality, unique products will increasingly capture market share and provide a valuable platform for growth. NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAS REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. International Cannabrands Contact: Steve Gormley Chief Executive Officer International Cannabrands, Ltd. 12655 W Jefferson Blvd Los Angeles, CA, 90066 Ph: +1-(323)-828-4321 or [email protected] Investor Relations Contact: Dave Burwell Vice President The Howard Group #350, 318 - 11 Avenue SE Calgary, AB T2G 0Y2 Ph: +1-(403)-221-0915 or [email protected] Media Inquiries: [email protected] SOURCE Radiko Holdings Body of Missing 9-Year-Old Oklahoma Boy Found in Pond: Officials Search efforts to locate a missing 9-year-old boy from Oklahoma ended with tragic news, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) said. The OHP announced that the body of Triston Weeden was located in a nearby pond close to his home in Atoka County on Monday morning. We are very sad to say that Triston Weeden has been located but he was not found alive. Our deepest condolences go to his family. And we thank everyone that helped in the search, the department said. Tristan has been found and recovered. Please pray for his family at this time, Emergency management director Derrick Mixon said on Facebook. Weeden was reported missing on Saturday, OHP officials said. The boy was last seen that day around 7:30 p.m. near Wardville in northern Atoka County. Search and rescue committed themselves throughout two nights to try and locate Weeden, Coal County Search & Rescue said on Facebook. Triston Weeden, 9, in a file photo. (Oklahoma Highway Patrol) Pray for all the First Responders and many volunteers who selflessly offered their help in the search, Mixon said Monday. Atoka County Medical Examiner & Coroner Office officials collected Weedens remains late Monday morning, KTEN reported. Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and did not provide any additional information. From NTD News Germany could ease restrictions on travel within Europe by the middle of June and drop social distancing altogether before July, government sources have said. Chancellor Angela Merkel is preparing for talks with regional leaders about the next steps in easing the country's lockdown, which has already seen most businesses reopen along with some bars and gyms. Ministers are said to be pushing for travel restrictions to mainland Europe - as well as the UK and Iceland - to be lifted as early as June 15. Germany could drop travel restrictions to mainland Europe along with the UK and Iceland by June 15 as the country's coronavirus lockdown eases (file image) Social distancing guidelines could then be scrapped from June 29, a week earlier than originally planned. It comes after Germany began easing its lockdown measures in April without seeing a spike in either cases or deaths. The country's 'R' number - or the number of people the average patient infects - has largely remained below 1 since the start of the month. A number below 1 means the virus is in remission and the number of cases and deaths will slowly fall. European leaders have said that restarting tourism is a priority as lockdowns ease, with the industry worth billions to the continent's economy. Mrs Merkel has been widely praised for spearheading one of the world's most successful coronavirus responses. The country had confirmed 179,002 cases of the virus on Tuesday - one of the highest world totals but thanks largely to a rigorous testing regime. It comes after Germany began easing its lockdown in April, and has seen no spike in daily cases since then (pictured, a graph of the country's daily case totals) Germany has also seen a steady decline in its daily death totals despite easing lockdown in April, leading to calls for the process to speed up Meanwhile its death toll stands at just 8,302, one of the lowest totals of any major world country. Faced with the prospect of overseeing the country's largest recession since the Second World War, leaders are pushing Mrs Merkel to capitalise on the success of her response by opening as swiftly as possible. But she has been urging caution, fearing a second and potentially larger spike in cases and deaths if measures are eased too soon. She is due to meet with regional leaders on Wednesday to discuss next steps. Markus Soeder, premier of Bavaria, the hardest-hit state, has voiced opposition to moving too fast in reopening tourism. 'We have in Italy, Spain and France completely different infection numbers compared to Germany so I ask the federal government to think very carefully about this,' he said. 'Nobody should be fooled. Corona remains deadly,' Soeder said. In cautioning against lifting lockdown too fast, he has found himself butting heads in recent days with Bodo Ramelow, the leader of Thuringia state. Europe is desperately trying to salvage some of the summer tourist season which is worth billions to the continent's economy (pictured, socially distanced booths on a German beach) He has proposed dropping all lockdown rules immediately, in favour of a voluntary system where people can choose which safety measures they want to take. Under Germany's federal system, individual states can decide which measures to enforce. The Bild daily said Merkel, under pressure from state premiers, had agreed to advance the date that social distancing should be relaxed to June 29 from July 5, citing a draft document still to be agreed. The move to restart tourism to Europe also comes after the government agreed an 8billion bailout with state airline Lufthansa. Germany's finance and economy ministries said on Monday that Lufthansa had been operationally healthy and profitable with good prospects but had run into trouble because of the pandemic. 'The support that we're preparing here is for a limited period,' the finance minister, Olaf Scholz, said of the deal, under which Germany is buying new shares at the nominal value of 2.56 apiece for a total of about 300m. Berlin, which has set up a 100bn fund to take stakes in companies struck by the coronavirus crisis, said it plans to sell the Lufthansa stake by the end of 2023. Photo: Stephen Rahn/Flickr Here's what you need to know about what's happening in Atlanta. Several high school students test positive for COVID-19 after drive-thru graduation parade Read the full story on Business Insider. Atlanta home to 2 potential contenders for Biden's VP Read the full story on MySanAntonio. Armed man shot by Atlanta officer in Old Fourth Ward Read the full story on Fox5 News This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. Some students from the Lovett School reportedly attended the drive-thru graduation ceremony in groups and were in close quarters with one another. Neither public rivals nor personal friends, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former state representative Stacey Abrams spent years climbing parallel ladders at Atlanta City Hall and the Georgia Capitol. They are now Georgia's most influential African American women. Worcester Public Schools and Boston Public Schools have said they will not be changing virtual graduation ceremony plans, despite the state allowing outdoor in-person graduations in July. On Friday, Massachusetts released new guidelines for high school graduations, stating graduations held after July 19 can be held outside. High school graduations are an important ceremony in the lives of the graduate and their loved ones, the guidelines say. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the standards include holding the ceremony in an unconfined outdoor space that can accommodate social distancing and the flow of air. Tents or other enclosed spaces are not permitted. It also lists recommended restrictions on age, handshakes and how to hand out diplomas. Some schools were waiting to make decisions until the state gave them more information, while others have gone ahead with more unique ceremonies for their students. Boston and Worcester public schools opted for virtual ceremonies, something school officials say will not be changing. Boston Public Schools is excited to hold its first-ever districtwide virtual graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 13, the school district said in a statement. We congratulate all of the students statewide who are graduating this year, their families, and their schools, and thank city and state officials for their continued guidance and support. Worcester Public Schools reasoning on the lack of changes also revolved around the date. All graduations are completed by June 12, Worcester Public School superintendent Maureen Binienda said in an email to MassLive. Some parents and students have been outspoken since the original announcement about their disappointment for the virtual celebrations. Virtually, its just not the same. It really isnt. Its never going to be the same, said Burncoat High School senior Leslie Hernandez. She started a petition asking the school to change its decision. It breaks my heart, she said after hearing the state is allowing other schools to have the celebration she longs for, while her school district isnt budging. A student at Springfield Public Schools started a similar petition and it worked. Springfield Public Schools announced high schools will host in-person events with precautions in place for the coronavirus pandemic, adding that its up to each high school to make its own plans. It became clear that many students felt a sense of disappointment about not having a chance to experience some semblance of a traditional graduation," Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick said. All students in Massachusetts will also get a virtual graduation ceremony, complete with celebrities Rachel Platten, best known for her hit, Fight Song, and actor Steve Carell. Related Content: LUDLOW Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi has ordered a precautionary lockdown of the jail in Ludlow after eight inmates tested positive for the coronavirus, a spokesman for the department confirmed on Tuesday. Four staff members also have tested positive. Since the state of emergency was declared by Gov. Charlie Baker on March 10, these represent the first positives among the population, according to spokesman Robert Rizzuto. The lock-down will remain in effect until the entire population is tested for COVID-19. Cocchi attributed the cases to an increased volume of arrests over the Memorial Day weekend. Over the weekend, the department took in 52 regional safe-keep detainees, who are people arrested by local police departments across Hampden County. A majority of those individuals were placed on medical precautions upon arrival based on their COVID-19 symptoms revealed through our medical screening process, read a statement from the sheriffs department. Twelve staff members previously tested positive, but recovered and have since been medically cleared to return to work, Cocchi said. Our institution is a reflection of the community we serve and we have been preparing for the inevitable positive case within our population. Our thorough medical plan to mitigate the potential for spreading the virus within the population has been ready and is now enacted, Cocchi said. The institutional focus is now on containment. I am ordering a temporary lockdown of the facility until we can test every single person in our custody. The lock-down will prevent the facility from accepting additional safe keeps and those being housed for court-ordered substance abuse treatment, Cocchi said. This is a developing story that will be updated with further information. Related Content: Press Release May 26, 2020 Hontiveros backs livelihood, employment plan for OFWs who can't return to work after pandemic With thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) forced to return home due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Senator Risa Hontiveros today urged government to establish a reintegration plan to help provide decent employment or other means of livelihood to OFWs who will not be able to return to their work abroad. "Hindi dapat pabayaan ng pamahalaan ang libo-libo nating kababayang OFW na biglang pinauwi sa bansa at ngayon ay nasa alanganin ang kabuhayan. Government by now must have a comprehensive reintegration plan in place to assist OFWs who unfortunately, may no longer be able to resume their jobs overseas even after the pandemic eases," she said. Hontiveros made her call after the National Task Force for COVID-19 recently confirmed that around 42,000 OFWs are set to return to the Philippines for the months of May and June, on top of the 27,000 overseas workers who have arrived in recent months. According to Hontiveros, government aid to all displaced OFWs should not be limited to medical services, food and lodging for their mandatory 14-day quarantine, and should include livelihood and employment assistance to connect workers with alternative means of providing for their families. "The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Department of Foreign Affairs, and agencies like the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) must double their efforts to ensure the speedy return of OFWs to their jobs abroad, now that more countries are beginning to ease their lockdown protocols. However for those who will not be able to go back, we should have a reintegration program that will bridge OFWs to locally-available jobs or forms of livelihood that not only match their skills or competencies, but also offer decent income," she said. Relevant agencies, Hontiveros added, must also offer retraining programs to enable displaced OFWs, particularly those with specified skillsets such as seafarers, to learn new trades or professions in agri-business or other promising industries: "Hindi man makabalik ang ilang kababayan natin sa kanilang trahabo sa ibang bansa, kung may ganitong skills-building at livelihood programs ay madali silang makahanap ng ibang paraan ng trabaho o negosyo para tuloy-tuloy lang ang kanilang kita." In the meantime, the senator said government should extend and widen the distribution of financial aid to displaced OFWs under the DOLE-AKAP and the Balik-Manggagawa assistance programs. "It is undeniable that many OFWs, including those who lost their jobs but are stuck overseas, continue to need financial assistance to feed their families. Instead of stopping these programs, we should even upgrade them in anticipation of the many more OFWs set to return home in the weeks to come," she said. Hontiveros warned that if government fails to implement the necessary reintegration programs and services, the sheer number of unemployed OFWs in the future will create a "full-blown labor crisis" that will complicate the nation's recovery from the pandemic. Citing a recent paper from the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development, she said that as much as 300,000 to 400,000 OFWs may eventually lose their jobs or suffer from pay cuts due to the pandemic if government does not take decisive action. "Kailangan maging handa tayo sa napipintong problema na ito. Sa dami ng naitulong ng ating mga OFW sa pamahalaan at sa ekonomiya sa mga nakalipas na dekada, dapat lang na tulungan natin sila ngayong ang mga "modern-day heroes" naman ang humaharap sa napakalaking pagsubok," she concluded. "CE marking of the 14-Day CAM patch is a significant corporate milestone and a testament to the quality of the CAM patch and BardyDx's compliance with all applicable European health, safety, performance and environmental requirements," said Ed Vertatschitsch, Chief Operating Officer. Ken Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer added, "Along with our Health Canada Medical Device License, the ability to distribute a CE-marked 14-CAM patch outside of the United States is one more step towards our P-wave centric detection and analysis technology becoming the global standard of care in long-term cardiac monitoring." The CAM patch is distributed by Dot Medical in the United Kingdom and by JNC Medical in Canada. The 14-Day CAM patch enables up to double the duration of the current 7-Day CAM patch, providing clinicians a greater opportunity to detect less-frequently occurring arrhythmias and to better inform decisions and prioritize care. The clinical value of the BardyDx P-wave centric detection technology was reported in a study published in the American Heart Journal describing the results of a head-to-head comparison with the iRhythm Zio XT patch. The study, "Comparison of two ambulatory patch ECG monitors: The benefit of the P-wave and signal clarity," (Am Heart J 2018; 203:109-117) concluded that the BardyDx CAM Patch identified 40% more arrhythmias and resulted in better, more informed clinical decision-making in 41% of patients as compared to the iRhythm Zio XT patch. BardyDx also announced the expansion of its Home Enrollment Program. Typically, the CAM patch is applied to a patient in a clinic setting, but the rapidly evolving COVID-19 public health emergency has increased the use of telehealth and direct to patient delivery of remote monitoring devices, particularly in the cardiac monitoring space, to reduce resource burdens on healthcare facilities and risk of exposure of patients and their caregivers to emerging or other infectious diseases. "We are all fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic together. To help address the evolving needs of physicians and patients in this public health emergency, facilitate the rapid transition to telehealth for clinics around the country and to ensure uninterrupted access to our CAM patch, our team has worked around the clock to increase our manufacturing capacity and expand our internal business operations to enable patients to receive and apply our disposable, single-use CAM patch at home," said Ken Nelson. Mr. Nelson continued, "The home application program eliminates the need for in-person patient and healthcare provider contact, reduces the potential for exposure to COVID-19, streamlines care, and allows healthcare personnel who are already resource-constrained to focus on other areas of critical need." The CAM patch is currently used in hospital protocols to help physicians better identify and understand arrhythmias that may be related to COVID-19, including in a number of clinical trials of COVID-19 patients at academic centers across the U.S. who are being treated with Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, or both in order to monitor for QT interval prolongation, which may lead to potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias. About Bardy Diagnostics: Bardy Diagnostics, Inc. is an innovator in digital health and remote patient monitoring, with a focus on providing the most diagnostically-accurate and patient-friendly cardiac monitors in the industry. The company's CAM patch is a non-invasive, P-wave centric ambulatory cardiac monitor and arrhythmia detection device that is designed to improve patient compliance for adults and children through its lifestyle-enabling form factor. Designed to be worn comfortably and discreetly for up to 14 days, the female-friendly, hourglass-shaped CAM patch is placed on the center of the chest, directly over the heart for optimum ECG signal collection. The proprietary technology of the CAM patch provides optimal detection and clear recording of the often difficult-to-detect P-wave, the signal of the ECG waveform that is essential for accurate arrhythmia diagnosis. For more information, please visit www.bardydx.com . About Dot Medical: Dot Medical is an independent medical device distributor based in the UK serving the fields of Cardiology, Respiration and Airway Management and Cardiac Surgery. The company offers over 300 products with leading edge technology in its total portfolio and provides product training, education and support both in the National Healthcare System (NHS) and private hospitals. Dot's staff is composed of both sales and clinical training specialists passionate about providing solutions for patient care. The company's mission is to constantly look for new products which will make procedures easier to perform, locating new technologies which will enhance patient's lives and bringing solutions to highly technical problems. For more information, please visit http://www.dot-medical.com/ About JNC Medical: JNC Medical is an independent distributor of medical devices based in Ottawa, Ontario. JNC Medical was established in 2016 with a vision to bring the world's most innovative device technologies to Canadian physicians and patients. For more information, please visit https://jncmedical.ca/ MEDIA CONTACT: Amy Ho Senior Manager, Product Strategy & Commercialization Bardy Diagnostics, Inc. 1-844-422-7393 [email protected] SOURCE Bardy Diagnostics, Inc. Related Links http://www.bardydx.com (CNN) Brazil appears to be entering another dark week, as coronavirus cases grow by the thousands and controversy swells around President Jair Bolsonaro. On Monday, the Ministry of Health announced 11,687 new cases of coronavirus had been confirmed over the last 24 hours, bringing its total number of cases to over 374,800. More than 23,400 Brazilians have died so far. The increase follows a grim milestone over the weekend: On Saturday, Brazil overtook Russia to become the country with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 after the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University figures. That was the night that Bolsonaro and his security team left Brasilia's presidential palace and made an impromptu stop at a hot dog stand. While local media captured the president eating his snack, people could be heard yelling "killer" and "trash" and banging pots and pans from their windows. The President at one point turned and wagged his finger at the crowd. While the country's number of confirmed cases and death rate soar, Bolsonaro has referred to the virus as a "little flu" and frequently downplayed its risks. Two health ministers have left his cabinet in the past few weeks -- one was fired and the other resigned -- after disagreements over how to handle the pandemic. Bolsonaro has repeatedly expressed concern about the financial impact of the virus, warning it will be worse than the virus itself. He has been outspoken against preventive measures, like lockdowns and quarantines, imposed by governors and mayors of some of the most impacted places in Brazil. His supporters seem to agree. On Sunday, crowds gathered outside Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia waving banners and flags in support of Bolsonaro and protesting the lockdown measures. The rallies have been happening nearly every weekend and are usually broadcast live on Bolsonaro's personal Facebook account. In video footage of the latest rally, Bolsonaro could be seen with and without a mask as he greeted excited supporters cheering behind a barrier. At one point, a young girl slipped past the barrier and hugged him, while he wasn't wearing a mask. National Security Adviser Gen. Augusto Heleno, who was with Bolsonaro at the event, could be heard saying, "We will win this war." "This is a calculated risk and everything will work out," he added. However, Bolsonaro's critics have slammed the government for how things are working out. During an interview with CNN Sunday, Manaus Mayor Arthur Virgilio Neto said the president was "co-responsible" for the country's coronavirus deaths and called fo the president's resignation. "Shut up, stay home and resign," Virgilio Neto said. Manaus, a city of 2 million known as the gateway to the Amazon, has been devastated by the virus More than 13,000 cases and 1,182 deaths have been registered in Manaus. On Saturday alone, there were 51 burials. Virgilio Neto's attack was not unprovoked -- in a video of an April cabinet meeting released last week by the country's Supreme Court as part of an unrelated probe, Bolsonaro was revealed calling the Manaus mayor a "piece of shit," referencing the city's mass graves. The explosion of cases in Brazil is part of a new rise across Latin America that worries health experts. Peru, Chile and Mexico have also seen steep rises in new cases over the past week. "We don't have the situation under control and particularly in many of the poorer areas of the world, it's really spiraling upward," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, former World Health Organization assistant director-general for health security told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on Friday. And while Brazil's so-called "Trump of the Tropics" has been accused of failing to take Covid-19 seriously enough, his counterpart in the United States is starting to signal concern. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump -- a vocal ally of Bolsonaro who has also faced criticism for his handling of the pandemic -- suspended entry for foreign nationals who have been in Brazil within 14 days immediately preceding their attempt to enter the United States. This story was first published on CNN.com "Brazil faces dark week as COVID-19 toll rises" Elko, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Lithium Corporation (OTCQB: LTUM) ("LTUM" or "the Company"), a North American company focused on energy metals for the growing energy storage sector and high tech industries, is pleased to provide an update with respect to developments over the past couple of months. While the Covid-19 crisis slowed work on some fronts, the Company has strived to make use of this time as effectively as possible. Recently, the company submitted verification samples to a North American lithium processor from earlier drilling programs at its Fish Lake Valley lithium-brine prospect in Esmeralda County, Nevada. This was done to verify earlier results and mainly to determine the amenability of the FLV brines to ionic lithium extraction. Early tests have been favorable and work is ongoing. The Company is in talks to provide a bulk brine sample. Progress continues at the Hughes property in the historic Tonopah mining camp in Nye County, Nevada where Lithium Corporation holds a 25% interest through its ownership in Summa, LLC. The Optionee - Summa Silver Corp (SSVR) - a Canadian Stock Exchange listed (CSE) company, announced a $5,000,000 private placement to fund exploration work on the property, and also recently increased the size of the land package to 2,547 acres (1031 hectares) of highly prospective ground. The Hughes Tonopah property features the eastern portion of the famous past-producing Tonopah mining district, including the Belmont Mine, arguably the most significant past-producer in the camp. The Belmont is reported to have produced 36.7 million ounces of silver and 428,000 ounces of gold from 2.1 million tons of rock. The mine has remained inactive since commercial production ceased in 1929 due to heavily depressed metal prices. No modern assessment of remaining potential has ever been completed. Preliminary 3D modeling of the veins shows a number of high potential walk-up targets. In addition, the property features a 5-km strike extension of the famous Tonopah mining district where preliminary exploration, completed by a past operator in the late 1980's, uncovered new mineralized zones and extensive hydrothermal alteration. Underpowered drilling equipment and slashed budgets prevented the potential realization of a significant new discovery. Lithium Corporation has continued to assist on the mineralized tailings/mine dumps portion of the project. Lithium Corporation continues to comply with all governmental suggestions and restrictions with respect to limiting the spread of the Novel Coronavirus, and is pleased with the recent decrease in cases and loosening of restricted activities. The Company anticipates the eventual full reopening of the border with Canada, which will facilitate work on the Company's 100% owned Yeehaw Titanium/Rare Earth Element property in southern British Columbia. Lithium Corporation wishes to remind all to remain vigilant and stay safe with regard to the virus. About Lithium Corporation Lithium Corporation is an exploration company based in Nevada devoted to the exploration for energy storage related resources throughout North America, and looking to capitalize on opportunities within the ever-expanding next generation energy storage markets. The Company maintains a strategic alliance with Altura Mining, an ASX listed Lithium mining company that is currently producing at near nameplate capacity at its 100% owned world-class Pilgangoora lithium pegmatite mine in Western Australia. Website: www.lithiumcorporation.com Contact Info Tom Lewis, CEO Lithium Corporation 775-410-5287 info@lithiumcorporation.com Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This current report contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of minerals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56243 Ninth and S. Oakland streets, 11:46 p.m. May 2. An officer was alerted to a license plate reader hit on a vehicle stolen from the District. During a traffic stop, four occupants fled the vehicle and were apprehended. A 20-year-old District male was arrested and charged. Three of the occupants were released with pending charges. Security researchers have found a major vulnerability in almost every version of Android, which lets malware imitate legitimate apps to steal app passwords and other sensitive data. The vulnerability, dubbed StrandHogg 2.0 (named after the Norse term for a hostile takeover) affects all devices running Android 9.0 and earlier. It's the "evil twin" to an earlier bug of the same name, according to Norwegian security firm Promon, which discovered both vulnerabilities six months apart. StrandHogg 2.0 works by tricking a victim into thinking they're entering their passwords on a legitimate app while instead interacting with a malicious overlay. StrandHogg 2.0 can also hijack other app permissions to siphon off sensitive user data, like contacts, photos, and track a victim's real-time location. The bug is said to be more dangerous than its predecessor because it's "nearly undetectable," Tom Lysemose Hansen, founder and chief technology officer at Promon, told TechCrunch. The good news is that Promon said it has no evidence that hackers have used the bug in active hacking campaigns. The caveat is that there are "no good ways" to detect an attack. Fearing the bug could still be abused by hackers, Promon delayed releasing details of the bug until Google could fix the "critical"-rated vulnerability. A spokesperson for Google told TechCrunch that the company also saw no evidence of active exploitation. "We appreciate the work of the researchers, and have released a fix for the issue they identified." The spokesperson said Google Play Protect, an app screening service built-in to Android devices, blocks apps that exploit the StrandHogg 2.0 vulnerability. StandHogg 2.0 works by abusing Android's multitasking system, which keeps tabs on every recently opened app so that the user can quickly switch back and forth. A victim would have to download a malicious app disguised as a normal app that can exploit the StrandHogg 2.0 vulnerability. Once installed and when a victim opens a legitimate app, the malicious app quickly hijacks the app and injects malicious content in its place, such as a fake login window. Story continues When a victim enters their password on the fake overlay, their passwords are siphoned off to the hacker's servers. The real app then appears as though the login was real. StrandHogg 2.0 doesn't need any Android permissions to run, but it can also hijack the permissions of other apps that have access to a victim's contacts, photos, and messages by triggering a permissions request. "If the permission is granted, then the malware now has this dangerous permission," said Hansen. Once that permission is granted, the malicious app can upload data from a user's phone. The malware can upload entire text message conversations, said Hansen, allowing the hackers to defeat two-factor authentication protections. The risk to users is likely low, but not zero. Promon said updating Android devices with the latest security updates out now will fix the vulnerability. Users are advised to update their Android devices as soon as possible. A Trenton man wounded early Sunday during a shooting at a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, hotel later died of his injuries, police said Monday. Davon Frink, 25, was among a group of Trenton residents who rented several rooms at the Holiday Inn Express on Cabot Boulevard off Oxford Valley Road on Saturday night, Falls police said. At about 1 a.m., police responded to a shooting at the hotel and encountered several people leaving the hotel, and evidence of gunfire. They found Frink in the parking lot suffering from gunshot wounds to his face and neck. He died later Sunday at a Bucks County hospital. No charges or arrests were announced Monday. Falls police said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information for investigators can contact Falls Detective John Vella at 215-949-9100 x431 or his email at j.vella@fallstwp.com. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. By way of example, AEX Gold (CVE:AEX) has seen its share price rise 107% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. But while the successes are well known, investors should not ignore the very many unprofitable companies that simply burn through all their cash and collapse. Given its strong share price performance, we think it's worthwhile for AEX Gold shareholders to consider whether its cash burn is concerning. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. The first step is to compare its cash burn with its cash reserves, to give us its 'cash runway'. Check out our latest analysis for AEX Gold Does AEX Gold Have A Long Cash Runway? A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. In March 2020, AEX Gold had CA$4.4m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was CA$4.9m. Therefore, from March 2020 it had roughly 11 months of cash runway. To be frank, this kind of short runway puts us on edge, as it indicates the company must reduce its cash burn significantly, or else raise cash imminently. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below. TSXV:AEX Historical Debt May 26th 2020 How Is AEX Gold's Cash Burn Changing Over Time? Because AEX Gold isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. With the cash burn rate up 35% in the last year, it seems that the company is ratcheting up investment in the business over time. However, the company's true cash runway will therefore be shorter than suggested above, if spending continues to increase. Admittedly, we're a bit cautious of AEX Gold due to its lack of significant operating revenues. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow. Story continues How Easily Can AEX Gold Raise Cash? Since its cash burn is moving in the wrong direction, AEX Gold shareholders may wish to think ahead to when the company may need to raise more cash. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash to fund growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn. AEX Gold's cash burn of CA$4.9m is about 9.5% of its CA$51m market capitalisation. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money. So, Should We Worry About AEX Gold's Cash Burn? On this analysis of AEX Gold's cash burn, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap was reassuring, while its increasing cash burn has us a bit worried. Even though we don't think it has a problem with its cash burn, the analysis we've done in this article does suggest that shareholders should give some careful thought to the potential cost of raising more money in the future. Taking a deeper dive, we've spotted 4 warning signs for AEX Gold you should be aware of, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored. If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. The West Australian Attorney General John Quigley has asked the Solicitor General for advice on a request from the father of four murdered children for him to direct the State Coroner to conduct an inquest into their deaths. Late on Friday night Mr Quigleys office received a letter from Aaron Cockman, whose children and former wife were murdered on a rural property near Margaret River two years ago. Aaron Cockman's children Taye, 13, Rylan, 12, Arye, 10, and Kadyn, 8 were killed by their grandfather. Mr Cockmans children daughter Taye, 13, and sons Rylan,12, Arye, 10 and Kadyn, eight were shot by their grandfather Peter Miles, who also murdered their mother Katrina and his wife Cynda at Forever Dreaming Farm in Osmington, just outside Margaret River. It was a crime that shocked the nation. After the loss of his own family, Mr Cockman said he would not rest until he saw major changes to the way Australia dealt with family breakdowns and the subsequent custody issues. Scott Morrison has insisted Australia's calls for an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus were not offensive. China was infuriated by the government's demand for an independent probe and imposed a tax on barley and banned some Aussie beef in apparent revenge. But the Prime Minister today insisted he did nothing wrong and said he did not target our largest trading partner. Labor leader Anthony Albanese backed Mr Morrison's calls for an inquiry - but labor agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has accused the Coalition of 'demonising' China. It comes as Chinese state media reported that Beijing could import more natural gas from the US and Qatar instead of Australia if tensions continue. The US is investigating if the virus originated in a laboratory (pictured) in Wuhan, China In an interview with the Today Show on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said: 'Australia has only ever acted in our own national interest and we have only ever acted in a way that has not sought to be offensive in any way, shape or form. 'I would simply ask "what offensive steps has Australian taken in relation to this relationship?" and my answer is none. 'We are being ourselves, we have always been consistent about what we say. We say it in private and we say it in public. 'So it is an important relationship. We will continue to work that relationship honestly but on the sure ground of Australia's national interest and we will never resile from that.' Host Karl Stefanovic then asked: 'They seem pretty offended if we haven't done anything?' Mr Morrison replied: 'Well, it is for others to explain to me what the offence is. 'Australia has simply acted in accordance with our national interests. Chinese state media has threatened Australian with new economic sanctions if it supports the US in an escalating trade war with Beijing. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Premier Li Keqiang A vendor wearing a face mask works in her stall in a market in Wuhan, in China on May 21. The Australian government wants wildlife wet markets to be banned 'We have acted as a good global citizen whether it comes to multilateral trading forums or indeed through the World Health Assembly. 'None of our actions have been targeted in any way with China. We have a partnership with them. We are living up with the partnership.' In April Beijing became infuriated by Australia's calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus, believing that it was a 'malicious' attempt to blame and 'stigmatize' China. Mr Morrison was the first world leader to demand a ban on wildlife wet markets, where the virus may have originated, and said inspectors should be able to enter a country suffering from a pandemic without the government's consent. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny to an official dinner at the White House September 20, 2019 Earlier this month China slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley and suspended imports from four Australian beef suppliers in apparent revenge. About one third of Australia's total exports - including iron ore, gas, coal and food - go to China, bringing in around $135billion per year and providing thousands of jobs. Last week fears of further retaliation were raised when China relaxed checks on iron-ore imports in a move that could favour Australia's competitors. On Tuesday night the state-controlled Global Times newspaper reported that Australian natural gas could also be targeted. Australia is China's biggest source of natural gas, providing three times as much as second-placed Qatar in the first quarter of this year. But one analyst told the newspaper: 'Australia's LNG market share in China is likely to fall in the coming years, ceding market share to the US and Qatar, should Canberra's tensions with China continue.' Mr Morrison has called for a ban on wildlife wet markets. Pictured: Xihua Farmers' Market in Guangzhou The US said on Friday it would ban trade with 33 Chinese companies linked with spying or the Chinese military in a move that could signal the start of a 'new cold war', according to Chinese media. The Global Times threatened Australian with more economic sanctions if it backed the US in the matter. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said America 'stands with Australia'. Mr Morrison has repeatedly insisted the two countries are 'great mates' and their alliance is strong. S enior Church of England bishops have claimed they have received hate mail and death threats after speaking out about Dominic Cummings lockdown travels. Bishop of Worcester John Inge tweeted that he received an email warning stay out of politics or well kill you after he criticised Boris Johnsons risible defence of Mr Cummings. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Ripon, reported a similar threat, posting: Stay out of politics or it will be the death of you was one of the emails I received today. Thank you to those who have sent supportive messages. She had earlier written about missing her fathers birthday during the lockdown as he recovered from radiotherapy. Rev Hartley said she was following up the hate email with police. Christine Hardman, bishop of Newcastle, wrote: I too received such an email. I feel concern for the person who sent it and will hold him or her in prayer. The previous night she had posted that she was deeply troubled by the Prime Ministers defence of his adviser. We can forgive mistakes and poor judgement and can understand and admire loyalty but forgiveness and understanding need openness and we did not see this tonight, she wrote. Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, added that he had also received abuse, writing: Public life in Britain today. Many of us have received this sort of message. It doesnt work. The abuse emerged after Mr Cummings held an hour-long press conference defending his actions in late March and early April, when he and his family drove from London to his parents farm in Durham. Mr Cummings refused to apologise or express regret, saying he feared about how his young son would be looked after if he was incapacitated by the illness. TODO: define component type apester The bishops were among a number of Church of England representatives who had condemned the PM for standing by his adviser over a trip from London to County Durham during the national lockdown. Paul Butler, the bishop of Durham, tweeted: There will be those in Durham who defend #Boris for his standing by #DominicCummngs. But most who have worked so hard to abide by the rules and guidance of the past weeks will feel hurt, angry, & let down. Trust has been broken. For the nations sake rebuild it quickly. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has not commented publicly on Mr Cummings controversy, but recently warned the Government that cuts to public spending after the coronavirus outbreak would be catastrophic. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Welby had said going for austerity again would be the most terrible mistake. PA Media contirbuted to this article The Lincoln area added 34 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including a staff member at the Lincoln Correctional Center. The new cases reported Monday bring Lancaster County's total to 1,090, although the percentage of positive tests returned has leveled off at 6% over recent weeks after peaking at 14% a month ago. Statewide, there are now 12,355 confirmed cases, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, an increase of 366 over Sunday's reported figures. A total of 88,350 tests have been performed to date. On Monday, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said that a staff member at the Lincoln Correctional Center had tested positive for the coronavirus. To date, at least 11 Corrections Department staff members have tested positive, including six who work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. Seven men housed at the Community Corrections Center-Omaha have tested positive. No positive tests among prisoners at other state-run facilities have been reported. Among statewide cases, Douglas County continues to lead with 3,186. Dakota County reports 1,612 and Hall County has 1,466. Donald Trumps reelection campaign is elevating a longtime top political adviser to the president to the role of deputy campaign manager. Bill Stepien, who formerly served as White House political director and had been advising the reelection effort, will serve under Brad Parscale, who has been campaign manager since 2018. Those familiar with the decision, which has been under discussion for some time, said it was intended to provide further support for Parscale, who is running his first presidential campaign. But the promotion was seen by some in the White House as a check on Parscale. Trump has long relied on Stepien, a former top adviser to then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, for political counsel. Two people familiar with the decision said Trump and Parscale played key roles giving final signoff. Stepien has been helping to oversee the effort to ensure that GOP convention delegates are solidly behind Trump and that the kind of mayhem that took place at the 2016 confab doesn't happen again. Its an honor to continue to serve President Trump so he can continue his America First agenda in a second term, Stepien said in a statement. I will continue to support Brad Parscale as he leads the campaign, working with all of our partners in states across the country, and helping to coordinate all of our efforts to ensure the President is re-elected. The campaign also announced Tuesday it was promoting Stephanie Alexander to campaign chief of staff. Alexander had been serving as the campaigns Midwest political director. Senior Republicans have openly warned in recent weeks that Trump and the party are in trouble in an array of battleground states including in traditionally red states like Georgia and Arizona, where recent surveys have shown the president trailing. During a political meeting in the White House last week, the president and his top advisers complained to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about Arizona Sen. Martha McSallys reelection standing. Gabby Orr contributed to this report. Myth: Pepper in soup or eating hot foods prevents/cures COVID-19 | Fact: Hot peppers in your food, though very tasty, cannot prevent or cure COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself against the new coronavirus is to keep at least 1 metre away from others and to wash your hands frequently and thoroughly. It is also beneficial for your general health to maintain a balanced diet, stay well hydrated, exercise regularly and sleep well. (Image: REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon) At Chilli Kitchen in Beijing, spicy and mouth-numbing Sichuan dishes are laid out family style. Using red chopsticks, diners dive into steaming bowls of pork wontons bathed in fragrant chili oil and sesame seeds, and rummage through platters filled with dried red chili peppers to unearth juicy bits of roasted fish. Sharing food is a central feature of how Chinese people, like many elsewhere in the world, convey affection. Parents pick up choice morsels and place them in their childrens bowls as an expression of love; children serve their grandparents to show their respect; and bosses do it as a gesture of magnanimity toward their employees. Now, concerns are growing that the countrys long tradition of sharing food could also accelerate the spread of the coronavirus. The government has zeroed in on a ubiquitous utensil: chopsticks. Most Chinese diners pick up food from communal platters with the same pair of chopsticks that they then use to eat, or serve others. Double dipping is the norm. But the government hopes to change habits by urging people to use a second pair of chopsticks just for serving. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show State news agencies are calling it a dining table revolution. Dr. Zhong Nanshan and Dr. Zhang Wenhong, outspoken infectious disease experts who have become celebrities since the start of the outbreak, have voiced their support. Authorities across the country are running advertisements with slogans like, The distance between you and civilized dining is just one pair of serving chopsticks. Some restaurants and diners have heeded the call. They are offering discounts to diners who use serving chopsticks. In the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, more than 100 prominent restaurants have formed a Serving Chopsticks Alliance. In Beijing, Bai Yiwen, one of the owners of Chilli Kitchen, reckons that since reopening in mid-April, more than half the groups that come to his restaurants have asked for serving chopsticks, up from less than 5% before the pandemic. Before, people felt like using serving chopsticks was bothersome, Bai, 31, said. But now, everyone is becoming more aware of the problem and slowly they are getting used to it. Still, resistance is strong. Many see sharing food with ones own chopsticks as among the most authentic expressions of Chinas communal culture and emphasis on family, no less integral than hugging is to Americans or the cheek kiss is to the French. Serving chopsticks are typically associated with formal settings, like banquets and meals with strangers. Serving chopsticks are more common in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where there is a greater awareness of hygiene. Some Chinese who hail from north of the Yangtze River see their southern, rice-eating counterparts as more particular about their eating habits, and so more likely to use serving chopsticks. (There is no evidence supporting this stereotype.) By contrast, wheat-eating northerners, and particularly the men, take pride in what Chinese call eating big and drinking big, without care for such petty concerns as germs and bacteria. Never mind a small, recent experiment by government experts who found that the level of bacteria in dishes for which serving chopsticks were used was as little as 0.4% the level of dishes shared in the regular fashion. Liu Peng, 32, an education consultant and proud northerner from the coastal city of Qingdao, said that while he had grown accustomed to wearing a mask in recent months, he and his friends had not changed their dining habits. Maybe using serving chopsticks is more hygienic but eating is the time for us all to relax, and we dont want to be bothered by all these little rules, Liu said. Besides, he reasoned, the new coronavirus was so contagious that serving chopsticks were not going to stop the virus from spreading around a table. In my 30 years of eating out, Ive never contracted an infection, he declared. Similar campaigns to promote serving chopsticks were launched across Asia after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in the early 2000s. The drive gained traction in Hong Kong, where nearly 300 people died in that outbreak. Even today, many restaurants in Hong Kong lay two sets of chopsticks at each place setting, one pair for serving and another, often a different-colored pair, for eating. Other restaurants in the city often place serving spoons and chopsticks directly on the dishes. But the campaign barely registered in mainland China. Most Chinese grow up learning the basics of chopstick etiquette: hold them two-thirds of the way up; dont stick them vertically into your rice bowl because it resembles incense offerings for the deceased; and dont suck on them. Sharing food with family and friends is just as deeply ingrained, and serving chopsticks are sometimes seen as undermining that expression of closeness. Just asking for the extra utensils can be awkward because it could imply that you think your fellow diners might be unwell. Sara Jane Ho, a Hong Kong native and founder of a high-end etiquette school in China, said that when she hosts a meal, she often says she has a small cold so she can ask for serving chopsticks to protect everyone else from her. But even then, she said, compliance is not guaranteed. Often youll see people serving themselves and then they forget to switch chopsticks and start eating directly with the serving pair, Ho said. It always gives me a mini heart attack. To make the governments case, state media and culinary historians have scoured Chinese history to find instances in which serving chopsticks or individual plating was the norm. For 3,000 years up until the Tang Dynasty, news reports say, Chinese people ate separate portions of food. The articles point to the famous 10th-century scroll painting, The Night Revels of Han Xizai, which depicts a government minister and his guests eating individually plated portions of food. The cause was taken up by Wu Lien-teh, a Chinese doctor from British Malaya, who is often credited with saving many lives during the 1910 outbreak of pneumonic plague in northeastern China. Wu helped popularize the use of serving chopsticks along with the use of a lazy Susan, the round rotating platform known in Chinese as the hygienic table. Even former Communist Chairman Mao Zedong, who supposedly rarely bathed and never brushed his teeth, was at one point said to have used serving chopsticks, thanks to the influence of the father of Maos second wife, according to Zhao Rongguang, a Chinese food historian. But the practice of sharing food has nonetheless persisted. In 1984, Hu Yaobang, then general secretary of the Communist Party and a passionate liberalizer, suggested that his countrymen abandon chopsticks and communal eating in favor of Western-style individual dining practices to avoid contagious diseases. The idea was promptly ignored and forgotten. Zhao, the historian, sees the coronavirus epidemic as an opportunity to revive the movement for civilized dining. If we dont change this practice of using one pair of chopsticks to dig to the bottom then we are going to be eliminated forever by humanity and natural selection, Zhao said. But unless a specific law is enacted, changing habits will be an uphill battle, particularly outside of the big cities. For Shu Xiao, 27, a schoolteacher in Yuxi, a city in the southwestern province of Yunnan, group dinners can be discomfiting. Shu said her family has used serving chopsticks at home since last year, when reports were circulating about a local outbreak of stomach bacteria. When she goes out to dinner with her friends, she cant muster the courage to ask for extra sets of chopsticks, she said. Instead, she tries to eat only from the parts of the dishes least touched by her companions and fights the urge to think about how much bacteria is being circulated around the table. My friends already think my family is kind of strange for using serving chopsticks at home, she said. So I just go along with the mainstream, even though in my heart Im always protesting a little. c.2020 The New York Times Company By National Weather Service May. 23, 2020 | 03:27 PM | PADUCAH Memorial Day will turn out to be the hottest day of the week, as a steady parade of daily thunderstorm chances cool down the rest of the week.After 91 degrees at Barkley Field on Monday, 85 is expected today, then temperatures will be closer to 80 for the rest of the week.Scattered thunderstorms are expected this afternoon into the early evening. The greatest coverage should be over southeast Missouri. Locally heavy rainfall and lightning will be the primary concerns, but isolated strong storms with a damaging wind threat cannot be ruled out.Showers and thunderstorms will overspread the rest of the region and result in a heavy rainfall and even a flooding threat on Wednesday.Scattered thunderstorms will be possible again Thursday mainly in the afternoon and early evening. Lightning and locally heavy rainfall will be the primary concerns.A chance of thunderstorms is also forecast Friday into Friday evening. While lightning and locally heavy rain will be the primary hazards, localized strong storms cannot be ruled out, especially during the afternoon and early evening hours. Localized flooding issues are also possible. On the Net: When nations around the world have passed on the benefit of plunging oil prices to consumers, the Modi government has irrationally kept petrol and diesel prices at levels prevalent when crude prices had touched an all-time high of USD 107 few years back, former petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily said Tuesday. In a press statement, Moily said petrol was priced at Rs 71.41 per litre and diesel at Rs 55.49 a litre when during the UPA-2 regime international oil prices touched an all-time high of USD 107.09 per barrel. Currently, the cost of crude is USD 36.29, but diesel is priced at Rs 65.39 and petrol at Rs 71.26 in Delhi, he said. This has been done by the government raising excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 a litre and on diesel by Rs 16 per litre in two months to take away the gains arising from oil prices dropping to a two-decade low. "When all the economists of the world including India are canvassing for putting cash in the hands of the people, the present government is taking away the benefits which should have been passed on to them legitimately. This is quite an irrational decision," Moily said. "According to the data available, no other country is denying the benefit of reduction in crude prices to its people." Excise duty on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre when the Modi government took office in 2014 and that on diesel was Rs 3.56. At present, this incidence is Rs 32.98 a litre on petrol and Rs 31.83 on diesel - a result of successive duty hikes. Moily said the Congress-led UPA II had taken a conscious decision to do away with the administered price regime and to fix the prices of diesel and petrol in accordance with the benchmark international price. "The idea was to pass the benefit/liability in accordance with the market trend. This is a sound principle of economics and also done in the interest of the consumers and the economy of the country." "In the days of crisis in the economy, such as the onset of COVID-19, the government should have been more sensitive to the plight of the people and consumers as they are in great distress," he said. The senior Congress leader said even now, it is not clear to people as to which welfare programmes the excess money, garnered through excise duty hikes, has been ploughed into. "While the decision of the UPA was to reduce imports and go for indigenous production and make India self-sufficient in oil and gas by 2030, the present government has not invested in oil and gas exploration since 2014, to make India self-sufficient," he said. The UPA, he said, took conscious decision to establish refineries and strategic storage facilities and particularly to utilise the strategic storage facilities at Padur in Udupi, Mangalore and Vishakapatnam, which have an underground storage capacity of 5.33 million tonnes. "The present NDA government has not expanded these strategic storage facilities," he said. "Currently, the NDA government has started filling up these caverns which are just sufficient to store reserves of up to 10 to 11 days of emergency supplies while it is prudent to have reserves for at least 90 days." "Even after 6 years there has been criminal neglect on the part of the present government either to put up new refineries or setup more strategic storage facilities in the public sectors or even in the private sector," he added. In another sign of growing frustration and panic, political, industry, labour and education leaders who fear a collapse of the Newfoundland and Labrador oil and gas sector united Tuesday to deliver a plea for help from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal government. That plea included an ominous prediction that repeated blows to the oil sector in recent months could result in the loss of nearly $61 billion in investments between now and 2038, unless quick action is taken. "It's important that we get a signal from the federal government that they see offshore Newfoundland and Labrador as an option and something that has a future," said Premier Dwight Ball. "We think we have a lot to contribute here," said Ball. "We have the resources, the people and we have the determination. The time is is now, and we are ready." At a virtual news conference Tuesday, Ball was joined by a variety of other speakers, including one who fears her career might be in jeopardy. "It's looking pretty bleak for us," said Alison Rumbolt, who flies for Cougar Helicopters and one of only three female pilots working in the offshore. Government of Newfoundland Labrador In an unusual move, Vianne Timmons, the new president and chancellor of Memorial University, weighed into the political debate. Timmons said "so many of our engineers and faculty and students" are involved with the oil sector, and "we are very supportive." She said the university is especially keen on initiatives to make the industry more environmentally friendly. "If it's important to Newfoundland, it's important to Memorial University," she said. Voices need to be heard, Coady says The industry is in dire need of financial incentives to ensure a future beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, say industry boosters, and avert a scenario where precious investment dollars are lured away to other countries. "By having us here, you're seeing how critical is it that our voices be head in Ottawa," said Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady. "That our voices be heard with the prime minister. That our industry needs support and it needs it now." Story continues Over the last three decades, growth in the oil industry has helped created a highly skilled, safety conscious and productive workforce, said labour leader Darin King, and "we cannot risk losing them." Government of Newfoundland and Labrador It's the latest pitch in an ongoing campaign to protect and grow an industry that has formed the backbone of the province's economy for nearly a quarter-century, and is now in crisis mode because of the pandemic. Billions in spending on everything from exploration and construction has either been deferred or cancelled, with one of the four producing oil fields, Terra Nova, expected to be shut down for up to two years. Plea intended for Liberal government For an industry that directly employed roughly 6,700 people at the end of last year, and represented an average of 30 per cent of the province's economy between 2010 and 2017, inaction is not an option, said Charlene Johnson, CEO of the province's 500-member-strong oil and gas industry association, Noia. "Our plea today is directly to the prime minister and members of his government," she said. Gary Locke/CBC The virtual news conference was intended to show the wide level of support enjoyed by the industry, to lay out the many benefits that oil and gas has delivered to the province and country, and increase the pressure on Ottawa to deliver a lifeline in the form of exploration and tax incentives for oil companies who undertake important drilling campaigns. The fear is that as companies slash capital spending, and jurisdictions compete for that shrinking pot of money, oil giants like ExxonMobil and Equinor will be lured away to countries like Norway and the United Kingdom by generous incentive programs. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Canada has to compete, said Ball, in order to stem what he says is a growing exodus of investment, and painful cuts to the supply and service sector."We can't forget that when investment leaves, it takes our young families and skilled workforce with it," said Ball. The campaign to lobby support from Ottawa has been underway for weeks, but so far has not yielded any positive results. Coady said both levels of government are talking regularly, and that requests for information from the province and industry have been answered, so there is "no misunderstanding of the value of this industry to the province and the country." So what's the hold-up? Ball said "the challenge for the prime minister is to make sure where this fits into the national narrative. But right now we as province are sending a message that time may not be a our friend." CBC requested comment from federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan, who is Newfoundland and Labrador's representative in the federal cabinet. His office issued a statement Tuesday evening, commending the provincial government for its commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to help stabilize global carbon emissions. "Around the world, investors are increasingly looking for this commitment," the statement reads. "Newfoundland and Labrador has a good product to sell; a sweet, light crude with a fraction of the emissions." The statement also provided background on earlier aid packages announced by the federal government, including liquidity packages that benefits many small and medium businesses in the oil industry, and a wage subsidy of 75 per cent for workers. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador Sydney Fishburn Named Second Annual Sgt. Cameron A. Meddock Memorial Scholarship Winner Sydney Fishburn Spearman High School senior, Sydney Fishburn, has been named the recipient of the Sgt. Cameron A. Meddock Memorial Scholarship. This years seniors had to answer the essay questions: What was the cause of the Civil War? How could it have been avoided? Congratulations to Sydney on receiving a $500.00 scholarship. She will be attending West Texas A&M University in the fall. to read her essay click The Civil War was one of the bloodiest and devastating wars to take place in the United States. The war lasted from 1861 to 1865 and was fought between the northern and southern states. As tensions were rising throughout the U.S., there were many trigger events that led up to the Civil War, such as Nat Turners rebellion, the southern states seceding, creating a government at Montgomery, Alabama which formed the Confederate states, and the Louisiana Purchase. These are just a few of the events that stirred tensions throughout the United States, thus causing the Civil War. Although the war is an important part in our American history, there are ways that it could have been prevented. Those ways include cooperation of the South, cooperation from the North as the South seceded, and the allowance of slavery throughout the entire United States. Although this author does not strongly agree with these viewpoints, they are stated from a factual and logical standpoint. It was evident that the south was proslavery, given that they were a big part of the farming industry of the U.S. When Abraham Lincoln was elected as president in 1861, he wanted to bring forth emancipation for the slaves. The southern states did not agree with the way that Lincoln was going about his presidency, so they seceded from the Union and created the Confederacy. This is one of the many events that could have been avoided if the South did not secede from the Union. The south had the right to disagree with President Lincoln because they felt as though their economy and business would go down. However, seceding from the union might have been a step taken too far, as far as preventing the Civil War. In order to prevent the war, the South should have cooperated with Lincoln and found better ways to keep the farming industry going. Another event that could have prevented the Civil War was the cooperation of the North as the South seceded. When the South created the Confederacy, the Union was furious at the South, mainly because the North opposed the idea of slavery. The North continued to create modern industries. There was a dividing line between the North and the South that was amended to extend into the Pacific by Senator John Jordan Crittenden. This line was meant to divide free African American slaves from those who were free in the North. It created more tension between the Union and the Confederacy. If this line was not extended and brought to everyones attention, the tension would not have been as high as it was. Even though slavery was and continues to be morally incorrect, slavery was what kept the United States' economy going steady. Slavery represented the Souths most valuable investment. It was how they operated as agricultural economies. When Lincoln became president, one of his main goals were to emancipate the slaves. Although morally, he was correct, financially it would have hurt the economy of the United States. Although abolishing slavery was a good decision in the long run, the decision was one of many that led to the beginning of the Civil War. In closing, the Civil War was inevitable. The war was a crucial part to the way America has grown economically and morally. There are many ways that the war could have been prevented however, and those ways include cooperation of the South, cooperation from the North as the South seceded, and the allowance of slavery throughout the entire United States. Despite the fact that things would have been different today if the Civil War did not occur, the United States of America has grown immensely into one of the strongest and most determined countries in the world. Seoul: Is North Korea's eccentric dictator Kim Jong Un going to do something big in this era of the Corona epidemic. This question has arisen because after three weeks now when Kim Jong Un is seen, he has held a meeting with army officials to increase North Korea's nuclear power. So is Kim Jong going to test InterContinental ballistic missile? Or is preparation for a nuclear test. The question is also arising whether Kim Jong is giving them the message through this, what will be his stand if China is cornered on Corona? You must also wonder where the Supreme Leader of North Korea disappears. And then suddenly how comes in front of everyone after a few days. Recently Kim Jong suddenly appeared in front of the world after disappearing for several days. News of his death was also being spread in the international media after his disappearance. Kim came to the media on 1 May after being in exile for 20 days, when she inaugurated a factory. After this, on 23 May, he has appeared again after 3 weeks. Madhya Pradesh: In upcoming by-election, these will be the agendas This state emerges at forefront of forest products Union Minister Renuka Singh's big statement, says, ' I also know beating with belt" The Vietnamese public was greatly agitated after learning Chinese investors had landed several important contracts to rent vast areas of forests with strategic national defense values. Dang Hung Vo The rented forests were soon barricaded and hidden from the publics eyes. It happened about 10 years ago. However, the news soon disappeared from the front pages. At first, I joined the agitated crowd, worrying for Vietnams security. Later, as the crowd became disinterested, I remained anxious, contemplating the nations immediate and long-term interests. In theory, Vietnamese laws pay great attention to ensuring the nations security and defense while utilizing all investments in our natural resources. Therefore, all investment projects relating to natural resources like forests are legally subject to top-tier opinions from both the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security before they can proceed further. However, in reality, problems occur when local executive branches hesitate to enforce laws against investors' illegal activities. The case of Chinese investors barricading the rented estate is only one of many cases of the private sector breaking rules with little law enforcement efforts from national leaders. And such feeble law enforcement is not confined to some rural, inconspicuous areas. Illegal actions go unpunished even in the nation's capital. In Hanoi, a construction violation was discovered at 8B Le Truc Street, Ba Dinh District. The building had illegally extended over 6,000 square meters in floor area, and 16 meters in height. The violation has not been resolved until now, in 2020. A few days ago, I received a dozen phone calls from news agencies asking for an interview on the recent increase in Chinese ownership of many Vietnamese real estate properties with strategic interests, especially in national defense. However, the number of phone calls decreased soon and interest dwindled, just as it had happened in previous cases. Before, there was the "zero-cost" travel tour in which Chinese tourists, despite traveling in Vietnam, stayed at Chinese-owned facilities, spending Chinese yuan. For this, Vietnam, despite contributing the destinations, received nothing: no tax, no service fee. Meanwhile, the Chinese tourists were not much of a delight themselves, behaving badly at all Vietnamese travel destinations. Meanwhile, in many FDI, ODA, or domestically funded projects in Vietnam that Chinese contractors won, a large number of Chinese laborers were brought illegally to Vietnam to work, blatantly violating Vietnam's investment laws. Most prominently, the unfinished Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro line in Hanoi, with Chinese loans and Chinese contractors, has stagnated for the past decade, with costs ballooning by over 50 percent. Despite loopholes, problems with obvious breaches of Vietnamese laws occur mainly because of the tardiness and disinterest of local officials in enforcement. Now, people take different positions on this situation. Some argue that if strong, harsh measures are taken, foreign investors can view Vietnam as having an unfriendly investment environment. In contrast, some criticize the government for being influenced by group interests and hint strongly that corruption is involved. Whatever be the reason for the tardiness and disinterest in enforcing laws, the responsible public is increasingly concerned about our nations interests. One extreme section would support halting all foreign investments and international integration for the fear of losing sovereignty, and this influenced the government resolution halting the establishment of special economic zones in Van Don, Bac Van Phong and Phu Quoc. Their view would be that the special economic zones, despite their capability to greatly bolster the Vietnamese economy, could be utilized by foreign nations, most prominently China, to infringe on Vietnamese sovereignty over those geographical areas. This section would swing radically to the safety polar of national policy. Construction projects at Phu Quoc Island off Vietnam's southern province of Kien Giang. Photo courtesy of Kien Giang People's Committee. Meanwhile, some others simply trust that the Vietnamese government would implement wise foreign policies to advance the national interests. This extreme standpoint would also be naive, considering Chinas increasing aggressiveness in the East Sea (also called the South China Sea). As China already controls several disputed islands in the East Sea, if Vietnam lets Chinese corporations and governments control Vietnamese coastal areas with strategic defense values, the nations self-defense capability would be greatly undermined, leading to increased likelihood of sovereignty infringements by China. These actions of the Chinese government, in my view, should be considered dishonorable, abusive behavior on less privileged beings, which contrasts with virtues often praised in ancient Confucianism. It is curious why the nation that continuously praises such virtues practices vices everywhere. This dishonorable approach of China in territorial issues is also recognized by many other foreign nations, especially regarding its "nine-dash line" claim in the East Sea. However, as far as we are concerned, the "nine-dash line" is hardly the first aggressive action by China against Vietnamese sovereignty. In 1974, while Vietnam was busy with domestic reunification, China took control of the Paracel Islands. This was followed by the 1988 attack at the Johnson Reef, in which over 60 Vietnamese military personnel were killed by the Chinese military. Right now, as the world unites against the alarming Covid-19 pandemic, China is taking advantage of the situation to fortify its position on maritime territorial issues. This is hardly virtuous behavior. So how should Vietnam respond? The nation has no choice but to become stronger, economically and in national defense. Even as Vietnam acts with caution, remaining passive for short-term safety is ill advised. Instead, Vietnam needs to show resilience to protect our long-term interests. Economically, Vietnam needs to utilize its geographical proximity to 1.5-billion strong Chinese market, while maintaining its independence from China. Meanwhile, Vietnams national defense, especially the Vietnamese Navy, needs to get stronger. The naval force needs to accompany Vietnamese seafarers to hold on to our sovereignty. We should maintain objectivity in dealing with Chinese investment and economic activities in Vietnam, as we do with all other nations. However, constant integrity and vigilance is required of all Vietnamese citizens. This means that no Vietnamese person should ever participate in any illegal activity for self-interest. *Dang Hung Vo is a former vice minister of Natural Resources and Environment. The opinions expressed are his own. The leader of the Scottish Conservative Party Jackson Carlaw has called on Boris Johnsons under-pressure advisor Dominic Cummings to resign. The MSP said the scandal over the strategists trip from London to Durham during the lockdown is proving too much of a distraction. Mr Carlaw said he had made his view that Mr Cummings should consider his position known to Downing Street, according to both the BBC and STV. If follows the resignation of Douglas Ross, the Under Secretary of State for Scotland, from the government over the issue. Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins, a member of the Tories frontbench team at Holyrood, joined Mr Ross in calling for Mr Cummings to go and said other resignations may follow in the wake of the junior minister for the Scotland Offices departure. Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Show all 11 1 /11 Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The TImes Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Daily Mirror Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Daily Express Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Independent Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Daily Mail Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Guardian Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Daily Telegraph Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings Financial Times Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings i Newspapers react after Johnson stands by Cummings The Sun Mr Tomkins tweeted: To lose (Douglas Ross) from government is a disaster. His was one of clearest voices for the Union in government. It shows exactly why Cummings should be sacked. I suspect others will follow where Douglas has led. In his resignation letter, Mr Ross said in his resignation letter: I have constituents who didnt get to say goodbye to their loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who did not visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government. The Moray MP added: I cannot in good faith tell them that they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right. A No 10 spokesman said Mr Johnson regrets' Mr Ross decision to quit the government over the Mr Cummings row. Another member of Mr Carlaws shadow cabinet at Holyrood, Graham Simpson MSP, has also called on Mr Cummings to go. I dont like calling for people to resign or to be sacked there is too mu much of that. I tend to believe in giving people the chance to say sorry and learn. In this case I think Mr Cummings should go, said Mr Simpson. He didnt follow the advice that his own government, in which he is the key adviser, issued. Along with pressure from within his own party, Mr Carlaw has faced criticism from his political rivals in Scotland for failing to speak out on the issue. The Scottish Tory leader had said on Sunday he was satisfied Mr Johnson reached a conclusion and we must all now focus on continuing to beat this dreadful pandemic. The SNP said Mr Carlaws defence of No 10s position was tone deaf, while Labour accused him of defending the indefensible. At least 25 Tory MPs have now either called for Mr Cummings to resign or for the prime minister to fire him. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) -Altamira Gold Corp. (TSXV: ALTA) (FSE: T6UP) (OTC Pink: EQTRF), ("Altamira" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results of surface sampling work at the Santa Helena project in northern Mato Grosso state in western Brazil, and the identification of a new and previously unknown high-grade gold target on surface called Dorival South. Highlights are as follows: Eighteen rock chip samples collected from surface blocks at Dorival South, a new area at Santa Helena, returned gold values ranging from 0.02 to 124.5 g/t gold Eleven of these samples were collected from a high-grade vein structure and average 46.8 g/t gold (Table 1). Stockwork quartz veining has been identified 400m to the south-west. Elevated copper values were also returned up to 2.2% copper. This value represents the highest ever copper value reported from the project The identification of the Dorival South target means that highly anomalous gold and copper values have been identified over an area of 7km by 4km suggesting the presence of a very large hydrothermal system. Four main targets with high-grade gold and copper values on surface had been identified at Santa Helena previously and include; Flecha Dourada target: average of 31.2 g/t gold + 0.13% Cu (17 rock chip samples, of which 10 returned values above 10g/t gold) Gabriel target: average of 19 g/t gold + 0.11% Cu (20 rock chip samples, of which 7 returned gold values above 10g/t gold) Dorival target: average of 24.6 g/t gold from 6 rock chip samples Tucura target: average of 7.2 g/t gold from 6 rock chip samples Michael Bennett, Altamira Gold's President and CEO commented, "Whilst our focus remains on advancing our Cajueiro gold project to production in 2021, it is important to remember that Altamira owns two other projects that could be company makers, namely Santa Helena and Apiacas. The Santa Helena project is located just 60km southwest of Anglo American's major porphyry copper discovery at Jaca, and could host a porphyry-related gold-copper deposit surrounded by peripheral high-grade gold mineralization. The identification of this new high-grade target at Santa Helena expands the size of the mineralized target area by approximately 20%, and we look forward to drilling this project later this year" Sample ID Gold (g/t) Sample ID Gold (g/t) Sample ID Gold (g/t) 60986 0.06 60992 124.45 60998 0.04 60987 96.84 60993 19.04 60999 0.08 60988 56.04 60994 42.00 60100 0.05 60989 28.03 60995 8.84 61001 0.02 60990 13.33 60996 28.33 61002 0.07 60991 94.19 60997 3.24 61003 0.24 Table 1: Gold values from all surface rock samples collected at new target at Santa Helena Santa Helena Project The Santa Helena project is located immediately adjacent to the paved BR-163 federal highway in the state of Mato Grosso and is 250 km south east of the flagship Cajueiro project which has a 43-101 compliant resource of 5,661,000t @ 1.02 g/t gold for a total of 185,000 oz of gold (Indicated) and 12,665,000t @ 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 515,000oz of gold (Inferred). Santa Helena comprises 58,591ha and is located 60km SW of Anglo American's Jaca porphyry copper discovery (Figure 1). The project has received no previous drilling, but porphyry-style alteration has been mapped on surface and highly anomalous gold, copper and molybdenum values in both rock and soil samples have been outlined over an area of 7km E-W by 4 km N-S (Figure 2). Figure 1. Regional map showing location of Altamira's projects in Alta Floresta belt. Note proximity of Santa Helena project to Anglo American's Jaca porphyry copper discovery. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4500/56523_af082cdf24589b05_001full.jpg The new target has been named Dorival South and is located 1.5km south of the Dorival target. A total of 18 samples were collected from this area and returned gold values ranging from 0.02 to 124.5 g/t gold. Eleven of these samples were collected from an outcropping quartz vein up to 2m in width which contains up to 30% pyrite and 2% chalcopyrite and extends for at least 150m along strike in a NW direction, and is open in both directions. The samples taken from this vein range from 3.24 to 124.45 g/t gold and average 46.8 g/t gold and copper values were also highly anomalous in several samples with seven samples returning greater than 0.1% copper and one sample returning 2.2% copper (Figure 3). There is also evidence of stockwork quartz veining located 400m to the SW on top of a low hill which may represent a parallel zone. The Dorival South target represents a fifth target at Santa Helena where high-grade gold and copper values have been identified on surface. Of the other four main targets identified to date (see press release dated 16th May 2018), the most easterly target is Gabriel which includes a small historic open pit mine which produced gold from a series of high-grade veins. A total of 20 rock chip samples were collected on surface from this area in 2018 and returned gold values ranging from 0 to 171.6 g/t gold and 0 - 0.96% Cu and averaged 19.0 g/t gold and 0.11% Cu. Seven samples returned values above 10g/t gold. The Flecha Dorada target is located 3km WSW of Gabriel. Rock chip samples from this prospect ranged from 0.3 - 153.8g/t gold and 0 - 0.81% Cu and averaged 31.2g/t gold + 0.13% Cu with 11 samples returning above 10g/t gold. The Dorival target is located 500m west of Flecha Dorada. Six rock chip samples were collected from this prospect which ranged from 7.4 to 73.3g/t gold and 0 to 0.27% Cu and averaged 24.6g/t gold. Six rock chip samples were previously collected from the Tucura area and returned gold values of 0.2 to 22.6 g/t gold and averaged 7.2g/t gold. Tucura is located 2km NW of the Dorival target. All of these target areas occur in ranch land where outcrop is extremely limited and thus far the extent of the mineralization observed on surface cannot be determined. Trenching is however planned during the next few months in advance of drill testing later in the year. Granting of Stock Options The Company also announces that it has granted 3,315,000 stock options to directors, officers, employees, and consultants of the Company. The stock options are exercisable for a term of five years at an exercise price of $0.08 per common share under the terms of the Company's Stock Option Plan. Qualified Person Guillermo Hughes, P. Geo., a consultant to the Company as well as a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it's Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. About Altamira Gold Corp. The Company is focused on the exploration and development of gold projects within western central Brazil. The Company holds 9 projects comprising approximately 290,000 hectares, within the prolific Juruena gold belt which historically produced an estimated 7 to 10Moz of placer gold. The Company's advanced Cajueiro project has NI 43-101 resources of 5.66Mt @ 1.02 g/t gold for a total of 185,000 oz in the Indicated Resource category and 12.66Mt @ 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 515,000oz in the Inferred Resource category. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, ALTAMIRA GOLD CORP. "Michael Bennett" Michael Bennett President & CEO Tel: 604.676.5660 Toll-Free: 1-833-606-6271 info@altamiragold.com www.altamiragold.com Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. It is important to note that actual outcomes and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. Figure 2. Satellite image of northern part of Santa Helena project area showing known targets and new target, Dorival South and gold values in surface rock values. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4500/56523_af082cdf24589b05_002full.jpg Figure 3. Satellite image of northern part of Santa Helena project area showing known targets and new target, Dorival South and copper values in surface rock values. To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4500/56523_af082cdf24589b05_003full.jpg To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56523 Twenty-five years ago, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, led by Democrat Paul Sadler, made a promise to Texas children and families. They asked for permission to create a new kind of public school a charter school that was designed to try new ideas and better serve children who were falling behind. These new public schools would help create a rising tide that would lift all boats. All public schools would get better, and all children would benefit. On May 30, 1995, then-Gov. George W. Bush signed the legislation into law. Twenty-five years in, have charter schools delivered on their promise? Its not always easy to measure the impact of policy change, but in the case of public charter schools, it is. And the impact has been overwhelmingly positive. The Texas Public Charter Schools Association recently analyzed academic outcome data from the Texas Education Agency to determine if weve helped create that rising tide for Texas students. We found that while all Texas public schools are getting better over time, schools in districts where charter schools are also located are improving faster than their peers. A deep dive into the data reveals several crucial facts. First, both independent school districts and charters are performing better as charter enrollment grows. Not only that, ISDs are more likely to improve if charter schools are located inside their district boundaries. Over the past three years, the number of those districts where at least 95 percent of fifth graders met state math standards doubled. That compares to a 63 percent increase in the number of ISDs without charters in their boundaries that are meeting that high-performing mark. This means ISDs improve outcomes for their students more quickly when parents have a choice between an ISD school and a public charter school for their children. Not only are charter school students thriving, but as charter schools expand, more students in assigned district schools are thriving. This is great news for kids, families and communities, which are depending on public schools to prepare Texas future workforce. Theres good news to report from charter schools on workforce readiness, too. Charter school students are more likely to enroll in and finish college. Remarkably, special needs graduates of charter schools are about twice as likely to enroll in college. Charter school students are also more likely to graduate high school with Advanced Placement AP or International Baccalaureate credits, which give them a head start on college completion. While not every job of the future will require a college degree, we must prepare a more diverse group of students to enter and complete college if we hope to meet the states goal that 60 percent of our workforce will have a college degree or technical certificate by 2030. Charter schools are excelling at preparing diverse students for the rigor of college and the real-life expectations of work. As a state, we have an obligation to make sure all children have access to a school that equips them to achieve their dreams. Charter schools are not only transforming the lives of their students who overwhelmingly come from disadvantaged backgrounds but they are also pushing more ISDs to do the same. This will have a profound impact on Texas: More kids who can do grade-level schoolwork means more kids going to college, finding great careers and achieving their full potential. Getting children into schools that work for them can change entire families and entire communities forever. Charter schools are proud to play a part in this change. Heres to 25 more years of improving public education for everyone. Starlee Coleman is CEO of the Texas Public Charter Schools Association. Just before 3 p.m. on Memorial Day, Victory Lakes Intermediate School student Marshall Calderon stepped into his front yard carrying a bugle. Then he began a reverent rendition of Taps to honor fallen members of American military services and victims of the novel coronavirus pandemic. At 3 p.m. in different time zones that day, musicians throughout the nation played the 24-note bugle call as part of Taps Across America, an initiative by CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and retired Air Force bugler Jari Villanueva. CBS Evening News planned to show videos of some of the performances on its May 26 show. An investigation into an armed home burglary in Aurelius early Monday morning uncovered "large quantities of drugs" inside the house and resulted in three arrests. New York State Police and local authorities responded to the home invasion shortly before 5:30 a.m. Monday. The single male occupant of 2042 West Genesee St. Road in the town of Aurelius ran to a neighbor's house to report the burglary in progress, according to a Monday night press release from state police. The suspect that entered the residence was armed with a weapon, which police earlier identified as a firearm. A 30-year-old Auburn resident who matched a description of the suspect was found in a nearby farm field after state police, along with members of the Auburn Police Department and Cayuga County Sheriff's Office, arrived and established a perimeter around the residence. Kenneth R. Scott, was charged with first-degree burglary, a class B felony, for allegedly entering the residence illegally and for displaying the weapon, according to the release. Harry A. Fearon, 24, of Union Springs, was also arrested after police say they found him intoxicated in a "suspicious vehicle" near the home. Fearon was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated. Due to concerns that there was another suspect still inside the house, police secured a search warrant from Cayuga County Court while state police crisis negotiators and the State Police Special Operations Response Team arrived at the scene. Large quantities of drugs, drug paraphernalia and U.S. currency were uncovered inside the home after officers served the warrant, which state police Capt. Barry Chase said was around 11:30 a.m. The occupant of the home 23-year-old Eric M. Prior was arrested on three drug-related felonies. His charges include third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a class B felony, fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a class C felony, and first-degree criminal possession of marijuana, a class C felony. Troopers and members of the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office and Auburn Police Department were on the scene since 6 a.m. West Genesee Street Road was blocked to traffic between Elmhurst Drive and Half Acre Road but was reopened around 1 p.m. Earlier, at the scene, Chase gave an update on the ongoing burglary investigation around noon. He said at that time they were investigating "a home invasion by two unknown subjects armed with a firearm," and that no one sustained any injuries. Two of the defendants, Scott and Prior, are currently being held in the Cayuga County Jail pending arraignment through the centralized arraignment part. Fearon was processed at the state police barracks in Auburn and issued a traffic summons, according to the release. He was ordered to reappear in Aurelius Town Court and released. Police said additional charges and arrests are pending as the investigation continues. Anyone with information about the incident can contact state police Investigator William Treat at (315) 253-3102. Love 7 Funny 18 Wow 14 Sad 10 Angry 45 Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 18:36:16|Editor: zh Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks during a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Gang) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday stressed achieving the targets and missions of strengthening the national defense and armed forces for 2020, while maintaining effective epidemic control on a regular basis. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force, at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislature. Enditem New Delhi: Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan on Tuesday (May 26) interacted through video conference with Chief Secretaries, Health Secretaries, and NHM Directors of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh to assess the situation as these states are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases. The spurt in coronavirus cases in these 5 states is seen as the lockdown rules were eased and inter-state migration has been allowed for the last three weeks. The Health Secretary held the high-level review meeting with the top officials of the states to deal with the situation. Meanwhile, the spread of the novel coronavirus has shown no indication of slowing down with the increased mercury. In the last 15 days, the COVID-19 cases have steadily climbed the graph adding in two weeks more cases than it did in the first 100 days. The Health Ministry data today revealed that there were 6,535 new cases added in 24 hours which also witnessed 146 new fatalities. As the total tally of COVID-19 cases in India touched 1,45,380, showing continued spurt in the cases hovering close to 6,000 before almost touching the 7,000-mark. The cases on Monday were 6,977, Sunday -6,767, Saturday -6,654, Friday -6,088 while on Thursday 5,614. Of the total COVID-19 cases so far 80,722 are active, 60,490 people have been cured while 4,167 have died. Notably, at least 2,769 people have been cured in the past 24 hours. Stories of the European conquest and settlement of North America tend to focus on the northern colonies and the European powers back home. But the European colonies in the Caribbean islands had a significant part to play in the development of North America. The settlement of the Caribbean islands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries provided bases of operation for further expansion. They also proved to be a significant economic boon. The Spanish brought home ships laden with gold, and while the other countries largely failed in their search for similar treasures, they established cash crops, such as sugar and tobacco, which provided significant boosts to their economies, and in part supported expansion in North America. The Caribbean islands also exported slaves to North America, who had a driving role in the economy. Pirates were another Caribbean export, and they were both a threat to trade and an economic boon, particularly for local officials. Background: Colonizing The Caribbean A medallion showing the Capture of Trinidad and Tobago by the British in 1797. Spain first established settlements in the Caribbean in 1493, following Christopher Columbus initial voyage. Their presence nearly wiped out the native population. Seeking their own share of the apparent wealth the Spanish found in the Caribbean islands, other European powers moved to establish their own settlements in the region in the seventeenth century. Early British settlements include Bermuda (1612), Saint Kitts (1623), and Barbados (1627). Early French colonies include Saint Kitts, which France split with Britain in 1625, Guadeloupe (1635), and Martinique (1635). These settlements served as bases for further conquests. In 1655 Britain seized Jamaica from Spain, and the island soon became a leading exporter of sugar. The Dutch followed suit, establishing the Dutch West Indies in the 17th century, and from 1672 Denmark-Norway established its presence in what is now the Virgin Islands. While these European powers hoped to follow Spains example and find gold in plenty, but their hopes were not fulfilled and they turned to agriculture instead. Cash Crops Sugar plantation in the British colony of Antigua, 1823. Image credit: British Library The European Powers were almost constantly at war with one another, and the territories frequently changed hands in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As they fought for dominance in the Caribbean, their economies became increasingly dependent on the rich exports from the region, which helped finance further expansion and solidify British dominance in North America. Caribbean colonists established plantations to grow luxury products, which would be shipped back to Europe and sold for a pretty profit. Sugar quickly became the most valuable Caribbean export. While tobacco and sugar were the primary cash crops, others included rice, coffee, and indigo. And its North American colonies particularly benefited from these cash crops. While Spain and France dominated sugar production in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the balance of power shifted in the eighteenth as the French colony of Saint-Domingue and British colony of Jamaica emerged as the biggest sugar producers. Increasingly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries direct trade developed between the Caribbean and the growing North American colonies as the North American colonists grew wealthier and began purchasing luxury goods. Imports from the Caribbean contributed to the development of a consumer society and the rise of colonial elites, which in turn fueled the growth of cities in North America. As new settlers carried little money with them when they arrived in North America, and the colonies lacked the authority to mint new coins, the colonists turned to a system of barter and exchange. In Virginia the rate of exchange for tobacco was standardized, and it became a form of currency in the colony. Since the Caribbean colonies dedicated most of their agriculture to cash crops, they were reliant on outside sources for their sustenance. The two regions became interdependent on one another. The Caribbean colonists exchanged their cash crops for food, livestock, and raw goods, particularly timber, from the North American colonies. Mahogany was a popular export from the Caribbean from the colonial elites among the North American colonists, as the wood was rare and used to fashion their homes with fine furniture. Slave Trade The slaves brought to the Caribbean lived in inhumane conditions. Above are examples of slave huts in Bonaire provided by Dutch colonialists. Image credit: V.C.Vulto/Wikimedia.org The Caribbean plantations relied on slave labor to produce their high yields and profits. While the institution of slavery is often tied to America in the popular imagination, the majority of slaves were sent to the Caribbean (as well as Brazil) to work on the plantations there. The trans-Atlantic slave trade made up a portion of the triangular trade system between Europe, Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean, and North America. In practice ships carrying slaves from Africa to the Caribbean would then carry on to North America transporting luxury goods. In practice, the slave ships were not suited to the second leg of the trip, and upon delivering the slaves in the Caribbean, they would turn around and return to Africa to pick up more slaves. As a result, slaves became another export from the Caribbean to North America. Fewer than 4% of the more than twelve million Africans enslaved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade were sent directly to North America in the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Those that were imported from the Caribbean represented a significant contribution to the slave population in North America. Just as slave labor drove the economic success of Caribbean plantations, it drove economic growth and expansion in North America, and the rise of capitalism. Piracy Rich trade in the Caribbean provided the perfect opportunity for piracy to flourish in the region from the sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century. Islands such as New Providence, with their naturally sheltered harbors and natural resources developed as pirate havens, and the town of Nassau, in particular, became a base for pirate activities. Piracy also expanded into North America. After years of operation in the Caribbean, the infamous pirate Blackbeard established a base on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, in 1718, and made an agreement to share his booty with the North Carolina governor Charles Eden. Blackbeard's severed head hanging from Maynard's bow. Maynard was a British commanding officer who killed Blackbeard putting an end to the latter's reign of terror. Pirates operating out of the Caribbean, and those like Blackbeard who moved north, were a genuine threat to trade. But some also enhanced the economy of the North American colonies by trading their stolen goods and slaves, often to the benefit of particular individuals such as the governor of North Carolina. From the export of luxury goods and slaves to piracy, the Caribbean islands were tied to the expansion and economic development of North America. A Chinese FC-31 stealth fighter has its test flight ahead of the 10th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, Nov 10, 2014. File photo: Xinhua New photos of a prototype FC-31, China's second type of stealth fighter jet, have been appearing frequently on Chinese social media since May, years after disappearing from the public eye. Now painted in a silver gray coating, its development is making smooth progress, experts said on Monday. A new set of photos of what seems to be an FC-31 fighter jet on a test flight was posted on Sina Weibo on Saturday. This is not the first time the aircraft has made an appearance recently, as some photos were also posted by another Sina Weibo user on May 18, Shanghai-based news outlet eastday.com reported. Unlike photos taken in previous years, the FC-31 prototype in the new photos is painted with silver gray coating, eastday.com said. It seems to be an upgraded version with modifications made to its aerodynamic design just like the prototype that made its maiden flight in 2016, instead of the original version that made its public debut at Airshow China in 2014. The authenticity of the photos, including the time and location they were taken, cannot be verified. The photos soon sparked heated discussions among military enthusiasts, as they were reposted on forums on military affairs and overseas social media like Twitter. Fu Qianshao, a Chinese air defense expert, told the Global Times that the new painting could be a sign that the FC-31 was testing its stealth capability and low-observability against the naked eye. Fu said that while the photos could not show exactly how much progress had been made, the aircraft is confirmed to be conducting new test flights and making significant steps. Based on the results of the test flights, improved prototypes could be made, Fu said. Military observers have long speculated that the made-for-export FC-31 could be put into domestic military service. Some claimed an upgraded FC-31 could serve as China's next-generation carrier-based fighter jet. The Chinese Air Force, Navy and foreign clients could all be interested in this advanced stealth fighter jet, Fu said, noting that the FC-31 will likely continue its development and be equipped with new engines and devices in the future. The FC-31 is a single-seat, twin-engine multi-role fighter jet catering to the demands of future battlefield environments. It is 17.3 meters long and has a wingspan of 11.5 meters, according to an info flyer by its maker Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) in 2018. Mary Kelly (nee Rowan), Coole Raheen, Portlaoise, Laois The death took place on Saturday, May 23 of Mary Kelly (nee Rowan), Coole Raheen, Portlaoise, Laois. Peacefully in St. James' Hospital Dublin. Predeceased by her daughter Mary. Deeply regretted by her loving husband Jimmy, sons James, Andrew, Paddy, John and Kevin, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. Rest in Peace Due to Covid-19 Directive a private family Funeral will take place. A memorial Mass will take place later. Condolences can be left on the Online link on RIP.ie. Michael (Mick) Lawless, Saggart, Dublin / Laois The death took place on Monday, May 25 of Michael Lawless, Fork Truck Services, late of Balllingar, Killeen, Co. Laois. Died peacefully at his home in Saggart, surrounded by his loving family, loving husband and best friend of Mary, dear father of Peter, Maria, Shelly and Mikey, their partners Sarah, Niamh and Rob, doting grandad of Emma and Dara, predeceased by his brother Ted; sadly missed by his sisters Rita, Mary, Geraldine and Claire, brothers Jack and Dominic, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, extended family, neighbours and friends. May Mick Rest In Peace In accordance with Government Directives and in the interest of public health, a private funeral will take place. Please use the online Condolence page on RIP.ie to offer the family your sympathies and personal messages. Mick's family would like to thank you for your co-operation and understanding at this most difficult time. Mick's Funeral Mass can be viewed on Wednesday morning at 11.00a.m. on the following link: https://www.churchservices.tv/saggart Paula McEvoy, Howth, Dublin / Vicarstown, Laois The death took place on Monday, May 25 of Paula McEvoy, Howth, Dublin, formerly of Raheenaniska, Vicarstown, County Laois. Peacefully at St Francis Hospice Raheny, Dublin. Loving daughter of the late John and Maureen and dear sister of the late Ann. Deeply regretted by her loving partner Hugh, heartbroken sister Mary, uncle Jim and aunt Ann, brother-in-law Adrian, nephews David and Adam, grandniece Croiadh, grandnephew Fionn, cousins, relatives and many friends. May Paula Rest In Eternal Peace. Due to the Covid 19 Directive a Private Family Funeral and Cremation Service will take place. Please use the Online Condolence Book below to offer your sympathies. A Memorial Mass for Paula will take place at the Church of the Assumption Vicarstown County Laois at a later Date. The family would like to thank you for your understanding and support at this sad and difficult time. Hannah Meehan, Station Road, Portarlington, Laois / Drimnagh, Dublin the death took place on Sunday, May 24 of Hannah Meehan, Station Road, Portarlington, Laois / Drimnagh, Dublin. Deeply regretted by her loving brother Joseph, nephews John, Liam and Paul, niece Marese, grandnephews, grandnieces, relatives and friends. Rest in Peace In accordance with current Government guidance and restrictions, a private Funeral Mass will take place for Hannah. The funeral will be live streamed from St. Michael's Church, Portarlington at 11am Tuesday 26th May. See link https://www.mcnmedia.tv/camera/st-michaels-church-portarlington . Those who would have liked to attend the funeral but cannot due to restrictions, can leave a message of condolence in the 'Open Condolence Book' on RIP.ie Patrick (Pat) Scully, Garrymaddock, Vicarstown, Laois The death took place on Monday, May 25 of Patrick (Pat) Scully, Garrymaddock, Vicarstown, Laois. Pat passed away peacefully in the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise. Greatly missed by his loving family, brother Dan, sisters Anne (Hyland), Phil (Whelehan) and Breda. Sadly missed by his nieces, nephews, grandnephews, brothers in-law, family, relatives, Neighbours and friends. May Pat Rest In Peace. Covid 19 protocol in place. Social distancing to be observed. Sympathisers can extend their sympathies on the online Condolence facilities on his RIP.ie notice. Private family Requiem Mass on Wednesday at 12 noon in the Church of the Assumption, Vicarstown. Requiem Mass will be broadcast live on Whelehan Funeral Director's Facebook page. Interment to follow in Moyanna cemetery. Memorial Mass to be organised at a later date. The Scully family would like to thank you for your co-operation, understanding and support during this sensitive and difficult time. Hollie Brown-Quail, Chantiere Gate, Portlaoise, Laois / Castlewellan, Down The death took place on Saturday, May 23 of Hollie Brown-Quail, aged nine, Chantiere Gate, Portlaoise. Passed peacefully at her home, holding the hand of her brother Oliver and sister Maura, surrounded by her much loved family and friends. Hollie, the cherished and much-loved daughter of Paul and Teresa and adored sister of Oliver and Maura. Hollie will always be in the hearts of her devoted uncles, aunts, cousins, (especially her country cousins) and her great friends, especially those from Kolbe school and Laura Lynn. Family flowers only, donations if desired to Kolbe School or LauraLynn. Codladh samh ar n-aingeal Given the exceptional climate and to protect the welfare of everyone who knew her, a funeral, with family only, will take place, at 12 noon on Tuesday, with Mass of the Angels in SS Peter and Paul's Church, Portlaoise and will be streamed on the webcam. http://www.portlaoiseparish.ie/web-cam/ Burial afterwards in SS Peter and Pauls Cemetery, Portlaoise. Those who would have liked to attend her funeral, but due to these restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message for the family on the condolence page below, or send condolences in the traditional manner. The family thank you for your cooperation, understanding and support during this sensitive time. Paddy Dunphy, Cappagh, Knockaroo, Borris-in-Ossory, Laois The death took place on Sunday, May 24 of Paddy Dunphy, Cappagh, Knockaroo, Borris in Ossory, Co. Laois. Unexpectedly, at his home. Deeply regretted and will be sadly missed by his loving wife Josie, family Claire, Aiden, Kevin and Deirdre, brothers Jim and Canice, sister Margaret, sons in law, daughters in law, grandchildren, great-grandaughter, brothers in law, sisters in law, nieces, nephews, extended family relatives, neighbours and friends. May Paddy Rest In Peace In accordance with Government and HSE recommendations regarding public gathering's, a private funeral will take place for family only. A celebration of Paddy's life will be held at a later date. Those who would have liked to attended Paddy's funeral but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave your personal message in his RIP.ie section marked "Condolences". The family would like to thank everyone for their co-operation, understanding and support at this difficult time. Kit Hosty, Carrickacat, Logboy, Ballyhaunis, Mayo / Portlaoise, Laois The death took place on Saturday, May 23 of Kit Hosty, Carrickacat, Logboy, Ballyhaunis and Portlaoise. Peacefully at Brookvale Manor Nursing Home. Predeceased by her brothers Jack, Michael, Jim and sister Maureen. Deeply regretted by her sister Della [Chicago], sisters in law, brother in law, nieces, nephews, neighbours, relatives and friends. R.I.P. Due to HSE and government guidelines, a private family funeral will take place. Funeral will arrive to Logboy Church on Tuesday, for funeral Mass at 1 o'clock with burial afterwards in Tulrahan Cemetery. Funeral can be viewed on Brendan McGuinness's facebook page. Condolences can be left by clicking on the link below. Family flowers only, donations, if desired, to Epilepsy Ireland c/o Donnellan Undertakers Ballyhaunis. House strictly private, please. Sean Farrell, Broomville, Portlaoise, Laois / Rosenallis, Laois The death took place on Saturday, May 23 of Sean Farrell, Broomville, Portlaoise and late of Rosenallis, Co. Laois, Peacefully at home surrounded by his loving wife and family. Deeply regretted by his loving wife Betty, daughter Catherine, sons John, Billy and Mark, brothers, sisters, uncle, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, son-in-law Pad, daughters-in-law Caroline, Sandra and Jan, grandchildren Jack, Robbie, Lucy, Chloe, Danny, Billy, Emily and Lauren, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. Rest in peace Given the exceptional climate and to protect the welfare of everyone who knew him, a private funeral, with immediate family only, took place on Monday in SS Peter and Paul's Church, Portlaoise and was streamed on the webcam. Burial afterwards in SS Peter and Pauls Cemetery, Portlaoise. Those who would have liked to attend his funeral, but due to these restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message for the family on the condolence page below, or send condolences in the traditional manner. The family thank you for your cooperation, understanding and support during this sensitive time. Joyce Lillian Lim (nee Davis) formerly of Coolbanagher, Emo, Laois / Longford The death took place on Thursday, May 14 of Joyce Lillian, passed away following a short illness at her residence in Penang, Malaysia, in her 81st year. Joyce is survived by her loving husband David, her sons Stephen and Garrie, her brother Ken (Longford), grandchildren Alexander, Sophia and Max together with a wide circle of family members and friends. At rest A memorial service in celebration of Joyce's life will take place at a later date. Those of you who wish to leave a personal message for the family may do so using her "condolences" section on RIP.ie Daniel (Danny) Ryan, Blarney, Cork / Camross, Laois The death took place on Friday, May 22 or Daniel (Danny) Ryan (Blarney and late Killeens, Cork and late of Camross, Co. Laois): Peacefully at the Mercy University Hospital, late of Sunset Ridge, dearly loved husband of Anne (nee Conroy), loving father of Christina, Shirley, Samantha, Patrick, Daniel, Jennifer, Declan and Dylan, and dear brother of Lil, Nora, Martin, Sheila, Patsy and the late Mary. Sadly missed by his loving wife family, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, relatives and friends. A private family funeral took place, in accordance with current guidelines. The family thank you for your co-operation and understanding at this difficult time. Please leave your personal message for Daniels family in his condolence section on RIP.ie or through www.jerhoconnorfuneralhomes.ie Donations in lieu of flowers to the Mercy University Hospital. A new Critically Endangered frog named after 'the man from the floodplain full of frogs' A new species proposed to be classified as Critically Endangered of miniaturised stump-toed frog of the genus Stumpffia, found in Madagascar, is named Stumpffia froschaueri after "the man from the floodplain full of frogs", Christoph Froschauer. The namesake of the new frog is famous for being the first, and European wide renowned, printer from Zurich, famous for printing "Historia animalium" and the "Zurich Bible". Christoph Froschauer's (ca. 1490 - April 1564) family name means "the man from the floodplain full of frogs", and the printer used to sign his books with a woodcut, showing frogs under a tree in a landscape. Amongst his publications are works by Zwingli, Bullinger, Gessner, Erasmus von Rotterdam and Luther, and as a gift for his art, the printer was given citizenship in Zurich in 1519. Now, scientists have also honoured Froschauer's great contributions by naming a new frog species after him. The discovery, made by an international team of scientists from CIBIO (Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources) of the University of Porto, Zoological Society of London, University of Lisbon, University of Brighton, University of Bristol, University of Antananarivo and Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, is published in the open-access peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys. The new species is reliably known only from a few specimens collected in three forest patches of the Sahamalaza region, an area severely threatened by fire, drought and high levels of forest clearance. "In Anketsakely and Ankarafa this species has been found only in areas with relatively undisturbed forest, and active individuals were found during the day within the leaf-litter on the forest floor, where discreet calling males were also detected", shares lead author Dr. Angelica Crottini from CIBIO. Even though two out of the three forest patches where Stumpffia froschaueri occurs are now part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, there is a lack in forest border patrols and the area remains under strong pressure from slash-and-burn activities and timber harvesting. Habitat loss and fragmentation are likely to represent a huge threat to the species' survival and cause population declines, unless remedial actions to enforce the protection of these habitats are taken. The scientists suggest to classify Stumpffia froschaueri as a Critically Endangered species according to criteria of the IUCN Red List. "We here reiterate the need to continue with field survey activities, giving particular attention to small and marginal areas, where several microendemic candidate species are likely waiting to be discovered and formally described. This description confirms the Sahamalaza Peninsula as an important hotspot of amphibian diversity, with several threatened species relying almost entirely on the persistence of these residual forest fragments", concludes Dr. Crottini. ### Original source: Crottini A, Rosa GM, Penny SG, Cocca W, Holderied MW, Rakotozafy LMS, Andreone F (2020) A new stump-toed frog from the transitional forests of NW Madagascar (Anura, Microhylidae, Cophylinae, Stumpffia). ZooKeys 933: 139-164. https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 3897/ zookeys. 933. 47619 This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Inside the small-scale Iowa abattoir Stanhope Locker and Market, owner Shaunna Zanker yawns with exhaustion as she listens to yet another farmer asking her to slaughter his pigs. "I'm so sorry, but we're booked through March of next year," Zanker said on the phone. "How about next June?" Slaughter operations like Zanker's are booming as novel coronavirus outbreaks at major US and Canadian meat plants force farmers and meat-loving consumers to seek out alternatives to a crucial supply-chain link. Since 1946, this Stanhope, Iowa, shop - one of 1,500 independent American slaughterhouses - has processed a few farm animals from local farms each week and sold cuts of beef and pork to the public. Now the family-owned business and others like it are overwhelmed and are forced to turn away farmers. Large meat plants across the United States and Canada are closed or running at reduced capacity. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show The result: not enough places to slaughter hundreds of thousands of cattle and pigs, and store shelves with little or no meat in major exporting countries that normally have abundant supplies. Small-scale slaughterhouses account for a miniscule part of the market: Around 80 percent of US beef is produced by four large companies. Some 1 percent of American hogs or less are processed at small-scale meat lockers, economists say. The consumer rush for meat is straining supplies at TL Keller Meats in Litchfield, Ohio, and forced them for the first time ever to ration sales: Five pounds (2.3 kg) of ground beef per person and two packs of burger patties per family. Owner Tom Keller and his 23 employees are processing as fast as they can. In March, they slaughtered 104 cattle, twice the rate a year earlier. "People are going mad trying to fill their freezers," Keller said after putting in a 13-hour day. PANIC BUYING North of the border, Canada's main cattle-producing province, Alberta, is struggling to deal with reduced production at the country's two main beef plants, owned by Cargill Inc and JBS SA, both in the province. The farms where cattle are raised to slaughter-ready weight, known as feedlots, are being turned away by the big plants, which have a backlog of cattle. So some are calling Marc Lustenberger, owner of the Meat Chop abattoir near Penhold, Alberta, who already has a brisk business cutting meat for farmers to sell directly to consumers. "There's lots of panic buying," Lustenberger said. "Looks like it's not going to stop anytime soon." In March and April, Alberta's Red Deer Lake Meats slaughtered twice as many pigs and cattle as it normally does. The provincial agriculture department called Red Deer butcher Darrel Barrett to ask him to pick up some of the slack from the two-week closure of Cargill's plant. "Which is absurd, with Cargill slaughtering 4,500 head a day," Barrett said. "We're lucky if we do 20 a week." Like other Alberta butchers, Barrett is also busy cutting meat for farms that are suddenly doing booming sales directly to consumers. One customer, rancher Ben Campbell of Black Diamond, Alberta, pre-sold 10,800 pounds (4,900 kg) of grass-fed beef in two months, one-third more than he sold all of last year. Small ranchers like Tim Hoven, who runs an organic beef farm near Eckville, Alberta, have years-long relationships with small butchers that are now seeing massive demand. Neighbors, used to delivering to the big plants, are left with cattle that have nowhere to go. "They're in a tough spot because they're small and they're at the bottom of the list to get that kill spot at these big plants," said Hoven, whose meat sales have tripled. "They can't get that spot at the small plants" either. 'NEW WAY TO BUY FOOD' At Uniontown, Alabama-based BDA Farm, sales have jumped more than 800 percent in two months, said partner Allen Williams. "Initially it was panic buying, but it has gone far beyond that now," Williams said. "They're discovering an entirely new way to buy food and they're discovering it's pretty dad-gum convenient." "We're selling out of absolutely everything, every single week. But we're running into a choke point - we can't get it all processed." Back in Iowa, Zanker hangs up the phone. It's the 10th farmer to call that day. Next, a woman calls asking if Stanhope Locker and Market has meat for sale. They do. The woman lives two hours away. Others have driven further, Zanker said. "I had one person call, telling me they had gotten a hog for free," Zanker said. "I told them, 'There's nowhere to take them. Congratulations, you now have a pet.'" Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here [May 26, 2020] Top Hat to Acquire Nelson's Canadian Domestic Higher Ed Textbook Business, Transforming Educational Publishing Landscape Top Hat, the leading active learning platform for higher education, today announced it is acquiring more than 400 higher education textbook titles published by Nelson, Canada's largest educational publisher. Top Hat will convert these print-only titles into digital courseware on its platform and infuse them with interactive elements, enabling educators to bring active learning to life for their students. The acquisition will transform the Canadian higher education publishing landscape, positioning Top Hat as a leading player in the industry. Facing the uncertainty of the upcoming school year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, educators who adopt these titles on the Top Hat platform will have the flexibility to deliver their courses effectively and motivate their students in any teaching environment, whether online or in-person, synchronous or asynchronous. Nelson is Canada's leading educational publisher and has been providing quality learning materials and solutions to students since 1914. This acquisition will take Nelson's world-class higher ed learning content used at more than 80 percent of Canada's higher ed institutions and strengthen it on Top Hat's powerful active learning platform with features and tools that equip educators to easily provide engaging and effective learning experiences while improving student outcomes. For example, educators can leverage Top Hat's market-leading functionality that supports student comprehension through a unique assess-as-you-go model that intersperses interactive and engaging activities and assessments throughout the textbooks, like rollover definitions, interactive 3D models, comprehensive chapter summaries, study guides, and quizzes, among other features. The catalogue of titles includes many popular and trusted textbooks used in Canadian higher ed institutions, covering disciplines including human resources, social sciences, criminal justice, and education, among many others. "As the world has moved online and information is available in real-time, educators have faced a growing challenge convincing students of the value and relevance of print textbooks," said Mike Silagadze, founder and CEO, Top Hat. "The COVID-19 crisis of the past few months, and the subsequent closure of on-campus facilities and bookstores, hasexacerbated the situation as many students have had challenges accessing these course materials. Through this acquisition, Top Hat will ensure students have access to engaging, high-quality course materials no matter how courses are delivered, with the added benefit of proven active learning technology that uplevels the learning experience." "Nelson's collaboration with Top Hat will ensure students have access to high-quality, trusted content delivered on a world-class learning platform suited to meet the needs of our new normal," said Steve Brown (News - Alert), CEO, Nelson. "Enabling student success is at the core of everything we do. We believe this transition will enable students and faculty to successfully continue their learning journey as we prepare for the 2020-21 school year." Top Hat is Enabling Canadian Institutions to Plan for Fall 2020 in a Climate of Uncertainty The abrupt transition to remote teaching as a result of campus closures brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic pushed educators to quickly piece together multiple solutions to deliver their courses online. The result was a highly disjointed experience that required professors to navigate and force-fit technologies and content not designed to work together. According to Top Hat's new survey of 3,089 current higher education students in North America, students are questioning the return on investment in their college education as almost seven out of 10 feel the emergency online instruction they received this winter is worse than in-person instruction. Furthermore, more than a quarter of students are questioning a return to their current college or university in the fall due to uncertainty around how their school plans to reopen. As the Fall 2020 semester approaches, institutions and faculty need to assure students they will receive valuable learning experiences regardless of how courses are taught - whether in-person, online, or in a hybrid format. The need for powerful teaching tools and high-quality digital content has never been greater. Through this acquisition, Top Hat will ensure that educators who rely on these leading Canadian higher ed textbooks can leverage the elements of Top Hat that instructors around the world depend on to deliver an engaging and effective learning experience to millions of higher ed students: adherence to active learning principles, deep engagement with students, and a holistic view of student progress and comprehension. For example, educators can leverage Top Hat functionality to encourage student comprehension through embedding interactive and engaging activities throughout the textbooks, like rollover definitions, interactive 3D models, comprehensive chapter summaries, study guides, and assessments, among other features. Educators are further supported by Top Hat's instructional design and support teams, dedicated to helping them build their perfect course. Top Hat's Active Learning Platform with Powerful Virtual Classroom Capabilities Makes Online Teaching and Learning Experience More Engaging and Interactive Top Hat recently announced it will be adding virtual classroom capabilities to its all-in-one teaching solution, empowering instructors to teach the same course face-to-face and online, while maintaining active learning principles. It is a complete solution that offers tools for in-person as well as synchronous and asynchronous online learning, enabling educators to seamlessly transition between in-person and online teaching while maintaining active engagement and connections with students inside and outside virtual class meetings. About Top Hat Top Hat's all-in-one teaching platform enables professors to connect with students inside and outside the classroom with engaging content, tools, and activities. Millions of students at 750 leading North American colleges and universities use the Top Hat teaching platform for in-class, online, and blended learning. To learn more, visit tophat.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005195/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] And India and China are at it again soldiers clashing at the borders, growing transgressions, diplomats talking tough and armies boosting their presence in critical sectors. Like a bad memory, Sino-Indian border tensions have a way of making their presence felt at precisely the moment they are least needed. The world is struggling with Covid-19 pandemic and governments across the world are busy trying to get their heads around how to deal with a health and an economic crisis it has engendered to the best of their abilities. India is no different where the health crisis is yet to peak even as a burgeoning economic crisis is challenging its policymakers. We are told by many that big picture strategic issues can take a backseat as day to day management of a growing humanitarian crisis should be our priority. But lest we forget, we have neighbours like China and Pakistan, nations that make it difficult for India to have the luxury of a sequential response to the global crisis. Pakistan can be handled but when China ups the ante, its an entirely different ballgame. And so in the midst of the health pandemic, the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) is once again on the boil with border clashes between the militaries of India and China seemingly at their highest since 2015. The Chinese military has enhanced its troop presence in areas around Pangong Tso lake and Galwan valley along the LAC in Ladakh amidst growing Indian pushback. China has accused the Indian Army of trespassing into its territory, claiming that it was an attempt to unilaterally change the status of the LAC in Sikkim and Ladakh while New Delhi has asserted that India has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management and that its the Chinese military hindering normal patrolling by its troops. A number of meetings at the level of local commanders over the last few days have failed to defuse tensions. Management of border with China is Indias topmost strategic priority and New Delhi has over the years tried various options at its disposal. There are more formal mechanisms to talk about the boundary issue and since 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi also started an informal dialogue process at the top leadership level. Modis first informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jiinping at Wuhan in April 2018 resulted in strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication in order to build trust and mutual understanding and enhance predictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs. The two leaders also directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence building measures agreed upon between the two sides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthen existing institutional arrangements and information sharing mechanisms to prevent incidents in border regions. While it did manage to stabilise a seemingly free-falling Sino-Indian relationship in 2018, it has clearly failed to bring any stability at the border. Part of the reason for growing Chinese belligerence on the border has to do with Indias better management of its peripheries. Indias border infrastructure has witnessed a significant improvement over the last few years. This is given newfound confidence to the Indian military and they are now visible in areas where the Chinese military was not used to seeing them. Indian militarys patrolling along the LAC has also become more effective and their pushback against Chinese aggression is stronger. For a border that is not well-defined and demarcated, growing contestation is producing local instability which the armies of both nations are having to contend with on a daily basis now. But it would be easy and simplistic to dismiss this instability primarily as a function of local level factors. To do so would also lead to suboptimal policy outcomes for India. Any serious assessment of Chinese behaviour vis-a-vis India today should take into account larger structural and institutional factors. New Delhi is not being challenged by any nation it is being challenged by a nation that deems itself to have arrived as the next global superpower, replacing the US; it is being challenged by a nation that is led by an insecure authoritarian Communist Party; it is being challenged by a nation that has a leadership whose ability to provide high rates of economic growth is increasingly under question; and it is being challenged by a nation that is beset with multiple internal challenges from Hong Kong and Xinjiang to Taiwan and is facing an increasingly hostile global community that is demanding answers for the mismanagement of Covid-19 in the initial stages. The Trump Administrations trade and technology war with China is resulting in a reassessment of Chinas own economic projections, especially in the context of a global economy beset with Covid-19. The Communist Party of China (CPC) has acknowledged the severity of economic challenge it faces by scrapping its annual economic growth target for the first time since 1990. There are increasing questions about Chinas use of economic globalisation for geopolitical leverage which the world got the full exposure of during the coronavirus pandemic, generating an intense backlash against China. For the leadership of Xi Jinping whose success is predicated on great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation these can seem like tough times when the world is rallying against Beijing and internal pressure is mounting. From an over ambitious Belt and Road Initiative to an initial mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis, from a ham-handed approach to the Hong Kong crisis to further alienating Taiwan, questions are being raised in China against Xis leadership style. And so to salvage his reputation around the time of the National Peoples Congress, Chinese military comes to his rescue to generate a sense of nationalism on territorial matters. From the maritime space of South China Sea to South Asian continental borders, we have seen a ratcheting up of pressure by China. It sends a message to Xi Jinpings domestic audience that he and the CPC remain firmly in charge and it also makes it clear to the target nations that they need to behave. New Delhi has challenged Beijing on a number of fronts in recent months it has tightened its FDI laws, it supported the group of nations who have called for an independent enquiry into the origins of the coronavirus and two Indian MPs even virtually attended the swearing-in ceremony of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Raising tensions on the border is Beijings way of telling New Delhi to rein in its ambitions. It would be a mistake for India to think that by giving in to Chinese aggression it would be able to mitigate tensions with China. Chinese belligerence towards India is a function of its own global ambitions and domestic insecurities. The best that India can do is to build deterrence capabilities vis-a-vis its more powerful northern neighbour. Standing firm on its own red-lines is the first step for a nation in enhancing its deterrent credibility. And that remains a challenge for New Delhi as the latest round of border tensions continues to fester. Professor Harsh V Pant is Director, Studies and Head of the Strategic Studies Programme at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Views expressed are personal. 427 Shares Share The Blue Angels have awed generations with tight aerial choreography and the sonic roar that heralds their aerobatics. No doubt millions have felt patriotic goosebumps watching their technical mastery at summer air shows. Last week, as the fighter jets tore over an emotionally strained Chicago, with the stated intent of paying tribute to health care workers and first responders, I felt only a pit of hard anger. Im a family physician, among the health workers and first responders whove rapidly adjusted to a new survival paradigm over the past two months. I watched the United States fail to prevent the spread of, and then fail to contain the novel coronavirus. Now the last step for managing the pandemic, mitigation, has the nation in various states of deep uncertainty and economic despair. I listened to this administration repeatedly assure a worried public that the outbreak was under control, then that everyone who wanted a test would get a test for the virus, and that health workers were assured adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep us safe. I then watched the U.S. case numbers burgeon from 15 in late February to 1.5 million today, with now 93,000 lives lost. I follow shifting guidelines for who meets testing criteria. I know there hasnt been a test for everyone whos needed one, let alone wanted one. Many of us are fortunate to have PPE, but many arent, and though grass-roots campaigns and private donations have stepped up to try to fill the void, reusing masks, gowns, and face shields beyond their intended single-use purpose is still routine. I worry about a deeply distressed health care workforce, already threatened by a burnout crisis as many of us try to follow our calling to serve and comfort within a byzantine, deeply fractured and siloed health care system, with the further challenge of caring for patients whose health suffers because of economic and social inequities beyond their, and our, control. So many of us were and are struggling, and the new standards have laid even barer the deep fault lines. What will we be once were through this pandemic? I have long been wary of being called a hero. I would never speak for all health care workers or first responders, but I expect most of us want to do this work, work to which many of us felt called, without fanfare. But we need proper tools, and we want to feel secure that the work isnt going to kill us for want of adequate protection. Use of the word hero by our countrys leaders implies a release of their duty to protect and support us. Were public servants whove been thrown into a system that has limited whom we can test, were deeply frightened by all we dont know about this virus, and we dont have time or space to grieve the patients weve watched it take. And sometimes were not adequately protected. We show up anyway. I did not forget, as I heard the fighter jets boom overhead, that I now ask my patients on our telehealth visits if they have enough food at home. A dazzling display of military prowess with a multi-million-dollar price tag does nothing to keep us, our patients or our communities safe, and seems even more hollow as we now face Depression-era unemployment numbers. This isnt time for a bombastic tribute. I want first responders and health care workers and support people who staff the nations emergency departments and ICUs to have enough PPE to use as intended. I want them to get hazard pay. I want a functional system to isolate cases and trace contacts. Mostly I want my colleagues and me to stop experiencing so much loss. When our countrys leadership has the backs of its health care workforce in deed, not just in word, and when were, together, on a path toward massive testing and science-driven reopening strategies, my anger will be eclipsed by hope. Then, when we, as health care workers, are looking beyond this crisis to what we can build together, I might feel the return of those patriotic goosebumps. Mara Divis is a family physician and can be reached on Twitter @drmaradivis. Image credit: Shutterstock.com MaidPro Adventure Trip to Peru The companies on Inc.s Best Workplaces list are setting an example that the whole country can learn from, especially now, when company culture is more important to the workforce than ever. MaidPro Franchise has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2020. Hitting newsstands May 12 in the May/June 2020 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces through vibrant cultures, deep employee engagement, and stellar benefits. MaidPro is a residential cleaning franchise with more than 285 locations across North America. Their home office in Boston consists of approximately 50 employees that work to support their franchise owners. The MaidPro home office offers unique benefits that promote the health and wellbeing of their employees. Collecting data from more than 3,000 submissions, Inc. singled out 389 finalists for this years list. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including trust, management effectiveness, perks, and confidence in the future. Inc. gathered, analyzed, and audited the data. This year, 73.5 percent of surveyed employees were engaged by their work. The strongest engagement scores came from companies that prioritize the most human elements of work. These companies are leading the way in employee recognition, performance management, and diversity. It is a different playbook from a decade ago, when too many firms used the same template: free food, open work environments, and artifacts of fun. We are in the business of health, wellness, and helping others. This is why we have made a conscious effort to provide benefits and experiences that allow our employees to stay happy and healthy. From trips around the world to puppies in the office, we are open to any and all opportunities that will allow our employees to shine," says Mark Kushinsky, CEO of MaidPro. Building a great corporate culture comes only from strong leadership, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. The companies on Inc.s Best Workplaces list are setting an example that the whole country can learn from, especially now, when company culture is more important to the workforce than ever. While researching the finalists, Inc. and Quantum saw distinct themes: 100 percent provide health insurance. 50 percent allow employees to bring pets to work. 62 percent take employees to offsite retreats to relax and recharge. 20 percent offer paid sabbaticals to reward length of service. About MaidPro MaidPro is a Boston-based franchisor of house cleaning services with over 285 locations in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. The company, which began franchising in 1997, takes pride in its strong owner community, cutting-edge technology, and creative marketing. It has been honored with the Franchise Business Reviews Four-Star Rating and Franchise 50 awards every year from 2006 to 2020 for owner satisfaction. MaidPro was named one of the Top 50 Franchises for Minorities by USA Todays Franchising Today. The company can be found online at http://www.maidprofranchise.com. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. A 4-year-old died after he was accidentally shot while playing with a gun during a Memorial Day barbecue on the Southeast Side, officials said. On Tuesday, police identified the toddler as JaeLen Corley. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said a family was gathered at a home at about 7 p.m. in the 1400 block of Avant Avenue when the shooting occurred. Officals said Corley was with a 10-year-old boy in a bedroom playing with the gun. Someone heard a pop and they ran inside and found the little boy had been shot in the stomach, McManus said. The family put Corley into a car and began driving him to a hospital, until they were impeded by a crash on South Gevers Street and Rigsby Avenue. An ambulance met them there and resumed his transport to San Antonio Military Medical Center, the chief said. Corley was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said. Right now, were just trying to find the weapon and figure out exactly how this happened, McManus said. Police are investigating who exactly fired the shot, the chief said. There were a number of people inside and outside the home, McManus said. Police said witnesses at the scene were being uncooperative and were taken to headquarters for questioning. The owner of the gun was not home when the boy was shot, police said. Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. To read more from Jacob, become a subscriber. jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA In his worst nightmares, Blue and White Chairman and Defense Minister Benny Gantz could not have imagined the major damage that would be inflicted on him on the opening day of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus trial on May 24. Netanyahu delivered his Jaccuse speech on a live broadcast to the cameras only moments before he entered the Jerusalem District Court. It was his indictment of Israels law enforcement system, which he accused of persecuting and framing him. For several but seemingly endless minutes, while standing in front of mask-wearing silent Likud ministers, the prime minister hurled poison darts at the police and the state prosecution office. True, Gantz took into account that the day would be a difficult one for him on both the public and political levels after he had promised not to be part of a government headed by someone accused of bribery. True, Gantz had disappointed and even betrayed hundreds of thousands of supporters. Now he had not only made a political alliance with the accused defendant but also found himself trapped between his promises to defend the legal system and the necessity of retaining a cordial relationship with the defendant. On the morning the trial started, Gantz consulted with his people. The decision was for Gantz to keep a low profile with the media throughout the day. This strategic choice was the result of a tense tete-a-tete between Gantz and Netanyahu on May 21, three days before the opening of the trial and less than a week after their coalition government had been sworn in May 17. Within this short time period, arm-twisting and a tug of war had already emerged between Blue and White and the Likud. The day before Gantz and Netanyahu were due to meet, Gantz was interviewed by the prestigious Israeli television program Fact [Uvda]. When Gantz was asked about his violation of his main electoral promise not to ally himself with someone indicted for criminal offenses, he answered, I did not come to serve Netanyahu, I came to serve the State of Israel. Then Gantz was asked whether he had questioned Netanyahu about whether the prime minister would do something to get out of the trial, and answered, I asked him if he was going to trial, and he said yes. And you believe him? the interviewer pressed. Gantz answered, You know, next week well have the answers. Netanyahu was angry over what Gantz said, and especially what he implied. Netanyahu got the impression that his new partner in leading the state was purposely putting the prime minister in an awkward position in order to create a noble and exalted image for the Blue and White leader. When Gantz arrived at the May 21 meeting, Netanyahu already knew that he would be forced to appear at the Jerusalem District Court for the opening of his trial. The prime minister had asked the judges that he be exempted from making this appearance, citing the high expenses involved in security, but was turned down. When Netanyahu met with Gantz, the prime minister made it clear that Gantz was not to attack or criticize him in the media. According to members of Netanyahus inner circle, the prime minister did not make concrete references to the interview or the upcoming trial, but talked in general that the two of them must not criticize each other in the media. The message was clear, as was the veiled warning. Gantz internalized the message and also instructed the Blue and White ministers to refrain from interviews and announcements to the media regarding Netanyahus trial. In internal talks, he asked his people to empathize with Netanyahus supporters, for whom the opening day of the trial was a difficult and sad blow. Under Gantzs orders, all Blue and White members were to refuse interviews from the morning of May 24. The partys ministers appeared at the first working meeting of the unity government, which was convened only a few hours before Netanyahu entered the Court Hall. When Gantz and the Blue and White ministers got reports on Netanyahus show just before entering the courthouse, they were shocked. Under no circumstances had they dreamed that the prime minister would turn the opening day of his trial into a media event, the likes of which had never been seen in the State of Israel. This embarrassed them greatly, and thrust them into the horns of a dilemma. At first, they kept quiet. But the media criticized the silence on the part of the Blue and White chairman and his ministers. After some time passed, Gantz publicized the following very weak response: Like any other citizen, the prime minister is also entitled to be presumed innocent, and I am certain that he will receive a fair and just trial from the legal system. Not a word of criticism was heard from Blue and White regarding Netanyahus scathing offensive against the police and the prosecution. Even new Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn of Blue and White maintained a low-key tone; he coordinated his response with Gantz and, like the Blue and White leader, also emphasized the prime ministers presumption of innocence. So Gantz found himself in the same boat as Netanyahu and the senior Likud members, under the same toxic cloud disseminated by the prime minister. All of Gantzs promises to guard the legal system from inside the government, to build an invincible wall protecting the legal system disappeared into thin air. The one to take advantage of the weakness and silence of Alternate Prime Minister Gantz was Gantzs former partner, opposition leader Yair Lapid, who endlessly tweeted and spoke out in interviews against both Gantz and Netanyahu. Lapid accused Netanyahu of a coup and of attempting to eliminate democracy, and criticized Gantz and Blue and White ministers for collaborating with the prime minister. Speaking on May 25 to his Knesset faction, Lapid said, After all their promises to protect the legal system, yesterday Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi chose to remain silent. Is there any principle at all for which you are willing to fight for? This was Gantzs baptism of fire in the emergency government. A Blue and White minister told Al-Monitor, on condition of anonymity, that it was much harder than they had expected. We never anticipated such a scenario. We said: Netanyahu will reach the courthouse, there will be photographs, a lot of noise, OK. But suddenly he stood up and fired his shots, and we couldnt do a thing in response. Blue and White hopes that Netanyahus trial will not make many headlines over the coming months. That is because the assessment is that the prime minister wont be called to make an appearance in the court for many months. Still, Gantz and his people are beginning to understand that Netanyahus court case can prove to be very destructive for Blue and Whites public image. Of course, this has basis in reality: Netanyahu fired the opening shots of what may turn into a protracted legal battle, in which hell use all the tools at his disposal. Gantz will have to be a political illusionist to survive all the flak, while Lapid breathes down his neck and reminds him of his promises. Kajol has shared a memory with actor Aamir Khan on the completion of 14 years of their film, Fanaa. She shared a behind-the-scene picture from the sets of the film which shows her and Aamir sitting across a wooden table. Sharing the picture, she wrote, #14YearsOfFanaa. Bts this was preshoot. And as usual the film was quite different from what we read on paper. Still remember Poland and how much fun we had there. @_aamirkhan @kunalkohli @kirronkhermp #RishiKapoor @iamalihaji @yrf. The 2006 film also starred late Rishi Kapoor, Tabu, Kirron Kher and Sharat Saxena in supporting roles. While Aamir portrayed the role of a terrorist , Kajol played his sight-impaired lover from Kashmir. The film turned out to be a blockbuster. Child actor Ali Haji had played the role of Kajol and Aamirs son in the film. Director Kunal Kohli had once revealed they had shot the film in minus 27 degrees temperature in Poland. Aamir and Kajol are yet to work together in a film after Fanaa. It was Aamir who had referred Kajols name for the role of Zooni in Fanaa. Kunal had told Hindustan Times in an interview, We went to Aamir first and when we asked him who he thinks would play the role of Zooni the best, he said I will give you three names and that is Kajol, Kajol and Kajol. However, the makers werent sure if Kajol would star in the film as she was also offered Karan Johars Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna around the same time. He said, Karan [Johar] was casting for KANK (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) at that time, and since Kajol and he were thick friends, Adi (Aditya Chopra) and I thought she would work in that film. But when we approached her, she gave her nod at the first narration. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Gov. Phil Murphy will hold his first coronavirus press conference since before the Memorial Day weekend at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The gathering at the Trenton War Memorial will be streamed on the governors YouTube channel and include state health commissioner Judy Persichilli, state Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan, and State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan. Murphy and Callahan are likely to be asked about how well people who spent time along the Jersey Shore complied with social distancing measures. Most beaches are open, though businesses, restaurants and bars along the boardwalk are either closed or limited to takeout, delivery and curbside pickup. Face coverings at beaches many of which have reduced capacity are recommended but not required. In addition to beaches, Murphy has allowed parks to reopen and permitted nonessential retail businesses to offer curbside service, among other moves. Murphy said Thursday morning more businesses such as salons and gyms may be allowed to reopen with guidelines in a matter of weeks. At least 11,144 have died of COVID-19 related causes since March 10 though the spread of the virus has slowed considerably in the past several weeks. The states 71 hospitals continue to report fewer coronavirus patients there were 2,723 as of Monday night, down more than 66% from the peak of 8,084 on April 14. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. As Plainview and Hale County residents were adhering to stay-at-home orders, certain crimes were significantly down through the months of March and April compared to last year. Lieutenant William Bridgwater of the Plainview Police Department provided the Herald with a detailed breakdown of crime throughout the city, comparing the months of January through April of 2020 to the same months of 2019. The numbers show a significant decrease in certain crimes while others fluctuated differently. Same kind of calls, just less of them because the calls we were taking were more calls for service rather than field-generated, said Bridgwater. Our officers are in support of social distancing guidelines. Field-generated calls like traffic stops werent as frequent. The majority of the calls were fire department and EMS. The PPD, which takes calls for crime as well as fire department and ambulance requests, received 28-percent less calls during April than it did in the same month last year. Calls specifically for police were down by 32 percent. Meanwhile, EMS calls increased by 16 percent and calls for the fire department also decreased by 28 percent. April is where the major drop-off in crime took place. Hale County entered its stay-at-home orders due to concerns of the coronavirus on March 31 and stayed there throughout the next month. While some crimes were also down in March, the difference is less obvious than in April. In 2019, there were 92 arrests made by Plainview police officers during the months of both March and April. This year, in the midst of the pandemic, a grand total of 88 arrests were made 54 in March for a 41-percent decrease; and 34 in April for a 63-percent decrease. Certain citations, especially ones that stem from traffic stops such as expired licenses, were down 78 percent in April just 49 in 2020 compared to 218 in 2019. Traffic accident reports were also significantly down in the month of April with just 18 in 2020 compared to 53 in 2019. Some crimes remained consistent for the Plainview PD. We didnt get a whole lot of difference in the number of assaults, said Bridgwater. For March of 2020, were showing a 23-percent reduction. Only two less in April than last year that shows up as an 8-percent reduction. Of course, were showing 12 burglaries in April compared to eight last year. It depends on how you spin the numbers. Bridgwater said that the number of arrests were down significantly for a few reasons, one of them being that the officers avoided arresting people for minor offenses like traffic-related crimes. Any violent offenses were going to arrest on the spot, said Bridgwater. Were weighing the need to apprehend based on public safety. If were putting somebody in jail on a minor crime, thats not going to serve the public interest, so well weigh whether were going to make an arrest in that case. Plainview also had just two arrests for violations of the shelter-in-place order, though each were in addition to other crimes, such as public intoxication. For the most part, Bridgwater said the officers gave warnings about breaking up large gatherings rather than arresting people. The Plainview PD has been fully staffed during the pandemic, according to Bridgwater. We had a couple instances where officers were advised to stay home as a precautionary measure, said Bridgwater. As far as I know, nobodys been sick but with things like coming back from travel, we used an abundance of caution. Everythings been fine as far as that goes." They are gathered on a rooftop in Gypsy Town, watching the smoke rise from the war memorial pipe-bombings. The super soldiers are all wondering about the war that has followed them home, but its Pete Swenson, Justice, still bloodied from a morning pulling survivors from the debris, who finally asks: How? Howd it get like this? The question of their time: Where had it all gone so wrong? All too often of late, the seminal question of ours. When did life increasingly cruel and vain go off the rails? In the alternative universe of Empire City (Atria Books, 368 pages, $27), Matt Gallaghers second novel, it may have been Nixons Grand Bargain with Mao, which ended Chinas support of North Vietnam in exchange for Taiwan. It may have been the invasion of Beirut, which kicked off the 30 years of the Mediterranean Wars, the endless military intrusions into Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus. Or it may have been that rescue mission gone wrong in Tripoli, when a cythrax bomb takes out close to an entire platoon of Army Rangers, and leaves the survivors with Super powers. Sergeant Pete Swenson has Captain Marvels strength. Corporal Grady Flowers can teleport with Nightcrawler. Corporal Jean-Jacques Saint-Preux has been clocked at 460 mph, right up there with the Flash. That may sound like an all-too-familiar set-up in the Age of Ultron, when comic-book plots dominate Netflix and the box-office. But Gallagher, 37, is a veteran of both the Iraq war and a litany of Roman and British history classes at Wake Forest. And in Empire City, he explores, and satirizes, how republics come apart after their golden age, and veterans make peace with the civilians they were called to serve. For me, the superheroes were a way to heighten how this America sees its warriors, Gallagher says. The Volunteers are caricatures. Batman in Gotham. Theyre used when necessary, then ignored. I was less interested in the powers themselves than when and why the characters chose to utilize them. The Volunteers Swenson, Flowers and Saint-Preux are not the only cythrax survivors. Sebastian Rios, the journalist target of the Rangers rescue mission, now flacks for Homeland Security and, occasionally, nudges the lever at the back of his brain that turns him invisible. Mia Tucker, the Army pilot who lost her leg to that cythrax bomb, is an investment banker who is suddenly being recruited by Major General (retired) Jaclyn Gaile Collins, who has made mandatory public service the central plank of her presidential campaign. And Jonah Gray, who has the power to summon memories, now leads a group of disenchanted veterans on war-memorial bombing missions because hes convinced America is doomed to bad ones. Unless you sleep with Charles Xavier, Doctor Manhattan or another precog, you have no idea who is playing fair and who is not in Empire City. Writing the novel during Trumps interminable Twitter rants was a trip, Gallagher admits: In the early drafts, I found myself over-reacting to the headlines. One of the challenges of political fiction is that it needs to be smarter than the politics of the world. Mission accomplished. No, Empire City doesnt land with the same impact as Gallaghers first novel, Youngblood (read a review). Too much of the essential action plays out in conversations or the characters memories, not on the printed page. But the novel is a provocative and thoughtful look at the unwinding of a country that is always at war and never dealing with the consequences. A scarred homeland where, as Swenson says, Its easy to forget how we got here. Even for those of us devoted to the fight. And during a spring where its near impossible to browse at your local bookstore, Gallagher hopes you order Empire City through Powells, Broadway Books, or the independents gathered at bookshop.org. -- Steve Duin stephen.b.duin@gmail.com Governments at all levels in the United States are suddenly facing the need to do much of their work from a distance. While the coronavirus pandemic is the immediate driver of the sudden shift to working from home, the foundation for the transition to distance work actually began more than a decade ago. Heres the backstory. The federal government had been seen as the leader in the use of distance work arrangements largely because of a 2010 law that codifies a federal commitment to the adoption of telework. The law requires all federal agencies to allow telework, designate a telework managing officer, and provide training to both employees and managers. It also requires agencies to incorporate telework into their continuity of operations plans. At the time, the rationale for adoption was to improve employee work-life balance. Lessons from the 2010 Legislation on Telework A 2011 IBM Center report by Dr. Scott Overmeyer looked at several federal agencies that were pioneers in the broad adoption of telework before the Telework Act was passed. He describes four hurdles to telework their managers faced in implementing a telework strategy, which are still relevant today: Technological Social Operational Overmeyer then describes how agencies, such as the Patent and Trademark Office and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), addressed these issues and successfully implemented a telework initiative. He found initial resistance among managers around moving to telework because they could not see their employees. DISA, however, overcame this obstacle when the Washington, D.C. area was paralyzed by a snowstorm but the agency was able to continue operations without a hitch. DISAs Aaron Glover said at the time: Telework is a key enabler of the Continuity of Operations (COOP) program. Prior to the coronavirus, the federal government had not widely embraced telework. The Office of Personnel Managements (OPMs) latest annual report on the implementation of the Telework Act reports that 42 percent of federal employees were classified as eligible to participate in a telework program, but only 22 percent actually participated. Why the low participation rate? Interestingly, a 2010 article in Washington Technology identified four reasons federal managers resist the use of telework and those reasons remained fresh right up until the coronavirus pandemic forced the shift: technological issues such as connectivity, an inability to be immediately available for impromptu meetings, the inability to convey intangible information or priorities, and distrust of some employees work ethics. Telework Guidance Updated Since 2010, OPM and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have issued a series of guidance around the use of telework. OPMs guidance focuses on how to topics via a one-stop website. OMBs early guidance focused on IT purchasing requirements and security requirements; after the coronavirus, however, its guidance consisted of increasingly urgent demands that agencies shift to telework: Maximize telework across the nation for the Federal workforce (including mandatory telework, if necessary) . . . However, not all federal jobs can easily convert to telework. For example, about 15 percent of the federal workforce is comprised of healthcare workers doctors and nurses at veterans hospitals. Also, many governmental functions are legitimately concerned about security and privacy of the work they do and data they collect and use. These include: law enforcement, regulatory oversight, benefits determination, national security, homeland security, and intelligence agencies. The Government Accountability Office tracks the implementation of telework and found that the number of positions that might be appropriate were not well-documented. The urgency of the shift to distance work arrangements as a result of the coronavirus, however, has begun to challenge many of these assumptions as agencies struggle to find ways to continue operations. There may be lessons from some of the unconventional pioneers of distance work, such as the military. Pioneers at Working from a Distance Distance work has been around for a number of years in the military and intelligence community, even with the concerns of security. They have used electronic collaborative tools to orchestrate work across distributed work teams, often located around the globe in different time zones. A 2016 Center for Strategic & International Studies report by Greg Treverton describes the use of virtual teams, distance work, and collaborative tools in the intelligence community. That report describes cross-agency team arrangements where only a handful work together or have even met face-to-face. These teams use MS SharePoint to host chats, share files, and organize social networks. They use various collaborative tools, many based on widely available commercial technology: Intellipedia (like Wikipedia) is used for curating, reference, and research. Instant Messaging, chats, and blogs are used for managing. I-Space is used to discover other analysts. Intelink searches allow access to 180 million indexed documents. Similarly, the military is also an advocate of distance work tools, as noted by former general Stanley McCrystal, who has described how he led military special operations half-way across the globe via videoconferencing calls more than a decade ago. Distance Work Is Changing How Work Gets Done The rapid shift to distance work as a result of the coronavirus is changing how work gets done in federal, state, and local governments. For example, at the federal level: The Board of Veterans Appeals has accelerated its use of tele-hearings, when it used to only allow in-person hearings. The Veterans Benefits Administration suspended in-person medical exams for disability benefits to be conducted by VA doctors. It has largely shifted to the use of tele-health interviews and documentation from private doctors. Even Congress is making changes: the House of Representatives is allowing members to introduce bills and other floor documents electronically for the first time. Even more significantly, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has authorized broader use of telehealth visits to be reimbursed, and loosened privacy restrictions on sharing personal medical information on a temporary basis. If telehealth visits are made permanent, these kinds of changes could fundamentally transform how healthcare is delivered. The shift to distance work arrangements also is driving changes in how work gets done at the state and local levels. This is causing them to rethink previous barriers to change even if these changes are seen as temporary. For example: California state court hearings are going virtual for the first time. Governingquotes Alice Armitage, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco: This pandemic will open everyones mind, and gets people to move out of their silos. About a dozen state legislatures, including New York, are making provisions to convene and vote remotely. Virtual public meetings are being allowed for local city councils in some states, according to Governing. This could expand the potential for citizen engagement opportunities. Interestingly, the four reasons federal managers raised a decade ago to resist the transition to distance work arrangements are still alive today. It seems increasingly unlikely, though, that things will go back to the way they were pre-coronavirus pandemic in part because managers have been forced by necessity to learn how to manage differently to achieve mission results. Future columns will explore further the changes and impact that the shift to distance work and distributed teams are having on work, and how different agencies are adapting. Note: This post is the third in a series on distance work: Part 1: The Future of Work is Suddenly Here: Distance Work is Transforming the Workplace. Part 2: How Is the Private Sector Pivoting to Distance Work? Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Alamy When the Republican governor of Idaho issued a plan to safely reopen businesses in the state, he ordered bars to stay closed until at least June 13. Last weekend, in defiance of those guidelines, Idahos lieutenant governoralso a Republicanreopened the tavern she owns with her family in Idaho Falls. A few days before reopening The Celt Pub and Grill, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin penned a scathing op-ed in which she slammed Gov. Brad Littles oversight of the coronavirus pandemic. As Lieutenant Governor, I am one heartbeat away from the governors chair, McGeachin wrote. State residents, she added, were sidelined and left to watch silently as the government closed Main Street by unilaterally deciding which businesses were essential and which ones were not. The definition of essential workers came from the White House, not the statehouse, but that was lost in the remarkable animosity between Idahos top leaders. According to the Idaho Statesman, McGeachin and Little have not spoken in weeks. As the country enters its third month of lockdown amid a slumping economy, right-wing protesters often funded by a network of deep-pocketed conservative groups, have called for states to be liberated from a patchwork of measures meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. But public health experts warn that reopening prematurely will only make things worse. Weeks after it reopened, Texas has experienced a surge in COVID-19 deaths. A majority of Americans, on both sides of the aisle, say the nation is reopening too quickly, but among politicians the dispute is largely split down party lines. In Georgia, the Democratic mayors of Atlanta, Savannah, and Albany are opposed to Republican governor Brian Kemps reopening plan, saying it is too early. The Democratic mayor of Des Moines, Frank Cownie, has criticized Iowa governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, for the same reason. However, the feud between McGeachin and Little is playing out among two conservatives in a deep red state. Idaho state representative Greg Chaney, a Republican who has been openly critical of McGeachins position on reopening, told The Daily Beast he hasnt seen anything like it in his lifetime. Story continues This particular administration has been in office not quite two years, and so their working relationship is relatively new, said Chaney, but historically I can't recall a similar example, even [back in the 1980s] when we had a Repubiclan lieutenant governor and a Democratic governor. In Idaho, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected individually. Little clinched Idahos 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary with 37 percent of the vote; McGeachin won with 29 percent. They both were voted into office with 60 percent of the vote in the general election. Neither responded to requests for comment for this story. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters The day after Littles broad stay-at-home order eased earlier this month, McGeachin attended a Disobey Idaho protest outside the state capitol building. Disobey Idaho was organized by the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), a right-wing group backed by the conservative State Policy Network. In a blog post, Wayne Hoffman, the IFFs executive director, told followers that the state, country, and economy are in a death spiral, inflicted by our elected officials and their teams of health experts. Following her appearance at the demonstration, McGeachin flew to the town of Kendrick with Idaho GOP chairman Raul Labrador to support the reopening of the Hardware Brewery, a local brewpub, which authorities said was restricted from opening until mid-June. A week later, the Idaho State Alcohol Beverage Control Bureau warned the establishment that its liquor license could be pulled if it continued to violate the governors order by staying open. McGeachin accused Little of abusing his power to harass and intimidate private businesses. Hardware Brewery co-owner Christine Lohman took it a step further, comparing Idaho under Littles leadership to Nazi Germany. The brewery has remained open, contrary to state orders, Lohman told The Daily Beast. She said she is unsure if the business will be fined or penalized, but that she has been in touch with the Idaho Department of Health about safety guidelines. The establishment has met them on some of it, including canceling events and using paper plates and disposable cutlery, Lohman explained, but said theyre still trying to work on the social distancing. I dont have so much of an issue that they want us to do it, but I don't think private businesses should be told by the government to police the public, she continued. Our public are critical-thinking adults, for me to say, I need to check your temperature, or that only six people can sit together although eight or 10 came in together... I say, When is it going to stop? Lohman and her husband have depleted their retirement savings in an attempt to keep the brewerys lights on, she said. Little, however, has not lost his check, he has not lost his medical. The lieutenant governor has more stones than the governor, said Lohman. Brad Little has acted like a Democrat through this whole thing, and the people know it. These are people who want their freedom. This is the perfect time for America to fight for its civil rights. McGeachin, 57, was a delegate for Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican National Convention, and vice-chair of Idahos statewide committee to elect Trump. Her 2018 campaign website for lieutenant governor, which is still active, boasts a photo of her in a MAGA hat alongside Donald Trump Jr., under the headline: President Trump Keeps Making America Great Again! Born in New Mexico, the staunchly anti-abortion McGeachin is Idahos first female lieutenant governor. In addition to The Celt, which opened in 2012, McGeachin and her husband operate a successful auto transmission business. Last year, on the 24th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City by white supremacists, McGeachin administered an oath at a rally hosted by a right-wing militia called the Real Three Percent of Idaho, which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is part of an extreme anti-government movement. A month earlier, McGeachin was photographed posing with far-right militia members in what appeared to be a message of support for Todd Engel, who is currently serving a 14-year sentence for his part in an armed confrontation with federal agents. The escalating conflict seen now between McGeachin and Little is emblematic of the same chaotic approach to the pandemic we are seeing at the federal level, Craig Holman, a government affairs expert at the watchdog nonprofit Public Citizen, told The Daily Beast. Though Trump and Pence are more or less in agreement, the constant contradicting of senior health officials by Trump has rendered the government's response to the pandemic listless at best, said Holman. Fortunately for some states, Trump has now decided to turn over control of the pandemic policies to the states. However, for Idaho, the state response will be as divided and chaotic as it has been at the federal level. As a business owner, McGeachin clearly has a financial stake in reopening, though she has pushed back at the idea that her family broke any rules by re-launching dine-in and drink-in service in mid-May. Under the state order, bars dont reopen until May 30, but McGeachin said in a Facebook post that The Celt is a restaurant and was allowed to reopen earlier. But she also put The Celt in the same category as Hardware Brewery, which has already been cited for breaking the rules.The Celt says it is taking precautions: operating at 50 percent capacity; capping parties at six people; using paper menus. But while employees are required to wear face masks during their shifts, customers are not. That endangers staff as well as other diners in the space, said Luisa Franzini, chair of the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, College Park. There should be social distancing, wearing of masks, and so on, even for outdoor dining, Franzini told The Daily Beast, adding that she believes indoor dining remains unsafe. I haven't found two jurisdictions that have the same policy. It makes you feel that your health and safety are really dependent on where you happen to live. An employee who answered the phone at The Celt told The Daily Beast that staff members were instructed not to speak with reporters. Idaho has more than 2,400 confirmed cases of COVID-19 to date. In some parts of the state, the rate of COVID-19 infections has been low. Of Idahos 44 counties, 11 havent had a single case, Greg Chaney explained. Yet, he said, Blaine County, where the Sun Valley ski resort is located, at one point exceeded the per capita infection rate of any other place in the country, including New York Citythe hottest spot in the U.S. I think its understandable to express disagreement, or even frustration, given everything thats going on, Chaney said, but I think its important that we all look for constructive ways to express that. While were in the heat of the moment, trying to get people to work together to address whats happening, its certainly poor timing to undermine the governor in charge. Governors across the country have proven themselves to be real leaders during this time, particularly given the dearth of strategy from the White House, adds Democratic strategist Andrew Taverrite. I would think Idahoanslike the rest of the countryare looking for science-based information rather than political fights right now. McGeachins stance on reopening doesnt much surprise Deborah David-Simonds, a retired RN living in Idaho Falls. David-Simonds notes that while McGeachin has actively encouraged Idahoans to disobey Gov. Littles stay-at-home order, Little has taken a thoughtful approach to reopening. He has listened to advice from state health officials, further drawing criticism from the right, David-Simonds told The Daily Beast. She sees the issue as a health concern, nothing more, and cant comprehend why masks are seen as a violation of someones constitutional rights. And although business closures have taken a great toll on peoples finances, Luisa Franzini urges people to consider the bigger picture. Of course there is individual freedom, but the freedom ends when your freedom starts hurting someone else, she said. In the case of an epidemic, its justified to put some restrictions on people, and some just ideologically are not accepting that. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Will UN chief and senior management volunteer pay cuts in crisis-stricken world body? By Thalif Deen View(s): View(s): UNITED NATIONS, May 20 (IPS) As a spiralling financial crisis threatens to undermine the UNs day-to-day operations worldwide, a proposal being kicked around, outside the empty corridors of the UN, has triggered the question: will senior officials, including the Secretary-General, the Deputy Secretary-General (DSG), Under-Secretaries-Generals (USGs), including 60 heads of UN agencies, Funds and Programmes, and Assistant Secretaries-Generals (ASGs), volunteer to take salary cuts even as a symbolic gesture? Kul Gautam, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of the UN childrens agency UNICEF, told IPS: I think it would be an excellent gesture of solidarity for the UNs senior most officials, including heads of agencies, to agree to and announce a voluntary pay cut for themselves in response to the financial crisis resulting from COVID-19 that is impacting the UN system itself and the peoples of the world it serves. Dr Leila Fourie, Group CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and FaniTiti, CEO of Investec, who are members of the UN Secretary-Generals Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance, said: We are proud of the leadership shown by South Africas President in responding to the pandemic. This is why we have both chosen to join the President in donating 30% of our salaries for three months to COVID-19 relief efforts. Asked about a gesture by UN staff in Cabo Verde to donate their salaries, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters May 19: We have staff in New York who have donated goods and services to the pandemic, whether its to deliver food. So, I think its not uncommon for UN staff to either volunteer or to give back to the communities where they work. He also said that in Cabo Verde, half of the UN country-team members, around 50 staff from UN entities and the Resident Coordinators office, made donations to the Governments COVID-19 efforts. This totalled slightly less than $5,000 and directly helped 46 families in need. In an opinion piece published by IPS in April, Ambassador Anwarul K Chowdhury, a former USG and High Representative of the UN (2002-2007) and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN (1996-2001), underscored the point that If the liquidity crisis keeps on affecting the work of the UN and its mandate delivery, the UN staff as a privileged part of the humanity, should join in making creative efforts, placing interests of the world body ahead of their sacrifice. One such measure could be for UN staff to allow the UN to withhold 20% of their monthly salaries to offset the impact of the current liquidity crisis. When the liquidity situation gets better, say in six months time, that 20% would be paid back. UN SG and his Senior Management Team, he said, should lead by example announcing they would do so voluntarily. Ambassador Chowdhury told IPS: To that I would now add that for the SG and his Senior Management team, there should be a self-announced 20% pay cut for the next six months. That would be welcomed by the international community wholeheartedly and would show the commitment of UN leadership to the broader mission of the UN for humanity, he noted. As a support, staff for day-to-day work and positioned at bottom-most levels, this proposal should exclude all the General Services staff of the UN, said Ambassador Chowdhury, former Chairman of the UN General Assemblys Administrative and Budgetary Committee during the 52nd session of the UN General Assembly (1997-1998). The UN, which remains closed till the end of June due to the pandemic, is facing a growing cash crisis, due in large measure, to late or non-payment of dues by an overwhelming majority of the 193 member states. The numbers are staggering: $1.63 billion is owed to the UNs regular budget and $2.14 billion to the peacekeeping budget. The US apparently owes about $486.7 million in unpaid arrears, but has promised to deliver by the end of the year depending on the fluctuating political mood swings of a volatile President. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says unpredictable cash inflows have been exacerbated by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic while seriously threatening the UNs ability to do its work even as nearly 36,000 staffers worldwide are working from home. As of January 2019, the gross salary of an USG, the third high ranking job in the UN hierarchy, was $198,315 and an ASG pulled in about $179,948, excluding post adjustments, hospitality expenses and travel per diem. The proposed programme budget for 2020 does not provide a breakdown of the actual salaries of the SG and DSG but the post costs for the SGs salary and benefits were increased from $457,500 in 2018 to $585,200 both in 2019 and 2020, excluding hospitality expenses, a residence and a car. The proposal for voluntary pay cuts come at a time when some of the worlds political leaders, including PM Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and three Presidents HalimahYacob of Singapore, Cyril Ramphosa of South Africa and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya have all taken voluntary salary cuts, along with some of their deputies and senior staffers. At a press conference in late March, Ardern announced she, and other lawmakers, will be taking a 20% pay cut for the next six months, in solidarity with those affected by the coronavirus. Which begs the question: Why arent other Western leaders following in her footsteps? Ian Williams, author of UNtold, President of the New York Foreign Press Association and a former President of the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA), told IPS comparisons are odious, as Shakespeare correctly said. He pointed out that years of anti-UN propaganda by US conservatives has left the impression that UN staff in general, let alone senior management, are paid massive amounts. But over the decades, emoluments for public servants have been held down while those for corporate management have ballooned, he noted. And while the UN staff are paid salaries, the private sector are compensated with stock grants and options and bonuses. There is no doubt that by their own self-proclaimed standards, as business tanks, so should the CEO salaries, but whether that should apply to international civil servants is moot, he added. However, said Williams, while UN managers might be poor relatives to their private counterparts, odious comparison still apply. They are much better paid than junior staff, and immeasurably better off than most of us, the peoples of the world. So while on one level they should not take a payout to reflect the crisis in the world economy and the effects on the UN budget, they should indeed volunteer to take a hefty drop in pay, for the sake of their collective reputation as public servants and for the image of the international organisation as whole. Few will starve as a result, declared Williams. Meanwhile, in the corporate sector, the voluntary pay cuts have been on the rise. The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org Eight large-scale transport aircraft attached to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force arrive successively at the Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan of central China's Hubei Province on Feb. 2, 2020, delivering 795 military medics and 58 tons of supplies to help Wuhan fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Hu Ke) By Wu Min BEIJING, May 26 -- "The fight against the COVID-19 epidemic is a test of the national mobilization in a real combat environment." Song Yuanjun, a deputy to the 13th National Peoples Congress (NPC) and Commander of the Heilongjiang Corps under China's Armed Police Force (APF), believed that the military-civil joint prevention and control mechanism together with society-wide efforts to prevent and control the epidemic has played a critical role in defeating and preventing the virus, while also exposing some shortcomings and deficiencies at the same time. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the establishment of joint emergency management and command institution under military-civil cooperation to achieve unified command and dispatch of military and civilian emergency forces, and to improve the ability to respond to new-type security risks in an all-round way. In this regard, Song Yuanjun put forward two suggestions. First, the establishment and perfection of the military-civil information and command platform is a way to ensure the regular connection for the on-duty system to promptly notify emergency in areas under the jurisdiction, and to activate the emergency response mechanism accordingly. The platform functions to connect the military organs at the provincial, municipal, and county level with the corresponding local emergency management and command centers, achieving multi-channel information transmission, including voices, data, faxes, etc. Second, he suggested setting up a unified production and supply system by both the military and the local government, and then optimizing its support capacity and regional layout. The implementation measures issued jointly by the military and local government can coordinate various links of production, demand, logistic, and distribution; and industrial and supply chains can thereby be built featuring independency and controllability, safety and reliability. Besides, the infectious disease departments of local public health institutions and military hospitals could be relied on to build an emergency rescue system. The coordination and cooperation of military and civilian hospitals would be further promoted by carrying out professional and technical training in a progressive fashion, popularizing public health knowledge, and improving public health attainment, as suggested by Song Yuanjun. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 08:36 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda1293c 1 Editorial back-to-work,new-normal,workers-in-Indonesia,workers,PSBB,COVID-19,coronavirus,COVID-19-in-Indonesia Free The SARS-CoV-2 virus is highly contagious, but it is impossible for most of us to stay stuck at home forever, except perhaps those who are self-employed and own sophisticated equipment. Creative workers, such as advertisers handling big files, for instance, may be frustrated with slow internet connections that hamper their ability to deliver their sparkling ideas to tight deadlines. Under the policy of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), each province, regency and mayoralty have determined their own limits, with the Tegal mayoralty in Central Java being the first to lift its lockdown. The capital may see its final PSBB extension end on June 4, but family pictures of happy Idul Fitri gatherings suggest many have ignored Governor Anies Baswedans calls for residents not to participate in a local mudik (exodus), meaning a homecoming within Greater Jakarta, which may have raised the risk of a spike in new infections on the heels of the religious holiday. Read also: Eid in time of pandemic: Quiet and lonely but modest and solemn President Joko Jokowi Widodo has warned we might see ups and downs in the spread of infections even after the lifting of PSBB measures. Therefore, workplaces need to determine as soon as possible what their new health protocols will be to provide a sense of security for both their staff and business partners. Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto has announced health protocol guidelines for businesses for the era of the new normal. Therefore even after local authorities have removed the PSBB measures, daily life at work faces long-term challenges. Employers and unions, or any workers representative body, can look to businesses in other countries that have designed their own health protocols and to the World Health Organizations website, which issued guidelines for the workplace in March. In general, those who return to their workplaces should be essential workers who are healthy; those even with mild symptoms of COVID-19 must stay home and be given sick leave. The WHO also advises businesses to display educational posters on safe distancing practices, encourage proper hygiene such as regular hand washing and disinfecting of work surfaces and retain the contact details of meeting participants for purposes of contact tracing. Local authorities also must constantly monitor public transportation. While buses and trains are expected to operate at 50 percent capacity, scenes of crowded terminals and stations show the daily risk of additional infection clusters. Can authorities trace contacts from even one single rush hour? Read also: Scientist warns of second COVID-19 wave in East Java after Idul Fitri Businesses should discuss the health protocols of the new normal with their employees and unions, including regarding shift work; the Health Ministry guidelines state that night shifts should be eliminated where possible. This poses a great challenge for factories designed to operate 24/7. People will comply if there are sufficient incentives. Shift workers, for instance, will not want to forgo the night shift if it means they cannot earn enough to pay their rent, while deskbound workers will prefer to work from the office if they have to pay too much for a smooth internet connection. However terrible this pandemic has been, maybe more attention will be paid to peoples wellbeing, even if it means losses to short-term profits. Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of facial coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has exploded from under 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. What has happened at Tyson - and the meat industry overall - shows how difficult getting the nation back to normal is, even in essential fields such as food processing. Meat companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars - on protective gear, paid leave, ventilation systems and more - because they were forced to shut dozens of plants that were among the top covid-19 hot spots outside of cities. But the industry has still experienced a surge in cases, and some of the companies say they are limited in how much they can keep workers separated from one another. A small portion of the industry's labor force has gone back to work - some workers kept away on purpose - and the nation's meat supply remains deeply strained as barbecue season gets underway. A May report from CoBank, which specializes in serving rural America, warns meat that supplies in grocery stores could shrink as much as 35%, prices could spike 20% and the impact could become even "more acute later this year" as the effects on the U.S. agriculture supply chain are felt. Grocery stores have been able to partially meet consumer demand thanks to meat already in the supply chain in March, when the pandemic broke out, but the report said those supplies were quickly being used up. The prospect of long-term shortages is giving rise to an intensifying debate about whether the industry should reopen faster or safety should be prioritized, even at the cost of the nation's food supply. With an April 28 executive order encouraging meat plants to reopen, the Trump administration has said the food supply must be weighted equally with safety. Over the past month, more than half of the 30 meat processing plants that had shuttered because of covid-19 have reopened. "Our objective is two equal goals," Vice President Mike Pence said in a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican. "Number one is the safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and, two, there's strength in our food supply and getting people back to work." But others say safety must be the paramount concern - and the industry still has a long way to go before facilities are safe again. "Absolutely, positively, no worker's life is worth my getting a cheaper hamburger. No worker's life is worth that," former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, told Yahoo News last week. Officials with the meat processors say they are doing whatever they can to protect workers, while trying to make sure the nation's food supply remains sound. "The safety of our team members is paramount and we only reopen our facilities when we believe we can safely do so," said Gary Mickelson, Tyson's director of media relations. What's clear is the industry's efforts so far, though they may have lessened the virus's spread, have not come close to stopping it. Over the past month, the number of infections tied to three of the country's biggest meat processors - Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS - has gone from just over 3,000 to more than 11,000, according to the analysis by The Post. Throughout the entire industry, worker deaths have tripled, surging from 17 to at least 63, according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, which is tracking outbreaks through local news reports. Four of the plants that reopened saw outbreaks with more than 700 positive cases, according to the Midwest Center: Tyson Foods operations in Logansport, Indiana; Perry, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa; and a Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, coronavirus cases linked to meat workers represent 18%, 20% and 29% of the states' total cases, respectively, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Many plants that have reopened are operating at reduced capacity - either due to widespread absences or to reduce the number of workers on shift to allow for social distancing. Closures have affected 45,000 workers, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the largest organization representing meatpacking workers. JBS, the second largest meat processor in the United States, said it is paying workers who could be particularly vulnerable to covid-19 to stay at home - about 10% of its workforce. The question over reopening, even amid safer conditions, can cause difficult choices for communities. Meat plants are usually located in rural communities where they are among the area's largest employers. Covid-19 infection rates in communities within a 15-mile radius of meat plants are twice the national average, according to the Environmental Working Group. The recent closures have cascaded through local economies, as farmers who supply plants are left with nowhere to take their animals. The National Pork Producers Council estimates that current plant capacities are creating backlogs of 170,000 hogs a day. "These hogs will eventually stay on farms too long and grow too large to be accepted by harvest facilities. It is estimated that up to 10,069,000 market hogs will need to be euthanized," the pork producer group said in a recent fact sheet. - - - Although companies have tried to get back to normal operations, union and local officials question whether they are ready. Tyson's biggest pork plant, in Waterloo, reopened May 7 with new safety precautions and social distancing policies. "Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members, their loved ones and our communities," Tom Hart, the plant's manager, said in a news release. Tyson had just finished running a national ad campaign warning, "The food supply chain is breaking." But the Waterloo plant reopened the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County - where it is located - reported more than 1,000 employees out of 2,700 there had tested positive for the coronavirus "Tyson did not go above and beyond," said Iowa state Rep. Ras Smith, a Democrat who represents Waterloo. "They did what they already should have done." He called Tyson's handling of the outbreak "appalling." Smith and fellow Iowa Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat, say they suspect Trump's executive order encouraged Tyson to reopen faster, a point the company disputes. The plant shuttered April 22 after weeks of resisting calls from local officials. The lawmakers said they met with the plant's human resources director on May 1 and were told the facility was weeks away from reopening. Four days later, they said, they were told production would resume May 7. They said there was no explanation for the new timeline. "It really doesn't feel like our local Tyson was in this big of a hurry to reopen," Brown-Powers said. "It became a hurry for them because of the pressure they're getting from above." Mickelson, Tyson's spokesman, said in an email to The Post that the executive order had helped Tyson by providing "clear, uniform standards" for how processing facilities should protect workers and by giving the company better access to protective gear. But he said it did not accelerate the reopening of the facility. - - - When he announced the executive order on April 28, Trump initially said it would solve "liability problems" for companies and force them to stay open during the pandemic. "Now that Trump issued that executive order, it gives plants this insurmountable feeling that they are invincible," said Kim Cordova, a local union president in Greeley, Colorado, where a JBS beef plant was shuttered in April amid a coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least seven workers. In practice, the order was more narrow, legal experts said. It designated meat producers as critical infrastructure and ordered them to follow federal guidance developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It also enabled Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to take steps to get meat companies federal contracts and access to protective gear. OSHA - the federal agency in charge of worker safety - has not issued enforceable guidelines for protecting employees, as it did during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, instead opting for voluntary guidance. The agency has said it plans no enforcement action so as not to overly burden companies during the pandemic. Smithfield cited the Trump executive order in federal court, saying it meant local and state authorities no longer had any authority over meat processors. It was part of the company's defense in a Missouri lawsuit, which was filed by an unnamed employee saying Smithfield failed to protect employees by not accommodating social distancing and by discouraging sick employees from staying home. "The president has identified state interference with meat and poultry processors as 'undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency,' " Smithfield's attorneys said in court documents. "State law, whether statutory or through private lawsuits, cannot be used to regulate the subject matter covered by the EO. This task belongs exclusively to the federal government." Judge David Gregory Kays dismissed the case 12 days later, citing the "significant steps" Smithfield had taken to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection at its plant in Milan, Missouri. In a news release, the company praised the outcome of the case, which it said was "frivolous, full of specious allegations that were without factual or legal merit." Less than two weeks after the case was dismissed, voluntary testing at the Milan plant revealed an outbreak at the facility, according to local news reports and the worker behind the lawsuit. She told The Post that fearful workers have been staying home, and that those who do show up for shifts are working overtime to keep up production. "They could have listened to workers and protected the company and the people by being proactive," said David Muraskin, the worker's attorney. "Now that they've failed to do the right thing, their responsibility is to make sure they take care of their workers and pay them their wages while the company puts in place the protections that should have been there all along to protect the community." Smithfield said the Milan plant is "operational" but declined to provide further details about absences and production capacity. The company said it would not confirm coronavirus cases "out of respect for employees' legal privacy." - - - On April 16, the JBS beef plant in Greeley was forced to shut down after about 100 workers came down with the virus and three died. Another worker died during the closure, and four others since it reopened on April 24. Coronavirus cases at the plant now exceed 300, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment records show. "We are raising hell because the numbers continue to rise," said Cordova, the local union president. "People are scared to go to work because people keep getting sick. There are hundreds of workers who have not come back. We don't know if they have moved on, if they are on ventilators. We can't find them." Nikki Richardson, a JBS spokeswoman, said in an email that JBS USA has adopted more than $100 million in enhanced safety measures throughout its facilities, including "increased sanitation and disinfection efforts, health screening and temperature checking, team member training, physical distancing, reduced line speeds and increased availability of personal protective equipment, including face masks and face shields." Cordova toured the Greeley plant last week and said improvements have been made on the processing side, where the beef is cut into steaks, ribs and briskets. Metal dividers have been installed between workers, and protective equipment has been placed next to workstations so employees can avoid congregating to pick up their supplies. Still, she said, additional safety measures need to be taken to lessen the risk of infection. Workers are still crowded into halls and stairways. Due to the loud noise in the plant, workers take off their masks and lean in close to speak to supervisors. In the area where cattle are slaughtered, Cordova said, plastic dividers between work stations have yet to be installed. "They are on rafters, right next to one another," she said. Richardson said the company is trying its hardest. "We are doing the best we can to ensure social distancing in the facility, but we recognize the challenges that exist to maintain social distancing in areas where people naturally congregate," Richardson said in an email to The Post. "We have hired people to be part of an employee health team that is responsible for covid-19 program management, compliance and auditing, including enforcing social distancing." - - - The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy and Julie Tate contributed to this report. OTTAWA - Canada will co-host a major United Nations conference on dealing with the economic crisis spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds his daily briefing from Rideau Cottage amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA - Canada will co-host a major United Nations conference on dealing with the economic crisis spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will play a lead role in the Thursday event with his Jamaican counterpart Andrew Holness and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The top priority will be expanding liquidity in the global economy and maintaining financial stability while safeguarding the gains being made in helping less-developed countries. The conference will certainly raise Canada's profile as it competes for a seat on the UN Security Council next month against Norway and Ireland. Trudeau has spoken to his French, German and other Caribbean nation counterparts about Thursday's conference. "Canadian jobs and businesses depend on stable and productive economies in other countries, so it matters to us how everyone weathers this storm," Trudeau said Tuesday. He said more than 300 million people across the globe will lose their jobs and 30 million will be pushed into extreme poverty. "We can't wait for others to act. It's not in our self-interest, and it's just not who we are." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Trudeau's office said the high-level talks will also look at engaging private sector creditors to save jobs and lower the transaction costs of remittances, the crucial funds that diaspora communities often send back to their home countries. They will also discuss how to prevent illicit flows of money. The group will also look at "ensuring a sustainable and inclusive recovery by aligning recovery policies with the Sustainable Development Goals," the Prime Minister's Office said. The UN vote is set for next month, and Canada is running on a platform of trying to help rebuild the post-pandemic world. It pits Canada against Norway and Ireland for two non-permanent seats on the council, starting next year. The winners will serve for two years alongside the five permanent members of the council the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia. Canada is basing its bid for a seat on what it says is its international leadership during the pandemic in the UN and other multilateral institutions such as the G7 and G20. That includes convening groups of countries to work on ensuring food security in developing countries, keeping vital supply chains open across the globe, and working on new financing models to help countries recover from economic ruin caused by the pandemic. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020. Three of the best novels of Alfred Hayes, screenwriter and author, have been reissued by New York Review Books. (Alfred Hayes estate) Over the decades, many young writers arrived in Hollywood with a good novel or two under their belt and never wrote another successful one, losing themselves in lucrative studio contracts and uncredited script rewrites. The talented Alfred Hayes came very close to becoming one of those writers. In fact, the unrealities of movie-land became a major subject of his fiction. After a brief early success in 1946 with his first novel, All Thy Conquests, based on his military experiences in Italy during World War II, Hayes wrote on some of the most successful Italian neorealist films of the postwar period, such as Vittorio De Sicas The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Roberto Rossellinis Paisan (1946), for which he received an Oscar nomination. His subsequent move from New York to California was both financially lucrative and artistically unrewarding. While he continued fitfully producing the occasional novel and collection of verse (his best known poem, Joe Hill, became a protest song for Pete Seeger and Joan Baez), his film work was either uncredited (Nicholas Rays The Lusty Men) or uninteresting (A Hatful of Rain, a Fred Zinnemann message film about drug addiction). Even his biggest project, Fritz Langs moodily intense Clash by Night (which in 1952 featured Marilyn Monroe in one of her first major roles), was little more than a competent alteration to a Clifford Odets play. Over the last 15 years, however, Hayes the novelist has been rescued from anonymity by the canny revivalists at New York Review Books. Over the last few years, they have reissued a loosely defined trilogy of Hayes short, powerful, first-person novels about a young writer (like Hayes) who moves to Hollywood (like Hayes) and lives to tell about it (like Hayes). The last of these, The End of Me, out in June, is a fitting closer, the most evolved and personal of the set, an impressionistic reflection on what its like to go looking for who you were in the places where you used to live. Its everything a screenplay cant be: the stream-of-consciousness monologue (more Dos Passos than Joyce) of an individual wrestling with his own ordinary failures, especially when it comes to the things he loves most, women and writing. Story continues The final book in New York Review Books' reissue of a loose trilogy of Alfred Hayes novels. (New York Review Books) The first of the New York Review Books reissues, In Love (1953), is a deep-first-person, naturalistic narrative set in New York concerning a young writers obsession with a woman who spurns him. The next, My Face for the World to See (1958), follows another introspective writer to Hollywood, where he becomes involved with a failing young actress he saves from a suicide attempt in Malibu. The End of Me takes us back East, and asks what must be the perennial question of most writers who go West: Is there life after Hollywood? Hayes answer seems to be: Yes, definitely. But it wont be easy. Unlike in the previous two novels, this protagonist has a name, Asher. Its Hebrew for happy, and it may not be entirely ironic. At the age of 51, Asher has come to feel like the oldest man in Hollywood; at a low point in life, he ducks out on his second marriage. As the novel opens, he has already returned to the streets of New York where he grew up. In order to re-acquaint himself with old buildings and whats left of his family, he hires his young nephew, a cynical and bitter poet, to accompany him on daily explorations of the places I had been young in. After too many years in California amid the fanciful adornments of movie romance, hes losing grasp of the worlds hard, comforting realities. He hopes the streets that raised him will prove restorative. Most of all, Ashers afraid of losing the ability to get work. (Being without work seems to be the worst thing that can happen to one of Hayes characters.) As Asher writes in one of the books many combative interior monologues: One got old. Or simply older. The jobs got fewer. The jobs got less than fewer. There were, abruptly, no jobs. You didnt know why, certainly it was not because you had less of what you had had when you got the jobs, you were sure of that, were you sure of that, yes, you said, you were sure of that, there was no impairment, wasnt there an impairment, then you were defending yourself, then you were furious because you had to defend yourself, then you were whining, a little, a little more, then you were desperate, a little, a little more, then the pieces started to come apart, you tried to hold yourself together, you tried to prevent the pieces from coming apart, but they came apart, a little piece, a larger piece, you couldnt cope, you couldnt cope any more, the work went, the house went, the life went... The use of second person in many of these monologues dramatizes the sense of distance between the man and who he sees himself to be an effect familiar to readers of Jay McInerneys Bright Lights, Big City several decades later. Asher is drowning in his sense of failure. Giving yourself over to each brief, tortured and often beautifully written paragraph feels like watching someone wrestle with the unfortunate reality of himself. The only way out of that drowning self, Asher feels, is to grab hold of someone else in this case, a much younger woman with enough future left in her for them both. Youre not supposed to let a drowning man grab you, and indeed, in the previous novels, Hayes protagonists never seem to achieve anything more than a co-dependency that cant last. But by the end of this novel, Asher may have achieved something that will last a lot longer for both of them. Many young writers arrived in Hollywood with a good novel under their belt and never wrote another successful one. Alfred Hayes came very close to becoming one of them. (Alfred Hayes estate) Hayes has been unfairly forgotten for many reasons; the biggest one was probably that he wasnt writing the types of books that were being praised in the postwar era the ones written by the likes of Mailer, Barth, Bellow and Roth. Those writers aspired to produce big books with big themes, big books about a big country. But like John Fante, another Hollywood-based novelist who suffered a similar eclipse of reputation, Hayes didnt write those kinds of books. Rather, his novels explored the ways in which small souls sought to cut their own safe path across the worlds unforgiving bigness. He was never, however, a confessional novelist like Kerouac, unwilling to range beyond his own immediate experience. He establishes a fictional sense of distance between himself and his characters and by doing so, allows them to make their own fictional decisions. They are books filled with human possibility. Our times have grown almost exhaustingly big and eventful lately; not coincidentally, much of our fiction has either submerged itself in matters of our individual times and places (Rachel Cusk or Knausgaard) or fled from it into world-building fantasy adventures. Hayes, however, provides a welcome alternative small, reflective novels about the struggles of not entirely fictional human beings. And at a time when our private lives seem to be growing smaller in the face of titanic historical forces, it is probably a good time to be remembering Alfred Hayes. Bradfield is the author of The History of Luminous Motion and Dazzle Resplendent: Adventures of a Misanthropic Dog. The Kurdish Role in the Armenian and Assyrian Genocide To address the historically still debated issue, the extent of the participation and responsibility of the Kurds in the genocide of the Armenian [and Assyrians], FArat AydAnkaya, lawyer and writer, published on April 18, 2020 an article under the title "The Armenian Genocide and the Kurds in Eight Questions". [1] Originally published on nuptal.net, the article triggered a discussion among Kurds on social media with support and criticism. The conservative circles blame Aydinkaya for portraying the "innocent" Kurds as the prime perpetrators of the massacre, ignoring the role of the Young Turks Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress -- CUP) as truely responsible for the genocide. Liberal and leftist Kurds seem to support the view that the Kurds had also participated in the genocide under the orders of local political and religious authorities and should face history. Of course, Aydinkaya is not the first Kurdish intellectual to openly acknowledge that the Kurds participated in the genocide. And it is not clear to what extent Kurdish political parties endorse this view and include it into their political actions, be it in Turkey, northern Iraq or in northern Syria. Assyrian media critically discussed AydAnkaya's initial article in a short interview by AssyriaTV with the political analyst Ibrahim Seven. Pointing to the fact that AydAnkaya failed to mention Assyrians, his article has been seen as tactically and politically motivated. As the recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocide was accepted last year by the US House of Representatives, Kurds cannot hide behind the Turkish denial any more.[2] It has been further argued that AydAnkaya too often refers to Kurdistan, where he should have said Armenistan or northern Mesopotamia. As a follow-up and reply to the Web-based discussions, a two-part interview of AydAnkaya by Ferda Balancat appeared in the Armenian newspaper Agos, on May 10, 2020 [3] and May 17, 2020 [4]. Indeed, what is striking at first glance, is, that AydAnkaya does not mention Assyrians at all as co-victims along with the Armenians in the genocide, even though as one of the former lawyers of Abdullah Acalan he is certainly aware that Acalan has mentioned Assyrians in various statements related to the genocide of 1915. For instance, in 2014 in a letter from the prison he stated, that the events of World War One, resulted "in a large physical and cultural elimination of Armenians and Assyrians, heirs to millennial cultures" in the region. As a person educated in Kurdish politics, AydAnkaya also knows that in April 1995, the Kurdish Parliament in Exile recognized the genocide against Armenians and Assyrians while stating that "on April 24, 1915, the Ottoman administrators began a policy of annihilating the Armenians and the Assyrians. This was a plan long in the making, meticulously carried out with the aid of some tribal Kurds who were organized into an auxiliary force, the 'Hamidiye Alaylari' or Hamidiye Brigades, of the Istanbul government...In that singular act of brutality at the turn of the century, millions of Armenians, Assyrians," were murdered.[5] At the latest, when AydAnkaya mentions the 'Nestorians' as the victim of the Bedirkhan massacres, it should have become clear to him that hundreds of thousands of Assyrians were also killed by Kurds during the genocide as well. In the spirit of promoting good neighborhood, and honestly facing history, the inclusion of the Assyrians would have been important because today more Assyrians live as neighbors of the Kurds in the south-east region of Anatolia than Armenians. Independently, the argumentation set forth by AydAnkaya relates very much to the Assyrians as well, who prior to 1915 lived in regions partially dominated by Kurds. Yet, regardless his silence about the Assyrian fate, AydAnkaya's article deserves some attention, as he convincingly counters some usual apology statements many Kurdish intellectuals put forward when it comes to genocide. AydAnkaya makes use of concepts such as "plunder militarism," "booty economy," and "genocide bureaucracy," that help understand the role and motivation of the Kurds. He lists several well known Kurdish notables among the provincial organizers of the killings, or as he describes it, "the machine that made the genocide possible." In an article discussing AydAnkaya statements and reaction to them, the Journalist Feyzi Aelik elaborates further on Aydinkaya's concept of "genocide bureaucracy"[6]: "Bureaucracy means an organization created by the political decision of the official Turkish state. This has been studied and made into a state decision. As it is known, at the beginning of the 19th century, a centralized administrative structure based on provinces was established to protect the multinational empire from nationalist influences. The main body of the holocaust genocide bureaucracy was created within the framework of this administrative system. The governors in the cities and provincial districts were the natural leaders of this bureaucracy. They also had local feet. According to the time, and unlike other nations within the empire, the Kurds saw themselves as part of the Islamic community of the Ottoman state. They were attached to the caliph." Aelik concludes that very often Kurds refer to Kurdish-Turkish relations, Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood, Turkish-Kurdish destiny on context of Malazgirt (1071) and the Liberation Wars of 1920. He argues, that this fraternity should not be limited to good things, and implies that this tradition of historical unity requires "an acknowledgment that bad things were done together" as well. Aydinkaya's Questions and Answers At the core of his statements and related to Question 1, FArat AydAnkaya affirms that "while the genocide or deportation decisions were taken [by the CUP], the opinion and approval of the Kurds were not taken. In other words, Kurds have no involvement in the decision of genocide. However, while the decision was taken in the field, a significant portion of the Kurds were involved in this shameful crime." Assyrians like Armenian lived mostly in the countryside and in remote areas such as Tur Abdin, and in the Bohtan-Region stretching out to the Hakkari mountains. If there was no Kurdish participation in the region, "probably only the people of the city centers and locations close to city center would have been killed," continues AydAnkaya. According to him, "the mobilization of a significant part of the population" determined the fate of the Armenians -- and that of the Assyrians too. "For this reason, and as of 1918, we cannot only explain the absence of a single Armenian in the Kurdish-Armenian hinterland only with the huge crime of the state authorities. The central authority did not have the opportunity and ability to massacre the Armenians who took refuge in the mountains of Kurdistan," he adds. Answering Question 2 AydAnkaya turns to the argument often put forward, whether a "Kurdish will" existed that decided on behalf of them to participate, while in Question 3 the author lists key motivators that sent the Kurds to participate in the massacres. Among them he mentions the class-related resentments, Muslim-nationlism, Kurdishness and the Dhimmi issue. The attitude of the Kurdish press and Kurdish intellectuals is critically discussed in Question 4. And in answer to Question 5 AydAnkaya counters the claim that the massacres were the natural result of the war. In relation to Question 6 the author elaborates on the phenomenon of ignorance frequently put forward by leaders of Kurdish public opinion when the topic of genocide comes to the agenda, saying "Kurds have been deceived by the state". In answering Question 7 he counters essentialist interpretations that by saying "the Kurds participated in the Armenian genocide," puts the blame of the genocide on the Kurds before the state. Answer 8 deals with the attitude of Kurdish politics and its actors towards the genocide and apologies to the victims. Here too, Aydinkaya misses to provide "some good-intentioned gestures at a symbolic level" to the Assyrians as well. As mentioned, being a lawyer, Aydinkaya argues almost in legal manner for the Kurdish case. He pleads guilty for his accused "client" participating in the crime of the genocide. However, due to lack of formalized central institutional structures, as he argues, he advocates mitigating circumstances for his client. Such argument is certainly not sufficient to morally absolve the Kurds from their criminal participation in the genocide, which he describes as "an extraordinary action, a procedural event, and totalitarian." Aydinkaya also provides a number of arguments that support the fact of religiously promoted lower/base motives, such as "plunder militarism," or "the rightful booty" which further underline the idea of deliberate complicity in mass murder. Also cited as motivation is the "ideology of Islam" and "booty economy" coupled with historically founded nationalistic motivation of the takeover of a geographic region after the annihilation of its owners. With respect to the latter, AydAnkaya criticizes the attitude of Kurdish intellectuals in the early phases of emergence of Kurdish nationalism. In this short review it is not possible to elaborate on the role of the varions Kurdish notables Aydinkaya mentioned in his article. Scholarly research has to deal with that. But his article is also remarkable for its omissions of the description of the role of Ziya GAkalp, for instance, who was the nephew of Arif PirinAizade and the cousin of Feyzi Bey. According to Professor Joost Jongerden, expert on Kurdish issues, they "played a significant role in both local and state politics, not only in the province of Diyarbakir. Ziya GAkalp became a leading figure in the local branch and the central committee of the Committee of Union and Progress." GAkalp became later recognized as the most influential Turkish nationalist thinker and writer. Feyzi PirinAizade would become later Minister of Public Works in three different governments of Turkey. AydAnkaya's Questions have been translated below, along with those portions of his original answers pertinent to an Assyrian analysis. For the original Turkish version see here [1]: Question- 1: Did the Kurds participate in the Armenian genocide, who participated, and how did the Kurds take a stand apart from some known Tribes? Today, we have sufficient information and evidence that a significant part of the Kurds, which should not be underestimated, participated in the genocide. Particularly, it is evident that in many places where there was a deadly tension between Armenians and Kurds, in locations close to the war, the Kurds, who resided in the tribal regions dominated the relocation routes, and participated in this... Of course Kurds' opinion and approval were not sought while genocide or deportation decisions were taken. In other words, Kurds have no involvement in the formulation of the genocide. But, while the decision was taken in the field, a significant portion of the Kurds were involved in this shameful crime. However, we also need to talk about the "genocide bureaucracy" as a machine that made the genocide possible. The question of where the Kurds were located in this bureaucratic chain is important. It is clear that the scale of the presence of Kurds in the upper and middle ranks of the chain in the countryside is an undisputed reality. Sabit Bey, the governor Harput, Feyzi PirinAizade, the provincial organizer of Diyarbekir-Mardin genocides, Mustafa CemilpaAazade, the organizer of MuA, and Hodja Ilyas Sami should be mentioned here. In other words, while implementing of the genocide decisions from decision into action, important people of the provincial organizers of the genocide bureaucracy were drawn from the Kurds. In short, the Kurds were not present at the central decision meetings on which the genocide decision was taken against Armenians. However, while the genocide was being carried out in Kurdistan, there were quite many in the Investigation Commission, which was established in the cities and carried out the planning, transport, and the management of the genocide. We know that the Investigation Commission were established in all the major centers and this institution worked very effectively. In summary, and through the Investigation Commission, the Kurds have formed the local bureaucracy part of the genocide in most places. This tells us at least two things. First, if no collaboration would have existed in Kurdistan, the decision would not have been so flawless. Secondly, the presence of these collaborators in the provincial centers easily manipulated the public's attitude and stance on this issue. For example, Feyzi Bey managed to do this in the DiyarbakAr-Mardin country, HacA Bedir AAa along the Malatya-AdAyaman route, Gulo AAa along the Erzincan-Dersim-Sivas line, Hoca Alyas Sami in the MuA-Bitlis region, and Sabit Bey in the Harput-Dersim-Erzincan provinces while using their local connections.... As of 1918, the total absence of Armenians in the Kurdish-Armenian hinterland cannot be explained with the huge crime of the central [state] authorities only. [without the support of the Kurds] The central authority did not have the opportunity and ability to massacre the Armenians who took refuge in the mountains of Kurdistan. Therefore, if there was no Kurdish participation in Kurdistan, probably only the people of the city centers and locations close to city center would have been killed. The main Armenian population lived in the country-side and the majority of those in the country could not be harmed. That is why the mobilization of a significant part of the population in Kurdistan has determined the fate of the Armenians Question -2: In context of the genocide there are also important objections. For example, according to some people who interpret what you say, "the thesis that the Kurds participated in the genocide as a people is baseless and excessive, because during the mentioned period it cannot be said that a 'Kurdish will' existed which decided on behalf of them." Yes, this counter claim is often voiced. Considering those who developed this counter-argument, there was no central will that represented the Kurds at the time; in other words: if there is no decision-making will, the action should be ignored by itself, meaning they voice an apology. Clearly, this pattern of reasoning seems to me very problematic.... Secondly, of course, I am not saying that the Kurds all came together and decided that "let's kill the Armenians". Finally, genocide is already an extraordinary action, the event is procedural, totalitarian, fragmented and anonymous. Hence, this huge death machine cannot be explained by just mentioning the names of several tribes. If we talk in the context of actor tradition and in order for the tribes to massacre the most people in Kurdistan, conduct a genocide, more than tribe a is required. Question -3: Who were the agents that sent the Kurds to this massacre, can you list them in order of importance? Of course, class issue is the most important reason for me. A class-like resentment was at work, which Fanon described, saying that" in colonies the economic infrastructure is also superstructure". I believe that the culture of plundering among the Kurds was the main actor that motivated this business.... In the second place, the Muslim nationalism, which the state and sheikhs considered as a doctrine, was the most important theological-political instrument. The Kurdish provinces and places that the sheikhs were ruling had both the idea of ensuring that by killing the Armenians they would go to heaven in the other world, while they 'deserved' to loot Armenian property from within the religious tradition. In other words, when we dig a bit into Muslim nationalism, we will see "booty economic" pure and simple. Thirdly, popular Kurdish sentiments had been asking for the punishment of the Armenians somehow since some time. For a long time common sentiment was the Armenians "were getting richer, modern, claiming positive rights." According to this view, this new situation was canceling the implied contract between Kurds and Armenians in the provinces. The verbal norm of the Kurdish-Armenian hinterland was shaped on the basis of an unequal hierarchy through the patronage of the Kurds and the nature of the Armenians in need of protection...Islam called it the law of Dhimmi. While Kurdish aristocrats certainly did not want to be equalized with Armenians whom they saw as Dhimmi, Kurdish sheikhs also saw the demand for Muslim-Christian equality as a violation of the law of immorality. For this reason, according to them, punishment was mandatory. The fourth reason was to some extend related to Kurdishness. The idea of establishing a Russian-backed Armenia in the region, which was considered as the old Kurdistan, had prompted Kurdish intellectuals to vigilance. Question- 4: What was the attitude of the Kurdish press and Kurdish intellectuals, or more precisely, those who represented Kurdishness during the genocide? Let's start with the Kurdish intellectuals. ... We do not know exactly what the Kurdish intellectuals thought of the Kurdish participation in the genocide. Because, as if a common decision was taken, almost nobody talked about it in detail... To be more specific, they thought that Armenians deserved a lesson that they could not forget. Let me just give two examples. Salih Bedirhan, one of the authors of the publishing of RojA Kurd at that time, used the term "internal enemy" for Armenians by resorting to the cruel discourse of the Unionists at that time.... Kurdish intellectuals were very pleased with the De-Armenianisation of the Kurdish-Armenian hinterland. Even those like Nuri Dersimi were going so far as to say that the Armenians were massacring the Kurds. Question -5: There are many who claim that the massacres you mention are the natural result of the war. What do say? No, absolutely not. For one thing, this was not a war between Kurds and Armenians, namely the two peoples, on the war front. In addition, those who were murdered were not killed on the battlefield, but in the barn, the plain, the village, and their houses without weapons. Villages were burned, women and children were burned in stables, old and vulnerable men were thrown from the rocks. In other words, the vast majority of those who were murdered had no relation with the war anyway, and a significant number of them were already killed far away from the war front. Let's not count the city of Van, which experienced an inner-city war. While the genocide was taking place, what had MuA, Bitlis, Siirt, Diyarbekir, Mardin, Urfa, Harput, Erzincan, AdAyaman to do with the war front?... Question -- 6: The leaders of the Kurdish public opinion frequently draw attention to the phenomenon of ignorance, by saying "Kurds are deceived by the state" when these issues come to the agenda. When it comes to Kurdish-Armenian massacres, the editorial of the Kurdistan Newspaper first introduced the discourse of ignorance. Later, Kurdish intellectuals like CegerxwAn and finally politicians like Ahmet TArk reproduced this "useful" rational. ... It is necessary here to ask the question of what it is what they did not know. Is killing a person, burning a people in stables, and destroying a people, something related to consciousness? Besides that, only the ignorant kills? Therefore, "literature of ignorance" is a kind of empathy doctrine, a kind of laundering document that says "understand the Kurds involved in the incidents." However, for the vast majority of Kurds who participated in pogrom and genocide, especially the Hamidiye Kurds, it is more correct to say that "they knew, and precisely therefore they did it." Those who did this work were fond of the thought that killing Armenians would bring them prestige in the community, power before other tribes, acceptance before the state, seizure to the land and surplus value, to share ownership relations and finally have the means of production. Question -- 7: On a historical scale in which the state persistently denies genocide, there are those who claim that your findings that "Kurds participated in the Armenian genocide" imposes the preponderant weight of the genocide on the Kurds rather than on the state; how do you respond to such a comment? Yes, this is a common assertion. But this is essentially a sterile denial, a way of obfuscating the subject. Many also think that discussing this issue in this way "stigmatizes" the Kurdishness. No, it is not so, it should not be perceived as such. ... If Kurdishness (some of our friends call it feudal Kurdish nationalism) has made a fatal mistake in the early phase of its formation, if a wrong has been committed, it is best to face it sincerely instead of covering it up....Let's face it, not only the state but also the Kurds and Kurdishness had an "Armenian problem"....Since the reign of Sheikh Ubeydullah, "the Armenian state will be established" has been provoking the Kurdish political public. This is reality, we can't ignore it. Moreover, the only sin of the Kurdishness during the early phase of its formation was not only the participation in the Armenian massacres. We have to admit that a cycle of massacre, which began with the Bedirxan Bey killing tens of thousands of Nestorian [Assyrians], accompanied the political period of the emergence of Kurdishness. Most of us think that "the victim will not have a victim" or "the oppressed will not have the oppressed". In other words, throughout history "who suffered injustice, murdered; doesn't do injustice, does not kill." I can understand the innocent and moral nature of this thought, but this healing thought is both unhistorical and highly essentialist.... For Example: Some of the CemilpaAazades, who had moved Kurdishness to a certain extent, among them Feyzi PirinAizade, Xoytili Musa Bey, KAr Huseyin Pasha played active roles in the genocide. Let's not forget that just before the genocide, we know that the Kurdish Support and Progress Association (KArt TeavAn Terakki Cemiyeti), under the leadership of Seyyid AbdAlkadir, acted as bondsman to the PirinAizades in the Diyarbakir elections, attended a meeting of Hevi, the first youth organization of Feyzi PirinAizade, and made a speech there. Let's face it, anti-Armenianism was evident in the founding of Kurdishness. It is time to come to terms with this. Question -- 8: Kurdish political actors have made statements about the victims of genocide and made apologies. How do you see the attitude of Kurdish politics towards genocide? To make a comparison: it is certain that we are far ahead of the state and the Turkish people. Kurds can empathize with the Armenians because we have gone through the massacre that Armenians have gone through. This empathy, however, often pays off in a technical and pragmatist context. As long as this happens, there are often problems in the language of empathy. The Kurdish right, for example, thinks that the Armenians killed the Kurds and that the Kurds responded in the context of protecting themselves. Kurdish conservatives consider what was done to the Armenians as an inevitable consequence of the war, but see the act partially inhuman. Kurdish leftists accept the genocide discourse, but they think that Kurdish feudalism, not the Kurds, is the sinner. The mainstream Kurdish policy admits that it is not genocide....However, what needs to be done is simple, sincere acceptance of genocide and at least some well-intentioned gestures at a symbolic level. [1] https://nupel.net/firat-aydinkaya-8-soruda-kurtler-ve-ermeni-soykirimi-85131h.html [2] See http://www.aina.org/news/20191029181758.htm, and http://www.aina.org/news/20191212151200.htm [3] See http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/24009/kurtler-arasindaki-sessizlik-suikasti-onemli-olcude-kirildi [4] http://www.agos.com.tr/tr/yazi/24038/kurt-sagi-turk-saginin-ideolojik-refakatcisi-gorunumu-veriyor [5] http://www.aina.org/releases/parexile.htm [6] https://www.gazeteduvar.com.tr/forum/2020/04/25/firat-aydinkayanin-kurtler-ve-ermeni-soykirimi-yazisi-uzerine/ TEL AVIV, Israel and BETHESDA, Maryland, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB: CNBX), a leader in personalized cannabinoid medicine focused on cancer and its side effects, announced today that the Israeli government has granted final approval for the export of medical cannabis and products into international regulated markets such as the European Union (EU), Canada and Australia. The new regulation will allow export of GMP certified cannabis products under the Cannabics brand, such as Cannabics SR formulation. Cannabics Pharmaceuticals High Throughput Screening (HTS) Facility in Rehovot, Israel Cannabics SR formulation has been tested as a palliative treatment to improve loss of appetite and loss of weight in advanced cancer patients suffering from Cancer Anorexia-Cachexia Syndrome (CACS). The formulation was developed and clinically tested at the RAMBAM Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. Results of the clinical trial can be found here. Cannabics Pharmaceuticals is licensed by the Ministry of Health in Israel to conduct Research and Development in Cannabinoid based medicine. The company operates a High Throughput Screening (HTS) Facility in Rehovot, Israel, focused on cancer drug discovery. In a statement, the Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry, said: "This is a significant step for exporters and the Israeli industry, which will enable both expansion of export opportunities in the industry as well as increasing employment in the field, especially in light of the worldwide demand for medical cannabis products from Israel." Mr. Gabriel Yariv, Cannabics' President and COO, said: "This is exciting news for the entire industry, but also specifically for us as an American pharmaceutical company with R&D operations in Israel. We are already evaluating the opportunities made possible by the new regulation, allowing high quality Israeli pharmaceutical products to compete on the global medical cannabis marketplace." About Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB: CNBX) is a U.S public company that is developing a platform that leverages novel drug-screening tools to create cannabinoid-based therapies for cancer that are more precise to a patient's profile. By developing tools to assess effectiveness on a personalized basis, Cannabics is helping to move cannabinoids into the future of cancer therapy. The Company's R&D is based in Israel, where it is licensed by the Ministry of Health to conduct scientific and clinical research on cannabinoid formulations and cancer. For more information, please visit www.cannabics.com. For the latest updates on Cannabics Pharmaceuticals follow the Company on Twitter @Cannabics, Facebook @CannabicsPharmaceuticals, LinkedIn, and on Instagram @Cannabics_Pharmaceuticals. Disclaimer: Certain statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other U.S. Federal securities laws. Such statements include but are not limited to statements identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "targets," "projects" and similar expressions. The statements in this release are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those outlined in the forward-looking statements. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials and other studies, the challenges inherent in new product development initiatives, the effect of any competitive products, our ability to license and protect our intellectual property, our ability to raise additional capital in the future that is necessary to maintain our business, changes in government policy and regulation, potential litigation by or against us, any governmental review of our products or practices, as well as other risks discussed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, our latest 10-Q Report filed April 13th, 2020. We undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement or any information contained in this press release or other public disclosures at any time. Finally, the investing public is reminded that the only announcements or information about Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc., which are condoned by the Company, must emanate from the Company itself and bear our name as its source. For more information about Cannabics: Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. Phone: +1(877)424-2429 [email protected] http://www.Cannabics.com SOURCE Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. A British woman has accused Madhya Pradesh Police of unlawfully arresting her 29-year-old brother Sohail Hughes. As per report in British daily The Guardian, Hughes lives in Dewsbury in the United Kingdom, and had flown to India in February with the intention of returning on May 13. Sohail Hughes, 29, had been on an extended holiday to visit family in the Gujarat region before undertaking a pilgrimage of mosques when he was detained last month, his sister Aatika told The Guardian. He was forced to take refuge in a mosque in Bhopal after being caught out by the swiftly implemented lockdown laws requiring people to stay off the streets. Sohail, alongside dozens of other men, had his passport seized before being kept in quarantine for more than a month inside a hostel, Aatika, 35, futher said. The incident prompted Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Vivek Tankha to write to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to withdraw charges and release the man. The family, the British government and the British media complain that a British national has been detained for spreading Covid-19 and violating visa regulations after being caught in the mosque with other people when in fact, he has been repeatedly tested negative for Covid-19, Tankha said in the letter, a copy of which he attached with his Twitter post on Monday. @guardian leading news daily of UK quoting Sohail Hughes Fmy describes his arrest & detention by bhopal police unlawful. He was a causal visitor with no covid + infection. Brit High Com seeks consular access. Bail application rejected. MEAs briefed. In bhopal jail. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/5gI6xuxUIZ Vivek Tankha (@VTankha) May 25, 2020 Am truly distressed with story of Sohails arrest. I have appealed to state CM and director general police MP to withdraw the FIR & seek closure of the case. Such arrests & investigations are a blot on our criminal justice system, Tankha said. Additional director general (ADG) of police at Bhopal Upendra Jain said, When we came to know about people in Nizamuddin markaz were found Covid-19 positive and many others who stayed with them visited different parts of the country, we searched all the mosques in Bhopal that led to detention of members of 32 jamaats including seven foreign jamaats. Each of jamaats had about 14 to 15 members. In all, 74 foreign nationals and a few other Indians with each of the jammats who accompanied them were detained. He said, Sohail Hughes was staying in a mosque at Ahata Rustam Khan at Shyamala Hills with another Briton and 12 others from the Ivory Coast. As per our investigation, he was a part of a jamaat and staying in the mosque. He was preaching his religion which was a violation of tourist visa conditions. All of them were detained and later booked for violation of tourist visa as well as under sections 188 (violation of order promulgated by government), 269 (negligently doing any act known to be likely to spread infection of any disease dangerous to life) and 270 (Malignantly doing any act known to be likely to spread any disease dangerous to life) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Jain further said. The police officer said that these people were produced before a local court on May 15 which sent them to jail under judicial custody for 14 days. New Delhi, May 26 : The in-fighting among the residents of housing societies over feeding of stray dogs is nowhere near ending, with yet another attack on a pregnant Russian woman again in the national capital region this time in Noida. The Russian woman residing in a condominium in Noida's Sector 71 was allegedly attacked by two men for feeding foundling canines inside the complex. "We have initiated an inquiry and a case has been registered against the men for voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation," Amit Kumar Singh, Station House Officer of Phase 3 police station told IANS. The police said that the victim is married to an Indian man and they live in that society. The issue was raked up on social media by one of the residents of the society. Her post had even solicited a response and help from the Noida Police Commissioner. Kaveri Rana Bharadwaj wrote, "Mob led by Vikas Sharma, and Mr. Chauhan beat up a pregnant woman in Jagriti Apartment, Sector 71 Noida. Request you to immediately arrest these men and provide security to the scared woman!" When contacted, a member of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of the society said that the allegations levied by her are false and that he, along with a handful of other people, had only asked her not to feed the dogs. Vikas Sharma divulged, "The woman was called at the society gate by the members of the RWA. When she was asked not to feed the street dogs, she became aggressive, started fighting with the residents of the society and even pushed a 70-year-old woman. The complaint that she registered against us is false. We did not even touch her." He added that there are 70-80 street dogs in the society who have lately become extremely aggressive. "The lady was asked not to feed them as people feared stepping out of their houses and getting bitten." In another incident on Tuesday, a Greater Noida man beat up a Chinese woman for allegedly fostering a stray dog which bit his canine. Greater Noida District Commissioner of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh told IANS that the man named Amar Pratap Singh of ATS Paradiso misbehaved with the woman after his dog was bit by another dog who she used to feed every day. The incident happened in the wee hours of the day when the accused took his dog out for a walk. "After his dog was bitten, in a fit of rage, he misbehaved with the Chinese woman." A Non-Cognizable Report (NCR) has been registered and no arrests have been made so far, the police said. Teri Hatcher has celebrated a major milestone in her daughter Emerson's life. The Desperate Housewives actress, 55, took to Instagram to congratulate the 22-year-old on graduating from Brown University on Monday. Sharing photos of herself with her lookalike offspring -who had to graduate at home in Los Angeles amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic- Hatcher began her caption, 'The class of #2020 is primed to be more resilient than most, making lemonade from lemons, with an eye for what is truly important.' Big day: Teri Hatcher has celebrated a major milestone in her daughter Emerson's life The Lois & Clark star continued, 'After the virtual & moving ceremony this morning, I dry my tears, blow my nose and toast to all your hard work and the great things I see in your future.' 'Congratulations on reaching this amazing milestone! I love you so much!!!#proudmama #BrownU #brown2020 #EverTrue'. The Californian native also shared a video of the graduation ceremony, which involved the university staff member's address to students projected on a screen in Hatcher's living room. Desperate times: Teri shared photos of herself with her lookalike offspring -who had to graduate at home in Los Angeles amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic Mini-me! Younger photos of the veteran actress showed she was once the spitting image of her only child, whom she shares with ex Jon Tenney Another photo showed Teri and Emerson wearing face masks while posing for the camera. Teri's naturally grey roots were showing in the snap. However younger photos of the veteran actress showed she was once the spitting image of her only child, whom she shares with her The Closer star ex. Now: Emerson Tenney is Hatcher's only child, from her second marriage to Jon Tenney, before their divorce in 2003. Hatcher seen here in February this year Social-distancing: The Californian native also shared a video of the graduation ceremony, which involved the university staff member's address to students projected on a screen in Hatcher's living room Emerson Tenney is Hatcher's only child, from her second marriage to Jon Tenney, before their divorce in 2003. Just last month, Teri was notably absent from a Desperate Housewives reunion, intended to raise money on Sunday for The Actors Fund amid the ongoing pandemic. The stars, including Eva Longoria and Marcia Cross, came together without Hatcher as rumors have raged for years that she did not get along with her cast mates. Desperate Housewives ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012. Mumbai, May 26 : Music Composer duo Sachin-Jigar, known for their work in Bollywood films like "ABCD", "Go Goa Gone", "Badlapur" and "Stree", are working towards bringing more quality to Gujarati independent music. The duo has launched a song titled "Tari duniya mari duniya" as a part of their effort. "'Tari duniya mari duniya' marks the beginning of a new series of Gujarati songs that will release on the Black Coffee Music YouTube channel. It is a sweet song describing the coming-of-age of a couple split apart in the lockdown," said the composers. "The video, conceptualised by Manan Desai and directed by Vidya Desai, smoothly flows with the breezy singalong jazz and blues tune by us. Easy and hummable conversational Gujarati lyrics by Bhargav Purohit, and soulfully lilting vocal rendition by Sidharth Amit Bhavsar add amazing colour to the song," they said. There is more coming up. "The combined team of Sachin-Jigar and Manan and Vidya Desai intends to do a bunch of songs based on millennial idealism and issues. The idea is to bring back the love, attention and association of youngsters to cool songs in our mother language," said Sachin-Jigar. DUBLIN, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Industrial Protective Clothing - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Industrial Protective Clothing market worldwide is projected to grow by US$11.2 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 13.5%. Durable, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 12.7%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$10.2 Billion by the year 2025, Durable will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth. Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 12% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$439.4 Million to the region's size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$369 Million worth of projected demand in the region will come from Rest of Europe markets. In Japan, Durable will reach a market size of US$509.1 Million by the close of the analysis period. As the world's second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 17.2% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$2.7 Billion in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders. Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio. Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. All research viewpoints presented are based on validated engagements from influencers in the market, whose opinions supersede all other research methodologies. Key Topics Covered: I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & REPORT SCOPE II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. MARKET OVERVIEW Recent Market Activity Primary Factors Influencing Industrial Protective Clothing Market Over the Years Economy & Employment Numbers High Costs Associated with Workplace Hazards Occupational Safety Regulations Continued Rise in Incidents of Workplace Deaths Drives Spotlight on IPC Assessing the Impact of Recent Economic Upheavals on Industrial Protective Clothing Market Impact of the 2007-2009 Recession in Retrospect Europe's Debt Crisis Tests IPC Market Debt Crisis Tests IPC Market Growth Fundamentals Encourage an Optimistic Outlook for the Market Positive Economic Outlook Keeps Market Sentiment Intact Market on Growth Path In spite of Volatility in Global PMI Eurozone Economic Outlook Favors an Optimistic Outlook for IPC Fiscal Cliff Concerns in the US and the Road Ahead Companies Utilize Periods of Economic Slowdown to Expand Business Opportunities Global Outlook Chemical Protection Clothing - The Largest and Fastest Growing Segment Thermal and Clean Room Clothing Market Mechanical Protection Clothing Asia-Pacific - The Focal Point for Growth - The Focal Point for Growth Developed Markets to Register Steady Demand North America - The Largest Region - The Largest Region Competitive Landscape Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Market - A Complementary Review Workplace Accidents Drive Demand for PPE Automobile Production Trends Sustain Demand for PPE Recovery in Construction Industry Benefits the Market Healthy Outlook for Oil & Gas Bodes Well for IPC Market Strong Growth in Mining in Developing Countries: A Key Growth Driver Food Processing - A Market Laden with Tremendous Potential Global Competitor Market Shares Industrial Protective Clothing Competitor Market Share Scenario Worldwide (in %): 2018 & 2029 Impact of Covid-19 and a Looming Global Recession 2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS Ansell Limited ( Australia ) ) Ansell Protective Solutions AB ( Sweden ) ) Alexandra PLC (UK) Asatex AG ( Germany ) ) Bennett Safetywear Ltd (UK) CWS-boco Supply Chain Management GmbH ( Germany ) ) The Dow Chemical Company (US) Eastern Technologies, Inc. (US) E. I. DuPont deNemours and Co (US) Honeywell International, Inc. (US) ILC Dover (US) International Enviroguard, Inc. (US) Kimberly-Clark Corporation (US) Lakeland Industries, Inc. (US) Sioen Industries NV ( Belgium ) ) Workrite Uniform Co. (US) W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (US) 3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS 4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE III. MARKET ANALYSIS IV. COMPETITION For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9zf1gr About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Bolt, a European competitor to Uber, says it's now valued at 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) after raising fresh funds, as it aims to rebuild momentum in a business severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Tallinn, Estonia-based company said Tuesday it raised 100 million euros from Naya Capital, an investment manager founded by hedge fund investor Masroor Siddiqui. The new capital will be used to boost its main ride-hailing business as well as newer services like electric scooters and food delivery. "Even though the crisis has temporarily changed how we move, the long-term trends that drive on-demand mobility such as declining personal car ownership and the shift towards greener transportation continue to grow," Bolt co-founder and CEO Markus Villig said in a statement Tuesday. Bolt suffered a 75% drop in revenues around mid-March as countries across Europe began introducing lockdown restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19. Other players in the space, such as Uber and Ola, were similarly affected, though Bolt claims it hasn't had to lay people off to cope with the impact of the pandemic. The firm did however cut salaries by 20-30% in April and May, but is expecting them to return to pre-crisis levels soon. A manhunt is underway for two heartless thieves who robbed a wheelchair-bound man moments after he withdrew cash from an ATM machine. The man, 42, who has cerebral palsy, noticed two men loitering near an ATM in Haymarket, at the southern end of Sydney's CBD, on Sunday morning. CCTV footage showed the men whispering after he wheeled into the the enclosed entrance of the busy ANZ branch on George street. The pair waited for him to finish his transaction before one snatched the cash out of his hands. They immediately left the branch and were last seen running along George Street. Two men (pictured) robbed a man, 42, with cerebral palsy who is confined to a wheelchair after he withdrew cash from an ATM in Haymarket, in Sydney city, on Sunday morning Witnesses helped the wheelchair-bound man, who was not injured, and called police. Detectives from Sydney City Police Area Command established a crime scene and began investigating the robbery. NSW Police released images from the incident and appealed for public assistance to help identify the two men. The first man wore a black jacket and dark green pants and was described as being of Caucasian appearance, with a large build and red hair. The second man was described as having a medium build, Caucasian appearance and light-brown short hair with a dark blue jacket and dark pants. Police would also like to speak to a man and woman of Asian appearance who assisted the wheelchair-bound man. Denmark says its economy will contract less than the European Union on average this year, after it eased restrictions on movement earlier than other countries. Gross domestic product will shrink 5.3% in 2020, the Finance Ministry in Copenhagen said on Tuesday. By contrast, the European Union is set to contract 7.4%. After imposing a strict lockdown before many other countries in Europe, Denmark last month started rolling back its curbs on movement, and has since reopened much of the economy amid signs the contagion rate has slowed. As of Monday, Denmark had reported 563 covid-19 related deaths; its fatality rate per 100,000 is around a quarter that of neighboring Sweden. Nicolai Wammen, Denmark's finance minister, said the situation remains "serious." He warned that the Covid-19 crisis "will in all likelihood affect the Danish economy for several years into the future. But we've laid the stones for a path out of the crisis and we've already taken the first important steps." Speaking to reporters in the Danish capital, Wammen said the government is likely to end up spending more than the roughly 400 billion kroner ($60 billion) in emergency measures already passed. But he made clear he's also looking into phasing out that support once the worst is over. Though historically deep, Denmark's recession is set to be milder than in Sweden, where Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson has predicted a 7% contraction in 2020. Sweden responded to Covid-19 with a controversial model that left much of its society open throughout the pandemic. That fed speculation that its economy might be spared the ravages facing countries that imposed strict lockdowns. But recent data challenge that notion. Las Olsen, chief economist at Danske Bank, said he thinks Denmark's economic decline might be even less severe than the government's forecast. "In Denmark, things have so far developed a lot better than one might have feared," Olsen said. "First and foremost, we've reopened [the economy], and we can see clear signs that consumers and businesses are actually reacting to that." Olsen also pointed to Denmark's relatively robust export industry, which relies heavily on health-care companies like Novo Nordisk, the world's biggest producer of insulin. Even so, the cost of the economic shock Denmark has already suffered is unprecedented. Its debt office now estimates it will need to generate $43 billion, or over three times the funding previously expected, to help pay for the damage. "This shows how huge the bill is," said Jan Storup Nielsen, chief analyst at Nordea Markets in Copenhagen. AAA-rated Denmark has so far been able to tap markets at historically low rates. Its benchmark 10-year bond trades at a negative yield, and its entire yield curve up to 20 years traded below zero not that long ago. Afghan authorities freed hundreds more Taliban prisoners on Tuesday, as calls grew for the militants to extend a ceasefire on its third and final day. The historic pause in fighting -- only the second in nearly 19 years of war -- has mostly held across Afghanistan, providing a rare respite from the conflict's grinding violence. Authorities said they had released about 900 Taliban prisoners across the country on Tuesday, approximately 600 of them from the notorious Bagram jail near Kabul. The release is part of a pledge by the Afghan government to free up to 2,000 insurgent prisoners in response to the Taliban's three-day ceasefire offer, which began Sunday to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Abdul Wasi, 27, from Kandahar province, much of which is under Taliban control, said he was a "holy warrior" when he was detained eight years ago. "I was told ... to do jihad until all foreign troops are driven out of our country," Wasi, sporting a long beard and wearing a traditional baggy shirt-and-trouser shalwar kameez, told AFP moments after he was freed. He said he was happy about the US-Taliban deal paving the way for all foreign forces to leave Afghanistan by May next year, and that he wanted a permanent ceasefire. "If the foreign troops exit, we won't fight," he said as he boarded a Kabul-bound bus along with other freed Taliban members. - Calls to 'extend the ceasefire' - The prisoners had signed written pledges not to return to the battlefield, but freed inmate Qari Mohammadullah vowed to continue fighting if foreign forces remain. "We don't want foreigners to stay any longer in our country. They must leave immediately," Mohammadullah said. "We will continue our jihad until every single foreign force leaves." Each former prisoner was given the equivalent of about $65 in Afghan currency. The buses they had boarded at the prison dropped them in Kabul, where they bid goodbyes to each other and took taxis to their homes. The release of 900 prisoners marked "good progress," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Twitter. He added the group will free a "remarkable" number of Afghan security force personnel, but did not specify when. Afghan authorities hoped the Taliban would extend the ceasefire so delayed peace talks with the insurgents could begin, National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal said. "If the Taliban are ready to extend the ceasefire, we are ready to continue the ceasefire too," Faisal told a news conference. "We hope they release our prisoners so that intra-Afghan peace talks begin as soon as possible... The future depends on the Taliban's next move," he said. The ceasefire has raised hopes of an extended truce that could pave the way for talks, which had originally been scheduled to start by March 10. "Extend the ceasefire. Save lives," Shaharzad Akbar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said on Twitter. "End the violence so that we can all focus on making services available to the most vulnerable across the country, on expanding access to human rights, so that we have space to breathe." - Kabul pushes for peace talks - A senior Taliban source earlier told AFP the group could extend the ceasefire by seven days if the government speeds up the release of prisoners. But insurgent spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he had no information about an extension. The European Union mission in Afghanistan called for a "permanent and comprehensive humanitarian ceasefire ... which can lay the ground for peace negotiations". The US-Taliban deal stipulates the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the militants would free about 1,000 national security personnel. Prior to this week's releases, Kabul had already freed about 1,000 Taliban inmates, while the insurgents released about 300 Afghan security force captives. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while welcoming the latest developments, has insisted that freed Taliban prisoners should not return to the battlefield. President Ashraf Ghani has said his administration is ready to begin peace negotiations, seen as key to ending the war. Before the ceasefire started, the Taliban claimed multiple deadly attacks against Afghan forces across the country. But they denied carrying out a gruesome rampage in a maternity hospital in Kabul earlier this month when gunmen shot dead mothers, nurses and newborns. The US first built the Bagram detention centre early in the war and it gained international notoriety after details emerged of prisoner abuse. The Afghan military now runs the facility. Philanthropists Rescue Australian Creative Institution Carriageworks Committed philanthropists have given a lifeline to the collapsed Carriageworks in a move that may lift Australias largest multi-arts precinct out of voluntary administration and reopen its doors to the public. The New South Wales government announced emergency funding for the arts and culture sector on May 24 totalling $50 million (US$34 million), but it came too late. Since the government already provides a large proportion of Carriageworks core funding (roughly a quarter), at least some private philanthropy is required to bail out the company. On May 4, Carriageworks entered into voluntary administration, citing an irreparable loss of income due to government regulations that prevented it from running events and projects amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic (commonly known as novel coronavirus). The CCP virus lockdown decimated Carriageworks projected revenue, of which 75 percent comes from onsite events and programs. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Carriageworks owes more than $2 million (US$1.3 million) to 225 creditors according to documents lodged with ASIC. Since then, up to 15 philanthropists have stepped forward to donate over $2 million (US$1.3 million) to the iconic art space. The most generous benefactor is believed to be major art collector Geoff Ainsworth and partner Johanna Featherstone, who were major contributors to the Art Gallery of NSW expansion. Kerr Neilson and his daughter Paris have also offered conditional funding that would depend on A management and organisational restructuring. We have pledged a reasonable amount once the lease is renewed and the operation is reorganised, Neilson told Sydney Morning Herald on May 22. We are simply interested in ensuring the country has as much exposure to art as is practicable. Art galleries and museums do not only contribute to Australians wellbeing but also their economy. Cultural tourists spend three times as much as other tourists, according to Sydneys Museum of Contemporary Art Director Liz Ann Macgregor. When all this is over, there is going to be a huge growth in domestic tourism and galleries and museums are real drivers in that market. The states across India registered over 6,500 new coronavirus cases for the fourth straight day. The total number of coronavirus cases in India surged to 145,380 Maharashtra witnessed a slight decline in daily COVID-19 count on Monday. India recorded 146 deaths due to coronavirus infection on Monday, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 4,167. The number of active COVID-19 patients in the country rose to 80,722 on Monday. On the positive side, 60,490 people were recovered from the disease. Scott Morrison will not reconsider taking a temporary pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic. The prime minister is sticking with a wage freeze that applies to all Commonwealth public servants. Mr Morrison was on Tuesday asked whether he might take a hip-pocket hit to show Australians 'we're all in this together', as he often declares. Scott Morrison (pictured at National Press Club) will not reconsider taking a temporary pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic while sticking with the wage freeze on Commonwealth public servants 'I have no plans to make any changes to those arrangements,' he told the National Press Club in Canberra. 'I'll just keep doing a good job, that's my plan, and I will be accountable to Australians for that job.' More than one million JobSeeker claims have been processed since the virus smashed the Australian economy, while 3.5 million workers have been forced onto JobKeeper wage subsidies. The prime minister's comments came the same day he unveiled the JobMaker initiative, an 'economic plan for the future'. Aspiring tradies, nurses and hairdressers stand to benefit from the announcement. Under Mr Morrison's new plan, funding will be more closely linked to skill gaps based on what businesses truly need. Industry will be given greater power to shape training, with pilot schemes across human services, digital technologies and mining used as examples for other sectors. Over one million JobSeeker claims have been processed during he pandemic, while 3.5 million workers were forced onto JobKeeper wage subsidies (people lined up at a Centrelink) He wants new courses to be shaped by industry leaders and to reduce the number of programs to make it easier for young people to choose a career path. Mr Morrison also re-affirmed Australia's commitment to free trade in the face of mounting tensions with China. Mr Morrison's JobMaker plan rejects calls for government to play a major role in recovery over a longer period of time. 'At some point, you've got to get your economy out of ICU,' Mr Morrison said. 'You've got to get it off the medication before it becomes too accustomed to it.' Mr Morrison expects it will take 'three to five years' for Australia's economy to recover from the impact of COVID-19. 'We must enable our businesses to earn our way out of this crisis. That means focusing on the things that can make our businesses go faster,' he said. An 81-year-old man died Monday as a result of , while the man accused of killing him remains in the hospital for an unnamed medical condition, the Madison Police Department reported in an update. The victims death is now being treated as homicide with MPDs Violent Crime Unit taking the lead. The name of the currently hospitalized suspect is being withheld until he is booked into jail, per department policy, MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain. The victim, whom the Dane County Medical Examiner's Office identified as Nang Yee Lee, was shot inside his apartment. Officers found him and the suspect after responding around 9:15 p.m. Friday to the 1800 block of Northport Drive. They first located the suspect and were able to take him into custody. Soon afterwards, they found the victim in a nearby apartment and transported him to the hospital. Investigators are still trying to determine what led to the shooting. They noted that two Hmong translators assisted them at the scene. Late on Tuesday, however, Twitter for the first time tagged some Trump tweets as misinformation. President Donald Trump is again pushing the limits of Twitters attempts to deal with national leaders who spread misinformation and engage in personal abuse, this time with a barrage of baseless tweets suggesting that a television host he has feuded with committed murder. The husband of a woman who died by accident two decades ago in an office of then-Republican congressman Joe Scarborough is demanding that Twitter remove the presidents tweets suggesting Scarborough, now a fierce Trump critic, killed her. My request is simple: Please delete these tweets, Timothy J Klausutis wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The body of Lori Kaye Klausutis, 28, was found in Scarboroughs Fort Walton Beach, Florida, congressional office on July 20, 2001. Trump has repeatedly tried to implicate Scarborough, a host of MSNBCs Morning Joe show, in the death even though Scarborough was in Washington, DC, not Florida, at the time. The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus. In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 It is the latest instance in which the president has blown past Twitters half-hearted attempts to enforce rules intended to promote civility and healthy conversation on its most prominent user. Trump frequently amplifies misinformation, spreads abuse and uses his pulpit to attack private citizens and public figures alike, but has never faced Twitter sanctions on his account. Klausutis wrote in his letter that he has struggled to move on with his life due to the ongoing bile and misinformation spread about his wife on the platform, most recently by Trump. His wife continues to be the subject of conspiracy theories 20 years after her death. Trumps tweets violate Twitters community rules and terms of service, he said. An ordinary user like me would be banished, he wrote. For the first time, Twitter on Tuesday flagged some of Trumps tweets with a fact-check warning. Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots fraudulent and predicted that mail boxes will be robbed, among other things. Under the tweets, there is now a link reading Get the facts about mail-in ballots that guides users to a Twitter moments page with fact checks and news stories about Trumps unsubstantiated claims. There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone.. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 At Tuesdays White House briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeatedly refused to say why Trump was pressing the unfounded allegations against Scarborough or whether he would stop tweeting about them. Dorsey did not reply directly to Klausutis letter and has not taken any action on the presidents tweets. In a statement, Twitter said it was deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. But the company did not say it would do anything about Trumps tweets and did not even mention them directly, although it did reference vague plans for future policy changes. Weve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly, Twitter said. The proposed changes include labelling false or misleading tweets as such, with fact checks crowdsourced from Twitter. It recently started labelling such tweets when they are about COVID-19 and is looking to expand more broadly. But the company has not said when this tool would be available. Based on history, it is also not clear if these strictures would apply to Trump and other world leaders. In general, Twitter has taken a hands-off approach to political leaders, contending that publishing controversial tweets from politicians helps hold them accountable and encourages discussion. Last year, it said it would consider slapping warning labels on some tweets by world leaders, noting that such individuals rules arent entirely above the rules. Nearly a year after announcing it, Twitter has yet to use such labels. There is no mystery to the death of Lori Klausutis. Medical officials ruled that the aide, who had a heart condition and told friends hours earlier that she was not feeling well, had fainted and hit her head. Foul play was not suspected. Elizabeth Fulop, the grandmother of Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, died last week after contracting COVID-19. She was 95. The mayor announced his grandmothers passing Tuesday and Gov. Phil Murphy included her in his daily coronavirus press briefing, during which he highlights the lives of several state residents who have succumbed to the illness. Remembered for her outspoken nature and fierce independence, Murphy noted that Elizabeth Fulop lived by herself in Bloomfield until she was 94. However, the abiding quality that she will be remembered for is her generosity. Whether it was for a charity, a family member, or a stranger, it did not matter," the governor said while displaying a picture of her and Steve. "If someone needed help they knew they could count on Elizabeth. Born in Romania, Elizabeth and her husband Bentsi survived World War II after being forced into a Jewish ghetto. In 1964, they immigrated to Israel but left three years later for the United States, settling in New Jersey. There, she worked alongside her husband and son Arthur in the family-owned deli on Broad Street in Newark. She is survived by sons Arthur and Eugene, five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. India is yet to declare devastation caused by Amphan a national disaster; its dithering is a signal of the political leaderships inadequacy In the wake of the Amphan super-cyclone, the short-term restoration of a minimum-level normality, the medium-term rehabilitation of those evacuated and the longer exercise of reconstruction and sustainable solvency will test the capabilities of the political class. The competence to govern, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee (who is in charge of ground zero), will be on trial. India is yet to declare the devastation caused by Amphan a national disaster; its dithering is a signal of the political leaderships inadequacy in comprehending the colossal difficulties of coping with the consequences, in pandemic times. Delivering bare subsistence relief will be difficult enough, with supply chains disrupted and production halted. Delivering survival support, over months, till the economy acquires some buoyancy, so that the estimated six crore affected population can revert to their usual self-reliance mode to rebuild their lives, will be a challenge for the Narendra Modi government. Never more so than now, the Centre has to step up to the job that it has failed to do, till now, in managing the consequences of the long and harsh lockdown. If it ducks this challenge, it will have betrayed the responsibility of the Indian State to its citizens. West Bengal alone can only do so much. The Modi governments initial advance of Rs 1,000 crores is only a token, given the ballpark estimate by Banerjee that relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction in the immediate future will cost Rs 1 lakh crores. The state is short of money. It has been short of money for years, as the Centre quibbled on paying its dues to West Bengal. It held up money sanctioned for reconstruction after the major cyclones like Aila 10 years ago, Fani and Bulbul in 2019. Instead of engaging in petty, competitive politics of the BJP versus Trinamul Congress, its time for Modi and Banerjee to morph into either statesmen or buffoons. To step up to the enormously complex task of managing the Amphan aftermath, in ways that are not set out in the pre-pandemic manuals on disaster management, packed with standard operating procedures that evolved from the experiences and priorities of the pre-colonial and colonial era and the post-Independence republic, the political leadership has to do two things. First, face up to the reality of pandemic times; two, rewrite the standard response manual. This is the moment when the demand by the Congress, other Opposition parties, trade unions and farmers organisations for a minimum Rs 7,500 per month cash payout per head from the Centre as compensation for the jobs lost due to the lockdown begins to look like a lifeline for West Bengals Amphan afflicted. The entire list of demands released on May 22 is a part of the strategy Banerjee needs to raise as a demand from the Centre for Amphan relief. The wider implications of the demand will transform the post-Amphan restoration challenge into a comprehensive national response to the manmade part of the two natural disasters of the coronavirus and the super-cyclone. As the chief minister and political leader at ground zero, Banerjee has figured out only one part of the nature of the challenge. She knows, but hasnt spelt out, that the monsoon is due to arrive within the next two to three weeks. The homing instinct of the rural poor is unstoppable. Precarious as it may be, they will return to rebuild as soon as possible with whatever material they can scavenge. Rebuilding the 15 breached or broken embankments is, therefore, a top priority. She knows, and Modi does not, that unless adequate (which means vast sums of money) resources, people and plans are put together with speed, the lakhs of homeless will take dangerous risks compounding the management of the post-Amphan crisis in pandemic times. India is losing time by the hour to manage the Amphan aftermath. The longer it puts off framing a prioritised coordination short-term action plan, with a nebulous idea of the long-term measures required to ensure its success, managing the natural disaster could turn into a huge manmade disaster. The unprecedented health crisis, compounded by the short-term response of the harsh and unplanned lockdown, the economic contraction and the deliberate and stubborn refusal to save jobs, protect wages and incomes, sustain and boost demand, means there is nothing except government schemes to depend on for rebuilding shacks or semi-permanent housing, buying the pots, pans and basic food to survive. Migration is not the easiest available exit route to survival any longer, After Cyclone Aila in 2009, there was an exodus of able-bodied men and women from the Sunderbans; in the villages, only schoolchildren, women, the old and sick remained. People who left havent come back to the Sunderbans to resettle. The incredible capacity to cope, the sheer resilience of people whenever natural disasters have struck in the past, is a testimony to their rugged self-reliance and their compulsion to be so, with often callous, usually chaotic and rarely sustained administrative interventions. The piling up of what economists call shocks will push the endurance of the people to its limits. The impossibility of normality in pandemic times means that neither Kolkata nor the districts have a fallback tried and tested strategy for reconstruction, at the individual or governmental levels. It took Banerjee two days to realise that there is a manpower shortage, of people with specific skills, to help restore Kolkatas power lines, clear fallen trees and clean up the muck accumulated by waterlogging. Calling on the Army and seeking help from the Railways, Kolkata Port Trust and private sector companies was a late response. But these are extraordinary times. She may need more such support as more deficits and gaps emerge. The ossified response of ceaseless attack as a competitive political strategy to discredit the rival and entice voters by selling hope and prosperity in the future reveals the BJPs rigidity. The chatter on the social media confirms that the middle class, new and potential converts to its priority cause of defeating Banerjee in the 2021 Assembly elections, have already turned away from the BJP. The rootedness of Mamata Banerjee, regardless of her shortcomings, is what really matters. Her popularity may dip and soar with mood swings among those affected; but she is a true-blue Bengali. That matters. Australian Trade Minister Rejects Chinese Trade Tit-for-Tat China has linked hefty tariffs on Australian barley to past disputes between the two nations, comparing track records on trade investigations. The Chinese commerce minister said Beijing had been cautious and restrained in imposing trade remedies. Zhong Shan said China had only launched one trade investigation against Australia in almost 50 years, compared to more than 100 by Australia. But Trade Minister Simon Birmingham dismissed the comparison. This isnt about keeping a tally or doing things in a tit-for-tat way, he told Sky News on May 26. Yes, Australia has an anti-dumping system that we use. Our decisions are open to appeal through the World Trade Organisation. China has not chosen to do that with any of our decisions to date. Senator Birmingham has been trying to speak to his Chinese counterpart about the barley dispute for several weeks. His phone calls have been ignored. That still hasnt been scheduled and it remains disappointing, he said. The Australian government will always front up to have a conversation, even where we have disagreements. We think the best way to move through those disagreements is to engage in dialogue. The minister is weighing up whether to appeal Chinas 80 percent tariff on Australian barley at the World Trade Organisation. China has also suspended beef imports from four Australian abattoirs after the federal government called for a global independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australian primary producers and exporters needed to weigh up the risks of selling into China. I think thats a judgment Australian businesses can only make, he told the National Press Club in Canberra. They have to weigh up the security of the markets in which they sell to and the risks that are associated with those. More than half of Australians believe the Chinese government imposed the beef and barley trade sanctions in retaliation for Australia leading calls for the coronavirus investigation. Two-thirds of respondents to an Essential poll released on Tuesday agreed the Australian government needed to stand up to the Chinese government and demand an open inquiry. But opinions are divided over how best to respond to the trade dispute. More than half of the 1087 respondents believe the Australian government needs to do all it can to avoid a trade war with China. Less than half agreed Australia should impose tariffs on imports from China in retaliation, or Canberra should work towards an agreement with Beijing to remove the tariffs on barley, whatever the conditions. Daniel McCulloch Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday again repeated his rhetoric that those coming from India were responsible for the spread of Coronavirus in the nation. Nepal has reported 682 cases and four deaths due to the virus. READ: Nepal Army Developing Own Track Route Sharma reiterates comments "As per the protocol of WHO, those returning home from the cross border are required to undergo a compulsory test, which would play a pivotal role in averting the spread into the community level. But the flow of people returning home from the neighboring India has been flaunting the rule and returning back home facing multiple difficulties to get across the border without proper tests. For lack of proper test, it also has been contributing to increasing the pandemic in the nation massively," Oli said in a television address. Last week, he had said that the virus coming from India was more lethal than from other nations. "Those who are coming from India through illegal channels are spreading the virus in the country and some local representatives and party leaders are responsible for bringing in the people from India without proper testing. Amidst underlying condition, a two-month-old infant to an 81-year-old woman have successfully recovered. This has proved that efforts to control it are effective in Nepal in comparison to the other nations of South Asia as the fatality is also low but the condition still isn't favourable to stay confident over it. The fight against the COVID-19 is very challenging and will go on," he said. READ: Nepal Reports Highest Single-day Coronavirus Surge; Total Cases Cross 650-mark Diplomatic tensions These comments come against the backdrop of diplomatic tension between the two countries, with Nepal releasing a map which showed certain regions near the border as a part of its territory. PM Oli said, "Kalapani, Limpiyadhura, and Lipulekh belong to Nepal. We will get them back. Last week, the Nepali informed the parliament that he had spoken to Chinese authorities regarding the same. "Our government representatives have spoken with Chinese authorities. The Chinese authorities have said that the India-China agreement was about expanding an old trade route for pilgrimage purposes, and it wont affect the position of the tri-juncture and issue of borders, said KP Sharma Oli. READ: MEA Disapproves Of Nepal's New Map, Urges India's Territorial Integrity To Be Respected India's Ministry of External Affairs rejected the 'unilateral act'. MEA official spokesperson Anurag Srivastava observed that this was contrary to the understanding between the two countries to resolve boundary disputes through dialogue. He made it clear that India shall not accept such an "artificial enlargement" of territory. Thereafter, he urged the Nepal government to respect India's consistent position on this matter. Srivastava expressed hope that the Nepalese leadership would create a positive dialogue to resolve boundary issues. READ: India-Nepal Territorial Dispute Flares Over Road To Tibet Lately the South American country has become the second major epicenter for COVID-19 infections around the globe. On Sunday, the country's health ministry announced that over 360,000 reported cases have been verified in Brazil while over 22,000 people have been killed with the virus. Because of the outbreak of coronavirus in Latin America's hardest-hit nation, the White House has declared a restriction on travel to the United States from Brazil. A spokesperson for the White House stated that such measures should help ensure that new infections are not taken into the US. On Sunday evening, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement that the ban extends to all foreigners who spent 14 days in Brazil prior to heading to the United States. "Today's action will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country," said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. McEnany shed it as US President Donald Trump 's decision to "to protect our country." Last week Trump cautioned he was contemplating a travel ban on Brazil. Such an entry will be rejected to non-Americans who've been in Brazil in the two weeks prior to the request for entry to the US. However, the ban will not affect intercountry trade. The travel ban does not apply to United States nationals, or to the spouse , parents, guardians, or a child of a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, as well as most siblings below the age of 21. "The potential for undetected transmission of the virus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States from [Brazil] threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security," according to the suspension order announced by the White House on Sunday. Check these out! A setback for Bolsonaro Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's controversial president, has been exposed to more pressure as his political hero Donald Trump levied a travel ban on non-US individuals traveling to South America in relation to a rising rate of Brazilian infections of coronavirus. The ban seems to have been a blow to right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, which in his strategy to the outbreak has shadowed Trump, having to fight demands for social distancing as well as veering unproven treatments. Moreover, the office of the Brazilian President did not decline to comment. "The US maintains a strong partnership with Brazil and we work closely to mitigate the socioeconomic and health impacts of COVID-19 in Brazil," as per the US Embassy's statement in Brasilia. Bolsonaro 's enemies portrayed the motion of the US as an embarrassing snub and evidence of his misdirected submission to Trump. Bolsonarista authorities scrambled to put a positive note on the restriction. Filipe Martins, Bolsonaro's foreign policy advisor tweeted "Ignore hysteria in the press," referring to previous US bans on travelers from China, Iran, the UK and the European Union during the coronavirus outbreak. Six former Brazilian ministers criticized Bolsonaro's "shameful" subordination in an open letter released earlier this month and asserted that his approach to the outbreak had made Brazil "an object of international derision and disgust." Patricia King, the head of the Irish Congress Trade Unions (ICTU), has warned Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe against cutting the 350 weekly pandemic payment at any time, as the number of people receiving some sort of government payment amid the Covid-19 economic crisis reached a record of more than 1.27m. She said the matter should be left to any new government and the economy was too fragile. Any new government needs a new social income system and any talk of cutting the 350 weekly payment should be off the agenda, Ms King told the Irish Examiner. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Throughout the pandemic, ventilator support has been in short supply. And for one family in Ecuador, finding a ventilator and getting it flown to the small hospital where their one-year-old son was being treated for a rare neuromuscular disorder seemed an insurmountable task. One-year-old Wilson, born with Centronuclear Myopathy. received life saving ventilator thanks to undaunted network of families in U.S. and Europe. But worlds away, two organizations on different continents used their network to not only find one, but get it donated and shipped in the nick of time all through families connected by the same thread -- having children affected by centronuclear and myotubular myopathy disorder. One-month-old Wilson is now stable and ready to go home in Ecuador thanks the herculean efforts of Florida-based Joshua Frase Foundation and Zusammen Stark! eV (CNM-Together Strong), an association in Germany. "The families that played a role in giving mechanical breath to this child know all too well the priceless value it holds, especially in that fragile first year with a child diagnosed with a nueromuscular disorder. "Having been through it ourselves, we know that without it, this child would pass," said Alison Rockett Frase, founder of Joshua Frase Foundation. Wilson, like Alison's late son Joshua for whom the foundation is named, was born with myotubular myopathy, which causes very weak muscles, the patient is unable to eat without a feeding tube and requires a ventilator to breathe. In Ecuador, the healthcare system cannot provide a portable ventilator for parents to take their child home to live out their life. "That means that his family can either chose to keep him alive and institutionalized or bring him home to perish unless they can find a way to pay for or acquire a home ventilator on their own," explained Frase. Desperate to bring Wilson home, his family reached out to CNM Together Strong!, the association that helps families with centronuclear myopathies in Germany. They connected with Alison and the Joshua Frase Foundation, known for managing a medical equipment exchange program in the U.S. "The logistical challenges from one country to the next, from customs and language barriers, to the updating of obsolete equipment were all overcome to save Wilson's life," said Frase. "This story shows that the beauty of humanity knows no boundaries and can span three continents, even when the world has been turned upside down." For Wilson's parents, the gift was more than just a medical machine. "This was not just a gift of breath, but a gift of life in the truest sense," said Andre Carlozama and Daniel Augalsaca. "The joy and elation of now being able to bring Wilson home is immeasurable." Both the Joshua Frase Foundation and CNM-Together Strong! in Germany are hoping to help the family with additional medical expenses, including maintenance of the ventilator and for doctor care while he is at home. For donations, please visit www.pleasedonate.org and tag "for Willson". "Although children born with this often-fatal disorder live on borrowed time, it is essential that every family be provided the opportunity to bring their child home to spend quality time outside institutional walls," said Frase. "Every donation will mean so much for this family." About The Joshua Frase Foundation (JFF) is a 501C3 non-profit organization that was founded in 1996; a year after Paul and Alison's son was born with an ultra rare and fatal neuromuscular disorder. Without hesitation, the foundation began funding cutting-edge research in the area of regenerative medicine, gene therapy and genetics since 1997. JFF's mission is twofold: To find a cure or treatment for centronuclear and myotubular myopathies and to support families whose lives are affected by these disorders. Not only has JFF been able to fund groundbreaking science, pioneering into a curative treatment that has the potential to transform neuromuscular research; it has also built an international community of children and their parents. The foundation's efforts have spearheaded human clinical trials for gene therapy. For more information, please visit http://www.joshuafrase.org. About ZNM Zusammen Stark! e.V. (CNM Together Strong!) is a self-help association for myotubular myopathy and other centronuclear myopathies (CNM = ZNM). We represent (as of October 2019) 159 individuals from 52 families with a CNM in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. As a self-help organization our main goal is to connect those affected and their families and to support each other in our daily lives. This is mainly done by our yearly family conference, conference, webinars and our closed Facebook support group. We also actively invest on research to find a treatment for these conditions. For more information please visit https://www.znm-zusammenstark.org/en. Media Contacts: Alison Rockett Frase, Joshua Frase Foundation 904-567-3933 or [email protected] Liz Morgan, Liz Morgan PR 904-608-3823 or [email protected] SOURCE Joshua Frase Foundation Related Links http://www.joshuafrase.org Highly Dutch expands market potential to approximately 70% of the Canadian market compared to 25% for the premium segment Dual branding strategy addresses both premium and mainstream consumer First certified organic 28-gram product in Canada targets daily users and helps convert illicit market to safe legal sources Leverages TGOD's unmatched capabilities to produce certified organic cannabis at scale with competitive cost structure and attractive gross margins TORONTO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (the "Company" or "TGOD") (TSX:TGOD) (US:TGODF), a leading producer of premium certified organic cannabis, is pleased to announce that it has made its first shipment of Highly Dutch, TGOD's new mainstream brand designed for regular users. Starting today, Highly Dutch is available in Quebec in a one-ounce format (28 grams) of its Rotterdam OG Indica strain and will become available in additional provinces during the weeks ahead. This launch will be followed by additional Highly Dutch strains, sizes, and formats later this summer. Recent studies indicate that daily users make up 26% of cannabis consumers in Canada and that their consumption represents approximately 90% of the total volume being sold. Highly Dutch's value proposition has been tailored specifically to meet the needs of regular users. Research has also highlighted that 30% of daily users purchase their cannabis in a one-ounce format, and 14% purchase it in a half-ounce format, which guided the brand's packaging strategy. Consumers can visit highlydutch.ca for additional information on the brand. "Our scaled production enables us to address a larger segment of the market that prefers consuming high-quality organic cannabis. Our research also shows that value-conscious consumers prefer buying cannabis in larger volumes, which is why we are launching with Highly Dutch's one-ounce format (28 grams)," commented Brian Athaide, CEO of TGOD. "This launch is consistent with plans announced in the prospectus we filed in April and reflects our commitment to expanding our portfolio and consumer reach. Highly Dutch allows us to significantly broaden our consumer base and better leverage the significant organic cultivation infrastructure we have built while continuing to focus on the premium segment with the TGOD brand," continued Athaide. Quebec is the first province where TGOD deploys its dual branding strategy; Highly Dutch's debut coincides with the launch of four other products from TGOD's premium brand in the province Happy Hibiscus Mate CBD/THC (tea), Happy Hibiscus Mate THC (tea), Unite Organic dried flower, and Harmony Organic dried flower. Known for its award-winning glass jar, TGOD started selling premium certified organic cannabis in the recreational market in August 2019 with a small pilot in Ontario at the OCS. As it ramped up its production, it gradually expanded its distribution and product offerings. Its products are now available to medical patients nationally and in recreational stores in every province except Prince Edward Island. TGOD worked in partnership with Velvet Management Inc. ("Velvet") on its Highly Dutch distribution strategy. Velvet is the Company's exclusive sales agent for its adult-use cannabis products in Canada. About The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX: TGOD) (USOTC: TGODF) is a premium certified organic cannabis company focused on the health and wellness market. Its certifiedorganic cannabis is grown in living soil, as nature intended. The Company is committed to cultivating a better tomorrow by producing its products responsibly, with less waste and impact on the environment. Its two Canadian facilities have been built to LEED certification standards and its products are sold in recyclable packaging. In Canada, TGOD sells dried flower and oil, and recently launched a series of nextgeneration cannabis products such as organic teas, infusers and vapes. Through its European subsidiary, HemPoland, the Company also distributes premium hemp CBD oil and CBD-infused topicals in Europe. By leveraging science and technology, TGOD harnesses the power of nature from seed to sale. TGOD's Common Shares and warrants issued under the indentures dated November 1, 2017 and December 19, 2019 trade on the TSX under the symbol "TGOD", "TGOD.WT" and "TGOD.WS", respectively, and TGODF trades in the US on the OTCQX. For more information on The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd., please visit www.tgod.ca. Cautionary Statements This news release includes statements containing certain "forwardlooking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forwardlooking statements"). Forward looking statements in this release includes, but is not limited to, statements about production timelines, production volumes, statements about the launch of the Company's cannabis 2.0 products, and statements regarding the future performance of the Company. Forwardlooking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "should", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forwardlooking statements throughout this news release. Forwardlooking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties (including market conditions) and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forwardlooking statements, including those risk factors described in the Company's most recently filed Annual Information Form available on SEDAR. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. Neither the TSX nor the TSX's Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of Toronto Stock Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. Related Links www.tgod.ca Because Donald Trump is the president and because he is not up to the current pandemic moment in American history, he has recently taken to tweeting out conspiracy theories about MSNBC host and former congressman Joe Scarborough. The incident in questionthe death of then 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, who collapsed from an undiagnosed heart condition at Scarboroughs Florida office in 2001quite literally has nothing to do with President Donald Trump, other than that Scarborough has since morphed into a prominent critic of Trump, the president from the center of American political life. Trump doesnt like criticismreal or perceivedand doesnt care about anyone other than himself, so the president of the United States initiated a series of ad hominem tweets insinuating that Scarborough killed the former staffer. In response, Lori Klausutis widower, Timothy Klausutis, wrote Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey late last week asking him to take down Trumps vile tweets about the death of his wife. As her husband, I feel that one of my marital obligations is to protect her memory as I would have protected her in life, Klausutis wrote. My request is simple: Please delete these tweets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ....about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I wont bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 Nearly 19 years ago, my wife, who had an undiagnosed heart condition, fell and hit her head on her desk at work. She was found dead the next morning. Her passing is the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with in my 52 years and continues to haunt her parents and sister. I have mourned my wife every day since her passing, Klausutis wrote. Im asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong himthe memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain. My wife deserves better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before her death, Lori Klausutis spent two years working in Scarboroughs district office, serving as a constituent services coordinator. On July 20, 2001, Lori Klausutis fainted while at work and fell, hitting her head on a desk, according to the coroners report. There were no signs of foul play when constituents showed up for a meeting the next morning and found her dead. Im a research engineer and not a lawyer, but reviewed all of Twitters rules and terms of service, Timothy Klausutis wrote in his letter to Dorsey. The Presidents tweet that suggests that Lori was murderedwithout evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy)is a violation of Twitters community rules and terms of service. An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed. 26.05.2020 LISTEN Johannesburg, South Africa, May 25th, 2020 While Africa Day (May 25th), the official day of the African Union (AU) marking intercontinental unity, takes place solemnly in 2020 on the backdrop of the continued outbreak of COVID-19 (coronavirus), a recent study of Africas youth has showcased continent-wide resiliency, institutional trust, cohesion and collective Afro-Optimism in facing the challenges ahead. The results of the inaugural African Youth Survey (AYS - https://ichikowitzfoundation.com/ays2020/ ), offer hope that through a growing shared identity found within Africas young people and their united, unwavering commitment to overcoming the myriad of obstacles confronting the continent, both new and longstanding, the 21st century will assuredly be the African century. This Pan-African research project was commissioned by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation (IFF) and conducted by PSB Research, in an effort to help develop foundations for a better global understanding of a demographic that is all too often misunderstood. The 2020 African Youth Survey is a comprehensive study of 4,200 men and women aged 18-24 across 14 sub-Saharan nations; Congo-Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its findings suggest the continents next generation, collectively forming the worlds largest marketplace, bear striking similarities in their pan-African outlook and the willpower to independently determine their own futures. Nearly eight in ten (76%) polled agreed that young people in Africa share a common identity, brought forth by common culture, shared history and the values epitomized by Nelson Mandela. This speaks to a palpable sense of a pan-African identity amongst this emerging generation, with highest support in West Africa (78%), Southern Africa (77%) and East Africa (69%). Ghana and Kenya are the strongest supporters of the notion (92%). On average, African youth feel more optimistic about the future of the continent than their own countrys future, with Rwanda, Ghana and South Africa being the most optimistic about Africas future. Looking at the factors that will shape Africas identity in the future, 21% of African youth predict that war and conflict will have the biggest impact, but two thirds list positive developments as having the biggest impact. These include the digital revolution (16%), increased freedoms (15%), rise in prosperity (15%) and increased equality (13%). Pan-Africanism is tempered when respondents were asked about their own identity, with around half identifying by their own country first, 17% by Africa, 17% by their tribe, 13% by race and only 2% by political party. In addition, 60% of all respondents agreed that their local language is central to their identity. The Survey also finds great trust in the continents supranational organizations such as the African Union (AU). Seven out of ten (72%) surveyed are confident that the African Union in its current form will be able to facilitate unity across the African continent. Of these respondents, confidence in the AU was found to be highest amongst Rwandans (93%) and Ghanaians (90%). Although each nation upon nation across the continent has imposed individual social distancing and travel restrictions in efforts to curtail the further spread of the coronavirus disease, six out of ten (63%) polled believe that in future, African countries are best suited to find common solutions to pressing socioeconomic challenges. Such Pan-Africanism can also be found at the community level, where young people in Africa are deeply embedded in their local communities, which many nonetheless describe as ethnically, religiously and economically diverse, according to the Surveys findings. Three-quarters polled (75%) believed that their country belongs to all who reside in it, including refugees, eschewing tribal and other forms of xenophobia and discrimination. Young Africans are committed to their local communities and see a future for themselves on the continent as 69% prefer to stay in their communities instead of moving elsewhere. This cohesion and commitment to societal growth correlates to a rising sense of Afro-Optimism that was found to be a recurring theme throughout the results of the Study, with six in ten (65%) polled believing the 21st century will be the African Century. Industrialist, philanthropist and Ichikowitz Foundation Chairman, Ivor Ichikowitz, stated that, On this particular Africa Day, it is extremely important to celebrate our continents historic, groundbreaking achievements, our respective struggles for independence and those that fought for them, the work of our institutions such as the African Union in their continued drive for greater societal cohesion and socioeconomic development. Working together, we are capable of conquering monumental challenges, including the COVID-19 outbreak. At this time, we must also consider the needs of our fellow Africans, our neighbors; the many who may feel helpless and isolated, providing any support we can to those on the frontlines of this global pandemic. United, we will continue to build a stronger, more prominent Africa on the world stage and I have no doubt, our next generation will be leading that charge. The results of the Survey confirm it. About the Ichikowitz Family Foundation The Ichikowitz Family Foundation is founded upon the belief that Africa's potential can be unlocked through education, the respect for human rights, a better understanding of Africa's dynamic history and the conservation of its rich biodiversity. In terms of environmental programmes, the Ichikowitz Family Foundation works to promote personal, communal, and corporate best practice in matters affecting the environment, including the sustainable utilisation of natural resources, conservation of Africa's unique biodiversity, especially building capacity and support for anti-poaching operations. Bill Small was the most demanding boss Ive ever worked for, but he brought out the best in me, former CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, who was hired by Mr. Small in 1969, said in an interview. He said, Get the story, and get more of it than anyone else. He was the backbone of that bureau. 4 Minneapolis Officers Fired Over Involvement in Minneapolis Mans Death The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the death of a Minneapolis man while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department, according to a news release issued by the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety. In an update, the Associated Press reported that the four officers who were involved in the detainment and the subsequent death of the black Minneapolis man were fired from the police department. Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis mayor, commented on the incident in a Twitter post, saying that the choice to fire the officers in question was the right call. The FBI was made aware of the situation after a video of the incident surfaced, according to the news release. In the video recorded by a bystander, a police officer knelt on top of the mans neck while arresting him as he pleaded with the officer that he couldnt breathe, ABC News reported. The man whose neck was knelt on by the officer was then later taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance, but did not survive long after admission. The identity of the subject will be released after the Hennepin County Medical Examiners office has conducted the preliminary autopsy and families have been notified. As indicated by ABC News, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will be joining the FBI on the investigation into the incident, and all body camera footage related to the incident will be turned in to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehensionthe division that is usually responsible for shootings as well as in-custody related deaths. The incident in question occurred on the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue south a little after 8 p.m. on Monday, May 25, the news release stated. John Elder, the Minneapolis Police spokesperson, said that prior to the incident, officials were sent to the location in question to conduct an investigation based on a report of fraud. Officials, then equipped with the description of the suspect, were dispatched to the scene, according to a statement issued by the Minneapolis Police Department. Officers were advised that the suspect was sitting on top of a blue car and appeared to be under the influence, the statement read. Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers, according to the statement. After the officers were able to get the subject in handcuffs, they realized that the man was experiencing medical distress and an ambulance was called. The statement indicated that no weapons were used during the arrest. Medaria Arradondo, the Minneapolis Police Chief, addressed the issue of the use of the knee on the arrestees neck during the arrest, and said, We clearly have policies in place regarding placing someone under control. Arrendondo also said that there will be a full internal investigation conducted based on the actions seen in the video, ABC News reported. The police officers in question connected to the video and the incident were put on administrative leave with pay. The identities of both parties will not be released until interviews have been conducted, the news release stated. The AFL-CIO is endorsing Joe Biden for president, the group's president Richard Trumka told the Washington Post Tuesday. Why it matters: The AFL-CIO is the largest federation of labor unions in the country. The endorsement is not a surprise, but support from the powerful coalition could still prove crucial for Biden as he competes with Trump for the support of working-class voters in November. The state of play: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the Post the group will focus on attracting voters to Biden in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin critical swing states where Trump narrowly defeated Clinton in 2016 with a strong anti-free-trade message. Trumka also said the group would target Minnesota, New Mexico, Florida and Arizona. Joe Biden has demonstrated his character, Trumka said. We look forward to helping him get elected president and changing the direction of the country. What they're saying: In the face of COVID-19 were seeing without any doubt how important unions are to this country fighting for their workers to have personal protective equipment, for paid leave, and for safer workplaces, Biden wrote in a statement reacting to the endorsement. Illinois officials expressed cautious optimism Tuesday as the states four regions remained on track to move into the next phase of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers reopening plan later this week. At a news briefing Tuesday, the governor and Dr. Ngozi Ezike laid out a series of positive developments, including hospitalizations due to COVID-19 dropping to a six-week low and the percentage of tests returning positive results statewide falling to just above 9% over the past seven days. Barring some catastrophe in the next four days, Pritzker said, a wider range of businesses will be able to reopen Friday under new industry-specific public health guidelines his administration issued Sunday. Later on Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced industry-specific rules for the re-opening of restaurants, childcare facilities and some industries as part of phase three of Chicagos re-emergence from the stay-at-home order. Though Lightfoot has said she expects Chicago to take that step in early June, she has not yet announced a date. Heres whats happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois: 7:15 p.m.: Closed Museum of Science and Industry lays off 84 employees Chicagos Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park, closed since March 14 by the pandemic, has undertaken a round of cost reductions including the layoff of 84 permanent employees. Also part of the cost reductions: Remaining staff are taking 10 furlough days and graduated pay reductions have been imposed for the majority of the staff, with senior executives seeing the largest reductions, according to a statement emailed to the Tribune Tuesday, which attributed the cuts to the financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to decreased attendance as a result of the crisis, we projected a $20 million revenue shortfall this year," the statement continued. In response, the Museum has already made significant cuts to the non-wage budget. Despite these steps, we reached a point where reducing our staff was necessary. We made these decisions to protect the Museums long-term future. The MSI had almost 1.4 million visitors last year but has been closed more than a third of 2020 so far. The MSI made the decision to reduce staff last week. Read more here. Doug George 5:55 p.m.: Illinois drivers license offices to open in June with limited services Driver services facilities closed because of the coronavirus crisis will begin to open in June, the Illinois secretary of states office said Tuesday. Starting June 1, Secretary of State Jesse Whites reopening plan will begin, with expanded hours at a number of locations and limited services, according to a news release. All of the secretary of state departments and offices will open June 1, according to the release, as well as the Chicago north, south and west facilities that operate Monday through Saturday. Through July 31, the facilities will serve only new drivers, those with expired drivers licenses and ID cards, and those seeking vehicle transactions. On June 2, suburban facilities and statewide locations outside the Chicago metro area that operate Tuesday through Saturday will open and will similarly serve a limited group of customers. The Thompson Center location and Loop Express facility at 69 W. Washington St. will reopen July 1, according to the news release. Read more here. Morgan Greene 5:50 p.m.: Chicago releases rules for restaurants to reopen, but no date yet The city of Chicago Tuesday released details that restaurants will need to follow to be permitted to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not expound on her announcement Friday that opening could happen some time in June. Heres a look at what the the broad rules will require. Joe Gray 5:30 p.m.: Lightfoot releases guidelines for phase 3 of citys reopening plan Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday announced industry-specific rules for the re-opening of restaurants, childcare facilities and some industries as part of phase three of Chicagos re-emergence from the coronavirus stay-at-home order. Though Lightfoot has said she expects Chicago to take that step in early June, she has not yet announced a date. Our transition to Phase Three of our reopening framework represents a major step for Chicago and our journey to a safe and successful recovery from the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, Lightfoot said in a news release. These new industry guidelines were developed in close partnership with industry leaders in order to provide as clear of a direction as possible on how to keep both employees and customers safe, but our work is far from over. Not included are guidelines for re-opening sporting events, bars, religious services, outdoor performances, summer programs and youth activities, the Lakefront, and museums. Those standards will be available later in phase three when those entities are predicted to begin reopening, according to the release. Among the guidelines at childcare facilities, parents and employees will be expected to wear facial coverings at all times. Children will only be expected to do so in classrooms. Restaurants are called on to limit seating to no more than six people per table, limit gatherings to no more than 10 people and space tables six feet apart or take them out of commission if they cant be moved. Lightfoot last week said the citys reopening will be like slowly turning a dimmer switch and not flipping a light switch. Read more here. John Byrne 5 p.m.: North Shore officials, restaurant owners prepare for potential return of outdoor dining For Wilmette Village Manager Michael Braiman, the states recent announcement that Illinois restaurants and bars would likely be able to offer alfresco dining beginning May 29 was welcome news amid a pandemic that has battered both local businesses and the villages municipal budget. Were all really excited to work with our restaurant community downtown and throughout the village," Braiman said. Whatever plan we come up with, we want to make sure it works for all of our restaurants, and works for the other nearby service businesses and shops, too." Braiman and other village officials in neighboring North Shore communities from Evanston up to Glencoe were scrambling this week in response to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzkers announcement that the states bars and restaurants could likely begin to offer limited outdoor seating May 29. The date coincides with the anticipated start of Phase 3 of the Restore Illinois plan, which allows for the re-opening of the states retail shops, salons, barbershops and other non-essential businesses, but limits the number of customers to promote safety and allow for the required social distancing guidelines. Some local officials are devising plans that would ease restrictions on outdoor dining and give restaurants the ability to expand seating into sidewalk areas or parking lots. Read more here. Karen Ann Cullotta and Kaitlin Edquist 4:30 p.m.: There will be a 24-team playoff if the NHL returns. And Chicago is among the 10 cities in consideration to host the games. The NHL announced Tuesday it will abandon the rest of the regular season and go straight into the playoffs with 24 teams instead of 16 if it is able to resume play. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the decision is not a guarantee that games are coming back. The NHL and the NHL Players Association must still figure out health and safety protocols and solve other issues, including where to play. Games are expected to be played without fans in a few locations. The league has not yet determined those sites, but 10 cities Las Vegas, Toronto, Chicago, Columbus, Edmonton, Dallas, L.A., Minnesota, Vancouver and Pittsburgh are in the running for two spots. The Blackhawks would face the Oilers in a five-game playoff series in their return to play. Read more here. Associated Press 3:47 p.m.: Radiologists group pulls November meeting and 50,000 attendees from Chicago Just a few weeks ago, The Radiological Society of North America was undecided about whether it would go ahead as planned with its annual meeting at McCormick Place, an event that brings more than 50,000 people from 137 countries to Chicago. On Tuesday, the Oak Brook-based trade group pulled the plug on the in-person event that was scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 4. Instead, it will offer a virtual event Nov. 29 to Dec. 5. In announcing its decision, Dr. James Borgstede, the groups president, said the group concluded it would be impossible to safety conduct the event in person. The group, whose history of annual meetings dates back more than 100 years, has canceled the event only twice before in 1943 and 1945 and those cancellations were tied to transportation and gas supply issues during and after World War II. If the meeting had occurred as planned, it would have been its 36th consecutive year in Chicago. Under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers five-phase plan to reopen the state, conventions cannot be held until the final phase of recovery. Between July and December, McCormick Place had been scheduled to host 67 events with an expected attendance of 781,168 people, generating almost $923 million in economic impact, including spending on food and entertainment. Read more here. Mary Ellen Podmolik 2:57 p.m.: Officials express cautious optimism as state remains on track to move into reopening plans next phase State officials expressed cautious optimism Tuesday as the four regions in Gov. J.B. Pritzkers reopening plan remained on track to move into the plans next phase later this week. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at his coronavirus news briefing that hospitalizations due to COVID-19, which had been plateauing, have dropped to a six-week low. The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results statewide has dropped from a high of 23% in late April to an average of 9.2% over the past seven days, Pritzker said. The fact that weve seen these numbers trend in a good direction even after we opened things up in phase two demonstrates the importance of everyday actions, the governor said, noting that the loosening of some restrictions on May 1 was accompanied by a new requirement for wearing face coverings in public. Officials also announced 1,178 new cases of COVID-19 and 39 additional deaths, bringing the total number of known cases statewide to 113,195 and the death toll to 4,923. Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said case numbers were lower in recent days, in part, because fewer tests are processed and reported over weekends. The states public health labs, which have been working multiple shifts per day for weeks, were able to give staff a day off over Memorial Day weekend, Ezike said. Ezike said that the week ending in May 16, there were 780 deaths related to COVID-19, the first week where there were fewer deaths than the previous week since the pandemic began. I am hopeful that this fact is the beginning of a downward trend, Ezike said. In the third phase of Pritzkers Restore Illinois plan, a wider range of businesses, including retailers, barber shops and salons, would be able to reopen with new safety measures in place. The Pritzker administration on Sunday outlined industry-specific public health guidelines. Dan Petrella 2:35 p.m.: State officials report 1,178 new known cases and 39 more deaths State officials on Tuesday announced 1,178 new known cases of COVID-19 and 39 additional deaths from 17,230 tests conducted in the previous 24 hours, pushing the statewide known case count to 113,195 since the pandemic began. The statewide death toll now stands at 4,923. 1:35 p.m.: The General Assembly adjourned its special pandemic session in the wee hours of a holiday weekend. Heres what you might have missed. In a special legislative session called in response to the coronavirus pandemic, state lawmakers debated bills through masks and the Illinois House met on the floor of a downtown Springfield convention center to provide proper social distancing. The three-day session stretched into four and then into the early morning hours of a fifth day, Sunday, before lawmakers adjourned until the fall. Heres a look at what got done and what didnt. Dan Petrella 1:02 p.m.: Summer camps are canceling and parents are scrambling: the search for sitters who embrace social distancing Its the question that has vexed Chicago-area parents for months: With no school, uncertainty about camps and parents working remotely, whos watching the kids this summer? Many families have found themselves scrambling for options to keep children entertained and the coronavirus at bay. Skokie resident Rebecca Abraham hired a sitter with her best friends to create a minicamp for the families combined four children between the ages of 3 and 6. All four parents have erratic schedules. Abraham is a nurse in an intensive care unit in a medical system in the northern suburbs, where her husband, Anub, is a doctor. Her best friends, a doctor and an architect who live a block away, also are busy. Their original plan was to send their kids, who are best friends, to summer camp at the park district in Skokie, but this year, they opted out. We said, Were going to need child care when school closes. Lets split child care and well help each other out on our days off,'" Abraham said. The families brought a sitter into their isolated fold. The sitter moves between the families two houses, depending on the parents harried schedules and the kids quarantine activities. Sometimes the kids do sleepovers, and almost always eat meals together. Once school ends, the kids and their sitter will shift from what they call pandemic mini-school" to pandemic mini-camp. The families hope a summer of activities for their children will keep them away from screens. My parents sent a sandbox, Abraham said. At least its different, because when the kids switch houses, its not as boring as being trapped in your house for eight weeks. Now theyve been trapped in two houses for eight weeks. Abraham and her friends arent the only parents creating do-it-yourself summer camps that cobbling together activities and hiring camp counselors who might be a sitter, nanny or an unemployed camp counselor. Read more here. Corilyn Shropshire 1 p.m.: Lightfoot announces search for organization to lead Chicagos virus contact tracing effort Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday announced plans to try to train hundreds of people to track the spread of the coronavirus and warn Chicagoans whove had contact with someone whos carrying the disease. Such a large contact tracing program is considered a key way to slow the spread of the virus by promptly warning people whove had significant contact with those who are sick so they can quarantine themselves before they spread it further. But it will be difficult to get it up and running as quickly as experts would like, with the city and the state of Illinois moving toward phased re-openings that will bring more residents into close proximity with each other. The effort to set up a 600-person contact tracing team with many members in city neighborhoods suffering the most from economic hardship, comes with a $56 million price tag, to be funded using federal and state money, Lightfoot said. Shes first looking for an organization to lead coordination of contact tracing and resource referral efforts across the city, her administration said in a news release. At least 85% of the funds will then be distributed to at least 30 neighborhood-based organizations located within, or primarily serving residents of, communities of high economic hardship, according to the city. Those community groups would be in charge of recruiting, hiring and supporting a workforce of 600 contact tracers, supervisors, and referral coordinators to support an operation that has the capacity to trace 4,500 new contacts per day. Contact tracers will make $20 an hour, and supervisors will make $24 an hour, Lightfoot said. Read more here. John Byrne and Hal Dardick 12:23 p.m.: Home Run Inn suburban Chicago factory churns out nearly 80,000 frozen pizzas a day to meet soaring demand during pandemic In early March, Home Run Inn began building up its inventory of frozen pizza at its southwest suburban plant, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit home. The family owned company was nonetheless unprepared for the surge in demand, as worried consumers loaded up on the stay-at-home staple before hunkering down for the foreseeable future. It was absolutely crazy, said Nick Perrino, 33, who heads up the frozen pizza division for Home Run Inn. The pandemic had people stocking up on frozen pizza, making sure they had product, just like with toilet paper. A 73-year-old pizza empire that grew from a single Chicago tavern, Home Run Inn operates nine restaurants in the city and suburbs, and a 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Woodridge. Frozen pizza generates about 75% of the companys revenue, but with its restaurants limited to pickup and delivery since March, the balance has shifted even more dramatically. Home Run Inn sells frozen pizza in more than 40 states and is the No. 12 brand in sales nationally, according to IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm. It is the No. 1 selling frozen pizza in the Chicago area. If we could make double, wed be able to sell double, said Perrino, whose grandfather began serving pizza at the familys Little Village tavern in 1947. Read more here. Robert Channick 12:04 p.m.: Allstate extends its rebate as motorists continue to stay off the roads during the COVID-19 health crisis Allstate said Tuesday it will extend its coronavirus rebate through June 30, returning a total of roughly $1 billion in auto insurance premiums to customers over three months. Last month, the Northbrook-based insurer introduced its Shelter-in-Place Payback program because fewer drivers are on the road as a result of coronavirus state lockdowns. The firm, one of the first insurers to offer rebates to customers, said at the time that it would return $600 million to Allstate, Esurance and Encompass auto policy customers. Most policyholders received 15% of their monthly premiums credited back to their accounts in April and May. With the programs extension, Allstate motorists will continue to receive a 15% credit through the end of June. In addition, Allstate extended the sign-up period for its free identity protection product to June 30. Customers who arent policyholders can also sign up for the service, which is free through the end of the year. Read more here. Abdel Jimenez 11:35 a.m.: Advocate Aurora Health invests in US maker of N95 masks, other PPE A Chicago-area hospital system is one of 15 across the country investing in a major American manufacturer of personal protective equipment, in an effort to reduce reliance on foreign companies and make it easier to acquire PPE in the future. Advocate Aurora Health announced Tuesday that it has partnered with health care improvement company Premier to acquire a minority stake in a major manufacturer of PPE, Prestige Ameritech, that makes surgical and N95 masks among other products. As part of the deal, Advocate will also buy a certain portion of its masks from Prestige for the next six years. Advocate did not disclose the amount of its investment. Its clear that over-reliance on foreign manufacturers has been a driving cause of the issues care providers across the country have faced these past two months, Advocate Aurora president and CEO Jim Skogsbergh said in a news release. By funding domestic production, we intend to change that landscape and create a more diverse, reliable supply chain so that we can keep our workforce safe and healthy and continue to provide high quality care to the communities were so proud to serve. Currently, about 80% of PPE used by health systems comes from China and Southeast Asia, according to Premier. Other participating health systems include AdventHealth based in Florida, Adventist Health based in California, Ballad Health based in Tennessee, Banner Health in Arizona, Baptist Health South Florida, CommonSpirit Health headquartered in Chicago, Genesis Health System in Iowa, Henry Ford Health System in Michigan, McLaren Health Care in Michigan, Riverside Health System in Virginia, St. Lukes University Health Network in Pennsylvania, Texas Health Resources, Universal Health Services Inc., in Pennsylvania and University Hospitals in Ohio. This is not the first time Advocate and other hospital systems have tried to take a more active role in the manufacturing of certain products. Advocate Aurora also joined an effort last year, called Civica Rx, in which a group of philanthropic organizations and hospitals across the country established a not-for-profit generic drug company in hopes of battling drug shortages and high prices. Lisa Schencker 10:45 a.m.: Preckwinkle vetoes COVID-19 address-sharing with first responders, a first in her tenure In the first veto of her administration, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday moved to block a controversial resolution to share with 911 dispatchers the addresses of individuals who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Cook County Board members narrowly approved the resolution last week following an emotional debate about the measures intention to safeguard front-line workers versus fears it would violate individuals privacy and civil rights. While the measure was only a recommendation, the Cook County Department of Public Health had said it would follow the address-sharing practice because of the boards instructions. Preckwinkle said Tuesday she has vetoed the plan, a move that requires three-fifths of the boards vote to override. The resolution only passed with a 9-7 vote last week, signifying it is likely killed. In her veto announcement, Preckwinkle repeated her points made last week when she said she was profoundly disappointed the resolution passed because she believed it would contribute to systemic racism that black and Latino communities suffer. I dont see how anyone who understands the endemic nature of racism in this country, and the discrimination that black and brown people have experienced, will assume that this resolution is somehow going to be immune from that discrimination, Preckwinkle said. Preckwinkle also said the resolution violates peoples privacy, harkening back to the stigma of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as well as the ongoing fears that immigrants living in the country without legal permission face when it comes to interactions law enforcement. The potential for first responders to harass individuals and other concerns may lead to less testing as well, Preckwinkle said. I cannot support the release of this information and am wholly disappointed in the decision to dispute the opinions of our public health experts, including the advice provided by CCDPHs medical expert, Dr. Rachel Rubin, Preckwinkle wrote in her veto. Commissioner Scott Britton, D-Glenview, has said the limits of the resolution, which expired in 60 days and only shares addresses, not names, will ensure there will be no government overreach. But Rubin retorted last week that the resolution could backfire, as there are scores of residents who may have not sought testing because they are asymptomatic. This is not good public health practice, Rubin said. Pushing out addresses to first responders does not help to maintain the safety of the first responders or of the individuals that they're trying to respond to for aid. Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, said Tuesday although he had voted yes, he accepts that the resolution is probably defeated. Now, Suffredin said, he has to focus on the dearth of personal protective equipment that he and other commissioners cited when talking about the need for providing addresses to first responders. It is what it is, Suffredin said. Were in the middle of a pandemic. You dont fight battles that you cant win. You deal what you can do to help make people safer. This will stand. Read more here. Alice Yin 6:55 a.m.: Officials see signs COVID-19 is contained at Cook County Jail, while experts caution measures need to remain in place COVID-19 tests are now standard during the intake process for all new detainees entering Cook County Jail, one of several measures that officials said has helped them turn a critical corner on the pandemic. At its worst, over a two-month period, the deadly virus infected just over 700 inmates, including seven who died. Two correctional officers have died, with hundreds also infected. But Dr. Connie Mennella, who oversees medical care at the jail, told the Tribune testing data indicates the facility has moved beyond the stage of flattening the curve and into containment, with a positive test rate that is below 10%. Read more here. Annie Sweeney 6:40 a.m.: Packed pool party gone viral in Missouri earns rebuke from state health director Missouris health director issued a dire warning Monday after photos and video showed Memorial Day weekend revelers partying close together: The coronavirus is still here, and the spreading of illnesses could have long-lasting and tragic results. One video on social media showed a crammed pool at Lake of the Ozarks, with people lounging and playing close together, without masks. The lake draws people not only from as far away as Arkansas and Iowa. Read more here. Associated Press 6:30 a.m.: A different Memorial Day in Chicago: Crowds are out, livestreamed ceremonies are in Chicagoans marked Memorial Day in a different way Monday, as local leaders tried to balance paying respect to those who died serving their country while also respecting the coronavirus-driven stay-at-home rules. Throughout the city and suburbs, parades and solemn ceremonies with large crowds were out, replaced by smaller events streamed online or recorded tributes. One exception unfolded at Buckingham Fountain in Chicago, where a crowd marked the holiday with a protest against the restrictions. Read more here. Hal Dardick, Sophie Sherry and Stacy St. Clair. 6:20 a.m.: Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces reopening rules for businesses as Illinois is poised to move to next phase and loosen restrictions With all four regions of the state as defined under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers phased-in reopening plan slated to advance to the next stage Friday, the state rolled out detailed guidance Sunday for what precautions restaurants and bars need to have in place to be able to serve customers outdoors, how manufacturers and some offices can resume operations with restrictions and how barbers can offer those badly needed haircuts. 145 Shramik Special trains planned for Maharashtra, state gave info on only 41 trains so far, Railways says -Thousands of migrants gather at a ground in Wadala, Mumbai, to wait for buses that will ferry them to the railway station as the coronavirus lockdown was imposed in Mumbai on Tuesday. Photo: Rajesh Jadhav Mumbai: As the political slugfest between Maharashtra government and Railways has refused to die down, thousands of migrants were looking for alternate ways to make their way out of Maharashtra. Many migrants were seen gathered at a ground in Wadala, waiting for buses to ferry them to the railway station. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that the Railways had planned 145 trains for Tuesday but only 13 trains could be run till 3.00 pm due to lack of passengers. The railways accused the state of not providing details of the passengers, as a result of which many Shramik Special trains had to be cancelled. On request of Maharashtra Govt, we arranged 145 Shramik Special Trains today. These trains are ready since morning. 50 trains were to leave till 3 pm but only 13 trains have due to lack of passengers. Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 26, 2020 "Out of these 41 trains, only 39 trains could run as passengers could not be brought by local authorities and these two trains had to be cancelled. After meticulous planning and sustained effort, the Railways mobilised its resources at a very short notice and prepared 145 Shramik trains to depart from Maharashtra on May 26," a statement issued by the Railways said. "Till 12 noon, 25 trains were planned from Maharashtra to run but no departure could happen due to lack of passengers. Boarding of the first train could only commence at CSMT at 12.30 pm," it said. Over the last couple of days, the state government and Railways had engaged in a war of words, with the former alleging that the Railways has not provided enough trains to the state to ferry migrants to their respective states. However, Goyal on Sunday night said that the Railways was ready to provide 125 Shramik Special trains to the state "Since you have said that you have a list ready that is why I am requesting you to please provide all information like from where the train will run, the list of passengers according to the trains, their medical certificate and where the train is to go, to the General Manager of Central Railway within the next hour, so that we can plan the time of trains," he tweeted. Commenting on it, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday tweeted, "Maharashtra government has given you a list of workers who wish to return home. The only request is that the train should reach the station, as announced earlier." Meanwhile on Tuesday, heavy rush was also seen at Dharavi,a covid-19 hotspot, as hundreds of migrnants made their way to Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus, to leave the city. A large Charleston technology company has raised $80 million from an investor led by one of its board members as it braces for a sharp drop-off in sales from the coronavirus pandemic. Benefitfocus Inc. said Tuesday the cash infusion will provide it with additional financial flexibility, according to a statement. In exchange for its investment, BuildGroup LLC will receive nearly 1.8 million shares of preferred stock that will pay out either a cash dividend of $6.4 million a year or common stock that would give it a 13 percent equity stake in the Daniel Island software firm. "The net proceeds from this investment will allow us to accelerate ongoing initiatives, including the potential reduction of debt and the review of value-enhancing acquisitions that meet our stringent criteria and would extend our market or technology leadership," said Benefitfocus CEO Ray August. The 20-year-old Charleston company, which went public in 2013, sells a software platform that workers at about 150,000 employers use to enroll in and manage their health insurance coverage and other workplace benefits. BuildGroup chief executive Lanham Napier has served on the Benefitfocus board since 2014. His Austin, Texas-based firm's investment gives him the right to appoint another director who is "reasonably acceptable" to Benefitfocus co-founder and executive chairman Mason Holland, according to the statement. "Given his knowledge of our strategy, business, and management team, this investment represents a strong vote of confidence in the companys growth potential, Holland said of Napier. The new financing follows the late April announcement of a $23 million cost-cutting plan at Benefitfocus, including 250 layoffs. The company also warned that job cuts among its customers would result in a $50 million to $60 million revenue hit this year as usage of its software platform declines. Shares of Benefitfocus plummeted to a low of about $6 in mid-March from a 52-week high of $30.05 set nearly a year ago. The stock has clawed back some of its losses and jumped 15 percent Tuesday to close at $12.30. Pune: Four persons were arrested by Pimpri-Chinchwad police for assaulting members of a family that asked them to not create ruckus during late hours of the night in the Sangramnagar area of Nigdi. The arrested were identified as Manthan Gaikwad, 21, Nana Gaikwad, 34, Nava Kamble, 19, and Lakhan Maske, 23, all residents of Sangramnagar slum area in Nigdi. A complaint was lodged by Siraj Balli Tamboli, 39, who also lives in the same area and is a native of Osmanabad. According to the complaint, a group of 4 people were screaming outside the house of the complainant around 11:30pm on Saturday. The complainant and his relatives came out to stop the four from screaming as their family members were sleeping. As the verbal spat turned violent, the complainant and four of his family members were allegedly beaten up by wooden rods and the back of a sickle. The accused were joined by at least 7 others who were also booked in the case. A rickshaw standing in front of the complainants house was also vandalised in the process. A case under Sections 326, 323 504, 427 188 of Indian Penal Code along with Sections 37(1)(3) with 135 of Maharashtra Police Act along with Section 4(25) of Arms Act was registered at Nigdi police station. Hundreds of fruit packing warehouse workers who participated in wildcat strikes against seven fruit companies in Yakima County, Washington, are being sent back into the fruit packing warehouses with agreements that will not provide adequate protections against COVID-19. Out of the seven locations where workers went on strike, workers are continuing the strike at two companies, Allan Brothers and Columbia Reach. The first walkout erupted at Allan Brothers on May 7, when fruit packing workers decided to walk out after management tried to conceal information that 12 workers tested positive. Soon after Allan Brothers workers began their strike, fruit packing workers took similar initiatives at Matson Fruit, Jack Frost Fruit, Monson Fruit, Columbia Reach, Madden Fruit, and Cold Storage. Workers raised demands for personal protective equipment (PPE), safe working conditions, pay raises, and the protection of workers rights to organize and raise demands to the company. These actions were largely initiated by the workers themselves, with workers committees organizing the strike and negotiating with management. Familias Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ), a small union affiliated with the AFL-CIO Washington Labor Council, has played an advisory role and is now overseeing the settlements with the fruit packing companies. Striking fruit packing workers earlier this month Negotiating committees reached an agreement with management at Monson Fruit and Jack Frost (Frosty Packing) Fruit on Friday, and Matson Fruit on Monday. Workers at Madden Fruit and Cold Storage returned to work last week with promises by management to implement a few changes to workplace conditions. The agreements, however, are empty promises that will not protect workers from the COVID-19 disease, let alone offer improvements to the general workplace and living conditions under which workers are forced to labor. Humberto, a warehouse worker at Jack Frost, told the World Socialist Web Site, The agreement wasnt much. There are points on protective gear and workplace safety [during the pandemic], but that was already promised by the company before. Economically, he continued. There is almost no help. We got $20 a week extra. Thats a joke for us. We entered negotiations demanding $100 a week plus a raise of $2 per hour. Economic conditions are becoming more severe every day. The minimum of $13.50 is no longer enough. While he was disappointed with the concessions, Humberto said, We know our rights now, so that is good. I hope that one day we can have an organization for all workers and that we will assert our rights. As many as 65,000 workers were employed in picking and packaging apples in the state last year, and more than half are migrant workers temporarily allowed in the US under H-2A visas. In the fields and warehouses, workers face long hours, prolonged exposure to extreme weather, poverty wages, unsafe work conditions, harassment by management, and retaliation when workers speak out. In addition, the Trump administration has used the pandemic to lower the wages of H-2A workers. The conditions in which agricultural workers are forced to live and work have heightened their risk of transmitting the virus that causes COVID-19. H-2A migrant workers usually sleep in bunk beds in barracks constructed by the companies, eat food in common areas, and go to and from their workplace in large groups with company transportation. Undocumented workers are granted even less protections, often homeless and sleeping in cars. Yakima County has the highest infection rate on the entire West Coast, with 445 cases per 100,000 people recorded in April, due to the high concentration of poverty, migrant workers, and jobs in healthcare and agriculture. According to 2018 data from the Yakima County Development Association, 63 percent of all jobs in Yakima County are considered essential in agriculture, health care and wholesale trade industries, compared with 54 percent across the whole state. Little has been done to protect workers, with corporations and local officials claiming they are doing all that they can. Since the strikes began, Yakima Health District officials visited the fruit packing plants and gave the green light for the meager protections provided to workers. After the brave rebellion by workers who insisted that their lives and the lives of their loved ones take priority over profit, several unions, feigning support for the strike, stepped in to keep opposition isolated and contained. After decades of colluding with the agribusinesses and gross corruption, the United Farm Workers has long been discredited and its membership, which peaked at 60,000 members, has fewer than 10,000 today. Under these conditions, the Familias Unidas por las Justicia (FUJ) has organized small sections of farmworkers, including 500 indigenous Mexican workers from Sakuma Brothers, an independent grower for Driscolls berries, in Burlington, Washington. The organization, which relies on boycotts and appeals to the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party, has offered farmworkers no way forward. FUJ did not call on the Burlington workers to carry out joint strike action alongside the Yakima workers. However, the chief role in isolating and betraying this struggle is being played by the Washington Labor Council AFL-CIO, which made sure there was no common struggle between farmworkers and other workers at warehouses and other essential businesses on the job. On the contrary, the state AFL-CIO has helped giant corporations like Boeing herd tens of thousands of workers back into the plants despite the dangers to their lives. National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sits on Donald Trumps Council to Reopen America. The unions and activist groups that are trying to win favor among the militant agricultural workers in Yakima seek to tie them to the Democratic Party. Hostile to an independent mass movement of the working class, they channel workers' opposition into negotiations with individual companies, boycott campaigns, lawsuits, and appeals to state Democratic Party politicians. In mid-April, FUJ and UFW filed a lawsuit against Washington state for the lack of workplace protections for agricultural workers, demanding that the state immediately make policy changes to address the issue. In response, Democratic Governor Jay Inslees Department of Labor and Industries has adopted the minimal measures and is continuing to allow the growers to leave crowded dormitories, transportation and workplace conditions intact. Tim Church with Labor and Industries, declared, Under the emergency rules, if you have a group that stays together, works together, eats together, and its only that group, then they [growers] would be allowed to use bunk beds." Opposing these efforts to isolate and subordinate the struggle to the economic needs of the corporations and the government, agricultural workers must develop their own independent means of organization and expand their struggle to broader sections of the working class. This fight requires the building of rank-and-file safety committees at every fruit packing plant, farm, and workplace. These committees, which must be completely independent of the unions and Democratic Party, have to secure the health of all workers, regardless of the impact on the stock portfolios and profit margins of the corporations. The fruit packing workers in Yakima confront the same dangerous conditions as workers across the United States and internationally. At other agricultural sites, hospitals, transit systems, meatpacking plants, automotive plants, and grocery stores, workers are denied the basic public health measures and protections that would keep them safe from contracting the virus. Hundreds of workers at the maquiladora plants in Northern Mexico have died from COVID-19 due to back-to-work policies. In the United States, which has the highest number of deaths out of anywhere in the world, there have been reported deaths of migrant workers who labor on farms in New Jersey and meatpacking plants in Nebraska, among many other workplaces. Workers must use their safety committees to coordinate and expand the struggle across various workplaces throughout the United States and internationally, developing a powerful unified movement for the working class to demand all the necessary protections to save lives. Kuwait government will not extend full curfew due to end on Saturday (May 30) and will opt for partial curfew to pave way for restoration of normal life, Deputy Premier and Interior Ministry Anas Al-Saleh has said. Al-Saleh, also Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, was speaking at an online news conference following a cabinet meeting to discuss how to restore normal life next week, said a Kuwait News Agency report. He said the government would be announcing more details about the gradual restoration of normal life on Thursday. When the lockdown first started, the restaurant business knew it was in trouble. At that time, nobody thought the lockdown would last this long. Or that, even after the lockdown was lifted, restaurants would not be allowed to re-open. But they had two reasons for hope. Both came from the experience of other countries. All over the world, governments have stepped in to help restaurants survive. It was not unreasonable to expect that something similar would happen here. The restaurant association NRAI, a body that has mainly distinguished itself over the last year or so by genuflecting to the Modi government while simultaneously fighting pointless battles with Zomato over discounting (remember the glorious era when restaurants could threaten to log out?), lobbied the authorities for some assistance. To their shock and surprise, the government told them, in effect, to drop dead. The second hope for the restaurant sector --- again, based on global experience --- was take-away/delivery. Abroad, restaurants have learned how to re-invent their food so that it can be delivered to peoples homes. Even Michelin three star restaurants are now offering delivery, a situation that is unprecedented. Revenues from sending meals out do not, in any way, match up to the money that the global restaurant sector earned when it was fully operational. But between takeaway and government assistance, the sector was able to at least pay some salaries. In the UK and the US the restaurant sector is loved by the public so there is a determined effort, backed by popular pressure, to keep it going. In India, on the other hand, there is no widespread public sympathy for restaurants. I have tried hard, on social media, to speak up for restaurants but my efforts have usually been met with indifference or outright hostility. I dont know why this should be so. Perhaps it is because restaurants have done too little to endear themselves to the public at large. Instead they have fought useless battles over the right to collect a service charge that they dont necessarily pass on to their employees. Or perhaps it is because they have devoted too much time to bragging about how they will refuse to give discounts to customers. (You have to be really foolish to believe that such a campaign will make your customers love you.) For whatever reason, Indias restaurant sector does not command the kind of public affection that restaurants in other countries do. So there is no public backing for their demand for government assistance. And delivery has been a hard sell. From all accounts, take-away/delivery revenues are down between 70 to 80 per cent. Partly this is because 60 to 70 per cent of the supply has been disrupted by restaurant closures. But the situation is bad enough for both Zomato and Swiggy to have to lay off employees. There is a fundamental problem with the idea of delivery in these times. Indians do not believe, at a gut level, that it is safe. Yes, delivery from a five star hotel may be regarded as safe --- but how many of us can afford five star prices? At the level of the standalone restaurants, the sector has failed to win the trust of Indians. (Just as it has failed to win their loyalty or affection.) Simply put, Indians dont trust the sector to be careful about hygiene. Ive gone mad trying to explain, in article after article and tweet after tweet, that delivery food is usually quite safe. Certainly science is on the side of the restaurants. Contrary to what many (most, even) people think, Covid is not spread by food. It is a respiratory disease which spreads when the virus enters the respiratory tract. There is no such thing as a Covid-infected rogan josh or Chicken Manchurian . Even if a guy who is Covid-positive makes your food, the virus can enter the food only from his respiratory tract. This is possible: assume he sneezes into the dekchi while cooking. But even then, if you reheat the food, the virus will die. There is no way you can be infected by food that you have reheated or twirled in the micro-wave. Everywhere else in the world, people get this. In India, we refuse to accept it. When you explain this to people and they cant find a logical argument against it, they come up with other objections. What about the guy who delivers it to your door? Suppose he is Covid-positive? Well, even then, he will probably be wearing a mask and gloves so it would be very hard for him to infect you unless you ripped his mask off and kissed him passionately on the mouth. Either way, he cant infect the food. And he is as much of a risk to you as the guy who comes to deliver your Amazon packages, your groceries etc. So why single out the food delivery guy? The other great objection relates to packaging. There are studies (through this in itself has now been disputed) that say that the virus can survive for several hours on smooth surfaces. (Is it still infectious in this form and for how long?Thats another controversy.) Assume that you believe that the packaging is infectious, well then, just throw it away and wash your hands with soap and water. Thats what people everywhere else in the world do. The soap will destroy any virus you may have picked up from the package. Because there are few compelling arguments against the science, people have now started demanding impossible standards of the restaurant industry; standards that they would not expect of say, Amazon or a grocery service. Can the restaurant guarantee that everyone involved at all stages of the process from cooking the food to delivering it is Covid negative? The short answer is no. Nobody can guarantee that. Something like 70 per cent of people who are Covid positive are asymptomatic. They dont have fever. They dont display any respiratory systems. And in many cases, nobody even notices that they ever had Covid because the body fights the disease off. Restaurants recognize this and insist that everyone wears masks, gloves etc. so that asymptomatic carriers do not pass on the infection. There is no sure way of identifying all asymptomatic carriers, even in shops, hospital lobbies or planes because they will pass any thermal screening test. All you can do is work on the assumption that everyone is a potential carrier, which is how restaurant cooking and take-away services function. Inevitably, there will be a few asymptomatic carriers among delivery boys and people who work in kitchens. It is extremely unlikely that they will pass the infection to the food. And if you reheat the food before serving, then even that danger is eliminated. But such is our irrational fear of Covid that most Indians refuse to accept this. We hear the word Covid and imagine the worst. How we will cope with life in the weeks ahead --- the government has said that we will have to live with Covid worries me, given how foolish and knee-jerk our panic reactions are. It is because of this ignorance that the delivery sector is in trouble. One pizza delivery boy in Delhi caused panic a few weeks ago when he tested positive. The super-clean and super-sanitized kitchens of O Pedro and Yautcha in Mumbai suffered when an employee at each place was found positive. The worrying thing is that criminals are now exploiting the panic. I have been getting WhatsApp forwards asking me to avoid my local Defence Colony market on the grounds that it is a hotbed of infection. As far as I know, there have been two confirmed cases in the market that should concern us. The owner of a shop tested positive. And at Sagar Ratna, a senior chef tested positive. The shop owner was transparent about his condition. I asked Sagar Ratna about their case and they said that it was a older chef who had not been on the cooking range. That has not stopped the rumour mill from spewing out WhatsApp forwards with dire warnings about Defence Colony market. Over the weekend Sagar Ratna filled a police complaint about WhatsApp forwards. These forwards claimed that 40 delivery boys from Sagar Ratna had tested positive. According to the Sagar Ratna complaint, the restaurant had been blackmailed by somebody who threatened to send out these WhatsApp messages unless they were paid off. Sagar didnt pay (it doesnt even have 40 delivery boys!) and the campaign began, causing immense damage to business. Already there are whispers among restaurateurs that similar threats have been made to others in the sector: pay up or we portray your restaurant as Covid-infected on social media. This is a desperately scary situation because I am not sure the police have the time or resources to track down every WhatsApp blackmailer. And such is the public paranoia that we are not only ready to believe such WhatsApp lies but are only too willing to forward them to our friends. When the Covid nightmare ends and when the restaurant industry (probably a much reduced industry) gets its act together again, these are the battles it should fight instead of the ones it has wasted its time on over the last two years. And it should ask itself why it has so little public support unlike its counterparts in other countries. To read more on The Taste With Vir, click here Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON GREENWICH A funeral service will be held later in the year for William Richardson, a former chief of the Banksville Fire Department, which provides fire services in the north end of Greenwich and in nearby North Castle, N.Y. Richardson died May 5 at Yale-New Haven Hospital of complications from the coronavirus. He was 68. The lifelong Greenwich resident was the building inspector and the fire marshal for the town of North Castle, which encompasses Armonk, Banksville and North White Plains. He recently retired from the position. North Castle Town Supervisor Michal Schiliro paid tribute to Richardson earlier this month. He worked hard his whole life, he volunteered his whole life, Schiliro said. He was a dedicated employee. This virus hits close to home; unfortunately this is another example of that. His wife, Jinny, said, of her husband, He loved his family, and loved to work outside. And he was very committed to the fire department. Richardson joined the fire department in 1967 and was an active member for 53 years. He served as chief for four terms for 11 years in total, most recently serving in 2018 and 2019. Richardson was a third-generation member of the department. Known to friends as Bill, he was born in Greenwich to William and Frances Mackewitz Richardson and graduated from Greenwich High School. He was married at St. Rochs Church in Greenwich in 1972, and his wife currently resides in Banksville. Richardson was an fan of drag racing and was adept at fixing cars. He previously owned and operated Babco Automotive in Banksville. The retired civil servant served on the Representative Town Meeting in Greenwich, and he was a member of the Cos Cob Revolver and Rifle Club. Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Rebecca Lane of Austin, Texas; a son, Bill Richardson of Monroe; his mother Frances Richardson of Easton, Mass.; a brother Martin Richardson of Bedford, N.Y; and three grandchildren. A firehouse memorial service was held May 13. Arrangements were handled by Castiglione Funeral Home in Greenwich. Nothing says summer on the Shoreline like a lobster roll. From year-round restaurants to seasonal, side-of-the-road shacks, summer is prime time for this succulent sandwich. RELATED: Summer eateries open for the season The hunt for the perfect lobster roll will take you from Fairfield County all the way along the I-95 corridor to where Connecticut meets Rhode Island. These rolls are worth the ride. Scroll to see where you can get lobster rolls to-go, delivered or served al fresco. The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government is working on the framework of a commission that will seek to provide jobs and job security to migrant workers returning to the state, but has no plans to incorporate in its by-laws a provision that will require other states to seek its prior permission before employing people from UP. Amid the lockdown imposed to curb the coronavirus disease that left them stranded elsewhere in India without livelihoods, about 2.6 million migrant workers have already returned to UP, where the authorities plan to carry out an exercise to map their skills to help them find jobs. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday discussed the setting up of the commission at a meeting in Lucknow and told his officials to complete the skill mapping exercise in 15 days. Adityanath said a letter should be sent to all state governments to find out about more migrant workers wishing to come back to Uttar Pradesh. The chief minister discussed the modalities for setting up the commission as well. There will be no provision requiring other states to seek UP governments prior permission for employing our manpower. The commission is being set up to provide jobs and social security to the workers. We will also link the migrants to the government schemes to provide them houses and loans etc, said a senior official who didnt want to be named. On Sunday, Adityanath told journalists by a video link that the commission would work in the interest of migrant workers. If any other state wants UPs manpower, they cannot take them away just like that but will have to seek permission of the UP government, he said. The way our migrant workers were ill-treated in other states, the UP government will take their insurance and social security in its hands now. The state government will stand by them wherever they work, whether in Uttar Pradesh, other states or other countries. Some political leaders and experts have questioned the proposal that would require other states to seek the UP governments permission, saying it would run contrary to the right to freedom of movement of workers. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed the proposal absolutely absurd. I think its unfortunate. I think people are first Indian and then they belong to their states. The decision on whether somebody goes to work from Uttar Pradesh to the rest of the country is not the chief ministers. It is of the people of India and the people of Uttar Pradesh, he said. Adityanath was deeply moved by the conditions of returning migrants, the official cited above said, explaining the CMs comment. Uttar Pradeshs migration commission is bound to incorporate the provisions of the Centres Inter State Migrant Workmen Act 1979. The Centres Act provides for a licence to be issued to the recruitment agencies in the state from where the workers are being taken following recruitment. It also has provisions for registration of the employer in the state where the workers will be taken for employment, said the official. The proposed migration commission can work as a welfare body and watch the interests of workers, said CB Pandey, a legal expert. But most of the migrant workers are employed in the unorganized sector. The state government can regulate only the recruitment agencies, if any. In more than 99% of cases, no recruitment agencies are involved. A majority of workers of the unorganized sector look for jobs through their acquaintances or family members and regulating them may not be possible. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prime Minister and Chair of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Silveria Jacobs hereby updates the general public for today, Monday, May 25, 2020, as part of the process to keep the community of St. Maarten informed about the latest developments and the Governments COVID-19 containment, mitigation and response measures. Based on the latest available data provided by Collective Prevention Services (CPS) Epidemiologist Dr. Raissa Tjon-Kon-Fat, for today, May 25, 2020, as of 4:00 PM, there are 67 individuals in self-quarantine, and 4 individuals in self-isolation. To date, 444 persons have been tested, of which 77 were positive, 365 were negative, and one test is still pending. Of the 77 positive cases, 60 have recovered. Notably, St. Maarten has had only one positive case in the last 27 days, and no new cases in the last 14 days. Furthermore, the Outbreak Management Team of the St. Maarten Medical Centre (SMMC) reports that there is one COVID-19 suspected patient currently admitted to SMMCs Mobile Medical Pavilion. Presently, there are two active cases on St. Maarten. As announced during Saturdays EOC Press Conference, the additional tests have arrived on St. Maarten from The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands. Prime Minister Jacobs expressed her gratitude for the additional test to the RIVM. Emergency Support Function 6 (ESF6), has reported that input on guidelines has been sent to Port St. Maarten, SXM Airport, and Maritime. ESF 10 has been developing an overview of all the guidelines, and inspections are being carried out by the Ministry of VSA. Several secondary school children in exam classes have resumed classes this week. Exam class students residing on the French side of the island were also able to cross the border to attend school. Prime Minister Jacobs stated, Id like to take the time out to congratulate centenarian Mrs. Floricia Brown-Baly on her milestone 100th birthday. St. Maarten has indeed come a long way from when we first got our first confirmed COVID-19 case. Although more challenges are approaching us, the lessons that we are learning as a country can only strengthen our administration, and empower us to be prepared continuously. I would also like to encourage the students who have to face exams in the coming months to focus on this along with your health and safety. On behalf of the Government St. Maarten, I wish you all the best and success as your return to school. Thousands of dead fish have washed up on the shore of a NSW lake, with some measuring just under a metre in length. A mysterious fish kill event was reported by locals at Lake Wyangan northwest of Griffith in the New South Wales Riverina over the weekend. Local member Murray MP Helen Dalton described the waterway as 'absolutely putrid, dark in colour, full of foam and sludge with dead native fish floating up on the shore'. Footage taken by a local fisherman on Saturday showed the carcasses of dead Murray cod, yellow belly perch, bony bream and carp lining the banks. Local member Murray MP Helen Dalton (pictured) described the waterway as 'absolutely putrid, dark in colour, full of foam and sludge with dead native fish floating up on the shore' Fisherman Andres Baren told ABC News the scale of devastation was difficult to see. A mysterious fish kill event was reported by locals at Lake Wyangan northwest of Griffith in the New South Wales Riverina over the weekend 'There were dead fish everywhere,' Mr Baren said. 'I counted 34 cod, all just under a metre big, and then there were thousands of bony bream, yellow belly and smaller cod it was impossible to count them all.' When evidence of the contamination emerged it caused outrage among the local community, with the event being described as a 'disaster' and 'absolutely heartbreaking'. Some raised concerns for other wildlife like birds, foxes or other animals which rely on the fish as a food source. New South Wales Murray MP Helen Dalton is calling for urgent action over what she has deemed a health risk to the local community. 'Over this past year, I've written urgent letters to NSW government departments urging action on Lake Wyangan and they've done nothing,' she said. Footage taken by a local fisherman on Saturday showed the carcasses of dead Murray cod, yellow belly perch, bony bream and carp lining the banks 'We have about 20 government departments that are supposed to look after our waterways but none of them seem to give a damn about water quality.' Griffith City Council has reported the incident to the New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency and New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. The council has sent off water samples and samples of each fish species to determine what may have caused the mass kill. Griffith Mayor John Dal Broi said the council is doing everything is can to find out what has caused the fish deaths. When evidence of the contamination emerged it caused outrage among the local community, with the event being described as a 'disaster' and 'absolutely heartbreaking' 'The fish fatalities are obviously very distressing and Council is making every endeavour to find out why this occurred,' he said. Meanwhile The Murray MP has compared the discovery outside Griffith to an event in January 2019 where an estimated one million fish died at Menindee in the state's far west. At the time locals said the Darling River was in the grips of its worst crisis in decades. Algal blooms, rapid temperature changes and low water flows all contributed to a series of mass fish deaths at Menindee and elsewhere in the Murray-Darling basin. New South Wales Murray MP Helen Dalton is calling for urgent action over what she has deemed a health risk to the local community Bill Campbell, who has lived in the area for more than 60 years, blamed the government for causing the contamination. 'When the government allowed the river to be used as an irrigation channel, it was the worst thing they could have done.' Mr Campbell said using the river for upstream irrigators means towns like Menindee don't get enough flows. Local Graeme McCrabb said it would take up to 30 years for the river to recover after the mass fish deaths. 'Everything has been hammered ... it's absolute carnage,' he said. The Murray MP has compared the discovery outside Griffith to an event in January 2019 where an estimated one million fish died at Menindee in the state's far west At the time locals said the Darling River was in the grips of its worst crisis in decades May 25, 2020 Ottawa National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces On May 20, 2020, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS) charged a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) with sexual assault and an Indecent Act contrary to the National Defence Act, pursuant to the Criminal Code of Canada. The charges are in response to a number of incidents with one military victim, which took place in Ottawa, ON between the summer of 2018 and summer 2019. Corporal James Edward Palmer, now with Canadian Forces Support Unit (CFSU) in Colorado Springs, USA, was a member of CFSU (Ottawa) at the moment of the incidents. Member faces the following charges. Two (2) counts of Sexual Assault contrary to section 130 of the NDA, pursuant to Section 271 of the CCC; One (1) count of Indecent Act contrary to section 130 of the NDA, pursuant to Section 173(1) of the CCC. The military victim reported incidents to Military Police on Jun 26, 2019. On same day, CFNIS was advised of complaint and assumed investigative responsibility for this file. The matter is now proceeding in accordance with the military justice system for possible court martial at a date and location to be determined. In all cases, the subject of charges is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Three U.S. soldiers were wounded on Tuesday when their convoy was attacked by unknown militants in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported, Trend reports citing TASS. The targeted U.S. convoy was accompanied by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said SANA, adding five SDF fighters were also wounded in the attack that took place near the village of Ruwaishid in the countryside of Deir al-Zour. Separately, the U.S. forces brought military and logistic supplies into Syria from Iraq on Tuesday, said SANA, adding communication towers were brought into the country as well. It's worth noting that the United States controls several bases in northeastern and eastern Syria, particularly in areas controlled by the SDF. The Syrian government has for long accused Washington of violating the Syrian sovereignty, urging the international community to pressure the United States to withdraw its troops from Syria. River towns across west-central Illinois are watching, waiting and hoping for the best this week as rain-swollen waterways inch toward crests significantly above flood stages. Sandbagging efforts have been under way in Meredosia since last week, according to Morgan County Emergency Management coordinator Phil McCarty. The Illinois River at Meredosia was at 24.8 feet Sunday, according to the National Weather Service National Hydrologic Prediction Service, with a crest expected near 25.6 feet Tuesday afternoon. While that would be below the historic 28.86-foot crest of July 2, 2015, and a 28.4-foot crest during last years flooding, it still would result in major flooding. If it reaches 26 feet, there could be damage to buildings in Meredosia and the U.S. Coast Guard will consider closing the river between LaGrange and Montezuma, according to the National Hydrologic Prediction Service. Flood stage at Meredosia is 17 feet. Upstream, at Beardstown, a flood warning continued as moderate flooding was occurring. The Illinois River at Beardstown was at 26.4 feet Sunday morning and was projected to rise to near 26.8 feet by this morning and then begin to fall. At 27 feet, the Coal Creek Levee overtops and damage begins at Frederick and Browning. Flood stage at Beardstown is 14 feet. Emergency officials were closely watching forecasts because rainfall heavier than forecast could cause river levels to rise even higher than predicted, according to the National Weather Service. Showers and thunderstorms were forecast through Thursday for most of the region. Heavy rain across west-central Illinois the past few weeks has saturated the soil, which could compound flooding potential, according to forecasters at AccuWeather. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has declared Morgan, Scott and Pike counties as disaster areas, which allowed for crews from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Army National Guard to help local authorities. Vietnamese producers faced falling sales in April ICR Newsroom By 26 May 2020 Vietnams cement market contracted 11 per cent YoY and 13 per cent MoM as domestic cement sales reached 5,664,973t in April 2020, according to the latest data from the Vietnam National Cement Association (VNCA). VICEM sales reached 1,935,056t in April, down 11 per cent YoY and 13 per cent MoM while its affiliates sold 1,569,917t, down 13 and 11 per cent when compared with the volumes in the same period of the previous year and the previous month, respectively. Other cement companies reported an eight per cent YoY and a 14 per cent MoM drop to 2,160,000t. Exports edged down to a similar extent with total cement and clinker exports falling 11 per cent YoY and 12 per cent MoM to 2,415,312t in April 2020. While clinker exports slipped by one per cent YoY and MoM to 1,725,312t, the drop in cement exports was significantly larger 32 per cent YoY and 25 per cent MoM. Vietnam exported 690,000t of cement in April 2020. January-April 2020 In the first four months of 2020 Vietnamese cement consumption slipped four per cent YoY to 19.25Mt. VICEM sales were down eight per cent YoY to 6.446Mt while its affiliates saw a six per cent decrease to 5.284Mt over the period. However, sales by other cement producers remained stable at 7.52Mt. Export sales fell 11 per cent YoY to 9.926Mt with clinker volumes noting the largest drop at 14 per cent to 5.989Mt. Cement exports were down five per cent YoY to 3.937Mt when compared with the 4M19. Published under Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 03:09:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian government on Monday announced 702 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the North African country to 17,967. Meanwhile, 19 new deaths were recorded, taking the total number of fatalities to 783, while 93 more fully recovered and were discharged from hospitals in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 4,900, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement. Egypt announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on Feb. 14 and the first death on March 8, both foreigners. During the six-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which started on Sunday, the evening curfew in Egypt lasts 13 hours instead of nine to maintain social distancing and avoid gatherings amid the increasing COVID-19 infections. After the Islamic holiday, the curfew will be reduced to 10 hours for two weeks, before the government will consider from mid-June easing restrictions and gradually resuming suspended activities. Egypt has already started easing restrictions and gradually reopening services and offices that have been halted since mid-March amid the government's coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming services, businesses and economic activities. Egypt has received three batches of medical aid from the Chinese government to help its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem The Duke of Sussex walks through a partially cleared minefield in Angola during a visit last year to see the work of the Halo Trust (Dominic Lipinski/PA) The Duke of Sussex has praised a landmine clearance charity supported by Diana, Princess of Wales for keeping the light of our common humanity burning brightly. Harry has written a letter to staff working for the Halo Trust praising them for continuing to remove landmines despite the coronavirus outbreak and providing Covid-19 support to locals. The duke made an emotional pilgrimage to Africa last year to retrace the steps of his mother Diana, who famously walked through a partially cleared Angolan minefield in 1997 to highlight the trusts efforts and the threat of the military munitions. During his trip to Dirico, in southern Angola, Harry also saw first-hand the work of Halo and donned body armour and a face mask to inspect an area of bush being cleared of ordnance by the charity. Expand Close In 1997, Diana toured a minefield in Angola in body armour to learn about the carnage military munitions can cause (John Stillwell/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp In 1997, Diana toured a minefield in Angola in body armour to learn about the carnage military munitions can cause (John Stillwell/PA) The duke also visited the minefield his mother toured in the city of Huambo now transformed into a wide residential road, complete with a school. Harry wrote in his letter: In these trying times, hope comes from the light of our common humanity. Nowhere is that light burning brighter than at the Halo Trust. As countries closed their borders, lockdowns came into force and international travel became harder, many might have chosen to suspend operations. Instead, Halo kept open a presence in all 25 of its country operations. The duke also praised Halos ability to provide a response to the pandemic, saying: Halo might just have stuck to its core role, but I would also like to salute you for pivoting so quickly to meet the challenges unexpectedly presented by the pandemic. Halo has 8,500 staff in 25 countries and territories and has been providing ambulances and logistics to medical authorities in Zimbabwe, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau. Expand Close Harry saw the work of the Halo Trust for himself when last year he met staff clearing a minefield in Dirico, Angola (Dominic Lipinski/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Harry saw the work of the Halo Trust for himself when last year he met staff clearing a minefield in Dirico, Angola (Dominic Lipinski/PA) In Syria and Burma, the charity has been providing hygiene kits, personal protection equipment and health education to camps for families displaced by conflict. Harry added: The fact that you can operate across conflict affected countries like Afghanistan is also a precious resource in the face of a disease that recognises no frontlines. It is at times like this that the work and efforts of people like you prepared to do whatever it takes to help, serve and protect others shines through. In sometimes hazardous and dangerous situations, your commitment to your communities and people who need your help is remarkable. I am hugely proud to be able to support such an extraordinary organisation. Lithuanian English Today Latvian entity of Novaturas Group (SIA Novatours) in Latvia has signed an agreement with the state loan guarantee program Altum for a 3-year loan of EUR 1 million. The loan is assigned to secure the Company's liquidity. Novaturas Group in other Baltic markets continues the dialogue with state institutions on potential support measures for the tourism business affected by the restrictions caused by COVID-19. The Company continues to suspend trips in all markets. Novaturas Group bases its assessment of possible future scenarios on decisions made by responsible authorities. Novaturas Group is ready to relaunch its operations this summer, as soon as the restrictions are lifted and aviation, accommodation partners are ready to ensure the safety of travelers. About Novaturas Group Novaturas Group is the leading tour operator in the Baltics states. Since 21 March 2018, Novaturas shares have been dual-listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq Vilnius. Novaturas was established in 1999, became the market leader in the Baltics in 2004. Aside from the Baltics, Novaturas has begun offering its products in Belarus, where they are retailed through local partners. Novaturas continues to attract new clients thanks to its attractive and diverse offering and the high quality of its services. The Group offers both summer and winter package holidays as well as sightseeing tours by coach or plane to more than 30 destinations worldwide, including the most popular holiday resorts in Southern Europe as well as select locations in North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. The Group's strategy also aims to retain diverse and complementary distribution channels. Novaturas works with over 400 travel agencies, including all of the major agencies in the Baltics. It also operates retail offices of its own in main cities of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and is investing in further development of its e-commerce channel. The Companys asset-light business model, which is characterized by strong cash flows from operating activities and low capital expenditures, allows it to pay out a large part of its earnings to shareholders. Paying regular dividends is one of the key elements of the Company's strategy. Every year the Management Board expects to propose for distribution 70-80% of the Companys net profit. Finance director, Tomas Staskunas tomas.staskunas@novaturas.lt, +370 687 10426 Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:06:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BERLIN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- New infections with COVID-19 in Germany remained under last week's average as the number of confirmed cases increased by 432 within one day to 179,002, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced on Tuesday. Over the course of last week, an average of 561 daily cases had been reported by the RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention. According to the RKI, the number of deaths from the new coronavirus in Germany increased by 45 to 8,302 on Tuesday, resulting in a fatality rate of 4.6 percent in the country. The estimated number of people in Germany who had already recovered from COVID-19 increased by around 800 within one day to 162,000 on Tuesday, according to the RKI. The number of people infected with COVID-19 in Germany continued to fall and stood at around 17,000 on Tuesday. The four-day average reproduction rate of COVID-19 in Germany decreased from 0.94 to 0.83, according to the daily situation report by the RKI for Monday. On Monday, government spokesperson Steffen Seibert said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel considered mere recommendations to be insufficient. "Binding rules" regarding the 1.5-meter distance rule, contact restrictions and hygiene regulations should continue to apply. In Germany, federal states have the decision-making power over the everyday rules during the coronavirus crisis. Some states such as Thuringia and Saxony are planning far-reaching relaxations from June 6. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 13:14:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. State Department document that was used by some Australian newspapers to link COVID-19 to a laboratory contains no solid evidence but instead relies on publicly available information, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported Tuesday. The dossier appeared in News Corp Australia-owned media earlier this month and was assumed as high-level western government intelligence. The U.S. embassy in Canberra has held meetings with Australian officials to clarify the dossier to be a 'non-paper' only intended for background use, according to the ABC. "A non-paper is a diplomatic document intended to have essentially non-official status, to be almost deniable, and to be used essentially to generate discussion with foreign governments. It doesn't hold enormous weight or credibility," Head of the Australian National University's National Security College Rory Medcalf told the ABC. The ABC cited several senior officials in the Australian government, who wished to remain anonymous but could confirm the true nature of the document, saying that it was widely distributed by the U.S. State Department. Other areas of the Australian media as well as political leaders have been among those who criticize the use of the document to create misleading contents and cast unfounded aspersions on China's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak and its source. Enditem Tenderloin Unhoused neighbors move into the empty lot at 180 Jones St. on May 26, 2020 | Photos: Carrie Sisto/Hoodline An empty city-owned Tenderloin parking lot was opened today, officially allowing a small number of unhoused residents to have space to pitch their tents. The 4,743 square foot surface lot at 180 Jones St., which is slated to eventually become an affordable housing development, was marked with 12 by 12 foot squares by the city to provide space for up to 10 tents, according to JP Streeter, public information officer with the citys Emergency Operations Center. Plans for the site to serve as an interim location for a 15-tent drug sobering center are currently on hold due to the pandemic. The recently-opened space is currently intended to serve those individuals who have congregated nearby, Streeter said. The city marked 10 tent spaces in the 180 Jones lot to accommodate residents with tents on the sidewalk nearby. As we reported last week, the city is paying a private security company about $6,000/week to monitor the previously empty parking lot. Streeter said the company will continue to monitor the location now that it's open to camping. However, he said that unlike the Safe Sleeping Village at the Fulton Street Mall or 730 Stanyan, "no [dedicated] services will be provided there. Individuals currently camped on the streets or sidewalks will only be asked to move if the city has identified housing for them, Streeter added. The city's Homeless Outreach Team provides services throughout the neighborhood, but nothing is specifically dedicated to the 180 Jones site. San Francisco is not clearing any encampments in the neighborhood during the ongoing pandemic, because it doesnt want to cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers, he said. Nearby unhoused residents were already moving into the newly-opened site this afternoon. While the opening of 180 Jones for tents is a step toward offering additional space for all residents in the neighborhood, ongoing calls for additional steps continue, both in and out of court. Sisir Panigrahy By Express News Service BERHAMPUR: The social stigma attached to coronavirus has forced a 30-year-old youth of Dolaba village under Sanakhemundi block to remain in quarantine inside his car. The youth, Madhaba Patra, has been subjected to this cruel fate despite having already spent 14 days in quarantine in Berhampur and testing negative for Covid-19. Patra, a videographer, went to Bihar for some software on May 3 and returned after three days. Before reaching Odisha, he registered his name in the returnee list and also informed Ganjam Collector about his return. Since he had no symptoms of coronavirus, Patra was allowed by the administration to stay in home quarantine in Berhampur as per norms. having food at the back of the vehicle After completing the 14-day quarantine period, he received his clearance papers from the authorities concerned and left for Dolaba in his car just before heavy rains were predicted due to the approaching cyclone Amphan. A few minutes after his arrival, villagers including the husband of local anganwadi worker reached his home and asked him to stay in quarantine. Though Patra showed them his clearance certificate and negative test reports, the villagers refused to listen. Irritated by their ignorance, the youth reached the local police station with his papers. The police officials termed the act of villagers as a misunderstanding and allowed Patra to stay in his home. The next day, Patras father had gone to the village market where the anganwadi workers husband and some of his friends entered into a heated argument with him. On being informed, Patra reached the spot and criticised them for their ignorance. Taking offense to Patras behaviour, they took up the matter with Dolaba sarpanch who asked the youth to stay in the nearby Kalingi quarantine centre. As no one came out in his support, Patra was forced to accept the diktat. He, however, said he would stay in his car on the premises of the quarantine centre. The youth has been staying inside his car since May 21. Narrating his ordeal, Patra said, I informed the matter to the local authorities but to no avail. Since there is a risk of contracting the infection in institutional quarantine where many migrant workers are housed, I decided to stay in may car. I hope the administration intervenes and saves me from this predicament. Patra spends his entire time in his car. He eats and sleeps inside the vehicle and only comes out to use the toilet of the quarantine centre. Despite repeated attempts, no official was available for comment. However, reliable sources said the BDO has directed for Patras release after he completes one week of quarantine as per the new guideline. PHOENIX An Arizona Department of Public safety trooper fatally shot a 28-year-old man on a Phoenix freeway early on Monday. Phoenix police, which are investigating the shooting, said the trooper encountered the man passed out in a parked car that was partially blocking traffic on the freeway. The trooper tried to contact the driver, and a struggle ensued. The trooper shot the man, who has not been identified. He died later at a hospital. The trooper also has not been identified but is a 54-year-old man with 15 years of service. He was uninjured. An investigation is ongoing. (Alliance News) - Regional flare-ups of coronavirus cases in England will result in a "local lockdown", UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said. Latest numbers showed 134 more UK Covid-19 deaths, taking the total figure above 37,000. Hancock said the ability to tighten restrictions in individual regions will be part of the NHS test, track and trace system a which is set to expand on June 1. Hancock told the daily press briefing: "We will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups and we have a system we are putting in place with a combination of Public Health England and the new Joint Biosecurity Centre, along with the local directors of public health who play an absolutely crucial role in the decision-making in the system, to make sure if there is a local flare-up there is a local lockdown. "And so local lockdowns will be part of the future system that we put in place as part of the NHS test-and-trace system." The government's road map for easing lockdown restrictions set out how the Joint Biosecurity Centre would have a "response function" that could address local spikes in infections, in partnership with local public health agencies. This could lead to local schools, businesses or workplaces being closed in areas with high prevalence of infection, it said. Earlier this month, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was the government's "strong preference" that lockdown measures are lifted at the same time across the country. However, he said some restrictions could be reimposed at a local level if required. "Our strong preference is that the whole country moves as one," he said. "But if, as we build up our infrastructure for testing and tracking and tracing, in time it is required for us to make interventions in smaller micro-communities where you are seeing the virus take hold again, then that will be something that we consider as other countries around the world have done when they have implemented effective track and trace systems. "But that is quite different from making major changes to lockdown measures in one part of the country versus another." The latest figures on confirmed cases show they are relatively high in the North East, with 495 confirmed cases per 100,000 population in Sunderland, 493 per 100,000 in Gateshead and 491 per 100,000 in South Tyneside. In parts of South West England, the figures is as low as 105 per 100,000 (South Somerset), 96 per 100,000 (Dorset) and 95 per 100,000 (West Devon). Barrow-in-Furness (with 831 confirmed cases per 100,000) has the highest figure both for England and the whole of the UK. Some regions may have done more testing than others, so they will have detected more cases. source: PA Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Last week, Modernas stocks skyrocketed 30 percent after the media touted the companys announcement that eight participants in its coronavirus vaccine trial had elicited neutralizing antibodies after receiving the mRNA vaccine as a cure for the pandemic. The Dow shot up over 900 points in the resulting stock market frenzy, and Modernas stock rose to a peak of $87 per share before it settled at above $80 on closing. The companys value swelled to $29 billion despite not having had any products in the markets to date. Over the weekend, CNN Business reported that Modernas chief financial officer, Lorence Kim, exercised 241,000 options for $3 million on Monday. He then immediately sold them for $19.8 million, creating a profit of $16.8 million. In a similar maneuver, Modernas chief medical officer, Tal Zaks, spent $1.5 million on options, then immediately sold the shares back for $9.77 million, netting a profit of $8.2 million. Moderna's Norwood plant These payoffs are dwarfed, however, by the killing made by CEO Stephane Bancel, who had already become a billionaire in March, while the global economy was facing an implosion, based on the valuation of his nine percent stake in the publicly-traded company. Notwithstanding the parasitic and avaricious behavior of these senior executives, these maneuvers do not appear to raise any legal red flags. In actuality, these actions are considered typical. Charles Whitehead, professor at Cornell Law School, said, On its face, there is nothing wrong with these trades. Its what a 10b5-1 plan is intended for, assuming the requirements are met. The plan, created under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, allows major holders to sell a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time. Corporate executives use this plan to avoid accusations of insider trading. The CNN report confirms that the release of the premature data was designed and intended to raise the share price of Modernas stock so that executives could cash in during the period of euphoria. Since Moderna was first established in 2010, the business model of this biotech firm has been based on speculation and promises that it will produce a vaccine for a number of virusesZika, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, to name a few. Moderna has yet to deliver on any of its grandiose claims. The claims in relation to COVID-19, while couched in technical and business jargon, were equally sweeping. These interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection starting with a dose as low as 25 [micrograms (mcg)], said Tal Zaks, multi-millionaire Chief Medical Officer at Moderna. When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials. With todays positive interim Phase 1 data and the positive data in the mouse challenge model, the Moderna team continues to focus on moving as fast as safely possible to start our pivotal Phase 3 study in July and, if successful, file a BLA, said CEO Bancel, referring to a Biologics License Application. We are investing to scale up manufacturing so we can maximize the number of doses we can produce to help protect as many people as we can from SARS-CoV-2. The real goal, however, is not to help protect as many people as we can, but rather to make as much money as possible, as fast as possible, regardless of the consequences for test subjects, future patients, or the world as a whole. Bancels claim of a summer start contradicts the fall 2020 start noted in the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) contract with Moderna. BARDA is a division of the US Department of Health and Humans Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. And not more than 36 hours had passed before the initial euphoria had subsided, and more sober analysts began to pick through the sparse press release data provided to the media. Modernas stocks began a downward slide to close at $67 a share. Modernas vaccine trial claim On Monday, May 18, Moderna announced, After two doses, all participants evaluated to date across the 25-mcg and 100-mcg dose cohorts seroconverted with binding antibody levels at or above levels seen in convalescent sera. mRNA-1273 elicited neutralizing antibody titer levels in all eight initial participants across the 25-mcg and 100 mcg dose cohorts, reaching or exceeding neutralizing antibody titers generally seen in convalescent sera. They then prefaced these remarks with mRNA provided full protection against viral replication in the lungs in a mouse challenge model to cover for the lack of any real clinical relevance to their press release. The next day, STAT News wrote, the NIAID [National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] did not put out a press release Monday and declined to provide comment on Modernas announcement the report of neutralizing antibodies in subjects who were vaccinated comes from blood drawn two weeks after they received their second dose of vaccine. Two weeks, thats very early. We dont know if those antibodies are durable, said Anna Durbin, a vaccine researcher at Johns Hopkins University. STAT also questioned the statement that levels of antibodies seen were at or above the levels of the sera of recovered patients. They wrote, among 175 recovered COVID-19 patients studied, 10 had no detectable neutralizing antibodies. Since April, Moderna has made several amendments to its vaccine trials. They have added older age groups to their phase 1 trial. Another change included 50-mcg dosing. The phase 2 trial will also include a 50-mcg as well as 100-mcg dose levels to select a dose for the phase 3 trial. Animal experiments are now being conducted in parallel when they had initially been considered unnecessary. The mRNA-1273 is a novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-encapsulated vaccine that encodes for a perfusion stabilized form of the viral Spike protein. The target was selected by investigators from the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the NIAID. On May 6, the FDA reviewed and approved Modernas Investigational New Drug application (submitted on April 27), allowing it to proceed to a phase 2 study. On May 12, the vaccine was given a Fast Track designation. FDA clears Moderna Phase II trial for COVID-19 The companys Phase 2 trial is scheduled to start in June. It is ostensibly designed to assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of two doses of mRNA-1273 given four weeks apart. The three trial groups will include a set of patients taking a placebo, a set taking 50 mcg of the vaccine, and a group taking 100-mcg of the vaccine, pending finalization of the phase 1 trial. The intent of this phase 2 is to enroll 600 participants, 300 in the 18 to 55 age category, and 300 in the over 55 age category . On April 16, BARDA provided Moderna with $483 million in funds to accelerate the development of the companys mRNA Vaccine in support of late-stage clinical development programs to see it quickly to FDA licensure. We are thankful for BARDAs support to fund the accelerated development of mRNA-1273, our vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2, said Moderna CEO Bancel. Time is of the essence to provide a vaccine against this pandemic virus. By investing now in our manufacturing process scale-up to enable large scale production for pandemic response, we believe that we would be able to supply millions of doses per month in 2020 and with further investments, tens of millions per month in 2021, if the vaccine candidate is successful in the clinic. mRNA Vaccine Diagram and Mechanism: 1) the genetic sequence is formulated and encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle. 2&3) The vaccine particle is taken up by the cell and the mRNA strand is released into the cytosol. 4) The ribosomes translate the mRNA strand into the protein of interest. 5) Replicase enzymes are also produced to assist in self-amplifying the mRNA. 6) The self-amplified mRNA constructs then produce more protein of interest. 7) The proteins undergo post-translation modification and are secreted as membrane proteins. 8) The innate and adaptive immune responses detect the protein of interest. At the beginning of May, Moderna signed a 10-year manufacturing agreement with the Lonza Group to initially build vaccine production suites at their facilities in the US and Switzerland, expanding later to Lonzas worldwide facilities. The Lonza Group is a Swiss multinational, chemicals, and biotechnology company, headquartered in Basel. According to Genetic Engineering& Biotechnology News, the scale of the production is the produce 1 billion doses of mRNA-1273 each year at an expected dose of 50-mcg. Bancel said, This long-term strategic collaboration agreement will enable Moderna to accelerate, by 10-times, our manufacturing capacity for mRNA-1273 and additional products in Modernas large clinical portfolio. Lonzas global presence and expertise are critical as we scale at unprecedented speed. Before even the initial data was available on the participants of the phase 1 aspect of their trial, Moderna and Lonza had announced that technology transfer would begin in June with the first batch of vaccines produced at Lonzas US site in July before their phase 2 trial could be completed. A Shark Tank approach to vaccine selection According to a CNN expose, three weeks before the US had proceeded into lockdowns, on March 2, President Trump was auditioning vaccine developers who were asked to pitch their product as a viable cure to battling the pandemic. John Shiver of Sanofi Pasteur vaccines proposed a vaccine that would take several years to bring for public use. Next, Lenny Schleifer, CEO of Regeneron, offered his semi-confident pitch, clinical trials in the summer and producing 200,000 doses per month starting in August. Trump then jumped in and said, So, the process would be faster than Johns? Trumps main concern was with speed (with an eye to both the stock market and the presidential election) and not efficacy or scientific rationale. In January 2020, once it was discovered that the infection in Wuhan was caused by a novel coronavirus, Bancel quickly emailed Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, asking him to send the genetic sequence for the virus. On February 24, in 42 days, Moderna had produced a batch of vaccine and sent it to the NIH. Discussions at the time projected a 12-to-18-month window to determine if this new vaccine was safe and effective. Moderna added that they could have a vaccine ready for emergency use by the fall of 2020. So, when Bancels turn came up to sell his vaccine, with Dr. Fauci present at the briefing, he said, Im very proud to be working with the US government and to have already sent, in only 42 days from the sequence of the virus, our vaccine to Dr. Faucis team at the NIH. He omitted the few months to phase 2 trials or a 12-to-18-month timeline that had been discussed the week prior. It was a sufficient omission to hook the president. Fauci interjected, You wont have a vaccine. Youll have a vaccine to go into testing. But the deal was already made. The federally funded trial was rapidly rubber-stamped through regulatory agencies, and human trials commenced on March 16. Unsettlingly, the regulatory agencies skipped the traditional but necessary animal trials, a critical path in testing the efficacy of the virus before injecting it into human subjects. Akiko Iwasaki, a microbiologist at Yale University, told STAT News, This is very unusual. It reflects the urgency to develop vaccines to counter COVID-19 pandemic. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, said, When you hear predictions about it taking at best a year or a year and a half to have a vaccine available theres no way to come close to those timelines unless we take new approaches. I personally think thats not only appropriate; I think thats the only option we have. This is entirely false. Skipping animal trials and other corner-cutting to speed development of a vaccine that may be given to the entire human race is not being driven by health concerns. In that event, a crash program to develop vaccines would be combined with a continuing and long-term lockdown to save as many lives as possible. Instead, the vaccine developmentnow at warp speed according to Trumpis being combined with a general reopening of the economy and relaxation of measures like social distancing, which mean that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will die before any vaccine can possibly be developed, no matter how intensive the effort. There are two concerns driving the vaccine development. On the part of Moderna and other biotech companies, it is sheer greed. Whichever company gets its vaccine to the market first will reap monopoly profits. On the part of the Trump administration and other capitalist governments around the world, there is an additional factor: gaining a geopolitical advantage over their rivals by being first to develop a vaccine, and perhaps even withholding the vaccine as part of efforts to assert American dominance. These reactionary considerations are the real motive for efforts to bypass safety regulations that would potentially cause harm to the population. According to Jonathan Kimmelman, director of McGill Universitys biomedical ethics unit, Outbreaks and national emergencies often create pressure to suspend rights, standards and, or, normal rules of ethical conduct. Often our decision to do so seems unwise in retrospect. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday sought to distance himself from reports suggesting a rift within the ruling coalition in Maharashtra amid the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) frequent attacks for its poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state which has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country with over 52,000. I would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but we are not the key decision maker in Maharashtra, Gandhi said at a news conference held via video conference in response to a question on the coronavirus crisis in the state. The Congress is a junior partner in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in the state. Sharad Pawars Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is the other constituent of the MVA. Pawar called on chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday night to discuss the prevailing situation in the state. We are decision makers in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Puducherry. There is a difference between running the government and supporting it, Gandhi added. The BJP has upped the ante and is demanding imposition of Presidents rule in the state. A BJP delegation, led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, last week met Governor BS Koshyari and complained to him about the failure of the coalition government in tackling the Covid-19 crisis. I said very categorically that Maharashtra is an important state, Mumbai is the financial capital and there is a lot of attention, they have a difficult situation and lots of attention needs to be given to the state by the Centre, the former Congress chief said. While the opposition BJP used Gandhis remarks as a fresh handle to attack the state government, NCP leader Supriya Sule backed the Congress leader. He is absolutely right. It is a coalition. Everyone takes a decision together. Uddhav Thackeray takes everyone into confidence, she said. However, her party colleague Majeed Memon criticised the Congress. It is not right to say Congress is not part of the decision making process. Its members are part of the cabinet and they are not providing support from outside, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The event was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic; on May 9, only combat aviation flew over Moscow Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to prepare everything necessary for the Victory Day to take place on June 24. He said so during the meeting with Shoigu, which took place in the video conference mode. "I order to begin preparations for the military parade timed to the 75th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War in Moscow and other cities. We'll do this on June 24", Putin said. At that, the Russian leader demanded to provide the maximum level of security and bring risks to a minimum. The event was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic; on May 9, only combat aviation flew over Moscow. In Belarus, the Parade timed to the V-Day took place on May 9. The event was attended by more than 3 000 people, military equipment, and aviation. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said he did not intend to cancel the military parade by May 9 in honor of the 75th anniversary of the Victory, as the event has a deep ideological and emotional significance. In addition, no quarantine was introduced in the country due to the spread of coronavirus. Bay of Plenty Our client has plenty of work in the pipeline and as such they are in need of qualified or experienced carpenters for an... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz TEMPE, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Wrap Technologies, Inc. (the "Company" or "Wrap") (WRTC), an innovator of modern policing solutions, reported that officers at Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office in Alabama have been trained on BolaWrap and are now carrying the remote restraint device in the field. "We are always in search of new technology that will enhance the safety of the public and our deputies during their daily duties," said Sheriff Ron Abernathy of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. "Responding to individuals who are suffering a mental health crisis can be dangerous to both the officers and the subject, especially when the situation involves a custodial arrest. The BolaWrap provides a way to take a combative subject into custody while reducing the chance of injury to the subject and the officers." On Thursday, Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office demonstrated BolaWrap for FOX 6 WBRC. Deputy Keith Fair told WBRC, "We all first saw it. We were like, there's no way it's going to work,' and when they demonstrated it, we were all impressed with how it stopped someone." Mike Rothans, Chief Operating Officer at Wrap Technologies, commented, "We are pleased with the decision by Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office to deploy BolaWrap. Sheriff Abernathy leads a well-respected and forward-thinking agency that understands the value of providing their officers with advanced technologies like BolaWrap." The full story by FOX 6 WBRC and a video of the demonstration can be found here. About Wrap Technologies (WRTC) Wrap Technologies is an innovator of modern policing solutions. The Company's BolaWrap 100 product is a patented, hand-held remote restraint device that discharges an eight-foot bola style Kevlar tether to restrain an individual at a range of 10-25 feet. Developed by award winning inventor Elwood Norris, the Company's Chief Technology Officer, the small but powerful BolaWrap 100 assists law enforcement to safely and effectively control encounters, especially those involving an individual experiencing a mental crisis. For information on the Company please visit www.wraptechnologies.com. Examples of recent media coverage are available as links under the "Media" tab of the website. Story continues Trademark Information: BolaWrap and Wrap are trademarks of Wrap Technologies, Inc. All other trade names used herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective holders. Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements - Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company's overall business, total addressable market and expectations regarding future sales and expenses. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "should," "believe," "target," "project," "goals," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "may," "will," "could," "intend," variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the Company's control. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: the Company's ability to successful implement training programs for the use of its products; the Company's ability to manufacture and produce product for its customers; the Company's ability to develop sales for its new product solution; the acceptance of existing and future products; the availability of funding to continue to finance operations; the complexity, expense and time associated with sales to law enforcement and government entities; the lengthy evaluation and sales cycle for the Company's product solution; product defects; litigation risks from alleged product-related injuries; risks of government regulations; the business impact of health crises or outbreaks of disease, such as epidemics or pandemics; the ability to obtain export licenses for counties outside of the US; the ability to obtain patents and defend IP against competitors; the impact of competitive products and solutions; and the Company's ability to maintain and enhance its brand, as well as other risk factors included in the Company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and other SEC filings. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and were based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or changes in its expectations. WRAP TECHNOLOGIES' CONTACT: Paul M. Manley, VP - Investor Relations 612-834-1804 pmanley@wraptechnologies.com SOURCE : Wrap Technologies, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/591360/Tuscaloosa-County-Sheriffs-Office-Deploys-Wrap-Technologies-BolaWrap Social media was supposed to be the great equalizer, but a new study suggests that most elected officials in Canada, the United States and elsewhere are struggling to connect with people on Twitter. (Matt Rourke/The Canadian Press/AP) Twitter Says It Is Not Removing Trump Tweets on Deceased Scarborough Staff Member Twitter said on Tuesday it would take no action at this time on tweets from President Donald Trump about the 2001 death of a former congressional staff member for Joe Scarborough, after her widower asked the company to remove them for furthering false claims. In a letter to Twitters chief executive Jack Dorsey that was published by the New York Times, Timothy J. Klausutis asked that the company remove a tweet by the president alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough. Lori Klausutis, who had an undiagnosed heart condition, fell and hit her head on her desk at work. Her death was ruled an accident. A Twitter spokeswoman said the tweets would remain. The Twitter logo is seen on a phone in this photo illustration in Washington, on July 10, 2019. (Alastair Pike/AFP/Getty Images) We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family, the spokeswoman said in a statement when asked about the presidents tweets on Scarborough, now an MSNBC television host with whom Trump has brawled. Weve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly, she said. Twitter declined to say what these policy changes would be. Last year, Twitter said it would start labeling tweets from prominent politicians and government officials that broke its rules but that it deemed were in the public interest. The spokeswoman declined to say why Trumps tweets did not fall within this policy. The company has so far not used this label on any tweets, though it said it used the policy in deciding to delete tweets by the presidents of Brazil and Venezuela that violated its coronavirus misinformation rules and were not seen as in the public interest. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday that our hearts are with Loris family, but that she did not know if Trump had seen the letter from Klausutiss widower to Twitter. By Elizabeth Culliford Tokyo, May 26 : Tokyo started a new normal way of life on Tuesday after lifting its health alert for the coronavirus pandemic. Shops and offices have been gradually reopening in the Japanese capital, although with social distancing measures still in place in a bid to avoid new infections, reports Efe news. There were more people out in the streets of the city, which is home to 14 million, as many establishments opened their doors for the first time since the beginning of April. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the end of the health emergency in Tokyo and four other prefectures where measures were still in force, bringing the entire country out of lockdown. The state of emergency meant all citizens had to stay at home and were only allowed outside for essential trips as well as the closure of commercial establishments and public spaces. With the alert lifted authorities have established a phased return to a system designed to allow Japanese residents to get used to a new lifestyle that includes preventative measures to avoid any future outbreaks, according to Abe. Phase one, which Tokyo is currently in, allows offices, shopping centres, small shops, museums, libraries and parks to reopen, as well as bars and restaurants but with limited hours. These hours are set to be extended and cinemas, gyms and karaoke bars will be allowed to operate again, establishments considered to be of greater risk since they are often closed and poorly ventilated spaces. Businesses and public spaces must comply with a series of safety recommendations when reopening, including taking customers' temperatures at their entrances, installing hand sanitizer dispensers, protective screens at public service points and setting a maximum capacity. Posters at the entrance of shops and other closed spaces remind people that it is mandatory to wear masks inside, although they are already regularly used in Japan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga thanked the Japanese people for their cooperation during the lockdown, which he said "has allowed us to avoid a drastic expansion of infections". Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said: "I hope that together we will apply the 'new normal',". Japan, which recorded its first coronavirus case in mid-January, has reported around 16,600 infections and 850 deaths, according to official data. The arcs of their careers and personal lives have for years run on parallel tracks, like twin strands of DNA, winding from the military to test pilot school to the same NASA astronaut class, where both met their wives. Now Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are about to fly together in one of the most important launches NASA has attempted in years: a crewed test flight of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. The mission would be the first launch of NASA astronauts from U.S. soil since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, and the first by a private company of people to orbit. Scheduled for Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it would be the culmination of a long journey - for NASA, for SpaceX and for a pair of the agency's most seasoned astronauts, who have marched together in unusual lockstep to get to this point. GOING ALL IN: As it prepares to fly humans, Elon Musk's SpaceX faces the biggest challenge in its history Both are former military pilots who achieved the rank of colonel - Hurley in the Marine Corps, Behnken in the Air Force. Both were accepted to the NASA astronaut class of 2000 on their first try. Both have been to space twice before. Both are fathers to a young boy. Behnken is married to Megan McArthur, a NASA astronaut and oceanographer; Hurley is married to Karen Nyberg, who recently retired from the NASA astronaut corps. The couples joke that they often thank the head of the astronaut selection committee "for doing a great job of selecting spouses for us," McArthur said. In the past, NASA's astronauts may have been pitted against each other in ruthless competition for flight assignments, preening for the cameras and strutting their ego-fueled "Right Stuff" to orbit and back, always eager to get ahead. HOUSTON PREVIEW: Plan your own SpaceX launch watch party with Space Center Houston But Behnken and Hurley - Bob and Doug, as most everyone calls them - are more like a couple of self-effacing old pals, with an easygoing relationship shaped by a shared history that includes serving in each other's weddings and having trained side by side for this mission for five years. Their rapport, in the cockpit and in training, is fueled by trust and an intimate sense of each other, people who know them say, a sort of fraternal bond that allows them to tease each other as well as finish each other's sentences. It gives them a late-night-talk-show kind of chemistry, at turns goofy and sincere. Hurley is the obsessive-compulsive Marine, with a crisp flat-top, a penchant for order and a "repository" of "useless information," Behnken said. "He's the trivia master between the two of us." MORNING REPORT: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox "Doug's worst habits?" Behnken said during a NASA promo video. "He's got a tighter sense of hygiene than I do." Their bond was evident earlier this month, when the pair, having finished yet another news conference, were sitting through questions asked through NASA's Instagram account, moving from ribbing to supporting each other in the span of a couple of minutes Hurley held his phone, scrolling. "How long did it take you to become an astronaut, Bob?" he asked, reading one of the questions. "Well, I was born in 1970, and I became an astronaut in 2000, so it took about 30 years," Behnken deadpanned. It was a wisecrack of an answer, a flair of wit after a long day of meetings and a news conference and now this social media hit. HEARTWARMING READ: Astronauts find ways to talk to their kids about the joy - and risks - of blasting off into space Hurley couldn't help himself from cracking up in laughter. "It took Doug longer," Behnken said, teasing his friend, still straight-faced. "No!" Hurley said. Then conceded: "Like, two years longer." "Yeah, two years is two years." Finally serious, Behnken traced his career: test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, "I got an engineering education," he said, "and a degree in physics - " "You got a PhD from Caltech!" Hurley interrupted. "I did." That kind of connection will serve them well on the upcoming mission, a risky test flight NASA officials say they were made for. The Crew Dragon spacecraft has flown just once before, in an uncrewed mission last year that officials from NASA and SpaceX said went flawlessly. But then the same spacecraft that flew to the space station and back exploded during a test of its emergency abort engines. It was a fiery setback that drove home the dangers of the mission to NASA as well as SpaceX. "I wanted to make sure everyone at SpaceX understood and knew Bob and Doug as astronauts, as test pilots - badass - but also as dads and husbands," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer. "I wanted to bring some humanity to this very deeply technical effort as well." One of the ways the company has done that, she said, was an idea that came from a technician, who "wanted to make sure that we had pictures of Bob and Doug on the work orders." Behnken has said his 6-year-old son, Theo, was nervous about him flying, and his astronaut parents have worked to make their extraordinary lives seem regular. "We try to make it as normal-seeming as possible," McArthur said in an interview. "We just talk about it as something that Mommy and Daddy do. This is our job. We've shown him videos of people living aboard the space station. We've taken him to see rockets launch from the Kennedy Space Center." It's still not clear how long the astronauts will be on the station. NASA has said the mission will last roughly between one month and four. Behnken flew on the space shuttle twice, once in 2008 and again two years later, spending a total of more than 708 hours in space and performing six spacewalks. In the Air Force, he flew more than 25 different kinds of aircraft, including as a test engineer for the F-22 Raptor. When he arrived at the Kennedy Space Center last week, he said he was excited by the mission, not just because of its historic significance, but also because it is the first flight of the spacecraft with crews. "As graduates of military test pilot schools, if you gave us one thing that we could have put on our list of dream jobs that we would have gotten to have someday, it would have been to be aboard a new spacecraft and conduct a test mission" Behnken said. Being on the ground, however, watching while the engines ignite and fire comes blasting out, will be far more difficult. "One of the hardest things to do is watch the person that you love launch into space," McArthur said. "It's much harder than actually doing it yourself when you're in the rocket. You have the training. You're prepared for the mission. "When you're watching, you're just a spectator. And no matter what happens, there's nothing you can do to contribute to the situation." Hurley is also a veteran of two shuttle missions, including the very last one, which brought a 30-year era to an end and signified a moment of transition for NASA. The day after the shuttle landed, hundreds lost their jobs, and NASA was suddenly unable to fly astronauts anywhere. "I remember when we landed just before dawn, but we were still in the vehicle as the sun came up," Hurley recalled. "People were walking up to the vehicle, and it was their last day, in many cases, of work. You felt like you had to honor those people." Asked on NASA's promo video what they were looking forward to most, Behnken said he expected the crescendo of their mission to end with a bit of seasickness christening once it's over and they splash down into the ocean. "I'm expecting a little bit of vomiting maybe to happen in the end," Behnken said, "so when we get to do that in the water together - it's kind of a weird thing to say - but I'm looking for that kind of celebratory event." Hurley said he was looking forward to just being there in the spacecraft, sitting next to Behnken. "We've been close friends since we started as astronauts almost 20 years ago," he said, "so being lucky enough to get to fly with your best friend is kind of a - I think there's a lot of people that wish they could do that, and we're lucky enough to do it. "We spent a ton of time together. We could have gone two directions with that. We could have gotten to the point where we didn't want to be around each other, or we're closer. So I think just the whole experience for me is what we're looking for. "And then, yes, the celebratory vomiting at the end of the mission." Lyme disease can have unusual presentations. Physicians and the public should be aware of its different manifestations, as people spend more time outside in the warmer weather and as the areas in Canada where the black legged tick is found expand. Three articles in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), whichdescribe a fatal case in a 37-year-old man, atypical skin lesions and heart abnormalities in a 56-year-old woman and severe neurological symptoms in a 4-year-old boy, illustrate the diversity in clinical presentations of Lyme disease. Lyme disease can affect the heart (known as Lyme carditis), which can result in serious heart rhythm abnormalities in a small group of people. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of Lyme carditis in people presenting with atrioventricular heart block, especially in areas where Lyme disease is endemic. Patients may have had a rash. Early treatment with antibiotics is recommended to avoid complications, even before a diagnosis is confirmed. A fatal case of Lyme disease in a previously healthy 37-year-old man illustrates the challenges of diagnosing Lyme disease in the absence of classic symptoms. The patient originally presented to his family doctor with flu-like symptoms, including fever, sore throat, nasal congestion and migratory joint pain. Several weeks earlier, he had been in contact with ticks but didn't recall removing one. His physician suspected a viral infection, and the patient's symptoms resolved. Weeks later, he developed heart palpitations, shortness of breath and chest discomfort for which he was sent to the emergency department. Lyme disease was suspected as electrocardiography (ECG) showed complete heart block. He was admitted to hospital and started on treatment for Lyme carditis, but his condition worsened quickly. Clinicians were unable to reverse the course of illness and he died. Serology results confirmed Lyme disease, and an autopsy showed signs of Lyme carditis. "The diagnosis of Lyme carditis is based on clinical suspicion and serology consistent with acute Lyme disease," writes Dr. Milena Semproni, Infectious Diseases fellow at the University of Manitoba and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Winnipeg, Manitoba, with coauthors. "Unfortunately, diagnosis can be delayed while serology is being processed, and clinical suspicion should guide empiric treatment. Given that the early diagnosis is clinical, cases may be overlooked by clinicians, especially as Lyme disease moves into new geographic areas." In suspected cases of Lyme carditis, patients should have an urgent ECG performed and be started on antibiotics without waiting for serologic confirmation. The authors note that serious heart rhythm abnormalities and sudden cardiac death can occur in a small group of patients, although it is uncommon. In the 10 other North American cases of sudden cardiac death attributed to Lyme carditis described in the literature, 8 patients were male, and the cases occurred between June and November, when ticks are active. A reflection written by the man's sister, with a video testimonial, https:/ / youtu. be/ lz7e29CewE8, describes the family's initial concern that this was Lyme disease, the heartbreak caused by his death and their hope for increased awareness and understanding of the disease. Given that most conduction abnormalities caused by Lyme carditis resolve with appropriate antibiotic therapy, recognition of atypical dermatologic presentations in the context of Lyme carditis prevents unnecessary permanent pacemaker implantation in these young and otherwise healthy individuals," Adrian Baranchuk, Department of Medicine, Queen's University While the bull's eye rash is usually considered a feature of Lyme disease, in some cases, the rash doesn't follow the usual pattern. A third article describes a 4-year-old boy who presented to hospital with fever, vomiting, malaise, ataxia and aphasia. The article describes the differential diagnosis and investigations, which eventually led to a diagnosis of Lyme disease (neuroborreliosis). The boy recovered fully with antibiotic treatment. The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the case of Gurgen Margaryan is the victory of justice and a new legal winning card for Armenias diplomats. This is what former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, judge of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Alvina Gyulumyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. In 2013, she was Armenias representative before the ECHR when Gurgen Margaryans legal successors and the representatives of Armenian army officer Hayk Mukuchyan (who was subjected to an assassination attempt) had filed a complaint against Azerbaijan and Hungary. As Armenias representative before the ECHR, I couldnt participate in the examination of the case, but I have always tracked the case and got very excited when I learned that my former colleagues had rendered this decision, she said. According to Alvina Gyulumyan, the fact that the ECHR held that there had been a violation by Azerbaijan of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights is a great achievement for Armenia. This is the first decision by which an international tribunal states the discrimination of Azerbaijan against the Armenians. According to Alvina Gyulumyan, what is especially interesting is the special opinion of Portuguese judge Paulo Albuquerque on the ECHRs decision, stating the fact that the ECHR hadnt recorded a violation with respect to Hungary. Albuquerque stated that Hungary was aware of the likelihood that Safarov would be granted a pardon, citing Prime Minister Viktor Oban, who was questioned about the Azerbaijani officer in a press conference shortly after his release. Gyulumyan said even though the special opinion isnt binding, such an opinion and the decision itself are favorable for Armenia. The ECHR ruled that Azerbaijan violated the Convention by releasing an extradited officer who had murdered an Armenian soldier during training in Hungary. In todays Chamber judgment in the case the European Court of Human Rights held: by six votes to one, that there had been no substantive violation by Azerbaijan of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights; unanimously, that there had been a procedural violation by Azerbaijan of Article 2 of the Convention; by six votes to one, that there had been no procedural violation by Hungary of Article 2; by six votes to one, that there had been a violation by Azerbaijan of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken in conjunction with Article 2, and unanimously, that neither the Azerbaijani nor Hungarian Governments had failed to comply with Article 38 (obligation to furnish necessary facilities for the examination of the case). This Chamber judgment is not final. During the three-month period following its delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. As reported earlier, Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31, 2012, from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentenceand with no expression of either regret or remorsefor the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004. As expected, Ramil Safarovs return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyevs government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon. Indian and Chinese troops remained engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in several disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, signalling that the confrontation could become the biggest military face-off after the Doklam episode in 2017. IMAGE: Indian and Chinese armies held the second joint tactical exercise 'Sino India Cooperation 2016' in Ladakh in October 2016. Photograph: ANI/Twitter Top military sources said India has further increased its strength in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley -- the two contentious areas where Chinese army is learnt to have been deploying around 2,000 to 2,500 troops besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure. "The strength of the Indian Army in the area is much better than our adversary," said a top military official on the condition of anonymity. The biggest concern for Indian military has been the presence of Chinese troops around several key points including Indian Post KM120 along the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. "It is serious. It is not a normal kind of transgression," former Northern Army Commander Lt Gen (Retd) DS Hooda said. He particularly emphasised that Chinese transgression into areas like Galwan was worrying as there was no dispute between the two sides in the area. Strategic Affairs expert Ambassador Ashok K Kantha too agreed with Lt Gen Hooda. "There have been multiple incursions (by Chinese troops). This is something which causes concern. It is not a routine standoff. This is a disturbing situation," Kantha said. Sources said diplomatic efforts must be ramped up to resolve the escalating tension between the two armies and that both sides are eyeball-to-eyeball in several areas including Pangong Tso, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie. The Chinese side has particularly strengthened its presence in the Galwan Valley, erecting around 100 tents in the last two weeks and bringing in heavy equipment for construction of bunkers. The sources said Indian troops are resorting to "aggressive patrolling" in several sensitive areas including Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldi. The situation in Eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage" following a meeting at the level of local commanders. Over 100 Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in the violence. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in North Sikkim on May 9. India last week said the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops and asserted that India has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management. At a media briefing, external affairs ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also strongly refuted China's contention that the tension was triggered due to trespassing by Indian forces on the Chinese side. India's response came two days after China accused the Indian Army of trespassing into its territory, claiming that it was an "attempt to unilaterally change the status" of the LAC in Sikkim and Ladakh. On May 5, the Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector on May 9. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. China has been critical of India's reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, and has particularly criticised New Delhi for making Ladakh a union territory. China lays claim over several parts of Ladakh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam standoff. In the summit, the two leaders decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding. Modi and Xi held their second informal summit in Mamallapuram near Chennai in October last year with a focus on further broadening bilateral ties. (Newser) A Facebook post by the California Highway Patrol in South Sacramento uses no fewer than four poop emojis in telling this story, for good reason. It seems that in the wee hours of Monday morning, a driver called police to say he'd crashed into a pond on a dairy farm somewhere near the city of Elk Grove. Turns out, it was a storage pond for manure, reports the Sacramento Bee. Luckily, the driver wasn't hurt, but the manure had pretty well filled up the vehicle by the time authorities arrived. story continues below Worse, the CHP says the unidentified guy had spent an hour trying to get out of the pond himself before realizing it was futile and calling for help. At which point it took about 50 minutes for the local fire department to find him. As KCRA points out, "that's two hours the driver spent in liquified excrement." Then came the perfect end to his night: Troopers charged the driver with DUI when he was finally freed. (Read more weird crimes stories.) Billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit said a crucial test of its two-stage, orbital rocket system, designed to rival that of Elon Musk's SpaceX for satellite launches, ended the mission shortly after releasing the rocket from the plane. A Boeing Co. 747, named Cosmic Girl, took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California on Monday at 11:56 a.m. Pacific time, carrying beneath it Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket over the Pacific Ocean. About an hour later, the plane released the rocket in what Virgin Orbit called a "clean" release. Three minutes later, the company said the mission had ended shortly into the flight. There have been more than 20 previous tests, including one earlier this year carrying the rocket, but this was meant to be the first time LauncherOne had been ignited. Earlier this week, Virgin Orbit described Monday's test as "the apex of a five-year-long development program." "We've confirmed a clean release from the aircraft. However, the mission terminated shortly into the flight," the company tweeted Monday. "Cosmic Girl and our flight crew are safe and returning to base." Before Monday's attempt, Virgin Orbit said maiden flights by government and commercial providers fail about half the time. The company's ultimate goal is to use its rockets to launch small satellites into space, competing with ground-based launches, such as those from Space Exploration Technologies. SpaceX has a significant head start. Over the past decade it's launched about 100 rockets, landed many of them safely back on Earth, and come to dominate the industry, while being valued at close to $40 billion. In a few days, SpaceX is set to carry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station - the first time NASA personnel have blasted off from the U.S. since the 2011 retirement of the Space Shuttle. Meanwhile, the Virgin Orbit test this holiday weekend comes at a critical time for Branson as the coronavirus pandemic weighs heavily on his leisure and travel assets. The Virgin Australia airline fell into administration last month, and Virgin Atlantic pitched to about a dozen potential investors last week as the U.K. government drags its heels over an emergency bailout. Branson's Vieco 10 investment company also recently offloaded about 2% of its stake in a separate space company, Virgin Galactic Holdings, as the billionaire looks to support his broader business empire. Virgin Galactic is trying to pioneer space tourism. Glenn Fogel was in crisis mode. It was late February and the coronavirus was spreading. Fogel, chief executive of Booking Holdings, the online travel giant that owns brands like Priceline.com, OpenTable and Kayak, was spending nearly every waking moment at his computer as a tsunami of travel cancellations poured in. He quickly paused marketing, halted stock buybacks, froze hiring and raised $4 billion in debt. The job, its just expanded exponentially, he said. Then the virus that ravaged his business got him, too. His wife became sick and his daughter, a college student who had returned home, started to cough. On March 25, Fogel, 58, who lives just outside New York City, developed a headache and a 101-degree fever. He was among a wave of leaders at publicly traded companies who tested positive for the coronavirus. At least half a dozen chief executives have contracted it in the past three months, according to a tally by The New York Times, including the heads of NBCUniversal; the real estate investment firm Kimco Realty; Becle, which makes Jose Cuervo tequila; and the security company ADT. In April, Morgan Stanleys chief, James Gorman, told employees that he had tested positive and recovered. Fogels illness was relatively mild, but it complicated navigating the lockdown and shoring up a business in free fall. And it put him on the hook to properly disclose the situation to shareholders. Publicly traded companies are obligated to divulge events that may be considered material to investors. Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said companies faced risks if news of a top executives illness leaked before a disclosure. Apple famously concealed the health conditions of its chief, Steve Jobs, before he died in 2011, prompting criticism and an inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You dont want to lose the PR battle that the company hid this, Cappelli said. Fogel kept working. Before taking a drive-through test for the virus March 26 near his home in Scarsdale, N.Y., he did a CNN interview over Skype. On April 1, Booking Holdings filed a regulatory document laying out his condition. Fogel, an energetic storyteller, said his attitude was, Lets let everybody know so everyones informed, so theres no question. Steve Hafner, who heads OpenTable and Kayak and reports to Fogel, estimated that he had gotten more messages on Slack and video calls from his boss while he was sick than when he was healthy. Son of a gun worked right through it, Hafner said. Fogel, who was previously a trader and an investment banker, joined Booking in February 2000 as a young manager. At the time, the company, which began in 1997, was known as Priceline.com. Two weeks later, the stock market peaked and the dot-com bubble burst. Soon after, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks happened, hampering peoples desire to travel. But the company forged ahead, focusing on hotels, expanding in Europe and on making acquisitions. In 2005, it bought a small Dutch startup, Booking.com, which people use to book lodging. Booking.com became the largest division in the company, which took its name. Fogel rose through the ranks, eventually overseeing acquisitions and strategic alliances. In 2017, he was appointed chief executive after his predecessor resigned over an affair with an employee. To prepare for disruptive events, Booking conducted crisis management drills. Executives practised for situations like natural disasters, political coups, data breaches and ransomware attacks. But there was no drill for a pandemic. All the others together, theyre nowhere near what has happened now, Fogel said. When the extent of the pandemic became clear to Fogel and his lieutenants in early March, their first move was to set up customer service workers at home to field an avalanche of cancellations from travellers. He and his executives also tried to quickly figure out how to balance the inherent conflicts among hoteliers, who risked going bankrupt if they refunded everyone; customers, who stood to lose money on nonrefundable bookings; customer service workers, who were under pressure while working from home with their families; and shareholders, who argued that Booking was not legally obligated to offer refunds. The pressure was intense. Booking paid customers $63 million in refunds on nonrefundable reservations for the first three months of the year, money it does not expect to recover. Fogel said the company would try to get some back from the hotels eventually, but that requires helping them stay afloat now. OpenTable later waived fees on its restaurant reservation system for the rest of the year. You want to build the reputation that you are there, Fogel said. By then, he was feeling ill, and his wife and daughter had become sick. After initially testing negative for the coronavirus, his high school-age son developed a cough and fever, too. Leslie Cafferty, Bookings head of communications, said Fogels first instinct had been to call in the lawyers to understand disclosure requirements and minimize any risk he was hiding information. They made plans to announce his test results in an SEC filing. After Fogel got positive test results for the virus March 31, Booking pulled the trigger on the filing the next day. In it, Booking said that he continued to perform as chief executive and that the company had succession plans, including a temporary delegation of responsibilities, for all of its senior executives. By then, Fogels fever had faded and he felt recovered, he said. His family recovered quickly as well. But the announcement prompted more than 1,000 emails and messages from employees, partners and friends. As he dealt with a cratering business, it took him more than a month to respond to the notes. Fogel said he had created a system of responses: People who had sent a short Get well soon got a thumbs-up emoji. Those who had also had the virus got a more thoughtful response. And then there were others that knew somebody that had lost their fight, and those were hard to read, he said. Work piled up as the travel industry underwent more pain. In April, newly booked rooms through Bookings various sites plunged 85 per cent from a year earlier. That led to cost cuts. In the past month, Booking, which has 26,000 employees, has laid off 1,900 people at Kayak, OpenTable and Agoda, its subsidiary in Singapore. It also furloughed 1,800 workers in Britain under the countrys relief plan and applied for aid from the Netherlands. The company which has seven crisis management teams, including one that manages the other crisis management teams also increased the frequency of its video question-and-answer sessions with Fogel and other internal communications. On May 7, Booking said it had lost $699 million in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $765 million a year earlier. It wrote down the values of OpenTable and Kayak by $489 million, citing the pandemic. Its stock price has fallen 21 per cent this year. Fogel and his team are now figuring out how to emerge from quarantine to an altered travel market. OpenTable has started offering reservations to bars and stores that are reopening with social distancing measures. Kayak has begun featuring rental cars on its home page instead of flights. In the past, we were doing six million flight queries a day, and a fraction of that was rental cars, said Hafner, the head of both brands. Now its the inverse. Fogels health remains top of mind. In a recent meeting with Bookings board of directors, they stopped Fogel in the middle of a crisis management presentation to check on his health. Hes going 100 miles an hour, said Tim Armstrong, former chief executive of AOL and a member of Bookings board since 2013. The board was conscious of making sure he was taking care of himself. Before the pandemic, Fogel commuted weekly to headquarters in Amsterdam. He also made frequent trips to Bookings offices in Singapore and Bangkok. He said he was eager to travel again but appreciated one silver lining of sheltering in place. For the past two months, he has had dinner each night with his wife, son and daughter, something that hadnt happened that often in many years, he said. As for his familys bout with the virus, Fogel added, Hopefully now were immune. If you've watched Netflix's hedonistic new hit White Lines, odds are you're hankering after one - if not all - of these things: a summer holiday in Ibiza, dancing in a club, and a certain bad boy bouncer. The series, created by Spanish television producer Alex Pina, follows Mancunian librarian Zoe Walker (Laura Haddock) as she tries to hunt down the person who killed her brother Axel (Tom Rhys Harries) 20 years ago. We'd be forgiven for saying she gets somewhat sidetracked along the way, largely thanks to Axel's drug dealing sex-mad mates, the Balearic island's stunning scenery and a nightclub doorman called Boxer who is also head of security for the wealthy Calafat family. Boxer - aka Duarte Silva - is played by hunky Portugese actor and DJ Nuno Lopes. The 42-year-old star is already pretty famous in his homeland, having racked up five Best Actor gongs at the Globo de Ouro (the Portuguese equivalent of the Golden Globes) over the years. Nuno Lopes as Duarte 'Boxer' Silva, pictured beside Spanish actress Marta Milans, who plays Kika in White Lines But the father-of-one has secured himself a new legion of admirers thanks to his latest role. Despite the fact he commits two brutal murders in quick succession and tortures Axel's friend Marcus (Daniel May) in an attempt to draw a confession, Boxer has proved a big hit with smitten viewers. While he's someone you really wouldn't want to mess with, the bodyguard frequently comes to the rescue and offers a tantalising glimpse of his sensitive side - whether it's leaving romantic voicemails or following up a steamy love-making session by painting his woman's feet. He even manages to make sex on a grave - freshly dug with the help of Zoe to hide the bodies of two murdered Romanian drug dealers - sensual. One fan tweeted: 'Just finished binge-watching #WhiteLines Best thing on #Netflix right now. Does it make me want to get trashed in Ibiza? YEP. Do I want to marry Boxer? Absolutely.' The 42-year-old star is already pretty famous in his homeland, having racked up five Best Actor gongs at the Globo de Ouro (the Portuguese equivalent of the Golden Globes) over the years - but he's become an international sensation Despite the fact he commits two brutal murders in quick succession and tortures Axel's friend Marcus (Daniel May) in an attempt to draw a confession, Boxer has proved a big hit with smitten viewers Another wrote: 'A new icon is born - Boxer from #WhiteLines the mythic philosopher warrior and every woman's dream bad boy. Thank you @NunoLopesTweets for sweetening our #isolationlife.' And one admitted: 'Oh my god what I would do for a voicemail of Boxer whispering down me phone.' Many confessed they lost interest in the whodunnit plot as they became more invested in Boxer finding love. One viewer tweeted: 'Episode eight of White Lines and at this point I honestly couldn't give less of a s*** who killed Axel Collins! I just hope Boxer finds the love he deserves.' Lopes has admitted being taken aback by the inevitable stream of messages he's received. Pictured as Boxer during a steamy scene with Zoe And one commented: 'Boxer from #WhiteLines is like the type of man you go on holiday and want to meet, fall in love and have loads of Spanish kids with, living in a villa while he paints you. Axel is the man you meet, a Manc off his cake who thinks he's funny cos he downs five shots in a row.' Lopes has admitted being taken aback by the inevitable stream of messages he's received, writing on Instagram: 'I can't even begin to describe how happy I am with the amount of love I've been receiving from WHITE LINES fans from all over the world. I am truly lost for words and incredibly humbled. 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart. (I'm a little bit overwhelmed right now with the thousands and thousands of messages but I promise I will try my best to find the time to read them all in the near future).' It's fair to say Zoe gets somewhat sidetracked in her quest to hunt down the person who killed her brother Axel 20 years ago. Pictured in a racy clinch with Boxer According to Wikipedia, Lopes has one child and dated Moldova-born fellow actor Mikaela Luput, who is 18 years his junior, aged 24, between 2017 and 2018. It's not known if he's currently single. Prior to White Lines, Lopes starred as Jorge in Sao Jorge (Saint George), a 2016 Portuguese drama film directed by Marco Martins which was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. He also won acclaim for his role in Alice, a 2005 film also directed by Martins. Lopes has a string of theatre and TV credits to his name, having worked in Portugal and Brazil. Lopes has a string of theatre and TV credits to his name, having worked in Portugal and Brazil. Pictured left with the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor for 'Saint George' during the closing ceremony of the 73rd Venice Film Festival at Sala Grande in September 2016 and right beard-free during the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival in May 2012 He played Inspector Rebelo in South and Joao Nunes in Sara, as well as Maximilian Ridoh in Mata Hari, Alexandre Gomes in Terapia and Nuno in Odisseia. But it's his role in White Lines which is likely to catapult him to international stardom. As well as The Inbetweeners' Laura Haddock and Line of Duty star Daniel Mays, other familiar faces to look out for in the drama include Laurence Fox as drug-addict-turned-spiritual-guru David, Angela Griffin as Anna, Marcus' ex-wife. All 10 episodes of White Lines are streaming on Netflix now. For months, President Donald Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for covid-19, calling the anti-malarial drug a "game changer," asking patients, "What do you have to lose?" - and even announcing that he was taking the drug himself in an attempt to ward off the novel coronavirus. On Monday, however, the World Health Organization announced it had temporarily halted its global trial of the drug, citing a new study that found a significantly higher risk of death among those taking hydroxychloroquine or the closely related drug chloroquine. "The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director general, said in a briefing. Trump, meanwhile, said on Sunday that he is no longer taking hydroxychloroquine, but again defended the drug as a covid-19 treatment, pointing to "tremendous, rave reviews." "I believe in it enough that I took a program because I had two people in the White House that tested positive," Trump told Sharyl Attkisson of the Sinclair Broadcast Group noting that his "two-week course" of the drug had recently finished. "And by the way, I'm still here," Trump added. "To the best of my knowledge, here I am." The WHO's decision is the latest setback for backers of hydroxychloroquine, which has produced a series of disappointing results in scientific studies. In April, the Food and Drug Administration warned against using the drug outside of hospitals and clinical trials over reports of "serious heart rhythm problems" linked to the drug's use. On Friday, the medical journal Lancet published a study of 96,000 hospitalized covid-19 patients worldwide that found a 45 percent increased risk of death and a 411 percent increased risk of serious heart arrhythmias among those taking a cocktail of antibiotics and theantimalarial drug. "If there was ever hope for this drug, this is the death of it," Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, told The Washington Post. The WHO started a clinical trial earlier this year to test hydroxychloroquine along with three other experimental treatments. Due to the alarming findings published in the Lancet, Ghebreyesus said Monday, the use of hydoxychloroquine in the trial, which now has more than 3,500 patients in 17 countries, will temporarily halt. The trial will continue for the other three drugs, and the WHO will likely decide within the next two weeks whether to resume using hydroxychloroquine, chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told NPR. This weekend, Trump continued to promote the drug. The president had revealed earlier this month that he was taking hydroxychloroquine after one of his military valets and Vice President Pence's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Asked by Attkisson whether it was appropriate for him to take the drug despite the official warnings, the president stood by his decision. "Well, I've heard tremendous reports about it. Frankly, I've heard tremendous reports. Many people think it saved their lives. Doctors come out with reports," he said, citing in particular an "incredible" study in France. (A study by French researcher Didier Raoult that helped fuel initial enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine has since been discredited by scientists.) Trump added, "Hydroxy has had tremendous, if you look at it, tremendous, rave reviews." Their door is always open. DJ Tanner, Stephanie Tanner, and Kimmy Gibbler return to their iconic childhood home from Full House for the Netflix spinoff series, Fuller House. But some things have changed with the shows set and the actual house it was based on. Heres what we know about the Tanner-Fuller house and its actual location in San Francisco. DJ Tanner took over her dads house on the Netflix spinoff series Fuller House Theres always room for more in the Tanner-Fuller house. In the Netflix original series, the women return to their childhood home for more adventures together with their families. Most recently, that means making room for Stephanies baby girl, Danielle Jo Tanner. And with a couple of the members getting engaged, Steve Hale and Jimmy Gibbler might be moving in, too. Is the Full House house real though? Technically, yes. The front of the house, seen during the opening of both Fuller House and Full House, actually exists. The inside, however, is not as real as some fans hope. The cast of Full House | Craig Sjodin/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images RELATED: No, American Horror Story Season 10 Cast Member, Macaulay Culkin, Was Not Michelle Tanners Best Friend on Full House The Full House house is a real house Although this home is a huge part of Fuller House and Full House, the physical house is actually a private residence in San Francisco. Tourists can stop by the street and have a picnic, like the Tanners, in the park across the street, though the house isnt available for tours or for visitors to catch a glimpse of the inside. In fact, this house has since been updated from its appearance on the 1990s sitcom. When it was on the market in 2019, the house had a new black door and a totally modern interior, according to pictures from Today. This is completely different from the inside of the house seen on the show, which was a set built for the series. Characters Danny, Stephanie, and DJ of Full House | Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives RELATED: DJ Tanner Is Finally Getting Married on Fuller House Heres Our Look at Some of Her Less-Than-Worthy Boyfriends What makes the Tanner-Fuller house different? Fans first caught a glimpse inside the Tanner home when Full House premiered in 1987. There was a garage, which they transformed into Joeys room. DJ and Stephanie roomed together, though later DJ got her own room and Michelle moved in with Stephanie. Uncle Jesse had his own room, too. Once Uncle Jesse married Rebecca, they moved into the attic together eventually with their twin boys. Fuller House used the same set, which became a home for DJ and her three boys, as well as Kimmy Gibbler and her family. With Netflixs spinoff series, the cast returned to the Tanner home, where DJ made new memories and even got engaged. Its only a matter of time before the character is finally married to Steve, thanks to the second half of season 5 coming in June 2020 to the streaming platform. This house was, of course, just a set. According to Today, the actual house in San Francisco has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. It was listed at almost $6 million. Our customers can also leverage simple, yet powerful API and CLI tools to completely automate their server provisioning schemes with minimal configuration," said William Bell, EVP of Products at phoenixNAP. phoenixNAP, a global IT services provider offering security-focused cloud infrastructure, dedicated servers, colocation, and specialized Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) technology solutions, today announced the upcoming launch of its new Bare Metal Cloud platform a non-virtualized, cloud-native physical server infrastructure designed to deliver superior performance, enhanced scalability, and improved cost-efficiency. The platform is currently in closed Beta and its general availability is expected in June/July. Bare Metal Cloud is built for organizations that rely on a high level of IT automation to enable frequent releases, agile development, and CI/CD pipelines. With direct access to the raw power of dedicated hardware resources without any virtualization layer, modern enterprises and DevOps-oriented organizations can embrace the flexibility of the cloud while preserving the raw processing power and unmatched reliability of dedicated physical machines. Providing advanced hardware and networking technologies, various API integrations, and flexible billing options, Bare Metal Cloud ensures agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. This new addition to our IaaS services portfolio will make a tremendous difference for organizations that have adopted the DevOps mindset and are looking for improved infrastructure automation, scalability, and performance, said Ian McClarty, President of phoenixNAP. Bare Metal Cloud strips away the virtualization layer to expose the raw power of bare metal, enabling businesses to take full control over their infrastructure all the while significantly reducing OpEx costs. The key features of phoenixNAPs Bare Metal Cloud include automated server provisioning and decommissioning procedures, integration with open source infrastructure management platforms (Ansible, Terraform, Pulumi), and access to S3-compatible storage. Organizations with highly dynamic needs can optimize their costs through the hourly billing option, while companies with more predictable workloads can leverage monthly reservations. Its as simple as clicking a button and the Bare Metal Cloud server is up and running within minutes, explained William Bell, Vice President of Products at phoenixNAP. Our customers can also leverage simple, yet powerful API and CLI tools to completely automate their server provisioning schemes with minimal configuration. Fully compatible with automation engines Terraform, Ansible, and Pulumi, the Bare Metal Cloud is tailored to meet the needs of DevOps workflows by allowing administrators to easily manage their infrastructure as code. Delivering on phoenixNAP promise of being very responsive to our customers demands and providing them with access to state-of-the-art technology we have approached designing and building our Bare Metal Cloud with the latest generation of hardware supporting heavy computation, high IOPS storage requirements as well as very robust 50Gbps per server instance capable network, stated Martin Wielomski, Director of Product Management at phoenixNAP Our customers Cloud Native workloads can take full advantage of the horsepower, throughput and scalability phoenixNAP Bare Metal Cloud will provide on a truly global scale. Whether running highly resilient and scalable container services, business-critical workloads or preparing a new application to go to market, Bare Metal Cloud can support any business need. Engineered to handle all CPU-intensive workloads, it further supports rendering CGI, encoding 4K video, launching gaming servers, analyzing and processing Big Data, training machine learning models and natural language processing, as well as running enterprise-level databases. With cloud-native scaling capabilities on top of that, customers can expand their Bare Metal Cloud architecture on demand by adding more physical resources to accommodate sudden increases in data consumption. The Bare Metal Cloud will initially be available in Phoenix and Ashburn with plans to expand the service globally to Amsterdam, Singapore, and other phoenixNAPs global locations. Bare Metal Cloud Key Features Single-tenant, non-virtualized environment Fully automated, API-driven server provisioning Integrations with Terraform, Ansible, and Pulumi SDK available on GitHub Pay-per-use and reserved instances billing models Dedicated hardware no noisy neighbors Global scalability Cutting edge hardware and network technologies Built with market proven and well-established technology partners Suited for developers and business critical production environments alike For more info, visit Bare Metal Cloud page. About phoenixNAP phoenixNAP is a global IT services provider with a focus on cybersecurity and compliance-readiness, whose progressive Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions are delivered from strategic locations worldwide. Its cloud, dedicated servers, hardware leasing, and colocation options are built to meet ever-evolving business IT requirements. Providing comprehensive disaster recovery solutions, DDoS-protected global network, and hybrid IT deployments with software and hardware-based security, phoenixNAP fully supports its clients business continuity plans. Offering scalable and resilient opex solutions with expert staff to assist, phoenixNAP supports growth and innovation for businesses of all sizes, enabling their digital transformation. phoenixNAP is a Premier Service Provider in the VMware Cloud Provider Program and a Platinum Veeam Cloud & Service Provider partner. phoenixNAP is also a PCI DSS Validated Service Provider and its flagship facility is SOC Type 1 and SOC Type 2 audited. The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing] BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) The third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, held its second plenary meeting Monday. Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan attended the meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, delivered a work report of the 13th NPC Standing Committee. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the NPC Standing Committee has provided legal support for anti-epidemic efforts and economic and social development, he said. In the report, Li Zhanshu summed up the NPC Standing Committee's work since last year, highlighting a decision on conferring national medals and honorary titles, a decision on granting special pardons to certain convicts, and a draft decision of the NPC on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security, which is under deliberation. Li stressed remaining committed to upholding and improving the people's congress system to ensure that the nation's destiny remains firmly in the hands of the people. For 2020, Li said the NPC Standing Committee should push for continuous and new progress in its work surrounding the tasks of securing decisive success in the fight against poverty, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and coordinating epidemic control and economic and social development. At Monday's meeting, lawmakers also heard a work report of the Supreme People's Court delivered by its president Zhou Qiang. Zhou said the top court in the past year centered its work on the goal of allowing the people to see justice served in every case and will further promote the Peaceful China initiative, and strengthen judicial services focusing on securing a victory in the fight against poverty and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects in 2020. While delivering a work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Procurator-General Zhang Jun said since last year new advances have been made by procuratorates in safeguarding the country's political security and social stability, fighting corruption, among others. For 2020, Zhang urged procuratorates to shoulder their responsibilities as the year is the final phase in achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty and the sudden COVID-19 epidemic has brought new challenges. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, delivers a work report of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Huang Jingwen] Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, delivers a work report of the 13th NPC Standing Committee at the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan] Wang Chen presides over the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Yin Bogu] Zhou Qiang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), delivers a work report of the SPC at the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Yue Yuewei] Zhang Jun, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), delivers a work report of the SPP at the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Yue Yuewei] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Wang Yuguo] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Gao Jie] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Ju Peng] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Chen Yehua] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Ding Haitao] Deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) attend the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Gao Jie] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan] Deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) attend the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Wang Yuguo] Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) sit in on the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) as non-voting participants at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Li He] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Wang Yuguo] The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing] Journalists work during the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Chen Yehua] An interpreter works during the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. [Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai] (Source: Xinhua) By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Bharti Telecom Limited has sold 2.75 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel to institutional investors for Rs 8,433 crore through book building process in the secondary market. The telecom giant said on Tuesday that the proceeds would be used to turn the company debt free.The sale proceeds of over Rs 8433 crore ($1.15 billion) was over-subscribed multiple times with healthy mix of all categories of investors, long only and hedge fund investors across geographies in India, Asia, Europe and the United States of America, the company said. Bharti Group and Singtel, who form the promoter group, will continue to own a majority stake in Bharti Airtel at 56.23 per cent, after the stake sale. With the proceeds, Bharti Telecom Limited will become a zero debt company, Harjeet Kohli, Group Director, Bharti Enterprises, said. ALSO READ| Bharti Telecom's stake sale in Airtel is more of debt relief exercise, feel analysts J.P. Morgan India Private Limited acted as the sole placement agent. Bharti Group and Singtel, as Bharti Airtels largest shareholders remain committed to the business and the long term prospects of Bharti Airtel. In the last few years the promoters have invested over Rs 21,000 crore in Airtel and stay committed to investing further in the business as may be required, said Bharti Telecom. ALSO READ| Airtel Payments Bank group ties up with Mastercard for farmers, small and medium enterprises Analysts described the exercise as a deleveraging move. Secondary equity sale by Bharti Telecom is more of a deleveraging exercise, in our view sector fundamental remains attractive, noted Credit Suisse. A separate report by the analyst firm Jefferies stated that though a stake sale by promoters is usually seen as negative by investors, in this case the stake sale was mainly to de-leverage Bharti Telecom and, hence, not it is not negative. An international team of scientists uncovered exotic quantum properties hidden in magnetite, the oldest magnetic material known to mankind. The study reveals the existence of low-energy waves that indicate the important role of electronic interactions with the crystal lattice. This is another step to fully understand the metal-insulator phase transition mechanism in magnetite, and in particular to learn about the dynamical properties and critical behavior of this material in the vicinity of the transition temperature. Magnetite (Fe3O4) is a common mineral, whose strong magnetic properties were already known in ancient Greece. Initially, it was used mainly in compasses, and later in many other devices, such as data recording tools. It is also widely applied to catalytic processes. Even animals benefit from the properties of magnetite in detecting magnetic fields - for example, birds are known to use it in navigation. Physicists are also very interested in magnetite because around a temperature of 125 K it shows an exotic phase transition, named after the Dutch chemist Verwey. This Verwey transition was also the first phase metal-to-insulator transformation observed historically. During this extremely complex process, the electrical conductivity changes by as much as two orders of magnitude and a rearrangement of the crystal structure takes place. Verwey proposed a transformation mechanism based on the location of electrons on iron ions, which leads to the appearance of a periodic spatial distribution of Fe2+ and Fe3+ charges at low temperatures. In recent years, structural studies and advanced calculations have confirmed the Verwey hypothesis, while revealing a much more complex pattern of charge distribution (16 non-equivalent positions of iron atoms) and proving the existence of orbital order. The fundamental components of this charge-orbital ordering are polarons - quasiparticles formed as a result of a local deformation of the crystal lattice caused by the electrostatic interaction of a charged particle (electron or hole) moving in the crystal. In the case of magnetite, the polarons take the form of trimerons, complexes made of three iron ions, where the inner atom has more electrons than the two outer atoms. The new study, published in the journal Nature Physics, was carried out by scientists from many leading research centers around the world. Its purpose was to experimentally uncover the excitations involved in the charge-orbital order of magnetite and describe them by means of advanced theoretical methods. The experimental part was performed at MIT (Edoardo Baldini, Carina Belvin, Ilkem Ozge Ozel, Nuh Gedik); magnetite samples were synthesized at the AGH University of Science and Technology (Andrzej Kozlowski); and the theoretical analyses were carried out in several places: the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Przemyslaw Piekarz, Krzysztof Parlinski), the Jagiellonian University and the Max Planck Institute (Andrzej M. Oles), the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Jose Lorenzana), Northeastern University (Gregory Fiete), the University of Texas at Austin (Martin Rodriguez-Vega), and the Technical University in Ostrava (Dominik Legut). "At the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, we have been conducting studies on magnetite for many years, using the first-principles calculation method," explains Prof. Przemyslaw Piekarz. "These studies have indicated that the strong interaction of electrons with lattice vibrations (phonons) plays an important role in the Verwey transition." The scientists at MIT measured the optical response of magnetite in the extreme infrared for several temperatures. Then, they illuminated the crystal with an ultrashort laser pulse (pump beam) and measured the change in the far-infrared absorption with a delayed probe pulse. "This is a powerful optical technique that enabled us to take a closer view at the ultrafast phenomena governing the quantum world," says Prof. Nuh Gedik, head of the research group at MIT. The measurements revealed the existence of low-energy excitations of the trimeron order, which correspond to charge oscillations coupled to a lattice deformation. The energy of two coherent modes decreases to zero when approaching the Verwey transition - indicating their critical behavior near this transformation. Advanced theoretical models allowed them to describe the newly-discovered excitations as a coherent tunneling of polarons. The energy barrier for the tunneling process and other model parameters were calculated using density functional theory (DFT), based on the quantum-mechanical description of molecules and crystals. The involvement of these waves in the Verwey transition was confirmed using the Ginzburg-Landau model. Finally, the calculations also ruled out other possible explanations for the observed phenomenon, including conventional phonons and orbital excitations. "The discovery of these waves is of key importance for understanding the properties of magnetite at low temperatures and the Verwey transition mechanism," say Dr. Edoardo Baldini and Ms. Carina Belvin of MIT, the lead authors of the article. "In a broader context, these results reveal that the combination of ultrafast optical methods and state-of-the-art calculations makes it possible to study quantum materials hosting exotic phases of matter with charge and orbital order." The obtained results lead to several important conclusions. First, the trimeron order in magnetite has elementary excitations with a very low energy, absorbing radiation in the far-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Second, these excitations are collective fluctuations of charge and lattice deformations that exhibit critical behavior and are thus involved in the Verwey transition. Finally, the results shed new light on the cooperative mechanism and dynamical properties that lie at the origin of this complex phase transition. "As for the plans for the future of our team, as part of the next stages of work we intend to focus on conducting theoretical calculations aimed at better understanding the observed coupled electronic-structural waves," concludes Prof. Piekarz. The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently the largest research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The broad range of studies and activities of IFJ PAN includes basic and applied research, ranging from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of methods of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly yield of the IFJ PAN encompasses more than 600 scientific papers in the Journal Citation Reports published by the Clarivate Analytics. The part of the Institute is the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) which is an infrastructure, unique in Central Europe, to serve as a clinical and research centre in the area of medical and nuclear physics. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium: "Matter-Energy-Future" which possesses the status of a Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics for the years 2012-2017. In 2017 the European Commission granted to the Institute the HR Excellence in Research award. The Institute is of A+ Category (leading level in Poland) in the field of sciences and engineering. ### CONTACTS: Prof. Przemyslaw Piekarz Institute of Nuclear Physics of Polish Academy of Sciences Tel: +48 12 662 8281 Email: przemyslaw.piekarz@ifj.edu.pl SCIENTIFIC PAPER: Edoardo Baldini, Carina A. Belvin, Martin Rodriguez-Vega, Ilkem Ozge Ozel, Dominik Legut, Andrzej Kozlowski, Andrzej M. Oles, Krzysztof Parlinski, Przemyslaw Piekarz, Jose Lorenzana, Gregory A. Fiete and Nuh Gedik "Discovery of the soft electronic modes of the trimeron order in magnetite" Nature Physics 16, 541-545 (2020) DOI: 10.1038/s41567-020-0823-y LINKS: http://www.ifj.edu.pl/ The website of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences http://press.ifj.edu.pl/ Press releases of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences Storyful An 11-month-old girl is in critical but stable condition after suffering a gunshot wound to the face from a stray bullet fired on a Bronx street on January 19.Footage shows the suspected shooter running from Valentine Avenue onto East 198th Street before turning around and running back onto Valentine Avenue. A police statement said two shots were fired, one which entered a vehicle and struck the infant.The NYPD released the footage and appealed to the public for help in identifying the suspect, who was believed to be chasing another individual when the shots were fired. Credit: NYPD via Storyful Credit: CC0 Public Domain An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a two-year study on the efficacy of workplace wellness programs and found that such programs have little impact on employee health, health beliefs and medical utilization. Since the passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the workplace wellness industry has grown rapidly, spurred in part by the law's incentives for firms to adopt such programs by raising the financial benefits offered to program participants. Among large U.S. firms offering health benefits in 2019, 84% also offered a workplace wellness program to reduce health care costs and improve employee health. But a randomized controlled trial showed that, after 24 months, a comprehensive workplace wellness program had no significant effects on measured physical health outcomes such as weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or blood glucose; rates of medical diagnoses; or the use of health care services; according to a new paper co-written by U. of I. scholars David Molitor, Laura Payne and Julian Reif. The paper, which was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, comes out of the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study, which examined a workplace wellness program offered to employees from the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. "Many employers use workplace wellness programs in an attempt to improve employee health and reduce medical costs, but randomized evaluations of their efficacy are rare," said Molitor, a professor of finance at the Gies College of Business and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Our randomized evaluation found no significant effect of the program on employee health measures or medical use." The comprehensive workplace wellness program, dubbed iThrive, was designed to represent a typical corporate wellness program offered by employers. It included three annual components: an on-site biometric screening and survey; an online health risk assessment; and a choice of wellness activities. In the study, individual employees were randomly assigned to a treatment group that was eligible to participate in a two-year comprehensive workplace wellness program, or a control group that was ineligible. The researchers evaluated the effects of the program on health beliefs, self-reported health behaviors, clinician-collected biometrics, and claims-based medical diagnoses and medical use. In a randomized controlled trial of more than 4,800 U. of I. employees, the researchers found that those invited to join the wellness program showed no significant differences in clinical outcomes compared with the control group.Measures taken at 12- and 24-month intervals included 16 clinician-collected biometric outcomes; administrative claims related to medical diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia, and medical use such as office visits, inpatient visits, and emergency room visits; and 14 self-reported health-behavior and health-belief outcomes. The program included paid time off for annual on-site health screenings, health risk assessments and ongoing wellness activitiesfor example, physical activity programs encouraging campus walks over lunch breaks, smoking-cessation programs and chronic disease self-management programs. The program affected two self-reported health outcomes: It increased the proportion of employees reporting that they have a primary care physician and improved employee beliefs about their own health, the authors report. "A significantly higher proportion of employees in the treatment group reported having a primary care physician after 24 months," Molitor said. "The workplace wellness program also significantly improved a set of employee health beliefs on average. But we found no significant effect of the program on employee health measures or medical use, demonstrating a mismatch between employee perceptions of workplace wellness programs and an actual improvement in health. These findings shed light on employees' perceptions of workplace wellness programs, which may influence long-run effects on health." The study adds to a growing body of evidence from randomized evaluations showing that workplace wellness programs affect some self-reported outcomes but are unlikely to significantly improve employee health or reduce medical use in the short term, said Reif, a professor of finance at the Gies College of Business and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Many prior studies found that workplace wellness programs improved health and reduced medical use, but those results were likely due to differences in who participates. Our study complements recent randomized studies and demonstrates the value of using randomized evaluations to determine causal impact," Reif said. Explore further Survey shows half of all American workplaces offer health and wellness programs New Delhi: Bhojpuri bombshell Rani Chatterjee celebrated Eid with her family and friends in a close-knit ceremony on Monday. For the occasion, she chose to dress in a white and blue salwar-kameez set and she looked perfect. Rani aced her look with golden jhumkis, red lip colour, ey make-up and mehendi. She has shared several pictures from the Eid party and its difficult to pick one. All her photos are being liked by her fans as she is making them go gaga over her festive look. Her fans are all hearts for Ranis pictures. Take a look: Rani has been spreading smiles on social media with her posts amid the coronavirus lockdown. She is constantly keeping her several fans updated about her whereabouts and at the same time giving everyone ideas on how to avoid boredom. Rani has been spending the quarantine break by working out, spending time with family and herself. She is a big name in the Bhojpuri industry. She is one of the A-listers of the industry and has worked with some top stars, film producers and directors. On the work front, Rani will next be seen playing a police officer in 'Lady Singham', her upcoming project. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 27) A leading online employment firm revealed there has been a sharp decline in the number of job placements in the country amid the quarantine brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. JobStreet Philippines country manager Philip Gioca said they found a 30 to 50 percent drop in job postings in the country during the two-month quarantine. Prior to COVID-19, or when we were placed in ECQ (Enhanced Community Quarantine), we had so much jobs in the website. We were averaging 100,000 jobs a day. Right after, we saw a sudden decrease of jobs because, you know, we are in quarantine, said Gioca. Despite the decrease in job placements, Gioca said that some information technology-related companies continued to post their job openings in JobStreet Philippines. These included business processing outsourcing companies and other IT-related jobs. Gioca also said they saw a growth in government job openings during the quarantine, especially in job offerings for teachers, nurses, medical practitioners, and administrative staff. They continue to be there, performing the task that were assigned to them from the principal since the ECQ. And we are seeing them to actually grow in terms of jobs and placements as we move on to the relaxation of the ECQ, added Gioca. The JobStreet country manager said that consultancy jobs are also growing which enable the employee to work-from-home through digital means. Like before, when we see farmers, we see breeders, we see architects, we see them face-to-face. But now, we see that these guys can actually be consultants for outside the country, meaning to say, they can actually do and perform consultancy for a farming in Australia, architecture, engineering in Australia, while at home in the Philippines, Gioca explained. Gioca also highlighted the need for technological advancement or upscaling among middle management and upper middle management employees, which led to the rise of those availing themselves of free online short courses during the quarantine. One of those who took the online courses during the quarantine is online community leader Paula Mendoza, who finished 20 online courses from top universities around the world. Mendoza told CNN Philippines that her curiosity led to the discovery of the free online short courses offered in an online learning platform called Coursera. For these kinds of courses, you can finish it just for a day. Its going to be nonstop, said Mendoza. She added the certificates for completing the free online short courses were sent to her by electronic mail, which she printed. Mendoza also said that among the 20 courses she took, she found the marketing, sales, and personal development courses the hardest to complete. If she has free time, Mendoza said she will take more free online short courses to make her productive during the quarantine. Its very important to take note that you dont have to be a very intelligent person to take online courses. You just have to be smart, resilient, and resourceful, said Mendoza. Gioca said that individuals like Mendoza who took free online short courses have the edge when they return to their jobs under the new normal. He added the country now will be an employer-centric market due to the limited job offers of the companies. As soon as more companies open and the economy starts to boom again, Gioca said there will be parity in the job market. Afterwards, we grow the jobs and start opening more and more companies, we think itll be a level playing field, where job seekers can still be commanding in terms of what they like. And what they like right now is basically looking for jobs that offer work-from-home set up, he said. Last May 21 during the Senate committee of the whole hearing, Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III admitted the possibility that 10 million workers in the country will lose their jobs this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At present, Bello reported that 2.6 million workers have already lost their jobs due to the temporary closure of businesses affected by the pandemic. DOLE continues to provide cash subsidy to informal workers affected by the quarantine through its COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program, where each worker will receive a 5,000 financial assistance. India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported New AI-based test uses X-rays to detect Covid in a few minutes Coronavirus outbreak: Bihar to soon reach 3,000-mark; State govt blames migrant workers India oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P New Delhi, May 26: With the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise in India, Bihar is also seen fast approaching the 3,000-mark in the number of coronavirus cases. On Monday, Bihar witnessed 163 fresh cases, which took the tally to 2,737, the state health officials said. However, the Union Health Ministry claimed that 2,730 cases in the state in its update on Tuesday morning. According to the Health Department, the number of cases has seen a rapid rise in the recent past mainly on the account of the influx of migrant workers. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News With 10k tests per million, J&K leads the battle against coronavirus It is reportedly said that it took 12 days for the infection to double in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, 14 days in Delhi and just seven in Bihar. Also, the number of migrant workers testing positive in Bihar since May 3 has stood at 1,754, which is close to 80 per cent of the total number of cases reported during the period. Gene linked to dementia also associated with severe COVID-19 risk: Study A severe number of cases were reported from districts like Begusarai, Katihar, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Katihar and Saharsa. On Sunday, Bihar reported 180 new cases of coronavirus from 15 districts. Cases have been reported from all 38 districts of the state and nine of these, such as Patna, Rohtas, Begusarai, Munger, Madhubani, Katihar, Khagaria, Buxar and Jehanabad have reported in three-digits. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 11:46 [IST] Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Athens Tue, May 26, 2020 08:05 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda10a17 2 Art & Culture greece,Parthenon-Marbles,Acropolis Free Greece on Saturday urged Britain to return the Parthenon Marbles -- often known as the Elgin Marbles -- as one of the world's greatest ancient sites the Acropolis re-opens after the coronavirus shutdown. The ancient friezes, which include depictions of battles between mythical ancient Greeks and centaurs, were taken by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th century and are now on display at the British Museum in London. Britain has always refused to return them, arguing that they were taken with the permission of local Ottoman rulers at the time. "The reopening of the archaeological sites with the Acropolis among them, is an occasion for the international (groups) supporting the return of the Parthenon Marbles to reaffirm their constant demand as well as that of the Greek government for the definitive return of the marbles to their homeland," Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said in a statement. Greece reopened the Acropolis in Athens and all open-air archaeological sites last week under tight conditions after a two-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. The International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures -- formed in 2005 in Athens and which comprises various national groups -- last week sent a letter to the Greek Ministry of Culture proposing a renewed, coordinated campaign to put pressure on the British Museum. Mendoni said Saturday that the Marbles were "loot" and Greece would never recognize the British Museum's claim to the friezes. Greece has been campaigning for three decades for their return, arguing that the Ottoman empire was an occupying force and any permission granted during its time is not valid. Athens has considered suing Britain over the issue but more recently has taken a more diplomatic route, asking the UN's cultural agency UNESCO to mediate -- an offer rejected by the British Museum. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, elected in July, has made an official request for the loan of the marbles to mark the 200th anniversary celebrations of Greek independence in 2021. The British Museum has said it would examine any request from Greece to borrow exhibits. Here are todays leading news stories: Politics -- The Central Military Commission held a conference in Hanoi on Monday, chaired by Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong, to collect feedback on draft documents that will be submitted to the upcoming 11th Party Congress of the Peoples Army of Vietnam. Society -- A 20-year-old Vietnamese woman returning from France on Sunday and quarantined after arriving in Ho Chi Minh City has become Vietnams 326th patient of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Ministry of Health confirmed on Monday evening. -- A 64-year-old Hanoi woman, one of the most seriously sickened COVID-19 patients in Vietnam, has recovered from the disease after being treated for two months and 18 days at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. -- A Vietnam Airlines plane has transported face mask supplies from Vietnam to Japan and brought back 340 Vietnamese citizens who were stranded in the East Asian country because of the COVID-19 pandemic. -- One student was killed and 12 others injured after a flamboyant tree was uprooted and fell onto them on the premises of Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday morning. -- Police in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum are investigating the reason behind the death of three workers at the construction site of the Plei Kan hydroelectric dam. -- Officers in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau have arrested and initiated legal proceedings against a 27-year-old man, who works as a nurse at a local hospital, for allegedly raping a 15-year-old patient. -- The construction of Rach Mieu 2 Bridge and the An Huu-Cao Lanh Expressway, which costs nearly VND11 trillion (US$472 million), is expected to take place from 2021 to 2025 and boost traffic connectivity in the Mekong Delta. Business -- The World Bank has predicted that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) could help Vietnams GDP and exports grow 2.4 percent and 12 percent, respectively, by 2030, the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated. -- The U.S. has become Vietnams largest supplier of fruit and vegetables in the first four months of the year, recording a 44 percent increase year-on-year in export value to $102.1 million, according to the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetables Association. World news -- The novel coronavirus has sickened over 5.58 million people and killed more than 347,800 around the globe as of Tuesday morning, according to statistics. More than 2.36 million patients have recovered from COVID-19. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A Russian military helicopter has spiralled out of control before crashing in a ball of flames this morning. A video caught the horrific Mi-8 incident in which four servicemen died at the main military and civilian airport near Anadyr in the country's easternmost region Chukotka. The helicopter crashed moments after takeoff earlier today. The helicopter rose to a height of around 50ft but appeared out of control from the beginning The video shows the Mi-8 swaying from side to side and apparently flipping moments before hitting the ground and bursting into flames Thick black some was seen rising into the air from the crash site It rose to a height of around 50ft but appeared out of control from the beginning. The video shows the Mi-8 swaying from side to side and apparently flipping moments before hitting the ground and bursting into flames. Thick black some was seen rising into the air from the crash site. More footage shows firefighters dousing flames of the crashed helicopter. 'There were three crew members and one technician on board. All four died,' confirmed regional governor Roman Kopin. Thick black smoke billows from the crash site at a military and civilian airport near Anadyr on Tuesday More footage shows firefighters dousing flames of the crashed helicopter on Tuesday 'There were three crew members and one technician on board. All four died,' confirmed regional governor Roman Kopin The helicopter was attempting a test flight after undergoing repairs, according to reports. 'The reason for the accident could be a technical fault,' a defence ministry source told TASS. Two black boxes were found at the site, a Chukotka regional government representative told RIA Novosti news agency. Military investigators were dispatched to the crash site, according to reports. A woman who struggled with fertility issues has revealed how she became best friends with a generous egg donor she met online. Holly Liddington, 46, from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia explained how she met her now best-friend Tianni Becker, 40, while looking for egg donor after several failed rounds of IVF which cost her AUS$40,000 (21,440). Miraculously, Holly fell pregnant before mother-of-two Tianni was due to donate the eggs, but the duo decided to go ahead with the donation because of Holly's history of miscarriages. Eleven months on from giving birth to Oscar, now two,Holly went on to be inseminated with Tianni's egg and welcomed baby daughter Poppy, now nine-months-old. Holly Liddington, 46, from Lake Macquarie, has revealed how she became best-friends with a woman who offered to donate her eggs so that Holly, who was desperate to start a family, could become a mother (pictured: Holly during her first pregnancy) Holly and Tianni met through Facebook and hit it off immediately, with her new friend offering to donate her eggs to help Holly become a mother (pictured after Poppy's birth) Holly fell pregnant with Oscar, two, naturally and, 11 months later, she was inseminated with Tianni's egg and fell pregnant with Poppy, nine-months-old Holly said: 'My husband Simon, who is a software engineer and I, had never planned on having children - we were both career driven and loved the freedom. 'We quit our jobs in 2012 and spent a year travelling the world. We went to the Caribbean, India, South East Asia and Europe - it was incredible! 'When we returned back to Australia, we moved to a family orientated neighbourhood, we got a kitten called Zucchini and my maternal instincts just suddenly switched on and I wanted to become a mum for the first time in my life. 'However, it was easier said than done at 40 and after ten months of naturally trying to conceive we went down the IVF route. It failed every time and I suffered a miscarriage in between. Holly said she had been focused on working and travelling throughout her early 30s, before her 'maternal instincts' switched on Holly, pictured napping with baby Oscar, had wanted to be a mother since before her 40th birthday but could not get pregnant After Holly fell pregnant with her first son Oscar, Tianni said she was overjoyed for her new friend (pictured, Tianni with Oscar) Tianni went on to donate her eggs to Holly, with the mother-of-one falling pregnant with her daughter, Poppy (pictured, Holly while pregnant with Poppy, carrying her son Oscar) 'We were devastated but we were determined and giving up wasn't an option, even if it meant using an egg donor as my old eggs weren't doing it - I wish I had known that your egg quality plummet in your late 30's.' Egg donation in the UK Egg donation is when a woman goes through part of the IVF process in order to have some of her eggs collected, which she can then donate to someone else's treatment, fertility research or training. In many cases women donate to someone they know, such as a family member who may be unable to use her own eggs. Others donate for the pleasure of being able to help someone they dont know have a much-wanted baby. Usually women need to be between the ages of 18 and 35 to donate their eggs to someone's treatment. Clinics may only allow eggs from an older woman to be used in exceptional circumstances, such as if youre donating to a family member. Before you donate, youll need to have certain health tests to ensure you don't pass on any serious diseases or medical conditions to the baby or mother. You should tell your clinic about any inheritable diseases in your family. It's illegal to pay for egg donation in the UK. Egg donors can receive compensation of up to 750 per donation cycle to cover their costs (a donation cycle is one complete round of treatment, at the end of which the eggs are collected and donated). However, you can claim more if your expenses for things like travel, accommodation and childcare are higher than this. Egg donors have no legal rights or responsibilities to children born from your donation. Advertisement In Australia, it is illegal to buy or sell eggs meaning Tianni was doing it from the 'goodness of her heart'. Mother-of-two, Tianni said: 'I knew from a young age that I wanted to donate my eggs. 'I have always found it fascinating that we allow our eggs go to waste when they are no longer of use to us when there's so many people that need them.' The pair met on a Facebook group for hopeful parents and generous donors. They spent months speaking before going for dinner where they saw each other for the first time. Tianni said: 'The Facebook group is kind of like dating and I was yet to find the perfect match - you have to have the same beliefs and want the same thing as the intended parents for it to work. 'I knew I wanted to have some involvement with the child as it was important to my daughter Anastasia, 15, to know - even if it was just an update every year on their birthday. 'Holly and I are massively alike and she was open to the idea - when we first met, we hugged and cried - it was like we had known each other for a long time.' But the duo were amazed when Holly fell pregnant naturally, with Tianni revealing: 'I was over the moon for Holly when she fell pregnant naturally, it made our friendship feel like it was meant to be as she didn't even need my eggs anymore. 'We definitely crossed paths for a reason.' Meanwhile Holly said: 'I couldn't believe my luck when the pregnancy test revealed two lines - the day before Tianni's egg collection but I didn't think I'd carry full term so we went ahead with it anyway. 'Simon's sperm was used by the embryologist to fertilise the eggs retrieved and just one embryo survived to be frozen. Holly revealed she 'couldn't believe her luck' when she took a 'pregnancy test revealed two lines' when she fell pregnant with son Oscar Simon's sperm was used by the embryologist to fertilise Tianni's eggs, with just one embryo surviving to be frozen The families meet up five times a year, and admit that people are inquisitive about Tianni's feelings towards Poppy (Tianni's children Anastasia, 15 and Cylas, seven, with Oscar) 'I used to joke and say I've got one baby in the oven and another in the freezer.' Holly feels 'incredibly lucky' to have met Tianni and plans on educating Poppy as soon as she can understand more about her birth. She said: 'It's important to me that we are close because she was so generous to us. She will always be a dear friend. 'We both know that all she gave us is cells - I grew Poppy inside me with my body and I breastfed her. Holly said she had Tianni to thank for the birth of her 'miracle' daughter (Oscar and Simon visited Holly and Poppy in hospital after the baby's birth in 2019) 'Tianni in fact knows more about IVF than me as she has a science background which helps a lot - I would never have used a donor who was going to have some kind of weird emotional attachment.' 'Poppy will always know the science of how she came to be and the gift of that magic egg that Tianni gave us.' The families meet up five times a year and say people are inquisitive about Tianni's feelings towards Poppy. She adds: 'People have said I have given a baby away but that is simply not the case - my eggs were donated but if it was left on it's own with being fertilised and matured - then it would simply be nothing. It needed Simon's sperm and Holly's body to grow. 'I don't feel any biological connection towards Poppy and I don't think she looks like me at all - you can tell that Oscar is her brother - they look alike and have the same mannerisms. 'Anastasia and her brother Cylas, seven, absolutely love them both!' Tianni said she felt her friendship with Holly was meant to be because she did not need her eggs anymore, but decided to give them to her anyways Grateful Holly said it was important for her to remain close to Tianni, because of how generous she had been (pictured, Holly with Poppy) [May 26, 2020] Broadcasters Mark Beginning of NEXTGEN TV Era in Las Vegas With Launch of ATSC 3.0 Service, as Industry "Progress Report" Shows Growing Momentum for New Television Technology Just as four broadcasters launch NEXTGEN TV service in the Las Vegas market, the Advanced Television Systems Committee is showcasing more than 80 NEXTGEN TV product and technology highlights in a new "Spring 2020 Progress Report" on its newly-launched "Spotlight ATSC 3.0" web page. "Today marks another milestone in the advance to NEXTGEN TV, with ATSC 3.0 service launching in the Las Vegas market. ATSC congratulates Sinclair, Nexstar and E.W. Scripps for this achievement, which ushers in a new era in broadcast technology in Nevada. Now that consumers are able to purchase the first NEXTGEN TV receivers, it's gratifying to see more broadcasters make investments to bring NEXTGEN TV to their viewers. And the television technology industry is strongly endorsing efforts like today's Las Vegas service launch, and similar broadcasts underway now in Phoenix, Boise, Portland, Santa Barbara, Orlando, and Dallas. Additional stations are coming soon to Portland, Ore. and broadcasters in Pittsburgh, Pa. are now readying broadcaststhat are expected to start later this year," said Madeleine Noland, President of ATSC. ATSC 3.0 Progress Report The ATSC 3.0 "Progress Report" (available on ATSC.org) features scores of industry highlights organized into nine categories. "As the standards organization that created ATSC 3.0, we are proud to showcase the substantial efforts underway by more than four dozen companies to support local broadcasters. From transmission equipment to new signal management products and services, to new receivers for consumers, we're pleased to showcase the latest developments in the Spring 2020 Progress Report on ATSC 3.0 that is available for free on our website," explained Noland. Since first launching two weeks ago in conjunction with the NAB Show Express, more than 2,000 unique visitors have reviewed submissions from ATSC member companies. The Progress Report is expected to remain available throughout the summer, as more stations initiate service. "Whether its new equipment, services, or learning opportunities, stakeholders are very interested in ATSC 3.0 - the technology that powers NEXTGEN TV and what will bring together over-the-air broadcasting with over-the-top choices for viewers. ATSC 3.0 represents a gigantic leap in functionality, with its Internet Protocol backbone and flexibility to offer 4K Ultra HDTV, High Dynamic Range, immersive audio, more robust signal delivery, and new 'broadcast internet' capabilities," Noland said. About ATSC: The Advanced Television Systems Committee is defining the future of television with the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard. ATSC is an international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television. ATSC's 130-plus member organizations represent the broadcast, broadcast equipment, motion picture, consumer electronics, computer, cable, satellite, and semiconductor industries. For more information visit www.atsc.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005735/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 15:38 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda2f0a1 1 National COVID-19-in-Indonesia,prisoners,recidivism,National-Police,early-release,bebas-bersyarat Free National Police spokesperson Ahmad Ramadhan has said that 135 prisoners, who were released early in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, are back to committing crimes. "A total of 135 convicts were rearrested by the police after receiving parole from the Law and Human Rights Ministry due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Ahmad said in a statement on Monday as reported by kompas.com. Ahmad said most of the offenses committed by the prisoners were theft, robbery and vehicle theft. "The prisoners' crimes also included murder, rape, gambling, child sexual abuse, assault and drug abuse," he said. The 135 recidivism cases were reported in 23 regions, with Central Java and North Sumatra recording the most cases, each having reported a total of 17 cases. Riau province reported 12 cases and West Java reported 11. Read also: COVID-19: Over 100 early released prisoners have reoffended, police say Ahmad said the motive behind most of the crimes was economic hardship. "Some cases were also linked to grudges, especially for assaults and murders," he said. The Law and Human Rights Ministry has released more than 37,014 convicts and 2,259 child detainees under the COVID-19 assimilation and integration program, with the government planning to release a total of 50,000 prisoners. Official data show that Indonesia has a total of 270,386 inmates and that it has exceeded more than twice the official capacity of its detention facilities. With overcrowded cells and unsanitary environments, prisons are considered in great danger of COVID-19 outbreaks. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the assimilation program for prisoners and juvenile inmates is part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 behind bars. (nal) Indian farmers are already suffering from supply chain distortions and consequent financial crunch due to the COVID-19 outbreak. On top of that, the agricultural community is staring at another plague at the moment a desert locust infestation! These pests, that migrate in large groups, eat any and all crops that come in their way, causing endless woes to farmers and affecting food supply. A single swarm covering an area of one square kilometre can contain as many as 80 million locusts. One large swarm of locusts can consume crops as much as 35,000 people in a day. They breed rapidly and can cover up to 150 km daily. A massive swarm of locusts entered India via Pakistan last month and have already wreaked havoc in five states. Onlookers have claimed the swarm was almost three kilometres long, reported the Diplomat. This poses an added food and economic security threat, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions, as the sowing period for kharif crops such as rice, maize, and pulses is due in June. Locust sightings were first reported from the states bordering Pakistan, such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Punjab; they have now spread to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra. In the desert state of Rajasthan, locusts have already wiped out more than 5,00,000 hectares of crops. The state has been reeling under a locust attack for three months now and lush green fields of rabi crops were destroyed in Bikaner and Barmer districts. Farmers in Jodhpur, Bundi, Karauli, and Jhalawar have also complained of large infestations, India Today reported. Gujarat too has been battling locust infestation for more than five months now. Farmers in the districts of Amreli, Surendranagar, and Bhavnagar districts of Gujarat have already suffered greatly due to this. In Madhya Pradesh, locust swarms have been spotted in 16 of its 52 districts. Latest media reports suggest, locust swarms have entered the districts of Chatarpur, Neemuch, Sehore, Sheopur, Mandsaur, Tikamgarh, Dewas, Raisen, Morena, Panna, Hoshangabad, and Harda and they are moving westward now. In Uttar Pradesh, Jhansi, Agra, and Gautam Budhh Nagar have reported locust sightings. The state government has projected that the pests could affect crops in as many as 17 districts, including Jhansi, Agra, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Firozabad and Kanpur. In Jhansi, the attack is so severe that people are not being able to step out of their homes. Although the wheat crop has already been reaped, farmers are afraid the insects would destroy vegetable crops. In February 2020, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization had raised caution about a locust invasion that could destroy farmlands across southwest Asia, including India. Now, locust invasions are not new to India, but they usually arrive between July and October, and never in such alarming numbers. Thus, several state governments have already urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the locust attacks a national calamity. Desperate farmers have, meanwhile, been trying to scare away the insects by banging metal plates and lighting fires, but they are not proving enough. The current invasion was possibly caused by additional cyclones in the African region, which proved conducive for three generations of breeding, experts opined. Chemicals, pesticides and drones will only provide a temporary solution, until its root cause is addressed climate change. Shaking things up Aston Martin chief executive Andy Palmer has left James Bond's favourite carmaker as it seeks to recover from crashing demand and ballooning losses, the company said Tuesday. Palmer, who oversaw the company's London stock market float two years ago, agreed to leave on Monday after six years at the wheel, Aston said in a statement. He is replaced by Tobias Moers, head of Mercedes-AMG, the performance division of German car giant Daimler. The move comes after Aston clinched a cash injection from Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll at the start of 2020. The flagging automaker's net losses almost doubled last year on weak global demand, while its performance worsened in the first quarter on coronavirus fallout. "The board has determined that now is the time for new leadership to deliver our plans," executive chairman Stroll said in Tuesday's statement. "All of my and Tobias' energy will be dedicated to building on the company's inherent strengths, its brand, its engineering prowess, and the skills of its people to enable Aston Martin to become one of the pre-eminent luxury car brands in the world." Moers, who has spent more than a quarter of a century with Daimler, will take up his new post on August 1. Stroll injected 500 million into Aston in January, a move that saw Aston Martin become a Formula One racing team. Under the deal, the Racing Point Formula One teamwhose drivers include Lawrence Stroll's son Lance Strollwill be rebranded Aston Martin from 2021. Stroll senior agreed to partly fund the financial lifeline for Aston Martin, whose stellar progress ahead of its 2018 stock market debut crashed spectacularly on weak global demand linked to China's slowdown and Brexit. Explore further Aston Martin shares in reverse as annual losses balloon 2020 AFP The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has seized the bank documents and other important papers of the son of Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad, Hindustan Times Hindi language publication Hindustan reported. The Crime Branch has been probing the event organised by the Jamaat at its markaz (centre) in Delhis Nizamuddin area in March which emerged as the biggest hotspot of coronavirus disease Covid-19. Saeed, eldest of the three sons of Maulana Saad, plays an important role in managing the markaz, Hindustan futher reported quoting officials in the Crime Branch. Also Read: Few tested positive: Tablighi chiefs comeback on Jamaat spreading Covid-19 The Crime Branch had earlier seized passports and other documents of five members of the markaz. According to Hindustan, these five people were key in running the operations of the markaz. Since their passports have been seized, none of the five people can leave the country till investigation is complete. Maulana Saads three sons and a nephew are being investigated by the Crime Branch. They form the core team at the markaz. Apart from this, another Crime Branch team is probing Jamaats source of funds. The team has found that the Jamaat had been receiving money from various sources. They are trying to find the identities of the individuals and institutions behind these fundings. Also Read: 4,000 Covid-19 cases linked to Jamaat, says govt. But India isnt the only one The Crime Branch officials said that they have given notice to 900 people, who attended the Jamaats event, and are beinf questioned, Hindustan reported. It said that a few members of the team probing the case were out of action because they contracted Covid-19, but now that they are back, the investigation will be completed soon, Hindustan further reported. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said on Sunday that India felt a big jolt with the sudden spike in cases following the Nizamuddin markaz incident. He asserted that the incident was a lesson for all communities that when a collective decision is taken by the country it must be followed with discipline. A large congregation organised in March by the Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital had emerged as a major hotspot. Some of the participants, who were later tested positive for coronavirus, had travelled to their home states and other areas. Airports across the country handled 325 departures and 283 arrivals with 41,673 passengers till 5 pm on Tuesday even as flight cancellations continued with passengers facing difficulties. Moreover, domestic operations resumed in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, a day after the restart of air travel across India. West Bengal was the only state where no domestic services took place. As major airports like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad have a severe cap on the number of flights they can handle, cancellations continued on Tuesday. Just like Monday, a section of passengers reached their airports on Tuesday only to be informed that their flights have been cancelled. Many people vented their ire on social media. Follow live updates on coronavirus here "Smooth operations of domestic civil aviation operation. Our airports have handled 325 departures & 283 arrivals with 41,673 passengers till 5pm on 26 May 2020, the second day after recommencement of domestic flight," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday. "Final report for the day will be prepared after details come in at midnight," he added. Chennai airport was scheduled to handle only 20 arrivals and departures each on Tuesday, said senior government officials, even though Puri on Sunday night said that it can handle up to 25 arrivals per day and has no limit on the number of departures. Even in Andhra Pradesh, where domestic services resumed on Tuesday, Vijayawada and Vizag airports were scheduled to handle just eight flights each during the day, officials said. On Sunday night, the central government had said these two airports can handle up to 20 per cent of the pre-lockdown flights from Tuesday onwards. The Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, which is India's largest, was scheduled to handle around 277 flights on Tuesday, the officials said, adding that around 25 flights were cancelled during the day. On May 23, the government officials had said they expected Delhi airport to handle around 380 flights per day from May 25 onwards. Mumbai airport, India's second busiest airport, handled just 44 flights on Tuesday. On Monday, it had handled 47 flights. On Sunday night, the central government had clarified that Mumbai will handle a maximum of 50 flights per day from Monday. Aarti Chaddha, a member of Aam Aadmi Party's social media team, had booked a seat on Tuesday's Mumbai-Chandigarh flight of IndiGo for her mother who had been stranded in Mumbai for the last two months due to the lockdown. This flight was cancelled and when Chaddha asked IndiGo about it on Twitter, the airline responded that the flight has been "impacted" due to the restrictions imposed by the Maharashtra government. She said on Twitter on Tuesday, "Can we get the list of 25 flights listed to take off from Mumbai? Airlines are booking tickets, not sending cancellation messages, cancelling last minute, deducting the money." On Tuesday, IndiGo said one of the passengers who travelled on its Chennai-Coimbatore flight on Monday evening has tested positive for COVID-19. The low-cost carrier said the passenger was sitting with all precautionary measures like gloves, mask and face shield and he is currently quarantined at a Coimbatore medical facility. "The operating crew has been home quarantined for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff," the airline added. West Bengal would be resuming domestic flights from Thursday. However, its Kolkata and Bagdogra airports will handle only 20 flights each per day. On Sunday night, the central government had announced that Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal will not handle any domestic flights on Monday and major airports like Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad will see reduced operations from Monday onwards. West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu had expressed reluctance in resuming domestic flights from Monday due to rising number of COVID-19 cases. The officials said the first flight on Tuesday to Vijayawada landed from Bengaluru at 6.55 am, carrying 79 passengers. The Spicejet flight returned to Bengaluru with 68 passengers, they added. At Vizag airport, the first flight landed from Bengaluru at 7 am. "At Vijayawada, four flights are of IndiGo, two each are of SpiceJet and Air India," they added. Visakhapatnam airport is scheduled to handle eight flights on Wednesday, the officials mentioned. After a two-month suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic, domestic flights resumed in India on Monday with 428 flights carrying 30,550 passengers to their destinations. Around 630 flights were cancelled. The airlines, which were allowed to operate one-third of their pre-lockdown domestic services from May 25, had to further truncate their flight schedules on Sunday leading to cancellations. All carriers except GoAir operated their flights on Monday and Tuesday Ogoni Women Protest Ogoni women in Rivers State today staged a peaceful protest over what they termed the continuous detention of the manager of Prudent Hotel that was demolished under the supervision of the state governor, Nyesom Wike, on May 10. The Rivers state government on Monday May 25, announced that Bariledum Azoroh, the manager of the demolished hotel, was among the 27 new cases of coronavirus recorded in the State. Azoroh and the other patients have been taken into isolation. A report that was countered by the owner of the hotel , Promise Gogorobari, who claimed Azoroh is hale and hearty and is currently being detained illegally. The protesting women who were seen carrying different placards, demanded Azorohs immediate release from the states Isolation center. See More Photos Of The Protesting Women Below; SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Datrium , the leader in cloud-native disaster recovery with ransomware protection, today announced Xello Australia as the newest reseller and first Melbourne-based company to join its growing Global Partner Network in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Following the recent opening of its new ANZ office, Datrium's partnership with Xello Australia will bring Datrium's market-leading on-demand, failproof and cloud-native disaster recovery (DR) solutions to Xello Australia's existing and prospective customers. "Datrium's disaster recovery offerings are closely aligned with our mission to deliver cloud-focused, digital-first outcomes using the latest cloud-based technologies," said Peter Lillywhite, Managing Director, Xello Australia. "Datrium DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS brings together three of our partners Datrium, VMware and AWS into a single, powerful, consumption-based solution that's enabling our customers to rapidly and cost-effectively recover their data from disasters. We look forward to working with Datrium to deliver cloud-native and market-leading DR and backup solutions to our customers." Datrium DRaaS is fundamentally changing the DR market with its cloud-native design, built-in backup, instant Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs), continuous compliance and an on-demand pay-as-you-go model. DRaaS presents a unique opportunity to leverage the public cloud and its elastic capabilities to finally deliver DR done right. With Datrium DRaaS, Xello Australia customers can achieve robust Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and RTOs on a consumption-based cloud cost model. Datrium DRaaS has taken a traditionally complex process and simplified it into an easy-to-use SaaS solution that provides fully automated failback processes to minimize business downtime and prevent human errors from occurring during stressful DR scenarios. Through its professional services and managed services capabilities, Xello Australia will provide further assistance to local organizations who want to enhance and mature their DR strategy risk-free. Xello Australia will also assist companies interested in executing a hybrid cloud strategy and undertaking the transformation to a cloud-native services platform like VMware Cloud on AWS. As a Preferred Partner, Xello Australia will be delivering Datrium DRaaS through its Cloud Managed Services division. "We've seen increasing demand from businesses in the ANZ region who want to transform their data centers with more cloud-based solutions," said Justin Cooper, Managing Director, Datrium. "Xello Australia brings a unique set of skills and expertise that align perfectly with Datrium's strategy and vision for cloud-based DR. We're committed to working closely with Xello Australia to deliver unprecedented flexibility and simplicity to help customers combat data loss as today's IT environments are threatened with increased ransomware attacks and natural disasters." Join Datrium and Xello Australia for a webinar on Wednesday, July 15, at 12 p.m. AEST for a live demo of Datrium DRaaS and to learn how to drive down DR costs, speed time to recovery and avoid data loss using VMware Cloud on AWS. About Datrium Datrium, the leader in cloud-native disaster recovery with ransomware protection, automates data protection against modern threats and enables enterprises to pay for DR when they need it. Datrium Disaster Recovery as a Service with VMware Cloud on AWS (DRaaS) is an easy-to-use SaaS solution that delivers the industry's first instant RTO cloud DR from backups on AWS S3 and protects all VMware workloads in the cloud and on-premises. Secure by design with always-on encryption, Datrium's DR with built-in cloud backup is transforming the DR market, empowering enterprises to create their own failproof, on-demand data centers in the public cloud where they only pay for recovery when disaster strikes or for testing. Until now, DR has been a complicated and brittle manual process that needs to interact with many disparate components in the data center. The advent of the cloud has made it possible for Datrium to convert this complex process into a simple-to-use, fully automated SaaS application that delivers 10x more cost-efficient DR. By converging primary, backup, disaster recovery, mobility and encryption into a single multicloud platform called Automatrix, Datrium maintains fast performance at any scale and enables frictionless data portability between public clouds and on-premises data centers. Data services are consistent across clouds and resource orchestration is automated so applications run at peak performance with increased system resilience and reduced data recovery windows. Liberated from managing data infrastructure, IT teams can drive more strategic initiatives for their businesses and application users can get back to productivity faster. Trusted by global enterprises including eMeter A Siemens Business, vPay and Stearns, Datrium is DR done right. Learn More Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Blog Media Contact Diana Brodskiy Bhava Communications for Datrium [email protected] 415-306-6199 SOURCE Datrium Connecticut became the final state to reopen on May 20, so Stacker compiled a list of where each state stands on reopening. Phased plans, and whats included in each phase, varies greatly by state, as does progress through each step. This article was first published on Stacker Alessandra Ambrosio delighted in soaking up some rays in a series of Instagram photos Monday. The former Victoria's Secret Angel, 39, showed off her stunningly trim figure while lounging by the pool at her home in Santa Monica. 'M O N Y A Y Y Y !!! !! ,' she exclaimed in the caption to the Memorial Day photos. Bathing beauty: Alessandra Ambrosio, 39, showed off her stunningly trim figure in a blue bikini while lounging by the pool at her home in Santa Monica on Monday Alessandra's photo featured a warm filter with an artificial light burn. She arched her back while standing in her pool in a royal blue two-piece bikini with beaded straps that showcased her fit frame and pert backside. She ran her hands through her brunette locks and blocked out the piercing sun with a pair of thick red-frame sunglasses. She flashed a soft smile while toasting with a salt-and-spice rimmed jar. She arched her back while standing in her pool in a royal blue two-piece bikini with beaded straps. 'M O N Y A Y Y Y !!! !! ,' she exclaimed in the caption to the Memorial Day photos Cheers: Alessandra flashed a soft smile while toasting with a salt-and-spice rimmed jar Smitten: Alessandra and her boyfriend Nicolo Oddi put on a very cosy display in one loved-up pool snap Alessandra enjoyed a tasty-looking low country boil for lunch featuring lobster, clams, mussels and some charred corn and potatoes in a series of Instagram Stories clips. Joining her at the table were her two children, 11-year-old Anja Louise and eight-year-old son Noah. She shares the children with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur, known for co-founding the denim label RE/DONE. In March 2018, Alessandra and Jamie amicably ended their decade-long engagement, and she has since taken up with Nicolo Oddi, who founded the knitwear brand Alanui. Yum! Alessandra enjoyed a tasty-looking low country boil for lunch featuring lobster, clams, mussels and some charred corn and potatoes in a series of Instagram Stories clips Family gathering: Joining her at the table were her two children, 11-year-old Anja Louise and eight-year-old son Noah New love: She shares the children with her ex-fiance Jamie Mazur, known for co-founding the denim label RE/DONE. Alessandra has since taken up with Nicolo Oddi, who founded the knitwear brand Alanui; pictured Sunday Pinup power: The Brazilian beauty was already in the summery mood earlier in the weekend when she posted a steamy set of bikini photos taken prior to the start of coronavirus lockdowns The Brazilian beauty was already in the summery mood earlier in the weekend when she posted a steamy set of bikini photos taken prior to the start of coronavirus lockdowns. She showcased her flat tummy in a ruched white bikini in photos taken during a trip to the Maldives. The pictures were posted to the Instagram account for her GAL Floripa swimwear brand. Woman in white: Alessandra showcased her flat tummy in a ruched white bikini in photos taken on a trip to the Maldives. The photos were posted to the Instagram for her GAL Floripa swimwear brand Both Laredo City Council and Webb County Commissioners Court will hold meetings Tuesday, with the city set to discuss extending their emergency order until June 30. READ MORE: Tyson Foods worker, 44, dies after long battle with COVID-19 At this point in the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the rules governing Laredoans lives come from Gov. Greg Abbotts office. These include the reopening of restaurants, bars, shops, beauty salons, gyms and other businesses that had previously been deemed non-essential. The citys stay at home order remains in effect, but has bent to reflect the governors stipulations. It is also mandated that face masks continue to be worn in public, although this cannot be enforced with any kind of penalty. Police may only approach someone who is not wearing a mask in order to offer information about the health benefits of doing so, but not to issue a fine. A curfew for people 17 year and younger also remains in effect, along with rules about reporting COVID-19 cases to the Health Department. The citys order is set to expire on May 30 unless this extension is approved by council. They will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Commissioners Court is meeting this morning to discuss a myriad of topics, including the plans for a detox facility, emergency expenditures to be reimbursed by FEMA and the rescheduled runoff election, which has been moved from May 26 to July 14. Election Administrator Jose Salvador Tellez is requesting all voting sites be open for Election Day, with one change from the March primary that Precinct 416s voting site be moved from the Salvation Army at 408 Matamoros St. a few blocks west to the Laredo Fire Department station at 1 Guadalupe. Abbott has also extended early voting by one week this runoff election, and will begin June 29. Early voting in a runoff typically only lasts one week. In order to ensure that elections proceed efficiently and safely when Texans go to the polls to cast a vote in person during early voting or on election day, it is necessary to increase the number of days in which polling locations will be open during the early voting period, Abbott wrote in a proclamation to the Texas Secretary of State two weeks ago. Therefore, Tellez is requesting that early voting take place Monday, June 29 through Friday, July 10 at Laredos five main early voting sites and several temporary mobile sites. READ MORE: Religious masses to resume in Laredo, but Catholics still dispensed of obligation to attend There are two local elections on the Democratic ballot this runoff: Patricia Barrera and Rosie Cuellar for tax assessor collector, and Monica Liendo and Juan Paz for Justice of the Peace Pct. 1 Place 1. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com Description GIS 25 May 2020 25 May 2020 : Government is working on a repatriation strategy to bring back Mauritians stranded abroad while ensuring that all precautionary measures are met so as to prevent any imported cases of Covid-19 in the country. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Nandcoomar Bodha, made this statement, this evening, during the press briefing of the National Communication Committee on Covid-19. Minister Bodha indicated that Government understands the sufferings of the 4 000 Mauritians stranded in 70 countries, who are away from their country and their families. He underlined that, however, priority for repatriation will be given to those who have gone for medical treatment abroad. On this score, he pointed out that a flight is scheduled to Chennai to repatriate 80 persons who went for medical treatment. Other scheduled flights will be to Mumbai, Australia, Madagascar and Reunion Island, he added. Moreover, he stressed that a repatriation exercise needs to take into consideration that the quarantine centres can only cater for a specific number of passengers. With regard to the 1 760 Mauritians stuck on 100 cruise ships in 40 harbours, he stated that meetings have been held with representatives of these companies so as to come up with an organised plan. The Minister also pointed out that these companies have been told to respect their workers contract and to provide them with best healthcare facilities. He appealed to the cruise ships members to take all precautions so as to protect themselves against the Covid-19. Speaking on health care facilities put in place at the level of quarantine centres, the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Jagutpal, recalled that proper monitoring is being made by a professional medical team to ensure that the individuals are properly screened. He also pointed out that screening is carried out before any person leaves a quarantine centre. He advised people who are in quarantine to remain vigilant and to abide by all strict measures enforced at quarantine centres. For his part, the spokesperson of the National Communication Committee on Covid-19, Dr Zouberr Joomaye, provided details about the two imported positive Covid-19 cases which were detected yesterday. He stated that prior to being repatriated from India and boarding the plane on 9 May 2020, both passengers had undergone PCR testing on 5 May 2020 from an approved medical institution. The tests turned out to be negative. These two persons, upon their arrival in Mauritius the next day, were placed under quarantine at Ambre Hotel and did not show any symptoms of the Covid-19, he further indicated. He added that following the positive results of their PCR tests, yesterday, both patients have been transferred to the ENT Hospital for treatment. Covid-19 updates as at 25 May 2020 Mauritius has registered 334 positive Covid-19 cases, including 10 deaths and 322 successfully treated patients The country currently has two active Covid-19 cases A total of 271 passengers are in quarantine Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Mauritius, 104 639 Covid-19 tests have been carried out, including 77 530 Rapid Antigen Tests and 27 109 PCR tests #ResOuLakaz #BeSafeMoris Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members joined a days hunger strike on Tuesday to protest the Andhra Pradesh governments scrapped order to auction land donated to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD). In New Delhi, Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao and Sunil Deodhar, the partys national secretary co-in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, sat on hunger strike, alleging that the YSR Congress Party was trying to hive off temple assets that it doesnt own. The state government is not the owner, but the patron of these assets. They have no right to sell these properties off, Deodhar said. The BJP leader said his party did not call off the protest even after the Andhra Pradesh government put in abeyance its decision to auction the assets and asked TTD to re-examine the decision, because it does not trust the government. We want the government to bring an ordinance that all assets of maths and mandirs (temples) under the state government will not be auctioned, and the details of the properties, land, money and other assets will be made public, Deodhar said. TTD is the administrative body for the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala, and the properties the state government intended to auction included land in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The BJP is not the only party protesting against the sale of the assets - the Janasena Party, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Congress party and CPI-M too opposed the state governments decision to auction properties to raise funds for the temple. Deodhar said the government must probe allegations made by a YSRCP MP that a lot of money is being pushed into the state for religious conversion. Another BJP MP, Rakesh Sinha, wrote to TTD chairman Subbarao Reddy that that sale of 63 properties belonging to TTD Devasthanams on the ground that these are small pieces of land and unmanageable is untenable. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Village of Questa in Taos County will construct $2.3 million of water and wastewater infrastructure improvements using money from a settlement with Chevron Mining. This is a perfect example of what the natural resources law was intended to do, which is hold responsible parties accountable and compensate communities that have been injured by contaminations, said Maggie Hart Stebbins, trustee of the New Mexico Office of Natural Resources. Those dollars are actually going to work for people living in the community. Hart Stebbins said the money will pay for a new drinking water well, and will extend sewer service to several properties. The $2.3 million is part of a $4 million settlement between New Mexico, Chevron Mining, the Forest Service and the Interior Department. The companys molybdenum mine near Questa, now an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site, permanently closed in 2014. A pipeline transporting mine waste to several tailing ponds west of Questa saw about 230 spills along the Red River floodplain from the 1960s to the 1990s, according to a 2018 remediation plan prepared by the Department of the Interior and New Mexico. Contaminated water has seeped downgradient from the tailing ponds to the aquifer, the plan reads. Hazard substances released from the site have affected surface water, groundwater, terrestrial habitat and resources, as well as riparian habitat, aquatic invertebrates, and fish populations. EPA reports show about 1,000 people live within a mile of the waste ponds. The Village of Questa built an emergency water well in 2016 after one of its two wells failed. But the remediation plan states that the emergency well is limited in its capacity, and production at the other existing municipal well continues to drop. The new well paid for with the settlement money will help the village keep up with residents water needs. The settlement also funds river cleanup and wildlife habitat restoration in and near Questa. UWs Campus Activities Center Names RSO Award Winners The University of Wyomings Campus Activities Center (CAC) recently recognized UW student groups and leaders for their efforts during its annual awards program. Nine student groups and leaders received Recognized Student Organization (RSO) Awards of Excellence for their accomplishments from the past year. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the in-person celebration was canceled; however, a recognition event was streamed via Zoom and Facebook Live. The 270-plus RSOs provide outlets for students to become involved, make friends and network. Members host hundreds of events on and off campus; attend conferences that enhance their professional development; and participate in service activities that impact the university and local community. The award winners are: -- Sara Axelson Outstanding RSO of the Year Award: The Sustainability Club for demonstrating commitment, character, citizenship, support of fellow student organizations, community service and visibility on campus. -- Officer of the Year Award: Two leaders were recognized: Jacy Busboom, from Douglas, president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE); and Julia Dickie, of Cheyenne, a Joint Engineering Council representative of AIChE. -- Adviser of the Year Award: Joseph Holles, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, for his service as AIChE adviser. -- Event of the Year Award: Two RSOs were recognized: AIChE for its Undergraduate Research Dinner and Bangladesh Students Association for its Bangladesh Night 2020. -- Community Service Award: Alpha Kappa Psi for impacting the community in a substantial way and having a large number of members who participate in service. -- Teamwork Award: Wyoming Motorsports for collaborating with other student organizations, departments on campus and community partners. -- Poster of the Year Award: ACRES Student Farm for its Dance for the Plants poster. For more information about the CAC, visit www.uwyo.edu/cac; like the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership on Facebook; follow on Instagram; or add wyounion on Snapchat. Wikipedia logo. The rules surrounding information have changed with the ongoing development of the digital world. Information has become accessible to almost everyone around the world, any time of the day or night, at the touch of a mobile phone screen or the click of a mouse. Writing in the International Journal of Big Data Intelligence, a team from Italy, reiterates this point and points out that at this stage in the evolution of those rules there are now a handful of central hubs providing almost all of the information that the vast majority of the population accesses: the major search engines, such as Google and Baidu, the big social media networks, Facebook and Twitters, and a few other repositories, such as Wikipedia and their more local equivalents in Russia, China, and other parts of the world that have certain barriers to globalization. Massimo Marchior and Enrico Bonetti Vieno of the University of Padua, explain how a system like Wikipedia has many pros but also various cons. It has been enormously successful as a dynamic, online alternative to conventional encyclopedia. However, the distributed nature of its content, sources, and editors, also gives rise to some problems. Fundamentally, the team writes "everybody can contribute and so also manipulate information in a way that is practically invisible to the general public." They describe the "Negapedia" system, which is an online public service that offers a more complete picture of the underlying layers of Wikipedia. It involves big data analysis and the need to overcome information overload, but it also offers novel insights into the important issue of Wikipedia categorisation, analysing the problem of presenting general users with easy and meaningful category information. Negapedia can, the team reports, reveal the social turbulence that underlies much of the content and the editorial battles that take place, particularly surrounding controversial subjects, such as politics, religion, conspiracy theories, and activism and advocacy. An additional point of interest that emerges from this study is the connection between controversial information and the level of interest in that subject matter. "We found out that there is, in fact, correlation between topics of high interest to users and conflict, thus showing that controversy seems to be tightly linked with popularity." They add that perhaps one aspects drives the other. "To some extent, controversy (negativity) can be seen as a natural phenomenon arising from people interest," they add. Explore further Putin calls for Russian alternative to Wikipedia More information: Massimo Marchiori et al. To beat or not to beat: uncovering the world social battles with Wikipedia, International Journal of Big Data Intelligence (2020). Massimo Marchiori et al. To beat or not to beat: uncovering the world social battles with Wikipedia,(2020). DOI: 10.1504/IJBDI.2020.107377 Customers at Aldi will be told when they can safely enter one of its supermarkets by a new traffic light system installed on the doors. The German budget retailer said that the system would help to continue social distancing in stores by ensuring too many customers are not jostling for space in the aisles. A green and red light will be erected above the entrances to its stores, and will signal green if customers are allowed to enter, dependent on the amount of shoppers inside at that time. Aldi confirmed to MailOnline that the doors will remain closed and locked until the light goes green, and it said that fully trained marshalls will be on patrol in stores at all times 'if they are required' to ensure social distancing was being adhered to. Like many other supermarkets, Aldi has already installed protective screens at its checkouts and put markers on the floors of the shops to encourage customers to stay more than two metres away from each other. Pictured: The traffic light system that Aldi supermarkets will introduce across its stores in the UK Aldi communications director Richard Thornton, said: 'The protection and safety of our customers and employees is our top priority and this new system is an accurate and effective way to allow us to control customer numbers in stores. 'The system's trial was well received by our customers and we will be gradually rolling this new social distancing measure out nationwide from this week.' It has also put up 'sanitation stations' and signs with advice on how to stay safe from coronavirus while shopping. The German discount supermarket chain has 875 stores across Britain and employs 33,000 people. It plans to have expanded to 1,200 stores by the middle of the decade. According to recent data from Kantar Worldpanel, Aldi's sales rose by 11 per cent in the 12 weeks to March 22. It has a market share of just over 8 per cent in the UK. It comes as customers will soon enter a world of one-way systems and quarantined footwear when non-essential stores in Britain are allowed to reopen next month. Pictured: And Aldi supermarket worker behind a protective screen as part of the new coronavirus protection measures Pictured: Customers queue outside Aldi in Leeds, West Yorkshire, as the supermarket rolls out traffic lights at its stores Thousands of shops, department stores and shopping centres can open from June 15, while outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to open from next Monday as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased. But things will look very different in the revamped stores, with checkouts behind screens, toilets and changing rooms closed, a limit on the number of customers allowed inside the store at any time and no seating available. Stores will also feature markings outside to assist with socially-distanced queuing and encourage customers to shop alone where possible, according to union-backed guidance issued by the British Retail Consortium. Retailers are gearing up for what has been dubbed the 'sale of the century' with about 15billion worth of stock available after clothing stores shut their doors just days after filling their rails with spring and summer fashion. Marks & Spencer and Next are among the retailers expected to promote huge discounts, with warehouse storage space 90 per cent full for some outlets who have resorted to putting products in containers on railway sidings. Kyiv mayoral elections candidates 112 Agency May 22, Mykola Tyshchenko, MP from Servant of the People party and a possible candidate for mayor of Kyiv, used municipal public transport to check if Kyiv residents are keeping a social distance. The fact is that Kyiv launched its municipal transport (buses, trolleybuses) on May 23, so how did he get into the shuttle bus is a separate issue. When the elections are close, you will even get an intergalactic ship. Klitschko: ones own master Mayor Vitali Klitschko is the first who is at a low start before the October elections. He was twice elected mayor: in the early elections in 2014 and in the urgent 2015. The year 2020 might become a year of his third victory. Klitschko does not hide his intention to run for a long time. Kyiv mayor Open source And he motivates such a desire with the same thing as President Zelensky: with the need to complete what he started. Therefore, let us give Vitali Klitschko another 100 or 1000 days. All experts interviewed by 112.ua are unanimous that Klitschko is the favorite of the current race. Head of the Third Sector Center Andriy Zolotariov believes that Klitschko benefited from the situation with the coronavirus. He cleverly dealt with the pandemic, the expert says, adding that polls show the increase in the quarantine rating of the mayor. Political scientist Kyrylo Sazonov gives a positive answer to this question. He believes that all the contradictions between Zelensky and Klitschko have sunk into oblivion, along with the resignation of the head of the presidential office, Andriy Bogdan. Servant of the People faction and personnel shortage Meanwhile, the largest parliamentary faction (aka the presidential party) got lost in several likely candidates. Until recently, among the rating candidates for mayor of Kyiv, MPs, and the chairman of the committee on humanitarian and information policy Oleksandr Tkachenko were most often mentioned. In the fall of 2019, he actively promoted a new bill on the capital, which was supported in the first reading. The Cabinet of Ministers decided to dismiss Klitschko from the post of chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration, leaving him only the post of chairman of the city council. Then Tkachenko filed a declaration of the candidate for the post of head of the Kyiv City State Administration. But the appointment did not take place either in the fall or later, and Klitschko was not reassigned. The elections in Kyiv were never held in December 2019, and since then this conflict has fallen out of public space. Tkachenko himself disappeared. It is not known exactly what his plans and intentions are, but for some reason he ceased to head the candidates' parade. And since a holy place does not happen empty, Tkachenko began to push back the restaurateur Mykola Tyshchenko, mentioned at the beginning. His self-presentation was eloquent almost like Vitali Klitschko. "I am a native Kyiv resident. I know the problems, I touch them, I smell them garbage issues, corruption scandals that just pierced the whole Kyiv life like a cancer tumor," Tyshchenko said. After Tkachenko and Tyshchenko, the list of possible candidates from the ruling party includes parliamentary speaker Dmytro Razumkov. Thank you, Im not going to do it, Id better do what I do. I hope that I meet the criteria that the chairman of parliament should have and I hope that I will do my work quite effectively, he said. But his party colleague Oleksandr Dubinsky, obviously, believes that he can be equally effective both in parliament and in the city hall as well. The corresponding decision is made by the Presidents Office, it will be made after internal primaries among the candidates, which will be determined by the Presidents Office. The final word will be with President Zelensky. If there are such primaries, I will take part in them. Will I be a candidate from the party - primaries will show the results, said Dubinsky. MP Oleksandr Kachura also voiced his desire to play in the primaries. If I am invited to take part in the primaries, then most likely I will agree. Recently, I talked with many colleagues, and they all asked me to take part in the internal party elections. This is a great honor and trust, Kachura writes on his Telegram channel. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating that the circle of candidates for mayor could be expanded by a chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko. However, this information is not confirmed by Lyashko himself. Lyashko could run the mayoral elections, but not in order to seriously count on his victory or at least a significant result, political analyst Ruslan Bortnyk is convinced. He does not have his own rating in Kyiv, and the nomination of such a candidate (if it takes place at all) will mean that in fact the government is betting on Klitschko. Such a two-way approach, according to which Klitschko becomes mayor, and in the city council a coalition between his party and Servant of the People is formed. Part of Zelenskys entourage, in particular, head of his office Andriy Yermak, is promoting this scenario. Moreover, they dont have a real candidate with a chance to win against Klitschko, the expert notes. Earlier, first deputy chairman of Zelenskys office Serhiy Trofimov told reporters that the mayors candidacy, which will be presented by the Servant of the People, will be a surprise to everyone. Perhaps Lyashko is such a surprise. Batkivchshyna, Holos, European Solidarity According to the measurements of the sociological group Rating, showman Serhuy Prytula comes out in the second round with Klitschko (because the mayor of Kyiv, as well as the president of Ukraine, is held in two rounds). He has silver in these races (9.1%), while Oleksandr Tkachenko has bronze (8.8%), and businessman Andriy Palchevsky (8.2%) closes the top four. At the same time, Klitschko defeats everyone with his support of 38.7% in the second round, but still Prytula remains the most popular candidate after the current mayor. Another possible candidate from parliamentary parties may be the representative of the Batkivshchyna party Vitaliy Nestor. A completely unknown to the general public 31-year-old lawyer, who in the last parliamentary elections ran for this party in one of the districts of Kyiv, but lost. Sazonov calls Nestor the new star of the Fatherland, recalling that he is the head of the capitals branch of this party, while Ruslan Bortnyk notes that Nestor might be entrusted with the task of not only defeating Klitschko but of entering the Kyiv City Council and forming his own faction there, and it will be a significant help to the senior political partners. Another candidate from the parliamentary party might become founder of the Eurolab clinic, Andriy Palchevsky. His participation in the elections is not decided, however, billboards with his face have been hanging in the capital for a long time. He closes the four most popular candidates for mayor of Kyiv. Palchevsky is the most serious competitor for Klitschko both in terms of rating and promotion. But his trouble is that he is associated with the Opposition Platform For Life party, and this is not the best option for Kyiv, says Sazonov. However, Ruslan Bortnyk believes that the Servant of the People can support Palchevsky if Servant of the People decides to turn away from Klitschko. A bit of exotics The remaining names of candidates, connected with the Kyiv elections do not even fall into the second or third tier. There is no time left for their promotion, because in five months Kyiv residents will vote. The names of former Prime Minister Groysman, former Foreign Minister Klimkin, and even journalist Dmitry Gordon were voiced but this sounds like a joke. And the trend to return to politics and the executive branch of the old people can be supported at the Kyiv level by running of former mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko and former chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov. However, this is only in theory. Although, we can talk about the sight of the City Council, not on the mayors chair. Ruslan Bortnyk emphasizes: Popov, who will concentrate his blue-and-white electorate around him, as well as Omelchenko, has chances to create his own faction, and Omelchenko has a chance to enter the second round, he says. The trend towards the return of old people is somewhat nostalgic, but this is not the leitmotif of the real choice of the electorate. Such people will not be really popular - they have already become history, expert Bohdan Petrenko sums up. But businessman Garik Korogodsky, known for rather specific antics, has not yet become history. He is one of those who expressly declares his desire to run. Such an exotic candidate, says Bortnyk, might create a crisis situation for Klitschko. Korogodsky, an Israeli businessman, is connected with Kyiv (where he has a very solid business) for a good quarter of a century, but he received Ukrainian citizenship about a year ago. Charleston, SC (29403) Today Cloudy skies. High 72F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Rain. Low 39F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch. Gatherings of more than 10 people are still prohibited in the state until the end of May, when a new directive will take effect allowing gatherings of up to 25 people through the month of June. "I'm not aware of any incidents or violations" of the 10-person rule on Memorial Day, Ricketts said. That limit is accompanied by a directive to try to maintain at least 6 feet of physical distancing between people. "People have been willing to accommodate" those limits and restrictions in a citizen effort to curtail the spread of the virus, he said. Ricketts said he would hope that Nebraskans would encourage one another to adhere to those standards "if you see somebody who could do a better job." "If you need somebody else" to help, he suggested, they could "contact the mayor." Meanwhile, the governor said Nebraska continues to ramp up its testing to identify people who may have been infected with the virus and begin the task of reaching out to others who may have been in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed positive so they, in turn, can be informed and isolate themselves. Ricketts has set a goal of 3,000 tests per day. Even as the pandemic is gripping the world, the auto industry isn't putting on the brakes when it comes to new car launches. With automakers taking the virtual route for their debuts, this seems to be the new normal for the motoring sector, at least until the virus subsides. With that, BMW will be hosting its first virtual launch this week. It's not just one car either as the brand from Bavaria will be unveiling a pair of mid-sized luxury sedans. These are the updated 5 Series and 6 Series Gran Turismo. Curiously, the main event will be held in Incheon, South Korea, rather than the marque's headquarters in Munich, Germany. BMW Korea said the reason why it will be held there is due to the popularity of the 5 Series, and the 6 Series Gran Turismo will tag along for this particular launch. There is merit to that claim too, as the 5 Series is one of South Korea's top-selling imported cars according to a recent sales report. It even outsells the smaller, more affordable 3 Series. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, May 27 2020 Indonesias most popular tourist destination, Bali, may have its local customs to thank for what officials claim has been its success in containing the COVID-19 outbreak, as the central government considers reopening the resort island. As of Tuesday, Bali had reported 407 COVID-19 cases with 295 recoveries and four deaths some of the lowest fatality figures in the entire country. Most of the cases were recorded in the capital of Denpasar, as well as in Buleleng and Bangli regencies. The province, home to some 4.2 million people, reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on March 11, despite having continued to welcome its typical crowds of tourists in the early months of the pandemic. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Mark Hamill shared on Twitter that it was 'agony' keeping one of the most famous lines in movie history a secret from his castmates. The 68-year-old actor responded to a tweet Saturday from a fan who said his acting was 'so brilliant' during the famous 'I am your father' scene in the 1980 sequel The Empire Strikes Back. 'I would've also liked to have seen the cast/crew's reaction when they first heard about this epic plot twist,' the tweet added. Famous line: Mark Hamill, shown in February in Beverly Hills, California shared on Twitter that it was 'agony' keeping one of the most famous lines in movie history a secret from castmates Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, posted a reply. 'The cast & crew first learned of it when they saw the finished film. When we shot it, Vader's line was "You don't know the truth, Obi-Wan killed your father." Only Irvin Kershner, George Lucas & I knew what would be dubbed in later. Agony keeping that secret for over a year!,' he replied. He was referencing The Empire Strikes Back director Kershner, who died in 2010 at age 87, and Star Wars creator Lucas, 76. Hamill previously shared the plot twist detail in 2017 while appearing on The Graham Norton Show. Spoiler alert: Darth Vader is shown in a still from the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back that features a major plot twist with viewers learning he's the father of Luke Skywalker Secret agony: The 68-year-old actor tweeted that it was 'agony' keeping the secret for more than a year 'The director, Irvin Kershner, took me aside, he came to my dressing room actually, and he said, 'I'm gonna tell you something. I know it. George Lucas knows it, and when I tell you, you'll know it. But if it leaks, we'll know it was you,'" Hamill told Norton. "So I said, ''What? What?'' and he handed me the piece of paper that said, ''I am your father''.' Hamill said he kept the secret from his co-stars Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016 at age 60, and Harrison Ford, 77, and they were shocked at the premiere by the revelation. 'At the screening when that happened, Harrison turned to me and said, ''Hey kid, you didnt f***ing tell me that'',' Hamill told Norton. The scene: Hamill said he kept the secret from his co-stars Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016 at age 60, and Harrison Ford, 77, and they were shocked at the premiere by the revelation 'I apologize for the F-bomb, I only use it for historical accuracy,' he added. Hamill played Luke Skywalker starting in the original 1977 film Star Wars and in its trilogy sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. He also portrayed the character in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Yet Mr. Trump still has a plurality problem, and his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, knows it. Even before the pandemic came along to destroy his best argument for re-election, the economy, Mr. Trump was unpopular among independents and has hardly ever (aside from a brief moment early in the coronavirus crisis) hit 50 percent approval rating nationally and rarely in swing states. The only way to re-elect a plurality president is to make a plurality vote share sufficient enough to win. And the best way to do that is to replicate Russias playbook of targeting parts of the Democratic coalition like progressives and young black voters to turn them against voting for Mr. Biden. The only person who has as much riding on Mr. Bidens decision is Mr. Trump. As in 2016, he hopes to pick off or discourage disgruntled progressive voters. Much of Mr. Trumps re-election hopes are pinned on Mr. Biden making the wrong choice of running mate. So the Biden team must make a pick that can help Democrats match what promises to be an energized Republican base. The best way to do that is a ticket-balancing candidate like Stacey Abrams or Kamala Harris. They would bring gender and racial diversity to the ticket and, perhaps even more important, ideological diversity. That might prove to be the single most effective way to head off the Trump campaigns divide and conquer plan for progressives in 2020. With 120 million millennials and Generation Z potential voters now powering their coalition, Democrats would be wise to recognize that their electoral fate hinges on getting these voters to the polls. Mr. Biden is positioning himself as a bridge to the partys future and liberals like Ms. Harris and Ms. Abrams would help pave the way. Another ticket-balancing approach would be to put a down payment on the Democratic Partys geographic future. This approach would focus resources not as much on the Midwest but on Sunbelt states from California to Georgia through Texas, which could rise as a potential swing state as early as 2024. This would have the Biden team looking at Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Latina governor of New Mexico, or at Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada as potential running mates. Mr. Bidens nomination maxes out the tickets appeal to the center of the electorate. Among independents, the pandemic, economic collapse and Mr. Trumps antics already provide Mr. Biden a hard edge. A centrist, ticket-complementing pick like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will likely bring diminishing returns in this regard. As a fellow white moderate, Ms. Klobuchar is a quintessential ticket complementor a 2020 version of Mr. Kaine. Allowed to go out within walking distance of their homes, the senior citizens of Turkey enjoyed the first day of Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid al-Fitr, in public parks across the country on Sunday, Daily Sabah reports in its article Turkey's elderly enjoy sunny hours outdoors on first day of Ramadan Bayram. According to a circular published by the Ministry of Interior, the weekend curfew will continue from May 23-26 in all Turkish provinces as part of anti-coronavirus measures. The circular exempted the elderly aged 65 and above from the curfew for 6 hours on the first day of Bayram from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m. local time, with the condition that they complied with the rules of social separation and wearing masks. With masks on their faces and the hand of their spouse, or the occasional cane, in one hand, the elderly took long strolls in parks across Turkey. In the western city of Izmir, the elderly went to coastal areas near their homes to walk and enjoy the view of the sea and sunny weather. In Istanbul, seniors walked the coastal area of Uskudar, Taksim Square and the famous Istiklal Street. When the outbreak first began in Turkey, the government initially imposed a curfew for the countrys senior citizens, ordering anyone aged 65 and above to stay home. The curfew was later extended to include youth aged 20 and below, as the number of coronavirus cases increased dramatically. However, new infections across the country have been on the decline since April 21, prompting Ankara to ease some of the restrictions placed on daily life. TORONTO - A military report on five Ontario long-term care homes released Tuesday details "horrific" allegations of insect infestations, aggressive resident feeding that caused choking, bleeding infections, and residents crying for help for hours. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. People line up to be tested at a COVID-19 assessment centre in Toronto on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette TORONTO - A military report on five Ontario long-term care homes released Tuesday details "horrific" allegations of insect infestations, aggressive resident feeding that caused choking, bleeding infections, and residents crying for help for hours. Ontario Premier Doug Ford called it "the most heart-wrenching report" he's ever read in his life. "The reports they provided us were heartbreaking, they were horrific," he said. "It's shocking that this can happen here in Canada. It's gut-wrenching." Ford called in military assistance last month for five long-term care homes dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks. After reading the report, Ford said it's clear the system is broken. He said he is now not ruling out a public inquiry, which he had previously declined. Ontario has launched a "full investigation" into the allegations and will share the results with police so they can look into any possible criminal charges, Ford said. Four of the five homes are private, but Ford said there are 626 long-term care homes in the province and they shouldn't all be painted with a broad brush. He suggested creating a fully public system wouldn't be feasible without help from Ottawa. "We financially wouldn't be able to sustain that," Ford said. "Now, if the federal government comes in to support us, that would make it more sustainable." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has also seen the military report, called it "deeply disturbing." "I was sad, I was shocked, I was disappointed, I was angry. I believe that we're talking about a situation that clearly is a reality associated with COVID-19, but has also existed for quite some time now," Trudeau said. The allegations detailed by Canadian Armed Forces members also included failure to isolate COVID-19-positive patients and allowing them to wander outside of their rooms. Hygiene issues were flagged at several of the homes, including stage four pressure ulcers (in which the damage can extend down to bone), reusing a catheter that had been on the floor for an unknown length of time, leaving another catheter in three weeks beyond the scheduled change date, and patients being left in soiled diapers. Many feeding concerns were reported, including staff writing that a resident refused to eat rather than helping them, leaving food in a resident's mouth while they were sleeping, leaving food out of reach so residents end up missing meals, forceful feeding that led to choking or aspiration, and feeding them while they are lying down. One such incident "appears to have contributed" to a patient death, the report said. At one home, the military reported "significant" fecal contamination in resident rooms, cockroach infestations, residents not being bathed for weeks, and some crying out for help for more than two hours. Ontario Premier Doug Ford fights back tears as he answers question about a disturbing report from the Canadian military regarding five Ontario long-term-care homes during his daily updates regarding COVID-19 at Queen's Park in Toronto on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette Residents at another home were bed-bound for weeks, with a "significant" number having pressure ulcers. Due to severe staffing issues, "most" residents were not receiving three meals a day, the report alleged. At many of the homes, the military reported both severe understaffing as well as a lack of supplies. At one there was a "general culture of fear to use supplies because they cost money," the report said, and at another there was no crash cart available for cardiac arrest. Since members of the military began providing operational assistance in Ontario, 15 of them have become infected with COVID-19. Trudeau said there is no doubt that more needs to be done for seniors in long-term care, and Ottawa will help. The military has been assisting at Orchard Villa in Pickering, Altamont Care Community in Toronto, Eatonville Care Centre in Toronto, Hawthorne Place in Toronto and Holland Christian Homes' Grace Manor in Brampton. Orchard Villa, Altamont and Eatonville had all seen dozens of COVID-19 deaths each when the Canadian Armed Forces were called in, and a personal support worker from Altamont also died. Orchard Villa has now recorded 69 COVID-19 deaths, while Altamont has recorded 52 and Eatonville 42. Hawthorne Place has seen 39 residents die roughly double the number of fatalities at the time military help was requested. Eleven residents have died at Grace Manor. Eatonville Health responded to the report by saying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges to its health system, its home, and its staff. It noted that to date, 104 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed among its employees. "In addition to these team members self-isolating safely away from the home, some staff did not come to work due to personal health reasons, and those who remained were overwhelmed by the pressures brought on by COVID-19," Evelyn MacDonald, Eatonville's executive director, said in a release. "We are committed to work alongside the Government of Ontario to find solutions to the ongoing challenges within our long-term care system that have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic." Sienna Senior Living said it has already made improvements at Altamont Care Community with the support of the Canadian Armed Forces. Natalie Gokchenian, a spokeswoman for Sienna, said improving staffing will be key. "COVID-19 has had a severe impact on an already lean staffing complement at Altamont, which will only continue as we deal with this virus over the coming year or more," she said in an email. "To deliver the level of care that our seniors deserve, the staffing challenges we face in the long-term care sector must be addressed. We are committed to working with the government, and our health system partners, to solve this urgent issue." Lakeridge Health said Orchard Villa had been managing a COVID-19 outbreak for almost two weeks before a team from Lakeridge Health was brought in to support them. Lakeridge said it added dozens of frontline staff to support care to residents including deep cleaning, infection prevention and training staff on the use of PPE. Donna Duncan, CEO of the Ontario Long Term Care Association, thanked the military for their assistance. "Ontario's long-term care homes have been clear about the dire situation on the frontlines of this unprecedented fight against COVID-19," she wrote. "The virus has exacerbated systemic issues, like the long-standing staffing challenges, as it impacts homes in varying degrees." The province will inspect each of those homes, and has referred one death at Orchard Villa to the coroner's office, though officials did not provide details. Ford has asked for the military mission to be extended another 30 days. Ontario has seen more than 1,500 residents of long-term care facilities die in COVID-19 outbreaks, along with six staff members. The province has also appointed hospitals to take over the management of two long-term care homes that have been unable to contain COVID-19. The government has already said it will be launching an independent commission into the province's long-term care system. The number of seniors homes experiencing an outbreak had grown to 190 when that announcement was made last week, but it has since dropped to 150. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The Ontario Long-Term Care Association, opposition parties and the health-care union SEIU have all called for a full public inquiry into the sector. But Ford has said that would take too long. Provincewide, Ontario reported 287 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, and 21 more deaths. It's the first time in more than two weeks that the number of new cases has been lower than 300. The previous five days had each seen more than 400 new cases. There have now been 26,191 total cases in Ontario, a 1.1 per cent increase over the previous day, which is the lowest growth rate since early March. Testing levels remain relatively low, with 9,875 tests completed during the previous day, despite a provincial capacity of nearly 25,000. The numbers of people in hospital with COVID-19, in intensive care, and on ventilators all decreased. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 26, 2020. Senior BJP leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday criticised former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for saying that his party is not a key player in running the Maharashtra government. Amid allegations of mishandling of the coronavirus crisis in Maharashtra, opposition leaders have demanded the dismissal of the state government. The Congress is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MAV) and holds key ministries but Gandhi said, "We are only supporting the government and are not a 'key player' in the state". Speaking to CNN-News, Fadnavis said Gandhi's statement on Maharashtra "smacks of the tendency to wash off their hands from their responsibility, and blame the Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray for the mess in Maharashtra". "They are in power together. They haven't supported the government from outside. They can't run away from their responsibility," said the state's Leader of the Opposition. Fadnavis said the state government is yet to spend financial aid provided by the Centre to tackle the coronavirus pandemic -- he said food grains worth Rs 4,592 crore have been given by the central government and cylinders worth Rs 73.16 lakh provided free of cost. For migrant workers, the Centre provided 600 Shramik Special trains and Rs 1,611 Crore for state disaster relief fund, he said. "I really dont understand what is the priority of the state government, today the state needs assertive leadership, I expect Uddhav Thackeray to take bold decisions," he added. Fadnavis also distanced the BJP from the demands for imposition of President's rule in the state and dismissed speculation that the Opposition was trying to destabilise the government. "We are not in hurry to form a government in Maharashtra. This government will fall due to its own contradictions and due to lack of corordination," he said, adding this is not the time to play politics. "The BJP's focus is on fighting the coronavirus." Fadnavis said speculative statements like the Opposition trying to destabilise the Sena-led government are being purposefully made to divert the attention of people from the government's failure. "This is a cover firing," he added. He said the Opposition will continue to put pressure on the government for taking effective steps to curb the pandemic. Replying to a query on speculation regarding imposition of President's rule in the state, Fadnavis distanced the BJP from such demand. "Subramanian Swamy and Narayan Rane have demanded imposition of President's Rule in the state. The BJP has no role to play," he said. Meanwhile, state Congress president Balasaheb Thorat said Rahul Gandhi hasn't said anything wrong. "We are part of the government but not a key decision maker. The final authority (on taking decisions) is the chief minister," he added. Fadnavis's comments come amid hectic politicking in Maharashtra even as NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said only those without a job could think of the government being unstable. Attacking the BJP for playing politics at a time when Maharashtra is reeling under the effects of coronavirus with the dubious distinction of over 50,000 cases, Pawar said, In such times of a huge crisis, our efforts are to relieve the pain of the people. Reacting to Pawar's comments, Fadnavis expressed disappointment and said the lack of coordination is abundant in the Maharashtra government. Rumours of a potential political upheaval in the state began when Fadnavis complained to Governor BS Koshyari about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the Covid-19 crisis. This was followed by Pawars meeting with Koshyari against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the MVA government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents of the MVA. (With inputs from PTI) With coronavirus hitting finances and yet, at the same time, increasing the amount of need, churches will need to find ways to serve their communities with less than they're used to, says Tim Keller. The popular pastor and writer told the Q 2020 Virtual Summit that churches will need to think differently about stewardship as a result of the pandemic. He said he could see similarities between the impact of Covid-19 and the aftermath of 9/11, when income at the church he founded - Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York - fell by a quarter. "Christian institutions are going to be faced with needing to do more with less," he told the summit. "The number of people and the needs massively expanded, [but] because people lost their jobs and left the city and all that, income was having a huge shortfall," he said. He said he was seeing "exactly the same thing" now with coronavirus. "All the churches I know are saying, 'We have to do more with less. We have far more needs and we have less resources to do it.' And so it means not only a new approach to stewardship but also thinking about what you spend your money on," he said. Keller admitted he wasn't sure what the future looks like, but said that regardless of how the pandemic plays out, "it will take innovative thinking", as well as "more networking and talking". He also predicted that churches will need to scale back some of their programmes to focus on the needs of people, as he hinted at the possibility of pastors taking a pay cut. "The second thing is, you always lead through sacrifice," he said. "The church in general is going to have to spend more or less money on itself that is, its own programs and more money on the people of need. And the only way to do that is to cut things that you're doing right now." "Does it mean sacrificing part of your salary as a way of making sure that you're able to meet needs in your community? I don't know," he continued. "But leadership happens through innovation and sacrifice, always. And we're going to have to do both of these in the next year or two." A migrant worker on his way home in Bihar from Vapi in Gujarat, died aboard a Shramik Special train on Tuesday, a police official said. The deceased, identified as 55-year-old Lal Babu Kamati, was a resident of Jale Police Station area in Darbhanga district. He reportedly died somewhere between Kiul and Bhagalpur stations in Bihar. Kamati, who worked as a security guard in Vapi, had boarded the train on May 23 along with his wife and three daughters. Anil Kumar Singh, SHO, Bhagalpur RPF post, confirmed Kamatis death during the train journey. The deceaseds family said he had some previous health complications, the police officer added. Kamatis family also suspected that extreme heat conditions could have been a factor in his death. Meanwhile, a migrant worker in Darbhanga district who had arrived from Delhi on May 24, died at a block quarantine centre at Jale late on Monday night. The deceased, identified as Nurul Saddaf, worked as cook in a hotel in Delhis Sadar Bazaar area. He had been staying at the quarantine centre since his return. He developed sudden breathing complication on Monday night. Nobody responded to the call on the landline number at Jale referral hospital for medical emergency, alleged one of the inmates of the quarantine centre. Following Saddafs death, Jale police station in-charge Dilip Pathak, block development officer (BDO) Rajesh Kumar, circle officer (CO) Anil Kumar and Jale chief medical officer (CMO) Gangesh Jha rushed to quarantine centre early morning on Tuesday. The CMO said that the deceased was taken for burial after his sample was collected to test for Covid-19. Sources said that the relatives of deceased were provided PPE kits for burial. In another incident in the state, 19-year-old Ramu Kumar died of electric shock at a quarantine centre in Bahera village under Kusheshwarasthan (East) block on Monday evening. He had arrived from Delhi by Shramik special train on May 22. According to reports, the deceased was trying to fix a wire of a table fan when he got electrocuted. Darbhanga DM Thiyagrajan SM has asked Biraul SDO and DSP to investigate the incident. The DM said further action will be taken after receipt of enquiry report. The number of homeless people in San Francisco who died over a recent eight-week period spiked compared to the same time last year, an increase that officials say was likely driven by drug overdoses, underlying medical conditions and a disruption to shelter and services due to the coronavirus pandemic. None appear to be directly related to the coronavirus that is spreading throughout the city, according to preliminary Department of Public Health data obtained by The Chronicle. It is not clear how many people were posthumously tested for the virus. Forty-eight homeless people an average of six per week died in San Francisco between March 30 and May 24, according to Dr. Barry Zevin, director of the Department of Public Healths Street Medicine Team. For comparison, 14 people died in the same time period last year. The data is preliminary; exact causes of death are pending until the medical examiners office finalizes a report. But, Zevin said, most of the deaths were likely related to substance overdoses and were highly concentrated among unsheltered people in the Tenderloin. While the deaths did not appear to be directly related to COVID-19, the numbers suggest that disruptions to services and shelter caused by the pandemic may have been a contributing factor, Zevin said in an interview with The Chronicle. San Francisco has dramatically cut its shelter capacity in recent months so people can stay socially distant, and other services, like drop-in centers and community clinics, have closed, cut capacity or reduced hours. Congregate settings are a huge danger in terms of COVID spread, and thats why we made these changes. I think it was the right decision, but it comes with consequences, he said. And it is very painful. Some of the circumstances of death outlined by Zevin in an email obtained by The Chronicle include: Four deaths in shelter-in-place hotel sites. One of the deaths was likely related to a medical reason, while the other three were most likely drug overdoses. One person died within hours of visiting San Francisco General Hospitals Emergency Department. Two people died within three days of being released from jail. One person who died was found positive for the coronavirus in a postmortem test, but was believed to have died from catastrophic peritonitis, a life-threatening infection. One person died who recovered from COVID-19, which they contracted as part of the massive outbreak at MSC South, San Franciscos largest homeless shelter. Its awful, said Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district includes the Tenderloin. We have a very high rate of deaths of people who are homeless normally. And this has been exacerbated because people are more disrupted and disconnected than usual. San Francisco has moved more than 1,200 people such as those living on the streets or in densely populated apartment buildings into hotel rooms, where they receive food and access to behavioral health services. The people moved into hotels are typically older and have underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to the virus. Zevin estimates that since mid-March, the DPH Street Medicine Team has tripled the usual number of people starting buprenorphine, a drug that helps mitigate withdrawal symptoms from opioids. He also said outreach teams like the Street Medicine Team, with Homeless Outreach Team and Harm Reduction Therapy Center, are doing outreach to those on the streets every day. While Zevin says the city has likely saved many lives by doing outreach and moving people indoors, there are still thousands of people on the citys streets suffering from drug addiction, poor hygiene and health. The number of tents and makeshift structures throughout the Tenderloin neighborhood exploded by 285% between January and May, according to city data. The city as a whole saw a 71% increase in tents and structures during that period. Meanwhile, drug overdoses in the city were already trending upward with the explosion of fentanyl on San Franciscos streets. Santa Clara County has also seen an increase in fentanyl-related deaths, according to county health officials. Over the past one to two years, fentanyl went from something that was rare in San Francisco to something that was very common in San Francisco, Zevin said. And like the rest of the country, when fentanyl comes to town, overdose deaths go up. The conditions in the Tenderloin have grown so dire that neighborhood residents, business owners and UC Hastings College of the Law sued the city in federal court this month. Two days after the lawsuit was filed, Mayor London Breed rolled out a plan to improve the conditions in the 49-block neighborhood, which included moving people into a sanctioned encampment in the Civic Center. The plan also calls for painting lines on sidewalks every 6 feet in heavily populated camping areas, and more rigorous enforcement of social distancing. Still, several weeks after the plan was rolled out, there seems to be little improvement. What is not surprising is that poverty is twice as deadly in this circumstance, said Sam Dennison, co-director of Faithful Fools, a nonprofit fighting poverty in the Tenderloin. Clearly we need a dedicated health policy that really examines both the conditions of people living on the streets, and also how we address their needs when an emergency like this comes up. They should not be the last people we think of. They should be the first. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani Top commanders of the Indian Army will carry out an in-depth review of the tense standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in several areas of eastern Ladakh at a three-day conference beginning Wednesday. Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane will also be present in the meeting, army sources said on Tuesday. IMAGE: Army chief General M M Naravane. The commanders will also deliberate on the overall situation in Jammu and Kashmir besides delving into issues having national security implications, they said. However, the main focus will be on the situation in eastern Ladakh where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie, the sources said. Both India and China have significantly increased their presence in all sensitive areas in the region, signalling that the confrontation may not see a resolution anytime soon. There have been efforts by both sides to resolve it through talks. The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage" following a meeting at the level of local commanders. Over 100 Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in the violence. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9. "The apex level leadership of the Indian Army will brainstorm on the current emerging security and administrative challenges and chart the future course for Indian Army," Army Spokesperson Col Aman Anand said, without elaborating. The commanders' conference was originally scheduled to be held from April 13-18, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now be held in two phase. The first phase will be from May 27 to 29 and the second one in the last week of June, Col Anand said. "India has handled the situation in a mature way. The commanders are expected to have detailed deliberations including on the strategy to confront China's aggressive behaviour," an official said on the condition of anonymity. India last week said that it has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management but the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops. At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also strongly refuted China's contention that the tension was triggered due to trespassing by Indian forces on the Chinese side. India's response came two days after China accused the Indian Army of trespassing into its territory, claiming that it was an "attempt to unilaterally change the status" of the LAC in Sikkim and Ladakh. On May 5, the Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector on May 9. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. China has been critical of India's reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, and has particularly criticised New Delhi for making Ladakh a union territory. China lays claim over several parts of Ladakh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam standoff. In the summit, the two leaders decided to issue 'strategic guidance' to their militaries to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding. Modi and Xi held their second informal summit in Mamallapuram near Chennai in October last year with a focus on further broadening bilateral ties. The principal of a Derry primary school said 'a lot of questions need to be answered' before Education Minister Peter Weir's plans to allow P7 children to return in August go ahead. Terence McDowell, principal of St Eithne's Primary School, has also supported calls from church leaders for the '11 plus' transfer test to be scrapped this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Education Minister last week said it was his aim to see a phased reopening of schools across the North, starting with limited provision for GCSE, A-Level and P7 pupils this summer. Mr McDowell said he first learnt of the Education Minister's plans from the news and had not been consulted about them. "It was the first we heard of it and a lot of questions would need to be answered first," said Mr McDowell. "The Minister wasn't very definite about the plans." Mr McDowell said he feels very sorry for his P7 pupils who face the possible prospect of moving on to post-primary school without the chance to say goodbye. "My heart goes out to them," said Mr McDowell. "For the other primaries we will eventually get them back and we can make up for the missed time, but for the P7s you can never replace that time. "There are so many rites of passage like their school trip that they will never get to do and they will go into post primary without preparation that we would normally give them for what is a such a big change. "If the plans go ahead, it will give us some form of contact and offer some closure to both pupils and staff. "The P7 teachers were told they might not see these pupils again with just two days notice." Staff at St Eithne's PS had already created a DVD for P7 pupils and a certificate to mark the end of their time at the school. "It's always sad to see pupils go, but it will be all the more poignant this year," said Mr McDowell. Under Minister Weir's plans, primary schools and post primary schools would reopen with ' limited provision for key cohort years in August, followed by a phased provision for all pupils at the beginning of September'. However, teachers would traditionally be on annual leave during the school summer break in July and August. "Teachers have been working really hard preparing online resources and work packs to keep pupils going," said Mr McDowell. "We don't know what the requirements will be, but I believe it will be 15 pupils to a classroom. "We have almost 30 in our two P7 classes so they will need to be split into two rooms and that will require more staff. "The physical layout of desks and chairs will need to be considered and the resources they are using. "We have already discussed requisitioning individual resource packs for each child but that will come at an extra expense to the school and I'm sure we won't get any extra resources." Mr McDowell said the movement of pupils outside the classrooms would also be a concern. "We need to consider how the children will move around the school as the corridors aren't very wide. "We also need to think about meal times in the canteen, where normally we would have one or two slots to feed the whole school. "Toilet breaks will need to be considered too and time given for children to properly wash their hands. "This will all be time taken out of teaching time." Keeping the children two metres apart staff and each other would be particularly difficult for younger pupils. "Children in P1 naturally gravitate towards one another," said Mr McDowell. "You can't police that, it is going to be impossible. "Things happen at school where children fall and hurt themselves and they will need comforted. "Do we have to tell a child with a bleeding to chin to wait while we ring their parents? "Some children will find the transition to primary school difficult and they might be crying or upset. "To not be able to comfort that child goes against the grain of the very reasons that teachers came into this profession." Last week, Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown sent a letter to Catholic post-primary schools asking for the transfer test to be scrapped this year, a call echoed by Mr McDowell. "The transfer test causes much anxiety anyway and our teachers have been unable to prepare children in the normal way this year and working from home just doesn't compare. "It is causing much anxiety and we need to consider something to stop that. "There isn't a level playing field in what parents can provide. "They might be working from home, they might have multiple children, they might be looking after an elderly relative. "Every household is unique. "I am very mindful that parents have been thrust into the role of teachers, they are not professional teachers. "Parents shouldn't compare themselves to others. "We always tell the children just do your best and that's the same message I would have for parents. "They are doing the best they can." Meanwhile, Derry Sinn Fein MLA Karen Mullan, has called for an`education forum' comprising of teachers, school leaders, parents, trade unions and public health experts to be convened before schools are allowed to return. The deputy chair of the assembly education committee, said the forum, would "address huge concern and anxiety at the prospect of an eventual return to school". "It's my view that any return to school must be done in complete partnership and in conversation with all those involved in education when the time comes," said Ms Mullan. "Parents, young people and our teaching staff must have confidence that health and safety is paramount in any return to school. "There will be no one size fits all approach for schools in preparing to re-open. "There should be an intense period of discussion that will be crucial to understand the flexibilities and the bespoke needs that different schools and different settings will require." Growing numbers of U.S. colleges and universities are saying they will reopen before autumn. There will be, however, big changes to college life to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Large lecture rooms will no longer be used. Student housing will not be full. Schools will require students to be tested for the virus. And some smaller colleges may even bar students from leaving their grounds. Some universities have given up hope of offering in-person classes in the fall term. So, they will be offering students online classes. Yet others are announcing plans to welcome students back in August. The schools that plan to open admit an outbreak of COVID, the disease caused by the virus, may force them to close again. But, their leaders say, financial and social demands are simply too strong to ignore. At West Virginia University, President E. Gordon Gee said students do not want to wait for a vaccine. He added that the universitys finances were part of the decision. If science were the only concern, we would keep everything shut down until we have a vaccine and until its working, he said. We will open, but it will be different. Colleges planning to reopen include Purdue University, Texas A&M University, the University of Notre Dame and several statewide systems. The California State University system has said its 23 campuses will stay mostly online this fall. School officials said they feared another outbreak of the virus later this year. Others including the University of South Carolina and Rice University in Texas plan to reopen, but they will have a shorter fall term. They are hoping that another outbreak, if there is one, will hit in November or December. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged schools to reopen, but his top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, has expressed concerns. Last week, Fauci spoke at a U.S. Senate hearing about the coronavirus. He said he did not believe there will be a vaccine by the end of the summer. Trump said that was not an acceptable answer. Colleges and universities that plan to reopen have told students to expect social distancing measures to be enforced. This will include a requirement to wear face masks. College officials say there will be widespread testing, and students found to be infected will be put in quarantine. But some Americans wonder whether the schools will be able to provide large numbers of tests. In a call with 14 university leaders this month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promised to help colleges improve testing operations. But some on the call said details, especially about how to pay for the testing, was not clear. The testing is going to cost money, said Mike Lovell, president of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He noted that many schools already have financial problems. Once students are back on campus, the main goal will be to keep them apart, colleges say. Chairs will be placed at least two meters from each other. Big lectures will be made into smaller groups or move online. Some colleges are discussing teaching some classes outside buildings or in temporary shelters. The biggest problem for colleges is the question of student housing. At some schools, housing meant for several students will be limited to just one or two. Restrooms will be restricted to just a few students. At Trinity College, a school of 2,000 in Hartford, Connecticut, officials hope to place every student in their own room. College officials have been trying to find a way to make sure students will have space to sleep and study several meters apart. At least one college may not let students leave the schools grounds. In a recent letter to students, Amherst College in Massachusetts said officials may need to require that you limit your movement to on-campus locations only. Im Susan Shand. The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Quiz - Colleges Plan Fall Opening, But Campuses Will Not Be the Same Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story lecture n. a presentation of information by a professor or teacher outbreak n. the sudden arrival of a contagious disease shut down v. the closing of schools, businesses and other outlets due to an outbreak of disease campus n. the land owned by a college or university mask n. a clothe clover for the mouth and nose quarantine n. to isolate someone so as not to pass on disease 26.05.2020 LISTEN Ghanaian Rap Musician Silvanus Raphael Dickson Oduro called by his stage name Obofour Raphael popularly known with the hit song Konkonsa (Telephone no wire) has edged some industry players to discuss things that will bring progress into the industry and not focus too much on controversies that will get them traffic only. In an exclusive interview with stormcitygh.org , the newcomer rapper/producer told us that the structure in the music industry is too bad and therefore industry players should rather focus and team up to fight together just as the world is currently fighting COVID 19. In recent times, most stakeholders in the creative art industry have teamed up with Ghana Alliance For Change In Ghana Music which people like Shatta Wale, Blakk Rasta, Nana Ama (Backing Vocalist), Samini ,Reggie N Bollie , Reggie Rockstone ,Buk Bak, Nkasei among many legendary artists that are currently campaigning against GHAMRO about their royalties. One middle school student was killed and 12 others injured after they were hit by an uprooted tree on the premises of their school in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday morning. The accident occurred at around 6:15 am at Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, according to Nguyen Van Phuc, the schools principal. The royal Poinciana tree was uprooted and fell onto 13 sixth-grade students, Phuc said. A royal Poinciana tree is uprooted on the premises of Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 26, 2020 in this supplied photo. Three ambulances were immediately dispatched to the school to take the victims to the hospital following the incident, according to eyewitnesses. Most of the victims were admitted to Childrens Hospital 2 in District 1, while one of them was brought to An Sinh Hospital in Phu Nhuan District. A royal Poinciana tree is uprooted on the premises of Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 26, 2020. Photo: Trong Nhan / Tuoi Tre As of 8:40 am the same day, Nguyen Duy Long, director of the city's 115 Emergency Center, confirmed that the student at An Sinh Hospital had passed away. Three students treated at Childrens Hospital 2 remained in a serious condition, Long added. A royal Poinciana tree is uprooted on the premises of Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 26, 2020. Photo: Trong Nhan / Tuoi Tre Ho Chi Minh City vice-chairman Duong Anh Duc has ordered the municipal Department of Education and Training and relevant agencies to investigate the accident. Officials will visit the victims and their families to provide necessary assistance. Police arrive at Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 26, 2020. Photo: Trong Nhan / Tuoi Tre Police arrive at Bach Dang Middle School in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, May 26, 2020. Photo: Trong Nhan / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! WASHINGTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Voto Latino announced that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and recent Presidential Candidate Julian Castro, will join forces with the organization as an advisor, supporting their efforts to engage the Latinx vote ahead of the November election. Castro's experience and dedication to the social welfare and political organization of the Latinx community will be critical to accelerating Voto Latino's work to uplift Latinx political power heading into the general election. Castro will add to the organization's capacity to reach and influence the nation's second-largest voting bloc. "As I said during my campaign for president, the Latinx community will determine the outcome of November's election," said Secretary Castro. "At a time when Latinos are routinely targeted by the Trump administration and disproportionately hurt by the impact of COVID-19, Voto Latino is doing critical work to register and empower the 32 million eligible Latinx voters across the country. Their fifteen-year proven track record of registering Latinx voters using the most sophisticated, digital native campaigns has cultivated the trust of our community and has resulted in 79% of Voto Latino-registered voter turnout at the polls. I'm proud to partner with Maria Teresa and her team at Voto Latino in this effort, and look forward to Latinx voters saying 'adios' to Donald Trump in November." "Secretary Castro has been a champion of our community for years and Voto Latino is excited to welcome him," said Maria Teresa Kumar, Founding President and CEO of Voto Latino. "This particular moment in history is one in which his unique perspective and counsel will be crucial to registering Latinx voters, protecting the health and safety of all voters across the country, and defeating Donald Trump. As we accelerate our proven systems and technology to register 1 million voters, Julian will hit the ground running to amplify Voto Latino's mission in the halls of power." Secretary Castro joins the organization as Voto Latino launched the Immigrant Neighbor Fund, led a lawsuit in Texas against unconstitutional voting restrictions, and made its first-ever political endorsement. Voto Latino is the nation's largest political organization focused on registering and activating Latinx voters. Its grassroots efforts are focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latinx voters, in addition to creating a more robust and inclusive democracy. Through innovative digital campaigns, culturally relevant programs, and authentic voices, we shepherd the Latinx community towards the full realization of its political power. Voto Latino is committed to registering 1 million voters for the 2020 political cycle. Julian Castro served as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama. Before that, he was Mayor of his native city San Antonio, Texas the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city at the time. In 2012 he gave a rousing keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, during which he described the American Dream as a relay to be passed from generation to generation. Secretary Castro launched a campaign for president in 2020 grounded in the belief that every American should count, and that Washington should put peoplenot big, special interestsfirst. For more information, please contact Danny Turkel, [email protected]. SOURCE Voto Latino Related Links www.votolatino.org Katie Miller, the spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence who tested positive for the coronavirus, announced she has returned to work after three negative results and that she is expecting a child with husband Stephen Miller, an adviser to President Donald Trump. 'Back at work today after three NEGATIVE COVID tests. Thank you to all my amazing doctors and everyone who reached out with support. I couldnt have done it without my amazing husband who took great care of his pregnant wife. #TransitionToGreatness,' Miller tweeted Tuesday morning. Miller, who serves as spokesperson for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, tested positive for the coronaviruson May 8th and Thursday marks her first day back at the White House complex. She married Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to President Trump known for his hard line views on immigration, on February 16, 2020 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. President Trump, Vice President Pence and may members of the administration attended. Katie Miller, the spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence who tested positive for the coronavirus, announced she has returned to work Katie Miller also announced she and husband Stephen Miller are expecting their first child; the couple married on February 16, 2020 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. Stephen Miller is also back at work in his West Wing office, just down the hall from the Oval Office, after self-quarantining with his wife, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday. 'He self-quarantined with his wife but they're both back at work and healthy and happy and we're very happy to see them around,' she said at her press briefing. She also said she did not know of any more positive coronavirus tests in the White House and noted that was people's private medical information. 'I can inquire about it but its people's personal medical decisions so I'm not entirely sure that that would be given to me,' she said. Miller's positive result for the coronavirus test sent shock waves through the Trump administration. Her result came shortly after a Navy valet who served meals to the president tested positive for the disease. While the valet was close to the president, Miller was a prominent figure with senior staff and a regular feature in the hallways of the West Wing. She would often walk around to talk to people, including stopping in the White House press room to check in with reporters. She had regular contact with Trump, Pence, and senior members of the administration. After her and the valet tested positive, the White House instituted new protocols for preventing the virus from reaching the president. Staff, Secret Service agents and members of the military were seen wearing masks. Additionally, senior staff began to get tested for the disease on a daily basis. Trump also began a two week regimen of the anti-malaria hydroxychloroquine as a counter measure to possible exposure. The president claims the drug can help fight off the coronavirus but the FDA has issued a warning that only patients in the hospital with the virus should take the drug. Pence tested negative despite his spokesperson diagnosis. He was seen wearing a mask around the White House in the aftermath. Additionally he and President Trump stayed apart for several days to ensure Pence wasn't infected. Trump admitted two weeks he was missing his vice president. 'I haven't seen Mike Pence and I miss him,' Trump said. 'We said for a little while well stay apart because you dont know what happens with this very crazy and horrible disease.' Miller also was a constant presence in the White House press room when President Trump, the vice president and members of the coronavirus task force - including Dr. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx - briefed the media on the administration's work combating the disease. Fauci and Birx began wearing masks on a regular basis to White House briefings but both said they would not isolate at home as they were essential employees. Vice President Mike Pence, Dr. Antony Fauci, and Dr. Deborah Birx began to wear face masks regularly around the White House after Katie Miller tested positive for coronavirus Katie Miller speaks with reporters as Vice President Mike Pence delivered supplies to a nursing home in Northern Virginia on Thursday, the day before her positive coronavirus test Katie Miller is married to White House senior adviser Stephen Miller; the two are seen at the September 2019 state dinner for the Australian prime minister President Trump, Vice President Pence and several members of the administration attended the Miller's February wedding Katie Miller, then going by her maiden name of Katie Waldman, joined Pence's office in September of 2019 Katie Miller on Thursday listens as CMS Administrator Seema Verma speaks during an event at a Northern Virginia nursing home Trump said, at the time, he wasn't worried about the risk of infection despite the virus moving closer to the Oval Office. 'I'm not worried,' he said. 'We're taking very strong precautions of the White House.' White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called the White House the 'safest place that you can come to.' He said additional safety protocols have been put place over the last 48 hours but declined to detail them. 'I don't want to get into all the procedures that we've embarked on but I can tell you that this it's probably the safest place that you can come to,' he said. Staff are checked daily, give symptom histories and all work spaces get regular, deep cleanings, according to deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere. 'The President's physician and White House Operations continue to work closely to ensure every precaution is taken to keep the President, First Family and the entire White House Complex safe and healthy at all times. In addition to social distancing, daily temperature checks and symptom histories, hand sanitizer, and regular deep cleaning of all work spaces, every staff member in close proximity to the president and vice president is being tested daily for COVID-19 as well as any guests,' Deere said in a statement to DailyMail.com. The day Miller's test result was revealed, Pence was not at the White House but in Iowa. His flight to Des Moines was delayed nearly an hour that morning. Reporters traveling with the vice president reported several staffers exited the plane before it ultimately took off. Miller was not on the vice president's flight but had possibly been in contact with six people scheduled to fly. They were removed from the plane. A senior administration official said the six were tested later Friday and the results were negative. The official declined to say Miller's level of contact with Pence but said Trump had not been in contact with her recently. 'I'm not going to get into the level of contact the vice president had. The president has not had contact with this person recently,' the official said. Katie Miller with Vice President Mike Pence and his chief of staff Marc Short on Capitol Hill in December Miller worked closely with the coronavirus task force and helped prepare for this March briefing Stephen and Katie Miller at their February wedding at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. It was attended by President Trump and Vice President Pence 'This morning we had someone on the vice president's staff test positive and so out of abundance of caution we went back and looked into all the person's contacts most recently,' a senior administration official said. 'That's why we asked some of our staff to deplane. Nobody else was exhibiting any symptoms or having any feeling of sickness. We asked them to go get tested and to go home out of an abundance of caution,' the official added. Only 10 members of Pence's staff are tested daily and not every single person out of the hundreds who work in the Old Executive Office building, across the street from the White House complex. Miller is the second person inside the White House complex to test positive in a week. In March another Pence staffer tested positive but that person did not have regular contact with the vice president. The positive tests raised questions about the White House's policy on trying to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus inside the complex, which includes the West Wing offices where the president works, the Old Executive Office building where many aides are located, the East Wing offices of the first lady, and the Executive Mansion where the first family lives. Questions were raised about the safety of the nation's leadership and the first family after a presidential valet tested positive. The valet was part of the White House Military Office, an elite group of officers and enlisted men who are assigned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The valet is not being identified but his duties included serving the president his meals - Trump likes hamburgers and steak - and accompanying the president on trips. In other words the valet was believed to have regular contact with Trump. 'There is no one closer to the president physically, outside of his family, than the valets,' Kate Andersen Brower author of 'The Residence' - a book about the White House staff - told DailyMail.com. First Lady Melania Trump has been much more strict with the areas of the White House she oversees, including the residence and the East Wing, and requires staff to wear masks. Melania Trump, who is tested regularly for the coronavirus, has advocated for people to wear face masks, shooting a video urging people to don one and was pictured wearing one herself. When it comes to coronavirus testing, the White House uses the Abbott Labs test to detect the coronavirus, which provides results in about 15 minutes. It involves swabbing a person's nostrils and waiting on the result. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins a deliberation with deputies from Hubei Province at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress in Beijing, capital of China, May 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xueren) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- As the "two sessions" continue, Chinese President Xi Jinping specially joined a group discussion with national lawmakers from central China's Hubei Province Sunday afternoon, showing his great care for the COVID-19-hit province and its resumption of production. After hearing the remarks of five deputies with the Hubei panel to the National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature, Xi commended the vital contributions and enormous sacrifices made by the people in Hubei and its capital city Wuhan in fighting COVID-19, and expressed his sincere appreciation. As the province hardest hit by the virus and with the longest span of restrictions, Hubei faces major difficulties in reviving its economy, Xi said, urging the province to accelerate production resumption while going all out to implement regular epidemic prevention and control. Photo taken with a mobile phone shows cured patients waving goodbye to medical workers before leaving the Leishenshan hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 4, 2020. (Photo by Gao Xiang/Xinhua) HELP FROM AROUND THE NATION After months-long arduous efforts, China has achieved a decisive victory in the battle to defend Hubei and Wuhan by rallying the support of the entire country, including sending over 42,000 medics nationwide to aid Hubei. "We mobilized from around the nation the best doctors, the most advanced equipment and the most needed resources to Hubei and Wuhan, going all out to save lives," Xi said during his deliberations with deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Friday. Fighting COVID-19 became Xi's top concern after the epidemic hit Hubei. On March 10, he flew to Wuhan and inspected the epidemic prevention and control work. He has chaired a number of key meetings to direct the country's COVID-19 prevention and control efforts and production resumption. Shifting to COVID-19 response on regular basis, the whole country is stepping up efforts to help Hubei return to normal. Members of the national medical team pose for a photo after arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, April 6, 2020.(Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) CONTINUED POLICIES, MEASURES Xi said Hubei should implement targeted policies for key industrial chains, leading enterprises and major investment projects, work hard to solve various difficult problems in production resumption, and help companies, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises solve their practical difficulties. The central and state organs as well as central state-owned enterprises should continue to expand their support for Hubei's revival after the epidemic, implementing all policies and measures, and delivering results and benefits in Hubei on an early date, Xi said to the Hubei panel of lawmakers. In late April, a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, China's top leadership, discussed and endorsed a series of policies supporting the economic and social development in Hubei. According to the government work report delivered to the ongoing NPC session for deliberation, China will implement a package of policies to support Hubei's development, helping it ensure employment, public wellbeing and normal operations, and spurring the full recovery of economic and social activities there. Chen Yilin, chairman of Hubei Long Boat Salinization Co., Ltd., has been busy planning to build a new diaphragm plant to reduce the cost of producing small bags of salt. Through a few online applications, his company was granted a one-time credit of 50 million yuan (about 7 million U.S. dollars) for the project by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest commercial lender. "Having such a large amount of credit so soon has really solved my urgent need," said Chen. The China Development Bank, a major development finance institution, said the bank would increase its loans to Hubei this year. After a pairing-up aid of provincial-level regions to help cities in Hubei fight COVID-19 in the past months, many provinces continued supporting Hubei in production resumption. An online investment promotion event for Wuhan held on May 15, saw central state-owned enterprises sign contracts of 37 projects worth more than 180 billion yuan, which will help the city optimize its economic structure and gain new growth momentum. China's foreign ministry will hold a global promotion event at a proper time for Hubei and explore a fast track for essential personnel to go to Hubei and Wuhan to support the production resumption, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of the NPC session on Sunday. Geely Auto Group in east China's Zhejiang Province said it has helped dozens of its suppliers in Hubei to resume work through various channels. Chinese e-commerce firms such as Alibaba and JD.com have also participated in selling agricultural products for Hubei. Alibaba announced in April that it would purchase crayfish worth 1 billion yuan from Hubei. People stay at a shop of a commercial street in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 30, 2020. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan) SALES PROMOTION, JOB OPPORTUNITIES In early May, nearly 1,000 students from Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute in east China's Jiangsu Province sold special agricultural products of Hubei online, including oranges and tea, to help Hubei recover. "This is a famous orange from Hubei's Zigui County. It is seedless, juicy and sweet," said Chen Jiajia, a student of the institute with 1 million fans, advertizing the orange to the online audience. Liu Jincun, Party chief of the institute, said the students' livestreams helped sell 105,000 kg of oranges for Hubei. As a major labor export province, Hubei has about 6 million migrant workers. Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Fujian have been organized by the central government to help Hubei boost employment. Shandong, which sent a medical team to assist Hubei's Huanggang City, took the lead in signing a cooperation agreement to provide more than 2,000 jobs for migrant workers from the city. In mid-May, the first batch of migrant workers left Huanggang for their workplaces in Shandong. Weng Xinnian, a migrant worker from Huanggang, got a job at Jinan Dali Foods Co., Ltd. in Shandong. "I'm so excited. The company provides dining and accommodation for us. I can earn around 5,000 yuan per month now," he said. The Ministry of Education launched moves to pair up universities in Hubei with 76 universities across the country to help graduates in the recovering province find jobs or start their own businesses. Mau Thi Bich Phanh has spent nearly 30 years of her life researching the value of the ethnic Raglai language. Mau Thi Bich Phanh, a researcher from the southern province of Ninh Thuans Bac Ai District, has spent nearly 30 years of her life researching the value of the Raglai language. VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Thanh Phanh, 72, is from the Raglai group in the southern province of Ninh Thuans Bac Ai District, and has been collecting information about the language and studying teaching methods to create a written language for the group. It also aims to preserve and promote the national cultural identity of the Raglai people, said Phanh. Despite her age, Phanh diligently collected many writings, recorded the pronunciation of Raglai and romanised them to facilitate learning. She is also working hard on developing a curriculum and selecting topics to publish Raglai - Vietnamese bilingual books. Phanh said as a Raglai member, she is deeply in love with her language but did not have a chance to promote it until 1969. It started long long ago. I remember in 1960 when I was 12 years old I got a chance to study for 10 years at a high school called the Central Ethnic Minority School in Hanoi. Just as I was finishing my studies we were forced to evacuate to the northern mountainous province of Lang Son to avoid the American air war against North Vietnam," Phanh recalled. "In early 1969, during the evacuation, I met a reporter from Radio the Voice of Vietnam, who asked me to translate a news story from Vietnamese into Raglai. The news was about the feelings of southern ethnic students studying in the North, Phanh revealed proudly about the first time she got the chance to show off her Raglai language skills on national radio. The woman only returned to Ninh Thuan in 1977 to work in the public health sector. "Due to my higher education and qualifications, and thanks to my cultural knowledge, particularly of the Raglai language, in 1993 I was invited to work as a translator of Vietnamese-Raglai news programmes at the Ninh Thuan Radio and TV station," Phanh said. During my work at the provincial radio and TV station, I realised that the voices and the words were really the souls of every ethnic group. Many groups have their own languages with different scripts, including romanised alphabet. Looking back at the Raglai people at that time, I realised we did not have our own script. Meanwhile, the folklore handed down to me was gradually fading through generations, so I decided to use the Latin alphabet to transliterate the Raglai language. Teaching materials of the Raglai language written to train officials in the field of ethnic culture in Ninh Thuan Province. VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Thanh Phanh said in order to help people learn Raglai easily and quickly, the script was developed very closely with its Vietnamese counterpart. However, the most difficult thing was how to retain the characteristics of phonetics while using the Raglai language in expressions, she said. "The Raglai dialect differs from region to region. It would have been time-consuming to record the pronunciation using the Latin alphabet so I consulted senior language experts and dictionaries. For the words that I did not know, I asked other experienced researchers and local people to complete my own Raglai language self-study documents." In 2017, the People's Committee of Ninh Thuan Province invited her to compile a Raglai curriculum to teach civil servants and officials who worked in ethnic minority areas. Phanh worked with other researchers from the Institute of Linguistics to compile and edit a set of words, rhymes and grammar structure from the Raglai phonetic system which was used to design a complete a set of teaching materials known as the Raglai Language Documents. The teaching material include 10 chapters with 38 lessons written in bilingual Raglai Vietnamese based on standards set by the Ministry of Education and Training. Phanh preparing the curriculum for Raglai lessons. Photo baodantoc.vn The lessons cover phonetics, words, grammar, writing, listening and speaking skills. The curriculum follows topics such as family and clan, village, nature and the environment, native culture, people and land, the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, labour and production, science and education, health care and national defence. After a period of adjustment, in October 2019, the Ninh Thuan People's Committee officially approved the romanised Raglai script and at the same time worked out a plan to incorporate the Raglai script in cultural and educational activities, making a contribution to preserving and promoting the Raglai culture. Speaking about the value of the Raglai script, Tran Van Toan, head of the Culture and Information Department in Bac Ai District, praised Phanh for her great contribution to the construction of the Raglai script. From a cultural perspective, a group will develop sustainably if it has its own language. Words convey the thoughts and sounds. Folklore handed down by memory can be expressed and recorded in words and writings, and thus be preserved and promoted with their cultural identity. Phanh has contributed to that, the official said. Toan said the writing system that Phanh had helped build would help cultural managers and researchers access the Raglai culture more easily. In addition to teaching in secondary and high schools, Phanh is continuing her work on collecting epic stories, music, traditional expressions and lullabies of the Raglai to add to her books. The ethnic researcher was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the provincial People's Committee in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the compilation of ethnic Raglai language documents in 2018. Last year, she was again honoured by the State President and received the title Meritorious Artist in the field of intangible cultural heritage. The title was also in recognition of her great work in developing the spoken and written language of the Raglai people. VNS Nguyen Thanh Students develop app to preserve Raglai language To preserve the Raglai ethnic minority language, two students at the Pinang Tac Ethnic Minority Boarding High School in Ninh Thuan province have developed a mobile phone app for self-study. Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Investment Company has announced that its real estate and infrastructure arm would be providing rent waiver to retail tenants with lease agreements at its luxury shopping and dining destination, The Galleria on Al Maryah Island, for three months. This initiative comes in line with Mubadalas earlier investment of Dh420 million ($114 million) in economic relief for tenants, out of which Dh70 million ($19 million) had been allocated to several relief efforts for commercial tenants. This includes rent relief and deferments to its residential, commercial and retail tenants at Al Maryah Island and flexible payment and fees provisions to customers of its financial services assets. This initiative complements the measures launched by Abu Dhabi Global Market, the governing body of Al Maryah Island, to support businesses operating on the island and within the financial free zone. The Galleria rent waiver is part of Mubadalas We Are Dedicated campaign which aims to provide various economic relief initiatives in response to the economic impact created by the Covid-19 virus outbreak in the UAE. As part of this plan, Mubadala will provide qualifying tenants at The Galleria with a rent-free period effective from April to June. Earlier this month, The Galleria re-opened and welcomed guests after implementing extensive preparedness procedures and safety measures to combat the spread of dreaded virus, whilst ensuring a safe shopping experience for all visitors. Executive Director (Real Estate & Infrastructure) Ali Eid Al Mheiri said: "We are committed to supporting our partners and tenants, and in line with recent updates with the Covid-19 outbreak in the UAE, we have established various tactics to maintain business continuity." "We have considered various strategies and invested into solutions for our valued partners so that together, we overcome the challenges head-on. Our vision for Al Maryah Island and The Galleria has always been community first this will not change and our pledge has been testament to that," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Washington: Two Republican governors are offering up their states to host the Republican National Convention - a day after President Donald Trump threatened to pull the convention out of North Carolina if that state's Democratic governor doesn't assure him that the August gathering can go forward despite coronavirus fears. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp sent an open plea to Trump on Tuesday to consider his state as an alternate site for the quadrennial convention, which is set to gather more than 2500 delegates and thousands more guests, press and security officials. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp wants to host the GOP convention. Credit:AP Plans have been underway for more than a year to hold the convention in Charlotte, but Trump and national Republican officials have expressed concerns that local officials may not allow gatherings of that size during the pandemic. "With world-class facilities, restaurants, hotels, and workforce, Georgia would be honoured to safely host the Republican National Convention," Kemp tweeted Tuesday. "We hope you will consider the Peach State, @realDonaldTrump?!" Representative image Fish export from India, the world's fourth largest exporting nation, is likely to decline by 5-10 percent in 2019-20 due to demand compression in the wake of COVID-19 crisis, Union Fisheries Minister Giriraj Singh said on Tuesday. The country had exported fish valued Rs 46,589 crore during the 2018-19 fiscal. The US, Middle East, UK and China are main export destinations for fish. On number of COVID-19 positive fishermen, the minister said the Centre does not have a separate data, but would collate it from state governments. "As per the latest inputs, there is not much impact on exports. There would be maximum 5-10 percent fall in exports," Singh told media while sharing information about the new scheme Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY). A final report on export status expected in June. There is a gap of 3-4 months after fiscal year to collate the fish export data. The shipments were affected during initial days of the nationwide lockdown clamped to fight COVID-19 disease. But the situation began to improve after the government exempted fishing activities from the lockdown rule from mid-April onwards, he said. The shipments to key destinations, including China, are happening now, Singh added. A senior Fisheries Ministry official said that sluggish global demand because of the lockdown in some countries has impacted the country's exports. But, now the situation has begun to improve and normalcy in exports are expected soon. Asserting that there is huge potential to increase India's fish exports in the coming years, the minister said the government plans to promote export of seaweed and ornamental fish. Seaweed and ornamental fish cultivation will be promoted through self help groups in the coming days, he said, adding that the Centre is working in 2-3 states on seaweed. Besides, the minister said export-hub will be created in north India especially in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where export varieties fishes like prawn cultivation will be promoted in saline water. "So far, south India was a major export hub for fishes. Now, north India too will emerge as an export hub," he said, adding that modern technology will be adopted in improving fisheries sector. About the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), Singh said about Rs 20,050 crore will be spent under the scheme in next five years to make the fisheries sector robust. The target of PMMSY is to enhance fish production to 22 million tonne by 2024-25 from the current level of 13.75 million tonnes in 2018-19. It mainly aims to create fisheries infrastructure, reduce post-harvest losses, modernise and strengthen value chain and double export earnings to Rs 1,00,000 crore. Besides, it also aims to encourage private investment and generate about 55 lakh jobs over next five years, he added. Ministers of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Poultry Sanjeev Balyan and Pratap Chandra Sarangi as well Fisheries Secretary Rajeev Ranjan were present at the conference. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine are excited to announce that experienced legal ethics lawyer, Juan Carlos Arias, Esq., will be joining the team as the newly appointed Managing Attorney for their Professional Regulation Department. Juan Carlos Arias, Esq. The Fort Lauderdale-based law firm has experienced exponential growth in recent years, having been featured on the INC 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list in both 2018 and 2019. They have opened a new office in Orlando and have been adding to their already impressive roster of attorneys. The addition of Arias will further support the growth. "We are thrilled to welcome Juan Carlos to our team as he will provide invaluable expertise to our professional regulation and ethics clients," said Marc Anidjar, Co-founder & Senior Partner at The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine. "His deep knowledge from having worked at the State Attorney's Office and for The Florida Bar, gives him unparalleled perspective to his legal work," adds Glen B. Levine, Co-founder & Senior Partner at The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine. As the Managing Attorney for their Professional Regulation Department, Arias is responsible for the practice areas of Florida Lawyer Regulation, Lawyer Ethics Consulting and Advertising, State Professional Licensing, Law Student Representation before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, and Unlicensed Practice of Law. Juan Carlos Arias, Esq., shared, "I am extremely excited to join the team of Anidjar & Levine and look forward to helping attorneys, law students, nurses and healthcare professionals across the State of Florida." Juan Carlos became a commissioned officer in the United States Army in 1993 and upon graduating from law school served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAGC). Juan Carlos' awards and decorations include the Airborne Parachutist Badge, the Air Assault Badge, the Army Service Ribbon, the Army Achievement Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal. In 2002, Juan Carlos joined the State Attorney's Office for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County and prosecuted cases in the Misdemeanor Trial Unit, Domestic Violence Unit, the Felony Trial Unit, and the Economic Crimes Unit. He was recognized as Trial Convictor of Habitual Offenders in February and May 2004. Juan Carlos became a bar counsel for The Florida Bar in December 2005. As bar counsel, he was one of six attorneys responsible for the investigation and prosecution of attorneys who violated the Rules of Professional Conduct in the counties of Broward and Palm Beach. He has handled over 95 disciplinary cases filed at the Florida Supreme Court level and has successfully argued before the Supreme Court of Florida. Arias holds his Juris Doctor from Stetson College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Dickinson College. He is a member of The Florida Bar, the United States District Court of the Southern District of Florida, and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL). Arias currently resides in Fort Lauderdale. He is an active member of the community and has supported many nonprofit organizations, including, Legal Aid, Sheriff's Foundation of Broward County, Hispanic Unity of Florida, The American Legion, Take Stock In Children, The Pantry of Broward, Broward County Hispanic Bar Association, Prestige Club, Broward Mental Health Summit, and Helping Abused Neglected Disadvantaged Youth (HANDY). Celebrated for both his community work and excellence in his field, Arias has been honored with several awards including the 2019 Miami VA Collaborator of the Year, 2019 Citizen of the Year by the Broward Sheriff's Office, Hispanic Leadership Recognition from Cleveland Clinic, Hispanic Heritage Award from the Broward County Hispanic Bar Association, and the Outstanding Hispanic Man of the Year from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. ABOUT THE LAW OFFICES OF ANIDJAR & LEVINE: The Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine brings years of experience successfully representing Florida clients in personal injury and criminal defense law. With offices in Fort Lauderdale, Naples, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, and Orlando, their team consists of experienced lawyers, investigators, and medical/legal support experts to achieve the optimal results for their clients. Founded by Marc Anidjar and Glen B. Levine, the company stands by its mission to help those in their community and defend their rights. For more information, please visit www.anidjarlevine.com. Contact: Lais Pontes Greene (954) 960-6083 [email protected] SOURCE Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Qu Dongyu and Inger Andersen (The Jakarta Post) Rome Tue, May 26, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic is a deep and lasting shock at global level; we all know that returning to business as usual is not an option. It is imperative that we perceive the crisis as an opportunity to rebuild and even improve livelihoods in a sustainable way. High on the agenda is restoring harmony to humanitys relationship with nature, and particularly with biodiversity. The 2020 edition of the State of the Worlds Forests report, produced in partnership by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), helps map a strategy to do that. The report examines the contributions of forests, and of the people who use and manage them, to the conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity. Forests are home to most of the worlds terrestrial biodiversity they provide us with a wide array of services, ranging from cleaner air and water to natural foods consumed by one billion people and cooking fuel for 2.4 billion people. Forests also provide more than 86 million green jobs . Obtaining sustainable benefits from forests means paying more attention to their needs, which are actually our needs too. The degradation and loss of forests and biodiversity is a contributing factor to disrupting natures balance and increasing the risks of human epidemic diseases in general. While global deforestation slowed in the last decade, some 10 million hectares are still being lost each year, and alongside them, vital species. The evidence is clear that the main driver of deforestation is agriculture expansion. Non-rational land use and plantation for meat, oil and cereal production, followed by subsistence farming activities, account for 75 per cent of tropical deforestation. To turn the tide, we need to innovate and implement sustainable agricultural practices that leverage nature-based solutions and protect biodiversity. Agricultures own function and resilience depends on biodiversity to support pollination services, water cycling, soil and erosion controls. Protecting biodiversity is also a precondition for more diverse, healthy, balanced and nutritious diets. We also need to put in place integrated landscape approaches. Forests can be conserved and managed in ways that create jobs, reclaim ecosystems and improve habitats for people and nature alike. Consider the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area of tropical forest in Central America. Created in 1990, a considerable share of the area was granted under multiple use concessions to communities comprising smallholders, who also received technical assistance, market access, institutional support and a regulatory framework. This encouraged them to conduct some timber extraction while maintaining stipulated stewardship standards. It turns out these groups have logged less than the average for the whole reserve, reduced incidences of forest fires, increased forest cover and maintained local jaguar populations. The jaguars are not a detail. They showcase another important aspect of conservation and restoration: Forests are not just home to biodiversity, but actively depend on their inhabitants. This holistic approach is essential to moving from knowledge to action, as we prepare for the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, which will be led jointly by FAO and UNEP. One striking finding in this years State of the Worlds Forests report is that 7 percent of the global forest area is divided among more than 34 million small patches, each covering less than 1,000 hectares or 10 square kilometers. Such fragmentation hampers the landscape arenas that biodiversity thrives in. We need more large-scale restoration, done in a way that supports livelihoods for rural communities and mitigates climate change. The COVID-19 emergency is a global warning which we hope despite the devastation it has caused can act as a catalyst to pursue more creative and inclusive paths to a happier future where we plant new trees while conserving those we have. Forests and the rich biodiversity they host keep our communities and economies going, and we must work with nature to ensure they thrive. *** Qu Dongyu is Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director-general and Inger Andersen is United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) executive director to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:08:18|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BAMAKO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Mali's health authorities reported 18 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,077 in the country. According to the Malian Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, 160 samples have been tested in the past 24 hours, among which 18 returned positive, including 10 from Bamako, epicenter of the pandemic in Mali. Thirteen patients have tested negative, and three deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours across the country, the ministry said, adding that 1,827 close contacts are being monitored on a daily basis. So far the West African country has reported 1,077 confirmed cases, including 70 deaths and 617 recovery cases, since March 25. The state of health emergency declared on March 25 in Mali is maintained, while the curfew has been lifted. In order to contain the spread of the virus, Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cisse announced the extension of the closure of all schools from May 9 to June 2, and the mandatory wearing of masks in all public places. Enditem (CNN) - In a highly symbolic reopening, Bethlehems Church of the Nativity which Christians believe stands on the site of the birthplace of Jesus has opened its doors for the first time in 82 days. CNN visited the church early Tuesday afternoon and saw five local people at prayer, as well as five Palestinian police officers who were there to maintain appropriate social distancing. Louis Michel, who has a tourist shop in Bethlehem and also works as a guide in the city, told CNN that tears came to his eyes as he saw the church open again. I have missed the church as much I miss my children who are studying in Italy at the moment. For me, it has felt like I have been isolated from everything I love, my children and the church, Michel said. Michel said he has worked as a tour guide since 1996 and has never felt the mood of the city to be as sad as it is. I dont see how life will get back to normal in tourism; we need to wait until Christmas to see what will happen, he added. Palestinian Tourism Minister Rula Maayah urged travelers to return to Bethlehem "Today, the reopening of the Church of the Nativity is a symbol of hope. We pray to God that this pandemic will end, that life will return to normal and that believers and tourists from all over the world can visit the holy places in the Holy Land in Palestine again," she told CNN. On Monday evening, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced the re-opening of shops, businesses, and government ministries, as well as religious buildings, as long as safety requirements were maintained. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Bethlehems Church of the Nativity reopens" Celina Blanchard is breathing a sigh of relief as her Roncesvalles restaurant Lambretta Pizzeria will reopen Thursday for takeout and delivery after she shuttered it at the beginning of the month. Blanchard closed her restaurant because she said she could no longer afford almost $13,000 in monthly rent, echoing concerns from other small business owners that their landlords werent offering rent relief or applying for the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program. The program, announced by the federal government earlier this month, subsidizes 50 per cent of monthly rent, with 25 per cent covered by the tenant, meaning the landlord would get 75 per cent of the rent for April, May and June. Critics of the program say it puts the onus on the landlord to apply, that not all businesses and property owners quality and that, since its voluntary, landlords prefer to defer rent so they get the full amount later on. Blanchards landlord, Daniel Pitoscia, says he will apply for the CECRA this week, and that he had been waiting for more details on the program as well as for online applications to open, which happened this week. His relationship with Blanchard has been complicated by an ongoing lawsuit Blanchard filed against him regarding alleged damages from a renovation in 2018, but for now the ovens are being fired up again after Pitoscia and Blanchard reached a deal for reduced rent. Blanchard says her biggest challenge is hiring staff without being able to give them full-time hours since the restaurant will be operating at reduced capacity. She adds that shes fortunate to have the support of her Roncesvalles neighbourhood, but she hopes the provincial government will adopt measures to protect commercial tenants. Last week, Premier Doug Ford issued a warning to greedy landlords but has yet to call for a moratorium on commercial evictions. Multiple business groups have been rallying for the province to halt commercial evictions with another month of rent coming due. Intimidation isnt enough. They need to do more. Help the small businesses, not the property owner, says Blanchard. Give them a chance. Stephen Murphy of OMG Real Estate, which specializes in buying and selling restaurants, says hes been busier than ever with new listings but has been advising landlords to work with their tenants before kicking them out. Were telling them to apply for CECRA because losing 25 per cent of rent for three months is better than losing 100 per cent rent for eight, nine months. Theres a cost to vacancy he says. He is the landlord for a handful of restaurants in the city and says he will be applying for the CECRA. A restaurants occupancy costs should never cost more than 10 per cent of its sales, so how can it afford regular rent right now? he said. A pair of brothers on what officials called a crime spree were arrested after they allegedly burglarized a cabin on Mount Hood last month, the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office said, but not before a low-speed car chase in reverse, all caught on dashcam video in one of the sheriffs cruisers. It started around 11 a.m. on April 6, when dispatchers got a 911 call about a burglary in progress at a cabin in the small community of Rhododendron on Mount Hoods western flank. A deputy and Oregon State Police trooper were nearby and responded to the call. As they drove up the one-lane dirt road to the cabin, still covered in patchy snow, they came bumper to bumper with a Subaru wagon. A deputy got out of his truck, but the driver put the car in reverse and led the officers on a short chase, the car reversing up the narrow road, sliding sideways in the snow. The driver spun the car perpendicular to the road and the sheriff pinned the vehicle with his truck as both driver and passenger fled into the forest on foot. The driver and passengerlater identified as brothers Aaron Edward Dean Neace, 29, of Beavercreek, and Clayton James Neace, 27, of Wood Villagewere tracked by a police dog and taken into custody, according to the sheriffs office. The Subaru was found to contain stolen property from the cabin, as well as meth and a pellet gun, officials said. Investigators also learned that Aaron Neace was suspected in a number of other crimes, including multiple vehicle thefts, drug possession and criminal mischief. In early May, Aaron Neace was sentenced to 80 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges from multiple burglaries and vehicle thefts. Clayton Neace was sentenced to 29 months in custody after pleading guilty to charges related to the April 6 incident in Rhododendron, officials said. -- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Hyderabad, May 26 : As many as 40 children were taken ill after eating pani puri in Adilabad town of Telangana on Monday night, officials said here on Tuesday. The children, aged aged 5-10 years, are undergoing treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in the town, about 300 km from here. RIMS Director Balram Banoth said condition of two children was serious, but under control. "The children are out of danger. But it will take 24 hours for total improvement," he said. According to the police, the children in Khurshid Nagar and Sundarayya Nagar areas had pani puri from a pushcart vendor. After some time they started vomiting and suffered diarrhea. They were rushed to the hospital. By 11 p.m, the number of ill children increased to 40. Two-three elders, who had also consumed pani puri, complained of stomach pain. The vendor was selling pani puri (fried puff-pastry balls filled with spiced mashed potato, spiced water and tamarind juice) in violation of the lockdown restrictions, said municipal officials. Some contamination in water or other material used by the vendor to make pani puri could have caused the illness, they added. Gold prices slipped Rs 301 to Rs 46,799 per 10 gram in the Mumbai bullion market on a stronger rupee and a steady equity market. The precious metal eased on risk-on sentiment as countries lift coronavirus restrictions, reducing its safe-haven appeal. Indias gold imports for April fell nearly 100 percent to $2.83 million against $3.97 billion in the same period last year as the country locked down, commerce ministry data shows. The rate of 10 gram 22-carat gold in Mumbai was Rs 42,868 plus 3 percent GST, while 24-carat 10 gram was Rs 46,799 plus GST. The 18-carat gold quoted at Rs 35,099 plus GST in the retail market. Gold traded steady as equities gained on optimism over partial reopening of global economy but offset support from a softer dollar and lingering tensions over Hong Kong and Venezuela, Navneet Damani, Vice President, Motilal Oswal, said. The German economy was starting to recover after some restrictions were lifted, a business morale survey showed, boosting European sentiment. A second Iranian vessel carrying fuel entered Venezuelan waters despite a US warning that Washington was considering a response to the shipment. Market participants will keep an eye on the US consumer confidence data. Weaker-than-expected numbers could lend support to gold. The broader trend on Comex could be in the $ 1,720-1,770 range and on the domestic front, prices could hover in the Rs 46,650-47,450 range, Damani said. Comex gold was trading lower near $1,725 amid improved risk sentiment as was evident from gains in the equity market, Ravindra Rao, VP-Head Commodity Research at Kotak Securities, said. European markets were up more than 1 percent while DJIA futures were up more than 500 points. The US dollar index slipped more than 0.5 percent to trade near 99.15 levels. The US currency and gold both have weakened as improved risk sentiment reduced its safe haven appeal. Gold could get support at lower levels amid weaker economic outlook and increased US-China tensions, said Rao, expecting a range-bound move between $1,700 and 1,734. The gold/silver ratio stands at 98.26 to 1, which means the amount of silver required to buy one ounce of gold. Silver prices edged up Rs 580 to Rs 47,625 per kg from its closing on May 22. In the futures market, gold touched an intraday high of Rs 47,150 and an intraday low of Rs 46,612. On the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), the yellow metal for June series touched a low of Rs 36,572 and a high of Rs 47,980. Gold futures for June delivery declined Rs 205, or 0.44 percent, at Rs 46,768 per 10 gram in the evening trade on a business turnover of 7,061 lots. The same for August delivery lowered by Rs 175, or 0.37 percent, at Rs 46,896 on a business turnover of 12,216 lots. The value of the June and August contracts traded, so far, is Rs 3,183.02 crore and Rs 841.70 crore, respectively. Similarly, Gold-Mini contract for June slipped Rs 147, or 0.31 percent, to Rs 46,806 on a business turnover of 7,993 lots. Tapan Patel, Senior Analyst (Commodities), HDFC Securities, expects gold price to trade sideways to down, with MCX June gold getting support at Rs 46,400 and facing resistance at Rs 47,300. Axis Securities advised clients to sell June Gold at Rs 46,700, with stop loss at Rs 46,850 and a target of Rs 46,500. Spot gold is expected to trade in the $1,715-1,750 range, Motilal Oswal said. At 1231 GMT, spot gold was marginally down by $0.38 at $1,728.59 an ounce in London trading. College graduates and job seekers were joining job fairs, sending resumes and taking examinations and interviews at this time of the previous years. However, job fairs are moving to the cloud this year due to epidemic prevention and control. Li Xiang is a fresh graduate from a university in Wuhan, central Chinas Hubei province, who started seeking jobs online since the end of February. His instructor told him in late February that an online mutual selection job fair was scheduled on March 6, in which students can browse recruitment information and submit resumes after registration. Li immediately signed up for the fair and to his surprise, he found that the system would automatically recommend companies to him after he selected his major and preferred industries. On March 9, Li had his seventh online interview at home. In about an hour, he learned the general situation of the company and job duties from the interviewer, shared his career plans, showcased his expertise, and inquired about the salary. Compared with traditional job seeking, online recruitment is simpler, because I feel more relaxed when having online interviews . I didnt run into a lot of troubles during the whole process, Li told Peoples Daily. Li received an offer from the company three days later, and came to the last step of the cloud recruitment online signing. They finished preliminary procedure after Li clicked agree on the screen, which marked a successful completion of Lis online job seeking. Lis story was just an epitome of Chinese colleges efforts to help students graduating in 2020 secure jobs . The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and related departments established a national online recruitment platform in March. Earlier this spring semester, Peking University officially launched a system for online recruitment sessions and mutual selection. As of April 23, 7 online mutual selection sessions had been held, with each attracting an average of nearly 200 enterprises. Besides, the university had also hosted 55 online recruitment sessions. Enterprises are also trying everything to make online recruitment more capable. Interviewers are livestreaming the recruitment, introducing enterprises working environment, job responsibilities, salaries and career prospects through slides and promotional videos. Some are even resorting to artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality technologies. In AI interviews, human interviewers are replaced by AI robots which are able to assess and analyze the tones, wording and facial expressions of the interviewees. Online recruitment is offering more options to job seekers, said Liu Wenbin, deputy director of Wuhan Universitys career center. During the peak time in previous years, there were always six to seven enterprises coming to our university on the same day, so the students were not able to attend all. Now its not a problem when job fairs are moving online, he added. Liu believes that online interviews will become more regular. When the outbreak of the COVID-19 has forced enterprises to move recruitment online, both enterprises and job seekers have to adapt to the new trend and get prepared, he said. New political alignments, possibly even central rule, could be on the cards in Maharashtra after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi distanced himself and his party from the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state. The Congress is an alliance partner in the government led by the Shiv Sena. Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress had recently remarked that the Maharashtra government was not run by the Maha Vikas Aghadi, but only by the Shiv Sena. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the third member of the alliance, could be the reason for the unraveling of the ... STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Borough residents had a chance Monday to pay their respects as Staten Island cemeteries opened their gates for Memorial Day Weekend -- some for the first time since Mothers Day due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Following our success on Mothers Day, I reached out to all our local cemeteries to ensure they will open for Memorial Day for visiting and veterans that traditionally place flags, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis previously said. Some have permanently reopened and I hope the others will be able to soon once they catch up with burials." Resurrection Cemetery in Pleasant Plains opened from 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday and Monday, much to the surprise of several visitors who initially planned to leave their memorials at the gates. Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp opened one entrance Monday, creating a line of vehicles which stretched onto Todt Hill Road. Thirty vehicles were permitted onto the grounds at a time with each group given a 15-minute time limit. The Veterans memorial at Resurrection Cemetery had a number of visitors Monday for Memorial Day. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Resurrection Cemetery opened its gates for limited hours Sunday and Monday for Memorial Day. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Moravian Cemetery was open Monday but only allowed 30 vehicles at a time in an effort to control the crowds. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) New American Flags were put up in Resurrection Cemetery as they opened their gates for Memorial Day. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Moravian Cemetery was open Monday but only allowed 30 vehicles at a time in an effort to control the crowds. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Resurrection Cemetery opened its gates for limited hours Sunday and Monday for Memorial Day. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) A floral arrangement is placed at a gravesite on Memorial Day at Moravian Cemetery. May 25, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) ST. LOUIS As dentists begin to reschedule patients who had been deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, behind the scenes they are in an expensive race to track down critical supplies. Some dentists say prices for certain items of personal protective equipment have tripled, or more. Combined with lost revenue from canceled procedures, it poses an added financial pressure for practices. You go into dentistry not thinking that its going to be a huge risk, said Dr. Emily Hahn, a dentist who owns Skyview Pediatric Dentistry in Town and Country. Dental offices typically they dont fail. Right now its, I would say, much riskier, Hahn added. Hahn opened her practice in October, and in March, she stopped all nonemergency procedures. To have a business opened five months and then closed, was it was intense, Hahn said. She said her practice will survive the pandemic, but the revenue lost during that time was substantial, and the new costs for protective supplies have risen greatly. Hahn and other dentists also donated portions of their PPE supplies to nearby hospitals when the region saw its first cases of the virus. It was the absolute right thing to do, said Dr. Danielle Riordan, a dentist at Family Dentistry of St. Peters. But now it has certainly produced a concern for a lot of the area dentists. Faulty supplies To help alleviate concerns about dwindling protective equipment, the Greater St. Louis Dental Society ordered 120,000 KN95 masks in bulk, to distribute to members. But when the masks arrived, members of the group said they spotted red flags. Dr. Michael Hoffmann, a dental anesthesiologist in Clayton, said he weighed the new masks. They weighed five grams, lighter than the six-gram masks he already owned, he said. He cut one of the masks open and found there was a layer of filtration missing. The society was able to receive a refund for the shipment, said Dr. Mark Scantlan, a dentist at Meramec Dental Center in Sullivan and current president of the society. But still, the group had to inform hundreds of its members that they would not be receiving the new KN95s. And beyond the challenges of identifying faulty equipment, dentists still need to contend with higher costs for PPE. The price of everything jumps to the moon when its not readily available, Scantlan said. And if you need it in order to be able to practice, then youre obviously going to pay whatever. The CDC has recommended that dental workers wear an N95 before entering a patient room, and if that is unavailable, a surgical mask and full-face shield. If neither option is available, the CDC recommends referring the patient to another office that does have appropriate PPE. Survey data from the American Dental Association suggests that many dentists in Missouri dont have N95s. Of 125 dental practices surveyed in Missouri the week of May 4, roughly a third had zero N95 masks in stock, according to data from the ADAs Health Policy Institute. Of all the dental practices surveyed, only 27% said they had more than two weeks worth of N95 masks in stock. Moving forward Dentists say the pandemic could have long-lasting impacts on their industry. Patient volumes will not return immediately, as appointments are spaced out to allow for more cleaning. And some wonder if any of the new precautions will become permanent. For now, when patients return to their dentists offices, many will see that magazines and toys have been removed from waiting rooms. And there will be fewer patients inside the offices at a time. Patients may have been screened for symptoms of COVID-19 multiple times before they step across the threshold. And some offices will be equipped with new air scrubbers and UV-light mask sanitizers. Hahn, of Skyview Pediatric Dentistry, started seeing more patients May 18, but she doesnt anticipate building back up to her offices former volumes right away. For the next couple of weeks, my schedule is cut in half, Hahn said. At my practice, I dont want a family to ever see another family as they come in and out. Hahn said the learning curve has been steep for the new requirements of a pandemic. Determining how we protect ourselves appropriately is an ongoing challenge, to say the least, Hahn said. Annika Merrilees 314-340-8528 @annie3mer on Twitter amerrilees@post-dispatch.com Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. This Morning's IVF consultant says she will carry the people who died of coronavirus in her 'heart and mind forever'. Dr Larisa Corda, 37, from London, usually works as an obstetrician, gynaecologist and fertility expert at an NHS teaching hospital in south London, but volunteered to work in the ICU of a South London hospital at the peak of the coronavirus crisis. The doctor spoke of an Easter weekend she will 'never forget', where she and her colleagues felt 'overwhelmed' and 'helpless in the face of being able to save them.' She told how she was 'moved' by experiencing so much death after sending so much time 'bringing life into the world', and finds solace in knowing she helped patients 'have a dignified end'. This Morning's IVF consultant (pictured) says she will carry the people who died of coronavirus in her 'heart and mind forever' Speaking from the hospital during her last shift, she said: 'It's really hard to sugar coat this. We have seen an awful lot of people die and I'm sure me and my colleagues around the country will never forget that Easter weekend. 'That's when I spoke to you and found that intensely difficult, because we had just lost so many patients within the space of a few days and we were helpless in the face of being able to save them. 'We were overwhelmed that despite all our best measures we just could not help an awful lot of people, and that's really hard to take as a doctor or a nurse in this.' Dr Larisa Corda,37, from London, usually works as an obstetrician, gynaecologist and fertility expert at an NHS teaching hospital in south London but volunteered to work in the ICU of a South London hospital at the peak of the coronavirus crisis She went on to speak about the stark difference between her usual job creating life, and working on the coronavirus front line. 'Because to some extent you're used to seeing death, said Larisa, 'But it doesn't make it any easier. You're never desensitized to it. 'For me personally, coming from the other end of being able to help create life and bring new life into the world to be completely at the other end was something really, really moving for me and I have found it difficult.' The doctor spoke to hosts Eammon Holmes and Ruth Langsford (pictured) of an Easter weekend she will 'never forget', where she and her colleagues felt 'overwhelmed' and 'helpless in the face of being able to save them' The doctor said that she had a lot of support from colleagues, and was helped by the face that she was 'there for her patients when they needed her'. 'But I've had a lot of support from my colleges and what's really helped me though it is knowing I was there for these people when they needed me most and I helped them have a dignified end. She added: 'You carry these people forever in your heart and your mind, as well as the miracle stories.' Nearly 1,200 workers at a goldmine deep in the Siberian wilderness have come down with COVID-19. The virus was first detected at the Olimpiada mining and processing plant on May 8 and has spread uncontrolled ever since. About 20 percent of the facilitys workforce is now infected. Coronavirus cases and fatalities continue to climb in Russia as a whole, with the country now having more than 350,000 known infections and 3,633 official deaths. Yegor Korchagin, the chief doctor at the regional hospital in Krasnoyarskwhich at 350 miles to the south is the nearest major city to the mining operationattributed the outbreak to crowded conditions. When the first cases appeared, sickened miners received care from on-site medics. Shortly after, further medical personnel arrived, many of whom also then fell ill, but work continued at the mine. Korchagin said that about 700 of those infected are asymptomatic, while others are moderately to severely sick. Given the total number of infections at the mine, this would mean hundreds of workers are in need of medical care. The mine quickly became one of the main hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus in Russia. On May 14, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Liberty reported that the National Guard had been deployed to the plant. One miner told the outlet: If the infection has already spread, well all get infected. Everyone understands this and people are already losing their nerve. They brought in the National Guard so that we dont start a riot, surrounded us like in prisons with patrols everywhere. At the time, the miners, including those receiving medical treatment, were reportedly forbidden to leave the site under the threat of significant fines and even imprisonment. With the aid of the military, a field hospital was eventually set up at the Olimpiada plant, which is owned by Russias largest gold producer, Polyus. However, relatives of the miners have been pleading for weeks for the company to extract their ill family members, as they cannot get to a major hospital on their own because the remoteness of the mine requires evacuation by helicopter or other heavy-duty transport. On May 22, the news outlet Babr24 broadcast the story related by the wife of one miner: On May 15 the husband started to have trouble breathing. At the on-site clinic, they werent able to do anything to help. Only after many calls from relatives did they take an x-ray, which showed bilateral pneumonia. Through an acquaintance, they managed to get him transferred to the Northern-Yeniseysk HospitalPolyus did not provide the transportation. An ambulance took the patient. In the hospital, they had to put him in an induced coma. He needed to be transferred to Krasnoyarsk, however at the regional hospital they said Polyus was obligated to get the patient out. Only after turning to the TV channel Yenisey did they [Polyus] send a medical helicopter. The only statement issued by Polyus, which boasts the third largest gold reserves in the world, on the coronavirus situation at its mine was on May 10. It insisted that miners were receiving the best medical care and assured investors of uninterrupted operations. The company describes itself on its website as a top 10 gold producer with one of the lowest cost profiles. It is majority owned by Said Kerimov, the 24-year-old son of the billionaire Russian oligarch Sulyeman Kerimov. Alongside a number of other Russian stakeholders, on its board sit Canadian and British businessmen with extensive ties to the US financial elite. Elsewhere in Russia, COVID-19 continues to spread as well, despite President Vladimir Putins insistence over this past weekend that the situation in the country is under control. In Moscow, the center of the outbreak, an overburdened ambulance system is unable to respond to residents calls. It was just reported that there are now 980 COVID-19 cases among workers in federal prisons and 238 cases among inmates. Health care workers across the country continue to protest a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), the governments failure to pay promised bonuses, and false official reporting of mortality among doctors. Dagestan, a region in Russias north Caucasus, is being particularly hard hit by coronavirus. For weeks there have been competing claims about the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the area, with press outlets and local residents insisting that the numbers are significantly higher than that reported by government representatives in Moscow. As of May 25, there have officially been 4,205 cases in Dagestan. Earlier in the month, however, the regional health minister said that when COVID-19 and community-acquired pneumonia are counted together, there had already been 13,697 cases and 657 deaths. The mufti of Dagestan, the top religious leader in the majority-Muslim region, recently stated that 50 doctors have died of coronavirus and that there are many unrecorded fatalities because people are dying in their homes without ever receiving treatment. Even according to official estimates, Dagestan accounts for most of the COVID-19 mortality in the north Caucasus. In the capital city Makhachkala, masks and gloves are being distributed at the entry to markets and disinfecting stations are being set up around the city. The neighboring oblast of Kalmyk has sealed its border with the mountainous republic. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, which lies to Dagestans west, has reportedly been hospitalized with the virus. In a sign of growing anxiety in the countrys capital over the COVID-19 situation on Dagestan, on May 23 the military was dispatched to the region as part of the efforts to build two observational field hospitalslocations to which people suspected of having or having been exposed to COVID-19 can be kept in isolation. Each has 35 tents capable of holding 20 people. The erection of these facilities follows on the heels of the construction of a facility intended to treat coronavirus victims, staffed with doctors from around Moscow. The billionaire oligarch Sulyeman Kerimovfather of the owner of the Polyus goldmine, originally from Dagestan, and the regions representative at the federal levelallegedly donated 1.5 billion rubles (US$21 million) to the fight against coronavirus in Dagestan. It is unclear, however, where these funds, if they ever existed, have gone. Colombo, May 26 : Sri Lankan authorities said a curfew in capital Colombo and the outskirts of Gampaha, which was imposed on March 24 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, will be relaxed on Tuesday. A statement from the President's Office said that curfew will now be effective in all districts of the country including Colombo for a shorter period of time daily, from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., as there had been no new patients detected among the public within the past two weeks, reports Xinhua news agency. The spread of the virus had been contained within one cluster and at the quarantine centres only. However, the President's Office said, guidelines prescribed by the health authorities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus should be strictly followed during the operations of factories, institutes, offices and shops as well as public transportation. These guidelines include disinfection, wearing face masks, washing hands from time to time and maintaining social distance. Police warned that those not adhering to these guidelines will be arrested. The statement said heads of state and private sector establishments are free to decide on the number and categories of workers to be called for work in consideration of the nature of the services they provide and health guidelines. "The government requests the public to adhere to health recommendations while engaging in their daily activities even after the curfew is relaxed," the President's Office said. The authorities said that travel between districts, except for Colombo and Gampaha will also begin from Tuesday but people were strictly advised to maintain social distancing and wearing masks at all times. Sri Lanka had banned district to district travel since March 20, just days after the first local patient was detected. Sri Lanka has so far reported more than 1,100 COVID-19 cases, with 10 deaths. On Sunday, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary. Kardashian posted two throwback photos of her and West and added a caption that says that they are down by six years, so they still have forever to go and that they will still be together until the end. Kim Kardashian West posted sweet photos of her and Kanye West The business mogul shared a couple of images on her Instagram stories from their wedding ceremony at the historic Forte di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. The West couple was joined by their close families and friends and their firstborn daughter, North West, on her third marriage. The KimYe pair then welcomed three more children, namely, Saint West, Chicago West, and Psalm West. Read also: Kanye West Buys His Childhood Home An ardent supporter of President Trump, West loves his married life too. Last fall, he said during an appearance on "Carpool with James Corden," which took place on an airplane, that people thought that it is uncool to become a married person, but when he got married, people thought that it looks cool. Detractors to KimYe's marriage Many said that the couple's marriage would not last long. Wendy Williams famously predicted that the Kardashian West marriage would not last more than 72 days, which is the length of Kardashian's marriage in 2011 with Kris Humphries that failed. Read also: Fans Attack Kim Kardashian for Her Posts on Rob's Birthday The controversial talk show host promised that she would eat crow live and on-air if their marriage surpassed the 72 days. After 114 days of the Kardashian West's wedding day, Williams sought a professional chef to prepare a crow gumbo so she could live up to her words. She deadpanned that it was just an expression that they use and is not something that they were supposed to do. Chef Kevin Burrows then told Williams that people do eat crows. He did his best to dress up the "tough meat" with spices, bacon, and seasonings for hours. On the Asbury Park, N.J., the studio audience cheered for Williams while saying, "eat it." After tasting the "tough meat," Williams said that it has a nice consistency, and she could taste the iron. She also said that it tasted like chicken liver, and it was not so bad. She also said that she is a woman of her words, then she blurted out, saying that just because they are married does not mean that they are happy. Adorable photo of Saint and Reign On Monday, the "KUWTK" reality star shared an adorable photo of her son Saint and sister Kourtney's son Reign and added the caption that she "can't with these two." Read also: Kim Kardashian West's Daughter Chicago Believes That She is a Ghost The two cousins look cute while they posed on the camera. OAP Daddy Freeze has reacted after an evangelist criticized the mode of dressing of Leke Adeboye, son of Pastor Adeboye of the Redeemed ... OAP Daddy Freeze has reacted after an evangelist criticized the mode of dressing of Leke Adeboye, son of Pastor Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG. The evangelist, Victor Edet was on Facebook with a post stating that Leke Adeboye dressed like a gangster as seen in a picture he shared. He wrote: I was shocked and shut of words after seeing this picture, how can a Pastor be wearing a face cap this way? God of mercy, what is the church turning into? Leke Adeboye should be cautioned seriously and he should be called to order. You cant be a Pastor and be dressing like a gangster His post has now been criticized by Daddy Freeze who described it as petty. He also advised the evangelist to concentrate on doctrine instead of dressing. He wrote: Theres nothing wrong with Lekes dressing. If you have any issue with doctrines address those, but speaking of his mode of dressing is beyond petty in my opinion. By the way its short of words not shut of words if anything needs a dressing overhaul; its your English. Peter Manfredonia A multistate manhunt is underway for a Connecticut man accused of killing two people and abducting another, authorities said. Peter Manfredonia, a University of Connecticut senior, is the prime suspect in the killing of Ted DeMers, 62, and Nicholas Eisele, 23, in Connecticut before forcing Eiseles girlfriend into her car and fleeing the state with her. Manfredonia is suspected of killing DeMers, possibly with a sword or machete, in Willington, Connecticut, on Friday after DeMers found Manfredonia walking along a road and offered him a ride back to his motorcycle. Eisele was found dead at his home Sunday in Derby, which is about 60 miles southwest of Willington and just west of New Haven. Connecticut State police described him as an "acquaintance" of Manfredonias. Earlier on Sunday, a Willington man reported being held against his will by Manfredonia, who then left with food, several guns and the mans truck, which was later found abandoned near a state park about a mile from Eiseles home. A security photo shows a man police believe to be Peter Manfredonia, a Connecticut man wanted for two homicides committed on Friday, May 22. Manfredonia was last seen in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania on Sunday, and police are advising area residents to be cautious, as he may attempt to solicit a ride to flee the area. Manfredonia was last spotted in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, police said. Connecticut authorities said he is armed and dangerous and should not be approached. According to a Pennsylvania State Police release, Manfredonia was dropped off in front of an East Stroudsburg Walmart by an Uber driver. Through interviews with the driver and security footage, police were able to determine that Manfredonia walked along the train tracks behind Walmart, and that he was still in possession of the duffel bag containing firearms. Pennsylvania police noted he may attempt to solicit a ride sharing service, possibly through a third party, in order to flee the area. Eisele's girlfriend, who has not been identified, was found at a rest stop in Paterson, New Jersey, police said, along with her car, which authorities had told the public to be on the lookout for. ***WILLINGTON HOMICDE UPDATE*** Most current photos of the suspect, Peter Manfredonia. Last seen in East Stroudsburg, PA. PA law enforcement agencies are actively looking for the suspect. Do NOT approach, he is ARMED AND DANGEROUS, call 911 immediately. pic.twitter.com/cOnvHh9EiQ CT State Police (@CT_STATE_POLICE) May 24, 2020 The FBI is assisting Connecticut authorities in their investigation into the killings. Police have not suggested a motive. Story continues Mike Dolan, a lawyer for Manfredonias family, said Manfredonia has struggled with mental health issues and has sought the help of a number of therapists. Peter, if you are listening, you are loved, Dolan said at a news conference Monday. "So, Peter, from your parents, we love you, please turn yourself in. Contributing: Brian Myszkowski, Pocono Record; Norwich Bulletin. Follow reporter Anthony Zurita on Twitter: @AnthonyRZurita 'These kids are coming back': Reopened Montana school offers peek at what fall might bring Coronavirus live updates: Stocks rocket higher; WHO warns of possible 'immediate second peak'; hydroxychloroquine dropped from study This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Peter Manfredonia: Manhunt for Connecticut homicide suspect ongoing Related video above: RNC prepares for full house Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is making it clear that his state is ready to host the Republic National Convention if President Donald Trump pulls the event out of North Carolina. President Donald Trump has threatened to move the Republican National Convention if North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper doesn't allow full capacity attendance for the event, scheduled to take place in Charlotte this August. I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed ... ..full attendance in the Arena." Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp chimed in Tuesday morning to make his intentions known. "With world-class facilities, restaurants, hotels, and workforce, Georgia would be honored to safely host the Republican National Convention," Kemp tweeted. "We hope you will consider the Peach State, @realdonaldtrump!" Before the pandemic, the GOP estimated 50,000 would travel to Charlotte for the convention. North Carolina has reported nearly 23,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 700 deaths. Georgia has reported more than 43,000 cases and more than 1,800 deaths. Spokesperson for the National Chief Imam Sheikh Aremeyaw Shaibu has urged Muslims to refrain from using same plastic kettles, popularly known as booter, to help curtail spread of the novel Coronavirus disease. Sheikh Aremeyaw wants the Muslim communities to practise what he calls One Muslim One Booter at various mosques in protecting themselves and family members from the deadly virus. Before prayers Muslims perform ablutions, or ritual washing Wudu, which is to physically clean themselves and by doing so use the water-containing plastic kettles, normally kept at the mosques for the ritual. Speaking to Onua FM on how Muslims are preparing to return to the mosques should restrictions on social and public gatherings be eased, Sheikh Aremeyaw appealed to his fellow worshippers to have individual booters from this day forward. He underscored the need to adhere to frequent washing of hands, wearing of nose masks and all other protocols put out by World Health Organization (WHO) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) in enhancing the fight against Covid-19. As we all have individual booters in our homes, lets replicate same at the various mosques in protecting ourselves from contracting the virus and in the end infecting the family and colleagues. He noted that Muslims from this time forth would be compelled to attend prayers at the mosque with prayer rug or prayer mat as part of measures in containing spread of Covid-19 should ban on public gatherings be lifted anytime soon. Leadership, according to him, would instruct all Imams at the community level to provide sanitizers and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) at mosques. He admitted that Covid-19 and its associated restrictions hugely affected activities during the Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr celebrations since individuals were prohibited from congregating at mosques during the Salat period. He, however, said lessons are being learnt and they would go a long way of strengthening their scheme of worship in preparing them for unfortunate periods and incidents like this. Sheikh Aremeyaw entreated Muslims and the general public to observe all state protocols, in reducing spread of the virus. Source: Daily Guide Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video At the height of Chinas coronavirus outbreak, officials made quick use of the fancy tracking devices in everybodys pockets their smartphones to identify and isolate people who might be spreading the illness. Months later, Chinas official statistics suggest that the worst of the epidemic has passed there, but the governments monitoring apps are hardly fading into obsolescence. Instead, they are tiptoeing toward becoming a permanent fixture of everyday life, one with potential to be used in troubling and invasive ways. While the technology has doubtless helped many workers and employers get back to their lives, it has also prompted concern in China, where people are increasingly protective of their digital privacy. Companies and government agencies in China have a mixed record on keeping personal information safe from hacks and leaks. Authorities have also taken an expansive view of using high-tech surveillance tools in the name of public well-being. The governments virus-tracking software has been collecting information, including location data, on people in hundreds of cities across China. But authorities have set few limits on how that data can be used. And now, officials in some places are loading their apps with new features, hoping the software will live on as more than just an emergency measure. Zhou Jiangyong, Communist Party secretary of the eastern tech hub of Hangzhou, said this month that the citys app should be an intimate health guardian for residents, one that is used often and loved so much that you cannot bear to part with it, according to an official announcement. Governments worldwide are trying to balance public health and personal privacy as they pull out the stops to protect their people from the virus. In China, however, the worry is not just about potential snooping. The countrys leaders have long sought to harness vast troves of digital information to govern their sprawling, sometimes unruly nation more efficiently. But when computer systems have so much authority over peoples lives, software bugs and inaccurate data can have big real-world consequences. It is also far from clear that citizens are comfortable with their government knowing so much about them, even when the aim is efficiency and convenience. Epidemic prevention and control needs the support of big data technology, but this does not mean agencies and individuals can randomly collect citizens information by borrowing the name of prevention and control, Li Sihui, a researcher at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, wrote in a recent commentary. People in China sign up for the virus-tracking system by submitting their personal information, recent travel and health status in one of a swath of apps. The software uses this and other data to assign a colour code green, yellow or red that indicates whether the holder is an infection risk. Workers posted outside subways, offices and malls stop anyone without a green code from entering. Authorities have never explained in detail how the system decides the colour of someones code, which has caused bewilderment among people who have received yellow or red ones without understanding why. The New York Times reported in March that one widely used piece of health code software collected location data and appeared to send it to police, though it is unclear how the information was used. In Hangzhou, where the system was pioneered, officials are exploring expanding the health code to rank citizens with a personal health index, according to a post last week on an official social media account. It is not clear how the ranking would be used. But a graphic in the post shows users receiving a 0 to 100 score based on how much they sleep, how many steps they take, how much they smoke and drink, and other unspecified metrics. The backlash was swift. Doesnt this brazenly violate privacy to surveil and discriminate against unhealthy people? Wang Xin, a novelist, wrote on social platform Weibo, where he has 2.5 million followers. I know that in this age of big data, its so easy for those who control data to check and use personal information in a matter of minutes, another author, Shen Jiake, wrote. But Hangzhous plan crosses a line, he said. This month, Robin Li, head of Chinese search giant Baidu, proposed at a meeting of Chinas top political advisory body that the government create a mechanism for deleting personal information collected during the pandemic. If authorities have specific reasons to hold onto health code data after the threat has passed, then they should make those reasons clear and obtain users consent, said Lei Ruipeng, a professor of bioethics at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in an April interview with state-run outlet Health News. So far, no such mechanism has materialized. Chinas health codes first appeared in February, the joint products of local officials and tech companies, including internet giant Tencent and Ant Financial, a sister company of e-commerce titan Alibaba. Within weeks, codes were popping up across the country. As armies of guards, workers and volunteers began to be posted throughout cities to check peoples codes, the apps became essential to daily life. They have even become an accidental tool for fighting crime. Hangzhou police announced this month that they had apprehended a man who had been on the run after killing someone 24 years ago. Without a health code, he could not work or find a place to stay, police said. After wandering the streets for days, he turned himself in. Chinese cities are now trying different ways of keeping residents glued to their virus apps. Shanghai wants its app to become a digital assistant for accessing local services of all kinds, not just medical ones. In the inland city of Xining, the software unlocks coupons to local stores as a way to boost the economy. In Hangzhou, authorities in April began linking the citys app to citizens medical records. This has enabled residents to schedule hospital visits using the app. A document from the city government also outlines situations in which peoples codes could be scanned to receive a readout of their overall health. When seeing a doctor, for instance. Or when evaluating workers for jobs, like being a driver, that require physical fitness. Even when monitoring crowds at large gatherings. Such readily accessible information could enable discrimination, however. Insurers could raise rates for people with red or yellow codes. Employers could deny jobs or promotions. Chinas internet regulator in February issued guidelines barring personal information collected to fight the epidemic from being used for other purposes. But it is not clear whether the same stricture would bind apps, like Hangzhous, that were created to combat the virus but then morphed into a more general tool. Neither the internet regulator nor Hangzhou health officials responded to requests for comment. In one county in Zhejiang province, where Hangzhou is the capital, officials are extending the health code concept beyond public health, a possible sign of where this experiment in digitized social control might lead. Recently, Communist Party officers in Tiantai County, near the city of Taizhou, were inspired to develop a separate tool they call the honesty health code, said Qiu Yinwei, local deputy director of operations. The code represents party members degree of uprightness and diligence in carrying out party work. Its about whether your party spirit is healthy, not whether your body is healthy, said Xu Yicou, party secretary of the village of Shitangxu. Like the original health codes, the honesty codes come in green, yellow or red. For now, they are not generated by software on individuals phones. Instead, officials generate them based on their records about party members. After the codes are printed out on paper, they can be scanned with a phone app to bring up more information. Party members with red codes face investigation and discipline, according to Zhejiang Daily, a state-run newspaper. The paper this month told the story of Xu Xujiao, party secretary of Youyi New Village. The local seniors association had misused public funds, the paper said, and as punishment, Xus honesty code was changed from green to yellow. In response, he promptly changed his thinking, corrected his attitude and devoted himself to his work, the paper reported. Before long, his code was green again. Read more about: Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey announced $100,000 in funding from the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund has been allocated to organizations that support foster families. The funding will be used to support increased demand for supplies, services and educational needs for the more than 14,000 Arizona kids in out-of-home care and the families who care for them. Arizona is working to ensure we continue to meet the needs of all Arizona kids, especially those in out-of-home care, said Governor Doug Ducey. Foster families, caseworkers and so many Arizonans across the state work to make sure our kids have a safe and loving home and this funding will bolster their efforts. My thanks to everyone donating to the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund, and all Arizonans helping those in need. Recipients of this funding grant include: Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation Boost a Foster Family "Even before all of the schools were closed and children were sent home to finish the school year, children in foster care were behind in school only 33% graduate from high school. The Arizona Friends of Foster Children will spend these funds on technology and tutoring to keep children on track with their education goals and support the basic needs and education needs of young men and women who've aged out of foster care, said Kris Jacober, Executive Director of Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation. We appreciate all of the donors who made this possible, and are helping to change the story for vulnerable children in foster care in our state." "Boost a Foster Family is so grateful for this grant from the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund so we can continue to serve kinship foster families in need all over our state throughout this pandemic," said Michelle Noe, President and CEO of Boost a Foster Family. "Requests for items like bunk beds, toddler beds and other typical safety items we provide have doubled during this time. These funds will provide us with the means to meet the growing needs of the kinship population." The AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund was established by Governor Ducey as part of the Arizona Together Initiative to provide financial support to non-profit organizations serving Arizonans most in need statewide. The AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund has collected more than $8.2 million to date. LATAM Airlines Group LTM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as it grapples with a dramatic drop in air travel demand amid coronavirus concerns. Along with the Latin American carrier, its affiliates in Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and the United States are part of the bankruptcy filing, while those in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay are not. Despite the restructuring, LATAM Airlines and its affiliates will continue usual passenger and cargo operations. Per Roberto Alvo, CEO, the company implemented a series of difficult measures to mitigate the impact of this unprecedented industry disruption. However, the company, carrying a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), felt the bankruptcy protection route would be the best option for a turnaround. Under the Chapter 11 protection, the airlines management team will remain intact. The provisions of bankruptcy protection will help in reducing disruptions to the carriers operations, while protecting the interests of shareholders as its balance sheet is restructured to fit the present demand scenario. LATAM Airlines, which competes with the likes of Copa Holdings CPA in the Latin American aviation space, secured funding from its shareholders, including two of its largest the Cueto and Amaro families, and Qatar Airways to provide up to $900 million in debtor-in-possession financing. Major U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines DAL also has a 20% stake in LATAM Airlines. Notably, LATAM Airlines has approximately $1.3 billion in cash on hand. Both Copa Holdings and Delta Air Lines carry a Zacks Rank #3. LATAM Airlines, which reduced capacity by 95% in April and May due to the drop in demand, so far has not received government support. Presently, the carrier and its affiliates are in talks with the governments of Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru for additional financial aid. Apart from LATAM Airlines, Colombian airline Avianca Holdings AVH, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), filed for bankruptcy protection earlier in the month due to demand slump and high debt burden. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Shares of LATAM Airlines have plunged more than 68% since the beginning of February due to coronavirus-led travel demand woes. The industry has declined 54.1% in the period. Story continues Biggest Tech Breakthrough in a Generation Be among the early investors in the new type of device that experts say could impact society as much as the discovery of electricity. Current technology will soon be outdated and replaced by these new devices. In the process, its expected to create 22 million jobs and generate $12.3 trillion in activity. A select few stocks could skyrocket the most as rollout accelerates for this new tech. Early investors could see gains similar to buying Microsoft in the 1990s. Zacks just-released special report reveals 8 stocks to watch. The report is only available for a limited time. See 8 breakthrough stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA) : Free Stock Analysis Report LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (LTM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Avianca Holdings S.A. (AVH) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research An anti-vaxxer couple who are encouraging Australians to protest compulsory flu jabs have called for a truce with pro-vaccination officials. Anthony Golle and his wife Kate from northern New South Wales have quickly built a following of more than 38,000 members after launching the Facebook group 'Empowered Lifestyle Revolution' a month ago. Flying in the face of well-established medical advice, the couple started a campaign calling on their members to inundate their local politicians with protests against compulsory vaccination. Vaccinations have been proven to be a safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them. Scroll down for video Anti-vaxxer married couple Anthony Golle (pictured, left) and his wife Kate (right) have called for their supporters to ignore the criticism coming their way The couple have since given a series of high-profile media interviews and this week Mrs Golle told her followers defiantly: 'You are going to divide the room if you are speaking your truth.' 'There will be as many people supporting you as challenging you,' the mother-of-three said in a statement issued alongside her husband. 'When you know your values and you know whats most important to you and you know that truth, it doesnt matter what people say.' The campaigner said despite the almost overnight success of her 'pro-choice' movement, she had reached a point where she no longer wanted to push her beliefs onto others. 'Theres no point creating drama around these vaccines. What you dont want is this to come between relationships that are important,' she wrote. She also defended the couple's letter campaign to politicians - which comes as senior government ministers are flooded with anti-vaxxer letters. The couple (pictured) launched Facebook group 'Empowered Lifestyle Revolution' about a month ago and have already garnered more than 17,000 members The couple (pictured) have started a campaign encouraging members to protest against compulsory vaccination The federal Department of Health alone has received 1,500 items of correspondence on the issue since the beginning of April. 'These letters are being written by a man or woman which is above the government - because there is no government without men and women who elected them,' she said. Vaccinations are vital to reducing the spread of transmissible diseases, with scientists saying non-vaccinated children in the community are a risk to others. The 'Empowered Lifestyle Revolution' Facebook group (pictured) which the couple launched 'We're a week into this journey. A week ago, we started to follow a process to start writing letters to take back our power,' Mr Golle said. Mrs Golle said the couple created the group to give people 'tools and solutions and things you can be doing for yourself and your family'. She said letters would be sent in three waves and began to show viewers the process via her screen. 'This is the non-consent set-up for you to have all the letters you need to send to the ministers to be able to start taking action to get your power back,' she said. The couple earlier this month encouraged Australians to protest compulsory flu jabs by sending letters to politicians (pictured) The couple welcomed their members to the online community in a video (pictured) on May 2 before quickly building a large following The Facebook group links to a 'Vaccine Non Consent Account Setup' on the Solutions Empowerment website, where users can fill in their information to receive letters they can send. Mrs Golle encouraged members to donate $5 for the three rounds of letters. According to Buzzfeed, the website domain is registered to Mark Pytellek, who is part of an extreme anti-government movement which doesnt recognise Australian law. When contacted for comment, David Armstrong declined to explain Mr Pytellek's involvement with Solutions Empowerment. WHY ANTI-VAXXING IS DANGEROUS Vaccinations are a simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against harmful diseases before they come into contact with them, the Australian government says. The jabs protect individuals and others in the community, by reducing the spread of preventable diseases. Source: Australian Government Advertisement Numerous members of the controversial Facebook group have shared pictures of their letters as they prepare to send them off. The couple also went live on Facebook about two weeks earlier and claimed everyone should be able to choose whether to vaccinate or not. 'Obviously there's a big topic around vaccination and whether you're pro or anti or whatever you want to call it, we want to talk about having pro-choice and being intelligent in our decisions,' Mrs Golle said. 'It's not about who's right, who's wrong and what you want to believe, it's about what's right for you and your family. 'I think what's wrong right now is the potential that someone has the right to tell everyone this is how it's going to roll.' The Facebook group links to a 'Vaccine Non Consent Account Setup' on the Solutions Empowerment website, where users can fill in their information to receive letters The recommendation comes despite the Australian Government promoting immunisation an effective way of protecting people from harmful, contagious diseases. Before vaccination campaigns in the 1960s and 70s, diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough killed thousands of children. THE DANGERS OF NOT BEING VACCINATED Immunisation is an effective way of protecting people from harmful, contagious diseases. Before vaccination campaigns in the 1960s and 70s, diseases like tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough killed thousands of children. Immunisation also protects the whole community, preventing the spread of the disease - known as 'herd immunity'. Vaccination can cause a disease to die out altogether - as was the case when smallpox was eradicated in 1980 after a vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organisation. Vaccination rates are at over 93 per cent for five-year-olds in Australia. Source: Australian Department of Health Advertisement Mr Golle has been sharing updates about the group to his personal Facebook. 'From zero to over 11,000 people in this group in 10 days,' he wrote on Saturday. 'I guess the people have had enough of the lies and deception. So many people learning how to take their power back and stand in certainty and gratitude.' He also shared pictures of letters to be sent to politicians in a post at the end of April. 'As a man or woman of the Commonwealth of Australia you have entitlements that are unencumbered, unconditional and were created for the benefit of the beneficiary you, the living soul,' he wrote. 'No one and no legislation or statute, act or code can compel you to accept vaccination in order to retain your benefits without your consent, neither can they over-ride or over-rule contract law as it prevails. 'The process of sending letters via registered mail is vital because without notifying the ministers of your non-consent and your objection to vaccination, it will be presumed by your silence that you have assented to being vaccinated.' The Australian Government has a National Immunisation Program (NIP) Schedule of immunisations to be given throughout a person's life. 'To get the best possible protection, make sure you have your immunisations on time, every time,' government advice says. New Delhi: India is looking at storing some low priced U.S. oil in facilities there as its local storage is full, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan told CNBC TV18 news channel. India's plan could be similar to a move by Australia, which last month said it would build up an emergency oil stockpile initially by buying crude to store in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to take advantage of low oil prices. "We are exploring some possibility if we can store some of our investment in a different country ... we are exploring the possibility in the USA if we can store some of the low priced oil," Pradhan said. Oil prices have dropped more than 40% so far in 2020 but have picked up in the past few weeks partly due to efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies to reduce supply. Pradhan said India, which is the world's third-biggest oil consumer and importer, had already filled its 5.33 million tonnes of strategic storage and parked about 8.5-9 million tonnes of oil on ships in different parts of the world, primarily in the Gulf. Indian refiners have also filled their commercial tanks and pipelines with refined fuel and oil. Pradhan said stored oil and products amounted to about 20% of India's annual needs. India imports more than 80% of its oil requirements. India plans to build new strategic storage to expand capacity by 6.5 million tonnes. Pradhan said India was keen to have participation from global investors in building these facilities. India's fuel demand nearly halved in April to its lowest level since 2007 as a nationwide lockdown and travel curbs to combat the spread of novel coronavirus eroded economic activity. So far in May India's petrol and diesel demand is about 60%-65% of what it was in the same month last year and in June fuel consumption will return to the same level as June 2019, he said. Three Expedition 63 crewmates are orbiting Earth getting ready to welcome a Japanese cargo ship and the first crew to launch from America in almost a decade. NASA Commander Chris Cassidy will command the Canadarm2 robotic arm to capture Japan's ninth space freighter to visit the station on Memorial Day at 8:15 a.m. EDT. The H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 (HTV-9) is delivering over four tons of crew supplies, space experiments and new lithium-ion batteries to upgrade station power systems. NASA TV's live coverage begins Monday at 6:45 a.m. Cassidy spent Friday readying the Harmony module for the HTV-9's installation while also working on plumbing tasks. He'll spend Saturday and Sunday relaxing aboard the International Space Station before turning his attention to the Japanese and American spaceships. In Florida, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley of NASA's Commercial Crew Program are in final preparations for their launch aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon on Wednesday at 4:33 p.m. They will dock the next day at 11:39 a.m. to the station's International Docking Adapter on the Harmony module's forward port. Cassidy with Flight Engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will welcome the Commercial Crew astronauts aboard the station when the hatches open about two-and-a-half hours later. Behnken and Hurley will join the Expedition 63 crew as Flight Engineers and ramp up space science aboard the orbiting lab. Back onboard the space station, cosmonauts Ivanishin and Vagner spent Friday servicing a variety of Russian communications and life support hardware. The duo also continued inventorying station maintenance and repair equipment. On-orbit Status Report Payloads Astrobee: The crew powered off the Astrobee hardware that was used for the previous day's Robo-Pro Challenge checkout. Astrobee is made up of three free-flying, cube-shaped robots which are designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test technologies for use in microgravity to assist astronauts with routine chores, and give ground controllers additional eyes and ears on the space station. The autonomous robots, powered by fans and vision-based navigation, perform crew monitoring, sampling, logistics management, and accommodate up to three investigations. Systems Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Remove & Replace (R&R): Today, the crew performed an R&R of the Node 2 MTL PPA. This PPA experienced transient failures first seen in October 2019 with a recurrence in March 2020. Since March, the frequency of hydraulic events increased indicating the PPA was deteriorating. The issue appeared to be internal to the Pump/Fan Motor Controller (PFMC) which could not be replaced individually. With the PFMC being internal to the PPA, the entire PPA required replacement to resolve the issue. The MTL PPA is responsible for providing coolant pumping, gas removal and coolant filtration in the USOS segment and consists of a pump assembly, gas trap and filter assembly. Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Operations: Today the crew performed a drain of the Waste Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Recycle Tank to an empty -. Once the Recycle Tank drain was complete, the crew performed a visual check of the Recycle Tank quantity indicator to verify it was indicating empty. The crew then reconfigured the Recycle Tank valves to the "Fill" configuration and transferred the contents of - serial# 1304 to the Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Waste Water Storage Tank (WSTA). Finally, the crew configured the UPA drain/fill valves to "process" so the pre-treated urine can be processed by the UPA. Completed Task List Activities: PCS Relocate - A/L to Cupola PCS Relocate - JEM to LAB Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. SDMS Recording During -2 Testing UPA Recycle Tank Drain/Fill Ground Support C2V2 Activation and Backup KCU Activation in prep for DM-2 OGA to standby in support of Elektron activation DDCU Reconfig and Powerdown/up for Node 2 MTL Pump R&R Safing/Safing Removal for Node 2 MTL Pump R&R Node 2 MTL Deactivation/Activation in support of Node 2 MTL PPA R&R Look Ahead Plan Saturday, 5/23 (GMT 144) Payloads: Off Duty Systems: Off Duty Sunday, 5/24 (GMT 145) Payloads: Off Duty Systems: Off Duty Monday, 5/25 (GMT 146) Payloads: No Payload activities Systems: HTV9 Capture/Berthing Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Replacement of Agat-2 audio/video system hard drives with psychological support materials for the crew Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Recycle Tank Drain & Fill TV conference in preparation for Chess Match on June 9, 2020 (Ku + S-band) Countermeasures System (CMS) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Cylinder Flywheel Evacuation ISS Crew and (RSA Flight Control Team) weekly conference Replacement of Agat-2 audio/video system monitor and test checkout Node 2 Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Hardware Gather Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (RGN) Wastewater Storage Tank Assembly (WSTA) Fills Environmental Health System (EHS) - Formaldehyde Monitoring Kit (FMK) Stow Operation JPM Window Shutter Close Assembly of water and condensate separator pump [-] and filling (separation) of - or [] for Elektron VM HTV Capture Review Inventory audit of Maintenance and Repair equipment Overlay Camera Calibration Astrobee Off In-Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 2 Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Thermal Expansion Bag Connection & Removal Node 2 Camcorder Setup & Deactivation In-Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 2 Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Gas Trap Plug Removal Node 2 Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Removal In-Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 2 Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Gas Trap and Fine Filter Swap Vacuum cleaning ventilation grilles on FGB interior panels (201, 301, 401) Setting up video equipment to film -2 exercise -2 Treadmill Test (Day 3 Exercise) Node 2 Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) Pump Package Assembly (PPA) Installation Vacuum cleaning of 7 screens on 4 behind FGB panel 108 Disconnect video equipment used to capture -2 exercise and downlink files Vacuum cleaning dust collector C1, 2 filter cartridges in FGB (panels 203, 403) Node 2 Audio Terminal Unit (ATU) Reconfiguration Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. Regarding William Drummonds Death on an unthinkable scale: Have we become desensitized? (Insight, May 24) on the subject of honoring the people who have died from the coronavirus pandemic: I would like to suggest that we each post a star in a window for each person we have known who has been killed by the virus. Your star(s) can be any size you like, any color you like. This will create a memorial to honor the lives of those who have died, a memorial that is at once both personal and public. It will make visible the scale of the shared devastation, and it may help fill the gap left while we cant get together with loved ones for the usual funeral rites. I am putting up three stars. Dianne Brenner, El Cerrito Water follies Uh, excuse me? Growing water-intensive alfalfa for export to Saudi Arabia and South Korea (Time Running short for withered farms, Page One, May 25)? If the water is so cheap that exporting alfalfa makes money, maybe water should be more expensive. Ronnie Lipschutz, Santa Cruz Show some respect Concerning Walking off shutdown stress? Silence guaranteed at cemetery (Bay Area, May 25): Sorry, but it seems downright ghoulish and disrespectful to me for people to randomly stroll with their dogs (who most certainly will try to pee on tombstones) through a cemetery, especially during a pandemic that has claimed so many lives. Its true that these are serene spaces, but so are parks, fields, and quiet side streets in local neighborhoods. Frankly, the only time I visit a cemetery is to pay respects to my loved ones who are buried there. And I would never dream of taking my dog along with me for such a trip. Suzanne Reed-Peterson, Santa Rosa Lifesaving captain Something is starting to smell fishy here. How long should it take to determine the fate of Capt. Brett Crozier? This is the kind of indecision that caused the captain to go public in the first place. I have more than a passing interest in this case. My grand-nephew was on the Theodore Roosevelt and tested positive for the virus. It was Capt. Croziers courageous action that may have saved his life. Unfortunately, I feel the longer the decision is delayed, the less likely the captain is to be reinstated. Heres hoping Im wrong! Mits Tamura, Oakland Cynical advice Willie Brown (Bidens winning strategy: Let Trump beat himself, Bay Area, May 24) suggests Joe Biden should avoid interviews whenever possible. I guess Brown would be happy to wait until Biden gets into the White House to learn how inept he is. Typical phony old-school politician. We need to elect people with more common sense. William Boyle, Novato Oblivious to the law Regarding Mr. President: The Constitution is a higher authority (John Diaz, Last Word, Insight, May 23): The biggest reason that President Trump must constantly be reminded about the limits of his executive authority, including not being able to order state governors to open houses of worship during this coronavirus pandemic, is simple: He has never and will never read the U.S. Constitution. Gloria Curazon, Daly City The truth hurts Kellyanne Conway, one of President Trumps top aides, told Fox News that the media are to blame for President Trumps low poll numbers on dealing with the coronavirus. Thats right, the media reported the truth about his handling of the pandemic. Charles Gravett, Napa Lax enforcement Regarding Phil Matiers column, When narcotics cops left, Tenderloin drugs flowed (Bay Area, May 24): Matier quotes a San Francisco police officer saying that of four suspected drug dealer arrested one day, three of them lived in Oakland. What are we to take from this fact? Seems to be that it is simply easier to sell illegal drugs in San Francisco than it is in Oakland. Martin Kahn, Oakland Value of the SAT I grew up poor in a rural community in Central California and attended a high school with minimal course offerings. Taking the SAT was my opportunity to objectively demonstrate I belonged at a top university, regardless of my economic background. I had a book to study from, but the test just evaluated my mastery of material required to be successful in college and my analytical skills. While I was underprepared for my engineering classes at Cal, I persevered. I find UCs assertion that standardized testing is discriminatory against low income students like me insulting. Todays students have excellent free resources available to prepare for testing. Not requiring a standardized test that levels the playing field only continues to provide the advantage to students from wealthy backgrounds who attend schools with impressive course offerings, participate in distinctive extracurricular activities and spend thousands on private college counselors who write their application essays. How can a poor kid possibly compete with all the help money can buy? Demonstrating what you know in one four-hour block all by yourself is the best chance these kids have to demonstrate that they, too, belong at a top university. Please dont deprive tomorrows students of this opportunity. August Fern, Berkeley ROCHESTER Despite the cancellation of the Village of Rochester's official Memorial Day parade, a smaller, modified version of the parade went on. The modified version was not approved by the village. "A group of us got together and just wanted to honor the tradition of the parade that leads up to the ceremony," said Sarah Coots, general manager at Chances Food & Spirits, 205 W. Main St., in Downtown Rochester. Coots played a role in helping organize the parade, along with Matthew Kaye, Sara Damaschke and others. "This little town has big pride in our traditions," she said. Coots was not in the parade but sat outside Chances to watch. Rochesters is said to be the longest-running Memorial Day parade in Wisconsin. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2016. The modified version was only made public via word of mouth, so the number of people in the crowd was down from years past. The parade started at 1:30 p.m. and lasted about 7 minutes, 30 seconds, making for the shortest parade in its history, Coots said. But she said she still enjoyed it, calling it a "small, tiny, cute" parade. "I think our locals appreciated it," she said. Ceremony Rochester's 154th Memorial Day ceremony went on, as approved by the Village. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, was the master of ceremonies for the event held Monday afternoon in Pioneer Park, 101 S. Front St. (Highway W at Highway D). Abigail Litjens sang several patriotic songs including America the Beautiful and God Bless America. U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., whose 1st Congressional District includes all of Racine County, also spoke. Following longstanding tradition, a memorial wreath was dropped into the Fox River during the ceremony. The Rev. Paul Ray of First Congregational Church of Rochester said a prayer to start the ceremony. In this time of pandemic and personal distance, we, in heart and mind, come close, close together and unite in grateful remembrance this Memorial Day, Ray said. Not everyone at the event observed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation of keeping 6 feet apart. Village officials said before the event occurred that they would try to limit the event to 10 people. Some yellow caution tape was in place to separate the speakers, and some were seated in chairs or on the ground from the observing audience. But there were far more than 10 people at the ceremony Monday; people crowded behind the yellow tape. Vos gave a brief history of Memorial Day: When it was first observed, what date for the annual holiday was chosen and when it was chosen. Steil reminded the crowd that even though things are different this year, its important to still observe Memorial Day as always: by remembering. Its still the day where we reflect and honor our veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country, Steil said. Memorial Day is a special day in Rochester, Racine County and in Wisconsin. He reminded the audience that since the birth of the nation in 1776, Americans have persevered through tough times. This holiday is meant to remember the sacrifice, bravery and patriotism of Americans who lost their lives defending the nation. Our service members set forward because of their love for America, their love for their family, their love for their fellow countrymen and their love for the ideas that America stands for, Steil said. From the battlefields in Europe to the jungles of Asia, to the sands of the Middle East. We know freedom is not free. Vos said the freedoms we have today are possible because of the men and women who gave their all. For some, that was not direct. They kept up from wounds suffered, poisons ingested and unbelievable acts of heroism. May God bless these heroes in the nation we call the United States of America. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical announces that the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) in partnership with the Cornwall Foundation NHS Trust have recently purchased and installed five new Microsemi CRP point-of-care (POC) hematology analyzers. HORIBAs Microsemi CRP in use in the community in Cornwall The installation of these unique POC analyzers (delivering full blood count plus CRP results) across Cornwall is enabling patients to have pathology tests performed locally by clinical staff in acute and community settings, rather than visiting the main Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. This is not only relieving pressure on the main hospital, but also enables patients to be treated in the community, closer to home, where possible; which is advantageous during COVID-19 and paves the way for future pathology provision across the county supporting the improvement of patient pathways. Originally the installations were planned to improve patient experience and access to pathology testing across the winter, and to aid the diagnosis of a wide range of conditions including flu. In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic the Microsemi CRP install was expedited. HORIBA Medical responded rapidly to the Trusts order following a successful validation study of its POC analyzer with main laboratory hematology samples. A HORIBA team of two then ensured installation and staff training within just two days during lockdown. Our focus on using new POCT such as HORIBAs Microsemi CRP hematology analyzers is supporting the population across Cornwall with a new way of triaging patients to help keep them out of hospital and A&E unless truly necessary. It is also helping to get many patients home sooner from hospitals where they previously had to wait for main lab results. All these factors are supporting patient safety, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to any infection. Lisa Vipond, Lead BMS Clinical Chemistry & POCT, RCHT Microsemi CRP analyzers are now located in Bodmin and Camborne Redruth Community Hospitals, with another planned soon for St Austell. Unnecessary trips to hospital can be prevented as patients are tested close to home, providing GPs and community clinicians with immediate results so they can best manage treatment. This is enabling different patient pathways using community hospitals and minor injuries units for people who still need monitoring and support, but not urgent care. It is also keeping vulnerable patients, such as the elderly, away from risk in the main hospital whilst being reassured by test results that they are receiving appropriate care. Due to the creation of green and red COVID-19 zones within the Trust, a further two new Microsemi CRP analyzers are placed in the Surgical Assessment Lounge at Truro and St Michaels Hospital, Hayle, to support surgical teams with pre- and post-surgery patient assessments. POCT in these locations is enabling faster turnaround times to results, so streamlining service and enabling patients to be discharged sooner which is helping to maintain social distancing, particularly where space is limited. Lisa Vipond explained why the Trusts selected HORIBAs Microsemi CRP analyzers to support them in their new POCT set-up which is allowing a more imaginative way of delivering the pathology service in Cornwall to enhance patient pathways. We were looking for a very specific POCT hematology solution which was easy-to-use by non-laboratory personnel, quick at producing results and with minimal maintenance. The availability of full blood count with CRP in a POC analyzer was a real winner as our clinical teams value CRP as a quick indicator on the best patient pathway and what to look for next. Hawthorne Cat makes it easy to get the most reliable Cat parts and services, says Chandra Ramamoorthy, Director of Product Support Operations. Our new Parts and Service Specials include limited-time offers on all of the parts and services you need to keep your fleet running on time and on budget. Hawthorne Cat, the exclusive Cat construction equipment dealer in San Diego, the Hawaiian Islands, and the Pacific Region, makes saving on parts and services easier than ever. Our new limited-time offers include special savings on Cat Reman Turbos, Precious Metals Kits, and Performance Pro Parts Only Plans. Customers can also book free undercarriage inspections.* $500 Off + Core Credit on Cat Reman Turbos Your Cat truck engine performs better with Cat Turbos. Now through December 31, 2020, get $500 off Cat Reman Turbochargers, plus core credit for returning the same size used turbo of any brand over the counter or through our service shop. Save $600 Off HD Precious Metal Kits Investing in your truck just got more affordable with our Cat heavy-duty overhaul kits, containing all the parts you need for a reliable, high-quality repair. Now through December 31, 2020, take advantage of our special offer on precious metals kits. Save $600 on all Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum kits for C12, C13 ACERT, C15, C15 ACERT, C16, and 3406E engines. Performance Pro Parts Only Plans Our Performance Pro Maintenance Plans can help save time and money on the Cat parts and services you need to keep your fleet up and running. Plans are customizable to provide the maximum benefits for your specific equipment needs. Parts only plans are now available. Free Undercarriage Inspections Now is the time to book a free, no-obligation undercarriage inspection at Hawthorne Cat. One of the most important factors to achieve the lowest owning and operating costs and equipment uptime is matching the right undercarriage option to your specific machine model and work application. Hawthorne Cat makes it easy to get the most reliable Cat parts and services, says Chandra Ramamoorthy, Director of Product Support Operations. Our new Parts and Service Specials include limited-time offers on all of the parts and services you need to keep your fleet running on time and on budget. Contact your Hawthorne Product Support Sales Representative today to learn more about our current parts and service specials. *Visit https://www.hawthornecat.com/parts-service-special-offers for complete details. About Hawthorne Cat Hawthorne Cat is the authorized dealer for Cat construction and power equipment in San Diego, Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa. Hawthorne sells, rents, provides parts and service, training, and emission solutions to various industries including general building construction, landscaping, marine, paving, and power generation. For more on Hawthorne Cat, visit https://www.hawthornecat.com/. Newsfrom Japan Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government gave up its plan to approve influenza drug Avigan as a coronavirus treatment by the end of this month, health minister Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference Tuesday. Kato cited a lack of data showing the drug's effectiveness in the treatment of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. "Clinical trials and researches will continue, and we hope to swiftly approve the drug as soon as its effectiveness is confirmed," he said. On May 4, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will aim for the May approval of Avigan. The agent, developed by Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Co., a Fujifilm Holdings Corp. <4901> subsidiary, is seen as a potential treatment for coronavirus patients with mild symptoms. Clinical trials of Avigan on coronavirus patients and clinical researches of the drug by a university are underway, while the risk of birth defects has been found as a side effect. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] With many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions still in place and the American border still closed, national and provincial tourism organizations are hoping Manitobans will be tourists this summer in a place closer to home. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. With many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions still in place and the American border still closed, national and provincial tourism organizations are hoping Manitobans will be tourists this summer in a place closer to home. Colin Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of Travel Manitoba, said hes hoping Manitoba gets "some love" from its residents after spending weeks indoors, and maintaining physical distancing. SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Colin Ferguson, president of Travel Manitoba. "The tourism industry was probably one of the first hit, and it may be one of the last to come out of it," Ferguson said Monday. "But theres good news on the horizon. In 2019, Manitoba was recognized by Lonely Planet as one of the top 10 places in the world to visit thats extraordinary recognition. We have an amazing province, and this is your opportunity to... give your province some love." Its the message that will be delivered today, during a virtual town hall between Travel Manitoba, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, Destination Canada, as well as with industry representatives. Gloria Loree, chief marketing officer for Destination Canada, a federal Crown corporation which markets the country internationally and provides research to help the visitor economy, said data shows Manitoba is in a good position for summer tourism. Loree said 44 per cent of Manitobans say they will welcome visitors from nearby communities, while 36 per cent are in favour of tourists coming from other parts of the province. "Thats up from probably zero earlier in the pandemic," she said. "And you have 1.3 million people in Manitoba. People are tentative about making their plans, but you have a population base you can work with." Loree said it is important, from a tourism standpoint, for businesses to reopen to generate revenue from travellers as quickly as they can. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Seventy to 80 per cent of revenue is made of the income in the third quarter," she said. "This year, communities will realize just how much the visitor means to their economy, both in social and cultural (terms)." Even though the festivals and fairs which help entice people to communities in southern Manitoba have either been cancelled or shifted to a digital platform, there are other ways to attract people, Loree said. "People are finding new ways of doing things; you can see it when people sing from their balconies or walk their dog past a retirement home so they can wave at people," she said. "Theres so much innovation there." Ferguson said industry members know this will be a different year for Manitobans and travel. "People want to get back to some form of normalcy," he said. "When I was very young, travel in the 1950s was very family-oriented. You did it in automobiles. I expect a lot of that will happen this year." kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca In coming weeks, some of us will be getting calls from a stranger with unsettling news and some intrusive questions. Thats because local and state officials are ramping up a new strategy in the fight against COVID-19 by deploying a cadre of contact tracers, whose job it is to track down people exposed to the novel coronavirus. In the absence of a vaccine or proven treatment for COVID-19, contact tracing which has been used for decades in the fight against infectious diseases is one of the most effective tools we have to contain the spread of the deadly virus, which has claimed more than 90,000 lives in the United States. Our well-being and the ability to move toward a safe reopening depend on their success and on our willingness to be forthcoming with contact tracers seeking information about our movements. That need to win over public trust is why Dr. Umair Shah has been channeling a scene from Independence Day when he addresses training sessions for Harris Countys newly hired contact tracers. In the film, the fictional president rallies a crowd to rise up against invaders from outer space and fight for the right to live. In real life, Shah, the executive director of Harris County Public Health, is exhorting the new recruits to dig deep into their souls to convince the people they call to get tested and quarantine themselves. The tracers might be calling someone who is riding a bus, wrangling crying children, dealing with job loss or mourning a loved one. The callers will have no idea what to expect and no way of knowing how the person on the other end will react. This is mission work, Shah has been telling the nearly 300 contact tracers hired by Harris County. This is not easy. As with much of the response to this public health crisis, there is no national framework for coordinating the hiring and deployment of contact tracers. So local and state governments must step up and step up quickly. The reason we need to do this is if we dont, were going to get in big trouble with having huge outbreaks of the virus, Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told the editorial board. We just need to get moving on this. Theres an urgency to it. In a study with Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Plescias organization estimated 100,000 new contact tracers are needed nationwide. The U.S. is nowhere close to that number. A survey conducted by NPR found that states had or were about to hire about 36,000 contact tracers in early May. A George Washington University contact tracing workforce calculator estimates that Texas will need as many as 8,203 tracers, with 1,197 needed in Harris County. We are far short of that level, but the state and local governments have wisely begun building up the contact tracing workforce. Texas has 2,000 tracers and expects to have 4,000 by months end. Harris County has hired 300 contact tracers. The City of Houston had a virtual job fair for contact tracers last week and is in the process of hiring 300 people. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, in particular, has made contact tracing a priority, along with testing and treatment. At a March 13 press briefing, Hidalgo noted the county had a small army of contact tracers within 24 hours of Gov. Greg Abbotts announced reopening of Texas and was flooded with more than 3,000 applications for the remainder of the 300 needed positions. The county has also emphasized hiring a workforce that reflects the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Houston region a must when success hinges on getting people to confide in someone they dont know. Theres no vaccine, theres no cure, theres no treatment. With the exception of the blunt tool of social distancing, this is the most powerful thing we can do right now to contain the spread, Rafael LeMaitre, spokesperson for Hidalgo's office, told the editorial board. We have a responsibility to do that, to reach out to folks who may have come in contact with others to make sure they are informed and tested and isolated. The latter is key. Effective contact tracing, much like effective social distancing, depends on individuals changing their behavior for the larger good. If weve been exposed to someone with COVID-19, then we must adhere to best practices: get tested, stay home, self-isolate. And we need to be responsive when contacted by a tracer. The expansion of the tracing program doesnt mean the rest of us can shed the social distancing and hygiene habits weve acquired over the last two months. Wearing masks, frequent handwashing, and maintaining a distance of six feet from others are still paramount. To paraphrase President Thomas J. Whitmore from Independence Day, we all need to be united in the common interest of halting the COVID-19 outbreak. Now is not the time to drop our guard or shrug off medical expertise. British media regulator Ofcom says it was minded to sanction the Chinese channel after hearing its defence. The United Kingdoms media regulator has found Chinas English-language broadcaster CGTN in serious failure of compliance with UK impartiality laws during its coverage of last years Hong Kong protests. Ofcom said on Tuesday it was minded to sanction the Chinese channel after hearing its defence. The most serious breaches are punished in the UK with fines and in case of repeat or especially egregious violations licence suspensions. The announcement comes during a cooling in relations between London and Beijing. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure from top ministers to reduce Chinas leading role in the roll-out of the UKs speedy 5G mobile data network. The UK government on Tuesday said it found a new wave of Hong Kong protests last weekend over Chinas proposal to impose a new security law for the formerly British-held global financial hub concerning. We are fully committed to upholding Hong Kongs autonomy and respecting the one country two systems policy, a Downing Street spokesman said. The five CGTN programmes cited by Ofcom were all aired during a seven-month spell last year when Hong Kong was upended by huge and often violent pro-democracy protests. Various news items on protests in Hong Kong were not duly impartial on a matter of major political controversy and a major matter relating to current public policy, Ofcom said in a 61-page report. Ofcom said it has been in contact with CGTN about the programmes and would study the channels defence of the case. Calls for greater democracy in Hong Kong have snowballed in recent years as fears rise that Beijing is working to erode Hong Kongs freedoms. Millions hit the streets last year for seven months of pro-democracy rallies that sometimes descended into clashes between police and protesters. Those protests were initially sparked by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions of suspects to mainland China to face trial there. That bill, which was eventually withdrawn, also sparked fights in the legislature before the political unrest exploded onto the streets. Before screening Airlines have already accustomed flyers to checking themselves in at self-service kiosks and even applying their own bag tag before dropping luggage off for a fairly contact-free exchange in the terminal lobby. Now airlines are stepping up the cleaning of those check-in kiosks. Delta Air Lines says it wipes them down multiple times a day, but also encourages its customers to use the Delta smartphone app to get a virtual ticket. If you do need customer assistance, you'll find bottles of hand sanitizer at the service counters. Many airports, including Portland International Airport and Denver International Airport, require passengers to wear masks in their terminals. Food and drink You might want to bring your own snacks. Most airport concessions are temporarily closed or limited to take-away food. Steve Lambert, the spokesman for Ontario International Airport, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, suggests ordering food through an app called AtYourGate that will deliver meals or snacks predeparture at Ontario and several other major airports, including those in San Diego, New York, Boston and Minneapolis. While newsstands continue to sell snacks and water and souvenirs, most of the big-ticket shops are temporarily closed. Screening TSA has announced new procedures during screening meant to prevent infection. They include requiring TSA officers to wear masks and gloves and encouraging passengers to wear masks; emphasizing the need for passengers to follow guidelines for bringing liquids (no more than 3.4 ounces, though you can bring as much as 12 ounces of sanitizer); and having passengers scan their electronic or paper boarding passes themselves, rather than hand them to the TSA officer. The agency has created visual spacing on checkpoint floors to encourage passengers to stay 6 feet apart and, where possible, will stagger the use of lanes to increase physical distancing. The trade group Airlines for America has asked that during screening passengers be tested for high temperatures, a symptom of COVID-19, but the TSA has yet to decide whether it will do so. Air Canada has begun touchless infrared temperature checks at check-in, prohibiting anyone with a temperature of 99.6 degrees or higher from flying. Frontier Airlines has said it will do so by June 1, and will prohibit anyone with a temperature of 100.4 or above from boarding. At the gate On the gate side, airports are aiming for spick-and-span. Los Angeles International Airport, for example, cleans public areas and restrooms at least once an hour and installed more than 250 hand-sanitizer stations. "The biggest change is the amount of disinfection, says Doug Yakel, spokesman for the San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Traditional cleaning with a mop and soap and water is now replaced with the use of products that are EPA-approved, CDC-recommended germicidal products that kill viruses." Cleaning technology has changed too, he adds, to no-touch disinfectant sprayers. SFO has installed more than 350 hand-sanitizer stations throughout its terminals. Revenue at Swiss-Irish food group Aryzta fell by 21.5pc year-on-year to 644.2m in the three months to April 30, as Covid-19 impacted its performance. During the period the lockdown shuttering of big customers like McDonald's and Subway deprived it of a large portion of its turnover. The Cuisine de France owner said it was now clear that Covid-19 will have a material impact on its performance in financial year 2020. We cannot yet fully gauge the consequences that will result from the situation as the short and longer-term impact cannot be fully assessed at this point in time, it said in a trading update from the group. Over the three months it was most badly hit in its European market, where revenue declined by 23.5pc. In North America, turnover fell by 20.4pc. Kevin Toland, CEO of Aryzta, said: Covid-19 is unprecedented and has impacted the lives of people across the world. It will have a material impact on group performance in 2020. Our Q3 revenue has been strongly impacted by the pandemic but our facilities and products are positioned to recover and compete as economies stabilise and return to growth, he added. In response to the coronavirus crisis the company has paused production in a number of bakeries and temporarily closed further production lines within bakery plants. It has also furloughed around 30pc of its headcount, including temporary staff. In addition, Aryzta has suspended future capital expenditure with the exception of maintenance and health and safety. Yesterday the company said it would hold an emergency general meeting (EGM) in mid-August. The EGM has been sought by shareholders Veraison and Cobas - they want to remove four members of the Aryzta board including chairman and veteran businessman Gary McGann. Chief executive Kevin Toland would remain in his role but would not be a board member under the activists' proposals. Between them, Veraison and Cobas control 17.8pc of Aryzta. Another shareholder, the London-based J O Hambro Capital Management, has said it will back them. It owns just over 4pc. Aryzta said its board will move to call the EGM by mid-July with the event itself to be held by mid-August. That proposed EGM timing means the meeting is less likely to be disrupted by Covid-19 restrictions and will take place after completion by Rothschild of a strategic review of the embattled company, the board said. High-Density Packaging (HDP) User Group is pleased to announce it is hosting a webinar that will provide its members and others in the electronic industry the latest information on standard requirements and developments in automotive electronics. Automotive Electronics is one of the fastest-growing segments of advanced electronics technology. We have planned an informational session that will cover the latest developments in automotive standards and automotive electronic packaging, said Marshall Andrews, Executive Director of HDP User Group. The Webinar will be held on June 25, 2020, at 8 AM USA Central Time. Agenda 8:00 AM 11:00 AM US Central Time Welcome Larry Marcanti, HDP Opening of the Webinar by the Moderator Jan Vardeman, President, and Founder of Techsearch International recognized around the world as a leading consulting company in the field of advanced semiconductor packaging technology. Mobility Trends and Their Impact on The Automotive Supply Chain ZVEI DR Stefan.Gutschling Power PCB requirements for Automotive Applications Ventec Laminates Alun Morgan Automotive Packaging Trends Challenges & Solutions Infineon Thorsten Meyer The regulatory landscape for vehicle electronics and primary evaluation tools for PCB reliability demands in the new e-mobility market. UL Art Creidler Considerations in Automotive PCB manufacture TTM Raj Kumar Round Table & Questions Webinar Close The Webinar is in the English language. Please register for webinar log-in and call details by emailing your contact info (name, Company Info, Email) to one the following people. kima77@hdpug.org martinc@hdpug.org larrym@hdpug.org About HDP User Group HDP User Group (http://www.hdpug.org) is a global research and development organization based in Cave Creek Arizona, which is dedicated to reducing the costs and risks for the Electronics Manufacturing industry when using advanced electronic packaging and assembly. This international industry-led group organizes and conducts R&D programs to address the technical issues facing the industry, including design, printed circuit board manufacturing, electronics assembly, and environmental compliance. HDP User Group maintains additional offices in Austin, Texas, and Singapore. For more information, visit HDP User Group on the Internet at http://www.hdpug.org or contact Darryl Reiner at darrylr@hdpug.org, phone number +1 480-951-1963 BILLINGS, Mont. Americans settled for small processions and online tributes instead of parades Monday as they observed Memorial Day in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced communities to honor the nations military dead with smaller, more subdued ceremonies that also remembered those lost to the virus. On the weekend that marked the unofficial start of summer, U.S. authorities warned beachgoers to heed social distancing rules to avoid a resurgence of the disease that has infected 5.4 million people worldwide and killed over 345,000, including nearly 100,000 Americans, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Memorial Day commemorations were canceled or toned down across the country. Veterans, along with nursing home residents, have made up a significant portion of those who died in the U.S. outbreak. Several ceremonies in New Mexico were done virtually, including events at the Santa Fe National Cemetery and in Rio Rancho. When I think about this Memorial Day, it has a very specific significance, Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull said during the Rio Rancho event, which was broadcast on the citys website. While we are separated, we are still together. While we are staying apart, we are still remembering those who paid the ultimate price. In Billings, Montana, Frank Groblebe and his wife placed lilacs on several graves at Mountview Cemetery, including those of his mother and father, who served in the Philippines as a Navy Seabee during World War II. Groblebe said he approved of plans to curtail the ceremony, which included a motorcycle procession and moments of quiet remembrance. This is our freedom. This is our history. Its what they fought for, Groblebe said, briefly choking up with tears. Anything that shows respect for it is all right with me. Sharon Oakland, 78, placed mums on the grave of her father, also a Navy veteran of World War II. She watched from a distance as the motorcycles rolled by. What theyve done is remarkable given whats going on with the virus, she said. The 37,000 American flags traditionally placed on the Boston Common to honor Massachusetts military members who died in service were replaced with just 1,000 flags, to limit volunteers and onlookers. In Minneapolis, several bagpipers and drummers lined up outside the Minnesota Veterans Home and played as a parade of cars drove past. Woodstock, Georgia, held its remembrance ceremony online. American Legion Post 316 Commander Julian Windham recognized service members who helped in the global fight against COVID-19. Even when the enemy is an invisible virus, or a microscopic germ, the sacrifices made are just as meaningful, Windham said. The ceremony, which included readings, vocal performances and gunshots from a ceremonial rifle team, were filmed over a series of days last week and later edited together, Windham said. In Chicago, a neighborhood group thats been holding a parade for more than a half-century also moved its event online, with video clips from previous years and messages from special guests, including veterans and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. In the suburb of Lisle, a convoy of vehicles from area fire departments and VFW posts drove silently through village streets in what officials said was a safe and unique way of observing the holiday. Fallen military members were honored in New York City with car convoys and small ceremonies rather than parades. Its something were upset about, but we understand, said Raymond Aalbue, chairman of the United Military Veterans of Kings County, which usually puts on a parade in Brooklyn. Theres no reason to put anybody in harms way, he said, adding its really cutting quick to the heart of all the veterans. On Long Island, a small group of veterans saluted, wearing masks and spaced several feet apart, as a parade of cars passed beneath a large American flag. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined a private ceremony at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan, with both the sacrifices of military members and the current challenge of coronavirus on his mind. Over 100,000 Americans will lose their lives to this COVID virus. How do we honor them? We honor them by growing stronger together, he said. We want to make sure we remember them and thank our heroes today. Tens of thousands of Americans still headed to beaches and parks, relieved to shake off some pandemic restrictions. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal In a typical year, May is one of the busiest months for weddings in New Mexico. The warm days, cool nights and clear skies make it ideal for large, outdoor gatherings, and Amy Gallegos, founder of wedding and event planning company For The Love Events, said her weekends in May are booked solid at least a month in advance with those large, outdoor gatherings. I dont have weekends in May, Gallegos said. They dont exist for me. But of course, 2020 is not a typical year. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to contain it have wreaked havoc on weddings and other large events, leaving business owners like Gallegos with an unexpected and largely unwelcome amount of free time. She isnt alone. An industry that would normally spend the early spring gearing up for New Mexicos long wedding season has instead been faced with the prospect of unused flowers and empty venues, due to a string of couples postponing or even canceling their weddings. In an industry featuring a lot of small businesses, several vendors told the Journal theyre worried about being able to keep their doors open through the end of 2020 if this persists into the fall. Were all crossing our fingers, said Melissa Paquin, owner of Renegade Floral in Santa Fe. Gathering ban The pandemics impact on weddings extends well beyond New Mexico. According to wedding planning site The Knot Worldwide, about 1 million weddings have been postponed through August. In New Mexico, the postponements began in earnest in mid-March, after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham banned large gatherings as part of the effort to slow the virus spread. Stacy Blackwell, owner of NM Wedding Expo, said the ban brought bookings to a screeching halt. People want to have these celebrations, they want to celebrate with family and friends, she said. Making matters more difficult, Bernalillo County stopped processing marriage licenses for several weeks after the closure of Civic Plaza. Floyd Vasquez, spokesman for the Bernalillo County Clerks office, said the office began issuing licenses again in late April, but only by appointment on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Vasquez wrote in an email last week that the Clerks Office is processing applications from around 60 couples per week, but the office is booked until June 12. Bruce Byers, a minister and founder of Lifes Moments, a Rio Rancho-based church that focuses on wedding ceremonies, said hes encouraging couples in need of a marriage license to go to nearby counties, such as Cibola County which he said doesnt require applicants to reside in that county rather than wait on an appointment in New Mexicos most populous county. If you want a Bernalillo (County) license, you better get on it quickly, he said. Industry fallout If theres a silver lining for wedding planners and vendors, its that couples are still much more likely to postpone weddings than cancel outright, according to the data. Kim Forrest, senior editor at WeddingWire, wrote in an email that only 7% of couples are canceling weddings rather than postponing them or keeping them on their original date. Its clear that weddings will come back strong, Forrest wrote. Even still, the delays are being felt throughout New Mexicos wedding planning industry, from small local vendors to iconic venues. Jim Long, CEO of Heritage Hotels, said his company hosts around 200 weddings in a typical year across its 11 New Mexico hotels, which include El Monte Sagrado and Hotel Albuquerque. This year, he said, couples have largely postponed their weddings until after July, when some have speculated the state may relax its rules around large gatherings. While the company is optimistic about a busy fall, Long acknowledged he is expecting fewer weddings than during a typical year. The large weddings that might normally have 300 to 400 people obviously would be very hard to do right now, he said. LeeAnn Cumbow, owner and operator of the Casas de Suenos Old Town Historic Inn in Albuquerque, said she had to reschedule around 35 weddings from March through May. Cumbow, who has worked in the industry for 16 years, said shes been willing to work with couples, letting them reschedule without additional commitments and acting as a sounding board for couples to air their grievances about the changes. Its taken the fun out of it, Cumbow said. And its not supposed to be that way. Its supposed to be such a magical time. At least one New Mexico venue has already called it quits. The Blue Door Venue in Las Cruces announced on its website it will cease to operate as a wedding venue in December because of virus-related cancellations. Vendors have felt the pinch as well. Between weddings, graduations and other events, The Cake Boutique founder Birdie Mathis said she typically makes between 20 and 25 cakes every weekend in May at her Northwest Albuquerque bakery. This year, however, Mathis said, her usual slate of spring events has dried up. She has been making small cakes for birthday parties and other low-key events to try to fill in the gaps, but Mathis said shes not getting enough orders to stay afloat until weddings start up again. I am a little worried about the latter half of the year, Mathis said. Event cancellations have also caused a full-blown collapse of the international flower market, which has started trickling down to local florists. Emily James, who owns several flower businesses in Albuquerque, said about 80% of flowers purchased in the U.S. are grown abroad, particularly in Latin America and the Netherlands. With the coronavirus limiting demand and upsetting supply chains, James said, shes expecting the cost of flowers to increase as the year goes on. The global flower market has really been completely obliterated by this (pandemic), she said. Paquin of Renegade Floral agreed, saying her business heavy reliance on large destination weddings means shes been hit particularly hard by the slowdown. At this point, its just been a free-fall, Paquin said. Hopes for early autumn Many vendors are looking ahead to early fall traditionally the end of wedding season in much of New Mexico as a potential saving grace. Forrest of WeddingWire wrote that more than half of couples who are postponing weddings are rescheduling for later this year. If the state relaxes its rules on mass gatherings, Long and others said theyre optimistic about making up lost revenue with weddings in September and October, ahead of the cooler months that some experts say could bring a recurrence of the virus. In the meantime, vendors that once competed for business are now banding together. Blackwell said shes brought vendors and venue owners together on video calls to chat about how theyre approaching issues like refunds, while helping vendors answer questions from clients. We kind of put aside some of the petty competitions, she said. Blackwell said some vendors have adapted by changing their services, including experimenting with virtual dress shopping and other online options. James added that shes building a platform where customers can buy flower arrangements on Florecitas website, and pick them up at the companys warehouse. We are trying to find new and creative ways to keep our team fed and our lights on, James said. Long term, Gallegos said she expects the impacts on weddings to linger even after the virus dissipates. She expects the shutdown to intensify the trend toward smaller, more intimate weddings, and said the new constraints that go along with planning a wedding could create innovative solutions. Our ability to flex and bounce back with creative solutions is what we do, Gallegos said. 'Lord and Master of My Life' -- a New Book on an Assyrian Church Father "Lord and Master of my Life.." is how the Lenten prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, commences. It is not perhaps not entirely coincidental that Archbishop Makarios has chosen to publish a book of meditations focused around this prayer and adopting its first phrase as his title, during the global Coronavirus pandemic, for Saint Ephraim is said to have perished while attending to the needs of plague victims. Saint Ephraim, an ethnic Assyrian monk, is fittingly referred to in Syriac as "Kenara d' Rukha", the Harp of the Spirit and every syllable of his mellifluous writings, is a hymn of joy, a paean of praise, a lyric laudation of God. Take for example his Epiphany Hymn: "Glory to Thee from Thy flock on the day of Thy manifestation./He has renewed the heavens, because the foolish ones had adored all the stars / He has renewed the earth which had lost its vigour through Adam / A new creation was made by His spittle / And He Who is all-powerful made straight both bodies and mind." A most prolific writer, the church historian Sozomen maintains that Saint Ephraim, throughout his life, wrote over three million lines. As he wrote in Syriac, a form of Aramaic, he was able to meld the traditions of Rabbinic Judaism with Greek science and philosophy, combining these with his native Mesopotamian tradition of mystery symbolism. The complex and diverse forms of his poetry, of which over four hundred examples survive, constitute a foundation of the musical and hymnographic traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Syriac Orthodox and the Assyrian Church of the East. His homilies, known as 'memre,' are written in seven-syllable verse, often divided into two parts of three and four syllables. Through the medium of such poetry, the Saint celebrates Church feasts, expounds a Scriptural narrative or takes up a spiritual or edifying theme. More remarkable, are his teaching hymns, known as 'madrase,' meaning instructions and, in modern Syriac, 'schools,' which employ over fifty different metrical schemes and which consist of a traditional tune identified by its opening line and antiphons, which it is believed, were originally sung in response by women, to the tune of the lyre. Some of the hymns are acrostic, where each strophe begins with a different letter of the alphabet, drawing from the tradition of metrical verses in the Bible and on other occasions, the first letters of a number of verses form a given word. This enabled Saint Ephraim to 'sign' his hymns, and this is a form that has profoundly influenced Greek poets from the time of Ephraim right up until Greek Nobel laureate, Odysseas Elytis in his masterpiece, "Axion Esti." Thus, with regards to his poetic genius, fervour of feeling, breadth of inspiration and linguistic dexterity, the Saint is arguably a master of the form and a teacher to all those who followed, such as the great melodist Saint Romanos. Arresting imagery, sharp metaphors and similes, bold comparisons, antitheses, coining of successful maxims, and vivid dramatisation characterise his style and further his aim of providing his listeners, steeped in a culture of poetry, with a solid theological grounding that would inoculate them against contemporary prevalent errors in doctrine, or as the Saint himself put it in his 'Hymns against Heresies, so that his flock would not be: "tossed to and fro and carried around with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness and deceitful wiles." Saint Ephraim's Lenten prayer, considered to be the most succinct summation of the spirit of Great Lent, was without a doubt, composed by the Saint, with the above in mind. At weekday services during Great Lent, the prayer is prescribed for each of the canonical hours and at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Surviving only in Greek translation, it loses none of its devotional Syriac heritage, but is engagingly as simple as it is deep in meaning: "O Lord and Master of my life, grant me not a spirit of sloth, curiosity, love of power, and idle talk. But give to me, your servant, a spirit of sober-mindedness, humility, patience, and love. Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, since you are blessed to the ages of ages. Amen." Archbishop Makarios, in his "Lord and Master of my life," analyses and deconstructs each phrase of Saint Ephraim's prayer, in a collection of homilies which as he states, constitute "Reflections on Spiritual Alertness." The publication of such a work is timely. Our current state of isolation, or lockdown, invites the introspection that Saint Ephraim deems so necessary. To acquire the perspicacity to identify the flaws in oneself, to analyse these and seek to address them requires not only humility, but a good deal of spiritual quietude. Despite the fact the Church calendar still celebrates the Easter period, the unique sense of time in the Orthodox tradition is not linear. Rather it conflates past, present and future so that every time is the time of the Resurrection and conversely, every time is also Lenten. As such, in these times, Archbishop Makarios indirectly identifies Saint Ephraim's Lenten prayer as particularly pertinent. As he states in his book, maintaining the joyousness of spirit of Saint Ephraim: "Great Lent is... a period of joy... because actually we return to life. During this time, each of us aims to be spiritually reborn by renouncing whatever is... decayed in order to truly live and experience the boundlessness of spiritual life, in all is depth and intensity..." In Archbishop Makarios' view, this is likely because in parallel with the government-imposed state of isolation and lockdown, mankind has also self-isolated and locked itself down, away from its creator. For him, Saint Ephraim's prayer is an ideal way to address the cacophony of narcissism which pervades and afflicts the modern world. It offers, for those who would take it, a pathway of emancipation from a state of utter subjugation, a lifting of distancing restrictions imposed upon the movement of the soul: "...being distant from God and being personally isolated not only does not bring joy and fulfillment, but life becomes desperately confined and burdened. That is why the autonomous and egotistical person, the one who makes himself godlike and worships himself, ends up living without freedom." Significantly, Archbishop Makarios devotes a chapter of his book in examination of Saint Ephraim's prayer to be granted a spirit free from IIIIIIIIII, as is stated in the original form of the prayer, literally translating the term as "curiosity," whereas other translators have traditionally employed the term "meddling," in English. His choice of term is significant, for in adopting a word derived from the Latin curiosus, signifying a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation, he achieves equivalency with the original Greek term which signifies an "inquiry around matters." What follows is a timely and nuanced critique of the "Information Age," where all are inundated by a deluge of information, images, fake news and stimuli cascading from various media and are often rendered powerless to objectively assess their veracity or relevance. It is the suspension of one's critical faculties in the face of such an onslaught that is of paramount concern. As Archbishop Makarios explains, Saint Ephraim does not condemn a spirit of inquiry or a love of learning. Instead: "When the information which accumulates in the person's mind is not in order and is not checked then more information one has, the more confusion it brings... Contemporary man becomes...side-racked and disoriented." The result in the Archbishop's view: an inability to feel empathy, an incapacity to love. Archbishop Makarios perceptively links a spirit of sloth and curiosity with a love of power, an insidious form of egotism and narcissism that undermines the very fabric of society and erodes its underlying moral principles, in his next homily. According to him, this is a pathology of loss of sense of self and self-control: "Our ego becomes the absolute centre of our life and it controls our judgement in all matters... This...may be seen through our indifference, neglect, lack of interest, care and respect towards our neighbour." Returning to his subtle, understated parallel with our current situation, the Archbishop views isolation not as a physical state, but rather as a spiritual one, with its own consequences: "Isolation is not so much about the place as it is about the heart, the expression of an inner state of being...No one is as empty as the one who is full of his own self." Considering Saint Ephraim's injunction against idle talk, Archbishop Makarios is careful to point out the power of the word in the Orthodox tradition. After all, as the Gospel of John tells us, "In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Acquiring the discernment to know when to speak and when to remain silent, in the Archbishop's view, is a key step in a person's transformation: "through...love." Mastery over the spoken word is important because at the end of Saint Ephraim's prayer, the supplicant will be called upon to proclaim that God is "blessed to the ages of ages. Amen." Unlike sundry social commentators, Archbishop Makarios not only exposes some of the major flaws and fractures in modern society, but through Saint Ephraim's prayer, also suggests solutions that can be implemented at an individual level. According to him, the quest and attainment of a spirit of sober-mindedness, humility, patience, and love, an ability to see one's own faults and not to judge one's brother, elements that he closely examines in turn, are intrinsic to the fulfilment of one's personhood, and facilitate a "struggle, not for ourselves but in order to be united with everyone." Colton Beall, 18, a former student at Roswell High School, was sentenced Wednesday after admitting to investigators that he tried to have two 16-year-old classmates strangled to death with belt in December 2019 A New Mexico high school student who attempted to hire a hitman to murder two teenage girls to fulfil a sexual fantasy has been sentenced to five years probation as part of a plea deal. Colton Beall, 18, a former student at Roswell High School, was sentenced Wednesday after admitting to investigators that he tried to have two 16-year-old classmates strangled to death with belt in December 2019 using the website RentAHitman.com. Investigators said that Beall filled out two forms on the parody site, detailing precisely how he wanted his victims to die as part of a sexual fetish he had for strangulation. Though the implied services on RentAHitman: Your Point & Click Solution werent real, police found that Bealls murderous requests were. The teen included his own street address, email address and phone number on the forms along with the names of the intended targets and their addresses. One of the forms even had Bealls real name on it. He was arrested in Manchester, Tennessee, on two counts of criminal solicitation of murder on February 27 and extradited back to Roswell after the owner of RentAHitman, Bob Innes, notified police of Bealls requests. Investigators said that Beall filled out two forms on the parody site, detailing precisely how he wanted his victims to die as part of a sexual fetish he had for strangulation Though the implied services on RentAHitman: Your Point & Click Solution werent real, police found that Bealls murderous requests were No one could be that stupid to hire a hitman on the World Wide Web. I mean, could they? questioned Innes to KRQE. Innes explained the site was set up in 2005 for a new company that was going to offer computer hacking detection and prevention services to customers. The company founders offered to serve as computer hackers, or hitmen, who would try to hack into a customers computer in order to identify vulnerabilities so the security issues could be addressed. Though that company never made it off the ground, when checking the websites inbox a couple of years later, Innes he discovered some people were actually taking the site seriously and requesting for murders to be carried out. After getting his first detailed request in 2008, when a woman from the UK requested for three of her family members to be killed, Innes started transforming the site and adding features to make it more believable. The first question is, Do you still require our services? And, would you like me to put you in touch with a field operative? If they answer back and say yes, Im going to do just that. Ill be your matchmaker, Innes said. If the solicitation comes from a minor, if it involves any kind of abuse or any kind of school setting, then its an automatic report. I dont play around with those. There are too many school shootings. The teen included his own street address, email address and phone number on the forms along with the names of the intended targets and their street addresses. One of the forms even had Bealls real name on it Beall, a former student at Roswell High School (above), tried to have two 16-year-old classmates strangled to death with belt in December 2019 Innes has since turned over hundreds of requests and emails to law enforcement agencies across the world, saving the lives of more than 130 people who didnt even know they needed help. Among those, were the two teenage New Mexico girls unknowingly embroiled in Bealls twisted fantasy. The 18-year-old was sentenced by Judge Dustin Hunter of New Mexicos 5th Judicial District Court via Google Meeting on Wednesday. The sentence against Beall will be deferred pending successful completion of his five-year probationary period in exchange for changing his initial plea of not guilty to no contest on two counts of criminal solicitation of first-degree murder. As part of the agreement, Beall must complete counseling, drug and alcohol screening and perform 200 hours of community service unless he has full-time employment or is enrolled in a full-time educational program. South Africa: Schools prepare to reopen Schools across the country are in the process of finalising preparations to receive Grade 7 and 12 learners when schools reopen on 1 June. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said that this week will be dedicated to finalising all outstanding matters before learners return to school. This week, schools need to ensure that health and safety requirements are prioritised. These include learner transport, water provision, basic hygiene and sanitation, psycho-social support and the recruitment and appointment of screeners and cleaners. The Ministers remarks follow Mondays Council of Education Ministers (CEM) meeting, which considered the progress on the reopening of schools. Last week, the CEM decided that the School Management Team (SMT) and teachers would return to school on Monday. CEM noted that even though some schools had not yet received their safety material, progress in the cleaning of schools and deliveries of personal protective equipment (PPEs) was taking place. Provinces were continuing to send evidence of the work being done. CEM agreed that by Thursday morning, the final report would be received and would indicate further progress made and identify other challenges that needed attention, the Department of Basic Education said. Motshekga will this week sign directives that address various matters, which include the issuing of travel permits for education purposes, Grade 12 examinations, safety measures, and mass events at schools. School vandalism While work is being done, CEM was also disturbed by the vandalism continuing to happen at schools. In KwaZulu-Natal, two schools were broken into and the entire consignment was stolen. In Soweto, two people were allegedly killed by members of the community after attempting to break into a school where deliveries of COVID-19 essentials had just been made, the department said. The Minister has appealed to members of the community to not to take the law into their own hands. Communities must protect schools against vandalism but must ensure at all times that violence does not occur. We request that the community should rather work with the police to bring suspected perpetrators to justice, the Minister said. The CEM welcomed the appointment of the National Education Collaboration Trust-led consortium to monitor and confirm that all the schools complied with the preconditions for the reopening of schools in the context of the Coronavirus environment. The consortium will conduct an independent audit of the work provinces are doing, as part of the preparation towards the reopening of schools. CEM noted the methodology presented and progress made in engaging with the provinces and schools last week. CEM is looking forward to the reports once data is collected, the department said. The consortium comprises the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Plus 94 Research, Entsika Consulting and New Leaders Foundation. CEM will meet again on Thursday morning. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Pakistan's coronavirus cases on Tuesday soared to 57,705 after 1,356 new infections were reported, while 1,197 people have died so far of the disease in the country, the health ministry said. Of the total number of 57,705 cases, 22,934 have so far been detected in Sindh, 20,654 in Punjab, 8,080 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 3,468 in Balochistan, 1,728 in Islamabad, 630 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 211 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Officials have so far conducted 490,908 tests, including 7,252 done on Monday. According to the Ministry of National Health Service, 18,314 patients have till now recovered from the virus, while 1,197 have died so far, including 30 during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Japan offered cooperation to Pakistan in its fight against the pandemic as the number of cases continued to rise. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi made the offer through a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday called Prime Minister Imran Khan and the two leaders agreed to enhance the bilateral cooperation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan also called Prime Minister Khan and the two agreed to work closely to control the coronavirus outbreak. He also offered condolences at the Friday's plane crash that claimed 97 lives in Pakistan. YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan offered his congratulations on the occasion of the anniversary of the Victory of the Sardarapat Battle. We must all remember the heroic Battle of Sardarapat, all heroes and commanders. May is a month of victories, and we find the Battle of Sardarapat to be one of our main historic victories, he said in a live broadcast message. The President noted that the battalion of Artsakh had very significant role in the battle, and called on to remember and commemorate all those who fought in the battle. We must shift our military successes and victories to the arena of state-building and economic victories. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a news conference about the coronavirus in Berlin on March 22. German authorities have banned more than two people meeting outside of their homes. (Associated Press ) The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the debate over whether authoritarian states are gaining the upper hand across the world. Although there are plenty of signs that strongmen leaders have used the crisis to try to tighten their grip on power, the coronavirus has revealed the vulnerabilities of autocracies rather than their strength. In contrast, democracies are showing their capacity for innovation and adaptation, as one would expect, and signs of renewal, as one would hope. At first look, the situation is not positive for democracies. The countries worst-hit by COVID-19 as measured in deaths per capita are mostly democracies, including Britain, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the United States. In most cases, erroneous or slow decision-making proved fatal when combined with stressed health systems and pockets of high social inequality. These failings do not constitute a good advertisement for the power of democracy. And, being democracies, policy failures are quickly exposed by opposition parties and the media, none more so than in the United States, the worlds standard-bearer of democracy. They belie the relative wealth and supposed sophistication of the Western model. In contrast, the archetypal authoritarian state, China, where the virus first appeared, seems to have weathered the storm well. The Chinese government was able to deploy the draconian powers of its centralized, unitary decision-making structure to impose a harsh lock-down in Hubei province that halted the spread of the virus across the country, even if the number of deaths in China from the virus is likely to be far higher than official figures. Being first in, but having controlled the pandemic, China is now the first to re-emerge economically, with industrial output in April reportedly up 3.9% from a year earlier. Most democracies are preparing for further declines in output in the short-term. The message being unsubtly propagated by Chinese authorities, and echoed by some commentators in the West, is that consultative, media-obsessed democratic leadership lacks the decisiveness of its authoritarian counterpart at a time of crisis. Democracies are slow and chaotic. Autocracies are fast and coordinated. Story continues But this is misleading. Democracies might be among the worst performers in the COVID-19 crisis, but they are also among the best, especially when they are led not by populist leaders, but by those who can draw on a high level of public trust. This has been the case with Germany, Taiwan, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and South Korea the first five of which are led by women, whose leadership style tends to be inclusive rather than top-down. Democracies have also revealed their innate resilience and adaptability. COVID-19 is driving democratic political systems to become more accountable and responsive. Centralized systems like that of Britain have had to cede more political control to the regional governments; Taiwan is showing how its commitment to protecting individual democratic rights can be applied successfully to voluntary health surveillance; and Germany has drawn on the strength of its federal governance system. Even the more politically divided democracies, such as the U.S. and Britain, have rapidly rolled out massive macroeconomic stimulus packages with bipartisan support. At the same time, democracies have shown the power and value of their diverse and independent civil societies, which have the freedom to mobilize to confront a crisis of this sort. Corporations, universities, foundations and nonprofit organizations are cooperating and innovating with local authorities and internationally, whether to deliver medical relief and social support or to secure a vaccine. In contrast, authoritarian states look brittle. When there is only one, permanent leader party or individual failure cannot be admitted, and mistakes must be concealed. This was clearly the dynamic in China, where the Communist Party in Wuhan sought to hide the extent of the viruss outbreak from December 2019 into early January. Sensing the risk to its reputation, the Chinese leadership has since moved into over-drive to try to control the narrative on the outbreak, creating greater international distrust of China in the process. Other authoritarian states are faring worse. Russia is now coping with its own full-blown COVID crisis, while Iran has had more than 130,000 confirmed infections and a high death rate. President Putins focus on recovering Russias position as a great power has been at the expense of socio-economic investment, leaving the countrys health system struggling to manage the crisis. His popularity has fallen to the lowest level since he became president in 2000. The Iranian regimes efforts to underplay the risks of the virus have backfired, leaving it vulnerable to a resumption of the violent popular protests that rocked the country following the governments cover-up of its downing of a Ukrainian airliner on Jan. 8. The fact is, authoritarian leaders can cope relatively well with geopolitical instability and opportunity, as Russia and Iran have demonstrated in the Middle East. Similarly, they can launch large-scale investment projects with geo-economic goals, as China has with its Belt and Road Initiative, with little concern about their long-term sustainability. But in the face of an amorphous, cross-border virus that cannot be deterred, coerced or denied, authoritarian leadership reveals the shallowness of its power, as well as the bluff and bluster of its imitators, from Turkey to Brazil. By suppressing the power of civil society and independent media, these governments only hear bad news late and must then rely on rigid bureaucracies to deliver complex responses. It is quite possible that the coronavirus pandemic will represent the high-water mark for the appeal of the authoritarian model and of its two standard-bearers, China and Russia. In contrast, we are reminded of the relevance of Winston Churchills now well-worn aphorism in 1947 that, democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. Robin Niblett is the chief executive of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Leslie Vinjamuri is its U.S. and Americas program director. Henry County Hospital CEO, Williams County Health Commissioner lead by example in classroom By Bob Cunningham 18 Sometimes, the greatest lesson can come from real-life experience even living through a pandemic. Bowling Green State University students in the College of Health and Human Services (HHS) had a front-row seat in the spring semester to two adjunct instructors who have more than 70 years of health care experience combined. Kim Bordenkircher, chief executive officer (CEO) of Henry County Hospital in Napoleon, Ohio, taught Issues in Health Care Administration; and Jim Watkins, Health Commissioner of Williams County Combined Health District in Montpelier, Ohio, was the instructor for Public Health and Sanitation. The COVID-19 pandemic had to be a pretty anxiety-producing experience for the students, Bordenkircher said. Many of my students already work in health care in some capacity, so all of their lives have been uprooted. So, one of the things I did with my discussion posts was flip it around a reverse discussion post, if you will and I had the students ask me questions about COVID-19. Any question at all, whether it was how the hospital preparing, questions about the virus itself or what was happening in the news, I answered them all. It was amazing to me the variety of questions they asked me. Honestly, I think the students appreciated that. The online discussion also helped Bordenkircher, who has taught at BGSU for six years, take care of the 300 employees at the hospital. There were some questions they asked that surprised me and I turned right around and made sure I was answering those same questions for my own staff, she said. Part of being a leader is being an educator, so working at the hospital and working at the University, both of those jobs help each other they have a reciprocal relationship. I also want to educate my staff on how they can make good decisions in their personal lives because their ability to manage their exposure to COVID-19 in the community helps make sure that I have a healthy staff at the hospital, which is important to me. For Watkins, the experience helped him prepare future students for health crises. I hope I am able to bring some context to the subjects covered by sharing real-world experiences of the concepts being taught, he said. Unfortunately, we had already completed the portion on emergency preparedness, which would have been a perfect real-life situation to work through. Prior to the end of face-to-face instruction, we did have some discussion on the situation as it was unfolding. In the future, there will be a great number of real-life situations about COVID-19 that I will be able to share with students. Bordenkircher began her career in 1980 at Barberton (Ohio) Citizens Hospital as a staff nurse on a medical surgical unit. In 1998, she became the chief nursing officer at Henry Country Hospital and then then CEO in 1999. She provides guidance, support and direction to the staff of the hospital and oversees the overall provision of quality patient care and operationalizes the hospitals mission, vision and values for the patients, employees and community. Being a hospital CEO is a very demanding job as I am responsible for an organization thats open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days of the year, Bordenkircher said. Hospital staff are used to taking care of infectious patients and are used to being on the front lines, but this was even more emphasized because at the beginning there was so little we knew about the virus. Its been an interesting and educational experience. I get the opportunity to work with people who, honestly, are heroes all the time. In turn, the students also help keep her mind crisp and informed. The book might talk about a theory or a concept that seems pretty academic, but I can tell a story from my experience at the hospital that highlights why thats important or highlights what can go wrong if that concept isnt followed, Bordenkircher said. Because I have worked in health care for 40 years, I have stories about just about anything. Sometimes the book or a PowerPoint isnt very memorable for students, but they can remember a story and I have tons of them. The reason I teach is because I love the students and teaching at BGSU makes me a better CEO, so I really appreciate the experience. Watkins started at the Williams County Health Department in 1986 as an environmental health specialist and served as director of environmental health until 2004. After a brief stint working in health care education in Washington state, he returned to Ohio in 2005 to work as an environmental health specialist to investigate contaminated wells at South Bass Island in Lake Erie related to the water borne outbreak at Put-in-Bay. He has served as health commissioner since 2006. Watkins has a Master of Public Health from the Northwest Consortium for Public Health, a joint effort of BGSU and the University of Toledo. We serve as the chief health strategist for the local community and are looked upon to keep the community safe, said Watkins, who has taught at BGSU since 2016. Before COVID-19, as a department we provided immunizations every day. Inspectors were mainly out in the field conducting routine inspections of restaurants and other facilities and health educators were working with schools to provide educational programs to children. We also were meeting with partners to advance community health improvement goals and, as always, preparing for possibility of a health crises. Today, we have been able to bring some of those services back to the community, but the majority of our efforts remain focused on COVID-19. Many programs such as WIC (Women, Infants, Children), immunizations, birth and death certificates operate under very modified conditions. Bordenkircher said she works closely with the Henry County Health Department on helping decide what community events are appropriate to hold while keeping the community safe. Her employees also need to help by being role models. While I cant enforce employees to wear their masks in public, as health care workers, we need to be leaders in the community, she said. As role models, we need to wear masks and use social distancing in public because its for everybodys safety. DALLAS (AP) - A U.S. attorney in Texas who was appointed by President Donald Trump announced his resignation Tuesday, providing no explanation for his unusually abrupt departure. Joseph Brown, who has served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas since 2018, will leave office on May 31, according to a statement. The statement does not give a reason for the 50-year-old lead prosecutor's departure except to say he will be "pursuing opportunities in the private and public sectors" and "some of those will become apparent in the coming days." It also doesn't say who would lead the office in the interim; the sprawling jurisdiction stretches from the Dallas suburbs to Beaumont. Brown and a spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. Brown's resignation comes two months after ProPublica reported that his office spent years pursuing a criminal case against Walmart for its opioid prescription practices, only to have it stymied after the retail giant's lawyers appealed to senior officials in the Department of Justice. The report describes an internal struggle over the potential prosecution that ended with high-ranking department officials ordering Brown to stand down. Walmart has denied any of its employees committed crimes. A Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment. In Tuesday's statement, Brown referenced his office's successful prosecution of "pill mill" physicians, including one named in the ProPublica story. In this April 8, 2019, photo, United States Attorney Joseph Brown announces information regarding the fight against terrorism at the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas. Brown, a U.S. attorney in Texas who was appointed by President Donald Trump, announced his resignation Tuesday, May 26, 2020, providing no explanation for his unusually abrupt departure. (Jason Janik/The Dallas Morning News via AP) "We must win the fight against opioid abuse in order to save our country," he said. "But in order to be effective, we must be willing to prosecute all facets of the expansive network that feeds these destructive drugs into our communities. Players both big and small must meet equal justice under the law." U.S. attorneys are appointed by the president and are subject to Senate confirmation. They can resign or be fired during a change of administration, but some serve under multiple presidents. Before his appointment, Brown had served for years as district attorney in Grayson County, Texas. ___ Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. Revelers celebrate Memorial Day weekend at Osage Beach of the Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., on May 23, 2020. (Twitter/Lawler50/via Reuters) Missouri Officials Advise Self-Quarantine After Social Distancing Rules Flouted Health officials in Missouri advised a 14-day self-quarantine for anyone who flouted social distancing rules, after images emerged of large crowds gathered at a pool party in the small town of Osage Beach at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, over the Memorial Day weekend. The St. Louis County Public Health Department issued a general travel advisory (pdf) on May 25, calling for those who ignored protective practices to self-quarantine for 14 days, or until they receive a negative test result for COVID-19. Video and photos emerged on social media of a pool party over the Memorial Day weekend called Zero Ducks Given at a bar called Backwater Jacks, where hundreds of people gathered in close proximity. One video was posted on Twitter by KTVK anchor Scott Pasmore, who wrote the accompanying caption, No COVID concerns at the Lake of the Ozarks. Recent news reports indicate that many people, including those from the St. Louis region, did not follow any protective practices over the holiday weekend, the health department announced in a statement on May 25. The statement noted that the large crowds showed no efforts to follow social distancing practices. As a result, many members of the public and employers have asked St. Louis County how to best proceed in safely opening their businesses when social distancing practices are not being followed, the statement continued. The St. Louis County Health Departments travel advisory said that employers should consider adding questions related to recent travels and social distancing behaviors when screening their employees for health risks as workers return to their jobs. This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of COVID-19. I encourage everyone to follow the Department of Public Health advisory to determine a safe path forward in the workplace, Dr. Sam Page, the county executive, said in the statement. A family spends Memorial Day relaxing on a beach front at Creve Coeur Lake Park Maryland Heights, Mo., on May 25, 2020. (Michael Thomas/Getty Images) Businesses in Missouri were allowed to reopen on May 4 as long as people could adhere to strict social distancing and sanitization requirements, according to Gov. Mike Parson. The main requirement involves people keeping six feet away from those who dont reside in the same household. John Olivarri, mayor of Osage Beach, told NPR in an interview on May 25 that Parsons order (pdf) indicates that the public health department is the one who will be responsible for enforcement its not the responsibility of the city to enforce those orders in accordance with the governors guidelines. The owner of Backwater Jacks, Gary Prewitt, prior to the pool party event had told news outlet KSHB that it would try to ensure appropriate social distancing. However, Prewitt noted that staff will not be able to know which individuals are in the same household. We expect them to [practice social distancing] on their own, Prewitt said. Parson said in early May that local officials in the St. Louis area can issue stricter guidelines, noting that cases in the area had yet to trend downward. As of May 25, St. Louis County has reported 386 deaths, and St. Louis city has reported 107 deaths. The City of St. Louis remains under a stay-at-home order. The order remains in effect until the citys director of health deems that the threat of the CCP virus has diminished, the city announced on April 30. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson announced on Twitter on May 25 that too many people didnt take appropriate safety precautions during celebrations over the Memorial Day weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks. She urged people to stay home for the next 14 days if they were among those who didnt practice social distancing or wear masks. Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams warned on May 25 that COVID-19 is still here. Social distancing needs to continue to prevent further spread of infections, he wrote in a statement. Close contact with others even if you are in the outdoors is still considered close contact and can lead to more infections as we still have new cases of COVID-19 being detected each day in Missouri. The virus can be transmitted even among those young and healthy who arent experiencing symptoms. When they then carry the virus and transmit it to a more vulnerable person, this is when we tend to see the long-lasting and tragic impact of these decisions that are being made. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is pleased to announce that the first journal in its Science Partner Journal (SPJ) program, Research, is now indexed in Web of Science: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). This is a milestone for the journal, which is published in association with the Science and Technology Review Publishing House, under the leadership of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). The inclusion of Research in ESCI highlights the journal's rigor and quality and adds to the growing list of abstracting and indexing services that feature it. In addition to ESCI, Research is also indexed in CAS, CNKI, CSCD, DOAJ, Inspec, PMC and Scopus. Research was launched in 2018, publishing its first content in August of that year. The journal publishes original multidisciplinary work reflecting innovative discoveries and important issues in the life and physical sciences and in engineering and applied science. Papers published since its launch have covered self-healing surface coating, reconfigurable acoustic metamaterial and 3D printing of cellular structures. As a continuation of AAAS' commitment to open access publishing, the journal's content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), on a continuous basis. "We are very excited that the first Science Partner Journal, Research, is now included in ESCI. This is a testament to the wonderful partnership AAAS and the Science Partner Journal program have established with CAST. It shows promise that Research and the broader SPJ program will continue to accomplish much in the scientific and publishing community," said Bill Moran, Publisher of the Science family of journals at AAAS. "We look forward to seeing the continued success of Research under the leadership of Editors-in-Chief Tianhong Cui and Wei Huang." "On behalf of the Editorial Board of Research," said Cui, "I would like to thank all the authors, reviewers, readers, and academic editors for their support. We also need to give special thanks to all the managing editors and staff from CAST and AAAS. We will continue to make great efforts to better serve the research community in the world." ### AAAS launched the Science Partner Journal program in November 2017. The SPJ program features high-quality, online-only open access publications produced in collaboration with international research institutions, foundations, funders and societies. Through these collaborations, AAAS expands its efforts to communicate science broadly and for the benefit of all people by providing top-tier international research organizations with the technology, visibility and publishing expertise that AAAS is uniquely positioned to offer as the world's largest international science society. About the Science Partner Journal program New titles participating in the Science Partner Journal program will launch on a regular basis. Participation in the program is focused on English-language publications. AAAS is actively seeking new partners across scientific disciplines. Organizations participating in the Science Partner Journal program will be editorially independent and responsible for the content published in each journal. Partner organizations are responsible for establishing editorial boards committed to best practices in peer review and author service. For more information about the Science Partner Journal program, please visit the Science Partner Journal homepage at: spj.sciencemag.org. For questions regarding the program and inquiries about the application process for becoming a partner organization, contact spj@aaas.org. About the American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 260 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement and more. About the China Association for Science and Technology The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) is the largest non-governmental organization of scientific and technological professionals in China, serving as a bridge that links the Chinese government to the science and technology communities in China. Through its 210 national member societies and local branches all over the country, CAST maintains close ties with millions of Chinese scientists, engineers and other professionals working in the fields of science and technology. Police in Devon are appealing for more information following an incident where a pregnant cow died after being chased by a gang of teenagers. The incident occurred on farmland in Axminster. Police confirmed it was one of two incidents reported in the town. Chris Bolsover, PCSO for Axminster, said: "On May 9, on private land at White bridges Axminster, it was reported that a group of youths with a dog chased a cow who was heavily pregnant and she and her unborn calf died as a result. "Again on May 15, it was reported to police that a group of teenage youths were chasing cows in the field on Castle Hill." The force confirmed chasing cattle was an offence under the Protection of Livestock Act 1953 under the term 'worrying livestock'. The police definition of 'worrying' includes attacking livestock and chasing animals which lead to injury or suffering. The owner of the livestock or the land (farmer) or any authorised person may kill or injure a dog in order to protect the livestock," Mr Bolsover added. "This includes shooting a dog that is worrying or attacking their livestock." The public have been urged by the police to report any such incidents on 999 at the time of it happening. When I completed field training and began patrolling on my own, a college student tried to take her own life, he said. I was the officer that showed up with the ambulance and provided support to comfort her friends after the ambulance left. I brought the young ladies to the hospital and sat and talked with them for a few hours, listening to their stories about their friend and helping them sort through their emotions. The Rev. Joe O'Neill celebrates Mass inside an empty Holy Family Church in South Pasadena, on Palm Sunday, April 5. The church has been livestreaming its services during stay-at-home orders. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) California's new plan to allow churches and religious institutions to reopen in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic marks a major step forward. But it still will alter religious services in dramatic ways, and it's unlikely to end the push by some churches to allow more regular operations. Gov. Gavin Newsom has faced lawsuits from religious groups over the stay-at-home rules and has so far been victorious in court. On Friday night, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Newsoms ban on in-person church services. Were dealing here with a highly contagious and often fatal disease for which there presently is no known cure. In the words of Justice Robert Jackson, if a [c]ourt does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact, the majority wrote. But critics say the new rules are still too restrictive. An artificial 25% or 100-person limitation on a house of worship is inconsistent with the absence of such limitations on retail establishments, said Harmeet Dhillon, chief executive of the Center for American Liberty. Simply put, Gov. Newsom lacks authority to dictate to Californias faithful how they may worship. Guidelines, suggestions, education, and support are all welcome. Secular dictates that do not apply to other categories of our daily lives are not welcome and not constitutional. Here are some of the basic guidelines: Houses of worship must limit total attendance to 25% of a buildings capacity for the first three weeks of services and stop passing offering plates, in addition to taking other precautions. Congregants should be screened for fever or other symptoms of illness and are asked to use hand sanitizer and wear face coverings. Houses of worship have been told to discourage the sharing of items, including prayer books, cushions and rugs. Staff, visitors and congregants are discouraged from singing, holding potluck meals and shaking hands and hugging. Story continues High-traffic areas, such as chapels and libraries, must be thoroughly cleaned, and common surfaces such as pulpits, pews, altars and donation boxes must be disinfected frequently. The 13-page document , released by the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA, does not obligate churches, mosques, temples and other houses of worship to resume in-person activity, officials said. In fact, state health authorities strongly recommend that places of worship continue to facilitate remote services and other related activities for those who are vulnerable to COVID19 including older adults and those with co-morbidities. Political pressure points The vast majority of California churches have complied with the stay-at-home order. But there have been some exceptions. More than 1,200 pastors vowed to hold in-person services on May 31, Pentecost Sunday. On Friday, President Trump made an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room to declare that he was designating churches as essential businesses so they could immediately reopen. Trump previously said he would leave decisions about easing public health guidance to states but often criticized decisions by individual governors. The president has now threatened that he will override states that dont heed his directive. It was not clear to which authority he was referring. What's next? The occupancy limit for services will remain in place for the first 21 days after a county health department has approved the resumption of religious services and cultural ceremonies within their jurisdiction, the guidance states. After 21 days, the California Department of Public Health, in consultation with county health officials, will review and assess the effect of the imposed limits and provide further direction as part of a phased-in restoration of activities in places of worship. Some churches have already announced reopening proposals. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange announced plans for public Masses to resume in phases in Orange County starting June 14. The first phase includes allowing small groups of healthy people to gather for limited Mass, church officials said Friday in a news release. The second phase will allow for larger groups; the third will permit choirs and social gatherings. All phases will require participants to follow strict guidelines for social distancing and disinfection, officials said. The pandemic is far from over, so we will begin with small steps, Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann said in a statement. Realizing that reinfection is a concern, as we saw occurred in Texas and elsewhere, I am asking our pastors to prepare their churches to ensure that these guidelines are followed without exception. In Orange County, the bishops advisors have been working on reopening guidelines for weeks, in consultation with county officials and medical experts, the release said. Those older than 65 or who have an underlying health condition will be encouraged not to return when churches initially reopen, as will anyone who is sick or lives with someone who is sick. Holy-water fonts will remain empty, hymnals will be removed, and people will be instructed not to touch one another, including during greetings. Church rituals that require touching, like the sign of peace, will be suspended. In most cases, churches will be required to limit their capacity to one-third of normal attendance, officials said. More Masses will be offered than usual, and people will be encouraged to come throughout the week to avoid crowding on Sundays. Vann extended a dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday to permit the shift. The bishop also granted a temporary dispensation allowing priests to celebrate Mass outside of church buildings, including in gyms, parish halls and outdoor spaces. The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego also has begun planning to safely welcome back parishioners. The diocese has determined that in-person daily Masses can begin June 8, and it set June 14 as the target date for parishes to celebrate Sunday Mass, with significant steps required to enforce social distancing. The plan is still being developed, taking into account guidance from county and state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it will likely mean big changes, including shorter Masses, protective masks for parishioners, no choir or singing and attendance at 25% to 50% of capacity, among other things, said Kevin Eckery, vice chancellor of the diocese and a spokesperson for the diocese. We dont want people to go back and think its just like normal, Eckery said. No, its going to be the new normal. We are not going to do anything that endangers parishioners and families, or do anything that spreads the virus. MIDDLETOWN Two local psychologists have found success with a specialized therapy that uses tapping sensations to relieve patients with sometimes debilitating symptoms connected with a traumatic event. Affiliated Clinical Therapists psychologist Dr. Candice Weigle-Spier and licensed clinical social worker Ava Hart practice at the 770 Saybrook Road office. Both are certified in a specialized therapy called eye movement desensetization reprocessing, or EMDR. Their new book, The Calm Before The Storm: When Bad Things Happen, was published last week. Weigle-Spier illustrated the eight-page book. She has practiced the therapy which helps patients young and old suffering from PTSD, anxiety, depression, panic disorders and other afflictions, for over 20 years. It tells the story of Taj, a happy-go-lucky African-American boy who lives in an urban community. Hes a latch-key kid who undergoes a frightful night when his single mother, his security, fails to return home when he returns from school. He stands watch in the living room as snow falls outside and darkness falls. I started to think bad things, he said. Taj begins to feel terror, which is exacerbated by someone knocking on his door. It could be help, but the youth was taught to never talk to strangers. After his mother returns, he meets an EMDR practitioner who eventually helps Taj allay his fears. Now, when my mom goes to work, Im sad for a few minutes, which is normal. Then I get past it, the book reads. The psychologists decided they would not assign an age to Taj, so children of all ages can identify with him. It was written as a means to provide more resources for clinicians using EMDR with children, particularly with children of color, as well as others who have endured difficult episodes, such as child or sexual abuse or neglect and domestic violence. During EMDR therapy, the client attends to emotionally disturbing material in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus, according to the EMDR Institute. Therapist-directed lateral eye movements are the most commonly used external stimulus but a variety of other stimuli, including hand tapping and audio stimulation are often used, EMDR said. The therapy is practiced in eight phases, which includes the gathering of information, preparation for the session, identification of the problem, bilateral stimulation, and pairing those feelings of self-worth with what remains after negative emotions are expunged, Hart explained. Sometimes trauma manifests itself as fear of monsters in children, Hart said. It takes a specific training to listen to the language of kids, which is play, Weigle-Spier said. Her illustrations are 3D paper collages. She twisted dark strips of paper to create Tajs dreadlocks, which appear to jump off the page. Hart had intended to hire an artist, but then she walked into Weigle-Spiers office one day to find exactly what she was looking for her illustrations were framed the walls. After perusing photos of children online, Weigle-Spier gathered a sense of what she wanted Taj to look like and began sketching. By the end of the day, she was able to bring Harts main character to life. It explains all the feelings that go through someone in the midst of trauma: the depressive symptoms his stomach hurt, he burst into tears. Then, adults noticing it and taking him for treatment, and the results afterward, Weigle-Spier said. It explains it without being didactic. It draws you in. Its a wonderful story. Hart chose to write about separation, because its one of the most common anxiety disorders in children. Where it sprang from was an awareness that children of color often dont get early luxury treatment. Its something not thought of when theyre not wildly symptomatic, Weigle-Spier explained. This book was written as a way to inform parents and children of color that this resource is accessible to them also, said Hart, citing research that shows these kids often end up in higher-end behavioral health services in the juvenile justice system as opposed to early intervention. We had some courageous conversations about being culturally responsive, using culturally informed ways of presenting this little brown boy, she said, referring to her colleague. Taj goes to a therapist who shows him TheraTappers, a tool that provides bilateral simulation. The technique helps a patient reprocess the series of unpleasant events that haunt them. The therapy can be employed in other ways, such as tapping the hands, shoulders or knees. The patient and therapist work together to access sensory feelings. People often assign a negative belief about themselves, which we call negative cognition. When we pair it with the original image of the event and bilateral stimulation, people are able to reprocess and start to think differently, Hart said. As the process moves along, the patients emotional charges can begin to dissipate. Sometimes thats the thing that makes people the most nervous, that they have to dredge up old things, but the beautiful thing about EMDR is you really dont have to dredge up every single detail, Hart said. Were able to take negative beliefs about oneself and body sensations, and were able to work with that in lieu of words, she added. The therapy works especially well with pre- and nonverbal children and the developmentally disabled. The practice can also be used to return the patient back as far as being in the womb. By some people, its believed theres a strong attachment thats associated with certain memories and youre able to tap into that feeling, Hart said. If its pre-verbal, theres no words. The method has been successful on those who dont or cant talk about their feelings, Weigle-Spier. For infants, psychologists have a parent embrace their child and rock or tap the baby. Sometimes, Weigle-Spier and Hart play classical music, which can evoke emotions and inspire good feelings. If they have music that may be culturally responsive, (that fosters) good positive feelings, especially in the black community, where spirituality is important, Hart explained. It helps ground a person. Its faster than regular therapy. A small child may only require a couple sessions, and others, multiple consultations. Its extremely gratifying when therapy is done, the women said. One girl she met in the initial appointment arrived at her office distraught, Hart said. I had a kid doing flips across the back of my couch. The parents said, Is she okay? The girl answered: Yes. Im fine, Hart said. Hart has a favorite quote from the late Francine Shapiro, the developer of EMDR. Its important to develop a healthy respect for the healing potential of people and to learn to be the facilitator of that healing. For information, visit emdr.com or email tajEMDR@gmail.com. To order the book on Amazon, visit amzn.to/2B6Hen3. An air hostess arrives at the Shamshabad airport in Hyderabad as domestic flights resumed in India on Monday, 25 May, 2020. (PTI)today after a gap of two months owing to the nationwide lockdown. (PTI) Hyderabad: Even as domestic air services resumed nationwide, chaos and frustration ruled at the Shamshabad airport here due to several cancellations. According to the RGIA website, seven arriving and 31 departing flights were cancelled on Monday. This was largely to hard-nosed negotiations earlier on Sunday night between the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and the government of Telangana with the state reportedly insisting it was not in a position to handle more than 20 arrivals and 19 departures a day for now. As per the original schedule, at least double this number of flights were to operate every day from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad. The last-minute change of plans resulted in several airlines contacting their passengers and informing them of cancelled flights. Every arrival and departing flight gets a slot at an airport and this requires coordination between different agencies and the airlines. This work went on well into the night to rearrange the flight schedules, it was learnt. Among the many passengers whose travel plans were thrown awry was Anita Dalal, a passenger scheduled to travel from Kolhapur to Mumbai via Hyderabad on Monday. She was stuck in the chaos after her confirmed Indigo flight was cancelled at the last minute. I received a message at 1 am on May 25 that my flight scheduled at 2 pm was cancelled due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. I have been stranded in Kolhapur since the lockdown began two months ago. There have been no other means of transport in Maharashtra, so I finally booked a connecting flight to Mumbai via Hyderabad and it got cancelled too, she said. She said officials had provided no clarification yet. As for the refund, I have been told that money in the form of a credit shell available for other flight options for a year will be given. Who is going to travel in these conditions now? I dont want to waste that money. Id rather get that money back, so I can try to hire a car to travel home now, she said. At Hyderabad, flights from Delhi, Bengaluru, Bahrain, and Colombo were cancelled. Thirty-one flights to Delhi, Gwalior, Tirupati, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, and Bengaluru among others were canceled, according to the RGIA official website. On Monday, RGIA operated flights from or to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Vidyanagar (Karnataka), Jaipur, Raipur, Kolhapur, Jharsuguda (Odisha); Kochi, Surat, Ranchi, Varanasi, Belgaum, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Pune. The flights connecting these destinations were to be operated by TruJet, AirAsia India, IndiGo, Alliance Air, SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India. A total of 58,318 passengers flew to their destinations on May 25, when India's domestic flight services resumed after a gap of two months. As many as 832 flights were operated on Monday. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, "Airports are abuzz & passengers are back in air". Airports are abuzz & passengers are back in air. 58,318 passengers flew to their destinations on 832 flights on the first day, 25th May till midnight. Operations have started in Andhra Pradesh from today. These numbers are all set to soar higher.@PMOIndia@MoCA_GoIpic.twitter.com/eWB9KeS9W9 - Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 26, 2020 Meanwhile, on Tuesday, domestic flight operations resumed in Andhra Pradesh. A SpiceJet flight from Bengaluru landed in Gannavaram of Krishna district. Puri tweeted, "Operations have started in Andhra Pradesh from today. These numbers are all set to soar higher". Moreover, West Bengal will restart flight operation on May 28, Thursday. The first flight on Monday took off from Delhi for Pune at 4.45 am under strict regulations as recommended by civil aviation authorities. The first flight from Mumbai was to Patna at 6.45 am. Yesterday, the aviation ministry also permitted chartered flights to resume their operations. The ministry said "non-scheduled and private operators" of fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and micro-light aircraft can resume their domestic flights from May 25 onwards. The government last week announced the resumption of domestic flight services from May under specific rules and guidelines. It asked airlines to cap ticket pricing, ensure that passengers wear face masks, and that no food is served onboard planes. The ministry also asked travellers to declare that they are fit to fly through the Aarogya Setu app or by filling up of a self-declaration form. All scheduled commercial flights were suspended in the country since March 25, when India went under its first nationwide-lockdown. Also read: India's GDP to contract 6.8% in FY21 due to coronavirus lockdown: SBI report Also read: Coronavirus: 'Govt's lockdown has failed, what is Plan B?' asks Rahul Gandhi Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday reviewed the states monsoon preparedness and said that monsoon-related diseases should be dealt with in a competent manner. Thackeray, during a meeting with district administrations and other officials held via video-conferencing, sought for better coordination between all agencies to avoid flooding. The state health machinery is stretched too thin currently in combating the Covid-19 crisis. Communicable diseases during monsoon could further strain the health infrastructure in the state. The CM asked for division-wise and district-wise meetings with the doctors to ensure there are no cases of infectious diseases in the monsoon. While we are fighting the Covid-19 crisis, communicable diseases during the monsoons will also have to be dealt with in a competent manner. The CM asked officials to ensure coordination between various agencies and take measures in advance to ensure that diseases would not spread, a statement from the CMs office said. For Mumbai, Thackeray stressed on cleaning and deepening of stormwater drains and ensure that there are no potholes in the city and in rural parts of the state. It is important that stormwater drains in Mumbai be cleaned and deepened for the timely discharge of rainwater. Pumping stations must function properly. It must be ensured that pipes which discharge water are clean. It should be ensured that there are no potholes on roads in cities and rural areas, and these potholes, if any, must be repaired immediately, the statement said. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar, minister of state for relief and rehabilitation Prajakt Tanpure, chief secretary Ajoy Mehta, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, divisional commissioners, along with officials from Indian Railways, navy, army, air force, coast guard and India Meteorological Department (IMD) were present in the meeting. The chief minister gave directions over the prevention of floods in Kolhapur and Sangli district like last year. He directed the officials to coordinate with Karnataka government on the release of water from the southern states Almatti dam. To prevent a flood situation like last year in Sangli and Kolhapur, discharge of water from dams should be planned and regulated. The CM asked for coordination to be ensured now with the department concerned for the release of water from the Almatti dam in Karnataka, the statement added. Thackeray said that though there are weather forecasts, monsoon may some times defy the forecast. He directed all agencies to coordinate with IMD. Referring to the Mahalaxmi Express train that was stuck in the inundated tracks during 2019 monsoon, Thackeray said that like flight operations take the weather into account, the railways must plan its journeys after looking at the weather forecast on the route. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON It was a desire nourished by geography. Americas western frontier seemed a refuge for restless types itching to live beyond the reach of sheriffs and legislatures. The reality wasnt so simple, but the myth was magnified by Hollywood. In the movies, pioneers and cowboys picked up and moved when cramped by newcomers. Actor Ajay Devgn on Tuesday lauded 'Dabangg' actor Sonu Sood for helping stranded labourers to return their native places. Devgn took to Twitter to laud Sood for his 'exemplary' work. New Delhi [India], May 26 (ANI): Actor Ajay Devgn on Tuesday lauded Dabangg actor Sonu Sood for helping stranded labourers to return their native places. Devgn took to Twitter to laud Sood for his exemplary work. The sensitive nature of the work that you are doing with sending migrant workers back to their homes safely is exemplary. More strength to you, Sonu Sood had on Monday shared a helpline number for stranded labourers and promised them to help them as much as he can. My beloved shramik (labourers) brothers and sisters, please give a call on this number if you are in Mumbai and want to go back to your home, Sood wrote in Hindi. Call on 18001213711 and tell us your exact location and the number of people and the place where you want to go. Me and my team will do as much as possible, Soods tweet further read. The 46-year-old actor who is known for his roles in films like Singh is Kinng, Simmba and Dabangg is being hailed all over the media for arranging hasslefree passage of migrant labourers to their respective homes. The sensitive nature of the work that you are doing with sending migrant workers back to their homes safely is exemplary. More strength to you, Sonu @SonuSood #IndiaFightsCorona #StayHomeStaySafe Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) May 26, 2020 Pictures of Sood waving at the labourers seated in buses has been winning hearts on the internet since early May. Hundreds of thousands of migrant labourers have been stranded in urban areas with no livelihood and very little to survive during the COVID-19-induced lockdown forcing them to take to the path of their native places on foot. Earlier this month, the central government organised safe travel of these migrant labourers to their native places through Shramik special trains. (ANI) For all the latest Entertainment News, download NewsX App WAG Bec Judd finally has some freedom. The 37-year-old mother-of-four has revealed her relief at her children going back to school after homeschooling them for months during the coronavirus epidemic. She described Monday as a 'bloody happy day', when her brood were back off to the school gates. 'I was so anxious going into iso [isolation], and now I am so anxious going out it. You adapt to the change pretty quickly,' Rebecca said on the 3PM Pick-Up on Monday, . 'It's a happy day': Rebecca Judd is relived now her children have finally gone back to school after she was forced to 'hide' from them during coronavirus lockdown She explained that she sent most of her children off to school and was thrilled that the school canteen was open so she no longer had to make school lunches. 'I have sent three of my four today. The school canteen is open. I am so over being the tuck-shop lady,' she added. 'I don't know if your kids are doing this. But my kids are getting five or ten minute snack breaks every 40 minutes. All day, every day.' No more! She described Monday as a 'bloody happy day', when her brood were back off to the school gates. She is pictured here with son Oscar, 8, and daughter Billie, 6 Bec is mother to son Oscar, eight, daughter Billie, six, and toddler twins Tom and Darcy, both aged three, who she shares with husband Chris . The brunette started homeschooling in March after the state government ruled to shut down all schools in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19. Organised: The brunette started homeschooling in March after the state government ruled to shut down all schools in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19 Bec set-up mock classrooms for her four children at the family's $7.3 million mansion in Brighton, Melbourne. During this time she documented the trials and tribulations of having her family home full-time. Detailing life in isolation, she hilariously said she was 'hiding' from her kids in a frazzled Instagram story she posted in March. Needs a minute: During this time she documented the trials and tribulations of having her family home full-time. Detailing life in isolation, she hilariously said she was 'hiding' from her kids in a frazzled Instagram story she posted in March In one of her posts, the makeup-free WAG was seen sitting on the floor against a cupboard while a robot vacuum cleaner buzzed by her. In the footage, Bec looked frazzled. 'I'm hiding in the kitchen from my kids. I need a break,' she said. Hong Kong: CE mourns Stanley Ho Chief Executive Carrie Lam today expressed deep sorrow over the passing of Stanley Ho. Dr Ho was a successful entrepreneur. The enterprise founded by him involves multiple business activities, and he played a pivotal role in Hong Kong and Macau. Dr Ho loved the country and started to invest in the Mainland as early as the 1970s to support its reform and opening-up, and participate in its development. He also served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, contributing further to the advancement of the country. Mrs Lam noted that Mr Ho was a member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee, witnessing the citys return to the Motherland. He took an active part in Hong Kongs community service development, lending staunch support for the Community Chests fund-raising activities and donating generously to various local charitable organisations as well as tertiary education institutions. He also donated to support the establishment of leisure and cultural facilities as well as anti-drug education and promotional programmes, making significant contributions to the community. He was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2010. I am saddened by the passing of Dr Ho. On behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to his family, she said. This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The Supreme Court rejected a conservative challenge Tuesday to the California Voting Rights Act, which seeks to enhance minority representation by requiring many local governments to switch from at-large elections to district elections. The 2002 law applies to local governments, school boards and other agencies where evidence shows that a majority group has historically voted as a block to elect its own candidates, or to pass race-based ballot measures opposed by minorities. If so, they must stop electing representatives at large, from their entire area, and instead choose candidates from individual districts, which may have different racial and ethnic majorities. The law has been used in recent years to redraw many local election maps, particularly in school districts, sometimes resulting in the first elections of Latino or other minority candidates to governing boards in decades. Opponents said nearly 200 local governments have been affected. San Francisco acted earlier, switching from at-large to district elections under a local ballot measure that took effect in 2000. Supporters of the state law say at-large elections allow a majority, whether racial or political, to ignore minority concerns. Defenders of at-large elections say they encourage candidates to consider the diverse views of an entire community. The law was challenged by Don Higginson, former mayor of the San Diego County community of Poway, which shifted to district elections to avoid a lawsuit under the California law. His lawyers argued that the new district boundaries were drawn for racial reasons, violating constitutional standards of race neutrality. A federal judge and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against Higginson last year. In its 3-0 ruling in December, the appeals court said the lawsuit cited no evidence that Higginson or any other voter was put in a district for racial reasons or that the California law requires race-conscious districts. Although a finding of racially polarized voting triggers the application of the (California law), it is well settled that governments may adopt measures designed to eliminate racial disparities through race-neutral means, the court said. It quoted language from the Supreme Courts 2015 ruling upholding a federal ban on housing practices that harmed minorities, regardless of whether the discrimination was intentional. In asking the high court to review the case, Higginson said California, in order to maximize minority representation, ignored this courts repeated warnings that making race the dominant focus of redistricting would be unconstitutional. National conservative groups, led by the Pacific Legal Foundation, also urged the Supreme Court to hear the case, saying court intervention was needed to enforce meaningful limits on vote dilution doctrine so it does not become a de facto racial quota. But the justices denied review Tuesday without comment or any published dissent. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. This tells local governments that they will not return to a situation where they get to ignore huge portions of the community, said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He said it was also important that the ruling preceded redistricting based on population counts in the 2020 census. California Attorney General Xavier Becerras office said the law that the courts upheld is "a critical tool for preventing discrimination against voters in our state." The case is Higginson vs. Becerra, 19-1199. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 01:25:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DILI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The medical supplies jointly donated by Jack Ma Foundation & Alibaba Foundation to Timor-Leste arrived at the Dili airport by a cargo plane on Tuesday. Chinese Ambassador Xiao Jianguo, Timor-Leste's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Dionisio Babo, the WHO Representative to Timor-Leste and other officials from the Timor-Leste government attended the handover ceremony at the airport. Ambassador Xiao said China has dispatched two chartered flights to Timor-Leste in a month to help Timorese people fight against COVID-19 and thanked Jack Ma Foundation & Alibaba Foundation for their kindness and generosity. The supplies included face masks, medical gloves, personal protective equipment (PPE), face shields, testing kits, handy thermometers and ventilators. Minister Babo thanked China and Jack Ma Foundation & Alibaba Foundation on behalf of the Timorese government. He believed that with the sincere help of the international community, especially the Chinese government and enterprises, Timor-Leste will win the fight against COVID-19 at a early date. Enditem The Lagos State government has explained that it does not have the authority to unilaterally order the reopening of schools in the State... The Lagos State government has explained that it does not have the authority to unilaterally order the reopening of schools in the State. This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Education, Folashade Adefisayo during an online programme, Covinspiration show, moderated by a United Nations (UN) Youth Ambassador, Dayo Israel in Lagos, while giving scorecard of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration within the last one year. Adefisayo disclosed that the State government was meeting with officials of the Federal Ministry of Education to draw up guidelines ahead of reopening of schools. According to Adefisayo: Like other sectors already approved by the Federal Government to reopen, the state government is meeting with officials of the Federal Ministry of Education to design guidelines that must be adopted before the schools will be reopened. We are watching the behaviour of the pandemic to see what happens next and we are working with the Federal government on the reopening of the schools in the country as soon as possible. This is not a decision that any state can unilaterally take on its own. If we are certain that the children are safe, we will reopen the schools for learning to resume. We are already working with the Federal Ministry of Education and they are working with National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) on the guidelines that could be adopted when the need arises for the schools to reopen. After the protocol is completed and health officials assured us that the coast is clear, we will give the schools some days to adjust their premises in accordance with the guidelines on commencement of academic activities. Advertisement Coronavirus is so 'perfectly adapted' to infect humans that the possibility it was made in a Chinese lab can't be ignored, Australian vaccine researchers conclude. Professor Nikolai Petrovsky said the virus was better at attaching itself to human cells than to any other animal, explaining why it has infected five million people. The vaccine expert warned the investigation into where COVID-19 started, as proposed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was as a result urgently needed and should have begun months ago. The startling results of his research were first revealed by the Mail on Sunday on the weekend - and on Wednesday his team gave Daily Mail Australia fresh details about why it must be considered a possibility the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Coronavirus is so 'perfectly adapted' to infect humans that the possibility it was made in a Chinese lab can't be ignored, vaccine researcher Professor Nikolai Petrovsky concludes The team at Flinders University in Adelaide and Latrobe University in Melbourne studied how well SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, infected different animals. Coronavirus binds itself to the ACE2 receptor molecule in lung cells using a spike protein - the tighter it can attach itself, the less likely it is to be washed away and the sicker it makes its host. Professor Petrovsky expected to find an animal that was most susceptible to this, such as bats, and was likely the original source of the virus - but was shocked when humans came out on top. Furthermore, viruses tend to get better at infecting new species as they adapt over time, but COVID-19 started 'completely optimised from day one without the need to evolve'. 'This is a new virus that has never been in humans before, but it has an extraordinarily high binding to human receptors, which is very surprising,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'It is almost perfectly human adapted, it couldn't do any better. Coronavirus binds itself to the ACE2 receptor molecule in lung cells using a spike protein - the tighter it can attach itself, the less likely it is to be washed away and the sicker it makes its host 'We have to ask how that happened. Was it a complete fluke? It can be as nature has many shots at goal and you only see the ones that land. 'Another possibility which still cannot be excluded is that SARS-CoV-2 was created by a recombination event that occurred inadvertently or consciously in a laboratory handling coronaviruses, with the new virus then accidentally released into the local human population.' The Wuhan Institute of Virology, a short trip from the city's wet markets, is the lab known to study several bat coronaviruses and is theorised to be where it was actually created. Most scientists believe COVID-19 started naturally in an exotic animal market in Wuhan and was not man-made, and the WIV has rubbished claims it caused the outbreak. However, Professor Petrovsky said no one had properly disproved the lab theory and his research showed it was plausible and there was just as little evidence for it to have naturally occurred. The closest disease to COVID-19 is BatCoV RaTG1, found in bats, that is 96 per cent similar to the strain rampaging around the world in humans. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, a short trip from the city's wet markets, is the lab known to study several bat coronaviruses and is theorised to be where it was actually created However, its spike protein is considerably less effective than COVID-19's and would need significant adaptation to become something that would easily infect humans. The next most susceptible animal to humans were pangolins, a small scaly animal found in many Chinese wet markets, but a coronavirus that affects its species is only 90 per cent similar to SARS-CoV-2. Professor Petrovsky said while it was possible the wrong bat met the wrong pangolin 'thereby conferring the bat CoV with high binding for both pangolin and human ACE2' - this was statistically improbable. 'The probability of one pangolin creating the virus and that then comes into close contact with a human to infect them is ridiculously low,' he said. 'We would expect it would have to be in lots of infected pangolins and we've not found any.' Such pangolins would be an 'intermediate host' - a species that caught it from the originators of the virus and gave it to humans. An example of this is Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that began with bats who infected camels who then pass it on to humans by spitting on them Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli is seen inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, capital of China's Hubei province, on February 23, 2017 A team of scientists has produced evidence that the pandemic virus is uniquely adapted to infect humans Not only have researchers not found an intermediate host for COVID-19, they haven't even found the disease rife in any animal species - not even in bats, the leading suspected culprit. Professor Petrovsky said animals didn't move between communities as much as humans so it was possible we just haven't 'found the right bat cave' yet. Until that happens, the Wuhan lab theory had to be considered, he said. 'Viruses don't come out of nowhere, so we have to look harder to find the natural source, or we need to investigate further to find the unnatural source,' he said. Richard Ebright, one of the world's top biosecurity experts, told the Mail on Sunday that the odds of COVID-19 containing such unusual features and occurring naturally were 'possible but improbable'. The professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, in New Jersey, said scientists at the WIV were creating chimeric coronaviruses (new hybrid micro-organisms) and seeking funding to test their ability to infect human cells while using procedures that leave no sign of human manipulation. China has stubbornly resisted calls for an inquiry as it is accused of covering up the severity of the epidemic, and only agreed to a watered-down version of Mr Morrison's proposal last week. Professor Petrovsky argued the investigation should have begun months ago to give it the best chance of gathering evidence that may now be lost for good. He said his research added to a body of 'circumstantial evidence' and coincidences, but was nowhere near proving the that the WIV had anything to do with the pandemic. 'There's no smoking gun inside the virus as they evolve and pick up genetic material from everywhere, just studying the virus itself won't tell us anything further,' he said. 'I don't think we'll have definitive proof either way, so we have to investigate to determine what is more probable. 'No one can say a laboratory leak is not a possibility.' Professor Petrovsky claimed scientists were reluctant to discuss the possibility of botched lab experiments or leaks since any backlash could lead to research restrictions and threaten crucial research. Researchers at Stanford University are being accused of 'tipping the scale' on their antibody study and implying coronavirus is more widespread - but less fatal - than previously thought. Last month, their analysis found that between 2.5 and 5.2 percent of Santa Clara County residents tested positive for antibodies. That meant the number of infected Americans in the county was 50 to 80 times higher than officials had reported. But it was not peer-reviewed, many noticed the way calculations were made was not explained, and several found mistakes in the methodology. In Version 2, the team walked back its earlier estimates and said only 2.8 percent of Santa Clara residents contracted the virus but didn't know they were ill. That's 54 times more than the 956 confirmed cases that had been counted in the area as of April 1. The university is now investigating the research to see if the analysts was, in fact, politically motivated, inaccurate and misleading. Last month, a team from Stanford University found that between 2.5% and 5.2% of Santa Clara County residents tested positive for coronavirus antibodies with results later being revised. Pictured: A Stanford laboratory scientist prepares reagents for testing COVID-19 antibodies The research was performed by Drs Jayanta Bhattacharya (left), John Ioannidis (center) and Eran Bendavid (right), who are now under investigation by the university for making the virus appear more widespread but less deadly than believed Scientists say this is becoming far too common with studies published before peer review, which are not subject to scrutiny. Pictured: Nurse Katie Canina cares for a patient in the Special Pathogens Unit ICU at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, April 27 The findings, published by Drs Jayanta Bhattacharya, John Ioannidis and Eran Bendavid, were astounding because it meant the virus was much more widespread and that the death toll was much lower than believed. However, not long after version 1 came out, criticism started pouring in. Some experts critiqued the antibody test the researchers used, which was not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Others said that, because volunteers were recruited via Facebook, the participants were not random nor representative of the county. Additionally, the raw percentage of people who tested positive for antibodies was 1.5 percent, which would mean the true number of infections is only 30 times higher than reported. A few weeks later, the revision was published saying that the estimated rate of infection was on the low end of their initial predictions. The university says it is currently reviewing the study and the authors over the recent concerns. 'Stanford Medicine is aware of serious concerns related to the Santa Clara County seroprevalence study,' spokeswoman Julie Greicius told DailyMail.com. 'The integrity of Stanford Medicines research is core to our mission. When we receive concerns such as this, they are taken extremely seriously. This matter is being reviewed by the appropriate oversight mechanisms at Stanford.' The team defends its work, saying it followed all standard practices and that no political biases were at play. As the COVID-19 pandemic has continue to rage on, hundreds of researchers have been publishing preprints - a first draft of scientific findings. Preprints are a way to share preliminary results very quickly with others in the scientific community to understand this new virus. However, the work is often flawed because it is not peer-reviewed and, therefore, not subject to the scrutiny of other researchers. An analysis from Northeastern University found that more than 10,000 papers related to the novel coronavirus have been published since January. By comparison, just 29 studies were published before the SARS pandemic of 2002-2003 was over. 'Until something is, if you will, reconfirmed, it's just interesting but it's not definitive,' Arthur Caplan, a bioethics professor in the department of population health at NYU School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com 'When someone announces initial results, it's really important to swing wide for comment and assessment by people who maybe didn't peer-review but maybe offer some perspective.' Caplan said the pandemic has led to 'panic science' with the majority of the scientific community performing research and not as many to review. 'In general, this kind of panicky science leads to lower quality, too much speed, partial results getting results, no peer review, early pre-print publication,' he said. If you wish to travel from Ghana to the USA, you need a visa. However, before you can get one, you need to go through the US visa application Ghana process and then pay a set fee. The applicable fees for a visa to the USA have always been unclear to many people in Ghana. In fact, several Ghanaians have fallen victim to online scammers who claim that all they need is to send money, and their visas will be processed instantly. This is a lie. So, whats the real cost of visa from Ghana to the USA, and how do you get one? Image: canva.com (modified by author) Source: UGC Before you apply for a visa, it is essential to distinguish between a visa and a passport. A passport is granted by your country of citizenship, in this case, Ghana, and it allows you to enter Ghana as well as other countries that dont require Ghanaians to have a visa. A visa, on the other hand, is a form of endorsement that is placed in your passport and grants you permission to countries that require Ghanaian citizens to possess a visa in order to enter or stay for a specific period. Major types of US visa There are mainly two types of visas; the immigrant and the non-immigrant visa. The non-immigrant visa is for people who are only visiting the country for a temporary stay like a vacation. Immigrant visas, on the other hand, are for those seeking permanent residence in the USA. Fortunately, the American embassy offices in Accra can process both types of permits. With the right documentation and money, you will get your visa processed. Another thing to note is that these two types of visa are further broken down in various classes. You need to have a specific reason to visit the US to be given the right permit. What is a non-immigrant visa? A non-immigrant visa is given to foreigners who seek to enter the USA on a temporary basis for various purposes including medical treatment, temporary work, and tourism, among others. How to apply for a non-immigrant visa The application process for a non-immigrant visa is not usually as hectic as commonly assumed. The only challenge is getting it approved, though. This is considering the conditions that you are required to adhere to before finally getting the stamp. All applicants are required to fill out the DS-160 form. This US visa application form is an online application document that can be accessed at the official U. S Travel Docs website. The language used in filling the form is primarily English with comprehensible characters based on the English language. Once youve completed and submitted it, you need to book an appointment with the embassy for an Interview. You should carry your passport with you. Note that the passport should be valid for more than six months beyond the end of your proposed stay in the United States. Additionally, you also need to have a 2 by 2 passport photo of yourself and a receipt for US visa application fee. Image: unsplash.com Source: UGC Generally, the cost of visa from Ghana to USA is one hundred and sixty dollars, which can simply be paid through the local currency then converted into dollars. The fee is non- refundable. Besides, paying doesn't guarantee that your application process would be a success. Types of non-immigrant visas The non-immigrant visas, just like passports, are also in different categories which include; 1. Tourist/business visa The tourist or business visa is officially known as visa type B. The permit is issued for Ghanaians who are visiting America for either medical treatment, leisure, or business intentions. The only way for this kind of visa to be approved is by stating that you are visiting the state temporarily and only intending to stay for a specified period before flying back. You should also be financially stable to sustain yourself during that short stay. Additionally, you should indicate that you have strong ties to Ghana both economically and socially with a permanent residence to affirm that. 2. Exchange visitor visa This visa is meant for those who intend to visit America for either cultural or educational exchange programs. The exchange visitor visa is the one ideal for them. However, for the application to be approved, you first need authorisation from the program sponsor confirming that you are indeed part of the program before getting your application forms and other necessary certification. Its officially classified under visa type J class. 3. The transit/ship crew visa This type of visa is mainly intended for people who are in transit to another destination and only need layover privileges from America. However, for the permit to be approved, they still need to affirm that they are in the state temporarily, have enough funds to sustain themselves while in the country and evidence of transportation arrangements. Also, they need to provide their permit certifications for their next destination. The ship crew visa, which is mainly for aircraft and sea vessels passing through the regional waters, also functions similarly as the transit visa. It falls under class D of the visa type while the transit in type C-1. READ ALSO: 9 facts about the worst terror attacks in the United States history 4. Student visa When privileged to further your studies in the united states of America, you will be required to have a student visa for your stay in that country. The application process should be formal and through a recognised Ghana-based school or program. The most common type of student visa is mainly for people who will be studying for more than eighteen hours a week. Due to this, it is officially classified as class F-1 type of visa. 5. The work visa Just like the student visa, those privileged to work in the US would be required to apply for a work visa as non-immigrants and only working within a specified time frame. For the process to be efficient, your prospective employer needs to file a petition allowing you to apply for the visa. You will then be required to wait for approval from the U. S citizenship and immigration offices. Nevertheless, the period for your temporary stay in the country will highly be based on the nature of work and how you will be needed. Other work-based visa types require people to visit for only that intended purpose then fly back as soon as possible. The reason for their visits limits the length of the stay. They include; athletes, artists, and entertainers, religious workers, intracompany transferees, journalists, and media crew, among others. What is an Immigrant visa? Image: unsplash.com Source: UGC An immigrant visa is issued to foreign nationals who intend to live permanently in the United States. Applying for an immigrant visa Applying for an immigrant visa tends to be more involving than a non-immigrant visa. You need to seek sponsorship from a legal permanent resident or a U.S citizen that is currently residing in the country before the application process commences. The sponsor, who may be your relative or prospective employer, must also file a petition for you to apply for immigration. The U.S Citizenship and Immigration office is in charge of the petition. You will have to wait for its approval before filling US visa application in Ghana documents. Types of US immigrant visa There are five main types of immigrant visas cutting across all the possible reasons why any Ghanaian may wish to be an American immigrant. They include; 1. Family-based immigration The family-based immigration visa is found in two main categories; the immediate relatives and family preference categories as stipulated in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The close relative immigrant visas allow an unlimited number of immigrants intending to seek permanent residence in America. They are usually founded on a close relationship with a U. S citizen termed as immediate such as a parent, spouse, child under the age of twenty-one and adopted an orphan, either adopted within America or abroad. The family preference category, on the other hand, tends to be limited to a particular type of members for immigration purposes. They are for specific family relationships such as unmarried sons and daughters. However, the law also clearly stipulates that cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws are not eligible to sponsor any relative for immigration. 2. Fiance visa This is also another type of visa that is pretty straightforward. It is issued for a non-US citizen who is a fiance or fiancee to a U. S citizen. The law states that a non-citizen ought to have been married within ninety days after landing in the country. READ ALSO: A list of the most popular American male names 3. Employment-based immigration visa Every fiscal year that runs from 1st October to 30th September, about one hundred and forty thousand visas for prospective employees are made available as directed by the U.S immigration law. Spouses and children below the age of twenty-one may also be part of the immigration process. The duration taken for this type of visa to be fully processed and approved may take quite some time. This is because in most cases, applicants do not follow the instructions as required. But still, the time frame for the approval varies from one individual to another and cannot be fully be predicted. 4. The diversity visa This type of visa came as a result of the need to diversify the American immigrant population. Therefore, each year united states of America, generate about sixty thousand visas that are to be distributed through the lottery. The US Visas website posts the instructions for participating in the lottery. 5. Returning resident visa Returning resident visa is simply a confirmation that even though you stayed abroad for more than one year, you are still an American and you need to go back. Even so, its not as simple as imagined since you still need to prove to the consular regarding some issues before you qualify for the visa, they include; You have a permanent resident in America that is acknowledged as lawful by the government authority You left the country with intentions of going back and have not changed your mind ever since You left the country only for a temporary departure but if you ended up overstaying, was because of some factors that you had no control over and for which you were also not responsible for. When applying for the visa, you need to notify the U.S embassy of your intended travel at least three months in advance to give room for processing. There are also some vital documents that you need to submit to the consulate, comprising of a re-entry permit, permanent resident card, and a completed the US visa application form Ghana. How to apply for a US visa online Image: unsplash.com Source: UGC Even though the majority gives up on US visa application Ghana somewhere down the line, a few resilient souls are still adamant on going to America, living and working there. Though it can be hard to get a US visa, your chances are better if you meet all the requirements and follow instructions correctly. One important thing that you need to do before you apply for a visa is to know precisely what you want. Once you have that figured out, find the most appropriate permit from the table above. To help you through, here is a detailed breakdown of the steps you need to follow. The pre-application phase The US visa application can be stressful if you are misinformed. Therefore, you need to inform yourself about these basic things before you begin your application. Find out if you need a visa: If your country is involved in the US visa waiver programme, you dont have to sweat over a permit. If your country is involved in the US visa waiver programme, you dont have to sweat over a permit. Determine which visa you might need: The immigrant visa will have different requirements compared to the non-immigrant visa. The immigrant visa will have different requirements compared to the non-immigrant visa. Get to know what is required for your application: This includes the visa fees and documents. This includes the visa fees and documents. Finally, with a clear vision, apply for the visa: The process varies depending on your application centre. Documents you must have Your documents must be legal as any alteration can disqualify you from any future applications. Before you head to the US embassy, carry the following: Your current passport and any other older passports you may have One very recent coloured photograph A printed out confirmation page of the online submitted form DS-160 with the CEAC barcode A visa fee receipt. This is paid to the bank before booking an interview appointment The original appointment letter you received. If you are targeting a non-immigrant visa, attach documents showing evidence of what takes you to the US. This includes things like sponsorship letters and medical insurance. Links to jobs, schools, and strong family ties are concrete evidence that you will not overstay your welcome. Applying for the visa Application for US visa online is a simple procedure, provided you had done your research keenly. Apply in these few steps; Start by paying the visa application fee. Download the fee receipt that is processed Schedule your appointment online on the US embassy website Keep checking your email to know when your US visa application status Visit the US embassy in your country on the date and time indicated in your appointment letter. It is true that getting a permit could be a bit of a hassle, but the good news is; unless you are a criminal, then theres a chance of getting a visa if you stick to the instructions given and be resilient. Sometimes you have to do it over and over again. What is the cost of a visa from Ghana to the USA? The cost of a visa varies depending on the class type in which it falls. For instance, permits in class B, D, C-1, and F belonging to business, crew, transit, student category respectively cost one hundred and sixty dollars in application fees. READ ALSO: List of American foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner Class H, R, and L are given to seasonal workers, religious workers, and intracompany transferees, respectively. For these visas, you need one hundred and ninety dollars for the application process to go through. Here is a detailed breakdown of the fees you will pay for your respective visa application to the USA, both in USD and the Ghanaian currency (GHS). Image: ustraveldocs.com (modified by author) Source: UGC Whether you are wondering about the US visa application Ghana process or the cost, it is essential to follow the set guidelines closely. The last thing you want is to miss a rare opportunity because of a simple mistake. Once you are through all the steps and have paid the necessary fees, you will be free to realise your American dream. Source: YEN.com.gh KZN's number one hit music station announced its brand spanking new lineup together with clock changes. The station has been investing in market research and has been using those findings to evolve as a contemporary radio station and to improve the listener experience.The lineup changes come with the announcement of the much-anticipated newThe proudly KZN station makes a concerted effort to grow and support its own talent therefore it is no surprise that Stacey and JSbu will host weekdays 4pm7pm.Stacey Norman has cemented her name in the radio industry and after four successful years and growing the audiences in many different time slots on East Coast Radio, she worked her way to the top to finally land her biggest career break to date.Cue Lion King music (as Norman would say) as she shares her sentiment about being one of the hosts on the newI've worked relentlessly, I care, I'm invested, I'm ready. I honestly feel like its time. This is also the first time that ECR has a lead female on a drive show with equal footing and equal mic time. It's a huge responsibility, but I'm excited about the opportunity and representing. Representation is super important to me and the station. The more women there are to open doors, the more women get through, said Norman.JSbu is a prodigy of East Coast Radio. His passion for radio was eminent when he founded Radio DUT and was then approached by ECRs programming manager Zane Derbyshire to become a presenter on the station.After five long years of being behind the scenes for theand hosting theas well as a stand in on several occasions, JSbu has finally earned his stripes and will host the newwith Norman.He speaks of his radio journey as a testament to never giving up and always believing in your dreams.If I am being honest, I am very nervous but at the same time Im very excited for this new chapter in my life and career. I look forward to learning and taking the show to the next level. Who would have thought a farm boy from Mandeni would host a drive time show on one the biggest commercial radio stations in South Africa? This great opportunity comes with great responsibility. A lot of people are looking up to me and I must do the best I can to set an example, that if you work hard, anything is possible, said JSbu.Norman and JSbu are a vibey, relatable and edgy double header. The show promises to give you something to talk about every time you tune in. Get to know them better as they get to know each other better. Ranging from chances to win on music association games to topics that should only be discussed after dark this teams got it all!East Coast Radios programming manager, Zane Derbyshire, spoke of their appointment as a very proud moment not only for the station but for radio as a whole.Both Stacey and JSbu both worked relentlessly to be where they are today. They have an incredible work ethic and both make for sexy radio. They are also individuals with great personal stories that I think South Africa can and will resonate with. I am extremely proud of them and cannot wait for them to light up the airwaves, said Derbyshire.Waking up without Darren, Keri and Sky is just not an option in KZN. East Coast Radio treasures its listeners and wants to give them more of what they love. The station is proud to announce that thehas signed a long-term contract and will be dishing up your daily dose of get up and go for the next three years.East Coast Radios managing director, Boni Mchunu, said that the lineup refresh and time slot changes speak to the evolving direction of the station.As a business we invest in a lot of market research to find out what our listeners like and what they dislike because ultimately we are crafting a station that is grounded in KZN and our values but futuristic. We deeply value our listeners, which is why the changes were made in accordance with what our listeners love and want. I am excited for the future of East Coast Radio and for the booming careers of our very talented presenters, said Mchunu.Another powerhouse whose audience numbers just speak volumes of her great work and popularity is Thandolwethu. Her listenership has increased by 10% just after celebrating her one-year anniversary on the 9am12pm time slot. KZN loves her so much so that the station has made the decision to extend her show by an hour.Thandolwethu will now broadcast from 9am1pm.As the station evolves and some of KZNs favourite voices remain on the airwaves, East Coast Radio has also refreshed its sound by introducing new voices.You may recognise the name because he grew up in Durban or because he is a seasoned media personality. He is Vic Naidoo and he will be taking over the reigns from Stacey Norman on the 1pm4pm slot.That station's audience numbers continues to grow and currently sits at a positive 1,051,000 and played a huge part in redefining the listener experience.Darren, Keri and Sky: 6am9amThandolwethu: 9am1pmVic Naidoo: 1pm4pmStacey and JSbu: 4pm7pmNeil Green: 7pm10pm (Monday Thursday)Minnie Ntuli: 7pm10pm (Friday)Sam Cele: 10pm1am (MondayThursday)Gordon Graham: 1am4amMike V: 4am6amJane Linley-Thomas: 6am9amECR Top 40 with Danny and Tee: 10am2pmDeon Govender: 2pm6pmMinnie Ntuli: 6pm10pmJayshree: 2am4amJane Linley-Thomas: 6am9amDanny and Tee: 10am2pmDeon Govender: 2pm6pmMike V: 6pm10pmMinnie Ntuli: 10pm2amJayshree: 2am4amAll new shows will commence on 1 June 2020.For media queries and inquiries contact az.oc.rce@ennasil Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews speaks during the State Commemoration for the 10 year anniversary of the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Melbourne, Australia on Feb. 4, 2019. (Michael Dodge/Getty Images) Spotlight on Chinese Belt and Road Lobby Group in Victoria The lobby group has since deleted the contents of its website Victorias Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been embroiled in further controversy this week as details of a group advocating the BRI were revealed to have received funding from the state government. The Australian revealed on May 24 that the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative (ACBRI) was awarded federal funding of $36,850 over a two-year period. ACBRI is based in Melbourne and states on its LinkedIn profile that it was supported by the Victorian government and the Australia-China Council of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The profile also stated: ACBRI is an engagement platform that enables Australian and Chinese industry leaders to articulate clear business opportunities available through Chinas Belt and Road Strategy. The contents of the ACBRI website was deleted on May 25, and the site now features a message to say it is under construction. Prior to this, the website included information on its board, reports, presentations, local delegations to China (business and government), and testimonial from key Australian business leaders. A Victorian government spokesperson told The Australian that ACBRI had provided valuable insights into opportunities around the BRI. The agreement is about creating opportunities for Victorian businesses and creating more local jobsand were proud to work with the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative. Jean Dong, the director of ACBRI, responded in a statement on May 24: ACBRI is not involved in any formal process towards the Victorian government striking a Belt and Road Initiative agreement. She said ACBRI was a local advisory organisation funded by businesses to advise on Belt and Road opportunities and developments for Australian businesses. In that capacity, we advised the Victorian government on BRI opportunities and current developments. That was the end of it, she said. Attention around Victorias BRI has been fervent in recent weeks as politicians at home and abroad have called for the partnership to be suspended in light of the Chinese Communist Partys actions surrounding Australias call for an inquiry into the pandemic. On May 24, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Sky News the United States would consider disconnecting from Australia if Victorias BRI presented a risk to telecommunications infrastructure. The U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse Jr. elaborated further on May 25, saying the United States understood telecommunications was an area under the authority of the federal government, and not a state government like Victoria. However, Culvahouse did say, If there were telecommunications initiatives that we thought put the integrity of our networks at risk, of course we would have to take a close look at that, as the secretary suggested. Federal opposition Labor leader Anthony Albanese is the latest Australian political leader to publicly reject the program. He told radio station Triple M Tasmania on May 25: A government I led would not be signing up to the Belt and Road Initiative. A listing of 7 things to see and do in Naples. See Naples and die, the saying goes--meaning, once youve seen Naples, youve seen it all. However, many tourists who visit Naples leave without really getting to know the city. Often used as a layover city for trips to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, Naples can be overwhelming for first-time visitors who are not prepared for its loud, lively atmosphere. Visiting the destinations that show Naples unique character is essential for appreciating the city. Heres a list of seven places that will help any tourist get to know Naples and see the city as the locals do. Via Toledo Via Toledo, a friendly shopping street that runs through Naples city centre, offers a warm introduction to Neapolitan life. It is wide and open, surrounded by storefronts, cafes, and gelato shops. It is always filled with bustling crowds of Neapolitans, talented street musicians and artists. Piazza Dante, located along Via Toledo, hosts regular street markets where tourists can find artisan-crafted souvenirs, recipe ingredients, and clothing accessories. For multi-day trips to Naples, look for accommodation around Via Toledo, as it is a convenient jumping-off point for exploring Naples central attractions: Galleria Umberto I, an open gallery modelled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, the Teatro di San Carlo opera house, the colorful Quartieri Spagnoli district, Piazza del Plebiscito, the biggest piazza in Naples, and of course, the Lungomare. Ph: Kevin Hellon / Shutterstock.com The Lungomare Naples is a coastal city, and the view from its seafront, or Lungomare, is spectacular. Head south on Via Toledo and find yourself gazing out into the expansive Mediterranean Sea. A brick walking path runs along the seaside, making the area the perfect spot for strolling with friends and family. Not only does the Lungomare offer dazzling views of Mt. Vesuvius, and the islands of Capri and Ischia, but street musicians and food vendors make the experience lively and exciting. The pathway is always filled with happy Neapolitans walking with friends and loved ones. The Lungomare is especially romantic at night, with the sea reflecting the city lights and the moon above Mt. Vesuvius. Ph: Diego Poggi / Shutterstock.com Castel dellOvo As you walk along the Lungomare, make a stop at Castel dellOvo, the oldest castle in Naples. Built in the 12th century, the poet Virgil wrote that there is a magical egg buried within the walls of the castle. If the egg cracks, the city of Naples will be doomed to destruction (hence the name Castle of the Egg). Even without its enchanting myth, Castel dellOvo is one of the most popular destinations in Naples. Entry into the castle is free to the public, and each floor offers picturesque views of Naples and the sea. The rooftop is the perfect spot to watch the sunset, overlooking the water and the colorful buildings that hug the Lungomare. Spaccanapoli For those who want to experience Naples on an up-close-and-personal level, venture into the Centro Storico (historic centre) and take a walk down Spaccanapoli. Spaccanapoli is a long, straight and famously narrow street that bisects the Centro Storico. The Centro Storico is a cobblestone maze of cafes, clothing shops, art galleries, and restaurants, with Spaccanapoli as its reference point. This area is lively, crowded, and undeniably exciting. Tourists can find any souvenir imaginable, from tambourines painted with Mt. Vesuvius to Moka coffee pots and bobble heads of Pope Francis. Wander into a bar to enjoy a Spritz, or to try Naples characteristically strong espresso. On Via San Gregorio Armeno, learn about the Neapolitan art of Presepio, carefully crafted miniatures depicting scenes from ancient city life to the Nativity. Buy a cornicello, the ultimate Naples souvenir. The cornicello, a small red horn, is said to protect against bad luck. Read also: Sorbillo The biggest rule of visiting Naples: do not leave without eating pizza. As the birthplace of pizza, Naples is filled with excellent pizzerias. Gino e Toto Sorbillo, one of the most famous and renowned pizzerias in the world, is located in the Centro Storico, on Via dei Tribunali. Founded in 1935 and currently run by pizza superstar Gino Sorbillo, Sorbillo is a Michelin Star-awarded restaurant with budget-friendly prices. Enjoy a classic, authentic Neapolitan margherita pizza for around 5 euro, and various other pizza variations for under 10 euro. The only downside to dining at Sorbillo is the line: before Sorbillo opens, crowds of hungry tourists and foodies swarm Via dei Tribunali, eager to taste what many believe to be the best pizza in the world. After giving the hostess your name, expect to wait 30 minutes to an hour and a half for your table to be ready. If you dont want to wait, order takeaway. The Centro Storico is filled with small piazzas, so you will have no trouble finding somewhere to sit and eat your pizza in peace. Though the Sorbillo on Via dei Tribunali is the original Sorbillo pizzeria, there are several other Sorbillo locations scattered around Naples, including a pizzeria on the Lungomare and a pizza fritta (fried pizza) joint on Via Toledo. While these Sorbillo pizzerias will not disappoint, nothing compares to the original. Ph: DinoPh / Shutterstock.com Castel St. Elmo When you need to walk off the calories from eating pizza, venture through the Quartieri Spagnoli district to the hilltop castle, Castel St. Elmo. From Via Toledo, the walk takes around 30 minutes, and is entirely uphill. If you dont want to walk, take the Funicolare, the funicular railway that travels through the hills of Naples. You can pay 5 euro to go inside the medieval castle, or you can simply stand outside and admire the view. The St. Elmo hilltop offers spectacular views of Naples from above. Not only can you see Mt. Vesuvius and the seaside of the city, you can clearly see the deep line of Spaccanapoli cutting through the Centro Storico. Looking over Naples can help tourists orient themselves and understand the layout of the city, while enjoying a breathtaking view. Via Chiaia Nightlife in Naples varies from piazza to piazza. While it is lively and wild in the Centro Storico, along the Lungomare and in the surrounding Chiaia district, it is serene and romantic. Shooting off of Via Toledo and leading to the Chiaia district, Via Chiaia is known for its upscale atmosphere and aperitivo bars. Via Chiaia maintains the energetic atmosphere of Naples, but with a hint of refinement. For those who need a break from the loud hustle and bustle of Via Toledo, take a stroll down Via Chiaia. This is also the perfect spot for a romantic walk. Ph: Eddy Galeotti / Shutterstock.com Piazza Bellini Piazza Bellini, on the other hand, is young and trendy. The piazza, speckled with orange trees and characterised by its numerous bars, surrounds a site of Roman ruins. In the evening, young Neapolitans venture into Piazza Bellini for a Spritz or Peroni. This is a great spot for aperitivo, bar-hopping, and mingling with locals. Naples is a wonderful, vivacious city full of sites to see, but without an itinerary, understanding the city can be overwhelming. These seven spots are essential for any traveler or tourist who wants to get to know the city, culture, and landscape of Naples. Ph: schusterbauer.com / Shutterstock.com Top photo: Riz Images / Shutterstock.com Bengaluru: The big, fat Indian weddings are a feature unique to the subcontinent with top-notch event management companies minting crores every year. However, an uncalled for guest the novel coronavirus has forced families to alter their plans, and change their list of "essentials". Now, masks, sanitisers and social distancing have taken precedence over makeup, decorations and photography. Trying to catch up in the post-outbreak era, the event management firms are offering packages for a gathering of 50 people, in line with the government regulations. Pannaga, an event management company based in Bengaluru, has advertised for a two-day wedding package which includes catering, flower decoration, photo and video, floral rangoli decoration, bridal makeup and jewellery, garlands, priest, instruments. There is nothing unusual about this list until you read the entire package. The company now also offers thermal screening, UV hand sanitisation, N95 masks for 50 people all for Rs. 1,90,000. "A lot of people have postponed their weddings to 2021. The others want to do it at their home. We are changing our strategy according to the present needs. Someone wanted it on their terrace so we are planning accordingly. We have to live with this now. People have also realised it," says Pannaga Srinivasalu, CEO of the company. However, the number of bookings has fallen significantly, she says. There is only 1/3rd of the number they otherwise had before Covid-19 within and outside the state. The planning is especially difficult now when there is an inter-state requirement for the event. In cases, where people cannot accommodate 50 people in their homes, the company receives request for small venues. Event Houz, another event management company based in Hyderabad, has gone a step ahead. Their offer includes cuddle curtains for greeting, which has now gone viral on social media after netizens posted videos of them using the see through curtains to hug quarantined grandparents without touching. The company also offers to provide assistance for web telecast if it is required, e-invitation card designing, 50ml sanitiser each for the 50 guests, N95 masks among others. The package stands at Rs 1,99,999. The pandemic and lockdown to control the spread of the virus however proved to be a boon for Chethan KS from Bengaluru who always wanted a simple wedding. His wedding was fixed for March 29 at a venue in Tamil Nadu, where the bride hails from. He got married on the same day but on the terrace of his grandmother's home in Kolar district of Karnataka, after changing the venue thrice. "Initially the wedding was planned with around 800 to 1000 guests, a reception on the previous day of wedding and another reception in Bengaluru the following Sunday. The budget was around Rs 15 lakh. But we ended up having only around 40 guests. The wedding cost us around Rs 2 lakh only. My friend who came for the wedding from Singapore was stuck in Bengaluru and a friend who came from Canada was stuck in Kolkata. We missed a lot of friends and family. We skipped a lot of rituals but did not postpone the wedding as it's considered bad omen," said Chethan, who works as a compliance executive in a private firm. "On the other hand, I don't like posing for photographs, I have stage fright too. I was wondering how I am going to stand and pose for so long at the reception. With this, there were hardly a dozen photographs. That way I am happy. It felt like we eloped. It did not look like an arranged marriage," he added. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said no investigation will be conducted on government-procured personal protective equipment. Roque said in a Palace media briefing on Tuesday, that instead of investigating purchase of the PPE sets bought by the government, a probe will be conducted on extraction machines and coronavirus testing kits procured by the Department of Health. Malinaw na walang imbestigasyon na sa PPEs. Nagbigay din ng opinyon ang mga pribadong doktor na walang irregularity, walang overpriced sa PPE kasi set po yan, the spokesperson said. [Translation: It is clear that there will be no investigation on PPEs. Private doctors have also given insight on this, saying there is no irregularity, and no overpriced PPE, because it was bought in sets.] The government purchased PPE sets costing 1,100 apiece, as discussed during the weekly meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Monday. Department of Budget and Management Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao said that the procured PPE sets meet international standards, hence the price. There is a standard set by DOH and FDA, ano po to international standards, and were following that, Lao said in the meeting. [Translation: There is a standard set by DOH and FDA. We are following the international standards.] On the other hand, Roque said an investigation will be conducted on COVID-19 test kits and machines procured by the Health Department. Ang pinapa imbestigahan po yong mga extraction machines at mga test kits, he said. yon po ang pina-imbestigahan ng ating presidente. [Translation: Extraction machines and test kits are being investigated by the president.] President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the Omnibus Corporation, which is the local distributor of the test kits purchased by the government for the DOH. READ: Duterte tells NBI to probe local distributor of overpriced test kits The company allegedly jacked up the prices of their items. [May 26, 2020] MGG Investment Group Continues to Bolster Senior Investment Team MGG Investment Group, LP ("MGG"), a leading private direct lending investment firm, today announced that Eran Cohen, former Managing Director on the loan originations team at Wells Fargo (News - Alert) Capital Finance, has joined the firm as a Managing Director. Mr. Cohen is based in Chicago and reports to Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer Kevin Griffin. Mr. Cohen has nearly 30 years of credit transaction experience, including originating loans across the capital structure to middle market businesses throughout market cycles for private equity firms, large corporations, turnarounds, and distressed companies. Mr. Cohen is MGG's fourth senior hire over the past year, joining Managing Directors Patrick Flynn, former Managing Director at Carl Marks Advisors, Daniel Leger, former Head of Strategic Planning and Client Services at Akre Capital Management, and Dale Stohr, former Portfolio Manager at Ellington Management. Mr. Griffin said, "We are pleased to welcome an executive of Eran's caliber to MGG. Eran's deep understanding of middle market lending and extensive relationships will enhance our loan origination capabilities. Furthermore, our ability to attract senior talent during this uncrtain time is a testament to the strength of our platform, differentiated investment approach and best-in-class team. The current market environment favors our disciplined, lender-friendly investment strategy and we are eager to put capital to work while providing certainty and surety to borrowers." At Wells Fargo Capital Finance, Mr. Cohen generated over $30 billion in commitments during his 15-year tenure. Most recently, he managed a team of 13 professionals for the loan originations platform covering private equity and privately-held companies in various industries across the central and south-central United States, with a focus on senior and unitranche credit opportunities. Before that, Mr. Cohen was a partner with Monroe Capital, successor fund to Hilco Capital, where he was responsible for deal sourcing, investment structuring, underwriting and execution of fund investments. Previously, he served as the Midwest Regional Underwriting Manager of FINOVA Capital Corporation, and as a Chief Financial Officer and consultant for two private companies. Mr. Cohen earned a BBA from the University of Iowa and MBA from Loyola University. He spent 10 years as a board member of the Kohl Children's Museum. ABOUT MGG INVESTMENT GROUP LP Founded in 2014, MGG Investment Group is a private direct lending investment firm that provides bespoke financing solutions to mid-size and growing lower-middle market companies. MGG works with owners and management teams to help build lasting value, address immediate needs, and solve complex situations while generating attractive risk-adjusted returns for investors irrespective of and through market cycles. For more information, visit www.mgginv.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005188/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] The coronavirus pandemic has brought into sharp relief the existential threat posed to the worlds biggest oil companies from policies aimed at combating climate change by offering a glimpse into a future with little demand for petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. It has also brought to the fore a question with profound implications for the energy industry and Houston, where fortunes rise and fall with the price of oil. Has the virus in two short but life-altering months fundamentally changed society and consumer behavior, making it likely that global oil demand would peak earlier than expected, perhaps even during this decade? This debate over Big Oils future will weigh heavily on shareholders of Chevron and Exxon Mobil as they gather virtually, of course at the companies annual meetings Wednesday. Analysts say the U.S. oil giants, among the strongest globally, are well equipped and financed to weather the short-term challenge of the coronavirus crisis and the longer-term transition toward a future with fewer fossil fuels. There are two types of energy companies going through this crisis: The ones that are doing everything they can to survive and the ones with strong balance sheets that are looking to be more competitive long-term, said Duane Dickson, vice chairman of Deloitte Consulting specializing in the oil, gas and chemicals sector. The oil majors are not in survival mode. Theyre trying to come out of this in the best possible position, and potentially redefine themselves. OUTLOOK GLOOMY: Tough times ahead for energy sector in coming months Exxon Mobil, headquartered in Irving, and Chevron, in San Ramon, Calif., are among the Houston areas biggest employers, with a combined workforce of nearly 23,000, according to a Houston Chronicle survey. But the coronavirus-driven oil crash is hitting them and other oil majors hard, forcing deep cuts in spending and production, which has quickly fallen to the lowest level in nearly two decades. The European oil major Royal Dutch Shell even sliced its dividend for the first time since World War II. Exxon Mobil, which reported a first-quarter loss of $610 million and revenue of $56.2 billion, slashed its 2020 capital budget by 30 percent to $23 billion. The company is expected to cut its U.S. output by about 74,000 barrels per day in May and June, according to Rystad Energy, a Norwegian research firm. Chevron, which reported first-quarter earnings of $3.6 billion and revenue of $31.5 billion, reduced its 2020 capital budget by 12.5 percent to $14 billion. Chevron said it expects to cut its U.S. output in May by about 66,000 barrels per day and by 80,000 barrels per day in June, a reduction of about 35 percent and 42 percent, respectively. The supermajors are cutting (capital spending) heavily in the Permian Basin, said Dane Gregoris, senior vice president with RS Energy, a Calgary-based research firm. The tune from these operators given their experience in this industry is theyre being a lot more conservative in terms of putting capital back in the ground and keeping production flat until prices rise. In order to bring back rigs to the U.S., you need $50-plus West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark grade of crude of oil, he added. Diversified businesses Unlike independent producers primarily focused on extracting oil and gas out of shale rock, the oil majors are large integrated companies with operations from exploration and production to refining and petrochemicals to retail sales. That diversification has allowed them to pivot in response to the coronavirus. Exxon Mobils petrochemical operations have increased production of isopropyl alcohol and polypropylene, used in the production of hand sanitizer and protective masks, gowns and wipes, while shifting manufacturing in Louisiana to produce hand sanitizer. Depressed oil prices, of course, have an impact on the majors, but in many respects, they make it up because they have the product all the way through, said Ed Hirs, a petroleum economist at the University of Houston. Theyre hurt in the upstream, but they make it up in the downstream. LONG-TERM IMPACT: Can oil recover from the coronavirus? The majors also boast vast and diverse portfolios of oil and gas projects. While the majors have slashed spending in shale, which can be drilled relatively quickly, most remain committed to offshore projects in Africa, South America and the Gulf of Mexico that take years to develop but will buttress output in the future. These are companies that plan for a longer horizon, Hirs said. For them, its not about being here five years, 10 years from now, but decades and decades from now. These large enterprises have the financial wherewithal to weather storms like this. The majors also have deep reservoirs of cash that would allow them to buy struggling rivals and strengthen their portfolio of assets. Hirs said he expects merger and acquisition activity will pick up in the middle of summer; Deloitte forecasts increased M&A by the end of the year. Its the time to consider (M&A) opportunities but do it carefully, said Kate Hardin, executive director for the Deloitte Research Center for Energy and Industrials. The majors are well positioned to do that kind of investigation and careful approach. Different outlooks As Exxon and Chevron head into annual meetings, they face shareholder resolutions that would create an independent board chairman, splitting the roles of chairman and chief executive, held respectively by Darren Woods at Exxon Mobil and Mike Wirth at Chevron. The resolutions, similar to ones defeated last year, are supported by institutional investors urging the companies to act more quickly to address climate change and adjust their businesses. Both companies have taken steps toward the low-carbon future. Exxon, for example, is developing biofuels, notably from algae, while Chevron has invested in solar, wind and geothermal power sources. But they have moved less aggressively than their European rivals, which have set goals of net-zero greenhouse emissions from their operations and products by 2050. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden recently told analysts that oil demand could peak within the decade. FUEL FIX: Get energy news sent directly to your inbox Woods, however, has embraced a more optimistic outlook for petroleum as Exxon has invested heavily in extracting oil and gas from rich deposits in the Permian Basin and off the coast of Guyana in South America. Speaking to analysts earlier this month, Woods cited internal projections that global energy consumption is expected rise around 20 percent by 2040 from 2017, as the worlds population grows to more than 9 billion people from about 7 billion. Before the pandemic, global demand for oil was around 100 million barrels of oil per day. Demand has fallen about 25 percent as people stayed home and businesses closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Billions of people will enter the middle class and seek lifestyles and products that require energy. Economies will expand once again, Woods said. Of course, there are likely to be some bumps in the road over the short term, but historically, periods of economic contraction are followed by periods of significant growth. Chevrons Wirth, in a separate call with investors and analysts, said he, too, was an optimist, but struck a more somber tone. I believe that the world will return to some post-coronavirus form of normal, and that means economic activity, it means growth, it means travel, Wirth said. The pace and the patterns at which that reemerges, I think, are still open to a wide range of views. And I dont know that anybody can predict that exactly. paul.takahashi@chron.com twitter.com/paultakahashi Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE When New Mexico lawmakers begin the difficult task of downsizing a state budget bill next month, they could turn to a familiar funding source to reduce the need for spending cuts. The state had about $1.2 billion in unspent funding for approved capital outlay projects earlier this year, and at least some of that money could be pulled back by legislators to help offset a huge drop in projected revenue. Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque, co-chair of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, said lawmakers could scrutinize infrastructure projects from previous years that have been stuck in neutral. With some of these projects, maybe theyre not moving the way theyre supposed to be moving, Martinez told the Journal. However, he said, lawmakers should leave funding in place for shovel-ready projects that could help bolster the states beleaguered economy. Meanwhile, the top budget official in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration, Finance and Administration Secretary Olivia Padilla-Jackson, said last week that legislative and executive staffers were working together to make recommendations about clawing back approved capital outlay funding from certain projects, including those for which work has not started. Padilla-Jackson, who is stepping down at the end of this month, did not detail the criteria for identifying projects or a target amount for total budget savings. But she said any projects pulled back would be those funded by general fund dollars. Lawmakers approved roughly $933 million worth of capital outlay projects last year, when the states coffers were flush due in large part to an oil drilling boom in southeastern New Mexico. As of March, only about $88.7 million or about 9.5% of that amount had been spent, according to the Legislative Finance Committee. Among the large unspent capital outlay appropriations from 2019 are $4.1 million for a new museum of contemporary art in downtown Santa Fe, $6 million for security cameras and fire suppression systems at the University of New Mexico and $5.4 million for a road extension between Sunland Park and Santa Teresa. Meanwhile, the $1.2 billion in total unspent capital outlay funds was appropriated for 2,212 projects statewide, according to the LFC. The majority of those unspent funds were approved in 2019, though some of the projects date back further. Lujan Grisham said last week that a special session focused on revising state spending plans in light of an estimated revenue drop of up to $2.4 billion will start June 18. The revenue decrease is due to the coronavirus pandemic and a collapse in oil prices. During the special session, the governor said, approved spending increases will have to be slowed but federal stimulus funds and state cash reserves could help the state avoid layoffs and furloughs of state workers and teachers. Money from stalled capital outlay projects could also be part of that mix. New Mexicos capital outlay system for funding improvements to roads, bridges, dams and water systems has come under scrutiny in recent years for its secrecy and lack of efficiency. But attempts to overhaul the system, which allows each lawmaker to appropriate a designated amount of money for infrastructure projects, have been unsuccessful at the Roundhouse. Under the current system, capital outlay funds are sometimes doled out in increments, and Martinez said such piecemeal funding for certain large projects could be targeted for budget savings, because lawmakers may not be able to fully fund the projects in the coming years due to the states revenue situation. We might be better off retrieving that money, Martinez told the Journal. Not all targeted projects might have to be scrapped, as its sometimes possible to shift projects funding source from general fund dollars to new bonds backed by future state tax dollars. That process, referred to as a capital outlay swap, has been used in recent years to help plug previous budget holes. Capital outlay funds typically revert automatically if they are not spent in five years, though project funding can be reauthorized by the Legislature. Markets regulator SEBI on Tuesday said PACL Ltd has not made any offer to pay Rs 20,000 crore in three years by sale of properties. The clarification comes following a video being circulated on WhatsApp. PACL, which had raised money from the public in the name of agriculture and real estate businesses, was found by SEBI to have collected more than Rs 60,000 crore through illegal collective investment schemes (CISs) over a period of 18 years. A panel, headed by retired Justice R M Lodha, initiated the process of refunds for investors, who invested money in PACL. It has been brought to the notice of the Lodha Committee that a video is currently being circulated on WhatsApp containing a clipping from a business channel which states that PACL has made an offer to pay Rs 20,000 crore in three years by sale of properties and that the committee would revert with a counter offer by June 21, the regulator said in a statement. "The committee categorically states that no such offer of PACL Ltd has been currently made to or countered by the committee, it added. In April, SEBI said payment aggregating to Rs 205 crore has been made to more than 8 lakh investors, with claims up to Rs 7,000. Tomball ISD announced to families on May 22 its decision to change the date and location for the class of 2020 graduation ceremony. The event, which was scheduled to happen in July, is now slated to take place Thursday, June 11 at Woodforest Bank Stadium in Shenandoah. Tomball High Schools ceremony is planned in the morning at 8 a.m. and Tomball Memorial in the evening at 8 p.m.; the district has set a rain date alternative for Friday, June 12. GRAND RAPIDS, MI Bars and restaurants could expand outdoor seating once Gov. Gretchen Whitmers order prohibiting in-person dining is lifted under a new program created by the city of Grand Rapids to help businesses recover from the coronavirus pandemic. So-called social zones can be established on public property, such as streets, sidewalks and parking lots, throughout the city through a special permit. The zones are designed to give restaurants space to serve more customers, since their inside dining rooms will likely be required to operate at reduced capacity to ensure social distancing once theyre allowed to reopen. If we want our small businesses and bars and restaurants to be successful, were going to have to look at how we can create additional seating that makes and gives customers the ability to feel safe and want to come back to eating and drinking, said Grand Rapids City Commissioner John OConnor, who co-owns Long Road Distillers. Social zones could be created between June 1 and Nov. 30. Lou Canfield, who manages the citys development center, said the application process to create a social zone will likely be finalized later this week. He said an example of one area that could be a good fit for a social zone is Monroe Center, which is home to numerous bars and restaurants. Its possible that a social zone on Monroe Center would close a portion of the street and create a space where patrons, after ordering food from an area restaurant, can eat. Alcohol could be consumed in the area if its purchased from a restaurant that has a license to sell beer or wine, in a sealed container, to-go, Canfield said. The city is committed to using all the tools in our toolbox to help with local business recovery, he said. Canfield noted that social zones cannot block building access or emergency vehicles. They also must have a plan for trash and litter removal, sanitation and cleanliness, and compliance with social distancing and any state executive orders. Dine-in service at bars and restaurants in Michigan was temporarily suspended by Whitmer on March 16. Her stay-at-home order went into effect on March 24, and was recently extended past its scheduled May 28 expiration to June 12. However, some elements of the order have been lifted. Bars and restaurants in Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, for example, were recently given the option to resume dine-in service under certain parameters. Those parameters limit establishments to 50 percent capacity, require six feet of distance between groups, and mandate that servers wear face coverings. Other retailers were also permitted to reopen. Canfield said the goal is to have the social zones program in place and ready to go once restaurants in West Michigan are given the go-ahead to resume dine-in service. OConnor, whose Grand Rapids distillery is located at 537 Leonard St. NW, has had conversations with nearby businesses about creating a social zone at the corner of Leonard Street NW and Quarry Avenue NW. Other area businesses that could use the zone include The Peoples Cider Co., The Mitten Brewing Co., Two Scotts Barbecue and Chicago Style Gyro, he said. OConnor said hes hopeful that state legislation will be approved that would allow bars and restaurants in special districts to sell unsealed to-go drinks that could be consumed in a designated area. Under the current law, patrons can purchase sealed, to-go alcohol from bars and restaurants that have the appropriate liquor license and drink it in a social zone. However, alcohol that is not sealed such as a beer from a tap or a mixed drink cannot be consumed in a social zone. Legislation introduced by state Rep. Michael Webber, R-Rochester Hills, would change that. The idea that potentially a street could be closed or an encroachment into a public street could happen I think all options are on the table for us at this point, OConnor said, referring to a potential social zone on Leonard. Ingrid Miller, executive director of Uptown Grand Rapids Inc., a nonprofit that represents four neighborhood business associations in southeast Grand Rapids, said her members have had discussions about possibly applying for a social zone along Wealthy Street and another along Cherry Street. The zones would serve bars and restaurants and would provide additional space for retailers to display their products, Miller said. Initial conversations have focused around using parking spaces for additional seating, rather than closing a street. I think anything that is creative and new and helps our businesses stay open is better than nothing, she said. Tim Kelly, president and CEO, of Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., said the nonprofit that assists in development of Grand Rapids urban core is working with businesses. He said they may submit an application for social zones on Monroe Center, Bridge Street, Ionia Avenue and in the Monroe North neighborhood. Kelly said the social zones could be a critical piece in helping bars and restaurants successfully reopen. Everyone is hurting, and these businesses are looking for every chance the can to create more business, he said. -This article has been corrected to reflect the correct date on which Gov. Whitmer temporarily prohibited dine-in service at restaurants Read more: Michigan blood center urgently seeking more donors Michigans 7-day average for new coronavirus cases is lowest in 2 months Whitmer says husbands boat launch request was failed attempt at humor Hundreds of flooded homes in Muskegon County will not qualify for relief funding The addition of our QuickScreen Prescreen platform into their F&I menu software will give dealers a unique insight into their customers credit profile & estimated monthly payments on prospective vehicles before posting a hard inquiry. 700 Credit, LLC, the automotive industrys leading provider of credit reports, compliance solutions and consumer pre-qualification products, has announced an alliance with MenuMetric, a web-based F&I Menu platform offering connections to over 180 popular providers for full eRating and eContracting of Automobile, Marine, RV, and Powersports products. The platform enables efficient selection, presentation, and tracking of sales for F&I products and vehicle add-ons. MenuMetric has integrated the 700Credit products into their system to provide seamless access to credit reports, compliance solutions and prescreen services to simplify workflow and speed the sales process. We are pleased to welcome MenuMetric to the 700Credit family. Their innovative F&I Menu platform integrates nicely with our products and will create and maximize efficiencies for their customers, said Ken Hill, Managing Director, 700Credit.com. The addition of our QuickScreen Prescreen platform into their F&I menu software will give dealers a unique insight into their customers credit profile & estimated monthly payments on prospective vehicles before posting a hard inquiry. With the consumers FICO score and equity on trade in, dealers can work the right deal, right away, putting the consumer in a vehicle they want with payments they can afford. We are very excited to offer 700Credit services to all of our dealers across the country. The suite of services offered by 700Credit adds a new level of features and options for our customers and helps us continue to help our dealers become more efficient and save time on every deal, added Phil Imbery, Director of Operations for MenuMetric. About 700Credit 700Credit is the automotive industrys leading provider of credit reports, compliance and soft pull products. The companys product and service offerings include credit reports, prescreen and pre-qualification platforms, OFAC compliance, Red Flag solutions, MLA, Synthetic Fraud Detection, Identity Verification, score disclosure notices, adverse action notices and more. 700Credits goal is to provide its clients with the highest quality data in a compliant framework in the most efficient manner possible. For more information about 700Credit, visit http://www.700credit.com. About MenuMetric MenuMetric's mission is to create technology to enable F&I professionals to connect with customers and create personal sales experiences. MenuMetric simplifies the F&I sales process through their industry leading technology to increase customer satisfaction and maximize profits. The MenuMetric platform enables efficient selection, presentation, and tracking of sales for F&I products and vehicle add-ons. With their ever-growing list of partners and constantly evolving software, MenuMetric is your road to higher sales! The Morrison government's slim hold on power will be challenged at the next election with a wealthy ex-grains trader preparing to launch his own party to unseat four Coalition MPs over water policy. Chris Brooks, who also chairs the Southern Riverina Irrigators group, said local communities were "sick to death" with water mismanagement in his region. Many farmers faced limited water allocation for a third consecutive year even as the Murray River runs at close to full capacity to meet downstream demands. Chris Brooks, a former grains trader and chairman of the Southern Riverina Irrigators, plans to take on sitting Liberal National Party members in the Murray region over water. Credit:Nick Moir "It's the northern [Murray Darling] Basin versus the south," Mr Brooks said. "The north's winning because of its connection with the Nationals." Mr Brooks' party of independents - which is yet to release its name - will target four seats, including Wagga-based Nationals leader Michael McCormack's and Environment Minister Sussan Ley's, a Liberal based in Albury. The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature said Monday it will prioritize legislation on public health this year. In its annual work report, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) said it plans to revise the Wildlife Protection Law, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, and the Emergency Response Law in 2020. The report was delivered by Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, to the ongoing third session of the 13th NPC for deliberation. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the top legislature has performed its lawful duty, providing legal support for anti-epidemic efforts and economic and social development. It issued a decision to completely ban the illegal trade and consumption of wildlife, and reached out to the public to clarify epidemic prevention and control laws, according to the report. China currently has over 30 laws on public health, which have generally withstood the test of the COVID-19 epidemic and played a positive role, Zhang Yesui, spokesperson for the third session of the 13th NPC, told a press conference last week. Zhang however noted that there are still some weak links and shortcomings in the legal framework, and the NPC Standing Committee will further strengthen China's public health legislation. Lawmakers are expected to review and approve the country's biosecurity law within this year, according to Zhang. The draft biosecurity law went through a second reading in April. Meanwhile, legislators will expedite revising the Wildlife Protection Law in the hope of submitting the revision for review in the latter half of the year, Zhang added. As Manitoba approaches a possible June 1 reopening of most businesses and services, health officials are keeping a close eye on COVID-19 entering the province. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. As Manitoba approaches a possible June 1 reopening of most businesses and services, health officials are keeping a close eye on COVID-19 entering the province. The chief provincial health officer said he is considering asymptomatic COVID-19 testing for those who often leave Manitoba for work. "We might look at groups that are required to leave the province frequently due to their occupation," Dr. Brent Roussin said Monday. "We might offer regular asymptomatic testing to them and asymptomatic surveillance or sentinel surveillance at health-care facilities (where) anyone presenting for any reason, we would offer them a test just to ensure we're getting a community sampling to ensure we're not missing any of the virus." Manitoba Opposition leader Wab Kinew has written a letter to the chief provincial public health officer and the premier asking them to include the Legislative Assembly in Phase 2 of Manitobas reopening plan. click to read more Manitoba Opposition leader Wab Kinew has written a letter to the chief provincial public health officer and the premier asking them to include the Legislative Assembly in Phase 2 of Manitobas reopening plan. "...Democratic functions of the Legislative Assembly are an essential service for Manitobansespecially in light of thousands of public and private sector layoffs," the letter to Premier Brian Pallister and Dr. Brent Roussin said. Wednesday is the last scheduled sitting of the house in Manitoba. Kinew asked for regular and frequent house sittings be included in Phase 2. He pointed out that other jurisdictions have developed plans to ensure regular sittings in June. Provinces representing the vast majority of Canadas population including Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island are planning regular sittings of their legislatures next month. The federal parliament will continue to sit multiple times a week in June. "If the premier thinks businesses and restaurants can go back to work, he should start doing his job as well, Kinew said in a press release that accompanied the letter. Staff Close Last week, the province quietly introduced asymptomatic testing at hospitals and health-care facilities where COVID-19 testing is offered. But don't expect random testing to pop up everywhere, Roussin said Monday. "We'll probably not be at any point where we just do large, widespread, indiscriminate asymptomatic testing," he said. "There's really low value in that." And even though a date for Phase 2 of Manitoba's economic reopening (expected to be June 1) will be announced this week, don't expect targeted testing of asymptomatic restaurant, retail or personal service workers. "The value of a negative test in a person without symptoms is relatively low," said Roussin. "If you don't have symptoms and you have a negative result, we can't put much weight on that. "If that person develops symptoms a few days later, they can't rely that they've had a negative COVID-19 test." They will need to be tested again, he said. In order for Manitoba's economy to successfully reopen and for consumers to be confident, testing needs to increase, Premier Brian Pallister said on April 28. He expects Manitoba's testing capacity will triple to 3,000 tests a day by the end of summer. On Monday, Roussin said the province can regularly perform 1,000 tests a day and has the capacity to do 2,000, but hasn't conducted nearly that many. Quality, not quantity of testing is what matters, he said. "What's important is we have the ability to test all symptomatic Manitobans right now. That's the important thing not the numbers." That was not the case in March and April when sick people and travellers wanting to be tested were screened by Health Links and only those who met specific criteria were referred for testing. Earlier this month, the province opened testing to those with mild symptoms without requiring a Health Links referral. Now it's offering tests to people without symptoms who show up at a hospital or testing site. Asymptomatic testing has its limitations, Roussin said. When its targeted, it will give you an idea of "what may be circulating in the community," but isnt intended to inspire consumer confidence, he said. "A negative test result in a person without symptoms? That's a negative test right this second. Tomorrow, if that person is symptomatic, that could be COVID-19," said Roussin. "To reassure people in those circumstances, that's not really the ability of this test to do that," he said. "We want to ensure symptomatic people are staying home. We want to ensure were testing symptomatic people so we can identify cases early and do contact tracing." "What's important is we have the ability to test all symptomatic Manitobans right now. That's the important thing not the numbers." Dr. Brent Roussin Testing people without symptoms can be rolled back easily if Manitoba needs to ramp up testing for people with symptoms who are a higher risk, Roussin said. For now, Manitoba has few new cases the most recent being two reported Friday; both linked to an earlier positive case at a Winnipeg Walmart. In total, Manitoba has just 17 active cases with 268 people who've recovered and seven who've died. Fewer people with flu-like coronavirus symptoms are showing up to be tested. On Sunday, 343 laboratory tests were performed, bringing the total since early February to 38,962. "Certainly having the capacity to test is whats really important," Roussin said. The biggest concern right now is someone bringing the virus into Manitoba. "We still see virus circulating in other provinces," said Roussin. "We need to ensure we're limiting the risk of importing this virus." He said the 14-day isolation period for those entering Manitoba won't be lifted until other provinces sustain an "R-number" the average number of people infected by someone with COVID-19 below one. The trucking industry, which involves regular, interprovincial travel, said it would welcome asymptomatic testing for its members. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "It makes a lot of sense," said Manitoba Trucking Association executive director Terry Shaw. He said it would give "peace of mind" to those who work in transportation and any other sector required to work in and outside Manitoba's boundaries. "Our members are open to it." carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca MSNBC television anchor Joe Scarborough takes questions from an audience at forum at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 11, 2017. (Steven Senne/AP Photo) Husband of Deceased Congressional Staffer Asks Twitter to Delete Trump Posts The husband of a woman who was working for then-Rep. Joe Scarborough when she died asked Twitter to remove posts from President Donald Trump alleging possible foul play in the case. Lori Klausutis, 28, died in 2001 in Scarboroughs congressional office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. According to an autopsy, Klausutis, who had an undiagnosed heart condition called floppy mitral valce disease, passed out. As she fell down, she hit her head, which caused the death. Michael Berkland, the medical examiner, said the death was an accident. Scarborough was in Washington when Klausutis died. Timothy Klausutis, Loris husband, said in a recent letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo, and conspiracy theories since his wife died have made it difficult for him to move forward with his life. Describing people questioning the circumstances of the death as conspiracy theorists, Klausutis attached three missives Trump posted on Twitter about the matter, including one in which Trump wonders when theyll open a Cold Case and asked whether Scarborough got away with murder. My request is simple: Please delete these tweets, Klausutis wrote. The Presidents tweet that suggests Lori was murderedwithout any evidence (and contrary to the official autopsyis a violation of Twitters community rules and terms of service, he added later, asserting an ordinary user would be banned from Twitter if they created a similar post. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after arriving from Camp David to the White House in Washington on May 17, 2020. (Eric Thayer/Reuters) A Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to news outlets that workers are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. Weve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly, the spokesperson said. A former neighbor and a former colleague told the Daily News (pdf) after the death that Klausutis was in good health and said they werent aware of underlying health issues. If she wasnt working or in school, she always seemed to be out running, Paul Lux, director of public relations for Emerald Coast Young Republicans, told the paper. Trump frequently called into Scarboroughs Morning Joe show on MSNBC during the 2016 presidential campaign but the pair later had a falling out. Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski regularly disparage the president and Trump sometimes responds. Scarborough has denied wrongdoing in Klausutiss death. The president on Tuesday again posted about the case, claiming that probing the matter was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I wont bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will? he added. Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei gives an interview via video link after the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Li He) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- China will step up efforts to support the development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, a minister said Monday. The government has decided to extend subsidies and tax exemptions for NEV purchases by another two years to restore NEV production and sales, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said on the sidelines of the annual national legislative session. "NEV production capacity in April had basically reached the level of the same period last year," Miao said, adding the ministry is confident in the future development of the industry. Restrictions on NEV contract manufacturing will be lifted in an orderly manner, while wider use of NEVs in public services will be encouraged, Miao said. The ministry will also step up the construction of charging facilities and enhance their interconnectivity, Miao said. As businesses look to reopen following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the remote working phase, McLean & Company, the HR research and advisory division of Info-Tech Research Group, has released a step-by-step guide and blueprint titled Bring Employees Back to the Workplace Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. The blueprint helps HR leaders globally to enable a safe return of employees to the workplace, by offering various levels of support including a DIY toolkit, guided implementations, workshops, and consulting services. Essentially, the McLean & Company blueprint provides a comprehensive deployment planning process for HR leaders to determine how to deploy the workforce, as necessary, within the physical workplace based on an assessment of the state of business operations and recent changes, as well as the strategic priorities of the organization. The deployment plan process also provides guidance on creating return to work protocols, such as health and safety protocols, and addressing employee-specific challenges, including childcare disruption, while making sure to remain compliant with public health requirements and government regulations. McLean & Companys blueprint is built on the premise that workplace changes spurred by COVID-19 has been so seismic, it is highly unlikely that things will go back to the way they were. We recommend that HR leaders review business operations and determine how to deploy the workforce in a gradual, phased approach using sprints and careful planning as we move to the next stage of the crisis, said Jennifer Waxman, director, HR research and advisory services, McLean & Company. Planning and the ability to iterate is needed to balance both employee and business needs as the pandemic evolves, well into the future. The key aspects that the McLean & Company blueprint focuses on are as follows: A framework for creating a deployment plan to return employees to the physical workplace. A how to approach to assess work units and employee segments for their ability to return to the physical workplace. Implementation and monitoring of the plan as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. Supporting Resources About McLean & Company McLean & Company is a HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services. McLean & Company offers an evidence-based insight approach to resolving key strategic and tactical initiatives and systematically improves the core HR capabilities of organizations with data-driven solutions, which are used and developed by the needs of over 30,000 members globally. Please visit McLean & Company online at https://hr.mcleanco.com About Info-Tech Research Group Info-Tech Research Group is one of the fastest growing full-service research and analyst firms in North America, serving more than 40,000 IT and HR professionals. With offices in Canada, U.S. and Australia, Info-Tech Research Group offers pragmatic analyst insights and actionable tools to IT departments from world-class organizations such as NASA, New Balance, Spotify and the United Nations. Info-Tech Research Groups divisions include McLean & Company, myPolicies, and SoftwareReviews. Contact Indrani Ray-Ghosal Vice President, Communications & Brand Info-Tech Research Group irayghosal@infotech.com +1 647.574.9559 (cell) Credit: CC0 Public Domain 'Big Brother' tracking technology is already a reality of modern life, so should be embraced to help combat the spread of COVID-19, a leading expert has argued. The use of mobile phones, CCTV and other technology to track movement has long been criticised by many for being an invasion of privacy. However, recording the movement of individuals who may later test positive for COVID-19 could help to cut the spread of the disease by warning those who come into contact with them, preventing further spread. At an international conference of technology experts, Professor Kevin Warwick, Professor Emeritus in Cybernetics at the University of Reading, argued the time has come to change laws to allow such technology to be used for our benefit. Professor Warwick said: "Our concept of privacy must change, particularly at a time of exceptional circumstances such as these. We have a plethora of information available, yet we do not use it. "Extraordinary law changes would need to be handled very carefully so as to retain important data protection rules, but we are talking about a matter of life and death. Withholding certain information about an infected person's location at a specific time could put many lives in danger. "We must get real, we are in a global technological world yet we are using ethical standpoints from the 19th century. Big Brother is with us now, so for our own good we should use it to help not hinder us." Professor Warwick was speaking at the COVID-19 Crisis Global Management virtual conference arranged by the Palace of New Thinking, a project created by noted physician and psychologist Edward de Bono to explore opportunities for innovative thinking. He was part of a panel of experts from around the world, discussing the possibilities offered by digital tracking systems to share data between countries and make local quarantining more effective. A person's location can already be tracked using technology such as smart phone apps, telephone calls and card transactions. Public transport could also provide more information about who an individual might have come into contact with, by using assigned seat numbers or pinpointing which bus someone boarded using their pass. Professor Warwick called for the 'plethora of information' we already have to be used, while finding new technology and data collection opportunities to make tracking the movement of individuals accurate and efficient. Professor Michael Schmitt, Professor of International Law at the University of Reading, said that implementing a tracking program during the pandemic could comply with human rights law if it met certain criteria. The degree of intrusion into privacy would have to be justified by the benefits of the program, and it would have to be applied non-discriminatorily, authorized by British law, and comply with the terms of treaties to which the United Kingdom is party, such as the European Convention on Human Rights. Professor Schmitt said: "Government intrusions into the privacy of individuals, such as tracking their movements, can be justified in certain circumstances. To meet the requirements of international human rights law, they must be necessary to achieve a 'legitimate purpose' but this requirement is clearly satisfied if used for tracing during a pandemic. "Any tracking program would need to be designed so as not to be more intrusive than necessary in the circumstances. Such a program would be lawful under international law, although only if very carefully crafted." Explore further Public concern about smartphone location tracking to combat COVID-19 FLINT, MI -- Michigan State Police will not be excused from lawsuits related to two high speed police chases that ended in injuries and death in Flint, the state Court of Appeals has unanimously decided. In an unpublished decision Thursday, May 21, the Appeals Court declined to overturn earlier decisions by Genesee Circuit Judge David Newblatt, who declined MSPs claim it was covered in the cases by governmental immunity. The Appeals Court decision is the latest chapter in a long debate over the propriety of MSP police chases in Flint, three of which left innocent bystanders dead in 2014 after troopers chased suspects for routine traffic violations. In one case, the late Tiphanie Fayette Mayfield was killed in a police pursuit crash six years ago near Mackin Road and Caldwell Avenue in Flint, and Patrena James suffered what the lawsuit describes as a life-altering brain injury in the same incident. In another case, Mary Saunders and Antonio Robert Ford claim they suffered serious injuries when a vehicle being chased by MSP officers on Carpenter Road in Flint at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour slammed into their vehicle in March 2016. The two cases have been consolidated and are pending in Genesee Circuit Court. In their complaints, plaintiffs do not allege that defendants owe them no-fault benefits or any ordinary tort-related relief. Rather, plaintiffs style their allegations as disparate-impact and disparate-treatment claims under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act ..., the Appeals Court decision says in part. Broadly speaking, the (Governmental Tort Liability Act) grants immunity to the state for certain ordinary torts, although the act does not similarly grant immunity for civil-rights claims under (Elliott-Larsen)." The Appeals Court also declined an MSP request to have the cases transferred to the Michigan Court of Claims. MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach MSP spokeswoman Shanon Banner for comment on the ruling, but in its motion asking that the cases be discharged, the agency said troopers have the authority to patrol all Michigan cities and enforce the laws of the state. The lawsuits, the state has argued, are based on a misunderstanding of MSPs authority to conduct law enforcement activities throughout the state, and seek to enjoin an MSP pursuit policy that is no longer in effect. State police pursuit policies have been an issue in Flint and other majority-black cities where extra troopers have been assigned for years. An analysis of accident data by a Trinity University professor showed Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Pontiac saw 80 percent higher rates of pursuit crashes, deaths, injuries and property damage since additional troopers were assigned in those cities through the states Secured Cities Partnership. While a state representative, Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley attempted to change state law in 2015 to require troopers to run pursuits in conformity with the municipalitys local pursuit policy but the measure was never approved by the Legislature. MSP changed its pursuit policy on its own in September 2017, limiting chases to situations in which troopers have a reasonable belief that a felony has been committed. Previously, the policy more broadly authorized police chases but advised officers to take eight factors into account first, including the nature of the violation, the presence of pedestrians and traffic conditions. Attorneys for the pursuit victims are asking Newblatt to rule the original and replacement MSP vehicle pursuit policies unlawful as well as the SCP because each has resulted in higher death and injury risks to residents in majority-black cities. The lawsuits also seek unspecified monetary judgments. Deadly state police chases more likely in black communities, lawsuit claims State wants lawsuits over fatal police pursuit crashes in Flint dismissed BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Turkeys export of cement to Italy decreased by nearly 0.2 percent from January through April 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, making up $47.2 million, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend on May 26. In April 2020, cement exports from Turkey to Italy also decreased by 31.9 percent compared to April 2019 and amounted to $8.8 million. Turkeys export of cement to international markets from January through April 2020 made up over $1.1 billion, which equals the indicator of the same period of 2019. The cement export from Turkey amounted to 2.2 percent of the countrys total export from Jan. through Apr. 2020. "Turkeys export of cement to international markets amounted to $231.7 million in April 2020, which is 25.5 percent less compared to the same month of 2019," the ministry said. In April of this year, Turkeys export of cement to international markets amounted to 2.6 percent of the countrys total export. "During the last twelve months (from April 2019 through April 2020), Turkey exported cement worth $3.5 billion," added the ministry. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu By Catarina Demony LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's flag carrier TAP will resume some of its international operations to hard-hit Italy, Spain and various other destinations from the beginning of July as lockdowns imposed to combat the coronavirus are slowly lifted. A plan published on TAP's website on Monday showed around 240 weekly fights will operate between July 1 and 31, including 14 flights per week from Lisbon to Milan and Rome, as well as to Barcelona and Madrid. The airline, which under normal conditions operates around 2,500 weekly flights, is now running two flights a week from Lisbon to London and Paris, but will increase the frequency on those routes in July and add flights to Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam and other cities across Europe. Two flights per week from Lisbon to New York will start as early as next Monday. TAP will also fly to Boston, Miami and Toronto in July. More flights to Brazil, the world's No. 2 coronavirus hotspot behind the United States, are also scheduled. Last month TAP, which was partly privatised in 2015, asked for a state-backed loan to help it survive the crisis, with Chairman Miguel Frasquilho describing the company as at its most fragile since it was founded. Prime Minister Antonio Costa has raised the possibility of re-nationalising TAP and, earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Alvaro Novo said the government hoped to make a decision on a capital injection by mid-June. Brazilian-U.S. airline entrepreneur David Neeleman holds a 45% stake in TAP, the state 50% and TAP employees the remaining 5%. ($1 = 0.9178 euros) (Reporting by Catarina Demony, Editing by Andrei Khalip, Kirsten Donovan) A man exclaiming "I can't breathe" as a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground and put his knee on the man's neck for about eight minutes died Monday night, prompting the FBI and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to step in and investigate. Video of the incident shows that a white police officer had a black man pinned to the ground next to the back tire of his patrol car with his knee on the man's neck. "Please, please, please, I can't breathe," the man begs. "My stomach hurts. My neck hurts. Please, please. I can't breathe." Onlookers outside the Minneapolis deli urge the officer to get off the man. "You're stopping his breathing right now, you think that's cool?" one man says. "His nose is bleeding. Look at his nose!" says a woman. The officer does not budge. And then the man goes silent. More people begin to intervene and call for the officer or his partner to check for a pulse. The officer remains on the man's neck, even as he lies apparently unresponsive, for a total of about eight minutes before paramedics arrive and the man is placed on a stretcher. IMAGE: Minneapolis arrest video (Darnella Frazier via Facebook) "The man looked already dead before the ambulance even got there. He was clearly trying to tell them he couldn't breathe, and they ignored him," Darnella Frazier, one of the people who recorded the incident, told NBC News. NBC News does not know what happened before the video recording began. Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump said in a statement that he was representing the family of the man, whom he identified as George Floyd. "We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck. This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by police for questioning about a non-violent charge," Crump said. "We will seek justice for the family of George Floyd, as we demand answers from the Minneapolis Police Department," Crump added. "How many 'while black' deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends." Story continues Minneapolis police said in a statement early Tuesday that the officers had responded to a report of a forgery in progress and found the suspect in his car. He stepped out of the car when he was ordered to, police said, but then physically resisted officers. "Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress," the statement said. "Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later." The four officers involved have been fired, Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted Tuesday afternoon. "This is the right call," he said. The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said in a statement that it was not the time to rush to judgment and that the officers were fully cooperating in the investigation. "We must review all video. We must wait for the medical examiner's report," the statement said. "Officers' actions and training protocol will be carefully examined after the officers have provided their statements." Initially, police said the department had called in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to investigate independently. A short time later, the department announced that the FBI would also be investigating. "We put out the information that we believed to be wholly honest and true. As we dug into it deeper, we realized that in fact it would be appropriate to have the FBI be apart of this investigation as well," said the department's director of public information, John Elder. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo added during a news conference Tuesday morning: "There was additional information that I had received, quite frankly, from a community source that just provided more context than what I had preliminary, originally." That prompted him to get the FBI involved "knowing that there could be a question of civil rights." Federal agents were on the ground, Arradondo said. Body camera video was available, but has not been made public. Police said no weapons were used by anyone involved in the incident. He said the officers were on paid leave. Neither of the officers in the video has been identified by the police. IMAGE: Protest of George Floyd's death (Kerem Yucel / AFP - Getty Images) The state public safety bureau said investigators would like to speak with anyone who recorded or witnessed the incident. The bureau would be sharing its findings with the FBI and presenting the completed investigation to the Hennepin County attorney's office for review. "What we saw was horrible, completely and utterly messed up," Mayor Jacob Frey said of the video during the news conference. "I believe what I saw, and what I saw was wrong at every level." "This man's life matters," Frey said. "He should not have died. He was a human being, and his life mattered. ... Whatever the investigation reveals, it does not change the single truth that he should be with us this morning." "Being black in America should not be a death sentence," Frey said. "When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help, and this officer failed in the most basic human sense." A protest was planned for Tuesday night at the scene. Frey encouraged protesters to express their anger but asked them to do so safely and while social distancing. Jessi Zendejas asked people who remembered the "gentle giant" who worked as a security guard at a Minneapolis bar and restaurant to "please stand with us." "Everyone who knows him knew he loved his hugs from his regulars when working as a security guard and would be mad if you didnt stop to greet him because he honestly loved seeing everyone and watching everyone have fun," Zendejas wrote on Facebook. Jovanni Thunstrom, the owner of Conga Latin Bistro, said Floyd had worked there as a security guard for more than five years. He said Floyd was also a friend and had been a tenant of his. He wrote on Facebook that he first saw the video and later found out the person who died was Floyd. He said he was writing the post through teary eyes. "My employee George Floyd was murdered by a police officer that had no compassion, used his position to commit a murder of someone that was begging for his life," Thunstrom wrote. Download the NBC News app for breaking news and alerts In a statement, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said: "Justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country." "We heard his repeated calls for help. We heard him say over and over again that he could not breathe. And now we have seen yet another horrifying and gut-wrenching instance of an African American man dying," Klobuchar said. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Minnesota called for a fair investigation and justice for Floyd. "Nearly six years after Eric Garner's death in New York and four years after Philando Castile's in Minnesota this tragic video shows how little meaningful change has emerged to prevent police from taking the lives of Black people," said Paige Fernandez, policing policy adviser for the national ACLU. "Make no mistake: George Floyd should be alive today. The officers responsible must be held accountable." "The public has seen the video," Fernandez added. "To call this a 'medical incident' is an insult." On Thursday, May 21 at 7:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time, Expedition Overland (XO) launched Episode One of their five-part original YouTube adventure, the Arctic Solo Series. Episodes will be released weekly on Expedition Overlands YouTube Channel. After four successful seasons with more than 258 million minutes watched on YouTube and 74+ million minutes streamed on Amazon Prime Video, the upcoming Arctic Solo Series follows the adventures of just one truck and a small crew tackling the Canadian Arctic during the winter. Viewers are introduced to crew members Richard and Ashley Giordano, who travel through sub-zero temperatures and remote landscapes in Expedition Overlands 2016 Toyota Tacoma. Clay Croft, owner and creator of Expedition Overland, believes the new series continues to answer the call for uplifting adventure content as viewers flock to YouTube during the recent social distancing and quarantine measures. Expedition Overland has always worked to create inspirational and educational adventures. With everything going on in the world this year, this Arctic adventure should be a great escape for the adventurous mind. Filming locations include the state of Montana and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia as well as the Canadian Yukon and Northwest Territories. About the Arctic Solo Episodes EPISODE 1: PREPARING THE 2016 TACOMA FOR AN ARCTIC ROAD TRIP The Expedition Overland team ready the Toyota Tacoma for -35F winter conditions and ice roads. Crew members Richard and Ashley prepare for departure. Episode 2: "US-CANADA BORDER CROSSINGS ARE EASY," THEY SAID Despite facing challenges at the border, Richard and Ashley visit the scenic Icefields Parkway near Jasper, Alberta, soak in the Liard River Hot Springs, and continue up the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, Yukon. Episode 3: STUCK ON THE DEMPSTER HIGHWAY FOR SEVEN DAYS Richard and Ashley try the famous Sourtoe Cocktail in Dawson City. The couple heads north on the Dempster Highway, enjoying the remote but beautiful scenery and the resident wildlife. Inclement weather conditions threaten the duos plans. Episode 4: EXPLORING INUVIK BY ICE ROAD, SNOWMOBILE AND DOGSLED The XO team members experience northern life in the remote town of Inuvik, including a day trip to the hamlet of Aklavik for a history lesson, a snowmobile ride, and a visit to an igloo with a familiar face. Episode 5: DRIVING TO TUKTOYAKTUK... IN THE WINTER Richard and Ashley take advantage of a weather window in hopes of a successful trip north to the Arctic Ocean bordering the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk. Weather problems continue to plague the team, but a little bit of luck and some patience sees the couples successful return to a warmer climate. Note to media: Link to high-resolution images can be found here. ABOUT EXPEDITION OVERLAND (XOverland, XO) Expedition Overland (XO) is a docu-reality series that follows a team of adventurers and their outfitted vehicles through some of the worlds most remote places. With a crew of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, the show features the adventures, struggles, and unique people and places they meet along the way. XO journeys require teamwork, problem solving, ingenuity, and endurance. Expedition Overland is proudly presented by General Tire, in association with Patriot Campers. Expedition Overland would also like to thank additional In-Part sponsors: CBI Offroad Fab, Equipt Expedition Outfitters, Garmin, ICON Vehicle Dynamics, Maxtrax, RedArc Electronics and WARN. Learn more and catch up on past episodes on Amazon Prime Video, xoverland.com and YouTube.com/expeditionoverland. CONTACT Rachelle Croft - Owner | Sponsorship Manager | Hiline Productions | Expedition Overland info@xoverland.com / rachelle@xoverland.com / http://www.xoverland.com / http://www.facebook.com/xoverland / @xoverland The Movement for Democratic Change Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa insists that international human rights organizations should investigate the abduction, torture and sexual abuse of three party activists by suspected state security agents amid claims by the government that their disappearance two weeks ago resembles previous incidents. In a statement, the MDC Alliance said only independent organizations, including the United Nations, can reveal what happened to Harare West lawmaker Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, who were abducted while they were staging a protest with other party activists pressing the government to provide food for some households during the nations coronavirus COVID-19 lockddown. The MDC Alliance said it is dismayed by the recent cynical statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Sibusiso Moyo that attempted to cast doubt on the abductions, and callously insinuates they were stage-managed-theatre while at the same time claiming that the government takes the allegations seriously and is investigating them. Such reckless and dismissive statements by the executive severely undermine the credibility of any regime-led investigations. The regimes disingenuous statement comes after the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, a constitutional body mandated to receive and investigate complaints of violation of human rights from the public, confirmed the abductions, torture, and sexual abuses, as fact. The MDC Alliance noted that the abuses that the three women suffered are a violation of the Zimbabwe Constitution, which strictly prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and guarantees personal security and dignity of all citizens. Zimbabwe is party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) which guarantees womens rights, their participation in political processes, protection against violence and punishment of perpetrators. In addition the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The ordeal of the three women are also a violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention Against Torture, Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The party said it has recorded 49 abductions of its members since August, 2018. Invariably, all these abductions were carried out by armed men with rifles who targeted victims for being opponents of the government. So far, inexplicably, there has been no single arrest of any of the abductors. The abductors continue to act with impunity. Similarly, the perpetrators of the 1 August 2018 killings in Harare of six individuals in post-election protests were never prosecuted despite recommendations of the Motlanthe Commission. It also cited the killing of several people in January, 2019, by Zimbabwes security forces as another case of alleged state-sponsored human rights violations. In a statement released Monday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo said the government is fully investigating the alleged abductions, noting that indications are that the disappearance of the three women is similar to previous incidents. He said the government is worried about the abductions, saying the allegations are grave in that they involve alleged abuse of the rights of the girl child, a vulnerable group of our society which President Emmerson Mnangagwas government is on record as resolutely promoting and protecting. While the relevant agencies of the State are fully seized with the matter and are already investigating all aspects of the allegations made by the three ladies in question including the circumstances surrounding the unauthorised staging of a demonstration during the national lockdown, in deliberate violation of the SI 77 of 2020 it is most disconcerting to note some sections of the media and some within the diplomatic community appear to have already concluded that the Zimbabwean Government was responsible for the alleged abuse. Surely they would better serve the cause of justice by allowing the law to take its course and to await the outcome of the investigation rather than jump to conclusions or wantonly ascribe culpability. He claimed that there could be a third force involved in the abductions, which coincided with the convening of the Southern African Development Community Troika Summit last week in Harare. He said, Although Government has refrained from drawing its own hasty conclusions, it is difficult to ignore the glaring similarities which exist between this recent alleged incident and several such allegations in the past, which have all borne similar hallmarks of stage-managed theatre designed to soil the image of the Government and indeed the nation and to divert attention from the ongoing implosion and ever-shifting allegiances within some political formations in the opposition. As has been the case with past alleged abductions, the current dramatic episode just happened to coincide with major international and regional events the convening of the SADC Troika summit and the presence in Harare of several regional Heads of State and the impending Sadc Council Ministers virtual meeting. Government will, however, await the outcome of the investigation before drawing any conclusions. Investigations will be conducted with the prime objective of exposing the involvement of a possible third force. Mamombe, Chimbiri, and Marova were initially arrested by the police at a roadblock on the 13th of May and taken to Harare Central Police Station where, the MDC Alliance claims, were then handed over to their abductors. The arrest of the three was confirmed by the national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi to state-run newspaper, The Herald and the privately owned Daily News on the 14th of May 2020. In addition, the vehicle that was being driven by Joana Mamombe at the point of arrest is still parked at Harare Central Police Station. The MDC Alliance is extremely concerned that the Police Forensic Department took inappropriate pictures of the three women for the purposes of investigations but the photos were leaked and found their way on social media, thereby further victimising and traumatising the victims. Nyathi was not available for comment as he was not responding to calls on his mobile phone. Toni Payne, former manager of popular Nigerian rapper, Olamide, has taken to social media to recount how comedian, AY Makun, refused to allow her principal perform at his show when the rapper was still a rising artiste. The manager disclosed in a lengthy post on her Instagram stories that AYs attitude towards Olamide forced her to hold a grudge against the comedian. Payne said she had a good working relationship with the comedian and had requested he allow her artist to perform at his show, but AY declined because Olamide wasnt famous enough. ALSO READ: Because I Am Successful People Say I Use Juju Comedian AY According to her, the incident made her stop speaking to AY for a long time. Surprisingly, the comedian come back years later, begging Olamide to perform on his show when the rapper has already become one of the biggest Nigerian artists and record label executives. Lol I was speaking to a friend today and it reminded me of one story when I was managing Olamide I stopped speaking to comedian AY cos of this incident and honestly till today, Im glad I did cos I dont like people with that sort of character. So me and AY used to be cool. Id done favors for him in the past, no big deal. When Olamide was coming up, I decided to ask cash in a favor and ask if Olamide could perform at his show even if its for a minute. Omo, see ela. The man refused to give the boy a chance. It pained me ehn. I took the L and lamented for weeks. Lmao! No wahala, we sha kept it pushing. Anyways fast forward to the next year, Olamide had started doing well and guess who conveniently needed a favor, and wanted Olamide to perform? Oga comedian. This is the same guy that turned Ola down cos he wasnt big now looking for friend of the house performance. See ehn, its ok to turn him down, nothing is by force but dont come back later looking for a favor from that same person you underrated. It makes you look like a user. IMO! I told Cabasa he must pay but Cabasa, as per man of God, said to just free him and I had to respect that. Left to me, lolI would have charged him that day and at double our rate. Glory be to God sha cos if man na God See ehn, no one born of man can stop anything God has planned for you. Im always very proud when I see Olamide thriving cos the road was fucking hard. I knew his talent couldnt be hidden for long sha so all na time. Lemme not talk of the day one boy carried him and Gabriel Afoloyan to I think Ogun state and I showed that one that, emi Osha, on my watch, no one Im managing is to be messed with. ALSO READ: Olamide Shares Video Of Slay Queens Claiming They Bought Two New Honda Cars Using Mens Boxers RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- As 5G hits the market, new U.S. Army-funded research has developed a radio-frequency switch that is more than 50 times more energy efficient than what is used today. With funding from the Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Lille in France, have built a new component that will more efficiently allow access to the highest 5G frequencies, in a way that increases devices' battery life and speeds up how quickly users can do things like stream HD media. Smartphones are loaded with switches that perform a number of duties. One major task is jumping back and forth between different networks and spectrum frequencies: 4G, WiFi, LTE, Bluetooth, etc. The current radio-frequency switches that perform this task are always running, consuming precious processing power and battery life. "Radio-frequency switches are pervasive in military communication, connectivity and radar systems," said Dr. Pani Varanasi, division chief, materials science program at ARO. "These new switches could provide large performance advantage compared to existing components and can enable longer battery life for mobile communication, and advanced reconfigurable systems." The journal Nature Electronics published the research team's findings. "It has become clear that the existing switches consume significant amounts of power, and that power consumed is useless power," said Dr. Deji Akinwande, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who led the research. "The switch we have developed can transmit an HDTV stream at a 100GHz frequency, and that is an achievement in broadband switch technology." The new switches stay off, saving battery life for other processes, unless they are actively helping a device jump between networks. They have also shown the ability to transmit data well above the baseline for 5G-level speeds. Prior researchers have found success on the low end of the 5G spectrum - where speeds are slower but data can travel longer distances. This is the first switch that can function across the spectrum from the low-end gigahertz frequencies to high-end terahertz frequencies that could someday be key to the development of 6G. The team's switches use the nanomaterial hexagonal boron nitride, a rapidly emerging nanomaterial from the same family as graphene. The structure of the switch involves a single layer of boron and nitrogen atoms in a honeycomb pattern sandwiched between a pair of gold electrodes. Hexagonal boron nitride is the thinnest known insulator with a thickness of 0.33 nanometers. The impact of these switches extends beyond smartphones. Satellite systems, smart radios, reconfigurable communications, and Internet of Things, are all examples of potential uses for the switches. In addition, these switches can be realized on flexible substrates making them suitable for Soldier wearable radios and communication systems that can benefit from the improved energy efficiency for longer battery life with faster data speeds as well as other defense technologies. "This will be very useful for radio and radar technology," Akinwande said. This research spun out of a previous project that created the thinnest memory device, also using hBN. Akinwande said sponsors encouraged the researchers to find other uses for the material, and that led them to pivot to RF switches. ### In addition to the U.S. Army, support through a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the U.S. Office of Naval Research and The National Science Foundation's Engineering Research Center funded the research. The Texas Nanofabrication Facility partly fabricated the switch and Grolltex, Inc., provided hBN samples. CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army's corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command's core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win the nation's wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command. In the face of COVID-19 were seeing without any doubt how important unions are to this country fighting for their workers to have personal protective equipment, for paid leave, and for safer workplaces, the statement said, adding, As we come out of this crisis, there is an incredible need and opportunity to create good-paying, union jobs across the country and ensure the United States owns the 21st Century. Flash China on Monday expressed "serious concern" over media reports on discussions by U.S. officials on the possibility of resuming nuclear tests, urging the United States to meet its "due obligations" under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Some U.S. media outlets last Friday reported that U.S. national security officials discussed the possibility of resuming nuclear tests during an internal meeting held earlier this month, quoting senior U.S. government officials. "We'd like to express serious concern over these reports," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press briefing when asked to comment on a related question. Zhao said although the CTBT, an important pillar underpinning the international regime of nuclear arms control, has yet to come into effect, the nuclear test ban has become an international norm. "The treaty is of great significance in advancing nuclear disarmament, preventing nuclear proliferation, and safeguarding world peace and security." The five nuclear powers including the United States have signed the treaty and made the commitment of "suspending nuclear testing," the spokesperson said, noting the United States has taken the lead in the total number of nuclear tests conducted so far. "We'd like to urge the United States to meet its due obligations, abide by its commitments under the CTBT and earnestly uphold the treaty's purposes and objectives. The United States should contribute more to nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation regime, rather than further tread down the path of undermining global strategic stability," Zhao added. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Pasay City councilor Arnel "Moti" Arceo has apologized to health workers for his berating and cursing while they were conducting rapid testing of city hall employees earlier this week. The councilor got in hot water after a video, where he could be heard "badmouthing" health workers, went viral on social media on Saturday. READ: Pasay councilor berates, curses at health workers testing city hall employees Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano said that Arceo apologized to the health workers involved during a meeting she called for on Monday. Arceo maintained that his outburst, which he personally recorded on his cellphone, was an expression of shock and my fear of the virus and its possible transmission, not only to some members of the Council and their staff but also to other people in City Hall. "The health workers said they were traumatized by the incident, saying they were emotionally and psychologically affected by it," the Pasay City local government said in a statement. "But they later accepted Councilor Arceos apology." According to the Pasay City local government, Arceo said he will also issue a written apology on the matter. The Department of Interior and Local Government previously urged local government units to report incidents of harassment and discrimination against frontline workers in the country. President Rodrigo Duterte also ordered the police and military last April to watch out for anyone who will harass health workers. Nigerian Ruler, Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the media industry, particularly Nigeria Union of Journalists and Nigeria Guild of Editors, over the death of the Saturday Editor of New Telegraph, Waheed Bakare. Bakare died Sunday evening after a brief illness. He had a stint with the Punch newspaper before his employment by the New Telegraph newspaper. The late Bakare was a regular feature on Television Continental (TVC) Journalists Hangout. His remains have since been buried according to Islamic rites. A statement by the Special Adviser to the Ruler on Media, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the Ruler condoled with the family of the deceased, and management of New Telegraph Newspapers, describing Bakares death as a collective loss to the media and the nation that he served passionately with his talent. Buhari prayed that God would receive the soul of the departed and comfort all that mourn him, according to the statement. President @MBuhari commiserates with the media industry, particularly Nigeria Union of Journalists and Nigeria Guild of Editors, over the passing of the Saturday Editor of New Telegraph Newspapers, Mr. Waheed Bakare. Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) May 25, 2020 MINNEAPOLIS Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of a black man who died in police custody were fired Tuesday, hours after a bystanders video showed the handcuffed man pleading that he could not breathe as a white officer knelt on his neck. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the firings on Twitter, saying "This is the right call. The mans death Monday night was under investigation by the FBI and state law enforcement authorities. It immediately drew comparisons to the case of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died in 2014 in New York after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe. Frey apologized to the black community early Tuesday in a post on his Facebook page for the officers conduct, which included keeping his knee on the man after he stopped moving. Being Black in America should not be a death sentence. For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a Black mans neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, youre supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense, Frey posted. Police said the man matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case at a grocery store, and that he resisted arrest. The video of the incident starts with the shirtless man on the ground, and does not show what happened in the moments prior. The unidentified officer is kneeling on his neck, ignoring his pleas. Please, please, please, I cant breathe. Please, man, said the man, who has his face against the pavement. The man also moans. One of the officers tells the man to relax. At one point the man calls for his mother and says: My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts ... I cant breathe. As bystanders shout their concern, one officer says, Hes talking, so hes breathing. But the man stops talking and slowly becomes motionless under the officers restraint. The officer does not remove his knee until the man is loaded onto a gurney by paramedics. Several witnesses had gathered on a nearby sidewalk, some recording the scene on their phones. The bystanders became increasingly agitated. One man yelled repeatedly. Hes not responsive right now! Two witnesses, including one woman who said she was a Minneapolis firefighter, yelled at the officers to check the mans pulse. Check his pulse right now and tell me what it is! she said. At one point, one officer says: Dont do drugs, guys. And one man yells: Dont do drugs, bro? What is that? What do you think this is? The victim was identified as George Floyd by Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney who said he had been hired by Floyds family. We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck, Crump said in a statement. This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge. Charles McMillian, 60, of Minneapolis, said he saw police trying to get Floyd into the back of the squad car and heard Floyd tell them he was claustrophobic. Its sad because it didnt have to happen, McMillian said. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said the department would conduct a full internal investigation. Experts on police use of force told The Associated Press that the officer clearly restrained the man too long. They noted the man was under control and no longer fighting. Andrew Scott, a former Boca Raton, Florida, police chief who now testifies as an expert witness in use-of-force cases, called Floyds death a combination of not being trained properly or disregarding their training. He couldnt move. He was telling them he couldnt breathe, and they ignored him," Scott said. "I cant even describe it. It was difficult to watch. The New York City officer in the Garner case said he was using a legal maneuver called the seatbelt to bring down Garner, whom police said had been resisting arrest. But the medical examiner referred to it as a chokehold in the autopsy report and said it contributed to his death. Chokehold maneuvers are banned under New York police policy. A grand jury later decided against indicting the officers involved in Garners death, sparking protests around the country. The New York Police Department ultimately fired the officer who restrained Garner, but it was five years later, after a federal investigation, a city prosecutors investigation and an internal misconduct trial. In Minneapolis, kneeling on a suspect's neck is allowed under the departments use-of-force policy for officers who have received training in how to compress a neck without applying direct pressure to the airway. It is considered a non-deadly force option, according to the departments policy handbook. A chokehold is considered a deadly force option and involves someone obstructing the airway. According to the departments use-of-force policy, officers are to use only an amount of force necessary that would be objectively reasonable. Before the officers were fired, the police union asked the public to wait for the investigation to take its course and not to rush to judgment and immediately condemn our officers." Messages left with the union after the firings were not returned. The Hennepin County Attorneys Office, which would handle any prosecution of police on state criminal charges, said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened by the video and pledged to handle the case fairly. The FBI is investigating whether the officers willfully deprived Floyd of his rights. If those federal civil rights charges are brought, they would be handled by the U.S. Attorneys Office in Minnesota, which declined comment. The death came amid outrage over the death of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot Feb. 23 in Georgia after a white father and son pursued the 25-year-old black man they had spotted running in their subdivision. More than two months passed before charges were brought. Crump also represents Arberys father. All body camera footage in the Minneapolis case was turned over to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the agency asked to speak with anyone who saw the arrest or recorded video. The agency said the officers names will be released after initial interviews with the people involved and witnesses. ___ Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke in Milwaukee and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report. Advertisement Air pollution plummeted over China starting in February when the country enforced lockdowns due to the coronavirus, but new data reveals emissions have rebounded since orders were lifted in April. NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) released images showing nitrogen levels from vehicles and industrial facilities have returned to near normal for this time of year. Although there is a natural decline in the country after the holiday season, the traditional uptick was delayed because of the virus and continued to stay below long-term trends until the end of last month. However, scientists have predicted improved air quality was not likely to remain, as human activity was eventually expected to return. Scroll down for video Slide me The data used to create the images include nitrogen dioxide levels in the central and eastern areas from February 10 through 25 (during the quarantine) and a second set that shows April 20 to May 12 (after restrictions were lifted) Air pollution dropped significantly in China started in February when the country forced millions of people into their homes with the hopes of limiting the spread of the coronavirus. The orders also mandated factories close, curbed electricity demand and dramatically cut down public transportation in major cities. During this time, NASA and ESA used pollution monitoring satellites to track the decrease in nitrogen dioxide in China starting in February and back two months prior. Nitrogen dioxide is a noxious gas that is released during fuel combustion and emitted by cars, power plants and industrial facilities. It forms when fossil fuels such as coal, gas or diesel are burned at high temperatures and can cause a range of harmful effects on the lungs including increased inflammation of the airways and a greater risk of asthma attacks. The data shows that most of the major cities including Shanghai, Xian and Yinchuan all had a spike (orange) in levels starting in April. However, there are areas outside of the city that continue to have the same levels (blue) as some parts are still quarantine Although there is a natural decline in the country after the holiday season, the traditional uptick was delayed because of the virus and continued to stay below long-term trends until the end of last month Scientists first noticed the difference around Wuhan, where the virus originated, after Chinese authorities shut down transport in and out of the city as well as businesses to quarantine the outbreak. Air quality researcher at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Fei Liu said in February: 'This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event.' The drop in nitrogen dioxide also coincided with Lunar New Year celebrations across China where businesses close from the last week of January into early February to celebrate the festival. But Liu added how the reduction rate is more significant this year because it has lasted longer and there has not been an increase in nitrogen dioxide after the Lunar New Year. China recently lifted lockdowns last month and new data shows that levels are near normal for this time of year. Slide me Air pollution dropped significantly in China started in February (right) when the country forced millions of people into their homes with the hopes of limiting the spread of the coronavirus. NASA shared images following the lockdowns showing how emission levels had changed from January to February Maps released by NASA and ESA show levels of nitrogen dioxide in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, over China. The data used to create the images include nitrogen dioxide levels in the central and eastern areas from February 10 through 25 (during the quarantine) and a second set that shows April 20 to May 12 (after restrictions were lifted). The data shows that most of the major cities including Shanghai, Xian and Yinchuan all had a spike in levels starting in April. However, there are areas outside of the city that continue to have the same levels as some parts are still quarantined. The coronavirus started in Wuhan December 2019 and has since infected nearly every country around the globe. As of Tuesday, more than 5.4 million people have tested positive for the virus and the death toll has surpassed 346,000. The coronavirus started in Wuhan December 2019 and has since infected nearly every country around the globe. As of Tuesday, more than 5.4 million people have tested positive for the virus and the death toll has surpassed 346,000 The Helsinki-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) recently conducted a study that found that average levels of some pollutants rebounded once the policy was lifted and saw a huge spike in the past 30 days compared to the same period in 2019. This was true of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulate matter, suggesting a rebound in industrial activity drove the trend, CREA said. Overall passenger transport use in China remains lower year-on-year, but CREA said concerns about catching the coronavirus had led people to choose private cars over public transport as lockdowns eased, contributing to the rise in air pollution. Leslie Rieck with her poster at SUSE. Download Image: Web Robert F. Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Lycoming College and research associate with the Colleges Clean Water Institute (CWI), was awarded a $25,550 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support of the 5th Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology (SUSE5), for which he is a co-organizer and a member of the advisory board. SUSE (www.urbanstreamecology.org) is an interdisciplinary meeting held every three to five years that aims to further the scientific study of stream ecosystems in urban landscapes. The theme for SUSE5, which occurred in February, was Moving the bar on multidisciplinary solutions to wicked urban stream problems. The symposium sought to generate new approaches to overcoming barriers to effective stream management and restoration that require expertise in natural science, social science, the humanities, communication, engineering, landscape architecture, and education. Grant dollars were used to provide travel stipends to people from disciplines less commonly represented at the symposia, such as social scientists, landscape planners, and engineers, as well as people with personal backgrounds often underrepresented in stream ecology. SUSE5 employed a novel structure for a professional meeting that enabled participants to work in professionally diverse teams to tackle complex real-world problems through in-depth case studies. The NSF grant also helped to fund other meeting expenses and publication costs. At the symposium, Smith presented his poster, GIS-based prioritization system for small municipality MS4 compliance projects, which discussed a GIS-based prioritization tool for assisting a coalition of municipalities in Lycoming County, Pa., in identifying suitable locations for stormwater projects. Lycoming College biology and math double major Bailey Schwenk 21 (Hughesville, Pa.), co-authored the poster and will continue moving the research forward as he begins to focus on his senior project. Leslie Rieck, Ph.D., postdoctoral scholar with the Colleges CWI, also presented research at the event. Her poster, MS4 Misunderstandings and Myths: Moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities, summarized common misunderstandings concerning municipal separate storm sewer (MS4) requirements and offered real-world examples of efficient, effective frameworks for municipalities to satisfy MS4 regulations. The meeting was an intense and amazing three days of interdisciplinary science, said Smith. Everyone who participated learned about urban streams and about how to create effective solutions to managing these systems within the context of the urban communities the streams flow through. The most important outcome of the meeting was demonstrating a path forward to developing approaches to conservation that integrate ecological improvement, social justice, and improved community capacity. CWIs role as a minor sponsor of the February event, coupled with Smiths and Riecks involvement, further demonstrates its capacity to work at the forefront of applied stream ecology. This event aligns with the CWIs current project developing a college-community stormwater partnership supported by a grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. In addition to the NSF grant, the Washington Biologists Field Club, a nonprofit that promotes the study of biology in the Washington, D.C., area, recently awarded a $2991 grant to Smith to support a project entitled, Effect of weather on activity and ecology of adult stream insects. The grant supports a project, currently led by undergraduate biology major Jenna Tasker 22 (Northumberland, Pa.), examining the effect of daily weather on adult stream stonefly (Plecoptera) activity. The CWI provides a gateway to the natural resource heritage of North Central Pennsylvania. Focused on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, CWI provides opportunities for Lycoming College students to gain research and internship experience, and to educate communities about the health of our waterways. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The story is remarkable, to the glory of God. It is a story that needs to be told. But first, for some background. I first met Satish Kumar in Hyderabad, India, in 1995. He was a young man, fairly new to the ministry, and at the very beginning of his journey. When we next met, in 2015, he was pastoring the worlds fastest growing church, having exploded from 25 to 130,000 members in just 10 years. (I was there to witness the miracle firsthand.) Now, Pastor Kumar informs me, they have 8 church satellites with a total membership of 330,000. This alone is a story to tell. But that is not why Pastor Kumar contacted me on May 22. Instead, it was to share a video with me that told an amazing story of compassion and provision. (Please take three minutes to watch here. You wont be disappointed.) Pastor Kumar explained to me that about two months ago, he heard the Lord say to him, Store food. He was concerned about the well-being of his congregants during the pandemic, and he thought of how God used Joseph in Egypt to store food in preparation for a coming famine. And with the lockdown getting more severe and many of the poorer congregants not even having access to a grocery store, this could be a matter of life or death. Pastor Kumar thought to himself that, perhaps, they could store up about $100,000 worth of food, and he shared this with his leadership team. But then he sensed he was thinking too small. Ultimately, he felt that the church was to gather and store 700 tons of food in other words, one million, four-hundred thousand pounds of food. Where on earth could they obtain so much food? He got word out to everyone he could, and his people gave sacrificially. He also organized the pickup of food from every vendor who would donate. Then, his teams began to package the food in cartons, enough to supply three meals a day for four people for one month. And, using his large media and social media network, he posted a toll-free number to call. Whoever needed help could receive help. This meant Hindus and Muslims as well as Christians. As Pastor Kumar said to me, The coronavirus has no caste, creed, region and religion. Likewise even the Love of Christ has no region and religion. That's why we have decided to give these kits to those who called us online, including Hindu priests, pastors, and Muslim imams, all of whom got the kits. Yet there was no proselytizing involved, no Bible or tracts within the cartons. To do so would have incurred the ire of the Hindu authorities who govern the nation. Yet, to their surprise, when government officials examined the cartons, they found no such thing. Just the picture of Pastor Kumar and the church on the outside of the carton as the ones supplying the food. That was it. As of May 22, the church went beyond its goal of storing 700 tons of food, now reaching 800 tons. And to date, 37,000 families have received full provision for one month, all from a single church. This amounts to more than three million meals total. Workers delivering the carton to one family were met with a surprise. The mother and her children were destitute, starving to death, so she decided to end her life. She hung a rope in her small home and was about to kill herself but there was a knock at the door. The workers had just arrived with the carton of food, and the mother, stunned and grateful beyond words, showed them the rope. What a demonstration of the love of God! Pastor Kumar also told me that he was deeply burdened for the spiritual well-being of his flock. So, for the last 64 nights, without a break, he has broadcast from the church building, Calvary Temple, for roughly three hours, preaching for 60-90 minutes. And now, non-believing spouses who would not attend services are hearing the gospel. Jesus is being exalted and the pandemic is being redeemed. Whole families are worshiping God in their homes. Not only so, but since these families were all shut in together, with much time on their hands, Pastor Kumar challenged them to read through the entire Bible in one month. Those who did so would have their names put in a lottery with the winner receiving a free trip to Israel. Now, he tells me, Thousands of families are busy reading the Bible together. One girl, 11-years-old, finished reading the Bible in 6 days. (That is an accomplishment.) Knowing that I have a great love for India, having been there 27 times since 1993, and knowing that I have access to a wide audience, Pastor Kumar reached out to me to share this remarkable story. It is my great joy to share it with you, to the glory of God. Again, you can watch the video here. Last updated on: May 26, 2020 13:17 IST 'Cases are increasing, day by day, because testing has increased.' IMAGE: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his video conference. Photograph: ANI Photo Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had a video conference with the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation medical team over the weekend. Over 110 BMC doctors came online. It was a confidence-building exercise. The doctors also all received promotions. Through his address, which was apparently well received, Thackeray requested the doctors to remain strong, stay motivated and work with the private sector in Mumbai to fight and eradicate COVID-19 from the city. The entire Mumbai urban area, as of May 25, has reported over 32,000 cases. The death toll crossed a thousand on Monday and is pegged at 1,026 according to latest reports. Also 1,430 new cases were reported May 25. The Battle for Mumbai is on, as cases continue to rise alarmingly and show no signs of flagging yet, some 76 days after the city's first case. There is an acute shortage of ICU beds in COVID hospitals across Mumbai. Up to 15 to 20 virus-affected, serious patients, with comorbidities, are vying for one ICU bed, say BMC doctors. The Maharashtra chief minister's office and the BMC are working to expand ICU capacity even as enormous field hospitals get ready to open. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com spoke, once again, to Dr Balkrishna Adsul, the dean in charge of the Seven Hills hospital, the largest COVID-19 facility in Mumbai, for an update on the city. IMAGE: A view of the new open-ground quarantine and isolation facility with 1,008 beds for semi-critical coronavirus patients at the Bandra Kurla Complex, north west Mumbai, May 22 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo The worrying issues Mumbai hospitals are facing: The difficulties we are facing is that the number of beds in Mumbai are less. Number of positive patients are more. We are getting 1,500 to 1,700 positive patients per day. Out of this 20 per cent require an ICU bed, which is not available, at present, in Mumbai. Less ICU beds are there. Demand is more. But we have less mortality. Only 65 deaths till date in Seven Hills; that constitutes 2.29 per cent only. They are planning for ICU beds at the jumbo facilities that are starting in Mumbai in four or five places -- like the racecourse (the 600-bed COVID Care Centre, south Mumbai, which has 125 ICU beds earmarked), the MMRDA grounds (at the Bandra Kurla Complex, north west Mumbai) etc. They are anticipating in one week (for ICU beds to actually come on board). Let's see how it is going to happen. It is a little difficult task definitely, but it is a necessity for the city, so with the help of everybody, we will get it done. Once the private sector (comes forward) the shortfall can be patched. ICU beds are available in private sector, but they're not giving it for COVID-19 positive patients. There is a lot of demand for ICU beds for those with the comorbidity conditions, higher age, chronic kidney diseases. But because of unavailability of the beds -- we have to sort it out -- it is first come first serve basis. Yes (there is a little bit of shortfall in ventilators). There is a shortfall of manpower, especially trained nursing staff and intensivists (critical care physicians) they are not available in Mumbai (The Maharashtra government wrote to the Kerala government on May 23 requesting the temporary recruitment of 50 doctors and 100 nurses. The letter has been quoted in various news reports). IMAGE: The Brihanmumbai Electrical Supply and Transport, which came up with a 'transport ambulance' by modifying its AC mini buses, has planned to have 20 such ambulances kept on standby to cater to emergency requirements. Photograph: Sahil Salvi The position with ambulances in Mumbai: No, no shortage of ambulances. In the last one week they have increased also. Lot of deaths are there. There is a queue in the inventory. And then the problem is that a lot of people get panicked in the evenings and nights actually. There is panic to get an ambulance also. So, it becomes a little difficult. Also it takes at least two hours for patients to get admitted some times. IMAGE: A medical worker takes the sample of a woman for COVID-19 testing at Matunga, north central Mumbai, May 22 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo Testing position in Mumbai: There is a change of protocol once a week, actually, because many people who are asymptomatic may turn out to be positive. No point in just testing only. The protocol has been changed by the health minister periodically. No, no, there is no shortage of testing kits. Kits are available. But, definitely, all the resources are limited. There is the load of testing -- the collection, the laboratories, the people who collecting; they are also afraid for their health, they are directly exposed to unknown cases. Because there is a lot of testing load in Mumbai and there are limitations on testing staff resources. Definitely do not want each and every individual, who might have come in contact (with a positive case) to test, until the time they have symptoms. IMAGE: Representatives from the central government visit Dharavi, May 7 2020. Photograph: ANI Photo When the COVID-19 cases will be under control in Mumbai's slums: A lot of overcrowding is there. For one positive case, he or she, comes into contact with many of the people in the community. No, at present it is very difficult to comment on this. Cases are increasing, day by day, because testing has increased. We will come to know soon what is the standing: Whether increasing, plateau or decreasing. Production: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com Bazaar Corporate Radar | Feb 22, 2021, 12:00 AM IST Bazaar Corporate Radar Bazaar Corporate Radar is your window into the minds of top CEOs, Boardrooms, global economists, fund managers and sector analysts. If it?s making news, you?ll find it on Bazaar Corporate Radar. While China's political advisors gather in Beijing for China's annual two sessions, the city is also hosting Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ) at Beijing's 798 art district. The fourth edition of GWBJ, running between May 22 and 31, signals the return of the Beijing art scene. The week-long celebration brings together over twenty-two local galleries and institutions boasting works from renowned Chinese artists as well as newcomers. This year's line-up is jam-packed with exhibitions, public art installations, performances, talks and events. The festival takes place at Beijing's 798 art zone, around 30 minutes from the city center. The district boasts a thriving community of artists, galleries, boutique stores, and street art. The site is home to some of Beijing's prominent galleries and museums, including the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and M WOODS Museum. Although the art expo is returning, the pandemic means this year is a slightly smaller affair than usual. No overseas galleries or prominent curators are taking part. Despite this, the fact that the event is taking place at all signals hope for art scenes around the world currently waiting to reopen. In addition, the expo has expanded its online content for international audiences who cannot attend. Zhang Hanlu, the curator of the Gallery Weekend Beijing, said that the theme of this year's exhibitions is "the search for the sacred and mythical." She describes it as a process to establish interconnections with all things in the universe and an attempt to acknowledge the meaning of human existence. These themes are powerfully reflected in UCCA's "Meditations in an Emergency." The exhibition brings together over 26 Chinese and international artists to reflect on the role of art in a time of crisis and looks to art as a source of consolation, contemplation, and global unity. In the wake of the pandemic, the exhibition feels both timely and important. Over at the Tang Contemporary Art gallery, visitors can get lost in a labyrinth made entirely of cotton. The cotton maze is part of a new exhibition called "White" by Xinjiang artist Zhao Zhao. "The texture of cotton is soft," said Cao Dingding, a media relations manager at the gallery. "However, today, with all cotton blocks encapsulated in one room, they don't evoke feelings of softness and lightness, but rather of overwhelming compression," she said. Meanwhile, an exhibition at Pifo Gallery commemorates the late, outstanding British artist John Mclean, who passed away in June, last year, at the age of 80. It is Mclean's second solo exhibition at the gallery with over 29 pieces of colorful works on display. "When Mclean got to know American abstraction, he was able to create unique connections between color-filled paintings and impressionism. It was also since then that he started to paint like this," said Wang Yuhan, a staff member of the gallery. In Platform China Droom, a collection of paintings drawn by Chinese artist Bi Jianye, born in 1985 in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, explore the theme of "heroism." The exhibition contains a selection of highly detailed paintings created over the past five years. Gallery Weekend Beijing runs until May 31. Indian and Chinese troops remained engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in several disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, signalling that the confrontation could become the biggest military face-off after the Doklam episode in 2017. Top military sources said India has further increased its strength in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley, the two contentious areas where Chinese army is learnt to have been deploying around 2,000 to 2,500 troops besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure. "The strength of the Indian Army in the area is much better than our adversary," said a top military official on the condition of anonymity. The biggest concern for Indian military has been the presence of Chinese troops around several key points including Indian Post KM120 along the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. "It is serious. It is not a normal kind of transgression," former Northern Army Commander Lt Gen (Retd) DS Hooda told PTI. He particularly emphasised that Chinese transgression into areas like Galwan was worrying as there was no dispute between the two sides in the area. Strategic Affairs expert Ambassador Ashok K Kantha too agreed with Lt Gen Hooda. "There have been multiple incursions (by Chinese troops). This is something which causes concern. It is not a routine standoff. This is a disturbing situation," Kantha said. Sources said diplomatic efforts must be ramped up to resolve the escalating tension between the two armies and that both sides are eyeball-to-eyeball in several areas including Pangong Tso, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie. The Chinese side has particularly strengthened its presence in the Galwan Valley, erecting around 100 tents in the last two weeks and bringing in heavy equipment for construction of bunkers. The sources said Indian troops are resorting to "aggressive patrolling" in several sensitive areas including Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldi. The situation in Eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 which spilled over to the next day before the two sides agreed to "disengage" following a meeting at the level of local commanders. Over 100 Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in the violence. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in North Sikkim on May 9. India last week said the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops and asserted that India has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management. At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also strongly refuted China's contention that the tension was triggered due to trespassing by Indian forces on the Chinese side. India's response came two days after China accused the Indian Army of trespassing into its territory, claiming that it was an "attempt to unilaterally change the status" of the LAC in Sikkim and Ladakh. On May 5, the Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector on May 9. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries. The troops of India and China were engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017 which even triggered fears of a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km-long LAC. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet while India contests it. Both sides have been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it is necessary to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas. China has been critical of India's reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, and has particularly criticised New Delhi for making Ladakh a union territory. China lays claim over several parts of Ladakh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first informal summit in April 2018 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, months after the Doklam standoff. In the summit, the two leaders decided to issue "strategic guidance" to their militaries to strengthen communications so that they can build trust and understanding. Modi and Xi held their second informal summit in Mamallapuram near Chennai in October last year with a focus on further broadening bilateral ties. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says schools will remain closed until a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is ready. Without a vaccine, sending children to school spells disaster, Mr Duterte said during a late-night television address on Monday. I will not allow the opening of classes where students will be near each other. Unless I am sure that they are really safe, its useless to be talking about opening of classes, he said. The Department of Education had set the opening of the school year for August 24 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, three months after its traditional start in June. But the department stressed that school opening will not necessarily mean traditional face-to-face learning in (the) classroom. The physical opening of schools will depend on the risk severity grading or classification of a locality, it added when it announced the new school calendar. Schools have been conducting online lessons for students who have access to computers and the internet at home. However, this option is not available to all students, especially those in remote areas. Some parents have turned to home-schooling their children, with the help of instructions from the schools. There have been 14,319 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines as of Monday, including 873 deaths, according to the Department of Health. Metro Manila and high-risk areas for infections are under relaxed lockdown until May 31, which has allowed some industries and establishments, such as malls, to resume limited operations. (dpa/NAN) TORONTO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - CI Financial Corp. ("CI") (TSX: CIX) and Congress Wealth Management, LLC ("Congress") announced an agreement today under which CI will acquire a strategic interest in Congress, a Boston-based registered investment advisor firm with US$2.3 billion in assets under administration. Congress provides wealth management and family office services to high-net-worth individuals, families, foundations, and endowments, with an emphasis on comprehensive and customized client plans. The firm was named to the Financial Times 300 Top Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) list of 2019, the third time in four years it has received the award. The agreement represents the further development of a collaborative partnership between CI and Congress. In February 2020, CI helped finance Congress's purchase of Domus Capital Group, LLC, of Avila Beach, California. CI is also currently backing Congress as it works to finalize another acquisition in the near future that will bring Congress's assets to over US$3 billion. "We're thrilled that CI shares our vision for growth," said Paul Lonergan, President of Congress. "By joining with a firm with a similar philosophy and client-centered approach to wealth management, we can build scale while we enhance the spectrum of services and solutions we offer. CI's financial strength and expertise in asset and wealth management are already accelerating our expansion." "Congress is a highly successful firm with experienced leadership, a commitment to continued growth, dedication to client success, and a presence in some of the most attractive markets in the U.S. making it an excellent partner for CI as we build our U.S. wealth management business," said Kurt MacAlpine, CI Chief Executive Officer. "I am excited to work with Paul and his team as we collectively grow our RIA business." This transaction, which is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2020, solves succession planning for Congress employees and shareholders. Terms were not disclosed. The partnership with Congress is the latest step in CI's initiative to build a growing U.S. wealth management business through the acquisition of select RIAs. This initiative supports two of CI's three strategic priorities globalizing the company and expanding its wealth management platform. CI's other strategic priority is to modernize its asset management business. "The RIA sector is the fastest-growing segment in U.S. wealth management and Congress's location in Boston, a center for the technology, health, finance and education industries, holds additional growth potential," said Mr. MacAlpine. "This investment also allows us to provide our Canadian clients with cross-border wealth services, another benefit of our RIA strategy." To date, CI has acquired majority interests in Surevest, LLC, of Phoenix and One Capital Management, LLC, of Westlake Village, California, and reached an agreement to make a strategic investment in The Cabana Group, LLC, of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The four RIAs will have a total of US$6.6 billion in assets. "CI has now become the most active acquirer in the U.S. RIA space in both the number of acquisitions and their dollar value," Mr. MacAlpine said. "CI's value proposition of providing permanent capital and commitment to a business model based on comprehensive wealth planning resonates with RIA business owners. We expect this momentum to continue and to accelerate as our platform continues to grow and our brand awareness in the U.S. becomes mainstream." CI's Canadian wealth management businesses, which include Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Limited and CI Private Counsel LP, had approximately C$47.5 billion in assets under administration as of April 30, 2020. About CI Financial CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX) is an independent company offering global asset management and wealth management advisory services. CI held approximately C$166 billion in fee-earning assets as of April 30, 2020. CI's primary asset management businesses are CI Investments Inc. and GSFM Pty Ltd., and it operates in wealth management through Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd., CI Private Counsel LP, WealthBar Financial Services Inc., BBS Securities Inc., One Capital Management, LLC and Surevest LLC. Further information is available at www.cifinancial.com. The Financial Times 300 Top Registered Investment Advisers is an independent listing produced annually by the Financial Times. The FT 300 is based on data gathered from RIA firms, regulatory disclosures, and the FT's research. The listing reflected each practice's performance in six primary areas: assets under management, asset growth, compliance record, years in existence, credentials and online accessibility. This award does not evaluate the quality of services provided to clients and is not indicative of the practice's future performance. Neither the RIA firms nor their employees pay a fee to The Financial Times in exchange for inclusion in the FT 300. This rating by the Financial Times is not indicative of our future performance and may not be representative of any one client's experience. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations with respect to CI Financial Corp. ("CI") and its products and services, including its business operations, strategy and financial performance and condition. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar references to future periods, or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "should", "could" or "would". These statements are not historical facts but instead represent management beliefs regarding future events, many of which by their nature are inherently uncertain and beyond management's control. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements involve risks and uncertainties. The material factors and assumptions applied in reaching the conclusions contained in these forward-looking statements include that the investment fund industry will remain stable and that interest rates will remain relatively stable. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, among other things, general economic and market conditions, including interest and foreign exchange rates, global financial markets, changes in government regulations or in tax laws, industry competition, technological developments and other factors described or discussed in CI's disclosure materials filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The foregoing list is not exhaustive and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Other than as specifically required by applicable law, CI undertakes no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statement after the date on which it is made, whether to reflect new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE CI Financial Corp. Related Links http://www.ci.com/ A woman was photographed Friday allegedly posting xenophobic letters in San Leandro, demanding that if you are a woman or man and was born in other country, return, go back to your land immediately, fast, with urgency." The woman, who police identified as 52-year-old Nancy Arechiga of San Leandro, reportedly posted the handwritten flyers on at least five homes and around the neighborhood. Arechiga was arrested Friday night by police officers investigating the incident. "I am aware of reports that a woman was posting flyers containing anti-Asian messages at residences and public places in our community yesterday," San Leandro Mayor Pauline Cutter wrote in a message on Facebook on Saturday. "Id like to commend our Police Department for taking this situation extremely seriously. They were able to identify the person responsible within a matter of hours and take appropriate action right away. "The City of San Leandro is committed to being a welcoming place for everyone. There is no place for hate in our community." A copy of the letter was reportedly found on a tree in the neighborhood. Facebook "You, because we consider youre a stranger, one bad person for this country, leave, go far away, go back to your country, the place you belong," the letter read. "Leave this place. "You have until the day May/23/2020 Saturday 10:30 am to leave this country, it continued. In this place, no Asian allowed. My Country USA." The incident comes as hate crimes and harassment against the Asian American community are on the rise due to the coronavirus pandemic. A Ring doorbell camera allegedly caught Arechiga posting one of the notes on a home. Within a matter of hours, Arechiga, who was still in the area and had a backpack that contained more of the letters, was arrested, police said. Arechiga was booked into Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Due to the state's current bail policies, she has been cited and released from custody. Matthew Tom is a Homepage Editor at SFGATE. Email: mtom@sfgate.com. PHOENIX, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- An informal Honeywell (NYSE: HON) survey taken by more than 700 frequent business and personal air travel passengers indicates the types of guidelines and health-related equipment passengers may be looking for while flying during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The anonymous online survey showed that a majority of travelers (72%) were more concerned with the environment on an airplane than in an airport (28%). Nearly 60% of respondents cited social distancing as their top priority during travel, while about half of respondents cited air quality (51%) and personal protection equipment such as masks (47%) as top priorities. Passengers' most-desired safety items during travel were masks, hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes. Cleanliness validation via technology was by far (60%) the most important way to provide confidence in seating-area-related cleanliness, according to the informal survey. Other considerations included providing cleaning supplies directly to the passenger (23%), followed by being informed and updated by the cabin crew (12%). "This survey demonstrates that passengers want high-tech solutions to best validate the entire travel experience as it relates to health and safety," said Kevin Suits, vice president, user experience, Honeywell Aerospace. "Honeywell offers a variety of relevant solutions today that we can bring forward to support travelers. We continue to speak with airline executives and transportation leaders about the types of new products and services that would support their efforts to further clean and monitor the cleanliness of their aircraft. We are quickly bringing to market new offerings that would be a win-win for our industry and all of us who love to fly." From an airport perspective, survey respondents were most concerned with the cleanliness of common areas, followed by the ability to social distance and fellow travelers' use of protective equipment. This informal and anonymous online survey, captured via SurveyMonkey, had 732 respondents split nearly evenly between North America and Asia, with a small number from elsewhere. The majority, 75%, were ages 25-44. Surveyed travelers fly equally for business and pleasure, mostly on domestic routes. About Honeywell Honeywell Aerospace products and services are found on virtually every commercial, defense and space aircraft. The Aerospace business unit builds aircraft engines, cockpit and cabin electronics, wireless connectivity systems, mechanical components and more. Its hardware and software solutions create more fuel-efficient aircraft, more direct and on-time flights and safer skies and airports. For more information, visit www.honeywell.com or follow us at @Honeywell_Aero. Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 technology company that delivers industry-specific solutions that include aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom. SOURCE Honeywell Related Links http://www.honeywell.com As the white van approached Perfect Love Street, one by one chatting neighbours fell silent, covered their mouths and noses and scattered. Men in full body suits carried an empty coffin into the small, blue house where Edgar Silva had spent two feverish days gasping for air before drawing his last breath on May 12. It wasn't COVID, Silva's daughter, Eliete das Graas insisted to the funerary workers. She swore her 83-year-old father had died of Alzheimer's disease, not that sickness ravaging the city's hospitals. But Silva, like the vast majority of those dying at home, was never tested for the new coronavirus. The doctor who signed his death certificate never saw his body before determining the cause: cardiorespiratory arrest. His death was not counted as one of Brazil's victims of the pandemic. Manaus is one of the hardest hit cities in Brazil, which officially has lost more than 23,000 lives to the coronavirus. But in the absence of evidence proving otherwise, relatives like das Graas are quick to deny the possibility that COVID-19 claimed their loved ones, meaning that the toll is likely a vast undercount. As ambulances zip though Manaus with sirens blaring and backhoes dig rows of new graves, the muggy air in this city by the majestic Amazon River feels thicker than usual with such pervasive denial. Manaus has seen nearly triple the usual number of dead in April and May. Doctors and psychologists say denial at the grassroots stems from a mixture of misinformation, lack of education, insufficient testing and conflicting messages from the country's leaders. Chief among skeptics is President Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly called COVID-19 a little flu, and argued that concern over the virus is overblown. Asked by a reporter about the surging number of deaths on April 20, Bolsonaro responded, I'm not a gravedigger, OK? He has resisted U.S. and European-style lockdowns to contain the virus' spread, saying such measures aren't worth the economic wreckage. He fired his first Health Minister for supporting quarantines, accepted the resignation of a second one after less than a month on the job, and said that the interim minister, an army general with no background in health or medicine, will remain in charge of the pandemic response for a long time. In a cabinet meeting last month, a visibly enraged Bolsonaro insulted governors and mayors enforcing stay-at-home measures. The president's political followers are receptive to his dismissal of the virus, as determined as he is to proceed with life as usual. On a recent Saturday in Manaus, locals flocked to the bustling riverside market to buy fresh fish, unaware of the need for social distancing, or uninterested. As swamped intensive-care units struggled to accommodate new patients airlifted from the Amazon, the faithful returned to some of the city's evangelical churches. Coffins arriving by riverboat did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of young people at clandestine dance parties. And in the streets, masks frequently covered chins and foreheads rather than mouths and noses. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause severe illness such as pneumonia and lead to death. The new sickness made its way to Manaus in March, in the middle of the rainy season. At least that's when health officials first became aware of it in the capital of Amazonas state, which is at once remote and international. One precarious road connects the city to the rest of Brazil, and other municipalities are hours away by boat. But tropical fauna and flora normally draw tourist cruises up the Amazon, and business people fly in from around the world, to visit its free trade zone. Just last October, Manaus sent a delegation to China looking for investors. The city's first virus fatality was reported on March 25 and deaths have surged since then. But due to a lack of testing, just 5% of the more than 4,300 burials performed in April and May were confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to city funeral statistics. To accommodate its swelling number of coffins, the public Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery razed an area of tropical forest to dig dozens of trenches in the rust-colored soil for burials. These mass graves sparked anger toward city officials among families of the deceased. Why did their loved ones' bodies have to be buried in such a way, they asked, if there was no evidence the deaths were caused by COVID-19? Das Graas was among those who had hoped that her father could have a proper sendoff. But it wasn't to be. The white-suited men informed her that his coffin would be sealed, a precaution taken now regardless of cause of death. He would be sent to the public cemetery's refrigerated container to await burial. A person can't even die with dignity, das Graas, 49, said through tears. He's going to spend the night in the freezer when we could be doing his wake at home! Home wakes are no longer permitted. But workers from SOS Funeral, which provides free coffins and funeral services to those who can't afford them, have found homes packed with relatives touching the bodies of loved ones, hugging each other and wiping away tears with ungloved handsa potentially contagious farewell. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Sergio Goncalves LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal and Britain are in talks to try and secure an air corridor for tourists that would allow British visitors to avoid a COVID-19 quarantine upon returning home, two Portuguese sources familiar with the situation said. Portugal's tourism-dependent economy has been hard hit by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns at home and abroad, and authorities are trying to save at least part of the crucial summer season. Britain, the main source of tourism for Portugal, will introduce a quarantine for travellers arriving from abroad from June 8, including returning Britons. Travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days. In 2019, more than 16 million foreign tourists visited Portugal, almost 20% of them from Britain. One source said the talks were still in an initial phase. Another said the government sought the air corridor both for Portuguese tourists visiting Britain and vice versa, and was hoping that Portugal's relatively low coronavirus tally compared to countries like Spain or Britain would benefit tourism. Portugal's death toll of 1,330 and total cases at 30,788 are just a fraction of neighboring Spain's nearly 27,000 dead and over 235,000 infected. Approached for a comment, the foreign ministry told Reuters that Portugal had requested additional information after the British quarantine decision. Although it would not confirm nor deny any specific talks on a corridor, said it was optimistic about finding an acceptable solution. "Given the relevant reciprocal interests, the foreign ministry is confident that it will be possible to agree a solution that meets these interests, especially concerning the coming summer season," it said. The tourism sector accounts for nearly 15% of Portugal's gross domestic product and was one of the main drivers of its recovery from the 2010-14 economic and debt crisis. The AHP hotel association has said over 90% of Portuguese hotels remain closed after a lockdown imposed in March, expecting revenue losses of up to 1.4 billion euros between March and June. (Reporting by SErgio Goncalves, writing by Andrei Khalip, Editing by Angus MacSwan) Nana Frimpong Manso Ababio, Chief of Sefwi- Paboase and Mponuahene for Wiawso Traditional Area, has commended President Nana Akufo-Addo for effectively managing the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. According to him, during crises such as COVID-19, a country needed a bold, intelligent and visionary leader to address it and that the President had exhibited to manage the spread of the virus. He also acknowledged all stakeholders especially health workers who have contributed in one way or another in these trying times. The Traditional Ruler made the commendation when he handed over Veronica buckets, hand Sanitizers and 1200 pieces of nose masks to the Assembly member and unit committee members to be distributed to residents in the community in order to help stem the spread of COVID-19. Nana Ababio advised Ghanaians to strictly adhere to the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols which included, the washing of hands with soap under running water, wearing of nose masks, frequently using alcohol based hand sanitizer, observing physical and social distancing and avoiding crowded places to manage the spread of COVID-19. He also encouraged other traditional authorities to do their best in supporting the government in the fight against the pandemic, since they were in direct contact with the people. Nana Ababio urged chiefs to ensure that residents in their various communities complied with government directives especially the ban on social gatherings. He called on the President to ignore calls on him to lift the ban on social gatherings, but rather do proper consultation with experts before any decision was taken. The Traditional Ruler was of the view that churches and mosques in Ghana cannot observe social distancing during their meetings and it would therefore be dangerous to lift the ban now. He advised Ghanaians not to put too much pressure on the government as far as lifting of the ban was concerned and was hopeful the government would take the right decisions at the right time. Mr Simon Okom, Assembly Member for Paboase Electoral Area, who received the items, said he together with the unit committee members had put in place adequate measures to ensure that residents adhered to all the protocols aimed at fighting COVID-19 in the community. He said with free supply of nose masks by the chief, the wearing of the masks would be made compulsory for residents. 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. Featured Video The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) declared results for Class 10 exams, which were held between 17 and 24 February, 2020 on Tuesday (26 May) Bihar Board 10th Result 2020 declared | The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) declared results for Class 10 exams, which were held between 17 and 24 February, 2020 on Tuesday (26 May). The results were expected in the last week of March but got delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Education Minister Krishnandan Prasad Verma declared the results of Class 10th board examination in the presence of the department's additional chief secretary RK Mahajan and BSEB chairman Anand Kishore in Patna at education departments conference hall. As per the statement released by the Bihar Board, 2,89,692 students failed the exam. Over 12 lakh students passed the exam, taking the pass percentage to 80.59. 5,24,217 students stood in the second division, while 2,75,402 secured the third division. Himanshu Raj, a student of Janata high school, Tenuaj, Rohtas district topped the board examination with 481 out of 500 marks (96.20 percent). Durgesh Kumar, a student of SK High School, Jitwarpur, Samastipur has secured the second rank by scoring 96 percent. Both are bright students from humble households and are inclined to take up the science stream in 11th and pursue engineering further on. Himanshu, the son of a vegetable vendor, hails from Rohtas and dreams of becoming a software engineer. He says his success is due to his hard work and the sacrifices of his family who set aside their comfort to pool in the best resources available. "I studied for more than 10 hours regularly. My parents and my siblings always motivated me to study hard. They sacrificed their comforts to provide me best of the resources available so that I could concentrate on my studies," he told Hindustan Times. Durgesh's father is a modest farmer and he too was pleasantly surprised on securing the second rank in the state. He says he plans to pursue engineering from IIT. Durgesh's father says,"I have opted farming which was my fathers occupation to earn livelihood. But I want that my son gets higher education and join a good office." Among girls, Juli Kumari is the first among 10 girls who have made it to the toppers list. She has scored 95.60% and jointly shares third rank with Shubham Kumar and Rajveer. She too wants to become a computer engineer, Hindustan Times reported. The top ten scorers will receive a scholarship of Rs 1,200 per month from the Bihar government for one year. A total of 41 students including 10 girl students were among those who secured position among the top ten in the examination, it said. Even though BSEB completed the Class 10 exam evaluation process by 17 May, the results were declared today as the board was conducting a verification of toppers marks. The mechanism of verification was brought into place after 2016 toppers could not answer basic questions, leaving the board officials red-faced. The verification includes tests on IQ and to match handwriting. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the verification process was conducted online. Candidates who had appeared for the board exam can check their results on the official websites, or on our portal given below: http://resultbseb.online, http://onlinebseb.in and http://biharboardonline.com The matric examination was conducted in February in which 14,94,071 students had appeared at the examination at 1368 examination centres across the state. Of 14,94,071 candidates, a total of 12,04030 students have been declared successful (80.59 per cent) that included 4,03,392 students who passed the examination in first division while 5,24,217 passed in second and 2,75,402 passed in third division, the release said. "Bihar board became the first board to declare the results of class X and XII in the country as most of the boards have either not completed the examination or could not complete the evaluation of answer sheets because of the lockdown enforced in the country to contain the spread of Coronavirus infection," the BSEB chairman said. Kishore said the board could declare results because of its better planning and teamwork. The BSEB on March 24 had declared the results of intermediate (10+2) examination 2020 in which 80.44 percent candidates of all the three streams - arts, commerce and science had passed the examination. The pass percentage in matriculation examination last year was 80.73 while it was 68.89 per cent in 2018, the release said. Students can check their result at the official website, biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in. TORRINGTON Democratic delegates from Winsted, Torrington, Goshen and Colebrook voted unanimously to nominate Noel Rodriquez to run for the 63rd House District. The 63rd District the towns of Colebrook and Winchester, along with parts of Goshen and Torrington. Rodriquez is running against incumbent Republican Jay Case of Winsted, who has served since 2013. Rodriquez lives in Torrington and is a Connecticut native. He earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from Western Connecticut State University and taught math to underserved students to help them navigate the transition from high school to college. He was an entrepreneur in New Haven and currently works from home, raising two young children. I am honored to have received the Democratic nomination, and will do everything I can to improve the lives of the people in the 63rd District, he said in a statement. For too long the district has received less from Hartford than it deserved. For too long peoples concerns have been ignored. Contributed photo / That will change on my watch, he said. If elected, I will meet weekly with constituents to hear what is on their minds, regardless of party or ideology. And I will fight to make sure their voices are heard in Hartford. Noel is a fiscal conservative who supports state budgets that are pragmatic and wont burden future generations, said Torrington Democratic Town Committee chairman Paul Summers. His experience, his senses of urgency and commitment to improving the lives of those in our community make me believe that there is no more qualified person to serve as the 63rd House District Representative than Noel Rodriquez. Earlier this week, attorney Audrey Blondin, a member of the Democrats Connecticut State Central Committee, said the new candidates signal an exciting start to campaign season for the fall elections. The committee also endorsed Matthew Dyer of Litchfield to run for the 66th against incumbent Republican David Wilson, and New Milfords David Gronbach for the 30th Senatorial district against incumbent Craig Miner. Noel is young and I think he brings tremendous energy and strength to the 63rd District, Blondin said. I think he exemplifies the future of the Democratic party in the northwest corner. Hes working very hard and he has good communication skills. Thats the difference between a young candidate and a more seasoned politician. ... The younger candidates have knowledge and experience of their own. We can all learn and benefit from that. (Natural News) Five sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an American aircraft carrier, have tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) for a second time. The USS Theodore Roosevelt has been stuck at port in Guam since late March, when the coronavirus first wreaked havoc upon the ship. Since then, over 4,000 of the 4,800 crew members have had to go ashore for quarantine or isolation. Since the outbreak began, at least 1,156 sailors have tested positive for COVID-19, including one death, Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker, Jr., who died in an intensive care unit at a Navy hospital in Guam on April 13. Coronavirus swept through the USS Theodore Roosevelt These five sailors developed influenza-like illness symptoms and did the right thing reporting to medical for evaluation, said the Navy in a statement released on May 15. According to the Navy, the five re-infected sailors self-monitored and adhered to proper social distancing precautionary measures. Once they tested positive again, they were immediately evacuated from the ship and put under isolation, including 18 other sailors who were also in contact with them. Jonathan Hoffman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said that the outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt has been a learning process. This is a very stubborn, infectious disease, Hoffman told reporters during a press briefing. He further went on to praise the Navys quick action, which most likely helped prevent the whole crew of the aircraft carrier from being exposed for a second time. An official familiar with the USS Theodore Roosevelts situation said that the ships commanders arent entirely sure why the five sailors tested positive twice. However, the official did suggest that it may be related to questions about the accuracy of COVID-19 testing kits. The sailors are tested using a nasal swab. In some cases, the coronavirus cannot be detected through this test. Health officials arent certain whether the five sailors did relapse or if they tested negative without really being fully clear of the virus. In response to the possibility of a second outbreak, the ships commanders have intensified screening programs. Anybody who exhibits any flu-like symptoms will immediately be tested, evacuated and put under isolation. As of May 14, over 2,900 sailors have re-boarded the ship, and around 25 percent of the crew that tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered. (Related: While U.S. deals with Wuhan virus pandemic, China tries to take advantage of distraction by expanding in South China Sea.) USS Theodore Roosevelt resume operation after 55 days On May 20, after 55 days of being stuck at a port in Naval Base Guam, USS Theodore Roosevelt finally left harbor with more than half of its over 4,800 crew members. Navy officials told USNI News that the ships first deployment will most likely be brief and consist of the crew performing basic drills, which will certify whether the sailors can once again handle work on the aircraft carrier after an extended period of time away from the sea. The process of returning the USS Theodore Roosevelts sailors back to the ship began at the end of April. Sailors who were deemed healthy spent at least 14 days in isolation in Guam. Furthermore, they had to test negative for COVID-19 twice in a row. As of Sunday, over 2,900 sailors had returned to the carrier. The length of the USS Theodore Roosevelts stay at port means that the whole ship has to re-qualify to operate as a team before they can return to full active deployment. The commanders of the ship, in a statement, said that the ship will be leaving sailors who are not required to participate in these evaluations. The men and women left behind will be tasked with supporting the recovery of the rest of the sailors who are still in isolation or quarantine. During this time, the Navy has ordered the ship to enforce strict social distancing and very thorough cleaning protocols. It feels great to be back at sea, said Rear Admiral Stuart Baker, commanding officer of Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 9, which the Theodore Roosevelt is a part of. Despite the fact that five sailors tested positive upon returning to the ship, Surgeon General of the Navy, Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham, remains confident that the carrier is medically ready to return to active duty. It remains to be seen if the Navy would put the USS Theodore Roosevelt back in active duty after the new infections, but if the Navys testing kits werent properly audited, many false negatives may come back on ship and re-infect dozens more sailors. Sources include: APNews.com Stripes.com 1 News.USNI.org 1 Stripes.com 2 News.USNI.org 2 Edition.CNN.com Labor re-organization is a solution, but it's a tough problem for employers - PHOTO: TRAN NGOC LINH Workers may feel the difficult situation of their enterprises when the volume of their daily work becomes smaller and the time of shifts is reduced. Amid the fear for the coronavirus pandemic, uncertainties at the company make them feel more insecure. The workers are facing an unprecedented abnormality where both health and economic issues are in the red zone. Therefore, their psychology is now very sensitive, though they hardly imagine how their enterprises are in hardship. The hardships for enterprises are they are forced to shut down business, national borders are closed and international trade comes to a halt. Its now a tough problem for them to maintain operations. The difficulty of employees and the hardship of employers are clear. However, does one party put itself in the position of the other to understand each other? Many fiscal, credit and social support packages have been launched to help enterprises and people overcome the hardship. They are really lifesavers for enterprises to survive for a few months. Enterprises may work out specific plans and figures from these packages and figure out scenarios for survival. Labor re-organization a tough job Labor re-organization is a solution, but its a tough problem for employers. Labor cost is a big expense in business operations, especially for enterprises in the industrial sector. However, how to reduce the labor cost reasonably and lawfully? The Labor Code has projections and many options for employers, such as to suspend the labor contract, stop execution of the labor contract, re-negotiate the labor time, and terminate the labor contract. Employers can chose suitable options depending on their business health. However, quite a few enterprises have taken advantage of the pandemic, seen as an opportune time to lay off workers they have earlier planned to fire but have yet to find an opportunity. Elderly workers and those with high seniority are the most vulnerable. Regarding revenue, enterprises see disadvantages in elderly workers, such as poor health, less flexibility and adaptability to the production pace than young workers, and high expenses for salaries and social insurance. Elderly workers are in an insecure situation as they are old and its very difficult to find a new job. Therefore, they may think that they are taken advantage of by their employers upon termination of the labor contract though this is not in the employers thinking. Internal communications Todays information is diverse and comes from many channels. However, it is both superfluous and lacking, with plenty of misinformation but shortage of reliable information. Enterprises often pay attention to external communications to build the corporate image and promote their products, but neglect internal communications, which is particularly important during sensitive times. The Labor Code also has regulations for dialog at enterprises. However, most enterprises do it just for forms sake. Employers still hold the position as decision-makers and employees are always in a passive status. Meanwhile, State management agencies perform supervision based only on papers and documents presented and explained by employers. Therefore, this becomes a bottleneck in internal communications. The lack of internal communications is the cause of strikes. Some strikes have occurred because the communications from the top leaders to workers is not smooth and consistent due to disruption at the middle level managers. However, such strikes are easily solved, as employers policies and decisions are essentially lawful and reasonable, but are only stuck in communications. There are also strikes because information from workers cannot reach employers, or employers do not take into full account the interests of workers as per the law, and so have unreasonable, unlawful policies and decisions. These contradictions usually last long and are hard to resolve. They are cases of wrong communications at the start. Enterprises should pay attention to internal communications so as to provide official, accurate and unique information from the competent person of the enterprise, provide transparent information so as not to cause ambiguity which breeds the ground for subjective deduction of employees and rumors, help employees understand, share difficulties with and get confidence in employers, and gain the consensus from employees to avoid disputes and strikes which lead to an increase in operational cost and affect the operation, revenue, image and prestige of enterprises. The hardship amid Covid-19 is also an opportunity for employers to look back at their ways of management and operation, which need synchronization and tightness at the start and must be adjusted upon risk. The principle of effective labor employment and no layoff upon some opportunity should be observed right at the recruitment phase, and reviewed monthly, quarterly and yearly according to the company regulation. The Labor Code allows employers to sign definite term contracts with employees twice, with a total maximum time of six years. Upon termination of the term, employers have a lawful opportunity to end the contracts with ineffective employees. For employees with indefinite term labor contracts, employers can exchange with them during the annual performance review or talk with them over rectification of their shortcomings. Internal communications should be conducted regularly by enterprises whenever possible to seek a common voice. Understanding will foster human, sustainable relationship and mutual benefit. SGT Burundian ruling party candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye won the nation's presidential election, which was marred by violence and health concerns because of the coronavirus outbreak. The outcome was immediately rejected by the opposition. Ndayishimiye won with 68.7% of the ballots cast on May 20, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission. His main rival, Agathon Rwasa, got 24.2%, the commission announced on Monday. Rwasa's National Freedom Council rejected the results, alleging they were "fabricated," according to spokesperson Terence Manirambona. The CNL party is gathering evidence to take to court, he said. Burundi's decision to proceed with the poll contrasts with other nations, like Ethiopia, that are postponing elections because of the coronavirus pandemic. A week before the voting, Burundian authorities expelled four World Health Organization officials after they questioned the government's decision to allow campaign rallies attended by thousands of people. The country has confirmed 42 Covid-19 cases and one death. Foreign observers were prevented from monitoring the poll from Burundi, while human-rights groups including Amnesty International criticized the government for violations that preceded the vote. The vote marks the end of President Pierre Nkurunziza's 15-year rule that saw political upheaval, with thousands fleeing the country, become the norm after his decision to push for a third term in 2015. While Nkurunziza will no longer be in control, he is expected to maintain some power as long as the ruling party is in charge. He will receive a retirement payment and a salary, six cars, a house and the title of Paramount Leader. One of the world's poorest counties, Burundi has suffered two genocides since independence from Belgium in 1962 and has seen past crises spill over into its neighbors including Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ndayishimiye, a retired army general, has served as secretary-general of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy, a former rebel group in which he previously served as a commander. Ndayishimiye later served as Nkurunziza's envoy to countries including Uganda, South Africa, China and Russia and held ministerial posts. Ndayishimiye said during his campaign that he plans to expand production of coffee and tea, the industries that employ most Burundians and generate most of the nation's foreign currency. In a victory speech, he retaliated a pledge to create jobs and improve security. Washington, May 26 : Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden has made his first public appearance at a Memorial Day event after more than two months in quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the media reported on Tuesday. Wearing a black face mask, the former Vice President accompanied by his wife Jill, on Monday presented a wreath of white roses at Delaware's War Memorial Plaza, before observing a moment of silence to commemorate the military personnel who fought in World War Two and the Korean War, reports the BBC. "It feels good to be out of my house," Biden told reporters, adding: "Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made. Never, ever, forget." Biden last made a public appearance about 10 weeks ago. Shortly before defeating his Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in primary elections in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, the presidential nominee was forced to self-isolate because of the spread of coronavirus. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania also took part in a wreath-laying ceremony as part of Memorial Day commemorations on Monday. The President visited Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and then the historic Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Trump, who has been reluctant to wear a face mask but said recently he would do so "where it's appropriate", appeared without any face coverings at both events on Monday. Sunny Cheung has been the CEO of Telecom Digital Holdings Limited (HKG:6033) since 2015. This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO. See our latest analysis for Telecom Digital Holdings How Does Sunny Cheung's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies? Our data indicates that Telecom Digital Holdings Limited is worth HK$808m, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as HK$1.6m for the year to March 2019. It is worth noting that the CEO compensation consists almost entirely of the salary, worth HK$1.6m. We examined a group of similar sized companies, with market capitalizations of below HK$1.6b. The median CEO total compensation in that group is HK$1.7m. Next, let's break down remuneration compositions to understand how the industry and company compare with each other. On an industry level, roughly 90% of total compensation represents salary and 9.9% is other remuneration. Telecom Digital Holdings is focused on going down a more traditional approach and is paying a higher portion of compensation through salary, as compared to non-salary benefits. So Sunny Cheung is paid around the average of the companies we looked at. Although this fact alone doesn't tell us a great deal, it becomes more relevant when considered against the business performance. The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Telecom Digital Holdings has changed from year to year. SEHK:6033 CEO Compensation May 26th 2020 Is Telecom Digital Holdings Limited Growing? Over the last three years Telecom Digital Holdings Limited has seen earnings per share (EPS) move in a positive direction by an average of 9.6% per year (using a line of best fit). The trailing twelve months of revenue was pretty much the same as the prior period. Story continues I would prefer it if there was revenue growth, but the improvement in EPS is good. It's hard to reach a conclusion about business performance right now. This may be one to watch. We don't have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow. Has Telecom Digital Holdings Limited Been A Good Investment? Given the total loss of 21% over three years, many shareholders in Telecom Digital Holdings Limited are probably rather dissatisfied, to say the least. This suggests it would be unwise for the company to pay the CEO too generously. In Summary... Sunny Cheung is paid around the same as most CEOs of similar size companies. We would like to see somewhat stronger per share growth. And shareholder returns have been disappointing over the last three years. So many would argue that the CEO is certainly not underpaid. On another note, we've spotted 3 warning signs for Telecom Digital Holdings that investors should look into moving forward. If you want to buy a stock that is better than Telecom Digital Holdings, this free list of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW), a joint venture among General Motors, SAIC Motor and Liuzhou Wuling Motors, saw its 22 millionth complete vehicle roll off the assembly line on May 25, honored the first Chinese domestic automaker that stepped over the production threshold. SGWM unveiled on spot a fire new silver badge of its Wuling brand, which targets the markets outside China. The iconic red five-diamond is still reserved to serve China's local market. Code-named Victory, the first vehicle bearing the global silver logo came off the production line at the same time, signifying that Wuling, the brand known to every household in the country, resolves to make deeper inroads into the global field. We are told that the new vehicle is an MPV according to the general body shape appearing in the photos unveiled, while the design details are still veiled by a heavy camouflage. According to SGMW, the automaker will operate two product lineups tagged with the global silver and the domestic red badges, which are based on different manufacturing platforms, in a bid to meet the demands of overseas and local consumers respectively. To support the brand's aspiration to go global and move upscale, the company is going to improve its service quality for users and upgrade the delivery channels, as part of efforts to build a new brand awareness. Amid the shock waves sent by the COVID-19 spread, China witnessed sweeping drops in automobile sales. However, the paper number offered by SGWM was not that bad. The company said its retail sales in March surpassed 130,000 units, and the April deliveries jumped 13.5% compared to the year-ago period to over 127,000 units, making the Jan.-Apr. volume total 285,040 units. SGMW also announced its cumulative export volume of complete vehicles and knock down kits aggregated 28,926 units for the first four months, of which over 19,000 units were from the Baojun 530. Its second model to be sold locally rolled off the production line on May 13. Code-named CN180S, the new model is namely the Baojun 510 for Chinese market and will be under the marque of Chevrolet after being exported to South America (photo source: SGWM's WeChat account). It took the coronavirus pandemic to shake Alabamas auto industry out of the trade wars with China. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield told Bloomberg this weekend that Alabamas auto exports to China in the first quarter rocketed up to more than 170 percent from the same time a year ago. Alabamas overall exports to China grew 45 percent to $534 million in the first quarter over the previous year, U.S. Census Bureau data shows. By far our largest exporter on the automobile side comes from Mercedes, Canfield said. That figure came as China itself was in the grip of a massive lockdown brought on by the spread of COVID-19. The pandemic measures to fight the virus eventually shut down Alabamas Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance from mid-March to this month. The plant is expected to resume production this Thursday after a partial shutdown due to a shortage of supplier parts, a company spokesperson said. As Canfield noted, the dramatic increase comes with one asterisk: Alabamas 2019 exports to China were already in a deep hole because of ongoing trade tensions. Trade with China was down 26 percent for Alabama in 2019. Alabamas exports totaled $20.7 billion in 2019, a decrease of 3 percent from the previous year. We were one of the hardest-hit states in terms of the trade wars," Canfield said. But Alabama was ahead of the curve this year. More than half of U.S. states saw merchandise exports to China fall this year compared with the first quarter of 2019. Thats after the U.S. and China signed a sweeping trade deal that took effect in mid-February. A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler declined to comment. Mercedes said last month that it delivered 477,400 cars and light vehicles worldwide in the first quarter. DENVER, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters since February 2011, has been honored by his peers as a 2020 Business News Visionary. The distinction is bestowed on those journalists whose dedication, foresight, and talents have had a transformative impact on the profession. Adler's oral history and a profile are available at www.NewsLuminaries.com and will be featured in a commemorative book to be published in 2021. The 2020 Business News Visionary Awards trophy 2020 Business News Visionary Awards recipient, Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief, Reuters "Steve was recognized by his peers for his agility in redefining Reuters's mission to extend beyond delivering news rapidly to also providing context, background, and greater depth," said Dean Rotbart, chair and editor-in-chief of the Business News Visionary Awards. "During a period of enormous upheaval in the news business, Steve has also managed to stay true to Reuters's core values and culture, which have distinguished the organization since its founding almost 170 years ago," Rotbart added. The Business News Visionary Awards are a continuation of the Business News Luminary Awards, which, in 2000, honored the 100 top business and financial journalists of the 20th century. "The goal of this project extends beyond the celebration of the specific men and women who are profiled," noted Terri Thompson, who introduces each journalist's oral history. "It is also to educate the public about the high standards to which these and so many other dedicated journalists have adhered and to offer a proven playbook for other journalists and journalism students to follow," she says. Thompson is the former director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University. Rotbart is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated, award-winning financial journalist, former columnist with The Wall Street Journal, and a news entrepreneur. He, along with a panel of more than two dozen distinguished nominating judges including past award recipients and top business news organization editors and reporters is responsible for the selection of the 2020 class of honorees. Adler joined Reuters in January 2010 after having led or worked in senior newsroom management positions at BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, and The American Lawyer. His duties at Reuters, which employs roughly 2,500 journalists based in 120 countries, encompass editorial strategy and planning, personnel choices and career development, news technology, and labor relations, among other responsibilities. "We're fiercely competitive," Adler tells Rotbart in his oral history. But Adler adds, "we try to be a very humane organization, to be aware of people's career needs, and to be very actively concerned about diversity, about inclusion." In honoring Adler, the nominating judges also cited his extensive work on behalf of multiple nonprofit journalism organizations. Among his roles, Adler serves as chairman of Columbia Journalism Review's board of overseers, chairman of the board of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and a member of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Business News Visionary and News Luminary Awards are made possible, in part, by the support of Monday Morning Radio, a weekly podcast produced in cooperation with the nonprofit Wizard Academy and its founders, Roy H. and Pennie Williams; and Robert L. Dilenschneider and Joan Avagliano of The Dilenschneider Group, providing an unsurpassed level of communications counsel to global clients. Additional support is provided by eReleases, delivering personal service and exceptional value to every customer; American Small Business Institute, a nonprofit providing video education for small business owners; Time in a Bottle Photography and its founder, Avital Rotbart, specializing in world-class portrait photography; and All Kids Bike, a nonprofit movement to teach every child in America how to ride a bike in kindergarten. Media Contact: Dean Rotbart 303-296-1200 [email protected] SOURCE Business News Visionary Awards Nurses and doctors rescue a woman in critical conditions after being infected by coronavirus in Brazil - Getty Images South America Countries with declining coronavirus infections could face an "immediate second peak" if they let up on lockdown measures too quickly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. "We need also to be cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time," said WHO emergencies head Dr Mike Ryan on Monday. "We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now, it is going to keep going down." Meanwhile, the WHO also announced it was suspending trials for a drug touted by Donald Trump as a cure for the coronavirus. The US President revealed he was taking hydroxychloriquine, an anti-malarial drug, last week. The nation has by far the world's highest death toll, reaching 98,218 on Monday, with more than 1.6 million confirmed infections. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has also heavily promoted hydroxychloroquine while the virus has exploded across nation, which this week became the second most infected in the world after the US. But the WHO decided to cancel trials after studies questioned the drug's safety, including one published Friday that found it actually increased the risk of death. Lockdowns eased around the world In the past 24 hours, lockdown measures have been eased in Spain's two biggest cities Madrid and Barcelona, where people can now meet in groups of up to 10 in their homes or in parks or on the terraces of bars and restaurants. Beaches also reopen in parts of the country after months-long closures. Italy has reopened swimming pools and gyms, while Greece has done the same with restaurants and cafes. In Ukraine, citizens of Kiev can take the metro for the first time in 10 weeks. Iran has reopened its main shrines, India has resumed domestic flights and Japan has stressed caution but lifted a nationwide state of emergency. Story continues Masked Biden makes first public appearance in months Joe Biden made his first public appearance in more than two months on Monday as he marked Memorial Day by laying a wreath at a veterans park near his Delaware home. Since abruptly cancelling a March 10 rally in Cleveland at the onset of the pandemic, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has waged much of his campaign from his home in Wilmington. When Biden emerged on Monday, he wore a face mask, in contrast to President Donald Trump, who has refused to cover his face in public as health officials suggest. Democratic US presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill visit the War Memorial Plaza during Memorial Day - Reuters Mr Biden and his wife, Jill, laid a wreath of white flowers tied with a white bow, and bowed their heads in silence at the park. He saluted. "Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made," he said after. "Never, ever, forget." "I feel great to be out here," Mr Biden told reporters, his words muffled through his black cloth mask. His visit to the park was unannounced, and there was no crowd waiting for him. Though low-key, the appearance was a milestone in a presidential campaign that has largely been frozen by the outbreak. While the feasibility of traditional events such as rallies and the presidential conventions are in doubt, Mr Biden's emergence suggests he won't spend the nearly five months that remain until the election entirely at home. Saudia Arabia announces an end to curfew An aerial view of Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca taken during the early hours of Eid al-Fitr - AFP Saudi Arabia will begin easing restrictions on movement and travel this week, more than two months after stringent measures were introduced to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Restrictions will be lifted in three phases, culminating in the curfew completely ending - with the exception of the holy city of Mecca - from June 21, the state news agency reported in a statement early on Tuesday. The Hajj and Umrah pilgrimmages - which attract millions of travelers from around the world - will remain suspended until further notice. The kingdom has so far recorded 74,795 cases of Covid-19 with 399 deaths. More than 2,000 cases are still being reported daily. Saudi Arabia had imposed 24-hour curfews on most towns and cities but eased them for the start of the fasting month of Ramadan. The 24-hour curfew was reimposed during the five-day Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which began on Sunday. Angry protests in Ecuador Demonstrators defied restrictions to march in cities across Ecuador on Monday in protest against President Lenin Moreno's drastic economic measures to tackle the crisis. Mr Moreno last week announced public spending cuts including the closure of state companies and embassies around the world, but trade unions on Monday said workers were paying a disproportionate price compared to Ecuador's elite. Around 2,000 people marched in the capital, waving flags and banners and shouting anti-government slogans. Coronavirus has caused at least 3,200 deaths in the country, making it South America's worst hit nation per capita. Authorities say more than 2,000 further deaths are likely linked to the virus. A protester kicks a burning tyre at a police barricade in Quito - AP What you might have missed Berlin: The European Union's top diplomat has called for the bloc to have a "more robust strategy" toward China amid signs that Asia is replacing the United States as the centre of global power. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a gathering of German ambassadors on Monday that "analysts have long talked about the end of an American-led system and the arrival of an Asian century." European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell addresses a video press conference at the conclusion of a video conference of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels. Credit:AP "This is now happening in front of our eyes," he said. Borrell said the pandemic could be seen as a turning point in the power shift from West to East, and that for the EU the "pressure to choose sides is growing." A week after the municipal corporation listed four cemeteries where bodies of Christians who pass away of Covid 19 can be buried, members of the Roman Catholic community approached the Archdiocese of Bombay asking for more cemeteries attached to churches to accept such burials. The development comes after HT first reported that a family from Mahim was forced to cremate the body of a 61-year-old woman who passed away from Covid-19 after cemeteries refused to provide burial space. Despite the high court order, there are not enough cemeteries which are accepting bodies of Covid-19 victims. Which is why a representative submitted a letter to the Archdiocese on our behalf. If they dont accept the request, we plan to move court. Burial is not being allowed even in family graves. The cemeteries attached to the church need to allow burial just as four BMC cemeteries have been asked to, said Melwyn Fernandes of Association of Concerned Catholic (AOCC), who has submitted the application. According to community activists, around 20 such forced cremations would have taken place ever since the lockdown guidelines were enforced. However, there are no official figures available with authorities. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had earlier said that bodies of all Covid-19 victims will have to be cremated, but later earmarked burial grounds for Muslims. This led to demands from Christian groups for burial permissions. Some approached the Bombay High Court which said burials should be allowed. The court last week, observed that there was no scientific data to support the claim that Covid-19 can spread through dead bodies and that the BMC had all the authority to demarcate the cemetery. However, Father Nigel Barett, spokesperson of the Archdiocese, said that burial order comes from the BMC. If BMC gives the order to bury a body, then it is on the trustees of that cemetery to decide whether they want to accept the body or not. There are no guidelines in place by BMC about the handling of dead bodies and when the grave can be opened again, without which everyone is scared to handle the body. Otherwise, the church would be blamed for spreading the virus, said Barett. The Archdiocese of Bombay has around five lakh members under its jurisdiction. All across Mumbai, Thane, Raigad district and Mahad, there are 122 churches of Roman Catholic denomination, with approximately 60 cemeteries attached to them. Earlier, there have been four burials that have taken place at Deonar cemetery, of which two families were from Dharavi. Over the weekend, the burial of a member from a Roman Catholic church from Vakola took place at Mahalakshmi. Deonar cemetery is really small, they can only accept a limited number of bodies. They have now requested us to not get any bodies because as there is no space. Some bigger cemeteries like Sewri, which are under the jurisdiction of BMC, are not accepting Covid 19 bodies, said Cyril Dara, secretary of Christian reform united people association. STAMFORD Stamfords Veterans Park was made for days like Sunday, providing an ideal place for the citys ex-military men and women and citizens to congregate and honor those who lost their lives defending the United States of America. But the nearly completed park was sparsely filled on Sunday during a brief Memorial Day service as residents continue to practice social distancing. Nearly everyone at the ceremony was wearing face masks and sitting six feet away from each other. A small crowd could be seen observing from a distance, but residents were encouraged not to attend. The focus of the event, which was livestreamed on the citys Facebook page, was on Stamfords fallen military personnel, but the pandemic that has hit the city harder than any other in Connecticut was impossible to ignore. By Saturday, Stamford had 3,068 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 181 reported deaths attributed to the virus, both state highs. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal spoke at the Memorial Day service and said the impact of the coronavirus would not prevent Americans from observing Memorial Day. Americans will not be deterred by the wipes and the masks and the sparse crowds and the lack of a parade, he said. The fire of patriotism in this country is no less bright because of this pandemic. He added, If anything, we have new heroes to honor, heroes who have been inspired by the courageous men and women who have fought for this country over so many years: our police, our firefighters, our first responders, our doctors, our nurses, our clinicians, heroes at the front line in this latest battle. Blumenthal said no veteran should be left behind when it comes to education, jobs and healthcare. That is a lasting tribute to the fallen, to the heroes who have not come back, and whose legacy we honor and remember today, he said. Mayor David Martin also delivered a speech during the service and briefly referenced the ongoing pandemic. We honor those today who lost everything they had in defense of this great country and in defense of our freedoms, he said. And for all of the challenges that we face in America right now, and there are many, there is no other country that I would rather be in than right here in the good ol U.S.A. The ceremony included comments from Rick Redniss, president of the Stamford Veterans Park Partnership. The public/private partnership was created to redesign Veterans Park, and Redniss said on Sunday that while work is still incomplete at the park, the name of every Stamford veteran who has died in conflict has been added to one of the pillars at the site. ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com Lapses on part of Centre, state govt: SC on migrant's plight India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, May 26: Supreme Court on Tuesday took suo motu cognizance of plight of migrant labourers who are stranded in different parts of the country. The court said that there have been lapses on part of Centre and State governments and immediate measures are required to be taken to provide travel, shelter and food to migrant labourers. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News Taking suo motu cognizance of the "inadequacies and lapses" in providing food and help to migrant labourers, the Supreme Court has directed the Center to file a detailed report on all steps taken to aid migrant workers so far. The court said that concentrated efforts needed to provide succour. Hopeful of returning to work, scores of migrants return home Next hearing in the matter is scheduled on Thursday. The Center had earlier asked the Supreme Court to "trust the steps taken by the government". A Supreme Court bench had then recognised the situation but had left it to the government to take action. Now, the SC has asked for a detailed status report from Center and all states. Ghana's Parliament has debunked reports that some Members of Parliament and 13 other staff have tested positive for COVID-19. It comes after the viral report that two lawmakers have tested positive for the virus after they subjected themselves to voluntary testing requested by the Speaker of the House. In a statement, the lawmaking House said the reports are false and must be disregarded. The attention of Parliament has been drawn to reports by Starrfmonline that two Members and thirteen Staff of Parliament have tested positive for COVID 19 after the mandatory testing exercise undertaken by Parliament last week. Parliament would like to state categorically that the results of the tests are not yet known and so the report by Starrfmonline is not true. Parliament would, therefore, like to urge Starrfmonline to withdraw the said report and update its audience with the relevant information to the effect that the results from the tests are unknown to Parliament. The confidentiality protocol is that those who test positive will be called directly by the testing team. Officially Parliament is unaware of any such call and therefore there hasnt been any official figures giving by the National COVID-19 response team, the statement said. ---starrfmonline But while July is still a ways away, Garvin gave her fellow seniors a chance to celebrate now by organizing a senior parade. She said that she was inspired by watching the other towns around Wilton have fun with graduation parades and seeing how much the students seemed to enjoy them. I thought that our senior class deserved to have one too, Garvin said. In addition, she explained that some students wouldnt be able to participate in the July ceremony. We have three kids that are getting shipped off to the military in June, she said, So this is like a celebration for our whole class, but its also a really big deal for them because they wont be here for our actual graduation in July. While the parade might have been just as short-notice as their early summer break, Garvin said thanks to social media, it was easy to get to her classmates and organize the event. Some will be out of town or working, but she is still hopeful that most of her class will be able to join in on the fun and celebrate their graduation together. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX is set for its most important milestone, a launch that may well define the future of the U.S. space program. Elon Musk's company plans to launch two NASA astronauts on Wednesday the first crewed mission in SpaceX history. The mission, called Demo-2, is technically the final test flight of the company's spacecraft. Regardless of the nature of the mission, Demo-2 will be the first launch of NASA astronauts from the U.S. since 2011. "This is a new generation, a new era in spaceflight," NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said. See CNBC's live blog for up-to-the-minute coverage, and watch the launch live here. Ever since the space shuttle retired nearly a decade ago, the U.S. has paid Russia upwards of $80 million per seat to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. But NASA awarded SpaceX and Boeing with contracts worth $3.1 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively, to develop new spacecraft under a program called Commercial Crew. For SpaceX, the Demo-2 launch represents the final flight test of its Crew Dragon capsule, built to carry as many as seven people to orbit. "We need to have the capability of accessing space not just for NASA, but for all of humanity," Bridenstine said. The historic importance of Demo-2 is drawing a wide audience, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to the nation's capital. VIPs scheduled to attend at NASA's Kennedy Space Center include President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. SpaceX founder and CEO Musk plans to watch from within the Mission Control room just a few miles from the launch site. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft sits atop launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 25, 2020. Gregg Newton | AFP | Getty Images Morgan Stanley is telling investors to pay attention to Demo-2 because of what it means for the future of private spaceflight and the many companies working on technologies to support futures missions. "Mark May 27th on your calendars. You don't want to miss this," Morgan Stanley said. One of the key factors for launching remains the temperamental Florida weather. NASA and SpaceX continue to move forward with the launch as planned, with liftoff set for 4:33 p.m. ET Wednesday. As of Monday, the Air Force's 45th Space Wing forecast that the launch has a 40% probability, given current weather concerns, which include rain and thick clouds. If NASA and SpaceX decide to postpone the launch, the mission has back-up times set for Saturday at 3:22 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. While thousands of people have come to Florida's Space Coast to watch NASA launch crew, the agency made an unprecedented request given the coronavirus crisis. The head of NASA said "now is not the time" for large crowds to gather on the highways and beaches to watch the launch. "Join us in this launch but do so from home. We are asking people not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center," Bridenstine said. NASA will broadcast 24 hours of nonstop live coverage of SpaceX Demo-2. The webcast will begin four hours before liftoff and continues until the spacecraft docks with the International Space Station the next day. Here is what you need to know about SpaceX's first astronaut launch. The spacecraft: Crew Dragon The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for Demo-2 inside the company's hangar at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX Crew Dragon is the name of the SpaceX capsule that will carry NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. It's an evolved version of the company's Cargo Dragon spacecraft, which has launched to-and-from the space station 20 times. Just as Cargo Dragon was the first privately developed spacecraft to bring supplies to the ISS, so Crew Dragon will be the first privately developed spacecraft to bring people. "The investments that we have made into SpaceX and the investment SpaceX has made in itself have really resulted in something that is going to be very beneficial not just for human space exploration, but beneficial for the economy," Bridenstine said. Likewise, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell told reporters that "NASA has been an extraordinary customer and extraordinary partner" for the company. While Shotwell didn't know specifically how much SpaceX had spent of its own funds to develop Crew Dragon, she noted that "SpaceX invests heavily in our products." Last year, Musk said SpaceX had invested on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars to fund Crew Dragon development. NASA also expects that in addition to getting a way to send astronauts to space, it will be getting a cost-saving option as well. The agency expects to pay $55 million per astronaut to fly with Crew Dragon, as opposed to $86 million per astronaut to fly with the Russians. "We together have become stronger in engineering technical support for this nation," NASA Commercial Crew program manager Kathy Lueders said. Inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which has touch screen controls for the astronauts. SpaceX Crew Dragon with its trunk stands just under 27 feet tall and 13 feet around. The spacecraft includes its own system of small rocket engines for directional control in space and a launch abort system in the event of an emergency. Its trunk is the large lower half that's covered in solar panels, which can carry cargo. The spacecraft is designed to carry seven people. It has a system of controls that is focused around touch screens, although NASA notes that Crew Dragon has a "robust fault tolerance built into the system." As the astronauts will be wearing custom SpaceX spacesuits, the touch screens work whether or not the astronauts are wearing gloves. The spacesuits are largely designed to protect the astronauts in the event that the spacecraft loses pressurization, with life support and power systems connected through a point on the spacesuit's leg. Additionally, the astronauts are expected to have to manually control the spacecraft only for a short period. Even the very careful docking process when Crew Dragon reaches the ISS is expected to be done autonomously. The rocket: Falcon 9 The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket emblazoned with the famous NASA "worm" logo for the Demo-2 mission/ NASA SpaceX's Falcon 9 is the workhorse of the company's growing fleet of rockets. It stands at nearly 230 feet tall and is capable of launching as much as 25 tons to low Earth orbit. Crew Dragon will sit in place of the rocket's nose cone at the top. After launching the spacecraft on its way, the large lower portion of Falcon 9, known as the "booster," will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and attempt to land on the company's drone ship in the ocean. SpaceX has landed its Falcon 9 rocket boosters 44 times. The astronauts: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley NASA astronaut Doug Hurley (left) and Bob Behnken walk out of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building during a dress rehearsal for the SpaceX Demo-2 launch. NASA Behnken, 49, and Hurley, 53, have been astronauts since being selected in NASA's class of 2000. Each flew on two space shuttle missions, with Hurley notably flying on that spacecraft's last mission in July 2011. Both are military veterans: Behnken served in the Air Force and Hurley in the Marine Corps. For Demo-2, Behnken is the joint operations commander, which means he is responsible for tasks such as reaching the ISS and docking. Hurley is the spacecraft commander and will be responsible for Crew Dragon's launch, landing and recovery. The pair officially entered a preflight quarantine on May 13, although the astronauts said they've been self-isolating since mid-March. While astronauts typically enter a quarantine ahead of a mission, the protocol has been additionally strict for Demo-2 due to the coronavirus. NASA commercial spaceflight director Phil McAlister said earlier this month that "direct interaction with the crew is not permitted without appropriate protective gear." Even interaction with VIPs the day before launch will be through a glass wall. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley seen during a dress rehearsal for the SpaceX Demo-2 launch. NASA SpaceX has also taken extra precautions. Shotwell said that in the last two months, the company has been "ensuring that only essential personnel" were going near astronauts during training. SpaceX employees "are wearing masks and gloves," she added. "We are social distancing as well. We've got at least half our engineering staff working from home," Shotwell said. Even the Mission Control room will look different than in years past, NASA said. The agency will use different rooms to keep people safely distant from each other, with NASA looking to add plexiglass between seats and stations for Demo-2. The launch plan SpaceX Four hours before liftoff, Behnken and Hurley will suit up. About a half an hour later, the crew will walk out to their Tesla Model X, complete with NASA logos, and drive from the astronaut quarters out to the launchpad. The Tesla Model X that will carry astronauts to the launchpad for SpaceX. NASA With 2 hours to go, the astronauts will strap into their seats in Crew Dragon and begin checking that all systems are good to go. Then, with just under two hours until launch, the hatch to the spacecraft will be closed. SpaceX will begin loading the rocket with fuel 35 minutes before launch, which will initiate a final series of processes and checks. "We've worked closely with NASA since 2006 and all that work is culminating to this historic event," Shotwell said. "My heart is sitting right here [in my throat], and I think it's going to stay there until we get Bob and Doug safely back from the International Space Station." The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule stand upright on the launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of the Demo-2 launch. A few minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9's booster stage will return and attempt to land on the company's barge stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster is towed back in to Port Canaveral after landing on the company's barge. SpaceX If anything were to go wrong in the last half hour before the launch and even during the launch, Crew Dragon will abort and fire its emergency escape system. The company performed a full test of that system in January with no one inside the spacecraft. That test saw SpaceX trigger the system during the most intense part of the launch to show that it could be done at any time. A rendering shows SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule firing its emergency escape engines during the company's test flight SpaceX The full mission The Demo-2 mission has only just begun after Crew Dragon reaches orbit. As the final flight test for SpaceX's capsule, NASA said Demo-2 "will validate the company's crew transportation system, including the launch pad, rocket, spacecraft, and operational capabilities." Docking with the ISS will be a critical part of the mission. Although expected to be done autonomously, the docking and undocking process is essentially a high-speed dance in orbit, as both the ISS and Crew Dragon will be moving at tens of thousands of miles per hour. SpaceX created a virtual simulator of the docking process, so that viewers can try their hand at manually docking Crew Dragon. Notably, the virtual simulator use the actual interface that Behnken and Hurley would use when piloting the spacecraft. The uncrewed SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at the International Space Station with its nose cone open revealing its docking mechanism while approaching the station. NASA Once Crew Dragon docks, Behnken and Hurley will become part of the crew on the ISS. In addition to performing test on Crew Dragon, the astronauts will join the rest of the ISS crew in conducting research and other tasks. NASA is not sure how long the Demo-2 mission will last. McAlister said the mission has "an unbelievably complicated set of criteria and considerations" for its duration, which is currently set for between 30 to 119 days. The Crew Dragon spacecraft for future missions will be capable of staying in space for at least 210 days. After undocking, Behnken and Hurley will point Crew Dragon back toward Earth. The capsule will reenter the Earth's atmosphere and then use its parachutes to slow and splash down in the Atlantic. The astronauts will then be picked up at sea by SpaceX's ship "GO Navigator" and then return to Florida's Space Coast. SpaceX recovery boat "GO Searcher," which will pick up the Crew Dragon spacecraft after splash down. SpaceX Demo-2 represents the final step before NASA certifies the SpaceX capsule to fly regular, long missions to the ISS. After those missions begin, SpaceX plans to use Crew Dragon spacecraft for other missions. Those include space tourism, as the company has so far unveiled two deals to fly privately paying people to space on Crew Dragon as early as next year. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule splashes down after its first test flight in March 2019. NASA/Cory Huston Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) ABS-CBN said Tuesday it would be forced to release in the coming weeks a list of employees who would be retrenched if it stays off the air. "Habang wala kami sa ere, palaki nang palaki ang nalulugi sa amin at sa mga darating na linggo, mapipilitan na kaming maglabas ng listahan ng mga empleyadong mawawalan ng trabaho," ABS-CBN President and CEO Carlo Katigbak said in a hearing conducted by the House Committee on Legislative Franchises, along with the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability. [Translation: While we are off-air, we are going more and more bankrupt and in the coming weeks, we will be forced to release a list of employees who will lose their jobs.] Katigbak in a Senate hearing last week said the network may begin the retrenchment process by August, well within the promise that their 11,000 workers will remain employed for three months. "We want to do everything we can to protect our employees pero may hangganan din ang kakayahan ng kumpanya namin (but our company also has limits)," Katigbak said. He again appealed to the House of Representatives to grant ABS-CBN a fresh 25-year franchise so it could resume its radio and TV broadcasts. The media giant went off air on May 5 after the National Telecommunications Commission did not give it provisional permit to operate, as earlier promised, and as requested by Congress. In its appeal asking the Supreme Court to invalidate NTC's shutdown order, ABS-CBN said it is losing 30 million to 35 million every day that it is off air. The Lopez-owned network said the shutdown has caused "grave and irreparable injury" to the network and its employees who could not afford to lose their jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic. Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta in his speech asked ABS-CBN to stop using its employees' woes for "emotional appeal." He accused the network of hiring more than 8,500 of its workers as "independent contractors or talents, project workers and contractuals," stripping them of the benefits due to a regular employee. Citing the Department of Labor and Employment, Katigbak said ABS-CBN fully complied with all government orders. "Wala po kaming nilabag na batas (We did not violate any law)," he said. On Thursday, ABS-CBN will submit to the House documents to formally respond to allegations mentioned by Marcoleta, including its violation of a supposed 50-year-limit on any congressional franchise, tax-avoidance schemes, and foreign ownership, among others. The House panels will then resume the hearing on Monday. Solicitor General Jose Calida, who skipped today's hearing, will be invited again following House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano's appeal for "leniency" so the government's top lawyer could be given a chance to present his arguments against giving ABS-CBN a new franchise. NEW DELHI The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is increasing the number of exam centres from 3,000 to 13,000 to make sure the students who sit for their class X and XII board exams get the centre of their choice, but there is one section of students that may still have to travel hundreds of miles before reaching the venue those studying in residential schools. As the government announced the lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, thousands of students who study in boarding schools across the country returned home. Now, as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise, these students and their parent and guardians are in a dilemma . CBSE has said students of boarding schools will appear for the class X and class XII exams in their respective schools. That means some will travel hundreds of miles to take these tests. And schools have to make quarantine arrangements once the students come back to the campus . Significantly, 661 residential schools, the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, are run by the HRD ministry itself. Most of these schools are situated in rural areas. Under the present norms, many class 12 students of these and other schools will be forced to undertake such long winding trips from June 15 to be eligible to sit for exams which begin on July 1. The ordeal could prove tougher for students who will have to sit immediately for their NEET or JEE exams a week later. When contacted, a senior CBSE official said that the board has received representations from different schools and is looking into all of them. A senior HRD ministry official added that the ministry and CBSE are aware of the issues and attempts will be made to provide solutions. If students come all the way they will have to quarantine, which means they will have to stay minimum fifteen days before the exam. Coming all the way is difficult and even parents are under stress, they fear sending their children across. These are factors. But as far as the school is concerned, all possible arrangements can be made because they are after all our children. But we definitely need guidelines about the stay in the hostel. We are awaiting those guidelines, said Shakuntala Jaiman, Principal of Delhis Colonel Satsangis Kiran Memorial School, which has several of students who have to appear for class 12 exam. Meanwhile, an HRD ministry official said: MHRD and CBSE are aware of the issue and will take a decision in the interest of the students. MHRD is always committed to ensure the safety and academic welfare of the students. Last week, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced that the CBSE would be holding exams in 13,000 and not just 3,000 centers as this would help students, who would otherwise have to travel long distances. This problem for the residential schools and their students is genuine. Young students, their parents and school authorities should not be burdened with additional anxieties during these uncertain Corona times. With vast infrastructure available to the CBSE , and since there are still 5 weeks for exams to begin, students may be given the options in their hometowns in centres nearest to their homes, said eminent educationist and former UGC member Dr Inder Mohan Kapahy. The global COVID-19 pandemic has changed each of us in ways that we cannot yet know. Luckily, we live in a region where our leaders have had the wisdom to listen to scientists and medical experts, rely on the best data available, and act early and decisively. Wide adherence to our states shelter-in-place saved countless lives, setting an example for the rest of the nation to follow. However, our efforts have not been without consequences. In our initial response, the Bay Area workforce was severely cut, and those with caregiving responsibilities had to step away from their professions to care for dependents. Women traditionally take on a greater share of caregiving and domestic duties and are more likely to be single parents; thus, shelter-in-place orders rapidly expanded existing inequities for women in all workplaces. For us women in STEM, this problem is particularly magnified in our male-dominated fields, creating unprecedented obstacles to womens participation in the workforce. These inequities have blocked participation of key talent from our lifeline institutions of scientific discovery, medical advancement, data collection and technology innovation, which we urgently need to combat COVID-19. On the long path to recovery, we need the full strength of our workforce to solve these challenges. To ensure working women dont get left behind, we urge our leaders to be intentional in our recovery by prioritizing the provision of safe, scientifically driven, high-quality child and elderly care. Historically, women in STEM fields have faced tremendous challenges to gain a foothold in the best of times. Long-term absence of caregiving services will amplify these challenges. Currently, over 90% of families in the Bay Area do not have access to safe child-care services, and the recent expanded opening of day cares and summer camps by the city still leaves many families without care. Our child-care workers are both overwhelmed and concerned about their own health. In San Francisco, there are approximately 50,000 families with children under 18 without options for daycare, schools and summer camps; many more may be impacted by lack of eldercare services. While allowing short-term camps for children age 5-12 is an important step, the longer term uncertainty of child care for all ages is worrisome. Schools are already announcing plans to shift partially or fully to remote learning in the fall. Without a clear solution in sight, those who are primary caregivers could be dealt a substantial or fatal blow to their careers. This loss would be particularly consequential at academic institutions like UCSF, the citys second largest employer, where women make up less than a quarter of the STEM faculty population and far fewer occupy leadership positions. Similar imbalances abound in tech and other sectors. Currently, more than half of working women in the Bay Area report having difficulty finding child care during this pandemic. Within the tech world, women are 50% more likely to be burdened by child care, and nearly twice as many women have been laid off than men since the pandemic began. In the research community, we are witnessing an alarming divergence in productivity between scientists with and without primary caregiving responsibilities after just a month of shelter in place. Parenting is already a strong predictor for leaving academia. Thus, magnifying pre-existing inequities, particularly for those at critical career stages likely to have the youngest children, will further exacerbate the leaky pipeline we have long sought to repair. While our colleagues with no dependents or dedicated caregiving partners surge ahead with newfound freedom from commute time and business travel, many of us have even considered stepping away from the very leadership roles we have fought so hard for. In ordinary times, fighting for social progress can feel the way Lewis Carrolls Red Queen describes it: It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. These days, it takes all the running you can do to slow an inevitable backslide. Reversing this backslide will require the same thoughtfulness and leadership that enabled our region to be one of the first in the U.S. to flatten the curve. One of our top goals must be to strategically get kids back into schools, day cares and caregiving environments that we can trust are safe and reliable. This does not mean simply reopening existing programs because we do not currently have a clear understanding of how to make them safe without radically changing their nature and quality. Rather, the reopening of camps and schools should be intentional and include well thought-out guidance around distancing, testing and contact tracing, in order to protect the safety of all, particularly caregivers. Rather, we must reimagine what safe environments look like in a time of pandemic while considering the emotional and developmental needs of children in care. We should also consider the working conditions of child- and elderly-care providers, many of whom lack the health care benefits and job stability necessary to make safe decisions for themselves. We also need to account for financially struggling families in the Bay Area who are already at higher risk of infection and will have to make impossible decisions putting their children in unsafe environments because they have no other recourse. To make this work, we will have to incentivize employers to tackle this challenge for different kinds of workers and workplaces. We need to consider alternative recovery models that may include staggered activity and child care for those whose homes are now their offices. We cannot simply rely on our already overburdened cities and counties to come up with suitable childcare solutions. In this land of technology and innovation, we have an opportunity and an obligation to maximize safety of families and caretakers by creating models that are well informed by scientific and epidemiological evidence and integrate a dedicated COVID-19 testing strategy for continual contact tracing. Indeed, such data-driven strategies are being undertaken in other California cities. How we address this issue will undoubtedly define our region for years to come, and we have an opportunity to lead the nationwide charge, just as we did in our initial response. Our shelter in place was a drastic but necessary tool for avoiding catastrophe; now we need to be more nuanced and deliberate about how we ease restrictions to avoid seeding new social and economic problems that will have lasting impact on our futures. And we need strong leadership to do it. There is already a coalition emerging in the Bay Area, and we urge the Bay Area counties to build upon this by designating a task force with the authority to bring together a representative group of city officials, major employers, early childhood educators, technology experts and those with key scientific expertise in epidemiology to develop and implement safe solutions for childcare and schools. This needs to be a concerted partnership between the public and private sectors. The solutions also need to be equitable and include low- and moderate-income families. We need this for the sake of our children, our economy and all the hard-earned cultural and technological progress that defines the Bay Area. And we need it soon. The second half of the Red Queen quote says that If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! The Bay Area is home to some of the most creative and determined people in the world. With strong leadership on this issue, there are few places better equipped to run twice as fast for the things we care about. Seemay Chou, Tejal Desai and Denelle Dixon are Bay Area professionals from STEM fields, representing a growing coalition of working women seeking an equitable recovery. Contributors and supporters of this coalition include: Hana El-Samad, Ph.D., Kuo Family Endowed Professor and vice chair, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF; Godavari Ghosh, program and development director, Dress for Success; Noelle LEtoile, Ph.D., Kavli Fellow, associate professor, Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, UCSF; Elizabeth Quinn, director, Centro Las Olas; Susanna Rosi, Ph.D., Lewis and Ruth Cozen Chair II Professor, Departments of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science and Neurosurgery, UCSF; Lauren Weiss, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF; Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., Nobel laureate, Physiology or Medicine 2009, UCSF; Katherine Pollard, Ph.D., director, Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology; and Katherine Stueland, chief commercial officer of Invitae Corporation. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) COVID-19 patients in the country who are participating in the World Health Organizations 'solidarity' trial, a global effort to find a cure for the deadly viral illness, will stop taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine after safety concerns have been raised, the Department of Health announced on Tuesday. This morning, nagpalabas na po ng sulat ang ating proponent at pinadala sa ating opisina na sinasabi nga po nila (Our proponent has sent a letter to our office, saying) that we are pulling out and we are stopping from giving this hydrochloroquine to our patients because of WHO's advise, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told reporters in a media forum. The solidarity trial is a global effort to find a cure for the deadly viral illness by testing remdesivir; lopinavir/ritonavir; lopinavir/ritonavir with interferon beta-1a; and hydroxychloroquine on patients. Now with regard to the results, o anumang resulta nito sa ating mga pasyente hanggang ngayon na naospital, hindi pa ho natin pwedeng ilabas yan dahil (Whatever its results are on our patients will remain confidential, as) we are on the clinical trial phase, Vergeire added. She later clarified in a briefing that the use of the drug will be postponed only on patients who have not yet started the treatment while those who have already received the drug will continue taking it until their treatment is complete. "[Para] sa mga pasyenteng sumasailalim na sa treatment na ito, magpapatuloy sila hanggang matapos nila ang kanilang treatment," she said. [Translation: For the patients who are already undergoing this treatment, they will continue until the treatment runs its course.] This was also the advice of the WHO, she told CNN Philippines in a text message. At least 150 Filipino patients are taking part in the clinical trial, Dr. Marissa Alejandria, the Philippine representative for the international clinical trial, told CNN Philippines last week. WHO announced on Monday that it is suspending its clinical trial on hydroxychloroquine, while its board is doing a review on safety data. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decision was based on the large study published on Friday in the medical journal The Lancet, which disclosed that seriously ill COVID-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine were more likely to die. United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the drug as a possible treatment for COVID-19 despite experts warning against it. He has said he is taking it himself to prevent contracting the viral infection. Meanwhile, clinical research continues on other drugs or combinations, namely remdesivir; lopinavir-ritonavir and lopinavir-ritonavir plus interferon beta, WHO said. CNN Philippines' Carolyn Bonquin and Catherine Modesto contributed to this report The Times Union has lifted the paywall on this developing coverage to provide critical information to our community. To support our journalists work, consider a digital subscription. Total COVID-19 cases: 363,836 in New York state, including 29,302 deaths. 64,443 recovered. 1,774,128 total tested. 1,680,680 in U.S., including 98,902 deaths. 384,902 recovered. 14,907,041 total tested. 5,588,299 worldwide, including 350,423 deaths. 2,286,827 recovered. Note: The figures include presumed COVID-19 deaths. The number of positive confirmed cases is cumulative and includes people who have recovered as well as those who died. Additional resources: Tuesday's latest updates: 2:37 p.m. Rensselaer County reports no new COVID-19 cases It's the first time since mid-March that Rensselaer County officials said they've had no additional COVID-19 cases. The county total stayed at 496. "This is very positive news to report, and shows there is progress being made in the fight against COVID-19," said County Executive Steve McLaughlin. "We appreciate those residents who have exercised common-sense and competence as we deal with this public health issue and move to reopen our region. These numbers definitely help in the reopening process." The county has seen 8,251 residents tested. Eight residents are hospitalized with none in the ICU. The county has seen 28 residents die. 1:34 p.m.: Schenectady County hits 652 cases The county says 105 people currently have lab-confirmed cases and six people are hospitalized. So far, 649 people have recovered. The number includes people with confirmed cases and those who isolated and recovered before testing was widespread. ___ 1 p.m.: Recoveries far outpace new cases in early reports Tuesday The number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 is far outpacing the number of new cases, according to data from Albany, Saratoga and Schenectady counties. The three counties have a combined 12 new cases, nine of which are from Schenectady County, and 104 recovered patients. ___ 11:41 a.m.: Albany County sheriff says heroin overdoses are outpacing COVID-19 deaths Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says heroin deaths are outpacing COVID-19 deaths in the region right now, a development that comes after months of regular deaths from the disease caused by the coronavirus. Apple made the comments Tuesday at a news conference with County Executive Dan McCoy. It shows the county is starting to get the upper hand in the fight to slow the spread of the coronavirus but that the grip of heroin remains strong for many. Read more ___ 9:28 a.m.: Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to publish new fairy tale "The Ickabog' The book, which will be serialized on the internet starting Tuesday will come with an art contest for children that, Rowling said, she hopes will help them get through the coronavirus lockdown. She wrote the book around the time she completed the Harry Potter books but only just decided to publish it. Read more ___ 6:05 a.m.: UAlbany got $963 per pupil in coronavirus aid. Why another school will get $16,667. When the letter came informing James Dexter that the U.S. Department of Education would be sending his 30-student nursing program $500,000 in coronavirus aid, Dexter was stunned. The funding translated to $16,667 for each student in the nursing program of the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex Board of Cooperative Educational Services. I had to look three times, said Dexter, the organization's CEO. It is so unusual for our little small program to be getting such a big allocation. Meanwhile, in the neighboring county to the south, the University at Albany was informed by the Department of Education it would receive $16.85 million in coronavirus relief. The university serves about 17,500 students. Thats $963 per pupil. The striking disparity in aid is a result of how the DOE distributed a portion of the $14 billion in higher education relief that Congress approved to help schools struggling to support their students and institutions during the pandemic. The legislation was written in a hurry and the department has moved fast to get money out the door as quickly as possible. But the inconsistent distribution has created a scenario where some small schools say they will eventually return funds to the DOE, while larger colleges and universities are desperate for more relief. Read more ___ Monday: Total COVID-19 cases and deaths reported in the Capital Region Albany County: 1,619 cases, 27 hospitalized, 1,064 recoveries, 76 deaths Columbia County: 360 cases, 17 hospitalized, 188 recoveries, 31 deaths Greene County: 260 cases, 2 hospitalized, 245 recoveries, 18 deaths Rensselaer County: 486 cases, 6 hospitalized, 344 recoveries, 28 deaths Saratoga County: 449 cases, 4 hospitalized, 365 recoveries, 15 deaths Schenectady County: 630 cases, 12 hospitalized, 599 recoveries, 29 deaths Warren County: 230 cases, 2 hospitalized, 144 recoveries, 30 deaths Washington County: 194 cases, 172 recoveries, 13 deaths ___ Monday: Schenectady County hits grim COVID-19 milestone Schenectady County reports a woman in her 60s has died of the virus, bringing the county's death toll to 30. So far, the county has had 643 cases of coronavirus confirmed by a laboratory and currently 127 people have the virus. The county says 619 people have recovered from the disease. The number includes people with lab-diagnosed cases and those who were presumed to be infected but were not tested. ___ Monday: Chris Churchill: Andrew Cuomo's halo has lost its shine For a stretch, our governor was riding an incredible wave of praise. Andrew Cuomo was the model of good governance, the hero with the firm hand during the coronavirus crisis. His leadership made him a media darling and put him on the cover of Rolling Stone "Andrew Cuomo Takes Charge" amid suggestions he replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. He was the pandemic's authoritative voice. But a reassessment is underway. The governor has been taking fire, as regular readers of this newspaper know, for a state directive mandating that nursing homes accept COVID-19 patients. As I wrote for a recent column, that was a tragic mistake, but that's not the only part of Cuomo's coronavirus response that's being questioned. Read more ___ Monday: Albany County in five-day stretch without a COVID-19 death No one has died from COVID-19 in Albany County since Thursday, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy's office said Monday morning. It is one of the longest stretches without a death from the virus since it first appeared in the county in mid-March. McCoy spokes about the virus a day before the Capital Region hits the one week mark since stay-at-home orders were relaxed with Phase 1 of the reopening of the local economy on May 19. Read more ___ Monday: A pandemic can't stop remembrance at Saratoga National Cemetery No barbecues. No parades. But a Memorial Day weekend minus the usual celebratory gatherings is still Memorial Day weekend, and many spent their Sunday honoring departed loved ones at the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery. Under blue skis rippled with clouds, they walked, talked, laid flowers and paid respects. Id much rather be doing this than a barbecue, said Steve Pelchar of Wilton, whose mother and father, a Korean War veteran, are both buried there. You know, we cant really get together with family like wed like to, he said. But the visit to the cemetery, the remembering and respects: Its what its all about, yeah. Agreed his wife, Mary: With everything thats going on, its important. Read more ___ Read more updates from Monday By Trend A total of 18,500 employees of the Tengizchevroil oil company (TCO) and contracting organizations were evacuated from the Tengiz field due to the threat of coronavirus spread, TCOs Manager General of Public Relations Rzabek Artygaliev said, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media. Artygaliev said that the employees were temporarily removed in order to prevent the coronavirus spread among employees. Some 18,500 people were temporarily removed from the Tengiz field today. Infection spreads very quickly where there is a lot of people. Therefore, it was necessary to reduce the number of people at the field, Artygaliev said. In order to remove the employees, the company allocated funds for over 40 commercial flights, 211 flights by TCOs Dash 8 plane and 170 buses, and 16 trains. This work was carried out by the company during the emergency state and quarantine in the Atyrau region, he said. On May 20, 2020 Kazakhstans Chief Sanitary Doctor Aizhan Yesmagambetova said that operations at TCO-operated Tengiz oil and gas field may be suspended if number COVID-19 cases among fields staff go on increasing. The data as of May 21, said that 935 coronavirus cases of total cases countrywide account for Tengizchevroil staff. The first two cases of coronavirus infection were detected in Kazakhstan among those who arrived in Almaty city from Germany on March 13, 2020. The total number of coronavirus cases confirmed in Kazakhstan amounted to 8,531. This includes 4,352 people who recovered from the coronavirus, and 35 patients who passed away. The Tengiz oil field was discovered in 1979 and is one of the biggest and deepest oil fields in the world. The total explored reserves of Tengiz reach 3.2 billion tons, while recoverable reserves range from 890 million tons to 1.37 billion tons. In 1993, Tengizchevroil LLP, which is the project operator, was established on the basis of an agreement between Kazakhstan and Chevron. Presently, Tengizchevroil includes Chevron (50 percent), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc. (25 percent), KazMunayGas (20 percent) and LukArco (5 percent). --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz DIDCOT, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Altus Strategies Plc (AIM:ALS)(TSXV:ALTS) ('Altus' or the 'Company'), the Africa focused project and royalty generator, announces the commencement of a 1,600m Diamond Drilling ("DD") programme at the Company's Tabakorole gold project ("Tabakorole" or the "Project") located in southern Mali. The programme is focused on the 2.7 km long FT Prospect and is being managed and financed by Glomin Services Ltd ("Glomin") under the first phase of the joint venture ("JV") between Glomin and Altus. Highlights: JV financed drilling programme underway at Tabakorole gold project in southern Mali Focus on 2.7 km long FT Prospect and testing a potential 200m long extension Programme targeting high-grade trends from historic drilling including (not true widths): 6.05 g/t Au over 18m 9.31 g/t Au over 16m 2.75 g/t Au over 66m Robust health and safety procedures adopted at the project in response to COVID-19 Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus, commented: "We are pleased to announce the commencement of a 1,600m diamond drilling programme at our Tabakorole gold project in southern Mali. The programme will be targeting modelled high-grade trends defined by historical drilling at the 2.7 km long FT Prospect and also test a potential 200m long northwest extension, as defined by recent ground magnetics and aircore drilling. The drilling is being managed and financed by Glomin under the first phase of the JV earn-in agreement. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Glomin has established enhanced health and safety procedures at the project. We look forward to updating shareholders on the results from the drilling in due course." Tabakorole Project: Diamond Drilling Programme The planned 1,600m DD programme will comprise eight holes, each inclined between -52 to -59 degrees and drilled perpendicular to the regional strike of mineralisation. The drilling will test the potential for mineralisation in the oxide and fresh portions of the FT Prospect, with holes ranging between 120m to 290m depth (69m to 166m vertical depth). Capital Drilling Ltd has been contracted to undertake the programme. The majority of the planned holes are designed to test potential high-grade plunges and dip extensions of historical drilling, predominantly in the southeast of the FT Prospect where historic drilling has encountered high grades including (not true width of intervals): 3.4 g/t Au over 12m from 126m in hole 06FLRC-01 2.9 g/t Au over 60m from 14m in hole 05FLRC-11 2.9 g/t Au over 26m from 72m in hole 05TKRC-18 1.5 g/t Au over 34m from 93m in hole 05FLRC-41 1.6 g/t Au over 28m from 18m in hole 10FLRC-05 Up dip from 11.2 g/t Au over 9m from 307m in hole 05FLDDH-14 Down dip from 3.8 g/t Au over 16m from 26m in hole 10FLRC-08 One hole will target the northwest extension to the FT Prospect, where recent AC results included 1.1 g/t Au over 12.0m from 9.0m and 0.8 g/t Au over 21.0m from surface The following figures have been prepared and relate to the disclosures in this announcement and are visible in the version of this announcement on the Company's website (www.altus-strategies.com) or in PDF format by following this link: http://altus-strategies.com/site/assets/files/4852/altus_nr_-_tbk_dd_26_may_2020.pdf Location of Tabakorole and Altus' other projects in Mali is shown in Figure 1. Location of Tabakorole in southern Mali is shown in Figure 2. A plan of the Tabakorole DD programme is shown in Figure 3. A selection of photos from Tabakorole is shown in Figure 4. Tabakorole Project: Location The 100 km2 Tabakorole gold project is located in southern Mali, approximately 280 km south of the capital city of Bamako. The Project sits on the Massagui Belt which hosts the Morila gold mine (operated by Barrick NYSE:GOLD, TSX:ABX), located approximately 100 km to the north. The Project is 125 km southeast of the Yanfolila gold mine (operated by Hummingbird AIM:HUM) and 100 km east of the Kalana gold project (operated by Endeavour Mining TSX:EDV). Mineralisation hosted on these properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralisation hosted at Tabakorole. Tabakorole Project: Geology Tabakorole comprises a 2.7 km long shear zone which is up to 200m wide, hosted in the Archaean and Birimian aged Bougouni Basin of the Man Shield of southern Mali. The geology is dominated by clastic sediments, cut by northwest trending deformation zones which host gold mineralisation. At least two, possibly three, Eburnean deformation events are believed to have affected the geology of Tabakorole. The Project hosts the FT prospect comprised of mylonites, sheared diorite, gabbro, mafic dykes and late stage felsic dykes, within a folded and deformed metasedimentary package of meta-siltstone, meta-wacke and meta-sandstone. Mineralisation is locally most favourably associated where structures cut gabbro and along lithological contacts with gabbro. Tabakorole Project: Historical exploration The Project was discovered by a regional soil sampling programme completed on a 500m x 100m grid by BHP in the early 1990s. Since 2003, a total of 28,912m of DD, 31,943m of RC, 6,577m of auger drilling and 62,718m of AC have been completed, in addition to 1,400 line km of airborne geophysics. A selection of drill intersects from Tabakorole is shown in Table 1. In 2007, 58 RC holes (5,492m) were completed within and along strike of the FT Prospect in 2010. Results included 6.05 g/t Au over 18.0m from 12.0m (10FLRC-12A) and 2.53 g/t Au over 24.0m from 48.0m (10FLRC-01A) (not true widths). Table 1: Tabakorole selected drill intersections Hole ID From (m) To (m) Intersection (m) Grade (g/t Au) 10FLRC-12A 12.00 30.00 18.00 6.05 05TKRC-18 24.00 68.00 44.00 3.29 10FLRC-07 4.00 42.00 38.00 2.63 10FLRC-01A 48.00 72.00 24.00 2.53 05FLRC-51 80.00 96.00 16.00 9.31 06TKDDH-008 179.00 190.00 11.00 5.64 05FLRC-11 14.00 74.00 60.00 2.91 05TKRC-52 2.00 18.00 16.00 2.33 05FLRC-12 2.00 12.00 10.00 3.36 Notes: Intersections based on 0.5g/t Au cut off and 2m internal waste Intersections are down-the-hole and do not represent true widths of mineralisation No grade capping has been applied Tabakorole Project: New targets defined from historical data The Company has completed a comprehensive review of the historical exploration data on the Project. A number of priority drill targets have been defined both within the main NW-SE trend of the existing FT Prospect as well as potential extensions on strike. Six hundred metres to the south of and parallel to the FT Prospect, a new prospect which is approximately 2.5 km long has been defined from historical airborne magnetic data. Elsewhere on the Tabakorole licence a number of priority targets for follow up trenching and auger drilling have been defined from the recent and historical geophysical programmes as well as historic surface geochemical data. COVID-19 Procedures In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, enhanced health and safety procedures have been implemented at the Tabakorole project. Additional measures include (but are not limited to): Mandatory and regular hand washing with enhanced facilities for staff and contractors No non-essential travel with all movements in and out of site requiring approval Minimum 2m distance between employees where possible and handshaking not permitted Health monitoring and self-isolation measures Establishment of a quarantine facility and intense cleaning procedures Cautionary note regarding historic data Readers are cautioned that the data on Tabakorole in this written disclosure is historical exploration data that has not been verified by a Qualified Person. Not all historical samples are available and Altus does not have complete information on the quality assurance or quality control measures taken in connection with the exploration results, or other exploration or testing details regarding these results. There has been insufficient exploration to define a current mineral resource and the Company cautions that there is a risk further exploration will not result in the delineation of a current mineral resource. Intersections cited in this news release do not represent true widths of the mineralised intervals. The historical drilling was predominantly angled at -60 and -55 degrees and intersected steeply dipping mineralisation. True width determinations are estimated to be 50-57% of the cited intersection lengths. Qualified Person The technical disclosure in this regulatory announcement has been read and approved by Steven Poulton, Chief Executive of Altus. A graduate of the University of Southampton in Geology (Hons), he also holds a Master's degree from the Camborne School of Mines (Exeter University) in Mining Geology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and has over 20 years of experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM rules and National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure of Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators". For further information you are invited to visit the Company's website www.altus-strategies.com or contact: Altus Strategies Plc Steven Poulton, Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0) 1235 511 767 E: info@altus-strategies.com SP Angel (Nominated Adviser) Richard Morrison / Soltan Tagiev Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470 SP Angel (Broker) Abigail Wayne / Richard Parlons Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0471 Blytheweigh (Financial PR) Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204 About Altus Strategies Plc Altus is a London (AIM: ALS) and Toronto (TSX-V: ALTS) listed project and royalty generator in the mining sector with a focus on Africa. Our team creates value by making mineral discoveries across multiple licences. We enter joint ventures with respected groups and our partners earn interest in these discoveries by advancing them toward production. Project milestone payments we receive are reinvested to extend our portfolio, accelerating our growth. The portfolio model reduces risk as our interests are diversified by commodity and by country. The royalties generated from our portfolio of projects are designed to yield sustainable long-term income. We engage constructively with all our stakeholders, working diligently to minimise our environmental impact and to promote positive economic and social outcomes in the communities where we operate. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain information included in this announcement, including information relating to future financial or operating performance and other statements that express the expectations of the Directors or estimates of future performance constitute "forward-looking statements". These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include without limitation the completion of planned expenditures, the ability to complete exploration programmes on schedule and the success of exploration programmes. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which speak only as of the date of this announcement and the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Where the Company expresses or implies an expectation or belief as to future events or results, such expectation or belief is based on assumptions made in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis. The forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as at the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information or any forward-looking statements contained in any other announcements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law or regulations. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Market Abuse Regulation Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 ("MAR") until the release of this announcement. Glossary of Terms The following is a glossary of technical terms: "AC" means Air Core drilling "Au" means gold "g" means grams "g/t" means grams per tonne "grade(s)" means the quantity of ore or metal in a specified quantity of rock "km" means kilometres "m" means metres "NI 43-101" means National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" of the Canadian Securities Administrators "Qualified Person" means a person that has the education, skills and professional credentials to qualify as a qualified person under NI 43-101 "RC" means Reverse Circulation drilling SOURCE: Altus Strategies PLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591339/Drilling-Underway-at-Tabakorole-Gold-JV-Project-Southern-Mali Azerbaijan violated a key European convention by pardoning, rewarding and glorifying an Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death a sleeping Armenian colleague in Hungary in 2004, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday. The Strasbourg-based court said Bakus actions amounted to the approval and endorsement of the very serious ethnically-biased crime committed by the officer, Ramil Safarov, during a NATO training course held in the Hungarian capital Budapest. A court in Budapest sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment in 2006, convicting him of axe-murdering Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian and trying unsuccessfully to kill another Armenian participant of the course, Hayk Makuchian, in the same fashion. Markarian was attacked while he slept in his dormitory room. Safarov received a heros welcome in Baku immediately after the Hungarian authorities controversially extradited him to Azerbaijan in 2012. He was not only pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev but also promoted to the rank of major, granted a free apartment and paid eight years worth of back pay. Safarovs release provoked a furious reaction from Armenia and strong international criticism. Armenia suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary in protest. In 2013, Makuchian and Markarians now deceased uncle, Samvel Minasian, appealed to the ECHR to rule that the Azerbaijani and Hungarian governments actions ran counter to several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. One of those articles upholds a persons right to life while another forbids any ethnic or religious discrimination. The plaintiffs also asked the court to consider ordering the revocation of Safarovs pardon. They did not seek any damages apart from a reimbursement of their legal expenses. In a lengthy verdict, the ECHR concluded that the acts of Azerbaijan in effect granted [Ramil Safarov] impunity for the crimes committed against his Armenian victims. Those acts were racially motivated, it said. Quite apart from his pardon, the Court is particularly struck by the fact that, in addition to immediate release, upon his return to Azerbaijan [Safarov] was granted a number of other benefits, such as salary arrears for the period spent in prison, a flat in Baku and a promotion in military rank awarded at a public ceremony, reads the ruling. In addition, the Court finds particularly disturbing the statements made by a number of Azerbaijani officials glorifying [Safarov,] his deeds and his pardon. It also deplores the fact that a large majority of those statements expressed particular support for the fact that [Safarovs] crimes had been directed against Armenian soldiers, congratulated him on his actions and called him a patriot, a role model and a hero, it says. At the same time the Strasbourg rejected the plaintiffs claim that the Azerbaijani authorities are directly responsible for Markarians murder. It said that while the authorities clearly endorsed the killing there is no evidence to suggest that Safarovs actions could have been foreseen by his commanding officers or should be held imputable to the Azerbaijani State as a whole. Azerbaijani officials have for years sought to justify the brutal murder, portraying Safarov as a victim of Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan. Accordingly, Aliyev has defended his decision to free the convicted axe-murderer. Azerbaijan freed its officer, returned him to the homeland and restored justice, the Azerbaijani president declared in 2013. Philip Leach, the director of the London-based European Human Rights Advocacy Center, which also represents the plaintiffs, welcomed the strong verdict handed down by the ECHR. Of course, the court did not go further and clarify what exactly the Azerbaijani authorities should do now, Leach told RFE/RLs Armenian service. But the case can now be sent to the ECHRs Grand Chamber or the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to decide what steps should be taken by the Azerbaijani authorities. Leach said the committee, which represents all Council of Europe member states, is in a position to decide whether to tell the Azerbaijani authorities to send Safarov back to jail and thus restore justice for the families of the two Armenian officers. He expressed hope that such pressure will be exerted on Baku. The Armenian governments representative to the ECHR, Yeghishe Kirakosian, also hailed the ECHR ruling. It is probably the first time that the European Court noted the Azerbaijani states policy of Armenophobia and ethnic discrimination against Armenians, said Kirakosian. The ECHR also cleared Hungary of any wrongdoing in the scandalous affair. It said the Armenian plaintiffs failed to substantiate their claim that the Hungarian government should have known beforehand that Safarov will be set free if repatriated. Official Budapest has insisted all along that the extradition was in line with the European convention. It has also said that it had received formal assurances from Baku that Safarov will serve the rest of the life sentence in an Azerbaijani prison. Armenias former government dismissed this explanation when it froze diplomatic ties with Hungary in 2012. Then Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian alleged at the time that corruption was at the root of the Azerbaijani-Hungarian deal. In a 2017 report, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that from 2012 to 2013 more than $9 million was transferred to Hungarian bank accounts of an offshore company owned by a son of a senior Azerbaijani government official. It said that the first $450,000 cash transfer was carried out in July 2012, one month before Safarovs extradition. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto strongly denied any connection between the cash flows and the scandalous extradition. Hungarys controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Baku in June 2012. The OCCRP report titled The Azerbaijan Laundromat claimed that Azerbaijans ruling elite used a $2.9 billion slush fund to pay off European politicians, buy luxury goods, and launder money in 2012-2014. With dentist offices considered high-risk environments during the current global pandemic, UV Angel's technology will help make Smile One Services' affiliate practices cleaner by using patented UV-C light treatment technology to automatically and continuously treat the air and surfaces for harmful viruses, bacteria and fungi. "We believe rapid deployment of ultraviolet light technology in clinical environments like Smile Dental Partners is critical to help protect both patients and staff," said Tom Byrne, CEO of UV Angel. "We know the technology is effective at neutralizing harmful pathogens in the environment. As a West Michigan-based company, we are proud to help with this fight right in our own backyard." All of Smile One Services' affiliate practices will be equipped with UV Angel technology, including Daydreams Procedure Center in Grand Rapids and all four Smile Dental Partners in Grand Haven, Grand Rapids, Holland, and North Muskegon. The installation should be completed in four to six weeks. This effort is part of the organization's new Smile Safety Assurance program which includes a thermal imaging AI temperature screening system and cloud-based monitoring and reporting of all practice pathogen control. "We want our patients to feel comfortable when they walk through our doors," said Darren Riopelle DDS, founder and CEO of Smile One Services. "We know there's a lot of anxiety around COVID-19, and it's important especially in a health care setting to provide as many layers of protection as we can for our patients and staff. We believe UV Angel's technology is an excellent complement to our current cleaning and safety practices to help keep those who visit our practices safe." The Smile One Services locations will be equipped with two different types of technology: UV Angel Air and UV Angel Adapt. With a modern integrated design, UV Angel Air combines standard in-ceiling lighting with a proprietary UV-C air treatment system. Air containing dental aerosols are pulled into the sealed UV-C chamber where it is treated with high-intensity UV-C light. The clean, treated air is then returned to the room, where employees and patients can breathe easier. By lowering the levels of harmful pathogens in the air and on surfaces, the risk of exposure is reduced. UV Angel Adapt uses an intelligent, automated UV-C light treatment platform to continuously monitor and safely treat high-touch surfaces hundreds of times per day. UV Angel Adapt can be attached to keyboards, touch screens and a wide range of other frequently touched surfaces. UV Angel products come with a robust data platform that provides users the ability to track key performance indicators, access invaluable data and make well-informed decisions about pathogen and infection control. For more information on UV Angel and its product, please visit uvangel.com. More About UV Angel UV Angel is a pathogen control technology company that uses years of advanced research and development in ultraviolet light to help make the environments around us cleaner and safer by reducing harmful pathogens. Fully automated, patented and proven safe, the company's UV-C technology monitors and cleans the surfaces we touch and the air we breathe. UV Angel's technology is complemented by a proprietary data analytics platform that delivers critical insights and strategic advantages to leaders in healthcare, food service, corporate, education and many more industries. Learn more uvangel.com More About Smile One Services Smile One Services is West Michigan's only multi-specialty Dental Service Organization (DSO). Founded in 2018 by Dr. Darren Riopelle, Smile One Services supports both general and specialty dental practices throughout West Michigan, including Smile Dental Partners (a group of adult, pediatric, and orthodontic specialists) and Daydreams (Michigan's first pediatric center for general anesthesia dentistry). Smile One's in-house resource include a call center, insurance specialists, IT, business services, and cloud-based pathogen control monitoring. In 2020, Smile One created Smile Safety Assurance, becoming the first DSO in the U.S. to add UV-C pathogen control technology to its practices. Learn more at SmileOneServices.com. SOURCE UV Angel Election in Ghana and elsewhere, they say, is not an event but a process which process begins with compiling a credible voters' register; to the verification of the authenticity of the entries in the electoral list (register); to the exhibition of the voters' register; to furnishing political parties with a provisional register; to the submission of the names of competing candidates; to training of electoral officials; to furnishing political parties with the final voters' register; to opening of parliamentary and presidential nominations; to publication of notice of polls, among other things. All these processes/activities are time bound and guided by a legal regime (i.e. Constitutional Instrument 91 as well as C.I. 94), both of which were enacted pursuant to the relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. Interestingly, these provisions governing the conduct of elections particularly the date of holding elections are all entrenched provisions, and so amendment of same requires some mechanical and cumbersome processes, including the holding of a nationwide referendum. There is absolutely no gainsaying that of all the election-related activities or processes, the most critical is voter registration, because there cannot be a free and fair election without a credible register. And there cannot be a credible register without a credible voter management solution/technology, which provides the platform for voter registration, data storage, verification and elections. Does Ghana Have A Credible Voter Management Solution For Election 2020? The answer to this question, the writer submits, is an emphatic NO. The independent constitutional body that is clothed with the sole mandate of administering public elections in this country, the Electoral Commission of Ghana, has told us time without number that the country, as we speak, has no voter management solution that is fit for purpose. So, what is the current status of the biometric voter management solution that was used for election 2012 and 2016? The EC tells us that based on the advice of its IT team and external Consultants on the status of this voter management solution, it would be prudent and cost-effective to acquire a new solution/system rather than refurbish the current system which had become obsolete and unfit for purpose. The Commission also produces evidence of a letter from the immediate past vendors of the current biometric system, which was contracted by the Charlotte Osei-led EC stating that the Commission would assume so much needles risks if steps were not taken to change the current equipment. The letter stated in parts that: We would be like to announce that the items in the present BVRs are end-of-life, including laptops. This means that no components are available to repair the items. For purposes of availability, maintainability and compatibility in the future we recommend to the EC to purchase new BVRs. If you have any questions please contact us. We should not also forget that it has always been the practice over the years for the EC to replace the voters' register after every eight years usually in election years; i.e. after two general elections and two district level elections due to population dynamics and technological innovations. The reason for the periodic replacement of the voters' register is mainly as a result of reforms to improve the credibility and integrity of the register in line with advancement in technology. The need to have a new system has become even more compelling because the current biometric system is unable to verify a number of voters electronically resulting in a high number of manual verification on voting day, which is largely unreliable and a potential source of dispute as it tends to compromise the integrity of the elections. Also, the current biometric architecture does not have a facial recognition technology nor does it allow for a facial recognition add-on to be added. The new system the EC intends to acquire ahead of the 2020 elections will have a facial recognition as an additional feature for those whose fingers cannot be verified and thus reduce the high incidence of manual verification which often proves to be problematic and tends to compromise the credibility of our elections. The new system will also significantly reduce if not completely eliminate the increasingly high identification failure rate by using new scanners and software with improved fingerprint capturing algorithm and the use of certified fingerprint image quality assessment software to ensure image quality. Registration officials will now have real time image quality feedback to improve capture. Finally, the EC tells us that their staff were not trained on the current solution per the contractual terms to enable the Commission to take over after the expiration of the contract. They say their staff are not able to (by themselves) update or enhance the software solutions at the time of the handing over. The EC is currently building and enhancing in house capacity and recruiting skilled IT Professionals. However, the source code for the software solution is not available. It is in the possession of the vendor. It will be highly unwise on our part to continue to run a solution we do not have control over. This will be a huge risk to the Country and is akin to mortgaging our sovereignty to a foreign vendor. A case in point is the last elections in Kenya where the vendor of the solution travelled outside the country after the elections and locked up the data. This led to a re-run and violence, the EC said at a press conference it held recently. Why Should Ghanaians Trust The EC? The Constitution of Ghana makes the EC the sole authority to administer public elections (including the registration of voters) in this country and also said, the EC, in the discharge of its mandate, is not subject to the direction of anybody or authority. Having regard to these explicit constitutional imperatives, the EC takes sole responsibility for the conduct of elections in Ghana, and so if anything goes wrong, it is the EC that will be faulted and not any person or authority. Nobody will fault the NDC and their Asiedu Nketia who cannot think beyond seeing Mr. John Mahama occupy the Jubilee House. Nobody will fault the CSOs, a lot of whom become relevant only when they take controversial position on national matters. So, if the EC, being the body that will be held solely responsible for any election mishap, tells us that it cannot conduct a credible election in December without acquiring a new biometric voter solution, why should anybody who has no such responsibility seek to force the Commission to do what they clearly said they cannot do? Are we setting a trap for them to fall into and later blame them? On any day, I will choose to believe the EC than any political party. In any case, to say you don't trust the EC is tantamount to calling for a civil war because what that will mean is that if the EC conducts the elections (which will definitely happen), you are going to reject the outcome of same, and that could prove very problematic and a recipe for chaos judging from the experience of other countries. By Alhaji Iddi Muhayu-Deen Editor's note: This story originally ran in the Albany Democrat-Herald during November 2014. Smith passed away Dec. 14, 2019. Dutch immigrant Bernadina Smith was 6 when the German soldiers moved into her familys farmhouse. The Linn County resident, who now keeps company with Army veteran John Fruetel of Peoria Road, has a World War II perspective slightly different from most of her fellow participants in Tuesdays Veterans Day Parade. In the early 1940s, Germans took over her familys large farmhouse and split occupation down the middle; soldiers on one side, Bernadina and her family on the other. There they stayed for the next four years, with new soldiers coming and going all the time. The family was treated well, she recalled. "They wanted to keep staying there," she said. Still, she was relieved when, at age 10, the Canadian First Army began liberating parts of The Netherlands and the Germans finally surrendered. Four years later, Bernadina's father moved the whole family to the United States. And as crowds cheered and waved Tuesday as Fruetel eased their Jeep down the parade route, she cheered mid-valley veterans right back. "Oh my, I love America. I love America," she said. "My dad said America is the land of opportunity, and it's very true." This year's Veterans Day Parade was dedicated to the honor of the men and women who served during World War II. The grand marshals all are World War II veterans. They were represented by Hal Lindsley, who served in the Navy; Peggy Lutz and Barbara Wright, both former U.S. Navy WAVES; and Troy Gable, Zane Lindsley, James Carroll and several residents from The Oaks in Lebanon. "It's a surprise and humbling, so humbling I can't believe it," said Lindsley, now 85, of the grand marshal honor. Carroll, 90, got his draft card on his 18th birthday and went on to receive four Bronze Stars while serving with the Army Air Corps 85th Signal Corps during World War II. He was at Omaha Beach on June 12, just after D-Day, and later was shipped to Okinawa. He's surprised he even made it home, let alone live to be a parade grand marshal. "I done wrote it off half a dozen times." Of the parade's focus on himself and his fellow veterans, however: "I think it's great," he said. "We're losing so many of them. Time's running out." Stoneybrook Lodge, an assisted living residence in Corvallis, brought several World War II veterans to Albany for Tuesday's parade. Camped out in the sunshine on Lyon Street were WAVE Emily Swan, Navy veteran David Truog, Air Force veteran Ted Fleischbein, Marine veteran Phillip Demmert and Marine veteran Bill Callender. Swan, then 20-year-old Emily Springsteen, served 16 months as a telegrapher. "We had coded tapes that we fed into a big machine." She joined, she said, because "I just wanted to do something," adding, "My dad was disappointed that I didn't join the Army." Fleischbein, 92, served in the 10th Infantry Division in Colorado for nine months before being reassigned to pilot training in the Air Force. He flew B29s on Guam. "By the time I got to Guam, the war ended, which was OK with me," he said, adding that his primary occupation during service was "not getting killed in a B29." The focus on World War II veterans is wonderful, Fleischbein said. Nodding at his fellow veterans, he said: "I didn't do anything heroic, but most of these guys did." Crowds lining the streets for the 63rd annual parade made sure the passing veterans knew their efforts were appreciated. Many waved small flags or held up signs of gratitude. Erin Daley, 7, of Eugene held up a hand-drawn sign with pictures of soldiers in green and the words, "I Love My Veterans" in pink and purple marker. She came to the parade with her mother, Gen, and her step-grandfather, Robert Grace of Eugene, who was a Marine in Vietnam. "I love the people that are there for us and love us and help us save our country," she said. Jennifer Moody can be reached at 541-812-6113 or jennifer.moody@lee.net Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Oregon State University is aiming to cut the cost-of-living adjustment for graduate employees amid this crisis. OSU claims this is necessary due to potential budget deficits caused by COVID-19; however, none of the upper administration has taken a pay cut yet. The University of Oregon expressed the need for shared sacrifice and put that into action with the president and other top earners taking voluntary pay cuts. OSU has not followed suit. Although President Ed Ray expressed the need for us all to make sacrifices, he did not take his own advice. The OSU administrations only sacrifice will be not taking a cost-of-living adjustment this year. Taking away the cost-of-living adjustment that we fought for for 14 years will take us back to clawing and fighting for that basic decency, while COVID-19 is a short-term problem. OSU is choosing to cut from those of us barely above the poverty line, while upper administrators enjoy lavish salaries. It is truly a shame, and the Corvallis community and the state of Oregon need to put pressure on OSU administrators to cut their pay and protect their most vulnerable employees. Alicia Ward, Corvallis Even old dogs can learn new tricks. For example, I have recently learned to go to the cloud, via the internet. I was very curious about that, especially as so many young people, including my grandchildren are now attending classes and learning that way during the contra virus isolation. Under the direction of Chief Dull Knife College (CDKC), Northern Cheyenne Professor Wayne Leman, a well-known Native linguist, holds three Cheyenne language classes per week via the ZOOM conferencing capability of the internet. Wayne is an interesting fellow, part Yupik from Alaska, he has spent much time with the Northern Cheyenne, becoming a fluent speaker of our language and an acknowledged writer. The Cheyenne alphabet is very different from English and reputedly Northern Cheyenne is one of the most challenging Native languages to learn. Yet, as his own people have seen their language go extinct, Wayne says I dont want to see that happen to other Tribes, especially Northern Cheyenne. The on-line class is only one of many activities he participates in part of a college wide effort to preserve the language. As a life-long student of the Cheyenne language , this news delighted me. Though there are many benefits to living in an urban area, it does put a damper on the opportunity to regularly speak and practice the Cheyenne language. NILE Lou Taubert Ranch Outfitters Cattle Drive & Parade on Facebook: Clara Caufield So, with Waynes guidance I learned how to hop up into the cloud to do that. He somehow fixed my computer so it will respond to a few clumsy button clicks on my end. Before that, I didnt even know my computer could talk! Apparently, it is inhabited by a Mistah, a small female ghost who either knows everything or can find it out. The classes, held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings amaze me. It is very interactive. I can see and hear him (the instructor) and the other students and vice-versa. Though small in number, the students are diverse, accessing the cloud from the East to the West Coasts and in between. Contact Clara Caufield can be reached at acheyennevoice@gmail.com Copyright permission Native Sun News Today Join the Conversation Alleged victims of former Melbourne teacher Malka Leifer say they were staggered by the decision of an Israeli court that has found she is fit to stand trial for extradition to Australia, where she is wanted on paedophilia charges. The ruling in the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday came after a years-long legal battle to get the ex-principal, who is accused of sexually abusing students, returned to Australia. Ms Leifer, 52, faces 74 charges of sexually assaulting female students during her time at the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel school in Elsternwick in Melbourne's south-east. Three of her alleged victims, with former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu and local MPs Labor's Josh Burns and Liberal David Southwick addressed the media this morning. A man who took vehicles on a test drive but never returned to the dealership in separate incidents has been arrested, according to Laredo police. LPD auto-theft task force investigators recently arrested Gilberto Roberto Chapa Jr., 32, on theft charges. Webb County Jail records show he remained behind bars as of Monday evening. New Delhi, May 26 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur on a plea by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) research scholar and anti-CAA activist Sharjeel Imam seeking clubbing of multiple FIRs on sedition charges against him. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M.R. Shah heard the matter through video conferencing and issued notices to the four states. The top court will continue to hear the matter after two weeks. The apex court also asked the Delhi government to file its response on Imam's plea, in which he sought transfer of all criminal cases to the national capital and a probe by a single agency. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Delhi government, contended before the bench that it needs some time to file its response on the matter. Mehta insisted that other states should also file their response, and that the response from the Delhi government may not be sufficient. On May 1, the apex court had sought response from the Delhi government in 10 days on a petition filed by Imam. In April, Delhi Police invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against Sharjeel, who was arrested for allegedly giving a seditious speech abetting violence at Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019. Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Sharjeel, contended before the top court that five FIRs have been registered based on the same speech in Delhi, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Moreover, Delhi police have also invoked UAPA. Dave sought clubbing of FIRs and cited relief given by the top court in the matter of Arnab Goswami. "Give me relief like Arnab Goswami", submitted Sharjeel's counsel seeking clubbing of FIRs. The apex court had stayed numerous FIRs against Arnab in different states for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Sonia Gandhi. The court allowed the probe in one FIR by Mumbai police. "There is nothing wrong in police registering FIRs. If they come to know about some cognizable offence", said the bench and queried whether there is a counsel representing Delhi government. The court fixed the matter for further hearing after 10 days. The court asked Sharjeel's lawyer to send a copy of the petition to the Delhi government, and sought its reply. Imam was arrested on January 28 from his hometown Jehanabad in Bihar by Delhi Police for allegedly making the controversial "cut off Assam" statement, leading to sedition charges against him. We know from many previous experiences that An Idle Mind Is The Devils Workshop. We also know that not one person in our nation could have been better prepared than our leaders from both parties in this COVID-19 pandemic. Guffaw and cackle all you want but I promise not a person in our state would pick you over Governor Bill Lee. It is terribly disappointing that every day somebody in every state blames somebody else for some next-to-nothing reason in an effort to pick a stupid and winless fight. The liberal media could not be more brutal nor sinister to our President. The desperate Dems have taken all semblance of sanity out of politics and every time the bumbling Republicans take the bait over what is no more than inane hogwash, it takes our countrys attention away from what is most important, ironically the good people of both parties. Last week some Neanderthal was screaming on TV: The blood is on the Republicans' hands! What blood? The virus doesnt pick and choose. Some people far smarter than me believe we must continue to shelter in place but my view is the economic and ever-building psychological damage in each and every neighborhood dictates we practice very logical distancing, masking, and hand-washing. I think house arrest is very wrong and while I am hardly the protester type, our leadership on both the left and the right has ignored the very present mental anguish wrought by COVID-19. I love the guy who openly wonders that while we can stand shoulder-to-shoulder at Walmart, gather in hordes on banned ocean beaches, and crowd with laughter at tightly-packed bars but what? go to church? No sir! Thats where the libel elites draw the line. No worship. No Jesus! Buy all the beer you want and, yes, the whiskey stores are doing record business as they rush to open, but there will be no singing of hymns like Love Lifted Me. Churches are too dangerous. Please! Admit it, the prejudice against God is ridiculous! So, as liberal and conservatives joust over blame, I spent Sunday afternoon in an exercise that proves nothing but seems to tell a lot. I took three groups of states to compare. The first group in my very unprofessional virus analysis are those seven states that did not mandate a stay home order. Arkansas, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming decided that was stupid, given the wide-open plains and distant contacts with others. How did that turn out? Just wait until you see the figures. And is it just incidental that all seven have Republican governors? The second group are the eight states who were the first to break the stay home agony. These are those who did away with stay in place orders on or before April 30. As we enter the last week of May, what are their cases-vs-deaths numbers? And does it matter there are six Republicans and two Democrat governors that lead them? I can no longer roller-skate but even I can detect a pattern. The third group is the most puzzling; of the 16 states that are still closed, why it is that 14 are governed by Democrats and just two by Republicans? (In the first two groups we have 13 Republicans and only two Democrats. Suddenly the political racket is 16 Dem to 15 Repubs. Why such a marked divide?) In these 16 holdout states are over 40 percent of our population and could it be to keep over 135 million people cooped up is some political ploy? I dont get it keep me in house arrest and Im going to be mad about it. Thats why you see protests, lawsuits, men with guns on the Michigan governors steps and more arrests for civil disobedience with each new day. Puzzling, no? Yet to what gain? Finally, of the 31 states that were included in my seat-of-the-pants comparison, there happen to be 16 Democrat states and 15 Republic states. Which group do you think has the larger cases-to-deaths ratio? Why the disparity? And, yes, youll see some things that will make you scratch and wonder. All of these figures were taken off the Microsoft search engine Bing, which I think has the easiest coronavirus dashboard: * * * GROUP A -- 7 STATES WITH NO STAY-HOME ORDERS (Seven Republican Governors, No Democratic Governors) ARKANSAS: Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) -- Pop. 3.1M: 5,775 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 115 (1.9 percent) IOWA: Governor Kim Reynolds (R) Pop. 3.1M: 17,213 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 499 (2.8 percent) NORTH DAKOTA: Governor Doug Burgum (R) Pop. 762K: Coronavirus 2,418; Deaths 53 (2.1 percent) OKLAHOMA: Governor Kevin Stitt (R) -- Pop. 3.9M: 5,960 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 311 (5.2 percent) SOUTH DAKOTA: Governor Kristi Noem (R) -- Pop. 884K: 4,468 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 50 (1.1 percent) UTAH: Governor Gary Herbert (R) -- Pop. 3.2M: 8,057 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 93 (1.1 percent) WYOMING: Governor Mark Gordon (R) Pop. 578K: 813 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 12 (1.4 percent) (Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft) GROUP A POPULATION TOTAL: 15.7M (4.77 percent OF USA Population = 330M) GROUP A CORONAVIRUS CASES TOTAL: 44,704; Deaths: 1,133 (avg. 2.5 percent) * * * GROUP B THE 8 STATES THAT OPENED ON OR BEFORE APRIL 30 (Six Republican Governors and Two Democrat Governors) COLORADO: Governor Jared Polis (D) Pop. 5.7M: (Coronavirus cases: 23,964; Deaths: 1,327. (5.5 percent) GEORGIA: Governor Brian Kemp (R) Pop. 10.6M: Coronavirus cases: 42,846; Deaths: 1,825 (4.2 percent) IDAHO: Governor Brad Little (R) Pop. 1.7M: Coronavirus cases: 2,626; Deaths: 79 (3.0 percent) MISSISSIPPI: Governor Tate Reeves (R) Pop. 2.9M: Coronavirus cases; 13,252; Deaths 625 (4.7 percent) MONTANA: Governor Steve Bullock (D) Pop. 1.0M: Coronavirus cases 479; Deaths 16 (3.3 percent) TEXAS: Governor Greg Abbott (R) Pop. 29.0M: Coronavirus cases 54,509; Deaths 1,506 (2.7 percent) NEBRASKA: Governor Pete Ricketts (R) Pop. 1.9M: Coronavirus cases 11,989; Deaths 147 (1.2 percent) TENNESSEE: Governor Bill Lee (R) Pop. 6.8M: Coronavirus cases 19,789; Deaths 329 (1.7 percent) (Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft) GROUP B POPULATION TOTAL: 59.6 million (18 percent of USA Population = 330M) GROUP B CORONA CASES TOTAL: 169,454; Deaths 5,854 (Avg. 3.2 percent) * * * 16 STATES THAT ARE STILL CLOSED (14 Democratic Governors, Two Republican Governors) KENTUCKY: Governor Andy Beshear (D) Pop. 4.5M: Coronavirus cases 8,571; Deaths 391 (4.6 percent) CALIFORNIA: Governor Gavin Newsom (D) Pop. 39.5M: Coronavirus cases 92,710; Deaths 3,774 (4.0 percent) MAINE: Governor Janet Millis (D) Pop. 1.3M: Coronavirus cases 2,013; Deaths 77 (3.8 percent) HAWAII: Governor David Ige (D) Pop. 1.4M: Coronavirus cases 647; Deaths 17 (2.6 percent) NEW HAMPSHIRE: Governor Chris Sunuhu (R) Pop. 1.3M: 4,089 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 208 (5.0 percent) MICHIGAN: Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) Pop. 10.M: coronavirus cases 54,365; Deaths 5,223 (9.6 percent) NEW MEXICO: Governor Michele Lujan Grisham (D) Pop. 2.0M: coronavirus cases 6,795; Deaths 308 (4.5 percent) NEW YORK: Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) Pop. 19.4M: coronavirus cases 361,515; Deaths 23,282 (6.4 percent) OREGON: Governor Kate Brown (D) Pop. 4.2M: 3,888 coronavirus cases; Deaths 147 (3.7 percent) OHIO: Governor Mike DeWine (R) Pop. 11.6M: 31,408 Coronavirus cases; 1,956 Deaths (6.2 percent) PENNSYLVANIA: Governor Tom Wolfe (D) Pop. 12.8M: 67,713 coronavirus cases; Deaths 5,124 (7.5 percent) VIRGINIA: Governor Ralph Northam (D) Pop. 8.5M: 35,749 coronavirus cases; Deaths 1,159 (3.2 percent) WASHINGTON: Governor Jay Inslee (D) Pop. 7.6M: 19,585 coronavirus cases; Deaths 1,055 (5.3 percent) DELAWARE: Governor John Carney (D) Pop. 973K: 8,809 coronavirus cases; Deaths 326 (3.7 percent) ILLINOIS: Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) Pop. 12.6M: 107,796 coronavirus cases; Deaths 4,790 (4.4 percent) NEW JERSEY: Governor Phil Murphy (D) Pop. 8.8M: 154,154 coronavirus cases; Deaths 11,133 (7.2 percent) (Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft) GROUP C POPULATION TOTAL: 140.2 Million (42.4 percent of USA = Pop. 330M) GROUP C CORONAVIRUS CASES TOTAL: 554,998 cases; Deaths 58,149 (avg. 10.4 percent) * * * THE DEMOCRAT VS. REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS IN ROYS ANALYSIS [Note in the categories of states that Roy Exum compared, there were 31 states out of the nations 50 that were represented. When we took the Democratic and Republicans out of the three groups and compared them to one another by using simple math, here is what we found: DEMOCRAT GOVERNORS (16) COLORADO: Governor Jared Polis (D) Pop. 5.7M: (Coronavirus cases: 23,964; Deaths: 1,327. (5.5 percent) MONTANA: Governor Steve Bullock (D) Pop. 1.0M: Coronavirus cases 479; Deaths 16 (3.3 percent) KENTUCKY: Governor Andy Beshear (D) Pop. 4.5M: Coronavirus cases 8,571; Deaths 391 (4.6 percent) CALIFORNIA: Governor Gavin Newsom (D) Pop. 39.5: M: Coronavirus cases 92,710; Deaths 3,774 (4.0 percent) MAINE: Governor Janet Millis (D) Pop. 1.3M: Coronavirus cases 2,013; Deaths 77 (3.8 percent) HAWAII: Governor David Ige (D) Pop. 1.4M: Coronavirus cases 647; Deaths 17 (2.6 percent) MICHIGAN: Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) Pop. 10.M: coronavirus cases 54,365; Deaths 5,223 (9.6 percent) NEW MEXICO: Governor Michele Lujan Grisham (D) Pop. 2.0M: coronavirus cases 6,795; Deaths 308 (4.5 percent) NEW YORK: Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) Pop. 19.4M: coronavirus cases 361,515; Deaths 23,282 (6.4 percent) OREGON: Governor Kate Brown (D) Pop. 4.2M: 3,888 coronavirus cases; Deaths 147 (3.7 percent) PENNSYLVANIA: Governor Tom Wolfe (D) Pop. 12.8M: 67,713 coronavirus cases; Deaths 5,124 (7.5 percent) VIRGINIA: Governor Ralph Northam (D) Pop. 8.5M: 35,749 coronavirus cases; Deaths 1,159 (3.2 percent) WASHINGTON: Governor Jay Inlee (D) Pop. 7.6M: 19,585 coronavirus cases; Deaths 1,055 (5.3 percent) DELAWARE: Governor John Carney (D) Pop. 973K: 8,809 coronavirus cases; Deaths 326 (3.7 percent) ILLINOIS: Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) Pop. 12.6M: 107,796 coronavirus cases; Deaths 4,790 (4.4 percent) NEW JERSEY: Governor Phil Murphy (D) Pop. 8.8M: 154,154 coronavirus cases; Deaths 11,133 (7.2 percent) (Note: Statistics are as of May 24, 2020 via Bing -- Microsoft) DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS IN THE POLLS POPULATION TOTAL: 140.2 Million (42.4 percent of USA = Pop. 330M) CORONAVIRUS CASES TOTAL: 498,753. Cases: 59,148 (6.2 percent avg.) Please! [Note this is a very unscientific sampling] * * * REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS (15) ARKANSAS: Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) -- Pop. 3.1M: 5,775 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 115 (1.9 percent) IOWA: Governor Kim Reynolds (R) Pop. 3.1M: 17,213 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 499 (2.8 percent) NORTH DAKOTA: Governor Doug Burgum (R) Pop. 762K: Coronavirus 2,418; Deaths 53 (2.1 percent) OKLAHOMA: Governor Kevin Stitt (R) -- Pop. 3.9M: 5,960 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 311 (5.2 percent) SOUTH DAKOTA: Governor Kristi Noem (R) -- Pop. 884K: 4,468 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 50 (1.1 percent) UTAH: Governor Gary Herbert (R) -- Pop. 3.2M: 8,057 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 93 (1.1 percent) OHIO: Governor Mike DeWine (R) Pop. 11.6M: 31,408 Coronavirus cases; 1,956 Deaths (6.2 percent NEW HAMPSHIRE: Governor Chris Sunuhu (R) Pop. 1.3M: 4,089 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 208 (5.0 percent) WYOMING: Governor Mark Gordon (R) Pop. 578K: 813 Coronavirus cases; Deaths 12 (1.4 percent) GEORGIA: Governor Brian Kemp (R) Pop. 10.6M: Coronavirus cases: 42,846; Deaths: 1,825 (4.2 percent) IDAHO: Governor Brad Little (R) Pop. 1.7M: Coronavirus cases: 2,626; Deaths: 79 (3.0 percent) MISSISSIPPI: Governor Tate Reeves (R) Pop. 2.9M: Coronavirus cases; 13,252; Deaths 625 (4.7 percent) TEXAS: Governor Greg Abbott (R) Pop. 29.0M: Coronavirus cases 54,509; Deaths 1,506 (2.7 percent) NEBRASKA: Governor Pete Ricketts (R) Pop. 1.9M: Coronavirus cases 11,989; Deaths 147 (1.2 percent) TENNESSEE: Governor Bill Lee (R) Pop. 6.8M: Coronavirus cases 19,789; Deaths 329 (1.7 percent) (Note: statistics are from Microsoft (search engine Bing) on May 24, 2020). The Republican profile showed representation of 81.3 million households, reflecting 225,212 cases and 70,808 deaths, for a 3.4 percent profile. * * * THE LESSON? Compare for yourself. royexum@aol.com Betty White, 98, will still indulge in a cocktail every once in a while in lockdown. The Golden Girls icon's tipple of choice is a 'vodka martini' with 'hot dogs and french fries,' a pal of hers told Closer Weekly. This friend shared: 'Betty loves to joke that vodka keeps her young. She loves the image of her sitting at home in a rocking chair, drinking a martini and watching game shows, but she's not really a big drinker. That's not her. She'll only take a few sips of a cocktail if the occasion calls for it.' 'Betty loves to joke that vodka keeps her young': Betty White, 98, will still indulge in a cocktail every once in a while in lockdown; pictured in 2015 Betty herself recently told the magazine: 'I'm blessed with incredibly good health. That's something you appreciate a lot.' The TV legend has been 'doing very well' while self-isolating at home in California, her representative emailed Today. She 'Has helpers who are great' with her and 'wild animals visiting' her backyard, said the rep, dishing: 'The virus is afraid of Betty!' 'No one permitted in except those who must,' but she still has multiple phone calls with her publicist within a week during which 'we always have laughs.' Throwback: She has been on a slew of hit programs including The Mary Tyler Moore Show; she is pictured on that series with Mary in 1975 Betty lives in Carmel, California where she apparently 'has beautiful backyard with a number of wild animals visiting.' The representative specified: 'Two ducks always come by to say hello. They waddle up to her glass door and look in.' Betty has spent eight decades working in television and has racked up the longest career in the history of the medium. Although she has been on a slew of hit programs including The Mary Tyler Moore Show she is most beloved for The Golden Girls. Legend: However Betty is most famous for starring on The Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992 with Rue McClanahan (top left), Bea Arthur (top right) and Estelle Getty (bottom left) Iconic: Betty starred on the show from 1985 to 1992 as Rose Nylund, a kindhearted bottle blonde ditz from St. Olaf, Minnesota Betty starred on the show from 1985 to 1992 as Rose Nylund, a kindhearted bottle blonde ditz from St. Olaf, Minnesota. She was part of the main cast with Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, all three of whom were younger than she but have predeceased her. The Golden Girls ended because Bea Arthur did not want to do it anymore, so Betty joined Rue and Estelle in a follow-up sequel series. Entitled The Golden Palace, the spin-off show lasted only one season in 1993 and saw the three remaining leads start a hotel together. Breakaway: The Golden Girls ended because Bea Arthur (right) did not want to do it anymore, so Betty joined Rue and Estelle in a follow-up sequel series Brief: Entitled The Golden Palace (pictured), the spin-off show lasted only one season in 1993 and saw the three remaining leads start a hotel together Nasa and SpaceX are preparing to send two astronauts to space in a mission that hopes to change the future of space exploration. When Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley lift off from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station, Nasa will be hoping they will both break tradition and set a new course for US spaceflight. It will be the first time in almost a decade that astronauts have been launched from US soil, with Nasa being forced to borrow seats on board spacecraft from the Russian space agency. The last time Nasa was able to launch astronauts from the US was in 2011, when the Space Shuttle programme came to an end. This time around, Nasa still will not be launching the astronauts themselves, despite providing the launchpad. The rocket and capsule that will carry the astronauts has been built by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and the mission represents the final test of both. Recommended Nasa and SpaceX launch could be delayed by weather It will also be the first time a private company has attempted to send astronauts into space. Here's everything you need to know about this mission, which will launch at 8.22pm UK time on Saturday. What is the purpose of this mission? The mission, known as Demo-2, will allow the US to once again send humans into space. According to Nasa, this is a demonstration mission to show SpaceX's ability to ferry astronauts to the space station and back safely. It is the final major step required by SpaceX's astronaut carrier, the Crew Dragon, to get certified by Nasa's Commercial Crew Programme for more long-term manned missions to space. Who are Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley? Mr Behnken, 48, and Mr Hurley, 53, are experienced Nasa astronauts who have been involved in testing of the Crew Dragon capsule. Mr Hurley, who was a fighter pilot in the US Marine Corps, was on the final flight of the space shuttle Atlantis in 2011 before it was discontinued. Mr Behnken was a flight test engineer with the US Air Force before joining Nasa, and has spent just over 29 days in space, which includes 37 hours of spacewalking time. He will serve as the mission's joint operations commander and take responsibility for the rendezvous, docking and undocking of the Dragon capsule, while Mr Hurley will be in charge of the launch, landing and recovery of the vehicle in his role as the Crew Dragon spacecraft commander. The two men will be wearing spacesuits designed by SpaceX with help from Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez. How will the astronauts get to the space station? The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft with Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley strapped inside. Shortly after lift-off, the rocket will separate into what is called a first stage and a second stage. The first stage will return to a SpaceX landing ship which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, while the second part of the rocket continue the journey with the Crew Dragon. Once in orbit, the Crew Dragon will then separate from the second stage and travel at around 17,000mph before being in a position to rendezvous, and dock, with the space station 24 hours later. What will they do when they are in the space station? Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley will test the Crew Dragon's environmental control system, the displays and controls, and the manoeuvring thrusters. They will also monitor the autonomous docking system during the approach to the space station, according to Nasa. The duo will become members of the Expedition 63 crew and perform further tests on the Crew Dragon along with other tasks related to the space station. But the pair's main mission is to conclude the validation process that is required by Nasa to ensure the spacecraft designed to carry astronauts can operate safely. How and when will they return? The Demo-2 mission is expected to last anything between one and four months. But Nasa said the duration of this mission would be determined by when the next commercial crew will be able to travel to the space station. The spacecraft will be capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days. When it is time to return, the Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with Mr Behnken and Mr Hurley on board and depart the space station. Shortly after firing up its engines to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft will deploy four parachutes to slow its descent and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Florida. SpaceX's recovery ship, called Go Navigator, will be waiting nearby to retrieve the duo and ferry them to Cape Canaveral. Why did Nasa stop sending astronauts into space? In 2010, the US started to wind down its space shuttle programme which had carried astronauts into orbit for three decades with the aim of focusing on building technology for Moon and Mars missions. Nasa asked private companies such as Space X and Boeing to design the technologies which would allow passengers to travel to space, while opting to pay Russia to send American astronauts to the space station as an interim arrangement. What's next? If Demo-2 is successful, SpaceX will be allowed to go ahead with more manned missions to the space stations as part of their 2.6 billion US dollar (2.1 billion) contract with Nasa. Boeing also has a similar deal with the space agency, worth 4.2 billion US dollars (3.4 billion), to send astronauts to the space station in its CST-100 Starliner crew capsule, although its vehicle is not expected to be ready until next year. How can I watch live? Both Nasa and SpaceX will be hosting live streams of the events, which will begin a few hours before launch. Tune in earlier to get a look at the astronauts as they are driven to the spacecraft before they set off, as well as for discussions about the mission with experts. Nasa's live coverage will be hosted on Nasa TV, which can be watched here, via YouTube, as well as on the space agency's official site: SpaceX's coverage will be hosted on its own website too, on a launch page that currently gives a full rundown of how the day will play out. Additional reporting by agencies Appointment 26 May 2020 With the appointment of Joanna Gunn as chief brand officer, Rosewood Hotel Group has added strong leadership to the company's brand, marketing and communications team to support its ambitious expansion and growing presence in the global luxury hospitality arena. Gunn will oversee marketing direction for ultra-luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, deluxe New World Hotels & Resorts and business lifestyle KHOS hotels. Previously, Joanna was chief brand officer for Lane Crawford, a luxury multi-brand retailer, and brings more than 23 years' luxury experience to her new position. She played a key role in building the Lane Crawford brand across marketing and communications channels, launching six stores in Hong Kong and Greater China and being a strategic lead in creating China's first omni-channel luxury fashion destination. Whilst pioneering memorable campaigns, she led Lane Crawford's product direction and organized events and customer experiences on and offline. Joanna was also instrumental in establishing strategic partnerships with some of the best design talent from around the world. Lane Crawford is recognized for its success in introducing international luxury designer brands across lifestyle categories. This includes exciting collaborations with Gucci, Loewe, Stella McCartney, Burberry, Rimowa, Charlotte Tilbury and Tom Dixon among others. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 11:41:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Mi-8 military helicopter made an emergency landing at Anadyr airport in Russia's Far East with casualties, Russian media outlet Sputnik cited local authority to report on Tuesday. Earlier, Sputnik cited a source to say that four people are believed to have died in the landing. Enditem Like many countries in east Africa, Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to drought. Since 1965, Ethiopia has experienced 15 severe droughts affecting more than 65 million people and causing serious economic damage. Most recently, in 2015 and 2016, Ethiopia suffered a harsh drought which forced more than 10 million people to rely on emergency aid due to crop and water supply failures. In dispersed rural communities, such as those found in Ethiopia, water supply is highly decentralised. Communities often rely on a number of small communal sources where people collect water. These could be hand-pumps, springs, hand-dug-wells, or motorised pumps in boreholes. Hand-pumps are installed on boreholes or wells, often by the government or NGOs, and usually tap into groundwater at depths of between 15 to 50 metres. In other areas, motorised boreholes are used to access groundwater hundreds of metres deep and are powered using solar or diesel generators. Communal sources are often managed and maintained by communities . So ensuring continuous access to water supplies during drought can be challenging because communities often lack the capacity to repair problems. What usually happens during a drought is that the focus of intervention programmes is on building more water supply infrastructure . For example; drilling more boreholes and digging more wells. In a new study we wanted to know what the most reliable and accessible water source types were for communities during drought. We used data that was collected by UNICEF monitoring teams during the drought in 2015 and 2016. We found that communal hand-pumped boreholes and motorised boreholes were what communities accessed the most roughly 400,000 people, about half of the number of people in the study, used them. The others relied on springs, hand-dug wells and open sources, such as rivers. A small number of people relied on emergency water trucking. Hand-pumped boreholes were also associated with the shortest travel times for water collection. My colleagues and I therefore argue that it's best for projects to support communities in the use of pre-existing boreholes particularly hand-pumped boreholes. This is because so many people already rely on them and because they access water that is stored underground and resilient to changes in climate. Neglecting existing communal water supplies risks leaving many of the most vulnerable and remote communities unserved. In addition, evidence shows that creating new water sources during drought takes time and can leave additional management and cost burdens on communities, or the local government, when the drought ends. It's crucial that the government ensures the boreholes are properly monitored and repaired if they break down. Monitoring sources During the drought, monitoring teams set up by UNICEF as part of an emergency intervention were deployed for three months to monitor the status and performance of different water source types. The teams collected data about whether sources worked, how many people used them, the amount of time spent collecting water and how much water was collected. We used the data to see how different water points performed. Monitoring teams used a mobile phone app which allowed information to be passed around very quickly. This meant more boreholes worked because maintenance teams were able to quickly respond and prioritise repairs. By fixing boreholes, many more users had access to water. In the case of hand-pumps, it meant travel times to collect water were reduced. The ability of communities to access multiple safe groundwater sources also helped to reduce pressures on individual water sources. Supporting hand-pumps Our study highlights the importance of hand-pumped and motorised boreholes for ensuring continued access to water during drought. However, we found that while hand-pumps were quickly fixed, repairs for motorised boreholes were slower . This is because more complex technologies are harder to repair and the skills required are often in short supply. Our results also suggest caution is required as the rural water supply sector plans for the future. Under the Sustainable Development Goals, communal water sources such as hand-pumps are not classified as safely managed and could be neglected for more complex technologies, including on-plot piped water supplies. But, in a similar way to the motorised boreholes in our study, the pipes and pumps used in such systems may break down more often and could take longer to repair, increasing drought vulnerability in areas where there is a lack of financial resources and where it is challenging to find adequate skills for maintenance and repair. There is already evidence , albeit from Vietnam, that poorer households have lower rates of access to piped water supplies than higher income households. Thus, without continued investment in basic communal sources, such as hand-pumps, poorer households may be forced to return to hand-dug wells, springs and surface water sources that offer little resilience to drought and are more vulnerable to contamination . Ensuring communities are able to access multiple safe groundwater water sources, primarily via hand-pumped boreholes but also motorised boreholes, supported by real-time source monitoring and responsive and proactive maintenance and repair, is a reliable way to ensure continued access to water during drought. Donald John MacAllister receives funding from UKRI, NERC and BGS. He is affiliated with the Geological Society, London Alan MacDonald receives funding from UKRI, NERC and BGS. He is affiliated with the International Association of Hydrogeologists and the Geological Society, London. Seifu Kebede Gurmessa ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possede pas de parts, ne recoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a declare aucune autre affiliation que son poste universitaire. By Donald John MacAllister, International Development Hydrogeologist, British Geological Survey And Alan MacDonald, Professor, British Geological Survey And Seifu Kebede Gurmessa, Professor of Hydrology, University of KwaZulu-Natal As if there isn't enough to deal with during this crisis, parents and grandparents must also consider the wellbeing of their children. As children begin to return to schools across Victoria, they will notice the setup will be vastly different. What should you tell them and when? Although that depends to some extent on each child's age and temperament, here are five guidelines: 1. Start by imagining the world from their point of view. When we feel threatened, it's easy to assume others are worrying about the same things and in the same way we are. But children won't see the current situation as adults do. They've never been children before, so - unlike you - they don't have a preconceived idea of what's "normal". If they're anxious, it's primarily because you are, rather than because of any external threat. Among the children returning to school today were Amelia Younane's daughters Cecilia Younane (grade 2) and Lila (prep). Credit:Joe Armao According to child psychologist Jean Piaget, children up to age six or seven think about the world almost entirely from their own point of view, and their outlook widens only gradually. Therefore, before you attempt to reassure your child, make sure you understand what's worrying them. Ask questions, listen carefully, and respond from their perspective, rather than from your own. Holbox anticipates receiving tourist for mid-June Holbox, Q.R. Tourist activity in Holbox will tentatively restart on June 15 when general tourism activity is reactivated said the Secretary General of City Council, Salvador Vargas Rosas. He reports that the reactivation with include all the necessary precautions, including medical tests to visitors, to take care of tourists and residents, pointing out that the reopening of the island will depend on the go-ahead from federal and state authorities. He says in the event of a contagion, hotels, restaurants and other tourist service providers must follow the recommendations of health authorities, adding that those who arrive on the island will undergo medical tests to determine their state of health. For our part, they will always have our hospitality, but tourists that arrive must be in the best health conditions to prevent outbreaks of coronavirus on the island. He also said that other primary activities, such as agriculture and fishing, have been gradually reopened. We have producers from San Angel, Solferino and Kantunilkin that have commercialized their products in various municipalities of the state as well as in Yucatan and Veracruz. He said that these producers have commercialized, mainly papaya maradol and vegetables, which has allowed economic relief for at least 200 producers in the area and thus, recover the production costs of their crops. To the Editor: Re The American Dream Is Alive and Well (The America We Need series, Opinion, nytimes.com, May 18): Michael R. Strain argues that most of us should want to increase the incomes of those at the bottom even if in doing so we raised the incomes of those at the top by a larger percentage because we should care more about the absolute condition of those at the bottom than about the size of the rich-poor gap. But absolute condition is influenced by social norms. Apart from those in dire poverty, peoples sense of their own standard of living depends on where they stand relative to others. As a society becomes more unequal and the richer pull away, those who are left behind feel poorer. And as inequality widens, the richer have more power to demand and get systemic changes in laws governing taxes, antitrust, bankruptcy, labor law, intellectual property, finance, and bailouts and subsidies. These changes make the rich even richer, while leaving the poorer even further behind. It is a vicious cycle in which we already find ourselves. Robert B. Reich Berkeley, Calif. The writer, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, was secretary of labor in the Clinton administration. Description GIS - 25 May 2020 : The Chagos Archipelago is clearly depicted as a Mauritian territory in the new world map (Map No 4170 Revision 18.1 of 20 February 2020), recently issued by the United Nations (UN) Secretariat. The new map confirms the sovereignty of the Republic of Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago, rejoiced the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, this evening, during a televised message on the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation. He expressed satisfaction as regards this major development adding that this decision marks a major step forward in the fight of the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago. He stated that Government has asked other institutions such as World Atlas, Google and Apple to make the necessary changes depicting the Chagos Archipelago as a territory of Mauritius and not as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). The Prime Minister recalled that on 22 May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly had adopted the Resolution stipulating that the Chagos Archipelago forms an integral part of Mauritius by a record vote of 116 in favour and six against. The General Assembly had also asked the United Nations and its institutions not to acknowledge the BIOT, created by the British in 1965 when they had illegally detached the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, he added. Mr Jugnauth stressed that till date, the United Kingdom is violating the international law and the fundamental principles of justice and human rights since it is illegally occupying our territory. He also pointed out that he is more determined than ever to continue the fight so that justice prevails. #ResOuLakaz #BeSafeMoris Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov Washington: A year after United States-backed forces seized the last remnant of territory under Islamic State group rule in Syria, some 10,000 captured IS fighters in Kurdish-run wartime prisons pose "a significant risk" to the American mission in the country's north-east, military commanders say. Hardened IS fighters protesting the dire conditions in their makeshift confines, including the potential spread of COVID-19, have rioted at the largest prison in Hasaka twice in the past two months. The uprisings were quelled, but they underscore the "high-impact risk of a mass breakout", US commanders told investigators from the Department of Defence's inspector-general's office. People attend the funeral of a Syrian Democratic Forces fighter who was killed in a battle with remnants of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, in the town of Qamishli, in March. Credit:AP These findings, contained in the inspector-general's latest quarterly report on the US military missions in Iraq and Syria, issued earlier this month, represent new and alarming warnings for a counter-terrorism mission that already faces renewed attacks from resurgent IS guerillas, pressure from Russian troops supporting the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and concerns that the coronavirus could infect their own ranks. These concerns have limited operations of the 500 remaining US troops in north-eastern Syria. Bengals consumer affairs minister Sadhan Pandey on Tuesday accused Kolkatas municipal corporation of lacking preparedness to deal with the aftermath of cyclone Amphan causing immense difficulties for the citys residents. Pandey is a senior leader of the Trinamool Congress which also runs the Kolkata municipal corporation. Pandeys attack comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,) the Congress and the Left parties have been targeting the Mamata Banerjee government over its response to the devastation caused by cyclone Amphan across south Bengal. The Kolkata Municipal Corporations board has completed its five-year tenure but since the elections could not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the state government had appointed a board of administrators, with the members of the freshly-defunct mayor-in-council as its members and mayor-cum-state urban development minister Firhad Hakim as the chairman of the board. On Tuesday, Pandey targeted Hakim. There are more than 140 wards in Kolkata but KMC has only 25 cutters. There should have one cutter in each ward. It is unfortunate that KMC didnt have this preparation. Meanwhile the municipal commissioner Khalil Ahmed was transferred. He was a good officer. Despite getting the warning at least five days in advance, the KMCs administrator never discussed the matter with Kolkatas MLAs. The administrator could have called us and asked for our opinion when the warning came. He never did that, said Pandey. In a statement that could embarrass the states ruling party all the more, Pandey said that Hakim should have also discussed the matter with his predecessor Sovan Chatterjee. Incidentally, Chatterjee had quit TMC and joined the BJP. Hakim shot back at Pandey soon after. Those who are making these remarks have kept themselves locked up in their apartments for the fear of Covid-19. I have been on the streets. I have to fight both Covid-19 and the impact of the cyclone. BJPs state unit president Dilip Ghosh also waded into the fight saying, I congratulate Pandey for daring the speak the truth. In another incident, Abdul Khaleq Molla, the TMC MLA from Metiabruz, sustained injuries when a brick was thrown at him during a protest by local residents at Nadial area over the delay in restoring power supply. In some pockets of Kolkata, power connections which snapped on the day of the cyclone on May 20 returned a week later on Tuesday evening. One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In JRR Tolkiens story Lord of the Rings, a Fellowship of the Ring was formed to destroy the one ring and its evil powers. The fellowship comprised of representatives of different races of Tolkiens middle earth: Hobbits, wizards, elves, dwarves and men, who were united in their quest, despite their differences. Tolkiens remarkable story is about how they succeed by acting together. The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is clearly the ring binding humanity in its darkness. Sadly, however, there is no fellowship in sight. On the contrary, the dark powers of the ring appear to be dividing countries more than ever before, with increasing protectionism and the decline of globalisation. The 73rd World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), at its virtual meeting on May 18-19, adopted a resolution that recognised the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic, and called for equitable access to and fair distribution of all essential health technologies and products to combat the virus. It also recognised that extensive immunisation against Covid-19 is a global public good. Ahead of the World Health Assembly, more than 140 world leaders and experts made an unprecedented call that all vaccines, treatments and tests be patent-free, mass-produced, distributed fairly and made available to all people, in all countries, free of charge. The WHO assembly, however, failed to achieve consensus on ensuring how this global public good of extensive immunisation will be achieved. The WHO Assembly was preceded by a United Nations General Assembly resolution emphasising on the need for equitable, efficient and timely access to any future vaccines developed to fight the coronavirus, as well as a virtual meeting of G20 countries which emphasised that peoples health and well-being are at the heart of all decisions taken to protect lives, tackle illness and strengthen global health security. None of these initiatives, however, addressed how equitable access to medicines or vaccines for addressing Covid-19 can be achieved. India and the United States (US) were nowhere to be seen in the May 4 virtual summit, co-organised by the European Union (EU), Britain, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Canada, South Africa and several other countries and non-governmental organisations which collectively pledged $8 billion to research, manufacture and distribute possible vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. The geopolitical tensions between the US and China are threatening any coordinated multilateral response, as well as the continued existence of multilateral institutions which are central to a global effort to find a vaccine. President Donald Trump has announced a freeze on funding to WHO, on the allegations of mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic and bias towards China. There are also calls in the US to abolish the World Trade Organization (WTO) whose role in enforcing trade rules have in any event been rendered ineffective by US actions to scuttle the WTOs appellate body. The US governments Operation Warp Speed (a partnership between private pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and the military) is focused on the availability of a vaccine, but only for the US while Chinese biotech companies are engaged in similar efforts with their government and the Peoples Liberation Army. Outrage from the French government and the EU has reportedly resulted in the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi withdrawing its plan to give the US priority access to its potential Covid-19 vaccine. Reports on the EU-supported May 4 virtual initiative quote EU officials as stating that while pharmaceutical companies that receive the funding will not be asked to forgo Intellectual Property Rights on the new vaccine and treatments, they should commit to making them available worldwide at affordable prices. This hortatory statement, however, falls flat in the absence of a definitive plan of action necessary to address equitable access. Who will own, who will have access and on what terms, to the medicines and vaccines that are being developed this lies at the heart of any real and effective solution to tackle Covid-19. Patents, rights over test data, and know-how, are important economic mechanisms for incentivising innovation and development of new technologies. While dealing with a pandemic of such large dimensions, however, there is a crucial need to balance private profit and the larger public good. In the mid-20th century, both inventors of the polio vaccines Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin declined to patent their inventions, an act which ensured widespread access and near-eradication of polio worldwide. This stood in stark contrast with one of the largest lawsuits in 1998, when 39 pharmaceutical companies sued South Africa, alleging patent violations resulting from it importing cheaper anti-AIDS drugs and other medicines. While public pressure led to the lawsuit being dropped after three years, it exemplified the complexities and significant litigation risks that can accompany any effort to implement affordable access to patented medicines. Covid-19 needs an innovative solution, and this is necessary at the stage of research and development and clinical trials, rather than something which can be addressed after a cure is found. The virus has bound our globally interconnected world like no other, and the utility of any vaccine to fight it can succeed only if there is rapid universal access to the cure. That can happen only if governments across the world develop a pragmatic approach that recognises and rewards innovators, while ensuring that access to the innovation is held in trust for the benefit of humankind. We urgently need a fellowship of countries that can fight off, arguably, the 21st centurys greatest challenge. RV Anuradha is a partner at Clarus Law Associates, New Delhi and specialises in international economic laws The views expressed are personal Nokia last week suspended operations at a telecom gear manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur of Tamil Nadu, the company said on Tuesday, after some employees tested positive for Covid-19. Nokia did not disclose how many workers at the Sriperumbudur plant tested positive, but a source familiar with the matter said they were at least 42. The Finnish firm said it had already implemented measures such as social distancing and changes to canteen facilities. The factory had begun operations in a restricted manner over the past few weeks, Nokia said in a statement, after India eased the ... - The seven drivers were spotted in Ndeeba, a suburb estate in Kampala on Saturday, May 23 - Health officials expressed fear the drivers might have spend several days in the estate and interacted with the community. - The seven were among 25 other drivers who had previously disappeared after they tested positive for COVID-19 at Elegu and Malaba border posts - The escapees were mainly Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan nationals Authorities in Uganda have launched a manhunt for seven truck drivers who vanished into a leafy estate of Kampala after testing positive for coronavirus. The seven drivers were spotted in Ndeeba, a suburb estate in Kampala on Saturday, May 23, and it was feared they had spent several days there and interacted with the community. READ ALSO: Angry Kisii man lectures wife for denying him conjugal rights for 2 years in viral video Busia border point. Photo: NTSA. Source: UGC READ ALSO: MP Kimani Ngunjiri claims senators were paid KSh 100k each to vote out William Ruto's allies Health officials in Uganda noted efforts to trace the drivers and their conductors were on going and would provide a detailed report on the matter. National COVID-19 Response Incident Commander Ateka Kagirita said the truck drivers had escaped into the estate after finding out their status. READ ALSO: Wanachama wa Sonko Rescue Team wakamatwa wakitoa msaada wa chakula kwa waathiriwa Kariobangi Kagirita noted the seven were among the 25 drivers who had previously disappeared into the community after they tested positive at Elegu and Malaba border posts. "The 24-hour operation is ongoing to hunt down all the truck drivers who escaped into the community after testing positive. We are working day and night to get who they got into contact with, establish where they slept to ensure there is no positive case in the community," Kagirita told Daily Monitor. Trucks heading to at the Malaba border point. Photo: Daily Monitor. Source: UGC The drivers are said to have dismissed existence of coronavirus and opted to run away to avoid being baited into a government trap of "extortion". Uganda Professional Drivers Network (UPDN) Executive Director Ndugu Omogo said the seven were mainly Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania nationals. "Some of them have been in the community for more than a week. Many of them ran away because there is no existing case management system. Many of them think the disease doesnt exist and that government just wants to steal money, he said. Omogo noted most of the drivers were running away because they were freelance drivers with no lasting contracts with truck owners hence when arrested and quarantined for 14 days, they lose jobs. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Corona has ruined our daily lives | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke Birthday wishes Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun. Happy Birthday Wishes The heavy rain on an early morning in April could not stop Dinh Thi Thao and her friends starting their rounds of small houses on the outskirts of Hanoi. Dinh Thi Thao is a shining example of work ethics and lifestyle among students. For most people, leaving home early in the pouring rain to get to work is a chore, but not for Thao and her friends who are all students at the Hanoi Metropolitan University "We are working to build a better community," she explained. So what are they doing for the community? The students and members of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union are helping out with social charity projects. Thao and her group have been working in Hanoi's outlying district of Thuong Tin, about 25km from the city centre. Titled Ha Noi Nghia Tinh (Ha Noi Affection), the project is being promoted by the Vietnam Youth Federation in collaboration with local authorities in the capital city. As part of the project, Thao and her friends donate gifts to poor families and individuals affected by COVID-19 pandemic in Khanh Ha Commune. After following hygiene procedures regulated by the Ministry of Health to stop the pandemic, the group divides up into teams to deliver hundreds of gifts including rice, eggs and vegetables to struggling households. It is not the first time Thao has been involved in social work. For many years, she has been a member of a pioneering, energetic and enthusiastic team from her home village in Thuong Tin District's Khanh Ha Commune and her university. Blood drives, fundraising to buy books for children in extreme difficulties, volunteering to build new rural areas, responding to plastic waste and climate change, dismantling illegal advertisements and graffiti and cleaning village roads and alleys are all on Thao's CV thanks to her kindness and enthusiasm. Thao said when the country was under quarantine due to the pandemic, her studies were halted so she returned to her hometown in Khanh Ha Commune to help the Youth Union support the needy in her community. She has also tried to show people how to prevent and fight diseases to protect their health. These jobs give me new experiences. They help me see the meaningful aspects of life so the more I am involved, the more passionate I feel, the student said. Thao (centre) with her volunteer team. Photo nhipsonghanoi.hanoimoi.com.vn Thao and many other students from the university have helped distribute thousands of face masks and bottles of sanitiser to people in Hanoi's Cau Giay District. She said was really surprised and happy to see people in her commune following their guidance about maintaining hygiene to prevent and protect themselves from the novel coronavirus. "I was really pleased to see they not only understood what is going on during the pandemic but also were ready to share the hardship with others by donating rice and cash to people in need," said Thao. Chairman of Thanh Ha Commune's People's Committee Le Van Tao was full of praise. Active, enthusiastic and passionate about charity work are the first impressions that everyone gets when they meet Thao," the official said. "She has launched many initiatives for the local Youth Union's development plan, and Thao is also encouraging young people in her hometown to get involved, he said. And it's not just her community activities; the student also has very impressive academic achievements. She was an excellent student throughout 12 years at grade school and won a full university scholarship. Dinh Van Giap, Thao's father, said his daughter was self-conscious about learning from an early age but the family never put pressure on her. "Sometimes, we see how deep she is in her studies very late at night, and then she is busy with school work and social activities, so we are also worrying about her health. However, we can see how happy she is so we try to encourage her instead of stopping her," her father said. According to Thao, besides her fondness for studying and enriching her knowledge of life, she wants to continue contributing to the community in the most effective and practical ways possible. Currently, Thao is a third-year student of politics. In addition to studying hard and participating in social work, she is also passionate about scientific research and history. In her relentless efforts in all fields, Thao has won many awards for her contributions to society and the university. She was awarded the city-level title of a "Student of Five Good Characters" and a Certificate of Merit from the Hanoi Students' Association in 2018-2019 for her outstanding achievements in the city's student movement. She won first prize at a national contest themed "Study and Work Following Ho Chi Minh's Ideology, Morality and Style" in 2019, and second prize at a college-level contest named "Students with Scientific Research" in 2018-2019. Thao was also awarded a Certificate of Merit by her university for her outstanding achievements at the "Green Summer Campaign 2019" - a voluntary movement launched by the Youth Federation and the Students Association. In particular, the student was last year honourably admitted as a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and in early 2020 she was awarded the title "Good Person - Good Deed" by the Hanoi People's Committee. The Principal of the Hanoi Metropolitan University, Bui Van Quan, praised Thao as a real shining example of work ethic and lifestyle. "Thao's character has won the confidence of her friends and teachers at school. She is loved by all of us," the principal said. VNS 12 shining examples of VN volunteering and acts of kindness in the COVID-19 pandemic Times of crisis can often bring out the best in people. As the COVID-19 situation becomes more and more complicated in Vietnam, many have stepped up to help doctors and their communities, any way they can. Hanoi student dormitories transformed into isolation areas Thousands of students in Hanoi have left their dormitories in order to provide quarantine areas for people returning the country from areas hit by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A lot have been heard about COVID-19 pandemic and what different countries are doing to ameliorate the sufferings of their citizens. At the weekend in Ibusa, Delta State, the people of Umuezeogboli experienced a rain of blessing. Unlike the usual kind of palliative distributed by the government to the people, the family of late senior Michael Nwaezeapu under auspices of Michael Nwaezeapu Foundation took it upon themselves to show kindness to the entire Umuezeogboli people, ensuring that the less privileged, orphans, wives, widows, elders and sick ones have something to eat in way that defines love, care. The food items distributed include bags of rice, beans, cartons of nodules, yam, onions, tomatoes, palm and vegetable oil. I am happy that someone took it upon himself to remember me. To give me food stuff. Everybody that has received these foods items today is deeply touched because we never expected this kind gesture at a trying period like this. I pray that God almighty will bless those that provide for us, said one of the beneficiaries, Mrs Rita Okafor. Speaking of the symbolic value of the palliative, Mrs Salome Chukwurah while pointing to her gifts , We feel loved by our husbands. For them to have remembered to give us something that would last us for weeks show that they place importance on us. May God replenish them in Jesus name. This singular act was timely considering the level of hardship most of the beneficiaries were going through. Some of them had challenges that were unbelievable. Driving a distance of about five poles, the distribution team in company of humanitarian Philip Elume, and Comrade Ekene Okonkwo of the Young Citizens of Nigeria (YCN), journalists and some community women visited the lonely home of a Ninety-year-old woman, Mama Amadi, who according to neighbours live alone because she has no child. The team had to exercise a mixture of patience and compassion to be able to see mama who took over forty-five minutes to open the door. It also wasnt easy handing over the goods as the Nonagenarian was hard of hearing. One had to shout for her to hear and in the midst of it all, she has no companion. Nobody to talk to and nobody to cook or care for her. The team learnt an unpleasant lesson pertaining to life and old age. With your permission Sir, I will come here regularly to check on her, said Francis Ndikanwu, a volunteer from the Young Citizens of Nigeria. Francis moved by the womans melancholic state at 90, added that elderly people deserve care and respect from their respective communities. He wondered why the womans family couldnt assign a child to live with her. Another disturbing experience in the cause of distribution of the palliative was a visit to the Okafor family. I am tried of this trouble. The medicine that I bought this evening has been wasted. He is sick and when you give him medicine, he will vomit it, said the wife of one of the Okafor brothers. She added that his younger brother is also down with stroke. Thank you for coming to our house to present this gifts. At least we will have food to eat, the woman said hoping that her husband recovers fast. The palliative didnt end until the team extended love to Pro Labore del, a motherless baby home located at Ogboli quarters, Ibusa. At the orphanage home which means labour of God, the MNF presented the food items and encouraged the children to keep hope alive. Reacting to the visit, Mrs Martha Nwankwo, caregiver of the children welcomed the team. We will be able to take good care of the children here and other parts of the country if well meaning citizens can emulate the good gesture of the Michael Nwaezeapu Foundation to reach out to the less privileged. On behalf of the children, a boy identified as Michael ministered in songs while praying for divine rewards upon everyone at the occasion. News Washington, DC - Remarks by President Trump at Rolling to Remember Ceremony: Honoring our Nations Veterans and POW/MIA. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. And we really youre my friends and youve been supporting me right from the beginning. I appreciate that youre here. And were here for you. And I told you, when you want to come back with your 600,000, were ready to take you. But youre going to give us a little display on those beautiful bikes. And youre going to be Ive never seen anyone do that actually. You must have special privileges. Ive never seen anybody ride through here. But I want to welcome you, and I want to welcome my friends. Youre the Rolling to Remember. And thats what it is: Rolling to Remember. And we will be commemorating Memorial Day. Its a big thing. Together, our nation pays immortal tribute to the extraordinary courage, unflinching loyalty, and unselfish love, and supreme devotion of the American heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice. And thats what youre here for. Its the ultimate sacrifice, and it is indeed. They laid down their lives to ensure the survival of American freedom. Their names are etched forever into the hearts of our people and the memory of our nation. And some of you, its been very close very, very close. Its very close to your heart. Well cherish them and our Gold Star families for all time. We take good care of them. Theyre very special to us. Just as well always remember the nearly 82,000 Americans missing in action. Were joined today by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie. Where is Robert? Hi, Robert. Great job youre doing, Robert. (Applause.) You know, we got the Veterans Choice and Accountability. Choice is when they wait for two months to see a doctor before. They have to wait like a few hours. They outside, they get themselves a good doctor, we pay the bill, and they get taken care of. So, you know, the stories were legendary. You dont hear bad things about the VA anymore. You used turn on every night, youd see a horror show. So, I want to thank you. Youve done a fantastic job, Robert. What a great job. Accountability, also. We got VA Accountability. Sounds easy, but when you have civil service and you have unions and you have all of this for 40, 50 years, theyve been trying to get rid of it. Thats they dont take care of our vets, we fire them. Before, you couldnt. They were sadists. They were thieves. And I think youve let go of more than 8,000 people right? who were terrible. Theyve been trying to fire them for years. They didnt take care of our vets. Just the opposite: They were horrible. Now theyre gone. We got them out. So thats a big thing. So its Robert Wilkie. Thank you very much. National Commander of AMVETS Jan Brown wheres Jan? Jan, thank you very much. Good job. Good job youve done here. (Applause.) You got this very special group. Theyre going to be doing a very special ride. Im going to get to watch you, I hope. Right? Because I dont know. Sometimes I look at those bikes I dont know, theyre pretty tough, right? And Actor Robert Patrick, who has been in many films and television shows. I know that well. Most notably as T-1000 in Terminator 2. Thats not too bad, huh? (Applause.) Youre looking good. Youre looking good, Robert. I want to especially recognize the Legendary AMVETS Riders, who made Rolling to Remember possible. For 32 years, Rolling Thunder my friends carried out a ride of remembrance. And now were going to continue that onward. And the Rolling Thunder people were terrific Artie and everybody. They really were. We had a good relationship with them. You know that, right? Say youre going to say hello to my Artie. And I heard they were giving him a hard time a couple of years ago, and I said, Nope. No hard time. But people do get older, right? (Laughs.) They get a little bit he said, Im getting a little older. So, but Artie is terrific, and the whole group is terrific. And thank you for keeping this noble tradition alive and for preserving the memory of those who are missing, but never forgotten. Never forgotten. My administration will spare no effort or resource to support the men and the women who defend our nation. Weve secured over $2.1 trillion in funding to completely rebuild American military with two hun- and think of that: 2.1 trillion 2.1. Not not billion. You know, it used to be million. And then, about 10 years ago, you started hearing billion. And now youre starting to hear trillion, right? So its a I dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing, but its good when were spending $2.1 trillion in funding on our military. Completely rebuild the milit- the military. Our American military now has the greatest equipment, the finest equipment its ever had. Its been entirely rebuilt. Some of the equipment is still coming all made in America, everything. And when I came here and you people knew it better than anybody our military was depleted, just like the shelves were empty from medical equipment. We didnt have ventilators. We didnt have testing. We didnt have anything. And now we have great testing, the best in the world. We have great ventilators. Were making thousands and thousands of them. And were actually now so loaded with ventilators that were helping other countries, and therefore saving lives also. But our American military, with the 281 thats a lot of planes F-35 fighter jets, the best in the world; 453 Abrams tanks; 14,400 tactical combat vehicles; 2 aircraft carriers; 36 additional battleships, and much more. All made in the USA. So importantly, were giving our service members the resources, tools, and equipment they need. Were even getting brand-new, beautiful uniforms. Doesnt sound like much. If I told you what it costs, its a lot for the Army. The Army has new uniforms and they are gorgeous. We passed the largest reform of the Department of Veterans Affairs in the I think, in the history of the department, including VA Accountability and, I said, VA Choice. Weve removed 8,500 VA workers who werent doing their job, who were taking advantage of our country and hurting our vets. The percentage of veterans reporting they trust services think of that, they trust services; so they report, and they say they trust services has reached the highest in the history of the VA, Secretary. Thats a big statement. So the percentage of veterans reporting that they trust the VA and the VA services is now the highest in the history of the service. Satisfaction with the VA outpatient care has reached 89 percent, and were not going to rest until we have it at 100 percent, Robert. I also formed the PREVENTS its called PREVENTS Task Force. (Applause.) Well, you guys how many of you how many are vets here. AUDIENCE MEMBER: All of us. THE PRESIDENT: Big difference between now and the way it used to be, right? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh, yeah. THE PRESIDENT: Big difference. I also formed the PREVENTS. I got to be careful when I ask that question. Sometimes somebody could say, Oh, we used to like it better. That would not be good, right? (Laughter.) You know that would go on the fake news immediately, right? Thats all theyd cover, so I have to be very careful. But thank you. I also formed the PREVENTS Task Force to fight the tragedy of veteran suicide, which is an unbelievable tragedy. And we actually have medications that were working on. They have one from Johnson & Johnson, which is a inhaler, and it has been very effective. Weve ordered, I think, thousands of units of that thousands and thousands and were using it. When the invisible enemy struck our country, my administration quickly secured VA medical facilities. Were keeping the sacred covenant. Were protecting those who sacrificed so much to protect us. I was very early. In fact, out of many, many people, I was the only the one that wanted to do it. I guess I was the only one that mattered. But I kept China out of the United States. I put a ban on China in January, and I took a lot of heat. Joe Biden said, Oh, hes xenophobic. Oh, thats right. Yeah. But a month later, he said I was right. As you know, Dr. Fauci, a good guy, said, You dont need to do that. And then later on, when he saw that I did it and when we kept thousands tens of thousands of people out, he said, Donald Trump saved thousands of lives, tens of thousands of lives. And we did. So we did it very early, and that was a very important the ban on Chinese people, people from China coming in. Because I was seeing how badly infected the one area, Wuhan, was, so I put a ban on. And everybody thought Nancy Pelosi, a month later, was in Chinatown in San Francisco. Shes dancing in the streets of Chinatown, trying to say, Its okay to come to the United States. Its fine. Its wonderful. Come on in. Bring your infection with you. And then she said, He should have done it earlier about me. And shes dancing a month later. These people are sick. Anyway, last year, I signed the National POW/MIA Flag Act, which requires that all federal buildings fly the POW/MIA flag, in addition to the American flag. In the months (applause) right? And you see them all over Washington now. And they could be separate from the flag. You can do a separate placement or you could put it under the flag. In the months since, that righteous flag has proudly flown over the White House; you probably noticed it today. But that reminder is the work left and we have work left. But we have to get it. We have to win the White House, otherwise a lot of the great things that weve done were going to do great with our economy; were going to see you already see it starting to happen. Were trying to get some governors theyre not opening up, but theyll be opening up pretty quickly. Today, I just spoke to CDC. We want our churches and our places of faith and worship; we want them to open. And CDC is going to be I believe today theyre going to be issuing a very strong recommendation. And Im going to be talking about that in a little while. But theyre going to be opening up very soon. We want our churches open. We want our places of faith, synagogues we want them open. And thats going to start happening. I consider them essential, and thats one of the things were saying. Were going to make that essential. You know, they have places essential that arent essential, and they open. And yet the churches arent allowed to open and the synagogues and again, places of faith mosques, places of faith. So thats going to see that youre going to see that. I just want to say youve been tremendous supporters of mine. The bikers I call them the bikers. Theyre bikers for whatever reason, you liked me from the beginning and I liked you from the beginning. And I remember, I went to Hilton Head and I went to other places, and thered would be thousands of bikes outside, and they were all in support. And they actually said, No, we dont have to because there was no room. Theres always weve never had an empty seat, from the time I came down the escalator with our future First First Lady. Who would have thought, right? Remember they were saying, Whats he doing? And then but there were a lot of people that thought wed win, and we won. And we won pretty easily too: 306 to 223. Thats pretty easy. And we went through a primary that was tough, and you were there with me. We went through an election, and that tough, and you were there with me. Always there, the bikers. I think what do I have? Ninety-eight percent? Ninety-five? Were trying to find who are the 3 percent or the 2 percent. Were looking for them, right? Were all looking for them. But Ill never forget, I made a speech in a place. It was packed. You couldnt get in. I said, Fellas, Ill do a second one. They said, No, no, we dont have to hear. We know what youre about. We know where youre coming from, sir. Were here to protect you. Were not here to listen; were here to protect you. I never forgot it. I never felt so safe. And there were a lot of rough guys in that little group of about 1,000 bikes, by the way. Maybe more than that. A lot of rough people. But I tell you: To me, they were beautiful people. But I never forgot that: Were not here to hear your speech, sir. Were here to protect you. And I thought it was an incredible thing. So youve been my friends. I want to thank you very much for it. Get those engines started. I want to see you guys drive around and drive as fast as you can, but dont get hurt. (Laughs.) (The bikers complete a lap around South Lawn Drive.) That was great. And I want to say this to Robert and Jan and every one of you say hello to everybody. November 3rd is a big day. We dont want to destroy this country. Were going to make it bigger, better, greater than ever before. Youre going to see it happening very soon. Were coming into the third quarter. Thats transition to greatness. Third quarter: transition. Get out there. Work. November 3rd November 3rd is the big day. Get all those cycles going there. But we appreciate you being here. Go have some fun. And we love you all. Thank you very much and thank you. Thank you very much, Jan. Thanks. Thank you. The City of Midland has issued an update regarding its Riverside Place senior living community in downtown Midland following the recent flooding event. Riverside Place took on about 16 to 18 inches of water in its lower level due to flooding of the Tittabawassee River. Due to the current condition of the building and ongoing restoration work in progress, Riverside Place will remain closed until further notice. It is unknown at this time when Riverside Place will reopen for residents to permanently return. Central Park this morning: This woman's dog is tearing through the plantings in the Ramble. ME: Ma'am, dogs in the... Posted by Christian Cooper on Monday, May 25, 2020 A woman in New Yorks Central Park called the police accusing a black man of threatening her after he asked her to put her dog on a leash so as not to scare the wildlife. The incident started around 8 a.m. Monday morning, when Christian Cooper of New York asked a woman, now identified as Amy Cooper, to put her dog on a leash. Amy Cooper, according to Christian Cooper, was allowing her dog to run free in the Ramble, a protected section of Central Park where dogs must be on leashes. Christian recorded the confrontation on his phone after asking her to adhere to the signage in the area saying dogs should be on a leash in that area of the park. I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence," said Christian. "I didnt even get a chance to toss any treats to the pooch before [the woman] scrambled to grab the dog. Amy reacted by shouting for Christian to not touch her dog, which is when Christian turned his camera on to document the interaction. Amy asked Christian to stop recording her and the confrontation escalated to take on a racial tone when she said she was going to call the police and tell them that, There is an African American man threatening my life. The Central Park woodland, known as the Ramble, is composed of 38 acres of winding pathways between 73rd and 78th streets and is a popular spot for bird watchers. Dogs MUST be leashed at all times, said Christians sister Melody Cooper on Twitter. And someone like my brother, an avid birder, politely asks her to put her dog on the leash. When Christian refused to stop recording her, Amy grabs her dog's collar and moves away from him to call the police. My brother & I are so grateful for your concern! He is fine and left to continue birding after she leashed the dog, as he politely requested. I wanted folks to know what happened to make sure it never happens again from her. All she had to do was put her poor dog on the leash. Melody Cooper (@melodyMcooper) May 26, 2020 The video shows her on the phone call with a 911 dispatcher raising her tone to emphasize a state of emergency. I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things, Christian said in an interview with CNN. Unfortunately we live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are seen as targets. This woman thought she could exploit that to her advantage, and I wasnt having it. Cooper, works at Franklin Templeton Investments, a multi-billion-dollar asset management firm. Franklin Templeton posted a statement on Twitter that said, We take these matters very seriously, and we do not condone racism of any kind. While we are in the process of investigating the situation, the employee involved has been put on administrative leave. In the video, the dog looks to be in distress and struggling to breath. The Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue also posted a comment appearing to refer to the dog with Amy. Thank you to the concerned public for reaching out to us about a video involving a dog that was adopted from our rescue a few years ago, said Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue. As of this evening, the owner has voluntarily surrendered the dog in question to our rescue while this matter is being addressed. Our mission remains the health and safety of our rescued dogs. The dog is now in our rescues care and he is safe and in good health. When asked if hed accept her apology, Christian told CNN he would, if its genuine and if she plans on keeping her dog on a leash in the Ramble going forward, then we have no issues with each other. In response to an incident involving an employee on May 25th, Franklin Templeton issued the following statement. pic.twitter.com/8f2lMwK0r5 Franklin Templeton (@FTI_US) May 26, 2020 Got a news tip or want to contact MassLive about this story? Email newstips@masslive.com or message us on Facebook orTwitter. You can also call our news tips line at 413-776-1364. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 17:40 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda37ef6 1 City COVID-19,coronavirus,Idul-Fitri-prayer,Bekasi,Bekasi-mayor,health-protocol,physical-distancing Free A family that has tested positive for COVID-19 previously attended mass Idul Fitri prayers at the Al Muhajirin Mosque in the Perumnas 1 housing complex in Bekasi, West Java, on Sunday. Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi confirmed the report, saying they had been picked up by medical workers the following day to be isolated at a hospital in the city. However, he did not reveal the name of the hospital nor the exact number of family members. "It's true. The mother, identified as K, was the first one [to test positive for the virus], Rahmat said on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com. The mayor, however, insisted that the family, along with all participants of the Idul Fitri mass prayers in Bekasi, had followed the required health protocols during the religious gathering, making it unlikely that they had spread the illness to others. "They wore masks," he added. The Bekasi administration allowed mosques within 51 subdistricts categorized as "green zones" to hold Idul Fitri prayers. Authorities required all prayer participants to follow precautionary measures, including wearing masks and maintaining a distance of 1.5 meters from others.(vny) VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Searchlight Resources Inc. ("Searchlight" or the "Company") (TSXV:SCLT) is pleased to announce that it has closed a private placement of flow-through and non-flow-through units (the "Private Placement") as previously announced by press release of May 8, 2020. The Company issued 22,860,000 units at a price of $0.025 per unit (the "Unit") for aggregate proceeds of $571,500. Each Unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant (the "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.05 per common share for a period of 3 years from the date of issue. The Company also issued 14,584,000 flow-through units at a price of $0.03 per unit (the "FT Units") for aggregate proceeds of $437,520. Each FT Unit will consist of one flow-through common share and one-half of one flow-through common share purchase warrant (the "FT Warrants"). Each full FT Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional flow-through common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.05 per common share for a period of 1 year from the date of issue. Shares issued pursuant to the FT Units will entitle the holder to receive the tax benefits applicable to flow-through shares, in accordance with provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada). Searchlight intends to use the proceeds of the Private Placement to fund exploration expenditures on its portfolio of mineral properties and for general working capital. The Company incurred cash commissions and finders' fees of $63,631 and issued 2,201,080 broker warrants of which 1,020,880 expire 1 year from the date of closing and 1,180,200 expire 3 years from the date of issue. All the securities issued are subject to a four-month hold period from the date of closing. About Searchlight Resources Inc. Searchlight Resources Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V: SCLT). The corporate strategy of the company is: to explore and develop opportunities in safe, low risk jurisdictions. The Company is focused on Saskatchewan, which the Fraser Institute ranks as the top jurisdiction in Canada for mining investment. to acquire high quality projects, close to infrastructure, focusing on road access to work closely with stakeholders, including First Nations, Metis, local and provincial governments and local contractors to advance mineral exploration and development in a safe and environmentally sound manner. Searchlight Resources is focused primarily on two advanced high-grade gold projects. 1) English Bay, targeting a high-grade gold deposit with open pit and underground potential located 10 kilometers north of LaRonge, Sask. 2) Bootleg Lake, an opportunity for multiple high-grade gold mines to feed a single centralized mill, located 5 kilometers from Flin Flon in Saskatchewan. In addition, Searchlight continues to evaluate and systematically acquire quality mineral exploration projects throughout Saskatchewan and has a portfolio of gold, cobalt, copper, vanadium and specialty metal projects from grassroots stage to advanced exploration and NI43-101 resource development. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Stephen Wallace" SEARCHLIGHT RESOURCES INC. Stephen Wallace, President, CEO and Director Contact: Searchlight Resources Inc. Investor Relations (604) 331-9326 info@searchlightresources.com Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. SOURCE: Searchlight Resources Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591533/Searchlight-Announces-Closing-of-Private-Placement-Financing The World Health Organisations (WHO) decision to temporarily halt trials of hydroxychloroquine as a potential coronavirus treatment has been welcomed by UK experts. On Monday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the decision had been taken in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet. Experts found that hydroxychloroquine and a related medicine chloroquine was linked to an increased risk of death and heart arrhythmias among people severely ill in hospital with coronavirus. A number of trials have been taking place across the world looking at the drugs effectiveness in combating Covid-19. This includes a trial called COPCOV to see whether the drugs could prevent Covid-19 had begun in Brighton and Oxford. "The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board"-@DrTedros #COVID19 World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 25, 2020 Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine or a placebo will be given to more than 40,000 healthcare workers from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. After the Lancet study, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) asked for recruitment to the trial to be paused. The researchers have responded to the agency addressing its concerns and remain confident the trial will resume recruiting. Commenting on the announcement, Professor Trudie Lang, director of The Global Health Network, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said: The WHO temporarily halting the use of chloroquine in Covid-19 clinical trials highlights why we need to run carefully-designed clinical trials during outbreaks. Story continues This enables us to learn as quickly as possible about whether potential therapies can tackle the virus and are safe. Properly designed and managed clinical trials are the only way we can see whether drugs might also cause harm. They are designed to assess the safety of the drug relative to the ability to bring any benefit. We have long known that chloroquine can cause harmful cardiac-related side effects from the use of chloroquine in the treatment of malaria. Recent trials carried out in China of a lower chloroquine dose didnt show efficacy in relation to Covid-19. A higher chloroquine dose could bring increased risk of harmful side effects. She added that using chloroquine off licence or outside a trial does not help answer questions about its safety and can also present a risk to the patient. US President Donald Trump has been criticised after he said he had nothing to lose by taking hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat malaria and arthritis, despite warnings it could be unsafe. Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the School of Medicine, University of Leeds, said: The WHO has taken the wise precaution of halting arms of their wide-ranging therapeutics trial relating to chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). This is largely based upon a study published last week that retrospectively analysed thousands of patients receiving these drugs as part of their Covid-19 treatment, either alone or in combination with antibiotics. The study could find no evidence for a beneficial effect in patients taking these drugs. However, worryingly, patients appeared to be at heightened risk of cardiac complications, especially when taking CQ or HCQ alongside macrolide antibiotics. The University of Oxfords Recovery trials, which look at potential coronavirus treatments, involve a number of medications that are licensed for use in other conditions, and includes hydroxychloroquine. Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said: Since Recovery (trial) patients are randomised, our data are much less vulnerable to the biases that plague studies that use routine health care data. An independent committee has looked at our data and did not see any safety concerns. We discussed our findings with (the) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), who have agreed with our interpretation that the data provide reassurance that continued enrolment into the hydroxychloroquine arm is safe and that we should press ahead with getting a reliable answer on hydroxychloroquine through the Recovery trial. Voting by mail would be expanded for the Nov. 3 election as another coronavirus precaution. The legislation, which Pritzker has indicated he will sign, would have vote-by-mail applications sent to everyone who voted in the 2018 general election, the 2019 municipal election or this years March 17 primary, as well as to voters newly registered since the primary or who changed their addresses. It would also make the day of the election, Nov. 3, a government and school holiday so schools can be used as polling places without risks to students and teachers. (Natural News) If it were up to failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Americans would be stuck in lockdown forever. And those that are trying to leave their government-erected human cattle pens even now are guilty of domestic terrorism, she says. Speaking against the armed protests taking place in Michigan, Clinton stated that free speech and the First Amendment cannot be tolerated. Instead, Americans need to just put on their masks, walk in six-foot-distanced formations at all times, and keep their mouths shut, according to Clinton. Armed men storming a legislature to disrupt its democratic proceedings is domestic terrorism, Clinton wrote in a recent tweet, not from her rightful prison cell but presumably from one of her luxury estates. It cannot be tolerated. Clintons declaration against freedom-loving Americans comes on the heels of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmers order that Michiganders basically stay home forever until the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) stops existing, or something. And rather than accept this unconstitutional order, many Michiganders are protesting against it, which Clinton thinks is akin to a terrorist attack. On May 22, Whitmer extended Michigans lockdown to June 12, making this her fifth extension of the states stay-at-home order since the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a global pandemic. If were going to lower the chance of a second wave and continue to protect our neighbors and loved ones from the spread of this virus, we must continue to do our part by staying safer at home, Whitmer stated about this latest extension, declaring that we are not out of the woods yet. Listen below to The Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks with Dr. Paul Cottrell about the rising medical police state in todays America: Clinton, Whitmer want people to pull together and accept the new authoritarianism The draconian orders and restrictions being imposed in many cities and states across the U.S. in response to the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) almost none of which are lawful or even constitutional, by the way fully warrant armed raids of government buildings by patriotic citizens. Heck, this is what our Founding Fathers essentially did when they broke away from the British crown and started this country in the first place. But somehow trying to defend the Republic against the new normal is seen as terrorism by todays Democrats, who apparently believe that freedom and liberty are fully disposable in the event that a scary virus makes an appearance. If the mere possibility of some people getting sick from some invisible contagion is the new litmus test for whether or not Americans are allowed to leave their homes, then this country will never see freedom again. The left had better think long and hard about the type of world it is now ushering in to get back at Trumps economy, or whatever it is that the Democrats are trying to accomplish by throwing our Constitution on a proverbial funeral pyre. At some point these obedience and submission orders by the likes of Clinton and Whitmer are going to trample the things that progressives hold near and dear and then what? One thing that Whitmer is right about is that now is not a time for division. She says that Americans need to pull together, and we agree but not in the way that she means. What Americans need to unify on now more than ever is to fight against the new normal, and instead return back to the old normal where freedom and liberty were held in high regard transcending all perceived threats, including scary viruses. To keep up with the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), be sure to check out Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: TheEpochTimes.com FoxNews.com NaturalNews.com Jamie Rothwell, 33, was arrested in Barcelona on Sunday morning in connection to a dispute between two crime gangs in Salford A fugitive Brit has been arrested over his alleged involvement in gangland murder plot, seven months after an international warrant for his arrest was issued. Jamie Rothwell, 33, was arrested by Spanish police officers at an apartment in Barcelona on Sunday morning. Greater Manchester Police have wanted to question Rothwell in relation to a dispute between two crime gangs in Salford. A European Arrest Warrant was issued in October for his detention on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators and international liaison officers in Spain traced Rothwell, who went on to appear in a Spanish court on Monday. Rothwell, from Salford, was remanded in custody and will face extradition proceedings at a later date, the NCA said. Matt Horne, NCA deputy director of investigations, said: 'The arrest of a fugitive over exceptionally serious allegations is a great result. 'Its an example of how the agency and our international partners work to protect the public and even during the coronavirus, when there have been greater hurdles to overcome, the NCA has remained relentless in leading the UKs fight against serious organised crime.' Detective Chief Inspector Carl Jones, of GMPs major incident team, said: 'This arrest is part of Greater Manchester Polices ongoing investigation into a dispute between two rival organised crime groups in Salford in 2015. 'Operation Leopard is a collaborative operation which utilises specialists from GMPs major incident team and serious and organised crime group. 'This arrest wouldnt have been possible without an excellent working relationship between GMP, the Crown Prosecution Service, National Crime Agency and the Spanish authorities.' Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 15:50:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SUVA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Samoan government unveiled Tuesday its second stimulus package of 83 million tala (about 29.88 million U.S. dollars) to help the country's private sector battle against COVID-19. According to Samoa Observer, the nation's daily English newspaper, the second stimulus package, also known as the Phase II Response Plan, includes a number of measures for injecting cash directly into the Samoan economy targeted at sectors hit by the coronavirus-led downturn, specifically hospitality. The measures tabled to the parliament on Tuesday include an extension of utilities subsidies; retraining programs for unemployed workers; increases in monthly pensions; one-off cash payments to citizens; assistance to exporters; and support for non-government organisations. Samoa's Minister of Finance Sili Epa Tuioti told the parliament that the theme of the budget clearly highlights the message that the future of Samoa is the responsibility of many and reflects the commitment of the government for a better tomorrow for all of Samoa and its people. On April 7, Samoa's parliament passed a 66.3 million tala (about 23.86 million U.S. dollars) stimulus package to help the island nation fight the virus. Currently, Samoa has no confirmed COVID-19 cases. Enditem Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Small Steps Forward Lawyers Say to Wait A Really Good Thing (TNS) Instead of coming to the courthouse for jury duty, jurors in Collin County, Texas, rendered a verdict from home Monday.It was a non-binding decision in a mundane civil case involving an insurance firm and a McKinney IT business. But the video-conference trial was a new experiment that could set the stage for a radical rewriting of how our justice system works in the age of pandemic.Collin County Judge Emily Miskel said it is the first time in Texas and possibly nationwide that jurors were selected, heard evidence, deliberated and delivered a verdict all through a video call.I want to welcome you to the Collin County Courthouse. Even though youre at home, I consider this the courthouse, retired Judge Kevin Dean potential jurors at the beginning of jury selection. I want you to think of this as your duty.They logged in on laptops and cellphones, from home offices, living room couches and even backyard patios to report for jury duty.The one-day trial had its fair share of technical glitches.The plaintiffs lawyer called the massive screen of little boxes The Brady Bunch on steroids. Some jurors on mute didnt respond when called on. One spent the first few minutes of the trial switching digital backgrounds from an underwater scene to a peaceful harbor before settling on a beige conference room for the remainder of his duty.Mondays trial was a step toward seeing if full jury trials are possible online, Miskel said. Lawyers, judges and other legal scholars around the country were watching along.In some parts of the country it may be a long time before you can start jury trials, said Paula Hannaford-Agor, a court research consultant with the National Center for State Courts. She said she believes the Collin County trial was the nations first experiment with virtual jury trials.Still, there are serious questions about whether video conferencing technology is appropriate in jury trials either civil or criminal.On the one hand, utilizing such technology during the pandemic could help ensure a defendants right to a speedy trial. On the other, the legal challenges of such technology can be overwhelming.How do judges and attorneys ensure that jurors are paying attention during the trial? What if a connection glitch freezes the screen during particularly important testimony? Can a fair jury of peers be selected if the pool includes only people with broadband internet access?How do attorneys replicate the courtroom experience of seeing or even holding a murder weapon? How will the powerful testimony of a rape victim translate on a screen?Video conferencing technology really cant replace criminal jury trials, said Anna Offit, a professor at SMUs Dedman School of Law. What we really need is a nuanced discussion.Although jury trials have been put on hold, business continues at Texas courthouses. Many hearings and other legal proceedings have moved online to platforms like Zoom.A big unknown in the legal world is when or if jurors will be able to report for service. The very nature of jury selection a large group of people confined in a small courtroom or jury box runs counter to social distancing practices.That has been the norm for jury trials for centuries, Hannaford-Agor said. People are understandably and reasonably very cautious.So Miskel and other judges across the country are discussing what a return to the courtroom might look like.The goal is to get back with jury trials as soon as we can, Judge Ray Wheless, a presiding judge with the Texas Office of Court Administration, said at a recent meeting of the Collin County Bar Association. We cant just be like businesses and say, Were going to open like no problem at all in the world. We have to protect people.Mondays virtual trial was a summary jury proceeding, a part of Texas law that allows civil litigants to test their arguments in front of a real jury before the full case is tried.It is part of dispute resolution, so it is heard before a retired judge who serves as a mediator after the one-day summary trial is completed.Many Collin County judges require a summary trial when they expect a civil case to last a week or more, which Miskel said made it the perfect, low-impact testing ground for video conferencing technology.It was a relatively good way to test, how does it work to have jurors appear remotely without added harm or cost to the litigants? Miskel said at the bar association meeting. It would be exhaustively studied before we implement such a big change in criminal cases.Because trials everywhere have been suspended, there will be a backlog of cases when courts do settle into a new routine, Hannaford-Agor said. To keep that backlog from stretching out for years, she said, its important to start trying new things.Were talking about 10,000 jury trials a month in the country that have been suspended, she said.Some legal experts argue that the right to a speedy trial means courts should continue working toward some kind of virtual justice system. But defense attorneys in particular have constitutional concerns about rushing into conducting jury trials by video conferencing in jury trials.Toby Shook, a Dallas defense attorney and former prosecutor, said hed rather delay a trial if the alternative is an untested, potentially problematic trial via Zoom.Id rather wait, Shook said. Its just too dangerous when someones life is on the line.Shook said an important duty of jurors is to evaluate the credibility of witnesses. Legal scholars say thats much more difficult to do when staring at a screen instead of seeing testimony in person.Lynne Rambo is a professor of law at Texas A&M Universitys School of Law in Fort Worth. She said that half of trial strategy is presenting the evidence that witnesses have, but the other half is assessing how jurors weigh the credibility of those witnesses.A huge part of litigation is observing the demeanor of the witnesses, Rambo said. You cant get a fair perception of that over Zoom.Rambo also said the technical problems of distant trials could pose problems. Clients cant have side conversations with their lawyers to point out discrepancies in testimony or consult them on other issues if everyone is on the same Zoom call, she said.It would just be a disaster in a criminal trial, Shook said. It just seems so intuitive to me. Advocacy cant happen on a laptop.Besides the legal challenges, there are technological concerns about online jury trials. Access to reliable internet may limit the jury pool, making equitable jury selection more difficult. Also, some worry that jurors will struggle to give testimony their full attention while on a long Zoom call.In Mondays trial, one juror left the room during a break to place a personal phone call. When the jury returned, he was still absent.In the courthouse, Dean said, a bailiff would be sent to retrieve the missing juror. On Zoom, the judge just had to shout.If you can hear us, please return to your chair, were ready to get started, Miskel shouted through the screen Monday. We have new challenges, but thats OK.Offit said she was impressed by Deans instructions to jurors, including that they not look up outside information about the case or discuss details with family members. Keeping the jurors focused on the trial, she said, is always a challenge of litigation.I think thats a challenge whether a juror is sitting in the courtroom or sitting at their desk, Offit said. I dont think being home will preclude jurors from taking their role seriously.Yet there are some upsides to bringing such technology in the courtroom, judges say.Despite questions about limited access to reliable internet connections, Miskel said the video technology has the potential to increase access to justice.Lawyers who work in multiple counties could spend less time traveling and more time on Zoom. Someone could take a few hours to testify on their phone rather than take an entire day off of work to be at the courthouse.Plus, Wheless said, the live-broadcasted trials can increase transparency in the courts. He pointed to a recent contempt hearing in Dallas County where a salon owner was jailed for failing to close her business.Id bet more people watched that contempt hearing than have ever watched a contempt hearing in Texas, Wheless said. I think this is a really good thing for the justice system.Jurors in Mondays proceedings seemed to like the virtual option too, Miskel said. They said that it was an efficient use of time no waiting around for their number to be called and that the digital screen allowed them see document evidence up close rather than on the other side of the courtroom.Hannaford-Agor said judges and lawyers worked in advance to make sure the trial went smoothly. That kind of pre-trial work will be necessary, she said, to adapt trials to online platforms.That went smoother than we could have ever hoped for, she said. It clearly showed a lot of preparation.Despite the challenges, she said, video conferencing may be a better option for some situations once courts get approval to restart trials. Until theres a vaccine for the virus, she said, social distancing will have to be in place, people will have to wear masks, and other problems will need to be solved for in-person trials.For example, she said, evidence may need to be sanitized before its passed back and forth between lawyers. And evaluating witness credibility may be just as difficult when wearing a mask as it is online, she said.Its not a choice between the way things used to be and Zoom, Miskel said at the bar association meeting. Its a choice between Zoom and a drastically altered in-person experience.Offit suggested a nuanced approach. Perhaps some lessons from online experiments like Mondays in Collin County can be applied broadly without shifting to an all-or-nothing system, she said.I do think this will serve as a point of departure for discussing the future of virtual proceedings, she said. Courts need to develop a plan to adapt trials to our current public health crisis.The debate in the courthouse is the same as those faced by other fields trying to determine how and when to recover from the pandemic, Rambo said. Technology may help in some ways, she said, while waiting for a perfect solution may hurt in others.Its sort of just a microcosm of what were facing everywhere, Rambo said. How much waiting is too much waiting? Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 02:24:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A general view of the Bank of England in London, Britain. (Photo by Tim Ireland/Xinhua) -- Italy's death toll from coronavirus rises by 78 to 32,955; -- UK COVID-19 deaths top 37,000 as another 134 patients die; -- Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic reopen common borders; -- Daily coronavirus deaths rise in Netherlands, infection reported at mink farm. BRUSSELS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries. LONDON -- Another 134 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Monday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 37,048, the Department of Health and Social Care said Tuesday. The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community. As of Tuesday morning, 265,227 people have tested positive in Britain, a daily increase of 2,004, according to the department. The staff prepare to test the body temperature and disinfect the hands of visitors at the entrance of the Colonna Palace in Rome, Italy, May 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Tingting) ROME -- A further 78 COVID-19 patients had died in the past 24 hours in Italy, bringing the country's toll to 32,955, out of total infection cases of 230,555, according to fresh figures on Tuesday. Nationwide, the number of active infections dropped by 2,358 to 52,942 cases, according to the Civil Protection Department. Of those who tested positive for the new coronavirus, 521 are in intensive care, 20 fewer compared to Monday, and 7,917 are hospitalized with symptoms, a decrease of 268 patients compared to Monday. A boy is seen in a class at a school in Prague, Czech Republic, on May 25, 2020. (Photo by Dana Kesnerova/Xinhua) BUDAPEST -- Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will reopen their respective borders to each other's citizens at midnight on Tuesday for stays of no more than 48 hours without quarantine, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page on Tuesday. "Over last night and this morning I agreed with my Czech and Slovak counterparts to allow Hungarian, Slovak and Czech citizens to stay in their countries without a quarantine stay of no more than 48 hours, effective from midnight," Szijjarto said in a video message recorded while in a visit in Romania. On Monday, Hungary announced the opening of its border with Serbia, following last week's opening of the border with Romania. Canal cruise ships stop by the shore in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, April 23, 2020. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua) THE HAGUE -- The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus in The Netherlands rose by 26 to a total of 5,856, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) announced on Tuesday. The daily number is a bit higher than in the last two days: the RIVM reported eight new deaths on Monday and 11 on Sunday. The number of people who are or were admitted to hospital increased by 10 since Monday to a total of 11,690, while that of people who tested positive in the country rose by 133 to a total of 45,578. BISHKEK -- A sister of jailed Kyrgyz politician Sadyr Japarov, Raikul Japarova, has been detained in Poland at the request of officials in Bishkek. The Kyrgyz Interior Ministry's press service told RFE/RL on May 26 that Japarova was detained by Polish authorities four days earlier and her extradition to Kyrgyzstan is under discussion with Warsaw. According to the ministry, Raikul Japarova was tried in absentia in 2014 and 2015 and found guilty of money laundering, fraud, and abuse of office. She was then sentenced to 10 years in prison by two courts in Bishkek, while still out of the country. Charges against Japarova stem from her association with Maksim Bakiev, a son of the former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev, who was toppled by deadly antigovernment protests in 2010. He currently resides in Belarus. Both Kurmanbek Bakiev and his son Maksim have been sentenced to life in prison in absentia on a number of charges and are wanted in Bishkek. Former lawmaker Sadyr Japarov was sentenced in August 2017 to 11 1/2 years in prison after a court in Bishkek convicted him of taking a government official hostage during 2013 protests around the Kumtor Gold Mine. Demonstrators were demanding the mine be nationalized. Japarov has rejected the charges, saying they were politically motivated. In April 2019, the Supreme Court cut Japarov's sentence by 18 months. The Philippine Government may have relaxed its enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) guidelines, but its far from business as usual with regard to how Filipinos go about their daily lives. Theres always the possibility that COVID-19 can still spread, and thats why businesses, organizations and commercial establishments must do their best to reduce physical contact between employees and customers and keep the highly contagious virus at bay. In accordance to the "new normal" protocols, Suzuki Philippines Inc. (SPH) launched a new Auto Loan feature on their website that not only makes it easy to buy a car, but also allows car shoppers to complete the entire purchase process within the confines of their own home. auto.suzuki.com.ph As the name suggests, Suzukis new Auto Loan feature lets customers get approved and avail of an auto loan with their choice of loan provider. SPH has partnered with 10 of the top banks and lenders in the country to provide the service, namely: Bank of Commerce Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Chinabank Savings East West Bank Maybank PS Bank Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) Robinsons Bank United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB0 Yulon Finance The Auto Loan Feature directs customers to their preferred banks website page dedicated for auto loans, SPH describes. Once accomplished by interested patrons, their bank of choice will be able to review and grant them the loans if eligible as they are in operation. SPH presents this new service as a way to be even more reachable amid the current situation in the country brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company describes. Aside from this new feature, SPH also extended the deadline on its auto loan payments to accommodate the lockdown period wherein the company had to close all of its dealerships in the Metro. SPH moved the deadline to May 15 for most of its auto loan providers. UCPB and East West auto loan borrowers had their deadlines moved to May 17 and May 18, respectively. Story continues auto.suzuki.com.ph SPH hopes that these efforts will help alleviate some of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its customers. SPH believes that their vehicles across different segments may provide this longing by staying committed in championing the Suzuki Way of Life! to the Filipino people and relentlessly finding solutions especially when people are now more than ever, highly concerned about where to tunnel their investments that will prove to be beneficiary to them even after these challenging times, the company said. Photos from Suzuki Philippines Also read: Auto Expo 2020: Suzuki Releases BS6-Compliant Gixxer 250 PIMS 2018: Suzuki Revival on Full Showcase Led by All-New Suzuki Jimny Mizanur Rahman recalls the last time a major tropical storm hit Bangladesh, when Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people in 2007. In the aftermath of the destruction, he watched the dead body of a woman being washed ashore by the tide. That image doesnt go away. It keeps coming back, Rahman, a bungalow caretaker, said in the coastal town of Patuakali in Bangladeshs huge river delta. The district was devastated by the 2007 storm and has been hit by a series of cyclones since, the latest being Amphan, which tore into the region last week, killing about 100 people in Bangladesh and India and causing more than $13 billion in damage. In an effort to strengthen its climate resilience, the Bangladesh government in 2018 approved Delta Plan 2100, an eight-decade program combining water and land management and development. The first phase requires about $38 billion by 2030 to implement 80 projects, including 65 tied to infrastructure. Raising that money was never going to be easy, but now the program to protect the 37 million people who live in the delta is in limbo -- hit first by the coronavirus and then by the damage from Amphan. Bangladesh evacuated 2.4 million people from coastal districts, State Minister for Disaster Management Enamur Rahman said in Dhaka on May 19, the day before the storm hit. Fundraising is a big challenge, said Shamsul Alam, a senior secretary of the Bangladesh Planning Commission and lead author of the Delta Plan. The coronavirus came as a huge, sudden shock. We have to readjust in the short run -- maybe for three to four budgets. We have to think carefully how we can adjust to the new situation. If nothing is done by 2050, climate change could make another 14% of the country extremely vulnerable to floods and displace some 35 million people from the coastal districts. The combined effects of climate change could cost the country as much as 2% of gross domestic product per year. Dutch Help A Dutch consortium led by consultancy Twynstra helped develop the Delta Plan, most of which is in the worlds most-populated river delta, where the waters of the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna reach the Bay of Bengal. Almost a third of the first-phase budget is earmarked for 23 coastal projects to prevent flooding, including land reclamation and building islands and polders. Bangladesh, a nation of more than 160 million people, currently invests 0.8% of GDP in water-related projects and would have to raise that to about 2.5% by 2030 to implement the projects with minimum financing, Alam said. The coronavirus is one truth were facing now and climate change is another, he said. We need to handle these two issues in a combined way. We will emphasize our health services and go with universal health coverage, and at the same time, we need safe drinking water for health and good sanitation. These issues are interrelated. The country has more than 35,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and already borrowed $950 million from lenders, including $600 million from the Asian Development Bank, to tackle the virus. Bangladesh increased its social protection and economic stimulus package to 1 trillion taka, or 3.6% of the countrys GDP. The government will have to prioritize the immediate response and recovery effort over longer-term development projects, said Joseph Parkes, Asia analyst at global risk research company Verisk Maplecroft. We expect donors and the government to back the Delta Plan over the long run, even if the immediate focus shifts to the public-health crisis. Bangladeshs rapid economic growth in the past two decades, fueled by an expanding garment trade and a burgeoning information-technology industry, has helped the country improve its resilience and gave momentum to the Delta Plan. Lives Lost When Cyclone Sidr hit in 2007, it was the strongest storm to make landfall in Bangladesh, causing damage and losses of as much as $1.7 billion, but its death toll was about 1% of the more than 300,000 lives lost in the Bhola Cyclone of 1970, the deadliest in the nations history. Still, Amphan shows the nations continued vulnerability to rising sea levels if it doesnt improve its defenses. Storm surges from cyclones can inundate land and water supplies, causing extensive damage to livelihoods in rural areas, where about 85% of the poor live. Agriculture and fishing account for almost half the jobs in the country and support more than 70% of the population, according to the ADB. Days after the storm passed, Amir Hossain, a resident of the island of Char Montaz in the Bay of Bengal, stood on an embankment built more than a decade ago to protect the fishing district. The tide was still two feet higher than normal, Hossain said on May 25 as the water buffeted the sea defenses. Without the dike, we would have been washed away. A 20-year-old Weymouth man has been arrested on firearms charges after he reportedly pulled a gun on an MBTA passenger who refused to loan him a lighter, MBTA Transit Police said.. On Friday, at roughly 9 a.m., Transit Police were approached by a man at Maverick Square station in Boston, who claimed he had been assaulted by another man with a gun. The suspect was later identified as Elijah Messier. The man told police that the suspect had asked to borrow a lighter. When he denied him, the suspect allegedly became angry and removed a firearm from his person and pointed it at the victim," police wrote. Police saw Messier on the escalator, officers wrote. He tried to run away but was caught. Police said Messier also was in possession of what they believed to be heroin. Transit Police found a gun under an MBTA information sign next to Messier, authorities said. Messier was charged with possession of a firearm without a license, heroin possession with intent to distribute and armed assault. Could your mobile phone replace your lawyer? Maybe in the future. Law tech is one of the hottest areas in tech at the moment, and shareholders and founders alike are flocking to the sector that for many years has been left behind in the tech revolution. The internet is over 30 years. A large number of services have since its birth moved from offline to online. After the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the smartphones and tablets of the world quickly won the hand over desktop computers and laptops. The modern man and his phone are inseparable, and a number of startups are working to increase the number of services that can be executed through your phone. Why reinvent the wheel? A Hong Kong-based startup is trying to get lawyers to work more effectively with an online document builder. The Chinese law tech company Zegal made waves with their document builder when they launched in 2013 under the brand name Dragon Law. Since then, the law tech startup has established themselves in Europe through an office in the United Kingdom, according to E27.co. Advertisement The Hong Kong-based startup is just one of many trying to come up with innovative ways of assisting lawyers in doing a more with less. A Canadian startup named Kira work on optimizing the document review process for law firms worldwide. With their machine learning technology, Kira claims to reduce time spent on contract review by up to 60%, according to co-founder and CEO of Kira Noah Waiseberg to LawTechToday.org Brace yourselves, the apps are coming Both Advokatguiden.no, Zegal, and Kira, all have solid traction in their respective markets, and with good reason. Law firms worldwide are seeing the text written on the wall; the technological disruption is inevitable. Its just a question of time, and who survives. The trend is also visible in the Google Play Store for Android apps to tablets and smartphones. RePresent is a court simulator that aims to help unexperienced non-lawyers educate themselves and prepare for court appearances. The app is produced and funded by among else the Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, the Legal Advice & Referral Center in New Hampshire, and the Legal Services Corporation. Advertisement RePresent and other apps like it has seen significant traction in the rankings of Google Play Store over time. The creators of RePresent even felt that the demand for their app could justify a standalone version targeting renters to educate them on the eviction process, find out where to get help and discover how to gather evidence to defend against an eviction. TripAdvisor for lawyers One of the trickiest parts about hiring a lawyer is hiring the right lawyer. If youre not a serial criminal or a well-weathered businessman, its likely to go through life without hiring a legal practitioner more than at most a handful of times. And even then, youre likely to be in need of vastly different specialists. Picking the right hotel in a foreign country you barely can spell the name of, or even the perfect steak restaurant on the other side of the world is easy; you just go to TripAdvisor. One Norwegian serial entrepreneur wants to do the same for picking lawyers. Advertisement With Advokatguiden.no, the founder Erling Lken Andersen, and his team want you to be able to benefit from the same transparency when hiring a lawyer as you do when choosing the next vacation destination. Through verified reviews of former clients, Advokatguiden.no aspires to become the European TripAdvisor for lawyers. Erling Lken Andersen got his law license after being sued by the tax authorities in a multi-million dollar tax case after Lken Andersen selling his first company. Shocked by the amounts his lawyer charged him, he fired all of them and decided to defend himself, he told the journal of the Norwegian Bar Association, Advokatbladet.no The future is mobile No one can say anything for sure about what is coming, but the trend is clear as the day is bright; mobile is here to stay. Pen and paper wont make a return, and all industry players across the board must either step up to the standards of the new digital world or take the inevitable losses for themselves and their businesses. Founders and entrepreneurs around the world are all eyeing the deep pockets of celebrity lawyers, and the era of 6-digit monthly retainers just to have access to law services is over. In the digital gig economy, clients and consumers alike want fixed prices, immediate services, and an omnichannel experience. China has removed tariffs of 35 per cent on international sugar imports, including those from Australia, after weeks of rising global trade tensions. In a rare relief for Australian farmers, Beijing decided not to extend sugar import tariffs that have been in place for two years. The $2 billion local industry has been hobbled by the trade barriers, limiting its exports to China to $100 million a year. China hit Australia with two trade strikes in early May on $1 billion worth of beef and barley. The move followed weeks of lobbying by the Morrison government for a global inquiry into the coronavirus. China insists the measures are unrelated. A sugar cane refinery in Mackay, northern Queensland. Credit:Glen Hunt Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, who is considering taking China to the World Trade Organisation over the beef and barley disputes, welcomed the removal of the sugar tariff. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was all smiles today as she visited key healthcare workers at a hospital in Amsterdam - and chose not to wear a protective face mask. The Argentinian-born royal, who recently celebrated her 49th birthday, donned a chic camel ensemble as she toured the OLVG City Hospital in the Dutch capital. During her visit, King Willem-Alexander's wife learned about the facility's digital care program provide Covid-19 patients and their loved ones the best possible remote support during the ongoing pandemic. Mother-of-three Maxima was her usual stylish self for the visit, opting for an eye-catching dark beige dress from H&M with billowing balloon sleeves, priced at 39.99. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was all smiles today as she visited key healthcare workers at a hospital in Amsterdam - and chose not to wear a protective face mask The Argentinian-born royal, who recently celebrated her 49th birthday, donned a chic camel ensemble as she toured the OLVG City Hospital in the Dutch capital She cinched in the calf-length gown at the waist with a brown leather belt secured by a large Agate quartz crystal. The queen accessorised with a leather clutch bag and suede stilettos in a shade that matched her frock. She completed the look with a pair of large hoop earrings and brown smokey eye make-up, with a slick of pink lipgloss, and wore her blonde hair loose and natural. On arrival at the hospital, Maxima was pictured waving at healthcare workers and disinfecting her hands with sanitiser. On arrival at the hospital, Maxima was pictured waving at healthcare workers and disinfecting her hands with sanitiser Mother-of-three Maxima was her usual stylish self for the visit, opting for an eye-catching dark beige dress from H&M with billowing balloon sleeves, priced at 39.99 Queen Maxima made sure she disinfected her hands with sanitiser and obeyed the hospital's strict social distancing rules The Dutch queen cinched in the calf-length gown at the waist with a brown leather belt secured by a large Agate quartz crystal. Pictured applying hand sanitiser The queen accessorised with a leather clutch bag and suede stilettos in a shade that matched her frock. Pictured discussing the hospital's digital care She attended meetings with senior hospital staff to discuss its innovative digital care regime, and looked thoroughly engaged by the initiative. It's been a busy day for the Dutch queen, who this morning delivered a speech via video call during an online meeting of The Money Wise platform on 'financial vulnerability in [new] economic reality', in her role as honorary chair of the Money Wise platform (Wijzer in Geldzaken). Maxima is the UN Secretary General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). Maxima completed the look with a pair of large hoop earrings and brown smokey eye make-up, with a slick of pink lipgloss, and wore her blonde hair loose and natural Maxima attended meetings with senior hospital staff to discuss its innovative digital care regime, and looked thoroughly engaged by the initiative As Special Advocate, she champions universal access to affordable, effective, and safe financial services for the poor. As a result of the impact of the pandemic, the themes of financial vulnerability and resilience were prioritised topics. In her speech, Queen Maxima emphasized the importance of financial resilience and explained how people can be helped to build it. It's been a busy day for the Dutch queen, who this morning delivered a speech via video call during an online meeting of The Money Wise platform on 'financial vulnerability in [new] economic reality', in her role as honorary chair of the Money Wise platform (Wijzer in Geldzaken) Australian doctors and nurses who are treating patients with coronavirus are being put at risk by an influx of counterfeit face masks made in China, experts claim. A shocking video posted by independent health consultant Kate Cole, shows just how flimsy the dodgy personal protective equipment is. Ms Cole is able to snap the face mask strap in a demonstration with minimal force. Scroll down for video. Independent health consultant Kate Cole (pictured) is concerned fake Chinese-made mask are flooding private hospitals The Therapeutic Goods Administration normally requires all protective face masks and medical devices to undergo strict testing. But in March, with the countrys hospitals fearing a shortfall, the Department of Health ordered the Therapeutic Goods Administration to forgo the strict protocols so that those devices can be made available urgently to deal with public health emergencies, the department said. But now medical experts fear rogue suppliers have taken advantage of Australias lack of quality control. Although companies selling face masks under the relaxed new rules are only able to sell directly to the Department of Health, it appears a number of the face masks have made their way into the private hospital sector. Australian Society of Anaesthetists president Suzi Nou told the Sydney Morning Herald many of her members had reported receiving fake masks. That means we're at increased risk of getting infected, Dr Nou said. That impacts the health system - it takes out a team of doctors and nurses who can't care for patients. And it risks infecting other patients, that we can become transmitters of infection. Australian Society of Anaesthetists president Suzi Nou said frontline health workers are at risk of being infected due to the dodgy masks. Pictured: Prince of Wales Hospital staff in Sydney are pictured wearing protective face masks on May 12 A nurse working at one of Victoria's Mobile Testing Sites at Highpoint Shopping Centre is pictured in full protective gear May 4 The substandard masks have also hit the shelves at stores like Bunnings and Chemist Warehouse, according to Ms Cole. (I) Decided to check out the KN95 face masks sold at Bunnings, she posted on Twitter True KN95 masks are certified to Chinese Std GB2626 which has a requirement that the straps are able to withstand 10N of force. Either I just got really strong or someone did zero due diligence in the purchasing dept. Bunnings has denied the claims. This particular product complies with all necessary standards and we have had very low product returns on it to date, Bunnings category manager Ben Shanley told Daily Mail Australia in a statement. All of the masks we stock have undergone thorough safety tests via certified testing laboratories to ensure that they meet the relevant standard, with our team ensuring that results have been cited. Ms Cole said she had received dozens of reports of suspect face masks since the pandemic took hold and has reviewed about 50 brands of masks - all of which she believed to be 'complete counterfeit rubbish'. As well as frontline health staff, industrial workers using hazardous materials also require the vital safety equipment. Onsite Safety director Chris Bellamy revealed he has been conducting independent tests as lockdown restrictions begin to ease across the country. He said all Chinese-made masks he tested failed basic checks. A lot of them coming in don't have the correct marking, so you can tell they are fake straight away, he said. And the [Chinese-made] KN95 mask, it fails in testing as soon as we do it. Despite the alarming claims, a Department of Health spokesperson said out of the 100 million masks which have been received into the National Medical Stockpile, more than 40 million masks distributed. Some of the Chinese-made masks which are claimed to be counterfeit are pictured To date, the Department has not received unsatisfactory stock, the statement said. The Therapeutic Goods Administration said they have now introduced additional surveillance for masks and gowns. The additional surveillance maintains high visibility of all new applications associated with these devices allowing the TGA to swiftly react to any reports of counterfeit or poor quality products, the statement said. Information sharing with overseas regulators to identify products where issues have been identified. Chemist Warehouse have been contacted for comment. Every year, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and the auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY) hand out awards to young companies offering solutions for societal challenges through their products and services and creating public value. Some of the startups which received one of the coveted the Public Value Awards for Startups over the last few years recently joined a virtual round table to talk about how they are experiencing the effects of the coronavirus crisis. It became apparent that the common good is becoming an indicator for what is economically viable while generating value in a sustainable way. "Companies with public value orientation as part of their core business will survive the coronavirus crisis better than others," says Prof. Dr. Timo Meynhardt of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. He has observed that anchoring public value orientation in the startups' business models is the key to success. "Those who solve relevant problems will prevail. All others are much more dependent on good fortune and circumstances. The scene is undergoing a healthy cleaning process." Prof. Dr. Timo Meynhardt, HHL Startups for the common good Every year, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and the auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY) hand out awards to young companies offering solutions for societal challenges through their products and services and creating public value. Some of the startups which received one of the coveted the Public Value Awards for Startups over the last few years recently joined a virtual round table to talk about how they are experiencing the effects of the coronavirus crisis. It became apparent that the task which the founders of the startups set for themselves generating added value for society is currently much more at the forefront. These kinds of companies are needed now more than ever. The common good is becoming an indicator for what is economically viable while generating value in a sustainable way. The startups oriented towards the common good in times of the coronavirus Selfapy, a provider of online therapy, has reported a strong increase in demand. The company offers immediate assistance with psychological stress as an online program. Many health insurance companies cover the costs. Before the coronavirus outbreak, the startup was created to offer therapy to patients to bridge waiting periods. There is no direct contact between the therapist and the patient in this 12-week program which combines psychological support via telephone with psycho-educational units. What some patients were missing in online therapy has now become an advantage. The client is offered the experience without the danger of contracting COVID-19. The Hamburg-based company besser zuhause ("better at home") offers a full range of services to people who wish to convert their apartments to make them suitable for seniors. As the concerns about infection in retirement and nursing homes is increasing, the possibility of creating a barrier-free living environment offers society even more added value than before the coronavirus outbreak. Startups MOIO (smart care assistant) and Coldplasmatech (innovative wound healing) report that negotiations with potential investors are currently running unusually successfully as both companies deal with human and social needs in an innovative way. MOIO developed an AI-based plaster which records motion sequences and location data of people in need of care and notifies the caregiver when assistance is required. The product will soon be available on the market. Coldplasmatech developed a square wound dressing made of cold plasma which helps prevent the occurrence of chronic wounds. In addition to good manageability even for larger wounds, the product has an inactivating effect on germs which may inhibit the healing process a quality which is very important to hospitals. Says Dr. Carsten Mahrenholz, founder of Coldplasmatech, "In a crisis, the right entrepreneurial mindset does not become wrong. It just has to be implemented under different circumstances." Veronica Celis Vergara, CEO of EnlightAid (transparency through donations) describes fundamental social orientation as a key success factor, "public value by design" so to speak. The founder realized that about 30 percent of all donations are lost through corruption, which demotivates the donors. She developed an app which can trace every transfer of a donation up to the entire respective aid project. Markus Schweizer, partner at EY und co-chair of the judging panel, sees the orientation towards the common good as a possibility "to strengthen your own resilience and to improve your hand by anchoring your business in the social ecosystem." Canberra, May 26 : Australia's universities were mulling ways on how to resume face-to-face classes during the COVID-19 crisis, while pressure mounts on international students who remain outside the country due to border shutdown. The economic cost of the crisis to the country's universities, heavily dependent on international students, could amount to A$4.6 billion ($3.01 billion) over the next six months as a result of the border closure. "On this basis, an estimated 21,290 full time equivalent staff will lose their jobs in the next six months," Catriona Jackson, chief executive of Universities Australia (UA), an organization representing the country's 39 universities, told Efe news on Tuesday. International students contributed some A$37.6 billion to the Australian economy in 2018-19, making education the fourth largest export in the country, after coal, iron and natural gas. However, the pandemic has forced international students, who pay up to A$33,000 for their studies, to cancel their plans to study there and return to their home countries due to lack of employment and subsidies in Australia. Meanwhile, the country plans to resume economic activities in July after controlling the coronavirus. Currently, it is estimated that 10 per cent of the affected students still cannot enter Australia, although Jackson stressed that it does not mean that they have traded Australia for other options. "There is no evidence to suggest that international students will choose to undertake their studies elsewhere as a result of COVID-19. Australia is seen as a safe, welcoming destination which has responded effectively to the pandemic," she said. Many Australian universities have urged the government to allow international students, who account for a third of the 1.5 million students in the country, to return. Meanwhile, with an eye on the next academic session, the "universities are now working closely with government and health authorities on the carefully staged return to face-to-face learning", said Jackson. The pandemic has also dealt a severe blow to a lot of researches at universities, which account for 90 per cent of research in Australia, as a large part of them has been cancelled and their funds diverted for tackling the novel coronavirus. The cut in employment in universities will affect some 7,000 people linked to academic research and 9,000 international students who will interrupt their research this year, according to a recent study coordinated by the government's chief scientist, Alan Finkel. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Tuesday that vocational training for skilled workers will be his government's priority to train young people for the jobs they are looking to create. Turning their back on their city dreams that had turned to dust in the lockdown, 11 men loaded their rickshaws and cycled for eight days from Gurgaon to Bihar, dodging police and often going hungry as they pedalled their way home more than 1,000 km away. IMAGE: A mother covers her child's head while waiting to board a bus to reach her native place after arriving via special train at Prayagraj Junction, on Tuesday. Photograph: PTI Photo Travelling through the night to escape the heat and navigating the long journey through routes where they might get food or be able to repair a puncture, the men reached their village Bangra in Muzaffarpur district on Sunday. On May 17, the men, all rickshaw pullers in this Haryana town abutting Delhi, gave up hope that they could get seats on a Shramik Special train that would take them home. We had been struggling with no work and no money since the lockdown began on March 25 and decided it was time to pack up and leave for our village, Bharat Kumar, one of the 11 men, said over phone from Bangra. The stress had been mounting -- there had been no work for two months, their families back home were waiting for money, landlords in Gurgaon were demanding rent and the lockdown was continuing endlessly. Bharat, like some of the others, had got himself registered for a seat on the Shramik Special train. The 48-year-old said he waited everyday for the phone to ring so he could go to the station. But only his landlord called, asking him for the rent. Bharat said he then decided to go to the Gurgaon Railway Station where he was refused entry and met up with the others, who had also come to find out about the status of their tickets. Eleven of them got together, and set off on the 1,090 kilometre long journey on cycle rickshaws. "How long would I have waited? It had already been two months. The situation was getting out of hand. I would have been thrown out if I had not vacated the rented room. And there was no clarity on when things would get back to normal," Bharat said. Recounting the journey, he said, "We were scared the cops may stop us midway or thrash us. But we tried our best to avoid their gaze and travelled more at night. It was also very hot during the afternoon. Thankfully, no cop caught us. A few good samaritans gave us food in places, but we sometimes had to survive without food." Bharat said he has not yet made up his mind about what will he do to earn a livelihood and is feeling very weak after the journey. Jhokhu, his travelling companion, is also overwhelmed by their experience. At first we thought that we all could go together. We thought one person can sit and other can ride so both persons can get a break during the journey. But we could not have left our rickshaws back in Gurgaon. It is the costliest asset we have. We don't know when we will go back, so we thought of packing our belongings on our rickshaws. A day before we left, we collected food being distributed in different places in Gurgaon. According to Dayanath, 36, the journey was difficult but the best thing they could have done. "Even now, we don't have an update on the train ticket. I could have still been there. How long could I have eaten in different community kitchens waiting for someone to help? I know for sure that no help was coming my way so I had to find my own way," he said. His rickshaw broke down during the journey and they had to tow it till a petrol pump so the puncture could be fixed. There is also Raju, who rented the rickshaw but has taken it with him to Bihar anyway. "I do not have my own rickshaw. It was on rent. I used to give a share of my earnings to the malik' (owner). He does not even know that I have brought the rickshaw here. I am sure he would have been angry had I told him in advance. I could have travelled on the rickshaws, but we all had things to bring back, he said. Raju, the father of five children, said there were some anxious moments on the way. His phone's battery died and he could not get in touch with his family. They were scared that something happened to me midway, he added. But all's well that ends well, and he is just happy to be home. According to the Haryana Chief Minister's Office, over 2.90 lakh migrants have been sent home from the state. The country has been under lockdown since March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus. The curbs have now been extended till May 31. The nationwide lockdown has thrown economic activity out of gear, rendered many homeless and penniless and led to an exodus of migrants from big cities to their home states. While trains and buses are being arranged for the migrants to reach their native places, lakhs of them continue to wait for the call to avail these transport facilities. With the resumption of racing in Ohio, the Ohio Harness Horsemens Association has released the revised schedule for the 2020 Buckeye Stallion Series. The first leg of the three-year-old colt trot series which was scheduled for May 2 at Miami Valley Gaming and Raceway has been rescheduled for Monday, June 15 at MGM Northfield Park. Leg two has been rescheduled for June 30 at Eldorado Scioto Downs and the third leg will be July 14 at Eldorado Scioto Downs. The three-year-old filly pacer series has been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 16 at Eldorado Scioto Downs. The series was originally scheduled for April 30 at Miami Valley Gaming and Raceway. The second leg has been rescheduled for July 6 at MGM Northfield Park. The three-year-old colt pacer series has also been rescheduled for Tuesday, June 16 at Eldorado Scioto Downs. The series was originally scheduled for May 2 at Miami Valley Gaming and Raceway. The second leg has been rescheduled for July 8 at Eldorado Scioto Downs with leg three July 20 at MGM Northfield Park. The three-year-old filly trot which was originally scheduled for April 30 at Miami Valley Gaming and Raceway has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 20 at MGM Northfield Park. The second leg has been rescheduled for July 1 at Eldorado Scioto Downs with leg three July 14, also at Eldorado Scioto Downs. The schedule for legs four and five remains the same. The Ohio Harness Horsemens Association would like to thank Dave Bianconi, the executive vice president of racing and simulcasting at MGM Northfield Park, and Eldorado Scioto Downs Racing Secretary Jason Roth for their assistance in rescheduling these races. For additional information about the 2020 Buckeye Stallion Series and a revised schedule, please visit www.ohha.com/nominations. (Ohio Harness Horsemens Association) The Bihar Board Class 10 results 2020 will be declared by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) soon. The BSEB is scheduled to announce the Class 10 results at 12.30 pm on the official websites - biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in and biharboard-ac-in. On Monday(May 25), BSEB Chairman Anand Kishor had said that the result will be announced by Education Minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma on Tuesday (May 26). Here's how to check your Bihar Board 10th result: 1. Students should visit the official website at biharboardonline.bihar.gov.in or biharboard.ac.in 2. They should click on the 'Results' tab after visiting the home page 3. They can tap on Class X Matriculation results and select their stream and click on 'Result' 4. A new page will appear, wherein, students should fill up their details and enter the captcha text 5. They can now download their BSEB Class 10 Result 2020. The students can also check their results through SMS. They should type - BSEB10 -space- ROLL NUMBER and send it to 56263. The evaluation process of the exam paper was completed on May 17, following which the physical verification of the toppers was carried out. The Bihar Board Class 10 examination 2020 was held between February 17 and February 24, and the evaluation process commenced on May 6 and concluded last week. It is to be noted that the result of the Bihar board Class 10 examination was scheduled to be announced by March-end, but it got delayed due to the coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of the deadly virus in the country. [May 26, 2020] React Mobile Receives $6 Million Investment via Strategic Partnership with Brady Corp. React Mobile, a robust, open, cost effective and flexible panic button safety platform, today announces it has raised $6 million through a new strategic partnership with publicly traded Brady Corporation (NYSE:BRC). Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisc., and founded in 1914, Brady is one of the oldest and most successful privately controlled family businesses in the U.S. The company manufactures solutions that identify and protect people, products and places. Together, React Mobile and Brady will jointly develop new solutions that help customers increase safety, security, productivity and performance to further their shared mission of promoting employee safety everywhere. "This strategic partnership with Brady is a force multiplier that will enable React Mobile products to reach new verticals where our safety solutions can make a massive impact towards making the world a safer place," said Robb Monkman, React Mobile CEO. "As we leverage Brady's infrastructure, our installation capabilities will grow exponentially, from installing 30 sites per month to more than 100. This investment solidifies our financial stability and enables us to support hundreds of enterprise customers worldwide." React Mobile's best-in-class safety platform helps businesses keep their employees safe. Their system enables management to deploy resources to the exact location of anemergency within seconds of an alert, getting help to where it is needed fast. The React Mobile platform utilizes GPS geolocation and Bluetooth beacon technology to provide unparalleled accuracy to locate an employee in distress. The company has the largest hotel customer base of any panic button technology. Brady Corp. offers a unique combination of software, services, and integrated solutions designed to help businesses build, manage and maintain world-class safety and asset management programs. Brady's products include high-performance labels, signs, safety devices, printing systems and software. The company has a diverse customer base in electronics, telecommunications, manufacturing, electrical, construction, medical, aerospace and a variety of other industries. "Brady and React Mobile are synergistic companies that build solutions for a smarter, connected world," said Michael Nauman, Brady President and CEO. "Like Brady, React Mobile's panic button solutions outperform their competition, and both companies are dedicated to solving customers' problems and making their operations more efficient and effective. Our financial support combined with React Mobile's hospitality domain expertise will enable each to execute their visions and exceed growth projections more rapidly and broadly. This strategic partnership is truly a win-win." About Brady Corporation Brady Corp. is an international manufacturer and marketer of complete solutions that identify and protect people, products and places. Brady's products help customers increase safety, security, productivity and performance and include high-performance labels, signs, safety devices, printing systems and software. Founded in 1914, the Company has a diverse customer base in electronics, telecommunications, manufacturing, electrical, construction, medical, aerospace and a variety of other industries. Brady is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as of July 31, 2019, employed approximately 6,100 people in its worldwide businesses. Brady's fiscal 2019 sales were approximately $1.16 billion. Brady stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BRC. More information is available on the Internet at www.bradycorp.com. About React Mobile Founded in 2013, React Mobile is a global leader in providing panic button solutions for hotels. Our best in class hospitality safety platform helps hotels keep their employees safe. The React Mobile system is an open and flexible platform that allows management to deploy response resources to the exact location of an emergency within seconds of an alert, getting help to where it's needed anywhere on or off property. In an emergency quick response times are essential and React Mobile gives you the tools to react fast. For more information, visit www.reactmobile.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005209/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Two more men have been charged after $300million worth of crystal meth was found in 768 bottles of Sriracha chilli sauce. An air cargo consignment with bottles containing 400kg of methylamphetamine was first intercepted by Australian Border Force officials in Sydney in October 2019. Four men, aged 45, 30, 34 and 36 were arrested and charged with drug-related offences at the time. Bosnian-born Aleksija Vracar, 24, was also charged with a string of offences after detectives seized three firearms, nearly $650,000 cash, and two kilograms of ecstasy at her western Sydney unit in December. Further investigations has led to the arrest of two others in Sydney last week. The air cargo consignment with bottles containing 400kg of methylamphetamine was first intercepted by Australian Border Force officials in Sydney in October 2019 On Friday, detectives arrested a 21-year-old man and a 50-year-old man (pictured) On Friday, detectives arrested a 21-year-old man from Granville during a vehicle stop on Victoria road in West Ryde, in the city's west, at 2pm. A 50-year-old man was arrested on the same stretch of road and had his car searched. Police allegedly found a money counting machine, a mobile phone and wads of cash in different currencies, including AU$63,000, 1,000 and US$1,000. About AU$500,000 was also allegedly found in a cooler bag in the boot. About AU$500,000 was also allegedly found in a cooler bag in the boot in the 50-year-old's car Police say preliminary testing found the bottles contained a total of 400kg of meth The methylamphetamine, worth more than $300million, was found in bottles of chilli sauce sent from the United States Documents were also seized from his home in Sans Souci, south Sydney. Both men were taken to Ryde Police Station where the younger man was charged with knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. He was refused bail and will appear at at Central Local Court on Tuesday. The older man was charged with two counts of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. Police will allege in court that the man laundered money for an organised crime syndicate involved in the importation of illicit drugs. He was refused bail and will appeared before Burwood Local Court on Wednesday. Pictured: A sample of the Sriracha chilli sauce seized by police in the drug bust last year The amount of ice found inside the bottles had an estimated street value of $300million and came from the United States. Last year, detectives visited Ms Vracar's Merrylands unit to question her about an alleged plot to use fake identification to import drugs and execute a search warrant. Instead, they allegedly found $644,000 cash stashed in shopping bags, a envelope a shoebox and handbag, two kilograms of ecstasy, 250g of cocaine, 340g of cannabis, mobile phones, SIM cards, drug paraphernalia and various documents. Police also allegedly found a .22 calibre shortened bolt action rifle and semiautomatic pistol hidden in a suitcase in a bedroom while a second semi automatic pistol was found in a vacuum sealed bag. Aleksija Vracar (pictured) was charged with multiple offences over her alleged role in importation of the drug ice concealed in bottles of chilli sauce from the US in October Detectives allegedly found almost $650,000 cash stashed away inside Vracar's Merrylands unit The estimated street value of the drugs seized was almost $200,000. Police alleged Vracar used fraudulent identification to set-up four businesses to assist with the importation of illicit drugs. She was charged with four counts of possession of identity information to commit indictable offence, knowingly deal with proceeds of crime, possess unauthorised prohibited firearm and two counts of possession of an unauthorised pistol. Police allegedly found a .22 calibre shortened bolt action rifle, two semiautomatic pistols and ammunition stashed away inside a Merrylands unit in December Aleksija Vracar (pictured) spent Christmas behind bars after she was charged She was also charged with not keep firearm safely- prohibited firearm, possess ammunition without holding licence/permit/authority, and three counts of supply of a prohibited drug. Vracar has not been charged with drug importation charges. Investigations are ongoing as part of Strike Force Diffey, which was set up investigate coordinated money laundering across Sydney and the importation and supply of illicit drugs into NSW. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 04:59:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DAMASCUS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Three U.S. soldiers were wounded on Tuesday when their convoy was attacked by unknown militants in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported. The targeted U.S. convoy was accompanied by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said SANA, adding five SDF fighters were also wounded in the attack that took place near the village of Ruwaishid in the countryside of Deir al-Zour. Separately, the U.S. forces brought military and logistic supplies into Syria from Iraq on Tuesday, said SANA, adding communication towers were brought into the country as well. It's worth noting that the United States controls several bases in northeastern and eastern Syria, particularly in areas controlled by the SDF. The Syrian government has for long accused Washington of violating the Syrian sovereignty, urging the international community to pressure the United States to withdraw its troops from Syria. Enditem A desperate hunt is underway to find a woman from Oklahoma who has been missing for nearly two months after posting on social media that she feared she had coronavirus. Nobody has heard from Talina Galloway, aged 53, since early April, leaving family and friends extremely concerned for her safety. Her roommate filed a missing persons report on April 12, saying Talina had vanished from her Wagoner home and left behind her purse and car. Investigators believe Talina Galloway, above, may have used rideshare services to a location in Arkansas but have not been able to verify if she was picked up Earlier that week she posted on Facebook that she believed she was on 'day 9' of coronavirus and that her lungs were feeling 'raspy and tight'. 'I made the decision at the onset that if it got bad enough, I would not go to the hospital,' she wrote. 'Those of you who know me well know I have DNR [do not resuscitate] orders in my health directive, and I'm not going to let anyone intubate me. 'So, I've made arrangements to spend some quality alone time at one of my favourite hideaways at one of my favorite lakes'. A do not resuscitate order is a written directive from a doctor that means healthcare professionals must not perform CPR if a patient's breathing or heart stops. A flyer issued by the Sheriff's Office says Talina was 'terrified of going to the hospital'. Investigators believe Talina may have used rideshare services to a location in Arkansas but have not been able to verify if she was picked up. They said she may be in the area around Little Rock, particularly in Lake Maumelle or Lake Winona. A post on her Facebook profile revealed she had a do dot resuscitate order in her health plans Sergeant Jeff Halfacre of the Wagoner County Sheriff's Office said it was 'extremely out of character for her to just up and leave and not contact anybody for a long time', local television KJRH-TV reported. Friend Marty Angus also told the station he hasn't heard from Talina since the end of March, and that her phone has been off since April 7. Talina's niece Chantel Jones, told Dateline NBC that her aunt moved to Wagona several years ago before the sudden death of her husband, and currently works for Microsoft. A flyer from the Sheriff's Office says Talina was 'terrified' of going to hospital Talina's boss last heard from her on March 27, her niece said. Chantel said: 'We're really worried about her. This is not her character. She would not let us worry like this. 'Were doing everything we can to look for her from a distance, but its hard because were all in different states, 'Theres a group there passing out flyers and searching the best they can, but its hard.' Chantel and family friend Nicole Bellenfant Carr say they believe someone has information about Talina's disappearance and are urging them to come forward, Dateline reported. Authorities say Talina is 5ft 7" and weighs around 200lbs. She has a distinctive sun tattoo on her wrist and would be wearing a gold chain necklace with a finger print charm. SAN JOSE, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, recognizes the winners of the 2020 Thermo Scientific Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) Research Award. Now in its sixth year, the research competition selects scientists from a pool of international applicants based on innovation and the potential impact of their work in proteomics using TMT. The proprietary TMT and TMTpro reagents are exclusively licensed to Thermo Fisher Scientific by Proteome Sciences, PLC. Winners receive awards of TMT and other mass spectrometry-related reagents, valued at $10,000, $7500 and $5000. The scientists will use these awards to quantify, normalize and streamline global protein expression studies using mass spectrometry. A panel of judges from Thermo Fisher and Proteome Sciences, PLC, reviewed the applications and selected the following three recipients based on the scientific merit of their proposals: Suzan Stelloo, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands , "High-throughput single cell proteomics to capture protein expression changes during embryonic development" (Gold Level recipient) , "High-throughput single cell proteomics to capture protein expression changes during embryonic development" (Gold Level recipient) Samuel Whedon , Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston , USA , "A chemoenzymatic strategy for quantitative middle-down and top-down proteomics" (Silver Level recipient) , & Brigham and Women's Hospital, , , "A chemoenzymatic strategy for quantitative middle-down and top-down proteomics" (Silver Level recipient) Kevin Klann , Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany , "Dissecting the cellular degradative network by protein dynamics mass spectrometry" (Bronze Level recipient) "We are excited to offer the TMT Research Grant Award for the sixth consecutive year," said Shekar Menon, market development manager, protein and cell analysis, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We received a wide range of diverse submissions from graduate and postdoctoral students. We look forward to seeing what these emerging scientists achieve with our reagents and are eager to get a glimpse from them into the future of multiplex proteomics." For more information, visit http://www.thermofisher.com/tmtgrant. Thermo Fisher Scientific will showcase its newest products and software solutions in a company-hosted virtual event, vLC-MS.com, from May 26-28, 2020, and at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Reboot Program, from June 1-12, 2020. About Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. Media Contact Information: Laura Bright Thermo Fisher Scientific +1 562-335-8318 [email protected] Janice Foley BioStrata +1 617-823-5555 [email protected] SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Related Links http://www.thermofisher.com Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram The Torch is a weekly newsletter from the Committee to Protect Journalists that brings you the latest press freedom and journalist safety news from around the world. Subscribe here. Burundian authorities blocked social media access during the countrys presidential elections on Wednesday, despite the calls from CPJ and 30 partner organizations to #KeepItOn. Burundis media landscape has been deteriorating, with the recent detention of four journalists and bans on the BBC and Voice of America. Jorge Miguel Armenta Avalos, a Mexican journalist who had been under federal protection, was shot and killed on Saturday after he and other staff members of the El Tiempo de Medios Obson newspaper received numerous threats. In Wuhan, China, journalist Zhang Zhan was arrested for covering COVID-19 and is now detained in Shanghai where, if convicted, she could face up to five years imprisonment. Journalism in the time of coronavirus Freelance photographer and videographer Zmnako Ismael (left) is seen covering the COVID-19 pandemic. (Zmnako Ismael) Local journalists in Iraqi Kurdistan spoke to CPJ about the challenges of covering the pandemic. Separately, Kurdish security forces detained and seized the equipment of journalists covering a protest in the city of Duhok. Swazi editor flees to South Africa, wanted for allegedly spreading false news about King Mswati IIIs health amid COVID-19 South African police assault, charge journalist Paul Nthoba after photographing COVID-19 lockdown At least six Algerian media websites censored after false news ban. All three recently covered the pandemic and anti-government protests Spotlight In the debut episode of the Thomson Reuters Foundations new YouTube series TC Talks, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon will join the foundations CEO Antonio Zappulla to discuss threats to press freedom during the coronavirus pandemic. The episode premieres May 27. In a live Instagram discussion earlier this week, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Gulnoza Said spoke about the challenges COVID-19 has created for imprisoned journalists observing Ramadan. Missed it? Follow us on Instagram and watch the conversation. CPJ has partnered with the International Womens Media Foundation on a survey assessing journalists experiences of online harassment during the pandemic. The deadline for responses is Monday, May 25. What we are reading Beyond the Pandemic Last week, Brazilian journalist Leonardo Pinheiro was shot and killed in Araruama, in Rio de Janeiro state Iranian journalist Nejat Bahrami began a one-year jail term on May 18 Nigerian authorities detained and interrogated journalist Myanmar journalist Kyaw Linn attacked, threatened in Rakhine state Cambodian journalist Sok Oudom detained on incitement charges Protesters storm Baghdad office of Saudi broadcaster MBC CPJ and partners push for reform of EU defamation law CPJ joins call condemning threats against journalists in Northern Ireland Sign up for The Torch By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time. Processing Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Do you have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device? Enable CPJ's flash briefing skill to stay up to date with the latest press freedom news from around the world. Description GIS 26 May, 2020: The cooperative sector has identified three main priorities, namely increase the local production and consumption of food and other goods, generate employment and wealth creation, to revamp itself and ensure the socioeconomic progress of Mauritius in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr Soomilduth Bholah, was speaking at a brainstorming session, this morning, at the Bois Marchand. The session brought together representatives of cooperative federations to discuss the revamping process of the cooperatives sector to manage the Covid-19 economic impact. The Minister recalled that the Covid-19 pandemic has engulfed the world into an unprecedented economic crisis, and it is crucial at this point to promote local production to the maximum. According to him, the cooperative sector has, over its 107 years of existence, considerably contributed to the socioeconomic progress of the country. The sector is now called upon to play a key role to boost the post-Covid 19 economy of Mauritius, he pointed out. Over the last five years, Mr Bholah highlighted, Government has provided the necessary structure with the ideal conducive productive environment along with a series of measures to help the cooperative sector flourishes. He dwelt on some of the major measures including: the setting up of the Mauritius Cooperative Alliance, the promotion of organic farming, increasing the visibility of locally-manufactured products, increasing access to markets, and providing financial and technical support. According to him, now that the cooperative sector with Governmental support has the necessary knowhow and expertise, it has to undertake its second phase of revamping and operation on a more competitive level with higher standards. He stressed that in order to create a more economically vibrant cooperative sector, there is a need to adopt modern techniques of production, work within a culture of innovation, and develop exportability. Moreover, the Minister indicated that the revamping of the sector will also take into account the potential contribution of Rodrigues, particularly in animal farming. The island, he added, has a specific environment that favours animal farming and other agricultural crops, which the Government will further promote by providing thenecessary facilities. The Minister observed that the cooperative sector has to learn from the Covid-19 crisis and tap into opportunities to spur a new business environment such as the e-commerce. He also indicated that his Ministry is considering the setting up of market outlets for Cooperatives to sell their products while ensuring that all consumers are able to buy fresh local products at reasonable prices. Minister Bholah also announced that his Ministry is working on a new logo for the cooperative sector which will be used on all locally produced food and goods. #ResOuLakaz #BeSafeMoris Government Information Service, Prime Ministers Office, Level 6, New Government Centre, Port Louis, Mauritius. Email: gis@govmu.org Website: http://gis.govmu.org Mobile App: Search Gov Several California communities suing the oil industry over climate change got welcome news Tuesday when a panel of federal judges said their cases could move forward in state court. The five cities and three counties, which include San Francisco, are seeking billions of dollars from fossil fuel producers in first-of-its-kind litigation that alleges the companies caused pricey climate problems, including rising seas and extreme weather. But the lawsuits, originally filed separately in state court, have been clouded by the question of whether the subject matter is more appropriate for federal court, where the cases may also be harder to win. San Franciscos suit against five petroleum giants, which was combined with one from Oakland, was moved to federal court at the urging of the defendants, only to be dismissed two years ago. Tuesdays decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals resurrects the cases of both cities. The litigation targets Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell. Were pleased that we can proceed with this case to protect our residents, workers and businesses from the costs and damage these fossil fuel companies knowingly imposed on our communities, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in an email to The Chronicle. It is time for these companies to pay their fair share. The Ninth Circuit Court also validated a separate ruling by another federal judge who allowed California courts to take up climate cases submitted by the counties of San Mateo, Marin and Santa Cruz and the cities of Richmond, Santa Cruz and Imperial Beach (San Diego County). The eight California communities behind the suits allege that oil executives sold products that they knew warmed the atmosphere and caused global havoc. Their cases, the first of which were filed three years ago, have sparked similar litigation by cities and counties across the nation, from Hawaii to New York. While the lawsuits target different companies, they all seek financial help building seawalls and strengthening infrastructure in the face of climate change. None of the legal efforts has yet to be deliberated on their merits. Most have been saddled by procedural matters, with the overarching question of whether the suits involve issues governed by federal law and hence should be heard in federal court. The oil industry, in each of the cases, has argued that the Clean Air Act is responsible for regulating the emissions of heat-trapping gases and, as such, damage claims in state court should give way to the federal legislation. They present substantial issues of national law and policy which makes them inappropriate for state law, said Sean Comey, spokesman for San Ramon-based Chevron, in an email Tuesday. In whichever forum the cases are ultimately determined, these factually and legally unsupported claims do nothing to sensibly address the significant national economic, legal and policy issues presented by climate change. In Tuesdays ruling, the panel of appellate judges supported arguments by the California communities that say state public nuisance laws apply to the cases. The eight cities and counties have argued that their issue is not whether federal laws were broken but simply whether oil companies should be held liable for the effects of their products. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The Ninth Circuit Court joins the Fourth Circuit Court, which took up a climate lawsuit by the city of Baltimore, in ruling that the state court is the appropriate venue. The defendants in the Baltimore case have asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the appellate ruling. A similar request is possible following Tuesdays decision in California. This is obviously a great day for the plaintiffs, said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity, which supports litigation to combat global warming. These cases should be in state court. Wiles and others have likened the climate lawsuits to the legal action against the tobacco industry. Cigarette manufacturers were accused of hiding the health impacts of smoking and were ultimately forced to make big payouts under public nuisance laws. San Francisco officials have estimated that rising seas at the hands of climate change have put $10 billion of public property and as much as $39 billion of private land in the city at risk. Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander Looking at the tattoos of Mexican artist Yatzil Elizalde, your first reflex is to squint, thinking there is something wrong with your eyes, but its just the artists unique blurry effect style playing tricks on you. Coming up with a unique tattooing style usually requires a lot of experience and confidence, so it was really surprising for us to learn that the creator of these stunning double vision tattoos was only 25-years-old. Even more surprising was the fact that she had started out as a visual artist, before taking up tattooing six years ago and opening her own studio in Hermosillo, Mexicos Sonora state. From Disney characters and replicas of famous artworks, to original designs, there is virtually no tattoo that Yatzil Elizalde cannot adapt her now famous blurry effect to. She has done it so many times that she no longer gets dizzy while freehand-drawing overlapping versions of the designs to achieve the double vision look. I love imagining that people can get the feeling that their sight is getting blurry when they look at my tattoos, Elizalde told Insider Magazine. I feel good that people can experience this through my art. Elizalde creates her dizzying tattoos by inking the same overlapping design twice, even three times, which results in an optical illusion that makes viewers squint their eyes the first time they see them. Yatzil Elizalde runs her own tattoo studio, White Light, in Hermosillo, but also posts her trippy creations on social media websites like Instagram and Facebook. For more incredible tattoo styles, check out the realistic-looking stitched patches of Eduardo Duda Lozano and the three-dimensional wonders of Eliot Kohek. Berlin, May 26 : The German government's Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) has approved a 9 billion euro rescue package ($9.8 billion) for Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the flag carrier announced in a statement. In the statement on Monday, Lufthansa said the WSF would provide up to 5.7 billion euros in the form of "silent participation" in the company's assets, of which nearly 4.7 billion euros would be classified as equity in accordance with related financial rules, Xinhua news agency reported. Under German law, "silent participation" is unlimited in time and can be terminated by the company on a quarterly basis in whole or in part. The WSF will also acquire shares worth about 300 million euros in the form of a capital increase in order to build up a 20 per cent stake in Lufthansa. It increase its stake to 25 per cent plus one share in the event of a takeover of the company. Other measures in the package include a syndicated credit facility of up to three billion euros with the participation of state development bank KfW as well as private banks, with a term of three years. The conditions of the deal include a waiver of future dividend payments and restrictions on management remuneration. Two seats on the Supervisory Board are to be filled in agreement with the German government, one of which is to become a member of the audit committee, said the company. Noting that the Executive Board supports the package, the company said it still requires final approval from the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. It is also subject to the approval of the European Commission, the company added. Lufthansa was healthy and profitable before the pandemic and has good prospects for the future, but it came into an existential emergency due to the coronavirus crisis, the WSF Committee, which consists of representatives of several federal ministries, said in a joint statement. The government's stabilization package takes into account the needs of the company as well as those of taxpayers and employees of the Lufthansa Group, it said. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable damage to the aviation industry worldwide, with flights largely grounded due to the travel restrictions imposed by many countries. Preliminary results released in late April showed that Lufthansa's group revenues fell by 18 per cent to 6.4 billion euros in the first quarter. In March alone, revenues declined by 47 per cent. The group announced in mid-May that it would gradually resume services in June. It plans to offer around 1,800 weekly round trips to more than 130 destinations worldwide by the end of June. New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the four phases of the nationwide lockdown have failed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and claimed that the tally of cases is rising sharply, drawing a sharp and swift riposte from the government that he is politicising the public health crisis. Gandhi also reiterated that the coronavirus disease outbreak and lockdown have multiplied the unemployment problem and forced many small and medium businesses to go bankrupt. In his fourth video news conference since the nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, Gandhi urged the Centre to spell out its strategy for opening up the country. The current phase of the lockdown will end on May 31. On March 24, the Prime Minister said the war against the coronavirus would be won in 21 days. Sixty days later, it is now clear that the lockdown has not been able to defeat the virus. Its aim and purpose have failed, Gandhi said. Maintaining that the number of new cases in many areas around the country is increasing exponentially, the Congress Lok Sabha member said it was clear that the Prime Minister and his advisors had underestimated the scale of the battle against the viral disease. The Prime Minister was quick to take centre-stage in the early stages of this battle. But now, when his leadership is most needed, he has stepped back, Gandhi said. The government denied Gandhis claims. He (Gandhi) gave a wrong statement. I want to tell him, when the lockdown was imposed the doubling rate of infection was three days; now the infection takes 13 days to double. This is Indias success and everyones success, Union minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said. The Congress leader also urged the Centre to inform the country about its exit strategy from the lockdown. The country risks facing a second wave of the pandemic which will be extremely devastating if the strategy is haphazard, he warned. On the crisis of migrants who have left the cities and are headed to the hinterland in an exodus triggered by the pandemic and the lockdown , Gandhi said the workers he met told him that they had lost faith in the state and again urged the government to announce an immediate cash transfer of Rs 7,500 to them. They have a sense of hopelessness, they have been left alone. They have told me hamara bharosa toot gaya (we have lost faith). I dont like hearing those words. I dont want a single Indian person to say those words. They are saying it more and more. Nobody should lose their faith, he added. Javadekar countered the charge that the government failed to address the concerns of the migrant workforce and said 300,000 workers had been safely transported in 3,000 special trains, and claimed that Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka (both ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party) had given money to migrant workers. The former Congress chief, who called for monetarily empowering the states to fight the battle against the coronavirus, said if money is not put in the hands of the poor and small and medium industries, there could be serious economic damage. He asked the government how it planned to support the migrants and the states in dealing with the crisis. We need an injection of money and capital. It will be fatal if we do not do it. The unemployment situation in the country has been compounded by the coronavirus problem, he added. Asked if it was a mistake to prioritise health over the economy, the Congress leader said: I dont think it is either health or economy. We are smart enough and intelligent enough that we work out a path that will create a successful compromise between health and economy. However, India has been facing a very serious unemployment problem and this is not new. Political analyst A Narayana of the Bengaluru-based Azim Premji University said Gandhi had once again stressed the need for putting money in the hands of the people to help them tide over the crisis. He has also drawn the nations attention to the fact that the Centre is not financially helping states which are desperately trying to balance between tackling the pandemic and addressing its economic fallout. Possibly, Gandhi should do more than merely addressing press conferences to put pressure on the government, he added. In his video conference, Gandhi also addressed the current tensions between Indian and Chinese troops across the Line of Actual Control What we would like to see is some more transparency on what is going on. It becomes difficult for us to have a position without understanding the facts. I think the government should make it clear to the people of India what exactly is happening on the border, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Paulo Sergio Sarabia, Antonio Ivar Sarabia and Jose Marcos Sarabia, president of the business Sarabia Group announced that the contribution will sum 400.000 US dollars to the fight against Covid-19 in Paraguay. Jose Marcos Sarabia launches solidarity campaign Juntos Sumamos PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-25 22:09:12 Press Information Latamclick Bertoni 1227, Villa Morra Francesco Bocanelli Media Relations 59521615170 email https://www.latamclick.com # 409 Words Bertoni 1227, Villa MorraMedia Relations59521615170 The Sarabia Group launches its Juntos Sumamos campaign, through which they overturn all of their Corporate Social Responsibility Action into a Containment Plan concerning the Covid-19 Sanitary Emergency in Paraguay, conducting different solidarity actions in two major fronts: to help to communities nearby its companies that are an essential part of the supply chain, and to help the Public Health System. Throughout the campaign, the contributions will sum the equivalent of 400.000 US dollars.During the campaign Juntos Sumamos, the Sarabia Group will donate 121 tons of non-perishable food, which will be aimed to people in vulnerable situations and that will benefit to 5.500 families who will receive the food kits. Each kit contains 22 kilos of non-perishable products from the basic basket (5 kg of rice, 2 kg of beans, 5 kg of flour, 2 bottles of oil 900ml each, 2 kg of sugar, 2 l of milk, 3 kg of pasta and 1 k of salt).In addition, to support the sanitary system in the fight against Covid-19 propagation, they gave 7.000 biosafety equipment and around 17.000 liters of hand sanitizer that are being distributed to the sanitary regions, that have a departmental range and to leading hospitals of the nearby communities from the business groups supply chain.Sarabia Groups CEO, Jose Marcos Sarabia highlighted that the Juntos Sumamos campaign enforces the social commitment that has been maintained for nearly 30 years by the business group. Today more than ever Paraguay needs us to join efforts in order to provide help and support during this challenging social situation. United, at work, the solidarity and the commitment with the people, were stronger and we will be able to move forward together gracefully from this battle he pointed out.Jose Marcos Sarabia explained that, for the distribution of the food kits, the Sarabia Group network of collaborators scattered specially in the inner country, will be key to identify the most needed communities in a way that the impact of the campaign gives a real benefit to the people in vulnerable situation. The companies Tecnomyl and Agrofertil from the Sarabia Group elaborated a joint plan in order to take the solidarity action forward.The Sarabia Group is an agribusiness leader in Paraguay in terms of production and commercialization of agro-chemicals and grains stockpiling throughout its companies Tecnomyl and Agrofertil. Its directives Jose Marcos Sarabia, Paulo Sergio Sarabia and Antonio Ivar Sarabia actively participate of the Corporate Social Responsibility actions, encouraging activities in support of the most vulnerable areas and the environmental care. ShareBar Comments must be on-topic and civil in tone (with no name calling or personal attacks). Any promotional language or urls will be removed immediately. Your comment may be edited for clarity and length. Leading experts in public health have joined forces to canvass public support for tighter restrictions across the island of Ireland to crush Covid-19 and eliminate the risk of further outbreaks and lockdowns into the future. Professors Anthony Staines from Dublin City University and Gerry Killeen from University College Cork have teamed up with assistant professor Tomas Ryan from Trinity College Dublin to launch an online campaign urging the Government to switch from a strategy of 'living with Covid-19' to trying to eradicate the virus. The experts in public health and infection control said there is a precious window of opportunity to change tack and crush Covid-19 as other countries like South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Greece, China, and Iceland have done. In an open letter that will be sent to Health Minister Simon Harris among others next week, the experts said the next few weeks offer a decisive moment in the history of our island to adopt a co-ordinated all-island approach to eradicate the virus. The path we choose will determine our future for years to come. Our current policy is to live with the virus under a long-term mitigation strategy, with the risk of future surges and lockdowns until when, or if, a vaccine becomes available. "We have another option: We can do as many other countries have done, choose to suppress and eliminate this virus - Crushing the Curve, wrote the academics. We propose that the two governments on the island of Ireland immediately adopt a full-scale policy of suppression, and start working on a suitable strategy for both our countries." The current approach of living with the virus, they said, will mean extensive and expensive restrictions for the foreseeable future, with the new norm reducing capacity to 20% on public transport, to 30% in pubs and restaurants, and to 50% in schools. Prof Staines said the goal is to get to zero cases of Covid-19 and that this could be achieved over the summer. Universal use of face masks indoors, more rigorous tracing of people coming into the country, and managing clusters in nursing homes and other settings are critical to achieving that goal, he said. Were now through the emergency phase. Its now time to sit down and make some decisions, said Prof Staines. We dont have all the answers but we think it would be a mistake not to look at this, not to ask ourselves can we do something now that might make a big difference to our country, he said. If we dont ask these questions we could end up in a situation where we end up with permanent restrictions for maybe years to come, he said. The open letter will be sent to the health minister, National Public Health Emergency Team, and the Oireachtas committee on Covid-19 next week. Members of the public can respond to the campaign by logging onto https://dcusnhs.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3PGSO5vFIOec9Nz. Jeremy Lara, Robert Campos and Arturo Rocha sat in front of a group of headstones, three of them bearing the names of comrades who had fallen in Iraq, and sipped beer. They were mortarmen in Anbar province in 2004-05, when the Sunni insurgency exploded in much of Iraq, especially in the desert west of Baghdad, leaving the Marines who fought bitter battles there with memories theyll never forget. They carried parts of the mortar, which all told came to around 80 pounds not counting the two, 8-pound shells given to each man. All three can easily recall the heaviest part of the weapon the 5-foot-long barrel which they shouldered. A Marine carries the 52-pound barrel over the back of his shoulders until it gets too heavy and passes it over to another man. Carrying the barrel, as it was called, was a part of life in combat for years and years, and is still a thing with these men this Memorial Day. Some people are stronger and can carry it for longer periods of time. Some people were thinner with less muscle density and couldnt carry that barrel for so long, said 40-year-old Lara, of San Antonio. It doesnt mean that theyre any less of a person, its just physically, they couldnt do it. Its the same thing mentally, he continued. There are some of us that are mentally stronger than others and sometimes we just need help, and thats why we come here, just to pass that barrel, help one another get through. RELATED: American POWs family, waiting in San Antonio, had no idea how dark his days would get Lara, Campos and Rocha came to Section 25 of Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on a cloudy, damp Monday morning. They were armed not with mortar equipment, an M249 SAW, M240B 7.62 mm machine gun and a heavy load of ammo but beer packed in an ice chest. Coming to this section of Fort Sam, an older part of the cemetery, is a Memorial Day ritual, a time to think back and carry the barrel. They opened bottles of Dos Equis and cans of Coors Light, and placed one of each against headstones of Lance Cpl. Matthew Wayne Holloway, Cpl. Joseph E. Fite and Cpl. Jacob H. Neal, and then cracked open beers of their own. Only hours removed from thunderstorms that roared across the San Antonio area, they downed the chilled beers quickly. As they talked, the men were surrounded by a growing throng that descended upon the cemetery. Scores of people gathered around headstones all around them as a long line of cars moving bumper to bumper clogged San Antonio Street, the main east-west road through the cemetery. At one point, a B-25 bomber flew over the cemetery along with other vintage planes. In the distance, a bugler sounded taps. Lara, Campos and Rocha stood up, as did everyone else at the cemetery. Those at Fort Sam mourned weeks, months and even years after the passing of their loved ones and friends, but on Memorial Day the sting of sadness ran a little deeper as they grieved. If some felt more alone than usual, it might have been because this year there was no somber ceremony at Fort Sams assembly area. The event was canceled this year because of the pandemic, but waves of people came here anyway. For Griselda Garcia and her sister, Minnie Delgado, the drive from Austin through the rain to see their father, who died at 92, is a part of tradition. They come out on the Fourth of July and his birthday as well, but today is such an honor for him and everybody else that died, Garcia said, choking up, everyone else that fought for our freedom, weve come to honor all of them because he would have done the same. Stories of fallen comrades Now out of the Marine Corps with civilian jobs and home lives, Lara and Rocha are married, while Campos has a girlfriend. Theyve settled down. RELATED: At San Antonio cemetery, Jewish veterans are remembered Lara works as an operations manager for a Dallas-based landscaping company and Campos, 38, is employed by a firm that does residential and commercial lawn service, including at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. Rocha, 40, is a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Years removed from the war, they carry a few numbers in their heads. Theres the 10 Alpha, Charlie, Bravo and Weapons Company reservists killed in action from the 4th Marine Divisions 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines. And there are the 27 Purple Hearts given in that tour, which ran from August 2004 to March 27, 2005. One Marine, a lance corporal, got three of them and lives in Houston. The 175 Marines they served with were an all-American affair, coming from across the country. That meant some of them never knew each other. Alpha Company, a headquarters unit, was from Houston, Bravo Company was from Baton Rouge, La., and Weapons Company was from Austin. Marines from the regiment came from California but had engineers out of Grand Rapids, Mich. Holloway, 21, of Fulton was in Charlie Company, an outfit that included infantrymen from Corpus Christi, Harlingen, McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley, all the way to Brownsville. As Lara and Rocha were being interviewed in Al Asad, a base in Anbar, about the death of Fite, 23, of Round Rock, tragedy struck again. Holloway and Lance Cpl. Juan Rodrigo Rodriguez, 23, of Laredo were killed when a roadside bomb split their truck in half in the town of Hit, north of Ramadi. You guys did the medevac, Lara told Campos. I didnt really know it was him until he told me, Campos replied, pointing toward Lara. A call went out, and Campos mobile assault platoon quick reaction force rushed to the scene. I had no idea who it was, Campos continued. It wasnt until years later when I saw the headstone and I was here with Lara that he told me, You remember him?, and I was like, Nope. He said, You did his medevac, and I said, What? And then he told me the story. When Campos first came to the cemetery, it was just to see Fite, a Javelin anti-tank weapons specialist who is described as the nice, quiet guy who read a lot of books, was always there and smiled a lot. He kept a journal. Holloway, who is remembered as easygoing and very fit, and Neal, a martial arts specialist eager to moved up the enlisted ranks, rest nearby. Neal was anxious to get into the fight but came to the Weapons Company after its 2004-05 tour of Iraq. He went with Lara, Campos and Rocha to Morocco, where they did a humanitarian mission, and transferred to another unit that was headed to Iraq. Three months into his tour, Neal, 23, of San Marcos, was killed by an IED. Corporal Neal, I was part of his seven-gun salute here at Fort Sam, said Lara, who served at 11 Marine burials at the cemetery from 2005-10. Like so many warriors since 9/11, they carry a lot of weight. I cope with it with these guys, said Lara, originally from Pecos. Were very tight-knit. Being a reserve unit, were really lucky because a lot of the Marines we served with are here in San Antonio. Theres probably a group of seven of us that are really, really close in San Antonio, and we get together throughout the year. We hunt together, we fish together, he added. A big part of our lives Sometimes, they come here and talk with Holloway, Fite and Neal. Campos will stop and have his lunch here, hanging out with his friends. Hell also come by on Jan. 9, 2005 Fites kill day. I have a set of dominoes that Fite and I were supposed to play when he was supposed to come back from that mission that he died on, Campos said. Every now and then well play, but those are sitting on a mantel somewhere. Theyre going to get buried with me when I pass. Rocha comes not only to see his buddies, but also has a daughter who is buried here. It feels good to come out here and just spend time with them, he said. Obviously theyre a big part of our lives. Sig Christenson covers the military and its impact in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Sig, become a subscriber. sigc@express-news.net | Twitter: @saddamscribe Bill Oxford/iStockBy ERIN SCHUMAKER, ABC News (NEW YORK) -- If you've been reading coronavirus news coverage, you've likely stumbled across a reference to a term called "R0." It's been on the tips of world leaders' tongues in recent months, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel's, whose R0 explanation garnered nine million views on Twitter in April. Pronounced "R-naught," the reproductive number is an indicator of how contagious a disease is, or how easily it spreads from person to person in a community. The number is important because government leaders are using R0 as a proxy for determining whether their respective COVID-19 outbreaks are growing, shrinking and or holding steady. Crucially, R0 is not a fixed number. It's a jumping off point that's influenced by many factors, including human behavior. What is R0? The reproductive number of a virus, or R0, is the number of people, on average, that one infected person will subsequently infect. The naught in R0 refers to the zeroth generation of a disease, as in "patient zero." A higher R0 means more people will be infected over the course of the outbreak. A lower number means fewer people will be infected over time. That replication will continue if there are no vaccinations against the illness or immunity in the population. Because that number is imprecise and variable, it's often expressed as a range. Here are a few examples: If R0 is 1, each infected person infects just one other person, on average. Over time, the number of infected people will remain the same. If R0 is less than 1, each sick person is infecting fewer than one person, on average, so the number of infected individuals will shrink over time. In case case of COVID-19, and R0 of less than 1 means lockdown measures could be eased. If R0 is greater than 1, each sick person is infecting more than one person, on average, so the outbreak will grow. So, lockdown measures may need to remain in place. And while R0 = 1 and R0 = 2 might seem close, "the difference between a reproductive number of 1 and a reproductive number of 2 is huge, in terms of the number of people who will ultimately be infected," Emily Gurley, an associate scientist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explained during an online course she teaches about contact tracing. "Everything we can do to help us get the reproductive number closer to 1 will help us control the spread of a disease," Gurley added. Measles, which is one of the most infectious diseases that scientists know of, has an R0 of about 15. (While there's some dispute about this number, measles is frequently cited as having an R0 between 12 and 18 in scientific literature.) With an R0 of 15, every person infected with measles will go on to sicken 15 additional people. On the other end of the spectrum, MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, another type of coronavirus, has an R0 lower than 1, meaning on average, each infected person infects less than one other person. Because of that low reproductive number, MERS does not usually result in large disease outbreaks. For now, scientists have calculated the R0 of the novel coronavirus to be between 2 and 3, meaning each infected individual will infect to two to three additional people, on average. As a historical comparison, the R0 of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic is estimated to have been between 1.4 and 2.8, according to an article published in BMC Medicine. What are the limitations of R0? They're numerous. Some government leaders have framed their discussion of R0 as a race to get below 1, but like many scientific concepts, R0 is more complicated than a one-time race to success. R0, which involves modeling, can change from place to place and is impacted by human behavior. It involves imperfect and different estimates based on assumptions and educated guesswork by scientists. As researchers aptly noted in a paper published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases last year, R0 is "easily misrepresented, misinterpreted, and misapplied." As in the case of measles, scientists continue to disagree on the R0 of even diseases they've been studying for decades. In the United States, the COVID-19 outbreak has not been uniform. Different regions, states and cities have had their own micro-outbreaks, which are on different timelines, making it hard to assign one R0 to the entire country. New York City, Seattle and Chicago may have very different R0 numbers than one another. That's not to say governments shouldn't try to lower their R0 numbers. Though imperfect, it's a useful proxy for estimating how the lockdown and reopening policies of states and cities are working -- or not. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. It is necessary to conclude an intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and Slovakia to resume the work of the airport Open source President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a phone talk with Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova. They discussed the necessity to sign the agreement on the unblocking of work of Uzhhorod International Airport as the Office of the President of Ukraine reported. The President underlined the interest of the Ukrainian party in signing of the Ukrainian-Slovak agreement as soon as possible, which will allow Uzhhorod International Airport to resume its work, the message said. Besides, Zelensky stated that the airport is extremely important for Ukraine and Zakarpattia region. He expects an agreement with Slovakia in the near future. The president is also sure that after the end of the quarantine measures, the governments of the states should assume joint efforts to restore the dynamics of the cooperation in trade and economic, transport and cross-border. The airport is situated near the Slovakian border and the planes should enter the airspace of Slovakia to take off and land. In 2016, the term of the intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and Slovakia ended and it settled this issue; the new one is not signed yet. As we reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a phone talk with President of Finland Sauli Niinisto, discussing the employment of the Ukrainian guest workers. Mumbai, May 26 : Ram Gopal Varma has released the trailer of his upcoming Telugu production titled "Coronavirus", which deals with the pandemic and the lockdown as its subject. On Tuesday evening, the filmmaker took to Twitter to release a four-minute trailer of the movie, which has been completely shot amid the lockdown. The film deals with the story of a family amid the lockdown. "Here is the CORONAVIRUS film trailer..The story is set in a LOCKDOWN and it has been SHOT during LOCKDOWN ..Wanted to prove no one can stop our work whether it's GOD or CORONA @shreyaset," tweeted Ram Gopal Varma. "CORONAVIRUS is a film about the fears in all of us ..it TESTS the POWER of LOVE against the FEAR of DISEASE and DEATH," mentioned the filmmaker in a separate tweet. "Coronavirus" features Srikanth Iyengar and is helmed by Agasthya Manju. The music has been composed by DSR. The trailer only mentions 2020 but does not display any other detail on the film's release. Former MLB All-Star Jayson Werth is selling his massive estate in McLean, VA, for $7 million. The enormous estate was built in 2003 by George Sagatov, a luxury-home builder in Northern Virginia. Werth purchased the estate through a limited liability company in early 2011 for $6,550,000 from businessman William Franke. The deal was consummated shortly after the outfielder signed a seven-year, $126 million contract with the Washington Nationals. Werth's contract expired after the 2017 season and he never caught on with another team, which brought his 15-year MLB career to a close. He initially placed his home up for sale in October 2019 for $8 million. The price was reduced in March to $7.5 million, and a month later to the current asking price. The mansion sits on nearly 4 acres and backs up to Great Falls Park. The home was substantially renovated/updated" by the local design firm BOWA in 2012, according to the listing. It's located at the end of a private drive, which is secured by iron gates for additional privacy and seclusion. The 15,250-square-foot home has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, and three half-bathrooms. The grand family room features floor-to-ceiling windows and opens to a chef's kitchen, which was renovated in 2012. The master suite features radiant floor heating, dual walk-in closets, and a sitting area with a fireplace. The marble-tiled master bathroom includes a soaking tub with jets, a marble-lined shower with three shower heads, and a built-in bench. Front exterior realtor.com Living area realtor.com Chef's kitchen realtor.com Swimming pool realtor.com The fully finished lower level includes a wine cellar, game room, full kitchen equipped with three Sub-Zero wine closets, gym, and two additional bedrooms. The level offers walk-out access to a covered terrace, which overlooks the renovated swimming pool. The outdoor pavilion is fully stocked for maximum entertaining. There are two smokers, double burners, a refrigerator, and a TV. The pool house even has its own full kitchen and bathroom. The property also comes with two guesthouses as well as parking for six cars in the garage. Werth, 41, broke into the big leagues in 2002 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He went on to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, where he was a key member of the 2008 World Series champs. After his successful run in Philly, he signed his rich free-agent deal with the Nationals. He helped propel the Nats to four postseason appearances in his seven-season run in the nation's capital. Jonathan Taylor and Maxwell Rabin with TTR Sotheby's International Realty have the listing. The post Former Nationals Star Jayson Werth Selling Massive Virginia Estate for $7M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Indian Army Major Suman Gawani, who was deployed as a military observer with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, has been awarded the 2019 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. (Photo: UN/IANS) Image Source: IANS News Indian Army Major Suman Gawani, who was deployed as a military observer with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, has been awarded the 2019 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. (Photo: UN/IANS) Image Source: IANS News United Nations, May 26 : An Indian Army Major, who has been selected for the 2019 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award for her role in the organisation's anti-sexual violence campaign, has been called a "powerful role model" by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Major Suman Gawani, who is with the Army Signal Corps, through her "support, mentoring, guidance and leadership, she helped to create enabling environment for UN Peacekeepers" by combating sexual violence in conflict situations, the UN said on Tuesday announcing the award. While deployed as a military observer with the UN Mission in South Sudan, Gawani "mentored over 230 UN Military Observers on conflict-related sexual violence and ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the Mission's team sites". "She also trained South Sudanese government forces and helped them to launch their action plan on conflict-related sexual violence," it added. Gawani shares the award with Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo, a Brazilian Naval officer working in the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, They will receive the award at a ceremony presided over by Guterres on Friday, which is observed as International Day of UN Peacekeepers. "These peacekeepers are powerful role models," Guterres said. "They have brought new perspectives and have helped to build trust and confidence among the communities we serve." Guterres has made ending sexual violence and exploitation in UN peace operations a priority and Atul Khare, the under-secretary-general for operational support has announced a zero-tolerance policy for peacekeepers. "As we confront today's challenges, their work has never been more important or relevant," Guterres said. Gawani said of her role: "Whatever our function, position or rank, it is our duty as peacekeepers to integrate an all genders perspective into our daily work and own it in our interactions with colleagues as well as with communities". (Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis) In the classic movie tune by Irving Berlin, romantic partners played by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire see trouble ahead, but the lure of the moonlight and music makes them decide: Lets Face the Music and Dance. What results is one of the best-loved five minutes of the Golden Age of Hollywood. We also find ourselves in a situation where there may be trouble ahead. The COVID-19 epidemic has peaked, but the way forward is uncertain. With the lure of good weather, thoughts are turning away from the epidemic and toward a more normal life. How will our actions will be remembered in hindsight? It is wonderful to see the initial climb in the active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario turn around. The active cases are those that are currently infectious, and is given by: Active cases = Total cumulative cases Total cumulative recovered Total cumulative deaths Using the government of Ontario official numbers, the active cases on each day since March 10 is shown in the top graph. On the 46th day after imposing social distancing limitations, the number of active cases peaked. Our collective effort to stall the epidemic and avoid a crisis in hospitals was a success a great achievement worth celebrating. Is it now safe to relax restrictions? By how much? For this, we need to look at where the epidemic is headed, not where it is. Viruses spread exponentially, according to how difficult it is to create new active cases by infection from existing active cases. This is described by the Daily Multiplier (DM): DM = (Active cases today/Active cases yesterday). The Daily Multiplier changes when the ease of transmitting the infection changes. This can be seen in the bottom two graphs, where the Daily Multiplier for each day is shown. Look first at Canadas DM, on the bottom left. At the beginning, the DM is about 1.23. This gives a doubling of active cases every 3 1/2 days; this initial value was found in many countries. Day 1 on the graph is when social distancing was instituted and created conditions for a lower DM. However, it usually takes two weeks for an active case to become symptomatic, so the DM did not start to change for two weeks. (The vertical lines on the graph mark these two week intervals.) Once the DM began to fall, like an enormous ship that does not respond immediately to a change in rudder setting, it took another two weeks for it to move to the new value of 1.04 (doubling every 18 days). Then new regulations were put place to address the terrible problem in long-term-care residences. This created the conditions for an even lower DM, and two weeks later the official numbers started to show the change. By the 58th day, Canadas DM seemed constant once again, near one. Canadas epidemic is really many localized epidemics in different regions. The Daily Multiplier for Ontario is shown in the graph on the bottom right. For Ontario, the changes in long-term care caused the DM to pass through one on the 46th day, when the peak in active cases occurs. The DM continued to fall and reached as low as 0.93. If it stayed at 0.93, the active cases would halve every nine days, and wipe out the epidemic in three weeks or would it? Actually, the future course of the epidemic is not determined by the number of active cases, but by the DM. Any relaxation of current conditions will make transmission of the virus easier and cause the DM to increase. How much can controls be relaxed and still keep the DM less than one? It is difficult to say, and it will take two weeks for any change to begin to show up and another two weeks to settle to a constant value. Four weeks is a long time to be uncertain whether the epidemic is secretly growing. The new normal must have social limitations that keep the DM below one. The delicacy of the balance is indicated by the recent rise of the DM in Ontario, so that the number of active cases hit a plateau and began to rise in the last few days. Ontario is now proceeding to relax social and commercial restrictions, so it seems we have decided to face the music. But unlike Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, we will not be free to choose our partner. We are obliged to have a slow and cautious dance with COVID-19 one tentative step forward and then one back, locked together for a long time yet to come. Trump is in the news every day and it usually is about something disturbing, like his taking the unproven, often dangerous hydroxychloroquine. Earlier, he suggested that injecting disinfectants in the human body could help fight the virus an idea that was quickly shouted down by Clorox and Lysol as being completely absurd and dangerous. More fodder for the ever-filling Trump coffin of really bad ideas. The taking of hydroxychloroquine, incidentally, is known to potentially cause fatal, dangerous abnormal heart rhythms. Even Neil Cavuto, a Fox News host on the typically pro-Trump network, followed with a warning that should scare anyone less arrogant than Trump, saying that if you have a pre-existing condition Trumps drug will kill you. I cannot stress enough, this will kill you, he said. Of course, with Trump you never know if he really is taking this stuff or, as in so many times before, simply not telling the truth. Meanwhile, some supporters of Joe Biden are complaining that the former vice president is not making enough noise and is not sufficiently visible. Well, it is hard to campaign against a candidate for president that is seemingly digging his own grave. Why fight for the shovels? People looking for a noisier campaign seem to forget that Biden is adhering to all the virus restrictions that remain in place. It is very difficult to hold rallies, shake hands and campaign in the usual fashion. When you are president you can sneeze and the press comes calling. In Trumps case, no matter what the issue is, he will lie. Then he is immediately exposed by competent news reporters. The latest count has him up to somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 confirmed lies since he took office. Trump, as is obvious, is a congenital, persistent liar. Given free airtime, he will turn it into a lie fest. He cannot help himself and the American people, for the most part, really are on to him. Biden, incidentally, is doing his bit judiciously with numerous television and radio hits and appearances on local stations in both swing states as well as on Spanish language radio, particularly at night. In recent weeks he has been interviewed by the usual suspects, including Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Chuck Todd and George Stephanopoulos. Today, most voters see Joe Biden as he really is a kind, fair and compassionate man who can and will protect the United States of America. Trump repeatedly comes across as a buffoon. He is starting to not only act but even look the part. The bottom-line: Biden is up by 5 to 9 percentage points in virtually all national polls. He also has taken the lead in all of the so-called battleground states. Remember, once officially nominated, Biden will get the same attention as Trump every proverbial sneeze will be covered. This has been Trumps time, with his daily briefing farce. Anything he says makes headlines yet he is still losing. But none of this time has gone to waste for Joe Biden. He is too smart to counter Trumps self-immolation. At the same time, he is moved to build coalitions with both disappointed Bernie Sanders supporters and Elizabeth Warren fans. Biden will pick up the pace soon. Trump cannot run fast enough to catch him. Attorney Edward L. Marcus is former chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee in Connecticut and former State Senate majority leader. Rajesh Kumar Thakur By Express News Service PATNA: Ever thought Whatsapp could contribute for more than forwarded messages that claim to be 'authentic news'. Seems unlikely? Think again. Because 'Hello Bahan' (Hello Sister) is an initiative started by five women in the form of a whatsapp group that aims to do much more, as it has roped in over 4,000 members to help devise ways to break the coronavirus transmission chain. Led by Dr Madhu Upadhyay, up-pramukh of Sindhauli block, in Bihar's Sasaram district, the group came into existence soon after nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 23 and has since educated more than 20,000 women in the district on precautionary measures, hygienic practices that can adopted to combat the pandemic. Every member of the group ensures that they spread awareness to at least five others from their respective localities on these safe practices. We (the admins) took a resolve that we would call up five women and educate them as to how could avoid contracting coronavirus and then those five could spread the world forward, that way, Dr Upadhyay said while sharing the intent of creating such a group. Elaborating further, she said, "We share all information in Hindi, videos and other precautionary measures related literatures and explain the women how to follow the instructions and share." The target is to reach across to 50,000 people by August, said Dr Upadhyay sharing that apart from generating awareness, the group has also become an information portal for migrant workers arriving in Bihar. Group members inform Dr Upadhyay about their arrival who keeps the district administration in loop. "I immediately inform the administration to quarantine the migrant workers," she said. As of 12 p.m. May 26, 2020, the Pa. Department of Health reports that there are 68,637 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. There are at least 5,152 reported deaths from the virus. According to Johns Hopkins University, 40,911 of those cases recovered from the virus. Click the image to see a data page including an interactive map for the state. (Please click the link in the previous sentence if you cant see the image.) Click here for a ZIP code breakdown of cases provided by the Pa. Department of Health. Out of the probable cases, 1,858 are pending based on definition and high-risk exposure. There are 551 cases pending by serology test and either symptoms or high-risk exposure. Of the positive and confimed cases, 14,607 cases are among residents in 591 of the states nursing and personal care homes. At least 3,357 of those residents have died from the virus. A database showing these cases is below. The state is also providing detailed hospital and respirator data here for desktop users and here for mobile users. Below is a map of the current reopening status of Pennsylvania counties. Please click here if you cannot see that map. Adams County 233 positive cases and 2,831 negative results with 7 deaths. Allegheny County 1,816 positive cases and 27,412 negative results with 160 deaths. Armstrong County 59 positive cases and 1,128 negative results with 3 deaths. Beaver County 570 positive cases and 3,413 negative results with 72 deaths. Bedford County 37 positive cases and 662 negative results with 2 deaths. Berks County 3,919 positive cases and 10,690 negative results with 296 deaths. Blair County 48 positive cases and 2,467 negative results with 1 death. Bradford County 45 positive cases and 1,342 negative results with 3 deaths. Bucks County 4,916 positive cases and 17,613 negative results with 461 deaths. Butler County 220 positive cases and 3,443 negative results with 12 deaths. Cambria County 57 positive cases and 3,321 negative results with 2 deaths. Cameron County 2 positive cases and 124 negative results. Carbon County 231 positive cases and 2,109 negative results with 22 deaths. Centre County 148 positive cases and 1,966 negative results with 6 deaths. Chester County 2,454 positive cases and 11,045 negative results with 252 deaths. Clarion County 29 positive cases and 651 negative results with 2 deaths. Clearfield County 37 positive cases and 1,024 negative results. Clinton County 54 positive cases and 544 negative results with 1 death. Columbia County 343 positive cases and 1,241 negative results with 31 deaths. Crawford County 22 positive cases and 1,003 negative results. Cumberland County 602 positive cases and 4,452 negative results with 46 deaths. Dauphin County 1,137 positive cases and 9,253 negative results with 63 deaths. Delaware County 6,243 positive cases and 18,650 negative results with 514 deaths. Elk County 6 positive cases and 301 negative results. Erie County 223 positive cases and 4,068 negative results with 4 deaths. Fayette County 95 positive cases and 3,034 negative results with 4 deaths. Forest County 7 positive cases and 73 negative results. Franklin County 746 positive cases and 4,770 negative results with 29 deaths. Fulton County 15 positive cases and 198 negative results with 1 death. Greene County 27 positive cases and 725 negative results. Huntingdon County 228 positive cases and 769 negative results with 1 death. Indiana County 89 positive cases and 1,231 negative results with 5 deaths. Jefferson County 7 positive cases and 484 negative results. Juniata County 95 positive cases and 318 negative results with 4 deaths. Lackawanna County 1,503 positive cases and 5,658 negative results with 155 deaths. Lancaster County 2,985 positive cases and 14,634 negative results with 281 deaths. Lawrence County 74 positive cases and 1,173 negative results with 8 deaths. Lebanon County 922 positive cases and 4,277 negative results with 27 deaths. Lehigh County 3,676 positive cases and 12,914 negative results with 210 deaths. Luzerne County 2,662 positive cases and 9,963 negative results with 135 deaths. Lycoming County 161 positive cases and 2,042 negative results with 14 deaths. McKean County 12 positive cases and 512 negative results with 1 death. Mercer County 105 positive cases and 1,417 negative results with 4 deaths. Mifflin County 58 positive cases and 1,163 negative results with 1 death. Monroe County 1,305 positive cases and 5,264 negative results with 99 deaths. Montgomery County 6,598 positive cases and 31,813 negative results with 635 deaths. Montour County 50 positive cases and 3,174 negative results. Northampton County 2,933 positive cases and 12,098 negative results with 199 deaths. Northumberland County 177 positive cases and 1,313 negative results with 3 deaths. Perry County 48 positive cases and 645 negative results with 1 death. Philadelphia County 17,597 positive cases and 51,307 negative results with 1232 deaths. Pike County 476 positive cases and 1,892 negative results with 18 deaths. Potter County 4 positive cases and 133 negative results. Schuylkill County 600 positive cases and 4,505 negative results with 27 deaths. Snyder County 38 positive cases and 371 negative results with 1 death. Somerset County 37 positive cases and 1,579 negative results. Sullivan County 2 positive cases and 84 negative results. Susquehanna County 97 positive cases and 699 negative results with 15 deaths. Tioga County 16 positive cases and 499 negative results with 2 deaths. Union County 56 positive cases and 1,031 negative results with 1 death. Venango County 8 positive cases and 476 negative results. Warren County 3 positive cases and 343 negative results. Washington County 138 positive cases and 3,990 negative results with 5 deaths. Wayne County 118 positive cases and 913 negative results with 7 deaths. Westmoreland County 442 positive cases and 8,587 negative results with 38 deaths. Wyoming County 33 positive cases and 434 negative results with 7 deaths. York County 943 positive cases and 12,577 negative results with 22 deaths. This data is compiled from the Pa. Department of Health. The state will not be providing recovery data at this time. Several counties have released their own data maps. Information reported at the county level may not be consistent with the state numbers. Those counties include: Some medical systems have begun releasing discharge data. Those medical systems include: -- Follow Ed Sutelan on Twitter, @EdwardSutelan Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. 26.05.2020 LISTEN An Education think tank, the Africa Education Watch has urged government to consider double track system if it plans to reopen schools. Ghana on Monday, March 16, 2020, closed all schools, universities, and suspended public events to stop the spread of coronavirus in the country. President Nana Akufo-Addo announced in an address to the nation that the authorities were shutting schools and universities until further notice According to the think tank, its proposal will reduce the number of students in schools at a particular time and also deal largely with a potential spread of COVID-19 if schools are reopened. The Executive Secretary of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare in a Citi News interview said three different batches can be adopted depending on the size of a school. It may depend on the class size in a particular locality thats the average class size because some have larger class sizes. In countries like, Switzerland and Netherlands they have about three batches going to school so batch 1 goes to school for two days, batch 2 does and batch 3 goes to school on Friday but they will not do 4 hours a day but instead 8 hours. So depending on the municipality's standard class sizes we may have to do batch not only morning and afternoon but also one could go on an odd day so that we can reasonably distance the students in line with the WHO and the UNESCO protocols, he said. The Ghana Education Service recently wrote to the stakeholders in the education sector to make an input into the reopening of the schools in country since the President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered the closure of same. ---citinewsroom Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Pasig City is looking for funds to purchase personal learning gadgets for students as the reopening of classes remains in limbo due to the COVID-19 crisis, Mayor Vico Sotto said on Tuesday. Following President Rodrigo Duterte's pronouncement opposing the opening of classes in August, Sotto said the local government of Pasig is continuously working with the Department of Education on how it can assist students. He said whether face-to-face classes resume in August or virtual classes will be the new norm, "we are identifying funds for personal devices for students." The neophyte mayor added Pasig is also working to improve its internet connection at the barangay level to ensure virtual classes will go smoothly. Private schools are also appealing to the government to provide means for students to adjust to new modes of learning. "A lot of students based on their economic background would not be able to absorb the costs of moving towards this technology-based or technology-enhanced delivery of education," Atty. Joseph Noel Estrada of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations told CNN Philippines' News Night. "This is why we think that the government should come in and provide the needed economic and policy intervention," Private institutions are looking at conducting video conferences and sending learning materials to the students to study "at their own time" to continue education, Estrada said. "We are thinking of asking the government for help for us to do this because definitely the private sector will not be able to absorb the entire 27 million learners into the private education system," he added. The Department of Education announced last April 30 that the next school year will officially open on August 24 and end on April 30, 2021. Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the resumption of classes does not require full physical attendance of students, stressing that online learning is still a viable option. Duterte on Monday said he does not favor the reopening of schools until there is an available vaccine against the coronavirus disease. Some lawmakers have also pushed for the postponement of class openings until and unless a vaccine against COVID-19 is developed. A woman quarantining in a hotel has showcased an array of delicious desserts she made with the help of an iron, a penknife and a pair of hair straighteners. Bridget Houlden was living in the UK when she decided to fly home to Melbourne in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Government-mandated restrictions meant Ms Houlden had to spend time in quarantine after she arrived in Australia. Ms Houlden told WIN News Gippsland she was looking for ways to occupy her time to fight off boredom. She said she 'discovered that you do not need a stove or an oven to cook if you are really desperate.' Bridget Houlden has been documenting her cooking while in hotel quarantine in Melbourne 'I cannot say that I am any kind of master chef so maybe I have finally found my calling in here,' she said. The dishes cooked up on the iron included an apple and crumble creation, and a chocolate and caramel treat. In a video of her lockdown cooking Ms Houlden showed herself cutting up some apple before heating it up in a metal takeaway box on an iron. 'The apple is literally bubbling away, I'm amazed,' she said. Next she grabbed some complimentary sugar from the hotel and poured it into a cup. 'I only have Equal but you can't be too picky,' she said, before adding coconut water for flavour. She added the mixture to the apples and told viewers to stir it in until it dissolved completely. 'I've now popped the baking tray onto the hot plate and we just want to see that crumble turn nice and brown,' she said. The finished dessert was layers of caramelised apples topped with crumble in a glass cup. Next Ms Houlden attempted to make a homemade TimTam biscuit. Video footage showed Ms Houlden using books to keep the iron in place while a metal tray say on top of it to cook her slice. Video footage showed Ms Houlden using books to keep the iron in place while she cooked her dessert in a silver tray Ms Houlden filled the tray with hot water and then placed a cup filled with chocolate and butter into the water to melt. 'So we're back. I've salvaged some of the chocolate and I added a bit more in. We've got the water bubbling now I just want to melt the chocolate and the butter,' she said. The footage then shows the bar, a layer of caramel sandwiched between two layers of chocolate, completed. She used her pocket knife to cut it open. 'It hasn't really set but it isn't a total disaster. One out of ten for presentation,' she joked. Not all of her creations went to plan. Ms Houlden heats up the crumble for her apple dessert on an iron One noticeable disaster was when Ms Houlden attempted to melt some cheese between two crackers. She used her hair straightener to clamp down on the crackers. However the pressure made the snack explode and fly across the room. Australians were forced to quarantine in five-star hotels from March 28 after the Federal Government mandated any international arrivals must self-isolate. The move was made after reports surfaced of people ignoring government advice two weeks earlier urging Australians to come home and isolate in their homes. Quarantiners are provided with meals and are tested three times over the course of their isolation to ensure they don't have coronavirus. Leading academics from across Cranfield University are calling for a new approach to UK resilience. Writing in today's Financial Times, the academics believe that as well as lessons learnt from the response to COVID-19 there is a much wider lesson to be learnt about how the UK identifies, prepares and responds to threats and risks, such as to our safety, our national security and from climate change. They believe the UK must shift from simply classifying threats using a traditional risk-based probability versus consequence assessment, to a more detailed analysis including their interdependencies, social impact, cascade and recoverability through a new connected approach to resilience. Crucial to a new UK approach to quantifying risk, and our preparations and ability to recover from crises is the inclusion of all "Five Capitals": Natural, Human, Social, Built and Financial and their interdependencies and feedbacks, that make up the system in which we live. Professor David Denyer, Professor of Leadership and Organisational Change at Cranfield University, said: "COVID-19 was not a 'black swan'. Similar events were widely predicted and listed as the nation's biggest risk so why were we not better prepared both to prevent it and recover from it? "As we have seen with COVID-19, too often, investment in resilience measures are made during or after a crisis. If we are to build a more resilient nation, it is vital we embrace a new approach. You simply cannot continue to quantify risk on a basic X Y graph. "We need to consider not just the immediate responses to these threats but what long-term plans can be put in place to secure the resilience of our society and our natural system. "As a nation, we must focus on building adaptive capacity in organisations and infrastructure, and business and Government?must?proactively invest in?resilience to future crises where there isn't yet an immediate economic argument." Dr Simon Harwood, Director of Defence and Security at Cranfield University, said: "We need to think of national security in a wider context by looking at the interconnectedness of threats such as climate change and food security. Our preparedness needs to look across the whole of the resource spectrum at the nation's disposal. Too often the response to a crisis, is to call up the armed forces but what if they were deployed at scale in a future combat? A new approach is needed which identifies risks and resources across the board rather than in silos." Professor Jim Harris, Professor of Environmental Technology at Cranfield University, added: "It's vital that a new approach to enhancing UK resilience includes all 'Five Capitals' - Natural, Human, Social, Built and Financial that make up our way of life. You can have the strongest armed forces in the world or the fastest growing economy but if you have failed to prepare for the threat of climate change and its associated risks such as famine, drought, flooding, fires and war, then you are failing your citizens and your natural environment." ### A 94-year-old World War II veteran who died alone in a Florida nursing home amid the coronavirus pandemic received a send-off fit for a hero over the Memorial Day weekend. Former US Air Force Captain Roger Swanson passed away Colonial Lakes Health Care Facility in St. Cloud, Florida earlier this month. In the 55 days leading up to his death, family members said they were unable to visit Swanson, even as his health started to deteriorate, because his nursing home had been placed on lockdown because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The world lost a hero and the saddest thing is he had to die alone without a family member there, his daughter Nancy told FOX35. But when Warbird Adventures Chief Pilot Thom Richard heard of the veterans death, he arranged a very special flyover involving four T-6 Warbirds to salute Swanson in the sky. Scroll down for video Former US Air Force Captain Roger Swanson passed away Colonial Lakes Health Care Facility in St. Cloud, Florida earlier this month Born in 1925, Roger Swanson enrolled in the military after graduating from high school in Kansas City Roger visited us several times. He showed up here in his wheelchair, Richard recalled of Swansons visits to Warbird Adventures, a flight school and air museum. When we heard of his passing and the unfortunate circumstances, we thought it was very appropriate to honor him. Richard said he called around to other Warbird owners in Florida and put together a small formation of four, known as the Missing Man Formation, and flew over the skies of Kissimmee. Arranging a flyover can usually cost thousands of dollars, but Richard conducted the tribute free of charge for the Swanson family. In this case, we did it because we thought it was the right thing to do, Richard told FOX35. Swansons family said they were incredibly moved by the gesture. His niece, Karen Jury, said, It was an amazing thing for them to do, and we just appreciate it so much the whole family was really touched. Four T-6 Warbirds salute Swanson in the sky in a 'Missing Man Formation' Richard said he called around to other Warbird owners in Florida to put together the special tribute Swanson visited the Warbird Adventures museum multiple times. When Chief Pilot Thom Richard heard of the veterans death, he arranged a very special flyover involving four T-6 Warbirds to salute Swanson in the sky The world lost a hero and the saddest thing is he had to die alone without a family member there, his daughter Nancy said Born in 1925, Roger Swanson enrolled in the military after graduating from high school in Kansas City. In WWII, he was a hero, his grandson, Marshall Swanson, told WFTV. He was in England dropping bombs on the Germans. Then he was stationed in the Panama Canal zone. Following his service, Swanson worked as a news editor for the Kansas City Star, before moving to Central Florida to work with Walt Disney as assistant director of publicity for Walt Disney World. My grandfather was the most remarkable man Ive ever met in my life, Marshall said. The last time we saw him was 55 days before his death. Arranging a flyover can usually cost thousands of dollars, but Thom Richard (pictured during the flyover) conducted the tribute free of charge for the Swanson family After being hospitalized earlier this year, Swanson was sent to the Colonial Lakes Health Care nursing home just as COVID-19 began spreading across the US. Following his service, Swanson (back near left) worked as a news editor for the Kansas City Star, before moving to Central Florida to work with Walt Disney as assistant director of publicity for Walt Disney World. After being hospitalized earlier this year, Swanson was sent to the Colonial Lakes Health Care nursing home just as COVID-19 began spreading across the US. At the beginning of May, family members were informed his health was starting to fail. An administrator at the facility ultimately made the decision not to let the family in to see Swanson take his last breath, despite the fact he didn't have coronavirus. No one, veteran or not, should have to die alone, Marshall told the network, adding that his family have filed a complaint with the state hoping this kind of thing wont happen to anyone else. Swanson's family members have not yet returned a DailyMail.com request for comment. What happened Shares of Latam Airlines Group (NYSE: LTM) fell 34% on Tuesday after the Latin American airline filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York. The pandemic has created an extraordinarily tough operating environment for airlines, and it seems unlikely the current equity holders of Latam will get much, if anything, from the reorganization. So what Airlines around the globe have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Latin American airlines in particular have suffered due to bans on international travel. Latam earlier this month announced plans to cut more than 1,800 jobs, and the airline has reduced its total schedule by about 95%. The cuts were not enough. South America's largest carrier said it has received $900 million from existing shareholders and Qatar Airways to help fund its operations in bankruptcy, where it will attempt to rework its debt and emerge as a stronger company. Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) was one of Latam's largest shareholders prior to the bankruptcy, investing nearly $2 billion in the airline just last year. Delta is not involved in the rescue package, but still hopes to complete an alliance with the company to coordinate flights between the Americas. Now what Investors should know that stockholders are near the back of the line when it comes to Chapter 11 reorganizations. It is not unheard of for shareholders to recover some value in bankruptcy proceedings, though it is rare. And I'd be surprised if there is anything left for investors once this case is done. Latam shares, which began the year trading at more than $10 apiece, closed Tuesday at $1.68. Even at that price, the stock is no bargain. Stay away. Some personnel of the Ghana Navy in the Western Region have tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19). The Flag Officer Commanding of the Western Naval Base, Commodore E.A Kwafo who confirmed the cases however declined to state the number of officers who have been infected. I dont want to go to numbers because you may test positive today, in two weeks time you might test negative and the one who has tested negative today tomorrow might test positive. So I dont want to deal with numbers because its uncertain. Because of our work we go to different ships to inspect, we provide security for the nation at sea we have to ensure the borders are closed. We go to see to make sure that people on board other vessels dont harm the interest of the State and in so doing we expose ourselves. But that is our work and well continue to do it, Commodore E.A Kwafo told Joy FM According to him, the soldiers have been isolated and currently being treated. Disinfection of vessels, offices, and roads at the Naval Base is currently being undertaken by Zoomlion Ltd. A total of 125 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded pushing the countrys number of cases to 6,808 from 6,683, according to the latest update by Ghana Health Service. The number of recoveries has also moved up to 2,070 from 1,998. Meanwhile, the death toll remains 32. Count of Cases per Region Greater Accra Region 4,836 Ashanti Region 1,062 Central Region 306 Western Region 277 Eastern Region 106 Western North Region 62 Volta Region 47 Northern Region 36 Oti Region 26 Upper East Region 26 Upper West Region 21 North East Region 2 Savannah Region 1 Bono Region 1 Ahafo Region 0 Bono East Region 0 Source: kasapa fm Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video As states begin the task of re-opening, the blues world has a sense of optimism. Hopefully, gigs scheduled for August and September will happen, but until then, the virtual world brings in all styles of music from around the country. The Briggs Farm Blues Festival presents its next virtual concert at 8 p.m. Saturday with Vanessa Collier, a multi-talented musician who feels like family to Briggs fans. She always brings a pulsating, driving intensity that simply cant be replicated, along with a sincere love and appreciation for her fans. We cant get enough of her on The Farm. Join Collier for an intimate evening from her home in Pennsylvania, where she delivers a rare solo show, sharing her talents, singing and playing piano, guitar, and of course saxophone, for the Briggs Farm Family. Music Maker Relief Foundation joins with a number of other agencies to present a livestream version of their annual Freight Train Blues Music Series. Freight Train Blues celebrates the life and legacy of Piedmont blues legend Elizabeth Libba Cotten, born in 1893 in Carrboro, N.C. Cottens style was unique and highly regarded by many musicians. Some of her best known compositions, like Freight Train and Shake Sugaree, have been canonized into the repertoires of American popular culture. Blues Beat remembers her from a summer concert years ago in Bushnell Park, where she opened for Taj Mahal. More information at: FreightTrainBlues.com. In other Music Maker Relief Foundation news, Pat Mother Blues Cohen took the spotlight in a PBS NewsHour feature. The music maker artist sings the Coronavirus blues. A partner artist since 2005, she is no stranger to struggle and perseveres through her music. All of her gigs are canceled due to the pandemic, but that doesnt stop her from playing outside of her brothers nursing home window, which is on lock down due to an outbreak in the facility. A Bourbon Street mainstay, Cohen was forced out by Hurricane Katrina and moved back to her home in North Carolina. Music Maker has been with her every step of the way providing consistent support. Join Stax Records in their new Instagram Live series, Gospel Brunch Live Set with DJ Jared Jay B. Boyd, featuring music from The Gospel Truth Records catalog. Continuing on the third Sunday of every month @staxrecords on Instagram through August, the new series is part of Staxs tribute campaign to The Gospel Truth Records and leads up to the release of The Gospel Truth singles compilation in September (Gospel Heritage Month). The compilation will be available on vinyl, CD and digitally. Go to Stax Records website for details. Stax Records is one of the most popular soul labels of all time, and has become synonymous with its gritty, Southern rhythm & blues sounds. Originally known as Satellite Records, the Memphis imprint was founded in 1957 by Jim Stewart. Over the course of two decades, Stax released more than 800 singles and nearly 300 LPs, picking up eight GRAMMYS and an Academy Award along the way. For more info, visit CraftRecordings.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Spotify. Many artists are taking this time to record and/or release new works. One that came across my desk was Tom Guerra Sudden Signs of Grace, a well done CD with songs that had me thinking back to another time, closer to rock. But the quality is worth a listen. Guerra is deep into the guitar and its music. the feel comes through in his songs. I recommend the liner notes with stories that put the songs in perspective. Another coming CD is Canadas beacon of the blues scene Kenny Blues Boss Wayne is set to release a new CD, Go, Just Do It! It will be available in June via Stony Plain Records. Wayne says. Im not looking for a different path. I love that jump blues and boogie-woogie. Thats where my heart is at. Im just trying to keep that style alive, he adds. Thats classic stuff, and Im at that classic age so it all works out. Inducted into the Boogie Woogie Piano Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Wayne also lines his shelf with seven Maple Blues Awards, a JUNO Award, three Living Blues Magazine Keyboard Awards, and more. It is being reported that Ireland may allow socially distanced music festivals to take place as early as August. The countrys five-phase reopening plan specifically addresses festivals. Irelands Roadmap For Reopening Society & Business may be the first government coronavirus recovery plan to specifically address music festivals. Phase Five goes beyond many recent measures allowing seated open-air events. The final phase in Irelands Roadmap could begin as soon as August 10th and allows for festivals, events and other social mass gatherings where social distancing can be complied with. This could mean Irelands Electric Picnic Festival, a large-scale outdoor event might potentially happen in early September. As schedules and times change, it is good practice to call the club and confirm. Any questions or comments should be sent to Domenic Forcella at TWBlus@aol.com. Priti Patel has launched a major push for controversial new powers designed to tackle the Channel migrant crisis, the Daily Mail can reveal. The Home Secretary has told Border Force chiefs to examine whether they have the legal authority to turn migrant boats around in the Channel and send them back to France. If this proves impossible under current law, she is said to be drawing up plans for specific new legislation allowing UK patrol boats to turn back the vessels. A major tightening of asylum law is also on the drawing board, which will force claimants to lodge all their arguments at the beginning of a case. The Home Secretary Priti Patel (pictured) has told Border Force chiefs to examine whether they have the legal authority to turn migrant boats around in the Channel and send them back to France This would stop them making a series of claims in the courts under different parts of human rights laws to delay their deportation. Both measures are likely to be highly contentious. The UK Border Force is already looking at what powers it has to turn people around in the Channel without any legislative changes, a source said. At present, the border patrol cutters are only allowed to intervene when they see a migrant vessel in danger. If new laws are required to turn back vessels at sea, the way it will work will inevitably be tied into the UKs final Brexit negotiations with the European Union. On the planned asylum reforms, a source added: The Government wants to get into the position where asylum claimants cannot continually change their story and keep appealing. This is very detrimental for genuine asylum seekers who need the help of this country. A major tightening of asylum law is also on the drawing board, which will force claimants to lodge all their arguments at the beginning of a case. Pictured: A border force vessel approaches a small boat carrying 25 migrants in the English Channel The current legislation does not work. Its not fit for purpose. Ministers are understood to believe they will win public support for plans which require all reasons for an asylum claim to be made at the beginning of a case. The maritime measures being pursued by the Home Office are thought to be conditional on securing the support of the French. Mrs Patel has already raised the issue with her Paris counterpart Christophe Castaner. The Home Office is also understood to be looking at simplifying and streamlining the schemes which govern how asylum seekers are housed across the country. Currently, some of the schemes involve local authorities volunteering to accept asylum seekers such as the project for unaccompanied children who have claimed refugee status. Kent County Council leader Roger Gough has called for that scheme to be made compulsory after the number of lone children being cared for by his organisation soared. French Naval boat seen escorting migrants into British waters unchallenged as figures show 1,600 migrants have crossed the English Channel so far this year This is the moment a French naval boat escorted migrants into British waters unchallenged. The Mail witnessed the dawn operation yesterday from a fishing boat 12 miles from Dover on the French-British sea border. Once the French vessel escorted the 13 migrants to British waters just before 6.30am, Border Force and RNLI boats picked them up and took them to Dover for processing. Nine men, three woman and a minor were crammed onto the rigid inflatable boat, which came close to sinking. A border force vessel approaches a small boat carrying 25 migrants in the English Channel as it is handed over by the French authorities to the English Border Force Once in British waters, one man posed for a selfie with the white cliffs of Dover in the background. Several were carrying phones, as migrants often dial 999 once in UK waters. The boat was powered by a 25hp Yamaha motor. Insiders said boats being offered by smugglers were becoming more powerful and less ramshackle, although they vary based on the fees of between 1,000 euros (890) and 3,000 euros (2,670) per person. About 65 migrants arrived on six vessels by 10am yesterday after mainly setting off from Gravelines, 16 miles east of Calais. One boat was carrying up to 29 people, while one man even arrived by kayak. The people smugglers are thought to be exploiting that fact that French boats are mainly patrolling between Boulogne and Calais, opening up the route from Gravelines. With fewer ships crossing due to the slowdown caused by Covid-19, the route is also less tricky to navigate. It comes amid a surge in crossings, with more than 1,600 migrants reaching the UK already this year. Only about 6 per cent have been returned to France. Last year, 1,890 made it across. New Delhi: Union tourism minister Prahlad Singh Patel spoke to Amrita Madhukalya about the impact of Covid-19 on the tourism industry, protocols to revive the sector after the lockdown, and the focus on domestic rather than international tourism to get the sector up and running again. Edited excerpts: Tourism industry experts have estimated that losses to the sector have mounted to $5 trillion and 38 million jobs might be lost. How can the tourism ministry help address this crisis? Demand has collapsed the world over, and hotels and airline owners are not able to produce revenue. On the demand side, many customers will not travel in the near future because of health as well as economic reasons. Travel agents and tour operators -- the distribution and value-added reseller industry -- will revive only when customers are no longer afraid of the pandemic and have sufficient money to travel, provided hotel-owners have managed to keep their assets in a good shape. Our objective, therefore, is to revive demand as soon as possible. One way we can do this is to help overcome the fear of health while travelling. The ministry will soon be releasing new post-lockdown protocols for accommodation units to give confidence to clients to travel and stay safely. We are also coming out with a set of recommendations for different segments -- travel agents, tour operators, transport operators, and facilitators/guides. International travel may take a few months to kick-start and the Prime Minister has spoken about the need to rely on domestic travel. How will the government rework domestic travel and tourism norms? The revival of the tourism sector post Covid-19 will depend on domestic tourism to a very large extent since international tourism is expected to take longer to pick up. Promotion of domestic tourism will be given greater focus through our Dekho Apna Desh campaigns. In domestic tourism, the thrust should be given to co-create holidays with farmers and rural India. This way, new wealth will be created and distributed. So the typical packages will woo a traveller to spend a weekend in a village, stay in a one-acre farmland, in a mud house, pluck mangoes, and buy fresh vegetables. In short, spend the weekend amid nature and return home on Sunday night. We have constituted a National Tourism Task Force for the revival of the hospitality and tourism industry headed by me. This includes state tourism ministers, joint secretary-level officers of concerned central ministries, and representatives from associations such as Ficci, CII, Assocham, WTCII as well as heads of tourism and hospitality associations. This Committee will make recommendations for the revival of the tourism sector. If hotels and homestays open, what protocols will be put in place? In future, tourism will totally change. Safety, hygiene, and security will be the top concerns. Clients will travel to a destination only if they have proof that the place they are visiting , eating and staying is absolutely virus-free. protocols for accommodation units, restaurants, B&B and homestays, convention centres and exhibitions have been formulated and are in the consultation stage. These will be released soon. The new protocol aims to minimise all possible touch points between a staff and guest while at the hotel. Will there be any change in the different schemes of the ministry now, because most of the efforts are invested in wooing the international traveller, to revive the sector? I have requested my officials to work out reforms in the existing schemes like Market Development Assistance to extend it to promote domestic tourism, and to work our schemes to jointly support the marketing efforts of tour operators and the hospitality industry. There are many other factors that contribute to the tourism sectors income. The overall stimulus given to the economy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a special economic and comprehensive package will have a positive impact on the tourism industry by creating demand and business as incomes will flow into the hand of people. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as many U.S. states have begun lifting the restrictions of businesses and public spaces, a survey showed improvement in German business confidence and China sought to reassure Hong Kong that its judiciary would remain independent under a new national security law. China's Shanghai Composite index rose about 1 percent to 2,846.55. China warned on Monday that it will take counter-measures if the United States insists on undermining its interests regarding Hong Kong. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.88 percent to 23,384.66. National security legislation for Hong Kong will not change the 'one country, two systems' policy, Commissioner of the Chinese foreign ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Xie Feng emphasized on Monday. Investors also reacted to data showing that Hong Kong's merchandise exports decreased at a slower pace in April. Exports fell 3.7 percent year-on-year following a 5.8 percent slump in March as the demand from China recovered slightly. Japanese shares hit a near three-month high on hopes of economic revival after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted the state of emergency in the country and said he would work to increase the government's stimulus packages to more than 200 trillion yen ($1.9 trillion), or a whopping 40 percent of the country's GDP. The Nikkei average jumped 529.52 points, or 2.55 percent, to 21,271.17, the highest close since March 5. The broader Topix index closed 2.17 percent higher at 1,534.73, with air transportation, marine transportation and transportation equipment companies leading the surge. Japan Airlines surged 8.2 percent, ANA Holdings advanced 5.7 percent, West Japan Railway Co jumped 8.3 percent and Central Japan Railway Co added 5.2 percent. Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings gained 5.1 percent after the department store operator said it would reopen its main stores in the Tokyo area, including its Isetan flagship in Shinjuku. Australian markets soared as businesses and activities gradually returned to normal. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said today it is up to individual firms to weigh up political risks of doing business in China rather than look to the government for guidance. The benchmark S&P ASX 200 index climbed 164.40 points, or 2.93 percent, to 5,780, while the broader All Ordinaries index ended up 160 points, or 2.79 percent, at 5,889.90. Energy stocks led the surge on the back of firmer oil prices. Woodside Petroleum, Santos and Oil Search rallied 3-4 percent. The big four banks soared 4-6 percent. Seoul stocks climbed amid expectations the country's central bank will likely cut its policy rate to a record low on Thursday. There were also hopes on economic recovery as the country prepares for a third supplementary budget, most of which would be funded by treasury bonds. The benchmark Kospi rallied 35.18 points, or 1.76 percent, to 2,029.78. South Korea's consumer confidence improved in May after falling in the previous month, survey results from Bank of Korea showed today. The consumer confidence index rose to 77.6 in May from 70.8 in April. In March, the index reading was 78.4. New Zealand shares rallied, with the benchmark NZX 50 index ending up 138.94 points, or 1.29 percent, at 10,914.74. Air New Zealand shares soared 5.2 percent after the carrier said it has not yet drawn down on the $900 million government loan. Singapore's Straits Times index was up 1.4 percent despite the government cutting its 2020 economic growth forecast for the third time. The Ministry of Trade and Industry forecast the city-state economy to shrink '-7.0 to -4.0 percent' this year instead of '-4.0 to -1.0 percent projected in March. Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat is expected to announce details of a fourth stimulus package. The Taiwan Weighted was up 1.2 percent. Taiwan's industrial output climbed 3.51 percent year-on-year in April, slower than the 11.18 percent expansion seen in March, official data revealed. Nonetheless, this was the third consecutive increase in production. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de NASA has released an image of a stunning spiral galaxy called NGC 3895. It is located 161 million light-years away from Earth.The image was released on the Hubble Telescope's Twitter page. The cold dark reaches of outer space have finally yielded some light and colour in the form of NGC 3895, a barred spiral galaxy. In a breath-taking image that was captured by NASA, the galaxy can be seen clearly as a whirling mass of planets and stars. The spiral galaxy was first observed in 1790 by William Herschel. The British astronomer made the discovery back in the day and over the years it has been photographed many times, but it hasnt been this aesthetically good looking before. The image has been shared on the Hubble Telescope Twitter page as well. Our latest Picture of the Week features NGC 3895, a swirling galaxy that would not look out of place on a coffee made by a starry-eyed barista. Credit: @ESA / @Hubble_Space / @NASA , R. Barrows https://t.co/o0s3iXYrbR pic.twitter.com/1N5rkXTOzO HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) May 25, 2020 The galaxy is also known as LEDA 36907, UGC 6785 and KPG 303b and is about 161 million light-years away from us. The spiral galaxy is also 45,000 light-years in diameter. That is an incredible distance. Thats a long way to go for current human space technology but maybe in the future, we will have the technology to actually travel through the vast emptiness of space. NASA has talked about the dangers of long term space travel and you can read more about that here. Part of the success of these photographs and images is also the Hubble telescope. Positioned above Earth at a distance of 570 km, the Telescope revolves around Earth at 28,000 km per hour. Being so far away, the telescope manages to capture amazing images for us on Earth to wonder at. You can check out more of their cool images on the official Twitter page. 1/6 Here it is! The anniversary image of #Hubble30 features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020, part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Credit: @NASA / @ESA and @stsci https://t.co/iO1vnUPyls pic.twitter.com/pxsP5jdX4c HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) April 24, 2020 Speaking of NASA, the agency has actually partnered with actor, Tom Cruise for a film shot in out space! You can read more about the story here. And, talking about planets and galaxies far, far away, a 17-year-old intern at NASA actually discovered a new planet located 1300 light-years away. You can read more about that story here. Governor Rotimi Akeredolu's wife, Betty was enmeshed in a heated social media exchange with a critic who accused her and her husba... Governor Rotimi Akeredolu's wife, Betty was enmeshed in a heated social media exchange with a critic who accused her and her husband of violating the ban on interstate travel due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Jimmy Adekanle Jaf in his Facebook post titled Show of rascality of the Arakunrin and Arabirin in my Sunshine State, alleged that the First Lady travelled from Imo State to Ondo state while her husband went to Abuja to lobby for second term with our money stocked in the boot of his vehicles in his convoy. He stated that such act shows that the "law in Nigeria are for two different people, one for the masses and the other for the so called leaders that are supposedly be a example of the custodian of the law." The Facebook user wrote; SHOW OF RASCALITY OF THE 'ARAKUNRIN' AND 'ARABIRIN' IN MY SUNSHINE STATE. Dominic Cummings Adviser to PM Britain was sanctioned for traveling outside London. Here in my Ondo state my people rolled out drums welcoming their Arabirin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu that travels hundreds of kilometers from Emeibiam in Imo state while the husband Arakunrin Akeredolu left for Abuja same day to lobby for his second term with our money stocked in the boot of his vehicles in his convoy, it has shown that Akeredolu can't entrust the key of the state to anyone except her Vice Governor Madam Betty, where the Deputy Governor and secretary of state are nothing but chair wormers in Alagbaka and Babajide is the Senior chief of staff and their inlaw from Ogun state is the chief frontier of our common wealth in our sunshine state. Instead of their Arabirin to be quarantined before being sanctioned for breaking the law of the land she chose to engaged herself in exercise where the social distance was thrown into the trashcan and her gulible e-rats hailing and supporting her show of shame. Even Her Majesty the Queen of England that her powers is above the Law of England never flouted the Law. The law in Nigeria are for two different people, one for the masses and the other for the so called leaders that are supposedly be a example of the custodian of the law. I can bet you if Boris Johnson decides to leave London for Manchester because he wants to go lobby some people to stay in power am sure he won't be halfway when the House will converge to remove him like removing jigar... Police that are making the poor masses to frog jump for them leaving Oke Aro to Oja Oba to look for food same Police will hail and praise Madam Betty convoy from Emeibiam to Akure. Our main problem is our Nigerian masses with all suffering they will still be smiling over stipends joining the Marchants of venice in Alagbaka displaying the leprosy hands of 4 +4 that will lead them to another hunger and looting of our common wealth by the Akeredolu's and their inlaws. However after the Ondo First Lady replied with a comment which read Barka da sallah, ranting Canada-based Human Eresi (Rice) Activist 4+4 is a GOAL, Jaf fired back by saying that she has ''thrown her exalted office to the dogs.'' He wrote; "Madam is a pity you have thrown the once exalted office of the first lady of Ondo state to the dogs.....is a shame. Yes is more dignifying washing corpse than dinning with criminals looting my state weath. Betty thereafter went all out against the Canada-based critic who she accused of being a mortuary attendant and a sex offender who fled the state. She also affirmed that her office is looking such people. She wrote; Shut the hell up. You are still talking. Canada Iresivist. This has entered in Ondo social media lexicon. I even heard that you are a sex offender and you ran away to Canada. Shame on you! Come back. Police is waiting for you. And my office is after scumbags like you. You are in real trouble. Arabinrin has no mercy for rapists like you. Jail term awaits you. FAKE HUMAN IRESIVIST. Ehnn, That rice ( or political appointment) from ondo state you are eyeing, you no go smell it not to talk of eating it. Who born monkey? Trouble dey sleep, iyanga go wakem. Wetin you dey find, na palaver you dey find! You go know say Obinrin dey wey pass Okunrin. You don enter one chance, mortuary attendant. NTOOR! By the time Im done with you, you are nothing but a piece of cracker SHIT. Pele! You had a field day all this while peddling unimaginable falsehood laced with bad English and your fellow e-rats were cheering you on. Where did you study? Did you go to University. I mean first generation Universities where English 101 is taught to groom their products to speak and write proper English grammar? Now its my turn. E don happen. You damn MORTUARY ATTENDANT PLUS INCLUDING RAPIST (like Zebrudaya would say) ! OYA. O TI SELE!!! No body has a monopoly of viciousness. I can too if I choose to. ZURICH, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when market momentum can shift unexpectedly, real-time investment signals from social media, news and blogs termed alternative data is necessary to make informed investment decisions. Sentifi has launched new alternative data based investment analytics from social media, news and blogs to offer institutional investors real-time views of when market momentum is moving in an unexpected direction. Sentifi's new analytics include detection of sector, industry outliers, ESG events with potential asset valuation impact, investment themes trending real-time whilst offering investors the ability to detect outliers within their own portfolio. Investors can assess portfolio sentiment performance to a custom benchmark and quickly identify market events along with impacted sectors, industries and assets. Sentifi's award-winning analytics have been independently verified with rigorous backtests. Sentifi's mature AI platform purposely built processes 1 million+ structured data points and 130 million+ unstructured data points on a daily basis to distill investment signals from over 15 million+ credible market influencers. This makes sentiment shifts from Sentifi's analytics unique, signals institutional investors should not miss. "Sentifi's AI platform has been built to solve the complex problem of detecting investment signals from large volumes of unstructured data in the form of social media, news and blogs,'' said Marina Goche, Sentifi's CEO. "Institutional Investors are struggling to make sense of available data, real-time, to assess when asset valuations are changing. Sentifi's unique alternative data based analytics completes the 360-degree view necessary for institutional investors to make informed investment decisions". About Sentifi Sentifi is an award-winning fintech company and alternative data provider. It transforms traditional and alternative raw data into investment analytics, supporting institutional investors across multiple stages of their decision-making process. Their solutions are used by the world's leading financial services organizations to gain unique insights on over 50 thousand traded companies, currencies and commodities and the events that impact them. Sentifi uses machine learning to rank and listen to over 15 million qualified and ranked financial influencers and connect them with events impacting global assets. For more information about Sentifi, please visit www.sentifi.com SOURCE Sentifi Group AG Related Links http://www.sentifi.com Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has written to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, opposing the holding of final year university tests as they could put the lives of students and their families in danger. His letter was sent against the background of a face-off between the Maharashtra government and the governor over holding the final year examinations. The state government wants to cancel the tests because of the Covid-19 crisis, but Koshiyari said such a move will violate the University Grants Commissions (UGC) guidelines. The governor has asked chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to intervene in the matter. Raj Thackeray, in his letter, suggested that Koshiyari should not allow anyone to politicise the issue and the focus should be on the interests of the students. He said that since Koshiyari is the chancellor of universities, he was well aware of the confusion regarding the final year examinations. Since there is no solution in sight and due to this, thousands of students are suffering, I want to bring to notice the plight of the students, said Raj Thackeray. Noting that the situation is turbulent, especially in Mumbai and Pune, he wrote: Then why is there then an unreasonable demand to hold the final year university exams? Why and for whom? He also pointed out that Covid-19 is highly infectious, and said, Keeping this aspect in mind, is it reasonable to ask so many students to step out and sit for the exams? Are they not putting their and their families lives at risk? Raj Thackeray, however, said he was not suggesting that all students should be passed without the tests, but that some other solution should be worked out with the help of experts, such as basing results on semester examinations or internal tests, or giving the students some projects. The drama started on Friday, when Koshyari strongly objected to the state governments recommendation to the UGC to cancel the final year examinations. Koshiyari wrote to the chief minister and said this would amount to a violation of UGC guidelines. Students receiving degrees without undertaking examinations would have adverse impact on their higher studies, gradation and employability, he wrote in his letter. State higher and technical education minister Uday Samant, who first made the demand, questioned Koshiyaris stance, which he said came after the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) a student body linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supported the holding of examinations. In Goa, the ABVP demanded cancellation of examinations and in Maharashtra, they want examinations to be held. What kind of politics is this? said Sawant, who is Shiv Sena legislator. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON All eyes on Africa during Council of Exporters and Investors under Foreign Ministry of Ukraine Kuleba Africa will be in the limelight of the renewed Council of Exporters and Investors under the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ukraine, said Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba adding that development of cooperation with the African states was one of the priorities of the foreign policy of Ukraine. "Only few days ago, we launched the Council of Exporters and Investors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It now unites 120 leading Ukrainian export-oriented companies. The purpose of this agency is to simplify trade and investment between nations, and Africa will be in the limelight of this Council," he said in a video address on the occasion of Africa Day posted on ministry's Twitter on Monday. Kuleba said that Ukrainian companies were already exporting grain, drinks, meat, equipment and machinery to the African countries. "The IT sector is one of the most promising in our relations," the minister added. He emphasized that one of the priorities of Ukraine's foreign policy was the development of cooperation with the African states. "Good relations between us symbolize the great prospects of our cooperation and will lead our nations to prosperity and a better life," he explained. According to Kuleba, now 20,000 students from Africa are studying in Ukraine, and Ukraine will be glad to see more of them. "I'm glad that more and more Africans are choosing Ukraine for higher education. Currently, 20,000 students from the African countries are studying in our country, and we welcome more," said the foreign minister. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Reuters) Hong Kong Tue, May 26, 2020 13:20 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda217d2 2 People tycoon,Macau,Stanley-Ho,gambling-king,obituary Free Macau gambling king Stanley Ho, who built a business empire from scratch in the former Portuguese colony and became one of Asia's richest men, died on Tuesday at the age of 98, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported. The flamboyant tycoon, who loved to dance but advised his nearest and dearest to shun gambling, headed one of the world's most lucrative gaming businesses through his flagship firm, SJM Holdings Ltd, valued at about $6 billion. Shares of the companies in the family empire surged after the news. SJM rose as much as 8.5 percent, passenger transport firm Shun Tak Holdings Ltd jumped 17.6 percent and casino operator Melco climbed 4.9 percent, outpacing a 2 percent gain for the benchmark index . Born in Hong Kong, Ho had four wives and 17 known children, and was forced to restructure his business after a legal battle erupted within the family in 2012 over his fortune. Read also: Macau casinos to reopen after virus ban lifted Analysts do not expect his death to have a big impact on day-to-day operations. His privately held company, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, or STDM, has stakes in everything from luxury hotels to helicopters and horse racing. Ho spearheaded what is known in Macau as the junket VIP system, whereby middlemen act on behalf of casinos by extending credit to gamblers and taking responsibility for collecting debts. Some of Ho's children have become successful gaming operators in their own right. Daughter Pansy is the co-chairperson of MGM Resorts' Macau unit while son Lawrence runs Melco Resorts & Entertainment. Police in Zimbabwe have charged three MDC Alliance activists Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Nestai Marova for attending a gathering in contravention of some of the countrys criminal laws, including violating regulations compelling citizens to stay at home under the current coronavirus COVID-19 lockdown. In a tweet, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which is representing Harare West lawmaker Mamombe, Chimbiri and Marova who were abducted, tortured and sexually abused by suspected state security agents two weeks ago, said the three are facing charges of violating Section 37 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act. The tweet read in part, On 26 May, @PoliceZimbabwe have charged @JoanaMamombe, @ceechimbiri2 & @MarovaNetsai of @MDCAllianceZW with Sec 37 of Criminal Code gathering with intent to promote public violence, breach of peace and Sec 5(3) & (1) of #COVID19 Regs (Regulations) SI99 of 20 on gatherings. Allegations are that the incident took place on 13 May in Warren Park. The charges come at a time when @JoanaMamombe, @ceechimbiri2 @marova are receiving treatment following their abduction, disappearance & torture on 13 May. No arrests have been made to date on the enforced disappearance, torture, cruel, inhuman & degrading treatment. The three were seized by unknown assailants while they were staging a protest in Warren Park, demanding that the government should help starving families during the current lockdown. Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not available for comment as he was not responding to calls on his mobile phone. Reacting to the charges faced by its members, the MDC Alliance said it strongly condemns the callous and insensitive actions of the police in charging our Youth Assembly leaders Honourable Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova with contravention of Section 37 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act as well as Section 5(3) and (1)of Statutory Instrument 99 /20 the Covid 19 Regulations. The MDC Alliance said the arrest of the three was ill-timed. The three Youth Assembly leaders were recently abducted and brutally tortured and have not recovered from their ordeal and it is our considered view that it is the height of Insanity to even contemplate let alone actually preferring charges against them at this stage. The whole drama would be comical if it was not so tragic and it is only despotic countries such as Zimbabwe where victims such as Hon. Mamombe, Chimbiri and Marova, are not only denied justice but are in fact further traumatised by inopportune persecutions in the guise of the law said to be taking its course. The MDC Alliance said Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi was supposed to address the violation of the womens rights and not persecute the three activists. As the MDC Alliance, we again exhort the illegitimate regime for once to do the right thing and own up to its national and international obligations and uphold the Rule of Law and bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to book .It is disingenuous to suggest that the State had no hand in the abduction when Hon. Mamombe's car is still parked at the Police Station while the Police Spokesperson confirmed to both the State Media And the Private Media that the trio had indeed been arrested. Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo says the government is investigating the disappearance and alleged torture of the women. He noted that the alleged abductions were similar to previous incidents in which some MDC activists disappeared and resurfaced later claiming that they were victims of state abductions. However, Moyo said the government wants the police to carry out full investigations before making any concrete conclusions over the alleged abductions. Meghan Markle reportedly suspected that there was a "conspiracy" against her at the palace. She was convinced that courtiers were plotting against her when she joined The Firm. In March, the Sussexes officially renounced their royal duties as senior members of the British royal family. The former royal couple's circle knew their longing desire to return to Markle's hometown. Canada was "never the forever home," a friend remarked. "The big plan, for Meghan at least, was always LA." The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with son Archie, relocated to actor Tyler Perry's house worth $18 million. The source said the duchess, in her duration at The Firm, perceived that she was much like a stranger. Markle believed that a plot was cooked up against her by royals upon moving into Kensington Palace, so when they relocated to Frogmore, she went into solitary isolation. Due to her American style of managing affairs, alarm grew in the Duchess of Sussex that the palace's courtiers were out to bastardize her reputation. The palace life was not the life she was accustomed to and she wanted out, the insider added. In 2017, the former "Suits" actress joined the palace in 2017 since the declaration of her engagement to Prince Harry. The public was amazed because she was already in attendance with Prince Harry in numerous engagements before marriage. She married into the royal family on May 19, 2018, becoming an official member of the royal family. The former Hollywood star relocated to London while dating Prince Harry and stayed in the cottage of Kensington Palace cottage a few doors away from Prince William and Kate Middleton. Also Read: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Earnings Not Enough? Prince William, Kate Middleton May Give Financial Help Frogmore Cottage had an expensive renovation and was presented as a wedding present from the Queen. Another insider divulged how Markle had a difficult time after giving birth to Archie. She felt lonely in Windsor and unfulfilled with royal work. Prince Harry and Markle's stepping down from royal responsibilities was said to be understandable due to the heavily negative media attention Markle was exposed to in Britain. According to the insider, Markle found it difficult to not earn her own income and that she felt unfulfilled because she was used to working for her dues. One big factor of them wanting out was attaining financial freedom. Friends were concerned about the duchess burning out as she took on 2 major work projects. She guest-edited Vogue's September issue of Vogue and established the Smart Works collection. After their plans of renouncement, the couple initially moved to Canada, before they flew to reside in LA as countries closed borders due to the COVID-19 outbreak. An insider told "Vanity Fair" that Prince Harry and Markle were looking for a new California house after tying the knot. Markle always desired to spend a remarkable time in her home country. They made it official in March when they flew from Vancouver Island in an undisclosed operation on a private jet of actor Tyler Perry. Related Article: Meghan Markle Allegedly a Flirt as She 'Toyed' With Men's Feelings @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 4:00PM by Jason Adams Every time I see Quentin Tarantino's bifurcated 2007 flick Death Proof I want to write about Death Proof, and every time I write about Death Proof I tell myself I'm going to write about something besides Rosario Dawson's performance in Death Proof... and every time I spectacularly fail at this mission. This "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" post you're now reading is further proof, dead proof, of just that. It's just there is that moment, that single moment seen above, where Tarantino's camera zooms in on Dawson's face as her worry melts into absolute exaltation, and it is by my humble estimate one of the greatest, most electric close-ups in cinematic history. Just that! But we are, like so much of this movie, zooming right on ahead of ourselves. Just what is it about that moment that makes all the hairs on my arms stand on end? Why, after dozens of screenings in the past thirteen years do I still spend the second half of Death Proof bubbling over with an almost animalistic glee, a frenzy, my own one-time worry melting into its own sort of triumphant passenger-seat exaltation? At the exact midpoint of the movie, right after the first group of unlucky ladies have had their not-so meet-cute with Stuntman Mike's front bumper, we cut to the local hospital where a a sheriff-type and his deputy-son (nevermind that these are carry-over characters from Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez' conjoined Grindhouse feature) are assessing the accident's gruesome aftermath. Sheriff Earl (Michael Parks) speculates -- which is to say he spells out Tarantino's raison detre for the yokels in the back row -- that Stuntman Mike is a serial killer who "used a car not a hatchet" to murder "them pretty little gals," probably as "a sex thing." Basically what Earl tells us is, hey, in case you didn't notice you're watching a Slasher Movie. And everybody knows, whether they've read Carol J. Clover or not, that if you've got a Slasher Movie then you've got a Final Girl -- the Killer and the Survivor, two exact and opposite forces smashing into each other like two tricked-out cars on a deserted highway at night. That's the pseudo-religious spectacle we've come here to witness. Of course just because Tarantino spells it out for us doesn't mean he's playing it so simple, and Death Proof on every front, but especially on its Final Girl one, gets its rocks off by subverting every trope. Why give us one Final Girl when he can give us a kick-ass Final Girl Gang full of 'em? The reason why I side-eye myself for always wanting to write exclusively about Rosario Dawson's transcendentally appealing work is she doesn't do it on her own, and I'm not even just talking about her cohorts in the film's generally-better-loved second half, the Tracie Thoms and Zoe Bells and Mary Elizabeth Winsteads of it all. I do this film a disservice under-appreciating all of the terrific actressing done in its unwieldier front load -- that darker half, which follows the trials and tribulations and long long conversations between DJ Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) and her pals, most prominently Vanessa Ferlito as Arlene and Jordan Ladd as Shanna, with some distressing support from Rose McGowan, is the underbelly that makes the film's second half all the more exhilarating. Tarantino has still by my measure not gotten enough credit for the way he upsets and explodes long routine horror structures with this flick. Imagine Drew Barrymore's opening scene in Scream kaleidoscoped and stretched out to forty-five minutes. It's probably about as long as Marion Crane takes to make it to that shower in Psycho? It's all so beautifully mangled and twisted-up that indeed, Tarantino felt that need to have Sheriff Earl come out at film's midpoint and make sure we knew what was happening -- speaking of Hitchcock's masterpiece it feels like a nod towards that film's deus-ex-psychiatrist ending, with all of Norman Bates' eccentricities explained away, tucked under that little prison blanket. Here is what is happening and why, The End! We spend a good forty-five minutes just chilling with Death Proof's first group of girls, riffing on all the shit Tarantino loves to riff on, until suddenly a tire-tread peels one of their pretty little faces off. Arlene is set up through that entire first half of the movie to be our Final Girl, for those on the look-out for such things -- Arlene is the one who sees Stuntman Mike, over and over again, and in the grand tradition of all the Laurie Strodes they are the ones Who See And Survive. Until, you know, not. Tarantino is hardly the first person to play with the Final Girl tropes in this way -- Hitchcock did it before there even were the tropes. But there is something ever so slightly poppy and bright and revolutionary in the way that Death Proof's giddy second half picks up the chess pieces that its first sad half scattered, drops them right back down on the board, and screams "Checkmate, motherfucker!" It's there in Rosario Dawson's face as her character of Abernathy discovers the thrill of playing "Ship's Mast" with her daredevil friends Kim and Zoe -- an ebuillance that screams not just survival, but something way bigger than that. There is Life is in that long scene where these women talk about holding hands and trading hand-jobs with their on-set romances, and Life is there in Kim's speech about her weapon of choice giving her the right to do her laundry whenever the hell she wants to do her laundry. Oh and it's very much in the delightful scene at the convenience store where the women gather their dollars together to snatch up the only copy of Italian Vogue in all of Lebanon, Tennessee. These scenes live, they breathe. And these women do too. And Life, bigger than ever, is there as the gals freeze-frame in mid-air after kicking Stuntman Mike's ass straight down to Heck. Everything dark and sad about Death Proof's first half -- leering overripe frat boys played by Eli Roth, un-returned texts and lap-dances doled out to villains, finds its equal and opposite force alongside Abernathy and her crew of smiling kick-assers. Death Proof drips the Slasher Killer and Final Girl forms straight down into its very DNA, an intertwined double-strand of storytelling itself. So if like me you find yourself head-over in love with Abernathy and that second half I'd wager that speaks well to your sense of humanity -- she's built to last, and last well. Checkmate, motherfucker. Syracuse, N.Y. When the economy shut down two months ago, it quietly took with it 47 of the 102 licensed child-care centers in Onondaga and Cayuga counties. So far, all of those providers indicate their doors are only shut temporarily. But those that are tentatively reopening are finding a vastly different landscape. They are offering fewer spots so they can keep kids spaced out, but worry that even those spots will go unfilled as parents continue to keep their children home or with relatives. Most of the programs that are considering reopening are still fearful that they are not going to have the enrollment to be able to pay their staff, said Lori Schakow, executive director of Child Care Solutions, an advocacy and training organization that serves providers in Onondaga and Cayuga counties. The margins in child-care have always been thin, but theres been little question that the children would come. That changed with the coronavirus shutdown. At the start, the state and the counties scrambled to make sure they had spots for essential workers children. But parents didnt need the slots, even with the offer of free care. As parents worked from home or lost their jobs, the children stayed home, too. Schakow said smaller, in-home providers have fared better in Central New York. Just 10% of those have shut down. And theres good news: Just one of the closings among family providers and child-care centers is permanent so far. It was a long-time provider who decided to retire. The rest say they plan to re-open, Schakow said. Little Lukes reopened four of its child-care centers last week after being closed for two months. (One of the companys centers, in Oswego, had remained open to serve essential workers through an agreement with that city.) For now, the company plans to serve 139 kids, less than half of its maximum capacity. Thats so they can keep the kids socially distanced, said Abby Weaver, director of operations for the Little Lukes. But theyre also not sure how many families will decide to return their children to care. The smaller numbers cut into the tough economics in child care, Weaver said. For now, Little Lukes is considering the expense a temporary cost of doing business. Theres financial implications of being cautious, but there also are in being reckless, she said. There will be fewer kids and more stringent cleaning protocols: No Play-Doh or soft toys because they harbor germs. Weaver said the company brought back its staff of 168 from furlough with the help of a federal Payroll Protection Program loan. But the future is still uncertain. Most child-care operations, especially those that have stayed open for essential workers, are already staring down steep losses, said Natalie Scavone, executive director of BASCOL, which provides school-aged care. BASCOL, which mostly provides after-school care, stayed open in two locations to provide all-day care for those who needed it. We lost an incredible amount of money staying open, Scavone said. She furloughed about 50 employees in March; 20 kept working to staff the two sites that remained open. BASCOL mainly provides before- and after-school care onsite throughout the county. Theres been a small uptick in kids at the two open spots, Scavone said, so she was able to bring back three staffers. They are taking registration for the summer program, which is for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. They are planning to take fewer children at both sites for that program, too, because rooms where they would have put 20 kids, they will now have only 16. But theyll still need two teachers. That means one thing: More costly, Scavone said. BASCOL also was able to get some funding through the Payroll Protection Program, Scavone said. But its hard to know what the way forward will look like. Maybe the demand for her summer program will exceed the number of spots because of the uncertainty surrounding summer camps. Or maybe lots of families will continue to get by keeping the kids at home. Scavone said everyone is now worried about the newly discovered inflammatory condition associated with coronavirus infections in children. Before, the main worry with children was not that they would get sick, but that they would be asymptomatic carriers to at-risk family members. But the inflammatory condition that targets children has proved deadly in some cases. Providers are also worried about the families they serve. If providers are forced out of business in these thin months, struggling families will have no one to care for their kids as the economy gets back up to speed. Im afraid some of the daycares wont be able to weather the storm of corona, said Weaver, of Little Lukes. It will be harder and harder for families with babies to go back to work. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources NY must own nursing home mistakes, learn from them (Editorial) Amid the din of the pandemic, retiring CNY teachers end their careers in a whisper Dozens of coronavirus patients well enough to leave Syracuse hospitals stuck in limbo Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Marnie Eisenstadt is a reporter who writes about people and public affairs in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter| Facebook | 315-470-2246 In spite of widespread destruction wrought by government bombardment, they missed home and wanted to return for Eid. People in Syrias last rebel stronghold are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Many of those displaced by government air raids are now returning to their homes in Idlib for the first time since a ceasefire was put in place in March. Traumatised and distressed, these families still sought to celebrate Eid and to hope for their futures. Al Jazeeras Raheela Mahomed reports. A man found with nearly $139,000 in cash while trying to board a flight at Boston Logan International Airport over the weekend walked away from the money after he was questioned by authorities, police said. The person booked a flight at Logan shortly before 1 p.m. on Sunday, missed it and then bought a second plane ticket the same day to a destination known as a source area for illegal narcotics, Massachusetts State Police said in a Facebook post. Authorities did not disclose the destination. As the man tried to go through a security checkpoint, he was questioned about a large sum of cash he was carrying, which the passenger initially claimed was $1,500, according to state police. He later told troopers the amount was $40,000 to $50,000. Following further questioning from state police detectives, the man said the amount was $80,000 $85,000, authorities said. MSP K9 Duke, who is trained to detect the odor of narcotics, showed a strong alert to the mans belongings, state police said. A subsequent final count of the cash the man was carrying was $138,980. The money was held by law enforcement pending further investigation. The passenger refused to sign a receipt for the cash, leaving the building and the money behind, according to state police. The cash will be subject to forfeiture proceedings, authorities noted. The BioCODE Nanosensor, to determine disease risk in patients (detecting inflammatory biomarker levels from a drop of blood) and developed by experts at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, received a funding boost from the newly established University Technology Fund (UTF) While you read this article, there will be at least 4 500 cancer fatalities and 8 000 from cardiovascular disease, according to the World Health Organisation. These statistics are exacerbated by the circumstances and lack of health care for many of these victims in developing countries. Prof Resia Pretorius, Head of Stellenbosch University's (SU) Physiological Sciences Department in the Faculty of Science, and her team of researchers, engineers and scientists, hope to address these needs with the patenting and development of the BioCODE 2-in-1 nanosensor to determine disease risk in patients. Pretorius says cancer and cardiovascular diseases are often characterised by type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart attack and thrombosis, and the golden thread that links all of these conditions is systemic inflammation. "This inflammation is the result of increased circulating inflammatory biomarkers, including serum amyloid A, P-selectin and abnormal blood protein folding. These biomarkers are the cause of sticky blood and their presence greatly increase the possibility of getting a stroke, a heart attack or deep vein thrombosis." Introduced by Anita Nel, Chief Director of Innovation and Business Development, who heads up Innovus, SU's technology transfer office for the commercialisation of the Institution's assets, Pretorius, Prof Anna-Mart Engelbrecht a cancer researcher, also from the department of Physiological Sciences, and Prof Willie Perold from SU's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, developed a protocol for a small portable and cost effective nanosensor. The BioCODE team was the first recipients of funding from the newly established University Technology Fund (UTF). Innovus was instrumental in working with the researchers to secure funding for the first stages of the development work of the BioCODE, the patenting thereof and the establishment of a company that is currently being incubated at SU's LaunchLab. The sensor will be relatively cheap to produce and small enough to be used by a medical practitioner in his or her rooms and for nurses in mobile clinics. A second part of the sensor detects spontaneously formed sticky blood clotlets in circulation, using smartphone based technology. Perold says it is very exciting to be part of this multidisciplinary team of experts. "I do believe that many of the solutions of current day problems lie in this approach." Pretorius said the BioCODE detects inflammatory biomarker levels from a drop of blood. "The serum amyloid A and P-selectin molecules in a person's circulation are upregulated when you have a risk for cancer or cardiovascular disease. To measure these molecules, we use antibodies which we immobilise on a test strip for the BioCODE," said Pretorius who, in 2018, already received funding to produce the antibodies in alpacas. They are now in the process to compare the antibodies to commercial ones. In practice, a medical practitioner would usually send blood away to pathology laboratories for biomarker analysis. With the 2-in-1 nanosensor, the practitioner no longer has to send the blood samples away. Putting drops of a patient's blood on strips with serum amyloid A and P-selectin, will enable a practitioner to determine levels of the biomarkers in the patient. "Although one cannot determine what kind of cancer a patient might have per se, if serum amyloid A is greatly increased in circulation, it could suggest that a type of cancer is prevalent, and further testing can be done. "For instance, if the serum amyloid A levels are very high in a male patient, one can test for prostate cancer or in the case of a female patient, for breast cancer". These biomarkers are also significantly upregulated in cardiovascular disease. The clinician still would need to make the final diagnoses, based on the usual clinical diagnostic processes. "Our aim is to constantly improve the sensors to finally being able to detect specific cancers. We are currently also working on a sensor for the early detection of pancreatic cancer; since it is usually detected at a very late stage with a poor prognosis for these patients. This sensor will enable us to detect this cancer at a much earlier stage which will make 'n huge difference to the life expectancy of these patients with a current life expectancy of only 3-6 months," says Engelbrecht. Pretorius said the nanosensor could even be used to predict increased cytokine activity that is characteristic of the cytokine storm during COVID-19. The prototype of the electronic part of the nanosensor is currently being finalised. BioCODE's first employee, Este Burger, who recently graduated from SU as an engineer, is working on the development of the smartphone-sensor for the company. Dr Andre du Toit (post-doc researcher) and Greta de Waal (PhD student), both from the Department of Physiological Sciences, assist the team in the immobilisation of the antibodies onto the test strips. Also part of the BioCODE team is SU's Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Wim de Villiers, (who is a gastroenterologist, with a special interest in serum amyloid A in colorectal cancer) who, together with Pretorius, Engelbrecht and Perold, holds the patent for the BioCODE and shares the supervision of a PhD-student with Pretorius. "BioCODE is the right product for the right time in South Africa today," says De Villiers. "Not only is it cost effective to produce, but it will enable medical practitioners to give people in our rural areas access to valuable medical screening which is currently not possible to do. For me it is an honour to be part of a young and dedicated team that is creating a home-grown product that will be used by the medical practitioners around the globe." Pretorius expresses her thanks to the UTF for funding the research. It will enable the team to successfully reach the milestones which will provide leverage for further funding. "We will need to produce ten of the BioCODE 2-in-1 sensors and pull in an independent company which will draw blood and do tests on the BioCODE to determine if it will give consistent and comparable gold standard results. This will eventually lead to prototrials towards the end of milestone three at the end of 2020, which could put BioCODE on a path towards becoming a commercially viable product." Stocks & Strauss, who was appointed as fund managers for the UTF fund, believes that BioCODE is an unique investment opportunity, says partner Wayne Stocks. "It is our opinion that the science is novel, the market is an exciting one, and the BioCODE team has the expertise, experience and passion to achieve the milestones identified to prove and commercialise the technology on a global scale." ### Background information: About Innovus Innovus is a division of Stellenbosch University responsible for technology transfer, entrepreneurial support and development, and innovation at the university. Innovus manages the commercialisation of the University's innovation and intellectual property portfolio through patenting, licensing and the formation of spin-out companies. Through our LaunchLab business incubator, Innovus offers various services to and opportunities for entrepreneurs. In addition to this their equity holding in the Innovus group of companies is a valuable asset for the university. Innovus's website profiles an impressive portfolio of patents and provides tools and advice for inventors wishing to commercialise their ideas, and investors who want to help turn great ideas into reality. About Innovus and the UTF Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of Cape Town co-invested in the newly established R150-million University Technology Fund (UTF) (a first for the continent of Africa) that was set up by the SA SME Fund in its endeavour to partner with South African universities to commercialise the technologies and business ideas that arise from these universities. For a few years now, Anita Nel, Chief Director of Innovation and Business Development at Innovus, and her team have been working on developing a funding model for early seed capital for universities' inventions and to gain support for it. Such funding is crucial for the initial development phase of early stage technologies and to set up start-up ventures. Funds focusing solely on investing in university technologies are mushrooming abroad, but the UTF is the first investment fund in Africa dedicated for university inventions. It has a unique model that makes provision for a pre-seed funding allocation that empowers institutions' technology transfer offices to support early stage technology development, building a solid pipeline of investable technologies for the UTF. LONDON Audi Formula E driver Daniel Abt was disqualified and ordered to pay 10,000 euros ($10,900.00) to charity on Sunday for getting a professional gamer to compete under his name in an official esports race. The German, who apologized for "having called in outside help," was also stripped of all points won to date in the all-electric series' Race at Home Challenge which features drivers using simulators remotely. "I did not take it as seriously as I should have," said the 27-year-old, accepting the punishment for sporting misconduct. "I am especially sorry about this because I know how much work has gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organization. I am aware that my offense has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never meant with any bad intention." Pro gamer Lorenz Hoerzing, Abt's ringer, was disqualified from all future rounds of the separate Challenge Grid competition. The 15-lap race around a virtual Berlin Tempelhof track was won by Britain's Oliver Rowland for Nissan e.dams with Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne second for Mercedes. Vandoorne had made clear on his Twitch stream during the race that he suspected somebody else was driving under Abt's name and pretending to be him. He was backed up by Jean-Eric Vergne, a two-times champion in real life. "Please ask Daniel Abt to put his Zoom next time hes driving, because like Stoffel said Im pretty sure he wasnt in," the Frenchman said. Abt, who had not featured on the virtual podium in any of the previous races, did not appear for online post-race interviews. Formula E's real life series leader Antonio Felix da Costa appeared less concerned, however. "It's just a game guys. We all know Daniel as a fun guy and a joker...," commented the Portuguese on Twitter. Formula E did not explain how the deception had happened but the-race.com website, which runs a popular series of virtual races with Torque Esports, said it understood organizers had cross-referenced the IP addresses of competitors. Story continues They realized that Abt, who had qualified second, could not have been at the wheel. The esports series features regular Formula E drivers competing from their homes in isolation and aims to provide some action for fans with racing on hold in real life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The drivers are usually visible in their simulators on Zoom, but the-race.com said the face of the driver purporting to be Abt was hidden by some equipment while his Twitch stream stopped working. Vandoorne was seen calling Abt's mobile but he did not answer. The Challenge Grid is made up "gamers and influencers" competing for a prize of real-life track time in a Formula E car at a race weekend. The disqualification meant series leader and compatriot Pascal Wehrlein moved up from fourth to third. You Might Also Like Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 14:49:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A bus carrying released Taliban prisoners leaves Bagram prison in Parwan province, eastern Afghanistan, May 26, 2020. A total of 900 Taliban inmates were freed from Afghan government's prisons on Tuesday in the latest move to further advance the intra-Afghan peace talks, a spokesperson for the Office of the National Security Council confirmed. "The government released 900 Taliban prisoners today to further advance peace efforts, including an extended ceasefire and the immediate start of intra-Afghan peace talks," spokesman Javid Faisal tweeted. (Xinhua/Rahmatullah Alizadah) KABUL, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 900 Taliban inmates were freed from Afghan government's prisons on Tuesday in the latest move to further advance the intra-Afghan peace talks, a spokesperson for the Office of the National Security Council confirmed. "The government released 900 Taliban prisoners today to further advance peace efforts, including an extended ceasefire and the immediate start of intra-Afghan peace talks," spokesman Javid Faisal tweeted. The move came after Taliban militants announced a three-day ceasefire during Eid al-Fitr festival, starting from Sunday. Taliban militants have reportedly agreed to extend the ceasefire for another four days or more. On Monday, the second day of the festival, the government released 100 Taliban from Bagram prison in eastern Parwan province. On March 11, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani issued a decree to release 5,000 Taliban inmates on parole and Taliban agreed to release 1,000 soldiers but the exchange of prisoners was repeatedly delayed. As of May 10, some 1,000 Taliban fighters and 200 Afghan government soldiers had been freed by the two sides, but the exchange process had been suspended over some disputes. The exchange of prisoners is part of a peace deal inked between the Taliban and the United States in Qatar in February. However, the Afghan government was not a signatory of the deal. Enditem Ontarians deserve to know the specific areas that Premier Doug Ford has identified as COVID-19 hot spots so they can take appropriate precautions, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says. Ford first mentioned the concept of going into hot spots Friday and public health officials said they were in Toronto, Peel, North York, Durham, Windsor and Ottawa, raising questions as to where. Some areas are lighting up like a Christmas tree, Ford added this week, saying one is around his riding of Etobicoke North and another in Brampton. But officials have declined to provide locations as Ontarios case count grew at its lowest level since May 18 approaching 28,000 with more than 2,200 deaths and testing remains at less than half the daily lab processing capacity of 20,000 samples. Can the premier explain how families are supposed to know whether theyre actually in any of these hot spots if the government refuses to share that information? Horwath asked as the legislature resumed Tuesday for question period. Ford later said its not fair to reveal specific locations. I dont want to stigmatize, he told reporters. Health Minister Christine Elliott said residents of any area are free to get checked for the virus. If theyre not feeling well, they can go to an assessment centre to be tested, said Elliott, who repeated that a more comprehensive testing strategy is being unveiled soon and aimed at workplaces such as meat packing plants where infections have flared. The delay in unveiling the strategy is high-risk, Horwath said. This is just the latest example of mixed messages and an inconsistent approach that weve seen from the government on testing. This is something we need to get right if businesses are going to open again, if families are going to go outside, she added. Were 11 weeks in. You think the government would have had the testing figured out by now. A Star compilation of data from health units found another 320 cases of confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 as 5 p.m. Tuesday, raising the total number to 27,809. There were another 25 deaths in the previous 24 hours, raising the toll to 2,218. A separate Ministry of Health tally as of 4 p.m. Monday found another 287 cases, the lowest in more than a week that has frequently seen new cases rise by more than 400. A total of 9,875 tests were processed Monday, well short of the capacity of 20,000 at labs across the province and a source of frequent criticism for the government. Opposition parties and scientists say the inability to take advantage of the full capacity means 85,000 tests have been foregone since last Monday, making it harder for the province to get an accurate picture of the virus. Elliott blamed the shortfall on a transition period after a testing blitz at nursing homes was completed on the May long weekend. There were 848 people in hospital suffering from COVID-19, with 143 in intensive care units and 113 of them on ventilators. At first, Ashley Mowerys ex-boyfriend told the Harrisburg police that she was the one who shot him in the stomach. Then, he said she didnt. A state Superior Court panel has decided to believe the version where Mowery pulled the trigger. And by doing so, the judges guaranteed that Mowery, now 30, will keep serving a 4- to 12-year prison sentence. Mowery received that punishment after pleading guilty to aggravated assault for the October 2015 shooting of her ex during an argument. Police found the 26-year-old man lying in a doorway of an apartment in the 400 block of Crescent Street. He had a bullet hole in his abdomen. The state judges came down in favor of the she shot him scenario in an opinion by Judge Deborah A. Kunselman. Investigators said the victim, Montez Perry, blamed Mowery for the shooting right away, as he was lying in a hospital bed being interviewed by detectives. Mowery initially claimed innocence, but then admitted to the gunplay. Mowerys appeal hinged on what she insisted was newly discovered evidence in the form of a letter Perry sent to her lawyer in August 2017, more than a year after she pleaded guilty and was sentenced. In that letter Perry wrote that he lied when he told police Mowery was the shooter. He said he was in fact shot by an unknown man who was wearing a ski mask. Perry said he lied to police because he was mad that Mowery hadnt come to visit him in the hospital. My heart is simply weighing heavy because of what I did and I am not able to live, basically live with myself because of it, Perry wrote. Dauphin County President Judge John F. Cherry didnt find Perrys recantation to be credible, and neither did Kunselmans court on appeal. Perrys new version is just too out of line with what both he and Mowery said earlier, the judges concluded. They pointed to a statement Mowery made during her sentencing hearing in March 2016. Like, I deeply apologize for what I did, she said at the time. Like, I did it because it was in the midst of a domestic violence fight and that was, like, I really couldnt do anything. I tried to call I called the police before all of this even happened. I went to the police station and tried to file a report about domestic violence. Given those facts, Perrys recantation would not have resulted in Mowerys case playing out differently, Kunselman found. About 180 harvest workers at an asparagus farm near Bonn went on strike last Friday to demand the wages promised to them. Their protests and a demonstration on May 18 shed further light on the unspeakable working conditions facing eastern European seasonal workers. The workers, who arrived from Romania at the beginning of April, had been promised they could earn 1,500 to 2,000 per month for three months while harvesting asparagus. However, the asparagus farm, belonging to Claus and Sabine Ritter in Bornheim near Bonn, was already insolvent in March. The insolvency administrator, who has been running the business ever since, hired them nonetheless. The administrator, attorney Andreas Schulte-Beckhausen, presented a report on the insolvency to the creditors meeting quoted from by the General-Anzeiger. According to this, the company had generated millions in income two years ago but has been in debt ever since. This was because of high irrigation costs in the last two years due to heat waves; in addition, the Ritter Spargel company had invested 1 million in the construction of a huge asparagus restaurant. The report says, The shareholders [i.e., Claus and Sabine Ritter] may have taken the profits and invested them outside the agricultural sector. To maximise the bankruptcy assets, the insolvency administrator apparently decided to follow the profit model to the extreme, based on the exploitation of cheap seasonal labour. With the active support of Agriculture Minister Julia Klockner (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), he succeeded in having the low-wage workers from Romania flown in despite the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, savings were made in their working conditions and accommodation wherever possible. This meant the workers encountered conditions that defy description. Although they faced deductions of more than 400 a month for food and accommodation (13.50 per day), they were accommodated in a remote container village on a completely filthy site, far from any civilisation, in the vicinity of a sewage plant and a railway line. The sparse food supplied by a caterer was said to have been bad, often cold and sometimes mouldy. Although the lockdown had dominated everyday life in Germany for two weeks, they were forced to live in circumstances that meant they could neither adhere to the social distancing rules nor observe a minimum of hygiene. The workers slept four to a room and had to use dilapidated, dirty communal toilets and washrooms, without a supply of soap and shower gel, not to mention disinfectant. As for masks, they were given them only once, by a bus driver who took them to the fields. Two weeks ago, the management suddenly decided to stop harvesting asparagus because restaurants had closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. On May 14, the workers were told, In a week, this will be over, then you will all have to leave. The harvesters were paid miserable sums of money for five to six weeks of hard work. At the same time, they were told that they would have to vacate their accommodation in a week. In a promotional video from March, still circulating on the Internet, insolvency administrator Schulte-Beckhausen advertises hourly wages of 10 to attract harvest workers. In reality, the workers received only a few hundred euros in total. One Romanian worker told a newspaper he received just 500 for 500 hours work. The workers had not received their full wages, nor had they been given proper, timely notice or any prospects of being able to return to Romania under conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. In this situation, the asparagus cutters decided not to work another hour until they received their full pay. On Friday, May 15, some 180 workers refused to board the buses that would take them back to the field to work. Instead, they all stayed together and made their wage demands clear on hand-painted cardboard signs. The plant manager alerted the police, who arrived with 20 officers. As a result, the conflict, which had previously developed out of sight, was reported in the press and attracted attention. A group of the FAU Bonn, which calls itself an anarcho-syndicalist union, and the initiative Aktion gegen Arbeitsunrecht e.V. (Action against Labour Injustice) spread news of the strike on the Internet. The mainstream unions had ignored the fate of the harvest workers. Over the weekend, the workers received solidarity visits from Bonn and Cologne, and a protest demonstration was announced for Monday, in which at least another 150 supporters, including from the Ruhr area, participated. The protest, with Solidarity signs and posters saying Germany, you lousy piece of asparagus, marched through Bonn in front of the office of the insolvency administrator Schulte-Beckhausen. The march then went to the Romanian consulate, where some of the demonstrators were able to speak with the Romanian minister for labour and social affairs, Victoria Violeta Alexandru. The minister promised to visit the workers the next day. She had just been on a state visit to Germany to negotiate a new model of the infamous work contracts for Romanian seasonal workers with federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil (Social Democratic Party, SPD). These lucrative but murderous contracts have met with massive criticism, especially in connection with the spread of coronavirus at German slaughterhouses. When the strike attracted public attention and numerous visitors from trade union circles, the media and the local Left Party, a cleaning crew suddenly appeared to clean the washrooms in the accommodation. Debris and rubbish were removed from the premises by an excavator. Suddenly there were also sufficient quantities of face masks. Most importantly, their wages were paid out. However, this was done in a manner reminiscent of the Wild West, with the workers sent in small groups to distant parking lots and fields to receive their pay envelopes. Stefan Hubner, a labour lawyer, insisted on being present for the payments. He stated that the workers were presented with receipts, which, if signed, would have meant that they would have waived all further claims, and finally managed to get the workers to refuse to accept these illegal waivers. As Hubner explained at an impromptu press conference on Friday, the vast majority of workers have received only a fraction of the wages to which they are entitled. The insolvency administrator, on the other hand, told the media that everything had been paid off. While the protests continued and the media attention was still focused on the farm, the workers were promised, and in some cases given, paid return travel home or placement in other harvesting operations, depending on their wishes. Thus, at the end of last week, only about three dozen workers remained in the container village. The spontaneous strike by the asparagus cutters made two things clear. Firstly, it highlights the inhuman way in which the German bourgeoisie and government treat seasonal workers from other countries. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed hundreds of such cases over the past few weeks. In slaughterhouses, at parcel depots, on construction sites, in truck factories and elsewhere, the health and lives of migrant labourers are being put at risk. Hundreds have already been infected with COVID-19. On April 10, Romanian harvest worker Nicolae Bahan died of COVID-19 in Bad Krozingen. Big business and the political establishment are walking over dead bodies. Secondly, the industrial action at the asparagus farm is part of a worldwide development that is constantly bringing new layers of workers into struggle. During the pandemic, spontaneous strikes and protests for the right of workers to protect themselves against the virus have already taken place in Italy, France, the United States, Brazil and many other countries. To change the situation, the working class needs a perspective and a socialist party. To this end, the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) has published the statement: Prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives! Build action committees in all factories! It says: The pandemic exposes the urgent necessity for a complete restructuring of the processes of production, distribution and economic activity in general. The lives of working people and their families must not be sacrificed in the interests of corporate profits and the private wealth of billionaire oligarchs. CALGARY, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Pembina Pipeline Corporation ("Pembina") (TSX: PPL;NYSE: PBA) announced today that it has agreed to issue $500 million of senior unsecured medium-term notes (the "Offering"). The Offering will be conducted in two tranches consisting of $400 million in senior unsecured medium-term notes, series 16 (the "Series 16 Notes") having a fixed coupon of 4.67 percent per annum, paid semi-annually, and maturing on May 28, 2050; and $100 million principal amount to be issued through a re-opening of the Company's 3.71 percent medium-term notes, series 7, due August 11, 2026 (the "Series 7 Notes"). Closing of the Offering is expected to occur on May 28, 2020 and the net proceeds are intended to be used to repay indebtedness of the Company under its unsecured $2.5 billion revolving credit facility due May 2024 incurred in connection with the acquisition of the U.S. portion of the Cochin Pipeline system, as well as to fund Pembina's capital program and for general corporate purposes. The Series 16 Notes and the re-opening of the Series 7 Notes are being offered through a syndicate of dealers under Pembina's short-form base shelf prospectus dated August 30, 2019, as supplemented by related pricing supplements dated May 26, 2020. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the notes in any jurisdiction. The notes being offered have not been approved or disapproved by any regulatory authority. The notes have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities law, and may not be offered or sold within the United States. About Pembina Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a leading transportation and midstream service provider that has been serving North America's energy industry for 65 years. Pembina owns an integrated system of pipelines that transport various hydrocarbon liquids and natural gas products produced primarily in western Canada. The Company also owns gas gathering and processing facilities; an oil and natural gas liquids infrastructure and logistics business; is growing an export terminals business; and is currently developing a petrochemical facility to convert propane into polypropylene. Pembina's integrated assets and commercial operations along the majority of the hydrocarbon value chain allow it to offer a full spectrum of midstream and marketing services to the energy sector. Pembina is committed to identifying additional opportunities to connect hydrocarbon production to new demand locations through the development of infrastructure that would extend Pembina's service offering even further along the hydrocarbon value chain. These new developments will contribute to ensuring that hydrocarbons produced in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and the other basins where Pembina operates can reach the highest value markets throughout the world. Purpose of Pembina: To be the leader in delivering integrated infrastructure solutions connecting global markets; Customers choose us first for reliable and value-added services; choose us first for reliable and value-added services; Investors receive sustainable industry-leading total returns; receive sustainable industry-leading total returns; Employees say we are the 'employer of choice' and value our safe, respectful, collaborative and fair work culture; and say we are the 'employer of choice' and value our safe, respectful, collaborative and fair work culture; and Communities welcome us and recognize the net positive impact of our social and environmental commitment. Pembina is structured into three Divisions: Pipelines Division, Facilities Division and Marketing & New Ventures Division. Pembina's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under PPL and PBA, respectively. For more information, visit www.pembina.com. Forward-Looking Information and Statements This document contains certain forward-looking statements and information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of applicable securities legislation that are based on Pembina's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "intend", "will", "shall", and similar expressions suggesting future events or future performance. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Offering, including the anticipated closing date of the Offering and the use of the net proceeds of the Offering. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that Pembina has made in respect thereof as at the date of this news release, including: prevailing commodity prices, margins and exchange rates, that Pembina's businesses will continue to achieve sustainable financial results and that future results of operations will be consistent with past performance and management expectations in relation thereto, the availability and sources of capital, operating costs, ongoing utilization and future expansions, the ability to reach required commercial agreements, and the ability to obtain required regulatory approvals. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: non-performance of agreements in accordance with their terms; the impact of competitive entities and pricing; reliance on key industry partners, alliances and agreements; the strength and operations of the oil and natural gas production industry and related commodity prices; the continuation or completion of third-party projects; regulatory environment and inability to obtain required regulatory approvals; tax laws and treatment; fluctuations in operating results; the ability of Pembina to raise sufficient capital to complete future projects and satisfy future commitments; construction delays; labour and material shortages; risks relating to widespread epidemics or pandemic outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic; and certain other risks detailed from time to time in Pembina's public disclosure documents including, among other things, those detailed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Pembina's management's discussion and analysis and annual information form, each for the year ended December 31, 2019, and in Pembina's management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2020, all which can be found at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and available on Pembina's website at www.pembina.com. In addition, the closing of the Offering may not be completed, or may be delayed, if the conditions to the closing of the Offering are not satisfied on the anticipated timeline or at all. Accordingly, there is a risk that the Offering will not be completed within the anticipated time, on the terms currently proposed, or at all. The intended use of the net proceeds of the Offering by Pembina may change if the board of directors of Pembina determines that it would be in the best interests of Pembina to deploy the proceeds for some other purpose and there can be no guarantee as to how or when such proceeds may be used. Accordingly, readers are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results to differ materially from those predicted, forecasted or projected. Such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by the above statements. Pembina does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or information contained herein, except as required by applicable laws. SOURCE Pembina Pipeline Corporation Related Links http://www.pembina.com Ali Mamun, a Bangladeshi immigrant who worked as a psychiatrist in Brooklyn, contracted the coronavirus in March and died three weeks later, just days before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. He was buried in New Jersey, more than an hour from his home in New York, because the number of dead had so overwhelmed nearby Muslim funeral homes and cemeteries that his family was forced to go farther to follow tradition and conduct a burial within 24 hours. When his family drove to the Marlboro Muslim Memorial Cemetery two weeks later to visit his grave during the holy month, they were shocked by what they found: a vast field of freshly dug graves, the dead all in their 50s and 60s, and many bearing distinctly Bengali names. I never imagined Ramadan to be like this, said Sayyid Choudhury, 31, Mr. Mamuns son-in-law. Ramadan is very much about family breaking the fast with your family and then going to the mosque every night to read one of the prayers, but this Ramadan feels mostly empty and void and lonely. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 17:01:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 23, 2020 shows glazed ceramics unearthed from ancient tombs discovered on the bank of the Yellow River, in central China's Henan Province. Archaeologists have found more than 600 ancient tombs on the bank of the Yellow River, and dug up over 2,000 burial items, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Li Lijing) ZHENGZHOU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists have found more than 600 ancient tombs on the bank of the Yellow River, and dug up over 2,000 burial items, local authorities said. Nearly half of the tombs are believed to date back to the time between the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.) and the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220), and the remaining from several dynasties including the Tang (618-907), Song (960-1276), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911), according to Zheng Lichao, head of Sanmenxia's institute of cultural relics and archaeology. Archaeologists discovered the tomb cluster in a village in the city of Sanmenxia in central China's Henan Province while examining the site of a local shantytown renovation project, said Zheng. They have excavated 37,600 square meters of the site since October 2017. More than 2,030 burial items such as pottery, bronze ware, gold and silver ornaments, jade artifacts as well as a batch of rare cultural relics including a 2,000-year-old bronze pot with a curved neck in the shape of a swan have been discovered. Located between Xi'an and Luoyang, two ancient capitals in Chinese history, Sanmenxia used to serve as a military and traffic passage. Experts believe the discovery can provide valuable information for tomb evolution in the Sanmenxia area and shed light on its decline with the shift in the political power center. Enditem International investors in RES urge govt to sign compromise memo as soon as possible A group of international investors operating and building renewable energy facilities with a total installed capacity of more than 2 GW in Ukraine have asked the government to sign a memorandum on resolving issues in the field of renewable energy as soon as possible. "We look forward to reaching a compromise and signing a memorandum that would respect the rights of investors and envisage steps to achieve a comprehensive reform of the electricity market," according to a letter to the prime minister from the representatives of 15 foreign companies operating in the renewable energy sector, available to the Energy Reform online portal. In particular, among the authors are Emsolt (Turkey), NBT, Scatec Solar (both based in Norway), TIU Canada (Canada), VR Capital (the United States), Vindkraft (Sweden), Total Eren (France). According to this letter, investors expressed their readiness to support the government in stabilizing the financial situation through voluntary restructuring feed-in tariffs, thereby ensuring, in their opinion, a smooth transition to the auction system for supporting renewable energy sources and improving the financial condition of Guaranteed Buyer state enterprise. However, the letter notes that renewable energy producers experience significant delays in payment by the state, and the level of payment over the past few months is only 10% of electricity generated. Investors expect that, according to the terms of the memorandum, the state will undertake ensuring the repayment of accumulated debts within the agreed period, but no later than the end of the year, as well as timely payment for electricity generated in the future. In turn, investors propose a reduction in feed-in tariffs for solar plants commissioned in 2017-2019 by 12.5% and 15% (respectively for solar plants with a capacity of up to 10 MW and more than 10 MW), for wind farms by 7.5% with the prolongation for 2 years. Fluence by OSRAM (Fluence) has been selected by Wageningen University Research (WUR) as the lighting provider for Serre Red, the university's new, high-tech quarantine greenhouse. Serre Red will be used for critical research on plant diseases-caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasitic nematodes-including quarantine pathogens, as well as research on genetically modified organisms. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005096/en/ Construction of the Serre Red research greenhouse nears completion at Wageningen campus (April 2020, photo courtesy of Unifarm Wageningen University Research) Built by Bosman van Zaal, Serre Red is one of the most advanced quarantine research facilities constructed to date. It features 63 compartments, ranging from 15 to 52 square meters with individual climate control, air filtering and access locks. Extensive technical equipment has been installed in a corridor sunk below ground level to avoid excess shade. Other features of the fully electric greenhouse include insulated double glazing, external shading, heat/cold storage and autoclaving, which sterilizes all materials including water and waste before leaving the greenhouse. Broad spectrum lighting: Choosing LED over HPS To reduce the influence of artificial light on their experiments, WUR's researchers required broad spectrum lighting. Unifarm, the university's greenhouse and field research facility, ran a market consultation during November and December 2019, then selected four manufacturers from a tender in January 2020. Fluence was granted the order in April after the four potential solutions were examined by WUR's scientific committee. "Traditionally, our greenhouses are equipped with HPS lighting," said Dolf Straathof, head of Unifarm. "As we want to eliminate any influences that artificial lighting could have on experiments, we looked for a solution that came closest to the spectrum that our scientific team specified as optimal." "Fluence was one of those consulted, and they proposed higher light levels than we initially specified, which concurred with recommendations from our researchers," Straathof continued. "The PhysioSpec solution that Fluence proposed also fit our spectral requirements. In the end, Fluence offered us the best possible solution and exceeded our requirements for uniformity, offering the highest uniformity for a mix of low and tall crops throughout all compartments." Optimizing light levels and uniformity Each compartment will have individual lighting controls, linked to the Hoogendoorn climate control system. "This is the first time WUR has chosen LED, and specifically broad spectrum LED, as their standard lighting solution for a research greenhouse at Unifarm," said Theo Tekstra, Fluence's technical director in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and lead for the project's design and implementation. "LED solutions have the added advantage that they can be controlled without change in spectrum or loss of efficiency, offering constant light levels and optimal daily light integral. By using our compact VYPR 2x2 full spectrum LED fixtures with the new compact PSU drivers and VYPR reflectors, we minimize shading and optimize overall uniformity. We are extremely proud that our solution was selected as the best in the tender and that we were awarded the contract for this prestigious project." Critical research for the world's growers Fluence supports, sponsors and collaborates on horticultural research projects throughout the world, including its membership in the Wageningen Research Club of 100-part of the WUR Business Unit for Greenhouse Horticulture in Bleiswijk. The spread of viral infections-such as the tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV)-remains a top concern for growers throughout the world. The new Serre Red facility enables WUR to expand and intensify its research capabilities, maintaining its position as a world leader in research on horticultural crop pathogens. "ToBRFV currently threatens tomato, bell pepper and chili pepper crops throughout the globe, causing most production greenhouses to close to visitors and creating increased costs for growers through extensive disinfection and other precautionary measures," said Dr. Theoharis Ouzounis, horticultural scientist at Fluence. "There is no treatment other than prevention and pervasive damage has been reported globally. Research into prevention and treatment of viral diseases is extremely important to safeguard our food production." For more information about Fluence lighting solutions, visit www.fluence.science. About Fluence by OSRAM Fluence Bioengineering, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSRAM, creates the most powerful and energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial crop production and research applications. Fluence is a leading LED lighting supplier and is committed to enabling more efficient crop production with the world's top vertical farms and greenhouse produce growers. Fluence global headquarters are based in Austin, Texas, with its EMEA headquarters in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. For more information about Fluence, visit www.fluence.science. Link to high resolution pictures: www.fluence.science/press-links View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005096/en/ Contacts: For EMEA, Silvia Nagyova, Fluence by OSRAM Phone: +49 (89) 6213-3939 E-mail: s.nagyova@osram.com For North America, Pam Olszewski pam@redfancommunications.com +1 (512) 662-8551 FLINT, MI -- Patsy Lou WIlliamson, a former first lady of Flint who also led what was once the nations top-selling Buick car dealership, has died at age 87. Williamsons family announced her death occurred Tuesday, May 26, at her home in Davison Township. A private funeral and burial in Flint Memorial Park will be held, according to an obituary posted by Swartz Funeral Home. She was very low key but very gracious and kind and generous, said Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, a friend of the Williamson family. She was content to let Don do the talking in public, but behind the scenes, she would have a lot to say. She was just a wonderful person -- always fun to be around. Williamsons death comes almost 14 months after the death of her second husband, Don, who served as mayor of Flint from 2003 until 2009. Patsy Lou WIlliamson was born in the Beecher area to Frank and Henrietta (Jordan) Middleditch. She graduated from Beecher High School in 1951 and GMI comptroller School in 1953, according to her obituary, which did not include a cause of death. She is survived by four children: Michael Williamson, John Gartrell, Scott Williamson and Deanna Williamson. She was preceded in death by her first husband, John Gartrell. In addition to supporting her second husbands political career, Patsy Lou Williamson tried her own hand in politics in 2006, losing in a crowded Democratic primary field in the race for Michigan Senate -- a seat that was eventually won by current Genesee County Clerk-Register John Gleason. While her more politically seasoned competitors in that race hosted fundraisers, Williamson largely self-funded her campaign, hosting picnics and parties to reach out to potential voters, who got a free meal and werent asked for contributions. I worked very closely with her every day during that campaign, said friend Larry Ford, who served as her spokesman during the race. She was a very, very intense, quiet leader who thought things through thoroughly. While others involved in her campaign offered their own opinions, Williamson "had a very kind way of saying, Wait a minute, this way isnt the way we are going to do things, Ford said. Don Williamson, former Flint mayor, millionaire businessman, dead at 85 Friends remember former Flint Mayor Williamson as loyal, generous to those in need A look back at former Flint Mayor Don Williamsons public life in pictures Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 02:46:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 25, 2020 shows a closed park in Damascus, Syria. Syria registered on Monday 20 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the country to 106, the health ministry said in a statement. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) DAMASCUS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Syria registered on Monday 20 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the country to 106, the health ministry said in a statement. All new cases are those who returned from abroad as part of the government's effort to bring stranded Syrians back, said the ministry. A total of 41 have been cured of the virus while four died, the ministry added. China has offered help to Syria to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. On April 15, a batch of China's donation, including 2,016 COVID-19 test kits, arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus. On April 23, a video-conference was held between Chinese and Syrian medical experts for sharing the experience in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem A college student police say is an armed fugitive after killing two people was looking for a woman he knew when he began his rampage, the wife of his first victim said Tuesday. University of Connecticut senior Peter Manfredonia, 23, is a fugitive in the machete killing of the woman's neighbor, Ted DeMers, 62,of Willington, Connecticut. He also is believed to have killed his own high school friend, Nicholas Eisele, 23, on Sunday about 70 miles away in Derby, police said. Manfredonia was last reported seen in Pennsylvania on Sunday and is the target of a search involving police agencies and the FBI. Cyndi DeMers, Ted DeMers' wife of 42 years, said in an interview that Manfredonia was looking for a female acquaintance when he came walking down the road in front of their Willington home wearing a motorcycle helmet. When asked why he was walking down the rural road, Manfredonia said his motorcycle had broken down, Cyndi DeMers said. Ted DeMers was killed with a machete after giving Manfredonia a ride back to his bike. He said to my husband, I know so-and-so, who is one of our neighbors, which then opened up the door to trusting this person, Cyndi DeMers said. I think he got in the way of what he was going to do, she said. He was clearly walking to her home with a mission, with a machete in his backpack. DeMers said she talked with their neighbor's father over the weekend and was told the family had been considering a restraining order against Manfredonia, who had been to the home in the past. Her neighbors have been told by police not to return to their home until he is captured, she said. An additional neighbor, who came to DeMers aid, also was attacked. That man suffered serious hand injuries but is expected to survive, Cyndi DeMers said. Connecticut State Police pleaded at a news briefing Tuesday for Manfredonia to turn himself in. We want you to be able to tell your story, Lt. John Aiello said. We are hear to listen to you. Your parents, your friends, all of us back here in Connecticut want a peaceful end to this." Manfredonia broke into another house in Willington over the weekend, stealing guns and a truck, and then headed south, police said. The truck was found Sunday in Derby, near Eisele's home. Police said they believe Manfredonia killed his friend, then forced Eiseles 23-year-old girlfriend into her car and fled the state. The girlfriend was found Sunday at a rest stop near Paterson, New Jersey, with her 2016 Volkswagen Jetta and was not hurt, police said. Manfredonia took an Uber to a Walmart in East Stroudsburg, not far from the New Jersey border, Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday. Police discovered through interviews with the driver and from security camera footage that Manfredonia walked behind the store and onto railroad tracks, authorities said. Pennsylvania police said they dont believe Manfredonia has ties to the area, or a car. He might try to use another ride-hailing service to flee, the agency said. Authorities are looking for a black 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe with Pennsylvania registration KYW-1650 that was stolen around 9 p.m. Monday. Police havent connected Manfredonia to the theft, they said, but it was taken from the area where he was last seen on surveillance video. Manfredonia, who is believed to be armed with several guns stolen during the home invasion in Willington, was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and dark shorts and carrying a large duffel bag. Police have circulated a photo of a person matching his description walking along railroad tracks in East Stroudsburg. A lawyer for Manfredonias family, Mike Dolan, said the suspect has struggled with mental health issues and has sought the help of a number of therapists. Peter, if you are listening, you are loved, Dolan said at a news conference Monday. It is time to let the healing process begin. Its time to surrender. You have your parents and your sisters and your familys entire support. So, Peter, from your parents, we love you, please turn yourself in. Cyndi DeMers said she and her husband were looking forward to becoming grandparents for the first time next month. Ted DeMers would be remembered as a kindhearted man, always willing to help anyone in need. That, she said, was what he was doing when he was killed. He was like the neighborhood watch, she said. He was home all the time, so he kind of kept an eye out. He was that guy." Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 4 Angry 0 New Delhi, May 26 : Describing the nationwide lockdown as a failure, former Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the relaxation in the lockdown and asked what was the strategy for opening the country. He also accused the Central government of not supporting the state governments, which have been transferring the money directly into the hands of the farmers and labourers. Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, Rahul Gandhi said, "Two months ago the Prime Minister said that we were going to fight in 21-days a war against novel coronavirus (Covid-19)." "And now we are in 60 days and we are the only country in the world where the virus is exponentially rising and we are removing the lockdown. It is pretty clear that the aim and the purpose of the lockdown has failed," the COngress leader said. He said the result of the "failed lockdown" is in front of all. "We in the Congress want to understand what the government's view is. What is their view for going forward? We want to understand what is the strategy?" he said, adding that the Prime Minister and his entire advisory staff, including his top medical people said that the disease would start to reduce in May, whereas the cases are not reducing and are increasing. "I want to ask the Prime Minister and the government, now that we have a failed lockdown, what is the strategy going forward and what is the strategy as far as opening India is concerned," he said. He also said, "What are the precautions that they are going to take to curb this disease, and how they are thinking to support migrants, state governments, MSMEs. "We have great expectations, multiple press conferences about the economic package. The Prime MInister said that the economic package was 10 per cent of GDP whereas the reality is that it is one per cent of GDP and hardly any cash is being given to people," the Congress MP from Kerala's Wayanad said. Rahul Gandhi said, "Directly we are giving cash to farmers, labourers, but we are not getting any support from the central government. And it is becoming extremely difficult for our states to function without adequate support from central government." This is Rahul Gandhi's fourth interaction with the media in the last 60 days amid the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of novel coronavirus. He has interacted twice with the national media and once with the regional media. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The latest recovered patient, the 312th COVID-19 case in the country, was among those boarding a flight coded VN0062 carrying 345 passengers and crew members home from Moscow, Russia and landing at Quang Ninhs Van Don Airport at 4.40 am on May 13. During her treatment process at Quang Ninhs field hospital no. 2, the patient tested negative for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 three times in a row (on May 19, 21 and 23), thereby being eligible to be declared recovered. After 12 days of treatment, the patient has now been in stable health without fever, cough or shortness of breath. She will continue to be isolated and monitored over the next 14 days as prescribed by the Ministry of Health. At present, there are no more COVID-19 patients under quarantine and receiving treatment in Quang Ninh province. By 4 pm on May 25, Vietnam has confirmed 325 COVID-19 infection cases, of whom 185 were imported and quarantined immediately upon arrival. The country has gone 39 consecutive days without a community transmission. As many as 15,412 people having close contact with confirmed patients or entering Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions have been quarantined, including 58 at hospitals, 8,523 at concentrated quarantine establishments and 6,831 at home. According to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, 57 patients are undergoing treatment at medical establishments across the country, of whom seven have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once and four have tested negative twice or more. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Staycations and hotel bookings will again be opened for tourists in areas which will be placed under modified general community quarantine, the Department of Tourism said. Administrative Order 2020-002 allows hotels, resorts, motels, homestays, and other accommodation facilities to accept tourists as well as business travelers in MGCQ areas, but are limited to a 50 percent capacity. Areas under modified GCQ face more relaxed restrictions, as these are considered at low risk of a localized COVID-19 outbreak. Other hotel facilities will be allowed to resume operations too. "Ancillary establishments within the premises, such as restaurants, cafes, bars, gyms, spas, and the like, shall be allowed to operate at 50 percent operational capacity only," read the May 22 order signed by Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat. The tourism sector is said to be hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, as local and global travel restrictions force tour operators and lodging facilities to go dark. The National Economic and Development Authority has pegged industry losses at about 60.25 billion for a two-month shutdown, but that has already stretched longer. RELATED: PH limits hotel operations to contain COVID-19 pandemic At present, hotels can only cater to guests with prior bookings, long-staying guests, travelers in transit, distressed or repatriated overseas Filipino workers doing their 14-day quarantine, stranded passengers, health workers, government frontliners, and private employees billeted by their companies. Cebu City and Mandaue City, which continue to experience a high number of infections, remain under enhanced community quarantine until Sunday. Select areas like Metro Manila are under modified ECQ, while the rest of the country is under GCQ. The government's task force will review these classifications this week, with the May 31 deadline in sight. Under the rules, hotels and other accommodation establishments must secure a DOT Certificate of Authority to Operate before resuming commercial operations, including accepting guests and operating in-house or takeout food services. Failure to do so will merit penalties, the agency said. The DOT also requires hotels to submit a report every Friday about their operations, such as the number of staff on duty; the number, nationality, classification, and length of stay of guests; companies or businesses which booked their stay; as well as the procedure for food preparation and delivery services and kitchen safety protocols, among others. Rules are stiff for areas that remain under ECQ, modified ECQ, and GCQ: health workers and OFWs in hotels should have individual rooms. Other tenants can share rooms provided that beds are positioned at least two meters apart and separated by a divider. They are also banned from mingling with occupants from other rooms to prevent possible infections. However, hotels are allowed to maintain a skeleton workforce for in-house staff in GCQ areas. For all locations, minimum health standards such as the wearing of face masks, temperature checks, social distancing, and frequent handwashing must be observed at all time, according to the guidelines. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during his Tuesday media briefing that authorities will be using the province of Bohol with the Chocolate Hills among its popular attractions as a model for tourism amid the pandemic, as the province is close to seeing a further relaxation of stay-at-home rules. RELATED: What will staying in a hotel look like in the near future? Establishments are told to charge the "lowest possible rates" to guests, especially for OFWs and employees housed in these facilities. The DOT warned those slapping "opportunistic" prices that they could be punished. Meanwhile, hotel operations will resume at full capacity in "new normal" areas or those removed from any form of community quarantine subject to minimum health standards imposed on guests and staff. 'New normal' Additional guidelines released by the DOT on Monday allowed hotels, resorts, and similar facilities in areas without any quarantine restrictions to operate like before, but will have to impose strict guidelines on handling guests. This includes requiring guests to fill up health declaration forms, thermal scans, and listen to thorough briefings about COVID-19 prevention. Visitors found with flu-like symptoms or a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius or higher will not be allowed to enter the facility and will be referred to the doctor on duty, the nearest hospital, or the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team covering the area. RELATED: Need a coronavirus refund for your hotel or vacation rental? It's complicated Hotel staff, particularly those at the front desk, must wear protective gear while on duty. Rooms must still be limited to two occupants with a one-meter distance between beds, but the regulator said families will be allowed to share rooms in areas under few restrictions. All rooms must be thoroughly disinfected and left empty for a time after guests check out. Linen and washable items must be soaked in disinfecting solution for at least 15 minutes before being tossed to the laundry, while mattresses and pillows must be disinfected separately. In-room dining is also encouraged, but minibars and other in-room food and beverage are highly discouraged. Buffets are also thumbed down, with the DOT saying that food must be served by restaurant crew straight to diners. Counting on novelty The Tourism Congress of the Philippines said the goal is to ensure that tourists "feel safe when they start coming back," said league president Jose Clemente III. The group backed the DOT's latest policies, saying that tourism-related companies would rather err on the side of caution than risk a spike in infections. "No doubt, we are one of the worst affected industries with revenues practically gone and wiped out. Nonetheless, we continue to be hopeful," Clemente told CNN Philippines. A lot of aspects of the dream vacation will definitely change, but the group hopes it will be enough to balance relaxation and safety. "Guest experience will definitely be different from what we were accustomed to and will remain that way until a vaccine is developed. Some aspects will need getting used to but for people willing to travel, these new guidelines can be presented as a novelty to make the experience more palatable," Clemente added. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. This weeks liftoff of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is a complicated, high-stakes endeavor. Take Mission Control. The astronauts wont just be talking to Houston throughout their mission. Theyll also be talking to Hawthorne, Calif., home to Elon Musks SpaceX. The private company owns the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft that will propel Hurley and Behnken to the International Space Station. So Mission Control teams in three time zones Florida, Texas and California will be involved. And their flight, scheduled to launch at 3:33 p.m. CT Wednesday, is actually a test flight. Its the final major milestone before SpaceX receives NASA certification to begin more routine launches to the space station. More on the Crew Dragon: The beginning of a new era: NASA astronauts prepare to fly in a capsule once again Its a joint project years and countless hours of work in the making, with both NASA and SpaceX helping with program costs, vehicle development and crew training. The final preparations started almost two weeks ago. Here is a glimpse at the timeline, with details on the expected launch and overall mission objectives: May 13: Quarantine Hurley and Behnken went into quarantine. While this is standard protocol to prevent carrying a virus into space, their quarantine has additional safeguards because of the new coronavirus. All who interact with Hurley and Behnken during their two-week quarantine are being screened to ensure they dont have a fever or other COVID-19 symptoms. The astronauts themselves, as well as anyone in direct, close contact with them, are being tested for the virus. May 20: Travel Hurley and Behnken left their homes in the Houston area and flew on a NASA plane to Florida. They are staying in crew quarters at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center. May 22: Static fire test SpaceX secured the Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon spacecraft on top, to the launchpad and then fired the rocket engines, just to make sure everything is working appropriately. May 23: Dress rehearsal Hurley and Behnken donned their suits and were driven to Launch Complex 39A, which was previously used for Apollo missions, including Apollo 11, and space shuttle missions. The astronauts rode an elevator up the access tower, walked across the crew access arm and then climbed into the spacecraft. They closed the door and practiced the pre-launch sequence. May 27: Launch day Its the scheduled launch day, though there could be inclement weather that postpones the launch. Backup windows are available Saturday and Sunday. To prevent spreading the new coronavirus, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is asking that people stay home. They can watch the launch at nasa.gov/nasalive or at spacex.com. May 27: T-4 hours and 15 minutes SpaceX, NASA and the astronauts will have a weather briefing, and then Hurley and Behnken will get suited up in their white-with-black-trim spacesuits. The suits are designed for safety, but also to look cool, said Benji Reed, the SpaceX director of crew mission management. Its just something that we want to make sure is very inspiring as well, but above all its designed to keep the crew safe, he added. May 27: T-3 hours Hurley and Behnken will be transported to the rocket in a Tesla Model X electric SUV, thanks to another one of Musks companies, and prepare for launch. Design note: Like the astronauts spacesuits, the Tesla and the rocket are white and black. Preparing for launch: Astronauts find ways to talk to their kids about the joy - and risks - of blasting off into space May 27: 3:33 p.m. CT If all systems are a go, Hurley and Behnken will become the first NASA astronauts in nine years to launch from U.S. soil into orbit. The last space shuttle launch was July 8, 2011, and NASA has since relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to reach the space station. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Firing Room 4 at Kennedy Space Center oversees countdown. Once the engines ignite, the SpaceX control room at its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., leads Mission Control functions. NASA has employees at Kennedy Space Center and in California weighing into decisions involving risk factors, such as weather, and it provides the satellites for communicating with Hurley and Behnken. NASA and its government partners would also provide search and rescue assistance if its needed. If something goes wrong, NASA has the final say over anything dealing with crew. NASA and SpaceX really have a collaborative role from well before launch all the way through the entire mission, said Zeb Scoville, NASAs lead flight director for the Demo-2 mission. We need them. They need us. This is absolutely teamwork and cooperation. The first part of the vehicles ascent relies on nine first-stage Merlin engines. These will propel the rocket upward for roughly 2 minutes before the first stage separates and makes its way back to Earth; the rockets second stage, powered by one Merlin Vacuum Engine, takes over afterward. The rockets first stage should gently touch down in a vertical landing on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Atlantic Ocean 9 minutes and 22 seconds after liftoff. Roughly 12 minutes into the flight, the rockets second stage will separate, and the Crew Dragon spacecraft will use its Draco thrusters to steer toward the International Space Station. May 27 afternoon/May 28 morning: Testing The Crew Dragons life support systems are among the systems to be tested during its less-than-24-hour journey to the space station. And while the vehicle is fully autonomous, Hurley is tasked with testing its manual controls. May 28: ISS Houstons Johnson Space Center will become the lead Mission Control center as the Crew Dragon approaches the space station and prepares to dock. It will dock autonomously. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, along with cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will welcome Hurley and Behnken aboard the International Space Station. The Demo-2 crew expects to stay onboard for at least one month and up to 119 days, helping with space station maintenance and experiments. The Crew Dragon will be monitored to see how its solar arrays hold up in space (all solar arrays degrade a bit in this harsh environment) and to see how well it can function as a lifeboat should something go wrong and the crew need to take shelter or require a speedy return to Earth. One to four months later: Return to Earth Hurley and Behnken will return to the Crew Dragon and autonomously undock with the space station. Following their reentry into the Earths atmosphere, the spacecraft will deploy two drogue parachutes that help stabilize it and then four main parachutes that further slow down the spacecraft before it lands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. Within one hour, a ship is expected to recover the spacecraft and help the crew out of the capsule. Fundamentally this is what SpaceX was founded for, Reed said. Our goal is to take people to space, to make life multi-planetary. andrea.leinfelder@chron.com twitter.com/a_leinfelder First Crewed Launch Since 2011 After Wednesdays planned launch was postponed due to weather, SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on Saturday at 3:22 p.m. Eastern time. It was the first crewed spacecraft launch in the United States since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. Liftoff May 27 The Crew Dragon capsule rode into orbit on a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. This is the spacecrafts last demonstration flight before NASA certifies SpaceX to make regular flights to the space station. In a previous demonstration flight, an unoccupied Crew Dragon docked with the space station in March 2019. Lifting off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Two Astronauts NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are the first to test the Crew Dragon in orbit. Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on March 30. SpaceX Each astronaut flew twice on the space shuttle: Mr. Behnken in 2008 and 2010, and Mr. Hurley in 2009 and 2011 for the last space shuttle mission. Seats for Seven Crew Dragon has more room and can carry more people than the Apollo capsules that flew astronauts to the moon and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that ferry people to and from the space station. Future flights of the Crew Dragon would carry four astronauts to the station, and the spacecraft can hold up to seven. Apollo Command Module Crew Dragon Apollo Command Module Crew Dragon Apollo Command Module Crew Dragon Two astronauts and a cosmonaut tucked inside a Soyuz descent module in 2010. NASA A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three people to the space station in March 2019. NASA Flying By Touch Crew Dragon also introduces a different interface than previous spacecraft, using a touch screen in place of the many knobs, buttons and switches that once controlled the space shuttle and Apollo spacecraft. Michael Collins inside an Apollo simulator in 1969. NASA Sally Ride aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983. NASA Inside the Crew Dragon. SpaceX Launch Escape Test Jan. 2020 In January the Crew Dragon passed a major test of its safety features when an unoccupied capsule separated from its Falcon 9 rocket after liftoff and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean. Liftoff on Jan. 19, 2020. NASA/Tony Gray The escape system is meant to carry the Crew Dragon capsule to safety if there is a problem with the rocket during launch. Composite image from NASA Inaugural Flight March 2019 Last March, an unoccupied Crew Dragon made a successful round trip to the International Space Station. Sunset on the launch pad. NASA/Joel Kowsky Early morning liftoff. NASA/Darrel McCall A backlit Crew Dragon approaches the space station. NASA/Anne McClain The mission was an end-to-end test of the spacecraft hardware and procedures, and it included the first automatic docking with the space station by an American spacecraft. Crew Dragons docking mechanism, photographed from the space station. NASA Dragon Resupply Missions A previous, uncrewed iteration of the Dragon capsule now known as Dragon 1 resupplied the space station from 2012 to 2020. The final launch of a Dragon 1 cargo capsule was in March. A Dragon cargo capsule approaches the space station in 2016. NASA A Dragon cargo capsule captured by the stations Canadarm in 2013. NASA Previous SpaceX Launches Nose cones Dragon capsule Second stage First stage Landing legs Dragon 1 Falcon 9 Falcon Heavy Crew Dragon Saturday Abort test 2020 Test flight 2019 2018 Feb. 2018 First launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. Bars show past SpaceX launches 2017 Failed Sept. 2016 A Falcon 9 explodes on its launchpad during fueling. 2016 Failed June 2015 A Falcon 9 breaks up in flight. 2015 2014 Sept. 2013 First launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 designed to carry satellites into orbit. 2013 May 2012 An uncrewed Dragon capsule is the first private spacecraft to dock at the I.S.S. 2012 Final launch of the Space Shuttle 2011 Second stage 2010 First stage Falcon 1 July 2009 Final launch of the Falcon 1 rocket. Sept. 2008 Falcon 1 is the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to enter Earth orbit. 2009 Failed Aug. 2008 A third Falcon 1 launch fails when the first and second stages collide during separation. 2008 Failed March 2007 A Falcon 1 rocket makes it to space, but is lost soon after launching. 2007 Failed March 2006 The first Falcon 1 launch fails because of a fuel line leak. 2006 Nose cones Dragon capsule Second stage First stage Landing legs Dragon 1 Falcon 9 Falcon Heavy Crew Dragon Relative size of the Space Shuttle Saturday Abort test 2020 Test flight 2019 2018 Feb. 2018 First launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket. Bars show past SpaceX launches 2017 Failed Sept. 2016 A Falcon 9 explodes on its launchpad during fueling. 2016 Failed June 2015 A Falcon 9 breaks up in flight. 2015 2014 Sept. 2013 First launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 designed to carry satellites into orbit. 2013 May 2012 An uncrewed Dragon capsule is the first private spacecraft to dock at the I.S.S. 2012 Space Shuttle Hurley Final launch of the Space Shuttle 2011 Second stage Behnken 2010 First stage Falcon 1 Hurley July 2009 Final launch of the Falcon 1 rocket. Sept. 2008 Falcon 1 is the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to enter Earth orbit. 2009 Failed Aug. 2008 A third Falcon 1 launch fails when the first and second stages collide during separation. Behnken 2008 Failed March 2007 A Falcon 1 rocket makes it to space, but is lost soon after launching. 2007 Failed March 2006 The first Falcon 1 launch fails because of a fuel line leak. 2006 July 2005 Return to flight after Columbia disaster. 2005 Safety improvements for the shuttles and their external tanks 2004 Feb. 2003 Loss of Columbia and crew during re-entry. 2003 2002 Dec. 2001 Shuttle carries flag from 9/11 site. 2001 2000 1999 April 1998 Final Spacelab mission. 1998 1997 1996 June 1995 First shuttle docking with the Russian space station Mir. 1995 1994 1993 Sept. 1992 Mae Carol Jemison is the first African-American woman in space. 1992 1991 April 1990 Hubble Space Telescope deployed. 1990 1989 Sept. 1988 Return to flight after the Challenger disaster. 1988 A Presidential commission recommends changes in the shuttle program 1987 Jan. 1986 Loss of Challenger and crew during launch. 1986 1985 Feb. 1984 First untethered spacewalk. 1984 June 1983 Sally Ride is the first American woman in space. 1983 1982 April 1981 First shuttle mission. 1981 Cover image: Artists impression of the Crew Dragon, by SpaceX. Sturs Saigon at War Employs Rare Take on U.S., Vietnam Conflict Tue, 05/26/2020 - 08:52am | By: David Tisdale In her latest book, University of Southern Mississippi (USM) History program professor and Vietnam War expert Dr. Heather Stur looks through an often ignored prism to more thoroughly understand the conflict that bedeviled both the U.S. and Vietnam through the 1960s and beyond. Saigon at War: South Vietnam and the Global Sixties (Cambridge University Press), examines -- through the vantage point of the people of South Vietnam -- the intersection of politics in the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon; armed conflict with the communist North Vietnamese; and the fledgling democratic nations case for legitimacy in the international court of public opinion. Saigon at War is one of the first books that takes South Vietnam and South Vietnamese political actors seriously in the broader context of the Vietnam War, Dr. Stur contends. Much of the previous scholarship emphasized American experiences and decision-making regarding the war and nation building. Historians who have examined Vietnamese perspectives have emphasized voices from Hanoi and the southern communist movement, she said. These approaches to the Vietnam War have left out an important angle that reveals a diversity of opinions among South Vietnamese about what Vietnams postcolonial future should look like. A communist victory was not inevitable, and Hanois Communist Party did not represent the views of all Vietnamese. Dr. Stur posits in Saigon at War that South Vietnam had a working democracy that failed because of political repression at the hands of South Vietnamese government regimes, not as a result of widespread commitment to communism among the Vietnamese population. As a nation that developed under the guidance of the U.S., South Vietnam offered its citizens a taste of liberty, only to snatch it away from them when free speech appeared too dangerous to government stability, she said. Harsher state and police crackdowns on opposition groups in the late 1960s radicalized some Catholics, students, and other activists, pushing them deeper into the camp that supported reconciliation and an end to war, even if it gave control of Vietnam to communists. Dr. Stur conducted much of the research for Saigon at War while as a Fulbright scholar in Vietnam in 2013-14. She learned Vietnamese while in graduate school, and returned to language study in Vietnam, working in an immersive environment. Her Vietnamese language research materials were housed in two archives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Vietnams National Archives II and the General Sciences Library (formerly the national library of the Republic of Vietnam). While there, she analyzed South Vietnamese government and military documents, newspapers, magazines, police and court reports, provincial reports, political newsletters, intelligence reports, diplomatic cables, and letters from citizens to various government offices in the 1960s and 1970s. Back in the U.S., she augmented her Vietnamese research with documents from the U.S. National Archives in College Park, Maryland, and the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University. Dr. Stur said an early inspiration for Saigon at War was her faculty colleague Dr. Andy Wiest's book Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN, a recipient of the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History. Andy was one of the first historians to approach the South Vietnamese military as a legitimate actor in the Vietnam War, and his book made me wonder what the Vietnam War story would look like if we expanded our understandings of South Vietnam further by incorporating political and civilian perspectives into the narrative, Dr. Stur said. Dr. Wiest said that while many write about the American involvement in the Vietnam War, few write about the South Vietnamese aspect of what was, after all, their war. Fewer still write about the South Vietnamese civilian population. And even fewer still write about that side of the war having conducted research on site in Saigon, Wiest continued. So Dr. Stur's book is something of a unicorn, and will help fundamentally to rewrite our historical understanding of the Vietnam War. A Fellow in USMs Dale Center, Dr. Stur is a recipient of USMs prestigious Gen. Buford Blount Professorship in Military History and Nina Bell Suggs Professorship. Her previous works include Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era, among other books and articles. For more information about her work at USM, visit https://www.usm.edu/faculty-directory/profile.php?id=1936736; for information about the Dale Center for the Study of War and Society, visit https://www.usm.edu/dale-center-war-society/. A charity worker was found dead in her home with Covid-19 a day after failing to join a live-streamed memorial service for a former colleague, her friends said today. Tributes have been paid to Josephine Mukanjira, 38, who had been self-isolating in her flat in Rainham, east London, with coronavirus symptoms. Fears were raised for her welfare when she did not attend an online ceremony for friend Mona Mahmoud, 42, an interpreter for charity Citizens UK who died with Covid-19 a week earlier. Ms Mukanjiras partner is understood to have raised the alarm after visiting her flat when she did not answer the phone. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene on April 17. Originally from Uganda, she had been an administrator for Citizens UK, based in Whitechapel, for more than a decade before taking a job as an accountant. Her friend Bekele Woyecha, senior project manager at Citizens UK, said: I called her to tell her about Mona and she said she already knew and was upset by it. I told her about the memorial service and we spoke about life, the lockdown, everything you would with a friend and she said she would join the service the next day. When she didnt I was surprised because she was not the sort of person who would miss something like that. When I got the call days later that she had been found dead I couldnt believe it. This virus has taken two of the strongest, kindest women I know. Mona Mahmoud Neil Jameson, the charitys founder and director, described her as the very best of humanity... a quiet, inspirational leader. So much missed. Ms Mukanjira was also a church warden for St Martins in Plaistow. Rev Jeanette Meadway said: Jo was very organised and welcoming member of the church, always willing to help. She always seemed so fit and healthy. She had been ill quite early on before the lockdown, but seemed to be recovering. Fellow church warden Manuel Yemoh added: Josephine was a dedicated member of our church for about eight years. She was the cornerstone of anything that happened in the church. She was running the show behind the scenes and keeping our church going through many difficult times. She attended church with a smile every Sunday and knew every member personally. Her passing has left a hole in the church which it going to take a long time to fill. However we know she is smiling down on us to make sure we keep on going. Family and friends around the world joined a memorial service streamed on Zoom, including her mother and extended family in Uganda. Mr Woyecha, who is fundraising for Ms Mukanjiras family, added: Jo lost both her brothers and was supporting their children and her mum. We want to do everything we can to help her mum. A Russian military helicopter has crashed in Russia's northeastern Chukotka Peninsula, killing four people. The Defense Ministry said the crash early on the morning of May 26 most likely was caused by a technical malfunction. Chukotka Governor Roman Kopin said the aircraft crashed at the Ugolnyye Kopi airport near the city of Anadyr. Emergency crews are now at the site, he added. "There were three crew members and a technician aboard. All died," Kopin said. The Mi-8 is a Soviet-designed twin-turbine helicopter that is widely flown in Russia and some 50 countries around the world. It is used largely for the transportation of military personnel and civilians and has been involved in several crashes in recent times. On May 19, an Mi-8 military helicopter crashed near Moscow, killing three crew members. In 2018, an Mi-8 helicopter crashed after takeoff in Siberia, killing all 18 people on board including three crew members. In 2013, a Mi-8 helicopter operated by Polar Airlines crash in Siberia, killing 25 passengers and three crew. Based on reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti Twitter refuses to take down President Trump's tweet that accuse 'Morning Joe's' Joe Scarborough of murder. CNN reported that the company wouldn't be pulling down the president's tweets about the death of Scarborough's late staffer, Lori Klausutis, even after her husband Timothy Klausutis wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking they be removed. 'Please delete those tweets,' Timothy Klausutis pleaded. 'My wife deserves better.' A spokesperson for Twitter said the company won't be pulling down the president's tweets on Lori Klausutis' death, which Trump continued to write Tuesday morning. 'We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,' the spokesperson said. 'We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.' Timothy Klausutis (pictured), the husband of the late Lori Klausutis, has asked Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey to remove President Trump's tweet that allege she was murdered by her boss Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' President Trump continued to tweet about Lori Klausutis' death on Tuesday, again suggesting that Joe Scarborough may have been behind her death For weeks, President Trump has pushed a conspiracy theory on his Twitter account, suggesting a Congressional aide for Joe Scarborough, then a Republican congressman, died in a suspicious way These three tweets, two from President Trump and one from Donald Trump Jr., are referenced in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey penned by Timothy Klausutis, the widower of Joe Scarborough's staffer who died in his Florida Congressional office in 2001 Joe Scarborough (right), with his wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski (left), served in Congress as a Republican, but has become a vocal critic of President Trump and his former political party Timothy Klausutis wrote to the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey (pictured), but a Twitter spokesperson said Tuesday that the site would not be pulling Trump's tweets Police officers investigate the scene of Rep. Joe Scarborough's Fort Walton Beach office after employee Lori Klausutis was found dead in July 2001 Joe Scarborough was in Washington when Lori Klausutis was found dead inside his district office on Fort Walton Beach The New York Times obtained a copy of Timothy Klausutis' letter. As Timothy Klausutis recounts in the letter, Lori Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition and fell and hit her head on her desk at work, where her body was found the next morning. Lori Klausutis died at age 28 in 2001. She had an undiagnosed heart condition and fell and hit her head at work Lori Klausutis was 28-years-old when she died in 2001, and was a staffer in the Florida office of Rep. Joe Scarborough, who resigned from Congress later that year. President Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have repeated a conspiracy theory that Scarborough, now the host of MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' was responsible for her death. He was in Washington at the time. Scarborough, while a Republican in Congress, has become extremely critical of the Trump administration. In a May 12 tweet, the president wrote, 'When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so,' Trump tweeted. 'Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn't it obvious? What's happening now? A total nut job!' the president added. In a May 4 tweet Trump wrote, '"Concast" should open up a long overdue Florida Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough,' he said, referring to NBC's parent company, Comcast. 'I know him and Crazy Mika well used them beautifully in the last Election, dumped them nicely, and will state on the record thathe is "nuts." Besides, bad ratings!' the presidenet continued, referencing Scarborough's co-host and wife Mika Brzezinski. When MSNBC's public relations tweeted that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden was going to come on 'Morning Joe' to talk about the sexual assault allegations made against him by former Congressional staffer Tara Reade, Donald Trump Jr. chimed in, 'What show is Joe going to go on to discuss Lori Klausutis?' These are the specific tweets Timothy Klausutis asked Dorsey to delete from the platform. 'I have mourned my wife every day since her passing. I have tried to honor her memory and our marriage. As her husband, I feel that one of my marital obligations is to protect her memory as I would have protected her in life,' he wrote in the letter. 'There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died. I realize that may sound like an exaggeration, unfortunately it is the verifiable truth. Because of this, I have struggled to move forward with my life,' he continued. He talked about how he didn't want Lori's niece and two nephews, who never met their aunt before she died, to meet her this way. On Saturday, President Trump also tweeted about Lori Klausutis' death, suggesting it should be investigated Donald Trump Jr. complained abut Kara Swisher's opinion piece for The New York Times, in which she agreed with Timothy Klausutis that President Trump's tweet on his late wife's death should be removed from Twitter 'I'm a research engineer and not a lawyer, but reviewed all of Twitter's rules and terms of service. The President's tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) - is a violation of Twitter's community rules and terms of service,' he argued. 'An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed.' 'I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain,' Timothy Klausutis wrote. Brzezinski said last week that she also planned to have a conversation with Dorsey over the president's tweets. 'Donald, you're a sick person, you're a sick person,' she said on 'Morning Joe,' before turning her attention to Twitter. 'Twitter, you shouldn't be allowing this, and you should be taking these tweets down and you should be ashamed of yourself, you will be hearing from me on this.' Twitter lets Trump's tweets fly by arguing that he is a public figure and what he writes is news. As of Tuesday morning, Trump's tweets remained on the website - and he continued to tweet about Lori Klausutis' death. 'The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus,' the president wrote Tueday morning. 'In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most.' 'So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I wont bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?' the president added. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted to complain that the New York Times was calling for the president to be censored. 'The NY Times is calling for Twitter to censor the Pesident of the United States. If they can push for that who wont they try to censor next?' Trump Jr. wrote, misspelling president. 'If they can push for that who wont they try to censor next?' 'Given silicon valleys leftist tendencies you all better watch out, they are coming for all of you,' he added. Kara Swisher, the reporter who penned the column that first referenced Klausutis' letter, had argued that the company needed to step in and play a bigger, truth-telling role. 'The company tends to be hands-off when a Trump controversy erupts, relying on a tenet that he is a public figure and also that it cannot sort out what is truth and a lie and is therefore better off letting its community argue it out,' she wrote. 'While that might work when it comes to some issues, it has broken down here.' Swisher said banning Trump from Twitter, like some have suggested, would be 'too drastic,' and labeling the content misinformation wouldn't stop the spread of the lie. 'I am supportive of the suggestion Mr. Klausutis makes in his letter to simply remove the offending tweets,' she wrote. A young father has been airlifted to hospital after allegedly being attacked by a teenage boy outside his home in the states Pilbara region. The 37-year-old Nickol man was found by his wife lying in their neighbours carport with serious head injuries in the early hours of Sunday morning. The young father was airlifted to Perth following the assault outside his Nickol home. Credit:GoFundMe Corey Powles was rushed to Karratha Hospital and later flown to Royal Perth Hospital for treatment. WA Police have charged a 15-year-old boy with grievous bodily harm following the incident. Two days after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said other states will also need permission from the state for engaging its workers, his government said Tuesday that it would not incorporate, in the migration commission bye-laws, the prior permission clause for states seeking to employ manpower from UP. The government also said it was working on modalities to set up the commission to provide jobs and social security to migrant workers returning to the state. It has named the migration commission as the Kamgar/shramik (sewajojan and rozgar) kalyan ayog (Workers/labourers employment welfare commission). About 26 lakh migrants have already returned to the state and an exercise to map their skills is being carried out to help them get jobs. On Tuesday, Adityanath discussed the modalities for setting up the commission and told his officers to complete the skill mapping exercise in 15 days. The chief minister discussed the modalities for setting up the commission, as well. There will be no provision requiring other states to seek UP governments prior permission for employing our manpower. The commission is being set up with to provide jobs and social security to the workers. We will also link the migrants to the government schemes to provide them houses and loans etc, said a senior officer, who didnt want to be named. Adityanath said a letter should be sent to all state governments to find out about migrant workers willing to come back to Uttar Pradesh. Speaking at a webinar on Sunday, the CM had said: The migration commission will work in the interest of migrant workers. If any other state wants UPs manpower, they cannot take them away just like that but will have to seek permission of the UP government. The way our migrant workers were ill-treated in other states, the UP government will take their insurance, social security in its hands now. The state government will stand by them wherever they work, whether in Uttar Pradesh, other states or other countries. The permission statement sparked a row with some political leaders and parties questioning it. Earlier in the day, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi had severely criticized Adityanaths stand saying the workers were not the chief ministers personal property. It is very unfortunate that the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh views India in such a way. These people are not his personal property. They are not the personal property of Uttar Pradesh. These people are Indian citizens and they have the right to decide what they want to do and they have the right to live the life they want to live, Gandhi said. On Monday, MNS chief Raj Thackeray had taken on Adityanath with a warning that if UP insists on permission before other states can to employ workers from there, then any migrant entering Maharashtra would need to take permissions from us, from the Maharashtra state, our police force. Shri Adityanath needs to take cognizance of this. Also, the Maharashtra government needs to look into this matter seriously. In future, whenever migrants do enter our state, they will need to be registered and their personal details and identification proof will need to be submitted to the police station. Only if these requirements are met, will they be allowed to enter Maharashtra. Explaining Adityanaths point on the issue, the officer quoted earlier said, The chief minister is deeply moved by the condition of migrants. They have been treated badly by other states. So, when the CM spoke about the need for seeking UP governments permission, he did so in the role of a guardian for workers. Its only the CMs concern for the migrants that came out as a political statement, said the officer while asserting that Yogis statement was in no way out of context. Meanwhile, CB Pandey, a legal expert, said: The migration commission can work as a welfare body and watch the interests of the workmen. But most of the migrant workers are employed in the unorganized sector. The state government can regulate only the recruitment agencies, if any. In more than 99 per cent of cases, no recruitment agencies are involved. Majority of workers of the unorganized sector look for jobs through their acquaintances or family members and regulating them may not be possible. Since the Covid-19 outbreak was first reported in China in December 2019, some 5.58m people have been infected with the virus, leading to 348,000 deaths globally as of May 25. Although international travel ground to a halt in the first quarter of 2020, domestic tourism could become a popular approach to stimulating economic growth as restrictions are eased in many countries around the world. Kick-starting travel The revival of domestic travel in emerging markets is being led by countries that have been comparatively successful in avoiding large-scale outbreaks of the virus, and which rely on tourism for a significant portion of GDP. One such country is Vietnam, which by May 25 had limited Covid-19 cases to 326 and had not experienced a virus-related death. These results are remarkable considering Vietnams population of 97m and its close geographical and economic ties with China. With international travel expected to remain severely limited for the foreseeable future, in mid-May the government launched the Vietnamese people travel to Vietnam destinations programme, designed to stimulate domestic tourism. Running until the end of the year, the programme aims to develop specific tourism products and tours that cater to the needs of local travellers during the pandemic. Meanwhile, airlines, travel agencies, resorts and hotels are offering discounts of up to 50% to encourage internal travel while incoming flights are still banned. Elsewhere in South-east Asia, Thailand which last year welcomed around 40m tourists, making it the most popular destination in the region has also outlined efforts to incentivise domestic travel from July. Some of the BT1trn ($31.3bn) that is expected to be borrowed by the government in 2020-21 is likely to be channelled towards incentives and subsidies to help stimulate the industry. Meanwhile, the Philippines, which in 2018 derived 12.7% of GDP from tourism, has outlined a series of safety measures, including sanitation and physical distancing regulations, necessary for the re-establishment of domestic tourism. The importance of domestic tourism to the Philippines had been growing before the pandemic, with the country recording 110m domestic tourists in 2018, an increase of 14.1% from the previous year. Outside of Asia, Egypt allowed hotels to open for domestic travellers in early May, albeit with a maximum 25% capacity, which is to be increased to 50% as of June 1. How big will the impact be? Although domestic tourism will undoubtedly offer some relief to emerging economies that have suffered under the virus lockdown, it is unlikely to fully compensate for the losses incurred from international travel restrictions. The global economy is expected to contract by 3% this year and emerging markets by an average of 1%, according to the IMF. Furthermore, widespread job losses around the world have placed significant pressure on household finances, leaving many people either unwilling or unable to spend money on travel. This will disproportionately impact lower- to middle-income countries, where tourism was previously geared more towards foreign visitors. For example, while tourism accounted for around 12% of Vietnams GDP last year, domestic spending only made up an estimated 40-45% of this. As such, efforts will need to be made to not just encourage more domestic trips, but also to entice domestic tourists into spending more when they visit local destinations not an easy task considering the current pressures on household finances. Similarly, in Thailand tourism accounts for around 17.4% of direct and indirect GDP, of which just 6% comes from domestic tourists. Meanwhile, estimates have suggested that the Philippines and Morocco could lose around $9bn and $3.5bn, respectively, in tourism receipts this year. Significant restrictions placed on tourism operators such as maximum occupancy levels in hotels, and stringent health and safety regulations is also likely to dampen tourism and hospitality revenue in the short and medium term, with businesses having to consider price hikes to compensate for reduced capacity. Next step: international travel While the immediate focus is on domestic travel, selective international travel will be the next step as the health care risks and pressures ease. As part of so-called travel bubble plans, some countries have looked towards opening international borders to countries that have successfully limited the spread of the virus. World leaders in this regard have been the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which in mid-May opened their common borders to kick-start movement between the countries. Meanwhile the governments of Australia and New Zealand which have together limited Covid-19 cases to 8300, and fatalities to less than 125 have discussed creating their own travel bubble. In terms of emerging countries, tourism officials in Vietnam have suggested that the country could create its own travel bubble with Australia and New Zealand, or alternatively with the key tourist markets of China and South Korea. Indonesian officials, meanwhile, have said that Bali may begin a phased reopening to foreign tourists at some point between June and October, if the island can demonstrate sustained success in controlling the virus. By Oxford Business Group More Top Reads From Safehaven.com: Next year, state lawmakers will redraw the congressional district maps based on the 2020 census, a process mandated by the Constitution. In anticipation of this new redistricting cycle, Slate is revamping our gerrymander puzzle game from 2013 as part of our Who Counts? initiative. Well be releasing new puzzles over the upcoming weeks, highlighting the worst and weirdest gerrymanders in the country. Find out how quickly you can put these states back together and learn everything thats at stake in the next round of redistricting. Advertisement Please enable Javascript in your browser to view Slate interactives. This map contains one of the most notorious and heavily litigated gerrymanders in American history. It allowed Republicans to seize 10 of North Carolinas 13 congressional districts, even when both parties received an equal share of the statewide vote. Thomas Hofeller, the GOPs redistricting guru, drew it in consultation with state Rep. David Lewis, a Republican. Lewis did not conceal his goal; while defending the map, he declared: I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country. The plan packed as many Democrats as possible into three blue districts, then distributed the rest throughout dark-red districts where their votes wouldnt matter. One line cuts through the middle of Asheville to ensure that the Democratic city cannot elect a Democratic representative. Voting rights advocates once held a fun run along the district line that divides Asheville into two districts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a challenge to the map, holding that federal courts may not invalidate partisan gerrymanders. Months later, however, a state court struck down the map under the North Carolina Constitution. The court relied on Hofellers secret files, which his daughter released after his death. These damning documents proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hofeller and Lewis chief goal while drawing the map was to dilute Democratic votes. The court ordered the North Carolina legislature to redraw congressional districts without using racial or partisan data. It complied. And while the new map isnt perfect, it is vastly fairer than the previous version. In November, it will let many North Carolinians participate in a competitive election for the first time this decade. Try the new map below: Please enable Javascript in your browser to view Slate interactives. Were these too easy? Try the rest of our gerrymander puzzles here. New Delhi, May 26 : A massive fire broke out on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday in the slums of the Tughlaqabad area in south east Delhi in which over 250 shanties were gutted, however, no one was injured, fire officials said. Atul Garg, Chief Fire Officer, told IANS, "We came to know about the fire in the slums around 12.15 a.m. following which 28 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. And the fire was brought under control by 4 a.m." He said, the Tughalaqbad slums have over 500 shanties, out of which over 250 have been destroyed in the fire. He said, it took time for the fire tenders to reach the spot as it was on the hills, but the fire was doused within four hours and by 8 a.m. cooling off procedure has also been completed. When asked if there is any casualty in the incident, he said, "No injury or casualty has been reported." He also said that as of now the actual reason for the fire is not known. "But we are trying to find out the reason of the fire," Garg added. Speaking to IANS, South East Deputy Commissioner of Police R.P. Meena said, "In the night it seemed that almost 500 shanties were gutted. However, in the morning it became clear that only 250 shanties have been gutted in fire." He said, the South East district police after receiving the call also rushed the ambulances and the local police team in the area for rescue operation. Meena further said that very few people were residing in the shanties, and the people came out of their shanties after the fire broke out in one of them. Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but... The light plane banked sharply to circle back over the plains. The pilot had spotted something below: antelope, first one, then many, the stragglers of a million-strong migration across this vast wilderness. But there are other wonders out here on the savanna. A trio of extremely rare Nubian giraffe lumber by, the seldom-seen, majestic giants casting long shadows over the grasslands. "There's only a few hundred left in the world," said Albert Schenk, of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), surveying the landscape below. "So you're seeing something spectacular," he added. This is South Sudan: one of Africa's wildlife Edens, a global biodiversity hotspot wedged between the continent's tropical jungles and dry, desolate deserts. But it's almost never seen by outsiders. Ruinous civil wars have left South Sudan with few paved roads or airstrips. It is the size of France but huge swathes are isolated or impenetrable. These are some of the least-explored, and most remarkable, wild habitats in Africa. Against the odds South Sudan boasts Africa's biggest wetland, the Sudd, and its largest intact savanna, a stretch of untouched wilderness east of the White Nile that reaches all the way to Ethiopia. Every year, some 1.2 million antelopes and gazelles cross this enormous ecosystem -- at 95,000 square kilometres (37,000 square miles), it is the size of Hungary. Many endangered species survived -- against the odds -- decades of war and near-decimation by poachers . By TONY KARUMBA (AFP) The mega-herds leave miles-long scars in the grasslands, clearly visible from the sky. In scale and scope, the migration is rivalled only by the fabled wildebeest crossing in the Mara and Serengeti. But South Sudan is also custodian to hardy populations of lions, elephants and countless other endangered species that survived -- against all odds -- decades of war and near-decimation by poachers. Vanishing species "There are still wild animals in South Sudan," said former wildlife minister Alfred Akwoch Omoli, the shelf behind him decorated with miniatures of elephants and giraffes. "It may be the envy of other countries that we have such animals." This natural heritage, however, is under constant threat, and wildlife conservation, where it is done at all, is difficult and dangerous. Researchers and rangers contend with rebel militias and well-armed poachers in remote, often lawless terrain where government control is weak. Some 15 percent of the country is national parks and reserves, land in theory protected by law, but overseen by an underfunded wildlife department stretched too thin to police its realm. About 15 percent of South Sudan is national parks and reserves, land in theory protected by law, but overseen by an underfunded wildlife department. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP) On the day an AFP team visited Boma National Park, before the coronavirus pandemic, rangers unfurled two leopard skins seized from a local man who caught the endangered cats in a snare. "There used to be plenty of wildlife here, living close to the community," William Til, the acting park warden in Boma, deep in the country's eastern interior, told AFP. "Before the war people would use dogs, or spears, and just catch a few animals, and were satisfied with that. But now with automatic rifles, it's become harder for wildlife. Bigger species have vanished from the area." In the decades-long war for liberation from Sudan, zebras and rhinos, once abundant in the southern region that became the new nation of South Sudan in 2011, were hunted to extinction. Antelope and giraffe were slaughtered to feed soldiers on all sides. Elephants -- numbering some 80,000, 50 years ago -- were wholesale massacred for ivory to fund the fighting. Their numbers are reduced to an estimated 2,000 today. Sights on safari Protecting the country's wildlife isn't a burning priority for the fragile state, which only this year formally ended a six-year civil war that killed close to 400,000 people. However the government is aware of the benefits it could bring. Game wardens with leopard skins, confiscated from bush hunters in surrounding rural communities who poach for subsistence and traditional trophies. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP) South Sudan's tattered economy is hinged on oil and any other ways of generating jobs and revenue -- such as conservation management or ecotourism -- will be critical in future, Omoli said. "What does it (the wildlife) do? It brings tourists... They will pay the money, and the money will be used for development," Omoli, who was replaced in February when South Sudan formed a new coalition government, told AFP. South Sudan takes inspiration from neighbours like Uganda and Rwanda. Also convulsed by past conflict, today they are safe and popular destinations for tourists and their holiday money. A viable tourism sector could take years, even decades, to develop and would require significant outside investment, likely to be scarce given the impact that the coronavirus has wreaked on the global economy. Conflict conservation Schenk said that maintaining peace and security, which has so far eluded South Sudan in its short and troubled history, was critical to wildlife and habitat protection. Years of conservation and community work at Boma National Park derailed in 2013 when fighting erupted between government and rebel forces, turning the savanna into a battlefield. The rangers deserted, and the park warden was executed. "Our compound was completely looted," said Schenk, of the field site WCS established in Boma in 2008 to spearhead their programme. Protecting the country's wildlife isn't a burning priority for the fragile state but the government is aware of the benefits it could bring. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP) "The only thing left was the concrete slabs on which we had our safari tents. We had to build it all up again." But a peace deal was signed in September 2018, halting armed combat, and aerial surveys and camera traps revealed all was not lost. The wildlife endured, hiding out in mighty swamps and dense bushland, just as during past conflicts. And the great columns of antelope and gazelle that first put South Sudan on the global conservation map continued their circular movements. Cause for hope The country's wild reaches keep throwing up surprises, too, buoying optimism for the future. In recent years, rare and elusive species like bongos, painted dogs and red colobus monkeys have been photographed by conservation group Fauna and Flora International, inviting speculation about what else lurks in this underexplored land. "There's a hell of a lot more out there than we know yet," said Schenk. A viable tourism sector could take years, even decades, to develop in South Sudan and would require significant outside investment. By TONY KARUMBA (AFP) Last year, the US government donated $7.6 million to a three-year programme to protect wildlife and spur economic opportunities in the Boma-Bandingilo landscape, including through ecotourism. WCS has also co-drafted legislation to expand protection to the migratory corridor between Boma and Bandingilo national parks -- critical given oil and mineral claims in the area, and "pressure" to open habitats to exploration, Schenk said. Til, patrolling on foot in his fatigues, clings to hope that conservation will one day "help in bringing development" to this remote corner of South Sudan, where lions growl in the darkness. "We're not giving up," he said. A well-known market intelligence company, Infiniti Research, has announced the completion of its latest article how to improve scalability and compete in the future. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005635/en/ "The United States must now focus on positioning its manufacturing sector to leverage existing opportunities and prepare to compete in the future rather than making attempts to recreate the past or maintain status quo," says a market research analyst at Infiniti Research. The US manufacturing industry is quite different from what it was probably a decade or two ago. The erosion of American manufacturing companies has contributed to approximately two-thirds of the fall in labor share of US GDP. This is primarily due to the fact that the output growth in the US manufacturing industry has been largely concentrated on a few industries such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace. Despite the headwinds in the sector, some of the largest US manufacturers have managed to thrive, but several small and mid-size manufacturing companies are facing the heat. The COVID-19 outbreak has caused a significant threat to global manufacturing industry. Our business continuity support solutions can help you to combat the business impact of COVID-19. Request a FREE proposal here. According to industry experts at Infiniti Research, some of the key strategies to improve scalability and compete in the future include: Deeper global engagement: Emerging markets open up new opportunities for companies in the US manufacturing industry to win customer loyalty and build their customer base. However, the number of US companies that sell abroad are much lesser when compared to other developed economies. Small and mid-size companies in the US manufacturing industry must gain a deeper and strategic understanding of the opportunities that their counterparts enjoy in advanced economies and turn it to their advantage. Improve adoption of digital technology: The US manufacturing industry has been relatively slow in the adoption of digital technologies. This has caused a significant impact on the industry's productivity performance. When compared to nations such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea the adoption of advanced technologies and robotics in the manufacturing industry has been comparatively lower in the United States. In order to capitalize on modern technology, manufacturers have to capture, analyze, and integrate data flows across operations. Also, consider upgrading and replacing some outdated machinery with the latest ones. Contact us to know the potential impact of COVID-19 on your business and for action plans to respond to the coronavirus crisis. About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. To know more, visit: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/about-us View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005635/en/ Contacts: Infiniti Research Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 844 778 0600 UK: +44 203 893 3400 https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-us ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Findit, Inc a Nevada corporation (OTC PINK:FDIT) now offers Lifetime Brands hand sanitizer through its site UrbanCBDCollective.com. Findit also purchased 2 domains, KillerHandSanitizer.com and KillItHandSanitizer.com. The domain names were secured to explore the option of building out its own brand. Findit provides online sales of its CBD Topical Lotions and Oils through UrbanCBDCollective.com and is now providing consumers the option to purchase hand sanitizer under the name Lifetime Brands Hand Sanitizer. The site is set up to accommodate individual consumers as well and business owners. Shipping is provided from Georgia and the product is manufactured here in the United States. In 2019, Findit launched the brand Urban CBD Collective and sold to major retailers; TJ Maxx and Marshalls. This provided Findit with brand recognition of Urban CBD Collective by being available in up to 2,000 plus stores. Findit is exploring this opportunity with hand sanitizer during this time due to a lack of retailers having stock available at all times. Findit Inc., has secured competitive price points from suppliers and will be able to maintain an inventory that will provide profit margins that will assist Findit in the possibility of a new revenue stream from hand sanitizer that could help its bottom line margins. About Findit, Inc. Findit.com which is a Social Media Content Management Platform that provides an interactive search engine for all content posted in Findit to appear in Findit search. The site is an open platform that provides access to Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines access to its content posted to Findit so it can be indexed in these search engines as well. Findit provides Members the ability to post, share and manage their content. Once they have posted in Findit, we ensure the content gets indexed in Findit Search results. Findit provides an option for anyone to submit URLs that they want indexed in Findit search result, along with posting status updates through Findit Right Now. Status Updates posted in Findit can be crawled by outside search engines which can result in additional organic indexing. All posts on Findit can be shared to other social and bookmarking sites by members and non-members. Findit provides Real Estate Agents the ability to create their own Findit Site where they can pull in their listing and others through their IDX account. Findit, Inc., is focused on the development of monetized Internet-based web products that can provide an increase in brand awareness of our members. Findit, Inc., trades under the stock symbol FDIT on the OTC Pinksheets. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), including statements regarding potential sales, the success of the company's business, as well as statements that include the word believe or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Findit, Inc. to differ materially from those implied or expressed. CONTACT: Clark St. Amant 404-443-3224 SOURCE: Findit, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591408/Findit-Inc-Now-Offers-Hand-Sanitizer-Through-Online-Store-Urban-CBD-Collective MBABANE Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA) has run to court to demand over E40 million from about 10 companies that include the ESPPRA. ESPPRA is the Eswatini Public Procurement Regulatory Agency and it is listed as a Category A public enterprise, administratively, reporting to the Ministry of Finance. The agency is responsible for policy formulation, regulation, oversight, capacity building and professional development, information management and dissemination in the field of public procurement in the country. Through its attorneys, SRA has since applied for about 11 writ of execution at the High Court in terms of Section 61 (2) of the Income Tax Order No.21 of 1975 (as amended). Charged When a court issues a writ of execution, a sheriff, deputy sheriff, or a court official is usually charged with taking possession of any property that is owed to the plaintiff, which in this case is SRA. SRA ran to court to apply for writ of execution to be issued against the companies, demanding a whopping E18 510 223.61 from one of the companies trading as Car Land. According to the writ of execution, from ESPPRA, SRA wants at least E5 008 625.05 for alleged owed income tax. Against a company trading as OS Motors, SRA has filed a claim of over E15 million for reportedly owed income tax. There is also a certified a claim of over E5.1 million against AZKA Motors. This is money which is allegedly indebted to SRA in respect of income and provisional tax. The breakdown has been listed as E4 133 181.22 and E1 012 701.85, respectively. Also affected in the cars sector is Standard Motors. SRA wants over E2.5 million, which is allegedly owed amount for tax (income and provisional). The least claim is against M & A Marketing (PTY) Ltd. The owed amount is reportedly E14 843.76. Another notable claim is against Fundukuwela Investments (Pty) Ltd, a company accused of owing over E720 000 in taxes. There are more developments in this matter as Siphofaneni-based Dumisa Dlamini has run to court to stop the attachment of some of Fundukuwelas assets, as he says they are his. These include crane loaders and a trailer. The properties are valued at over E200 000. These items were reportedly bought at an auction. There is also a tractor (John Deere) reportedly brought from one of the local plantations. Collapsed In his founding affidavit, Dlamini, who is represented by Sipho Matse Attorneys, averred that he bought the assets after Hlanganani Farmers Association collapsed. After the collapse of Hlanganani Farmers Association, most of the sugar cane farmers then founded an association called Fundukuwela Investments. Around 2007, I also joined Fundukuwela Investments and in joining I brought the assets in the new venture to be utilised by the company in carrying out its work. These assets were needed in the new venture. Im getting paid every month in return by the company for using my assets, claimed Dlamini. Dlamini claimed all the implements were placed at Fundukuwela with the knowledge of the other members. These farm implements have been at Fundukuwela Investments for over a decade without any problems, as to the ownership and/or usage, it was a known fact that these items belong to me personally and not to the company, he alleged. In the court papers, Dlamini claimed that on or about May 12, 2020, he was summoned to a meeting by other directors of Fundukuwela Investment. In the meeting, he alleged that he was ordered to surrender the assets as a deputy sheriff, who has been cited as a first respondent in the matter, was in the premises looking to attach assets of Fundukuwela Investment for a debt reportedly owed by the latter company to SRA. Assertions In the meeting, I made it clear to all those present that I do not agree with the assertions that my personal assets to be attached to satisfy debts to Fundukuwela Investments, since it has its own assets, averred Dlamini. In his application filed under a certificate of urgency, Dlamini prayed that an interdict be issued restricting the sheriff from attaching the said assets. Fundukuwela was cited as the second respondent in the matter. These are allegations contained in an affidavit, whose veracity will be tested in court. The interim interdicting SRA from attaching Dlaminis alleged property was issued by Judge Cyril Maphanga. Boris Johnson performed his daily exercise in the grounds of Buckingham Palace this morning. In an extraordinary episode for a serving British premier, the Prime Minister was swept into the Queen's residence in training gear where he worked up a sweat. Her Majesty threw open her gardens because security concerns have ruled out the PM working out in public parks. A royal source told MailOnline that the Queen offers use of the Palace estate to prime ministers 'from time to time'. Mr Johnson, 55, used to exercise in nearby St James's Park, where he was memorably collared by a passer-by. But recently he been seen jogging with his dog Dilyn, which he shares with fiancee Carrie Symonds, in the confines of Lambeth Palace. The Thames-side residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury has been opened to Mr Johnson, yet this is believed to be the first time he has been seen at the Palace. Boris Johnson appeared in chipper spirits as he returns to Number 10 after an early morning run in the grounds of Buckingham Palace A solo Range Rover carrying the PM drives past Buckingham Palace in central London this morning The Prime Minister was seen returning to Downing Street dressed in a red Adidas top and blue shorts after working up a sweat at the royal residence A police officer stops a pedestrian as the PM's Range Rover sweeps into a Buckingham Palace entrance The immaculately kept gardens at the rear of Buckingham Palace (file photo) where the PM is exercised today The keen runner was seen returning to Downing Street dressed in a red Adidas top and blue shorts after returning from the Palace. His trademark blond mane was windswept as he stepped out of an armoured Range Rover, which whisked him the short journey along the Mall. A blonde woman dressed in sportswear flanked the premier as he emerged from the SUV which pulled up alongside the fleet of ministerial cars at the back of Number 10. Mr Johnson has always been an enthusiastic runner but ramped up a personal war on fat after fighting for his life in hospital with Covid-19 last month. The politician has struggled with his size over the years, and he has put his intensive care stint with the disease to being overweight. The Prime Minister and Queen have a weekly conversation, which has been conducted over the telephone during the health emergency. His trademark blonde mane was windswept as he stepped out of an armoured government Range Rover, which whisked him the short journey along the Mall The Prime Minister usually takes his daily jogs in nearby St James's Park, raising eyebrows as to why he exercised in the confines of the Palace (exiting the Palace) Mr Johnson has always been a keen runner but ramped up a personal war on fat after fighting for his life in hospital with Covid-19 last month The sun shone in Westminster this morning, with temperatures expected to climb to 77F in the capital today. He looked to start the day right after a weekend of chaos when the spotlight focused on his maverick adviser Dominic Cummings's lockdown flouting. After the Number 10 top aide expressed little regret in a high-stakes and unprecedented press conference, Mr Johnson mounted a defence of his right-hand-man at the daily coronavirus briefing. Mr Cummings has refused to resign after being accused of flouting the lockdown to travel 260 miles to his parents' farm in Durham - where he also drove 30 miles to a nearby beauty spot during his stay. He will this week try to wrestle back the agenda on to his easing of the lockdown, as more shops gear up to reopen. He looked to start the day right after a weekend of chaos when the spotlight focused on his maverick adviser Dominic Cummings's lockdown flouting File Photo A US biotechnology company has announced that it will begin testing coronavirus drugs in humans in Australia. The company has said that the medicine will be ready by the end of this year. According to Dr. Gregory Glenn, lead researcher of biotechnology company Novavax, the trial has begun on 131 people in Melbourne and Brisbane. Advertisement Coronavirus Glenn told an online press conference from NovaVax Maryland headquarters that they are working together to develop the drug and vaccine, which will be able to show that it works and will be available to the public by the end of the year. Earlier, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom had informed the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESC) that the corona vaccine was being developed rapidly and was estimated to be prepared before time. "There are a total of 7 to 8 teams that are very close to developing this vaccine (Covid-19 Vaccine) and soon there will be big news for the world," Tedros said. Advertisement According to Tedros, many countries have reached out for help and about 100 different teams are testing the vaccine and eight of them are very close. CoronavirusTwo months ago, he estimated that it would take 12 to 18 months to build, but work has progressed and it will develop ahead of time. However, Tedros has appealed to countries that they have raised about 8 billion dollars for research and development. Once the vaccine is made, it will also require a large amount of production, so this amount is small. Advertisement Tedros said that he had recently appealed to 40 countries in this regard. Significantly, about a dozen experimental drugs in China, the United States and Europe are in the early stages of testing or are about to begin testing. It is not yet clear whether any of these drugs will be safe and effective but many drugs work in different ways and are made with different techniques. This raises hopes that any of these drugs can be successful. NovaVax said last month that they do not even touch the virus in their medicines, but in the end it looks like a virus for resistance. "It's the same way that NovaVax NanoPark makes a cold medicine," he said. Theres No Place Like This Place, Anyplace Documentary on the closure, redevelopment and lasting impact of the Honest Eds properties in Toronto. Directed by Lulu Wei. Streaming May 28 to June 10 at hotdocs.ca. 75 minutes. A bargain centre like this happens once in a lifetime sometimes never!!! reads one of the many exclamatory signs outside Honest Eds, the discount emporium and Toronto landmark that closed in 2016 after dominating the corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets for 68 years. It was typical good-natured braggadocio by entrepreneur Ed Mirvish, who loved to poke fun at himself as he served up ultra-low-priced clothing, home goods, groceries and knick-knacks to customers he lovingly embraced as the most loyal people in the whole world. That love was returned in kind, not just by Torontonians new and old, but also by visitors to the city, who just had to check out Eds Wacky Wirld, as the retailer playfully called it himself. It was a place where Mirvish, a born showman who died in 2007, would give away frozen turkeys at Christmas while sporting a red clowns nose and spouting self-deprecating groaners like Honest Eds repulsive, but his prices are appealing! Honest Eds is now but a memory. Its former site and surrounding city block are currently being noisily transformed into hundreds of rental units by the new owner, Vancouver property developer Westbank Corp. But deep affection for the store remains, as does serious concern for the future of the Bloor/Bathurst neighbourhood, which has long been a mecca for many immigrants to Toronto. This comes poignantly through in Theres No Place Like This Place, Anyplace, a documentary by Toronto director/cinematographer Lulu Wei that is titled for another of the hyperbolic signs outside Honest Eds. For much of the past four years, Wei has chronicled the closure, demolition and redevelopment of Honest Eds and its adjacent Mirvish Village on Markham St., a row of Victorian-era houses that Mirvish originally intended as a parking lot but benevolently made a low-rent artists colony instead. Wei and her partner, Kathleen, had a front-row view of the teardown, since they lived in an apartment atop a pet services store right behind Honest Eds. They were among the last people to leave the site. Wei used the time to interview others affected by the closure. They include artist Gabor Mezei, an immigrant from Hungary who since 1976 had operated Gallery Gabor, a place to sell art and also to create it, among them his own vivid watercolour paintings of Mirvish Village street life. Other well-known shops and restaurants that called Mirvish Village home included Suspect Video, a place where hard-to-find videotapes could be sourced, The Beguiling comic book shop and Southern Accent restaurant. Over on Bathurst St., Itah Sadu of A Different Booklist bookstore and cultural centre talks about how important the neighbourhood is to Black immigrants to Toronto, especially from the Caribbean. We are a gift to the world, she says of the areas artistic community, one deserving of more than just an eviction notice. Even the people tearing Honest Eds down feel sad. A worker named Brandon, watching on the ground as co-workers above him tear down one of the stores familiar red-and-gold signs, talks about how his immigrant parents from Portugal made a visit to Eds a regular event during their early days in Toronto. Now Im taking down my dads memories, too, so it sucks, he says. Laments for these lost places and their dislocated inhabitants are captured by Wei along with sweeping drone shots that, when combined with composer Laura Barretts piano-rich score, gives the film an elegiac tone. Its not a feel-good memory piece about Ed Mirvish, who is seen only briefly in archival footage. Wei doesnt stint on the hard journalism about what the transformation of Honest Eds means to Torontonians, both the neighbourhood locals and the city at large. She packs many interviews maybe a couple too many with developers, politicians, activists and other interested parties into her 75-minute running time. Family scion David Mirvish proudly explains how his dads store was a port of entry for many new Canadians, where they flocked to purchase low-cost winter clothing and homewares soon after arriving in this country. A changing retail climate, where discount stores are now a dime a dozen or perhaps a Dollarama a dozen made Honest Eds redundant. Jonah Letovsky, a development manager for Westbank, talks reassuringly about how special (Honest Eds) is to Toronto and how his firm is deeply involved in a community engagement process even though Westbanks original proposal was to make just 85 of its 800 planned new apartments available at so-called affordable rents. That has since been upped to 366 units, thanks to intervention by and funding from governments, including a $200-million grant from Ottawa announced this past January. It sounds like a victory of sorts, but as concerned University of Toronto professor Deborah Cowen sees it, this might actually do much more damage than good, because the definition of affordable is calculated on a median annual Toronto salary of $80,000. This would result in monthly rents of $2,000, making the Westbank apartments, scheduled (pre-pandemic) for occupancy in the summer of 2022, anything but affordable for many low-income people. That $200 million is really going pretty directly into the pocket of developers, Cowen ruefully observes. So the struggle continues, but theres also a little strange beauty in the ravaging and transforming of the Honest Eds site. Artist Mezei looks up at the giant machines tearing buildings down, as he prepares his final departure from Gallery Gabor, and observes how much they look like rampaging dinosaurs from the movies. He wonders what Ed Mirvish would have made of the scene. This is the biggest show that Honest Ed is missing. Maybe he can see it from above! Costa Rica gave the go-ahead to same-sex marriages on Tuesday, making it the first country in Central America to do so after a landmark court ruling came into effect at midnight. The nations constitutional court ruled in August 2018 that a ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and gave parliament 18 months to legislate or the provision would be automatically nullified. Earlier this month, more than 20 lawmakers tried to delay the marriage ruling by 18 months but the measure failed and the ban was lifted at midnight although couples will have to opt for online weddings due to the coronavirus restrictions. Costa Rica is celebrating today: marriage equality has become a reality in the country the first one in Central America! said the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) in a tweet. We rejoice with you: congratulations to all those who worked so hard to make it happen! Costa Rica becomes the sixth country in Latin America to allow gay marriage after Ecuador legalised it last year and the 28th UN member state to recognise same-sex marriage. Despite considerable opposition from religious groups, gay marriage has become increasingly accepted in Latin America, with gay couples now allowed to marry in Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and parts of Mexico. Reuters He quit his job in Dubai and returned to India to spend time with his ailing mother but life doesn't always go according to plan - or COVID-19 restrictions - and news of her death came shortly before his 14-day quarantine in Delhi was ending. A heartbroken Aamir Khan said his mother died on Saturday and he could not even attend her last rites at their home in Rampur on Sunday. His quarantine would end soon but he wasn't allowed to leave. It was a series of narrow misses, the 30-year-old, who had moved to Dubai six years ago to work as a product consultant and returned to India on May 13, told PTI. On Sunday, the day of his mother's funeral, the government announced revised guidelines for international arrivals. It divided the 14-day quarantine into two -- seven days paid institutional quarantine at the traveller's own cost, followed by seven days' isolation at home with self-monitoring of health. The government also announced that home quarantine may be permitted for 14 days in exceptional and compelling reasons such as cases of human distress, pregnancy, death in family, serious illness and parents accompanied by children below 10 years, as assessed by the states. "I showed the news updates to the authorities... that the guidelines have been revised and I should be allowed to go and will take all precautions. I was ready to take a test too but nothing worked in my favour," Khan said. Khan had initially planned to come to India in March and spend a month with his mother who had been diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in November last year. "We will learn to live with the virus but the emotional losses it is causing will remain with us forever. I spent last two months with only one agenda, that I have to meet my mother. I put everything at stake because I was determined to do this," Aamir told PTI in a phone interview from the Delhi hotel where he is quarantined. But there were hurdles aplenty, including the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, strict quarantine rules and workplace complications. "I struggled for two months, making several rounds to the embassy, to come home. Finally I could board a repatriation flight on May 13 from UAE to Delhi," he said,. In accordance with protocol, he was sent to a quarantine centre, a private hotel he is paying for, for 14 days. "On the eighth day, I told the representatives from SDM office that I really need to go to meet my mother. They told me they need to take special permission. More days went by and I got a call that my mother passed away. I pleaded the authorities to let me go for the last rites but I wasn't allowed to," he said tearfully. Recounting his ordeal, Khan said his plans to come in March were put on the backburner after international travel was suspended due to lockdown restrictions to contain spread of COVID-19. When he finally got a ticket for the repatriation flight after several rounds to the India Embassy, his office in Dubai said they could only give him leave for 20 days. "I was surprised with their response, I told them there is a compulsory 14-day quarantine period and I won't be left with much time. Bosses were unsure about when will flights resume and when I will be able to get back. "Not paying heed to what is at stake, I decided to quit and move back in the hope of spending some months with my mother. I had no clue that she did not have any time left," he said. According to official data, 2.59 lakh people have registered to return from 98 countries under the Vande Bharat Mission, announced to repatriate Indian nationals stranded in different countries due to travel restrictions imposed in view of the COVID-19 spread. Rajiv Joshi Washington: Indian-American researcher Rajiv Joshi has been honored with the prestigious 'Inventor of the Year' award for his contribution to the development of the electronics industry and the improvement of artificial intelligence capabilities. Joshi has done many inventions and has more than 250 registered patents in the United States. He works at the IBM Thomson Watson Research Center in New York. Advertisement PhotoEarlier this month, he was awarded the prestigious annual award by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association at the Virtual Awards ceremony. Joshi is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai and holds an MS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a PhD in Mechanical / Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York. He has done extensive research in global communications and health sciences. "Excitement and curiosity motivate me," Joshi said in a recent interview. Advertisement Photo He also said that identifying a problem and thinking of a different solution helps them to come up with new ideas. At the awards ceremony, Joshi said that Thar Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing are no longer just words of discussion, they are being used more and more. "All of these areas are very interesting and I am moving forward in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing," he said. By Trend The World Health Organization (WHO) has temporarily suspended medical trials of hydroxychloroquine and chloraquine used as COVID-19 treatment drug, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing on Monday, Trend reports citing TASS. According to him, a study was published recently regarding the two medications and their effect on patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The study authors claim that higher mortality rates are observed in patients taking these drugs either on their own or in combination with macrolide (antibiotic). Taking these data into account, the Executive Group of the Solidarity Trial has decided to study all currently available data. Simultaneously, "the Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board," the WHO chief stressed. "This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloraquine in COVID-19," he noted. "The other arms of the trial are continuing." Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also emphasized that these drugs "are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria." In turn, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme Mike Ryan underlined that these developments do not undermine the research, adding that the incoming information must be analyzed. In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus named COVID-19 by the WHO have been reported in every corner of the globe. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 5,513,300 people have been infected worldwide and more than 346,800 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 2,309,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe. (Bloomberg) -- The chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., fighting extradition to the U.S., gets her first shot at release this week in a case thats triggered an unprecedented diplomatic tussle between the U.S., China and Canada. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia is set to release a decision on whether Meng Wanzhous case meets a key threshold of Canadas extradition law. If Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes rules that it fails to meet that test, Meng could be released from house arrest in Vancouver. If not, extradition proceedings will continue. The case was triggered when Meng was arrested on a U.S. handover request in December 2018 during a routine stopover at Vancouver airport, a city where she owns two homes and often spent summer holidays. The fallout has since spanned three countries. Meng, the eldest daughter of Huaweis billionaire founder, Ren Zhengfei, has become the highest profile target of a broader U.S. effort to contain China and its largest technology company, which Washington sees as a national security threat. China has accused Canada of abetting a political persecution against a national champion. In the weeks after her arrest, China put two Canadians -- Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig -- in jail, halted billions of dollars in Canadian imports and put two other Canadians on death row, plunging China-Canada relations into their darkest period in decades. U.S. President Donald Trump muddied the legal waters further when he indicated early on that he might try to intervene in her case to boost a China trade deal. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- caught between his countrys two biggest trading partners -- has resisted any such attempt to interfere in the high-stakes proceedings, saying the rule of law will govern Mengs case. Canada has an independent judicial system that functions without interference or override by politicians, Trudeau said last week in response to comments by the Chinese ambassador that Mengs case was the biggest thorn in Canada-China relations. China doesnt work quite the same way and doesnt seem to understand that we do have an independent judiciary. Story continues Chinas foreign ministry urged Mengs release at a regular briefing in Beijing Tuesday, saying the U.S. and Canada had abused their bilateral agreement on extradition. Canada should correct its mistake and immediately release Meng Wanzhou and ensure her safe return to China to avoid continuous damage of China-Canada relations, ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. He said the rights of Kovrig and Spavor had been guaranteed and protected. Escalating Fight Meng, 48, faces tough odds: of the 798 U.S. extradition requests received since 2008, Canada has refused or discharged only eight cases, or 1%, according to Canadas Department of Justice. Whether she goes free or continues her battle against U.S. extradition, the ruling is likely to further escalate the fight between Washington and Beijing, increasingly at loggerheads over everything from the coronavirus pandemic to the status of Taiwan and Hong Kong to trade and investment. Huawei continues to play a central role in those tensions. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department barred chipmakers using American equipment from supplying Huawei without U.S. government approval, closing a loophole in an effort to cut the Chinese company off from essential supplies used in its phones and networking gear. The move drew condemnation from Beijing and warnings from Huaweis rotating chairman, Guo Ping, that the latest U.S. curbs on its business would cause the whole industry to pay a terrible price. The U.S. government has lobbied its allies, including Canada, to ban Huawei from next-generation 5G networks, saying its equipment would make such infrastructure vulnerable to spying by the Chinese government. Despite that, the U.K. said in January it would allow Huawei a limited role. But in recent days, British media have reported the government is backtracking and preparing to end Huaweis presence by 2023. Trudeau has been stalling on Canadas decision with the fates of Spavor and Kovrig hanging in the balance. The two detainees have been confined for more than 500 days without access to lawyers. In contrast, Meng was photographed by CBC News on Saturday as she posed with nearly a dozen colleagues and friends -- social distancing rules to fight the virus notwithstanding -- displaying victory signs in front of the courthouse. The pursuit of Meng by U.S. authorities predates the Trump administration: officials were building a case against her since at least 2013, according to court documents in her case. Central to the case are allegations that Meng committed fraud by lying to HSBC Holdings Plc and tricking the bank into conducting Iran-related transactions in breach of U.S. sanctions. Wednesdays ruling will focus on whether the case meets the so-called double criminality test: would Mengs alleged crime have also been a crime in Canada? Her defense has argued that the U.S. case is, in reality, a sanctions-violations complaint framed as fraud in order to make it easier to extradite her. Had Mengs alleged conduct taken place in Canada, the transactions by HSBC wouldnt violate any Canadian sanctions, they say. The U.S. bank and wire fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison on conviction. If the ruling goes against her, Mengs next court hearings are scheduled for June and are set to continue to at least the end of the year. Appeals could lengthen the process for years longer. (Updates with China foreign ministry comment from eighth paragraph.) For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Contact tracing apps could play an important role in South Africas fight to curb the spread of COVID-19. Traditionally, contract tracing is performed manually by humans and involves interviewing people who have tested positive for a disease in order to identify locations and people who they may have come in contact with. Using certain proximity or location technologies in smartphones can supplement this manual tracking by providing additional data sources. Google and Apple have collaborated to develop their own contact tracing API called Exposure Notification (GAEN). It should be noted this is not an app, but a platform which can be used in official COVID-19 contact tracing smartphone apps. The API uses the Bluetooth capability of smartphones to detect whether users may have been in close proximity to persons who have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The companies have limited use of the API to a single public health app per country. Infected persons can choose to disclose if they have tested positive on the public health app, and this will notify users with whom they may have come into contact with in the 14-day incubation period of the virus. South Africas contact tracing app MyBroadband asked the National Department of Health (NDoH) and Google for comment on such an app in South Africa. The NDoH did not provide a response to questions, and Google declined to provide comment on the issue. A team from the University of Cape Town has developed and launched an alternative contact tracing system, however, which is supported by the Department of Science. The solution is called Covi-ID and uses QR codes to capture the geolocation data of users to assist in keeping record of visited locations. Associate Professor Co-Pierre Georg told MyBroadband the system helps users remember where they were in the event that they test positive for COVID-19, or have crossed paths with someone else who has tested positive in the past 21 days. The system links a unique QR code to a personal data wallet which contains information such as a users name, contact details, and photo. The system works with a Covi-ID verifier app that is currently available for Android on the Play Store and expected to be available soon on the Apple Store soon. Most users will not need the app, however, as this is only used by a verifier to record when a user enters or exits a particular building or area. How it works Users first visit the Covi-ID web portal as shown above to generate a QR code which is tied to a personal data wallet. Government departments, transport authorities, banks, supermarkets and other companies can then designate verifiers such as security guards to scan a persons QR code using the Covi-ID verifier app. A geolocation receipt is generated within the data wallet whenever the QR code is scanned. When a person tests positive for COVID-19, they can choose to submit their test result and geolocation data to contact tracers. The data can then be used by manual contact tracers to identify other Covi-ID users who may have been in the same location as the infected person. What makes the Covi-ID system particularly useful for South Africa is that it does not require users have a smartphone. People who do not possess a phone or computer can have their QR code generated and printed by a friend or family member, and keep it on them when they leave home. Privacy a priority Georg explained user privacy is a key priority in the design of the Covi-ID system and app. For now, showing a QR code will only collect a geolocation receipt from a verifier, Georg noted. The app does not currently show a users health status or anything else than a picture of the user taken during sign-up to the verifier. This is to protect privacy and because the WHO does not yet recommend immunity certificates, he explained. We use a trusted execution environment dedicated hardware provided by Intels Software Guard Extension which enables us to never have unencrypted user data being handled anywhere outside the trusted execution environment. Georg stated the developer itself does not have access to this environment once it is deployed, which proves they will never collect, store, sell, rent or analyse users personal data. No direct government access In addition, Georg said the app is not connected to any governmental database and functions as a standalone system. In accordance with existing regulation and best privacy practice, we allow users who test positive to volunteer their geolocation receipts to be communicated to manual contact tracers, Georg stated. We do not forward any geolocation data to any government entity unless a user who tests positive actively consents. Contact data of users who potentially have been exposed will also be communicated to manual contact tracers in accordance with existing regulation and best practices. This will be the practice until there is clear guideline on exposure notification such as GAEN, Georg said. Georg said although the team would be able to incorporate the GAEN API into the app, this would go against recommended practice due to various ethical implications with its implementation. What happens, for example, if a user receives a notification that she might have been exposed while being in a taxi? Or in another public place where she must fear stigma? What happens if users who have been exposed get discriminated against or even attacked? None of these issues have been worked out by Google or Apple and until there is clear guidance from the DoH or NICD we will not use exposure notification, he said. He explained in the South African context, manual tracers are best placed to have exposure interviews and do the follow-up interviews in a culturally-appropriate way, while using the required local language. Now read: Lockdown curfew to be lifted and people can exercise at any time Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday lauded the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for constructing a 440-metre long tunnel below the busy Chamba town on Rishikesh-Dharasu road and termed it as an 'extraordinary feat' in nation-building during the pandemic. The BRO successfully dug up the 440-metre long tunnel below the Chamba town on Rishikesh-Dharasu road, National Highway no 94, which will facilitate all-weather connectivity to Chardham -- Gangotri, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Badrinath. "I congratulate the entire BRO team for their extraordinary feat in nation-building amidst this global pandemic... Ever since the catastrophe that hit Kedarnath, we were committed for an all-weather connectivity to Chardham and this is an important milestone," Road Transport, Highways Minister Gadkari said. He said the breakthrough of this tunnel will go a long way in facilitating speedy movement of traffic, reducing congestion and distance to Chamba town and easing the movement of yatris on Chardham Yatra and bring economic prosperity. He said the latest Austrian technology has been used in construction of the Chamba tunnel. The tunnel will be through for traffic by October 2020 almost three months before its scheduled date of completion of January 2021, he said. The 6-km road and 450-metre tunnel is being constructed at a cost of Rs 88 crore. BRO started work on 'North Portal' of the tunnel in January 2019 but work on 'South Portal' could commence only after October 2019 when issues concerning land compensation and safety of houses above the tunnel were resolved to the satisfaction of all stakeholders with active support from the state government. The loss in time was compensated by day and night working shifts along with use of modern technology and machines provided by Bharat Construction, Dehradun. Under the 900-km 'Char Dham' project costing about Rs 12,000 crore, BRO is constructing 250-km of National Highway leading to holy shrines of Gangotri and Badrinath, Gadkari said while congratulating Lt Gen Harpal Singh, DG Border Roads, and his team for completing crucial projects of national importance in two years. Gadkari said BRO has been entrusted with 251 km and this consists of 17 packages out of which 10 projects of 151 km have been sanctioned. The Minister asked the BRO to be ready with all preliminary works related to remaining packages which were stuck as they fell in ecological sensitive zone and a high-powered committee report was awaited, assuring that he will get in touch with concerned authorities to expedite the same. He also asked the BRO to ensure beautification drive along the highway including plantation of green species besides other methods. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Syrian government will do away with the overnight curfew imposed in March despite a surge in reported cases of the coronavirus. The Syrian Ministry of Health today announced 15 new COVID-19 cases in areas under government control, bringing the total number of cases to 121 and a death toll of four. All of the new cases were among Syrians returning from abroad, including nine from Kuwait. Experts have questioned the regimes relatively low numbers, but Damascus has denied all charges of a cover-up. Outside of government-controlled territory, six coronavirus cases, including one death, have been confirmed by officials conducting their own testing in northeast Syria. So far, no cases have been reported in the rebel-held northwest, where testing is extremely limited. President Bashar al-Assads government is trying to ease the pain coronavirus restrictions have inflicted on the economy, already under strain from Western sanctions and nine years of war. The Syrian pound fell to a record low earlier this month. Beginning today, the government will lift an overnight curfew and allow movement between its provinces. Shops are permitted to stay open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., the Syrian state news agency SANA reported. Public parks, cafes, restaurants, swimming pools, theaters and gyms are to remain closed until further notice. Aid organizations warn that if the virus spreads more widely, Syria's fragile health infrastructure will be unable to cope. Tens of thousands of doctors have fled the country and more than half of its hospitals were damaged or destroyed in Russian and government airstrikes. Civilians living in the northwest province of Idlib remain especially vulnerable to an outbreak. A government offensive on the opposition enclave has displaced more than 1 million from their homes since December. Many are living in overcrowded camps and unofficial settlements where social distancing is impossible to enforce. Concerns are also mounting over the threat of an outbreak in northeast Syria where the Kurdish-led semi-autonomous administration runs a number of heavily populated displacement camps. Particularly worrisome is al-Hol camp in Hasakah province, which houses 70,000 displaced people, including Islamic States members and their families. Advertisement An IKEA in Germany gave hundreds of people from the local Muslim community permission to use its car park for socially distanced prayers over the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, millions of Muslims around the globe celebrated Eid, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, but social distancing measures in place due to the coronavirus prevents large groups from gathering in confined spaces. Therefore, many mosques cannot accommodate large numbers of people, and it has proven difficult for the local communities to congregate to gather and pray. However, one Mosque in the city of Wetzlar, near Frankfurt, thought outside the box and asked their local Ikea if they could use it's large car park. Unser Ramadan Festgebet Video Ramazan Bayram Namaz Videomuz Posted by IGMG Wetzlar FATIH CAMII on Sunday, May 24, 2020 Aerial footage from above the IKEA car park showed hundreds of Muslims from the local mosque gathering to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan With the recognisable Blue and Yellow of the IKEA behind them, the community kept roughly 1.5 meters apart from one another while praying, as is required by Germany's coronavirus measures With plenty of space, the group were able to pray while maintaining a safe distance from one-another, observing the social distancing guidelines that are in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Germany's guidelines stipulate that people should keep 1.5 meters from each other when in public. The Mosque - IGMG Wetzlar FATIH CAMII - released a statement thanking the furniture store, which is just down the road from the Mosque. 'We would like to thank the Wetzlar police, the Wetzlar public order office, Ikea Wetzlar management, brothers, and all who contributed to making this extraordinary holiday prayer possible,' the statement read. Speaking to BBC news, the chairman of a Wetzlar mosque, Kadir Terzi, said that he approached IKEA when looking for an alternative venue to allow foe people to pray and practice social distancing. He said that he was not hopeful he would get any positive response. 'But the store manager didn't hesitate for a second and said 'yes, you can pray'. I was surprised and happy at the same time,' Mr Terzi explained. He said that the opportunity to gather the community in the car park was particularly poignant because people had felt isolated during Ramadan due to Covid-19, when ordinarily it is a month for families and communities to gather each evening to break their fast and organise charity work. He said to the BBC: 'It was a completely different Ramadan month, without contacts, without visits and without breaking the fast together.' The chairman of the local mosque contacted the IKEA asking whether they could use the car park for prayers over the weekend He told the BBC that he did not have much confidence that he would receive a positive response, but was pleasantly surprised when they gave his community permission Aerial drone footage of the gathering, shared by the mosque on Facebook showed hundreds of Muslims praying on Eid while evenly spaced throughout the furniture stores car park, with the iconic blue and yellow store in the background. Each person had their own prayer mat, and was wearing a protective face mask. A prayer leader stood at the head of the group, leading the service and prayers. Eid-al-Fitr, also called the 'Festival of Breaking the Fast', is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide, and marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan. Upon seeing the video from the car park, people on twitter reacted with very positively. In addition to being required to keep 1.5 meters apart, people in Germany also must wear protective face masks while in a variety of public settings, including grocery stores, other shops, in airports and train stations Mosques and other places of worship in Germany reopened to the public on May 9, but they still have a responsibility to follow rules that help limit the spread of the coronavirus. While Muslims can perform their dawn, midday and late afternoon prayers in most mosques in the country, they were not allowed communal gatherings for Friday prayers - or special night prayers called Tarawih - that are traditionally performed during Ramadan. Worshipers are asked to maintain the necessary distance from one-another, bring their own prayer mats, and to wear face masks. Several British bishops have received death threats after they criticisedthegovernment on Twitter for its handling of the Dominic Cummings debacle. Following their tweets aboutthe governments lack of transparency over Mr Cummings now notorious trip to County Durham, some bishops were sent threatening messages. Dr John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester, is one of the senior clergy members who has spoken out against the prime minister in recent days and who has been sent a death threat for doing so. After the prime ministers press briefing on Sunday afternoon, he tweeted: The PMs risible defence of Cummings is an insult to all those who have made such sacrifices to ensure the safety of others. In a later statement, Dr Inge explained that he made the comments because the public deserved a better explanation for the senior aides actions during lockdown. Addressing concerns that religion and politics should not mix, he said: One of my favourite Desmond Tutu quotes is, When people say that religion and politics dont mix, I wonder which bible it is they are reading.He received huge numbers of death threats as a result of his conviction that the pursuit of justice is at the heart what Jesus asks of us. Dr Inge added that the row was beyond politics and was a matter ... of life and death, suggesting that thousands of people could die if trust in government advice is eroded. As a result of his stance, he received a message which read: Keep out of politics or we will kill you. Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Ripon, was also sent a death threat because of the views she expressed on social media. North Yorkshire Police have confirmed that someone sent the bishop a message on Sunday saying,Stay out of politics or it will be the death of you, after she had criticised the government over the Mr Cummings row. The police force said in a statement: A complaint has been made to North Yorkshire Police and inquiries are ongoing into the matter. Rev Hartley previously wrote that Mr Johnsons defence of his adviser on Sunday lacked integrity, trust and leadership. Christine Hardman, the bishop of Newcastle, said that she had also received a similiarly threatening email. She expressed her concern for the person who sent the message, adding that she will hold him or her in prayer. Rev Hardman had earlier tweeted she was deeply troubled by the prime ministers defence of Mr Cummings."We can forgive mistakes and poor judgement and can understand and admire loyalty but forgiveness and understanding need openness and we did not see this tonight, she said. Another member of the clergy who received abuse following a social media post was Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool. He said that abusive messaging would not succeed, writing: "Public life in Britain today. Many of us have received this sort of message. It doesn't work." A spokesperson for the Church of England told The Independent: A number of bishops have sadly received abusive and threatening messages in the last 24 hours, including a small number which needed to be reported to police. We know bishops are sadly not alone in experiencing this kind of intimidating behaviour, which is unacceptable wherever it comes from, and we will pray for those who behave this way. We urgently need a more generous and gracious public conversation in this country. Although it is unclear how the bishops' criticisms will affect the relationship between the Church of England and the government, one bishop has suggested that the Church of England might struggle to work with this government on the pandemicbecause of its handling of the row. David Walker, the bishop of Manchester, tweeted on Sunday: Unless very soon we see clear repentance, including the sacking of Cummings, I no longer know how we can trust what ministers say sufficiently for @churchofengland to work together with them on the pandemic. He also remarked thathe was deeply grateful to his colleagues who had expressed similar views on the matter. Several commentators, including Douglas Murrayin The Spectator, have complained about the bishops'interventions into politics, arguing that there should be a separation between religion and politics. More than two dozen Anglican bishops sit in the House of Lords and are known as the Lords Spiritual. Two weeks after the reopening of schools and ending of lock-down restrictions came into force in France on May 11, schools are being forced to close again after students and teachers have tested positive for coronavirus. The closure of schools only underscores the criminal indifference and recklessness of the reopening policy pursued by the Macron administration with the backing of the trade unions and the political establishment, in line with other governments across Europe and America. There is no official record provided on the number of French schools that have closed since they reopened on May 11. On May 18, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer admitted that 70 schools had either closed or postponed reopenings after a student or staff member tested positive. As symptoms most commonly do not appear until several days after a patient becomes contagious, an untold number of other staff and students were placed at risk of infection as a consequence. After admitting to the large number of schools that had closed, Blanquer blithely declared that this was inevitable, and that the fact that a school has had to close should not be a concern, since the first cases in the wake of the reopening would have to have been contracted prior to the reopening of schools. However, this only makes clear the danger that the schools will become a major propagator of the virus as the impact of ending lockdowns on the spread of the virus begins to be felt. After elementary schools and kindergartens had reopened on May 11, secondary schools opened for students in years 7 and 8 on May 18, and the two higher-year levels will return at the beginning of June. Since Blanquers statements, there have been no further statistics provided by the government, but limited news reports in the week since indicate that many more schools have been forced to close, including three secondary schools in their first week back. On Sunday the Francois-Mitterand secondary college in Fenouillet, near Toulouse, announced on its website that it would close until June 2 to allow for a cleaning of the premises after a staff member tested positive. Health authorities are conducting tests on their contacts. In the central city of Tours, the Jean-Philippe Rameau secondary school closed after a student in the seventh grade tested positive. The schools announcement stated, After an investigation by the Regional Health Service and the school medical staff and while waiting for the outcome of tests of teaching staff, school managementand students who were alongside the student who tested positive, the department council and the academic directors in lIndre-et-Loire are taking the decision to close the school. The closure is effective from May 25 to June 1. Last week, in the same city, a primary school had been closed after a student in grade 5 tested positive, after having shared a classroom with four other students and a teacher on May 14 and 15. All classes at the school have been stopped while the building is being disinfected. There is no national government policy requiring the closure of schools when a case is detected; the decision is left to local authorities. In some cases they have closed schools, but in others they have only asked students from the class of the infected student to remain at home. Last Wednesday, May 20, an administrative staff member at the Simone-Veil secondary school in Sable-sur-Sarthe tested positive for the coronavirus. They had been involved in the preparations for the May 18 reopening of the school along with other teachers. The school was not closed, however, with the under-prefect for La Fleche Jean-Michel Delvert declaring that since Sable is not a cluster, the school will not be closed. Another staff member who worked in the building with staff and students on May 15, 18 and 19 has since been tested positive. Secondary schools that opened on May 18 can have up to 15 students with a teacher in a single classroom, making it impossible to maintain adequate social distancing. Teachers have also published posts on Facebook groups protesting the lack of protective equipment for themselves and their students. One secondary school teacher wrote on Facebook yesterday, I saw the opening of secondary classes: A non-certified tissue mask for half the day, an optional mask for students, up to 15 students per classroom with the teacher for hours. The teacher continued, Ive seen the health conditions in stores this weekend. Serious masks for the sellers, plexiglass walls at the counters, disinfecting everything, wet wipes, antibacterial gel available at the entrances, and no more than two or three customers per store, with masks sometimes required. The employees nonetheless seem nervous. I just saw the reopening of classes in junior high. A non-certified tissue mask for half the day, an optional mask for students, up to 15 per classroom with the teacher for hours, no cleaning wipes but a cloth and cleaning product, not disinfectant, to be used without gloves. It seems on the news that the teachers are anxious. The only compensation for the lack of plexiglass protection is the wall of contempt for their conditions by the minister, echoed by all the media. The Macron administration has made no attempt to square the fact that students in classrooms are contracting the virus with the governments claims, used to call for reopening schools, that young people do not transmit the disease. That is because its policies are not based on a scientific programme to combat the virus but are dictated by the drive of the corporate and financial elite to force the population back into their workplaces so that the flow of corporate profits can be resumed. Children are sent into classrooms so their parents can be freed to work. The loss of additional thousands of lives is for the government not a matter of significant concern. The government is depending entirely on the support of the national trade union federations to suppress massive opposition among teachers to the compulsory reopening of schools. While polls consistently showed more than two-thirds of teachers opposing the reopening, unions have refused to call any strike action to reject the reopening drive. Instead they worked to isolate teachers, insisting only on teachers individual right to withdraw their labour if they are personally forced to work in unsafe conditions. Russia became the top crude oil supplier to China last month, overtaking Saudi Arabia with an average of 1.75 million bpd versus 1.26 million bpd for Saudi Arabia, Reuters has reported, citing customs data. In fact, last month Saudi Arabia fell to the third spot among Chinese oil suppliers, with Iraq taking number-two. This compares with 1.66 million bpd of Russian oil imports in March and 1.7 million bpd of Saudi oil imports, A comparison of the monthly averages shows a substantial decline in Saudi oil supplies to the worlds top importer. At the same time, Chinas March intake of Russian crude was 31 percent higher than a year earlier, and the April imports from Russia were 18 percent higher than a year earlier. According to TankerTrackers.com data, Saudi Arabia exported 2.083 million bpd of crude to China in April, up from 1.065 million bpd in March. An issue that creates confusion, there is a difference between exported and imported crude shipments because of the different times when a shipment is logged as exported and when it is logged as imported into the target country. According to TankerTrackers.com co-founder Samir Madani, this difference for Saudi Arabia and China is between two and four weeks. China is a key market for all crude oil exporters so it has naturally become a sort of battleground for the worlds top exporters given the rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, which are not exactly conducive to more U.S. imports of oil. Related: Turkey Headed For An Unexpected Victory Libya's Oil War Meanwhile, in more good news for oil prices, Chinas total oil imports for April were higher than they were in March, suggesting a stable recovery in oil demand. At 9.84 million bpd, the April average compared with 9.68 million bpd for March. The April figure, however, was lower than the average for April 2019, which stood at 10.64 million bpd. Analysts believe, however, that Saudi Arabias loss of market share to Russian oil is only temporary. Speaking to Bloomberg, ship-tracking company Vortexa said Saudi shipments of crude to China could more than double in May from April, when they fell by 41 percent from March. It was clear that Saudi was targeting to increase its market share in the West during April, IHS Markit regional head of commodities told Bloomberg. Saudi is now reducing output and shipments, but is expected to focus on China again. According to data from TankerTrackers.com for the first 21 days of May, Saudi shipments of oil for China averaged some 1.87 million bpd. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: AXA insurer said it would meet the bulk of business interruption claims for some restaurant owners in France. AXA, the French multinational insurance firm, will meet the bulk of business interruption claims from some restaurant owners in France, it said on Tuesday, after losing a court case seen as a potential precedent for coronavirus-related disputes across the world. A Paris court ruled last week that AXA should pay a restaurant owner two months of revenue losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. AXA had argued its policy did not cover business disruption caused by the health crisis. Stephane Manigold, the owner of four Paris restaurants who brought the case against the French insurer, told Reuters news agency that since the court decision, his team had received calls from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Spain and the United States asking for details of his contract and the courts ruling. This decision in Paris has a global resonance, he said. A UK trade body, the Night Time Industries Association, which is also considering action against insurers, told Reuters the Paris case bodes well for their cause. It absolutely strengthens the case for legitimate claims to be considered in the UK, and I am sure that there are some legal parallels being drawn from the case against AXA in France, the associations chief executive, Michael Kill, told Reuters. In the UK, the financial regulator has also turned to the courts to try to gain clarity on whether insurers should pay out coronavirus-related claims to small businesses. AXA has said it will appeal against the Paris ruling, but Chief Executive Thomas Buberl on Tuesday said the company was seeking an amicable solution and planned to meet the bulk of claims from restaurant owners whose contracts contained some ambiguity. These contracts represent less than 10 percent out of total contracts with restaurant owners and I am confident that we will find a solution, Buberl said. We want to compensate a substantial part of these contracts; we want to do it quickly. Some other French insurers have said they will pay out business interruption losses to some customers, depending on specific contracts. Generali France, for example, has said it will make payments to 600 hospitality businesses. I think this decision will reignite the debate, Emilie Martin, an insurance agent and associate at Dijon-based Spiegel Bletry Martin, said of the Paris court decision. AXA also said it would provide a further 500 million euros ($546m) in aid for small companies, on top of plans already announced by French insurers to invest 1.7 billion euros in domestic companies. The idea is clearly to reinforce those companies that are weakened by this crisis, Buberl said. Jerusalem (AFP) - An Israeli court ruled Tuesday that an Orthodox Jewish teacher accused of child sex abuse in Australia was mentally fit to stand trial, bringing her closer to extradition after years of legal battles. The decision was hailed by alleged victims who have campaigned for years for Malka Leifer to be sent back to face trial. Jerusalem district court judge Chana Lomp said that she had "decided to accept the expert panel's opinion, the defendant is fit to stand trial". Lomp set July 20, 2020 as the date for the renewal of the extradition process. Leifer, who was not in court on Tuesday, is accused of child sex abuse while she was a teacher and principal at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, where she had emigrated from her native Israel. According to Australian media, Leifer is facing 74 counts of child sex abuse, but her lawyers say there were only "three actual complaints." After allegations surfaced against her in 2008, Leifer and her family left for Israel and have been living in the settlement of Emmanuel in the occupied West Bank. A previous extradition attempt between 2014 and 2016 failed after Leifer was hospitalised in mental institutions and expert opinions found she was not fit to stand trial. But undercover private investigators later filmed Leifer shopping and depositing a cheque at a bank. This prompted Israeli authorities to launch a probe into whether she was faking mental illness to avoid extradition, leading to her arrest in February 2018. In her 40-page ruling Tuesday, Lomp noted that while Leifer had "mental problems," as the panel of experts confirmed, "they were not psychotic problems of mental illness as in its legal definition." "My impression is that the defendant is exacerbating her mental problems and pretending to be mentally ill," Lomp wrote. "Therefore, my conclusion is that the defendant is fit to stand trial and the extradition process on her case should be renewed." Story continues Dassi Erlich, one of the women accusing Leifer of sexually abusing her, called Tuesday's decision "huge". "This abusive woman has been exploiting the Israeli courts for 6 years! Intentionally creating obstacles with endless vexatious arguments that have only lengthened our ongoing trauma!", she said in a statement. In a statement to the press following the court session, Avital Ribner-Oron, one of the prosecutors for the justice ministry's international department, said she was "pleased" with Lomp's decision. "The removal of this obstacle that has stood in the way of any significant progress in this case, will now enable the court to bring this matter to a timely and swift conclusion," she said. One of Leifer's lawyers, Tal Gabay, however told reporters the decision was "not clean of doubt." "It's not a black-and-white case," he said. Another member of the defence team, Yehuda Fried, said that while they could not appeal Tuesday's decision, they would do so when the final decision on Leifer's extradition was made. "We hope and believe the supreme court will overturn today's district court decision," Fried said. Latam Airlines Group SA, Latin Americas largest air carrier, sought bankruptcy court protection in New York after the Covid-19 pandemic grounded flights across the region. The Chapter 11 petition allows Latam to keep operating while the Chilean carrier works out a plan to pay creditors and turn around the business. Latam, whose shareholders include Chiles Cueto family and Delta Air Lines Inc., continues to operate on a reduced schedule, and it has commitments for a bankruptcy loan of up to $900 million. The money is coming from shareholders including the Cuetos, the Amaro family and Qatar Airways, according to a company statement. Latam also has about $1.3 billion in cash on hand. Airlines the world over and those in Latin America in particular, have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, which triggered travel bans and made people reluctant to fly. Avianca Holdings SA, the largest air carrier in Colombia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier in May, burdened by the sharp drop in fliers and its own onerous debt load. Latams affiliates in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina arent part of the bankruptcy case, which was filed in the Southern District of New York. Still, the impact will be felt widely, with Santiago-based Latam previously serving more than 70 million passengers a year on more than 300 aircraft. It also carried more than $7 billion of debt. Latam has already eliminated more than 1,850 jobs in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in recent weeks from its global workforce of about 40,000 people, after cutting 95% of its passenger operations. In some bankruptcy scenarios, an airline can reject aircraft leases, and Latam has more than 20 jetliners on order from Airbus SE and half a dozen from Boeing Co. Exceptional circumstances have led to a collapse in global demand and has not only brought aviation to a virtual standstill, but it has also changed the industry for the foreseeable future, Chief Executive Officer Roberto Alvo said in a statement. So far, Latam hasnt had access to government bailout packages designed help offset virus-related distress. Talks are underway with governments in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru about additional financing and assistance, the airline said. BREAKING: Latam Airlines files for bankruptcy The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) May 26, 2020 Posters link to trailers on YouTube, unless I screwed up. Watch at own risk - could be spoilers! FRANCESCA RORSCACH LUZ THE BORDERLANDS (aka Final Prayer) LOFT THE MAN IN THE ORANGE JACKET DON'T LOOK NOW THE GRIM REAPER (aka ANTROPOPHAGUS) LYLE BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE I AM A GHOST THE QUIET FAMILY Looking for a horror movie to watch? You've come to the right post!With this list, I've tried to provide a variety of horror films from different platforms that won't require you to sign up, log in, or pay. You'll just have to watch some ads. One of the movies is even free on YouTube, provided by the filmmaker himself! There are so many free streaming platforms that I almost never find myself even needing to browse Netflix. If you're able to access it, I highly recommend Tubi for its collection of classics, obscure, and international films. Be aware that platforms such as Midnight Pulp and AsianCrush have some movies only available to subscribers. However, the ones listed here should be accessible without a subscription. Apologies to anyone who cannot access these streaming platforms. Hopefully you can find alternative sites!I tried to avoid more well-known horror movie choices, such asor(both are among my favorites, available to stream and are modern classics!). I also wanted to include different subgenres, since horror encompasses so many.TubiPerhaps you're a fan of giallo films, and are curious to see a modern day take.is a highly stylized tribute to the giallo films of the 70s. I think it's pretty successful!YouTube - Here's a direct link! Is this found footage the scariest movie on the Internet? Watch, and decide for yourself.PopcornFlixIt's a stylish take on demonic possession, nailing its retro aesthetic. The story plays out mostly in the confines of a police station and features fantastic sound work. It's also a student thesis film, which I found to be quite impressive.TubiIf you wanna check out a genuinely scary found footage movie about a sinister, rural church in England then this is for you. The ending gets real claustrophobic, and is awesome!Tubi, AsianCrushIt's genuinely creepy. Plus, it features a character declaring she's returned to destroy men. If you like your horror cerebral and psychological, give it a watch!TubiIt's gory, psychological, and has been called Latvia's first horror film. While I don't think that's true, it's still remarkable as it's one of the few in Latvian cinema.PopcornFlixIt's based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, and is both thrilling and heartbreaking. It's beautifully filmed and the way the story all comes together at the end is masterful. (The movie is also controversial because it was rumored for a long time that the infamous sex scene was unsimulated.) Admittedly, I didn't watch this movie for the first time until recently!TubiIf you've never seen a Joe D'Amato film before, perhaps this would be a good place to start. While it's been accused of being "boring" due to its pace slowing down considerably after the first couple of kills, I disagree and find the build-up worth it.Tubi has a version that's slighted edited, so if you really must see the film's infamous gross-out moment, watch the version on Prime.Tubi also has D'Amato'sand, the former which also features the same terrifying actor-killer as the one inTubiYou want to watch something-esque, but with lesbian characters. I thought the story was super creepy and made me soo anxious!TubiYou're in the mood for sci-fi horror with some ambiguity. It's Lovecraftian with the vibe ofTubiUnlike most ghost story films, in which the main characters are the one being haunted, this film approaches the story from the perspective of the ghost. Be kind to its budget limitations!AsianCrushBecause even though this is a horror post, you may want to watch something to make you laugh! This dark comedy and cult favorite might do the trick.This was remade by Takashi Miike with his film,YouTube Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Catarina Demony (Reuters) Lisbon Tue, May 26, 2020 14:04 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda23645 2 News Airlines,travel,Portugal,coronavirus,COVID-19,TAP Free Portugal's flag carrier TAP will resume some of its international operations to hard-hit Italy, Spain and various other destinations from the beginning of July as lockdowns imposed to combat the coronavirus are slowly lifted. A plan published on TAP's website on Monday showed around 240 weekly fights will operate between July 1 and 31, including 14 flights per week from Lisbon to Milan and Rome, as well as to Barcelona and Madrid. The airline, which under normal conditions operates around 2,500 weekly flights, is now running two flights a week from Lisbon to London and Paris, but will increase the frequency on those routes in July and add flights to Brussels, Berlin, Amsterdam and other cities across Europe. Two flights per week from Lisbon to New York will start as early as next Monday. TAP will also fly to Boston, Miami and Toronto in July. More flights to Brazil, the world's No. 2 coronavirus hotspot behind the United States, are also scheduled. Read also: Portugal ready to welcome back tourists, says government Last month TAP, which was partly privatised in 2015, asked for a state-backed loan to help it survive the crisis, with Chairman Miguel Frasquilho describing the company as at its most fragile since it was founded. Prime Minister Antonio Costa has raised the possibility of re-nationalizing TAP and, earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Alvaro Novo said the government hoped to make a decision on a capital injection by mid-June. Brazilian-U.S. airline entrepreneur David Neeleman holds a 45 percent stake in TAP, the state 50 percent and TAP employees the remaining 5 percent. Inquiries, she said, are exploring the operation of the Strategic National Stockpile of emergency supplies, the development and distribution of tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the process by which the Food and Drug Administration approved tests developed by outside laboratories. They also are delving into safety issues in nursing homes, which account for a disproportionate share of cases and deaths; the role of the HHS agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid; and further work on hospitals preparedness. Aminata Kebe, Human Rights Officer in the West Africa Regional Office of UN Human Rights, has been leading the advocacy efforts by that office to protect the rights of children begging in the streets of many countries in that region. Many of these children are enrolled in Koranic schools, also knowns as daaras, where they are forced by their guides to beg in the streets, as a sign of allegiance and to contribute to their upkeep. This centuries-old practice has raised concerns for the rights of these children who, away from their families, are often subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and whose right to an education are lost to hours spent on the streets, The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have tallied to 12,991 the number of cases of infection to COVID-19 in West Africa. The more time these children spend on the street, the more vulnerable they become to contracting the coronavirus. Aminata tells us how she and her colleagues continue to fight for these children's rights during the pandemic. How has COVID-19 affected your work? COVID-19 has affected my work at different levels. First, I had to reconsider my work plan by reprogramming a number of priority actions whose feasibility was no longer possible because of measures restricting movements and assemblies. In addition, teleworking can be difficult in a context where the partners we work with have not yet adjusted to this new working method and continue to solicit us to carry out field activities. For example, we support the Government to remove children from the streets and reunify them with their families, and as a representative of the office in the monitoring unit set up for that purpose, partners who wish to continue organising in face to face meetings do not always understand my absence due to the physical distancing measures. Moreover, working from home is not always easy when children are present and we must take care of them and accompany them in their studies. What is your office doing to protect the rights of people during this epidemic? UN Human Right' West Africa Regional Office (WARO) is conducting comprehensive monitoring of the human rights situation in the region in the context of COVID-19. From the beginning of the pandemic, our Regional Representative seized the Minister in charge of human rights and the Minister in charge of gender and child protection to draw their attention to the respect of human rights while emergency measures are put in place, particularly for vulnerable groups such as, prisoners, women, people with disabilities and children. He encouraged them to take specific measures to ensure their access to fundamental rights in this context, particularly reproductive health for women that should not be left at a standstill. He also urged them to continue to monitor and prevent gender-based violence, which can increase in a context of confinement, and ensure that the data collected are disaggregated at least by age and sex. With regard to children's rights, WARO in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States, supports national strategies to protect vulnerable children from COVID-19 in six West African countries: Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Within two months, more than 1,500 children were removed from the streets and reintegrated into their families. We also provided them with 1,200 dignity kits consisting of clothes, toiletries, shoes, towels and travel bags. What are the main human rights issues at stake in your region in the COVID-19 response? One of the main challenges is the protection of children's rights. In West Africa, particularly in Senegal, child begging is widespread, especially those who attend certain Koranic schools. In the context of the pandemic, children are more than ever at risk of contamination while the violation of their rights is more exacerbated. Our civil society partners who went on the ground to monitor the situation found malnourished children living in inhumane conditions without water or sanitation in Senegal. In Gambia, children were simply abandoned in the streets by their marabouts, men supposed to teach them the Koran. Many children have been deported from countries neighbouring Niger and abandoned at that country's border. As a result, WARO has increased its support through its Project for the Protection of Child Victims of Rights Violations (PAPEV), which is funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to support vulnerable children. We also continue to advocate, with other key stakeholders such as UNICEF, for Governments to devise a sustainable solution to protect these children's rights, and that requires strong political will. Biggest challenges and lessons learned thus far during the pandemic? Governments lack emergency management strategies and that is a real challenge that the international community s need to address to make States more resilient. The promotion of Economic and Socio-cultural Rights (ESCR), mainly the right to health, must also be better addressed in our interventions that focus more on Civil and Political Rights. The pandemic has finally shown us the importance that ESCR can have on other rights and the need to better support States in their efforts to provide access to these rights. Why is it important to stand together during this pandemic? The importance to stand up for human rights has become more than obvious and relevant in the context of the pandemic. We have seen how individuals have helped block the way to COVID-19 by performing acts of solidarity to help one another. This pandemic has taught us how social inequalities can be exacerbated during crises and how fundamental rights, which are often taken for granted, can be challenged. It remains important for UN Human Rights to continue its efforts to support States in implementing their commitments for the realization of human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, especially in the context of crises. 26 May 2020 - Ghana has recorded 6,964 COVD-19 cases - Meanwhile, 2,097 of the infected persons have recovered - The number of deaths remains 32 - Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in The Ghana Health Service (GHS) announced at a press conference on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, that Ghanas COVD-19 case count is now 6,964. The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye also noted that 2,097 persons have since recovered. READ ALSO: Landlord allegedly kills tenant who refused to vacate room in Accra The death toll still stands at 32. As of 24th May 2020 a total of about 156 new cases have been recorded in Ghana The cases were identified in five out of the 16 regions. Greater Accra contributing about 72 new cases, Western Region 57, Central Region 13 new cases, Volta Region reported an increase of 10 new cases and Ashanti record," Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye disclosed at a press conference in Accra. Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh earlier reported that despite the world diving into a big financial crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jeff Bezos and top American billionaires including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have seen their fortunes soar by $434 billion. According to CNBC, Bezos who is the founder of Amazon - a multinational conglomerate technology company - is the biggest earner during the pandemic with the 56-year-old American raking a staggering $34.6 billion to his wealth. Ghanaian Pastors are crying because of the lack of offerings and tithes - Woman explains | #Yencomgh Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh Democratic voters increasingly give Maryland's Republican governor high marks for the job he's been doing during the coronavirus pandemic, and an overwhelming majority of Maryland voters agree with the restrictions he put in place to control the virus's spread, according to a poll released Tuesday. But Gov. Larry Hogan has taken a hit within his own party over his handling of the novel coronavirus. Gonzales Research & Media Services found that Hogan's job approval rating among Democratic voters has increased since the outbreak, jumping from 66 percent in February to 82 percent now. Meanwhile, his rating among fellow Republicans, according to the poll, has suffered slightly, dropping from 79% three months ago to 71% now - making Hogan, who has long been a favorite among Democrats in a largely blue state, more popular with Democrats than within his own party, according to the poll. Protesters have descended on Annapolis in recent weeks, calling on Hogan to reopen the state without any limitations. Some Republican state legislators and others who oppose the governor's stay-at-home order have sued Hogan over the restrictions, arguing that he has overreached. Hogan's office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Still, Hogan's overall approval among Maryland voters jumped eight percentage points in the past three months, the poll found. Pollster Patrick Gonzales said Hogan's boost in his job approval rating appears to come from voters' "unease toward the coronavirus and its increased infection potential in Maryland." The poll found that 63% of Maryland voters think Hogan's stay-at-home order was "about right," while 22% said the restrictions "went too far" and 15% said the order has "not gone far enough." The response to Hogan's order is vastly different based on party affiliation. While 80% of Democratic voters say the stay-at-home order has been worthwhile, only 34% of Republicans had the same sentiment. Dirk Haire, chairman of the state Republican Party, called the slight decline in Hogan's approval rating among Republican voters "electorally insignificant" and said the governor is in a difficult position. "More Republicans are pushing to open more quickly; Democrats want to move more slowly," Haire said. "It's a tough balancing act; these are unprecedented times." The poll found that 43% of voters statewide and 55% of voters in the Washington metropolitan region know someone who has tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The group most concerned about the virus are black voters, according to the poll's findings - 70% said they are concerned about becoming seriously ill, compared with 57% of voters overall. The pandemic has disproportionately affected African American residents in Maryland and across the country. Prince George's County, a majority-black jurisdiction, is the hardest-hit county in the state. The poll, which was conducted May 19 to May 23, included 810 registered Maryland voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. --- The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed to this report. A selection of candid snaps of Marilyn Monroe are expected to fetch $9,000 when they are auctioned this week. The photos were taken by her friend, Hungarian-born photographer Andre de Dienes, on three separate occasions between 1945 and 1953. The images show the actress frolicking on the beach, playing in the snow and posing at the Bel Air Hotel. They are currently owned by a private collector who is putting the set up for auction at Nate D Sanders auction house in Los Angeles. A selection of candid snaps of Marilyn Monroe are expected to fetch $9,000 when they are auctioned this week. Pictured, the actress on Tobey Beach, Long Island, in 1949 In one of the first pictures taken by de Nienes in 1945, Marilyn, still known as Norma Jean, is only 19-years-old and can be seen during a winter holiday De Nienes captured Marilyn before her fame, and at the height of her career. In this 1949 picture, the starlet is beaming during a day on Tobey Beach, Long Island In the earliest photos, Monroe was just 19-years-old and still known by her birth name, Norma Jeane. At the time, she was a model who had left her first husband James Dougherty and was hoping to transition into acting. Dienes paid Monroe the hefty sum of $200 (the equivalent of 5,700 today) to go on a road trip with him where he would photograph her in natural landscapes. One photo shows Monroe looking angelic as she sits in the snow on Mt Hood, Oregon, with another focusing on her face. Dienes, who was a friend of Marilyn, said she thought she was an angel when they first met (Monroe pictured in 1949 on Tobey Beach, Long Island) In one of the candid snaps, the star can be seen frolicking in the water on Tobey Beach, Long Island in 1949 Describing their first meeting in his memoirs, Dienes said: 'It was as if a miracle had happened to me. Norma Jeane seemed to be like an angel. 'I could hardly believe it for a few moments. An earthly, sexy-looking angel! Sent expressly for me.' Four years later, de Dienes took five photos of the starlet in swimwear posing seductively on Tobey Beach, Long Island. The final two images were taken at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles in 1953. De Nienes paid Monroe, then a model, to let him take pictures of her during a road trip in 1945 She seems in a very relaxed mood as she does a stretch in one photo, and reads a book in the other. It was a big year for her with the release of the films 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and 'How To Marry a Millionaire' which propelled her into super-stardom. The photos are being sold by a collector with US-based auctioneer Nate D Sanders. A Nate D Sanders spokesperson said: 'It is rare to have such a large quantity of original Marilyn photos. 'Andre de Dienes photos of her are some of the most collectible - the ones from 1945 are when Marilyn and him were in a relationship together and they remained good friends until her death.' Monroe died of a drugs overdose aged 36 in 1962, and Dienes died in 1985. De Nienes described Monroe as 'a sexy-looking angel.' The pictures used to belong to a private collector, who recently decided to put them up for auction. Pictured: Monroe on Tobey Beach in 1949 Two pictures capture Monroe at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles in 1953, at the height of her career A World War II aircraft which was sent to a museum in 1944 was far deadlier than its reputation suggests, according to a historian. The Boulton Paul Defiant had a Rolls Royce Merlin engine - just like the acclaimed Spitfire and Hurricane - but it also had a second seat with a machine gun turret for blasting enemy bombers out of the sky. When it was first introduced into service, Luftwaffe pilots initially mistook the aircraft for a Hurricane and would attempt to roll in behind the aircraft to shoot it down only to be faced by its deadly Browning .303 machine guns. The Boulton Paul Defiant had a Rolls Royce Merlin engine - just like the acclaimed Spitfire and Hurricane - but it also had a second seat with a machine gun turret for blasting enemy bombers out of the sky Unlike the majority of Spitfires and Hurricanes, the Defiant had a crew of two people The Boulton Paul Defiant was a surprisingly effective fighter, though the Luftwaffe quickly changed their tactics to counter the threat Though, the additional weight and aerodynamic drag caused by they turret meant that the aircraft was an easy target and could not be used in daylight hours. The Air Ministry commissioned the Boulton Paul Defiant as a defence against bombers. The aircraft did not have any machine guns or cannons in the wings as the Air Ministry believed the best method of attack or defence was for the pilot to move the aircraft into a position for his gunner to blast away with his machine guns. Historian Robert Verkaik has written a book about the aircraft, in 'Defiant: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain'. He believes the RAF's leadership were responsible for the aircraft's bad reputation for deploying it incorrectly and blocking any attempt to put machine guns in the wings. The Defiant holds the record for shooting down the most enemy aircraft in one day when on May 29, 1940, 264 Squadron shot down two Me 109s, 15 Me 110s and a Junkers Ju 87 Stutka dive bomber on their first mission of the day. German pilots initially mistook the Defiant for a Hurricane and attempted to shoot it down from the rear German pilots approaching from the rear were met with four .303 Browning machine guns During the Battle of Britain, the squadron lost 11 aircraft and 13 crew while claiming 19 kills which led to it being re-purposed as a night fighter The air gunner on the right was responsible for eight enemy kills in one day Boulton Paul Defiant versus the Supermarine Spitfire SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE BOULTON PAUL DEFIANT ENGINE 1030hp Rolls-Royce Merlin engine 1,030hp Rolls-Royce Merlin engine SPAN 36ft 11 35ft 4 LENGTH 29ft 11 35ft 4 TOP SPEED 362mph 304mph ARMAMENT Eight - .303 Browning machine guns Four .303 Browning machine guns After refuelling and rearming, the squadron finished the day with a total of 38 aircraft kills. Although, one of the squadron's aces - having killed five aircraft in one day - was later shot down and killed. Pilot Nicholas Cooke and his gunner Albert Lippett scored five kills in one day, making them instant Aces. However, they were shot down and killed two days later over Dunkirk. According to Mr Verkaik: 'There is little doubt that the two patrols involving the Defiants, which met the full force of the Luftwaffe attacks, blunted the enemy's strikes against the Royal Navy ships which had been targeted by more than 300 enemy aircraft. That day the Navy lost just two ships [minesweepers] while evacuating nearly 68,000 men from the Dunkirk beaches the greatest number in a single day during Operation Dynamo.' Though, during the Battle of Britain, the squadron lost 11 aircraft and 13 crew while claiming 19 kills. The aircraft type was later repurposed as a night fighter before being withdrawn from front line service. Only one Boulton Paul Defiant has survived, which is on display at RAF Cosford. An official in the Air Ministry ordered the aircraft to be dismantled and put into storage ahead of the creation a museum. It was kept in a crate until it went on display at RAF St Athan, near Cardiff, Wales, in 1960. It was later put on display at RAF Hendon and is now on show in RAF Cosford in Shropshire. Parts of three other Defiants are known. The engine and propeller of an aircraft which crashed in April 1941 was on display at the Manchester Museum of Science. Parts of an aircraft which crashed in in the Derbyshire Peak District in August 1941 are being kept at RAF Cosford. Parts of a third aircraft are on display at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum. Suspected kidnap kingpin, Bobosky, who was declared wanted by the Rivers State Government, last year has been said to have a grand plan ... Suspected kidnap kingpin, Bobosky, who was declared wanted by the Rivers State Government, last year has been said to have a grand plan to unleash mayhem in parts of Ogoni. Governor Wike while speaking on the cancelled planned lockdown said the state has uncovered a dangerous plan by Bobosky to cause security breaches in the state. The Governor said Ikwerre, Oyigbo, Khana, Gokana and Tai are some of the target LGAs, just as he announced a night-time curfew from 8pm to 6am daily, starting from Tuesday, June 2nd. The Governor said, Our intelligence has intercepted a clandestine plan by some criminal elements led by Bobosky to cause security breaches in the State by instigating violence and burning down churches in Khana, Eleme, Gokana, Tai and Oyigbo Local Government Areas of the State. We want to assure all residents that the State Government is fully ready and prepared to deal with the situation and continue to guarantee the protection of lives and property throughout the State. We implore all residents to be vigilant and report all suspicious characters and movements in their neighbourhoods to security agencies. As a further security measure, we have decided to impose a nighttime curfew on all the 23 Local Government Areas of the State from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. starting from the 2nd of June 2020 until further notice. Leaders and vigilante groups in our communities are to work with the security agencies to enforce the curfew in their localities and arrest and prosecute anyone that violates the curfew order. As a government, we are doing our best and will continue to spare no efforts to protect our State and advance the best interest of our people. Nothing can scare, deter or derail us from this path. Bobosky was declared wanted in August last year with Governor Wike pledging N30million (thirty million naira) for anyone with information about him. IRELAND is to secure a new university with the Government decision to sanction the merger of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT). The new unified Munster Technology University (MTU) will boast six campus facilities across Cork and Kerry and almost 23,000 students. It aims to develop and expand already deep linkages between both Cork and Kerry facilities and high tech industries in the engineering, IT and pharmaceutical-biotech areas. Tanaiste Simon Coveney said it was an historic decision by the Government and Education Minister Joe McHugh. "The Government will confirm the creation of the Munster Technology University (MTU) which will be an amalgamation of CIT and ITT. This has been something that CIT has been leading on and working towards for three years now," he said. Read More "But more importantly it means we are going to have a second university in Cork and it is going to mean an opportunity for a significant increase in campus investment. "This is big news and very positive news for Cork and Kerry." CIT President Dr Barry O'Connor played a central role in helping deliver MTU which was first proposed over a decade ago. It is the second technological university created in Ireland in two years. The former Dublin Institute of Technology (CIT) merged with IT Tallaght and IT Blanchardstown to become the new Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), which launched in January 2019 Education Minister Joe McHugh was last month given clarifying details on the proposed Munster Technology University (MTU) merger by the consortium partners which aims to keep Ireland at the forefront of global technology, engineering excellence and world class research and development. MTU partners insisted the new university will play a crucial role in the recovery of the southern region from the coronavirus crisis - and provide critical future support for the pharmaceutical, medical, engineering and IT sectors. The Cork and Kerry colleges boast a total of six campuses and the proposal to merge them to create a 'super technology' university was first mooted in 2009. CIT has 17,000 full and part-time students while ITT has almost 4,000. "Notwithstanding the current crisis, the MTU consortium, in compliance with the instructions of Minister McHugh, responded to the minister on the specific clarifications he had sought regarding the application for MTU to be designated as the States second Technological University," a CIT/ITT spokesperson said. "The designation as a technology university will enable MTU to play a leading role in the recovery of the Munster region post COVID-19, sustaining and developing community and economy." MTU partners insisted the new entity will help deliver on the strategic aims set out for Ireland in the Technological University Research Network (TURN) blueprint. "The MTU consortium wishes staff, students and the wider community well in this current crisis, and looks forward to playing its role in the recovery process." In 2018, MTU was awarded 2m by the Department of Education to work on the development of its TU status. Some 2.3m was awarded in 2017. The merger will now create a university that can rival older colleges in terms of student numbers, financial clout and industrial linkages. It began in the mid-20th century in a Siberian laboratory where Dr. Buteyko led a team of scientists and doctors to scrutinize the function of respiration. The Soviet Union's government generously funded this work in hope of gaining advances during the Cold War. Unfortunately, the secrets of breathing revealed by Buteyko's team contradicted the Western scientific approach and supported Eastern esoteric knowledge. The Western medical paradigm regarding breathing was largely built upon the work of A. Lavoisier, a French scientist who in the 18th century discovered oxygen. Lavoisier was a Commissioner of the Royal Gunpowder and Saltpeter Administration who assumed that oxygen played the key role in the process of respiration and metabolism just like it did in the process of combustion. Since we inhale mostly oxygen, the idea of breathing MORE became a common solution for people suffering from breathing difficulties. Dr. Buteyko refuted Lavoisier's theory, asserting that the key role in the process of respiration belonged to carbon dioxide, which is not a waste gas but our vital energy (prana). To boost vitality, Dr. Buteyko suggested breathing LESS, because this increases the CO2 level in the lungs and improves overall oxygenation and metabolism. Clinical studies conducted in Soviet Union proved that Dr. Buteyko was correct; however, the medical community never fully accepted his radical discovery. Is there a connection between COVID-19 and Buteyko? Dr. Novozhilov says: until we acknowledge a new paradigm regarding respiration, we cannot stop a high mortality rate in hospitals or find a natural prevention against Coronavirus. In his talk, he will teach how to control breath to regulate susceptibility to COVID. Dr. Novozhilov's manual for healthier breathing as well as Dr. Buteyko's texts were published in a book Breathe To Heal where asthma was used as a model for their work. This book also contains testimonials of many asthmatics who tamed their breathing problems by abandoning the old paradigm (Breathe More) and adopting the new one (Breathe Less). Following Dr. Novozhilov's recommendations, Fred Brown, RRT who works in an NYC hospital, advised doctors there to lower ventilator settings, reducing patient's air consumption. It helped several people survive. Of course, his actions did not initiate a system-wide change because medical professionals are governed by the belief: to breathe better, one needs to breathe MORE. Dr. Novozhilov states: during COVID-19, our chance of survival depends on how we breathe. If we continue over-breathing, it can be as low as one or two out of ten. More information: https://www.breathingcenter.com/covid-19-insight-prevention-with-dr-a-novozhilov-md https://www.breathingcenter.com/covid-19-what-is-killing-people https://www.breathingcenter.com/covid-19-why-mechanical-ventilation-doesn-t-help Contact information: Website: https://www.breathingcenter.com/ SOURCE Breathing Center Related Links http://www.breathingcenter.com A truck driver who knowingly drove with faulty breaks when he slammed into a police officer has been jailed for four years. Samandeep Singh, 30, fatally hit First Constable D'Arne De Leo, 45, as she drove her motorbike to work near the Eastern Freeway in Wantirna in Melbourne's East on January 12, 2017. Singh's truck wasn't roadworthy and he knew the rear brakes weren't working. The front brakes were also compromised because the vehicle was loaded incorrectly. He used his exhaust and emergency brakes in an attempt to stop but rolled down a hill and smashed into Const De Leo's bike at a Wantirna intersection. The former truck driver was sentenced to up to four years in jail for dangerous driving causing death at the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday. Truck driver Samandeep Singh (left), 30, fatally hit First Constable D'Arne De Leo (right), 45, as she drove her motorbike to work near the Eastern Freeway in Wantirna in Melbourne's East on January 12, 2017 Judge Michael Tinney said in his sentencing Singh could and should have stopped as soon as he realised his brakes were faulty. 'You knew you were driving a sizeable truck with a 13-tonne load. You knew the brakes were not working effectively,' the judge said. 'You hoped to finish the job and then report the issues.' Singh received his heavy vehicle licence after a one-day training course. The company he worked for, Ermes Transport, had a shoddy maintenance record. He initially denied knowing the brakes didn't work properly, but pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death after his planned trial was delayed repeatedly. Singh's mental health has deteriorated significantly and he has tattooed reminders of Const De Leo, including her police number, all over his body. He has post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, traits of a personality disorder and has tried to take his own life more than once. 'This will sound strange to say in a case involving such a tragedy as this one does, but you ruminate on this tragedy probably too much for your own good,' Judge Tinney said, referring to Singh's numerous tattoos. 'I have no doubt you're deeply sorry another person has died and by virtue of your criminal act.' Police investigate the crash site after Singh hit Ms De Leo in January, 2017 Singh outside of court in November, 2017. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and was sentenced to four years in jail on Tuesday 'Nothing I can do, no sentence I can lawfully impose will do anything to restore the De Leo family unit,' Judge Tinney said before handing down Singh's sentence. The truck driver was sentenced to four years in jail and must spend two years and four months behind bars before being eligible for parole in September 2022. Singh has already spent 151 days in pre-sentence detention and is likely to be deported to India upon his release from jail. While Singh could be released on parole in 2022, Ms De Leo's surviving family say they're serving a life sentence of grief. Ms De Leo's partner-of 13-years Krisztina Toth said she is relieved to finally see justice served more than three years later. 'At the end of the day we're all serving a lifetime sentence,' Ms Toth said outside the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday. 'I'm really glad it's over and we've got justice for her.' Ms De Leo's partner-of 13-years Krisztina Toth (right) said she is relieved to finally see justice served more than three years later Ms Toth said she wanted her partner to be remembered as a 'kind, loving, beautiful person'. Const De Leo's mother, Jan, had cancer and did not survive to see her daughter get justice. 'She so desperately wanted to be present as a voice for her daughter,' Judge Tinney said. The police officer's father, Patrick, earlier said he did not hate or want revenge on Singh. []:2000 20200526 16:20:51 : : :2000 Stock Code: 200771 Stock ID: Hangqilun B Announcement No. 2020-35 Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. Announcement on Providing 20 million yuan loan Guarantee for Hangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd. The members of the Board and the Company acknowledge being responsible for the truthfulness, accuracy, and completeness of the announcement. Not any false record, misleading statement or significant omission carried in this announcement. . Overview of the Guarantee 1.Hangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd, which is the holding subsidiary to Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd, applied for a working capital loan of RMB 20 million from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Hangzhou Banshan Sub-branch on the ground of meeting its production and operation liquidity needs, with a term of one year. Currently, the Casting company has applied to the Listed Company to provide guarantee for this loan.a guarantee method of joint liability guarantee, and a guarantee period of two years. 2.The company held the fifth meeting of the eighth board of directors through correspondence on May 26, 2020, and there were 10 companys directors participated in the vote, resulted in 10 votes of assent, 0 dissenting vote and 0 vote of abstention. The meeting examined and adopted the Proposal on providing 20 million yuan loan Guarantee for Hangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd.For details, please refer to the "Announcement on Resolutions of the 5th meeting of the 8th term of the Board " (Announcement No.2020-34). Pursuant to the Rules Governing the Listing of Shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the relevant regulations, none of the aforesaid guarantees provided by the Company to Casting Company for the purpose of consideration by the Shareholders' General Meeting shall constitute a connected transaction and shall not be subject to the relevant government departments for approval. . Basic Information about the Guaranteed 1. Company Name: Hangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd. 2. Date of establishment: March 1,2004 3. Place of registration: No.2,Road, Tangqi Industry Area, Yuhang District, Hangzhou. 4. Legal representativeYu Junming 5. Registered capital: RMB 29.50 million 6. Business scope: Production: Resin sand-casting steel parts, resin sand-casting iron parts, organic ester water glass sand-casting steel parts, forgings; machining; installation, maintenance: casting equipment; sales: the company's products; import and export of goods. 7. Relationship with the company: The Company holds 38.03% stake of the Casting company, and the Casting company is a subsidiary which is in the consolidated statement of the Company. 8.The guarantor of the recent financial situation: In RMB 10,000 Period Total assets Net assets Revenue Net profit Asset liabilities Ratio Year 2019 54,595.07 25,030.9 39,982.66 638.05 54.15% January March 2020 51,731.99 25,024.22 6,438.63 -1.58 51.63% 9.Description of Other matters (1) Total amount involved in contingent eventsNone (2) As of now, the accumulated amount of outstanding loans of the casting company : The 20 million yuan from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (This guarantee application is a renewal guarantee for the loan due on June 12, 2020, and it does not include the above loan amount). (3) Whether is a defaulter against who a judgement or order is being executed: No. .The main contents of the guarantee agreement (I)Maximum Amount Guarantee Contract between the Company and ICBC 1.Creditor: ICBC Hangzhou Banshan Branch 2. Guarantor: Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. 3. Guaranteed amount: RMB 20 million 4. Guarantee mean: Joint-liability guarantee 5.Scope of Guarantee: The principal of the principle creditors rights and the interest thereof, and compound interest, penalty interest, liquidated damages, indemnification for loss, exchange rate losses (losses due to changes in exchange rates), and expenses for the realization of the creditors rights (including but not limited to litigation fees and lawyers' fees). 6.Guarantee period: Two years from the day after the expiration of the loan term under the master contract; if Party A declares the advance maturity according to the stipulation of the master contract, the guarantee period is two years from the next day of the loan due date. 7.The debt period of the principal contract: 1 year IV. Opinions from Board of Directors 1. Casting company applied for a working capital loan from the the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China a, mainly to meet the liquidity requirement of its production and operation, The reason that the company provides guarantees for the casting and forging company is to help it obtain bank loans and smoothly carry out business activities. 2.Casting Company maintains a relatively good record in aspects of asset quality, operation condition, industry prospect, debt paying ability and credit status. The board holds that guaranteeing it wont have any negative effect on the company. 3 The Casting Company will sign a Counter-guarantee contract with the Company according to their shareholding ratio. This guarantee is in line with fair and equitable requirements. The board of directors of the Company has fulfilled the review procedures in accordance with the regulations, and the Company providing guarantee for the Casting Company is in line with laws and regulations. V. Cumulative Amount of External Guarantee and Amount of Overdue Guarantee By this announcement date, the accumulative amount of external company by the company and its holding subsidiary is RMB 398 million, taking up 5.64 % of the audited net assetsRMB 7,058.9756 millionin 2019. The total balance of guarantees provided by the company and its holding subsidiaries outside the scope of the consolidated statement is RMB 208 million. taking up 2.95 % of the audited net assets in the latest issue. The Company has no overdue guarantees, and there is no guarantee amount for overdue debts involving in litigation and no guarantee amount that shall be borne due to the guarantee is ruled with a defeat in lawsuit. VI. Documents available for inspection 1. Resolutions of the 5th Meeting of the 8th term of Board This announcement is hereby made. The Board of Directors of Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd. May 27,2020 Stock Code: 200771 Stock ID: Hangqilun B Announcement No. 2020-35Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd.Announcement on Providing 20 million yuan loan Guarantee for HangzhouSteam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd.The members of the Board and the Company acknowledge being responsible for thetruthfulness, accuracy, and completeness of the announcement. Not any false record, misleadingstatement or significant omission carried in this announcement.. Overview of the Guarantee1.Hangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd, which is the holding subsidiary to Hangzhou SteamTurbine Co., Ltd, applied for a working capital loan of RMB 20 million from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Hangzhou Banshan Sub-branch on the ground of meeting its productionand operation liquidity needs, with a term of one year. Currently, the Casting company has applied to the Listed Company to provide guarantee for this loan.a guarantee method of joint liabilityguarantee, and a guarantee period of two years.2.The company held the fifth meeting of the eighth board of directors through correspondence onMay 26, 2020, and there were 10 companys directors participated in the vote, resulted in 10 votesof assent, 0 dissenting vote and 0 vote of abstention. The meeting examined and adopted theProposal on providing 20 million yuan loan Guarantee forHangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd.For details, please refer to the "Announcement onResolutions of the 5th meeting of the 8th term of the Board " (Announcement No.2020-34).Pursuant to the Rules Governing the Listing of Shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange andthe relevant regulations, none of the aforesaid guarantees provided by the Company to CastingCompany for the purpose of consideration by the Shareholders' General Meeting shall constitute aconnected transaction and shall not be subject to the relevant government departments forapproval.. Basic Information about the Guaranteed1. Company Name: Hangzhou Steam Turbine Casting Co., Ltd.2. Date of establishment: March 1,20043. Place of registration: No.2,Road, Tangqi Industry Area, Yuhang District, Hangzhou.4. Legal representativeYu Junming5. Registered capital: RMB 29.50 million6. Business scope: Production: Resin sand-casting steel parts, resin sand-casting iron parts,organic ester water glass sand-casting steel parts, forgings; machining; installation, maintenance:casting equipment; sales: the company's products; import and export of goods.7. Relationship with the company: The Company holds 38.03% stake of the Casting company, andthe Casting company is a subsidiary which is in the consolidated statement of the Company.8.The guarantor of the recent financial situation:In RMB 10,000PeriodTotal assetsNet assetsRevenueNet profitAsset liabilitiesRatioYear 201954,595.0725,030.939,982.66638.0554.15%January March 202051,731.9925,024.226,438.63-1.5851.63%9.Description of Other matters(1) Total amount involved in contingent eventsNone(2) As of now, the accumulated amount of outstanding loans of the casting company :The 20 million yuan from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (This guarantee application isa renewal guarantee for the loan due on June 12, 2020, and it does not include the above loan amount).(3) Whether is a defaulter against who a judgement or order is being executed: No..The main contents of the guarantee agreement(I)Maximum Amount Guarantee Contract between the Company and ICBC1.Creditor: ICBC Hangzhou Banshan Branch2. Guarantor: Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd.3. Guaranteed amount: RMB 20 million4. Guarantee mean: Joint-liability guarantee5.Scope of Guarantee: The principal of the principle creditors rights and the interest thereof, andcompound interest, penalty interest, liquidated damages, indemnification for loss, exchange ratelosses (losses due to changes in exchange rates), and expenses for the realization of the creditorsrights (including but not limited to litigation fees and lawyers' fees).6.Guarantee period: Two years from the day after the expiration of the loan term under the mastercontract; if Party A declares the advance maturity according to the stipulation of the mastercontract, the guarantee period is two years from the next day of the loan due date.7.The debt period of the principal contract: 1 yearIV. Opinions from Board of Directors1. Casting company applied for a working capital loan from thethe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China a, mainly to meet the liquidity requirement of itsproduction and operation, The reason that the company provides guarantees for the casting andforging company is to help it obtain bank loans and smoothly carry out business activities.2.Casting Company maintains a relatively good record in aspects of asset quality, operationcondition, industry prospect, debt paying ability and credit status. The board holds thatguaranteeing it wont have any negative effect on the company.3 The Casting Company will sign a Counter-guarantee contract with the Company according totheir shareholding ratio. This guarantee is in line with fair and equitable requirements. The boardof directors of the Company has fulfilled the review procedures in accordance with the regulations,and the Company providing guarantee for the Casting Company is in line with laws andregulations.V. Cumulative Amount of External Guarantee and Amount of Overdue GuaranteeBy this announcement date, the accumulative amount of external company by the companyand its holding subsidiary is RMB 398 million, taking up 5.64 % of the audited net assetsRMB7,058.9756 millionin 2019. The total balance of guarantees provided by the company and itsholding subsidiaries outside the scope of the consolidated statement is RMB 208 million. takingup 2.95 % of the audited net assets in the latest issue.The Company has no overdue guarantees, and there is no guarantee amount for overdue debtsinvolving in litigation and no guarantee amount that shall be borne due to the guarantee is ruledwith a defeat in lawsuit.VI. Documents available for inspection1. Resolutions of the 5th Meeting of the 8th term of BoardThis announcement is hereby made.The Board of Directors of Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co., Ltd.May 27,2020 New Delhi: Delhi Police on Tuesday filed 20 charge sheets against 82 foreigners who allegedly attended a religious congregation organised in March by the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary group, at its headquarters in New Delhis NIzamuddin area, in violation of their visa conditions and the Indian governments guidelines on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak. Police said that the Central government has cancelled the visa of the 82 foreigners and blacklisted them. The headquarters, known as the Markaz, went on to emerge as the biggest Covid-19 cluster in India, leading to a spurt in the rate of infection in the city. The charge sheets, running to 15,499 pages, were submitted in the afternoon before duty magistrate Saema Jamil at the Saket court by the crime branch. The court is expected to decide on cognizance of the charge sheets on June 12. A charge sheet is a document that mentions charges and evidence collected against people accused of committing an offence. The court starts a trial only after taking cognizance of the charge sheet. The 82 foreigners against whom the police filed the charge sheet are from 20 different countries. They include 14 from Fiji, 10 from Saudi Arabia, eight Algerians and seven each from Brazil and China, six each from Sudan and the Philippines, five from the US, and four from Afghanistan. Police also filed charge sheet against two each from Australia, Kazakhistan, Morocco and the UK and one each from Ukraine, Egypt, Russia, Belgium, Jordan, France and Tunisia. They all have been booked under Section 14 (b) of the Foreigners Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 51 of the Disaster Management Act and four sections of the Indian Penal Code, 188, 269, 270 and 271, for violating visa conditions, lockdown rules, spreading the virus, and breaking quarantine rule, Delhi Police said in a statement. These foreign nationals had entered India on tourist visa and had participated in the Markaz illegally. In addition to violating the provisions of visa, these foreign nationals also led to a situation where a highly infectious disease such as coronavirus (Covid-19) infection spread and threatened the lives of the inmates and the general public at large, the police statement read. The punishment for various offences under the penal provisions ranges from six months to eight years of imprisonment. More than 900 foreign nationals belonging to 34 different countries have been questioned in the case after they purportedly attended the religious congregation despite having entered the country on a tourist visa, the conditions of which prohibits the visa holder from engaging in any missionary activities, crime branch officials associated with the probe said. The charge sheets have been filed against 82 foreigners since there were enough evidence against them. Charge sheets are being prepared against other foreign nationals, who are accused in the case, country-wise. The remaining charge sheets will be submitted in the next few days, said a senior crime branch official, requesting anonymity. The HC was also informed by advocate Rahul Mehra, standing counsel of the Delhi government (criminal), that more charge sheets would be filed within this week against the foreigners. The crime branch had filed a criminal case against Tablighi Jamat chief Maulana Saad and six other top officials on March 31 for defying a series of government directives, which curbed religious and large gatherings, issued to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the national capital. Charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and criminal conspiracy were added to the case after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to the virus. Police are yet to summon Saad for interrogation, but have got a lookout notice issued against him to prevent him from leaving the country. More than 2,300 people, including foreigners, were evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in March-end and lodged in various quarantine facilities in Delhi by the authorities. Many other foreigners were found staying in different religious and residential buildings across the city. A 44-year-old New Jersey man was arrested after getting into an argument with another motorist and ramming the womans vehicle during what Evesham police described as a road-rage incident, authorities said. Adam S. Franchio and the other driver a 30-year-old Trenton woman stopped in traffic along Route 73 near Baker Boulevard in Evesham, exited their cars and began screaming at and threatening one another, according to Lt. Joseph Friel. Franchio then got back in his vehicle and drove into the womans car before leaving, officials said. She was able to get a partial plate and called police, who used the information to track down Franchio. The woman told police Franchio was brake checking her and giving her the middle finger before both pulled over at about 3:30 p.m., Friel said by phone Tuesday. Franchio, of the Marlton section of town, was charged with aggravated assault with a vehicle and making terroristic threats. He was sent to the Burlington County jail, where he remains held Tuesday afternoon, according to online records. Both cars were left with moderate damage, police said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. On May 8, 2020, the Second District Court of Appeal in California issued a decision that may reinstate potentially hundreds of lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson for its product Risperdal. Readers may recall the Risperdal cases that are pending across the country, with a segment of cases in California, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and South Carolina. Men, boys, and their families are suing Johnson & Johnson and affiliates (such as Janssen Pharmaceuticals), alleging that the drug Risperdal, used to treat mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, caused gynecomastia. Previously, Johnson & Johnson had been granted a summary judgment on federal preemption grounds, which halted the California cases from moving forward. However, the recent May 8 decision reverses that summary judgment decision with respect to two of the plaintiffs, concluding that there was no clear evidence that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have rejected a revised warning label on the prescription drug, as is required under the United States Supreme Court decision Wyeth v. Levine. Impossibility preemption requires the drug manufacturer to show that it fully informed the FDA, Justice Halim Dhanidina wrote in the decision, continuing, Janssen did not. Table 21 In making its decision, the appeals court seemed to focus on table 21, a set of data that Johnson & Johnson did not disclose to the FDA which showed a statistically significant association between Risperdal and elevated blood prolactin levels. Specifically, table 21 tended to show that children who had elevated prolactin after taking risperidone [the generic form of Risperdal] for eight to 12 weeks were 2.8 times more likely to develop prolactin-related side effects, including gynecomastia, the opinion says. As the risperidone label made no mention of the likelihood of developing side effects related to elevated prolactin levels for different time periods, this information demonstrated a risk of greater frequency then reported on the label. This decision may impact over 300 lawsuits filed by individuals who took Risperdal as children prior to a 2006 label change that did warn of gynecomastia. Prior Risperdal Verdicts This may be a financial liability for Johnson and Johnson, as juries in Philadelphia have already found Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen liable with high verdicts of $2.5 million, $70 million, and a record $8 billion. Janssen also paid $2.2 billion in criminal and civil fines, penalties, and settlements to resolve claims that it illegally marketed Risperdal, Invega, and other drugs. Reactions Plaintiff-Side We applaud the courts decision, said Marc Grossman, Senior Partner at Sanders Phillips Grossman. It was the correct ruling on the merits and sets the stage for us to finally obtain justice for our clients, who have suffered one of the worst injuries you can imagine for a young boy. Timothy Clark, Co-Lead Counsel of the California JCCP Risperdal Litigation and trial attorney with Sanders Phillips Grossman, said that Table 21 is central to plaintiffs arguments that the J&J Defendants failed to warn patients, their families, and prescribers of Risperdal and Invega about the drugs true risk of gynecomastia. Defendants not only withheld the information from the drug labeling, but also withheld the information from the published literature regarding analysis of the underlying clinical trials. Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson, represented by Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath in the appeal, downplayed the rulings significance in a statement, The court of appeals largely affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiffs case except for a very narrow theory that the company has not seen factually supported in any of the 320 cases that have been stayed pending this ruling. The company is considering whether to seek further review of the courts limited reversal ruling. TORONTO - Porter Airlines is extending the suspension of all of its flights by another month until July 29. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. An Porter airlines flight makes its final approach as it lands at the airport Tuesday July 2, 2019 in Ottawa. Porter Airlines is extending its suspension of all of its flights by another month until July 29. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld TORONTO - Porter Airlines is extending the suspension of all of its flights by another month until July 29. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Chief executive Michael Deluce says the ongoing uncertainty due to government travel restrictions, including border closures, is impacting the airline's ability to operate flights. The airline stopped flying on March 21 as travel restrictions due to the pandemic ramped up and caused a sharp drop in demand. It had planned to resume flights on June 29. Porter says seasonal summer markets that it planned to serve this year are being cancelled as part of the deferral. It says Muskoka, Ont., and Stephenville, N.L., are the two destinations affected. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020. Remdesivir mimics the genetic material of the coronavirus and prevents new virus copies from being produced. With a vaccine still a long distance away, efforts to repurpose old medications used for other ailments provide hope of an early counter to COVID-19, say, scientists, placing the antiviral remdesivir on top of the list of possible contenders. As COVID-19 continues its spread crossing 5.2 million cases and 3,38,000 fatalities on Saturday several categories of drugs are under clinical trial. Of them, remdesivir, which initially went into trials for treating the deadly Ebola virus five years ago, has shown promise by modestly speeding recovery from COVID-19, experts said. More than 130 drugs are under experimentation to treat COVID-19, some may have the potential to stop the virus while others may help calm overactive immune responses that damage organs, according to a tracker maintained by the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank in the US, "Right now, there is only one effective approach which is to repurpose already approved drugs for other diseases if they can be used for COVID-19. One example is remdesivir," Ram Vishwakarma, director of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, CSIR, Jammu, told PTI. Remdesivir is helping people recover faster, and is lowering the death rate among critically ill patients, Vishwakarma said, adding that it can be life-saving. We do not have time to develop new drugs. New drug development takes five-10 years so we are using existing drugs and conducting clinical trials to find if any of them are effective, Vishwakarma said. Some molecules available for treating diseases like HIV or other viral infections can be quickly checked against the novel coronavirus, he explained. If found effective, they can be used against COVID-19 with the appropriate approval from drug control bodies. When drug company Gilead Sciences sought to begin clinical trials for remdesivir to treat the novel coronavirus, it immediately got approval from the US FDA. According to Vishwakarma, the other drug showing promise is favipiravir, a broad-spectrum antiviral approved in Japan, which is also under clinical trials for its effectiveness against COVID-19. India is also playing its role. The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, has developed the technology to make favipiravir, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director-General Shekar Mande announced this month. CSIR is conducting clinical trials for favipiravir, remdesivir and an anti-inflammatory drug called colchicine, which is commonly used to treat gout, said Vishwakarma. "A number of drug trials are happening in India, which we are doing with pharmaceutical companies," Vishwakarma said. Of the drugs under trial, remdesivir has shown the most promising results, agreed Subhabrata Sen, professor at the Department of Chemistry in Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh. Sen, whose lab is involved in the discovery of biologically active molecules, told PTI that some of the drugs being tested are antivirals, and some are antimalarials and antibiotics. Of the antivirals in the tracker list, some are new molecules under trial, whereas others are old drugs being repurposed and tested for their effectiveness against COVID-19. Remdesivir, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April, mimics the genetic material of the coronavirus. When the virus copies its RNA or genetic material, the drug replaces some of the pathogen's building blocks. According to the authors of this study, the drug prevents new virus copies from being produced. Preliminary results had shown that patients who received remdesivir had a 31 per cent faster time to recovery than those who received placebo. However, another study published in the journal Lancet in April cautioned that interpretation of these findings is limited since the remdesivir study was stopped early after the scientists were unable to recruit enough patients due to the steep decline in cases in China. The authors of The Lancet study concluded that more evidence from ongoing clinical trials is needed to better understand whether remdesivir can provide meaningful clinical benefit. There are other drugs being tested too. Some drugs developed to treat HIV, such as lopinavir and ritonavir, are also being tested to cure COVID-19, Vishwakarma said. A study published in Lancet this month said a treatment involving a combination of the drugs interferon beta-1b, plus the antiviral combination lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin, is better at reducing the viral load or quantity of the virus than lopinavir-ritonavir alone. But these, too, were early findings, observed only in patients with mild to moderate illness, so the scientists behind the study stressed the need for larger trials to examine the effectiveness of this triple combination in critically ill patients. Another study published last month in the journal Science noted the effectiveness of two small molecule drug candidates named 11a and 11b which could block the SARS-CoV-2 M protease enzyme, which the virus uses to make copies of itself. The molecules could stop the virus from replicating in monkey cells and have been found safe for administration in rats and beagles, with the study concluding that both the drugs warrant further studies. Scientists have also tested the effectiveness of therapies involving the use of antibodies that can bind to some parts of the virus, and block their entry into host cells. In a study, published last month in the journal Cell, scientists reported that antibodies derived from the immune system of the South American mammal called llamas can block the entry of the novel coronavirus into host cells. This study found that llamas, which belong to the same category of mammals as camels, produce special kinds of antibody molecules that bind tightly to a key protein on the novel coronavirus. However, scientists believe its efficacy is yet to be proved in human clinical trials. Last week, scientists from the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Genomics at Peking University in China, revealed a new method to identify multiple antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients. Using a single-cell genomics method, the researchers could rapidly identify antibodies from convalescent plasma, a component of patients' blood. When the researchers tested these antibodies in mice, they found that some of them could neutralise the virus. Another team from the University of Washington in the US found recently that a combination of antibodies, including those from a patient who had recovered from the 2002-03 SARS pandemic virus infection, can effectively block the novel coronavirus. One of these molecules, named S309, showed particularly strong neutralising activity against SARS-CoV-2, they said, adding that it can act in combination with another, a less potent antibody that targets a different site on the virus. However, these results to are yet to be validated in human clinical trials. Among other therapeutics currently under trial or in use, Sen said US President Donald Trump's "game-changer" drug hydroxychloroquine was promising "until it demonstrated serious side effects in the form of cardiovascular complications", rendering it ineffective. The recent measures announced by the Modi government to combat the coronavirus-induced downturn are being compared with the 1991 reforms, but analysts beg to differ. The Year 2020 can be called the year of reforms that are likely to benefit the economy over the next two or three years or later but for the short term, investors were left longing for more. The recent correction of about 40 percent from the highs, however, is an opportunity for a first-time investor to deploy cash at lower levels. The reforms introduced in 1991 were aimed at opening India to foreign investment and making the economy market-and service-oriented. This year, the government and the Reserve Bank of India have taken some steps to support growth and kick-start investment through a Rs 20-lakh-crore package, which amounts to 10 percent of GDP. While the fruitfulness of the reforms will be known in future, there were indeed some strong measures reflecting government intent on improving bottlenecks/driving growth across sectors be it defence, power, infrastructure, MSMEs, mining etc, Pankaj Pandey, Head of Research, ICICI direct told Moneycontrol. Calling it historic like 1991 will be far-fetched, but 2020 will be marked as a year where reforms process (albeit pushed by the crisis) have been expedited by the government, he said. They prefer investors to position their portfolio for a long-term perspective through companies with excellent and reliable performance over the years, and we like Nestle India, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, and Tata Consumer Product, Pandey said. The economic package was a bit underwhelming, given the lack of a big-ticket spending programme. As most of the announcements came in the form of credit guarantees that was one of the reasons D-Street gave it a thumbs down. But, there were few positives as well. The governments decision to announce key structural reforms in the area of agriculture and power were key positives, which will benefit the economy in the medium to long run, said Jyoti Roy, DVP Equity Strategist, Angel Broking Ltd. The government has said that it will amend the essential commodities act and also undertake long-standing demand for agriculture market reforms. Tariff policy reforms are also going to be implemented to ensure the sustainability of the power sector and promote the industry. If the government can implement more tough reforms, especially in the area of land and labour, then 2020 would be called the Year of Great Reforms, Roy said. We have collated a list of stocks that experts think are likely to be wealth generators in the next two-three years: Expert: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services HDFC Bank The recent Q4 numbers witnessed an increase in deposits and the overall improvement in the Net Interest Margins (NIM) for the bank. Even though there has been a decline in new loans, robust network and strong asset quality will pave way for better growth in the long term. The near-term concerns like exposure to unsecured loans given in the on-going economic trouble seem priced in. MSME exposure for HDFC stands at 13 percent and the current alteration in IBC code to have a sentimental negative impact in the banking sector. We value the stock at 2.7x FY22E BVPS. Asian Paints The company has largely domestic-oriented business and has displayed resilience by giving double-digit volume growth despite a challenging environment. Tailwinds on raw material cost due to the sharp fall in crude prices will aid significant expansion in the gross margins. Further, the company is likely to pass the benefit to customers to set the brush for a revival in the demand. We expect the impact of COVID-19 on demand but that can be mitigated through the benefit from the lower raw material prices. A strong balance-sheet and debt-free status will support the premium valuation. Considering the long-term positive industrial outlook, we upgrade the stock to buy. PI Industries The companys domestic operations should see good numbers on the back of a good monsoon forecast and successful product launches. The custom synthesis and contract manufacturing (CSM) segment will see an uptick in export orders due to the tightening of regulations and supply disruptions in China. On the back of positive monsoon forecasts, new product launches, and a potential uptick in orders from the CSM segment, we value the company at 31x FY22E EPS, and recommend a buy. By Express News Service BHOPAL: As many as six Tablighi Jamaat members from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and their two Indian tourist guides/interpreters who were arrested by police from mosques in Bhopal during the lock-down a few weeks back were granted bail by the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday. A single judge bench of the MP High Court in Jabalpur headed by Justice Sujay Paul granted bail to the eight men, including the six foreigners. The eight men who were granted bail included - two men from Bihar identified as Sajid Kareem and Karif Ullah (both tourist guides hailing from Bihar) Noor Beg, Kanaat Beg, Maskat, Kadrebek and Kamolideen (all natives of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). According to Ankit Saxena, the counsel for the eight men told The New Indian Express that it had pleaded before the single judge bench that two other men Fahad Ahmad and Hafiz Mohammad, who are facing trial for similar offences were granted bail by the court on April 30. The present applicants for the bail are similarly situated qua Fahad Ahmad and Hafiz Mohammad, who were granted bail, the counsel submitted before the HC. Subsequently, the HC granted bail to the eight applicants on the same condition under which bail was granted to Fahad Ahmad and Hafiz Mohammad on April 30. The eight men, including the six men from erstwhile USSR states, were among the 60-odd Tablighi Jamaat members who were tracked from different mosques in five police station areas of Bhopal amid the lock-down. The men found in the mosques amid the lock-down were staying in mosques in Bhopal after returning from the Tablighi Jamaats gathering at Markaz in South Delhi. All of them were booked under IPC Sections 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant), 269 and 270 (negligent act likely to spread of disease dangerous to life), besides Sections 13 and 14 of the Foreigners Act 1946 and Section 51 of the National Disaster Management Act 2005. All these 60-odd men were quarantined, out of which 20 had later turned positive for the deadly COVID-19 and had subsequently been hospitalized in Bhopal, while the other men were arrested after completion of institutional quarantine. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 03:39:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close AMMAN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Jordanian health official said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 epidemic situation in Jordan allows for reopening more economic sectors. In a statement obtained by Xinhua, Natheer Obeidat, head of the National Anti-Pandemic Committee, also warned of the possible increase in coronavirus cases as the public sector has resumed its work and several industries have been allowed to operate at full capacity. Jordan's medical workers, however, are capable of dealing with any developments related to coronavirus' spread, Obeidat noted. Earlier in the day, Jordan's health ministry reported seven new coronavirus cases in the kingdom, raising the overall number to 718. Enditem Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) The Hague, Netherlands Tue, May 26, 2020 08:45 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda129f2 2 World coronavirus,virus-corona,SARS-CoV-2,COVID-19,COVID-19-in-animal,COVID-19-infection,novel-coronavirus Free A second Dutch worker has likely been infected with coronavirus on a mink farm, but the risk of further contagion remains low, the agriculture minister said Monday. The case follows a reported infection last week on one of two farms near the southern city of Eindhoven, where the disease was discovered in April among mink that are bred for their valuable fur. "A second case has become known where on one of the mink farms SARS-CoV-2 has been passed from a mink to a human," Carola Schouten said. "The case is similar to the previous one," she said in a letter to the Dutch parliament. The infection happened before it was known that the mink were carrying the virus, meaning that workers did not wear protective clothing at the time. Dutch health authorities who assessed the risk of infection outside the shed where the mink were being kept believed it was "negligible," Schouten said. Keeping mink for their fur has been a controversial issue in the Netherlands, with its highest court in 2016 ordering that all mink breeding must cease by 2024. The Netherlands has so far recorded 5,830 human coronavirus deaths and 45,445 infections. By Trend International Financial Corporation (IFC) is working with the government of Uzbekistan to plan future projects, Regional Manager for Central Asia of IFC Cassandra Colbert told Trend. Colbert said that IFC is helping the government structure and tender a public-private partnership (PPP) to develop a 1,200-1,500 MW gas-fired power plant in the Syrdarya region. This is an important project for both IFC and Uzbekistan. This large-scale PPP will help modernize Uzbekistan's aging power infrastructure and supply both residents and businesses with steady electricity. It will also significantly increase efficiency of the use of gas, contributing to reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. The new equipment will make the power sector more flexible, creating a better environment to introduce intermittent renewable-energy sources. In March 2020, IFC together with the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, and the PPP (public-private partnerships) Development Agency organized an online investor conference, which brought together more than 100 participants - including investors, financial institutions, and other stakeholders - who were familiarized with the Syrdarya projects scope and transaction structure, Uzbekistans power sector, and its PPP regulatory framework. "The investor conference highlighted transparent and competitive tender process that we expect will attract interest from a number of market-leaders from across the world," she said. Colbert said IFC is looking to invest in areas such as energy, manufacturing, services, and agribusiness. In the financial sector, we will continue to focus on financial institutions that lend and lease to support small and medium-sized enterprises. "We are also helping the government establish and develop a strong pipeline of PPPs. There is great potential for PPPs in several sectors, including power and transport. Along with other international financial institutions, we are also supporting the governments privatization programs in the banking and chemical sectors," she stated. The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global institution dedicated to supporting the private sector in emerging markets. The corporation works with more than two thousand private enterprises around the world. In fiscal year 2019, the company provided more than $19 billion in long-term funding to developing countries. In doing so, the corporation has attracted the strong potential of the private sector to eradicate extreme poverty and improve global prosperity. Recently, IFC and Ipak Yuli Bank of Uzbekistan signed an agreement allowing the bank to better manage currency risks and increase local currency financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, which play a key role in the economic development of Uzbekistan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Mardika Parama (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 17:42 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda3b727 1 Business Garuda-Indonesia,permit,Soekarno-Hatta-International-Airport,COVID-19 Free National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will require Jakarta-bound passengers to present an exit and entry permit (SIKM) for the city prior to boarding from Tuesday onward, as the country attempts to curb COVID-19 transmission while reopening the economy. All passengers who wish to board flights to Jakartas Soekarno-Hatta International Airport must also show medical letters from hospitals stating that they are COVID-19 negative based on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, according to a circular letter issued by the company on Tuesday. We are announcing that all customers who wish to board a flight bound for Soekarno-Hatta [International Airport] must comply with the document requirements starting from May 26, the letter reads. Passengers can file a SIKM request via the Jakarta administrations website at https://corona.jakarta.go.id/id/izin-keluar-masuk-jakarta. Garuda president director Irfan Setiaputra told kompas.com that the new policy was in compliance with the Jakarta Gubernatorial Regulation No.47/2020 regarding the citys entry and exit controls. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan recently issued an order banning people from entering or leaving Jakarta, one of the cities in Indonesia hardest-hit by the virus, without prior approval. Were currently discussing compliance with the policy with other authorities, Irfan said on Tuesday. Garudas low-cost carrier subsidiary, Citilink, is also preparing to announce the same requirements for its passengers, the company's president director Juliandra Nurtjahjo said. If flight [schedules] resume under a new normal on June 1 and the SIKM requirement is still in effect, we will comply with the policy, Juliandra told kompas.com. Passengers who do not provide the two required documents must self-quarantine for 14 days in hotels selected by the governments COVID-19 Task Force. The task force will not cover the accommodation costs during the quarantine period. The appointed hotels in the Indonesian capital are Novotel Gajahmada, Mercure Jakarta, Mercure Batavia, Pullman Central Park, Gran Mercure Kemayoran, Mercure Harmoni and Holiday Inn Jakarta Kemayoran. During the Idul Fitri celebrations on May 24, Garuda Indonesia operated 14 flights through Soekarno Hatta airport, with a maximum of 50 percent occupancy, as required by the government. Most of our flights are operated below 50 percent capacity to ensure the safety of our passengers and to adhere with physical distancing rules, Irfan said on Sunday in a press release. Courts reopening around the globe are confronting a backlog of thousands of cases, including UBS Groups $4.9 billion tax-evasion penalty, former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes's alleged fraud and even the 2016 Brussels terrorist attacks that killed 32 people. The volume of cases shelved as courthouses were shuttered in response to the coronavirus pandemic may take months, possibly years, to work through. Many courts are adopting measures to help clear dockets, whether simply dropping minor matters, throwing more judges at the issue, or plea-bargaining cases that might otherwise have gone to trial. Stay-at-home orders imposed across Europe and the U.S. forced judges, lawyers and prosecutors to turn to technology to try to keep the wheels of justice turning. But the use of Zoom and other video conferencing have not kept courts moving at their pre-virus pace, not least because many parties still want live hearings and are willing to argue for them. "Not only were decisions not being rendered during the lockdown, but proceedings weren't advancing, so it's going to take a very long time before things go back to normal," said Stephane Bonifassi, a white-collar criminal lawyer in Paris. "We're looking at one year and that's frightening." About 400 scheduled criminal cases a week were postponed in the French capital during the lockdown, leaving a backlog of 3,200 cases, chief Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told a French parliamentary commission earlier this month. The civil case overload is greater still at around 6,000, according to Stephane Noel, the president of the Paris Court of First Instance. On April 27, U.K. civil, family and criminal courts held 4,066 hearings, mostly by video or phone. That's less than half the pre-virus daily average, Chris Philp, justice minister, said in a May 4 video briefing. That means the backlog of criminal cases in England and Wales, which stood at 37,434 at the end of 2019, is likely to have grown considerably during the outbreak. The Justice Ministry has said it plans to add more shifts for judges to help address the issue. In New York, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak and home to one of the busiest court systems in the world, the numbers are even more staggering. State courts there have managed to resolve by settlement or plea bargain some 13,000 cases since mid-April using phone and video hearings. But that's still a drop in the bucket for New York, which usually handles around 3.5 million new criminal and civil cases each year. Parties are still often loath to conduct a case's big moments remotely. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan recently opposed a video sentencing for Bryan Cohen, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker who pleaded guilty in January to insider trading, arguing that the "ends of sentencing are best served when all parties and the court are able to interact and engage in-person" and asking for a delay until the courthouse resumed normal operations. But the judge said Cohen would be sentenced by video on June 4. "Delaying every sentencing would multiply the existing backlog of cases in the federal court system and generate a deluge of hearings once in-person proceedings can safely resume," he said. Bonifassi said the shutdown was also forcing lawyers in France to adjust longstanding approaches. "Though it's the French system to always go to trial, we will have to adopt more of a plea-bargaining approach to cases" to work through the backlog, he said. "This crisis should be a wakeup call." To deal with Paris's backlog, Heitz said prosecutors would drop about a third of the least serious cases, while another third will be dealt with through simplified proceedings or plea agreements. Some jury trials, usually reserved in France for the most violent crimes, may now be decided by judges. Delays have hit many of the highest-profile cases. The fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the once high-flying blood-testing startup Theranos, has been pushed to Oct. 26 from its original July 28 date. The case is closely watched in Silicon Valley where, before the company unraveled due to alleged fraud, it attracted the backing of some of the leading venture capital firms and achieved a valuation of $9 billion. One of the U.K.'s biggest trials to be delayed is an $800 million shareholder suit against Tesco. The hearing into fraudulent accounting at the supermarket giant has been moved from June to October, according to a spokeswoman for the lawyers behind the case. Some matters that have already gone on for years may now wait at least another year before moving forward. The case against suspects in 2016 terrorist attacks on the Brussels airport and metro system has been put on hold by the virus. Federal prosecutors in Belgium said last month it wouldn't be feasible to hold a hearing to decide which court should try the suspects due to social distancing concerns. "The number of people who should be able to attend that session and the number of police officers required to ensure security make it very difficult, if not impossible, to organize such a session in the current situation," the prosecutors said. A session initially scheduled for April 30 was scrapped, and an initial trial might only begin in September 2021. Another matter that may be delayed until at least next year is UBS's appeal of the record 4.5 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) penalty imposed by the French government for helping clients stash undeclared funds in offshore accounts. Though the Swiss banking giant had hoped its petition would go ahead in June, judges at the Paris Court of Appeals last month postponed the case. A new date will be set next week. The three-page letter is unsparing just as, Timothy J. "TJ" Klausutis wrote last week, his dead wife's memory had been similarly unspared by Donald Trump. "Conspiracy theorists, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage," TJ wrote in a Thursday letter to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. (The letter was first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by PEOPLE.) In recent weeks, President Trump has baselessly suggested Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough murdered Lori Klausutis, TJ's 28-year-old wife, in 2001 when she was a constituent-services aide to Scarborough, 57, during his time as a Florida congressman. "When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida," the president wrote on May 12. "Did he get away with murder? Some people think so." Trump, 73, prefers to feud in personal terms with rivals and critics, and he and the Morning Joe hosts have traded sharp words before as Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski grew more and more disapproving of his administration. But Trumps tweets spreading the idea that Scarborough was a psychotic killer, despite all evidence otherwise, were among his most incendiary statements in a career marked by provocation. (He built his political profile, in part, on promoting the debunked claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in America.) Contrary to Trump's repeated implications, Lori Klausutis' July 2001 death was accidental: The medical examiner found that she had fallen in her office and hit her head on a desk, dying of an acute subdural hematoma. The medical examiner suspected she passed out basically collapsing "in mid stride" as a result of an irregular heartbeat from an undiagnosed heart valve disease. Lori was working alone that day in the satellite congressional office and had complained of not feeling well, according to reports. Story continues RELATED: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough Tells Trump to 'Turn Off the TV' After President Crazily Suggests He's a Murderer Authorities believe she died near the end or soon after the business day on July 19, 2001, and was found the next morning when a couple came in for an appointment. Police said there was no sign of foul play. The woman who found her told the local paper she believed Lori must have had a seizure and gone into cardiac arrest. Every time I saw her, she had a smile on her face, the music director at Lori's church, where she sang in the choir, said of her in 2001. She helped out with everything and was always very people-friendly. A fellow member of the Young Republicans group where she served as treasurer told the Northwest Florida Daily News at the time that she was a joy. While Lori's death initially attracted some news coverage and conspiratorial whispering from liberal commentators the spotlight largely dimmed in the decades since, after authorities released their available documentation and the medical examiner explained his determination. "Her passing is the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with in my 52 years and continues to haunt her parents and sister," her husband wrote in his letter to Twitter's CEO last week. Win McNamee/Getty; Bryan Bedder/Getty President Donald Trump (left) and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him the memory of my dead wife and perverted it for perceived political gain," TJ Klausutis wrote. "I would also ask that you consider Lori's niece and two nephews who will eventually come across this filth in the future. They have never met their Aunt and it pains me to think they would ever have to 'learn' about her this way. My wife deserves better." On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that police should get involved, doubling-down on his views even as TJ had pleaded with Twitter to intervene. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I wont bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will? the president wrote. "The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus," Trump wrote on Tuesday. Indeed, TJ wrote to Dorsey last week that "there has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she [his wife] died" and "because of this, I have struggled to move forward with my life." "I have mourned my wife every day since her passing. I have tried to honor her memory and our marriage. As her husband, I feel that one of my marital obligations is to protect her memory as I would have protected her in life," he wrote, adding, "The frequency, intensity, ugliness, and promulgation of these horrifying lies ever increases on the internet." "Please," he wrote to Dorsey, "delete these tweets." "An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed," he wrote. "I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved." Later Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that "our hearts are with Loris family at this time," but she defended Trump by noting, as he had earlier Tuesday, that he was not the first person to spread the conspiracy theory. She also said it was Scarborough who had done the worse thing: She pointed back to a 2003 appearance he made on Don Imus' radio show in which, she claimed, he "joked about killing an intern." (Clips show that Imus and his co-hosts made the joke and Scarborough laughed along with it.) RELATED: Trumps Conspiracy Tweets Drag Loving Young Womans Accidental Death Back Into the Spotlight In a statement in response to TJ's letter, Twitter said, "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly." Asked by PEOPLE what existing features might be expanded, a company spokesman pointed toward labels and warning rolled out earlier this month that were designed to push back on misinformation related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The company said it would not be removing or labeling Trump's previous tweets about Lori, however. The spokesman declined to say whether the company or Dorsey himself had been in touch with Lori Klausutis' widow (whom PEOPLE has not been able to reach). Twitter is "frequently in touch with the White House on a number of issues," the spokesman said. Since the president began circulating conspiracies about Lori's death, Scarborough has called the tweets "unspeakably cruel" and said Trump was hurting Lori's relatives most of all. You, once again, drag a family through this and make them relive it again. ... As if losing a loved one the first time isnt enough, Scarborough said earlier this month. "These are not public figures," he said on Tuesday morning's broadcast, discussing the letter. Illinios Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who has criticized Trump before, on Sunday called on him to stop tweeting about Lori. Just stop, Kinzinger wrote. Stop spreading it, stop creating paranoia. It will destroy us. New Delhi, May 26 : The Delhi government will give Rs 25,000 to each family affected in the fire that broke out in slums of the Tughlaqabad area, southeast Delhi, on Monday night. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, here on Tuesday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced the aid for each family. Around 500 people were affected in the fire, he added. The officials had been asked to shift the families to nearby schools and arrange food for them, Sisodia said. No one was injured, fire officials said. Chief Fire Officer Atul Garg told IANS, the fire was reported at 12.15 a.m and 28 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. "The fire that gutted 250 of the 500 shanties was brought under control by 4 a.m." It took time for the fire tenders to reach the spot as it was on the hills, he added. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey for Junior Achievement (JA) and the Brian Hamilton Foundation by research firm ENGINE Insights shows that teens remain open to becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business despite the impact of COVID-19 on U.S. small businesses. Two-thirds (66%) of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 said they were "likely" to consider starting a business or becoming an entrepreneur as an adult. A similar survey conducted in 2017 showed that nearly the same percentage of teens (69%) were likely to start a business then. The 2020 survey of 1,000 teens was conducted from May 14 to 20, 2020. "Small business is the backbone of the American economy and the driver of job growth," said Jack E. Kosakowski, President and CEO of Junior Achievement USA. "Despite the effects of the COVID-19 shutdown on the business community, it is encouraging to see the next generation still interested in considering entrepreneurship as a career path. We must encourage that interest going forward." "With all of the very-public challenges facing small businesses today, I was glad to see the survey results reflecting that current economic conditions have not reduced interest in entrepreneurship among teens," said Charlie Bradley, CEO of the Brian Hamilton Foundation. "It's notable that almost 30 percent of teens responded that their greatest concern about starting a business is the risk involved," Bradley continued. "We recommend that youth start businesses now, as teens, for just that reason. When you're young, there is almost no downside to failure." Other findings of the survey include: Nearly a third of teens (29%) said their greatest concern about starting a business is that it's "too risky," while a quarter (24%) don't believe there's "enough money in it." Fewer (18%) said it didn't "fit my personality/skills." Most teens (52%) said they need "someone to invest" in their business to consider being an entrepreneur. Nearly as many (51%) said they would need "more information on what it would take to be successful" and (47%) said they would need "support from parents and family." Around a third of teens (38%) would need "friends with similar interest" to team with them, and a similar amount (34%) would need "a role model who is a business owner." The survey was conducted in support of a virtual event featuring entrepreneur and Shark Tank "shark" Mark Cuban and fintech entrepreneur Brian Hamilton. As an extension of its digital and experiential learning resources, Junior Achievement is partnering with the Brian Hamilton Foundation, the Mark Cuban Foundation, and Microsoft, to host "Why Entrepreneurship Now: A Virtual Event for America's Teens" taking place live on May 27 at 3 p.m. ET and available as a recording afterward. Hosted by Harris Faulkner, anchor of Fox News Channel's "Outnumbered Overtime" and co-host of "Outnumbered," this unique interactive event gives teens across America the opportunity to ask questions of some of the country's most experienced entrepreneurs. The panelists offer simple, straightforward strategies to empower participants to start the entrepreneurial journey in their youth and lay the foundation for a successful future. Panelists include: Brian Hamilton , National Entrepreneur Educator, Co-founder of Sageworks, Philanthropist, Founder of the Brian Hamilton Foundation and Inmates to Entrepreneurs , National Entrepreneur Educator, Co-founder of Sageworks, Philanthropist, Founder of the Brian Hamilton Foundation and Inmates to Entrepreneurs Mark Cuban , Co-star, ABC's "Shark Tank," owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and Author, "How to Win at the Sport of Business" and "Kid Startup" Students, parents, and teachers can learn more here . Methodology This Youth CARAVAN survey was conducted by ENGINE INSIGHTS among a sample of 1,000 respondents aged 13-17. This survey was live on May 14-20, 2020. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have volunteered to participate in online surveys and polls. The data have been weighted to reflect the demographic composition of the 18+ population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to multiple sources of error, including, but not limited to sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. About Junior Achievement USA (JA) Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices. JA programs are delivered by corporate and community volunteers, and provide relevant, hands-on experiences that give students from kindergarten through high school knowledge and skills in financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. Today, JA reaches nearly 4.8 million students per year in 105 markets across the United States, with an additional 5.2 million students served by operations in 100 other countries worldwide. Junior Achievement USA is a member of JA Worldwide. Visit www.ja.org for more information. About the Brian Hamilton Foundation The Brian Hamilton Foundation's mission is to open the door to entrepreneurship for all Americans by sharing with them the resources necessary to start, run, and grow successful businesses. To learn more, visit https://brianhamilton.org. About the Mark Cuban Foundation Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur, investor, proprietor of the Dallas Mavericks, and "Shark" on the hit ABC show "Shark Tank." Mark gives back to the communities that promoted his success through The Mark Cuban Foundation. The Foundation's AI Bootcamps Initiative hosts free Introduction to AI Bootcamps for low-income high schoolers, starting in Dallas, Texas. Learn more about the AI Bootcamps Initiative at: http://www.markcubanai.org . About Microsoft Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Visit Microsoft.com to view current product and service offerings. SOURCE Junior Achievement USA Related Links https://www.juniorachievement.org/ North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Aurora Solar Technologies Inc. (TSXV: ACU) (the "Company") announces the appointment of Joseph Lee, CPA, CA as Interim Chief Financial Officer. Effective May 12, 2020, the Company is pleased to announce the appointment of Joseph Lee, CPA, CA as Interim Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Susan Pan in this role. The Company thanks Susan for her contributions as CFO and wishes her well in her future endeavours. Joseph brings over 25 years of financial experience in both public and private companies to Aurora. He started his career with KPMG and has held CFO positions at Terramera, a sustainable agriculture cleantech company, Zag Global, a high-growth consumer packaged goods supplier and Coastal Contacts, the second largest online provider of contact lenses in the world, among others. His international experience in managing revenue growth, supply chains and treasury will strengthen and support ACU's business progression. During Joseph's tenure at Terramera, he led finance, management of the international supply chain, and legal matters for the company. At Zag Global, he managed profitable revenue growth from $3 million to $55 million. At Coastal Contacts, as revenue tripled, he led that company's IPO process on the TSX Venture Exchange. Joseph is a Certified Public Accountant. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia and an accounting diploma from McGill University. About Aurora Solar Technologies: Aurora Solar Technologies is a leader in the development and delivery of inline process measurement, analysis and control systems for solar cell manufacturers. We believe that solar power will dominate the renewable energy field, and our mission is to bring quality and profitability to every customer through superior control of critical processes during solar cell manufacturing. Aurora's products are used by some of the world's most advanced and respected solar cell manufacturers. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, Aurora has operations in Shanghai, China and partners in all major solar manufacturing markets. Aurora is a public company, traded on the TSX Venture Exchange (ACU) and is a two-time TSX-V Top 50 winner. Aurora's website is located at www.aurorasolartech.com. For further information contact: Jake Bouma Corporate Development Phone: +1 (604) 317-3936 corpcom@aurorasolartech.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56416 Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. Cigars are firmly-rolled cylindrical bundle of fermented and dried tobacco which is ignited and smoked by drawing in the mouth. Cigar tobacco is mostly grown in Latin America, Philippines, Eastern United States, Spain and Italy. Cigar is considered to be a status symbol by many and is more prevalent in European countries within premium segment. The Cigars market across the globe is expected to show a single digit increase in CAGR growth by the year 2019. There is a significant increase in the Cigar market due to the usage of Cigar in multiple occasions such as social parties, birthday parties, colleges and among corporate. To Get Free Sample Request Visit @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/6949 The key drivers of this market include the addition of smokers to inhale and cigars are considered superior than cigarettes due to lower levels of nicotine. Rising middle class, culture shift and affluent life style are among other driving forces in cigar consumption. Restraining factors could be plethora of government regulations and ban on tobacco production and consumption in several countries. In addition growing health concerns and aging of population act as another major restrains to consumption of Cigar. Major distribution channels are supermarkets, speciality stores and departmental stores. The Cigar market can be segmented into three major types on the basis of composition as wrappers, fillers and binders. It can also be segmented on the basis of shape and size as Parejo, Figurado, Pyramid, Culebras, Tuscanian and Little Cigars. In this report we have segmented the market geographically into North America, APAC, Europe and RoW regions. Some of the key players in the Cigar market are Finck Cigar Company, ITC Limited, Altadis, General Cigar Company Inc., Partagas cigars, Perdomo cigars, Oliva cigars, Rodrigo cigars, Paul Stulac cigars, and Rocky Patel cigars. Key geographies evaluated in this report are: North America U.S Canada Europe France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK Eastern Europe CIS APAC China India Japan Australia Others Latin America Argentina Brazil Others For More Details and Order Copy of this Report Visit @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/6949 Key features of this report Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media BRIDGEPORT A man was injured with a knife during an attempted robbery near Central Avenue early Tuesday morning, according to city officials. Scott Appleby, city emergency management director, said an individual attempted to rob another man near Bridgeport Hospital at approximately 2:36 a.m. Hundreds of people die at sea every year due to vessel and airplane accidents. Emergency teams have little time to rescue those in the water because the probability of finding a person alive plummets after six hours. Beyond tides and challenging weather conditions, unsteady coastal currents often make search and rescue operations exceedingly difficult. New insight into coastal flows gleaned by an international research team led by George Haller, Professor of Nonlinear Dynamics at ETH Zurich, promises to enhance the search and rescue techniques currently in use. Using tools from dynamical systems theory and ocean data, the team has developed an algorithm to predict where objects and people floating in water will drift. "Our work has a clear potential to save lives", says Mattia Serra, former Ph.D. student at ETH and now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, who is the first author of a study recently published in Nature Communications. Hidden traps lead to missing persons In today's rescue operations at sea, elaborate models of ocean dynamics and weather forecasting are used to predict the path of drifting objects. For fast-changing coastal waters, however, such predictions are often inaccurate due to uncertain parameters and missing data. As a result, a search may be launched in the wrong location, causing a loss of precious time. Haller's research team obtained mathematical results predicting that objects floating on the ocean's surface should congregate along a few special curves which they call TRansient Attracting Profiles (TRAPs). These curves are invisible to the naked eye but can be extracted and tracked from instantaneous ocean surface current data using recent mathematical methods developed by the ETH team. This enables quick and precise planning of search paths that are less sensitive to uncertain-ties in the time and place of the accident. A new tool for rescuers In collaboration with a team of MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, a group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the US Coast Guard, the ETH team tested their new, TRAP-based search algorithm in two separate ocean experiments near Martha's Vineyard near the north-eastern coast of the United States. Working from the same real-time data available to the Coast Guard, the team successfully identified TRAPs in the region in real time. They found that buoys and manikins thrown in the water indeed quickly gathered along these evolving curves. "Of several competing approaches tested in this project, this was the only algorithm that consistently worked in situ," says Haller. "Our results are rapidly obtained, easy to interpret and cheap to implement", points out Serra. He adds that the method they have developed also has the potential to predict the evolution of oil spills. The next plan of the research group is to test their new prediction tool in other ocean regions as well. As Haller stresses: "Our hope is that this method will become a standard part of the toolkit of coast guards everywhere." ### The Communist government of Cuba continues to imprison, persecute, and intimidate journalists and their families.Indeed, the Committee to Protect Journalists considers Cuba one of the most hostile environments for the press in the world, ranking the island nation among the 10 Most Censored Countries. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba has made independent reporting even more difficult and dangerous as the Cuban government spreads disinformation about its handling of the crisis.Independent Cuban journalists are increasingly being fined under Decree 370, which penalizes Cubans who express their opinions on the internet.Approved in May 2019, the decree bans the dissemination in Cuba of information contrary to the social interest, morals, good manners, and integrity of people on social media networks and other digital platforms. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in Cuba, at least seven activists and journalists have been fined under Decree 370, according to Hugo Landa, director of the site CubaNet. Fellow CubaNet journalist Camila Acosta was fined in late March for publishing information about the new coronavirus on her Facebook profile. In addition to the fine of 3,000 pesos, or $120, Acostas cell phone was confiscated.She told Radio Marti in an interview that she fears being jailed. The situation of imprisoned Cuban journalists has also become more dangerous due to the spread of COVID-19 among the prison population.The case of lawyer and journalist Roberto Quinones is of particular concern.He was jailed for refusing to pay a fine for committing resistance and disobedience charges stemming from his April 22, 2019, arrest while reporting on a trial.He has served more than half of his year-long sentence, during which time he suffered escalating health problems. Quinones and other imprisoned journalists in Cuba face an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19, as they cannot isolate, social distance, or follow other basic health guidelines, said Natalie Southwick, Central and South America Program Coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists. USAID condemns the Cuban regimes crackdown on the media in the strongest possible terms, said Acting Administrator John Barsa. The United States pays tribute to the Cuban journalists who work, at great personal risk, to bring candid news and accurate information to the Cuban people particularly during this pandemic.There has never been a more important time to raise awareness about the need to protect press freedoms. The logo of LATAM Airlines is pictured on an Airbus plane in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, on Nov. 6, 2018. (Regis Duvignau/Reuters) LATAM Becomes Largest Airline to File for Bankruptcy Amid CCP Virus LATAM Airlines Group SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, becoming the largest carrier to seek an emergency reorganization amid the CCP virus crisis. Latin Americas largest airline follows rival Avianca Holdings of Colombia in seeking U.S. bankruptcy protection. But unlike Avianca, Chiles LATAM posted profits for four consecutive years totaling more than $700 million. It had recently approved a dividend payment. LATAM laid off 1,800 employees out of over 40,000 in the lead-up to its bankruptcy filing. We have implemented a series of difficult measures to mitigate the impact of this unprecedented industry disruption, but ultimately this path represents the best option, CEO Roberto Alvo said in a statement regarding the filing. LATAM is an instantly recognizable brand for South Americans, dominating international air travel in the region, as well as a leading domestic flight operator in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador. LATAM airlines logo is seen inside of the Commodore Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago, Chile on April 25, 2019. (Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters) Carriers in Latin America have sought bailouts to no avail so far, unlike rivals in the United States and Europe.] LATAM will continue to fly while it is in bankruptcy protection. Its affiliates in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay were not included in the Chapter 11 filing. In Brazil, LATAM for weeks has been negotiating a bailout of up to 2 billion reais ($367.45 million) that has yet to materialize. If negotiations are successful, it could provide a lifeline to LATAMs largest subsidiary. Chile has so far declined to help LATAM. LATAM said it had secured funding from major shareholders, including the Cueto family which controls the airline through various companies, the Amaro family and Qatar Airways, to provide up to $900 million to support operations through its bankruptcy reorganization. Delta Air Lines Inc last year paid $1.9 billion for a 20 percent stake during better times for the industry. A Delta Air Lines plane lands at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Calif., on July 12, 2018. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) To the extent permitted by law, the group would welcome other shareholders interested in participating in this process to provide additional financing, the airline said, adding it had about $1.3 billion in cash on hand. LATAM said that as of Tuesday it had $7.6 billion in debt, including $460 million in loans tied to its Brazilian subsidiary which is not part of the bankruptcy process. The airline was downgraded by S&P and Fitch on Friday after the company confirmed it did not pay interest and principal on three tranches of 2015 $1 billion worth of debt tied to the financing of new aircraft purchases. By Rama Venkat, Jamie Freed and Marcelo Rochabrun Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. He's been keeping his followers entertained with his 10 minute meals on Instagram. Yet Gordon Ramsay left himself short on time last month, when he ran late for one of his live recipes because he was busy making himself a cup of tea. The celebrity chef, 53, dashed into his kitchen when his daughter Tilly, 18, warned him that his Instagram Live video had already began airing. Oops! Gordon Ramsay left himself short on time last month, when he ran late for one of his live recipes because he was busy making himself a cup of tea A red-faced Gordon explained that he thought he still had five minutes to go before the video began so took the time to make himself a refreshment. Gordon, who was showing his fans how to make a burger in just 10 minutes, ran into the room after his daughter shouted: 'Dad, you're live!' The star said: 'Oh no, here we go, thank you Tills!' Man on the move! The celebrity chef, 53, dashed into his kitchen when his daughter Tilly, 18, warned him that his Instagram Live video had already began airing In a hurry! A red-faced Gordon explained that he thought he still had five minutes to go before the video began so took the time to make himself a refreshment 'Sorry, excuse me, I was just making a cup of tea because Tilly said I still had five minutes to go!' Gordon filmed the video in his second home in Cornwall, which he has come under fire for after travelling there to spend the lockdown period. However, he appeared to be relishing his time out of London as he took to Instagram on Sunday to share a scenic beach video while watching the sunset. Gordon told his nine million followers: 'What a beautiful Bank Holiday Weekend. Burger king: Gordon, who was showing his fans how to make a burger in just 10 minutes, ran into the room after his daughter shouted: 'Dad, you're live!' 'We've got some of the most gorgeous beaches in the country here. It's so nice to see the kids, kites, dogs, mums and dads, kids in and out the rock pools. It's beautiful. 'As the sun sets it's so nice to see on the beach, swimmers, barbecues, how beautiful. That's what Bank Holiday Weekends should be about.' Gordon, his wife Tana and their children are spending lockdown at their idyllic Cornwall home. Sunny stroll: Gordon appeared to be relishing his time out of London as he took to Instagram on Sunday to share a scenic beach video while watching the sunset Tranquil: He told his nine million followers: 'What a beautiful Bank Holiday Weekend', as he enjoyed a stroll along the beach Special: He said: 'We've got some of the most gorgeous beaches in the country here. It's so nice to see the kids, kites, dogs, mums and dads, kids in and out the rock pools. It's beautiful' And over the weekend the celebrity chef posted a heartfelt message on Instagram in honour of his daughter's special day. He said: 'Happy Birthday to this gorgeous lady, 22yrs ago today this gracious kind and incredibly talented young girl was born, have a great day Megan love ya Dad.' The TV personality angered locals after relocating his family to their second home during the outbreak as the Government urged Britons not to travel from hotspots to the countryside. Meanwhile, Gordon has taken out loans to shore up his restaurant empire which has been shuttered by the coronavirus lockdown, it was revealed last week. He has registered charges with Barclays against 16 companies, which includes those managing some of his Michelin star outlets, according to the Sun. The loans will provide a lifeline to companies which manage some of the TV chef's flagship eateries, such as London's Savoy Grill and Petrus. Press Release May 26, 2020 Tolentino Pushes for Creation of Online Learning and Distance Education Office in CHED As the country continues to grapple with the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Sen. Francis "Tol" N. Tolentino recently called for the creation of an office in Commission on Higher Education (CHED) that will spearhead the implementation of online learning and distance education in higher education institutions (HEIs) across the country to address the changing educational needs of students, especially in times of national emergencies, calamities and health crises. "Ang problema po kasi natin ngayon eh kanya kanya ang mga educational institutions sa implementation ng online learning. With the creation of a national framework, CHED will prescribe the minimum requirements for the curriculum and will also oversee the 'quality control.'" the lawmaker said, who filed Senate Bill No. 1459. By amending Republic Act No. 10650, or the "Open Distance Learning Act," the proposed bill will pave the way for the creation of the Tertiary Online Learning and Distance Education Office in CHED to be done in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). In the Philippines, some educational institutions have already started offering online classes, but not all students can participate because of lack of access to technology and connectivity, the lawmaker noted. He added there were other challenges such as the lack of a comprehensive curriculum and quality standards for online learning and distance education in the country. With this measure, Tolentino hopes that the newly created office will institutionalize online and distance learning in all colleges and universities by developing the necessary policy guidelines and quality standards for its extensive implementation. "Oras na para palakasin natin ang ating mga makabagong educational platforms na online at distance learning lalo na at makakatulong sila sa ating mga estudyante na ipagpatuloy ang kanilang pag-aaral sa kabila ng pandemya na ito at iba pang mga sakuna, Tolentino said. He stressed that the continuing rise in COVID-19 cases has placed education systems around the globe in jeopardy, with school cancellations forcing 1.5 billion students to stay at home. The pandemic forced different countries to embrace online learning tools for student engagement, with countries like the United States ramping up support and development of e-learning platforms to continue to provide a space for educators and learners. Tolentino also recently batted for an inter-university cooperation between private and state universities and colleges and urged CHED to further develop the rules and regulations for this possible program. By forging an inter-university cooperation between these institutions, Tolentino said that a college student from the province can finish a degree from another university by completing his units in his local college or university thru online learning and having it credited as such. This will enable students to pursue higher education in other institutions without having to leave their respective provinces, the lawmaker added. The transmission of cultures from generation-to-generation is only found in a few species besides humans. Chimpanzees are one such species and exhibit a large diversity of cultural and tool use behaviours. Although these behaviours have been well documented at a handful of long term research sites, the true cultural repertoire of chimpanzees across populations is still poorly understood. To better understand this diversity, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, initiated the 'Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee' (PanAf) in 2010. Using a standardized protocol, researchers set up camera traps, collected samples and recorded ecological data at over 40 temporary and long-term research sites across Africa. Prior to this study, termite fishing was thought to occur in only two forms with one or multiple tools, from either above-ground or underground termite nests. By carefully observing the techniques required to termite fish at ten different sites, lead author Christophe Boesch created a catalogue of behaviours (ethogram) for each chimpanzee in the study. What was found was 38 different technical elements making up the various termite fishing techniques, all of which were combined in different ways in each of the chimpanzee communities. In addition, individuals in the same community shared more of the termite fishing technical elements, and unique combinations of the technical elements, when compared to chimpanzees from other groups. Surprising diversity "The diversity of techniques seen in chimpanzee termite fishing was a huge surprise to me. Not only does each community have a very unique way of fishing, they also combine a number of different elements into specific termite fishing etiquettes", explains Christophe Boesch."The most striking examples of this are how the Wonga Wongue chimpanzees of Gabon usually lie down on their sides to termite fish, while the Korup chimpanzees in Cameroon lean on their elbows, and the ones from Goualougo in the Republic of Congo sit while fishing." Because the communities of chimpanzees live in similar habitats with access to the same resources, ecological differences could mostly be ruled out to explain the observed differences. "This supports the idea that chimpanzees are capable of imitating social techniques in 'how to termite fish' which goes beyond alternative explanations such as each individual reinventing termite fishing each time they learn it", explains co-author Ammie Kalan. Conforming to the group Much like in human etiquette, not everything is about increased efficiency but rather about conforming to what the rest of the group is doing. In humans, this is observed in the different chopstick cultures across Asia. "For example, in Thailand and Japan not only are chopsticks somehow shaped differently, but the way they hold them differ as well, and this is very reminiscent of what we see here with chimpanzees. In La Belgique in Cameroon, chimpanzees fashion their stick by opening the fibers to obtain a long brush and then rest the termite-covered stick on their wrist while they eat. On the other hand, at another site in Cameroon called Korup, the chimpanzees do not make a brush at all and use their mouth to shake the inserted stick while it is in the mound", explains Christophe Boesch. In humans, cultural variation has been documented in hundreds of different populations which is one explanation for why chimpanzee culture seems so limited in comparison. "What we knew before about chimpanzees came from at most 15 communities", notes co-author Hjalmar Kuehl. "Through the PanAf we have been able to study many more communities and by this we are able to learn more about the richness of chimpanzee diversity and culture and could demonstrate that there is so much more to discover out there." Further analyses of videos and other data collected from the PanAf are currently underway. "Termite fishing and other cultural behaviours of wild chimpanzees can be observed first hand by signing onto our citizen science platform Chimp&See", says co-author Mimi Arandjelovic. "At Chimp&See citizen scientists can watch the over one million video clips the PanAf has recorded from all across Africa of chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants, buffalo, leopards and many more species. Visit http://www.chimpandsee.org and you could be a citizen scientist contributing to analyzing data and help with further discoveries in the wild!" ### Original publication: Christophe Boesch et al. Chimpanzee Ethnography Reveals Unexpected Cultural Diversity Nature Human Behaviour, 25 May 2020 Contact: Prof. Dr. Christophe Boesch Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig +49 341 3550-200 boesch@eva.mpg.de [May 26, 2020] Lone Wolf and RamQuest partner in gamechanger for real estate transactions and title insurance CAMBRIDGE, Ontario, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lone Wolf Technologies ("Lone Wolf") is pleased to announce that RamQuest has joined Marketplace, Lone Wolf's recently-launched selection of curated tech partnerships for its transaction management solutions, zipForm Plus and TransactionDesk. This new addition will bring title insurance into zipForm Plus, the national transaction management member benefit in the U.S., and digitize the entire title ordering process. RamQuest's leading integrated title, closing, and escrow accounting solutions are purpose-built for title and settlement operations, and provide users access to RamQuest's Closing Market, the industry's most extensive network of integrated service providers and partners. The integration is a first for the industry, connecting real estate agents and title professionals to solve today's complex process of ordering titles. With the integration, agents can request a title order, securely send documents, send and receive secure notes, and receive status updatesseamlessly within a zipForm Plus transaction. Title companies will be able to receive initial orders and real-time updates, and will become available as title service providers to Lone Wolf's massive customer base. "We're so excited to introduce this incredible service into our Marketplace," said Jimmy Kelly, Prsident and CEO of Lone Wolf. "As buyers and sellers return to the market, it's going to be more important than ever to protect their investments. This integration with RamQuest helps agents do thatserve and protect their buyers and sellers in a digital environment, without ever needing to leave their transaction solution." RamQuest joins dozens of other leading technology companies as partners in the Lone Wolf Marketplace, including Earnnest, eCommission, Updater, PrestoIntelligence, and EyeSpy360. With new partners joining every week, Marketplace is rapidly expanding with world-class digital tools for real estate agents and brokerages. Agents can access Marketplace for free, and only need a login to their local, state, or national transaction management member benefit to connect these additional services. "We're thrilled to join Lone Wolf's Marketplace," said Laura Mowrer, SVP, Product Management at RamQuest. "RamQuest is focused on providing the absolute best for our customersso they're equipped to succeed, no matter how competitive or challenging the business environment. We're confident this new partnership will help us continue to do that as real estate evolves into its new normal, and long into the future." "We're particularly proud of this integration, because it demonstrates the innovation and progress that can occur when two industry leaders cooperate to solve a real problem for their customers," said Jason Cheverton, Vice President of Strategic Channels at Lone Wolf. "We built Marketplace to curate everything a real estate agent needs to manage transactions online from start to finish, and title orders are crucial in that equation. RamQuest is a perfect representation of what Marketplace means for the real estate industrybringing the best in tech to agents and brokerages, so they can amaze their clients and provide the ultimate real estate experience at every step." About Lone Wolf Technologies Lone Wolf Technologies, a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company, is the North American leader in residential real estate software, serving over 1.4 million real estate professionals across Canada and the U.S. The company offers an ecosystem of technology products designed to simplify the entire transaction process, including software for back office and transaction management. Each element of this ecosystem enables brokerages, agents, MLSs, and associations to operate more efficiently, reduce costs, and increase opportunities for profitability. Lone Wolf's head office is located in Cambridge, ON, with additional offices in Dallas, TX, London, ON, and Fraser, MI. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lone-wolf-and-ramquest-partner-in-gamechanger-for-real-estate-transactions-and-title-insurance-301064809.html SOURCE Lone Wolf Technologies [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A clash between protesters demanding drinking water and security forces in southwestern Iran has turned into the hottest issue on Iranian social media. On Saturday May 23, security forces fired tear gas and "plastic bullets" into a crowd of residents in Gheizaniyeh in Irans oil-rich Khuzestan province who were protesting lack of drinking water. According to the web monitoring website Best Farsi, # Gheizaniyeh was the top hashtag in Persian Twitter Monday morning May 25. Many have reacted to the news of clashes attributing the shortage of fresh water in the area to the government's incompetence. Khuzestan is rich with rivers and water reservoirs and was inundated by floods last year. The clash between police and protesters started after demonstrators blocked the road between Ahvaz and Mahshahr, another city in the province which was the scene of a massacre during the nationwide protests in Iran in November 2019. Leila, a twitter user, wrote that the situation of water supply in Khuzestan never returned to normal after the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Leila was responding to a tweet by Dariush Zand who posted a picture of the brown liquid that came out of the water tap in his house. Zand wrote that "Except Andimishk which has a decent water supply from the nearby Dez Dam, no other place in Khuzestan Province has access to proper drinking water." What has enraged Khuzestanis is the fact that their province has most of Irans oil and provides most of the hard currency the Islamic Republic needs to pay for tens of billions of imports and pursue its costly foreign policy. In a series of tweets, Shahab Nazari, a local architect, wrote that Gheizaniyeh is the largest neighborhood of Ahvaz and has a population of 25,000. He wrote: "Gheizaniyeh is one of the most underprivileged parts of this oil-rich zone which used to produce over 2 million barrels of oil according to Tasnim news agency. But the only outcome of oil production in the region for the people of Gheizaniyeh is nothing but polluted air, lack of water and the destruction of its farmlands." According to Nazari, the Iranian oil company sends a few tankers of drinking water to this area on a daily basis, adding that the situation of health and education in this area is deplorable. Nazari wrote that Gholamreza Shariati, the governor general of Khuzestan promised three years ago to solve the problem of water shortage in Gheizaniyeh within three months but nothing has changed since then. Comments published in reaction to these tweets noted that the situation is equally bad in other parts of Khuzestan including Gachsaran, Naft Sefid, Bibi Hakimeh and Fakkeh. Nezameddin Mousavi, a hardliner journalist close to the IRGC and a member of the next parliament in Iran, exclaimed in a tweet why a problem that should have been solved in three months based on a promise by a top local official has taken so long? He speculated that the reason could be incompetence, lack of planning or simply laziness. On Monday, former IRGC Commander Mohsen Rezaee criticized the situation in a tweet, observing that "Gheizaniyeh produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day but it does not have fresh water like other areas such as Assalouyeh, and Masjid-i Soleiman." Rezai blamed "the American style management of the country's economy" for the situation. It is not clear what he exactly meant by that. Subsequently, many twitter users lashed out at Rezaee for having done nothing for the region where he comes from while he and his brother, a former member of parliament from the same region, have been in positions of power for 40 years. Sadeq Hosseini, a journalist from Tehran, responded to Rezaee by writing: "What have you done for your own province?" and reminded him that he has built a mosque in an affluent part of the capital Tehran. The problem of water shortage in Khuzestan has been creating public health and social problems for many years while, as radio Farda journalist Iliya Jazayeri has observed, Khuzestan supplies water to at least one third of Iran. The journalist was referring to the existence of many rivers and dams in the province including the Dez dam built by Americans in the 1960s. Of all the lies the Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media have told about President Trump, the claim that Trump is a tool of the Russians stands out for its audacity Im not surprised that the Dems/MSM went big with their lying. However, it astounds me that intelligent people I know who are outside of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media somehow found merit in this claim. I guess if you hate Trump enough, you will believe anything about him. Trumps foreign policy has never favored Russia. He sanctioned Russia and Russians. He expelled Russian diplomats. He is more supportive of Poland and Ukraine than President Obama was. In addition, Trump vigorously opposed a natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. Construction of the pipeline, Nord Stream 2, would be hugely beneficial for Russia. For one thing, Russia could use the pipeline to bypass Ukraine. This would enable it to cut gas off to that country or to use the threat of a cutoff to gain leverage. For another, completion of the pipeline would increase Russias leverage over Germany. Trump has said that this would make[] Germany a hostage of Russia. A president who wanted to please Russia would never take the stands Trump has. Now, Eli Lake reports that Trump is closing U.S. skies to Russian spies: President Donald Trump is preparing to exit his second arms-control treaty with Russia since taking the oath of office, and the opposition is already in high dudgeon. . . . The deal in question is the Open Skies treaty, signed in 1992, which allows U.S. and Russian spy planes to fly over military installations and weapons facilities. . . . In theory, its a good idea. Overhead surveillance is one way to verify more substantive arms control agreements with Russia. It also gives a baseline for military planners, providing a data set that shows what peacetime deployment looks like. The big flaw in the arrangement is that the one party that all the others must worry about Russia is a serial violator of international agreements. For example: When Russian special operations units invaded Crimea and later Eastern Ukraine in 2014, President Vladimir Putin was violating a 1994 pledge to protect and respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The Ukrainians got these commitments in exchange for relinquishing the Soviet-era nuclear arsenal stationed on their territory. The same pattern was repeated by Russia with regard to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, treaty. Russia largely complied with the part of the treaty that eliminated a class of short- and medium-range nuclear weapons from Europe from its signing in 1987 to about 2008. But in that year, Russia began testing a ground-launched cruise missile that violated the ranges set by the INF treaty. For 10 years, the U.S. tried to bring Russia back into compliance, but Putin kept escalating, eventually deploying banned missiles with ranges that could hit Europe. So in October 2018, after NATO allies publicly acknowledged that Russia was in material breach of its commitments, the U.S. announced it would be withdrawing. Russia also violates the Open Skies agreement: When it took effect, in 2002, Russia largely abided by it. But during former President Barack Obamas administration, the U.S. found its flights were restricted over suspected facilities in Russia even as the U.S. gathered evidence that Russian surveillance planes were mapping critical infrastructure in the U.S. As Republican Senator Tom Cotton said Thursday: The Open Skies Treaty started life as a good-faith agreement between major powers and died an asset of Russian intelligence. (Emphasis added) But the treaty didnt die when it should have during the Obama administration when Russia was found to be in violation. It took President Trump, the alleged tool of the Russian, to put this deal to the sword. Trumps policy on arms control agreements with Russia is straightforward. As his assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation put it: Where arms control does not contribute to security such as where our counterparties refuse to comply with their obligations we have made very clear that we are willing to walk away from failed agreements. Thats just common sense. Arms control agreements are meaningless if they can be violated with impunity. Arms control can succeed only if the parties to agreements hold one another to them. President Obama and his crew must have understood this. However, they were obsessed with resetting U.S. relations with Russia and, later, were unwilling to acknowledge the failure of this policy. Like Obama, Trump wanted a fresh start with Russian relations when he took office. Unlike Obama, he wasnt willing to turn a blind eye to Russias bad behavior in the name of a reset. This was obvious from the start. Yet, Democrats and their media allies peddled their lie that Trump was a tool of Vladimir Putin. They wont be held accountable. They wont look back. They have simply moved on to their next package of slanders. Cunningham, who said he had not yet seen the video, has said he was waiting to see the video before making a decision about whether to reappoint certain trustees whose terms are up this year. Cunningham said his priority remains the citys response to the coronavirus pandemic. The DREAMS telescope will help find colliding neutron stars. Credit: NASA A new infrared telescope, to be designed and built by astronomers at the Australian National University (ANU), will monitor the entire southern sky in search of new cosmic events as they take place. DREAMSthe Dynamic REd All-Sky Monitoring Surveywill be located at the historic Siding Spring Observatory in northern New South Wales. The telescope will be used by researchers all over the globe and propel Australia to the forefront of the emerging field of transient astronomythe study of cosmic events almost in 'real time'. Lead researcher Professor Anna Moore, Director of the ANU Institute for Space (InSpace), said a transient survey of the southern sky in the infrared had never been done and would help find many hidden treasures in the universe. "DREAMS will allow us to 'see' the universe in an entirely new way," Professor Moore said. "Infrared telescopes can study dusty and distant regions of space that are impenetrable to optical telescopes, unveiling new stars, nebulae, mergers, galaxies, supernovae, quasars and other sources of radiation new to science. "By monitoring the sky continuously and rapidly, we will be able to search for varying and explosive phenomena. This 'real-time' astronomy, which allows us to study events taking place over months, weeks or days instead of millions of years, is a window into the great unknown. "DREAMS will give us a fresh take on many aspects of the universe." DREAMS consists of a fully automated 0.5m telescope and infrared camera. In each snapshot, DREAMS "sees" 3.75 square degrees (20 times the Moon's size) and will be able to map the entire southern sky in three clear nights. The telescope is 10 times more powerful than its nearest competitors. The data captured by DREAMS will help detect the source of gravitational waves, and the collision of neutron stars and black holes. "DREAMS will enable multi-messenger astronomythe discovery of new events by observing the sky using different wavelengths of light," lead research partner Assistant Mansi Kasliwal, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said. "By doing so it aspires to pinpoint elusive gravitational wave events. "Neutron star black hole mergers are especially exciting as they create heavy elements that shine in the infrared." According to Dr. Tony Travoillan, a co-investigator and lead technical manager on the project, DREAMS is innovative and economical. "Surveying the sky in the infrared has always been limited by the cost of the cameras and not the telescope," Dr. Travouillon, who is based at the ANU Research School of Astrophysics and Astronomy, said. "The development of infrared cameras using Indium Gallium Arsenide technology, with the help of our collaborators at MIT, has given astronomers an economical alternative that we are the first to implement on a wide field survey. "We are using six of these cameras on our telescope. It gives us a scalable design that minimises instrument complexity and cost." The telescope will be completed in early 2021, with operations beginning soon after. Co-investigator Professor Orsola DeMarco, from Macquarie University, will use simulations to explain coalescing, or merging, stars captured by DREAM. "I hope the telescope will see merging stars so dusty that they shine brightly in the infrared," she said. Explore further New infrared telescope first to monitor entire northern sky All you can do is lie there thinking, I hope its not going to get worse. He got intravenous antibiotics and high-flow oxygen, and was roused every two hours for checks on his a blood pressure and other vital signs. I was particularly anxious that I not be put on a ventilator, he said. Ventilators can save lives, but they can also do a lot of harm. Once youre on one, your chances of surviving are the same as of surviving Ebola about one third. Every day, he talked to Dr. Larson or his grown children. He did get to watch episodes of a new BBC series about a Sicilian detective, Inspector Montalbano, that his wife recommended. If this had happened before cellphones, can you imagine the loneliness? he said. Its like being in prison. Look, I know Im privileged, and I know Im not going to be stuck here for 27 years like Nelson Mandela. But the world shrinks to the essentials. All you can think is: How is my breathing going? Finally, Dr. Piot said, his oxygen saturation came up to 92 percent. He was discharged on April 8. They wanted to call me a taxi, but I said no, I wanted to breathe the now non-polluted air in London. He took a train home. It was a shock, like Stockholm syndrome, he said of his survival. When I got home, frankly, I started crying. It was so emotional. But his body wasnt through with the disease. Before the hospital released him, he had tested negative for the virus. But now something else was going on a delayed immune reaction. The Ghana Health Service says it will investigate the delays in release of some COVID-19 test results in the Savannah Region. This was after it emerged that samples on the first COVID-19 case in the Savannah Region was taken on May 15, 2020, but was released after ten days. This raised concerns about the perceived 24 hour time for COVID-19 testing. The region became the fourteenth region to record a COVID-19 case following the May 24 update from the Ghana Health Service. The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye told Citi News that the delays were of great concern to the service. Maybe three days [delay] fine but for almost 10 days, that is a long time that is something we are all investigating and we will see. It is also possible that the date posted is inaccurate. We are reporting what they report to us, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye said adding that we will check and see what was the reason for that. Sometimes you have a sample that is indeterminate and they may have to rerun to see so we will check from the lab to see why the delay. Ever since it dealt with its backlog, the countries testing system has been providing almost daily updates of infection trends. This issue adds to the services concerns over why more health workers are testing positive for COVID-19 in the country. Health workers have consistently complained about inadequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which heightens their risk of infections in their line of duty. Last week, the Western Region reported 43 health workers testing positive; while the Eastern and Ashanti Regions have recorded 15 and 30 cases respectively. Ghana's case count of the novel Coronavirus currently stands at 6,808 with 2,070 recoveries. ----citinewsroom The chief focus of Mondays cabinet meeting is a bill on rescinding the governments emergency powers, Judit Varga, the justice minister, said on social media. The bill will be submitted to parliament on Tuesday, she noted today, adding that the opposition had not voted on the relevant law in response to the novel coronavirus epidemic submitted to parliament more than two months ago. Varga said Hungary had got beyond a very dangerous and hard period, during which the government had received no help from opposition. Instead of giving support the opposition mounted an unprecedented disinformation campaign, together with the mainstream liberal media, in Hungary and internationally, she said, calling on people spreading fake news about the government to apologise to the Hungarian people. Varga said the government would carry on drafting next years budget so Hungary can get past problems on the labour market and in the economy swiftly and return to healthy growth MTI Photo: Noemi Bruzak Kabul, May 26 : The Afghan government freed 100 Taliban inmates as a goodwill gesture, spokesperson of Office of the National Security Council confirmed. "The government released 100 Taliban prisoners from Parwan (province) today as a gesture of goodwill to advance peace efforts, including an extended ceasefire and the immediate start of direct talks," Xinhua news agency spokesman Javid Faisal as saying in a tweet on Monday. The move came after Taliban militants announced a three-day ceasefire during Eid al-Fitr festival. On March 11, Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani issued a decree to release 5,000 Taliban inmates on parole and Taliban agreed to release 1,000 soldiers but the exchange of prisoners was repeatedly delayed. As of May 10, some 1,000 Taliban fighters and 200 Afghan government soldiers were freed by the two sides but the process of exchange of the prisoners was suspended over dispute on swap of prisoners. The exchange of prisoners is part of a peace deal inked between the Taliban and the US in Qatar in February. However, the Afghan government was not a signatory of the deal. To expedite the peace process, President Ghani on Sunday ordered the release of another 2,000 Taliban detainees. The bell finally tolled for Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer as the company confirmed his ousting yesterday. The announcement came after two days of media reports saying just as much and almost as many years of pain for investors. For though Palmer was once credited with leading the car maker's recovery after taking the wheel in 2014, his stewardship since it floated in 2018 has proved far more controversial. Shares boost: Aston Martin stock soared 27.8 per cent, or 9.9p, to 45.36p, after the luxury car maker confirmed the departure of boss Andy Palmer From their lofty price of 1900p at listing, the shares had long since plummeted to close at just 35.5p on Friday, a 98 per cent loss in value. Perhaps it wasn't surprising that traders greeted his sacking with a fanfare, sending the stock up 27.8 per cent, or 9.9p, to 45.36p. Neil Wilson, analyst at Markets, said the reaction was 'a pretty damning indictment' of Palmer's tenure. Investors may also have been pleased with the former chief executive's successor, Tobias Moers, who takes over in August. The German is the boss of high-performance Mercedes division AMG, and a petrolhead to boot. His time at AMG chimes well with executive chairman Lawrence Stroll's plan to take the luxury brand back to its roots in high-performance models and racing. Stroll, a billionaire who led a 540million rescue of Aston in January, said: 'Now is the time for new leadership to deliver our plans.' Stock Watch - Rotala Shares in the bus operator Rotala have remained flat at 34.5p after it offloaded a depot building. The AIM-listed firm said it had sold a long lease on the site in Atherton, Greater Manchester, to haulier J Fisher & Sons for 600,000. It was no longer needed by Rotala, which owns Diamond Bus, Hallmark Connections and Preston Bus, after the business acquired another depot in Bolton last year. Rotala said it would use the proceeds to pay down debts. Pubs and breweries owner Marston's dipped 10.5 per cent, or 6.95p, to 59.05p, as investors took profits. The owner of Hobgoblin and Pedigree had been trading at just below 33p before it announced a 780million merger with Carlsberg's UK arm on Friday, sending shares rocketing. The new company, Carlsberg Marston's Brewery Company, will combine eight breweries and 12 distribution centres and is expected to result in cost savings. It will also give Carlsberg access to sell drinks in Marston's pubs. IT equipment and software provider Softcat fell 6.5 per cent, or 82p, to 1175p after warning about the potential impact of the crisis. It sells corporate software made by industry giants such as Microsoft, and access to its own infrastructure such as data centres. But if the pandemic is followed by an economic downturn, its customers, many of whom are small and medium-sized businesses, may seek to cut spending. In a third-quarter trading update, Softcat yesterday insisted it had 'traded satisfactorily' in the three months to April 30 and that it was 'encouraged by the resilience of the business thus far'. But it added: 'There remains a high degree of uncertainty in the coming months.' AIM-tiddler Yourgene was on the up. It is planning to launch Covid-19 testing services. The Manchester biotech firm has expanded its lab capabilities to offer 'private testing' services to GP surgeries, private clinics and business clients across the UK. It is also set to launch its own Covid-19 testing kits, also for laboratory use, which it will sell to customers. Its shares rose by 6.9 per cent, or 1.25p, to 19.5p following the announcement. Yourgene has also been involved in manufacturing tests developed by fellow biotech firm Novacyt. The latter, through its Southampton subsidiary Primerdesign, was among the first to develop a Covid-19 test and has notched up revenues of 90million, compared to the division's 5.6million last year, thanks to the breakthrough. Yesterday it emerged that the firm's bosses could be set for a big pay day. Chief executive Graham Mullis could get 1.1m shares and finance chief Anthony Dyer 376,643. Novacyt rose 1.6 per cent, or 5p, to 325p, meaning Mullis and Dyer's payouts are respectively worth about 3.5million and 1.2million. Under the third phase of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers reopening plan, bars and restaurants can begin offering outdoor dining to parties of six or fewer people per table. The state and the Chicago metropolitan area remained in phase two earlier this week and an exact date when al fresco dining might be permitted had not been set as of Tuesday. Pritzker has said all four regions of the state are on track to move into phase three on Friday. A fast-moving system developed on Wednesday morning into the second named tropical storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which doesn't officially begin until June 1, made landfall and then quickly weakened into a depression by late Wednesday afternoon. Still days away from the official start of hurricane season, the Southeast coast of the U.S. on Wednesday was dealing with its second named tropical system in less than two weeks. A weather disturbance that left Miami streets underwater over the Memorial Day weekend rapidly strengthened off of the South Carolina coast Tuesday night and was named Tropical Storm Bertha for several hours on Wednesday. Unlike Tropical Storm Arthur, which flirted with the North Carolina coast on May 18 before making a right turn and heading out to sea, Bertha made landfall Wednesday on the South Carolina coast about 20 miles east of Charleston. By late Wednesday afternoon, the storm had been downgraded but was still packing 30 mph sustained winds and was barreling inland north-northwest at 15 mph. A satellite image showing Bertha, the second named storm of the season, making landfall over South Carolina, just northeast of Charleston around 9:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The official start to hurricane season is on June 1. (AccuWeather) Satellite and radar images showed a definitive spin near the center of the system just offshore of the South Carolina coast on Wednesday morning, a sign that the tropical storm was forming. Winds offshore were sustained in the 35-40 mph range with gusts between 40 and 50 mph early Wednesday morning. To meet the tropical storm criteria, a system must have sustained winds of 39 mph or greater. Based on sustained wind speeds, and the visible circulation, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the feature to Tropical Storm Bertha just prior to 8 a.m. EDT. Bertha made landfall around 9:30 a.m. EDT about 20 miles east of Charleston with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. On the AccuWeather RealImpactScale for Hurricanes, Bertha is categorized as less than 1 with minimal impact from wind. Flooding is the greatest concern for lives and property at this point. Story continues CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Now that Bertha has moved hundreds of miles inland and is a tropical rainstorm, few problems in terms of rough surf are in store for the Carolina coast. There can still be locally heavy thunderstorms on the prowl due to a stream of tropical moisture from the Atlantic in the wake of Bertha. During Wednesday night, Bertha will weaken upon moving well inland with the center of the soon-to-be tropical rainstorm to travel northward and roughly along the Interstate 77 corridor in North Carolina and Virginia. "Interaction with land and fast movement will be a great limiting factor with this feature, but the main impact will be a continuation of heavy rain moving forward during the middle of the week over the Carolinas then to some extent farther north over the central Appalachians from later Wednesday night to Thursday," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said. A general 1-3 inches of rain is forecast with an AccuWeather Local StormMax of 8 inches over the Carolinas and southwestern Virginia through Wednesday night. A significant amount of this rain may fall in a matter of a few hours, especially along the coast. That intensity of rainfall can be enough to trigger flash flooding, including in cities such as Fayetteville, Charlotte, Wilmington and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Roanoke and Wytheville, Virginia; and Charleston and Beckley, West Virginia. "The problem is this rain will fall on saturated ground from prior heavy rainfall this month, so there could be flooding problems all the way from the Carolina coast to at least southwestern Virginia and West Virginia," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Randy Adkins. Heavy rain from Bertha can not only lead to rapid flooding of small streams and at intersections in urban areas, but also significant rises on area rivers. Torrential rainfall associated from the same storm system produced flooding in South Florida over Memorial Day weekend. Streets were left inundated across Miami after the downpours struck. Miami picked up 7.43 inches of rain over the holiday weekend. On Tuesday alone, Miami picked up an additional 7.40 inches of rain, 6.35 inches of which fell over the course of two hours. The city has now recorded 18.88 inches of rain during May, more than triple the normal rainfall for the month. West Palm Beach shattered its daily rainfall record on Monday when 4.44 inches poured down, beating the old record of 1.14 inches set on May 25 in 2018. Fort Lauderdale also recorded a new record rainfall on May 25, with a total of 4.03 inches breaking the old daily record of 3.51 inches set back in 1970. As the feature continues to lift northward, lesser rainfall is forecast over West Virginia, Virginia, western Maryland, central and western Pennsylvania and central New York state from later Wednesday night to Thursday evening. Even though rainfall in the Northeast may be unremarkable in terms of amount, it could certainly spoil the summerlike weather pattern that has developed and limit the duration of sunshine. The downpours could also briefly become heavy enough to slow travel on the highways and lead to brief urban flooding in a few extreme cases over the Northeast. Not since 2016 have there been two named tropical systems prior to the official start of hurricane season, which is June 1. During 2016, Alex formed over the central Atlantic during the middle of January, while Bonnie did not follow until late May. In 2012, there were two tropical storms, Alberto and Beryl that formed in May. These storms formed just off the southern Atlantic coast, similar to that of this May. Alberto never made landfall, like Arthur from this year. However, Beryl did move onshore, just like Bertha will soon do. Are there any other tropical systems on deck? AccuWeather meteorologists will continue to monitor a couple of areas in the nearby tropics for trouble into early June as well. One area of interest will be on the western side of Central America late this week to this weekend. "A near-coast tropical depression or storm over the Eastern Pacific could come about and pester areas from Costa Rica to Guatemala," Kottlowski said. This image, taken on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, shows a lack of organization to cloud patterns around Central America. However, that may change in the coming days with the slow development of a large gyre anticipated, which could spawn tropical systems over the western Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. (NOAA/GOES-East) "It appears a broad area of slowly-spinning unsettled conditions, known as a tropical gyre, will develop around Central America over the next week or two," he explained. This large area of disturbed weather can sometimes assist with the spin up of tropical systems on the Pacific and Atlantic sides. "There has been some indication that a tropical system may spin up over the western Caribbean Sea to near the Yucatan Peninsula sometime during the first week of June," Kottlowski said. "But, this far out it is something we will just keep an eye on." While waters are plenty warm in the region to support a tropical storm, there are other considerations, such as wind shear, or changing wind speeds or direction with altitude, which may prevent a disturbance from developing in the first place. "Should multiple computer models get on board with development and those models become fairly consistent with development then we may have something to be concerned about," Kottlowski explained. Development during June in the Atlantic basin typically occurs from the western Caribbean through the Gulf of Mexico and within a few hundred miles along the southeastern coast of the United States. The official start of the Atlantic hurricane season is on June 1, but there has already been a tropical storm, Arthur, in the basin. Arthur formed on May 16 and a couple of days later grazed the coast of North Carolina with gusty winds, drenching rainfall and rough seas, but Arthur never made an official landfall. Following Bertha, the next name on the list of tropical storms in the Atlantic for the 2020 season is Cristobal. AccuWeather's long-range forecasters remained concerned for a busy Atlantic hurricane season, which includes the likelihood of several significant storms of impact on the U.S. amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns for the new coronavirus were already complicating plans for hurricane shelters as officials prepared for the hurricane season ahead. Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios. Another Great Leap Forward: Wuhan to Test 11 Million People in 10 Days Wuhan, the CCP viruss epicenter, is launching a citywide nucleic acid test. Authorities announced its plan to test tens of millions of people in Wuhan within 10 days. Critics pointed out that, with an accuracy rate of less than 30%, the new plan is more like a slapdash political ploy, and that it is possible that the CCP intends to use this test to deceive the world again with fabricated data. According to state media, on May 11, secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Committee Wang Zhonglin demanded expansion in the coverage of nucleic acid testing. On the same day, Wuhans district disease control centers received an emergency notice that demanded all units across the city must come up with a plan within 24 hours, to implement nucleic acid screenings for all residents in the city within a 10-day period. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China shows that the residential population of Wuhan alone had exceeded 11 million in 2018. This means that, with a demand of more than 10 million tests in 10 days, the average number of tests performed in Wuhan must exceed 1 million per day. Li Qiang, vice mayor of Wuhan, once introduced at an epidemic control news conference in mid-April that the city has 53 nucleic acid testing agencies, 211 nucleic acid testing sites, and an average daily testing capacity of 46,000 people. Data from the Wuhan Municipal Health Commissions website also showed the number of nucleic acid tests performed across the city on May 12 was less than 43,000. Clearly, this presents a huge gap from reaching the target of over a million tests a day. Zhang Jian, a U.S.-based researcher on China issues, doubted that if a sizable city like Wuhan, with a population of more than ten million, could manage to test all its people within 10 days, then it also shouldnt be a problem for all of China or even the world. However, currently, there are no cities in the world that can do that. Jian said: With a mere accuracy rate of 20% to 30% for testing in China, tossing coins could present more accurate results than conducting a citywide test in Wuhan. With no scientific breakthrough and no strong medical system behind its back, the sudden plan to perform such a test is a political movement. As the CCP Virus spreads its way to the present day, Wuhan has become a world-wide political weather vane, a center of a political whirlpool. There has been speculation that Wuhans sudden Great Leap Forward to emergency testing is related to the CCPs upcoming Two Sessions meeting, as the current state of epidemic control will affect the progress of the meeting and the political winds. A Chinese medical practitioner in Beijing, Zhao Zhongyuan, believes that the CCP might also be trying to digest the inventory of low-accuracy test kits, or might even use the citywide testing as an excuse to adjust the number of confirmed cases upward. Zhongyuan said, The CCPs coverup of the epidemic and its data fabrication is so outrageous that its figures are simply too low when compared to those of the world. Isnt it possible that the CCP might release some of its hidden data so that it can get a confidence boost when speaking to the world? Furthermore, outsiders have questioned the 10-day deadline as too rigid. And for such large-scale testing, having no appropriate measures to close down schools and businesses or controlling traffic flow could lead to more unnecessary person-to-person contact and misreporting. Zhongyuan said, Testings performed on 11 million people within 10 days will not be effective. Because the quality and accuracy of testing are much lower than that in the United States. How could it form such a strong medical team to get everyone tested? This is something unachievable. So its possible that the purpose of the act is to go through the motions and makeup data to lie to the world again. China-based Caixin News quoted a Chinese CDC epidemiologist who said that a campaign-style nucleic acid test is costly, a waste of manpower and resources, and unnecessary. Questions remain as to whether performing the nucleic acid test only once can accurately detect an infected person and to what extent false-negative testing results are present? Those are important factors influencing large scale screenings. Many netizens have complained about the plan to test 11 million people in 10 days. Some people have mocked that it was even possible for one Mu of land to produce 100,000 pounds of crops (referring to the overexaggerated lie told by the CCP during the Great Leap Forward campaign about the crop production rate at that time in China). Some people mockingly said that there are plenty of test kits for use that have been returned from overseas! Some others said that even if the large-scale testing was possible to carry out, the accuracy rate of around 30% would make it all pointless. Royal Mail workers at delivery offices in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and High Wycombe, near London, have walked out over COVID-19 concerns. In Peterborough, staff at the Werrington office walked out May 16 after a manager tested positive for COVID-19. Postal workers believed the manager was not following social distancing guidelines. Their concerns were proven correct when several staff were tested and found to be positive for COVID-19. On Sunday, the Peterborough Telegraph confirmed that four postal workers had contracted coronavirus. At High Wycombes delivery office, a postal worker has been diagnosed with coronavirus. Workers at the delivery office had raised concerns with management but were ignored. The Bucks Free Press interviewed two postal workers who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisals by management. They were fed up with the blatant disregard managers at the Queen Victoria Road delivery office had for safety. There was still a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and social distancing was not being observed. One worker said, You would think that a company such as Royal Mail would be on point with the current COVID situation. Such a pity they are falling way below good working conditions. It took them weeks to get any PPE to its staff. There are breaches of social distancing happening many times each day. We are currently sharing vans, but after each use, the vans are not being wiped down. Another worker added, A postman in the depot on Queen Victoria Road has tested positive for the coronavirus and 100 people are working there with little PPE given (well, one bottle of sanitiser each). Social distancing just is not being implemented, and I feel the whole office is at risk as well as the public. The safety problems in the two offices are replicated in delivery and sorting offices all over the country and internationally. Last month, a 25-year-old employee at Belgiums national delivery company, Bpost, died from COVID-19. Last Wednesday, Bpost workers stopped work in the Ixelles area of Brussels in protest at workloads. There has been a near doubling of parcel volume as the use of online shopping has shot up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following meetings with union representatives, the company agreed to hire additional temporary staff from next week. Some workers returned to duties after hearing the news, others said they would wait until Monday to see if the additional staff materialise. Postal workers have died, and hundreds of workers have tested positive in the United States. Approximately 300,000 people have signed an online petition urging the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to demand hazard pay for all United Parcel Service (UPS) workers during the pandemic. Speaking to the Bucks Free Press, Chad Croom, a CWU branch secretary at High Wycombe, gave an interview that provides a devastating indictment of the role of the trade union bureaucracy. His message was that nothing could be done to fight the conditions being imposed by management because postal workers are too committed to public service for their own good! Croom stated, Our members are very conscientious about the service we provide to the public and splitting shifts, different duty patterns, reducing the daily service or even failing deliveries are not something many of them wish to do. The nation has been reminded of how vital our service is during this crisis and to reduce it in any way is seen by many as failing our customers. This, Croom maintained, was preventing the CWU from being able to properly defend its members: Unfortunately this encourages many of them to put the delivery of a parcel or letter before their own safety. This is not the view of the union who believe our members safety should be paramount. It is however a difficult message to convince our members of at times. Especially when one of the offices in our branch refused to work in what they felt was unsafe conditions and as a result had their pay stopped for what the business classed as unofficial industrial action. Without questioning the conscientiousness and commitment of postal workers, Croom is simply repackaging the public service nostrums the CWU used as the basis in March, for cancelling proposed national industrial action to oppose attacks on jobs and working conditions despite a near 95 percent vote in favour. Within hours of the result, the CWU announced it would not call its 110,000 members out, but was instead offering postal workers up as an additional emergency service during the coronavirus pandemic. After the CWU withdrew the strike threat, Royal Mail responded with undisguised contempt to postal workers, implemented no safety measures and then announced an end to Saturday deliveries that threatens 20,000 jobs. The CWU agreed to this change on May 1, citing a meaningless promise that it would only be a temporary measure. Crooms reference to Royal Mail treating a refusal by one office to work in unsafe conditions as industrial action points to the fundamental reason why postal workers might be reluctant to act in defence of their safety. Throughout the pandemic, the trade unions have either never called strike action or, in the case of the CWU, sabotaged a vote to take it. To cover their backs, the CWU et al then said they would support members who exercised their legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. This conveniently meant that the CWU did not need to call its members out or extend any genuine protection against victimisation. Croom now admits that Royal Mail management, who clearly did not read the CWU memo, acted as if industrial action had been called and victimised postal workers regardless. The CWU greenlighted this attack at High Wycombe, as it has throughout the UK. But Croom has the gall to conclude by asserting that, thanks to pressure from the CWU nationally on Royal Mail, there are now ample face masks, hand gel, gloves and wipes available to workers. Problem solved! Contrary to Crooms portrayal of a loyal and docile workforce, there have been many actions by postal workers to protect themselves throughout the UK. In March, walkouts took place in Southwark, London, and Bridgwater in the southwest. In April, postal workers at Bury St. Edmunds, Chatham, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington, Didcot, Edinburgh, Alloa and Fife took unofficial action over safety. The essential conclusion that must now be drawn is that the fight for safe working means postal workers taking matters into their own hands, organising rank-and-file committees wholly independent from the CWUthe Royal Mails industrial police force. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Cloudy with morning snow ending, then windy and turning colder with falling temps and some afternoon clearing. A coating to 1-2" of snow expected in the morning. . Tonight Partly cloudy, windy, and very cold. Wind chills near or below zero later at night. Credit: CC0 Public Domain The World Health Organization said Tuesday that Dutch workers apparently infected with the coronavirus by minks could be the first known cases of animal-to-human transmission. The WHO told AFP that it was in close contact with Dutch researchers investigating three cases where the virus appears to have been passed to humans from minks. "This would be the first known cases of animal-to-human transmission," the UN health agency told AFP in an email. "But we are still collecting and reviewing more data to understand if animals and pets can spread the disease," it said. Dutch Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said Monday that a second worker had likely contracted COVID-19 on a mink farm, while stressing that the risk of further contagion remained low. An initial infection was reported last week on one of two farms near the southern city of Eindhoven, where the disease was discovered in April among mink that are bred for their valuable fur. The infection happened before it was known that the mink were carrying the virus, meaning that workers did not wear protective clothing at the time. The health ministry said that three people on the farm tested positive for the virus, but said that it remained unclear if more than one of the cases had come directly from a mink. Infected pets The exact source of the virus, which first appeared in China late last year, remains unknown, and there is growing pressure for an international probe to determine its origin. In a matter of months, the virus has infected more than 5.5 million people, killing nearly 350,000 of them. Most scientists believe the virus jumped from animals to humans, possibly in a market that sells exotic animals for meat in the city of Wuhan. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus indicated Monday that China had agreed that an investigation of the origin was needed, but did not say when one might begin. "All stakeholders understand the importance of studying the origin, because it's by studying the origin that we can prevent it from happening in the future," he told a virtual press conference. Since the initial jump to humans, there have been no previous reports of animals being the source of infections. The WHO said however that there have been some instances of COVID-19 patients infecting their pets. "A number of susceptibility studies have shown that other animal species are also susceptible to the virus and can be infected, including cats, ferrets," it said. The agency stressed that necessary precautions should be taken to avoid infection of pets from close contacts with humans with COVID-19, but insisted that "there is no reason or justification to take measures against companion animals." Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP Ask Matt ... about $19M armored truck haul stashed in Mountain Home in the '90s Q. What is being built on that grassy lot on US 64 West in Etowah near the intersection of McKinney Road? A self-storage facility. It will be part of the AAA Storage World family business owned by Dennis Dorn. It will be identical to the building on Sardis Road in Asheville. He has two other self-storage businesses, one in Spartanburg and one on Sugarloaf Road that boasts 450 units. Dorn acquired the five-acre Etowah site late last year. This will be an 80,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, said Dorn. It will be fenced, gated, lighted, one level, with a high tech security system plus it will have an outdoor storage area for RVs and boats. The Etowah location will be built in two phases with the first scheduled for completion in September. Dorn has over 26 years in the storage business so during my interview I asked him if he remembered the story about the storage facility in Mountain Home that once held $19 million in cash. Oh yeah, I remember, he said, In fact, I gave the FBI information that helped them pinpoint the location. The story begins in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1997. Phillip Noel Johnson, a 33-year old disgruntled armored truck driver, overpowered two co-workers, unloaded $18.8 million into sacks, locked them in a Mountain Home mini-storage facility, and fled to Mexico with only a pocket full of cash. Johnson was eventually arrested by Texas border patrol agents while re-entering the country. Almost all the money locked in storage in Mountain Home was recovered. The heist, the largest in history at the time, put Henderson County in the national news. Johnson was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. He was released from prison just last year. Q. There is an enormous amount of work by Duke Energy along Laycock Road and Ridge Road in Edneyville. Lots of new power poles. Whats going on? Its all about power and the growing customer base in Edneyville. According to Duke Energy officials there are two things going on. Materials are staged for a new Duke Energy substation in Edneyville.A new substation is being built on Laycock Road near the existing one and the electric utility is rebuilding five miles of transmission line that serves the substation. The new lines will provide more capacity and higher reliability. Existing right-of-way will be used. Much of the pole installation work has been completed. The estimated project completion date is fall 2020. Some may remember in 2015 Dukes plan to acquire new right-of-way for high power transmission lines that met with so much public opposition that Duke abandoned the project. The need for more power however never disappeared. The main character, Lyla, from webcomic "I am deaf," right, is seen with other characters. Courtesy of Naver Webtoon By Park Ji-won Lee Su-youn, a webcomic creator who rose to stardom for "I am deaf" on Naver, was born deaf. Because of this, she had to learn how to lip read to understand others. When she was six years old, after spending two years in a school for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, she was encouraged to transfer to a regular school. Teachers told her mother that Lee was smart enough to catch up on the curriculum there. Her mother followed their advice. Lee, now 30, studied along with non-disabled classmates from kindergarten through to university. Her family and friends have been supportive of her. Like other Korean moms, Lee's mother was passionate about her daughter's education; she would put a bag of rice on her daughter's belly to help her feel how to make sounds with her breathing and voice. Her deafness made her vulnerable to bullying from classmates. Some were harsh to her, believing that Lee pretended to be deaf to attract attention from others. She also suffered from depression. But thanks to her family and friends who accepted her as she is, Lee was able to find her aptitude. She loved to draw comics and explore art. Her traumatic experiences led her to write stories about herself which were reflected in the 200 episodes of her webcomic that were uploaded on Naver between August 2015 and July 2017. "My motives were simple. I wrote stories about myself to share them with others," she said in a recent written interview with The Korea Times. Lee requested that her photo not appear in the published interview. In many episodes, she has explained how deaf people like her deal with situations they were facing. Her readers were able to put themselves into the shoes of those who are deaf or hard of hearing. One episode describes how she enjoys the music of British rock group Queen and Led Zeppelin member John Bonham's drumming. She held a speaker in her arms to feel the rhythms. When she has a chat with her friend at night, she shines a light on her friend's lips with a flashlight. Sometimes, she feels being deaf is a blessing because she cannot hear noises from construction sites or hear any cruel remarks that people make about her. One of her episodes describes the way she dreams; subtitles appear in her dreams to show conversations between people. Her webcomics deal with stereotypes regarding deaf people, illustrating the trauma suffered by those who are subject to it. In one instance, Lee's professor refused to give her an assignment simply because the professor thought Kim would find it difficult to work with a team. Kim took it as discrimination. While going through these experiences and more, she decided to express her thoughts through the form of a webcomic, the simplest but one of the most powerful and educational ways to raise awareness of the experiences of deaf people. "I can write scenarios for dramas or movies or fiction novels. But I chose to write a 'slice of life' webcomic because I thought it was the most effective way to help audiences pay attention to my story. If you see people in the subway, you see some read webcomics on their smartphones. Webcomics are accessible and make it easy to understand a certain subject within a short period time. Webcomics help me reach out to my readers," she added. A frame from "I am deaf," a Naver webcomic / Courtesy of Naver Webtoon A Paris court ruled last week that AXA should pay a restaurant owner two months of revenue losses caused by the virus pandemic. AXA had argued its policy did not cover business disruption caused by the health crisis. Stephane Manigold, the owner of four Paris restaurants who brought the case against the French insurer, told Reuters that since the court decision his team had received calls from Britain, South Africa, Spain and the United States asking for details of his contract and the courts ruling. This decision in Paris has a global resonance, he said. A UK trade body, the Night Time Industries Association, which is also considering action against insurers, told Reuters the Paris case bodes well for their cause. It absolutely strengthens the case for legitimate claims to be considered in the UK, and I am sure that there are some legal parallels being drawn from the case against AXA in France, the associations chief executive, Michael Kill, told Reuters. In Britain, the financial regulator has also turned to the courts to try to gain clarity on whether insurers should pay out coronavirus-related claims to small businesses. AXA has said it will appeal against the Paris ruling, but Chief Executive Thomas Buberl on Tuesday said that the company was seeking an amicable solution and planned to meet the bulk of claims from restaurant owners whose contracts contained some ambiguity. These contracts represent less than 10% out of total contracts with restaurant owners and I am confident that we will find a solution, Buberl said. We want to compensate a substantial part of these contracts; we want to do it quickly. Some other French insurers have said they will pay out business interruption losses to some customers, depending on specific contracts. Generali France, for example, has said it will make payments to 600 hospitality businesses. I think this decision will reignite the debate, Emilie Martin, an insurance agent and associate at Dijon-based Spiegel Bletry Martin, said of the Paris court decision. AXA also said it would provide a further 500 million euros ($546 million) in aid for small companies, on top of plans already announced by French insurers to invest 1.7 billion euros in domestic companies. The idea is clearly to reinforce those companies that are weakened by this crisis, Buberl said. ($1 = 0.9161 euros) (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Maya Nikolaeva; additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London; editing by Mark Potter and David Goodman) Related: Topics Legislation Claims AXA XL With US unemployment levels surging to nearly 40 million people, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett suggested on CNN that the US is ready to reopen and rebound sooner than feared, and that the USs capital stock that is, its workforce has not been depleted. Our capital stock hasnt been destroyed, our human capital stock is ready to get back to work, so there are lots of reasons to believe that we can get going way faster than we have in previous crises, he said. Mr Hassett has drawn fire not only for his relatively upbeat predictions about reopening the economy at a time when many Americans remain trepidatious, but for his phraseology, which evokes a dark period in human and American history. The term human stock has long been associated with eugenics, a discredited pseudoscience that enjoyed some mainstream credibility in the early 20th century. Many of its adherents, who believed that selective breeding was a self-evident way to better the human race, argued for limiting or cutting off the reproductive capacity of those showing undesirable traits. Author H.G. Wells, whose early views on the hierarchy of racial groups are notorious, wrote in 1904 that the way of nature has always been to slay the hindmost, and there is still no other way, unless we can prevent those who would become the hindmost being born. It is in the sterilisation of failure, and not in the selection of successes for breeding, that the possibility of an improvement of the human stock lies. Recommended How eugenics is becoming a mainstream issue again The idea was so influential that in 1927, the US Supreme Court itself passed a verdict, in Buck v Bell, that compulsory sterilisation for the protection and health of the state did not violate the 14th amendment. While it is not to be implied that Mr Hassett was advocating for the sterilisation of the disabled and feebleminded, the furore caused by his phrasing itself testifies to the depth of offence caused by the resurfacing of eugenicist ideas and phraseology. And besides that, the vocabulary he used indicates to some that his perspective on the USs situation may not be grounded in wisdom. As economist Justin Wolfers remarked on Twitter: When you dont think of them as people, youre probably also doing the economics wrong. Meanwhile, on the economy writ large, Mr Hassett gave a somewhat sunnier assessment of the speed at which the US job market could rebound to its pre-coronavirus level than has been heard in some quarters. While acknowledging that unemployment data could yet show a 20 per cent rate by the end of June, Mr Hassett predicted that by the end of 2020, all the signs of economic recovery are going to be raging everywhere. The only thing were going to really be debating, as economists, is, are we going to get back to where we were, or is it going to be kind of a long haul to get there? I have two very close friends, both conservatives, both Harvard professors, and one of them thinks its going to take many, many years, and the other one thinks that it is going to happen virtually overnight. And that other friend, Robert Barro, has said that he thinks it looks a little bit like, at the end of World War II, the countries that didnt have their capital stocks destroyed by the war, that, when the war ended, they pretty much got their economies going at a rate of 40 or 50 percent a year. However, he also conceded that it is quite possible unemployment could be at least as high as 9 per cent at the end of this year worryingly high for a president facing an election. Certain neighbourhoods in Australia have been labelled 'no go zones' for delivery drivers due to high crime rates and concerns over driver safety. Franchised pizza delivery companies, like Pizza Hut and Domino's, have lists of addresses that drivers simply won't drop orders to out of concern for their safety. UberEats and Deliveroo don't necessarily have 'no go zones', but delivery drivers and riders are permitted to reject or cancel orders if they do not feel safe. A Pizza Hut customer from Kelso in Bathurst in the New South Wales Central Tablelands, last week revealed her street had been downgraded to a non delivery region following a spate of crimes in the area. She told Daily Mail Australia she 'completely understood' why her street was too dangerous for drivers. UberEats and Deliveroo don't necessarily have 'no go zones', but delivery drivers and riders are permitted to reject or cancel orders if they do not feel safe Ashley Wootton received a text message from Pizza Hut Bathurst which read: 'Unfortunately we are not able to deliver your order as the address supplied is a no delivery street for us due to the danger imposed to our drivers' 'I hate living in such a sh*tty area,' she said. 'They literally delivered to me two weeks ago.' 'My street is terrible. It's full of people using hard drugs... kids steal things all the time, cars get set on fire.' The woman said she assumed the status of her street changed following 'another robbery at 7/11'. After placing her order for a serving of pasta, she received a text message from the store which read: 'Unfortunately we are not able to deliver your order as the address supplied is a no delivery street for us due to the danger imposed to our drivers'. The franchised store simply refunded her money before she had a chance to respond to the message. A spokeswoman for Domino's told Daily Mail Australia such 'no go zone' lists do exist. 'Out of the millions of streets within Australia, there are a small number that have been excluded from delivery due to safety reasons,' the spokeswoman said A Pizza Hut store sent a customer a text which read: 'Unfortunately we are not able to deliver your order as the address supplied is a no delivery street for us due to the danger imposed to our drivers' Poll Should drivers still have to deliver food to known 'dangerous' streets? Yes No Should drivers still have to deliver food to known 'dangerous' streets? Yes 0 votes No 15 votes Now share your opinion A spokeswoman for Domino's told Daily Mail Australia such 'no go zone' lists do exist. 'Out of the millions of streets within Australia, there are a small number that have been excluded from delivery due to safety reasons,' the spokeswoman said. 'This decision is carefully considered by Domino's and our franchisees, often in consultation with local police.' But not all suburbs that don't have a delivery option are considered dangerous. In fact, the spokeswoman said it is rarely the case. 'The most likely reason a customer is unable to order delivery from Domino's is because we cannot guarantee we can deliver a piping hot pizza in a timely fashion to their address,' she said. A former employee at Lismore Domino's revealed her restaurant had 'a massive sheet of streets that you are not allowed to deliver to.' A spokeswoman for Deliveroo told Daily Mail Australia they don't necessarily have 'no go zones' in place, but the independent contractors who deliver on the service's behalf are entitled to turn down jobs if they're concerned about their safety She said most of the addresses were centered around Sherman Drive and nearby streets. A spokeswoman for Deliveroo told Daily Mail Australia they don't necessarily have 'no go zones' in place, but the independent contractors who deliver on the service's behalf are entitled to turn down jobs if they're concerned about their safety. 'We are not aware of any streets or suburbs that are deemed dangerous, however riders are free to reject an order - even after pick up - which they may do for a range of reasons.' Most residents in neighbourhoods known to be 'red zones' say they understand why drivers wouldn't want to venture into the streets. 'My local didn't deliver to my old address either it was so annoying... but kids were throwing rocks at the cars and robbing them at knife point, so I get it,' one woman said. 'Some of those drivers are young and there are bad people around. They are just protecting their workers.' New Mexicos primary election is Tuesday, June 2. The Observer asked candidates for Sandoval County offices and New Mexico Legislature seats representing Sandoval County to complete questionnaires explaining their priorities, qualifications and views on topics in the public eye. Candidates were held to a 450-word limit. If responses surpassed that limit, the answers were cut from the bottom until they were 450 words long. Otherwise, responses were not edited. Lawrence D. Griego is the only Republican running for Sandoval County Clerk. He did not return a questionnaire. Anne S. Brady-Romero (No photo submitted.) Residence: Algodones Past and present occupation(s): Sandoval County Chief Deputy Clerk | 2014-Current, Worked in the Sandoval County Clerks office since 2010 and have been a small business owner. I have over 35 years of public and private sector management experience. Have you ever been convicted of a felony or DWI charge? No DWI or felony charges. If elected, what will your top priorities be? Ensure ADA compliance at all voting locations Increase voting locations Provide mobile voting unit Increase voter participation Implement an outreach election awareness program Create a Native American voting advisory committee Ensure your vote is secure by working with the NM Secretary of State offices cyber security team to perform an annual risk assessment Complete the implementation of online records with Tyler Eagle Recorder Why should you be elected to this position? I am currently serving as your Sandoval County Chief Deputy Clerk. I was appointed in 2013 by the Clerk and have been working for the Clerks Office since 2009. I have over 35 years of public and private sector management experience. What is your plan for maintaining integrity of elections? I will work with the NM Secretary of States Cyber Security office to perform annual risk assessments and work with the Countys IT department to ensure we adhere to best IT practices. What is your plan for making elections accessible to all voters? I will ensure all voting sites are ADA compliant and increase the number of Voting Convenience Centers (VCCs) throughout the County. In addition I will add a line item for a mobile voting unit in my budget. This mobile voting unit will travel all over the county to senior centers, nursing homes, sporting events, and other high traffic areas to ensure all voters have an opportunity to vote. Our team will ensure we apply COVID19 safe practices to ensure voter and employee safety. Bob Perls Residence: Corrales Past and present occupation(s): Founder and President of Monitech, Inc., a medical IT company; 2-term State Representative for Southern Sandoval County; Foreign Service Officer, Department of State; Founder and board member, NM Open Elections Have you ever been convicted of a felony or DWI charge? No If elected, what will your top priorities be? 1) Upholding election integrity: enough voting machines, no random voter roll purges, and reduce Election Day wait times for all communities equally. 2) Promoting voter outreach: Educate future voters, promote upcoming elections and help drive turnout among the youth and tribal communities. 3) Ensuring election security: My extensive technology and cyber security background will help me modernize the Clerks office to protect election results from hacking. Why should you be elected to this position? I have a unique background and skill set that will allow me to run our elections efficiently and securely in times of a pandemic. Five years ago, I founded a non-profit focused on election reforms that would increase voter turnout, called New Mexico Open Elections, and I have become expert on the election code. Altogether, I have spent 10 years working on cybersecurity and election reform issues. I have been trained by the U.S. Department of State in crisis management and I have an M.S. in Healthcare administration with extensive public health experience, both helpful in times of pandemic. The NM Clerks Association is influential in the legislature so I would hope to provide leadership within this association to help pass legislation that increases the vote while ensuring security. There are six or so important statutory changes needed to implement a secure vote-at-home system. What is your plan for maintaining integrity of elections? I have no tolerance for voter fraud or hacking of elections. 1) Security must be job one. Photo I.D.s can be easily falsified, so we need to move to a 21st century solution like automatic signature recognition to help secure in-person and absentee ballot voting. A signature is hard to fake and software is good at helping election workers determine fakes. 2) Set a culture of non-partisanship in the office to ensure fairness to all. 3) Train Clerk personnel on countering cyber threats most of which occur due to employee mistakes. The U.S. State Department provided me extensive cyber security training when I served our country abroad, especially at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan a high threat post. What is your plan for making elections accessible to all voters? In this time of the COVID virus, we need a secure vote-at-home system combined with safe Election Day polling locations staffed by experts. A vote-at-home system requires a fully vetted voter database, digital signatures, signature recognition software, tracking of ballots (like a FedEx package) so that voters can see where their ballots are all the time, and secure drop boxes in many locations so that voters have options where to return ballots in addition to dropping it in the mail. Ignacio Pedro Pete Salazar Residence: Pete is a life-long resident of Bernalillo and Placitas and graduated from Bernalillo High School in 1969. Past and Present Occupation: Pete Salazar served as President and CEO of New Mexico SER for over thirty years. In that capacity he administered seven different programs from at-risk youth to senior programs and supervised over 350 employees. Mr. Salazar is no stranger to elected offices. He served two terms as Sandoval County Commissioner and six years as a member of the Bernalillo School Board. He also has a well-rounded education with a M.A. degree in Guidance and Counseling from the UNM, a B.A. degree in Education from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and an Associate of Arts degree from Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, Iowa. He is a proud graduate of Bernalillo High School. Ignacio Pedro Pete Salazar is currently semi-retired Have you ever been convicted of felony or a DWI charge? Ignacio has a clean criminal record except for a DWI conviction in 1982 If elected what will your top priorities be? When elected I will work toward recruiting individuals who want to make a difference now. I will work with other New Mexico County Clerks to address term limits for all elected officials; eliminating Social Security taxes for the elderly, improving health care access, and tackling immigration issues. Why should you be elected to this position? To enhance the peoples active voice in their government. I was taught at an earlier age that government should be of the people, for the people and by the people! Today, what often exists are elected officials who constantly hold out their hands for their own gratification What is your plan for maintaining the integrity of elections? To enhance access to voting, by taking a proactive stance against voter suppression, especially now with mail-in ballots in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. We need a program of ongoing voter education and people need to be comfortable with voting processes so they can take a more active interest in the election process. What is your plan for making accessible to all voters? I will also work diligently with the New Mexico Association of County Clerks to lobby the New Mexico Legislature for legislation toward further enhancing voter participation in all elections, including a mail-in ballot system Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 00:22:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong police said on Monday they have arrested 193 people involved in Sunday's violent activities on Hong Kong Island. A total of 122 males and 71 females were arrested, mainly for offenses of taking part in riot, unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapons, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Among the arrested, nearly 30 were under 18 years old, and the youngest was only 12 years old. The arrested included a 16-year-old male involved in assaulting a female who was trying to remove road barricades set by rioters in Tin Hau area in Causeway Bay. On Sunday, a large number of rioters gathered in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay and Wan Chai areas since noon time to wreak havoc again. As the unlawful assemblies continued into the evening, the rioters vandalized public and private properties in different parts of the areas and brutally assaulted passers-by, leaving at least two people injured. In Causeway Bay, a man was confronted by rioters setting road barricades and was assaulted and injured on his head, hand and back. The case is being followed up by the police as a wounding case. When the rioters attacked the victim, some of their accomplices tried to cover up the crime with umbrellas. The police reiterated that the acts of covering up others' crimes with umbrellas will also constitute criminal offenses such as assisting, abetting or conspiring to wound. Enditem OTTAWA, May 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the last month, the Taliban and Afghani-U.S. government have stepped up their military operations in Afghanistan that left mostly civilians killed and injured contrary to the peace conditions that were agreed. Taleam Systems, which provides computer services to hospitals and medical clinics in Canada, has been working on new technology but lack of enduring peace in Afghanistan is a problem for the business. The longest war in Afghanistan will continue amid todays Eid celebrations and there are no plans for a long period of ceasefire, signals Meladul Haq Ahmadzai, CEO of Taleam Systems. No ceasefire plan has been called in Afghanistan so far to last longer than three days, says Ahmadzai. The US war in Afghanistan which started in 2001 has not stopped to this day. U.S. diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad visited Doha, Kabul and US for talks but no progress made so far regarding peace efforts in the war-torn country. Ahmadzai questions the peace agreement whether that document mentions plans for a long period of ceasefire or not. He says, Peace is the utmost desire of all Afghans ordinary people dont want war. Mike Pompeo also visited Afghanistan this year to stabilize relations between President Ashraf Ghani and Dr Abdullah which ultimately progressed towards the creation of a coalition government. Ahmadzai says, It is this kind of pressure that would change the Afghan officials attitudes and make more progress towards peace in Afghanistan. Taleam Systems hopes to make its technology available to the wide market including Afghanistan sometime in June. According to past media reports, the U.S. government withheld $1 billion from the Afghan government which pressured the coalition government to come together. Ahmadzai says, If there is no permanent ceasefire to achieve real and stable peace in Afghanistan, the Afghan people have the right to know that information. Some other countries are stepping up for example, China, India, Pakistan and Russia. China which is a business country wants to export products to Afghanistan, signals Ahmadzai. Russia is also seen stepping up to the plate. Ahmadzai says, Russia has fought in the war in Afghanistan and now wants peace. This is the worlds longest war in Afghanistan which has been ongoing for the last 42 years. The thousands of widows, orphans and children of war affected have no support. The many schools that were built were recently also destroyed in the war. Ahmadzai concludes, Afghanistan everlasting ceasefire plan is important, but the different political groups and countries are not in favour of peace they benefit from the US war. Meladul Haq Ahmadzai is the CEO of Taleam Systems which is a computer business based in Canada. Visit www.taleamsystems.com to learn more about the business. Media contact: Meladul Haq Ahmadzai Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images The new deputy leader of the National party has misidentified one of her frontbench MPs as Maori when defending the partys lack of diversity. The MP, Paul Goldsmith, was forced to clarify Nikki Kayes comments and state that he was not, in fact, Maori. Let me make it quite clear, I am not Maori myself, Goldsmith said. I dont claim to be Maori myself. Kaye and Todd Muller were elected to lead the National Party on Friday after a secret caucus vote following weeks of plummeting popularity for the party and former leader Simon Bridges. Related: Can New Zealand's National party reinvent itself under Todd Muller? | Jennifer Curtin With only three-and-a-half months until the general election, the pair have hit the media circuit hard this week. But Mullers frontbench has come in for criticism due to its lack of diversity, with the 14-member front bench featuring only one Maori MP, Paula Bennett, in 13th place. Under Bridges leadership, three of the top portfolios were in the hands of Maori MPs, and Bridges was also Maori. Kaye, defending the party on Tuesday said: Paul Goldsmith is of Ngati Porou, describing affiliation with a tribe on the North Islands east cape. But Goldsmith corrected her, saying while he had Maori connections in his family, he himself was not Maori. My great-great grandfather had European wives and Maori wives, and so Ive got lots of relatives across Ngati Porou I dont claim to be Maori myself, Goldsmith said. Newshubs political editor Tova OBrien expressed her surprise at the incident on Twitter. New National Party leadership just used Paul Goldsmith as an example of a Maori MP on its predominantly white front bench. A surprised Paul Goldsmith then cleared things by saying no, Im not Maori. You cant make this shit up. Tova O'Brien (@TovaOBrien) May 25, 2020 Much of the criticism of Nationals shadow front-bench has come from Labours Maori MPs. Kiri Allen said it appeared Nationals caucus certainly lacked diversity. Story continues Both Kaye and Muller defended their appointments, with Kaye pointing out that the shadow front-bench included three women in the top four jobs. I believe we have an incredibly diverse capable team that are focused on building an economic recovery team, Muller said. The Labour party has the largest number of Maori MPs in history but has also come in for criticism from political commentators who note the majority of their Maori talent are not on the front-bench, and the government has made limited headway on entrenched Maori issues, including poverty and longstanding land disputes such as Ihumatao. Maori political commentator Mogan Godfery noted that Maori MPs hold a number of top Labour portfolios, including foreign affairs and corrections. Their representation is definitely better, or at least more numerous, Godfery said. I know all too well how much T.J. has suffered and how much his family has suffered, Scarborough said, referring to Timothy Klausutis. Its unspeakably cruel, whether its the president or whether its people following the president. These are not public figures, nor have they ever been public figures. Every time they spread these lies, theyre hurting the family. An airstrike in eastern Syria carried out by the US-led military coalition assembled to fight the Islamic State (IS) has killed one of the group's senior figures, the Iraqi counterterrorism agency said today. Mu'taz Numan 'Abd Nayif Najm al-Jaburi headed the terrorist groups foreign operations, the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service said in a statement. Jaburi, who used the nom de guerre Hajji Taysir, was known as the Islamic States governor of Iraq. There was no confirmation from the US military today; the US Department of Justice has since September 2019 offered up to a $5 million bounty for information on his whereabouts. The department describes Jaburi as one of IS' most important leaders, and one who oversaw the groups chemical and biological weapons research as the deputy head of IS manufacturing in Syria. The reported strike on Jaburi in Deir ez-Zor was carried out by the US-led international military coalition using intelligence provided by Iraq, Iraq's counterterrorism agency said. Deir ez-Zor province was home to the Islamic States final stronghold in Baghouz before it fell to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the coalition in March 2019. The Iraqi counterterrorism agency tweeted, Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Mr. Mustafa al-Kadhimi, appreciates the efforts of the National Intelligence Service and the Counter-Terrorism Service for their coordination. Jaburi is the third Islamic State figure reportedly killed in oil-rich Deir ez-Zor this month. On May 17, a joint raid between the SDF and the US-led coalition left two Islamic State leaders dead. According to a coalition statement, Ahmad 'Isa Ismail Ibarhim al-Zawi, also known as Abu Ali al-Baghdadi, was the group's "wali," or governor, of north Baghdad. Ahmad 'Abd Muhammad Hasan al-Jughayfi, also known as Abu Ammar, managed the acquisition and transport of weapons, explosives and personnel. The removal of these [Islamic State] leaders will disrupt future attacks against innocent civilians and our security partners and in the region, the coalition said then. Since losing its last stretch of territory more than a year ago, the group continues to wage a low-level insurgency in both Iraq and Syria, a recent Pentagon inspector general's report found. In Iraq, the Islamic State is suspected in a series of recent crop fires and other attacks in the countrys disputed territories. The United States maintains a military presence in both Iraq and Syria, where it is training and advising local partner forces. In recent months, the coalition has transferred a handful of bases to the Iraqi security forces as part of a planned drawdown in the country. A 42-year-old Birmingham man will remain on Alabamas Death Row after another appeal effort has been denied. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request to review the case of twice-convicted killer Taurus Jermaine Carroll. He was convicted in St. Clair County Circuit Court in September of 2012 for the murder of fellow inmate Michael Turner. Turner was killed Sept. 14, 2009 at St. Clair County Correctional Facility. Testimony presented at trial showed Carroll accused Turner of taking his cell phone. Though Turner repeatedly denied the theft, Carroll stabbed him multiple times with prison-made knife made from part of an air conditioner vent. Turner was stabbed 16 times in his head, neck and body. He died in the prison infirmary. Authorities said Carroll told a correctional officer that he meant to kill Turner. He was arrested the following day by prison investigators. Turner was serving time for a Montgomery County conviction on conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery first degree. He had been sentenced on Sept. 12, 2007 on the conspiracy charge, and July 17, 2008 on the robbery charge. He had served 2 years and 27 days of his sentences, which was due to end Aug. 17, 2010. In 2012, Carroll was sentenced to death, and sought to have his conviction reversed on appeal. Carroll already was serving a Feb. 13, 1998 life without parole sentence out of Jefferson County for a murder. Carroll initially was sentenced to death in the 1995 murder of Betty Long in a Kingston laundromat. Long was shot in the abdomen, in front of her daughter, at the family's laundry business. Ninety dollars was taken in the holdup, along with the daughter's necklace. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Alfred Bahakel sentenced Carroll to death in 1997, but the Alabama Supreme Court later overruled Bahakel's sentence. The appeals court said Bahakel didn't give adequate weight to mitigating circumstances in the case. Carroll was 17 when he killed Long. He remains on Death Row at Holman Correctional Facility. COVID-19 survey shows resiliency, risk of regional businesses by Christi Mathis CARBONDALE, Ill. So far, most Southern Illinois small businesses are adapting and hanging tough despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it has brought, but if disruption were to continue at the current rate, 40.2 percent of business owners reported that they may be at risk of permanent closure within 1-5 months. Thats one of the revelations of an online survey the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Research Park conducted recently that garnered more than 200 respondents. Now, the staff have studied the complete survey results and are creating programming and services specifically designed to help businesses at this difficult time as well as into the future. Impact so far Significant to the findings, 72 percent of those surveyed reported they had not laid off employees while 63 percent had not placed employees on furlough as a result of the impact from COVID-19. However, 67.9 percent reported their business revenues fell by 26 percent or more. Notably, among the respondents, those who have an online sales component reported an increase of nearly 27 percent in online sales. Nevertheless, more than 70 percent said they need some type of gap funding to stay afloat through June 1. Most commonly, business owners have applied for gap finance assistance programs, particularly the Federal Paycheck Protection Program, which essentially can be a forgivable loan, and the Federal Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan, which has a possible grant component. Others have sought assistance through local banks or agencies. Hundreds of responses While the national and statewide impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been no secret, the goal of this survey was to assess the impact on businesses in the Southern Illinois region, according to Deborah Barnett, SIU Research Park associate director. A total of 224 business owners from Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Perry and Williamson counties responded to the anonymous survey during the seven-day period it was posted. Some answered all of the questions while others responded to just some of the online questions between April 28 and May 4. Thus, the actual response numbers vary. Several questions touched on the impact to business operations of the pandemic and stay-at-home directives enacted to combat the spread of the virus. The respondents were asked their feelings regarding various aspects of their businesses, what types of assistance could help them and what help they have sought or received. The respondents The highest number of responses came from Williamson County with 97 and Jackson County with 76; Perry County followed with 22 and the remainder came from Franklin, Jefferson or another county not listed. Among the SIU survey respondents, 67 percent report they are locally owned with two-thirds in business for 10 years or longer. More than half own their business property and most employ 2 to 5 full-time and 2 to 5 part-time employees. Other concerns Business owners report a number of challenges and concerns as a result of the pandemic, including loss of revenue, changes and reduction in hours, concerns about protecting the health and well-being of employees, and the loss of business and customer traffic. Universally, the respondents say they welcome more detailed information about financial assistance available to them. There were some differences among respondents from the various counties. Some indicated penalty-free extensions for expenses would be a most helpful form of assistance while others preferred opportunities to talk with other business owners, social media technical training, information on marketing, or help with cash flow management. The outcome Lynn Andersen Lindberg, executive director of the SIU Research Park and Office of Innovation and Economic Development, explained that the survey wasnt just about taking the pulse of local businesses. The goal was to find out what concerns and problems area business owners are facing and how SIU and its economic development team can help. "The impact of this pandemic will be felt in Southern Illinois for years to come, Lindberg said. Through our Research Park, Small Business Development Center, and other economic development resources, we will work with small businesses, regional stakeholders and local governments to not only adapt to the new business and economic circumstances but also to help them innovate and thrive in the future." Companies wanting to learn more about the business services SIU offers can look online for the Illinois Small Business Development Center at SIU at https://sbdc.siu.edu/ or contact the center at 618/536-2424 or sbdc@siu.edu. Students assisted with research Applied Research Consultants, a university organization comprised of graduate students and faculty in SIUs psychology department, set up and analyzed the survey. Those involved in the project were, with hometowns: Stephen Berry, psychology doctoral candidate, Mountain Home, Arkansas. Christina Engelken, psychology doctoral candidate and project co-lead, Olathe, Kansas. Erika Kline, psychology doctoral candidate and project lead, Hagerstown, Maryland. Tanya Rajayah, psychology masters student, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Doug Sneddon, psychology masters student, Benton, Illinois. The results will be sent to stakeholders and business owners and will also be posted on the SIU Research Park website and related sites. SIU Chancellor John M. Dunn said the survey reflects the universitys commitment to serving the region and the state. The university stands ready to work with our representatives in Washington D.C., Governor JB Pritzker, the General Assembly, federal and state agencies and local community and business leaders to help businesses of all sizes successfully navigate through these unprecedented times for the betterment of our communities," Dunn said. - Floyd Mayweather was seen attending a night club on Saturday, May 23 - The retired boxer is said to have shunned coronavirus guidelines - Money Man arrived the venue without nose mask or gloves a place where social distancing was not considered There are growing concerns in Scottsdale, Arizona after legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather was spottedflouting coronavirus strict guidelines while attending a nightclub recently. Mayweather partied hard at the popular International Boutique Nightclub (INTL) on Saturday, May 23, night where it was gathered that social distancing was not considdered at all. READ ALSO: Jabo Jabo: Power couple Simon, Sarah Kabu proudly show off newborn daughter READ ALSO: Zari Hassan supports ex Diamond's song, posts video of daughter dancing to it INTL posted a clip of the unbeaten star on their Instagram, captioned: "Floyd Mayweather in the building." Although Doug Ducey, the governor of Arizona, had lifted some of the restrictions on May 11, he ordered that social distancing must however be adhered to. He also reiterated that bars and related hangout points must remain closed until further notice as official coronavirus statistics in the state have it that there were 431 new cases that day, while the state's death toll stands at 799. READ ALSO: Creative couple forced to reduce wedding guests from 2,500 to 15 because of COVID-19 READ ALSO: Vita dhidi ya CIVID-19: Museveni asema kila mwananchi kuanzia miaka 6 atapewa maski bila malipo Mayweather was seemingly unfazed by the continuing threat of the virus however, as he joined other party goers by ignoring social distancing advice and failing to wear a face mask or gloves. Meanwhile he has reiterated his commitment not to return into the rings despite calls that he should come out of retirement to fight and also make good money. Mayweather recently responded to criticisms from UFC star Chael Sonnen and rapper 50 Cent that he is "broke". The 43-year-old retired in 2017 right after he defeated Conor McGregor in the 10th round of their fight. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. My life is in danger, get me out of Saudi Arabia- Sheila Andalo | Tuko TV Source: TUKO.co.ke UPDATE: 9:45 P.M. WEDNESDAY, MAY 27: Peter Manfredonia was found and taken into custody in Maryland. *** Law enforcement asked the public on Tuesday to keep an eye out for a vehicle they say was stolen in the area of Pennsylvania where Peter Manfredonia was last sighted over the weekend. Manfredonia is wanted in connection with two Connecticut homicides, a kidnapping, home invasion and a serious assault in a spree that began Friday. Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Anthony Petroski said a black Hyundai Santa Fe with Pennsylvania license plate KYW-1650 was stolen around 9 p.m. Monday. Petroski said it is not confirmed that Peter Manfredonia stole the vehicle, but it was taken from the area where he was last seen. Petroski urged residents to report any sightings of Manfredonia or the Santa Fe to 911. Troopers were able to determine that Manfredonia was dropped off by an Uber in front of the East Stroudsburg Walmart, Pennsylvania State Police said in a Tuesday news release. Through interviews with the driver and recovered security camera footage, troopers were able to determine that Manfredonia walked behind Walmart and other businesses onto a set of train tracks. When he was caught on the surveillance footage, Pennsylvania State Police said, Manfredonia was still in possession of a duffel bag full of guns he stole from a home invasion in Connecticut. Pennsylvania State Police said they believe Manfredonia does not have ties to the area. The FBI joined Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania state police in the search for the 23-year-old Newtown High School grad and University of Connecticut student on Monday. It all started on May 22, Manfredonia allegedly attacked two men in upstate Connecticut. Theodore DeMers was killed during the incident in Willington. The other victim was initially critically injured, but was in stable condition by Tuesday, Connecticut law enforcement officials said. Manfredonia is also accused of killing Nicholas Eisele, who is also a 2015 Newtown High grad, in his Derby home on May 24. Police described Eisele as an acquaintance of Manfredonia, who is also accused of kidnapping the mans girlfriend before releasing her unharmed later that day in New Jersey. Police say Manfredonia walked to Eiseles home after crashing a truck he had stolen in a home invasion earlier on May 24 in Willington. Police said there Manfredonia held a man captive, stealing guns, food and supplies, but did not harm him. As seen in this artist's concept, the SHERLOC instrument is located on the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Mars is a long way from 221B Baker Street, but one of fiction's best-known detectives will be represented on the Red Planet after NASA's Perseverance rover touches down on Feb. 18, 2021. SHERLOC, an instrument on the end of the rover's robotic arm, will hunt for sand-grain-sized clues in Martian rocks while working in tandem with WATSON, a camera that will take close-up pictures of rock textures. Together, they will study rock surfaces, mapping out the presence of certain minerals and organic molecules, which are the carbon-based building blocks of life on Earth. SHERLOC was built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which leads the Perseverance mission; WATSON was built at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. For the most promising rocks, the Perseverance team will command the rover to take half-inch-wide core samples, store and seal them in metal tubes, and deposit them on the surface of Mars so that a future mission can return them to Earth for more detailed study. SHERLOC will be working with six other instruments aboard Perseverance to give us a clearer understanding of Mars. It's even helping the effort to create spacesuits that will hold up in the Martian environment when humans set foot on the Red Planet. Here's a closer look. The Power of Raman SHERLOC's full name is a mouthful: Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals. "Raman" refers to Raman spectroscopy, a scientific technique named after the Indian physicist C.V. Raman, who discovered the light-scattering effect in the 1920s. "While traveling by ship, he was trying to discover why the color of the sea was blue," said Luther Beegle of JPL, SHERLOC's principal investigator. "He realized if you shine a light beam on a surface, it can change the wavelength of scattered light depending on the materials in that surface. " This effect is called Raman scattering. Scientists can identify different molecules based on the distinctive spectral "fingerprint" visible in their emitted light. An ultraviolet laser that is part of SHERLOC will allow the team to classify organics and minerals present in a rock and understand the environment in which the rock formed. Salty water, for example, can result in the formation of different minerals than fresh water. The team will also be looking for astrobiology clues in the form of organic molecules, which among other things, serve as potential biosignatures, demonstrating the presence life in Mars' ancient past. An engineering model of SHERLOC, one the instruments onboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Located on the end of the rover's robotic arm, SHERLOC will help determine which samples to take so that they can be sealed in metal tubes and left on the Martian surface for future return to Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech "Life is clumpy," Beegle said. "If we see organics clumping together on one part of a rock, it might be a sign that microbes thrived there in the past." Nonbiological processes can also form organics, so detecting the compounds isn't a sure sign that life formed on Mars. But organics are crucial to understanding whether the ancient environment could have supported life. A Martian Magnifying Glass When Beegle and his team spot an interesting rock, they'll scan a quarter-sized area of it with SHERLOC's laser to tease out the mineral composition and whether organic compounds are present. Then WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) will take close-up images of the sample. It can snap images of Perseverance, too, just as NASA's Curiosity rover uses the same cameracalled the Mars Hand Lens Imager on that vehiclefor science and for taking selfies. But combined with SHERLOC, WATSON can do even more: The team can precisely map SHERLOC's findings over WATSON's images to help reveal how different mineral layers formed and overlap. They can also combine the mineral maps with data from other instrumentsamong them, PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) on Perseverance's robotic armto see whether a rock could hold signs of fossilized microbial life. Meteorites and Spacesuits Any science instrument exposed to the Martian environment for long enough is bound to change, either from the extreme temperature swings or the radiation from the Sun and cosmic rays. Scientists occasionally have to calibrate these instruments, which they do by measuring their readings against calibration targetsessentially, objects with known properties selected in advance for cross-checking purposes. (For instance, a penny serves as one calibration target aboard Curiosity.) Since they know in advance what the readings should be when an instrument is working correctly, scientists can make adjustments accordingly. In this test image by SHERLOC, an instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, each color represents a different mineral detected on a rock's surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech About the size of a smartphone, SHERLOC's calibration target includes 10 objects, including a sample of a Martian meteorite that traveled to Earth and was found in the Oman desert in 1999. Studying how this meteorite fragment changes over the course of the mission will help scientists understand the chemical interactions between the planet's surface and its atmosphere. SuperCam, another instrument aboard Perseverance, has a piece of Martian meteorite on its calibration target as well. While scientists are returning fragments of Mars back to the surface of the Red Planet to further their studies, they're counting on Perserverance to gather dozens of rock and soil samples for future return to Earth. The samples the rover collects will be exhaustively studied, with data taken from the landscape in which they formed, and they'll include different rock types than the meteorites. Next to the Martian meteorite are five samples of spacesuit fabric and helmet material developed by NASA's Johnson Space Center. SHERLOC will take readings of these materials as they change in the Martian landscape over time, giving spacesuit designers a better idea of how they degrade. When the first astronauts step on to Mars, they might have SHERLOC to thank for the suits that keep them safe. About the Mission Perseverance is a robotic scientist weighing about 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms). The rover's astrobiology mission will search for signs of past microbial life. It will characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. No matter what day Perseverance launches during its July 17-Aug. 11 launch period, it will land at Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through the agency's Artemis lunar exploration plans. Explore further NASA's Perseverance rover spacecraft put in launch configuration When Dilshod Nurmatov left his home in Russia to pay a brief visit to his elderly parents in Tajikistan in March, the Tajik migrant worker had no idea it was the beginning of tragedy and turmoil for him and his family. My wife was due to give birth in May, so I wanted to be back home in Russia in two weeks to help her in the last months of the pregnancy, Nurmatov told RFE/RL. Just days after Nurmatov arrived in his native village of Faizbor, in Tajikistan's southern Khatlon Province, first Russia and then Tajikistan closed their borders and canceled international flights due to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, in Moscows northwestern outskirts, where Nurmatovs family is based in the town of Khimki, his wifes health began to rapidly deteriorate. I didnt know how to help my wife. I would just talk to her on the phone and see her suffering, Nurmatov says. The couples three children -- aged between 8 and 14 -- were being looked after by Nurmatovs brother and some neighbors. Nurmatov pleaded with Tajik authorities to help him return to Russia, but with closed borders and suspended travel, he says, no one was able to help. RFE/RL's Coronavirus Crisis Archive Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region. Nurmatovs wife, Gulshan, gave birth prematurely to a baby boy on April 21, but she remained in the hospital due to complications from a health condition she had suffered before. Gulshan tragically died in the hospital on May 4 and was buried in a Khimki cemetery. Nurmatov was sent a video of his wifes funeral, which was attended by a handful of relatives. My wifes death came as a complete shock because she wasnt sick when I left, Nurmatov says. I wouldnt have traveled anywhere had she been ill. Nurmatov explains that his wife was diagnosed with a kidney disease last year but it wasnt a severe, acute illness and everything seemed under control. Bittersweet Reunion Nurmatov, who has a residency permit in Russia, finally returned to Khimki on May 19 with special permission granted by Russian authorities despite the strict lockdown in the country, which has recently experienced an explosion of coronavirus infections. The Tajik migrant was the only passenger on the Tajik Air flight that arrived in Moscow to repatriate more than 200 Tajik citizens from Russia, a host country for many hundreds of thousands of Tajik migrant workers. I didnt know how to help my wife. I would just talk to her on the phone and see her suffering." Russian officials made an exception to allow Nurmatov because of his compelling family situation, said Tajik Ambassador Imomuddin Sattori. RFE/RL spoke with Nurmatov again on May 24, when the grieving family was marking their first Eid al-Fitr -- the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- without the childrens mother. Me and my daughter Sevara and sons Sherzod and Ibrohim had a meal together, Nurmatov says. It was nothing like before when we gathered with other Tajik families in Khimki for a large, happy Eid feast. It will never be the same again [without my wife]. Nurmatov also mentions bittersweet moments of happiness. My children said they were happy and relieved to see me when I picked them up from the relatives home, he added. They were happy to come back to their own home and belongings. Nurmatov hasnt yet seen his youngest son, Muhammad Saloh, who is expected to remain in the hospital for several more days; visitors are not allowed. Nurmatov, meanwhile, is required to spend two weeks in self-quarantine at home with his elder children. 'Overwhelming Support' Once his 5-week old son is home and settled, Nurmatov says he is planning to resume his work as a driver, a job he took up after coming to Russia for the first time in 2003, at the age of 19. Like many of other families in Tajikistan -- an impoverished Central Asian country of some 9 million people -- Nurmatovs parents depended on remittances from Russia. His brothers family, who live nearby, have told Nurmatov they would take care of his children while he is at work. Relatives of Nurmatovs wife who also live in Khimki have offered help with childcare and housework. Nurmatov says his life was turned upside down by the pandemic. But if there was a silver lining amid his ordeals in recent months, it was the overwhelming support Nurmatov said he received from everyone -- from government officials and diplomats to relatives, neighbors, and complete strangers. I am grateful to officials, the media, and everyone who made my return possible, Nurmatov says. Also, Im thankful to everyone whos reaching out on social media offering help, emotional support. It keeps me going. Many Tajiks in Russia and abroad donated money to those taking care of Nurmatovs children while he was stuck in Tajikistan. Nurmatov is determined to focus on the good things in life and provide as normal and as happy a life as possible for his children as they learn to adapt to life without their mother. Written and reported by Farangis Najibullah with additional reporting by RFE/RL Tajik Service correspondent Sarvinoz Ruhulloh Digital Health ID Card 2021: How to apply, registration, benefits; all you need to know Virtual rallies to mark Modi 2.0 anniversary India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: The BJP will hold "virtual rallies" across the country and organise over 1,000 conferences online as it readies to celebrate the first anniversary of the Modi government's second term whose "historic achievements", the party said, will be written in golden letters. In a communication to state units and other senior office-bearers, BJP general secretary Arun Singh said all big state units will hold at least two virtual rallies and smaller units will hold one, adding that more than 750 people should attend each of these programmes. Supreme Court defends 'virtual courts system' during pandemic, says it ensured justice There will also be 1,000 conferences using internet, he said. The spread of coronavirus, which has resulted in lockdown and ban on political meetings, has prompted the BJP to resort to using technology to mark the first anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's second term. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News It had taken office on May 30 last year. The party described Modi as the world's "most popular leader" and said his government in the first year has fulfilled people's decades-long aspirations and dreams. The events organised by the party to mark the day will begin on May 30 and may continue for a month, sources said. The year has been full of "historic achievements", the party said in the communication, listing nullification of Article 370, which had given the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir special powers, and the law against triple talaq among its successes. The path to the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya has also been cleared, it said. "All these achievements will be written in golden letters in history," it said. The party has asked its members to inform the masses about Modi government's work to combat COVID-19 and told them to carry a letter penned by the Prime Minister about his resolve to make 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' to 10 crore families. The letter also carries the Prime Minister's suggestions about combating the coronavirus infection and what India has done so far. Party members have been asked to share the highlights of the Rs 20-lakh-crore package announced by the government and also told to distribute sanitisers and masks among the masses on the occasion. Any residential or commercial architect, landscape architect, home builder, interior designer, home designer, etc., that needs the extra boost that a full-scale marketing and PR team can provide... were here and were ready to help you grow your business... Today the Modern Architecture + Design Society (MA+DS) has announced the launch of their full-scale marketing and public relations service, MA+DS Agency. Available to architects, landscape architects, home builders, home designers, and interior designers, the new MA+DS Agency offers decades of experience in marketing and public relations to help small to mid-sized firms grow their digital presence, media exposure and overall business. Based in Austin, Texas, the Modern Architecture + Design Society was founded by James Leasure in 2010 as Modern Home Tours to evangelize modern architectural and living concepts to the world. The Modern Home Tour series features carefully selected architects, builders, designers, and homes to present visitors with a unique experience that educates and inspires as much as it impresses. The annual self-guided home tours take place in dozens of cities across the continent and showcase some of the most exciting examples of residential modern architecture and design being built today. The new Modern Architecture + Deign Society Agency is both the next logical step for the group as well as a response to COVID-19. Founder James Leasure says: Because all live events have been cancelled or postponed due to the ongoing health crisis, weve finally had the time to check off some of those boxes that have been waiting for quite a while! Without multiple events to plan and host each month, we have had the extra, necessary time it takes to launch a new service that allows our tour partners to leverage our ongoing expertise in media outreach, content, and SEO development with a laser focus on our specific industry. The new MA+DS Agency utilizes decades of combined experience in digital and traditional marketing and public relations, plus over 10 years of successfully promoting and hosting architecture and design events across the USA and Canada, to create a plan that will help architects, builders, and designers grow their business with increased exposure online and in the media. We are incredibly excited to offer this service to any residential or commercial architect, landscape architect, home builder, interior designer, home designer, etc., that needs the extra boost that a full-scale marketing and PR team can provide but have not yet had -or no longer have- the resources to move forward with and implement, says Vice President Ken Shallcross. Were here and were ready to help you grow your business as the world slowly returns to a sense of normalcy. For more information on the new MA+DS Agency and to inquire about services, visit: http://mads.media/agency About the Modern Architecture + Design Society: Based in Austin, Texas, the Modern Architecture + Design Society was founded by James Leasure in 2010 as Modern Home Tours, to introduce modern architecture and living to people across the nation. Through fun and informative self-guided home tours in dozens of cities across the USA and Canada, the group invites people into some of the most exciting examples of modern architecture and design in the nation. With carefully selected architects, neighborhoods and architecture, the MA+DS Home Tours are unlike anything youve ever seen. Not only will you learn about the cutting edge of home design while on our tours, but you might even get an idea or two for your next home project. In 2020, MA+DS launched The Agency, a full-scale SEO, Marketing and Public Relations Agency to help Architects, Builders, and Designers increase exposure and business in their area. Tenma Vietnam Co. Ltd in Que Vo District, Bac Ninh Province, in northern Vietnam. Photo by VnExpress/Ba Do. Several tax and customs officials in Bac Ninh Province will be suspended for 15 days pending investigations into bribery allegations made in Japan. The decision was made at the request of Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung to the General Department of Taxation and the General Customs Department Tuesday, following reports that a Japanese plastic company paid the officials $215,000 in bribes. Members of the tax and customs teams that inspected imports by Tenma Vietnam, which has operated in the northern province since 2007, and senior officials responsible for setting up the two teams are subject to the suspension order. Among the suspension list are head of Bac Ninh's Customs Department and deputy head of the province's Tax Department. On Monday, the finance ministry began probing recent reports in some Japanese newspapers, including Asahi, that Tenma had bribed Vietnamese officials on two occasions - in 2017 and last year. An Asahi report said that Tenma representatives on April 1 confessed to prosecutors in Tokyo that its subsidiary Tenma Vietnam in June 2017 had imported a batch of molds and Vietnamese officials demanded a value-added tax of JPY1.8 billion ($16.7 million). To avoid this obligation, the CEO of Tenma Vietnam, which is based in the northern province of Bac Ninh, paid a senior customs official VND2 billion (JPY10 million or about $86,000) in cash. The newspaper also reported that in August last year, Bac Ninh tax authorities had asked Tenma Vietnam to pay tax dues, including corporate income tax, of JPY89 million ($826,400). It said Tenma Vietnam paid VND3 billion (JPY15 million or around $129,000) in cash to tax officials to get the dues lowered to JPY2.6 million ($24,300). On May 1, Tenma announced on its website that the CEO implicated in the bribery would announce his resignation at a shareholders meeting in June. The company is being investigated for bribing foreign officials and violating unfair competition laws in Japan. To Lam, Vietnam's Minister of Public Security, said Tuesday that Vietnam was cooperating with Japan on the investigation. "The information of Tenma bribing Vietnamese officials came from Japan, so we need international coordination to investigate this case," Lam said on the sidelines of a parliament session in Hanoi. Representatives from Bac Ninhs People Committee, the highest executive body in the province, said Tuesday that a preliminary review by local police has not showed any abnormal signs. Tenma Vietnam continues to operate normally at the Que Vo Industrial Zone in Bac Ninh. Company representatives told local media that all of its senior officials are either away from the province or still in Japan. NAIROBI, Kenya, May 26, 2020 (Morning Star News) Unable to return to her home in western Uganda due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Rehema Kyomuhendo was in the eastern part of the country when she first heard about Christ. In March, Kyomuhendo who is 24 but slight in stature and looks much younger had accompanied her father, a sheikh (Muslim teacher) on a business trip from Mbarara District to Mbale District, 492 kilometers (305 miles) away. She began listening to Christian programing aired on an FM radio station. They were still at her aunts house in Nawuyo village, Mbale District, on May 4 when at 10 p.m. she called a business friend of her fathers whom she knew to be a Roman Catholic. She explained to me about Christ and the way of salvation, and I got convicted and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, Kyomuhendo told Morning Star News by phone. As she was sharing Christ with me, I was so overjoyed, and my father heard my joy and woke up, came from his bedroom furiously and started beating me up with blows, slaps and kicks. Her father, Sheikh Hussein Byaruhanga Husain of Mbarara District, shouted at his 45-year-old sister who was sleeping in another room, telling her that his daughter had converted to Christianity and that therefore he was going to kill her, Kyomuhendo said. He quickly broke a jerrican, lit the pieces with its remaining fuel and began burning her, a source who spoke with Kyomuhendo told Morning Star News. Kyomuhendo screamed for help, and her aunt got out of bed and shielded her from her father, the source said. She carried her outside of the room together with a Christian neighbor who arrived, the source said. The neighbor arranged for a taxi-van that took her to a hospital, and she got immediate treatment. Kyomuhendo is expected to remain at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital more than a month with serious burns on her leg, stomach, rib area, near her neck and on part of her back, he said. Please pray for Kyomuhendo for a quick recovery on her hospital bed, the source said. Kyomuhendo and the neighbor have not reported the assault to police for fear that her father might try kill her, he said. The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented. Ugandas constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate ones faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Ugandas population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/? Article originally published by Morning Star News. Used with permission. Photo courtesy: Pixabay The COVID-19 pandemic has turned all of our lives upside down. Even if youre fortunate enough to be healthy, this time period is not without its mental and emotional challenges. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor at Retreat Behavioral Health, which has a treatment center in Ephrata, not only do I see these challenges when treating patients, but Ive dealt with my own personal struggles with grief. The past two months have been a roller coaster with major highs -- having a baby, -- and major lows -- my grandmother and pet dog passing away within weeks of each other. While having a baby is certainly a reason to celebrate, that doesnt mean I havent felt moments of intense sadness. Although, my grandmother did not die of COVID-19, the pandemic has certainly affected the way my family and I could mourn. Normally, we would sit shiva, a Jewish tradition where family members and close friends gather to grieve their loved one for a week. Given the need for social distancing, that was just not possible during the pandemic. Additionally, we could not attend a funeral. When you cannot observe these significant rituals, it can make it more challenging to go through the natural grieving process, which can sometimes lead to delayed onset grief. Its also possible to experience grief for reasons other than the death of a loved one. Perhaps youre a college student that wont get to celebrate your graduation with a ceremony or youre grieving the loss of a relationship. Even the loss of freedom you might be feeling as a result of the pandemic can make it tough to cope. The important thing to remember during this Mental Health Awareness Month is that grief can turn into mental illness if left untreated. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help alleviate the pain. Here are a few professional recommendations: Stay Connected: While experts use the term social distancing, what we really want to convey is physical distancing. This means that even if you cant see your loved ones in-person, you can still connect with them. Whether you prefer video chats or talking on the phone, it can feel very cathartic to talk about the pain youre experiencing with a friend or family member. Honor your Loved One : If you are mourning the death of a loved one, it can also be therapeutic to honor them with certain rituals. If they had a favorite meal, try making it. Did they love a certain book or movie? Read it or watch it. Even looking at pictures of them or wearing their favorite color can help you feel connected to their memory. Practice Self-Compassion: Its important to acknowledge that this is a tough time for everyone, but especially for anyone grieving. Dont be so hard on yourself. Accept that it may take a while but you will get through this. Remain Physically Active: Exercise increases your endorphins, which are known as our happy chemicals. They also reduce stress. Having a mood-booster like this can keep your body and mind healthy. Reach Out to a Mental Health Professional: There is no shame in asking for help. A therapist can help you work through your feelings and develop healthy coping mechanisms. Now that many are offering telemedicine, its easier than ever to get an appointment. I hope that people realize just how normal it is to be grieving right now and that theres no reason to feel ashamed. With this in mind, Retreat Behavioral Health will host a grief webinar focusing on the mental and emotional challenges facing our children right now. Parents can join me for this important discussion on Thursday, June 4th at 1 p.m. For more information, visit https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6916124258554239501 . By Liza Piekarsky, LMHC, CAP, NCC, Retreat Behavioral Health. NEW HAVEN U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said New Haven would get more than $250 million over two fiscal years from the Heroes Act that the U.S. House has passed, but is stalled in the Senate. Blumenthal, in a press conference outside City Hall Tuesday, said cities and towns across the country need the money to cover the unanticipated costs of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Every cent of it is necessary to compensate for the additional back-breaking expenses that otherwise cause increases in taxes or massive layoffs in towns and cities around the state of Connecticut, Blumenthal said. When I say layoffs I am talking about police, fire, teachers, sanitation workers, public works. We are not talking about conveniences or luxuries. We are talking about the basic necessities of government which would be severely impeded, the senator said. The Board of Alders was to vote Tuesday on a $569.1 million budget proposed by Mayor Justin Elicker that the alders Finance Committee recommended be cut by $7.1 million, which anticipates $2.5 million from Yale University on top of the $13 million the university currently voluntarily contributes. Elicker at the press conference said there will be some changes in the aldermanic proposal, but if there are significant cuts as proposed by the Finance Committee or something close to that, I find it very hard to find a path that would not include some form of cuts to personnel. The mayor previously had said that furloughs are an option, but dont generate much savings. He said he already has cut positions in the police and fire departments, while the school board also has made cuts. Together, those three areas represent the largest number of employees. Elicker also has said he cant cut from debt service, health care or pensions, which leaves a much small number of departments from which to find savings. Blumenthal said New Haven would be eligible for $181.8 million in assistance this year under the Heroes Act, with $90.3 million in fiscal 2021. He said Norwalk would qualify for $41 million; Bridgeport, $163 million; and Hartford, $171 million. Health Director Maritza Bond reported that she only got one complaint over the weekend of people violating safety rules, such as the requirement for wearing masks and social distancing. She said staff at a drive-through fast-food restaurant on Whalley Avenue were not wearing masks until she contacted the manager to tell him to remedy that. In other news, the city will install a pop-up testing site on the New Haven Green across from City Hall where personnel from Murphy Medical Associates will conduct free COVID-19 tests. The city is increasingly telling all residents to get testing, including those who are asymptomatic, which is necessary to know the full extent of the infection rate in New Haven. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577 The World Health Organization is worried Africa could face a "silent epidemic" if its leaders do not prioritise testing of coronavirus, an official is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. My first point for Africa, my first concern, is that a lack of testing is leading to a silent epidemic in Africa. So we must continue to push leaders to prioritise testing, special envoy Samba Sow is reported to have told a news conference on Monday. There have been almost 3,400 deaths and almost 115,000 infections across Africa according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control - so far much lower rates than in parts of Europe and the US. Source: bbc Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video 1. Yes. Too many kids are staying home. They need a virtual learning option to keep up. 2. Yes. Teachers are out sick and subs cant handle the load. Online learning is needed. 3. No. Its too late in the school year to make a wholesale switch in teaching platforms. 4.No. Many parents arent in a position to stay home while their kids learn virtually. 5. Unsure. It may seem like a good idea from a health standpoint, but it has shortcomings. Vote View Results A supermom with 16 children has revealed her grueling quarantine regime to keep her 'crazy' household under control during the COVID-19 lockdown. Doris Phillips, 38, and her disabled veteran husband William, 42, are raising their giant brood on a shoestring budget in a four bedroom home with no backyard in Indianapolis, Indiana. But with coronavirus sparking a nationwide lockdown, the family has been holed up together around-the-clock. The only time tireless Doris has left their home is to embark on $1,000 grocery shopping trips to Costco where she stocks up on essentials for their children Jason, 19; Nicole, 18; Sophia, 16; Zander, 13; Sage, 12; Lance, 11; Kristella, 10; Giscella, nine; Liezella, six; Adeiric, seven; William, seven; Asreella, five; Adderin, four; Aleric, three; Viella, one; and Abella, seven months. The three oldest children are from Doris' previous relationship. 'The virus has forced my family to change our routine which has at times been completely crazy, exhausted Doris admitted to DailyMail.com. Doris Phillips, 38, and her disabled veteran husband William, 42, are raising their 16 children in a four bedroom home with no backyard in Indianapolis, Indiana. But with coronavirus sparking a nationwide lockdown, the family has been holed up together around-the-clock The couple, who married in 2011, share children Jason, 19; Nicole, 18; Sophia, 16; Zander, 13; Sage, 12; Lance, 11; Kristella, 10; Giscella, nine; Liezella, six; Adeiric, seven; William, seven; Asreella, five; Adderin, four; Aleric, three; Viella, one; and Abella, seven months. Pictured: Some of the couple's children William and Doris (pictured) got married on April 17, 2011 after meeting by chance at a Las Vegas hotel in 2005. And amazingly the amorous couple is considering having even more babies, despite pawning their wedding rings just to make ends meet Doris explained: 'They are up at 7am and if you dont get into the bathroom earlier and brush your teeth youll never get in there. Our day starts early and ends usually at midnight' She continued: 'When lockdown first happened it was chaos because the schools suddenly closed and we were trying to do home schooling. 'The kids are up at 7am and when they had no school to go to, they were running around like wild little deer. 'The only break I have is when I am wheeling two shopping carts around the supermarket and getting food for the family and even then people are giving me funny looks because they think I am hoarding. If only they knew how many children I have.' Before quarantine Doris and William were already spending at least 15 hours a day caring for their family with military precision to master family meals, schoolwork, endless hospital visits, bath times and family outings. But that routine ended in mid-March when states forced families to isolate. Doris explained: 'They are up at 7am and if you dont get into the bathroom earlier and brush your teeth youll never get in there. Our day starts early and ends usually at midnight. 'Weve been trying to keep them busy with home schooling and various projects, including making crafts and coloring in books. 'Things have improved over the past few weeks but its been tough with the children not being allowed outside.' The tireless mom manages to occasionally get out of the house for a 30 minute run for her 'own alone time' but insisted she 'would not change it for the world'. Her never-ending schedule would leave most in a frenzy but the adoring matriarch, who is of Nicaraguan descent, says she relies on loads of lavender oil and her love of Salsa music to help her stay sane. The only time tireless Doris has left their home is to embark on $1,000 grocery shopping trips to Costco. She said: 'The only break I have is when I am wheeling two shopping carts around the supermarket and getting food for the family and even then people are giving me funny looks because they think I am hoarding. If only they knew how many children I have' Lunch takes the form of a 'commercial buffet', which includes oversized dishes of mac and cheese, spaghetti, hot dogs, peanut butter sandwiches, rice and even more scrambled eggs While their average dinner takes a staggering two hours to cook and consists of 17 chicken legs, a giant industrial size bag of corn or beans and a mountain of mash potato And amazingly the amorous couple is considering having even more babies, despite pawning their wedding rings just to make ends meet. Doris said: 'We have a huge family, but I would not change a thing. It is a never-ending job and it can get stressful at times. 'It costs a lot of money to have such a large family and we live off military benefits, so we are always struggling to make ends meet. It is tough. 'We have to rely on our wits to get by and be very careful with the small amount of money we have. 'I would say the key to success is patience and organization. But what really keeps me sane is the church, lavender oil and Salsa music. 'I love Latin music, as it is a big part of my heritage, and whenever I put it on all the stress I might be feeling simply melts away.' An average breakfast for the gigantic family consists of 24 eggs, 3lbs of bacon, three loaves of bread and two big boxes of pancake mix. Lunch takes the form of a 'commercial buffet', which includes oversized dishes of mac and cheese, spaghetti, hot dogs, peanut butter sandwiches, rice and even more scrambled eggs. While their average dinner takes a staggering two hours to cook and consists of 17 chicken legs, a giant industrial size bag of corn or beans and a mountain of mash potato. 'With quarantine we make sure myself or my husband is in control of it otherwise we would spend six hours cleaning up if we let the younger kids help themselves. There would be pancake mix on the walls and ceiling,' Doris said. However, as the family only has two bathrooms, the most taxing time of day is bathing, which has become a precise military operation orchestrated by William. Doris said: 'We have a huge family, but I would not change a thing. It is a never-ending job and it can get stressful at times. It costs a lot of money to have such a large family and we live off military benefits, so we are always struggling to make ends meet. It is tough' When the oldest kids are helping to prepare breakfast, William marches the youngest six children into two separate bathtubs. Then the four middle children double up in each of the two showers before the eldest kids take turns to use the bathroom once they have finished making breakfast When the oldest kids are helping to prepare breakfast, William marches the youngest six children into two separate bathtubs. Then the four middle children double up in each of the two showers before the eldest kids take turns to use the bathroom once they have finished making breakfast. Logistics around the house aren't the only issue for the Phillips family. Due to health issues with the young children and because Doris has been pregnant continuously for the last 18 years, the family spend half their time at the hospital. Birthdays are another gargantuan task for Doris and William, having to celebrate at least one every month of the year except for November. In August alone, they have four birthdays to commemorate and, hilariously, they have become so laborious, they just have a single cupcake to mark the occasion. Doris added: 'When we cook breakfast it is like feeding a little platoon. It can get crazy. We whip up pancakes like we are working in IHOP. And we pretty much do that every single morning, it is a lot. 'Dinner takes even longer, for example, we have to cook 17 pieces of chicken and that takes a very long time. 'Sometimes we grill but at least when it is cooking in the oven, it gives me a few minutes to sit down and take a breather. The family receives about $5,000 a month in veteran disability benefits after William developed severe blood clots as a result of inoculations, which he took while in the military. At times, the Phillips family have been so hard up they have relied on charitable handouts and their crafty ingenuity just to get by. Doris and William even pawned their wedding rings so they could buy baby wipes for half a year Doris and William share one of the rooms with two of their kids while each other room is occupied by four of the children who sleep in bunk beds That means William only has $294 to spend on each family member per month, which astonishingly also has to include the rent and all their bills. At times, the Phillips family have been so hard up they have relied on charitable handouts and their crafty ingenuity just to get by. Doris and William even pawned their wedding rings so they could buy baby wipes for half a year. Doris and William share one of the rooms with two of their kids while each other room is occupied by four of the children who sleep in bunk beds. While the living room has been turned into an 'internet cafe' with ten laptops laid out so the kids can all get on with their schoolwork. William even canceled their cable subscription so they could afford a high speed internet connection to allow all the family to connect online at the same time. Doris added: 'We don't have much space in our house but we make it work. 'You might think it is always frantic here, but the kids love each other, and we are all very respectful of each other's space. 'Don't get me wrong, it can still be crazy one minute one kid might be swallowing a crayon, the next minute one might be falling over while another one of my children is stuck up a tree but that is all part of the fun. Incredibly Doris manages to spend three hours a night studying when the children have been put to bed. She is trying to earn a Bachelors Degree in psychology from a university. But for now, she is content on living her super-sized daily life Due to health issues with the young children and because Doris has been pregnant continuously for the last 18 years, the family spend half their time at the hospital 'We have special fold away beds in the kid's rooms so we can capitalize on the space. 'When we aren't trying to organize everyone or go on one of our many doctor's visits, we are just like an average family. 'We love to sit around the TV and watch a film while eating popcorn. But let me tell you we have to buy a huge bag of popcorn.' The Phillips family is so big that William, who is originally from New Jersey, carries around a list of his kid's names, so he doesn't forget them and is forced to transport his clan in an old airport shuttle. William and Doris got married on April 17, 2011 after meeting by chance at a Las Vegas hotel in 2005. William believes their chance meeting was down to divine intervention after he prayed for a loving wife and a big family while 'bombs were flying over his head' as he was stationed in Fallujah, Iraq. The three oldest children are from Doris' previous relationship, though William sees them as his own and hopes to adopt them one day. He is currently at school training to become a pastor so he can provide an extra income for the family. William, who believes his wife is a 'superhero,' said: 'She is truly a blessing. I thank God every day that I have her and my kids in my life. She is one of a kind.' William and Doris got married on April 17, 2011 after meeting by chance at a Las Vegas hotel in 2005 William believes their chance meeting was down to divine intervention after he prayed for a loving wife and a big family while 'bombs were flying over his head' as he was stationed in Fallujah, Iraq The family receives about $5,000 a month in veteran disability benefits after William developed severe blood clots as a result of inoculations, which he took while in the military. That means William only has $294 to spend on each family member per month, which astonishingly also has to include the rent and all their bills He added: 'Unlike my wife, who gets by on lavender oil, I need a lot of coffee. I must go through about five pots of coffee every day. 'But you know we are so used to the routine now, that it might seem insane to others but to us, it is kind of normal. 'A lot of parents with just two kids struggle to take care of school, doctor's appointments and all those things parents have to run around doing. 'You know, some of them fall apart trying to do it all but not us. We just keep going. My military training helps me keep them all organized. Sometimes I have to put the breaks on this, sitting down, watching TV and round them all up. 'I get them out in the kitchen, with brushes in their hands and get them to help do the dishes, sweep the floor and everything else. 'Sometimes our life really is like that movie Cheaper by the Dozen, but the crazy thing is there is even more of us.' Incredibly Doris manages to spend three hours a night studying when the children have been put to bed. She is trying to earn a Bachelors Degree in psychology from a university. But for now, she is content on living her super-sized daily life. Doris added: 'We are an unusually large family but we are so thankful for our lives. We never let it get us down and we just keep on going. 'You know it is hilarious when I hear other parents complaining about looking after their two or three kids. I always chuckle to myself and think if only you know what I go through each day. 'But it is our choice and I would not change a thing. I just hope the world becomes safer soon so we can try and get some normality and routine back in our lives.' Advertisement Thousands of daytrippers across the UK ignored social distancing rules today as they headed to parks and beaches while temperatures soared to nearly 80F. A long hot day tempted Britons out of their homes and onto beauty spots as coronavirus lockdown restrictions continued to be eased. In Bournemouth the beach was packed by late afternoon in scenes replicated at popular resorts like Margate, Weymouth and Brighton that will further fuel concerns about people being unable to stay six-feet apart. It came as the chief executive of the RNLI today called on the Government to restrict access to the coast after two people died in separate incidents on the Cornish coastline on Monday. In an open letter, Mark Cowie said the lifting of lockdown restrictions in England had put the charity in an 'impossible situation' in which they had to choose whether to put lifeguards or the public at risk. He wrote that - despite warning that no lifeguards were on patrol - lifeboat crews had their busiest weekend of the year so far due to crowded beaches, hot weather and large waves. On Monday, a 17-year-old girl died after a boat capsized near Wadebridge and a man died after being pulled from the water by a member of the public in Padstow. Conditions are expected to stay warm for the whole week in the UK especially in South East England, where the mercury got up to 80F (27C) yesterday and could rise further to 82F (28C) by the weekend. It was another beautiful day at Bournemouth beach with clear blue skies and unbroken sunshine - which attracted thousands of sun-seekers Members of the public walk along a sea pool ledge today in Margate today as the easing of the coronavirus lockdown continued Botany Bay in Margate was also busy by after midday, but most people appeared to abide by social distancing rules to stay six-feet apart from other groups Bournemouth beach was very busy today - although there was slightly more space available on the sand than Bank Holiday Monday Children playing around in the shallows today at Margate Beach in Kent, while adults soak up the warmth on the sun Families brought along parasols and windbreaks to shield themselves from the elements at Bournemouth beach today - although the weather stayed warm and still A view of Bournemouth beach today from the nearby cliffs. Today the RNLI called on people to stay away from beaches until its lifeguards return A side view of Bournemouth beach today, showing crowds of thousands of people - although there was more space than yesterday Weymouth beach in Dorset today, where families and children played around in the gentle waves rolling onto the sand A dog walker passes sunbathers on Weymouth beach in Dorset today, where many people seemed to be taking care to stay apart Two people on Bournemouth beach soaking up the sun on another warm spring day across most of Britain today Conditions are expected to stay warm for the whole week in the UK especially in South East England, where the mercury got up to 80F (27C) yesterday and could rise further to 82F (28C) by the weekend. Pictured: Bournemouth beach Two women sitting in the sun on Clapham Common in south-west London today - where several bars were selling takeaway beer yesterday Two women enjoying some drinks in St James' Park, London this afternoon as lockdown measures continue to be eased in England Groups of friends chatting together on Clapham Common today, as the pleasant Bank Holiday weather continued into this week A Met Office spokesman said: 'On the whole, with the exception of a couple of blips, the week ahead is going to be largely dry with plenty of sunny spells. It's not good news if you're after rain, but other than that it's good news.' Pictured: Clapham Common today A game of Frisbee goes on at Clapham Common this afternoon, while a group sip beer towards the front of the shot Locals and tourist groups have been warning visitors not to flock to seaside towns all at once amid continuing coronavirus restrictions. Pictured is Botany Bay in Margate today This photo shows most groups at Botany Bay were well spaced out - a contrast to scenes at Bournemouth beach yesterday where social distancing was made almost impossible People enjoy the hot weather today on Clapham Common as people are being reminded to practice social distancing during the good weather Friends sitting together in the sun on London Fields in east London today as people took advantage of being able to go outside as much as they want A map looks at his phone on London Fields while others lounge around on the grass amid continuing warm weather this afternoon Londoners enjoying the sunshine in St James' Park today. Beauty spots appeared quieter than on Bank Holiday Monday Conditions are expected to stay warm for the whole week in the UK especially in South East England. Pictured are women in a park in London Traffic levels have been rising in the last few weeks as the coronavirus lockdown began to ease. Walking has seen less of a drop than public transport - which has largely been shut down, Apple data shows In London, traffic levels are still 18% lower than normal, and are roughly similar to the level from this time one week ago, according to TomTom traffic data Glasgow has just four traffic jams and an average congestion level of 11%, which is still less than normal compared to several months ago Manchester has 10% fewer traffic jams than normal. This graph shows how the number of cars on the road has been slowly growing since first thing this morning This map shows a band of heat settling over Britain, with the warmest weather concentrated in the south-east and cooling off towards the north and west The RNLI has vowed to reinstate cover on at least 15 beaches - including eight in Cornwall - 'in the next few days', but has asked the Government to restrict access this can be done. RNLI calls on government to restrict access to beaches after two Bank Holiday deaths The chief executive of the RNLI today called on the Government to restrict access to the coast after two people died in separate incidents on the Cornish coastline on Monday. In an open letter, Mark Cowie said the lifting of lockdown restrictions in England had put the charity in an 'impossible situation' in which they had to choose whether to put lifeguards or the public at risk. He wrote that - despite warning that no lifeguards were on patrol - lifeboat crews had their busiest weekend of the year so far due to crowded beaches, hot weather and large waves. On Monday, a 17-year-old girl died after a boat capsized near Wadebridge and a man died after being pulled from the water by a member of the public in Padstow. 'With thousands flocking to English beaches now lockdown restrictions have been eased, we must choose between keeping the public or our lifeguards safe,' Mr Cowie wrote. 'Safety advice and warnings will only go so far when people are desperate to enjoy some freedom after weeks of lockdown. 'As a lifesaving charity, the RNLI cannot stop people going to beaches - but the Government can - before more lives are lost around our coast this summer.' He said rolling out a lifeguard service during the pandemic was not a simple matter but the RNLI had learned of lockdown measures easing in England at the same time as the general public. The charity must work out how to do in-water rescues and give first aid, which is normally conducted at close quarters and often with people coughing up water, he said. Personal protective equipment (PPE) that works on a beach and in the water - with items such as visors and aprons inappropriate - must also be found. Lifeguards also have to be trained in procedures to reduce the risk of infection. Advertisement In an open letter published on its website, RNLI chief executive Mark Dowie wrote: 'Despite our warnings that there were no lifeguards on patrol this weekend, crowded beaches, hot weather and big waves meant our lifeboat crews had their busiest weekend so far this year. At least two people lost their lives. 'This puts the RNLI in an impossible situation. With thousands flocking to English beaches now lockdown restrictions have been eased, we must choose between keeping the public or our lifeguards safe. 'Safety advice and warnings will only go so far when people are desperate to enjoy some freedom after weeks of lockdown. As a lifesaving charity, the RNLI cannot stop people going to beaches - but the government can - before more lives are lost around our coast this summer.' But the calls for people to stay away from beaches could fall on death ears given the warm and sunny outlook for the coming days. Aside from some rain for the far north and north-west tomorrow, for the rest of the week the weather in most parts of the country will be dry, largely sunny, and very warm, according to the Met Office. A week after the relaxation of guidelines to allow people to visit beauty spots in England, the Government and the police have urged people to continue to follow social distancing guidelines. 'Please use common sense when it comes to social distancing,' the Metropolitan Police's Hillingdon branch tweeted. The temperatures in London was just under 80F at midday - the highest currently in the UK. A Met Office spokesman said: 'On the whole, with the exception of a couple of blips, the week ahead is going to be largely dry with plenty of sunny spells. It's not good news if you're after rain, but other than that it's good news. 'Today will start with odd spells but through the course of the day most of that rain will have fizzled out. It will be quite widely across the 20Cs today, with the possibility of much warmer temperatures in the South East. 'Lots of dry weather for the second half of the week with plenty of sunshine. For the weekend coming up we may even see higher than 28C. For many of us this week will be largely dry, lots of sunny spells and feeling very warm.' Tourism officials had encouraged people to 'think twice' about coming to Bournemouth beach yesterday, issuing a warning at 11am that car parks were full. Is was still busy today - pictured - but with more space to spread out Councillor Lewis Allison, Portfolio Holder for Tourism, Leisure and Communities, said: 'The advice nationally remains that people should stay at home as much as possible' (pictured: Bournemouth beach A woman takes a photo using a tripod camera on Bournemouth beach today (left) and a couple amble along the sand There should be plenty more warm days for sun-seekers to enjoy in the coming weeks. Pictured are people on Bournemouth beach today Friends enjoy a chat on Clapham Common today, which regularly attracts thousands of people on sunny days A group of women enjoy drinks from colourful plastic cups on Clapham Common this afternoon after lockdown restrictions were relaxed Plenty of people were out enjoying the sun today on Clapham Common, although the crowds were much sparser than on Bank Holiday Monday A couple sit in the shade of trees on Clapham Common this afternoon, while others choose to soak up the sun Two people walk along a path on Clapham Common carrying an ice cream today as the hot weather continued across Britain The duo walk back to shore after having fun in the sea at St Edward's Bay today - where there seemed to be plenty of room for social distancing People paddle boarding at King Edward's Bay near Tynemouth today, as the public were being reminded to practise social distancing during the good weather Day-trippers on Bournemouth beach in Dorset this afternoon, as the spring heatwave continued across most of the UK A group of swimmers head into the sea at Branksome beach in Dorset this morning on another sunny day across Britain Two joggers pass each other on a pavement at Branksome beach in Dorset today as they got in some exercise before temperatures heated up Sunrise at Mogshade Pond in The New Forest in Hampshire this morning at the start of another warm and sunny day Surfers prepare to take the water at Branksome beach on a sunny day in Dorset this morning - thankfully with plenty of room for social distancing Sunrise at Mogshade Pond in the New Forest in Hampshire this morning on another warm day for Britain Yesterday, police were called to a lido in North London amid reports of one large group gathering, while people were also warned not to overcrowd beaches as sunseekers made the most of the fine weather. Bank Holiday tragedy as teenage girl and man drown on same stretch of Cornish coastline A teenage girl and a man died on the same stretch of Cornish coastline in a Bank Holiday Monday tragedy. Officers described a 'very tough day' in Cornwall amid the two fatalities, which took place in separate incidents on yesterday afternoon. Police were first called to reports of an upturned inflatable boat in the water near Porthilly Rock in Wadebridge at around 2.25pm. Three people were rushed to hospital following the incident and a teenage girl was later pronounced dead, police said. Emergency services attended another tragedy at Treyarnon Bay, Padstow around five minutes later, when a man was pulled from the water by a member of the public. Emergency services attended a tragedy at Treyarnon Bay, Padstow (pictured) at around 2.30pm, when a man was pulled from the water by a member of the public He was pronounced dead at the scene and is yet to be identified. Officers were also called to a third incident following reports a man had been pulled from the water unconscious by surfers in Porthtowan, Truro. He was transported to hospital by helicopter in a serious condition and is currently receiving treatment. Chief Inspector Ian Thompson, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: 'These are extremely upsetting circumstances and our thoughts go out to all involved. 'It has been a very tough day for local emergency services and we are asking for anyone with information on the above incidents to contact police.' Advertisement Tourism officials had encouraged people to 'think twice' about coming to Bournemouth beach, issuing a warning at 11am that car parks were full. But the crowds continued to build and by mid-afternoon they said the beach was approaching 'maximum capacity'. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council said they were only about 10 per cent down on the number of people that came on last year's May Bank Holiday when no restrictions were in place. Councillor Lewis Allison, Portfolio Holder for Tourism, Leisure and Communities, said: 'The advice nationally remains that people should stay at home as much as possible. 'Many people were keen to get outside and enjoy the warm weather over the bank holiday weekend and whilst the vast majority of people were considerate and adhered to the social distancing guidelines, there were still far too many people coming to our beaches. 'For many of our residents the beach provides the closest outdoor space and we urge everyone to think twice about travelling to our beaches.' Yesterday, some people said they felt their decision to travel to beauty spots had been justified by Dominic Cumming's 260-mile trip to Durham during lockdown and the Prime Minister's subsequent support for his actions. Apart from crowds at beaches yesterday, long stretches of traffic were also seen at the Yorkshire Dales, while walkers were also out enjoying the grounds of Windsor Castle. While new cases and deaths from coronavirus have fallen nationally, a hospital in Somerset was forced to close this weekend due to a high number of Covid-19 patients. Weston General Hospital, in Weston-super-Mare, stopped accepting new admissions, including into its A&E department from 8am yesterday. As the hospital shut as a precautionary measure, some residents in Weston reported concern over high numbers of people enjoying a day at the seaside. Two people died in separate incidents along the Cornwall coastline after warnings RNLI lifeguards would not be able to patrol Britain's beaches. It is hoped lifeguard patrols will return to 70 beaches, which will be chosen based on risk and popularity, by peak season. Crowds of people gather on Southend seafront in Essex yesterday on a hot and sunny May Bank Holiday Monday People make their way down steps yesterday to enjoy the hot weather at Durdle Door beach in West Lulworth, Dorset People enjoy the hot weather at Bournemouth beach in Dorset yesteday amid concerns over social distancing BBQs and garden parties for friends and family 'bubbles' of 10 will get green light next month as UK lockdown edges towards the end - after Boris Johnson announced all shops will reopen within weeks By James Robinson for MailOnline Britons hoping to crack out the coals for a summer barbecue with friends and family could get the opportunity to as early as next month, it was revealed today. Small outdoor gatherings, including barbecues and garden parties, which have been banned since the start of lockdown, could be the next measures to be eased, according to reports. The proposals, said to be brought up by Boris Johnson at a cabinet meeting yesterday, could be part of a wider plan to introduce 'social bubbles' as a way of giving people more social contact during lockdown, reports the Daily Telegraph. A group of friends enjoy the hot weather at Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire, as people flocked to parks and beaches with lockdown measures eased A 'social bubble' scheme, already being used in New Zealand, which has had 21 coronavirus-related deaths compared to the UK's 37,000, would allow groups of up to 10 people to mix outdoors. Pub bosses urge government to ditch two metre social distancing rule to allow them to reopen Pub bosses are urging ministers to change social distancing rules so they can open up once again, according to reports. They want the social distancing guidelines changed from keeping people two metres apart down to one metre apart to allow them to reopen. Pubs have been shut since since lockdown began on March 23, and despite the government's initial hopes of a June reopening, may not be able to open again until July. But some pubs bosses are warning that they are too small to practically carry out social distancing, and will therefore have to remain closed. Brewery chiefs say a one-metre rule would increase the number of pubs that could open by 120 per cent, according to The Sun. Emma McClarkin, head of the British Beer and Pub Association, told the paper: 'We are all missing the great British pub. 'We are working day in, day out alongside the Government to create a safe socialising environment for our staff and customers to return to. 'Pubs with gardens should be in a great position to reopen at the earliest opportunity, and we hope that the Government will look again at revising the social distancing guidance.' Advertisement The announcement comes as Boris Johnson last night paved the way for the 'sale of the century' as he gave the go-ahead for high street businesses to reopen - with retailers expected to slash prices in order to clear their stock which has been mothballed since the coronavirus lockdown began. Meanwhile, the government is reportedly open to the idea of 'social bubbles', with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) understood to have advised top ministers that infection from Covid-19 is much less likely outdoors. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister told The Telegraph that No 10 was 'open to the idea' of social bubbles saying the Government was 'alive to the issue of social isolation and the need for mental wellbeing'. Last night, the Prime Minister gave all retail stores the green light to lift the shutters on June 15, as he attempted to bring the coronavirus-battered UK High Street back to life. Speaking at the daily Covid-19 briefing at Downing Street yesterday, he also gave the go-ahead for non-essential shops, including department stores and independent businesses, to reopen from June 15. Outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to reopen from June 1 as long as they adhere to strict social distancing guidelines. The move will provide a welcome boost for businesses forced to close in March at a huge financial cost to themselves and to the Treasury, which has spent hundreds of billions of pounds keeping them afloat and their staff paid. But the announcement came as Mr Johnson faces massive political pressure to sack his chief aide Dominic Cummings. The timing is likely to fuel suspicion among politician opponents that he has pulled this positive news out of his hat to deflect attention from the huge political fallout. The reopening is likely to spark a sales frenzy as shops try to emerge from the pandemic-induced wreckage of the economy, while consumers will be glad to leave the house. Analysts believe there could be as much as 15billion-worth of stock which needs to be sold, meaning there will be 'wall-to-wall' sales until January. But because of movement restrictions it is unlikely to be an immediate free-for-all - and hospitality businesses like pubs and restaurants will remain closed. UK and Portugal are discussing 'air corridor' between them to allow summer holidays this summer - with Algarve beaches giving designated spots to tourists to encourage social distancing By Gerard Couzens and Chris Jewers for MailOnline Portugal and Britain are in talks to try and secure an air corridor for tourists that would allow British visitors to avoid a COVID-19 quarantine upon returning home, two Portuguese sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. Britain, the main source of tourism for Portugal, will introduce a quarantine for travellers arriving from abroad from June 8 - including returning Britons. Travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days. From June 6 in Portugal, Algarve beaches will be employing restaurant-style assistants to show people to their designated spots on the beach and to enforce social distancing measures so that beach-goers can sunbathe safely. Meanwhile, Ryanair today announced plans to restart flights to destinations including Portugal and Spain from July 1. An air corridor between Britain and Portugal would allow returning British tourists to avoid the 14-day quarantine period for all entries to the country, set to go into force from June 8 One source said the talks between Britain and Portugal were still in an initial phase. Another said the government sought the air corridor both for Portuguese tourists visiting Britain and vice versa, and was hoping that Portugal's relatively low coronavirus tally compared to countries like Spain or Britain would benefit tourism. Portugal's death toll of 1,330 and total cases at 30,788 are just a fraction of neighboring Spain's nearly 27,000 dead and over 235,000 infected. Approached for a comment, the foreign ministry told Reuters that Portugal had requested additional information after the British quarantine decision. Although it would not confirm nor deny any specific talks on a corridor, said it was optimistic about finding an acceptable solution. 'Given the relevant reciprocal interests, the foreign ministry is confident that it will be possible to agree a solution that meets these interests, especially concerning the coming summer season,' it said. The tourism sector accounts for nearly 15% of Portugal's gross domestic product and was one of the main drivers of its recovery from the 2010-14 economic and debt crisis, and in 2019, more than 16 million foreign tourists visited Portugal, almost 20% of them from Britain. Portugal's tourism-dependent economy has been hard-hit by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns at home and abroad, and authorities are trying to save at least part of the crucial summer season. A man has his temperature screened at London's Heathrow Airport in a trial of equipment that could be used by airports to enable air travel in the coming months The AHP hotel association has said over 90% of Portuguese hotels remain closed after a lockdown imposed in March, expecting revenue losses of up to 1.4 billion euros between March and June. On Friday, airlines and airports were given a series of guidelines to follow to ensure that air travel is safe for passengers during the coronavirus pandemic. The guidelines, supplied by the EU's air safety body - The Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) - include rules such as having to wear masks for the duration of their journey, saying goodbye to loved ones outside the terminal and interview booth assessments of people showing signs of Covid-19. The UK's civil aviation authority are expected to introduce similar measures, paving the way for flights to resume and giving hope to British holiday makers. From June 6, beach-goers will be walked to the spot where they can lay their towel in a restaurant-style welcome on the most popular Brit beaches in Portugal. The long-standing practice of most upmarket eateries or hotels of using hostesses to guide customers and clients to breakfast and dinner tables is set to be repeated this summer on the Algarve. Authorities have made it clear tourists won't be made to wait to access beaches, but will be given the option of their expertise to help them select the best place to top up their tans and stay safe. Pictured: People enjoy the beach in Loule, Algarve, 24 May 2020. Algarve beaches are set to officially reopen on June 6 Joao Fernandes, head of the Algarve Tourism Board, said last week he was looking forward to the region being the British number one foreign holiday choice. He welcomed the beach assistance scheme today as he claimed: 'The initiative means Portugal is once again being a pioneer with regards to the balance between safety and leisure. 'These beach assistants are going to improve the experience of beachgoers, who will be received by a young and knowledgeable person. 'Tourism is an experience of people for people and despite social distancing, nothing stops us putting all our focus into a pleasant welcome of those that visit us. 'There will be additional security measures, but we don't want a beach to be a hospital. 'It's a place to enjoy holidays and where people have a right to relax.' Once the beaches in the Algarve reopen on June 6, they will be employing beach assistants to show beach-goers where they can sit and sunbathe on the beach Antonio Pina, head of the Algarve Municipalities Association which is behind the initiative, added: 'We have the obligation of conciling health guarantees with the comfort of those that visit us and the role of the beach assistants will be exactly that. 'The beaches on the Algarve will be officially open from June 6, with a series of recommendations that protect bathers and offer every possible peace of mind to those who are on holiday. 'We wanted to go a bit further by allocating to most of our beaches but especially the most popular ones, at least two assistants who would receive beachgoers, lead them to less congested areas, inform them about social distancing rules and suggest best practices while they are on the sand. 'Town halls are currently working on hiring these people. We are focusing on recruiting young people, who are trained in tourism and speak several languages, so they will be more than prepared to receive those who come to our marvellous beaches. 'They will be a type of host or concierge, if you like. They will have a relaxed and jovial profile and wear shorts and T-shirts. 'We want them to be friendly figures capable of helping beachgoers in these times of uncertainty.' The assistants will be there to ensure that people going to beaches in the Algarve are respecting social distancing rules in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus Authorities in southern Spain announced on Sunday an 'army' of 3,000 beach assistants would be hired for this summer in areas like the Costa del Sol to make sure tourists obeyed social distancing rules. But there was no indication they would offer a hostess-type service like the one that has been outlined for the Algarve region. The Spanish beach assistants will be picked from a list of people who are currently unemployed and were given the chance earlier this year to register for temporary public sector jobs as part of a regional government initiative. Nearly 600,000 people registered for seasonal work. Andalucia's president Juanma Moreno said their responsibilities would include 'guaranteeing the safety of beachgoers through surveillance and organising social distancing.' They will also be tasked with controlling access and limiting the numbers of people on the busiest beaches. Although they will not be given police powers, the regional government chief said they would be expected to inform police about incidents so officers could intervene if necessary. Describing the beach assistants as a 'huge army', he added: 'They will enable us to organise in a planned way the opening of our beaches this summer.' Pictured: Beautiful sandy beach near Lagos in Ponta da Piedade, Algarve region (stock image) one of the most popular destinations in Portugal for British tourists Mr Moreno revealed his new plans for Spain's southern beaches after the country's PM Pedro Sanchez said foreign tourists would be welcomed back from July. Mr Sanchez said in a live televised address on Saturday: 'Spain receives each year more than 80 million visitors. 'That's why I'm announcing to you that from the month of July the entry of international tourism to Spain will restart in safety. 'Foreign tourists can now start planning their holidays here.' Low cost airline Ryanair today announced plans to restart flights to destinations including Portugal and Spain from July 1. CEO Eddie Wilson said: 'After four months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by Governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines. 'Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations, for July and August before the schools return in September. 'Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from 1 July, and we have a range of low fare seat sales, perfect for that summer getaway, which we know many parents and their kids will be looking forward to as we move out of lockdown and into the school holidays.' Australia's top scientist has said exporting renewable energy is the country's biggest post-coronavirus opportunity, and that investing in gas for at least a decade is the most efficient way to get there. But Chief Scientist Alan Finkel faced pushback from former Sydney Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull, who told a limited Q+A audience the first live crowd since the pandemic began that Dr Finkel's dream of "shipping sunshine" was best realised through a battery technology revolution. Speaking alongside engineer Jordan Nguyen, anthropologist Genevieve Bell and science and technology editor Rae Johnston, Ms Turnbull and Dr Finkel clashed over Australia's pathway to net zero emissions by 2050. "We have to have a national and a global goal of having net zero carbon by 2050," Ms Turnbull said. "The way to get there is to have renewables, plus storage. Not just batteries you can have pumped hydro, and the battery technology revolution is really amongst us." By Okafor Ofiebor Half-naked and angry elderly Ogoni women on Tuesday stormed Bori town, the headquarters of Khana Local Government area to protest the continued isolation of the manager of the demolished Prodest Hotel, Dr. Bariledum Azoroh by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. The hotel manager is currently being quarantined in one of the Isolation centres in Port Harcourt after being alleged to have tested positive for Coronavirus. The women issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Rivers State Government to set free the manager of the demolished Prodest Hotel, Azoroh or they would protest totally naked. The half-naked women, who marched across the streets of Zakpo in Bori, Khana local government of River State threatened that if Azoroh (who also an Ogoni) was not released within 24 hours, that is, May 27, they would protest naked on the streets of Bori, which was not only an abomination, but a curse in Africa tradition and culture. The angry women alleged that Azoroh, who was recently declared to have contracted COVID-19 by the state government had been moved from Elekahia Isolation centre to Eleme Quarantine centre among other COVID-19 patients. The State Government, through Paulinus Nsirim, the Commissioner for Information and Communications had on Sunday, May 23, announced that the state had recorded 27 new positive Coronavirus cases, among whom was the Manager of Prodest Hotel, Eleme. Nsirim said this latest development validated the state governments proactive approach towards the fight against COVID-19. He recalled that Prodest Hotel was demolished two weeks ago because the owners violated Executive Order 7 which banned the operation of hotels. The COVID-19 Taskforce members from the Local Government who went to enforce the Executive Order were brutalized and dehumanised leading to the death of one of them, Nsirim stated. Making public the status of Azoroh by the state government has attracted condemnation from Rivers citizens. For instance, a lawyer and former Media Aide to Governor Nyesom Wike, St Franklyn Oraye, faulted and queried the Rivers State Governments declaration that Azoroh was COVID-19 positive, saying it was an abuse of the privacy of the manager. Oraye questioned: When was he tested? Why is the result being published almost two weeks after the incident? Is it not possible that he got infected after the incident? For now lets not bother about how he was infected. Who are the other infected persons? If its not political mischief, can we have a list of all tested persons and their results, especially those who work or worked for government? That should be the only justification for releasing the test result of one patient. Also, human rights activist and Executive Director, Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, rejected the report that Azoroh tested positive for COVID-19 and called for a retest. We therefore call for a re-test of the Prodest Hotel manager by an independent medical team in the presence of the media and his samples sent to multiple laboratories outside Rivers State for results comparison. We further call on NCDC to start contact tracing of all those who went to Prodest hotel for demolition on May 10, including the Police officers that arrested him, send them all to the Isolation Centre and their identities revealed after COVID-19 tests as that of Dr. Azoroh was done. While his organization believes that anyone can test positive to COVID-19, we are particularly skeptical about the results of Prodest Hotel Manager who is being persecuted, kept in poor and dehumanizing conditions, poorly fed, denied access to good medical care, his family, etc. since May 10 till date. We also call on the Rivers State Government to ensure the protection of the rights of Prodest Hotel Manager, guarantee his safety and those of others in its custody arrested and detained over alleged violations of COVID-19 Executive Orders in line with provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as Amended) and other regional and international human rights instruments ratified by Nigeria and also applicable in Rivers State, the organization demanded. Fyneface explained that our rejection of Dr. Azorohs COVID-19 status became necessary because it is evident that from the beginning of the alleged violation of Executive Order Six till date, the fate of the hotel Manager had depended on the whims and caprices of the Rivers State Government, including the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and government report that he is COVID-19 positive. Besides, Fyneface pointed out that from inception to date, the exercises of both executive and judicial powers over the hotel, its management and staff for alleged violations had remained at the mercy of the state government without an opportunity for open trial. The Organization noted that Azoroh had alleged the violations of his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights, lack of transparency in the trial process, absence of fair-hearing, denial of access to charge sheets and record of proceedings as well as legal representation on May 18 as he was convicted in the absence of his lawyer who was not granted movement permit to the court to defend his client during the total lockdown of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt City Local Government Areas. Children living in Laois and Offaly who need a disability assessment for autism and other conditions face a scandalous wait for an appointment to have their needs checked, according to Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming. The TD made the charge after getting figures from the HSE which show that 384 children in the two counties are waiting to be seen. Dep Fleming said that if a child has a disability or it is believed they may have a disability an assessment of needs can be requested. He said the Disability Act 2005 states that an assessment of need must begin within three months of a completed application being received. In a statement, he said that without an assessment of needs children are unable to access the care and supports they need. "It is scandalous that Laois and Offaly have the highest number of children, outside of Dublin, waiting for an assessment of needs appointment. The latest information shows that nationally, at the end of March, 5,083 children are overdue an assessment of needs appointment. 384 of these children are in Laois and Offaly more than double the national average. Having met with Laois-Offaly Families for Autism (LOFFA) and other disability organisations in the area it is clear disability services have not been prioritised by the Government. "It is not acceptable that any child would have to wait for an assessment of need and that is why the legislation is in place, but it is not being adhered to. "Neighbouring counties with greater populations have much smaller waiting lists so we need to see resources targeted towards Laois and Offaly to get the waiting lists down. I am calling on the Government to put in place emergency arrangements to either bring in staff from neighbouring counties to carry out assessments or else to allow families to travel to neighbouring counties to get their child assessed. There should also be assessments carried out at weekends until such time as the backlog has been cleared. The number of children in this area who are kept waiting by the Department deserve an immediate emergency response, concluded Deputy Fleming. The TD issued the statement following the release of figures to Wexford TD James Browne. Dr Cathal Morgan, Head of Operations, HSE Disability Services and Community operations replied. "It is acknowledged that the numbers of assessments overdue for completion remain high, although there had been some improvement in these figures in 2018 and 2019 prior to the COVID-19 public health emergency. "In preparing for and responding to COVID-19 and to fully align with Public Health guidance as recommended via the NPHET, the HSE and its partner service providers put in place a range of measures, which included the prioritisation of vital residential and home support services whilst curtailing or closing certain services such as day services, as well as certain clinical supports in order to; a) prioritise essential public health services at CHO level and b) ensure continued delivery of the referenced residential and home supports provision. "I should note that in the absence of regular access to some service and supports, CHOs and service providers have tried to maintain services that can be delivered safely; providing outreach and telecare solutions, using technology where possible; and using creative and innovative models of care to support service users, both adults and children. "While applications for Assessment of Need under the Disability Act continue to be accepted, the HSE acknowledges that during the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, it has not been possible for services to undertake clinical assessments while maintaining social distancing and meeting health and safety requirements. It has, therefore, been difficult to complete the assessment within the statutory timelines. "Since the publication of the Governments Roadmap for reopening Society & Business as well as the Return to work safely protocol, the HSE is finalising plans to re-establish vital non-covid supports and services. This includes very careful and detailed work on the part of the Disability Sector with national guidance and will result in directing how all funded agencies can deliver services on a medium to long-term basis. "In effect, this means that the HSE will soon set out its plans in terms of how we can safely begin to commence services, which will have to comply with guidance as set out by the National Public Health Emergency Team as well as Public Health specialists in the HSE," concluded the reply from Dr Morgan. This article is part of the Free Speech Project , a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech. The solution to online hate speech seems so simple: Delete harmful content, rinse, repeat. But David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression, says that while laws to regulate hate speech might seem promising, they often arent that effectiveand, perhaps worse, they can set dangerous precedents. This is why Frances new social media law, which follows in Germanys footsteps, is controversial across the political spectrum there and abroad. Advertisement On May 13, France passed Lutte contre la haine sur internet (Fighting hate on the internet), a law that requires social media platforms to rapidly take down hateful content. Comments that are discriminatorybased on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and religionor sexually abusive have to be removed within 24 hours of being flagged by users. Content related to terrorism and child pornography must be removed within one hour of flagging. Social media companies could face fines of up to 1.25 million euros (about $1.37 million) if they fail to remove the content on time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The law has been contentious, especially among legal experts and activists, since it was introduced back in 2018. Frances National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, for instance, didnt approve the bill, and civil liberties group such as La Quadrature du Net have criticized it for being unrealistic and potentially harmful. One of the dangers of this law is that it could turn against journalists, activists, and researchers whom it claims to defend, LQDN told CNN. The group also warned that short removal times and large fines could lead to targeted campaigns against underrepresented voices. Advertisement Advertisement Last August, Kaye penned a statement on the draft legislation that laid out many of these concerns. Like LQDN, Kaye worried that the legislation was overbroad and vague. He noted that a lack of clear definitions for extremism, discrimination, and inciting hatred could lead to arbitrary and abusive interpretations of the law. He also raised concerns that social media companies would be overzealous and inconsistent in their removal of content in fear of fines, potentially penaliz[ing] minorities while strengthening the position of dominant or powerful groups. Another concern of Kayes was the legislations privatization of the judicial functionseffectively, it delegates censorship duties to the private sector, leaving social media companies to determine what is and isnt illegal. Advertisement Advertisement The French government replied to Kayes statement (which he told me is positive in itself, since governments dont always respond), affirming the countrys commitment to freedom of expression and arguing that the bill does indeed appear to comply with human rights law. But many of Kayes concerns remain. In addition to those articulated in his letter, he fears that the law will result in considerable self-censorship, both in terms of what platforms allow on their sites and what users are willing to discuss. Hes also worried about the increased use of artificial intelligence in content moderation. Social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, already use A.I. to moderate speech, but the increased demands on these companies will further entrench the technology in their anti-hate speech and misinformation campaigns. And while A.I. can be effective in detecting imagery of, for example, terrorist attacks, dead bodies, and child pornography, we still havent developed the contextual analysis for A.I. to be able to decipher the nuances of hate speech, Kaye said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres also the issue of emboldening tech giants even further. Although the new law may appear to put restraints on major social media platforms, its actually granting censorship powers to the most highly capitalized companies, since theyre the only ones that can afford it. The paradoxical effect is to give [these] companies more power in terms of deciding whats legitimate and also giving them more power over the market to the potential hindrance of innovators, Kaye said. Advertisement Advertisement While the merits of Frances legislation were debated over the past couple of years, weve had the chance to watch another controversial hate speech law play out elsewhere in Europe. Germanys Network Enforcement Act, or NetzDG, which was approved in 2017 and went into effect the following year, is similar to Franceswith a 24-hour deadline, fines in the millions of euros, and vaguely defined transgressions. In 2018, Wenzel Michalski, Germanys director at Human Rights Watch, called NetzDG fundamentally flawed, voicing many of the same concerns as Kaye. Advertisement After NetzDG was enacted, Yascha Mounk detailed some of the laws problems and consequences in the New Republic. Extremists have found ways to sidestep the law, according to Mounk, using coded messages to convey hate. Mounk also argued that these laws actually strengthen the resolve of those on the right by helping them weave narratives of oppression. He noted that this played a role in helping the countrys far-right populist party Alternative for Germanywhich claims its being censored and bills itself as the only party with the courage to tell the truthget to the Bundestag, with 94 seats, in the fall of 2017. (Another cause for concern, Mounk wrote, is that populist authoritarians may be elected in democratic countries and misdirect these laws to deeply oppressive uses.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The European Commission asked France to wait on the legislation until the Digital Services Act, an overhaul of how the EU regulates tech companies, is introduced across Europe. The act, which is still being drafted, will replace the 20-year-old e-Commerce Directive, which currently governs online services in the EU, and it will define platforms liability for illegal or harmful content. By disregarding the European Commission and charging ahead, France may be setting a precedent for hasty speech regulation amid the coronavirus pandemic in Europe and farther afield. In fact, the hate speech legislation is the first law unrelated to COVID-19 that the countrys Lower House of Parliament has taken up since March, CNN reported, and Simon Chandler wrote in Forbes that it appears the French government has exploited concern over COVID-19 misinformation to finally get it through. Hate speech intersects with misinformation, and COVID-19 has spotlighted the harmful content swirling around on social media, spurring tech companies to implement some of their most aggressive policies on content removal to date. As fear over social media content has peaked amid the pandemicand platforms are hiring more content moderators and fact-checkersits entirely possible that other countries will see this moment as an opportunity to introduce similar legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the most troubling parts about the law and its evident drawbacks is that its so clearly well-intentioned. As the French government wrote in response to Kayes statement, the legislation aims to protect citizens against [hateful] comments, which far from conveying ideas or opinions, seek to undermine human dignity and the integrity of individuals. If regulating hate speech through such laws is unlikely to achieve this, is it even possible to address the problems of speech raised by social media platforms within the framework of international human rights law? Advertisement Advertisement Kaye, at least, believes it ishe even pointed out that France took a promising approach in 2019 when it established a presidential commission that prioritized company transparency and multistakeholder oversight in addressing hate speech. The government eventually shelved the commission, which Kaye finds baffling: They had a blueprint right in front of them, he said. Advertisement A more successful strategy, Kaye believes, requires thinking beyond whether speech is lawful or unlawful and determining what governments can restrict. It would focus instead on creating transparency and oversight standards. That might look like, for example, requiring social media companies to disclose their methods for regulating certain kinds of content, which would give governments the chance to observe and evaluate how the companies are operating before restricting speech. Or it could include having companies develop a content regulation policy that shows theyre respecting human rights before being allowed to operate in a given jurisdiction. It might also take the form of the government being regulated as well, with any content demands from the government going through a court or an independent administrative agency. The possibilities are there, Kaye said, but governments just arent looking for themor, in Frances case, theyve looked them in the eye and then ignored them. There are so many interesting, innovative, but human rightssensitive approaches that governments are just not taking on board, he said. Its kind of a failure of imagination. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The world economy is showing signs of flickering back to life as lockdown restrictions are eased, allowing some activity to resume. Japan ended its state of emergency and reopened some flights, Madrid and Barcelona have begun lifting some restrictions in Spain, and ferries, cafes and restaurants are back in service in Greece. Together with stronger economic data in Germany, these all point to a degree of revival around the world, which could indicate the worst of the economic crunch is now in the past. Rush hour in Tokyo is starting to resemble life before the pandemic. Credit:AP German businesses are increasingly confident about their future prospects, raising hopes that the return to a degree of normal life will restore the fortunes of the eurozone's biggest economy. Sentiment increased this month in the services, manufacturing and export industries, as well as among exporters, according to the influential Ifo survey. (Natural News) Masks and ventilators have been in short supply at various points during the coronavirus pandemic, but a recent incident involving dangerous ventilators illustrates just how important it is to choose medical supply sources carefully. In early April, a shipment of 45 Russian Aventa-M ventilators was sent to FEMA officers in New York from Russia following a phone call between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Because New York and New Jersey were scrambling to prepare for a big wave of very ill patients at the time, a few corners were cut when it came to FDA approval. While its true that the FDA has implemented an emergency protocol that enables the distribution of ventilators without losing time putting them through the traditional time-consuming approval processes, these ventilators didnt even get the FDAs expedited Emergency Use Authorization, or EUA. New rules allow the use of ventilators in the U.S. without an EUA while the FDA works to get the necessary authorizations, and the Aventa-M ventilators were distributed under this policy. The ventilators have now been linked to hospital fires in Russia that killed six people. In one incident, a fire killed one person in a Moscow hospital and caused the evacuation of hundreds of patients. In another, a fire broke out in a St. Petersburg intensive care unit, killing five COVID-19 patients who had been on ventilators and prompting the evacuation of 150 more patients. Some hospital sources said they believed the fire may have been caused by a ventilator short-circuiting. Doctors were quoted by Russias NTV as saying that a ventilator exploded and caused the ward to fill with smoke, which suffocated patients. Thankfully, they Russian ventilators never ended up being used in the U.S. as the hospitals in question ended up not needing as many of the devices as expected. Instead, they were being held in reserve in case the situation got worse. Moreover, one New Jersey health official said that the ventilators used an incompatible type of electrical voltage. The 15 ventilators that went to New Jersey were recalled by FEMA, while New York returned its 30 Russian ventilators in mid-May. Russian investigators are looking into whether criminal negligence was involved in the incidents there, possibly in the design of the ventilator itself or in the fire precautions used by the hospital. As for whether or not the ventilators will be used, a FEMA spokesperson told CNBC: The conclusion(s) of the investigation being conducted by Russian authorities into the fire in St. Petersburg will help inform our decision regarding any future use of the ventilators. Are we taking too many shortcuts when it comes to emergency medical supplies? Nevertheless, this serious lack of FDA oversight adds to a growing list of concerns about the shortcuts being taken when it comes to pandemic response. No one knows what might have happened if the ventilators had been needed, and some are blaming President Trump for failing to coordinate with public health experts when making the deal. FEMA has said that they and the FDA didnt have all the details about the products prior to getting the shipment, but they did inspect them when they arrived and allowed them to enter the country. That wasnt the only controversial aspect of the shipment; the ventilators were manufactured by a subsidiary of a Russian firm that is subject to U.S. sanctions. The manufacturers have defended their products, saying theyve been in use since 2012 and havent had any safety problems. This case highlights the importance of getting medical supplies from trusted sources, especially during a pandemic. Whether its faulty masks from China or potentially fire-inducing Russian ventilators, we must not overlook the importance of thorough vetting in our rush to stock up on life-saving supplies. Sources for this article include: DailyMail.co.uk CNBC.com BBC.com Seoul, May 26 : South Korea is on track for its second phase of school reopening on Wednesday, bringing back more than 2 million students to their schools nationwide amid the new coronavirus pandemic. School reopening is considered one of the most important steps in the government's "everyday life quarantine" scheme, which was introduced on May 6, Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday. The scheme is designed to help people learn to live with the virus and resume normal life amid relaxed social distancing. Under the government's phased school reopening plan, schools are scheduled to resume in-person classes for the two lowest grades of elementary school, kindergarten students, middle school seniors and second-year high school students. The estimated number of affected students amounts to 2.37 million. About 440,000 high school seniors returned to school last week after more than two months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resumption of in-person classes, however, has faced hurdles. The latest came on Monday when a six-year-old kindergarten boy tested positive for COVID-19. Last week, dozens of schools in Incheon and Daegu were also closed following several infections involving high school students. To monitor and tackle potential outbreaks at schools, the Education Ministry is in close coordination with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and provincial education offices, said the Yonhap News Agency report. The government is also expected to unveil a set of revised quarantine and disinfection guidelines on Wednesday in time for the second phase of the reopening. It reassured the public that the second phase will go off without a major hitch. As of Tuesday, South Korea has 11,225 COVID-19 cases, with 269 deaths. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. Listen hard. You can hear footfall from a century ago in the tread of early morning New York, 2020. In the pandemic season of her time, Julia Neill Sullivan, age 71 or 72, marched pots of food from her hearth across a stony field on a remote peninsula along the west coast of Ireland. The global influenza of 1918 and 1919 had made its way into a small house in County Kerry, miles beyond the last electric pole. It was the home of the youngest of Julias 13 children, Mary, who had the flu, as did her husband, Paddy, and their seven children, all under the age of 10. No wonder it killed upward of 50 million. The family normally ate from the earth and sea, but were so weak no one could gather food or even draw water at the spring. Uber announced it is laying-off a fourth of its total headcount of 2,400 in the country across customer and driver support, business development, legal, finance, policy and marketing verticals. Last week, after cab aggregator Ola said it is laying off 1,400 employees, Uber India has announced it is axing 600 jobs in India. Impact of COVID has left Uber IndiaSA with no choice but to reduce size of its workforce. Around 600 full time positions across driver, rider support, other functions, are being impacted. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month: Uber IndiaSA pic.twitter.com/eVJ2NkcUym CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) May 26, 2020 The company announced it is laying-off a fourth of its total headcount of 2,400 in the country across customer and driver support, business development, legal, finance, policy and marketing verticals. The retrenched employees would be paid 10 to 12 weeks of salary, besides medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support, the company said, according to a report in The Business Standard. The impact of COVID-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted. These reductions are part of previously announced global job cuts this month. Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now so that we can look to the future with confidence, said Pradeep Parameswaran, President for Ubers India and South Asia businesses, in a statement shared through a spokesperson, a report in Tech Crunch said. Uber Technologies Inc, the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company, has been laying off its staff in the US. In total, the firm will cut a total of 6,700 jobs, including the 3,700 it had announced earlier this month, Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said, adding that the company plans to reduce investments in several non-core projects, according to Reuters. Before the pandemic struck, Uber said it would become profitable on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by the end of this year. The company withdrew that guidance as global stay-at-home orders to curb the virus pummeled its ride-hailing business. On 20 May, Ola said on Wednesday it is laying off 1,400 employeese from rides, financial services and food business as the company's revenues have declined by 95 percent in the last two months due to coronavirus pandemic, a note by CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said. In an email to employees, Aggarwal made it clear that the prognosis ahead for the business is "very unclear and uncertain" and the impact of this crisis is "definitely going to be long-drawn for us". "The fallout of the virus has been very tough for our industry in particular. Our revenue has come down 95 percent over the past 2 months. Most importantly, this crisis has affected the livelihoods of millions of our drivers and their families across India and our international geographies," he said. The company has decided to downsize and "let go" of 1,400 employees, Aggarwal added. Aggarwal said this will be a one-time exercise and will be complete by the end of this week for the India Mobility business, and by the end of next week for Ola foods and Ola Financial Services. "No more COVID-related cuts will be done after this exercise," he said in the email. HONG KONG, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is today pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited, has signed a major licensing agreement with MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MSCI), a leading provider of mission critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community, to license a suite of MSCI indexes in Asia and Emerging Markets for the introduction of futures and options contracts in Hong Kong. The introduction of the 37 futures and options contracts remain subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions. HKEX will inform the market of the launch dates of the contracts and provide detailed product specifications once the launch dates have been confirmed. This agreement will notably expand HKEX's existing relationship with MSCI, following the successful launch of MSCI Asia Ex-Japan Index futures, and last year's joint announcement on the planned launch of MSCI China A Index futures. This agreement further anchors HKEX and MSCI's commitment to the global trading community and to their long-term product development and innovation programme in the region. Charles Li, Chief Executive, HKEX said: "This is very exciting news indeed for Hong Kong and HKEX. As the global markets leader in the Asian timezone, and reflecting our unique role connecting markets and investors across the world, we are very pleased to today be announcing this major agreement with MSCI. Bringing enhanced liquidity to our markets, this builds on our stated strategy and our 2019 commitment to launch MSCI China A index futures in Hong Kong. It comes at a time when Hong Kong's derivatives market is going from strength to strength and represents another significant development in continuing to build the breadth, depth and attractiveness of Hong Kong's vibrant financial markets." Henry Fernandez, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at MSCI, added: "MSCI's mission as a provider of tools, services and insights for the global investment industry is to help investors around the world better understand and navigate investment opportunities and risks. As we continue to see increasing demand from global investors in enhancing their risk management capabilities, we are pleased to license HKEX to use our indexes for this expansive suite of new trading and risk management tools for global investors." NOTE TO EDITORS Please refer to the HKEX website for the expected list of initial contracts (subject to regulatory approvals and market conditions). For enquiries, please contact Corporate Communications Jeffrey Ng (+852 2840 2067 / [email protected]) Wong Sau Ching (+852 2840 3856 / [email protected]) About HKEX Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is one of the world's major exchange groups, and operates a range of equity, commodity, fixed income and currency markets. HKEX is the world's leading IPO market and as Hong Kong's only securities and derivatives exchange and sole operator of its clearing houses, it is uniquely placed to offer regional and international investors access to Asia's most vibrant markets. HKEX is also the global leader in metals trading, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, The London Metal Exchange (LME) and LME Clear Limited. This commodity franchise was further enhanced with the launch of Qianhai Mercantile Exchange (QME), in China, in 2018. HKEX launched the pioneering Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect programme in 2014, further expanded with the launch of Shenzhen Connect in 2016, and the launch of Bond Connect in 2017. www.hkexgroup.com SOURCE Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) So, yeah, its sugar daddies or nothing for many of us. But even that is much harder now, Wasswa said. How are you supposed to meet someone if bars are closed and theres a curfew? And if you met them, what if you are putting yourself at risk to get the virus? I cant bring someone home because that puts the whole house at risk. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Monday dismissed the U.S. State Department allegations that the Iranian regime has carried out more than 360 assassinations and terrorist operations across the world since 1979. In a fact sheet published last Friday, the U.S. Department of State highlighted allegations that since coming to power in 1979, the Iranian regime has been involved in more than 360 assassinations, terrorist plots, and terrorist attacks in more than 40 countries. Accusing Washington of "lying", Mousavi described the State Department's fact sheet as "conspiracy, illusion, and fabrication" compiled for "psychological war and exerting pressure" on Tehran. The State Department believes that these assassinations have primarily been carried out by the Revolutionary Guard's Qods Force and the Ministry of intelligence but also via third parties and proxies such as the Hezbollah of Lebanon. The fact sheet also alleged that Iran uses diplomatic cover and is willing to use criminal gangs and drug cartels to carry out its clandestine operations abroad. "As Iranian assassins using diplomatic cover have attracted increased scrutiny, Iran has shown willingness to use criminal gangs, drug cartels, and other third parties to carry out its assassination plots abroad," the fact sheet said. "Given its dark history, the United States is by no means politically, legally, and morally qualified to judge other countries," Mousavi said and accused Washington of directly orchestrating 79 coups and regime change plots across the world through the CIA. He also charged that the United States supports "fascist and drug-trafficking regimes" and "terrorist organizations" such as Da'ish and the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MEK) that Iran holds responsible for assassinating "17,000 Iranian citizens and officials". REUTERS / Hannah McKay The most serious political crisis that Boris Johnson has faced as British prime minister is getting worse. Johnson has become a lightning rod for the fury of the British publicfrustrated and restless after nine weeks of lockdown restrictionsafter his decision not to sack his top aide who was forced to admit that he traveled hundreds of miles during the pandemic, despite suspecting that both he and his wife had COVID-19. After days of Johnson trying to excuse the actions of Dominic Cummings, as well as an extraordinary televised press conference where Cummings emerged from the shadows in an unsuccessful attempt to draw a line under the crisis, a government minister has now resigned with a furious letter which condemns both the prime minister and his mastermind. The furious row began on Friday when two newspapersthe Daily Mirror and The Guardianreported that Cummings drove 264 miles from London to his parents estate in Durham, even though he feared that he and his wife had the coronavirus. He later admitted to a separate trip after his familys 14-day period of isolation to Barnard Castle, a beauty spot around 30 miles away from Durham. Cummings and Johnson insist no law was brokenbut thats not really the point. People in Britain have been told to stay at home as much as possible and, if displaying symptoms, to stay inside for two weeks. Those rules have forced people to stay away from their loved ones for months, even if they were seriously ill or dying, and to deal with incredibly difficult circumstances without help. Cummings excusethat he had to drive to Durham because he thought he and his wife were getting sick and needed possible back-up childcare from his teenage niecedoes not comfort anyone who was also struggling to look after their children while sick, but thought they had no option but to stay home and help prevent further spread of the deadly virus. There has been an outpouring of public anger, despite Johnson and Cummings attempts to explain away the scandal. Cummings repeatedly refused to apologize for breaking lockdown rules during his highly unusual press conference Monday. He told the public: I dont regret what I did reasonable people might disagree. Story continues Cummings also provided a truly laughable excuse for his separate trip to Barnard Castle. He said that he wanted to test that his eyesight was good enough to allow him to drive back to London following his illness, so he packed his wife and child into the car and drove to the castle in an incredibly risky experiment. The lack of contrition and flimsy excuses were, unsurprisingly, not effective. At least 20 lawmakers from Johnsons Conservative party have called on Cummings to quit and, on Tuesday, a junior minister resigned from government in protest at the scandal. Douglas Ross wrote: While the intentions may have been well meaning, the reaction to this news shows that Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked. Ross added: I have constituents who didn't get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didn't visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government. I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right. Ross was only a junior minister, but hes been strongly supportive of Johnson since he stood for party leader. That he decided to resign and breathe new life into a story that Johnson and Cummings hoped they had drawn a line under shows that the matter is far from over. Meanwhile, Britains Office for National Statistics reported Tuesday that there have been 60,000 excess deaths recorded across the U.K. since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Britons are grieving and angry but, for now, are still largely following the rules given to them by their government. But, the longer Cummings stays in his post, more people will questions why there should be one rule for them and another for their leaders. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the "Japan model" has effectively beaten coronavirus, as he lifted a nationwide state of emergency after seven weeks. He described how the "uniquely Japanese way" in which the country had confronted the pandemic - unusually not including strict lockdown - had allowed it to escape the numerous outbreaks and high death tolls seen in several European countries and the US. Shinzo Abe's popularity has taken a battering from the pandemic and its economic fallout. Credit:AP Japan has had about 17,000 confirmed cases and 850 deaths, but has not implemented widespread testing. At a press conference lifting the state of emergency in Toyko, three surrounding prefectures and the northern island of Hokkaido, bringing those areas into line with other parts of Japan, Abe said: "We were able to bring the outbreak nearly under control in just a month and a half in a uniquely Japanese way. We demonstrated the power of the 'Japan model'." Driving from Manhattan, the NJT 158 bus takes the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River to New Jersey, then cuts North and follows the river all the way up to the George Washington Bridge. The road it takes is called River Road, which used to run along the now-vanished marshland that lined the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River for much of American history. When Alexander Hamilton was shot in Weehawken, he died in the mud. Today, the mud is gone and River Road is separated from the Hudson by a few hundred yards of reclaimed landfilled-in with dirt from elsewhere, some from the 1922 construction of Yankee Stadium, some from the chromium-laced byproducts of wartime industry, much of it of unknown origin. From the window of the 158 bus, the river itself is now mostly obscured by high-rise apartment buildings (Riverparc, Avora, The Oyster), rented at premium prices for their perspective on Manhattan, which can be held at a distance and examined dispassionately from this side of the river. When the 158 bus reaches the town of Edgewater, there's a sudden gap in the line of waterfront development on what is now known as New Jerseys Gold Coast. Instead of high-rises, there are two gigantic white tents raised up from the dirt. Workers in latex-blue suits trudge around them spraying mud-red liquid on the ground. Other workers carry instruments that measure the composition of the air. Yellow excavators lurch about like elephants, flattening, and shifting, and generally mucking about. Machines roar inside the tents. The scene resembles a circus masquerading as a construction site. Intermittent on the wind is the sulfurous, faintly nauseating smell of mothballs. If Superfund status is any indicator, New Jersey has the dirtiest dirt in the country, and the Gold Coast has some of the dirtiest dirt in New Jersey. This is the Quanta Resources Superfund Site, one of 1,335 contaminated sites across America that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems most urgently in need of a clean-up. With 114 Superfund sites, New Jersey is home to more than any other state in the country. Bergen County, where the Quanta Site is located, and Hudson County, which includes the rest of the Gold Coast, together have 12 Superfund sitesmore than the entire state of Louisiana. If Superfund status is any indicator, New Jersey has the dirtiest dirt in the country, and the Gold Coast has some of the dirtiest dirt in New Jersey. When I visited the Quanta Site in early March, the sky was blue and the Hudson was milky and bland. It seemed swimmable. An elderly man was walking his dog along the waterfront walkway beside the site. He had lived in Edgewater for 25 years and was nonchalant about the cleanup, figuring it would eventually turn into an apartment building like everything else. Its all built on bad stuff, he said, waving his hand down the river dismissively. All that "bad stuff" is left over from New Jerseys long industrial history. In fact, Paterson, New Jersey, situated on the Passaic River just a few miles west of Edgewater, was the birthplace of the industrial revolution in America. "All the industries were located in New Jersey," Guillermo Rocha, a professor of geology at Brooklyn College and former environmental engineer for New Jersey Superfund cleanups told me. From the first mills established at Paterson in the late 18th century, industrial development spread throughout the state and especially along the Hudson, where proximity to Manhattan ensured a hungry market. The sliver of marshland smushed between the cliffs of the Palisades Sill and the river became increasingly valuable, and by the end of the 19th century, most of it was filled-in. Factories and processing plants crowded on the reclaimed land and barges carried their goods to the metropolis across the water. Its all built on bad stuff. For more than a century, that 32 km strip of reclaimed land was the spittoon and ashtray for those factories. The specific composition of their waste was determined by the requirements of the agecoal tar from coal gas for the turn-of-the-century street lamps, chromium for soldiers boots in both World Wars, dioxin (a.k.a. Agent Orange) for the war in Vietnamslopped onto the ground in oil, sludge, and process water. Not all these contaminants were hazardous to humans, but many were and remain so today. The metals: lead from paint and gasoline. Arsenic. Mercury. The Volatile and Sub-Volatile Organic Compounds. Benzene. Phenol. Methylphenol. Dimethylphenol. Toluene. Naphthalene. Acenaphthene and acenaphthylene. Benzoanthracene. All of them, once spilled into soil, known pleasantly as "leachate." "New Jersey's famous, explained an environmental engineer I met with on the Quanta Site familiar with the work underway. (He spoke with me under the condition I did not use his name since he is not an official spokesperson for any of the parties responsible for the cleanup. Ill refer to him from here on as Doug. All down the river, Doug said, Fill gets brought it, or was brought in back in the dayand that fill had incinerator ash, whatever they could get their hands on, for land. There's a general kind of low level of contaminants that exist along every industrial waterway...I work on sites and we come up with shoe heels. And you know why? Because they didn't get burned in the incinerators...Diagnostic of fill obviously. "There's so much history in the soil," I replied. "I dig it," said Doug. From 1896 to 1974, the Quanta Site was home to one of those leaky waterfront factories: a roofing tar plant in an industrial strip at the south end of the mostly residential Edgewater called Shadyside (back then, Edgewaters slogan was: Where homes and industry blend). Shadysides tenants included a sheetrock factory, a coffee roaster, and what was at one time the largest linseed oil plant in the world. Over the years, the roofing tar plant changed hands and names several times, but its raw material, and hence its primary contribution to the toxic potluck, remained the same: coal tar. Coal tar is a foul, black, gooey substance leftover from carbonizing coal to produce coal gas and coke, which were the main fuels for lighting lamps and smelting steel before the widespread use of natural gas after WWII. When it comes up in a soil boring, in the spoon, it looks like the soil is stained, said Doug. Like a grease stain. But it's not liquid. When the release happened maybe it was like taffy, but it's been in the ground so long it's mostly like a staining oil that you would get stuck on your hands. It would be hard to get it off. You'd have to scrub to get it off. Over the years, the plant at the Quanta site distilled and refined millions of gallons of coal tar into a menu of useful residues and chemicals. Coal tar pitch, a derivative of coal tar, was used to waterproof roofs and pave roads across the country. Creosote derived from the tar was used to impregnate and preserve wood for building everything from railroad tracks to playgrounds. An aromatic compound extracted from the tar called naphthalene was used as an insecticide. And there were spills. Some incident occurred, said Doug. A valve didn't work, say. There was a release. Nobody knows exactly when those releases occurred. This was back when people didn't think about things like that." One documented incident happened in 1924, when 38,000 liters of coal tar pitch burned at the site. At the time, no one suspected that coal tar and many of its derivatives were carcinogenic. Nobody knows exactly when those releases occurred. This was back when people didnt think about things like that. In 1974, the plants then-owner Allied Chemical Corporation, a precursor of the global manufacturing and technical conglomerate Honeywell International Inc., sold the property. In 1980, a company called Quanta Resources started using the site to store and recycle oil and waste from refineries, chemical producers, and other industries. A year later, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) shut down the company because of high levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) they found in the stored oil. When the company was shuttered, the NJDEP reported there were storage tanks with a capacity of more than nine million gallons on the site, some of which had collapsed coverings and had overflowed with rainwater. Over the next few years, the NJDEP and the EPA removed the storage tanks and enormous amounts of contaminated oil and dirt from the sitebut by then, the problem had leached deeper. This became apparent in 1997, when, according to a 2005 investigation of the site produced by Honeywell, a hydrocarbon sheen became regularly visible along the waterfront. The coal tar from a century of spills had oozed down through the loose fill layer on top of the site to the impermeable layer of clay left from the old marsh, what environmental engineers call the meadow mat. In addition to the coal tar contamination, a plume of arsenic from an adjacent fertilizer factory had spread into the soil of the Quanta Site. As groundwater flowed off the Palisade Sill to the river, it took some of those contaminants suspended in the soil along with it. "The groundwater is the transport. said Rocha. "Water will carry anything." In 1996, Honeywell, who had inherited responsibility for much of the contamination, entered into the first of several consent decrees with the EPA to investigate the full extent of the problem. In 2002, the Quanta Site was listed on the National Priorities List, becoming a Superfund site. Now almost 20 years later, and almost 40 years after it was first flagged as contaminated, the whole mess is getting cleaned up. In Superfund lingo, the method used to clean up a site is the remedy. Contaminated sites require remedial action. Cleaning up dirt is soil remediation. A major part of the remediation processand one reason Superfund cleanups often take so longis selecting a proper remedy. The remedy determines all of what follows: the cost of the project and its complexity. It defines what needs to happen for a site to be considered "cleaned up. When selecting a remedy for cleaning up dirt, the EPA has options. Depending on the contaminant and location of the site, those include digging up the contaminated dirt and taking it elsewhere, encapsulating it within some kind of tomb, and seeding plants in it that can break down contaminants. Dirt can be fed to bacteria hungry for certain compounds. It can be air sparged, a process in which air is blown underneath the contaminated dirt so the rising vapors can be captured. Dirt can be smoldered. Dirt can even be burned, incinerated in huge rotating cylindersan effective but often prohibitively expensive process. "There are very few facilities that burn and once you burn it, it has to be put back in the system, Rocha told me. There are many things you have to do. He worked on one Superfund project south of the Quanta Site in Jersey City which required transporting tens of thousands of cubic yards of dirt full of chromium to burn in a facility in South Carolina. The primary remedy the EPA selected for the Quanta Site is known as in situ stabilization. This entails mixing contaminated dirt with a cement-like material while its in the ground. That cementitious material is pumped from a group of silos to a contaminated area surrounded by a low berm. Then the reservoir is filled with the slurry. "When you're done, it looks like really thick pea soup. Except it's not green, it's grey, Doug said. An excavator then plunges its bucket into the soup and begins to mix the cement-stuff with the dirt. What it does is, once it gets mixed with water and soil, it creates a monolith, said Doug. From a parking garage ramp overlooking the site, I watched as a monolith was created in the mud. Next to one of the huge white tents, a yellow excavator labored over a hot tub-size pit filled with pea soup goop. With each stir, the mixture bubbled and slurped. Two bored blue-suited workers looked on. The machine raised its bucket and shook off some of the muck, like a cook satisfied with the stew. Though I couldnt see it, the same process was underway inside the tents (the mixing I saw happened outside the tents because of obstructions preventing one from being set up there). The tents are there because coal tar stew stinks, like old eggs with notes of sour milk and gasoline. The primary culprit is that aromatic organic compound called naphthalene, which is the main ingredient in mothballs. Naphthalene aromas are released when the old soil is turned over. Heat produced by an exothermic reaction in the cement stuff increases the stink. "Anything that disturbs the material has the potential to release volatiles and odors, said Doug. For most people, he explained, naphthalene has got a very low odor threshold. When full-scale work started on the Quanta site in 2017 without the tents, the people of Edgewater discovered their own odor threshold. The smell was ridiculous. The smell was ridiculous, a sales manager at a massage parlor adjacent to the site told me. She described seeing dust and fog coming from the site. Older customers came in coughing. An employee at the AT&T store south of the site told me people on the bus would immediately turn their heads away in disgust when the doors opened at her stop. The man I met walking his dog told me he knew a doctor who moved out of his apartment because of the odors. And after many people raised a stink about it, Honeywell and the EPA suspended work for eight months to come up with a solution for the smell and to demolish an old building that had impeded work on the property. When work resumed in January of 2019, the EPA decided the monoliths would be mixed underneath gigantic tentsthe worlds stinkiest circus. They're kind of amorphous. They're blobs," said Doug of the contaminated areas where the monoliths are mixed. The boundaries of these "blobs" are inferred from soil samples taken from around the site, like connecting the dots. Those blobs contain an estimated 115,000 cubic meters of soil to be solidified. Taken together, thats a cube of hardened toxic muck roughly 50 meters on each side. Once the monoliths have hardened in place, the tents will be cleared and the site will again be covered with fill and capped with material meant to defend the monoliths against the elements. Like the rest of the Gold Coast, a developer will likely take over the site, and the toxic blocks will be entombed there beneath whatever gets built. As of March 2020, the monoliths were on track to be completed by the end of the year. Once theyre done, the work to clean up the river will begin. The whole property is gonna get raised. It's gonna be landscaped, said Doug. This is right in the floodplain, which got revised from [Hurricane] Sandy. People realized, hey, the floodplain's changing on us and so on. So whenever the development gets done, they're gonna be raising this grade pretty significantly." Still, the water isnt likely to stop rising. According to a recent report from the US Government Accountability Office on the risks to Superfund sites posed by climate change, 60 percent of Superfund sites in the United States are at risk for floods and wildfires exacerbated by climate change. Many sites, including those along the Gold Coast, are at risk of flooding from increases in storm surges, extreme weather, and rising sea levels, which could carry contaminated soil away. The Quanta site is at risk of flooding even without any sea-level rise. But the monoliths within it are designed to last. "When you think about it, the concrete that the Romans used 2000 years ago still exists in Rome, said Doug. He explained that the monoliths meet all of EPA's strict standards for strength, leachability, and impermeability. Concrete in soil lasts really long. So the expectation is, I mean we don't try to model anything for a hundred years or anything, but the expectation is it's gonna last for hundreds of years. What were the people like who made this Stonehenge? Who were their gods? Why did they worship with coal and arsenic beside the river? I imagine future humans excavating the site 2,000 years from now. The water rose and receded, revealing the high columns. The monoliths are arranged on the mudflat, signifying something lost to time. The humans wonder if the arrangement has something to do with the movement of the stars. What were the people like who made this Stonehenge? Someone observes the sacred columns are composed of poisonous dirt. Who were their gods? Why did they worship with coal and arsenic beside the river? End Note: Miracle After I left the site, I missed the last 158 bus and took an Uber home. The driver was not happy he was driving to Brooklyn. He was not happy in general. As we crossed the George Washington Bridge, it was dusk and blue and started to rain and he began a litany of grievances against the world. First was Uber, and how their new policy of assigning drivers only a certain number of hours each week is unfair. How it shafts all the drivers who spent big money on new cars expecting they'd be able to work whenever they wanted, like the advertisements said they could. That, compounded with gas, insurance, and tollslike the one he was paying crossing this damn bridge. Cant make a living. Can hardly pay for anything. He pounded on the wheel. Everything in his car he had replaced. Like the body replaces its cells. Everything but the roof! And one white passenger-side door. Now down the West Side Highway. The rain was coming down harder and bluer. The driver pounded on the wheel again. The stress of it. The stress of the money compounding the stress about his teenage son. Who has psychiatric issues. Who has been acting up. Scratching his hands. Smoking weed. Talking about killing himself. Can hardly pay for the psychiatric care and the prescriptions and all of it. He used to be happy six months ago. Laughing all the time. Now this kid, man. Once he was so stressed thinking about this kid he accidentally drove across the Verrazano Bridge. Ended up in Staten Island before he even realized what he was doing. Two hours home to North Jersey. He talks to his customers about it because sometimes they know. Sometimes they are doctors, or also use Zoloft. You never know. But what gets him through it, mannow we were in traffic nearing the Brooklyn Bridge, the rain lit up red by brake lightswhat gets him through it is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is why he left Egypt in the first place, escaping persecution. He has this faith because he has three miracles to prove it. The first miracle was his sisters heart. It stopped and after seventeen times with the defibrillator she came back to life. She had seen a gigantic horse and felt somebodys hands lift her back to the world. The second miracle was his visa. He was trying to cross from Czechoslovakia to Austria to find work, but he had no visa. The Austrian border officer looked at his passport, Arabic script, flipping from right to left, and let him through. No problems. How do you explain that? The third miracle was the miracle of the old oil tank. In the house where he and his son and his wife and his mother and his sister lived in North Jersey, there was an old oil tank buried in the yard. His sister was worried the house would be condemned when the inspector came and saw that bad stuff was leaking from the tank. But the day before the inspector camethe driver saw this with his own eyesa bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck the spot in the yard where the old oil tank was buried. The driver thought there was going to be a fire or smoke but there was nothing. The next day the inspector came. And when he dug up the tank, lifting it out of the ground, the tank was brand new. Shining. Never had a drop of oil in it. The inspector was amazed. Illustration by Lili Emtiaz for Silica Magazine. The Community College of Philadelphia became the first college in the region to announce it would start the fall semester with online classes. Some face-to-face courses, particularly labs or those that require hands-on instruction, may be allowed later in the fall if the circumstances surrounding the virus change, the school said. College president Donald Generals made the announcement to faculty and staff during a virtual town hall on Tuesday. The college, which enrolls about 25,000 full-time and part-time students annually, is largely a commuter campus. Generals called online classes the safest and best educational option for the fall semester." We are making this decision now to allow faculty adequate time to develop the best remote-learning strategies and to allow students to begin making plans for the fall semester, he said. READ MORE: Colleges holding on-campus classes in the fall? Maybe. The announcement comes as colleges around the country are discussing how to handle the fall. The University of Notre Dame last week said it would start fall classes early, on Aug. 10, and complete the semester by Thanksgiving so students wouldnt have to return, reducing the possibility of spreading the virus. Meanwhile, the California State University system, with 500,000 students, the largest in the country, has said it will hold most classes online in the fall and not reopen its campuses. READ MORE: Thomas Jefferson University says it will allow on-campus living, in-person classes this fall Locally, Thomas Jefferson University last month said it would allow on-campus living and in-person classes in the fall, but also give students the choice of taking classes remotely. Other schools said they plan to make their announcements in the coming weeks. Pennsylvania State University said it will notify the campus by June 15. Generals said even if the city were to get the states green designation, which would allow restaurants, gyms, and other major venues to reopen at less capacity, the college will stay with online classes at the semesters start. College committees, he said, looked at a number of options and couldnt figure out a way to safely provide social distancing and other safeguards, such as testing, needed for an in-person start, given all the uncertainty, he said. But the school plans to eventually open up some services, such as financial aid, counseling, and the library, for on-campus visits, he said. Generals said hes optimistic students will enroll for the online courses, given the experience with summer courses so far. Enrollment for the first summer session is down only about 1% and appears to be strong for the second session, too, he said. It defies what was common knowledge at the beginning of this, that students were just going to run, he said. But that hasnt been the case. CCP, Generals said, will offer students online meetings for clubs and organizations, guest speakers, and special events. The college also is lending laptops to students who need them for coursework and expanding its online initiative that connects students to personal resources they need to stay in school, he said. South Africa: SA continues to strengthen relations with Parliaments in Africa Parliament's Presiding Officers says the sixth democratic Parliament will continue to strengthen relations with other Parliaments in Africa to ensure a lasting solution to the challenges facing the continent, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. The Presiding Officers, led by National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise and National Council of Provinces Chairperson Amos Masondo, made the remarks as they joined the rest of the continent in celebrating Africa Day on Monday. This year marks 57 years since the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) on 25 May 1963, later succeeded by the African Union (AU), and is being commemorated during this most challenging time of tackling the global outbreak of COVID-19. The AU has described COVID-19 as a pandemic requiring co-ordinated efforts of its Member States, the World Health Organisation, and other partners to limit transmission and harm. The Presiding Officers said they support the united efforts by African governments against the pandemic through the AU, which includes the fundraising drive to strengthen the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Coronavirus is primarily a human tragedy and a health crisis that is affecting countries around the world, presenting an unprecedented challenge which can overwhelm any healthcare system. In this regard, the battle can only be won through the implementation of aggressive measures aimed at containing the spread of this virus, the Presiding officers said. According to the AUs Africa CDC, as at 24 May 2020, 54 AU reporting member states reported a total number of cases of 107 412 Coronavirus, with 3 246 deaths and 42 626 recoveries. Increase in Gender-Based Violence cases The presiding officers noted that one major side effect of the COVID-19 lockdown is that many countries across the continent are reporting an increase in cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), as well as violence against children. They said this crisis increases as access to resources and service delivery becomes more strained due to the economic inactivity, compounded by the deep-seated poverty, unemployment and inequality. It thus becomes vital that efforts to flatten the curve of the virus are linked to and integrated across the oversight and legislative programmes and activities of Parliament. Silencing the Guns Meanwhile, in support of the AUs initiatives for a peaceful resolution to conflicts in Africa, Parliament is today hosting a virtual public lecture under the theme Silencing the Guns: Creating conditions for Africas development to achieve the goal of a conflict-free Africa. The AU embraced this theme to realise the goal of a conflict-free Africa. The theme also speaks to ending GBV and violence against children. As the continent honours Africa Day 2020, the Presiding Officers also called on all Africans to unite in promoting peace, for a better continent. Africa is grappling with issues of poverty and economic inequality but its people are richly endowed with skills and talent and together we can achieve our goal of a better Africa and a better world. Let us intensify our battle against the pandemic as citizens of Africa, including adhering to social distancing, hygiene and other safety protocols, the Presiding Officers said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Tuesday while asserting that the state government is "strong". The two leaders met for about one-and-a-half hours late Monday evening, Raut said while dismissing speculations about the Thackeray-led government's stability. The Sena Rajya Sabha MP, however, did not reveal what transpired between the two leaders. The meeting between Thackeray and Pawar took place after the NCP chief met state governor B S Koshyari on Monday morning. "NCP chief Sharad Pawar and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting for one-and-a-half hours. Those doubting about the stability of this government are doing so out of their own grudge. This government is strong," Raut tweeted in Marathi. Earlier, Pawar met Koshyari on Monday morning, following which the NCP claimed the meeting took place on the invitation of the governor and no political issues came up for discussion. However, the timing of the meeting is significant as it took place against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents ofthe MVA. Pawar was one of the key leaders from Maharashtra who had openly complained about Koshyari's "intervention" in the functioning of the state administration. Recently, senior BJP leader and former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis complained to the governor about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the COVID-19 crisis. NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- I want to apologize to Chris Cooper for my actions when I encountered him in Central Park yesterday. I reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions when, in fact, I was the one who was acting inappropriately by not having my dog on a leash. When Chris began offering treats to my dog and confronted me in an area where there was no one else nearby and said, "You're not going to like what I'm going to do next," I assumed we were being threatened when all he had intended to do was record our encounter on his phone. He had every right to request that I leash my dog in an area where it was required. I am well aware of the pain that misassumptions and insensitive statements about race cause and would never have imagined that I would be involved in the type of incident that occurred with Chris. I hope that a few mortifying seconds in a lifetime of forty years will not define me in his eyes and that he will accept my sincere apology. SOURCE Amy Cooper Around two thirds of coronavirus-infected care home residents had no symptoms or unusual ones, a study has warned. Researchers analysed outbreaks in four care homes in London, all of which had been ravaged by Covid-19 outbreaks that killed residents. Forty per cent of all residents tested in the homes had the infection - a much higher proportion than estimated for the entirety of Britain. But three fifths of the patients were asymptomatic or had atypical symptoms, such as confusion, anorexia, diarrhoea and vomiting. For comparison, only 32 per cent of the confirmed cases had the tell-tale cough, as well as 27 per cent who had a fever - the two major Covid-19 symptoms. And the experts, led by a team at Imperial College London, warned the findings were true even in the 'days leading up to death'. Academics are now demanding 'regular, systematic testing of all residents and staff regardless of symptoms'. One charity warned the results were a 'snapshot of the devastation that coronavirus is wreaking' across the entire care sector. Forty per cent of all residents tested in the homes had the infection - a much higher proportion than estimated for the entirety of Britain. But three fifths of the patients were asymptomatic or had atypical symptoms, such as confusion, anorexia, diarrhoea and vomiting. The study revealed how many patients had symptoms, as well as underlying conditions. CVD stands for cardiovascular disease, while CKD stands for chronic kidney disease Writing in the study, the scientists revealed that a cough and fever were absent even in patients with severe bouts of COVID-19. The team warned Number 10's drive to only look for patients with a fever and cough 'may have contributed to delays' in controlling the crisis. And they added it could have contributed to the large numbers of deaths observed in highly vulnerable patients in care homes. Around 400,000 people in the UK live in care homes, where more than a quarter of all coronavirus deaths have occurred. Data released by the Office for National Statistics today showed at least 11,650 care home residents have died from coronavirus since the crisis began. Similar figures collated in Scotland show 1,623 deaths have been recorded in care homes, as well as 297 in Northern Ireland. Figures collated by the Office for National Statistics show how the number of deaths in each setting spiked in April, during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis Analysis of Office for National Statistics data reveal there have been 4.7 COVID-19 deaths per 100 care home beds in London - twice as much as in the East of England and the South West ALMOST 5% OF CARE HOME RESIDENTS IN LONDON HAVE DIED FROM COVID-19 One in 20 care home residents in London has died from the coronavirus, shocking figures suggest. Analysis of Office for National Statistics data revealed there have been 4.7 Covid-19 deaths per 100 care home beds in the capital. London's care sector has been hit twice as hard as the South West, East Midlands and East of England, where the rate is 1.8, 2 and 2.1, respectively. In the North of England, the new coronavirus capital of Britain, there have been 3.2 fatalities per 100 care home beds, according to the Health Foundation. The charity blasted the government for its too little, too late approach to care homes and say the crisis in the sector has been fuelled by 'decades of political neglect'. At least a quarter of the UK's Covid-19 victims have been care home residents, ONS statistics revealed today. Advertisement Professor David Sharp, co-author of the study, said: 'We know many nursing homes have suffered significant outbreaks. 'But until now there has been little data on prevalence, infection rates and what is needed in this setting to combat the virus. 'The number of deaths in the four homes we studied shows just how pressing an issue this is.' He added: 'We found that a very high proportion of those testing positive had no symptoms, or different symptoms from those expected. 'This makes it extremely difficult for staff to recognise illness and take appropriate measures to protect those they care for. 'Universal and systematic testing of residents and staff is needed across nursing homes if infection is to be contained.' The study was published on Medrxiv, meaning it has yet to be scrutinised by fellow scientists. It involved the UK Dementia Research Institute, Hammersmith and Fulham council, GPs, and infectious diseases experts. And it was led by experts at Imperial College London alongside counterparts at the University of Surrey. The council called for the investigation after swathes of residents became unwell at one of its homes at the end of March. More than 300 residents were tested for the virus over the space of two weeks in April to assess the size of the outbreak. A sample of asymptomatic nursing home staff in a variety of roles were also tested to see how staff play a role in spreading the virus. Of those, 4 per cent were positive, which researchers said suggested that staff are likely to be a factor in transmitting infection. The death rate in the four homes was three times higher than in previous years, and around Covid-19 was attributed to half on the death certificates. Researchers said 103 people died out of a total population across all four homes of 394 residents between March 1 and May 1. Half had dementia. Professor Bart de Strooper, director of the UK Dementia Research Institute, said that systematic testing is 'vital' to controlling the virus. Fiona Carragher, of the Alzheimers Society, which part-funded the study, said: 'This is just a snapshot of the devastation that coronavirus is wreaking in care homes.' Dr Carol Routledge, from Alzheimers Research UK, said: 'The government must be doing all it can to limit infections and prevent further deaths in care homes.' She said: 'We urgently need to understand the way that Covid-19 is spreading in care homes so we can better protect residents, staff, and their families. 'The government must be doing all that it can to limit infections and prevent further Covid-19 deaths in care homes.' Dr Michael Head, a global health researcher at the University of Southampton, said care home residents 'have been a neglected population for far too long'. It comes as shock figures released today suggested one in 20 care home residents in London has died from the coronavirus. Analysis of Office for National Statistics data revealed there have been 4.7 Covid-19 deaths per 100 care home beds in the capital. London's care homes have been hit twice as hard as the South West, East Midlands and East of England, where the rate is 1.8, 2 and 2.1, respectively. The Health Foundation charity blasted ministers for their too little, too late approach to care homes. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
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Mumbai: Earnings of BSE Sensex companies will contract by up to 8 per cent in 2020-21 on the broader economic worries, and hopes of gains in equities should be pinned on a decrease in infections or a fiscal stimulus, an analyst said on Tuesday. Majority of the countries world over like Singapore and the US have given large fiscal stimulus packages which India is yet to announce, Bank of America Securities'' India equity strategist Amish Shah said. The GDP growth in India is set to contract by up to 5 percentage points in FY2021, according to various analysts and the RBI has also acknowledged that the economy will be shrinking this year. However, experts also feel that the equity markets do not reflect the real economic challenges. "We are expecting a 7-8 percent contraction in companies this fiscal and it will go up to 17 percent in FY22," Shah told reporters. Markets need a trigger and a growth in earnings is unlikely to be it. They will look for how the COVID-19 infection curve goes, and if it goes down, and also a fiscal package which can generate demand, he said. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak In a scenario where neither of it happens, that is, the infections continue to rise or a stimulus package does not come, investors will keep betting on the defensive sectors like information technology, pharma, fast-moving consumer goods and even telecom, Shah said. At present, Indian indices are under-performing as compared to others and a package from the government can help cover the ground, he said. It can be noted that the government has announced a nearly Rs 21 lakh crore relief package for the country to help minimise the impact on the economy which many analysts say will not result in fiscal spend of over 2 percent of the GDP. Shah said life will not be as normal as it used to be and there will be structural changes as a result of the pandemic from the medium to long term perspective. The changes may include a second wave of consolidation where entrenched companies across sectors expand their market shares as it happened in the aftermath of demonetisation and GST introduction (the first wave) and also disintermediation of the supply chains where online mediums become more successful largely at the cost of the wholesalers or middlemen. It will also lead more sovereign wealth funds investing into Indian assets because of the relatively higher yields over a longer period of times that they offer and also formalisation of jobs which can eventually lead to more targeted interventions by the government. The government is trying to initiate reforms on the basic factors of production including land and labour, he said, crediting it for being "creative" with the former, wherein it has adopted strategies beyond repealing or replacement of the land acquisition laws to be more effective, like giving land available with state-run enterprises like BHEL. There is also a likelihood that India will increase its "oversight" on citizens in the future which will create opportunities for private businesses engaged in the sector, he said, adding that mass deployment of controversial surveillance systems in countries such as China has helped it in dealing with COVID crisis better. Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), May 26 (IANS) After destroying crops in Rajasthan, a large swarm of locusts has now reached Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi district. On Monday, several areas in the district were under the locust attack, which continued on Tuesday too. Andra Vamsi, Jhansi District Magistrate said, "Locust swarms have arrived in Jhansi from Rajasthan. It has been observed that their movement is more concentrated near the river bed, affecting vegetable and soya plantations." The district administration had started spraying pesticides in fields from Sunday night and farmers started beating drums and clanging plates to make a noise since locusts are said to be afraid of noise. The state government had already started an awareness campaign against possible locust attacks from May 15 in which pamphlets and hand bills were distributed to farmers on this issue. The Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) of the Union ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare has warned of another attack in May-June. Notably, the first locust attack of this year was reported from Ganganagar, a district in north Rajasthan bordering Pakistan, on May 11. --IANS amita/dpb Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Train commuters from Quezon City and Marikina can expect better service before the year ends, as the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) puts back on track three fire-damaged stations by the end of September. Speaking at the Laging Handa briefing Tuesday, LRTA Spokesperson Hernan Cabrera said the original timetable for the Santolan, Katipunan and Anonas stations, which were all rendered inoperable when an electrical fire damaged a rectifier substation, was pushed back because of the COVID-19 crisis. Cabrera said the original timetable planned had the opening pegged at the end of June, but this was before the crisis. "Unfortunately po, inabutan tayo nitong COVID pandemic kaya hindi na po natuloy yung ating procurement process hanggang sa award," he said. [Translation: Unfortunately, we were caught by the COVID pandemic so the procurement process as well as the awarding did not push through.] READ: LRTA promises full LRT-2 operations by June Cabrera said they hoped to resume the procurement and have the awarding of contract within June. "Meron silang July, August, hanggang end ng September para maisagawa yung tinatawag nating temporary power supply system at para magamit na po natin yung tatlong istasyon itong Santolan, Katipunan at Anonas," he said. [Translation: They have July, August, until the end of September to restore the temporary power supply system so we can use these three stations Santolan, Katipunan and Anonas.] READ: LRT-2 operations from Anonas to Santolan to be suspended for nine months Cabrera stressed that should the train line be allowed to operate in June, only the Cubao to Recto segment would be running and the three stations would still not be operational. "Ang timetable po natin, mga end pa po ng September," he said. [Translation: Our timetable is until the end of September.] Despite quarantine restrictions, Cabrera said maintenance work for the tracks and trains are proceeding. Operators are also required to report daily, he added, to make sure the trains are running properly. Health and safety protocols to be enforced Once train operations are allowed to resume, railway authorities said health protocols would be strictly enforced, among them physical distancing, wearing of face masks and limiting the number of passengers allowed on platforms and inside the trains. Earlier, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) released guidelines to inform the riding public about the health protocols. "Social distancing of one meter should be strictly observed inside the trains and stations. Presence of markings, signages, tarpaulins and other logistics will be utilized to ensure its firm implementation," the DOTr said in its statement. Pursuant to the guidelines of the Department of Health, passengers who are not wearing appropriate face masks, are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, and have a registered body temperature of 37.8 C and above will not be allowed to enter train stations. Senior citizens, persons aged 0-20, and pregnant women will also not be allowed entry "due to their susceptibility to COVID-19." However, Cabrera said certain considerations would be given to pregnant women and the elderly who are essential workers. Tesla has not created a Megacybertruck version for the US military. However, Nextbigfuture proposes an obvious ultra-long-range configuration that would totally outclass the JLTV and the combat laser mounted Strykers. Tesla could create a 1-megawatt hour version of the Cybertruck that would have 3500 miles of range and have JLTV level armor. The Cybertruck weighs 5000 to 6500 pounds and 14000 pounds of payload capacity. The JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) weighs 10,000 pounds. Extra weight would for the megacybertruck would be used for extra armor and batteries. Teslas new batteries are now at $80 per kwh. The energy density of the batteries is about 300 watt-hours per kilogram and will be improving to 500 watt-hours per kilogram. Around 2022, Tesla batteries would be about 400 watt-hours per kilogram. 1 million watt-hours would be five times the premium tri-motor version battery pack. It would only weigh 2,500 kilograms (5511 pounds). These batteries would cost $160,000. The JLTV costs about $500,000 each. You could spend $75,000 on the premium tri-motor Cybertruck and upgrade with $130,000 worth of extra batteries. It already has $30,000 worth of batteries. Add in $100,000 or so worth of armor for a total cost of $300,000. There would be about 2000 pounds of extra armor. This would be a 14,000 pound Megacybertruck. The Cybertruck has 14,000 pounds of payload capacity so a megacybertruck would still have 6500 pounds of payload capacity. This is assuming the extra power was not used for stronger motors. The range and the reliability of a Tesla megacybertruck would totally outclass the JLTV. Cybertruck will have the 1 million duration batteries. There are far fewer parts for electric engines. The Pentagon requires the JLTV to operate at least 600 mean miles before an essential function failure. The vehicle was to be capable of traveling for 3 miles (5 km) cross-country having endured three 0.3-inch perforations of half-full main fuel tanks. The JLTV must also operate in altitudes from minus 500 feet to 12,000 feet and maintain full mission capability in temperatures from 40 to 125 F (40 to 52 C), according to established requirements. When temperatures drop well below zero, the JLTV must start within one minute with no external aids, kits or prior warming of the batteries. The vehicle must be capable of traveling 350 paved miles at 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) or 300 miles (480 km) in operational terrain on a single tank of JP-8 fuel. The premium tri-motor version of the Cybertruck will have 700 miles of range. A megacybertruck would have five times the batteries and could operate for 3500 miles on one charge. This would be ten times the range of the JLTV. Custom armored packages cost $100,000 to make street legal cars grenade and AK47 proof. The US army is developing a 100-kilowatt combat laser that will be placed onto trucks and the Stryker armored personal carrier. It will use a Rolls Royce M250 helicopter engine to power the laser. The helicopter engine generated 300 kilowatts of electrical power and will have 200 kilowatts of thermal management capacity. SOURCES- Tesla, Wikipedia, Dynetics, Jan Peisert Design rendering of a military Cybertruck Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com On August 10, 2019, then-21-year-old neo-Nazi Philip Manshaus made his way to al-Noor mosque in the suburban municipality of Baerum near the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on the eve of Eid al-Adha, intending to commit a massacre of Muslim worshippers. His murderous plot, however, ended in a spectacular failure. It was Saturday afternoon when he burst into the mosque, so only three worshippers were present. Two of them 77-year-old Mohammad Iqbal and 66-year-old Muhammad Rafiq managed to wrestle him down to the ground. Several days later, the neo-Nazi appeared in court with a bruised face, having failed to kill as many Muslims as possible and instead having gotten a beating from two elderly Muslims. Although there were no deaths at the mosque, it turned out that before setting off for the attack, Manshaus had killed his 17-year-old step-sister, Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, who was adopted from China and in his mind, also constituted a threat to the white race. Earlier this month the court case against him started, with prosecutors seeking a 21-year prison sentence for his crimes. As Norway goes through yet another trial of a murderous neo-Nazi, important questions have to be asked about how seriously violent far-right extremism is taken in Norway and how its ideas have been allowed to freely circulate under the guise of protecting freedom of speech. Right-wing extremism Despite the increasing sway of neo-Nazi ideas in Norwegian society, there is a continuous trend to perceive right-wing extremists as disturbed individuals and their violence as a result of mental illness rather than extreme ideology. In the case of Anders Breivik, who in 2011 went on a shooting spree in Norway killing 77 people, the Norwegian media extensively covered his psychological profile and claimed he had a problematic relationship with his mother. Some Norwegian commentators even went as far as comparing him to a natural disaster. Such narratives continue to dominate the public discourse in Norway because they offer a convenient way for a society which has long seen itself as post-racial and colour-blind to exceptionalise right-wing extremism and the wider societal climate of Islamophobia on which it feeds, rather than see it as a growing native phenomenon and a real threat. Manshaus, much like other murderous far-right extremists, was not a person with a mental illness. And he was clearly motivated to act violently by neo-Nazi ideology. According to court documents, forensic psychiatrists found him to be sane and criminally liable for his actions. During the psychiatric assessment, Manshaus did not appear to regret killing his own step-sister, as he considered her subhuman due to her Chinese ethnicity. He did express regret that the had not planned his attack on the mosque better so he would have actually been able to kill Muslims. In addition to espousing the idea of the great replacement that there is a conspiracy to replace white Europeans with (mostly Muslim) immigrants he also appeared to believe various anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and called the Holocaust a myth. He also declared homosexuality a disease. He clearly had drawn inspiration from Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 people in two mosques in New Zealand in 2019 and whose manifesto he cited in court. Manshaus also applied for membership in the neo-Nazi, pan-Nordic and Swedish-dominated Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) in June 2019, and had a meeting with some of their members. Several months earlier, after the New Zealand mosques attack, the NRM had refused to distance itself from Tarrants terrorist attack. Manhauss increasingly racist attitude prior to the attack worried some people in his immediate family and social circles. In 2018, a man contacted the Police Security Services (PST) expressing concern about his attitudes, but the police did not follow up on it. Fellow students at a rural ecological college that Manshaus attended in 2018-2019 were also perturbed by his ideas and informed the school administration, which also did not take action. Back in 2010, the Norwegian authorities also did not act on tip-offs about Breivik. Free speech vs hate speech It is undoubtedly something of a paradox that it was after Breiviks terrorist attacks in 2011, the worst in modern Norwegian history, that the Swedish-dominated neo-Nazi NRM started finding a footing in Norway. The Norwegian media reporter and author, Harald Klungtveit, has estimated that at least 81 Norwegians have passed through the ranks of the NRM since then. Despite this worrying trend, Norwegians have been duly told by Norwegian free speech liberals in powerful positions that the proverbial answer to hate speech is more and freer speech. Since 2011, Norwegian far-right, anti-Muslim and racist activists have enjoyed liberal access to mainstream media outlets, have had their self-published books sponsored by liberal foundations committed to freedom of expression, and have seen continued commitment to state funding of their media outlets. Norwegian liberal media editors have enforced editorial conventions whereby clearly and discernably racist and Islamophobic organisations have been euphemistically described as merely being critical of Islam. Both far-right anti-Muslim conspiracy theories like the Eurabia theory and identitarian replacement theory have been openly promoted by public intellectuals in positions of considerable power in Norway. Quite how Manshaus first came across the neo-Nazi NRM we do not know. But what we do know is that a central propaganda and recruitment tool for the NRM in Norway as in Sweden has been its public marches. When 60-70 Swedish and Norwegian neo-Nazis from the NRM, including a number of members with violent criminal records, marched through the city centre in Norways fifth-largest city of Kristiansand on July 29, 2017, the reaction of the very same Norwegian free speech liberals was that freely permitting them to do so was nothing short of a litmus test for Norwegian liberal democracy. The media has also extensively covered the Manshaus trial, going into excessive details about his life and printing photos of him, including those in which he makes far-right gestures, thus giving a platform to his propaganda efforts. And just like the media coverage of Breiviks trial, this raises the questions about the ability of Norwegian media to find the right balance between providing information of public interest and becoming a stage for extremist right-wing propaganda. As media scholar Gavan Titley cautions in a forthcoming book, free speech has been adopted as a primary mechanism for amplifying and re-animating racist ideas in our times. Though relatively few of those regularly exposed to racist hate speech in any society are likely to engage in violence or terror, there can be little doubt that the propagation of hatred made possible by ultra-liberal interpretations of freedom of speech is an enabling circumstance for such violence and terror. Meanwhile, members of immigrant and minority communities are increasingly living in fear. In Baerum, al-Noor mosque has seen few worshippers return and has struggled financially, as donations have dwindled. Norwegian authorities have offered little support, despite high-profile media shows of solidarity from Norwegian PM Erna Solberg and Crown Prince Haakon Magnus in the immediate aftermath of the attacks last August Never again was the mantra in Norway in 2011. But here we are again. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed primary schools will open on June 1 and secondary schools will provide some contact from June 15 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Reception (first year of primary school in the UK), Year One and Year Six will be the first to return, Johnson said during the daily coronavirus press conference at Downing Street on Sunday. I do believe we will be in a position to move to Step Two of our plan. As part of Step Two we set out plans for a phased reopening of schools because the education of our children is crucial for their welfare, their health, for their longterm future and for social justice. And so in line with the approach being taken in many other countries, we want to start getting our children back into the classroom in a way that is as manageable and as safe as possible, he added. The Prime Minister confirmed some secondary school pupils would also have contact with schools from next month. From June 15, for secondary schools to provide some contact for Year 10 and Year 12 students to help them prepare for exams next year with up to a quarter of these students in at any point. By opening schools to more pupils in this limited way we are taking a deliberately cautious approach. He said the decision to reopen schools on June 1 came after a constructive period of consultation with schools, teachers and unions led by the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson. Johnson said he acknowledged not every school was in a position to open on June 1 but the government would support them to open as soon as possible. In line with the approach being taken by many other countries, we want to start getting our children back into the classroom, in a way that is as safe as possible. pic.twitter.com/QGKOrLoqsZ Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) May 25, 2020 Meanwhile, the UK coronavirus death toll has increased by 121 further fatalities in the past 24 hours. The total is now 36,914. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a press conference following a National Cabinet meeting on May 15, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Rohan Thomson/Getty Images) PM Scott Morrison Unveils JobMaker Economic Recovery Plan Prime Minister Scott Morrison has unveiled the governments JobMaker plan to get the country out of intensive care by focusing on job creation that is driven by comprehensive reforms. Top of the prime ministers agenda is focussing on skills and industrial relations. Speaking at the National Press Club on May 26, Morrison said: We need Australians better trained for the jobs businesses are looking to create because thats important. Morrison wants training to be responsive to the demand for skills by employers, and to make it easier for students to decide on qualifications and see the quality of training providers, and the employment outcomes for those courses. To that end, the government wants to reform the current National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development between the states and the Commonwealth which Morrison said is fundamentally flawed and it has to change. Morrison revealed that the Minister for Industrial Relations will immediately lead negotiations involving employers, unions, employees, and governments to establish a new industrial relation compact that boosts employment and productivity. The purpose is simple and honest, to explore, and hopefully find, a pathway to sensible, long-lasting reform with just one goalmake jobs, he said. Morrison warned that the recovery could last up to five years, given the enormous challenges of a record deficit, debt rising above 30 percent of GDP, unemployment at around 10 percent, and global trade falling by up to one-third. He also warned that emerging from the crisis shutdown is riskier than the lockdown itself, saying that success cannot be assumed. It will not be business as usual. Opening up will be harder than closing down, he said. We will all have to retrain to live and work in a way that creates a sustainable COVIDSafe economy and society. Morrison said the country is in unchartered territory and that there will be trial and there will be an error. Jobkeeper Program The prime minister also said that companies on the temporary Jobkeeper payment need to get off the medication before becoming too accustomed to it. We must enable our businesses to earn Australias way out of this crisis. And that means focussing on the things that can make their businesses go faster. He said that while Jobkeeper and other temporary economic measures had provided a vital economic bridge for so many businesses and workers, the government could not remain at the centre of Australias economy as those measures were put in place to soften the impact of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic (commonly known as novel coronavirus). This is in line with the business-led recovery approach he has promoted before. Epoch Times reporter Caden Pearson contributed to this article. His announcement on the deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid, an aircraft carrier turned museum anchored at the piers along the Hudson River came as New York reported 96 new deaths related to the virus, only the second time that the states death toll had fallen below 100 since late March. [Get the latest news and updates on the coronavirus in the New York region.] New Yorkers observe Memorial Day, cautiously. Memorial Day weekend typically serves as a peek into what the city will look like in the coming months, a taste of summer that keeps New Yorkers looking forward. But this year, in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, people on Monday questioned how to gather during a crisis: Some watched socially distant processions instead of traditional parades, while others headed to the park or the beach, eager for the mornings gray skies to clear. In Yonkers, just north of the city, military and emergency vehicles were part of a Motorcade Memorial Day Parade. A flier encouraged onlookers to wear a mask and practice social distancing. On Long Island, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran hosted a car parade; residents were encouraged to watch a Facebook livestream and salute veterans remotely. In New York City, beaches were still closed to swimming, though most shorelines in the region were open. Still, the relatively cool weather and public safety measures most beaches were operating at half-capacity, and many had limited their use to locals only dampened the urge to pack together on the sand. [New Yorkers embark on a summer of uncertainty.] Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week that he was considering opening beaches this summer, should the pandemic continue to ebb. And over the weekend, several members of the City Council urged the mayor to open the beaches for swimming. Access to city beaches isnt just a summer fun issue, Corey Johnson, the Council speaker, said in a statement on Saturday. It is an equity issue and a public health issue. Officers of Towamencin DAR held a small Memorial Day ceremony at Wentzs United Church of Christ cemetery, in Worcester to honor the memory of those who died in action while serving in the U.S. military. The cemetery is the final resting place for about 150 veterans, some of whose graves whereabouts are unknown, including some who may have died in action. A central monument erected in 1916 to memorialize unknown descendants of Wentzs church founders was chosen as the site for the ceremony. Chapter Regent Samantha G. Freise placed flowers at the monument and said a few words, and a prayer was offered by Chaplain Marian Helinsky. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:48:15|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the country's military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet victory against the Nazis in World War II will be held on June 24. Putin postponed the Victory Day parade last month from its traditional date of May 9, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We will do this on June 24, the day when the legendary, historic parade of winners took place, when fighters who fought near Moscow and defended Leningrad, who fought near Stalingrad, liberated Europe and stormed Berlin, walked along Red Square," Putin said during an online meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin also announced that the Immortal Regiment march, a tradition in which millions of people across Russia parade with portraits of their relatives who fought in World War II, will take place on July 26. As Russia usually celebrates Navy Day on the last Sunday of July, Putin also ordered a traditional Navy parade at the country's main naval bases to be held on July 26. The military parade is one of the most important events in Russia this year, and leaders of many countries have been invited to join the event as honored guests. Nazi Germany signed an Act of Unconditional Surrender in a suburb of Berlin on the night of May 8, 1945, Berlin time, which was the early hours of May 9 Moscow time. It marked the end of the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, an integral part of World War II lasting from 1939 to 1945. The catastrophic war claimed about 27 million lives of people from the Soviet Union, according to official statistics. Biographical Information Dom Robinson Contributing Editor He first got involved in the sector when, while working as an event promoter, he produced a webcast with Netscape and the Ministry of Sound in October 1996. Since then has produced thousands of webcasts, been involved in a number of streaming start-ups and provided consultancy for a wide number of broadcasters and telcos. He has Professed as a Streaming Media Consultant and Pioneer and Webcaster since the end of 1996. He has worked for many of the largest webcast consumers, service providers and technology providers in the sector and considers himself to be at the forefront of the Streaming Media industry. Clients include Reuters, BT, UK Parliament, Number 10 Downing Street, Eutelsat, BskyB, BBC and countless others. Over the years he has worked with a number of ventures spanning all layers of the vertical markets around streaming, from telecoms and routing, through CDN, Serving, Management, integration, front end, ASIC, Set Top Box, DRM, Payment, Advertising, production, editing and development. He is a proper little know it all :) His company, id3as, is a boutique technology consulting and development group specialising in Internet Video and Audio delivery. Significantly the company currently delivers the back-end platforms for a variety of blue chip clients, including Thomson Reuters Market reporting Video and Audio Workflows, and also what will soon be launched as the Digital Service Platform for the domestic Digital Television broadcast networks in the UK. id3as also works as an angel finance provider and has also made a number of smaller investments, both financial and 'sweat equity' based (from it's own skills and resources) into several smaller startups in and around the IT space, including wearable technology, display technology, content delivery networking and telecoms and audio processing. Highly specialised and agile in its approach, the company brings all the skills of its team to a diverse range of projects. The founders' backgrounds include 20 years of pioneering in Software Development, Financial Services, Broadcast and Streaming Media. id3as has all the right experience to bring its event focussed expertise in the webcasting and online video streaming sector. From 2004 until 2008 Dom was Founder and CTO, and then from 2008 until 2010 he was Chief Executive Officer at Global-MIX (a UK CDN specializing in Multicast and Live content delivery on the Internet), taking it to winning the StreamingMediaGlobal.com 'Best Delivery Network in Europe' Readers Choice Award, before winding the company down voluntarily after a very tough trading year. He was added to StreamingMediaGlobal.com's Dream Team and the European Conferences 'Advisory Board' in 2009. He speaks and and writes on streaming media technology for Broadcast Engineering, ISP World and StreamingMedia, StreamingMedia producer and other Information Today publications. He programmed the European Content Delivery Summit, and the Video Infrastructure Summit, and chaired CDN World Forum. He provides 'front-line' streaming journalism for StreamingMedia and Broadcast Engineering from his European based professional life, has written for several publishers, and speaks at several global conferences focussing on Internet Video and Audio infrastructures. On occasion he still produces live events and is continually working with many clients on infrastructure architectures and technology innovations providing specialised solutions into the space. He is mad about streaming - particularly Live Streamingand also enjoys evangelizing about ithe wants nothing more than people to take a deep interest in the industry and, above all, enjoy and benefit from streaming products and services. Please leave him shouts (good and bad) by email (dom@streamingmedia.com or dom@id3as.co.uk ), on the comments with the articles or on the advanced list (where he spends a little too much time to be healthy!) (For a full 'track listing' of all his writing click here for the StreamingMedia Global Authors page.) Articles for Dom Robinson The Streaming Industry's Stellar 2021 Opens the Door to an Even Better 2022 We'll see even more of the innovationboth technical and culturalthat we've seen over the past year, but temper your excitement with a healthy dose of skepticism about Web3. Where Are the Women in the Streaming Media Industry? A look at any conference programincluding our ownmakes it clear: It's long past time for the streaming media industry to take the gender imbalance seriously, and to identify and address the root issuesnot just the optics. The Greening of Streaming, One Year On From an article in Streaming Media a year ago has grown a brand-new organization devoted to meeting the sustainability challenge in the streaming industry. ttconv Simplifies Subtitling and Captioning Thanks to ttconv, a new format converter, adding timed text to video is becoming simpler and more efficient, and Facebook is already embracing it How to License Music for Streaming Want to stream music online? Be prepared to deal with a labyrinth of licensing regulations. Here's an overview of music licensing for streaming, and scenarios to help you figure out what you need to do. Don't Believe the 5G Streaming Video Hype 5G holds promise for smart cities, smart vehicles, and industrial automation. For video streaming? Not so much. The Greening of Streaming The time has long since passed to turn our attention to making the streaming delivery ecosystem more environmentally friendly. Here are some of the key challenges, as well as some suggested first steps towards solutions. Preview: Content Delivery Summit 2020 Content Delivery Summit Chair Dom Robinson previews Content Delivery Summit 2020, the leading conference for CDN, edge delivery, and distributed computing, which Streaming Media is hosting as a free full-day webinar on June 1. It's Time to Make Streaming Greener The online video industry has yet to reckon with the energy demands and environmental impact of what we do. It's time to start the discussion and work towards the greening of streaming. Can Virtual Events Match the Real Thing? As conferences around the world are canceled or postponed due to COVID-19, it's time to give virtual event platforms a closer look. You might be surprised at how immersive they've become. How to Speak at Content Delivery Summit 2020 The event brings together all the players in the content delivery sectorfrom power and interconnect to quality of service and edge computein the only conference of its kind. If you're interested in speaking, read on. Disney, CBS, Akamai, Microsoft and More Speaking at Content Delivery Summit This year's event next week features presentations and fireside chats from leading players in the world of content delivery, from the CDNs themselves to the broadcasters and content owners that use them. Struggling With Capacity and Congestion in the Digital Video Age Can the internet keep up with the ballooning demands video is placing on it? And how can planners manage growth while keeping costs down? The correct answers are not always the obvious ones in this hall of mirrors. 25 Years of Internet Radio, Part 2 Back when online video was the size of a postage stamp, audio companies were changing the way the world heard radio. Here are reminiscences from RealNetworks and other pioneers. 25 Years of Internet Radio: Part 1 Can you believe it's been a quarter of a century since the first internet radio broadcast? In this first installment of a two-part series, we talk to some of the trailblazers who started a revolution. OTT Moves Toward Microservices as Speed Becomes an Issue Microservices architectures are central to the growth of OTT services, but they're widely misunderstood. Here's an intro to the major players. DIY: Live Audio Streaming Using Icecast with FFmpeg Building on previous DIY articles, this installment will walk you through capturing audio, encoding and packaging with FFmpeg, then playing out through the Icecast server you set up in the last article Hey, Streaming Industry: Fix This! In which our resident crank opens his craw, unleashes the italics, and goes to town on problems with the cord-cutting experience, why industry pundits lie about latency, and what's wrong with advertising (hint: everything) DIY: Icecast Internet Radio Server In the latest installment of our do-it-yourself series, we'll look at how to set up an Icecast server on an AWS cloud instance. DIY: Rudimentary Audio Streaming For the second installment in our do-it-yourself series, we look at how to set up a very basic audio stream between two computers on the same LAN. While the coding is simple, the concepts underneath are crucial to an understanding of how streaming works. DIY: Streaming to Multiple Destinations Want to stream to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch, but don't need a commercial streaming service and don't mind doing a bit of coding? Read on! Streaming Forum Preview: Broadcaster Streaming Strategies Hear speakers from Sky, BT, and CenturyLink discuss their organisations' approaches to OTT technologies, including virtualisation, containerisation, micro services, and encoding, as well as their overarching strategies for reaching multiple devices and audiences. Commentary: It's Not AV1 vs. HEVC With Apple joining the Alliance for Open Media, there's been a lot of talk about AV1 vs. HEVC. But we no longer live in an either/or world, and can now give viewers what they want with minimal cost and effort compared to years gone by. MP3: The End of the Beginning, or a New Dawn? MP3 may be the VHS to other audio formats' better-quality Betamax, but it's here to stay, especially now that the format is royalty-free. CDN Market Pricing Down, but Overall Growth Continues At last week's Content Delivery Summit, Dan Rayburn presented his annual survey of pricing and trends in the industry. Per-GB prices are down, but CDNs are making up for the drop with increased efficiencies and value-added services Commentary: Pointing Fingers in the Wrong Direction After AWS Outage Sites and services that went down when an Amazon Web Services region failed shouldn't blame Amazon. They should blame their own poorly architected cloud infrastructure. Review: DJI Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X5S Camera The DJI Inspire 2 sets a new bar for drones, and the Zenmuse X5S camera is on par with much pricier models. It might be overkill for live streaming, but combined with the drone and DJI's gimbals, it's well worth the price. Service Velocity Taking Hold in the Online Video Space We've moved from dedicated hardware to virtualized appliances, but a new approach to service velocity promises even faster ways to spin up new OTT services and bring them to market The Return of Multicast: Why it Succeeds in a Live Linear World Multicast isn't new, but CDNs, operators, and content publishers have finally caught up to the possibilities it offers for increased scale and decreased costs. SDN and NFV: The Future of Virtualization and Cloud Computing With software-defined networking and network function virtualization, the SaaS providers of today may soon find themselves adapting to more robust virtualization solutions. Here's a primer explaining how and why. How to Shoot Aerial Video Using Drones and Quadcopters Ready to get a bird's-eye view with an airborne camera? Here is a list of drone dos and don'ts from an experienced aerial videographer. Buyers Guide to Content Delivery Networks 2015 CDN-hunters, read this first for an explanation of the basic key performance indicators to explore in order to make the right choice for any size company. How to Maximize the Reliability of a Cellular Bonding Solution Cellmux technology is now an essential part of many video operations, but connections aren't always reliable. Here's how to ensure strong uptime and throughput. Mushroom Networks Streamer Powers an Industry-First Live Video Broadcast using iOS Devices Live broadcast from Cine Gear Expo used iPads as sources for both live and pre-produced content, all switched onsite and delivered using the Mushroom Networks Streamer 8000 OTT Delivery: Creating Strategies for Video Streaming The term "OTT" is used for many types of video delivery. Here are the different OTT workflow models, and the various ways they bring videos to viewers. A Buyers Guide to Content Delivery Networks CDNs aren't what they used to be. Here's what you need to know as you select one (or more) to deliver your content. A Buyers Guide to Backhaul Whether you call it backhaul or contribution feed, getting a signal to a studio or CDN is a key step in the streaming delivery chain. Here's a look at the options. A Buyer's Guide to Cellular Multiplexers 2014 The cellmux vendor universe is expanding, but a careful needs assessment can lead you to the right solution for your company. Creating NASDAQs Cloud-Based Virtual Workflow How one late-night brainstorming session turned into a more efficient workflow with tremendous cost savings. A Buyer's Guide to Cellular Multiplexers Forget the sexy form factor and look deep inside the technology. Here are the three questions to ask before buying a cellmux. A Buyer's Guide to Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) Where have all the CDNs gone? None of the most prominent CDNs want to be thought of as CDNs anymore. What does that mean for buyers or for the industry? Reliable UDP (RUDP): The Next Big Streaming Protocol? New so-called reliable UDP solutions offer an alternative to TCP. But are they worth the time or money to implement? WCIT-12: The End to the Internet as We Know It? ACTA and SOPA may be dead, but proposed changes to the Internet Telecommunications Regulation pose an even bigger threat to a free and open internet Buyer's Guide: Content Delivery Networks No one said choosing a CDN is easy, so here's a guide to the decision-making process. Don't miss our giant CDN flow chart. Buyer's Guide: CellMux, Link-Aggregator, and Channel-Bond Devices What to look for in cellular multiplexing devices -- perhaps the fastest growing streaming technology. CDN Federation: A Badly-Defined Solution in Search of a Real Problem? At last year's Content Delivery Summit Europe, there was serious interest in exploring the CDN federation model. Further investigation, however, reveals that the notion was more down to marketing and sales than engineering Teradek Bond: Review Yet another entrant in the "cellular multiplexer" field, the Teradek Bond offers reliable, good-quality streaming over cellular networks for a reasonable price Wired 2011: Where's the Video? The tech glitterati spent day one talking about social networking, biotech, and even 3D printing, but not video. Perhaps the online video industry has gotten so good that the influencers haven't noticed how much they've been influenced? Wired 2011: The Next Generation of Facial Recognition Face.com's facial recognition technology is at once amazing and scary. Are you ready for your close-up? iOS 5 and iCloud Are Great, But What About Video? iCloud is more than just Apple's entry into the world of cloud computing; it essentially means Apple is acting as a CDN. But if that function is going to expand to streaming video delivery, it's going to strain the network in ways that Apple's not ready for. YouTube: A Peek Inside YouTube's European engineering director Oliver Heckmann will keynote Streaming Media Europe in London in October, and he offered us a preview of his behind-the-scenes talk LiveU Shrinks Its Newest Model Despite its decidedly unsexy name, the LiveU LU40i offers very exciting new capabilities, including a rich array of Layer 2 interfaces Mushroom Networks' Portable Streamer Sends Any Video Source To a Content Delivery Network Unlike other so-called "cellular multiplexers," the Streamer takes a video feed via Ethernet and sends to the CDN of your choice Portable Cellular/Wi-Fi Video Broadcast Unit Review: IBIS DMNG AVIWEST's IBIS DMNG is the latest and greatest in portable, cellular/Wi-Fi video broadcast units, and it's a terrific addition to a growing field What if Google Didn't Drop H.264 in Chrome? Pundits have pounced on Google for dropping H.264 support in favor of WebM in the Chrome browser. But what if an all-H.264 world isn't all it's cracked up to be? Rackspace Teams With Akamai; Could Be Good News for Limelight Rackspace announced last week that it is partnering with Akamai, and reports suggested it is phasing out its relationship with Limelight. That makes little sense, unless there's more behind-the-scenes deal-making going on here than meets the eye. Commentary: BT and its Orwellian Aims to Mind Control the UK (Not) The controversy over British Telecom's new pricing scheme goes to show that the "Net Neutrality" debate might be the most ridiculous thing since the "Millennium Bug" Commentary: It's Time for a New Interpretation of Monetization Now that video delivery costs are minimal, it's time to stop looking for direct ROI on every byte of video served, and for a new breed of analytics to emerge Commentary: Flinging and Flicking With Apple's AirPlay, users can "fling" content from their iDevices to their Apple TVs. But what happens if, instead of streaming the content from a mobile device, viewers can "flick" it to their TVs, which will then pick up the content and take over the streaming directly from the source? Blue Coat Optimizes Video on Enterprise Networks Dot-com boom and bust survivor Blue Coat Systems has expanded and enhanced its support for streaming video with its latest ProxySG line of products The State of the Stack Once-clear segments of the online video stack are blurring, with different players moving up and down Ooyala Raises $22 Million to Accelerate Global Expansion Investment will help the online video platform move beyond the U.S. and Europe into Asia, and brings total investment in Ooyala to $42 million Commentary: Some Data Packets are more Equal Than Others The debates over net neutrality show a misunderstanding of fundamental characteristics of how traffic moves on the internet. Commentary: RIAs are the Beta Ground for Browsers Silverlight and Flash both have a future, but publishers should be considering HTML5 as a way to step away from vendor lock-in and the player and plug-in wars. Commentary: IPTV and its Grip on Reality The IPTV World Forum in London was awash with set-top box and middleware manufacturers in a fool's gold rush for a market that doesn't exist. Inside Thomson Reuters: Creating a Global Webcasting Platform A look at the inner workings of a worldwide streaming empire. INFORMATION SERIES #1: DRM Big brother may be watching... Dom Robinson kicks off a 12-part guide to everything streaming with the past, present and future of Digital Rights Management. Bill Clinton was seen sitting with Jeffrey Epstein on the convicted sex offenders' Caribbean island where young girls were allegedly taken and assaulted by the pedophile and his high-profile friends, a new Netflix documentary has claimed. Steve Scully, a 70-year-old former worker on Epstein's private Caribbean island of Little Saint James, said he saw the former president sitting with the pedophile in the porch of the island's villa. The explosive claims will be aired in the new series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, which hears from witnesses and victims of Epstein's abuse, who killed himself in prison last year while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. There is no suggestion Clinton was in any way involved in Epstein's campaign of abuse of young girls or the ongoing underage sex investigation into the convicted pedophile. Bill Clinton (left) was seen sitting with Jeffrey Epstein (right) on the convicted sex offenders' island where young girls were allegedly taken and assaulted by the pedophile and his high-profile friends, a new Netflix documentary has claimed Steve Scully, a 70-year-old former worker on Epstein's private Caribbean island of Little Saint James (above), has claimed he saw the former president sitting with the pedophile in the porch of the island's villa Clinton has reportedly denied ever visiting the Caribbean island but has admitted flying in Epstein's private jet on a handful of occasions. Scully, who maintained the phones and internet on the island, claims in the show that he saw no other guests around at the time of the two men's meeting, according to The Sun. It is not clear when the alleged meeting took place on the island - which was allegedly the base of years of sexual abuse and trafficking of girls as young as 14 at the hands of Epstein. Angel Urena, a spokesman for Clinton, denied the claims in a statement to DailyMail.com. 'This was a lie the first time it was told, and it isn't true today, no matter how many times it's repeated,' said Urena. The new claims come on the heels of those made by Epstein's 'sex slave' Virginia Roberts Giuffre who previously alleged in legal papers that she saw Clinton on the island. Giuffre alleged she had dinner with the former president, Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and two other women from New York on the island on one occasion. She claimed she later saw Clinton 'strolling into the darkness with two beautiful girls around either arm'. Clinton has not responded to the allegations and his office has previously insisted he knew 'nothing about the terrible crimes' of Epstein. Photos emerged (above) in January of Clinton with his arm round Chauntae Davies, who has told how she was recruited to be Epstein's personal masseuse and sex slave Clinton poses with Jeffrey Epstein's NYC housekeeper Jun-Lyn Fontanilla (left) and another staff member inside Epstein's home Photos emerged in January of Clinton posing on the steps of Epstein's private plane the Lolita Express with Epstein's alleged madam Maxwell in 2002. In another image, he is seen with his arm round Chauntae Davies, who has told how she was recruited to be Epstein's personal masseuse and sex slave. Davies told The Sun in January that Epstein used his jet to get close to influential people while he also flew underage girls to and from his Caribbean island and many homes where he would abuse them. 'It's clear that Epstein was using this private jet and his wealth to get close to rich and powerful people,' she said. 'Looking back at these images now it raises a lot of questions about why Bill Clinton was using the plane and what perhaps Jeffrey may have been trying to accomplish by having him around.' Clinton's office has admitted he flew four times on the Lolita Express - to Europe, to Asia, and two trips to Africa. However, doubt has been cast on the number of trips the former president made on the jet, with Fox News reporting that flight logs show Clinton made 26 trips on the plane from 2001 to 2003. The bizarre painting of Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress and red heels and lounging in the Oval Office which hung inside Epstein's Manhattan mansion Scully also told the documentary makers he saw other 'important people' coming and going from the private island, according to The Sun. On one occasion, he allegedly saw another male guest naked and flanked by three topless girls. 'You tell yourself that you didn't know for sure and you never really saw anything, but that's all just rationalization,' Scully said. 'Jeffrey Epstein, he was a guy who concealed his deviance very well - but he didn't conceal it that well.' Epstein died in his New York City prison cell in August last year after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s. In lawsuits, women say the abuse spanned decades. He first came under investigation in 2005 after police in Palm Beach, Florida, received reports he had sexually abused underage girls in his mansion there. Scully also told the documentary makers he saw other 'important people' coming and going from the private island (above) By 2007, Epstein was facing a potential federal indictment for sexually abusing dozens of girls between 1999 and 2007. Epstein struck a deal, however, to plead guilty in 2008 to a lesser Florida state felony prostitution charge, and register as a sex offender. He served 13 months in a county jail, but was allowed to leave during the day to go to his office. Epstein's cause of death was ruled as a suicide by hanging by the New York coroner but an investigator hired by Epstein's estate said the scene was more consistent with murder. To date, the only people besides Epstein who were charged in connection with the scandal are two jail guards who were supposed to be monitoring Epstein the night he was found dead. Both have been charged with falsifying the jail's log books to indicate they were performing checks on prisoners, when they were actually sleeping or browsing the internet. Numerous women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein as teenagers have claimed in lawsuits and interviews that he got help recruiting young girls from both Maxwell and several assistants. Ghislaine Maxwell (right), who is said to be in hiding as the FBI's net closes around Epstein's circle, has previously denied that she procured girls for Epstein (left) or took part in any of his crimes Maxwell, who is said to be in hiding as the FBI's net closes around Epstein's circle, has previously denied that she procured girls for Epstein or took part in any of his crimes. Several influential people have also been linked to the convicted pedophile and have sought to distance themselves from his crimes following his death. Victim Roberts Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17 at Epstein's behest. The prince has vehemently denied the claims. A US prosecutor in January said Prince Andrew had provided 'zero cooperation' to the American investigators who want to interview him as part of their sex trafficking probe into Epstein. Andrew announced last year that he was withdrawing from his royal duties amid the public attention over his ties to the pedophile. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich is directed by Lisa Bryant and based on James Patterson's bestseller of the same name. The four-part series will be released on Netflix on May 27. Heidelberg, Germany--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - DELPHI Unternehmensberatung AG ("DU") has filed with the British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario Securities Commissions through SEDAR an Early Warning Report (the "Report") announcing the acquisition today of ownership and control of 7,000,000 Common Shares of Rokmaster Resources Corp. (the "Company") at C$0.22 per share through a private placement of the Company for a total consideration of C$1,540,000, representing a 11.82 % shareholding in the Company. Prior to the transaction, DU and any joint actors held directly or indirectly, no beneficial ownership of, or the power to exercise control or direction over ordinary shares of the Company. The shares were acquired for investment purposes. DU may, depending on various factors including, without limitation, market and other conditions, increase or decrease his beneficial ownership, control or direction over ordinary shares of the Company or other securities of the Company, through market transactions, private agreements, treasury issuances, exercises of convertible securities or otherwise. DU was incorporated in Germany. DU's principal business is to invest its own funds. For further details relating to the disposition, please see the Report, which was filed in accordance with applicable securities laws, a copy of which is available under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com, or may be obtained from DELPHI Unternehmensberatung AG, Wilhelm K. T. Zours (CEO / Member of the Board), +49 6221 649240, info@deutsche-balaton.de. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56577 Market forces rained on the parade of Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AHT) shareholders today, when the analysts downgraded their forecasts for this year. Revenue estimates were cut sharply as the analysts signalled a weaker outlook - perhaps a sign that investors should temper their expectations as well. After the downgrade, the consensus from Ashford Hospitality Trust's five analysts is for revenues of US$861m in 2020, which would reflect a stressful 40% decline in sales compared to the last year of performance. Before the latest update, the analysts were foreseeing US$1.1b of revenue in 2020. The consensus view seems to have become more pessimistic on Ashford Hospitality Trust, noting the sizeable cut to revenue estimates in this update. See our latest analysis for Ashford Hospitality Trust NYSE:AHT Past and Future Earnings May 26th 2020 The consensus price target fell 9.3% to US$1.37, with the analysts clearly less optimistic about Ashford Hospitality Trust's valuation following this update. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Ashford Hospitality Trust at US$2.00 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$0.60. We would probably assign less value to the forecasts in this situation, because such a wide range of estimates could imply that the future of this business is difficult to value accurately. With this in mind, we wouldn't rely too heavily on the consensus price target, as it is just an average and analysts clearly have some deeply divergent views on the business. One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. These estimates imply that sales are expected to slow, with a forecast revenue decline of 40%, a significant reduction from annual growth of 4.8% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same industry are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 5.1% next year. It's pretty clear that Ashford Hospitality Trust's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry. Story continues The Bottom Line The clear low-light was that analysts slashing their revenue forecasts for Ashford Hospitality Trust this year. They also expect company revenue to perform worse than the wider market. Furthermore, there was a cut to the price target, suggesting that the latest news has led to more pessimism about the intrinsic value of the business. Often, one downgrade can set off a daisy-chain of cuts, especially if an industry is in decline. So we wouldn't be surprised if the market became a lot more cautious on Ashford Hospitality Trust after today. Want to learn more? At least one of Ashford Hospitality Trust's five analysts has provided estimates out to 2022, which can be seen for free on our platform here. Another way to search for interesting companies that could be reaching an inflection point is to track whether management are buying or selling, with our free list of growing companies that insiders are buying. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. The United Nations has deplored the "grotesque" use of improvised explosive devices against civilians in Libya's capital Tripoli, the scene of more than a year of deadly fighting. The UN mission in Libya said it "strongly condemns these acts, which serve no military objective, provoke extreme fear among the population, and violate the rights of innocent civilians who must be protected under international humanitarian law." In a statement released late on Monday, it voiced alarm about reports that residents of the Ain Zara and Salaheddin districts in southern Tripoli had been killed or wounded by IEDs placed in or near their homes. "This grotesque transformation and deterioration of the conflict, (which) has occurred while families were seeking the safety and comfort of their homes for the Eid holiday, demonstrates deliberate targeting of innocent civilians." Libya is largely divided between forces backing the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and those led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who backs a rival administration in the east. Haftar's forces have led an offensive since April 2019 to capture the capital, but they have suffered several setbacks in recent weeks and have been forced to withdraw from some areas they held. The battle for Tripoli has left hundreds dead, including civilians, and caused around 200,000 people to flee. The GNA on Monday accused Haftar's forces of planting mines in houses before pulling back from their positions in the south of the capital. It said two civilians were killed on Saturday as they returned home in Salaheddin, which has seen some of the worst of the fighting. Fiche, Ethiopia, and Chicago, USA, are a world apart, yet Mike was comfortable in both places. Mark Foster, a fellow Ethiopia volunteer, remembers visiting Chicago in the 1980s and going to the North Shore to meet Mike for dinner. I took a commuter train and Mike was on the platform when the train pulled in. A bunch of us got off, but the train didnt start up again. Mike and I headed for the stairs and, walking by the head of the train, we found the engineer waiting. The train engineer lectured Mike on what to do with the Bears that season. Mike listened politely and nodded, with his usual smiling grace. Eventually the engineer got back in the cab, the train left, and Mike commented, Just like Fiche. Burma Solar Investors Slam Myanmars One-Month Bid Deadline Myanmars first solar power plant in Minbu Township, Magwe Region. / The Irrawaddy Yangon Potential investors have criticized the Ministry of Electricity and Energy over a solar power tender with a one-month deadline to make a bid. The tender, issued by the ministry on May 18, invites companies to bid for the construction of 30 ground-mounted solar projects capable of generating 1 gigawatt (GW) under a 20-year build, operate and own contract. The minimum investment is set at US$20 million per site. Among the 30 proposed solar sites are four in Ayeyarwady Region, seven in Bago, six in Magwe, five in Mandalay, four in Sagaing, three in Naypyitaw and one in Yangon. Myanmar-based investors say the one-month deadline is too tight to even meet given COVID-19 travel restrictions as well as the time needed for land documentation. Foreign investors cannot visit potential sites as Myanmar has banned international flights until June 1 and imposed strict quarantine measures on business travelers. The criteria are not too strict. But the main problem is land documentation and we cant travel to the sites due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Obviously, the one-month deadline is not long enough, said director U Hla Win Shwe of Sun Shine Yangon Co., which planned to bid for three solar projects in Naypyitaw, Bago and Magwe. He suggests extending the deadline to at least 45 days or two months to conduct land surveys and settle disputes in land acquisition. The electricity ministrys permanent secretary U Soe Myint said his ministry is rushing to meet increasing electricity demand. We want to grab some time to fulfill the public need. This is to meet the public needs next year. We have invited tenders transparently, U Soe Myint told The Irrawaddy. Businesses have complained about the conditions, including that the plants need to start operation within 180 days after the letter of acceptance is issued. Investors are concerned that imported equipment will not arrive on time due to COVID-19. The deadline poses challenges as international flights are banned. It is a bit tight though we can hurry to meet it, said managing director U Lin Htun of US-based Quasar Resources LLC, which plans to bid for the solar projects. Energy analyst U Aye Kyaw Kyaw said the tight deadline could affect quality. Electricity distribution is a long-term business. I want the process to be systematic and not hasty, he said. The electricity ministry predicts that Myanmar will need around 6GW in the 2020-21 fiscal year, about double the current capacity. In partnership with Chinese firms, the ministry has been implementing liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fired power plants capable of generating over 1GW in Yangon and Magwe regions and Rakhine State. Those projects were scheduled to come into operation during the current hot season, but they were not completed on schedule. Frequent power outages have occurred in April and early May. There were also criticisms when the government invited companies to bid for the LNG plants and build them in seven months, breaking even in less than five years. The firms were due to be paid in kyats. Myanmars State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi opened the countrys first solar power plant in Minbu Township, Magwe Region, in June last year. The plant is currently producing 40 megawatts and sends power to Rakhine State. Hydropower is the main source of electricity in Myanmar, accounting for more than two-thirds of supplies, while coal-fired power plants provide only 1 percent, with the rest coming from natural gas and solar power. Of over 10 million households in Myanmar, only around 4 million are connected to the national grid. Electricity demand has increased by 15 percent annually over the past few years, according to the electricity ministry. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko You may also like these stories: Myanmars First Solar Power Plant Joins National Grid Myanmar Energy Analysts Alarmed at Floating Power Plant Plans for Yangon Ropes fixed to Everest summit for Chinese height measurement expedition 26.05.2020 by by Planetmountain News broke a few hours ago that a team of mountaineers belonging to a Chinese expedition which aims to measure the height of Everest has reached the summit having climbed up the Tibetan side of the mountain and fixed ropes to the tip. The Chinese expedition is the only expedition operating on the highest mountain in the world as the mountain is closed to all foreigners due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As reported in mid-April, in order to contain the Covid-19 pandemic both the Nepalese and Chinese governments closed their international borders and, consequently, halted all mountaineering activity on the highest mountains in the world. The only exception is a permit granted by the Chinese government to an expedition on the Tibetan side of Chomolungma, which plans on measuring the altitude of Everest as well as guiding paid clients to the summit. After a series of failed attempts in recent days, which stopped at 8000 and 8600 meters due to strong winds, according to Nepals Mingma Gyalje Sherpa a team of Tibetan mountaineers composed of Dorjee Tsering, Tenzing Norbu, Dunpa, Tashi Gombu, Tsering Norbu and Dorje summited a few hours ago. The rope-fixing team managed to fix ropes for Survey team that will make a summit bid tomorrow, followed by the rest of the commercial expedition. As many will remember, this is not the first time that the altitude is measured of Chomolungma (the Tibetan name for Everest). The officially recognised height is 8848m although some consider it likely to be lower or, in any case, dependant of the snow cover. The surveillance expedition is normal therefore. What is decidedly not normal is the period during which the expedition is being carried out. As mentioned above, the mountain is off-limits and "closed for Covid-19" for all except this Chinese expedition. In recent memory there has been only one similar episode, namely in 2008 when the Tibetan side was sealed off (and no climbing allowed above Camp 2 on the Nepalse side) to enable the torch of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to reach the top of the highest mountain in the world. 31402 Gregory Crabb, CISO, VP, United States Postal Service Gregory Crabb, CISO, VP, United States Postal Service The American criminal justice system is most effective when citizens work in partnership with law enforcement organizations, reporting crimes and suspicious activity in a timely manner. When a burglar crashes through a window and robs a home, most victims report the incident to local police, who gather the evidence necessary to catch the thief. As members of a community, we report a crime because we understand the central role active communication with law enforcement plays in maintaining a safe environment for our neighborhoods, schools, and businesses. These observations provide law enforcement organizations with the insights they need to identify and eliminate potential threats and prevent future criminal activity. While many victims dont hesitate to report criminal activity, victims of data breaches or similar cyber-attacks are far less likely to share these incidents with law enforcement. Most people place blame for data breaches or other high profile cyber-attacks squarely on the shoulders of the affected organizations without considering the actions of the criminal who launched the attack. Responsible organizations go to great lengths to protect their networks, yet cyber threats are ever evolving in sophistication and prowess. Cybercriminals can victimize even the most hardened IT environments. As members of the cyber community, its critical that we understand the inherent cyber risks companies face in the digital age and resist the urge to shame companies that fall victim to cyber theft. As one of the few federal information security officers with a background in law enforcement, Ive come to appreciate the importance of cyber threat sharing during my 20+ years of service with the United States Postal Inspection Service, the federal law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. In the early 2000s, I led a team of Postal Inspectors in investigating sophisticated cybercrime schemes operating out of Eastern Europe. One investigation led to the arrest of cyber criminals connected to hundreds of cybercrime attacks. By sharing threat intelligence and reporting successful breaches, organizations empower law enforcement to seek out attackers and eradicate ongoing cybercrime Central to the success of this investigation (documented in Misha Glennys 2011 book, Dark Market) was a commitment to threat sharing between several public and private sector organizations. Cases like this demonstrate the critical role that proactive and sustained threat sharing plays in limiting the effectiveness of cybercriminals, from amateur hackers sending out phishing emails to nation states engaging in international cyber espionage. As long as companies hoard knowledge of cyberattacks for fear of public shaming and loss of business, our understanding of the motivations, patterns, and tactics of cybercrime will continue to suffer. Threat sharing allows law enforcement organizations and the companies they protect to approach cybercrime from a holistic perspective. By combining the insights of private companies, dedicated nonprofits, and law enforcement, we can piece together a fuller picture of cybercrime and stop cybercriminals before they strike. The Postal Service leverages law enforcement partnerships as a critical component of its overall network security strategy. We exchange cyber threat intelligence with trusted allies across the government, including our colleagues at the Postal Inspection Service and FBI. These relationships allow us to connect seemingly disparate threads and one-off leads into a more comprehensive view of cybercrime in the mailing landscape. These organizations often have knowledge and insights that enhances our understanding of the criminals launching attacks against our network, allowing us to stop would-be intruders and better secure the mail system for the American people. We encourage organizations of all sizes to maintain an open dialogue with law enforcement on the topic of cybersecurity. More often than not, cyber-attacks against a single organization are not isolated incidents. By sharing threat intelligence and reporting successful breaches, organizations empower law enforcement to seek out attackers and eradicate ongoing cybercrime. In addition to working with law enforcement, an organization should take advantage of the resources provided by public-private partnerships in the threat detection space. Foremost among these is the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA), a non-profit cyber threat research and analysis institution based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. NCFTA aggregates threat intelligence data from a range of contributors to identify, mitigate, and neutralize cyber threats. The work of the NCFTA, in partnership with its public and private subject matter experts, has led to the successful prosecution of hundreds of criminals worldwide a tangible representation of the genuine benefits of cyber threat sharing. The Postal Service also supports efforts by industry-specific forums, like the Financial Services-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), to circulate valuable cyber threat information to members of a particular industry. Cybercriminals are increasingly organized, armed with rapidly-evolving technology that threatens to outpace even the most advanced cybersecurity defenses. Experience has shown that organizations are better equipped to detect and mitigate cyber-attacks when threat intelligence is shared with law enforcement organizations and credible research institutions. I encourage your organization to contribute to the cyber threat intelligence community and help us in our efforts to police cybercrime. Louisville Nonprofits Receive $2.2 Million through Humana Foundation's Community Partners Program The Humana Foundation, philanthropic arm of Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) for the past 38 years, is awarding $2.2 million to nonprofit organizations in Louisville as part of its ongoing Community Partners Program. The initiative began in 2018 and has since awarded more than $6 million to local nonprofits addressing social determinants of health and creating greater health equity for all in Humana's corporate hometown. Initiatives funded by the 2020 Community Partners Program address social determinants of health in Louisville and focus on nutrition and food security, shelter, personal safety, healthcare services, built and natural environment, arts and culture, and education and early childhood development. Special consideration was given to organizations addressing historical and root causes of inequity, collaborative proposals, and initiatives with a strong focus on inclusion, diversity, equity and belonging. The Foundation also took into account the negative impact of COVID-19 and how the virus further marginalizes people in underserved communities. "When we opened applications for our 2020 Community Partners Program in early January, we had yet to fully realize the challenges posed by coronavirus," said Walter D. Woods, CEO of The Humana Foundation. "During the evaluation process in March and April, we realized we must look at applications through a COVID-19 community needs lens and support programs helping those most strongly impacted by the pandemic. We are funding as many initiatives as possible this year to bolster Louisville's recovery from COVID-19." The most vulnerable are disproportionately experiencing the economic and health implications of COVID-19. These challenges are compounding issues many were dealing with before the pandemic, including hunger and financial instability. Initiatives like Dare to Care's School Programs and CASA's Raising Up: Working with Vulnerable Children for Positive Futures will work to help children receive healthy food and have the tools necessary to overcome trauma during and after the pandemic. Programs like New Directions Housing Corporation's Eviction Prevention Program will help create greater financial asset security, especially for those facing furloughs and layoffs during coronavirus quarantine measures. The Humana Foundation also offered a special incentive to Humana employees in Louisville to help strengthen the city as it faces the impacts of coronavirus - the opportunity to select a local nonprofit for a $10,000 grant. As a result, Backside Learning Center received funding to support staffing and programming that will directly benefit Churchill Downs workers and their families during the COVID-19 health crisis. The following nonprofit organizations will receive Community Partners Program funding from The Humana Foundation in grant amounts varying from $10,000 to $75,000: The Humana Foundation selected organizations for 2020 funding based on input from Humana's Community Partners Program Advisory Committee, a diverse group of volunteers from Humana's Network Resource Groups, and an online vote of Humana employees based in Louisville. For more information on The Humana Foundation's Community Partners Program, please visit the Foundation's website. About the Humana Foundation The Humana Foundation was established in 1981 as the philanthropic arm of Humana Inc., one of the nation's leading health and well-being companies. Located in Louisville, Ky., the Foundation seeks to co-create communities where leadership, culture, and systems work to improve and sustain positive health outcomes. For more information, visit humanafoundation.org. Humana and The Humana Foundation are dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility. Our goal is to ensure that every business decision we make reflects our commitment to improving the health and well-being of our members, our employees, the communities we serve, and our planet. About Humana Humana Inc. is committed to helping our millions of medical and specialty members achieve their best health. Our successful history in care delivery and health plan administration is helping us create a new kind of integrated care with the power to improve health and well-being and lower costs. Our efforts are leading to a better quality of life for people with Medicare, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large. To accomplish that, we support physicians and other health care professionals as they work to deliver the right care in the right place for their patients, our members. Our range of clinical capabilities, resources and tools - such as in-home care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, data analytics and wellness solutions - combine to produce a simplified experience with the goal of making health care easier to navigate and more effective. More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's website at humana.com, including copies of: Annual reports to stockholders Securities and Exchange Commission filings Most recent investor conference presentations Quarterly earnings news releases and conference calls Calendar of events Corporate Governance information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005566/en/ New Delhi: Employees working in private sector will get more take home salary for three months May, June and July as the government has announced reduction in EPF contribution for the month of May, June and July. But, reduction in employees share of contribution from 12% to 10% will make the remaining 2 percent salary liable for income tax. If an employee does not choose to spend the 2 percent PF amount in tax-saving investments, their income tax liabilities will increase. It will also at the same time reduce the contribution to the PF by an equivalent amount. Meanwhile, some companies are offering employees the option to choose to opt for contribution of an additional 2% for the aforesaid three months though there will be no change to the Employer Contribution. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on May 13 announced that for the next three months employee provident fund (EPF) contribution will be 10 per cent each for employees and employers as compared to the statutory obligation of 12 per cent. The move is to increase take-home salary for employees and to give relief to employers in payment of provident fund. The government has decided to continue EPF support for business and workers for 3 more months providing a liquidity relief of Rs 2,500 crores, the FM said. Under this new provision, the employers will continue to pay 12 per cent, while employees will have the option to pay 10 per cent for the next three months. This will benefit nearly 4.3 crore provident fund subscribers and and as many as 6.5 lakh establishments will also avail this benefit from this. However, this does not apply to those companies where government is giving the entire 24 percent contribution towards EPF. Furthermore, in the case of the central public sector enterprises and state public sector, this exempt will not be applicable. They will continue to pay 12% as EPF contribution. The scientific community's support for South Africa's management of the coronavirus outbreak risks being undermined by the health ministry's harsh response to criticism from a leading expert. Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council and a member of a virus advisory council appointed by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, told local media on May 16 that some government measures to deal with the outbreak were unscientific and cases of malnutrition had been detected at the country's biggest hospital. Mkhize has accused her of lying while Anban Pillay, the acting director general of the health department, demanded that the research council investigate her conduct. "You cross the line from accountability to a witch hunt when you say I now want to investigate someone because of remarks they made," said Adam Habib, vice chancellor of Johannesburg's University of The Witwatersrand. "That, I think, can have very dangerous consequences for society and the management of this epidemic." The spat has echoes of attacks on experts who stood up to former President Thabo Mbeki when he questioned the severity of South Africa's Aids epidemic despite it being the world's largest. His administration's failure to provide treatment probably caused the premature deaths of more than 330,000 people between 2000 to 2005, according to a 2008 study by the Harvard School of Public Health. A petition supporting Gray has been signed by more than 300 academics and the Academy of Science of South Africa decried the call for a probe, which the MRC's board agreed to. "Academics and researchers need the space to undertake independent research in an environment that is free from fear, intimidation and political interference," the association said in a statement on Monday. "To threaten researchers and to muzzle their voice would have a chilling effect on creativity, innovation and experimentation." Mkhize last week disputed Gray's comments on malnutrition and rejected her statement that the government was ignoring scientific advice. "What we cannot tolerate is a person making false statements," Pillay said in an interview on Monday. "The MAC advises the minister on health matters, not economic matters." South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has attempted to defuse the crisis, which threatens to erode praise for his administration's response to the pandemic by closing borders and imposing a lockdown. The government appreciates "the diverse and sometimes challenging views" of scientists and health professionals, he said in a televised address on May 24. Gray declined to comment. Emails to the secretariat of the research council and Johnny Mahlangu, its chairman, weren't answered. In a letter to Pillay, seen by Bloomberg, Mahlangu apologized for Gray's conduct, said an investigation would be undertaken and requested a meeting with the acting director general and the minister. In later communications, the council said Gray had been cleared and she thanked the MRC for its swift action. "Scientists were very very negatively penalized during the Aids dissident era," Habib said. "I don't think we are there with this. I don't want us to create the circumstances where we go there." U.S. coronavirus hospitalizations have crept higher as states increasingly loosen Covid-19 restrictions and try to return to some semblance of normalcy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday. "We now see a trend in an uptick in hospitalizations. It's a small uptick, but it is an uptick and it's unmistakable and it is probably a result of reopening," Gottlieb said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "We are going to have to watch it." Hospitalizations are a key indicator that epidemiologists watch closely to understand the state of the outbreak. Hospitalizations are not as dependent on the availability of testing as other closely watched measures such as the number of new cases, which is constrained by the number of tests deployed and delayed by shortages of equipment like swabs. However, hospitalizations are likely a lagging indicator of the underlying reality because it can take weeks for people to become infected, develop symptoms, get tested, receive test results and become sick enough to be admitted to a hospital. "We expected cases to go up and hospitalizations to bump up when we reopened and I was talking to a lot of states about their plans and they were expecting that there was going to be an uptick," said Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor who sits on the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina. Pfizer has a Covid-19 vaccine under development. "That's why they all implemented very staged reopenings where they reopened in phases and then reassessed the data to make sure that any increase wasn't an inordinate increase." Every state has now reopened some nonessential businesses and eased at least some restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus. However, states are moving at vastly different paces. Wisconsin reopened over night after the state's Supreme Court overruled the governor's stay-at-home orders whereas New Jersey has kept most nonessential businesses closed. Some state officials, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, made the announcement to reopen despite failing to meet the criteria set by the White House, including a sustained drop in new infections for at least two weeks. Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Maryland, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Arizona have all seen a small uptick in hospitalizations, said Gottlieb. CNBC could not confirm the data Gottlieb referenced because not all states make hospitalization data available. There are hopes that the virus will spread more slowly during the warmer summer months even as people begin to intermix more, Gottlieb said. There's little evidence at this point to indicate that Covid-19 is a seasonal virus, but other human coronaviruses have shown seasonality, with most cases peaking in winter. "The hope is that there's a seasonal effect here," Gottlieb said. "And that seasonal effect will hopefully offset the increased social interaction, which is going to cause cases to go up, so as we get into July and August things will start to either level off or go down." People should still practice social distancing precautions and where protective equipment such as masks as society continues to reopen, Gottlieb said. He added that images of large gatherings across the country over Memorial Day weekend worried him. "I'm concerned there are people who think this is the all-clear, and I think what we really need to be doing is defining a new normal," he said. "We're going to need to live differently until we get a vaccine." 40% of them will work in Poland for the first time UIA delivers 178 Ukrainian seasonal workers to Poland Focus May 26, 178 Ukrainian citizens went to Poland via a charter flight of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) in order to conduct seasonal works. This was announced by Tomasz Bogdewicz, CEO of Gremi Personal employment company, in a comment to Ukrinform. "After the plane landed, 178 Ukrainian migrant workers were transported by bus to about 10 places for a 14-day quarantine," Bogdewicz. According to him, the flight was free for all passengers. 40% of them will work in Poland for the first time. Long-term employment agreements have been signed with all Ukrainians. They will be involved, in particular, in the consumer and logistics spheres. Gremi Personal is going to analyze and determine whether the next flights will be needed. As we reported earlier, on May 24, Czech diplomatic missions in Ukraine resumed work of consular departments, aimed at issuing work visas. "After repeated negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities, we managed to reach an agreement and partially resume the visa process. The Czech economy needs Ukrainian workers. We are trying to simplify the situation for Czech health care and agriculture, which lack seasonal workers from abroad," Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said. Brasilia, May 26 : Various regions of Brazil were beginning a gradual reopening despite a study showing that the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to reach its peak in the country, which is now second most-affected in the world with 374,898 cases and 23,473 deaths. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Crivella, decided on Monday to maintain the social isolation measures in the city, although he guaranteed that the churches will be able to function, reports Efe news. Crivella announced that the restriction measures in Rio will continue for at least another week, but said that churches will be included among the essential services able to operate during the pandemic, which has already caused 4,000 deaths in the state. While health authorities suspect a possible lack of control of COVID-19 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which accounts for more than 2,800 deaths and some 22,000 cases, the mayor said this has not been confirmed. He assured that he will not "relax the social distancing measures" and pointed out the need to wait "to start the return to activities". A study by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro indicated that the expected peak of COVID-19 in the state will occur in the first fortnight of June, while deaths could rise to 30,000 if more stringent isolation measures were not adopted. Despite the fact that Brazil has in the last few days risen to become the country with the second-highest number of cases in the world behind the US, various cities have relaxed restrictions, as is the case of Niteroi, in the Rio metropolitan region, and Duque de Caxias, the second municipality with more deaths in the region. In Niteroi, beauty salons, hotels, real estate agencies, hotels and garages, among other businesses, are open with some sanitary protocols, such as the offer of hand sanitizer, distancing between people and the mandatory use of masks. In Duque de Caxias, a municipal decree allowed the reopening of all commercial activities, which led dozens of people to the streets, but a judicial decision later determined that businesses should remain closed. Likewise, the inhabitants of Sao Luis, the capital of the northeastern state of Maranhao - the first in the country to decree total lockdown on May 3 - have filled the streets. On Monday thousands of people crowded the sidewalks and queued to access shops in various sectors. The Maranhao governorate announced a "gradual and secure" process for the reopening of economic activities in the state, which will be carried out in stages over 45 days. In the city of Belo Horizonte, shopping malls, hairdressers and other businesses reopened Monday with long queues of waiting customers, despite fears of the mayor's medical team regarding the relaxation of isolation measures. Britain should be prepared to offer 'mass asylum' to thousands expected to flee Hong Kong as China imposes tough new security laws, an MP said yesterday. Bob Seely warned there could be an 'exodus' from the former British colony amid fears the legislation will be used against pro-democracy activists. Riot police used tear gas and water cannon against protesters demanding independence for Hong Kong and arrested at least 180 on Sunday. China insists the legislation, set to be passed on Thursday, is necessary to protect national security. Hundreds of protesters with banners march along a downtown street during a pro-democracy protest against Beijing's national security legislation in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2020 Mr Seely, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, said Hong Kong faces a crisis and Britain should offer sanctuary to those fleeing. He wrote on the Conservative Home website that British National Overseas (BNO) passport holders and democracy activists who do not have BNO status should be fast-tracked for UK citizenship. Mr Seely wrote: 'The possibility of a mass flight from Hong Kong may become one of those rare occasions where mass asylum in the UK is morally right, as it was with ethnic Indians in Uganda expelled by that country's insane dictator, Idi Amin, and accepted by the UK and others in 1972.' Britain should work with the US, Australia and Canada to provide 'long-lasting places of sanctuary', he said. He added: 'It would be a stain on our country's reputation if other nations were to open their arms, metaphorically speaking, to Hong Kong BNO folk in their hour of need before the UK did so.' Mr Seely and other Tory MPs have asked for a Government statement over the rights of BNO passport holders, who do not have an automatic right to live or work in this country. Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have also called on Britain to take a tougher stance against Beijing, and have warned they could face charges of subversion or terrorism under the new security law. Chris Patten, now Lord Patten, the final Governor of Hong Kong before the handover, said Britain needed to be 'more generous' towards BNO passport holders and to allow those facing the greatest threat to come here. Riot police detain a protester during a demonstration against Beijing's national security legislation in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, Sunday, May 24, 2020 Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Britain must support its nationals in Hong Kong, adding: 'We must stand up for their rights and offer them sanctuary if they need it.' China defended the new security law. Its Foreign Commissioner in Hong Kong, Xie Feng, said it would only target those who posed an 'imminent danger' to national security. He said: 'The legislation will alleviate the grave concerns among local and foreign business communities about the violent and terrorist forces.' The US has threatened to withdraw Hong Kong's preferential business trading status if the new law is implemented. China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: 'If the US insists on hurting China's interests, China will have to take every necessary measure to counter and oppose this.' She has maintained her impressive work ethic as she's worked at Heart FM throughout the coronavirus lockdown. And Ashley Roberts displayed her typically chic style as she left Global Studios following her hosting shift on Heart Breakfast in London on Tuesday. The Pussycat Doll star, 38, exuded daytime glamour in a textured, floral print midi dress, which featured puffball sleeves and a curved hemline. Fashion savvy: Ashley Roberts displayed her typically chic style as she left Global Studios following her hosting shift on Heart Breakfast in London on Tuesday Turning heads, the media personality strutted across Leicester Square in a pair of white, ankle-strap heels, which coordinated with her cream designer handbag. The musician rounded off her appearance with quirky cat-eye shades and a chain bracelet. With her shoulder-length styled into loose waves, the Buttons hitmaker complemented her beauty with matte foundation and peach lipgloss. Strutting her stuff: The Pussycat Doll star, 38, exuded daytime glamour in a textured, floral print midi dress, which featured puffball sleeves and a curved hemline All in the details: The musician rounded off her appearance with quirky cat-eye shades and a chain bracelet Ashley's group The Pussycat Dolls were due to hit the stage for their reunion tour, before their plans were thwarted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, they said: 'Alright Doll lovers.... Following the latest government advice we are very sad to announce that we are postponing our UK and Ireland tour. 'We're gutted not to be able to perform next month, but the safety and health of our fans is of course our No.1 priority. Radiant: With her shoulder-length styled into loose waves, the Buttons hitmaker complemented her beauty with matte foundation and peach lipgloss Busy bee: The blonde beauty has maintained her impressive work ethic as she's worked at Heart FM throughout the coronavirus lockdown 'We look forward to seeing you all at the rescheduled dates in October. 'In the meantime please stay safe and look after yourselves. Love Pussycat Dolls'. The band had reunited after a nine-year music hiatus last year and were planning to travel the globe for their tour. An apology from Northern Ireland abuse victims' advocate Brendan McAllister for a serious data breach at his office does not go far enough, it has been claimed. While other victims have said they retain their confidence in Mr McAllister, who said he won't be standing down, Margaret McGuckin from the Survivors of Institutional Abuse (Savia) group said he must go further than saying sorry. Expand Close Margaret McGuckin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Margaret McGuckin "He doesn't realise the seriousness of it. Anybody in any position of power would do the right thing, put their hands up," she told the BBC. "Yes, he's apologised and many may be appreciative of that, but his apology is not working." Read More A newsletter was sent out on Mr McAllister's behalf on Friday but listed the emails of 250 people, including abuse victims. Many victims have already indicated that they intend to sue for damages, which a legal source told the Belfast Telegraph could cost as much as 2.5m. The interim advocate for victims apologised again yesterday, but said he would wait for the results of an investigation from the Information Commissioner before considering his position. Mr McAllister told the BBC it would be counterproductive to leave his post before a permanent appointment was made. Read More "It's important from my point of view that I continue for this next number of months before the appointment of a commissioner, to make sure that everything can be put in place," he said. "To step aside at this stage would lose valuable months. However, an investigation will take place and if in any way I am found to be personally culpable in this matter, of course I'll have to consider my position." One man who said he had been identified on the list, who asked only to be referred to as PJ, said he would be taking legal action and that Mr McAllister could not defend his position. He also claimed his name had previously been published in error when he gave evidence to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in 2014, which resulted in him being attacked. "To say I am outraged is an understatement," he said. "This release of victims' email addresses is no trivial matter and Brendan McAllister, I believe, should very carefully consider his position." He said the investigation needed to determine if proper security procedures were in place to prevent a serious data breach. A member of the St Patrick's Survivors group also said one of their members had been included on the list and was extremely distressed. "Every day [Mr McAllister stays in his post] is causing even further pain and distress and the lack of action is unacceptable," they said. However, Jon McCourt from the group Survivors North West said on Sunday he did not believe Mr McAllister should step down, although the breach had been highly embarrassing. Yesterday he told the BBC that some members of the Rosetta Trust and Survivors Together also backed him to stay. "I saw the whole list and I was shocked. It was a massive breach of confidentiality of all of those who were named," he said. Mr McCourt noted that there had been a failed attempt to retrieve the original email before the issue was made public. Expand Close Jon McCourt / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jon McCourt "I'm looking at the impact that this has had on people that I have spoken to over the weekend. They range from a feeling of betrayal right through to anger, particularly from people who had previously been victims of a breach of confidentiality through the HIA. "This was a double hit for them. Without doubt this has had a massive personal impact for people who engage with the inquiry." The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea challenging a Delhi High Court order in which it had declined to direct linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID card for weeding out fake accounts. A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao, however granted liberty to lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay to implead himself as a party in the transfer petition moved by the Centre in the apex court. The lawyer, who argued the case through video-conferencing, said that the Centre had earlier sought transfer of similar cases from some High Courts to the apex court. "We see no reason to interfere with the impugned order of the High Court. The Special Leave Petition is, accordingly,dismissed. However, liberty is granted to the petitioner (Upadhyay) to file impleadment application in Transfer Case," said the bench which also comprised Justices Krishna Murari and S Ravindra Bhat. The Delhi High Court had earlier declined to order linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar, PAN or voter ID card for weeding out fake accounts, saying it would lead to data of genuine account holders, who are much more in number, going "unnecessarily" to foreign countries. It had said that linking of accounts with social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, with Aadhaar, PAN or any other identity document requires framing of policies or amendment in existing laws by the central government and this exercise cannot be done by the court. Upadhyay, in the plea, has said that 20 per cent of the social media accounts were "fake, ghost or duplicate". The plea said something has to be done as anyone can create a fake account on social media of any person, including the judges, and through that medium wrong or controversial information can be spread. He had also alleged in his petition that fake social media accounts are used to propagate "fake and paid news" during elections. Tapan Patel Commodity prices traded higher with all major commodities in non-agro space ending in green for the week, except gold. The NYMEX WTI crude oil led the rally with gains of more than 12 percent followed by Natural gas, Silver and Nickel. Commodities gained on demand growth prospects with ease in lockdown measures from several countries. The decline in dollar index also supported the rally in commodity prices., Bullion prices traded mixed with spot gold prices at COMEX ended down by 0.52 percent at $1,734.68 per troy ounce witnessing correction in the second half of the week. Silver prices rallied along with base metals with COMEX spot silver prices rallied by 3 percent outperforming gold prices. Gold prices traded under pressure eyeing support at $1,720 after most of the major countries announced to re-open from lockdown which boosted investment sentiment for riskier assets. The hope for resume of economic activities outweighed the escalating US-China tensions with US listing 33 more companies in the ban list. The growing protest in Hong Kong over New Security Law may keep investors on edge in coming week which may limit down side for Gold. The Gold ETF holdings continued to rise with holdings at SPDR Gold Shares rose to 1116.70 tonnes. Crude oil prices rallied by more than 12 percent with bulls enjoyed the ride for the fourth week on the trot. The benchmark NYMEX WTI crude oil prices ended at $33.25 per barrel for the week while ICE Brent oil gained by 8 percent to $35.13. Natural gas prices rallied by 5 percent joining the buying spree with crude oil on improved demand outlook. Crude oil prices continued upside on demand recovery with reopening of stalled economic activities. The oil output cut effects from major oil producers have supported oil market to balance reducing the glut. The US crude oil and natural gas rigs count has hit all time lows at 318 as many of US energy firms have shut productions which has eased supply pressure at physical delivery point at Cushing, Oklahoma. Base metals prices traded higher during the last week on positive global cues and improved investment sentiments. Metals prices witnessed buying across board with Nickel and Zinc prices led the gains followed by Lead, Aluminium and Copper. The stable situation in China and ease in lockdown measures in many countries have supported base metals prices to form a temporary bottom. The Japan has announced to end the nationwide emergency joining the other major economies to restart operations. Copper inventories at China fell to 1,75,825 tonnes to the lowest levels since January 23 as per the data released by SHFE. The escalating tensions between US and China over banning Chinese entities and protest over New Security Law in Hong Kong may weigh on base metals prices in coming week. However, timely injection of liquidity through stimulus packages will gradually support base metals to recover with rise in demand. The author is Senior Analyst - Commodities at HDFC Securities. : The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Dr. Ahmad Adib Ahmad has lashed out at Rami Makhlouf, chiding him for causing the collapse of the Syrian pound and failing to support President Assad reports Baladi News. Dr. Ahmad Adib Ahmad, a professor at Tishreen Universitys College of Economics, published a Facebook post saying that Rami Makhloufs videos have caused a split among the Alawite sect, and blaming Makhlouf for the collapse of the Syrian pound. Dr. Ahmad, who identifies as a religious scholar specialized in the Alawite sect, wrote, Rami Makhlouf is still causing a split among Alawites, and people are clapping while they sleep. Wake up people. Enough of being dragged around by emotions. His latest post is a dagger, and it is strange how much he is being cheered on. Ahmad, who has for the past year been presenting a program on his Facebook page and Youtube channel called Alawite Brightness, added in a series of comments on Makhloufs latest post: Makhlouf says We hope that the security forces stop pursuing loyalists and instead focus on actual criminalsthese words are dangerous and do not differ from the words of the opposition in 2011. In his post, Ahmad added, Remember, Rami, that we do not have a problem with you personally. We supported you when you were kind. But what good does your kindness do when you are causing a rift among the Alawites and speaking out against their president. Listen, Rami, nobody stays the same as long as they are human. The hypocrite changes from foe to friend. Ahmad advised Makhlouf, Rid yourself of the hands that move you. Do not believe their promises. They do not supply a grain of dust in Assads Syria. He did not forget to accuse Makhlouf, Remember that you are committing a great sin by stoking indirect incitement against the leader of the country. The poor do not invest their needs in a few words of rhetoric. Your priority was to support the economy, trade and businessmen, and to rescue the Syrian pound. But you did the opposite, destroying the pound this past year and burdening the poor under the weight of poverty. Meanwhile, you laugh at them by reminding them of your goodness and benevolence. Ahmads post concluded, Your game is exposed, and every trader and businessman will follow your path, holding your hand, without exception. My advice for youdo not test Assads patience. This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author. Valent Group, the risk consulting and insurance division of EBSCO Industries (EBSCO), has hired former attorney and business owner Billy DeBuys as vice president in its Employee Benefits practice. DeBuys comes to Valent Group after serving as a workers compensation litigator for privately held companies such as Georgia-Pacific, Buffalo Rock, Drummond Company and Rockwood Casualty Insurance. He also has previous experience as commercial business owner in the Birmingham area. According to Paul Barber, Valent Group president, DeBuys will focus primarily on caring for its employee benefits clients but will also consult on workers compensation-related coverages in its Property & Casualty practice. Prior to Valent Group, DeBuys spent nearly eight years as a litigator with Starnes Davis Florie, one of the largest litigation firms in Alabama, and several years leading Apollo Roofing, a commercial roofing contractor based in Birmingham. Valent Group provides risk consulting and insurance for businesses, employer benefit groups and individuals across Alabama and nationwide. Valent Group is an independently owned firm headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with offices in Huntsville, Mobile and Decatur. They are a subsidiary of EBSCO Industries, a privately held global company. Founded in 1944 by the late Elton B. Stephens, EBSCO Industries, Inc. has evolved into a global company with businesses in a range of industries, including information services, publishing and digital media, outdoor products, real estate, manufacturing and distribution and business services. Headquartered in Birmingham, EBSCO operates divisions and subsidiaries in 23 countries. Topics Alabama Moscow court extends detention of two police generals until fall RAPSI, Oleg Sivozhelezov 14:41 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) Detention of two deputy chiefs of the Interior Ministrys Investigations Department, generals of justice Alexander Biryukov and Alexander Krakovsky, was on Tuesday extended until September 1, the spokesperson of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow Irina Morozova told RAPSI. One more defendant, senior investigator for major cases Alexander Bryantsev will also remain detained for the same term. All the men are charged with abuse of power. According to the investigation, the defendants illegally assisted in the release of the owner of Optima Development construction company Albert Khudoyan charged with a 2-billion-ruble embezzlement (about $30 million) from detention and placing him under house arrest. Benedict Cumberbatchs representative has confirmed that the star and his family are currently self-isolating in New Zealand, after production on his film The Power of the Dog came to a halt so close to the New Zealand lockdown. The Jane Campion-directed project was being filmed there and subsequently shut down, as with many film and television sets amidst the coronavirus pandemic. He has since been reportedly seen in Hawkes Bay with his family and a spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Mail that he was advised to stay put. Cumberbatch is expected to be there for at least another month, as his spokesperson revealed that he will return to the UK after the film has been shot - though the cast and crew will only resume filming in June. Getty Images They said, Filming shut down so close to the New Zealand lockdown that Benedict and Sophie decided to take that advice and not to risk 24 hours' travel. It was also out of consideration for how best to get the film completed for Jane Campion that he has stayed in accommodation that production helped to find and finance, they continued. He is currently in pre-production and due to restart filming in June. Once that filming is complete he is looking forward to immediately returning home to the UK. Cumberbatch is believed to be staying at a luxury hotel in Hawkes Bay, along with his wife Sophie Hunter and two sons. PA According to New Zealands Ministry of Health website, there are 1,504 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country. New Zealand has started to ease lockdown restrictions and schools and businesses have been allowed to reopen if they can do it safely. Gatherings of up to ten people are also allowed. Other notable figures have confirmed that they are self-isolating elsewhere, with many being criticised for the decision on social media. For example, Scottish actor Sam Heughans decision to self-isolate in Hawaii and Gordon Ramsays to move to his second home in Cornwall have received backlash. (TNS) The city is continuing to regularly hold virtual meetings on various projects, but some residents are concerned about the challenge to public participation that comes with the digital format.Mark Griffin, an abutter of the Institution for Savings expansion project for its State Street building, is one of many neighborhood residents who have opposed the citys virtual discussion of the project since the pandemic hit in March.The virtual meeting format does not provide the robust public debate youd expect from a municipal meeting where citizens are given the ability to air their ideas and have a back and forth with a municipal board, said Griffin, who noted he participated in several of the citys virtual meetings.In recent months, abutters of the bank have raised concerns about massing and the scale of the proposed two-story building at the corner of Otis Place and Prospect Street. The first floor would be for parking and the second floor would feature offices.Griffin said while he believes the virtual meetings could be used to move smaller projects along, they are not the right medium for discussion of large, controversial projects such as the banks expansion.I understand that municipalities dont want to put everything on a back burner, Griffin said. I dont believe that important large projects should be permitted through this format. I believe a large project that has a large impact on the surrounding neighborhood and the city as a whole deserve a public hearing with full attendance.City Council President Jared Eigerman noted that the council discussed the issue of transparency with remote meetings back in March when the pandemic first hit, recognizing that remote public testimony is not the same.Theres a right that every American has for due notice and reasonable opportunity to be heard when decisions like this are made, so the question is whats reasonable? the Ward 2 councilor said. Were doing the best we can.Eigerman also noted that the council adopted a policy in March disfavoring coverage of controversial issues remotely, but said he recognized the citys boards and commissions have to deal with time-sensitive projects.You have applicants trying to do work, so its not entirely fair to keep postponing, he said.When it comes to the Institution for Savings expansion, Eigerman said while he could see postponing action on the project, there is a need to be fair to the bank, which has been in the planning stages for months.Revised plans for the project are set to go before the Planning Board on June 3 at 7 p.m. via the Zoom conferencing program.In a statement, Michael Jones, president and CEO of the 200-year-old bank, said last week he is confident the revised plan addresses all of the concerns we have heard while meeting the requirements of the Downtown Overlay District and more importantly, without impacting the historic significance, setting and place of the original 1871 building.Eigerman said he hopes residents and city officials are able to thoroughly review the plans before the meeting. He said it is important the plans show a change from the original applications, which were criticized by the Planning Board and Historical Commission before the pandemic began.I want the comfort of knowing the Historical Commission and the Planning Board think that those revisions are properly responsive, and that the neighbors have sufficient time to study the plans, ask questions to city staff so that if the hearing occurs as scheduled they dont feel as though theyve been kept in the dark, Eigerman said. Im hopeful that if that occurs, that the meeting, although remote, will be reasonable.Mayor Donna Holaday acknowledged the difficulty of remote hearings, but said they are the best we can do until in-person hearings resume, which she believes would not be until September at the earliest.I think remote meetings are tough, theres no question about it, Holaday said. Theyre tiring, but we are faced with the reality of COVID-19. I think its the new normal, so to speak, at this point. Until we can safely disinfect areas and have good protocol in City Hall, (in-person meetings are) not going to happen.In the meantime, Holaday expressed a need to move projects along through the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, saying that if everything is postponed until fall, applicants would miss the majority of the construction season.Weve delayed the Institution for Savings for several months. Its the best we can do at this point, Holaday said. I think theres certainly been enough communication between the newspaper, our website ... I think theres enough information out there. New Delhi: The Delhi Police will on Tuesday (May 26) file chargesheets against Tablighi Jamaat members responsible for congregating in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz in March this year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, thus overruling the government's ban on any kind of public gathering. The police will file the chargesheet at Delhi's Saket court, naming at least 83 foreign nationals who attended the Markaz event. Among these, 10 belong to Saudi Arabia and 8 from Brazil. Earlier this month, the crime branch of Delhi Police collected several documents related to fundings of Tablighi Jamaat members, besides seizing passports of five close associates of Jamaat chief Maulana Saad. The Delhi Police has completed the interrogation of all foreign Jamaat members. Some of these had reportedly disclosed during the interrogation that they continued to stay at the Markaz even after March 20 at the behest of Maulana Saad. The team also traced several bank accounts linked to Tablighi Jamaat Markaz and found out that it was receiving funds through several Gulf nations. Earlier on May 5, the police had grilled sons of Maulana Saad and sought details of people who had attended the religious congregation at the Markaz, or were part of the managing committee. On the other hand, on May 15, prominent Muslim organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind had stated that as many as 1,640 foreign Tablighi Jamaat members from 47 countries were in India at the time of Nizamuddin Markaz gathering, of whom only 64 tested positive for COVID-19 and two more died of the virus. Jamiat president Maulana Arshad Madani said the "highlighting" of Tablighi Jamaat cases while talking about the total number of cases in the country had allegedly created an atmosphere of hatred against Muslims. Maulana Madani said that now when there are more than 78,000 cases of coronavirus, the Tablighi Jamaat figures are not being highlighted. According to government data, the Jamaat event held at Nizamuddin Markaz in March this year during the pandemic led to a sharp 30 per cent rise in the total COVID-19 cases across the country. The Jamaat attendees, many of who were foreign nationals, had dispersed to different parts of the country, thereby leading to a sharp surge in the number of positive cases. Image credit: Twitter/@IndiaUNNewYork An Indian Army officer and woman peacekeeper, who has served with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and a Brazilian woman commander have been selected for the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award (2019), with UN Chief Antonio Guterres describing them as "powerful role models". Major Suman Gawani and Brazilian Naval Officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo will receive the award during an online ceremony presided over by United Nations Secretary-General Guterres on May 29, the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. This is the first time that the award, created in 2016, has gone to an Indian peacekeeper and the second time in a row that a Brazilian peacekeeper has received this honour. This is also the first time that two peacekeepers will receive the award jointly. The award recognises the dedication and effort of an individual military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of UN Security Resolution 1325 which is on women, peace and security in a peace operation as nominated by Heads and Force Commanders of peace operations. Who is Major Suman Gawani? Military Observer Suman Gawani recently completed an assignment in South Sudan, apart from her stint with the UNMISS. "These peacekeepers are powerful role models. Through their work, they have brought new perspectives and have helped build trust and confidence among the communities we serve," Guterres said while commending the winners. "Through their commitment and innovative approaches, they embrace a standard of excellence that is an inspiration to all blue helmets everywhere. As we confront today's challenges, their work has never been more important or relevant," he added. "Whatever our function, position or rank, it is our duty as peacekeepers to integrate an all-genders perspective into our daily work and own it in our interactions with colleagues as well as with communities," Gawani said in a statement. Gawani joined the Indian Army in 2011 where she graduated from the Officers Training Academy, then joined the Army Signal Corps. She holds Bachelor of Telecommunication Engineering and a Bachelor of Education degrees from Military College of Telecommunication, and the Government Post Graduate College in Dehradun respectively. Since her deployment to the UNMISS in December 2018, Gawani mentored over 230 UN Military Observers (UNMO) on conflict-related sexual violence and ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the mission's team sites. What is the award all about? The Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award is underpinned by the principles outlined in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and follow-up resolutions on women, peace and security. The resolutions call on actors to mainstream a gender perspective in all aspects of peacekeeping and peacebuilding and to ensure women's participation in peace and political processes. They also call for the protection from and prevention of conflict-related sexual violence and for an expansion of the role and contribution of women in UN operations, including of uniformed women peacekeepers. The statement said about 6.4 per cent of the 85,000 uniformed peacekeepers serving currently in the UN missions are women. The UN is working with member states to increase the number and percentage of women military, police and justice and corrections personnel. It added that in this context promoting the participation of women, both in peacekeeping and within the societies in which we serve, is at the centre of the UN's efforts. Several houses were damaged and many cattle were killed after Pakistan violated the ceasefire in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir early on Tuesday, officials said. Pakistan initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and intense shelling with mortars along LoC (Line of Control) in Balakote sector, defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand said. The Indian Army retaliated befittingly to the violation, he added. Police said some houses were damaged in Balakot and Sandote area of Mendhar and many animals were killed and injured in the shelling by Pakistan. Two cattle belonging to Mohammad Zaman Khan of Sawalah Balakote died and four others injured. Similarly, two cattle of Mohammad Azeem Khan of Sandote were injured and his house was partially damaged, Ramesh Kumar Angral, Poonchs senior superintendent of police, said. Angral added that cattle belonging to Mohammad Mafooz and Mohammad Kabir of Balakote were also injured. Pakistan has been regularly opening heavy fire on Indian posts and villages along the 744km-long LoC in J-K in the past few months. He's yet to confirm their relationship with fellow fitness trainer Harika Vancuylenberg. But on Tuesday, former Biggest Loser star Steve 'Commando' Willis, 43, let his actions do the talking as they enjoyed an intimate couple's workout in the park. Steve and Harika were spotted training with a group in the Hills District, Sydney, before they decided to break away from the class to enjoy a quick one-on-one sweat session. Working up a sweat! Steve 'Commando' Willis and his girlfriend Harika Vancuylenberg enjoyed an eyebrow-raising couple's workout at the park in the Hills District, Sydney, on Tuesday Wincing in pain, Steve was seen squatting against a wall while Harika performed a set of tricep dips on his knees. The ex-partner of Michelle Bridges showcased his bulging biceps in black singlet, which he paired with shorts, runners and crew socks. Meanwhile, musclebound Harika was seen smiling gleefully as she raised and lowered herself in between Steve's open legs. The couple that trains together! Steve and Harika were spotted training with a group before they decided to break away from the class to enjoy a quick one-on-one sweat session Dressed for action: The ex-partner of Michelle Bridges showcased his bulging biceps in black singlet, which he paired with shorts, runners and crew socks Feeling the burn! The couple decided to make the wall-sit exercise even more difficult by raising their hands in the air The Michelle Bridges lookalike displayed her gym-honed frame in a khaki singlet top, black leggings and runners. Appearing to go makeup-free aside from a pair of thick faux lashes, Harika swept her brunette tresses up into a messy ponytail and secured it with a pink scrunchie. Earlier during the training session, passionate fitness advocate Steve was seen directing his clients to perform a series of exhausting drills on the grass. Incredible physique: The Michelle Bridges lookalike displayed her gym-honed frame in a khaki singlet top, black leggings and runners Sporty: Appearing to go makeup-free aside from a pair of thick faux lashes, Harika swept her brunette tresses up into a messy ponytail and secured it with a pink scrunchie In his element: Earlier in the training session, passionate fitness advocate Steve was seen directing his clients to perform a series of exhausting drills on the grass Harika, a professional F45 trainer, also appeared to assist Steve in running the class. At one stage, the powerhouse couple displayed their strength by performing various arm exercises with a dumbbell. It has been reported that father-of-four Steve and Harika met in November on a fitness retreat in Tahiti, but did not start dating until February, after he'd split from Michelle. Helping hand: Harika, a professional F45 trainer, also appeared to assist Steve in running the class. Harika is pictured with a member of the training class Heavy lifting: At one stage, the powerhouse couple displayed their strength by performing various arm exercises with a dumbbell Tatt's a lot of ink! Steve's sprawling leg and arm tattoos were on display Baby love! At one stage, Harika was seen blowing kisses to a client's baby Power: Harika displayed her impressive strength as she lifted the dumbbell into the air with ease Tuesday's sighting comes after Steve made a formal complaint to the police following a heated exchange with a female personal training client in a Sydney park over the weekend. The TV star was confronted by the woman over a dispute regarding her alleged outstanding fees at about 10am in Caddies Creek Reserve, Kellyville. Video footage obtained by The Daily Telegraph shows Steve's girlfriend, F45 trainer Harika Vancuylenberg, stepping in on Steve's behalf, claiming the woman owes her partner $1,300. New flame: It has been reported that father-of-four Steve and Harika met in November on a fitness retreat in Tahiti, but did not start dating until February, after he'd split from Michelle Drama: The sighting comes after Steve made a formal complaint to the police following a heated exchange with a female personal training client in a Sydney park on Sunday Confrontation: The TV star was confronted by the woman over a dispute regarding her alleged outstanding fees at about 10am in Caddies Creek Reserve, Kellyville Controversy: Video footage obtained by The Daily Telegraph showed Steve's girlfriend, F45 trainer Harika Vancuylenberg, stepping in on Steve's behalf, claiming the woman owes her partner $1,300 'You are not engaging with him. You pay him what you owe him. No money, no talking! He has told you $1,300. That is what you owe him,' Harika screamed at the woman in the footage. The unnamed female denied owing any money, saying she had already paid Steve. 'No, I paid him. I have record,' she said as she filmed the dispute, adding that she would take the personal trainer to court over the matter. 'This is my business. Go away,' Steve said as he attempted to end the exchange. Footage: 'You are not engaging with him. You pay him what you owe him. No money, no talking! He has told you $1,300. That is what you owe him,' Harika screamed at the woman in the footage 'No, I paid him': The unnamed female denied owing any money, saying she had already paid Steve Court: The woman then said she would take the personal trainer to court over the matter Meanwhile, Harika told the woman that Steve would take legal action. 'We don't want you in our lives, okay? Pay him what you owe otherwise I will take you to court myself,' she said. The argument lasted for over two minutes. NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that a complaint had been made to The Hills Police Area Command on Sunday following the incident. Steve declined to comment, saying the matter was now with the police. ''We don't want you in our lives, okay?' Meanwhile, Harika told the woman that Steve would take legal action Police involvement: NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that a complaint had been made to The Hills Police Area Command on Sunday following the incident 303 Shares Share On December 30, 2019, Li Wenliang sent a message to a group of fellow doctors warning them about a possible outbreak of an illness that resembled severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, where he worked. Meant to be a preemptive confidential message, he encouraged his colleagues to protect themselves against possible infection. When the local authorities became aware of his report, they summoned Dr. Li to a police station, reprimanded him for spreading rumors, threatened him with punishment, and made him sign a form admitting that he was wrong to have sent the message and that he would not repeat the transgression. Li returned to work after signing the statement and contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), apparently from a patient he was treating for glaucoma. Dr. Li sent reports on social media from his hospital bed until the disease took his life on February 7, 2020. Dr. Li now raises himself as a standard for the profession when faced with the moral obligation of his Hippocratic Oath versus suffering the torment of a repressive regime. His courageous choice can be seen in the known outrage his death brought about in China. Citizens used virtual message boards on social media platforms to voice their gratitude for Lis dedication to his frontline service. Lis honesty and moral integrity motivated citizens to criticize Wuhans securities initial response while inspiring other medical officials to heed his warning. In the days before his death, Li said, If the officials had disclosed information about the epidemic earlier, I think it would have been a lot better. During his interview with The New York Times, Li went on to succinctly explain, There should be more openness and transparency. Li studied clinical medicine at Wuhan University and, after graduating, went to work in Xiamen, a port city in southeast China. He took a position as an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital in 2014. That hospital became one of the health facilities at the epicenter of the outbreak of COVID-19. Li raised the alarm after he saw seven patients with SARS-like symptoms. Li reported the suspected outbreak to his colleagues in a closed group on the WeChat social media platform after learning that patients were being quarantined. He told The New York Times that there was already speculation within the group that there could be a new SARS outbreak, and we needed to be ready for it mentally. Take protective measures. One of the worlds most important warning systems for a deadly new outbreak is a doctors or a nurses recognition that some new disease is emerging and then sounding the alarm, said Tom Inglesby, the Director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. Inglesby would go on to say, It takes intelligence and courage to step up and say something like that, even in the best of circumstances. Without question, Dr. Li understood the serious implications of the virus and of his professional opinions. In the wake of Lis death, the Wuhan municipal government issued a statement offering condolences to Lis family, as did the Chinese National Health Commission. Many chapters still must unfold in the story of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am certain that Dr. Li was not motivated by fame or glory. He was a young ophthalmologist who correctly analyzed the situation and tried his professional best to warn everyone. Hindsight will show that heeding a physicians warning, such as Dr. Lis, must become a process that medical authorities should act upon if the world is to prevent another disaster. Lou Rotkowitz is an emergency physician and can be reached at his self-titled site, Louis Philip Rotkowitz, MD, FAAFP. Image credit: Shutterstock.com An entire Ukrainian police unit was disbanded after one of its officers was arrested for allegedly raping and assaulting a 26-year-old female witness, the authorities said on Monday. A policeman from the town of Kagarlyk outside the capital Kiev "tortured in his office a woman who had been summoned as a witness" at the weekend, the country's State Investigation Bureau said, citing preliminary information. Overnight from Saturday to Sunday he "put (on her) a gas mask, handcuffed her and shot from his duty weapon above her head," the bureau said in a statement. "After that he raped the victim several times." In addition, police officers assaulted a man at the same police station by threatening to rape him, putting him on his knees, hitting him with batons and putting a gas mask on him. As the result, the man had his some ribs and his nose broken. In a separate statement, Ukraine's national police said two Kagarlyk officers had been detained. "National police chairman Igor Klymenko has decided to disband the unit," the statement said. There was no immediate reaction from President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has pledged to bolster the rule of law and root out corruption upon coming to power last year. Activists say that the nighttime incident in the town of Kagarlyk, which is located around 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Kiev, highlights Ukraine's failure to reform its police force despite assistance from the West. "This story is beyond evil," Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Osadchuk said on Facebook, urging Minister Arsen Avakov to immediately react and punish all those involved. In 2013, a young woman was assaulted and raped by police in the village of Vradiivka in southern Ukraine, with that crime sparking a wave of protests across the country. VANCOUVER, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Taseko Mines Limited (TSX: TKO; NYSE American: TGB; LSE: TKO) ("Taseko" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has entered into an Agreement with an Indigenous Nation regarding Taseko's intentions to commence the regulatory approval process of the Yellowhead Copper Project ("Project"). The agreement represents Taseko's commitment to recognize and respect the Nation's inherent right to govern its lands, and the importance of assessing the Project in accordance with its values, laws, and community aspirations to make an informed decision on the Project. Russell Hallbauer, CEO of Taseko, commented, "We are pleased to have come to an agreement to move forward with open discussions. Our communication with the leadership over this past year have been good, frank and insightful. We have gained significantly in our understanding of their role as caretakers of the lands and their approach to stewardship and economic opportunity, and we thank them for taking this first important step with us." "Taseko is confident that a robust environmental assessment of Yellowhead, one which takes into consideration the full array of factors important to indigenous people and communities from Kamloops to Blue River, will result in a favorable regulatory decision. Advancing this project now is especially timely given the economic and human needs of the region and the province. Construction and operation of a long life mine will significantly elevate opportunities for the people of this area for decades into the future," concluded Mr. Hallbauer. NOTE: Yellowhead has the potential to be one of the largest open pit copper mines in North America. The project is in the ThompsonNicola area of British Columbia, approximately 150km northeast of Kamloops near Vavenby. The project includes a 90,000 tonne-per-day open pit copper mine with a 25-year mine life. The Yellowhead Project increases Taseko's pipeline of global reserves to approximately 15 billion pounds of contained copper. With a significant amount of technical and environmental assessment work already completed, including a 2020 Technical Report, Taseko can advance the project with internal resources and minimal capital expenditures for the next few years. For more information on the Yellowhead Project please visit www.tasekomines.com Russell Hallbauer Chief Executive Officer and Director No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved of the information contained in this news release. CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This document contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward looking statements") that were based on Taseko's expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which those statements were made. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, believes, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook", "anticipate", "project", "target", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "should" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These include but are not limited to: uncertainties and costs related to the Company's exploration and development activities, such as those associated with continuity of mineralization or determining whether mineral resources or reserves exist on a property; uncertainties related to the accuracy of our estimates of mineral reserves, mineral resources, production rates and timing of production, future production and future cash and total costs of production and milling; uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a mining project; uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary title, licenses and permits for development projects and project delays due to third party opposition; our ability to comply with the extensive governmental regulation to which our business is subject; uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings; changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government policies affecting our exploration and development activities and mining operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies; changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the demand and market price for copper, gold and other minerals and commodities, such as diesel fuel, steel, concrete, electricity and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar, and the continued availability of capital and financing; the effects of forward selling instruments to protect against fluctuations in copper prices and exchange rate movements and the risks of counterparty defaults, and mark to market risk; the risk of inadequate insurance or inability to obtain insurance to cover mining risks; the risk of loss of key employees; the risk of changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our financial condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates; environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including processing and stock piling ore; labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which we operate mines, or environmental hazards, industrial accidents, equipment failure or other events or occurrences, including third party interference that interrupt the production of minerals in our mines; the availability of, and uncertainties relating to the development of, infrastructure necessary for the development of our projects; our reliance upon key personnel; and uncertainties relating to increased competition and conditions in the mining capital markets. For further information on Taseko, investors should review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission www.sec.gov and home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com, including the "Risk Factors" included in our Annual Information Form. SOURCE Taseko Mines Limited Related Links www.tasekomines.com A 24-year-old passenger who took the Chennai-Coimbatore IndiGo flight on the first day of resumption of air services tested positive for the Coronavirus, with test results of a few other passengers being awaited as of Tuesday evening. According to people aware of the flight details, 93 passengers had travelled in the flight. Following the same, IndiGo issued an official statement stating that the patient is currently quarantined at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. "He was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission." In addition to this, the operating crew has also been grounded for 14 days. The airline confirmed that it was in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines. All passengers entering Coimbatore, a district that is set to turn into a green zone soon, would be subject to the confirmatory RT-PCR test. A senior police officer-in-charge under whose jurisdiction the city airport falls said: "All passengers will be tested for the Coronavirus. Until the results are out, they can choose between a Govt-run quarantine or isolation in hotels..." The Ministry of Civil Aviation opened up the skies for air services after much deliberation with senior bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu, which ranks among the states with the most number of Coronavirus victims in the country. Cases in Chennai have been soaring for weeks now. As of Tuesday, total active cases in Chennai crossed 6,000, with the city adding 509 victims on Tuesday. The state Health Minister had said the influx of travellers from Maharashtra every day added to the state's Coronavirus victim tally. Also Watch: My mom and I were at a gas station in Gary until 3:30 a.m. (May 24), and the woman we saw on the tape was someone who was asking for money, Sharmeshia Brooks, Glovers niece who few from San Antonio, Texas, to help her mother, Celeste Glover, said Saturday. Dushawna doesnt have the concept to ask for help, though, so even though Im sure people think it looks like her, it isnt. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Local air carriers are now equipped to resume flights, with several safety measures in place to stem coronavirus spread, according to an airline industry association. The Air Carriers Association of the Philippines (ACAP) said the countrys leading airlines have been gearing up for resumption of operations under the so-called new normal once travel restrictions and quarantine requirements are eased. The industry group is composed of members AirAsia Philippines, Cebu Pacific, Cebgo, Philippine Airlines and PAL Express. ACAP executive director and vice chairman Roberto Lim said the new normal will include minimized contact between passengers and airline staff, increased utilization of online and digital processes for check-in and boarding, and intensified disinfection of all aircraft and facilities. According to the group, member-airlines also use aircraft equipped with either a system that continuously infuses fresh air across the cabin," or air filters that efficiently trap viruses, bacteria, and other contaminants. Further, only passengers with confirmed flights will be allowed to enter the airport. Thermal scanning and mandatory use of face masks for everyone entering the terminal building will also be observed. ACAP also reiterated its appeal for government aid for member-airlines under the proposed Philippine Economic Stimulus Act. The group seeks assistance via long term credit facility, working capital credit lines, credit guarantee arrangements, and temporary relief from navigational and airport charges. READ: House panel OKs 1.3-trilion stimulus package, 2 other COVID-19 bills To be clear, we are not asking for a bail-out or dole-out from government, Lim said. What we are asking for is a hand-up to help airlines recover. The executive director added that several national governments across the world have already granted their countrys airlines with relief packages and inclusion in stimuli programs. Besides generating over 543,000 jobs, ACAP also noted that the aviation industry is intertwined with other industries, such as travel and tourism, encapsulating up to 5.4 million Filipino jobs. The decrease in air transport activity does not only threaten airlines but also the local communities dependent on tourism, the association said. A heat warning is in effect for Peterborough and area. Environment Canada issued the warning at midday Tuesday as temperatures hit 30 C. It applies to the city, the southern part of the county, Lindsay and the southern City of Kawartha Lakes. Temperatures will soar to near the 30 degree mark today and Wednesday, states the warning. Indications suggest above normal temperatures near 30 again on Thursday. Humidex values in the mid to upper 30s will prevail each afternoon. Heat warnings are issued when high temperature or humidity may pose a risk of heat stroke or heat exhaustion, Environment Canada states. A cold front is expected to move in Friday. Environment Canada offers advice for dealing with weather like this: The risks are greater for young children, pregnant women, older adults, people with chronic illnesses and people working or exercising outdoors. Drink plenty of water even before you feel thirsty and stay in a cool place. Never leave people or pets inside a parked vehicle. The Covid-19 crisis is widely expected to have devastating impact on war-ravaged and resource-scarce Afghanistan, and could even extract a human toll that exceeds that on account of decades of fighting in the country. However, the pandemic has the potential to bring positive change. It provides space to the main conflict actors to co-operate in providing treatment to people in parts of the country that are under Taliban control and thus beyond the reach of government health workers. It will require the conflict actors to silence their guns and at least temporarily put aside their decades-old hostility. BACKGROUND: Since February 24, when Afghanistan reported its first confirmed case of Covid-19, the number of Afghans who have tested positive for the coronavirus has increased. According to the Ministry of Public Health, as on May25, 11,173 people have tested positive for Covid-19, 219 have died of the disease and 1097 have recovered. Kabul province has reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases (4,174) so far, followed by Herat with 1,773 cases and Balkh with 798. Although the number of confirmed cases and fatalities in Afghanistan is smaller when compared to figures from other countries in the region and far more economically developed countries in the world, the magnitude of Afghanistans Covid-19 crisis could be greater than what the figures reveal. Many infections are likely to have been undetected due to lack of testing. The virus could be spreading silently through Afghanistan and the coming weeks and months could see a spurt in infections and fatalities. Afghanistans capacity to fight the coronavirus crisis is limited. Not only is it among the poorest countries in the world but also it has suffered the ravages of civil war and foreign occupations for over four decades. Its health infrastructure has always been fragile and ill-prepared to meet the needs of its 35-million strong population. This shortage of facilities is being felt all the more now. An acute shortage of testing kits, medicines and personal protection equipment (PPE) is crippling Afghanistans capacity to fight Covid-19. Afghanistan lost around three months in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic on account of the bickering between its President Ashraf Ghani and his defeated rival Abdullah Abdullah. The two have been at loggerheads over a disputed presidential election. At a time when the government should have been focusing all its energies on fighting the pandemic, the Ghani-Abdullah squabbling undermined governance and public confidence in the governments commitment to dealing with challenges confronting the masses. This obstacle in the way of tackling the pandemic has been removed now with the two leaders finally striking a power-sharing deal. The continuing war in Afghanistan is further crippling the governments capacity to fight the coronavirus. With the Taliban and the Islamic State continuing to attack civilians and Afghan security forces, the governments outreach to insurgent-controlled areas for testing and treatment is severely restricted. Additionally, the government needs the support of security forces to enforce lockdowns and transport essential commodities but it cannot re-deploy them for counter-coronavirus operations when insurgent attacks continue to escalate. While the war in Afghanistan is undermining the countrys capacity to fight Covid-19, the pandemic could impact the conflict and the peace process in various ways. IMPLICATIONS: The Covid-19 outbreak in Afghanistan has happened at a critical period in Afghanistans contemporary history. On February 29, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement under which American troops committed to withdrawing from Afghanistan in 14 months and the Taliban agreed to stop allowing terror groups that pose a security threat to the U.S. and its allies to function on Afghan soil. The deal also provided for intra-Afghan talks towards a settlement of the conflict. Several deadlines laid out in the deal have already been missed and more could follow. For instance, the U.S. is to pull out 5,400 troops from Afghanistan within 135 days of signing the agreement. It could miss this deadline due to concerns over quarantining of its soldiers. But there is a possibility too of the pandemic accelerating this pullout, especially if Covid-19 extracts heavy costs from American troops in Afghanistan. How the intra-Afghan talks will be conducted could also be impacted by Covid-19. Face-to-face talks between negotiating teams and robust participation of facilitators will not be possible. A sustainable peace requires community consultation and participation. That will not be feasible either, which means that the process will remain confined to the elite level. The Talibans response to the pandemic has changed in recent weeks. In early March, its spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid described the virus as a decree of Allah that was sent to punish the disobedience and sins of mankind. It then shifted its stance and promised to allow safe passage for health workers in areas under its control. The Afghan government has called for a nation-wide ceasefire with the Taliban in order to ensure that Afghans across the country can be reached by health workers. The Taliban initially rejected this call. But coinciding with the Eid-al-Fitr holiday, the Taliban unilaterally declared a three-day ceasefire. The Government reciprocated by announcing its intention to release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners. In the longer term, this does not guarantee the Talibans willingness to accept a longer truce. Its fortunes are rising. It controls more territory than it ever has since 2001, though not in heavily populated areas. It has managed to wrest an agreement that concedes its demand for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and more. It is eyeing power in Kabul which increasingly seems within its reach. It may not be willing to give up its position of advantage for the well-being of the people, which has never been a priority for the insurgent group. On the other hand, natural disasters and crises are known to have triggered peace processes, as in Aceh in Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. The coronavirus crisis has the potential to bring the main conflict actors in Afghanistan to work together to provide medical relief to the Afghan masses. This could serve as a major confidence building measure between the government and the Taliban. The Taliban stands to benefit too. It could provide the group with a much-needed image makeover. It would be able to project itself as a responsible group that is capable of providing good governance at least in times of crisis. Peace process facilitators should work on getting the two sides to co-operate in ensuring that medical treatment for coronavirus reaches Afghans across the country. An opportunity has opened up. Will the Afghan government, the Taliban and the international community grab it? CONCLUSIONS: The Covid-19 pandemic has struck Afghanistan at a time of serious political instability and grave uncertainty over the fate of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal. While the countrys capacity to cope with the pandemic is low and provides little reason for optimism, windows of opportunity to reduce public suffering have opened up. The pandemic provides an opportunity for the Afghan government and the Taliban to work together to improve access of Afghans to treatment for Covid-19. Such collaboration has the potential of providing a foundation for future co-operation at the talks table and beyond. While the opportunity for confidence building exists, the Taliban may not be willing to give up the advantages it holds on the battlefield at this point. The Covid-19 pandemic could end up being another wasted opportunity for hammering out peace, if not a cessation of violence in Afghanistan. AUTHOR'S BIO: Dr. Sudha Ramachandran is an independent researcher and journalist based in India. She writes on South Asian political and security issues. Her articles have been published in Asia Times Online, The Diplomat, China Brief, Asian Affairs, etc. She can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Image accessed on 5/26/20 The requested page is currently unavailable on this server. Back to [RTHK News Homepage] Kelli Parsons Kelli Parsons, senior VP & chief communications officer at United Technologies, is returning to Hill+Knowlton Strategies as global chair, corporate affairs on June 15. She'll be in charge of corporate brand & reputation, financial PR, crisis & issues management, employee engagement and environmental & social governance matters. Parsons did a 10-year stint at H&K, exiting in 2008 as executive VP-corporate & technology practice leader. Upon departure, she served as head of global communications & marketing at Warburg Pincus, senior VP & CCO at Fannie Mae and senior VP & chief communications officer at New York Life Insurance. H&K also recruited Philippe Maze-Sencier as global chair, public affairs. The more than 25-year policy veteran will join June 8 from McLarty Associates, where he worked in its Brussels and DC offices. Earlier, he was executive director at APCO Worldwide, heading its global government relations practice; staffer at LVMH's spirits division, and was at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with NCP president Sharad Pawar here, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Tuesday while asserting that the state government is strong. The two leaders met for about one-and-a-half hours late Monday evening, Raut said while dismissing speculations about the Thackeray-led governments stability. The Sena Rajya Sabha MP, however, did not reveal what transpired between the two leaders. The meeting between Thackeray and Pawar took place after the NCP chief met state Governor B S Koshyari on Monday morning. NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting for one-and-a-half hours. Those doubting about the stability of this government are doing so out of their own grudge. This government is strong, Raut tweeted in Marathi. Earlier, Pawar met Koshyari on Monday morning, following which the NCP claimed the meeting took place on the invitation of the governor and no political issues came up for discussion. However, the timing of the meeting is significant as it took place against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents of MVA. Pawar was one of the key leaders from Maharashtra who had openly complained about Koshyaris intervention in the functioning of the state administration. Recently, senior BJP leader and former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis complained to the governor about the failure of the Thackeray government in handling the Covid-19 crisis. By Express News Service BENGALURU: The state reported 93 COVID positive cases on Monday, of which 69 travelled from Maharashtra, two from UAE, one from Muscat, two from Tamil Nadu, one from Uttar Pradesh and one from Delhi. The tally now stands at 2,182. With two deaths, of a 55-year-old woman from Bengaluru Rural and a 43-year-old man from Dakshina Kannada, the toll now has gone up to 44. The woman was diagnosed with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness and admitted on May 19. She died due to ARDS (Acute respiratory distress syndrome) on Sunday night. The man, who was suffering from liver cirrhosis, was admitted on Saturday and died the same day. His test results came positive on Monday. Udupi district reported the highest number of 32 cases. Of them, two returned from the UAE, one was suffering from Influenza Like Illness, one was the contact of a former patient, another a resident of a containment zone and the rest are all travellers from Maharashtra. In Kalaburagi, 16 returnees from Maharashtra tested positive, while Yadgir had 15 such cases. Bengaluru reported eight cases, three of whom are contacts of Patient 1930, one is from Padarayanapura containment zone, one returned from Maharashtra and another from the UK. One SARI case was reported from DG Halli and another person, who was the contact of Patient 1659, tested positive from Lakkasandra. BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said, Following a fresh positive case in DJ Halli, BBMP will mark it as a containment zone. Already, 35 primary contacts of the patient have been quarantined and we are deciding on the area to be demarcated for containment. Three Maharashtra returnees tested positive in Dakshina Kannada, while one patients contact is still being traced. A woman and two boys who were contacts of three other patients, as well as a male traveller from Maharashtra tested positive in Dharwad. A man with a travel history to Tamil Nadu and a primary contact of a patient tested positive in Kolar. One Maharashtra returnee and one contact of patient 869 tested positive in Mandya. Single cases were reported from Belagavi, Bidar, Ramanagara, Tumakuru, Vijayapura, Uttara Kannada and Hassan. Coronavirus outbreaks at US meat processing plants have sickened more than 15,000 workers and killed at least 63 as companies look to ramp up production to avoid dire shortages and price hikes. Meat producers are splashing out hundreds of millions of dollars to improve safety measures within sprawling facilities that serve as breeding grounds for the virus with thousands of employees working shoulder to shoulder. Over the past two months 30 plants across the US were forced to close temporarily for cleaning, cutting production of beef and pork by 40 percent. More than half of those plants have already reopened with extensive safety protocols, including on-site medical clinics, temperature screenings before every shift and plastic dividers between work stations. Despite costly efforts to prevent outbreaks, the number of infected workers has continued to explode. At Tyson Foods, America's largest meat processor, more than 7,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday - up from less than 1,600 a month ago, according to The Washington Post. Analysts have warned that the ripple effects of the disruptions will persist for months, leading to empty meat cases in grocery stores and extreme price hikes for consumers already struggling financially amid the pandemic. A May report from CoBank, which specializes in serving rural America, projected that meat supplies could plummet by up to 35 percent while prices spike 20 percent this month, and the impact could become even 'more acute later this year'. Coronavirus outbreaks at US meat processing plants have sickened more than 15,000 workers and killed at least 63 as companies look to ramp up production to avoid dire shortages and price hikes. Pictured: A worker wears a face mask at a Smithfield plant Fears of long-term shortages are fueling an escalating debate over whether the industry should reopen faster to get production back to normal levels, or whether safety should be prioritized. The Trump administration indicated that the food supply and safety should be weighed equally when the president signed an executive order encouraging meat plants to reopen on April 28. 'Our objective is two equal goals,' Vice President Pence said in a meeting with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds early this month. 'Number one is the safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and, two, there's strength in our food supply and getting people back to work.' But many feel that safety should be the primary concern, because workers' lives are more important than the food supply. 'Absolutely, positively, no worker's life is worth my getting a cheaper hamburger. No worker's life is worth that,' former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said at a Yahoo News virtual town hall last week. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued extensive guidance for how companies can keep plants safe with physical barriers, enforced social distancing and installing more hand-sanitizing stations, among other steps. Because that guidance isn't mandatory, critics say it's unenforceable. 'It's like: 'Here's what we'd like you to do. But if you don't want to do it, you don't have to,'' said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president and director of the food processing and meatpacking division for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. OSHA's general guidance plainly says the recommendations are advisory and 'not a standard or regulation', and they create 'no new legal obligations'. At Tyson Foods, America's largest meat processor, more than 7,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday - up from less than 1,600 a month ago. Pictured: Workers line up to enter the Tyson pork processing plant in Logansport, Indiana The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued extensive guidance for how companies can keep plants safe with physical barriers, enforced social distancing and installing more hand-sanitizing stations, among other steps. Pictured: Smithfield Foods workers are separated by plastic barriers as they package pork products Major meatpackers JBS, Smithfield and Tyson - which have an estimated 11,000 worker infections between them - have said safety is their highest priority. They have released summaries of their efforts to improve safety, though the plans themselves have not been made public. Tyson said because the temporary suspension of its operations was voluntary and the company was already meeting or exceeding federal guidance, it was not required to submit a reopening plan to the USDA. 'The safety of our team members is paramount, and we only reopen our facilities when we believe we can safely do so,' Gary Mickelson, Tyson's director of media relations, told the Post. One plan obtained by the Associated Press, for the reopening of a JBS pork plant in Worthington, Minnesota, details multiple safety improvements, including requiring protective equipment, installing barriers and increasing spacing between workers. The plan says employees will be screened for health issues, but it makes no mention of requiring testing. JBS spokesman Cameron Bruett said the plan 'demonstrates the extraordinary measures' the plant has taken 'to keep our team members safe as they provide food for the country'. Major meatpackers JBS, Smithfield and Tyson - which have an estimated 11,000 worker infections between them - have said safety is their highest priority. Pictured: A Smithfield worker sprays down equipment at a plant Tyson Foods workers wear protective masks and stand between plastic dividers at the company's Camilla, Georgia poultry processing plant North Carolina hair salon refuses to serve Tyson Food staff after 570 workers at local chicken-processing plant tested positive for coronavirus A North Carolina hair salon has caused controversy after it opened its doors this weekend, but put up a sign saying 'we are unable to serve Tyson employees'. Some 570 employees at the chicken-processing plant - out of a workforce of 2,000 - tested positive for coronavirus this month, prompting the manager of SmartCuts in Wilkesboro to refuse entry to any of its employees. Hair salons were allowed to open over the weekend as part of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's plans to end lockdown, HuffPost reported. On May 20 Gov Cooper revealed the state would transition to a Phase 2 safer-at-home recommendation. It went into effect on Friday, May 22, and meant restaurants, swimming pools, hair salons and retail businesses could all reopen. But when SmartCuts opened for business on Friday a sign on the door read: 'Due to the number of Tyson employees who have tested positive for Covid19, and given the close contact experienced during our services, we are unable to serve Tyson employees. 'We sincerely apologize for this decision, and we ask for your understanding.' SmartCuts in Wilkesboro is refusing service to employees at a local meat plant Amy McGinty, a worker at Tyson Foods for 13 years, blasted the salon for treating her colleagues 'like a disease'. She told the website: 'They're getting our food, but they won't service us.' There have been 22,725 positive tests in North Caroline for coronavirus, and 737 deaths since the outbreak began in the state. Cathy, the manager of the salon, declined to give her last name but said workers at the food plant were 'at risk'. She added: 'We respect their business, and we really appreciate that they're essential workers. But that puts them at risk.' She revealed Tyson workers would be allowed back from June 8, when they would be able to get $3 off the price of a haircut. Tyson Foods recently revealed it had reopened following a deep clean because 570 of its 2,244 full-time and contract employees had tested positive for COVID-19. A sign on the door of the hair salon warned that Tyson Foods staff would not be served Tyson Foods said that the majority of the workers who tested positive in the Wilkesboro plant were not showing symptoms and if they had not been tested 'otherwise would not have been identified'. The company had tested 2,007 employees at the plant for the virus between May 6 and May 9. The other employees were tested by the the county health department or through their health care provider. 'We are working closely with local health departments to protect our team members and their families, and to help manage the spread of the virus in our communities,' said Tom Brower, Tyson's senior vice president of health and safety. Advertisement While extensive, the safety measures aren't coming close to stopping the spread of the virus. As of May 20, officials have publicly linked at least 15,300 COVID-19 infections to 192 meatpacking plants around the US, according the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, which tracks outbreaks through public records and local news reports. That number is up from 3,700 a month ago. The number of worker deaths has tripled over the past month from 17 to 63, MCIR found. Four of the plants that reopened saw outbreaks that infected more than 700 workers: a Smithfield plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Tyson plants in Logansport, Indiana; Perry, Iowa; and Waterloo, Iowa. In Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, coronavirus cases linked to meat plants account for 18, 20 and 29 percent of the states' total cases, respectively, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit advocacy organization. Meat plants are typically located in rural areas, where they are often the largest employer. Infection rates in communities within 15 miles of plants are twice the national average, per EWC. A May 7 report from the White House coronavirus task force identified 10 US counties as hotspots - six of which were linked to outbreaks at meat plants. While it's clear that the number of meat plant cases is still on the rise, the official count is unknown as there is no government tracking system and companies refuse to release their own data. As a result, it is difficult to tell whether safety measures are effective in curbing the spread of infection. Mixed messages have caused anxiety in communities near meat plants as residents feel in the dark about the extent of the spread of coronavirus locally. A New York Times article published Tuesday describes how local officials have received conflicting signals from state leaders and meatpacking companies about how much information to release. The confusion was laid bare in internal emails from government health agencies obtained through public records requests by Columbia University's Brown Institute for Media Innovation and provided to The Times. The emails also revealed how little power local officials have in enforcing safety measures at plants when up against giant meat processing firms. 'Bad news spreads way faster than the truth,' a county health official in Colorado said of an outbreak at a Cargill plant, according to notes from a conference call last month. 'At this point, we are not doing anything to cast them in a bad light. Will not throw them to the Press.' At many of the nation's largest plants, zero information has been released about coronavirus cases. That's true of one Smithfield Food plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, which employs about 4,500 workers. The facility is said to have seen a substantial number of cases - but Smithfield and state and local health officials have refused to give a specific count. 'There has been a stigma associated with the virus, so we're trying to protect privacy,' Teresa Duncan, the director of the health department in Bladen County, where the plant is located, told The Times. Companies are not legally required to disclose how many workers test positive for COVID-19 - but experts say privacy is not a valid reason for the lack of transparency. 'Alerting a community about the number of cases in a particular place is a standard public health response,' said Nicole Huberfeld, a public health expert at Boston University, told the newspaper. 'People need to act appropriately if they are exposed.' George Konaf is a Vietnam veteran and one of only ten surviving soldiers from his Army platoon, the Second Battalion, Sixteenth Infantry. He has published his latest book The True Story of the Vietnam War and One Mans Sufferings: a gripping and potent first-hand account of the horror of the war. This is a true story about what George Konaf thought about the truth of the Vietnam War before he would die of Agent Orange. He now walks with a cane for support. The author shares, I wanted to tell you how the PX and the man who ran the Army, who was in charge of the whole Army, and every Marine, and Air Force, the general who assisted the president of the US, and how crooked he was, and all the other generals who made millions from every war. In my mind, all of them didnt care for the people of the US. What made me sick was that some of these kids went to war, but only a few actually went. The general and commander never told the US how Vietnams Agent Orange kills, desert wars had bad effects on the soldiers, and uranium was the only weapon that would kill the enemy (Afghanistan) and other enemies that fought in the desert. They never told the soldiers of each war that within two to three years, they would be impotent for the rest of the lives. I, George Konaf, have been impotent now for thirty years, and in my mind, I should have been killed in Vietnam. But now, I am glad I was not and can tell the true story of these men, high ranking, and millionaires. The crooks who run this country. At last, I am writing to die. I am getting weaker every day, and now I need a cane to hold me up. If I had to do it again, I would, for my country and for my fellow Americans who are living here. I am a true American. And now that I told my story, I am ready to die. Published by Page Publishing, George Konafs engrossing book is a shocking expose of the harsh realities of combat and the political machinations that often concealed the truth from the American people. Readers who wish to experience this illuminating work can purchase The True Story of the Vietnam War and One Mans Sufferings at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. The new National Emergency Government, headed by an indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his deputy Benny Gantz, has taken office amid a political crisis unprecedented in the countrys 72-year history. The new government was formed after 18 months of political stalemate and three inconclusive elections. Following weeks of wrangling, Netanyahu reached a deal with his main rival, the former army chief Gantz, who as leader of the opposition Blue and White party had pledged never to serve under Netanyahu. Netanyahus trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases began on Sunday. He has accused police and prosecutors of inventing baseless cases against him, saying probes were corrupted and fabricated from the start and part of a left-wing plot to unseat him. The whipping up of his fascistic supporters against the judiciary is reminiscent of incitement against the treachery of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for signing and implementing the 1993 Oslo Accords with the Palestinians that led to his assassination in 1995. Gantzs U-turn has shored up Netanyahus position and led to the disintegration of his own party, leaving him with just 15 members, less than half the original list. Netanyahu has pledged to restore the economyby which he means shore up the position of Israels financial and corporate oligarchyand to annex Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. He said his priority was ending the economic crisis precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. He had already eased lockdown restrictions, ordered businesses and schools to reopen and allowed houses of worship to reopen for prayers, even as new cases bring the total number in Israel to nearly 17,000 and deaths to 280. This week, restaurants, bars, clubs, swimming pools and hotels will open, which will lead to a resurgence of the virus. In the Palestinian Territories, for which Israel is responsible under international law, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 554 in the West Bank/East Jerusalem and 55 in Gaza, while there have been 55 deaths in the West Bank/East Jerusalem and one death in Gaza, a woman who had recently returned from Egypt where the disease is raging. With totally inadequate healthcare facilities due to Israels occupation, its punitive and repeated withholding of taxation and utility revenues to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the 13-year long blockade of Gaza, the lockdown has taken a heavy toll on peoples livelihoods and brought many families to the brink of starvation. More than a million Israelis26 percent of the workforce compared to just over 3 percent in Februaryhave lost their jobs, thanks to Netanyahus decision to protect employers by granting then low interest loans while allowing workers to be laid off with only unemployment benefits. This has discriminated against Israels Arab citizens whose municipalities are less well funded than Jewish municipalities. It is expected that at least 30 percent of those laid off will not be rehired even as the designated period50 daysfor unemployment benefits comes to an end. Many businesses are not expected to reopen. A further 500,000 self-employed and gig economy workers, who are not included in the unemployment statistics, are drowning in debt, while asylum seekers and foreign workers are ineligible for government support. Even before the pandemic, one in three children were living in poverty, with workers foregoing buying medicine to pay their water and electricity bills, tens of thousands of families were facing food insecurity and thousands waiting for public housing. Now even that seems a distant dream as the ending of welfare benefits affects the most vulnerable, including people with disabilities who have seen their income vanish after the factories employing them shut down. The new budget is expected to increase taxes and slash services in a bid to recoup the billions of dollars made available to the financial elite. According to the coalition deal, Netanyahu will retain the premiership for 18 months as he seeks to stall the prosecutions case with endless legal challenges, before handing over to Gantz. The government cannot pass legislation on other major issues until after the end of the pandemic and these will be subject to Gantzs approval. The government includes a record number of ministers as a sop to Netanyahus fascistic and ultra-orthodox support base. Crucially, Gantz agreedwith no right of vetoto moves to annex parts of the West Bank in July, after the Trump administration gave Israel the green light under its deal of the century. While the exact scope of the annexation is unclear, it is expected to include the settlements blocs, all or part of Area C in the West Bank, which is under Israeli military control, and the Jordan valley. The annexation, which has popular support within the Republican evangelical constituency, takes on a greater urgency in the light of the US presidential elections in November and Washingtons belligerence against Iran as part of its broader campaign to reduce Chinese influence in the region. Israel, along with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf petro-monarchies, plays a key role as Washingtons attack dog and local proxy. Joe Biden, the Democratic Partys presumed presidential candidate, has nominally opposed Israels annexation of Palestinian territories, saying it would choke off any hope of peace, but renewed his pledge to unconditionally continue US military aid to Israel if elected president. Netanyahu emphasised the importance of achieving sovereignty for biblical sites such as Shilo, Bethel, Hebron and others, saying, This is a historical mission which will be achieved together. It will lead to a tsunami of dispossessions and expulsions as Palestinian land is expropriated to make way for new or expanded settlements, with Palestinians transferred to the nearest big city, as happened with the Bedouins in the Negev and East Jerusalemites who found themselves in areas cut off from the rest of the city. Leading the drive for annexation have been fascistic settlers who, notwithstanding Israels social-distancing measures and lockdown, have ramped up their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank to drive them off their land. They have used clubs, axes, electroshock weapons, stones, and assault dogs, in some cases causing severe injury, as soldiers have looked on. They have attacked homes, torched cars, vandalized and uprooted olive trees and other crops, and stolen livestock. According to the human rights group BTselem, Israeli security forces raided 100 homes in the West Bank and arrested 217 Palestinians, 16 of them minors, between March 1 and April 3. It documented night raids on 12 homes, of which 8 belonged to members of one extended family. Tens of thousands of Palestinian laborers continued to work in Israel and the settlements. Some of the countrys least protected workers, they were not allowed to commute across the border, but had to agree to remain in Israel so as not to spread the disease. At the mercy of their employers, some have had to sleep in construction sites in atrocious conditions. Those who returned home received no compensation and many lost their jobs. In one of his last acts before quitting Netanyahus coalition to sit with the Opposition, Defence Minister Naftali Bennett approved a settlement project in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, one of several around the Ibrahimi Mosque, that will involve the seizure of Palestinian land. Annexation will involve military force, under conditions where the Palestinians in the occupied territories and Israel now number approximately the same as Jewish Israelis. An open-source document published by the Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS) in Herzliya states that annexation would destabilise the eastern border of Israel, which is characterised by great stability, a quiet and a very low level of terror, cause a deep jolt to Israeli-Jordanian relations and lead to the gradual disintegration of the Palestinian Authority, which acts as Israels local police force, and another Palestinian uprising. A European Union framework is needed to provide insurance cover for catastrophes such as pandemics and huge cyber attacks, the Federation of European Risk Management (FERMA) said on Tuesday. This would involve public-private partnerships and could cover events which hit businesses but do not involve physical damage, FERMA said in a letter to the European Commission. Insurers say most businesses are not covered for pandemics, which has left small businesses in Europe battling for pay-outs for lost revenue due to the coronavirus crisis. We now aim to deepen discussions with the EU, the Member States and the insurance sector, and to develop solutions for both short-term crisis management and long-term business resilience," FERMA President Dirk Wegener said in the letter. The EU's insurance regulator has also said national governments need to help in future, as the private sector cannot afford such broad cover on its own. AXA said on Tuesday it would meet the bulk of claims from some restaurant owners after a Paris court ruled last week the French insurer should pay one owner two-months' worth of coronavirus-related revenue losses. Insurers in Britain and the United States are also seeking public-private partnerships for future pandemic cover, as they face the threat of legal action over business interruption claims. A British group, TotusRe, said it has spoken to lawmakers and the government-backed terrorism reinsurance scheme about cover for a broader range of macro-economic risks. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Dublin, May 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "United States 3D Radar Market By Range (Long Range, Medium Range, Short Range), By Platform (Airborne, Ground, Naval), By Frequency Band (C/S/X Band, E/F Band, L Band, Others), By Component (Software and Hardware), By Industry, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The United States 3D Radar Market is expected to grow at an impressive rate over the forecast period. Emerging modern warfare techniques and rapid technological developments is increasingly replacing traditional combat systems with advanced combat technologies like network-centric & electronic warfare, thereby driving the market demand for 3D radars in the country. Moreover, increasing application of 3D radars in various end-user industries is positively influencing the market growth over the coming years. For instance, 3D radar is mainly implemented by defence or air force for weather investigation, security surveillance and unmanned monitoring of assets. However, the factors that might act as major impediment to the growth of the United States 3D Radar Market during forecast years are high installation cost and skilled expertise required for operating and maintaining the system. The United States 3D Radar Market is segmented based on range, platform, frequency band, component, industry, region and company. Based on range, the market is segmented into long range, medium range and short range. Out of which, the long range segment dominated the market until 2019 and is anticipated to lead the United States 3D Radar Market during the next 5 years as well which can be attributed to its rising applicability in weather monitoring applications with the help of which natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and cyclones can be predicted accurately. In terms of platform type, the market is fragmented into C/S/X band, E/F band, L band and others. The C/S/X band segment dominated the market in terms of largest market share until 2019. The growth of this segment is accredited to its extensive use as a satellite transponder for long-range tracking that is widely being used by military personnel at the time of the battlefield for surveillance purpose. Major players operating in the United States 3D Radar Market include Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon Company, Honeywell International Inc., Airbus Defense and Space, Saab Defense and Security USA, Thales Group, Leonardo S.p.A, ASELSAN A.S. and others. Objective of the Study: Story continues To analyze and forecast the market size of the United States 3D Radar Market. To classify and forecast the United States 3D Radar Market based on range, platform, frequency band, component, industry, company and regional distribution. To identify drivers and challenges for the United States 3D Radar Market. To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in the United States 3D Radar Market. To conduct pricing analysis for the United States 3D Radar Market. To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in the United States 3D Radar Market. The author performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study. Initially, they sourced a list of manufacturers across the region. Subsequently, they conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies. While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors. Through this technique, they could include the manufacturers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The author analyzed the manufacturers, distribution channels and presence of all major players across the region. The author calculated the market size of the United States 3D Radar Market by using a bottom-up approach, wherein data for various end-user segments was recorded and forecast for the future years. They sourced these values from the industry experts and company representatives and externally validated through analyzing historical data of these product types and applications for getting an appropriate, overall market size. Various secondary sources such as company websites, news articles, press releases, company annual reports, investor presentations and financial reports were also studied. Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Voice of Customer 5. United States 3D Radar Market Outlook 5.1. Market Size & Forecast 5.1.1. By Value 5.2. Market Share & Forecast 5.2.1. By Range (Long Range, Medium Range, Short Range) 5.2.2. By Platform (Airborne, Ground, Naval) 5.2.3. By Frequency Band (C/S/X Band, E/F Band, L Band, Others) 5.2.4. By Component (Software and Hardware) 5.2.5. By Industry (Automotive and Public Infrastructure, Energy & Utilities, Government, Others) 5.2.6. By Region 5.2.7. By Company (2018) 5.3. Market Attractiveness Index 6. Northeast United States 3D Radar Market Outlook 6.1. Market Size & Forecast 6.1.1. By Value 6.2. Market Share & Forecast 6.2.1. By Range 6.2.2. By Platform 6.2.3. By Industry 7. Midwest United States 3D Radar Market Outlook 7.1. Market Size & Forecast 7.1.1. By Value 7.2. Market Share & Forecast 7.2.1. By Range 7.2.2. By Platform 7.2.3. By Industry 8. West United States 3D Radar Market Outlook 8.1. Market Size & Forecast 8.1.1. By Value 8.2. Market Share & Forecast 8.2.1. By Range 8.2.2. By Platform 8.2.3. By Industry 9. South United States 3D Radar Market Outlook 9.1. Market Size & Forecast 9.1.1. By Value 9.2. Market Share & Forecast 9.2.1. By Range 9.2.2. By Platform 9.2.3. By Industry 10. Market Dynamics 10.1. Drivers 10.2. Challenges 11. Market Trends & Developments 12. Policy & Regulatory Landscape 13. United States Economic Profile 14. Competitive Landscape 14.1. Northrop Grumman Corporation 14.2. Raytheon Company 14.3. Honeywell International Inc. 14.4. Airbus Defense and Space 14.5. Saab Defense and Security USA 14.6. Thales Group 14.7. Leonardo S.p.A 14.8. ASELSAN A.S. 15. Strategic Recommendations 16. About Us & Disclaimer For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/foe6cp Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 Due to the shortage of donated organs, thousands to millions of people with end-stage diseases will remain on waiting lists for years in the hopes that they will one day receive this life-saving procedure. Image Credits: Couperfield / Shutterstock.com Although medical examiners and coroners have legal permission to donate the organs of a decedents body, the reality of this process is often complicated by competing interests that exist between forensic investigators and organ donation networks. The role of medical examiners and coroners Any unexpected and/or violent death requires a thorough investigation that is performed by medical examiners and coroners (MEs/Cs). Typically, the situations that will require this type of investigation include the sudden death of an otherwise healthy individual, deaths due to violence, homicides, suicides, accidental or industrial deaths and the deaths of patients who had been hospitalized for less than 24 hours. Regardless of the situation at hand, the forensic investigation performed by MEs/Cs are expected to provide an accurate and evidence-based determination of the cause of death for each case. What happens to the organs? MEs/Cs are given lawful possession and physical custody of a decedents body by both state and several local legislative bodies throughout the United States. Therefore, in the event that a death requiring forensic investigation has occurred and organ donation is possible, the MEs/Cs have the ability to release an organ or tissue, as long as it does not interfere with any future autopsy or forensic investigation. While this is true under federal law, several states have specified certain addendums to this rule. For example, Colorados Organ and Tissue Donation Coroner Protocol Addenda allows the MEs/Cs to release organs with or without restrictions. These restrictions determine whether organs can be released before, during or after the autopsy of the descendent. Another example is the New York Organ Donor Network, which outlines a specialized cardiectomy procedure that allows the ME to be involved in the procurement of donor hearts. During this time, MEs can weigh recovered hearts, examine the epicardium, as well as both right and left ventricular walls and obtain biopsies of coronary arteries. Competing interests Despite the fact that MEs/Cs are permitted to release organs for donation, these forensic professionals still have the jurisdiction to restrict or completely stop organ donation as they deem necessary. This unfortunately creates a situation in which competing interests exist between the MEs/Cs and the Donation Agency or Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), as both these entities require some level of access to the deceased body. Since MEs/Cs are primarily interested in preserving physical evidence to reach an optimal determination of the individuals cause of death, there is a real concern that any organ retrieval operation will compromise their ability to perform an in-depth postmortem examination. Does organ donation impact forensic outcomes? In an effort to reduce the tension that exists between organ donation networks and MEs/Cs, several studies have been performed to assess whether organ donation does in fact impact the quality of forensic evidence and any relating judicial findings or outcomes. Early assistance by FMEs A 2014 study conducted in Istanbul, Turkey examined 12,016 autopsy cases over a period of 3 years to determine the potential impact that cadaveric organ donation has on forensic evidence in judicial cases. Despite the vast number of examined cases, only 35 of these cases were found to undergo solid organ harvesting for donations. One of the key conclusions of this study was the need to consult with a forensic medical expert (FME) prior to diagnosing brain or cardiac death, thereby allowing the FME to be involved in all stages of the forensic process. By integrating the FME with surgical teams, the forensic professional could participate in the organ harvesting procedure by performing initial investigations on the patients death and collect samples for forensic screenings. This early involvement of an FME would, therefore, allow the judicial process to begin early, which ensures the preservation of important physical evidence without preventing usable organs from being donated to individuals in need. Unaltered autopsy evidence Once recent study published in 2019 examined 177 records of reported deaths that had been referred for organ donation over a period of four years in Queensland, Australia. Whereas 147 of these cases were unlikely to be related to criminal action, 30 of these deaths were examined for the possibility that criminal action as involved in the decedents death. In regard to the cases that eventually required judicial oversight, there was not any evidence that the organ donation of the victims altered the autopsy evidence and subsequent trial proceedings. Conclusion Although MEs/Cs may have their reservations on permitting the organ donation of their patients, there remains no documented evidence that confirms that these procedures interfere with subsequent judicial processes. Unfortunately, this apprehension by MEs/Cs not only results in the loss of life-saving organs, but subsequently contribute to the overall shortage of organs available to patients on transplant waiting lists. While several initiatives have emerged in an effort to reduce the occurrence of ME/C refusals, the rates of these restrictions have not budged. Since the support for organ donation has been widely demonstrated by forensic professional bodies, it is critical that new guidelines are established in order to improve the forensic decision-making processes and ultimately increase the availability of organs for transplantation. Sources Death Investigation and Organ & Tissue Donation The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Nunnink, L., & Wallace-Dixon, C. (2020). The impact of organ donation on coronial processes and forensic investigation: A literature review. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 71. doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2020.101940. Arslan, M. N., Melez, I. E., Melez, D. O., Cavlak, M., & Gur, A. (2014). Limitations of cadaveric organ donation on judicial cases and problems confronted in autopsy: Istanbul data in comparative perspective. Forensic Science International 237; 131-136. doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2013.12.021. Nunnink, L., Stobbs, N., Wallace-Dixon, C., & Carpenter, B. (2019). Does organ donation impact on forensic outcomes? A review of coronial outcomes and criminal trial proceedings. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine 68. doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2019.101860. Further Reading Video PlayerClose Some students have lunch at school in Yunnan Province, in Southwest China. [Xinhua/Lin Yiguang] BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) Over 40.6 million students in China's rural areas have benefited from a national program on nutrition enhancement of rural students of compulsory education since 2011, according to a recent report. A total of 29 provincial-level regions around the country have carried out the program, covering 145,700 compulsory education schools in rural areas and over 42 percent of rural students receiving compulsory education, said the report from the Ministry of Education. From 2011 to 2019, the central budget invested more than 147 billion yuan (about 20.64 billion U.S. dollars) for the program, generating hundreds of thousands of jobs in less developed regions. In the future, the country will step up efforts to ensure food safety and proper use of the funds, said the report. (Source: Xinhua) One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. (HKG:3993). Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments. Check out our latest analysis for China Molybdenum How Do You Calculate Return On Equity? The formula for ROE is: Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) Shareholders' Equity So, based on the above formula, the ROE for China Molybdenum is: 3.9% = CN1.9b CN50b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020). The 'return' refers to a company's earnings over the last year. So, this means that for every HK$1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of HK$0.04. Does China Molybdenum Have A Good Return On Equity? Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. However, this method is only useful as a rough check, because companies do differ quite a bit within the same industry classification. As shown in the graphic below, China Molybdenum has a lower ROE than the average (6.9%) in the Metals and Mining industry classification. SEHK:3993 Past Revenue and Net Income May 25th 2020 That's not what we like to see. Although, we think that a lower ROE could still mean that a company has the opportunity to better its returns with the use of leverage, provided its existing debt levels are low. A high debt company having a low ROE is a different story altogether and a risky investment in our books. You can see the 4 risks we have identified for China Molybdenum by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here. Story continues How Does Debt Impact ROE? Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. China Molybdenum's Debt And Its 3.9% ROE It's worth noting the high use of debt by China Molybdenum, leading to its debt to equity ratio of 1.03. Its ROE is quite low, even with the use of significant debt; that's not a good result, in our opinion. Investors should think carefully about how a company might perform if it was unable to borrow so easily, because credit markets do change over time. Conclusion Return on equity is one way we can compare its business quality of different companies. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So you might want to check this FREE visualization of analyst forecasts for the company. Of course China Molybdenum may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Pregnant women should take extra precautions amid the coronavirus pandemic. A new study shows that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), attacks the placenta. The researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago aimed to identify the histopathologic findings of women with COVID-19 during pregnancy. They found that the placentas of women infected with severe SARS-CoV-2 have higher rates of placental injury. Image Credit: MIA Studio / Shutterstock Placental injury Published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, the study revealed that there is evidence of insufficient blood flow from the mother to the fetus and blood clot formation in the placenta. "Most of these babies were delivered full-term after otherwise normal pregnancies, so you wouldn't expect to find anything wrong with the placentas, but this virus appears to be inducing some injury in the placenta," Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein, assistant professor of pathology at Northwestern University and study author, said in a statement. The placenta is a flattened circular organ in the uterus of a pregnant woman that nourishes and maintains the fetus through the umbilical cord. The cord acts as the primary link from the fetus to the placenta. Through the umbilical cord, the placenta provides oxygen and nutrients. At the same time, it removes waste products from the baby's blood. Implications on pregnancy The study provides a glimpse into how the coronavirus might cause changes in the placenta. Further, it shows the potential implications of the pandemic on the health of both the mothers and their babies. The study involved 16 pregnant women with COVID-19 delivering between March 18 and May 5. The placentas were examined and compared to historical controls. Of these women, one suffered from stillbirth or intrauterine fetal demise, wherein the baby died in the womb. The researchers found that the third trimester placentas of women with COVID-19 were significantly more likely to show at least one feature of maternal vascular malperfusion (MVM). This condition has pathological features such as reduced placental size, retroplacental hemorrhage, abnormal placental villi, and multifocal infarction. The placenta of COVID-19 pregnant women also showed injured maternal vessels and intervillous thrombi. The placenta from the patient with intrauterine fetal demise showed villous edema and a retroplacental hematoma. Increased surveillance Pregnant women should be included in patients who are at high risk for COVID-19. The findings of the study shed light on the effects of the viral infection on pregnant women. Since placental injury is a complication of COVID-19, it is essential to ramp up antenatal monitoring and surveillance among pregnant women. "These findings provide mechanistic insight into the observed epidemiologic associations between COVID-19 in pregnancy and adverse perinatal outcomes. Collectively, these findings suggest that increased antenatal surveillance for women diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 may be warranted," the researchers wrote in the paper. The researchers urged that changes should be made on how pregnant women are monitored today. "I don't want to draw sweeping conclusions from a small study, but this preliminary glimpse into how COVID-19 might cause changes in the placenta carries some pretty significant implications for the health of a pregnancy," Dr. Emily Miller, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said. "We must discuss whether we should change how we monitor pregnant women right now," Miller said, which she said might be done by testing the oxygen delivery of the placenta during the pregnancy and following the growth of babies via ultrasounds," she added. Related Study A related study published by the Public Health Agency of Sweden in its Brief Report showed that compared to non-pregnant women, pregnant and postpartum women with COVID-19 have a higher risk of requiring intensive care. The paper concluded, Pregnant women should be cautious considering the potentially severe consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection and those with additional risk factors such as overweight or obesity, hypertension, and gestational diabetes should take extra precautions. Global toll The coronavirus disease has since spread to 188 countries and territories, infecting more than 5.49 million people across the globe. Since the advent of the pandemic, more than 346,000 people have died. The United States is the country with the highest infection toll, with more than 1.66 million people infected, and its death toll has topped more than 98,000. Brazil has reported a steep increase in cases and has now placed second as the nation with the highest confirmed cases. The country has reported more than 374,000 cases and more than 23,000 deaths. Russia has more than 353,000 cases, but with a lower reported death toll of 3,633. LJUBLJANA, May 11 (Reuters) - Slovenia will allow international passenger air traffic from Tuesday after it has been suspended for eight weeks due to the coronavirus epidemic, the government said late on Monday. "The prohibition of international air flights from the EU area and from other countries to Slovenian international public airports is no longer needed," the government said in a statement. It added a number of measures in the airline sector have been taken over the past weeks to protect public health. Slovenia has so far reported 1,460 coronavirus cases and 102 deaths. Fraport Slovenia, a company which operates Slovenia's largest airport Ljubljana and is owned by Germany's Fraport AG Frankfurt, welcomed the decision but said most air carriers had cancelled flights to and from Ljubljana until the end of May. "Regardless of that we have in the past days ... set everything needed to safely restart passenger traffic," Fraport said in a separate statement. Before the coronavirus lockdown, the Ljubljana airport connected Slovenia to a number of mostly European destinations. Cargo traffic has not been prohibited. The government said planes from abroad will not be able to land at Slovenia's smaller local airports until June 12. From the middle of March Slovenia closed all schools, bars, restaurants, hotels, shops, apart from food and drug stores, and cancelled public transport. It also introduced a seven-day obligatory quarantine for most people entering the country. It started lifting restrictions on April 20, when a number of shops reopened, while public transport resumed earlier on Monday. Some pupils are expected to return to schools on May 18. As a result of the lockdown Slovenia's tourism, which makes up some 12% of the country's GDP, slumped in March with arrivals of foreign tourists down by 78.1% year-on-year, the statistics office said last month. The government expects GDP to fall by at least 8.1% this year after it increased by 2.4% in 2019. (Reporting By Marja Novak Editing by Alistair Bell) Hyderabad, May 26 : An AirAsia India Jaipur-Hyderabad flight with 76 people on board made an emergency landing at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here on Tuesday allegedly due to fuel leak. The A320 aircraft, carrying 70 passengers and six crew members, encountered the snag as it was approaching the airport for landing. After the pilot informed the Air Traffic Control of the snag, emergency services were kept on standby during the landing as per protocol. The aircraft landed safely around 1.25 p.m., some 15 minutes before the scheduled arrival time at the RGIA. An airline spokesperson said the VT-IXC operating as i51543 from Jaipur to Hyderabad encountered a technical issue and carried out a precautionary engine shut down. "Handling the situation calmly in a professional manner, the crew landed at Shamshabad, as scheduled. We are carrying out detailed inspection of the aircraft, having informed DGCA.. we are assisting in the investigation to establish the cause," the spokesperson said. AirAsia India would like to reiterate that safety first is a core value and the safety of our guests and crew is the single most important criteria in every aspect of our operations and our pilots and crew are experienced and well trained to manage these situations, the spokesperson added. The incident occurred a day after the Indian skies were opened up for domestic flight services after two months due to coronavirus-induced lockdown. The low-cost carrier had also resumed the operations and announced that it will fly to 21 destinations in the country. A government homeopathy medical college in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh has reportedly claimed to have successfully cured six coronavirus patients using homeopathy medicines. Meanwhile, public health experts have raised questions over such treatment and demanded an immediate ban on its further trials, reports said. "Six coronavirus infected patients who were admitted on May 14 are returning home having recovered from the disease. These included two children also whose parents were positive. These children too were given homeopathy medicines. No allopathy medicine was given to children. They were only given homeopathy medicines," Hindustan Times quoted a communique issued by Bhopal district administration on Monday. ALSO READ: Coronavirus vaccine: ICMR says clinical trials within 6 months; Moderna moves to Phase 2 Dr Manoj Kumar Sahu, in the communique, said that homeopathy medicines and dosages for all patients were selected after studying their medical history in detail, the daily reported. After taking the homeopathy medication, the patients showed surprising improvement and none of them needed oxygen support, the report quoted Sahu as saying. However, health experts have expressed their reservations regarding the treatment. "World Health Organisation's (WHO) protocol of treatment talks about treatment only through specific allopathy medicines. The advisory from AYUSH Department of Government of India for consumption of Ayurveda decoction is only to boost the immunity of patients and others. As far as a clinical trial on COVID-19 patients through any alternative system of medicines is concerned, no such trial has been allowed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) so far," public health expert Amulya Nidhi told the daily. ALSO READ: Glenmark to start phase 3 of COVID-19 clinical trial on hospitalised patients Nidhi further called for a ban on any such trial. "Such a trial and claim on successful treatment through homeopathy are not only dangerous for patients being treated this way but others also in the state and other parts of the country. The central government and the state government, both are making appeals to people repeatedly to come forward to get themselves examined at allopathy hospitals if they have any suspected symptom of coronavirus. Such a claim on successful treatment through homeopathy may result in a section of people with COVID-19 symptoms avoiding going to government hospitals or any allopathic doctor and relying on homeopathy treatment on their own," he said. In response to the criticism, Dr SN Shukla of the homeopathy medical college's research wing said that the homeopathic treatment followed all protocols and guidelines and is being administered in a scientific manner. "We are following all the protocol and guidelines of WHO in treating the patients. I can't tell what medicines we are giving and what we are not giving. It's the state government which earmarked our hospital as COVID care centre more than 10 days back," Shukla told the daily. ALSO READ: Hydroxycloroquine can be given under supervision, side effects can be tackled: Indian-American doctor Last week, the state Department of Health issued a directive requiring every nursing home employee and resident be tested for coronavirus, but workers at several facilities across northern New Jersey say that order has been ignored. Members of the 1199SEIU, a union representing health care workers, say management at nursing homes like Manhattanview in Union City told them they will be tested at the facility, but only if they have health insurance. Other employees must arrange to have the testing performed elsewhere, on their own time and at their own expense, officials with 1199SEIU said. At a time when caregivers across the state are battling COVID-19 on the front lines, many working extreme hours and still without adequate personal protective equipment, the onus should not be on them to find their own way to a testing site or deal with payment issues, 1199SEIU Executive Director Milly Silva said in a statement. A representative for Manhattanview was not available for comment. The state directive says the first round of testing must be done by May 30 and those who test negative will need to be retested within three to seven days. 1199SEIU said it has significant concerns that certain employers are not providing on-site testing that is freely accessible to all workers, regardless of their insurance status. Other facilities that are reportedly refusing to test workers without proof of insurance include: Sinai Post-Acute in Newark Teaneck Nursing Center in Teaneck Plaza Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Elizabeth Milford Manor in West Milford Monmouth Care Center in Long Branch In April, 15 residents died in the Union City nursing home due to COVID-19, according to state health officials. Many nursing home workers cannot afford the health insurance offered by employers, and none should be putting themselves or others around them at greater risk of viral exposure by unnecessarily taking public transit to testing sites or waiting around in doctors offices, Silva said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 23:05:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that the national legislature's national security legislation for Hong Kong is in strict accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law, and the HKSAR government will fully support the legislation. The decision by the National People's Congress (NPC) on national security legislation for Hong Kong has solid and unquestionable constitutional and legal basis, Lam said in response to the unwarranted remarks by some foreign politicians. The legislation will not violate the Basic Law of the HKSAR, instead will improve the system and mechanisms related to the implementation of the Basic Law. It will help ensure the full implementation of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong and safeguard Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability, Lam said at a media session before the Executive Council meeting on Tuesday morning. The chief executive refuted the erroneous statement that "the central authorities replace Hong Kong's role in the legislation" as totally disregarding the constitutional relationship between the HKSAR and the central government as well as the fact that legislation on national security falls within the purview of the central authorities in countries of both unitary and federal systems. The foreign politicians who made the statement are holding double standards, she pointed out, stressing that the NPC's move is to exercise the power of the central authorities and to fulfill its responsibility for the 7 million Hong Kong residents. Lam also dismissed claims that the legislation will affect Hong Kong residents' rights and freedoms and Hong Kong's status as an international financial hub. Many countries around the world, including Western states, have enacted similar laws for safeguarding national security, but scenarios such as investors being scared away or the status of international financial or commercial center being stripped did not happen, she noted. Contrary to the foreign politicians' comments, the legislation has been well received by Hong Kong residents as they believe it will make life here safer, Lam said, noting that the legislation only targets a very small group of people committing crimes and endangering national security, and will protect the vast majority of law-abiding Hong Kong residents. She also stressed that the legislation helps consolidate Hong Kong's status as an international financial hub as many business leaders want a stable and safe environment to invest and live in. The chief executive said she and the HKSAR government will fully support and cooperate with the national legislature on the legislation, and are glad to see that many Hong Kong residents understand and support the national security legislation at the state level for the HKSAR. Enditem Its been two months since most state governments issued stay-at-home orders, and it will be many more before they have a clear idea of what government operations will look like for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, good government means good telework, and the transition to working from home has been an urgent challenge for all 50 states.But some success stories are proving it doesnt have to be a debilitating one; with limited remote-access technology and a working relationship with the virtual networking company Citrix already in place, the state of Illinois set up telework capacity for tens of thousands of staff in a matter of days.As Chief Technology Officer Lori Sorenson tells it, Illinois found the transition relatively painless because it didnt have to start from scratch. Prior to the pandemic, she said, the state had relatively few staff working from home: a maximum of 3,000 people a day using Citrixs remote-access solution, out of more than 50,000 desktop users employed by the state. When early discussions about widespread telework and what-if planning started at the beginning of March, Sorenson said, state agencies were consulting their continuity of operations plans and taking inventory: hardware, data usage, availability of laptops, how many laptop orders were already in the pipeline, call center capabilities, et cetera.Having gathered that information, Sorenson and Illinois IT staff set about scenario planning, not knowing exactly how long the shutdown might last.Weve gathered the information, weve come to know what we have, and (then) we were having the discussions: what if, what would we do, where would we need to increase those capabilities? she said. The week before, we started making those decisions reaching out to our vendors where we knew we wanted to increase remote access, and for laptops, and beginning to place those orders.Sorenson said Citrix was a logical partner for the project, because Illinois was already using some of the companys products in a more limited capacity, including Remote PC Access, Workspace and Citrixs application delivery controller.For Citrix, which serves more than 400,000 organizations worldwide including local governments the challenge with Illinois was less a matter of scale than of time. Steve Nguyen, the companys vice president and general manager for U.S. public sector business, said Illinois staff approached Citrix with four requirements: a BYOD (bring your own device) approach to allowing people to work from home; the ability to access the states network on personal devices; a hybrid or multi-cloud solution mixed with on-premise storage, flexible enough to work with more than one cloud option; and a week of time to get at least 25,000 employees up and running.Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a statewide stay-at-home order on March 20, set to go into effect the next day.They were going to send all their employees home Monday morning. They wanted to make sure when they sent them home, they had instructions for how to access the network, Nguyen said.Sorenson said her work with Citrix mostly entailed adding capacity and communicating with staff. That meant buying more licenses for a Citrix tool called Remote PC Access, buying some services from Citrix to get the network properly configured at scale, buying additional load balancers, working with the states data center to expand server capacity for the added burden, and finally, giving employees a link to a Web browser through which they could access virtual versions of their desktops and applications.She said the transition would have been more difficult without the necessary hardware in place, such as servers and controllers; or without trained staff who could manage user issues; or without a prior relationship with a vendor of the technology they needed. Working with Citrix, it took Illinois a matter of days to stand up the additional network capacity and write instructions and guides for employees making the transition.Sorenson said more than 10,000 employees shifted to remote work within the first week, 14,000 the first month, and about 27,000 to date.Most employees have adapted very well, very quickly, and have been able to be productive and keep operations moving, she said. Working remotely does have its limitations for security purposes. You dont have the ability to print, and there are certainly jobs throughout certain agencies where it impacts the nature of their processes, but for those needing to remotely access files and applications, and perform those functions, its working very well.Nguyen said one lesson governments might take from COVID-19 is the importance of having a disaster recovery or remote work strategy ready to deploy statewide, as opposed to office-wide, as well as making sure it can perform and accommodate any workload.What we saw with a lot of our customers was, once they saw that they satisfied the initial needs of dealing with the crisis and getting their employees home, the second part was figuring out extended work-from-home, he said. We looked at their network to really optimize the performance and give them the ability to have not only the scale but the performance the users were looking for.Sorenson was confident that Illinois now has such a network, and the knowledge that its staff can work wherever they need to, come what may.Think about disaster planning, she said. Pre-COVID, if an area of the state or a building were to become inoperable we went in, looked at our inventory, got laptops out, and set up the displaced staff at another office location This (remote work) is now another option. A Russian artist has created an intricate set of sculptures carved out of pencil graphite including a miniature Donald Trump and The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Sculptor Salavat Fidai, 47, from Ufa, Russia, creates the miniature sculptures on the tip of a pencil - and they sell for up to 2,000 each. The former lawyer began creating graphite sculptures in 2014 after he started painting on miniature everyday items such as matchboxes, pumpkin seeds and grains of rice. Time-lapse videos on Instagram, where the artist has 789,000 followers, show Salavat chiselling into the graphite using a craft knife to create tiny incisions. And despite the small scale of the artwork, which can sometimes take days to perfect, prices for a miniature pencil sculpture can fetch up to 2,136 for a 2mm design. Sculptor Salavat Fidai, 47, from Ufa, Russia, created a miniature design named 'The Bird In The Cage' which took him four days to perfect To celebrate Independence Day on July 4 Salavat created a set of landmarks including the Statue of Liberty (pictured), the Empire State Building and the One World Trade Center Salavat created the Marvel character, Spiderman, on the tip of a red pencil which he posted to Instagram on May 12 The artist created the Disney character Stitch using a blue graphite pencil. The fictional character is best known from the film Lilo and Stitch A Game of Thrones reference is included in this piece titled 'what is dead may never die' which sees a ship sailing on an octopus Salavat titled this piece 'man shooting by smartphone'. The sculpture depicts the modern image of a man recording footage on his phone To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8 Salavat created the female gender symbol interlinked on a pink pencil Salavat commemorated the inauguration of Donald Trump, who became the 45th president of the United States on January 20 2017, by carving his bust out of pencil graphite Salavat created a piece titled 'hand with smartphone' depicting a palm typing on a screen. In an Instagram time-lapse video, the artist captioned the piece: 'We have forgotten how to write because we use smartphones all times...' The Russian artist created a hand holding a pencil to celebrate the day that the graphite pencil was invented on October 26 1492 Salavat created the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 2017 out of white graphite. The Italian landmark is known around the globe for its almost four-degree lean On Sunday, Chicago's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, launched a police raid to shut down a black church's Sunday services. This is from news reports: The pastor of the mostly black congregation, Courtney Lewis, reportedly shut and locked the doors and refused to allow the officers to gain entry to the building, Todd Starnes reported. Pastor Lewis told Starnes that he felt like he was confronting "the Soviet-style KGB" as the officers pounded on his doors and demanded entry to shut the church down. "Thankfully, our doors were locked as a normal safety precaution we take each service to protect our members from the escalating gun violence in Chicago," Lewis said. A pastor complaining about Soviet-style KGB in Chicago, Illinois in the USA? Hard to believe, but these Democrats are certainly loving this post-pandemic power, aren't they? It reminds me of another Chicago story a few years ago. You may recall that Elvira Arellano, an illegal alien, took refuge in a church in Chicago back in 2007. As you may recall, even the president of Mexico got involved in the story. Mexico backed the young mother hiding in a church! Chicago's local leadership warned ICE and federal officials from charging into a church. So the mayor of Chicago tried to shut down a religious service yesterday? Not long ago, the same city leadership defended a church hiding an illegal alien! I hope the locals are watching leaders and hold them accountable. PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. WILLOW CREEK, Mont. Teachers at Willow Creek School in Montana wore cloth face masks and held 6-foot-long pool noodles while a handful of students played in the grass in front of the school. Once recess ended, students lined up on orange circles spray-painted on the sidewalk at appropriate social distances and waited to be led inside. Each student was met at the door with a squirt of hand sanitizer. "I think all in all, it's really going smoothly," said Bonnie Lower, superintendent at Willow Creek School, which reopened May 7. "The kids are adjusting to the 6 feet apart." "I think they need a little reminding," added Diane Gilbreaith, who teaches fifth and sixth grades at Willow Creek. "Honestly, the pool noodles are a great visual." Willow Creek School Superintendent Bonnie Lower, left, and 5th and 6th grade teacher Diane Gilbreaith agreed that visual cues have been an important part in reminding students to maintain social distancing. Willow Creek School is one of just a handful of schools in Montana that decided to fully reopen on May 7, 2020 after schools across the state were shuttered on March 15, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers use the pool noodles throughout the day to remind students of social distancing. "All we have to do is just hold it up and they automatically know, Hey, I might be a little too close,' and they back right up," Lower said. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announced March 15 that all schools in the state would close to in-person instruction. By late April, Bullock unveiled plans to reopen the state in a phased approach, which allowed local school boards to reopen schools to students as early as May 7. Bullock's recommendations advises school boards to consider implementing an alternative educational delivery model that includes both in-person and remote learning. Health screenings, social distancing and face masks were also recommended. Willow Creek School is one of 11 Montana schools that fully opted to reopen on the first day, state officials said. The school first surveyed parents about reopening, and 76% indicated they were in favor of it. Serving preschool through 12th grade, Willow Creek School had 56 students enrolled this year. Since reopening, only about 37 students have been in the school because the preschool academic year had concluded and several families decided to have their children continue with remote education. Story continues "I think it's been challenging for both the students and the staff," Lower said. "Even though we're back in school and we're trying to do things normally, we do have to adjust certain things." Willow Creek School staff spray painted orange circles onto the sidewalk six-feet-apart outside of the school for students to line up on at the end of recess. Students are greeted with hand sanitizer as they enter the building to return to class. 'No room to open schools' The decision to reopen simply wasnt possible in some districts, officials said. For example, Bozeman Public Schools Superintendent Bob Connors said reopening posed too many logistical challenges for a district the size of Bozeman's, where the smallest school holds nearly 300 students. "We have no room to open up schools," said Connors, whose district has nearly 7,000 students across 11 schools. "It's just a different makeup, and by allowing the different school boards to make those decisions they can take into account their specific situations. Willow Creek School in Gallatin County, Montana reopened for voluntary in-person instruction in May after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools across Montana in mid-March. At Willow Creek school, reopening safely meant going beyond just visual cues. Staff implemented staggered schedules and separated desks by 6 feet. Younger students walk through hallways holding hula hoops to prevent them from touching things. For lunch, elementary students eat at their desks, while high school students practice social distancing as they eat in the cafeteria. Students must also undergo a health screening before they enter school or board a bus. And on the buses, Willow Creek School has exceeded the governors recommendation that only one child occupy a seat by having students from different households separated by at least 6 feet. To do this, the school has had to add a small bus to the one large bus it used. Despite their preparations for reopening, Lower said a few small things had been overlooked. One example: condiments in the lunch room. Students normally shared ketchup and mustard bottles. "Only one person could touch them then we had to wipe them down," Lower said. To remedy the situation, one staff member handles the condiment at a time. "It's an easy fix, we'll just have to order (individual) packets in the future," Lower said with a laugh. Out of an abundance of caution, Willow Creek School is not allowing anyone besides students and staff into the building due to concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic. 'I'm not a teacher' Ultimately, Lower said that the school's decision to reopen was motivated by many students need for direct instruction to master curriculum. Willow Creek families like Chrystal Duvall and her three children were eager for school to resume. Duvall and her husband were both unable to work from home, meaning her three kids in second, sixth and seventh grades conducted their remote instruction at home alone. "It was really hard for them to finish anything while we weren't there to make it happen," Duvall said. Willow Creek School in Gallatin County, Montana reopened for voluntary in-person instruction in May after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools across Montana in mid-March. For the first couple of weeks, Duvall tried to let her children do the work at their own pace, but they would sleep in and wouldn't get much school work done during the day. So she implemented a new schedule that emulated a normal school day: waking her children before she went to work at 7 a.m., with specific time for regular breaks and lunch. "It was hard because I would call and check on them throughout the day and they're fighting among themselves and there's nobody there to referee it," Duvall said. "It got a little interesting." When the school sent home midterm report cards, Duvall recognized her children's grades were slipping. "I was relieved that Willow Creek decided to open because I'm not a teacher," she said. "I tried my best when I got home from work to help them with it, but they didn't want to do it, and I'm not a teacher." Willow Creek is located 40 miles west of Gallatin Countys urban center, Bozeman. The rural town was home to 210 people according to the 2010 census. 'These kids are coming back' Located 40 miles west of Bozeman, Gallatin County's urban center, Willow Creek couldn't count on having consistent internet access as Bozeman's work force, school and college campus transitioned to remote settings. Staff at Willow Creek leaned on printed packets of work for remote learning rather than web-based delivery due to potentially spotty internet access. "We're careful about how much we depend on the internet because on any given day, if there's a storm, we don't have internet," Lower said. "We don't have fiber optics; it's based on broadband." The willingness of Willow Creek School's staff to come together and create a "new normal," coupled with the school's small size in terms of enrollment led to its successful reopening, Lower said. "We can open the doors, we can be safe and we can help these kids get caught up before the end of the year," Lower said. "Some of them, they might not be totally caught up, there's going to be things that they've missed, but they're going to be further ahead than what they would have been if we would have just not opened our doors." According to the 2010 census, Willow Creek, Mont. Is home to 210 people. The rural town is located 40 miles west of Gallatin Countys urban center, Bozeman. Overall, Lower is pleased her school was given the opportunity to resume the school year even if it was only for three weeks before classes end Friday. "It looks different, not that anybody loves all the social distancing and all new expectations, there's nobody here who loves it," Lower said. "But at least these kids are coming back, they see what it looks like. They're not going to spend their entire summer wondering what it's going to look like in the fall." This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Coronavirus: Montana school opens with social distancing pool noodles Over 100 coronavirus infections traced to evangelical church, German officials say Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Over 100 infections of the new coronavirus have been traced back to people who attended an evangelical church service in Frankfurt two weeks ago after restrictions on worship gatherings were eased, according to German officials. Officials said Friday that a May 10 service at Frankfurt's Evangelical Christian Baptist Church has been linked to new COVID-19 cases in the area even though church leaders said they adhered to social distancing guidelines and disinfected the building. Hesse Health Minister Kai Klose told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the 107 COVID-19 cases were traced back to the church gathering after an initial report suggested that 40 attendees of the service tested positive for the virus. Klose said Sunday that health officials had begun gathering lists of people who attended the church service and those who later came in contact with them. "Most of them are not particularly sick, the head of the citys health department, Rene Gottschalk, told DPA. Reuters reports that it's not clear whether all 107 people who contracted the virus attended the service or if the figure also includes individuals who contracted the virus from people who were at the service. The churchs gathering was held after the state of Hesse relaxed lockdown restrictions on worship gatherings on May 1. Chancellor Angela Merkel approved plans to reopen churches and other houses of worship, museums, and businesses as the country began lifting lockdown restrictions earlier this month. Klose said the worshipers affected by the virus are residents of Frankfurt and three other districts in Hesse state. "We are deeply dismayed and sad that the infection has found its way into the community and has spread with great dynamism," a statement on the church's website reads. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all sick and relatives who are going through a difficult time. Our consolation is that many sick people are well on the way to recovery and some have already recovered." In an earlier interview with the German news agency, church elder Wladimir Pritzkau was not able to recall how many people attended the May 10 service but said that six had been hospitalized. Pritzkau, however, he stressed that the church followed all the appropriate social distancing guidelines, including the requirement that attendees be spaced 5 feet apart. We followed all the rules, Pritzkau was quoted as saying. The New York Times reports that Frankfurt's Evangelical Christian Baptist Church has again suspended its in-person services and will instead offer online services for the time being. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been over 181,100 cases of coronavirus in Germany, with over 8,300 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon. As some governments in the U.S. and across the globe consider whether to allow churches to reconvene in-person gatherings, critics have voiced concerns that such gatherings could result in a spike of coronavirus cases. In Georgia, the Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle halted its in-person services two weeks after reopening because members and leaders tested positive for the new coronavirus. Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control released a report suggesting that over 60 COVID-19 cases were linked back to events held at an Arkansas church in early March before the congregation was aware that its members had been infected with the coronavirus. Across the globe, legal challenges have been filed against state and local orders banning or restricting religious worship gatherings. Last week, Frances top administrative court struck down the governments ban on religious gatherings on grounds that such a ban constitutes a serious and manifest violation of the freedom of worship. One of the largest clusters of COVID-19 cases in France is tied to an evangelical church gathering held in mid-February. In the U.S., there have been mixed reactions to President Donald Trumps call last week for states to ease restrictions on religious gatherings. While some evangelical leaders praised Trump for urging states to allow in-person church services on Sunday, some leaders of predominantly black or Hispanic congregations vowed to remain closed until the virus is contained. Several states have decided to relax restrictions and permit regular activities in defiance of these recommendations. These premature re-openings will once again put tens of thousands of our COGIC saints in harms way, a statement from the leadership of the Church of God in Christ reads. We urge you, our pastors, to adhere to the recommendations of the CDC and NIAID and to refrain from prematurely opening your churches and congregating in your buildings before we have credible and substantiated evidence that it is safe to do so. In its interim guidelines released Friday, the CDC encourages church staff and attendees older than age 2 to wear masks. It also states that attendees should remain 6 feet apart, whether standing in a line or seated. CDC guidelines also advise churches to temporarily limit the use of prayer books and hymnals that are often touched by multiple people, and to cease using a communal cup for communion. It also encourages churches to add outdoor services or additional in-person worship service times so that the number of congregants attending each service is reduced. A federal appeals court appeared divided Tuesday on whether federal law requires a school district to allow a transgender high school student to use restrooms consistent with his gender identity. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., heard about 45 minutes of online arguments in the long-running case of Gavin Grimm, who is now a 20-year-old college student but whose suit asks the Gloucester County, Va., school district to pay nominal damages and to change his school records to reflect his change in gender identity. There was clearly nothing in the record that suggest Congress, when it enacted [Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972], was thinking of a transgender person when it barred discrimination based on sex, said Judge Paul V. Niemeyer. Isnt this better for Congress to answer? At issue is a policy adopted by the Gloucester County school board in 2014 that limited male and female locker rooms and restrooms to the corresponding biological genders and said students with gender identity issues would be offered an alternative appropriate private facility. Grimm, who was born female but began to identify as male and informed school officials at the start of his sophomore year. The school allowed him to use the boys restrooms until the school board intervened with its policy, which steered Grimm toward using a single-stall, unisex restroom. Grimm challenged the policy as a violation of Title IX and the 14th Amendments equal-protection clause. These separate facilities were not only separate, they were unqual, Joshua A. Block, Grimms lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the 4th Circuit panel. They were stigmatizing and humiliating. Grimms case drew nationwide attention in 2016 when he U.S. Supreme Court agreed to use the case to decide whether courts should defer to guidance issued by President Barack Obamas administration that called on schools to allow transgender students to use facilities corresponding to their gender identity. But when President Donald Trumps administration withdrew that guidance in 2017, the Supreme Court returned Grimms case to the lower courts, which have considered the more fundamental questions of whether Title IX and the equal-protection clause protect transgender students. A federal district judge issued a series of rulings in favor of Grimm in 2018 and 2019 . Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of Norfolk, Va, held that Title IX and the equal-protection clause cover transgender students and that the Gloucester County school boards policy violated both . David P. Corrigan, a Richmond lawyer representing the Gloucester County district and school board, told the 4th Circuit panel that the text and history of Title IX does not support the notion that the term sex in the statute encompasses gender identity. Sex is a binary concept, Corrigan said during the argument. You have males and females. The school board supported the transition of Gavin Grimm, he added, using his preferred name and pronouns. The sole issue is the restroom policy. Judge James A. Wynn Jr. pressed Corrigan on whether the single-use restroom the school district offered Grimm was a separate but equal bathroom. Its not separate but equal because it is available to everyone, Corrigan said. Wynn, who is African American and noted that he had grown up in the era of battles over desegregation in his native North Carolina, said, Thats like saying a black school is open to everyone, but you never had a white student going to a black school during the separate but equal period. ... I know what Im talking about. Wynn appeared to sympathize with the challenges faced by Grimm and other transgender students. Everything we know [is] that its stigmatizing to be excluded from facilities that everyone else uses, especially when the school board says your presence would make other people uncomfortable, Wynn said. But the legal question in the case was difficult for us, he said. Niemeyer repeatedly pressed Block about how Grimms claims of unequal treatment should be analyzed, such as by comparison to boys, girls, or other transgender students. He raised concerns about transgender athletes seeking to compete in categories corresponding to their gender identities and not their birth genders. The third member of the panel, Judge Henry F. Floyd, appeared to have asked a few questions but did not reveal his leanings. However, in 2017, Floyd joined a brief opinion related to a procedural development in Grimms case that lauded the student as someone joining a list of brave individuals ... who refused to accept quietly the injustices that were perpetuated against them. Tuesdays argument was conducted over video but only the audio was available to the general public. The participants seemed to agree that a pending Supreme Court decision on whether the protection against sex discrimination in employment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers transgender status could be relevant for the same question regarding students under Title IX. A decision in that case, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission , is expected by July. Both in a brief and in Tuesdays session before the 4th Circuit panel, Corrigan briefly offered arguments that Grimms case is moot because he is out of high school and only seeking nominal damages. Those arguments were rejected by the trial court and seemed to get little traction with the circuit court judges. Grimm, in court papers , argues that his claim for nominal damages keeps his case a live controversy. And he contends that the Gloucester County school systems refusal to update his transcript and school records to reflect that his birth certificate now recognizes him as male is a separate violation under Title IX and the equal-protection clause. A decision by the 4th Circuit panel is expected to take several months. A Michigan dock company is claiming Governor Gretchen Whitmers husband dropped name-dropped her when he asked to have his boat placed in the water off their lakefront home - even as his wife urged people not to travel to the area. Tad Dowker, the owner of NorthShore Dock LLC, posted a comment on Facebook on Thursday claiming that Marc Mallory, Whitmers husband, had put in a request to have his boat placed in the lake near the familys home in Elk Rapids. This morning I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend, the post read. Being memorial weekend and the fact that we started working 3 weeks late means there is no change this is going to happen. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (left) is being criticized by Republicans after it was claimed that her husband, Marc Mallory (right), asked a dock company to tow their boat into the water near their lakefront property in the northern part of the state before Memorial Day even though she urged people to avoid nonessential travel to the area Tad Dowker, the owner of NorthShore Dock LLC, posted a comment on Facebook on Thursday claiming that Mallory had put in a request to have his boat placed in the lake near the familys home in Elk Rapids. 'I am the husband to the Governor, will this make a difference,' Mallory is said to have told the company Well our office personal had explained this to the man and he replied I am the husband to the Governor, will this make a difference. The post included two emojis, one of them expressing laughter and the other appearing to show curiosity. As you can imagine it does make a difference, that would put you to the back of the line!!! Needless to say, our Governor and her husband will not be getting their boat for memorial day. To good not to share, I love it when karma comes around, even if just in small doses. The Facebook post generated more than 180 reactions, 50 comments and a dozen shares. That post has since been deleted, though screenshots of it are circulating online. Whitmer and Mallory own a lakefront home in Elk Rapids. It is said to be worth at least $500,000 The home is located on the shore of Birch Lake, a popular destination for in-state vacationers Tiffany Brown, a spokesperson for Whitmer, did not confirm or deny the claims made by Dowker. Brown told The Detroit News that Whitmer refused to address every rumor that is spread online. Our practice is not to discuss the governors or her familys personal calendar/schedules, Brown said. And were not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online. Theres been a lot of wild misinformation spreading online attacking the governor and her family, and the threats of violence against her personally are downright dangerous. Dowker posted the message on Facebook three days after Whitmer announced that she would ease some business and travel restrictions on the Northern Lower Michigan and Upper Peninsula regions. Those areas, which are home to vacationers who own lakefront cottages, have reported fewer COVID-19 cases than other parts of the state. Whitmer, a Democrat, has come under fierce criticism from her political opponents who accuse her of overstepping her authority by imposing sweeping lockdowns due to the spread of the coronavirus. Dowker (seen above) deleted the post after it circulated online She first announced statewide stay-at-home orders on March 23. While Whitmer lives in the governors mansion with her husband in the state capital of Lansing, the couple owns a property in the Elk Rapids area. The property is estimated to be worth somewhere in the region of half-a-million dollars. After Dowker deleted his post, his company posted a statement saying that its employees were being inundated with requests for comment from the news media and that they had no time to deal with the issue. After a long day of keeping crews running, adhering to the additional safety regulations that need to be in place to operate our small business and fielding calls from customers frustrated with our lagging installation schedule I was told the governor's husband called asking for install availability, the company posted. Up until this point we, as a company, had no idea we installed their dock or boat. The company said that Mallory was respectful and understanding when he was told that his request to have the boat ready on the lake early could not be accommodated. Whitmers opponents in Michigan seized on her husbands request to criticize her for making plans in her vacation home even while she advises other Michiganders to think twice before taking nonessential trips in the state. If you don't live in these regions ... think long and hard before you take a trip into them, Whitmer said during a news conference last Monday. A small spike could put the hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly. That's precisely why we're asking everyone to continue doing their part. Don't descend on Traverse City from all regions of the state. Traverse City, a popular destination site in Michigan, is just a 25-minute drive away from Elk Rapids. Tom Barrett, a Republican state lawmaker, posted a message on Facebook criticizing Mallory for the reported request to have his boat ready. The post went viral, as it was shared some 500 times. But Barrett deleted the post after the governors office reached out to the staff of Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, also a Republican. Mallory, a dentist, is Whitmer's second husband. Whitmer has two daughters from her previous marriage. Mallory has three sons from his first marriage. Whitmer aides told Shirkeys office that the post was false and asked that it be removed. Barrett said he looked into the situation and believes that his initial post was correct. He criticized the governor for telling residents not to descend on Traverse City. Yet, what did her family try and do? Barrett said. In the Army, we have a tradition that the leaders get in line for chow last behind everyone else in the unit. Here is the leader of our state. Her family is trying to cut people in line. Whitmers spokesperson said the governors staff asked Shirkeys office to stop the personal attacks against the governors family after another Republican state senator mentioned Whitmers daughters during a speech on the Senate floor. The governor married Mallory in 2011. She has two children from her first marriage to Gary Shrewsbury. Mallory, a dentist, has three children from a previous marriage. As of Monday, Michigan health officials said that there are at least 54,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. More than 5,200 people have died of the disease. Whitmers stay-home order runs through June 12, although the governor has been slowly unleashing the economy. Retail stores that werent deemed essential can reopen Tuesday with a limit on the number of customers inside at one time. Theaters, gyms, barber shops, salons and other places of public accommodation remain closed. Slate's Who Counts? series is made possible by the support of Slate Plus members and readers like you. The first thing you need to understand about Floridas poll taxwhich U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle sharply limited on Sundayis that the state has no idea how to implement it. Setting aside the racial and democratic implications, the law sounds straightforward: It obligates former felons to pay all fines and fees associated with their sentence before they can cast a ballot. The scheme might function properly if Florida could identify residents with unpaid court charges and calculate how much they owe. But the state cannot do any of that, because it does not know who owes courts money or how much they owe. And even if ex-felons try to unearth their court-imposed fines and fees, they will probably fail. In most cases, reliable records do not exist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This chaos gives people with felony convictions two choices. They can register to vote and hope that state prosecutors do not later dig up court debts and bring criminal charges against them. Or, to avoid risking jail time, they can surrender their constitutional right to vote. On Sunday, in a 125-page decision, Hinkle ruled this predicament unconstitutional. In doing so, he meticulously detailed the extraordinary negligence and incompetence exhibited by Florida lawmakers as they rushed to stop ex-felons from voting. That record will make it very difficult for an appeals courteven one stacked with Trump judgesto reverse his decision. It will be impossible for any judge to overturn Hinkles ruling without carrying water for the GOP. Advertisement Florida Republicans have long sought different measures to make voting harder, leading one federal judge to accuse them of leading an obscene, undeclared war on Floridians right to vote. But in November 2018, voters overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4, an initiative that repealed a Jim Crowera law that permanently revoked suffrage from anyone with a felony on their recordeven after they served their prison sentence and completed probation or parole. It should have enfranchised about 1.4 million people. But Republicans were convinced that the amendment would benefit the Democratic Party, since Floridas ex-felons are disproportionately nonwhite, and racial minorities tend to vote for Democrats. So they raced to pass SB 7066, which compelled ex-felons to pay all fines and fees connected to their sentence before they could legally vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If that sounds like a fair restriction on a fundamental right, remember that Florida is a pioneer in cash register justice: It literally funds its criminal justice system through a mind-boggling array of fines and fees imposed on everyone unfortunate enough to get arrested in the state. The nickel-and-diming spirals as you move through the system. You must pay to get a public defender. You must pay for medical care behind bars. You must pay to reinstate a suspended drivers license. You must pay for drug abuse treatment, for electronic monitoring, for your own urinalysis. There is no exception for indigent defendants. And none of it is cheap: As Hinkle noted, one Florida county charges a minimum of $668 for a public defender and $548 if you forgo public defense. Even if you represent yourself, you must pay for the pleasure of appearing in court. And those costs go up when defendants are charged with multiple counts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Curiously, although Florida devised this scheme, it never created a uniform method of tracking payments. The Legislature left that job to the counties, whose own records are often out of date or incomplete. Some counties hire private debt collectors who add a 40 percent surcharge on unpaid court debt. Most debts still go unpaid. In 2018, the Florida Court Clerks and Comptrollers, an association that attempts to track court assessments, labeled 83 percent of court fines levied between 2014 and 2018 as having minimal collections expectations. That means theyll probably never be paid. The same association reported that counties collect just 20.55 percent of fines and fees levied in circuit criminal courts, where most felony cases take place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2019, before holding a trial on SB 7066, Hinkle ruled that the Constitution likely prohibits Florida from disenfranchising residents who are unable to pay these costs. But his decision was extremely narrow: It forced ex-felons to prove that they couldnt pay. Hinkle also gave Florida wide latitude to devise a legal process for people eligible for voting rights restoration to prove their indigence. During the trial, state attorneys disclosed that Florida had failed to do so. Nor had the state made any headway identifying the amount that ex-felons still owe. As Hinkle wrote on Sunday, the only way to glean this information is to obtain a copy of the judgment against them from the county where it was issued. But due to messy, decentralized record-keeping, that approach almost always fails. As Hinkle explained: Advertisement A group of well-trained, highly educated individualsa professor specializing in this field with a team of doctoral candidates from a major research universitymade diligent efforts over a long period to obtain [court debt] information on 153 randomly selected felons. They found that information was often unavailable over the internet or by telephone and that, remarkably, there were inconsistencies in the available information for all but 3 of the 153 individuals. Advertisement Advertisement Even when ex-felons can get a copy of their judgment, it is frequently ambiguous, failing to identify precisely how much a defendant must pay. During trial, a state official was asked to interpret one such inscrutable judgment. She admitted that she did not understand it. That official was Maria Matthews, the director of the Division of Elections, who is implementing SB 7066. If Matthews cannot say who is eligible, Hinkle concluded, its obvious that some voters also will not know. Advertisement In theory, the Division of Elections screens all voter registrations for felony convictions and, now, unpaid fines and fees. But a state budget analysis found that the division would require at least 21 extra employees to screen the flood of applicants in light of Amendment 4. And the Legislature provided it with zero. As a result, there is currently a backlog of about 85,000 pending voter registrations from newly eligible Floridians. Matthews estimated that her office would need 1,491 days to get through the backlog. If her entire staff worked weekends and holidays, then, it might be finished in time for the 2024 election. But that is wishful thinking, because, in the 18 months since Amendment 4 passed, Matthews office has not finished reviewing a single registration from an ex-felon. It has found no reliable method of determining how much they owe. Virtually every attempt to calculate this figureby both state officials and expert accountants hired by the defendantsproduces inconsistencies and discrepancies. The information does not exist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republican lawmakers knew the information didnt exist when they passed SB 7066. Voting rights advocates told them they were crafting an unworkable system, yet they forged ahead anyway. The goal of the bill, after all, was not to collect revenue for the state. The goal was to undo Amendment 4, to make it so arduous for formerly incarcerated people to vote that they just gave up. But it wound up being so outrageously onerous that it crossed the constitutional line. Advertisement Advertisement Hinkle concluded that SB 7066 constitutes a forbidden tax on the vote in violation of the 24th Amendment, as its applied to Floridians who cant pay their court fines and fees. He also found that the state will violate residents due process rights unless it provides them with an efficient, reliable method of determining their eligibility to vote. Hinkle ordered the state to let voters request an advisory opinion on their eligibility from the Division of Elections. If the office doesnt respond within 21 days, the individual can legally vote. Florida relied on the inertia of the system to keep people from voting. Now the states inertia will restore their right to vote. Advertisement If the office denies eligibility due to unpaid fines and fees, it must identify the precise amount owed. If the applicant demonstrates an inability to pay, however, the state must allow them to vote. Applicants can easily prove their indigence by filing an affidavit or simply noting that they were assigned a public defender. This remedy, as Hinkle acknowledged, is imperfect. But it is far superior to Floridas haphazard approach, which state officials revealed to be an abject failure at trial. The state will now appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which already upheld Hinkles narrow preliminary injunction. This time around, though, a different panel of judges will review the decision. Donald Trump recently flipped the 11th Circuit, meaning a majority of its judges were appointed by Republicans. So it is possible that a panel of Trump judges will smack down Hinkle. And even if the 11th Circuit agrees with Hinkle, the Supreme Court could reverse it. Advertisement But there is reason to believe that higher courts, even right-leaning ones, might just let Hinkles decision stand. In the process of defending SB 7066, Florida humiliated itself, revealing the extreme incompetence of myriad legislators, election administrators, and county officials. It is now painfully clear that would-be voters have no dependable way to figure out what they owe. The state plainly hoped this system would dissuade people from even attempting to vote for fear of criminal prosecution. In passing a poll tax, it also transformed its registration procedures into a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare for 1.4 million Floridians. To reverse Hinkles order, a court would have to rationalize that nightmare, to claim that the state has not, in fact, infringed on residents constitutional right to vote. That cannot be done in good faith. Conservative judges may be eager to rubber-stamp run-of-the-mill voter suppression, but they sometimes shy away from especially egregious disenfranchisement. It is hard to see why courts would stick their necks out to defend Floridas clown show. The second plenary meeting of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing) BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, held its second plenary meeting Monday. Chinese leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan attended the meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, delivered a work report of the 13th NPC Standing Committee. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the NPC Standing Committee has provided legal support for anti-epidemic efforts and economic and social development, he said. In the report, Li Zhanshu summed up the NPC Standing Committee's work since last year, highlighting a decision on conferring national medals and honorary titles, a decision on granting special pardons to certain convicts, and a draft decision of the NPC on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security, which is under deliberation. Li stressed remaining committed to upholding and improving the people's congress system to ensure that the nation's destiny remains firmly in the hands of the people. For 2020, Li said the NPC Standing Committee should push for continuous and new progress in its work surrounding the tasks of securing decisive success in the fight against poverty, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and coordinating epidemic control and economic and social development. At Monday's meeting, lawmakers also heard a work report of the Supreme People's Court delivered by its president Zhou Qiang. Zhou said the top court in the past year centered its work on the goal of allowing the people to see justice served in every case and will further promote the Peaceful China initiative, and strengthen judicial services focusing on securing a victory in the fight against poverty and completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects in 2020. While delivering a work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Procurator-General Zhang Jun said since last year new advances have been made by procuratorates in safeguarding the country's political security and social stability, fighting corruption, among others. For 2020, Zhang urged procuratorates to shoulder their responsibilities as the year is the final phase in achieving a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eradicating poverty and the sudden COVID-19 epidemic has brought new challenges. Canadian energy officials say that the coronavirus pandemic is an good time to build oil pipelines, because large group protests are banned to prevent the spread of the virus. Albertas energy minister Sonya Savage said Friday during a podcast taping hosted by the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors that now is the best time to build a pipeline because people need to get back to work and large groups are unlikely to gather due to coronavirus restrictions. 'Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you cant have protests of more than 15 people,' Savage said, leading her interviewer to laugh. Alberta's energy minister Sonya Savage said Friday the pandemic is a 'great time' to build oil pipelines because large protests can't gather due to the virus. Pictured in June 2019 She said that the economic crisis sparked by the pandemic means 'people are not going to have the tolerance and patience for protests that get in the way of people working'. In Alberta the Trans Mountain Expansion project is under construction building a pipeline between Edmonton and Vancouver. Following her strong statements Savages spokesman said, 'We respect the right to lawful protests'. 'I would note that the limitations to public gatheringshave benefited no one including project proponents and any opposition groups,' he added. Both Alberta and British Columbia have increased the limit for outdoor gatherings to 50 people. Several pipeline projects introduced by the Alberta government - including the Trans Mountain, the Keystone XL pipeline expansion and the Coastal GasLink pipeline expansion - have seen major backlash and protests in the past year. The Trans Mountain oil pipeline in Acheson, Alberta above in December 2019 Several pipeline projects introduced by the Alberta government have seen major backlash and protests in the past year. Some projects include the Trans Mountain, the Keystone XL pipeline expansion and the Coastal GasLink pipeline expansion. On the podcast Savage said the pipelines' opponents have been successful in delaying projects because theyve outsmarted the industry. 'The activists have been so effective because the industry has been so ineffective. They outsmarted the entire industrythey got ahead of everyone,' Savage said. 'Wait, she said the true part out loud theyre literally using COVID as a cover to build pipelines because they know protest is impossible,' environmentalist writer Bill McKibben tweeted Monday in shock over Savage's interview In February the government introduced legislation to impose fines and possible jail terms for protesters who damage or interfere with the operation of energy infrastructure, which are already illegal. Environmentalists have voiced outrage over her statements. 'Wait, she said the true part out loud theyre literally using COVID as a cover to build pipelines because they know protest is impossible,' environmentalist writer Bill McKibben tweeted Monday. 'This is absolutely disgusting. Saying that a pipeline should be built faster during a global pandemic because protesters and indigenous peoples voices can be suppressed is shameful,' another Twitter user said. Red Cross urges halt to cyberattacks on healthcare sector amid COVID-19 FILE PHOTO: Red Cross members take the temperature of a migrant before disembarking from a Spanish coast guard vessel in the port of Arguineguin on the island of Gran Canaria By Christopher Bing (Reuters) - The Red Cross called for an end to cyberattacks on healthcare and medical research facilities during the coronavirus pandemic, in a letter published Tuesday and signed by a group of political and business figures. Such attacks endanger human lives and governments must take "immediate and decisive action" to stop them, the letter stated. "We are hoping that the world's governments will step up to affirm their commitments to the international rules that prohibit such actions," said Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in the letter. Microsoft Corp President Brad Smith and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are among the 42 co-signers of the letter initiated by the non-government CyberPeace Institute whose mission is to prevent the internet from becoming "weaponized." The demand comes one month after the Czech Republic said its healthcare sector had come under digital attack, which prompted a fiery response from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In a statement, Pompeo called the attack "deeply irresponsible and dangerous," adding that the culprits should "expect consequences." The Czech Republic and U.S. government have yet to say who was to blame. Over the last several months cybercriminals have targeted hospitals with computer viruses, usually in schemes to extort them or hold their data ransom. More sophisticated hacking groups, such as those associated with governments, have also targeted medical research centers to steal valuable data about COVID-19 treatments. (Reporting by Christopher Bing; Editing by Richard Chang) Alia Bhatts Gangubai Kathiawadi To Be The First Film To Resume Shoot After Lockdown? Heres What We Know You are here: China Hong Kong police arrest 193 people involved in Sunday's violence - Xinhua | English.news.cn The Hong Kong police said on Monday they have arrested 193 people involved in Sunday's violent activities on Hong Kong Island. A total of 122 males and 71 females were arrested, mainly for offenses of taking part in riot, unlawful assembly, possession of offensive weapons, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Among the arrested, nearly 30 were under 18 years old, and the youngest was only 12 years old. The arrested included a 16-year-old male involved in assaulting a female who was trying to remove road barricades set by rioters in Tin Hau area in Causeway Bay. On Sunday, a large number of rioters gathered in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay and Wan Chai areas since noon time to wreak havoc again. As the unlawful assemblies continued into the evening, the rioters vandalized public and private properties in different parts of the areas and brutally assaulted passers-by, leaving at least two people injured. In Causeway Bay, a man was confronted by rioters setting road barricades and was assaulted and injured on his head, hand and back. The case is being followed up by the police as a wounding case. When the rioters attacked the victim, some of their accomplices tried to cover up the crime with umbrellas. The police reiterated that the acts of covering up others' crimes with umbrellas will also constitute criminal offenses such as assisting, abetting or conspiring to wound. A day after a controversy broke out over Union Minister Sadananda Gowda skipping the institutional quarantine after he travelled to Bengaluru, he has written to Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to repatriate Kannadigas from Gulf countries. In a letter to Jaishankar, he has said that thousands of thousands of Kannadigas are stranded despite fulfilling the conditions of preference guidelines issued by embassies in Gulf countries. He urged the EAM to 'personally intervene' and instruct the concerned to arrange flights to Mangalore/ Bangalore from these countries in the existing schedule. READ | Centre confirms domestic flights from most states on May 25; Andhra, Bengal to start later Union Minister & Karnataka BJP MP, DV Sadananda Gowda has written to External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar requesting to arrange flights to Mangalore/Bangalore from the Gulf countries. pic.twitter.com/RYEJnewtPs ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2020 This comes even as Central government has launched the ''Vande Bharat Mission'' on May 7 to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Under Phase I of the mission, the government evacuated a total of 6,527 Indians from the Gulf region and from countries like the US, the UK, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives. READ | Coronavirus Live Updates Backdated SOP Earlier on Monday, Union Minister Sadananda Gowda skipped the institutional quarantine after travelling to Bengaluru on a flight, from Delhi. As controversy broke out, the Karnataka Health Ministry issued a backdated addendum to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued earlier exempting ministers from quarantine. The former Karnataka Chief Minister had skipped the mandatory quarantine citing his position of responsibility. The SOP released earlier did not mention any exemptions for ministers or officers to the mandatory institutional quarantine to people travelling through domestic flights which resumed operations on Monday. The addendum which has been dated May 23 reads: "The ministers of Union Government or State Government or Officers on their official duty who are travelling across states will be exempted from requirements of quarantine as has been done for health professionals and others in para 4 (e)." READ | Mamata govt to urge Centre to delay domestic flight services to WB due to Cyclone Amphan The addendum also exempts persons obtaining a valid 'COVID negative' certificate from the ICMR, not more than two days old from the date of journey are exempted from the institutional quarantine. Such a person will instead be asked to go for 14 days of home quarantine. The addendum also allows airlines crew on official duty to be exempted from the quarantine. Domestic flights commence Domestic air flight services commenced from May 25 after almost two months of lockdown due to Covid-19. Union Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the domestic flight operations shall be restricted to 1/3rd capacity of the approved summer schedule 2020 along with a new fare limit to make flights affordable. He said that for this fare structure sets a minimum and maximum level for three months. Flight routes had been divided into 7 sections-flying times of fewer than 40 minutes, from 40 to 60 minutes, 60-90 minutes, 90-120 minutes, 120-150 minutes, 150-180 minutes and from 180 to 210 minutes. READ | Mamata govt issues guidelines for flight passengers ahead of resumption of services in WB She noted that federal agents who usually work with officers have been on the sideline now for weeks. We have the courts that really arent taking a lot of criminal cases. Thats a problem. We have the jails that are effectively closed to new persons, so we have officers that are risking life and limb and arresting people who are absolute drivers of violence, and theyre cycling in and out of the jail, out of the court system, in 24 to 48 hours. An unpiloted Japanese cargo ship, HTV-9, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Monday to make one final delivery before its fleet is retired. A new analysis from University of Houston Bauer College of Business Dean Paul Pavlou and his colleagues found that interactive technologies can ease traffic congestion in cities that use it. Credit: University of Houston Traffic congestion is a serious problem in the United States, but a new analysis shows that interactive technologyranging from 511 traffic information systems and roadside cameras to traffic apps like Waze and Google Mapsis helping in cities that use it. Potentially, the researchers said, technology could limit the need to widen and expand roadways while saving commuters time and money and lessening environmental damage. "Technology has the potential to help society, and one way is to help us make better infrastructure decisions and put less pressure on roads," said Paul A. Pavlou, dean of the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and corresponding author for the report, published by the journal Information Systems Research. Pavlou and colleagues Aaron Cheng of the London School of Economics and Min-Seok Pang of Temple University found that U.S. cities using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) saved money, time and other resources, including: More than $4.7 billion a year in lost work or productivity 175 million hours a year in travel time 53 million gallons a year in fossil fuel consumption and 10 billion pounds less CO2 emitted each year. The researchers analyzed longitudinal data from ITS technologies deployed in 99 urban areas in the United States from 1994 to 2014. That included the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York-Newark, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington D.C., among others. Pavlou noted that technology has advancedand traffic has continued to growsince 2014, the latest year in the dataset used for the research, making it likely that today's savings would be greater. The U.S. Department of Transportation describes ITS as "an integrated system of advanced communications technologies embedded in the transportation infrastructure and in vehicles to improve transportation safety and mobility," and has awarded grants to cities to invest in the technologies. Technologies included in the research include both those developed by DOT and commercial technologies designed to improve traffic safety and mobility. The researchers found that the technology is most effective at reducing traffic congestion when two things happen: commuters use more online services for traffic information, including such apps as Waze, and when state governments incorporate more advanced functions into their 511 traveler information systems. But each city is different. Pavlou noted that while Houston has not adopted the 511 system, it does collaborate with private companies to design and build intelligent transportation systems, including messaging signs, roadside cameras and solar-powered radar detection sites. Pavlou said the study suggests alternatives to simply building more and bigger roads to keep up with population and traffic growth. Using large-scale technology systems in conjunction with real-time traffic apps at the individual level is less expensive and more effective than only spending funds to expand and maintain roadways, he said.Houston traffic and its freeway system, for example, have grown significantly since he was a student here in the 1990s, he said. "Traffic is even worse than before since people move where the roads are built and drive more. The city is growing, but there are alternative ways that do not impose some much demand on roads with the intelligent use of technology in parallel." Explore further Video: Why traffic apps make congestion worse More information: Zhi (Aaron) Cheng et al, Mitigating Traffic Congestion: The Role of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Information Systems Research (2020). Journal information: Information Systems Research Zhi (Aaron) Cheng et al, Mitigating Traffic Congestion: The Role of Intelligent Transportation Systems,(2020). DOI: 10.1287/isre.2019.0894 Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 15:52 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda30b2e 1 National baby-deaths,NTT,ambulance,traffic-congestion,traffic-jams Free An unborn baby died in East Nusa Tenggara after the ambulance carrying the babys mother got stuck in a traffic jam where a roadblock had been placed at the border between East Flores regency and Sikka regency. Yohanes Diaz, the baby's father, said the ambulance was stuck for around one hour on Saturday, during which the mother started bleeding. [After waiting an hour], the two midwives that were with us got out of the ambulance to ask permission so that we could pass and we were finally allowed to, He said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Monday. The ambulance then rushed to Dr. TC Hillers General Hospital in Sikka regency, around 73-kilometers from the border. However, the baby did not survive. If we werent stuck at the border, our baby would still be alive. Our baby died in the emergency room, Yohannes said, adding that his wife was healthy and still being treated at the hospital after surgery. Read also: East Nusa Tenggara to close border with Timor Leste over coronavirus fears He said ambulances should not be blocked while carrying patients. Ive accepted the death of my baby. Maybe this is Gods plan for us, he went on to say. Yohanness wife was initially admitted to Larantuka General Hospital in East Flores regency but was referred to TC Hillers due to insufficient medical equipment. Transportation agency secretary Ferdinandus Lepe in Hikong village, Sikka regency said the roadblock was erected after a quibble. The village administration blocked off the road on Saturday after East Flores COVID-19 task force officers banned people from entering Boru village, situated on the other side of the border. Ferdinandus said the ambulance was allowed to pass after the midwives reported the situation to officers. [After being informed about the situation], I ordered the head of Hikong village and residents to immediately dismantle the roadblock so the ambulance could pass, he said. Read also: Dengue fever infects more than 4,500 people, kills 48 in East Nusa Tenggara He added that the roadblock had been permanently dismantled since Saturday night after a meeting between East Flores and Sikka regents. Hikong village head Agustinus denied the ambulance was stuck in the traffic jam for around one hour. The ambulance was at the end of the traffic jam so it should have only needed around 15 minutes to get through. The ambulance was only stuck for 15 minutes, Agustinus told kompas.tv on Monday. According to Health Ministry data, East Nusa Tenggara has recorded 82 COVID-19 positive cases as of Monday, with one fatality and six recoveries. (mfp) H-E-B has eased purchasing limits on fresh meat in stores across Texas. Limits on amounts of fresh ground beef, fresh and frozen hamburger patties, brisket, steaks, and fresh and frozen chicken purchases were previously limited. As of May 21, frozen hamburger patties, and fresh and frozen chicken purchases were removed from the list. Currently, the following limits still apply to H-E-B stores in San Antonio and other Texas markets, excluding the Houston area. Fresh beef, ground beef, fresh ground patties limit 5 packages, combined total (not five of each) Brisket limit 1 The Good Newsletter: A weekly dose of inspiring San Antonio stories, delivered to your inbox The following limits apply only to Houston-area H-E-B stores: Ground beef and fresh ground beef patties limit 2 packages Brisket limit 1 Meat production has slowed since plants have had to shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic. Costco and Sam's Club have also reportedly been limiting meat purchases to avoid panic buying. The following are the current limits on non-food items at all H-E-B stores. Acetaminophen 2 items total (includes baby, trial and travel sizes, OTC) H-E-B Acid Controller/Famotidine and Pepcid 50ct and larger Limit 1 H-E-B Acid Controller/Famotidine and Pepcid smaller than 50ct Limit 2 Baby wipes 2 items Disinfecting & antibacterial sprays 2 items Disinfecting & antibacterial wipes 2 items Trial and travel size disinfecting & antibacterial sprays/wipes 2 items Liquid bleach 2 items Hand sanitizer 6 items Hand soap 4 items Aloe Vera 2 items (Digestive Health, Skincare/Suncare, Healthy Living) Hydrogen peroxide 2 items Rubbing (Isopropyl) Alcohol/swabs 2 items First Aid and Cleaning Gloves 2 items Masks 2 items Staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this report. Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has announced the gradual reopening of business activities in Dubai from the fourth day of Eid Al Fitr (May 27). Once the announcement comes into effect, there will be no restrictions on movement between 6 am and 11 pm, said a Wam news agency report. The announcement, under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, was made at a remote meeting of Dubais Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management chaired by Sheikh Hamdan. Sheikh Hamdan said the decision was made following a comprehensive assessment of the committees reports, various health and socio-economic aspects and a thorough review of the Covid-19 situation. International guidelines for co-existing with Covid-19 were also taken into consideration before making the decision. The new measures are aimed at adapting to the Covid-19 situation without disrupting activity in vital sectors while strictly observing precautionary measures including wearing of face masks, observing minimum physical distancing of two metres, use of sanitisers and regular handwashing with soap and water for 20 seconds. Sheikh Hamdan stressed on the need for Dubai authorities to further raise community awareness about precautionary measures. Highlighting Sheikh Mohammeds statement "Everyone is responsible", His Highness said the community should understand the importance of strictly following preventive steps. Fully adhering to guidelines is key to restoring normal life, His Highness said. "We are aware of the pressures many sectors are facing because of the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The UAE society has high levels of resilience to any crises and challenges. We have been following the severe impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on countries around the world. What makes us different is our ability to deal positively with changes and our agility. We have all the elements necessary to adapt to these challenging circumstances. I am confident that all members of the society will come together to overcome this crisis as soon as possible," Sheikh Hamdan said. During the meeting, Sheikh Hamdan was briefed about the latest developments related to the crisis and the readiness of various sectors in Dubai, mainly the healthcare sector, to deal with any scenario in the upcoming period. Recent proactive measures have reinforced Dubais ability to deal with any unforeseen situation. The emirate has enhanced its hospital capacity by joining hands with the private sector and set up a fully equipped field hospital in Dubai World Trade Centre, which can accommodate up to 3,000 beds. His Highness was also briefed on the potential capacity of the field hospital at Dubai Parks and Resorts, which was built under the directives and with the generous support of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The 29,000-sq-m hospital set up by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) can accommodate up to 1,200 patients. His Highness also reviewed preparations to gradually reopen various spheres of life while maintaining stringent precautionary and preventive measures including physical distancing, wearing of face masks, use of sanitisers and prevention of congestion and crowding. Protective measures also include guidelines on social customs and behaviour for members of the community, especially with regard to family visits. Huawei equipment will remain inside part of Britain's mobile phone network for up to seven years, even if Boris Johnson tries to ban it, the Daily Mail can reveal. And banning the Chinese firm will also result in long delays to his plan to deliver full-fibre broadband to all in the UK, Whitehall officials have warned. Industry insiders said last night that it would take between five and seven years for them to rip out Huawei kit from their infrastructure if they were told to do so by the Government. The revelation comes after Britain's National Cyber Security Centre launched a review into the security implications of Huawei's role this week following the US decision to slap fresh sanctions on the firm. The US believes Huawei is used by the Chinese state for spying. Industry insiders said it would take between five and seven years for them to rip out Huawei kit from their infrastructure if they were told to do so by the Government (stock image) The review could force the Prime Minister to reconsider his decision to allow Huawei a limited role in helping to build Britain's 5G network. There had already been cross-government discussions about whether to phase out Huawei completely from the network by 2023. But industry experts and officials have told the Mail that it would take years for telecoms firms to remove existing kit. One official said: 'Huawei is so thoroughly integrated within the current system that tearing it out will result in delays [to the rollout of broadband]. You can't just rip it all out, not to get it to 0 by 2023.' One industry source said: 'It's not as simple as flicking a switch, it's a big civil engineering challenge. We would have to rip out chunks of the 4G network too. Boris Johnson (right) is set to scale down Huawei's involvement in Britain's 5G network due to China's controversial handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Left: China's president Xi Jinping What is 5G? 5G is the next generation of mobile broadband that will replace 4G. Download speeds will be 10 times faster than today, and will change how we work and communicate. Self-driving cars, fire alarms and even fridges will be connected to 5G. 5G networks began rolling out in the US and around the world in 2018. Companies are racing to have the fastest or biggest 5G networks, and countries are competing to be the first to implement 5G nation-wide, because the benefits of the new technology are expected to transform society. Advertisement 'We would have to rip out tens of thousands of antennae sites across the country. A realistic time scale for that would be five to seven years.' The source warned that removing Huawei from the network could result in disruptions to the networks of those using 4G as well. Some Tory MPs are angry over Mr Johnson's decision in January to give the green light to plans to use Huawei kit in 35 per cent of Britain's 5G network, despite the US warning against the move. They believe China's response during the pandemic will make it harder for the Government to get Huawei legislation through the Commons in the summer. Tory MP David Davis tweeted: 'If ministers really think they cannot remove existing Huawei equipment by 2023, [telecoms firms] should stop installing new Huawei equipment now.' While campaigning to become Tory leader, Mr Johnson pledged to deliver full-fibre broadband to all households by 2025. The Government dropped the target in the Queen's Speech last October but remained committed to 'accelerate the delivery of fast, reliable and secure broadband networks to millions of homes'. The US sanctions, announced earlier this month, outlaw any American intellectual property from being used in the production of Huawei equipment. The sanctions present a problem for the UK because mobile chips currently manufactured for use in Huawei products include US technology. Huawei has long denied it poses a security threat. Kennedy Agyapong, Assin Central MP, has indicated that he is not intimidated by death because it is inevitable. Speaking with Joy News, the controversial MP said he believes in all die be die a mantra of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) so regardless of the information he has about some personalities, he walks freely in town sometimes without any form of protection. I believe all die be die, whatever happens, one day definitely you gonna go so I dont let death intimidate me in order not to live my normal life. Im just free whatever happens so be it, he said. The legislator said he wants to make money always and since he does not have enough cash, he always thinks of having a lot of money. He explained that he does not think he has been able to achieve ten per cent of his dreams. Well [I'm at] about eight per cent of my dream he responded when ask to quantify the percentage of his achievements. He continued: the eight per cent makes me comfortable, just that I dream big The MP has been in the news lately with his recent expose of some charlatans parading themselves as men of God. To him, he has no intention of targeting churches. Rather, he explained that the few charlatans who are hiding behind the pulpits while lavishly swimming in wealth must be exposed. Why will I target churches, why will I target pastors . . . not all pastors are fake. There are genuine ones but there are fake ones like Obinim, like Badu Kobi. I can talk about these two people because Ive done the investigation, and Ive a lot of evidence against them, he said. Kennedy Agyepong claimed recently that he masterminded the arrest of Bishop Daniel Obinim, a popular pastor in Accra whom the MP has derided for performing a miracle during which he gifted a passport from his shoes to a church member. The MP explained that he had once seen Obinim queuing for a passport himself and wondered why anyone will watch the latter's so-called passport miracle on TV without being scandalised. Source: Ghanaweb Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video SHOREHAM-BY-SEA, England, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cox Powertrain, a leading British developer of high-powered diesel outboard engines for the global marine industry is pleased to announce that production of the CXO300, its purpose-designed 300hp diesel outboard engine, has commenced. After several years of intensive development and testing, this represents a major milestone for Cox as well as a defining moment for the marine industry. This UK-designed and manufactured high-technology product will be sold to the global market, supporting UK exports. The Company will manufacture just under 1,000 outboards in 2020 with volumes expected to more than double the following year. Throughout its development, COX's high-powered diesel outboard engine generated substantial interest across all applications of the marine industry, a contributing factor for the Company when raising the 92m (US$115m) of private investment to date required to reach this point. This is a powerful testament to the credibility of the engine concept and the high level of expertise behind its development. Tim Routsis, Chief Executive of Cox said: "This is a milestone we have been working towards for several years with a relentless focus on building a no-compromises business. I am enormously proud of the CXO300 and the terrific team who have worked tirelessly to make it a reality. We owe a debt of gratitude to the supply chain who have found ways to keep parts flowing to us despite Covid-19, and also to our global distributors who have remained loyal throughout. I am delighted that we can now manufacture this ground-breaking marine engine in volume and together with the very encouraging feedback and support we've received, I am excited and confident about Cox's future prospects." Charles Good, Chairman of Cox said: "This brings to fruition a long-held ambition of mine to create a UK based business to design and manufacture diesel outboard engines to meet a major unfulfilled need in the global marine propulsion market. I am immensely proud of the team in achieving this significant milestone as we launch a truly global British brand underpinned by world-class engineering." Growing order book underpinned by innovative engineering technology Based in Shoreham-by-Sea, Cox has designed the CXO300, a patent-protected 300 horsepower outboard marine propulsion system. Designed from first principles using the best of Formula 1, automotive and marine technology, the CXO300 incorporates modern emission control technologies to ensure the engine can meet all relevant regulatory standards. The Company believes the CXO300 is the only diesel outboard engine currently available which offers more than 200 horsepower. Just under 1,000 units will be manufactured this year to fulfil global orders and there is a pipeline of further orders. To date 35 distributors around the world have signed up to distribute the CXO300. Diesel offers better value and safety compared to gasoline. The advantages of diesel outboard engines over gasoline engines include: significant reduction in the total cost of ownership through fuel consumption savings (CXO300 typically uses 25% less fuel than a gasoline outboard engine of equivalent power) and improved engine longevity; improved safety through the reduction of the risk of fire; greater availability of diesel in marine environments; and much improved environmental credentials when compared with existing marine gasoline engines. Production takes place at Cox's headquarters and advanced assembly and test facilities in Shoreham, West Sussex UK. The sophisticated assembly plant boasts a turnkey Production System developed by QM Systems Ltd, a leading manufacturer of state-of-the-art manufacturing and test systems across all industries. Significant investment has been made to introduce a manufacturing plant capable of producing up to one engine per hour to support expected demand. The production line 'no faults forward' design removes the possibility of assembly error, ensuring every outboard meets Cox's requirement for the highest standards of quality. These are verified on a suite of purpose-built test cells which put every engine through its paces before shipping to the customer Cox has applied industry best practice at all stages of the design, manufacture and test process to ensure global success of the engine and the brand. The Company has an established policy of patent-protecting innovation and expects the IP portfolio to keep growing. Growing distribution network in a large addressable market The market in North America and Europe for 200+ horsepower engines is estimated to be US$1.7bn : volumes have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% from 2012 to 2017 1 . and for 200+ horsepower engines is estimated to be : volumes have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% from 2012 to 2017 . In 2018, retail sales revenue for outboards grew by 19%. The Company divides its target market into three distinct groups: total cost of ownership users (fishing, aquatic, sports, local government agencies, farming etc); governmental and other professional users ( coast guard, super yacht operators, offshore support tenders); and lifestyle users (consumers, leisure). 1 ICOMIA 2017 Report (US and Europe) Further enquiries TB Cardew (media) Ed Orlebar Shan Shan Willenbrock coxpowertrain@tbcardew.com / +44 (0)20 7930 0777 +44 (0)7738 724 630 +44 (0)7775 848 537 About Cox Powertrain Based on the South Coast of England, Cox Powertrain is a leading British design and engineering innovator of diesel engines developed for marine applications globally. From the outset Cox Powertrain was backed by its Chairman, Charles Good, to exploit the global market opportunity he had identified through the development of a revolutionary diesel outboard engines. Cox Powertrain has built up a strong and supportive shareholder base of private and institutional investors. As a result, the Company has been able to implement its long-term development programme of ground-breaking new products. Led by ex-Cosworth CEO, Tim Routsis, whose background lies in engine development in global automotive, aerospace and marine markets, the Company's mission is to deliver a completely new concept in diesel engines that has the potential to revolutionise the marine market. With a strong pedigree in Formula 1 racing and premium automotive design, Cox's highly skilled team of engineers has decades of experience in combustion engines and understand the many challenges customers face. Cox's diesel outboard, the CXO300, is the most powerful lightweight diesel outboard engine ever developed and delivers the performance and packaging of a gasoline outboard with the fuel efficiency and reliability of a diesel inboard. Cox is supported by a worldwide distributor network made up of 35 distributors covering 100 countries. For further information, visit www.coxmarine.com I think it is pretty clear now to all but the most klueless, given the bombshells and walls closing in of the past week, that the whole Trump Russia thing was a put-up job, that the Obama people, whether prompted by the Clinton campaign or President Obama himself, spied on the Trump campaign on a presumption about Russian spying. Predicates? We dont need no stinkin predicates. And the latest line on the pursuit of Michael Flynn is that he had dirt on the Obama Iran Deal and wanted to clean out the Augean stables at the intelligence community. So he had to be eliminated. Heres my objection to the whole Russia/Flynn thing. Rule One, for me, is that We give the guys in the Other party the benefit of the doubt. We do not investigate Them, or trap Them, or leak IC information on Them to the media. Why not? Because We are the smart ones; we know the day will come when They will do it to Us. And We wont like that. If you ask me, that was really the bigger question in the McCarthy era, and why the liberals were right for the wrong reasons back then. So Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss were spying for the Russians. They werent crazy radicals, but establishment figures, members of the ruling class. I expect that their helping Soviet Russia was almost conventional wisdom in progressive circles back in the 1930s and 1940s. Bottom line: When a significant sector of the ruling class thinks that colluding with Russia is the okay thing to do -- even if that means winking at the transfer of atomic secrets -- then that is the political status quo, even if Tailgunner Joe dont like it. But now, 70 years later, collusion with the Russians is scandalous and traitorous, because something-or-other? Please. Tailgunner Joe got sent to the corner for that. The way we know that the Obama people were up to no good is what they did not do with Russia and Flynn. They did not call up the Trump campaign and say, with respect to Russia, that some of the Trump people were fishing in dangerous waters. Why not, if their purpose was to help America and not conspire to damage Trump? And President Obama did not tell president-elect Trump what his real beef was with LTG Flynn when, as Lee Smith writes, he called Trump two days after the 2016 election to warn him about Flynn. Trump told aide Hope Hicks that he was bewildered by the presidents warning. No doubt, because Obama wasnt leveling with him. T he correct way to deal with campaign operatives in the other party sidling up to ChiComs and Russkies is for a White House aide to call a pal of his on the Other party campaign and say: word to the wise: we dont think that your guy should be talking to those people at the moment. The wrong way is to spy on the opposition. And the correct way to deal with the Flynn matter is not to have something to hide, as in spying on U.S. citizens, Barack, when pushing your Iran Deal. Lets look on the bright side. The whole Keystone Kops slapstick of Crossfire Hurricane and its post-campaign coverup was worse than a crime: a blunder. A bunch of mediocre gumshoes got in way over their heads spying on the Trump operatives and then made a complete dogs breakfast of the coverup. As youd expect from the mediocre Barnacles and Strzok-stockings at the Circumlocution Office. And as for the Flynn story, go read Lee Smiths piece before you pass Go. The Obama people turned the whole philosophy of the American Founding upside down. Not because they are evil, but because they are idiots. The Founders wanted something better than the religious wars and absolute monarchs of the previous two centuries. Their idea was that Americans should switch political power between Us and Them in regular elections, and that the governments thus elected should have limited powers. That was their way to avoid all-out civil and religious war: We all agree to play by the rules and if some youngster gets a little overenthusiastic, some old hand takes him aside and teaches him the facts of life. When They win a normal change election, We concede with a good grace. There is a word for this: Wisdom. I understand that local-yokel Good Little Girl and Good Little Boy journalists and activists and professors and AOCs would be too stupid to understand that. But whatabout Speaker Karen Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Okay-Boomer Schumer (D-NY)? Whats their excuse? I have a suspicion that there is still something I am missing in all this. I dare say the Trump campaign Bombshell Coordinator will fill me in pretty soon. The walls, it seems, are closing in. Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class. A Bulgarian man has died following a road crash in Co Down. Svilen Genchev Stoyanov, 37, who is from Kubrat in Bulgaria, died following the crash close to Castlewellan on Saturday morning. Mr Stoyanov had been driving a scooter on Ballylough Road, close to the junction of Ballywillwill Road, at around 11.30am before the collision, according to police. Officers have made an appeal for any witnesses or anyone who may have captured the incident on their dash cam to contact local police in Downpatrick or the Collision Investigation Unit on 101, quoting reference 541 23/05/20. Kuwait: The Coronavirus, which is spreading its foot around the world every day, is becoming a big problem for people in today's time, while millions of people are getting infected due to the virus every day. The number of deaths due to coronavirus is increasing every day. But if we talk about the death toll worldwide, according to the official website WORLDOMETER, more than 3 lakh 47 thousand people have died so far. Four thousand new cases of corona have been reported in Peru. With this, the total number of cases has increased to 1,23,979. Home Minister Anas al-Saleh was quoted as saying that the curfew imposed in Kuwait due to Coronavirus may not be extended after May 30. Demand for closure of meat plant: After founding 153 out of 1,837 employees of a meat plant in California, Corona positive, the union has demanded immediate closure of the plant. According to a CNN report, on Monday, 405 new cases of coronavirus infections have occurred in Connecticut, US, while 49 people have died. The state governor has given this information in an official statement. He said the total number of cases in the state till 2 pm on Monday was 40,873 and the number of deaths was 3,742. CM Amarinder Singh solved dispute between the minister and the chief secretary? Home Minister says this to quarantine the passengers Corona attacks again in China, new case of virus reveals Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 04:42:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo (2nd L) honors the memory of U.S. service members by tossing a wreath from the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, the United States, on May 25, 2020. New York state and local governments will provide death benefits for those frontline workers who died from COVID-19, said Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday, also the country's annual Memorial Day. (Don Pollard/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo/Handout via Xinhua) NEW YORK, May 25 (Xinhua) -- New York state and local governments will provide death benefits for those frontline workers who died from COVID-19, said Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday, also the country's annual Memorial Day. He began with a moment of silence to honor the fallen veterans of the United States, including those who lost their lives to COVID-19. "I personally feel a grave responsibility to our frontline and essential workers who understood the dangers of this virus, but went to work anyway because we needed them to," said Cuomo. He noted that those covered by the benefits include public health care workers, police workers, EMS workers, fire department workers, among other frontline workers who got infected with the virus while working during the pandemic and finally succumbed to it. "And we're going to make sure that every government in the State of New York provides death benefits to those public heroes who died from COVID-19 during this emergency," he added. Cuomo also called on the federal government to provide dedicated federal funding for hazard pay to frontline workers "as a way of saying 'thank you.'" The briefing was held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, an aircraft carrier docking by the west side of Manhattan, to mark the special day. Long Island and Mid-Hudson in New York state are ready to restart the economy later this week, and the governor has said he expects New York City to follow suit in early June. The state now allows gatherings with up to 10 people following the governor's order last Friday. On Monday, New Yorkers held small ceremonies and car convoys to honor Memorial Day instead of parades as they traditionally did. The state lost 96 people to COVID-19 the previous day, and other major indicators such as total hospitalizations and net change in hospitalizations kept trending down. Another 1,249 cases were confirmed, bringing the state's total to 362,764 as of Monday afternoon, state data showed. Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Air Botswana is expected to resume domestic flights next month, authorities in the ministry of transport have announced Willis Towers Watson and Max Matthiessen will have ongoing relationships in certain aspects of the business where we remain closely aligned and we look forward to continuing to work together. The Stockholm-headquartered business has been active in the insurance industry since 1889, offering occupational pensions, asset management, and non-life insurance to a customer base of approximately 13,000 corporate clients. Max Matthiessen employs 440 people in its about 30 locations across Sweden, and in 2019 enjoyed 148 million in revenues. We are excited to partner with Nordic Capital for the next chapter of Max Matthiessens development, commented Max Matthiessen chief executive Bo Agren. We are wholly aligned when it comes to our strategic vision. Together, we will be able to accelerate our growth by continuing to provide the best financial advice as one of the leading financial advisors and by developing and expanding our product portfolio further. Nordic Capital has a great strategic approach and deep experience across our sector. They have a strong history of growing companies and we look forward to leveraging Nordic Capitals expertise in the next phase of our development. Lifting the lid on the purchase, Nordic Capital Advisors partner and financial services head Christian Frick described Max Matthiessen as among the leaders in the Nordic region and having a high-quality, talented team. He went on to state: The company fits perfectly within Nordic Capitals sector focus and strategy for financial services. Nordic Capital is excited to partner with Max Matthiessen to support the companys growth journey. Going forward, the joint focus will be on scaling Max Matthiessens operations and investing in organic as well as acquisitive growth. Together with the company, Nordic Capital will support continued product innovation to the benefit of the customers and pension savers. Nordic Capital has invested in excess of 14.5 billion in more than 110 investments since 1989. By IANS NEW DELHI: Uber India on Tuesday announced to lay off around 600 full time employees due to impact of the coronavirus crisis. The affected employees would be from across driver and rider support among other functions, President for Uber's India and South Asia businesses, Pradeep Parameswaran, said in a statement. "The impact of COVID-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce. Around 600 full time positions across driver and rider support, as well as other functions, are being impacted," he said. ALSO READ| Uber fires 3,000 more employees, to shut 45 offices globally Parameswaran noted that the reductions are part of the previously announced global job cuts this month. "Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now so that we can look to the future with confidence. I want to apologise to departing colleagues and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber, the riders, and the driver partners we serve in India," he said. According to the company, the employees would be paid around 10 weeks of salary, along with medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support. So far, Uber has globally laid off over 6,700 employees. The development comes just days after the OLA announced to lay off 1,400 employees as revenues fell 95 per cent in two months. Egypt gives legal status to 70 more churches, but threats to Christian houses of worship remain Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As a government committee headed by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly gave legal status to 70 churches this week, the number of Christian houses of worship that have been legalized in the country came to 1,638. However, the threat to churches in this Muslim-majority country remains. Formed in January 2017, the Committee for the Legalization of Unlicensed Churches comprises the ministers of justice, parliamentary affairs, and local development and housing, as well as representatives of local authorities and Christian communities, according to Egypt Independent. Since 2017, the committee has legalized 1,638 churches. However, as recently as Wednesday, local authorities in the Koum Al-Farag area of Al-Behera governorate demolished a church building after sectarian protests, the U.K.-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported. The church had been holding worship services in its one-story building for 15 years until local Muslims constructed a mosque next to it a few years ago. As per the countrys common law, churches cannot be formally recognized or allowed to display Christian symbols if a mosque is built next to them. Since the church grew, it went on to add two more floors to the building, which led to sectarian tension in the area. As a result, local authorities demolished both the church building and the mosque next to it, CSW said, adding that 14 Christians, including the priest and four female members, were arrested for trying to stop the authorities from demolishing the building. CSW welcomes the legalization of more churches in Egypt, and we encourage the administration to continue on the path of reforming legislation and addressing societal attitudes and practices that restrict the right to freedom of religion or belief, CSWs Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said. (But) we remain concerned by the destruction of both the church and mosque in Koum Al-Farag, which is not an effective way of addressing sectarian tensions. The government must work with local authorities to formulate civic interventions that address and transform the societal attitudes underpinning sectarian tensions. Last year, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern reported the legalization of 127 congregations. However, critics of the committee, including ICC, have argued that it's moving too slowly in its granting of approval for the church buildings still on the list awaiting legalization. The 2016 law (based on which the committee was created) was supposed to make it easier for new churches to go through the legalization process, said ICC at the time. However, President [Abdel Fattah] Sisis government has a worse record than his predecessors when it comes to approving new church buildings. According to the Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA, Egypt holds the rank of the 16th worst persecutor of Christians in the world. Many Egyptian Christians encounter substantial roadblocks to living out their faith, it notes. There are violent attacks that make news headlines around the world, but there are also quieter, more subtle forms of duress that burden Egyptian believers. Particularly in rural areas in northern Egypt, Christians have been chased from villages, and subject to mob violence and intense familial and community pressure. This is even more pronounced for Christians who are converts from Islam. To fully appreciate the 23,000 acres of the privately owned Rancho Guejito, one has needed an invitation and a helicopter. Seeing the property from the air -- its mountains, mesas, meadows and thousands of rare Englemann oaks -- is breathtaking. But now, for those willing to lighten their pocketbooks and who have an affinity for nature, wine and adventure, Rancho Guejito will be available to all. We dont want to be an enigma so much anymore, said Hank Rupp, the chief operating officer of Rancho Guejito. We want to be a sustainable enterprise and pay our own bills. To that end, the ranch has gotten into agriculture in a big way. They grow citrus and avocados and wine grapes. Lots of wine grapes. Advertisement And soon they will start offering a unique wine-tasting adventure involving a helicopter tour of the property followed by three or four stops where live musicians will serenade guests as they taste various wines being produced by the Rancho Guejito Vineyard. I like to call it Bach in the backcountry, Rupp said. Were going to do this. Its going to catch on because we have the capital to make it catch on. The entire property is licensed as one huge wine-tasting area. I believe its the largest wine-tasting room in the world, said Mike McColloch, an attorney in charge of dealing with the state and federal agencies that oversee wine licensing. I suppose there could be bigger ones, but not that Ive heard of. Certainly not around here. 1 / 21 Amy Serrano Burcombe plays the electric violin with the backdrop of the Maxcy Winery ruins, circa 1852, at Rancho Guejito, one of the stops on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting adventure when they begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 2 / 21 Nicole Park pours wine from the Rancho Guejito Vineyard with a backdrop of the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, the first stop on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting adventure that includes a helicopter tour of the ranch. Tours will be offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 3 / 21 Anderson Flats, part of Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, visitors on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting adventure which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch may see. Tours begin in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 4 / 21 Pilot Greg Mattson of Cherry Helicopters lifts off from the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, after dropping off passengers at the first stop on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting adventure. Tours will be offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 5 / 21 Hank Rupp, Rancho Guejito Chief Operating Officer welcomes visitors at the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, the first stop on the Rancho Guejito wine-tasting tour which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch when they start being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 6 / 21 Horses feeding is one of the things visitors on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting adventure which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch visitors may see at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north. The tours will be offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 7 / 21 Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, is one of the stops on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine-tasting tour which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch, when the tours are offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 8 / 21 Pilot Greg Mattson files over Rancho Guejito, heading toward the first stop, the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour, which will begin being offered to the public in the near future and includes a helicopter tour of the ranch. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 9 / 21 Guejito Creek in the Anderson Flats area of Rancho Guejito visitors on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour, which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch may see when the tours begin being offered to the public in th near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 10 / 21 The water fountain in the courtyard at the main hacienda at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, visitors will visit on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine-tasting tour when they start being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 11 / 21 Citrus growing at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, visitors on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour, which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch may see, when they start being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 12 / 21 A lemon tree at the main hacienda at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, visitors will visit on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour when they begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 13 / 21 Nicole Park, background, pours Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine, while Daniel Plane, right, plays the cello for visitors at the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito, the first stop on the wine tasting tour which will be offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 14 / 21 The Maxcy Winery ruins, circa 1852, at Rancho Guejito, one of the stops on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour which will begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 15 / 21 Wine from the Rancho Guejito Vineyard is served at the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito during the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour which will be offerd to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 16 / 21 Daniel Plane plays the cello for visitors at the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito, the first stop on the wine tasting tour, which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch when they begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 17 / 21 Jonathan Alvarado, foreground, pours wine from the Rancho Guejito Vineyard with a backdrop of the Maxcy Winery ruins, circa 1852, while Amy Serrano Burcombe, background, plays the electric violin during the wine tasting tour at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped ranch near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north. Tours will begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 18 / 21 Pilot Greg Mattson prepares to land at the Anderson Homestead, circa 1875, at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, during the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch. Tours which will begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 19 / 21 The main hacienda at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, visitors will visit on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour, which includes a helicopter tour of the ranch, when they start being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 20 / 21 Anderson Flats, part of Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north, visitors on the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tour may see during a helicopter tour of the ranch, when tours offered to the public begin in the near futue. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 21 / 21 Rancho Guejito Chief Operating Officer Hank Rupp looks out from from the main hacienda at Rancho Guejito, the 36-square mile privately owned, undeveloped tract near Valley Center that stretches from state Route 78 in the San Pasqual Valley nearly to state Route 76 about 12 miles to the north. Visitors will visit the hacienda during the Rancho Guejito Vineyard wine tasting tours, when they begin being offered to the public in the near future. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) Within the ranchs boundaries lies the last undivided Mexican land grant in the state. Environmentalists and historians often call Rancho Guejito the conservation jewel of San Diego County. The pricing structure for the wine-tasting adventure has not yet been set, but Rupp thinks that for $399 per person, the three-hour tour will soon be offered to anyone willing to pay. The ranch recently did a test run with a reporter and photographer tagging along. After a 45-minute aerial tour of the land, which sits about 400 feet above sea level at its southern boundaries in the San Pasqual Valley and rises to over 4,000 feet in the north bordered by the La Jolla Indian Reservation, the first stop was at the ruins of the Anderson Homestead, circa the 1870s. A rose wine-tasting table was set up with crackers and cheese and fruit. Cellist Daniel Plane played some Bach and other pieces as various red wines were sipped. A Massachusetts native who moved to the San Diego area just five months ago, Plane, 35, said it was a bit odd to be playing his music in the middle of a vast area. They want to expand everything theyre offering and I think theyve got something good going on here, he said. All thats left of the Anderson Homestead ruins are the brick fireplaces because in 2007 thanks to SDG&E, Rupp says the Witch Creek/Guejito fire destroyed the ruins and thousands of oak trees on the property. The ranch settled a lawsuit against the utility for an undisclosed sum. Some of that money has been used to plant new oaks, by the thousands, all over the property. From there, the wine-tasting group traveled by SUV to the Maxcy Winery ruins. In the 1850s, Asher Maxcy, whose California Gold rush dreams didnt materialize, got into cattle and wine. He grew 1,500 acres of grapes and built a winery in 1852 that existed for about four decades. There, where white wines were being offered for tasting, an electric violin was being played in front of the winery ruins by 29-year-old Amy Serrano Burcombe, who was wearing a black, sequined cocktail dress and knee-high boots. She said the boots were both practical and fashionable. I heard there were rattlesnakes out here so Im being cautious walking around, she said. These boots are style and protection. The final stop was at the hacienda built in 1974 by the late Benjamin Coates, the billionaire owner of the property who purchased it that year after efforts by the state to acquire it for a park failed. The ranch is now owned by a corporation headed by Theodate Coates of New York City, Benjamins daughter, who comes to visit a couple times a year. The red wine station featured a singing guitarist and 360-degree views of the southern part of the property from atop a hill. The man pouring the wine, who has been a ranch hand and security officer at the park, is Rupps nephew, Dominic, who said the whole wine thing has opened his eyes to a new experience. For years, the ranch has been off-limits to the public. Hunting is not allowed because of the fire danger. Rupp said deer and mountain lions use the ranch as a refuge, a free zone where they feel safe and reproduce in vast numbers. Its like Switzerland to them, Rupp said. Guejito is also a cattle ranch, home to 1,000 to 2,000 head, depending on the time of year. Every way we can figure out how to make money on this ranch means we can take better care of the property, Rupp said. The most important thing to the survival of this ranch is a diversified income string. We have cows, we have produce, we have wine. That is what will insure the survival of the ranch and the maintenance of our agricultural enterprises. It costs a lot of money to maintain this property and to keep it as pristine as it is. For the past year and a half, the ranch has also been offering wine tasting on Sundays near its headquarters off state Route 78, about three miles east of Safari Park on what is known as Rockwood Ranch, which Rancho Guejito purchased in 2007. Currently, about 40 acres of grapes, 17 varieties, are being grown on the property at different elevations and more vineyards will be planted each year, Rupp said. The grapes are then shipped to a wine-making operation in Escondido where they are crushed, fermented, bottled and labeled. The finished product is sold at the ranch and selected stores in the Escondido area. There are a lot of wine-tasting rooms in San Diego County. What do we have thats different from the other wineries? We just happen to back up into a 36-square-mile ranch, Rupp said. We try to capitalize on what we have thats different from the other wineries in addition to having great wine. We want to promote the agri-tourism that can go with the wine. Whats more enjoyable than having a nice glass of wine and looking at what San Diego County looked like 5,000 years ago? For more information about Rancho Guejito visit ranchoguejitovineyard.com on the web. jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones The Australian share market finished session at highest in more than two months on Tuesday, 26 May 2020, as investors risk appetite buying fuelled by mounting hopes of a global economic recovery as more countries emerge from the coronavirus-induced lockdown. At closing bell, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index surged 164.46 points, or 2.93%, to 6,780.05, its highest level since March 10. The broader All Ordinaries added 160 points, or 2.79%, to 5,889.93. Market gains were supported by fresh hopes for a global economic recovery in the second half of the year as countries around the world slowly open up again and as optimism about a potential vaccine for COVID-19. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday lifted the state of emergency for the entire nation and gave his support for a huge new stimulus package. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday announced plans to reopen all shops by the middle of June. Travel stocks have surged for a second consecutive day, led by Webjet, Flight Centre, Qantas, Corporate Travel Management, and Helloworld Travel, after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg suggested on Monday the Government would consider offering further stimulus to the ailing tourism sector. Coca-Cola Amatil's share price dropped after the beverage maker said its sales had plunged by a third in April due to COVID-19 social restrictions. New Century Resources tumbled after the zinc miner confirmed talks to buy Vale SA's nickel and cobalt operations on the Pacific island of New Caledonia. CURRENCY NEWS: The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6572 after dipping from highs above $0.658 seen last week. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) New Delhi: As a debate raged over sensitivity of leaked Scorpene data, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday played down the leak, saying it is anot a big worrya as weapon system details were not included. The remark has been challenged by the publisher who asserted these will be made public on Monday. Hours later, Cameron Stewart, the journalist who broke the story regarding the leak of 22,000 pages of arestricteda data on the capabilities of six highly advanced submarines being built for the Indian Navy in Mumbai under licence from DCNS, said those also have been leaked. aIndiaas defence minister says leaked data on Scorpene Submarines does not include weapons systems. Wrong. We will release weapons docs Monday,a he tweeted. aWhen I say we will release a leaked document on Scorpene weapons systems, they will of course be redacted by us of sensitive information.a When I say we will release a leaked document on Scorpene weapons systems, they will of course be redacted by us of sensitive information. a cameron stewart (@camstewarttheoz) August 26, 2016 India's defence minister is wrong to say leaked Scorpene docs do not include weapons info. will release (self-censored) weapons doc Monday. a cameron stewart (@camstewarttheoz) August 26, 2016 During the Scorpene leaks story The Australian has not and will not to place on web any document that would harm India's national security a cameron stewart (@camstewarttheoz) August 26, 2016 However, the Minister while noting that he is speaking on the basis of Navyas briefing to him, said there are afew pockets of concernsa because the ministry is assuming the worst case scenario. He also made it clear that the leak of documents on Scorpene submarines will not have any impact on any deal being worked out with the French including the Rafale fighter jet contract. The Defence Minister said that the leaked documents put on the web of aThe Australiana newspaper does not include details of any of the weaponry systems of the Scorpene as has been reported in the media. Parrikar said that the Navy has assured him that most of the leaked documents are not of concern. aWeapon system agreements are with weapon manufacturers and they are separate agreements. Secondly, all submarines have so far not done the sea trials. Therefore the most important signature (movement of the submarine) does not form part of the documents. aThe most important aspect is that we do our integration through our technical capability,a he said. The remarks by the Minister came even as Defence Ministry sources played down the leak saying it does not compromise national security as the documents were old and did not contain details of weapon system. The minister also said that Scorpene submarine has not even fully completed the sea trials, which is important to understand how it will work under water.The Indian Navy has taken up Scorpene document leak matter with French Directorate General of Armament. aWe are waiting for the report. Basically, what is on the website is not of big concern. We are assuming, on our own, that this has leaked and we are taking all precautionsa, he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by defence website bharatshakti.in. aWhat I am given to understand is that there are few pockets of concern assuming that what is claimed to have been leaked has leaked actually. aWe are going by assumption of the worst case scenario. I think there is not big worry because we will be able out put things in right perspectivea, Parrikar added.A Asked by a journalist whether the Rafale deal would be affected because of the leak, the minister, who was puzzled by the query, shot back questioning whether one can stop using French products just because a leak has happened in another company. aYou stop using all products from France? Obviously, the companies are different, the type of equipment is different and an incident should be punished with whatever the contractual punishment is there. It is not intentionally leaked,a Parrikar said. While media reports from France have said that the documents were astolena by a former DCNS employee, India has not received anything in writing. More than 22,000 pages of top secret data on the capabilities of six highly advanced submarines being built for the Indian Navy in Mumbai in collaboration with a French company have been leaked, ringing alarm bells in the security establishment. The combat capability of the Scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon dock at a cost of over USD 3.5 billion under licence from French firm went public when the Australian newspaper put the details on the website. Asked whether the Ministry has got in touch with the newspaper for the set of documents, he said, aWhy should I? I am assuming that everything has leaked.a When asked if the DCNS should have informed India about the leak which is said to have happened in 2011, Parrikar said the government will wait for an official reply from the firm. aOne aspect is security which is a top priority for us. A We have a team in place. They are going into the details assuming that the leak has taken place. aThe second aspect is the contractual obligation and proper information. That we have asked and are waiting for a reply from them. Let the reply come,a he said. Asked how concerned or how alarmed was he, the minister said, aIf you ask me, I have always expressed my concern until a solution has been found. But the navy has assured me that most of the concerns, like I told you for example, the arms... A we have different contract as far as arms and ammunition are concerned. aIn 2011 and 2014 we have developed our own document, with the help of which we have... whereas there are many modifications which have been done,a he said. Parrikar stressed that India does its own integration. aSo all these aspects makes lot of concerns in much lower potential or category. They (navy) have assured me that probably they we will be able to address most of concerns,a he said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Chicago suffered its deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years as 10 people were fatally shot across the Illinois city and more than 40 others were wounded, despite the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order. The latest death tally was the highest since 2015, when cops reported 12 fatal shootings over the holiday weekend. One large gathering in Chicago's Englewood section, caught on Instagram video, required multiple cops after gunshots were fired. Two officers were hurt and two men were arrested after the incident in the 7000 block of South Lowe Avenue. Chicago suffered its deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years as 10 people were fatally shot across the Illinois city More than 40 others were wounded, despite the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order The victims of the shootings included Darnell Fisher, 17, who died after he was shot multiple times by a male suspect while the youth was walking in Washington Park section of the city after 10 p.m., the Chicago Tribune reports. The suspect was apprehended and a weapon was recovered, police say. Two other 15-year-old victims were shot dead in separate incidents, police say. A female victim suffered a gunshot wound to her leg while standing on a porch in West Pullman early Monday morning. She was reported in good condition at a local hospital after the 5 a.m. shooting. A male victim, however, was in critical condition after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his face, chest and abdomen early Saturday. The youth was shot following an argument with an unknown motorist just before 1 a.m., police say. This past weekend's rise in violence had been expected by cops, who were prepared with added patrols. There were 43 people shot during 2019's Memorial Day Weekend, including 7 fatalities. The highest number of shootings for the same holiday weekend was in 2016, when 69 people were wounded. Six of those persons had been fatally shot. Chicago Police officers are pictured in masks for protection from COVID-19 earlier this month. This past weekend's rise in violence had been expected by cops, who were prepared with added patrols Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control has been asked to investigate new coronavirus cases in the city, as well as in Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. by the White House coronavirus task force. New daily coronavirus cases are refusing to drop in the cities despite ongoing shutdowns causing concern, task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx revealed Friday. 'Even though Washington has remained closed, L.A. has remained closed, Chicago has remained closed, we still see these ongoing cases,' she told reporters during a White House news briefing. Israel will not miss a "historic opportunity" to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday, calling the move one of his new government's priorities. Palestinians consider such a step to be the illegal annexation of occupied land they seek for a future state. Last week, they declared an end to security co-operation with Israel and the US in protest at the territorial plan. Mr Netanyahu has pledged to put Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank under Israeli sovereignty. He has set July 1 as a starting date for cabinet discussions on the issue, which has also raised alarm within the EU. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called the matter complex and said it required co-ordination with Washington. Mr Netanyahu's new political partner, centrist Benny Gantz, has been equivocal about de facto annexation. At a meeting of his right-wing Likud party yesterday, Mr Netanyahu said land moves in the West Bank were "perhaps the first in importance in many respects" of the tasks to be undertaken by the government formed on May 17. "We have a historic opportunity, which hasn't existed since 1948, to apply sovereignty judiciously as a diplomatic... step in Judea and Samaria," he said, referring to the year of Israel's birth and using the biblical names for the West Bank. "It is a big opportunity and we will not let it pass by," he said a day after the start of his corruption trial. He denies charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Palestinians and most countries view the settlements on land Israel took in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal. The Easton Area School District has always been like an extended family to Tim Case. So its fitting that the retiring head of operations will be replaced by someone from his real family: his son. Ken Case will take over as director of operations on June 1. His father worked for the school district for more than 40 years. Its a dream to take over a position that your dad held, said Ken Case, a 37-year-old Williams Township resident. Thats who you look up to. Hes your hero. Ken Cases appointment was approved May 5 by the Easton Area School Board. Hell earn $124,630 a year, according to the school board meeting agenda. He spent the past eight years running facilities for the Wilson Area School District. When he was just a high school and college student, Ken Case was hired by his father to work on the Easton Area School District maintenance crew to cut grass in the summer. Ken Case has returned to office parties and kept in touch with the staff through his dad. My guys here in my maintenance shop are just thrilled to have Ken as their supervisor, Tim Case said. Superintendent David Piperato said the job wasnt just handed to Ken Case. He earned it. There was an open hiring process where finalists were selected and vetted by district representatives including the architect and engineer. Each candidate had to take a test. Through all that, Ken emerged as the top candidate, Piperato said. Ken Case previously worked at Salisbury, Northampton Area and Upper Dublin school districts when they built new schools. His construction expertise will come in handy now that the Easton Area School District is building new Cheston and Palmer elementary schools and just renovated several other schools. Tim Case relishes the traditions of the Easton Area School District, so hes thrilled his son will continue to cultivate them. Hes going to be happy coming here. Im happy that hes coming here, Tim Case said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Consumers in the real estate market can expect more digital, low-touch home searches and transactions to continue for the foreseeable future. Realtors are being advised against handshakes and taking clients out in their cars even as the industry prepares for more activity in the coming weeks as the economy reopens. New guidelines by the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) on Monday suggest that agents continue to take their cue from public health officials in terms of the same precautions seen in the past two months, when in-person open houses and showings were discouraged. What were starting to see is an increase in consumers looking to realtors to show properties. Weve been telling our members since Day 1 basically to keep it to essential business only. What were starting to see is increased buyer pressure out there where people dont want to wait for essential business but start to move out and move on with their transactions, said OREA president Sean Morrison. The guidelines are designed to keep realtors and their clients safe in terms of preparing homes for listing and for showings. We want them to shift to their digital products as much as possible. As we continue to see additional buyer pressures we wanted to make sure if people are going to go out there they had a guideline that was simple to follow, he said. OREA is advising agents to continue using virtual tours, including online open houses as much as possible. When in-person home tours happen, agents are expected to ensure their clients wear personal protective equipment and to wear masks themselves. Ideally the agent would provide that to the clients but shortages mean that wont always be possible, said Morrison. Realtors should ensure homes are disinfected between showings and keep the length of tours to a minimum. Ontario has maintained real estate as an essential service throughout the COVID-19 restrictions, recognizing that some home transactions are essential, including instances where a consumer has to sell one home because they have contracted to buy another. Showings should be scheduled with time between visitors so that the house can be disinfected between tours. Light switches should be turned on and doors opened in advance so a potential buyer can see the home without touching surfaces. If the property is a condo, the agent needs to adhere to the buildings elevator rules. If physical distancing is not possible, only one or two people or members of the same household should be on the elevator at the same time. Agents are further cautioned against using the bathrooms in homes while they are being shown and to make sure they and their clients wash their hands with soap and water or use sanitizer before and after entering the home. A FILE is to be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions in the case of a young man who is accused of stealing lead flashing from the roof of a historic church building, writes David Hurley. Dermot Calvert, 25, of Fairview Crescent, Garryowen was remanded in custody after he appeared in court charged in connection with multiple theft offences. One of the charges relates to an incident at St Johns Church, Johns Square on the afternoon of May 18, last. Detective Garda Shane Thornton told Judge Carol Anne Coolican the defendant was arrested at John Street around 90 minutes after gardai were alerted to reports of a man on the roof of the former church which is a protected structure. It is alleged that around 10 metres of flashing, worth around 150, was removed from the roof. Separately, Mr Calvert has been charged with burglary relating to the theft of several items from the fire station at the Markets Field. He is accused of stealing a multi-functional tool and a radio handset after entering a private area at the temporary sub station on April 28. The defendant has also been charged with burglary relating to an incident at a private home at Johnsgate Village on May 15 and with stealing items from a number of parked vehicles one of which was a taxi. After Judge Coolican was told gardai would be strongly objecting to any bail application, solicitor Tom Kiely said his client was not seeking bail at present. Mr Calvert was remanded in custody to Limerick Prison and is due to appear before Limerick District Court, via video link, on Tuesday. Kabul, May 25 (IANS) Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced that his government will release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in response to the militant group's calling for a three-day Eid ceasefire. On May 11, the Afghan government suspended the release of insurgent prisoners, saying the Taliban must bring its total number of released security force members to 200, reports TOLO News. The government claimed that so far the group had only freed 105. The Afghan government has released 1,000 Taliban prisoners so far. The release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners was included as part of the US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on February 29. In a tweet on Sunday, presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Ghani initiated a process to release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in response to the group's announcement of a ceasefire during Eid. He added that the Afghan government is extending the offer of peace and is taking further steps to ensure the success of the peace process. The Taliban announced the three-day ceasefire for Eid on Saturday evening, TOLO News reported. The move was widely welcomed by Afghanistan's allies in the world and in the region. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement welcomed "the announcements by the Taliban to observe a three-day ceasefire for Eid and the Afghan government to reciprocate." "We worked hard to achieve this moment, and I hope that this respite from conflict gives Afghan people the space and security they deserve to celebrate Eid, while allowing the Taliban and the government the opportunity to take additional steps toward a peaceful future for their country," he said. --IANS ksk/ (Newser) Prince Andrew won't like what he finds in Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, the four-part Netflix docu-series premiering Wednesday. In the third episode, we hear from Steve Cully, who managed telecommunications and data on Epstein's private island from 1999 to 2005. He says he saw Alan Dershowitz and Bill Clinton visit at different times. "Probably around 2004, I saw Prince Andrew," he adds, per the Daily Beast. He says the royal was at the pool with a "young" topless girl he didn't know at the time but now believes to be Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre claims she was forced to have sex with the prince multiple times after Epstein trafficked her at age 17. Though a photograph shows the pair together, Prince Andrew has said he has no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre. As of March, the US attorney's office said the prince was not cooperating with its investigation. story continues below Cully says he saw Andrew and the woman "engaged in foreplay. He was grabbing her and grinding against her." He adds he eventually left Epstein's employment because he was disgusted by the behavior he witnessed on Little Saint James in the British Virgin Islands, dubbed "Pedophile Island." "It really is orgy island, because that's what happened there. That is what that island meant to me," Giuffre says in the docu-series, which also includes Sarah Ransome's allegations that Epstein raped her multiple times per day on the island, per the Daily Beast. "In essence, this is a monster movie," Mick LaSalle writes in a review at the San Francisco Chronicle. Based on the book by James Patterson, "it's a study in a distinct case of wickedness, someone with no conscience and no morals, who was armed with an uncanny ability to manipulate people." (Read more Prince Andrew stories.) MBABANE Officials from the Ministry of Health have contravened a section of the COVID-19 regulations. This is because during the launch of the Client Satisfaction and Feedback Mechanism (CSFM), held at Mountain Inn yesterday, there were over 35 people in one room. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Regulations, 2020 state clearly in Section 25 (1) that in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, a gathering of more than 20 people is prohibited. The event lasted almost an hour as it started around 7:35am and ended at 8:30am. When questioned about this, the Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula, who was among the attendees, said they noted the miss. He admitted that it did not paint a good picture for them as people who advocated for less gatherings to fight the spread of the virus. approval Magagula said the gathering was organised by the department of case management within the ministry and he approved it. I can admit that this was a miss and we will take responsibility next time, said Dr Magagula. After the launch, Dr Magagula and other officials held an internal meeting to address the issue. When Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati was questioned about such gatherings, she stated that they normally did their own investigations after receiving the information and then made arrests if necessary. We do receive information about such incidents; investigate and make arrests if our findings are positive, she said. Meanwhile, the public will now be able to report the kind of treatment they get while in different healthcare facilities in the country. This was revealed during the launch of CSFM. Thabang Masangane, the Ministry of Healths Focal Person on Infection, Prevention and Control, explaining the new mechanism, stated that patients who went to a health facility would receive messages requesting them to give feedback about the kind of treatment they received. He said with the use of computer systems to load data of patients, as soon as their contact numbers were loaded onto the system as part of the registration process upon being attended to by a health worker that day, the system would then automatically send a message for the patient to respond. He said the questions were in multiple choice form where one had to send the response that fitted their treatment. One of the questions asked is the attitude of the health workers as per a patients experience, so they get to choose from very good to bad, he said. Other questions that appear, according to Masangane, question patients about medication that they did not get, cleanliness of that facility and the time the patient had to wait before being attended to, among others. The information was said to be loaded onto a dashboard which was accessed by regional and national supervisors. It was said the health directors, principal secretary and minister were also able to view the dashboard. The ministry was said to rely on the information on the dashboard to take action on the complaints given by the patients. It was established that the project had been on pilot from 2015 and was run by the Ministry of Health-Health Management and Information System (HMIS), National Quality Management Programme and UNICEF. Minister of Health Lizzie Nkosi emphasised that the CSFM was there to make every client give real-time feedback on services provided to them after visiting health facilities. She said the system was linked to CMIS, where clients got a notification on their cellphones where they were requested give feedback. embrace It is my sincere hope and belief that all service providers in healthcare settings and the community at grassroot level will embrace this new system, and use it to improve the quality of health services to emaSwati, she said. Meanwhile UNICEF Representative, Dr Alice Akunga appreciated the effort by the different parties in ensuring that the CSFM project saw the light of day. She appreciated the mobile companies which have made communication possible between patients and the ministry. UNICEF complements the ministrys effort to roll out the CSFM by providing technical and financial support to the initiative amounting to more than E2 000 000,she said. People returned to city streets in Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, as well as in Hokkaido, on Tuesday, the day after a state of emergency due to the new coronavirus outbreak was completely lifted in Japan. The five prefectures were the last for which the lifting occurred. Some shops and facilities there opened along with the gradual relaxation of requests for business suspensions, while others were not yet ready to resume operations because they still had to implement anti-infection measures. In the morning, company workers wearing protective masks streamed out of Tokyo Station, heading to offices in the Marunouchi business district. "The train was crowded compared to after the long holiday period," said a 51-year-old company employee from Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama. "[The virus] has yet to be contained, so I will do my best not to be infected." In Kanagawa Prefecture, the number of people confirmed to be infected with the virus per 100,000 people in the previous week, ending Monday, was still above the benchmark for lifting the state of emergency. However, JR Yokohama Station in the prefecture was crowded with commuters on Tuesday. According to a member of the station staff, the number of passengers in the station under the state of emergency was about 20% of the usual number, but the figure rose to about 50% on Tuesday morning. "As the number of people increases, I fear the risk of being infected," said a 54-year-old bank employee from Hachioji, Tokyo, who works from home every other day. "We should avoid congestion by keeping staggered commuting." Following the full lifting of the state of emergency, department stores and other businesses have begun moving toward normalizing operations. Amid concern over a possible second coronavirus wave, operators resumed their business while taking measures to prevent the spread of the virus. The Odakyu Department Store Shinjuku in Tokyo, which had previously limited its operations to its food section, opened almost all other sections on Tuesday, except those closed due to the circumstances of the respective shop owners. After the store opened at 10:30 a.m., employees wearing protective masks asked shoppers to disinfect their hands and checked their temperatures. Plastic partitions to prevent droplet infection were installed at each counter. Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. also reopened all floors of its Daimaru Tokyo Store and Matsuzakaya Ueno Store. Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. announced it will resume operations Saturday of its six stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including its Isetan Shinjuku Main Store. South African Airways (SAA) aims to resume domestic flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town from mid-June, the cash-strapped airline said on Tuesday, as coronavirus lockdown restrictions ease. SAA, which is under a form of bankruptcy protection, suspended all commercial passenger flights in late March, when the government imposed one of the strictest lockdowns on the African continent. But President Cyril Ramaphosa said in an address to the nation on Sunday that domestic air travel for business purposes would be phased in after June 1, when the country moves to level 3 of a five-level alert system. South Africa is currently on alert level 4, a tougher level of anti-coronavirus restrictions. Ramaphosa did not give an exact date when business travellers would be able to fly domestically, and SAA said it was preparing to resume flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town when permissible. It added it had decided to extend cancellations of all regional and intercontinental flights until the end of June. "SAA is committed to restart further operations on an incremental basis, and will regularly provide updates on progress," the statement said. Search Keywords: Short link: krblokhin/iStockBy CATHERINE THORBECKE, ABC News (MINNEAPOLIS) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation will probe the death of a black man who died shortly after being apprehended by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after disturbing video emerged on social media showing a police officer with his knee on the man's neck as the man repeatedly yells out, "I can't breathe." "I can't breathe, please, the knee in my neck," the man, identified as George Floyd, said in a video showing a police officer pinning him to the ground. "I can't move ... my neck ... I'm through, I'm through." The Minneapolis Police Department announced Tuesday morning that the FBI will be a part of the investigation into the death. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said Tuesday morning that the officers involved in the incident have been placed on paid leave and he pledged the department's full cooperation with any investigations. Later Tuesday, the mayor of Minneapolis tweeted that all four responding officers involved in the incident have been terminated. "Being black in America should not be a death sentence," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference Tuesday morning. "For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black mans neck. Five minutes. When you hear someone calling for help, youre supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic, human sense." Frey called the incident "awful" and "traumatic," saying, "it serves as a reminder of how far we have to go." In a statement on Facebook, Frey added that, "I believe what I saw and what I saw is wrong on every level." "To our Black community, to the family: Im so sorry," he wrote. Police did not identify the man who died, but Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing his family, said he was George Floyd. "We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck," Crump said in a statement. "This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge." "We will seek justice for the family of George Floyd, as we demand answers from the Minnesota Police Department," he added. "How many 'white black' deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends?" Jovanni Thunstrom, owner of Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis, confirmed to ABC News that Floyd worked at his bistro as a security guard for more than 5 years. "This hurts," Thunstrom said. "I loved him like a brother." He described Floyd as beloved by customers and employees alike, saying he often worked extra hours and never complained. He was not working there at the time of his death due to COVID-19 closures. Thunstrom said he first learned of Floyd's death when another security officer texted him saying he had seen a disturbing video and that it sounded like Floyd. "It broke my heart. He didn't deserve that, and the way he got killed, the officer had no compassion," Thunstrom said. "I feel bad because when you know for someone for so long, it's different when you see it. It looks so disturbing. That police officer could have saved his life. He couldn't breathe." "I wish I was there. I would've done something," he said. "I don't want him to be another statistic." Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a former prosecutor in Hennepin County where the death took place, called for a "thorough outside investigation" into the incident in a statement on Twitter. "We heard his repeated calls for help. We heard him say over and over again that he could not breathe. And now we have seen yet another horrifying and gutwrenching instance of an African American man dying," Klobuchar said. "Every single person in every single community in this country deserves to feel safe. As the Mayor of Minneapolis noted, this tragic loss of life calls for immediate action." My statement on the officer-involved death in Minneapolis: pic.twitter.com/HUoGfXEj7R Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) May 26, 2020 She added that "justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country." The police union representing the officers did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment Tuesday. The Minneapolis Police Department said Monday that officers were initially called to the scene "on a report of a forgery in progress" in a statement on their website. The statement added that officers were advised that the suspect "appeared to be under the influence" and that he "physically resisted officers." He later "appeared to be suffering medical distress" and officers called an ambulance. He was transported to the Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance, "where he died a short time later." The police department said there were no weapons of any type used by anyone involved in the incident and no officers were injured. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. This fall, Ai Weiwei will publish the book 'Human Flow: Stories from the Global Refugee Crisis.' The Chinese dissident artist has announced a forthcoming new book, "Human Flow: Stories from the Global Refugee Crisis," which will be published on October 13. "Human Flow: Stories from the Global Refugee Crisis" is inspired by the interviews with refugees, aid workers, politicians, activists, doctors and local authorities that Weiwei and his collaborators conducted for his 2017 documentary, "Human Flow." While only a handful of the conversations were included in the film, the anthology presents a hundred of these interviews in their entirety to provide "compelling first-person stories of the lives of those affected by the crisis and those on the front lines of working to address its immense challenges." The 400-page book also features black-and-white photographs taken by Weiwei while filming "Human Flow." "Speaking in their own words, refugees give voice to their experiences of migrating across borders, living in refugee camps, and struggling to rebuild their lives in unfamiliar and uncertain surroundings. They talk about the dire circumstances that drove them to migrate, whether war, famine, or persecution; and their hopes and fears for the future," publisher Princeton University Press said of the book in a statement. While "Human Flow: Stories from the Global Refugee Crisis" will arrive this fall, Weiwei is currently working on three full-length documentaries. One of them will focus on the Rohingya refugee crisis, during which over 900,000 Burmese Rohingya were forcibly displaced or fled from the Rakhine state of Myanmar to Bangladesh in 2015. The documentary is described by Weiwei as chronicling "a crisis that has almost been forgotten," with the Chinese artist announcing that the film is in the post-production stage and is due to premiere by the end of the year. The coronavirus pandemic is having a devastating economic impact on people living in global poverty. We are in a moment that requires immediate, full-scale relief. Such a statement may come as a surprise to those who know me. As head of a Christian organization focused on economic development and microfinance, I have been a vocal critic of indiscriminate charity and long-term handouts. Too often, misapplied relief is like a Band-Aid stuck on a broken bone. Instead, its jobs and sustainable development that can make a marked difference in the lives of individuals, families, and even entire communities. Spending the last 20 years in international development, Ive seen firsthand how charity efforts have not only failed to help but have caused lasting damage in communities around the globe. Books like Dead Aid, Toxic Charity, and When Helping Hurts have put to paper what the world has experienced when aid has been misapplied. Yet, over the past few months, even this pro-business, pro-entrepreneur, and pro-sustainability leader has become pro-relief. Weve seen the coronavirus pandemic wreak havoc across our worldprecipitating country-wide lockdowns and sending the global economy into a tailspin. The impact is even more severe among families living in poverty. Many of these families were the least equipped to deal with COVID-19 and have been the most devastated by it. In the wake of an emergency, families do not need another microloan, more skills training, or even a safe place to save their money. Right now, from India to Zimbabwe, people living in poverty are telling us the same thing: We need relief, and we need it now. Pivoting our priorities Some economists estimate that the impact of COVID-19 will send some countries back 30 years in their fight against extreme poverty. Weve heard from men and women in low-income countries that their primary concern right now is not fear of the virus; its fear of starvation. The virus creates a crisis within the crisis, where the health emergency exacerbates food insecurity and poverty. At HOPE International, were seeing the devastation caused by COVID-19 play out in real time. Farmers are eating their seeds to surviveleaving them with nothing to plant in the future. Entrepreneurs who raise livestock to sell are now living off of them. Shopkeepers are eating their inventory. As threats of hunger loom large, the small businesses that entrepreneurs have diligently built over many years are crumbling before their eyes. And for most of them, there will be no government bailouts or safety nets. Its not just about food, either. For many living in poverty, its an unimaginable luxury to even be able to follow the global health guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. For example, social distancing is nearly impossible for families in crowded slums, and extra hand washing is especially difficult in places without regular access to clean water. Should they become ill, people living in poverty are the last to receive limited resources like tests, medical care, and ventilators. Thankfully, weve seen the world spring into action. The United Nations (UN) sent life-saving supplies to frontline workers and food to the most vulnerable. The World Health Organization (WHO) shipped personal protective equipment and 1.5 million diagnostic kits to 135 countries. And organizations like Preemptive Love, Partners Worldwide, and Plant with Purpose are actively responding to vulnerable families in need. At HOPE, weve pivoted our priorities to extend love and relief to our global neighbors during this time. Weve distributed funds through our trusted church partners so they can immediately provide food, PPE, and other needed provisions. Weve also stepped in with a stimulus packageextended grace periods in country-wide shutdowns, rescheduled loan terms, and provided prayer supportto help entrepreneurs weather this storm. Article continues below We want to look back on this time and know we did everything possible to care well for families in their moment of greatest need. From Relief to Rebuilding In his book Toxic Charity, Bob Lupton writes, When relief does not transition to development in a timely way, compassion becomes toxic. Over the past five years, Ive noticed a gradual shift toward this line of thought, as individuals and organizations have begun to more widely understand the difference between charity and relief. Its why we saw Toms pivot from their buy one, give one model to intentionally working to create long-term, sustainable jobs in some of the places that they operate. Its why were seeing people in the American church begin to support not just the child sponsorship programs that have historically garnered enthusiastic support, but organizations like Noonday Collection that focus on job creation. As we rally and dispense desperately needed relief, the challenge is to respond to immediate needs while simultaneously preparing for the recovery and rebuilding. Its a time to navigate the delicate relationship between relief and development, not as two separate activities but as one unified and long-term response. If we arent developing a plan for years down the road to help jump-start economies and strengthen communities, if we arent investing in entrepreneurs, the devastating impact of COVID-19 will persist. Our relief efforts will once again become simply Band-Aids on broken bones. As Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett share in When Helping Hurts, effective relief is immediate and temporary, but rebuilding is sustainable. In responding with immediate relief but then transitioning to rebuilding, lets ensure that people have the tools they need to rebuild their own businesses and livelihoods. When economies reopen, entrepreneurs will need capital to restart their businesses and rebuild what has been lost. After a disaster, there is an inescapable need for recovery lending; businesses and economies are unable to start up again without it. With that in mind, HOPE and other microenterprise development organizations are preparing to stabilize their businesses and make up for the losses incurred. In this current moment, we need to move forward with short-term, immediate relief and a long-term, sustainable plan for the future. We need to help people weather this economic storm and, as quickly as possible, empower them to return to work. This is the crisis of our lifetime. Lets prepare families to survive the immediate needs of today and ensure that theyre able to get back to work and provide for their families tomorrow. May we respond with courageous compassion and wisdom in both the relief and the rebuilding. Peter Greer is the president and CEO of HOPE International, an economic development organization serving throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Ashley Dickens works as senior HOPE experience facilitator. Speaking Out is Christianity Todays guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the publication. By David Ljunggren OTTAWA, May 26 (Reuters) - Canadian soldiers helping to manage the coronavirus outbreak in seniors' residences have witnessed some "deeply disturbing" scenes, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, adding he was shocked and angry. Long-term care homes account for around 80% of all the deaths attributed to the new coronavirus in Canada. The situation is particularly bad in Ontario and Quebec, the two most populous provinces, where around 1,400 soldiers are working. Trudeau told a daily briefing the armed forces had compiled a report on their observations in Ontario. "It is deeply disturbing. There are things in there that are extremely troubling and we need to take action," he said. Trudeau did not give details but said he had passed on the report to Ontario premier Doug Ford, who is due to speak to reporters later in the day. "I was sad, I was shocked, I was disappointed, I was angry," said Trudeau, reiterating that Canada needed to do a much better job of taking care of its elderly population. Both Quebec and Ontario have asked that the soldiers stay on for longer than initially planned and the federal government is likely to agree, Trudeau said. Earlier this month Trudeau referred to "heartbreaking tragedies" in long-term care facilities, mentioning overworked employees and understaffed homes. Ottawa and the 10 provinces - which have jurisdiction over healthcare - have already agreed to boost pay for essential workers such as employees in residences. Trudeau also said Canada had signed a deal with General Motors Co to produce 10 million face masks. Healthcare providers across the country have repeatedly complained about shortages of personal protective equipment. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Bernadette Baum) Silver Springboards Higher Whats Next? The silver market is on the move. In fact, its finally moving out ahead of other precious metals and showing some real leadership. After the panic selling of March briefly brought spot silver below $12/oz, prices have since surged by 50%. Thats an impressive move to take place within the span of just two months. The question for investors now is whether the recent rally in silver is fleeting or sustainable whether its evidence of extreme market volatility that suggests more danger ahead or the first leg of a much larger bull market to come. In our view, there is good reason to believe that the March 2020 lows will never be violated and that silver is therefore in a structural bull market. Last Monday, Money Metals posted Silver Breakout in Progress as a market update. We noted, Silver prices will run into some overhead resistance just above the $16/oz level. Once broken, that technical line on the weekly chart could serve as a springboard for a run toward $19/oz and ultimately higher. The technical clues we presented for an imminent breakout were confirmed that Friday. Silver springboarded to $17/oz. Then yesterday, carryover momentum brought prices up near $18/oz before this mornings pullback. The bullish mega-trend for silver fueled by accelerating monetary debasement, declining worldwide mine production, and strong safe-haven demand is likely just beginning. At the same time, there are growing signs of shortages in physical silver, at least in some parts of the world. This week, bullion banks have been scrambling big time to find the 1,000-ounce silver bars they need to make near-term delivery commitments on the Comex. This shortage in the U.S. of deliverable silver has caused New York spot silver prices to diverge more than 50 cents above London spot. Such a spread is extremely rare, and arbitrageurs do not seem able to transport enough silver from London to New York to close the gap anytime soon. None of this means there cant be sharp pullbacks to come. Silver is a notoriously volatile commodity that seems to specialize in shaking people out (especially leveraged speculators in the futures market). Although nothing is guaranteed in these wild and often manipulated markets, the blue line shown in the chart above, which had been resistance, will likely now serve as final support in the event of a selloff. Fundamentally, a silver price below $16/oz is simply not sustainable given that all-in mining costs for the metal currently range into the high teens. While another bout of irrational panic selling over virus fears is possible should it make a deadly resurgence, the remaining upside potential for silver in the months and years ahead far exceeds its downside risk. Silver is historically cheap versus just about any other commodity or asset class on the planet. When measured against gold, silver has never been cheaper going back through hundreds of years of record-keeping than it was during the depths of the March selling. Silvers unprecedented cheapness versus gold (at one point 1/126th the gold price) gives us further confidence that those extreme lows were anomalous displays of peak fear that will never be seen again. At present the gold:silver ratio comes in right around 100:1. Although still extremely elevated (by normal standards) in favor of gold, silver has been rapidly gaining ground against its pricier counterpart and can be expected to continue closing the gap as the bull market in both metals advances. With an election coming up and uncertainties surrounding the economy and COVID-19, investor interest in precious metals is likely to remain robust. A ballooning federal debt and Federal Reserve balance sheet pose serious risks for holders of U.S. dollars. Fed chairman Jerome Powell recently assured Congress the central bank is committed to using our full range of tools to support the economy. They are all tools of currency debasement, regardless of what jargon or acronyms monetary planners trot out to describe them. Granted, safe-haven bullion and ETF buying could taper off in the event that the economic outlook brightens and investor fears recede. But since more than 50% of silver demand comes from industrial applications, a recovering economy isnt necessarily a negative for prices especially when so many other fundamental and technical indicators are now turning bullish. Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 "Dealer of the Year" in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC, and his writings have appeared in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Detroit News, Washington Times, and National Review. 2020 Stefan Gleason - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors. 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Prince Harry was a senior member of the British royal family for 35 years. From a young age, he was thrust into the spotlight, committed to bowing and waving to all of those who looked upon him. However, following the death of his mother, Princess Diana when he was just 12, the red-headed princes perspective changed drastically. During his teen years and early 20s, Prince Harry began acting out and finding himself in the middle of various scandals. There was the naked incident while playing pool and the Nazi uniform he sported at a costume party. However, as he matured, the prince spoke openly about the mental health issues he struggled with amid his mothers death. He was also able to transform himself into one of the most beloved royal family members. However, when the Duke of Sussex married Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, he was reminded once again that life in the spotlight wasnt necessarily tolerable or sustainable. In fact, a source is now saying that Prince Harry was unhappy as a senior working royal long before Megxit. RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Warned the Royal Family About Megxit Several Times, Source Claims Prince Harry has always thought the media was intrusive Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris after being chased through the streets by the paparazzi. As a result, the duke has never had a soft spot for the media. That didnt change when he married Meghan. Instead, the spotlight became even more glaring for them. So much so, that it became unbreakable as rumors fueled by sexism and racism hit the tabloids constantly. For most, all of my life, Ive always been part of a family and part of a country that is scared of the tabloid media because they have so much power and influence and no morals (laughs), Prince Harry explained in a leaked phone call. From the moment that I found a wife that was strong enough to be able to stand up for what we believe in together, has basically scared them so much that theyve now come out incredibly angry, theyve come out fighting, and all they will try and do now is try and destroy our reputation and try and, you know, sink us. But what they dont understand is the battle we are fighting against them is far more than just us. Even though they want to make it personal they are scared because we are some of the first two people willing to stand up to their bullying and my wife, we cant stand back. It hasnt been very nice. Its been horrible but we will come out of it stronger people. RELATED: Prince Harry Thinks the Media Is Terrified of Meghan Markle Prince Harry hates the term Megxit Details from the upcoming tell-all book about the Sussexes, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family have just leaked to the press. One of them reveals that Prince Harry absolutely hates the term Megxit. It gives the impression that the decision to walk away from the Royal Family was Meghans, a publishing insider told The Sun. The reality is Harry drove that decision. The book will make that clear and explain why it had to happen. In fact, just after announcing their decision to step down, the duke said openly that it was his idea. The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly, he said during a dinner for his charity, Sentebale. It was so many months of talks after so many years of challenges. And I know I havent always got it right, but as far as this goes, there really was no other option. RELATED: Prince Harry Is Struggling Without Any Structure in His Life, Expert Reveals Prince Harry was miserable as a senior royal for a long time Living life in the spotlight certainly isnt everything that its cracked up to be. In fact, Finding Freedom is set to reveal that the prince was troubled for some time. The truth is Harry had been unhappy for a long, long time, the source told The Sun. He wanted to move in the direction that they did and had been considering it for more than a year. Meghan supported Harrys decision. But there was more than one occasion where she asked him if he was certain it was what he wanted. And she always made it clear she would support him in whatever he did. Some personnel of Nigeria Police allegedly invaded the Abuja residence of Engr. Abubakar Ibrahim, former Chief Executive Officer of ... Some personnel of Nigeria Police allegedly invaded the Abuja residence of Engr. Abubakar Ibrahim, former Chief Executive Officer of the National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO). One of his teenage sons was allegedly shot by the members of the Special Tactical Squad (STS), a team under the Inspector General of Police (IGP). The incident happened on Monday, May 18, at about 12:45 pm, when Ibrahim was preparing to join his family to perform the afternoon prayer (Salatul Zuhr). In a chat with PRNigeria on Monday, Ibrahim said: I heard gunshots and strange people screaming. I rushed downstairs and to my greatest dismay, my family members were laying on the floor with their faces down. Armed men were standing over them, threatening to shoot anyone that attempts to run. The father said he thought they were criminals until the family was led out of the living room to an open space within the house. We asked them why they were treating us in that manner. They slapped one of my children and said : you even have mouth to talk?. The operatives searched the house, returned and said they were taking me, my seven male children and my driver to their office at Guzape. The female family members, already crying, stayed back. While entering the vehicle to convey us to STS, a son of my neighbour rushed to inform us that my son, Sadiq was shot at their house. We went with the STS operatives to pick Sadiq. He was in severe pains, blood had stained his clothes. The cloth used to cover the wound was soaked with blood. On how this happened, Ibrahim said the STS operatives first entered his neighbours compound before jumping into his through the fence. While there earlier, they met Sadiq doing ablution for the afternoon prayer. He was frightened and thought it was a robbery attack. An officer pointed a gun at him and started pursuing him. It is only by the mercy of the Creator that Sadiq survived. The officer was heard shouting thief thief so that people in the neighbourhood would close their doors. It was around that time he was shot. They asked him to produce his phone and he told them that it fell during the pursuit. God so kind, the phone was found and we were eventually taken to the STS Office. Ibrahim expressed sadness that while Sadiq still bled, everyone driven to the location were asked to write a statement. The retired government worker recalled that at the STS office in Guzape, operatives told them that a Nigerian Army Major and other people were recently abducted in Kogi State, and the kidnappers demanded a huge ransom. According to them, they were trying to track the kidnappers when they arrived at a spot near my house. That the road in front of my house was the location of the abductors when they were last contacted. They said the kidnappers asked them to take the ransom to that spot. Ibrahim recounted that after filling bond forms, we were allowed to depart at about 5.45pm. I requested that an officer follow Sadiq to the hospital. They assigned the person who shot him. He and a relative took Sadiq to the National Hospital, Trauma Centre, Abuja. They dropped Sadiq and the relative at the entrance and left without seeing the doctors. The ex-NIOMCO Sole Administrator lamented that the STS carried out their actions without a warrant. I served this country to the best of my ability and retired as a Director from the Federal Civil Service. I have never been linked to any criminal act. Even in retirement, I am still contributing to the development of Nigeria. I am presently a visiting lecturer in the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria. The aggrieved father decried that his and familys fundamental human rights have been violated. He further demanded that the operatives be appropriately sanctioned for unprofessional and unethical behavior. Nigeria Police spokesman, DCP Frank Mba, told PRNigeria that the Force Headquarters is probing the incident and would reveal its findings. Frank said: There are different versions to this report. We are, nevertheless, investigating the controversy over the incident and we will surely make our position known and take appropriate actions on the issue. A Spanish woman cyclist stranded in Tripura for more than two months because of Covid-19-related restrictions finally left the state on a special Agartala-Delhi train. After reaching Delhi, Yesenia Herrera Febles plans to catch a flight to Madrid on May 30. Febles, a nurse by profession, entered Tripura from Bangladesh via the Akhaura integrated check post on March 9. She was on a cycle tour of South Asia. She stayed in Agartala for 10 days before travelling to Kanchanpur in the states North district. As she was about to cross the Tripura-Mizoram boundary, a healthcare team sent her back to Agartala for a Covid-19 test. In Agartala, she was kept in a quarantine centre for 14 days and then shifted to another quarantine centre for a fortnight, Febles said. I was allowed to enter the state after screening as I didnt have any flu-like symptoms. But I was surprised because I was sent to two quarantine centres in Agartala where I spent 14 days each, she said. Besides, she also faced problems in communicating with government officials as she speaks only Spanish and English. However, she managed to contact Father Paul Pudussery, in-charge of the Asha centre maintained by Holy Cross and the Missionaries of Charity, and she got food and accommodation free of cost. During her stay in Agartala, she got to know three other cyclists - Clifin J Francis, Haseeb Ahsan and Donna Ann Jacob - who planned to travel to Tokyo for the Olympic Games. Febles and the three other cyclists got involved in social service, including the distribution of food, face masks, hand sanitisers and soap among needy people during their stay in the Asha centre, said Father Paul. The three other cyclists are yet to leave Tripura. Shelley Davies waits for her delivery at Plants and Friends./Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate LATEST May 26, 11:21 p.m. Here's a look at new cases reported in Bay Area counties on Tuesday. Details from other counties will be included as they are released by county health departments. Sonoma County announced nine new cases for a total of 524. The death toll remains four. Solano County announced 44 new cases for a total of 499. The death toll remains 20. Marin County announced three new cases for a total of 420.The death toll remains 14. Alameda County reported 112 new cases, bringing its total to 2,986. The death toll remains 93. Contra Costa County reported 17 new cases to increase its total to 1,353. The death toll remains 37. Napa County identified eight new cases, bringing its total to 109. Deaths remain three. San Francisco County announced 13 new cases to bring its total to 2,399. The death toll remains 40. Santa Clara County reported 24 new cases to increase its total to 2,675. The deaths remain 139. May 26, 2:55 p.m. Mayor London Breed approved the Shared Spaces Program that will allow restaurants and other small businesses to use sidewalks, partial or whole streets and public spaces for pickup or retail activity. For restaurants, it could mean that al-fresco dining could be around the corner if approved by San Franciscos Public Health Order. We know businesses in San Francisco have been hit hard, and since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, weve been finding ways to support local retailers, restaurants, and other small businesses, Mayor Breed said in a statement. Thanks to the work of our Economic Recovery Task Force, this new program is a creative solution that will give our businesses more space to operate safely, and shift some of our street and sidewalk space to protect the economic and physical health of our entire community. May 26, 2:05 p.m. The owner of Amoeba Music, along with a slew of Upper Haight businesses and neighborhood organizations are reportedly considering pursuing legal action against the city of San Francisco for opening a safe sleeping site in the Haight. The Cole Valley Improvement Association told Hoodline it's concerned about "the risk of COVID-19 outbreak and spread in the community, [with] this location being in a high-foot-traffic area that residents depend on." The site, which is an emergency measure to ensure homeless residents sleep six feet apart from each other, is currently a city-owned parking lot. The lot, at Haight and Stanyan streets, was formerly home to a McDonalds. May 26, 1:55 p.m. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday barbershops and hair salons can reopen with county approval and if social distancing measures are put into place. This doesn't mean hair salons up and down the state can immediately swing open their doors. These businesses can only open in counties that have gone through an attestation process, proving the spread of the coronavirus is under control locally. Read the full story on SFGATE. May 26, noon White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to questions Tuesday regarding criticisms of the presidents responsiveness to the coronavirus outbreak. McEnany maintained the president has always listened to the science, telling reporters that when medical advisors Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci asked Trump to shut down the economy, it was hard for the president, but he decided to anyway. Asked about the nations disjointed reopening and the countrys impending crossing of a 100k mortality number, McEnany stated that Trumps decision to reopen the country was rooted in maintaining a balance between economic and health-oriented strategies. McEnany also noted the country was still well below the initial 2 million death projection. People dont show up for their cancer diagnoses [when the economy is closed], she said. When we start to reopen we keep in mind the people who are missing screening appointments, people succumbing to suicide because of economic hardship. This president made the right choice. It was a delicate balance. He did it exactly as we should, based on hard data. May 26, 11:30 a.m. Thirty-eight employees of a wholesale fish distributor in Morgan Hill have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The outbreak at Lusamerica Foods Inc. was identified after the spouse of an employee was hospitalized and tested positive. May 26, 9:20 a.m. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday houses of worship can reopen and retail can welcome customers back into their stores with certain social distancing measures in place. What's more, in the Bay Area, Sonoma County began allowing outdoor dining at restaurants. Churches reopen The state released guidance under which county health departments can approve the reopening of churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship. The state is giving counties the flexibility to decide when to make the modification to their local orders. Counties that are having success controlling the virus are likely to move quickly. Others with outbreaks such as Los Angeles County, which has about 60% of Californias roughly 3,800 deaths may choose to delay. The guidelines ask worshippers to wear masks, avoid sharing prayer books or prayer rugs and skip the collection plate. They also say to avoid large gatherings for holidays, weddings and funerals and warn that activities such as singing or group recitation negate the benefits of social distancing. The guidelines say that even with physical distancing, in-person worship carries a higher risk of transmitting the virus and increasing the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths and recommend houses of worship shorten services. Each county will have to adopt rules for services to resume within their jurisdictions and then the guidelines will be reviewed by state health officials after 21 days. The guidelines include limiting gatherings to 25% of building capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower. In-store retail reopens The governor approved the reopening of retail with curbside pickup earlier this month. Now, stores statewide can welcome customers into their stores. As with the new guidelines for churches, counties can decide on an individual basis when to change their local orders. Some counties especially those in the Bay Area may wait to take this step. More Bay Area counties open dine-in service at restaurants Napa and Solano counties introduced dine-in service at restaurants earlier this month. Now, Sonoma County is allowing restaurants, bars and wineries to introduce outdoor dining with onsite meal service at tables placed outside. The modification to the local Sonoma order went into effect Saturday and also allowed for the expansion of childcare to include summer day programs, drive-in ceremonies and movies, and curbside pickup at libraries. It also clarified that "counseling provided by faith based organizations can be provided in-person if teleworking is not possible." Read the full Sonoma County stay-at-home order. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Coronavirus in the greater Bay Area: A county-by-county snapshot ALAMEDA COUNTY: 2,986 confirmed cases, 93 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on Alameda County, visit the public health department website. CONTRA COSTA COUNTY: 1,353 confirmed cases, 37 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on Contra Costa County, visit the public health department website. LAKE COUNTY: 14 confirmed cases What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For information on Lake County, visit the public health department website. MARIN COUNTY: 420 confirmed cases, 14 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing Fore more information on Marin County, visit the public health department website. MONTEREY COUNTY: 429 confirmed cases, 8 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on Monterey County, visit the public health department website. NAPA COUNTY: 109 cases, 3 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For more information on Napa County, visit the public health department website. SAN BENITO COUNTY: 76 confirmed cases, 2 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, restaurants, shopping malls For more information on San Benito County, visit the public health department website. SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY: 2,399 confirmed cases, 40 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on San Francisco County, visit the public health department website. SAN MATEO COUNTY: 1,904 confirmed cases, 82 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail and manufacturing For more information on San Mateo County, visit the public health department website. SANTA CLARA COUNTY: 2,675 confirmed cases, 139 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities; retail and manufacturing Fore more information on Santa Clara County, visit the public health department website. SANTA CRUZ COUNTY: 200 confirmed cases, 2 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing For more information on Santa Cruz County, visit the public health department website. SOLANO COUNTY: 499 confirmed cases, 20 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: All "low-risk" businesses that can comply with physical distancing guidelines; received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For more information on Solano County, visit the public health department website. SONOMA COUNTY: 515 confirmed cases, 4 deaths What's open beyond essential businesses: Outdoor businesses and activities, retail, manufacturing, car washes, pet groomers, outdoor museums, offices where telework is not possible, received state approval to open dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and schools For more information on Sonoma County, visit the public health department website. CORONAVIRUS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Here are answers to your most frequently asked questions about coronavirus Stage 3 may come soon: What that means for summer travel Sweden's 'herd immunity' experiment backfires With more research on kids and coronavirus, a UCSF doctor shares what parents need to know WHEN WILL THE BAY AREA REOPEN? What's open and closed in California? In-store retail can reopen across California, pending county approval Newsom details 4 stages to reopen California businesses As President Donald Trump presses states to reopen, government workers and their unions say they're increasingly concerned that their bosses will force them back to the office without sufficient protection. Agencies' approaches to returning to offices have been uneven, they say. Although the Securities and Exchange Commission's chief told many workers to plan on staying home through at least mid-July, the Internal Revenue Service has called back 11,000 workers to begin processing paper tax returns, responding to a backlog of mail and answering taxpayer calls. Workers at some agencies who are already back -- or who never left -- report wide variations in their employers' attitude toward safety. For starters, there are no plans for broad testing or contact-tracing. The haphazard approach has led to confusing and often contradictory messages being sent to more than 2 million federal workers, 85% of whom live outside the greater Washington, D.C. region. "Their lives shouldn't be taken for granted, and that's the way we feel right now," said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 700,000 government workers. "Agencies are trying to appease some in this hierarchy by saying, 'OK we're going to reopen,' but the reality is it's just not feasible." The government's dilemma is one many large companies have struggled to address. Banks including Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are trying to figure out how employees can safely return, exploring policies from alternating teams that would rotate through offices on a staggered basis to seeking ways to better monitor employee health so another outbreak can be quickly thwarted. In a sign that telework is here to stay, Twitter has told some staff they can work from home permanently. --- Asked to respond to criticism about the federal approach to reopening, the Office of Personnel Management issued a statement saying that "as conditions warrant across each state, Federal agencies are working to return to normal operations. Our Federal workers have shown tremendous fortitude in keeping the U.S. strong throughout this emergency." Many employees at key national security agencies such as the CIA, Pentagon and State Department have been hard-pressed to work from home during the pandemic simply because classified documents they need often can be reviewed only in secure facilities, not on a laptop at home. At the State Department, the "Diplomacy Strong" back-to-work plan for when employees return en masse provides few requirements for temperature checks or social distancing, and masks are encouraged but not required. That's in line with Secretary Michael Pompeo's approach to the pandemic -- he's rarely worn a mask in public -- and few top aides are seen in them at the State Department. As one of Trump's closest and most fervent supporters, Pompeo seems to be following the lead of President Trump, who has said he doesn't want the media to catch him wearing a mask. State Department staff have been given three masks that can be washed and reused several times but haven't been told to expect much more. --- At the IRS, staff is being provided with hand sanitizer, masks and gloves, though supply levels aren't consistent at different IRS facilities, said Chad Hooper, an IRS official and president of the Professional Managers Association, which represents the tax agency's managers. The IRS is also offering incentive pay of 10% to 25% to workers to return, largely to perform work that can't be done at home, either for practical or taxpayer privacy reasons. But the resumption of work at IRS processing centers hasn't been uniformly smooth. Days after reopening a facility in Kansas City, Missouri, the IRS had to close it for several days after an employee tested positive for covid-19. Nonetheless, the IRS plans to order thousands more employees to return to work June 1 in states, including Texas, Utah and Kentucky, that have relaxed lockdowns. National Park employees are more dependent on the patchwork of shifting regulations at the state level than are their counterparts at more centralized agencies. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said decisions over reopening at his department's 419 historic battlefields, natural sites and heritages areas are made based on local conditions overlaid by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. The SEC, an independent agency, may have the most far-reaching -- and cautious -- policy so far. Chairman Jay Clayton told employees in an email this month that mandatory telework will remain in effect until at least July 15 for the vast majority of the agency's 4,000-plus employees. Clayton said the move was intended to provide some near-term certainty for staff. The push and pull among government agencies echoes the battle going on across the nation, where stay-at-home orders, back-to-business moves and even the wearing of masks and other protective gear have often taken on political connotations. Republican-led states such as Georgia and Florida initiated a gradual reopening that has now reached all 50 states, though conditions vary within each state depending on the severity of the outbreak. Trump is betting that his political base will reward him for pressing the country to reopen quickly, even as the U.S. death count from covid-19 approaches 100,000. Polls show that Republicans are increasingly supportive of his view that the nation's economy can't endure a longer shutdown. That sentiment was bolstered by comments Friday from Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, who said staying closed for too long may cause "irreparable damage." Yet mistrust runs deeper across much of the federal workforce after the president's repeated attacks on government employees as a "Deep State" seeking to undermine his tenure. There's also the memory of a government shutdown in 2019. Interviews with union representatives, federal employees and experts show a perception that political appointees want to show up at the office as a sign of loyalty to Trump. Other workers feel under pressure to go to the office and express wariness about donning masks for fear it will displease their superiors. "There's a lack of leadership that would ensure employees that they'll be taken care of," said Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University. "There's all this turmoil in the personnel system and that doesn't set it up for an agile response to orders to go home and come back." OPM issued guidance in late April spelling out steps aimed at helping government agencies prepare to bring back employees. Although the advice was broadly written because state regulations vary, critics warned that it left key gaps. One big demand from federal workers is for more of the data that public health officials say is crucial for reopening, according to Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. "Testing and contact tracing is something I have raised pretty darn frequently, and I think it's important at every agency if you're going to require people to come back to work," said Reardon, whose union represents about 150,000 federal employees, including those from the IRS and many from Customs and Border Protection. "It did not sound promising to me in the near-term that the necessary testing is going to be available." Officials who feel the most anxious about the openings say the system has a natural backstop in the nation's capital because so far the District of Columbia and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs -- where many federal employees live -- are moving cautiously on easing stay-at-home orders and it would be difficult for employers, even in the federal government, to defy them. The region is among those still struggling the most to contain the outbreak. And as the federal government lurches toward a reopening, some of its employees may simply refuse to do so, pressing for great flexibility with telework options, just as their peers at financial and technology companies are doing. "The feds are smart people," Light said of the government employees. They "will make the decision with partners, spouses, friends and family about whether they want to take the risk, and I suspect a lot won't go in." KYODO NEWS - May 26, 2020 - 15:03 | Japan, All, Coronavirus Some hotels and a university are offering free accommodation to foreigners who are stranded in Japan because their home countries have closed the borders due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The Kaname Inn Tatemachi, a hotel in the popular tourist spot of Kanazawa in central Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture, has even taken out bank loans totaling 80 million yen ($742,000) to help it provide assistance. Its operator said it hopes to "repay foreigners who have come to Japan for sightseeing." The hotel first provided a period of free lodging to a Dutch traveler in late March, and has since received an increasing number of inquiries from foreign tourists and students. By mid-May, the hotel had been contacted by around 50 groups of foreigners, including Argentine pair German Colodro, 31, and Cecilia Citra, 29, who have been staying there since May 6. After arriving in Japan last September with working holiday visas valid for one year, the two had been working in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, until they were let go by their employer due to the coronavirus. The Argentinians managed to find a new job at a resort in Okinawa, only to lose it as the pandemic saw tourist numbers plummet in the southern island prefecture. Being unable to return home, the pair finally secured a place to stay at the Kanazawa hotel after the Argentinian Embassy passed on details about it. Related coverage: Q&A: Japan's coronavirus-related border controls Lifting of emergency over coronavirus leaves businesses with mixed feelings Japan to expand entry ban to visitors from India, 10 others Colodro says finding the hotel was a stroke of luck but he is still worried about how long they can stay there as he does not have anywhere else to go. Citra mentioned that she and Colodro are also fortunate that their visas are valid for another four months but explained that other foreigners are in the country with expired visas. However, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan said in early April it would provide a deadline extension for foreigners to renew their visas to alleviate congestion at immigration centers. The measure was targeted at helping both foreign residents of the country and people such as tourists who were in Japan on a short-term basis. The measure targets those whose stays expire between March and July, including tourists. Seeing the difficult circumstances faced by foreigners, Hiroshi Hosokawa, president of Slacktide Co., the Kanazawa hotel's operator, launched a campaign called "Room for Rescue" to invite like-minded hotel operators to offer free lodgings. So far, three accommodation providers run by two operators in Tokyo have joined the campaign (https://kaname-inn.com/room-for-rescue/list/). "There must be a lot of foreigners in Japan under similar circumstances," said Hosokawa. "I think that, primarily, the government should take the initiative, but I will do what I can." The Kanazawa hotel plans to continue the free service at least until the end of this month. Meanwhile, Osaka University in western Japan is offering free stays to three foreign students and researchers in on-campus accommodation until their countries lift entry bans. "When I studied abroad when I was in high school, the people helped me there. Naturally it's a matter of helping each other in tough times," said Chikako Sakiyama, a researcher at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics of the state-run university, who initiated the assistance. A first of its kind on ground survey of migrants in the Manesar and Bawal industrial areas outside the national capital has revealed 76 per cent of the migrant population received no wages for the month of April while 38 per cent of the rest were not paid in full. The non-payment of dues is despite repeated government announcements to not deduct wages or lay off workers. For the month of March, the percentage of workers who had not received any salary was much lower at 25 per cent clearly indicating a worsening of situation as the extended lockdown has put finances of companies under duress. "The government should have expected this. The schemes need to take care of this mass of people who are an important part of the economy," says Sandeep Sachdeva, co founder and CEO, Safe In India, one of the NGOs that conducted the survey. "They should have created a way of direct cash transfer for the workers because that was the need of the hour. Even the state governments that announced it, implemented it in a way that it would fail. Haryana for example said it would give Rs 1,000 per week but it was restricted only for local people and not migrants." The plight of the migrants has captured everybody's imagination as millions of workers have hit the roads or thronged trucks, buses, and in recent times trains, to get back to their native places. Yet the survey says only 23 per cent of the workers at least in these two regions chose to leave while the majority have stayed back hoping to rejoin the same companies where they were working. In India, three out of four workers on a factory shop-floor is a contract worker which makes them ineligible to be part of any formal union. Not surprisingly then, 95 per cent of the workers in the survey were ununionised. Even the remaining 5 per cent said the union never offered any help and they saw no benefit of being part of it. It is an important aspect, as 82 per cent of the workers did not even reach out to their employers after receiving no or partial payment for March and April indicating a lack of confidence and ignorance about their rights. About 30 per cent of them reconciled themselves by saying they could not have done anything about it and that with no work in April the employers would not have paid anyway. Conducted by Safe In India along with Agrasar, a Gurgaon-based NGO, the survey covered 100 workers in the two industrial belts that houses a host of automobile companies like Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India, Harley Davidson and JCB, along with scores of ancillary units and smaller factories that supply parts to them. The only silver lining is the partial lift off of the lockdown and the ensuing resumption of some economic activity that has meant a few workers have started receiving calls for work from contractors who serve as middlemen between workers and factories. A vast majority of 86 per cent of those that have stayed back said they would rejoin their old jobs even when they were not paid for the last two months. "That tells you about their helplessness. They are ready to go back to work in the same factory that has betrayed them even when they know they maybe betrayed again if there is another lockdown which is likely," Sachdeva says. "The refrain is obvious what options do they have?" Yet, the number of migrants is only rising. A separate analysis done by IIM Ahmedabad professor Chinmay Tumbe says nearly a sixth of all households in India has a migrant in their midst. The scale of the reverse migration this time has created doubts whether there will be a shortage of workers for companies that are attempting to restart factories. Sachdeva however allays such fears and instead says there would be higher unemployment as the ramp up of production in factories would be staggered. The requirement of workers on every shift would fall due to social distancing norms that have become mandatory. In a scenario where only 40-50 per cent of production would be possible, requirement for workers on contract would be much lower. "The entire economy has come to a standstill. There is a demand-side problem where consumers are reluctant to spend. It runs parallel to a supply-side problem where factories cannot produce as much as they can. The number of workers required would actually be much lower than the supply," he said. "It is not a happy situation as it may also affect wages that may fall." Could that mean even more migrant workers leaving big cities and making their way to their native small towns and villages? Sachdeva believes another 12-14 per cent of those that have stayed back may go back to their villages but that could be offset in due course with even more coming back in search of livelihood. "The harsh reality is, rural India cannot support its population so migration will happen. The experience this time for many has been harsh and it will cause a burn out in a lot of them who are in their late 30s and early 40s. They may never come back and decide to do whatever they could in their native places," he says. "But the process of migration itself will not stop. More will come and they will be younger and unskilled. So we will have a glut like situation here and a significant portion will be unskilled workers." The largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says they will not be part of Wednesdays meeting between political parties and the Electoral Commission (EC). The meeting which is at the instance of the EC is part of stakeholder discussions towards the compilation of a new voters' register for the 2020 elections. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, the deputy General Secretary of the party, Peter Boamah Otokunor said officials of the party will not risk their lives to attend the meeting in a small room in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We cant be part of that IPAC meeting, we think that it is an illegitimate IPAC meeting. If it is by way of passing information to us there are several communication channels to reach us. They can write to us, that is better than going to risk ourselves in that small room. We have said that if they want to have a proper meeting they should go for a bigger auditorium like the COCONUT Groove hotel where they used to go for such a meeting. We think that there is a sinister motive behind this whole agenda, we are not participating and we are demanding that this meeting is postponed until a befitting venue is decided, he said. Request for training manual Meanwhile, the party has requested from the Electoral Commission a training manual for voters registration officials ahead of the planned exercise. Confirming a letter signed by the General Secretary of the party, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, he explained that it is the responsibility of the Electoral Commission to provide for the political parties the training manuals and any other document the political parties may need going into the general elections. A letter to the EC Chairperson signed by the partys General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketia read: The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has become aware of an ongoing nationwide training exercise being conducted by the Electoral Commission to prepare its staff to be deployed for the conduct of voter registration prior to the 2020 General Elections. It stressed: as a major stakeholder whose agents have important functions to perform during the exercise to ensure its credibility, we are by this letter officially requesting the commission to supply the NDC with the above-named documents and any other material that would enable the party to prepare our agents adequately for same. Thank you. Watch Video Below Read Below A Copy Of The Letter Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video We are becoming a nation of amateur actuaries, calculating the risk of restarting our lives. Can we go outside? Can we go back to work? Can we go to a restaurant or bar? Can we go to the beach? Can our children go back to school? Can we visit grandma? The questions have an infinite run. The answers are less a product of math and hard science than one of highly variable, and often emotional, assessment of the benefit relative to the cost. We know the odds of pre-coronavirus daily living. The lifetime chances of getting struck by lightning in the U.S. is about 1 in 180,000. Of dying in a car crash, about 1 in 106. Dying from heart disease? About 1 in 6. Dying from a storm? 1 in 54,699. Two Studies Estimate Benefits of Lives Saved by Social Distancing Two recent studies, as reported by the Washington Post, conducted analyses of the social distancing steps taken around the country to curb the coronavirus and save lives. They put a price-tag on the value of lives saved as the government does when analyzing safety or environmental regulations. The calculation known as Value of a Statistical Life or VSL is the amount $10 million people are willing to spend to cut risk enough to save one life. Both studies conclude that the economic benefits of the lives saved are substantial. University of Wyoming The Benefits and Costs of Using Social Distancing to Flatten the Curve for COVID-19 Linda Thunstrom, Stephen C. Newbold, David Finnof, Madison Ashworth, Jason F. Shogren. April 14, 2020, Forthcoming Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis In this study, economists at the University of Wyoming estimate that social distancing efforts have saved 1.24 million lives. They conclude that the economic benefits from lives saved outweighed the projected damage to the nations economy by $5.2 trillion. The benefits of social distancing are $12.4 trillion. The cost of social distancing is the difference in present value terms of the GDP losses without ($6.49 trillion) and with ($13.7 trillion) the policy, which is $7.21 trillion. The main result is in the bottom line: social distancing generates net benefits of about $5.16 trillion. The authors note that beyond their study, an analysis of the distribution of benefits and costs among income, age, rural versus urban regions, and other relevant individual or community characteristics could help to refine the control measures adopted in future pandemics. University of Chicago Does Social Distancing Matter? Michael Greenstone, University of Chicago and NBER, Vishan Nigam, University of Chicago. March 2020 This paper by two economists at the University of Chicago projects that 3-4 months of moderate distancing beginning in late March 2020 would save 1.7 million lives by October 1. Using the projected age-specific reductions in death and age-varying estimates of the governments VSL, the researchers find that the mortality benefits of social distancing are about $8 trillion. This is more than one-third of U.S. GDP and larger than the entire annual federal budget. Put another way, the benefits of social distancing are roughly equal to current median household income of $60,000. Whether in regular times or during a pandemic, it is difficult to think of any intervention with such large potential benefits to American citizens. Importantly, while we measure benefits of distancing in dollars, they reflect the high value Americans place on small reductions in their chance of death including consumption, leisure, time with family, and other aspects of life not easily monetized, the Chicago authors write. Those statistics, drawn from the National Safety Council, have the whiff of precision but are taken for granted because they have been modeled for so long with a reliable process to gather statistics. The novel coronavirus has no specific predicate other than similar diseases. And the data is coming in from several sources, giving cable news channels a maudlin kind of scoreboard as two numbers cases and deaths seem to change almost by the hour. As the federal government, states and more important, perhaps individuals start to design their own Is it worth it? calculus, Americans are subjectively measuring the stakes and unavoidably helping to frame a national referendum on risk. Regulators Value What is a life worth? As cold as the question can seem, the federal government has been answering that question for years. When the government considers imposing a regulation, it makes a calculation called the value of a statistical life that puts a price tag on its people. It seemed rational when considering whether to require automakers to install seat belts, or require an industry to reduce pollution. But it hasnt been used to address a public-health disaster. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has frequently said that if the strict lockdown measures he has imposed in New York saved a single life, he would consider them worth it. His calculus may be the more aspirational but not the most realistic. Others pushing to swing the doors to the economy open and continue the chase toward prosperity argue that the economic damage from staying home could be worse than the impact of the disease, a frame often used by President Donald Trump. Risk analysis has been around in one form or another as long as there have been people, spawning the multi-trillion dollar insurance market, among other things. But most of that risk business relies on the premise that the risk can be spread so that when the damage comes, only a small number of policyholders will be affected. The coronavirus is fundamentally different. It has struck in more than 180 countries, infected more than 5 million people and killed more than 320,000, all numbers that almost certainly are low. The nature of the risk of returning to normal is in no way a normal form of risk-taking, or risk calculation. A farmer plants crops without any guarantee they will ever be sold at market. There are several ways to hedge that risk. Engineers test the strength of a bridge so that you will risk crossing it. Investors make the bet that a stock will go up, with the risk that it could also go down. Harry Markowitz, a renowned economist and Nobel Laureate, was credited with proving why it was not a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket. Acceptance of Risk Yet acceptance of some level of risk, even one when the choice was between life and death, has led to greatness and advances in modern society. In his book, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, Peter L. Bernstein wrote: The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between modern time and the past is the mastery of risk: the notion that the future is more than a whim of the gods and that men and women are not passive before nature. Until human beings discovered a way across that boundary, he wrote, the future was a mirror of the past on the murky domain of oracles and soothsayers who held a monopoly over knowledge of accepted events. Its one thing to assess the risk if man can fly, explore the frontier, quit a job to chase a dream. Its quite another to embrace the idea of dramatically raising the probability that you will encounter a disease that may be fatal for you, your family or your neighbors. Economic Costs There is a point of view that so far weve only looked at one half of the equation, the benefit of social distancing, but havent given the cost economic, emotional and social equal weight. I have become increasingly concerned that we are taking a very powerful medicine, in the form of social distancing, without a proper list of side effects, said Zach Finn, a professor of risk management at Butler University in Indianapolis. I liken social distancing to chemotherapy, he said. I am so grateful for the health care professionals who have developed both. However, we do not recognize chemotherapy, or any medicine, as a panacea without risks and/or side effects. While it is true that chemo destroys cancer, it is known that it also destroys healthy cells. A patient, he said, weighs the risk versus the reward. Now, the patient is basically all of us. No one disputes that economic devastation can have profound medical and social consequences, including death. No one doubts that those consequences cannot be quickly reversed, even if the state and federal government give the green light. So what are we willing to risk? Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics COVID-19 Education Universities None of the mutations currently documented in the novel coronavirus appear to make it more infectious, according to a study of virus genomes from over 15,000 COVID-19 patients from 75 countries. The findings build on a study published in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution earlier this month which characterised patterns of diversity emerging in the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. "As a growing number of mutations have been documented, scientists are rapidly trying to find out if any of them could make the virus more infectious or deadly, as it's vital to understand such changes as early as possible," said Professor Francois Balloux from University College London in the United Kingdom. "We employed a novel technique to determine whether viruses with the new mutation are actually transmitted at a higher rate, and found that none of the candidate mutations appear to be benefiting the virus," said Balloux, lead author of the yet-to-be peer-reviewed study published as a pre-print on bioRxiv. Coronaviruses, like other RNA viruses, can develop mutations in three different ways: by mistake from copying errors during viral replication, through interactions with other viruses infecting the same cell, or they can be induced by RNA modification systems which are part of host immunity, the researchers explained. Most mutations are neutral, while others are advantageous or detrimental to the virus, they said. The scientists added that all these types of mutations can become more common as they get passed down to descendant viruses. The team from UCL, and the University of Oxford in the UK, has so far identified 6,822 mutations in SARS-CoV-2 across the global dataset. The researchers said for 273 of the mutations, there is strong evidence that they have occurred repeatedly and independently. Of those, they honed in on 31 mutations which have occurred at least 10 times independently during the course of the pandemic. To test if the mutations increase the transmission of the virus carrying them, the researchers modelled the virus's evolutionary tree. They analysed whether a particular mutation was becoming increasingly common within a given branch of the evolutionary tree. By doing this, the researchers tested whether, after a mutation first develops in a virus, descendants of that virus outperform their closely-related individuals that don't carry it. The scientists found no evidence that any of the common mutations are increasing the virus's transmissibility. Instead, they found that some common mutations are neutral, but most are mildly detrimental to the virus. The mutations analysed included one in the virus spike protein called D614G, which has been widely reported as being a common mutation which may make the virus more transmissible. The new evidence finds that this mutation is in fact not associated with increased viral transmission. The researchers found that most of the common mutations appear to have been induced by the human immune system, rather than being the result of the virus adapting to its novel human host. "It is only to be expected that a virus will mutate and eventually diverge into different lineages as it becomes more common in human populations, but this does not necessarily imply that any lineages will emerge that are more transmissible or harmful," said Lucy van Dorp from UCL Genetics Institute. President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to yank the Republican National Convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, where it is scheduled to be held in August, accusing the states Democratic governor of being in a shutdown mood that could prevent a fully attended event. The president tweeted that he had LOVE for North Carolina, a swing state that he won in 2016, but he added that without a guarantee from the governor, Roy Cooper, that the event could be held at full capacity, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space. Trump wrote that if Cooper did not provide an answer immediately, he would be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Separately, in an interview on Fox & Friends, Vice President Mike Pence said that without guarantees from North Carolina, Republicans might need to move the convention to a state further along in the reopening. The New York Times reported last week that Republicans were quietly discussing the possibility of a pared-down convention. Trump has wondered aloud to several aides why the convention cant be held in a hotel ballroom in Florida, a state with a Republican governor that is further along in relaxing restrictions related to the coronavirus. In his interview on Fox News, Pence listed Florida, as well as Georgia and Texas two other states with Republican governors as possible host states. Republicans are contractually bound by a 2018 agreement to hold the convention in Charlotte. But Cooper and Vi Lyles, the mayor, have said they will let health experts determine whether the convention can be safely held Aug. 24-27. In a statement, Dory MacMillan, an aide to Cooper, said: State health officials are working with the RNC and will review its plans as they make decisions about how to hold the convention in Charlotte. North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our states public health and safety. In North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers have pressured Cooper to speed up the end of social distancing measures, a modified safer at home order took effect Friday as the state entered Phase 2 of reopening. The order allows restaurants to open at 50% capacity and permits outdoor gatherings of up to 25 people. Cooper is up for reelection this year, and Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, is a critical area for him. More than a third of Charlotte residents are black, and Cooper will need robust turnout among black voters to get another term. Low-income and minority communities across the country have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus. Mecklenburg County, home to Charlotte, has recorded more than 3,300 coronavirus cases and at least 74 deaths, according to a New York Times database, more than any other county in the state. Even before Monday, Trump made clear that he would blame Cooper and Lyles, who is also a Democrat, if the convention is altered or modified. He told a writer for The Washington Examiner in a recent interview that he is a traditionalist and that he wants a typical convention. The Republican National Committees rules call for an in-person convention, and the partys chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, recently told reporters that a virtual convention held online isnt under consideration. Republicans helping to prepare for the convention have discussed things like replicating the NFLs recent virtual draft, but people involved in the planning stressed that if convention officials tried something like that, it would not be to supplant an in-person event. By contrast, the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has said his partys plans to hold its convention in August are in question, and he has raised the possibility of an online event. Democrats already rescheduled their convention from July. Before the coronavirus spread across the country, Republicans were planning an elaborate convention where Trump would formally be nominated for a second time. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Amid the nationwide lockdown because of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, Sonu Sood has been winning hearts by helping migrant labourers travel back to their home states from Maharashtra. On Tuesday, a Twitter user asked the Simmba actor to help him reunite with his girlfriend in Bihar. The tweet read, "Bhaiya, girlfriend se hi milwa dijiye. Bihar hi jaana hai. (Brother, help me get to my girlfriend, she's in Bihar)." To this, the actor humorously replied, "Thode din door reh ke dekh le bhai, sache pyaar ki pareeksha bhi ho jayegi (Try to stay apart for a few days bro, it'll be the acid test for your relationship)." Before this, a fan had asked Sonu to help him procure some liquor during the COVID-19 lockdown. The tweet read, "Sonu bhai main apne ghar me fasa hua hu. Mujhe theke tak pahucha do (Brother, I am stuck at my home, please help me reach a liquor shop)." "Bhai main theke se ghar tak to pahucha sakta hu, zarurat pade to bol dena (Brother, I can help you reach home from a liquor shop, if you need help do tell me)," read Sonu's epic reply, which left the netizens in splits. Previously while speaking with Hindustan Times, Sonu had opened up about his efforts, and was quoted as saying, "It has been an extremely emotional journey for me, as my heart pains to see these migrants staying away from their homes and trying to walk all the way home. I will continue sending migrants home until the last migrant reunites with his family and loved ones. This is something really close to my heart and I will give it my all." Recently, Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn was all praise for Sonu Sood. Lauding Sonu's noble gesture, the Singham actor tweeted, "The sensitive nature of the work that you are doing with sending migrant workers back to their homes safely is exemplary. More strength to you, Sonu." Even Union minister Smriti Irani praised Sonu for helping migrant workers return home amid the lockdown and wrote on her Twitter page, "I've had the privilege of knowing you as a professional colleague for over 2 decades now @SonuSood and celebrated your rise as an actor; but the kindness you have displayed in these challenging times makes me prouder still thank you for helping those in need." ALSO READ: COVID-19 Lockdown: Sonu Sood Arranges Transport For The Migrant Workers Stranded In Maharashtra ALSO READ: Sonu Sood Offers His Mumbai Hotel To Accommodate Doctors & Medical Staff Treating COVID-19 Patients A view from Clwyd Souths Member of the Senedd This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 Wrexham.com has invited Wrexham & Clwyd South Members of Parliament and Members of the Senedd to write a monthly article with updates on their work in Parliament and the Senedd, and closer to home. Clwyd South MS Ken Skates writes The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on our lives in so many different ways. Many Wrexham.com readers have contacted me, whether its been for support for your business, advice on childcare or benefits or help with getting food and medicine during the outbreak. Its clear that our recovery will take some time, but I am confident that we will recover. We are getting through this crisis by pulling together, and will we regroup and prosper again together. The community spirit we have seen throughout our area has been inspiring and genuinely heartwarming. I have never been prouder to represent the people of Clwyd South. In Wales, public health and controlling the pandemic remain our top priorities. Another major part of our work has been to support businesses through this pandemic. Our package of support is the most generous for businesses anywhere in the UK, totalling 1.7bn. When it comes to the economy, the Welsh Government tasks is to ensure that, when the time is right, our businesses, our transport network and our skills system are ready not only to adapt and transition to the post-Coronavirus world but, crucially, that we are ready and able to Build Back Better for the sake of this and future generations. A key part of this work is ensuring we dont pull away too soon the critical economic underpinning of the lockdown the support the UK Government has introduced through the Job Retention Scheme. None of the devolved governments acting on their own had the fiscal fire-power to secure incomes and livelihoods in the way the Job Retention Scheme has, and it is vital it is not withdrawn or scaled back before businesses have been able to properly restart their operations. The Welsh Government has confirmed that businesses whose headquarters are based in a recognised tax haven will not be eligible for COVID-19 financial support. We dont think businesses who dont pay tax should benefit from the interventions we are making to try and protect our economy. This is another important stance in building a better economy and fairer society for Wales. (LINK HERE https://gov.wales/wales-economic-resilience-fund-will-not-support-tax-avoiders) Everyone in Wales with symptoms of coronavirus is now able to request a test. Wales has joined a new UK-wide system for ordering home testing kits, in line with the Welsh Governments Test, Trace, Protect strategy (https://gov.wales/test-trace-protect). Anyone experiencing coronavirus symptoms will also be able to apply for a home testing kit here: https://gov.wales/apply-coronavirus-test This will be supported by a national 119 phone service through which people can also order a home test. You can read the Health Ministers Statement here: https://gov.wales/written-statement-covid-19-testing and the advice here: https://gov.wales/testing-covid-19-care-homes-consensus-statement I have previously raised the issue of testing for care home residents and staff in Clwyd South with the Welsh Government after a number of constituents contacted me with their concerns. I know from visiting care homes in our area, such as The Old Vicarage in Llangollen, what a remarkable job they do, and Im acutely aware that they are all having to deal with the many new challenges that coronavirus has brought on top of the usual demands of providing professional and compassionate care. I welcome the recent announcement by the Health Minister that testing is has been extended to all care home residents in Wales following a change in scientific advice, and I hope it provides reassurance that the Welsh Government is committed to supporting our care homes. As I have had to postpone my usual advice surgeries, I have been holding a number of telephone surgeries for people living in Clwyd South. Arrangements for upcoming surgeries will be confirmed through local media and on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KenSkatesMS/). My constituency office remains closed until further notice, but I am still here to help. Please email ken.skates@assembly.wales, ensuring that you include your full home address and a contact number. If you need to speak to someone, you can also call 0300 200 7114 and will be automatically transferred to a member of my team working from home. For more information and useful links and contact details which may help answer your questions, visit my website: http://www.kenskates.co.uk/en/update-on-covid-19/ Advertisement President Muhammadu Buhari has called for peace on the continent as a prerequisite for sustainable development. In a message to African leaders to mark the Africa Day 2020, commemorated by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), President Buhari said Africa has given the world a new hope by choosing the theme Silencing the Guns in the context of the COVID-19 for this years Africa Day. He stressed the need for African leaders to ensure that every effort is made to ensure the success of silencing the guns on the continent, emphasizing the need to sensitize Africans about the inseparable connection between peace and development. Advertisement Peace, security, unity and harmony are prerequisites for development in Africa, the Nigerian leader said, urging citizens all over the continent to innovate on how Silencing the Guns can be used to achieve peace and grow African economies. He also urged regional economic groups, civil society organisations and the private sector in Africa to take full ownership of the theme of this years celebration to strengthen collaborative efforts among member-countries of the African Union. Africa Day is observed annually on 25 May, to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the precursor of the African Union, which was created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ryanair will contest a 9 billion-euro German aid package for Lufthansa, the budget airline's Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said in a statement on Tuesday. The government-backed aid will allow Lufthansa to "engage in below-cost selling" and make it harder for Ryanair, its Laudamotion subsidiary and rival low-cost carrier easyJet to compete, O'Leary said. "Ryanair will appeal against this latest example of illegal state aid to Lufthansa, which will massively distort competition," he added in the statement. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Reliance Power share price locked at 5 percent upper circuit on May 26 after the company won a lawsuit in an Indonesian court. Reliance Power Netherlands BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has won a lawsuit in the Central Jakarta district court in Indonesia, challenging the validity of Singapore arbitration award favouring Reliance Power. Kokos Jiang and Prestige Capital Holdings, who were respondents in the arbitration, had filed a lawsuit in Jakarta court requesting nullification of the entire arbitration award. As per the said Singapore arbitration award, arbitrators had ordered Kokos Jiang (earlier Known as Kokos Leo Lim) and Prestige Capital Holdings Limited, Seychelles to pay Reliance Power Netherlands BV a sum of USD 43.2 million along with default interest. The Indonesian court has further reinforced the ongoing award execution process. The total dues payable stand at $68 million as on the day of judgment. Reliance Power is on track to execute the award for a sum of $68 million (Rs 510 crore) during FY 2020-21. At 14:52 hrs, Reliance Power was quoting at Rs 1.74, down Rs 0.09, or 4.92 percent on the BSE. There were pending sell orders of 831,764 shares, with no buyers available. Mumbai, May 26 : Actress Shraddha Kapoor is an advocate for the safety and protection of animals. She is impressed by the efforts of some villagers in Rajasthan who have been doing their bit to help animals. The actress shared an article on social media where villagers in Rajasthan have dug reservoirs for thirsty animals. She lauded the efforts of the villagers: "The empathy shown by the people from Rajasthan's Pali village is heartwarming. Thank you for your selfless efforts." Recently, Shraddha shared a poem on social media from the perspective of a caged animal, talking about freedom and life outside zoos. "A lot of us are feeling anxious and 'caged' during this lockdown. Imagine being taken away from your family, your home and being locked up for your entire life?" she had begun her post. "Animals have feelings just like us. They get depressed when separated from their natural habitats and loved ones. Why should we believe that we have the right to take away their freedom?" she posted. Credit: CC0 Public Domain The COVID-19 pandemic has battered the air transport sector by all but grounding planes, resulting in layoffs, bankruptcies and rescue plans. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has estimated global airlines will lose $314 billion (286 billion euros) in 2020 revenues. That's a 55 percent dive compared to 2019, and air traffic will not bounce back to where it stood before the virus until 2023, the IATA says. Here's a recap of some of the major casualties. Gone under Latin America's largest airline LATAM, which has more than 42,000 employees, became the latest carrier to file for bankruptcy on Tuesday. It entered into a voluntary reorganisation under Chapter 11 protection in the United States, which allows a company that is no longer able to repay its debt to restructure without pressure from creditors. This comes just two weeks after Colombia's Avianca, which has 20,000 staff, also filed for bankruptcy in the US to reorganise its debt. Cash-strapped giant Virgin Australia also collapsed on April 21, going into administration. The airline had appealed for a Aus$1.4 billion ($930 million) loan to stay afloat, but the government refused to bail out the majority foreign-owned company. The pandemic has also led to the collapse of South Africa's Comair and South African Airways (SAA), Britain's Flybe and four subsidiaries of Norwegian Air Shuttle in Sweden and Denmark. Jobs slashed Air Canada plans to lay off more than half of its workforce, or at least 19,000 employees. British Airways will shed 12,000 jobs or 30 percent of its workforce, US Delta Air Lines will carry out 10,000 redundancies (11 percent), while Scandinavia's SAS will lay off 5,000 jobs (40 percent). Other job losses will come at United Airlines in the US (3,450 officials), Britain's Virgin Atlantic (3,150), Ireland's Ryanair (3,000) and Aer Lingus (900), Icelandair (2,000), Brussels Airlines (1,000), Hungary's Wizz Air (1,000) and Fiji Airways (758). The damage to the air sector extends beyond the airlines. US plane manufacturer Boeing has announced 16,000 layoffs, or 10 percent of its workforce in the civil aviation sector. In the engine sector, US manufacturer General Electric and Britain's Rolls-Royce have also slashed 12,600 and 9,000 jobs respectively. Governments to the rescue German airline group Lufthansa struck a nine-billion-euro ($9.8 billion) rescue deal with the government on Monday, under which Berlin will become its main shareholder. Also in Germany, charter firm Condor, a subsidiary of bankrupt travel agency Thomas Cook, secured 550 million euros in loans, underwritten by the state. France and the Netherlands have rushed to the rescue of Air France-KLM with a plan of between nine and 11 billion euros. Most of the big American air companies have asked for support from a massive $2.2 trillion US stimulus package intended to help impacted industries, of which $50 billion is earmarked for the civil aviation sector. Italy has decided to nationalise Alitalia. Britain has pledged a 600-million-pound ($740-million) public loan to Easyjet. Switzerland has guaranteed 1.2 billion euros in loans to Swiss and Edelweiss, two subsidiaries of Lufthansa. New Zealand has loaned some NZ$900 million ($551 million) to Air New Zealand. Dubai and Turkey have also announced that they will come to the aid of Emirates and Turkish Airlines, but have not yet provided figures. Explore further Condor airline receives 550 mln euros in German state aid 2020 AFP Photo: The Canadian Press Dominic Cummings A junior British government minister quit on Tuesday over Prime Minister Boris Johnsons failure to fire his top aide for allegedly breaching coronavirus lockdown rules. Johnson has stood by Dominic Cummings over his decision to drive 250 miles (400 kilometres) to his parents house at the end of March, despite a national order for people to remain at home. Cummings says he travelled so that extended family could care for his 4-year-old son if he and his wife, who both had suspected coronavirus infections, fell ill. But many Britons say Cummings made a mockery of the sacrifices of people who followed the rules to stop the spread of the disease, even when it meant staying away from loved ones. Scotland Minister Douglas Ross said in a resignation letter that the vast majority of people didn't agree with Cummings. I have constituents who didnt get to say goodbye to loved ones; families who could not mourn together; people who didnt visit sick relatives because they followed the guidance of the government," he wrote. "I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right. Senior police officers said Cummings' interpretation of the rules made it harder to enforce the lockdown, and scientists said it could undermine messaging about the importance of social distancing. "It threatens to undermine that sense of community if a figure as prominent as Dominic Cummings and if the prime minister himself starts undermining that we message and starts talking about I, said Stephen Reicher, a behavioural psychologist who helps advise the government. Johnson has stood staunchly by his adviser, saying Cummings followed the instincts of every father and every parent. On Tuesday, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove insisted that Cummings "didnt break the law. He didnt break the rules. He sought to protect his family. Advertisement A former AFL player has transformed a run-down block of brown flats into a $25million mansion. Tony Smith, 53, and his wife Simone bought the dilapidated 17-unit building at 2 Heron Avenue on Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast for $12million in 2014. In the six year that followed, the Sydney Swans star turned property developer transformed the 2,112sq/m lot into one of Queensland's most expensive mansions. The property features 40 metres of stunning beachfront, four ensuite bedrooms, a cinema, spa, steam rooms, a self-contained granny flat and a north-facing pool with a built-in trampoline. Slide me The Sydney Swans star turned property developer transformed the 2,112sq/m lot into one of Queensland's most expensive mansions Tony Smith, 53, and his wife Simone bought the dilapidated 17-unit building at 2 Heron Avenue on Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast for $12million in 2014 Harry Kakavas, the selling agent at Prestige Property Sales, told Daily Mail Australia the property was sold to a businessman from the upmarket suburb of Toorak in Melbourne earlier this month. He plans to use the mansion, which is a few doors down from a property belonging to billionaire Clive Palmer, as a holiday home. The $25million price tag matched record set in 2016 when the former boss at fashion label Billabong sold his mansion on Albatross Avenue in the same suburb. Mr Kakavas said the Heron Avenue sale was an expected victory during the COVID-19 pandemic. The the property was sold to a businessman from the upmarket suburb of Toorak in Melbourne earlier this month 'With COVID, more people are looking to holiday at home as there will be fewer people inclined to travel during these times, even when they can,' Mr Kakavas told Domain. As a result, 'lifestyle properties' - homes that look and feel like holiday retreats - will be in demand. 'This property is definitely one of the Gold Coast's top five best homes and to have a 40-metre north-east-facing beachfront block is extremely rare,' he said. 'I mean the sheer width of the property alone [makes it one of a kind], but with beachfront living you're usually so close to your neighbours that you can hear them changing their minds.' Mr Kakavas said most of the buyers looking at coastal properties are from interstate. Thousands of nurses will see their wages increased under a reform of the health service announced on Monday. Nicknamed Segur de la sante - in a reference to the Parisian avenue where the health ministry is located - the review was launched on Monday by the prime minister, Edouard Philippe, and the health minister, Olivier Veran. I can say without any ambiguity, the increase will be significant, said Philippe echoing President Emmanuel Macron who emerged from a trip to a hospital last month and promised massive investment in the health service. Philippe later said on social media that it would be inexcusable not to seek out changes after the coronavirus pandemic. Starting pay for France's 660,000 nurses stands at 1,500 euros a month. Earlier this year, nurses and other health workers who were complaining about low salaries and insufficient staff at hospitals, went on strike to ask for more cash. Demands for cash Their demands though were rejected by a government intent on reducing the amount of money it ploughed into the sector. But France's doctor's, nurses and hospital ancillary staff have effectively become national treasures during the coronavirus. Often tending to the sick and dying with inadequate clothing or face protection, citizens have acknowledged their heroism and selflessness as the death toll has risen to nearly 29,000 with rounds of applause from apartment balconies. Peddling parsimony to the public for such a munificent collective would backfire politically for Macron and Philippe. Reconfiguration of care sector "The key word here is pragmatism, said Philippe of the review which is likely to last until July. I cannot say now what these discussions will lead to but I've said that we must remove all constraints, whatever they are. Last November Macron's administration promised an additional 1.5 billion euros for hospitals over the next three years, including bonuses for thousands of nurses. The government also agreed to absorb 10 billion euros of hospital debt, giving the system the ability to take on new loans for investments. But we must go further, added Philippe. A part of this programme must be dedicated to investing in regional services and to improve the lines between hospitals and medico-social services. There must also be better links between the public and private sectors." The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange MILAN (Reuters) - Milan's Arbitral Tribunal has judged that the 2013 sale of RCS' headquarters to Blackstone Group was valid but found that the purchaser's behaviour may entitle the Italian publisher to compensatory damages, RCS said late on Tuesday. In relation to potential damages, RCS said that the arbitral court had ordered two expert witnesses to report separately on the financial situation of RCS in 2013 and on the market value of the property at the time. A spokesman for Blackstone on Wednesday said that the only decision the court had taken was on the validity of the sale. "There was absolutely no decision or assessment about any right to damages for RCS," he said in an emailed statement. Shares in RCS, the publisher of Corriere della Sera daily, rose as much as 16.6% on Wednesday, before trimming gains after Blackstone's statement to stand 7.9% higher by 1409 GMT. The case centres on the ownership of RCS's historic headquarters in central Milan, which Blackstone bought for 120 million euros ($132 million). After a change at the helm, RCS launched proceedings in Milan in 2018 to nullify the sale, saying Blackstone had paid too low a price because RCS was facing financial difficulties. Blackstone in turn has accused RCS of falsely claiming that it still owns the building and of improperly blocking its sale to Germany's Allianz SE . The U.S. investment firm filed two lawsuits in New York which were put on hold last year pending the outcome of the arbitration in Italy. A Blackstone representative said late on Tuesday the company was "pleased that in this ruling, the arbitrators have dismissed the overwhelming majority of RCS' claims", adding Blackstone would continue to seek "compensation for the meaningful and growing damages caused by RCS." RCS said the court's decision was partial and non-definitive and the arbitration proceeding continued. (Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi and Valentina Za; Editing by Gavin Jones, Matthew Lewis, Kirsten Donovan) A new surveillance camera image has emerged in the hunt for two missing toddlers in Oklahoma showing them walking away from their apartment alone the day they vanished. The new camera footage is the last known sighting of Miracle Crook, three, and her brother Tony Crook, two, who have now been missing since Friday. Their mother, Donisha Willis, remains in custody after she was arrested on suspicion of neglect, with a police report revealing she refused to speak to officers and told them her toddlers 'don't even matter', according to Fox23. The new surveillance image of the children comes from a security camera at The Shoreline Apartments complex where Willis lives. The new CCTV footage from The Shoreline Apartments complex where Willis lives is the last known sighting of the toddlers, circled above It shows Tony and Miracle walking together down a tree-lined grassy avenue at around 10:15am, two hours after they were previously pictured at a nearby convenience store. The children's mother, 24-year-old Donisha Willis, was arrested on Friday night accused of child neglect and assaulting a police officer. Last night Tulsa's police chief said last night that cops had 'no valid information' so far and acknowledges that the children may be dead. Miracle Crook (pictured left), aged three, and her brother Tony Crook (right), two, were last seen on Friday at a store in Tulsa and subsequently at their apartment The children's mother, 24-year-old Donisha Willis (pictured), was arrested on Friday night accused of child neglect and assaulting a police officer Police first reported the children missing on Saturday, saying the 'surrounding circumstances are concerning' without explaining further. At the time, police said the toddlers had last been seen by a relative on Thursday evening. However, cops subsequently published a surveillance photo which showed them at a convenience store on Friday morning, when they were with their mother. Half an hour later at 9am, a witness saw the mother and her children back in the Shoreline apartment complex. The new CCTV marks the last time the children were seen. Willis, the mother, was arrested after 10pm on Friday evening and is being held on bond in a county jail, according to inmate records. She does not have custody of the children, whose aunt is their guardian. Police chief Wendell Franklin said she was not forthcoming with investigators. Speaking to local media, Franklin acknowledged that the children may be dead. 'Theres absolutely no way they couldve survived 24 hours out here by themselves, so we need the public to help,' he said. 'There's only two things that can happen here. These children are either on someone's couch asleep, and the people that they're with don't know that these children are missing, or these children are dead.' Divers have been scouring local ponds as part of a police search for the two missing toddlers (pictured above) Cops published a surveillance photo which showed the two children at a convenience store on Friday morning, when they were with their mother Officers have been searching trash cans and cars in the apartment complex while stopping motorists who leave and enter. Search dogs have also been deployed to help police divers who are scouring ponds for any sign of the toddlers. Local residents and businesses have also been asked to check their security cameras for any footage they might have captured of the children. 'Please be patient with us as we meticulously search this area,' police said in their latest update on Monday. 'We are talking to every resident in the complex, knocking on every door, and chasing down every lead.' 'If you have any information whatsoever, please send it our way and we will dispatch officers to that location immediately to follow up on tips,' one officer said. Anyone with information that can help police with their search is asked to call 918-596-9222. People who have information and want to remain anonymous are asked to call Tulsa Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS. Kyiv city hall reiterates that masks must be worn in public places at all times On the first workday of Kyiv underground after the quarantine in the capital, 310,000 people used it. Oleksandr Hustelev, the Deputy Head of Kyiv city state administration said so cited by the city hall's press office. The official reminded the citizens that masks must be worn in public places at all times. The passengers are recommended to use gloves, keep the distance, and used contact-free methods of payment. Passengers still have a month to use the green tokens that they bought before the quarantine. After that, these will become invalid. Hustelev added that every train is sanitized prior to every ride; the staff uses a sanitizer with long-lasting effects. All passenger zones, from platforms to doorknobs on station entrances are regularly disinfected. The staff are using personal protective equipment when working with passengers. Earlier reports included mentions of marks warning the passengers about distance. Earlier, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that 58 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the Ukrainian capital on May 25. One of these patients decreased. Liu Lanfang, lineage holder of the Qingyang sachet and an entrepreneur [For chinadaily.com.cn] The Qingyang sachet, a time-honored cultural craft in Northwest China's Gansu Province is experiencing a profound local revival. Generating wealth and hope, it proves folk art can adapt to modern aesthetics and the consumer market. "Qingyang sachets boast a vast collection of designs and patterns, and are filled with rich aromas. People like to carry these sachets to worship totems, avoid evil spirits and bear their hopes for safety, fertility, love and a better life," said Liu Lanfang, lineage holder of the craft and manager of a local sachet-making company. The oldest existing Qingyang sachet is over 800 years old, excavated in 2001 from Huachi county at an ancient temple built in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006, the Qingyang sachet dates back to antiquity. The Huangdi Neijing (Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor), a fundamental doctrinal source of traditional Chinese medicine, listed the sachet as an item to prevent plague and repel snakes. Traversing the path from countrywoman to entrepreneur, Liu Lanfang is pushing the Qingyang sachet into greater scope an artistic heritage lifting thousands of rural women out of poverty. Donkey-shaped Qingyang sachets designed by lineage holder Liu Lanfang. [For chinadaily.com.cn] A Childhood Dream Come True Growing up surrounded by ingenious women, Liu was fascinated by their exquisite needlework insoles, shoes, pillowcases and bedding bags. "Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of having my own needles and threads. My mom always carried hers around. Children weren't allowed to touch them," Liu recalled. "I didn't get mine until I turned 9. It was a splendid day!" Her passion for stitchwork only grew from there, and Liu visited rural households to expand her embroidery collection. In 2002, she put on an exhibition during the first Qingyang Sachet Festival. "When orders started pouring in, I realized I needed to construct a professional team and turn this into a profitable business," Liu said. Inspired by assembly lines in modern factories, she allocates tasks to groups of embroiders. Pieces of embroidery then come together as a beautiful product. "Needlework is personal. The style varies from person to person. At first, it was really hard to get everyone on the same page," Liu said. "We continued to train embroiders until we got a consistent product flow." A dragon-shaped Qingyang sachet designed by lineage holder Liu Lanfang. [For chinadaily.com.cn] Immersed in the art of Qingyang sachet for nearly 20 years, Liu feels deep gratitude toward several generous mentors one being Li Cunsong, deputy secretary of the China Artists Association and an expert on Chinese folk art. "Mr. Li offered us guidance and encouragement. Back then we often wrote to each other. He inspired me to think bigger, and make Qingyang sachet relevant in today's world," Liu said. "One time my husband and I wrote to him explaining the difficulties in the market and personnel training, and that we were about to give up," she said. "Later we received a passionate letter from Mr. Li, urging us to keep on trying. He wrote, 'You cannot yield in front on a little setback. As two people in their prime, you must forge ahead and keep Qingyang sachet heritage alive.'" As it turned out, Li was right. Liu's company was awarded the title of demonstrative training base by the Ministry of Culture and listed as a key enterprise for cultural product export in 2014. Liu Langfang's workshop offers embroidering courses for women in local villages, Qingyang, Northwest China's Gansu Province. [For chinadaily.com.cn] So far, she has created over 500 sachet designs transformed from traditional Qingyang sachet patterns. The company sold more than 300,000 sachets in 2018, many of which were exported to countries including the US, Germany, Italy and Belarus. Lifting up the Left Behind With most adult men having left for cities to seek higher-paying work, the women left behind have basically no personal income, struggling to take care of children and the elderly. The days of cowherds and weaver maids have passed. In villages around Qingyang city, many women still enjoy needlecraft as a daily pleasure, making things for their loved ones and taking great pride in their skills. "That's why I decided to organize these left-behind women. Our piece-rate pay works out very well. For those who need to stay home, we will send samples and materials to their home, and pay them right after collecting the embroidery," Liu said. Qingyang sachets featuring 12 Chinese zodiac animals designed by lineage holder Liu Lanfang. [For chinadaily.com.cn] Women from over 40 rural homes have become regular employees in her company, making around 2,000 yuan ($280) each month. Her workshop, during the past decade, has trained 20,000 women, and many still work there part-time. "Now they don't have to depend on their husbands for expenses. Even for people with physical disabilities, we provide training so they can make money and build their self-esteem," the artisan added. Ancient Crafts, Remade Times are changing, and so is the craft. The artisan performs a careful balancing act, maintaining the essence of Qingyang sachet-making while adopting more flexible color palettes and fabric choices to satisfy the fast-changing tastes of consumers. "We now have developed several product lines based on age groups and geographical regions," Liu said. She travels to at least 12 cities around China every year. "Different regions in China have their unique ways of expressing auspiciousness. The goal is to enrich my knowledge of various local customs." Liu Lanfang incorporates modern aesthetics with the Qingyang sachet. [For chinadaily.com.cn] Based on her international travel experiences, Liu also creates sachets tailored for overseas consumers. She once incorporated the Western holiday Halloween with Qinqiang Opera, a popular style of music in Northwest China, especially in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. People in the US loved the pumpkin-shaped sachets with Qinqiang Opera facial makeup. "The sachets represent the blending of Chinese and Western cultures." In the era of social media, the traditional Qingyang sachet has already found new life on Taobao, China's biggest online shopping site, and short video platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin. "Many young people really love the color and design of Qingyang sachet. They are curious about this heritage. Now everyone can appreciate its craftsmanship through video and livestreaming," Liu said. A crab-shaped Qingyang sachet designed by lineage holder Liu Lanfang. [For chinadaily.com.cn] A snake-shaped Qingyang sachet designed by lineage holder Liu Lanfang. [For chinadaily.com.cn] A crab-shaped Qingyang sachet designed by lineage holder Liu Lanfang. [For chinadaily.com.cn] (Source: chinadaily.com.cn) A bunch of drug-fuelled bikies were given the all clear by police to carry out a revenge attack on a man they believed had posted nude selfies of an alleged associate. Daily Mail Australia can reveal Finks Melbourne bikie boss Brent Reker and a group of tattooed cohorts - one who was wielding a tyre iron - strolled right into their victim's home under the watch of undercover detectives who had been told by force command to let them go. Reker had been under surveillance at the time by Echo Taskforce detectives, who had eyes and listening devices all over the feared crime boss. Tara Egglestone (pictured) allegedly had a beef with a man she claimed posted semi-nude photos of her on Facebook Police allege Finks bikie boss Brent James 'BJ' Reker (pictured) undertook a revenge attack on a man with his bikie mates after naked photos of Tara Egglestone were posted online South Australian Fink and 'meth head' Nathan 'Chop' Martinow is behind bars over his role in the savaging bashing But Reker would not live to be brought to justice over the savage attack in September 2018. The 35-year old died inside Ravenhall Correctional Centre in January while awaiting trial. Nick Gold had been at home with his girlfriend and father when Reker and his crew came to settle a score. Police were already aware Reker and his mates had planned to steal motorbikes from Mr Gold and had been watching his home. On September 5, police claim to have intercepted a phone call to Reker from Tara Egglestone - a 29-year-old who allegedly had a serious beef with Mr Gold. Detectives allege Egglestone claimed to have suffered 'public humiliation' when some semi-nude photos of her appeared on a fake Facebook account she believed was created by Mr Gold and another man named Mason Lambert. 'Oh, he's getting sorted,' Reker was heard telling Egglestone. 'Yeah, well okay, he's going to get publicly humiliated. The c**t will never walk again. He'll be in a wheelchair. He'll be dead alright.' Days later, Reker met up with South Australian Fink and 'meth head' Nathan 'Chop' Martinow and two other members of the gang. Police listened to every word as they drove over to Mr Gold's house in Hampton Park - 36kms southeast of Melbourne. When they got there, detectives in a marked police vehicle were already in position outside Mr Gold's home ready to intercept. They were ordered to stand down over safety concerns. Paul Gold - Nick Gold's dad - had only arrived when the four bikies barged their way inside. The men immediately set upon Nick Gold and demanded to know where Mason Lambert was. Reker let loose, punching Mr Gold in the face before Martinow followed up with one of his own. Nick Gold pleaded with the men, declaring he had no idea who created the Facebook page. They didn't believe him. Bikies were accused of carrying out a revenge attack after semi-nude photos of Tara Egglestone appeared on social media Police allege Finks bikies attacked a man after amid claims he had posted nude photos of Tara Egglestone online Reker (pictured), 33, died in prison while awaiting trial over his involvement in the alleged revenge attack What followed was a savage beating, which saw Mr Gold beaten with the tyre iron. During the attack, Reker made a phone call to Egglestone, which was again allegedly captured on a police listening device. 'Let's blow his kneecaps out and kill the girl,' one of Reker's mates said. Police believe it was only the presence of Nick Gold's sick dad that saved all of their lives. Reker told him they'd be back to kill his kids and 'his misses' if he blabbed to police. The officers waiting outside attempted to follow the men, but lost them a short while later. They caught up with Reker days later but Martinow had already fled the state back to South Australia. But his freedom was short lived and he was captured while visiting Reker in jail less than two weeks later. Martinow appeared in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and intentionally causing injury. South Australian Fink Nathan 'Chop' Martinow bashed a man and escaped only to be captured when he returned to Victoria and visited his boss in jail Nathan 'Chop' Martinow killed a man in 2002 while drink-driving. He claims to have handed over his Finks patch and plans to remove his Finks tattoos The court heard Martinow had spent 556 days behind bars since his arrest and had since abandoned the Finks motorcycle club - selling his bike and dumping his patch. The only thing that remained were his Finks tattoos, which he also planned to remove. Judge Susan Pullen revealed Martinow had previously killed before. In 2005, Martinow received a three-year prison term for killing 61-year-old Lincoln Kakoshki while he was drunk at the wheel. Martinow had been drinking at work and had a blood alcohol level of between .09 and .14 at the time of the crash. He also had previous convictions for assaults among 18 court appearances. Judge Pullen sentenced Martinow to three years and eight months in jail with a non-parole period of two years. With time already served, he could be out in less than six months. SEYMOUR The town is looking to hire a new economic development director or consultant, a position vacant since late last year. First Selectmen Kurt Miller recently appointed the Board of Selectmen to serve as a personnel search committee. The town in March 2019 hired a consultant from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, but the position was vacated last December, Miller said, when CERC stopped offering the service to municipalities. The towns Economic Development Commission in April recommended that selectmen hire Sheila OMalley, neighboring Ansonias economic development director and grants writer, as a consultant. EDC members said OMalley had been in the running for the job last year, but the town ultimately went with CERC. EDC Chairwoman Christine Aliman, in a letter to the selectmen, said OMalley has a proven track record in Ansonia and the Valley. She (OMalley) has the knowledge and skill-set we feel will benefit our town and cultivate new and existing relationships with businesses, Aliman said. She has a proven record of her commitment to the Valley. Some selectmen had expressed concerns about hiring OMalley over potential conflicts with her working in a similar capacity in Ansonia. Others were concerned whether there could be a perception issue with hiring OMalley, since Miller was hired part-time last year by Ansonia, and worked with OMalley, in helping consult on that citys budget. Miller said he would step away from the interviewing/hiring process, and said Deputy Selectman Annmarie Drugonis would take the lead on the search committee. Town Attorney Richard Buturla said the selectmen serving as the search committee is allowable under Freedom of Information laws, and gives them the ability to not publicly notice the meetings when hiring for an executive level position. The personnel search committee process will allow the board to consider Sheila and other potential candidates in a manner that will not compromise their present employment relationship, Buturla said. Whether the town goes with a full-time director or a consultant remains to be seen. Miller had said there is currently $30,000 budgeted next year from the previous consulting position. Former Selectman Stephan Behuniak, chairman of the towns Democratic Town Committee, recently submitted a letter to the selectmen urging them to not go with OMalley. His criticized Ansonias government a complete failure, and expressed concerns about an individual holding similar roles in a neighboring town, which are often in competition with each other. As a policy, I believe the Town of Seymour must steer clear of sharing services and strategy ... until such time that there is a leadership change there, Behuniak said. When a business is looking to move into the area, I want, and the taxpayers deserve, someone whose sole focus is growing the grand list of Seymour and bettering our community. OMalley said shed be glad to meet with Behuniak to discuss her track record, and said politics must be kept out of it and work together for the good of our communities. OMalley, if hired in Seymour, would retain her job in Ansonia, and said a regional role could highly benefit both towns. After 23 years representing multiple communities and helping to secure millions in grant funding, Im fairly confident in the job I do and the help I have provided along the way, she said. I would point out that any consultant, financial adviser, attorney, engineer, architect or other professional a municipality hires, of course, represents multiple communities at the same time. And a professional does his or her job regardless of which city or town they are working in. I like to think Ive made a significant impact in the communities I have worked in and will continue to do so whether its for one community or as part of a regional effort. jean.sos@snet.net Mensah Thompson of ASEPA writes. Folks today I am going to be revealing some very deep secret about Ghanas Economy I am going to tell you something perhaps youve never heard before and that is because some people deliberately decided to change the economic narrative of this Country. But truth they say stands and today the truth is about to come out!!! Did you know that the previous NPP Government left power in 2008 with a totally crushed Economy? Yes you heard right, the then NPP Government left Ghanas Economy in a complete abyss with almost everything crushed to the ground before they exited power. Folks I am going to show you a letter, the World Bank Country Director of Ghana in 2009, wrote to President-elect John Evans Attah Mills. This letter is dated 3rd January, 2009, When President-elect J.E.A Mills had not even been sworn in as President, the World bank decided to write to him to notify him of the severity of the mess his Government would be inheriting so he would be prepared for it. Relax, I am going to share with you this letter which till date only Prof.Mills and few people around him at the time may have seen because Prof.Mills decided not to make this letter public. The first paragraphs of the letter reads and I quote Your Excellency President-Elect, As a close and trusted partner of Ghana, I feel that it is the World Banks responsibility to alert you even before you are sworn in of the difficult financial situation Ghana finds itself, and to offer the World Bank full support to you and your new Government in dealing with these difficulties As you are well aware, the macroeconomic situation that your Government is inheriting is unfortunately extremely worrisome. Both the fiscal deficit and the balance of payments deficit are high and at unsustainable levels. Given the current state of the International financial markets, we do not believe that these deficits can be financed in 2009 as they were in 2008. Folks this the first few paragraphs of the letter dated 3rd January, 2009 signed by Mr. Ishac Diwan, World Bank Country Director for Ghana at the time warning the new President J.E.A Mills of how hopeless the situation was for Ghana. The letter further goes on to give a full verdict of Ghanas Economy in details and how gloomy things were and was going to be for the Country because of the havoc the NPP had wrecked on the economy. Ladies and Gentlemen, yours truly Dr. Bawumiah was then the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank and part of the team that created this economic mess and again was brought in as a Running Mate to Nana Akufo Addo in the 2008 elections. Folks, this is the track record of Dr. Bawumiah that earned him the Running Mate slot for the NPP in 2008(can you imagine) Ladies and Gentlemen, I am telling you this so you can appreciate and understand that the assertion that NPP are better managers of the Economy is nothing but a fallacious myth which would be demystified today after reading this article. And trust me, even the IMF and the World bank are fully aware that the NPP are worst managers of the Ghanaian Economy and that is exactly what the World Banks Country Director meant in his letter to Prof. Mills. Now lets move on, take your time and follow the conversation, so you dont miss anything By the time the NPP exited power in 2009, Ghanas real GDP stood at 9.1%, the overall macroeconomic situation had seriously deteriorated on the account of huge fiscal and current deficits. The destruction was so monumental that fiscal deficit stood at 14.5% of GDP whiles arrears alone amounted to 22% of GDP and the Public debt stood 36% of GDP even after huge debt forgiveness from HIPC. Fact is the NPP Government left a totally crushed economy with almost nothing in the coffers plus a single spine pay policy risk to the almost dead Economy. But at the same time Dr.Bawumiah was on campaign platforms bastardising the NDC as worst managers of the economy when his track record at the bank of Ghana was by making the Ghanaian Cedi one of the worst performing currencies in World. Folks, this is the legacy of yours truly Dr. Mahmoud Bawumiah at the Bank of Ghana and also as part of the team that managed the Ghanaian Economy between 2001-2009. Folks I am going to show another document, I told you today is revelation day and we shall demystify all the myths that had surrounded our body Politics for so long. The second document I am going to show you will blow your mind This is a report by the Standard Bank Group Limited in the UK in somewhere November 2009, less than a year after President Mills assumed office. The Standard Group carried out its independent assessment of the Ghanaian Economy and 24 other emerging markets. And within one year Ghanas Economy which had been written off by the World Bank, has been turned around with the Ghana currency being the best performing currency among the 24 emerging markets the Standard Group carried this survey on. For the avoidance of doubt, the emerging markets included, Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, Russia, Mexico, Poland, Hungary,Brazil Chile, Israel,Botswana and others and yes the Ghana Economy was on top of the list as the number one best performing emerging markets as far as our currency was concerned. And guess who was the Head of the Economic Management Team that achieved this feat within a year, John Dramani Mahama. Folks, in less than a year, John Mahama (without a PhD in Economics) steered the almost wrecked ship of Ghanas economy to safety and by mid 2010 and 2011, the economy had taken off recording double digits growth rates for the first time in the fourth Republic. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the track record of John Dramani Mahama. But you see I cannot end this article by pointing out the huge destructions which the World Bank admitted was being done to the Ghanaian Economy during previous NPP Government. The most significant thing that I want you to note is that in the World Banks own words, NOBODY KNEW THE LEVEL OF DESTRUCTIONS GOING ON AT THE TIME UNTIL THE NPP LOST THE ELECTIONS I am going to highlight that aspect of the World Banks letter so you can appreciate the seriousness of the problem. And the Problem is that just like this current Government, the previous NPP Government was also cooking figures for the International Monetary Agencies just to cover up the mess they had created with the economy. Suffice to say that it is these same cooked figures that Dr.Bawumiah keep quoting to support his frivolous argument that the NPP are better managers of the economy.(how convenient) But most importantly, I am bringing this to your attention because history is repeating itself right (it always does) and this time the level of destruction currently being done to the Ghanaian Economy at our blind side is extremely legendary! Can we ask Dr.Bawumiah how much the Cedi is now to a dollar? Even In the midst of COVID-19 with reduced imports and almost zero profit repatriation by Multinational corporations, the Ghanaian currency is at its worst moments ever. (How incompetent can one be) Fortunately, I dont carry only bad news I also bring you good news and hope as well There is one man who has done this before, turned the Ghanaian Economy around in 2009 in less than a year after it was runned down by the Dr.Bawumiah and the NPP Government. This man is coming again as President and you can imagine how quick and efficient he will turn this already destructed Economy around this time. Folks, Hope is here is again!! Mensah Thompson Executive Director, ASEPA 0542120628 Cc. The Country Director,IMF The Country Director,World Bank DUBLIN, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global and China L4 Autonomous Driving Industry Report, 2019-2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Giants Gain High Finance Progress of L4 autonomous driving is greatly hampered over the recent two years, causing OEMs' and Tier 1 suppliers' delay in L4 launches. Yet, the top L4 companies still raised huge funds in the past year. In 2019, Baidu, Pony.ai and WeRide succeeded in commercial pilot of Robotaxi on complex urban roads in limited areas, a crucial step for L4 autonomous driving in China. L4 autonomous driving technologies starts to find real application but gets deployed by most players first in one scenario or two as the current L4 cannot be perfectly suited to all driving scenarios. It is shown from the planning of the OEMs and the providers of technical solutions for autonomous driving that L4 autonomous driving will be commercialized in limited scenarios ahead of open scenarios in the following three to five years. Baidu, UISEE, DeepBlue and Trunk Tech all have conducted L4 trials in limited scenarios such as parks, ports, and airports. Besides, Baidu, Momenta, Bosch, ZongMu and UISEE are vigorously deploying in the parking lot scenario. Deployments in open scenarios cover Robotaxi on urban roads and autonomous trucks on the expressways. In the Robotaxi field, Waymo, Baidu, Pony.ai, and WeRide have carried out pilot projects in both China and the U.S. in specific areas of a city, manned by safety officers, and WeRide is already fully open to the public in Nov.2019. Software & hardware technology iteration and larger-scale tests are essential for open Robotaxi in wider areas. Technically, the current L4 autonomous vehicles for tests (or trial operation) are largely provided with the single-car intelligence solution. For safer autonomous driving, solution providers make vehicle's environment perception capability optimized ever. For instance, Voyage's G2 autonomous vehicle carries Velodyne's VLS-128 LiDAR system with a detection range up to 300 meters, tripling the capability of the 64-channel LiDAR installed on the 1st-Gen autonomous vehicle. Boasting 29 cameras, Waymo's next-generation autonomous driving system enables a detection range of 500 meters whist improving LiDARs' performance significantly. Also, it is of vital importance to enhance vehicle's motion perception competence. High-precision positioning can be realized by integrating high-precision positioning modules (composed of 5G modules, IMU and HD maps). In the short term, either single-car intelligence solution or strong field terminal solution fulfills L4 autonomous driving in the confined areas, but in the long run, collaborative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS) is the mainstream technology roadmap for L4 autonomous driving. Through CVIS, the vehicle is fully connected to the X as spatiotemporal dynamic traffic information are collected and integrated whilst the active safety control of vehicle and the collaborative management on roads are done for safer running of autonomous vehicle. By analyzing the test data, Baidu concludes that CVIS can solve 54% of the problems encountered in road tests and 62% of the takeovers incurred by single-car intelligence, adding redundancy for autonomous driving safety. Key Topics Covered 1. Overview of L4 Autonomous Driving 1.1 Definition and Grading of L4 Autonomous Driving 1.1.1 Definition (SAE) 1.1.2 SAE J3016 1.1.3 Autonomous Driving Ratings in China 1.1.4 ODD and Autonomous Driving Levels 1.1.5 L4+Map Fencing 1.2 Policies on Autonomous Driving 1.2.1 Policies Boost Autonomous Driving Industry 1.2.2 Development of Autonomous Driving Industry in China 1.2.3 Major Countries' Policies on Autonomous Driving 1.2.4 China's Policies on Autonomous Driving 1.3 Autonomous Driving Tests 1.3.1 Applicants for Road Tests in California 1.3.2 Distribution of Major Autonomous Driving Test Sites Worldwide 1.3.3 Construction of Major Autonomous Driving Test Sites in Foreign Countries 1.3.4 Distribution of Autonomous Driving Test & Demonstration Bases in China 1.3.5 Construction of Major Autonomous Driving Test Sites in China 2. Technical Analysis of L4 Autonomous Driving 2.1 Basic Requirements of Autonomous Driving on Vehicles 2.1.1 Autonomous Driving Standard Organizations 2.1.2 Typical L4 Computing System Architecture 2.1.3 Typical L4 Autonomous Driving Computing Platform 2.1.4 Comparison of L4 Computing Platform Chips 2.1.5 Typical L4 Redundant Actuation Mechanism 2.1.6 Brake-By-Wire of L3/L4 Autonomous Driving 2.2 Comparison of L4 Technology Solutions 2.2.1 Comparison of OEMs' Typical L4 Solutions 2.2.2 L4 Autonomous Driving Hardware Configuration of Main Solution Providers 2.3 L4 Technology Trends 3. Market Development and Forecast for L4 Autonomous Driving 3.1 Status Quo of Autonomous Driving 3.1.1 Comparison of Major L4 Autonomous Driving Companies 3.1.2 Collaborations among Major L4 Autonomous Driving Companies 3.2 Status Quo of Autonomous Driving Tests 3.2.1 Mileage Tests of Major Players in California, 2019 3.2.2 Disengagements in Autonomous Driving Test of Major Players 3.2.3 Tests in Beijing, 2019 3.3 Commercialization of L4 Autonomous Driving 3.3.1 Scenarios to which L4 Autonomous Driving Gets Applied 3.3.2 Major Players' Efforts in L4 Autonomous Driving Commercialization 3.4 L4 Market Size 3.5 Implementation Plan of Major Players for L4 Autonomous Vehicles 4. Global L4 Autonomous Driving Companies 4.1 Waymo 4.1.1 Profile 4.1.2 Development Course 4.1.3 Autonomous Driving Layout 4.1.4 Main Products 4.1.5 Autonomous Driving Operation 4.1.6 Partners 4.1.7 Development Strategy 4.2 GM Cruise 4.3 ZMP 4.4 NuTonomy 4.5 Argo AI 4.6 Aurora 4.7 Zoox 4.8 AImotive 4.9 AKKA 4.10 Wayve 4.11 Voyage 4.12 UBER 5. Chinese L4 Autonomous Driving Companies 5.1 Momenta 5.1.1 Profile 5.1.2 Main Technologies 5.1.3 Autonomous Vehicle Strategy 5.1.4 Main Products 5.1.5 Development Plan 5.2 Pony.ai 5.3 WeRide 5.4 HoloMatic 5.5 Baidu Apollo 5.6 UISEE 5.7 DeepBlue 5.8 DeepRoute.ai 5.9 AutoX 5.10 Didi Woya 5.11 Allride.ai 5.12 QCraft For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/vwfsng Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Advertisement The number of Americans venturing out over the Memorial Day weekend has spiked to levels not seen since the coronavirus pandemic brought the United States to a grinding halt more than two months ago. Cellphone data from Apple's COVID-19 mobility trends report shows that the number of people out driving across the US increased by more than 25 percent on Saturday alone. The number of people out walking also increased on Saturday to levels not seen since mid-March when stay-at-home orders were put in place across most of the country. In some states - like Missouri and Mississippi - the levels of driving at the weekend increased to levels not seen this year. In comparison, the number of people driving and walking around dropped nearly 70 percent at the peak of the pandemic in early April. The data shows a gradual increase of people moving around since then. It comes as all 50 states have now at least partially lifted lockdown measures that were introduced to stop the spread of coronavirus, raising fears among some health officials that such increases in mobility has the potential to result in a second wave of outbreaks. Cellphone data from Apple 's COVID-19 mobility trends report shows that the number of people out driving across the US increased by more than 25 percent on Saturday alone. The number of people out walking also increased on Saturday to levels not seen since mid-March when stay-at-home orders were put in place across most of the country Different cellphone mobility tracking data compiled by Cuebiq shows that a cluster of southern US states are the areas that saw the most movement among its residents over the Memorial Day weekend. An analysis of that data shows that the top 10 states with the most movement over the weekend are neighboring areas mostly in the South Meanwhile, different cellphone mobility tracking data compiled by Cuebiq shows that a cluster of southern US states are the areas that saw the most movement among its residents over the Memorial Day weekend. The data shows the average daily trend of Americans that have traveled more than 10 miles from their homes as the level of social distancing due to COVID-19 varied greatly across the country. An analysis of that data shows that the top 10 states with the most movement over the weekend are neighboring areas mostly in the South. The cluster of states all share borders with each other, which indicates that interstate travel over the weekend may have been likely. The phone data analysis shows that Mississippi's residents traveled the most over the holiday weekend with an average of 41 percent of people going more than 10 miles. Following closely behind was Alabama and Oklahoma where an average of 40 percent of people moved around. In Georgia, where beaches were crowded with people not staying six-feet from others, more than 39 percent of people were traveling around, according to the mobile data. Scenes at Georgia's Tybee Island, in particular, showed beaches filled with families, bicyclists, beach chairs, games, swimmers and more. On a main drag, people lined the sidewalk outside a bar standing close together. The number of people driving in Missouri, where a crowded party at the Lake of the Ozarks has caused outrage, spiked more than 50 percent on Saturday MISSOURI: Revelers are seen celebrating Memorial Day weekend at Osage Beach at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri on Saturday The number of people driving in Mississippi spiked on Saturday to levels not seen since the coronavirus pandemic broke out. In Missouri, the cellphone data shows that an average of 38 percent of people were moving around over the holiday weekend. Footage of a crowded party at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri has since gone viral after one video showed a pool crammed with people standing just inches from each other without masks. The state's eased lockdown orders still mandate social distancing. Health officials have since said those partygoers should self-isolate for 14 days or until they get a negative COVID-19 test result. Data from Tennessee and Louisiana show that both states saw an average of 38 percent of people out over the weekend. In South Carolina, where beaches, hotels and attractions have since reopened, an average of 37 percent of people were moving around over the weekend. Arkansas and Nebraska also saw about 37 percent of people traveling, according to the mobility data. Scenes showing large crowds in various parts of the country over the holiday weekend has sparked warnings from healthy authorities about the risk of a COVID-19 reassurance as the nationwide death toll nears 100,000. It comes as a Reuters analysis showed 20 states have reported an increase in new cases for the week ending May 24, which is up from 13 states in the prior week. The number of people driving in South Carolina increased nearly 70 percent - levels not seen since before the coronavirus pandemic broke out SOUTH CAROLINA: In South Carolina, where beaches, hotels and attractions have since reopened, an average of 37 percent of people were moving around over the weekend The number of people driving in Georgia increased 40 percent on Saturday to levels not seen since early March when COVID-19 started spreading across the country GEORGIA: In Georgia, where beaches were crowded with people, more than 39 percent of people were traveling around, according to mobile data. Pictured above are people gathering on Georgia's Tybee Island Driving levels increased to well above pre-pandemic levels in Alabama on Saturday by spiking nearly 70 percent. The data shows driving levels were still up 25 percent on Sunday compared to January South Carolina had the biggest weekly increase at 42 percent. Alabama's new cases rose 28 percent from the previous week, Missouri's rose 27 percent and North Carolina's rose 26 percent. New cases in Georgia, one of the first states to reopen, rose 21 percent after two weeks of declines. Nationally, new cases of COVID-19 fell 0.8 percent for the week ended May 24, compared with a decline of 8 percent in the prior week. All 50 states have now at least partially reopened, raising fears among some health officials of a second wave of outbreaks. The increase in cases could also be due to more testing. The CDC has recommended states wait for their daily number of new COVID-19 cases to fall for 14 days before easing social distancing restrictions. As of May 24, only 15 states had met that criteria, which is up from 13 in the prior week. Washington state, where the US outbreak first started, has the longest streak with cases falling for eight weeks in a row, followed by Hawaii at seven weeks and Pennsylvania and New York at six weeks. Washington state posted the biggest drop in cases, down over 50 percent, followed by Kentucky, where new cases fell nearly 30 percent. New York saw new cases drop 23 percent. Texas saw new cases fall 15 percent after they rose 22% in the prior week. Driving levels increased in Louisiana on Saturday more than 20 percent compared to levels seen in January In Arkansas, the number of people driving on Saturday increased to just over 60 percent. The data shows that increase is the highest number of people driving this year before the pandemic broke out The number of people driving in Tennessee increased by nearly 50 percent on Saturday In Oklahoma, the number of people driving increase nearly 60 percent on Saturday - the highest level since January of this year The number of people driving in Nebraska increased by just over 60 percent on Saturday Meanwhile, in New York where lockdown measures haven't yet been fully lifted driving was still down from pre-pandemic levels The government has launched three policy initiatives designed to deepen financial inclusion and accelerate digital payments. The policies, which are the National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy; the Digital Financial Services Policy and Cash-Lite Roadmap, are in line with the governments vision of building a payment system that accelerates economic development. The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, who performed a virtual launch of the initiatives on the ministrys social media platform, said the policies conformed to the governments call on financial institutions and telecommunications sectors to find innovative ways of turning mobile phones and the mobile money platforms into vehicles of economic empowerment for the many players in the large informal sector. Mr Ofori-Atta explained that the initiatives would not only help the country to move away from cash regimes, but would also promote transparency, accountability and efficiency in financial management. This will help our country to advance towards achieving many of the sustainable development goals, he said. Initiative partners The Finance Minister further explained that the National Financial Inclusion and Development Strategy has been developed in collaboration with the World Bank with the objective of increasing financial inclusion from the current 58 per cent to 85 per cent of Ghanaians by 2023. That, he indicated, would help create economic opportunities and reduce poverty in the country. The Digital Financial Services Policy, he further said, had been developed in partnership with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) initiative and built on existing technological gains to create a resilient, inclusive and innovative digital ecosystem that would contribute to social development, build a robust economy and cause the private sector to thrive. The Cash-Lite Roadmap had been designed in collaboration with the United Nations (UN)-based Better Than Cash Alliance, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), and meant to advance concrete steps to build an inclusive digital payments ecosystem. This includes better access to financial services, enabling regulation and oversight, and promoting consumer protection, he said. Digital business transaction The Managing Director of the Better Than Cash Alliance, Dr Ruth Goodwin-Groen, who was at the launch, commended Ghana for taking steps to implement digital platforms for business transactions. "Ghana is already recognised as a global digital payments success story. We look forward to continuing working with our member, the government, as well as with the private sector and international organisations to accelerate the new ambitious Cash-lite Roadmap in a way that is responsible and responsive to the needs of all Ghanaians, she said. She said the digital platforms were particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background In 2017, the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPPS), under the Bank of Ghana, launched the Mobile Money Interoperability scheme to facilitate the simple and convenient movement of funds across mobile money platforms. In November 2019, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, announced an initiative to pilot a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in a Sandbox environment. This was meant to foster competition, reduce the operational costs associated with cash and move the country closer to achieving its cash-lite objectives. The central bank has also set up a Fintech and Innovation office to drive the banks Cash-lite, e-payments and digitisation agenda. Efforts at ensuring the development of the FinTech industry culminated in the establishment of the Ghana Chamber of Technology by industry players as its umbrella body. Among other things, the Chamber provides a forum for FinTech and Payment Service Providers to share experiences and also serve as a single point of interaction with the central bank and key stakeholders. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video By Express News Service KOCHI: Kara Ratheesh aka Ratheesh Malayattoor, 37, the alleged mastermind behind the destruction of set of multi-lingual movie Minnal Murali, was arrested after he surrendered before the Angamaly police on Monday evening. His arrest came barely 24 hours after the incident. Ratheesh, who is the Rashtriya Bajrang Dal district chief, was later turned over to Perumbavoor police probing the case.We have intensified the inquiry and the rest of the accused will be nabbed soon, said Ernakulam Rural S P K Karthik, who is supervising the probe. The police also recovered a car used by the gang from Malayattoor Road. A dreaded gangster from the Perumbavoor area, Ratheesh is the key accused in the goonda attack at Kalady which claimed the life of Sanal Devasykutty on September 26, 2016.It was on Sunday night that the set of the multi-lingual movie at Kalady was vandalised allegedly by right-wing activists. According to the state unit of Akhila Hindu Parishad (AHP), the huge structure of a church in front of a temple had hurt religious sentiments. We had asked them not to set up such a structure in front of Mahadeva temple. It was destroyed to protect our self-respect, Hari Palode, general secretary, AHP, said in an FB post. The temple authorities disclosed they had given sanction for setting up the set near the temple premises. We gave given permission for film shooting. , said V S Subin Kumar, president of Sivarathri celebration committee. The incident occurred on the Periyars banks where the art directors had toiled to erect the huge structure. The climax was supposed to be shot in the church. But the Kalady schedule was hit due to the lockdown. The film crew,put the loss at around `50 lakh. Sophia Paul, producer of Minnal Murali, took to social media to express her disappointment. Minnal Murali is an ambitious project and we have filmed a major portion of the film. The film required almost two years of preproduction work. The remaining portion will be shot as soon as restrictions are lifted. The next schedule is planned in Kalady. All necessary clearances to build the set at the location were taken. The incident is so unfortunate and a colossal loss, she said in her Facebook post. Helmed by Basil Joseph, Minnal Murali has Tovino Thomas donning the lead role of a local superhero. Tamil actor Guru Somasundaram is cast in an important role. Scripted by Arun Anirudhan and Justin Mathew, the film tells the story of a rustic youth who attains the power of a superhero after being struck by lightning. Press Release May 26, 2020 Scale up quarantine facilities to cut huge backlog of OFWs for repatriation With their robust remittances - P1.7 trillion last year - overseas Filipinos who are homeward bound have earned the right to be treated "as returning heroes who have sacrificed so much for their country," Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said. "They deserve a red carpet welcome. Those who have brought progress to this country should not be shunned as carriers of a disease. To view them as such is fake news most foul," Recto said. He said OFWs should be quarantined in comfortable lodgings, and after completing the two-week forced self-isolation, must be reunited with their loved ones without delay. "Hindi sila dapat maging stranded sa sariling bayan," Recto said. "Makaraan ang mahabang taong sakripisyo, gusto nang umuwi ng mga stranded na OFWs sa mga bahay na kanilang pinundar, sa mga bayang tinulungan nilang lumago, sa mga anak na kanilang pinaaral," he said. For this to happen, Recto said government should "scale up" quarantine facilities so that more OFWs will be given the green light to return home. The backlog of Filipinos who want to go home after being rendered jobless by the economic slowdown triggered by COVID-19 is getting bigger, in part due to the closure of Philippine airports to international flights. "If that is the case, then let us study the option of opening more airports to chartered flights from abroad, in cities where struggling hotels can earn money for hosting OFWs who have been tested as coronavirus-free," Recto said. As they reintegrate, OFWs should be seen as "remitters of money and not as bearers of a disease," Recto said. "Parang isang tatay 'yan na nagtrabaho buong araw na umuwing gutom at madumi ang gamit." Last year, Filipinos abroad sent home P1.7 trillion, Recto said. "That's P193 million every hour, P4.6 billion per day. That should be seen as the repatriation insurance they've been paying." "Twenty-five percent of the remittances came from sea-based Filipinos, which entitles those working aboard cruise ships a seamless trip home," Recto said. A recent DFA report to the Senate said 33,516 Filipino crew of at least eight cruise lines are awaiting repatriation. "But the figure is higher from this sector alone." Including land-based workers, government is bracing for the return of 300,000 Filipinos, victims of the global economic slowdown. Recto said remittances of OFWs in one country are bigger than gross sales posted by Filipino conglomerates. "In 2018, P161 billion ang kita ng Jollibee mula sa gabundok na benta ng Chickenjoy at iba pa. But that is smaller than the P191 billion that Filipinos in Saudi Arabia and UAE sent home last year," Recto said. "Ang gross revenue ng ABS-CBN na P40 billion in 2018 ay katumbas lamang ng anim na buwang remittance ng mga Pinoy sa UK," Recto said. "In the case of Manila Water, its 2018 gross sales of P18.5 billion is five months' worth of remittances of our bagong bayanis in tiny Qatar," he added. "And Filipinos in Singapore sent home P24 billion more than the P74 billion gross of Cebu Pacific in 2018," Recto said. (Natural News) Scutellaria baicalensis, commonly known as Chinese skullcap, is a widely used medicinal plant that belongs to the mint (Lamiaceae) family. Since ancient times, its root has been used to make powerful decoctions or tinctures for various ailments, especially inflammatory diseases. Today, Chinese skullcap is one of the most well-known herbs associated with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). According to The Compendium of Materia Medica, the most authoritative book on TCM, Chinese skullcap is an effective treatment for diarrhea, dysentery, hemorrhage, hypertension, inflammation, insomnia and respiratory infections. Modern research has proven the veracity of these claims, and have also demonstrated the applicability of Chinese skullcap in the management of other diseases. In a recent study, researchers at Kyung Hee University in South Korea showed that Chinese skullcap can be used for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer. Specifically, they found that the root of this herb (Scutellaria radix, SR) can exert its anti-cancer effect by inducing apoptosis and autophagy. They discussed their findings in an article published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine. Chinese skullcap can stop the progression of non-small cell lung cancer For their study, the researchers used two NSCLC cell lines, namely, H358 and H2087 cells, which they treated with SR. They reported that this decreased the viability of cancer cells. Protein detection by Western blot showed that SR increased the expression of proteins involved in cell suicide (apoptosis), such as Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), cleaved-caspase 3 and cleaved-Poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP). On the other hand, when the researchers treated cancer cells with SR and Z-VAD, a caspase inhibitor, they found that the latter negated the anti-proliferative effect of SR. This suggested that one of the mechanisms of action of SR is the induction of apoptosis via activation of caspases. Caspases are enzymes that initiate the signaling cascade that eventually leads to programmed cell death. Further experiments also revealed that autophagy is another cell-related event involved in SRs mode of action. Autophagy refers to the process by which the body destroys and recycles damaged cells in order to build new and healthy ones. The researchers reported that SR treatment caused an increase in the ratio of autophagy-related proteins LC3-II and LC3-I in NSCLC cells, which suggested that SR treatment induces autophagy. In contrast, co-treatment with 3-methyladenine (3-MA), an inhibitor of autophagy, led to the loss of autophagy and the suppression of apoptosis. Based on these results, the researchers concluded that the root of Chinese skullcap triggers apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer via autophagy, making it a promising anti-cancer agent against NSCLC. (Related: Chinese skullcap herb found to kill ovarian cancer cells.) Other medicinal uses of Chinese skullcap The roots of Chinese skullcap are not its only medicinal parts. Even the leaves of this powerful herb are used traditionally in TCM and Native American medicine as a remedy for diarrhea and chronic pain. They are also potent sedatives and are used to treat anxiety and convulsions. Known in TCM as huang qin, Chinese skullcap is a vital ingredient in various herbal formulas, such as xiao chai hu tang, which is used for gastrointestinal issues and liver disease, and lung fu fang, which is used for bronchial pulmonary squamous cell carcinoma and NSCLC. Here are some of the benefits offered by Chinese skullcap: Improves mood and reduces anxiety Has antibacterial and antiviral effects An excellent source of anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer compounds Has anti-convulsant effects Treats insomnia Protects against neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease) Boosts heart health Chinese skullcap is a powerful herb with plenty of medicinal applications. However, it has been shown to interact with various medications, such as blood-thinners, cholesterol-lowering drugs and pain killers. To avoid any adverse effects, seek advice from a trusted TCM or natural health practitioner before using this herb or any supplement containing it. Sources include: Science.news NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov Cancer.org WorldScientific.com TheCut.com Healthline.com At Brilliant, our mission is to make interacting with all of your smart devices simple, from lights, music, climate, security, and doorbells to whatever comes next. Today, we are pleased to share whats next: Garage Doors. Brilliant, the leading smart home control and lighting company, and Genie, the most recognized brand of smart garage door openers, announce a new integration to bring more convenience, simplicity, and security to the smart home industry. Genies full line of Wi-Fi enabled garage door openers powered by Aladdin Connect can now be controlled from Brilliants in-wall touchscreen control panels and mobile app. Brilliant is the first affordable smart home control and smart lighting system that unifies all your favorite smart home devices and makes them easier to use. Homeowners, families, renters, and guests could already control lighting, locks, cameras, music, thermostats effortlessly by using simple voice-enabled touchscreen controls on the walls or the all-in-one Brilliant app. Now they can add garage doors to the list. 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At Brilliant, our mission is to make interacting with all of your smart devices simple, from lights, music, climate, security, and doorbells to whatever comes next. Today, we are pleased to share whats next: Garage Doors, said Aaron Emigh, Co-Founder and CEO of Brilliant. The integration between Brilliant and Genie offers a new opportunity for homebuilders and custom integrators to create more convenient and smarter homes for their customers. "Were excited to partner with Brilliant to offer our customers more convenient ways to control their homes" said Mike Kridel, President of The Genie Company. "Genie and Brilliant are committed to helping homeowners meet their needs now and in the future by working with homebuilders and custom integrators to create a more harmonious smart home experience." Brilliant currently works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, HomeKit, Sonos, Ring, Schlage, Honeywell, Ecobee, Philips Hue, LIFX, Wemo, ButterflyMX, and more, with new integrations added on a monthly basis. Brilliant also supports hubs such as Samsung SmartThings for connecting Z-Wave or Zigbee products and can connect directly to bridge products from Philips Hue and others. Starting at $299, Brilliant is available in six colors to seamlessly blend with any decor and is available for purchase at http://www.brilliant.tech. Genies full line of reliable, ultra-quiet, Wi-Fi enabled smart garage door openers and controllers are Works with Alexa and Google Home certified. Genies line of residential garage door openers includes an award-winning wall-mount version that improves garage aesthetics and includes an automated garage door lock to provide an additional layer of security. About Brilliant Brilliant, the leading smart home lighting and control company, creates technology that unifies the home experience through simple and thoughtful interaction. Winner of the CES Innovation Award, the CTA TechHome Mark of Excellence, the IoT Breakthrough Award, and the CEDIA BEST Award. Brilliant is based in San Mateo, California, and is funded by August Capital, Miramar Ventures, The Box Group, and other prominent investors. For more on Brilliant, please visit: https://www.brilliant.tech About Genie The Genie Company is based in Mt. Hope, Ohio, and is a leading manufacturer of smart, connected garage door openers and accessories for residential and commercial applications. The Genie name itself is a well-recognized icon among homeowners, builders, and dealers alike. Genie distributes its openers and accessories through a broad distribution channel of professional dealers, wholesalers, and retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada. For more on Genie, please visit: http://www.geniecompany.com Hong Kong: Police condemn online incitement Police today said they strongly condemn any actions that incite other people to disrupt public order, adding that they will not tolerate any illegal actions that breach social peace. Police made the statement after noticing that some netizens encouraged blocking main carriageways in various districts tomorrow morning by paralysing traffic and obstructing Police in an effort to surround the Legislative Council building. Police said illegal road blockages may jeopardise road safety, affect road users, hinder emergency services and put other peoples lives in danger. They warned that offenders will be arrested and any vehicles that cause serious obstruction will be swiftly towed away. Police reiterated that, according to the Public Order Ordinance, participating in an unauthorised assembly is subject to a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. Commuters are advised to reserve more time tomorrow morning and pay attention to traffic news. This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday ordered the military to scale up the battle preparedness, visualising the worst-case scenarios and asked them to resolutely defend the country's sovereignty. Xi, 66, who is also the general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the two-million-strong military with prospects of lifelong tenure in power, made the remarks while attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and People's Armed Police Force during the current parliament session being held here. Xi ordered the military to think about worst-case scenarios, scale up training and battle preparedness, promptly and effectively deal with all sorts of complex situations and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without mentioning any specific issues that posed a threat to the country. His comments came in the backdrop of the continuing standoff between the militaries of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Several areas along the LAC in Ladakh and North Sikkim have witnessed major military build-up by both the Indian and Chinese armies recently, in a clear signal of escalating tension and hardening of respective positions by the two sides even two weeks after they were engaged in two separate face-offs. The nearly 3,500-km-long LAC is the de-facto border between the two countries. The US-China military frictions were also on the rise with the US navy stepping its patrols in the disputed South China Sea as well as the Taiwan Straits. Washington and Beijing are also engaged in a war of words over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticised the attempts of some US politicians to blame China for the pandemic. The US, he said, was pushing ties with China to "the brink of a new Cold War". Hiked Defence Budget On May 22, China, the second-largest military spender after the US, hiked its defence budget by 6.6 per cent to USD 179 billion, nearly three times that of India, the lowest increment in recent years amidst the massive disruption caused to the communist giant's economy by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese military has defended its increased budget, saying it is in line with the challenges faced by the country. The defence budget this year will be around 1.27 trillion yuan (USD 179 billion) against last year's 177.61 billion, up by 6.6 per cent, according to a draft submitted to the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Friday. China has been facing new risks and challenges in its national defence in recent times, Defence Spokesman Wu Qian told the meeting, mainly referring to Taiwan where the government headed by President Tsai Ing-wen had last week challenged Beijing's assertions that it is a part of China. By scale and allocation, the defence expenditure is based on China's economic development situation and national defence requirements, he told delegates at the Parliament session here, state-run Global Times reported. From a domestic point of view, there have been multi-dimensional and complicated security risks, as there are more serious anti-secession missions, with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taiwan relying on foreign forces, he said China's homeland security and overseas interests are also facing some real threats, Wu said. China must have a clear mind when it comes to national defence and be prepared for danger in peacetime, he said. An increase in defence expenditure is also needed so the Chinese military can fulfil more international responsibilities, Wu said, noting that as the Chinese military grows in strength, the international community is expecting it to provide more public security goods, he said. In his meeting with a PLA delegation on Tuesday, Yi stressed on achieving the targets and missions of strengthening the national defence and armed forces for 2020, while maintaining effective epidemic control on a regular basis. He listened to speeches by the military deputies on fulfilling epidemic control tasks, strengthening training amid the epidemic, and accelerating capacity building on biosecurity defence, among others. Commending their role in battling the COVID-19, Xi said the people's armed forces have once again proven themselves to be heroic forces that can be fully trusted by the Communist Party and the people. Xi said the epidemic has brought a profound impact on the global landscape and on China's security and development as well. Xi demanded reform and innovation to address new situations and problems exposed in the epidemic and ordered accelerating the research and development on COVID-19 drugs and vaccines by tapping the advantages of military medical research. Noting that this year marks the end of the 13th five-year plan for military development, Xi said extraordinary measures must be taken to overcome the impact of the epidemic to ensure major tasks on the military building are achieved. On defence expenditure, Xi said "every penny must be well spent to produce maximum results". Xi has been stressing on the troops battle preparedness ever since he came to power in 2012 insisting on real time exercises to win wars. He has also revamped defence forces, cutting the PLA's strength by three lakh troops and enhanced its naval and air power as Beijing expanded its influence abroad. Meanwhile, a Chinese expert commented that unlike the previous standoffs between the Chinese and Indian armies, the latest border friction was not caused by accident, but was a planned move of New Delhi. "India has been crossing the boundary line into the Galwan Valley region and entering Chinese territory. Indian soldiers have also deliberately instigated conflicts with their Chinese counterparts. If India failed to stop such provocations as soon as possible, it will impact on Beijing-New Delhi ties - and may even exceed the sort of intensity of the Doklam standoff, an article in the state-run Global Times written by Long Xingchun, president of Chengdu Institute of World Affairs, said. India has said the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops along the LAC in Ladakh and Sikkim and strongly refuted Beijing's contention that the escalating tension between the two armies was triggered by trespassing of Indian forces across the Chinese side. The Ministry of External Affairs said all Indian activities were carried out on its side of the border, asserting that India has always taken a very responsible approach towards border management. At the same time, it said, India was deeply committed to protect its sovereignty and security. "Any suggestion that Indian troops had undertaken activity across the LAC in the Western sector or the Sikkim sector is not accurate. Indian troops are fully familiar with the alignment of the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border areas and abide by it scrupulously," MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said at an online media briefing last week. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:13:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close COLOMBO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan authorities on Tuesday lifted a ban on weddings which was imposed in March to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but imposed a ban on kissing the newly-wed couple, local media reported. Quoting a statement from the Health Ministry, media reports said that weddings could now be held in star-class hotels and halls but invitees must be restricted to a maximum of 100. Health Service Deputy Director-General (Environmental Health and Food Safety) Lakshman Gamlath said it is illegal to invite and host events accommodating more than 100 persons even at venues that can accommodate larger crowds. "People should keep in mind not to exceed the 40 percent seating limit at any reception hall. They cannot for any reason invite more than 100 guests either," Lakshman said. He added it was also compulsory for all those attending the wedding to maintain a one-meter distance between them. Further, according to the Health Ministry guidelines, invitees are not permitted to kiss, hug, or shake hands with the wedded couple. Grooms were also forbidden to kiss the bride in public. Sri Lanka relaxed a curfew in capital Colombo and the outskirts of Gampaha on Tuesday, after two months following the easing of the COVID-19 spread which has to date infected over 1,100 people and caused 10 deaths. Authorities said that despite the curfew being relaxed strict health guidelines needed to be followed which include maintaining social distancing and wearing facial masks, and anyone defying these rules will be arrested. The government said the spread of the virus was now contained within one cluster and those in quarantine centers and a public spread had not been reported for the past 21 days. Enditem Boeing and Airbus are studying how coronavirus may spread on their airplanes, and taking a no-stone-unturned approach to developing a way to minimize risks as they search for a way to restart business amid the pandemic. They're trying to pinpoint how the virus moves inside a plane cabin, and experimenting with using ultraviolet (UV) light to kill any particles left on surfaces by infected passengers. The companies have reached out to academics, doctors engineers, private companies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to aid their efforts, according to the Wall Street Journal. Air travel has plummeted as health officials worldwide attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, which criss-crossed the globe with alarming speed as it traveled from country to country on planes carrying infected passengers. Despite the highly efficient air circulation technology in planes, there's currently no way to ensure social distancing on planes. All major US airlines are now requiring passengers to wear masks on flights, but social distancing is nearly impossible to do thoroughly on flights, so Boeing and Airbus are now studying how, exactly, coronavirus might spread on their airplanes Boeing is working with CU Boulder scientists on the use of UV light to disinfect their airplanes Social distancing has proven an effective method of slowing the spread of coronavirus. Infection tracking now clearly shows that the virus's toll has remained lower in parts of the world that introduced the restrictions on contact earlier on in the pandemic. But there simply isn't space for social distancing on planes, where rows of seats are about 30 inches apart. Putting six feet of space between passengers - at least front-to-back - would require leaving two rows empty between each set of travelers. Boeing and Airbus are hoping to find a more finely tuned solution, by closely studying exactly how the virus behaves inside planes. The first step is to find out how the virus moves on planes. Planes are equipped with high-powered ventilation systems that replace all of the air in the cabin about 15 times in an hour. They're specifically and effectively designed to remove bacteria and viruses from the air. But the concern is that a nearby passenger's cough or sneeze could infect someone long before the air is filtered out. Ventilation in planes completely replaces the cabin's air 15 times an hour, but that still may not be enough to protect passengers sitting near someone infectious. Pictured: Passengers seated less than six feet apart on an American Airlines flight on May 3 Previous studies of SARS - another coronavirus that triggered epidemics across the globe in 2002 and 2003 - found that passengers seated near someone who was infected were at higher risk of catching the disease than those sitting further away. The same may be true for SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, but the airliners are seeking researchers to make specific mathematical models of the new virus's spread on their planes, according to The Wall Street Journal. A second and equally important phase of their studies will be to identify ways to prevent the in-flight spread of coronavirus. Studies continue to support the ability of masks - even cloth ones - to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and experts recommend that the face coverings should be required for air travel. Currently, all major airlines are requiring masks. 'If everyone's wearing a mask, then there is very little that is getting out into the air,' Virginia Tech engineering professor Linsey Marr told The Wall Street Journal. Marr said she's consulted with Airbus on the issue. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is preparing to trial ultraviolet light technology that could rid subway cars of coronavirus. A demonstration of disinfecting technology is seen at the Corona Maintenance Facility in New York City on Tuesday Cleaning and disinfecting will also be high priorities. Last week, the CDC gave Americans a small measure of reassurance as it said that surfaces are not a primary mode of transmission for coronavirus. But that doesn't mean that catching it from a plane seat, arm rest, tray table, screen or lavatory is altogether impossible. Boeing expressed interest in using ultraviolet light to rid its planes of coronavirus. Dr Karl Linden, an environmental engineer at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told The Wall Street Journal that Boeing had contacted him about his work, and wants to 'move really quickly,' to identify the right dosage of UV light to safely eliminate coronavirus on planes. The method is already being tried in New York City, where the Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a trial using UV light to disinfect subway cars. It's an urgent need for airlines. Air travel declined by 96 percent amid the the pandemic as of last month, according to TSA statistics. But this month, air travel has ticked up significantly. In April, there were just 10 full seats on an average domestic flight in the US. This month, that number increased to 39. Mask requirements will undoubtedly help stop the spread of coronavirus on US flights, but as travel continues slowly pick back up, airlines like Boeing and Airbus are eager to be ahead of the possible risks. KYODO NEWS - May 26, 2020 - 19:29 | World, All, Coronavirus The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday countered Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's claim that the new coronavirus originated from China, saying the issue should be studied "based on science and facts." "We resolutely oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the origins of the virus," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, adding that Abe's assertion is "contrary to opinions" by many medical research institutions and the World Health Organization. "Political blindness should never override scientific judgment," Zhao said, emphasizing that the international community, including China and Japan, should work in tandem to combat the pandemic. As for the virus, which was first detected late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Abe told a press conference on Monday, "It is the fact that it spread from China to the world." Related coverage: FOCUS: Hopes for family returns grow in Beijing as Abe lifts virus emergency China does not have power to enact Hong Kong security law: lawyer There have been calls in the United States and some other countries for China to pay compensation for damage triggered by the outbreak, criticizing it for having failed to curb the epidemic and share relevant information in a timely manner. U.S. President Donald Trump said in his recent twitter post that the virus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, is "sometimes referred to as the China Virus," while Australia has asked for an independent investigation into the origins of the new virus. The virus has infected more than 83,000 people in mainland China and killed around 4,700, the nation's health authorities said. Globally, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has topped 5.5 million, with the death toll exceeding 340,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. (Alliance News) - Budget airline easyJet PLC said Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer Andrew Findlay will be stepping down from his role in May of next year. Shares in the FTSE 100-listed airline jumped 12% in early trade on Tuesday to 625.20 pence each. easyJet said Findlay will continue in the position as it begins the search for his successor. Chief Executive Johan Lundgren added: "Since I joined in 2017, Andrew and I have worked extremely well together. "As the longest standing member of the Airline Management Board, Andrew has and continues to provide solid financial steerage and guidance. This has been particularly so during recent months when he was quick to secure liquidity and deliver a significant reduction in cash burn." Findlay said: "Although I have given notice to leave easyJet in a year's time, I remain fully committed to the business to support Johan and to ensure easyJet successfully weathers this unprecedented time for the airline industry. "By the end of my notice period I will have been with this great company for almost 6 years and it will be the right time to pass the financial reins to someone who will help take easyJet into its next chapter." Findlay also thanked easyJet shareholders for voting to keep him in his job at the airline's recent general meeting. At the meeting, convened by disgruntled founder and largest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, roughly 58% of easyJet's shareholders voted against the resolutions to remove Chair John Barton, Lundgren, Findlay and Independent Non-Executive Director Andreas Bierwirth, with 42% in favour. Haji-Ioannou termed the results of the meeting, held last Friday, as "voting fraud". "The results constitute voting fraud as at least 15% of the shares held by the three "strawmen" - Invesco, 91 and Phoenix - are controlled by Airbus SE and were therefore "related parties" in this vote," Haji-Ioannou said in a statement on Friday. Other than Haji-Ioannou, with a 34% stake, major easyJet shareholders include Invesco Ltd, with a 10% stake and Black Rock Inc, holding 5.0%, according to Morningstar. Earlier this month, Haji-Ioannou alleged that three investors backing the airline's management are working on behalf of Airbus. Without offering any specific evidence, he said Invesco, Ninety One UK Ltd and Phoenix Asset Management are trying to keep the company's board members in their jobs, so they can continue paying more money to Airbus. The three investors jointly own a 14% stake in easyJet. The airline is also facing a potential GBP18 billion lawsuit over a customer data breach. Last Tuesday, EasyJet had said that sensitive personal data of nine million customers had been exposed in a data breach. The GBP18 billion claim amounts to GBP2,000 per affected customer. According to the law firm leading the lawsuit, the data breach itself occurred in January but despite notifying the UKas Information Commissioner's Office at that time, easyJet waited four months to notify its customers. By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Nurse Darla Hartsell weeps as she clutches a note from her grandson, whom she hasn't seen in weeks, as firefighters, police and citizens gather to show their appreciation for healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic Monday, April 13, 2020, at Ochsner Medical Center - Northshore in Slidell. Parker Hartsell, 10, has asthma, Darla Hartsell said. 'I can't be around him right now and it tears me up. I don't know when I'll be able to see him.' The well-wishers arrived between shifts to cheer as many workers as possible. YAKUTSK, Russia -- Lawyers of Aleksandr Gabyshev, a shaman in the Siberian region of Yakutia who gained notoriety in 2019 after declaring that he wanted to drive Russian President Vladimir Putin from power, have filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against his forced placement in a psychiatric clinic. One of the lawyers, Olga Timofeyeva, told RFE/RL on May 26 that the complaint was filed because Gabyshev had been placed in a psychiatric clinic in the city of Yakutsk illegally, against his will, and without the consent of his legal representatives. "The Health Ministry's response to my question about the legal reasons for Gabyshev's detention was shallow. The ministry did not give a clear answer, saying only that visits to Gabyshev had been banned due to coronavirus restrictions," Timofeyeva said, adding that although her client is allowed to talk to his lawyers by phone, she was unable to reach him on May 26. Gabyshev was placed in a psychiatric clinic against his will after 20 officers from an OMON police unit of Russia's National Guard stormed into his home in Yakutsk on May 12 and detained him. In early May, Gabyshev posted a video on YouTube that showed him performing a traditional Yakut shaman's dance while declaring: "Very soon you all will break out to freedom." "People, in two months, you will not recognize the world, including Russia," Gabyshev says in the YouTube video. "Nobody will hold down people's power. People's power is from nature, from God. And it will sweep out everything in two months. Consider it my forecast, my prophecy.... You will take care of your own destinies yourselves. You will take freedom with your own hands." Gabyshev made headlines in 2019 when he called Putin "evil" and announced that he would march to Moscow in an attempt to drive the Russian president out of the Kremlin. Starting the journey in March 2019, Gabyshev walked more than 2,000 kilometers and spoke with hundreds of Russians along the way. As his notoriety rose, videos of his conversations with people were posted on social media and attracted millions of views. In July, when Gabyshev reached the city of Chita, he gathered about 700 people together for a rally under the slogan: "Russia Without Putin!" At the time, Gabyshev said: "God told me Putin is not a human, but instead a demon, and has ordered me to drive him out." His march was halted when he was detained in the region of Buryatia last September. Authorities transferred him to Yakutia where he was sent to a psychiatric clinic and then released. In October, psychiatrists in Yakutsk said Gabyshev was mentally unstable. But independent experts hired by the shaman's lawyers concluded that Gabyshev is mentally sound, does not need forced treatment in a psychiatric clinic, and is not a danger to society. In December, Gabyshev and two supporters attempted to resume the march to Moscow, ignoring Yakutia's subzero temperatures. But they were stopped again by police and forced to return home. Shamans have served as healers and diviners in Siberia for centuries. During the Soviet era, the mystics were repressed harshly. But in isolated parts of Siberia, they are now regaining importance. Workers back on the job at the construction site of new towers near Government Center in downtown Boston on May 19, 2020. Gross domestic product across OECD countries fell by 1.8% in the first quarter as Covid-19 containment measures weighed on the economy. According to provisional estimates, it marked the organization's largest quarterly GDP decline since the 2.3% contraction of early 2009, which occurred at the height of the financial crisis. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an alliance of 37 countries. Among the "major seven" members Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. France and Italy, which implemented stringent coronavirus measures in the quarter, saw the most significant damage. For places like bars and clubs to reopen when Connecticut reaches Phase 3 of its return to business in late July or August, residents will have to retain the good habits that most people are following when it comes to social distancing, mask wearing and hand-washing, according to the report released Tuesday by Gov. Ned Lamont and his Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group. While exact protocols for Phase 3 are still being developed and are not part of the 43-page reported released Tuesday night, the reopenings are based on the same criteria as Phase 1 and 2, which depend heavily on health metrics, including testing and tracing contacts of COVID-19-positive patients to slow the spread of the coronavirus. There are extensive requirements for colleges and universities to meet in order to accept residential students for the fall semester. Bars, indoor event spaces and venues, indoor amusement parks and outdoor events of 100 or less are also included in Phase 3, which could occur as early as four weeks after the Phase 2 target date of June 20, which itself depends on health metrics and public cooperation over the next few weeks, the final report of the advisory committee says. The mid-summer Phase 3 reopening depends on risks that are being managed; that a second surge of the pandemic does not occur; the willingness of residents to submit to testing for COVID-19; their participation in contact tracing; the ability of the state to maintain a stockpile of personal protective equipment; the publics support of local businesses and restaurants; and a lack of complications from neighboring states. The global COVID-19 pandemic is complex and rapidly evolving, and that is why I asked a group of people on the ground here in Connecticut - including public health experts, business owners and representatives, education officials, and others - to review how the virus is impacting Connecticut and provide me with recommendations for a safe and appropriate response, Lamont said in an early evening statement. We learn new things about this virus every day, and as a result, the plans outlined in this report are almost certain to change based on new facts, insights, and breakthroughs both here in our state and around the world, as well as in coordination with our regional partners, the governor said. But one thing is for sure - the strength, generosity, and resolve I see every day across our state will remain constant. By working together, we can continue to protect the health and safety of our family, friends, and neighbors as we reopen Connecticut. Josh Geballe, Lamonts chief operating officer and the commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services, said during the governors daily news conference that so far, 600 health professionals, including employees from nine local health departments have been recruited to perform contact tracing: interviewing COVID-19 patients to track down people they might have spent enough time with to infect. Contact tracing is a major key to the states continued reopening, the report says. In recent weeks, Connecticut has joined in a seven-state regional effort to purchase equipment and choreograph the reopening process, although each state has notable differences, such as Connecticut never closing its state parks while New York did. Rhode Island will allow 50 percent occupancy of indoor restaurants on June 1, while Lamont is holding firm on at least June 20 before some diners can move inside. The state Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported that another 27 COVID-19 patients died since Monday, bringing the total fatalities in the pandemic to 3,769. In addition, there was a net reduction of 12 hospitalizations, for 694 patients statewide, equal to the total of about April 1. The states peak hospitalization was 1,972 on April 22. During Lamonts news conference from the State Capitol, West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor and Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo joined him remotely to describe their local efforts to help restaurants stay in business during the slow reopening. Lamont said that the June 20 target date remains for partial indoor dining. One reason for this is, its closed in Westchester County, Lamont said. Its closed in The Bronx. Its a half-an-hour drive, and theres some thought that if we open everything up indoors as well as outdoor, a lot of traffic can go back and forth. Cantor said reopening business owners were anxious to bring back customers, and while there were several complaints over non-compliance with social-distancing rules, they were scattered. For the most part people are very, very respectful and understanding of the situation that we need to be social distanced and wear face-cloth coverings, Cantor said, stressing that restaurant owners called the new outdoors-only dining gradual. She said that restaurants in her town that cannot configure outdoor dining are focusing on takeout and delivery. Some might have a little lot in the back, with others potentially in the road, Cantor said. Were looking at all different options for places that dont have outdoor dining. And we are talking to the restaurants and asking what their vision is, what they would like to see and how they would perform best. Camillo said that he was pleased with the public reaction over the weekend. People are walking, a lot are wearing masks and keeping distance, and some are not, Camillo said, noting that the towns proximity to New Rochelle, the first hot zone for COVID-19 on the East Coast, stands as a warning to the public. I think people are really ready to open up, even if they are being very cautious as we partially reopen, said Camillo, a former veteran member of the state House of Representatives who was elected to lead his hometown last November. Were also looking at it here in Greenwich as not only a partial reopening in the short term. Were looking at how we can take this and extend it on a more permanent basis. Camillo is trying to plan after the pandemic and help the town envision and enhance the future, whether its new neighborhoods or a new Greenwich Avenue in the heart of the downtown. This tragic time has forced us to look at things to be a little more-efficient and more effective, Camillo said. We dont want to take any steps backwards. Were still in the middle of it. Camillo said town officials are exploring the possibility of retail businesses and restaurants without outdoor access for sales or service, to possibly move to some town-owned space whether its a field or a parking lot, as long as the town can avoid legal exposure and liability. There seems to be some possibility to do that. We want to offer the same opportunities to every small and local business than those that have the outdoor dining capabilities. Lamont asked Camillo of the possibility of Greenwich restaurateurs taking reservations exclusively from Connecticut residents. As we go around town every day walking and driving around, were seeing lots of New York plates, Camillo admitted. It doesnt necessarily mean that theyre all coming here to dine. We are seeing lots of people from New York City who are now looking to rent here in Greenwich and possibly buy, because of the space that it affords them where maybe the City doesnt offer that. Lamont complimented both local leaders for their thoughtful reopenings. The governor said its unlikely that sleep-over camps will be allowed to reopen, although last week he held open the possibility that if the state were stringent in is social distancing, perhaps they could. Plans to reopen public schools will come later in June. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with NCP president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Tuesday while asserting that the state government is "strong". The two leaders met for about one-and-a-half hours late Monday evening, Raut said while dismissing speculations about the Thackeray-led government's stability. The Sena Rajya Sabha MP, however, did not reveal what transpired between the two leaders. The meeting between Thackeray and Pawar took place after the NCP chief met state Governor B S Koshyari on Monday morning. "NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting for one-and-a-half hours. Those doubting about the stability of this government are doing so out of their own grudge. This government is strong," Raut tweeted in Marathi. Earlier, Pawar met Koshyari on Monday morning, following which the NCP claimed the meeting took place on the invitation of the governor and no political issues came up for discussion. However, the timing of the meeting is significant as it took place against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents of MVA. Pawar was one of the key leaders from Maharashtra who had openly complained about Koshyari's "intervention" in the functioning of the state administration. Recently, senior BJP leader and former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis complained to the governor about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the COVID-19 crisis. N.B. This English text is an unofficial translation of the Swedish original of the notice to attend the Annual General Meeting in Hoylu AB (publ), and in case of any discrepancies between the Swedish text and the English translation, the Swedish text shall prevail. NOTICE TO ATTEND THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF HOYLU AB (PUBL) The shareholders of Hoylu AB (publ), reg. no 559084-6381 (the "Company") are hereby summoned to attend the annual general meeting held at 09:00 (CEST) on Thursday 25 June 2020 at the premises of Eversheds Sutherland Advokatbyra located at Strandvagen 1, Stockholm, Sweden. Registration begins at 08.45 (CEST). INFORMATION RELATED TO THE CORONA VIRUS To minimise the risk of spreading the corona virus, no food and beverages will be served at the AGM. Participation of board members and company management will be restricted to online where possible. Shareholders who so desire can attend via a representative. NOTIFICATION OF PARTICIPATION ETC. Shareholders who wish to attend the annual general meeting must: be recorded as shareholders in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB on Thursday 18 June 2020; no later than on Thursday 18 June 2020, preferably before 16:00 (CEST), have given notice of their participation and potential assistants by mail to Hoylu AB (publ), Tunnbindaregatan 37, 602 21 Norrkoping, Sweden, or by email to bolagsstamma@hoylu.com (mailto:bolagsstamma@hoylu.com), or by telephone at +46 040-170600 during office hours. The notification should state name, personal identification number or registration number, address, day-time phone number and when applicable information regarding any representative, proxy and or at most two assistants. If applicable, the notification must include authorization documents such as certificate of registration or equivalent documents. Shareholders whose shares are nominee-registered must, in order to have the right to attend the annual general meeting, request to be temporarily registered in the share register kept by Euroclear Sweden AB. The shareholder must instruct their nominee thereof in due time prior to Thursday 18 June 2020, by which date such registration must be executed. Shareholders represented by proxy shall issue a written and dated power of attorney signed by the shareholder. The power of attorney may not be issued earlier than one year before the date of the general meeting, with the exception of the power of attorney specifies a longer period, up to a maximum of five years. A power of attorney issued by a legal entity shall have a registration certificate attached, or if such certificate does not exist, equivalent documents. Original power of attorney and any registration certificate should, in advance of the general meeting be sent to the Company at the address above. A power of attorney form may be ordered from the Company and are available on the Company's website www.hoylu.com . PROPOSED AGENDA Opening of the annual general meeting Appointment of a chairman of the general meeting Preparation and approval of the voting register Appointment of one (1) or two (2) persons to verify the minutes of the meeting Determination of whether the annual general meeting was duly convened Approval of the agenda Presentation of the annual accounts and the auditor's report as well as the consolidated annual accounts and auditor's report on the consolidated accounts Resolution on: adoption of the profit and loss account and balance sheet, as well as the consolidated profit and loss account and balance sheet; appropriations of the Company's profits or losses in accordance with the adopted balance sheet; and discharge from liability of the Board of Directors and the CEO Determination of remuneration for the Board of Directors and the auditor Appointment of Board of Directors and auditor Resolution of adoption of guidelines for remuneration to senior executives Resolution to amend the Articles of Association Resolution to authorize the Board of Directors to resolve to issue new shares, convertible loan notes and/or warrants Resolution on approval of the board of directors' decision to issue new shares with deviation from the shareholders' pre-emption right Resolution to a) approve the Board of Directors' proposed new share-based incentive program through b) directed issue of warrants and c) approval of transfer of warrants Resolution to a) approve by shareholder Fougner Invest AS proposed share-based incentive program through b) directed issue of warrants and c) approval of transfer of warrants Resolution to authorize the Board of Directors to undertake minor adjustments of the resolutions Closure of the annual general meeting PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS Appointment of a chairman of the general meeting (item 2) The Chairman of the Board, Bjorn Wallin, is resolved to be appointed as chairman of the annual general meeting. Appropriations of the Company's profits or losses in accordance with the adopted balance sheet (item 8b) The Board proposes that all retained earnings and profit from the financial year 2019 is carried forward. The Board proposes no dividend for the financial year 2019. Determination of remuneration for the Board of Directors and the auditor (item 9) A remuneration of totalling SEK 550,000 is to be distributed to the Board of Directors, of which SEK 250,000 is to be distributed to the Chairman of the Board and SEK 150,000 each to the other Directors appointed by the annual general meeting. A Director who at the same time is employed by the Company shall not receive any director's fee. Remuneration to the auditor are to be paid according to current account and approved invoices. Appointment of Board of Directors and auditor (item 10) It is proposed that the number of Directors, until the end of the next annual general meeting, consists of four (4) Directors and no deputies. It is proposed to re-elect each of Bjorn Wallin (chairman), Stein Revelsby, Ian Sandml and Hans Othar Blix as Directors in the Company. The Board further proposes that the registered auditing firm Deloitte AB be re-elected to serve for the period until the end of the next annual general meeting (with authorized public accountant Henrik Ekstrom as auditor-in-charge until further notice). Complete information of the Directors of the Board and accountant will be published on the Company's website three weeks before the annual general meeting at the latest. Resolution regarding adoption of guidelines for remuneration to senior executives (item 11) The Board propose to the annual general meeting to resolve on the guidelines below for the determination of remuneration and other employment conditions for the CEO and other senior executives. The compensation level and structure shall be at market level, competitive and consider the individual's areas of responsibility and expertise. The total compensation shall be a balanced mix of fixed salaries, variable compensation, retirement and health plans, any other benefits and terms for dismissal and severance payments. The remuneration may also, subject to shareholder approval, comprise stock related long-term incentive programs. The variable compensation varies for each senior executive and shall primarily be related to the Company's budget and may not exceed fifty (50) percent of the senior executive's fixed salary. The variable compensation for the CEO, however, may not exceed seventy-five (75) percent of the fixed salary. The Board may, if special reasons for doing so exist and as provided for in Chapter 8, Section 53 of the Swedish Companies Act, do minor changes on an individual basis from the abovementioned guidelines. Resolution to amend the Articles of Association (item 12) The Board of Directors proposes that 4, 5, 8 and 9 of the Articles of Association are amended in accordance with the below. 4 "Aktiekapitalet ska vara lagst 3 091 465 kronor och hogst 12 365 860 kronor. The share capital shall be not less than SEK 3,091,465 and no more than SEK 12,365,860 ." 5 "Antal aktier ska vara lagst 37 500 000 och hogst 150 000 000 . The number of shares shall be no fewer than 37,500,000 and no more than 150,000,000 ." The reason for the proposed changes in 4 and 5 is to give the Company the flexibility to issue more shares if needed in connection with potential transactions etc. 8 "Kallelse till arsstamma samt kallelse till extra bolagsstamma dar fragor om andring av bolagsordningen kommer att behandlas ska utfardas tidigast sex veckor och senast fyra veckor fore stamman. Kallelse till annan extra bolagsstamma ska utfardas tidigast sex veckor och senast tva veckor fore stamman. Kallelse till bolagsstamma ska ske genom annonsering i Post- och Inrikes Tidningar samt pa bolagets hemsida. Att kallelse skett ska annonseras i Svenska Dagbladet. Notice to attend an annual general meeting or extraordinary general meeting at which the issue of amendment of the articles of association is to be addressed shall be given not earlier than six weeks and not later than four weeks prior to the meeting. Notice to attend any other extraordinary general meeting shall be given not earlier than six weeks and not later than two weeks prior to the meeting. Notice to attend a general meeting shall be published in Post- och Inrikes Tidningar and on the company's website. The fact that notice has been given shall be published in Svenska Dagbladet ." The reason for the proposed change in 8 is that it has come to the Boards knowledge that publications in Svenska Dagbladet can be more flexible and be made at a lower cost than in Dagens Industri. 9 "Aktieagare som vill deltaga i bolagsstamman ska anmala sitt deltagande till bolaget senast den tidpunkt och den dag som anges i kallelsen till stamman. Denna dag far inte vara sondag, annan allman helgdag, lordag, midsommarafton, julafton eller nyarsafton och inte infalla tidigare an femte vardagen innan stamman. Aktieagare far vid bolagsstamman medfora ett (1) eller tva (2) bitraden, dock endast om aktieagaren anmalt detta enligt foregaende stycke. Shareholders wishing to attend a general meeting must notify the company of intent to participate no later than the day specified in the notice to the general meeting. This day may not be a Sunday, other public holiday, Saturday, Midsummer's Eve, Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve and may not take place earlier than the fifth business day prior to the general meeting. Shareholders may bring one (1) or two (2) advisors to the general meeting, subject to the shareholder notifying this according to what is set out above." As there is no requirement to include information regarding the record date in the Articles of Association, since this is regulated by the Companies Act (2005: 551), and as the current wording of paragraph 9 of the Articles of Association is not compatible with an expected change in the Companies Act which is expected to enter into force in 2020, the Board of Directors proposes that paragraph 9 of the Articles of Association shall be amended as set out above. A valid resolution pursuant to this item requires that the resolution be supported by shareholders representing at least two-thirds (2/3) of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the annual general meeting. Resolution regarding authorizing the Board of Directors to resolve to issue new shares, issue convertible loan notes and/or issue warrants (item 13) The board of directors proposes that the general meeting authorizes the Board to resolve, on one or more occasions, during the period and until the end of the next annual general meeting, to increase the Company's share capital through new issue of shares, convertible loan notes, and/or warrants to the extent permitted by the Articles of Association from time to time. New issue of shares, as well as issue of warrants and convertible loan notes, shall be able to take place with or without deviation from the shareholders' pre-emption right, against cash payment, for payment in kind, by way of set-off, or on conditions following from Chapter 2, Section 5 of the Swedish Companies Act. According to Chapter 16 of the Swedish Companies Act, this authorization does not authorize the board of directors to resolve on issue to Board Directors and/or employees of the Company. A valid resolution pursuant to this item requires that the resolution be supported by shareholders representing at least two-thirds (2/3) of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the annual general meeting. Resolution on approval of the board of directors' decision to issue new shares with deviation from the shareholders' pre-emption right (item 14) The board of directors proposes that the general meeting approve the board of directors' resolution to increase the Company's share capital by no more than SEK 213,611.04 due to the issue of up to 2,591,140 new shares. The new shares shall be issued at a subscription price of SEK 1.50 per share, which corresponds to approximately 21 per cent discount based on the closing price on 5 May 2020. Subscription of new shares was completed on 18 May 2020 in accordance with the board's resolution. The right to subscribe for the new shares was, disapplying from the shareholders' pre-emption rights, vested in Truls Baklid, Jakob Leitner and Thomas Seifried (employees of the Company) and to the board member Hans Othar Blix. In total, 2,524,474 new shares were subscribed for. The reason for derogating the shareholders' pre-emption right is that the employees and the member of the Board, through their own investment, should be able to access and work for a positive value development of the Company's shares and thus achieve alignment of interest with the Company's shareholders. The new shares entitle the holder to a dividend as from the date on which the shares are entered in the share register maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB. A valid resolution pursuant to this item requires that the resolution be supported by shareholders representing at least nine-tenths (9/10) of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the annual general meeting. Resolution to a) approve the Board of Directors' proposed new share-based incentive program through b) directed issue of warrants and c) approval of transfer of warrants (item 15) The Board of Directors proposes that the general meeting resolves to approve the Board of Directors decision on 6 May 2020 on a share based incentive program for certain employees and consultants in the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Incentive Program 2020/2023A") in accordance with what is stated under section a) below. In order to secure the Company's commitments under the Incentive Program 2020/2023A, the Board of Directors also proposes that the annual general meeting shall resolve on a directed issue of warrants in accordance with what is stated under section b) below and resolve to approve the transfer of warrants to certain employees and consultants in the Company and its subsidiaries as specified under section c) below. a)Resolution on the adoption of a new share-based incentive program The Board propose that the general meeting resolves to adopt the Incentive Program 2020/2023A on the following principal terms and conditions: The Incentive Program 2020/2023A shall conclude a maximum of 9,000,000 warrants. Every warrant entitles to subscription of one new share in the Company against payment of a subscription price amounting to SEK 2.2 The subscription price and the number of shares that each warrant entitles to may be subject to recalculation as a result of a bonus issue, split, rights issue and similar measures, whereby the conditions for re-calculation in the complete terms and conditions applicable for the warrants shall be applied. The Incentive Program 2020/2023A shall be offered to employees and certain consultants in the Company or the Company's subsidiaries as of 31 December 2020. An offer shall be made in accordance with the following principles: The CEO A maximum of 1,600,000 warrants* Senior Management A maximum of 3,800,000 warrants* Other employees A maximum of 3,600,000 warrants* Long-term consultants A maximum of 400,000 warrants* *The allocation of warrants in each category will partly be subject to each participant, holding warrants under the previous Employee Stock Option Program 2018 and/or the Employee Stock Option Program 2019, waiving all its rights under the Employee Stock Option Program 2018 and/or the Employee Stock Option Program 2019. In this respect, the allocation will be made on a 1:1 ratio, implying that each holder will be offered one new warrant in the Incentive Program 2020/2023A in exchange for waiving its right to one warrant in a previous program. For the avoidance of doubt, holders of warrants in the Employee Stock Option Program 2018 and/or the Employee Stock Option Program 2019 that are no longer active consultants or employed by the Company or its subsidiaries will not be subject for this offer. The notification to participate in the Incentive Program shall be submitted to the Company no later than on 31 December 2020. The Board of Directors has the right to extend such deadline. Allotted warrants are earned during a period of three years as follows: 1/3 of the allotted warrants will be earned on 31 December 2021; 1/3 of the allotted warrants will be earned on 31 December 2022; and 1/3 of the allotted warrants will be earned on 31 December 2023. Earnings require that the participant be still employed by the Company and has not terminated the employment on the day when the respective earnings take place. In the event that participants cease to be employed or terminate their employment with the Company before a vesting day, already earned warrants may be exercised at the ordinary time for exercise as described below, but further earnings will not take place. The warrants are granted free of charge. The warrants shall not constitute securities and cannot be transferable or pledged. However, the rights under the warrants are transferred to the decedent estate in connection with the participant's death. The participants in the Incentive Program 2020/2023A can exercise allotted and earned warrants during the period from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024. Participation in Incentive Program 2020/2023A presupposes that such participation can legally take place and that such participation, according to the Company's assessment, can take place with reasonable administrative costs and financial contributions. The warrants shall be regulated in special agreements with the respective participants. The Board of Directors shall be responsible for the design and management of the Incentive Program 2020/2023A within the framework of the above-mentioned main terms and conditions. b)Resolution on a directed issue of warrants In order to enable the Company's delivery of shares according to the Incentive Program 2020/2023A and to secure related costs, primarily social security contributions, the Board of Directors proposes that the annual general meeting resolves on a directed issue of a maximum of 9,000,000 warrants and on approval of transfer of warrants on the following principal terms and conditions: With deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right, the warrants may only be subscribed for by Hoylu Intressenter AB (the " Subsidiary "). The reason for the deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right is that the warrants may be used within the framework of the Incentive Program 2020/2023A. "). The reason for the deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right is that the warrants may be used within the framework of the Incentive Program 2020/2023A. Subscription by the Subsidiary shall be made on 30 June 2020 at the latest. The Board of Directors shall have the right to postpone the subscription date. Oversubscription may not occur. The warrants shall be issued without consideration. The reason is that the warrants are issued to the Subsidiary as part of the adoption of the Incentive Program 2020/2023A Each warrant entitles to subscription of one new share in the Company against payment of a subscription price amounting to SEK 2.2 Payment for a new share in the Company can be made in cash or by way of set-off. The subscription price and the number of shares that each warrant entitles to may be subject to recalculation as a result of, inter alia, bonus issue, split and rights issues. Complete terms and conditions will be available on the Company's website. The shares that are added through the exercise of option rights entitle the holder to dividend from the first record date for dividends that occur after the share has been entered into the Company's share register. Upon full exercise of the warrants, up to 9,000,000 shares may be issued, which corresponds to a dilution of approximately 11.2 per cent of the Company's share capital and votes. c)Resolution on approval of transfer of warrants The Board of Directors proposes that the annual general meeting resolves to approve that the Subsidiary may transfer warrants to participants in the Incentive Program 2020/2023A without consideration in connection with warrants being exercised in accordance with the conditions under section a) above or otherwise disposing of the warrants to secure the Company's commitments and costs in relation to the Incentive Program 2020/2023A. Additional information on the Incentive Program 2020/2023 The reason for the adoption of the Incentive Program 2020/2023A and the deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right to subscribe for new warrants is to be able to create opportunities for the Company and its subsidiaries to retain competent personnel by offering a long-term ownership commitment for the employees. Such ownership involvement is expected to stimulate employees to increase their interest in the business and the earnings trend and increase the sense of belonging to the Company. The proposal has been prepared by the Company's Board of Directors. Stein Revelsby, CEO and director in the Company, has not participated in the preparation of the proposal. The Board of Directors considers that the Incentive Program 2020/2023A will cause costs in the form of accounting costs and partly in the form of employer's social contributions. A valid resolution pursuant to this item requires that the resolution be supported by shareholders representing at least nine-tenths (9/10) of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the annual general meeting. Resolution to a) approve by shareholder Fougner Invest AS proposed share-based incentive program through b) directed issue of warrants and c) approval of transfer of warrants (item 16) Fougner Invest AS, shareholder in the Company, proposes that the general meeting resolves on a share based incentive program for the board of directors in the Company (the "Incentive Program 2020/2023B") on the same terms as the Incentive Program 2020/2023A in item 15 above. In order to secure the Company's commitments under the Incentive Program 2020/2023B, Fougner Invest AS's also proposes that the annual general meeting shall resolve on a directed issue of warrants in accordance with what is stated under section b) below and resolve to approve the transfer of warrants to certain the board of directors in the Company as specified under section c) below. a)Resolution on the adoption of a share-based incentive program Fougner Invest AS propose that the general meeting resolves to adopt the Incentive Program 2020/2023B on the following principal terms and conditions: The Incentive Program 2020/2023B shall conclude a maximum of 450,000 warrants. Every warrant entitles to subscription of one new share in the Company against payment of a subscription price amounting to SEK 2.2 The subscription price and the number of shares that each warrant entitles to may be subject to recalculation as a result of a bonus issue, split, rights issue and similar measures, whereby the conditions for re-calculation in the complete terms and conditions applicable for the warrants shall be applied. The Incentive Program 2020/2023B shall be offered to each elected board of director at the annual general meeting in 2020 in accordance with the following principles: The chairman 150,000 warrants Each director (non-employed) 150,000 warrants Allotted warrants are earned during a period of three years as follows: 1/3 of the allotted warrants will be earned on the day before the AGM 2021; 1/3 of the allotted warrants will be earned on the day before the AGM 2022; and 1/3 of the allotted warrants will be earned on the day before the AGM 2023. Earnings require that the participant be still appointed as a director of the board in the Company and has not resigned on the day when the respective earnings take place. In the event that participants resign before a vesting day, already earned warrants may be exercised at the ordinary time for exercise as described below, but further earnings will not take place. The warrants are granted free of charge. The warrants shall not constitute securities and cannot be transferable or pledged. However, the rights under the warrants are transferred to the decedent estate in connection with the participant's death. The participants in the Incentive Program 2020/2023B can exercise allotted and earned warrants during the period from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024. Participation in Incentive Program 2020/2023B presupposes that such participation can legally take place and that such participation, according to the shareholders' assessment, can take place with reasonable administrative costs and financial contributions. The warrants shall be regulated in special agreements with the respective participants. b)Resolution on a directed issue of warrants In order to enable the Company's delivery of shares according to the Incentive Program 2020/2023B and to secure related costs, primarily social security contributions, Fougner Invest AS propose that the annual general meeting resolves on a directed issue of a maximum of 450,000 warrants and on approval of transfer of warrants on the following principal terms and conditions: With deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right, the warrants may only be subscribed for by Hoylu Intressenter AB (the " Subsidiary "). The reason for the deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right is that the warrants may be used within the framework of the extended Incentive Program 2020/2023B. "). The reason for the deviation from shareholders' pre-emptive right is that the warrants may be used within the framework of the extended Incentive Program 2020/2023B. Subscription by the Subsidiary shall be made on 30 June 2020 at the latest. The Board of Directors shall have the right to postpone the subscription date. Oversubscription may not occur. The warrants shall be issued without consideration. The reason is that the warrants are issued to the Subsidiary as part of the adoption of the Incentive Program 2020/2023B. Each warrant entitles to subscription of one new share in the Company against payment of a subscription price amounting to SEK 2.2 Payment for a new share in the Company can be made in cash or by way of set-off. The subscription price and the number of shares that each warrant entitles to may be subject to recalculation as a result of, inter alia, bonus issue, split and rights issues. Complete terms and conditions will be available on the Company's website. The shares that are added through the exercise of option rights entitle the holder to dividend from the first record date for dividends that occur after the share has been entered into the Company's share register. Upon full exercise of the warrants, up to 450,000 shares may be issued, which corresponds to a dilution of approximately 0.63 per cent of the Company's share capital and votes. c)Resolution on approval of transfer of warrants Fougner Invest AS further propose that the annual general meeting resolves to approve that the Subsidiary may transfer warrants to participants in the extended Incentive Program 2020/2023B without consideration in connection with warrants being exercised in accordance with the conditions under section a) above or otherwise disposing of the warrants to secure the Company's commitments and costs in relation to the extended Incentive Program 2020/2023B. A valid resolution pursuant to this item requires that the resolution be supported by shareholders representing at least nine-tenths (9/10) of both the votes cast and the shares represented at the annual general meeting. Resolution to authorize the Board of Directors to undertake minor adjustments of the resolutions (item 17) The Board proposes that the annual general meeting authorizes the Board, the CEO or the person otherwise designated by the Board, to undertake such minor adjustments and clarifications of the decisions made at the annual general meeting to the extent required for registration of the resolutions. OTHER Number of shares and votes in the Company As of the date of this notice, the total number of shares in the Company is 71,185,767, representing a total of 71,185,767 votes. The Company holds no own shares. Shareholders' right to information Shareholders are informed of their right under Chapter 7, Section 32 of the Swedish Companies Act to request information about circumstances that may affect the assessment of an item of business on the agenda and about circumstances that may affect the assessment of the Company's financial situation. The Board and the CEO shall provide such information if the Board considers that this can be done without significant damage to the Company. The duty of disclosure also applies to the Company's relationships with other companies in the group, the consolidated financial statements and such circumstances as detailed above applicable to subsidiaries. Shareholders have a right to ask the Company questions at the annual general meeting on the items and proposals to be considered at the annual general meeting. Documents The annual accounts, consolidated annual accounts, auditor's report and other documents related to the resolutions proposed to the annual general meeting will be available at the Company's head office and on the Company's webpage, www.hoylu.com, no later than three weeks prior to the annual general meeting and will also be sent to those shareholders who so request and provide their postal address. The documents will also be available at the annual general meeting. ____________________________ Stockholm in May 2020 Hoylu AB (publ) The Board of Directors For more information, please contact: Stein Revelsby, CEO at Hoylu +1 213 440 2499 Email: sr@hoylu.com Karl Wiersholm, CFO at Hoylu +1 425 829 2316 Email: kw@hoylu.com Hoylu AB About Hoylu Hoylu's mission is to make remote work and information sharing easy. Through our customizable Connected Workspaces we deliver software solutions for companies, organizations and individuals across virtually all industries that enable all teams, big and small to work efficiently and securely in an intuitive and easy workflow. For more information: www.hoylu.com. By Okafor Ofiebor Rivers State Government has cancelled the proposed lockdown of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government and imposed an indefinite curfew in the entire state. Wike who stated this in a state-wide broadcast said the curfew would begin from 8p.m to 6am with effect from June 2, 2020 till further notice. The Governor also revealed that government had uncovered plans by some criminal elements led by one Bobosky to cause security breaches in Khana, Eleme, Gokana, Tai, Oyigbo and Ikwerre Local Government Areas. After a comprehensive review of the measures taken and further considerations placed before us by well-meaning members of the public, the State Security Council has decided to cancel the proposed lockdown on Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt Local Government Areas of the State. In essence, no part of Rivers State is or will be under any lockdown from this moment and this will be so, except where it becomes necessary again. As we all know, the regular washing of hands, religious wearing of face masks, keeping effective physical and social distance of between 1.5 to 2 meters from other people, completely avoiding touching of faces with unwashed hands, and cleaning of surfaces we regularly touch have been identified as some of the most effective measures against contracting this virus in the absence of vaccine, he said. According to the Governor, government would re-enforce the decisions on the continuous implementation of the following measures throughout the State: (i) All land borders, including all exit and entry routes into Rivers State shall remain closed to human and vehicular traffic, except those on essential services and duly exempted. (ii) All residents must wear face masks or covering into any public space, including our roads, banks, shopping malls, shops, hotels and in any lawful social gathering. (iii) The State task force and the security agencies have been directed to arrest and summarily prosecute any person seen on our streets or any other public place without wearing face masks. (iv) All banks, motor parks, hotels, restaurants, shops, business centres, shopping malls, and offices must maintain social distancing and enforce the wearing of face masks in their premises. (v) The State task force and security agencies have been directed to seal up, prosecute and confiscate to the State any bank, shopping mall, restaurant, shop, business place or office that fails to enforce social distancing and the wearing of face masks in its premises. (vi) In addition to providing daily guest list to the Police and the Department of State Security, hoteliers must not host large gatherings, including parties and receptions. Defaulting hotels will be sealed-up and the owners summarily prosecuted. (vii) All bars, beer palours, or drinking joints, night-clubs, viewing centres, open markets and cinemas shall remain closed until further notice; (viii) Oil mill market in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area shall remain closed until further notice; (ix) Oginigba Slaughter market in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area shall similarly remain closed until further notice. (x) Mbiama market in Ahoada West Local Government Area shall also remain closed until further notice; (xi) All public weddings, burials and large social gatherings shall remain banned. (xii) Churches and other religious gatherings should continue to comply with the existing advisory on social distancing, initiate temperature checks and enforce the wearing of face masks during their activities; (xiii) Dealers in Ikoku Spare Parts markets are warned for the last time to stop converting public roads to mechanic workshops or risk final closure. (xiv) Similarly, no mechanic workshop should be found along Ikwerre road as Government will prosecute defaulters and confiscate any vehicle being repaired on any public road. (xv) Private and commercial vehicles, including tricycles must continue to limit their passengers to the number earlier established and enforce the wearing of face masks by all passengers. Defaulters will be prosecuted and their vehicles confiscated by the Task force. These measures, he said, are in the best interest of our State, to protect our lives, businesses, and jobs as well as, to prevent our troubled economy from suffering irreparable damage. This also means that, residents now bear much greater responsibility to stop and prevent our State from suffering the exponential and potentially devastating spread of the virus being experienced across the state. As 60% of the positive cases recorded in the State are connected with oil company workers, we have initiated a meeting with all the major oil companies to work out strategies on how we can stop this trend and stop the risk this category of workers now pose to the State. Government is also investigating the rumoured or suspected outbreak of the coronavirus at Bonny Island. Our team of medical personnel led by the Commissioner for Health has visited Bonny Island and collected samples from suspected cases for analysis and immediate intervention should the results indicate the outbreak of the virus in the area, the governor said. Wike also revealed that intelligence had intercepted a clandestine plan by some criminal elements led by Bobosky to cause security breaches in the State by instigating violence and burning down churches in Khana, Eleme, Gokana, Tai and Oyigbo Local Government Areas of the State. He assured all residents that the state government is fully ready and prepared to deal with the situation and continue to guarantee the protection of lives and property throughout the State. The Governor implored all residents to be vigilant and report all suspicious characters and movements in their neighbourhoods to security agencies. Leaders and vigilante groups in our communities are to work with the security agencies to enforce curfew in their localities and arrest and prosecute anyone that violates the curfew order. We urge our people to stop the fake news on social media; stop the baseless bickering, the needless blame game, and the seditious rumours that does no good to our image or provide any solution to the common challenges that we face. Rather, we should all come together, put our fate in our own hands and work for the common good of all, whether as individuals, families or as communities, he stated. The Governor commended all health workers who have continued to put their lives at risk in the forefront in the battle against COVID-19. The aviation map of India as seen on the live flight tracker Flight Radar24 at 8 am on Tuesday. New Delhi: A five-year-old boy who travelled alone from Delhi under the special category to reunite with his mother in Bengaluru after nearly three months, and a 28-year-old woman, with two infant twins, who flew from Delhi to her matrimonial home in Ahmedabad were among several stranded passengers in various parts of the country who managed to escape to their homes as domestic flights began on Monday after a two-month shutdown. A total of 532 flights were operated on Day 1. In Delhi, 82 flights had to be cancelled on Monday. Indians soar in the skies again! A beautiful live capture from flight radar24 shows how our skies look busy again as domestic civil aviation recommences in India from today. With Andhra Pradesh set to resume operations from tomorrow and West Bengal from 28 May, these numbers are all set to increase further, said minister of state for civil aviation Hardeep Singh Puri in a series of tweets. With people covered in masks, face shields and gloves, and airport and airlines staff in PPE kits airports across India had a completely new look. At New Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport, paramilitary and armed forces personnel, students, tourists and people who had failed to book tickets on the special trains were among the first few to take early morning flights. Besides, with Id-ul-Fitr falling on Monday, there was an unusual rush too for families to be together. However, due to limited public transport available, many had to shell out large sums to reach the airport. The first flight took off from Delhi for Pune at 4.45 am, while the first flight from Mumbai took off for Patna at 6.45 am. However, a huge number of last-minute cancellations by the airlines led to chaos, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across India. Aviation industry sources said altogether 630 of an estimated 1,150 domestic flights for which bookings had opened on May 22 were cancelled after some states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu allowed only limited operations or delayed reopening of their airports owing to a spike in coronavirus cases. The West Bengal government did not relent to a request by the civil aviation ministry to allow flights, and it was decided Sunday evening the state will gradually permit domestic flights from May 28 under strict guidelines. Andhra Pradesh too did not allow any flights on Monday, but will start them from Tuesday. Thousands of passengers reached airports since early in the morning on Monday only to be told by the airline staff that several flights had been cancelled, causing hardship to them. Some of them had travelled long distances, across states, to take the flights. Many people took to the social media to vent their anger. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh, among others, announced quarantine measures for passengers arriving at their airports. Some states have decided to put passengers in mandatory institutional quarantine, while others talked of putting them under home quarantine. BDA Centre has launched the first medical digital platform in Bahrain, providing physicians with the opportunity to maintain training and develop themselves and their skills from a distance. The aim of this digital platform, is to enhance their knowledge of how to deal with patients and employee in hospitals, clinics and health centers, in light of the precautionary procedures used to tackle corona pandemic and maintaining social distancing. This platform was supported by a digital medical library containing scientific references in various specialties such as dentistry, dermatology, plastic surgery, infection control, and others. This is considered the first step on the path to expanding in various medical specialties, and the centre has provided this library with visual lectures in containing lectures from fifty consultants and doctors from the Arab world, Europe, USA and India. The launch of this platform was announced recently through a remote event, during which a prominent British doctor was hosted, and spoke about ways to tackle coronavirus and more than 800 doctors and concerned audience from Bahrain, the region and the world participated in this event. The CEO of the BDA Centre, Dr Ahmed Shahda stated that both the platform and the library are a Bahraini initiative to assist doctors to develop their knowledge and skills, pointing out the importance of this initiative at this crucial time in light of the current coronavirus outbreak. BDA Centre is ready to serve any sector or any government agency in using the platform and library free of charge, especially in the field of activating e-learning, as this comes within the framework of the centers commitment to its national responsibility towards supporting the progress of Bahrain, Dr Shahda added. He said that the BDA Center, which is known for organizing many of the largest medical and health activities in the Kingdom of Bahrain, will utilise this platform to provide medical health courses remotely, and registry will be opened for those courses, lectures or events. These lectures, events and workshops are recorded, especially the aspects that need practical explanation, and this will be done through the use of the latest digital and stereoscopic cameras for filming, so that they can be followed directly or watched on the platform in a way that ensures the provision of the most valuable benefit to doctors in Bahrain, the GCC and the world, Dr Shahda said concluding his statement. -- Tradearabia News Service New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that he will meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday in Washington to discuss coronavirus response efforts and plans to jump-start the economy, including ideas for large-scale infrastructure projects. The Democratic governor, whose state has reported a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall amid the pandemic, announced the meeting Tuesday during remarks at the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan. "I'm going to go to Washington tomorrow, scheduled to meet with the president to talk about a number of things, but this is one of the things I want to talk to the president about," Cuomo said at the news conference. "You want to restart the economy? You want to reopen the economy? Let's do something creative, let's do it fast, let's put Americans back to work and let's make America better. It is common sense." Cuomo laid out a number of infrastructure proposals, including an expansion of New York City's subway tunnels, while noting that federal approval would be required for the plans to move forward. New York's state and city governments are "hard-stretched," Cuomo said at the press conference. "That's why I think the real answer is, the federal government has to step up and provide state and local aid." White House spokesman Judd Deere confirmed to CNBC that Trump and Cuomo will meet Wednesday. The president was scheduled to travel to central Florida on Wednesday to watch an astronaut launch at the Kennedy Space Center, the White House said over the weekend. WH TWEET Trump and Cuomo previously met in April at the White House, where they agreed to work toward doubling New York's rate of testing for the virus. The Empire State, which was the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., has seen a steady decline in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks. Some areas of the state have begun lifting their strict social distancing rules, while other regions, especially the New York metropolitan area, are moving more slowly. Cuomo warned Tuesday that the economy is not going to "just bounce back" from the damage caused by the pandemic. "You're going to see pain in this new economy and let's start to dissipate that and let's start to deal with that now," he said. Heres a look at whats new or notable in home video. Movies and TV series are available on streaming sites such as iTunes, Amazon and Vudu unless otherwise noted. New Rent it now The Invisible Man: Much more than Tom Cruises The Mummy, this effectively updates a Universal monster movie for the age of the comic-book franchise. Like a classic horror movie, its centered on a sympathetic person the wife (Elisabeth Moss) of a controlling husband she cant escape even after his death threatened by an uncanny being. The uneasy mood is right, as are the visual effects such as a floating knife. Yet The Invisible Man also works like a superhero origin movie. If Moss returned as the Invisible Woman, no one would object except the folks who own the rights to the Fantastic Four. Previously released and now available to rent on digital; also on Blu-ray New Virtual cinema Papicha: This feature debut from Mounia Meddour won the Cesar Award Frances Oscar for best first film and also was a prize-winner at Cannes. It tells the story of Nedjma, a young, emancipated woman at college in Algeria in the 1990s and her efforts to stage a fashion show and evade Islamic extremists during that countrys civil war. Rent it starting Friday via Film at Lincoln Center, filmlinc.org. Related: Watch at Home: Mary J. Blige in Body Cam Notable Rewatch Dazed and Confused: The end of a school year like no other is a great time to revisit this idealized last day of high school in 1976 on the outskirts of Austin. Its funny and nostalgic, but what makes the movie so special is that director Richard Linklater is generous to everyone: the jocks and the brains, the stoners and the mean girls, the incoming freshmen and the guy who graduated a while back but still hangs around (alright, alright, alright). They all get their moment in the sun. Except for Ben Affleck; hes a jerk. Watch on Starz or rent from Amazon Prime or iTunes. Notable Binge watch Ozark: In part because its final season premiered just as the country was closing down, this crime drama became one of the most buzzed about binge-watches of the spring. Jason Bateman stars as a money launderer who relocates his family to rural Missouri after his partner is caught stealing from their boss, who represents a Mexican crime syndicate. The first episode is a high hurdle to clear: Its full of bad people coming to bad ends. Stick with it, and Ozark becomes much more relatable as Batemans character and his wife, played by Laura Linney, strive to protect his family from deadly adversaries, and the kids adjust to a new reality they never saw coming. Three seasons streaming on Netflix. Jim Kiest is the arts and entertainment editor for the San Antonio Express-News. To read more from Jim, become a subscriber. jkiest@express-news.net | Twitter: @WeekenderSA New Delhi: No film release, but superstar Salman Khan made up for it and treated his fans to a different surprise this Eid. After releasing two songs earlier, Salman dropped his new track titled Bhai Bhai on the special occasion. For over a decade, Salman releases a film on Eid every year. 'Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai' was also scheduled to hit the screens on Eid 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the plan could not work out. He said, First of all, Eid Mubarak to everyone. May all of us be blessed with the strength to deal with the pandemic this year. Salman added, Since we couldnt release our film on this Eid, I have worked on a very special song for all my wonderful fans. It is called Bhai Bhai as it celebrates the spirit of brotherhood and unity. Eid is the best day to release this as it is also the festival that brings people close to each other. I hope people enjoy the song as much as I did while making it for them. Not the one to let down his fans despite the unprecedented crisis, the actor has shot for Bhai Bhai with minimal crew and resources at his farmhouse in Panvel. He took to his social media account to release the song. He shared, Maine aap subb ke liye kuch banaya hai, dekh ke batana kaisa laga... Aap subb ko eid mubarakh ... #BhaiBhai" The song communicates a significant message and evokes the right emotions of love and compassion towards our fellow beings and other religions, who are all the same in the eyes of God. It spreads the message of brotherhood and unity. Sung by Salman himself, the song will set the right mood on this auspicious occasion. This is the third song that Salman has released amid the lockdown after 'Pyar Karona' and 'Tere Bina'. She has been making the most of her time with son Reggie in lockdown. Yet Hannah Elizabeth admitted she is also looking forward to future holidays as she modelled a tiny bikini on Tuesday. Putting her sensational figure on display, the 30-year-old Playboy model slipped into a skimpy orange two-piece for a series of sultry snaps. Sizzling: Love Island original Hannah Elizabeth admitted she is also looking forward to future holidays as she modelled a tiny bikini on Tuesday Hannah showcased her ample cleavage and taut stomach in the swimwear, which came with matching tiny briefs that highlighted her peachy derriere. The mother-of-one wore her signature platinum blonde locks perfectly coiffed to frame her pretty features. Alongside the snaps she penned: 'With Spain and Ibiza back on the cards trying on my fav swimwear from @ohpolly... flights to book soon'. Bikini babe: Putting her sensational figure on display, the 30-year-old Playboy model slipped into a skimpy orange two-piece for a series of sultry snaps Hannah has been isolating with baby son Reggie, six months, since the UK went into lockdown on March 23. The Love Island original star has been raising her son as a single parent after splitting from fiance George Andreetti. There has been doubt cast on whether summer holidays would still be able to go ahead amid the global coronavirus pandemic. However, on Monday, Reyes Maroto, Spain's tourism minister, announced that the requirement for overseas visitors to go into quarantine for 14 days would be lifted from July 1. Meanwhile, the UK is to impose a 14-day quarantine requirement for anyone arriving in the country from June 8, but the rules will be reviewed every three weeks. Portugal and Britain are now said to be in talks to try and secure an air corridor for tourists that would allow British visitors to avoid a quarantine upon returning home, two Portuguese sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. [May 26, 2020] Aruna Bio to Present at the Jefferies 2020 Healthcare Conference ATHENS, Ga. and RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aruna Bio, Inc. , a leader in the development of neural exosomes for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that Dr. Mark Sirgo, Chief Executive Officer, will be presenting at the Jefferies 2020 Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, June 3rd at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. This year, the conference is being held virtually. The presentation will be webcast live and available on the events page of the Aruna Bio website ( arunabio.com/events ) and via the ink below. A replay of the webcast will be available following the conference. Date: Wednesday, June 3rd Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Time Webcast: http://wsw.com/webcast/jeff126/aru/ Drs. Sirgo will discuss the utilization of Aruna Bios proprietary neural exosomes as both a therapeutic and a delivery vehicle to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Sirgo will also discuss the companys going forward strategy and key milestones for 2020. About Aruna Bio Aruna Bio is harnessing the natural abilities of neural exosomes to cross the blood brain barrier and enhance the bodys anti-inflammatory, self-repair and protective mechanisms to treat a range of neurodegenerative disorders. Aruna Bio is also leveraging its proprietary exosomes and manufacturing platform to create synergistic therapies by enhancing exosomes with RNA, oligonucleotides, antibodies and small molecules. www.arunabio.com Contact Al Medwar [email protected] Regulatory News: Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) ("PSH") today announced that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's Public Shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"): Trading Venue: London Stock Exchange Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 26 May 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 43,253 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 1,840 pence 22.73 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 1,824 pence 22.53 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 1,826 pence 22.55 USD Ticker: PSHD Date of Purchase: 26 May 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 15,583 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 22.60 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 22.50 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 22.56 USD Trading Venue: Euronext Amsterdam Ticker: PSH Date of Purchase: 26 May 2020 Number of Public Shares purchased: 51,544 Shares Highest Price Paid Per Share: 22.60 USD Lowest Price Paid Per Share: 22.15 USD Average Price Paid Per Share: 22.51 USD PSH will hold these Public Shares in Treasury. The net asset value per Public Share related to this buyback is 32.52 USD 26.54 GBP which was calculated as of 19 May 2020 (the "Relevant NAV"). After giving effect to the above buyback, PSH has 197,400,899 Public Shares outstanding, or 203,273,400 Public Shares calculated on a fully diluted basis (assuming that all Management Shares had been converted into Public Shares at the Relevant NAV). Excluded from the shares outstanding are 13,555,851 Public Shares held in Treasury. The prices per Public Share were calculated by Jefferies. The number of PSH Management Shares and the one special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) have not been affected. About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005795/en/ Contacts: Media Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk In the new normal, marketers have been forced to shift gears and adopt new strategies to emerge ahead of the competition. During this period of forced transformation, Twitter is a platform that is gaining quite a lot of traction. Even though compared to other social media like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Twitter has a way to go in terms of offering the reach and engagement metrics that marketers drool over, it has become an unparalleled tool for understanding the pulse of the audience. Twitter doubled down on its ability to derive insights from consumer conversation when it revamped its brand strategy team as Twitter NEXT to become brand voice consultants. Essentially, their mission was to make brand conversations more about human centric ideas. As marketers put the breaks on spending, and look at social messaging, they might look at learnings from a platform that was ahead of the curve in predicting this trend. In an interaction with Adgully, Rishabh Sharma (@s_rishabh), Head - Twitter Next, India, reveals the brand narratives on Twitter platform, human centric campaigns and emerging digital trends in the post COVID-19 era. In The Participation Playbook, Twitter spoke about collaborating with brands to create human-centric ideas worth talking about. What human-centric themes have emerged as a result of Covid-19? The COVID-19 crisis certainly calls for a more sensitive, humane and human-centric approach to brand communications. Given the hard-hitting economic impact of the crisis, businesses, especially those that are deemed non-essential, are suffering the repercussions. They are not the only ones, consumers too are fighting hard to make it through these tough times. In this scenario, it is essential for brands to be empathetic and communicate with kindness. Right now, with social distancing becoming the norm, people are on the lookout for support, a sense of community and normalcy. Brands have an opportunity to rise to the call and provide assurance and comfort by being sensitive, helpful and reliable in their communication. In fact, brands like Google, Coca-Cola, Lenovo India, among others, are also conveying key values of recognition and gratitude. Many of them have launched campaigns to applaud frontline medical workers. Another significant thing that brands can do is be available for customers. A good example is Uber India (@Uber_India). As part of its #MoveWhatMatters campaign, Uber India has been servicing essential commutes in high-impact areas. Look, things are changing fast, and what might have felt like a good message yesterday might not be the right thing today. Brands should keep a close eye on the news and conversation, and be sure to consider the context before replying or broadcasting. A little help goes a long way. Our are tirelessly working to keep us safe. Lets do our bit by coming together, as we stay apart. To know more, visit https://t.co/SOYLwjiXyi pic.twitter.com/TyIxLG94tY Google India (@GoogleIndia) April 20, 2020 Everyone acknowledges that during crisis times, the tone is critical. What can companies do to balance the brand narrative with the need for sensitivity? The tone of voice definitely plays a crucial role in impactful delivery of a message, and today, it is even more critical. Brands and marketers must acknowledge the shifts that have occurred around peoples work and home taking their lives indoors and online. These changes have reprioritised peoples needs and brands must realign themselves to stay relevant and connected. Instead of promoting a product or service, brands must focus on affirming their commitment to their customers adapting the brands message and offerings with what the customer needs. Levity and light-heartedness in the form of positive messages will also go a long way by giving customers a few laughs in the midst of all the negative and distressing news. A case in point is Durex India (@DurexIndia). Do it in public. Wear a mask. Ensure you stay protected inside and outside. #WearYourProtection pic.twitter.com/lWS9MFD3vF Durex India (@DurexIndia) May 6, 2020 Amazon Prime Videos (@PrimeVideoIN) recent campaign #ShotsOfFriendship too came in like a breath of fresh air, bringing alive stories of friendship in a time when people are forced apart from the ones they hold dear. Not only did the campaign bring a surge of positivity, but it also allowed people to havesome fun with their friends on Twitter. You guys are setting some major friendship goals <3 Keep tweeting your legendary stories with #ShotsOfFriendship and well capture them in the pages of this friendship book forever! pic.twitter.com/RamNWVD1YV amazon prime video IN (@PrimeVideoIN) April 21, 2020 The water cooler conversations have veritably moved to chat/ video conferencing/social platforms with Work From Home, etc. Has this led to new behavioural trends in corporates? The need for digital tools has never been as essential as now. They give us the ability to interact with others in real-time from the convenience of our home, to work from home and to feel connected. With contact being restricted to the digital space, theres an obvious hike in the time were spending in front of our screens and on our phones, and this is opening up new avenues for brands. More and more brands are now moving their spends online to reach their audiences. Most brands are still resorting to video format for digital campaigns. Should they explore a textual/ conversational fort during this scenario? What opportunities can it unlock? Video surely is the format that has been the most popular among both brands and audiences. A reason for that being that the recall value of video content is higher. However, since two-way communication is key at a time when brands are trying to establish stronger connections and affinity with their audiences, textual conversations can also prove promising. On Twitter, especially, the conversation is not restricted to simple texts. The services functionalities such as Polls and Conversation Cards allow brands to have engaging conversations with their audiences and exercise the conversational power of Twitter. These functionalities help brands gauge their audiences preferences and get insights into what the customers enjoy and are looking for. These formats also allow the opportunity for one-on-one conversations, and thats what brands need at the moment to know the specifics of what the customer wants. Many brands these days are constantly conversing with their audience through multiple offerings of Twitter, gaining inputs and making way for user-generated content as well. Describe your mood in emojis and we'll suggest what to watch. Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) May 5, 2020 There is a need for brands to appear authentic during this period. One aspect is aligning their communications with the brand purpose. Will the marketing channels that they leverage have an impact on brand perception? Every channel is a touchpoint to a different set of audiences, and each channel offers its own advantages. Brands must be clear on who they are hoping to communicate with, and what is the purpose of the communication. Twitter, for instance, caters to a diverse range of audiences. People from all over the world participate in regional as well as global conversations on the service. These people belong to different age cohorts and have varied interests. Therefore, brands have the opportunity of reaching out to specific as well as larger populations at the same time. On top of that, Twitters various ad functionalities such as the First View, Promoted Trends, Spotlight, as well as conversational functionalities, allow for diversification of the brands core messaging as well. A brand can choose from a pool of offerings, depending on their campaigns purpose. In what way is Twitter Next partnering with brands during this crisis? At Twitter, we are partnering with a diverse set of clients to help them devise communication plans and campaigns from scratch. From strategy to execution, we work collectively with brands across industries to build customised solutions that are suited to their needs. User insights are also instrumental when we work with brands to help them choose their approach. By providing the necessary counsel to marketers and helping them tackle communication challenges posed by the ongoing crisis, we are helping them achieve their end goal of establishing a connection with their customers. We look forward to working with more and more brands to produce impactful work that will engage their audiences. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram Bangkok, May 26, 2020 Vietnam should immediately release journalists Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Pham Chi Thanh, and drop all charges against them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On May 21, authorities arrested Thanh, a freelance journalist who blogs under the pseudonym Pham Thanh, at his home in Hanoi, and charged him under Article 117 of the countrys criminal code, a provision that criminalizes opposing the state, according to news reports. On May 23, Hanoi police arrested Thuy, a reporter with the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia, and charged him with making, storing and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes, another violation under Article 117, according to RFA. Convictions under Article 117 carry jail terms of up to 20 years. Both journalists are members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, a local unsanctioned independent press group, where Thuy acts as vice president, according to those news reports, RFA, and a representative from the journalists association, who asked to remain anonymous, citing security concerns. The representative said that Thuy was transported from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City on the same day of his arrest and is being held there in pre-trial detention. Thanh is detained in Hanoi, the representative said. Journalists Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Pham Chi Thanh should be immediately released and all pending charges against them dropped, said Shawn Crispin, CPJs senior Southeast Asia representative. Vietnam must stop treating independent journalists as enemies of the state, and must allow the press to work freely and without fear of trumped-up charges and prison time. Radio Free Asia said in a statement that Thuys arrest was intended to silence free speech and reinforces the need for independent journalism in Vietnam. Thuy has contributed commentary to RFA for six years, the statement said. On his blog, Thanh frequently writes about civil rights and freedom of speech, according to Rohit Mahajan, RFAs vice president of communications, who communicated with CPJ by email. Vietnams Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to CPJs request for comment filed through its website. In November, as CPJ documented at the time, authorities arrested and detained Pham Chi Dung, founder of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, and charged him under Article 117. According to the association representative, Dung is being held in a Ho Chi Minh City detention facility awaiting trial and has not been allowed to visit his wife or lawyers since his arrest. The Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam was among 192 partner organizations that signed CPJs May 5 letter calling on the United Nations to take action secure the release of journalists worldwide in sight of the heightened health risks posed to prison populations by COVID-19. ATLANTA, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncology Analytics, a leading data analytics and technology-enabled services company dedicated to helping health plans, providers, and patients with solutions that are purpose-built for oncology, has announced the completion of a Series C funding round of $28M. Baird Capital led the round and joins existing investors Oak HC/FT, McKesson Ventures, and The Blue Venture Fund. The Series C financing will enable Oncology Analytics to expand its oncology-focused capabilities, accelerate real-world data and analytics solutions for health plans, and increase the market share of its technology-enabled utilization management solution. The company also announced that Michael Liang, partner at Baird Capital, has joined Oncology Analytics' Board of Directors. "The increasing cost of cancer care in the US has created an enormous burden for health plans and patients, which requires new thinking and a radical approach to solve," said Liang. "Oncology Analytics' strategy, which puts data-science and real-world evidence at the center of the treatment decision-making process, demonstrates the type of innovative leadership needed in healthcare. Baird Capital looks forward to supporting Oncology Analytics to accelerate its mission." "Oak HC/FT continues to be a strong advocate of the leadership team, strategy, and passion Oncology Analytics has for improving the lives of cancer patients," said Annie Lamont, managing partner, Oak HC/FT. "Over the past two years, Oncology Analytics has grown its customer portfolio by 400% and rapidly increased revenue. We are deeply committed to our partnership with Oncology Analytics and welcome Baird Capital to the team." "It is incredibly humbling to have such a talented and experienced group of healthcare investors support our efforts to transform the oncology benefits landscape," said Rick Dean, CEO, Oncology Analytics. "We are delighted to welcome Michael and Baird Capital to the team, as I know this collaboration will accelerate our ability to bring value and innovation to our health plan customers." Over the past decade, the oncology landscape has undergone dramatic changes, through an unprecedented number of new anti-cancer treatments brought to market, which have increased both the complexity and cost of care. By forging a deep connection between data science, analytics, and oncology expertise, Oncology Analytics provides health plans with extensive clinical insights to ensure that anti-cancer therapies are based on science and evidence-based protocols. Health plans are able to manage the total cost of cancer care while providing their members with treatment recommendations, which put them in the position to achieve the best possible outcome. "Our health plan partners have told us that they need solutions that enable efficiency for their providers and themselves," Thomas Hawes, MD, managing director, The Blue Venture Fund. "Oncology Analytics removes a huge administrative burden on providers by enabling 100% of providers to submit their oncology prior authorization requests electronically through secure, cloud-based technology and receive instant approvals on evidence-based prescribing. We are proud to continue our support of the team as they continue to provide measurable value to health plans." "McKesson Ventures is very impressed with the success Oncology Analytics has achieved since our initial investment, specifically, their ability to expand market share and increase the scale and depth of their technology," said Dave Schulte, managing director, McKesson Ventures. Oncology Analytics' Series C announcement comes during a period of tremendous growth and innovation for the company, which includes the increase of its prior authorization platform usage to 5 million health plan members. Oncology Analytics also recently announced a new customer partnership with Gateway Health, LLC, and program expansion with Humana, Inc. About Oncology Analytics Oncology Analytics is a leading data analytics and technology-enabled services company dedicated to helping health plans, providers, and patients with solutions that are purpose-built for oncology. Through an evidence-based, real-world analytics approach to utilization management, Oncology Analytics' prior authorization platform is used by physicians to support 5 million health plan members in the US and Puerto Rico and covers the full spectrum of therapeutics, across all cancer types and stages, including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, precision medicine, targeted therapy, and supportive care. The extensive pathway library is continuously updated with the latest evidence-based protocols, which provides the most current options for value-based treatment paths for every patient case. For more information, please visit www.oncologyanalytics.com. About Baird Capital Baird Capital makes venture capital, growth equity and private equity investments in strategically targeted sectors around the world. Having invested in more than 300 companies over its history, Baird Capital partners with entrepreneurs and, leveraging its executive networks, strives to build exceptional companies. Baird Capital provides operational support to its portfolio companies through teams on the ground in the United States, Europe and Asia, a proactive portfolio operations team and a deep network of relationships, which together strive to deliver enhanced shareholder value. Baird Capital is the direct private investment arm of Robert W. Baird & Co. For more information, please visit BairdCapital.com. SOURCE Oncology Analytics, Inc. Related Links www.oncologyanalytics.com Former My Kitchen Rules star Chloe James has given birth to her first child with partner Lee Harrison. The brunette, who famously appeared on the Channel Seven cooking show with her best friend Kelly Ramsay, announced the happy news on Instagram over the weekend. She shared several pictures of the couple's baby girl - who they named Charlotte Lee Harrison. Baby joy! Former My Kitchen Rules star Chloe James has given birth to her first child with partner Lee Harrison Their bundle of joy arrived last Tuesday at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital in Perth. Chloe and Lee have been together for several years after she split with her childhood sweetheart and husband, Luca Pietropiccolo, back in 2015. The split was a surprise to many as the couple had only been married for one year after tying the knot in New York Hospital dash: Their bundle of joy arrived last Tuesday at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital in Perth The TV villain told Woman's Day that on her wedding day she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life with Luca, but at the same time said she felt 'totally alone and lost' in the relationship. I've been lonely for a very long time,' she said. The loneliness stemmed from the fact that Chloe lived in Perth, where son Dylan's biological father lived, and Luca lived in Melbourne. Precious: Chloe's son Dylan, from a previous relationship is seen cuddle his new half-sister Happy: Chloe and Lee have been together for several years after she split with her childhood sweetheart and husband, Luca Pietropiccolo, back in 2015 She explained that Luca's interstate living situation was only meant to be for one year, but soon turned into three and he wouldn't move back to Perth to be with his wife and stepson. Chloe and Luca wed in an intimate ceremony at Our Lady Of Peace Church followed by a reception at the iconic Plaza Hotel. At the time, she posted a series of photos on social media taken with friends and family at New York's famous tourist spots, including Central Park and Rockefeller Centre - she was on top of the world. Remember them? Chloe starred on My Kitchen Rules with her partner in crime, Kelly Ramsay, back in 2014 There were absolutely no signs that there was trouble in paradise, but when the couple returned from their honeymoon in Las Vegas, Chloe said that they both went back to their respective States and essentially lead a 'together yet single' existence. Funnily enough, even Chloe's best friend, bridesmaid and MKR partner in crime Kelly knew the marriage was doomed. Even on the wedding day I had my doubts,' she told the publication. HONG KONG - On good days, Leung Wai-sheung's hardest task is disinfecting mattresses, bed rails and cabinets. On others, she must change diapers for coronavirus patients who are hooked to a ventilator, too weak to make their way to the bathroom. Leung, a 54-year-old patient-care assistant in an isolation ward at Hong Kong's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, does not consider herself a front-line fighter against the coronavirus. A decade of serving patients had prepared her for the risks, she said, and quitting has never been on her mind. But Leung and others like her - street cleaners, hotel housekeepers, subway disinfecting crews - form a largely unheralded hygiene army helping to prevent the spread of the virus. Many of them elderly or migrants, they toil at considerable risk to their health, spending extended periods away from their families to minimize potential exposure. As anti-government unrest resumes here, many of these workers also bear the brunt of clearing debris, spent tear gas canisters and broken glass left behind by protesters and police. On Sunday, a cleaner collapsed after a group of people rushed into a bathroom where she was working; she was hospitalized in critical condition. In November, an elderly cleaner was struck in the head by a brick and died during street clashes. Two boys aged 16 and 17 have been charged with his murder. In cities such as Hong Kong, these workers earn minimum wage and are often treated as part of an underclass. While their efforts have allowed residents to ease back to normal life after the pandemic, they have largely relied on social workers and charity groups for protective gear such as masks, sanitizer and eyewear, underscoring the inequality and disproportionate burdens that have defined this public health crisis. "Back in February, when things were at the worst here, we had nothing, no protective gear or no masks," said Lee Chun Kwok, 70, a street cleaner who has become a daily fixture in his assigned area in Mong Kok, a dense Hong Kong neighborhood. "But luckily I have a strong body, so I have been safe." - - - Lee used to work as a security guard for a bus company. But when he reached the mandatory retirement age, he had barely enough saved. He turned to a company contracted by Hong Kong's government to clean public spaces and began working 10-hour shifts sweeping, collecting trash and clearing garbage cans. Like most street cleaners, Lee was hired on a contract without health insurance or other benefits. He earns about $1,500 a month with overtime but gets help from a Catholic charity, the Pastoral Center for Workers. Ho Tin Lok, a program officer at the group, said private companies win government tenders by offering the lowest rates. Street cleaners are typically paid the legal minimum, about $4.50 an hour. "It is almost impossible for them to survive in Hong Kong on such low pay," Ho said. Even before the outbreak, he said, the charity had been helping cleaners apply for subsidies and rental relief. Developing covid-19 does not count as a work-related injury, he added, meaning any cleaner requiring treatment for the virus must pay for it. Lee lives apart from his family - which is on the other side of Hong Kong, in a subdivided apartment of less than 100 square feet - so that he can be closer to work for his 6:30 a.m. starts. He does not have a washing machine, so on his own dime he visits a laundromat to clean and disinfect everything he wears, including his uniform. Lee said his wife works in a restaurant where business suffered as patrons dried up during the outbreak. "There is no other choice for me, really," Lee said. "I have to make a living." When reports of a new respiratory virus reached Hong Kong, which was hit hard in the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, Lee and other cleaners badgered their employers for protective gear such as surgical masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and eye protection, aware that their exposure to a variety of surfaces puts them at greater risk. "Unlike the others, there is no work from home for us," Lee said. For weeks, he said, street cleaners reused masks for nine-hour shifts, until nongovernment organizations stepped in to provide more. Later in February, authorities set aside masks produced by inmates at correctional facilities for some 21,700 government-contracted cleaners. But cleaners interviewed by The Washington Post said that one mask a day is insufficient - the coverings turn moist and unhygienic after a few hours. Rai, a 54-year-old street cleaner from Nepal who spoke on the condition of using only her first name, for fear of retribution from her employer, said she packs her own masks when she goes out to her assigned area in Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping district, and swaps them out on her breaks. She had to ask her family in Nepal to send additional supplies. Of the $1,496 she makes a month, she sends most of it back home to her four children and spends the rest on rent. - - - In March, as hundreds of Hong Kong residents returned from coronavirus hot spots around the world and served mandatory quarantine orders, the risk of infection shifted from the streets to the hotels that housed these suspected carriers. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Chan Lok, a 38-year-old housekeeping supervisor at a hotel in Mong Kok, said his team went on high alert. Without a standardized policy across hotels, Chan consulted other cleaning supervisors to implement new hygiene protocols. Their hotel - which Chan declined to name, because he was not authorized to speak on its behalf - was not a designated quarantine facility. But management decided that if there were a confirmed case on the premises, no one would enter the room in question for 48 hours, after which workers would disinfect it - mattress, sheets and all - and then clean it again. Protective gear was sourced from around the world for the cleaning staff, and a new disinfecting regimen was implemented for all rooms. "They just asked us to figure out a plan," Chan said of his managers. "They never discussed a situation where a staff member may have to self-quarantine if they come in contact with a confirmed case, or what would happen to their salary or livelihoods." Chan said he is not hard-up, but most of his front-line cleaning staffers are new migrants who support families in China. Hotels are making employees take unpaid leave each month because they cannot afford to pay them with the dramatic drop in revenue. A tense moment came last month when Chan noticed a guest wearing one of the government-issued electronic monitoring bands given to returning travelers under mandatory quarantine. Chan and the hotel manager kicked him out. - - - At Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Leung finds herself slipping into the role of a therapist, trying to cheer up her patients and distract them with small talk. But at times, Leung has struggled, too. At the height of the outbreak, when she was tending to several coronavirus patients, hospital management put her up in a hotel to protect her family from the risk of infection. She has not gone home since mid-March. "I miss my family very much, especially my 2-year-old grandson," she said. "We only get to talk via video chat at night." Leung says she is grateful for the $2,300 she makes a month and feels a great sense of pride and mission in her work. The hospital also provides her with an allowance, she said. With Hong Kong recording no new local cases for several weeks, everyday life is restarting for many. Some students have returned to school, fitness centers have dusted off their machines, and movie theaters have resumed screenings. Karaoke bars will reopen this week, and air passengers will be able to transit through the city from Monday. Just 31 coronavirus patients remain in hospitals. For Leung, work goes on. The N95 masks stifle her breathing, fitted so tightly they leave marks on her face. Her family has to wait awhile still before they can see her. "But that's just my work, and my responsibility," she said. "I just want the patients to be well as soon as possible and for the virus to leave our society." Several students at Miami University in Ohio have tested positive for coronavirus after attending off-campus parties while the state was on lockdown, officials say. The Butler County General Health District on Monday said it is investigating an unspecified number of cases involving students at the school in Oxford. The cases are linked to social gatherings and parties that took place off-campus between May 8 and May 16, according to a district news release. Health officials urged anyone who attended a gathering in Oxford during those dates to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms for 14 days from their last day in the city. 'As we know, the COVID-19 virus can spread quickly between people and infect groups of people in a hurry,' Butler County Health Commissioner Jennifer Bailer said. 'This disease is serious. In young adults it is often mild, but has the potential to become critical for those with underlying disease or other risk factors.' Several students at Miami University in Ohio have tested positive for coronavirus after attending off-campus parties while the state was on lockdown, officials say. Students are seen on the campus in Oxford in recent news footage Officials are also working to contact anyone who may have been exposed to an infected individual. 'We want everyone potentially exposed to be aware so they can self-monitor and get tested quickly to reduce potential further spread,' Bailer said. 'Should you receive a call from the Health District, we encourage your complete cooperation.' Miami University notified students, parents and local organizations about the cluster of cases in a statement on Friday. 'Having an existing partnership with Miami University has been extremely helpful to our investigation. They have been supportive and collaborative during this entire process,' Bailer said. Miami University notified students, parents and local organizations about the cluster of cases in a statement on Friday. The campus in Oxford is pictured above in a file photo The university suspended face-to-face instruction and large gatherings in early March after the first coronavirus cases were reported in Ohio. Students were urged to leave the campus on March 18 when a case was confirmed in Oxford, although some of those living off-campus stayed behind. Governor Mike DeWine issued a stay-at-home order on March 23 banning gatherings of more than 10 people. He began lifting restrictions on May 15, allowing hair salons, barbershops, tattoo parlors and other non-essential businesses to reopen with limited capacity. Ohio has recorded at least 33,008 coronavirus cases and 2,003 deaths as of Tuesday. Butler County has recorded 824 confirmed coronavirus cases and 17 probable cases to date. China will step up efforts in building a stronger protection network in the public health domain to better protect people's lives and health as the country is shifting to COVID-19 regular prevention and control. On Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, stressed fortifying the public health protection network as he was participating in a deliberation at the annual national legislative session with lawmakers from central China's Hubei Province, recently hard-hit by the epidemic. China's public health and medical service systems have played their key roles in dealing with the epidemic, but some weak links and inadequacies were also exposed, Xi said, urging prompt efforts to fix them. Xi stressed reforming disease prevention and control system; boosting the epidemic monitoring, early warning and emergency response capacity; perfecting the treatment system for major epidemics; and improving public health emergency laws and regulations. At the ongoing "two sessions" that also include the annual session of the country's top political advisory body, issues concerning public health security have become some of the most discussed topics, with national lawmakers and political advisors putting forward bills and suggestions to improve the country's public health system. In its annual work report, the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, or the top legislature, said it will prioritize legislation on public health this year. The committee said it will revise a slew of laws this year, including the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, and the Emergency Response Law. Chinese lawmakers and political advisors proposed improving the emergency response mechanism for major epidemics in a comprehensive way. Ge Minghua, an NPC deputy, suggested establishing of and improving on a unified and efficient leadership and command system, and a direct and automatically-triggered reporting mechanism for public health emergencies with unknown causes. His remarks were echoed by Ling Yun, another NPC deputy, who proposed that under the command system, command centers should be set up at different levels across the country. The lawmakers and political advisors also suggested enhancing the treatment system for major epidemics and strengthening the building of qualified public health teams. According to the government work report submitted to the national legislature for deliberation, China will increase inputs on the research and development of vaccines, medicines and rapid testing technologies. The country will also build more medical facilities for epidemic control and treatment, set up more mobile laboratories, ensure emergency supplies and strengthen public health and epidemic prevention at the primary level, the report said. Wang Chen, a political advisor and a renowned respiratory specialist, said China should enhance medical education by establishing a sound mechanism to attract talent to study medicine and foster more health care practitioners. He also suggested building a higher-level national institute of medical science, which can lead and coordinate overall medical research and innovation for the development of health and life sciences. Yue Xihuan, an NPC deputy and a community-level official, stressed the need to enhance the construction of public health teams at the primary level. "In the battle against the COVID-19 epidemic, community-level medical facilities have taken huge responsibilities for epidemic prevention and control, but these facilities are short on medical staff," said Yue. "We should increase the flow of medical professionals to the community levels and rural areas." Puducherry: Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy will present the 2016-17 budget on August 29 in the Assembly. The previous AINRC government headed by Rangasamy had adopted a Vote on Account Bill in March allocating funds for the first six months of the current fiscal. Narayanasamy had held discussions with representatives of industries associations, farmers, government officials among others here as a pre-budget exercise. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on May 26, 2020 2020/05/26 Xinhua News Agency: On May 25, Afghanistan's National Security Council spokesman said the government released 100 Taliban prisoners on that day. He said the prisoner release will continue in batches of 100 daily until 2,000 prisoners are freed, hoping this will eventually lead to a lasting peace. Sources say the three-day ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday will be extended for another week to reduce violence. What's China's comment? Zhao Lijian: The Afghan people yearn for peace and cessation of fighting and violence more than anything. This is also the shared aspiration of regional countries and the international community. China welcomes and appreciates the release of prisoners and reduction of violence by the Afghan government and Taliban. It is conducive to promoting intra-Afghan negotiations and realizing peace and stability. China stands ready to work with the international community to offer support and assistance to the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. The Paper: It is reported that on May 25, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a press conference that it is a fact that COVID-19 spread from China to the world. What is your comment? Zhao Lijian: The origin of COVID-19 is a serious scientific issue that should be studied by scientists and medical experts based on facts and science. We firmly oppose the behavior of politicizing this issue and using it to stigmatize others as it goes against the professional opinions of WHO and a number of research institutions and medical experts. It also goes against the efforts and aspiration of the international community, including China and Japan, in jointly fighting the pandemic. I want to stress that indiscriminate political deference shall never take precedence over scientific judgement. Solidarity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon for mankind to defeat the virus. The Globe and Mail: A Canadian court is expected to release a decision on Wednesday on the Meng Wanzhou case. What result does China expect from this decision? Zhao Lijian: China's position on the Meng Wanzhou case is consistent and clear. The US and Canada abused their bilateral extradition treaty and arbitrarily took compulsory measures against a Chinese citizen without cause. This is a serious political incident that grossly violates the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese citizen. The Chinese government is steadfast in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens. The Canadian side should correct its mistake, immediately release Ms. Meng and ensure her safe return to China so as to avoid any continuous harm to China-Canada relations. China News Service: China released information on sending a team of medical experts on COVID-19 to Equatorial Guinea. Can you share with us how the team is going to help the country fight the epidemic? Zhao Lijian: At the invitation of the government of Equatorial Guinea, a Chinese medical team of 12 experts arrived in Malabo on May 25 and received a warm welcome from government officials. The team will share anti-epidemic experience with Equatorial Guinea's health authorities and COVID-19 Response and Monitoring Technical Committee as well as WHO's Equatorial Guinea Office and visit designated hospitals and labs for COVID-19 in Malabo and provide training. They will also offer anti-epidemic guidance to the resident Chinese medical team and share know-how and experience with local Chinese communities. By dispatching this team, China is acting on the pledges made by President Xi Jinping in his important remarks at the opening event of the 73rd WHA. It is also a vivid illustration of the profound friendship between China and Equatorial Guinea, and between China and Africa. The Globe and Mail: You just urged Canada to release Meng Wanzhou at an early date to avoid more damage caused to relations between Canada and China. If the court does not find in Meng Wanzhou's favor, will China take reprisal measures against Canada? Zhao Lijian: I don't take hypothetical questions. EFE News Agency: Yesterday you said that the United States could be met with countermeasures if it insists on harming China's interests on issues related to Hong Kong. Could you perhaps detail the countermeasures? Zhao Lijian: It's too early to answer this question. Follow-up: Certain lawyers' association in Hong Kong yesterday said the NPC's national security legislation could be against the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR. What do you think about it? Zhao Lijian: Wang Chen, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has made explanations on the draft decision concerning national security legislation for Hong Kong. The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have all released statements and made clear China's position on this. I suggest you read them through. I want to stress that the Chinese government is determined in implementing the "one country, two systems" policy, safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and opposing external interference in Hong Kong affairs. The Globe and Mail: Meng Wanzhou has been able to defend herself in an open court in Canada with legal representation. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have not been able to defend themselves against those charges. Why not? Zhao Lijian: On the Michael Kovrig case and the Michael Spavor case, China has expounded its position many times. They were suspected of engaging in activities endangering China's national security. In accordance with law, China's judicial authorities have been dealing with the cases independently and ensuring their legal rights. China urges the Canadian side to respect the rule of law and China's judicial sovereignty and stop making irresponsible remarks. I want to stress that the legal rights and interests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been guaranteed in accordance with law. Follow-up: Does China expect Meng Wanzhou to be set free on Wednesday? If she is released by the Canadian court, will China quickly release Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor? Zhao Lijian: I have made very clear the position of the Chinese government on this issue. WHO's praise of China makes the Australian leadership of criticism of China on coronavirus all the more stupid ("Openness: WHO renews praise for China's coronavirus response", smh.com.au). It's all very well for US President Donald Trump to lavish conspiracy theories about a UN delegation, but does that mean we are then to question the integrity of the UN itself? So many of the attacks on China are about defending poor responses to the pandemic by those governments who place economic matters ahead of human lives. Just because China is a communist regime does not mean it is secretive and underhand on everything. The West just has to get used to the fact China is on the brink of being the leading economic strength globally. - Gary Bigelow, Teralba It has now been proven that the dossier peddled by Mike Pompeo to the world to prop up US allegations about China deliberately spreading COVID-19 contained no input from any intelligence agency, and was a plausibly deniable "non-paper" created by the US State Department. In a word, it was propaganda. Trump and Pompeo would have us believe, without evidence, that this tragic pandemic is "China's Chernobyl", but the blatant lies used by the US as a pretext to invade Iraq constitute precedent that truth does not stand in the way of the Republican Party when it wants a war, or at least a distraction. In this case it would be to turn the public eye away from the chaotic incompetence of the Trump administration. Let us hope the Morrison government will not be led, gullibly or worse, knowingly, into another "coalition of the willing". - Peter Craig, Alexandria Peter Hartcher has given a coherent explanation of Xi Jinping's aggression, both verbal and physical. I suggest that Xi's very survival is threatened by the weakness of China's economic growth. This is what makes him so desperate and so dangerous across so many fronts from Tibet through Xinjiang and Hong Kong to Taiwan. - Mark Porter, New Lambton Politicians fan flames for dire future The very title of the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements illustrates the tragic irony of the federal government's schizophrenic relationship with last summer's bushfires ("Bushfires left estimated 445 dead from smoke and a nation traumatised", smh.com.au May 26). Despite the terrible toll on our lives, health and environment from these events, Angus Taylor, our Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, is fanning the flames of the real national disaster as he resolutely wastes billions of taxpayer dollars to prolong the use of fossil fuels. Taylor seems determined to prolong the catastrophic impacts of climate change at all costs. - Bruce Spence, Balmain If a fortune teller was using a crystal ball to predict the future as accurately as our scientists, we would listen. The ferocity of last summer's bush fires was exactly as predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology, the commission heard on Monday. The CSIRO predicts the future will be worse if greenhouse gasses are not reduced. The most effective method to deal with climate change is a price on carbon. Business wants it, the public want it, but the politicians are running scared. Time for us all to stand up and demand a global price on carbon. It's not as scary as a repeat of a summer of firestorms, surely. - Barbara Kennedy, Wahroonga An unwelcome symptom It seems it's back to work for some but not all. This is very hard on one group the very fit relatively elderly. I was working at a children's hospital and retired on January 31. Very poor timing, as it coincided with COVID-19. Now I'm finding that volunteering is not simple. Organisations using volunteers now seem unwilling to accept any people over 70. While this is mainly due to fear of increased risk to health from infections, the policy will certainly risk increased depression and other mental health problems. It does not bode well for the elderly of the future. - (Dr) Bridget Wilcken, Mosman Help flora, fauna and firies In its admirable, if somewhat tardy, delivery of funding for wildlife carers, the NSW government fails to lend support to the leading wildlife carer - native vegetation. ("State funding earmarked for wildlife carers misses target", May 25) This week at Manyana on the NSW south coast, a remnant bushland habitat spared by the fires faces the developer's bulldozer. Wedderburn, a rare haven for Sydney koalas, faces a similar future. The relevant state ministers have an opportunity to use lateral thinking, planning flexibility and rational compromise to deliver protection for both sites whilst nurturing successful economic enterprises on alternative locations. - Steve Dillon, Thirroul Not only is the Rural Fire Service $50 million richer but so is the NSW government, as it will no longer need to fund many operations of the service up to that amount ("Court rules donated fire millions can't be shared", May 26). I wonder how much of that windfall it will spend on enhanced funding for bushfire victims, human, flora and fauna, who have been promised much but by many accounts have so far received little, and for whose benefit many of the relevant donations were doubtless intended? - Frank McGrath, Bulli Surely the NSW government could reduce the funding to the RFS and redirect the equivalent amount to the other intended recipients of those generous donations. - Neil Craddock, Wollongong Crying out for a voice In 1999, after the referendum on a republic was defeated, Malcolm Turnbull said "John Howard broke this Nation's heart". It might equally be said that Malcolm Turnbull broke the heart of First Nations peoples when he summarily dismissed the Uluru Statement from the Heart. So it is encouraging to read that Andrew Bragg believes progress is now being made to provide a voice for our Indigenous people in our national Parliament ("Virus has not derailed recognition", May 26). Bear in mind that Australia is the only commonwealth country that does not have a treaty with its indigenous people. - Michael Healy, East Maitland Super discipline pays off I was young once. I worked in a poorly paid government job where I was forced to pay superannuation. I resented this imposition and, given any opportunity, would have been delighted to access this store of what I regarded as stolen cash ("Long-term warnings as young draw on super cash", May 25). After all, who could envisage then that retirement was a conceivable possibility? Who could dream that I might live so long? Well the future is here now. No fancy exploitation of negative gearing, share franking credits or the like. Just a plain old super pension. Not rich but comfortable. I am thoroughly grateful that the 'no touching', inflexible rules applied to super were consistently applied. - Paul Hutchinson, Shell Cove A predictable frenzy Treasury department, analysts, chief economists, private forecasters ("Economists fear 'second wave demand shock'", May 26 ) are still at it - making predictions about the future of the Australian economy post the COVID-19 shutdown. After last week's "accounting error" came to light, will any of these experts predict the unpredictability of predictions? - Therese Schier, Casino People power will win The legal challenge to the closure of the West Australian and Queensland borders will no doubt make the legal profession rich but Queenslanders are resolute, direct-action individuals. It will be people power that opens their borders. They are hurting and when survival is threatened their leadership will have no option but to comply. - DArcy Hardy, North Turramurra Front line beckons It is interesting that we don't see Pete Evans volunteering to go to the US, Brazil, Russia or Spain to volunteer on the COVID-19 front lines, where he could perhaps test his anti-vaxxer theories and so-called treatments ("AMA fears anti-vax movement growth", May 26). His thoughts are all espoused from the relative safety of his own home in Australia. - Vivienne Freeman, Warrawee A different world I have had a Rip van Winkle moment. I woke this morning and found that unions are no longer the anti-Christ ("Training overhaul to drive recovery: Bid for union support", May 26). -Greg Thompson, Bega Paper trail During a stint in hospital I forgot to cancel my Herald delivery. After a few days the delivery person noticed the build-up of papers and alerted the police, who followed through and ascertained I was not incapacitated or dead. Can't get that type of community response with an online subscription. - Patrick J Russell, Sanctuary Point Marines on the run As someone who worked as an Australian volunteer for the UNTAET organisation in East Timor in 2000, I must refute the statement (Letters, May 26) that there were no US '"boots on the ground". There were, in fact, some 12 US boots on the ground in Dili every morning when the US Marines went for their morning run (fully armed), before withdrawing to the small ship on which they lived. - Ian Usman Lewis, Kentucky Rugba-bubble Regarding the return of crowds to games, blindly-besotted NRL executives need to step outside their bubble and recognise that, for the rest of us, rugby league is not to die for. - Jennifer Briggs, Kilaben Bay Seismic leader The name's Ardern, Jacinda Ardern. Shaken, but not stirred. - Andrew Holland, Ainslie (ACT) The governments of India and Pakistan are stand-outs in terms of asking Facebook to reveal information related to user accounts. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), its Pakistan affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist (PFUJ) and Indian affiliate the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) express serious concern regarding their governments increasing number of requests to access Facebook data of individual users. According to Facebooks Transparency Report, published on May 12, India is second only to the United States to request such data from Facebook. India sent 26,698 requests to Facebook in the July- December 2019 period, an increase of 28 per cent over the previous six months. Out of the total requests, Facebook responded to 57 per cent of the Indian governments queries. Pakistans government sent a total of 2,027 requests to the Facebook to divulge user data. According to Facebook, out of the total requests received, the social media giant provided information on at least 1,054 users to the Pakistani authorities. The Pakistan government had also sent 2,270 requests demanding social media content restrictions, the second highest after Russia. According to the breakdown of the content restricted in Pakistan, Facebook suspended 2,009 posts. Facebook releases its global transparency report bi-annually to provide information on the nature and extent of government requests, content restrictions and standards enforcement. The report details the nature and extent of government requests for user data. Both the India and Pakistan have a reputation for censorship of content on social media platforms. Indias Information Technology Act, 2000 allows the government to remove content posted on internet. In Pakistan the recently introduced Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules allows the government to request social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to block or remove posts that the government objects to. The PFUJ said: The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) believes in freedom of speech and expression and argues that the accounts on social media remain functional until they are found to violate any law of the land or ignite ethnic or religious unrest. The PFUJ supports the peoples right to enjoy their freedom of expression and urges the authorities to avoid undue restrictions on social media accounts. The IJU said: We are against the practice of the government to collect data from social media platforms, bypassing right to privacy laws. The IFJ said: IFJ is concerned at the intent behind the Indian and Pakistan governments in requesting such information. This interference is a threat to freedom of expression. A 12-year-old migrant boy who had been stranded in a park in Dwarka all alone was finally reunited with his parents when Twitterati came forward to help the child. IPS officer Arun Bothra shared the incredible story on Twitter and also wrote about the power of social media. According to the thread, the boy lived in Delhi with his parents who went back to their hometown Bihar, leaving him behind with relatives with a promise to be back soon. Magic of Twitter. A short story.A migrant couple staying in Delhi left for their home in Bihar before the lockdown. They left their 12 years old child with a relative. But the family soon threw him out. With nowhere to go the child moved to a park in Dwarka and stayed there... pic.twitter.com/Gk1QxYb25I Arun Bothra (@arunbothra) May 23, 2020 But that did not work out. The relatives allegedly threw the boy out. Alone and left to fend for himself, the boy moved into a park in Dwarka where he had been living since. He befriended a stray dog which kept him company. Bothra wrote that it was a Twitter user named Sneha who tweeted his story first and tagged "India Cares", an organisation out to help people like this boy during the coronavirus outbreak in the country. A kid in Delhi needs to be reunited with parents in Samastipur. His parents left before lockdown and left kid with his https://t.co/Z8iylFMjmq disupte happend and kid is now living in park.His meals are managed by a friend but Streets are not safe. @indiacares_2020 @arunbothra Sneha (@Sneha37891894) May 20, 2020 Bothra mentions that there were trains between Patna and Delhi which could help reunite the boy with his parents, but the parents were in Samastipur. An IPS officer in Patna then helped the boy's parents reach Patna and India Cares arranged tickets for them to travel to Delhi. @Sanjay97odisha arranged for their travel to Patna. @indiacares_2020 arranged the tickets. The family reached Delhi today morning and met the child in the park.Moral of the story: You may not have money or position to help people but tagging someone on Twitter is easy & free pic.twitter.com/IoHhcIrlWM Arun Bothra (@arunbothra) May 23, 2020 On May 23, the boy's parents finally arrived at the park where their kid had been living and it was a happy reunion, to say the least. Advertisement Congratulates Muslim faithful An All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Mr. Taiwo Alao on Saturday urged politicians in the country to encourage the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila in his concerted efforts to raise the standard of living of Nigerians. He also praised President Muhammadu Buhari for putting Nigeria on its feet again. Advertisement In a message marking Eid al-Fitr, the holiday following the end of Islams holy month of Ramadan, the Lagos APC leader described Gbajabiamila as a key to the solution of the Nigerian problem. Fondly called Tolani Twins, the Lagos APC chieftain asked Nigerians to always project the image of the country in its true perspective. He appealed to political leaders in the country to avoid any action capable of destabilizing the nation. Specifically, he urged Nigerians to conduct themselves in ways that would inspire confidence in the durability of the countrys democracy Alao emphasized the practical workings of democracy, Gbajabiamilas concerns for Nigerians, his excellent performance, credibility and Nigerias standing internationally. He also underscored unity, togetherness and respect in his Eid al-Fitr message. Alao urged imams in Nigeria to continue to pray for Gbajabiamila and the member representing Surulere Constituency 1 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Desmond Elliot. Ending the message, he said It is with great pleasure that I send greetings of peace and goodwill to my brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, The calendar is moving toward June, which signals the start of hurricane season, and Lake Houston area residents are searching for ways to prepare. Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District, said the prediction indicators in the Atlantic Basin show that it could be an above-average season. HURRICANE SEASON AND COVID-19: NOAA predicts an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year An average season in Atlantic Basin over approximately the last 30 years features about 12 named storms that have winds that reach at least 40 miles per hour, Lindner said. Hurricane season lasts from June 1 through the end of November. The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration has forecast 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 of which could be hurricanes. Of those, three to six are projected be considered major hurricanes that have winds of at least 111 mph, according to NOAA. Last year there were 18 named storms, Lindner said. Although predictions show there could be several named storms, it does not necessarily mean they will have a large impact or make landfall, he said. More Information Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman's office provides the following recommendations for preparing for a hurricane. Prepare by stocking up on supplies including food, bottled water, protective clothing, medications, flashlights, important documents, first aid necessities, road maps and maintain a full tank of gasoline. Create an emergency plan for the household and review it with everyone in the home. Have an emergency contact with an out-of-state friend or family member so they can check on your location. Follow instructions from authorities in regards to evacuations and other safety measures by checking through radio, television or other media outlets that provide emergency information. Plan an evacuation route before the hurricane. Important documents, including ID cards and other vital information, should be placed in a secure and waterproof container. If you have pets, keep essentials for them handy including food, medications, toys and other needs. See More Collapse We have to prepare every year because, as we know here, as we saw last year and as we saw back in 2017 with Harvey, it only takes one storm to cause us big problems, Lindner said. Predictions this year show the potential for more activity near the Caribbean, which could potentially threaten Central America and eventually move the Gulf of Mexico or toward Florida, although they have not seen those paths in a while, Lindner said. The last four years of storms have usually developed close the United States coast and made landfall or developed near the Bermuda area, according to Lindner. Hurricane Harvey and Tropical Storm Imelda were both inland flooding events caused by heavy rain. Impacts of storms are individual to the storm itself and there are too many parameters that characterize what impacts each storm will have until it has formed, Lindner said. He added there is no way to determine what will happen in the future based on what has happened recently with storms, but people should be prepared for all of the hazards these storms could present. CORONAVIRUS: Using cellphone data, national study predicts huge June spike in Houston coronavirus cases Lindner said named storms present a three-pronged hazard wind, rain, and storm surge and each storm has its own. To prepare, Lindner said its important to understand that a lot of preparedness information is generic. Keep in mind that a preparation kit should be built around the individual and household needs. That can include whether the household is in an evacuation zone, whether individuals choose to shelter in place, and if pets or small children are in the house. We have to be careful that we dont forget the other factors that come along, especially with hurricanes, and that is the wind factor and also the potential for the storm surge near the coast, Lindner said. So we havent dealt with those two factors here in southeast Texas really since [Hurricane] Ike back in 2008. He recommends watching weather forecasts at least once a day during this season. Flood insurance is also suggested by Lindner even if your household is not in a floodplain. If you have specific medications you need, or if you have a pet, or if you have young children, all of those circumstances require certain things in that kit to make things easier and better when you go through a storm or in the aftermath of a storm, Lindner said. The Harris County Flood Control District does have its own flood warning system that covers a large portion of the region that provides real-time water level information from creeks and bayous which can be found at www.harriscountyfws.org. By signing up, individuals can receive notifications about a set water level designation at particular gauges. For individuals in the Lake Houston area, Lindner recommends checking flood warnings in the East Fork and West Fork of the San Jacinto River. savannah.mehrtens@chron.com SAN FRANCISCO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Appdome, a no-code mobile integration and solutions platform, today announced that it has joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), an ecosystem of independent software vendors that have integrated their solutions to better defend against a world of increasing threats. Appdome's mission has always been to make integrating security and enhanced functionality into mobile apps fast and efficient with its no-code platform. Joining MISA is a natural extension of that mission. Appdome makes it easy to build the Microsoft Intune App SDK, a leading Mobile App Management (MAM) system in the market, into any Android or iOS app without any coding required. Once the build is finished, an organization can deploy the built app directly to Intune and their employees can install the app on their mobile devices via Intune. Microsoft Intune is part of Microsoft Endpoint Manager, a unified, integrated management platform for managing all endpoints. It provides transformative modern management and security that meets customers where they are and helps them move to the cloud. Appdome makes it easy for organizations to add and manage any internally developed or third-party (ISV) mobile app from their Endpoint Manager admin center. Additionally, CISO and DevSecOps teams can also choose to build Microsoft Enterprise Authentication and MicroVPN into the mobile app and ensure full integration with the enterprise controls of the organization, all without the need for developer resources. This gives organizations full control over who can access corporate data and how, regardless of whether this data is hosted behind the firewall or in the cloud. Finally, as part of the Appdome build, organizations can choose to add features from the Appdome Mobile Security Suite, such as App hardening, Man-in-the-Middle protection, and native and non-native code obfuscation (including for apps built in Xamarin) to their built apps. "Appdome's no-code platform enables organizations to integrate critical security measures into their apps in mere minutes, saving time and money while ensuring strong security without delaying release schedules," said Tom Tovar, co-founder and CEO at Appdome. "The Microsoft Intelligent Security Association is bringing the cybersecurity community together to protect our shared customers. With Appdome, organizations can rapidly integrate Microsoft Intune, Enterprise Authentication and MicroVPN into their apps to provide best-in-class mobile app management while strengthening security. In the current COVID-19 environment, Appdome provides Microsoft customers with an instant solution that will give all their employees secure remote access to corporate data from their mobile devices, ensuring Business and Workspace continuity." Ryan McGee, Director of Microsoft Security Product Marketing said, "Customers need to be confident that their sensitive data, employees' identities, applications, infrastructure, and endpoints are always secure. We've invested in the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association to provide customers with more options that meet their unique security requirements." For more information on Appdome for Microsoft Intune, please visit https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/web-apps/appdome1585158116281.appdome_intune For more information on MISA, please visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/intelligent-security-association. About Appdome Appdome changes the way people build mobile apps. Appdome's industry defining no-code mobile solutions platform uses a patented, artificial-intelligence coding technology to power a self-serve, user-friendly service that anyone can use to build new security, authentication, access, enterprise mobility, mobile threat, analytics and more into any Android and iOS app instantly. There are over 25,000 unique combinations of mobile features, kits, vendors, standards, SDKs and APIs available on Appdome. Over 150+ leading financial, healthcare, government, and m-commerce providers use Appdome to consistently deliver richer and safer mobile experiences to millions of mobile end users, eliminating complex development and accelerating mobile app lifecycles. For more information, visit www.appdome.com. SOURCE Appdome Related Links https://www.appdome.com TAMPA, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Clyra Medical Technologies, Inc., developer of innovative advanced antimicrobial products, today announced that Shawn Dougherty, experienced C-level executive responsible for several successful high-profile product launches, has joined the company to serve as its Chief Revenue Officer. Shawn Dougherty is an entrepreneur with substantial experience growing sales and revenues for new and innovative products. Prior to joining Clyra, Shawn co-founded mophie, the number one selling battery case manufacturer for mobile devices in North America. As COO and founder, she helped mophie create the first juice pack battery case for the iPhone in North America and built an exclusive partnership with Apple. With time, they created a solid business structure, allowing the company to thrive and withstand rapid growth, both in the U.S. and internationally. mophie raised millions of dollars in multiple rounds of capital and debt facilities. Under Shawn's guidance and strategic vision, the company grew from three employees in a barn in Michigan to a multi-million-dollar business with 300+ employees in five facilities in California, Michigan, China, Hong Kong and Amsterdam. Shawn joins the Clyra team as the company has just launched its FDA registered Clyraguard personal protection spray to help protect non-critical personal protective equipment from the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19). Clyraguard is a spray designed to help prevent cross contamination of the personal protective equipment worn by front-line healthcare workers by the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus, the cause of COVID-19 disease. Registered with the FDA as a Class I general purpose disinfectant, Clyraguard features an extremely high antimicrobial efficacy at 99.999% kill rate (complete inactivation), and the recent testing showed it inactivates the COVID-19 coronavirus below the limits of detection of the testing model. More information about Clyraguard can be seen at the Clyra Medical website: www.clyramedical.com/clyraguard About Clyra Medical Technologies, Inc. Clyra Medical Technologies (www.ClyraMedical.com) offers patented and patent pending effective, and safe, advanced antimicrobial products. Clyra has developed an FDA 510(k)-cleared product offering a Wound Irrigation Solution for advanced wound care available to hospitals and physicians in the U.S. In addition, Clyra offers Clyraguard Personal Protective Spray, an effective, long-lasting disinfectant for personal protective equipment. Clyra products are designed to offer the highest standards of antimicrobial and antiviral activity that are tissue and skin friendly, non-staining and are effective against biofilms. Contact Steven V. Harrison steveh@clyramedical.com SOURCE: Clyra Medical Technologies, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591325/Shawn-Dougherty-Joins-Clyra-Medical-Technologies-as-Chief-Revenue-Officer For the first time, Twitter has flagged some of President Donald Trumps tweets with a fact-check warning. On Tuesday, Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots fraudulent and predicted that mail boxes will be robbed, among other things. Under the tweets, there is now a link reading Get the facts about mail-in ballots that guides users to a Twitter moments page with fact checks and news stories about Trumps unsubstantiated claims. Until now, the president has simply blown past Twitters half-hearted attempts to enforce rules intended to promote civility and healthy conversation on its most prominent user. Trump frequently amplifies misinformation, spreads abuse and uses his pulpit to personally attack private citizens and public figures alike all forbidden under Twitters official rules. In a statement, Twitter said Trumps vote-by-mail tweets contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots. Trump has never previously faced Twitter sanctions on his account. The husband of a woman who died by accident two decades ago in an office of then-GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough recently demanded that Twitter remove the presidents baseless tweets suggesting that Scarborough, now a fierce Trump critic, killed her. Twitter issued a statement expressing its regret to the husband but so far has taken no action on those tweets. Over the weekend, the president issued several tweets calling into question the legality of mail-in-ballots. The storm of tweets followed Facebook and Twitter posts from Trump last week that wrongly claimed Michigans secretary of state mailed ballots to 7.7 million registered voters. Trump later deleted the tweet and posted an edited version that still threatened to hold up federal funds. Twitter policy forbids sharing false or misleading information intended to intimidate or dissuade people from participating in an election or other civic process. While it has previously flagged tweets conveying misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never before put warnings on tweets for any other reason. Trump replied on Twitter, accusing the platform of interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election and insisting that as president, I will not allow this to happen. His 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said Twitters clear political bias had led the campaign to pull all our advertising from Twitter months ago. Twitter has banned all political advertising since last November. Trumps Scarborough tweets offer another example of the president using Twitter to spread misinformation in this case, about an accidental death that Trump persists in linking to the co-host of MSNBCs Morning Joe show. My request is simple: Please delete these tweets, Timothy J. Klausutis wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week. The body of Lori Kaye Klausutis, 28, was found in Scarboroughs Fort Walton Beach, Florida, congressional office on July 20, 2001. Trump has repeatedly tried to implicate Scarborough in the death even though Scarborough was in Washington, not Florida, at the time. There is no mystery to the death of Lori Klausutis. Medical officials ruled that the aide, who had a heart condition and told friends hours earlier that she wasnt feeling well, had fainted and hit her head. Foul play was not suspected. Klausutis wrote in his letter that he has struggled to move on with his life due to the ongoing bile and misinformation spread about his wife on the platform, most recently by Trump. His wife continues to be the subject of conspiracy theories 20 years after her death. Klausutis called his wifes death the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with and said he feels a marital obligation to protect her memory amid a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died. Trumps tweets violate Twitters community rules and terms of service, he said. An ordinary user like me would be banished, he wrote. At Tuesdays White House briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeatedly refused to say why Trump was pressing the unfounded allegations or whether he would stop tweeting about them. Instead, she focused on remarks that Scarborough made about the case that she said were inappropriate and flippant. Dorsey did not reply directly to Klausutis letter and has not taken any action on the presidents tweets. In a statement, Twitter said it was deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. Scarborough has urged the president to stop his baseless attacks. ___ AP Technology Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this story from New York. Catholic, Lutheran churches to defy Minn. gathering ban by resuming services Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Minnesota Catholic Conference and the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod of Minnesota have publicly declared that they will resume in-person worship services on May 26 despite state restrictions on religious gatherings. In separate letters sent to Gov. Tim Walz, the ecclesiastical bodies said they will defy a reopening order limiting in-person worship to more than 10 people. The church bodies plan to follow social distancing guidelines and have a limited capacity for their sanctuaries since they closed them earlier in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The letter from leaders of Minnesota's north and south districts of the conservative Lutheran denomination explained that they sent correspondence to churches statewide this week telling them that they can reopen next Tuesday and hold their first in-person Sunday worship services on May 31. The denomination had previously sent the governors office protocols that were developed following state and federal social distancing guidelines in hopes that the state would include churches in its reopening plan for businesses and other entities. We were disappointed to find that instead, you allowed retail and other non-critical businesses to open, setting a plan in place for bars and restaurants to reopen while limiting churches to meetings of [10] people or fewer, the letter explains. In the absence of a timeline or any other assurances that churches will soon be able to reopen, we find that we must move forward with our religious exercise in a safe manner. In a letter signed by several bishops led by the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Minnesota Catholic Conference told the governor on Wednesday that it is also disappointed that his May 13 order on reopening the state will prohibit worship gatherings of more than 10 people. The letter explained that the conference is permitting its parishes to resume public celebration on May 26. According to the Catholic leaders, opening on that day will give us time to be ready for the celebration of Pentecost on May 31. Parishes will be required to follow the strict protocols we have published for sanitation and social distancing and will have to limit attendance to one-third of the seating capacity of the church, the letter reads. The Catholic leaders stressed that they worked with their Lutheran colleagues to devise the sanitation plan. According to the Catholic leaders, the proposed protocols are based on the work of "national medical experts" and are consistent with the practices that have already been put in place in many dioceses throughout the United States. The Becket Fund, a religious liberty law firm that has successfully argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, put its support behind the Minnesota churches' reopening plans. In another letter sent to Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday, Becket Senior Counsel Eric Rassbach argued that Minnesota was engaging in unequal and unfair treatment of churches in comparison to how it treats secular businesses in their reopening plan. Now that you have determined that current circumstances allow the partial reopening of almost every critical and non-critical Minnesota business with appropriate safeguards, there is no valid, non-discriminatory reason to continue the blanket closure of churches, Rassbachs letter reads. To the contrary, basic equality and honest science not to mention the special solicitude afforded to religious freedom under both the federal and Minnesota constitutions require the end of this discriminatory policy and restoration of desperately needed in-person worship. As many states are in the beginning phases of their reopening plans, some churches have taken issue with what they believe to be unfair delays and restrictions on when and how they can reopen for in-person worship services. On example is in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-60-20. The California reopening order dictates that in-person worship will not be allowed until stage three. However, schools, restaurants, factories and other secular gatherings will be allowed to reopen in the second stage. Newsom's executive order garnered criticism from many congregations as well as the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department sent a letter to Newsom this week arguing that the order created an unequal treatment of faith communities. Whichever level of restrictions you adopt, these civil rights protections mandate equal treatment of persons and activities of a secular and religious nature, stated the letter from Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. Legal actions on the matter have produced mixed results. U.S. District Court Judge John W. Broomes issued an order in April on behalf of two Kansas churches that wanted to hold gatherings of more than 10 people despite a state order. Plaintiffs have made a substantial showing that development of the current restriction on religious activities shows religious activities were specifically targeted for more onerous restrictions than comparable secular activities, wrote Broomes. But earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued an opinion rejecting a request from churches for relief from a similar Illinois state order barring worship gatherings of 10 or more people. An injunction would risk the lives of plaintiffs congregants, as well as the lives of their family members, friends, co-workers and other members of their communities with whom they come in contact, wrote Gettleman. Their interest in communal services cannot and does not outweigh the health and safety of the public. WATERLOO A University of Waterloo food security expert was awarded one of Canadas most coveted research prizes for her work on global food systems. Jennifer Clapp was awarded one of six Killam research fellowships, a $140,000 prize that will support her two-year project on the impact large food corporations have on the global food supply. During her fellowship, Clapp will examine the reasons why many seed producers and agrichemical companies have merged to create what she calls mega companies. Four large companies control more than 65 per cent of the global seed market, Clapp said. I am trying to look at why that is happening right now and what that means as well as what international governments are doing to address these trends. Clapp is a Canada Research Chair in global food security and sustainability and also teaches at the universitys School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability. The pandemic is an example of how concentration in food supply markets can create risks to global food supplies. When there is a lot of concentration in the market, a disruption can really reverberate in huge ways, Clapp said. One example of this kind of market concentration is in Canadas meat industry, she explained. When a handful of companies control the market, an outbreak of COVID-19 at one plant has the potential to disrupt food supplies across the country. Part of Clapps research will explore whether shorter supply chains could be a way to diversify global food markets. A lot more producers of seeds in the system will introduce more diversity, she said. That in turn can benefit biodiversity and support more farmers in the long run, Clapp explained. Shorter supply chains could also create more flexibility in food supplies in face of a global crisis like the one the world is currently facing. Were seeing it a lot locally, Clapp said. A lot of people are buying directly from farmers and seeking out alternate suppliers. It would give people more places to go to get the food that they need. Clapp said she is grateful to have the opportunity to spend the time that is needed for an in-depth research project. The Killam prize and Killam research fellowships are awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Burma Abducted Villagers in Western Myanmar Blame Arakan Army An AA fighter in Paletwa. / Aung Kyaw Htet / The Irrawaddy Yangon Four villagers in Chin States Paletwa Township who went missing in March and escaped said they were detained by the Arakan Army (AA), which is fighting government troops in western Myanmar. Four men from Yak Dein village went missing on March 22 as they went into a forest to collect firewood. They were detained by the AA for interrogation but three were released by the rebels on Monday and the other managed to run away on the same day, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization based in Samee. They said they were detained by the AA. The Tatmadaw [Myanmars military] and police are interviewing them, said Salai Lian, spokesman of the Chin Human Rights Organization. The AA was recently labeled a terrorist organization by the government. Paletwas Upper House lawmaker U Salai Myo Htike said the four men arrived in Samee on Monday. Yak Dein is between Paletwa and Samee, which is around 32 km away. Paletwa borders Rakhine State and has seen fierce clashes between the military and the AA for more than a year. Paletwas residents have reported that both Myanmars military and the AA have detained and interrogated them on suspicion of having ties with the other side. The Irrawaddy has documented reports of nearly 70 civilian beatings in Paletwa during interrogation and forced labor by both sides during 2019. Around 12 men went missing in the township between June and November 2019 when fighting was its most intense, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization. In February, five women from Baungwa and Auk Thae Mawa villages told visiting reporters from The Irrawaddy that their husbands had been abducted by the AA. Salai Lian said that a lack of eyewitnesses and reliable information meant it was often difficult to establish which side was responsible for abductions. In February, Captain Rubi of the AA in Paletwa told The Irrawaddy that the rebel group was not responsible for the detention or recruitment of civilians in Paletwa Township, except for the seizure of Upper House lawmaker U Whei Tin. The National League for Democracy parliamentarian was released by the AA in January in Paletwa Township after being detained for 79 days. The AA also claimed responsibility for the detention of the Than Taung village administrator and employees of Hsu Htoo San Co. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko The video of the interview was accompanied by scenes of previous military training exercises, including drills against rioters and marine operations in Hong Kongs Victoria Harbor. Some of the clips appeared to be from operations last year, when the protests overwhelmed the city and the Peoples Liberation Army and the Peoples Armed Police sent a surge of new troops into and near Hong Kong. I have never heard of a garrison official in Hong Kong publicly commenting on Hong Kongs affairs, even though of course the legislation is being done in Beijing, said the pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan, calling the move shocking. The Hong Kong garrison of the Peoples Liberation Army is based in what was formerly the British military headquarters on Hong Kong Island. The garrison includes at least 19 sites around the territory, but it has generally kept a low profile in the city since the handover from British control in 1997. Many of its soldiers estimates of the total vary from 6,000 to 10,000 live and train in bases across the border in Shenzhen. At the peak of the protests late last summer, the military and armed police rotated new troops in from the mainland, calling it a routine redeployment, but many are believed to have never left, giving Beijing a larger reserve force in the territory in case the security situation spirals out of control. Mrs. Lam said that the central government moved to draft its own national security laws because the Legislative Council had, for years, been unable to write its own laws, as required by Article 23 of the territorys Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs its affairs under the formula known as one country, two systems. Having a faulty gene linked to dementia may double the risk of becoming severely-ill with the coronavirus, a study has claimed. Experts found carriers of the APOE e4 gene were more likely to have a severe case of Covid-19, than those with a more common variant. The same faulty gene is already known to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in old age by up to 14-fold. Scientists studied the DNA of almost 40,000 Britons aged between 48 and 60 years old to make the link. Almost one in five people who have died with COVID-19 in the UK also had dementia, the most common form of Alzheimer's. One explanation for people with dementia being more vulnerable to COVID-19 could be because the virus spread rapidly in care homes. But the research, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, could help to explain the high death rates being seen in people with dementia. Having a faulty gene linked to dementia doubles the risk of severe Covid-19, a study has found Almost one fifth of COVID-19 victims in hospitals had dementia, according to official figures from NHS England The study was a joint endeavour by a team of academics at the University of Exeter Medical School and the University of Connecticut. It used data from the UK Biobank - a study of 500,000 volunteers set up in 2006 for researchers to track the health of participants over time. Experts analysed only 382,188 participants who had European ancestries, therefore their findings can only be applied to that group, with an average age of 68. They looked at a gene called APOE, of which there are three variants. In this analysis, 69 per cent had two copies of the e3 variant, the most common genotype. Some 28 per cent had one copy of the e4 variant, and three per cent had two copies of the e4 variant, known as the 'e4e4' genotype. The e4 variant is a major risk gene for Alzheimers people with one copy have up to a four-fold increased risk and people with two copies have up to a 14-fold risk, compared to those without. WHY DOES DEMENTIA INCREASE THE RISK OF COVID-19? The people most at risk of developing severe symptoms if they catch coronavirus are people over the age of 70. The majority of people living with dementia are over 70 years old, which immediately puts them at greater risk. Studies are being carried out into how the immune system is involved with dementia. Some suggest that the immune system is not functioning properly. It is known already that the immune system is weaker in older people, including in the lungs. Many people with dementia will struggle to understand what is happening because the part of their brain that forms new memories is impaired. Therefore they may forget to wash their hands more regularly as the Government advises or keep socially distanced. There has been an increase in deaths of people in the UK that were not directly caused by COVID-19. This could be for a number of reasons, such as being unable to access healthcare. For people with dementia, the new isolation rules and many other changes in their life - such as a lack of certain foods in supermarkets - can be particularly distressing and may influence their disease progression. Their behaviour may also change as a result of stress. Source: homecare.co.uk Advertisement The researchers gathered data for who had a positive test for COVID-19 during a period when testing was mostly restricted to hospital patients. Therefore a positive result was a marker of severe COVID-19 infection. Having the e4e4 genotype raised the risk of severe COVID-19 2.3-fold compared to e3e3, the findings showed. Having just one copy of the e4 variant raised the risk by 14 per cent. The prevalence of e4e4 in the group that had severe COVID-19 was disproportionately high. Although less than three per cent of the participants had the e4e4 genotype, six per cent of the 622 people with severe COVID-19 had the e4e4 genotype, while 64 per cent had e3e3. It suggested people with dementia who have died of COVID-19 may have died as a result of their genetics putting them more at risk - not because dementia makes them more vulnerable, the team said. First author of the paper Dr Chia-Ling Kuo said: 'This is an exciting result because we might now be able to pinpoint how this faulty gene causes vulnerability to COVID-19. This could lead to new ideas for treatments. 'It's also important because it shows again that increasing disease risks that appear inevitable with ageing might actually be due to specific biological differences, which could help us understand why some people stay active to age 100 and beyond, while others become disabled and die in their sixties.' The team has previously found that people with dementia are three times more likely to get severe COVID-19. Professor David Melzer, who led the team, said: 'Several studies have now shown that people with dementia are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19. 'This study suggests this high risk may not simply be due to the effects of dementia, advancing age or frailty, or exposure to the virus in care homes. 'The effect could be partly due to this underlying genetic change, which puts them at risk for both COVID-19 and dementia.' It's difficult to unravel exactly why a person with dementia is more likely to develop COVID-19 because there are so many influencing factors. Scientists were cautious to draw conclusions from the findings because they cannot rule out that dementia itself caused the COVID-19, and not the genetics. Dr Chia-Ling Kuo removed people from the sample who had a dementia diagnosis so they could focus solely on genetics with the help of GP records from 2017. They found the risk of COVID-19 remained in those with the e4e4 gene. EXPLAIN THIS CLEARER But experts warned it wasn't possible to completely emit those people from the data, and the disease could have developed in the past three years. Professor David Curtis, a geneticist at University College London, said: 'The concern I have about this study is that the results could potentially be explained by the possibility that more subjects with two copies of the high risk APOE e4 allele might have had dementia than those who had none. 'The study authors try to exclude this possibility by removing subjects who had dementia at the time of recruitment to UK Biobank or recorded on a hospital discharge diagnosis but, perhaps unsurprisingly, very few people meet these criteria. 'I'm afraid this study does not really convince me that the APOE e4 allele is really an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection. I would want to see this tested in a sample where dementia could be more confidently excluded, perhaps a younger cohort.' Having the e4e4 genotype raised the risk of testing positive for the virus 2.3-fold compared to e3e3, the findings show. Three per cent of participants had the e4e4 gene (9,022). But the prevalence of e4e4 in the group that had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, was disproportionately high. Six per cent of the 622 people who had a positive test result for the coronavirus had e4e4 (37) The team tried to remove people from their sample who had a dementia diagnosis so they could focus solely on genetics. They found the risk of COVID-19 remained in those with the e4e4 gene (2.39) Dr Carol Routledge, director of research at Alzheimers Research UK, said: 'Despite the large study group, only 37 people with the risk gene tested positive for COVID-19, and we must be careful about the conclusions we draw from such small numbers.' Despite reservations about the early research, Professor Tara Spires-Jones, UK Dementia Research Institute Group Leader, was impressed with the study. She said: 'This study is robustly conducted, and the observation is important and will lead to future research into how APOE4 may influence the risk of contracting COVID-19 or having severe symptoms requiring hospitalisation, where most tests are performed. 'This is interesting because recent research into why APOE4 also increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease indicate that APOE4 is involved in the immune system.' The workings of the immune system have implications for how the body fights the coronavirus, and can be altered by a number of conditions such as obesity, diabetes and possibly dementia. Dr Fiona Carragher, the Alzheimer's Society, said more research must uncover why those with dementia have been so badly hit by the coronavirus. 'Dementia is the most common pre-existing condition, accounting for a quarter of deaths so far, and tragically there's an additional huge unexplained rise in deaths recorded to dementia alone,' she said, referencing the high number of excess deaths in care homes that were not directly as a result of COVID-19. 'People with dementia and their families are desperately worried. The Government needs to take urgent action putting people with dementia at the heart of a clear plan to protect those at risk.' Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reached out to the leaders of Austria, Egypt and Qatar to discuss the Covid-19 crisis and steps to counter the coronavirus. The telephone conversations were part of Modis ongoing outreach to heads of government around the world to ensure the welfare of Indian expatriates and to bolster cooperation in the fight against Covid-19 and to address the economic fallout of the pandemic. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen condoled the damage caused in India by cyclone Amphan and the two leaders exchanged views on steps taken in their countries to manage the health and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. They agreed on the importance of global collaboration to deal with current challenges. They also reiterated their shared desire to further strengthen and diversify India-Austria relations in the post-Covid world, the external affairs ministry said. Modi highlighted the opportunities for enhanced cooperation in infrastructure, technology, research and innovation, and SMEs. The leaders shared the hope the world will soon overcome the health crisis and focus on longer-term concerns such as the health of the environment. During his phone conversation with the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Modi conveyed greetings on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr and appreciated the personal care taken by the Amir for ensuring the welfare of Indian citizens amid the pandemic. The Amir appreciated the contributions of the Indian community in Qatar, especially the role played by health workers. Modi highlighted the attention being paid by Indian authorities to avoid any disruption in supply of essential goods to Qatar. Modi also conveyed greetings for Eid-ul-Fitr to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who expressed happiness at the fast expanding bilateral ties. Modi also expressed his appreciation for the support extended by Egyptian authorities for the safety and welfare of Indian nationals during the Covid-19 crisis. Referring to his planned visit to Egypt earlier this year, which was postponed due to the pandemic, Modi conveyed his desire to meet Sisi as soon as circumstances permit. New Delhi [India], May 25 (ANI): India and Israel on Monday discussed joint research and development on big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The discussion was a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart's vision for wide-ranging scientific cooperation between the two countries. "Defence Research & Development Organisation, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research held discussions with Head of Israel's Directorate of R&D, Israel's Ambassador Ron Malka & India's Ambassador Sanjeev Singla about high-level scientific cooperation to address #COVID19," the Israel Embassy here said on Twitter. Modi and Netanyahu had held discussions on the novel coronavirus outbreak and its possible impact on the supply lines in Israel in March. The Indian government had also helped in the evacuation process of around 500 Israelis in the same month who were stranded amid the nationwide lockdown. (ANI) Daritza Araya Arguedas and Alexandra Quiros Castillo became the first same-sex couple in Costa Rica to wed early Tuesday, the first day gay marriage became legal in the country, according to local news reports and the advocacy group Si, Acepto. In San Isidro de Heredia, a town outside the capital, San Jose, Ana Cecilia Castro Calzada officiated at the ceremony, wearing a red coronavirus mask as the lesbian couple wore white dresses and a livestream carried the sounds of chirping nighttime wildlife. You have begun in law what has existed in love, Calzada said. We celebrate and honor this journey that you have made together as life companions in hope of a day like today: historic for you two and for Costa Rica. Eight minutes after midnight, as 10,000 watched live on Facebook, Castillo, 29, a university student, and Araya, 24, a judicial technician, signed their marriage license, exchanged vows, rings and their first married kiss before a small crowd. Their wedding was also broadcast on national television, according to the BBC. Related: Legalizing gay marriage was a major campaign promise by President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, who took office in May. Larger gatherings and celebrations to mark the start of same-sex marriage in Costa Rica were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. After years of campaigning by the pro-marriage-equality group Si, Acepto, Carlos Alvarado Quesada was elected president in a resounding victory in 2018 on an explicitly pro-gay-marriage platform. Later that year, Costa Ricas Supreme Court ruled that the country's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, and ordered the legislature to draft a gay marriage law or else it would became automatically legal on May 26, 2020. Image: TOPSHOT-COSTA RICA-RIGHTS-LGBT-MARRIAGE (Ezequiel Becerra / AFP - Getty Images) Gia Miranda, director of the Si Acepto campaign, said, The only thing that could win with this is Costa Rica and, in general, love, and she predicted that marriage equality would help decrease discrimination and increase the country's prosperity and attractiveness to tourists. Story continues Costa Rica is the sixth country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, following most recently Ecuador, which allowed it last year. It is also permitted in some parts of Mexico. CORRECTION (May 26, 2020, 1:15 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this story misstated the name of one of the brides. She is Alexandra Quiros Castillo, not Angela Quiros Castillo. Follow NBC Out on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram Under the proposal, the state would freeze funding for the next five months at current levels for all state programs. Read more Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. HARRISBURG With the true financial fallout from the coronavirus still unknown, and the prospects for recovery uncertain, the Pennsylvania legislature is on track this week to approve a temporary, five-month spending plan that does not raise taxes and keeps funding level for all state departments. The move comes as a new independent analysis predicts the state will lose nearly $5 billion in revenue through June of next year, setting the stage for a larger fight in the fall over how to finish the budget. Republicans who control both chambers said approving a temporary budget will allow officials to get a clearer picture of the strain placed on Pennsylvanias finances by the states efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. Democrats in both chambers, as well as Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, have signaled that they agree with the unorthodox plan to pass the budget in waves, which will allow the state to meet a July 1 deadline for passing a spending plan while buying some time to figure out how deeply revenues will be affected. All of us are struggling to know exactly what the financial situation is going to look like over the course of the whole next fiscal year, Wolf said Tuesday, during the administrations daily briefing. So we are going to do some unusual things. Jennifer Kocher, spokesperson for Senate Republicans, said, We think its the responsible thing to do. The state House on Tuesday passed the measure, 103-99. It now goes to the state Senate for consideration. Under the proposal, lawmakers would freeze funding for the next five months at current levels for all state programs. The one exception to the five-month plan: education. Dollars for early childhood and special education, as well as for public schools and higher education, would be flat-funded through the end of the next fiscal year. That would guarantee, at least, that schools which over the last six years under Wolf have seen funding boosts every year will not see cuts in state funding. The goal is to get a five-month budget plan across the finish line hopefully this week, said Mike Straub, a spokesperson for the House Republican majority, cautioning that a lot of hurdles remain. The decision to move a temporary spending plan comes as the states Independent Fiscal Office is predicting $4.8 billion in permanent revenue loss through June 2021 due to the coronavirus. We do think there is a permanent, long-term hit to the economy, said Matthew Knittel, director of the fiscal office. We dont know the shape or pace of the recovery and theres no historical precedent. General fund revenues for the current year will be 10% lower than estimated, the fiscal office predicts. Around half of that shortfall is due to the delay of the deadline for filing personal income taxes, and will be made up later in the summer. Before the pandemic hit, Pennsylvanias economy was growing steadily, with tax revenues coming in slightly higher than estimated and unemployment at historic lows. But the business shutdown put in place to slow the spread of the virus imposed an instant recession, Knittel said. The massive federal stimulus package is providing a temporary economic boost, he said, with newly generous unemployment benefits largely offsetting the impact of lost wages and buoying consumer spending at least, until the $600 addition expires in July. Because of a statewide moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, its also unclear how many people have fallen behind on mortgage and rent payments. Officials are anxiously waiting to see if President Donald Trump and Congress will agree on another injection of stimulus dollars to help states balance their books. Pennsylvania is sitting on nearly $4 billion in discretionary federal funding for COVID-19 response, although the U.S. Treasury says those dollars cant be used to make up revenue shortfalls. Businesses across Pennsylvania are gradually reopening as more counties move into the yellow and green phases of Wolfs tiered plan, although social-distancing precautions will remain in place. Even in the green phase, some businesses including bars and restaurants will only be allowed to operate at 50% capacity. The fiscal offices numbers assume that there is no second wave of COVID-19 cases later in the year that would prompt another round of business shutdowns. The World Health Organization warned Monday that countries may see an immediate second peak of cases should they reopen too quickly. 100% ESSENTIAL: Spotlight PA relies on funding from foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. If you value this reporting, please give a gift today at spotlightpa.org/donate. San Francisco police arrested a man on suspicion of abusing and killing a 94-year-old man Monday. Two sergeants patrolling the area of Diamond and Bosworth streets arrested Peter Rocha, a 53-year-old San Francisco resident who matched a suspect description from the scene of the assault, according to San Francisco police. Officers responded around 8:15 a.m. Monday to a reported assault on Elk Street, where they found the 94-year-old man suffering from a head injury. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died. The name of the man killed was not immediately released. Rocha was taken into custody later Monday and booked on suspicion of homicide, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, police said. Alejandro Serrano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alejandro.serrano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @serrano_alej Cian English, 19, (right) was allegedly found with a knife wound to his upper arm after falling from a fourth-floor Surfers Paradise balcony while allegedly trying to escape from a vicious assault A teenager who died after falling from a high-rise balcony was allegedly stabbed in the upper arm in the moments before his death. Cian English, 19, fell from the fourth floor of the View Pacific resort in Surfers Paradise about 3am on Saturday while allegedly trying to escape a trio of young men who are accused of coming to the apartment where he was staying to rob him. The three men Jason Ryan Knowles, 22, Lachlan Paul Soper-Lagas, 18, and Hayden Paul Kratzman, 20, have been charged with murder and armed robbery. Police will allege the men had been having a party in the apartment above Mr English and his friends and had talked over the balcony earlier in the night. The three men also allegedly invited the Brisbane teenager and his friends to their apartment where they are accused of having a stash of prescription drugs. Police will allege the men went to Mr English's apartment early on Saturday morning and held a knife to his throat as they demanded he and the friend hand over their phones and clothing. When the duo refused, the group allegedly began the beating. It will be alleged by police blood was found inside the apartment while Mr English's body was discovered with a knife wound in his arm, The Courier-Mail reported. It comes as it emerged the friend, who has not been identified, was allegedly being beaten unconscious when Mr English stepped in to help. Lachlan Paul Soper-Lagas, 18, is one of three young men charged with murder over Mr English's death Hayden Paul Kratzman, 20, is another of the trio charged with murder and armed robbery The trio allegedly turned on Mr English who ran towards the balcony to escape. He was then allegedly chased by the group before falling to his death. When the friend eventually regained consciousness, they allegedly told him: 'Your mate is dead'. A 16-year-old girl who tagged along with the three accused is believed to have filmed the alleged violent assault, The Gold Coast Bulletin reported. The video allegedly shows a teenage girl saying that a man has plunged from the balcony. Police believe the three accused were staying inside a nearby unit in the apartment complex and had been communicating with Mr English's party throughout the evening. It will be alleged the two groups had been partying together and taken prescription drugs, but relations soured with things eventually turning violent. Jason Ryan Knowles, 22, is the eldest of the three who allegedly beat Mr English while trying to rob him, and is accused of causing his death Four other teenagers were taken to hospital to be treated for drug overdoses following the wild party Four other teenagers aged between 16 and 19 were found in the same apartment in varying states of consciousness and were taken to Robina Hospital for treatment for drug overdoses. 'What we will be alleging is... the three main offenders have robbed the victim and his friend at knifepoint and in the course of this the victim has attempted to escape and gone over the balcony and died,' Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith Smith said. The other alleged victim safely escaped the complex. 'We believe that all persons in the premises were under the influence of drugs at the time,' Detective Smith said. Mr English (right) fell to his death from a Surfers Paradise balcony in the early hours of Saturday morning after allegedly being held at knifepoint A 16-year-old girl who tagged along with the three men, aged 18, 20 and 22, is alleged to have filmed the alleged violent assault at the Surfers Paradise unit block (pictured) Detectives allege Mr English was running from the men who allegedly stormed the unit he was partying in Jason Knowles, Lachlan Soper-Lagas and Hayden Kratzman were on Sunday morning charged with murder and two counts of armed robbery. Police are investigating whether the alleged murder was linked to a series of break and enters at chemists in Logan and the northern Gold Coast where prescription drugs were stolen from the premises. 'Given the circumstances, the consequences of the robbery and the threats made to the victimthe three offenders are being charged with murder,' Detective Smith said. Mr English pictured left. After his body was discovered, four other teenagers in varying states of consciousness were found in the apartment The cases against Knowles and Kratzmann were heard in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday. Both cases were adjourned to Southport Magistrates Court on August 4. Soper-Lagas' case was heard in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Monday. He was expected back in court on Tuesday to determine his next hearing date. By PTI MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday permitted a 13-year-old girl, raped by her father, to terminate her 24-week pregnancy after noting that continuing with the condition would be physically and mentally stressful for the victim. A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and N R Borkar allowed a petition filed by the minor's mother seeking permission to terminate the pregnancy. As per the petition, the victim was raped by her father while she was staying at her aunt's home in neighbouring Thane district. The girl confided in her aunt and mother on May 14, following which a FIR was lodged against the accused. When the victim was taken for a medical check-up, she was found to be pregnant. As per provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, abortion beyond 20-weeks of pregnancy can be performed only with the high court's permission. The high court had last week directed for a medical board to be set up at the state-run J J Hospital in south Mumbai to examine the victim and submit its report. "Having considered the opinion of the medical board, the continuation of the pregnancy would be a physical and mental stressful for the minor mother. Considering the circumstances leading to the pregnancy, it would be necessary to permit medical termination of pregnancy," the court said. The bench said since the FIR has been filed, the tissues and blood sample of the foetus will be preserved for requisite medical tests, including DNA tests, against the accused during the trial. An 85-year-old former director-general of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Theophilus Okere has reportedly stabbed his 77-year-old wife to death. According to reports, the suspect is said to be suffering from dementia, a term for diseases and conditions characterised by a decline in memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking skills that affect a persons ability to perform everyday activities. As reported by the source below: Okere has been down with dementia and the family has been managing the problem. Even today that he stabbed his wife to death, when he was asked why he did it, he responded that his wife was still sleeping, the source reportedly said. Advertisement The other Sunday, Okere went to church and said that his car was missing when in fact the car was parked in his compound. The spokesman of the state police command, Orlando Ikeowu, while confirming the incident said: It is true that the former director-general of the state-owned broadcasting corporation, Mr T.C. Okere, about 85-years allegedly stabbed his wife to death this morning. The command has commenced investigation into the matter, he reportedly said. A Montevallo boy has been identified as the child killed in Morris in what police say was an accidental shooting over the weekend. The Jefferson County Coroners Office on Tuesday identified the boy as Silas Holt. He was 5. Morris Police Chief Mike Nazarchyk on Tuesday released new details in the incident. The shooting happened at 8:28 p.m. Sunday in the 2000 block of Triple Creek Circle in the Triple Creek subdivision in Morris. The chief said the homeowner, Jomo Johnson, told officers his girlfriend, Toni Simon, and her children had come over to his residence. While Simon was giving her child a bath, Johnson was in another room working on a handgun he had recently purchases. Johnson said he left the room to go to the bathroom. During that time, Silas ran out of the bathroom and found the handgun sitting on a coffee table. Silas was holding the gun when it discharged, striking him in the face. "Mr. Johnson stated that he was out of the room for about 30 seconds when he heard the handgun go off,'' Nazarchyk said. Silas was transported by Morris Fire and Rescue to Childrens of Alabama in Birmingham where he was pronounced dead shortly before 3:30 a.m. Monday. Nazarchyk said the departments investigative findings have been turned over to the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office. Jerusalem, May 26 : Officials were considering moving the corruption trial of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the Jerusalem District Court to a different location due to the turmoil caused by having to secure the site for the premier, it was reported. Netanyahu was required to attend the opening hearing of his trial on Sunday, which involved a major security operation and the closure of roads in the area around the courthouse. The court was not able hear any other cases at the time, The Times of Israel reported on Monday citing the Hebrew language Channel 12 as saying. In a meeting on Monday, the court officials reviewed the events of the previous day and in the coming weeks the administration, together with Jerusalem District Court President Aharon Farkash and the three judges presiding over the trial, will decided whether to relocate for the rest of the proceedings, the Channel 12 report said. Netanyahu on Sunday became the first serving Israeli premier to stand trial. The Prime Minister, who was sworn back into office as head of a rare national unity government last week, will be allowed to skip the next hearing, which will take place on July 19, with the judges saying he would not have to return to court until the evidence stage, said The Times of Israel. Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing, faces charges of fraud and breach of trust in all the cases, as well as bribery in one of them. Before entering the courtroom on Sunday, he told the media that the cases against him were fabricated and part of an attempted "political coup" to oust him from power. According to Israeli law, a Prime Minister charged with a crime is not required to resign. Even if he is convicted, Netanyahu will not be required to resign unless and until any appeals are exhausted, reports the BBC. Under the unity government deal with former political rival Benny Gantz, a new role of "alternate prime minister" was created, which means when the two men switch positions in 18 months' time. Netanyahu will still occupy a prime ministerial office and stay on as Gantz's deputy. LA JOLLA, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists from the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile examined changes in the upper respiratory tract (URT) microbiome during an influenza A virus (IAV) infection. The study examined the URT microbiome in both healthy and IAV-infected human and ferret cohorts. Humans and ferrets share similar lung physiology, and both are known to be susceptible to and transmit the same strains of IAVs, thus making ferrets an ideal model to study IAV infection in the URT. Results suggest that microbiome disturbance and resilience dynamics may be critical to addressing bacterial co-infections associated with influenza-derived illnesses. "These secondary bacterial infections are a serious concern, exacerbating conditions caused by IAV, as well as many other disease conditions," noted Karen Nelson, Ph.D., JCVI president and a senior author on the study. Uninfected human patients and ferret URT microbiomes have a stable and similar communities, both within and between individuals, representing a healthy microbiome. In contrast, infected patients and ferrets exhibit large changes in bacterial community composition over time and between individuals, with increased bacterial diversity present in the URT. After viral infections clear, the microbiome of the individuals progress towards the healthy microbiome. However, there is a period where the virus is gone yet the microbiome is still disturbed. The disturbance of the healthy URT microbiome appears to create transient ecological niches for opportunistic bacterial pathogens, including changes in the relative abundance of Pseudomonas. IAV does not directly infect the microbiome constituents, yet infection disturbs the healthy-state microbiome in both hosts in a statistically robust manner. Given the unequivocal association between viral and bacterial co-infection and influenza disease severity, there is a pressing need to better understand how changes in the host microbiome correlates with viral infections that facilitate opportunistic co-infections. Adding to this, Chris Dupont, Ph.D. stated, "There is compelling rationale for the maintenance of a healthy URT microbiome as a potential therapeutic target to prevent IA-associated bacterial co-infections." Dr. Dupont is a senior author on the study and professor at JCVI. Study results provide a clear approach for the design of future studies explicitly examining links between IAV and bacterial co-infection, along with the development of therapeutic treatments aimed at the microbiome as a community. The complete results, Microbiome disturbance and resilience dynamics of the upper respiratory tract during influenza A virus infection, are published in the journal Nature Communications. Background Influenza A virus is a highly infectious upper respiratory tract disease in humans and animals caused by a negative-sense segmented RNA virus. It is recognized as a major public health concern resulting yearly in significant disease and economic burden. Frequent nucleotide substitutions lead to changes on the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase glycoproteins on the surface of IAV particles (also known as antigenic drift) that contribute to the need for continuous vaccine updates. This evolutionary arms race between vaccine design and viral mutation contributes to annual influenza epidemics worldwide, which on average results in 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness and up to 291,000 to 646,000 deaths annually. The modular architecture of the segmented IAV genome allows for genetic re-assortment (antigenic shift) with other divergent IAVs, resulting in the sporadic emergence of novel viruses capable of causing large epidemics or pandemics. Circulation of a new IAV in the naive human population has caused pandemics in the past resulting in significant morbidity and mortality, the most notable in 1918 and 1919, when the Spanish flu killed approximately 20 to 50 million people worldwide. Retrospective analyses of autopsy specimens from the 1918 pandemic revealed the prevalence of secondary superinfection caused by URT bacteria. However, the role of bacterial co-infection in disease prognosis is not only confined to pandemics; bacterial and virus co-infection during seasonal influenza epidemics are commonly associated with increase hospital admissions, severe disease and deaths. About J. Craig Venter Institute The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) is a not-for-profit research institute in Rockville, Maryland and La Jolla, California. dedicated to the advancement of the science of genomics; the understanding of its implications for society; and communication of those results to the scientific community, the public, and policymakers. Founded by J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., the JCVI is home to approximately 200 scientists and staff with expertise in human and evolutionary biology, genetics, bioinformatics/informatics, information technology, high-throughput DNA sequencing, genomic and environmental policy research, and public education in science and science policy. The JCVI is a 501(c)(3) organization. For additional information, please visit www.JCVI.org. SOURCE J. Craig Venter Institute Related Links http://www.jcvi.org Whether you are installing new infrastructure for CCTV, expanding your private network, or plan on becoming a wireless ISP, it is important to consider Government Regulations, your choice of built-for-purpose hardware and a high-level plan that supports your networks objective. Network planning is key Line-of-Sight is critical for long-distance wireless links and for networks operating within the regular unlicensed spectrum. There are free, online link-budget calculators from vendors such as Ubiquiti Networks and MikroTik to assist you with the initial planning. These tools provide an excellent foundation to work and plan from, and offer much-needed insight when running link scenarios, without having to actually purchase any hardware. Though handy, it is wise to remember that these tools do not take into consideration big trees or man-made obstacles, such as buildings, that may interfere with your links Line-of-Sight. Ultimately, a site survey will be required for the final Line-of-Sight checks and interference detection before any estimation can be done on performance. In addition to physical limitations, network design topology (the physical layout of devices on a network) is key. This is especially true when considering Point-to-Multi-Point deployments where air time is shared amongst network users. The selection of the appropriate antennas for client coverage, and hardware with Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology like Ubiquitis Airmax or MikroTiks NV2 for prioritisation and performance, is an important step in the initial planning phase. Hardware selection Apart from the obvious budget considerations, it is recommended to select hardware that is functional and appropriate for your level of expertise with further consideration to physical size and aesthetics if applicable. There are several more considerations when choosing a specific technology brand for your deployment, like product range, availability, warranty period, pricing and after-sales support. Ubiquiti Networks has an impressive range of networking products which are user-friendly and designed with network integrators in mind. Their high-performance airPrism and airFiber ranges offer clever hardware design and additional interference-rejection. The brand also offers UNMS (Ubiquiti Network Management System), a free network management tool which greatly simplifies network operation management and even includes billing management with support ticketing system for end-users. MikroTik is a brand renowned for its competitive price structure and their products are packed with functionality. This product range is extremely appealing to network integrators because of its flexibility and dynamic feature set. These products require a bit of networking experience and using this brand may demand a steeper learning curve depending on your level of experience. Following government regulations The Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is tasked with ensuring that all network operators using wireless communication, are licensed to provide services. Firstly you need to determine whether a license is required, and secondly, if required, which type of license. Private networks may operate on a license-exempt basis, but require an application for approval by ICASA. If you are going to sell services over someone elses network (third-party network infrastructure), like an existing fibre or ADSL network, you require an Electronic Communications License (ECS). If however, you will be providing services by deploying your own network infrastructure, an Electronic Communications Network Service license (ECNS) is required in addition to the ECS. These two types of licenses can be broken down into two additional sub-categories, depending on whether you will be servicing only small geographical areas or if youre planning a national deployment. It is the responsibility of the hardware distributor to ensure that all radio transmission products are Type-Approved for use in the public spectrum. For this reason, it is vital to purchase your equipment from a trusted networking equipment supplier who abides by the set regulations. The integrator or installer is responsible for the proper installation of the equipment and ensuring that the power limitations outlined by ICASA are adhered to. Risk-free purchasing Scoop Distribution, is a Master Distributor of both Ubiquiti and MikroTik brands in South Africa. They have a dedicated team of professionals who are able to assist with advice on the right solution for your network. They offer peace of mind that no grey-imports are sold and that all products have valid warranties. Scoop complies with government regulations and provides real-time access to Type Approval certificates for the products that require ICASA Type Approval on our website. In addition, we offer vendor-certified training and provide relevant knowledge to up-skill the industry. Timothy Symonds, CTO Scoop welcomes all networking or telecommunication technicians, installers and Service Providers, and offer exclusive Dealer pricing to these professionals when purchasing equipment from their Cape Town, Midrand and Durban branches. Indias largest law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted as the transaction counsel to ITC Limited (ITC) in relation to its acquisition of 100% stake in Sunrise Foods Private Limited (Sunrise Foods). Sunrise Foods is a leading manufacturer of spices, with strong presence in eastern India, and sells its product range under the brand Sunrise. The M&A, Real Estate and Employment Law Teams at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised on the Transaction. The Transaction Team was led by Ramgovind Kuruppath, Partner; with support from Megha Krishnamurthi, Associate; Surabhi Saboo, Associate; and Smriti Tripathi, Associate. Due Diligence Corporate Due Diligence and Advisory was led by Ramgovind Kuruppath , Partner, with support from Megha Krishnamurthi , Associate; Smriti Tripathi ; Associate, Anushka Jain , Associate; and Surabhi Saboo , Associate. was led by , Partner, with support from , Associate; ; Associate, , Associate; and , Associate. Real Estate Due Diligence and Advisory was led by Ashish Jain, Partner ; with support and assistance from Prayaas Sharma , Associate; and S. Siddhant , Associate. was led by ; , Associate; and , Associate. Employment Law Due Diligence and Advisory was led by Richa Mohanty Rao, Partner with support from Anna Thomas , Consultant; Akshat Sahajpal , Associate; and Vani Sharma , Associate. was led by , Consultant; , Associate; and , Associate. Corporate Secretarial Due Diligence team included Vidhi Doshi, Senior Manager - Corporate Secretarial Services; Mihir Sangani, Executive - Corporate Secretarial Services; Charmi Sanghvi, Executive - Corporate Secretarial Services; and Rasika Bharadkar, Executive - Corporate Secretarial Services. This is a significant transaction in the FMCG space and is aligned with ITCs strategy to rapidly scale up its FMCG Businesses in a profitable manner, leveraging its institutional strengths viz. deep consumer insight, a deep and wide distribution network, agri-commodity sourcing expertise, cuisine knowledge, strong rural linkages and packaging know-how. Other advisors to the Transaction included JM Financial Limited. The Share Purchase Agreement was signed on May 23, 2020. Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas takes forward the values going back 103 years, of the erstwhile Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., whose pre-eminence, experience and reputation of almost a century has been unparalleled in the Indian legal fraternity. Tracing its professional lineage to 1917, the Firm of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is now the largest full-service law firm in India, with over 750 lawyers including over 130 partners, and offices in Indias key business centres at Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad. The Firm advises a large, and varied client base that includes domestic and foreign commercial enterprises, financial institutions, private equity funds, venture capital funds, start-ups and governmental and regulatory bodies. The firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, was recently awarded with India Firm of the Year at the AsiaLaw Regional Awards 2019 and India Deal Firm of the Year at the In-House Community Counsels of the Year Awards 2019. The firm was also named as the Most Innovative National Law Firm of the Year India for 2018 at the IFLR Asia Awards, having also been successful in winning the prestigious & coveted National Law Firm of the Year, 2018 for India at the Chambers Asia-Pacific Awards. The firm was also voted as the Employer of Choice for 2018 from India, by the Asian Legal Business, now 4 years in a row, building upon the several awards that the erstwhile Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. had won in the past. The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday directed Dadar resident Dr Pankaj Phadnis, who has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation into the functioning of Wadia Hospitals at Parel, to deposit Rs 1 crore in two days to prove his bonafides. The bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice KK Tated issued the order after both the hospitals--Bai Jerabai Wadia Childrens Hospital and Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital--took strong objections to the PIL. Dr Phadnis has filed the PIL through Abhinav Bharat Congress, an organization that he founded. Apart from the investigation into financial aspects of the hospitals, they have also sought a direction to the state authorities to take over the hospitals. The hospital management objected to the maintainability of the PIL on the ground that under Bombay High Court PIL Rules, 2010, an unregistered body has no locus standi to initiate a proceeding in the nature of a PIL. The hospital management also pointed that over a decade ago, Dr Phadnis was in the employment of the Wadias and that this PIL was filed for furthering his agenda. They added that Dr Phadnis had unsuccessfully initiated proceedings against the Wadias in a United States court and that the PIL was nothing but an abuse of the processes of the court. The bench noted that the petitioner had not disclosed these facts in the PIL, nor had he controverted the statements in his reply to their affidavit. The omissions gave the prima facts reason to believe that this PIL petition may not have been filed in public interest but for ulterior and oblique motives, and that the bonafide of the petitioner no.2 (Dr. Phadnis) is suspect. The bench has now asked the petitioner to deposit Rs 1 crore by Thursday with the hC registry. If the deposit is made, the PIL is ordered to be placed for further hearing on Friday, May 29, otherwise, it will be dismissed. Kerala risks sliding into community transmission: CM Vijayan India pti-PTI Thiruvananthapuram, May 26: After the biggest single day spike in coronavirus cases, Kerala Chief Minister Pinaryi Vijayan on Tuesday warned that the state risks sliding into community transmission and losing all its gains if people under observation fail to follow health guidelines. Sixty seven people tested positive on Tuesday, the biggest single spike on a single day in the state. The total tally touched 963 and those under observation crossed the one lakh. Speaking to reporters here, the Chief Minister warned that the state was on the verge of a community spread if those under observation failed to adhere to the health department's instructions. He said those coming from red zones can be potential carriers. "As of now, we have not reported community spread. But if we don't follow the precautions properly, we will soon have it here in Kerala. We are on verge of community spread. Those coming from red zones can be potential carriers and they should themselves ensure to be under room quarantine," Vijayan said. Fadnavis explains how Centre helped Maharashtra during coronavirus crisis He said that those coming from abroad would henceforth have to pay for seven day government quarantine facilties. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News "Paid quarantine is for those who come from abroad. Lakhs of people wantto come to Kerala. The state may not be able to handle all of them," Vijayan said. However there was no need to worry as there would be affordable quarantine facilities for everyone, he said. Of the total positive cases on Tuesday, 27 came from abroad and 33 from other states, including Maharashtra 15, Tamil Nadu nine and Gujarat five and 415 people are presently undergoing treatment, Vijayan said. At least 1,04,336 people are under observation, while 1,03,528 in homes/institutional quarantine and 808 people are in hospitals, inclduing 186 admitted on Tuesday. The number of virus cases have been increasing in the state since the return of Non Resident Keralites from abroad and other states. Of 133 people who came from abroad and tested positive, 75 are from the UAE and 25 from Kuwait, while 72 returnees are from Maharashtra, the worst affected by the pandemic in the country, the Chief Minister said. Seventy one people from Tamil Nadu and 35 from Karnataka have also been infected. Seven people contracted the virus through contact, Vijayan said. While Kannur had eight cases, Kottayam six, Malappuram and Ernakulam five each, Thrissur and Kollam had four each and Kasaragod and Alappuzha recorded three cases each, he said. The Chief Minister also held a video conference with MPs and MLAs from the state on Tuesday and all of them supported the government's efforts in tackling the pandemic. Many of the participants also requested the government to increase testing. Among those who participated were Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. "At one point of time we had only 16 Covid patients under treatment, but now we have 415. Those coming to Kerala from red zones or containment areas must be careful and striclty follow the directions on home quarantine in order to contain the spread of the virus," Vijayan said, expressing concern at the increasing cases. He also said the state would face immense difficulty if all Keralites in foreign countries and other states returned at the same time, as lakhs of Keralites are settled in various parts of the country and abroad. The Chief Minister said around 3.80 lakh people have registered to come to Kerala from other states and of these, 2.16 lakh passes have been issued and 1,01,779 people have already reached the state. Vijayan also referred to the government warning that only 50 people should participate in weddings and 20 for funerals and said people have misintepreted the direction and were attending functions in batches in larger numbers, which cannot be allowed. Stringent action would be taken against those who arrive in Kerala without registering in the web portal and a heavy fine would be imposed on them, besides a 28 day institutional quarantine,Vijayan said. So far 56,704 samples have been sent for testing, of which 54,836 have returned negative. As of date, Kannur has 85 patients, the highest in the state, followed by Palakkad with 81. Malappuram has 51, Kasaragod 35, Thiruvananthapuram has 29 and Kozhikode has 26 cases. The English language education sector, estimated to be worth 1.2bn to the Irish economy each year, is expected to see its revenues drop by up to 90% due to the impact of Covid-19, putting thousands of jobs at risk. That is the warning from the Progressive College Network, a representative body for a number of English language schools across the country. With up to 130,000 students attending English language courses in Ireland each year, the sector is said to support 5,000 permanent jobs and an additional 9,000 seasonal and part-time roles. The sector has been bracing for thousands of job losses and the potential closure of businesses as restrictions on international travel look set to remain for some time, according to David Russell, chairman of the Progressive College Network. The sector has now reached a critical juncture, said Mr Russell. Over half of the sectors revenues comes from students on short-term courses of less than three weeks, and self-isolation requirements mean that these students wont travel, he said. It is not just schools that will suffer, he said. Thousands of host families, bus companies, and the wider tourism industry will also lose out. Progressive College Network has called for measures including an 80m Government-backed loan scheme, with loan amounts to be based on schools turnover and revenue contributions. The group has also called for the waiving of commercial rates for 2020 and a reduced rate of employers PRSI for education personnel of 5% for a period of three years. The group has called for the continuation of the Stamp 2 visa offered to international students, enabling them to work part-time during their course, and a one-off student support grant for students enrolled in delayed or deferred courses. Meanwhile, further measures have been announced by the Department of Justice to assist international students studying English here who have been impacted by the pandemic. Students who left the State due to Covid-19 before completing their studies may return and resume their studies. The duration of their absence will not count towards the two-year maximum period of English language study allowed. Language students who are still in the State, and who have completed their two years but cannot return home due to the virus, may remain as students until the end of the year. This is provided they re-enrol in an online course of study for the remainder of the year. Advertisement Two brothers are hoping to breathe new life into a 16th century house, which once came under cannon fire from Oliver Cromwell's forces, by spending up to 4million on its restoration. Island House in Laugharne, West Wales has centuries of history behind it, but has fallen into disrepair after sitting empty for 15 years. In 1644 the house was damaged by cannon fire from Oliver Cromwell's troops, who were attacking nearby Laugharne Castle during the Civil War. Island House in Laugharne, West Wales, dates back to the 16th century. After falling into ruin over the last 15 years, two brothers are going to spends millions of pounds restoring it to its former glory Neighbours in Laugharne set up the Save Island House Campaign after watching the building fall apart. Founder Denize McIntyre said the building was just 12 months from falling apart before the Kirkland brothers intervened Stephen Kirkwood (pictured) has driven past Island House for the past 40 years, together with his brother Phil he hopes to restore the Grade II listed building to its former glory It was repaired to its former glory and stood for hundreds of years, but it has fallen into ruin after it was emptied in 2005 and has sat on Britain's 'at risk' register since 2011. Stephen and Phil Kirkwood have decided to spend between 3million and 4million restoring Island House, which Stephen has driven past every day for the past 40 years. Denize McIntyre, who headed the Save Island House Campaign, said the group knew the building had a 'death sentence'. He said: 'It was unlikely to withstand another 12 months, certainly not much longer, and people really got behind that. 'We first came in on a wet, soggy day - it was raining indoors. We were squelching through years of fallen rotten debris and now, every time I come in, I can't stop smiling when you see the progress being made. It's just amazing. 'This house couldn't be more central to Laugharne and yet it was here like an eyesore. The interior has a large ballroom on the first floor with sea views and 19th-century interior details, once a two year restoration is complete the Kirland's hope to open Island House in Laugharne as a boutique hotel Stephen Kirkland says he has been driving past the outside of Island House in the town of Laugharne for 40 years. With it falling into ruin since 2005, Stephen and his brother are now spending millions on restoring it With the house falling into disrepair, the Kirkland brothers are prepared to spend up to 4million restoring it to its former glory, with plans to open it as a hotel with a restaurant and a cafe Oliver Cromwell's forces damaged Island House while attacking Laugharne Castle during the Civil War in 1644 'So to see it restored will be a proper boost, a shot in the arm for the whole community. We can take pride in this building.' Property developer Stephen, 67, said: 'It was something my brother Phil and I thought we could take on and make into a property that was worth having here. 'Laugharne is very important to us and we'd like to see this restored. We know it's a huge task but we're looking forward to it. 'We've got a magnificent castle just behind us, and this was a ruin in front of it. I've driven past this house every day for 40 years, so why not do it?' Laugharne Castle was first garrisoned by King Charles I during the Civil War, but it was taken by parliamentarian forces. When those forces switched allegiances, it was besieged by Oliver Cromwell's army. During the siege Island House was damaged by cannon fire and later restored. Nearly 400 years later, the Kirkwell's restoration will cost between 3m and 4m with plans to turn it into a boutique hotel with a restaurant and cafe. Work has already started to clear the overgrown grounds - with a forgotten summer house being revealed. Archaeological surveys are also being carried out which could reveal further secrets. The restoration is expected to take two years to complete. Island House has views of the sea and of nearby Laugharne Castle. A forgotten summerhouse within the grounds has already been unearthed as clearing work gets underway Historic features still stand inside parts of Island House, in West Wales including a set of stairs dating back to the 19th century and curved shutters in some of the bedrooms Residual moisture from a tropical weather system that drenched eastern Florida over the Memorial Day weekend could delay Wednesday's highly anticipated launch of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. If it is successful, the test flight would restore crewed spaceflight to the U.S. for the first time in nine years, and mark a milestone for a private sector space company. The rocket launch, set for 4:33 p.m. ET, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, will send astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to the Space Station. NASA has been relying on the Falcon 9 rocket to send supplies to the Space Station, but this will be a major test for the Commercial Crew program, through which the space agency is contracting with SpaceX and Boeing to resume crewed spaceflight from U.S. soil after years of hitching a ride aboard Russian rockets. The tropical weather system unloaded over 7 inches of rain in the Miami area Sunday and Monday, flooding low-lying areas. In Cape Canaveral, the system produced nearly two inches of rain on Monday and Monday night but weather radar showed much of the rain lifting off to the northeast on Tuesday morning. By Wednesday, the tropical wave is predicted to be positioned near the Carolinas, but its counter-clockwise circulation could draw moisture back over the Florida Peninsula, allowing scattered thunderstorms to flare up and move toward the vicinity of the Space Coast around the 4:33 p.m. launch time. "On launch day, residual moisture will still be present and mid-level steering flow will be westerly, meaning afternoon convection will travel eastward towards the Space Coast," the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron, wrote in a statement Tuesday morning. "The primary concerns are flight through precipitation, as well as the anvil and cumulus cloud rules associated with the afternoon convection." The Weather Squadron, a unit of the Air Force's 45th Space Wing and responsible for supporting missions at Kennedy Space Center, determined there is a 40% chance that weather conditions will prevent a rocket launch. This is an improvement from its assessment on Sunday that stated there was a 60% chance of violating weather conditions. Should storms erupt Wednesday forcing the launch to be scrubbed, SpaceX has scheduled backup launch windows on Saturday at 3:22 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Weather conditions are forecast to improve marginally with the probability of interference dropping to 30% by Saturday. In its forecast, the Weather Squadron wrote that although Saturday's weather will be similar to Wednesday, and the earlier liftoff time gives the launch "a fighting chance" before storms pop up over the peninsula and move toward the coast. Even if it's not raining at the launch site, the presence of billowing cumulus clouds or anvil clouds associated with the tops of thunderstorms can pose a danger. When rockets tear through them they can trigger a lightning strike, as happened during Apollo 12 when the Saturn V rocket was hit, causing damage to some non-essential components. The crew was still able to complete the mission to the moon. Cumulus clouds would also subject the rocket to strong updrafts and downdrafts, which could place added stress on the rocket and the Crew Dragon spacecraft. In addition the the weather on Cape Canaveral, NASA and SpaceX are closely monitoring sea states along the East Coast in the unlikely event the capsule with the two astronauts aboard is forced to abort its launch due to an emergency and ends up in the ocean. While unlikely, high winds and waves could also force officials to scrub the launch. --- The Washington Post's Christian Davenport and Andrew Freedman contributed reporting. [May 26, 2020] WorldRemit Partners With Onfido to Deliver a Simple, and Faster Verification Process for Customers WorldRemit has today announced a new partnership with Onfido, the global identity verification and authentication company, to make it easier and quicker for customers to open an account with WorldRemit, to send money abroad. Partnering with Onfido will allow the FCA regulated international payments company to further automate the Know Your Customer (KYC) decision-making process to verify the identification of customers. Fulfilling both identification and financial compliance requirements without impacting the speed or ease of onboarding customers is critical to the customer experience WorldRemit delivers. Partnering with Onfido will allow new customers to join the platform quickly while remaining compliant and reducing the risk of fraud. Additionally, this partnership will support WorldRemit's mission for financial inclusion on its platform. Onfido's optimised verification technology means that customers who have lower spec smartphones and cameras will have a better user experience. The sophisticated platform also provides users with granular feedback beyond a simple pass or fail. Facial orientation or poor lighting conditions can now be provided as reasons for failure in verification, allowing customers to try again or be prompted to alter their camera set up during the verification process. Stephen Moffatt, director of payments at WorldRemit said: "Our new partnership with Onfido is an important step for us in reducing friction, helping new customers join our platform faster so they can send money home. As part of our constant efforts to improve and refine our customer expeience, adding Onfido's functionality to our registration process will ensure that we can put our customers on the happy path of sending money home, while protecting them from fraudsters." Husayn Kassai, CEO and co-founder at Onfido added: "International payment transfers shouldn't have to be costly for businesses and complex for users. We're pleased to be supporting a forward-thinking remittance platform such as WorldRemit which strives to provide the best for its users. We're delighted to be helping the company streamline their processes to get new users onboard swiftly and securely, while meeting strict compliance regulations." The partnership will add functions for higher systemic levels of security. With Onfido, WorldRemit will have the ability to quickly alert the relevant bodies to protect even those who aren't customers but may have had their ID stolen or tampered with. ENDS Notes to Editors: About WorldRemit WorldRemit is a leading UK fintech providing international money transfer services. We disrupted an industry previously dominated by offline legacy players by taking international money transfers online - making them safer, faster and lower-cost. We currently send from 50 to 150 countries, operate in 6,500 money transfer corridors worldwide and employ over 800 people worldwide. On the sending side WorldRemit is 100% digital (cashless), increasing convenience and enhancing security. For those receiving money, the company offers a wide range of options including bank deposit, cash collection, mobile airtime top-up and mobile money. Backed by Accel, TCV and Leapfrog - WorldRemit's headquarters are in London, UK with a global presence including in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. For more information visit www.worldremit.com About Onfido Onfido is the new standard for digital access. The company uses AI to verify any photo ID and then compares it with the person's facial biometrics. This use of AI means that businesses no longer need to compromise on customer experience, inclusion, privacy or security. Recognized as a global leader in artificial intelligence for identity verification and authentication, Onfido is backed by TPG Growth, Crane Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, M12 - Microsoft's (News - Alert) venture fund, and others. With approximately 400 employees spread across seven countries, Onfido has raised $200m in funding and powers digital access for some of the world's largest companies. www.onfido.com www.linkedin.com/company/onfido/ www.twitter.com/onfido View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005331/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A giant snowman erected on the bank of Songhua River in Harbin, the capital of Northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province, has drawn much attention online. Around 2,000 cubic meters of snow was used to create the 18.5-meter-tall figure dressed in a red hat and scarf. Since December, ice and snow sculptures featuring Winter Olympics and Lunar New Year elements have popped up across the city famed for its ice festivals, drawing many visitors Jan 20, 2022 06:19 PM El presidente @MartinVizcarraC informa sobre la situacion del Estado de Emergencia en el #Dia71 y las acciones que realiza el Gobierno para contener la propagacion del COVID-19. En vivo: https://t.co/Y9AVLrcPz3 https://t.co/A0pz45xehf A video of an ostrich crashing into a press conference of a politician in Spain has surfaced on the internet. The politician named Miguel Angel Revilla, President of Cantabria, was speaking about reopening the Cabarceno Natural Park zoo when the ostrich surreptitiously made its way to the venue of the press conference, reported Daily Mail. The clip shows the ostrich through its nonchalant behaviour continuous to distract the attention of the politician. Unfazed over the giant birds intervention, the politician, however, continued addressing the press. Later, Miguel posted a screenshot of Homer Simpson, a fictional character from The Simpsons, with an ostrich behind his shoulder. He then wrote, The Simpsons already predicted it. Earlier, in a similar incident, a video of a dog videobombing a live telecast with its cute smile had taken the internet by storm. Mike Slifer, a journalist, had uploaded the clip on Twitter and had written, Somehow she knew exactly when to turn her head and smile. Since being shared on the micro-blogging site, the adorable video had been viewed over 70,000 times and over 3,000 users had liked the video. The palo verde trees are in bloom and they are beautiful ... if you can get your red-swollen eyes open to see them. (Although they might not c Non-essential retailers are to be allowed to reopen in England in June, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday evening. Shops selling clothes, furniture, electronics or books, as well as auction houses and tailors are to be allowed to offer their services again from June 15. Outdoor markets can reopen as of June 1. Retail premises must be made COVID-secure, Johnson said. On March 23, Mr Johnson closed all stores that did not serve primary needs as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Supermarkets and pharmacies remained open. The prime minister had already announced on Sunday that schools in England would be opened again for certain classes from June. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are going their own way in the fight against the coronavirus. Britain is the country with the most COVID-19 victims in Europe. So far, 36,914 deaths have been recorded, Mr Johnson said on Monday evening. It is believed there is also a high number of unreported cases. (dpa/NAN) The head of the private nursing home sector has criticised the lack of intervention from the Minister for Health when the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping through care facilities. Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadgh Daly said it took almost a month to secure a meeting with Minister Simon Harris at a very difficult time for staff and residents. He felt the issue of the virus spreading should have been "higher up on the agenda" for the minister and his department. Mr Daly also criticised the fact there was no representative for the private nursing home sector on the emergency Nphet health body overseeing responses to the pandemic. The sector had also asked public health chiefs for a moratorium on hiring staff from the sector, but this was refused, Mr Daly told the Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee today., Over half of virus deaths have taken place in nursing homes and infection rates have soared in some facilities. Mr Daly said, given the age of residents and the complexity of their care, there should have been a national plan. Patients discharged from hospitals and into nursing homes were categorised as low risk explained Mr Daly and the private homes took precautions. He said the first correspondence with the Department of Health was on February 28 about the virus, but no meeting took place with Mr Harris until March 30. For a period in early March, the situation in private nursing homes was very distressing amid calls from families. It was very difficult, added Mr Daly, and this was "exacerbated" by the lack of engagement from the department and minister. However, Fine Gael TD and committee member Fergus O'Dowd took issue with the claims. He said it was absolutely not true that the private nursing home sector had been left isolated by the state, as claimed by Mr Daly. This was evident from the many letters sent by NHI to the department thanking it for "engagement", he said. Mr O'Dowd also, in an emotional delivery, criticised the overall care for the elderly in nursing homes and warned the scandal" of the deaths from the virus could not be let happen again. These are Donetsk, Luhansk, Lviv, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Rivne, and Chernivtsi regions. Ukraine's Deputy Health Minister and Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko has said seven regions are not ready to switch to the next stage of quarantine relaxation. Speaking during an online briefing, he said today COVID-19-related hospital load exceeds 50% only in one region, namely Chernivtsi region, where the rate is 54.5%, according to an UNIAN correspondent. The official said three regions do not meet the requirements, set by government, for the average number of COVID-19 tests. "The average number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme immunoassay tests should exceed 12 per 100,000 population over the past seven days. Today we have listed new indicators, and currently Donetsk region (nine tests per 100,000 people), Luhansk region (nine tests per 100,000 people) and Lviv region (11.98 tests per 100,000 people) do not meet criteria for testing," he said. In addition, Liashko said Volyn, Zakarpattia, Lviv, Rivne and Chernivtsi regions had not met the incidence rate requirements for the past seven days. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on May 20 decided to introduce an adaptive quarantine in the country from May 22 to June 22, taking into account the epidemiological situation in the regions. Read alsoLviv launches high accuracy antibody testing, using ELISA method In particular, the government introduced certain indicators: an incidence the average number of confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past seven days per 100,000 people, which should be lower than 12 cases per 100,000 people; bed occupancy in hospitals designated for COVID-19 patients should be below 50%; and the number of tests done with the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme immunoassay methods should be more than 12 per 100,000 population over the past seven days. Communities in northern Virginia can begin loosening their coronavirus shutdowns on Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam said, asserting that the region is seeing a decline in the percentage of positive tests for the deadly disease even as the rate and overall number of infections remains far higher than in the rest of the state. Northam, a Democrat, made the announcement as Virginia reported a second straight day of spikes in new cases, driven by big numbers in the populous District of Columbia suburbs. He also announced a policy requiring Virginians to wear face coverings when they go inside businesses or offices, tightening what had been simply a suggestion. "The virus clearly is still here, but overall the numbers are trending in the right direction," Northam said. Later, he added: "Just because you can open doesn't mean that you have to open." The seemingly contradictory moves and statements highlighted the confusing nature of efforts to both fight the pandemic and begin reopening the economy in the nation's capital region, which has been hit particularly hard. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, like Northam, moved much of his state into "Phase 1" of reopening May 15, while D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has yet to loosen restrictions but is expected to address a timeline on Wednesday. Both Hogan, a Republican, and Northam exempted the D.C. suburbs from reopening because of the heavy concentration of infections there - with Hogan drawing criticism for leaving it up to local leaders to decide when to move forward. In Maryland, Howard County officials said Tuesday that they will move into Phase 1 reopening at the end of the week, while authorities in Prince George's and Montgomery counties had still not set a date. Baltimore announced that it would permit nonessential stores to offer curbside retail starting Wednesday. In Howard, retail stores, barber shops and beauty salons can reopen on Friday morning at 50% capacity, said County Executive Calvin Ball, a Democrat. Houses of worship will be able to hold outdoor services with up to 250 people. Indoor services are limited to 10 people. Northam said leaders of the capital region "want to be consistent," but noted that "each area obviously has their own challenges." His announcement about northern Virginia marks the first step toward reopening a region that was singled out by the lead coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force last week as having some of the highest infection rates in the country. The raw numbers continued to climb over the Memorial Day weekend. Virginia reported 28 deaths and 1,615 new infections on Tuesday, marking the second day in a row that the state has posted record increases in new cases. A majority were in northern Virginia, with Prince William County reporting a county record of 290 new cases and Fairfax adding 357 new infections - its third-highest single-day jump since the outbreak began. The spike increased the commonwealth's seven-day average for new cases to 1,028 - 101 more than the previous peak of 927, logged in mid-May. The seven-day average in new fatalities also increased, though new hospitalizations declined. Health officials say the numbers are up because the state is increasing its volume of testing, reaching an average of about 8,000 tests in recent days in part by offering pop-up clinics that will test residents who have not shown symptoms or obtained a doctor's referral. All 1,000 available tests at the Barcroft Fitness and Recreation Center in Arlington Tuesday were claimed several hours before the clinic was set to close. As the raw numbers climb, the percentage of tests that come back positive has trended downward - a key metric for Northam. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised states to look for a 14-day decline in the percentage of positive tests. Virginia officials are tracking that through a seven-day moving average. Occasional spikes in raw numbers - such as those recorded Monday and Tuesday - will not alter their outlook if the overall trend continues downward, officials said. In recent weeks, northern Virginia's positivity rate has declined from a high of more than 35% in late April to 21.5% on Friday. The rate of positive results is about 10% in other parts of the state. Many epidemiologists recommend that cities hold off from reopening until they have seen two weeks of 5% positive results or less. But health experts also warn against putting too much emphasis on that percentage. "Positivity is not a perfect measure," said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The statistic can be skewed depending on how many people are being tested and where they live. Testing only the sickest people will miss a segment that might not have bad symptoms, Nuzzo said. But testing anyone who shows up can also present an unbalanced picture. In a joint letter to Northam on Monday, the elected leaders of 10 northern Virginia counties, cities and towns said 4 in 6 critical metrics for entering into a first-phase reopening have been met: increased testing, adequate hospital capacity and 14 days of consistent declines in positive-results percentage and new hospitalizations. They noted that they are close to reaching the remaining two metrics - adequate personal protective equipment and increased contact tracing. "As far as meeting the metrics, I'm cautiously optimistic that we can go ahead and move forward," said Libby Garvey, a Democrat, chair of the Arlington County Board, preparing for a board meeting where the county would decide how restaurants can reopen. "I'm pretty confident that we're doing well here in Arlington." The letter said that "if the data supports it," the region should also join the state when it enters into phase two of Northam's plan for reopening - in which more nonessential businesses will be allowed to operate, the limit on group gatherings will expand to 50 from 10 and only residents who are more vulnerable to covid-19, the disease cause by the novel coronavirus, will be asked to stay home. Northam has said he will consider moving to the second phase as soon as this weekend, two weeks after entering phase one. But he said Tuesday that there was not enough data to discuss it. Two other parts of the state have joined northern Virginia in delaying reopening. Local officials in rural Accomack County, which has suffered a severe outbreak at poultry processing plants, have signaled that they are ready to move into Phase 1 on Friday, Northam said. But the city of Richmond remains under tighter restrictions and will decide its timing later in the week, he said. Though Northam had hinted last week that such an order was coming, he violated the spirit of the mask policy over the weekend when he was photographed mingling with visitors in Virginia Beach without wearing a face covering. "I was not prepared, because my mask was in the car," he said Tuesday, after several days of intense criticism on social media. "I take full responsibility. People held me accountable, and I appreciate that. We're all forming new habits and routines and we're all adjusting to this new normal." He said the mask requirement will not carry a criminal penalty but will be enforced by the state health department, though it was unclear what tools health officials would have to target individual violators. Northam said he would like the General Assembly to consider creating a civil penalty for violations at an expected special session over the summer. The pandemic's toll was not as severe in other parts of the capital region Tuesday. D.C. reported 109 new cases, slightly below its seven-day average of 129, and - for the first time in 49 days - no new covid-19 deaths. Maryland reported 535 new cases, its lowest number in more than a month. It also added 31 new deaths, which brought its seven-day average for daily fatalities to 39. The number of covid-19 patients hospitalized in the state increased from 1,279 to 1,315, ending nine consecutive days of decreases. - - - The Washington Post's Rebecca Tan, Laura Vozzella and Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report. FILE PHOTO: Yahoo News Singapore SINGAPORE The government is setting aside another $800 million for the COVID-19 Support Grant, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Tuesday (26 May). Speaking in Parliament to unveil the $33 billion Fortitude Budget - Singapores unprecedented 4th Budget of COVID-19 related measures - Heng outlined various measures to help businesses, workers and households amid the severe impact of the pandemic. Heng gave further details of the COVID-19 Support Grant, which is already in place. The grant covers those who have lost their jobs, are placed on no-pay leave, or will see salaries significantly reduced in the coming months due to COVID-19. The Ministry of Social and Family Development announced on 30 April that the grant will support up to $800 a month for eligible applicants over three months. The amount will be based on the latest salary drawn by an applicant and is capped at $800. For self-employed persons, over 100,000 of them will be receiving their first payout of $3,000 this week under the Self- Employed Person Income Relief Scheme. So far, NTUC has received over 60,000 applications, and applicants can expect to hear from the union within a month of submission. (ILLUSTRATION: Enhanced Support for Households under Fortitude Budget/Ministry of Finance) The government had previously announced a Care and Support Package in previous Budgets to help households with expenses. In addition to the Solidarity Payment of $600 in cash already paid to adult Singaporeans, lower- and middle-income Singaporeans will be receiving their remaining Care and Support cash payout of $300 or $600 in June. Parents with young Singaporean children will also get the $300 cash payout at the same time. The GST voucher-cash will also be paid out in August. Heng noted Singaporeans have given feedback that while they are saving on transport fares and other charges, their utility bills are expected to rise as they stay home during the circuit breaker period. To thank all Singaporeans for doing our part in staying home for Singapore, I will provide a one-off $100 Solidarity Utilities Credit to each household with at least one Singapore citizen, Heng said. The credit will cover all property types and will be reflected in the July or August utilities bill. Story continues The government previously announced that it would double the amount of U-Save rebates through a one-off GST Voucher U-Save Special Payment for all eligible HDB households, to help with utilities bills. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Related stories Singapore unveils $33 billion 4th Budget as part of COVID-19 response COVID-19: New Bill seeks to force landlords to waive rentals for severely impacted SMEs COVID-19: Extra $2.9b for firms to keep workers employed Heng Swee Keat COVID-19: Government to set aside additional $13 billion in Contingencies Funds COVID-19: $2 billion package to create 100,000 opportunities for workers Heng Swee Keat A mass of face masks and latex gloves have been found strewn along a French seabed, raising concerns of coronavirus-related littering. French NGO Operation mer propre (Operation clean sea), had been working to clean up the ocean floor around Antibes in southeastern France when they stumbled on a mass of waste used to stop the spread of the virus. In a video posted on their Facebook, the NGO shows a diver drifting along the seabed, before swimming through a floating wall of plastic gloves and masks. During this weekend's operation, the group said they had picked up 14 latex gloves and nine surgical masks from the water, in addition to over 200 litres of other waste. The group's founder, Laurent Lombard, who shot the underwater video, told the BBC: 'These masks - we haven't had them for long, and we're going to have billions, so I say watch out, it's the beginnings of a new type of pollution.' Pictured: Face masks and latex gloves collected by French NGO Operation Clean Sea over the weekend at a beach in Antibes Pictured: Face masks and latex gloves sit next to beer cans, which were all collected by French NGO Operation Clean Sea over the weekend at a beach in Antibes Pictured: Part of the total haul collected by French NGO Operation Clean Sea over the weekend at a beach in Antibes On Facebook, the group posted: 'Knowing that more than 2 billion disposable masks have been ordered [during the pandemic], soon there will be more masks than jellyfish in the waters of the Mediterranean...!' '[...]I would just say to end that a disposable mask is thrown in the trash like any other waste for that matter.' As France comes out of lockdown, the NGO said the government should take drastic measures to ensure coronavirus-related rubbish doesn't become a new crisis. The local MP for the Alpes-Maritime Eric Pauget has already suggested the introduction of a 300 fine for people caught dumping face masks or gloves in public. He said: 'Faced with a growing number of offences and the volume of gloves and masks found on the public highway, and when information on the right actions to take is no longer sufficient, strong legislative responses must be made. Pictured: Face masks and latex gloves collected by French NGO Operation Clean Sea over the weekend at a beach in Antibes Pictured: The total haul of rubbish, which included 200 litres of other waste, collected from the beach in Antibes over the weekend Pictured: A face mask photographed and collected by French NGO Operation Clean Sea over the weekend at a beach in Antibes 'The government has ordered a billion masks from the French industrial sector and the demand being 200 million per week, imagine what this will represent in terms of waste if 10 percent are thrown on the ground.' France on Tuesday reported 83 new deaths in hospital from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as key indicators remained steady two weeks into the relaxation of a lockdown. A total of 28,530 deaths have now been recorded in France since the epidemic began, the health ministry said in a statement. This includes a slight revising down by 10 of the numbers who have died in nursing homes. The numbers in intensive care fell by 54 patients to 1,555, a figure that had exceeded 7,000 at the peak of the crisis. French officials have said there is no sign yet that the relaxation of the nationwide lockdown on May 11 has led to an increase in cases. But caution is urged, with President Emmanuel Macron warning that the epidemic is not over. The government is to announce on Thursday what measures can be eased in the next stage of the relaxation on June 2. Cafes and restaurants currently remain closed while people can only venture 60 miles from their homes without a special reason. Nearly nine years after astronaut Doug Hurley piloted the space shuttle Atlantis on the final flight of NASAs shuttle program, hes preparing once again for what is slated to be one of the most important launches in the agencys history. Hurley and fellow astronaut Bob Behnken are scheduled to launch Wednesday on a test flight to the International Space Station aboard SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule. It will be the first time since 2011 that astronauts lift off from American soil on American-made rockets and spacecraft. But the flights significance goes beyond patriotic notions, with NASA officials saying that the long-anticipated launch could usher in a new era of human spaceflight one that is reliant on private companies rather than the government. We as a nation have not had our own access to the International Space Station for nine years, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said earlier this month in a news briefing. This is a very exciting time. Over the past nine years, NASA has awarded lucrative contracts to private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing to take over routine flights to the space station. Wednesdays launch is a critical step in that direction. It will be the first time a commercially built vehicle carries NASA astronauts into orbit and the first time that SpaceX attempts to ferry human passengers to the space station. NASA retired its iconic space shuttle fleet in 2011 after 135 flights. Since then, the agency has relied on its partnership with Roscosmos, Russias space agency, to ferry American astronauts to the orbiting outpost an arrangement with a whopping price tag of more than $80 million per seat. But NASA may soon have other options. This launch is our next step toward increasing American and really human presence aboard the orbiting laboratory, Kirk Shireman, NASAs program manager for the International Space Station, said in the briefing. Behnken and Hurley are slated to lift off at 4:33 p.m. ET from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Fittingly, SpaceX will be using a launchpad that was originally built for another critical chapter in NASAs history: the Saturn V rocket launches that carried astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. Story continues If the launch is successful, the astronaut duo will spend about 19 hours orbiting Earth before attempting to rendezvous and dock at the space station at 11:29 a.m. ET Thursday. For SpaceX, the upcoming launch is a culmination of six years of work on a new spacecraft. The California-based firm, founded by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, designed the gumdrop-shaped Crew Dragon capsule as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is raised into a vertical position on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Demo-2 mission on May 21, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Bill Ingalls / NASA) Uncrewed versions of the Dragon capsule have flown cargo and other supplies to the International Space Station since 2012, but the upcoming launch will be the first time the Crew Dragon spacecraft makes the journey with astronauts onboard. NASA awarded SpaceX more than $3 billion to develop the Crew Dragon capsule under the agencys Commercial Crew Program. The upcoming test flight represents the last major milestone for SpaceX in demonstrating that the capsule can safely transport human passengers to and from the orbiting lab. As part of the Commercial Crew Program, NASA also awarded funding to SpaceXs rival, Boeing, which is similarly developing a spacecraft known as the CST-100 Starliner. In December, Boeing conducted an uncrewed test flight of the CST-100 Starliner, but a timer glitch prevented the capsule from reaching the proper orbit to dock with the space station. Last month, Boeing announced that the company will fly a second uncrewed test flight later this year to demonstrate that the issue has been corrected. Typically, NASA would treat this weeks historic launch as a big event, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the agency has asked people to refrain from traveling to the Kennedy Space Center and neighboring beaches to view the liftoff. Instead, the agency is advising space enthusiasts to watch the event on television or through a livestream. SpaceXs upcoming launch represents a key milestone for the burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry, but its also a stepping stone for the companys greater ambitions, according to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceXs president and chief operating officer. Though its still a test flight, a successful mission will lay the foundation for commercial space travel beyond the space station. We were founded in 2002 to fly people to low-Earth orbit, the moon and Mars, Shotwell said, and NASA has certainly made that possible. Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer says online bullies have left offensive comments at the expense of her daughter Aliannah, who is battling muscular dystrophy. 'Some of the comments on a photo of me with Ali are despicable,' the 28-year-old reality star tweeted Sunday in an effort to spread awareness about the toxic cruelty she's encountered in the comment thread on her social media page. 'Im sickened,' said the West Virginia native, asking, 'What world are we living and raising our children in?' The latest: Teen Mom 2 star Leah Messer, 28, says online bullies have left offensive comments at the expense of her daughter Aliannah, 10, who is battling muscular dystrophy The reality star - who's mother to three kids: 10-year-old twins Aliannah and Aleeah (with ex-husband Corey Simms) and seven-year-old daughter Adalynn (with ex-husband Jeremy Calvert) - encouraged other parents to promote tolerance and diversity in raising their children. 'Lets teach all of our kids that we are each born with unique differences that make us the beautiful individuals we are!!!' Messer said. Messer said that 'we are all different and that is BEAUTIFUL!' The MTV personality added of Ali - who was diagnosed at the age of four - 'My girl knows her worth, but it's disturbing.' Candid: The Teen Mom star opened up about her shock over the disgusting remarks Fighter: Messer, in her recent book Hope, Grace & Faith, said that her child is 'resilient' and 'determined' as she battles a rare disease that 'is one in one million' Accepting: Messer encouraged people to embrace one another's differences Messer, in her recent book Hope, Grace & Faith, said that her child is 'resilient' and 'determined' as she battles a rare disease that 'is one in one million. 'Yes, she gets people staring, but she knows her worth,' she said. 'She knows what she's capable of, and there's nothing that's going to stop her.' One commenter noted that the lack of sensitivity in society can be linked directly to the White House, noting President Donald Trump's habit of picking on people's physical attributes; and his infamous impression of reporter Serge Kovaleski in a November 2015 speech. (Kovaleski lives with arthrogryposis, a condition that restricts his control of his arms.) 'We literally have a president who mocks people with disabilities and the way people look,' the commenter said. 'Its so sad that people think this way, and even worse that they think its ok to voice their hurtful thoughts.' Reaction: One commenter pointed to President Trump's behavior as a bad influence on society For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. As California society slowly reopens after a two-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, people are hoping for a return to normalcy. But many experts fear that after the state goes through the summer months, a surge in virus spread and infected patients could drive everything backward this fall or winter. A "fall surge" unfolded during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic when a mild spring wave was followed by a quiet summer and then an explosion of the virus, with cases and deaths rising dramatically in September. Could this happen again? Like so many things with COVID-19, nobody knows for sure, but experts do seem to agree a fall surge is a possibility. White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the United States could be in for a bad fall if effective treatments to fight the virus aren't developed. John Swartzberg, a professor of infectious disease at UC Berkeley, agrees. "I predict October is going to be our darkest month," Swartzberg said. "Right now, about 3% of the population has been infected. If you assume the best case is theres immunity and that immunity lasts two to three years, that means if we go back and act like we did in February, nothing has changed. It means this same thing will happen again." The virus spread has recently been stalled in many places such as the Bay Area by shelter-in-place orders and social-distancing measures. As the economy reopens in the summer, the virus will circulate and the increase in people moving around could trigger rises in infection rates. But the overall contagion could be mellow, because in warmer months, people spend more time outdoors where the virus isn't transmitted as easily as it is indoors. "People will be outside more," Swartzberg said. "If youre outside, thats the safest place to be. People talk about the actual heat not allowing the virus to not spread around as much. Thats speculative." In the fall, when children return to school and their parents spend more time in the office, the risk for spread and for a larger wave of infection could increase dramatically. "What is UC Berkeley going to do when 40,000 undergraduates and graduates, and that doesnt include the faculty, converge on the campus at one time?" said Swartzberg. "Thats going to happen at the same that schools K-12 open up. Thats a population where you dont see a high mortality rate, but the kids will bring the infection to parents and grandparents, and thats where you will see the high mortality rate." Dr. George Rutherford, head of the division of infectious disease and global epidemiology at UCSF, agrees that students returning to school will play a key role in the virus' path this fall. "It really depends on how transmissible this disease will be between kids in elementary schools," said Rutherford. With influenza, transmission in schools drives the outbreak in fall and winter, offering clues that coronavirus could do the same. But experts don't know for certain as the coronavirus is new and research sparse. "There are a few articles that would suggest the transmission rates in children to children are low and most of the transmissions come from adults," Rutherford said. "But we really havent tested it yet." To prevent an amplification of the virus, it will be important for schools to practice social distancing with students grouped into small cohorts and not mixing in big groups. Rutherford explained that if students consistently stay with the same small group day after day, when a case of COVID-19 pops up, it's easy to identify those who were in contact with the infected patient and ask them to self-isolate. "If we can keep that under control, then I think we have a good shot at having a smaller second wave of infection, if we have one at all," he said. "Were also having 10,o00-plus people in California working on contact tracing. We may actually have good drugs available by fall. We have to remain optimistic that we can dodge that [fall surge] bullet." SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes the COVID-19 infection. It's part of a family of other coronaviruses that causes the common cold and tends to follow seasonal patterns, peaking in the fall and winter months. Outbreaks of the two more severe coronavirus strains provide less insight into a seasonal pattern: The SARS outbreak of 2002 ended in June, and MERS in 2012 was highly regional. The variability makes it difficult to pin down the outlook for this new virus. The patterns of coronavirus spread in Southern Hemisphere countries that are in the middle of fall can offer clues. "Weve seen Brazil," said Swartzberg. "Theyre having a terrible time and theyre in their fall. If thats a window into whats going to happen, thats a good point." "It's probably even a better place to look to more temperate climates, like Chile and New Zealand," said Rutherford. "You have to get out of the tropics to see this stuff. Were going to really go to school on this when its their winter and our summer." While it's clear researchers don't know for certain whether a fall surge will happen, they do know one thing for certain the future depends on how we behave. "If we're vigilant about socially distancing, we wont have a problem," Swartzberg said. "It will be undulations, but not a big wave. Were increasing our testing and were increasing our contact tracing, and were keeping our hospital census in a safe zone. We still have to improve with our PPE. As long as we remain judicious like this, then I dont think well see that October problem." What's more, experts agree, an effective treatment would help with a surge. "There wont be a vaccine this fall, but maybe there will be a therapeutic, and that would help," he said. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com. Gold and silver prices gained on Tuesday as hostilities between the United States and China rose, forcing investors to seek refuge in the safe-haven metal. Gold June futures on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) were up 0.28% or Rs 132 at Rs 47,105 per 10 grams. Silver futures were trading 1.39% higher or Rs 670 to Rs 48,927 per kg. International gold ticked higher on Tuesday as brewing Sino-US tensions over Hong Kong lifted demand for the safe-haven metal, though easing coronavirus-induced lockdown restrictions supported equities and capped bullions gains. Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,732.38 per ounce by 0241 GMT. US gold futures were down 0.1% to $1,733.50. The key supportive factor for the (gold) market is rising tensions between China and the US; and if we see a further escalation, we would see another move higher in gold, ING analyst Warren Patterson was quoted as saying by Reuters. Chinas foreign ministry office in Hong Kong and the citys security chief defended proposed security laws by describing some acts in mass pro-democracy protests last year as terrorism. White House National Security Adviser Robert OBrien said on Sunday the proposed legislation could lead to US sanctions on Hong Kong and China and threaten the citys status as a financial hub. Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset during political and economic uncertainties. One of the factors keeping a cap on gold prices is the easing of lockdown restrictions, said Patterson and added that people are getting more positive on recovery. (With agency inputs) By Park Si-soo A court has found a man in his 20s guilty of violating self-isolation quarantine rules, in the first ruling of its kind in South Korea that has waged a protracted fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Judge Chung Eun-young at a district court in Uijeongbu City made the ruling on Tuesday, ordering the accused, 27, be imprisoned for four months. The man, surnamed Kim, was indicted last month after breaking the rules twice in April. Early in the month, he was ordered to stay at his home in Uijeongbu for two weeks because a coronavirus cluster infection was confirmed at a general hospital where he had received treatment. But he defied the rules and went out on April 14, two days before the isolation period ended. He was caught and taken to a state-designated public shelter in Yangju, where he was caught trying to flee again on April 16. "He has no criminal record of this kind, but the nature of his crime was very bad," Judge Chung said. "The accused said he had violated the rules because the isolated life was simply so boring and stuffy. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the accused's behavior had put the safety of our community at grave risk." According to court documents, Kim visited crowded places and drank alcohol at a bar during the self-isolation period. RTE will increase their televised coverage of Irish racing this summer. Following talks with Horse Racing Ireland, the broadcaster has committed to a series of new one-hour evening programmes on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays in June and early July. Live RTE coverage returns for the first Classics of the Flat racing season at the Curragh, the Irish 2000 Guineas on June 12 and the Irish 1000 Guineas on June 13. RTE Sport is set to cover 10 additional race meetings including all the best action from the Irish Flat season including the Irish Derby weekend. Hugh Cahill will present the new run of live coverage with guest analysts joining regulars Jane Mangan, Ted Walsh, and Ruby Walsh. The new programmes will run from 7-8pm on Friday evenings and 5-6pm on Saturdays and Sundays, and will have two live races with previews and analysis, interviews from the track, as well as replays from action earlier that evening. All of RTE Sports racing coverage will comply with Horse Racing Irelands Covid-19 protocols around social distancing for behind closed doors meetings. The news is a huge boost for the station given the lack of live sporting events due to the restrictions in place as a result of Covid-19. Group Head of Sport at RTE, Decan McBennett, said: "Live sport is an integral part of Irish life and RTE Sport is delighted that it is returning across all RTE platforms. For everything that it brings in terms of physical exercise, mental wellbeing, social and community cohesion, and economic stimulation the benefit of sport will again be appreciated by all. Horse Racing in this country is a key component of that and Horse Racing Ireland are to be commended for getting racing back in a safe and responsible manner." Racing on RTE2 and RTE Player: Friday 12th June, Curragh; Saturday 13th June, Curragh; Friday 19th June, Gowran Park; Saturday 20th June, Naas; Sunday 21st June, Leopardstown; June 26th - Curragh; June 27th - Curragh (The Irish Derby); June 28th - Curragh. PW contacted the editors of this seasons most talked-about adult books to find out how they discovered each book and why they wanted it for their list. Gillian Blake, senior v-p and editor-in-chief at Crown, on The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir (Aug. 18) by Sara Seager: All editors know that many of the luckiest turns of their careers come when inheriting an extraordinary book and author. Thats what happened with The Smallest Lights in the Universe, which I took over when I arrived at Crown last year. What a gift: a book that blends the wonder of scientific discovery with the heart wrenching ups and downs of love and loss. From the opening scene when Sara Seager, grieving the recent death of her husband, meets the Widows of Concord through the fascinating descriptions of her work as an astrophysicist searching for exoplanets, this is a book that illuminates our universe while exquisitely rendering the struggles and triumphs of life here on earth. Caroline Bleeke, senior editor at Flatiron Books, on Migrations (Aug. 25) by Charlotte McConaghy: The first time I read Migrations late into the night, I was mesmerized by the fierce, urgent voice of its narrator, Franny. Over the course of the novel, we follow Franny from Greenland to Antarctica as she chases the worlds last flock of Arctic terns south, across the Atlantic. Alongside this gorgeous and transporting sea voyage is her intense emotional journey. Franny is at moments an unreliable narrator, but watching her confront the traumas of her past is heartbreakingly real. Migrations is also a love letter to the natural world, and to the wild places and creatures threatened by climate changeyet its never without hope. Dawn Davis, v-p and publisher at Simon & Schusters 37 Ink imprint, on Aftershocks: A Memoir (Jan. 12, 2021) by Nadia Owusu: When Meredith Kaffel Simonoff sold Aftershocks to Ira Silverberg, I asked her to keep me in mind for beautifully written memoirs by authors whose experiences are exotic yet familiar. A few months later, I got to meet Nadia Owusu at the Whiting ceremony when she won an award and sat next to her at the Whiting breakfast the following morning. She talked so elegantly about family trauma and the power of writing and the stories we tell ourselves to heal, I couldnt wait to read the manuscript. When Ira left and I was asked if Id consider taking it over, I leapt at the chance. Its quickly established itself as one of my favorite books. Sally Kim, senior v-p and publisher at G.P. Putnams Sons, on The Prophets (Jan. 5, 2021) by Robert Jones, Jr: The Prophets is the story of two enslaved men in the Deep South, and the forbidden love and human refuge they find in each other. While this is a historical novel, the issues it covers are as timely and relevant as ever, and though it is an unflinching exploration of troubling issues that continue to plague us today, it somehow manages to be an incredibly hopeful book: a look at love in all its formsand the enormous, heroic power of love. Im inspired by Robert Jones every single day, by his ability not only to be a part of the conversation, but to lead it. The Prophets is a book we need more than ever. Tim OConnell, senior editor at Knopf on Betty (Aug. 18) by Tiffany McDaniel: I saw a draft of Betty almost a decade ago. What struck me immediatelywhat I never forgotwas Tiffanys writing. It was unlike anything Id read: sentences so sharp they could cut, coupled with images so powerful, it felt like Tiffany had re-imagined the world. She is a master of using landscape as a mirror and capturing how it feels to be youngthe way we look at loved ones when they take care of us, disappoint us, or even betray us. I wasnt able to acquire Betty then. But I tried again. I simply had to publish it. Jessica Williams, executive editor at William Morrow on Plain Bad Heroines (Oct. 20) by emily m. danforth: My childhood in the 80s was sort of defined by reading horror and watching slasher films (which evolved into a love for all things gothic). So when I first read Plain Bad Heroines, I immediately saw it as both an ode to my beloved horror genre and a hilarious satire of itand yet also entirely its own thing. I had simply never read anything like it before. And whats not to love about a meta-gothic sapphic romp? Honestly, it has been an utter joy to live inside this brilliantly constructed world for a little while. The Adult Editors Buzz panel will take place May 29 from 1011:30 a.m. ET, live online at the BookExpo Facebook page. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:54:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank said Tuesday that it will increase counter-cyclical adjustments, further deepen the reform of the loan prime rates and push for lower real lending rates. Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), said the country's economic fundamentals for sustained sound growth remained unchanged despite uncertainties, reiterating the central bank will pursue a prudent monetary policy in a more flexible and appropriate way. The central bank vowed to strike a balance between epidemic containment, economic activity restoration and risk control, enhance counter-cyclical adjustments and steadily push forward work on defusing risks, Yi said in an interview with the Financial News and China Finance, the PBOC-affiliated newspaper and magazine. Yi noted the PBOC will use a variety of monetary policy tools and develop new ones to maintain ample liquidity and ensure M2 money supply and aggregate financing grow at notably higher rates than last year. The COVID-19 epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to China's economic and social development, with economic growth contracting 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020. To bolster the real economy, the PBOC lowered the reserve requirement ratio for financial institutions three times in the first five months this year, releasing a total of 1.75 trillion yuan (about 245.44 billion U.S. dollars) into the banking system. Yi warned the country's banks may face a rising non-performing loan ratio and pressure to dispose of bad debts, adding that the country will support banks, especially small and medium-sized lenders, to replenish capital through multiple channels and improve management to enhance their capacity to handle bad loans. Enditem BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Ilkin Seyfaddini - Trend: The total number of coronavirus-infected people in Uzbekistan has reached 3,261, Trend reports on May 26 with reference to the Ministry of Health. To date, 2,607 patients have fully recovered in the country, 13 have died. Uzbekistan has previously divided the country into certain "red", "yellow" and "green" zones, with regards to the level of COVID-19 pandemic spread level. The Special Republican Commission for the preparation of a program of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Uzbekistan has extended the quarantine until 1 June 2020. Since May 15, the Special Republican Commission has lifted some restrictions on certain activities in Uzbekistan. The "red" zones include Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan Autonomous Republic, Andijan, Namangan, Fergana, Samarkand, Bukhara, Syrdarya and Tashkent regions (also divided into "zones"). The "yellow" zones include Khorezm region and Tashkent city. The "green" zones include Navoi, Jizzak, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions. Recently, Zarafshan city of Navoi region was transferred from the "yellow" zone to the "red" zone. Moreover, Uzbekistan declared Jizzakh, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya regions were declared free from COVID-19. The first case of coronavirus infection in Uzbekistan was detected on March 15 in the laboratory of the Research Institute of Virology; it was an Uzbek woman who returned from France. The Ministry of Health later announced that her son, daughter, husband and grandson also tested coronavirus-positive. --- Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini Human activity is destroying more than 50 billion years of evolutionary history, with the Caribbean and parts of Southeast Asia hit the hardest, researchers claim. The study, by the Zoological Society of London and Imperial College mapped the evolutionary history of the world's land vertebrates including birds and mammals. An ever-increasing 'human footprint' with people encroaching on more of the planet, has led to the destruction of millions of species and their evolutionary heritage. The collective loss of evolutionary history from millions of different species led to the 50 billion years figure - almost four times longer than the age of the universe. Scroll down for video This is an Aye Aye - a long-fingered lemur. The species is endangered due to human activity Elusor macrurus - also known as the Mary River turtle - an endangered short-necked turtle from Queensland, Australia. If it dies out it takes large parts of its evolutionary heritage with it Zoological Society of London researchers say many regions home to the greatest amount of unique evolutionary history are facing unprecedented human pressure. These include the Caribbean, the Western Ghats of India, and large parts of Southeast Asia, according to the study authors. They explored how areas with large concentrations of evolutionarily distinct and threatened species are being impacted by our ever-increasing 'human footprint'. Lead author Dr Rikki Gumbs, of Imperial College London, said we face an 'incomprehensible scale of the losses' if we don't work to save global biodiversity. 'To put some of the numbers into perspective, reptiles alone stand to lose at least 13 billion years of unique evolutionary history, roughly the same number of years as have passed since the beginning of the entire universe,' said Gumbs. Using extinction risk data for around 25,000 species, the researchers also calculated the amount of evolutionary history - branches on the tree of life - currently threatened with extinction. They found at least 50 billion years of evolutionary heritage is under threat, as well as a large number of species. The greatest losses of evolutionary history will be driven by the extinction of entire groups of closely-related species that share long branches of the tree of life. This includes species such as pangolins, a scaly mammal and tapirs, a trunked pig like mammal, the team say. We could also lose highly evolutionarily distinct species that sit alone at the ends of extremely long branches, the team claim. These important species under threat include the ancient Chinese crocodile lizards, the Shoebill, a gigantic bird that stalks the wetlands of Africa, and the iconic Aye-aye, a nocturnal lemur with large yellow eyes and long spindly fingers. As these species are at the end of long branches of the tree of life, if they are lost then the whole branch is added to the timeframe of evolutionary history being lost. This is a baby pangolin - a scale covered mammal. If they die out as a species a whole branch of the tree of life will be lost to history, study authors claim Researchers say we could also lose highly evolutionarily distinct species that sit alone at the ends of extremely long branches - including the Shoebill This new study highlights priority species for conservation, based on their evolutionary uniqueness and the intense human pressure across the environments where they are thought to exist. Many of these species are also a priority for ZSL's EDGE of Existence programme, which works to conserve the world's most evolutionarily distinct and threatened species from extinction. 'These are some of the most incredible and overlooked animals,' said Gumbs. 'From legless lizards and tiny blind snakes to pink worm-like amphibians called caecilians, we know precious little about these fascinating creatures, many of which may be sliding silently toward extinction.' Co-author Dr James Rosindell, from Imperial College London, added: 'Our findings highlight the importance of acting urgently to conserve these extraordinary species and the remaining habitat that they occupy - in the face of intense human pressures.' The findings are published in Nature Communications. The corporate logo of Ford is seen at Brussels Motor Show By Sharay Angulo MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's auto industry reopening picked up pace on Tuesday, with Fiat Chrysler and BMW AG joining peers in gradually dusting off operations even as the wait for approvals slowed the return of some companies. In mid-May, officials said the industry could exit a mandatory coronavirus lockdown before June 1 if safety measures were approved. However, some Mexican governors have urged caution as new coronavirus infections and deaths ticked higher, in a sign of what is expected to be a bumpy return as complex North American supply chains are linked back together. Fiat Chrysler on Tuesday began reopening two facilities in the central Mexican city of Toluca after a gradual restart of its operations in the northern city of Saltillo a day earlier, said a company spokesman. "We are opening up with only 40% of personnel at each plant. It's an orderly and secure reopening, following all the protocols the Health Secretary has given us," he said. The announcement means two of Detroit's Big Three automakers have begun restarting Mexican operations. The third, Ford, said on Tuesday it was working closely with the government to comply with health protocols. "We're hoping we can get its approval to operate," the company said in a statement. In a letter to workers viewed by Reuters, Ford said it has set May 28 as a provisional date for the gradual restart of its plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the document. BMW said it would restart operations at its plant in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi on May 27. General Motors Co began opening production lines at its Mexican plants in Ramos Arizpe in the northern state of Coahuila and in the central city of Silao on Thursday. Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, Nissan Motor Co Ltd <7201.T> and Honda Motor Co Ltd <7267.T> are also restarting in Mexico. German carmakers Volkswagen and Audi are still awaiting authorization for their plants in Puebla state, whose government said on Friday that conditions "do not exist" yet for a restart. (Reporting by Sharay Angulo; Additional reporting and writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Richard Chang and Sherry Jacob-Phillips) [May 26, 2020] HC3 Joins "Texas Banks 4 Food Banks" Campaign to Provide Food to Food Banks Across the State HC3, a data-driven tech company delivering customer communication, has joined the Texas Bankers Association and its charitable arm, the Texas Bankers Foundation, in making a contribution to Feeding Texas, a network of 21 food banks that serve all 254 Texas counties. The Foundation is making contributions totaling $26,000 on behalf of Texas banks as part of the "Texas Banks 4 Food Banks" initiative. Texas community banks have led the nation in processing Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses as well as supporting individual customers in a variety of ways throughout the crisis. With a printing location in Texas, HC3 recognized the challenges Texas food banks are experiencing and the dire need for assistance in keeping shelves stocked. "Like many states, Texas's food banks have a significant need now more than ever to keep their visitors fed. The Feeding Texas network has worked incredibly hard to meet those needs, an HC3 is more than willing to assist them in reaching that goal," said Griffin McGahey, President of HC3. "While we continue to support our clients and employees during this time, we also felt it was equally as important to help a community that has given so much to us and our branch in Dallas." HC3 joined the Texas Banks 4 Food Banks initiative because of the Texas Bankers Foundation's long history of providing vital assistance to communities during a variety of disasters. Whether it is preserving jobs or helping to put food on the table, the partnership between Feeding Texas, the Texas Bankers Association and its members has embraced the tagline, "Strong Banks. Stronger Communities," now more than ever. To learn more about Feeding Texas, visit: https://www.feedingtexas.org. About HC3 Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., HC3 is a data-driven tech company delivering customer communications for our clients. By managing complex data generated from multiple client systems, we help financial service companies communicate with their customers in meaningful ways. HC3 offers focused solutions for statement and notice redesign, intelligent marketing campaigns, and seamless delivery of both print and digital communications. Through these solutions, HC3 empowers financial service organizations to give their customers a fully customizable document experience. For more information, call (877) 838-2345 or visit www.hc3.io. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005055/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] - A survey by the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana shows that agribusinesses in Ghana have generally experienced a decline in revenue - The report showed that COVID-19 has led to an average of a 61.2% fall in average revenue - A number of factors have been identified as possible reasons for the decline in revenue Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Agribusinesses in Ghana have generally experienced a 61.2% fall in average revenue since the outbreak of COVID-19, reports say. This was the result of a survey conducted by the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana on the effects of COVID-19 on agribusinesses in the country. The survey showed that small-scale agribusinesses were the worst affected and suffered about a 77.4% fall in revenue. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Ghanaian cashew farmers reduce price from GHC8 to GHC2 Per a report by classfmonline.com, a number of factors have been outlined as possible reasons for the decline in revenue. They include undeveloped or poorly-developed business linkages, weak incorporation of technology, including information communication technology, processing, poor raw material supply chains and inventory management. The report further revealed that the larger agribusinesses experienced fewer challenges and the reasons could be attributed to good work or employee arrangements, improved raw material supply chains and good market arrangements. YEN.com.gh understands that the report showed Ghana has no clear plan to provide support for sector places from the COVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has learned that some people have expressed fears over a possible food shortage after Ghana has been rid of the coronavirus. Farmers, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders have, therefore, urged President Akufo-Addo to implement strategies that would improve the lives of Ghanaians. While commending him for the measures aimed at controlling the spread of the coronavirus, they also claimed there is a need to avert possible threats to food security. READ ALSO: COVID-19: Fresh report shows that Ghanaians will pay more for food in the coming weeks Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana "If you want to die, please die alone" Health Minister to uncooperative Ghanaians | #Yencomgh Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now! Source: YEN.com.gh By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Tuesday, supported by signs that producers are following through on commitments to cut supplies and as fuel demand picks up with coronavirus restrictions easing. Brent crude futures gained 64 cents, or 1.8%, to settle at $36.17 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $1.10, or 3.3%, to settle at $34.35 a barrel. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and producers including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, agreed last month to cut their combined output by almost 10 million barrels per day in May-June to support prices at a time when coronavirus pandemic quarantines have slashed fuel demand. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak was due to meet oil producers on Tuesday to discuss the possible extension of current cuts beyond June, sources familiar with the plans told Reuters. Some other nations including major Gulf producers Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have already pledged to go beyond their commitments. The RIA news agency said Russian oil production volumes were near the country's target of 8.5 million bpd for May and June. "All the talk about balance in a couple of months seems to be supportive," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group. On Monday, Russia's energy ministry quoted Novak as saying that a rise in fuel demand should help cut a global surplus of about 7 million to 12 million bpd by June or July. "Global crude supply in June will likely be down 12 million bpd from March levels," said Bjornar Tonhaugen, Rystad Energy's head of oil markets. OPEC+ countries are due to meet again in early June to discuss maintaining their supply cuts to shore up prices, which are still down about 45% since the start of the year. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Noah Browning in LONDON, Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE and Seng Li Peng in SINGAPORE; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Jason Neely) Shareholders seeking to oust a chunk of Aryzta's board including chairman Gary McGann will have to wait until mid-August for an emergency general meeting (EGM). The EGM has been sought by shareholders Veraison and Cobas - they want to remove four members of the Aryzta board including chairman and veteran businessman Gary McGann. Chief executive Kevin Toland would remain in his role but would not be a board member under the activists' proposals. Between them, Veraison and Cobas control 17.8pc of Aryzta. Another shareholder, the London-based J O Hambro Capital Management, has said it will back them. It owns just over 4pc. Aryzta said its board will move to call the EGM by mid-July with the event itself to be held by mid-August. That proposed EGM timing means the meeting is less likely to be disrupted by Covid-19 restrictions and will take place after completion by Rothschild of a strategic review of the embattled company, the board said. The announcement was made ahead of financial results due today for the three months to the end of April. The Cuisine de France owner's performance during the three months is likely to make for stark reading. Even before the coronavirus crisis, Aryzta was trying to claw its way out of a hole. Last year, the company reported revenue of 3.3bn. Quick service restaurants accounted for 29pc of revenue, large retailers 33pc and other food service customers 28pc. But the lockdown shuttering of big customers like McDonald's and Subway deprived Aryzta of a large chunk of its revenue. Brittany Murphys legacy is defined by memorable performances in films like Clueless," 8 Mile" and Girl, Interrupted along with TVs King of the Hill." But the actress is also remembered for her sudden death. Murphy, who grew up in Edison, was 32 when she died at her Los Angeles home in 2009. After suffering from flu-like symptoms, Murphy passed out in her bathroom in the arms of her mother, Sharon, who lived with her at the time. The cause of her death has been the subject of much speculation in the decade-plus since. A new TV special from Investigation Discovery, Brittany Murphy: An ID Mystery," will revisit the circumstances of her death. Murphys husband, Simon Monjack, died at their home in 2010 just five months after the actress died. Brittany Murphy in 2006. The actress, who grew up in New Jersey, was 32 when she died in 2009.Gareth Cattermole | Getty Images The special, the network says, casts doubt on the conclusion that she died of natural causes and reveals bizarre allegations against other family members. Murphys official cause of death was determined to be pneumonia, anemia from severe iron deficiency and multiple drug intoxication from over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Monjacks cause of death was similar: pneumonia and anemia. The ID special, airing 9 p.m. ET Tuesday, May 26, will feature an interview with Angelo Bertolotti, Murphys father, who died in 2019. In the wake of Murphy and Monjacks deaths, there was speculation that possible mold in their home could have played a contributing role, though an inspection of the house before they died reportedly did not find mold. It is unusual to have two people die of similar circumstances with pneumonia," Ed Winter, Los Angeles County assistant chief coroner, told ABC News in 2010. Weve been looking at it and saying, Something isnt right. Im not saying you cant get pneumonia from mold, but we did all the tests on it mold did not come up in the toxicology reports." A trailer for the TV special focuses on Monjacks decision to let cameras into the home he shared with Murphy after her death. Update: the special can now be watched for free at IDs website. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Tell us your coronavirus story. Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com or send a tip here. Mobile, Ala. Though Gov. Kay Ivey has mostly reopened the state restaurants, hair and nail salons and gyms included cases of COVID-19 are increasing here, not declining. And Mobile County, home to a sleepy Gulf Coast port city, has led the state in confirmed cases for weeks now, though it has a smaller population than Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham. Unfortunately, the case count and the death count will likely worsen after the bustling Memorial Day weekend, when throngs will flock to beaches, ignoring guidelines about social distancing. We have not reached our peak. The worst is not over here. According to The Washington Post, epidemiological experts have warned that the South may experience a second wave of coronavirus infections in coming weeks as its governors rush to reopen and its residents embrace the freedom to catch a virus and expose others. Never mind that our best scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said that regions need to show a steady decline in confirmed cases of coronavirus before they reopen. The South is led by politicians who belong to the cult of President Donald J. Trump, the "very stable genius" who has publicly ruminated about giving COVID-19 patients disinfectant internally and who has claimed that he doses himself with hydroxychloroquine to ward off the coronavirus, though physicians have warned that the drug may be deadly and there is no proof it prevents COVID-19. Many Southerners also continue their long traditions of disdain toward experts George Wallace infamously called them "pointy-headed" intellectuals and of contempt for federal authority. Even Trump, the highest-ranking federal authority, shows this contempt, ignoring his own diplomats, assailing his intelligence experts and disputing his scientists. In addition, the South has a disproportionate share of the nation's unemployed and working poor, people less likely to have access to decent medical care. The South's Republican governors have refused to expand Medicaid even though most of it would be paid by the federal government a tenet of Obamacare. Many rural hospitals have been forced to shut down for lack of funds. As if that were not enough of a miasma to breed a viral stew, the South has another pre-existing condition: a hyper-religiosity that conflates church attendance with Christian morality. The South has a higher rate of church attendance than any other region, and preachers are ready to fill up their pews again, claiming religious intolerance to thwart any regulations that might prevent it. They ignore the many news reports pointing out that church gatherings from choir practices to funerals have been super-spreaders of the virus. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Given the South's history, culture and politics, it's no great surprise that Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp led the charge to reopen everything in late April. To "prove" he was being prudent, the Georgia Department of Health released doctored data claiming that COVID-19 cases were steadily declining. They were not. Ivey at least had the clarity of mind to issue guidelines advising her citizens to continue social distancing, reminding them they are "safer at home." In Alabama's Gulf Coast beach towns, local authorities have passed ordinances mandating social distancing and small gatherings. But I fully expect those to be ignored as residents return to their annual celebration of the unofficial opening of summer. According to a team of researchers at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, the entire state of Alabama is likely to see a COVID resurgence. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed recently called a news conference pointing out that the city's hospitals were already overwhelmed and urging residents to practice preventive measures. Researchers have also warned of hotspots in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky and along southeast Florida's Gold Coast with its dangerous mix of elderly residents and beckoning beaches. Miami already seeded the spread back in March, as heedless spring-breakers insisted on partying. Those beaches remain closed for now, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is among the Trump-ites who insist that it's time to fully reopen the economy. The South seems destined for a dangerous summer. By Lee Min-hyung The composite consumer sentiment index (CCSI) inched up in May for the first time this year, as emergency disaster relief funds being paid to most households here boosted consumer confidence, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday. The May index came in at 77.6, up 6.8 points from the previous month. The monthly figure had been declining from January to April amid widening economic uncertainties here and abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CCSI in January topped 104, but went down to 70.8 in April, as the virus shock kept freezing consumption activities here. The rebound is attributable to the government's pump-priming measures represented by the unprecedented cash payouts of up to 1 million won ($807) to 21.7 million households, the central bank said. Starting earlier this month, the government began offering the anti-coronavirus relief money to certain households. According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, more than 20 million received an aggregate total of 12.96 trillion won between May 4 and 25. "We believe the rise is due to a loosening social distancing campaign, signs of resumption in economic activities and the government's aggressive pump-priming at a time when coronavirus fears are subsiding," an official from the BOK said. "Above all, the effect from the emergency relief funds played a positive role in driving up the index in May." Yonsei University economist Sung Tae-yoon said the relaxing social distancing restrictions were the key driver for the rise of the index. The government ran the nationwide campaign for 45 days between March 22 and May 5 to slow down the then-rapid spread of the virus here. "The end of the campaign has had the biggest effect on consumer confidence, as this stimulated face-to-face consumption," he said. Despite the slight increase, consumers are still pessimistic over the economic outlook here due to the COVID-19 shock, as the figure in May remains far below the standard level of 100, the central bank said. The May index is on a similar level of that in October 2008 when the local economy suffered from the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The BOK also said the outlook for the index would depend on how the coronavirus spread unfolds here and abroad. Korea Capital Market Institute economist Noh San-ha said the market still needs to keep a close watch on the virus-induced uncertainties despite the recent rebound in the index. "Even if the virus spread is showing signs of subsiding at least in Korea, uncertainties remain in place as medicines or vaccines to perfectly cure the virus have not been developed," Noh said. "The rise in the index is a positive signal for the economy, but my view is that the economy will continue facing uncertainties until the virus spread comes to a complete end across the globe." The government and authorities should leave open the possibility of a second wave of the virus panic, rather than relaxing their vigilance against the subsiding virus spread here due to a series of positive economic indices, the expert pointed out. New Zealand is joining the global search for a vaccine against COVID-19. Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, which will enable New Zealand scientists to contribute to global research efforts and explore the potential of vaccine manufacturing capability in New Zealand. The COVID-19 vaccine strategy aims to secure a vaccine safe, effective and in sufficient quantities at the earliest possible time. It will ensure New Zealand has detailed knowledge of key international research efforts and an ability to assess promising vaccine candidates as they emerge. The COVID-19 vaccine strategy outlines how New Zealand will contribute to global efforts by ramping up our own capability, working with the international community and supporting our Pacific neighbours in the deployment of a vaccine once it becomes available, says Winston Peters. New Zealand has quality researchers and a high performing research, science and innovation sector with a long history of working with colleagues across the globe to tackle complex global problems. Its vital that we contribute to international research efforts as well as ramp up our own research and manufacturing capability, says Megan Woods. The development of a safe and effective vaccine is a crucial tool in the control of COVID-19 world-wide and a global effort is well underway to develop and test various vaccine candidates, says David Clark. The COVID-19 vaccine strategy will ensure that all stops are pulled out in New Zealand to advance discovery, development, testing and supply of a COVID-19 vaccine. Government has allocated $37 million to the COVID-19 vaccine strategy. Domestically, $10 million will be used to support research in New Zealand, and $5 million has been set aside to support potential manufacturing capability. Up to $15 million is earmarked for international research collaboration including those managed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). A further $7 million in official development assistance will go to the vaccine alliance, Gavi, which distributes vaccines to developing countries. New Zealand will also advocate internationally for the equitable distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, with a particular focus on ensuring our Pacific Island partners can access it when needed. A task force has been set up to oversee implementation of the strategy. It is made up of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Ministry of Health and its regulatory and purchasing agencies Medsafe and Pharmac, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Independent science and technical advisors will also support the task force with expert advice. More information on the COVID-19 vaccine strategy can be found on the MBIE website. Today I'm talking to two veterans of the food and hospitality business and two relative newbies, all of whom have been extremely resourceful in these uncertain times. THE FOOD BOX Cork's legendary English Market is in many ways more than a market. It's a whole community of people working together year after year under one roof, not only selling their food, but bringing enormous life and energy to the city. They know their customers from their daily encounters. There's banter and fun, but, at the heart of it, it's all about good food from hard-working producers in the region. The Roughty Foodie was set up 60 years ago by Michael F and Peggy Murphy, described by their daughter, Margo Ann, as "country people". "We're now third-generation traders. We stock an array of artisan food from producers based in Ireland's most rural communities. The stall is a platform for them to showcase their amazing products, which include homemade preserves, chutneys, farmhouse cheeses, raw Irish honey, strawberries, free-range eggs and West Cork flowers." Expand Close Margo Ann Murphy: The Roughty Foodie, Cork city / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Margo Ann Murphy: The Roughty Foodie, Cork city Margo Ann says there needs to be change. "Parking needs to remain free to entice people to come in and shop with us. There needs to be more seating for people to be able to enjoy their goodies from the market. Moreover, the waterways and quays need to be developed safely for both local businesses and the public to enjoy." Margo Ann and her daughter Harriet, a home economics teacher, who makes the most delicious lemon curd with passionfruit for the stall, have put together food boxes, which are delivered all over Ireland. Their English Market food box starts at 70, while their 'Rolls Royce' food box is from 100. Call Margo on 087 6352415 roughtyfoodie@gmail.com THE PRODUCERS Expand Close Michael & Aisling Flanagan: Claremorris, Co Mayo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Michael & Aisling Flanagan: Claremorris, Co Mayo Michael and Aisling Flanagan produce their Velvet Cloud sheep's milk, yogurt and cheese on their family farm in Co Mayo. Having founded their business in 2015, their delicious yogurt was an instant hit and they'd been growing steadily. However, they've seen a 50pc drop in their weekly sales just from restaurant closures, apart from the loss of retail sales. Fighting for their fab foodie business, they've started a new delivery service of their Velvet Cloud yogurt, but are planning to give their 'Rockfield by Velvet Cloud', a semi-hard three-month-old cheese with a natural rind, its online debut in June. "It's amazing how quickly you can learn about online applications and how to set up an e-commerce shop, when your back is up against the wall," says Aisling. "We've been surprised at the uptake so far, while it's still modest, and only running for five weeks, we've doubled sales each week." They've also taken up support from their Local Enterprise Office using a Trading Online Voucher, and Aisling says she's using every spare minute to attend 'webinars' and online tutorials provided by agencies like Bord Bia and Blas na hEireann. The Flanagans will deliver six 450g pots of their fresh Velvet Cloud sheep's milk yogurt anywhere in Ireland, via courier, for 30, the shelf life being at least 21 days. velvetcloud.ie THE RESTAURANT Expand Close Margaret & Joe Bohan: Dela, Galway city / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Margaret & Joe Bohan: Dela, Galway city Joe and Margaret Bohan's Dela restaurant opened in 2013 and has grown steadily since, enjoying a loyal local customer base who know the welcome will be warm and the food fresh and delicious. It's in the foodie East End of Galway, and it's cool, but not of the achingly hip variety. "Dela means to share in Swedish, to have in common, to cut the cake in equal parts, and it's a concept we try to extend to all aspects of our business." They're all about self-sustainability where possible. "We're only one generation removed from where our parents were growing their own food as a matter of course. If we don't continue the tradition, it stops with them. We're lucky to have access to family land where we grow both in tunnels and outdoors. "This year we installed a second commercial tunnel, bringing our indoor growing area to 6,000sq ft. We grow 40-plus vegetable varieties, not including herbs and edible flowers." It's all grown from seed, maintained organically and harvested by themselves. Joe says they're lucky to have a head chef, Sylvain Gatay, and team who 'get it' and love to get stuck in. Until recently, Galway was booming, and, having started in the depths of the last recession, Dela had seen double-digit annual growth since 2015. "Our immediate future will be as a collect-only restaurant - and we've launched our 'Curbside Collection'. We've also tweaked our growing plan to focus on late summer and winter crops to potentially do some amazing veg boxes and veg-related products." dela.ie THE HOTEL Expand Close John & Gerard Loughran: Sandymount Hotel, Dublin / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp John & Gerard Loughran: Sandymount Hotel, Dublin Now celebrating 65 years in the biz, the Sandymount Hotel running over eight Victorian houses with 187 bedrooms is Dublin's oldest and largest independent family-run hotel. Ideally located in upmarket D4, close to the Aviva Stadium, and close to town, it's proudly run by John and Gerard Loughran, the son and grandson of the founders. Like everyone else, they were hit hard in the recession, but went on to thrive since, even undergoing an 8m makeover in the past few years. "Now the hotel is strangely quiet, at a time when it would usually be welcoming many guests," says Gerard. "We are fortunate to have wonderful and supportive staff, several of whom are currently working in the hotel to ensure that the property is well maintained, and that we will be ready to provide an excellent service when 'normality' is restored." To support the local community, a coffee station has been set up in front of the hotel, taking advantage of the spacious area to ensure social distancing. Though their 65th anniversary will be a quiet one, the Loughrans say that they hope it won't be long before they will be able to celebrate in style. In the meantime, they wish their many loyal guests the best of health and look forward to welcoming them back soon. sandymounthotel.ie COLUMBUS, Ohio - State Republican and Democratic leaders are denouncing a threat of violence made against two prominent Akron Ohio lawmakers -- Rep. Emilia Sykes and her father, Sen. Vernon Sykes. Emilia Sykes, the Democratic leader in the Ohio House, received a call Saturday in which a person made a threat against Vernon Sykes, said Akron Police Lt. Michael Miller. The police report was not ready late Tuesday, he said. The Sykeses are not commenting now, a spokesman for the family said. Gov. Mike DeWine, in a statement Tuesday evening, called the incident disturbing, wrong, reprehensible and unconscionable. Simply put: hatred has no place in Ohio, and violence will not be tolerated, he said. A joint statement from Ohio Senate Leaders Larry Obhof, the GOP Senate president from Medina, and Kenny Yuko, the Democratic leader from Richmond Heights, also condemned the threat. This threat related directly to the performance of their duties as public officials, the statement said. They noted that its a felony to threaten public officials. "We have asked law enforcement to fully investigate this occurrence and prosecute the offenders to the fullest extent of the law, the statement said. No statement has come from Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. Emilia Sykes, a lawyer with a masters degree in public health, has been outspoken on the Ohio House floor. Most recently she criticized DeWines plans to stem the coronavirus spread in African American and other minority communities as too little too late. She also has been vocal in her criticism of Householder and his members combative approach toward DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton. While the Ohio Senate has been more willing to allow DeWine steer the state through the coronavirus pandemic, the House under Householder has been more critical of the economic shutdown and recently tried to limit Actons authority. On May 13, Emilia Sykes announced she wrote a letter to Householder, criticizing a House floor seating plan that she said didnt keep at least 6 feet between the lawmakers. She also was uncomfortable with just a few GOP lawmakers wearing masks. Like other Ohioans, we trust that our employer is making the best decisions for our health and safety in the midst of this global pandemic, she said. But unfortunately, we are learning just as many other Ohioans are as they return to work, that not all employers are taking COVID-19 seriously and are purposely putting their employees at risk." More coverage: Gov. Mike DeWine announces measures to fight coronavirus in racial minority communities Ohio Senate rejects House plan to limit Dr. Amy Actons authority Ohio House Republicans move to limit Health Director Amy Actons authority Aspiring tradies, nurses and hairdressers stand to benefit from Scott Morrison's new JobMaker scheme. The Prime Minister is proposing a radical shake-up of vocational education as part of his plan to reset the economy after coronavirus. In an address to the National Press Club on Tuesday, he outlined plans to reform Australia's 'clunky and unresponsive' training system and create jobs after lockdowns left at least 1.3million out of work. He wants new courses to be shaped by industry leaders and to reduce the number of programs to make it easier for young people to choose a career path. Mr Morrison also re-affirmed Australia's commitment to free trade in the face of mounting tensions with China. Scott Morrison will today propose major changes to the vocational education system as part of his 'JobMaker' plan to restore the Australian economy after coronavirus Mr Morrison wants new courses to be shaped by industry leaders and to reduce the number of programs to make it easier for young people to choose a career path There are more than 1,400 qualifications on offer in Australia requiring almost 17,000 units of competency. 'For prospective students, the large number of choices that they face for qualifications can be bewildering,' Mr Morrison said in Canberra. The fees students pay for courses can also be radically different in each state. For example, subsidies for a Diploma of Nursing in 2017 varied between $19,963 in Western Australia and $8,218 in Queensland. Mr Morrison said the system is so complex that students who are best suited for vocational courses 'default' to university degrees. 'I want those trade and skills jobs to be aspired to, not looked down upon or seen as a second best option. It is a first best option,' he added. To solve the problem, Mr Morrison wants new training programs that are created with direct input from companies and industry leaders. 'We need Australians better trained for the jobs businesses are looking to create,' he said. The Skills Organisation Pilots program aims to 'give industry the opportunity to shape the training system to be more responsive to their skills needs'. Mr Morrison wants to simplify the funding system for vocational courses and also reduce the number of options to make it easier for young people to choose a course So far the human services, digital technologies and mining sectors have been consulted on how they would like training to look. The human services sector has already developed a skill set that it wants workers to have to boost aged care and disability support. The government has also established a National Skills Commission which will report yearly on what skills Australia needs and create new lists for apprenticeships and skilled migration. Mr Morrison also wants to overhaul the funding system to make state governments - which receive $1.5billion each year - more accountable. 'The Commonwealth has no line of sight on how states use this funding,' he said. 'Where targets do exist, they are aspirational. If not met, there are no consequences.' Mr Morrison also wants to overhaul the vocational education funding system to make state governments - which receive $1.5billion each year - more accountable What changes is the PM proposing to vocational education funding? Better link funding to actual forward looking skills needs, based on what businesses need. Simplify the system, and achieve greater consistency between jurisdictions, and between the VET and higher education sectors. Increase funding transparency and performance monitoring. Taxpayers, students and employers should know where the money is going. Better coordinate the subsidies, loans and other sources of funding, based on principles of return on investment, to make the most of the support that is being provided. Advertisement Instead, the Prime Minster wants a system similar to the hospital funding model which assigns cash based on activity. 'That is a system my Government would be prepared to invest more in,' he said. Mr Morrison expects it will take 'three to five years' for Australia's economy to recover from the impact of COVID-19. With unemployment at around 10 per cent and global trade and foreign investment plummeting, he said the country faces the 'most challenging environment ever outside of wartime.' Facing deteriorating relations with China, Mr Morrison (pictured with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang) will insist Australia will continue to be an 'outward-looking', trading nation But in a message of hope to thousands of businesses and workers, he referenced Australia's recovery from previous downturns and say: 'We have done this before and together we can do it again.' Facing deteriorating relations with China, which has taxed Australian barley and banned some Aussie beef, Mr Morrison insisted that the country will continue to be an 'outward-looking', trading nation. Tensions with the communist superpower have increased dramatically since Mr Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of the virus in April, a move which infuriated Beijing. Although he did not name China, Mr Morrison said that Australia will continue to champion free trade and search for new markets for its products. In his speech at the National Press Club, Mr Morrison will reference indigenous Australians and say that his plans will involve 'caring for country.' The third part of the Prime Minister's plan is to 'build on Australia's strengths' including agriculture. Pictured: A farming family in Gunnedah, NSW 'We will not retreat into the downward spiral of protectionism. To the contrary, we will continue to be part of global supply chains that can deliver the prosperity we rely on to create jobs, support incomes and build our businesses,' he said. 'Our economic sovereignty will be achieved by ensuring our industries are highly competitive, resilient and able to succeed in a global market. However, Mr Morrison warned that national security will be prioritised. 'While a trading nation, we will not trade away our values or our future for short-term gain. 'With trade, alliance and other partners we will work to establish and maintain the balance needed for peace and stability in our region that prosperity depends on.' Asked if he would caution companies from doing business with China in the current climate, the Prime Minister said: 'I think that's a judgement only Australian businesses can make.' Secondly, Mr Morrison referenced indigenous Australians and said that his plans will involve 'caring for country.' Mr Morrison wants China to continue to champion free trade. Cattle and beef are among Australians main exports 'Put down your weapons': Scott Morrison offers an extraordinary olive branch to unions Scott Morrison has abandoned a union-busting bill in a show of 'good faith' as he embarks on an ambitious program of industrial relations reform to save the economy after coronavirus lockdowns. The Prime Minister today scrapped the ensuring integrity bill which would have given courts the power to disqualify union officials if they broke the law. The move is a concession to powerful unions with whom he will negotiate to change Australia's 'complicated' workplace laws in a bid to create jobs. Mr Morrison has asked unions and companies to sit down and discuss reforms co-cooperatively, saying: 'I think everybody's got to put their weapons down on this.' His new conciliatory approach evokes late Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke who in the 1980s agreed the Prices and Incomes Accord to stop workers demanding higher wages in return for better social services. Between now and September Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter will chair five working groups involving unions and companies on award simplification, enterprise agreement-making, casuals and fixed-term employees, compliance and enforcement, and Greenfields agreements. Mr Morrison did not outline any specific policies he wanted to introduce - but his overall aim is to get as many Australians back into work as possible by making it easier for companies to employ people. 'The purpose is simple and honest: to explore and hopefully find a pathway to sensible, long-lasting reform, with just one goal - make jobs,' he said. In a warning message to unions who may drive a hard bargain, he added: 'What I want them to focus on is an understanding that, if there's no business, there's no job. There's no income. There's nothing.' Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia, said: 'The system has become too complicated. It is too hard to get enterprise agreements done.' In the 1980s UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took on the unions while Aussie leader Bob Hawke (pictured together in Downing Street in 1986) negotiated with them She said she wanted the enterprise agreement system go back to the 'original thinking of the Hawke and Keating Government where employees and employers were sitting down together thinking about how to make a business more successful'. Such a system ultimately resulted in higher wages as businesses made more money, she said. Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles slammed the announcement for lacking 'substance'. He urged Mr Morrison to 'guarantee to Australian workers that their rights at work won't be changed, that their job security won't be made worse, and that their take-home pay won't be made worse.' ACTU secretary Sally McManus said she was looking forward to working with the government to address the challenges facing Australia. 'Union bashing belongs in the past. That's where it should be,' she said. The 'ensuring integrity' bill was defeated in the Senate late last year before the draft laws were reintroduced. The government insisted the amendments were needed to deal with misconduct in the construction industry where officials had been accused of illegally entering construction sites, harassing employees or illegally forcing them to join unions. Advertisement 'We must not borrow from future generations what we cannot return to them,' he said. 'This is a much true for our environmental, cultural and natural resources as it is for our economic and financial ones.' The third part of the Prime Minister's plan is to 'build on Australia's strengths'. He highlighted the manufacturing, services, resources, agriculture and financial sectors as being crucial to Australia's recovery Mr Morrison then outlined his commitment to provide every Australian with a fair go with access to essential services and a system that rewards hard work. 'We must always ensure that there is the opportunity in Australia for those who have a go, to get a go. This is our Australian way,' he said. Finally, the Prime Minister mentioned plans to support companies after the Jobkeeper program to pay the wages of three million workers ends in September. 'At some point you've got to get your economy out of ICU,' he said. Mr Morrison will then outline his commitment to provide every Australian with a fair go with access to essential services and a system that rewards hard work. Pictured: Children back to school in Sydney on Monday 'You've got to get it off the medication before it becomes too accustomed to it.' He invoked William Green, the leader of the American Federation of Labour during the Great Depression, who said in 1994: 'We cannot indefinitely support one sixth of our population on money borrowed against future taxes'. While weaning businesses off life support, Mr Morrison will look to slash red tape and reduce taxes to help them recover. 'We must enable our businesses to earn our way out of this crisis. That means focusing on the things that can make our businesses go faster,' he said. Mr Morrison also revealed he has set up 'working groups' for businesses and unions to come together and reform industrial relations. He wants awards to be simplified to help businesses employ more people. In a gesture of goodwill to the union movement ahead of the discussions, Mr Morrison announced the government has dropped its union busting bill which was stuck in the senate. 'You will feel more pain': China's chilling new threat to devastate Australia's economy if it supports the U.S. in a 'new cold war' Chinese state media has threatened Australia with new economic sanctions if it supports the United States as tensions with Beijing escalate. The US said on Friday it would ban trade with 33 Chinese companies in a move that could signal the start of a 'new cold war', according to Chinese media. An article in the state-controlled Global Times said that Australia should keep quiet like India and stay out of the spat to avoid becoming collateral damage. Chinese state media has threatened Australian with new economic sanctions if it supports the US in an escalating trade war with Beijing. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Premier Li Keqiang A haulage truck and an autonomous drilling rig at the Rio Tinto West Angelas iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of West Australia The article said that China will punish Australia more harshly than the US because it is less economically dependent on Australia. The US is China's number one export market whereas Australia is 14th. The article said: 'China will enjoy more room to fight back against Australia with countermeasures if Canberra supports Washington in a possible 'new Cold War'. 'It means Australia may feel more pain than the US.' The editorial said President Trump was targeting China to distract from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed 97,000 Americans. 'The Trump administration is fomenting trouble to deflect its woes over its mishandling of the coronavirus onto China,' it said. 'There is no need for other countries, such as Australia, to involve themselves in this ridiculous political play.' The Global Times believes Australia is merely a 'lap dog' being used to further American interests and last week claimed the US coerced Canberra into calling for an inquiry into the origins and spread of coronavirus. Last month Beijing became infuriated by Australia's calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus, believing that it was a 'malicious' attempt to blame and 'stigmatize' China. Prime Minster Scott Morrison had demanded a ban on wildlife wet markets, where the virus may have originated, and said inspectors should be able to enter a country suffering from a pandemic without the government's consent. Earlier this month China slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley and suspended imports from four Australian beef suppliers in apparent revenge. About one third of Australia's total exports - including iron ore, gas, coal and food - go to China, bringing in around $135billion per year and providing thousands of jobs. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny to an official dinner at the White House September 20, 2019 Last week fears of further retaliation were raised when China relaxed checks on iron-ore imports in a move that could favour Australia's competitors. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US 'stands with Australia'. Mr Morrison has repeatedly insisted the two countries are 'great mates' and their alliance is strong. The 33 companies the US blacklisted have been accused of helping Beijing spy on its minority Uighur population or having ties to weapons of mass destruction and China's military. Seven companies and two institutions were listed for being 'complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs' and others, the Commerce Department said in a statement. Two dozen other companies, government institutions and commercial organizations were added for supporting procurement of items for use by the Chinese military, the department said in another statement. I did have legislation I introduced that did not receive a hearing, but I was also made ranking minority member on the Courts and Criminal Code Committee so even though my legislation didnt get picked up, I was able to move it with others that mirrored some of things I wanted to get done. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Usman Hamid and Veronica Koman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Wed, May 27 2020 The United Nations is right: Its impossible to practice physical distancing and self-isolation in an overcrowded prison. We therefore applaud the decision by Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly to release almost 40,000 prisoners at risk from the COVID-19 pandemic. As this devastating virus sweeps across the globe, prisons are at risk of becoming a very dangerous hotspot for COVID-19 outbreaks. Minister Yasonnas policy however falls crucially short: Prisoners of conscience are excluded from the policy, despite the UN urging that political prisoners should be among the first released. It is more important than ever that states take urgent measures to protect all those who are deprived of their liberty, especially by releasing all individuals who are held simply for peacefully exercising their rights. President Joko Jokowi Widodos government has detained 69 prisoners of conscience (PoCs) on treason charges, a record in recent times for Indonesia. The majority of them, 54, are indigenous Papuans. One Indonesian of Batak ethnicity, Paulus Suryanta Ginting, is the first non-indigenous West Papuan to be charged with treason over the self-determination cause. Meanwhile, a Polish man, Jakub Skrzypski, is the first foreign national to be charged with treason under Indonesian law and has been recognized by the European Parliament as a political prisoner. His crime was having met with pro-independence Papuan activists while traveling. The 12 other PoCs are from Maluku. All are peaceful activists who have been detained for political expression simply carrying flags, or organizing or participating in peaceful protests, or being members of political organizations. Eleven of them have been sentenced, 15 are on trial, and 40 others are awaiting trial. No one should ever be arrested or detained solely for exercising their human rights. The majority of these PoCs, 54 people, were arrested during and in the immediate wake of the 2019 West Papua uprising that took place from Aug. 19 to Sept. 23 last year. These protests against racism and for self-determination, likened to an earthquake of anger and hope, took place in towns and villages throughout Papua. Demonstrations of solidarity broke out in cites all over Indonesia too, and garnered international attention for the Papuan situation. By the end of the uprising, more than 10,000 extra police and military had been deployed to Papua. Armed paramilitary police patrolled universities and residential areas. No further public gatherings were allowed in the province. Self-determination protests have since abated, because almost all student leaders and key leaders of Papuas civil movement were either detained or forced into hiding. There are at least seven prominent PoCs currently on trial in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. Two of them, Buchtar Tabuni and Stevanus Itlay, are imprisoned for their political activities for the third time. On Oct. 4 last year, they were transferred, in breach of criminal procedures law and without prior notice to their lawyers and families, from Papua to Kalimantan for security reasons. The defendants have been questioned in court as to who had shouted Free West Papua slogans and who had brought Morning Star flags to the protests. Their hearings, held online as the pandemic rages, showed they are on trial for expressing their political beliefs. On Tuesday, the five PoCs in Jakarta were set free. They were almost released on May 11 by prison authorities implementing the COVID-19 safety policy, as more than two-thirds of their sentences had been served. They had signed release letters confirming their assimilation, had tested negative for COVID-19 and were holding a package of rice and instant noodles to take home. As they awaited the door to freedom, a prison staffer arrived and apologized; a political decision had come from above canceling their release. Prisoners of conscience have not committed any crime and yet they continue to be arbitrarily detained, in conditions that are now becoming increasingly dangerous. As a sitting member of the UN Human Rights Council, Indonesia needs to respect international human rights law by releasing all these prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally. ______ Usman Hamid is the director of Amnesty International Indonesia. Veronica Koman is a human rights lawyer representing 63 prisoners of conscience under the UN special procedures. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Iran became one of the first coronavirus hot spots outside of China in March when thousands of Iranians began showing respiratory symptoms of COVID-19. Now Iranian doctors say they are seeing a surge of patients with gastrointestinal problems rather than respiratory symptoms. In fact, recent medical evidence from China and the United States also suggests there is a subset of gastrointestinal coronavirus patients who dont display the classic respiratory symptoms of the disease. Its a phenomenon that is being scrutinized by medical researchers around the world. "COVID-19 had symptoms before such as coughing, shortness of breath, and high fever, says Mohammad Reza Mahboubfar, a viral epidemiologist on Irans coronavirus task force. These symptoms were observed in the first two months after the outbreak, but now the most important symptoms of COVID-19 are gastrointestinal, Mahboubfar says. For both elderly patients and children, Mahboubfar says gastrointestinal symptoms include acute diarrhea, abdominal spasms, stomachaches, nausea, vomiting, and the loss of appetite and sense of smell. Mahboubfar says these patients often have either a slight fever or no fever at all. He says that may be affecting the official COVID-19 statistics released by Irans Health Ministry because it does not include untested patients who don't have respiratory symptoms. Irans northern city of Babol was the site in March of one of the countrys first major COVID-19 outbreaks. Seyed Hassan Abedi, a gastroenterologist at Babol Medical Sciences University, confirms that fewer patients with respiratory symptoms are hospitalized there. Abedi says about a quarter of all COVID-19 patients in Babol now have only gastrointestinal symptoms. He says diarrhea in these patients is acute, occurring at least five times a day and lasting up to two weeks. Abedi says the situation is alarming because those with gastrointestinal symptoms usually seek medical care and are tested later than those with more pronounced respiratory symptoms. He fears the delayed diagnosis of coronavirus in patients with milder gastrointestinal symptoms puts their health at greater risk and can cause the virus to spread faster. At Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, gastroenterologist Seyed Reza Fatemi says about half of the COVID-19 patients are showing gastrointestinal symptoms. Fatemi says up to one-third of those with gastrointestinal symptoms suffer liver damage and inflammation of the pancreas. And there are other manifestations beyond the lungs, such as evidence of a childhood circulatory syndrome and kidney complications. Cases of strokes in Iran --- including among children -- also have been attributed to the coronavirus. Oxygen deprivation and inflammation resulting from COVID-19 can result in thrombosis in arteries and brain strokes," says Dr. Mahmoud-Reza Ashrafi, a professor of medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Global Evidence Medical experts have been aware of gastrointestinal symptoms for COVID-19 since the first outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December. In the United States, the first confirmed coronavirus infection was a patient who reported nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea for two days along with respiratory symptoms. The virus was detected in that patients stool samples as well as from swab tests of his nose and throat. What is becoming apparent is that gastrointestinal symptoms are more common than previously thought -- most likely because patients without respiratory symptoms werent initially being tested for the virus. Early studies suggested that less than 4 percent of COVID-19 patients had gastrointestinal symptoms. But the latest research puts the rate at more than 10 percent and as high as 60 percent of all coronavirus infections. Dr. Martin Veysey, program director of Britains Hull York Medical School at the University of York, says there is no doubt that the coronavirus can attack your gut as well as your lungs. The molecule which the virus attacks in our bodies -- Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 or ACE2 -- is present not just in our lungs, but in our gastrointestinal tract as well, Veysey explained via the World Economic Forums COVID Action Platform. This is what could be behind the significant number of cases in which patients show gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, Veysey said. In fact, the recent observations about gastrointestinal cases by Iranian experts are mirrored by evidence from China published by reputable peer-reviewed British medical journals like The Lancet and Gut. One study in Gut concluded that the virus showed up in about half of stool samples collected from coronavirus patients. The conclusion by medical experts is that the gastrointestinal tract is another possible way that people can become infected and transmit the disease. Its a revelation that raises enormous public-health concerns in areas that lack adequate sewage and sanitation infrastructure. In The Lancet, researchers conclude it is possible that COVID-19 could spread via contaminated feces in the same way that dysentery and polio are transmitted. What is not known, however, is how long coronavirus survives in feces. That is a question that medical researchers are only now starting to study. GRAND RAPIDS, MI Ready for break from your kitchen? While Michigans stay-at-home order prompted by COVID-19 prevents in-person dining at bars and restaurants, many places in the Grand Rapids area are offering takeout and curbside service. Delivery, for restaurants that dont offer it directly, can often be accessed through third-party providers such as Uber Eats, Grub Hub or Door Dash. Heres a look at five places in the Grand Rapids area to consider for Takeout Tuesday. Reserve Wine and Food Reserve Wine and Food, 201 Monroe Ave. NW, in Grand Rapids, offers a selection of burgers, a ground chicken burger, a fish sandwich, salads, fries and more. Theres also a selection of beer and wine that can be ordered to-go. To see the restaurants full menu, click here. To place an order call (616) 855-9463 or visit Reserves website. Takeout is available from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday. Bostwick Bakery Bostwick Bakery has locations in Rockford, 8570 Belding Road, and Plainfield Township, 4029 Plainfield Ave. Both locations, which serve a variety of donuts, cookies and pastries, as well as lunch items such as burgers, hot dogs, chili dogs, sloppy joes and chili cheese fries. The bakerys menu can be seen here. Orders can be made by calling each location: the Rockford store can be reached at (616) 874-9065; the Plainfield locations number is (616) 365-5100. Orders can be made from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Lunch, during those same days, is available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Two Guys Brewing Two Guys Brewing, 2356 Porter St. SW, in Wyoming, offers a wide selection of items, including tacos, sandwiches, mac and cheese, and take-and-bake options. It also offers a variety of baskets, including the Clam-ity Jane. It consists of a 1/2 pound lightly breaded giant surf clams, served with fries, cocktail sauce and lemon. Theres also an array of beer, wine and appetizers available. To view the menu and place an order, click here. The brewery can be reached by phone at (616) 552-9690. Takeout orders are available from 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and noon to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Vitales of Ada Vitales of Ada, 6650 E. Fulton St., offers a large selection of Italian food, from pizza and pasta to sub sandwiches, salads and entrees such as chicken parmigiana, Sicilian meatloaf, and grilled sausage. Orders can be made online or by calling (616) 676-5400. Takeout orders can be placed between 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Fratellis Pizza Fratellis Pizza, 435 Bridge St. NW, in Grand Rapids, offers appetizers such as fried mushrooms, jalapeno poppers, as well as a variety of pizzas, subs and pasta. It also serves Mexican burritos. Orders can be made online or by calling 616-454-9370. According to its website, the restaurant is open for takeout from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday and Monday, 10:30 a.m. to midnight on Tuesday, and 10:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Wednesday through Saturday. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. Read more: Gatherings of 10 or less, retail by appointment allowed under new Whitmer order New Gov. Whitmer order sets rules for nursing homes caring for coronavirus patients Officers issue multiple citations to barbers at state Capitol protest; conservative organizers pledge to cover costs [May 26, 2020] Panasonic and Olympian Katie Ledecky to Host Online STEAM Education Workshop to Inspire Next Generation of "Change Makers" Children Panasonic (News - Alert) Center Tokyo (3-5-1 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Referred to as "PC Tokyo"), the corporate global communications hub for Panasonic, has been conducting various communication activities as a corporate pavilion through exhibitions and offline events. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005385/en/ Online workshop on STEAM Education "The power to create the future" (Graphic: Business Wire) Due to the unprecedented circumstances around the world today, people's daily lives and values have been significantly impacted. We, at Panasonic, believe a new approach blending online and offline communication activities will be an essential element for corporate pavilions now more than ever. Based on this perspective, we have decided to host an online event called "The power to create the future", on Sunday, May 31, 2020. An event dedicated to children, who we believe have the ability to become "change makers" and bring a positive impact to society, to create a better world. The theme of the event is "STEAM education*", a very important element required for future education as the world is rapidly changing. During the event, STEAM professionals will conduct a workshop which will give the participants an opportunity to think and understand more about STEAM in their daily lives. Olympian Katie Ledecky will also join the event to introduce the Dive Into STEM Education, Powered by Panasonic program. Katie Ledecky's Dive Into STEM Education Powered by Panasonic is an interactive educational program created to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The students participating in the event will be divided into different groups where they will conduct a series of interviews with our guests to learn more about STEAM, and then will make a presentation about what they have learned. At the end of the event, participants will hear from Katie, who is actively working on educational support activities for younger generations. PC Tokyo aims to proactively support the education program of younger generations by providing fresh contents such as videos of online events available on the pavilion's website. Message from Katie Ledecky towards the event "I am thrilled to join Panasonic Center Tokyo to promote STEM education to a group of Japanese students on May 31st. All are welcome to join our training workshop. Hope to see you soon." Video: "Katie Ledecky's Dive Into STEM Education Powered by Panasonic" *STEAM education is an educational method which was proposed by adding Art to "STEM education"; a method to learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics comprehensively. STEAM education was introduced in the United States to contribute to the development of younger generations to inspire them to pursue diverse career fields. This method is also attracting a lot of attention in Japan in recent years. "The power to create the future" Event outline Date Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 6:00pm-7:40pm PDT / 9:00pm-10:40pm EDT Sunday, May 31, 2020 at 10:00am-11:40am JST Place Live stream of the online event: https://youtu.be/aiLyPX7SmTM Details: https://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/center-tokyo/en.html#steam_0531 *The live stream is recorded and can be viewed afterwards. Target (News - Alert) Junior and senior high school students, educators, and those who have interest in STEAM education Cooperation Kyodo News (junior press), EverFi (contents for the event) *The event will be conducted in English. Admission free. About Panasonic Panasonic Corporation is a global leader developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B sectors. The company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, operates 528 subsidiaries and 72 associated companies worldwide and reported consolidated net sales of 7.49 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2020. Committed to pursuing new value through collaborative innovation, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for customers. Learn more about Panasonic: https://www.panasonic.com/global. Source (News - Alert): https://news.panasonic.com/global/topics/2020/78373.html Related Links Panasonic Center Tokyo official website https://panasonic.com/global/center-tokyo/en/ Event Reports - Panasonic Center TOKYO https://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/center-tokyo/en/event_report.html#StayHome_contents Video: Panasonic Partners With The Michael Phelps Foundation #whatmovesus https://channel.panasonic.com/contents/28784/ Video: Team Panasonic is forward moving #whatmovesus https://channel.panasonic.com/contents/28785/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005385/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 26.05.2020 LISTEN This is not a rejoinder but my reflection on a story and images that came to my attention a day after the 25th anniversary of the Kume Preko protest marches which fell on the 11th of May 2020A sizeable percentage of the Ghanaian population was not even born. I was present at the conception, gestation, birth and death of Kume Preko/AFC. It seemed such an unlikely proposition when we first discussed it at the Dansoman residence of Mr. Adjiri Blankson in early 1995. The first words leading to arguably Ghanas biggest protest marches sounded like a joke or mere bluff and were spoken by Dr. Yves Charles Wereko-Brobby (Tarzan). Those words, the words that would lead to the earth-shaking events of 1995 still give me the goosebumps. It happened this way: We had gathered, as guests of Mr. Blankson to celebrate with him some important event in his life a birthday party, I think. As providence would have it, I was seated at the same table with Tarzan, Shey Shey Akoto Ampaw, and a couple of others. That was the period of the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) and it was the talk of the country, so naturally, our chit chat turned to that subject. And then, in his inimitable way call it even impulsive Tarzan said in Twi, we are tired ya bre! Already, an idea was germinating in that very fertile mind of his, and immediately started sketching plans for a public protest. They could as well kill us, he thundered and that was Kumi Preko! It was pure genius. He did not use the plural but personalised it so each individual could own it hence kume not ku yen. As the night wore on and the lubricating fluids watered our thirsty throats, we got quite brazen with our hopes of getting people out to protest something up to that time was rare in Rawlings Ghana except for another Tarzan inspired public show of disapproval in the November 1994 Radio Eye demo which was violently suppressed. During our chit chat, I let drop a suggestion that was to prove very crucial in the planning and execution of Kume preko. As editor of The Statesman I offered the paper as a media partner. For starters, I would do a story about an impending demo to hit Accra. I subsequently discussed a story outline with the late Ferdinand O. Ayim (Ferdy to some, Freddy to others), God rest his soul, and we produced a short catchy story, purely speculative, and put it on the front page of the next edition of the paper. The exact wording of the heading eludes me now, but it went something along the lines of Big Demo to rock Accra. The archives of The Statesman of March or April 1995 can be cross-checked for accuracy. The story must have spiked public interest and spooked the authorities sense of doom as the demo now assumed a life of its own. There was no dillydallying, it had to come on Dr. Wereko-Brobby went into high gear putting an organization together to turn the dream into reality and the Alliance for Change (AFC) was born. The original membership included, Dr. Brobby himself, Kweku Opoku, Kweku Baako, Kakraba Cromwell, Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe, Shey Shey Akoto Ampaw, Nana Akufo-Addo, Victor Newman and Kwesi Pratt. Through consultation and acclamation, they selected Nana Akufo-Addo as spokesperson, NOT leader. In fact, all the members were erudite and politically savvy enough to qualify to play the spokesman role but deferred to their collective decision. Members like Kwesi Pratt, Wereko-Brobby, Nyaho Tamakloe and Kweku Baako were already well known accomplished public speakers on political platforms and sharp debaters on the electronic media. Kweku Baako and Kwesi Pratt, as foot soldiers for the AFC were very effective in moving around to canvass the support of different political constituents and critical individuals. Kweko Opoku, a designer by training who later would become the Managing Director of a major advertising agency put the Kume Preko image together, with a cartoon (shown above) by Zingaro, one of Ghanas finest. He also designed the Radio Eye logo. The stations jingle was composed by the late Jon K and performed by Nana Yaa, Pat Thomasdaughter. I am also aware of some initial sketches for an AFC logo Mr. Opoku was working on. Some AFC members like Kweku Opoku and Victor Newman were not political platform performers but the likes of Kakraba Cromwell were gold medallists! Tarzans house at Ridge became the command centre coordinating all the activities, including fund raising, security, media, political liaison and meetings with the diplomatic corps. Amidst all of that he still made time to churn out numerous statements and other write ups for the media. The Statesmans Ferdinand Ayim brought up the rear with his regular reports to the newspaper. I produced a 20-minute documentary on the AFC and Kumepreko. My copy was sadly washed away during one of the mega floods of Accra. For the music and effects soundtrack, I used Gustav Holsts The Planets, specifically Mars the Bringer of War. The AFC was not as seamless as in its image presented to the outside world. There were suspicions and semblances of alliances among the members and I have been privy to some very scathing comments regarding the acts of omission or commission of some members, of which I am not at liberty to repeat here. If there were any meetings out of the main command centre, then they were presumably for such fissures. The issue as to whether the AFC should be converted into a political party or not, was a contentious issue, and so was its relationship to the political parties jostling for Election 96. After running its course, the AFC lost steam and its mission became unclear. Those with ambitions towards Election 96 like Nana Akufo-Addo drifted back to their mother parties not that they ever left in the first place. Later the controversy surrounding the Great Alliance led Tarzan to form his own United Ghana Movement (UGM) to contest those elections. The AFC did not end in a blaze of glory of a Kume preko march, but simply fizzled away with the members pinning their individual interests to the masts of their political traditions. The history of Kumepreko/AFC would fill volumes and no doubt provide many different angles, but one fact that cannot be airbrushed away, is the role of one man, its architect, whose sustaining enthusiasm led to the formation of a unique milestone in Ghanas post-independence history: Dr. Yves Charles Wereko-Brobby Tarzan! But that history will also completely miss the point if it left out the real heroes the hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians who heeded the call of the AFC and took to the streets of our national and regional capitals to protest, with some of them paying the ultimate price with their lives: 14-year-old Ahunu Hongar, 17-year-old Jerry Opey, 23-year-old Kwabena Asante, and 43-year-old Richard Awungar were killed on the first march in Accra 25 years ago. They are the martyrs of Kuma Preko and it would be most unfair, unjust and insulting, if 25 years later, any politician tries to desecrate their memory with his own messianic delusions Harassment and Intimidation: China Playing Internet Bully to Silence Artists Illustration of CCPs Deadly Gift Commentary Greta Samuel, an inspired young London-based Polish artist, last month created and posted an illustration of Chinese leader Xi Jinping opening and offering humanity a gift box with embellished CCP (Chinese Communist Party) viruses floating out and alongside a slogan, Made in China No Thanks. This innocent-looking yet provocative artwork contains many underlying messages that are critical of the communist regime for its responsibility in the COVID-19 crisis, highlighting its deceitful coverup of the viruss origin and propagation and finally inciting the rest of the worlds consumers to not buy Chinese-made products in retaliation for this deadly gift. Little did Samuel know that her work would stir harsh reactions from Chinese communist hardliners. A downpour of insults was quickly followed by death threats against her and her family, to instill fear and force her to take down the post. Since then, shes gone into hiding and reported these activities to the police. With the wave of unrest in Hong Kong, recent intelligence reports confirm that the regime in Beijing is increasingly using online bullying, threats, and harassment to silence opposition across the world. Distraught by CCPs acts of intimidation, Samuel contacted our law firm and asked for our assistance. As international litigators and ardent advocates of freedom of speech and press, we were inspired by her courage and assured her that she could rely on our support in her different legal battles. While afraid, shes determined not to yield to CCP pressure. The regimes borderless reach threatens the pillars of our liberal democracies, silencing the voices of opposition abroad and stifling our long-cherished liberty of expression. Whether intentional or not, China has largely amplified the morbid repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic that its state-run propaganda denies and misrepresents. Campaigns of disinformation and fake news are disseminated by the CCP across the globe. Underlying the CCP virus outbreak is Beijings disastrous management of an epidemic and possibly its careless manipulation of one of natures most dangerous microscopic creatures. Mans thirst for power always succumbs to natures overwhelming force. Ancient Greek mythology offers precious insight into human nature, power, the fate of gifts, as cleverly depicted in Gretas illustration. The Greek god Zeus spared the shrewd titan Prometheus from death and imprisonment for not fighting with the other titans in the war with the Olympians. Zeus entrusted Prometheus with the task of creating man in the image of the gods. To live peacefully together, build cities, and ward off beasts, Zeus also had Hermes give mankind the qualities of justice and conscience. Prometheus then endeavored to further primitive mans cause and offer the gift of fire and questioned mighty Zeus who, angered, insisted that the destiny of man must remain in his hands and such a feat would spell danger for the gods. In his interrogation of Prometheus, Zeus reminded him that every gift carries with it a penalty, weaving fates and destiny by which gods and man alike must abide. Instinctively, Zeus feared more the crafts that fire taught in mans hands: warfare. He always sought to preserve his authoritarian rule, but Prometheus tricked Zeus and later obtained fire for man. Furious, Zeus would endlessly inflict punishment upon Prometheus for his wrongdoing. From then on, man would live in and endure the hostility of the gods. Like Zeus, the CCP has reigned with an iron fist over the Chinese people, repelling any initiative to spur freedom of speech in Chinese society. CCP propaganda spreads the word of its oppressive vision of truth and happinesswhich each Chinese citizen must willingly or otherwise adopt or face persecution, imprisonment, and even death. Mistakenly thinking the CCP could, like the Greek gods, control or transform the forces of nature such as fire and wind to harness their powers, it accidentally or intentionally unleashed the fiery rage of the COVID-19 virus, as in Samuels portrayal of the poisonous gift given to all mankind, wreaking havoc across the planet. Now, as Zeus had forewarned, the fate of the CCP and the Chinese people have become intricately intertwined into the destiny of all the other nations, and vice versa. President Donald Trump is rallying Americas allies to seek reparation for the human and economic toll the CCP caused because of its coverup and withholding of information. Our leaders will bear the responsibility to take appropriate and proportional measures to seek compensation from the CCP and limit long-term economic dependence in strategic sectors and the risk of new COVID-19 or similar outbreaks in the future. Likewise, in the way that Zeus was apprehensive about offering the gift of fire to man, todays fire in communist China is the much-feared natural right of free men and womenthe gift of free speechthat the CCP so ferociously opposes. This modern-day fire, of the sort that Zeus and other Greek gods dreaded in ancient times, could be used and crafted to threaten their reign, is so fiercely combated by the communist regime that it uses its army of agents to fight the flames of liberty of expression, even against a young illustrator. This artist finds much of her inspiration in her Christian faith. The Bible has been the cornerstone of Western Christian society for centuries. Its wisdom has enlightened generations in the quest for spiritual truth. During Vice President Mike Pences visit to Poland last year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, he emphasized the importance of upholding all freedoms in our liberal democracies and cited a pertinent Bible passage: Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17). Inversely, where liberty of expression is undermined, there is no place for God and no religious freedom. Communist China serves as a contemporary example; its crackdown on free speech is synonymous with its persecution of religious minorities. In the aftermath of Chinas coverup that magnified the devastating impact of the coronavirus on rich and poor nations alike, Samuels savvy artwork will encourage individuals to act against the CCP for its destructive health policies implemented to preserve and spread its domination at home and abroad at any cost. Each consumer can and will likely think twice before purchasing products that are Made in China and may simply say, No Thanks, as she eloquently portrayed. Inspired, supporters of Hong Kong demonstrators have already posted the illustration across social media. Her action symbolizes this fight. We have a duty to stand behind her and others like her if we intend to offer todays liberties to our future generations in our liberal democracies. Randy Yaloz is a Paris-based American and French attorney and litigator, and founder and managing partner of Euro Legal Counsel Group. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. As people flocked to the Jersey Shore to enjoy a subdued Memorial Day Weekend amid the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Phil Murphy said he saw many people practicing social distancing and wearing masks. But he said the holiday weekend likely wont tell officials if the Jersey Shore will act as a petri dish in spreading the virus, due to poor weather that kept many people off the boardwalks and beaches. Did we learn a lot of lessons from this weekend? Im afraid only to a degree, Murphy said during his daily press briefing in Trenton on Tuesday morning. Particularly on the Shore because the weather just was not good for the most part. Murphy said he went for a run in Seaside Park, grabbed coffee and hung out in Seaside Heights over the weekend. We saw plenty of residents taking responsibility, social distancing, specifically, social distancing and wearing a face covering, he said. The reports from across our state were overwhelmingly positive. So, I want to give each of you a huge thank you for making this weekend a success. Thank you for taking to heart your greater responsibility to your communities, to your families and your fellow New Jerseyans." The practices, he said, will hopefully slow the spread of the outbreak and allow the state to reopen more businesses in the coming weeks. People purchase pizza from one of the pizza booths along the boardwalk in Seaside Heights. Friday, May 22, 2020. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media While hospitalizations new cases have continued to drop, Murphy has said the pandemic is far from behind us. As of Tuesday, New Jersey has had 155,764 positive tests for the virus and 11,191 have died. At the Shore, people could stroll many of the boardwalks or lounge in the sand, but summer favorites were far from fully open. Boardwalk games and rides sat untouched. Restaurants and bars remained closed for dine-in service, and nonessential businesses could open only for curbside pickup. Some towns relaxed rules on public drinking after Murphy signed a bill allowing businesses with liquor licenses to sell sealed alcoholic beverages for takeout. On Monday, several hundred people gathered at Point Pleasant Beach to protest the governors executive order that has kept nonessential businesses closed since March. Murphy has said he is not swayed by their efforts, but will act based on the data and advice of medical experts. Murphy said social distancing proved decent throughout across the state, at least anecdotally. Some state and county parks in the northwest filled to capacity, and while many wore masks, he said people have yet to wear face coverings as frequently as he would like. Police reported 12 incidents violating the governors executive order throughout the state throughout Memorial Day weekend, acting State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan said during the briefing. In Monmouth Beach, 30 teenagers were found drinking in a house following a noise complaint, and police found 50 teenagers drinking on a beach in Long Beach Township. Police also cited a motel owner in Wildwood for renting out rooms despite bans on short-term rentals. Other violations included churches holding services and several nonessential businesses serving customers. But Murphy said the vast majority of people abided by the rules and recommendations. Ive said it many times before, but were all in this together," he said. "And this weekend showed how strong our New Jersey family is. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Tuesday filed 20 chargesheets against 82 foreign nationals belonging to 20 different countries in its investigation so far into the event organised by the Tablighi Jamaat at its markaz (centre) in Delhis Nizamuddin area in March. More than 900 foreign nationals who are accused in this case belong to 34 different countries. Chargesheets have been filed under sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946, The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, The Disaster Management Act, 2005, and sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to the status report submitted by DCP Crime, Joy Tirkey, the passports and the copies of the visa application forms of these foreign participants at the congregation show they had obtained tourist visas or e-visas to come to India. So far, more than 900 foreign Tablighi Jamaat attendees have joined the investigation and were served notices under 41.A of the CrPC to assure their appearance before police. The 916 foreign nationals, who participated in the religious congregation, have been held in institutional quarantine since March 30 despite being tested negative for Covid-19. Police, in its status report, said so far they have not arrested or detained any one. The investigation is happening on a day-to-day basis. All these foreign nationals were asked to fill a questionnaire, in which they admitted in writing that they arrived in India on a tourist or e-visa, police said. This is a violation of the visa norms. As per the visa manual, a tourist visa is for foreigners whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight-seeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, attend a short term yoga programme, short duration medical treatment. Apart from that no other activity should be carried out on tourist visa. The police also stated in its status report that passports of 723 foreigners and identity cards of 23 Nepal nationals have been taken into the possession. Police also said in its report that around 1,300 members of the Jamaat from various states as well as foreign countries, were found residing at Markaz in Nizamuddin without maintaining any social distancing with each other. The congregation, held in mid-March before the lockdown was announced, had led to a major cluster of coronavirus cases. Maulana Mohd. Saad, and other management of Markaz had deliberately, wilfully, negligently and malignantly committed acts which were in direct contravention to the lawful directions of the government and public servants as mentioned above, the report alleged. The police have also said that the SHO of the Nizamuddin station had issued a detailed regulation for coronavirus on March 12. On March 21, police contacted the authorities of Markaz and spoken to one Mufti Shahzad and told them about the situation. He was directed to send the foreigner devotees back to their respective countries and other Indian persons to their respective native places, reads the report. Portugal and Britain are in talks to try and secure an air corridor for tourists that would allow British visitors to avoid a COVID-19 quarantine upon returning home, two Portuguese sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. Britain, the main source of tourism for Portugal, will introduce a quarantine for travellers arriving from abroad from June 8 - including returning Britons. Travellers will have to self-isolate for 14 days. From June 6 in Portugal, Algarve beaches will be employing restaurant-style assistants to show people to their designated spots on the beach and to enforce social distancing measures so that beach-goers can sunbathe safely. Meanwhile, Ryanair today announced plans to restart flights to destinations including Portugal and Spain from July 1. An air corridor between Britain and Portugal would allow returning British tourists to avoid the 14-day quarantine period for all entries to the country, set to go into force from June 8 One source said the talks between Britain and Portugal were still in an initial phase. Another said the government sought the air corridor both for Portuguese tourists visiting Britain and vice versa, and was hoping that Portugal's relatively low coronavirus tally compared to countries like Spain or Britain would benefit tourism. Portugal's death toll of 1,330 and total cases at 30,788 are just a fraction of neighboring Spain's nearly 27,000 dead and over 235,000 infected. Approached for a comment, the foreign ministry told Reuters that Portugal had requested additional information after the British quarantine decision. Although it would not confirm nor deny any specific talks on a corridor, said it was optimistic about finding an acceptable solution. 'Given the relevant reciprocal interests, the foreign ministry is confident that it will be possible to agree a solution that meets these interests, especially concerning the coming summer season,' it said. The tourism sector accounts for nearly 15% of Portugal's gross domestic product and was one of the main drivers of its recovery from the 2010-14 economic and debt crisis, and in 2019, more than 16 million foreign tourists visited Portugal, almost 20% of them from Britain. Portugal's tourism-dependent economy has been hard-hit by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns at home and abroad, and authorities are trying to save at least part of the crucial summer season. The AHP hotel association has said over 90% of Portuguese hotels remain closed after a lockdown imposed in March, expecting revenue losses of up to 1.4 billion euros between March and June. On Friday, airlines and airports were given a series of guidelines to follow to ensure that air travel is safe for passengers during the coronavirus pandemic. The guidelines, supplied by the EU's air safety body - The Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) - include rules such as having to wear masks for the duration of their journey, saying goodbye to loved ones outside the terminal and interview booth assessments of people showing signs of Covid-19. The UK's civil aviation authority are expected to introduce similar measures, paving the way for flights to resume and giving hope to British holiday makers. A man has his temperature screened at London's Heathrow Airport in a trial of equipment that could be used by airports to enable air travel in the coming months From June 6, beach-goers will be walked to the spot where they can lay their towel in a restaurant-style welcome on the most popular Brit beaches in Portugal. The long-standing practice of most upmarket eateries or hotels of using hostesses to guide customers and clients to breakfast and dinner tables is set to be repeated this summer on the Algarve. Authorities have made it clear tourists won't be made to wait to access beaches, but will be given the option of their expertise to help them select the best place to top up their tans and stay safe. Pictured: People enjoy the beach in Loule, Algarve, 24 May 2020. Algarve beaches are set to officially reopen on June 6 Joao Fernandes, head of the Algarve Tourism Board, said last week he was looking forward to the region being the British number one foreign holiday choice. He welcomed the beach assistance scheme today as he claimed: 'The initiative means Portugal is once again being a pioneer with regards to the balance between safety and leisure. 'These beach assistants are going to improve the experience of beachgoers, who will be received by a young and knowledgeable person. 'Tourism is an experience of people for people and despite social distancing, nothing stops us putting all our focus into a pleasant welcome of those that visit us. 'There will be additional security measures, but we don't want a beach to be a hospital. 'It's a place to enjoy holidays and where people have a right to relax.' Once the beaches in the Algarve reopen on June 6, they will be employing beach assistants to show beach-goers where they can sit and sunbathe on the beach Antonio Pina, head of the Algarve Municipalities Association which is behind the initiative, added: 'We have the obligation of conciling health guarantees with the comfort of those that visit us and the role of the beach assistants will be exactly that. 'The beaches on the Algarve will be officially open from June 6, with a series of recommendations that protect bathers and offer every possible peace of mind to those who are on holiday. 'We wanted to go a bit further by allocating to most of our beaches but especially the most popular ones, at least two assistants who would receive beachgoers, lead them to less congested areas, inform them about social distancing rules and suggest best practices while they are on the sand. 'Town halls are currently working on hiring these people. We are focusing on recruiting young people, who are trained in tourism and speak several languages, so they will be more than prepared to receive those who come to our marvellous beaches. 'They will be a type of host or concierge, if you like. They will have a relaxed and jovial profile and wear shorts and T-shirts. 'We want them to be friendly figures capable of helping beachgoers in these times of uncertainty.' The assistants will be there to ensure that people going to beaches in the Algarve are respecting social distancing rules in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus Authorities in southern Spain announced on Sunday an 'army' of 3,000 beach assistants would be hired for this summer in areas like the Costa del Sol to make sure tourists obeyed social distancing rules. But there was no indication they would offer a hostess-type service like the one that has been outlined for the Algarve region. The Spanish beach assistants will be picked from a list of people who are currently unemployed and were given the chance earlier this year to register for temporary public sector jobs as part of a regional government initiative. Nearly 600,000 people registered for seasonal work. Andalucia's president Juanma Moreno said their responsibilities would include 'guaranteeing the safety of beachgoers through surveillance and organising social distancing.' They will also be tasked with controlling access and limiting the numbers of people on the busiest beaches. Although they will not be given police powers, the regional government chief said they would be expected to inform police about incidents so officers could intervene if necessary. Describing the beach assistants as a 'huge army', he added: 'They will enable us to organise in a planned way the opening of our beaches this summer.' Pictured: Beautiful sandy beach near Lagos in Ponta da Piedade, Algarve region (stock image) one of the most popular destinations in Portugal for British tourists Mr Moreno revealed his new plans for Spain's southern beaches after the country's PM Pedro Sanchez said foreign tourists would be welcomed back from July. Mr Sanchez said in a live televised address on Saturday: 'Spain receives each year more than 80 million visitors. 'That's why I'm announcing to you that from the month of July the entry of international tourism to Spain will restart in safety. 'Foreign tourists can now start planning their holidays here.' Low cost airline Ryanair today announced plans to restart flights to destinations including Portugal and Spain from July 1. CEO Eddie Wilson said: 'After four months of lockdown, we welcome these moves by Governments in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus to open their borders, remove travel restrictions and scrap ineffective quarantines. 'Irish and British families, who have been subject to lockdown for the last 10 weeks, can now look forward to booking their much needed family holiday to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean destinations, for July and August before the schools return in September. 'Ryanair will be offering up to 1,000 daily flights from 1 July, and we have a range of low fare seat sales, perfect for that summer getaway, which we know many parents and their kids will be looking forward to as we move out of lockdown and into the school holidays.' LATAM, Latin Americas largest carrier, said it would continue to fly through its bankruptcy restructuring. Chiles LATAM Airlines Group filed for United States bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, becoming the worlds largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganisation due to the coronavirus pandemic. The filing highlights the financial weakness of Latin Americas carriers and follows a similar bankruptcy reorganisation earlier this month by its main rival, Colombias Avianca Holdings. But unlike Avianca, which experienced management turmoil and losses, Chiles LATAM posted profits for the last four consecutive years totalling more than $700m. LATAM, which has about $1.3bn cash on hand, recently approved a dividend payment, in contrast to other carriers that have halted payouts amid the crisis. LATAM said it would continue to fly through its bankruptcy restructuring. Latin American governments, many under severe budget constraints themselves, have been reluctant to bail out their key airlines, in contrast to the US and Europe. Most recently, Germany bailed out Lufthansa for a 20 percent stake. Chiles Economy Minister Lucas Palacios said on Tuesday he would not rule out a bailout, although he did not propose one. Lufthansas case is completely different, Palacios said. LATAM is an international airline, its shares trade in the United States. In a separate statement, Chiles finance ministry said LATAM is a strategic company for Chile and that the government would consider how it could contribute to LATAMs bankruptcy reorganisation. In Brazil, LATAM has been negotiating a bailout of up to 2 billion reais ($367.45m) that has yet to materialise. LATAMs Brazil unit is not a part of the bankruptcy, and the company said it might file for bankruptcy as well. A source close to Latams negotiations in Brazil said that bailout talks were continuing. Shares sank up to 41 percent in premarket trading in the US before trading was suspended, a common practice when companies file for bankruptcy. Trading was also suspended in Santiago until noon. Delta Air Lines last year paid $1.9bn for a 20 percent stake during better times for the industry, becoming one of the largest shareholders in the company. LATAM laid off 1,800 employees out of more than 40,000 in the lead-up to its bankruptcy filing. This path represents the best option, Chief Executive Roberto Alvo said in a statement regarding bankruptcy. Troubled merger LATAM is an instantly recognisable brand for South Americans, dominating international air travel in the region, as well as a leading domestic flight operator in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador. In addition to Brazil, subsidiaries in Argentina and Paraguay are also not part of the bankruptcy process. LATAM said it raised up to $900m to support operations through its bankruptcy reorganisation from major shareholders, including the Cueto family which controls the airline and Qatar Airways. LATAM was born in 2012 through a merger between Chiles LAN and Brazils TAM, spawning a carrier with large aircraft order books and major exposure to Latin Americas top economy as it went through its worst recession on record. It has since dropped many plane orders but maintains 44 with Airbus and seven with Boeing Co. LATAM said it would seek to cancel several of those orders, but did not provide details. LATAM did disclose that Delta cancelled the planned purchase of four Airbus A350s from LATAM, and paid $62m to break the deal. LATAM said that as of Tuesday, it had $7.6bn in debt, including $460m in loans tied to its Brazilian subsidiary which is not part of the bankruptcy process. The airline was downgraded by S&P and Fitch on Friday after the company did not pay interest and principal on $1bn worth of debt tied to the financing of new aircraft purchases. Offshore oil producers and their allies in Congress are asking the Trump administration to make it easier for them to get a break on payments to the government amid the coronavirus pandemic. Drillers working in the Gulf of Mexico argue they have been left high and dry during a historic rout in oil markets that saw the price per barrel briefly plummet below $0. The lobbying effort comes after the White House declined last month to offer blanket royalty relief to all offshore oil producers. Instead, the Trump administration said it would consider granting relief on a case-by-case basis and encouraged companies for apply for a break through existing royalty relief programs. But offshore drillers say there are too many hoops they need to jump through to secure a much-needed pause on payments. Companies producing oil and gas on federal lands, by contrast, are having an easier time getting royalty relief, they say. PRODUCTION: Rig count plunges for 11th-straight week "I do think that there is a lack of satisfaction" with relief efforts, said Tyler Gray, president and general counsel of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, a trade group for the oil and gas industry in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. Given the hurdles, only four offshore producers have begun the process of applying for royalty relief, according to the Interior Department, which manages both on- and offshore oil and gas leasing. None have yet received it. The bureaucratic tangle for offshore producers comes even as President Trump has promised aid for the domestic oil sector, which is ailing as driving, flying and industrial activity have been severely curtailed to stop the spread of the virus. "We have a great oil industry," Trump told reporters last month, "and the oil industry is being ravaged." Only money-losing wells that would turn a profit if they got a break on payments can qualify for relief, according to guidance from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, an Interior Department agency that manages offshore drilling. But the agency is too restrictive in what counts as a cost for a particular well, lobbyist Erik Milito wrote in a letter sent Monday to the agency. Milito heads the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore energy producers. STORAGE: Amount of stored oil expected to peak in 2nd quarter, EIA says Income taxes, certain capital costs and payroll for most corporate support staff, for example, cannot be included in the revenue-minus-cost equation that determines whether a well is running at a loss. Even if those expenses are counted, oil is trading for so little that "mere granting of royalty relief will not make many leases economic under current circumstances," he said. Without modifications, Milito warned, the royalty relief program "will fail along with many of the leases operated by offshore oil and gas companies, stranding oil and gas - likely forever." Sixty members of Congress also are urging the Trump administration to change its formula for counting a well's expenses. "While the current process is a good first step, we would like to work with you to implement these additional reforms to help keep businesses afloat," they wrote to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Thursday. The letter had powerful backers: It was led by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and also signed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). FUEL FIX: Get our energy news in your inbox each weekday Bernhardt understands offshore issues well, having had the National Ocean Industries Association as a client while working as a lawyer and lobbyist for before joining the Trump administration. Since late last month, 76 wells operated by six companies have been afforded relief by the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department agency that oversees onshore leasing. And that's just in Utah. As of Wednesday, data for other states has not yet been posted, but one company told me and Will Englund that it has been granted relief for "several" wells in Wyoming. The BLM, whose procedure for royalty relief is separate from BSEE's, gives onshore producers more liberty in determining whether a well is running at a loss and can qualify for relief. The offshore royalty relief program has long been cumbersome and time-consuming to use, said Gray, head of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, in part because companies need to submit applications for each individual well. He noted that between 2004 and 2019, only 13 offshore operators applied for royalty relief, according to data from BSEE. "Obviously, something is not working," he said. "These laws and regulations have existed for decades and across multiple administrations," spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said by email, when asked about the House letter. "The Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement each have separate, longstanding regulations that provide for the processing of applications for 'royalty relief.' " The department, he added, "has not authorized royalty relief beyond these preexisting processes." - - - The Washington Post's Paulina Firozi contributed to this report. Australia's reliance on coal-fired electricity is waning as new figures reveal renewable energy now accounts for more than 20 per cent of the nation's power, passing a new record. While coal and gas-fired power remain dominant in the energy mix, together accounting for 77 per cent, the latest data from the Energy Department shows renewable energy's share of total power generation has continued to surge on the back of a 46 per cent rise in solar output last year and a 19 per cent increase in wind power. There was a 19 per cent increase in wind power last year. Credit:Getty Renewable energy - including wind power, hydro power, large-scale solar and rooftop solar panels - rose from a combined 19 per cent share in 2018 to 21 per cent in 2019. Gas-fired power generation increased 6 per cent, with a 21 per cent share of the energy mix. Weather permitting, Elon Musks rocket company is set to snatch the prize from rival Boeing, at half the price. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musks rocket company, SpaceX, is just hours away from becoming the first-ever commercial entity to launch humans into orbit and then take them to the International Space Station (ISS). Were continuing to tick off our pre-flight readiness checklist, said Kathryn Lueders, program manager for NASAs Commercial Crew Program, at a news conference on Monday. All the teams are go. And were continuing to make progress towards our mission. And now, the only thing we need to do is figure out how to control the weather, Lueders said. If successful, when the Demo-2 mission blasts off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 20:33 GMT on Wednesday, it will launch the United States into a new, commercial era of spaceflight. Demo-2 will also crack open the human spaceflight domain that has been the sole preserve of rival Boeing Co, the storied aerospace giant. On Monday, forecasters from the US Space Forces 45th Space Wing concluded that there was a 60-percent chance that the SpaceX Crew Dragon launch would blast off on time, if thunderstorms cleared and the wind died down. Its really a dynamic situation thats developing across Florida, said Mike McAleenan, the space wings launch weather officer, at the same news conference. We have some hope for launch day. In spite of the tricky weather outlook, NASA and SpaceX on Monday wrapped the final readiness review before Wednesdays scheduled test launch of two astronauts. The Demo-2 mission is the final major test before NASA certifies the companys Crew Dragon spacecraft for regular human transport missions to the ISS. SpaceX vs Boeing Boeing, SpaceXs direct competitor in NASAs Commercial Crew Program, has suffered a series of failures that have held the company back from keeping pace. More than two years behind schedule, SpaceX is nevertheless delivering the Crew Dragon spacecraft and launch system for roughly $2.6bn, while Boeing has taken in some $4.2bn for its troubled Starliner effort. Last November, US Vice President Mike Pence told the two companies they had until this spring to launch astronauts into orbit. The Boeing CST-100 Starliner landed in New Mexico in December after a glitch shortened its Orbital Flight Test for NASAs Commercial Crew programs [Third party via Reuters] In December, bad software coding caused the Boeing Starliner capsule to fail to reach the correct orbit, forcing the company to forego a key test and contractual milestone a rendezvous and docking with the ISS. Just before returning the capsule to Earth, Boeing personnel discovered more bad code which, if it had gone undetected, may have caused the loss of the spacecraft. Less than a month later, in January, SpaceX blew up one of its own rockets to prove, in an uncrewed in-flight abort test, that the Crew Dragon system can detect a fatal in-flight event and whisk astronauts away from danger. That milestone paved the way to this Wednesdays launch, which could upset Boeings presumed spaceflight supremacy. That same month, Boeing told investors in a fourth-quarter earnings call that the company was taking a $410m pre-tax charge to find and fix the Starliner issues and perform another uncrewed test. Cheap seats The 15-year journey that has brought SpaceX to this historic juncture started as an idea and $500m in taxpayer money to incentivise the private sector into developing a commercially viable cargo launch service to the International Space Station. In 2005, then-NASA Administrator Mike Griffins vision was that once companies had mastered cargo flights to the ISS, they should go on to develop the capability to launch humans. What was unforeseen at the time was that in six years NASA would cease using the Space Shuttle. With no human-rated US-made spacecraft in the pipeline, NASA had to rely on the only other space agency capable of sending humans into space Russias Roscosmos. As it was a sole-source market, it cost NASA a cool $85.4m per seat on a Soyuz rocket. Since 2017, the year Commercial Crew should have launched, NASA has shelled out more than $1bn to send US astronauts to the ISS, according to a NASA inspector general report. Even before the coronavirus took a bite out of the US economy and therefore the governments budget, NASA repeatedly said it needed reliable and cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station. The estimated price for a Crew Dragon seat is roughly $55m, while a seat on Starliner is thought to be about $90m. Hans Koenigsmann, vice president, for SpaceXs Build and Flight Reliability division, said: We spent many years in development. An incredible amount of testing. He added, There was a lot of urgent and important work done over the last couple of months, the years There are no show-stoppers. Everything is looking good. In the beginning, Sierra Nevada Company and Blue Origin, in addition to Boeing and SpaceX, attempted to provide cargo services. In 2014, only SpaceX and Boeing made the final cut to develop spacecraft and launch systems for the Commercial Crew Program. More than one first Wednesdays launch will be only the fifth time that NASA astronauts have launched in a new US-made vehicle. Crew Dragon, sitting atop the 23-story-tall Falcon-9 rocket, will join the ranks of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the Space Shuttle, that is if all goes according to plan. NASAs Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley prepare for the launch of SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule [Joe Skipper/Reuters] I would say its something maybe we dreamed about, flying something other than a Shuttle, the next vehicle. It did not seem likely at the time when we arrived in the astronaut office, said NASA astronaut Bob Behnken on Friday in his last news conference before the Demo-2 launch. Weve longed to be part of a test mission, a test space flight, he said. It has been just under nine years since astronauts landed the Space Shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center, completing mission STS-135, and ending that vehicle programmes 30 years of service. Now Behnken and fellow astronaut Doug Hurley, who have been in quarantine for more than three weeks, are spending their last day and hours before launch taking in technical briefings, having medical checks and spending time with their families. After launch, weather permitting, it will take 19 hours for the Crew Dragon to reach the ISS. Once Hurley and Behnken reach the ISS, they are expected to stay there anywhere from six weeks to three months before returning. Retired FBI agent Marc Ruskin at the Thomas Paine Park in New York on May 19, 2017. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times) Document That Started Russia Investigation Lacks Substance, FBI Veteran Says The FBI document that was supposed to spell out the reasons for opening the sprawling investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump appeared to be a mere pro forma exercise and lacked the substantive elements that such documents are required to have, according to a veteran FBI agent and supervisor. The document, dated July 31, 2016, was prepared by Peter Strzok, who was the FBIs counterintelligence section chief at the time. It was published on May 20 by Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog, which obtained it through a Freedom of Information lawsuit. The FBI can open criminal or counterintelligence investigations if it has articulable factual basis that a federal crime or a threat to national security may occur. It is a low bar, the Justice Departments inspector general (IG) noted in his Dec. 9, 2019, report on the Russia probe (pdf). The IG said that the FBI had sufficient predication to open the Russia probe. Strzoks opening document, however, fails to properly flush out the concrete points, according to Marc Ruskin, an Epoch Times contributor who spent 27 years with the bureau. The document is indicative of someone disregarding the substance of whats required, but just doing the bare minimum administratively that would be required, he told The Epoch Times in a phone call. U.S. Attorney John Durham, whos heading a criminal investigation into government actions in the Russia probe, issued a rare statement last year voicing disagreement with the IG exactly on the point of predication for the probe. Insufficient and Flimsy Strzok stipulated in the document that the investigation pertained to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and Russia. Though fairly complicated, FARA generally requires that anybody under the direction or supervision of a foreign entity and who is doing political work in the United States that principally benefits a foreign government needs to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ). But Strzok never explained in the document how any of the facts he presented related to the law. He said that the FBI learned from the Australian government that its then-UK ambassador talked to Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who suggested that the campaign received some kind of suggestion that Russia could help it by anonymously releasing some information damaging to Trumps opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The ambassador was Alexander Downer, who recalled the May 10, 2016, conversation with Papadopoulos in multiple media interviews. He acknowledged the part about damaging information, but never mentioned anything about Russia suggesting it would help Trump. The FBI was at the time looking into a data breach at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), for which the Democrats were then already blaming Russia. Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation in May 2017, indicted in July 2018 a dozen Russians for hacking the DNC and releasing its data, but none of them were charged with a FARA violation. The DNC files and emails were released through Wikileaks, which technically doesnt operate in the United States and thus isnt obligated to file FARA disclosures. But even if the release was to violate FARA, there was no indication that the Trump campaign played a role in it. Downer didnt say that Moscow was actually making an offer to the Trump campaign or even expecting a response, much less that the campaign showed any inclination to act as an agent of Russia. Furthermore, there was no evidence that Papadopoulos was talking about the DNC emails to begin with. Strzoks document says that Downers information was related to the DNC hacking, but it doesnt say how. According to Downer, Papadopoulos made no mention of hacking, emails, or the DNC. The day before Downer talked to Papadopoulos, former Judge Andrew Napolitano aired on Fox News an unsubstantiated rumor that the Kremlin possessed emails from Clintons controversial private server and was considering releasing them. The FBI probe of Clintons server was a prime topic of political gossip in May 2016. For all the bureau knew, Papadopoulos supposed suggestion was his own speculation on that rumor. All in all, the FBI only had enough to perhaps collect some more information and then launch a preliminary inquiry, Ruskin said. To justify opening a full investigation, it seems insufficient and flimsy, he said. But Strzok went further. Blanket Authorization He wrote that the investigation is being opened to determine whether individual(s) associated with the Trump campaign are witting of and/or coordinating activities with the Government of Russia. This goal doesnt seem to match with a probe supposedly looking for FARA violations, Ruskin said. The law doesnt talk about coordinating. A foreign agent needs to act in a capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a foreign entity, it says. Moreover, Strzok worded the goal vaguely (and grammatically incorrect), Ruskin noted. Indeed, most Americans are witting of at least some activities of the Russian government. You have to articulate what activities, Ruskin said. The document was worded to give Strzok almost a blanket authorization to do whatever he wants, Ruskin said. Worthy of Further Follow-Up Once an investigation had been opened, the bureau not only could deploy informants to spy on the campaign, but also query the National Security Agencys (NSA) foreign intelligence database, which commonly sweeps up communications of Americans in its collection. At the time, FBI queries of the database went virtually unchecked. Only in recent years has the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the bureau to include an explanation with each query on why it was deemed useful in returning foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime. Adding to the issues, Strzok placed himself as both the one drafting and approving the opening of the probe. While this sometimes happens, Ruskin said, its less common. He especially questioned handling this way an investigation of this magnitude, where the campaign of a major partys nominee was the target. Commonly, multiple people approve an investigation, especially an important one. Its worthy of further follow-up that the FBI didnt take such a step in this case, Ruskin said. The point of fulfilling requirements for opening an investigation is to avoid fishing expeditions by FBI agents rummaging through peoples lives in search of wrongdoing, he said. Strzoks document seemed to Ruskin an attempt to comply with bureaucratic and legal requirements without actually providing the substance to comply with those requirements, he said. Update: The article has been edited for clarity and brevity. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the U.S. attorney who leads an investigation into the Russia probe. The U.S. attorney is John Durham. The Epoch Times regrets the error. Singapore, May 26 : Singapore's economy is set for its worst recession in the history of the city state, with its 2020 GDP growth forecast downgraded to between -7 per cent and -4 per cent due to the economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said on Tuesday. The Ministry of Trade and Industry released a new update and amended the 2020 growth forecast for the third time in less than three months, reports Efe news. The previous forecasted range was -1 per cent to -4 per cent. "Notwithstanding the downgrade, there continues to be a significant degree of uncertainty over the length and severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as the trajectory of the economic recovery, in both the global and Singapore economies," the Ministry said in its statement. Singapore also lowered its 2020 forecast for non-oil domestic exports, to between -1 and -4 per cent, from the previous -0.05 per cent to 1.5 per cent, despite a rise in demand for pharmaceuticals due to the global fight against the virus. The Ministry said "the outlook for the Singapore economy has weakened further since March," citing sectors such as manufacturing, wholesale trade and transportation and storage "affected by the sharper-than-expected slowdown in many of Singapore's key markets, as well as more prolonged supply chain disruptions". It added that so-called "circuit breaker" measures, including the closure of business premises, "have further dampened domestic economic activity, along with domestic consumption", and that "sectors like construction and marine and offshore engineering have been severely affected by manpower shortages due to the outbreak of infections among foreign workers". Singapore has been recording a slow decline in the number of infections after a surge in new cases among foreign workers residing in dormitories on the outskirts of the city. The city state has so far reported 31,960 confirmed cases and 23 deaths due to COVID-19. It has also announced a phased easing of social distancing restrictions from June 2. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's government has so far approved three stimulus packages to revive the economy, and on Tuesday, Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat is expected to announce a fourth set of measures aimed at aiding families and businesses. Bangladesh joined the select group of countries by shipping 6.5 million world-class, personal protective equipment (PPE) gowns to US brand Hanes for ultimate delivery to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). At a ceremony at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to mark the occasion, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam joined US Ambassador, Earl R. Miller to see off Beximcos first shipment of PPE to US. As COVID-19 has turned into a global pandemic, it has become clear that there will be a desperate need of PPE to keep medical professionals and the general public safe. Beximco has joined the fight against the global pandemic by moving swiftly to add manufacturing capabilities in PPE items such as gowns, masks and coveralls, said Beximco CEO and Group Director Syed Naved Husain. He said that the COVID-19 virus had changed how the world works, and that Beximco had to urgently respond. In just two months, weve unleashed our world-class manufacturing, technical and design talent to switch over and start making personal protection equipment and help increase the supply of PPE which is urgently needed in Bangladesh and worldwide. He said: Bangladesh is well positioned to become a new hub for PPE manufacturing. This would help keep people safe and secure worldwide while helping Bangladesh`s own economy and ensuring that the large workforce of 4.1 million in the garment sector can still make a good livelihood. Everyone in Bangladesh wants to turn the tide and help save lives. Beximco is leading the way in this regard, he said. Speaking on the occasion, Alam lauded the role of Beximcos contribution to Bangladeshs economy. He said like the rest of the world Bangladesh is also facing toughest times and trying to cope with this pandemic. And in these trying times, its remarkable to see that within this short span of two months Bangladesh was able to foray into this very regulated market with such a sensitive healthcare product with just not ten or twenty thousand pieces but six and half million pieces. What an achievement. Miller said the event marked the first major shipment of PPE into the US. US welcomes Bangladeshs world-class large-scale PPE production to the global marketplace. The Beximco-Hanes partnership is another great example of how our two great nations are combating the Covid 19 pandemic, Miller said. He said all this happened in less than two months. Imagine, two months from the request from the US. Beximco and Bangladesh was nimble enough to turn production line around so that we can put badly needed PPE on this aircraft behind me and send it to the US. Thats absolute bureaucratic and entrepreneurial light speed. Speaking at the event, Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed chairman of Janata Bank said: Janta Bank is proud to be associated with Beximco in financing them. We are going to finance the other exporters also who are involved in export business as economic machine should run or else everything will fall apart. Managing Director of Beximco Pharma Nazmul Hassan MP termed the event historic. Today we join the club of first-class large-scale PPE manufacturing countries. Beximco Textile Division is one of South Asias largest, fastest, agile/flexible ,most innovative, and sustainable vertical Textile and Fashion Apparel manufacturing operations employing 40,000 people, shipping around 400,000 garments daily to gold standard companies like Target, USA, Zara, Michael Kors, PVH, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Amazon. C&A. Yellow which is Beximco`s fashion retail chain has become the No 1 Fashion Brand in Bangladesh.-- Tradearabia News Service International tourist arrivals worldwide since 2000 (Photo : Statista / IBT) While few industries have been spared by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, even fewer have been hit harder than the tourism sector. And while it is impossible to gauge the full extent of disruption brought on by COVID-19, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) published estimates on how the pandemic will affect international tourist arrivals in 2020 under three different scenarios. Advertisement Unfortunately, the pandemic's impact on the tourism industry is expected to be devastating, even under the most optimistic of the three scenarios. Assuming the opening of borders and the gradual lifting of travel restrictions begins in early July, the UNWTO expects international tourist arrivals to drop by 58 percent to 610 million this year. That would set the global travel industry back to 1998, when the number of international travelers was last so low. It could get worse, however, if travel restrictions remain in place until later in the year. Assuming they are eased as late as December, the UNWTO sees international tourist arrivals fall as low as 320 million, a level last seen in the mid-80s and possibly costing the industry $1+ trillion. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the global tourism industry had seen almost uninterrupted growth for decades. Since 1980, the number of international arrivals skyrocketed from 277 million to nearly 1.5 billion in 2019. As our chart shows, tourist numbers only dipped twice in the past two decades: in 2003, when the SARS outbreak led to a 0.4 percent drop in arrivals, and in 2009, when the global financial crisis caused a 4 percent drop in international travel. Anushka Sharma has shared an unseen childhood picture of herself and is seen as a baby sitting on the lap of her elder brother Karnesh Sharma. The brother and sister duo are currently basking in the success of their production, Paatal Lok. Anushka shared the picture on Instagram with just a heart emoji in the caption. It shows an around a year-old Anushka playfully screaming in the lap of her brother, who holds her tight to make her sit in one place. Some other family members also seem to be standing around them. The picture got a lot of love on Instagram with more than 130000 likes within a few minutes. A fan commented, Wowww cuteee, another wrote, so sweet. Anushka and Karnesh recently delivered their debut web show, Paatal Lok, made under their production house Clean Slate Films. The actor is over the moon with the positive response to the show and doesnt just want to credit any particular thing and says its everyones victory together. She said that she and her brother Karnesh, right from the beginning, were always inspired by the work that was happening throughout the world. When we were making the show we werent thinking of it to be the best show, we were just trying to tell a story and we just wanted to stay true to the story. Today when the show is getting appreciated on these lines it makes us feel very happy that it is being called the best show that India has ever produced. Anushka told IANS. Also read: Milind Somans wife Ankita Konwar wishes Eid with an adorable photo: The only thing thats changed is our hair On being asked if she is gearing up for the second season, the actor told PTI, You have to wait and watch to know more about season two. I dont want to divulge too much but lets just say its quite possible. Its too early to talk about it but yes if Amazon is willing to do it, definitely there will be a second season. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Morgan James' new book release, Reflections: A Story of Hope, Healing, Facing Fears, and Finding Purpose by Brian and Fia Hobbs, is an inspiring story written from the perspective of a man with terminal cancer and his wife. Fia Hobbs Reflections: A Story of Hope, Healing, Facing Fears, and Finding Purpose When songwriter Brian Hobbs was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he was immediately faced with feelings of fear. However, this illness started a journey that would change his entire perspective on life. Throughout his battle with cancer, Brian Hobbs captured his feelings and experiences in a blog that became a powerful inspiration for many others. Reflections is a continuation of that blog, co-written by Fia Hobbs, his wife, caregiver, and therapist. Told that he only had months to live, Brian Hobbs was forced to take the most difficult situation he could possibly face and find hope in spite of it. Reflections recounts his emotional path from despair to peace and acceptance. Brian's blog, and Fia's additions to it, were written to inspire readers to focus on the things that truly matter in life. Reflections offers refreshingly powerful insight and wisdom that, though gained during tragic circumstances, can benefit anyone at any point in their lives. If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Fia Hobbs, please call Nickcole Watkins at 516.900.5674. About the Author: Fia Hobbs is a speaker, therapist, and stress management expert with three decades of experience. Fia specializes in cancer wellness, and founded the Swedish nonprofit organization, Fonden Cancerfriskvard (Foundation for Cancer Wellness). Fia has helped countless clients, and her work has led her to be featured in many Swedish magazines and newspapers. Fia currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. More About This Title: Reflections: A Story of Hope, Healing, Facing Fears, and Finding Purpose by Brian and Fia Hobbs will be released by Morgan James Publishing on May 26, 2020. Reflections ISBN 9781642797060has 170 pages and is being sold as a trade paperback for $14.95 About Morgan James Publishing: Morgan James publishes trade quality titles designed to educate, encourage, inspire, or entertain readers with current, consistent, relevant topics that are available everywhere books are sold. (www.MorganJamesPublishing.com) Contact information to author Fia Hobbs [email protected] www.fiahobbs.com www.stresstostrength.se MEDIA CONTACT: Nickcole Watkins Morgan James Publishing 516.900.5674 [email protected] SOURCE Fia Hobbs Related Links http://www.fiahobbs.com "Best Practices Award" Recognizes Blue Ocean Robotics' UVD Robots in Disinfecting Against Viruses like COVID-19 as well as the company's other Service Robots; GoBe Robots and PTR Robots As the global pandemic drives attention to the role professional service robots play in protecting people from infections, today, Blue Ocean Robotics announced that it has been selected by Frost Sullivan for its Best Practice "2020 European Professional Service Robots Product Leadership" Award thereby being honored as the leading professional service robotics company in Europe. The recognition was earned primarily based on the company's work with subsidiary UVD Robots, which combines autonomous robot technology with ultraviolet light to disinfect against viruses like COVID-19. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005148/en/ Before UVD Robots, six of the hospital doctors in one Gruppo Poloclinico Abano hospital in Sardinia (above) had been infected with coronavirus. Since the hospital started disinfecting with UVD Robots two months ago, no further cases have occurred at this hospital. (Photo: Business Wire) Frost Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices. "Being recognized by Frost Sullivan with a 'Best Practice Award' pays tribute to the heart, passion and drive we dedicate to creating innovation, development and commercial success," said Blue Ocean Robotics CEO Claus Risager. "At the same time, we are also very proud to develop robots that not only help solve the world's problems, but are also solid and lucrative investments for our owners from a business perspective." A subsidiary of Blue Ocean Robotics, Denmark-based UVD Robots' innovative solution has been proven to eliminate pathogens within 10-15 minutes in a patient room. The company's self-driving, disinfecting robots have been rolled out to more than 50 countries worldwide, to date, with great success. "Before we received the UVD robot, six doctors at our hospital in Sardinia had been infected with coronavirus," says Christiano Huscher, chief surgeon at Gruppo Poloclinico Abano, which operates a number of private hospitals in Italy and recently began using UVD robots. "Since we started using the robots two months ago to disinfect, we haven't had a single case of COVID-19 among doctors, nurses or patients." Frost Sullivan Best Practices Awards are presented each year to companies that are predicted to encourage significant growth in their industries, have identified emerging trends before they became the standard in the marketplace, and have created advanced technologies that will catalyze and transform industries in the near future. "Blue Ocean Robotics' flagship product, UVD Robots, especially enables hospitals to reduce disease transmission by killing 99.99 percent of bacteria and microorganisms," said Rohit Karthikeyan, Industry Manager with Frost Sullivan. "It is the first and only autonomous mobile robot that disinfects a variety of surfaces using UV-C light, giving it superior utility over competing solutions. Uniquely, the UVD robot can be easily controlled with a tablet." The most recent data from the International Federation of Robotics showed an annual 61 percent growth in the number of service robots sold, corresponding to a total sale of 271,000 robots sold in the global market. Despite quite a bit of turbulence in the global market these months, Blue Ocean Robotics expects a strong four-digit percentage growth in total sales in 2020. About Blue Ocean Robotics Blue Ocean Robotics develops, produces and sells professional service robots primarily in healthcare, hospitality, construction, and agriculture. The portfolio of robots includes the brands; UVD Robots, a mobile robot for disinfection; GoBe Robots, a mobile telepresence robot for communication social inclusion and CO2 climate improvements; and PTR Robots, a mobile robot for safe patient handling and rehabilitation. Blue Ocean Robotics develops the robots from problem and idea all the way to scale up. Each robot is placed in its own subsidiary-venture company, making Blue Ocean Robotics the world's first Robot Venture Factory. Download press kit here. Blue Ocean Robotics awards and recognition: 2020: Blue Ocean Robotics is named "European Champion" in the development and commercialization of service robots for professionals (B2B) by Frost Sullivan. Blue Ocean Robotics wins the European Robot Industry Award, "euRobotics Tech Transfer Award, 2020". Blue Ocean Robotics is named "Minicorn" and thus one of the 10 most promising technology companies in Denmark by the international analysis house Tracxn. Blue Ocean Robotics awarded with participation in Tech Tours Growth 50, which is a shortlist of Europe's leading super-scale companies in the tech industry. 2019: Blue Ocean Robotics wins one of the robotics industry's biggest international awards, the IERA Award 2019 Blue Ocean Robotics is named a "Gazelle" for the third year in a row by leading Danish business paper Brsen Blue Ocean Robotics is a finalist in the competition to become Robot Company of the Year in Denmark Technology Denmark honors Blue Ocean Robotics for its contribution to the Enterprise Pact to attract and develop talent. 2018 Blue Ocean Robotics is named a "Gazelle" for the second year in a row by leading Danish business paper Brsen 2017: Nordic Startup Award: CEO and founder of Blue Ocean Robotics, Claus Risager, nominated at the awards ceremony as Founder of the Year. Blue Ocean Robotics is named a "Gazelle" by leading Danish business paper Brsen. 2016: Blue Ocean Robotics is in the top 3 of the Startup World Award for UVD Robots at the AUTOMATICA Fair in Munich. Blue Ocean Robotics is included in "20 Most Promising Robotics Solution Providers 2016", prepared by CIO Review. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005148/en/ Contacts: Company: Merima Cikotic Head of PR Marketing Blue Ocean Robotics Group +45 71 99 56 06 mc@blue-ocean-robotics.com Media: Mette McCall McCall Media +1 415-847-8649 mette@mccallmedia.net A Professor of microbiology and Covid-19 cure claimant, Ayodele Isreal Adeleye, has stated that the procedures set out by federal gove... A Professor of microbiology and Covid-19 cure claimant, Ayodele Isreal Adeleye, has stated that the procedures set out by federal government, for submission and verification of herbal drugs for treatment of patients down with the pandemic are unnecessary. He said they were too long to follow on emergency situation that required urgent intervention to save lives. The Kaduna-based cure claimant, who majors in parasitology made the remarks while presenting his herbal drug to the Coordinator, NAFDAC office, Kaduna, Dadi Nantim Mullah. The researcher, who is also into complimentary Medicine challenged federal government to allow him into isolation centre unprotected to treat five patients already on ventilators and five other positive patients with his drug under beam of television cameras. Prof. Adeleye said he was fully prepared to carry out the treatment on the ten patients free of charge in isolation centre without wearing any protective jackets, to prove the efficacy of his drug under the media coverage. Prince Adeleye explained that his cure research on Covid-19 pandemic resulted in production of virus killer-herbal Medicine, which he submitted to NAFDAC to expedite action and to reach those affected as quickly as possible to stop the death rates and safe lives. He explained, The drug has been fully labelled and information on the awareness on Covid-19 and other virus research like Lassa, Ebola and Hiv viruses are also attached. Prof. Adeleye further explained that the drug is fast acting, requiring only one wine glass dosage, and a patient is healed and may test negative from the second day onward. The drug gives protection (immunity) from further infection. Uninfected patients will also enjoy the same immunity and protection after taking it, he assured. He assured that there was no side effects whatsoever from user of the drug, adding that it removed blockage of the lungs that allows patient to breath freely, with no ventilator required after one wine glass treatment. Minister of Justice of Armenia Rustam Badasyan has posted the following on his Facebook: Deputy of the National Assembly of Armenia Arman Babajanyan is manifesting himself as the talented Red in the Mafia game, but is he really a Red? Which ambassador did he consider one of the best ambassadors of the Republic of Armenia? With whom did he have ties, according to widespread news? Arman Babajanyan continues to make irresponsible statements. He hasnt been able to provide any substantiation to this day because populism is not enough for expressing any idea. P.S.: The preparations for vetting are almost over, and according to the transitional provisions of the Judicial Code, the declarations of judges will have been checked by the end of this year, and the process will be ongoing. The move comes after President Ashraf Ghani announced release of Taliban prisoners following Eid ceasefire by Taliban. Afghan authorities plan to release 900 more Taliban prisoners, as a rare ceasefire announced by the armed group entered its third and last day. There is a decision to release 900 today, National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal told AFP news agency on Tuesday. But the exact number could vary subject to legal procedures, he added. The Afghan government also urged the Taliban to extend the three-day ceasefire which is due to expire at midnight on Tuesday (19:30 GMT). It is important to extend the ceasefire and, to avoid bloodshed, the Afghan government is ready to extend it, Javid Faisal, the spokesman for the Afghan national security adviser, told a news conference. The pause in fighting, which came into effect on Sunday to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, and the prisoner release offer hope of peace for the South Asian country ravaged by nearly 20 years of war. A US-Taliban agreement signed in February in Qatars capital, Doha, stipulated that the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the Taliban would free about 1,000 Afghan security forces personnel. But the prisoner swap has been delayed as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani refused to release all 5,000 Taliban prisoners at once. So far, Kabul has freed about 1,000 Taliban inmates, while the armed group had released about 300 Afghan security forces it held captive. On Sunday, President Ghanis spokesman responded to the Talibans ceasefire offer by announcing plans to release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners. The Afghan government has so far released bout 1,000 Taliban prisoners [Photo courtesy: National Security Council of Afghanistan/Anadolu] On Monday, 100 Taliban prisoners were released as a goodwill gesture that will likely create a positive atmosphere before the so-called intra-Afghan talks envisaged in the Doha agreement. The ceasefire, only the second of its kind in the 19-year conflict, has raised hopes of an extended truce that could pave the way for long-awaited peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government. President Ghani has said his administration is ready to begin the negotiations, seen as key to ending the war in the impoverished country. Government negotiators would be headed by Ghanis former rival Abdullah Abdullah after the two signed a power-sharing deal last week that ended a months-long political crisis. On Tuesday, officials said the ceasefire, the countrys first initiated by the Taliban, had largely been observed. The Talibans offer of a ceasefire came just days after its leader Haibatullah Akhunzada urged Washington not to waste the opportunity offered by the Doha agreement that set the stage for the withdrawal of US troops from the country after more than 18 years. The only other comparable pause in violence came over Eid in 2018, an olive branch that had been offered by Ghani. Violence in Afghanistan escalated after the Taliban signed the agreement with Washington. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has welcomed the ceasefire and said the freed Taliban fighters should not return to the battlefield. More than two months after closing its popular shrines over coronavirus concerns, Iran has reopened them as part of an easing of restrictions across the country. Mosques and key religious sites in Iran that attract millions of Muslim pilgrims each year were closed in mid-March. Mobs of angry Shiite hard-liners stormed the countrys holy shrines in protest, despite fatwas from Shiite clerical authorities urging people to refrain from gathering. Now, under regulations announced by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday, holy sites can open one hour after dawn and must close one hour before sunset. The IRNA state news agency reported the reopenings of the Imam Reza shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, and the shrine of Fatima Masumeh in Qom, the city that was the initial epicenter of Irans outbreak. According to Agence France-Presse, worshippers at the Shah Abdol-Azim shrine in southern Tehran were required to wear a mask, walk through a disinfection tunnel and have their temperature checked. Many were shown on state-run TV crying and running toward the shrine, AFP reported. Iran is struggling to recover from what is considered the regions worst coronavirus outbreak. The Health Ministry said the virus had killed 7,508 people in Iran, while infecting at least 139,511, as of today. The country has relaxed a number of restrictions intended to contain the outbreak, despite warnings that doing so could lead to a second wave of the virus. Earlier this month, Iran reopened mosques in low-risk parts of the country as health officials claimed a downward trend in the number of COVID-19 cases reported during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. On Sunday, museums and historical sites were allowed to reopen, and universities are scheduled to resume in-person classes June 6. According to Rouhani, 10 of the countrys 31 provinces are now in the containment stage of the outbreak. In a phone call reported by Iranian media, Rouhani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Sunday the reopening of land borders and air travel to revive trade between the two countries as soon as possible. The Lovett School. Google Maps The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, told parents that "several" graduating seniors tested positive for COVID-19 after a May 17 drive-through graduation. The school did not disclose exactly how many students had tested positive for COVID-19. Some students reportedly attended the drive-through graduation ceremony in groups and were in close quarters with one another. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Several high school students in Georgia tested positive for COVID-19 after participating in a drive-through graduation ceremony, school officials said in a letter to students' families that was first reported by CNN. The Lovett School in Atlanta Georgia did not disclose how many students had tested positive for COVID-19 after their drive-through graduation, but described the number as "several" in the letter from Head of School Meredyth Cole and Head Nurse Shana Horan. "Unfortunately the infectious nature of the COVID-19 virus means that most communities will be touched at some point, and we recognize how hard separation and missed milestones have been on the emotional lives of our students," they said in the letter. "Families of the students diagnosed with COVID-19 are working with the appropriate healthcare professionals and Departments of Health." The Lovett School, which is an independent, coeducational day school that teaches students kindergarten through 12th grade, closed its campus in mid-March to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to CNN. The school postponed its traditional graduation ceremony to late July, but on May 17 held a drive-through parade to celebrate graduating seniors, CNN affiliate WSB reported. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, some students arrived in groups and were in close quarters with one another. AJC reported that the school announced several students had tested positive for the virus after initially sending an email to parents about one student who had tested positive for COVID-19. Story continues The student "was confined to his or her car while on campus," but "later had company over for a graduation gathering, and then traveled out of town with friends," school officials told AJC. It remains unknown if the virus spread at the drive-through graduation or an off-campus event. "The school has been made aware of several off-campus social gatherings but has no information on any private events," a spokesperson for the school said in a statement to Insider. "Families of the graduates diagnosed with COVID-19 are working with the appropriate healthcare professionals and Departments of Health." Read the original article on Insider YouTube is testing a new feature to redirect users to Google with search suggestions displayed directly in the app. Thats according to recent reports following the appearance of the feature on Reddit. In one example, a user searches out how to open a beer with a knife, for instance. Typically, that would result in the app displaying video results from directly within YouTube. As might be expected from the new feature, a separate card is shown among the search results instead. That reads Result from the web and centers around the top result for a Google query using the same search terms. The search results appear down the page, under top video recommendations. Advertisement Presumably, those types of results are appearing for more searches as well, as opposed to just for how-to style searches. But thats not made immediately clear by Redditors sharing the updated UI. Everything else about the YouTube interface remains unchanged with the update. YouTubes Google search suggestions may not appear soon, if at all Now, the appearance of this new Google search suggestions feature on YouTube doesnt seem to be widespread. Instead, it is only arriving for a small group of users. That already points to a test run of the feature as opposed to a full rollout. Beyond that, the rollout is happening on the server-side of the equation as with many Google updates. So it really should be more widespread if this were rolling out to everybody. The implication here is that Google is testing the response to putting recommendations outside of YouTube in the app. And thats a decision that would make a lot of sense. Advertisement Updates are generally taken well, such as Googles recently rolled-out Bedtime reminders for YouTube. That particular update builds on the popular Digital Wellbeing features Android has adopted over recent updates. But some of Googles small changes, particularly those that serve to promote its brand, have been less popular. One example of that is Googles decision to add its brand to its Gboard keyboard. While Google was only added to the spacebar with that change, it was hugely unpopular. That forced the company to backpedal and remove the change, with all of the negative PR that entails. So it stands to reason that Google would be wary about adding its brand to YouTube without at least some testing. If thats the case, it may not ever roll out widely at all. But it will take some time before its ready for the general user base, regardless. Advertisement How useful would Google searches on YouTube really be? YouTube is already a huge platform in terms of available content. As of February, 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute according to YouTubes own figures. And users watch over 5 billion videos on Youtube every single day. So, chances are, content found there already will best serve users looking for a video on any given topic or walkthrough. Simultaneously, the service dwarfs other video apps with over 1.3 billion users. And video content isnt always the best way to learn about any given topic either. So it makes sense for Google to try and tap into that user base. Whether YouTubes Google search suggestions are useful or not, summarily, is something thats going to vary from user to user. But its a feature that will help set it apart from other video streaming apps. [May 26, 2020] Ambac Files Complaint Against the Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico, Alleging PROMESA Violates U.S. Constitution's Uniform Bankruptcy Law Requirement Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: AMBC) ("Ambac" or "the Company"), a financial services holding company whose subsidiaries include Ambac Assurance Corporation, a guarantor of financial obligations in run-off ("Ambac Assurance"), today announced that Ambac Assurance has filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico against the Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico ("the Oversight Board"). The complaint seeks a declaration that Titles I, II, and III of the bespoke federal statute enacted in 2016 to enable Puerto Rico to restructure its debts, the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act ("PROMESA"), are unconstitutional and unenforceable on the ground that they violate the uniformity requirement of the U.S. Constitution's Bankruptcy Clause. Under this clause, the United States Congress may legislate on the subject of bankruptcies, but all such laws must be uniform. This is designed to prevent the enactment of one-off bankruptcy rules customized to specific debtors. By virtue of PROMESA, Congress has singled out the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities for special treatment as a debtor, in stark contrast to the requirements of the U.S. Constitution. Elizabeth Prelogar, Partner at Cooley LLP representing Ambac in this complaint, said, "Armed with PROMESA provisions that apply only to Puerto Rico and to no other territory or municipal debtor, the Oversight Board has steered Puerto Rico's bankruptcy far afield from any prior restructuring proceeding. No creditors of any other territory, municipality, or governmental debtor have been subject to the sort of discriminatory treatment being faced by creditors of the Commonwealth-and the Constitution requires uniform bankruptcy laws to uard against this result." The Oversight Board's contentions regarding the scope of its powers under PROMESA are disputed by multiple parties in the ongoing Title III cases, including Ambac and the government of Puerto Rico. But they illustrate how PROMESA's unique provisions have already skewed the bankruptcy process to the detriment of Commonwealth creditors and the people of Puerto Rico, requiring creditors to defend against unprecedented incursions on their property and other legal rights. Meanwhile the Oversight Board continues to spend hundreds of millions of Puerto Rico taxpayer dollars on legal and other advisors, despite calling for austerity measures and cuts to pensioner payments. Decisions under PROMESA have had broad-sweeping negative impacts on the U.S. municipal market, upending longstanding investor expectations. No matter the ultimate outcome of the various disputes about the Board's authority under PROMESA, these disputes illustrate how PROMESA, as applied by the Oversight Board, departs from ordinary debt-adjustment proceedings, with consequences that become ever more injurious as the cases proceed. Under existing bankruptcy laws, no other territory, governmental entity, or Chapter 9 debtor could threaten creditors with putative powers to dictate priorities in contravention of state or territorial law, to pick and choose which creditors to pay with impunity while obtaining a discharge, or to impose allocations of assets and available funding for debt service without meaningful judicial scrutiny. About Ambac Ambac Financial Group, Inc. ("Ambac" or "AFG"), headquartered in New York City, is a financial services holding company whose subsidiaries include Ambac Assurance Corporation, a guarantor of financial obligations in run-off. Ambac's common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "AMBC". The Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Ambac contains substantial restrictions on the ability to transfer Ambac's common stock. Subject to limited exceptions, any attempted transfer of common stock shall be prohibited and void to the extent that, as a result of such transfer (or any series of transfers of which such transfer is a part), any person or group of persons shall become a holder of 5% or more of Ambac's common stock or a holder of 5% or more of Ambac's common stock increases its ownership interest. Ambac is committed to providing timely and accurate information to the investing public, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligations. To that end, we use our website to convey information about our businesses, including the anticipated release of quarterly financial results, quarterly financial, statistical and business-related information, and the posting of updates to the status of certain residential mortgage backed securities litigations. For more information, please go to www.ambac.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005879/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Massachusetts courthouses will remain closed until July 1, but judges will start hearing more non-emergency cases by telephone, videoconference or other virtual means. In an order issued Tuesday, the Supreme Judicial Court wrote that all court business will be conducted virtually until at least July 1, except for certain emergency matters that must be handled in-person. We will physically open courthouses to the public only when we are confident that we have protocols in place that will allow court users and court personnel to both be safe and feel safe, and even then we will open only in stages, focusing first on those matters that can only be addressed in person, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants said in a statement. Court officials will spend next month bolstering the courts capacity to handle the bulk of legal matters virtually, Gants said. The chief justices previously said the courthouses would likely reopen after June but would rely on virtual hearings if in-person appearances can be avoided. Under the order, each Trial Court department is expected to issue guidelines specifying what qualifies as a non-emergency matter that will be address virtually, according to the order. The information will be posted on the COVID-19 webpage for the courts. Court officials must take into consideration several factors, including limited court staffing, technological constraints, the volume of emergency or higher-priority matters and legal constraints such as the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures that took effect in April. Jury trials in both criminal and civil cases are still postponed to Sept. 8, 2020. The chief justices previously wrote the return of jury trials would coincide with the reopening of schools. Civil bench trials are postponed until at least July 1, though a judge could decide to conduct it virtually. The same goes for criminal bench trials as long as the judge, defendant and plaintiff all agree the proceedings can be conducted virtually. The SJC also issued an order Tuesday that allows justices to take depositions remotely in civil cases without court approval. Related Content: The HSUWA, AMA WA and UWU have united, calling on the WA government to follow in the footsteps of NSW and close the COVID-19 workers compensation loophole. Loading Under the current laws, if a health care worker is infected with COVID-19, it is up to them to prove it was contracted at work to receivecompensation. The state government needs to act now and make amendments to the workers compensation legislation, so that these workers are presumed to have contracted the virus at work, if they test positive, the unions said in a joint statement released this afternoon. "Our unions collectively represent most of the WA health workforce," the statement reads. "We speak for the tens of thousands of health care workers who are at the frontline of the communitys collective battle against COVID-19. "From paramedics to doctors, allied health professionals, clerks, cleaners and enrolled nurses, members selflessly continued to care for and heal Western Australians through the worst of the recent crisis. "WA is not clear of danger yet and the community must remain vigilant. The pandemic may be with us for a long time and for this reason, it is important that we protect those workers who are protecting our community. "This is the right thing to do for these Western Australian workers. "The WA Government needs to act as a matter of priority." Now Open 26 May 2020 On 1 June 2020, Movenpick Hotel The Hague will open its doors on Paleisstraat in The Hague, a stone's throw from Noordeinde Palace. The renovation of the luxury boutique hotel was completed in March and the time has finally come to show what the hotel has to offer. In the future, the hotel with its 72 rooms hopes to attract business guests visiting the Hofstad and tourists who go for a warm atmosphere and top service in a central location. In the coming period, the hotel will focus on guests from all over the Netherlands who are ready for a short holiday in their own country and - certainly also with its restaurant and coffee & wine lounge - at the local market in The Hague. The hotel has three meeting rooms on the ground floor and an extensive gym and a spacious parking garage with 42 spaces under the building. This new branch of Movenpick hotels & resorts is the first Movenpick hotel in the world with a restaurant and a coffee & wine lounge called 'by NOA'. The raised outdoor terrace of the lounge offers a view of Noordeinde Palace. The Swiss Movenpick is part of the hotel group Accor and is internationally known for its culinary offer and its own wines, coffee, and chocolate. By NOA serves high-quality coffee during the day and turns into a wine bar towards the evening. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Metallic Minerals Corp. (TSX-V:MMG)(OTC PINK:MMNGF) ("Metallic Minerals", "Metallic" or "The Company") is pleased to report on exploration results and ongoing 3D modelling at the West Keno targets on its 100%-owned, 166 square kilometer Keno Silver project within the Yukon's high-grade Keno Hill silver district. These results focus on Keno Hill style high-grade silver-lead-zinc mineralization at the Formo, Silver Queen and Duncan Creek priority target areas. Future news releases covering the Keno Silver project will report results from sampling and on-going modelling work on the Central and East Keno target areas, which host additional priority exploration targets, that along with Keno West will be the focus of the next phases of drilling. Metallic Minerals' Keno Silver property is the second largest land position in the historic Keno Hill silver district directly adjoining the operations of Alexco Resources. The Keno Hill silver district is one of the world's highest-grade silver districts, with nearly 300 million ounces ("Moz") of silver in past production and current M&I resources1,2, and excellent existing infrastructure, including grid power, road access and nearby community services. Highlights from West Keno include: Underground channel samples from the Formo target area show three high-grade mineralized shoots grading more than 1,000 g/t silver equivalent (Ag Eq) grade that remain open to expansion (See figure below). Grades from the main Formo deposit returned an average of 7,459 g/t Ag Eq over 45 m lateral width on the 2800 level, 33 m lateral width grading 1,795 Ag Eq on the 2700 level and 44 m lateral width grading 2,258 Ag Eq on the 2600 level with mineralization open to expansion (see Table 1 below). Identification of two adjacent high-grade mineralized shoots in underground sampling at Formo on the 2600 level that are open to expansion laterally and to depth. Definition of two new untested surface target zones have also been identified along the main Formo structure. Refinement of two priority drill targets at the Silver Queen target area down dip of Alexco Resources' high-grade Silver King deposit and trend extension of the Bermingham systems. Discovery of two new multi-kilometer soil anomalies at the early stage Duncan target area. Receipt of permits for drilling at Formo and Silver Queen in place with planning underway for the next phase of exploration activities. Greg Johnson, President and CEO, stated: "Following our key acquisitions in the Keno Hill silver district in 2017 and 2018 we have continued to integrate the extensive historic exploration data covering the district along with our new geochemical and geophysical surveys in order to prioritize targets for step-out and first-stage drill testing following a systematic approach to exploration. Our objective, through the integration of surface sampling, mapping, modelling of drilling and geophysics, along with multi-spectral imagery, is to rapidly advance the most prospective targets to drill testing and the development of new mineral resources in this proven, brownfields district. The Formo and Silver Queen advanced stage target areas occur along known productive structural corridors that host some of the largest deposits in the district and have the potential to quickly advance to the resource stage with additional drilling. In addition, the work at the Duncan Creek target area has quickly developed a significant surface anomaly on trend with several important productive structures. Metallic Minerals is well funded to be able to complete the next major milestones on our strong portfolio of projects and we look forward to reporting on additional work from the Keno Silver project, as well as the pending results from our recent La Plata project field programs." Introduction to the Keno Hill silver district and West Keno targets Within the prolific, high-grade Keno Hill silver district, the western 12 kilometers ("km") of the 35 km wide district has seen the most intensive exploration and mining, including the major discoveries at the Bermingham and Flame & Moth silver deposits by Alexco Resources ("Alexco"). Recent reconnaissance drilling results from Alexco, announcing the discovery of the Inca deposit and the intercepted offset of the western extension of the Bermingham structural corridor, continue to demonstrate the remaining exploration potential in the district through a systematic exploration process along the productive mineralized trends (see Figure 1 link below). Figure 1. Keno Hill silver district geology and deposits. Metallic Minerals' holdings directly adjoin Alexco's operations and include 8 past producing deposits that were some of the highest-grade deposits in the district. These deposits had only very shallow surface mining mostly from the 1920s and 30s and represent excellent targets with modern exploration tools. The Company's holdings in the western Keno Hill silver district occur along extensions of major structural corridors that host the Silver King, Elsa, and Hector-Calumet deposits, which are some of the largest silver producers in the district (see Figure 2 link below). The figure also highlights the recent discoveries by Alexco at Bermingham, the western Bermingham extension, Inca and Flame & Moth. Figure 2. West Keno Targets at the Keno Silver Project, showing the Formo, Silver Queen, and Duncan Creek target areas in relation to historic mines and new resources in the Keno Hill silver district. The largest deposits in the district are hosted primarily in the Keno Hill quartzite and Triassic greenstones along major structural corridors where the structural setting allows for the development of significant Keno Hill type high-grade silver-lead-zinc rich vein deposits. The schematic section shown on Figure 3 below, illustrates the major deposit locations along the Bermingham and Elsa trends, two of the most productive structural corridors. This figure also shows the similarity of the Silver Queen and Formo target areas to the stratigraphic and structural settings at the Bermingham and Sadie Ladue deposits. Figure 3. Schematic long section of the geology and deposits along the Bermingham and Elsa trends showing the Silver Queen and Formo targets. Formo Target Area The Formo advanced stage target area hosts the historic Formo mine, which produced silver at various times since the 1930s from high-grade vein structures that graded an average of 5,092 g/t silver1. The majority of this historic production came from an open pit adjacent to the Silver Trail highway between the Elsa townsite and Keno City. At Formo a total of 1.2 km of exploration drifting on three levels were developed with connected vertical raises that outline silver-lead-zinc mineralization down to a depth of approximately 100 m from surface. Historic drilling included six diamond core holes (1,988m) along with 54 percussion holes (2,647m) (see Figure 4 link below). Figure 4: 3D model showing the high-grade Formo target composite channel sample grades from underground levels below the historic Formo surface mine. At least three vein structures, hosted primarily in greenstones below the main Keno Hill quartzite unit, have been identified at Formo in underground sampling, drilling and trenching. These structures are located two kilometres northeast of the historic Hector-Calumet mine, which was the largest silver producer in the district producing nearly 100 Moz of silver. The Formo deposit occurs along a splay of the Hector-Calumet structure where it intersects the Elsa structural trend, which was the second largest silver producer in the district (see Figures 1 and 2). The deposit setting for Formo is geologically similar to the greenstone hosted Sadie Ladue mine (12.7 Moz of silver at 1,781 g/t Ag) and Keno Hill mine (12.6 Moz of silver at a grade of 1,520 g/t Ag), two of the district's highest grade deposits1 (see Figure 3 Long Section above). Recent modelling of results at Formo by Metallic Minerals have integrated the surface, underground and drill related sampling into a 3D geologic model along with high-resolution orthophotography, multi-spectral studies and newly interpreted geophysical surveys covering the area. Figure 3 highlights the mineralized shoots at the Formo deposit in long section view. Between the open-pit surface exposures and the 2600 level drift, the vein has been delineated by channel sampling from underground drifts and drilling for approximately 100 meters vertically and 200 meters laterally. This modelling reveals at least three well-defined mineralized shoots of high-grade silver grading over 1,000 g/t silver. These mineralized shoots remain open to expansion at depth and along strike and extensions of these shoots will be the focus of future drilling (see Table 1 and Figure 4). Sampling from the main mineralized shoot under the historic Formo open pit shows an average grade of 7,459 g/t Ag Eq over 45 m lateral width in 5 samples, on the 2800 level, 33 m lateral width grading 1,795 g/t Ag Eq on the 2700 level and 44 m lateral width grading 2,258 g/t Ag Eq on the 2600 level with mineralization open to expansion at depth (see Table 1 below). Sampling on the 2600 level also shows two additional high-grade mineralized shoots along the southwest-northeast trend of the main mineralized structure. The first zone includes 25 m lateral width averaging 3,078 g/t Ag Eq. ending in mineralization and open to the southeast and to depth. Adjacent to this are two zones of mineralization of 69 m grading 580 g/t Ag Eq. and 70 m 850 g/t Ag Eq on the 2700 and 2600 levels connecting to the main central shoot. A second 4 m wide zone ending in high-grade mineralization on the 2600 level averages 3,092 g/t Ag Eq. and is also open to expansion laterally to the northeast and to depth. Table 1: Significant results from Formo underground drift-length composite channel samples Level Drift Length (m) Sample Count Average Channel Sample Width (m) Ag Eq g/t Ag g/t Pb % Zn % Au g/t 2600 25 16 0.66 3,078 1,404 18.5 27.5 - 2600 70 45 0.53 850 231 8.0 14.6 - 2600 44 28 1.14 2,258 813 20.7 17.4 0.09 2600 4 4 0.99 3,092 2,335 1.5 1.6 - 26-27 Raise 45 43 0.71 2,602 1,233 11.9 15.6 - 2700 69 42 0.77 580 254 3.1 4.1 0.10 2700 33 32 0.62 1,795 1,289 3.4 5.1 0.41 2800 45 5 0.58 7,459 5,077 10.6 17.5 - Silver equivalent (Ag Eq) values assume Ag $16/oz, Pb $1.10/lb, Zn $1.25/lb, Au $1,250/oz and 100% recovery. Average channel sample widths based on calculated true widths. In addition to the mineralization at the main Formo deposit two new surface targets have been identified along the same structural corridor within parallel greenstone sills. Additional 3D modelling is underway on these newly identified targets. The opportunity to significantly expand the known mineralization at Formo defined from underground sampling and drilling to date, as well as the potential to define new high-grade mineralized shoots along the main mineralized structural corridor, makes this one of the top priority advanced stage targets on the Keno Silver project. The previously pending Class 3 permit covering the Formo claims has been granted and the Formo target is prioritized for drilling during the next phases of work on the property. Silver Queen Target The Silver Queen target area is located at the western end of the Keno Hill silver district adjacent to Alexco's Silver King mine, which produced 11 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 1,800 g/t1 in the 1920s and 30s (See Figure 2 Map and Figure 3 Long Section). Production at Silver King came from both underground and open pit mine sources hosted in Keno Hill quartzite. Six mineralized vein structures have been identified that host a historic resource of 5.3 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 1,373 Ag g/t2. Modelling at the Silver Queen target area by Metallic Minerals has refined two priority targets for drill testing that include the potential projected down dip extension of the high-grade Silver King deposit and the trend extension of the western Bermingham system. Both structural corridors represent significant near-term exploration targets at Silver Queen (See Figure 5 Silver Queen Cross Section). Figure 5: A cross section through the Silver Queen target showing major mineralized structural corridors and targets. Recent nearby reconnaissance drilling by Alexco in 2018 and 2019 successfully discovered the western Bermingham extension, intercepting multiple high-grade Keno Hill type vein structures across what is believed to be the offset of the main Bermingham structural corridor by the Brefault structure3. The Bermingham deposit includes 33 million ounces of measured and indicated silver along with 11 million ounces of inferred resources that are hosted in the Keno Hill quartzite and that remain open at depth and along trend to the southwest, making it the second largest deposit in the district2. The Figure 2 plan map shows the western offset Bermingham system drilling and its potential strike onto the Silver Queen target area. Work by Metallic Minerals at Silver Queen has included the completion of soil sampling, detailed surface magnetic and VLF geophysics, reprocessing and interpretation of regional geophysics, and 3D modelling. The geophysical surveys indicate a 400m wide resistive body of potential quartzite and grit dominant lithology that is overlain by anomalous soil geochemistry that may indicate the presence of the projected structural corridor. New processing and interpretation of regional geophysics shows a spatial relationship between deep structural features at Keno Hill and some of the largest deposits in the district with a similar pattern seen at Silver Queen. A class 3 permit covers Silver Queen and this drill ready target is highly prospective to host extensions of the high-grade silver mineralization seen at Silver King and Bermingham. Duncan Creek Target The early stage Duncan Creek target area covers the southwestern extensions of several major mineralized trends including the Flame & Moth and several parallel structural corridors and is located 8 km by road from Keno City. Duncan Creek was one of the first areas that attracted prospectors to the area in 1898 with an estimated 40,000 ounces of placer gold production and two placer operations that are still active along the creek and its tributaries. Work by Metallic Minerals at this new early stage target area has led to the discovery of two new multi-kilometer soil anomalies on trend with projected structural corridors. The Company plans to complete additional surface sampling and mapping along with a detailed magnetic and VLF geophysical survey to refine targets at the Duncan Creek target area in preparation for potential reconnaissance drilling in the next stage of evaluation. District Summary Exploration by Metallic Minerals continues to systematically build on the Company's 3D geologic database covering the east, central and western portions of the Keno Hill silver district with a total of 81 drill holes completed on the Keno Silver project to date. Exploration by the Company has advanced three targets in the central and western parts of the district to step-out drilling stage and several additional targets to drill-ready status along the known historically productive trends that are on strike with past-producing mines. In addition, recent exploration has refined and expanded 10 new priority multi-kilometer-scale early-stage targets for reconnaissance drilling in the under-explored eastern part of the district along where highly elevated silver, lead and zinc in soils and high-grade rock samples have been identified. Metallic Minerals will be reporting additional results from its expanded East Keno sampling programs and geophysical survey interpretation in coming weeks. Planning is underway for the next phase of exploration in 2020 and the Company is well funded to advance the Keno Silver project to the next major milestones at both its advanced stage and early stage targets. Footnote References 1Cathro, R. J. (Bob). Great Mining Camps of Canada 1. The History and Geology of the Keno Hill Silver Camp, Yukon Territory. Geoscience Canada, [S.l.], Sept. 2006. ISSN 1911-4850 2Alexco Resource Corp NI 43-101 Technical Report entitled "Prefeasibility Study of the Keno Hill Silver District Project, Yukon, Canada" dated February 13, 2020 3Alexco Resource Corp news release dated January 21, 2019, entitled "Alexco reconnaissance drilling confirms continuation of Bermingham mineralization at depth and identifies an offset extension, identifies gold targets" References to adjoining properties are for illustrative purposes only and are not necessarily indicative of the exploration potential, extent or nature of mineralization or potential future results of the Company's projects About Metallic Minerals Metallic Minerals Corp. is a growth stage exploration company, focused on high-grade silver and gold in underexplored brownfields mining districts. Our objective is to create shareholder value through a systematic, entrepreneurial approach to exploration in the Keno Hill silver district, La Plata silver-gold-copper district, and Klondike gold district through new discoveries and advancing resources to development. All three districts have seen significant mineral production and have existing infrastructure, including power and road access. Metallic Minerals is led by a team with a track record of discovery and exploration success on several major precious and base metal deposits, as well as having large-scale development, permitting and project financing expertise. About the Metallic Group of Companies The Metallic Group is a collaboration of leading precious and base metals exploration companies, with a portfolio of large, brownfields assets in established mining districts adjacent to some of the industry's highest-grade producers of silver and gold, platinum and palladium, and copper. Member companies include Metallic Minerals in the Yukon's high-grade Keno Hill silver district and La Plata silver-gold-copper district of Colorado, Group Ten Metals in the Stillwater PGM-nickel-copper district of Montana, and Granite Creek Copper in the Yukon's Minto copper district. The founders and team members of the Metallic Group include highly successful explorationists formerly with some of the industry's leading explorer/developers and major producers. With this expertise, the companies are undertaking a systematic approach to exploration using new models and technologies to facilitate discoveries in these proven, but under-explored, mining districts. The Metallic Group is headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada and its member companies are listed on the Toronto Venture, US OTC, and Frankfurt stock exchanges. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Phone: 604-629-7800 Toll Free: 1-888-570-4420 Website: www.metallic-minerals.com Email: chris.ackerman@metallic-minerals.com Quality Assurance / Quality Control All samples were assayed by 36 Element Aqua Regia Digestion ICP-MS methods at Bureau Veritas labs in Vancouver. Analytical work in 2017 was done by Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. with sample preparation in Whitehorse, Yukon and geochemical analysis in Vancouver, British Columbia. Each rock (grab) sample was analyzed for 36 elements using an Aqua Regia digestion with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled Plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) (AQ202). Samples with over limit silver and gold were re-analyzed using a 30-gram fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish (FA530-Ag, Au). Over-limit lead and zinc samples were analyzed by multi-acid digestion and atomic absorption spectrometry (MA404) or titration (GC516, GC8917). All results have passed the QAQC screening by the lab. Qualified Person Scott Petsel, P.Geo, Vice President, Exploration and an employee of Metallic Minerals Corp., is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Petsel has reviewed the scientific and technical information in this news release and approves the disclosure contained herein. Mr. Petsel has reviewed the results of the sampling program and confirmed that all procedures, protocols and methodologies used in the drill program conform to industry standards. Forward-Looking Statements Forward Looking Statements: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization, historic production, estimation of mineral resources, the realization of mineral resource estimates, interpretation of prior exploration and potential exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, the timing and results of future resource estimates, permitting time lines, metal prices and currency exchange rates, availability of capital, government regulation of exploration operations, environmental risks, reclamation, title, and future plans and objectives of the company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. Although Metallic Minerals believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain necessary approvals, unsuccessful exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, risks associated with regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, uninsured risks, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the companies with securities regulators. Readers are cautioned that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Metallic Minerals and the risks and challenges of their businesses, investors should review their annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Metallic Minerals Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591367/Metallic-Minerals-Announces-High-Grade-Silver-Samples-and-3D-Modelling-at-its-West-Keno-Targets-on-the-Keno-Silver-Project-including-Formo-Silver-Queen-and-Duncan-Creek R ishi Sunak has been pulling all the levers he can at the Treasury to help tide employers over the steep but hopefully short-lived collapse in sales during the lockdown. The measures have been as wide-ranging as they have been generous, with a cost to the Treasury of some 300 billion and counting. While the loans and job support schemes have hogged the headlines, theres a third critical element that has received less attention massive deferrals for businesses on paying their tax bills. Business owners and the self-employed have been allowed to defer taxes due during the lockdown period to help with cashflow at a time many have seen their sales dwindle to nothing. For the 55 per cent of small- and medium-sized firms who have taken part, it has been a lifesaver. But heres the rub. The deferral for most of these taxes runs out on June 30. If youve deferred, its almost time to cough up. Thats the bad news. So heres the good: HMRC is willing to offer further deferrals to those who still cant afford to pay possibly right through until next April under the Time to Pay scheme. It may feel like youve only just gone through the rigmarole of applying for the last round, but if you think youre going to struggle to pay, you must start talking turkey with the taxman now. If you do, its highly likely you could get a deferral until next April. Call your HMRC customer compliance manager today if you have one, or use one of the helplines if not. They wont rule that everyones a deserving cause. Brace yourself for them to ask about the financial outlook for your individual business plus the prospects for your industry more generally. What taxes are they prepared to consider? VAT can automatically be deferred, so thats simple. But import VAT, customs and excise and other duties arent. PAYE and National Insurance contributions will be considered case by case but be warned: if youre already using the furlough scheme, the taxman will ask why you need both. If your profits or losses are set to come in massively lower than youd thought, you may be able to claim for repayment of overpaid corporation tax. Again, get the dialogue started now. As with death, taxes cant be avoided but you can at least postpone them until you can afford to pay. Alterations to chromosomes are considered important in speciation (the process by which new species are formed). In a new paper in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, researchers from the University of Konstanz, Harvard University and La Sapienza University of Rome study wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) from several islands in the Aeolian archipelago off the coast of Sicily, Southern Italy. Their findings provide empirical support to the idea that a specific type of large-scale chromosomal rearrangements called "Robertsonian (Rb) fusions" play an active role in speciation. Read the full story on the website of the University of Konstanz at: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/university/news-and-media/current-announcements/press-releases/press-releases-in-detail/chromosomale-artbildung-bei-wildlebenden-hausmaeusen/ Facts: New genome-wide study of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) in Southern Italy suggests that a specific type of large-scale chromosomal rearrangements called Robertsonian fusions play an active role in speciation. Using a range of powerful genetic approaches, researchers from the University of Konstanz, Harvard University and La Sapienza University of Rome traced the demographic patterns and karyotypic distributions of wild house mouse populations in the Aeolian archipelago. Original publication: Paolo Franchini, Andreas F. Kautt, Alexander Nater, Gloria Antonini, Riccardo Castiglia, Axel Meyer, Emanuela Solano, Reconstructing the evolutionary history of chromosomal races on islands: a genome-wide analysis of natural house mouse populations, Molecular Biology and Evolution, msaa118, 25 May 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa118 Focussing on three identical chromosomal rearrangements found in the island and in mainland populations, the researchers were able to show that, contrary to previous suggestions, large-scale genetic mutations are occurring more readily than anticipated and independently from one another. ### Note to editors: You can download a photo here: https://cms.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2020/Bilder/chromosonale.JPG Caption: View of part of the Aeolian Archipelago. Image: Dr Paolo Franchini Contact: University of Konstanz Communications and Marketing Phone: +49 151 27671919 Email: julia.wandt@uni.kn uni.kn/en By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Crisis-hit IL&FS has invited expressions of interest (EoIs) for the purchase of its stake in ONGC Tripura Power Company (OTPC) joint venture on Monday. The company holds 26 per cent stake in the gas-based power plant 12.03 per cent stake through IEDCL and 13.97 per cent stake via IFIN. The other shareholders include state-run ONGC with 50 per cent stake, India Infrastructure Fund-II with 23.5 per cent, managed by Global Infrastructure Partners and the Government of Tripura with 0.5 per cent stake. The last date to submit bids is June, 8. In terms of eligibility for bidding, corporate bodies should have a minimum net worth of Rs 150 crore as per the audited balance sheet as of March, 2019 or later. Similarly, unvestment funds, including private equity funds should have minimum assets under management in India of Rs 600 crore, or committed funds available for investment or deployment in companies incorporated in India of at least Rs 600 crore, as of March 2019, or later. In order to monetise the investment made by the IL&FS group in ONGC Tripura Power Company, EoIs are invited for the acquisition of its 26 per cent stake, subject to necessary approvals, ILFS said in a statement. OTPC operates a fully operational natural gas-based 726.6 MW power plant located in Palatana, Tripura, supplying power to the energy deficit region of northeast India. In addition to the benefit of the availability of local gas wells for drawing sufficient gas, OTPC also has a load-center advantage, with access to the energy deficit north-eastern region of India as well as Bangladesh. The deal is subject to approvals including the board approval and other corporate approvals of relevant group firms. It also needs consent from the NCLT and other statutory authorities. IL&FS has engaged Arpwood Capital and JM Financial to assist in the transaction. The project cost includes debt of Rs 3,035 crore and equity investment of Rs 10,118 crore. China has blamed Australia for trade tensions and slammed Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for criticising a deal between the two nations. Mr Dutton declared Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative with China 'a propaganda initiative' from Beijing which would bring 'enormous amount of foreign interference'. The escalating war of words between the two nations comes as a new poll released Tuesday showed the majority of Australians want their government to stand up to China. Peter Dutton declared Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative with China 'a propaganda initiative' from the latter, which would bring 'enormous amount of foreign interference' It comes amid heightened trade tensions between Australia and China. China has slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley The Belt and Road Initiative agreement, which provides loans and investment in infrastructure projects, has not been signed by any other states or territories. Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijiang appeared to refer to Mr Dutton's remarks during a fiery press briefing in Beijing. 'The groundless accusations made by some Australian politicians are totally untenable,' Mr Zhao said. 'They only expose their negligence of the Australian people's interests and their sinister intentions of damaging China-Australia relations. 'The successful cooperation between China and the Australian state of Victoria under the BRI framework was determined and implemented by the two sides through friendly consultation with a view to improve the wellbeing of the people.' The Belt and Road scheme is a non-legally binding agreement to mutually beneficial trade, investment, and infrastructure. China helps invest in infrastructure projects, particularly in developing Asian and Pacific Island countries, with loans and support. Also on Tuesday Trade Minister Simon Birmingham dismissed claims made by his Chinese counterpart about prohibitive tariffs slapped on Australian barley. The Chinese commerce minister linked hefty tariffs on Australian barley to past disputes between the two nations, comparing track records on trade investigations. Zhong Shan said China had been cautious and restrained in imposing trade remedies, and had only launched one trade investigation against Australia in almost 50 years, compared to more than 100 by Australia. The Chinese commerce minister said Beijing had been cautious and restrained in imposing trade remedies. Zhong Shan (pictured) said China had only launched one trade investigation against Australia in almost 50 years, compared to more than 100 by Australia But Mr Birmingham dismissed the comparison. 'This isn't about keeping a tally or doing things in a tit-for-tat way,' he told Sky News on Tuesday. Australia's biggest trading partners 1. China: 25.2 per cent 2. Japan: 10.1 per cent 3. United States: 8.7 per cent 4. South Korea: 4.8 per cent 5. Singapore: 3.8 per cent 6. India: 3.6 per cent 7. New Zealand: 3.4 per cent 8. United Kingdom: 3.2 per cent 9. Thailand: 3.0 per cent 10. Malaysia: 2.8 per cent Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade data on market share for two-way trading partners as of 2018 Advertisement 'Yes, Australia has an anti-dumping system that we use. Our decisions are open to appeal through the World Trade Organisation. China has not chosen to do that with any of our decisions to date.' Senator Birmingham has been trying to speak to his Chinese counterpart about the barley dispute for several weeks. His phone calls have been ignored. 'That still hasn't been scheduled and it remains disappointing,' he said. 'The Australian government will always front up to have a conversation, even where we have disagreements. We think the best way to move through those disagreements is to engage in dialogue.' The minister is weighing up whether to appeal China's 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley at the World Trade Organisation. China has also suspended beef imports from four Australian abattoirs after the federal government called for a global independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said his phone calls to his Chinese counterpart have been ignored Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australian primary producers and exporters needed to weigh up the risks of selling into China. 'I think that's a judgment Australian businesses can only make,' he told the National Press Club in Canberra. 'They have to weigh up the security of the markets in which they sell to and the risks that are associated with those.' More than half of Australians believe the Chinese government imposed the beef and barley trade sanctions in retaliation for Australia leading calls for the coronavirus investigation. Two-thirds of respondents to an Essential poll released on Tuesday agreed the Australian government needed to stand up to the Chinese government and demand an open inquiry. But opinions are divided over how best to respond to the trade dispute. More than half of the 1087 respondents believe the Australian government needs to do all it can to avoid a trade war with China. Less than half agreed Australia should impose tariffs on imports from China in retaliation, or Canberra should work towards an agreement with Beijing to remove the tariffs on barley, whatever the conditions. Finance Minister has called the meeting of the (FSDC) on Thursday, which among other things will discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the financial sector and the economy. This will be the first meeting of the FSDC, which comprises RBI Governor and other financial sector regulators, after the outbreak of the The FSDC meeting, to be chaired by the finance minister, will held via video conferencing, sources said. The meeting will take place in the backdrop of India staring at the risk of contraction in growth during the fiscal due to the COVID-19 crisis. Besides the RBI Governor, the members of the FSDC include chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority. The senior officials of the finance ministry will also attend the meeting. The council is expected to review various aspects associated with the mega Rs 21 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the government to help the nation tide over the economic crisis induced by the and subsequent to curb its spread. Earlier this month, the government announced a staggering Rs 20.97 lakh crore economic package, which includes Reserve Bank's Rs 8.01 lakh crore worth of liquidity measures. Sitharaman had announced this economic package in five tranches, which included a Rs 3.70 lakh crore support for MSMEs,Rs 75,000 crore for NBFCs and Rs 90,000 crore for power distribution companies,free foodgrains to migrant workers, increased allocation for MGNREGS, tax relief to certain sections and Rs 15,000 crore allocated to the healthcare sector to deal with the pandemic. According to sources, various measures announced by the Reserve Bank of India since February and its impact on boosting economy and sentiment will also be deliberated during the FSDC meeting. The RBI last week said the impact of COVID-19 is more severe than anticipated and the GDP growth during 2020-21 is likely to remain in the negative territory. It projectedsome pick-up in growth impulses from second half (October-March) of 2020-21 onwards. Jim Dey, a member of The News-Gazette staff, can be reached by email at jdey@news-gazette.com or by phone at 217-351-5369. 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Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa For Further Insights and Segment-Specific Information, Contact a Market Analyst at@ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-and-commercial-led-lighting-market/speak-to-analyst About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world Contact us Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / Talisker Resources Ltd. ("Talisker" or the "Company") (CSE:TSK)(OTCQB:TSKFF) is pleased to announce that drilling has re-commenced at the Bralorne Gold Project. The Company announced that drilling was suspended April 1st for good practices during the COVID-19 emergency measures. The drill remained on site. With the provincial regulations providing for operations to resume, the Company advises that it has now re-commenced drilling operations with new protocols and practices in place to abide by the regulations and guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Talisker is undertaking an 11,200m drill program targeting high-grades veins at the project. The Company has re-entered drill hole SB-2020-005A which was suspended at a depth of 737.40m near the Bralorne Mine. Drill hole results disclosed in press releases of April 1st and May 5th from the first two drill holes from the Pioneer Mine area yielded encouraging results with highlights of 27.3 g/t gold over 0.6m, and 32.2 g/t gold over 0.97m. Encouraging gold mineralization was also encountered in the vein halos including 2.19 g/t gold over 1.4m and 2.13 g/t gold over 1.5m shoulder to high-grade vein structures. Additional results are pending and will be announced when available. "The decision to re-commence drilling was undertaken with consultation with local community representatives. During the drill operations shut down, minimal staff remained at site with strict social distancing rules in effect to maintain operation of the water treatment plant to meet environmental requirements. The 11,200m drill program will continue to target high grade veins at the Bralorne Gold Project," stated Terry Harbort, President & CEO of Talisker who added, "The Company's geological reconnaissance team of 22 geologists is ready to kick off the 2020 field season at the Company's Spences Bridge Gold Project mid-June providing some additional time for local services to be ready. The team is looking forward to getting back to the field and delivering results on our aggressive greenfields exploration plan." About Talisker Resources Ltd. Talisker (taliskerresources.com) is a junior resource company involved in the exploration of gold projects in British Columbia, Canada. Talisker's projects include the Bralorne Gold Complex, an advanced stage project with significant exploration potential from a historical high-grade producing gold mine as well as its Spences Bridge Project where the Company holds ~85% of the emerging Spences Bridge Gold Belt and several other early stage Greenfields projects. With its properties comprising 290,415 hectares over 320 claims, six leases and 181 crown grant claims, Talisker is a dominant exploration player in the south-central British Columbia. The Company is well funded to advance its aggressive systematic exploration program at its projects. For further information please contact: Terry Harbort, Chief Executive Officer or terry.harbort@taliskerresources.com +1 416 361 2808 Carrie Howes, Director, Investor Relations carrie.howes@taliskerresources.com +1 416 837 0075 Qualified Person The technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Leonardo de Souza (BSc, AusIMM (CP) Membership 224827), Talisker's Vice President, Exploration and Resource Development, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Sample Preparation and QAQC Drill core at the Bralorne project is drilled in HQ to NQ size ranges (63.5mm and 47.6mm respectively). Drill core samples are minimum 50 cm and maximum 160 cm long along the core axis. Samples are focused on an interval of interest such as a vein or zone of mineralization. Shoulder samples bracket the interval of interest such that a total sampled core length of 3 m both above and below the interval of interest must be assigned. Sample QAQC measures of unmarked certified reference materials (CRMs), blanks, and duplicates are inserted into the sample sequence. Sample preparation and analyses is carried out by ALS Global, at their laboratory in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Drill core sample preparation includes drying in an oven at a maximum temperature of 60C, fine crushing of the sample to at least 70% passing less than 2 mm, sample splitting using a riffle splitter, and pulverizing a 250 g split to at least 85% passing 75 microns (code PREP-31). Gold and in diamond drill core is analysed by fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) of a 50g sample (code Au-AA24), while multi-element chemistry is analysed by 4-Acid digestion of a 0.25 g sample split with detection by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) for 48 elements (Ag, Al, As, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, Ge, Hf, In, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Re, S, Sb, Sc, Se, Sn, Sr, Ta, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Y, Zn, Zr). Gold assay technique Au-AA24 has an upper detection limit of 10ppm. Any sample that produces an over-limit gold value via the Au-AA24 technique is sent for gravimetric finish via method Au-GRA22 which has an upper detection limit of 1,000 ppm Au. Samples where visible gold was observed are sent directly to screen metallics analysis and all samples that fire assay above 3 ppm Au are re-analysed with method Au-SCR24 which employs a 1kg pulp screened to 100 microns with assay of the entire oversize fraction and duplicate 50g assays on the undersize fraction. Where possible all samples initially sent to screen metallics processing will also be re-run through the fire assay with gravimetric finish provided there is enough material left for further processing. Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "intend", "expect", "believe", "will", "projected", "estimated" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Talisker's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the operations of the Company and the timing which could be affected by the current global COVID-19 pandemic. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to Talisker. Although such statements are based on reasonable assumptions of Talisker's management, there can be no assurance that any conclusions or forecasts will prove to be accurate. While Talisker considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Forward looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include risks inherent in the exploration and development of mineral deposits, including risks relating to changes in project parameters as plans continue to be redefined, risks relating to variations in grade or recovery rates, risks relating to changes in mineral prices and the worldwide demand for and supply of minerals, risks related to increased competition and current global financial conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, access and supply risks, reliance on key personnel, operational risks, and regulatory risks, including risks relating to the acquisition of the necessary licenses and permits, financing, capitalization and liquidity risks. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof, and Talisker is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. SOURCE: Talisker Resources Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591354/Talisker-Drilling-Re-Commences-at-Bralorne-Gold-Project The Interfaith Community Services has several programs to help residents being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The nonprofit is currently taking appointments over the phone or online for people to apply for financial assistance to help pay for utilities. Appointments are given on a first come, first serve basis. To apply for utility assistance, call 297-6049 beginning at 9 a.m. or fill out form online at www.icstucson.org/emergency-financial-assistance-intake-form/ to get on the appointment list. The agency is also distributing food through its food banks, with drive-thru distributions. The ICS Northwest Food Bank, 2820 W. Ina Road, is open 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays; and 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays. ICS Eastside Food Bank, at New Spirit Lutheran Church, 8701 E. Old Spanish Trail Road, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Donations of food are also being accepted at both locations. Sony Xperia 1 II, the brand's newest flagship Android phone, has recently opened its market for the United States-located stores. Obviously, the price seemed to be the main issue in its release. Some reports even described the new Sony Xperia as the "most expensive 4G smartphone." Is it really not worth it at all? Sony Xperia 1 II may flop in the U.S. market; Here's why The Verge reported this week that Sony's Xperia 1 II (pronounced as 'mark two') is the delayed newest flagship Android phone from the brand. The device's US shipping will start on July 24, but pre-orders on the website will be happening earlier, scheduled on June 1. If you want to have a free pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 noise-canceling earbuds, customers simply have to do pre-order by June 28. And it is yours, free of charge. Unfortunately, having free Sony earbuds does not cover the absurd pricing of the newest Xperia. Why is it 'expensive'? If you're interested in buying this newest Sony flagship phone, you might re-consider how expensive this device is for a somehow 'average' Android phone. According to the company, Sony Xperia 1 II costs $1,199. Compared to other smartphone variants available now in the market, this price seemed to be too much for the brand. For example, Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max costs less than $1,000, and even Samsung Galaxy S20 with 5G tech accessibility costs way cheaper than the Sony flagship. ALSO READ: Apple's Siri Continues to Listen to Conversations, Despite Last Year's Controversy So, what makes it special for the device to cost that much? Nothing, apparently. Sony Xperia 1 II specs you should look out for Sony Xperia 1 II was originally announced to be launched on the postponed event of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, last Feb. However, since governments prohibit large gatherings due to Coronavirus, it was then canceled. Now, the device is nearly five months late, but tech experts are disappointed. Sure, the Xperia 1 II has a 4K HDR OLED screen that's 6.5 inches and has a 21:9 aspect ratio, which shows its taller screen compared to others. The device is also powered by high-quality Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 processor, has a 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones, and supports wireless charging with 4,000 mAh battery that could last for quite some time. Unfortunately, Sony Xperia 1 II will only be supporting 4G in the U.S.-- is the top reason why it is too expensive for Americans to pay the price of nearly $1,200 for this phone. But for European outlets, the flagship phone will have a 5G variant. That's why it is expensive. ALSO READ: Massive Leaks: Stolen Eight Billion Records From The Largest Cell Network in Thailand Leave Millions of Internet-Households Vulnerable 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A special commission should be set up to examine all aspects of the Defence Forces and a senior minister appointed to run the Department of Defence. These are a further two of the recommendations a former senior army officer has made in advance of the setting up of a new government, which he hopes will be taken on board in an effort to reverse the startling numbers of personnel leaving the country's military. Former Provost Marshal and Director of Military Police, Colonel Dorcha Lee, said the new government needs to set up the commission to examine the Defence Budget, future defence cooperation in the European Union and the need for viable conventional forces which would act as a deterrent to any aggressor against the State, be they internal or external. Such a commission would complement rather than replace the White Paper on Defence now halfway through its 10-year term, he said. Mr Lee said the crisis facing the Defence Forces must also be addressed by having the Department of Defence overseen by a full, senior cabinet minister: Defence should be one of the senior fifteen, where it has been in most governments since independence. Of necessity, the Minister for Defence will have to have an additional portfolio, but it should be of lesser ranking, possibly marine." He proposed that the man best equipped to do the job is newly-elected TD, Dr Cathal Berry, a former second-in-command of the elite Army Ranger Wing (ARW). Mr Lee said core pay and conditions also need to be addressed to reverse the exodus of key personnel from the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps. He said the paltry rise in remuneration recommended by the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC), and approved by the outgoing government, is not going to help the issue: the PSPC recommended a taxable 3 per day increase in remuneration. Meanwhile, RACO which represents the country's officers, today sent a submission to all parties in the Oireachtas on what he feels needs to be done to strengthen the Defence Forces. RACO general secretary, Commandant Conor King, said they particularly want to focus on the recruitment and retention crisis. He pointed out that last year a record 870 left the Defence Forces and only 605 joined: This is due to widely acknowledged poor conditions of service and low rates of pay." Hundreds of web sites were closed due to the assault last week; research centers During May 6-12, almost 20 DDoS attacks on state bodies were carried out in Ukraine Open source Israeli web sites took damage due to cyber attacks last week. Labs and research centres working on a vaccine against coronavirus suffered as well, Jerusalem Post reports. "Hundreds of Israeli websites were the target of a cyberattack on Thursday morning, their home pages being replaced with an anti-Israel video and message in Hebrew and broken English: The countdown of Israel destruction has begun since a long time ago [sic]. The bottom of the page credited a group called Hackers_Of_Savior for the attack. The page title was changed to Be Ready for a Big Surprise in Hebrew. Visitors to the sites were asked to allow access to their cameras", reads the article. The attacks attempted to affect the development of the vaccine. However, these attempts failed. No data were stolen due to the attacks. Jerusalem Post also stated that other labs reported similar attacks worldwide, including those based in the U.S. and England. Some blamed Russia and China for these acts. Earier, Israeli scientists claimed they managed to find anti-bodies that actively combat Covid-19 in the body of an infected individual, and may be used to create the vaccine. For severe infestations, all three of our experts agreed that a vacuum can be more expedient than an insecticide in removing bugs. You can neatly eliminate a considerable percentage of the population in one shot, explains Linares. For example, if you find that they are hiding behind a picture frame, you need to get your vacuum cleaner ready, because when you move the picture frame, the roaches will probably run all over the place, Deutsch explains. Both Deutsch and Linares recommend the Atrix backpack vacuum, which comes with an assortment of attachments designed to get into small cracks and crevices where the roaches may be hiding. Its also equipped with a HEPA filter that can trap insects, contain them, and prevent any airborne contaminants that could cause respiratory problems. Just vacuum them up, remove the plastic bag, tie it up, and throw it out, says Deutsch. Clark also cautions that it is essential to also vacuum up any roach feces, as well, since it contains hormones that serve as a tracking signal to lead other roaches to the area. The mutual fund industry has added nearly seven lakh investor accounts in April, taking the total folio tally to 9.04 crore, amid volatility in broader markets New Delhi: The mutual fund industry has added nearly seven lakh investor accounts in April, taking the total folio tally to 9.04 crore, amid volatility in broader markets. This is the 71st consecutive month witnessing a rise in the numbers of folios, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India. Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts. An investor can have multiple folios. According to data, the number of folios with 44 fund houses rose to 9,04,28,589 at the end of April, from 8,97,46,051 in the end of March, registering a gain of 6,82,538 folios. This comes following an addition of over 9 lakh investor accounts in March. In February, the industry added 3 lakh folios, 14 lakh folios in January and in December, the number was over 6 lakh. The addition in folios comes at a time when the broader market witnessed volatility amid concerns over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In the midst of uncertainty over the possible impact of the lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on the global as well as domestic economy, investors are looking at this scenario as an investment opportunity, industry experts said. They, further, said the addition of folios suggests investors' understanding of the market risks associated with the mutual fund schemes. Of the total 9.04 crore investors account, the number of folios under equity, hybrid and solution-oriented schemes, wherein the maximum investment is from the retail segment stood at about 8 crore. The number of folios under the equity and equity-linked saving schemes rose by 6 lakh to 6.33 crore in April-end as compared to 6.27 crore at the end of the preceding month. However, the number of folio count in debt-oriented schemes dropped by 4.37 lakh to 60.91 lakh at April-end from 61.35 lakh at March-end. Within the debt category, liquid funds continued to top the chart in terms of the number of folios at nearly 19.5 lakh, followed by a low-duration fund at 93,53,79. Overall, mutual fund schemes witnessed an inflow of Rs 46,000 crore last month across all segments. The inflow has pushed the asset base of the mutual fund sector to Rs 23.93 crore at the end of April from Rs 22.26 crore at the end of March. An independent investigation launched in the wake of a deadly coronavirus outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home which went unreported to the public for days is expected to wrap up soon, Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday. The Baker administration tapped Mark W. Pearlstein of the Boston firm of McDemott, Will & Emery in April to probe the events leading up to deaths of 12 residents, most of which were tied to the coronavirus. Since then, 74 veteran residents have died after contracting COVID-19. In total, 77 veteran residents have tested positive, and 58 have tested negative. Another 84 people who work at the home tested positive for COVID-19. The Soldiers Home outbreak is reportedly the worst of any long-term care facility in the U.S. The superintendent at the time, Bennett Walsh, was suspended after state officials learned of the outbreak. While Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and relatives of the residents said they were kept in the dark, Walsh said neither he nor any employees hid any information about the outbreak. Walshs lawyer is planning to host a news conference around 3 p.m. Tuesday. After the outbreak became known to state officials, the Massachusetts National Guard stepped in to test and provide clinical care to the veterans at the home. Val Liptak, a registered nurse and CEO of Western Massachusetts Hospital in Westfield, was tapped to oversee administration of the home. The Holyoke facility is at the center of four federal investigations as officials look into what led to the outbreak and how leaders responded. In addition to Pearlsteins review, the state attorney generals office and the U.S. Attorneys office announced they were looking into the outbreak. Massachusetts Inspector General Glenn A. Cuhna, who started probing the facility on Jan. 30, announced in April he is expanding his investigation to look into the outbreak. The homes clinical team is conducting its own review to determine the proper number of full-time staff needed to care for residents, Liptak told trustees in a previous meeting. The home will likely reduce the number of residents, in part to make sure that beds are far enough apart. The Soldiers Home had staffing shortages before the coronavirus pandemic and merged units, and family members of the residents complained about staffing levels. But an audit performed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2018 found the home met, or at least provisionally met, the federal governments 231 health and safety standards. One of the key questions hovering over the outbreak is who knew about it and when, and what steps were taken in response to the virus. The Republican/MassLive reported in March that Morse notified Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito in a text message the night of March 29, a Sunday, that the facility had multiple deaths and that he sensed a lack of urgency from leaders. Morse had received emails over that weekend in March from people raising concerns about a coronavirus outbreak in the home, according to public records obtained by The Republican/MassLive. These 7 cases are only the beginning," read one email he received March 27. Morse said in a Facebook video that the citys Board of Health contacted the Soldiers Home on March 28 and received no response. He said he called Walsh on March 29 and learned that eight veterans had died over the last five days. He later told Polito he had been referred to Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans Affairs Secretary Francisco Urena for more information. Baker has said he and Polito first heard about the COVID-19 deaths at the home Marc 29, days after the first residents died. Family members told The Republican/MassLive that they sought answers in the early days of the outbreak but were left in the dark, which Walsh has denied in statements through her lawyer. Related Content: Panaji: Congress today attacked AAP saying the party should first prove itself in Delhi and fulfill the tall promises it has made there, before thinking to make a political foray into Goa. AAP is yet to prove itself in Delhi, where they formed the government with complete majority. Now, they are dreaming of Goa. Let them first prove to the people of Delhi before even thinking of coming to Goa, Congress member and Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Pratapsinh Rane, told reporters here. Rane, former chief minister of Goa, also said Congress is not scared of AAP and its campaign in the state for 2017 Assembly poll. Let Kejriwal first take care of the people in Delhi, where he made tall promises to come to power. In Goa, too, he has started a similar game plan. However, the people of Goa very well know the situation in Delhi, Rane said. On AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals recent statement that Congress would be wiped out from Goa in the 2017 polls, Rane said it is difficult to shake the base of the oldest political party in the state by a novice political front. I admit that our party is not perfect, it has flaws... but it is so in case of all the political parties, he said. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Luizinho Faleiro, who was also present, said AAP should first prove itself then only it can sell the dreams in Goa. During his Goa visit on Sunday, Kejriwal had said Congress would not be able to win even a single seat in the 40-member House in the next elections. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. MORGANTOWN, W.V., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Longview Power (the "Company") achieved an important milestone on May 22nd when Judge Shannon of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware issued an order confirming the Company's prepackaged chapter 11 plan of reorganization after a brief uncontested hearing. Longview Power filed bankruptcy protection on April 14th citing debt maturities occurring during an extended period of unprecedented low energy prices and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the power generation industry. The Company commenced its cases with the support of its secured lenders after months of discussion between the Company, its secured lenders, and its equity owners. The Company's plan of reorganization was unanimously supported by the Company's senior secured lenders and no objections were filed. Under Longview Power's reorganization plan, $350 million of secured and subordinated debt will be extinguished, existing equity will be cancelled, and the Company's senior secured debt holders will become its new equity owners. Upon emergence from bankruptcy, Longview Power will receive a $40 million term loan funded by its new owners to support its expected working capital and capital needs for the next five years. All other creditors of the Company, as well as the Company's employees, are unaffected by the plan. The Company will emerge from bankruptcy once certain governmental filings and approvals occur, expected by mid-summer. Jeffery Keffer, CEO of Longview Power, stated, "Significant hard work and cooperation by the Company's senior secured creditors, the Company's existing equity holders, the Company, and their professionals were critical to making confirmation happen so quickly. The overwhelming support shown for the plan reflects the unique and special characteristics of the Longview Power plant, one of the cleanest coal fired power plants in the world and a highly reliable and low cost producer of electricity in West Virginia and the PJM region. With this plan of reorganization in place and the financial support of its new owners, Longview Power will be well positioned to build its planned natural gas and solar powered facilities and become a leading 'all of the above' power producer for many years to come." SOURCE Longview Power, LLC Related Links https://longviewpower.com Kilkenny is having its driest spring in three decades, according to local weather expert Niall Dollard of kilkennyweather.com. We are also on course for the driest May in 29 years - and there is no sign of rain in the coming days. While last May (2019) was very dry with only 14.7mm, this May is shaping up to be even drier. Some local farmers are reporting having to irrigate ploughed land before planting. Mr Dollard also says it looks like it will stay fine throughout the week and over the weekend. "Cloud will clear away on Tuesday to give a fine, warm day. Warm and sunny for Wednesday," he reports. Last May (2019) was very dry with only 14.7mm but this May is on course to be even drier. Driest May in Kilkenny for 29 years and our driest spring for 30 years. Kilkenny Weather (@kilkennyweather) May 25, 2020 "Continuing fine for Thursday. Some high cloud is expected for Friday but still fine. More sun for the weekend with temperatures still in the twenties." With Irish Water already cautioning that there has been a significant increase in household water usage, if the dry spell continues, it could place considerable strain on the county's reservoirs. Back in 2018, Kilkenny was under a hosepipe ban for much of the summer due to drought-like conditions. Australian farmers have been dealt another blow with the country's largest organic dairy company being forced to fold under a mountain of debt. The Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia, based in Geelong, was placed into voluntary administration last week, owing about $15million to creditors. The company, which is owned by family-run dairy farms across Victoria and north-west Tasmania, produces the True Organic brand of butter and supplies milk for FiveAM Yoghurt, Lemnos, and Pure Organic Milk and was focused on growing its exports to China. The Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia, based in Geelong, was placed into voluntary administration last week, owing about $15million to creditors The company, which is owned by family-run dairy farms across Victoria and north-west Tasmania, produces the True Organic brand of butter and supplies milk for FiveAM Yoghurt, Lemnos, and Pure Organic Milk But the company directors chose to place it into administration after struggling amid with a 'contracting Chinese market', delayed sales, and now the impact of COVID-19. The looming demise comes after it was given more than $2.5million in state and federal government grants. The company owes National Australia Bank $8million and unsecured creditors between $3.5 and $5million, The Geelong Advertiser reported. Creditors will decide the future of the company by June 26. The first meeting is scheduled for May 27. The looming demise comes after it was given more than $2.5 million in state and federal government grants Two farmers in the bushfire-ravaged town of Cobargo are seen in January (pictured), with businesses now hit by an 80 per cent export tarriff A barley farmer is seen in central NSW (pictured) with the industry hit by drought and now by China' crippling tariff Australia's export markets in 2019 1. China: $135 billion (33% of total Australian exports) 2. Japan: $36 billion (9%) 3. South Korea: $21 billion (5%) 4. United Kingdom: $16 billion (3.8%) 5. United States: $15 billion (3.7%) Source: Worldstopexports.com Advertisement The announcement comes just days after China slapped a crippling 80 per cent tariff on barely exports from Australian farmers. Australia sends between half and two-thirds of all its barley to China, making the tariff decision a massive blow to the $600million a year industry. The extraordinary tariff, to remain in place for five years, is set to cripple Australia's drought-affected grain farmers. It is an apparent punishment for Scott Morrison's push for a coronavirus inquiry. The Australian prime minister in April demanded an independent probe into the deadly respiratory virus and the World Health Organisation's handling of the crisis. In response, Chinese state media and leaders warned of trade retribution that could wipe $135billion from the Australian economy. China claimed Australia was dumping barley and subsidising farmers, insisting the tariffs are nothing to do with coronavirus. By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) - A New Jersey used car dealer was criminally charged on Tuesday with exploiting the coronavirus pandemic by trying to defraud and price gouge New York City into buying N95 respirator masks he was not authorized to sell, in a roughly $45 million scheme. The U.S. Department of Justice said Ronald Romano, 58, sought quick riches in late March when his Performance Supply LLC tried to sell 7 million of the 3M-branded masks to New York City's Office of Citywide Procurement for about 500% above the typical list price. Prosecutors said the Manalapan, New Jersey, resident created a bogus letter falsely showing that 3M Co authorized the sale. He was also charged with offering to sell 3 million Mexican-made N99 face masks to Florida's Division of Emergency Management for $5.46 million, a markup of more than 500%. Prosecutors said Romano's intentions were clear from a March 9 text to an accomplice: "I'm working on a few deals that if I get any of them you might be buying a Ferrari." They also said that after being warned on March 31 the FBI might investigate suspected price gouging, Romano responded: "I thought we are a free market of supply and demand?" Mark Macron, a lawyer for Romano, declined immediate comment. Romano faces wire fraud and two conspiracy charges. Two counts carry maximum 30-year prison terms. "Ronald Romano saw the current health emergency as an opportunity to cash in," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan said in a statement. "Now Ronald Romano's short-lived second career as a purveyor of vital protective gear is over." 3M, the world's largest maker of N95 masks, on May 4 won an injunction against Performance Supply's sale of them. The St. Paul, Minnesota-based company has filed at least 10 similar lawsuits. William Childs, a 3M senior counsel, said the company was happy to see law enforcement's continued involvement. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York Editing by Matthew Lewis) Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. The worldwide 3D machine vision market is anticipated to reach USD 4 billion by 2026 according to a new research published by Polaris Market Research. In 2017, the hardware sector dominated the global market, in terms of revenue. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the leading contributor to the global 3D machine vision market revenue during the forecast period. Browse for full research summary: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/3d-machine-vision-market Growing need for automation and increasing need to offer high quality products in the market fuels the growth of the 3D machine vision market. Use of 3D machine vision increases productivity, and efficiency, while saving time and costs. The increasing demand from industries including automotive, healthcare, defense, aerospace, and food and beverage is expected to provide growth opportunities in the coming years. Emerging and untapped markets of developing economies, and rising demand for customized and application specific 3D machine vision solutions further provide growth opportunities to key players in the 3D machine vision market. Increasing investments, technological advancements, and growing research and development further boosts the growth of the market. Asia-Pacific generated the highest revenue in the market in 2017, and is expected to lead the 3D machine vision market throughout the forecast period. Rapid industrialization and increasing automation in the region drives the market growth. Introduction of new advanced technologies and increasing applications in automotive, aerospace, electronics and healthcare sectors is expected to support market growth. Growing demand from automotive and manufacturing industries for high quality products further augments the market growth. Request For sample copy of this report: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/3d-machine-vision-market/request-for-sample The major players in the 3D machine vision market include ISRA Vision AG, Cognex Corporation, MVTec Software GmbH, Basler AG, Tordivel AS, Sick AG, Stemmer Imaging, National Instruments Corporation, Keyence Corporation, and Microscan Systems, Inc. among others among others. These companies launch new products and collaborate with other market leaders to innovate and launch new products to meet the increasing needs and requirements of consumers. 3D Machine Vision Market Size and Forecast by Component, 2018-2026 Hardware Software Services 3D Machine Vision Market Size and Forecast by Technology, 2018-2026 Smart Camera-Based Systems PC-Based Systems 3D Machine Vision Market Size and Forecast by End-User, 2018-2026 Automotive Healthcare Aerospace and Defense Food and Beverage Electronics and Semiconductors Transportation Wood and Paper Others 3D Machine Vision Market Size and Forecast by Application, 2018-2026 Mapping Robotic Guidance and Automation Quality Control & Inspection Others 3D Machine Vision Market Size and Forecast by Region, 2018-2026 North America US. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK France Italy Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Brazil Middle East & Africa Avail discount on this report @ https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/3d-machine-vision-market/request-for-discount-pricing About Polaris Market Research Polaris Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide unmatched quality of offerings to our clients present globally. The company specializes in providing exceptional market intelligence and in-depth business research services for our clientele spread across different enterprises. We at Polaris are obliged to serve our diverse customer base present across the industries of healthcare, technology, semi-conductors and chemicals among various other industries present around the world. Contact us- Polaris Market Research Phone: 1-646-568-9980 Email: sales@polarismarketresearch.com Web: www.polarismarketresearch.com Fujifilm COVID-19 drug research spills into June, dashing hopes of quick approval FILE PHOTO: Tablets of Avigan (generic name : Favipiravir) are displayed during a photo opportunity in Tokyo TOKYO (Reuters) - Fujifilm Holdings Corp will continue research on Avigan into June, Japan's government said on Tuesday, effectively dashing hopes by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the drug would be approved as a COVID-19 treatment this month. Abe had said he hoped the drug would be approved in May if its efficacy and safety could be confirmed. "The company will continue research into next month or so, and if an application for approval is received from the company, it will be promptly reviewed," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular briefing when asked about Avigan. Suga said trials of a coronavirus vaccine could begin as early as July, raising expectations about a candidate developed by Osaka University and biopharmaceutical firm AnGes Inc. Kyodo News reported late on Monday the government had given up on Avigan's May timeline. Last week, the news agency said an interim study showed no clear evidence of the drug's efficacy in COVID-19 cases. "While we continue with the ongoing clinical trials, Fujifilm will remain in close contact with the regulatory authority and work toward the application for approval at the earliest possible timing," Fujifilm spokeswoman Kana Matsumoto said on Tuesday. During an earnings briefing on May 22, Fujifilm Senior Vice President Junji Okada declined to comment on when Avigan might be approved. Avigan is the subject of at least 16 trials worldwide, though there is concern the drug has been shown to cause birth defects in animal studies. Japan's government has called on Fujifilm to triple national stockpiles of Avigan, approved in 2014 as an emergency flu treatment, and pledged to donate it to countries upon request. Dozens of clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines are ongoing globally. The Nikkei newspaper said on Monday AnGes is set to begin a trial of its DNA vaccine in July, rather than September as initially scheduled. AnGes shares surged 11% in Tokyo on Tuesday versus the broader market's 2.6%. Fujifilm advanced 0.6%. (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Makiko Yamazaki and Rocky Swift; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Muralikumar Anantharaman) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Quaterra Resources Inc. (TSXV: QTA) (OTCQB: QTRRF) ("Quaterra" or the "Company") today announced it has filed an independent technical report on the exploration and prospects of the Groundhog copper-gold prospect, a 54,880-acre property situated on an established copper-gold porphyry belt 300 kilometers southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The report ("Technical Report on the Groundhog Project", dated May 13, 2020) was prepared by Nicholas Van Wyck, Ph.D., of Sisyphus Consulting, Anchorage, Alaska in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). The report supports the Company's assessment of the Groundhog prospect as a possible copper-gold porphyry system hosting mineralization similar to the large Pebble project, and provides the path for exploration going forward. "Its close proximity to the Pebble copper-gold porphyry deposit and presence on the project of geologically correlative units means that Groundhog has excellent potential to host similar mineralization," says the report. Says Quaterra President and CEO Gerald Prosalendis: "We are pleased to have affirmation of Groundhog as a possible copper-gold porphyry system hosting mineralization similar to Pebble, and to have been provided with a roadmap for its exploration going forward. This year's program will involve the 3D inversion of the last year's ZTEM geophysical survey as recommended by the report. This will enable refinement and selection of high-priority targets for ground-based IP and drilling possibly next year if circumstances and the availability of funds enable it." Groundhog is located on State of Alaska claims covering the northern extension of a 10-kilometer wide north-northeast trending structural zone that hosts a number of porphyry copper-gold prospects, including the Pebble project, which is approximately five kilometers south of the Groundhog claim boundary. Says the report: "A sizable body of data has been collected designed to identify whether similar mineralization to that seen at the adjacent Pebble project exists at Groundhog. Mapping, limited drilling and geochronology have demonstrated the presence of similar aged rocks in a similar structural setting occur at Groundhog. The majority of attention has been focused on the southern portion of the property and significant areas of potential promising geochemistry around the Alpha and Beta magnetic anomalies remain unexplored." The report recommends that continuing exploration efforts at the Groundhog project focus on refining targets defined by existing geophysical surveys. "Geophysics has proven to be an effective tool in identifying structures that host mineralization." The ZTEM survey completed in September 2019 should be the focus of additional data processing (3D modeling) and integration with the existing ground-based IP surveys in order to assist in prioritizing potential drill targets, it says. "It is possible that some additional ground-based geophysical surveys (VIP and/or dipole-dipole IP lines) will be required in the final drill target selection, but ultimately success or failure at Groundhog will be determined by drilling intercepting porphyry Cu mineralization and that should be the priority of future exploration expenditures," says the report. Quaterra reached an agreement with Chuchuna Minerals Company in 2017 whereby it has to provide $5 million over five years in exploration spending, later amended to six years, in order to earn a 90% interest in Groundhog. The Company is also required to pay a lump sum of $3 million at the end of the sixth year. Quaterra has no obligation to exercise its option and can terminate the agreement at its discretion annually. (All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars). Chuchuna is the operator of the project and plans, implements and manages exploration field programs as set out in a budget and work plan approved by Quaterra. Chuchuna is an Alaskan company jointly owned by Kijik Corporation, the ANSCA village corporation for the community of Nondalton, and Alaska Earth Sciences, an Anchorage-based mineral exploration company. The full Technical Report on the Groundhog Project is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.quaterra.com. Qualified Person Nicholas Van Wyck, Ph.D., CPG #10553, of Sisyphus Consulting, is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 who prepared the technical report disclosed in this news release and has approved the scientific and technical content of this news release. About Quaterra Resources Inc. Quaterra Resources Inc. (TSXV: QTA) (OTCQB: QTRRF) is a copper exploration and development company with the primary objective of advancing its U.S. subsidiary's copper projects in the Yerington District, Nevada. It has the right to earn a 90% interest in the Groundhog copper-gold prospect, a 54,880-acre property situated on an established copper-gold porphyry belt 300 kilometers southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. Quaterra also has the right to purchase a 100% interest in 678 unpatented mining claims associated with the Butte Valley prospect, a large, partially explored porphyry copper-gold system located in eastern Nevada. The Company continues to look for opportunities to acquire copper projects on reasonable terms that have the potential to host large mineral deposits attractive to major mining companies. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Gerald Prosalendis, President and CEO Quaterra Resources Inc. For more information please contact: Gerald Prosalendis, President and CEO Quaterra Resources Inc. 250-940-3581 Tom Patton, Chairman Quaterra Resources Inc. 604-641-2758 Disclosure note: Some statements contained in this news release are forward-looking statements under Canadian securities laws and within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are identified in this news release by words such as "will", "may", "intends", "anticipates", "offers the potential", "suggests", "plans", and similar language, or convey estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives, potential outcomes, expectations, or goals. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. In particular, forward looking statements in this news release include that the Company will be able to finance exploration efforts and acquisition costs; that commodity markets and copper prices will improve; that mapping, sampling, IP and exploration drilling will be undertaken; that results will define mineralization or high grade zones; that historical and new exploration will support a resource on the property; and that the Groundhog assets have the potential to support mining operations. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. A summary of risk factors that apply to the Company's operations are included in our management discussion and analysis filings with securities regulatory authorities, and are publicly available on our website. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56527 In this screen-grab from an AFP video, an Indonesian seafarer shows a picture of conditions in which he and other Indonesians worked as crew members on a Chinese-flagged ship where he said they experienced abusive working conditions, Feb. 21, 2019. A 26-year-old Indonesian died aboard a Pakistani boat last week, two months after being removed from a Chinese ship after suffering health problems indicative of forced labor, officials and activists said, bringing to six the number of deaths linked to Chinese fishing boats since December. On Tuesday, Indonesias foreign office said it was coordinating with police and other agencies to investigate the May 22 death of Eko Haryanto at sea near Pakistan. He and a fellow Indonesian reportedly were transferred to the Pakistani boat in March by the captain of the Xianggang Xinhai, the Chinese boat, after Eko complained about his ailing hands, according to Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW), an Indonesian activist group. The minister has coordinated with relevant institutions and National Polices General Crimes Unit to investigate the case, Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told BenarNews. Ekos body was taken to a hospital in Karachi after he died at sea, and the ministry was planning to return his body and repatriate the other Indonesian, Hamdan, as soon as coronavirus-related travel restrictions were lifted, Teuku said. Hamdan is now at the Indonesian Consulate General shelter in Karachi, while Ekos body is still in the hospital, Teuku said. Death reported to complaint center Hamdan reported Ekos death through the Fisher Center Tegal, a complaint center coordinated by DFW in Central Java province. In his report, Hamdan provided a video that showed Eko unable to move his right hand. The video showed that he was having symptoms of paralysis such as stroke, where he could not move his right hand, plus depression and severe stress. Based on the initial screening, there was forced labor, Mohammad Abdi Suhufan, the coordinator of DFW, told BenarNews, referring to a viewing of the video. Eko and Hamdan worked more than 12 hours a day on the Chinese boat and Eko was ordered to keep on working although he had complained about a pain in his hands, Abdi said. The pair had worked aboard the Xianggang Xinhai since November 2019, according to DFW. Both men were promised a monthly salary of U.S. $300 (4.4 million rupiah) but had not been paid, Hamdan alleged in his complaint to DFW. The two had been recruited for the Chinese boat by PT Mandiri Tunggal Bahari, the same Indonesian manpower recruitment firm allegedly involved in the case of Herdiyanto, an Indonesian crewman who died on a Chinese fishing boat, Luqing Yuan Yu 623, and whose body was tossed into Somali waters on Jan. 23 a week after his death, Abdi said. The government should make sure PT Mandiri Tunggal Bahari takes full responsibility for Ekos death, Abdi said. During the past two weeks, Indonesian police have named five people from four local agencies who were allegedly recruiting workers for two Chinese fishing boats, the Luqing Yuan Yu 623 and Long Xin 629, as suspects in human trafficking. Police have arrested all five but they have not filed charges under the countrys anti-human trafficking laws. Authorities opened the case into Herdiyantos death after a video, which showed his body being thrown overboard off Luqing Yuan Yu 623, had circulated on social media, while a second video showed him being assisted by three other people because he could not walk. Central Java police were conducting the probe into PT Mandiri Tunggal Bahari, said Ferdy Sambo, director of the general crimes unit at the national police, without going into detail. Police launched the probe into the Hediyanto case after the Indonesian government earlier this month complained to the Chinese government about the deaths of four other Indonesians who had allegedly worked in harsh conditions as crew member on Chinese fishing boats. Bodies of three of those four were allegedly thrown overboard, a crew member said in an interview with South Korean media. On May 10, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi condemned the alleged mistreatment of the four Indonesian sailors, and said she had been told they were forced to work at least 18 hours a day. Indonesia and China were launching a joint investigation into the allegations of abuse, Retno said at the time. On Tuesday, officials at the Chinese embassy in Jakarta could not be immediately reached to answer questions about Ekos death. The Madhya Pradesh government has praised leading digital payments and financial services company, Paytm for sending across 4,000 masks for its workforce engaged in the fight against COVID-19. The state health ministry has tweeted from its official handle to appreciate this gesture, a company release said on Tuesday. Paytm, has been contributing face masks and hygiene products across the country to ensure the safety of frontline workers fighting COVID-19. The company is in the process of sending out 4 lakh masks and 10 lakh hygiene products to government offices, Army, CRPF, Police, municipal bodies, district magistrates and hospitals. These authorities would distribute among personnel working in the frontline to help control the pandemic, it said. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show Apart from Madhya Pradesh Ministry of Health, Hyderabad Police, CRPF Jammu, Delhi Traffic Police, CM of Karnataka, and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation among others have also tweeted from their official handles to thank Paytm for its efforts. The company is aiming to deliver supplies to many other states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, and Goa in the coming days. Paytm has also launched a host of initiatives to fight against novel coronavirus. It has revamped its app's user interface (UI) with 'Stay at Home Essential Payments'. Also, under the 'Feed My City' initiative, Paytm is providing meals to daily wage earners in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida (Uttar Pradesh) in association with KVN Foundation, it added. Press Release May 26, 2020 De Lima slams Duterte for letting Sinas, Duque and Roque off the hook Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for tolerating public officials who are demonstrably incompetent and irresponsible in their discharge of duties amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In her Dispatch from Crame No. 802, De Lima said these officials include National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque and Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III. "The COVID-19 pandemic, as it stands, is already proving to be a handful for even the most competent of governments around the globe. However, here in the Philippines, it is invariably worsened by man-made disasters of incompetency and lack of integrity that the very President of this nation not only tolerates, but even worse, grants impunity to," she said. "Imagine, the President in the middle of a crisis, not even lifting a finger while already being confronted with solid evidence of ineptitude and lack of regard for public accountability," she added. It may be recalled that Sinas was heavily criticized after photos of his recent 55th birthday party, which violated the directive prohibiting mass gatherings, made the rounds online, yet Duterte refused to fire him. "Maj. Gen. Sinas managed to come up with every excuse for the 'mananita' thrown for him by his subordinates earlier this month. In an egregious display of double standards in law enforcement, he then led the filing of a complaint against the so-called 'Marikina 10' because they gathered in the streets to carry out a soup kitchen drive in Marikina for displaced jeepney drivers," she said. "Pag mahirap, kulong, pag hepe 'sorry' lang at OK na dahil malakas ka sa Pangulo? Paano magpapasakop sa batas ang ating mga kababayan kapag nakikita natin na may taong kagaya niya na walang delicadeza at patuloy na inaalagaan ni Duterte kahit lantaran ang paglabag sa batas?" she asked. Roque, for his part, has displayed recklessness and arrogance. "Sec. Roque [p]ublicly berated CNN Philippines reporter Triciah Tejada for supposedly misreporting his statement that it is 'up to the private sector to carry out mass testing...' Reports from all major news organizations belies Roque's allegations. In spite of his well-documented error, this abrasive and arrogant Presidential mouthpiece refuses to apologize to the reporter," she recalled. On the other hand, Duque has shown ostensible signs of ineptitude in the discharge of his critical job. "Sec. Duque, the top health official in our country, continues to hold his position despite his countless blunders. Simula pa lang ng quarantine natin, hiniling na po ng Senado ang resignation niya dahil sa pagkabigo niya na ihanda ang ating bansa sa pandemic na ito. Subalit sa kabila nito, pinanatili pa rin siya ni Duterte sa DOH," she added. De Lima, a known human rights and social justice champion, said Sinas, Roque and Duque are now devoid of moral standing to stay in government. "Mr. Duterte's insistence in keeping the lawbreakers, the liars and the incompetent in their posts erodes not only our people's adherence to the rule of law, but also our faith in government to lead us through this pandemic," she said. "The COVID-19 pandemic for governments is, above all, a test of leadership and governance. Our failure in containing COVID-19 at the cost of our country's worst economic downturn in recent history is a direct consequence of ineptitude in the highest office in our land and the people in whom he reposed his trust," she added. LONDON, Dec. 13, 2019 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson (C) speaks at the vote declaration in Uxbridge, London, Britain, Dec. 13, 2019. An exit poll published after voting closed in the British election on Image Source: IANS News London, May 26 : A UK Minister resigned on Tuesday over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief aide, Dominic Cummings' alleged breaking of coronavirus lockdown rules. Junior Minister Douglas Ross resigned as Under Secretary of State for Scotland, becoming the first government minister to quit over the row that has engulfed Downing Street over the past several days, reports the Metro newspaper. Ross said he could not "in good faith" tell his constituents who could not care for sick relatives or say goodbye to dying ones while obeying lockdown rules that Cummings acted appropriately. The first resignation over the allegations rocking the government came as Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove sought to defend Cummings, his longstanding ally, as having acted "entirely reasonable" and within the law. Cummings was accused of breaking lockdown rules he helped make after it emerged he travelled from London to his parents home in Durham when his wife fell ill with suspected coronavirus in March. The Prime Minister's chief adviser has refused to step down over the allegations, admitting he never considered resigning and he doesn't regret his actions. In his resignation, Ross said Cummings' view on lockdown guidance was "not shared by the majority". He said as a father himself he would have stayed at home if he and his wife had caught the virus. Johnson said he regrets Ross' decision to resign, the Metro newspaper reported. A No 10 spokesman said: "The Prime Minister would like to thank Douglas Ross for his service to government and regrets his decision to stand down as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland." The resignation comes as Johnson faces increasing pressure to fire his chief aide, although he has so far given him his full support. At a press conference on Monday, Johnson admitted he regrets the "confusion and pain" the scandal has caused the British public. But he said that he believed Cummings acted "legally" and "with integrity". On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that South Africa will move from level 4 to level 3 of the national lockdown on 1 June. Many restrictions will be relaxed under level 3. This includes lifting the 20:00 to 05:00 curfew, allowing exercise at any time during the day, and opening the sale of alcohol. Under level 4, all religious gatherings, except for funerals, were banned to limit the spread of the coronavirus. There were then calls for Ramaphosa to allow churches and other religious institutions to open under alert level 3 of the lockdown. The president said there was subsequently a meeting of the National Coronavirus Command Council which considered the inputs in recent consultations with interfaith leaders. Following this meeting, Ramaphosa announced that current restrictions on religious gatherings will be eased. He said places of worship including churches, synagogues, temples and mosques will be allowed to open under alert level 3. These religious gatherings, however, will be limited to 50 people and will be accompanied by strict social distancing and other rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19. All religious organisations must put protocols in place for, among other things, thoroughly cleaning and sanitising places for worship before and after services, Ramaphosa said. Our faith communities must ensure that any religious rituals that carry even the slightest possibility of exposing worshippers to risk should be avoided. He also commended faith-based communities for the work they have done during the crisis to help the needy and feed the hungry. My fellow South Africans, This evening, I would like to address you on matters that are of great importance to many people in our country firstly, the call by religious leaders for a day of prayer as the country unites against the coronavirus pandemic, and, secondly, the decisions of the National Coronavirus Command Council on proposals made by religious leaders on the gradual resumption of certain religious activities. The global coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on all South Africans. Our Minister of Health today advised me that we now have over 20,000 people that have been infected and close to 500 people have lost their lives. This continues to cause distress among all of us as citizens of South Africa. At the same time, we are thankful that more than 11,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus. Families are struggling to make ends meet. Businesses have been badly hit and some have even had to be shut down. People have lost their jobs and sources of income have dried up. Because of the restrictions under the nation-wide lockdown, we have been unable to move around, to go to work, to study, to meet friends and family, and to attend religious services. Yet, even at this time of crisis, we have cared for each other, shown compassion and solidarity, and sought to alleviate the plight of the most vulnerable. This pandemic has also taken a toll on us emotionally and spiritually. It has shaken our sense of well-being and security. Many of us are anxious and fearful of both the present and the future. As a nation, we have a responsibility to respond to this aspect of the pandemic with as much effort and urgency as we have responded to the health crisis, and as we have acted to relieve the economic and social effects on our people. We have a responsibility to also take care of the spiritual, psychological and emotional well-being of all South Africans. In helping our nation to cope with these difficulties, we acknowledge and welcome the call that has been made by our religious leaders for a day of prayer. Prayer will comfort and strengthen us as we continue to confront this pandemic. When I addressed the nation on Sunday, I said that we have been discussing with leaders of the religious community who have made a number of proposals around a gradual resumption of some religious activities and the manner in which they would like to exercise their functions. The National Coronavirus Command Council discussed the proposals put to us by our religious leaders and determined that we should accede to the proposals put forward in accordance with certain norms and standards. South Africans are a people of deep faith. Our faith is what has seen us through many dark times and sustained us. We understand the great impact that the closure of places of worship have had on members of the faith community, and that this has worsened the distress of communities who are unable to worship in congregation. Our leaders in the faith community provide spiritual guidance, care and counselling to millions of South Africans, and we are immensely grateful that from the beginning of our task of addressing this health crisis they have stood with us and provided advice, guidance, support and encouragement from the very beginning. The faith community is an integral part of South African life and has made a great contribution in the fight against the coronavirus. With our focus now on enabling our people to cope during this crisis and rebuilding our shattered economy, as well as assisting individuals and businesses whose livelihoods have been negatively impacted, we recognise and appreciate the important role the faith community has played in the provision of spiritual support and social relief. Much of it has been done under extremely difficult circumstances and with minimal resources. In such a time of crisis, the noble values that are shared by all faith communities have truly come to the fore of charity and doing good works, of helping the needy, of feeding the hungry and caring for the sick. Although the nation-wide lockdown has curtailed the activities of our faith based organisations, we have strongly felt their presence. They have helped to keep our spirits up. They have encouraged us to remain focused. Above all they have consistently reminded our people that the lockdown regulations are in place for the common good and the welfare of us all. As we now prepare to move to coronavirus alert level 3 on the 1st of June, we recognise and appreciate their deep desire to return to their duties, to serve their communities and to serve society. After consideration following consultation with our religious leaders, we have therefore determined that as part of the regulations for alert level 3, the current restrictions on congregational worship will be eased in a carefully measured way. Places of worship may re-open subject to strict restrictions, which are absolutely necessary if we are to prevent infections from rising in accordance with norms and standards that will be set out in the regulations. Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other recognised places of worship may resume services, but these will be limited in size to 50 people or less depending on the space available. Social distancing will have to be observed and all worshippers and participants will have to wear face masks in line with the current regulations. All religious organisations must put protocols in place for, among other things, thoroughly cleaning and sanitising places for worship before and after services. Our faith communities must ensure that any religious rituals that carry even the slightest possibility of exposing worshippers to risk should be avoided, and that where they form an essential part of religious practice, that sanitisation is paramount. Our religious leaders will be recognised as essential religious frontline workers for purposes of spiritual counselling to members of their faith organisations. Religious leaders will continue to officiate at funerals of no more than 50 people. Our religious leaders occupy positions of immense trust and authority in our communities, and need to play a proactive role in raising the level of public awareness around the coronavirus in their services, in faith communication groups, and through their pastoral work and activities. We welcome the offers that have been made by several religious bodies to make their facilities available for the fight against the coronavirus by providing additional space for school lessons, for quarantine, for screening and testing or for places of shelter for survivors of gender-based violence. This new phase of managing the coronavirus as a constant in our daily lives will be in many respects more difficult. It demands vigilance and it will continue to demand sacrifices of us all. The social distancing and hygiene measures that are in place under the lockdown will have to continue way into the future, and cannot be abandoned or compromised. Let us continue to be guided by the overriding principle of doing whatever it takes to preserve life. Our faith-based organisations have shown in both word and deed their commitment to the national effort to combat the coronavirus. We will continue to engage with various constituencies across society around their concerns and the suggestions they have to move safely towards easing various restrictions. Fellow South Africans, Throughout this difficult time, we have remained firm and united. Yet we know the race is far from won, and that the collective energies and efforts of all our people will be needed now as never before. I therefore urge all South Africans to heed the call of the leaders of our various faith communities for a national day of prayer on Sunday, the 31st of May, when we will once again come together to pray for the healing of our land and the protection of our people. On this day, wherever we may be, I call upon you to turn your thoughts to all who have been affected by this pandemic. On this day, we should remember those who are working to keep us safe, those who are suffering and grieving. Whether you are a person of faith or not, there is one belief that unites us, and that is our belief in South Africa, in its people, in their courage and in their ability to overcome even the greatest of tribulations. As we worked tirelessly to heal the divisions of the past, so too will our united action bring us healing from this pandemic. May God bless South Africa and protect her people. I thank you. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alya Nurbaiti and Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 19:34 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda40230 1 City COVID-19,shopping-mall,COVID-19-in-Indonesia,Greater-Jakarta,Jokowi,coronavirus,COVID-19-West-Java,Bekasi,ridwan-kamil,Rahmat-Effendi,malls Free President Joko Jokowi Widodo visited Summarecon Mall in Bekasi, West Java, on Tuesday to take a look at the malls preparations for its upcoming reopening under the so-called new normal health protocols. I come to Bekasi today to ensure our readiness for the new normal as we want to stay productive while also remaining protected from the virus at the same time, Jokowi said. The President visited the mall along with West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Pepen Effendi, Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto and National Police chief Gen. Idham Aziz. Ridwan said that many subdistricts in West Java had turned from COVID-19 red zones to green zones, which means the transmission in the area has been largely controlled and therefore, the areas could start adapting to the new protocols. Pepen revealed that 50 out of 56 subdistricts in Bekasi had been declared green zones including North Bekasi subdistrict where the Summarecon Mall is located. He added that the virus transmission rate in the city had decreased as a result of the city administrations implementation of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB). Thats why the virus is less contagious here with an R0 of 0.71 [less than one person on average is being infected by other infected people] and were gradually reopening the economy, Pepen said. He said that malls in Bekasi were allowed to open on June 4 at the earliest, but are required to operate at 50 percent of their capacity. For example, if the normal capacity is 10,000, now they should only allow 5,000 people to enter. The security will count and limit the number of mall visitors, Ridwan said, adding that all visitors must wear masks. The director of PT Summarecon Agung, Adrianto Adhi, said that his management was currently preparing the COVID-19 precautions in adherence to the new normal guidelines issued by Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto on Saturday. The management plans to open Summarecon Mall on June 8. Earlier on Tuesday, Jokowi announced that TNI and National Police personnel would be deployed to guard crowded places such as malls in preparation for the new normal. National carrier Air India resumed domestic flight operations from May 25 after a gap of 2 months amid nationwide lockdown which was imposed in order to contain the spread of coronavirus. With the resumption of passenger flights, the national carrier has designed a set of guidelines for passengers. These operating guidelines will have to be ensured by the cabin crew inside the aircraft. First and foremost, all passengers have to be web checked in/pre checked in before arriving at airport. Passengers arriving at airport should be wearing a mask at all times and carrying Aarogya Setu app on their Mobile phone as only 'green' status will be allowed to enter the airport. Hygiene and Sanitation: It is expected that the passengers will maintain hygiene and sanitation all through the flight. All passengers are expected to wear a face mask prior to boarding and while inside the aircraft. The airline says that it is also expected of the passengers to minimise the use of lavatory and avoid any non-essential movement in the aisles. Also, there has to be no queuing at the lavatory and that only one companion for children is allowed. In fact, the lavatory will be cleaned and sanitised after every hour of the flight and also sprayed with disinfectant from time to time. Likewise, the seat pockets will be cleared except for the safety card and that too will be replaced or sanitised after every flight. The cabin crew on their part will wear a full PPE (full gown), shoe cover, mask and gloves. Also Read: Domestic flights resume: More than 58,300 passengers flew on Day 1; 832 flights operated From now on until the crisis is averted there will be no meal service in the domestic sector. A 200ml water bottle will be placed on all seats. A 200ml water bottle will be made available to the passengers at the boarding door. Additional water bottles if required will be available at the galleys. No Eating inside Aircraft: The national carrier says that the passengers will not be allowed to consume any eatables inside the aircraft during the flight. So, home food or any other outside food isn't allowed. However, the airline says that limited quantities of biscuits will be uplifted for the use in case of diabetic/medical reasons. No Newspapers: There's bad news for those who prefer reading inside the aircraft. The airline has mandated that no newspapers or magazine will be provided to the passengers. Also Read: Over 90,000 passengers book flight between May 25-31; Mumbai, Kolkata register highest bookings In addition to the above the airline will no longer provide blankets, pillows or even head-rest covers to the passengers during the flight. No Crowding while Deplaning: Passengers rise from their seats and crowd while deplaning. The airline cabin crew have been tasked to ensure there is no crowding. Passengers will be deplaned in a staggered manner. Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals slumped 4.28% to Rs 133.10 after the company's profit from continuing operations (before exceptional items and tax) slumped 86.8% to Rs 42.19 crore in Q4 FY20 from Rs 319.66 crore in Q4 FY19. During the financial year 2018-19, the company had provided for Rs 197.27 crore due to delay in implementation of Modified New Pricing Scheme -III (NPS-III) for payment on account of additional fixed cost to urea units by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, Government of India (MOCF). During the quarter ended 31 March 2020, MOCF has amended Modified NPS-III. Accordingly during the quarter and financial year ended 31 March 2020, the company has reversed the aforesaid provision of Rs 197.27 crore and has also written off an amount of Rs. 91.70 crore towards subsidy receivables accrued during the previous years, in pursuance of such amendment in Modified NPS-III. Accordingly the company reported an exceptional income of Rs 105.57 crore during the quarter. The company has written back taxes to the tune of Rs 40.30 crore in Q4 March 2020 after the company opted for the lower tax rate permitted under the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 and re-assessed its deferred tax liability. The firm has reported a tax expense of Rs 24.46 crore in Q4 March 2019. After making all accounting adjustments, the chemicals maker reported 115.13% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 197.55 crore on 24.6% decline in net sales to Rs 1969.09 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 160.77 crore in Q4 FY20, up by 41.4% from Rs 113.66 crore in Q4 FY19. Net profit jumped 107.8% to Rs 1226.19 crore on 20.9% increase in net sales to Rs 12205.95 crore in the year ended March 2020 (FY20) over the year ended March 2019 (FY19). PBT stood at Rs 1327 crore in FY20, up by 59.4% from Rs 832.27 crore in FY19. Anil Kapoor, managing director of the company, said, "Our newly commissioned urea plant achieved the rated capacity during the first full year of operation. Towards the end of the last quarter, the company faced the challenge of COVID-19 pandemic. The priority was to continue operations of all the three Urea plants. Since we took many pro-active steps before and after the lock down to keep all the critical employees within our factory premises, we were able to keep the plants running. During the last year, the Government met the long pending demand of the Urea industry by approving additional fixed cost of Rs 350 per MT of Urea. Although not sufficient enough, the increase does mitigate some of the concerns of the Industry. The effect of the increase has been accounted in the last quarter of the FY 2019-20." In its outlook, the company said farming sector is likely to get a boost this year, with the forecast of good monsoon. The firm expects production in all its plants to be normal. The demand of the products looks encouraging and the firm is comfortable on the logistics side also. The company does not foresee any challenge in terms of availability of manpower. It expects to comfortably meet all its obligations towards interest and term loan repayments for the current year. Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals manufactures ammonia, urea, pesticides and other products for farming and other agricultural applications. The company also provides consulting services to farmers on their seeding programs. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) History is merely a list of surprises, said Kurt Vonnegut. If so, the first year of Modi 2.0 sprung more than its fair share. It began with a historic win, lurched through a series of misadventures and ended in a historic crisis. The Modi charisma survived it all. In May 2019, a triumphant march to power for Narendra Modi. In May 2020, a gruelling march home for migrant workers. And in between, a rapid descent of Modi's graph, from the high point of the 100-day plan with its 167 big bang ideas, to rioting in the streets of the capital. For Modi's legions, he is living proof of the Great Man Theory, the leader who arises when society needs him most. But as the year progressed, the man who had won the nation's confidence, appeared to be losing his own. A series of unforced errors hinted that the great leader's grip on governance had slackened. Modi 2.0 began with home minister Amit Shah's deftly-manoeuvred abrogation of Article 370, removing a vexatious thorn in the RSS' side with the tacit assent of the majority. Public approval remained high as the first 100 days came to a close, and higher still, when the PM embraced US President Donald Trump at the rambunctious 'Howdy Modi' gala in Texas. Shah's overreach, in the form of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), triggered a slide. Sources say that he overrode the PM's reservations and rapidly steered the law through Parliament. The CAAs constitutionality may be undecided, but it was strategically flawed. Poor timing and an unfortunate association with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) made it a cause celebre. Long-simmering resentments of interest groups found a platform. Violence erupted in universities, the last bastion of the Left. Belying Shah's reputation as a master strategist, the Delhi Police responded to the students' protests against CAA in a ham-handed fashion, putting the Centre on the defensive. The Modi government became an object of global censure, accused of suppressing civic freedoms. Simultaneously, the little-known locality of Shaheen Bagh, scene of a 'spontaneous' protest designed for maximum visibility and appeal to liberal sentiments, became emblematic of minority rights. Rather than shut it down, the BJP chose to make it the focus of its campaign for the Delhi assembly elections. Shah's decision to front the campaign personally was as mystifying as its provocative nature, pegged on an uber-nationalist narrative built around the CAA-NRC. To no ones surprise, the Aam Aadmi Party swept the Delhi elections, with the BJP coming a poor second. Error was piled upon error and a free run given to a Johnny-come-lately BJP leader who blatantly provoked anti-CAA protestors. The first stone was reportedly cast by infuriated protestors, resulting in a fearful and disproportionate backlash. The riots lasted for three days and left 53 dead. By this time, the global media had other things to worry about: Italy had reported its 400th case of coronavirus and the US had announced its first death from the virus. The capricious gods who had smiled on Modi, now tasked him with a Herculean labour: locking down a nation of 1.3 billion people. By all accounts, he took the decision with deep reluctance. The economy juddered to an abrupt halt on March 25. In subsequent weeks, heads of government all over the world, including the UK, France and the US, would be castigated on social media for missteps: delay in imposing curbs on public mobility, limited availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and insufficient testing. Even in Germany, lauded abroad for effective containment, the government faced flak at home. Modi came in for his share of brickbats. The Tablighi Jamaat disaster caught the Home ministry flat-footed. Under the very nose of the Delhi Police, barely a few hundred yards from a police station, thousands of people held a conference in March. It became a super-spreader, affecting thousands across the country within a month. The Centre and the states were equally unprepared for a panicking migrant workforce. Between states reluctant to allow them back home and states ill-prepared to host them, a coordinated response eluded the government. (To be fair, migrant workers in ASEAN countries were no better off.) Yet, in the midst of fear and uncertainty, a chronically-indisciplined population responded to Modi's call for a lockdown with exemplary self-restraint, solidarity and street-level charitable efforts. He had only to make a plea and millions thronged their balconies and verandahs to hail health workers or light their candles and listened faithfully to his broadcasts. The post-Covid recovery package left many dissatisfied, the plight of migrant workers wrung hearts, joblessness and closure of businesses plunged millions into despair. But when China threatens India's borders, it is to Modi that the country looks for reassurance. History will remember the million-man march. Only Modi can ensure it records India's resilience in the post-Covid world. After all, he has a history of converting crisis to opportunity. Arizona News Yuma, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey today announced $300,000 in grant funding to organizations providing Arizonans in need with rental assistance, telehealth and transportation to health services. The funding recipients, St. Vincent de Paul and Open Hearts, will use the funding to help vulnerable populations avoid eviction and access services needed to preserve health. These dollars come from the Crisis Contingency and Safety Net Fund, which was established by Arizonas bipartisan state budget agreement. Arizona continues to support hardworking Arizonans and at-risk families, said Governor Ducey. Organizations across the state have stepped up to help Arizonans in need to ensure they have access to health services, can remain in their homes and much more. These dollars will support those organizations that have made helping fellow Arizonans their top priority. My thanks to St. Vincent de Paul and Open Hearts for all you do to support our communities, especially during COVID-19. St. Vincent de Paul was awarded $250,000 and will use the funds to continue to help at-risk Arizonans avoid eviction through its Rental Assistance Program. The Rental Assistance Program provides emergency funding to prevent homelessness and helps those in need regain self-sufficiency. This year alone, St. Vincent de Paul has supported more than 200 families with rent assistance. For almost 200 years, across the world, St. Vincent de Paul has been focused on supporting those financially struggling, trying to prevent homelessness in our community. This generous funding from the Governors office will help us continue this work and help even more families impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, said Jessica Berg, St. Vincent de Paul Chief Program Officer. Last month, 95% of our requests for assistance with rent and utilities were due to COVID-related financial emergencies. The need is tremendous, and we know it will grow over the next few months. Our partnership with the state will not only help preserve families dignity and stability, it will also lessen societys economic burden by preventing homelessness and further emergencies. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is often called The Society of Were All in this Together. This partnership is such an important example of that. Poverty and homelessness are challenges that we all need to come together to address public, private, and faith-based partnerships are essential and were grateful to be a part of the solution. Open Hearts was awarded $50,000 and will use the funding to improve access to technology and remote resources for at-risk families. This will help families in need continue to connect with telehealth services and transportation to behavioral and medical health services. Open Hearts is grateful for the funds provided, said Arjelia Argie Gomez, Open Hearts President and CEO. This gift will enable families to access telemedicine and telehealth services for years to come. This pandemic has highlighted the need for this service option and our families are poised to engage. Additionally, Governor Ducey in March announced the Rental Eviction Prevention Assistance Program to help Arizonans struggling to make rent due to COVID-19. He also established the AZ Coronavirus Relief Fund as part of the Arizona Together Initiative to provide financial support to non-profit organizations serving Arizonans most in need statewide. Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media BRIDGEPORT An individual was found unresponsive in a dumpster after falling off the parking garage on Fairfield Avenue, city officials said Tuesday. At 8:50 a.m., Bridgeport fire units responded for a report of a fall from elevation from the Fairfield Avenue parking garage, according to Scott Appleby, the citys director of emergency communications and emergency management. Kerala murder: Man lets cobra loose on sleeping wife, watches it biting her twice India oi-Madhuri Adnal Thiruvananthapuram, May 26: Kerala Police have arrested a man for getting his wife killed by a snakebite in Kollam district of Kerala. One of the accused, Sooraj, was married to 25-year-old wife Uthra for two years. They have a one-year-old son. As per police, the incident took place on May 6, when the husband with a pre-planned motive, brought a cobra snake with him and threw it on his wife. The police said that Sooraj waited and watched the snake bite her twice. Then on May 7 morning, he got out of the room as usual and her mother found her unconscious. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News Uthra was taken to the hospital where she was declared dead. Caught on cam, Telangana cops performing snake dance after consuming liquor in Hyderabad The woman's parents alleged foul play after she died of snakebite at her parents' home at Anchal in Kollam district. She was first bitten by a snake on March 2 at her husband's home and was under treatment when another snake took her life. She was first bitten by a viper and then a cobra, and her husband Sooraj was present on both occasions. The police also spoke about Sooraj's accomplice Santhosh and said that he had been involved in illegal trade of the reptiles and the forest department which has been informed will file a separate case. South Africa: NSFAS students urged to use allowances to buy devices Students receiving aid from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) have been urged to use their learning material allowances to purchase learning devices so they can learn remotely during lockdown. Many students, who still have not bought laptops must do so, especially those who have been paid the annual teaching assistance allowance of R5 200, to buy gadgets that will facilitate their learning during this challenging time, said the chairperson of the Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture, Elleck Nchabeleng. NSFAS qualifying students receive learning material allowance for the year, which includes R5 200 issued once a year to beneficiaries to purchase things like laptops, tablets and books. Nchabeleng said the committee is satisfied with the proficiency and efficiency with which the NSFAS Administrator, Dr Randall Carolissen has run the entity, even during the COVID-19 distraction. The committee also welcomed the task team announced by Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, over the weekend. The task team will investigate challenges associated with the move to the student-centred model at NSFAS in 2017. The intervention will enhance the work of the Administrator and improve the service to poor students. Commendable work to stabilise the student financial aid scheme is being realised, and that has been demonstrated by how allowances are being distributed to students, Nchabeleng said. Nchabeleng said the work that NSFAS is doing in support of the departmental objectives to increase the number of poor students in higher education at no cost, is noted. He said more work needs to be done around a policy that will ensure access to the category of students who belong to the missing middle. NSFAS is now an entity where consequence management is prioritised. Certain employees and criminal syndicates that were operating within the student financial aid scheme have been reported to law enforcement agencies. The committee will support NSFAS so that the entity does not regress from the progress that was realised during the administration period. NSFAS is a changed and a well-functioning student financial aid scheme, Nchabeleng said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Ayodhya: The construction work of the grand Ram temple in Ayodhya has started. Earlier yesterday, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the head of Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, visited Ramlala after 28 years. Now on the commencement of the work of Ram temple, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal has also expressed happiness. Kamal Thapa, chairman of the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party and former Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal, expressed happiness over the commencement of the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Former Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal Kamal Thapa has said that, "It is a great pleasure to hear that the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Ramachandra, has started today. It is indeed a happy moment for the people of Nepal too. Where Sita Mata was born. Congratulations to all those who fought a long battle over the temple and won. '' Let us tell you that the Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has also expressed happiness about the commencement of the construction of the Ram temple. He tweeted and wrote that, "Jai Shri Ram 79. Today's golden moment is going to be nominated in history." The construction work of the grand Ram temple has been started in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Shree Rama Ji, the presiding deity of Sanatan Dharma. It is believed that by the grace of Lord Ram, we will soon overcome this epidemic. Let us tell you that during the nationwide lockdown, donations of Rs 4 crore 60 lakh have been received for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. These funds have been deposited by different donors in the bank account of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust opened for construction of Ram temple. Also Read: Corona virus's second phase will be more deadly: WHO Aamna Sharif celebrates Eid with family Trojan asteroid sights near Jupiter's orbit for first time in billion years Javadekar's statement on Rahul Gandhi's charge, says, 'Congress is doing politics even in times of crisis' A coronavirus cluster was reportedly detected on May 26 on a freight ship docked in the Australian west coast port of Fremantle that pose serious questions about why the local authorities were not alerted to the danger. Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan reportedly said that out of 48 crew members from the Al Kuwait, six tested positive for the deadly coronavirus four days after the ship arrived from UAE on Friday. READ: Virus Cluster Detected In Freight Ship In Australian Coast Six crew members quarantined According to the reports, the six infected crew members were quarantined in the nearby city of Perth. On the other hand, the health officials consider what should be done with the remaining 42 aboard, McGowan added. The ship was reportedly carrying a livestock of 56,000 sheep which is being held at a feedlot near the port. McGowan reportedly said that the sheep were to be loaded within days and cannot be returned to farms because of quarantine restrictions. READ: Brett Lee Picks Fellow Australian Steve Smith Over Virat Kohli For Peculiar Reason Ship to be deep cleaned As per the reports, authorities believe that more crew members are likely to fall sick and the ship will need a deep cleaning before it departs. The Kuwait registered ship reportedly left UAE on May 7 and was granted permission by the Australian authorities to dock at Fremantle after the ship reported that three crew members had high temperatures. Chris Dawson, the Western Australian Police Commissioner reportedly said that six port workers including the pilot had been on board by then. McGowan said that the pilot has been placed under quarantine. He added that the government is in touch with the ship's agent to arrange for it to leave as soon as possible. READ: Australian PM Scott Morrison Says Borders Will Not Reopen 'anytime Soon' READ: Australia PM Threatens To Permit Travel To New Zealand Before Inter-state Flying Image Credit: AP [May 26, 2020] COVID-19 Outlook and Impact- RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management 2019-2023 | Focus on Methane Emission Reduction to Boost Growth | Technavio Technavio has been monitoring the RFID tags market for livestock management and it is poised to grow by USD 984.72 million during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of 12% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200525005284/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management 2019-2023 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on Covid-19 Impact The market is concentrated, and the degree of concentration will accelerate during the forecast period. Allflex Group, Dalton Tags, Datamars SA, Essen Computers Pvt. Ltd., HID Global Corp., Impinj Inc., Ketchum Manufacturing Inc., National Band & Tag Co., Omnia Technologies Pvt. Ltd., and SafeTag are some of the major market participants. The focus on methane emission reduction will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Focus on methane emission reduction has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management 2019-2023: Segmentation RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management is segmented as below: Type Cattle Goats And Sheep Others Geographic Landscape APAC Europe MEA North America South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download latest free sample report of 2020-2024: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR32006 RFID Tags Market for Livestock Manaement 2019-2023: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our RFID tags market for livestock management report covers the following areas: RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management size RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management trends RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management industry analysis This study identifies government regulations on transition to RFID tags as one of the prime reasons driving the RFID tags market for livestock management growth during the next few years. RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management 2019-2023: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the RFID tags market for livestock management, including some of the vendors such as Allflex Group, Dalton Tags, Datamars SA, Essen Computers Pvt. Ltd., HID Global Corp., Impinj Inc., Ketchum Manufacturing Inc., National Band & Tag Co., Omnia Technologies Pvt. Ltd., and SafeTag. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the RFID tags market for livestock management are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform RFID Tags Market for Livestock Management 2019-2023: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2019-2023 Detailed information on factors that will assist RFID tags market for livestock management growth during the next five years Estimation of the RFID tags market for livestock management size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the RFID tags market for livestock management Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of RFID tags market for livestock management vendors Table Of Contents: PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface 2.2 Preface 2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem Market characteristics Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition Market sizing 2018 Market size and forecast 2018-2023 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY TYPE Market segmentation by type Comparison by type Cattle - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Goats and sheep - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Others - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Market opportunity by type PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Europe - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 APAC - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 South America - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 MEA - Market size and forecast 2018-2023 Key leading countries Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Increasing adoption of cloud technologies to improve dairy production in livestock units Increasing adoption of RFID in smart farming applications Increasing adoption of automation in livestock units PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview Landscape disruption PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered Vendor classification Market positioning of vendors Allflex Group Dalton Tags Datamars SA Essen Computers Pvt. Ltd. HID Global Corp. Impinj Inc. Ketchum Manufacturing Inc. National Band & Tag Co. Omnia Technologies Pvt. Ltd. SafeTag PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology List of abbreviations Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200525005284/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] In Ukraine, more than 4,000 medical workers have been infected with the coronavirus. The Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov told about it on the air of ICTV TV channel, RBC reports. "Unfortunately, about 20% of all infected with the coronavirus, i.e. 4,112 people are doctors," Stepanov said. According to him, this situation arose due to the fact that Ukrainian hospitals had not been ready for the coronavirus pandemic: there was no personal protective equipment, no respirators, no masks, the routes of delivery of patients were not calculated. The Minister noted that a three-month supply of personal protective equipment is required for the work of medics. As we reported earlier, yesterday, on May 25, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal ordered to create a three-month supply of the medical means to fight Covid-19. It is necessary to define clearly that the provision by the individual protection means should be enough for three months. We would like to form such a supply in the hospitals of the first wave, he stated. Israelis protest against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on May 24, 2020 in Jerusalem, Israel. Amir Levy/Getty Images The trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began in Jerusalem on Sunday, marking the first time in Israel's history that a sitting prime minister has ever faced trial. Last year, Netanyahu was indicted on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges as part of three separate corruption cases. The trial against Netanyahu was delayed by two months because of Israel's coronavirus outbreak. He has repeatedly denied all accusations of wrongdoing and claims that he is a victim of a political "witch-hunt" orchestrated by the left and the media. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The trial against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began in Jerusalem on Sunday, marking the first time in Israel's history that a sitting prime minister has ever faced trial. The 70-year-old began his fifth term as prime minister this month as part of a power-sharing agreement with his rival Benny Gantz after a series of back-to-back elections failed to result in a coalition government over the past year. Netanyahu has refused to step down from power despite growing calls for his resignation and dwindling support from the Israeli public over his legal woes. Last year, Netanyahu was indicted on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges as part of three separate corruption cases: "Case 1,000" refers to accusations that Netanyahu received expensive gifts from wealthy business magnates in exchange for favors. "Case 2,000" refers to allegations that Netanyahu promoted a particular newspaper in exchange for more positive coverage. And "Case 4,000" alleges that Netanyahu granted regulatory benefits to a major Israeli telecommunications company in exchange for favorable media coverage. The maximum sentence for bribery is 10 years in prison, according to Haaretz. Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to be indicted while in office. Previous leaders who faced similar situations resigned before charges were even handed down. Story continues The trial against Netanyahu was delayed by two months because of Israel's coronavirus outbreak. He has repeatedly denied all accusations of wrongdoing and claims that he is a victim of a political "witch-hunt" orchestrated by the left and the media. Prior to the trial, Netanyahu said that the trial was an attempt to "topple" his government. Netanyahu stood in a face mask as the trial began, refusing to sit until the media left the room, according to The Times of Israel. The prime minister will not be mandated to attend the next hearing scheduled to take place on July 19. Read the original article on Business Insider Nokia last week suspended operations at a telecoms gear manufacturing plant in southern India, the company said on Tuesday, after some employees tested positive for COVID-19. Nokia did not disclose how many workers at the plant in Sriperumbudur in the southern state of Tamil Nadu tested positive, but a source familiar with the matter said they were at least 42. The company said it had already implemented measures such as social distancing and changes to canteen facilities. The factory had begun operations in a restricted manner during the past few weeks, Nokia said in a statement after India eased the worlds biggest lockdown to kick-start its economy which has been pummelled by the shutdown. We hope to resume operations soon at a restricted level with skeletal staff strength, Nokia added. Chinese smartphone maker OPPO last week suspended operations at a recently reopened plant on the outskirts of the Indian capital, New Delhi, after at least nine workers tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The outbreaks at Nokia and OPPO underline the challenges of easing the two-month nationwide lockdown. India on Tuesday recorded a total of 145,380 coronavirus infections and a death toll of 4,167, comparatively low figures for the worlds second-most populous country. NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken familiarize themselves with SpaceX's Crew Dragon, the spacecraft that will transport them to the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., in August 2018. (SpaceX via AP) How to Watch When SpaceX Crew Dragon Launches SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch with two American astronauts on Wednesday from the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk will be among those watching in person as the Falcon 9 rocket takes off with the capsule attached. It will be the first launch of astronauts from the United States in nine years and the first time a private aircraft has flown American astronauts into orbit. The instantaneous launch window opens at 4:33 p.m. EDT, or 20:33 UTC. If conditions arent right for the launch, two backup launch windows have been identified: May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT and May 31 at 3 p.m. EDT. Live coverage through SpaceXs website will begin about four hours before liftoff. NASA, the U.S. space agency, will also broadcast live coverage starting around four hours ahead of time. An American flag flutters above the crew access arm (top C) which is seen leading to the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, at launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 25, 2020. (Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the companys Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A during a brief static fire test ahead of NASAs SpaceX Demo-2 mission at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 22, 2020. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) Countdown starts 45 minutes before the scheduled launch with SpaceXs launch director verifying the propellant load is ready. The access arm will retract and workers will arm the capsules launch escape system before beginning to load rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen into the rocket. With seven minutes to go, the Falcon 9 begins an engine chill. The Crew Dragon capsule will transition to internal power. Final prelaunch checks happen with one minute left along with the pressurization of the propellant tank. After launch, the rocket will ascend before flipping. About two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the first and second stages of the rocket will separate and the send stage engine will fire. About 10 minutes later, the capsule will separate from the second stage and continue on to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board. The rocket will accelerate to a speed of approximately 17,000 miles per hour, according to NASA. The trip will take about 24 hours. Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has presented letter of appointment to the newly appointed Emir of Kaura-Namoda, Sanusi Muhammad. This is contained in a statement signed by Jamilu Iliyasu, Press Secretary to the governor in Gusau on Tuesday. He stated that the appointment letter was presented at a brief ceremony attended by other Emirs in the state, few government officials and politicians at the governors private residence in Gusau. The governor said the appointment of the new Emir was due to his selection by the Kaura Namoda Emirate Kingmakers and in accordance with the provision of Section 17 of Zamfara State Emirate Council Establishment Law 2000, Law No. 15, Section i- iii and Section 3 of Chiefs (Appointment and Deposition) Law, 1997. Mr Matawalle wished the new Emir Gods guidance and protection in the discharge of his responsibility. He urged people of the Emirate to give the new traditional ruler all the necessary support and cooperation for the development of the Emirate. Mr Matawalle assured of his administrations readiness to respect the dignity of the traditional institution, considering the role they play in maintaining peace and tranquillity in their domains. READ ALSO: Responding, Mr Muhammad, promised to follow the footsteps of his father and forefathers by carrying all his subjects along for the unity and development of his domain. He thanked Mr Matawalle for the honour done to him and enjoined all to pray for him to succeed. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that until his appointment as Emir, Mr Muhammad was a serving Major in the Nigerian Army. He succeeded his father, who died on May 6, after a brief illness having served as the second Emir of Kaura-Namoda for 15 years. (NAN) Readers hoping to buy CoreLogic, Inc. (NYSE:CLGX) for its dividend will need to make their move shortly, as the stock is about to trade ex-dividend. Investors can purchase shares before the 29th of May in order to be eligible for this dividend, which will be paid on the 15th of June. CoreLogic's upcoming dividend is US$0.22 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.88 per share to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that CoreLogic has a trailing yield of 1.9% on the current share price of $47.19. Dividends are a major contributor to investment returns for long term holders, but only if the dividend continues to be paid. So we need to investigate whether CoreLogic can afford its dividend, and if the dividend could grow. Check out our latest analysis for CoreLogic If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Fortunately CoreLogic's payout ratio is modest, at just 35% of profit. That said, even highly profitable companies sometimes might not generate enough cash to pay the dividend, which is why we should always check if the dividend is covered by cash flow. Luckily it paid out just 6.0% of its free cash flow last year. It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously. Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends. NYSE:CLGX Historical Dividend Yield May 26th 2020 Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing? Companies with consistently growing earnings per share generally make the best dividend stocks, as they usually find it easier to grow dividends per share. Investors love dividends, so if earnings fall and the dividend is reduced, expect a stock to be sold off heavily at the same time. With that in mind, we're encouraged by the steady growth at CoreLogic, with earnings per share up 4.7% on average over the last five years. Recent growth has not been impressive. However, companies that see their growth slow can often choose to pay out a greater percentage of earnings to shareholders, which could see the dividend continue to rise. Story continues This is CoreLogic's first year of paying a dividend, so it doesn't have much of a history yet to compare to. Final Takeaway Is CoreLogic worth buying for its dividend? Earnings per share have been growing moderately, and CoreLogic is paying out less than half its earnings and cash flow as dividends, which is an attractive combination as it suggests the company is investing in growth. It might be nice to see earnings growing faster, but CoreLogic is being conservative with its dividend payouts and could still perform reasonably over the long run. CoreLogic looks solid on this analysis overall, and we'd definitely consider investigating it more closely. In light of that, while CoreLogic has an appealing dividend, it's worth knowing the risks involved with this stock. To help with this, we've discovered 4 warning signs for CoreLogic that you should be aware of before investing in their shares. If you're in the market for dividend stocks, we recommend checking our list of top dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. The Black Hills Area Community Foundation is awarding several thousand dollars in grants to three area school districts that provide free, well-balanced meals to children and often parents and grandparents too during the summer months. While the USDAs Summer Food Service Program reimburses schools and other youth programs for meals served to kids under the age of 18, the SFSP does not provide funding for meals served to accompanying adults, many of whom are also food insecure. In response, the Black Hills Area Community Foundation has been at the forefront working with local organizations to help alleviate hunger among family members as well. BHACF is awarding a $7,500 Food Security Grant to Rapid City Area Schools to cover the cost of meals for parents and guardians who accompany kids under 18 to summer food sites. Since March, RCAS has offered breakfast and lunch curbside to kids two to three times per week at several schools in the district and provided additional meals for off days. RCAS Nutrition Services will follow a similar schedule for curbside meal delivery this summer at 10 school sites. Adult meals will become available starting June 1. (Visit rcas.org for distribution times and locations.) The Meade School District has received $5,000 from the BHACF Albert and LaVerne Elliott Fund for parent/guardian meals that are distributed along with meals for kids under the age of 18. MSD is delivering hot lunches curbside at Sturgis Elementary between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. weekdays through July 31. BHACF also is awarding a $5,000 Food Security Grant to the Custer School District to help offset transportation costs for food delivery to students in rural parts of the district. United Way of the Black Hills is matching those funds for a total impact of $10,000. In addition, Meals on Wheels Western South Dakota, another community collaborator addressing food security issues, is partnering with all three school districts this summer. MoW will reimburse the districts for meals served to adults 60 and over who are present when kids receive their food. Since 2017, BHACF has been home to the Collective Impact Food Security Initiative, the purpose of which is to identify food security challenges and develop community-wide solutions to meet those needs. This big picture strategy has proven especially useful in recent weeks, as BHACF and others work together to determine how resources can be best utilized. For more information on the Food Security Initiative and the latest grant awards, contact Executive Director Liz Hamburg at 605-431-9876 or at liz@bhacf.org. Outstanding Drill Results Confirm Wiluna Sulphide Strategy Perth, May 26, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Blackham Resources Limited ( ASX:BLK ) ( FRA:NZ3 ) ( OTCMKTS:BKHRF ) is pleased to report exceptional high-grade results from resource development drilling at the Wiluna Mining Centre which is designed to significantly increase the confidence in the sulphide Mineral Resources from Inferred to Indicated category. Results are also expected in the coming weeks from ongoing drilling at the high-grade Golden Age mine, with the aim to extend free-milling Reserves for additional cashflow during the transition to sulphides production in September 2021.Milan Jerkovic, Blackham's Executive Chair commented: "These outstanding results are delivering on our Stage 1 Sulphide strategy as we initially target shallow high-grade sulphides 'under the headframe'. Our plan to convert the existing large Inferred sulphide resources at Wiluna into Indicated resources is gathering significant momentum and confidence with every new hole. These results will support further resource and reserve updates and mine planning work scheduled over the coming months."The current underground sulphide resource at Wiluna averages 4.8 g/t but historically the average grade mined was between 7 to 8g/t, and the Bulletin shoot alone produced 900,000oz @ 8 g/t. We're targeting high-grade shoot discoveries because every 1 g/t increase in the grade in the sulphides, could result in an additional 25kozpa of production in Stage 1 and 50kozpa under our Stage 2 scenario, so grade is obviously extremely important to project economics".Wiluna is a large gold system with greater than 10M ounces of gold endowment including current Mineral Resources and historical production. With a combined open pit and underground Mineral Resource of 35.5Mt @ 3.90 g/t for 4.45Moz, including 2.2Moz (49%) in the Inferred category, there are significant opportunities for additional Mineral Resources and life-of-mine extensions.The latest outstanding results validate our strategy to drill out high-grade Inferred Mineral Resources to enhance the first years of our Stage 1 Sulphide mine plan. Production aims to ramp up from September 2021 to 100-120,000ozpa, with a subsequent Stage 2 expansion envisaged to increase to +200,000ozpa (see ASX release dated 23rd December 2019).The Company is on track to complete the initial drilling programme by the end of next month, which is designed to de-risk our indicative gold production guidance with the objective of converting the Inferred Mineral Resource to Indicated Mineral Resources and to also discover additional high-grade ore shoots to extend the sulphide mine life. A similarly aggressive programme will continue in FY 2021 with the objective to maintain 4 years of Reserves in front of production through progressive infill drilling and conversion of our very large Mineral Resource base.Enhanced Mineral Resources and conversion to Reserves underpin the Company's 24-month, five-point strategy to:1. Strengthen the balance sheet2. Increase operational cash flow3. Transition to include gold concentrate production4. Expand production, and5. Undertake exploration and feasibility studies to fully develop a more than 200kozpa, long life gold operation.Stage 1 Sulphide Mineral Resource DevelopmentBlackham's initial drilling at Essex and Bulletin areas is designed to methodically increase the geological confidence in sulphide Mineral Resources to underpin Stage 1 production. The highest priority Essex and Bulletin areas are located close to surface and close to existing infrastructure, which allows for easier and lower-cost access and development.The preliminary mine plan developed for the Stage 1 Sulphide expansion includes Essex and Bulletin in the first 2 years, and in years 3 to 4 mining extends to include the Calvert and East Lode areas. Consequently, the Company is undertaking aggressive infill and extensional drilling campaign targeted at the Inferred Mineral Resources associated with the initial years of the preliminary mine plan.These latest results are expected to improve the grade and geological confidence of current Mineral Resources and ultimate conversion to Reserves at Essex, where the original expectation was 38koz @ 4.6g/t. Results to date include:WURC0846: 6m @ 53.73g/t from 109m, incl. 1m @ 283g/tWURC0848: 4m @ 12.08g/t from 107m, incl. 2m @ 21.30g/tWURC0850: 2m @ 10.92g/t from 133m & 2m @ 5.43g/t from 139mWURC0851: 4m @ 9.73g/t from 128mWURC0853: 8m @ 11.80g/t from 144m, incl. 4m @ 22.10g/tAt Essex, drilling to convert the existing Inferred Mineral Resources to Indicated Mineral Resources has identified a new high-grade zone and discovered a high-grade parallel lode (Figure 2 & 3). Further drilling is planned to the south to follow up these results, while mineralisation is now largely closed off to the north.Previous operators installed underground development to the base of the ore body, which requires minimal dewatering and rehabilitation to gain access to ore. The existing access also provides a platform for planned drilling from underground to drill out the newly defined high-grade zones.The Bulletin zone, with historic of 900koz @ 8g/t, is located close to surface with existing decline access and minimal mine development required to access ore. Infill drilling has targeted Inferred Mineral Resources along strike to the north and south of previous mine workings (Figure 4 & 5*).Initial results from the first drill site located north of the main historical workings have been significant including:BULP0025: 14.45m @ 17.16g/t from 18.95 incl. 7.45m @ 31.22g/tBULP0026: 12.4m @ 7.93g/t from 31.4mWURC0835: 12m @ 7.01g/t from 184m incl. 4m @ 16.59g/tThese latest results are expected to improve the grade and geological confidence of current Mineral Resources at Bulletin. Further infill drilling is planned from underground at four separate Inferred Mineral Resource targets (Figure 4*), with a view to updating those Mineral Resources also in the September quarter.Relatively broad-spaced drilling south of the previously mined areas at Bulletin has returned more modest results, though with some high-grade zones identified that will require follow-up infill drilling (Figure 5*).In this area at Bulletin, all the material is currently classified as Inferred Mineral Resources. These results, along with historical drilling and Blackham's previously released results from this zone (4m@ 8.23g/t and 8m @ 10.10g/t, see ASX release dated 17th March 2020) will generate further targeted drilling in the coming months with a view to updating Mineral Resources.Drilling is now focussed on the Calvert and East Lode zones (Figure 1*), which are important ore sources in the first four years of the Stage 1 Sulphides mine plan. Further drilling results will be reported in due course ahead of an updated Mineral Resource estimate to be published for the Wiluna Gold Project in the September quarter.*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC) (OTCMKTS:WMXCF) is a Perth based, ASX listed gold mining company that controls over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in the Northern Goldfields of WA. The Yilgarn Craton has a historic and current gold endowment of over 380 million ounces, making it one of most prolific gold regions in the world. The Company owns 100% of the Wiluna Gold Operation which has a defined resource of 8.04M oz at 1.67 g/t au. In May 2019, a new highly skilled management team took control of the Company with a clear plan to leverage the Wiluna Gold Operation's multi-million-ounce potential. Volunteers proposal sparks division in Italy's coalition government. Italys coalition partners are divided over a proposal to recruit 60,000 volunteers to enforce social distancing measures among crowds in the country's post-lockdown phase in the coronavirus emergency. The proposal, raised by regional affairs minister Francesco Boccia, a member of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), comes after footage of crowds in Italian cities raised concerns of a possible surge in new covid-19 infections. The PD's coalition partners, populist Movimento 5 Stelle and centrist Italia Viva, are strongly against the proposal, while the interior ministry, which is responsible for law and order, says it wasn't consulted in advance, reports Reuters. Read also: Boccia's proposal would involve the creation of a 60,000-strong force of volunteer "civic assistants", drawn from Italy's retired and unemployed, to ensure that people maintain social distancing, wear masks and avoid gathering in groups. The debate comes as Milan mayor Beppe Sala bans the take-away sale of alcohol after 19.00, following increasing cases of "movida" or nightlife crowds, with effect from 26 May. Photo La Repubblica Vice President Mike Pence waves as he arrives for a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on April 28, 2020. (Jim Mone/AP Photo) White House Wont Tolerate Social Media Censorship of Conservatives, Pence Says Vice President Mike Pence says that the Trump administration is strongly opposed to censorship of conservatives by social media and big tech companies, and that suppression of conservative voices ahead of the November general election will be met with a response from the White House. Well, the president has made it very clear that we are not going to tolerate censorship on the internet and social media against conservatives, Pence told Breitbart in an exclusive interview on May 22. Were just not going to tolerate it. The vice president didnt provide details regarding what form the administrations response might take, but The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported over the weekend that the White House is considering the creation of a commission that would evaluate claims of anti-conservative bias. President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced concern over alleged suppression of conservatives by big tech and social media companies. In a May 16 tweet, the president accused several popular platforms of serving the radical left and hinted at a White House-led remedy. The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google, Trump wrote in the tweet, adding that the administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Social media and big tech companies have repeatedly denied claims of politically motivated discrimination. Conservatives have long argued that big tech and social media platforms suppress right-leaning voices through politically motivated content moderation, selective fact-checking, skewing search rankings, and manipulating news feeds. Radio talk show host Dennis Prager several years ago sued Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google and YouTube, claiming that YouTubes animus toward his political identity and viewpoint led it to curb access to videos, including through its Restricted Mode setting, on such topics as abortion, gun rights, Islam, and terrorism, despite its stated promise of neutrality. Alphabet later won the dismissal of the lawsuit, with the judge saying Google and YouTube didnt qualify as state actors subject to the First Amendment by creating a public forum for speech. Defendants are private entities who created their own video-sharing social media website and make decisions about whether and how to regulate content that has been uploaded on that website, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote. Plaintiff has not shown that defendants have engaged in one of the very few public functions that were traditionally exclusively reserved to the state, she added. Steps to ramp up content moderation taken by social media companies in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have done little to allay conservative concerns. In March, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai published an announcement noting that YouTube, which is owned by Google, had removed thousands of COVID-19 videos its content moderation tools and staff deemed misleading. On YouTube, weve taken down thousands of videos related to dangerous or misleading coronavirus information, and we continue to remove videos that promote medically unproven methods to prevent coronavirus in place of seeking medical treatment, Pichai wrote. But many conservatives hold that the standards for determining what is misleading are insufficiently transparent and prone to politically-motivated tilt. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced a policy on April 22 that anything that would go against World Health Organization recommendations would be a violation of our policy, and that it would be removing information that is problematic. The regime in China was recently accused by Trumps national security adviser of intentionally giving false information to the World Health Organization, and the president has warned of permanent cuts to the agencys funding. Mark Grabowski, an associate professor specializing in cyber law and digital ethics at Adelphi University, told The Epoch Times theres a double standard when it comes to online speech, in particular with COVID-19 related topics. In some cases, the [virus] content was produced by authoritative sources like physicians, professors, and epidemiologists, he said. Meanwhile, these same platforms are promoting highly speculative opinions by people who are completely unqualified to speak on the topic. At last years White House-hosted social media summit, conservative critics denounced a range of alleged practices by big tech companies, with Trump weighing in with allegations of unfair treatment. We have terrible bias. We have censorship like no one has any understanding, nobody can believe, Trump said at the event. Theyre playing with a lot of minds and theyre playing unfairly. Matthew Feeney, director of the Project on Emerging Technologies at Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argued in a recent op-ed that while the content-moderation policies of social media companies might anger some, imposing excessive restrictions would be counterproductive. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and many others made the prudent business decision not to use the First Amendment as their contentmoderation guideline, Feeney wrote. With billions of people using these companies products, it shouldnt be surprising that their contentmoderation policies will sometimes irritate and anger some of their users, he continued, adding, But such irritation should not prompt proposals that are contrary to the principles of free speech and risk destroying the Internet of today thatwhile far from perfectremains the best venue for speech in history. Bowen Xiao contributed to this report. Indeed, they barely speak of it; much of this books uncanny power is in the eerily matter-of-fact way its young characters justify, carry out, and cope (or not) with what theyve done. (The narrator, Richard, at one point casually refers to how the group usually gathered for a Sunday night dinner except on the evening of the murder itself, when no one felt much like eating and it was postponed until Monday.) And Tartt, an undergraduate herself when she began writing the book, masterfully takes her time with the telling, creating on those idyllic campus grounds and in those musty dorm rooms a sense of overwhelming, quiet dread. You dont particularly like any of her characters, including the passively yearning Richard, but youre fascinated by them; spending time with the book, you become part of their strange clique, hearing their voices in your head. The decision of banks to charge interest at a time when there is a moratorium on payment of equated monthly installments or EMIs has come under judicial scanner. The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to respond to a petition which termed such a move as unconstitutional. The court will hear the matter next week. With offices and shops closed on account of lockdown, the RBI had on March 27 ordered a three-month moratorium till May 31 on EMIs. It was meant to ease the financial burden on borrowers during the lockdown. This period was further extended till August 31 by a recent RBI circular. Borrowers who availed this facility were in for a rude shock as the lending banks informed them that the interest during this period (March-August) will get added to their loan amount. This would prolong the loan installments. Alternatively, the borrowers could get their interest component increased. Faced with this fate, an Uttar Pradesh resident approached the Supreme Court to challenge this decision of the banks. In his petition, Gajendra Sharma told the court that since the lockdown is in place, there is no means for citizens to earn a livelihood. Sharma has an optical shop in Agra and had availed of a home loan of over Rs 37 lakh from ICICI Bank. Sharmas petition said, In the present scenario, when all the means of livelihood has been curtailed by the Government of India by imposition of complete lockdown pan-India, due to worldwide outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and the petitioner being a citizen of India has no way to continue his work and earn livelihood, imposition of interest during the moratorium will defeat the purpose of permitting moratorium on loans. The bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah issued notice to the Centre and RBI on the petition and posted the matter for hearing next week. The petitioner argued that imposition of interest during the moratorium period is completely devastating and wrong as the decision of the RBI recognises the hardship faced by borrowers in the context of a national lockdown. It may be recalled that in April, the apex court had refused to entertain a petition seeking similar relief. The court had dismissed the case as it was not filed by an affected party. Sharma claimed to be directly affected by the levy of interest and claimed to be unable to repay his loan. The petitioner is a resident of Dayal Bagh in Agra and stated his annual income to be less than rupees seven lakh. The World Health Organisation has issued a concerning warning about the global pandemic, putting a damper on hopes for a speedy global economic rebound. The global body has reminded the world that it remains mired in in only the first stage of the pandemic, pointing to rising rates of infections in new hotspots around the world. "Right now, we're not in the second wave. We're right in the middle of the first wave globally," said Dr Mike Ryan, WHO's executive director. "We're still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up," Ryan said, pointing to South America, South Asia and other parts of the world. India, with a population of over 1.3 billion, saw a record single-day jump in new cases for the seventh straight day. Migrants and tourists await special trains and buses in Jaipur, India to return home amid the coronavirus lockdown. Source: Getty It reported 6535 new infections Tuesday, raising its total to over 145,000, including close to 4200 deaths. Most of India's cases are concentrated in the western states of Maharashtra, home to the financial hub of Mumbai, and Gujarat. Infections have also climbed in the east as migrant workers stranded by lockdowns returned to their native villages from India's largest cities. New York Stock Exchange reopens in symbolic step The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange reopened on Tuesday in a largely symbolic step toward economic recovery, and stocks surged at the opening bell, even as the official US death toll from the coronavirus closed in on 100,000, a mark President Donald Trump once predicted the country would never see. With infections mounting rapidly in places like Brazil and India, a top global health official warned that the crisis around the world is far from over. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, centre, applauds as he rings the opening bell of the New York Stock on May 26, 2020. Source: AP The NYSE trading floor in lower Manhattan opened for the first time in two months, though with plexiglass barriers, masks and a reduced number of traders to adhere to the 6-foot social-distancing rules. Those entering the NYSE will have their temperatures taken and were asked to avoid public transportation. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has presided over the state with the highest death toll from the scourge, rang the bell to set off trading. Story continues "They didn't reopen the way it was," he said during his daily briefing. "They reopened smarter." Stock Market up BIG, DOW crosses 25,000. S&P 500 over 3000. States should open up ASAP. The Transition to Greatness has started, ahead of schedule. There will be ups and downs, but next year will be one of the best ever! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020 The rally took place as the government reported that US consumer confidence inched up this month, showing signs of stabilising. Still, it remains near a six-year low in the face of the widespread business shutdowns that have sent the economy into recession and driven unemployment to levels last seen during the Great Depression. "The Transition to Greatness has started, ahead of schedule," US President Donald Trump tweeted. "There will be ups and downs, but next year will be one of the best ever!" All 50 states have begun easing their stay-at-home restrictions and allowing businesses to open their doors again, even as some parts of the country see no drop-off in confirmed coronavirus cases. There is also some optimism about the race for a vaccine. Brazil death toll could be much higher In Brazil, where President Jair Bosonaro has raged against state and local leaders enforcing stay-at-home measures, WHO warned that before reopening the economy, authorities must have enough testing in place to control the spread of the virus. Brazil has 375,000 coronavirus infections second only to the 1.6 million cases in the US and has counted over 23,000 deaths, but many fear Brazil's true toll is much higher. Crosses mark the graves of those who have passed away since early April, filling a new section of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida public cemetery in Brazil. Source: AP Ryan said Brazil's "intense" transmission rates means it should keep some stay-at-home measures in place, regardless of the damage to the economy. "You must continue to do everything you can," he said. A US travel ban was set to take effect Tuesday for foreigners coming from Brazil. Bolsonaro has accused governors of inciting panic among the population with allegedly excessive stay-at-home recommendations and restrictions on commerce that he says will wreck the economy and produce worse hardship than the virus. A patient who died from coronavirus, lies on a table between other COVID-19 patients in a room at the Salgado Filho Municipal Hospital in Rio de Janeiro. Source: AP Russia reports a record one-day spike In Europe, Russian's Vladimir Putin announced that the postponed military parade marking the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II will take place on June 24. Victory Day has become the most important holiday in Russia, traditionally marked on May 9 with a show of armed might in Red Square. A worker wearing a face mask washes the equestrian statue of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great known as the Bronze Horseman in St Petersburg, Russia. Source: AP Putin said the country has passed the peak of the outbreak. Russia reported a record one-day spike Tuesday of 174 deaths, bringing the country's confirmed death toll to over 3800. Russia's coronavirus caseload surpassed 360,000 the third-highest in the world with almost 9000 new infections registered. The country's comparatively low mortality rate has raised questions among experts. Russian officials vehemently deny manipulating any figures and attribute the low numbers to the effectiveness of the country's lockdowns. True global death toll believed to be significantly higher Worldwide, the virus has infected nearly 5.5 million people, killing over 346,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Europe has recorded about 170,000 deaths, while the US was approaching 100,000 over a span of less than four months, more than the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined. The true death toll is widely believed to be significantly higher, with experts saying many victims died of the virus without ever being tested for it. Migrants stand in a queue as they wait for transport out of Jaipur, India amid the coronavirus lockdown. Source: Getty Trump several months ago likened the coronavirus to the flu and dismissed worries it could lead to so many deaths. The administration's leading scientists have since warned that as many as 240,000 could perish from the virus. In hard-hit New York, Cuomo reported a one-day total Tuesday of 73 deaths, the lowest figure in months, and down from a peak of nearly 800. "In this absurd new reality, that is good news," he said. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. More than a dozen separate shooting incidents during Memorial Day Weekend in St. Louis, Missouri left four people dead and another 15 wounded, authorities said. The dead were reported to be four men. Three were identified as Malik Valley, Jaymes Jackson, and Robert Cannon. The fourth, a man reportedly in his 50s, was not identified. He was shot multiple times while inside his car and later died at a St. Louis hospital, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Cannon, a 36-year-old male was found dead at the scene by authorities responding to an emergency call that involved a double-shooting Saturday around 9 p.m., KMOV reported. Another teen was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment with non-life threatening injuries following the double-shooting. Valley, a 15-year-old teen, was shot and killed following an accidental shooting Saturday around 9:30 p.m., St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officials said. The boy was reportedly shot in the chest while playing with a gun together with a friend. The teen was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Jackson, a 21-year-old male was shot and killed at a gas station in downtown St. Louis Saturday night around 3 a.m., The Daily Mail reported. The shooting happened when a large crowd gathered at the gas station. Another 22-year-old male was hospitalized in critical condition after being shot at the gas station. Homicide detectives are currently investigating the string of violent shootings across St. Louis during Memorial Day weekend. The first reported shooting of the weekend happened on Saturday just before 5 p.m., the victim was taken to a nearby hospital in a critical condition, KMOV reported. A second shooting took place shortly after that and involved a 14-year-old girl. Multiple other people were involved in a possible drive-by shooting, an 18-year-old man, a 21-year-old woman, and a 34-year-old man all showed up together with gunshot wounds at a hospital. The three victims told authorities they were inside their car when they were met with gunfire. The trio survived, but the 21-year-old woman is currently in a critical condition, according to authorities. Some of the other reported shootings include a man who was shot in the head and is currently in stable condition, StarTribune reported. Mayor Lyda Krewson, a Democrat, sent a statement to KMOV following the violence: I am outraged over the shootings and violence that have occurred over this Memorial Day weekend. Too many guns. Too much anger. Too many sad families, Krewson told the outlet. A sad, tragic beginning to summer. Please, no further retaliation. Put down the guns. St. Louis City reported at least 63 homicides this year. Illinois met with similar violence over the weekend, according to multiple reports. Authorities in Chicago reported as of Sunday morning there were nine people dead, including a 16-year-old boy. At least 27 people were wounded following Memorial Day weekend shootings, according to Chicago Sun-Times. This weekend, the City of Chicago was met with the deadliest Memorial Day weekend shootings since 2015, when 12 people were killed, the outlet reported. KABUL -- The Afghan government plans to release 900 more Taliban prisoners as a three-day cease-fire with the militants draws to an end. The break in fighting, which came into effect on May 24 to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, was for the most part holding out across the country, officials said. The government earlier responded to the Taliban's cease-fire offer by announcing plans to release up to 2,000 militant prisoners. "There is a decision to release 900 today," National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal said on May 26, adding that the precise number could vary subject to legal procedures. If completed, it would be the biggest group of Taliban prisoners freed so far. On May 25, authorities freed 100 Taliban prisoners from Bagram, north of Kabul, on May 25 as "a gesture of goodwill to advance peace efforts, including an extended cease-fire and the immediate start of direct talks" with the militants, Faisal tweeted. Faisal posted photos of the freed militants inside a bus. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen welcomed the release of the 900 prisoners as "good progress" and said the group would in turn free a "remarkable number" of prisoners soon. However, he said nothing about extending the cease-fire, which was to expire at midnight local time. Earlier, a senior Taliban figure was quoted as saying the group was considering an extension of the cease-fire "if these developments, like the announcement of prisoner release, continues." In February, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement aimed at ending the longest military action in U.S. history. The deal lays out a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in return for security commitments from the Taliban. It also stipulates that Kabul must free 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the militants are to release 1,000 captives -- a move expected to lead to intra-Afghan negotiations. President Ashraf Ghani said the government was also ready to hold peace talks with the Taliban, seen as key to ending a nearly two-decade-long war. The latest release of Taliban prisoners brings to 1,100 the number of militants freed since early April, an official at the National Security Council told RFE/RL, while the militant group has freed 245 security personnel, civil servants, and other people it had been holding. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has welcomed the cease-fire but warned that the freed Taliban fighters should not return to the battlefield. Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission also cautioned the government against releasing Taliban militants who committed war crimes. The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad, described the cease-fire as "a momentous opportunity" to accelerate a stalled U.S.-Taliban peace process. "Other positive steps should immediately follow: the release of remaining prisoners as specified in the U.S.-Taliban agreement by both sides, no returning to high levels of violence, and an agreement on a new date for the start of intra-Afghan negotiations," Khalizad wrote on Twitter. The prospect of direct talks between Kabul and the Taliban gained a boost on May 17 when Ghani and his political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, reached a power-sharing agreement nearly eight months after disputed elections that led to a parallel government and hampered efforts to broker a peace deal. The United States has about 12,000 troops in Afghanistan. Washington also pays about $4 billion a year to maintain the Afghan military. Taliban militants control about half of Afghanistan's territory and have continued to carry out attacks since the deal was signed. Afghan intelligence service spokesman Javid Faisal said on May 23 that at least 146 civilians were killed and 430 wounded in Taliban attacks during Ramadan. With reporting by AFP and AP 26.05.2020 LISTEN Fertilizers meant for Planting for Foods and Jobs (PFJ) including boxes of other agrochemicals have been confiscated at Akatsi by the Ankanu Sector Command of the Ghana Immigration Service in the Volta Region. This was upon a tip-off received by the Immigration officials last Wednesday that a motor tricycle, loaded with the fertilizers and other agric products , has been sighted moving on an unapproved route at Ave-Atanvi village in the Ketu North Municipality. Eight bags of UREA PJF fertilizer and 23 boxes of agrochemicals which were en route to neighbouring Togo were retrieved after the operation. The Ankanu Sector Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration (ACI), Felix Agyemang disclosed that the consignments were intercepted by the officers after managing to trace the crime scene. The suspects, however, absconded upon sensing danger on the arrival of the patrol officers. Onboard the motor tricycle with the registration number M-19-VR 1763, were eight bags of UREA Planting for Food and Jobs Fertilizers and 23 boxes of Agrochemicals, ACI Agyemang noted. Meanwhile, the Regional Command has cautioned all cross-border criminal syndicates, to refrain from such illegal activities or be prosecuted when arrested. The impounded tricycle together with the contraband goods is currently with the Ave-Havi Border Post for further investigations and subsequent arrest of the suspects. ---citinewsroom New Delhi: AAP legislator Prakash Jarwal, who was arrested in connection with the alleged suicide of a doctor in south Delhi last month, moved a Delhi court Tuesday (May 26) seeking bail in the case. Jarwal, who is currently lodged at Tihar jail, was arrested on May 9, a day later after Delhi court issued a non-bailable warrant against him and his close aide Kapil Nagar in connection with the doctor's death. The application, which is likely to be listed for hearing on May 27, claimed that the allegations against the accused were completely false and fabricated and he had no role in the unfortunate suicide of the deceased and as public representative he is equally pained by the death of the person. The application stated that there was no direct and indirect contact from the deceased in recent past and there was no question of harassment or money was ever being asked from him or his family. It further said that the veracity of the suicide note is a "matter of the investigation and there might be a case that the same has been used as tool to take revenge as the Applicant/Accused acted heavily against the tanker mafia". Rajendra Singh, 52, allegedly committed suicide in Durga Vihar in south Delhi on April 18. In his suicide note, the doctor held Jarwal responsible for his death. Like Jarwal, Singh was also involved in the business of water supply with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) since 2007, and police alleged that the MLA and his associates were extorting money from other water-tanker owners, including the doctor. The FIR says Singh had been threatened and intimidated by Jarwal and others. "During investigation it was found that there was a big nexus between water-tanker owners and the accused person," the police said in the remand application. It said the investigation showed the money extorted from water-tanker owners was routed through the MLA's brother Anil Jarwal and invested in several properties and farm-houses in Delhi, Gurugram (Haryana) and Jaipur (Rajasthan). They also claimed that Jarwal had got allotted many water borewells in his constituency by influencing the DJB and one borewell was illegally given after taking Rs 10 lakh as gratification money. The Police said complaints against the accused were filed to various authorities but no action was taken. The police said it found a WhatsApp group in the name of tanker-owners whose administrator is Kapil Nagar, a co-accused and Jarwal's close aide. Jarwal is one of its members. The chat details clearly show the direct involvement of both the accused in running the tanker mafia in Sangam Vihar and Tigri. Macau gambling king Stanley Ho, a flamboyant tycoon whose alleged association with the gambling industry's seedy underbelly caused major headaches for Australia's Crown Resorts, has died at the age of 98. The entrepreneur headed one of the world's most lucrative gaming businesses through his flagship firm, SJM Holdings Ltd, valued at about $US6 billion ($9 billion). A family statement said he died peacefully in his sleep, but did not give a cause of death. Stanley Ho (centre) with his son Lawrence Ho (left) and James Packer in 2006. Credit:AP Born in Hong Kong of mixed Chinese and European heritage, Mr Ho fathered 17 children with four women, an extended family that engaged in high-profile squabbles over his legacy during his later years. But despite being one of Asia's richest men he avoided the gambling floor. "I don't gamble at all. I don't have the patience," Mr Ho told The Associated Press in a rare interview in 2001. "Don't expect to make money in gambling. It's a house game. It's for the house." The front page of the Co Down Spectator when it temporarily closed A string of Co Down newspapers which had suspended publication during lockdown are to return. The Newry Reporter paused publication in April for the first time since 1867. Now the family-owned publication will be back on the shelves on June 3, it announced yesterday. And it's expected that sister title, The Banbridge Chronicle, will return at the end of June. The newspapers are owned by the Hodgett family. The temporary suspension of the papers was announced on April 8, when Reporter editor Paul Welsh said that while it had been in continuous publication since 1867, "it has taken the spread of the Covid-19 virus to almost stop us in our tracks". And the Newtownards Chronicle and Co Down Spectator will return on Thursday this week. The titles are part of The Spectator Group, which had also announced that they were suspending publication as a result of a fall in revenues following the outbreak and subsequent lockdown. Other newspaper groups, including JPI Media, which owns the News Letter, introduced pay cuts and put some sales staff on furlough. And Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life publisher INM also announced it had put around 90 commercial staff across its operations on the island of Ireland on furlough. The furlough scheme, introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, is to continue until the end of October. However, from August, employers will be required to contribute towards employees' wages. Costa Rica has become the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage, following a court ruling which came into force at midnight. Though planned celebrations did not take place because of the Coronavirus pandemic, a special program about LGBT rights was aired on public television and online as the first weddings were held. President Carlos Alvarado in the program; "This change will bring about a significant social and cultural transformation, allowing thousands of people to marry." Costa Rica also became the sixth country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage with the court ruling, following most recently Ecuador, which allowed it last year. It is also permitted in some parts of Mexico. The issue took center stage in Costa Ricas 2018 presidential election after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights earlier that year issued an opinion that countries like Costa Rica, which had signed the American Convention on Human Rights, had to move immediately to legalize gay marriage. It helped propel President Carlos Alvarado to victory over an evangelical candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, who had campaigned against it. In August 2018, Costa Ricas supreme court said the countrys ban was unconstitutional and gave the congress 18 months to correct it or it would happen automatically. The Legislative Assembly did not act, so at midnight the law banning same-sex marriage was nullified. The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) said in a tweet; "Costa Rica is celebrating today: marriage equality has become a reality in the country -- the first one in Central America. "We rejoice with you: congratulations to all those who worked so hard to make it happen!" Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video (Natural News) NASAs Curiosity rover on Mars has shared images of a crater on the Red Planet that was possibly filled with water a long time ago. Curiosity has been on Mars since August 2012. It has traveled 13 miles, drilled 22 samples from the Martian surface and ascended 1,207 feet to a region that NASA scientists are calling a clay-bearing unit. This area is located on the side of a mountain, known as Mount Sharp, which resides within a crater known as the Gale Crater. Billions of years ago, scientists believe there were water formations within this crater, such as lakes and streams. The presence of water significantly altered the sediment within the lake, leaving behind clay minerals. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a spacecraft that has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006, detected the clay-bearing unit several years before the Curiosity rover was launched. This area is one of the reasons we came to Gale Crater, said Kristen Bennett of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and co-lead for Curiositys clay-bearing unit campaign. Weve been studying orbiter images of this area for 10 years, and were finally able to take a look up close, she added. The rock samples that Curiosity drilled in this region of Mount Sharp have the highest amounts of clay minerals the rover has ever found during its mission in Mars. Curiosity observed what the MRO couldnt Curiosity detected high amounts of clay in other parts of Mount Sharp, including other areas on Mount Sharp where MRO wasnt able to spot the clay. This has made some scientists to ask why theres a disconnect between the MROs observations and Curiositys findings. (Related: Over 3.5 billion years ago, an asteroid formed the Lomonosov crater on Mars: Experts say this could have caused a 1,000-foot-high tsunami on the Red Planet.) NASAs science team believes that one of the reasons why the MRO wasnt able to detect the clay-rich areas Curiosity discovered is because the individual rocks are too small to see, even for the MROs cameras. Upon entering this area of Mount Sharp, Curiosity first came across a place that the scientists described as a parking lot full of pebbles. Collectively, MRO might have observed these individual rocks as a single signal of clay that was scattered across the area, which may be able to explain why the satellites data is a bit obscured. Another theory put forward by NASA scientists has to do with Martian dust. Dust settles more easily over flat rocks than it does over pebbles. The floating Martian dust may also be hiding the pebbles and obscuring what the MRO can see from its orbit. More areas on Mount Sharp to be explored Other parts of the Mount Sharp, known as Teal Ridge and Strathdon, have complex geological features. Strathdon is a rock with several layers of sediment that are arranged in a brittle, wavy heap, which makes it stand out from the thin and flat layers geologists usually associate with lake sediments. This suggests that this area of the mountain had a more dynamic environment, with both wind and flowing water possibly being responsible for shaping the rock into its current form. Were seeing an evolution in the ancient lake environment recorded in these rocks, said Valerie Fox, the other co-lead of Curiositys clay-bearing unit campaign. It wasnt just a static lake. Its helping us move from a simplistic view of Mars going from wet to dry. Instead of a linear process, the history of water was more complicated. Curiosity is continuing its exploration of Mount Sharp and the larger Gale Crater region. As it discovers more information, the scientific understanding behind the complex story of water on the mountain becomes ever clearer. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk JPL.NASA.gov Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry worker Patrick Minor pulls a package of ground pork out of a cooler during a pantry stop on May 20, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP) Efforts Underway to Get Food From US Farms to the Needy OMAHA, Neb.As food banks have struggled to meet soaring demand from people suddenly out of work because of the pandemic lockdowns, it has been especially troubling to see farmers have to bury produce, dump milk, and euthanize hogs. Now some states are providing more money to help pay for food that might otherwise go to waste. The U.S. Agriculture Department is spending $3 billion to help get farm products to food banks, and a senator is seeking $8 billion more to buy farm produce for food banks. Obviously nobody likes to see a waste of good food, said Mark Quandt, executive director of the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. And to know that farmers put so much work and money and energy into producing the product. Thats got to be breaking their heart to then have to just dump product like that or just throw it away or plow it under. Farmers were left with little choice after the closure of restaurants and schools abruptly ended much of the demand for the food they produced. Thousands of acres of Florida fruits and vegetables and Californias leafy greens have been plowed over or left to rot. Meanwhile, dairy farmers in Vermont, New York, and Wisconsin have had to dump millions of gallons of milk. Hog farmers were hit by a drop in demand and the temporary closure of some slaughterhouses, forcing them to euthanize pigs that couldnt be processed into bacon and pork chops. This has coincided with a spike in demand at food banks, with nearly 39 million people suddenly out of work. In Florida, for example, 12 food banks have had to scramble to increase deliveries from 6 million pounds of food per week to 10 million pounds. A U.S. Census Bureau survey found that more than 10 percent of U.S. households reported not being able to get enough food some of the time or often, and a survey for the Data Foundation found that 37 percent of unemployed Americans ran out of food in the past month. Thanks to various government and private efforts, at least some of the food that would have been wasted is now being delivered to the people who need it. New York state created a $25 million program this spring so that food banks can purchase locally made agricultural products. Quandt said hes already planning to use the $4.3 million his food bank will receive to buy milk, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, grape juice, and other products. It will be a tremendous help, he said. Chris Noble, who has a dairy farm about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Rochester, said the Nourish New York program gave him an outlet for some of the milk his co-op was dumping and provided money to cover his costs. He worked with other farmers in western New York to send dairy products to a food bank in New York City. It doesnt feel good to see our lifes work go down the drain like that, said Noble. To be able to meet the needs of our community with the food we produce and not see it go to waste is really impactful. In Iowa, state officials and the Iowa Pork Producers Association have raised more than $130,000 to help pay for the processing of pigs to supply meat for food banks. The effort gives hog farmers such as Kevin Rasmussen an outlet so they wont have to euthanize their animals, but it doesnt compensate them. So far, 364 pigs have been donated. The last thing we want to do is waste anything, said Rasmussen, who donated seven pigs from his northern Iowa farm to the program this month. Everybody is doing everything they can to keep from euthanizing animals and throwing product away. Other states, such as Florida and California, had existing programs to help get donated crops to food banks by paying part of the cost of harvesting them. Those programs are getting a boost from donations now, and California is adding $2 million to its state budget for its program. The biggest effort is a $3 billion federal program aimed at buying fresh produce, dairy, and meat and delivering it to food banks. That program has been slowed by questions about some of the companies that received the initial $1.2 billion contracts. Some of the companies that got bids, people are kind of scratching their heads like wait this isnt a food distributor, why are they winning the award? said Celia Cole, of the Feeding Texas association of food banks. One of the companies that have received the most scrutiny is a San Antonio wedding and event-planning company called CRE8AD8 that received one of the biggest contracts, worth roughly $39 million. Several large, well-known food distribution companies were passed over in the bidding in favor of smaller companies. Brent Erenwert, CEO of Brothers Produce, a Houston-based produce distributor that applied but didnt get a contract, said he is concerned the USDA program will fall short of its goals because of the companies awarded contracts. Weve got a fiasco on our hands right here, Erenwert said. Theres just no way or shape this will help the farmer or the end-user thats going to need this product. USDA officials said theyre confident the selected companies can complete the job. Separately, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has proposed spending $8 billion on fresh produce grown in 20 states and providing the crops to food banks. That proposal would provide money to food banks to purchase fruits, vegetables, and nuts directly from farmers. By Josh Funk economy Business Insight | What explains the India-China border tension? What has motivated the Chinese to ratchet up the aggression despite confidence-building efforts and summit meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping? Watch this edition of Business Insight to know more Advertisement The Anambra and Delta Governments on Tuesday agreed on strategies to check the heavy human and vehicular traffic across the Niger Bridge amidst the ban on inter-state travel. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Secretary to the Government of Anambra, Prof. Solo Chukwulobelu and his Delta counterpart, Mr Chiedu Ebie, held a meeting at the Asaba end of the bridgehead. The Commissioners of Police as well as COVID-19 Task Force teams from both states were also present during the meeting. The meeting was held to douse tension between the two state governments over iron barricades built on both sides of the bridge on the orders of Gov. Willie Obiano of Anambra. Advertisement The iron barricade on the Asaba end of the bridge was reportedly pulled down last weekend by some Delta youths. Addressing newsmen after their deliberations, Chukwulobelu said both governments had agreed to further move away their check points from the foot of the bridge to enable free flow of traffic. The idea is that those trucks that are not essential or not carrying essential commodities, can be turned back very quickly while those that come into the bridge can have faster exit. This will ensure that there are no heavy trucks parking on the bridge at any point in time and further minimise the waiting time and suffering of people running this bridge, he said. The Anambra SSG also said that both parties agreed that each truck crossing the bridge would have just a driver and two helpers. If you are carrying more than three including the driver, that truck will not be allowed to proceed and may be impounded, he warned He said that the two states further agreed to swap personnel to build confidence in the process. The two state governments have agreed to ensure that construction workers and materials, especially those for Federal Government projects are not hindered from crossing, he added. On his part the Delta SSG, promised that the state government would collaborate with Anambra government to ensure that the strategies were implemented to guarantee flow of traffic. But our plea to everyone is that, if you have no business on the bridge, respect yourself and stay away. Those who defy the directive will have their trucks impounded; before you depart your station, ensure you are not carrying frivolous goods. We noticed that some commercial transporters play smart by discharging their passengers shortly before the bridge and then crossing to pick them up at the other side. We will be smarter this time around to ensure that such buses are impounded as well, Ebie stressed. Earlier, Julius Berger Project Manager for Second Niger Bridge, Mr Friedrich Wieser, expressed concern over the integrity of the bridge as a result of accumulation of heavy traffic. We have the mandate from the Federal Government to continue work even under the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, we resumed work in May but the company finds it difficult to move daily to site due to traffic. If the bridge can be free, it will be beneficial to the construction of the second Niger Bridge, Wieser said. The project manager also appealed to the two state governments to consider materials used for the construction work as essential, saying that certain work could not be postponed due to the rising level of water. NAN reports that afterwards the two teams jointly checked a few vehicles to ensure compliance.- (Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles County firefighters worked to extinguish a blaze at a transportation hub in Carson where three Metro buses caught fire Tuesday morning. The L.A. County Fire Department received a call at 10:26 a.m., and firefighters were dispatched to the 21000 block of South Wilmington Avenue in Carson, between East Dominguez Street and East 213 Street, spokeswoman Leslie Lua said. LARGE VEHICLE FIRE | FS10 #Carson | 21222 S Wilmington Ave | BC7 reports (3) Metro buses well involved. All (3) buses are CNG (compressed natural gas) powered. This is now theMetro Incident. E10 E105 Q127 S10 handling. #MetroIC #LACoFD LACoFD Incident Alerts (@lacfd) May 26, 2020 The area is a mix of residential and industrial buildings, with manufacturing, transportation and distribution companies running along South Wilmington Avenue. It was not immediately clear how the buses caught fire. The Fire Department said all three vehicles used compressed natural gas for power. Photographs from the scene showed a trio of charred buses being hosed down next to a line of orange Metro buses that had not been touched by the fire. Authorities said one person was transported to a hospital with minor injuries. Champawat: Around 1,500 Nepali citizens stranded in India due to coronavirus induced lockdown returned to the Himalayan nation through India-Nepal border at Banbasa here on Monday. "Around 1,500 citizens of Nepal crossed the border today. They had come here from different parts of India," said Lokeshwar Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP), Champawat. This comes days after hundreds of stranded Nepali guest workers gathered in Champawat district to protest against the Nepal government. These guest workers raised slogans against Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and urged the government of the neighbouring country to take them back. New York, NY, May 26, 2020 --The Vilcek Foundation and The Arnold P. Gold Foundation are pleased to announce Dr. Vivek Murthy, 19th Surgeon General of the United States, as the recipient of the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. This award shines a spotlight on immigrant leaders in U.S. healthcare and recognizes the positive impact that humanistic care has on public health. A shared initiative between the two foundations, the Vilcek-Gold Award embodies the missions of both the Vilcek Foundation and the Gold Foundation. Dr. Murthy is receiving the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare for his multi-faceted approach to addressing the opioid crisis in the United States, and for his continued advocacy and support of human- and community-centered care. "Many immigrants are at the forefront of the effort to promote a compassionate relationship between healthcare professionals and their patients," said Jan Vilcek, chairman and CEO of the Vilcek Foundation. "There is no better person exemplifying this effort than Dr. Vivek Murthy. His outstanding leadership is grounded in a profound empathy." "Dr. Vivek Murthy famously said, 'The world is locked in a struggle between love and fear. Choose love. Always,'" said Dr. Richard I. Levin, Gold Foundation president and CEO. "Such is a rallying cry now for doctors and nurses and all those on the front lines in this crisis, as they show us what love looks like over and over. Dr. Murthy understands deeply the importance of humanism, the importance of love, in guiding our actions and our world." About the award, Dr. Levin added, "We are thrilled to continue this joint award with the Vilcek Foundation at what could be no better a time for recognizing the extraordinary contributions of foreign-born health professionals to America." Born in the United Kingdom to Indian parents, young Vivek immigrated with his family to Newfoundland, Canada, and then to Miami, Florida, when he was 3 years old. His father was a physician; his mother managed the office for the medical practice. Dr. Murthy credits the dedication and compassion with which his parents approached the practice as a core inspiration for his work: "[Their example] became my standard and my definition for what medicine should be like in the best of moments, where we bring the best of our head and our heart to the table to be partners in healing with others." After graduating as valedictorian of his high school class, Dr. Murthy attended Harvard University, where he founded two separate nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting public health initiatives in India. He led both organizations for several years following his graduation before attending Yale School of Medicine, where he pursued his medical degree while concurrently earning an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Following residencies at Brigham and Women's Hospital and at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Murthy founded Doctors for America as he sought to engage medical professionals in advocating for and developing public health policy. President Barack Obama appointed Dr. Murthy to the advisory group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative Public Health in 2011; in 2013 he was appointed the 19th Surgeon General of the United States. In his tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. Murthy provided leadership in addressing the opioid epidemic in the United States, and in expanding access to preventive care. An outspoken supporter for the health and wellness of LGBTQIA youth, Dr. Murthy openly condemned the practice of conversion therapy and supported presidential initiatives to increase the health and safety of transgender youths in schools. Though his tenure as Surgeon General ended in 2017, Dr. Murthy remains a leading public health consultant. He has been instrumental in providing public officials with guidance and support as cities and states cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. His first book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, was published in April 2020. The Vilcek-Gold Award includes a $10,000 cash prize and, symbolically, a heart-shaped trophy created for this award. ### The Vilcek Foundation The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the foundation--to honor immigrant contributions to the United States, and more broadly, to foster appreciation of the arts and sciences--was inspired by the couple's respective careers in biomedical science and art history. Since 2000, the foundation has awarded over $5.1 million in prizes to foreign-born individuals and supported organizations with over $5 million in grants. A person infected with coronavirus can pass it on just by talking to someone in a closed environment such as a tube train or small office, simulations reveal. In a simulation of Tube travel, produced by software firm MSC, one infected person can be seen literally coating other passengers with COVID-19 - just by talking. Researchers found that someone chatting to a friend on the tube can 'coat others' with the deadly coronavirus - even if they don't sneeze or cough. The new model looking at ways droplets from breath spread in enclosed spaces comes as Britain prepares to return to work, school and a level of normality after lockdown. Public transport has become busier as people return to work and children prepare to return to school. Researchers say talking without a mask can spread the virus Dr Julian Tang, an expert in respiratory conditions, from the University of Leicester, told BBC News that droplets produced by talking don't travel as far as they do from a sneeze or a cough - which can travel up to 22ft - but researchers say it is still dangerous enough to pass on the virus. 'But they can travel far enough to affect your friend sitting opposite you, or someone who's chatting to you,' he said. 'When you're talking to a colleague you don't touch them, you don't spit on them, most of the interaction is by voice and breathing.' In the case of coronavirus, which can be passed on through surface transmission, this causes a bigger problem for London Underground travellers - as the droplets from conversations won't just sit on other passengers - but also on seats, buttons and handles. MSC Software, who created the Tube simulation, says wearing a mask is essential for slowing the spread of the deadly virus. They found many droplets are expelled from the mouth and nose within a minute of someone talking and they proceed to coat others nearby. This can be mitigated by wearing a face mask, which blocks the majority of front facing droplets as people talk, breathe and even cough or sneeze, say researchers. According to the Open University, the fact the virus can spread and remain on surfaces for several days is a major cause for concern. It said that in office kitchens, as an example, simply washing the dishes after someone with the virus has used a cup, could lead to infection. A recent study by Canadian researchers found that even a simple cloth mask can block up to 99 per cent of infectious particles, adding to evidence for the use of masks in public. Researchers and government officials say washing hands, not touching faces and practising safe distancing from others are vital parts of returning to work. Many schools, offices and shops are demanding face masks, hand washing, implementing distance markers and doing regular deep cleans. While keeping our distance is the most important factor, researchers say limiting time around someone infected can also reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Researchers found that someone chatting to a friend on the tube can 'coat others' with the deadly coronavirus - even if they don't sneeze or cough but wearing a mask helps The World Health Organization says if you can't remain 6ft apart, you should limit time spent with colleagues in an enclosed space to 15 minutes. A study by the University of Oregon, into the spread of the virus in cafes and restaurants, found ventilation plays a major role. They found that if someone with COVID-19 coughs while sitting at a corner table the 6ft rule goes out the window as the virus droplets can spread even further. Smaller droplets are caught in a current of air coming from air conditioning units and spread around the room - a similar thing could happen in schools and offices. Researchers say it doesn't prove the virus can be transmitted in that way or make anyone ill if it did - just that the droplets of breath can be blown across the room. In the case of coronavirus, which can be passed on through surface transmission, this causes a bigger problem for tube travellers - as the droplets from conversations won't just sit on other passengers - but also on seats, buttons and handles DO FACE MASKS MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND WHAT SHOULD YOU WEAR IF YOU CAN'T GET ONE? Americans are increasingly being spotted wearing face masks in public amid the coronavirus pandemic, as are people are around the globe. Soon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may advise all Americans to cover their faces when they leave the house, the Washington Post reported. The agency is weighing that recommendation after initially telling Americans that they didn't need to wear masks and that anything other than a high-grade N95 medical mask would do little to prevent infection any way. FACE MASKS DO HELP PREVENT INFECTION - BUT THEY'RE NOT ALL CREATED EQUAL Research on how well various types of masks and face coverings varies but, recently, and in light of the pandemic of COVID-19, experts are increasingly leaning toward the notion that something is better than nothing. A University of Oxford study published on March 30 concluded that surgical masks are just as effective at preventing respiratory infections as N95 masks for doctors, nurses and other health care workers. It's too early for their to be reliable data on how well they prevent infection with COVID-19, but the study found the thinner, cheaper masks do work in flu outbreaks. The difference between surgical or face masks and N95 masks lies in the size of particles that can - and more importantly, can't - get though the materials. N95 respirators are made of thick, tightly woven and molded material that fits tightly over the face and can stop 95 percent of all airborne particles, while surgical masks are thinner, fit more loosely, and more porous. This makes surgical masks much more comfortable to breathe and work in, but less effective at stopping small particles from entering your mouth and nose. Droplets of saliva and mucous from coughs and sneezes are very small, and viral particles themselves are particularly tiny - in fact, they're about 20-times smaller than bacteria. For this reason, a JAMA study published this month still contended that people without symptoms should not wear surgical masks, because there is not proof the gear will protect them from infection - although they may keep people who are coughing and sneezing from infecting others. But the Oxford analysis of past studies - which has not yet been peer reviewed - found that surgical masks were worth wearing and didn't provide statistically less protection than N95 for health care workers around flu patients. However, any face mask is only as good as other health and hygiene practices. Experts universally agree that there's simply no replacement for thorough, frequent hand-washing for preventing disease transmission. Some think the masks may also help to 'train' people not to touch their faces, while others argue that the unfamiliar garment will just make people do it more, actually raising infection risks. If the CDC does instruct Americans to wear masks, it could create a second issue: Hospitals already face shortages of masks and other PPE. WHAT TO USE TO COVER YOUR FACE IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MASK So the agency may recommend regular citizens use alternatives like cloth masks or bandanas. 'Homemade masks theoretically could offer some protection if the materials and fit were optimized, but this is uncertain,' Dr Jeffrey Duchin, a Seattle health official told the Washington Post. A 2013 study found that next to a surgical mask, a vacuum cleaner bag provided the best material for a homemade mask. After a vacuum bag, kitchen towels were fairly protective, but uncomfortable. Masks made of T-shirts were very tolerable, but only worked a third as well as surgical mask. The Cambridge University researchers concluded that homemade masks should only be used 'as a last resort.' But as the pandemic has spread to more than 164,000 people worldwide, it might be time to consider last resort options. Advertisement It's only the smaller breath droplets being spread in this fashion - or spreading further than 6ft - so it may not be a large enough dose to lead to infection. Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg from the Oregon team said the virus 'can be spread further than people might realise'. 'It's really impossible to completely eliminate risk,' Van Den Wymelenberg told the BBC, 'but what we showed was a concept for how you could reduce transmission.' 'The good news is that there are things you can do to make safer spaces.' He said bringing in fresh air through windows was better than air conditioning. Dr Tang said something as simple as close conversations in an office could pass on the virus, regardless of air conditioning or airflow from outside. 'If you can smell your friend's breath - the garlic or curry or alcohol - you're inhaling what they're breathing out,' he told the BBC. 'And if you're inhaling enough of that air to smell it, then you're close enough to inhale any virus that's also carried in the air with it.' Joe's Gluten-Free Foods is expanding for a second time its recall of Joe's Gluten-Free Foods brand Potato & Onion Perogies to include additional formation. The product contains milk, an allergen not declared on the label. One adverse reaction has been reported associated with the consumption of the recalled product. The following item, sold throughout Canada, is being recalled: Brand Product Size UPC Codes Joe's Gluten-Free Food Potato & Onion Perogies 360 g 6 28451 40002 8 All best before dates up to and including 2021OC20 where milk is not declared on the label What to do Customers who purchased the recalled product and have a milk allergy should not consume it, but discard or return it to the store where purchased. Consumers with questions may contact the company at (306) 347-8221 or by email at info@joesglutenfree.com. The remaining marshes in Mississippi Delta may not be able to withstand the impacts of sea-level rise and may be gone in the years to come. The study revealed that 2,000 square miles (5,000 km2) of wetlands in coastal Louisiana are already gone, and the remaining 6,000 square miles of marshlands may drown as it may not be able to survive the rapid sea-level rise. There is a tipping point for coastal marshes, wherein the rising of sea levels may lead to its submergence. This was the key finding of a new study by a team of researchers from Tulane University lead by Torbjorn Tornqvist, a Geology Professor of Tulane Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. The study has been published recently in Science Advances. How did this study come about? Previous studies point that marshes can withstand sea-level rise to as high as half an inch per year. The period of observation of these studies are of a concise period, mostly ten years or less, Tornqvist emphasized. For this particular study, the research team examined the condition of marshes more than 7,000 years ago, when the global sea-level rise was rapid but at the range expected within this century. Hundreds of sediment cores were examined to study the relationship between marshes and sea-level rise for the past 8,500 years. The Tipping Point for Coastal Marshes The study concluded that in Mississippi Delta, a rate of sea-level rise exceeding about one-tenth of an inch per year (3 mm/yr) would submerge marshes in a few centuries. When the rate of sea-level rise is more than a quarter of an inch per year (7.5 mm/yr), most marshes drown in about half a century. "The scary thing is that the present-day rate of global sea-level rise, due to climate change, has already exceeded the initial tipping point for marsh drowning," Tornqvist said. He added that considering the way things are now, it is expected that the rate of sea level will continue to increase rapidly, ensuring the fast disappearance of the marshes in the future. Urgent, Meaningful Actions Despite the prospect of losing the remaining marshes in coastal Louisiana soon, there is still a way to avert the grim scenario. Tornqvist suggests that the most critical action is to radically reduce greenhouse emissions. This will help prevent sea-levels from increasing to rates where marshes will drown and eventually disappear in a matter of decades. Tornqvist also recommended major river diversions the soonest time possible as it may save at least some portions of the Mississippi River Delta. This window of opportunity for these actions, however, Tornqvist warns it is nearly fading. The importance of the Mississippi River Delta Mississippi River Delta has an array of interconnected habitats that are home to more than 2 million people, various endangered wildlife such as the American alligator, Louisiana black bear, piping plover, and green sea turtle. It is also an essential flyway for neotropical migratory songbirds that migrate to the Gulf of Mexico. More importantly, it provides ecological services such as filtering pollutants and absorbing nutrients, replenishing aquifers, preventing erosion, and dissipating storm surges. 85-Year-Old Ex-DG Of Imo Broadcasting Corporation Stabs Wife To Death An 85-year-old former director-general of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Theophilus Okere has reportedly stabbed his 77-year-old wife to death. According to reports, the suspect is said to be suffering from dementia, a term for diseases and conditions characterised by a decline in memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking skills that affect a persons ability to perform everyday activities. Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-rufai has announced that all the 218 Almajiris who were repatriated to Kaduna would be enrolled in free and compulsory primary education. Advertisement This Governor disclosed this on his accredited Facebook page on Monday.He said the Almajiris were being restored full human rights as children, dignity and hope. David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, says there is no community spread of the new coronavirus disease despite surge in the number of confirmed cases. The governor also noted that there is a shortage of testing kits in the states isolation centres on COVID-19. Ebonyi has as at Sunday evening had 33 confirmed cases. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will create electronic platforms for submission of nomination forms by political parties and other activities in the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.This step according to the electoral commission is to minimise physical contacts over fear of the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has informed the 2019 Batch B Stream 1 corps members that the certificate of national service (CNS) will be issued at local government councils. Such used to be shared during the passing out parade of corps members at state headquarters. Chief Imam of Benin Central Mosque, Alhaji Abdufatah Enabulele, appealed to the people of Edo avoid bloodshed during the political parties primary elections in the state. According to the cleric, the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election coming up on June 22, must be peacefully observed. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has granted freedom to 300 inmates of correctional centres in the state. This was made known via a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, said on Sunday. Reno Omokri, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of being responsible for the rise in cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Omokri said if Buhari had listened to the advice of Atiku Abubakar, a former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, COVID-19 wouldnt have risen to the level it is. Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has released the sum of N450 million as compensation to the victims of violence in the 2019 presidential election in Abonnema community of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area. The governor met with the victims, deceased families and the council of chiefs at a townhall in Abonema on Monday. More controversies continue to trail the demolition of Prodest Hotel in Rivers State as both Government and owner of the hotel, Promise Gogorobari, have disagreed over the COVID-19 status of the hotel manager, according to a report by The Nation. In a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, on Sunday, the hotel manager was listed as one of the 27 new cases recorded in the state. The minister of labour and productivity, Chris Ngige has declared that he does not have the ambition to run for the gubernatorial poll in his state because he is currently a serving minister. However, he stated that since he is a politician, he is eligible to contest for any other position in 2023 be it senate or presidency. Cross River State Government has issued a strong warning to individual or group who plans to cause trouble in any part of the state in the name of actualising outlawed Biafra Republic. The warning which was issued by the State Security Adviser to Governor Ben Ayade for Southern Senatorial District of the state, Mr Abi Esin, says any breach of the sovereignty of the country by anyone or group will be treated as treason. The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Centre and the RBI to respond to a plea challenging levy of interest on loans during the moratorium period, which has now been extended by another three months till August 31 due to the coronavirus pandemic New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Centre and the RBI to respond to a plea challenging levy of interest on loans during the moratorium period, which has now been extended by another three months till 31 August due to the coronavirus pandemic. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan, hearing the matter through video-conferencing, issued notices to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India asking them to file their replies within a week. The counsel appearing for the petitioner informed the bench, also comprising Justices S K Kaul and M R Shah, that earlier the moratorium period was for three months till 31 May but now it has been extended by another three months. The counsel argued that borrowers should not be penalised like this and banks should not add interest on the loan amount during the moratorium period. Click here to follow LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak "Counsel for the Reserve Bank of India prays for and is granted a week's time to file counter affidavit. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, also obtain instructions in the meantime," the bench said in its order and posted the matter for hearing next week. On 27 March, RBI had issued a slew of measures to check the financial impact of the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19. It issued a circular giving liberty to all banks and financial institution to allow a moratorium of three months on payment of installments in respect of all term loans outstanding as on 1 March, subject to the borrower making such a request. It had said that the repayment schedule for such loans as also the residual tenor would be shifted across the board by three months after the moratorium period. Interest shall continue to accrue on the outstanding portion of the term loans during the moratorium period, the RBI had said. Last week, RBI had extended the moratorium period by another three months to 31 August. The plea, filed by Agra resident Gajendra Sharma, has sought a direction to declare the portion of RBI's 27 March notification "as ultra vires to the extent it charges interest on the loan amount during the moratorium period, which create hardship to the petitioner being a borrower and creates hindrance and obstruction in 'right to life' guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India". It has also sought a direction to the government and the RBI to provide relief in re-payment of loan by not charging interest during the moratorium period. On 30 April, the apex court had directed the RBI to ensure that its circular on a three-month moratorium on loan repayment between 1 March and 31 May is implemented in its letter and spirit. The top court had told the Solicitor General, appearing for the Centre, that it appears that the benefit given by the RBI was not being extended to the borrowers. Exposure of Ulterior Motives Behind Stigmatization of China with COVID-19 (Part VI) A western idiom goes like this, "There are none so blind as those who will not see". We've long known that lying through their teeth is the "survival skill" for some American politicians, but we never expected it to become their "only skill left". Unfortunately, this is exactly the reality now. Their desperate attempt to peddle lies only attests to the exhaustion of their tricks. With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of American politicians has staged one farce after another. If they just told a lie every once in a while, they would have given themselves away occasionally; now that there is basically no truth left, the audience could only take them as a circus. But how clumsy the performance is! By declaring that "the virus came from China", or "China caused the spread of the virus by covering it up", these American politicians have discarded the basic dignity and decency as humans and public servants. They have spurted baseless accusations without any scruple. In the meantime, some western media have played along and made up accusations in defiance of freedom and democracy that they have been priding themselves on, reducing themselves to the politicians' bullhorns by politicizing the pandemic and exercising double standards. The truth will teach these contemptible people a hard lesson. Regarding the origin of the virus, China, WHO, and many others with vision have made solemn statements over and over again. The prestigious academic journal Nature apologized to China for once associating the coronavirus with Wuhan. As to the claim that "China caused the spread of the virus by covering it up", a quick look at the epidemic-control timeline would show who has wasted the time. When looking back on the White House's epidemic containment efforts, the New York Times pointed out that it squandered a whole month from late January to early March. Certain American politicians are asking for disgrace between telling lies and having them belied. During the Iraq War, the weapons of mass destruction that they had once been so certain about were eventually unaccounted for; during the Syrian conflict, the iron-clad evidence of the attacks with chemical weapons that they claimed proved to be schemed by the politicians themselves. Having been slapped in the face by truth so many times, the American politicians, this time around, are simply repeating their vicious rumors about the pandemic again and again, which, infuriating as it is, comes as no surprise. Their creed is that "a lie, when repeated a thousand times, may become truth", with which they intend to bring their unspeakable motives into reality - putting a lock on China's development and clearing themselves of any responsibility for the epidemic response fiasco. What a pipe dream! As another western idiom goes, "Lying is the first step in being a thief." The COVID-19 outbreak, like a mirror, reflects the American politicians' heinous true colors of "running the country with lips". When the outbreak hit, the first move they took wasn't protecting people's lives and safety, but babbling to find excuses for themselves and flinging mud at others. They have been trying to deflect people's attention in an attempt to steal votes from the constituencies and pursue personal gains. "Liars begin by imposing upon others but end deceiving themselves." It would not be so absurd if the politicians tell a lie or two now and then, but it's truly shameful and pathetic that they would rely on lies for sustaining their political career. Just recently, when China was busy helping other countries battle the outbreak, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was flinging mud at China at the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting and on other international occasions. Even American scholars couldn't bear to see such shameless moves on the US part, commenting that Pompeo was busy slandering China while China was busy helping others. The clownish words and deeds of these American politicians have become a laughing stock in the international community. An ancient fable says that a rabbit used to have a long tail, which becomes short because it is bitten off for telling lies. This fable is both informative and remonstrative for the American politicians - stop lying through your teeth, otherwise your personal credibility, political career, and the "America great again" you promise the American people will, like the rabbit's tail, be cut short for sure. Exposure of Ulterior Motives Behind Stigmatization of China with COVID-19(Part VII) By Jun Sheng Whoever speaks well of China would be attacked - this has become a hysterical new normal for some American politicians. Not long ago, the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and famous American IT tycoon Bill Gates were fiercely slammed by those politicians for their affirmation of Chinas anti-epidemic efforts and success. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China, in the face of this rare public health crisis and disaster, has contributed immensely to the world with tremendous sacrifices and effective epidemic control measures. As the virus spread across the whole world, China, committed to building the community with a shared future for mankind, has played an active role in international anti-epidemic cooperation. By providing batches of medical aid and supplies to other countries, China has been injecting confidence and momentum into the worlds joint battle against the virus. We shall resolutely forge ahead along the righteous path. Upholding humanitarianism and our shared destiny, China has never hesitated in lending a helping hand to those in need despite many malicious conjectures. In the US, the country most active in blaming China for the pandemic, many doctors gained valuable information from their Chinese counterparts on diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19 cases through video-conferences. Medical supplies like ventilators and masks donated by China were shipped to the hardest-hit New York promptly. That is why Bill Gates exclaimed that China has done many right things from the beginning, and why Dr. Tedros affirmed several times that the high speed and massive scale of Chinas moves are rarely seen in the world It showed Chinas efficiency and the advantages of Chinas system. The experience of China is worth learning for other countries. Their chorus of praise for China, however, irritated some American politicians so much that they jumped up and did not waste a minute labeling those truth-speakers as propagating for China, even threatening to launch an investigation into the WHO. Why couldnt anyone speak well of China? Why cannot China provide better solutions? At the end of the daythat is all because the American politicians are narrow-minded and ill-intended. They are afraid that the revelation of the truth will expose their true color of being ignorant and incompetent; they are scared that a China-US comparison by Americans would prick their false sense of superiority; they are worried that peoples understanding of and consequently friendliness toward China would disrupt their China-smearing chorus; and they are concerned that peoples recognition of Chinas advantages and strengths would force their China-curbing road map off track. But facts cannot be denied, and justice lies in peoples hearts. Since the outbreak, China has never imposed its measures upon anyone. Still, people cannot help but feel the warmth from Chinas aid to the world, while they become aware that who is truly putting the people first rather than the votes, and who is making concrete efforts rather than putting on shows. On April 26, Wuhan, the city first and hardest hit by the coronavirus, declared that all hospitalized COVID-19 patients were discharged. On the same day, the US reported nearly one million confirmed cases. No wonder a lot of people in the western countries expressed their indignation online at their governments - while the White House was ignoring the lives of the elderly and the poor, just look at what China has done: making every effort to protect the disadvantaged at all costs, including elders, patients with underlying illness and poor people. Such a stark contrast leads to an obvious conclusion. Even Francis Fukuyama, an American scholar known for his End of History theory, had to admit that the crucial determinant in performance will not be the type of regime, but the states capacity and, above all, trust in government, though he insisted that the major dividing line in effective crisis response will not place autocracies on one side and democracies on the other. As a Chinese ancient poem goes, thick mountains could not stop the river from flowing into the sea. China will give its most forceful response to the shameless behaviors of certain American politicians by forging ahead steadily. The country will achieve on schedule the goal of winning the tough battle of poverty eradication and building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. China has sounded the clarion of getting back on saddle loud and clear, and demonstrated to the world its firm confidence of going its way of peaceful development against all odds. Vision is especially important in this eventful age. Confronted with the epidemic, China, advocating the vision of building the community with a shared future for mankind, stands ready to work with all countries to win this anti-virus battle that concerns the future of humanity. We firmly believe that China will only do well when the world is well, and the world will do better when China is doing well! For an all-powerful leader whose every word must be taken as a command, Vladimir Putin has had a surprisingly hard time making his voice heard Moscow: Assailed by critics as an absentee leader at the start of the coronavirus crisis in Russia, President Vladimir Putin reemerged with a splash on State television last month to show that he cared and was taking charge. He promised cash bonuses of up to $1,100 a month for each doctor, nurse and other front line health worker involved in fighting the virus. But for an all-powerful leader whose every word must be taken as a command, Putin has had a surprisingly hard time making his voice heard. More than a month after he spoke, the money has yet to materialise for many. Instead, some doctors have received visits from police investigators and prosecutors demanding to know why they complained publicly about not getting their bonuses. A promise meant to showcase Putins proudest achievement the revitalisation of the Russian State after the chaos of the 1990s has sunk into a swamp of recrimination, security service intimidation and bureaucratic buck-passing. Is this a joke? Unfortunately, no, Dmitri Drize, a Moscow-based editor, wrote last week in a scathing newspaper commentary on the unfolding mess. He said that neither Russias foreign foes nor its main Opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, is capable of damaging the image of the State as much as its own managers. The Kremlin holds more than $500 billion in various rainy day funds, so Putin has all the money he needs to deliver on his promises. But, in a system rife with corruption, many officials live in permanent fear of being criticised, or worse investigated, for spending state money not included in their previously approved budgets. So when it came to doling out the cash, they hesitated, took the liberty of making deductions for time that health workers spent on non-coronavirus patients or perhaps skimmed some of the money. In the southern region of Krasnodar, a widely respected head doctor at a hospital was fired after his staff staged a small protest. He is now under investigation by Russias equivalent of the FBI for criminal negligence. A doctor in the nearby town of Abinsk who helped organise public complaints over nonpayment of Putins bonus received a letter from the police warning that he faced prosecution for carrying out extremist activities. Yulia Volkova, a Krasnodar doctor who leads the local branch of Doctors Alliance, an independent trade union affiliated with Navalny, said medical workers had rejoiced at Putins promise of extra cash. Now, though, they are terrified of being investigated if they complain about the presidents orders falling on deaf ears, she said. In some cases, however, prosecutors have sided with protesting doctors. The prosecutors office in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, said last week that it had investigated complaints of nonpayment and found them justified. It ordered local authorities to pay up. In Nizhny Novgorod, another region where many medical staff have not received the money promised, the regional health minister, David Melik-Husyenov, accused the Opposition of using dirty tricks to expose the bureaucracys failures. Arranging such stories is very immoral, he said. Putin, playing one of his favourite roles as a caring but stern father of the nation undermined by bungling bureaucrats, fumed recently in a teleconference that officials in many places had not acted on his bonus order. I gave specific figures for these payments for doctors, for nursing staff, for all medical staff, for ambulance crews and so on, Putin said. Instead, he continued: They made a bureaucratic mess, counting the number of hours worked on some kind of clock. Did I instruct that you count with a watch or something? No! He said earlier that 29 regions had ignored his order and that less than half of medical workers nationwide had received the money he had promised. Ordering officials to get with his programme, Putin thundered, I ask you to keep in mind that I will personally check the situation on this issue in every region of Russia. That things have gone so awry is a measure of the wide gap between image and reality in a country that revolves around what Putin calls the power vertical. This is the rigidly top-down and, in theory, stringently efficient system that he has spent 20 years building to replace the decrepit state structure he inherited from his predecessor, President Boris Yeltsin. Tatiana Stanovaya, an expert on Russian politics, said the power vertical has always been a political project focused on protecting the Kremlin from opponents, not on delivering efficient administration for the publics benefit. It has never been effective in routine management. This is not something Putin knows how or wants to do, she said. Nobody deliberately defies Putin or lets him down, she added. That is impossible. But nearly everyone does it unintentionally because they are afraid of taking decisions. Much of the blame for unpaid bonuses has now fallen on the staff of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who spent much of this month in the hospital recovering from COVID-19. The prime minister complained in a conference call with officials shown on television that documents needed to turn Putins promise into action had not been drafted properly and left too much room for regional officials to wriggle out of paying. One of the first signs that Putins bonus programme was going off the rails came in early May when ambulance drivers, paramedics and others gathered outside the main hospital in Armavir, a town in the southern region of Krasnodar. We have received nothing. Not a ruble, not a kopeck, they chanted. A video of their protest appeared online, stirring copycat actions across the country. Krasnodars governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, responded that he was aware of many complaints of nonpayment and vowed to investigate the situation in detail to make sure Putins promise was fulfilled. An official commission was then sent to investigate the Armavir hospital and quickly found a scapegoat: the head doctor, Sergei Smirnov. Accused of not filling in the necessary paperwork on time, he was branded as the main culprit in media outlets controlled by regional authorities. Reports last week that Smirnov had been fired provoked only more protests by exhausted and irate medical staff. A group of nurses gathered near the Armavir hospital to sing Smirnovs praises, saying that he had worked hard to make sure his staff had proper protective equipment, and to warn, in the words of one angry nurse, that without him work will stop. Vladimir Lotnik, a resident who signed a petition protesting Smirnovs dismissal, said officials were scrambling to protect themselves up and down the system by blaming the powerless. A fish rots from the head, he said. Nikolai Petrov, a political scientist, dismissed Putins public anger and dismay over the bonuses as mostly theatre. He is trying to show that he is the good guy, Petrov said. But he is losing popularity and will continue to lose it. An opinion poll by the Levada Centre, an independent polling organisation in Moscow, found that the presidents approval rating sank last month to 59 percent, its lowest level since he came to power in 2000. His highest approval rating, nearly 90 percent, came after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. After nearly two months cooped up in his country residence outside Moscow, Putin has become so isolated, in Petrovs view, that he risks returning to a changed country after the pandemic is over. He likened the situation to what Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, faced when he returned to Moscow after the collapse of a coup attempt in 1991 that had kept him isolated for days in a villa in Crimea. Gorbachev, his authority drained, resigned soon afterward. Predictions of Putins imminent eclipse, however, have invariably proved wrong, and many expect the president to bounce back from these travails, albeit in a weakened position. Russia, with more than 350,000 reported coronavirus cases, is the third-most infected country after the United States and Brazil. Kremlin-controlled media outlets, however, have presented Russias response to the pandemic as a triumph, trumpeting official figures that show a remarkably low death rate of 2 per 100,000 people, compared with 30 in the United States and 55 in Britain. This, they say, is a Russian miracle. The pandemic has nonetheless disrupted the centrepiece of the Kremlins political programme for the year, forcing the cancellation of an April referendum on constitutional changes that would allow Putin to brush aside term limits and stay in power until 2036. But, with the recent lifting of a nationwide lockdown order despite a steady rise in the number of infections the Kremlin is expected to push ahead with its vote on the Constitution as early as June. The referendums outcome, like nearly all votes in Russia, is in little doubt and would secure Putins unassailable position for many years to come. Opening the door for him to stay in power indefinitely, Kremlin critics say, would only entrench the dysfunctions of a system that for 20 years has paid lip service to the stated goals of a single man but often confounded them instead. The diagnosis is obvious, said Drize, the editor. Officials have forgotten how to make decisions on their own. And this disease is worse than the coronavirus. Andrew Higgins c.2020 The New York Times Company Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 11:34:17|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ABUJA, May 26(Xinhua) -- Nigeria confirmed 229 new cases of COVID-19 late Monday, bringing the total to 8,068, including 233 deaths and 2,311 recoveries. The new cases were recorded in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory, said a statement released by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control(NCDC). The country now has 5,524 active cases with a total of 45,683 samples tested so far. Over the weekend, the Nigerian government said it will continue to scale up testing capacity for COVID-19 to limit transmission. Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of the NCDC, said testing is critical to the national response. Despite the increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, some states are relaxing lockdown measures to allow partial restoration of economic activities. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari earlier announced a ban on large social and religious gatherings in Abuja, Lagos, Ogun, and Kano. He has also ordered a nationwide inter-state travel ban. State governments also imposed lockdown in their respective domains. Enditem China has decided to evacuate its citizens, including students, tourists and businessmen, from India who are facing "difficulties" in the country and want to return home in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Chinese embassy put out a notice on its website on Monday, asking those wanting to return home to book tickets in special flights. The move to evacuate its citizens comes in the wake of India emerging as the 10th worst-hit country by the deadly virus, which has infected nearly 1.40 lakh people in India. The coronavirus, which was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has spread to over 190 countries, infecting over 54 lakh people and taking lives of 3.4 lakh. India had evacuated around 700 Indians from Wuhan in February. The notice by the Chinese embassy said the people opting to return home will have to accept all quarantine and epidemic prevention arrangements during the flight as well as after entering China. The notice in Mandarin said people treated for coronavirus infection or having symptom of the infection like fever and cough in the last 14 days should not take the special flights. "Through the unified arrangement of the ministry of foreign affairs and relevant departments, the Chinese diplomatic and consular missions in India will assist international students in India, tourists, temporary business visitors who have difficulties and are in urgent need to take a temporary flight back home to China," according to the notice. It suggested that people from some other countries may also be evacuated. The notice said the cost of flight ticket and quarantine in China will have to be borne by the evacuees "If your body temperature exceeds 37.3 degrees (inclusive) before boarding or if you have suspected symptoms, you will be refused boarding by the airline," the notice said. China's decision to evacuate its citizens from India also comes at a time when troops of both the countries are locked in a tense standoff in the disputed areas of Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh for over two weeks. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 13:51:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China Development Bank (CDB) will provide 360 billion yuan (about 50.5 billion U.S. dollars) of financing support to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in 2020 as authorities called for further efforts to promote the development of the area. The financing includes 290 billion yuan of loans, and a total of 110 billion yuan will be spent on technology innovation and strategic emerging industries, according to the CDB. Earlier this month, Chinese regulators including the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued a guideline calling for financial support for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The guideline put forward 26 specific measures to promote the Greater Bay Area's cross-border trade, facilitate investment and financing, expand the opening-up of the financial sector, promote the connectivity of financial markets and financial infrastructure, and boost innovation of financial services. Chinese authorities in February 2019 unveiled the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, aiming to develop the region into a role model of high-quality development. The Greater Bay Area consists of Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong -- Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing. Enditem A hot potato: Assuming all goes to plan, the next generation of consoles are arriving this holiday season, which means were hearing more about their capabilities. Sony has already lauded its SSD as something spectacular, and now the co-creator of Mortal Kombat has praised the component, saying that people are underestimating what it will mean for the PlayStation 5. Load times have been one of the biggest problems with consoles, but the Xbox Series X and PS5 will join the PC in embracing solid-state drive tech. In the case of the latter, Sony says that thanks to the use of PCIe 4.0, its custom SSD has a maximum compressed data throughput of up to 9 GB/stwice as fast as the Xboxs 4.8 GB/s. After the data has been decompressed, it can be processed at 5.5 GB/s, which again is about twice as fast as the 2.4 GB/s that Microsofts console can reach. While the SSD might be faster, the Xbox Series X has the PS5 beat in other areas. But Ed Boon, co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series and creative director on Mortal Kombat 11, says people are underestimating what such an SSD is capable of when it comes to games. In an interview with Geoff Keighley (via CCN) as part of the Summer Game Fest show, Boon said I think people are underestimating the impact that the almost zero load time is going to have. Its suddenly going to open doors that werent considered possible before. I think we havent even scratched the surface of what will eventually be done with those systems. To me, the graphics are a given. Okay, the graphics are going to be better. But, this new way of handling memory and loading, and stuff like that, is going to be huge. Sony has also been talking about its solid-state drive, claiming it can process data "approximately 100 times faster" than a PS4. Boon also talked about the recent Unreal Engine 5 tech demo that was running on the PS5, a decision that caused some controversy. I was riveted watching the PlayStation 5 and Unreal Engine 5 demo going that cant be real, come on, that cant be real, he said. Its claimed that the speed of the SSD means PS5 games will avoid the commonly used trick of long elevator rides or 'squeeze through tight spaces' animations to load the next section of a game. There will also be an absence of loading screens, such as the 'traveling on subway' sections in Marvel's Spider-Man. The proof, of course, will be when we finally see some extended gameplay footage of these titles. Wilson Witzel, a political foe of Bolsonaro, says hes innocent and accused the president of interference in the probe. Brazilian federal police on Tuesday raided the residences of Rio de Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel as part of a COVID-19 corruption probe, targeting one of President Jair Bolsonaros political foes as the pandemic sweeps the nation. Two sources and a statement from the federal police said the search warrants were part of an investigation into alleged corruption involving the use of public money destined to fight the coronavirus pandemic in Rio de Janeiro state. No arrest warrants were issued, a source said. In a statement, Witzel said he was innocent and accused Bolsonaro of interference in the probe. He said he was surprised and outraged to see social media posts that suggested the presidents allies in Congress had prior knowledge of the operation, suggesting leaks and the construction of a false narrative against him. The latest in a long line of Rio state governors to be snared in corruption probes, Witzel is a former ally-turned-foe of Bolsonaro. The two have clashed in recent weeks over how to tackle the pandemic, and Bolsonaro views the former judge as a re-election rival. The probe into Witzel also comes just weeks after Bolsonaro changed the top official at the federal police amid an ugly political scrap with former Justice Minister Sergio Moro. A popular fraud-fighting crusader, Moro resigned after accusing the president of trying to install his pick as the top Rio cop in order to protect his family from investigations. Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro adjusts his mask as he leaves Alvorada Palace, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Brasilia [File: Adriano Machado/Reuters] Police were serving 12 search and seizure warrants, the police statement said. The sources said the probe is looking into alleged irregularities related to hospitals set up to treat patients with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The police raided the Palacio Laranjeiras, the governors official residence, and his personal home in the neighbourhood of Grajau. The search and seizure warrants were issued by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), Brazils second-highest court. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits national political advisors from the economic sector attending a joint panel discussion at the third session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 23, 2020. Xi joined them in the discussion and heard their comments and suggestions. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, also attended the discussion. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) President Xi Jinping on Saturday stressed analyzing China's economic situation from a comprehensive, dialectical and long-term perspective, urging efforts to foster new opportunities amid challenges and make new advances amid changes. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when joining a joint panel discussion attended by national political advisors from the economic sector. The political advisors are in Beijing for the third session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Xi made a speech after hearing the remarks of political advisors. Efforts should be made to leverage China's potential and role as the world's largest market, clarify the strategic direction of supply-side structural reform, and consolidate the basic trend of steady economic growth with a sound momentum in the long term, he said. Xi called for consolidating the fundamental role of agriculture, ensuring stability on the six fronts and security in the six areas, and accomplishing the targets and tasks of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and winning the battle against poverty. The six fronts refer to employment, the financial sector, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment, and expectations. The six areas refer to job security, basic living needs, operations of market entities, food and energy security, stable industrial and supply chains, and the normal functioning of primary-level governments. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, also attended the discussion. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits national political advisors from the economic sector attending a joint panel discussion at the third session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 23, 2020. Xi joined them in the discussion and heard their comments and suggestions. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, also attended the discussion. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits national political advisors from the economic sector attending a joint panel discussion at the third session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 23, 2020. Xi joined them in the discussion and heard their comments and suggestions. Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, also attended the discussion. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] (Source: Xinhua) It feels like drones were built for this moment. The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to spend the majority of their time indoors and, where possible, maintain a healthy distance from anyone that doesnt live in the same building. Companies have introduced numerous measures to minimize the threat and spread of infection. Countless stores have acrylic screens, for instance, and many delivery drivers leave orders at your doorstep. But a robot or specifically, a drone offers a potentially safer and quicker method of exchanging goods and services. Its no wonder, then, that so many commercial UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operators are flourishing at the moment. In a time of crisis, theyre keen to step forward and showcase the impact that drone deliveries can have on society. Take Matternet. Last month, logistics powerhouse UPS announced that its Flight Forward subsidiary which uses Matternet's M2 drone system would support a retirement community in Florida by ferrying medicine from a nearby CVS pharmacy. Its a short route and, for the initial flights at least, it requires a human concierge to take the delivery to the customer's door. Still, it's a welcome service for people that many would consider high risk and might not be able to leave their home every day. The delivery area, known as The Villages, houses one of the largest retirement communities in the country. They basically have a city, Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet told Engadget. That means the company can have a large impact with a single pick-up and drop-off point. Raptopoulos hopes the program will expand to three pharmacies and, perhaps more critically, support multiple routes from each one. Unsurprisingly, he also wants to reach a point where the drones can hover and lower the package at the residents doorstep. You can really make a difference if you dont send a human in a van into a location that has a vulnerable population, Raptopoulos said. Story continues Matternet's M2 drone system. Matternet is starting with 10 to 20 deliveries each day. But if everything goes to plan, the company could facilitate thousands of deliveries each month, according to Raptopoulos. If we can prove the model with one [store] and we see value there, and the economics are working out, then it can be rolled out to multiple [locations], he added. The little-known company has been building up to this moment. In March 2017, Swiss Post and Matternet started transporting lab samples between two hospitals in Switzerland. Six months later, the drone maker partnered with Mercedes-Benz on a technology development program, which has since wound down. Matternet now supports hospitals in Lugano and Zurich, though both sites were put on pause once the coronavirus outbreak hit. Raptopoulos is confident, however, that services will restart in the next few weeks. The drone supplier is working with medical personnel in the US, too. In August 2018, the company performed some test flights at a WakeMed facility with North Carolina's Department of Transportation (NCDOT). Seven months later, Matternet partnered with UPS for the first time and announced a permanent delivery program at the hospital. The pair have since used the M2 drone to transport more than 3,000 medical samples and specimens. Our target is to get to multiple hospitals this year. Flights were reduced at the start of the pandemic as hospitals postponed and scaled back procedures that weren't related to COVID-19. But the companys service has "continued every day uninterrupted," according to Raptopoulos, and started ramping up again as doctors, nurses and technicians acclimate to our strange new reality. Our target is to get to multiple hospitals this year with that type of transportation system in place, he explained. Matternets contributions could go even further. NCDOT revealed last month that the company, alongside UPS and an unnamed hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, had proposed a drone program that would deliver medicine, PPE and other types of healthcare equipment during the coronavirus pandemic. Matternet has also spoken with laboratories to see if its drones could help deliver COVID-19 test samples. "The thing that we're hoping to do next, in [addition] to what we're doing with UPS, is see some of that work come out," Raptopoulos told Engadget. An Everdrone lowering an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Everdrone is making a similar effort to help the medical community. The emergency response specialist has announced a drone program that will bring Automated External Defibrillators to people in Gothenberg, Sweden, who have gone into cardiac arrest. The scheme, which starts next month, could help bystanders to deliver lifesaving care while they wait for medical professionals to arrive. Everdrone is planning three drone systems, each based in a different location, that will cover emergency 112 calls in a 6 km (roughly 4-mile) radius. Once summoned, it will head to the callers location and lower the defibrillator from a safe height. The method of lowering the defibrillator from the drone with the help of a winch is something we have been developing and testing for a long time, Mats Sallstrom, CEO of Everdrone explained. We have performed countless test deliveries in recent months, and the results show that the method works very well. Research conducted in Italy suggests that cardiac arrests have spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. A fast and reliable drone system could, therefore, save lives and relieve some pressure on an already stretched healthcare system. Everdrone is working with Swedens national emergency call center, SOS Alarm, and the Centre for Resuscitation Science at Karolinska Institutet on the program. The company has already completed thousands of test flights and, last July, a fully autonomous delivery between two Gothenberg hospitals. On the other side of the world, drone operator Zipline is helping medical professionals in Ghana. The company has stepped up its deliveries to ensure hospitals have the products they need and minimize the threat of transmission from truck drivers. Ziplines system, which uses autonomous gliders instead of quadcopters, has also played a role in distributing personal protective equipment (PPE). At the start of the pandemic, the country had a limited amount not enough for every doctor and nurse and only a vague idea about where the first COVID-19 cases might appear. It made sense, therefore, to give Zipline some of the stock and have them act as a centralized distribution hub. Zipline's autonomous drones have been operating in Ghana since April 2019. When there was a suspected case, or they felt a place was a potential hotspot, then we delivered protective clothing to those places only, Daniel Marfo, General Manager for Ziplines Ghana operations told Engadget. Its allowed them to be able to ration the use of the PPE. Otherwise [they] would have just distributed to places that may never get cases, and then the PPE is just sitting there waiting, whereas other places have more cases and would have run out. Ziplines efforts dont stop there, though. Early on, Ghana only had two laboratories capable of processing COVID-19 test samples. They were based near cities and, therefore, difficult for people in remote areas to access. Now, Zipline is doing the heavy lifting, getting test samples to its rural hubs a 30-minute drive, typically, instead of a 12-hour round trip to the city to fly to the test labs. The initiative is unique because, prior to the outbreak, no company had permission to make routine deliveries into densely populated urban areas with a beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) system. We had to really prove to the civil aviation authorities that we had enough safety systems and measures in place to ensure that we could fly into [the] city center. Marfo said. The labs we fly to are all within a five-kilometer radius of the international airports. So as you can imagine, its a very high-risk thing to do, from an aviation standpoint. But we were able to prove that we can do it safely. We were able to prove that we can do it safely. Zipline has operated in Africa since 2016. It started by transporting critical medicine and blood in the western side of Rwanda before slowly scaling up and expanding to Ghana in April 2019. Earlier this month, the company announced in a tweet that it has delivered more than 100,000 vaccines, units of blood and medications worldwide. The company wants to enter the US, too, and has spoken with Novant Health about delivering PPE and other medical equipment to its campuses in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. Were standing by [and] ready to meet this challenge. Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline told Wired. A Wing delivery drone mid-flight. Medical work is only one side of the industry, however. Alphabet subsidiary Wing wants to see drone deliveries used for everything, including fresh bread and hot coffee. The company started with a small service in the outskirts of Canberra, Australia. It then expanded to Helsinki, Finland and Christiansburg a small town in the US state of Virginia before launching a second site down under in Logan, just south of Brisbane. Last month, the company announced a dramatic increase in the number of customers using its service. Weve seen a 350 percent increase in signups globally, Keith Heyde, the manager for Wings operations in Virginia told Engadget. The company made more than 1,000 deliveries in a two-week period, a Wing spokesperson added, helped by a significant rise in Virginia orders. Mockingbird Cafe, a bakery based in Christiansburg, joined Wing earlier this year and sold 50 percent more pastries than it would in-store on a normal weekend. Brugh Coffee, another new business on the Wing platform, sold twice as much cold brew as it typically did in-store. If I do nothing and I try and fight whats going on right now, my business will be taken out, Luke Brugh, co-founder of Brugh Coffee told Engadget. I think I just understand thats a part of life. If I want my business to stay around, I have to figure out how to adapt and stay connected with my customers. Still, its a tough time for Brugh Coffee. The company is an independent roaster and has lost wholesale clients because of the pandemic. Luke still works at the store (the cafe portion is called the Brew Lab), preparing the stock that Wing employees pick up each morning. He also accepts remote orders, submitted through an app called Cloosiv, and leaves them for customers on a table outside. Weve been impacted, he explained. Ive had to lay off a couple of people, a couple of our part time people. The partnership with Wing, then, is a small but indispensable revenue stream. Everybody in the hospitality industry is struggling right now, and so this just gives us another way to reach our customers, Brugh added. Luke Brugh, co-founder of Brugh Coffee. The uptick in Wing deliveries isnt surprising. Many people are stuck at home and battling boredom at the moment. A fresh coffee or bagel can be a rare highlight in an otherwise uneventful week. If that was something that was in somebodys routine every day, [Wing] is kind of an opportunity to get it, Brugh explained. Unsurprisingly, the products that people are buying have changed, too. Demand for toilet paper, snacks and first-aid items, including band aids and eye drops, have surged in Virginia. Anything that can keep a child entertained, such as chalk, has also increased in popularity since the start of the pandemic. This is a trying time for kids, as well, Heyde said. So being able to order your kid a toy and have a little bit of enjoyment that way is a nice thing we can provide for the community. For the average person, there's little downside to a drone delivery service like Wing or the recently launched Matternet, UPS and CVS partnership. That's because at least for now there's no extra charge for choosing a UAV over a traditional truck or in-store pick up. "For now, the service is paid for by CVS, and there is not a premium delivery fee paid by the recipient," a Matternet spokesperson told Engadget. "Wing currently does not charge customers or merchants a delivery fee at any of our locations around the world," a Wing spokesperson added. Is that financially viable long-term? Probably not, however the industry is still nascent and, for now, establishing consumer trust and adoption is arguably more important than short-term revenue. A fresh coffee or bagel can be a rare highlight in an otherwise uneventful week. Drone deliveries feel like they were made for the pandemic. But most operators, including Wing, have had to make a few adjustments since the arrival of COVID-19. The Alphabet subsidiary has a work from home policy for anyone that doesnt need to go outside. Merchant-supplied goods are wiped down and disinfected to eliminate any remnants of the virus. Wings warehouse employees, meanwhile, are told to wear protective gloves and face masks, stay six feet away from each other and participate in regular health and temperature checks. Say a customer orders a loaf of bread, Terrance Bouldin-Johnson, Head of Australian Operations at Wing explained, My team gets that order and it pops up on the screen. They grab the bread, put it into our package and seal it up. They request the drone and walk outside. The drone hovers above and they hook [the package] on. It then flies to the customer, lowers the package and returns. In that entire process they dont interact with any other human. Matternet-developed UPS drones are now flying from a CVS in Florida. Matternets hospital payloads are given a similar wipe down. Nothing dramatic, Raptopoulos explained. Just adding a bit of precaution to make sure we dont, in that handover, receive or transmit the virus. Zipline, meanwhile, is following the World Health Organization (WHO)s guidelines and encouraging everyone to wear masks both at work and home. It also has two distinct teams with completely separate shifts. That way, if someone were to catch the virus, theres another shielded unit that can keep working. Drone deliveries are clearly helpful in a crisis. But they are, for now, a technological rarity that relatively few people around the world can access. Thats because the regulation and public acceptance varies wildly between different countries. Wing and UPS Flight Forward, for instance, have been granted air carrier certificates by the FAA. Known as Part 135, this crucial clearance allows both companies to fly drones beyond a pilots visual line of sight in the US. Without that certificate, companies have to obtain an FAA waiver, which usually mandates a secondary observer or backup aircraft. Some drone operators have been granted this exception by participating in the governments Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP), a research program that seeks to safely explore the further integration of drone operations. (Wing and UPS Flight Forward have both been involved in the IPP scheme.) But there are complications. As Supply Chain Drive notes, airline operators typically use planes that have received their own certification. Matternet drones havent received this clearance yet though the company is going through the process now which limits where UPS Flight Forward can operate. If you have a type certified aircraft, and we expect to have it here [with the M2 system], and then UPS has their Part 135 certificate, that allows you to operate on a much larger scale and at a much faster pace of authorization from the FAA, Raptopoulos said. Back in December, the FAA proposed a remote ID system to monitor and safely integrate drones into national airspace. DJI called the system deeply flawed and overly complex, expensive and intrusive. Nevertheless, the FAA has pushed forward and selected eight companies, including Wing, to help it refine the exact technology requirements. Commercial drone companies will need to keep up, therefore, with the evolving rules and regulations to merely maintain their operations in the US. And thats just one country. Every region has unique policies and societal expectations to grapple with. Its no surprise, then, that drone deliveries have taken so long to truly take off worldwide. The coronavirus pandemic could grease the wheels of change. Policymakers are generally moving faster and green-lighting projects that could help the fight against COVID-19. In addition, more people are now using drone delivery services both in a medical and consumer capacity which will increase awareness and, perhaps, acceptance. The reason weve been pursuing drone delivery for several years now is because we feel that theres massive upside for the public in the end, Raptopoulos said. Theres massive value for society. And crises like now just make this crystal clear. Bouldin-Johnson added: If we have five more deliveries than we wouldve normally had, and all of those people have great experiences, then that means we have five more people that like us than we would have had if COVID-19 wasnt happening, right? Srinagar: At a time when frontline health workers are feted with salutes, standing ovations, bouquets and musical tributes across the world, their counterparts in Kashmir are unfortunately made to face music on the way to their workplaces. Dr Syed Maqbool, an ace senior intervention cardiologist at Srinagars Super Speciality Hospital, alleged "police beating, humiliating and detaining him for hours for asking a cop to allow him for work at a checkpoint in Srinagar'. Hurt and disappointed with the rough treatment he met during his police detention, the doctor ''exacted his revenge'' by conducting three difficult surgeries. He did not allow the ''treatment'' hinder his work at the hospital by working through the night, including on the day of Eid. "Though I was hurt by the police action, I got great satisfaction by helping the patients. This is my way to protest," he told News 18. Doctors, paramedics and sanitation workers have gone beyond their duty to fight COVID-19, working frequently at odd hours and against the biological clock. Because of the pandemic situation, the doctors have worked out a roster that calls for strict adherence to report at hospitals dot in time and follow a back breaking protocol. Jammu and Kashmir has seen 23 coronavirus deaths and close to 1,700 positive cases. The 50 year-old award-winning and acclaimed doctor told News 18 that on Saturday he was driving in his personal vehicle when at Hawal-a checkpoint, barely a kilometre from his house in Srinagar's downtown, a cop asked him to halt and take a detour. I told him there is lot of traffic and I have to reach hospital in time and the backlane was already choked,'' he said. He said he displayed his identity card, stethoscope and a call duty-rooster, but the policeman would not budge. ''I was wearing a PPE and it was quite obvious I was a doctor on duty.'' It doesnt matter if you are a doctor, what will you do? the cop told Maqbool. Maqbool said he got out of his car and asked him to make him speak to a senior officer to which the cop got agitated and hit me in the belly with his baton. The ordeal did not the end there. ''The Station House Officer (SHO), Zadibal was apparently at the spot..He rushed at me and asked me to drive to the Zadibal police station. He and two constables sat in my car and I did what I was told.'' At 10:30 am, an hour after he was first stopped at the checkpoint, the doctor was lodged inside the police station. He said his phones were taken away by the SHO though ''I told him that the hospital needs to be informed so that they call a replacement.'' ''Unfortunately, I was not allowed to make any call.'' ''The SHO told me, let your patients and the hospital go to hell, I dont care. You doctors are thieves and indulge only in selling sub-standard medicines,'' he added. ''This was a humiliating comment. I have seldom gone home all these weeks and this was a rude shock to me,'' he said. He said his brother had heard about my detention from somewhere and later came to the police station and ''bailed me out from there but my personal car is still there.'' I was allowed to go at 6 pm after spending close to eight hours at police station. And I was fasting. Maqbool said he reported the matter to Dr Samia Rashid, principal of Government Medical College, and she, in turn, referred it to Srinagar's district magistrate Shahid Chowdhary. On Monday, Dr Rashid put out a tweet, calling the behaviour of police deplorable. The behavior of the police has been deplorable to say the least - we as frontline workers have been working day in and day out risking our lives and families only to be harrassed. We as the administration have raised the issue with concerned authorities and hope for swift action. Samia Rashid (@drsamiarashid) May 25, 2020 ''If the police are behaving with the frontline workers this way, then god help this society. The healthcare workers at the hospital were even threatening a strike but she convinced them not to in the wake of pandemic striking the Valley. Health workers have earned accolades world over for their services to fight the pandemic even as the casualties keep on surging. In India, more than 4,100 people have died and over 1,45,380 have got infected. Given the selfless duty doctors have put in to stop the virus in its tracks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked people to acknowledge t heir work and hold them in esteem. Suhail Naik, president of the Kashmir's doctors group, said there are many health workers who were beaten up and humiliated during the period of the COVID-19 lockdown and even before that. His organisation even took up these issues with the government. ''We are compiling a list of harassment of health workers and will share those in detail,'' he said. Cases of health and sanitation workers being rouged up allegedly by police at different places in Valley have been reported from time to time. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Srinagar, Haseeb Mughul, told a local news agency that a case has been registered. ''I have asked SP Hazratbal to look into the issue and submit a report, the SSP was quoted as saying by the agency. JK DGP Dilbagh Singh told wire agency KNS that police will investigate the case. ''An incident of misbehaviour by SHO Zadibal with Dr Syed Maqbool of GMC Srinagar came to my notice today through social media . I forwarded it to SSP Srinagar for appropriate action. He has ordered an enquiry into the matter today itself," he said. "No such behaviour as alleged is mandated or permitted. Lets get the other side and the report into the incident. In the meantime my sympathies are with Dr Syed Maqbool and not with the Police officer who is reported to have caused alleged inconvenience and mental hurt to him.'' FILE PHOTO: Ryanair logo is pictured ahead of a news conference by Ryanair union representatives in Brussels By Arno Schuetze and Ilona Wissenbach FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Low-cost carrier Ryanair challenged Germany's 9 billion euro rescue package for Lufthansa on Tuesday, saying it distorted competition, while the German carrier moves towards finalising the deal next month. The government-backed aid will allow Lufthansa to "engage in below-cost selling" and make it harder for Ryanair, its Laudamotion subsidiary and rival low-cost carrier easyJet to compete, Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said in a statement on Tuesday. "Ryanair will appeal against this latest example of illegal state aid to Lufthansa, which will massively distort competition," O'Leary said in the statement. Lufthansa is, for its part, hoping for a quick nod from the European Commission for the bailout package, people close to the matter said. "This should be a matter of days", one of the sources said. Lufthansa's supervisory board is expected to meet on Wednesday to sign off on the rescue deal and the invitation for an extraordinary shareholder meeting is expected shortly thereafter, the sources said. In total, governments have promised $123 billion of support -- mainly in debt -- to airlines, predominantly in the United States and western Europe, industry data showed on Tuesday. The head of the International Air Transport Association, which mainly represents traditional network airlines but not their biggest low-cost rivals like Ryanair, defended the reliance on government aid, saying it was an exceptional response to the crisis. "It is understandable to avoid a collapse of this sector," Director General Alexandre de Juniac told reporters. The coronavirus crisis has already pushed several struggling airlines over the edge. Lufthansa's owners need to agree to the bailout, which includes Germany taking a 20% stake in the carrier and the injection of 5.7 billion euros ($6.25 billion) in non-voting capital. The vote is not expected to take place unless the EU has signed off on the rescue deal. Story continues The European Commission has asked Lufthansa to waive landing rights for 6 out of 300 planes in total at Frankfurt and Munich airports, where Lufthansa has a two-thirds market share. The number of planes and corresponding numbers of airport slots can differ as planes on short-haul flights may have 5-6 slots a day compared to just one for planes on long-haul. Lufthansa has 760 aircraft, although Chief Executive Carsten Spohr has said that 100 will remain grounded due to lower demand following the COVID-19 pandemic. NordLB analyst Wolfgang Donie said giving up slots amounting to 3 planes per hub would be manageable. The slots could then be given to rivals, increasing competition, which the EU does not want to be compromised by state bailouts. "State aid rules do allow support for the aviation sector while ensuring that competition and consumers are not at a disadvantage", a European Commission spokeswoman said, declining to comment on details of the Lufthansa case. Lufthansa called for fair treatment compared with other bailed-out peers and also declined to comment on specifics. ($1 = 0.9118 euros) (Additional reporting by Conor Humphries, Laurence Frost, Marine Strauss and Tim Hepher. Editing by Jane Merriman) Based on previously released data and their own investigations, researchers at the St Petersburg University Laboratory of Macroecology and Biogeography of Invertebrates have assessed the diversity of freshwater molluscs in the Circumpolar region of the World. In total, they registered 104 species of these invertebrates living in waters within the Arctic Circle. Their hermaphroditism, their ability to freeze in ice and their 'friendship' with birds have all helped them to enter the Arctic and to survive under its harsh conditions. The list of species compiled by the scientists reflects all of the information available on this question, including that which they themselves obtained during many expeditions into both Asian and American parts of the Circumpolar area. The last such list was published in Sweden in 1887, and now it is utterly outdated. According to the authors, less than 2% of the world's freshwater molluscs have managed to find their way to the Arctic. Due to the peculiar life conditions in this region, the number of different species of snails and bivalves living there is small. Having analysed the biology and ecology of Arctic molluscs, the scientists speculated as to which biological traits helped these invertebrates make it to the Arctic Circle and survive there. 'Above all, it is their hermaphroditism, thanks to which any one of them can, when their numbers are limited, mate with any other member of the population, or even to fertilize oneself' said Maxim Vinarski, the head of the Laboratory of Macroecology and Biogeography of Invertebrates at St Petersburg University. 'Another useful trait is that they can travel by air, for example with birds being attached to their feathers or legs. Beyond that, the short life cycle of Arctic molluscs helps them to breed quickly and form sustainable populations in northern waters. It should also be pointed out that these invertebrates can overwinter being frozen into ice. It would seem that this combination of biological traits is the "entry ticket" to the Arctic for molluscs, allowing them to pass through an invisible filter created by the environment.' A genetic and biogeographical analysis showed that no species of Arctic freahwater molluscs is endemic to this region; all species also occur elsewhere. It turns out that all freshwater molluscs that live in this circumpolar region came from lower latitudes. In 2017, Professor Vinarski and Ivan Nekhaev, a senior research associate in the Department of Applied Ecology at St Petersburg University, came up with similar findings for Greenland, and now their conclusions can be extended to cover the entire Arctic region. These scientists suggest that the absence of endemic molluscs north of the Arctic Circle is due to the geological youth of this region, which has comparatively recently shed its glacial covering. The biologists also compared the species richness of freshwater molluscs in separate sub-regions of the Arctic: the European polar region, the far north of Siberia, Beringia and North America. It turns out that Siberia is the most diverse region, with 57 of the 104 species they described living there. The least diverse fauna is in North America, where only 39 species of freshwater molluscs occur. Such a disparity cannot be explained by an insufficient knowledge of North American molluscs, which have been under study for more than 200 years. These scientists took a separate look at the Arctic and the subarctic geothermal waterbodies, which they believe could have served as a potential refuge for molluscs during the Pleistocene glacial epochs. Unlike most aquatic habitats of the northern polar region, whose thermal regime is determined to a great extent by seasonal changes of temperature, geothermal springs maintain high water temperature (more than 20 degrees Celsius, sometimes up to 40 degrees) year-round. Most freshwater snails and bivalves do not survive in such extreme conditions, but the University biologists established that no fewer than five species of the subclass Pulmonata (lung-breathing snails) are capable of overcoming the thermal shock after settling in geothermal springs and of forming viable populations there. Although Arctic biota on the whole is extremely vulnerable to global changes and human impact, only three molluscs from those on the list have received international conservation status: Margaritifera margaritifera (a freshwater pearl mussel), Euglesa hinzi and Valvata mergella. Most Arctic species are abundant and quite widespread, but, according to the University biologists, this does not mean there is no need to protect them. In addition to the intense economic development of the Arctic, leading to the degradation of freshwater ecosystems, global climate changes have also had a negative impact. 'Because of warming in the Arctic, animal species that used to live in less harsh conditions have begun to filter into the region. And, with the global climate changes, we can already conclude that at least three species of snails and bivalves will be able to extend their habitats into the Extreme North. This might have an unpredictable effect on the indigenous ecosystems - it could, for instance, oust the native species of molluscs. It is also possible that the foci of parasitic diseases will move to the north, and many aboriginal freshwater molluscs will become the intermediate hosts of parasitic worms. Up until now, the effect of alien species on the Arctic freshwater communities has been minimal, but in the next few decades the situation could change,' Professor Vinarski cautioned. ### On Thursday night, the Joint Budget Committee made its final cut to balance the 2020-21 budget by turning to K-12 education, and it was the biggest of all: as much as $724 million, although that figure could be reduced down to $577 million in the coming days. When a private phone number appeared on the screen of Shubhkarman Jauras cell phone in mid-April, the Maples Collegiate student almost didnt pick up. Little did he know, on the incoming line was a scholarship offer for $100,000. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. When a private phone number appeared on the screen of Shubhkarman Jauras cell phone in mid-April, the Maples Collegiate student almost didnt pick up. Little did he know, on the incoming line was a scholarship offer for $100,000. Jaura, an 18-year-old Maples resident, answered the call and accepted the Schulich Leader Scholarship, which will lead him to study computer engineering at the University of Alberta this fall. PHOTO BY SYDNEY HILDEBRANDT Shubhkarman Jaura. "It was a dream-come-true moment. I was completely blown away. I was speechless, like I am right now, I was speechless. There are very few moments when I am speechless," he said. This year the Schulich Foundation granted 100 scholarships ranging between $80,000 and $100,000, to high school graduates enrolled in a science, technology, engineering, or math program at one of the foundations 20 partner universities in Canada. Jaura, who is known as "Shubh" by some, was nominated for the award by Fil Costa, a counsellor and scholarship facilitator at Maples Collegiate. "When I got to know Shubh I was so struck by the determination, the perseverance, but most of all that smile. Shubh has a quality smile, a positive component that is so admirable in someone so young," Costa said. "I was just so overjoyed for him because he is such a deserving individual." Jaura, who immigrated to Canada from India in 2017 and enrolled at Maples Collegiate for his Grade 10 year, has a resume that is nothing short of impressive. The two-term co-president of student council speaks four languages English, French, Punjabi, and Hindi co-founded the schools debate club and participates on the well-being committee, volunteers at Seven Oaks General Hospital, works as a high school mentor to younger students, has been involved with various fundraising initiatives, and is taking university-level calculus and computer programming courses. In the summer of 2019, Jaura attended an enrichment and entrepreneurship program called SHAD at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Annually, around 900 students from across Canada attend one of the SHAD programs held at universities throughout the country. SHAD delivers education through lectures, workshops, projects, and activities. Jaura said he worked on a waste management prototype with other students, to address the issue of organic and inorganic waste entering landfills and triggering fires. The students then presented the prototype to waste management officials. Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. More recently, Jaura participated in the first-ever Youth Nuclear Peace Summit, held in Winnipeg last October. Together with students, University of Manitoba faculty, and human rights activists, Jaura helped to draft a nuclear peace treaty which was supposed to be presented to a United Nations committee before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jauras ambition makes him stand out among the rest, said his homeroom teacher Lisa Sylvestre. "He just had a laundry list of stuff that he wanted to do," she said. "While hes getting these incredible grades, being involved in absolutely everything, hes thinking about how he can make the world a better place." After he completes his undergraduate degree, Jaura said hed like to pursue a masters degree in business to round out his skill set. Jaura offered words of encouragement to students who are looking to become as involved as he is: "Never ever be afraid of taking risks and being involved, because at the end it is nice to do something than regretting for not doing anything." Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:09:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close -- The resumption of the China-Europe freight service, part of the cooperation under the BRI framework, acts as a lifeline of cross-border logistics amid the pandemic. -- China's resumption of work and production also meet the basic demands of other countries for epidemic prevention. -- Despite the impact of COVID-19, Chinese investment in Belt and Road partner countries increased by 11.7 percent in the first quarter and trade with them went up by 3.2 percent. -- As the world economy is struggling to recover from the pandemic, China and other countries expect more results from the BRI cooperation and beyond. BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Near the Kazakh-Russian border in the Kostanay Region, a wind farm contracted by Chinese firm Universal Energy is under fully-fledged construction despite the impact of the raging novel coronavirus epidemic. Hundreds of Chinese and Kazakh workers are binding reinforced steel bars to erect the wind farm's giant turbine foundations before early July. The resumption of work at the wind farm, like many other cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as well as production in China, will help dispel the shadow cast over the already sluggish global growth and boost the prospect, observers say. A China-Europe freight train prepares to depart for Barcelona of Spain, in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on April 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Yibo) HOPE FOR GROWTH As the second largest economy in the world, China has the largest industrial system with the most complete categories, strong production capabilities and complete supporting sectors. Its economic activities have gradually emerged from shutdowns by restarting production at factories and providing components, materials, as well as major subsystems to manufacturers worldwide. Since mid-April, freight trains, under the operation of China Railway Express, have been shuttling between China's manufacturing hubs and cities in Europe and Central Asia. On April 14, a Chinese freight train arrived in the western German city of Duisburg with over 160 tons of epidemic prevention supplies, as well as must-have goods for the resumption of work and production, such as auto parts, electronic products and optical fiber. The resumption of the China-Europe freight service, part of the cooperation under the BRI framework, acts as a lifeline of cross-border logistics amid the pandemic. A crane loads containers at the Manzhouli Railway Station in Manzhouli, a land port on the China-Russia border, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, April 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Yu Jia) Besides contribution to the stability of the global supply chain, China's resumption of work and production also meet the basic demands of other countries for epidemic prevention. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has exported medical supplies to 199 countries and regions, including aid to over 150 countries and international organizations. In the Chinese capital, as of May 20, 370 enterprises and construction sites have resumed operations in Zhongguancun Science Park Daxing Bio-Medicine Industry Park. Beijing Yiling Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, the producer of Lianhua Qingwen Capsules -- an effective medicine recommended by China's National Health Commission for COVID-19 treatment -- is one of those enterprises. The daily output of the medicine has now increased to 660 cases, which can meet the daily demands of 440,000 patients. Wu Rui, director of Beijing Yiling, said that the company has donated the medicine to Italy, Iraq, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries to help fight the epidemic. Cai Fang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China's economic recovery, boosted by strong policy support and growing domestic demand, will have a very positive spillover effect on the world. A worker of Yiling Pharmaceutical works on the production line in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Shiyao) RESILIENT BRI As more countries are moving to reopen their economies, global cooperation through multilateral platforms, such as BRI, has never been made so important. While delivering the government work report at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature, on Friday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the joint efforts to pursue the BRI have yielded fresh results, and emphasized the need to focus on high-quality joint building of the initiative. Staying committed to achieving shared growth through consultation and collaboration, China will uphold market principles and international rules, give full scope to enterprises as the main actors, work with the BRI partners for mutually beneficial outcomes, and guide the healthy development of outbound investment, Li said. Trucks transporting wind turbine blades for a wind farm contracted by Chinese firm Universal Energy in Kazakhstan's Kostanay Region, pass through the Guozigou bridge in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on April 24, 2020. (Universal Energy/Handout via Xinhua) "COVID-19 has affected Belt and Road cooperation to some extent, but the impact is temporary and limited," Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when answering questions from Chinese and foreign media on the sidelines of the ongoing NPC meeting on Sunday. "From an overall and long-term perspective, COVID-19 will only strengthen and re-energize Belt and Road cooperation and open up new possibilities," said Wang. Despite the impact of COVID-19, Chinese investment in Belt and Road partner countries increased by 11.7 percent in the first quarter and trade with them went up by 3.2 percent, he added. According to data from China's General Administration of Customs, China's foreign trade with countries along the Belt and Road totaled 2.07 trillion yuan (301.1 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months of this year. The resumption of construction for a number of projects suspended due to COVID-19 will generate strong impetus for the host countries' efforts to beat the virus and revitalize the economy, said Wang. CALL FOR COOPERATION As the world economy is struggling to recover from the pandemic, China and other countries expect more results from the BRI cooperation and beyond. Built on its real benefits to the people in partner countries, Belt and Road cooperation has enabled documents to be signed with 138 countries over the past seven years, with more than 2,000 projects launched and tens of thousands of jobs created in the partner countries. "It is vital and it will continue despite the ongoing pandemic. China's policies are based on continuity and this is also the case for the BRI," said George Tzogopoulos, an expert on Chinese affairs with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel's Bar Ilan University. A worker unloads medical supplies brought by a medical team from China to Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, April 18, 2020. (Chinese Embassy in Malaysia/Handout via Xinhua) Pierre Khoury, vice president of the Arab Chinese Cooperation and Development Association, called for enhanced cooperation between China and Arab countries to overcome the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Let's remember that the core value behind the Belt and Road Initiative is this 'win-win' relationship," he said. "By aiming for high-standard, people-centered and sustainable progress, we will make the Belt and Road a model of development, cooperation and health for all involved," said the Chinese foreign minister. "The darkest time will pass, and the light is ahead," Wang said. (Video reporters: Zhao Yuchao, Han Chong, Pan Geping; Video editor: Zheng Xin) The launch of a negotiation process between the competent authorities of Ukraine and Turkey on tourist travel was initiated as well Ukraine and Turkey work on the restoration of air connection between them Open source Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to start procedures that are aimed at resuming air connection between them. This happened during the meeting of Ukraines Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar with Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Ukraine Yagmur Ahmet Guldere, the press service of Ukraines Foreign Ministry reported. "As a result of the meeting, the parties reached an agreement to initiate procedures related to the restoration of air connection between Ukraine and Turkey," the statement said. In addition, the diplomats initiated the launch of a negotiation process between the competent authorities of Ukraine and Turkey on tourist travel. As we reported earlier, on May 20, the government of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 392, which allowed flights of passengers with passengers in regions with a favorable epidemiological situation from June 15. That is why Wizz Air low-cost air company has extended the delay in flights to the Ukrainian direction: Ticket owners are promised 120% compensation for their cost in the form of a loan. Wells Adams was seen getting ready to celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, as he grabbed some balloons and other party favors at a local market in Studio City, California. The Bachelor In Paradise star, 36, held on to two cube-shaped USA helium balloons, decorated with stars and stripes. He pushed along a shopping cart that held some paper products as well as Tecate and Pacifico beer. Getting ready: Wells Adams was seen getting ready to celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, as he grabbed some balloons and other party favors at a local market in Studio City The fiance of Modern Family star Sarah Hyland wore a grey t-shirt that seemed inspired by the Illuminati, along with black gym shorts. His face mask was also somewhat festive, decorated with the face of Bob Marley along with the Rastafarian colors of red, gold and green. On his feet, Wells wore flip flops as he made his way to his car. Masked up: The fiance of Modern Family star Sarah Hyland wore a face mask that was somewhat festive, decorated with the face of Bob Marley Adams and Hyland, 29, recently had to delay their planned wedding due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Last weekend however, Sarah hinted she could be set to marry Wells in a quick ceremony at 'city hall'. The actress took to social media last week to wish her fiance a happy 36th birthday, and used the glowing tribute to also suggest the pair run off and file paperwork to make them legally married without having a formal ceremony. Man plans, god laughs: Adams and Hyland recently had to delay their planned wedding due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic; Sarah seen on Instagram Sharing a picture of the pair looking at each other, she wrote on Instagram: 'Happy Birthday to my future husband '2020 has not gone the way we thought it would but my love for you is at least one thing that will never change. Thank you for your laugh, your jokes, your sunshine. 'Im so grateful to have spent another year around the sun with you. Youre a dream come true and my true north ;) 'Who knows? Maybe well get married at city hall and use this picture as our announcement. I love you more than words can say. To Pluto and Back Baby. Happy Birthday (sic)' The comments of a parrot may be used in an upcoming rape and murder trial. Elizabeth Toledo, 46, was raped and then killed in the city of San Fernando, Argentina in December 2018. At the end of the month a police officer was guarding the crime scene when they heard a parrot say Ay, no, Por favour, soltame! (No, please, let me go) as reported by The Mirror. The police believe the parrot was repeating its owners last words as she was allegedly beaten and raped by two housemates. Also, it was said that the parrot was also mentioned by a neighbour who heard it saying why did you beat me as one of the arrested suspects fled the house. Head prosecutor Bibiana Santella has reportedly included the parrots testimony in the case file. An autopsy showed that the victim has been beaten, raped, and strangled to death. Her body was found naked and lying on its back on a mattress on the floor. The men that allegedly kill Toledo were the three men she rented a room the same house to. Housemates Miguel Saturnino Rolon and Jorge Raul Alvarez have been arrested in connection with the homicide. The third housemate was also arrested, but he reportedly has an alibi for the time of the alleged murder. The trials start date is currently unknown. Follow Us on Facebook @LadunLiadi; Instagram @LadunLiadi; Twitter @LadunLiadi; Youtube @LadunLiadiTV for updates Juwai.asia logo More than 8,000 real estate agents are members of the Juwai IQI team, so Juwai.asia was created by and for agents. It maximizes the ways agents benefit, including by winning more listings, generating more buyer enquiry, or getting assistance in closing transactions with foreign buyers. Juwai IQI today announced the launch of Juwai.asia, the first global portal for non-China Asian consumers who want to purchase real estate almost anywhere in the world. Chinese buyers are already served by the companys existing portal, Juwai.com, which since 2011 has become the largest Chinese portal for international real estate. Via the two portals, Juwai.asia and Juwai.com, Juwai IQI markets some 6 million listings per year from 91 countries to more than 3.3 million monthly users. ASIAN BUYERS ARE MOST ACTIVE GLOBALLY After the Chinese, other Asians are the most active cross-border real estate buyers in the world. Cross-border buyers mostly from Asia purchased 500,000 homes in the G7 countries alone in 2019, worth an aggregate value of US$250 billion. While the largest number of cross-border property buyers do originate in mainland China, significant numbers also come from the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan, and from Singapore, India, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia. Asia is the scene of wealth creation at a pace not seen anywhere else. Asia now has nearly the same number of ultra-high net worth individuals as Europe, but its population of the wealthy is growing at almost twice the rate as is Europe's: 44% versus 23%, respectively. In a survey conducted before the pandemic, the top five countries where wealthy Asians intend to purchase residential property are the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, and Canada. Non-China Asian buyers account for 20 per cent of the real estate buying enquiries that Juwai.com receives, compared to China's 71 per cent, the Americas 4 per cent, Europes 3 per cent, and the Middle East and Africas approximately 1 per cent. In the US, Asians including mainland and Hong Kong Chinese invested US$257.3 billion in residential real estate over the past decade. That far exceeds the next largest buyer group, Canadians, who acquired only about half that amount, $129 billion, of US real estate during the same period. In the UK, foreigners are the predominant buyers of Londons prime property market, accounting for 55 per cent of prime sales and spending 8.2 billion in Greater London during the second half of 2019. In Australia, Asian investors, including mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, were officially cleared to acquire US$135 billion of real estate over the past decade. Apart from mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, the biggest Asian investors were from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea. Singapore is a popular destination market for other Asian buyers, especially wealthy professionals and business owners due to its political stability and stable markets. Investment by less well-heeled buyers is discouraged by Singapores high 20% foreign buyer stamp duty. Foreigners acquired 315 apartments in Singapores prime core central region in the first nine months of 2019. In New Zealand, Asian investors, including mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, in 2018 alone acquired homes worth US$1.1 billion. That's nearly double the US$620 million invested by Australians and nearly 10 times the $140 million acquired by UK buyers. Among the biggest sources of buyers are Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. In the UAE, Asian buyers from India, China, and Pakistan are the most numerous foreign property investors, apart from those from other Persian Gulf countries. Asians invest US$6.23 billion per year into Dubai alone, according to the most recent official data from the Dubai Land Department. In Malaysia, eight of the top 10 foreign real estate investor groups hail from other parts of Asia. Official data on participation in the Malaysia My 2nd Home visa program reveals that citizens from mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, China; Japan; Bangladesh; Korea; and Singapore acquire more visas and likely also more Malaysian real estate than do those from any other part of the world. The new Juwai.asia portal was launched in English and simplified Chinese, with further languages to come. GEORG CHMIEL QUOTES Juwai IQI Executive Chairman Georg Chmiel said: Juwai.com has been helping Chinese become residents of the world since 2011, and Juwai.asia will expand our mission into assisting not just Chinese but all Asians. "Juwai.asia is the first truly global real estate portal for Asian buyers, with listings from 91 countries. Juwai.asia allows us to cover not only the No. 1 buyers' market of China but also the other top cross-border buyers markets, which are nearly all in Asia. "You can live in Kuala Lumpur and want a home in Perth, live in Singapore and want a home in Malaysia, or live in Delhi and want a home in Palo Alto. Wherever in Asia and wherever in the world do you want to purchase, now we can help you. Juwai.asia enables you to find your future home. It will connect you with local market agents and sources of financing. And, it will provide you with expert advice and market data. "The Coronavirus pandemic has dealt a painful blow to economies all over the world. One bright spot for real estate markets is that the pandemic has also given added motivation to cross-border buyers from Asia. DANIEL HO QUOTES Juwai IQI Group Executive Director Daniel Ho said: "Even before the launch of Juwai.asia, Juwai.com already served more than 3.3 million users per month, more Asian cross-border property buyers than any other portal or real estate company. Juwai IQI also advertises the largest number of global property listings targeted at Asian buyers, with 6 million listings per year from 91 countries and having a combined value of US$4 trillion. The more than 8,000 salespeople in our IQI network sold US$1 billion of property in 2019 and make up the largest network of real estate agents in Asia. "Real estate agents and developers can now use Juwai IQIs end-to-end property advertising and sales solution to reach Chinas 1.4 billion people and the rest of Asias 2.7 billion consumers. Marketing on Juwai.asia and Juwai.com creates buyer interest, while our in-house sales agents, events and services help you close the transaction. "This new portal for the first time enables developers and agents to tap into the total Asian market. Juwai-IQI is a one-stop solution combining online and offline marketing and sales, now to buyers located everywhere in Asia. "This is the first major strategic initiative taken by Juwai IQI since the merger between Juwai.com and IQI, which was announced in July 2019 and completed later that year. The merger of our two Asian superbrands made us the largest global marketplace for real estate buyers from Asia, both by number of users and customers. KASHIF ANSARI QUOTES IQI Global Group CEO Kashif Ansari said: Juwai.asia is a marketplace, not just a portal. This is the era of global asset allocation, and most high-net-worth individuals acquire international property for lifestyle, asset diversification and investment goals. The new Juwai.asia builds on the nearly 10 years of experience we have in Juwai.com providing buyers with high-quality listings in popular homebuying areas, exclusive professional reports, market data, and expert commentaries and advice. More than 8,000 real estate agents are members of the Juwai IQI team, so you could say that Juwai.asia was created by agents and for agents. We worked hard to maximize the ways in which agents benefit by using Juwai.asia, including by winning more listings, generating more buyer enquiry, or getting assistance in closing transactions with foreign buyers. Two Australians founded Juwai in 2011 when they realized that agents needed a better way to reach foreign buyers. At that time, the cross-border property buying boom was just getting underway, but agents had no way to market their listings directly to buyers from overseas. Real Estate is the new global currency, and more investors seek to diversify their investments. In 2019, Indian buyers spent US$6.9 billion on American residential real estate, making buyers from India the third-largest foreign buyer group in the USA, followed by Mexico, the UK, and the Europeans. We looked at the portals available in the market and created Juwai.asia to fill the gaps by addressing the unmet needs of buyers and sellers. Juwai.asia is the complete solution and the answer to the new world of global investment which we have all entered. We used everything we have learned as the largest proptech company in Asia to simplify the process by which Asians become global residents. We poured into Juwai.asia all the lessons we learned over the past 10 years of marketing property online via Juwai and selling it offline with our team at IQI. We understand the needs of consumers, which makes Juwai.asia more relevant for developers, corporates, individual investors and property agent. We use our AI and responsive technology to promote listings to the best qualified likely buyers. ********** About Juwai IQI Juwai IQI is the holding company that operates the Asian real estate super-brands dedicated to empowering residents of Asia to become residents of the world: IQI and Juwai Limited. IQI is the No. 1 real estate network in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. IQI sold US$1 billion of property in 2019 and has more than 8,000 salespeople across 25 offices across 15 countries. Juwai Limited operates Juwai.com, the No. 1 Chinese marketplace for overseas property, and Juwai.asia, the first global portal for non-China Asian buyers. Juwai Limited advertises US$4 trillion of property from 91 countries every year. Visit http://juwaiiqiglobal.com for more information. A paramedic tackled an elderly patient to the ground fearing his colleague would be shot after the man in his 80s pulled a gun on the pair during a call-out in Melbournes west. Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said the paramedics were inside the patients Cairnlea home and preparing to load the elderly man for hospital when he drew what appeared to be a revolver and threatened to shoot, on Monday afternoon. Mr Hill said the paramedics had been called to the home after fears were raised the patient may have had a stroke. The job then took a turn for the worse in front of the man's family. The gun was later found to be an imitation firearm, police said. The latest Global Energy Alert report on 'How To Profit From The Oil Market Crash' is an absolute must-read for everyone from crude oil traders to energy investors. Sign up for your risk-free trial today and get the report for free. (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) Chart of the Week (Click to enlarge) - The U.S. South accounts for more utility-scale solar installations over the past three years than any other region of the country. - The South Atlantic region installed 2.2 GW of new solar in 2019, according to theEIA, more than double the 1 GW installed in California. - The EIA attributes strong solar growth in the South Atlantic to state government incentives. Market Movers - Oklahoma-based oil and gas driller Unit Corp. (NYSE: UNT) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. - Private equity giants Riverstone Non-ECI and Riverstone QB Holdings bought millions of shares in Centennial Resource Development (NYSE: CDEV). The Riverstone entities own 31.7 percent of Centennial. - BP (NYSE: BP) said it would cut its leadership in half, cutting senior management from 250 down to 120. We expect the reinvented bp to be smaller and nimbler. We have already started by removing a layer of management at Tier 1 and 2, BP CEO Bernard Looney said in an email to staff. Tuesday, May 26, 2020 Oil prices continue to show positive momentum as the oil market appears set to rebalance faster than expected. Rystad estimates that the market was 16 mb/d oversupplied in April. But by June, 4 mb/d in demand will come back and supply cuts of 12 mb/d will move the market back to an equilibrium, although at much lower levels compared to the pre-pandemic era. U.S. shale permanently damaged? February was peak shale, Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit, told the WSJ. Already struggling with a poor track record of profits, U.S. shale may not rebound to previous levels for years, if ever. More than 70 companies could file for bankruptcy this year at $30 WTI. Related: Covid-19 Crisis Could Crush Brazils Oil Boom Demand on the upswing. Roughly 4.1 billion people went into lockdown at its peak, but more than 90 percent of them live in areas that have seen some sort of a reopening. Driving activity and gasoline demand are rising, boosting bullish sentiment. Peak demand looms as threat to Russia. Russias economy could be in for years of stagnation as demand for its oil and gas may begin to wane, according to a new study. The study says that Russias economy could be destined to grow at below 1 percent for two decades, absent economic diversification. The rents that we enjoyed for the last 20 years will never come back, Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister and now a top government auditor, warned in an article, Bloomberg reports. Russia opens door to post-June cuts. Russia is considering extending the OPEC+ production cuts beyond June. IEA: No peak demand yet. The IEA said that oil demand has not yet peaked. In the absence of strong government policies, a sustained economic recovery and low oil prices are likely to take global oil demand back to where it was, and beyond, the IEAs Fatih Birol told Bloomberg. Qatar pursues LNG expansion. Qatar is moving forward with the development of the largest gas field on the planet. The North Field expansion project is moving full steam ahead, no delay there. The only issue is because of COVID and suppliers and so on, said Saad al-Kaabi, Qatars energy minister. In my view, you continue your plan and invest in the bad times because these projects are long term. The project will increase Qatars production capacity from 77m tonnes of LNG per annum to 110m by 2025, the FT said. Global LNG downturn. The glut of LNG worldwide could put the next phase of liquefaction plants on ice. We dont see any additional North American export capacity getting sanctioned in the next decade, Ross Wyeno, an LNG analyst at S&P Global Platts, told the Financial Times. The glut could last until the mid- to late-2020s, according to analysts. Qatars decision to continue to expand export capacity edges out any other competitor in the near-term. Related: The Worlds Most Controversial Oil Frontier Falls Out Of Favor With Big Banks Covid-19 spreads in Brazils oil fields. At least five oil companies have reported coronavirus cases among their workforces in Brazil, including Equinor (NYSE: EQNR) and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A). Brazil now ranks second in the world for the number of positive cases, and there are at least 544 known cases in Brazils offshore oil fields. U.S. air traffic picking up. While still a fraction of pre-pandemic levels, TSA data shows that passenger throughput at U.S. airports is increasing. On May 25, more than 340,000 people passed through American airports, nearly triple the low levels seen in April. But that number still stands at about 15 percent of year-ago levels. Iranian tankers arrive in Venezuela. Despite threats from Washington, five Iraniantankers carrying gasoline arrive in Venezuela. Gap between physical oil and contracts shrinks. In a sign of a tightening market, the price between physical oil and the Brent contract has narrowed in recent weeks, after a huge gap in April. A few weeks ago, we had armageddon pricing when nobody wanted physical barrels apart from for storage, Richard Fullarton, chief investment officer at hedge fund Matilda Capital Management Ltd., told the WSJ. U.S.-China tensions on the rise. Chinese President Xi Jingping said that China was preparing for a worst-case scenario of war. Tensions with the U.S. are on the rise and many geopolitical analysts have predicted a new Cold War appears all but inevitable. But is a hot war possible? Rural economies hit by dwindling oil revenues. Royalty checks to landowners are falling because of low oil prices and the collapse of drilling. By Josh Owens for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 23:21:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia will not be hysterical about the U.S.' withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies and will carefully consider further steps, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. "We will take an extremely balanced approach to analyzing this situation, relying primarily on our national interests and the interests of our allies," Lavrov said at a news conference following an online meeting of the foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization members. According to Lavrov, there will be a conference in October to review the implementation of the treaty. Last week, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that Moscow is open to dialogue with Washington on the treaty, but only if it is based on equal rights and aimed at mutual consideration of interests and concerns. The treaty, which became effective in 2002, allows members to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights over each other's territories to collect data on military activities. Currently, 35 countries, including Russia, the United States, and some other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, are members. Kyrgyzstan has signed the treaty, though it has not ratified it yet. Enditem Seoul, May 25 (IANS) US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien renewed calls for North Korea to give up its nuclear program if it wants to have a "great economy", after Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-un held a key party meeting to discuss bolstering nuclear deterrence. In his first public appearance in about three weeks, Kim presided over a session of the Workers' Party's Central Military Commission to discuss "new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report on Sunday. The North's first mention of "nuclear war deterrence" since early 2018 came amid an impasse in nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, and its struggle to improve its economy crippled by global sanctions and a pandemic-driven plunge in trade with China. "We've managed to avoid a conflict with North Korea over the last three and a half years. The president has engaged in some excellent personal diplomacy with Kim Jong-un," Yonhap News Agency quoted O'Brien as saying in a CBS News interview on Sunday. "But ultimately, the North Koreans, if they want to re-enter the world, if they want to have a great economy, we hope they do, they are going to have to give up their nuclear program," the official added. O'Brien also said the US will keep an eye on developments in what he calls a "very closed society" in North Korea. Nuclear talks have not been held between Washington and Pyongyang since working-level dialogue in Sweden in October 2019. --IANS ksk/ Hong Kong: FEHD expresses concern for worker The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department today expressed concern over an outsourced cleaning worker who was hospitalised after she fell ill while on duty. In a statement the department explained that the cleaning service contractor worker was found sick at Canal Road Public Toilet during her working hours yesterday. She was admitted to hospital and is in critical condition. It sent its regards to the worker and wished her a speedy recovery. The department said it is saddened by the incident and will maintain contact with her family through the service contractor to provide support and assistance to them as far as practicable. This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. How to fix it is the digital equivalent of a Gordian knot, except there is no cybersword of Alexander the Great to slice it in half. Banning Mr. Trump outright, the most extreme move, seems to be a nonstarter, given Mr. Dorseys belief that less is more when it comes to governing. While it worked when Mr. Jones was tossed off, a move that Mr. Dorsey came to last among the social media giants, doing the same to Mr. Trump would be quite different. While I had thought throwing Mr. Trump off Twitter was not the worst idea after all, what would the president do without his raging addiction to Twitter? I have come to believe that a Trump ban would be pointless and too drastic. The firestorm it would set off would alone be disastrous for Twitter to manage and probably come with deep financial repercussions. If you think that is not a good enough reason, I invite you to visit the reality of living as a public company in the digital age. Another solution being discussed inside Twitter is to label the tweets as false and link to myriad high-quality information and reporting that refute the tweets sinister insinuations. Sources told me that after initial hesitance in dealing with Mr. Trumps tweets about Ms. Klausutis, the company has accelerated work on a more robust rubric around labeling and dealing with such falsehoods. Again, top company executives hope that this placement of truth against lies will serve to cleanse the stain. I think this is both naive and will be ineffective most peoples experience tracks with that old axiom: A lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still getting its shoes on. In the digital age, that would be to the moon and back 347 times, of course, which is why I am supportive of the suggestion Mr. Klausutis makes in his letter to simply remove the offending tweets. While the always thoughtful Mr. Dorsey has said previously that he has to hew to Twitters principles and rules, and that the company cannot spend all of its time reacting, its approach up until now results only in Twitters governance getting gamed by players like Mr. Trump, in ways that are both shameless and totally expected. So why not be unexpected with those who continue to abuse the system? Taking really valuable one-off actions can be laudable since they make an example of someones horrid behavior as a warning to others. While it is impossible to stop the endless distribution of a screenshot of the tweets, taking the original ones down would send a strong message that this behavior is not tolerated. In a strongly worded statement, the U.S. Africa Command said the jets were flown from an air base in Russia first to Syria, where they were repainted to camouflage their Russian origin. According to Libyan officials, diplomats and analysts, at least eight jets were then sent to eastern Libya, arriving last week at a base controlled by commander Khalifa Hifter, who launched an offensive on the capital Tripoli last year. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Elia Vaissiere (Agence France-Presse) Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes, France Tue, May 26, 2020 09:00 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda158e1 2 World France,transgender,transgenderism,mayor Free France's first transgender mayor has vowed to wake up her village in northern France after taking office at the weekend in a step hailed by activists as a breakthrough. Marie Cau vowed to develop social and environmental policies in the village of Tilloy-lez-Marchiennes after receiving her honorary sash of office. Cau won a decisive first round victory in France's local elections on March 15, as her "Deciding Together" manifesto garnered the majority of the total votes in the 550-strong village, located close to the Belgian border. The 50-year-old's inauguration took place over two months after the election -- instead of the normal five days -- as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. "I'm not at all surprised by the result," said Cau, who has a steady blue gaze. An engineer, she described herself as first and foremost working like a company boss, with a passion for agriculture and the environment. 'Not because I'm transgender' The new mayor says the town's residents voted for her because they identify with her desire to develop sustainable agriculture and the local economy, as well as preserve the environment. "The villagers didn't vote for or against me because I'm transgender. They voted for a program and values. Social ties have disappeared, people want change," Cau said. "My dream is to build an exemplary village, to demonstrate that normal citizens can do things that the government can't," she said. "Congratulations, we wish you good luck!" said a 50-year-old villager in front of the small brick town hall. The newly-elected mayor will take office in challenging times due to the pandemic. But she will have a dream team by her side, she said, which has a great diversity of age, origin and gender. Cau's gender doesn't matter to villager Herve Fontanel. "She has been living here for 20 years, we know how she works. If she manages to create ties, so much the better for Tilloy!" His neighbor, Marie-Josee Godefroy, agreed. "The village will be revived and spoken of more," she said. Trans visibility Marie Cau is known by her third middle name. In the 15 years since her transition, she says she has never been the victim of discrimination. "It's rare. People are considerate, despite a couple of blunders," she said. "She didn't have any taboos, she spoke about herself to people who asked questions to end the conversation there," said her partner and town councilor Nathalie Leconte. "I'm surprised by the huge media attention given to her election," Leconte added. Cau said "it's surprising that it's surprising". "This situation should be normal, since people vote for a team and a project," the mayor said, adding that she is impatiently waiting for the day when the election of a transgender person is a non-event. But Cau recognizes the importance of her election. "It shows that transgender people can have a normal social and political life," she said. France's gender equality minister Marlene Schiappa congratulated the freshly appointed mayor. "The visibility of trans people and the struggle against transphobia also takes place through the exercise of public and political responsibilities. Congratulations to Marie Cau!" Schiappa tweeted Sunday. Co-president of SOS Homophobie Veronique Godet said that Cau's election is a landmark in the history of trans people and French politics. "We can see today that many trans people are in a process of emancipation and are beginning to occupy public spaces from which they were previously excluded," added Giovanna Rincon, the head of the transgender rights' group Acceptess-T. Rincon hopes that these kind of events will increase in frequency, "until the election of a transgender mayor of a big city such as Paris." Topics : France transgender transgenderism mayor Ever since Making a Murderer, true crime exposes on Netflix seem to attract a lot of buzz. Tiger King anyone? Many shed light on tales we have already heard about, but present them in such a way that they become episodic mysteries. Its easy to sit back on the couch as someone trawls through facts, police records, photos and videos and teases with a cliffhanger. Even better if the filmmakers uncover new evidence and reignite a real world investigation. The latest is the 4 part series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. This surrounds a name weve heard a lot about in recent years, especially given his famous friends & acquaintances including Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton. Produced by Joe Berlinger (Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes), and directed by Lisa Bryant, the subject matter does not sit easily for the viewer: grooming. Billionaire Epstein was convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute in 2005 in Florida. At the time of his apparent suicide in 2019 he was facing further charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. This documentary includes survivors who detail how Epstein groomed them, as well as police who describe their investigations and neighbour, famed author James Patterson. Amongst them is Annie Farmer who was 16 years old when Epstein crawled into bed with her in his Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. She didnt tell anybody what happened that night until years later. Her sister Maria also describes how she escaped my body when an incident took place at an Ohio mansion. Much of the crimes detailed take place in Palm Beach, Florida. Survivor Michelle Lacata is one of many who was paid to give him a massage, in what is revealed to be a chain of teen recruitment. I felt so used. I was like this dirty person. before Epstein I was something else a flower opening up. Afterwards it was like somebody picked up the flower, plucked it from its roots, stomped on it and smashed it, she recalls. Shawna Rivera (pictured) was just 14 years old, living in the poor neighbourhood of West Palm, when she was recruited. Haley Robson, who rejected his advances, explains how at just 16 she was paid to bring other girls to his mansion, in a sexual pyramid scheme. There are also accounts of how Epstein used his wealth and power to exert influence, including killing a Vanity Fair expose by journalist Vicky Ward. But Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich needs to stand as more than a cautionary talk or history lesson. Given the extent of his crimes there is still a question of enablers. Former associate Ghislane Maxwell denies all allegations, and has faced several civil suits. The series also plays police audio of interviews with former employees. Just how many knew of his crimes across the years? As previous docos have shown, expect more scrutiny around Epsteins former circle. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich starts today on Netflix. Lifeline 13 11 14 Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36 (Newser) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has garnered a slew of coronavirus-related headlines these past couple months. But this week has brought one that also includes the words "husband" and "boat." The Detroit News reports on the "purported request" from Marc Mallory that NorthShore Dock LLC get his boat in the water prior to the Memorial Day weekendthough Mallory's wife, who would be Whitmer, had urged residents to avoid heading to those parts of Michigan that were opening up for the Memorial Day weekend if they live elsewhere. Whitmer and her husband live in Lansing but have a home in the Elk Rapids area just north of Traverse City. Dock company owner Tad Dowker apparently made the claim in a Thursday Facebook post that's no longer publicly available. The News reports it read: "This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend. Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen. Well our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, 'I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?'" story continues below A subsequent post from the company apparently indicated its staff couldn't handle the influx of media requests it was getting; Dowker said the same thing in a Monday phone call with the News, which notes he "stood by the content of the post." The AP has this statement from Whitmer's rep: "Our practice is not to discuss the governor's or her family's personal calendar/schedules. And we're not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online." The Free Press reports a Republican lawmaker is saying that rumor was addressedfalsely. State Sen. Tom Barrett on Friday put up his own Facebook post critical of the alleged request, but says he took it down after Whitmer's office told staffers for GOP Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey the story wasn't true. Barrett says he later received information that convinced him it was. "I was drawn into a cover-up by the governor and her staff," Barrett said Monday. (Read more Gretchen Whitmer stories.) People in Suriname went to the polls on Monday with strongman President Desi Bouterse seeking a third term, battling to hold onto power months after being convicted of the murder of political opponents. The former military dictator turned politician has dominated his tiny South American country for four decades but polls suggested his National Democratic Party (NDP) was likely to lose its majority in the 51-member parliament which elects the president. Voting was extended by two hours beyond the 7:00 pm (2200 GMT) closing, with many voters still lining up to cast their ballots. At some polling stations, voters had stood in line for up to three hours. First results were not expected until Tuesday. Local election observer groups reported irregularities at several polling stations, including the names of deceased people on the voter rolls. "It is chaos. With every election you have spots, but these are like a big pool of oil that spreads in the sea," said Jennifer Van Dijk-Silos, chairwoman of the Independent Electoral Bureau, confirming the extension. Earlier, the 74-year-old Bouterse and his wife Ingrid Waaldring were among the first people to vote at a school in the capital Paramaribo, surrounded by supporters and media. Authorities lifted a partial coronavirus lockdown for the day and voters lined up at 1.5-meter (five-foot) intervals before the polls opened. However, a ban on public transportation remained in place, meaning people in rural areas had difficulties getting to vote, relying on political parties to help them. "Just a few more hours then we have liberated Suriname," said Bouterse's main rival Chandrikapersad Santokhi as he walked from his house to vote. An IDOS survey predicted the NDP's overall share will fall from 26 seats to between 14 and 17, with opposition parties claiming 12 of the 17 seats in the capital. - 'Heart and soul' - Bouterse is a controversial figure who last year was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a military court for ordering executions during a previous military dictatorship. He first took power in a 1980 coup and in 1982 allegedly rounded up and executed 15 political opponents, including lawyers, journalists and businessmen. The incident, known as the "December killings," was investigated by Santokhi, who now leads the main opposition Progressive Reform Party (VHP). Bouterse appealed his conviction and the case was postponed until June due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a separate case in 1999, a court in the Netherlands -- Suriname's former ruler -- sentenced Bouterse to 11 years in prison in absentia for cocaine smuggling, a charge he denies. Just over 380,000 people were eligible to vote in this Dutch-speaking and ethnically-diverse South American nation of 600,000 people. Many voters turned out in their party's colors or wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of candidates. Rudy Cederburg, a senior citizen, wore purple and white, with purple sport shoes. "I'm a true NDP in heart and soul," he told AFP. "I want this party to continue the development path it has taken, continue their development plans for this country." The NDP campaigned on its strong track record of substantially increasing social welfare, introducing mandatory health and pension insurances, carrying out major infrastructure projects and granting property to the landless. Opposition parties, though, accuse the Bouterse administration of numerous corruption scandals and have warned that the country cannot afford the NDP's spending. "The current government, NDP, has made a big mess of it in the past 10 years. Things are not going well in the country," said Consuela Prade, 34, who said she was still undecided as to which opposition party to vote for. - Voting along ethnic lines - Special coronavirus measures meant officials dabbed blue ink on the voters' fingers with an ear swab rather than letting them dip their fingers in an ink pot. A special mobile polling station was set up at the Zorghotel in Paramaribo for 187 people in coronavirus quarantine. The Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community are monitoring voting in the country, where ballots are often cast along ethnic lines. Many parties have publicly ruled out a coalition with the NDP as they blame the Bouterse administration for a financial crisis in the gold-and-oil-exporting nation. While a party or coalition needs only a simple majority to take control of the National Assembly, a president requires two-thirds of the votes to be elected. Surinamese are also electing 118 district and 772 local representatives, with 17 parties and more than 5,700 candidates on ballot papers. To the Times: The Delaware County Council last week took two actions which will seriously hurt Delaware County residents by dramatically increasing their wastewater rates and wreaking havoc on the wastewater system. The council moved to dissolve a newly created Customer Trust Fund intended to keep wastewater rates at a reasonable 3% increase and to dissolve our 50-year old, well run authority. Despite claims of transparency and open government, these actions were taken with no prior notice to DELCORA and with little to no public comment all done during a pandemic at a time when Delaware County has the highest 14-day case rates of COVID 19 in Southeastern Pennsylvania. And, while they are rushing to dismantle this well managed Authority and grab the funds set aside to help the ratepayers, County Council has not even told anyone how it intends to actually run a massive and complicated system meant to protect the public from waterborne diseases in just two weeks or prep time or how they will address the $1.2 billion worth of mandated work. These shortsighted actions are being taken in an effort to raid DELCORAs cash reserves which belong to ratepayers. The Delaware County Council has never contributed one dime to DELCORA in its fifty-year history. DELCORAs cash on hand reserved to pay for short-term improvements belongs to ratepayers not the Delaware County Council. The public needs to ask what the council intends to do with its money and how it intends to pay for the $1.2 billion DELCORA capital improvements required by federal mandates. In a public and transparent process including numerous public meetings, even two with Delaware County Council, DELCORAs board voted to merge with Aqua Pennsylvania Wastewater. This merger will allow DELCORA to spread out the $1.2 billion in future costs while also creating a Customer Trust Fund to keep ratepayers bills at a reasonable 3 percent increase. If the county is successful, ratepayers bills will soar to 10-12 percent increases every year. These harmful, expensive and ill-considered actions by Delaware County Council must be stopped. I urge all citizens to contact Delaware County Council before its vote on June 3. Robert J. Willert, DELCORA Executive Director, Chester Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - The German government has approved a 9 billion euros rescue package for Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKF, DLAKY), which is the largest German corporate rescue package since the coronavirus crisis struck. The airline has also agreed to the rescue deal. The German government will take a 20% stake in the airline, which it plans to sell by the end of 2023. The rescue package still requires approval of the European Commission, as well as the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company. As part of the rescue package, the government will also inject 5.7 billion euros in non-voting capital, which is known as a 'silent participation'. Part of the funds could be converted into an additional 5% equity stake, either if non-payment by the company or to protect the company against any potential hostile takeover bids. Lufthansa will also receive a syndicated credit facility of up to 3 billion euros from state-backed bank KfW and private banks with a term of three years. Germany will buy the new shares of Deutsche Lufthansa at the nominal value of 2.56 euros per share for about 300 million euros. Lufthansa said that conditions of the deal include the waiver of future dividend payments and restrictions on management remuneration. The German government will also fill two seats on its supervisory board, one of which is to become a member of the audit committee. Lufthansa had grounded 700 aircraft or nearly 90 percent of its total capacity in March due to the outbreak of the COVID-19. It expects to resume operations in June. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Twenty new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Cleveland, according to a news release from city officials. There are no new deaths in the city. The total number of coronavirus cases in Cleveland is now at 1,411, according to the news release. The new cases include men and women whose ages range from under 2-years-old to their 80s, the release says. The Cleveland Department of Public Health is working to identify close contacts of the residents who would need testing or monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms, the release says. The Ohio Department of Health reported Monday that 1,987 people in Ohio have died from coronavirus and more than 32,000 have been infected. Read more coronavirus coverage on cleveland.com: City of Twinsburg honors veterans on Memorial Day observance Edgewater Park closed to vehicle traffic Memorial Day amid coronavirus Ohio coronavirus deaths slightly under 2,000, confirmed cases more than 32,000: Monday update You have until May 31 to send free messages to Class of 2020 high school grads: Sign digital yearbook Michael Webers Quarantunes project brings Cleveland music community together F oxtons on Tuesday said it will start to reopen its London estate agency branches, with all set to be up and running again by June 1. The chain, which was founded in Notting Hill Gate in 1981, closed sites in March when the lockdown came in. It furloughed around 750 people in March and it will now look to bring these employees back to work on a gradual basis. Foxtons, known for its fleet of Mini Coopers, said the safety and well-being of our employees and customers is of paramount importance to the company. Its sites will comply with government guidance, including on social distancing. Measures implemented in its branches include: social distancing procedures throughout; enhanced hygiene and office cleans; mandatory Covid-19 training for all employees to engage appropriately with customers. Physical viewings and valuations will recommence under tightly controlled conditions with social distancing in place. Customers will be encouraged to view properties virtually in the first instance, and for any physical viewings to meet directly at the property. There will be a restriction on the number of people attending viewings with participants only able to attend if they confirm in advance they are not infected or displaying symptoms of Covid-19. The update comes around two weeks after the government eased restrictions on the sales and lettings market put into place in March. Estate agents offices can now open, as can show homes, and viewings are permitted. Previously people had been urged to avoid moving where possible during the lockdown. Foxtons said it continued to support customers online and over the telephone since the lockdown period began. Commissions earned in the eight weeks between March 23 and May 15 were down 44% on the prior year. Lettings commissions were 40% lower and sales commissions dropped 61%. Foxtons, led by Nic Budden, today said: "It is still too early to predict what the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will be on Foxtons full year results. There remains significant uncertainty over how long the London residential sales and lettings market will continue to be impacted by the pandemic. Nonetheless, the board is pleased with the resilience that the business has shown given such a disruptive backdrop." Uber India has fired as many as 600 of its employees in India, which is around a fourth of its total headcount in India. This is also the company's third major wave of layoffs in two weeks as the coronavirus-induced lockdown slashed demand. The employees who have been removed include those from marketing, customer and driver support, legal, finance, policy, and business development. Those sacked will get 10-12 week salary plus insurance benefit and outplacement support for six months. The company has allowed them to take laptops and they can also join the company talent directory. "Today is an incredibly sad day for colleagues leaving the Uber family and all of us at the company. We made the decision now so that we can look to the future with confidence. I want to apologise to departing colleagues and extend my heartfelt thanks to them for their contributions to Uber, the riders, and the driver-partners we serve in India," said Pradeep Parameswaran. Also read: Coronavirus impact: Swiggy lays off 1,100 employees, future of cloud kitchens uncertain Notably, Uber cut 3,000 jobs from its global workforce on May 19. In total, the San Francisco company has cut more than a quarter of its workforce since the year began. Recently, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi had said the company would refocus on its core business, moving people and delivering food and groceries. The company has also said it will close 45 offices globally, and almost all departments will be affected by layoffs. Also read: Zomato fires 13% employees, announces 50% salary cuts due to coronavirus The company is closing its Incubator and AI Labs and will pursue strategic alternatives for its job recruiting app, Uber Works, Khosrowshahi said. "This is a decision I struggled with," Khosrowshahi said. "Our balance sheet is strong, Eats is doing great, Rides looks a little better, maybe we can wait for this damn virus out...I wanted there to be a different answer...but there simply was no good news to hear." Also read: Coronavirus impact: Twitter-backed ShareChat lays off one-fourth of its workforce The rides business, Uber's main profit generator, fell 80 per cent, he said. "Ultimately, I realised that hoping the world would return to normal within any predictable timeframe, so we could pick up where we left off on our path to profitability, was not a viable option," he said. Uber's main rival Ola also laid off 1,400 employees last week as its revenue took a hit amid lockdown. CEO Bhavish Agarwal said the company's revenue has dipped 95 per cent in the last 2 months. "Our revenue has come down 95 per cent over the past 2 months. Most importantly, this crisis has affected the livelihoods of millions of our drivers and their families across India and our international geographies," he said. Also read: Coronavirus effect: Uber cuts 3,000 jobs as demand tumbles Zelensky rejects green energy memo monopolists tried to slip media 16:00, 26.05.20 6879 If approved, the new rules would be devastating to many Ukrainians. Schematic representation of a sandwich compound with a bottom ring composed of various elements. Credit: KIT Thanks to their special properties, rare earths are used in many high-tech products. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are now working on new applications of these elements. The team produces so-called sandwich compounds based on rare earths, which might serve as novel molecular materials for more efficient storage media or displays in future. The German Research Foundation (DFG) funds this groundbreaking study with EUR 500,000 under a Reinhart Koselleck Project. Sandwich compounds are chemical molecules, whose properties still are largely unknown. The compounds consist of two ring structures, between which a single metal atom is "trapped." Simply speaking, the compounds look like minute sandwiches. To study whether the molecules may serve as a basis of innovative future materials, Professor Peter Roesky, Head of the Chair for Inorganic Functional Materials of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry (AOC), and his team produce different types of these sandwich complexes at the laboratory. As metal atoms in the center of the compounds, the scientists use various elements from the rare earths group. The test molecules also differ in their ring structures. The rings consist of carbon and a variable proportion of other elements. Experiments are carried out with different ring sizes. Within the project, the researchers plan to systematically vary the size and structure of the rings in order to derive a structure-effect relationship. "We will study the influence of the structure of the sandwich compounds on their physical properties," Roesky explains. "In particular, we will focus on magnetism and luminescence of the molecules." So far, rare earths have usually been applied in solid materials used in high-tech products. The elements can be found in LED lamps, mobile displays, or magnets of wind turbines, to mention a few examples. Production of the molecular compounds from rare earths by Roesky is an approach that has hardly been considered so far. In the ideal case, researchers might obtain molecules behaving like minute magnets. Such compounds are also referred to as single-molecule magnets. Some day, these novel complexes might be used to produce storage media of considerably increased storage capacity in case of the same physical dimension. Roesky and his team also test rare-earth elements already used in luminescent mate-rials. Sandwich compounds containing such elements might be used to produce optimized displays in future. "Our project serves to obtain basic understanding of these novel materials," Roesky says. Explore further Ensuring the future affordability of wind turbines, computers and electric cars "These projects were selected by a panel of senior research leaders at Cincinnati Children's from more than 35 proposals," says Hector Wong, MD, interim Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and interim Director of the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation. "We deeply appreciate the swift, creative and enthusiastic response of our faculty to this global health crisis and we look forward to seeing the results of these important research efforts." Read more detail at the Research Horizons blog from Cincinnati Children's. The projects are: Developing SARS-CoV-2 nanoparticles as a potential vaccine Ming Tan, PhD, a virology expert who has developed "P particles" and "S particles" for use against norovirus, rotavirus, and other infectious diseases, is collaborating with Xi Jiang, PhD, to engineer nano-sized pieces of the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus for potential use as a vaccine against COVID-19. The concept calls for employing the team's S60 particle as a platform to display antigens from the novel coronavirus. In previous studies, Tan has shown that these nanoparticles pose less risk than traditional vaccine-making methods, and can be faster to produce. Once small quantities are produced, mouse studies and human clinical testing will be needed to confirm that the vaccine works, to determine the correct dose, and to determine its "shelf life." Understanding the heart damage caused by the virus at a molecular level Beyond assaulting the lungs, scientists have discovered that the novel coronavirus also can cause significant heart damage. Now Jeffery Molkentin, PhD, Director of the Division of Molecular Cardiovascular Biology, is teaming up with Steve Standage, MD, an expert in critical care medicine to lead a multi-center research effort to understand how the virus interacts with heart tissue at the molecular level. The results could help researchers develop tests and treatments to help prevent deaths and reduce potential future heart complications caused by the new virus. How does COVID-19 affect children with sickle cell disease? The medical community has known for some time that viral infections can trigger acute chest syndrome and other complications of sickle cell disease (SCD). Studies also have shown that children with SCD that become infected by influenza have a 56-fold increased risk of hospitalization compared to other children. Small wonder then that the emergence of COVID-19 sparked concern among experts at Cincinnati Children's who have devoted years to improving outcomes for this inherited condition. Now, Patrick McGann, MD, MS, will lead a project to learn more about how COVID-19 is affecting the SCD population here in Cincinnati, in Africa, and in the Caribbean. They plan to use blood samples already being collected within existing research studies to test for COVID-19 infection. This and related data will help establish how much risk people with sickle cell face from a COVID-19 infection, and potentially suggest ways to reduce that risk. How do teens with ADHD cope with pandemic-related disruption? Families facing job losses. Long weeks stuck at home instead of seeing friends at school. Major disruptions in routines and traditions. Widespread fear and anxiety about the future. Non-stop news. The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have been immense for everyone, but perhaps especially so for adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As it happens, Stephen Becker, PhD, a clinical psychologist, has been working to track more than 260 teens with and without ADHD to compare their coping skills related to emotions, sleep, academics, media use, family relations and more. Now the team plans to extend this study to track changes that have occurred during the pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 on foster youth Children growing up in the foster care system have experienced vast amounts of disruption to their lives. Now, the care and support systems that foster youth depend upon are facing new disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. How well are these families doing at communicating via telehealth technology vs. in-person conversation? Who loses access? What else might be needed to maintain support for these children? Mary Greiner, MD, MS, Medical Director for the CHECK Foster Care Center, and Sarah Beal, PhD, a developmental psychologist at Cincinnati Children's are working to find out. COVID-Miner: an artificial intelligence tool for supporting pediatric care This pandemic is big and fully understanding its impacts will require plenty of "big data." Biomedical informatics expert Yizhao Ni, PhD, has extensive experience in using the concepts of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to help computers "learn" as a form of artificial intelligence. Now Ni is applying those skills to the pandemic by developing a tool called COVID-Miner to extract vital information from more than 59,000 scholarly articles assembled by the White House and leading research groups as part of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19). SOURCE Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Related Links www.cincinnatichildrens.org If a Hollywood scriptwriter had penned a story about two foundlings, found as babies six years apart on either side of the Irish border, who after lifelong searches discover they are actually brother and sister, his movie proposal would doubtless have been rejected as simply too far-fetched. But real life can indeed be stranger than fiction for after being abandoned as days-old infants back in the Sixties, Northern Ireland man David McBride and Helen Ward, from the Republic, have found out they are indeed siblings. Its an extraordinary story of chance, serendipity and ultimately scientific advances in DNA that allowed the mystery of their respective backgrounds to be slowly unravelled. Expand Close Reunited brother and sister David McBride and Helen Ward / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Reunited brother and sister David McBride and Helen Ward Its also the story of a deeply moving reunion which viewers will be able to watch on their TV screens next week in a two-part installment of ITVs Long Lost Family Special: Born Without a Trace. All these years without knowing it, we were walking two paths waiting to come together as one, David marvels. Helen, too, is still struck by the remarkable chance of it all. It was overwhelming, she admits. Id built a picture of who my parents might have been, but Id never thought of siblings. Expand Close The story reported at the time / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The story reported at the time Of course, many in Northern Ireland will be familiar with the details of the early part of David McBrides life. Desperate to trace his birth mother, he had turned to the Press in the hope that she or someone who knew what had happened might come forward. Despite telling his story on numerous occasions over the years, travelling to Australia and taking part in a book Kate Adie wrote about foundlings, that vital breakthrough remained elusive. David, who grew up in Lisburn, was found by the wife of a Belfast doctor in her car two weeks after he was born, wrapped with a shawl in a tartan bag in Dunmurry in 1962. The discovery made headlines but no-one came forward with any information. When David eventually got his file from social services, he discovered they had delayed his adoption by his Protestant foster parents by nine years because they feared the complication of a Catholic mother stepping forward to claim him. Expand Close David on a swing as a young boy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp David on a swing as a young boy Six years later Helen was left in a telephone box, in Dundalk in 1968. She was found unexpectedly by a lorry driver who had pulled over to make a call. He discovered her wrapped in a blanket in a tartan bag, left alone with a bottle of warm milk. He raised the alarm and she was rushed into hospital. Despite their precarious starts in life, both enjoyed happy childhoods and teenage years with their adoptive families but for each of them the yearning to understand more of who they were could not be quelled. It was only at the age of 15, when David applied to join the Army, that he first learned he had been a foundling. He discovered his birth certificate recorded he was born on or about January 6. He couldnt fathom what it meant: Why doesnt it say the day that I was born? Why did no one know the day I was born? Expand Close Helens birth certificate stating child found exposed / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Helens birth certificate stating child found exposed Puzzled, he asked his father what that meant and he told me all, recalls David, who now lives in Birmingham with his wife and three children. He also has four grown-up daughters. Reassuringly and tantalisingly he was about 14 days old when he had been found by the doctors wife. It meant for the first few weeks of my life, someone fed me, kept me warm, loved me, he says. But who was that? No matter how hard David looked, no matter how many public appeals he made, he hit a brick wall. Expand Close Foundling David McBride at the spot just outside Belfast where in 1962 his mother abandoned him as a baby / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Foundling David McBride at the spot just outside Belfast where in 1962 his mother abandoned him as a baby Nor had he any idea that while he was carrying out his investigations, his sister was also conducting her own inquiries and, if anything, she had even less to go on than David. She had always known she was adopted but had no idea she was a foundling. As a teenager, she had asked her parents what they knew about her birth parents, but was told not to ask questions. When I was 17 I asked my dad, she explains, but was told to Let sleeping dogs lie. But you cant. My birth mum was always in my mind and the hardship of giving me up. Read More Helen went on to have three children of her own but her curiosity about her own parents never abated. In 2003 she went to an adoption centre in Drogheda, but her birth certificate simply stated child found exposed. She says she was left asking: Where else can I go? What else can I do? Ireland isnt that big. Somebody has to know something more. Expand Close Helen Ward as a young girl with her adoptive mother / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Helen Ward as a young girl with her adoptive mother Last year, still desperate to find a blood relative, she took a DNA test and submitted it to an online database. Just months later producers of Long Lost Family uploaded Davids DNA and discovered he had a match for a full sister. In emotionally charged scenes, viewers will see the pair first meet in a guesthouse near the Irish border. Ahead of the encounter, Helen says: To find that I have a brother, thats absolutely incredible. You spend your whole life looking for your family. Here it is, I cannot wait to meet him. Expand Close Helen Ward as a young girl / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Helen Ward as a young girl And afterwards both David and Helen give some insight into the impact of seeing their sibling for the first time. Finding Helen was one of the greatest gifts, David says. When we sat down and started talking, the world around us didnt exist. And Helen adds: Its just been unbelievable, unbelievable. When you sit there and you look at your brother, its a very strange feeling, a very exciting feeling. I mean after 51 years its a miracle, it really is. Search lead Ariel Bruce admits it is the most extraordinary story she has ever dealt with two foundlings, full siblings both looking for the same family and discovering each other had matching DNA. Expand Close Helen Ward meets lorry driver Donal Vaughan at the spot where he found her as a baby 44 years ago / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Helen Ward meets lorry driver Donal Vaughan at the spot where he found her as a baby 44 years ago There was, however, one aspect of the mystery left to solve. As David says, the fact his parents twice abandoned children is astounding. Its difficult to take it in that the same things happened to me happened to my sister. Thats shocking. Why do our parents make the decision to leave us? It happened once so why make the decision again. The truth, as it turns out, centres on a tragic love affair. After pursuing other genetic matches, researchers find out that their father was a shop manager in Dublin who died in 1993 while their mother had died in 2017. Further investigations uncovered that their father was a married Protestant with 14 children who had had an affair with their mother, 17 years his junior, and a Catholic. When she became pregnant, fearful of scandal, she felt she had no other option other than to give up her children. She never married or had more children, and both David and Helen feel great sympathy for their mother and the circumstances she found herself in. Now, though, after spending most of their lives excavating the past, they are determined to savour the present. As well as getting to know each other, they have spoken by phone to three half-siblings. We started one journey, says David, and now we are on another, getting to know each other and our family. Long Lost Family Special: Born Without a Trace, Monday, June 1 and Tuesday June 2. The programmes are produced by Wall to Wall Media for ITV Annex building of Mordecai and Esther burial site hit by 'minor fire' in Iran: report Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Officials in Iran have confirmed that a small fire broke out May 15 at the site of an ancient shrine long revered as the burial place of Esther and Mordecai. According to the Times of Israel, an investigation revealed that someone was caught in CCTV footage attempting to enter the holy site through an adjacent bank and perform a series of actions but failed. The publication cited opposition news sites that quoted the state-run news organization in the nation, the Islamic Republic News Agency. The IRNA report detailing the incident was scrubbed from its website mere hours after it was published Saturday, Radio Farda and Iran International websites said. The hall housing the tomb itself was not damaged, Iranian officials reportedly stressed. International Christian Concern reported last week that the director-general of Hamadans Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department announced that the fire only touched the annex building and not the main site. The incident took place on May 15, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the modern nation-state of Israel. Israel's adversaries, which include the Iranian regime, refer to May 15 as Nakba Day, which means "day of catastrophe." The arsonist's face was captured on camera but the person's identity and motives have not been made public as such things cannot be provided absent an arrest. The Simon Wiesenthal Center rights organization condemned the attack in a statement, calling the event barbaric and likening it to Nazi desecrations of Jewish sacred sites. Historically, Muslims safeguarded Jewish holy sites from Persia to Morocco, including the Tomb of Esther and Mordecai. But all that has changed under the Ayatollahs and the terrorist movements they have spawned. In recent years there have been annual anti-Semitic protests at the Holy Site where Jews have come to pray peacefully for hundreds of years, the center said. The story of Esther in the Bible recounts how a young Jew named Hadassah, who replaced Queen Vashti in the palace of King Xerxes of Persia, was renamed Esther, and through acts of bravery exposed a plot to wipe out the Jews from one of the king's men, Haman. In the biblical account, Esther's relative-turned-adoptive-father Mordecai was instrumental in Esther's risky yet successful ploy to appeal to the king to intervene. "The burial site of Esther and Mordecai is a sensitive issue in contemporary Iran, as the Islamist regime has often stressed that it draws a distinction between Jews and Zionists and has vowed to safeguard the local Jewish communities, its synagogues and other holy sites," The Times of Israel reported. The burial site of Esther and Mordecai is located in the Iranian city of Hamadan and has been a recent site of considerable contention amid other geopolitical developments in the region pertaining to Israel. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom raised concerns earlier this year over unconfirmed reports that authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran were threatening the destruction of the tomb of Esther and Mordecai in response to President Donald Trumps Middle-East peace plan. BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Despite Covid winter turmoil, the West End got a shot in the arm today with news that one of the biggest shows of the year will go ahead... two years after it was due to open. The antiviral drug remdesivir has emerged as one of the only options for treating the sickest COVID-19 patients, but nearly a month after federal regulators fast-tracked its use, supplies are scarce. This has left hospitals and doctors in San Antonio to confront the fraught, complicated task of rationing remdesivir. They are wrestling with thorny questions: Which patients should get the medication, and how should that be decided? What is the most ethical way to do it? There are clinical, as well as ethical, considerations when giving such a scarce resource, said Dr. Lynnette Watkins, chief medical officer for Baptist Health System. The Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for remdesivir at the beginning of May, after preliminary studies found it shortened recovery times and improved mortality rates. But even after the federal government took custody of the available inventory from its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, and distributed it to states, some San Antonio hospitals have still struggled to access it. The company is ramping up production, but it may be some time before remdesivir is commercially available. On ExpressNews.com: FDA fast-tracks coronavirus drug tested in San Antonio To deal with this quandary, San Antonio hospital systems have formed ethics committees to guide the decisions. An advisory group of infectious disease physicians from across the city also is collaborating to devise local criteria for remdesivir, in partnership with Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, which coordinates emergency services for the San Antonio area and has helped organize the regions response to the pandemic. STRAC, which regularly meets with leaders from San Antonios hospital systems, has also facilitated conversations about the uneven access to the medication. Dr. Duane Hospenthal, an infectious disease specialist who serves as Baptists medical director of infection control, is among the doctors in the advisory group. He said guidance from the FDA on its use is not particularly detailed. It requires that patients meet parameters for oxygen saturation, liver and kidney function and not have known sensitivities to any of the drugs ingredients. Patients receive the drug intravenously on five- or 10-day courses, depending on whether they require the support of a mechanical ventilator or an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, which can support heart and lung function. The San Antonio guidelines, while still being drafted, will prioritize patients who are receiving intensive care but whose respiratory function is still rapidly deteriorating, Hospenthal said. University Health System and Brooke Army Medical Center have had a supply of remdesivir since March, when the hospitals joined a federally funded clinical trial that is testing the efficacy of the medication. In mid-May, University Hospital entered a new phase of the study, which involves treating patients with the antiviral alone or in combination with an anti-inflammatory drug. A day after the new phase began, the Texas Department of State Health Services announced it was sending University another 120 vials of the drug, as part of the federal distribution effort. Methodist Healthcare has also secured limited doses, through an expanded access program with Gilead and participation in a different remdesivir study. The Baptist system, meanwhile, had been unable to obtain the drug, even though it has treated many severely ill COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit at Northeast Baptist Hospital. Last week, after hospital leaders met with STRAC, University released 20 of its doses to Baptist. The hope was that it would get distributed based on how many patients weve been seeing over the last month. But when the distribution came forward, only University got the drug, Hospenthal said. They kindly distributed that to other needy facilities, because they do still have the drug for their clientele. On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio coronavirus patients enrolled in trial of promising antiviral drug Last week, Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in the Medical Center received about 50 vials of remdesivir through the state health department. Two other Christus hospitals in Corpus Christi and Tyler also received shipments. Katy Kiser, a Christus spokeswoman, said hospital staff will determine how the drug will be used, in compliance with federal regulations. This is something all our physicians and frontline staff are carefully monitoring, as new guidelines and treatment options must constantly be watched, she said in a statement. Every day, we learn more about changes and new treatment options for this virus and expect that knowledge to continue to grow. Jeff Mandel, vice president of pharmacy for Methodist, said the system has made a concerted effort to advocate for COVID-19 patients in San Antonio. The federal government has allocated remdesivir to states based on need, but Mandel said that can complicate the case for a city like San Antonio, which has people who are critically ill with COVID-19 but which hasnt yet experienced a major patient surge. Weve had to be very proactive and aggressive to go out and push for the San Antonio community to have access to remdesivir for the patients we are treating, he said. The reality is that its limited in what we have. We are looking at ways to prioritize or somehow come up with a process to select which patients qualify for it, and how do we monitor it going forward. Ethically, Watkins said Baptist will seek to explore all options for all patients, including those with underlying health conditions, who are more likely to suffer from serious complications from COVID-19. When considering the medications use, doctors will evaluate whether other options had been sufficiently explored. We want to make sure that our decisions, and its in addition to them being clinically sound and understandable, that we are also factoring in other ethical considerations regarding the resources that we have, she said. Are we being fair and balanced in our decision? Is this the patient that is going to benefit the most from this medication at this time? Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Lauren, become a subscriber. lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba New Delhi: Indian Army on Tuesday (May 26) cautioned against inimical elements using fake Emblem and Insignia on social media to spread propaganda. The Additional Directorate General of Public Interface (ADGPI), India Army, through its official Twitter handle issued a clarification today. It tweeted, "# Inimical elements are using #IndianArmy #Emblem/ #Insignia and creating Fake/ Parody accounts on Twitter to spread propaganda. Follow #IndianArmy verified account @adgpi and guard yourself against #FakeNews." Earlier on Monday, the Army clarified that it has 'no plans' to create a separate Himachal Regiment, asking people to 'stay away from rumours'. The ADG PI took to social media and said, "There is NO such plan of creating a separate Himachal Regiment in the Indian Army." Messages on Social Media are circulating about the creation of a #Himachal #Regiment having headquarters at #Kangra. Request guard against misinformation and #Fake messages. pic.twitter.com/R3GkBzUnYI ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) May 25, 2020 It further added, "Messages on Social Media are circulating about the creation of a #Himachal #Regiment having headquarters at #Kangra. Request guard against misinformation and #Fake messages (sic)." The clarification was issued after messages surfaced on social media that a special regiment was being created for the youth of Himachal Pradesh. 5G is witnessed as a revolutionizing technology in many parts of the globe and is yet to fully extend its presence in India. Over the next few years, 5G is projected to become the primary communications network within cities in many countries around the world, including India. It will enable communications 20 times faster than todays 4G connectivity, transforming mobile networks and helping local governments better support their constituents. In fact, this technology will change the daily lives of communities and generate a wealth of opportunities for improvements in public safety, transportation, online government services and more. For instance, private cab aggregators like Uber and Ola have inter-city services which require the cab drivers to stand in long ques to pay toll taxes whenever they try to go from one city to the other. Although there are monthly/long term packages available for paying of such taxes, the cab drivers are not sure about the frequency of their travel, hence they refrain from opting such packages. With 5G connectivity an application could be developed in the future which will be able to keep a track of the location of every vehicle and will automatically deduct the tax amount from the linked payment gateway. To bring in more transparency, tax collection accounts of different states could be linked to the application so that the amount due could automatically be transferred to the respective state bodies. This would not only make operations easier for the cab drivers and aggregators but will also help in managing long-ques that are witnessed at toll complexes on a regular basis. So what does the connected everything revolution mean for local government and IT leaders? Getting started with 5G The next-gen 5G network is not merely an evolution of 4G, it requires massive transformation. Many local governments are not yet ready with a data architecture that can support the increased volume of data that would be a case when 5G is deployed. The increased volume of data would be in different incoming data types such as video and audio content. Therefore, 5G advantages wont be realized by building proprietary, vertically integrated networks like those for 4G. A foundation for 5G data interactions will require a modern and flexible data infrastructure including virtualization, both hypervisors and containers, open networking and storage. Moreover, implementation of 5G connectivity across a nation does not solely rely in the setting up of advanced and compatible infrastructure. 5G revolution could be termed successful not only when citizens are able to make the best of it, but also when the workforce of businesses can cherish the benefits of this technology. They need to be skilled in more than just mobile networking and be organized to integrate DevOps to create new applications that can take advantage of high-speed mobile data. Shifting to 5G will require operational excellence to integrate domain knowledge, data science and computer science skill sets. Additionally, the foundational shift to 5G must also happen in conjunction with security transformation. Networking and security are evolving in tandem, and 5G supports that evolution, integrating security natively into all services and processes, rather than as an overlay. Point products, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems will give way to data-driven, automated security frameworks that leverage the underlying programmable infrastructure for visibility, detection and enforcement. Balancing the transformations for workforce, IT and security will put cities a step closer to realizing the full benefits of 5G and continue to improve constituent experience. Digital equity with 5G 5G offers the ability to deploy high-speed connectivity in places where we cant today, closing the digital divide. As cities install the 5G backbone, they should also consider how the technology can create a more equitable community. It is expected that by 2050, 66% of the worlds population will be residing in urban areas. Hence, there would be increased demand for water resources, clean energy, transportation, healthcare, public safety, etc. This increased demand will be met by 5G evolution, by harnessing the power of the IoT devices to resolve the challenge with seamless connectivity. In India, there are several cities like Pune and Jaipur that are already thinking about their transformation into digital cities and deployment of the 5G technology which will make this journey seamless. With the help of emerging technologies such as AI, IoT and big data, cities would be able to derive and develop innovative solutions for local problems. When it comes to 5G, whats important to remember is that, this 5G transformation will not be an overnight or simple upgrade, but a gradual architectural evolution. 5G in India is witnessed as a game changer for the economy, and is expected to create an economic impact of more than US$1 trillion by 2035. No doubt this journey will comes with its own set of challenges, but it brings opportunities that will set leading communities apart and pave a path to more efficient and transformational government services. From smart factories to cities to connected everything 5G is the key element and the bedrock of innovation, which will transform the way we live and work. Authored by:- Mr. Alok Ohrie, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies India (The views expressed in this article are by Mr. Alok Ohrie, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies India. Technuter.com doesnt own any responsibility for it.) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 20:41:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PARIS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday vowed to massively back the auto sector to help it recover as the coronavirus crisis has taken a toll on the country's key industry. "The health crisis massively and brutally brought the French car sector to a halt. This is a part of our economy, thousands of jobs," Macron said on Twitter. "Our support will be massively amplified." Macron is to visit a car equipment factory in empales, near Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais), where he is expected to unveil a support plan later Tuesday. The automobile sector, which offers 400,000 direct jobs in France, had been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. It is the second sector to have a specific recover plan after tourism. In a statement released on May 1, French Automobile Manufacturers Committee (CCFA) said sales of French brands plunged by 84.2 percent in April due to national coronavirus lockdown. PSA, the country's leading car manufacturer, saw 84.4 percent drop in its sales to 10,098 units, while Renault, the country's second largest carmaker, offered 7,148 units, sharply down from 44,348 vehicle sold in April 2019. (1 euro = 1.095 U.S. dollars) Enditem PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 08:58:02 A lean team in Telenors new Nordic Hub will work to strengthen key areas, such as 5G, IoT, and the business and SME segment, across the companys Nordic markets. EVP Jukka Leinonen will continue is his roles as Head of Nordics and CEO of DNA in Finland. Jesper Hansen, current CEO of Telenor Denmark, will join as the Nordic Hubs Chief Operating Officer, effective 1 August. With a strong presence in the four Nordic markets, we are pursuing further growth opportunities across the region, through best-practice sharing, resource pooling and scaling of innovative products and solutions. This will increase customer value and improve the overall quality, service and experience in all Nordic markets, says Jukka Leinonen, Head of the Nordics. Working closely with the companys Nordic CEOs, the Nordic Hub team will facilitate greater collaboration across the region, fostering growth and competitiveness. With Jukka at the helm of this united and collaborative force, we are well-positioned as a strong Nordic telco competitor. We recently merged our clusters in Asia (creating Asia Unit) as well as established a new Asia Hub (1 May 2020), with Jrgen C. A. Rostrup as Head of Asia. These steps help to ensure that we are fit for the future, ready to uncover new growth, and at all times keeping our increasingly advanced customers connected to what matters most, says Sigve Brekke, President & CEO for Telenor Group. Key organisational details Jukka Leinonen will continue to represent Nordics on Telenors Group Executive Management team. Jesper Hansen, current CEO of Telenor Denmark, will join the Nordic Hub as its Chief Operating Officer, effective 1 August. Hansen will be succeeded by Lars Thomsen (Acting Head of Commercial & Strategy), who will step down from Telenors Group Executive Management team to take on the CEO role in his native country, Denmark. Anne Kvam, Head of Corporate Affairs, also steps out of Telenors Group Executive Management team. She will take on the responsibility to launch Telenor Groups strategy and platform for achieving its climate ambitions, announced at the Capital Market Day in March. We will modify the Group Executive Management structure for Telenor, effective 1 June, in order to reflect a focused and streamlined organisation, designed to support our strategic ambitions for growth, modernisation and responsible business, adds Brekke. With these changes, we will have 43 percent women in the executive management, exceeding our 35 percent target, as well as three nationalities. We will continue working on increased diversity in all levels of our organisation, and this is another step in the right direction. The Group Executive Management (as of 1 June 2020) will include: Sigve Brekke President & CEO Tone H. Bachke EVP, Chief Financial Officer Cecilie B. Heuch EVP, Chief People & Sustainability Officer Ruza Sabanovic EVP, Chief Technology Officer Jrgen C. A. Rostrup EVP, Head of Asia Jukka Leinonen EVP, Head of Nordics Petter Brre Furberg EVP, CEO of Telenor Norway Media contact Tormod Sandst | tormod.sandsto@telenor.com | tel: +47 90 94 32 15 Partnership with Datacipher allows customers and partners to receive localized training which will help to achieve Pulse Secure Technical Expert certification SYDNEY, Australia, May 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulse Secure , the leading provider of software-defined Secure Access solutions, is pleased to announce its new partnership with Datacipher to deliver Pulse Secure Authorized Training courses across Australia and New Zealand. The continuous evolution of cyber threats and the complexity of hybrid, multi-cloud environments mean that demand for Pulse Zero Trust Access solutions and skilled resources has never been higher, said Mike Waring, Regional Director for Asia Pacific at Pulse Secure. The team at Datacipher brings depth of experience in Australia and New Zealand that will help to enable and empower our partners and customers to tailor and deploy Pulse Secures portfolio of solutions. To our customers, that means more secure access to data and applications, and a vastly improved end user experience. Datacipher is positioned to be the preferred training partner in APAC for next generation networking, cloud, and cyber security skills, said Amar R Kotha, Managing Director at Datacipher. We are thrilled that we are joining Pulse Secure as their training partner. This partnership will allow us to increase our offerings in network security skill development to our privileged customers. Pulse Secure brings together core secure access functions with required interoperability for hybrid IT and multi-cloud. The companys Zero Trust value proposition is realized through its Access Suite, which delivers protected connectivity, operational intelligence, and threat response across mobile, network, and multi-cloud environments in order to provide easy, compliant access for end users and single-pane-of-glass management for administrators. The Pulse Secure Training and Certification Program includes training courses designed to help network engineers, enterprise system architects, technical support specialists and implementation consultants to successfully deploy and maintain Pulse Secure products and services. After completing the training course, participants are prepared to take the Pulse Secure Certified Technical Expert exams. Local classes will begin in July 2020 and will include training for: Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) - Deployment, Implementation and Configuration ; Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) - Administration and Configuration ; and Pulse Secure vADC - Administration and Configuration. Pulse Partners and customers can find local class offerings by visiting the Datacipher website: http://datacipher.com/pulse-secure-training/ Tweet This @PulseSecure Expands Global Education Partnerships Throughout Australia and New Zealand. Become a #SecureAccess expert with #PulseSecure & register today . About Pulse Secure Pulse Secure provides easy, comprehensive software-driven Secure Access solutions for people, devices, things and services that improve visibility, protection and productivity for our customers. Our suites uniquely integrate cloud, mobile, application and network access to enable hybrid IT in a Zero Trust world. Over 24,000 enterprises and service providers across every vertical entrust Pulse Secure to empower their mobile workforce to securely access applications and information in the data center and cloud while ensuring business compliance. Learn more at www.pulsesecure.net Follow @PulseSecure on Twitter or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook . After months of emphasis on diagnostic screening, contact tracing and research into possible treatments, Houston is about to deploy a new tool in the effort to contain COVID-19: antibody testing. Baylor College of Medicine researchers last week presented evidence to school leadership that the blood test it developed to detect whether an individual has been infected with the coronavirus is highly accurate and ready for use in studies assessing the virus reach in the area. Such studies would provide the answer that has not been ascertainable because of the shortage of diagnostic testing. This will tell us the severity of the disease based on prevalence, the number of people who have had the virus but do not show up in case counts because they were asymptomatic and werent tested, said Dr. Paul Klotman, president of Baylor. Thats needed to better understand how infections impact different Houston communities, the variations in those communities and the numbers in certain high-risk environments, like prisons and nursing homes. Klotman said he anticipates Baylor will partner with local health departments to determine how best to use its limited manpower such as where to focus testing and contact tracing based on the prevalence the studies find in communities. The first study should test the blood of roughly 5,000 people, Klotman said. LOCKED INSIDE: An outbreak at the county jail was a nightmare scenario then it happened A Baylor prevalence study based on antibody testing would put the Houston region among a handful of U.S. communities to conduct such research, which has found that more than 20 percent of people in New York City but only 4 percent of those in Los Angeles County have been infected. Klotman said he thinks Houstons rate will be closer to the California number. Such antibody testing, repeated over time, also would show the areas progress toward herd immunity, the protection from a contagious disease that occurs when a high percentage of the population has either had the infection or been vaccinated. Experts say that percentage there is no vaccine for the coronavirus yet needs to reach at least 60 to 70. The wild, wild West The tests were originally touted as a tool to guide the reopening of the economy and the reintegration of society, based on the hope the presence of antibodies in individuals confers immunity to COVID-19 and allows them to interact with others without the risk of passing on or contracting the virus. But Klotman said such individual use of its test is well down the road as it prioritizes community testing for public health planning. It also has become unclear whether antibody testing actually will play that role at least anytime in the near future. MAJOR LEAGUE TESTING: MLB antibody study: 0.7% of those tested had been exposed to coronavirus The promise of the test, a prick of the finger seemingly all thats necessary to show an individual has immunity, has triggered an onslaught of entrepreneurial activity in the United States. About 200 companies have manufactured tests, easily more than for any other disease. But most were unreliable, it turned out. Critics called the field the wild, wild West. Theres been lots of anecdotal evidence of false positives and false negatives, said Catherine Troisi, a professor of epidemiology and infectious disease at the UTHealth School of Public Health. No one really knows if most of them work. Troisi notes that just 13 of the roughly 200 tests have been vetted by the Food and Drug Administration and says, Right there, you see there might be a problem. Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health, expresses concern that the unfettered COVID-19 antibody testing being shopped around by vendors has fueled confusion some have used it as a diagnostic tool, though even reliable tests only show that the body has mounted a defense against the virus, not whether theres active virus at that moment. Even the Texas department of health was guilty, until recently, including positive antibody tests in coronavirus case counts. It is now separating the two. RELATED: Coronavirus antibody tests have proliferated in San Antonio. Heres the problem. Shah and others said they arent sure to what extent unvalidated antibody tests are proliferating in the Houston area, hearing occasional anecdotal reports but little beyond that. Christus Health, which operates hospitals in Texas, bought about 70,000 kits made by a Houston-based manufacturer in March the test isnt one of the 13 the FDA has approved but the system has no hospital in the Houston area. The FDA, under fire for allowing the marketing of the tests, earlier this month stepped up its scrutiny, requiring that companies submit data proving their accuracy. It followed a report by more than 50 scientists that found just three of every 14 coronavirus antibody tests provide consistently reliable results. Even the best are flawed, it found. 90 percent of the time It was because of the lack of accurate tests that Baylor developed its own in recent months, first using it to confirm the presence of antibodies in blood plasma donated by people who had recovered from COVID-19 as possible therapy for the disease, ultimately having a laboratory that validates the flu test every year verify its reliability. We may not detect all individuals whove been infected, but the goal is as few false positives as possible, Pedro Piedra, a Baylor professor of molecular virology and microbiology and the leader of the research, said during the tests development. The challenge is to not to mistake previous coronavirus infections common, milder for the new coronavirus. In lab results from 320 blood samples presented last week, the Baylor test correctly ruled out people who had not had the infection 99 percent of the time, meaning it produced false positives 1 percent of the time; it correctly identified people who have been infected 90 percent of the time, meaning it produced false negatives 10 percent of the time. Thats better than the 90/90 standard White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx has set for manufacturers. But even when antibodies are correctly identified, some experts warn against assuming too much. Because so little is known about the virus, they question how long antibodies likely will provide protection or if its a sure thing they even will. Though most experts believe it would be unusual if such antibodies didnt protect those previously infected for some significant period of time, researchers are scrambling to study how long and what levels they must reach for optimal protection. To assess whether the immune response wanes over time, the CDC is about to launch a study that will test donor blood monthly for 12 months, then once more at 18 months. In addition, both Baylor and Houston Methodist Hospital, which has also developed an antibody test, are working on COVID-19 immunity tests that measure the level of antibodies, not just whether there is or isnt a presence of them. Those tests are not as far along in development. Meanwhile, enthusiasm for antibody testings role in reopening the country has fallen off not just because of the tests unreliability but because the number of people with seeming immunity is far too small to affect necessary workplace social distancing. Troisi argues that immunity passports the initially touted idea of digital or physical documents that certify an individual has been infected and is purportedly immune likely would lead to black markets and workplace discrimination and privacy concerns. The emerging consensus for now is antibody tests great value is population studies and public health planning, the work that Baylor hopes to start soon. The school must still secure funding, but Klotman says that shouldnt take long given the situations urgency. It also must design unbiased studies, a challenging task since people who have experienced some symptoms and suspect they may have had COVID-19 are more likely to volunteer. Still, Klotman envisions a study testing the blood of people reflective of the areas diverse demographics, selected by ZIP code. From there, Baylor can hone in on the areas where infection rates are highest. Everything you hear is that the virus is ravaging communities of color, people at high risk, said Klotman. We think thats true, but what we dont know is if those communities have more virus than other communities. Find the communities where the virus has been more prevalent and thats where to focus public health resources. todd.ackerman@chron.com Nordea examines the Euro outlook in its latest weekly report and looks at three key Euro-to-Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate impact. Image: EUR/USD exchange rate chart Two of these elements have been important focus points during May and Nordea expresses some surprise that they have not attracted more attention within markets. We find investors surprisingly uninterested in the potential debt game changer for the EUR, even if the Franco-German debt proposal will face a truckload of obstacles this week. It may be worthwhile buying a EUR lottery ticket in option space. According to Nordea, minutes from the May ECB policy meeting suggested that the Council was not overly concerned over the risk to its bond-buying programme from the German Constitutional Court ruling. The bank considers that German politicians, led by Chancellor Merkel, would not allow the Court to block Bundesbank bond buying. We see a very low risk that the Karlsruhe ruling will prove to be a medium-term obstacle for the ECB. The second key element is the Euro-zone recovery fund proposed by France and Germany. Their plan calls for a EUR500bn rescue package which would be in the form of grants and funded through bonds issued by the EU Commission. According to Nordea, the Euro area has continuously struggled since its inception given that no common fiscal firepower has been available. This has left several Southern European member states, such as Italy, trapped with rising debt burdens and no significant growth. There has been opposition to the Franco-German plan with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Austria maintaining their opposition to debt mutualisation and calling for support instead in the form of low-cost loans. The EU Commission will announce details of its own recovery proposals on Wednesday and there will be a key Summit in June. Any agreement on a substantial support package would potentially provide strong euro support. If push comes to shove and some sort of de facto EU debt proves to be the future name of the EU-game, it will likely be a game-changer for EUR-markets, even if the initial common debt size isnt a biggie. According to Nordea most investors expect a watered-down plan at the EU-27 summit, which leaves a pretty good risk/reward in buying Euro options. Nordea also considers a third aspect regarding financial reform which has received much less market attention. EU Lawmakers have looked at reform of the MiFID II legislation which is designed to greater protect investors, consumers and other businesses when it comes to financial services. According to Nordea; the EUR has generally struggled versus USD during the relative tightening of Euro area regulatory burdens versus peers in the US. In effect, the tighter element of regulation has stifled activity and profitability within the financial sector which has tended to limit capital inflows into the Euro area. The Euro-zone banking sector has consistently under-performed relative to the US and Nordea considers this has been an important factor undermining the Euro. Image: Euro mifid In this context, any revision of rules would tend to be a Euro positive and Nordea considers that a roll-back in isolation would add as much as 10 big figures for EUR/USD. If we assume that i) MIFID II is rolled back and ii) that 3M EUR-USD hedge costs remain as low as currently, we make the case that >1.20 readings in EUR/USD could be on the cards. Even if only one of these aspects comes to fruition, there would still be potential net Euro support. Nordea, however, is wary over the risk of weaker risk appetite during the next few weeks which would tend to trigger renewed defensive dollar demand and limit scope for EUR/USD support. MINNEAPOLIS, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Health insurance marketplace Gravie announced today that its industry-leading Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) platform was selected by Key Benefit Administrators (KBA), one of the largest full-service benefits administration firms in the country. KBA intends to bring this innovative tax-advantaged employee health benefits solution to employers across the nation. New in 2020, ICHRA regulations allow employers to give tax-advantaged dollars to their employees, which they can use to buy a health insurance plan in the individual market. This defined contribution approach gives employers cost certainty as they can control their budget and how much they allocate for each employee and offers their employees freedom to choose a plan that best fits their individual needs. The partnership with KBA allows Gravie to expand its already considerable presence in the market. "We are thrilled to partner with KBA to bring this new way of offering health insurance to employers across the country. Our comprehensive, fully-integrated platform is unique in the marketplace and enables employers and their employees to enjoy all the advantages, including flexibility and cost savings, associated with the ICHRA approach," said Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Gravie, Abir Sen. "KBA's partnership with Gravie is particularly important at this time of reopening for small to medium size businesses due to COVID 19," said Larry Dust, CEO of KBA. "The backbone of American business is looking for every way to reestablish its financial foundation while competing for talented associates. The ICHRA, defined contribution, will be one of the answers for many of them going forward." If you're interested in learning more about this partnership, call Libby Johnson at 612.384.3071 or send an email to [email protected]. About Gravie Gravie's approach to health benefits is disrupting traditional models, putting individuals and their health back at the center in a way that's beneficial to employees and employers' bottom lines and overall satisfaction. Gravie was founded on a legacy of innovation with leaders from some of the most industry-changing healthcare companies who continue to reinvent and push the status quo to better meet the needs of individuals and teams today. With expert advisors, smart technology and a streamlined model, Gravie alleviates much of the headache associated with choosing and managing a healthcare plan, providing better options for employees with controlled and reduced costs for employers. Gravie has served over 900 employers and over 62,000 individuals across the U.S. To learn more visit www.gravie.com. About KBA Key Benefit Administrators is recognized as the largest, independently owned, third party administrator in the United States. KBA was founded in 1979 by Larry Dust on the principles of delivering innovative healthcare risk management and high tech/high touch service at an exceptional level. SOURCE Gravie Related Links https://www.gravie.com Photo credit: Amazon Prime From Cosmopolitan Last episode of Making the Cut ended with Heidi saying that she had a surprise for the final three contestants, and it seemed like she might be telling them that the competition was moving to yet another country (reminder: so far we've been to New York, Paris, and Tokyo). But the surprise is *so* much more than that: Sander Bos, Jonny Cota, and Esther Perbandt aren't just hopping on a planethey're being sent home! Heidi and Tim tell the contestants to pack their bags, because they're going back home for a month before reconvening in New York City. And it's not like Sander, Jonny, and Esther are getting some time to recoup and refresh from the competition, but rather, they'll have to use that month to work on the final challenges. Tim and Heidi reveal that the last assignment consists of: Creating a 12-14 look collection for a fashion show Creating, designing, and merchandising a pop-up shop that is representative of their brand and an accessible preview of their fashion show looks Preparing a business plan and a pitch to make it clear how they plan to use the $1 million to grow their brand Whew! The designers then say ta-ta for now and travel back to their respective countries. Jonny goes back to Los Angeles, but doesn't give himself more than a night there"I knew if I took one day to slow down, I wouldnt be able to get back in high gear," he explains, so the following day he actually flies to Baliwhere the teams that he usually works with are basedand designs his final looks from there. Sander heads to Hasselt, Belgium and enlists his sister to help him with print-making and his mom to drive him around, because, er, he can't drive! Esther returns home to Berlin, Germany, and her strategy for staying focused is not telling anyone that she's back. Story continues When the designers head back to New York, the atmosphere shifts a bit, probably because they all know that they're thisclose to winning the competition. First up is the pop-up portion of the challenge, but pretty immediately upon their arrival to the NYC design studio, Tim drops a huge bomb on them: There will be an elimination after the pop-up shops, and only two designers will have a final fashion show. For the pop-up shops, the designers have to create the entire experience, from the walls and the shelving to the product tags and mannequins. Oh, and to make things even more intense, the judges invite the public to the shops and will be taking into account which store gets the most orders. Sander is calling his new collection Miss Bos, and says, "Miss Bos is right in the middle of streetwear and couture. Its like the silver lining between the two angry clouds." For the pop-up store, Sander plays with the idea of the House of Bos and gives his cool shiny rainbow-colored space a house-feelincluding a glass box in the middle to reference the modern art he's really inspired by. He also comes up with the idea to have in-house tailoring to give his accessible clothing a more high-end feel. Esther is also inspired by art for her pop-up, and her main idea is an art installation with black ropes hanging from the ceiling. She chooses concrete for the floor and walls and, yet again, mostly designs in black. "During the past few weeks, I have discovered that my creative limit is not reached yet, and I didnt expect that," Esther says. "Im so hungry for life, and thats why I called the collection hungry for life...This might be my best collection yet. Its so joyful, its wonderful." But Jonny also says that his finale collection is the best collection he's ever made and feels that he's now a "totally changed" designer. Because of that change, he names his collection "Metamorphosis" to represents his transition into a more evolved designer. His pop-up design includes butterflies and greenery, but it has concrete walls and floor just like Esther's. "Our pop-ups look the same, and Tim just announced that one of us is going to go home after this," Jonny comments. "This is not a good combination." Now that we're back in NYC, the judges are Naomi Campbell, Nicole Richie, Joseph Altuzarra, and Chiara Ferragni, and Heidi. The judges appreciate Esther's chic and clean pop-up, but even though the pieces are intricate and detailed, Joseph still worries that she won't be able to sell her clothes online because black doesn't pop off the page. Sander's pop-up reviews are also a bit mixed. The judges love his tailor experience, but Heidi is concerned that the collection looks too "junior and fast-fashion." Naomi doesn't think that's a bad thing though, saying, "he showed us that he can be sophisticated and mature and do the sweet stuff that the kids want out right now...I think hes going to be a great designer; we are going to hear about Sander." It's pretty much the same with Jonny's storeeven though the judges are really impressed with his work (Chiara comments that "every piece looks effortlessly cool"), they also notice that it's not the most original collection. Naomi points out that "it's nothing groundbreaking," and Joseph worries that the brand identity isn't particularly unique. And in a very sly move, the episode ends without letting us know who's getting eliminatedthe anticipation!! You Might Also Like Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia wrote to Delhi University (DU) vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi on Monday alleging that the varsity was deliberately delaying the formation of governing bodies (GBs) in 28 Delhi government-funded colleges to shield corrupt officials. Sisodia also asked the varsity to ensure that the process of forming GBs is not delayed to prevent administrative crisis. Vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi did not respond to calls and text messages seeking his comments on the matter. Across colleges, GBs take all decisions for the smooth functioning of a college, including the appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff. The 10-member governing bodies in these colleges have people nominated by both the university and the Delhi government. The tenure of the GBs in 28 Delhi government colleges expired in March 2019. Since then, the Delhi government and the varsity have been at the loggerheads with the DU administration over the issue often leading to a delay in the release of grants to these colleges. The inordinate delays in constituting the Governing Bodies cannot merely be an act of omission. It now seems like a deliberate attempt to ensure that proper oversight mechanism is not put in place, Sisodia wrote in the letter to Tyagi on Monday adding that he receives complaints of malpractices and corruption in these colleges. It seems that the highest functionaries in the University of Delhi seem to be conspiring to protect the perpetrators of corruption. There can be no other reason why such inordinate delays and obstructions have been caused in the formation of these governing bodies and in forwarding the six names sent by the government on March 20 immediately to these colleges, the letter read. The six names in question became the final bone of contention after DUs Executive Council recommended sending these names back to the state government for reconsideration on March 13 this year. A week later, the government said that these six names were to be continued. It was decided that if these names come back, they will be treated as approved and to be sent to the respective colleges. On May 13, university forwarded all names approved by the EC except these six names which are in violation of EC decision. This is not only to delay the process further but also to tilt the balance in the GB formation, said EC member Rajesh Jha. Pratyush Vatsala, principal of Lakshmibai College, said, We have started the initial process for the formation of governing bodies. We started contacting the names forwarded by the varsity to take various undertakings. We got the names over ten days ago and it is unlikely that the governing bodies were formed in any of the 28 colleges amid a lockdown. EC member Rajesh Jha said that many colleges are buying time on one pretext or the other over the formation of GBs in all colleges. This is like a pocket veto. Some colleges are delaying on the trivial pretext of missing phone number or email ids of members. The university is withholding the names of teacher representatives in GB over political consideration, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON As the holy month of Ramadan came to an end, the Muslim world welcomed Eid al-Fitr May 24 with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it marked the end of a month of fasting with all the joy of a holiday. On the other hand, this was an unusual celebration, given all the restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It started with Eid al-Fitr prayers, which were certainly different this year. These were followed by a more somber holiday, without any festivals or celebrations. Many people spent the holiday at home with their immediate family, instead of flying overseas, like so many people used to do in the past. The Israeli government decided to open houses of worship, including mosques, as early as May 20, after they had been closed for a long time. Nevertheless, there are still many restrictions in place. For instance, worshippers are required to wear masks, and no more than 50 worshippers are allowed in a prayer space. Shortly before Laylat al-Qadr the holiest night of Ramadan the imam at Al-Sirat mosque in Baqa al-Gharbiyye in Haifa district, Bassam Abu Mukh, told Al-Monitor, We plan to follow the instructions closely, even during holiday prayers. There will be no more than 50 worshippers in each of the mosques courtyards, and if that is not enough space, then worshippers will also be able to pray in the courtyard outside. After an oddly subdued Ramadan, with Saudi Arabia suspending the traditional Umrah pilgrimage so as to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, Israels Muslim community had to come to terms with the fact that this Eid al-Fitr was also going to be quiet and subdued. In the past, Muslims celebrated the holiday by preparing special cookies, visiting relatives, taking part in large family meals, trips to hotels in Israel and overseas, dining out, and so on. This year, they spent the holiday with their immediate family at home. Special meals and visits were kept to a minimum in order to follow as closely as possible the instructions laid out by the government, and particularly the Ministry of Health, to minimize interactions with strangers. Sherein Abu Asaad from Nazareth, who coordinates formation programs at the Arab employment assistance center, told Al-Monitor, There is no doubt that the coronavirus outbreak has impacted our lives at home and at work. So, for instance, I started working from home and hold all my work meetings via Zoom. We spent the month of Ramadan at home, because I was really worried about the health of my children and the rest of my family, not to mention my own well-being. We also decided to have a quiet Eid al-Fitr this year. We bought the children new clothes for the holiday to cheer them up. This was the first time we spent it at home instead of going for a vacation overseas or visiting family like we did in the past. There is just one reason for all of this: We want to stay healthy. There is no doubt that the mood was very different this holiday. Still, others preferred to see the glass half full people who took advantage of the holiday to connect with their traditions and roots, and to visit places across the country that represent Arab heritage. Obviously, once all the festivals and ceremonies that set the holiday mood became impossible, we were deprived of the collective joy that we are used to experiencing. Everything was happening within the confines of our home, Sami Ali, spokesman for the Fishermans Union of Jisr az-Zarqa, told Al-Monitor. Still, I would prefer to view the situation positively, rather than negatively. We held prayer sessions in the mosque in accordance with all the preventive measures once the mosques reopened after a very long time. I suggest that people take advantage of the situation to hike and to visit the archaeological and historical sites across the country that represent Arab heritage. These include the deserted Arab villages or Jisr az-Zarqa, the only Arab town along the coast. It is a chance to visit the fishing village there, which is a popular attraction for Jews and Arabs alike." While Ali and others tried keeping their spirits up despite all the hurdles, the Health Ministrys plans to reopen restaurants, bars and clubs on May 27 has caused disappointemnt. It is rather obvious that this is no random date. After the country was on lockdown during the Jewish festival of Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter, it looks like the Israeli government and the Ministry of Health would prefer to avoid the crowds rushing to restaurants or other public places during Eid al-Fitr. The holiday is scheduled to end on May 26, so the decision was made to open the restaurants and cafes one day after that. In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Dignity plc (LON:DTY) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. I will be using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in the Simply Wall St analysis model. Check out our latest analysis for Dignity The method We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: 10-year free cash flow (FCF) forecast 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Levered FCF (, Millions) UK24.9m UK24.2m UK29.6m UK31.6m UK33.1m UK34.4m UK35.5m UK36.4m UK37.2m UK37.9m Growth Rate Estimate Source Analyst x1 Analyst x2 Analyst x1 Est @ 6.64% Est @ 5.01% Est @ 3.88% Est @ 3.08% Est @ 2.52% Est @ 2.13% Est @ 1.86% Present Value (, Millions) Discounted @ 15% UK21.6 UK18.3 UK19.4 UK18.0 UK16.4 UK14.8 UK13.3 UK11.8 UK10.5 UK9.3 ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St) Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF) = UK153m Story continues We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 1.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 15%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF 2029 (1 + g) (r g) = UK38m (1 + 1.2%) 15% 1.2%) = UK277m Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= UK277m ( 1 + 15%)10= UK68m The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is UK221m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding. Relative to the current share price of UK2.3, the company appears quite good value at a 48% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out. LSE:DTY Intrinsic value May 26th 2020 The assumptions We would point out that the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate and of course the actual cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Dignity as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 15%, which is based on a levered beta of 2.000. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Next Steps: Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldnt be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price to differ from the intrinsic value? For Dignity, There are three pertinent factors you should look at: Risks: Take risks, for example - Dignity has 4 warning signs (and 2 which are potentially serious) we think you should know about. Management:Have insiders been ramping up their shares to take advantage of the market's sentiment for DTY's future outlook? Check out our management and board analysis with insights on CEO compensation and governance factors. Other Solid Businesses: Low debt, high returns on equity and good past performance are fundamental to a strong business. Why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals to see if there are other companies you may not have considered! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every GB stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock just search here. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. The Alliance puts forward a number of demands to Kyiv, among which is progress in reforming security and defense sector of Ukraine NATO countries have long agreed to provide Ukraine with an Membership Action Plan, it remains to make a technical decision. Deputy Foreign Minister Yegor Bozhok stated this in an interview with Interfax. The issue of providing Ukraine with a Membership Action Plan has been fundamentally agreed upon by NATO for a long time, and today, allies need to make a tactical decision. Indeed, for this they put forward a number of requirements, including significant progress in reforming the security and defense sector of Ukraine, which we are actively working on, Bozhok said. According to him, Ukraine has already taken a number of necessary steps along this path, in particular, in reforming the defense industry complex and the Ukroboronprom State Corporation, the state defense order, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, delimiting powers between the Minister of Defense, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chief of the General Staff and commanders of troops. The deputy minister says that, in fact, Ukraine has already transferred the defense department to NATO standards. It remains to take a few steps to implement in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the so-called J-structure, which is inherent in all NATO countries. But this is more a technical than a political issue. All political steps have already been taken: the corresponding law has been passed, and the President signed it. Ukraine sees success in this direction as progress towards the Action Plan regarding NATO membership, Bozhok summed up. As we reported before, NATO official, who chose not to give his name, told the Bulgarian Radio Liberty news agency that Russian military aircraft activity in the Black Sea and other parts of Europe has grown since 2014. A seven-year-old boy and his six-year-old sister have been found safe and well after police issued an amber alert in a desperate search to find them. Queensland Police said the two children left the Redbank Plains Recreational Reserve in Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane between 4.30pm and 4.45pm. The car was last seen travelling on Collingwood Drive towards the Ipswich Motorway. A desperate search has been launched for a seven-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl 'The 7-year-old boy and 6-year old girl subject to an Amber Alert earlier have been located safe and well,' a Queensland Police spokesman said in a later statement. 'Police thank the community and media for sharing.' At no time and in no way is this behavior condoned, Chirico said on Facebook. We have made great strides as a community in recent months to address this head-on, and we have more work to do. Cases like these can be solved when the community and the police work together. A Tinder date went wrong when a woman ended up choked and was stabbed repeatedly. The suspect dialed 911 to report the murder he committed last Sunday, even requesting be shot as well. This is what Utah authorities witness on an early Sunday morning- the murder of a woman and oddly the killer turning himself in for his own crime which could not have been odder, according to KSL. What really took the cake was an express request for the cops to shoot the suspect, which is not normal for most police procedure. According to the report of the Daily Mail, the authorities were alerted to it by none other than the killer himself. Events on Sunday morning started with a call from the suspect who dialed 91 at 3:19 in the early hours of the morning. Desert reports that the alleged killer was identified by the police, Ethan Hunsaker, age-24, who made the call and wanted to be caught for the murder he just committed. The suspect had no indication of why he committed the random murder and violence against the victim. Authorities identified the murdered woman as Ashlyn Black, age-25 at the time of her murder. Her identity was confirmed last Monday. Details of the Tinder date murder During the call when Hunsaker reported his own crime, he confirmed the address at Layton in 1300 N. Reid, where he admits killing Ashlyn Black inside a residence, said the officers on the scene. Operators verify that Hunsaker made pleas to shoot him as his wish, which was confirmed by the arresting officers in the crime scene of the murder. Also read: Suspect Who Dumped Bodies of Two Sisters With Bags on Their Head Arrested He waited for the police to arrive on the scene. They came and saw the dead woman on the floor. The victim was stabbed several times in her torso. Emergency specialists tried to keep her alive. The stab wounds were fatal and she succumbed to the injuries quickly. Ethan Hunsaker's story According to the suspected murder, the app Tinder was what facilitated the date with Ashlyn Black that would end in a murder that ended the young woman's life. On a late Saturday night, what was a ordinary date turned out to be different for two people. If Ashlyn had any inkling of what will come, and avoid the date, she'd be alive now. Ethan related that they were already exchanging messages on the Tinder dating app, Scallywag and Vagabond reported. It all began when he got the victim's address, a little after 9 pm on a Saturday night. He went and picked up his future victim from her residence then got into a bar. A while later, the victim went back with him to his residence. The police said the suspect said he woke up with the victim on his left arm, and choked the life out of her, as she was struggling. Marks were seen on the arms, neck, and shoulders of Hunsaker. Next, he got a pocket knife from the kitchen, then used it to strike her torso, side, and back, several times fatally. It was confirmed that nothing happened, but a case of random violence without any cause to kill the victim. Background checks reveal that he had mental issues. For now, he is at the Davis County Jail with no bail allowed. Related article: Wife Accidentally Kills Husband in Utah But Further Investigation Reveals a Different Story @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Russia will hold a military parade next month to mark the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II even as the country continues to report thousands of new coronavirus infections each day. President Vladimir Putin set the new date for June 24 and ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to begin preparations. "Risks for all its participants should be minimized, and better, eliminated," Putin told Shoigu during a virtual government meeting on May 26. Russia traditionally holds the annual parade on May 9 -- known inside the country as Victory Day -- with a grand celebration that includes dozens of military vehicles passing through the center of Moscow as thousands of spectators crowd along the streets to watch. However, Putin announced in April he would postpone the parade until a later date as the country struggled to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus. His April decision came a day after veterans groups urged the Kremlin to call off the event over health and safety concerns. Though Russia has experienced a drop in new coronavirus cases, the number remains elevated. Russia reported another 8,915 cases on May 26, bringing the national tally to more than 362,000, the third-largest globally. Russian authorities say the large number of infections reflects a massive national testing program. Officials said the same day that 174 people had died over the previous 24 hours, a record one-day number of fatalities, bringing the overall death toll to 3,807. The new June 24 parade date falls on the same day 75 years ago when Soviet troops paraded on Red Square to mark the Nazis' defeat. Putin also said during the May 26 government meeting that the march of citizens holding portraits of their relatives who took part in World War II -- known in Russia as the Immortal Regiment -- as well as the traditional naval-forces parade will take place on July 26. Those events had also been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. After Putin announced the new date, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and Moldovan President Igor Dodon said they would attend the military parade on Red Square. With reporting by Dozhd, TASS, RIA Novosti, and Reuters In the absence of mass protests amid social distancing norms during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, the Congress has shifted gears to open online fronts. The opposition party is planning to hold an online nationwide protest on Thursday to put pressure on the Centre to accept its demands for providing immediate financial assistance to farmers, migrant workers, daily wage earners and small businesses hit by the pandemic. In a letter to all state unit chiefs, Congress general secretary incharge (organisation) KC Venugopal has asked them to mobilise around 5 million participants on all social media platforms to register their protest and highlight the sufferings of migrant workers, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and other distressed sectors. The online campaign will run from 11am to 2pm. As you know, lakhs of migrant workers, farmers, workers in the un-organized sectors, MSMEs, small scale businesses, fishermen and daily wage earners are in grave distress. They are struggling, without money, food, job and other essentials items, the letter read. For over two months now, since the nationwide lockdown began, our nations soul has been pained by the pictures and videos of our migrant workers desperately trying to get back to their hometowns and villages. From walking hundreds of kilometres on our highways to packing into trucks, trailers and every form of transport available, many of them have died on their long journey, it added. In the letter, Venugopal also said the Congress has been undertaking relief efforts and providing all possible support to migrant workers. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have been giving suggestions to the central government to alleviate the sufferings of our migrant workers, farmers and daily wage earners. But instead of providing support, the central government continues to ignore the plight of them and has failed to take any meaningful measures. Venugopal has also asked the state unit chiefs to ensure the participation of over 5 million workers and sympathisers in the campaign to be run on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2020) Poland has recorded no COVID-19 fatalities in 24 hours for the first time since late March, the Health Ministry said on Monday. "Over the past 24 hours, no single fatality related to COVID-19 has been registered," the Polish Health Ministry said in a statement. Poland has confirmed 996 COVID-19 fatalities so far. Since March 28 and through Sunday, deaths were recorded daily. On Sunday, Poland recorded two COVID-19 fatalities. Poland has recorded 21,440 COVID-19 cases since March 4, when the first coronavirus patient a man who recently returned from Germany was detected in the country. The patient has been discharged from hospital, he has fully recovered. As many as 2,268 coronavirus patients are currently hospitalized in Poland, and 78,259 persons are quarantined. A total of 9,276 coronavirus patients have recovered in Poland. Longer opening hours, visor-wearing stylists and reduced capacity could be the new normal at hairdressing salons here when business resumes, says one top stylist. Award-winning Paul Stafford, who runs his own salon on Belfast's Lisburn Road, said that as of June 1, he and his team will be looking at putting plans in place for reopening when Northern Ireland reaches stage four of the Executive's lockdown exit strategy, the stage when "other 'contact' retail (hairdressers, fitness studios, tattoo and piercing parlours) can open subject to mitigations following risk assessment". "There's no doubt the salon is going to look and feel different. It will be a completely new experience," said Mr Stafford. "What people probably don't fully appreciate until now is the fact that hairdressing is not a service, it's an experience and there's a social connection there, a bond and friendships, and some of that might be lost when we reopen." He believes masks, gloves, a reduced menu and longer opening hours will all be part of our new normal. According to the National Hair and Beauty Federation, there are some 1,500 hairdressing salons here employing around 7,000 staff and generating around 169m annually. This does not include self-employed mobile stylists. "Our industry in Northern Ireland is up there with the best in world. I'm very proud with the levels of artistry here and what we need now is the whole industry to come together and make sure that we follow the right procedures and aren't left threatened by people who challenge our businesses by doing things illegally," added Mr Stafford. "We are quite efficient and work on a tight schedule but under new guidelines there will be literally no waiting time. It will be a case of making sure clients come in on time and are taken straight through, using an efficient system. "At the outset we, personally, will be expanding hours, swapping our normal eight-hour day to 12 or 14 hours with staff working shifts. That could see us opening from 7.30am and closing at 8pm. "We have a 16-seater salon and we will be reducing that to four compartments with visors and enough space between." Read More Preparing for such scenarios at beauty-based salons here is manufacturer Crossen Engineering, which is already making visors for the NHS. It is starting to increase its lines to accommodate hair and beauty businesses in the run-up to reopening. "We are beginning to see other industries order visors for when they reopen. Places like hospitality establishments, hairdressers and beauty salons," said managing director Paul Crossen. "This is all hypothetical and all we can do is plan for every scenario," Mr Stafford is quick to point out. "It's not as simple as ticking all the boxes, this has to be put into practice and it could be a case that it's just not working, it's not efficient and that will be problematic. "I have spoken to friends in Italy and Germany where there are restrictions and guidelines, but no one is monitoring them. The worst thing that could happen is another spike in October, so I would advise clients now to sit tight. Hair is very important but there is a bigger issue out there. Paul Stafford "Yes, your hair might look bad and I'll tell you if it looks bad, but stick a hat on, put your hair up, go for a walk and wait until it's ready." To keep his clients' spirits up during lockdown, Mr Stafford has created a series of 'The Virtual Chair' chats with local personalities on his Instagram page. "It's me having conversations with people like Colin Davidson, author Oliver Jeffers, musician Mickey Bradley from The Undertones and broadcaster Pamela Ballantine," he explained. "They're typical of the conversations we would have if I was cutting their hair, and that has brought a great community back together. "We've had a bit of fun and it shows people that this is what they're missing. It keeps the brand out there and lets our customers know we are there for them and we're getting more and more people tuning in. "We understand that hair is very important but there is a bigger issue out there; this virus is killing people and there have been around 500 needless deaths here. At our salon no one has been left untouched by it, but we should come through this pandemic in a way that shows empathy. "We have been indirectly impacted at the salon and we would like to do this in a respectful way that is safe for everyone." Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee, at the CPAC convention in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 28, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) GOP Chair Says A Lot of States Have Inquired About Hosting Convention A number of states have called to inquire about hosting the Republican National Convention amid concern about social distancing restrictions at the scheduled site in North Carolina, the partys chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, said May 26. Republican officials say they want to keep the convention in Charlotte but are balking because of Democratic Gov. Roy Coopers refusal to make promises about the gathering being able to fully occupy the convention space in August. The president is right to say to the governor, you need to assure us before we lock in all these hotel rooms and we bring all of this revenue to your state that youre going to let us have this convention, McDaniel said, during an appearance on Fox & Friends. Theres a lot of states that are calling the president right now saying, Hey, why dont you bring that revenue to our state.' Cooper hasnt given the assurances that party officials say they need. Every state we talk to is saying, We want to nominate the president here. Theyre so excited to have that, McDaniel said later. But this governor is up for reelection; he hasnt given us the assurances we need. We need to be able to move forward in a concrete way. Indoor gatherings in North Carolina are currently capped at 10 people under harsh restrictions meant to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. President Donald Trump, right, participates in a briefing about Hurricane Dorian with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper aboard Air Force One at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, N.C., on Sept. 9, 2019. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) State health officials are working with the RNC and will review its plans as they make decisions about how to hold the convention in Charlotte, a Cooper spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times. North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our states public health and safety. Answers will have to come sooner rather than later, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee (RNC) told The Epoch Times, or we will be forced to consider other options. Vice President Mike Pence identified Texas, Florida, and Georgia as states that have been progressing with reopenings. Officials or party officials from all of those states issued statements asking the RNC to consider them if the convention is moved. Florida is committed to ensuring a safe, secure, and successful event for President Trump and all attendees, said Joe Gruters, chairman of the Florida GOP. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the state has world-class facilities, restaurants, hotels, and workforce, while reaching out to Trump on Twitter to tell him, Georgia would be honored to safely host the Republican National Convention. James Dickey, who heads the Texas Republican Party, said in a statement to news outlets that Texas would welcome President Trump and the RNC Convention. Until then, based upon Gov. Abbotts progress in opening Texas, we are on track for our state convention as planned in person in Houston in July, he said. This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here. Anthony Baileys mother packed her seven-year-old son off in 1940 for safekeeping to an American foster home, far from the German bombers pulverizing their dockside hometown Portsmouth, England. Two weeks later, Mr. Bailey found himself in the Dayton, Ohio, mansion of Otto Spaeth, a wealthy factory owner, philanthropist and art collector who owned paintings by Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Edward Hopper and Paul Gauguin. It was imprinted on him, art, from that moment forward, his daughter Annie Bailey said in an interview. Bihar is fast approaching the 3,000-mark in the number of coronavirus disease cases. On Monday, the state saw 163 fresh cases, which took the tally to 2,737, the state health officials said. However, the Union health ministry reported 2,730 cases in the state in its update on Tuesday morning. The number of infection has seen a rapid rise in the recent past mainly on the account of the influx of migrant workers, the health department said. The rate of infection in Bihar is 10.67 per cent, the highest in the country, according to data anlysis by Hindustan Times Hindi language publication Hindustan. It took 12 days for the infection to double in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, 14 days in Delhi and just seven in Bihar, Hindustan further reported. The number of migrants testing positive in Bihar since May 3 is 1,754, which is close to 80 per cent of the total number of cases reported during the period. Special trains carrying them from far and wide began reaching the state on May 2. The majority of the infected migrants are those who returned from Delhi (411), Maharashtra (403), Gujarat (276), Haryana (146), Rajasthan (95), Uttar Pradesh (89), Telangana (81) and West Bengal (76), according to a break-up provided by the department. Among the 163 cases reported on Monday, Patna district accounted for 11, which caused its tally to reach 211. Two of these were reported from Lodipur and Samanpura localities of the state capital, while the remaining were from rural areas of the district, the worst-hit in Bihar. Significant numbers of cases were reported from districts like Begusarai, Katihar, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Katihar and Saharsa. Bihar had reported 180 new cases of Covid-19 from 15 districts on Sunday. Cases have been reported from all 38 districts of the state and nine of these - Patna, Rohtas, Begusarai, Munger, Madhubani, Katihar, Khagaria, Buxar and Jehanabad - have tallies in three-digits. Only Sheohar has reported less than 10 cases. Death toll in the state is 13, with Patna, Vaishali and Khagaria accounting for two fatalities each and one death reported from Munger, Rohtas, Begusarai, East Champaran, Sitamarhi, Siwan and Saran districts each. Shanghai gains traction as financial hub From:ChinaDaily | 2020-05-26 09:27 Increased opening-up, reforms lift city to fourth spot in global rankings behind New York, London and Tokyo While the COVID-19 pandemic brings complexity and uncertainty to global capital markets, the ongoing financial opening-up in Shanghai makes the city, and China on the whole, an increasingly attractive choice for world leading financial service providers. New York-based Neuberger Berman set up an investment management company in Shanghai in 2016 shortly after the China Securities Regulatory Commission allowed wholly foreign-owned enterprises to practice private fund management activities. The 81-year-old asset management firm recently again took quick action. On April 1the first day foreign ownership limits of mutual funds were eliminated in ChinaNeuberger Berman applied for mutual fund qualification in the country, and became one of the just two companies making such a move. According to the company's China CEO Patrick Liu, the Shanghai government has been working closely with foreign financial institutions even during the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year. "It is with no doubt that Shanghai will move unswervingly toward the goal of building itself into a world financial center with such an opened-up and highly efficient government," Liu said. On March 20, a total of five foreign financial institutions held a joint online opening ceremony in Shanghai, among which were industry big names JPMorgan Securities (China) Co Ltd and Invesco Ruihe (Shanghai) Private Equity Investment Management Co Ltd. The opening of JPMorgan Securities (China) Co Ltd marked the second time a newly established foreign-controlled securities joint venture began operations in China, following the opening of Nomura Orient International Securities Co Ltd in December, with the foreign partners holding 51-percent stakes in their respective ventures. The business scope of JPMorgan Securities includes brokerage, securities investment advisory, and securities underwriting and sponsorship activities. Defining the joint venture as a major milestone in the country, JPMorgan China CEO Mark Leung said that they are able to invest via the new company and help support China's financial market development. Shanghai Vice-Mayor Wu Qing presided over the opening ceremony, which connected the institutions' global management teams via livestreaming. The official opening of the five foreign financial institutions is in line with Shanghai's goal of building itself into a global hub for asset management and insurance companies. More importantly, the opening of the five financial companies gave confidence to everyone, "not only to those living in Shanghai, but also to people all over the world," Wu said. International financial giants' confidence in China, and especially Shanghai, was evident in their hiring in Shanghai which continued even under the cloud of COVID-19. Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs updated recruitment information on its official WeChat account, looking for candidates working in the securities, operations and consumer and investment divisions in Shanghai. Nomura Orient, the first foreign-controlled securities joint venture in China, updated its want ad on March 6. Available job vacancies, mostly in Shanghai, cover departments such as wealth management, asset management, product development, research and operations. As the company explained, most of their recruitment this year will take place in the operations departments such as brokerage and asset management. Online or phone interviews were taken during the coronavirus outbreak and nearly 10 positions had been filled by the beginning of April. By the end of this year, the company's headcount will reach 200, up from 120 at present. "Although the joint venture has proceeded a little bit behind schedule due to the novel coronavirus, the businesses have been moving ahead normally. The new securities business department in Shanghai was approved in mid-February and the license was obtained one month later," said Toshiyasu Iiyama, head of the China Committee of Nomura Holdings. Iiyama said the revolutionary development going on in the Chinese capital market bears much resemblance to the opening-up of the Japanese financial market in the 1990s. As the Chinese financial and capital markets connect closer with global financial markets, more international financial leaders will make their presence in the Chinese market, which in the long run will push forward the further evolution of the Chinese financial market. "Shanghai has always stood on the front line of innovation and the local government can always truly implement innovative policies. This is one of the major reasons for establishing the joint venture here. As companies and investors further diversify in Shanghai, capital flow in the city will be much smoother," he said. Much effort has been made by the Shanghai government to make the business environment more friendly. On March 31, a bilingual guidance for overseas asset management institutions planning to invest in Shanghai was released. The Shanghai Asset Management Association, one of the compilers, said in the guidance that overseas asset management firms are welcome to start operations in the city to provide more diversified asset management services to Chinese investors. Li Tao, general manager of Fullerton Investment Management (Shanghai) Co Ltd, has also been impressed by the Shanghai government's efficiency, especially during the contagion period. The Singapore-based investment firm was named a qualified domestic limited partner in mid-March, which was quite beyond its expectations. Foreign asset management firms previously had to set up a new entity for each new business, which cost quite a bit. But such requirements were removed in Shanghai in late 2018. According to the Shanghai Financial Regulatory Bureau, wholly foreign-owned enterprises for private fund management only need to change their operational scope with the industry and commerce department for any new qualified domestic limited partnership, or QDLP business, Li said. "While foreign asset management firms are still quite small in scale in the eyes of municipal regulators, they are just as valued. When it comes to some untouched areas, the municipal government will help foreign firms innovate and explore solutions. On the other hand, an asset management firm cannot label itself as 'international' if it does not have operations in China, especially in Shanghai," he added. The endeavors of the Shanghai government have paid off. In the Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI 27), jointly released by the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute and United Kingdom-based independent think tank Z/Yen Partners in late March, Shanghai moved up one place to rank as fourth among world financial centers. The 3,360 respondents polled for the index showed the most confidence in Shanghai's increasing competitiveness when compared to the other top three financial centers of New York, London and Tokyo. According to the Shanghai Financial Regulatory Bureau, a total of 72 international financial institutions in the city have been approved as qualified foreign limited partners, or QFLPs, and another 44 as QDLPs. The world's top 10 asset management companies have all started operations in Shanghai. Among the 25 wholly owned foreign private equity firms registered with the Asset Management Association of China, 24 have set up offices in Shanghai. Global management consultancy Oliver Wyman estimated in its latest report that the Chinese market's contribution to foreign financial institutions' worldwide income in asset management, wealth management and securities will be 6 percent, 5 percent and 5 percent, respectively, by 2023. Jackson Lee, head of global asset management firm Fidelity International in China, holds a positive outlook on China's asset management market, whose value is expected to more than quadruple over the next 10 years. Based on these expectations, Fidelity International opened an office in Shanghai in 2004, which was the company's first foray into the market. In 2017, Fidelity became one of the first wholly foreign-owned enterprises for private fund managements in China. At present, the US firm is preparing to apply for mutual fund qualification. "We set up a research center in Shanghai in 2011 by which time we had a team of equity researchers in the city. It is with the help of the municipal government that we are able to set up our fund management team here," Lee said. In 2015, Dutch asset management firm Robeco established a wholly foreign-owned enterprise in Shanghai, which was one of the first international asset managers to obtain such a license. Lu Jie, general manager of Robeco Shanghai, said the enterprise made up an important part of the group's 2014-18 strategy given the accelerated financial opening-up in China. As the company's institutional clients around the world have shown increasing interest in the A-share market, Robeco has also built a team in Shanghai responsible for A-share research, Lu said. The strong professional financial talent pool in Shanghai has made possible foreign financial institutions' sustained development in the city and in China. "Foreign firms, such as our own, often have to hire talented people with financial and language capabilities, and an understanding of international compliance standards. We have seen a huge improvement over the last couple of decades in this area and the key reason is China's opening up," Lu said. To Robeco, the investment rule has always been looking at the "fastest-growing nations of the world". Lu said the attraction of emerging markets is highly compelling in the long run, which is the reason why Robeco sped up its strategy in China over the past few years. "We believe we are well-positioned to tap into the potential that the market has to offer," he said. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Mondi plc (MNDI.L) announced that Mike Powell will be appointed as its Chief Financial Officer. He succeeds Andrew King. Mike will be appointed to Mondi's Executive Committee with effect from his appointment to Mondi's Board. The Group noted that the effective date of Mike's appointment will be announced in due course. Andrew King, CEO, stated: 'Mike has significant financial and strategic experience having been chief financial officer and an executive director of a number of large international listed companies, most recently Ferguson plc.' Separately, Ferguson Plc announced that Mike Powell is committed to assisting the company with an orderly transition and the search for his successor is underway. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Credit has to be given where it's due. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) navigated a chaotic quarter about as well as any comparable company could. The coronavirus outbreak first rattled its supply chain, and then part of its customer base. By the time COVID-19 reached the United States, the world was simply winging it. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's 16% year-over-year sales decline for the quarter ending on April 30 could be considered a relative victory. The company's plans to cut annual expenses by $1 billion, however, are not only aggressive but may also not be enough to matter. If the impact of the pandemic lingers, even if the virus itself doesn't, the company could lose more than that in annual sales, and far more than that in potential earnings. Well-established spending habits Hewlett-Packard Enterprise's three-year cost optimization and prioritization plan aims for "estimated gross savings of at least $1 billion and annualized net run-rate savings of at least $800 million." It sounds great. Except that's not a huge amount of cost-culling for a company of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise's size. It's also an aggressive goal given the company's existing cost breakdown and history. For perspective, last fiscal year's (ending in October) top line of $29.1 billion was paired with $12.5 billion worth of spending just on the manufacture of physical products. The technology outfit spent another $6.8 billion supplying revenue-bearing services. Research and development cost another $1.8 billion, while selling and administrative costs consumed $4.9 billion. Those four items alone cost the organization more than $26 billion. Throw in other ancillary and one-time costs, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise shelled out nearly $28 billion to drive that $29.1 billion in sales. The overarching question: From which of those costs is the company going to find another $1 billion worth of yearly savings it hasn't found yet? Remember, the corporate overhaul referred to as HPE Next put into place beginning in 2017 already removed plenty of unnecessary costs. CEO Antonio Neri commented during the quarterly conference call held nearly three months ago, "We have extended the program [HPE Next] through fiscal year 2021 and expect incremental savings, while maintaining the original net cash impact." Another billion dollars in savings is hardly incremental, assuming it's achievable at all. That being said, it's still not entirely clear HPE actually made any meaningful cost cuts while executing its HPE Next plan. Measured as a percentage of revenue, selling and administrative expenses haven't abated. The cost of goods sold fell a little last year, boosting EBITDA for a short while. But those costs were on the rise again a couple of quarters ago, and EBITDA was plateauing. Net income as a percentage of sales seemed to level off right around 8% in 2019 before COVID-19 was even on the radar. It leaves one wondering how, or even if, new cost-cutting will make an impact. Never even mind the prospect of cutting too much. Every dollar being spent now is being spent because at one point it seemed like a good idea. Things change, but things don't always change. Not fixed costs, but variable with a footnote Working to the company's advantage is the fact that those four aforementioned costs are scalable. This is particularly true for manufacturing and service costs. They may not be scalable dollar-for-dollar as revenue ebbs and flows, but the company can do something to curb them. Still, consider last quarter's results. The top line itself fell by more than $1 billion, from $7.1 billion in the fiscal second quarter of last year to just a little over $6 billion this time around. The total cost of sales fell accordingly, but R&D as well as selling/administration costs didn't fall to nearly the same degree, on a sequential or a year-over-year basis. It all ultimately translated into what was just a bit better than an operating breakeven, versus an operating profit of $434 million for the same quarter a year earlier. If last quarter represents the new normal as the world digests the fallout from COVID-19, $1 billion worth of gross cost cuts, or $800 million worth of annualized net cost cuts, isn't going to move the needle much. It's probably not the new normal, of course. Neri explained during Thursday's call that the company's priorities are to "continue to streamline our product portfolio, implement a new digital customer engagement models, and optimize our workplace size strategy and experiences." CFO Tarek Robbiati added later in the call that measures would include "reductions in pay across our workforce, unpaid leave in places where pay reductions are not legally permitted, and hiring restrictions." The company's management team is even taking a pretty big pay cut. Anybody at the executive vice president level or above will see their base salaries reduced to the tune of 25% through 2020. That won't get Hewlett Packard Enterprise to its $1 billion goal, but it's a fair start. It should all help whittle selling and administrative lines of the income statement down a bit. In the meantime, R&D spending could be contained. If the bulk of the intended cost cuts are to take shape on the cost-of-service or cost-of-product front, though, just bear in mind it will mostly reflect a similar decline in total revenue. We saw a glimmer of this reality last quarter. It was a dubious cost-cutting victory. Bottom line The qualified doubts about Hewlett Packard Enterprise's potential to trim more fat may ultimately prove unmerited. Neri made it clear that last quarter's revenue headwind was mainly rooted in supply chain constraints and not so much rooted in waning demand. The order backlog of $1.5 billion in place as of the end of the second quarter was about twice the company's average. The continued lifting of coronavirus-related lockdowns could ease the company back into its regular production and sales pace. Though, if the fallout from the damage COVID-19 has already done gets worse before it gets better -- and HPE's intended $800 million reduction (net) in annual spending becomes an imperative -- it's a mighty tall order to find all of that money outside of direct revenue costs. Investors may want to temper their expectations, especially considering Refinitiv says the quarter currently underway is going to be the one that really hurts. All told, the research firm believes the S&P 500's per-share profit for the second quarter of 2020 is on pace to fall 42% year over year. That could still prompt a bunch of corporate buyers to rethink the tech purchases they had planned for the remainder of the year. Victoria did not consult the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade before signing a controversial infrastructure deal with the Chinese government last year, leaving senior officials concerned it could undermine Australia's push to counter Beijing's growing influence in the region. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal Australia's chief foreign policy makers were blindsided by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement that he had signed the "framework agreement" tying the state to China's Belt and Road Initiative on October 23. Premier Daniel Andrews signed the agreement with China in October last year without showing DFAT. Credit:Eamon Gallagher Senior sources within the Australian government have also confirmed DFAT had warned the Victorian government that it was Australia's policy not to sign on to the BRI in the months leading up to the agreement being inked. While Victoria briefly consulted DFAT on an earlier memorandum of understanding with Beijing in 2018, and made some changes based on its advice, the Andrews government decided not to show the draft version of the more substantial framework agreement to the Commonwealth a year later before signing it. Euromonitor International is the world's leading independent provider of strategic and tactical market research. We create data and analysis on thousands of products and services around the world. Supporters of President Donald Trump are calling this weekend's Charleston boat parade a success, saying their massive armada of pleasure craft of various shapes, makes and sizes could be seen from all points of the harbor. An accurate count of the number of vessels involved could not be ascertained on the busy Memorial Day weekend but those who took part on the water and from land said there were hundreds of boats with thousands of people collectively on board, many decked out in red, white and blue flags and decorations. Many boats carried the Trump 2020 re-election "Keep America Great" logo, which fed the purpose of the rally in getting the president's message and supporters out. "We've heard a thousand (boats), we heard 1,500, we've heard an actual count of 1,358," said Randall Horres, of Johns Island, who was in the parade riding a 21-footer that carried eight people. He said the event was a chance to show off U.S. pride. "It was a great thing to have to show support for America and the commander-in chief, taking the politics out of it," Horres said. Charleston Sailing Charters posted on its Facebook site the fleet on the move extended for more than 5 miles. The Charleston Police Department count of the number of boats involved Sunday was lower, estimating between 700 and 800 vessels, public information officer Charles Francis said Monday night. Organizer Chad Walton declined an interview request Monday to give a post-parade assessment. Advertising was mostly done on social media. He had suggested all the boaters get to ramps early, have a designated driver and call local marinas to rent a slip. "Best $100 or so you will spend," he posted before the event. The parade route advertised on Facebook showed the path starting near the Coast Guard station on the Ashley River, past The Battery to Waterfront Park, around the harbor then to the Wappoo Cut and into the Stono River. The Charleston event joined other such parades being held on the Eastern seaboard so far this year, including in the president's adopted home state of Florida. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! Former Charleston County Republican Party Chairman John Steinberger watched the flotilla from the Battery. "It was organized, it was grass roots," he said, adding "people showed up to support the best president in my lifetime." Horres said one of the more uplifting moments was the prayer delivered by radio channel to all the participants. The whole event was "very upbeat," he added. "There was no negativity." Skip McQuillin and his wife, Debi, put their boat in the water at the Daniel Island Marina on Sunday afternoon not knowing what to expect. Both voted for Trump in 2016, and both agreed that a MAGA boat parade was something they wanted to be a part of. "When we saw the magnitude of it, we couldn't believe it," McQuillin said Monday. McQuillin described seeing thousands of boats bobbing in the water, many adorned with large Trump flags that whipped behind them once they accelerated. "I was a little nervous about it," McQuillin said. "With so many boats in a small area and not knowing what to expect, but everybody seemed very polite, you know, very courteous. We didnt see any problems at all." McQuillin said he was bracing for counter-protesters, either in the water or on land. But he said he never found anybody. He said the parade really got going after the radio prayer, which was effectively a blessing for the fleet of supporters and the country. When the prayer ended, that's when the parade roared to life. "Everybody started beeping their horns and began making their way toward the Battery," he said. Even on Monday morning, McQuillin said he and his wife were still talking about the parade. He called it "just a perfect day." Caitlin Byrd contributed to this report. The sketchy story about Joe Biden's involvement into Ukrainian politics during the times when he oversaw the Obama administration effort in fighting Ukrainian endemic corruption is rapidly developing into something ugly. Two interesting twists of the story were recently revealed. First, it turned out that thenU.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch lied to Congress in her testimony during the impeachment inquiry last year that she had had little knowledge about Burisma Holdings in the fall of 2016, when she started her position. But the State Department emails published on May 13 clearly demonstrate that she was involved in discussions about the natural gas firm Burisma Holdings during the 2016 election and transition to settle a long-running corruption investigation and polish its image before President Trump took office and even had a meeting with a company representative. Yovanovitch, for instance, was specifically warned in an email by her top deputy in September 2016 that Burisma had hired an American firm with deep Democratic connections called Blue Star Strategies to "rehabilitate the reputation" of the firm and that it had placed "Hunter Biden on its board." Republicans lawmakers were swift to take action: on May 14, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to secretary of state Mike Pompeo asking for documents related to Burisma and Biden's ties to the company. The letter additionally asked for all documents and communications related to Christopher Heinz, the son of former secretary of state John Kerry, and American businessman Devon Archer, who were both longtime business partners of Hunter Biden. Jordan accused Biden, Heinz, and Archer of being a "part of a broad effort by Burisma to bring in well-connect[ed] Democrats during a period when the company was facing investigations backed not just by domestic Ukrainian forces but by officials in the Obama Administration." Then, on May 19, the Ukrainian side added insult to injury when an independent member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Andrey Derkach, released audio records of the phone calls between ex-president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as secretary of state John Kerry, who discussed the course of Ukrainian domestic policy in precise detail. One of the main topics of the conversations was the removal from office of the Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, which was a key precondition of landing Ukraine $1 billion. At that time, Shokin was investigating Burisma's corruption and money-laundering. According to Mr. Shokin himself, he believed that the "investigations stopped out of fear of the United States." It is also noted that Shokin was told Biden had held up U.S. aid to Ukraine over the investigation into Mykola Zlochevsky, the former minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine and also the founder of Burisma. Shokin claimed that Zlochevsky appointed Hunter Biden to the board of the firm "in order to protect himself." On May 20, Senate Republicans issued their first subpoena in the Biden-Burisma probe. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines, asking for records from the Blue Star Strategies (mentioned in Yovanovitch's emails) from January 1, 2013 to the present "related to work for or on behalf of Burisma Holdings or individuals associated with Burisma." Despite the mounting evidence of the corruption and abuse of power by Joe Biden and high-ranking Obama administration officials, even the tiniest speck of which would cause fierce shrieks all over the news were it done by Trump, elitist media frowned at the developing story, as they did in 2019, when we were told by Bloomberg, for example, that there's nothing much for U.S. voters to see in the Burisma case because it's too convoluted and buried under too many layers of Ukrainian political and business relationships to yield any useful conclusions about Biden's character. Duh, it's too complicated, folks after all, Joe just tried his best to fight corruption. It ain't his fault those weird Ukrainians have so many groups of influence and interests. We are not smart enough to grasp it. Let's move on. Today, the leftist media do everything to twist and downplay that oh, so inconvenient story. Surely, they understand that it may turn into a deadly blow for both Biden and the whole Democratic Party right on the eve of November elections which already promise to be challenging for the Democrats. After all, it is Trump beating Joe like a drum in 15 battleground states. Despite the media predicting "the end of Trump" for the last four years, he looks much more alive than Biden in both political and biological senses. So what are the media trying to do to the story? They are diverting our attention from the key question "What did Bidens do in Ukraine?" to the secondary ones. In the case of questions like "Who leaked Biden's calls to Ukraine?," their answer is obvious: Russians did. "Recordings of Biden's calls with Ukraine's former president were held on a classified system. Ukrainian sources are wondering whether it was an inside job or Russian hackers." Ah, but no, Ukrainians are not wondering who hacked their security system; they are digging directly to the core and starting an investigation into the former president, Poroshenko, because his actions "might be perceived, qualified as high treason," as President Volodymyr Zelensky stated. The Biden campaign also viewed the release of the tapes as a continuation of a longstanding Russian effort to hurt the former vice president, pointing to the role that RT, the Russian state-controlled news network, played in promoting the tapes and noting Derkach's ties to Russian interests. "They heavily edited this, and it's still a nothingburger that landed with a thud," Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said. We've heard about "doctored" records before, haven't we? In the article "Ukrainian lawmaker releases leaked phone calls of Biden and Poroshenko," the Washington Post dedicated the opening paragraphs to the "Russian ties" of Andrey Derkach, noting even that "[h]is father served as a KGB officer for decades before becoming head of independent Ukraine's intelligence service in the late 1990s ... [and] fired from that post amid a scandal over a Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped and murdered." Let's leave it to the WaPo to decide whether sons bear the sins of their fathers, but it appears that one father worked hard to hide the sins of his son, and it's becoming more evident. The Russian scarecrow is being taken out of the Democratic attic (or basement?) yet again, and the plotline that accompanies it is painfully familiar: Kremlin tries to boost its agent/friend/puppet Trump and prevent a "true American patriot" Biden from the office. Thus, it is a duty of every American not to let it happen ignore the leaked records and vote for Biden. Surely, the records don't present us with a "smoking gun" Biden does not specify his personal interest in firing Shokin. But if the released tapes are only the "tip of the iceberg," the question is, how many Democratic voters would still believe in a Russian boogeyman if the iceberg continues to emerge to the point when Joe Biden's campaign can't maneuver around it any longer? Veronika Kyrylenko, Ph.D. research associate at GeoStrategic Analysis (Arlington, VA). @KyrylenkoN on Twitter. Image: Kelly Kline via Flickr. Governor formally welcomes first Russian Consul General for Phuket PHUKET: Among his duties as the very first Russian Consul General to Phuket, Vladimir V. Sosnov, paid a courtesy call on Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana yesterday (May 25). RussianCOVID-19Coronavirustourismtransport By The Phuket News Tuesday 26 May 2020, 02:28PM Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana yesterday welcomed Vladimir V. Sosnov as the very first Russian Consul General to Phuket. Photo: PR Phuket Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana yesterday welcomed Vladimir V. Sosnov as the very first Russian Consul General to Phuket. Photo: PR Phuket Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana yesterday welcomed Vladimir V. Sosnov as the very first Russian Consul General to Phuket. Photo: PR Phuket Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana yesterday welcomed Vladimir V. Sosnov as the very first Russian Consul General to Phuket. Photo: PR Phuket Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana yesterday welcomed Vladimir V. Sosnov as the very first Russian Consul General to Phuket. Photo: Supplied The meeting was described as a very fruitful and constructive discussion to further enhance collaboration between Russia and Phuket Province, for instance, people-to-people connectivity, tourism, trade and investment. Governor Phakaphong congratulated Mr Sosnov on his appointment, and said he looked forward to the further building of relations between the two countries. Mr Sosnovs credentials to become the Russian Federation Consul General for Phuket and other province in Southern Thailand were approved by the Royal Thai Government on Mar 20, and his being accepted to hold the position was publicly announced by Don Pramudwinai, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, on Mar 25. His appointment became formal when it was published in the Royal Gazette on Apr 1. Mr Sosnovs area of responsibility comprises Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Ranong, Trang, Satun, Chumphon, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Narathiwat, Phatthalung, Songkhla and Yala. Governor Phakaphong noted that more than 700,000 Russian tourists had travelled to Phuket in the past year. Thousands were still in Phuket when the COVID-19 lockdown measures were implemented, he said. The Thai government working with the Russian government had organised special flights for Russian nationals to make their way back home during the lockdown. More than 1,400 Russian tourists have since flown back to their home country. Currently, there are about 700 Russian tourists still remaining in Phuket, Governor Phakaphong noted. On May 6 the Russian Embassy in Bangkok announced that some 1,700 Russians had registered for airlifts from Thailand. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media yesterday (May 25) updated the figure to up to 8,000 people have registered. It has yet to be clarified how many of them are still stranded in Phuket. Mr Sosnov yesterday thanked the Governor for the assistance provided to Russians stuck in Phuket during the lockdown. He also discussed various issues, especially those concerning Russians living in Phuket during the COVID-19 situation, said a report by the Phuket Office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket). The Russian Consulate General office in Phuket can be contacted as follows: Tel: 076-384469 Email: rusconsulphuket@gmail.com Address: 75/149, Patak Road, Chalong, Muang, Phuket, 83120 YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan chaired a session of the commission coordinating the activities for preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the Republic of Armenia, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister. Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan first gave updated COVID-19 statistics, information on patients health status and the healthcare systems capacity. Reference was made to the work carried out by inspection bodies and the police to enforce the preventive rules and impose administrative sanctions against the offenders. Prime Minister Pashinyan called for stricter control measures over economic activities and in public transport - buses, minibuses and taxis. For the sake of everyones health, the Head of Government told the responsible officers to be tougher with those who neglect the prescribed safety rules. Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan Pro-Kremlin occupants Open source In the city of Kostanay (Kazakhstan), a court sentenced a local resident who had fought on the side of militants in Donbas to 4.5 years in prison. This was reported by Interfax with reference to the press service of the regional court. "Court 2 of the city of Kostanay sentenced local resident Yevhen Shcherbak to four and a half years in prison for participating in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine," the statement said. A citizen of Kazakhstan was convicted as a participant in an armed conflict on the territory of a foreign state without signs of mercenary activity. As we reported earlier, he militants demand from the citizens of Ukraine who live in occupied Donbas and who got the passports after April 2014 to legalize in the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR). The issue is about the order of Denis Pushilin, the head of self-proclaimed DPR, which obliges the citizens of Ukraine who got the Ukrainian passport after April 7, 2014, and living in the territory of occupied Donbas to process DPR passport. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 Trend: Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Yashar Aliyev sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres within discussions on the topic titled Protracted conflicts in the GUAM area and their implications for international peace, security and development, Trend reports on May 26. The letter refers to the so-called "elections" held by Armenia in the occupied Azerbaijani territories on March 31, and strong condemnation of these illegal activities by the international community. The appeal emphasized that on March 12 and April 14, Armenia held illegal "elections" in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The elections are absolutely illegitimate, because they were held as a result of the ongoing military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani territories. This means a violation of the Constitution and legislation of Azerbaijan, as well as the norms and principles of international law. The world community once again with a majority of votes confirmed the unacceptability of the results of these illegitimate, so-called "elections", the collective rejection of their validity, and therefore demonstrated a consistent and principled position on the lack of their power of influence. Yashar Aliyev added that in connection with this, an updated version of the document was sent as an annex to his letter dated April 15, 2020 (A/74/805-S/2020/301), commenting on the international communitys attitude towards the illegitimate "elections". The UN Secretary-General was presented with a list of international and regional organizations, including the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the Non-Aligned Movement, NATO, the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), the OSCE Minsk Group, the OSCE PA, the OIC, the PA of Turkic-speaking states, as well as the appeals of many countries to including Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Montenegro, Moldova, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK and the US, condemning the illegal "elections" and confirming the fact of non-recognition of the puppet regime in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan. Six crew members in a ship docked in Western Australia have tested positive to coronavirus. WA Premier Mark McGowan told reporters on Tuesday seven crew members from the Al Kuwait live export ship were tested for COVID-19 as it docked in Fremantle on Friday. Six have tested positive, all males, and are being moved off the ship to a Perth hotel for quarantine purposes, Mr McGowan said. This is a fast evolving situation today involving WA Health, West Australian Police, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, the Fremantle Port, as well as the Australian Border Force and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. For the time being, the remaining 42 crew members, who I am advised are currently well, will remain onboard the ship and will be monitored and undergo health assessments as required. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan says six members of a ship docked in Fremantle have coronavirus. Source: AAP (file pic) The premier believes more crew members may have the virus. This is an extremely concerning situation that we find ourselves in, he said. I thought these kinds of situations were behind us. It goes to show that strong border controls are important as we continue to handle this worldwide health crisis. Mr McGowan said a Fremantle Port worker wearing PPE went on board the ship on Friday to help steer the ship into port as per the usual process. That worker, and any of their contacts, have all been instructed to self-isolate. Health Minister Roger Cook added the outbreak shows we are not free from this virus. There are still people getting sick and we are still at risk. We cannot be careful enough, he said. WA only learned through word of mouth Mr McGowan said Australian Border Force were told of one crew member with a high temperature on Friday along with three other crew members showing similar symptoms. But it wasnt until Sunday that the Fremantle Port Authority learned of this, Mr McGowan said by word of mouth from a worker at the port. This information was then reported through the usual channels and now we find ourselves in this situation, he said. Story continues Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told the Senate Covid Committee he only became aware of the cases on board the ship at an Australian Health Protection Principal Committee meeting on Tuesday. Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles told the ABC rhe Federal Government has a case to answer for. The Federal Government must stand up and answer what happened here, what they knew, before they allowed this ship to make port and what the plan is, he said. "We need to be hearing from them straight away. It it's fine to hear from government ministers on the good days, but when there is a difficult issue like this you see them often missing in action. Now is a time we need an explanation. I can understand the sense of disappointment, if not anger which is felt by those in Western Australia." Mr McGowan said he doesnt want to point fingers at this point in time. No repeat of Ruby Princess, premier says When asked if this was a case similar to the Ruby Princess debacle in NSW, Mr McGowan clarified none of the 48 crew members were allowed off the Al Kuwait. They've been tested, he said. Those people who are found positive are now in quarantine. Health is currently working with the remainder of the crew to work out what we do. Our preference, of course, is for the ship to sail as soon as possible but obviously, we need to ensure appropriate cleaning and all that sort of thing is done first. BREAKING: Unfolding situation on Al Kuwait livestock ship in Fremantle Harbour right now. Six cases of COVID 19 and heading to hotel quarantine. @PerthLive6PR pic.twitter.com/K0jnN8IZY5 Oliver Peterson (@oliverpeterson) May 26, 2020 Last month, the premier dubbed cruise ship coronavirus outbreaks as one of the greatest frustrations of his life as the Artania, a German ship, was docked in a WA port. The last two weeks dealing with this has been incredibly difficult but it has been incredibly difficult for everyone, he said in April. I'm not trying to make this political. I just want urgency at a Commonwealth matter to deal with it and get it away. Sheep remain in limbo The Al Kuwait was set to take sheep for export before June 1. But Mr McGowan said those sheep will remain in Baldivis due to biosecurity regulations. The outbreak comes as WA prepares to reopen almost all intrastate borders in time for this weekend's WA Day public holiday. The restrictions will lift on Friday, but the Kimberley region, parts of the East Pilbara and the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku will remain off limits to protect vulnerable remote indigenous communities. The areas, including the tourism hotspot Broome, have been declared federal biosecurity areas. The state government has applied to the Commonwealth to have the declarations lifted on June 5, a fortnight earlier than anticipated. with AAP Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. JERSEY CITY, N.J., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE: CLI) ("Mack-Cali" or the "Company") announced today that, due to the public health concerns associated with the ongoing coronavirus outbreak ("COVID-19") and to support the health and well-being of its stockholders, the location of the Company's 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting") has been changed. The previously announced date and time of the Annual Meeting (Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 12:00 p.m., Eastern Time) will not change. However, the Annual Meeting will be held solely by remote communication, in a virtual-only format, and stockholders will not be able to attend the Annual Meeting in person at a physical location. As described in the proxy materials previously distributed by the Company in connection with the Annual Meeting, stockholders of record of our common stock as of the close of business on April 16, 2020, the record date, are entitled to participate in the Annual Meeting. In order to attend the virtual-only meeting, you will need to pre-register by 5:00 PM EDT on Monday, June 8, 2020. To pre-register for the meeting, please follow these instructions: Registered Stockholders If your shares are registered in your name with the Company's transfer agent and you wish to attend the virtual meeting, please go to https://www.CESVote.com, enter the control number you received on your WHITE proxy card to access the voting page, and click on the "Click here to pre-register for the online meeting" link at the top of the page. If you do not have your WHITE proxy card, you may register to attend the virtual meeting by emailing your proof of ownership of shares of our common stock as of April 16, 2020 to [email protected]. Your proof of ownership may include a copy of your proxy card received either from the Company or from Bow Street or a statement showing your ownership of shares of our common stock as of April 16, 2020. After registering, and upon verification of your ownership, you will receive an email prior to the Annual Meeting with a link and instructions for entering the virtual Annual Meeting. You must register to attend the Annual Meeting no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT, on Monday, June 8, 2020. Beneficial Stockholders If your shares are not registered in your name with the Company's transfer agent, but you are a beneficial owner and your shares are held by a broker, bank, financial institution or other nominee or intermediary in "street name" as of April 16, 2020, you may register to attend the Annual Meeting by emailing [email protected] and attaching evidence that you beneficially owned shares of our common stock as of April 16, 2020, which may consist of a copy of the voting instruction form provided by your broker, bank, financial institution or other nominee or intermediary, an account statement, or a letter or legal proxy from such custodian. After registering, and upon verification of your ownership, you will receive an email prior to the Annual Meeting with a link and instructions for entering the virtual Annual Meeting. You must register to attend the Annual Meeting no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT, on Monday, June 8, 2020. Beginning thirty minutes prior to, and during, the virtual Annual Meeting, support will be available to assist shareholders with any technical difficulties they may have accessing or hearing the virtual Annual Meeting. If you encounter any difficulty during the virtual Annual Meeting, please contact the support team using the contact information included on the reminder email that you will receive 24-hours before the meeting. A list of stockholders entitled to vote at the virtual Annual Meeting will be available on the Company's website for the virtual Annual Meeting during the virtual Annual Meeting for inspection by stockholders who have a legally valid purpose related to the virtual Annual Meeting. It is important that you read the proxy materials previously distributed by the Company. Your vote is very important. Whether or not you plan to attend the Annual Meeting in person, and regardless of the number of shares of the Company that you own, it is important that your shares be represented and voted at the Annual Meeting. Therefore, our Board of Directors urges you to vote your shares via the Internet or telephone or by mail by promptly marking, signing and dating the enclosed WHITE proxy card and returning it in the enclosed postagepaid envelope. About Mack-Cali Realty Corporation One of the country's leading real estate investment trusts (REITs), Mack-Cali Realty Corporation is an owner, manager and developer of premier office and multifamily properties in select waterfront and transit-oriented markets throughout New Jersey. Mack-Cali is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, and is the visionary behind the city's flourishing waterfront, where the company is leading development, improvement and place-making initiatives for Harborside, a master-planned destination comprised of class A office, luxury apartments, diverse retail and restaurants, and public spaces. A fully integrated and self-managed company, Mack-Cali has provided world-class management, leasing, and development services throughout New Jersey and the surrounding region for two decades. By regularly investing in its properties and innovative lifestyle amenity packages, Mack-Cali creates environments that empower tenants and residents to reimagine the way they work and live. For more information on Mack-Cali Realty Corporation and its properties, visit www.mack-cali.com. Forward Looking Statements Statements made in this communication may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "plan," "potential," "projected," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "target," "continue," or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading "Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, as may be supplemented or amended by the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are incorporated herein by reference. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. Important Additional Information and Where to Find It This communication may be deemed to contain solicitation material in respect to the solicitation of proxies from the Company's stockholders in connection with the Annual Meeting. The Company has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and mailed to its stockholders a definitive proxy statement and accompanying WHITE proxy card in connection with the Annual Meeting. The definitive proxy statement contains important information about the Company, the Annual Meeting and related matters. Stockholders may obtain a free copy of the definitive proxy statement and other documents that the Company files with the SEC on the SEC's website, at www.sec.gov. INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT, THE ACCOMPANYING WHITE PROXY CARD AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT SOLICITATION MATERIALS BECAUSE THESE DOCUMENTS WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Certain Information Regarding Participants Mack-Cali and certain of its directors and executive officers are participants in the solicitation of proxies from the Company's stockholders in connection with the Annual Meeting. Information regarding the names of these directors and executive officers and their respective interests in the Company as of the date of this communication is set forth in the definitive proxy statement filed by the Company for the Annual Meeting. The definitive proxy statement and any other documents filed by the Company with the SEC may be obtained by investors and stockholders free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov . Copies will also be available at no charge on the Company's website at https://www.mack-cali.com. Contacts: Michael J. DeMarco Mack-Cali Realty Corporation Chief Executive Officer (732) 590-1589 [email protected] Deidre Crockett Mack-Cali Realty Corporation Chief Administrative Officer (732) 590-1025 [email protected] Proxy Solicitor: Lawrence E. Dennedy MacKenzie Partners, Inc. (212) 929-5500 [email protected] Media Contacts: Viveca Tress / Lucas Pers Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher (212) 355-4449 SOURCE Mack-Cali Realty Corporation Related Links www.mack-cali.com ALBANY Remarks on Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling for more in-state power transmission lines as well as one from Canada reignited the ongoing debates about how to satisfy the growing need for clean energy, especially in the highly populated New York metropolitan area. Cuomos comments came during an update on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed thousands and shut down much of the states economy. He has been giving daily updates since the pandemic started more than two months ago. Cuomo said he planned to meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss infrastructure projects to help re-start the economy. Among those were a long-discussed cross-state power line, which would bring power from western and northern New York to downstate, and the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express, which would carry Canadian hydroelectric power via a buried line below Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to the city. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has also called for construction of such a line. The Hydro Quebec provincial power company operates large hydro dams and generators in the northern part of the province and they have long sought to sell the power to New York. A New York firm, Transmission Developers Inc., is proposing to build the line, which they call the Champlain Hudson Power Express. Cuomo said he wants both projects built. Let's build the cross-state transmission lines to develop that renewable market upstate and satisfy the need downstate. We know they have low-cost hydropower in Canada. Let's run the cable, the transmission lines from Canada to New York City, to get that power down here, he said, adding Let's stop talking and let's start doing. Let's invigorate this whole renewable market. The response to Cuomos remarks illustrated the varying interests of players in New Yorks power scene. "We agree wholeheartedly with Governor Cuomo that now is the time to build and now is the time to jumpstart New Yorks renewable future," said Transmission Developers Inc., which wants to build the Canada-NYC line. "We commend the Governor and the State for their nation-leading clean energy goals, and the Champlain Hudson Power Express is ready to meet the Governors call to expedite bringing renewable hydropower from Canada directly to New York City." Independent Power Producers of New York, which represents power plant operators, cheered the idea of a new in-state line but condemned the Canadian concept. The Governor is right this is a time to build critical infrastructure that has previously only been words on a press release, said Gavin Donohue, president and CEO of IPPNY. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. New, in-state transmission will also be necessary to unlock the full potential of these projects and should be the priority, Donohue said, referring to the numerous projects including wind and solar farms planned across upstate. Donohue, though, slammed the prospect of importing power from Canada, which would compete with in-state producers. That project, Donohue said, would cost more than $3 billion and allow the Canadian exporters to take advantage of higher prices in New York City. The debate over in-state and Canadian lines has been rumbling along for years. Both would require numerous approvals and reviews. A cross-state line would have to overcome local opposition by people who dont want lines in their communities. And a Champlain Hudson line would be costly and some environmentalists worry about its impact on the lake and river. Cuomos push, however, could help bring some federal financing toward these and other infrastructure projects. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU [May 26, 2020] CraftBot Canada successfully initiates a #3DPrintToProtect movement to empower communities and frontline workers Network of partnerships allows for 3D printing of PPE for frontline workers and employees TORONTO, May 26, 2020 /CNW/ - As Canadian businesses look to reopen this week, CraftBot Canada has launched a #3DPrintToProtect initiative with hospitals and other distribution partners to help frontline workers and employees better protect themselves. CraftBot began this initiative to fight COVID-19 by redirecting resources to setup a unique Rapid Local Manufacturing (RLM) farm concept consisting of 12 3D printers printing and manufacturing thousands of face shields, all within a two week timeframe. The RLM farm produced over 5,000 shields, which were given away to local Hungarian hospitals and businesses to help protect their frontline workers. With the RLM concept proving effective and impactful, the initiative was then shared with distributors in various countries to empower them through hardware and software support in their local fight. With the continuing need for personal protective equipment (PPE) globally, this initiative has quickly grown to become a movement with partnerships at various levels looking to support companies to hospitals to communities. Here is how CraftBot is directly influencing a positive change for Canadians: Hospitals: Working with the Lynn and Arnold Irwin Advanced Perioperative Imaging Lab (APIL) at the Peter Munk CardiacCentre, University Health Network, recognized as the largest health research organization in Canada , to support the mass production of face shields for frontline healthcare workers and provide an additional printer to supplement APIL's printing hub for urgently needed parts for emergency ventilation systems. Working with the Lynn and Arnold Irwin Advanced Perioperative Imaging Lab (APIL) at the Peter Munk CardiacCentre, University Health Network, recognized as the largest health research organization in , to support the mass production of face shields for frontline healthcare workers and provide an additional printer to supplement APIL's printing hub for urgently needed parts for emergency ventilation systems. Distributors: Providing a 3D printer and 500 face shields to Shop3D.ca a Canadian based 3D Printer national distributor and reseller, with complimentary support in the production of PPE for anyone requiring it . Providing a 3D printer and 500 face shields to Shop3D.ca a Canadian based 3D Printer national distributor and reseller, with complimentary support in the production of PPE for anyone requiring it Retailers/Communities: Setting up an RLM centre at the 3D reseller Digitmakers to help their employees manufacture PPE for the University Health Network hospitals and others that require it. John Kassis , VP Commercial for CraftBot. "This is an important initiative as face shields and PPE become the safest and fastest way to give the public confidence to return to a sense of normalcy." "CraftBot has been integral to the network of businesses and community groups that underpins our current efforts to meeting PPE needs of frontline healthcare workers," shared Azad Mashari, Staff Anesthesiologist and Director of APIL at University Health Network. "Their generosity, professionalism and high quality systems have been a major boost to our projects." "We are pleased of the engagement of Craftbot with Shop3d.ca and their contribution in face shields and making their Flow printer available to support us in PPE production," stated Ken Wan, General Manager of Shop3d.ca. "This is helping us in our initiative to directly support the frontline workers." As part of this initiative, CraftBot has developed a special toll free number and web site to assist anyone that may need PPE or who are interested in helping print their own to help the community. Contact 647-428-2760, follow #3DPrintToProtect, or visit www.craftbot.com/covid-19 for further details. "Our goal is to help make PPE available so that anyone at home can purchase a 3D printer and help with this movement to #3DPrintToProtect," added John Kassis. "We want all businesses to know that we are here to help them, whether it's with PPE's, rapid local manufacturing or just to help someone new into 3D printing. While we are acting locally within Canada, we have similar initiatives running within Germany, Hungary, the UK, and the U.S. to make this a truly global movement." The multi-award-winning CraftBot 3D printers have set the industry standard for quality and performance for both beginners and advanced users. About CraftUnique Ltd. CraftUnique is a developer and manufacturer of 3D printers and of the new Craftbot Flow Generation with a manufacturing in Budapest and offices in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. Since it was founded in 2014, the company has developed over ten award-winning 3D printers and has sold 10,000 units worldwide. CraftUnique's innovative and entrpreneurial DNA has earned is a spot among the top 3D printer manufacturers in the world. With more than 45 sales partners worldwide, CraftUnique offers a complete 3D printing solution through its hardware, accessories, software, filament and support services. The Craftbot 3D printers are known for being user-friendly, reliable and high-quality products with a 5-year warranty. For more information visit www.Craftbot.com SOURCE CraftBot Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Midland County has recorded no new coronavirus cases for four days, and remains at 79 cases and eight deaths, according to Tuesday's daily state report. Bay County added one new case, bringing its total to 287 cases and 19 deaths, while Gladwin County and Isabella County also added no new cases. Their county totals remain at 18 cases and one death and 74 cases and seven deaths, respectively. Saginaw County added three cases and one death, bringing its total to 1,000 cases and 107 deaths. MidMichigan Health which covers a 23-county region and has medical centers at seven sites, including Midland was listed as having 34 COVID-19 patients on the state page, defined by the state as confirmed positive patients, including those in ICU and patients who are currently pending and under investigation. The health system reported one COVID-19 patients in ICU and 36% bed occupancy, the percentage of staffed inpatient beds occupied by any patient regardless of COVID-19 status. This data, according to the website, reflects the status in health systems and hospitals 48 hours prior to the time that it was posted to the state page, which was May 25. As of Tuesday, May 26, MidMichigan Health had completed a total of 4,125 tests. Of those, 3,608 were negative, 286 positive and 231 are pending. The state on Tuesday recorded 223 cases and 26 deaths, bringing the total to 55,104 cases and 5,260 deaths. The average death age is 75.3, according to the state website, mich.gov, with the deceased ranging in age from 5 to 107. The state lists 42% of the deceased as 80-plus and 27% age 70-79. State statistics show 53% of coronavirus deaths are male and 47% are female. The state lists the total recovered at 33,186 cases, as of May 23, which represents COVID-19 confirmed individuals with an onset date on or prior to April 22, 2020, according to the state website, mich.gov. The numbers will be updated every Saturday. The state lists the majority of races in positive cases as 31% Black/African American; 37% Caucasian and 17% unknown, and the top three races in deaths as 40% Black/African American; 51% Caucasian and 4% unknown The total positive cases are 47% men, 53% women. Midland County Department of Public Health continues to encourage residents to take precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19: Continue to practice social distancing as recommended by federal, state and local officials Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash Disinfect commonly touched surfaces Stay home when you are sick Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. We cannot stress enough how important it is for our community to be diligent in their community mitigation efforts," said Fred Yanoski, Midland County Public Health director/health officer. "We know that COVID-19 is in our community, and our residents can make a huge impact on slowing the spread of disease by following the recommended precautions." If you think you've been exposed to COVID-19 and develop a fever and symptoms such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your health care provider for medical advice. If he/she isn't available call MidMichigan Urgent Care in Midland at 989- 633-1350 or MidMichigan Medical Center's Emergency Department in Midland at 989-839-3100. MidMichigan Health has a COVID-19 informational hotline with a reminder of CDC guidelines and recommendations. The hotline can be reached toll-free at 800-445-7356 or 989-794-7600. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has a hotline number for Michigan residents for questions about COVID-19. The number is 1-888-535-6136 and is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents can also send an e-mail to: COVID19@michigan.gov. E-mails will be answered seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. If you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and feel you need to talk to someone, reach out to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan by calling 800-317-0708. Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, has suggested the need for police cells in the country to be disinfected at the end of every quarter of the year. According to him, such a move will not only keep the cells safe but also ensure that they are dignified facilities to keep human beings. Mr. Duncan made the proposal when he officially launched the Central Region disinfection and fumigation exercise of police facilities at the regional police headquarters, Cape Coast, on Tuesday. The disinfection and fumigation exercise of police facilities across the country is a collaboration between the Ghana Police Service and Zoomlion Ghana Limited. In all, Zoomlion will disinfect about 104 police facilities in the region. The regional minister advised that as "a country we must not wait for disaster to strike before we take action." Thus, he bemoaned what he described as "degrading conditions" in most of the country's cells. "...because you go to our cells where people are kept on remand and it is not a good sight to behold. That is where they have their ablutions, that is where they have their sleeping place just at the same place, and nobody must ever get to the point where they will be taken to a police cell and kept even overnight," he strongly advised. Continuing, he lamented that conditions in the cells do not befit a place where human beings must be kept "because it takes from us our dignity." To this end, Mr. Duncan commended the collaboration between the Interior Ministry and Zoomlion for the initiative to have all police facilities in the country disinfected. He used the opportunity to appeal to residents, especially the fisher-folks. "It appears many of our fisher-folks are still skeptical and hold the view that this disease is not in the country," he worryingly expressed. According to the minister, his outfit has had the chance to engage the fisher-folks. ...first at Elmina, where we brought all the Chief Fishermen and their elders to be engaged for them to go back to educate and engage with their people. We have gone beyond that and had another engagement at Moree--the report is still not good!" he intimated. "So I want to use this forum to appeal that this disease is real, this disease is here in this country. They must, therefore, observe the protocols that have been laid before us," he appealed. Further, Mr. Duncan commended the regional commander, his deputy, and management for the ongoing renovation works at the command. "I am impressed with the work being done by the current commander," he said. For his part, Central Regional Police Commander, Commissioner of Police (CoP) Paul Manly Awuni, disclosed that six of his personnel together with two community protection assistants have tested positive for the Covid-19 disease. However, he said they were in an isolation centre and were being given the best of care. "Two of the police personnel have recovered and have been discharged, the others are doing well and were in good spirits," CoP Awuni revealed. He stated that the morale of his personnel was high despite some contracting the disease in the line of duty. Central Regional Manager, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Ernest Osei, disclosed that his outfit has deployed about 150 spraying guns, boomers, and solo spraying machines to undertake the exercise. According to him, the exercise will last for five days. Immediately after the launch, Zoomlion moved into action, disinfecting the regional headquarters and then later sprayed the Bakado Police Station. LOBAMBA - Car washing businesses and those which sell electronic gadgets such as cellphones should be opened within three days. This was one of seven resolutions passed by the House of Assembly yesterday. The Members of Parliament (MPs) unanimously allowed that the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade should permit those operating car washing businesses and those selling electronic gadgets like cellphones to operate. The House agreed that the minister should do this within three days. There is also light at the end of the tunnel for hairdressing salons, driving schools, internet cafe owners and other informal business traders such as hawkers as the MPs resolved that the ministry should come up with safety guidelines and table a report within three days on how they could operate. Operate The motion that car washes and others be allowed to operate had been moved by Hosea MP Mduduzi Mabuza. It was initially stated that the Ministry of Health was opposed to the operation of the car washing businesses, especially because the public then turned them into places of imbibing alcohol. Even Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini had said nowhere in the new guidelines had car washes been allowed to operate. This was after Matsanjeni North MP Phila Buthelezi insisted that there was a statement issued by the minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade allowing car washes to operate on May 6, 2020 and wondered who had reversed it. The PM said if anything, there had been a draft permit for the owners of car washes to operate, but some people took a chance to use it and pretended as if these were legal. MP Mabuza said the electronic shop operators and car washing businesses were no different from other shops which had been allowed to operate. He said the guidelines for them should be the same as those of hardware shops and supermarkets. For example, I can allow someone to consume alcohol in my shop and if the inspectors would find that I did that, they would be allowed to close me down, so the same should be applicable to these businesses we are talking about, said MP Mabuza. However, on the formulation of guidelines for the operation of salons and driving schools, among others, the Minister of Health had requested that this be done in at least seven days as the three days was too little. However, the MPs objected to this and said if government had a challenge they should come back to the House and state why they were failing. The issue of separation of powers between the Arms of Government was then brought to the fore by Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo, who said as much as Parliament played an oversight role on Cabinet, they should not be seen as dictating what government should do. MP Buthelezi said he had also tried to avoid getting into that debate on the separation of powers because the MPs may have been seen to be prescribing to Cabinet. An Indigenous activist says it's 'insulting' the Aboriginal Flag is only flown on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for 19 days a year. While the flag is flying high on Tuesday May 26 for National Sorry day, it won't be long before it's put back into storage until the next celebration of national significance. Kamilaroi woman Cheree Toka, 29, has been fighting to get the indigenous symbol atop the city's iconic landmark permanently for the past three years. Scroll down for video An Indigenous activist says it's 'insulting' the Aboriginal Flag is only flown on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for 19 days a year Ms Toka told SBS News after three long years she's getting tired of the lack compassion from politicians. 'I'm sick of telling them how I feel. I've made every argument there is to make. Let's just get it moving,' Ms Toka said. The young activist launched a change.org petition for her cause in 2017 which has received more than 140,000 signatures. The move was debated in the New South Wales parliament in the final session of 2019 - but was ultimately knocked back by New South Wales Transport Minister Andrew Constance. Kamilaroi woman Cheree Toka, 29, (pictured) has been fighting to get the indigenous symbol atop the city's iconic landmark permanently for the past three years Indigenous Activist Cheree Toka with retired Rugby League legend Greg Inglis At the time he said the government would be unable to install the flag because of 'technical difficullties' - despite saying members of the state government were 'keen' to see it happen. Since then Ms Toka wrote to Mr Constance directly, after seeing his compassionate side emerge during the New South Wales bushfires. But once again she was told it was not possible - this time, due to financial constraints around constructing a third flagpole. Ms Toka remains optimistic about the cause despite the setbacks and a diminishing faith in the state's elected representatives 'First it was getting enough support to get a parliamentary debate, then it was flag protocol, then a technical issue and now a financial issue? I just thought: it's evident you don't care to show the respect to want to fly the flag.' The young activist launched a change.org petition for her cause in 2017 which gained more 140,000 signatures 'If cost really is the issue, I'll do a GoFundMe and raise it myself' she says. But changes in the New South Wales state government could provide a new pathway to continue her fight. The recent resignation of the state's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Don Harwin has renewed her confidence in having her dream fulfilled before her 30th birthday. The portfolio now comes under the responsibility of New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Another ally has also emerged in the form of a potential Liberal candidate for the Lord Mayor of Sydney Christine Forster. She told SBS News she'll be supporting Ms Toka's campaign. The New South wales Labor party made a pledge to install the flag on the bridge as part of their election campaign back in 2018 (Pictured: Former NSW Labor leader Luke Foley with Cheree Toka) 'I understand there've been some engineering issues associated with the installation of a third flagpole, but I hope these can be addressed so we see the Aboriginal Flag flying permanently above Sydney Harbour sooner rather than later.' The New South wales Labor party made a pledge to install the flag on the bridge as part of their election campaign back in 2018. A spokesperson for the New South Wales government told Daily Mail Australia in a statement they have 'no plans' to change the current schedule of the flag being flown. 'Each year the Aboriginal flag is flown in place of the NSW State flag during Australia Day, National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee Week, Reconciliation Week, National Sorry Day, and the Anniversary of the Prime Ministers apology to the stolen generations,' the spokesperson said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Transport Minister Andrew Constance for comment. 'The nation exists from us and we exist from the nation', says PM Modi PM Modi speaks to SAD leader Parkash Singh Badal after he tests positive for Covid-19 PM Modi meets NSA, CDS over India-China face-off in Ladakh India oi-Deepika S New Delhi, May 26: Amid the escalating tensions with China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting with the three service chiefs, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, to review the situation. The meetings come at a time when Chinese and Indian troops have been skirmishing in Sikkim and Ladakh. According to reports PM Modi held a meeting with National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs with a focus on bolstering India's military preparedness to deal with external security challenges. The military brass is learnt to have apprised Modi about the evolving situation in eastern Ladakh, though officials maintained that the agenda of the pre-scheduled meeting was to discuss the ambitious military reforms and ways to boost India's combat prowess. There was no official comment or details available about the meeting. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News The Prime Minister's meet took place shortly after Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a long security review meeting with CDS General Rawat and the three Services Chiefs on the China issue. During the meeting, Singh was briefed by the Army Chief M M Naravane about the situation at the Line of Action Control. The Army Chief had two days back had taken stock of the situation. CDS, Service Chiefs brief Rajnath Singh as China wants India to half work at along LAC Since the first skirmish on May 5, Chinese and Indian troops have held talks six times. However, with solution in sight, both sides continued to maintain aggressive posturing. China has told India to stop building infrastructure even on its own side of the LAC. While asking China to maintain status quo at the border, India has said that the condition imposed is unacceptable. I have stopped counting the weeks weve been in lockdown. I have stopped balking at the ginormous amount of money I spend during each grocery store visit, every LCBO pickup order, in an effort to stock up and reduce the need to visit these spots more often than is necessary. Ive purchased my masks, carry hand sanitizer in the purse that almost never leaves my home, have started wrapping my head around the new normal. Does this make me happy? I dont know. I mean, I dont know. You know what does make me happy? Connecting with friends and family on video chats as easily as pressing a button. Because, um, oh, there they are! And I can sip my wine and we dont have to do the whole schedule dance, finally landing on a day six months from Saturday. Also, if I were a more productive person, I might take a course in something as they all seem to be free or almost free right now. But, I suppose, if I were a more productive person, Id also spend all my free time running through the forest, learning to bake my own bread and not watching reruns of New Girl for the 70 billionth time on Netflix. If I were a more productive person, I might also log on to the Rent-a-Finn website, where I can learn to be as happy as a person who lives in Finland. Yes, back in March, Finland was named the happiest country in the world for the third year in a row. It topped Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway in the annual World Happiness Report which ranked the happiness of 156 countries. And before you get your face masks all twisted up, Canada came in at No. 11, which isnt so bad. Finlands tourism peeps smartly seized on the opportunity to promote themselves as the happiest place on Earth. And part of that promotion included providing those of us who are less happy with an opportunity to learn from the experts. As already mentioned, webinars and online learning being all the rage right now, Finland is offering a Rent-a-Finn opportunity. What does this mean? This is a webinar series (or actual live webinars) from real, honest-to-goodness happy people who live in Finland who will bestow upon us, The Unhappy, the secrets of their success. Being happy has a lot to do with our daily habits: a short walk in the forest, going ice swimming or tasting something fresh from nature. All of these things add a sense of calm and happiness to everyday life something we all need right now! boasts the Rent-a-Finn website. The next live session is later this week. Thus far, participants have learned how to make crafts with a ball of yarn, stroll through the woods and other types of forest bathing, be healthy not drinking lots of wine or watching Netflix from their couches. I imagine participants have also had ample opportunity to model smug expressions from our Finnish hosts. But thats just me, being nasty again. Im sorry, Finland. Im just being sullen over here on my couch in No. 11 Canada. Where we also have lots of forests in which to bathe (not literally), balls of yarn and hiking boots. So why arent we happier, Canada? Come on. The five-part webinar series includes topics: Relax with a Finn, Spend Time with a Finn, Stay Active with a Finn, Eat with a Finn, and finally, Be Happy with a Finn. I dont know how that last one is supposed to work either, but its scheduled for the beginning of June so we can all find out. In the absence of being able to travel to Finland to learn about the culture first-hand, I suppose this is a nice way to experience something other than Netflix. And hey, we can do it the Canadian way, getting drunk or stoned on our couches, an arms-length from the remote. Key to all action is a character named Kristin, who works out of the American Embassys office of Cultural Affairs and seems to have a finger in every pie. She has been Catherines confidential friend, has backed funding for Peters art and has cultivated Murat as an invaluable source of discreet, nonpublic information about the real estate market, where many of the countrys elites allocated their wealth. Ackermans rich knowledge of Turkey, where he was based as a journalist for a number of years, is evident on every page. The books stunning scenes of the protests in Gezi Park, where the police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets on demonstrators, are superbly written and give the book its title. In (actual) news photos a woman with black hair, wearing a red dress, carrying a white bag, was seen attacked by the police an image of utter clarity, designed by chance. Its an image viewed with extra nuances in the novel. Turkey, for all its violent complexities and hostile factions, is not a country at war, and readers may find less at stake in this novel than in Ackermans prior fiction. All its characters, despite their vividness and their claims on our sympathy, are carried by a mighty undertow of self-interest. What lasts is the books emphasis on hidden machinations of power theres an unwinding subplot featuring the diplomat Kristins magisterial cleverness, her ceaseless web of highly effective invisible acts. This reminder of unseen forces feels like the books underlying ambition and provides the resonance, the heightening of thought, that ends the book a musing on Americas overseas intrusions, on the trove of details deemed essential to keeping things in line, and on how such powers might seep into even the most intimate of relations. The discovery further challenges the accepted scientific dogma that the lens is shut out from the immune protection. PHILADELPHIA - The lens of the eye is an unusual organ. Unlike most of the body's organs, blood vessels don't reach the lens. If they did, they'd obscure our vision and we wouldn't be able to see. The lack of vasculature led scientists to believe immune cells, which travel via the bloodstream, couldn't get to this part of the body either. But a few years ago, Jefferson researchers challenged this long held assumption by demonstrating that immune cells populate the lens in response to degeneration. Now the Jefferson team finds the eye also launches an immune response in the lens after injury. The discovery adds to a growing body of evidence that is working to overturn the accepted dogma of the field. "Why would we evolve a tissue that is so central to our being able to see without ways to ensure its protection, its ability to repair itself?" says, Sue Menko, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology at Thomas Jefferson University, who led the research. "Immune cells are central to that protection and repair." The lens of the eye works like a camera lens. Its main purpose is to focus images coming in through the cornea - the transparent front layer of the eye - onto the retina at the back of the eye. The images are detected by the retina and then translated in the brain as what we see. That lens must be crystal clear. As a result, scientists have always described the lens as a tissue without vasculature and therefore no source of immune cells either. "At some point, you think about it and you wonder how that's possible," Dr. Menko says. "It doesn't really make a lot of sense." The puzzle led Dr. Menko and her team to investigate whether immune cells are present in the eye. In a previous study, they discovered that when the lens is in a diseased state, immune cells are not only recruited there, but they also show up in the cornea, retina, and vitreous body - all parts of the eye that don't normally have immune cells. Dr. Menko's work suggested that the immune cells come from the ciliary body, a sort of muscle that helps squeeze and pull the lens, changing its shape, and helping it focus. "The ciliary body is also a place that is vascular rich so it seemed like the most obvious place to look," Dr. Menko says. Now, in the latest work, Dr. Menko and colleagues show that after injury to the cornea, immune cells travel from the ciliary body to the lens along fibers known as ciliary zonules. The researchers used fluorescent markers and high-powered microscopes to observe structures of mouse eyes one day after receiving a scratch on the cornea. The high-tech imaging analysis Dr. Menko's team used revealed that following injury to the cornea, the immune system launches a response to protect the lens. Immune cells are recruited to the lens via the ciliary zonules, and crawl along the surface of the lens to surveille and protect from adverse impacts of the corneal wound. "This is really the first demonstration that surveillance by immune cells of the lens in response to injury somewhere else in the eye," Dr. Menko says. The researchers also found that some immune cells were able to cross the lens capsule, a membranous structure that helps to keep the lens under tension. The results could point to a role for immune cells in cataract formation. Together, the findings indicate that in response to damage or disease, the eye utilizes alternative mechanisms - rather than direct contact with the bloodstream like non-transparent tissues do - to ensure that immune cells get to sites to provide healing and protection. "We're excited to go from thinking this doesn't make sense to proving that the body is amazing and can adapt to anything. You just have to go in and look for it," Dr. Menko says. "We should be willing to challenge dogma because that's where discovery is," she adds. "It can enlighten what we know if we always keep our mind open to what doesn't make sense and what maybe should be challenged to understand things better." ### Dr. Menko and colleagues published the results on May 25th in The FASEB Journal. Article reference: JodiRae DeDreu, Caitlin J. Bowen, Caitlin M. Logan, Sonali Pal-Ghosh, Paola Parlanti, Mary Ann Stepp, and A. Sue Menko, "An immune response to the avascular lens following wounding of the cornea involves ciliary zonule fibrils," The FASEB Journal, DOI: 10.1096/fj.202000289R, 2020. LONDON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra research reveals that 86% of global banks are looking to use open APIs to enable Open Banking capabilities in the next 12 months. In addition, 30% of banks surveyed believe Open Banking is already making a tangible impact in delivering improved overall customer experience. This is against a backdrop where regulation is perceived to be tighter than a year ago and close to half (48%) of those audited believe that regulators are holding back innovation. The research, which was conducted prior to the Coronavirus outbreak amongst 774 financial institutions and banks across the US, UK, Singapore, France, Germany, Hong Kong and UAE1, shows a maturity of API adoption and calls for the harmonization of regulations between geographies. Key findings include: Open banking is on the up in 2020 compared to 2019 2 : The percentage of financial institutions looking to leverage open APIs has substantially increased in the US (+23%) and UK (+17%), while Singapore (+1%), France (-1%) and Germany (-4%) are relatively stagnant since our research in 2019. The percentage of financial institutions looking to leverage open APIs has substantially increased in the US (+23%) and UK (+17%), while (+1%), (-1%) and (-4%) are relatively stagnant since our research in 2019. Improvements in the overall customer experience accelerate API adoption : The US (45%), Hong Kong (42%) and France (36%) are leading the way in harvesting this benefit of Open APIs (UAE: 32%; Germany : 20%; Singapore : 20%; UK: 19%). Overall, 41% of global banks say that they are 'still in the early stages of adoption', so it's difficult to measure the impact of Open Banking on their business so far. : The US (45%), (42%) and (36%) are leading the way in harvesting this benefit of Open APIs (UAE: 32%; : 20%; : 20%; UK: 19%). Overall, 41% of global banks say that they are 'still in the early stages of adoption', so it's difficult to measure the impact of Open Banking on their business so far. Regulation is perceived to be tighter than a year ago and industry or government support is required to foster innovation: Almost half of those audited believe that regulations are holding back innovation. 48% state that 'regulation is too tight' - 10% more than 2019 - and the same percentage (48%) believe there is 'not enough government or industry support to foster innovation', particularly so in Hong Kong (62%), France (50%) and Singapore (49%), compared to 38% in the UK. Almost half of those audited believe that regulations are holding back innovation. 48% state that 'regulation is too tight' - 10% more than 2019 - and the same percentage (48%) believe there is 'not enough government or industry support to foster innovation', particularly so in (62%), (50%) and (49%), compared to 38% in the UK. A call for harmonization: 83% of financial institutions and banks agree that regulations regarding fintech innovation should be harmonized across different geographies. 83% of financial institutions and banks agree that regulations regarding fintech innovation should be harmonized across different geographies. Cost of fintech research and development is of concern in some regions: Cost of R&D in the US, UAE and APAC regions is highlighted, more so than in the UK. ( USA : 55%; Hong Kong : 55%; Singapore : 51%; UAE: 46%; France : 43%; Germany : 34%; UK: 33%). Simon Paris, CEO at Finastra said, "It's encouraging to see Open Banking maturing on a global scale, but it's still seen by many to be in its teenage years, with scope for creating even greater opportunities. We believe it will be the first step towards Open Finance which will see the next wave of innovation in financial services being created through collaboration on open platforms, like FusionFabric.cloud, using open APIs and open software solutions. "Currently banks and technology vendors are rightly focused on business continuity and keeping their workforces safe. We've also seen many of these firms moving with amazing pace to bring innovative solutions to market, with the help of technology, to support customers in this new environment. As we come through this situation together, we must endeavor to emerge stronger, and it will be interesting to see how Open Banking and collaboration accelerate when this outbreak ends." To see the findings summary report, click here Notes to editor: Research was conducted online at the end of January 2020 , amongst 774 financial institutions and banks across United States , UK, Singapore , France , Germany , Hong Kong and UAE. These financial institutions represent a gross total of just over USD$4.7 trillion in turnover over the last 12 months, employ over approximately 4.9 million staff and have approximately 110 million client/customer/member relationships. Comparative analysis was made from results from a similar survey run by Finastra in 2019 which was also conducted online in the UK, US, Singapore , France and Germany (March - May 2019 ). Definitions used in the survey: Open Banking: Open Banking is a series of reforms to make the banking sector more competitive. It brings changes to how banks handle their customers' financial information, putting control back in the hands of the customer. It means that customers can opt to share their financial information with authorized providers, to gain access to new services and innovation to help them manage their money better. Open application programming interfaces (open APIs): A computing interface to a software component or a system, that defines how other components or systems can use it. Aids open access for developers to build software. Fintech collaboration: The collaboration between financial institutions or banks with technology providers to help improve the customer experience while also reducing operational cost. About Finastra Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com For further information please contact: Caroline Duff Global Head of PR T +44(0)20-3320-5892 Ecaroline.duff@finastra.com finastra.com Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1172651/Finastra_Corporate_Survey_Report.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/967510/Finastra_Logo.jpg CARMEL, Ind. , May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KAR Auction Services, Inc. d/b/a KAR Global (NYSE: KAR), a global vehicle remarketing and technology solutions provider, today announced the placement of $550 million in newly issued perpetual convertible preferred stock of KAR Global ("KAR"). The preferred stock has a 7.0% dividend which shall be paid in-kind for the eight quarters following closing, and thereafter in cash or in-kind at KAR's option. The initial conversion price of $17.75 per share represents an approximately 42% premium to KAR's closing price of $12.52 per share on Friday, May 22, 2020. The investment was led by funds advised by Apax Partners (the "Apax Funds"), a global private equity advisory firm, with participation by Periphas Capital, L.P. The proceeds of the transaction will be utilized to expedite the resumption of operations to meet market demand, sustain the company's technology platforms and development pipeline and navigate the industry and economic recovery. "KAR took early and decisive steps in response to COVID-19 to protect the safety of our employees and customers, preserve our capital position and keep our operations moving forward," said Jim Hallett, Chairman and CEO of KAR. "This transaction will help us continue to support our global customers and further accelerate our digital transformation. Apax is the right strategic partner for our company, employees and stockholders, and their investment reinforces the strength of our brands, market position and long-term strategy for growth and expansion." "KAR is an internationally recognized leader in wholesale remarketing with a strong track record of innovation," said Roy Mackenzie, Partner at Apax Partners. "The company's market leading digital platforms and investments in data analytics uniquely position them to thrive in the new digital normal. We look forward to partnering with KAR's progressive and entrepreneurial management team to transform their industry and drive long-term value for all stockholders." Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as lead financial advisor, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP served as legal advisor to KAR. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal advisor to Apax Partners. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor to Periphas Capital. KAR Contacts Media Inquiries: Analyst Inquiries: Tobin Richer Mike Eliason (317) 249-4521 (317) 249-4559 [email protected] [email protected] About KAR KAR Auction Services, Inc. d/b/a KAR Global (NYSE: KAR), provides sellers and buyers across the global wholesale used vehicle industry with innovative, technology-driven remarketing solutions. KAR Global's unique end-to-end platform supports whole car, financing, logistics and other ancillary and related services, including the sale of nearly 3.8 million units valued at approximately $40 billion through our auctions in 2019. Our integrated physical, online and mobile marketplaces reduce risk, improve transparency and streamline transactions for customers in more than 80 countries. Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, KAR Global has employees across the United States, Canada, Mexico, U.K. and Europe. For more information, go to www.karglobal.com . For the latest KAR Global news, follow us on Twitter @KARspeaks . About Apax Partners Apax Partners is a leading global private equity advisory firm. Over its more than 40-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of c.$50 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech & Telco, Services, Healthcare and Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. The Apax Funds are growth focused investors with a long and successful track record investing in leading software and digital businesses. The Apax Funds have invested more than $5 billion in this sub-sector, including Dealer.com, DealerTrack, Trader Corporation and Auto Trader Group plc. For more information see: www.apax.com . About Periphas Capital Periphas Capital focuses on growth and buyout investments in four primary industries: Technology Enabled Services, Business Services, Consumer and Industrials. The principals of Periphas bring 30 years of private equity investing experience and have led 37 investments with aggregate invested capital of $5 billion, including a previous investment in KAR, in addition to investments in Aramark, Burger King and Hexcel. For more information see: www.periphascapital.com. Forward-Looking Statement This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions thereof. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and we caution you not to place undue reliance on such statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of the words "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," "project," "continue," or the negative of these words, or other similar words or terms. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by us. Factors and risks to our business that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements are described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, potential risks and uncertainties relating to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). SOURCE KAR Auction Services, Inc. Related Links http://www.karglobal.com New Delhi, May 26 : Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday directed the health department to ramp up medical infrastructure and to ensure availability of beds and oxygenation facilities, keeping in view general trends and probable scenarios. Baijal held a video conference with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain along with Chief Secretary, Commissioner of Police and senior officers to review the situation of COVID-19 in the national capital. "Health Department to ramp up medical infrastructure, ensure availability of hospital beds and oxygenation facilities keeping in view general trends and probable scenarios. Effective IEC (Information, Education and Communication) and surveillance measures are important to contain the spread," the LG said in a tweet. The coronavirus cases count in the national capital has gone up to 14,465 with 412 new cases and the death tally has reached 288 with 12 new deaths added in the last 24 hours, the Delhi Health Department said on Tuesday. Missouri health officials have called for people who attended a packed pool party at the Lake of the Ozarks to self-quarantine after videos went viral from the event. The St Louis County Public Health Department released a travel advisory on Monday following footage over the weekend showing people ignoring social distancing measures when celebrating the holiday. In videos that circulated news organisations, people were packed into one pool while enjoying the good weather. This reckless behaviour endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of Covid-19, Dr Sam Page, the county executive, said in a statement. I encourage everyone to follow the Department of Public Health advisory to determine a safe path forward in the workplace. Health officials expressed concerns that St Louis residents were in attendance at the Lake of the Ozarks party, thus putting the city at risk if they brought the virus back. Any person who has travelled and engaged in this behaviour should self-quarantine for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result for COVID-19, the advisory said. Employers were also asked to screen employees after the holiday weekend to catch potential cases. The Lake of the Ozarks is about 150 miles away from St Louis and a popular weekend destination for Missouri residents. Officials with Kansas Citys Health Department in Missouri also spoke out against the partygoers over Memorial Day weekend. Anyone who didnt practice CDC, DHSS, and KCMO Health Department social distancing guidance should self quarantine for 14 days if they have any compassion for others, Dr Rex Archer, director of the department, wrote on Twitter while sharing a video from the bar. Sheriff Tony Helms of Camden County, where a majority of the lakeside resorts and businesses are, said in a statement that people violating social distancing measures were not violating any crimes, which gives the office no authority to enforce actions. We expect residents and visitors alike to exhibit personal responsibility when at the lake, Mr Helms said. We also respect the right of citizens to move freely around the lake and take responsibility to protect themselves from any expected dangers related to Covid-19. Missouri Governor Mike Parson allowed businesses and attractions to reopen earlier this month, but an order remains in place encouraging residents to practice social distancing measures like remaining six feet apart. Stem cell and regenerative medicine research is an important area of clinical research which promises to change the face of medicine as it will be practiced in the years to come. Challenges in the 21st century to combat diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease and retinal disorders, among others, may well be addressed employing stem cell therapies and tissue regeneration techniques. Frontiers in Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research is essential reading for researchers seeking updates in stem cell therapeutics and regenerative medicine. The ninth volume includes current literature on a variety of topics: The utility of exogenous and endogenous neural stem cells in spinal cord injury Somatic cells for human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) Reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated cellular signaling for stem cell differentiation The therapeutic potential of microRNAs in cardiac diseases Stem cell therapy for the treatment of malaria ### About the Editors: Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Cambridge University (1968) has 1,232 international publications (45 international patents and 341 books). He received the following awards: Fellow Royal Society (FRS) London (2006), UNESCO Science Prize (1999), Honorary Life Fellow Kings College, Cambridge University (2007), Academician (Foreign Member) Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015), Highest Civil Award for Foreigners of China (Friendship Award, 2014), High Civil Award Austria ("Grosse Goldene Ehrenzeischen am Bande") (2007), Foreign Fellow Chinese Chemical Society (2013), Sc.D. Cambridge University (UK) (1 987), TWAS (Italy) Prize (2009). He was the President of Network of Academies of Sciences of Islamic Countries (NASIC), Vice President TWAS (Italy), Foreign Fellow Korean Academy of Science & Technology, President Pakistan Academy of Sciences (2003-2006) and (2011 -- 2014). He was the Federal Minister for Science and Technology of Pakistan (2000 2002), Federal Minister of Education (2002) and Chairman Higher Education Commission/ Federal Minister (2002-2008), Coordinator General of COMSTECH (OIC Ministerial Committee) (1996-2012), and the Editor-in-Chief of Current Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Shazia Anjum is the Professor of the Chemistry Department and the Director of Cholistan Institute of Desert Studies, the Islamic University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. She is an experienced medicinal and natural product chemist. She has authored and co-authored more than 116 research papers and a US patent. She has edited 09 books and has published 03 chapters in international books. She has accomplished the synthesis of several naturally occurring aminoglycosides that can be used as antibiotics. Dozens of students have completed their MS degrees under her supervision and couple of others are pursing for their MS/PhD degrees. As recognition of her contributions to science, she has been awarded with 03 International awards like Fellowship from Islamic World Academy of Sciences, Postdoctoral fellowship from Ministry of Culture and Education, Spain and a Young Chemist Award from Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy. She also has several national awards on her credit. Keywords: Stem cell, regenerative medicine, spinal cord injury, Somatic cells, Reactive oxygen species, Stem cell therapy, microRNA, stem cell differentiation For further information, please visit: https://bit.ly/FrontiersinStemCellandRegenerativeMedicineResearchVol9 One of two old friends who died in a house fire in Dublin on Saturday had been bringing the other food and cigarettes as an act of kindness, his family has revealed. Derek Mangan (72) was a life-long pal of Joe Muldowney and had gone to see him in his cottage in Lansdowne Lane, Drimnagh, when tragedy struck. Expand Close Derek Mangan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Derek Mangan The fire broke out at around 1.45pm and was spotted by a woman visiting a neighbouring house. She saw smoke coming from the windows and raised the alarm. Three units of Dublin Fire Brigade fought the blaze and gained access to the house, but they found Mr Mangan and Mr Muldowney dead. Mr Mangans family, from Benmadigan Road, Drimnagh, paid tribute to, saying he was a big man with a soft heart. Derek knew Joe since they were children and he looked out for him, said Mr Mangans wife, Linda. Joe lived on his own and had never married or had children. Derek was a very caring man and had bought two coffees, some ribs from the butchers and cigarettes to bring to Joe. He had been down with him on the Thursday too, bringing him a meal I made and a few bits and pieces. Idolised They were the only two times in weeks that Derek was out since the lockdown. Father-of-five and grand-father-of-eight Mr Mangan had worked for years in the roofing business with Mr Muldowneys brothers. It was a social visit. I think after being down last Thursday he was thinking about Joe and decided on Saturday to go again, said Mr Mangans daughter, who is also named Linda. He idolised his grandchildren and they idolised him. Dad was a keen fisherman and was looking forward to going fishing again with his nine-year-old grandson Oliver, whos broken-hearted. Mr Mangans wife added: He was more like a father to his grandkids, and he was an avid gardener. He would do our hanging baskets. We really dont know what happened, and we have a lot of questions we need answers to. The couples daughter, Erica, said: Its hard to understand how a fire could break out so quickly in the middle of the day, and how two people could die. Dad was adored and loved by us all. He was kind, and he would go to the ends of the earth to help people. Her mother added: The house was in Joes family. His parents lived there before him. He was a great ballad singer. He had a really lovely voice. Neighbour John Ryan said Mr Muldowney was a keen fan of traditional music and played the spoons. He was a very nice man in a soft and gentle way, he said, adding that he had been in his kitchen on Saturday when he heard banging outside. I went out and I could see the fire brigade and all the smoke coming from the house. It happened so quick. It was bizarre, he said. Its very sad. Its tragic, and it will have an effect on everyone on the lane. Gardai said early indications are that it was a tragic accident. Nan Wade lives in a nursing home. Shes been a resident of Autumn Lake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Berkeley Heights since 2013, and she receives Medicaid benefits. At age 89, the grandmother of five has had a very active life. After her husband of 50 years died in 2006, she was involved with her church and ran senior citizen programs and coordinated and ran bus trips for several groups until she became ill in 2013, her son Edward Wade said. Wade said shes received excellent care at Autumn Lake, even through the coronavirus pandemic. In early May, Nan Wade had trouble breathing and was admitted to Overlook Hospital, where was first diagnosed with pneumonia but later it was decided she had congestive heart failure. She tested negative for the coronavirus. Ten days later, she returned to Autumn Lake, where she is in isolation in a separate wing. COVID-19 tests since Nan returned to the facility have come back negative, her son said. Throughout all this time, Edward Wade has been Nans trustee. He handles her finances. When Nans $1,200 stimulus check arrived, Wade wasnt sure what to do with the money. Thats because among other requirements, to remain eligible for Medicaid, a persons assets must remain under $2,000 at the end of each month. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage After Wade saw our story explaining that nursing homes cannot take stimulus payments from residents to pay for care, he realized that adding the stimulus check amount to Nans accounts would put her over the $2,000 limit set by Medicaid. He said he considered donating the funds to charity or just returning it to the IRS because he didnt want to risk Nans eligibility. What do I do with this money? he asked. HOW IT WORKS Wade was right to be concerned about the stimulus payment. Meeting and sticking with Medicaid eligibility rules can be confusing and complicated. But there is clarity about how the stimulus payments should be handled. The payment is not counted as an asset when received and as long as you spend it down within one year from when you received it, said Yale Hauptman, an estate planning attorney with Hauptman and Hauptman in Livingston, who recently wrote a blog post on the topic. In the post, he explained that if a Medicaid recipients bank accounts are more than $2,000, they would no longer be eligible for benefits. The key is that stimulus payments are not considered income. The commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in a blog post has clarified that the SSA does not consider the stimulus payments as income for purposes of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility, Hauptman said. Rather, they are considered an asset but will not be counted for a period of 12 months. This is important, Hauptman said, because Medicaid programs cannot impose eligibility requirements that are more restrictive than SSI requirements. This decision is also consistent with what was done back in 2008, the last time the federal government made stimulus payments following the last financial crisis triggered by the collapse of the housing market, he said. Thats good for Medicaid recipients. But it doesnt mean you can do whatever you want with the payment, he said. You cant give it away, for example. A gift to your children, for example, would be a transfer for less than fair value and cause a Medicaid penalty a period of ineligibility for benefits, Hauptman said. You also cant buy jewelry or other tangible items that have financial resale value such as rare coins or stamps. Thats because buying a tangible item is really converting one asset into another. You havent spent down the money. The payment must be spent down so that the Medicaid recipient receives something of fair market value in product or service and it must be spent within 12 months, he said. One option is to put the money in a prepaid funeral trust or to purchase items specifically for the Medicaid recipients benefit. Wade was glad for the clarification. He wondered if the purchase of a new television, a laptop or tablet would be permitted. Up until her latest health issue, she would be on Facebook with friends and relatives using an old laptop my sister gave her when she first entered the nursing home, he said. Hauptman said a new laptop or tablet should be fine, but a television could be challenged by Medicaid if the facility has its own television. I dont want to make the wrong move with the money and cause any issues, Wade said. In the long run, if I cant figure out a good use for the money I may return it. But I will not be making any hasty decisions. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Karin Price Mueller may be reached at bamboozled@njadvancemedia.com. The driver accused of killing two people during a short-lived police chase in northwest Harris County Monday night had a warrant out for his arrest for evading deputies outside the jail months ago, records show. Now, 31-year-old Alexis Saborit is facing two felony murder charges. He's accused of killing 63-year-old Jarvis Taylor and 57-year-old Roosevelt McClendon at the end of the pursuit. FOUR INJURED: Driver charged following major crash that landed 4 in hospital A Harris County Sheriffs Office deputy spotted the driver of a Mercedes Benz car, later identified as Saborit, in the 10000 block of Veterans Memorial Drive driving 61 mph in a 45 mph zone around 9 p.m., authorities said. The deputy tried to pull Saborit over, but he allegedly sped off south along Veterans Memorial. After crossing West Mount Houston Road, Saborit allegedly pulled into the northbound lanes and drove the wrong way. The deputy followed the driver southbound in the northbound lanes, according to HCSO spokesperson Jason Spencer. Seconds later, the Mercedes driver slammed into Taylor, who was on a bicycle in the outside lane. The driver continued and crashed head-on into a Buick LaCrosse, driven by McClendon. The deputy, helped by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, took Saborit into custody after the crash, Sgt. Simon Cheng said. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Firefighters had to cut McClendon out of his car as paramedics rushed Taylor to a nearby hospital. McClendon was taken to the hospital in an air ambulance. Both were pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospitals, Cheng said. Saborit showed signs of intoxication, Cheng said, although it is unclear if that was factored into the felony murder charges. In Texas, anyone who is committing certain felonies while doing something "clearly dangerous to human life" can be charged with felony murder if someone dies during the commission of the underlying crime, according to state law. Cheng said the underlying crime was when Saborit allegedly fled from the deputy. Saborit had a warrant for his arrest since January, which is when he ran from deputies outside the Harris County Jail in downtown Houston, records show. Saborit walked into the jail lobby to post a bond and handed over his driver's license, records detail. Jail staff ran his name through a state database and learned he had a parole warrant for his arrest, according to charging documents. As deputies tried to arrest him in the lobby, Saborit managed to escape and run to the nearby parking lot, where his car was parked, court records show. Deputies announced themselves and told him he was under arrest as he fled. In the parking lot, a deputy had Saborit at gunpoint, but he sped away. HCSO filed felony evading charges against Saborit later that day, and he's been wanted ever since, records show. Chron.com reached out to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for information on his parole violation but has yet to hear back. Harris County records show Saborit was handed a six-year prison sentence in 2015 for identity theft. This is a developing story. Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com FULTON, Md., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NewDay USA, one of the nation's top VA mortgage lenders, is seeing significant growth thanks to the leadership of four accomplished women in the company's c-suite. Chief Financial Officer Chao Deng, Chief Administrative Officer Maylene Tan Khieu, Chief Compliance Officer Crystal Raines and Senior Vice President Pooja Bansal are leading the company in the otherwise challenging environment. Deng, the company's CFO, is navigating the company through the difficult financial market while building the balance sheets. Deng has more than 15 years' executive experience, having cut her teeth in financial services at companies such as GE Capital, PwC and Wilmington Finance. "It is an honor to serve alongside highly qualified and exceptional colleagues while serving nation's veterans," Deng said. As a result of the pandemic, NewDay has transitioned more than 90 percent of its 500 employees who work at its Baltimore-area office to working from home. The key architects behind this mammoth transformation have been Khieu and Raines, senior leaders who each have more than two decades' experience in underwriting, origination and operations management in the mortgage industry. Early on in the pandemic, Khieu and Raines led the business continuity planning sessions in order to enable most of the company's staff to work from home. NewDay has kept up with constantly evolving policies, rules and regulations thanks to the leadership of Raines. The CCO, who has been with the company for more than a decade, is a VA underwriting authority with more than 20 years' underwriting and operations experience. "Maintaining compliance with the requirements of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ginnie Mae and local, state and federal regulators during these times has also been a challenge for many lenders," Raines explained. "At NewDay, we've kept on top of this fluid situation to ensure military families can continue to close on new transactions and to help veterans with existing mortgages who are struggling to make payments." Meanwhile, Bansal, who is SVP of human resources and communications and recently earned her MBA from the Wharton School, is playing an instrumental role in leading the company's growth to 1,000 team members over the next year. Partnering with NewDay University, she is redesigning the company's online training program and helping new hires get trained so they can serve our veterans while staying safe at home during the pandemic. Previously, Bansal served as a former assistant vice president at Barclays and as an IT consultant for SEI Investment Co., where she ran several initiatives to promote women into technology and leadership roles. "At NewDay, we are proud to have a diverse and inclusive workforce at every level of the company," Bansal said. "I'm especially grateful to have such accomplished and dedicated female colleagues. Their contributions are enabling the NewDay family to continue serving veterans and active-duty service members during this difficult period." About NewDay USA NewDay USA is a nationwide VA mortgage lender focused on helping active military personnel, veterans, and their families achieve their financial and housing goals. NewDay, which was named a Best Military Lender by National Mortgage Professional, is also a Ginnie Mae (GNMA) approved issuer/servicer. The company employs best practices in mortgage lending and career growth for mortgage professionals. Consistent with its mission, NewDay is a philanthropic partner of numerous organizations focused on assisting military veterans and their families in need. The NewDay USA Foundation provides four-year scholarships to the children of fallen and severely disabled military veterans to attend JROTC military high schools across the nation. The company is also a major philanthropic partner of the Medal of Honor Foundation, the USO, Boulder Crest Retreat for Military and Veteran Wellness, and is a major sponsor of the Military Bowl. Community service and giving back in the form of volunteerism also play a significant role among the NewDay USA workforce. NewDay USA is a registered trade name of New Day Financial, LLC (NMLS # 1043), which is a key holding of Chrysalis Holdings, LLC, a premier private investment company focused on the financial services industry. For more information about NewDay USA, visit www.newdayusa.com. Press Contact: Sam Garcia Strategic Vantage Marketing & Public Relations [email protected] 214.762.4457 SOURCE NewDay USA Related Links http://www.newdayusa.com YouTube responded to reports that it is automatically deleting comments criticizing the Chinese government, explaining that the seeming censorship is actually an error in its automated moderation systems. As the Verge reported, comments on the platform using the Chinese phrases for "communist bandit" or "50-cent party" two terms tied to criticisms of the Chinese Communist Party were taken down almost instantly, even if those comments were positive. The latter term ( or "wumao dang") refers to China's censorship efforts, particularly the idea that online commenters are paid to deflect criticism for the government. Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey drew attention to the phenomenon on Monday. YouTube has deleted every comment I ever made about the Wumao (), an internet propaganda division of the Chinese Communist Party. Who at Google decided to censor American comments on American videos hosted in America by an American platform that is already banned in China? Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) May 26, 2020 In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson told TechCrunch that the auto-deletions were a result of "an error in our enforcement systems" that the company is looking into. "Users can report suspected issues to troubleshoot errors and help us make product improvements," the spokesperson said. According to YouTube, the situation is an accidental side effect of the platform's comment moderation system, which is designed to filter out hate speech, harassment and spam. The company didn't offer further insight as to how the terms wound up flagged by its automated systems. With the vast majority of their workforces out of the office, major tech platforms have leaned more heavily on AI moderation methods in recent months, even as they acknowledged that less human oversight would likely lead to more instances of content mistakenly being taken down. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ghina Ghaliya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 19:48 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda407d7 1 National COVID-19,coronavirus,new-normal,Jokowi,Terawan-Agus-Putranto,PSBB,social-restriction,anies-baswedan,Jakarta-COVID-19,DPR,Lawmakers,YLKI Free Concerns are mounting over the governments approach to reopening public places while urging citizens to embrace the new normal as numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise across the country. Lawmakers have questioned the government's decision to ease large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), saying COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to increase across many provinces. Streets, markets, malls, workplaces will be crowded again and the virus could continue to spread," a member of House of Representatives Commission IX overseeing health Saleh Daulay of the National Mandate Party (PAN), said on Tuesday. Saleh referred to measures announced by President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Tuesday and Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto in a decree on health protocols in the new normal over the weekend. On Tuesday, President Jokowi visited a mall in Bekasi, West Java, and the Bundaran HI MRT station in Central Jakarta in preparation for easing the PSBB as he encouraged people to coexist with the virus. The government has also begun discussing with experts the implementation of new normal guidance in schools. Saleh added that the implementation of the PSBB in several regions was not strict enough so that such guidance would not be helpful. For example, the Health Ministers decree on offices and manufacturers operations. It contains the usual measures that have been implemented by the community. Its not new and cant be considered as a new policy to support the new normal. The regulation only justifies people violating the PSBB, he said. The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said it was too early for the government to adjust to a new normal, especially in Jakarta, the countrys COVID-19 epicenter. Malls in the capital should not immediately reopen following the end of Jakartas PSBB on June 4, it added "The YLKI calls on the public not to visit malls before the situation is completely safe, YLKI chairman Tulus Abadi said, citing the huge potential for violations of the new normal guidance. We should first resolve the widespread infection of the virus before solving the economic effects, he added. The deputy chairwoman of Commission IX, Nihayatul Wafiroh, said the government should make sure the new normal is safe for everyone and there should be no more policy flip-flops. Maybe the government thinks that its time to tolerate [greater mobility], but we should remain cautious by following the guidance. This is to sustain the economy, the National Awakening Party (PKB) politician said. Achmad Baidowi of the United Development Party (PPP) said both public health and the economy were equally important so that the new normal guidance should be immediately implemented in all public places. Chairman of House Commission X overseeing education Syaiful Huda called on the government to be careful in planning for the reopening of schools as the virus transmission remained high. Forcing schools to reopen will endanger the students and teachers [] Indonesian Doctors Association data show that 129 children have died with COVID-19 symptoms and 14 children who have died tested positive for COVID-19 infection, he said. KYODO NEWS - May 26, 2020 - 14:55 | All, Japan, Coronavirus Japan has given up on its target of approving Fujifilm Holdings Corp.'s anti-influenza drug Avigan this month as a treatment for coronavirus patients after an interim clinical test report showed no clear efficacy, health minister Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday. "We will continue the clinical study and clinical tests (of the drug) in June and onwards. There is no change in our policy to approve the drug swiftly if its efficacy (against the coronavirus) is confirmed," Kato told a press conference. There is a belief that Avigan, also known as favipiravir and developed by Fujifilm Holdings' unit Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Co., can be used as a treatment for the COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus. In earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed hope that the homegrown drug would receive approval by the end of this month, despite no clear evidence of efficacy and safety. In response to Abe's remarks, some experts had raised concerns that the government was rushing to approve it and undermining the strict medical procedures in place to authorize the use of a drug. Kato said the government initially aimed to approve the drug if the interim results of clinical tests, conducted by a team led by Fujita Health University, showed extremely high effectiveness in treating COVID-19. But a third-party panel that assessed the results of the interim report, released in the middle of this month, said that it was too early to judge it scientifically, prompting the continuance of the clinical trials, according to Kato. The drug cannot be administered to expectant mothers or women who are likely to become pregnant as it may cause birth defects. Aside from the tests carried out by Fujita Health University, Fujifilm is also conducting clinical tests of Avigan on its own and are set to continue through the end of June. It said Friday it is still discussing the matter with regulatory authorities and cannot say when it can apply for approval of the drug. The company is ramping up production of Avigan, as the government has earmarked about 13.9 billion yen ($128 million) in an extra budget for fiscal 2020 to triple the national stockpile of Avigan, enough to treat 2 million people infected with the coronavirus. Kato said, separately, some 3,000 COVID-19 patients in Japan have so far been prescribed Avigan as a part of an "observational study." "I have heard that there have not been new cases of side effects that may pose safety issues," Kato said. But medical experts said results of an "observational study," which are different from that of randomized, controlled clinical studies and cannot be used as a major basis in approving the drug. The government is also enthusiastic about offering the drug for free to foreign countries who are interested in using it for clinical studies. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has said around 80 countries have expressed interest. As Avigan can inhibit the replication of the virus in cells, experts say it may bring about improvements for those with mild symptoms or those who have recently been infected. If approved, Avigan would be Japan's second authorized COVID-19 treatment after the antiviral drug remdesivir developed by U.S. firm Gilead Sciences Inc., which was given the green light earlier this month under an expedited review. Related coverage: WHO head deems Japan's battle against coronavirus a "success" Japan to expand entry ban to visitors from India, 10 others Abe declares coronavirus emergency over in Japan Tran Tuan Khanh is held by border guards in Long An Province, May 26, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/An Nam. A man was arrested on Long An Provinces border with Cambodia Tuesday with three guns and about 21 kg of drugs. Tran Tuan Khanh, 30, was arrested in Long Ans Kien Tuong Town, which borders Cambodia and is about 93 km to the west of HCMC. He was caught while passing through a border gate to enter Vietnam from Cambodia with a bag containing 20.8 kg of drugs, two K59 pistols, a Zoraki pistol, a magazine and 25 bullets. Khanh said hed bought the guns and drugs from an unidentified person in Cambodia and intended to sell them in Vietnam. Vietnam has some of the harshest punishments for drug trafficking, awarding death to those convicted of possessing or smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine and to those producing or selling 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal narcotics. However, this does not seem to have had a deterrent effect, with increasing drug trafficking cases coming to light in recent years. A Brooklyn funeral home that was caught storing decomposing bodies in U-Haul trucks is facing four lawsuits filed by family members of the deceased. Andrew T Cleckley Funeral Services was shuttered following the grim discovery, and will now face a quartet of lawsuits from people upset by the company's decision to store bodies in trucks. The funeral home said it had to store the bodies in the trucks due to the increased number of deaths due to the coronavirus. According to the New York Post, the lawsuits claim the funeral home mishandled their loved ones' remains and inflicted "intentional" "emotional distress." A complaint in one of the lawsuits claims the funeral home's actions were "so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency." Three of the lawsuits do not disclose the damages they are seeking. One of the lawsuits is seeking at least $1.25m in damages. One lawsuit detailed the travails of the mother and sister of Terry Roberts, who died on 31 March, as they sought to see their loved one's body. The funeral home took the body into its care on 7 April to embalm and prepare it for a family visitation and viewing. When the family attempted to see the remains, the funeral home "made excuses about not having room for visitation with the remains" before agreeing to conduct a "video viewing." The funeral home told the family that the mother of the deceased shouldn't participate in the viewing because the body had reached an advanced stage of decay. "To the devastation of the family, it was clear that the defendants had allowed their loved one's remains to putrefy and decay," the lawsuit claims. "Because of the gruesome condition of the remains, the family was forced to agree to a closed casket burial." Two other funeral homes in Brooklyn were named as co-defendants in the other three suits. The funeral homes - Armistead Burial and Cremation Services and DeKalb Funeral Services - are accused of giving bodies to the Cleckly home home without first notifying the families. In a lawsuit naming Armistead, the family members of Hermite Mercius - who died on 18 April - asked for a photo of their loved one's remains to ensure they were being well treated. They received a photo that "did not look like their beloved sister and aunt" and so asked for more photos. Recommended Refrigerated trucks used to store bodies can go back to hauling food The plaintiffs never heard back from the funeral. "To their horror, on May 6, 2020, Hermite Mercius' family learned from the Medical Examiner's Office that her uncreamated remains were found among the many dozens of bodies found stuffed into an unrefrigerated U-Haul and stacked inside a small room at Cleckley," the suit said. Cleckley was shut down after police responded to complaints about foul odours emanating and strange liquids seeping from the back of rental vehicles. Leveraged the Cloud to Wrap-up Implementation in April 3.5 Months after Kick-off It's long been assumed that implementing an ERP is a lengthy and arduous process. Rootstock Software, a leading provider of ERP solutions, recently worked with Vertical Aerospace, to dispel this myth, completing implementation of Rootstock's Cloud ERP in just three and a half months and amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. "Vertical Aerospace is a leading electric aircraft company, and we are thrilled to be able to work with a company of its caliber," said Pat Garrehy, CEO of Rootstock Software. "Vertical Aerospace is pioneering a new stage of aviation and building technology to revolutionize how people fly. The company has achieved so much since its inception, harnessing the pace and agility from Formula 1. And now, using our ERP, it has expanded the power of the cloud to all areas of its business, extending its collaborative work environment during the COVID-19 shutdown." Steven Baxter, head of programmes at Vertical Aerospace, is responsible for the supply chain, program management, logistics and build. He joined the company in March 2019. "I immediately saw a need for an ERP. At the time, the company didn't have one and was using Excel to track orders, but this wouldn't provide a comprehensive view of what was going on in the company. Being in aerospace, we also needed full traceability of our products and components." Vertical Aerospace embarked on a six-month analysis of ERP solutions. "We didn't want an older system that had been around for a while. We wanted a newer, more innovative solution. During our investigation, we came across Rootstock. Its ERP was exactly what we wanted modern and dynamic. It met our requirements and was a one-stop shop, capable of handling production, purchasing and finance all from one cloud rather than multiple platforms," added Baxter. Vertical Aerospace decided Rootstock Cloud ERP was the way forward, as the system was intuitive and easy to use. "'Clicks not code' was another strong selling point. As business users, we can perform system and platform configuration ourselves rather than relying on a large IT team. And with our goal to sell aircraft worldwide, the potential to leverage and integrate with other applications was another prospective benefit," said Baxter. The goal was to 'go live' in April. That's when the company would start to release its aircraft components. Its team wanted to have the ERP with full traceability in place at the beginning of this project. Implementation started in January. The team held a two-day workshop, involving stakeholders across the business to outline requirements. By the end of January, they had a roadmap. By February, they built the system, and in March, they started testing. Then COVID-19 hit, and a lockdown ensued. "An on-premise implementation would have stalled. All of our team members were working remotely and spread throughout the UK, but because we were implementing a cloud-based system, we were able to successfully complete testing and training remotely. With Rootstock's team supporting and advising us each step of the way, we went live in just three and a half months and during a worldwide pandemic," said Baxter. "It was Rootstock's modern, cloud platform and usability that made it simple and easy to implement," Baxter added. "We also believe in Rootstock's ability to grow with our company as it supports and facilitates our need for agility whether it's complying with industry regulations, dynamically dealing with aircraft designs, or seamlessly extending capabilities through other applications. Rootstock gives us opportunities on a broader scale," Baxter concluded. Now that Vertical Aerospace has gone live, it has complete visibility into its entire product structure including supply chain and purchasing, inventory and delivery, costs and operations. As a start-up, it doesn't have customers yet, but it's making significant strides to bring its aircraft to the market. As it prepares for sales, the new ERP will provide a competitive advantage in terms of serving prospective customers and ramping up operations. About Vertical Aerospace Founded by greentech entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick, Vertical Aerospace's vision is electric flight for everyone. Vertical has flown two full-scale all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) prototypes and plans to start commercial operations in 2024, certifying a new piloted eVTOL capable of carrying four passengers up to 100 miles. About Rootstock Rootstock Software is a worldwide provider of cloud ERP designed for manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain organizations. Rootstock Cloud ERP is a flexible, modern, and digitally connected system that transforms companies to deliver a more personalized customer experience, efficiently scale operations, and out-service the competition. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005184/en/ Contacts: Tammy Delatorre Director of Public Relations (310) 318-0429 tdelatorre@rootstock.com MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI While more than 1,000 Muskegon County homeowners wait to hear if they will receive disaster relief funds in the aftermath of devastating flooding, county officials are warning: Dont wait for us to come in and save the day. That was the message from Muskegon County Director of Emergency Management Richard Warner, who told township and city administrators in a flooding update Tuesday, May 26, that hundreds of homeowners who reported damages will not be eligible for any federal assistance. Everybody that Ive talked to, Ive told them not to wait for us to start cleaning up and taking care of business, he said in the virtual meeting. I told them there were no guarantees ever of anything. Weve never put the message out there that were going to come in and save the day. Warner is currently working to see if Muskegon County is eligible for emergency relief funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The financial relief would come in the form of low-interest loans not free money, as many residents have thought, Warner said. Counties must meet a threshold of at least 25 structures with major damages to be eligible for SBA funding. That includes structures with a water line 18 inches above the floor in an essential living space, or substantial failures of structural elements like walls, foundations and roofs. So far, fewer than 100 residents out of the 1,035 Muskegon County homeowners who have filed reports to the state could potentially be eligible for those funds based on initial damage reports, Warner said. RELATED: Muskegon residents tackling thousands of dollars in storm damage repairs from horrific flooding Many township and city officials expressed concern that county residents may be confused about who is and isnt eligible for the funds. Egleston Township Clerk Joan Raap said she wants officials to be transparent with homeowners about who will receive assistance. We dont want to keep residents dangling thinking that they could possibly qualify for this, Raap said. I just dont want residents to be further angry that we gave them some hope that there was going to be some kind of assistance for them, and then in 12 weeks wed say, Your problem is your own. If theyre going to be responsible to deal with it, wed like to tell them upfront. Several Muskegon County residents told MLive last week they were unsure whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency would become involved, and had not heard from county officials about whether homeowners would receive federal relief funds. Homeowners who were affected by flooding were initially advised to contact the countys Department of Emergency Management by sending their name, address and cell phone number, along with any pictures of damage to their property, to EM@co.muskegon.mi.us. However, Warner said on Friday that the 1,400 residents who had emailed his office would need to re-submit their reports through a statewide survey, which would be used to assess whether the county could receive funds. RELATED: 1,400 homes in Muskegon County have been affected by flooding this week The emergency management director said he will work Tuesday and Wednesday to process the 1,035 damage reports that have been submitted to the official survey and will then send them off to the state. But Warner said because state officials are busy dealing with flooding in Midland, as well as government furloughs due to the coronavirus crisis, everyone in the state is spread pretty thin." I dont know how fast this will come back to us, he said of the potential funding. Normally, when it comes to SBA funds, each eligible house undergoes an inspection process. But Warner said that may not be the case this time around because of the ongoing pandemic. I think they could be doing some drive-bys, making phone calls. I think theyre going to have to get creative on how they assess this," he said. If Muskegon County qualifies for the disaster assistance funding, homes in all adjacent counties that border Muskegon would also be eligible, Warner said. That means residents in Kent, Ottawa, Oceana and Newaygo counties could also apply for the funds. More on MLive: 1,400 homes in Muskegon County have been affected by flooding this week Muskegon residents tackling thousands of dollars in storm damage repairs from horrific flooding West Michigan residents face catastrophic flooding after record-breaking rainfall Heavy rain storms wash out streets, flood basements, submerge docks in Muskegon Flooding in Michigan: Everything we know about Midland County dam break Advertisement In analyzing whether or not a virtual primary election (or just primaries) is possible in the face of covid-19 pandemic, recourse must be made to Section 87 of the Electoral Act. There is no gainsaying the negative impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on almost all the spheres of life, including politics, economy, religion and social-cultural life. Knowing fully well that this pandemic has come to stay with us for some time, at least, until a vaccine and treatment drugs are developed, we must as a matter of necessity continue to find ways of living and adapting to the new realities brought by Covid-19. Advertisement The realization of this necessity would help in broadening our horizons to think outside of the regular box. To bring the issue home, prior to this new normal, political parties primaries were usually characterized by a lot of jamborees and congregation of large crowds. We see these happen when aspirants pick up their nomination forms, campaigns, consultative visits, etc. With the new reality foisted upon us by the novel corona virus otherwise known and referred to as Covid-19, all these have to be done away with, at least, in the short run. It is my view that since the norms have been disrupted by a novel virus, solutions and way forward from this disruptions must necessarily be novel as well. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS OF PRIMARIES I must be quick to stress at this point that whatever method to be adopted must not run expressly against the extant laws. Primarily, Section 87 of the Electoral Act provides for nomination of candidates by political parties seeking to participate in an election. In summary, the section provides for three ways/means of nominating candidates for election. These are: Direct primaries Indirect primaries, and Consensus. Please permit me to at this point express my preference for direct primaries in an attempt to introduce virtual voting for primaries. I am not unaware of the likely challenges that this might face. I will try as much as possible to give more clarity as we proceed. For better understanding, Section 87(3) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) provides: A political party that adopts the direct primaries procedure shall ensure that all aspirants are given equal opportunity of being voted for by members of the party. For me, the operative clause in the above section is the provision of equal opportunity to all the aspirants. What this means is that one aspirant should not be favoured above another. Put differently, all aspirants in a primary election must be put on the same pedestal. In opting for the adoption of direct primaries, the sole requirement that political parties are enjoined to fulfil is to ensure that aspirants are given equal opportunity. If this is the case, virtual voting at primaries does not seem to offend the provisions of electoral act. What is important is to ensure that this procedure of voting doesnt favour one aspirant at the detriment of others. In effect, this method will comply largely with the protocols on covid-19 to wit, social/physical distancing, avoidance of large gatherings, etc and at the same time deliver a credible primary election by the party. This method becomes desirable where compared to the complexities associated with indirect primaries at this peculiar time. For instance, indirect primary election to sponsor a gubernatorial candidate would require a special congress in the state capital with delegates voting for each of the aspirants at the congress to be held on a specified date appointed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party. It is important to note that the above section specifically call for a congress that must be held at a physical space to be determined by NEC of the party. Going on with this mode of primary would most likely offend the principle of social distancing and further expose members of the party to Covid-19 infection. To be categorical, the party cannot achieve virtual voting via an indirect primary. WORKABILITY AND MERITS The workability of this proposal is largely predicated on the assumption that the party has a reliable/credible members register. This register is what would be used in creating a database for the virtual voting with each member entitle to only one vote. It is trite that political parties are empowered to issue guidelines for conducts of primaries. Thus, it is recommended that the party adopts a direct primary procedure. The party is further advised to adopt guidelines prescribing the use of virtual voting. One of the merits attached to this procedure would be that if well-coordinated and implemented, it can serve as a prototype or model for INEC to adopt in the future in his quest to migrate to e-voting. This would have successfully made APC a pathfinder and a pace setter. CHALLENGES The issue of cybersecurity is a major challenge with this method. We must ensure that this is put under check in order to achieve a credible pool. Credibility of members register. This must be watertight to guide against infiltration by members of the public who are not party members. Illiteracy can also limit the workability of this method. Infrastructure and access to the internet is another very important factor. The good news however, is that all these challenges can be taken care of by adequate preparation, sensitization and awareness. ATTENDANCE AND OBSERVANCE BY INEC The question may arise, how would INEC attend and observe political parties primaries if same is held virtually? This question is germane because Section 85 of Electoral Act makes it mandatory for political parties to give a minimum of 21days notice to INEC. This requirement can be met by making INEC an integral part of the whole process. This doesnt in any way suggest that the commission will play an active role in the process but solely to observe same to be sure and to attest to the fact that all the aspirants were given an equal opportunity to be voted for by members of the party. This statutory requirement is vital and must be adhered to. The main idea behind this is to give legitimacy to the whole process. CONCLUSION In summary, Id like reiterate my support and approval for virtual voting for primary election in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. It is however my considered opinion that this can validly be achieved by adopting a direct primary which do not expressly mandate or restrict procedures to a certain way. Dr. Ajulo, is the Managing Partner of Castle of Law, Abuja and former National Secretary, Labour Party Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 07:36:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Two students greet each other by touching elbows in a primary school in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 25, 2020. Primary schools in Guiyang gradually resume classes. (Xinhua/Liu Xu) The Chattanooga City Council had questions about what metric is being used to measure the success of government funded agencies and organizations during Tuesdays budget education session. Each year, various agencies and organizations come before the government and request funding for various reasons. Councilman Russell Gilbert pondered why the council should grant funding to an agency, if all that entity is going to do with it is give themselves raises. To me, for us to give money to an agency and for them to give raises to their employees while we cant do the same for ours, I dont really care for that, said Councilman Gilbert. Id rather give it to people who will use it for other things and not give raises to their own people. Councilwoman Carol Berz opined If they have enough money to give raises to their employees, perhaps our money can be used somewhere else. Maura Sullivan, who assisted in giving the presentation, told the council most agencies ask for funding for a specific project. She said this could be material or other items that will be used for an express purpose. The conversation then shifted to how success is measured by the council when it comes to how that money is spent. Vice Chairman Ken Smith said he wanted to make sure the funding is being used to provide resources the community needs. For me, its more of an example of how we are using our funding. I want to ensure that our funding is being used to provide resources that are necessary for our community, not necessarily positions within an organization. He highlighted a small organization that empowers the local art community as an example. They issue small grants to local artists to perform and things like that. They help circulate and generate that creativity that city government does not do, and thats great. But what I want to make sure that the money that is being given to organizations like that is being directly disseminated directly out into the community to help those individuals or help those organizations grow. Not to add staff members to manage more programs. Chairman Chip Henderson simply asked if there is a way to measure what kind of difference the programs made in the community using the funding they receive. Tim Moreland, the director of performance management and open data, said that the only results for such an intangible question may result in simple and unsatisfactory statistics. We could send out a supplemental survey to the agencies to ask them what they see as their impact associated with the offers theyre putting together, said Mr. Moreland. Wed have to be specific, because you may get what we get back now, which are outputs. While Chairman Henderson did say that while financial impact is a valuable metric, he said not everything is going to have a return on investment. And so he wondered if there is a way for the city to measure if a program is using its funding to improve a persons quality of life. Demetrus Coonrod closed out the discussion by asking about the practicality of many programs the city decides to fund. She said several essential programs are being neglected or are being given bare-bones funding. From where I sit at, I see the city implementing a lot of programs that arent working, said Councilwoman Coonrod. Yet we still keep implementing them. Housing, transitional housing, ex-offender training: the minimal amount is being funded toward those organizations. What happened Shares of satellite builder and satellite photography company Maxar Technologies (NYSE:MAXR) jumped 18% in Friday trading, ahead of Memorial Day weekend. Today, on traders' first day back from the holiday, Maxar stock was rocking again, up 17.4% at the close. So what Last week, I theorized that Maxar stock was responding to rising excitement over SpaceX's imminent launch of a manned Crew Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station Wednesday, the first time the company has ever carried astronauts on a space mission, and indeed, the first time any private company has attempted such a feat. That theory holds true again today. Less than 24 hours before the launch attempt, it's logical to assume that with the publicity this event receives, investors will soon be hunting around in search of space stocks to invest in. What they'll find, as I discussed last week, is that aside from Maxar, there aren't a lot of publicly traded space stocks to choose from. SpaceX, for example, is not publicly traded, but Maxar is, and that could boost investor interest in the stock. And there's another reason Maxar stock could be going up. As one alert reader pointed out last week, the Trump Administration is threatening to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty that permits the U.S. and 34 other nations, including Russia, to overfly one another's territory with airplanes to perform reconnaissance on military activities on the ground. If this happens, then not only will countries such as Russia (which has been criticized for violating the spirit of the treaty) lose U.S. overflight rights, but the U.S. itself will find its ability to monitor Russian activities curtailed. Now what Such a development could increase demand for satellite surveillance of Russia as an alternative to aerial overflight. With Maxar deriving 65% of its annual revenue (and all of its annual profits, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence) from satellite photography, this would obviously be a boon for its business. The U.S. cannot actually pull out of the treaty until six months after it has given notice of its intention to do so. This means that investors may need to wait a couple of quarters for Open Skies-related revenue to begin pouring into Maxar. Still, between the SpaceX launch and the Open Skies news, investors now have both short-term and long-term reasons to be optimistic about Maxar stock. And that gives two great reasons for this defense stock to be going up today. Aston Martin confirmed on Tuesday that Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, would become chief executive on August 1, replacing Andy Palmer who stepped down on Monday. The Financial Times newspaper reported over the weekend that Palmer would step down before he had been informed. "The Board has determined that now is the time for new leadership to deliver our plans," the company said. If you look up the meaning of a nurse in the dictionary, you will find, a licensed health-care professional who practices independently or is supervised by a physician, surgeon, or dentist and who is skilled in promoting and maintaining health. Who would ever imagine that in 2020 it would mean combating a novel coronavirus, putting oneself at extremely-increased risk, and donning protective gear during a pandemic? Stacker used 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to rank which states are the highest-paying for registered nurses. The states are ranked by median annual salary and ties are broken by the average annual salary. According to the BLS, there are 2,982,280 nurses employed nationally, who make an average salary of $77,460 and a median of $73,300. COVID-19 statistics come from The COVID Tracking Project, which publishes up-to-date testing data (latest data and data release date: May 22, 2020). All of the information, updated daily by 5 p.m. ET, comes from state, district, and territory public health authorities, official press releases, trusted news reporting, and (infrequently) tweets or Facebook posts from state public health authorities or governors. Bihar Board 10th Result 2020: The wait of Bihar Board 10th result 2020 will finally be over in just few hours. Around 15 lakh candidates have been anxiously waiting for their BSEB matric results for last one week. Bihar School Examination Board had on Monday released a press note to announce that the matric results will be declared on Tuesday, May 26 at 12:30 pm. The Bihar Board class 10th results will be available online at biharboardonline.com and onlinebseb.in. Candidates can visit either of these websites to check their matric results. Unlike every year, BSEB will not hold any press conference to announce the results this year in view of maintaining social distancing. Hence, the students will not be able to watch the result declaration live on TV. However, they can read the BSEB liveblog on HT from 8 am onwards that will be regularly updated.Candidates can also register for the result alert on our HT result portal to get the alert SMS as soon as the result is declared. Click here to register for free. Moreover, the board informed that this year the education minister of Bihar, Krishna Nandan Prasad Verma will announce the Bihar Board 10th results 2020 in presence of RK Mahajan, additional chief secretary, education department Bihar. BSEB chairman Anand Kishor had earlier announced that the board has planned to declare the matric and intermediate results in the last week of March or in the first week of April. BSEB had declared the intermediate results on March 24. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak the Bihar matric result was delayed. Although the examination was concluded on February 24, the evaluation process was left midway due to the coronavirus lockdown. The evaluation resumed on May 6 and ended on May 17 after which the marks of all candidates were compiled and fed in the computer. The topper list was prepared by the board and a panel of subject experts were constituted to re-examine the papers of top 10 rank holders and conduct an interview to verify the genuineness of the toppers. This year, over 15 lakh students had taken the Bihar Board class 10th exams that were conducted from February 17 to 24 across 13868 centres in the state. A total of 15, 29,393 students have registered for the examination. Out of which, 7, 83,034 students are female, and 7, 46,359 are male. In the first shift of the exam, 7, 74,415 students, and in the second shift, 7, 54,978 students had appeared for the exam. This year the board had adopted various new measures to eradicate the use of any unfair means in the board examinations. For the first time ever, the board had introduced a pre- printed answer books and OMR sheets that had the name and photo of the candidates printed on them to avoid impersonation. Out of the total of 100 questions, the question paper had 60 objective type questions out of which students had to attempt any 50. How to check the Bihar Board 10th result after it is declared: Candidates will have to visit the official website at onlinebseb.in or biharboardonline.com On the homepage, they will find a result link that will read Bihar Board 10th result 2020 Click on the result link A login page will appear Key in your roll number, roll code and registered number as mentioned in your admit card Your Bihar Board 10th result 2020 will be displayed on the screen. Download and take a print out if possible. Photo: iStock Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Stockton. Family, friends hold memorial for 7-year-old Stockton girl found dead inside her home Family and friends held a memorial Sunday for a 7-year-old girl who was found dead in her Stockton home on Saturday. Read the full story on CBS13 CBS Sacramento. 5 suspects assault 65-year-old man in his home, say Stockton police Stockton police are searching for five men suspected of assaulting a 65-year-old man after forcing their way into his home. Read the full story on FOX40. 7 exotic birds stolen from Stockton home Seven exotic birds, including one parrot and six cockatiels, were stolen from a residence's outdoor birdcage, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office. Read the full story on CBS13 CBS Sacramento. Stolen shoes returned to Stockton grad after porch-pirate theft Bear Creek High senior Chasity Williams feels much better these days, she said. She has her shoes back. Read the full story on Recordnet.com. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. A Greggs store in Cardiff, Wales. The chain will reopen hundreds of stores from the middle of June. (Matthew Horwood/Getty Images) UK bakery chain Greggs (GRG.L) said on Tuesday that it planned to reopen many outlets from the middle of June, nearly three months after it closed all 2,050 of its stores. The company is hoping to open around 800 of its stores following a pilot project in Tyneside, Newcastle. We have planned and delivered robust shop trials using our new operational safety measures and they have progressed well, allowing us to now move to open an increased number of our shops from mid-June, Greggs said on Tuesday. READ MORE: Retail sales 'deeply depressed' with firms 'up against it' The announcement comes after prime minister Boris Johnson said on Monday (25 May) that non-essential retailers could reopen from 15 June, provided the outlook for the coronavirus crisis does not worsen. Most restaurants and food outlets have been closed since the UK-wide lockdown was introduced in March, more than two months ago. Some chains remained open for takeaway and delivery services, and McDonalds earlier this month began reopening stores in the UK and Ireland. Starbucks also reopened around 150 of its stories earlier this month. Greggs said that it had been running trials for a month in more than a dozen stores as part of its pilot project, which was launched to determine how it could reopen stores while facilitating social distancing. READ MORE: London estate agent Foxtons to resume viewings with social distancing The chain was forced to scale back the pilot project, which involved a limited menu for walk-in customers, due to the risk that excessive numbers of customers were planning to flock to the outlets. Initially, it instead chose to conduct trials behind closed doors before expanding the scope of the project. The company has warned that that sales will be significantly lower than normal while social distancing measures are in place in its stores. Chief executive Roger Whiteside previously signaled that Greggs was hoping to reopen all 2,050 stores by 1 July, but it is not clear if that remains the chains plan. Cambodia will go ahead with plans to host the 13th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM 13) from November 16-17, said Luy David, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Head of the ASEM 13 National Secretariat. Cambodia to organise ASEM 13 as scheduled. (Photo: khmertimeskh) The National Committee for Organising ASEM 13 and the Committees Secretariat is continuing with the summits preparations as already set and approved by leaders of Asia-Europe nations, Luy said. The invitation letters signed by the head of the Cambodian government have been sent to all parties and some leaders have already confirmed their attendance, he noted. The official believed that COVID-19 is still a risk that can affect the planning of the summit, so close attention is being paid to developments of the pandemic in Cambodia and the world. According to Luy, Cambodia has done a lot to prepare for the summit, for example, the construction of the venue is almost completed while logistics for the heads of state and government of the 53 countries and partners have already been prepared. Last week, Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn chaired the fourth meeting of the National Committee for the Preparation of the 13th ASEM Summit. The ministrys spokesperson Koy Kuong confirmed on May 24 that the date fixed for ASEM 13 remains unchanged./.VNA The G-EYE colonoscope is a standard colonoscope which SMART remanufactures by installing its proprietary G-EYE balloon on the distal bending section of the colonoscope. During colonoscopy, the G-EYE colonoscope is inserted in the standard technique, with the balloon deflated. Once the colon is intubated and prior to withdrawal, the balloon is inflated to engage the colon lumen. Withdrawal of the G-EYE Colonoscope through the colon with the balloon moderately inflated centralizes the image of the colon lumen, flattens colonic folds, and reduces the amount of bowel slippage, thereby assisting in controlling the colonoscope's field of view and positioning. In published clinical studies comparing adenoma detection rate of G-EYE colonoscopy to that of standard colonoscopy, G-EYE colonoscopy demonstrated substantial increase in the detection of cancerous polyps which are the precursors of colon cancer (GIE 2019; 89: 545-553; and Endoscopy 2015; 47: 238244). Under the current FDA clearance, the G-EYE colonoscope will be available based on selected 510(k) cleared colonoscopes of OLYMPUS (8 models) and PENTAX Medical (3 models). SMART is currently preparing its 510(k) submission for the FUJIFILM brand. "We are excited to have the G-EYE colonoscope available for American patients, doctors and endoscopy practices, and are proud of taking part in the global effort to provide advanced technologies for colonoscopy", said Brian Cochrane, CCO of SMART's US subsidiary. "We are now initiating our launch of the G-EYE colonoscope in the US market, aiming to make it available to clinical collaborators and customers". "This FDA clearance is a cornerstone for our company", said Gadi Terliuc, SMART's CEO. "This important milestone, adding to our recently-formed strategic partnership with FUJIFILM, is part of our evolution as a meaningful provider of enabling endoscopy products". About SMART Medical Systems SMART Medical Systems is a pioneer in the development and manufacture of innovative medical devices in the field of gastro-intestinal (GI) endoscopy. SMART's unique approach is to use available brand name endoscopes and address key challenges in contemporary endoscopy. SMART's CE Marked and FDA cleared NaviAid product family is commercially distributed in key global markets. With its new partnership with FUJIFILM adding to its already existing alliance with PENTAX Medical, SMART's G-EYE colonoscopy solution is currently adopted by two of the three industry leaders in GI endoscopy imaging. SMART is headquartered in Israel, and operates in the United States through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SMART GI Inc. For more information, please visit: www.smartmedsys.com/us/ Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1172438/Smart_G_EYE.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1086517/Smart_Medical_Systems_Logo.jpg Contacts: Brian Cochrane - CCO +1-201-661-3795 bcochrane@smartmedsys.com SOURCE SMART Medical Systems Ltd. University of Limerick President Dr Des Fitzgerald has announced his shock resignation, linking it to his ability to lead the university in the context of Covid-19. Dr Fitzgerald said the virus would directly impact my ability to serve the university and limit my ability to fully engage once we get our community back onto the campus. He warned that the Covid-19 crisis would shape the future of the university sector for the next decade and beyond and would force universities across the world to re-examine both their business and academic models. Significant changes and investment will be required to support the sector said Dr Fitzgerald, adding that it was vital the new Government stepped up to the plate to protect the University sector in Ireland as it would play a crucial role in the economys recovery. But his announcement came only hours after Independent.ie and the Irish Independent revealed details of correspondence from the Department of Education revealing that there were no Government plans to provide a broad support package for the sector. Read More Department officials have signalled support for extreme cases, where cash flow difficulties may be serious enough to threaten a colleges viability. But otherwise, universities, institutes of technology and other publicly-funded colleges have been told to look to their own reserves, or any other financial mechanism available to them, to cushion Covids financial fall-out. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) recently sought a significant government intervention in the form of a financial support package to support the sector through this crisis. In a submission to the Department, the HEA, put the extent of Covids immense financial consequences to higher education, at an estimated 508m for 2020 and 2021. Dr Fitzgerald delivered his resignation in letter to UL Chancellor Mary Harney, who said she regretted his decision. His resignation will take effect from later this year, and a process to appoint a replacement will get underway. Dr Fitzgerald said that he was confident that with the right support now, the future for UL was bright and said its very existence was testimony to the can-do attitude of the people of the mid-West region who overcame enormous obstacles to secure its development". The UL President said that he had been privileged to lead the university and he believed that during his term, he and his colleagues had made important progress on key issues. He included in that list of achievements successfully taking the first steps in establishing a campus in the city, developing healthcare programmes, growing research output and increasing the universitys engagement in education globally, agreement on an ambitious strategic plan for the university. He said in the context of Covid-19, the strategic plan would require some further review, but it remained an important vision of "what UL can become in the years ahead. Dr. Fitzgerald was appointed after a period of controversy at UL and he said he believe they had important progress on tackling many of the controversial issues which predated my appointment and which were set out in the Thorn Report, the Deloitte Internal Audit and the report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG). I am glad that during my period in office most of the issues detailed in the above reports have been dealt with and their recommendations implemented. He was appointed as President of UL in late 2016 and commenced his term of office in early 2017. Prior to his appointment, Dr Fitzgerald had held leadership positions in a number of leading academic institutions and was Vice President for Research and Vice President for Health Affairs at UCD. White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow speaks during a "small business relief update" video conference call event with banking executives to discuss the U.S. government's rescue program for businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, on April 7, 2020. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque) Kudlow Says $600 Unemployment Boost Unlikely to Be Extended White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox in an interview Tuesday that the $600-per-week enhancement to unemployment benefits will probably not be extended in the next round of pandemic relief. I frankly do not believe the $600 plus up will survive the next round of talks, but I think well have substitutes to deal with that issue, Kudlow told Fox News. Kudlow, who serves as director of the National Economic Council, an advisory body to President Donald Trump, said the administration is instead considering measures that would encourage Americans to return to work. He said the White House may rally behind a back-to-work bonus, a version of which, put forward by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), would see people receive a $450 weekly bonus for a period of time if back on the job. Its something were looking at very carefully. Sen. Portman has a good idea. He understands incentives and disincentives, Kudlow told Fox News. The trouble with the $600 plus-up, and maybe we needed it in that emergency period, but frankly its a major disincentive to go back to work and we dont want that. We want people to go back to work. Kudlows remarks come amid growing concern that as small businesses across the country look to reopen, they may face staff shortages and an associated increase in labor costs because the relief packages adopted so far make it less worthwhile for some workers to resume employment. This is hurtful policy, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement. These unemployment bonuses are going to further undermine workers relationship with their workplace, and theyre going to kill small businessesboth of which will make long-term unemployment much worse. One provision of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act, provides a $600 weekly benefit on top of regular unemployment insurance benefits. For many workers, this additional payment provides income expansion rather than income replacement. According to a study (pdf) by Peter Ganong, Pascal Noel, and Joseph Vavra, economists at the University of Chicago, 68 percent of people who are eligible for unemployment benefits receive compensation that exceeds their prior wage, potentially discouraging recipients from returning to work. The $600 supplemental benefit under the Act will expire on July 31. The new $3 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed by House Democrats on May 15 would extend the benefit to Jan. 31, 2021. The bill, however, faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate and White House. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that while he expects talks on a fifth COVID-19 relief bill to resume in the next month or so, it would be more finely tuned to address specific funding shortfalls rather than a sweeping package. Many of you are asking, what next? I think theres likely to be another bill. It will not be the $3 trillion bill the House passed the other day. But theres still a likelihood that more will be needed, McConnell said at an event in Louisville, Kentucky, The Hill reported. Emel Akan contributed to this report. Kathmandu [Nepal], May 25 (ANI): Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday reiterated his previous statement where he had blamed those coming from India for the spread of coronavirus in the Himalayan nation. In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Oli claimed that workers returning home (Nepal) from India, who remain unchecked at the border, contributed in the spread of the virus in the nation. "As per the protocol of WHO, those returning home from the cross border are required to undergo a compulsory test, which would play a pivotal role in averting the spread into the community level," he said. "But the flow of people returning home from the neighboring India has been flaunting the rule and returning back home facing multiple difficulties to get across the border without proper tests. For lack of proper test, it also has been contributing to increasing the pandemic in the nation massively," Oli continued. Last week, the Nepali Prime Minister in his question-answer session with MPs in the Lower House had pointed to India for the spread of the virus in the country. Oli also made the claim that the virus from India is more lethal than in comparison to China and other nations. "Those who are coming from India through illegal channels are spreading the virus in the country and some local representatives and party leaders are responsible for bringing in the people from India without proper testing," Oli had said. Amid the rising number of COVID-19 patients in the country, Oli on Monday also claimed that the coronavirus related fatalities in the country were lesser as compared to other South Asian nations. "Amidst underlying condition, two months infant to an 81-year-old woman have successfully recovered. This has proved that efforts to control it are effective in Nepal in comparison to the other nations of South Asia as the fatality is also low but the condition still isn't favourable to stay confident over it. The fight against the COVID-19 is very challenging and will go on," he said. COVID-19 cases have spiked in the Himalayan nation in the recent weeks crawling to the mark of 700 with 682 cases till the time the PM addressed the nation on Monday evening. Four people have died due to the deadly virus with 112 cases of successful recoveries. (ANI) After the two graduated from Potomac High School, Hand went to college in Georgia, but Jones stayed local. He took some trade school classes, but mainly worked odd jobs in the District doing security work. Of all his friends, Hand said he and Jones kept in touch most. It was hard not to, he said. Whenever Hand would come home from school for a break, Jones was one of the first people he would see, and they even looked for jobs together after Hand graduated, just like old times. Billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted a thread on Sunday calling for the federal government to train and hire millions of Americans as coronavirus contact tracers in order to "dent unemployment with stable jobs." What he's saying: "It's time to face the fact that [the Paycheck Protection Program] didn't work. Great plan, difficult execution. No one's fault. The only thing that will save businesses is consumer demand. No amount of loans to businesses will save them or jobs if their customers aren't buying." "It's time for trickle up economics. We need a transitional fed jobs program that trains and hires millions for a federal tracking/tracing/testing program as well as for support for at risk populations including long term care. We need to dent unemployment with stable jobs." Cuban also called for an interim stimulus program that would give every American household a $1,000 check every two weeks for the next two months that must be spent within 10 days of receipt. "This 'use it or lose it' [program] will cost about $500b, but it will allow for demand for non essential products and services to increase, hopefully keeping most businesses alive, as we learn what the impact of re-opening is on the spread and whether or not employment grows organically," Cuban tweeted. The big picture: The House on Friday passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package that has already been deemed dead on arrival by Senate Republicans and the Trump administration. [May 26, 2020] Proof of Impact Launches B2B Platform to Help Enterprises Prove Their Impact New methodologies set to reimagine how verified impact is delivered AMSTERDAM, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Proof of Impact, a blockchain technology company revolutionizing the way people fund and experience impact, recently announced the launch of their new platform, which tracks, verifies, and transacts impact at the unit-level for businesses, entities and individuals across the globe. Now, perhaps more than ever, companies and organizations across all industries must work towards solving some of the world's most pressing issues. Philanthropic giving, impact funding, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives must all be rooted in transparency and verification, and further substantiated by granular-level data. To address this challenge, Proof of Impact has deployed exponential technology to transform the once ambiguous process into a data-driven model, made possible through innovative applications, which then feed into an easy-to-use, customizable impact dashboard. "We believe the world is demanding an impact-driven culture, and that all transactions will require he verification of the impact generated," said Fleur Heyns, co-founder of Proof of Impact. "Our value proposition is such that we track and verify the impact created, with granular-level data, as the products and/or financial returns are produced. Delivering an engaging user experience that takes the funder directly to the heart of the impact delivered gives us the potential to redefine how people experience impact." To date, Proof of Impact has a fast-growing pipeline of partnerships, including an initiative led by members of the Young Presidents Organization ("YPO") community, a global network of 29,000 chief operating officers, to track and fund initiatives for COVID-19 relief as well as New York-based travel agency ROAR AFRICA, who recently built a portfolio of carbon mitigating events in the same countries as their conservation trips. "Proof of Impact is delivering something that has always been missing from impact investing and philanthropic giving. Their concept - verified impact from around the globe, offered through a user-friendly interface - allows our guests at ROAR AFRICA to donate to projects specifically aligned with our mission and values," said Deborah Calmeyer, CEO and Founder, ROAR AFRICA. "The team at POI is changing the way we approach impact funding and raising the bar in a very real, trustworthy way. I'm delighted to launch POI for all of our ROAR AFRICA trips." With the Proof of Impact platform, exposing and showcasing the impact of internal and external initiatives to stakeholders, employees, and customers is now possible. Business leaders are equipped with the tools to make financial decisions based upon sustainable efforts, then track and improve upon operational efficiencies, with line of sight into their verifiable social and environmental impact initiatives. About Proof of Impact Proof of Impact, a blockchain technology startup, is revolutionizing the way people fund and experience impact, by connecting the people making a difference on the ground with the people looking to help fund the solution. For more information, please visit www.proofofimpact.com or connect with us @ProofofImpact. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A high -rofile real estate agent known for selling million dollar mansions has allegedly been caught stealing open house signs from his competitors. Daniel Gonzalez, who owns Realty Lane, has been charged with two counts of stealing the signs in Perth suburbs Sorrento and in North Beach, during February and May. The 41-year-old is well known in the real estate industry and was awarded for the highest value of property sold in 2018 after selling 119 properties worth $132million. Daniel Gonzalez, who owns Realty Lane has been charged with two counts of stealing open house signs from other agents He had spent the last decade as a professional drummer for the band Tijuana Cartel before starting up Realty Lane in January, 2017. The company was initially a one man show and ran without a shop front for nine months. Gonzalez had no experience in real estate before starting his own business which now sells multi-million dollar beachfront homes. The self-confessed 'rockstar to million dollar real estate agent' was ranked first in Western Australia for real estate last year. Gonzalez (middle) is an award winning agent and was ranked first in Western Australia last year He will now face Perth Magistrate's Court on June 11, the West Australian reported. Last year, Gonzalez told Domain he was 'obsessed' with success. 'I am obsessed in achieving the best outcome for our clients every time,' he said. 'The responsibility of representing them is not something I take for granted and feel honoured to be chosen.' The leader of the Partido Popular in the Balearics, Biel Company, accused President Armengol on Tuesday of using the health crisis as an excuse to change a handful of laws, such as that for urban development. In parliament on Tuesday, Company attacked the decree regarding the prohibition of construction on rustic land, saying that the decree had been approved without consensus. "It is a decree that tramples on farmers and small owners. What we need more than ever is economic activity, yet you (Armengol) are sending this into reverse." The president responded by asking which farmers would want to build in risk areas (risks being from fire or flooding) and stressed that the decree had the support of three of the four bodies represented on the social dialogue working party - the CCOO and UGT unions and the Pimem federation of small to medium-sized businesses, but not the CAEB Confederation of Balearic Business Associations. Armengol added that the government's previous decree for activating construction had nothing to do with the 'Ley Delgado' (the 2012 tourism law named after the PP tourism minister of the time) as it did not permit increases in the height of hotels or the number of beds. The PP, she suggested, didn't have a proposal of its own to make in respect of economic reactivation. The spokesperson for Ciudadanos, Patricia Guasp, spoke about the quarantine of foreign travellers and argued that the Spanish government had shown a lack of appreciation of Balearics tourism. The quarantine had sent out a "deterrent message", and the announcement of its lifting was "late". Guasp wanted to know about Balearic government negotiations with Madrid regarding the revival of the tourism industry. She demanded that there be a specific plan for tourism which includes "considerable tax relief for companies, a reduction in air taxes to ensure connectivity, and a reduction to 4% of tourism IVA (VAT)". In addition, the Cs spokesperson pressed for flexibility with ERTEs. These should continue until the recovery of the tourism industry and not just until the end of June. She maintained that there have been "zero responses" to requests made by the Balearic government and that all that has been achieved is "a decrease in the credibility of your government and of you as president". Guasp noted that the Canary Islands "already have a bilateral commission with the Spanish government". Armengol defended the government's "rigour" and the clear position that it has agreed with business. She also pointed to the government's early insistence that Madrid close air and maritime traffic and to the fact that this was "achieved in the most immediate manner". In addition, Armengol referred to the Spanish government's response to other requests from the Balearics, such as those related to the protection of workers, and to the call that she has made for foreign tourism in the Balearics to start in the second half of June. Twelve people died in various parts of the country after they were beaten up in public for alleged violation of restrictions during the first five weeks of the national lockdown to curb the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a report by a non-government organisation has said. The study by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which tracked such deaths from March 25 to April 30 based on media reports, said three out of the 12 deaths were suicides committed by the victims due to the humiliation and insult from the public beating. Three deaths each were reported from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Andhra Pradesh (AP). Madhya Pradesh (MP) reported two deaths while Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu (TN), West Bengal (WB) and Punjab reported one death each. The 12 deceased are Luvkush, Mohammad Rizwan, Roshan Lal (UP), Bansi Kushwaha, Tibu Meda (MP), Shaikh Mohammed Ghouse, Veerabhadraiah, Peddada Srinivas Rao (AP), Sagir Jamil Khan (Maharashtra), A Abdul Rahim (TN), Lal Swami (WB) and Bhupinder Singh (Punjab). The cases of Bhupinder Singh, Peddada Srinivasa Rao and Roshan Lal were suicides, according to the study. Media reports have brought to light that people have lost their lives following alleged police action during the lockdown. There must be an independent inquiry into these deaths, Devika Prasad, CHRIs program head (police reforms), said while speaking to HT. This is yet another sign that courts and other oversight bodies need to hold police accountable for excessive force in enforcing the lockdown. CHRI believes the NHRC will investigate these grave allegations in a fair and effective way towards accountability, Prasad said. In two of the 12 cases, police personnel involved were suspended pending an inquiry. These cases are from Madhya Pradesh (Bansi Kushwaha) and Andhra Pradesh (Shaikh Mohammed Ghouse). A magisterial inquiry was also ordered in both these cases. The study said in the cases of deaths of Lal Swami (WB), Mohammad Rizwan (UP), Sagir Jamil Khan (Maharashtra) and Tibu Meda (MP), authorities denied the fatalities were caused due to police beating. Regarding the death of Lal Swami from West Bengal, the police claimed that the victim died of cardiac arrest since he was already suffering from heart ailments. Kunal Aggarwal, Howrah Police commissioner, told the media that it was a case of misreporting by the press. Similarly, UP police denied that the death of Mohammad Rizwan was due to police beating, the CHRI report said. As per media reports, Alok Priyadarshi, Ambedkar Nagars superintendent of police, said that going by the evidence collected, there was nothing to show that Rizwan was assaulted with batons. Regarding the death of Tibu Meda, the district collector told reporters he had died due to a cardiac arrest after he saw a police vehicle approach him with blaring sirens. Despite such a claim, Medas family was given financial assistance of Rs 20,000 by the state authorities, as per CHRI report. The death of Sagir Jamil Khan was registered as an accidental death by Maharashtra police. Sangram Singh Nishandar, the deputy commissioner of police (Zone 1), told PTI that Khans medical report showed the cause of death as heart enlargement, and there was no external or internal injury on the body. Besides these 12 deaths, three people who were arrested on various charges also died in police custody during the lockdown. They were from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. In two of these three cases, the victims were in custody for crimes unrelated to lockdown. CHRI has sent a petition to the National Human Rights Commission to investigate these 15 deaths. The police in India continues to function with the colonial outlook of protecting the state/ regime in power from the people. Hence, the Constitution and rule of law take the backseat and the police wield their lathi at the slightest provocation. Moreover, the police is viewing the lockdown and its implementation as a law and order problem and not as a public health necessity, Alok Prasanna Kumar, a senior resident fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, said. Besides, there is also the issue of not holding them accountable. At the most, we hear about a policeman being suspended or transferred. But there is hardly any criminal prosecution against those in the police who violate the law. This also contributes to the impunity with which they function, Kumar added. We shouldn't need to say anything for this post other than: The official Warner Brothers flick "The Batmobile Documentary" is now free on YouTube, and, "Enjoy." In case anyone's still here, the doc is like an hour-long behind-the-scenes featurette for a screen star that's used a fire-spitting turbine to combine the best of Lassie and the Terminator. The caped crusader's ride didn't start out that way, though, a series of luminaries opening the film by explaining the anonymous red sedan that began this whole road trip. From the time Batman first hauled around town in an unspecified two-door hardtop in Detective Comics #27 of May 1939, it took two years for someone to christen his ride "The Batmobile" and decorate it with the bat hood ornament, giant batwing fin springing off the back, and dark hue it deserved. When Batman swung from comic books to movies in 1943, the Batmobile returned to its quotidian roots: Bruce Wayne drove a Cadillac convertible with the top down, Batman drove the same convertible with the top up. It wouldn't be until 1950 that comic-book Batman, stuck in a hospital recovering from a broken leg, drew up a dedicated, gadget- and trick-laden Batmobile that would sprout bigger fins and far-reaching derivatives throughout the decade, including a Bat Saucer and a Bat Tank. In 1966, the Bat-universe blew open with the "Batman" television series starring Adam West. Since Warner Brothers commissioned this documentary in 2012 and premiered it at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, Adam West and George Barris were alive to tell the story of the car that established the Batmobile template. Barris said a show producer told him he had 15 days and $15,000 to build a car. Barris gave one of those dollars to Ford to buy the Lincoln Futura concept car Ford had debuted at the 1955 Chicago Auto Show, and we know the magic he made of it. The documentary trail of directors, producers, and designers connects Barris' work to Tim Burton's just-as-famous, revamped, Chevrolet-Impala-based Batmobile that Michael Keaton drove in the 1980s, the lesser-favored Batmobiles that followed for Val Kilmer and George Clooney, and the literal mil-spec Tumbler Christopher Nolan blew us all away with in "The Dark Knight" trilogy. The trail ends before getting to Zach Snyder's rigs for Ben Affleck's Batman, which means we don't get insight into the mid-engined, muscle-car looking hootenanny Robert Pattinson will pilot in next year's "The Batman," either. That could be a good thing, but we'll just have to wait and see. The doc stands as a solid hour of the real definition of "infotainment," just a click away. Story continues Related Video: Click here to See Video >> Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-25 23:52:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A plane of Lufthansa is seen at the Berlin Tegel Airport in Berlin, capital of Germany, May 26, 2020. German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG said on Monday that the federal government's Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) has approved a nine-billion-euro rescue package (9.8 billion U.S. dollars) for the company. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi) FRANKFURT, May 25 (Xinhua) -- German flag carrier Deutsche Lufthansa AG said Monday that the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) set up by the federal government has approved a stabilization package of up to 9 billion euros (9.8 billion U.S. dollars) for the company. Lufthansa said the WSF will make silent participation of up to 5.7 billion euros in total in the company's assets, of which nearly 4.7 billion euros is classified as equity. The silent participation is unlimited in time and can be terminated by the company on a quarterly basis in whole or in part. Two seats on the Supervisory Board are to be filled in agreement with the German government, one of which is to become a member of the Audit Committee, said the company. While noting that the executive board supports the package, the company said the package still requires the final approval of the management board and the supervisory board. It is also subject to the approval of the European Commission, the company added. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollars) China is reportedly sending its two new aircraft carriers into war games near the Pratas Islands, playing into fears that a Taiwan invasion could be next as tensions with the US continue to worsen. The aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong are currently in Bohai Bay in the Yellow Sea on a combat readiness mission before the massive ships head into the war games. The move comes after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang expressed Beijing's desire to 'reunify' with self-ruled Taiwan, an apparent policy shift. The aircraft carrier deployment also follows a US decision to impose sanctions on 33 Chinese companies for helping Beijing spy on its minority Uighur population or because of ties to weapons of mass destruction and China's military. US-China relations have been growing increasingly tense as more both dispute the origins of coronavirus. China is reportedly sending its two new aircraft carriers into war games near Pratas Island, playing into fears that a Taiwan invasion could be next as tensions with the US continue to worsen. Pictured is one of the warships, the Liaoning, as it sails into Hong Kong The aircraft Shandong is pictured leaving the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian. The warship, along with the aircraft carrier Liaoning, is currently in Bohai Bay in the Yellow Sea on a combat readiness mission before heading into the war games China's aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong are heading to war games. The move comes after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang expressed Beijing's desire to 'reunify' with self-ruled Taiwan, an apparent policy shift Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi warned on Friday that the sanctions would risk 'a new Cold War', as tensions between both countries have escalated over the coronavirus outbreak, the Sun reports. The Trump administration has increasingly blamed China for its handling of the outbreak, while Beijing has accused some in Washington of engaging in propaganda. 'It has come to our attention that some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War' Yi said. A report released last week by the Council on Foreign Relations, a political think tank, sees possible military conflict between the US and China in the South China Sea likely in the next 18 months if, 'their relationship continues to deteriorate as a result of ongoing trade frictions and recriminations over the novel coronavirus pandemic.' Taiwan, meanwhile, has complained of increased Chinese military harassment since the coronavirus pandemic began, with fighter jets and naval vessels regularly approaching the island on drills China has described as 'routine'. The news comes after Taipei's independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen swore in for her second term this week and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo congratulated her for the re-election in a move that infuriated the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi warned on Friday that the sanctions would risk 'a new Cold War', as tensions between both countries have escalated over the coronavirus outbreak. Yi is pictured at a press conference on China's foreign policy Sunday The Trump administration has increasingly blamed China for its handling of the outbreak, while Beijing has accused some in Washington of engaging in propaganda. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive at the White house Monday China says Taiwan is its most sensitive and important territorial issue, and has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a Chinese province under its control, making the Taiwan Strait a potential military flashpoint. Li, in his state-of-the-nation work report at the start of the annual meeting of China's parliament, said his country would 'resolutely oppose and deter any separatist activities seeking Taiwan independence'. China will improve policies and measures to encourage exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait, and protect the well-being of Taiwan's people, he added. Speaking at the opening session of the National People's Congress on Friday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (pictured) said his country would 'resolutely oppose and deter any separatist activities seeking Taiwan independence'. Beijing views self-ruled Taiwan as a province 'We will encourage them to join us in opposing Taiwan independence and promoting China's reunification,' Li said. 'With these efforts, we can surely create a beautiful future for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.' However, there was no mention of the word 'peaceful' in front of 'reunification', departing from the standard expression Chinese leaders have used for at least four decades when addressing parliament and mentioning Taiwan. Democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China. A senior Taiwan official, however, told Reuters the absence of the word 'peaceful' did not signal a fundamental change in China's approach towards the island. European countries are appealing for money to help more than five million Venezuelan migrants who left their homes because of the economic crisis. European countries are appealing for money to help more than five million Venezuelan migrants who left their homes because of the economic crisis. Most remained in Latin America where many are destitute. Now the coronavirus pandemic is making their situation worse because they cannot return home. Al Jazeeras Lucia Newman reports from Santiago, Chile. Robin Wright enjoyed a sunny stroll along Malibu beach with her daughter Dylan Penn, 29, and their dogs on Monday. The House of Cards actress, 54, was dressed for the sunny climes in acid wash denim shorts and loose-fitting striped shirt. Robin kept cool with a cream fedora hat with a brown ribbon trim and finished off her beach ensemble with a pair of oversized shades. Family outing: Robin Wright enjoyed a sunny stroll along Malibu beach with her daughter Dylan Penn, 29, and their dogs on Monday Dylan, meanwhile, showed off her model legs in a white beach dress, which she layered atop of a green bikini. The duo appeared in good spirits as they strolled barefoot along the beach and headed into the sea to splash around with their dogs. Robin has been isolating in her Los Angeles home with her husband, Clement Giraudet, 36. Summery: The House of Cards actress, 54, was dressed for the sunny climes in acid wash denim shorts and loose-fitting striped shirt She recently took to social media to wish her man a happy birthday. 'Happy Birthday mon amour! ,' she captioned the sweet nature selfie. The Wonder Woman 1974 star began dating the Saint Laurent executive back in 2017 before they secretly wed in August 2018 in France. Love: Robin has been isolating in her Los Angeles home with her husband, Clement Giraudet, 36 'It was very intimate and low-key. Robin wanted it to be about them, not a big production,' an insider shared to People about the ceremony. Robin's first two marriages were to actors - daytime soap star Dane Witherspoon from 1986 until 1988 and Oscar-winner Sean Penn from 1996 to 2010. Her second marriage resulted in two children - Dylan, who has become a model, and a 26-year-old son Hopper, who is an actor. Following her split from Sean Penn, she began dating Ben Foster in 2012. The Oregon Health Authority on Tuesday reported no new deaths from the novel coronavirus as known cases climbed to 3,967. In the last 24 hours, state health officials reported 18 new confirmed coronavirus cases and one new presumptive case. They were linked to six of Oregons 36 counties: Clackamas (2), Crook (1), Marion (5), Multnomah (7), Washington (3), Yamhill (1). Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter The overall case count includes 3,879 positive test results and 88 presumptive cases. Death toll: The toll stands at 148 people. People have died from the virus in 12 counties: 58 people from Multnomah, 25 from Marion, 17 from Washington, 10 from Polk, 10 from Clackamas, nine from Linn, seven from Yamhill, five from Benton, three from Umatilla, two from Lane, one each from Josephine and Wasco. Their ages ranged from 41 to 100. Among those who have died, 63 were women and 85 were men. [Read about Oregon coronavirus deaths. Help us learn more.] County case totals: Seven counties -- Multnomah, Marion, Washington, Clackamas, Linn, Deschutes and Umatilla -- have reported 100 coronavirus cases or more. Gilliam, Lake and Wheeler have yet to document a single coronavirus case. Heres the overall count -- confirmed and presumptive cases -- by county: Baker (1), Benton (55), Clackamas (296), Clatsop (45), Columbia (16), Coos (31), Crook (6), Curry (6), Deschutes (120), Douglas (25), Grant (1), Harney (1), Hood River, (12), Jackson (60), Jefferson (24), Josephine (25), Klamath (41), Lane (67), Lincoln (9), Linn (115), Malheur (28), Marion (914), Morrow (12), Multnomah (1,052), Polk (96), Sherman (1), Tillamook (6), Umatilla (112), Union (6), Wallowa (2), Wasco (18), Washington (698) and Yamhill (66). Testing: Another 1,680 people received coronavirus test results, up slightly from the previous days 1,660, according to figures published on the health authoritys website. So far, 115,450 Oregonians have been tested for the illness since the state confirmed its first case on Feb. 28. Ages: Of the states confirmed and suspected coronavirus cases, 2,170 people, or 55%, are under age 50, state figures show. Another 572, or 14%, are 70 and older. Heres the breakdown: ages 0-9 (53), ages 10-19 (151), ages 20-29 (608), ages 30-39 (672), ages 40-49 (686), ages 50-59 (694), ages 60-69 (531), ages 70-79 (340), ages 80-plus (232). Gender: So far, 2,082 of the cases are among women, or 52%, and 1,881, or 47%, are among men. But more men have died: 85 compared to 63 women. Hospitalizations: At least 752 of the states COVID-19 patients, or 19%, have been hospitalized at some point during their illness, according to the health authority. Currently, 53 people with confirmed coronavirus cases are hospitalized, including 24 in intensive care and 13 on ventilators. Senior care homes: Six out of 10 coronavirus deaths in Oregon a total of 83 are associated with a care center, the most recent state data show. At least 545 senior care home residents, staff and close contacts from 64 nursing, assisted and retirement homes had contracted the coronavirus. Recoveries: The median recovery time for infected Oregonians is 20 days and goes up to 24 days for people who were hospitalized with the infection, according to numbers released by state health officials Tuesday. At least 1,937 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the illness, the health authority said. Heres the list by county: Benton (30), Clackamas (157), Clatsop (6), Columbia (16), Coos (3), Crook (1), Curry (4), Deschutes (90), Douglas (23), Grant (1), Hood River (7), Jackson (47), Jefferson (21), Josephine (21), Klamath (35), Lane (60), Lincoln (6), Linn (70), Malheur (16), Marion (335), Morrow, (4), Multnomah (392), Polk (41), Sherman (1), Tillamook (6), Umatilla (91), Union (4), Wallowa (1), Wasco (13), Washington (400), Yamhill (38). Underlying conditions: The Oregon Health Authority is no longer listing underlying medical conditions most common among people who have died. Cases in Oregon prisons: On Tuesday, the Oregon Department of Corrections reported one new case since Friday, bringing the total to 149 confirmed cases among inmates. Positive cases have been reported at the Oregon State Penitentiary (116), Shutter Creek Correctional Institution (25) Santiam Correctional Institution (7) and Two Rivers Correctional Institution (1). Nationwide: The U.S. has identified more than 1.67 million cases. More than 98,500 people have died. -- Margaret Haberman; 503-221-8375 Email at mhaberman@oregonian.com Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has fixed an emergency meeting for Wednesday. The meeting will deliberate on the financial auton... The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has fixed an emergency meeting for Wednesday. The meeting will deliberate on the financial autonomy grated states judiciary and legislature, code-named, Executive Order 10, 2020. Signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on May 20, details of the Executive Order 10, 2020 were released on Tuesday. A statement by the NGF Head of Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, said the consultation would be the 9th in the series of teleconference governors meetings since the coronavirus outbreak. It will take place at 2 pm and have in attendance, all the 36 governors, via Microsoft Team from their various states. The spokesman said among the issues to be reviewed are critical national questions that revolve around financial autonomy. He said governors will also touch issues around the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) ownership, and the controversial National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Bill. Also to be discussed is the restructuring of states loans and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) deductions, which have been a recurring decimal on the governors table. As usual the governors will be given an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, as well as review a letter from the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 as it relates to the pandemic draft regulations, he said. Bello-Barkindo added that there would also be a general update on efforts of the Coalition Against COVID-19. Advertisement I read from some sources, though not confirmed, that the Federal Government has approved the release of N5 billion to Kano state but the funds are not to be released directly to the state government but in bits and according to verified demands. This is a very questionable step, a step not taken on Lagos and Ogun states. It begs the question as to why the FG is not concerned about the plight of Kano and its people? This is a state renowned for commercial activities that has lost its economy to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current economic situation has raised the level of vulnerability in the state where it is suspected that there is a community transmission of the virus. Not even a serious emergency approach is given to the state that is out of the ordinary. Advertisement For example, not many business owners, who are also direct tax payers, can benefit from bailouts in the state due to the nature of the direct buy and sell business they operate. Special bailouts should be provided for them in order to keep them alive as do other formally registered businesses because they also pay taxes. But the FG is not considering these types of fallouts on Kano, nor does it consider the out of government employment the unique economy in the state provides as well as the nature of the job security it provides to the region. Is like the FG completely does not consider the uniqueness of Kano and does not treat it as such. In the current situation in the fight against COVID-19, N5 billion is too small for Kano if Ogun that is not up to a third of the population of Kano can get the same amount with less casualties. More so, if Lagos that is also less in population and even less vulnerable than Kano can get N10 billion I see no reason why Kano cannot be given N15 billion. Also going by the results of the elections that brought the regime to power, Kano gave three times more votes to it than Lagos and Ogun put together. This is diversionary and incoherent. Kano needs more because there is indeed a community transmission in place that will require harsh steps that will not only take a toll on the populace but also crash the economy. Kano has completely lost its Internally Generated Revenue, IGR to the extent that the governor, his deputy and all other political office holders have forfeited fifty percent of their salaries to the COVID-19 plight. Despite that, the state government, apart from spending on logistics, palliatives and the general fight against COVID-19, it has also managed to pay workers salaries in the state. It is good that Kano is getting N5 billion, but to be just and fair, Kano needs more. With very little resources it has been able to reduce and counter the devastating effects in the state to which the FG needs to complement by providing it with enough funds. Another issue is that of refusing to release the funds to Kano state government but ordered the Federal Ministry of Finance to be releasing the funds in bits according to verified demand. This is an insult on the government and people of Kano. Why was the same treatment not accorded to Lagos or Ogun state, why Kano? Is like the FG is politicizing the fight against COVID-19 and accusing others of the same. Why will not the government simply release the funds to the state because since the advent of the pandemic the state had operated without any genuine support from the FG. Hence, the N5 billion and the manner of releasing the fund, is insufficient for Kano and its people. Kano needs more. There hasn't been much to laugh about for the last few months, but the news that Boris Johnson's widely loathed chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, had been busted for breaking lockdown rules not once, not twice, but allegedly three times certainly brought a grim grin to many people's faces. The revelations over the weekend were startling for a variety of reasons, not least because he had been instrumental in formulating the restrictions in the first place. Read More Just like British scientific adviser Neil Ferguson and Scotland's chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, who were forced to step down when it emerged they had broken their own rules, Cummings was guilty of the worst political infraction - flamboyant hypocrisy. While watching, jaw on the floor, as Johnson delivered yet another masterclass in waffle on Sunday afternoon as he tried to defend his embattled Svengali, it became clear that hypocrisy is fine as long you're in BoJo's good books. As the UK has been wracked by the virus and thousands of Brits have been denied even the opportunity to bid a proper farewell to dying relatives, the thoughts of the smarmy adviser blithely disregarding those rules was infuriating for many, while Johnson's excuse that he was merely doing 'what any father would do' was a pathetic play on emotion. After all, anyone else caught doing 'what any father would do' would have their collar felt by the cops and handed a hefty fine. As Johnson flailed around haplessly in his support for Cummings (who appeared, unapologetic, at a press conference last night to tell everybody why he is able to 'interpret' the rules that bind everyone else), one unusual thought crossed my mind - we're doing such a better job than the UK or the US. But that doesn't mean much when you consider they have been the pandemic's worst responders. While we may have been more proactive than either of our big neighbours, confusion reigns supreme in this country - for a variety of reasons, and each of them more worrying than the last. We only received confirmation this week that the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment will be considered as taxable income, so those part-time and low-paid workers who were pleasantly surprised to find themselves with more money will be facing a stern letter from Revenue in the coming months. Then, as if to remind us that confusion is just as prevalent within the upper echelons of government, Leo Varadkar was accused of pulling a Cummings when he went for a picnic in the Phoenix Park on Sunday - mere days after his own office had expressly advised against it. When the restrictions were gradually eased last week, Liz Canavan from the Department of the Taoiseach urged people to refrain from picnics, explicitly stating: "If you're visiting a public amenity, try to not stay too long at the site or have picnics. Please do your exercise and then go home." If the most senior politician in the country could make an honest mistake, what hope do the rest of us have? This fear that the Government doesn't know what it's doing is not unique to this country - after all, this is a pandemic of genuinely unprecedented proportions. But it has become abundantly clear that most politicians are simply making things up as they go along or, more frequently, they have decided to outsource their own responsibilities to those public health officials who seem to have become the new decision-makers in government. But for all the interminable hollers of 'believe the scientists', there is one slight problem with such blind obedience - the scientists are in disagreement as well. The two-metre social distancing rule was seen as prudent at the beginning but has become a major problem for the potential reopening of businesses. Health workers in hospitals have repeatedly stressed that reducing the distance would increase capacity. If we are all to blindly 'believe the science', why don't we believe the WHO, who say one metre is an acceptable boundary? Austria, Norway and Finland are practising a one-metre rule. Germany, Poland and the Netherlands moved to 1.5 metres, and it seems to be working for them. Ministers are due to meet with Dr Tony Holohan later today to discuss the easing of the distancing, and it's clear that the growing impatience with the restrictions is not confined to members of the public. Which brings us to the big elephant in the room - we still don't have an effective government. Senior ministers seem to bristle at the phrase 'caretaker government', but that is precisely what they are. They have a constitutional obligation to carry on until a new administration is formed, but they have no direct mandate, and the current situation is a travesty. They can't pass the new legislation that is required to help businesses, and this should have been sorted weeks ago. The sight of the Greens playing their own political version of 'Lannigan's Ball', stepping into coalition talks and then stepping back out again, has been risible, and their decision to talk about a leadership heave at this moment is not just baffling but damaging to the country. People may not care for Eamon Ryan's rather patrician style, but he dragged his party from the brink of oblivion in 2011 and they returned from the 2020 election with a remarkable 49 councillors, 12 TDs, a couple of MEPs and a pair of senators. Now, when their country needs them to urgently form a government which can pass vital legislation, they're engaging in ideological trench warfare. The Greens like to portray themselves as friends of the Earth, but for those of us living in Ireland, the phrase 'with friends like these' is inescapable. One in 20 care home residents in London has died from the coronavirus, shocking figures suggest. Analysis of Office for National Statistics data revealed there have been 4.7 Covid-19 deaths per 100 care home beds in the capital. London's care sector has been hit twice as hard as the South West, East Midlands and East of England, where the rate is 1.8, 2 and 2.1, respectively. In the North of England, the new coronavirus capital of Britain, there have been 3.2 fatalities per 100 care home beds, according to the Health Foundation. The charity blasted the government for its too little, too late approach to care homes and say the crisis in the sector has been fuelled by 'decades of political neglect'. At least a quarter of the UK's Covid-19 victims have been care home residents, ONS statistics revealed today. Analysis of Office for National Statistics data reveal there have been 4.7 COVID-19 deaths per 100 care home beds in London - twice as much as in the East of England and the South West Percentage of care homes that have reported an outbreak: Every corner of England has recorded cases of the virus in more than a quarter of homes HOW MANY CARE HOME RESIDENTS HAVE DIED OF CORONAVIRUS IN YOUR REGION? REGION CARE HOME DEATHS CARE HOME BEDS DEATH RATE PER 100 BEDS LONDON 1,654 35,340 4.68 NORTH EAST 827 26,191 3.16 NORTH WEST 1,899 62,129 3.06 WEST MIDLANDS 1,372 48,619 2.82 YORKS AND THE HUMBER 1,184 47,470 2.49 SOUTH EAST 2,109 85,503 2.47 EAST OF ENGLAND 1,066 51,841 2.06 EAST MIDLANDS 881 43,426 2.03 SOUTH WEST 997 54,584 1.83 FURY AS CABINET MINISTER ADMITS GOVERNMENT 'CHOSE' NHS OVER CARE HOMES Justice Secretary Robert Buckland sparked fury last Wednesday by admitting that ministers 'chose' to protect the NHS over care homes because there was not enough coronavirus testing capacity. Mr Buckland gave the clearest statement yet that a decision was made to prioritise the health service when the outbreak was at its most ferocious. The government has been heavily criticised for sending patients back to homes from hospitals without tests, and not putting routine screening in place for staff and residents. Mr Buckland fuelled the row by conceding the government had to make a 'choice' about where to deploy testing capacity - which was languishing at a few thousand a day in early March, although it has now been ramped up to over 100,000. 'I think we needed to make a choice about testing and we did decide to focus upon the NHS,' he told Sky News. 'The issue with care homes is that we've got many thousands of different providers, different settings, there have been lots of examples of care homes that have mercifully stayed infection free, but sadly far too many cases of infection and then death.' Advertisement Between March 2 and May 1 there were 12,526 deaths in care homes where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, out of a total of 44,000 victims. Around 340 care homes have had outbreaks in the past week, with four out of every 10 in the country saying they have had cases at some point. Looking at the cumulative deaths in care homes in England by May 1, the South East has been the worst-affected region, with 2,109 victims in its nursing homes. There were 1,899 deaths recorded in homes in the North West, making it the second worst-hit area in the country, followed by London's 1,654, according to ONS data. In the West Midlands, Yorkshire and East of England, there were 1,372, 1,184 and 1,066 fatalities, respectively, by the start of the month. Care home deaths in the South West (997), East Midlands (881) and North East (827) are trending towards four digits, the figures show. The percentage of care homes that have been affected varies widely between regions, from 26 per cent in the South West to almost double (47 per cent) that in the North East. This suggests that, while the total burden from the epidemic in terms of loss of life may have been greatest in the South East, the total spread of COVID-19 in the North East may be greater than it appears. A relatively simple explanation for this apparent difference in the total number of deaths might be the size of the care home population within each region. In England there were a total of 15,494 CQC-regulated care homes in April 2020, with a capacity of 456,862 beds. Figures collated by the Office for National Statistics show how the number of deaths in each setting spiked in April, during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis However, much like the general population in England, care home beds are not equally distributed across the country. While around 19 per cent of care homes are in the South East, only about 6 per cent are in the North East. Fiona Grimm, senior data analyst at the Health Foundation, said: 'The governments strategy for care homes stands in contrast to its approach to the NHS which has seen a more comprehensive and timely response to the pandemic. 'But the emergency that social care now faces is also related to well-known failings in the sector, including years of inadequate funding that is putting many care providers at risk of collapse, and staff shortages linked to poor pay and conditions. 'While no action plan could undo decades of political neglect, questions should be asked as to how many deaths could have been prevented had action been taken earlier.' Dr Grimm said there was an urgent need for PPE and widespread testing across the sector to save hundreds more lives. She added: 'The overall mortality data for care homes suggests that a government action plan for social care, published nearly a month after the lockdown was introduced, has come too late to stem avoidable loss of life among both care home residents and staff. 'Whilst there remains a lack of data at the national level to monitor these risks, the information we do have on deaths among residents and staff highlights the urgent need to ensure that care homes across all regions have access to adequate PPE and testing to protect both staff and residents. 'The sector also needs urgent investment to improve the collection of data, so local and national decision makers have the information they need to effectively tackle the virus.' The Government is under growing pressure to do more to keep the most vulnerable in society safe. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has pledged to test every care home resident and staff member in England for coronavirus by 'early June'. Care home providers are calling for residents and staff to be tested for coronavirus every week after research suggested asymptomatic patients were continuing to spread the disease. Sam Monaghan, chief executive of Methodist Homes (MHA), said the crisis in the sector would continue to burn because staff are unknowingly bringing the virus into care homes. MHA has had at least one member of staff test positive in 20 out of its 28 homes, according to results from a Government pilot of whole-home testing, Hong Kong leader tries to dispel fears about Chinas move to impose national security legislation on the city. Chinas plans to impose a new security law on Hong Kong will only target a handful of lawbreakers, the citys leader has said as she tried to reassure residents, investors and businesses rattled by the proposal. Carrie Lams comments on Tuesday came amid widespread concerns over Beijings plans for legislation aiming to tackle secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in semi-autonomous Hong Kong. It could also see Chinese intelligence agencies set up bases in the city. Many Hong Kongers, business groups and Western nations fear the proposal could be a death knell to the citys treasured freedoms and usher in an end to the territory passing its own laws. The announcement of the plans for the new law which will be written by Beijing and bypass Hong Kongs legislature sparked the biggest drop on the citys stock exchange in five years on Friday. And on Sunday, thousands of protesters thronged the streets in scenes that evoked memories of last years pro-democracy protests. Many chanted: Hong Kong independence, the only way out. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and arrested almost 200 people. No need to worry But Lam said fears the citys freedoms were at risk were totally groundless. Hong Kongs freedoms will be preserved and Hong Kongs vibrancy and the core values in terms of the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, the various rights and freedoms enjoyed by people, will continue to be there, she told reporters. The proposed law, she said, only targets a handful of lawbreakers it protects the vast majority of law-abiding, peace-loving residents. Hong Kong is governed under a one country, two systems framework that guarantees the citys people rights and freedoms not seen in mainland China, including freedom of expression and the right to protest. Lam said those concerned about the proposed legislation needed to wait for its details. There is no need for us to worry because time and again, in the last 23 years, whenever people worried about Hong Kongs freedoms of speech and freedoms of expressions and protest, time and again, Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values, she said. So, I think the best thing is to see the legislation in front of us and to understand why at this point in time, Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation for the bigger benefit of the great majority of Hong Kong people. Separately, the commander of Chinas military garrison in Hong Kong said in a rare interview that the garrison firmly supported the security legislation. Chen Doaxing told Chinese state television the garrison had the determination and ability to safeguard Chinas national sovereignty and the long-term prosperity and security of the city. Chinas military has remained in barracks in Hong Kong throughout the past year, leaving Hong Kong police to confront pro-democracy activists. Your imagination More protests are expected in Hong Kong on Wednesday when the citys legislature is due to discuss another controversial law on the national anthem. Asked by a reporter whether the new security law would allow mainland police to arrest protesters in Hong Kong, Lam dismissed the question as your imagination. She said anti-government protests would continue to be allowed if it is done in a legal way but did not elaborate on what that would mean under the new law. The United States, Australia, Britain, Canada and others have expressed concerns about the legislation. Washington is considering whether to maintain Hong Kongs special status in US law, which has helped it maintain its position as a global financial centre. It has also raised the threat of sanctions against Hong Kong and China. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called the proposal a death knell for the high degree of autonomy that Beijing promised the former British colony when it was returned to China in 1997. Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, lamented what he called a new Chinese dictatorship. I think the Hong Kong people have been betrayed by China, which has proved once again that you cant trust it further than you can throw it, Patten said in an interview with The Times in London. Patten is leading a coalition of at least 204 international legislators and policymakers who have condemned the proposed legislation. In a statement, the coalition called it a flagrant breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a 1984 treaty that promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy even after the handover to China. Beijing has dismissed those concerns. Speaking at an annual news conference during the legislative session, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that Hong Kong affairs were an internal matter for China, and that no external interference will be tolerated. Excessive unlawful foreign meddling in Hong Kong affairs has placed Chinas national security in serious jeopardy, Wang said, adding that the proposed legislation does not affect the high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong. It does not affect the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong residents. And it does not affect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in Hong Kong, he said. - Ghanaian female doctor Juliet Ohemeng-Ntiamoah has attained a direct PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Tennessee Tech University (TTU) - The young doctor accomplished this milestone without a master's degree in any field or background in Civil and Environmental Engineering - Juliet Ohemeng-Ntiamoah took to social media to share lessons from her journey Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana After years of hard work, young Ghanaian female doctor Juliet Ohemeng-Ntiamoah, has successfully attained a direct PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Tennessee Tech University (TTU). With her first bachelors degree in Environmental Science and no masters in any field, she ambitiously moved to pursue her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering. While she had plans of pursuing a PhD, it was second on her mid to long-term goals. Her planned trajectory included a masters first, family, additional work experience in the oil and gas industry before a PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy. In July 2014, however, Juliet took one of the toughest decisions and the risk to resign from her comfortable role at Tullow Oil for her PhD. Despite having no background in the Civil and Environmental Engineering and her initial hesitation to pursue a PhD in the field, she gathered fortitude to optimise a fully-funded PhD opportunity. Highlighting her journey in a post on Facebook, Juliet noted that ''sometime in 2013, my friend Dr. Jojo France-Mensah sent me a fully-funded PhD opportunity in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tennessee Tech University (TTU). He had been an excellent student at TTU and the professor asked him to recommend someone for the opportunity.'' At the time, she did not immediately decide on the PhD opportunity for some reasons and also because a direct PhD in Engineering seemed outside her horizon. Juliet preferred to pursue master's and have a family first. Despite the uncertainties, she resigned from her job in July 2014 at Tullow Oil to pursue a doctoral programme. Even after taking on the challenge to go through with her PhD, Juliet admits she nearly quit. ''I honestly came very close to quitting in May 2019 but I decided to take it slow and just kept going,'' she said. After successfully attaining her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Tennessee Tech University (TTU), she took to social media to share lessons from her journey to inspire others especially young women who dream of pursuing STEM courses. She wrote: 1. Definitely have plans as I did, but be flexible in your plans because we dont always move from A to B. Be ready to positively disrupt your own plans by rearranging some items. 2. Sharpen your ability to see and seize opportunities that come your way. 3. Dont settle in your comfort zone. I had planned with a PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy because it was familiar. 4. Dear ladies, dont ignore a good career opportunity in hopes of establishing a family soon when you dont even have a significant other. (Ill throw more light on this later). 5. You need a hype man/woman. Just one person is enough to create an opportunity for you. 6. What will you do if you werent afraid?. Just DO it! Youll be shocked to know that you have the ability to excel in that very space you are afraid of exploring. You only need to stay resilient and focused. Its also very OK doing it while afraid. Read full write-up shared by Crabbita Media Consult. Just recently, YEN.com.gh reported that Divine Narkotey Aboagye, a Ghanaian student of the Graduate Faculty of Illinois State Universitys (ISU) School of Communication has been adjudged Outstanding Graduate Student by the university. The graduate student award is given annually to acknowledge a student who has showed unmatched excellence in teaching, research and service. Divine Narkotey Aboagye graduated from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Studies (First Class Honors) and minor in Philosophy and English Studies in 2016. READ ALSO: 3 strategies used by ancient Ghanaian and other African societies to deal with pandemics Ghanaian female accounting graduate and mushroom farmer recounts her experience | #Yencomgh Have national and human interest issues to discuss? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition? Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh A High Court judge has ruled there was a prosecutorial delay in the case of 19 year old man who was arrested on a suspected robbery offence when he was a child, but only charged last year. But Mr Justice Garrett Simons dismissed the 19-year-olds legal challenge aimed at preventing his prosecution on two charges relating to an alleged robbery on a Luas tram and platform in 2017. The judge also directed the prosecution should now go ahead. The 19-year-old had brought judicial review proceedings, aimed at restraining the further prosecution of criminal charges pending against him, on the basis of prosecutorial delay. He claimed the alleged offences were when he was 16 years old and he contended had the garda investigation been conducted expeditiously he would have been entitled to the charges determined in accordance with the Children Act 2001. Mr Justice Simons said the delay of 22 months between the date of the alleged offences in June 2017, and the subsequent charging of the young man last year, was inordinate. The 22 months' delay, the judge said, was excessive, and he added at almost every stage of the process there was culpable delay on the part of the prosecuting authorities. What should have been a straightforward investigation took far too long, the judge said. Mr Justice Simons said the fact that the investigation file seems to have gone missing within An Garda Siochana for a significant period of time was especially concerning. However, the judge ruled the balance of justice lies in favour of allowing the prosecution to proceed, and he also noted the offences alleged were serious. Mr Justice Simons said the youth had already been convicted of a number of offences, been detained at Oberstown House, and is currently in custody in prison. CF Health Services is the main provider of mental health services for the CAF. Locate a centre anywhere in Canada and abroad. Where service providers are unavailable, you and your family may be referred to local community programs and services. The CFMAP offers confidential, voluntary, short term counselling to assist CAF members with resolving many of today's stresses at home and in the work place. Phone: 1-800-268-7708 (available 24/7) TTY - Hearing Impaired Line:1-800-567-5803 (available 24/7) Access inspiring and helpful videos, support resources, and tip sheets for proper communication within relationships. The Family Information Line is a confidential, personal, bilingual, and free service offering information, support, referrals, reassurance, and crisis management to the military community. Phone: 1-800-866-4546 Email: fil@CAFconnection.ca Children, youth, and young adults from military families can access free mental health and wellbeing support by texting the keyword CAFKIDS at 686868 for service in English; for service in French, text the keyword JEUNESFAC at 686868. All bases provide a 24/7 chaplaincy, listening, and support service. Contact the family information line, which will redirect you to a chaplain in your area. Phone: 1-866-502-2203 (Mon-Fri 7:00 am to 17:00 pm E.T) Phone : 00-800-771-17722 (International) Email: ChaplainMain-AumoneriePrincipale@forces.gc.ca OTSSC offer specialized programs within the Canadian Forces Health Services that provide comprehensive and consistent assessment and treatment of patients with operational stress injuries. Phone: 1-877-705-8880 (Mon-Fri 7:30 am to 15:30 pm E.T) Atlantic Halifax: 1-902-721-5703 Quebec Valcartier: 1-418-844-5000 ext 7373 Ontario Ottawa: 1-613-945-1060 (now at the Montfort Hospital) Western Edmonton: 1-780-973-4011 ext 5332 Pacific Victoria: 1-250-363-4411 The SMRC offers round the clock, bilingual, confidential support services to CAF members who are affected by sexual misconduct. Counsellors are available to discuss resources and options to meet individual needs. Phone: 1-844-750-1648 (available 24/7) Email: DND.SMRC-CIIS.MDN@forces.gc.ca TFind your nearest Military Police detachment or the police service of jurisdiction in your area to report a non-emergency crime or make a complaint Bosky Khanna By Express News Service BENGALURU: To accommodate a large number of people coming in from other states and countries, those who had earlier travelled by buses and trains and staying in quarantine facilities will be asked to leave. Officials from the Health Department and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) are cutting short the quarantine period of people already under quarantine to make space for new ones. This will mean that those who have not undergone tests are also likely to be moved out, putting the general population at risk of Covid-19 infection. People who have completed 14 days or at least seven days of quarantine will be asked to leave to accommodate those coming in from other states and countries. Mostly those staying in hostels and budget hotels will be told to go as the number of train and bus passengers is higher than those coming by flights, said a health department official. Raghavendra V, who is under quarantine, said, We have been staying at Ambedkar Hostel since May 17. Till now, our samples have not been taken. Twenty-one of us came from Delhi, and now we have been told that more people from Rajasthan will be brought here. Some of us have been asked to leave at the earliest, while the rest have been given two days. Mohsin A, who has completed seven days of quarantine at a hotel in Hanumantha Nagar, said, No tests were done and no one took my details. All that the staff at the hotel where I was staying told me was that the government wants me to leave as I am not showing any symptoms. Quite strangely, the information was conveyed to me by the hotel staff and not health officials. Some of those staying in hostels have demanded that they be tested before being released, as they shared common facilities while under quarantine. We have been making many calls to BBMP officials, but there has been no response. We are worried that we will spread the virus to others, added Raghavendra. BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar admitted that quarantine period is being revised because of space constraints. A meeting is being planned with the government to discuss the issue. As it is difficult to improve hostel facilities, the government is also wondering how to accommodate those coming in, he said. Kameron Parkin has completed his new book Of Substance": an uncut and unashamedly honest experience of an adolescent surrounded by uncertain circumstances. Parkin writes, "I was born on May 2, 1995, in Nephi, Utah. The only child of Michael and Stacey Parkin, I began a struggle with epilepsy at age fourteen. At age seventeen, after being given a year to live, I sought medical treatment at Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. A successful operation enabled me to return to Utah for college. There, I met my wife, Kimberly. After studying history education, I left college and moved to California. Soon after relocating, I began my career as a professional author." Published by Page Publishing, Kameron Parkin's intriguing work that was born from the author having had to face the prospect of death early on in life that instilled the air of an old soul in the author. The one-of-a-kind writing style straps you into the seat of the author. After the first page, the reader evolves from simply reading the story to experiencing the story. An uncommon and captivating coming of age tale, Of Substance takes the reader through the authors path to a brighter future filled with hopea prospect which at one time was a beautiful and unattainable dream. Readers who wish to experience this riveting work can purchase Of Substance" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708. About Page Publishing: Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com. What are we doing in this province? Honestly, what is happening here? Well, COVID-19 case numbers are up and staying up. And, testing crashed in the last week. On Monday, the premier promised a robust new testing plan, a week or two after he lurched us forward into the first phase of reopening, despite having not hit the provincial public health benchmarks to do so. OK, fine. It may be cart, then horse, but its nice to see a horse around here. And yes, on the weekend there was a mass flagrant display of public disobedience towards the public health messages that have been blanketing every available communications outlet for two months. Trinity Bellwoods Park was messy, but more, it was a symbol of what happens when enough people dont listen, even as most people do. But of course there was an eruption like that. And incredibly, two months into the pandemic, it more or less completely befuddled the politicians who are nominally in charge of our pandemic response. It was incredible. First, Mayor John Tory. Of all the people who jammed up Trinity Bellwoods Park Saturday, Tory was the one who should have known better. And yet he pulled down his mask to talk to some of the clustering yahoos. Tory apologized, of course. Im a human being, said Tory, which is both an explanation for how a man whose daughter is a doctor and who is a mayor can make that error, and a pretty compelling case for why a 65-year-old shouldnt have made the error in the first place. One day later, the province fumbled around like it was looking for its glasses in the dark. My recommendation for anyone at Trinity Bellwoods, why dont you do us all a favour and go get tested now, said Premier Doug Ford, in the morning. Go to a local hospital or assessment centre, and get tested. What we would advise for those people is to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 for a period of 14 days after that exposure, said Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the associate chief medical officer of Ontario, in the afternoon. And not try to mix or be near people who are at higher risk such as elderly or very young children, or people who are immunocompromised. And if youre going out and youre anticipating being closer than six feet to somebody, please wear a face covering, because the incubation period is 14 days. With 36 hours to figure out a message 10 weeks into the pandemic, the premier of Ontario and the leadership of Ontario Public Health apparently couldnt find each others phone numbers. Dr. Eileen de Villa, Torontos medical officer of health and the voice Toronto should probably heed most in this crisis, said she co-ordinated with Ontario Public Health, but the premier freelanced. It was a real shock when those young people ignored public health advice, but now theyll surely know what to do. You may say its a small mistake in the grand scheme, but it matters, because it speaks to competence. If you cant ace the little tests, you may have trouble with the big ones. And as Ontario chief medical officer Dr. David Williams shows with his daily confusion masterpieces, public communication in a pandemic isnt a little thing. Ontarios coronavirus is primarily in the GTA, so who should Toronto be listening to, above all? It is unclear who is in charge, who is the one clear voice providing consistent sane advice, said Dr. Sacha Bhatia, the chief medical innovation officer at Womens College Hospital, and chief of cardiology. Bonnie Henry was that voice in B.C. And they did well. It isnt clear, between the city and province, who is the key voice citizens should be listening to. The message can be expected to change over time, but it shouldnt be different within one government, and not on the same day, said epidemiologist Dr. Nitin Mohan, who teaches public and global health at Western University, and who co-founded a public health consulting firm called ETIO. Because it undermines public health. We should have had testing crews wading in to find out how many of approximately 10,000 young Torontonians had the virus, and then contact traced them. But Ontario and Torontos systems arent strong and flexible enough for that. And thats a key point. The most maddening part of all this is that in the grand scheme, Trinity Bellwoodss peacocks arent what matters most. This disease already ravaged long-term-care homes. It is rampant in homeless shelters. It is hitting lower-income neighbourhoods harder than the rest of Toronto, and Toronto harder than anywhere else in Ontario, and the provincial government is still going with a default one-size-fits-all policy that isnt geared towards Toronto, because otherwise people from Toronto will just go to cottage country. Uh, I have bad news on that. And the systems to measure and address all this are inadequate, so the province is trying to rebuild the testing plane while its in the air. On Friday, Ford encouraged people with symptoms to be tested. On Sunday, he said asymptomatic people should be tested if they think they should be tested, and to bring their family with them. The actual policy said to qualify you needed either one symptom, contact with a confirmed or suspected case, or a high-risk occupation. One doctor who works at a testing centre, Dr. Lesley Barron, tweeted that assessment centres needed to plan for people coming, and that it was a ridiculous strategy to increase numbers. And on Monday, Ford said dont bring the kids to assessment centres, actually, and that Ontario would test asymptomatic and symptomatic people, and seconds later Health Minister Christine Elliott said that if you have symptoms, if you are worried you have COVID, of course you can get tested. Got it? The biggest reason this matters is that public trust matters. And if this province has to reinstitute restrictions it will need that trust, if it comes to that. Because people will be angry. What are we doing? Were failing. Read more about: Afghan prisoners line up after their release from Bagram Prison in Parwan province, Afghanistan, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. - AFP Afghan authorities freed hundreds of Taliban prisoners on Tuesday as they tried to persuade the militants to extend a three-day ceasefire marking the holy Eid festival. The handover of up to 900 detainees marked the biggest release since a confidence-building prisoner swap was first outlined in February's agreement between the Taliban and America. Hundreds were freed from the high security Bagram and Pul-e-Charkhi prisons during the course of the day as Kabul tried to persuade the militants to extend their truce in response. The insurgents issued a surprise ceasefire late on Saturday that was due to end late on Tuesday. More than 157,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Afghan conflict in the 19 years since the Taliban government was ousted. More than 450 British troops died in the international coalition to bolster the Afghan government. Taliban prisoners who had been given lengthy terms for attacks on Afghan troops and their international backers streamed out of the prisons onto waiting buses. Abdul Wasi, 27, from Kandahar province, told AFP he was a "holy warrior" when he was detained eight years ago. "I was told ... to do jihad until all foreign troops are driven out of our country," he said. "If the foreign troops exit, we won't fight." America signed a landmark deal with the Taliban in February, agreeing to withdraw from their 19-year conflict if the militants turned against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. The militants also agreed to begin talks with the Afghan government to find a political settlement. Yet hopes then foundered as the sides disagreed on how to release prisoners and as the Taliban stepped up their campaign of violence. The February deal had said the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the militants would free about 1,000 national security personnel. In recent weeks the government has released around 1,000 Taliban in small groups, while several hundred captive soldiers and policemen have been freed in return. Story continues Senior Taliban figures suggested the truce could be extended if the prisoners kept being released, but had made no announcement by late on Tuesday. American officials hope talks could then start soon afterward. Meanwhile the freed prisoners said they had signed written pledges not to return to the battlefield. Qari Mohammadullah, another freed inmate, said: "We don't want foreigners to stay any longer in our country, they must leave immediately. "We will continue our jihad until every single foreign force leaves." WASHINGTON - Kellan Kurfis crouched down and laid an American flag pin at the base of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, below the name of the man who taught his grandfather to be a soldier. The 9-year-old wore a black mask stretched over his mouth and nose; it was only the family's second outing this spring, and they were all being careful. But he wanted to come, because his grandfather could not be there this year. Many Memorial Day commemorations were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic or altered to comply with public health guidelines. Arlington National Cemetery was closed to all but family members. As the U.S. death toll from covid-19 neared 100,000 Monday, the cemetery live-streamed President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other leaders participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, streamed its bell-tolling ceremony and other events online. There were prayers delivered on Facebook and video tributes to the fallen shared on Twitter. But in Washington, with its iconic memorials, such as The Wall listing the names of more than 58,000 people who died for their country during the Vietnam War, many came to remember - in person. For some, the pandemic served to crystallize the idea of shared sacrifice and the weight of all those losses. At The Wall, they found and traced the engraved names of loved ones with tentative fingers, laid roses, and left handwritten notes and maps of Vietnam and folded flags and a can of Bud Light. "I miss you Daddy," someone wrote on a black-and-white photo of a burly man holding a tiny girl. A veteran found the name he sought on The Wall with his gnarled hand, choked out a swear and burst into tears. "We have to come," said Rob Wilkins, retired from the U.S. Air Force and president of Rolling Thunder Washington D.C. "It was never a question." He was thinking of those who died as he looked at The Wall, mask in hand. "Black, white, Asian, tall, short, it didn't matter," he said. "They were American, and they wanted to defend our freedom." Wilkins found the name of his cousin George Washington Froe, killed when he was 20 years old. "We like to touch The Wall, say their name, so people understand," he said. "We didn't forget." A sign directed people to a single entrance to encourage social distancing, but visitors still clustered, looking for names, sharing stories, hugging those moved to tears. At the National World War II Memorial, a sign reminded people to "keep your distance to slow the spread of covid-19." But the grounds were busy with people cooling their feet in the fountain, shading their eyes from the sun as a helicopter thundered overhead with the Washington Monument just beyond. Some turned away, reluctantly, when they saw the crowds. Maria Garcia sat alone in the shade on one of the stone benches at the memorial. "Today I felt compelled to come," she said. She was not there to remember a family member but to honor all those who served. Born in Mexico, raised in Texas, she now works on Capitol Hill, and she said weeks of isolation have given everyone time to reflect. Being at the memorial made her feel gratitude "for what other people have given up for us," she said. "All the freedom that we have is because of their sacrifice." Christopher Barrow, 57, was thinking of his relatives who fought for Britain and of those who served as Allies, and remembering playing as a child in Birmingham, England, in a bomb crater left from the Blitz. Maureen Gibbons tried to go to Arlington National Cemetery to mourn her husband, but traffic from the president's motorcade snarled the nearby roads too much. Her son John Gibbons kept apologizing, she said, when they had to turn away. At the World War II Memorial she kept her pink-and-white-flowered mask on and kept her distance from others. At her age, 78, she said, she has to be careful. Her daughter-in-law Bonnie Gibbons joined them after taking photos of the memorial, thinking of all the places her father had fought for the Navy, such as Midway and Okinawa. He had three brothers who fought in the war as well, she said, "but they all came home." Aimee Mathews-Kurfis' father served as a paratrooper in the Army in Vietnam - in Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) - and every time he comes to Washington from his home in Florida, she said, he makes sure to visit The Wall at least once and find the name Bruce E. Deerinwater. He's a quiet man, she said, and never talks much about Vietnam. But he told them it was Deerinwater who taught him to be a point man, taught the lessons that helped him survive. She and her husband, Scott, and sons, Liam and Kellan Kurfis, came from Alexandria to honor that. It was Kellan's idea to come. "I thought maybe we were doing something nice for him," he said, "to show him that we love him and care for him . . . and remember how he fought in the war for us." As people passed by, their family stood still, wrapped in masks, looking at the name. "It's serene," she said. "It puts things in perspective, for sure." Please register or log in to keep reading. No credit card required! Stay logged in to skip the surveys. A Kansas sheriff is not entitled to immunity from a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed black man who was shot in the back following a police chase, a federal appeals court has ruled. A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Harvey County Sheriff Chad Gay is county official when performing law enforcement functions. Unlike a state official, the sheriff is not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity when sued for damages in his official capacity, the court said. The decision comes in the civil lawsuit filed by the family of Matthew Holmes, a 24-year-old black man with schizophrenia, who died after McPherson County Sheriffs Deputy Chris Somers, a white man, shot him in the back during an arrest in August 2017. The incident began when police suspected Holmes in a car burglary and he led them on a vehicle chase. No criminal charges were brought against any officers. Holmes mother, Wendy Couser, sued the officers and law enforcement agencies involved, alleging her son was beaten by officers while he lay dying from a gunshot wound. The lawsuit also contends supervisors did not adequately train officers on use of force and failed to discipline them. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Kansas CINCINNATI, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KYOCERA SENCO Industrial Tools, Inc. (Senco), the nation's largest staple manufacturer, announced today that the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) will impose combined final antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duties of 97.93%-305.19% percent on all imports of medium and heavy collated steel staples from China. If the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) reaffirms that Chinese imports have injured the U.S. industry, the duties will take effect in early July and will be collected on imports dating as far back as August. The ITC is currently scheduled to vote on June 23, 2020. "We applaud the Department of Commerce for continuing to prioritize fair trade especially now, as much of the world is at a standstill," said Cliff Mentrup, CEO of Senco. "U.S. producers have been unfairly impacted by Chinese producers selling their staples here at artificially low and subsidized prices for far too long. Now, as we all work together to fight the spread of COVID-19, there is much uncertainty for U.S. businesses and consumers. Ensuring a level playing field is more important than ever this decision is good news for our business and our workers." In 2018, U.S. imports of certain collated staples from China were valued at an estimated $88.8 million, according to Commerce. SENCO petitioned Commerce to review certain collated staple imports from China in July 2019, setting in motion AD and CVD investigations. An AD case investigates unfair pricing, and a CVD case investigates unfair subsidies. The company seeks relief in the form of special duties in both cases and looks forward to a final resolution. For more on the company's petitions, see the company's press release. For more on the ITC's investigation, review the commission's press release. For more on DOC's preliminary CVD determination, review the agency's fact sheet here. For more on DOC's preliminary AD determination, review the agency's fact sheet here. Contact Elizabeth Heaton, [email protected], 202-445-9858 SOURCE KYOCERA SENCO Industrial Tools, Inc. Russian prosecutors on Monday called for a former US marine charged with spying to be sentenced to 18 years in prison, after a closed-door trial denounced by Washington and his family. Paul Whelan, 50, was detained in Moscow in December 2018 for allegedly receiving state secrets, but he insists he was framed when he took a USB drive from an acquaintance thinking it contained holiday photos. His trial, which caused tensions between Moscow and Washington and sparked speculation of a prisoner swap, concluded with closing arguments on Monday. Whelan's lawyer told reporters that prosecutors had requested 18 years for his client in a strict-regime penal colony, just short of the maximum 20-year sentence. "To be honest, we are in shock," Vladimir Zherebenkov said outside the Moscow City Court, removing his mask to speak to journalists standing at a distance. Whelan reacted calmly to the prosecutor's "very harsh" demand, the lawyer said. "He is behaving with dignity," he added. Zherebenkov said the prosecutor believed Whelan was an officer -- "at least a colonel" -- at the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Whelan told the court "he did not do any spying and was not collecting any secret information," his lawyer said. He added that the verdict would be delivered and sentence announced on June 15. - 'Paucity of evidence' - "If the situation does not get politicised, if the sentence is determined in an objective, fair way, there should be an acquittal as the defence asked for," Zherebenkov said. The trial, which began in March, was held behind closed doors despite the coronavirus pandemic and diplomatic protests. Whelan, who was head of global security at a US auto-parts supplier, said he was visiting Russia to attend a wedding at the time of his arrest. He claimed that evidence he provided was ignored and the court was biased in favour of the prosecution and security services. Whelan used earlier hearings to appeal to journalists and US President Donald Trump, claiming he was being mistreated, not given full translations of documents and rarely granted access to his lawyer. Whelan also holds Irish, Canadian and British citizenship. His family members slammed the prosecution's demand. "The Russian legal system has clearly lost its way," brother David Whelan wrote on Twitter, saying the request for such a long sentence based on a "paucity of evidence" shows the case is "political". "The prosecution wants #PaulWhelan to spend 18 years in a labor camp," he wrote. "Our family hopes the court does not agree... or Paul is unlikely to ever see his parents again." The defendant's sister Elizabeth Whelan tweeted: "There was no crime. This is political hostage-taking." - 'Intolerable' treatment - The US has condemned Whelan's detention, saying there was insufficient evidence to hold him. "This secret trial is a mockery of justice," the US ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan, said after the sentencing demand, in comments tweeted by embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Ross. "There is no legitimacy to a procedure that is hidden behind closed doors. It is not transparent, it is not fair, and it is not impartial." Russian authorities have blocked journalists and embassy employees from attending recent hearings because of the coronavirus epidemic. No diplomats attended on Monday, which was the Memorial Day public holiday in the United States. Zherebenkov said earlier that three defence witnesses failed to show up to a hearing over coronavirus fears, adding they did not want to play "Russian roulette" and risk their lives by attending. Whelan's case has raised speculation that the US and Russia could be positioning themselves for a prisoner swap, possibly involving Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, imprisoned in the US on drug smuggling charges. Hopes for Whelan's release in exchange for Maria Butina -- a Russian woman arrested in the US in 2018 on espionage charges -- were quashed after Butina was flown to Moscow in October last year. The case has exacerbated underlying tensions between Russia and the United States, which imposed sanctions on Moscow over its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Northern Mindanao regional director Wilkins Villanueva is now the agencys new director general. President Rodrigo Duterte signed the appointment papers of Villanueva last May 22 which were released to the media on Tuesday. Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea also confirmed Villanuevas appointment as the new PDEA Director General. Villanueva expressed his gratitude to the President in the promotion and vowed to continue the fight against illegal drugs in the country. My utmost gratitude to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for giving me his trust and confidence to lead our country's war on drugs. I will never fail you Mr. President, said Villanueva in his Facebook post. Prior to his stint as PDEA Region 10 director, Villanueva served as PDEA NCR director during the first months of the Duterte administration at the height of the Oplan Tokhang anti-drug police operations. When former PDEA Director General Isidro Lapena was named Bureau of Customs head in September 2017, he brought with him Villanueva to lead the bureaus Customs Intelligence and Investigation Division. Villanueva resigned from the BOC three months after Lapena ordered a reshuffle among his men at Customs. Lapena was later transferred to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as director general in October 2018, a post he holds to this day. Villanueva is a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1985. He will replace Aaron Aquino, who was appointed PDEA Director General in August 2017. PDEA Spokesperson Dir. Derrick Carreon clarified that Aquino did not step down from his post. In this case, outgoing DG (Director General) Aquino will be assuming another position in the bureaucracy but we are not at liberty to disclose further details, said Carreon. Aquino was involved in a controversy last year when he accused former Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde of intervening in the dismissal of ninja cops in Pampanga, who allegedly participated in a questionable anti-drug operation in 2013. In a statement, Aquino thanked Duterte for giving him the chance to lead the countrys anti-drug agency. I sincerely thank President Rodrigo Duterte for his trust and confidence and for giving me the opportunity to serve our people and his administration. I also thank the men and women of PDEA for their support to my leadership and dedication to the agency, said Aquino. Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the "Japan model" has effectively beaten coronavirus, as he lifted a nationwide state of emergency after seven weeks. He described how the "uniquely Japanese way" in which the country had confronted the pandemic - unusually not including strict lockdown - had allowed it to escape the numerous outbreaks and high death tolls seen in several European countries and the US. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Credit:AP Japan has had about 17,000 confirmed cases and 850 deaths, but has not implemented widespread testing. At a press conference lifting the state of emergency, Abe said: "We were able to bring the outbreak nearly under control in just a month-and-a-half in a uniquely Japanese way. We demonstrated the power of the 'Japan model'." But experts have struggled to specify what that model is or why it appears to have been so successful in this congested nation of 126.5 million people. Telegraph, London and DPA Photo: The Canadian Press Gov. Wilson Witzel Brazil's Federal Police raided the official residence of Rio de Janeiro Gov. Wilson Witzel on Tuesday to carry out searches, part of an investigation into the embezzlement of public resources in the states response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Police did not say whether Witzel, a former federal judge, was personally targeted by any of the 12 search and seizure warrants in Rio and Sao Paulo states. Rio's state government did not immediately respond to messages sent to the press office requesting comment. An ongoing investigation at the state level pointed to irregularities in the contracts awarded for the construction of emergency field hospitals in Rio, and also involved health officials, police said in a statement. On May 14, federal prosecutors launched a separate operation looking at the state's COVID-19 response, serving 25 search and arrest warrants in Rio and neighbouring Minas Gerais states. Federal prosecutors said then that a group of businessmen had sought to take advantage of the new coronavirus pandemic and diverted some 3.95 million reais (over $725,000) in public resources through contracts for the construction of field hospitals. NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- TransPerfect, the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, today announced that Jin Lee, Senior Vice President of Global Production, has joined the CFES Brilliant Pathways Board of Trustees. Since 1991, CFES Brilliant Pathways has worked with rural and urban schools throughout the US and Ireland to ensure K12 students from all backgrounds are able to access higher education and elevate their career opportunities. The organization prides itself on mentoring, fostering essential life skills, and building real-world pathways to careers, which are customized for each school served. Rick Dalton, CFES Brilliant Pathways President, commented, "CFES Brilliant Pathways is thrilled that Jin Lee is joining our board. Jin is a talented leader and wonderful role model for our CFES Scholars. His passion for innovation is contagious and will play an important role in moving CFES into our fourth decade. Further, our partnership with TransPerfect is exemplary, and our collaboration is literally beginning to help build tomorrow's workforce today." CFES has helped over 100,000 students overcome adversity and succeed in college and the workplace. Innovative partnerships with businesses such as Ernst & Young, Southwest, and now TransPerfect have fueled their ability to customize programs for students. It is through this personalized approach that CFES has yielded impressive results; for example, CFES Scholars graduate high school at a rate of 99% and attend college at a rate of 95%. "I was very fortunate to have grown up with a great support system that helped me go to college and then find a career that I love," said Jin Lee. "I am thrilled for the unique opportunity I have been given to 'pay it forward' as our company partners with CFES Brilliant Pathways. We are in a position to not only equip today's youth with essential business skills that will prepare them for entering the workforcebut, more importantly, inspire them to achieve their potential in life." TransPerfect President and CEO Phil Shawe commented, "CFES provides life-changing opportunities to students, and TransPerfect is proud to support their mission. In Jin Lee, they have gained a board member with great character, strong moral fiber, and hard-earned experience as a global business leader. I have observed Jin's passion for helping others progress in their careers firsthand for over 16 years, and CFES could not have chosen a more inspiring mentor to help today's students grow into tomorrow's workforce." About CFES Brilliant Pathways CFES Brilliant Pathways partners with hundreds of colleges, school districts and corporations to provide students with access to college and career possibilities. They offer educators in participating school districts professional development and support. The multi-faceted approach guides students and their families on the path to secondary education and meaningful careers. Over the course of nearly three decades, engagement with CFES Brilliant Pathways activities has been shown to lead to higher educational aspirations and helps students overcome social and financial barriers. To learn more about CFES Brilliant Pathways and how to get involved please visit: https://brilliantpathways.org/donate/. About TransPerfect TransPerfect is the world's largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business. From offices in over 100+ cities on six continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 5,000 global organizations employ TransPerfect's GlobalLink Product Suite to simplify the management of multilingual content. With an unparalleled commitment to quality and client service, TransPerfect is fully ISO 9001 and ISO 17100 certified. TransPerfect has global headquarters in New York, with regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com. SOURCE TransPerfect Related Links http://www.transperfect.com A river ferry sails at the Vltava river connecting two sides of the city and one of the islands in Prague, Czech Republic, on April 11, 2019. (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images) Czech Republic Cannot Be Lackey of China, New Senate Speaker Says The speaker of the Czech Senate, Milos Vystrcil, says that his visit to Taiwan has been approved in a resolution and that the Czech Republic cannot be a lackey of China, referring to a threatening letter sent by the Chinese Embassy that warned his late predecessor to cancel his planned visit to Taiwan. The Czech Senate passed a resolution on May 20 criticizing the Chinese regime for the Jan. 10 letter it sent to the countrys second-highest public official, former Senate Speaker Jaroslav Kubera, with regard to his upcoming visit to Taiwan. The resolution condemned the threatening tone of the letter, which stated that Kuberas trip to Taiwan would create complications for Czech companies trading with China. This communication has crossed the line to interference in the internal affairs of the Czech Republic and is in conflict with the declaration of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the Peoples Republic of China from 2014, the resolution said. The visits of Czech parliamentary delegations to Taiwan are in line with the long-term foreign policy interests of the Czech Republic, and the Czech Senate supports the Senate speakers visit accompanied by a business delegation, it added. The resolution was adopted with 50 votes in favor, while one senator voted against it and one abstained. Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and Czech President Milos Zeman review a guard of honor on March 29, 2016, at the Prague Castle in Prague. (Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images) Vystrcil told Radio Prague International that Czech President Milos Zeman told him in a meeting on May 19 that a mission to Taiwan wouldnt contribute to the Czech economy. Zeman is an advocate of closer economic and political ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to Sinologist Martin Hala from Charles University in Prague. Vystrcil also told Czech newspaper Jihlavsky denik that Zeman said he had warned Chinese officials against telling Czechs what they could or couldnt do, as it would be counterproductive, as it hurts mutual cooperation. However, the Czech Presidents warning only intensified Chinese officials aggressiveness and their interference, Vystrcil said. Chinese officials dictate whether I can take a picture with the Taiwanese flag, whether he can attend a ceremony when Taiwan presents a gift to the Czech Republic, and they tell the director of my office whether or not to go on TV, Vystrcil told the newspaper. They even told him not to congratulate the elected President of Taiwan on her inauguration, he said. After a review of the governments response to the Chinese Embassys letter, Vystrcil said the Senate took a clear position that the official reaction had been lengthy, insufficiently vigorous, and not very confident. This means, first, that we find ourselves in the position of a lackey because if you do not respond strong enough, your partnerif you can still talk about a partner in this caseconsiders you a subordinate, Vystrcil said. Secondly, the sovereignty, originality, and independence of the Czech Republic are weakened, because you admit that its policies can be influenced by the powers with similar threats. In this case, it is the Peoples Republic of China, a power that has a totalitarian character. Vystrcil added that he was convinced the letter had interfered in the internal affairs of the Czech Republic and that Czechia should have responded to it with a note or a clear statement. Sudden Death of Former Speaker Then-President of Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Jaroslav Kubera, speaks in front of the Czech Radio building in Prague during a commemorative event for the 74th anniversary of the Prague Uprising on May 5, 2019. (David Sedlecky/CC BY-SA [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0]) Kubera died from a heart attack at the age of 72 on Jan. 20, just three days after he and his wife returned home from a tense Lunar New Year banquet at the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic. He wasnt known to be suffering from a serious illness at the time of his death. More than three months after his death, Kuberas widow, Vera Kuberova, and his daughter, Vendula Vinsova, told Czech media that they believe the threats that Kubera was receiving from the CCP to deter him from visiting Taiwan had contributed to his death. His wife said in an April 26 interview with Czech television that they had discovered two letters in Kuberas suitcaseone from the Chinese Embassy and one from the Czech presidents office. A Jan. 10 letter was from the Chinese Embassy addressed to the Czech presidents office. It warned that if Kubera followed through with plans to visit the autonomous island of Taiwan, Czech companies with operations in China would pay. I read it and I was afraid, his widow said. It seemed quite threatening to me. The letter had a stamp of receipt from the presidential office and was handed to Kubera by Zeman during lunch on Jan. 14, prompting MPs to demand an explanation. The letter threatened that Czech companies operating in mainland China, such as Volkswagen subsidiary Skoda Auto and lender Home Credit Group, would suffer if Kubera visited Taiwan. Kubera last year said when announcing his Taiwan visit that the move wasnt anti-China but pro-business. He noted that Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, is the Czech Republics third-largest trading partner in Asia. Zeman and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis had previously expressed concern that Kuberas plans to visit Taiwan could lead China to retaliate against Czechias business community. Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report. Youth for Accountable Governance (YOFAG) is asking residents in the Bono, Ahafo and the Bono East Regions to resist attempts by the Electoral Commission (EC) to disenfranchise eligible voters in the next general elections. According to YOFAG, they are saddened by the report of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) on how the collaboration between EC boss Jean Mensa and the National Identification Authority (NIA) is leading the country into danger. ASEPA and several bodies have raised concerns over the exclusion of the National ID card from the list of requirements for the upcoming voter registration exercise. Making reference to the CI 126 laid before Parliament which will end up giving the EC the chance to exclude the National ID, YOFAG has lamented over how it will disenfranchise over 760,000 voters in the Bono, Ahafo and the Bono East Regions. YOFAG has therefore charged residents in the Regions to rise and resist the move by the Electoral Commission. This is the dangerous agenda the Electoral commission intends to implement aimed at disenfranchising the people in the Bono, Ahafo and the Bono East Regions. YOFAG, therefore, call on all eligible voters in these regions to rise and defend their constitutional rights before it's too late to repair, a statement from YOFAG has said. Read the full statement below: JEAN MENSAH SET TO DISENFRANCHISE 767,344 ELIGIBLE VOTERS IN BONO, AHAFO AND BONO EAST.... YOFAG Youth For Accountable Governance is saddened by the report of ASEPA on how the marriage between Jean Mensah and the NIA are leading the country into danger. -The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana is the supreme law of the land under which other subsidiary legislations derive their powers. So, any subsidiary legislation or law which contravenes any standing provision or article of the 1992 is ultra vires and must be thrown away. -Chapter 3 of the 1992 constitution unambiguously spells out who is qualified to be a citizen of Ghana. So, any subsidiary law or legislation like the C.I 126 as laid before the Parliament of Ghana by the Jean Mensahs Electoral Commission which seeks to redefine citizenship and the right of Ghanaian taxpayers to vote, is in contravention of the 1992. -The CI 126 as laid before Parliament is proposing amendments of regulation 1 of C.I 91. This is the proposal: 1. The public elections (registration of voters) regulations, 2016 (C.I 91) is amended in regulation 1. a) by the substitution for sub-regulation (3) of; (3) a person who applies for registration as a voter SHALL provide as evidence of identification one of the following: a) a passport b) a national identification card issued by the NIA. -As per this proposed amendment to the C.I 91, a traveling passport or the NIA card are the only identification materials that can serve as evidence or show of citizenship. And only the two can qualify anybody to register as a voter. -Per this, the three regions (Bono, Bono East and Ahafo) will have as much as 767,344 eligible voters deliberately disenfranchised by the NIA and the EC. -The Electoral Commission of Ghana did a limited voter register in 2019 for the District Assembly Elections. A total of One million, four hundred and fifty eight thousand, four hundred and fifty seven (1,480,460) voters were captured in the final electoral register for the three regions. The breakdowns are: Bono NIA registered 294,483 15+ and have issued 73,244 cards out. In Bono East, they have registered 277,501 15+ and issued 76,562 cards. In Ahafo, 141,206 15+ have registered with 29,625 cards issued. This means NIA has issued 179,431 cards to the three regions out of the total 713,190 people that have registered. It is important to state that, in all NIA estimated to register 1,811,160 15+ in the three regions -It is worthy to note that the NIA registration in these three regions was done simultaneously with limited registration materials, faulty registration machines and within a very limited time. Even the promise made to the people that a mob up exercise will be done to enroll those who were not able to register, remains a scam. Even the promise made by the NIA that permanent registration offices will be designated in all Districts in these regions by March of 2020 has not been done. This is the dangerous agenda the Electoral commission intends to implement to disenfranchise the people in the Bono, Ahafo and the Bono East Regions. YOFAG therefore call on all eligible voters in these regions to rise and defend their constitutional rights before it's too late to repair. Schools, colleges and universities will no longer be used as Covid-19 quarantine centres for returnees since they will soon partially re-open, while hundreds of buses and kombis have joined the Zupco fleet to ease transport challenges. In addition, almost all the more than 3 000 vacant public sector health posts that were unfrozen in March are now filled with qualified staff. Announcing the developments yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa, speaking for the ad hoc Inter-ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19, said stakeholders were now working out the logistics for safe and secure conditions for children in examination classes to return to school and final year students to colleges and universities. Hostels and student accommodation are being used at several schools and colleges to quarantine returning citizens and residents but churches, vocational centres and national youth training centres are now being identified and assessed to take over. President Mnangagwa directed in his last national address that public exam classes within schools and final year students at colleges and universities must be allowed to resume but with strict observations of the stipulated Covid-19 prevention measures. In her briefing, Minister Mutsvangwa said those in quarantine at the educational facilities would stay there until their compulsory supervised initial quarantine period was finished then the accommodation would be rehabilitated and disinfected. Transport challenges have been growing as the formal economy joins essential services in being exempted from the lockdown. The independent kombis, which were the backbone of public transport, have been banned although kombi and bus owners can apply to join the Zupco fleet as under the already existing franchise arrangement. The public transport shortages have been worsened by the necessary social distancing rules, which effectively halve the number of the passengers in a bus or kombi. The ZUPCO fleet (of buses and kombis) has been increased by between 300 and 800 to meet the publics growing demand for transport. The fleet size will continue to be reviewed to ensure that there is adequate public transport, she said. Zimbabwe continues to upgrade its health services to cope with any outbreak of Covid-19. I am pleased to announce that of 3 713 health posts that were unfrozen in March 2020, 3 539 have been filled. The process of filling the remaining 174 outstanding is underway. She called upon Zimbabweans to learn to adapt to the pandemic as a way of curbing its spread. Speaking at the same occasion, Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said there was need for adequate testing facilities. We have other platforms that we need to increase such as the number of suppliers so that we do not depend on one supplier. Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has disowned food donation said to be contaminated that was distributed in a constituency outside the capital, Nairobi, in bags branded with the name of his foundation. Scores of people have visited hospitals after consuming the food, with some patients in critical condition - according to Kiambu County Governor James Nyoro. Mr Ruto on Monday denied involvement in the distribution of the food, blaming it on "political thuggery". "Reports from locals indicate that the strange food donations in question were hurriedly thrown from moving vehicles to unsuspecting public with fake branding, that is not from the Foundation," a statement from his spokesperson said. Some residents are reported to have returned the foodstuffs to local administrators, according to media reports. Each bag carried a packet of maize flour, cooking oil, tea leaves among other essentials. Kenyan politicians have been distributing foodstuffs in low-income areas where people's earnings have been hard-hit by coronavirus containment measures. The government has restricted movement in and out of Nairobi and the second biggest city of Mombasa, as well as two other counties in the coastal region. It has also imposed a night to dawn curfew. Source: bbc Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video PARMA, Ohio Authorities are investigating a deadly officer-involved shooting at the conclusion of an hours-long SWAT standoff in Parma. The shooting happened at the end of the standoff early Tuesday, according to the Ohio Attorney Generals Bureau of Criminal Investigation. No police officers were hurt. A BCI spokesman directed additional questions to Parma police. A Parma police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for more information. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiners Office was called to a home on Liggett Drive near State Road just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, a spokesman confirmed. This story will be updated when more information is released. Read more crime stories: Teen killed during carjacking in Clevelands Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood minutes after man killed three blocks away Man arrested after stabbing woman in Public Square in downtown Cleveland, police say Man injured in Memorial Day stabbing in Cleveland, police say Woman stabbed in the eye in Clevelands Buckeye Shaker neighborhood, suspect arrested, police say Cleveland police: Man found dead in Cuyahoga River Advertisement A stifling heatwave is expected to sweep the southwest this week, with temperatures predicted to reach 20 degrees above average. Meteorologists have warned 'dozens of record highs' could be broken across California, Nevada, and Arizona beginning on Tuesday and over the coming days. Excessive heat warnings have been issued from Sacramento, Fresno, Las Vegas, to Phoenix and surrounding regions, where temperatures will reach well over the 100F degree mark. In the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, temperatures are forecast to hit between 103 and 106 degrees on Tuesday, according to AccuWeather. Meteorologists have warned 'dozens of record highs' could be broken across California, Nevada, and Arizona beginning on Tuesday and over the coming days Excessive heat warnings have been issued from Sacramento, Fresno, Las Vegas, to Phoenix and surrounding regions, where temperatures will reach well over the 100F degree mark In the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, temperatures are forecast to hit between 103 and 106 degrees on Tuesday
Ventusky Privacy Policy Meanwhile in southern California, particularly in Palm Springs, residents are set to bake in 110F degree weather - just four degrees short of the city's daily record. The heat is expected to spread eastward by Thursday, which is likely to be the hottest day of the heatwave, and stick around for the weekend. Meanwhile, the Great Lakes into the interior Northeast can expect high temperatures 10 to 25 degrees above average through Wednesday. Temperatures will likely approach or even exceed 90 degrees, which could also set records. A slow-moving upper-level low should cause below normal temperatures in the Southern Plains for the next few days, and rainfall and cloudiness may keep temperatures more moderate from Southeast Coast into the southern Mid-Atlantic states. 'Temperatures will start to back off for the San Joaquin Valley on Friday, but it will still remain higher than normal as the temperatures will be closer to 100 than 110,' AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said. Brutally hot weather has also been predicted for the Midwest (records pictured) and parts of the Northeast 'Albany and Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; Concord, New Hampshire; and Caribou and Bangor, Maine, could all challenge record-high temperatures (records depicted above) this week,' AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff said Needles, California, is forecast to reach 116 degrees on Thursday, which would break the previous daily record of 115 from 1968. Brutally hot weather has also been predicted for the Midwest and parts of the Northeast. 'Albany and Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; Concord, New Hampshire; and Caribou and Bangor, Maine, could all challenge record-high temperatures this week,' AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff said According to Duff, the aforementioned states will see highs between 80s to middle 90s, which would be about 15-25 degrees above normal for the last week of May. The high temperatures come at a time when several states are easing or lifting lockdown restrictions brought on by the coronavirus. Americans crowded parks and beaches and threw pool parties during the Memorial Day weekend. Sun-seekers, who will likely head outside to enjoy more warm weather this week, have been warned to practice social distancing. The high temperatures come at a time when several states are easing or lifting lockdown restrictions brought on by the coronavirus. Thousands flocked to beaches in California over the weekend Americans crowded parks and beaches and threw pool parties during the Memorial Day weekend (Huntington Beach, California, is pictured) Sun-seekers, who will likely head outside to enjoy more warm weather this week, have been warned to practice social distancing. Hundreds of visitors gathered on the beach Sunday in Newport Beach, California Parts of New York (pictured) also see temperatures between the 80s and 90s this week Over the weekend, sheriff's deputies and beach patrols tried to make sure people kept their distance from others as they soaked up the rays on the sand and at parks and other recreation sites around the country. In the Tampa area along Florida's Gulf Coast, the crowds were so big that authorities took the extraordinary step of closing parking lots because they were full. On the Sunday, Dr Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said she was 'very concerned' about scenes of people crowding together over the weekend. 'We really want to be clear all the time that social distancing is absolutely critical. And if you cant social distance and youre outside, you must wear a mask,' she said on ABC's This Week. Birx's warning came as the US nears 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus. The US is already reporting more than 1.7 million confirmed cases. In Missouri, people packed bars and restaurants at the Lake of the Ozarks, a vacation spot popular with Chicagoans, over the weekend. One video showed a crammed pool where vacationers lounged close together without masks. At New York's Orchard Beach in the Bronx, kids played with toys, and people sat in folding chairs. Some wore winter coats on a cool and breezy day, and many wore masks and sat apart from others. HOUSTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Imaging, a global leader in advanced medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment, announced U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the uMR OMEGATM magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. The uMR OMEGA offers the world's first ultra-wide 75-cm bore.[1] With the widest bore in the market at any field strength, uMR OMEGA provides a unique, patient-centric experience designed to accommodate a wide range of patients. "The uMR OMEGA is a significant breakthrough. With this new scanner, United Imaging addresses the needs of healthcare providers to comfortably accommodate more patients in their community, including much of the 40 percent of the U.S. population suffering from obesity[2] and the 2.5 percent of the population suffering from claustrophobia,[3]" said Jeffrey Bundy, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at UIH Solutions. "The uMR OMEGA represents a critical advance for patients who will now have access to an enhanced patient experience and a more accommodating MRI scanning environment. This FDA clearance is another huge milestone for our company, as we continually work to set standards in all modalities and make these state-of-the-art capabilities accessible to more communities in the United States and abroad. We are proud to add uMR OMEGA to our already expansive portfolio of medical imaging devices." With an industry-leading 75-cm bore and 680-lbs table capacity,[1] uMR OMEGA addresses evolving demographics in the U.S. community, not only improving patient comfort for all but creating, for the first time, an MRI for bariatric patients. The scanner adeptly serves pediatric and geriatric patients with faster scanning for both children and seniors who cannot stay still for long periods of time. Healthcare providers can offer new services, such as acute imaging in the emergency room with an ultra-fast 5-minute stroke protocol and cardiac imaging with a single breath-hold that significantly reduces the number of required scans.[4] "At United Imaging, we are all driven by patient experience: focusing on it, understanding it, improving it," said Abram Voorhees, vice president of MR. "We intimately understand the anxiety that individuals can experience while undergoing an MRI, as well as the physical limitations of MRI machines today that can make a potentially life-saving study inaccessible. uMR OMEGA was created to remove the obstacles that often limit access for patients. Today's important announcement brings to light a critical need for our communities -- and healthcare overall." Added CEO Bundy, "I've seen first-hand over the past decades how meaningful comfort is to patients in a bore, and it was important to us that we innovated in a way that removes barriers to care for more people." The U.S. is the first country in the world to receive uMR OMEGA. It received its FDA clearance in March and will be installed in United Imaging's Houston showroom facility in the summer of 2020. ABOUT UNITED IMAGING At United Imaging, we develop and produce advanced medical products, digital healthcare solutions, and intelligent solutions that cover the entire process of imaging diagnosis and treatment. Founded in 2011 with global headquarters in Shanghai, our company has subsidiaries and R&D centers across China, the United States, and other parts of the world. Our U.S. R&D facility opened in 2013 in Houston and was further established as the U.S. headquarters in 2018 with our service team and commercial organization in place. With a cutting-edge digital portfolio and a mission of broader access to healthcare for all, we help drive industry progress and bold change. To learn more, visit united-imaging.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @UnitedImagingHC. References Data on file; https://www.ecri.org/, retrieved 1/27/2020 https://www.cdc.gov/, retrieved 1/23/2020 Data on file; Reduction of claustrophobia during magnetic resonance imaging: methods and design of the "CLAUSTRO" randomized controlled trial (2011), Enders et al retrieved 1/24/2020 Data on file, based on internal calculation of non-accelerated imaging vs uCS 2.0 and EasyScan, 1/28/2020 # # # SOURCE United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd. Related Links www.united-imaging.com Here's everything that made headlines in tech today. It was a mixed bag kind of a day in the tech world. There was a series of launches by Redmi and Realme in India and other markets as well. There was disappointing news about Uber layoffs in India. Microsoft talked about Skype and how its not giving up on the app. Then the day kind of came to a close with a surprise announcement from the government about Aarogya Setu. Here's a breakdown of all things that made headlines in tech today. Redmi Earbuds S launch Redmi launched its first wireless earbuds in India, and it carries an affordable price tag of 1,799. Redmi Earbuds S offer up to four hours of talk time and standby of 150 hours. It has Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity, and is said to offer a range of 10 metres. The charging case also has an additional 300mAh battery. The wireless earbuds will go on sale tomorrow. Realme X3 SuperZoom Another launch that took place today was the Realme X3 SuperZoom. As the name suggests, this phone offers 60x digital zoom and 5x optical zoom. The smartphone also has a quad camera setup with a 64-megapixel primary sensor. It is going on sale first in Europe. Uber layoffs The most bitter part of the day was Uber announcing it is laying off 600 employees. This move will affect around 25% of Ubers workforce across the country. The affected employees will get a minimum of 10 weeks payout, medical coverage for six months and outplacement support as well. Microsoft Skype Microsoft updated on Skype saying that it will continue investing in the app. It even plans to launch new features for Skype soon. Microsoft even acknowledged that while Teams may be the popular choice among users, it believes people still love Skype. So the app isnt going anywhere, for now. Aarogya Setu open source Indias Covid-19 contact tracing app Aarogya Setu is now open source. This is for the Android version of the app. The government plans to make the iOS and KaiOS versions of Aarogya Setu open source as well. This move comes at a time when Aarogya Setu has been facing criticism from experts over privacy of user data. Ulfar Freyr Stefansson has been appointed Chief Risk Officer of Arion Bank. Ulfar is taking over from Gisli S. Ottarsson who will be leaving the Bank after having been Chief Risk Officer and a member of the Banks executive committee since 2009. Gisli will step down at the end of the month but will continue to work in an advisory capacity for the Bank. Ulfar joined the Banks Risk Management division in 2013 after having worked at Kaupthing since 2010, where his positions included head of risk management. Ulfar was Head of Portfolio Risk at Arion Bank from 2013 to 2015, when he took over as Head of Balance Sheet Risk. Ulfar has a doctorate in mathematics from Georgia Institute of Technology and a masters from the same institution. He also has a BSc in mathematics from the University of Iceland and is a certified securities broker. Benedikt Gislason, CEO of Arion Bank: I would like to thank Gisli for his excellent work and vital contribution to the Bank over the years. His successor as Chief Risk Officer, Ulfar Freyr, has vast experience and an in-depth knowledge of the workings of Arion Bank as he has been with us since 2013. I wish Gisli all the very best for the future and I warmly welcome Ulfar to the executive committee of Arion Bank. For further information please contact Haraldur Gudni Eidsson, Head of Communications at haraldur.eidsson@arionbanki.is, or tel. +354 856 7108. Barely 24 hours after the World Health Organisation (WHO) suspended all clinical trials for hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said the trial will continue in Nigeria. The Director-General of the agency, Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known during an interview on Television Continental (TVC) on Tuesday. The UN agency had on Monday said it had temporarily suspended the clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19 over safety concerns. It said the decision followed a study in The Lancet that the use of the drug on COVID-19 patients could increase their likelihood of dying. The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board, WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus said. Chloroquine is a synthetic drug introduced in the 1940s. It is a member of an important series of chemically related agents known as quinoline derivatives. Hydroxychloroquine is a related compound that was introduced in 1955. Clinical trials in Nigeria Mrs Adeyeye, however, said there are proven records that hydroxychloroquine has been effective in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. This she said is most effective in those at the mild stage of the virus. There is data to prove that hydroxychloroquine worked for many COVID-19 patients. Therefore, we would continue our own clinical trials in Nigeria. READ ALSO: Hydroxychloroquine has been proved to work at a mild stage. So the potency depends on the severity of the disease in the patients body, she said. Treating COVID-19 with Chloroquine There has been controversy trailing the use of chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients. U.S. President Donald Trump last week said he had been using hydroxychloroquine to protect himself against COVID-19. However, Nigerias Presidential Task Force (PTF) on coronavirus at a daily briefing warned Nigerians against using the drug. It said the drug has not been declared a cure for the disease and further warned of the possibility of chloroquine poisoning if one indulges in self-medication with the drug. Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, who was the index case of COVID-19 in his state, had told journalists early this month that he was treated with chloroquine, zithromax, and vitamin c during his successful treatment for the disease. The governor said COVID-19 patients in the state would, henceforth, be treated with the drugs. Comes after country's Supreme Court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional Costa Rica has today legalised same-sex marriage, becoming the first Central American country to do so and sparking an emotional response from rights campaigners as the first weddings were held overnight. Celebrations were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic but a court ruling came into force at midnight. 'This change will bring about a significant social and cultural transformation, allowing thousands of people to marry,' said President Carlos Alvarado. Same-sex newlyweds Alexandra Quiros (left) and Dunia Araya (right) at their wedding in Heredia, Costa Rica, on May 26 Costa Rica legalised same-sex marriage on May 26, becoming the first Central American country to do so and sparking an emotional response from rights campaigners as the first weddings were held overnight Quiros and Dunia Araya stand before a lawyer during their wedding which took place moments after the new law came into effect at midnight Costa Rica is the eighth country in the Americas to recognise same-sex marriage - a group that includes Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina, as well as Canada and the US. The Supreme Court in August 2018 ruled that a ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and gave parliament 18 months to amend the laws. It failed to do that, so the provision was automatically annulled. 'Costa Rica is celebrating today: marriage equality has become a reality in the country - the first one in Central America,' tweeted the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). 'We rejoice with you: congratulations to all those who worked so hard to make it happen!' Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN's Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, called the change 'an extraordinary moment of celebration' in a tweet posted on Monday. He expressed 'gratitude to the work of so many activists, and of quiet reflection of the lives of those who lived without seeing this moment'. Moments after midnight, Dunia Araya and Alexandra Quiros tied the knot in a town northwest of the capital, San Jose. The young women, both dressed in white, took their vows before a notary wearing a face mask as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus. Members of the LGBTI community take part in a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court of Justice in San Jose, to demand the legalization of same-sex marriage in August 2018 (File image). The Supreme Court in August 2018 ruled that a ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and gave parliament 18 months to amend the laws. It failed to do that, so the provision was automatically annulled Costa Rica has a strong Catholic tradition and has also seen a proliferation of evangelical churches in recent decades. Many followers of those denominations are opposed to gay marriage. Alvarado, a centrist, was elected to the presidency in April 2018 by comfortably seeing off a challenge from evangelical preacher Fabricio Alvarado, who campaigned against same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court decision complied with an opinion given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, declaring that homosexual couples have the same rights to marry as heterosexual ones. - At least two people had died of COVID-19 in Madagascar out of 547 confirmed cases - The Malagasy gov't was investigating the deaths of several other people in the eastern city of Toamasina to determine if they were related to the pandemic - Some 100 new cases were registered in the island country in a span of five days as from Thursday, May 21 The Malagasy government has deployed doctors and soldiers in the eastern city of Toamasina after several bodies were found in the streets amid COVID-19 fears. The discovery came after two people died of the highly contagious disease in the city and came in the wake of increase in the number of infections since Thursday, May 21. READ ALSO: NTSA records show vehicle that distributed contaminated food used fake number plate Police officers maintaining law and order in Malagasy'scapital city Antananarivo. Photo: Getty images. Source: UGC READ ALSO: TV anchor Waihiga Mwaura rescues woman, 6-month-old baby living in shack after Kariobangi demolitions According to reports by CGTN, about 150 soldiers were to be sent to Madagascars second largest city with orders to ensure adherence to health measures to contain the spread of the pandemic after 100 new cases were registered in a span of five days. Doctors must carry out thorough examinations to see if these deaths are caused by another illness or if they are really due to severe acute respiratory problems which is the critical form of COVID-19, Hanta Marie Danielle Vololontiana, a spokesperson for the governments COVID-19 task force said. Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina drinking the herbal medicine which he claimed is a cure for COVID-19 patients. Photo: Andry Rajoelina. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: Watoto 3 wamkana mama yao aliyewatoroka wangali wachanga The deployment of soldiers to maintain law and order was approved by the Cabinet on Sunday, May 24. The Cabinet also sacked the head of Toamasina after the death of a doctor who allegedly hanged himself after he contracted the respiratory disease. READ ALSO: Macho yote kwa DP Ruto wakati wa mkutano wa Uhuru Ikulu The Malagasy government also dispatched a team to distribute COVID-Organics (CVO), a herbal drink that its president Andry Rajoelina claimed was a cure for COVID-19 patients. The effects of the herbal medicine were not yet scientifically proven but the World Health Organisation and the African Union were in discussion with the country to start clinical trials. On his Instagram page on Friday, May 1, President Rajoelina said the "herbal medicine" would be availed to all coronavirus patients in all friendly countries across the African continent and the around the world. "Madagascar and its African brothers are united in the response to the coronavirus. It is with honor that we send these CVO herbal teas to the 15 member countries of ECOWAS through Guinea Bissau," " Madagascar will make Tambavy CVO available to all coronavirus patients in all friendly countries in Africa, in the Indian Ocean and around the world. As of Tuesday, May 26, the island country had 542 confirmed coronavirus cases with two deaths. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. Source: TUKO.co.ke DUBLIN, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Aircraft Lubricants Market by Lubricant Type, by Technology Type, by Aircraft Type, by End-User Type, by Application Type, and by Region, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2020-2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The strategic assessment report provides a comprehensive analysis that reflects today's aircraft lubricants market realities and future market possibilities for the forecast period of 2020 to 2025. The report segments and analyzes the market in the most detailed manner in order to provide a panoramic view of the market. The vital data/information provided in the report can play a crucial role for the market participants as well as investors in the identification of low-hanging fruits available in the market as well as formulate growth strategies. Aircraft Lubricants Market: Highlights Lubricants represent a diminutive share of the aerospace industry but play a crucial role in the smooth operation of many components/systems, especially rotating ones. Furthermore, ongoing advancements in many sections of aircraft compelled lubricant suppliers to advance their products better addressing the market requirements. For example, aircraft engines are getting hotter and hotter day-by-day and require advancements in lubrication technology. Turbine oils are now being exposed to temperature ranges from -73oC to 200oC. SAE AS5780 is the engine oil specification developed for next-generation engines. Higher thermal stress in new engines leads to the requirement for lubricants with enhanced oxidation performance and load-carrying without damaging elastomers and seals. The author's estimates suggest that the global aircraft lubricants market is forecasted to reach an estimated value of US$ 1.48 billion in 2025. The year 2019 was challenging for the aerospace industry, especially for commercial aerospace, with several setbacks, compelled the industry giants to reconfigure their strategies. Grounding of B737 Max, P&W 1100G engine series failure (A320neo), delayed deliveries of upcoming aircraft programs such as B777X, and revised production rates of key aircraft programs; A350XWB and B787 due to cancellation of Boeing's orders from China and other parts of the world are some of the burning challenges of the industry, negatively impacting the entire supply chain including the demand for lubricants, especially at OE level in the North America region. The concerns of the industry seem to be graver in 2020 as coronavirus is severely affecting the industry. As per recent impact assessment of IATA, there will be a loss of US$ 63 billion in 2020, which is equivalent to 11% of the passenger revenues in the Limited Spread' scenario and a loss of US$ 113 billion of revenues in 2020, which is equivalent to 19% of the total passenger revenues in the Extensive Spread' scenario. However, as of now, the assessment of the real impact of coronavirus on the industry is next to impossible - need to have a close watch on the various country's directives. However, the long-term outlook still seems vigorous for the aerospace industry including the lubricant market with attractive growth opportunities for the market participants in years to come. Both Boeing and Airbus are still optimistic about the future and have orchestrated positive business in their business outlook. Both are projecting that the global commercial aircraft fleet would more than double in the next ten years. Boeing Outlook: 50,660 commercial and regional aircraft fleet by 2038 from 25,830 units in 2018, growing at a CAGR of 3.4%. Similar forecast for Airbus: 44,862 commercial and regional aircraft in 2038, from 20,870 units in 2018. Increasing demand for fuel-efficient aircraft and increasing share of high-performance capability (HPC) turbine oils are further likely to boost the demand for aircraft lubricants in the coming five years The author has firstly segmented the aircraft lubricants market based on the lubricant type as hydraulic fluid, engine oil, grease, and special lubricants & additives. Engine oil is expected to remain the dominant and fastest-growing lubricant type during the forecast period. Engine oil is widely used in large volumes at regular operational intervals of the aircraft engine, which has led to its dominance in the market. Improved temperature resistance, higher thermal stress, improved oxidation performance, and sealing material compatibility are the modern engine oil requirements. Modern commercial aircraft programs also require hydraulic fluids with the fire-resistant property. There has also been a shift from traditional mineral-based hydraulic fluids to synthetic hydraulic fluids. Their analysis on another market segmentation, which is based on technology type, includes mineral-based lubricants and synthetic lubricants. Synthetic lubricant is likely to remain the larger and the faster-growing segment of the market during the forecast period. Key growth drivers of synthetic lubricants are stable viscosity, less formation of deposits, less wear on parts, optimized fuel consumption, and do not require frequent oil changes. Based on the aircraft type, the market is broadly segmented as commercial aircraft, military aircraft, regional aircraft, general aviation, and helicopter. Commercial aircraft is expected to remain the largest and the fastest-growing segment of the aircraft lubricants market during the forecast period. The year 2020 seems to be tough, owing to a host of factors such as the grounding of the B737max, the impact of the coronavirus outbreak leading to the grounding of flights and halt of production in China, and US-china trade war. However, the long-term outlook still seems positive with a plethora of opportunities for the market participants. Major players are advancing their lubricant products in compliance with the modern commercial aircraft engine requirements. HPC turbine oils have been developed with a focus to improve high-temperature resistance, oxidation-reduction, low coking, and elastomer integrity. Based on the end-user type, the market is segmented as OE and aftermarket. The aftermarket is expected to remain the larger segment of the global aircraft lubricants market during the forecast period. Increasing air passenger traffic and fleet size to drive the segment (air passenger traffic and aircraft fleet growth rates during 2018-2038 are 4.6% and 3.4%, as per Boeing's latest market outlook). Analogously, the study's outcome on different application types evince that engine is the most dominant and fastest-growing application among engine, landing gear, airframe, and others. Hydraulic fluids and greases are widely used in airframe applications. Key lubricants used in engine are Eastman Turbo Oil 2380 and 2197; Mobil Jet Oil II and Mobil Jet Oil 387; AeroShell Ascender, Turbine Oil 500, and Turbine Oil 560. Some of the key airframe application areas are flight control actuators, leading-edge slats, flaps, ailerons, rudder, and elevator linkages. In terms of regions, North America is projected to remain the largest market during the forecast period, whereas Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the fastest-growing market during the same period. Short-term market demand is challenging in the Asia-pacific region with China and South Korea being severely impacted by the coronavirus outbreaks: Airbus has temporarily closed its A320 and A330 completion centers of Tianjin, China. Based on IATA estimates, Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region are likely to lose more than US$ 27 billion in revenues in 2020. Airlines in China would be most affected with an estimated US$ 12.8 billion lost in their domestic market alone. However, the long-term market outlook seems promising. As per Boeing's latest estimations (2019-2038), China will need 8,090 commercial aircraft in the next twenty years, 5.2% higher than the company's last-year forecast. The supply chain of this market comprises raw material suppliers, lubricant manufacturers, distributors, and OEMs/Airlines. The key aircraft lubricant manufacturers are Exxon Mobil Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, NYCO, Total S.A., The Phillips 66 Company, BP Plc, Lanxess AG, and FUCHS Petrolub SE, and PJSC Lukoil Oil Company. Some of the Key Mergers & Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances: The market's attractiveness has led to a series of acquisitions by big players, acquiring small fishes, ultimately pushing the market towards greater consolidation. In 2014, Eastman Chemical Company acquired BP Plc's global aviation turbine engine oil business for agreed price value of US$ 283 Million. This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the aircraft lubricants market. The acquisition led the company to gain a significant share of the aviation turbine oil market. In 2016, LanXess AG acquired Chemtura for agreed price value of US$ 2.5 Billion. The acquisition has strengthened the company's additive business as a whole including lubricant additives. On January 2020, Fuchs Group acquired Nye Lubricants Inc., which is a high-performance specialty synthetic lubricant manufacturer. The acquisition has strengthened specialty synthetic lubricant's business portfolio and is likely to enhance the company's footprint in the North American market. Key Topics Covered 1. Executive Summary 2. Aircraft Lubricants Market - Overview and Segmentation 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Aircraft Lubricants Market Segmentation 2.2.1. By Lubricant Type 2.2.2. By Technology Type 2.2.3. By Aircraft Type 2.2.4. By End-User Type 2.2.5. By Application Type 2.2.6. By Region 2.3. Supply Chain Analysis 2.4. Industry Life Cycle Analysis 2.5. PEST Analysis 2.6. SWOT Analysis 3. Aircraft Lubricants Market Assessment 3.1. Insights 3.2. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 3.3. Profitability Analysis 3.4. Market Segments' Analysis (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 3.5. Regional and Country-Level Analysis (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 3.6. Market Drivers 3.7. Market Challenges 3.8. Industry Personnel/Expert Opinion 4. Competitive Analysis 4.1. Insights 4.2. Product Portfolio Analysis 4.3. Strategic Alliances 4.4. Market Share Analysis 4.5. Porter's Five Forces Analysis 5. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast by Lubricant Type (2014-2025) 5.1. Insights 5.2. Hydraulic Fluid: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 5.3. Engine Oil: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 5.4. Grease: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 5.5. Special Lubricants & Additives: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 6. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast by Technology Type (2014-2025) 6.1. Insights 6.2. Mineral-based Lubricants: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 6.3. Synthetic Lubricants: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 7. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast by Aircraft Type (2014-2025) 7.1. Insights 7.2. Commercial Aircraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 7.3. Military Aircraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 7.4. Regional Aircraft: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 7.5. General Aviation: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 7.6. Helicopter: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 8. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast by End-User Type (2014-2025) 8.1. Insights 8.2. Aftermarket: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 8.3. OE: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 9. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast by Application Type (2014-2025) 9.1. Insights 9.2. Engine: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 9.3. Landing Gear: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 9.4. Airframe: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 9.5. Others: Regional Trend and Forecast (US$ Million and Million Gallons) 10. Aircraft Lubricants Market Trend and Forecast by Region (2014-2025) 10.1. Insights 10.2. North American Aircraft Lubricants Market Analysis 10.3. European Aircraft Lubricants Market Analysis 10.4. Asia-Pacific's Aircraft Lubricants Market Analysis 10.5. Rest of the World's (RoW) Aircraft Lubricants Market Analysis 11. Strategic Growth Opportunities 11.1. Insights 11.2. Market Attractiveness Analysis 11.3. Emerging Trends 11.4. Growth Matrix Analysis 11.5. Key Success Factors (KSFs) 12. Company Profile of Key Players (Profiling, Financial Information, Competition, Strategies, etc.) Financial information is not provided in detail for private companies. 12.1. Eastman Chemical Company 12.2. Exxon Mobil Corporation 12.3. Fuchs Petrolub SE 12.4. Lanxess AG 12.5. NYCO 12.6. Phillips 66 Company 12.7. Royal Dutch Shell PLC 12.8. Total S.A. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ugg3ak Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com Irish low-coster Ryanair plans to resume half of the flights from Ukraine. The company also wants to re-boot flights in 17 destinations this autumn, reports Avianews. 24 of 47 Ukrainian routes will be restored. Another six destinations are completely removed from the sale. 15 of 25 routes will be departing from Kyiv in summer; three of seven from Lviv (western Ukraine), four of seven from Odesa (southern Ukraine), one of five from Kharkiv (northeastern Ukraine), and one of three will be departing from Kherson (southern Ukraine). The company seized tickets for six destinations; four flights from Kyiv and Lviv (two from each city), and one each from Kherson and Kharkiv. Almost all flights will be taking place twice a week. The flights from Kyiv to Pathos and Valencia will be performed once a week; those from Lviv to Dusseldorf will be performed once a week, too. Ryanair flights will be performed from Kyiv to Vienna three times a week. Those from Kyiv to Stuttgart are supposed to fly four times a week. People in Afghanistan dared to hope for peace, but they are now fighting both violence and the virus. Officials are beginning to enforce social distancing Dr Yousef was the first in his family to get tested for Covid-19 - and the first to die. "He came home and said, 'I'm not feeling well and I think I have the virus'," Behtarin Paktiawal tells me, recalling what was a fateful day for his family. They would end up losing three loved ones to the virus, which is stalking Afghanistan at a speed and scale still perilously uncertain. For an embattled nation already fighting on multiple fronts, the world's health crisis is yet another disaster threatening to overwhelm a fragile health system, and exhaust people weary of endless war. And with each week that passes, both violence and the virus spread. Paktiawal's brother, Dr Yousef Khan Ariubi, had tested positive for Covid-19 - but he wasn't sent his test results. He was expecting them from the Afghan-Japan government hospital in Kabul, which is playing a central role in Afghanistan's fight against the coronavirus. "I said to them, 'why didn't you call us?'" Paktiawal recounts as he cradles a small photo album with a photograph of his brother tucked in its plastic cover. "They told me they made a mistake." Then the hospital tested the entire family. A month and half on, he says their results are still missing - but as they wait, his brother Fazel and sister Gul Khumar have also died. "They are absolutely right when they say people have died because there's no testing equipment," admits Afghan Vice-President Amrullah Saleh. "My response to them is this test equipment is so rare that even if we'd had a billion dollars in spare money to buy them, they were not available anywhere." A global rush for resources has pushed poorer nations like his own to the back of the queue. "This caught us by surprise - a nation in the midst of violence and fighting, and coping with so much internal displacement," Mr Saleh insists. "Our health infrastructure was not designed to cope with a hyper-event like a coronavirus pandemic." Afghans are dying every week from the war against the Taliban and extremist groups like Islamic State, and many more could be killed by hunger if there is a strict shutdown, like those prescribed the world over to stem the spread of the highly contagious virus. Afghan leaders have also been distracted, and resources drained, by a bitter months-long battle for power between President Ashraf Ghani and his challenger Dr Abdullah Abdullah, which has only just been resolved. "First, this issue wasn't taken seriously enough and then they were overly ambitious with announcements of plans and targets," an aid official in Kabul involved in mobilising resources tells me. "But now they are going in the right direction." When Paktiawal stood outside the Afghan-Japan hospital, wearing a face mask to record a furious Facebook cry for help, he finally got the attention of senior health officials. "I think the service is better now," he comments, while still declaring that rich and poor must be treated equally - an echo of complaints that the powerful are again vaulting ahead when it comes to keeping well. But the situation is still breathtakingly fragile. A few weeks ago, all testing at all labs abruptly stopped when the country ran out of reagents, a crucial substance used in the testing for Covid-19, because global supplies ran short. "I had some sleepless nights," recalls Dr Rik Peeperkorn, who heads the World Health Organization (WHO) in Afghanistan. "We managed to get a small quantity and resume testing within two days." Two months ago, Afghanistan had no functional labs for Covid-19 testing. Now nine testing centres, established with the support of WHO, are up and running across the country, with plans to expand more. "We certainly need more tests to give us a better grip on how this virus is spreading," emphasises Dr Peeperkorn, who has spent seven years working on healthcare in Afghanistan. "Resources are in short supply and so is global solidarity." Afghanistan's relatively low number of cases is both positive and a puzzle. As of 19 March, there were a little more than 7,600 confirmed cases and fewer than 200 dead. That's in stark contrast to neighbouring Iran, with more than 122,000 cases and 7,000 confirmed dead - and with strong suspicions the real toll is far higher. A nervous question mark still hovers over the massive influx of more than 200,000 Afghans who surged across the border once the virus struck. UN officials say they believe the disease may only reach its peak in Afghanistan in a month or so - but there are also worries it may be spreading undetected, as the anxious and ill fear hospital stays and the social stigma of this strange new disease. And a recent random sample of 500 Kabul residents sent more alarm bells ringing, when nearly 30% tested positive. 'Social distancing is difficult in our culture' Like countries the world over, Afghan media are now flooded with messaging about "social distancing" and "washing your hands". In the eastern province of Nangarhar, Governor Shah Mahmood Miakhel, who gave up own his own salary to establish a special Corona Fund account, tries to lead by example. "I stopped shaking hands three months ago," he says when I reach him by telephone in the provincial capital Jalalabad. When old friends and notables showed up for the funeral of a prominent police chief who came from his district, he didn't buckle under enormous social pressure. "It was very difficult for people to accept," he reflects. "I am happy with my decision, but social distancing in our culture is extremely difficult." As the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches, with all its special rituals of shopping for the Eid celebration, lockdowns in some major cities have been eased. But Afghan officials are stepping up their warnings as the number of cases climbs higher. Weeks ago, bazaars across the country lost some of their bustle as shopkeepers dutifully shuttered shops. But there are still children working on the streets, some clutching stacks of face masks to sell so their families can eat. Zabiullah, one of millions of day labourers, returned to a Kabul market with his rusting wheelbarrow. It's all he has to make the difference between hope and hunger. He tried to stay at home, but says a government programme to distribute bread to the poorest through bakeries passed him by. "No-one came to help me even with one [piece of] bread," he laments. "I fear hunger. Coronavirus won't kill us, but definitely we will die from hunger." 'People had dared to hope for peace' "12.4 million people could face severe food insecurity in the coming months, with a third one step away from famine," warns Toby Lanzer, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Afghanistan. "We need to scale up in a significant way now to keep people alive." Lockdowns in wealthier nations, which can afford to unfurl vast safety nets, are about protecting health systems under strain. Afghan doctors who've seen almost everything - but not this - say they feel exposed. They don't want their names to be known, but want their stories to be told. "We lost three good doctors this week of Covid," a Kabul doctor tells me on a telephone call in the din of a busy hospital ward. It's his first day back at work after recovering from Covid-19. "They were in contact with suspected Covid patients, they didn't have good enough PPE and sadly they're not with us anymore." From Faryab province in northern Afghanistan, another doctor explains that "a lot of older doctors have closed their clinics because they're at risk and don't have enough protection". In Herat, the worst-affected province bordering Iran, doctors speak of shortages of critical equipment like ventilators and protective clothing in intensive care units, and the twice-daily risks of "all of us travelling on one minibus with no distance between us". And in the south, close to Taliban front lines, doctors at the Emergency NGO hospital in Lashkar Gah are disinfecting and distancing. But in their operating theatres they're treating victims of violence, not the virus. In nearby villages, the Taliban have been seeking greater assistance from aid agencies to fight Covid-19, but are shunning repeated calls for a humanitarian ceasefire. "The Taliban is the greater corona and the other corona is the little one," says Vice-President Saleh. Both violence and the virus now threaten people who dared to hope this would be the year of peace talks, but who are instead fighting on multiple fronts. BBC Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins a deliberation with deputies from Hubei Province at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 24, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua] As the "two sessions" continue, Chinese President Xi Jinping specially joined a group discussion with national lawmakers from central China's Hubei Province Sunday afternoon, showing his great care for the COVID-19-hit province and its resumption of production. After hearing the remarks of five deputies with the Hubei panel to the National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature, Xi commended the vital contributions and enormous sacrifices made by the people in Hubei and its capital city Wuhan in fighting COVID-19, and expressed his sincere appreciation. As the province hardest hit by the virus and with the longest span of restrictions, Hubei faces major difficulties in reviving its economy, Xi said, urging the province to accelerate production resumption while going all out to implement regular epidemic prevention and control. Help from around the nation After months-long arduous efforts, China has achieved a decisive victory in the battle to defend Hubei and Wuhan by rallying the support of the entire country, including sending over 42,000 medics nationwide to aid Hubei. "We mobilized from around the nation the best doctors, the most advanced equipment and the most needed resources to Hubei and Wuhan, going all out to save lives," Xi said during his deliberations with deputies from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Friday. Fighting COVID-19 became Xi's top concern after the epidemic hit Hubei. On March 10, he flew to Wuhan and inspected the epidemic prevention and control work. He has chaired a number of key meetings to direct the country's COVID-19 prevention and control efforts and production resumption. Shifting to COVID-19 response on regular basis, the whole country is stepping up efforts to help Hubei return to normal. Continued policies, measures Xi said Hubei should implement targeted policies for key industrial chains, leading enterprises and major investment projects, work hard to solve various difficult problems in production resumption, and help companies, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises solve their practical difficulties. The central and state organs as well as central state-owned enterprises should continue to expand their support for Hubei's revival after the epidemic, implementing all policies and measures, and delivering results and benefits in Hubei on an early date, Xi said to the Hubei panel of lawmakers. In late April, a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, China's top leadership, discussed and endorsed a series of policies supporting the economic and social development in Hubei. According to the government work report delivered to the ongoing NPC session for deliberation, China will implement a package of policies to support Hubei's development, helping it ensure employment, public wellbeing and normal operations, and spurring the full recovery of economic and social activities there. Chen Yilin, chairman of Hubei Long Boat Salinization Co., Ltd., has been busy planning to build a new diaphragm plant to reduce the cost of producing small bags of salt. Through a few online applications, his company was granted a one-time credit of 50 million yuan (about 7 million U.S. dollars) for the project by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest commercial lender. "Having such a large amount of credit so soon has really solved my urgent need," said Chen. The China Development Bank, a major development finance institution, said the bank would increase its loans to Hubei this year. After a pairing-up aid of provincial-level regions to help cities in Hubei fight COVID-19 in the past months, many provinces continued supporting Hubei in production resumption. An online investment promotion event for Wuhan held on May 15, saw central state-owned enterprises sign contracts of 37 projects worth more than 180 billion yuan, which will help the city optimize its economic structure and gain new growth momentum. China's foreign ministry will hold a global promotion event at a proper time for Hubei and explore a fast track for essential personnel to go to Hubei and Wuhan to support the production resumption, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of the NPC session on Sunday. Geely Auto Group in east China's Zhejiang Province said it has helped dozens of its suppliers in Hubei to resume work through various channels. Chinese e-commerce firms such as Alibaba and JD.com have also participated in selling agricultural products for Hubei. Alibaba announced in April that it would purchase crayfish worth 1 billion yuan from Hubei. Sales promotion, job opportunities In early May, nearly 1,000 students from Yangzhou Polytechnic Institute in east China's Jiangsu Province sold special agricultural products of Hubei online, including oranges and tea, to help Hubei recover. "This is a famous orange from Hubei's Zigui County. It is seedless, juicy and sweet," said Chen Jiajia, a student of the institute with 1 million fans, advertizing the orange to the online audience. Liu Jincun, Party chief of the institute, said the students' livestreams helped sell 105,000 kg of oranges for Hubei. As a major labor export province, Hubei has about 6 million migrant workers. Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong and Fujian have been organized by the central government to help Hubei boost employment. Shandong, which sent a medical team to assist Hubei's Huanggang City, took the lead in signing a cooperation agreement to provide more than 2,000 jobs for migrant workers from the city. In mid-May, the first batch of migrant workers left Huanggang for their workplaces in Shandong. Weng Xinnian, a migrant worker from Huanggang, got a job at Jinan Dali Foods Co., Ltd. in Shandong. "I'm so excited. The company provides dining and accommodation for us. I can earn around 5,000 yuan per month now," he said. The Ministry of Education launched moves to pair up universities in Hubei with 76 universities across the country to help graduates in the recovering province find jobs or start their own businesses. An Indian Army officer Major Suman Gawani and a Brazilian woman Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo have been selected for the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award (2019). The woman peacekeeper were described as "powerful role models" by the UN Chief Antonio Guterres. This is for the first time that the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award is being shared by two women. Major Suman Gawani and Brazilian Naval Officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo will receive the award during an online ceremony presided over by United Nations Secretary-General Guterres on May 29, the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. Major Suman Gawani is the first Indian peacekeeper to win the award. She is a Military Observer, formerly deployed to the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), and had mentored over 230 UN Military Observers on conflict-related to sexual violence, and ensured the presence of women military observers in each of the Missions team sites. She also trained South Sudanese government forces, and helped them to launch their action plan on conflict-related sexual violence. Military observer Gawani joined the Indian Army in the year 2011 when she graduated from the Officers Training Academy. She then joined the Army Signal Corps. Speaking on the achievement Gawani said, "Whatever our function, position or rank, it is our duty as peacekeepers to integrate an all-genders perspective into our daily work and own it in our interactions with colleagues as well as with communities.'' On the other hand, Brazilian Woman Commander Araujo is working in the United Nations' Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Her contribution as a trainer on gender and protection and her instrumental approach in seeing the number of gender-responsive patrols engaging with local communities increase from 574 to nearly 3,000 per month has made her the name entitled for the award. Expressing gratitude on her win, Araujo said, ''Its very gratifying for me and the Mission to see that our initiatives are bearing fruit.'' Lauding both the women achievers for their excellent work UN Chief Antonio, said, ''Through their work, they have brought new perspectives and have helped to build trust and confidence among the communities we serve, he said. Through their commitment and innovative approaches, they embrace a standard of excellence that is an inspiration to all blue helmets everywhere. As we confront todays challenges, their work has never been more important or relevant.'' UN Military Gender award was created in 2016, to recognise the dedication and effort of an individual military peacekeeper in promoting the principles of UN Security Resolution 1325 which is on women, peace and security in a peace operation as nominated by Heads and Force Commanders of peace operations. Hong Kong is bracing for what could be its biggest day of protests in months, with pro-democracy groups calling for a general strike against China's latest moves to increase control of the city. Protests are planned for Wednesday near the Legislative Council building in central Hong Kong, where lawmakers plan to hold a hearing on a bill that would criminalize disrespect toward China's national anthem. They are also fighting against China's plans to impose a national security law that opponents fear will curtail essential freedoms and criticism of the Communist Party. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, which represents 145,000 members, has called for a general strike. More than a dozen high school student groups have also issued a joint statement urging their peers -- newly returned to campuses following months of closures induced by the coronavirus -- to strike. The Communist Party "is blatantly targeting Hong Kong people's revolution in the past year, spelling an end to the people's democratic autonomy and freedom of expression," they said in the statement, which was shared on the Facebook page of leading activist Joshua Wong's pro-democracy group, Demosisto. "Hong Kong students will not be able to speak freely in the future and instead be scrutinized for every word and be at risk of incarceration." Hong Kong's police force has readied 3,500 riot officers in anticipation of the protests, local Cable TV reported, citing unidentified people. Television footage showed newly added metal and water-filled barricades near the city's legislature, Central Government Offices and People's Liberation Army garrison building. Chen Daoxiang, commander of the PLA garrison in Hong Kong, said Tuesday that the army "firmly" upheld the NPC's plan. The decision "shows our firm determination in safeguarding the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Chen said in an interview with China's official military news site. "The garrison will firmly implement China's decisions and plans, comprehensively implement the 'one country, two systems' principle and discharge defense duties in accordance to the law." The fresh round of protests comes days after Beijing announced it would bypass Hong Kong's legislature to implement national security legislation banning subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign interference in the former British colony. Key details about the bill remain unclear. Reuters, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, said Tuesday the legislation is set to block foreign judges in Hong Kong from handling national security trials. Central and city government security agencies would also set up in Hong Kong as part of the legislation, which is subject to change and expected before Hong Kong legislative elections in September, the report said. Despite criticism from foreign governments, Chief Executive Carrie Lam defended the security law Tuesday, asserting that local residents supported it. She said it was untrue that the new measure would ban street protests or calls for her dismissal, and pledged that Hong Kong's freedoms would be preserved. She said earlier this month that the anthem bill would get priority in the city's legislature. "We are a very free society, so for the time being, people have the freedom to say whatever they want to say," she told reporters. "Hong Kong's vibrancy and core values in terms of the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, the various rights and freedoms enjoyed by people will continue to be there." The announcement of the legislation last week rattled markets, generated criticism from foreign governments and prompted top U.S. officials -- who have seen tensions with China increasingly worsen in recent months amid the coronavirus pandemic -- to openly mull retaliatory action. It also brought protesters back on the streets Sunday for one of the largest protests in recent months, with riot police firing tear gas at demonstrators in a central shopping area in scenes reminiscent of last year's unrest. Chinese officials say Hong Kong's violent protests over the last year made the new legislation necessary. But human rights groups, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and the city's bar association say the new security measures are vague, legally questionable and could endanger its reputation as a global financial hub. Pro-democracy politicians have called the law an unprecedented assault on the city's unique freedoms under the "one country, two systems" principle by which China promised to govern Hong Kong when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The pro-democracy camp swept local elections last year and are expected to see their best ever showing at Legislative Council elections slated for September. Lam rejected that assertion on Tuesday, saying that the city has always triumphed despite previous rounds of international concern about its prospects since the handover. A survey by a pro-government think-tank showed roughly 58% of the 1,810 people polled "expressed understanding" of China's decision to implement the national security law, according to a report by news website HK01. "In the last 23 years, whenever people worried about Hong Kong's freedoms of speech, freedoms of expressions and protests, time and again, Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values," she said. "The best thing is to see the legislation in front of us and to understand why at this point in time Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation for the bigger benefit for the great majority of Hong Kong people." Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. A detailed analysis report of the Global Benzene and Its Derivatives Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments. Benzene is an organic compound extracted from crude oil that falls among the most consumed petrochemicals. It is an aromatic hydrocarbon broadly used as feedstocks in manufacturing of variety of chemicals. These feedstocks are further assorted in industries such as textile, building & construction, electrical and electronics, automotive, etc. Styrene production is driving the growth for benzene based feedstocks. Asia-Pacific is the major consumer of benzene and its derivatives, followed by Europe and North America. Consumption of benzene and its derivatives is relatively low in MEA but it is expected to grow at a fast pace due to rising investments in Saudi Arabia downstream sector. Europe and North America are matured market. Augmenting demand from industries like automobile, coatings, construction, textiles, specialty chemicals and other industries Final Report will cover the impact of COVID-19 on this industry. Browse the complete Global Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/126-benzene-and-its-derivatives-market-report Major companies in benzene and its derivatives market are: ExxonMobil Corporation Royal Dutch Shell Plc. JX Holdings Inc. Dow Chemical Company China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Total S.A. BP Plc. BASF SE Saudi Basic Industries Corporation China National Petroleum Corporation SEGMENTATION IN REPORTS: segmentation in reports by derivatives: Ethylbenzene Cumene Cyclohaxane Aniline Chlorobenzene Alkylbenzene Nitrobenzene Phenol Toluene Others segmentation in reports by applications: Polystyrene Specialty Chemicals Resins, Paints & Coatings Foams & Films Polycarbonate Polyurethane Others segmentation in reports by geography: Asia Pacific Europe North America Latin America MEA Download Free Sample Report of Global Benzene And Its Derivatives Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-126 The Global Benzene And Its Derivatives Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters Chapter 1 Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Preface Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Benzene And Its Derivatives Industry Analysis Chapter 4 Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Value Chain Analysis Chapter 5 Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Analysis By Derivatives Chapter 6 Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Analysis By Applications Chapter 7 Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Analysis By Geography Chapter 8 Competitive Landscape Of Benzene And Its Derivatives Companies Chapter 9 Company Profiles Of Benzene And Its Derivatives Industry Purchase the complete Global Benzene And Its Derivatives Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-126 Other Reports by DecisionDatabases.com: Global Acetic Acid And Its Derivatives Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 Global Naphthalene Derivatives Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast Till 2026 Global Acrylic Acid And Derivatives Market Research Report Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 About-Us: DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains. Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed. For more details: DecisionDatabases.com E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.com Phone: +91 9028057900 Web: https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ They rarely see eye-to-eye on the big issues. But Karl Stefanovic appeared to put his differences with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson aside on Wednesday, wishing the politician a happy birthday when she appeared on the Today show. Pauline was treated to a cringeworthy rendition of the sing-a-long from Karl to celebrate her 66th birthday. Scroll down for video Today show host Karl Stefanovic sung a cringeworthy Marilyn Monroe-inspired happy birthday to Pauline Hanson on Wednesday to celebrate her 66th birthday The controversial politician looked embarrassed when Karl began singing for her on live television. Belting out the first few lines in a low voice, his co-host Allison Langdon joked that the breakfast host 'sounded like Marilyn Monroe'. Pauline agreed and said: 'yeah, I thought the same.' Despite this, Karl continued with his song as Pauline looked increasingly uncomfortable with the attention. 'Okay. Alright! Good try Karl. Really good, cut,' she said, begging for him to stop. Allison then joked: 'I think she's saying the greatest present you can give her is to be quiet.' 'Okay. Alright! Good try Karl. Really good, cut': The controversial politician looked embarrassed when Karl began singing for her on live television and begged him to stop 'The greatest present you can give her [Pauline] is to be quiet': Karl's co-host Allison Langdon joked that his soft-spoken singing voice sounded like Marilyn Monroe's iconic happy birthday The last time Pauline appeared on the program, she clashed with Karl during a discussion about whether the federal government's CovidSafe app was beneficial. Pauline snapped at the TV host over the coronavirus tracking app, claiming she didn't trust the government. While many Australians were willing to download the application so authorities can track those who may have been in contact with an infected person, it sparked privacy and security fears. Clash: The last time Pauline appeared on the program, she clashed with Karl during a discussion about whether the federal government's CovidSafe app was beneficial 'I don't like it': Pauline snapped at the TV host over the coronavirus tracking app, claiming she didn't trust the government Pauline said she refused to download the app, because she did not trust the government with her private information. 'I don't want them tracking me. I don't trust the Government,' she told Karl during the segment. Karl then reminded her she had a civic duty to the Australian people to help end the virus' stronghold. 'You have a responsibility to the Australian people if we want to try and control this COVID-19 and we want to try to track people,' the morning show host said. But Pauline refused to budge and said she knows she does not have the virus nor has she been in contact with anyone who does NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of viewers watching AJC Advocacy Anywhere sessions, since the program's inception in March, now exceeds 2.4 million worldwide. The online series examines timely political, geopolitical, diplomatic, and other issues in the COVID-19 era. "AJC is honored this week to host Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, the first incumbent mayors in our series. Both are alumni of AJC's Project Interchange seminars in Israel," said David Harris, CEO of American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global Jewish advocacy organization. "Other highlights include Jusuf Kalla, the distinguished Vice President of Indonesia from 2014 to 2019, and Richard Haass, President of the venerable Council on Foreign Relations." Registration for AJC Advocacy Anywhere is free and programs can be viewed via Zoom and Facebook. Previous programs are available for viewing on AJC.org. Programs last week included: Religion During and After Coronavirus: Will We Ever Be the Same? This May 18 program with Rabbi David Wolpe, named America's "Most Influential Rabbi" by Newsweek, and Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, the first woman to head the venerable 184-year-old Union Theological Seminary (UTS), has been seen by more than 35,000 viewers on Facebook. In conversation with Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations, Rabbi Wolpe and Rev. Jones discussed the experiences of loss during the pandemic and the ability of religious institutions to adapt. Challenges to Democracy and Stories of Jewish Communal Resilience in Latin America, May 18. Mariana Salem, AMIA, Argentina; Heni Ozi Cukier, Sao Paulo State legislator; and Adela Smeke, Founder, Mexican Federation of Young Jews (FeMeJJ), discussed challenges to democracy in Latin America before and during the current coronavirus crisis, and the differences between pandemic-induced antisemitism in the U.S. and Latin America. Muriel Asseraf, AJC Representative in Sao Paulo, Brazil, moderated the conversation. Europe, Iran, and the Transatlantic Partnership, May 20. Anna Fotyqa, Member of the European Parliament; Omir Nouripour, Member of the German Federal Parliament; and Mark Dubowitz, CEO, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in conversation with Daniel Schwammenthal, Director, AJC Transatlantic Institute, and Remko Leemhuis, Acting Director, AJC Berlin, discussed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and how to contain the regime's regional aggression and global terror network. With the arms embargo on Tehran expiring this October, and countries like Russia and China reportedly poised to supply Iran with advanced weaponry, forging a unified transatlantic strategy to counter Iran's quest for the bomb and regional hegemony becomes a still more urgent task. A Conversation with H.E. Luis Lacalle Pou, President of Uruguay, May 20, has garnered more than 31,000 viewers on Facebook. In a one-on-one conversation with Dina Siegel Vann, Director, AJC Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs, President Pou indicated he is currently reviewing his country's stance on designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. He also discussed Uruguay-Israel and Uruguay-U.S. ties, as well as how Uruguay successfully managed the coronavirus to date. As a country committed to human rights and democracy, Uruguay is a longstanding partner of the United States and Israel. In fact, Uruguay was one of the first nations to recognize the newly-formed Jewish state in 1948. In February 2019, Uruguay became the first Latin American country to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. President Pou, an AJC Project Interchange alumnus, took office earlier this year, just before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Uruguay. Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) with Yossi Klein Halevi, May 22. In conversation with Myra Clark Siegel, Director of Communications and Senior Strategic Counsel, AJC Project Interchange, Halevi discussed the meaning of Jerusalem for Jews and the city's unification in 1967; Israeli-Palestinian relations and why peace prospects are so dim; the new Israeli national unity government; and American Jewish-Israeli ties. Halevi, a frequent speaker for AJC events, is Senior Fellow, The Shalom Hartman Institute, and the author of several widely-praised books, including Like Dreamers and Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor. AJC Advocacy Anywhere programs for this week include: Tuesday, May 26, 6:00 PM (ET) Communities Under Quarantine: The Impact of Coronavirus on Muslim and Jewish Life in America. The pandemic has shut down mosques and synagogues, bringing about a boom in digital gatherings, virtual prayer spaces, and online learning. Are these changes temporary, or will they fundamentally alter religious life? Join Rabbi Dr. Josh Feigelson, Executive Director, Institute for Jewish Spirituality; and Maggie Siddiqi, Director of the Faith and Public Policy Initiative, Center for American Progress, for an exploration of the impact of the coronavirus on our communities, religion and public life, and Muslim-Jewish relations in the United States. Moderated by Dr. Ari Gordon, AJC Director of U.S. Muslim-Jewish Relations. Tuesday, May 26, 8:30 PM (ET) A Conversation with H.E. Jusuf Kalla, Vice President of Indonesia (2004-2009) (2014-2019). Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is current Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross, has been courageous and outspoken in his appeal for Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, to engage in dialogue with Israel. He will join us for a wide-ranging conversation on Indonesia's response to COVID-19 and the region's economic status; Indonesia's relations with the United States, China, and Australia; and the challenges and opportunities for progress in Indonesian-Israeli relations. This program is offered in cooperation with the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), an AJC partner organization. Moderated by Shira Loewenberg, Director, AJC Asia Pacific Institute. Note the late hour of this program is due to the time difference with Indonesia. Wednesday, May 27, 12:15 PM (ET) On the Frontlines of America's Cities: A Conversation with Mayor Eric Garcetti and Mayor Betsy Price. Mayors across the country and around the world are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, making critical decisions every day about how to protect their communities, while also working to restart their cities' economic engines. Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles and Mayor Betsy Price of Ft. Worth, who have both recently traveled to Israel with AJC Project Interchange, will discuss the impact of the coronavirus crisis on their cities; the integral relationship between cities and the Federal government; the role of political leadership in a time of crisis; and the lessons they've learned about community resilience. Moderated by Melanie Maron Pell, AJC Managing Director, Regional Offices, who accompanied the mayors to Israel. Thursday, May 28, 12:30 PM (ET) A Conversation with Dr. Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations. A veteran diplomat, respected voice on foreign policy, and frequent guest on news shows, Richard Haass has served as Director of Policy Planning for the State Department (2001-2003); Special Assistant to President George H.W. Bush (1989-1993); and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. He will join in conversation with AJC CEO David Harris on the state of international relations in the COVID-19 era, as well as Haass' new book, The World: A Brief Introduction, a primer written for experts and non-experts alike that, in the words of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, "explains how the world really works, how it is changing, and why it matters." To date, the three most viewed programs in AJC's Advocacy Anywhere series are: AJC CEO David Harris: An Improbable Jewish Journey, with more than 196,000 Facebook views. David Harris on the Soviet Jewry Movement (Part 1), with more than 136,000 views on Facebook. From Tragedy to Triumph with AJC CEO David Harris, with more than 95,000 views on Facebook. SOURCE American Jewish Committee Related Links http://www.ajc.org Palantir is "getting close" to a decision on whether to move the company out of California, CEO Alex Karp said in an interview for "Axios on HBO." The state of play: "We haven't picked a place yet, but it's going to be closer to the East Coast than the West Coast. ... If I had to guess, I would guess something like Colorado." The big picture: Karp blamed the "increasing intolerance and monoculture" of Silicon Valley. In recent years, employee action has pushed several large corporations, including Google, away from government contracts that staffers felt violated human rights. Some of Karp's own staff were unhappy with Palantir signing a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he told "Axios on HBO." "I've had my favorite employees yell at me," he said. "I've had some of my favorite employees leave." "I had people protesting me. People protesting me, some of whom I think asked really legitimate questions. I've asked myself if I were younger, at college, would I be protesting me? And you know, it depends?" "The most valid criticism that they have is, essentially, that if you are involved in anything, that one instance of injustice, does it tarnish all instances of justice?" Between the lines: Palantir joins Elon Musk's Tesla as high-profile companies are publicly considering leaving California. With US Army funding, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Lille in France develop a radio-frequency switch that is more than 50 times more energy efficient that what is used today. Credit: University of Texas The 5G revolution has begun, and the first lines of phones that can access the next generation of wireless speeds have already hit the shelves. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Lille in France have built a new component that will more efficiently allow access to the highest 5G frequencies in a way that increases devices' battery life and speeds up how quickly we can do things like stream high-definition media. Smartphones are loaded with switches that perform a number of duties. One major task is jumping between networks and spectrum frequencies: 4G, Wi-Fi, LTE, Bluetooth, etc. The current radio-frequency (RF) switches that perform this task are always running, consuming precious processing power and battery life. "The switch we have developed is more than 50 times more energy efficient compared to what is used today," said Deji Akinwande, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who led the research. "It can transmit an HDTV stream at a 100 gigahertz frequency, and that is unheard of in broadband switch technology." Akinwande and his research team published their findings today in the journal Nature Electronics. "It has become clear that the existing switches consume significant amounts of power," Akinwande said. "And that power consumed is useless power." The new switches stay off, saving battery life for other processes, unless they are actively helping a device jump between networks. They have also shown the ability to transmit data well above the baseline for 5G-level speeds. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has for years pushed for the development of "near-zero-power" RF switches. Prior researchers have found success on the low end of the 5G spectrumwhere speeds are slower but data can travel longer distances. But, this is the first switch that can function across the spectrum from the low-end gigahertz (GHz) frequencies to high-end terahertz (THz) frequencies that could someday be key to the development of 6G. The UT team's switches use the nanomaterial hexagonal boron nitrite (hBN). It is an emerging nanomaterial from the same family as graphene, the so-called wonder material. The structure of the switch involves a single layer of boron and nitrogen atoms in a honeycomb pattern, which Akinwande said is almost 1 million times thinner than human hair, sandwiched between a pair of gold electrodes. The impact of these switches extends beyond smartphones. Satellite systems, smart radios, reconfigurable communications, the "internet of things" and defense technology are all examples of other potential uses for the switches. "Radio-frequency switches are pervasive in military communication, connectivity and radar systems," said Dr. Pani Varanasi, division chief of the materials science program at the Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory that helped fund the project. "These new switches could provide large performance advantage compared to existing components and can enable longer battery life for mobile communication, and advanced reconfigurable systems." This research spun out of a previous project that created the thinnest memory device ever producedalso using hBN. Akinwande said sponsors encouraged the researchers to find other uses for the material, and that led them to pivot to RF switches. The UT team includes electrical and computer engineering professor Jack Lee and graduate students Myungsoo Kim, Ruijing Ge and Xiaohan Wu. They worked with researchers at the University of Lille's Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, led by Emiliano Pallecchi and Henri Happy. Explore further Ultra-thin memory storage device paves way for more powerful computing More information: Myungsoo Kim et al, Analogue switches made from boron nitride monolayers for application in 5G and terahertz communication systems, Nature Electronics (2020). Journal information: Nature Electronics Myungsoo Kim et al, Analogue switches made from boron nitride monolayers for application in 5G and terahertz communication systems,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41928-020-0416-x As his courtesy call to Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari set tongues wagging in political circles, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said only those without a job could think of the government being unstable. Attacking the BJP for playing politics at a time when Maharashtra is reeling under the effects of coronavirus with the dubious distinction of over 50,000 cases, Pawar said, In such times of a huge crisis, our efforts are to relieve the pain of the people. The NCP chief, who also held a meeting with Uddhav Thackeray, rubbished reports that he visited the chief ministers residence due to rumours about Presidents Rule in the state. We speak every alternate day, there is nothing new. But I hadn't gone to his house since Balasahebs demise so I visited him. Soon after the meeting, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had said the state government was "strong". He, however, did not reveal what transpired between the two leaders. Rumours of a potential political upheaval in the state began when former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis complained to the governor about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the Covid-19 crisis. This was followed by Pawars meeting with Koshyari against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents of MVA. Pawar was one of the crucial leaders from Maharashtra who had openly complained about Koshyari's "intervention" in the functioning of the state administration. Soon after the NCP chiefs visit, senior BJP leader Narayan Rane met Koshyari and reportedly asked for imposing Presidents Rule, blaming Thackeray for the governments inept handling of the coronavirus crisis. The Sena, a 30-year-old partner of the BJP, deserted the party after Maharashtra election results in October last year. Amid the political scramble to forge new alliances, Fadnavis returned as chief minister with the support of Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawars nephew, in a late-night swearing-in by Governor Koshyari. However, the political affair lasted just 72 hours after Pawar reconciled with his nephew and the NCP joined hands with the Sena and the Congress forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi. The announcement was made on 25 May. The World Health Organization (WHO) has temporarily suspended the clinical trials with hydroxychloroquine it is conducting with partners in several countries as a precautionary measure. This decision follows the publication of a study on Friday in the medical journal The Lancet which found that the use of chloroquine or its derivatives such as hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 is ineffective or even harmful. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference, adding that the suspension had been decided on Saturday. More than two months ago, WHO launched clinical trials involving hydroxychloroquine, called Solidarity, with the aim of finding an effective treatment for Covid-19. According to the large study published in The Lancet, neither chloroquine nor its derivative hydroxychloroquine is effective against Covid-19 in hospitalized patients, and these molecules even increase the risk of death and cardiac arrhythmia. The study analyzed data from approximately 96,000 patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus admitted to 671 hospitals between December 20, 2019 and April 14, 2020, and discharged or died since then. Approximately 15,000 of these patients received one of four combinations (chloroquine alone or combined with the antibiotic, hydroxychloroquine alone or combined with the antibiotic), and these four groups were then compared to the 81,000 patients in the control group who did not receive this treatment. Trials conducted by WHO and its partners on hydroxychloroquine will be suspended until the data collected by the Solidarity trials are reviewed, Tedros said. This is a temporary measure, said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, head of WHOs Scientific Department. The head of WHO wished to recall that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are recognized as generally safe for patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The death of a black man Monday night in Minneapolis immediately after being detained by police is under investigation by the FBI, in a brooding controversy that draws stark comparison to the 2014 death of Eric Garner on Staten Island. A 10-minute long video shot by a civilian and posted to Facebook shows a Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee against the mans neck on the pavement for a prolonged period of time. The man is heard pleading with officers: I cannot breathe!... Dont kill me!" Police were responding to a report of a forgery when the incident unfolded, according to a Washington Post report. Officers located the man, believed to be in his 40s, whom they believed to be under the influence, inside his car. After he got out, police reportedly said the man physically resisted officers." The video begins after the man already is on the ground. The Minneapolis Police Department announced Tuesday the man later died of a medical incident." Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and realized that the suspect was suffering a medical distress, a Minneapolis police spokesman told reporters Tuesday. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died a short time later. Police said that no weapons were used at any time by the man or the officers during the encounter. The tragedy is reminiscent of the 2014 death of Eric Garner in Tompkinsville, who died in police custody during an attempted arrest by Officer Daniel Pantaleo and other cops for the illegal sale of cigarettes. A five-year saga that followed included heated protests and a personnel shake-up within the NYPD. Protestors who backed Pantaleo pointed to Garner resisting his arrest, his health conditions and a history of arrests as the reason for his death. After a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo on criminal charges, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to file civil right charges against Pantaleo, citing insufficient evidence. Ultimately, an NYPD judge deemed Pantaleo used a prohibited chokehold to arrest Garner and he was fired from the force. Today, the market is a social affair and a feast for the senses. Wander around -- as local architect Antoni Gaud' used to -- and gain inspiration. Beyond meats and produce, the focus here is on Spanish specialties: from olives, mushrooms, and artichokes to heartier iberico (Iberian) ham and Catalan botifarra sausage. Scavenge this slice of Catalan culture for a picnic that challenges your palate. Head to the booths farther in or along the sides for a bigger bang for your euro. If you don't know the language, just point to what you want and write the amount on a scrap of paper, or type it into your smartphone's notepad or translation app. Then head to Barceloneta beach and feast with your feet in the sand. But cleaners interviewed by The Washington Post said that one mask a day is insufficient the coverings turn moist and unhygienic after a few hours. Rai, a 54-year-old street cleaner from Nepal who spoke on the condition of using only her first name, for fear of retribution from her employer, said she packs her own masks when she goes out to her assigned area in Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping district, and swaps them out on her breaks. She had to ask her family in Nepal to send additional supplies. 26.05.2020 LISTEN Let me use this opportunity to once again congratulate all Muslims in Ghana and across the world on a successful but 'difficult' Ramadan and wish them a happy Eidul Fitr. As a responsible citizen I am urged to be, I commend the National Chief Imam, His Eminence, Sheikh Nuhu Sharubutu for his boldness to call on the country's EC to ensure free and fair election 2020, during this year's Eid celebration, even when the president, HE Nana Akufo Addo [a potential beneficiary of electoral irregularities) was present at the event. In fact, not all our leaders are bold enough to be patriotic and nationalistic as such. To start with, election is a democratic process through which leaders are selected or chosen. And as a student of Democracy, Governance, Law and Development, I see election as a very key tool in every democratic setting for which if not conducted well, could result in a very detrimental situation in a country or an organisation. Hence, the importance of the "free and fair" ingredients in the whole electoral process. Most at times, people consider what happens on only the election day in determining whether or not an election is free and fair. However, the election itself is only part of the electoral process, the preelection and post election periods are also especially important. It is at the preelection stage that observers must assess whether the electoral law and the constitution guarantee the freedom of the voters, and verify that relevant resources are reasonably distributed among competing parties and candidates. Interestingly, according to one renowned scholar, Robert Dahl, *freedom*, unlike coercion entails the right and the opportunity to choose one thing over the other. *Fairness* is also the regular and unbiased application of the electoral laws and the reasonable distribution of resources among competitors. Before an election could be declared FREE and FAIR as the National Chief Imam and other nationalistic Ghanaians advocate for, there are several conditions that must be met, according to Robert Dahl. Thus, before, during and after the voting periods. According to him, for the pre-voting day [a period we are in now as a country till December 7, 2020], *freedom* is achieved when there are: Freedom of movement of all *Freedom of speech* (for the candidates, voters, and others) freedom of assembly freedom of association *freedom from fear in connection with the election and the electoral campaign* absence of impediments to standing for election (for all candidates) *equal and universal suffrage* On the other hand, to achieve *fairness* in an election during the pre voting period, the following conditions must also be met: *a transparent electoral process* *an election act and an electoral system that grant no special privileges to any party of the election* *absence of impediments to inclusion in the electoral register* *establishment of an independent and impartial electoral management body* equal opportunities for all candidates to stand for election impartial voter-education programs an orderly election campaign equal access to publicly controlled media impartial allotment of public or party funds to all parties involved (if relevant). Hahaha, very difficult to meet, right? The questions that keep on troubling minds of Ghanaians at this stage of the electoral process are: 1. Do we have a transparent electoral process when Ghanaians are denied of vital information with regard to the election and election related activities and when things are sometimes done at the blindside of the stakeholders? 2. Do we have an election act and electoral system that will be fair to all political parties and participants when there are serious issues with the Constitutional Instrument (CI) currently before parliament with regard to the use of the Ghana card and passport as the only primary documents to present before one could get registered? 3. How would the foreseen impediments to inclusion of eligible registrants in the electoral register be resolved as it has been the call by some political parties and Civil Society Organisations? 4. If the EC as the electoral management body is independent as it is supposed to be by law, and not under the control of any president or political party, is the EC really impartial so far as the elections 2020 are concerned? Until the above questions are answered, let me proceed with what it takes to ensure a free and fair election on the actual voting day according to Robert Dahl. *Freedom* is achieved when there is an unquestionable opportunity for all eligible voters to participate in the election. It is worthy to note that, participation is a vital key element of good governance and democratisation. *Fairness* on this day is also about the following: access to all polling station(s) for representatives of the parties (candidates) involved, accredited local and all other election observers, and the media secrecy of the ballot absence of intimidation of voters effective design of ballot papers proper ballot boxes impartial assistance to voters (if necessary) proper counting procedures proper treatment of void ballot papers proper precautionary measures when transporting election materials impartial protection of polling station(s) Lastly, after the voting day (post election period), *freedom* is about having the legal possibilities of complaint. All candidates should have the liberty to genuinely contest any irregularity that might have occurred during the polling day. *Fairness* here is also about meeting the following conditions: official and expeditious announcement of election results impartial treatment of any election complaints impartial reports on the election results by the media acceptance of the election results by everyone involved. Hahaha, I hope it is now clear from the above listed indicators that FREE AND FAIR ELECTION is not something easy to come by. It entails a whole lot of conditions and systems. And this is why the EC should be seen by the various stakeholders as the champions of free and fair electoral process. I therefore see the call by the National Chief Imam as timely and very important, and urge the EC to put measures in place to correct all the mistakes that might have occurred so far in the process, in order to ensure and assure Ghanaians of a much more freedom and fairness in our electoral dispensations before, during and after Dec 7. Credit: Sadiku Katadatu NDC Youth activist Ejura-Ashanti Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:30:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 701 after 46 more patients were confirmed, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) said in a statement on Tuesday. According to figures from FMoH, the 46 new COVID-19 cases consist of 45 Ethiopians and one foreign national. The ministry said that eight more patients who tested positive for COVID-19 recovered on Tuesday, raising the total numbers of recoveries to 167. The ministry also disclosed a 32-year-old Ethiopian national succumbed to the disease on Tuesday, raising the number of COVID-19 deaths to six. Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with about 107 million people, confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13. The Ethiopian government has instituted a wide range of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. In April, the Ethiopian House of People's Representatives - the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament - announced a five-month state of emergency to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Enditem We are pleased to recognize Dr. Ike Oguejiofor as a UroLift Center of Excellence for his commitment to providing consistent care to BPH patients using the UroLift System treatment, said Dave Amerson NeoTract, a wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) focused on addressing unmet needs in the field of urology, today announced that Ike Oguejiofor, M.D., Associated Urological Specialists in Chicago Ridge, IL, has been designated as a UroLift Center of Excellence. The designation recognizes that Dr. Oguejiofor has achieved a high level of training and experience with the UroLift System and demonstrated a commitment to exemplary care for men suffering from symptoms associated with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), also known as enlarged prostate. Recommended for the treatment of BPH in both the American Urological Association and European Association of Urology clinical guidelines, the FDA-cleared Prostatic Urethral Lift procedure using the UroLift System is a proven, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to BPH. The UroLift permanent implants, delivered during a transurethral outpatient procedure, relieve prostate obstruction and open the urethra directly without cutting, heating, or removing prostate tissue. The UroLift Center of Excellence program is designed to highlight urologists who are committed to educating their patients on BPH and the UroLift System as a treatment option and consistently seek to deliver excellent patient outcomes and experiences. We are pleased to recognize Dr. Ike Oguejiofor as a UroLift Center of Excellence for his commitment to providing consistent care to BPH patients using the UroLift System treatment, said Dave Amerson, president of the Teleflex Interventional Urology business unit. This achievement has helped many patients experience durable, long- term relief from the burdensome symptoms of BPH while preserving sexual function*1,2. Over 40 million men in the United States are affected by BPH, a condition that occurs when the prostate gland that surrounds the male urethra becomes enlarged with advancing age and begins to obstruct the urinary system. Symptoms of BPH often include interrupted sleep and urinary problems and can cause loss of productivity, depression and decreased quality of life. Medication is often the first-line therapy for enlarged prostate, but relief can be inadequate and temporary. Side effects of medication treatment can include sexual dysfunction, dizziness and headaches, prompting many patients to quit using the drugs. For these patients, the classic alternative is surgery that cuts, heats or removes prostate tissue to open the blocked urethra. While current surgical options can be very effective in relieving symptoms, they can also leave patients with permanent side effects such as urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and retrograde ejaculation. About the UroLift System The FDA-cleared UroLift System is a proven, minimally invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The UroLift permanent implants, delivered during a minimally invasive transurethral outpatient procedure, relieve prostate obstruction and open the urethra directly without cutting, heating, or removing prostate tissue. Clinical data from a pivotal 206-patient randomized controlled study showed that patients with enlarged prostate receiving UroLift implants reported rapid and durable symptomatic and urinary flow rate improvement without compromising sexual function*1,2. Patients also experienced a significant improvement in quality of life. Over 100,000 men have been treated with the UroLift System in the U.S. Most common adverse events reported include hematuria, dysuria, micturition urgency, pelvic pain, and urge incontinence. Most symptoms were mild to moderate in severity and resolved within two to four weeks after the procedure. The Prostatic Urethral Lift procedure using the UroLift System is recommended for the treatment of BPH in both the American Urological Association and European Association of Urology clinical guidelines. The UroLift System is available in the U.S., Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. Learn more at http://www.UroLift.com. About NeoTract | Teleflex Interventional Urology A wholly owned subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated, the Interventional Urology Business Unit is dedicated to developing innovative, minimally invasive and clinically effective devices that address unmet needs in the field of urology. Our initial focus is on improving the standard of care for patients with BPH using the UroLift System, a minimally invasive permanent implant system that treats symptoms while preserving normal sexual function*1,2. Learn more at http://www.NeoTract.com. About Teleflex Incorporated Teleflex is a global provider of medical technologies designed to improve the health and quality of peoples lives. We apply purpose driven innovation a relentless pursuit of identifying unmet clinical needs to benefit patients and healthcare providers. Our portfolio is diverse, with solutions in the fields of vascular and interventional access, surgical, anesthesia, cardiac care, urology, emergency medicine and respiratory care. Teleflex employees worldwide are united in the understanding that what we do every day makes a difference. For more information, please visit http://www.teleflex.com. Teleflex is the home of Arrow, Deknatel, Hudson RCI, LMA, Pilling, Rusch, UroLift and Weck trusted brands united by a common sense of purpose # # # For Teleflex Incorporated: Jake Elguicze, 610.948.2836 Treasurer and Vice President, Investor Relations Media: Nicole Osmer, 650.454.0504 nicole@healthandcommerce.com *No instances of new, sustained erectile or ejaculatory dysfunction 1. Roehrborn, J Urology 2013 LIFT Study 2.McVary, J Sex Med 2016 MAC00968-01 Rev A Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen speaks at a non woven filter fabric factory, where the fabric is used to make surgical face masks, in Taoyuan By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI (Reuters) - China's planned national security law may prompt Taiwan to revoke the special status it extends to Hong Kong, President Tsai Ing-wen said, a move that could anger Beijing and make it harder for Hong Kongers to visit and invest. China is proposing the new legislation for the Chinese-ruled city after months of anti-government protests, and the decision has already ignited renewed unrest in Hong Kong and prompted condemnation from Western capitals. The demonstrators have won widespread sympathy in democratic Taiwan, and the support for the protesters by Tsai and her administration has worsened already poor ties between Taipei and Beijing. China has repeatedly denounced Taiwan's government for supporting the protesters, and accused activists in both places of colluding to plot independence. Writing on her Facebook page late on Sunday, Tsai said the proposed legislation was a serious threat to Hong Kong's freedoms and judicial independence and that Taiwan would provide the people of Hong Kong with "necessary assistance". Taiwan deals with Hong Kong and neighbouring Macau under rules that, for example, allow residents of the two Chinese cities to visit and invest in Taiwan much more easily than mainland Chinese. Tsai said if there were a "change in the situation" in Hong Kong, the act laying out those rules could be revoked. "We hope the situation in Hong Kong does not get to this stage, and will pay close attention to developments, and take necessary corresponding measures in a timely way," she added. Beijing would inevitably see any move by Taiwan regarding Hong Kong as Taipei again siding with the protest movement, sparking further Chinese ire. A senior official familiar with Taiwan's security planning said Tsai's comment was a "clear message" to Beijing that Taipei would "reinterpret" its ties with Hong Kong if China pushes the security legislation through. Story continues "This is set to be a fundamental change in terms of Taiwan-Hong Kong relations. We are not happy to see it happening," the official said. Another senior Taiwan government official familiar with policy towards China said the security legislation would mean the death knell for "one country, two systems," in which Beijing rules the city as part of China, but with separate institutions and laws. "We wouldn't need to provide special status for Hong Kong," the official told Reuters. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The government is watching how the legislation plan progresses in Beijing before deciding the next move. In the worst-case scenario, people and investment from Hong Kong would be treated as stringently as those from mainland China, the official added. Taiwan offers special treatment to Hong Kong, including an investment-immigration programme that has attracted tens of thousands of immigrants from the city. However, the second official warned that Beijing may close Taiwan's de facto consulate in the city in retaliation, and that any change to the act could choke Taiwan-Hong Kong trade. Hong Kong was Taiwan's second-largest export destination in April after mainland China, official data shows. The United States is also considering whether to maintain Hong Kong's special status in U.S. law, which has helped the city maintain its position as a global financial centre. However, the second official said Taipei would keep offering "necessary assistance" to Hong Kong citizens whose safety and liberty are threatened for political reasons. "This is not aimed at Hong Kong's people, but aimed at Beijing." Taiwan has no law on refugees that could be applied to Hong Kong protesters who seek asylum on the island. Its laws do promise, though, to help Hong Kongers whose safety and liberty are threatened for political reasons. The number of Hong Kong immigrants to Taiwan jumped 150% to 2,383 in the first four months of 2020 from the same period last year, official data shows. (Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Michael Perry) It should not surprise you that Gov. J.B. Pritzker, unlike other Democratic governors across the country, didnt dare suggest that government workers share in the sacrifice, as he and other politicians so often request of private sector workers who heavily subsidize public employee pensions. Democratic governors in Wisconsin, California and New York either cut public sector pay, instituted across-the-board spending cuts throughout state government, froze hiring or other spending and did so weeks ago when revenues began to plummet. Virtual visits helping care home residents across Wrexham to keep in touch with loved ones This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 Care homes across Wrexham have received iPads to help residents keep in touch with loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic. The iPads have been provided as part of a scheme by the North Wales Regional Partnership Board in a bid to support those in the community to help manage their health conditions and to reduce social isolation. In April it was announced by the Board that 365 iPads would be delivered to care homes and hospital wards to allow for virtual visiting. It is hoped the devices will help residents to keep in touch with friends and family while visits to care homes are still restricted. The scheme has been welcomed by care home staff across the area, who say the iPads have made a real difference to the lives of their residents. Gary, manager at Ashgrove Care Home in Gresford said, Thank you very much for letting us have an iPad, our residents are FaceTiming their relatives and we were able to use the iPad to celebrate the recent VE day. Sue Barton, manager at Oak Alyn, Cefn Y Bedd said, Having the iPads here at Oak Alyn have made a huge difference to the residents. We have had one resident who has been able to FaceTime both of their children, one living in Wrexham and the other in Hong Kong at the same time and have a 3 way conversation this was really fantastic. Another resident was able to FaceTime their relative in Australia who they havent seen for 8 years this was a really emotional call!! Katie Williams, activity coordinator Lindan House Care Home: What a difference this has made to the residents, as well as being able to keep in touch with their families we have also been able to download some activities on to the iPad that the residents can enjoy taking part in and they are thoroughly enjoying this, we have had one lady sing a long to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen! Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco (EPA:BAIN) has had a rough three months with its share price down 22%. However, the company's fundamentals look pretty decent, and long-term financials are usually aligned with future market price movements. Specifically, we decided to study Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco's ROE in this article. Return on Equity or ROE is a test of how effectively a company is growing its value and managing investors money. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital. View our latest analysis for Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco How To Calculate Return On Equity? The formula for return on equity is: Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) Shareholders' Equity So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco is: 3.7% = 25m 685m (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2019). The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. So, this means that for every 1 of its shareholder's investments, the company generates a profit of 0.04. Why Is ROE Important For Earnings Growth? So far, we've learnt that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a companys earnings growth potential. Assuming everything else remains unchanged, the higher the ROE and profit retention, the higher the growth rate of a company compared to companies that don't necessarily bear these characteristics. Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco's Earnings Growth And 3.7% ROE On the face of it, Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco's ROE is not much to talk about. Next, when compared to the average industry ROE of 6.7%, the company's ROE leaves us feeling even less enthusiastic. However, the moderate 13% net income growth seen by Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco over the past five years is definitely a positive. So, there might be other aspects that are positively influencing the company's earnings growth. For example, it is possible that the company's management has made some good strategic decisions, or that the company has a low payout ratio. Story continues As a next step, we compared Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco's net income growth with the industry and found that the company has a similar growth figure when compared with the industry average growth rate of 15% in the same period. ENXTPA:BAIN Past Earnings Growth May 26th 2020 Earnings growth is a huge factor in stock valuation. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. Is Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide. Is Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco Using Its Retained Earnings Effectively? In Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco's case, its respectable earnings growth can probably be explained by its low three-year median payout ratio of 0.8% (or a retention ratio of 99%), which suggests that the company is investing most of its profits to grow its business. Conclusion On the whole, we do feel that Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco has some positive attributes. Even in spite of the low rate of return, the company has posted impressive earnings growth as a result of reinvesting heavily into its business. While we won't completely dismiss the company, what we would do, is try to ascertain how risky the business is to make a more informed decision around the company. You can see the 1 risk we have identified for Societe Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers a Monaco by visiting our risks dashboard for free on our platform here. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. May 26, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on the economy, especially for businesses. Small and medium sized businesses especially are struggling to adapt to their new reality. Donald Solow of Madison, New Jersey, President of Vista Life & Casualty Reinsurance Company, has seen the effect that COVID-19 has had on businesses firsthand. He shares the top three challenges currently facing businesses due to the pandemic. Existing Business Plan is Insufficient The first challenge businesses are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic is dealing with an insufficient business plan, shares Donald Solow. Business continuity plans are essential when running a business, but almost no company could have prepared for this. Due to the unprecedented nature of this global pandemic, many of these businesses have been thrown for a loop. Thus, the first challenge they face in overcoming this trying time is to adapt and update their business plans. It is to be expected that pre-existing continuity plans would not have included a portion dedicated to a global health crisis causing you to shut your doors temporarily. However, now is the time to step up and change your plan as rapidly as possible in order to get through the crisis. Donald Solow recommends developing incident management and scenario plans that are specific to the COVID-19 crisis. Next, plan on how you can effectively communicate to stakeholders what is going on with your company (if applicable). Finally come up with a plan of action that meets government-set guidelines, but also causes the least disruption to your business. Transitioning to a Remote Workplace The second biggest challenge many businesses are facing is transitioning to a remote workplace. Offices around the world have shut their doors, forcing many companies to transform their workforce into a completely virtual team. Many businesses did not have employees working from home before this, so it has likely been an especially trying time for them. However, even for companies that did allow their employees to occasionally work from home, this is still uncharted territory. Apps like Zoom are springing up in popularity as they enable companies to communicate effectively from remote locations. But unfortunately, downloading and training staff to use a certain app doesnt solve many of the problems that companies continue to face. When it comes to transitioning to a remote workplace, Donald Solow advises all employers to first think long and hard about what its going to take to get their company functioning virtually. For some that are ill-equipped to handle transitioning their workforce, the best decision might be to temporarily lay off workers. For others that decide to move forward with this workplace transformation, a good first step is ensuring your staff have everything they need (laptops, etc.) to work effectively from home. Beyond that, employers should also be speaking with HR to come up with new policies relating to remote working. Donald Solow on Disruptions to the Supply Chain Another large challenge businesses are facing due to the current pandemic is a disruption to supply chains. There is no denying that we live in an era of globalization where the products that companies sell come to fruition because of different parts or processes that involve other countries. For example, a restaurant in New York City may receive ingredients from China, Italy, and beyond. For businesses that have had their supply chains affected, its important to do everything in your power to mitigate these disruptions. First, Donald Solow recommends identifying alternative supply chain sources in your local area. Reducing the distance an item must travel is crucial right now. That is why you should consider what items you need that can be sourced domestically, or even from the city or county in which you live. Second, adapt your pricing strategy. Often items or labor outsourced to other countries is cheaper, allowing companies to sell items for cheaper in countries like the U.S. However, right now, if you have to switch to a local supply chain, your costs might go up. Thus, if necessary, you should be adjusting your pricing strategy so that you still make a decent profit even with this new supply chain. VIP culture it's a thing those wielding power in India and Britain seem to share. A case in point is the tale of two heavyweights: union minister DV Sadananda Gowda in India and Britain's top prime ministerial aide Dominic Cummings. Gowda recently kicked up a row in India after being "exempted" from quarantine upon travelling from Delhi to Bengaluru by flight on Monday. While states across the country are slowly relaxing travel restrictions following nearly 60 days of a nationwide lockdown, Gowda sidestepped the standard protocol set up by Karnataka to screen and institutionally quarantine anyone arriving by air from states that have high Covid-19 cases, such as Delhi. But given his 'special status', Gowda landed in Bengaluru and aimed straight for his car before heading home. According to his assistant, the minister had already tested negative for Covid-19 and thus would be quarantined at home instead. There was outrage from the Opposition, but Gowda had his response ready: "I'm a minister." "Guidelines are applicable to all citizens, but there are certain exemption clauses, for those who hold certain responsible posts," he told news agency ANI. "I am a minister and I am heading pharmaceutical ministry. If the supply of medicines and other things is not proper then what doctors can do for patients, is it not a failure of government? It' is my responsibility to ensure the supply of medicines to each corner of the country," he added. Birds of a Feather? While the news shocked many in the country, such disregard for the rules that legislators and government officials themselves create and implement on 'lesser' citizens, is neither new nor unique to India. Take the case of UK's Dominic Cummings, for instance. Cummings, the rarely seen or heard but immensely influential co-architect of the Brexit saga in Britain and Prime Minister Boris Johnson's key political strategist and adviser, travelled cross-country from London to his parents' home Durham in his car on March 31. The 265-mile-long journey was in clear violation of lockdown restrictions that were imposed by the PM himself on March 23. He was accompanied by his young son and wife, who was showing Covid-19 symptoms. Cummings himself tested positive and recently admitted to having stepped out in Durham at least once during his stay there. The revelations were made in a shocking press conference in which Cummings narrated a personal story about being concerned for his son's health after his wife started showing symptoms. He added that he had acted reasonably and blamed the media for unfairly targeting him. Hypocrisy, much? However, it isn't just the VIP-status-assuming politicians and officials themselves that are common to both India and the UK, but the system of governance itself that values those in power over the rights of citizens. While both Gowda and Cummings have shown no remorse for their actions, neither government in either country has taken any accountability for the actions of a public servant, albeit the latter being in violation of tenets it is itself promoting: in this case social distancing. While politicians enjoy a deferential treatment, ordinary citizens of both India and the UK continue to suffer hardships due to the lockdown. Karnataka has a total of 2,258 novel coronavirus cases, with 100 new cases being reported on Tuesday. While Gowda is allowed to hop from flight to car to home in a day's time without any adherence to protocol, hundreds of migrant workers wanting to enter Karnataka from Maharashtra have been stranded at the border for days following government protocol. Though many in the Opposition, as well as social media, have outraged against Gowda's brazen statements, the government seems to be on the side of the politician, much like in the UK where 47,000 people have already died due to Covid-19. Soon after the outrage against Gowda, the Karnataka government inserted an addendum into the standard operating procedure about air travel from states battered by Covid-19, confirming an exemption for ministers. Critics said this appeared to be a bid to silence the Opposition and criticism of Gowda's flouting of regulations. In the UK too, PM Boris Johnson has come out in support of his aide, stating that he found Cummings's actions "reasonable" and that the people of the UK would just have to "make up their minds about it". To paraphrase the statement by UK's opposition Labour Party, the message from this government is clear: its one rule for government aides, another for everybody else. Space events are spectacular, scary sometimes, yet breathtaking. This week, astronomers have spotted a collision of two massive galaxies, that has resulted in the formation of a rare ring galaxy. An artist's rendition of the ring galaxy R5519: ASTRO 3D This strange and unusual occurrence took place around 11 billion light-years from Earth. As per report, the massive galaxy is forming stars in its ring at 50 times faster rate than our own Milky Way. researchers who have spotted it have even named it the cosmic ring of fire. This was first revealed in a paper published in journal Nature Astronomy. A team of international researchers found the ring (official name R5519) after looking at data received from the Hubble Telescope and the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii. The data sets included almost 4000 galaxies, however, R5519 was the brightest with the ring structure. The research team looked further and discovered something strange. According to lead author Tiantian Yuan, an astronomer at Swinburne University in Australia, "It is very a curious object, one that we have never seen before. The gigantic hole in this galaxy was caused by a head-on collision with another galaxy." Digging deep into the features of R5519 Yuan with his team started looking for clues and trying to understand its formation. They didnt consider galaxy merger as one of the possibilities due to its unusual structure. Moreover, close to it, they detected another galaxy dubbed G5593. They feel that this galaxy was actually an intruder which collided with R5519 around 40 million years ago. James Josephides/Swinburne Astronomy Productions Researchers also feel that both the galaxies must have run into each other with immense intensity, causing a split in the disk and disintegrating right from the centre. Co-author Kenneth Freeman, an astronomer at Australian National University explains, "The collisional formation of ring galaxies requires a thin disk to be present in the 'victim' galaxy before the collision occurs." Yuan also claims that this occurrence is rarer than we think, "Previously, people think we would find more of these collisional ring galaxies in the young universe, simply because there are more collisions back then. We find that is not the case. We do not know if this ring was a first ring after the collision or it was the second ring." Astronomers claim theyll need more data to be sure how the ring was formed -- either naturally or through a collision. They hold their hope on NASAs soon to be launched James Webb Space Telescope to answer this mystery. More details from the college system's plan, including how traffic flows through campus buildings will work, social-distancing parameters in dining halls, and use of classroom space will be made available soon, he said. Athletic teams are preparing to start practices again, Turman said, and art and music programs are also working out how they will operate. The goal of the calendar, however, is to begin to prepare students for new life on campus. "It will allow us to get the semester done as quickly as possible, while if we have to go remote again, ensure that experience is going to be as short as possible for our students," Turman said. At Creighton, classes will also start Aug. 17 and conclude the day before Thanksgiving, cutting down on "the need for students to make multiple trips should coronavirus cases increase with the start of the winter flu season," the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson wrote to students May 8. The Jesuit school will also spread out its move-in dates over more days and make other adjustments to alleviate large gatherings. Advertisement An American couple who arrived at Pompeii as Italy went into lockdown finally toured the ancient city today after waiting for two months in a nearby town for the site to reopen. Colleen and Marvin Hewson, retirees from Michigan, were first in line when the archaeological site reopened to the public Tuesday following Italy's coronavirus lockdown. Their long-delayed visit capped an unlikely adventure that had stranded them in modern Pompeii, a small tourist town, since early March. 'We have been patiently waiting since then for the ruins to open,' Colleen Hewson said as the couple got the chance to stroll through the ruins of the Roman city destroyed in A.D. 79 by a volcanic eruption, trailed by journalists capturing another milestone in Italy's reopening. 'Here we are, we finally made it inside. It only took two months,' Marvin Hewson added. For the Hewsons, seeing Pompeii was meant to be the highlight of a trip celebrating his 75th birthday and their 30th wedding anniversary. Colleen and Marvin Hewson, from the United States, visit the archeological site of Pompeii after a two-and-a-half month wait, near Naples, southern Italy today US couple from Detroit, Marvin and Colleen Hewson, who spent the lockdown since March 7 in a nearby Bed and Breakfast, visit the archeological site of Pompeii today, as the country eases its lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus Colleen and Marvin Hewson, from the United States, visit to the archeological site of Pompeii, near Naples, southern Italy, today Marvin Hewson, a history buff, had visited once while serving in the U.S. Navy in the 1960s and always vowed to get back; the trip was his wife's gift to him. The couple from Clinton Township, Michigan, which is near Detroit, arrived in Rome on March 5 for the vacation of a lifetime, her first time overseas. By the time they made it to the gates of Pompeii several days later, the popular tourist site was closed and Italy was under lockdown due to the coronavirus epidemic that broke out more than 500 miles to the north. People are pictured on the ancient city of Pompeii's reopening day near Naples, Italy. Today marks the first phase of two weeks that will permit a walk along the streets of the ancient city with social distancing guidelines having been implemented by the Ministry of Health A woman visits the Domus of Cornelio in the ancient city of Pompeii, located in the zone of Pompeii Scavi, which reopened to the public in Pompeii, near Naples, Italy today Visitors wearing face masks are pictured in the Forum on the day of the reopening of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii today in Pompeii, Italy A man takes a photo on the reopening day of the ancient city of Pompeii, near Naples, Italy today A woman wearing a face mask visit the Domus of Cornelio in the ancient city of Pompeii, located in the zone of Pompeii Scavi which reopened to the public today in Pompeii, near Naples, Italy Attempts to book flights out failed, and they resigned themselves to life under lockdown. Back in the United States, their four adult children relaxed when they realized their parents were far from the epicentre of Italy's virus outbreak and in good local hands. 'We made a great connection with our Airbnb host family,' Colleen, 63, said. A man wearing a face mask looks at the historic ruins of the city of Pompeii, which reopened to tourists today near Naples, Italy Visitors posing with masks inside a domus (home of the upper classes in Ancient Rome) on the day of the reopening of the Pompeii Archaeological Park today in Pompeii, Italy. Many Italian businesses have been allowed to reopen, after more than two months of a nationwide lockdown meant to curb the spread of Covid-19 Many Italian businesses have been allowed to reopen, after more than two months of a nationwide lockdown meant to curb the spread of Covid-19. Pictured: Visitors take photographs in the Forum of the ancient city of Pompeii today Two visitors pose for a selfie in the Forum on the day of the reopening of the Pompeii Archaeological Park today in Pompeii, Italy The host, Fabio Sposato, translated news for her and her husband, and helped keep them busy, tasking them with picking oranges and lemons from trees near the condominium where they stayed and teaching them to make limoncello. 'It helped to pass the time,' Marvin said. Under lockdown, they fell into a routine, walking more than 7,000 steps a day, often to a grocery store near the archaeological site that allowed time to sit on a bench and gaze upon the ruins, 'wishing we could be inside,' Colleen Hewson said. General View of the Pompeii sites on the day of the reopening of the Archaeological Park on today in Pompeii, Italy Visitors wearing face masks walk through the Forum earlier today, the reopening day of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii near Naples, Italy A woman visits the House of Giulia Felice (Julia Felix), at the archaeological site of Pompeii, near Naples, southern Italy today A woman walks through the Pompeii Forum on the archaeological site's reopening day today, in Pompeii, near Naples, Italy In all those weeks, 'our Italian never got better,' she quipped, and they would use charades to communicate things they were looking for in the grocery store. The couple was leaving Pompeii on Tuesday for Rome, where they planned to spend a couple of days sightseeing before returning home to Michigan at long last. Since Italy's restrictions on movement have eased, Sposato hosted the couple for dinner with his family and drove them to the Amalfi coast. A man stands wearing a face mask near the ancient ruins of Pompeii, near Naples, Italy today 'We took care of them as if they were our parents,' Sposato said. 'We did what we could to make them comfortable respecting the restrictions that were in place.' Visitors wearing masks walk along 'via dell'Abbondanza' on the day of the reopening of the Pompeii Archaeological Park today in Pompeii, Italy Pictured: Visitors wearing face masks stand in the Pompeii Forum on the archaeological site's reopening day near Naples, Italy today General view of the deserted Forum on the morning of the reopening of the Pompeii Archaeological Park today in Pompeii, Italy The couple said they feel lucky to have been able to spend the lockdown in such a beautiful setting. From their condominium's rooftop, the couple could see Mount Vesuvius to one side, and the island of Capri to the other. 'We looked at real estate. It would be a dream,' Marvin said. 'We saved a lot of money because all of the stores were closed. We really are thinking of coming back. The exceptionally-preserved remains of the city covered in volcanic ash by the eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago in 79 A.D. are usually the country's second-most visited site after the Colosseum in Rome. But today, many of its most important ruins, like its stone Amphitheatre or Temple of Apollo, lay hauntingly empty. Visitors are being guided on a mandatory route, with a second itinerary to be added on June 9. Tickets cost five euros (4.45), but people will have to reserve ahead and have their temperatures checked by a thermal scanner on entering. Areas with only one way to enter and exit are now closed off, to avoid crowding, while those with more space - even some which were previously closed to the public - are now open. Pompeii had just celebrated the culmination of a long 91.6million restoration when the coronavirus crisis hit Italy and museums and cultural sites were closed in March. The project, which began in 2012, was paid for largely by European Union funding and enlisted large teams of archaeologists, architects, engineers, geologists and anthropologists. The collapse of the 'House of the Gladiators' after days of heavy rain in 2010 underscored the risk to Pompeii's treasures after years of neglect and mismanagement. UNESCO warned that multiple buildings at the site were at risk and extensive restorations, and consistent upkeep, were needed. New treasures seen by few tourists before the lockdown included the ancient frescoes and centuries-old tile floors of the 'House of Lovers,' a two-story home that had been closed to the public since 1980 after an earthquake, and the 'House of Orchards,' featuring intricately detailed frescoes of fruit trees and birds. Earlier, in October, archaeologists discovered a vivid fresco of an armour-clad gladiator, his opponent gushing blood beside him, on the walls of what was believed to be a tavern housing fighters and prostitutes. A man has been caught after leading 12 police cars and a helicopter on a wild street chase in an allegedly stolen vehicle. A 26-year-old allegedly stole a Toyota station wagon while the owner was unpacking their car in Inala, in Brisbane on Monday about 6pm. He was then spotted by a police helicopter driving erratically with no lights on before he unsuccessfully tried to carjack another car. The driver was finally brought to a stop after ramming into two police cars that had tried to corner him inside the Georges Bridges Tunnel around 8pm. The Toyota along with two police cars were damaged as a result. A Toyota station wagon rammed into two police cars in Brisbane on Monday night after the driver allegedly stole the vehicle Witnesses said they feared the car was going to crash into them. 'This car almost hit my wife driving down the wrong side of Albany Creek Rd about 7:30 tonight. Glad they stopped him before he killed someone!' someone said on Facebook. Police allege the man pulled out the driver of the front seat of the vehicle which he attempted to carjack. But after a bystander stepped in he fled the scene and returned to the Toyota. He then sped in the direction of police who had just arrived and the chase began. After the 26-year-old was caught the tunnel was closed in the southbound direction. The 26-year-old has since been charged with various driving offences, including unlawful use of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation of a vehicle, obstruction and driving without a licence as well as an attempted robbery with use of violence charge. He will appear before the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Conagra Brands, Inc. is recalling approximately 276,872 pounds of not ready-to-eat chicken and turkey bowl products, citing the presence of extraneous materials specifically small rocks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service or FSIS announced in a statement. The latest recall is an expansion to the Russellville, Arkansas-based company's earlier recall in April of around 130,763 pounds of frozen, not ready-to-eat chicken bowl products for the same concerns. The company expanded the recall after receiving additional consumer complaints about rocks being in the products. However, there were no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. The latest recall includes Healthy Choice Power Bowls Chicken Feta & Farro Bowls, Healthy Choice Power Bowls Unwrapped Burrito Scramble Power Bowls, and Healthy Choice Power Bowls Turkey Sausage & Egg Scramble Power Bowls. The affected items were produced at two different establishments on various dates. The best buy dates ranges from October 25, October 26 and December 1. These products were shipped to retail locations across the nation and exported to Canada. FSIS urged consumers to throw away the recalled products or return to the place of purchase. The recall is classified as Class I, which indicates 'a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.' In similar incidents, Amity Packing Company Inc. in January recalled around 2,020 pounds of raw ground beef products for possible presence of clear, thin pliable plastic. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Though India has more faith in Abdullah Abdullah, rather than the mercurial Ghani, its fundamental operating principle has been that a legitimate government should be central to talks, and not a sideshow. There have been some possibly game-changing incidents recently. Those were related to Afghanistan but relates closely also to Pakistan and India. For the latter, these incidents require some fervent thought, its preoccupation with the fast-spreading virus notwithstanding. First, the most obvious and probably the least relevant, the visit of US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad to New Delhi, and his subsequent statement that India should talk directly to the Taliban. Outgoing State department head for South Asia Alice Wells topped that with her statement that India was a 'critical player in Afghanistan, rather a change from the stance of excluding New Delhi for years due to Pakistans strong objections. Then came a definite statement from Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesperson that it had no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. This followed a series of tweets ostensibly from a senior Taliban functionary that the Taliban would now shift its attention to Kashmir. The Taliban have said this before, but the timing is crucial. On 1 May, Shaheen for the first time was invited to an online interview as part of a seminar organised by a Delhi based think tank. The interview by a senior police officer was clearly aiming for specific answers to the question of how to break the logjam between Kabul and the Taliban. At that interview, Shaheen wondered why this was the first time he had been invited in his official position by an Indian group, and accused Delhi of hearing only one side of the story. The interview also showed that the Taliban continued to adroitly exploit Kabuls divisions to the full. Their refusal to accept Kabuls negotiating team was after all being echoed by Afghans themselves. Two weeks later, came the series of surprise events. On 17 May, a power-sharing deal was announced with President Ashraf Ghani agreeing that CEO Abdullah Abdullahs party be given half the cabinet posts. Abdullah was also made chairman of the High Council that negotiates peace. Days later came the announcement by the Taliban of a ceasefire for Eid ul Fitr, a gesture that Kabul reciprocated by releasing a tranche of prisoners. More surprises were to come. The Taliban appointed a Shia Hazara Mawlawi Mehdi Mujhaid as a district governor for his home district Balkhab. Mehdi is hardly a person of influence to make much difference to an ethnic group that has been heavily targeted by the Taliban. But the gesture, the very first of the kind, was significant. The Taliban were reaching out. They meant business. For India, the question of talking to the Taliban has so far hinged on one central issue that the grouping was wholly controlled by the Pakistanis, which was evident during the IC814 hijacking of 1999. Since then, it is true that the Taliban relationship with its mentor has seen its ups and downs, particularly when Islamabad has seen fit to imprison or murder leaders who did not toe its line. The present leader of the negotiating team Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a founder of the Taliban, and an Afghan to the core of his heart was one such and was kept under arrest for nine long years for daring to open links to Kabul for peace. Baradar is now heading the Doha office. But his family appears to be still in Pakistan. The effect of that on his negotiating position can hardly be wondered at. Heres another issue. The Defence Intelligence Agency analyses agree with Indian reservations. A recently released Report to Congress quoted it as saying that Pakistan will continue to influence the peace talks and that the Taliban effectively continue to be dependent on its for shelter. But theres a thought here. The members of the Doha office, which includes five detainees from Guantanamo, is as Afghan as it is likely to get. Leaders like Baradar and Mullah Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa are respected on their own merits, unlike others who derive their clout from Pakistani support. Indias position that the peace talks should be Afghan led is more or less met. It will also want to see whether Taliban operational leaders also Afghan have the stomach or the capacity to get rid of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed cadres from its ranks. The answer to that is, probably. But for that, they need the resources and the space to free themselves from an oppressive Pakistan hand. If Kabul and the international community were able to offer that space to a section of free Taliban, much might be accomplished. A second causal factor for the shifts noted above is that the economic costs of COVID-19 have in all probability hugely increased the US urgency to leave Afghanistan. That translates into a greater willingness to leave Pakistani objections aside for Indias support in the one area where it still holds the cards; which is the trust that it enjoys within Kabul, and among the Afghan people. Though India has more faith in Abdullah Abdullah, rather than the mercurial Ghani, its fundamental operating principle has been that a legitimate government should be central to talks, and not a sideshow. Khalilzad may swear that he consults Kabul on everything, but the US-Taliban peace agreement was negotiated over Kabuls head and with scant regard for its negotiating space. It is undoubtedly true that a divided Kabul hasnt helped Afghan or US interests. The power-sharing deal is, therefore, a major breakthrough and the White House could not be more relieved. It seems therefore that at least one serious impediment to the intra Afghan dialogue has been removed. A third factor arises directly from the above. With the US troops readying to come down from 12,000 odd to the low thousands, two issues arise. One is that while the White House wants a quick and speedy out, the US intelligence community is highly unlikely to simply throw in the bag in such a volatile area. Indian and US Agencies enjoy a degree of confidence, and New Delhi would be a preferred partner who unlike Pakistan has strong stakes in regional stability, particularly as it stares down an increasingly hostile China. Then there is also the fact that nature abhors a vacuum. Chinese munificence is likely to follow soon, and a few million yen can go a long way in cash-starved Afghanistan. New Delhi has no alternative but to combine forces with others to offer Kabul an alternative. India has palpably hesitated on offering Kabul infrastructure that it fears will be eventually used by the Taliban. The Chahbahar port is only one example. The fact that Kabul could include the Taliban cannot deter New Delhi. Between the two, Beijing is by far the greater threat. And particularly because its Afghan policy seems to be steered by Pakistan. Finally, there is the basic fact that the Taliban have never shown the slightest inclination to interfere in Kashmir or indeed shown any particular virulence against India. Attacks on Indian missions have been clearly traced back to Pakistan in the past, and the IC-814 incident was more than a decade ago. A lot of blood has flowed down the Amu Darya since then. Afghanistan has changed too, and it will demand more rights and privileges than a previous Taliban government offered. There is much that India can offer to help in governance and aid. In sum, therefore, it seems India could gain by talking to the Taliban, but with two caveats. First, it must on no account be seen as abandoning Kabul, which will need all the clout it can get in forthcoming intra-Afghan talks. Therefore a reaching out should be done quietly and semi-officially. Second, it must eventually be accompanied by a reach out to China first, and then Pakistan. That may seem Mission Impossible at a time when Chinese troops are knocking at our gates. But if theres anything that the pandemic has taught us it is this. Matters can change very rapidly indeed. Get going with the possible, meanwhile. Just remember that the impossible could catch up. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:35:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TOKYO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday held a video conference with European Union (EU) leaders to discuss the COVID-19 outbreak, with both sides agreeing to strengthen coordination in responding to the global pandemic. The leaders representing EU were European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. According to the Japanese foreign ministry, the meeting was the first for the three leaders since the appointment of the new EU leaders in December last year. The issue of economic recovery was also on the agenda as Japan and European countries are gradually lifting restrictions on social and economic activity after bringing the spread of the coronavirus under control. The leaders also discussed issues related to the EU-Japan strategic partnership. Abe on Monday lifted a state of emergency in the Tokyo metropolitan area and Hokkaido as the spread of COVID-19 in these areas was largely under control, thus entirely ending the emergency in all of the country's 47 prefectures. According to the latest figures Tuesday evening from the health ministry and local authorities, 28 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed nationwide in Japan, bringing the total to 16,660 cases. Enditem In a tragic incident, a 10-month-old boy suffering from fever and breathing difficulties on board a Shramik Special train died in Uttar Pradesh. The family alleged that the railways did not arrange for a doctor despite their repeated pleas, The Telegraph reported. The railway doctors had been moved to Covid-19 hospitals and by the time a doctor was provided at Tundla railway station, it was too late, the report quoted the child's grandfather, Dev Lal, as saying. Lal said that the family members had tried to speak to the GRP at many stations, including at Aligarh, where the train had halted. "But they showed no interest and said any help would be available only in Tundla, Lal told The Tribune. Railways officials then took the kin to a quarantine centre in Tundla, as they suspected that the baby had died because of the novel coronavirus. It was only on Monday that the incident came to light when another individual at the quarantine facility intimated journalists after the condition of the child's mother worsened. The railways, meanwhile, said that during the journey, Priyanka Devi with her nine-month-old son Raunak, got down at Tundla station due to his ill health and informed the Station Master, after which a Railways doctor attended to the child and declared him dead. "...After this, suspecting coronavirus, the test was conducted by the civil administration and the results came out negative," the railways said. It added that after this the last rites of the deceased child was performed. Last November, the mother of the child, a resident of Bihar's Notan village in West Champaran, had gone to visit her parents who reside in Noida with the baby, who was then just four months old. Her husband Pramod Kumar is a farmer, the report added. In another incident, A 45-year-old migrant worker aboard the Shramik Express train died on Saturday, allegedly because of hunger, The Tribune reported. His nephew, who was accompanying him, said that the victim had not eaten anything in the last 60 hours. Raveesh Yadav said that no food or water was provided on the train, which they had boarded from Mumbai to travel to their native place in Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh. Yadav and his uncle were working as construction workers in Mumbai. Yadav told the paper that the train had left the Lokmanya Terminal in Mumbai, at 7pm on May 20 and arrived at its final stop, Varanasi Cantonment station, at 7.30am on May 23. But my uncle, who was complaining of hunger and pain all over his body, fainted half an hour before we reached Varanasi Cantonment and died within a few minutes, Raveesh was quoted as saying. He added that he and his uncle were hungry when they boarded the train but could not find food or water to buy. The railways, has, however, denied the claims and said that the 45-year old man was undergoing treatment for heart disease in Mumbai and added that the cause of his death was illness and not hunger. "...The train reached the Vyasnagar station at 02:35 am and departed from there at 06:35 am and arrived at Varanasi at 7:20 am. There was no demand for food and drink at Varanasi or Vyasnagar station. His illness is the cause of death," North Central Railways statement added. An inquiry is being conducted and the result of the post mortem is awaited, the statement said. "...This train reached the Vyasnagar station at 02:35 am, it departed from there at 06:35 am and arrived at Varanasi at 7:20 am. There was no demand for food and drink at Varanasi or Vyasnagar station. His illness is the cause of death," the statement said. NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. was just awarded a 2020 SIIA CODiE Award for PracticePerfect, which won the Best Emerging Instructional Technology Solution category. Launched earlier this year, PracticePerfect is the newest study tool for law students available on CasebookConnect, Wolters Kluwer's acclaimed legal education platform. Created around best practices in learning science, PracticePerfect aims to improve the law school experience through innovative study solutions. The solution enables law students to think more like a lawyer by reviewing core civil procedure topics and testing their ability to recall and correctly apply the law. PracticePerfect supplements the law school experience and provides additional support for student learning. This tool serves as an interactive study aid with three components: a Video Library, a Quiz Center, and Progress Trackers, including the unique Confidence Dashboard. These features maximize student understanding and create personalized feedback for classroom success. "PracticePerfect was developed as part of Wolters Kluwer's continued efforts in legal education to satisfy law students' evolving needs and provide innovative, interactive, and useful learning to improve classroom success," said Nicole Pinard, Vice President and General Manager of Legal Education for Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. "We are honored that the SIIA CODiE Awards have recognized PracticePerfect for delivering a new class of edtech tool for the law students we serve." The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced the full slate of CODiE winners during an online winner announcement earlier this week in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. A SIIA CODiE Award win is a prestigious honor, following rigorous reviews by expert judges including educators and administrators whose evaluations determined the finalists. SIIA members then vote on the finalist products, and the scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners. More information about the SIIA CODiE Awards is available here: http://www.siia.net/codie To learn more about PracticePerfect, visit: www.casebookconnect.com/practiceperfect About the CODiE Awards The SIIA CODiE Awards is the only peer-reviewed program to showcase business and education technology's finest products and services. Since 1986, thousands of products, services and solutions have been recognized for achieving excellence. For more information, visit siia.net/CODiE. About Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare; tax and accounting; governance, risk and compliance; and legal and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2019 annual revenues of 4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands. For more information about Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., visit www.WoltersKluwerLR.com, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Media Linda Gharib Director, Communications Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Tel: +1 (646) 887-7962 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. Related Links https://lrus.wolterskluwer.com California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday barbershops and hair salons can reopen with county approval and if social distancing measures are put into place. This doesn't mean hair salons up and down the state can immediately swing open their doors. These businesses can only open in counties that have gone through an attestation process, proving the spread of the coronavirus is under control locally. Guidelines for reopening hair salons and barbershops were posted online today and these include both workers and customers wearing masks, frequent hand washing and physical distancing. Newsom said approval for nail salons to reopen will come later as physical distancing in these is more complicated. California's reopening is following a four-stage plan that's based on science and data and promotes social distancing. Newsom has given several sectors statewide permission to move into Stage 2, including retail, outdoor museums and office spaces where teleworking isn't possible. The state isn't requiring counties to comply with the modifications if they have more stringent guidelines in place. While hair salons may open in more rural counties in coming days, they are unlikely to open in the more urban Bay Area counties, such as San Francisco and Santa Clara, that are moving on slower reopening timelines. The state is also allowing some counties that meet certain COVID-19 benchmarks to move more quickly through Stage 2 and into Stage 3 where higher risk businesses are permitted to open. Counties with regional variance can open restaurants for dining-in service and now barbershops and hair salons. Newsom said Tuesday 47 of the 58 counties in California have qualified for regional variances. Newsom announced Monday houses of worship can reopen and retail can welcome customers back into their stores with certain social distancing measures in place and under county approval. Newsom released Monday guidance under which county health departments can approve the reopening of churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship. The state is giving counties the flexibility to decide when to make the modification to their local orders. Counties that are having success controlling the virus are likely to move quickly. Others with outbreaks such as Los Angeles County, which has about 60% of Californias roughly 3,800 deaths may choose to delay. He also gave statewide approval for retail to welcome customers back into their stores with county approval. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. COVID-19 splashed down on the global village like an invader from outer space. It attacked the entire village; hence the only way to fight it is together as one and not separately. There are, however, unmistakable signs that such a united move is not exactly happening. Some are just doing their thing while others play the blame game which usually does not solve but only worsens a problem. In the Philippines, Covid-19 came as a veritable foreign invader attacking us for the mere fact that we are the inhabitants of this corner of the village. Yet it gets clearer by the day that we are not fighting it as one village but as affiliates of this or that economic group, of this or that political party or as an island to ourselves. Pundits have also been unanimous in concluding that the principal lesson for earthlings to learn from Covid-19 is that we can no longer continue on the path of fierce and unrestricted competition for control of the earths natural resources. This iniquitous exploitation of earth not only cannot fight a virus effectively but also causes the emergence of perhaps even deadlier viruses. Yet, there are enough indicators (the latest of which is the US and China being on the brink of a Cold War) that the global village is not veering away from its present course of unrestricted competition for the earths resources. Moreover, I dont know in what other places but in the US frontline medical personnel of Asian descent are actually fighting on two fronts: against the virus and against racism. In our corner of the village, the talk is of a new way of business, of education, of agriculture, etc. but not of politics. The committee chairman on charter change (to federalism) has instead reported that the virus has stopped it dead in the water. That puts in serious doubt the chances Philippines of being rid of an iniquitous socio-political order. How else when medieval leaders treat fellow Filipinos as subordinates not as equals? How when one faction is not fighting the virus but the faction that is fighting it? How, and this is the real bombshell, when they continue to imbibe Marcos lesson that to get away with crime and corruption, you have to do it big, as in massacre or plunder or both? So, will world leaders unite against the common enemy of hunger, disease, and ignorance or continue with even greater vigor to fight for control of the earths resources; and will Filipino leaders unite to provide all Filipinos with jobs, education, and a healthy and prosperous life or go on fighting for lucrative positions in government at any cost? I hope Im reading it wrong but a now hazy crystal ball tells me no real change is forthcoming just more of the same. Last weekend and on Monday 26 May, four volunteers of the association Initiative Survie Cameroun, launched by the Cameroonian opponent Maurice Kamto, were arrested in Sangmelima. Another volunteer was arrested Monday in Djoum. These people were arrested while distributing masks and hydro-alcoholic gel to help people fight covid 19. Same scenario happened in early May, at the Mokolo market in Yaounde, where six volunteers had also been arrested during awareness campaigns. Although some volunteers are being released, these arrests tarnish the messages of applying barrier gestures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. As a reminder, at the beginning of May, Maurice Kamto wanted to donate 10,000 barrier masks, 6,800 surgical masks and 950 Covid-19 screening tests to contribute to the response to the coronavirus epidemic. But the authorities explain that they refused because his structure Survie Cameroun is not approved. In April Paul Biya donated covid 19 equipment worth 2 billion CFA francs to the country. Cameroon is the Central African country with the highest number of cases, 4 890 and 165 deaths to date, according to the CDC Africa count. In 2015, Guy Laliberte sold the Cirque du Soleil to American private equity investment firm TPG Capital, Chinese investment company Fosun and the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec for a reported US$1.5 billion. In late March, the Montreal-based circus laid off 95 per cent of its staff, close to 4,700 employees, after all of its shows around the world were shuttered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Montreal Gazette Error. Page cannot be displayed. Please contact your service provider for more details. (21) Dhinesh Kallungal By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as COVID-19 cases have started climbing steadily in the state after the return of people from outside Kerala, more private airlines are ready to jump on the evacuation bandwagon. After Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express and private airline Indigo, now Spicejet, Vistara and GoAir have received permission to operate evacuation flights to Kerala from foreign countries, chiefly from West Asia. Though Air India Express and Indigo have announced that they would operate 38 and 97 services respectively to Kerala from May 26 to June 13, other private airlines are yet to announce their decisions. There has been intense lobbying for hiking the airfare for evacuation as private airlines have been saying that they get only 10 per cent extra of the operational revenue if services are operated as per the present cost cap of Rs 13k. Only one-sided traffic is allowed which is just sufficient to meet the operational expense of the aircraft. According to sources, these private airlines are likely to be allowed to slap handling and processing charges which is expected to give them Rs 2,000 more per passenger. A formal decision on airfare of private airlines along with other details would be announced by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in a couple of days. A senior Air India officer said allowing private airlines would certainly bring more people into the state in a short period and more cargo operations would be carried out as the DGCA has already given permission to airlines to start cargo operations in passenger aircraft in approved stowage locations such as closets and overhead bins of the passenger compartment, provided the load limitations are met. But this would certainly bring more COVID-19 cases to the state. The airlines which received permission to start operate evacuation flights would operate the services as per the COVID-19 protocol. The Centre on Thursday said its mega mission to evacuate stranded expats will continue till June 13 and the extended phase will cover 47 countries. The evacuation exercise to bring back stranded expats began on May 7. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dzulfiqar Fathur Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Thu, May 28, 2020 11:28 602 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda40754 2 Business new-normal,Jokowi,COVID-19,shopping-mall,Terawan-Agus-Putranto,factories,PSBB,reopening-economy Free Businesspeople are prepared to press on with the governments plan to gradually reopen the economy under health protocols to establish a new normal amid the continued rise of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. On May 20, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto signed a set of policies on the prevention and control of COVID-19 in offices and factories. The policies set requirements for businesses to be allowed to reopen. These include ensuring sufficient hand washing facilities, checking employees temperatures, requiring employees to wear masks, keeping one meter of distance between employees at work, minimizing physical interaction with customers and avoiding the formation of crowds. Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) deputy chairwoman Shinta Kamdani said on Tuesday that reopening with health protocols was necessary to help cash-strapped businesses recover. But with confirmed cases still increasing, Shinta acknowledged that employees returning to work could be exposed to the coronavirus. I dont think we can wait until the pandemic is completely under control, Shinta told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview. We can only make an assessment based on businesses preparedness to implement the protocols in order to minimize the risks. Shinta said essential businesses had taken similar measures: requiring employees to wear face masks, disinfecting workplaces and providing hand sanitizer and hand washing facilities. However, she thought small and medium businesses might find it harder to implement the protocols. The government has been struggling to keep the economy afloat during the outbreak, which has battered Indonesias economic growth to a 19-year low of 2.97 percent in this years first quarter. The large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) meant to contain the spread of the virus in the epicenters of Greater Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java, among other regions, have forced businesses to close and left millions without jobs. Government Regulation (PP) No. 21/2020 requires all workplaces, except those in essential sectors, to temporarily shut down in areas under PSBB. "However, it's impossible to impose restrictions on workplaces forever. We should keep the wheels of our economy running," Terawan said in a statement on the Health Ministrys official website on Saturday. Thats why workplaces must prepare to adapt to changes amid the COVID-19 situation, also known as the new normal. Terawan said the policies to handle the COVID-19 pandemic must remain supportive of the continuity of the peoples economic activity, so, health-wise, they require prevention and control measures at offices and industry sites. Indonesia recorded 415 new COVID-19 cases and 27 more deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 23,165 nationwide with 1,418 total deaths. Indonesian Shopping Center Association (APPBI) chairman Stefanus Ridwan said on Tuesday that shopping malls would limit the number of visitors to just half of the normal number and would maintain safe distances at restaurants in the malls. I think 50 percent [of the normal visitors] is fine, Stefanus told the Post. Moreover, it is unlikely that everyone will go to the shopping malls at the early stage as some are probably still afraid and the economy has yet to recover. Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data shows that household consumption, which accounts for more than a half of the countrys economy, grew by just 2.84 percent in the first quarter, down from about 5 percent in the same period last year. As of April 20, more than 2 million people had lost their jobs. Others have decided to rein in their spending. APPBI Jakarta chapter chairwoman Ellen Hidayat said that 60 malls in the capital would reopen for business on June 5 and four others would reopen on June 8 in line with the Jakarta gubernatorial regulation on PSBB extension, which will end on June 4. Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has hinted that the city administration will not extend the measure a fourth time and that Jakartans should be ready to face a new normal. However, reopening the economy may not help the hotel industry as consumers will have less holiday time than they normally do and the government will have fewer meetings and conferences, said Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) vice chairman Maulana Yusran. The government has cut its budget for such activities and has reallocated the funds towards the effort to contain COVID-19. The state budget deficit is expected to pass 6 percent this year. In the new normal, which will go from June to the end of the year, the governments activities may not be optimal or may even be at a minimum, Maulana said, projecting that the countrys hotel market might only begin recovering next year. The occupancy rate in hotels across the country almost halved in March to 32.24 percent annually. Hotels get between 70 percent and 80 percent of their revenue, on average, from government meetings and conferences. People who need washrooms would be welcome to use the facilities of businesses under a new plan responding to Winnipegs historic downtown dilemma: where can we go when we have to go? Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. People who need washrooms would be welcome to use the facilities of businesses under a new plan responding to Winnipegs historic downtown dilemma: where can we go when we have to go? A proposed pilot project will see the city partner with businesses to keep their washrooms open, accessible and clean for all members of the public. The city would help fund increased cleaning and increased lavatory supplies for businesses willing to open their bathrooms to the public for free. Those washrooms would then be outfitted with door decals and marketed with the help of Downtown BIZ, so people could simply search for nearby washrooms while in the downtown core. Also this summer, the city in collaboration with Downtown BIZ and BridgmanCollaborative Architecture will return the famed orange pop-up public toilets. The city has in recent years gained national and international attention for the pop-up facility fashioned from an old shipping container, painted a bold shade of orange and moved throughout the downtown over the course of two summer seasons. "COVID19 has taught us the importance of a healthy environment, and a healthy environment certainly includes the public toilet." Architect Wins Bridgman The COVID-19 pandemic has steered concerns around public washrooms in two significant ways. Libraries, coffee shops, and other downtown locations where people might once have been able to use the loo have closed in recent months, leading to fewer safe, clean washroom facilities. At the same time, the heightened attention to public health has prompted cities to take a fresh look at public bathrooms as an essential component of a thriving city. "The city of Winnipeg, like other cities across Canada and throughout the world, have understood the importance... in terms of the revitalization of the downtown economy living with the post COVID-19 world, that to attract people to the downtown we need a sanitary environment, a safe environment for everyone and that includes public toilets that are safe," said Wins Bridgman, the architect behind the pop-up public toilet. "COVID-19 has taught us the importance of a healthy environment, and a healthy environment certainly includes the public toilet." Other cities across the country have tried to cover the gaps in accessible washrooms through a variety of initiatives. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES In the past two years, the pop-up bathroom has been open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., staffed by partnerships with local not-for-profits. A new "mobility response plan" announced this week to help Halifax recover from the impacts of the pandemic will see two portable toilets installed behind the citys downtown public library, with other stations potentially to come. Tim Hortons locations across Canada opened their counters and bathrooms in early April to accommodate truckers who had been denied access to washrooms in the wake of COVID sanitation fears. In Bridgman's eyes, public washrooms sit at the epicentre of conversations around community support and human dignity. For a city to thrive, people must be out and about, and for people to thrive they must be able to access clean and safe places to go. "Theres so many needs: its for vulnerable individuals that may be living on the street, it's for seniors that may need to plan trips accordingly if they're coming down and visiting for appointments, it's kids, it's everybody running between meetings," said Kate Fenske, CEO of Downtown Winnipeg BIZ. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Operating the "big orange beast," costs between $40,000 and $60,000 annually. In the past two years, the pop-up bathroom has been open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., staffed by partnerships with local not-for-profits (Siloam House for the inaugural 2018 run, Main Street Project during the shorter 2019 stint) in an effort to raise awareness about the need for more public bathrooms in the city. Operating the "big orange beast," as Fenske calls it, costs between $40,000 and $60,000 annually. "It wasn't a long-term solution and we always knew that," Fenske said. "One of the things weve been looking at in the last year even before COVID was how do we make more public restrooms more accessible and available throughout our downtown." Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. This summer's renewed urgency around the provision of public washrooms has pushed a long-awaited pilot project into high gear. "One of the options that we're still hoping we can look at doing a form of this year is a partnership with businesses. We had reached out to businesses last year to see if some of them would be open to allowing their restrooms to open to the public, and then we would work with them to share that information," Fenske said of the project. "For us its really important to create some continuity... so people know where (the toilets) are, when they're operating and when they can rely on them," Fenske said. The details of the partnership haven't been ironed out yet, but Fenske said she hopes to see the pilot alongside the pop-up public toilet up and running as soon as June. julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jsrutgers People who love natural beauty, outdoor adventure and an active community do not mind relocating to a new city with all these attributes. In America, there are numerous such cities that offer great outdoor life to those who are interested. From biking to hiking, fishing to snorkeling and simple camping with the family and friends, there are these amazing cities in America that are set for your outdoor voyages. Recent trends suggest that more and more Americans are adopting a more active lifestyle and searching for opportunities that allow them easy access to outdoorsy lifestyle. The metal, physical a spiritual benefits of moving to a city with easy availability of outdoor recreational activities is becoming more popular, says expert at Pricing Van Lines, platform offering moving assistance and tools like moving cost calculator to interested people. There are ample of studies that support this new inclination of moving to such locations with benefits ranging to relief in anxiety levels, stress busting, better cognitive benefits, enhance immune system and many more. For these seeking a healthier life option and a break for the monotony of daily hustle bustle, moving to one of the below mentioned cities brings a lot of advantages. 1. Boulder, CO The first city in the list of preferred outdoorsy cities in US include Boulder at the top ranking. The city offers a perfect opportunity to lead a contended life with best amenities at disposal and amazing accommodation options. Moreover, the city has some of the best schools in the US and also a low crime rate. The outdoor activities options Boulder offers include biking through the Chautauqua Park, rock climbing at Eldorado Canyon and fly fishing in Boulder Creek. 2. Charleston, SC What attracts people to Charleston is the amazing sunny weather that is constant in the city. The historic city has great community to socialize and the crime rate are commendable low. In terms of housing and amenities, Charleston is considered as one of the best cities in the US. In terms of outdoor activities, the city has options like sightseeing, sailing at the Charleston Harbor and exciting surfing opportunities on the Folly Beach. 3. Newport, RI Words can't describe the richness of life in Newport. The city offers a lot to all kind of people when it comes to quality of life and availability of amenities and facilities. The housing facilities are amazing so are the job opportunities. In terms of outdoorsy score, Newport is known for its amazing Old Port market with striking streets and shops, the incredible splendor of Casco Bay Islands and the excitement one can catch while biking at the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse Loop. 4. San Diego, CA A major city of America, San Diego is the city of opportunities. You can get a perfect accommodation with an affordable price tag, great weather to enjoy a lazy day in the sun as well as a range of amenities to make your life better and more facilitated. Weighing San Diego as an outdoorsy city, the numerous attractions in Balboa Park, paragliding adventure at the Torrey Pines Glider port and sunbathing at La Jolla Beach definitely make its rating high. 5. San Francisco, CA From a highly stable housing market to ample of job opportunities, mild weather conditions to excess of amenities, there is nothing that makes San Francisco a less able candidate to be added to this list. The city is preferred by many people to move for the sake of gaining a more outdoor centric lifestyle. From enjoying a bike ride at the Golden Gate Bridge to surfing on the amazing waves on Ocean Beach and hiking the trails of Fort Funston, the recreational activities at San Francisco are extremely diverse and satisfactory. You can choose any of the above mentioned city to relocate. You will get a great change in life with more exposure to the nature. Searching a job in these cities is also not very complicated and same applies to a house hunt. A little research and efforts can land you a perfect job and accommodation as you plan your voyage to the many outdoor recreational locations in the city. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:31:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The rights to life and health are among the most fundamental human rights. Sparing no efforts to save lives from being ravaged by COVID-19, China has shown its steadfast commitment to protecting human rights. Protecting and saving lives is the primary responsibility of any government and the best manifestation of human rights protection. China has made all-out efforts to safeguard the lives and health of its people and taken the strictest measures to curb the spread of the disease. China takes no chances when dealing with a virus about which humanity still knows very little. On Jan. 23, China put Wuhan, a metropolis of over 10 million people, on lockdown, a drastic measure labeled as "violating human rights" by some Western politicians. However, it has proven to be one of the most important decisions in the global fight. Mobilizing the power of the whole country to contain the disease, racing around the clock to build two large new hospitals in just over two weeks in Wuhan, taking care of each and every patient at all costs, China has sought to cure as many patients as possible and does all it can to reduce mortality. China is going all out to guard against and manage even sporadic new cases. At the ongoing annual sessions of the national legislature and top political advisory body, discussions are on for forging a "protection network" for public health. As we speak, a few U.S. politicians are wielding the batons of bills, investigations or ludicrous lawsuits against China as if they valued lives more than others. The truth is they are either afraid of being held accountable for failures in protecting their own people or simply want to throw mud at others. If the United States had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than the time when most Americans started staying home, about 83 percent of its deaths would have been avoided, according to estimates by Columbia University disease modelers. So far, the confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States have exceeded 1.6 million, and the death toll is well on its way to 100,000. The glaring contrast between the two major countries makes people wonder: Who is the better upholder of human rights? While preventing and controlling the epidemic on a regular basis, China has gradually resumed business and production to ensure people's right to work and develop. It has made stabilizing jobs a priority and lowered taxes and fees to alleviate burdens on employers. The Chinese government has been providing epidemic information in an open, transparent and truthful manner in accordance with the law. The right to know is ensured without violating anyone's right to privacy. Leaving no one unattended, China's sweeping protection covers all men and women, children, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. It also treats foreign citizens in an equal manner. In Hubei Province, more than 3,600 COVID-19 patients aged over 80 have been cured. In Wuhan, seven people over 100 years old have recovered from the disease. Globally, China's largest humanitarian operation to aid other countries is just for one purpose -- saving lives. Putting the people first, putting lives first -- China effectively ensured human rights in a global crisis. As such, it deserves a credit in the history of human rights development. Enditem Scott Morrison has abandoned a union-busting bill in a show of 'good faith' as he embarks on an ambitious program of industrial relations reform to save the economy after coronavirus lockdowns. The Prime Minister today scrapped the ensuring integrity bill which would have given courts the power to disqualify union officials if they broke the law. The move is a concession to powerful unions with whom he will negotiate to change Australia's 'complicated' workplace laws in a bid to create jobs. Mr Morrison has asked unions and companies to sit down and discuss reforms co-cooperatively, saying: 'I think everybody's got to put their weapons down on this.' His new conciliatory approach evokes late Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke who in the 1980s agreed the Prices and Incomes Accord to stop workers demanding higher wages in return for better social services. In the 1980s UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took on the unions while Aussie leader Bob Hawke (pictured together in Downing Street in 1986) negotiated with them Between now and September Minister for Industrial Relations Christian Porter will chair five working groups involving unions and companies on award simplification, enterprise agreement-making, casuals and fixed-term employees, compliance and enforcement, and Greenfields agreements. Mr Morrison did not outline any specific policies he wanted to introduce - but his overall aim is to get as many Australians back into work as possible by making it easier for companies to employ people. 'The purpose is simple and honest: to explore and hopefully find a pathway to sensible, long-lasting reform, with just one goal - make jobs,' he said. In a warning message to unions who may drive a hard bargain, he added: 'What I want them to focus on is an understanding that, if there's no business, there's no job. There's no income. There's nothing.' Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia, said: 'The system has become too complicated. It is too hard to get enterprise agreements done.' She said she wanted the enterprise agreement system go back to the 'original thinking of the Hawke and Keating Government where employees and employers were sitting down together thinking about how to make a business more successful'. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison addresses the National Press Club in Canberra Scott Morrison will today propose major changes to the vocational education system as part of his 'JobMaker' plan to restore the Australian economy after coronavirus Such a system ultimately resulted in higher wages as businesses made more money, she said. Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles slammed the announcement for lacking 'substance'. He urged Mr Morrison to 'guarantee to Australian workers that their rights at work won't be changed, that their job security won't be made worse, and that their take-home pay won't be made worse.' ACTU secretary Sally McManus said she was looking forward to working with the government to address the challenges facing Australia. The system has become too complicated. It is too hard to get enterprise agreements done Jennifer Westacott, CEO of the Business Council of Australia 'Union bashing belongs in the past. That's where it should be,' she said. The 'ensuring integrity' bill was defeated in the Senate late last year before the draft laws were reintroduced. The government insisted the amendments were needed to deal with misconduct in the construction industry where officials had been accused of illegally entering construction sites, harassing employees or illegally forcing them to join unions. In a keynote speech today, the Prime Minister proposed a radical shake-up of vocational education as part of his plan to reset the economy after coronavirus. In an address to the National Press Club, he outlined plans to reform Australia's 'clunky and unresponsive' training system and create jobs after lockdowns left at least 1.3million out of work. He wants new courses to be shaped by industry leaders and to reduce the number of programs to make it easier for young people to choose a career path. Mr Morrison also re-affirmed Australia's commitment to free trade in the face of mounting tensions with China. Mr Morrison wants new courses to be shaped by industry leaders and to reduce the number of programs to make it easier for young people to choose a career path There are more than 1,400 qualifications on offer in Australia requiring almost 17,000 units of competency. 'For prospective students, the large number of choices that they face for qualifications can be bewildering,' Mr Morrison said in Canberra. The fees students pay for courses can also be radically different in each state. For example, subsidies for a Diploma of Nursing in 2017 varied between $19,963 in Western Australia and $8,218 in Queensland. Mr Morrison said the system is so complex that students who are best suited for vocational courses 'default' to university degrees. 'I want those trade and skills jobs to be aspired to, not looked down upon or seen as a second best option. It is a first best option,' he added. To solve the problem, Mr Morrison wants new training programs that are created with direct input from companies and industry leaders. 'We need Australians better trained for the jobs businesses are looking to create,' he said. The Skills Organisation Pilots program aims to 'give industry the opportunity to shape the training system to be more responsive to their skills needs'. Mr Morrison wants to simplify the funding system for vocational courses and also reduce the number of options to make it easier for young people to choose a course So far the human services, digital technologies and mining sectors have been consulted on how they would like training to look. The human services sector has already developed a skill set that it wants workers to have to boost aged care and disability support. The government has also established a National Skills Commission which will report yearly on what skills Australia needs and create new lists for apprenticeships and skilled migration. Mr Morrison also wants to overhaul the funding system to make state governments - which receive $1.5billion each year - more accountable. 'The Commonwealth has no line of sight on how states use this funding,' he said. 'Where targets do exist, they are aspirational. If not met, there are no consequences.' Mr Morrison also wants to overhaul the vocational education funding system to make state governments - which receive $1.5billion each year - more accountable What changes is the PM proposing to vocational education funding? Better link funding to actual forward looking skills needs, based on what businesses need. Simplify the system, and achieve greater consistency between jurisdictions, and between the VET and higher education sectors. Increase funding transparency and performance monitoring. Taxpayers, students and employers should know where the money is going. Better coordinate the subsidies, loans and other sources of funding, based on principles of return on investment, to make the most of the support that is being provided. Advertisement Instead, the Prime Minster wants a system similar to the hospital funding model which assigns cash based on activity. 'That is a system my Government would be prepared to invest more in,' he said. Mr Morrison expects it will take 'three to five years' for Australia's economy to recover from the impact of COVID-19. With unemployment at around 10 per cent and global trade and foreign investment plummeting, he said the country faces the 'most challenging environment ever outside of wartime.' Facing deteriorating relations with China, Mr Morrison (pictured with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang) will insist Australia will continue to be an 'outward-looking', trading nation But in a message of hope to thousands of businesses and workers, he referenced Australia's recovery from previous downturns and say: 'We have done this before and together we can do it again.' Facing deteriorating relations with China, which has taxed Australian barley and banned some Aussie beef, Mr Morrison insisted that the country will continue to be an 'outward-looking', trading nation. Tensions with the communist superpower have increased dramatically since Mr Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of the virus in April, a move which infuriated Beijing. Although he did not name China, Mr Morrison said that Australia will continue to champion free trade and search for new markets for its products. In his speech at the National Press Club, Mr Morrison will reference indigenous Australians and say that his plans will involve 'caring for country.' 'We will not retreat into the downward spiral of protectionism. To the contrary, we will continue to be part of global supply chains that can deliver the prosperity we rely on to create jobs, support incomes and build our businesses,' he said. 'Our economic sovereignty will be achieved by ensuring our industries are highly competitive, resilient and able to succeed in a global market. However, Mr Morrison warned that national security will be prioritised. 'While a trading nation, we will not trade away our values or our future for short-term gain. 'With trade, alliance and other partners we will work to establish and maintain the balance needed for peace and stability in our region that prosperity depends on.' Asked if he would caution companies from doing business with China in the current climate, the Prime Minister said: 'I think that's a judgement only Australian businesses can make.' Secondly, Mr Morrison referenced indigenous Australians and said that his plans will involve 'caring for country.' The third part of the Prime Minister's plan is to 'build on Australia's strengths' including agriculture. Pictured: A farming family in Gunnedah, NSW Mr Morrison wants China to continue to champion free trade. Cattle and beef are among Australians main exports 'We must not borrow from future generations what we cannot return to them,' he said. 'This is a much true for our environmental, cultural and natural resources as it is for our economic and financial ones.' The third part of the Prime Minister's plan is to 'build on Australia's strengths'. He highlighted the manufacturing, services, resources, agriculture and financial sectors as being crucial to Australia's recovery Mr Morrison then outlined his commitment to provide every Australian with a fair go with access to essential services and a system that rewards hard work. 'We must always ensure that there is the opportunity in Australia for those who have a go, to get a go. This is our Australian way,' he said. Finally, the Prime Minister mentioned plans to support companies after the Jobkeeper program to pay the wages of three million workers ends in September. 'At some point you've got to get your economy out of ICU,' he said. Mr Morrison will then outline his commitment to provide every Australian with a fair go with access to essential services and a system that rewards hard work. Pictured: Children back to school in Sydney on Monday 'You've got to get it off the medication before it becomes too accustomed to it.' He invoked William Green, the leader of the American Federation of Labour during the Great Depression, who said in 1994: 'We cannot indefinitely support one sixth of our population on money borrowed against future taxes'. While weaning businesses off life support, Mr Morrison will look to slash red tape and reduce taxes to help them recover. 'We must enable our businesses to earn our way out of this crisis. That means focusing on the things that can make our businesses go faster,' he said. 'You will feel more pain': China's chilling new threat to devastate Australia's economy if it supports the U.S. in a 'new cold war' Chinese state media has threatened Australia with new economic sanctions if it supports the United States as tensions with Beijing escalate. The US said on Friday it would ban trade with 33 Chinese companies in a move that could signal the start of a 'new cold war', according to Chinese media. An article in the state-controlled Global Times said that Australia should keep quiet like India and stay out of the spat to avoid becoming collateral damage. Chinese state media has threatened Australian with new economic sanctions if it supports the US in an escalating trade war with Beijing. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) and Premier Li Keqiang A haulage truck and an autonomous drilling rig at the Rio Tinto West Angelas iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of West Australia The article said that China will punish Australia more harshly than the US because it is less economically dependent on Australia. The US is China's number one export market whereas Australia is 14th. The article said: 'China will enjoy more room to fight back against Australia with countermeasures if Canberra supports Washington in a possible 'new Cold War'. 'It means Australia may feel more pain than the US.' The editorial said President Trump was targeting China to distract from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed 97,000 Americans. 'The Trump administration is fomenting trouble to deflect its woes over its mishandling of the coronavirus onto China,' it said. 'There is no need for other countries, such as Australia, to involve themselves in this ridiculous political play.' The Global Times believes Australia is merely a 'lap dog' being used to further American interests and last week claimed the US coerced Canberra into calling for an inquiry into the origins and spread of coronavirus. Last month Beijing became infuriated by Australia's calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus, believing that it was a 'malicious' attempt to blame and 'stigmatize' China. Prime Minster Scott Morrison had demanded a ban on wildlife wet markets, where the virus may have originated, and said inspectors should be able to enter a country suffering from a pandemic without the government's consent. Earlier this month China slapped an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley and suspended imports from four Australian beef suppliers in apparent revenge. About one third of Australia's total exports - including iron ore, gas, coal and food - go to China, bringing in around $135billion per year and providing thousands of jobs. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny to an official dinner at the White House September 20, 2019 Last week fears of further retaliation were raised when China relaxed checks on iron-ore imports in a move that could favour Australia's competitors. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US 'stands with Australia'. Mr Morrison has repeatedly insisted the two countries are 'great mates' and their alliance is strong. The 33 companies the US blacklisted have been accused of helping Beijing spy on its minority Uighur population or having ties to weapons of mass destruction and China's military. Seven companies and two institutions were listed for being 'complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs' and others, the Commerce Department said in a statement. Two dozen other companies, government institutions and commercial organizations were added for supporting procurement of items for use by the Chinese military, the department said in another statement. Two property development companies controlled by Paddy McKillen senior and his family have secured High Court orders on consent overturning a policy adopted by Dublin City Council concerning the construction of basements. Among the companies' concerns was that the policy introduced measures which would have significant impact on basements and underground development, particularly a requirement that basements are set back 0.5 metres from the boundaries of the relevant site. That would affect the commercial viability of a number of developments being considered by the companies, they claimed. Ingaro Limited and May Property Holdings brought a judicial review challenge the councils decision on January 31 last adopting a Basement Development policy document and a Basement Development Guidance document. When the case came before Mr Justice David Bairnville at the Commercial Court today he was told by Jarlath Fitzsimons SC, for the applicants, the matter had settled and orders could be made on consent. Stephen Dodd SC, for the council, confirmed its consent. The judge congratulated the sides on reaching a settlement and made the agreed orders, including one quashing the January 31 decision. He also granted a declaration that, in adopting the policy and guidelines, the council acted in excess of its powers and erred in law with the result the impugned decision is invalid and of no legal effect. An additional order requires the council to pay the applicants' legal costs. In their action, the companies said the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022 contains a number of policies concerning the development of basements. It said a basement impact assessment policy document of February 2019 appeared to introduce a new policy to formalise planning requirements for all below-ground structures, basements, regardless of their function. That document indicated the new policy would introduce the requirements of Basement Impact Assessments (BIAs) for all below-ground structures, with the associated costs to be borne by developers. The content of a BIA was also to be made a material consideration in the planning application process. The companies claimed the policy documents impose significant requirements on planning applicants. They alleged the council had failed to identify the source of its purported power to adopt the disputed policy on January 31, 2020, and it lacked such power. The companies also alleged the council made a material error of law in adopting an inflexible policy requiring, in relation to all basement development, there must be at least 0.5m width between the site proposed boundary and the outer extent of the proposed basement. Other claims included the council had adopted the policy without any public consultation or consultation with affected parties in breach of the applicants' constitutional rights and their rights to fair procedures. Mercy and Ike Season 1 Episode 5: If You Want To End Things With Me, Pay Me Off Last weeks episode left the viewers wondering what would become of Mercy and Ikes relationship upon Mercys return from London. Read on to find out the juicy details! We see Mercy and her siblings, Promise and Chigozie having a conversation at Mercys house and showing the viewers how strong their family bond is. Mercy couldnt contain her excitement to be finally reunited with Ike and to reassure him everything will turn out fine. As Ike made his way to Mercys house, he let the viewers know that he couldnt pick up Mercy from the airport due to the situation concerning the video and photograph of her with Willy XO. When Ike arrived, Mercy wanted to know if he had problems with her visiting her friends because he didnt seem to have issues in the past. Ike mentioned that if he knew she was going to put on a show, he wouldnt have allowed her to go and he felt she did it on purpose. Mercy went on to defend her actions by saying Willy XO is a genuine friend. While the duo continued to have a heated conversation, Mercy brought to the attention of the viewers that the people who are determined to put a wedge in their relationship are only hurting Ike not her and they need to see that hes pained. Mercy also mentioned she doesnt want to be in a family that doesnt appreciate her, she expressed how mad she was that everyone is adamant that she travelled to London with an agenda and she doesnt want to reach the point where shes with Ike because she pities him. Ike expressed that he really wants to be with Mercy and needed to know if they were on the same page. Mercy also expressed how much she loves Ike, but he always seems to choose money over her. Ike went on to let the viewers know that if Mercy wants to end things with him, she needs to pay him off. Mercy voiced that she feels Ike would leave her once another rich lady comes along and that he might be with her for his own selfish reasons. Ike urged Mercy to unfollow Willy XO, because he felt this would help their relationship move forward. Once Ike saw Mercys reaction to what he had asked her to do, he realized Mercy wasnt willing to sacrifice for him. Mercy knew Ike asked her to unfollow Willy XO due to comments made by others and she wasnt going to do it to please them. After a back and forth between the two, Mercy finally gave in then proceeded to re-enter her house slamming the door behind her. She broke down, talking about how shes hurting but also, she tends not to display her feelings all over social media and she could see how Ike is hurting too. Ike is back at his house with his cousin, discussing scheduling photoshoots and the situation between him and Mercy. He made it clear to his cousin that he doesnt want Mercy to have anything to do with Willy XO and he felt he has crossed the line by taking the photograph. He also stated that Mercy needs to handle the situation online before she comes back to him. The conversation concluded with him wanting to focus on what can bring in more revenue. Mercy had time to reflect on the previous conversation between her and Ike, and she felt that everything is getting worse. Mercy organized a rendezvous with her besties to take her mind off things. Whilst Mercy was getting ready with the help of her personal assistant, she was surprised to receive a phone call from a fan. Mercy made the decision to answer the call and make conversation. During the call, Mercy felt the fan was more interested in the well-being of Ike not her and that the fans tone gave off the impression she handled the situation wrong. Mercy and her besties, Tracy, Mimi and Tara hung out at Landmark beach to discuss personal issues. But before they did, Mercy helped in putting an end to a quarrel between two of her friends because she holds friendship in high regard. Mercy went on to ask the girls what they thought about Ike, and they had a lot to say. Her friends felt Ike is manipulative, he doesnt fight for Mercy as he should, he doesnt reciprocate love, he puts Mercy through emotional stress and Tracy even went as far as jokingly saying What is Ike?. Mercy lets the viewers know that her friends always want the best for her, and theyve been through a lot on social media with people showering them with insult and how Ike hasnt done anything to address that online. Although Ikes faults were pointed out by her friends, Mercy still defended him by making them aware of how nice he is and the love she has for him. Dont you worry, the next episode is not too far away! Catch it next Sunday on Africa Magic Showcase channel 151 at 6:30 pm and watch out for the repeat on Mondays on Africa Magic Urban, DStv channel 153 at 9:30 pm. Five McMaster professors and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI) are calling on public health to create an equity advisory committee as it sets out to track race-based COVID data. The call comes as public health says it will start tracking race data Tuesday. In a letter sent May 19 and addressed to Hamiltons medical officer of health, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the professors and HCCI ask public health to create a data equity advisory committee as the health unit sets out to track race-based and socioeconomic data related to COVID-19 cases. The ethics, methods, processes and analyses of race-based and equity data are complex, specialized areas of knowledge, practice and expertise, states the letter. We the undersigned strongly recommend that the collection and analysis of race-based data, including the processes and methods of collection, be developed collaboratively with local leaders and experts who do anti-racism work, research and analysis. Kelly Anderson, public health spokesperson, said Richardson received the letter and a meeting is being scheduled to discuss these issues further. She added: Data collection for race-based and social determinants of health data, including Indigenous identity, will begin tomorrow using a tool based on those used in London, Toronto and Peel until we receive further direction from the province. HCCI and other equity advocates have been calling on the city to start tracking race- and socioeconomic-based data. Ameil Joseph, an associate professor in McMaster Universitys department of social work who signed the letter, said he will take public health up on its offer to meet. I think when we have an opportunity to know more about a problem, in ways that help us to understand the impacts and effects of inequities, we should utilize it, Joseph said. Kojo Damptey, interim executive director of HCCI, said he wished the city had tracked the data before revealing its reopening plan, released Friday. The data could have informed such aspects of reopening as which communities need greater supports. As for the committee, Damptey said it could advise public health on what questions to ask, how to ask them sensitively and how to reassure people their data will be handled properly. Data has been used to do some awful stuff, Damptey said, referring to eugenics research. I think anytime youre going to be collecting data, it needs to be done in ethical manner A week and a half ago, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontarios associate chief medical officer of health, committed to tracking COVID data related to race, income and household size in Ontario. What are the risk factors that make somebody more likely to get infected? And then how can we address those risk factors to prevent other people from getting it, she said. Yaffe said it is important to ensure the interview with the infected person doesnt last too long and that the questions asked are the best, most pertinent ones. At the time, Yaffe said she hoped tracking would begin in the next week or two. SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Rica became the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage early Tuesday when a ruling from its supreme court went into effect ending the countrys ban. Couples held ceremonies mostly private due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some that were broadcast to celebrate their unions before judges and notaries after the ban was lifted at midnight. Daritza Araya and Alexandra Quiros married just after midnight in an outdoor service performed by a notary wearing a face mask who pronounced them wife and wife. Theirs was the first legal gay marriage in Costa Rica and it was streamed live on the internet. Costa Rica is the sixth country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, following most recently Ecuador, which allowed it last year. It is also permitted in some parts of Mexico. Gay equality activist Marco Castillo married his longtime partner Tuesday morning before a judge. This is a step in social equality. The fact that Rodrigo and I are able to come marry each other in a court is progress, Castillo said. This drives us to continue other fights for those who have a different sexual orientation. Castillo had fought for same-sex marriage for years in the courts. He was also recently sanctioned as a notary for conducting the marriage of two women, which was later annulled. President Carlos Alvarado sent a message on state television and social networks, saying, Today we celebrate freedom, equality and democratic institutions,. The issue took centre stage in Costa Ricas 2018 presidential election after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an opinion that countries like Costa Rica, which had signed the American Convention on Human Rights, had to move immediately to legalize gay marriage. It helped propel President Carlos Alvarado to victory over an evangelical candidate, Fabricio Alvarado, who had campaigned against it. In August 2018, Costa Ricas supreme court said the countrys ban was unconstitutional and gave the congress 18 months to correct it or it would happen automatically. The Legislative Assembly did not act, so at midnight the law banning same-sex marriage was nullified. A campaign celebrating the change called I do planned a series of events including hours of coverage on state television and messages from celebrities, including Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations rgh commissioner for human Rights. Gia Miranda, director of the I do campaign, said television coverage would also include segments on the movements history in Costa Rica. It gives us so much joy, Miranda said. The only thing that could win with this is Costa Rica and in general love. She said it would help decrease discrimination and make the country more prosperous and attractive to tourists. Authorities in Alabama are searching for a man suspected of shooting dead his estranged wife, her sister and the sister's boyfriend before going on the lam with another woman. Decatur police said Carson Ray Peters, 58, has three capital murder warrants out for his arrest, and that both he and his suspected travel companion, April Hanner, should be considered 'armed and dangerous.' Court documents have revealed that Peters and his ex were in the middle of a divorce at the time of the triple homicide, and that the wife had filed a motion for her estranged husband to be held in contempt of court three days before the shooting. 'Armed and dangerous': Authorities in Alabama are searching for Carson Peters, 58 (left), and April Hanner (right) in connection to Sunday's triple homicide in the Danville area Three people were found shot dead and a fourth was wounded inside a home on Flint Creek Private Drive on Sunday evening Officers responded just before 7pm on Sunday to a report of gunshots on Flint Creek Private Drive in the Danville area. When police entered the residence, they found three people dead from gunshot wounds. A fourth victim was airlifted to a hospital with injuries. Authorities have identified the deceased as Peters' estranged wife, 54-year-old Teresa Peters, her sister, Tammy Smith, 50, and Smith's boyfriend, 55-year-old James Miller. Carson had filed for divorce from Teresa in January and moved out of their home, news outlets reported. Court documents show Teresa filed a motion on May 21 to hold Carson in contempt of court, claiming he locked her personal belongings and the air conditioning units from their home inside a shed and left with the key. Carson's estranged wife, Teresa Peters, 54 (left), and her sister, Tammy Smith, 50 (right), were killed alongside Smith's boyfriend, James Miller , 55 The motion says Teresa 'has been unable to obtain her personal belongings for a few months and there is currently no air conditioning in the home,' WHNT-TV reported. Teresa's grown daughter confirmed the killings in a status update on Monday, writing that her mother, aunt and the aunt's boyfriend were shot and killed, and that her grandmother was has been hospitalized. 'We were all supposed to spend the day together today for my mom's birthday right now,' wrote her daughter, adding that her 'momma' was her best friend who was always there for her. Teresa's other daughter wrote: 'My mom was the most loving person. She seen [sic] the good in everybody no matter what. She was the best mom anybody could ask for.' Her third daughter wrote separately of the triple homicide: 'How can a coward think he has the right to take 3 amazing people from our lives...' Teresa Peters is survived by her grown children and several grandchildren, one of whom is battling cancer. Peters reported filed for divorce in January. Teresa had filed a motion seeking for him to be held in contempt of court just three days before the killings The station WAFF has uncovered court documents saying that Carson Peters' earlier marriage ended in a divorce in 2014 after his former wife, Kim, accused him of domestic abuse. In court filings, Kim Peters described Carson as being obsessively jealous and very controlling. Teresa was killed a day before her 55th birthday; she is survived by children and grandchildren In August of that year, the wife claimed that her husband physically attacked her during an argument, and that she required a trip to the emergency room to be treated for her injuries. Police said in a Facebook post on Monday that they have received information indicating Peters 'and any other persons of interest' may have left the Danville-Neel area. The male suspect is described as standing at 5 feet 7 inches in height and weighing 190lbs, with brown hair and blue eyes. His female companion is described as being 4-foot-11 and 110lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes. Peters and Hanner are possibly driving a black 2013 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck with Alabama license plates 52GL447. As of Tuesday afternoon, both Peters and Hanner remained at large. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to continue its training and improve its combat preparedness amid the ongoing pandemic, according to state broadcaster CCTV. It is necessary to explore ways and means of training and preparing for war as we normalize pandemic prevention and control measures, Xi said on Tuesday while addressing the Chinese military delegation to the countrys rubber-stamp parliament, which is holding its annual meeting in Beijing. Modernizing the army and enhancing its combat preparedness have been a priority for Xi since he took power in 2013. Xi, who also heads the 2 million-strong PLA, acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic has been a big test for the military while also creating a profound impact on Chinas security and development. It is necessary to adhere to the bottom-line thinking, comprehensively strengthen the training of troops and combat preparedness, said Xi, adding that the military should resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security, development interests and the overall strategic stability of the country. Xi echoed previous statements made by Premier Li Keqiang following the announcement of an increased military budget last week when Li said the bigger military budget was needed to protect Chinas sovereignty, security, development interests. This story was first published on CNN.com, "China's president says coronavirus pandemic must not impact military preparedness" Xis comments come amid growing tensions between the US and China over several issues including trade, Hong Kong, and the coronavirus pandemic. Normally, any untoward incident between India and China triggers a Pavlovian response in the Pakistani media. There is undisguised glee, even excitement and expectation, over the prospect of the two countries getting into a shooting match in which, the Pakistanis are dead certain, India will get a very bloody nose, will be cut to size by Pakistans all-weather friend China, and will be exposed as a paper tiger. Some Pakistani strategists, mostly retired diplomats or generals, who always lament that Pakistan wasted the opportunity of wresting Kashmir in 1962 when India was on the ropes, feel that the next time India gets embroiled in a war with China, Pakistan should make a bold grab for Kashmir. This two-front situation Pakistan and China acting in collusion is also something that Indian strategic planners and thinkers have been factoring in their strategic calculus. Of course, while this two-front situation is Indias worst-case scenario, it is Pakistans cherished dream. Against this backdrop, it is a little strange that the current three-week long stand-off (and which is unlikely to end anytime soon) between Indian and Chinese forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Union Territory of Ladakh has been virtually ignored by the Pakistani media. Even more surprisingly, despite reports of unarmed clashes between the Indian and Chinese soldiers and the fact that the stand-offs are taking place at more than one place, the Pakistanis havent yet started salivating. Apart from a few news reports, mostly quoting Indian news sources, there has been almost total radio silence so far. It is only after a few reports in the Indian media of Chinese troops occupying Indian territory that there has been some stirring in Pakistan, and that too mostly in the social media. While this two-front situation is Indias worst case scenario, it is Pakistans cherished dream. Since the reports appeared about the occupation of Indian territory a Pakistani OSINT handle has gone to the extent of saying that India has been technically invaded there is some excitement in Pakistan. The same handle has even held a poll about how India would fare in the event it has to fight both Chinese and the Pakistani armies together. Other Twitter users are a tad more sober but reflect the ingrained schadenfreude of Pakistanis when it comes to India. The former High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, has declared that India is now almost isolated in the region. China, Pakistan, Nepal and even Bangladesh have serious issues with India. Bhutan also interested in establishing diplomatic relations with China. And Sri Lanka and future Afghanistan under Taliban can never trust India. An academic who pretends to be balanced has taken a dig at India and Indian media by tweeting Is this China intimidating India cos it knows that India knows that China is not Pakistan when it comes to crossing lines? No surgical strikes to correct this one? No media blitz? Nothing. In another tweet, the same academic has expressed the hope that the Chinese incursion would force India to shift focus to the LAC and that could ease things along the LoC. In the mainstream media, however, there has been very little comment or analysis over the on-going stand-off. On the day the report on China occupying Indian territory appeared, a former Pakistani air force official wrote an article in which he wondered if South Asia was drifting towards another war. Although the article was more about Kashmir and the recent exchanges of fire along the LoC, he brought in the China angle and also linked the recent boundary spat with Nepal to plug his point that Prime Minister Modis quest for an assertive India made for a toxic mix for a region likened to a tinderbox. According to this article, the US was nudging India to assert against the growing Chinese influence which would pull the Chinese into the region kinetically to safeguard their vital interests like CPEC. The last time something like this happened was in 1962, and the results werent pretty. Earlier, there were a couple of pieces on how India was nibbling away at Nepalese territory and the pushback that was coming from Nepal. Needless to say, there was no nuance or even an effort to analyse the issues objectively and the Pakistanis were quick to dump all the blame on India. The same evening, Pakistans own current affairs Nostradamus, a TV anchor who is also called Dr Doom by his detractors for his obsession with End of Times, referred to the issue on his show. But other than this, Pakistan TV channels have not reported on the India-China spat. Back then, the Pakistanis appeared quite certain that something would give and the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation will escalate into at least a major clash, if not a limited or even wider war. Compared to the reams of articles and hours of TV programming during the Doklam crisis in 2017, there is virtually no coverage so far of the stand-off in Ladakh. Back then, the Pakistanis appeared quite certain that something would give and the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation will escalate into at least a major clash, if not a limited or even wider war. When for weeks nothing happened, the Pakistanis under the then ISPR chief Asif Gafoor tried to use fake news to push things along. A WhatsApp message was sent to some news organisations in Pakistan claiming that a major clash had occurred between Chinese and Indian troops and more than 150 Indian soldiers had been killed. Soon the fake news went viral. The idea was that the fake news would get a life of its own and the resultant pressure would force the hand of Indian government and trigger the war neither China nor India were interested in. But the Chinese were quick to refute the news item. Soon it transpired that the fake news had been sent by someone in ISPR there was speculation that it was the handiwork of the then ISPR chief, Asif Gafoor with the instructions to Pakistans independent media to peddle the news and make it seem credible. At that time, there was some talk that the Chinese had rapped the Pakistanis on their knuckles and warned them against such antics. This time, however, there has been no official comment, much less any manufactured news. So, what is behind the silence? There are a few possible explanations. First, there has been a change of guard in the ISPR and the new chief appears to be a more sober and circumspect individual who, unlike his predecessor, has behaved more like a soldier than a propagandist; second, the India-China border face-offs have become something of a routine and the Pakistanis have realised that there is no point in getting needlessly excited about these incidents which invariably end in an anti-climax for them. In other words, they will get excited if something extraordinary happens, not if its a routine sort of occurrence. Lastly, the Pakistani media has its hands full with a whole lot of other issues COVID-19 and its management (or mismanagement and confusion about whether to open up, how much to open up or to continue with the lockdown); the massive economic crunch with jobs being lost and economy in a tailspin; political scandals and inquiry reports into financial scams which hold the potential for major political realignments; the developing controversy over the efforts of the government to ram through an amendment in the National Finance Commission award by fiddling with the 18th Amendment and upending the financial arrangements between the federal and provincial governments; a plane crash; war and peace efforts in Afghanistan; a spike in terrorism in the erstwhile FATA and the restive Balochistan province; the situation in Kashmir and along the LoC coupled with the usual raving and ranting over India and Modi; and finally, Eid. Chances are that once the Eid holidays are over, there will be some traction that the India-China spat will get in the Pakistani media. To be sure, TV channels and newspapers will latch on to the story about how China has invaded India to take vicarious pleasure and also raise the morale of the people who live in a society in which the ruling principle is that the wall of the neighbour must be brought down even if you yourself come under it. But soon there is the budget that will come and there will be other developments that will take hold of the news cycle. Therefore, unless things really deteriorate between India and China, chances are that the keyboard warriors in the social media space will continue to talk about this issue, but mainstream media will focus on more existential issues. CALGARY, Alberta, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the end of April, The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), Clean Energy Canada and the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) joined together to establish an alliance with the existing geothermal industry participants to promote Canadian geothermal development and to create jobs for displaced oil and gas drilling contractors and oilfield service workers. See the link for details on this Geothermal Alliance here . Under such an initiative, Eavor believes Alberta could attract up to $4 billion in private and foreign investment capital, to create 400MWe of clean dispatchable power and eliminate 2,000,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, all the while eventually employing 5,000+ displaced oil service workers. Such a plan could kickstart a geothermal ecosystem in Canada that could lead the world and represent a clean sunrise export industry for the nation. To rapidly scale a Canadian geothermal industry, however, will require an incentive plan that can attract new developers and participants to the market. Such an incentive plan will need to include Power Purchase Agreements (PPA's) or their equivalent to provide guaranteed offtake at a reasonable price for the value delivered (no different than for any new power generating asset). The advantage of such incentives are that they are technology agnostic and let the market decide which technologies and developers are involved. In anticipation of these changes, we are pleased to announce that a number of geothermal developers have already indicated a desire to enter the market. They have done this by signing licensing and technical support agreements with Eavor. Each license to be focused on a specific area of interest for that developer in Western Canada. Some of these developers new to Western Canada are: Kanin Energy - Janice Tran: CEO ( https://kaninenergy.com/ (https://kaninenergy.com/) ) ) Subsurface Renewables - Nathan Drader: President SustainDriven - Joey O'Brien: President ( https://sustaindriven.com/ (https://sustaindriven.com/) ) ) Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation / Eavor Yukon (extending geothermal developments beyond the Yukon) Brazeau County, Alberta - Bart Guyon: Reeve ( https://www.brazeau.ab.ca/ (https://www.brazeau.ab.ca/) ) This is just the start as once a stable geothermal business environment is in place, more (and larger) market participants are also expected to join this emerging industry. Some of these developers are already in discussions but are as of yet unwilling to show their hand without clarifications from the government first. The important thing is that a lot of developers means a lot of work for service companies and a rapid ramp-up of clean dispatchable power. Quotes: Kevin Krausert (CAODC Drilling Rig Executive Chair) - "Having a diverse and growing stable of active geothermal developers in Canada is absolutely essential if we are going to generate a meaningful amount of geothermal related work for our drilling and oil service company members." Janice Tran (Kanin Energy, CEO) - "A PPA will attract long-term sustainable investment into Alberta and put the province on the map as a geothermal leader. We have seen it work in the US where States have used targeted PPAs to rapidly grow nascent energy industries like the biogas and energy storage sector. As a developer, it keeps us in the province because we move where the industry moves." John Redfern (Eavor, President & CEO) - "Eavor has facilitated the early entry of multiple developers by reducing the time, risk and cost of the exploratory stage of traditional geothermal projects." Kevin Neveu (Precision Drilling, President & CEO) - "Geothermal power development projects are an ideal opportunity to reactivate unemployed oilfield workers and utilize the idle oil and gas drilling infrastructure in Western Canada. Stimulating the geothermal investments with PPA's guaranteeing reasonable prices will have to bring significant opportunities to the labour-intensive drilling services sector." Chief Blackjack (Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation) - "We have long wanted to share the benefits of Eavor-Loop with some of our fellow First Nations outside of the Yukon. This incentive plan could finally make this possible". Nathan Drader (Subsurface Renewables, President) - "Having been involved with, and witnessed firsthand, the recent rapid PPA-driven geothermal growth in Turkey, I'm very keen to participate as a new developer in a similar process here in Canada". Backgrounder: Eavor Please find attached: Eavor Technologies Inc. Media Kit. (http://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/a324901a-e378-48eb-b3d8-12a39beff187) If you have any questions or would like to schedule a Zoom meeting, please contact: Social distancing. Telemedicine. Self-quarantine. These are all words that at the start of 2020 weren't part of our vocabulary, but several months into the new decade we are all hearing and using them daily. There is no denying that the coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed just about every facet of just about every persons life around the world. From a business perspective, the stock market saw its largest one day loss and largest one day gain in history. The U.S. saw the largest job-loss report ever. We are in uncharted waters, and how long we will remain in them remains uncertain. However, there is one thing that we all know, and that is that this outbreak will change the lives of everyone for years or decades to come. Nearly 20 years after 9/11, enhanced airport security, no-fly lists and counterterrorism efforts are still the norm. The same will be true of the COVID-19 aftermath. Is your business ready for the five largest macro trends we are about to see? Related: 8 Tips to Coronavirus-Proof Your Business ASAP 1. The rise of enhanced websites and digital tools Many nonessential businesses including things like retail stores, hair salons, warehouses, factories and offices had their brick-and-mortar locations offices closed and did not have the technical tools to survive with their physical locations shut down. Our agency has seen a tremendous increase in businesses reaching out to us ready to make the leap into digital. It's critical for businesses to be able to not just survive but thrive through enhanced websites and digital tools to serve their customers. Things like e-commerce in industries that never utilized e-commerce before, advanced product configurations, chatbots and mobile applications are in greater demand than ever as small- and medium-size businesses join in the new decade's technology revolution. These new tools are helping businesses stay afloat during the virus outbreak and will be a macro-trend that becomes even more important as social distancing becomes commonplace practice not just for this outbreak but for potential future outbreaks as well. 2. Cybersecurity concerns take center stage Cybersecurity is already an important topic to large businesses, and with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, California's Consumer Privacy Act and other privacy laws, as well as countless news stories about the cost and impact of data breaches, it is something smaller businesses are being forced to confront head on. With the surge in employees working remotely during the virus outbreak, we have seen more and more data breaches and cyberattacks. Employees using unsecured infrastructure and third-party tools are two of the leading causes of potential breaches. Combine this with data storage and access practices that violate privacy laws for example, telemedicine on non-HIPAA-compliant platforms and suddenly the need for secure solutions takes center stage. Additionally, during this vulnerable time, we have seen an increase in overseas cyberattacks on many of our clients' websites. Things like brute force attacks, denial of service attacks and other types of attempted hacks have increased, and the need for keeping website and web servers updated and secure is of utmost importance. More businesses will be forced to invest in technology that is secure, scalable, accessibly remotely and follows the onslaught of new data privacy and security regulations. Related: The Coronavirus Pandemic Versus the Digital Economy: The Pitfalls and the Opportunities 3. An increase in virtual meetings The tremendous increase in virtual meetings is a trend we predict will be here to stay. Though there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting and handshake, for the next few years we anticipate the trend of virtual meetings to continue. And this won't just apply to the traditional business world, it will apply to many other aspects of our lives for example, virtually meeting with your doctor, therapist, banker and even hair stylist for a consultation. This will be a tremendous cost and time savings to all parties involved. This is a trend that already started prior to the virus outbreak and will only become more amplified as we continue in this new decade. Preparing for this trend goes far beyond having a virtual meeting space and software. Things like digital brochures, digital business cards, tutorial videos and enhanced website information will all follow in this trend and become necessities as businesses find it more difficult to physically hand materials to their customers. 4. Increased control in expenses With the unprecedented business shutdown across America, businesses will be increasingly looking at ways to have a greater degree of control over their expenses. These will include businesses requesting shorter contract durations, emergency clauses and provisions in agreements, ways to have a more easily scalable workforce utilizing temporary workers and temporary agencies, and an overall desire to lower expenses, especially recurring expenses. We have witnessed firsthand nearly every client of ours express the need to reduce expenses, not just as a result of the virus but also as a practice they want to continue into the near future. While this is a good business practice regardless, the pain felt during this economic downturn will create scars that will likely last years into the future. Make sure your business has answers when your customers ask for ways they can be saving, reducing contract terms or protecting their business from future disasters and catastrophes. Related: How to Make Every Marketing Dollar Count During a Crisis 5. Even more remote employees Lastly, with the previous four trends is going to come the fifth an even larger shift to remote employees. Many businesses that fought the trend of employees working remote are now realizing that in being forced to shut down their offices, remote employees are still efficient, effective, economical, and something millennials and Generation Z demand. With more remote employees comes the increased need for all of the first four points mentioned. This trend is something that started over a decade ago, but it will continue to be amplified in this new decade and following the COVID-19 outbreak. These trends will be relevant not just in 2020, but likely well beyond. Making decisions and positioning your company now for these changes in the business world will make sure your business is ready and at the forefront of the new remote, digital technology revolution. Related: Most MENA Startups Have Less Than Six Months Of Runway Left, According To Report By Wamda And Arabnet Fight for Your Franchise Challenge, Week 8: No-Nonsense Techniques to Improve Your Cashflow 5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for the Post-Coronavirus Business World Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The Dean of the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Kofi Agyekum is calling on President Nana Akufo-Addo to extend the closure of schools in the country. According to Professor Kofi Agyekum, popularly known as Opanyin Agyekum, it will be a hasty decision on the part of the government to allow schools to resume while the country is still saddled with the pandemic. Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Opanyin Agyekum explained that although the closure of schools has been characterized by challenges because not every school child or the family of a school child can afford the digital gadgets to ensure continuous education albeit through virtual learning platforms created by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, thus impacting negatively on the pupil, it is not as grave as losing a life. Opanyin Agyekum alluded to an incident that occurred in 1984 where Universities were closed for a year but the tertiary institutions bounced back afterwards to continue the academic calendar, and so believed that nothing will be destroyed if schools are not opened any time soon. He, however, stated that should government decide school children should resume classroom lessons, adequate preparations and measures should be installed to ensure they do not contract the COVID-19 disease or the spread is curtailed in case a student is infected. He asked the government to roll out detailed steps to ensure safety of both the school children and teachers adding that teachers should be given a psychological therapy before they go to the classrooms to teach the students. To him, the reopening should only involve final year students and not the entire student population because, with the final year students, there will adequate classrooms to ensure social distancing. But in his candid opinion, schools should remain closed till the pandemic curve has flattened and the country has gained strength to overcome the disease. ''We shouldn't be in a hurry because if one child loses his or her life, we cannot bring the child back to life. It can't be likened to closing and reopening schools. There are times that we have strikes and schools are closed for a month and the students go home but we are able to resume school too...We have to wait and check the data and science. Let's wait when the recovery cases increase maximally and we know everything is going alright, then we can allow for the reopening of schools...We need time.'' the learned professor advised. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Notable attorneys, Army veterans, online rabble-rousers and seasoned politicos from Berkeley County are making their run for office in the June 9 primary. Berkeley County's population is exploding, which means new waves of voters are looking locally to address the problems that come with rapid development: more infrastructure, tax reform and worries about flooding. But also, keeping that growth momentum going in a time when the economy has taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Here's the breakdown of some races to pay attention to before heading into the voting booth. Senate District 44 Candidates from both parties are eyeing a Senate seat in Berkeley County after state Sen. Paul Campbell a Goose Creek Republican, announced in March he wouldnt be seeking reelection. Among the Democrats, Debbie Bryant is a Moncks Corner resident and the associate dean at the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is challenging Kristopher DeLorme a San Diego native and Marine who obtained his law degree from the Charleston School of Law. He lives in Hanahan. On the Republican side, Brian Adams and Gayla McSwain are aiming for the seat. Adams spent 25 years as a North Charleston police officer and has not previously held elected office. McSwain is a Goose Creek councilwoman and an Army veteran. McSwain made headlines in March when she sued Goose Creek Mayor Greg Habib and City Administrator Jake Broom for not letting her or other council members view the applications of all of the candidates applying to be city manager. The issue was resolved after a judge ordered the mayor to release the applications to City Council members. House District 99 The district that stretches from Hanahan to Daniel Island is seeing turnover in the Statehouse again. First it started with Republican state Rep. James Merrill, who held the seat since 2001, stepped down in 2016 after he plead guilty to a misconduct in office charge. This paved the way for Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, to win in 2018. But now Mace is leaving the Statehouse to run as a Republican candidate for the Charleston area's seat in Congress. The GOP candidates to succeed her have tried before: Mark Smith, a former Mount Pleasant councilman, and Shawn Pinkston, who also ran for the seat in 2018, is running again in June. Other Republicans running are former Statehouse candidate David Herndon and former Charleston County School Board member Chris Staubes. On the Democratic side, Jen Gibson, who lost to Mace in the 2018 general election, is running in the primary against Donna Brown Newton. House District 100 State Rep. Sylleste Davis, a Republican from Moncks Corner, is in a primary challenge against Berkeley County attorney Tom Fernandez. Fernandez has built an online following in the area with a Facebook group called "Berkeley County Growth and Development," which has nearly 15,000 members. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! He has also engaged in high-profile lawsuits, such as representing an umpire who got into a verbal fight during a kickball match with Moncks Corner Mayor Michael Lockliear. He also filed a lawsuit this month against the Berkeley County School District for charging thousands of dollars for access to public documents. He often engages in debate on his Facebook group and informs the public about his lawsuits there. Fernandez said he believes the district is poorly represented. "Berkeley County doesn't have any representation," Fernandez said. "Out of every politician we have, no one is actually working for the people. Just someone who shows up every election cycle." Davis has served in the Statehouse since 2016. "More people are engaged in this particular race than 2018," she said. "I don't believe in name-calling, mudslinging, filing lawsuits at the drop of a hat or causing havoc on the internet." County Council seats District 1 and District 2 seats are up for grabs in the Republican primary. After County Councilman Kevin Cox died last year, Dan Owens defeated Charles Schuster for the vacant District 1 seat. Schuster is aiming to take Owens' seat from him. County Councilman and Berkeley County School District attorney Joshua Whitley is also running for reelection for his District 2 seat. Challenger Boyd Gregg is highlighting his opponents past controversies as part of his campaign. Whitley and school board member Mac McQuillin, both Daniel Island lawyers, were accused by residents of self dealing in 2017 Post and Courier report. Whitley, a County Council member, and McQuillin, a school board member, have both provided legal services to the agency on which the other serves. It sparked some questions and concerns surrounding the legal ties between the two. The action is not illegal, there is no law that says an elected official of one may not work for the other. Gregg said this was part of his inspiration to run against Whitley. "Voters need a choice," Gregg said. "Im not a political activist by any means, but I think I have a lot to offer this growing area. Theres so many tentacles that are spread out over the county, and thats why I wanted to get involved. Whitley responded by saying that in his five years on council, he has helped see the county through rapid growth. "My race has been very positive and his is very negative," Whitley said. "In my term on council, I've lead the charge on significant public infrastructure projects, and people's quality of life has been improved by them." Berkeley County has only a few competitive races to watch at the local level for seats that are anchored in the county; however some Statehouse seats cross multiple jurisdictions, so voters can take part in some of those on local ballots. Clarification: This article had been edited to reflect what charge former Rep. James Merrill plead guilty to during a statehouse investigation. A man whose 250,000 investment in a property fund was hit by the economic crash of 2007/8 has sued Bank of Scotland (BoS) and Friends First Life Assurance. Declan Buttimer invested the money in October 2007 in the "Investa Opportunity Fund" which he says was marketed and recommended by BoS and managed by Friends First. Following the crash, Mr Buttimer says his investment dropped in value and he says he will ultimately only recover 70% of what he put in. In 2015, he began a High Court action against BoS and Friends First claiming the investment was mis-sold and/or misrepresented to him. He alleges, among other things, the investment was anticipated to last at least five to seven years, that it would be managed by competent and experienced property managers who had previously achieved attractive returns, that the managers' remuneration was linked to performance and the fund was not subject to excess charges. It is also claimed BoS would perform an adequate risk assessment prior to recommending investment and that there would be no conflict of interest in the management/investment. Mr Buttimer alleges breach of contract, negligence, breach of duty duty and misrepresentation by BoS by, among other things, failing to ensure that the remuneration of fund and asset managers was linked to performance and allowed it to be subject to excess and undisclosed charges; He also alleges failure to ensure the fund was suitable for Eurozone investors and would be adequately diversified between the United Kingdom and Continental Europe to mitigate exchange rate risk. Bank of Scotland enters full defence BoS entered a full defence and brought an application to have the claim barred on grounds it was brought outside permitted time limits of the Statute of Limitations. BoS says Mr Buttimer got a loan from it in October 2007 when the investment was taken out. It says the conditions of the investment were in the policy including explicit reference to charges The investment related to the purchase of development lands in 2008 Witney, Oxfordshire, England, property in Switzerland and in Woolwich, also England. All those transactions took place six years before he issued his proceedings in 2015 and they were therefore statute barred, BoS says. Mr Buttimer disputed the claims .and also said his action was based on the fraud of the defendant or his agent or that his right of action was concealed by such fraud, Today, Mr Justice Charles Meenan ruled Mr Buttimer's reply to the Statute of Limitations claim has only been dealt with by him in a general way. The position regarding the fraud and concealment allegations was very unsatisfactory, he said. BoS would be entitled to detailed particulars in relation to these allegations, he said. In those circumstances it would be premature,at this stage, to direct a hearing on the preliminary issue of the Statute of Limitations. He directed Mr Buttimer to give those details within 21 days and he adjourned the BoS application generally with liberty to re-enter the matter. Want to manufacture BrahMos so that no country has audacity to cast evil eye on us: Rajnath Singh IAF chopper crash: Rajnath Singh likely to be apprised of probe team's findings in next couple of days CDS, Service Chiefs brief Rajnath Singh as China wants India to half work at along LAC India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: In wake of the escalating tensions with China, Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh held a security review meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff and the three Service Chiefs. The meeting discussed various aspects on India's response to the provocation by China at the border. During the meeting, Singh was briefed by the Army Chief M M Naravane about the situation at the Line of Action Control. The Army Chief had two days back had taken stock of the situation. Since the first skirmish on May 5, Chinese and Indian troops have held talks six times. To check if China would make a military move, India deploys UAVs However with solution in sight, both sides continued to maintain aggressive posturing. China has told India to stop building infrastructure even on its own side of the LAC. While asking China to maintain status quo at the border, India has said that the condition imposed is unacceptable. For the Chinese the main bone of contention has been the 255 kilometre Darbuk-Syhok-DBO road that was built last year by India on its side of the border. This has made it easier for patrols to operate and the frequency of the patrolling can also be increased. Even as both sides are locked in a war of words, India has rejected allegations by Beijing that the Indian troops were responsible for triggering tensions. The Chinese have in fact hindered Indian patrols, India has further said. Tensions soar at border as China increases number of troops Uber India lays off 600 employees, earlier Ola let go of 1,400 amid Covid crisis | Oneindia News Meanwhile the Chinese military has been fast increasing its troops in areas around Pangong Two Lake and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. China is trying to send a clear signal that it is not ready to end the confrontation with the Indian Army. The Chinese side has increased its presence in the Galwan Valley and has erected around 100 tents in the past two weeks. It has also been bringing in machinery for possible construction of bunkers, despite the stiff protest by the Indian troops. Though the magazine and company went through some serious travails over the next decades, Rosenzweig played an increasingly large role in the cultural and civic life of Los Angeles. He had been one of the founders of Chicagos Museum of Contemporary Art and on the West Coast helped start the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He was deeply involved with the Wallis Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills; was a director both the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Chicago International Film Festival; served on the Beverly Hills Arts and Culture Commission. He was a founding member of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. There is more, including being chairman of the Beverly Hills Visitors Bureau and the Economic Development Council of Beverly Hills; chairman of the board of Children of the Night and the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and president and chairman of the Maple Counseling Center in Beverly Hills, a community counseling facility. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 17:35:35|Editor: zh Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Some U.S. Congress members' anti-China bills related to COVID-19 response are "groundless" and "deceitful," members of China's top political advisory body attending its annual session have said. "China has been upholding the principles of openness, transparency and responsibility, and took the initiative to release the information at earliest possible time," said Huang Luqi, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee. Huang cited a detailed timeline chronicling China's response to COVID-19 from Dec. 27, 2019, when three cases of pneumonia of unknown cause were reported by a doctor in Wuhan, followed by the Wuhan health authority's notice to the public on Dec. 31 and China's report to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the same day. "The accusations from the United States are completely groundless," said Huang, president of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, who led a medical team to Wuhan on Jan. 25 and joined the fight against the epidemic. Kong Quan, deputy head of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, said a very small number of U.S. politicians turned a blind eye to global joint anti-epidemic efforts, shunned international exchanges, dialogue or cooperation, smeared other countries' achievements in epidemic control, and even slandered the WHO that has played the role of coordination and guidance in the global COVID-19 fight. Li Baodong, also deputy head of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, dismissed the fallacy that "China is controlling the WHO," a rhetoric that has been repeated by U.S. politicians. The WHO has 180 U.S. staffers but only 35 Chinese. In the 21-member WHO leadership team, only one is from China but 11 others are from the United States, European Union, Canada and Australia. "Judging from the personnel numbers, how can one say the WHO is being controlled by China?" Li asked. "This is a total distortion of facts." Hu Yu, president of the Union Hospital in Wuhan, fired back at the claim that the novel coronavirus was "made in Wuhan." "The place where an outbreak is first reported is not necessarily the place where the virus originates." The doctor said that identifying the source of the virus is a serious question of science, and the right answer can only be given by scientists and medical experts on the basis of evidence. Liu Hongcai, deputy head of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, said both Chinese and American people are the victims of the epidemic, which is a natural disaster. "The coronavirus has nothing to do with political systems or ideologies." Liu said China's epidemic response, which has achieved major outcomes in a short time, has won support from across the country and recognition around the world. "Shifting the blame will not solve any problem, neither will it save lives," Liu said. "Concentrating more efforts on international cooperation proves to be the way to defeat the virus." Enditem ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- BY: CONOR FINNEGAN Since 2019, President Donald Trump has found a fellow nationalist warrior in Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, the controversial right-wing populist president of Latin America's largest country, and for the last few weeks, they've found common cause in downplaying the threat of the coronavirus and urging their countries to "reopen," even as local governors implement restrictions to stem the virus' spread. That's part of what made a late Sunday night announcement from the White House so notable: Recognizing the threat of the coronavirus spreading from Brazil to the U.S., Trump signed a proclamation banning travel from Brazil. Two days later, Brazil has now overtaken the U.S. for the highest daily death toll, and the White House's ban will take effect two days earlier than originally planned -- Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. Some of Trump's critics have asked why it didn't happen even sooner. The ban, which applies to all foreign nationals who have been to Brazil in the last 14 days, is a blow to Bolsonaro, who continues to defend his approach of keeping businesses open, even as Brazil's hospitals and graveyards are overwhelmed. "The potential for undetected transmission of the virus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States from the Federative Republic of Brazil threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security," Trump said in his proclamation Sunday night. Late Monday, the White House amended the order to take effect Tuesday night instead of Thursday, but did not provide a reason why. Over the weekend, Brazil overtook Russia for the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally, behind only the U.S. On Monday, the country reported 807 deaths -- the highest of any country -- marking the first time any country has reported more deaths in a single day than the U.S. since the end of March. Given the lack of widespread testing or the incentive for governments to obscure their numbers, some analysts believe those numbers may be under-reported, in Brazil and elsewhere. As the case load climbs higher, Brazil's underfunded hospitals have been pushed to the brink of collapse in several states, exacerbating the crisis. Manaus, the capital and largest city in Amazonas state, alone has seen over 23,000 people killed by the coronavirus, and that number is reportedly a vast undercount. The Amazon region's deficient health infrastructure and poorer indigenous communities have been hit hardest, along with sprawling Sao Paulo and its massive favelas. The country is projected to have 125,833 deaths by Aug. 4, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Two of Bolsonaro's ministers of health have been ousted during the pandemic. One fired for supporting governors' restrictions as Bolsonaro publicly undermined them and rallied his supporters to disobey them. The second quit after openly disagreeing with Bolsonaro over chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug related to hydroxychloroquine that Trump has touted as a treatment for COVID-19. Neither drug has been shown to be effective, with the latest evidence suggesting hydroxychloroquine does more harm than good. If Bolsonaro has been injured by Trump's travel ban, he hasn't shown it. He declined to answer reporters' questions when leaving the presidential residence in Brasilia on Monday -- except to adopt a favorite Trump tactic and attack the press, telling a crowd of supporters, "The global press is leftist," according to the Associated Press. "There isn't anything specifically against Brazil. Ignore the hysteria from the press," tweeted Filipe Martins, Bolsonaro's special adviser on international affairs, adding it's the same as Trump's restrictions on travel from China, Iran and much of Europe. But Trump hasn't restricted travel from any other South American countries or other major new hot spots like Russia and India. His proclamation singled out Brazil for having "widespread, ongoing person-to-person transmission," even as his National Security Council praised Brazil as "one of our strongest partners in the world" and announced the U.S. would donate 1,000 ventilators to the country. Trump and his senior advisers have not criticized Bolsonaro's approach, with Trump seeming to downplay its role in Brazil's skyrocketing case load last month: "Brazil went a different way than other countries in South America. If you look at the chart, you'll see what happened, unfortunately, to Brazil." Some critics have questioned whether those close ties meant the Trump administration was slower to act. China, for example, had far fewer confirmed cases when Trump issued a similar ban at the end of January than Brazil does now. "What took us so long? Who were we flying in first?" said Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Barack Obama. Daily nonstop flights between the two countries, from Sao Paulo to Houston for example, continued Monday. A handful of passengers scrambled last-minute to bump up their tickets scheduled for June in order to make it before the ban went into effect, according to Reuters, with one exchange student telling the news agency, "With the news about the decree, I wanted to get a head start. It was a bit difficult to buy a ticket, but I got one for today." Trump himself faced exposure to COVID-19 from Brazil. During a visit on March 7, Trump hosted Bolsonaro and a visiting Brazilian delegation for dinner, and days later, one of Bolsonaro's top aides who was photographed next to Trump wearing a "Make Brazil Great Again" hat tested positive for the virus. Both Bolsonaro and Trump later tested negative. Copyright 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Federal officials are providing a $55 million infusion of federal funds to help replace the Portal North Bridge, the bane of NJ Transit commuters and Amtrak riders. The Federal Railroad Administration grant to Amtrak announced Tuesday represents only part of the U.S. share of the $1.5 billion replacement of the 110-year-old span over the Hackensack River in Kearny. The Federal Transit Administration raised the rating on the bridge in February to medium-high, making it eligible for another pot of federal funds. The state will contribute $600 million for the project. The oft-malfunctioning Portal Bridge has become the bane of existence for commuters," said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate transit subcommittee. "Its long outlived its usefulness, and must be replaced without further delay. More than 450 trains a day carrying almost 200,000 passengers cross the current bridge every weekday in normal times. But train traffic comes to a halt when the bridge gets stuck in the open position after allowing boats to pass underneath. The new span will have a high clearance, making it no longer necessary to open for marine traffic. In October 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard agreed to stop Portal Bridge openings during prime commuting hours to reduce the chance of it getting stuck. The U.S. Department of Transportation in 2015 awarded a $16 million grant under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program, to relocate utilities and build a staging area for construction materials in preparation for the Portal Bridge replacement. Separately, the FRA on Tuesday awarded $36.4 million to NJ Transit to rebuild an electrical power substation in Kearny, which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy. The substation powers part of the Northeast Corridor and the existing Hudson tunnels. Once it is hooked up to NJ Transits independent power generation system, the new substation will be able to provide power to the tracks even during blackouts, storms or cyberattacks. A safe, reliable transportation network is critically important to the livelihoods of thousands of New Jersey commuters and the continued economic vitality of our region, Gov. Phil Murphy said. This funding will allow us to upgrade the obsolete infrastructure of the current Portal Bridge and overhaul the Northeast Corridor with modern components that match our regions productivity." State officials still are waiting for federal funding for the new train tunnels under the Hudson River, which along with the Portal Bridge is part of the Gateway Project. The tunnels have been rated too low by the Federal Transit Administration to qualify for assistance from Washington. Our work is far from over, said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who once quipped that he would name the Gateway tubes the Trump Tunnel if the president released funding. "We must remain focused on long-term solutions to replace our obsolete infrastructure by moving projects like Gateway forward in order to help strengthen our economic growth, boost job creation, and ensure commuter safety. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. TROY, Mich., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bianchi Public Relations, Inc. a metro Detroit based public relations (PR) agency with deep automotive and mobility technology media relations and communications experience has again been named among the top PR firms in the United States by PRWeek magazine, a leading trade publication covering the global public relations industry. The latest PRWeek rankings, released in late April, showed Bianchi PR as #156 in its overall U.S. rankings, based on 2019 revenues. Again this year, Bianchi PR was the highest-ranking independent PR firm headquartered in metro Detroit and #2 among independent firms headquartered in Michigan. (See PRWeek 2020 Agency Business Report Rankings here.) Similarly, another respected PR industry trade publication, O'Dwyer's, recently ranked Bianchi PR as: The top metro- Detroit -based PR agency overall in its rankings; -based PR agency overall in its rankings; #10 among automotive/transportation specialist PR firms in the United States ; and ; and #24 overall among Midwest-based PR firms. About Bianchi PR With special expertise in business-to-business PR and social media for automotive and mobility technology suppliers and the professional service firms that serve them Bianchi PR was founded in 1992 and is perennially ranked among the top independent PR agencies based in Metro Detroit. Among Bianchi PR's ongoing business-to-business PR clients are 1stMILE LLC, Adient, BASF Automotive Refinish, Cooper Standard, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, KIRCO, Munro & Associates, Rolls-Royce Power Systems/MTU brand, SAE International, Schaeffler Group and Yanfeng Automotive Interiors. The firm's experience also includes work with technology companies, consulting firms and industry trade organizations. For more information, visit www.bianchipr.com or call 248-269-1122. To serve its clients on a worldwide basis, Bianchi PR is an active member in the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN), one of the world's largest international PR networks. Clients across six continents depend on the combined resources of PRGN to deliver targeted public relations campaigns in markets around the world. PRGN harnesses the resources of 50 independent public relations firms in 53 locations and more than 1,000 communications professionals to connect international companies and organizations with individual and culturally diverse markets globally. Visit PRGN online at www.prgn.com or on Twitter at @PRGN. SOURCE Bianchi Public Relations, Inc. Capacity in licensed premises will drop to a fraction of what it was before the Covid-19 crisis with social distancing at two metres, publicans have warned. A report published by the Licensed Vintners Association and the Vintners Federation of Ireland shows that a typical pub or bar/restaurant will face an 87% capacity reduction. Pubs that closed in the middle of March are due to reopen on August 10 the date set for the final phase of the lifting of public health restrictions. When HSE social distancing guidelines are applied in any 100-metre square area in a licensed premises, the standing capacity diminishes to 12.5% while seating is reduced to 34%. Before Covid-19, maximum occupancy in a licensed premises was calculated at a rate of two persons per square metre for standing areas and one person for seated areas. In a pre-crisis context, a pub or bar/restaurant could accommodate up to 200 people standing or 100 people sitting for every 100 square metres. When the HSE social distancing guidelines are applied, the standing capacity per 100 square metres drops from 200 people to 25 (12.5%), while the seated capacity in a bar or restaurant goes from 100 to 34. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people stay at least one metre and ideally two metres from one another to help limit transmission of the virus. If a one-metre social guideline is applied, standing capacity in a pub would drop from 200 people to 100, while seated capacity in pubs and bars or restaurants would decrease from 100 to 65. However, licensed premises differ in size, shape and layout and the report by Knapton Consulting Engineers points out that more complex geometrics will result in lower occupancies when physical distancing is applied. There will be a greater reduction in occupancy for narrow, small pubs than those with larger circulation spaces. LVA chief executive, Donall O'Keeffe, said it is the first time that a study has been undertaken on what a social distancing environment will look like in a pub. He said: It is vital that pub businesses fully grasp the commercial challenge they will face and thoroughly examine the prospects for whether they can afford to reopen." Pubs with restaurant certificates plan to reopen at the end of the month, with other pubs opening six weeks later. Mr O'Keeffe said a social distance requirement of one metre would at least allow more pubs and other hospitality businesses to be capable of trading in the shorter term. VFI chief executive, Padraig Cribben, said keeping a space of one metre makes more sense for hospitality venues, such as pubs that have put public health first since the start of the crisis. However, the question still remains as to how many pubs would be able to operate when public health restrictions are lifted. Mr Cribben said: That is the question that is still being asked by publicans across the country, and we will certainly need further guidance on the reopening protocols in the near future to allow fully formed businesses decisions to be made in advance of any reopening." DETROIT - You will only be able to see this Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Michigan. Youll just have to wait a little longer. Actually, a lot longer, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Van Gogh in America, which had been scheduled at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) for June 21 through September 27, 2020, has now been pushed back almost two and a half years. 68 works by Van Gogh will be on display with this collection exclusively at the DIA from October 2, 2022 through January 22, 2023. The DIA says these rescheduled dates will hopefully allow sufficient time for international travel to return to normal as there are a number of international lenders to the exhibition. The dates also celebrate the 100th anniversary of the museums acquisition of the Van Gogh Self-Portrait in 1922. Putting the health of our community first is at the forefront of all of our decisions, said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA Director. The new dates will allow for our visitors to experience it fully, safely and in the company of friends and family. We continue to share the inspirational power of creativity with our community online, and look forward to doing so in our galleries as soon as we are able. The works in this Van Gogh exhibition will focus on the efforts made to show off his art by promoters and his family in the U.S. The exhibition will tell the story of how the popularity of Van Goghs work evolved over time during the first half of the 20th century. This is a uniquely Detroit story, and only a museum the caliber of the DIA would be able to obtain such a large number of loaned Van Goghs from museums and collections around the world, said Salort-Pons. This exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for residents of southeast Michigan and beyond, and will be an unforgettable experience for everyone who visits. The exhibit wont just feature paintings. There will be drawings, prints and a 256-page fully illustrated scholarly catalogue authored by a number of international Van Gogh scholars. There will also be works by Post-Impressionist artists Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin, in addition to 20th-century European and American artists Raoul Dufy, Henri Matisse, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, and Joseph Stella. The DIA was actually the first public museum in the country to buy a painting by Van Gogh, his Self-Portrait (1887), acquired in 1922. Highlights of the exhibition to include: The Bedroom, 1889, Vincent van Gogh, Dutch (18531890); oil on canvas Van Goghs Chair, 1888, Vincent van Gogh, Dutch (18531890); oil on canvas Undergrowth with Two Figures, 1890, Vincent van Gogh, Dutch (18531890); oil on canvas Currently, the Detroit Institute of Arts is closed through June 12 due to Michigans stay-home order. READ MORE: Faygo brings back high-ranking flavor not available in Michigan for 15 years Why Aquaman,' Jason Momoa, was in Ferndale in Metro Detroit of all places this weekend 1929 Michigan mansion has 2-story library with Sistine Chapel-like painted mural ceiling, $4.75M Why Jerry Seinfeld says hes always wanted to go to Battle Creek in his new Netflix special Tribal authorities have arrested a man in connection with the May 16 death of a 22-year-old woman from the Ho-Chunk Nation whose body was found near a river on the Winnebago Reservation in northeast Nebraska. Jason Lawrence, Chief of Police for the Winnebago Tribe , said the suspect will be taken into federal custody soon. He referred further questions to the U.S. Attorneys Office, which has authority to prosecute violent crimes in Indian Country The U.S. Attorneys Office in Nebraska could not be reached for comment, and an FBI spokeswoman in Nebraska did not respond to a request for comment. A photo collage of Kozee Decorah shared on social media. On Saturday evening, nearly 70 people gathered at a candlelight vigil near the place on the reservation where Kozee Decorahs body was found. One man who spoke said Decorah was involved in traditional ceremonies, like the sweat lodge, and the Native American Church. He said she enjoyed being teased. I would always be doing something or saying something crazy to her, he said. She used to always laugh all the time. She was real easy to make laugh. Michelle Free-LaMere speaks at a candlelight vigil for Kozee Decorah on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska on May 23, 2020. Photo courtesy Winnebago Tribe Michelle Free-LaMere, a Winnebago activist in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement, said she offered figures that showed staggering disparities between crimes committed against Caucasian women versus Native women. I said if the numbers were reversed, the laws would already be changed, she told Indianz.Com after the candlelight vigil. The domestic violence laws would be stronger. Decorahs aunt, Reva DeCora, said her niece was a good girl and had celebrated three months of sobriety the day before she was killed. She said the man who was taken into custody was the father of Decorahs three children. She was taking the Red Road of her life for three months on the day that she died, DeCora said. Shes got three children, and now they have neither mother or father. Members of the Winnebago Tribe, Tribal Council, Winnebago Domestic Violence Program, and Family & Friends of Kozee... Posted by Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska on Saturday, May 23, 2020 DeCora said her grandson recently heard a women crying outside his window, and DeCora said she worries her niece is struggling to find her way into the spirit world. That was one of the reasons her family and friends decided to host the candlelight vigil on Saturday. I feel that her soul is lost, she said. So were going to go down and try to help her be on her journey. According to a GoFundMe page setup to raise money to return Decorah to her family in Wisconsin, she had been planning to move home within a few months. She was a kind-hearted soul with a contagious laugh, wrote Stacey Schinko, who created the GoFundMe page, which had raised over $5,600 as of Monday night. She was only 22 years old, and a mother to three precious children who in her own words saved her life. Mila, Kyson and Tydus will know that no matter what, their mother wanted them to know they were wished for, longed for, prayed for, and that they are forever loved. Schinko said Decorahs family is still waiting for the FBI to officially identify her body, which was apparently found disfigured and difficult to identify. Family will not leave Nebraska until they can bring Kozee home, Schinko said. Her faith in God was strong, and she recently acknowledged it was time to let God run her life. The only sense we can make of this is God had a higher purpose for Kozee. Her death will save others. The family will fight for justice and bring awareness to Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). John Snowball, wildlife and parks director for the Winnebago Tribe and vice-chairman of the Winnebago Tribal Council, said he arrived at the site where Decorahs body was found not long after she was found. I said prayers on her behalf, on behalf of her children and what happened and the area, he said during a tribal livestream last week. That was the first thing I wanted to do when I arrived. Theres a lot of people affected by this. My heart breaks for her children, her family, and the Ho-Chunk Nation for the loss of this young woman. If you are able to contribute a few dollars to help bring her body home to Wisconsin, please do. #MMIW https://t.co/jU46fJBaGl Tricia Zunker (@TriciaforWI) May 26, 2020 Join the Conversation Related Stories Even teleprompter could not take so many lies: Rahul's dig at PM Modis Davos speech Centre's lockdown strategy has failed, states fighting a lonely battle: Rahul Gandhi India oi-Madhuri Adnal New Delhi, May 26: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the four phases of nationwide lockdown have "failed" and not given the results that Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected. Addressing a press conference, Gandhi said, "PM Modi had said we will defeat coronavirus in 21 days. Now we are in our fourth phase of lockdown. It is clear that our lockdown has failed. I would like to ask the government and PM Modi with due respect, as to what is the plan going forward? How do you plan to help businesses, migrants and the poor?" Rahul Gandhi corners Modi Govt, seeks transparency on border dispute in Nepal and Ladakh|Oneindia Glenmark to study potential COVID-19 drug combination on Favipiravir, Umifenovir in India He also said that the Congress party is running some states and the party is giving cash to people, including labourers. However, he alleged that the party was not getting any support from the Centre. Interacting with reporters on the Covid-19 pandemic, he also asked the central government to clarify its strategy as far as opening up of India is concerned and how it intends to support migrants and states. India records 6,535 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24-hours, death toll climbs to 4,167 "What is the central government's plan to go forward as the disease is growing exponentially in the country," he said. "The four stages of lockdown have not given the result that the Prime Minister expected," he said, adding that it is pretty clear that the aim and purpose of lockdowns have failed in India. He said India is the only country in the world which is relaxing the lockdown when the virus is "exponentially rising". For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 13:07 [IST] Many reopening pubs will be forced to limit patrons to one-eighth of their normal capacity under the Governments two-metre rule for social distancing, a publican-commissioned analysis concludes. The report for the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) appeals to the Government to reduce the States social distancing guidelines to one metre, as the World Health Organisation suggests as its minimum safe distance. Read More Both publican groups also are pressuring the Government to permit pubs with restaurant licences to open on June 29, the date set for restaurants to reopen. Pubs are expected to wait until August 10 under the States phased plan for exiting the Covid-19 lockdown. The analysis by Knapton Consulting Engineers found that the typical pub would see customer capacity slashed by 87pc if the two-metre rule between patrons is enforced. In normal conditions, a pub typically can accommodate two people per square metre when standing, or one person seated at a table. This translates into a maximum 200 customers standing, or 100 sitting, in a given 100 square metres. The report finds that the HSEs two-metre rule would drop capacity in that same space to just 25 people standing or 34 sitting. By contrast, it found, the WHO tolerance for one-metre spacing would allow that same space to contain 100 standing customers four times as many. Those dining in seated areas could be nearly doubled to 65. The report found that many traditional smaller pubs would face a challenge even getting a tenth of usual customer traffic into their tight layouts. Physical distancing will result in a greater reduction in occupancy for narrow, small pubs than on those with larger-circulation spaces with higher footfalls, it found. LVA chief executive Donal OKeeffe said the findings raised doubts over whether many pubs can afford to reopen. The findings will broadly apply across the sector and they are stark, he said. Seated capacity will drop to approximately one third of previous levels, while standing capacity can be divided by a factor of eight. Those are dramatic decreases and they will have extreme impact on turnover potential. The WHO guidelines, if applied here, would allow more pubs and other hospitality businesses to be capable of trading in the shorter term, he said. From the perspective of commercial viability, the WHO guidelines obviously make much more sense for hospitality venues such as pubs, said VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben. While we have been calling for equality of opportunity to reopen for some time, the question still remains as how many pubs will actually be able to operate once the opportunity arises. The VFI represents 4,000 pubs nationwide, the LVA 750 pubs in the greater Dublin area. Experts attest that the best strategy to contain the coronavirus is contact tracing, one of the oldest methods in epidemiology. It is essentially painstaking detective work: Teams of public health workers identify every new positive case, they follow the chain of exposure, and then isolate everyone who might have been infected by the person who is sick. This process test, trace, and isolate is the most proven way to safely ease up on social distancing measures and allow people to get back to work. It just so happens it is being used with remarkable success in Paterson, where mayor Andre Sayegh and his public health director pondered the potential of outbreaks a year ago and fashioned an effective community-based strategy once Covid struck. At 46, Sayegh has worked his way up the political ladder in New Jerseys third-largest city from school board to city council to mayor after being elected in a landslide two years ago on his third try. He has a background in education and holds a masters degree in public policy from Columbia, and he is the first Arab-American mayor in a city that is populated mostly by Latinos and African Americans. Dave DAlessandro of the Star-Ledger Editorial Board spoke with Sayegh Friday: Q. It would seem that the sheer density of Paterson would make it especially difficult to get the virus under control. Sayegh: Yes, were the countrys second-most densely populated city with 100,000 or more residents, after New York. Thats nearly 150,000 people in eight square miles. Q. So how is it that your city seemed better prepared than most? Sayegh: It helps that we have a prescient public health officer named Dr. Paul Persaud. He had the foresight to apply for something called the Communicable Disease Investigative Team grant. He did not anticipate a pandemic, but he would ask, If we have a foodborne outbreak at one of our catering halls like the Brownstone, what do we do? Last year, we had hepatitis and meningitis cases, so he figured that its definitely going to happen again, so lets prepare. So we applied for the grant, and in November we received $95,000 to build what we call our Strike Team. Q. And thats how your contact tracing program got started? How big is it now? Sayegh: It went from 2 infection investigators to 50, and its scalable, so we can go higher. Credit goes to him, because he had the foresight to apply for this grant, and he has experience in contact tracing. In fact, he traced me I was infected, he interviewed me, isolated me, and then quarantined all the individuals I was in contact with. Q. And this program is sustainable? Sayegh: Sure, everyone has been crossed-trained, and its scalable. Dr. Paul is building a strong bench. Q. Are Patersonians being cooperative? Sayegh: The vast majority we trace do cooperate, but every once in a while you have one that doesnt. An individual might refuse to isolate or identify contacts, and then you have the potential for spread. This virus exposes the economic divide that exists in urban areas, there are language barriers we have to overcome, and density plays into it: We had one family of 12, living in sub-optimal conditions, and all 12 were infected. Theres no basement where one can isolate. Q. What are your testing goals? Sayegh: Test kids were hard to come by, so weve done it in phases. The first was in early April, testing first responders or municipal employees who were exposed. The second phase was senior citizens in our six housing authority sites. Third, we reached out to private physicians and asked them to conduct tests in their parking lots, so we set up two sites one downtown, one on the south side. The fourth phase was just launched: Four testing sites run by the citys Office of Emergency Management. The fifth phase is a partnership with St. Joes Hospital, and the sixth phase is a mobile unit that will start soon. Q. Where does the data have to be for you to open the spigot, to use your favorite metaphor? Sayegh: Our rate has precipitously declined. Three weeks ago, our chief data offer said, Mayor, our weekly infection rate is 172. And just today, the same guy just told us, If everything holds, its going to be 40 the lowest its been since the beginning. Then theres the ambulance calls: At its peak a month ago, we had 80 Covid calls in one day. Yesterday? We got two. And the hospitalization rate has been cut in half. Q. Your own Covid case was mild? Sayegh: Yeah, I lost my sense of smell, but an X-ray showed that I had pneumonia on my left lung. So that was cause for concern, even though I wasnt coughing, there were no respiratory issues, no fever. It was like a phantom virus. Still, they prescribed yes, get ready hydroxychloroquine. Q. And how was your experience with Donald Trumps drug of choice? Sayegh: Well, Im better, but I did have one of the anticipated side effects bouts with diarrhea. Q. So what was it like to govern remotely, from a throne? Sayegh: Im a Churchill fan, so I channeled my inner Winston and turned my basement into a bunker. I was relentless on the phone calls I spoke to my public health officer five times a day; public safety officer, twice a day; fire chief, three times a day; public administrator, five times. We made it work. Q. Youre an economic development guy. How has the pandemic affected your vision for the city? Sayegh: I view it as Patersons on pause. But at the appropriate time, if we reach those benchmarks, were going to hit the play button. I was on the phone this morning with my economic development director, listing all of our projects whether its the Great Falls, Hinchliffe Stadium, developing downtown, affordable housing. We still have an ambitious vision. Q. Two of your last three predecessors ended up in prison. Is that a tough legacy when youre trying to solicit investment in your city? Sayegh: Yeah, it is. Because what were trying to do is reinvent and rebrand our city. Obviously, there are parts of our past that were very proud of. And there are parts that we want to get past. So were playing to our strengths I use my wifes marketing expertise on this. We have the Great Falls, we have great food, we have incredible diversity. And yes, a great health department. We think this will lead to a great future. Q. The state is starting to open up. How do you feel about that? Sayegh: Look, we have to proceed with caution. The governor said hell reverse course if theres a back-slide. I agree with that. I just feel like with barbers and beauticians, lets take extra precautions though they are trained in hygiene, give them that. And restaurants! I want to go out. I know everyones itching to get started again. Q. Even after the governor opened parks, you didnt think Paterson was ready. Sayegh: Yeah, metrics. At the time, our infection rate was still high in the hundreds and the hospitalization rate was close to 400s. And the testing wasnt where it had to be. But that was three weeks ago, and now, since we are really scaling up our diagnostic capacity, today I re-opened 2 parks, with restrictions. One is Great Falls National Park. But again, we encourage passive recreation and social distancing. Q. Youre in the Bloomberg-Harvard City Leadership Initiative thats 100 mayors to compare notes with, right? Sayegh: Its great. Every Thursday were on with Mayor Bloomberg and 100 mayors from around the world. He always has a special guest Clinton, Obama, Pelosi, Bill Gates. Last week, they had Dr. Anthony Fauci. So I got to ask him about treatment, and he talked about the Convalescent Plasma Therapy using the blood from people who have recovered. Just the week before, I donated my plasma. They say based on the number of units you can donate, you can save three lives. I really admire Dr. Fauci. I just bought his bobblehead seriously, I just bought it online. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. The founder of Perez Chapel International, Bishop Charles Agyinasare, has counseled the Electoral Commission to involve all stakeholders in its plans for a successful 2020 elections. He said the EC plays a crucial role in Ghanas democracy hence any decision inimical to Ghanas electoral fortunes could spell doom for the nation. Speaking during a sermon on Sunday, Bishop Agyinasare called on the Jean Mensa-led EC to be very neutral in refereeing the elections this year. The electoral management body has come under a heavy public backlash over its resolve to go ahead to compile a new voters register amid the coronavirus pandemic. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) believes the timing is wrong, especially when the contagion keeps spreading at the community level ever since it was detected in Ghana mid-March. At the moment Ghana has recorded 6,808 cases resulting in 32 deaths with 2,070 recoveries as at May 25, 2020. Bishop Agyinasare believes having all stakeholders onboard will help the EC make an informed decision while guaranteeing the safety and wellbeing of the Ghanaian populace. You must listen attentively to the stakeholders and bring everybody on board, Bishop Agyinasare advised the EC. He added: Dont say because youre the Electoral Commission, youre just going to do what you want. In his view, Ghana can only maintain the peace she is enjoying if all the stakeholders for the 7 December 2020 polls are brought on board. There are stakeholders that can either allow us to have this peacefully or not, Bishop Agyinasare noted, urging the election management body to bring all of them on board. Experts have expressed fear over biometric clock-ins, which is similar to the ECs biometric registration system. They said the COVID-19 virus can easily spread through the system, although the EC has promised to use biometric wipes and sanitizers at the centres. According to both Dr. Elizabeth Hughes of the United States Infectious disease Center and Prof. Manfred Breckenridge of Boston Medical Laboratories, the use of biometric devices is one of the means by which the virus is fast spreading. Source: Daily Mail Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Akela wrote: Manager: This company's supply chain will develop significant weaknesses unless we make changes to our vendor contracts now. Some will argue that this problem is so far in the future that there is no need to address it today. But that is an irresponsible approach. Just imagine if a financial planner offered the same counsel to a 30-year-old client: "Don't worry, Jane, retirement is 35 years away; you don't need to save anything now." That planner would be guilty of gross malpractice. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the overall conclusion drawn in the manager's argument? (A) Some people argue that the supply-chain problem is so far in the future that there is no need to address it now. (B) It would be irresponsible to postpone changes to the vendor contracts just because the supply chain will not develop weaknesses for a long time. (C) lf no changes are made to the vendor contracts, the supply chain will eventually develop significant weaknesses. (D) In planning to meet its future obligations, a company should follow the same practices that are approptiate for an individual who is planning for retirement. (E) Financial planners should advise their clients to save money for retirement only if retirement is many years away. Source: LSAT Between B and C , we have to be careful with the words in both B and C. Argument is talking about postponement of changes. B also talks about postponement of changes in vendor contract CORRECT Answer is B Clever question, but C is talking about "NO CHANGES in vendor contract"this difference in wording changes our Answer choice , By Trend Public transport service may be resumed in Georgia's Tbilisi in June, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze said, Trend reports via Georgian media. Commenting on the rumors about suspension of public transport service until July 15, the city mayor said this is false information. "During the meeting of the coordination council held on May 25, I personally raised the issue of public transport, as there is a great demand among the population. We are waiting for instructions, Kaladze said. The mayor said he is well aware of the current epidemiological situation and the need for caution. "But when the decision is made, the City Hall is absolutely ready to provide public transport service to the population, Kaladze said. Meanwhile, Tbilisi metro that serves 350, 000 passengers per day, has been closed since March 31. Moreover, 564 buses, which served 400,000 passengers daily, also suspended operation on the same day. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Getty Images Pour one out for the class of 2020, which will not only take its final classes over Zoom and, in the case of college students, likely spend its final days of school away from campus but will miss the celebration of an in-person commencement. While many schools will hold virtual ceremonies, and some have planned in-person festivities for the fall or spring, its still a pretty anticlimactic ending. Thats where our nations biggest celebrities the Obamas, Oprahs, Hankses, and Gagas come in. Spurred by one seniors popular request for a virtual speech by Barack Obama, celebrities have come together to give some much-needed words of encouragement to the graduates. And, yes, that includes three (three!) Obama speeches. Choose your own virtual 2020 graduation adventure from the celebrity commencement events below. June 30: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Remote-graduation season finished out with commencement speeches from New York power couple Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez for the New York Public Schools graduation ceremony. Jen and I are both New Yorkers, first-generation Americans whose immigrant parents worked hard to give us the opportunity to live the American Dream, A-Rod opened. J.Lo later addressed ongoing protests against systemic racism, telling graduates, The only answer to systemic racism, inequality, and hate is systemic love and acceptance, while urging them to vote. Let 2020 be remembered not as the year that your senior year was cut short but the moment when your view of what is possible expanded. Let 2020 be remembered not as the year that we had to isolate ourselves but the moment that we came together as a people, Lopez concluded. Most of all, years from now, remember 2020 as the year when everything started to change and the year that you started on your journey to making sure that it did. June 7: Barack Obama with Michelle Obama, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, BTS, and others YouTubes Dear Class of 2020 was the only event during which you could catch both Barack and Michelle Obama. Addressing the protests against police brutality and the COVID-19 pandemic, Barack said, These shocks to the system were seeing right now, just as you prepare to go out into the world, they remind us that we cant take things for granted we have to work to make things better. In a separate speech, Michelle also addressed those national events, adding, But that doesnt mean we should feel hopeless. Just the opposite. Because what we finally do have is focus. Beyonce also spoke during the event, telling students, Whatever the world looks like in 10 years and 20 years, part of that is up to you. I urge you to let this current moment push you to improve yourself in all areas of your life. And in her speech, Lady Gaga told the class of 2020, You are the seeds that will grow into a new and different forest that is far more beautiful and loving than the one we live in today. Other speakers included BTS, Bill and Melinda Gates, Condoleezza Rice, Malala Yousafzai, and Alicia Keys. June 4: Meghan Markle Meghan Markle returned to her alma mater, Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, to give a commencement speech amid national protests against police brutality and racism. The duchess of Sussex and former Suits actor compared the current moment to growing up in L.A. during 1992 protests after Rodney Kings police beating, telling students, I am sorry that, in a way, we have not gotten the world to a place that you deserve it to be. She later called on students to fight racism. I know that this is not the graduation that you envisioned, and this is not the celebration that you imagined, she said. But I also know that there is a way for us to reframe this for you, and to not see this as the end of something, but instead to see this as the beginning of you harnessing all of the work, all the values, all the skills that you have embodied over the last four years, and now you channel that. Now all of that work gets activated. May 31: Stacey Abrams, Anna Wintour, Jameela Jamil, Tracee Ellis Ross, Aly Raisman, and others Teen Vogue brought together a lineup of inspiring actors, fashion icons and politicians for its high-school and college commencement event, on May 31. Stacey Abrams, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jonathan Van Ness, Jameela Jamil, Christian Siriano, Aly Raisman, and Noor Tagouri spoke, along with Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor who oversees Teen Vogue as Conde Nasts artistic director. Your life is yours, Ross told graduates. So live it that way. Abrams, former candidate for governor of Georgia, told students, Class of 2020, this moment will challenge you, enrage you, and hurt you. You have the right to the pain. But you also have a capacity for change that will last even longer. Queer Eyes Van Ness told graduates, You will be one day giving these commencement speeches hopefully in person but you will share stories of how you came together and how you learned and how you all grew through this time of uncertainty. Swarthmore College graduate Cassandra Stone and San Diego Met High School graduate Endiya Griffin also spoke. May 30: Alicia Keys Alicia Keys gave (and sang) the commencement address to the Savannah College of Art and Design on May 30 by her home piano. Be unafraid to be completely you, and accept all those other individuals that you meet as they are, you know what I mean? And join together, because nothing can get in the way, nothings ever going to get in the way of your greatness, she told graduates before performing part of her hit No One. May 29: Carl Brutananadilewski Carl Brutananadilewski, the animated Dave Willisvoiced character from the canceled Adult Swim series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, talked about why he wanted sports to return during his Adult Swim commencement. You want to know how to succeed in the real world kids? Im going to clue you in on Carls many, many secrets of success. Numero uno, always wash your feet, Brutananadilewski said. You never know when you meet the person who could change your life, and then they look down and youre wearing shower shoes, and they see that you got toe fungus. And maybe they say, Im afraid youre not a good fit for the priesthood. And that saved my ass That is my one secret for success. May 28: Conan OBrien The Harvard grad gave his alma maters commencement speech from his backyard, complete with robe and lectern, on May 28. Do not think of me as someone who graduated Harvard 35 years ago, he told the class of 2020. Think of me as a fellow classmate a fellow classmate who looks like shit. Later in the speech, he commended students for being resilient in a scary world. Youve been challenged your entire lives, and youve demonstrated one of the most precious qualities one can have: resilience, he says. Now, cynics like to mock the supposedly spoiled or callow youth of the new millennia, but you have seen and survived so much, and youve responded with wit, creativity, righteous anger, activism, and a gritty determination to take the reality youve been handed and make it better. May 27: Killer Mike One half of Run the Jewels, rapper Killer Mike gave four simple pieces of advice to the Class of 2020 (including one of his own children) for his Adult Swim commencement speech: Know who you are, dont rush, stand for something, and try again. In discovering who you are, and in taking the time to really, really become who you are, Mike said, there comes a point where youre gonna see, like Neo in the Matrix. Youre gonna know whats wrong. Youre gonna see it happen before. And youre gonna be the only thing that can change the course of the BS. He continued, It is incredibly lonely being that person sometimes, but there are other people in the room who want to be as brave as you. They just need a leader to do it. In conclusion, Mike wished the graduates a good celebration. I hope you enjoy smoking a joint with mom and drinking a beer with dad, he said. May 27: John Waters John Waters, the outspoken director and icon of queer culture, gave a comforting commencement speech to New Yorks School of Visual Arts on May 27. Im an optimist, and you should be too. If you do die tomorrow, at least you got your college degree, right? he told students. And suppose the end of the world is happening right now. Well, you wont miss a thing, will you? Because there will be no more things. You will be the last graduating class in the world. Now thats what I call unique. He later added, Besides, youre artists, and there were never any real jobs for you in the workplace anyway, were there? May 25: Jena Friedman Jena Friedmans Adult Swim commencement speech contained a myriad of life advice, including learning to grow your food, banding together to sue your university for Zoom classes, investing in cruise stocks, having a baby now, and voting against fascism. You all entered college with the election of Donald Trump. I entered college with a similar man-made disaster, 9/11, Friedman told students. 9/11 was a defining moment for my generation in the same way that this pandemic will be a defining moment for yours. Watching the towers fall on live TV made me not want to die in a business suit. I know thats really fucking dark, but its why I became a comedian. Im not joking; Im just being honest. May 25: Jennifer Coolidge Legally Blonde actress and Emerson University grad Jennifer Coolidge gave her alma maters commencement speech with the help of a candelabra, some dolls, and a wig change. Life is a storm, my young graduates. You will bask in the sunlight in one moment, and be shattered on the rocks in the next. What defines you is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storms eye and shout, as you did in Rome, Do your worst, as I will do mine! she told students (quoting The Count of Monte Cristo almost verbatim). Then the fates will know you as we know you, as Emerson Class of 2020! May 22: J.B. Smoove J.B. Smoove centered his Adult Swim commencement speech around the first time he drank his grandfathers Mad Dog 20/20 fortified wine. Consuming that and living through that pandemic of a wine gave me the clarity to set my goals high and to focus on my life, he said. Mad Dog 20/20 is courage in a bottle, it allowed you to forget the horrible things youd been through in the past, and it gives you the courage to believe you can achieve whatever ridiculous dreams you have for the future. There it is: Forget about 20/20 vision, you are the Mad Dog Class of 2020! May 20: Maria Bamford Maria Bamford gave her Adult Swim commencement speech to Brittany, who the speech was probably not for but who woke up watching it anyway. Brittany, I know youre fine, but just in case everything goes tits up, just know theres one shaky white comedian lady with 40,000 Instagram followers who thinks youre amazeballs, Bamford said on May 20. Lower the bar. Are you drunk yet? Did you shoot anyone today? Our gun laws make it almost impossible not to shoot loved ones. Did you not really graduate but you havent told anyone yet? Oh my God, I love you. May 18: Eric Andre Eric Andre kicked off Adult Swims commencement speeches series on May 18, telling students, God and Satan are now one. Rewrite the Bible and the Constitution. Sublimate the sublime. Join a Sublime cover band. May 16: Barack Obama and LeBron James with Pharrell Williams, Timothee Chalamet, Jonas Brothers, Megan Rapinoe, Bad Bunny, and others LeBron Jamess commencement event, for high schoolers only (college students, if you watched, we wont tell), featured Obama giving his second commencement speech of the day, after appearing at an earlier event for HBCU graduates. After cracking some Tiger King jokes, Obama told students, All of those adults who you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? Turns out, they dont have all the answers. A lot of them arent even asking the right questions. So, if the world is going to get better, its going to be up to you. That realization may be kind of intimidating, but I hope its also inspiring. He added, Youre going to have to grow up faster than some generations. This is your generations world to shape. Support came from a stacked cast that included Pharrell Williams, the Jonas Brothers, Malala Yousafzai, Megan Rapinoe, Lena Waithe, Bad Bunny, Ben Platt, Yara Shahidi, Chika, YBN Cordae, Loren Gray, H.E.R., Brandan Bmike Odums, and Charli DAmelio. Timothee Chalamet even pointed viewers toward a treasure from his own high-school days. The LeBron James Family Foundation and its I PROMISE School spearheaded the event. May 16: Barack Obama with Debbie Allen, Steve Harvey, Chris Paul, Wyclef Jean, and others The former president delivered his first of three virtual commencement speeches specifically for graduates of historically black colleges and universities earlier on May 16. Even if half this semester was spent at Zoom University, youve earned this moment, Obama told students on May 16. He later added, More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what theyre doing. A lot of them arent even pretending to be in charge. If the worlds going to get better, its going to be up to you. The two-hour event also featured appearances by Debbie Allen, Steve Harvey, Chris Paul, Vince Carter, Vivica Fox, and Thasunda Brown Duckett, and performances by Wyclef Jean, Anthony Hamilton, and Omari Hardwick, among others. May 15: Oprah Winfrey with Kristen Bell, Cardi B, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Jackman, Awkwafina, Simone Biles, Miley Cyrus, and others Oprah delivers her commencement speech to the Class of 2020. Bravo, Graduates, Bravo! Watch the full #Graduation2020 event here: fb.me/Graduation2020LIVE Posted by Facebook Watch on Friday, May 15, 2020 Who could inspire us more in these trying times? Oprah was the main speaker for Facebook and Instagrams #Graduation2020 event on May 15, joined by guests Kristen Bell, Cardi B, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Jackman, Awkwafina, Simone Biles, Malala Yousafzai, and others. Even though there may not be pomp because of our circumstances, never has a graduating class been called to step into the future with more purpose, vision, passion, and energy, and hope, Oprah told the class of 2020 in her speech. She later asked, What will your essential service be? What really matters to you? The fact that youre alive means youve been given a reprieve to think deeply about that question. How will you use what matters in service to yourself, your community, and the world? Miley Cyrus also performed her song The Climb, an emotional throwback for the high-school and college classes of 2020 alike. This song hits differently during #Graduation2020. Here's a little bit of Miley Cyrus performing her hit song, "The... Posted by Facebook Watch on Friday, May 15, 2020 May 15: Mike Birbiglia Twenty years after he graduated from Georgetown University, Mike Birbiglia was supposed to come back to the College of Arts and Sciences to give the commencement speech. I was not meant to be giving [this speech] to you through my iPhone in New York, and you were not meant to be at your parents house, who you were trying to avoid by going to college in the first place. This wasnt plan A, Birbiglia said on May 15. So often, the things that you love the most were not your plan A. Later, he added, The challenge of this moment will be what defines you for the better. Youve been robbed of this moment, and that might be the best-case scenario because youll be forced to create this moment for yourself, which is what you are meant to do. May 14: Adam DeVine, Jane Lynch, Ludacris, Dashboard Confessional, Machine Gun Kelly, Mark Cuban, Amanda Cerny, and others A hero on college campuses across America, Natural Light hosted a celebrity commencement event on social media on May 14. Actress Amanda Cerny hosted, while speakers included Adam DeVine, Jane Lynch, Ludacris, Mark Cuban, Stephen A. Smith, and Erika Nardini. I understand that theres crazy pressure to figure things out, to have a game plan and to know what youre going to do next, but Im here to tell you, you just dont have to, man, DeVine said in his speech. When life throws you a curveball and instead of hitting it with the bat you just bat it down with your hand and run the bases: Thats a home run! Dashboard Confessional and Machine Gun Kelly also performed for the event. May 2: Tom Hanks Now fully recovered from COVID-19 and ready to give the world his blood in the name of science, Americas dad, Tom Hanks, gave a virtual commencement for Wright State Universitys department of theatre, dance, and motion pictures. Congratulations to you, chosen ones, Hanks said for the schools May 2 ceremony. I am calling you chosen ones because you have been chosen in many ways. First, by the temperament and discipline youve lived by, by the creative fires that are inside of you, and the instinctive lunges of your desires. He added, The future is always uncertain, but we who celebrate what you have done, who celebrate all of your achievements, we are certain of one thing on this day: You will not let us down. Windsor Castle staff tending to the Queen in 'HMS Bubble' are forced to spend a week in isolation and pass a coronavirus test before each three-week shift begins. The monarch, 94, went into self-isolation at the Berkshire estate nine weeks ago alongside her husband Prince Philip, 98, who moved from Sandringham amid the pandemic. They are joined by a team of 24 devoted employees, who work to provide a protective shield around Elizabeth and Philip which Windsor Castle colleagues are calling 'HMS Bubble.' The staff are split into two groups of 12 who work away from their families on a 'three weeks on, three weeks off' basis, the Sun reported. Royal staff, including chefs, cleaners and officials, spend two weeks at home and a third week in quarantine during their time away from Windsor, it was said. Windsor Castle staff tending to the Queen (pictured earlier this year) are forced to spend a week in isolation and pass a coronavirus test before each three-week shift, an insider claimed The monarch, 94, went into self-isolation at the Berkshire estate (pictured on May 8) nine weeks ago alongside her husband Prince Philip, 98, who moved from Sandringham Under strict measures to protect the monarch, each employee is then tested for Covid-19 and has their temperature taken before they can begin another three-week rotation. Those involved in the Queen's security operation include her favourite page Paul Whybrew with whom she is so comfortable that they often watch TV together, and who co-starred in her James Bond skit for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony. Led by master of the household Tony Johnstone-Burt and the Queen's private secretary, Edward Young, the team have willingly agreed to live away from their own families for the duration of the lockdown. It means they can serve the monarch and her husband without needing protective equipment such as gloves and masks, or to abide by social-distancing guidelines. By remaining solely in their 'bubble', they will not come into contact with anyone else and therefore won't contract the virus. In a morale-boosting email to household staff, former vice-admiral Johnstone-Burt compared 'HMS Bubble' to a naval exercise. They are joined by a team of 24 devoted employees, who work to provide a protective shield around Elizabeth and Philip which Windsor Castle colleagues are calling 'HMS Bubble' He said: 'The challenges that we are facing, whether self-isolating alone at home, or with our close household and families, have parallels with being at sea away from home for many months, and having to deal with a sense of dislocation, anxiety and uncertainty.' It is expected the Queen will remain in lockdown at the Berkshire estate for months to come, and her diary is said to be under review until the end of the year. A source said: 'No chances can be taken with the Queen and the Duke's health, so it's totally understandable. But the fact this move has been taken indicates there will be no change soon. 'The Queen will clearly be in lockdown for many months. It's hard to see when it will be deemed safe for her to venture out again.' It comes after Lord Chamberlain Earl Peel, head of the Royal Household, warned the Queen could lose 18million amid the coronavirus lockdown. In an email to staff, the Lord Chamberlain admitted royal income is expected to fall by as much as a third this year due to restrictions on movement and the closure of royal palaces. He also told workers that there will be a pay freeze, as well as a freeze on recruitment. The staff, whose numbers recently increased from 22, are split into two groups of 12 who work away from their families on a 'three weeks on, three weeks off' basis Last year, tourism earned the royals more than 70million from ticket and souvenir sales. The royals earn millions from the Crown Estates, though that income will now fall significantly amid lockdown. Buckingham Palace brings in around 12 million a year, Windsor Castle 25 million, Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh 5.6 million, the Royal Mews 1.6 million and Clarence House 132,000. The Queen is worth 350 million and the Sovereign Grant, paid to the royals annually by the taxpayer to fund official duties, was 82.4million last year. The email read: 'The crisis has already tested our resilience, adaptability and preparedness in many ways and at all levels across the organisation. It has also had a significant impact on the activities of the whole Royal Household. 'Although the UK appears to be over the peak of infections, it remains unclear when measures such as social distancing will come to an end. 'We must therefore assume it could still be many weeks, if not months, before we are able to return to business as usual.' While some parts of the world are currently facing the peak of coronavirus pandemic, a US-based biotechnology company has announced its plans to start enrolling 130 people to test a new experimental vaccine. As per reports, declaring the tenth human trial for a potential vaccine of COVID-19 disease that has infected over 5.4 million people across the globe, Novavax said that the first batch volunteers will be vaccinated on the evening of May 25 in Australia (local time). The trial for coronavirus vaccine is planned to take place in two phases at two sites in the island nation. The Maryland-based company has named the potential COVID-19 vaccine as NVX-CoV2373 which is a perfusion protein made with proprietary nanoparticle technology. Novavax has incorporated an additional chemical that would enhance the response of the immune system and even stimulate greater levels of neutralising antibodies. The pre-clinical testing of the potential vaccine has already demonstrated that it would be beneficial for humans as it is "highly immunogenic". The company in a statement said, These results provide strong evidence that the vaccine candidate will be highly immunogenic in humans, potentially leading to protection from COVID19 and thus helping to control the spread of this disease. Read - Serum Institute Of India Begins 3rd Phase Clinical Trials Of COVID-19 Vaccine On Patients President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax, Stanley C Erck, hailed the achievement as significant and claimed that the phase one of the trials has brought them closer to handle the fundamental need for the COVID-19 vaccine. He also informed that the results acquired by the human trial would be shared in July. Administering our vaccine in the first participants of this clinical trial is a significant achievement, bringing us one step closer toward addressing the fundamental need for a vaccine in the fight against the global COVID19 pandemic, said Erck. We look forward to sharing the clinical results in July and, if promising, quickly initiating the Phase 2 portion of the trial, he added. Read - Russian Politician Suggests Using Inmates As Guinea Pigs For COVID-19 Vaccine Trials WHO warns of 'immediate second peak' of COVID-19 While health professionals and biotech companies across the world are still struggling to come up with the COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned on May 25 that there can be an immediate second peak of the disease if the measures are withdrawn too soon. WHO emergencies director Dr. Mike Ryan has noted that even though cases of COVID-19 are on the decline in some parts of the world, the infection has surged in Central and South America, South Asia, and Africa. While the world is already in the middle of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, Ryan said that the governments shall remain cognizant that the fatal disease can spike any time. Read - Japanese PM Says Coronavirus Vaccine Is A Priority For Safe Olympics Read - Thai Researchers Work On Vaccine That Might Reach Asian Countries Image Source: Pixabay/Representative Vietnam Independent Journalists Association leaders Nguyen Tuong Thuy (L) and Pham Chi Thanh (R), who were arrested in Hanoi last week on charges that penalize opposition to the party-state, in undated photo. Vietnams back-to-back arrests last week of two independent journalists sends an extremely chilling message to those who promote public debate in the communist-run country, a media freedom watchdog group said Tuesday. Police in Hanoi arrested RFA blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy Saturday, accusing the vice chairman of the Vietnam Independent Journalists Association of making, storing, and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes, his wife told RFAs Vietnamese Service. The May 23 arrest of Thuy, came two days after another member of the association, Pham Chi Thanh, who writes under the name Pham Thanh, on the same charges under Article 117, of the Penal Code of Vietnam. The almost simultaneous arrests of Pham Chi Thanh and Nguyen Tuong Thuy send an extremely chilling message to all those trying to maintain a public debate in Vietnam, said Daniel Bastard, the head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Asia-Pacific desk. The fact that the government has detained these two journalists, both respected former Communist Party members who have become scathing critics of the partys ossification, speaks volumes about the feverishness at the head of the party as it prepares for its 21st five-yearly congress in six months time, he said in a statement, referring to the ruling Communist Party. We urge Vietnams commercial partners, including the European Union and the United States, to press for an end to this latest crackdown, added Bastard. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also called for the immediate release of Thuy and Thanh, with all charges dropped. Convictions under article 117 of the criminal code, which penalizes opposing the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, carry jail terms of up to 20 years, it noted. Vietnam must stop treating independent journalists as enemies of the state, and must allow the press to work freely and without fear of trumped-up charges and prison time, said Shawn Crispin, CPJs senior Southeast Asia representative. Journalist Pham Doan Trang told RFA's Vietnamese Service that things are getting worse for Vietnam when it comes to tolerating dissent and likely to get even tougher in the run up to the January ruling party congress. Police are not only making arrests, but also beating the arrested people and threatening and provoking their relatives, she said. Freedom has always been restricted, but nowadays it seems to be narrower and theres more and more violence. From now until the party congress, the scope of freedom can be tightened more and more, and the suppression will increase, added Trang. Thuy, 68, a 22-year military veteran, had been summoned by Hanoi police three times in connection with the arrest on Nov. 21, 2019 of Pham Chi Dung, the chairman of the Vietnam Independent Journalists Association, a local unsanctioned independent press group. Dung is being held in a Ho Chi Minh City detention facility awaiting trial and has not been allowed to visit his wife or lawyers since his arrest, the CPJ said, quoting According to the association representative. Thanh, 68, is an old Communist Party member who used to work with the state-owned Voice of Vietnam radio station before becoming a pro-democracy activist and critic of the one-party state, RSF said. Thuy, who has written weblog commentaries on civil rights and freedom of speech for RFAs Vietnamese Service for six years, visited the United States in 2014 to testify before the House of Representatives on media freedom problems in Vietnam. Over a lifetime of serving the communists, they had many ideals, but over the last 30-40 years, their faith shriveled away and now they realize how the communist regime is, said former political prisoner and writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia. Weve seen that they must pay for the change, and even be suppressed and arrested, he told RFA. In March, a court sentenced RFA Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat to 10 years for abusing his position and authority in a decades-old land-fraud case that drew international condemnation because the writer had been abducted, apparently by Vietnamese agents, in Thailand. Prior to his disappearance, Nhat had been a weekly contributor to RFAs Vietnamese Service. He had earlier been jailed in Vietnam from 2013 to 2015 for his writings criticizing Vietnams government. Vietnam, whose ruling Communist Party controls all media and tolerates no dissent, ranks 175th of 180 countries on the 2020 RSFs World Press Freedom Index. According to the NGO Defend the Defenders, Hanoi has arrested at least 29 activists, including 19 bloggers, for writing posts online, and is currently detaining 238 prisoners of conscience. New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that authorities held 138 political prisoners as of October 2019. The country has been consistently rated not free in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group. Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers. Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Paul Eckert. James Argent's weight has yo-yoed over the years. (Getty Images) James Arg Argent has said his drug addiction was a symptom of an eating order after years battling with his weight. The former The Only Way Is Essex star - who recently opened up about suffering a near-fatal cocaine overdose in 2019 - has now told how he turned to binging on drugs and junk food to cope with jokes about his weight. Argent, 32, told The Sun: The core of my addiction stems from my eating disorder. I binge on food if I hate the way I look... Id feel down so Id start using drugs at 9pm until 6am, not eating a thing. Then Id wake up, feel low and be absolutely starving and I would binge on everything from fizzy drinks, burgers, fast food, crisps, snacks, pizzas, takeaways to the point where I couldnt possibly eat any more to feel better. Read more: James Argent says he could die if he doesn't lose weight James Argent said he reached 23 and a half stone at the start of the year. (Getty Images) Then Id look in the mirror, see Im the biggest Ive ever been, then think, When is a suitable time for a dealer to drop me off. The TOWIE star described it as a vicious cycle. Argent revealed when he attended a rehab clinic in Thailand at the beginning of the year he was the heaviest he has ever been at 23 and a half stone. He has shed five stone and is already feeling better in myself. Read more: James Argent warned to lose 10 stone Argent said he did not regret joining the cast of ITV reality show The Only Way Is Essex in 2010, but admitted being in the public eye made him the target of criticism about his weight. He said: I was constantly getting bantered about the way I looked and people taking the p**s out of my weight, calling me Large Arg or the tubby crooner on social media... James Argent met on-off girlfriend Gemma Collins when they starred together on 'TOWIE'. (Getty Images) People didnt realise it was hurting me because when they see me Im always really happy and friendly and laughing off all the fat jokes. It was really hurting me inside. But he also credited the show with helping him find love with co-star Gemma Collins, 39. Argent said she was not an enabler, and had been extremely tough on him over his drugs use. He added that now he is clean and sober they are eager to get married and start a family. A massive fire broke out on Tuesday morning at a footwear manufacturing factory in Lawrence Road industrial area near Keshavpuram in northwest Delhi gutting raw materials worth lakhs, fire department officials and police officers said. Nobody was injured in the incident, they said. Delhi Fire Services (DFS) director Atul Garg said the fire started around 8.30am and was mostly controlled by 1.30pm, though the cooling operation went on till evening. At least 10 people were working in the four-storey factory when the fire broke out. However, they all rushed out of the factory building as soon as the blaze started, officials said. A total of 23 fire tenders were used to douse the flames. The fire had engulfed the entire factory. Our 50 firefighters took around five hours to control the fire, said Garg. Though the fire officials are yet to ascertain the reason behind the fire, they suspect that it may have started because of a short-circuit. The fire officials said they are still investigating if the factory had violated any fire safety norms. Divisional fire officer( west zone), Mukesh Verma, said the machines used for manufacturing footwear and some plastic materials were kept on the factorys ground and first floor, while raw materials and the end products were stored on the remaining floors. The staircase was also blocked with the plastic materials which allowed the fire to spread rapidly and engulf the entire building. Around 10 workers who were inside had safely rushed out before our firefighters reached the spot, said the divisional officer. He added that three adjacent factory buildings were evacuated as a precautionary step during the firefighting operation. Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said they were waiting for a complaint from the factory owner regarding the incident. Further action would be taken accordingly, she said. Aside from a threat of bad weather, NASA and SpaceX confirmed Monday that everything is all-systems-go for their upcoming rocket launch with two American astronauts. Scheduled for Wednesday, the launch to the International Space Station will be the first US crewed space launch in nine years. "NASA and @SpaceX officials have given the 'go' for the launch on a mission that will return human spaceflight to the US," NASA tweeted, after another day of launch readiness review meetings, according to the space agency's strict protocol for manned flights. A so-called static fire test and a dress rehearsal for the astronauts in their spacesuits went well on Friday and Saturday, officials said. "Now the only thing we need to do is figure out how to control the weather," said Kathy Lueders, the manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, during a briefing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off at 4:33 pm (2033 GMT) on Wednesday, from Launch Pad 39A, with the Crew Dragon capsule at its top. The capsule will be crewed by Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, both veteran space travelers. The weather forecast remains unfavorable, with a 60 percent chance of bad conditions, according to Cape Canaveral forecasters. The next launch window would be Saturday, May 30. But Mike McAleenan, a forecaster at the Cape Canaveral military base, said there is "some hope" for Wednesday: Florida weather has been changing rapidly as of late. A new forecast will be released Tuesday. A NASA spokesman, Joshua Finch, told AFP that the calculated "loss of crew" probability for the mission is one in 276, which is above the minimum threshold required by NASA -- one in 270. Only two vessels, developed by Russian and American space agencies, have docked at the ISS since the beginning of its assembly in 1998. In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to two private companies: industry giant Boeing and the then-young SpaceX, founded by 30-year-old South African Elon Musk, who made his fortune in Silicon Valley with the startup PayPal. The contract was to design and build capsules that would take over from the American space shuttles, which were shut down in 2011 after 30 years of service. Since then, Russia has had the only rocket in the world capable of sending astronauts to the ISS -- the Soyuz -- and the US has paid Russia for seats on it. This dependence will end once NASA certifies either Crew Dragon or Boeing's Starliner as safe. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off at 4:33 pm (2033 GMT) on May 27, 2020, from Launch Pad 39A with the Crew Dragon capsule at its top The Congress on Tuesday accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of targeting Dalits by saying that a large proportion of migrant workers returning home to the state are infected with coronavirus. The party's Karnataka unit has also hit out at the UP government for its decision that other states should seek its permission to employ its natives, stating that such actions lack common sense and would only make people of the state to suffer more. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had on Monday taken on Adityanath over his remark that 75 per cent of UP workers returning from Mumbai are infected, questioning the math. In a video clip, Adityanath was also heard saying that 50 per cent of workers returning from Delhi have coronavirus and 25-30 per cent from other states are similarly infected. On Tuesday, All India Congress Committee (AICC) office bearer PL Punia said Adityanath's "misleading statement" could lead to "social hatred". He said most migrant workers are Dalits or belong to "backward castes". "This statement by the chief minister would send a message among people that they are bringing the disease with them. This amounts to conspiring against Dalits and the backwards," Punia, who is the in-charge at AICC for Chhattisgarh. Congress legislature party leader Aradhana Misra also questioned the statistics. She said according to the government a little above 6,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the state, but going by what Adityanath said the figure should be 10 lakh. Gandhi had made a similar point on Twitter. Misra said if there is any truth in the CM's claim, the government needs to undertake testing with transparency and tell people about its preparedness to deal with the situation. Punia also attacked the government for the arrest of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu, claiming he has been punished for serving poor labourers. "The Yogi government is doing injustice to our leader and this will not be tolerated," he said. Lallu was booked for cheating and forgery over a list of buses on which the Congress had recently offered to bringing migrant workers to Uttar Pradesh. The UP government had claimed that a large number of buses lacked insurance papers and fitness certificates. Several registration numbers in the list were not even buses, it said during the row with the Congress. Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar in a series of tweets hit out at the northern state's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the move and said, UP was not the private property of his government. "UP CM Yogi Adityanath's move to restrict hiring people of UP is unconstitutional & goes against the right to freedom of movement. Mr Yogi, please note that UP is not the private property of your govt. The people of UP don't need your govt's permission to work anywhere in India," Shivakumar wrote on Twitter. "Mr Yogi doesn't understand the basic rules of governance in a democracy. Such actions lack common sense and will only make the people of UP suffer more.. When it's convenient for BJP, it's One Nation, when it's not, it's different states & different people Heights of hypocrisy!" he said in another tweet. The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday had said that other states should seek its permission to employ its natives. Upset that migrant labourers were "not properly taken care of" by various states in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, Adityanath had said, "These workers are our biggest resource and we will give them employment in Uttar Pradesh as state government was going to set up a panel for their employment. "They are our people... and if some states want them back, they have to seek permission from the state government," he had said. (With inputs from PTI) Teagasc publish standard for the management of animal welfare at the time of slaughter Teagasc has produced a new publication called Standard for the management of animal welfare at time of slaughter Its available at https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2020/TeagascAW-standard-rev-2--May-25th--2020.pdf This voluntary standard captures the requirements of the legislation and takes into account adoption of best practices for the control of animal welfare from loading and transport up to the time of killing. The species covered include cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and equine animals. The scope includes all relevant slaughter plant activities as specified in Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009. Food consumers, retailers, processors and other stakeholders have a high degree of interest in Animal Welfare. The drivers of this are from the widely held view that animals are sentient and possess an emotional and cognitive level of understanding. On this premise, animals feel physical pain and also stress. The consequence of this is that pain and stress must be managed so that it is eliminated or minimised in animal handling and processing. This view has been reflected through enhanced awareness of the issue and the desire to ensure a high standard of animal welfare is practiced in the food chain. This desire has been manifested within legislation via the introduction of the Council Regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing. According to Lead author, Kevin Brennan, a principal food assurance specialist in the Teagasc Food Industry Development Department: Whilst management of animal welfare is now a legal imperative it is also a subject which is a fundamental requirement of integrated food assurance programmes. Both regulations and standards have as an underlining theme the basis of what has become commonly termed the five freedoms i.e. freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain injury or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and free from fear and distress. In later years a possible sixth freedom has crept into this concept and that is the freedom to be free. This is of particular interest in the Irish context where animals, particularly sheep and cattle, spend much of their lifespan grazing pastures. Of particular relevance in this area is the direct negative impact of poor animal welfare practices on meat safety and quality. I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to assist in the development of this publication which further consolidates the above with new and innovative concepts in the management of welfare from farm to lairage. Frank O Mara, Director of Research in Teagasc said: This Standard for the management of animal welfare at time of slaughter endeavours to make animal welfare issues for animals destined for humane slaughter central to the operation of the slaughter facility. The role of this document is to specify protocols for a business operator to comply with animal welfare requirements as specified in legislation and best practices for slaughter and related activities. Following these requirements will ensure that animals are handled and slaughtered in a humane fashion and spared any avoidable distress, pain or suffering. Ends Technavio has been monitoring the food enzymes market and it is poised to grow by USD 1.29 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 8% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200525005275/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Food Enzymes Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd., Alticor Inc., Associated British Foods Plc, BASF, Chr. Hansen Holding AS, DowDuPont Inc., Maps Enzymes Ltd., Novozymes AS, Puratos NV, and Royal DSM are some of the major market participants. The demand from the beverage industry will offer immense growth opportunities. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Demand from the beverage industry has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Food Enzymes Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Food Enzymes Market is segmented as below: Product Carbohydrases Protease Lipase Others Application Processed Foods Beverages Animal Feed and Poultry Dairy Bakery Geography North America APAC Europe South America MEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40529 Food Enzymes Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our food enzymes market report covers the following areas: Food Enzymes Market size Food Enzymes Market trends Food Enzymes Market industry analysis This study identifies the increase in awareness about healthy and nutritional food as one of the prime reasons driving the food enzymes market growth during the next few years. Food Enzymes Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of vendors operating in the food enzymes market, including some of the vendors such as Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd., Alticor Inc., Associated British Foods Plc, BASF, Chr. Hansen Holding AS, DowDuPont Inc., Maps Enzymes Ltd., Novozymes AS, Puratos NV, and Royal DSM. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the food enzymes market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Food Enzymes Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist food enzymes market growth during the next five years Estimation of the food enzymes market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the food enzymes market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of food enzymes market vendors Table Of Contents: Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024 Five Forces Analysis Five Forces Summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Product Market segments Comparison by Product placement Carbohydrases Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Protease Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Lipase Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Others Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Product Market Segmentation by Application Market segments Comparison by Application placement Processed foods Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Beverages Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Animal feed and poultry Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Dairy Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Bakery Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Application Customer Landscape Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd. Alticor Inc. Associated British Foods Plc BASF Chr. Hansen Holding AS DowDuPont Inc. Maps Enzymes Ltd. Novozymes AS Puratos NV Royal DSM Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200525005275/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] In his final days as president, Donald Trump is promising to withdraw as many American troops as possible from Afghanistan, all but guaranteeing a major place for the Taliban in the countrys future. Today, as that new chapter begins in Afghanistan, my colleague Mujib Mashal on what hes learned from living with and reporting on the Taliban for the past 25 years. Its Wednesday, November 18. Mujib, tell me about some of your earliest memories of growing up in Afghanistan. mujib mashal I think some of my earliest memories is my grandpa visiting our home in Kabul often. He lived in a different part of the city. And he had a cane. He was a tall man, and he loved walking. Every time he would visit our home, and he would knock on the door with his cane, it would be a moment of joy for us. We would run to the door. But this was a period where the daily reality of this city was just the sound and the destruction of rockets. And in the house we lived in, we had a small garden where my dad would grow vegetables when he would come back for work. One of those rockets landed as he was watering the flowers and vegetables in the backyard. michael barbaro Wow. mujib mashal And we had this apple tree right in the middle of the backyard. And we were lucky because the rocket cut through that apple tree. And it landed, and it went through the soft dirt, and it didnt explode. But I remember very clearly for years after that, my dad would pour water into that spot where the shell had gone in, thinking it would rust up the shell, and it wont explode. So it almost became part of his backyard garden. michael barbaro And what was going on in the country that explained these terrifying experiences that are happening in your backyard? Who was behind this? mujib mashal So this was the early 1990s. Theres a power vacuum. The Soviet Union that had invaded Afghanistan has just pulled out, and all these guerrilla factions that were funded by the C.I.A. as part of this larger Cold War rivalry to fight the Soviets, are now fighting each other over the power vacuum. So Kabul, the capital city, is divided into little fiefdoms by these guerrilla factions, and theyre firing rockets on each other. But as a kid, we didnt know of these bigger dynamics. What I was experiencing was largely just the sound and the horror of the rockets. And the little excitement that we had during the day was a couple hours in the evening wed get electricity. Power would come up, and then people would switch on their television. And when youd switch on the television, there would be a recitation of the Koran. And there would be the national anthem. And then they would go into a childrens program. Most days than not, it was a show about I think it was a rabbit. And the rabbit was chasing a carrot. And I dont really remember the plot of the story. But I just remember in the daily routine, in all the chaos, this was a moment of laughter, and color, and normalcy, right? michael barbaro Mm-hmm. mujib mashal But that didnt last long. I think I was seven or eight when it ended. michael barbaro And why was that? What had happened? mujib mashal It was 1996, and one of the guerrilla groups, the Taliban, moved into the capital. They were a force that did not believe in televisions, and music, and in any visuals. And quickly any idea of television and things like that was gone. michael barbaro They literally turned it off. mujib mashal They turned it off. michael barbaro And who were the Taliban to you? What did you understand about them in this moment? mujib mashal So we felt the changes immediately. [music] One thing I remember was, there was a constant fear of being raided if you had a television or there was music heard from your home. So you either destroyed the television that you had, burned the photo albums, or you found ways to bury them or to hide them. And my dad, I remember, he had a collection of cassettes. He had favorite singers that he would listen to. And he took his cassettes, he took the television, he took the photo albums up the stairs to this little attic we had, and he put it all there. And then at the end of the stairs, he sealed the attic with a wall. And it was so obvious. It wasnt a great disguise, really. But that is the best he could think of. And then in school I remember the subjects all of a sudden changed. Certain subjects were completely dropped. Like geography was dropped. There was multiple religious subjects that was added. And some of the teachers for those religious subjects were clearly officials of the Taliban government, because they would arrive in cars. Cars were very rare back then. And then around noon, everybody would be filed into this auditorium, where the noon prayer would happen. And one young-ish teacher, he would lead the prayers. And the prayer is supposed to be something focused, where youre not looking at anyone. But as you would bend over, as you do in a Muslim prayer, I remember we would all be focused on his gun. His gun would be strapped to his side. The other thing was my sister suddenly not being able to go to school. I have one sister, and she was older than me. And I think she was in sixth grade. And she was top of her class all the six years. So she continued studying at home, initially thinking this was a temporary thing, right? What system, what government in their right mind would completely stop girls from going to school? But quickly the sense dawned on her that she may never get a chance to go back to school. michael barbaro And how do you remember people talking about these changes? People like your parents, your aunts or uncles the adults in your life? mujib mashal Immediately if we go back to that context of a capital city in anarchy, the daily reality being rockets, being looting, where there are multiple forces inside the city, in that context, initially the Taliban was this force that brought an end to the anarchy, an end to the rockets, that people didnt fear losing their lives any moment. Then all of a sudden, at night you could leave your gates open, and nobody dared come into your home to steal anything, that all of a sudden you felt like there was order in the city. But they brought all of that at a enormous cost through terror and fear. On the streets, you would see the Taliban around prayer time, where they would forcibly lash people to the mosques. If somebody was caught stealing, their hand was chopped in front of a packed stadium at the halftime of a soccer game. You were at their mercy. They set the tone for how you lived your life. michael barbaro So how long does this period of profound trade-offs that you just walked us through, how long does that last? mujib mashal At the time, the feeling was, this was permanent. They had 95% of the country under their control. But the end of it came really unexpectedly. Osama bin Laden, who had orchestrated the attacks of September 11, 2001, was living in Afghanistan. He was a guest of the Taliban. michael barbaro Right. mujib mashal And once Bin Laden and al-Qaeda carried out those attacks in New York, the U.S. invaded, and the bombing of the city started it again. michael barbaro And what was that time like for you, the time when the United States arrives in Afghanistan and begins this enormous invasion? [music] mujib mashal I remember when the air strikes started, school still continued. And as a kid even, I knew very well that from the sky above, the planes will not be able to tell a gathering of the Taliban and a gathering of students wearing turbans. So I just distinctly remember the turban was part of the school uniform, but I would have it tucked under my arm until that last minute of entering the classroom where I really had to wear it. And then in the evenings, I remember in the darkness of the city, we could get on the roof to try to sort of estimate what part of the city was hit, because you could see the fire, to know whether we knew a relative or a family member that lived close to that area, whether we should worry or not. michael barbaro Wow. mujib mashal In school, I remember theres nervousness in the same teachers and principals were seeing. All of a sudden, those meetings at the auditorium, therell be chants of death to America. And then there was talk of how with faith and with Islam, were going to defeat this global military might. But the resistance didnt last long. It only took a couple of weeks for the Taliban to realize that this air force in particular was nothing like they had seen before. They started running pretty quickly. Then one morning we woke up, and they were gone. They just packed up and left the city. I remember for a couple of days my dad didnt really believe it. So he didnt tear down the wall to bring out his cassettes, to bring out the Television but then we finally convinced him. I just remember it was us kids begging him. Its gone, its done. We should bring out that television. And our idea was that once you bring out the television, you plug it into electricity, and you turn it on, youll go back to the same shows. [CHUCKLING] michael barbaro So just as quickly as the Taliban arrives and is a total fact of life, it is suddenly just gone? mujib mashal Yes. It was established pretty quickly on the streets when the music came back, and when the barber shops were flooded, just people getting shaves, and the beards being gone. All of a sudden, the worlds attention focuses on this deprived war-torn country. Dozens of nations come in. They open up their Embassies they open up their purses. Government is inclusive. Minorities come into the government. Women are ministers schools open up. It was a period of opportunities. And for me personally in 2003, I got a scholarship to go study in Massachusetts, in a high school. And when I was leaving, the energy on the ground at that time was, this is the new beginning for Afghanistan. This is a country on the road for democratic, fair, just governance and prosperity. And the Taliban. they dont have a place in that future. michael barbaro Well be right back. Mujib, we know that, of course, the Taliban does not go away. It starts to reemerge. And I wonder how you experienced that during your time in the United States. mujib mashal The years I was a student the United States, I would go back home to my family over the summers. And in the first few years, the Taliban occasionally would come up in the news. They would launch a small attack somewhere in a faraway district. It wasnt really part of the central conversation. But as the years passed, I felt that the group was growing stronger. They went to safe havens across the border in Pakistan. They regrouped, and they came back. So by 2012, when I returned as a reporter to Kabul, it was very, very clear that they were challenging the existence of this new, democratic system that the Americans were bankrolling. As a reporter on the ground, we felt them in the frequency of the suicide attacks we covered. A couple times a week, more than that, there will be bombings across the city, really brutal bombings. And they would just grow in size and in carnage. One time, they packed a sewage truck with explosives, and they detonated it pretty close to our office. I was driving to work that morning. And when I arrived, the desk where I work at had been flung, and the windows were smashed. And it just kept growing closer and closer to home, where the feeling as a resident of the city, as a reporter, was that if I would be stuck in a traffic knot and there would be a truck in front of me, the fear my heartbeat would go up, because anything, any moment could explode in front of your eyes. And there was nothing you could do about it. If you came out of your home, you were on the front line. [music] michael barbaro So at this point, how are you, adult reporter, thinking about the Taliban? Are they enemies of Afghanistan? Are they in some sense rulers thrown from power, trying to claw their way back, as all powers do try to do? Are they terrorists to you? How are you categorizing them in your head? mujib mashal Im seeing them as all those things. Because as a reporter, I know there is a back story to the carnage. There is an ideology to it. There is a story to it, right? The trouble is that their leaders are hiding in safe havens in Pakistan. Theyre avoiding interviews. And their fighters, the only time we see them usually is their dead bodies. So we dont have as much access to their thinking, but that started changing in 2018. michael barbaro And why is that? Remind us what happens in 2018? mujib mashal So by 2018, the Taliban have grown into a force to be reckoned with. They have presence in large parts of the country, and the loss of daily life is creating this sense of hopelessness and despair, and the war is a bloody stalemate. And the U.S. comes to a realization that despite growing an Afghan security force, despite supporting them with airstrikes, it cant really defeat the Taliban militarily. The Taliban are just stubborn. So the U.S. decides to open direct talks with the Taliban in Doha. And thats an opening for me to travel to Doha and to start meeting some of these shadowy figures that had been impossible for us to access for so long, to get a sense of how they feel about this conflict. michael barbaro Mujib, as you covered these negotiations, I wonder what was going through your head. Because these are people who took a lot from you and everyone around you. And so I know as a journalist, youre there to cover them in their official capacity, but I wonder what was going through your heart as youre sitting across from them, talking to them. Is there a temptation to confront them? mujib mashal Of course. Theres two things. One is, yes, here I am for the first time, sitting across from people in whose name a lot of carnage happened, that these big bombings happened, that have actually killed friends, colleagues that I know. So, yes, the anger is there. But as a reporter covering a war with multiple, brutal sides, Ive learned to try to keep some of those emotions in check. And what also helped was that these were characters whose names I knew. And I remember one afternoon in Doha, I was walking around the hotel where the negotiations were happening, and this one middle-aged talib wearing his turban was just standing at the edge of the shoreline, looking at the water in Doha. And I walked up to him and struck a conversation. And as he was telling me about how the negotiations were going, he paused. And then he said, well, I wont be in trouble, because you probably dont know who I am, anyways. And I was like, actually, sir, I think I know your name. And he said, who am I? And when I mentioned what ministry he led, he just started laughing, and he just smacked my knee. And he said, oh, youre a clever one. And then he said, how do you know? I was like, well, when I was a kid, I lived under your government. And on the national independence day, we would march in the stadium, and you would be in the V.I.P. area watching our parade. But this was 20 years later now. And as curious as I was about how theyre fighting this war, he starts asking me questions. Hes just bombarding me with a lot of questions about how Afghanistan has changed. And then he started asking me some questions about Taliban fighters around Kabul. And some of the ways he was asking me questions made me wonder how well he knew those fighters who were fighting in his name. And I realized really quickly that hes disconnected from a reality that has developed over the 20 years when he was hiding in safe havens in Pakistan. And to me, that was very, very telling. Because the Taliban leaders who were sitting in Doha, who were negotiating a peace deal, were actually elderly graybeards, who had been out of the battlefield for 20 years or so. They were people who had experienced the chaos after the Soviet withdrawal. And they came with a bit of pragmatism, realizing that there was a huge burden of responsibility on their shoulders to avoid Afghanistan falling into another power vacuum again. But the main leverage they have is the fighting force on the ground. So this doubt that I had of how well he knows, how well he is aware of the evolution of that force made it clearly important to me that I need to meet face-to-face with this younger generation of Taliban fighters, and understand the fighters, and the views, and the expectations of the fighter, who are the real muscle. At the end of the day, it is the fighters on the ground that matter in terms of whether this war ends peacefully or whether this country breaks into another civil war. michael barbaro So how do you actually go about meeting these fighters? mujib mashal So in February, the U.S. and the Taliban finally signed their deal. And that began the American troop withdrawal, and it mostly stopped the American airstrikes. And the Taliban reduced its attacks to open direct negotiations with the Afghan government over power-sharing, over a future government. And that was an opportunity for me to convince one of the Taliban commanders in the East to take us in and let us spend some time with his fighters. mujib mashal So were driving towards Alingar, where were supposed to meet these Taliban fighters. The process has been a little difficult. We waited for several weeks, actually months to get access. mujib mashal So just photographer, Jim Holbrook, and I mujib mashal If there ever was a window to do this, Jim, now is it. jim holbrook I know. mujib mashal Because of the airstrikes. mujib mashal And our reporter in the East, Zabihullah, we get in the car, and we drive to Laghman Province, where were meeting these fighters. mujib mashal There is a last checkpost right before a bridge where we cross into a Taliban area. mujib mashal And as the government control ends mujib mashal How beautiful are the mountains in the background, man? jim holbrook Yeah. mujib mashal Wow. mujib mashal as we drive deeper into the Taliban territory mujib mashal In their turbans, their weapons out in the open. mujib mashal were met in the middle of a road by their red unit, which is their most elite force. And they arrive on the back of motorcycles. Their faces are covered. Theyre all young fighters. And they stop us in the road. We know theyve come to welcome us. And we get out of the car to say hello. And Im nervous. Im super nervous. Its one thing to sit down in a posh hotel across from the graybearded political leaders. Its something else to sit down with their killers, with the most ruthless of their fighters. And whats going through my mind is, how do I make small talk, to break the ice? I can sense myself that Im talking fast and Im nervous. And I say hello to all of them. And as soon as they see Jim, that hes a foreigner [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And that he speaks a little bit of the local language, [LAUGHTER] they start cracking up, and they start opening up. They lead us to their commander that were meeting, this guy named Moli Ghais, and we meet him in the middle of the bazaar. He comes out of this flour mill, and he dusts his clothes. Then he apologizes, and he says, Im sorry. I was busy milling some flour. And he tells us thats his day job. They bring some oranges and some apples, and we sit under this shade of a mulberry tree for what is a really friendly, normal conversation. michael barbaro And what does he tell you? What did you learn from him? [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] mujib mashal I ask this commander, and I said, well, the Americans are leaving. Youve justified your violence by saying, were fighting the foreign invaders. How do you justify killing fellow Afghan fighters who pray to the same God, who read the same Koran? [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] He was an eloquent man, and he said, let me tell you clearly our fight is not against the flesh and bones of the foreigners, or the flesh and bones of the Afghans. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] He said, our fight is about the system. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And he said, yes, the Americans might be leaving, but how can we stop fighting if those in government are insisting on keeping the same corrupt government? [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] They see their fight as restoring their Islamic way of government. michael barbaro These fighters on the ground want to resume the life of your childhood, that level of severe Taliban government. mujib mashal Exactly. They want a strict interpretation of Taliban government that they were too young to have experienced. They werent old enough to have memories of what that government based on a rigid interpretation of Islam looked like. They didnt know that the Taliban government in the 90s, it was poverty and starvation, and people felt Suffocated So the disconnect here was that the younger fighters are excited about a victory to form a kind of government that in their mind hasnt been tried before. But in fact, it was tried, as the graybearded leaders of them who are more pragmatic at the top of the Taliban, they know that that was difficult to sustain. One of our last stops during this trip was, we went to the cemetery where mujib mashal All the white ones you know, Jim. mujib mashal It was dotted with these graves of Taliban fighters with white flags on top of them. And I was staring at this vast cemetery. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And the commander, Ghais, was telling me that every unit operating in that province had lost half of its men. michael barbaro Wow. mujib mashal So theres a sense of, weve paid a big price also for ideology, and for wanting the return of the Taliban rule, so we deserve it. Were entitled to it. As we were saying goodbye to leave the province, again, there was this little bit of really innocent curiosity on the part of the commander. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] And he cornered me and he said, well, youve come from Doha. You were covering the negotiations. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] What do you think? Is their hope for this process? And the tone in which he was asking was a suggestion of how this fight has drained them also. So it was an interesting mix of resolve, entitlement, victory, and also pure exhaustion, not only in these visuals of the cemetery around them packed with people who are his comrades killed, but also in how he asked me that question, whether this process to seek a peaceful end to this war was going to lead to anything. [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] michael barbaro So after visiting these negotiations, after talking to the Taliban leadership and then meeting with these fighters on the front lines, I wonder what youre thinking might happen now to Afghanistan in this moment. Do you have hope for a peaceful resolution, for a compromise? mujib mashal On the one hand, you see elements that could help a peaceful resolution. But what complicates that hope is the fact that over the past several months since the negotiations started, the high rate of bloodshed has continued. And thats largely because the Taliban are refusing a ceasefire. They are initiating the attacks. And what that indicates is that perhaps the Taliban leaders at the top are walking such a fine line with their battlefield fighters, that theyre struggling to sell a compromise, and that perhaps the foot soldiers feel that they have sacrificed and lost so much in 19 years, and theyre so close to what they want, that they dont want to just allow their political leaders to make that decision for them at the table, that they want to continue their military pressure and influence till the very last minute. But the reality that creates is, it continues the despair, it continues the hopelessness for the Afghan people. Because despite a start to peace talks, lives are being lost on a daily basis. michael barbaro Mujib, it must be a strange time for you to be leaving Kabul as you are. I know your time as a reporter in Afghanistan is coming to an end. And I mean strange not just because of a delicate moment were in, in these discussions about the role of the Taliban, but because this is where you grew up. mujib mashal Yes, emotionally I will not be able to disconnect from this place. This is where my family lives. This is the place that shaped me. I will always feel what happens here. Kabul, from those days of rockets and explosions that I described, has transformed into a massive, crowded city of 6 to 7 million. There is music. There is free media. There is just the color of a happening urban center. And this generation, my generation, has grown in this new reality over the past 20 years. My worry is whether this new foundation thats been built for a vibrant reality will sustain, will grow. But what I fear is that we may slip back to those dark nightmares of factional fighting in the 90s. So it is a turning moment. Its an inflection point. And it does feel like if its not grabbed right now, this conflict could go on for another generation. And the fear is that in that space of war, things only get more extreme. The violence only gets more extreme. The brutality gets more extreme. That if this slips into another generational conflict, what weve seen over the past 40 years in terms of the brutality will probably pale in comparison to what will come. michael barbaro Well, lets hope that doesnt happen. mujib mashal Lets hope so. michael barbaro Well, thank you, Mujib. We wish you the best of luck in your next assignment. mujib mashal Thank you. michael barbaro Just before sunset, a volley of gunshots rang out in the parking lot of a northern Toronto apartment complex. When police arrived, they found a black tow truck pinned between two other vehicles. The driver, Hashim Kinani, 23, was slumped in the front seat, having been shot several times. Related: 'Sick of hiding': the refugee family fleeing the mafia and Canadian authorities Despite efforts by the emergency crew, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The brazen murder followed a week of arson attacks which left the burned remains of tow trucks scattered throughout the city. The coronavirus lockdown has quietened Canadas largest city, but there has been little reprieve for an industry rife with violence and intimidation and some tow-truck owners fear that organized crime has pushed the industry to a breaking point. Two boys, aged 15 and 17, were charged on Thursday with first-degree and attempted murder, and Toronto police told the Guardian they do not believe Kinanis murder was related to an ongoing turf war. But he was the fourth Toronto tow-truck driver to be murdered in less than two years. Several others have been shot or shot at including one who was targeted just hours after Kinanis death. In a statement to the Guardian following Kinanis murder, Ontarios ministry of transportation said it was deeply concerned by the violence in the towing industry and was working to deter this behaviour. A recent investigation by the Globe and Mail found at least 30 arson attacks targeting tow-truck businesses, though that figure has now risen since the spike in violence over the last few months. In March, a collision reporting centre in northern Toronto was set on fire. Another was vandalized and an accelerant-doused object found amid the broken glass, say police. That same month, two drivers were shot and numerous vehicles set ablaze, prompting anger and frustration from Ontarios premier, Doug Ford. Were coming for you, and were going to catch you, Ford warned the attackers. The partys over. Story continues For many drivers, the violence feels unrelenting. I worry about waking up to find my truck on fire outside of my house, one driver, who has worked in the industry for 13 years, told the Guardian. Much of trouble stems from accident chasing where truck operators race their rivals to be the first at the scene of a crash. Some repair garages will pay tow truck drivers a finders fee for damaged vehicles, making chasing an incredibly lucrative field. The lure of profits and the relative lack of oversight has attracted organized crime. Last June, police conducted a series of raids under the name Project Kraken, charging more than 70 people including seven drivers with offenses ranging from firearms possession to conspiracy to commit murder. Police recovered Tasers and body armour, and found that numerous drivers were armed and prepared to shoot other tow-truck operators over an ongoing battle over territory, said Torontos police deputy chief, James Ramer. But nearly a year after those high-profile raids, critics say the problems have only got worse. Weve got guys racing down the highway to be the first to arrive for a tow, threaten each other, bang into each other and even shoot each other. Things need to change, said John Henderson of the Fair Towing Task Force, a lobby group advocating for industry reform. Henderson and others have called for greater regulation and licensing, as well as the establishment of an oversight body, to rein in what they say is an increasingly saturated industry with few clear standards. Trucks are just popping up every few days with new names and faces, and then they disappear just as fast. Their one motive is to eliminate competition and own the road. Its crazy these days, said the driver. In theory, the towing industry is regulated at a municipal level in Ontario, but according to the Canadian Automobile Association, only 17 of Ontarios 444 municipalities have clear rules, meaning swaths of the province have become a free-for-all for drivers looking to circumvent or exploit exiting loopholes. Companies say they also want clear regulations for truck maintenance and safety as well as better training standards for drivers. Henderson says a number of unscrupulous drivers are using modified trucks not actual tow trucks. If an unlicensed, unregulated guy picks up your vehicle, hes never going to see you again. Hes going to charge you as much as he thinks youre going to pay. With the government preoccupied by the coronavirus pandemic, businesses worry that legislation that has been repeatedly proposed will once again be forgotten. But Henderson hopes the recent shooting will put lingering crisis back in the spotlight. Because lets be clear: someone was killed, he said. We need to fix this. Odisha has become the second state after Jharkhand in recent days to allow home delivery of alcohol, with online food ordering platform Zomato announcing the launch of the service in the state capital Bhubaneshwar. The Gurugram-based company also plans to extend the service to Rourkela, Balasore, Balangir, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Cuttack. Swiggy would follow its rival in but there could be some delay in the aftermath of the Cyclone Amphan that wrecked the coastal districts of the eastern state, sources said. Alcohol deliveries can help the business of the two companies, which have seen a drop in home delivery of food, with most restaurants shut due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown and people opting to cook their meals. Some of the restrictions have since been eased and restaurants allowed takeaways but that hasn't stopped layoffs or salary cuts. On May 18, Swiggy laid off 1,100 employees and shut down some of its businesses. Two days earlier, Zomato had announced a plan to let go of around 500 staff and cut by up to 50 percent the salary of the remaining employees for the next six months. Last week, both Swiggy and Zomato started alcohol delivery in Ranchi, the capital of neighbouring Jharkhand, within hours of each other. The Mumbai Municipal Corporation has also given the go-ahead to the service and the delivery platforms are in talks with other government departments to start the service. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show We are working very closely with excise departments to ensure end-to-end compliance to the safety guidelines and are also introducing consumption and identity verification protocols to promote responsible ordering and consumption, said Rakesh Ranjan, vice president at Zomato. In a press statement, Zomato said it had built several safety processes and checks to ensure the safe delivery of alcohol, starting from age checks at the time of ordering as well as at the time of delivery. Users have to upload a valid proof of age that is verified at the time of delivery. There are limits in place as well to promote responsible ordering, the company said. With their core business hit badly by the lockdown, the two companies have already diversified into grocery deliveries. Sale of alcohol was banned along with several other purchases when the lockdown was announced on March 24. The government lifted the ban in May, which led to serpentine queues outside shops, creating fears of the virus spread. Several states, desperate to shore up revenues, suggested home delivery as a safer option. Motorola could reveal the second generation of its Razr foldable smartphone in September, according to Lenovo South Africa general manager Thibault Dousson. Lenovo bought the mobile manufacturer back in October 2014 and has primarily focussed the Motorola smartphone line-up on the mid-range market. It made a daring entry into the relatively untested territory of foldable smartphones with the release of the new Motorola Razr in February 2020. While initial demand for the Razr was high, Samsungs Galaxy Z Flip has proven to be a major rival, selling almost 400,000 units by the end of March, less than two months after its release. Meanwhile, Motorola started offering the Razr on a 2-for-1 sale, which analysts have claimed indicates its sales are not performing well. September reveal The possible release date of the Razr 2 was revealed by Dousson in an interview with Brendon Petersen in a Reframed Tech podcast on 19 May. Theres a new iteration coming up. Theres one in September I think, coming up, Dousson said regarding the second-generation version of the smartphone. Dousson did not clarify whether this would be the announcement or launch date. While it may be surprising that Motorola would reveal the Razr 2 only eight months after the first foldable Razr went on sale, it should be noted the original was only announced three months prior to that release. Razr reception The new Razr proved to be a hit among reviewers for its sleek design reminiscent of the original 2006, but many pointed out it lacks the type of specifications found in most flagship smartphones today. It featured a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, with a single 16MP rear camera and 5MP front sensor. It was priced at $1,499 at launch, which was more expensive than the premium Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, both of which feature superior components. The Galaxy Z Flip was also launched at over $100 cheaper than the Razr and boasts a faster processor, more RAM, and larger internal storage. More powerful specifications Motorola is set to address this with the Razr 2, according to a source who spoke to XDA Developers. The source claimed the Razr 2 will get sub-6GHz 5G capability, in addition to several other significant hardware upgrades. It will reportedly be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765 mobile processor with a Snapdragon X52 5G modem. In addition, the new Razrs memory will reportedly be increased to 8GB RAM, internal storage will be doubled to 256GB and a larger 2,845mAh battery will be employed. The rear camera will be upgraded to Samsungs 48MP ISOCELL Bright GM1 sensor, and the front camera will be bumped to a 20MP lens. Motorola is expected to use the same 6.2-inch Flex View and 2.7-inch Quick View displays from the current Razr. The smartphone is supposedly being developed for an initial launch in North America and China, but it remains to be seen if this rollout will be expanded to other countries at a later stage. A man has been arrested for allegedly murdering his wife by letting loose a cobra in her room after first failing with a viper, police said on Monday. Police in the southern state of Kerala, India, said phone records showed Sooraj, 27, had been in contact with serpent handlers and had also watched snake videos on the internet. Sooraj got hold of a highly venomous Russell's viper in March which bit his wife Uthra and left her in hospital for almost two months, police official Ashok Kumar said. Sooraj has been arrested for allegedly murdering his wife Uthra by letting loose a cobra in her room after first failing with a viper, police said on Monday Uthra was still recuperating at her parents' house earlier this month when Sooraj obtained a cobra from a snake handler and threw it at his sleeping wife. A police statement said: 'Sooraj stayed in the same room as Uthra as if nothing had happened. 'He was going about his morning routine the next day when he was alerted by Uthra's mother's screams.' Sooraj had bought the snakes from a snake-catcher from Kalluvathukkal It added: 'They took her to the hospital where the doctor said she had died.' Uthra's parents became suspicious when Sooraj tried to secure ownership of his wife's property just days after her death. She was from an affluent family, but Sooraj -- who worked in a private bank -- was not so well off. Sooraj obtained a cobra from a snake handler and threw it at his sleeping wife Uthra when she was recuperating at her parents' house earlier this month The couple had a one-year-old child. Police said the marriage had involved a huge dowry comprising nearly 100 gold coins, a new car and some 500,000 rupees (around $20,000) in cash. "Sooraj feared that divorcing Uthra would mean giving back all the dowry. That's when he decided to kill her," the police statement said. The snake provider was also arrested, it added. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 02:52:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, attends an EU-Japan videoconference summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, May 26, 2020. The leaders of the European Union and Japan said on Tuesday that global solidarity, cooperation, and effective multilateralism are required to defeat the coronavirus. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua) BRUSSELS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the European Union and Japan said on Tuesday that global solidarity, cooperation, and effective multilateralism are required to defeat the coronavirus. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan held a video meeting on Tuesday. In a joint statement after the meeting, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to global collaboration and sustained funding for developing and deploying effective antiviral medicines, diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines in order to make them available to all at an affordable price. They called for the future COVID-19 vaccine to become a global common good. They underlined the importance of keeping the trading system open, saying both sides will cooperate to facilitate the flow of medical supplies, agricultural products, raw materials, and other goods and services across borders. They also called for refraining from unnecessary travel and export restrictions. Enditem Richard Bransons company was founded to send small satellites into orbit and aims to compete in this emerging market. British entrepreneur Richard Bransons Virgin Orbit has failed in its first test launch of a new rocket carried aloft by a Boeing 747 and released over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. The inaugural launch on Monday had appeared to be going well until moments after the rocket, which carried a test satellite, was dropped from beneath the left wing of the jumbo jet dubbed Cosmic Girl. We have confirmed a clean release from the aircraft. However, the mission terminated shortly into the flight. Cosmic Girl and our flight crew are safe and returning to base, Virgin Orbit said in its official Twitter commentary on the launch. An anomaly then occurred early in first-stage flight. Well learn more as our engineers analyze the mountain of data we collected today, the company said. This was a key test for the companys plan to launch satellites into space. Will Pomerantz, Virgin Orbits vice president for special projects, commented during a preflight briefing on Saturday that about half of first rocket launches fail. History is not terribly kind, necessarily, to maiden flights, he said. Chief Executive Officer Dan Hart said during the briefing there had been numerous tests, discussions and introspection to verify that the system was ready. In the end, the questions are always, has everything been thought about and are there any gaps or seams, and those are the questions you only learn when you commit to flight, Hart said. The highly modified jumbo jet took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles, California, and flew out just beyond the Channel Islands, where the drop occurred. The rocket was supposed to fall for a few seconds before the first of its two stages ignited and hurtled it down the coast towards the South Pole for insertion of its demonstration payload into a low Earth orbit. The purpose of the flight was to gather data on every step of the launch process rather than to have a useful satellite in orbit; the demonstration payload was described as an inert mass, and the intended orbit was very low to avoid contributing to the problem of space junk. Digging into the data The attempt followed five years of development of the 70-foot-long (21.3-metre) LauncherOne rocket. How long the setback will affect the company was not immediately clear. It has six additional rockets under construction in its factory. The teams already hard at work digging into the data, and were eager to hop into our next big test ASAP, the company tweeted. Thankfully, instead of waiting until after our 1st flight to tackle our 2nd rocket, weve already completed a ton of work to get us back in the air and keep moving forward. A successful launch by Virgin Orbit would have marked a dramatic step in getting back on track after the coronavirus pandemic sent most employees home earlier this year while workspaces, procedures and mission control were adjusted. Virgin Orbit is targeting the market for launching satellites ranging in size from toasters to household refrigerators. The time is right for the small satellite launch market, Hart said on Saturday. Technology advancements have enabled satellites much smaller than traditional payloads to do real work in space, typically from low Earth orbit and for markets ranging from commercial to national security, he said. While other companies are developing rockets for the small satellite market and builders of big rockets like SpaceX can carry them into orbit in a ride-share arrangement with large satellites, Virgin Orbits air-launch system, based on the aviation industrys workhorse 747, is intended to put a satellite up when and where a customer needs it, Hart said. We can fly to space from any place that can host a 747, which is almost any place, he said. Virgin Orbit says it has dozens of missions on the books for customers including the US Space Force and the UKs Royal Air Force. Internationally, it is working on plans for launches from the UK and Japan. Hart did not provide a specific dollar value for the missions it has on the books but characterised it as hundreds of millions. Air launch technology dates back decades, including use by X-15 rocket planes in the 1950s and 1960s. For satellites, the method is currently in use by what is now Northrop Grummans Pegasus rocket programme, which has had several dozen launches since 1990. Virgin Orbit, which has its headquarters in Long Beach, California, began as a sister company to Virgin Galactic but has since separated. Virgin Galactic is preparing to begin flights carrying passengers into the lower reaches of space from southern New Mexico. A mother has revealed how she makes her children use their own pocket money to pay for their favourite junk food from a second-hand vending machine in her home. Sarah Balsdon, 29, from Ashington, Northumberland, spent 100 on the second-hand unit as a last resort for getting Shannon, 9, Lucy, 8, Jack, 5 and Elijah, 2, to complete their chores and school work during the UK's lockdown. The nurse explained how the children are given cash to spend on the vending machine - which is filled with chocolate, sweets and crisps - when they complete a chore around the house or finish their school work. Sarah admitted her children thought it was 'mean' at first, saying: 'The healthy snacks are all free but this way they will have to do jobs and school work to earn money to buy sweets from the vending machine.' Sarah Balsdon, 29, from Ashington, Northumberland, spent 100 on a vending machine and charges her children for their favourite junk food from the device (pictured, Shannon, 9, Lucy, 8, Jack, 5 and Elijah, 2,) Sarah and her husband Kyle, 29, had been at a loose end after their children, with the youngsters refusing to help around the house. Sarah said: 'During lockdown, the kids have been wanting sweet stuff all the time and they have been refusing to help around the house.' She and Kyle came up with a creative idea to get them all on board with completing their chores. To Sarah's delight, her youngsters have been enjoying saving up their pocket money and using the vending machine to collect their favourite treat after a day of school work and chores. Sarah (pictured with her husband Kyle, 29, and their four children) bought the second-hand unit as a last resort for getting her four youngsters to complete their chores and school work during the UK's lockdown The kids now often help with tidying their bedrooms, unloading the dishwasher, dusting and leaving the old milk bottles outside for the milk man to collect. Sarah explained: 'The healthy snacks are all free but this way they will have to do jobs and school work to earn money to buy sweets from the vending machine. 'At first, they thought it was really mean but now they loved it. They've made me put mine and my husband's stuff in there as well!' She added: 'I was sick of the arguments about unhealthy snacks so hopefully this will encourage them to work for them. The nurse explained how the children (pictured, Shannon, 9, Lucy, 8, Jack, 5 and Elijah, 2,) are given cash to spend on the vending machine - which is filled with chocolate, sweets and crisps - when they complete a chore around the house or finish their school work While the vending machine is packed full of crisps and chocolate, healthy snacks have remained free 'It has encouraged them to start doing chores, but I don't know how long it will continue.' Meanwhile she went on to reveal how she had struggled with child care during the pandemic. She added: 'With the kids being off school, it has been really difficult with child care. 'I've been at work the whole time and my husband was furloughed for six weeks but now he's back at work. The girls have gone back to school for child care'. Previously, whenever talking about Ngan Thuy, many people were afraid of going on such a bumpy road. However, now many visitors come to Ngan Thuy to not only savour the unique cultural identities of the land and people in the locality but also immerse themselves in the pristine beauty of the great Truong Son mountains and discover the many majestic caves. Land of great potential The road section no.10 was opened by soldiers and conscripted labourers during the resistance war against US imperialism in order to connect the east and west sections of the strategic Ho Chi Minh Trail. Once the war ended, this historical route fell into oblivion. Due to the difficult life of local people and the tricky terrain, people were afraid of travelling via the route. As a result, small hamlets on the side of the road lagged behind villages on the plains that were dozens of kilometres away. In return, Ngan Thuy has a beautiful natural landscape full of lakes, streams, vast meadows and magnificent caves that are waiting to be discovered. The locality possesses a General cave where General Vo Nguyen Giap stayed to direct the Road 9 Southern Laos campaign and lead the Truong Son soldiers during 1971-1972. Thanks to the States attention, road 10 has been gradually revived and the life of the Van Kieu ethnic minority people in Ngan Thuy has seen many changes. The bringing of wet rice to the Van Kieu people has become a miracle addition to the cause of poverty reduction for ethnic minority groups in western Quang Ninh. Along with wet rice, many new models, such as cattle raising, land allocation for afforestation and the exploitation of rubber have helped the locals, especially the Van Kieu people, gradually stabilise their lives. Many infrastructural projects have been initated, including bringing electricity to the villages, constructing roads and providing clean water. The development has narrowed the distance between the mountainous and plains region. There are many ideal destinations that have been gradually awoken in Ngan Thuy. Nuoc Lanh (Cold Water) stream. Perhaps its name was inspired by the presence of cold water despite the blazing sun in May. The pristine beauty of the mountains, fresh air and clean water creates an unforgettable impression on visitors. The stream, which flows from the headwater, hits the large mossy rocks created thousands of years ago, making beautiful small waterfalls. The cool breeze among the mountains seems to dispel the sultry weather of the summer. Not far away, one can find the Cha Loi cave system, where General Vo Nguyen Giap and his soldiers stayed during the resistance war. Inside the cave, pristine stalagmites and stalactites have formed many strange shapes that can stimulate the imagination of visitors. An underground river and small lakes, where some species of shrimp and fish live, are also impressive. The stalactites in the cave contain many silicas, so they sparkle beautifully under the light. Coming to Coi Da hamlet with its vast grasslands, tourists can also explore the unique cultural identity of the Van Kieu ethnic minority people as well as other peoples and the land of Ngan Thuy. The development of tourism in Ngan Thuy is expected to bring about efficiency as many enthusiastic community-based tourism enterprises have paid more attention to the localitys potnetial and the locals have begun to earn money from the new activities. Visitors exploring the cave system in Ngan Thuy. Restoring festivals and typical products Over the past two years, Ngan Thuy has become more well-known and attractive thanks to those who are always dedicated to the localitys tourism and responsible for the community, including Secretary of the communal Party Committee Nguyen Huu Han and Director of the Netin Travel Company Tran Xuan Cuong. Nguyen Huu Han said that with farming, the Van Kieu ethnic people earn just enough to live on. They had to provide tourism services if they wanted to be more prosperous. Firstly, he mobilised the locals in Coi Da hamlet to keep the environment clean and their stilt houses tidy in order to welcome visitors. Following his talks with patriarchs, Han knew the variety of coal sticky rice. During their nomadic journey, the Van Kieu people always take a kind of precious glutinous rice variety that had black seeds and sow them on their fields. However, this rice variety has been lost. Why not seek to revive the precious glutinous sticky rice variety for the local people and create a unique product attracting more visitors to Ngan Thuy?. This question motivated engineer Nguyen Huu Han to find a way to rejuvenate the coal sticky rice. He went to A Luoi district in Thua Thien Hue province to find out and returned home with a handful of the coal sticky rice seeds of the Pa Co ethnic minority people. He sowed the seeds into plastic pots and buckets at his home. With a few more trials on the field, Han was successful in cultivating the sticky rice twice a year in Ngan Thuy. The dark purple sticky rice grains and delicious flavour have since satisfied many village patriarchs and visitors. In addition to restoring the local sticky rice variety that has not only brought about novel and high efficiency in its production for the people, Secretary of Ngan Thuy communal Party Committee Nguyen Huu Han worked hard to collect documents and proposed to his superiors to support the locality in reproducing a new rice festival of the Van Kieu ethnic minority people. Village patriarch Ho Tham said it was their biggest festival that was held annually in the tenth lunar month, offering a chance for them to pay their tribute to the heavens as well as pray for fair winds, bumper crops and prosperity. At the festival, the Van Kieu people often played their traditional musical instruments, sang folk songs, drank ruou can (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes) and enjoyed traditional food. The festival faded away over the recent years. In 2019, thanks to the support of the Quang Binh provincial Department of Culture and Sports, the new rice festival of the Van Kieu ethnic minority group in Ngan Thuy commune has been restored, bringing joy to the locals, especially the elderliy. Patriarch Ho Tham shared: I am very happy and must give many thanks to Han and other cultural cadres who helped the locals remember the new rice festival so that the Van Kieu peoples cultural identity has not been lost. Taking full advantage of the potential for tourism development, Tran Xuan Cuong and his Netin Travel Company decided to launch a tour exploring the nature and culture of the Van Kieu community in Le Thuy district. Many tourism workers selected Phong Nha Ke Bang cave kingdom; however, Tran Xuan Cuong focused on Ngan Thuy. Pristine caves such as Van Cong and Cha Loi and love valley Coi Da, along with the unique cultural identities and customs of the Van Kieu ethnic minority people attracted him. Cuong said on the first day when he led a team of experts to survey the terrain to later open the tour, the local people looked at him with much scrutiny. After he presented his plan of opening tours with an absolute respect for nature, they understood and proactively cooperated. Following a year of implementing pilot tours in Ngan Thuy, Tran Xuan Cuong decided to develop a community-based tourism model with attractive experience products, such as exploring caves, stream bathing, sleeping in tents in the forest, learning about the life of and enjoying the specialties of the Van Kieu people. According to Secretary of Ngan Thuy communal Party Committee Nguyen Huu Han, the tourism products launched by Netin Travel Company have initially brought about efficiency in awakening and exploiting the potential of the locality. The local people began to earn more income thanks to their provision of specialties to visitors. The reproduced festivals are expected to be preserved. According to the Deputy Director of Quang Binh provincial Culture and Sport Nguyen Mau Nam, the restoration of the new rice festival is a practical activity to preserve and promote the traditional values and beauties of the Van Kieu ethnic minority people. The department will coordinate with the local authorities and travel enterprises to develop the festival into a special tourism product. 26.05.2020 LISTEN The Chairperson of the National COVID-19 Trust Fund, Madam Sophia Akuffo has disclosed that the Trust has so far received an amount of GHS50 million donated by individuals and institutions to combat the pandemic. Sophia Akuffo disclosed this at a ceremony at the Jubilee House to donate some PPE to six institutions and Associations. We have so far received in terms of cash GHS50.6 million which includes the cedi equivalent of six hundred and six thousand US dollars, she disclosed. Madam Sophia Akuffo also said the Trust is putting in place the necessary measures to utilize the fund. Additionally, we are also in the process of setting up our in house procurement systems in fulfilling the requisite requirement of the Procurement Act as amended by the Procurement Act of 2016 which will finally position us to be able to commence utilisation of the monies that have been donated to the Trust for the fulfilment of our mandate, she further added. Companies that donated to COVID-19 Fund to get tax reliefs The Chairperson of the COVID-19 Trust Fund, Sophia Akuffo, also noted that all companies that have donated to the national fund will enjoy some tax reliefs . She said the companies will enjoy the benefit when they report at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to file their tax returns. We're also happy to announce that the Ghana Revenue Authority has confirmed that tax reliefs will be available to donors who make donations to the COVID-19 National Trust Fund when filing their tax returns. This is subject to fulfilling requirements that the GRA has set out in its recently published guidelines for their implementation of the tax incentives in support of taxpayers against the pandemic, she said. About the COVID-19 National Trust Fund The COVID-19 National Trust Fund, was established by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to receive contributions and donations from the public to assist in the welfare of the needy and the vulnerable during the COVID-19 period. The President donated his April, May, and June salaries as seed money for the Fund. Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia also donated his three months' salary to the Trust Fund. All Ministers of State and other top appointees at the presidency voluntarily decided to donate 50 percent of their salary for the next three months to the COVID-19 Fund. Parliament has also contributed GH200,000 with the Speaker of the House, Prof. Aaron Mike Ocquaye donating half of his three months' salary to the Fund. Other groups and associations have also made different donations in cash and kind to various hospitals and health services in the country. Calls for accountability Meanwhile, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has asked government and trustees in charge of the COVID-19 Fund to ensure transparency and accountability in the utilization of the fund. Former President John Dramani Mahama has also called for an audit of the Fund. He has asked administrators of the Fund to keep receipts of expenditure to enhance accountability in the management of the Fund. ---citinewsroom Janet in Ohio: With covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, spreading around the world, viruses have been in the news a lot this year, so yours is a good question. But the common cold and influenza, among many other illnesses, are also caused by viruses. Viruses are contagious (infectious) agents, sometimes called a pathogens. They are much smaller than bacteria and can spread rapidly. Starting in mid-March, the company whose car-rental bands also include Dollar and Thrifty lost all revenue when travel shut down due to the coronavirus. The company made significant efforts but couldnt raise money on the capital markets, so it started missing payments to creditors in April, the filing said. Hertz has also been plagued by management upheaval, naming its fourth CEO in six years on May 18. GEORGIA Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday he took part in filming a best practices guide for Georgia that offers guidance for Georgias thriving film and television industries to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 when productions resume in Georgia. The recommendations were developed in close cooperation with officials from studio and production companies who maintain a presence in Georgia, and they can be found online at the Georgia Film Offices website. As future film and production planning continues, these best practices are available to anyone considering filming in Georgia while prioritizing the safety of all cast and crew. Companies may opt to use these recommendations in conjunction with industry-wide labor and management protocols as they are developed. We are so grateful to the hardworking people who make up and contribute to Georgias incredibly successful film and TV industry, and we thank them for all the ways they have given back throughout the states response to COVID-19, Kemp said. The Georgia Film Office has maintained their close work with industry executives to develop these outlines for how productions can help protect cast and crew members. These best practices are offered as an addition to any industry-wide labor and management recommendations for protocol. Every element of what has made Georgia such a unique place for film landscapes, production facilities, a skilled and growing workforce, with a pipeline of new labor thanks to the Georgia Film Academy and our college and career academies are still in place, just as they were before this global pandemic. Last year, Georgia set a new record for film, and we will continue to work with our partners in the industry to get Georgia back on the same track that made our state the successful production center that it has been for years. Prior to the worldwide COVID-19 response, which brought film and television production activity to a virtual standstill worldwide, Georgia set a new record for film during fiscal year 2019. The 391 film and television productions that filmed in Georgia spent $2.9 billion in the state, supported 3,040 motion picture and television industry businesses, and delivered $9.2 billion in total wages. Story continues Georgias partnership with our film and television production industry is stronger than ever," said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson. "During this global pandemic, we have maintained an open dialogue with our partners to protect Georgians working in the industry, while collaborating on best practices to bring production back and safely restart the economy. We applaud our industry partners for the ways in which they have continued to give back and support the states efforts to combat COVID-19. The backbone of Georgias film and television industry is made up of small businesses in every corner of our state, and these businesses have helped create the environment that makes Georgia such an attractive place for productions, Wilson said. We will continue to help these important businesses navigate new circumstances. As we return to production across the state, there is no doubt Georgia will maintain its position as a powerhouse for film and television production. Georgias film workforce has used their talents to provide critical help and find work during the pandemic. More than 51,000 Georgians work in film and TV production, and while film projects are on short-term hiatus, many crew workers have adapted their skills to assist front line efforts. The Georgia Film Office spotlighted a few of these efforts. Support resources and assistance for industry professionals and businesses remains available on the Georgia Film Office website. This article originally appeared on the Canton-Sixes Patch Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Tokyo, Japan Tue, May 26, 2020 10:30 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda1a0ea 2 World COVID-19,Japan,COVID-19-drugs,Avigan,SARS-CoV-2,Fujifilm,virus-corona,coronavirus,pandemic,health Free Japan's government has given up on approving Fujifilm Holdings Corp's Avigan drug for the treatment of COVID-19 by the end of May, Kyodo News reported late on Monday citing a government official. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier this month he hoped the drug would be approved some time in May if its efficacy and safety could be confirmed. Fujifilm shares slumped last week after Kyodo reported that an interim study showed no clear evidence of efficacy for Avigan in COVID-19 cases. Researchers at Fujita Health University, which is conducting a clinical trial on the drug, said in a statement the interim study was done to ensure the scientific validity of the trial, not to determine the efficacy of the drug. During an earnings briefing on May 22, Fujifilm Senior Vice President Junji Okada declined to comment on when Avigan might be approved. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Tuesday. Interest in Avigan, known generically as favipiravir, soared in March after a Chinese official said it appeared to help patients recover from COVID-19, the potentially fatal respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The drug is now the subject of at least 16 clinical trials around the world. Concerns remain about Avigan as it has been shown to cause birth defects in animal studies. Japan's government has called on Fujifilm to triple national stockpiles of the drug, approved in 2014 as an emergency flu treatment, and pledged to donate it to countries upon request. Dozens of clinical trials for potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccines are ongoing across the globe. One candidate is a DNA vaccine being developed by biopharmaceutical firm AnGes Inc and Osaka University. The Nikkei newspaper on Monday said AnGes is set to begin a clinical trial of its vaccine in July, sooner than an initial start slated for September. AnGes shares surged 16% in Tokyo morning trade. Fujifilm shares were up 0.2% versus the broader market's 2% gain. PRESS RELEASE RECEPTION OF INDICATIVE NEW FINANCING OFFERS NEGOTIATIONS WITH INVESTORS AND CREDITORS TO IMPLEMENT SUCH NEW FINANCING SOLICITATION OF THE RELEVANT CREDITORS TO PETITION FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A CONCILIATOR Richard Moat, Chief Executive Officer of Technicolor, stated: "On February 13th, we announced our 2020-2022 strategic plan and a c. 300m rights issue. Since then the world and our industries have faced an unprecedented crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been working tirelessly to guarantee safety for our employees, whilst ensuring the smooth continuity of our activities. Nevertheless, the current situation has limited our capacity to launch the envisaged rights issue, and so we have recently entered into discussions with some of our creditors and with third party investors to obtain a new 400 million financing more adapted to the Group's current situation. To facilitate the implementation of this financing, we are now soliciting consents from our creditors to have the option to open a Conciliation proceeding. This additional financing, together with a restructuring of our balance sheet, should reinforce the Group and its ability to serve its clients and trade with its suppliers in the long term. Whilst this is in progress, the business will continue as usual, with no impact on our operations and the quality of service we deliver to our clients, and we intend to maintain our workforce of talented people to enable the delivery of all our services and products." Paris(Euronext Paris: TCH; OTCQX: TCLRY) (the "Company") announces today that the prolonged uncertainty in global market conditions, as well as the impact of the Covid 19 crisis on its business in the short term, have limited the ability of the Company to launch the previously announced 300 million Rights Issue. It has therefore engaged in discussions with some of its financial lenders and third party investors in an effort to obtain new financing (the "New Financing"). To date, the Company has received indicative offers from a third party investor and from one of the existing lenders of the Group, and negotiations are on-going. The New Financing, which would amount to c. 400 million, would allow the Company to (i) pay off the $110 million short-term facility granted by JP Morgan in March 2020 and due on July 31st 2020 (the "Bridge Facility") and (ii) finance the liquidity needs of the Group as from July 2020. In addition to this New Financing, the Company intends to implement a long term sustainable financial structure for the Company, including by way of debt to equity swap, depending of course on the discussions with its existing creditors in this respect. The market will be informed in due course of the outcome of these discussions. In this context, to facilitate discussions with all stakeholders, the Company wishes to have the ability to request the opening of conciliation proceedings in France on Technicolor SA, which are amicable and consensual, in order to facilitate discussions with its creditors and implementation of the New Financing under the aegis of a court-appointed conciliator. This would require the prior agreement of the relevant majority of creditors, in accordance with the applicable Credit Facilities (as defined below). Therefore, the Company announces today that it is soliciting consents from such creditors to allow the appointment of a conciliateur (the "Solicitation"). The purpose of the Solicitation is to obtain the consent, at the requisite majority, of (i) the lenders under the RCF, (ii) the lenders under the Term Loan B, (iii) the lenders under the ABL Facility, and (iv) the lenders under the Bridge Facility, such that the Company would have the option, if desired, to request the appointment of a conciliateur, without such action constituting an event of default under each of the RCF, Term Loan B, ABL Facility and Bridge Facility documentation. "RCF" means the EUR 250 million revolving facilities agreement dated 21 December 2016 between, among others, the Company, Natixis as agent and Citibank N.A., London Branch as security agent (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). "Term Loan B" means the c. EUR 1 billion (which includes EUR 755 million term loans and USD 300 million term loans) credit agreement dated as of December 6, 2016, by and among the Company, Citibank N.A., London Branch, as collateral agent, J.P. Morgan Europe Limited, as administrative agent, J.P. Morgan Limited and Citigroup Global Markets Limited, as joint bookrunners, and the lenders and other parties from time to time party thereto (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). "ABL Facility" means the USD 125 million credit agreement, dated as of November 6, 2017, by and among Technicolor USA, Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Technicolor USA"), Wells Fargo Capital Finance, LLC, as agent and the lenders and other parties from time to time party thereto (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). "Bridge Facility" means the USD 110 million credit agreement, dated as of March 5, 2020, by and among Technicolor USA, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., as agent and the lenders and other parties from time to time party thereto (as amended, modified, supplemented, or amended and restated from time to time). "Credit Facilities" means, collectively, the RCF, Term Loan B, ABL Facility and Bridge Facility. The Solicitation will expire at 5:00 pm New York City time on May 28th, 2020, unless extended by the Company. Financial calendar Annual Shareholders Meeting 30 June 2020 H1 financial results 30 July 2020 ### Warning: Forward Looking Statements This press release contains certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements", including but not limited to statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives, based on certain assumptions or which do not directly relate to historical or current facts. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed, forecasted or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a more complete list and description of such risks and uncertainties, refer to Technicolor's filings with the French Autorite des marches financiers. ### About Technicolor: www.technicolor.com Technicolor shares are on the Euronext Paris exchange (TCH) and traded in the USA on the OTCQX marketplace (OTCQX: TCLRY). Investor Relations Christophe le Mignan: +33 1 88 24 32 83 Christophe.lemignan@technicolor.com Attachment Deputies discuss information security in citys development By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-05-26 18:02 While Shanghai is aiming for unified online government services, how can it deal with the information security issues? Are there any contradictions between data sharing and data protection? Two deputies to the ongoing National Peoples Congress (NPC) talked about the topic with the media via video interviews. (Chen Jing in a video interview with the media. Photo/Zhang Chi) Over recent years, Shanghai has been promoting the reform of administrative approval procedures by launching online government services, leading to a swift shift in the ways of dealing with civil affairs, said Chen Jing, vice secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and director of the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government. In particular, Chen observed that during the epidemic, there was an exponential increase in the number of users of online government services, and correspondingly, the demand for data security was rising. (Citizens are advised to report their travel history while taking the subway.) Citizens data privacy and security have always been a focus of the governments agenda, according to Chen. This year, legislation on information security in Shanghai will begin. I hope the legislation can define clearly the scope of information rights and accountabilities of the government, relevant departments and social organizations, to protect the peoples information security and privacy more effectively, said Chen. Chens opinion was agreed on by Shao Zhiqing, a central committee member of the China Zhigong Party (a non-communist political party). (Shao Zhiqing in a video interview with the media. Photo/Zhang Chi) Having been involved in the early-stage construction of Shanghais unified online government services system, Shao believes the core of balancing data sharing and circulation and data protection lies in the principle of minimum rationalization, which means realizing maximal social benefits on the premise of revealing private data at a low level. For example, as Shao said, different government departments should be given different permissions, so as to avoid misuse of citizens personal data, like facial recognition data collected for epidemic prevention and control. Maharashtra is facing its first major locust invasion since 1993, with a swarm of short horned grasshoppers having invaded six talukas across three districts Amravati, Wardha and Nagpur in Vidarbha. While major food crops are not under threat, fruit orchards and vegetable farms are likely to be affected. According to the state agriculture department, the swarm is reported to be at least 10-km-long and two-km-wide, which has covered a distance of around 120km between May 24 and 26, and it continues to spread. The main affected areas include 22 villages across Morshi and Warud talukas in Amravati; Ashti taluka in upper Wardha district; and Katol, Kalmeshwar and Narkhed talukas in Nagpur. The invasion began from Katol on Monday morning. While major crop damage is not expected since we are close to monsoon and sowing in these areas begins by June 7, but orange orchards are threatened by the invasion. A 25% loss is being estimated for those owning these orchards, said Ravindra Bhosale, divisional joint director agriculture, Nagpur division. The swarm is now moving further deeper into rural areas of Nagpur division. At Kalmeshwar taluka, on Tuesday, we were informed of damage to vegetable crops across 5-6 hectares, said Bhosale. The last time Maharashtra witnessed such an invasion was in 1993 in Dhule district, the Locust Warning Organisation (LWO) under the Union agriculture ministry said. An escaping population of desert locusts made their way from Madhya Pradesh into Amravati district on May 24 owing to the current wind direction and the presence of forest patches where they can grow and breed. Over 48 hours, they have covered two more districts, showing an unusual swarming behaviour, said Dr KL Gurjar, deputy director and national coordinator on mitigating locust attacks, LWO. Subhash Nagade, divisional joint director agriculture, Amravati division, said, There is fear and panic among villagers and farmers. With the Covid-19 pandemic underway and extremely hot weather in Vidarbha, the locust outbreak has made the situation worse. We are working with the municipal authorities for awareness drives across all affected areas. Between Monday night and early Tuesday morning, district officials with the help of the fire department carried out a six-hour drive to kill the locusts by spraying pesticides on the affected areas in all three districts. We learnt that the swarms move during the day and sleep on the fruit bearing citrus trees at night. Villagers informed us about their exact locations, and an overnight extermination drive saw thousands of dead insects across a 17-km stretch at Katol. However, on Tuesday morning, those that survived began swarming other talukas, said Bhosale. Nagade said a similar thing was witnessed in Amravati. The swarm has reduced here and moved towards greener pastures in Wardha and Nagpur. However, we fear the possibility of another swarm making its way from MP, he said. We are constantly in touch with local officers overseeing this. We expect the invasion to be controlled within a few days in Maharashtra. However, another escaping population from MP cannot be ruled out, said Gurjar The country is witnessing a severe locust outbreak active across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and now Maharashtra. These rapidly reproducing crop munching pests can eat daily amounts equal to its weight, and can fly up to 150km in a day. Central and state bodies have stepped up efforts to control the menace as it poses crop vulnerability and threat to food safety if the outbreak is not contained. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Oslo, 26 May 2020. PCI Biotech Holding ASA ("PCI Biotech" or the "Company") issue this notification on behalf of its chairman, Hans Peter Bhn. Hans Peter Bhn is chairman of PCI Biotech and shall open the annual general meeting of the Company on 27 May 2020. Mr. Bhn holds 123,662 shares, representing 0.3 per cent of the share capital of PCI Biotech. Mr. Bhn has received powers of attorney to represent and vote for 7,171,710 additional shares. In total, Mr. Bhn will represent and vote for 19.6 per cent of the share capital. A major part of the powers of attorney are without voting instructions. The powers of attorney are only valid at the annual general meeting on 27 May 2020. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 4 -3, cf. section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Contact information: PCI Biotech Holding ASA, Ullernchausseen 64, N-0379 Oslo Ronny Skuggedal, CFO, rs@pcibiotech.no, Mobile: +47 9400 5757 The UK government has set up a new inquiry into any security implications surrounding Huawei's involvement in the country's 5G networks as a result of the US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant, it emerged on Monday. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is in charge of Britain's cyber security, is taking the lead on examining additional risks to Huawei products that may arise from the latest US sanctions. The security and resilience of our networks is of paramount importance, an NCSC spokesperson said. Following the US announcement of additional sanctions against Huawei, the NCSC is looking carefully at any impact they could have to the UK's networks, the spokesperson said. The US government had unveiled a plan earlier this month to block global chip supplies to Huawei, the latest move amid growing US-China tensions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The sanctions restrict Huawei from using US technology and software to design its semiconductors. The US in recent months has increased its action against Huawei, preventing it from doing business in the US, as it believes the company known for its technological advancement in 5G is being used by the Chinese leadership to serve their interest. Responding to the UK review, Victor Zhang, vice-president at Huawei, said, "Our priority remains to continue the rollout of a reliable and secure 5G networks across Britain. "We are happy to discuss with NCSC any concerns they may have and hope to continue the close working relationship we have enjoyed for the last 10 years." The latest inquiry comes after UK media reports indicated that Johnson plans to reduce the Chinese telecom giant's involvement in Britain's 5G network and has instructed officials to draw up plans that would see China's involvement in the UK's upgraded telecom network scaled down to zero by 2023. Members of Parliament in the UK prime minister's own Conservative Party have ramped up the charge against Huawei's involvement, a movement that has gathered pace following China's perceived non-transparent actions during the coronavirus crisis which originated in the country. Under the current UK government telecom upgrade plans, Huawei is banned from supplying kit to "sensitive parts" of the network, known as the core. In addition, it is only allowed to account for 35 per cent of the kit in a network's periphery, which includes radio masts. UK mobile operators have reportedly been told by the NCSC which is part of the UK's intelligence agency GCHQ that they would have three years to comply with caps on the use of Huawei equipment in their networks. 5G promises faster mobile internet data speeds, a stable network that can handle more connections, and more bandwidth for a multitude of different technological applications. Most of the UK's mobile networks have said they would use and deploy Huawei's 5G products only outside the core in the "periphery". Also read: Coronavirus Live Updates: India sees 6,535 new COVID-19 cases, 146 deaths in 24 hours Also read: UK plans to reduce Huawei's involvement in 5G network Civic activist Artur Aleksanyan who, according to the complaint filed by deputy of the My Step faction of the National Assembly Nikolay Baghdasaryan, had tried to run him over with his bike and was arrested a few days ago, has been released, as reported Aleksanyans defense attorney Emin Beglaryan. Beglaryan added that he had appealed to the appellate court and substantiated his appeal by stating that there is no substantiated suspicion and there is a lack of grounds. According to preliminary information, the court granted the appeal on both grounds. On May 11, deputy of the My Step faction of the National Assembly Nikolay Baghdasaryan reported to the police that, due to his work as a deputy, the same day, a stranger tried to run him over with a bike in Yerevan and made threats and used sexual insults. A criminal case was instituted under the elements of use of force against a representative of the authorities. The person on the bike is member of Kamq (Will) initiative Artur Aleksanyan. Based on the press release of the Prosecutor Generals Office, after a regular parliamentary session, Aleksanyan pursued deputy Nikolay Baghdasaryan and, finding out that he had voted in favor of the disputed Lanzarote Convention, used sexual insults and threatened to settle a score with him. He is charged with threatening to use force against a representative of the authorities. SAGE Publishing is recognizing three social science papers for their long-term academic influence. In their inaugural year, the 10-Year Impact Awards are given to the authors of articles published in any SAGE journal that received the most citations over the span of a decade. This year, the awards honor the three papers published in 2009 that were most cited between 2009 and 2019. The papers receiving recognition are: Each of the three articles received more than 1,000 citations over the 10-year period. "At a time when urgency and speed are understandable watchwords for research output, we can lose track of the fact that many of the important contributions of social and behavioral science are more diffuse and long-term in their lasting significance and impact," commented Ziyad Marar, President of Global Publishing at SAGE. "Though some progress has been made in recent years, there has not been consensus among the social and behavioral science (SBS) community about the best ways to mark, measure, and celebrate research impact. Citations represent one part of the picture, but even here we rely on metrics that are based only on two years of influence since publication. We've launched the 10-Year Impact Awards not only to bring deserved attention to specific research with influence that has grown over time, but also to continue to contribute to the broader conversation about impact and to draw attention to ways in which SBS might better be assessed by a more nuanced array of metrics." By considering a period of ten years, the awards move beyond the short termism often associated with commonly used metrics such as Journal Impact Factor. Such consideration is especially important for SBS research, where influence can last longer and often increases in the years following publication. "While we are invested in finding new ways to recognize the societal impact of SBS research that go beyond citations, we at SAGE believe it is also important to acknowledge the incredible value of research that is used and built upon by other scholars over time," Marar continued. "This is a process that may result in enabling the cumulative force of work that addresses critical societal issues over the longer term." This year's awards considered citation data for all articles published in 2009. That year, SAGE published more than 40,000 articles across a wide range of disciplines, with more than 75 percent from SBS. Of the top 100 most-cited articles, 19 were from STM and 79 from SBS. Earlier efforts to extend the conversation around research impact include the 2019 report "The Latest Thinking About Metrics for Research Impact in the Social Sciences;" an annual Impact in Action Writing Contest; a quarterly newsletter that collates topics for discussion, news, and articles; and a microsite spotlighting research geared towards real-world change. The publisher also continues to support groups that advocate for SBS funding. View the list of the top 100 most-cited 2009 articles. To learn more about the awards, visit Social Science Space. ### Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 1000 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. A growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company's continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. http://www.sagepublishing.com The Washington Post is providing this news free to all readers as a public service. Follow this story and more by signing up for national breaking news email alerts. Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Dean of Academic Affairs, Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, has said COVID-19 was a reality and that the Continent needed research that was science tailored to combat it. Dr Antwi-Danso made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the occasion of the African Union (AU) Day celebration on the theme Silencing The Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the COVID-19 pandemic had reached a milestone in Africa, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases. The virus has now reached every country on the continent since the first case was confirmed in the Africa region on 14 February in Egypt. Dr Antwi-Danso noted that COVID-19 was a reality and that there were all kinds of theories surrounding it, but where it comes from does not matter, and that how to mitigate its effect was what mattered. He urged African leaders to stop worrying about the cause and where COVID-19 came from, and that they should stop the non-scientific way of looking at the disease. In Africa, traditionally, some herbal medicine had been used to treat some viral diseases such as common cold, he noted adding that Coronavirus had being in existence since time immemorial, however, COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) was a new strand. With regards to efforts by countries to develop COVID-19 vaccines, Dr Antwi-Danso forecasted that when the vaccine had been successfully developed, one would be asked to have COVID-19 vaccine card, before he would be issued with a visa to travel to other countries, just like the Yellow Fever Vaccine card. Concerning the AU Day, Dr Antwi-Danso said there must be programmes on that Day or towards that Day, which would make people to understand the essence of Union. He said such an occasion must imbibe in the people the spirit of loving that Day. The AU must work towards African unity, we have no choice. Africa is the only continent that has no choice not to integrate. We need to integrate and unfortunately we are hiccupping very badly because of pockets of instability. We must kick instability away from our shores, the Dean said. He urged the AU to resist certain western values that were useless such as gayism and lesbianism, which were being forced on the Continent. Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity on 25 May 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world. The organisation was transformed into the AU on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa, but the holiday continues to be celebrated on 25 May. ---GNA Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Evergrande Group celebrated on May 22 the first spade cut of its electric drive system production base at Nantaihu New Area in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, according to a local media report. Covering an area of 450mu (300,000 square meters) and involving an investment of 15 billion yuan ($2.103 billion), the new base will contains the R&D hubs focusing on the three-in-one electric drive system, electric motor & autonomous driving technology as well as the integration of electric motor and batteries, and corresponding manufacturing workshops. It is expected to produce 500,000 units of electric drive system per year with an annual output value of 12 billion ($1.682 billion). (Photo source: Evergrande Group) The Chinese real estate titan is renowned for its magnificent ambition to become the world's largest and most powerful NEV maker. Through a series of merger and acquisition moves, it has formed a wide-ranging industrial chain involving the manufacture of complete vehicles, electric motor & ECU, power battery, automobile sale and smart charging, etc. Shi Shouming, chairman of Evergrande Health Industry Group Limited, revealed in late March that the company's NEV production bases in Guangzhou's Nansha and Shanghai's Songjiang are set to be completed in the second half of the year, and are expected for operation in 2021 with respective initial capacity of 200,000 vehicles per year. He added then the EV production bases in Guangdong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Liaoning and other cities were all under orderly construction. The initial full-year capacity designed for them totals 1 million units. In last November, the property giant announced the strategic partnership with a total of 60 world's leading auto parts suppliers at one go, including such well-known firms as Bosch, Magna, Continental AG, ZF Group, thyssenkrupp AG, JTEKT and BASF. Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande Group, said then Evergrande had prepared a great deal of budget for its NEV development cause--RMB20 billion for the year of 2019, RMB15 billion for 2020 and RMB10 billion for 2021. The group launched its NEV brand Hengchi in last August. According to the Chinese billionaire, the first Hengchi-branded model, dubbed Hengchi 1, would make its debut in the first half of 2020. It will go into mass production in 2021. Cronkite News SAN CARLOS As she looked at the Disney characters decorating the walls of the San Carlos Apache Healthcare Dental Clinic and at the smiling, laughing children watching dental health demonstrations, Suzanne Haney thought back to what a trip to the dentist used to be. Back then, it was so different, it was in the 70s you know, the treatment wasnt great, said Haney, a grandmother and primary caretaker for three children under age 8. It made you afraid to come to the dentist. That was just one of the challenges facing health care officials on the San Carlos Apache reservation as they struggled to improve dental health of tribe members. San Carlos Apache Healthcare has adopted the Strong Teeth, Strong Kid campaign after reports showed that Native American kindergartners were much more likely to suffer tooth decay than other children. Photo by Madison LaBerge / Cronkite News While 36% of kindergartners in the U.S. experienced tooth decay, according to the 2016 edition of the First Things Firsts Childrens Oral Health Report , the average in Arizona was 52%, and among Native children it was even higher. Numbers specific to the San Carlos Apache were not available, but the report said that 76% of Native American kindergartners nationwide had experienced tooth decay. The San Carlos Apache tribe is looking to change those numbers with events like the Oral Health Month program that Haney and close to 300 others attended in February. We decorate the place, and we spend most of the day bringing Head Start children and the community members and let them go through and see the dental department in an environment which is fun rather than stressful, said Dr. Gregory Waite, the chief of the San Carlos Apache dental program. Apache children enjoy healthy snacks provided at a San Carlos event that as part of the tribes Strong Teeth, Strong Kids campaign which aims to improve dental health of children. Photo by Madison LaBerge / Cronkite News Dozens of laughing children went from table to table in the clinics lobby, where presenters taught them different dental hygiene techniques or oral health tips. Visitors also got dental screenings and fluoride varnish treatments at the event. Most people dont like going to the dentist, Waite said. We try to get them to see the dentists office in a different light, and we enjoy that. Its part of the Strong Teeth Strong Kid campaign created by Native American Connections, an organization that has teamed up with other groups to raise awareness about the importance of dental care, especially for children age 5 and under. The campaign focuses on s-milestones or smile milestones that promote good habits like using a clean, damp washcloth to wipe milk or formula off a babys gums twice a day and twice-daily brushing when primary teeth begin to come in. It also focuses on education so parents know when to bring their children to the dentist. The outside of the San Carlos Dental Clinic looks like a typical dental office, but the inside was decorated with balloons and Disney characters to put kids at ease for an Oral Health Month event. Photo by Madison LaBerge / Cronkite News Kevin Russell, who owns marketing consulting company Totem Concepts, helped design the campaign. He said there arent a lot of health programs that target Native Americans. Theres a huge value for strength in most Native cultures, hence the name Strong Teeth Strong Kid, Kevin Russell said. Haney said adults would not bring their children in to the dentist because they themselves were scared. That rubbed off on the kids, she said, so the cycle continued. That was echoed by Corey Hemstreet, a health program manager on the Arizona Advisory Council on Indian Health Care. That fear of some dentistry practices was something that was like historical trauma,; which is something that went into children, Hemstreet said. Orders are to Stay at home Okay. Does that mean to Lay around all Day? Nay, I Say. See those golden Rays? Its May! Todays a Day to Play. #strongteethstrongkid Posted by Native American Connections on Saturday, May 23, 2020 Waite said that results from the campaign paired with the San Carlos Apache Healthcare are going to take time, but weve already made some strides. There are a lot of kids out there now that have all of their work done, who in the past would not have gotten that done. Its all part of a movement by the tribe to take greater control of its members health care. San Carlos Apache Healthcare CEO Victoria Began said that in less than five years, the tribe has more than doubled the services it offers. Haney, who said her grandchildren got excellent care at the Oral Health Month event, credits the San Carlos Apache Healthcare team for caring about their patients a change from when she was growing up. Now (my grandchildren) are not afraid to come to the dentist. You know, I used to have to go into the back with them, now they just walk back there, she said. Its a really good thing for the people here. Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license . Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University Join the Conversation One of the best things about being an entrepreneur is that anyone with the right knowledge and talent can do it. However, while having a degree isnt a technical requirement for being an entrepreneur, having a degree to your name will benefit you in a number of ways, no matter what the degree is in. Here are three degrees that are particularly valuable for entrepreneurs. The Benefits of Studying a Degree Irrespective of the degree that you study for, there are some benefits that are inherent to the process. No matter what degree path you choose to pursue, here are some of the ways that studying for a degree can benefit your professional career: Increase your earning potential : Having a degree to your name will enable you to command the highest salaries in negotiations with future employers. All other things being equal, a candidate who has a university degree is a safer hire than one without. Having a degree, any degree, shows that you are at least competent in key areas like personal organization and time management. : Having a degree to your name will enable you to command the highest salaries in negotiations with future employers. All other things being equal, a candidate who has a university degree is a safer hire than one without. Having a degree, any degree, shows that you are at least competent in key areas like personal organization and time management. Enhance your resume : Your resume is the key that will unlock professional doors for you. If you want to be able to apply for your dream job, then you need to ensure that you have earned any required qualifications. But even if there arent any specific qualifications you are required to have, having any degree on your resume is going to count in your favor when employers are reviewing it. : Your resume is the key that will unlock professional doors for you. If you want to be able to apply for your dream job, then you need to ensure that you have earned any required qualifications. But even if there arent any specific qualifications you are required to have, having any degree on your resume is going to count in your favor when employers are reviewing it. Network with people in your field: While you are studying for a degree, you will have a unique opportunity to meet other people who are preparing to enter into the same industry as you. You never know when these contacts are going to be important in the future, so dont squander the chance to mingle with people now. Associate of Arts Degree The associate of arts degree is a well-rounded degree designed to prepare graduates for working in a widerange of professional contexts. This is a great degree for aspiring entrepreneurs because it is so versatile and can be used to gain entry to a diverse range of professional fields. Colleges like Central Christian College offer an associate of arts online degree that is perfect for students who want to study remotely. Online degrees like those offered by Central Christian are more affordable and accessible than regular campus courses and are a great option for students who would otherwise be unable to study. What Can You Do with an Associate of Arts Degree? Preschool teacher Engineering technician Accounting clerk Paralegal Librarian Human resources manager Systems administrator Web developer MBA Degree The masters of business administration degree has long been one of the most popular degrees for entrepreneurs to pursue. Over the course of an MBA, students will learn everything they need to know to be able to administrate a business. This makes it a great degree for both self-made entrepreneurs with their own businesses, and entrepreneurs who want to take on management roles within existing organizations. An MBA is a reliable degree option for anyone who is looking to advance their careers and gain access to the kind of roles that would otherwise be unavailable to them. This is by far one of the most powerful degrees for enhancing earning power and sprucing up a resume. As soon as a potential employer sees the letters MBA next to your name, they will know that you know your stuff. What Can You Do with an MBA Degree? There are many different avenues you can pursue, such as: Healthcare administrator Information systems manager Operations research analyst Business operations manager Management analyst Market research analyst Communications Degree Communications skills are incredibly valuable in the modern business marketplace. Businesses dont just need good communicators to lead their marketing campaigns to success; they also need them to handle their PR and customer relations. Graduates with a communications degree under their belt are in a prime position to leverage their degrees in pursuit of some of the most coveted positions within the fields of PR and marketing. What Can You Do with a Communications Degree? PR specialist Event planner Meeting planner Media planner Social media manager Marketing executive Any aspiring entrepreneur should seriously consider studying for a college degree. The right degree wont just add to your existing skillset, but it will also enable you to pursue opportunities that wouldnt otherwise be open to you. If you want to maximize your earning potential and earn as much as possible for someone with your current background and experience, earning a college degree will enable you to do so. A coronavirus outbreak has emerged in Perth as six crew aboard a livestock ship have tested positive for COVID-19. The Al Kuwait is currently docked at Fremantle Port and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan expects more cases from the vessel. The ship docked on Friday after sailing from the United Arab Emirates, with 48 multinational crew on board- which includes two Australians. Mr McGowan said the situation was extremely concerning and all of the men who tested positive were being quarantined at a Perth hotel while the remaining 42 were being kept on board. He said the incident reminded him of the Ruby Princess disaster in March, in which 2700 passengers were allowed to freely disembark the ship in Sydney, leading to more than 600 cases of COVID-19 and 21 deaths. Six crew members on the Al Kuwait (pictured) have tested positive for coronavirus since the livestock ship docked at Freemantle on Friday 'Straight away, I had thoughts of the cruise ship saga,' Mr McGowan told reporters on Tuesday. 'We suspect it is more than likely more crew members may become infected with the virus. 'This is an extremely concerning situation that we find ourselves in.' A Fremantle port worker, wearing personal protection equipment, boarded the Al Kuwait to help it steer it into the berth on Friday, as part of the standard process. They have since been placed into isolation as well as their relevant close contacts. None of the crew, aside from those who tested positive, have left the ship since it docked. Mr McGowan said the federal government granted approval for the ship to dock despite receiving concerning health reports crew members were ill. 'I'm advised the ship was granted to enter the Port of Fremantle by the Commonwealth Government on May 20. At that time three crew members reported elevated temperatures,' he said. 'On May 22, the ship provided an updated report to Australian Border Force which included one crew with a high temperature and three showing similar symptoms in the last 15 days. 'This was when the final clearance was provided by the Commonwealth for the ship to berth. At this point, the Fremantle Port Authority was not made aware of the health concerns.' WA Premier Mark McGowan (pictured) said protocols were 'clearly not good enough' after the ship had been approved to dock in Freemantle despite health reports indicating crew members on board had COVID-19 symptoms Mr McGowan said he was first notified about the situation on Tuesday morning, however, authorities caught wind of the health issue on Sunday. 'It wasn't until Sunday evening that the Fremantle Port Authority learnt of some health issues on the ship,' he said. 'This came by word of mouth from another worker at the port. This information was then reported through the usual channels.' 'And now we find ourselves in this situation, which we are working as quickly as possible to get to the bottom of. Clearly, this is not good. Mr McGowan said the Police Commissioner has contacted the Australian Border Force Commissioner and the Federal Department of Agriculture to understand how the ship was permitted to berth in WA. Live sheep were intended to be loaded onto the ship in coming days, before departing before the Federal Government's 1 June mandatory three-month live export pause comes into effect. The ship was due to export 56,000 sheep to Kuwait and the UAE. Mr McGowan said the situation reminded him of the Ruby Princess fiasco in NSW, in which 2700 passengers were allowed to disembark- leading to more than 600 COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths. The Ruby Princess is pictured in quarantine at Port Kembla in Wollongong on April 19 All of these sheep are currently being held in a feedlot in Baldivis and will not be able to return to farm due to biosecurity regulations. Mr McGowan said the WA government is working with the Federal Government and the exporter to find 'a resolution as soon as possible, so the ship is in a position to leave the port'. 'I want to stress that we are well prepared for this situation, and have strong processes in place to manage all crew members,' he said. 'We will continue to do everything we can to protect Western Australians, and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our State. The Al Kuwait has been operated by Kuwait Livestock Transport & Trading since March. The ship's subsidiary Rural Export & Trading (RETWA) is based in West Perth. RETWA have directed questions to the Australian Livestock Exporters Council, while Fremantle Ports have sent questions to WAs Department of Health, the Western Australian reports. WA's Department of Health are yet to respond. Nationwide, there has been 7124 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 102 deaths. Of the total, 3090 were in New South Wales, 1610 in Victoria, 1057 in Queensland, 439 in South Australia, 570 in Western Australia, 226 in Tasmania, 107 in the Australian Capital Territory and 30 in the Northern Territory. Princess Theodora of Greece donned a pretty white summer dress for a photo with her fiance Matthew Kumar to mark what would have been their wedding day before it was postponed. Earlier this month the London-born actress, 36, who plays secretary Alison Montgomery in The Bold and the Beautiful, revealed via a statement released by the Greek Royal House that she'd put her nuptials on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. Theodora was set to wed LA-based lawyer Matthew, whom she has been dating since 2016, over the bank holiday weekend. Writing on Instagram, she said: 'On what should have been our wedding weekend - the love and support from friends and family have been so appreciated. Theodora was set to wed LA-based lawyer Matthew, whom she has been dating since 2016, over the bank holiday weekend. Pictured together on what would have been their wedding day Writing on Instagram , Theodora said: 'On what should have been our wedding weekend - the love and support from friends and family have been so appreciated 'We can't wait to celebrate with all of you in Greece once it's safe.' The princess, who goes by the stage name Theodora Greece, was scheduled to marry her fiance on the Greek island of Spetses - after announcing her engagement in November 2018. In the accompanying photo, the couple had laid on a tasty-looking Mediterranean spread complete with cold meats, olives, cheese and Greek salad. The couple wore blue and white - the national colours of Greece - and dressed their table with blue napkins and white roses. Her niece Princess Olympia commented: 'Love you so so much,' followed by a string of blue heart emojis. Earlier this month the couple revealed via a statement released by the Greek Royal House that they'd put her nuptials on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic Theodora is the youngest daughter of King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie, who have retained their royal titles since the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1973. She is also a goddaughter of the Queen, and has close ties to both the Danish and Spanish royal families. Her guest list was tipped to be very star-studded thanks to her showbiz and royal connections. Theodora's father is a second cousin of Prince Charles - and Prince William's godfather - and the two were expected to attend the nuptials. King Constantine is also the older brother of Queen Sofia of Spain, who is Theodora's aunt, while King Felipe of Spain is her cousin. The princess (pictured) was scheduled to marry her fiance on the Greek island of Spetses after announcing her engagement in November 2018 Theodora (pictured with her partner) was born in at St Mary's Hospital, London, the youngest of five children, and attended the all-girls Woldingham boarding school in Surrey Meanwhile, her mother Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark is the younger sister of Queen Margrethe of Denmark, making Crown Prince Frederik her first cousin. King Constantine and his son the Crown Prince Pavlos have no official remit, but are still active participants in royal life around Europe. At the time of her engagement, Theodora announced the happy news on Instagram, saying: 'Words can't express our happiness and excitement. I can't wait to marry this wonderful man. I love you, Matt.' Her parents separately released a statement saying: 'Their Majesties King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie are delighted to announce the engagement of their youngest daughter Theodora to Mr Matthew Kumar. Royal relatives! Theodora (second right) with (left to right) her parents Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, King Constantine II of Greece, brother Crown Prince Pavlos and his wife Princess Marie-Chantal, her sister Princess Alexia of Greece, Carlos Morales and Prince Philippos 'Further details about the forthcoming wedding will be provided in due course. 'Mr Matthew Kumar, 34, was born and raised in Southern California to Sam and Lonnie Kumar. He is a practising attorney in Los Angeles.' Theodora was born in at St Mary's Hospital, London, the youngest of five children, and attended the all-girls Woldingham boarding school in Surrey. She moved to LA in 2010 to pursue an acting career, and landed a long-running role in the popular soap The Bold And The Beautiful. Famous godmother! The Queen with her Greek counterpart Anne-Marie at Princess Theodora's christening in London in 1983 Theodora's wedding is the second royal wedding to be postponed because of the coronavirus - with Princess Beatrice and her fiance Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi putting their nuptials on hold. The Queen's granddaughter, 31, was set to wed the millionaire property tycoon, 37, at St James Palace on May 29 but the wedding was postponed last month amid the UK's lockdown. The princess was overjoyed after becoming engaged on a weekend trip to Italy last September, and the couple said they could not wait to be married. Health Minister Robin Swann said he first became aware of the seriousness of concerns around Clifton Nursing Home in north Belfast last week. Mr Swann was speaking as health bosses face a fresh care home scandal after it emerged nine residents have died from Covid-19. Efforts are underway to appoint a new company to run Clifton after its current owner, Runwood Homes, failed to improve infection control measures first identified last April. Read More It is hoped this will mean residents will not have to move to new accommodation during the current pandemic. We became aware of the seriousness of Clifton last week in regards to the current situation and where it deteriorated, Mr Swann said this afternoon. The minister said his department has been working with Clifton for some weeks, adding that discussions were underway for a new provider to take over the home. If this goes ahead, he said residents will have a choice of whether or not to stay in the home. The North Antrim MLA says his department took the radical decision to close the nursing home in conjunction with the Public Health Agency and the RQIA and denied being slow to move when concerns were raised. Read More Mr Swann was speaking at the Executives daily update on Tuesday as Northern Ireland recorded no Covid-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours for the first time since March 18. The news followed yesterdays announcement that the Republic of Ireland reported no further deaths as a result of the virus for the first time since the outbreak began. Mr Swann said: We have all been waiting for a day like this and I do believe it is a clear sign of the progress that has been made against the coronavirus. However, I have to emphasise a serious note of caution. There are no grounds whatsoever for complacency. That will be an insult to all those who have sadly lost their lives and those who are mourning them. Referring to the actions of Prime Minister Boris Johnsons adviser Dominic Cummings, Mr Swann urged people to stick with the current guidance no matter what is happening elsewhere. Dont let someone you love or someone you dont know suffer the consequences of your actions, he added. The Department of Health has announced that South Africa has recorded 23,615 cases of COVID-19. This is an increase of 1,077 cases compared with the recorded total of 22,538 cases in South Africa on 24 May. Mkhize also announced that the number of deaths attributed to the coronavirus has risen to 481 an increase of 52 in the last 24 hours. We wish to express our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the healthcare workers who cared for the deceased, he said. A total of 596,777 tests have been conducted in South Africa to date, and 12,992 tests were completed in the last day. The total number of recoveries to date is 11,917. The table below details the total number of recorded COVID-19 cases per province, along with the number of deaths in each province attributed to COVID-19. Province Case Numbers Deaths Western Cape 15,396 330 Gauteng 2,993 30 Eastern Cape 2,748 61 KwaZulu-Natal 1,882 49 Free State 208 6 Limpopo 132 3 Mpumalanga 102 0 North West 109 1 Northern Cape 45 1 5 May 202 the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in SA is 23 615. 596 777 tests conducted , 12 992 tests done in last past 24 hour testing cycle. There are 52 more COVID-19 related deaths total national deaths 481. Total number of recoveries stands at 11 917 #COVID__19 pic.twitter.com/raFwEvNeYk Department of Health (@HealthZA) May 25, 2020 Lockdown cripples travel industry The extended lockdown implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus in South Africa has had a devastating impact on many sectors, including travel and tourism. The lockdown regulations prohibit hotels, lodges, bed and breakfasts, and private homes from offering paid leisure accommodation. South Africas tourism industry, which provides jobs for more than 740,000 people, is facing a catastrophe as a result of these restrictions. A survey by Cape Town Tourism found that 59% of travel and tourism businesses expect revenues to fall to zero between April and June. 83% of these businesses also said they would not survive longer than six months under the current lockdown conditions. A further challenge for the industry is that there is no clear path to recovery. 56% of tourism businesses indicated they do not have a recovery plan in place. Now read: Lockdown curfew to be lifted and people can exercise at any time WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump has a way of making easy things difficult and difficult matters impossible. That is a good way to explain what is going on behind the scenes right now at the Voice of America, or VOA. Trump recently declared war on the VOA, the government-run broadcaster that delivers news in more than 40 languages to an estimated 280 million people around the globe. And that declaration has exploded into a battle royal over Trump's nominee to become CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, Radio Free Europe and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Unfortunately for this columnist, the two people at the center of this tempest are both friends. I write at great risk to my personal equilibrium but for all the right reasons. I believe in both of them; I've written columns in praise of each on other matters. Besides, I'm a middle child. The head of the VOA, Amanda Bennett, happens to be a hero of mine. Fifteen years ago, when she was editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, she was the only editor in the United States who had the guts to publish the infamous "Danish cartoons" in solidarity with the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and a dozen cartoonists who had received death threats for their satirical images of the Prophet Mohammed. I wrote a column at the time praising Bennett's courage and integrity. My opinion of her has not changed, especially as she (and her broadcasting agency) have lately been in the president's crosshairs. Trump has accused the VOA of making him look bad and of publishing Chinese propaganda. Writing the news objectively will often make Trump look bad, thanks to his own behavior. But it's ludicrous to think Bennett would allow Chinese propaganda to pass as fact-based news in her global newsroom. Necessarily, Bennett pushed back, defending the objectivity of her newsroom's Chinese reporting. In so doing, however, she has emboldened the forces trying to thwart the Senate confirmation of Michael Pack, the documentary-maker Trump has nominated to be her boss. Said one insider off the record, "Pack's not a particularly bad guy, but there are a lot of extremely bad people who will almost certainly have roles if he gets the job." One such name belongs to former White House strategist Steve Bannon. It is true that Pack hired Bannon to consult on two documentaries, including one about Admiral Hyman Rickover, who founded the modern nuclear Navy and remains a cult hero in some conservative quarters. Bannon is a sufficiently toxic player in Washington that any contact, even professional, might seem like a reason for resistance. Meanwhile, Trump has lent credence to some of VOA's concerns by trumpeting that Pack will "fix" everything, which is unhelpful to Pack. And while Pack may be a conservative, he's still a consummate professional. Before turning to documentaries, he has served in high-ranking positions with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Council on the Humanities and the Claremont Institute, where he was president and publisher of the esteemed Claremont Review of Books. In response to an insistent Trump, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month scheduled a Thursday hearing to push Pack's nomination through. But, the night before, Pack was served with notice (and a subpoena) that the attorney general of the District of Columbia was opening an investigation into whether he had misused funds raised for his non-profit charity, Public Media Lab, to finance his documentaries. New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the committee, announced the investigation as well as the fact that the hearing was postponed. Which is a reminder that irony never strays far from hypocrisy. Menendez's brave defense of the Pack investigation is only slightly more impressive than the list of corruption charges leveled against the New Jersey senator a few years ago, which left a jury deadlocked but didn't stop the Senate Ethics Committee from accusing him of poor judgment that "risked undermining the public's confidence in the Senate." You can almost hear the laughter in Washington when Menendez expresses concerns about someone else's ethical improprieties. In Pack's case, my bet is that none will be found. According to various insiders and a non-profit attorney who has experience in such things, it is both common and legal for non-profits to funnel funds to be used for other purposes, such as the making of a documentary, as long as the recipient of the diverted funds can demonstrate they were used as intended. While Bennett may sincerely fear changes at VOA that Pack might make, there's no basis to presume he isn't equally committed to the mission of informing the broader world with respect for journalistic norms. Moreover, it would be illegal for him to alter its mission, which was established as independent and beyond the reach of meddlesome politicians. As usual, if Trump had kept his thoughts to himself -- left VOA alone and allowed Pack to speak for himself -- the Agency for Global Media might have a good man at the helm. Most important, the VOA's Bennett could continue without distraction the serious work of informing the larger world and spreading the example of freedom. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Dr. Avinash Bhakta, colorectal cancer surgeon with the UK Markey Cancer Center and lead author on the study. Credit: University of Kentucky A new University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center study finds that many Kentucky patients with colon cancer are not receiving the recommended standard of care therapy for their disease. Though the state has made great advances in colorectal cancer screening the past two decades, Kentucky continues to rank fifth in the nation for colorectal cancer mortality. Locally advanced colon cancers (LACC) defined as colon cancers with high risk microscopic features or that have begun spreading via lymph nodesare best treated with multiple modalities. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network practice guidelines recommend surgical removal of the tumor followed by adjuvant chemotherapy for stage IIb, IIc, and stage III colon cancers, which has greatly improved the survival of these patients. Published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the study examined data for 1,404 Kentucky patients with LACC, gathered from the Kentucky Cancer Registry and insurance billing codes. Results showed that nearly 42% of these patients did not receive the full standard of care therapy, with the vast majority of patients failing to receive their adjuvant chemotherapy following a surgery. Among patients who did receive standard of care for colon cancer, the survival rate was 63%; for those who did not comply with standard of care, the survival rate dropped to 27%. Several independent risk factors were identified for those who did not receive standard of care, including patients age 65 and older, a high comorbidity index (i.e., other serious health issues), disability, Medicaid insurance status and a moderate to high poverty level. Dr. Avinash Bhakta, colorectal cancer surgeon with the UK Markey Cancer Center and lead author on the study, says the study highlights the importance of the adherence to standard of care for these patients. "Many of these characteristics are shared by our Appalachian patient population, which is a vulnerable population here in Kentucky," Bhakta said. "With this knowledge, the UK Markey Cancer Center and its Affiliate Network are working on measures that will help increase access to standard of care therapies to this vulnerable population." Explore further Study examines disparities in prostate cancer survival in Appalachian Kentucky More information: Zeta Chow et al. Nonadherence to Standard of Care for Locally Advanced Colon Cancer as a Contributory Factor for High Mortality Rates in Kentucky, Journal of the American College of Surgeons (2020). Journal information: Journal of the American College of Surgeons Zeta Chow et al. Nonadherence to Standard of Care for Locally Advanced Colon Cancer as a Contributory Factor for High Mortality Rates in Kentucky,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2019.12.041 Quick! Close your eyes and think of how coronavirus can be used as a justification for a law that you want to be enacted. Be creative! Whats the biggest stretch you can come up with? The entry by California Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, into this dubious contest is Repeal the California Civil Rights Initiative. In 1996, the Civil Rights Initiative, or Proposition 209, amended the California constitution to prohibit public institutions from discriminating based on race, sex or ethnicity. Racial discrimination is wrong, and a pandemic only multiplies its harmful effects. Take public contracting. California must procure the testing kits, masks and medical supplies that we need to beat this virus. If California imposes racial quotas in procurement that weve seen in other places, it could limit the ability of Californians to receive medical equipment at a time when they need it most. Repealing the Civil Rights Initiative would give California colleges and universities the legal authority to racially discriminate in admissions. Colleges would likely use this opportunity to enact admissions preferences, like those at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, that discriminate against Asian American applicants. The pandemic has already led to a handful of bias crimes and other nasty incidents of discrimination against Chinese Americans. There is no reason for California to allow university admissions counselors to stereotype Asian Americans in the same way that others have unjustly done recently. So what could be the justification for repealing Californias landmark civil-rights legislation? At a hastily put together Assembly hearing last week, Rodriguez and other members of the Assembly had no answers to these questions. Their best stab was that the coronavirus supposedly has a disproportionate effect on minorities. Yet, nobody explained how racial preferences and quotas in education and contracting would eliminate disparities in health outcomes. The opposite is far more likely since better health is associated with higher education and wealth; and ending racial discrimination in California has led to higher graduation rates for all Californians, including African American, Hispanic, and Native American students. Erwin Chemerinsky, a Berkeley law professor, offered a different theory. Chemerinsky testified that repealing the Civil Rights Initiative was necessary to ensure that women and minorities have access to the political process. His argument is wrong in law and principle. State and federal courts have rejected that exact argument in upholding the Civil Rights Initiative. The U.S. Supreme Court did so as well in upholding Michigans counterpart to Californias antidiscrimination law. As the court noted, the principle of equality of the law is not so fragile that it can be undone with just a bare majority of votes. The Civil Rights Initiative does not prevent any Californian from participating in the political process and petitioning the government for individual or group benefits unrelated to race, sex or ethnicity. It instead recognizes that the political process cannot be used for the purpose of discriminating on the basis of race. Racial preferences also often harm their intended beneficiaries. A growing body of research suggests that students who receive racial preferences in admissions are less likely to graduate with science, technology or engineering degrees than students with similar academic credentials who receive no such preferences. Other studies show a similar effect on bar exam passage for law students. California is a particularly interesting example because research showed an increase in graduation rates of African American, Hispanic, and Native American students after the passage of the Civil Rights Initiative. Another study that examined the performance of African American students found that these students received honors at higher rates after California prohibited public universities from discriminating. This shows that the Supreme Court was quite prescient when it noted that preferences create the misimpression that their intended beneficiaries are incapable of succeeding without them. In reality, individuals are capable of great things without government interference. The hard-earned successes of Californians shouldnt be tarnished by the shroud of racial preferences. If California does reinstate racial discrimination, the Pacific Legal Foundation stands ready to defend the equal protection rights of Californians. PLF has won courtroom victories in challenging unconstitutional racial preferences and is prepared to challenge unlawful favoritism again. Even if the Civil Rights Initiative is repealed, PLF will ensure that Californians will still enjoy rights enshrined by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It shouldnt get to that point. Instead, California should reject Rodriguezs attempt to reinstate a failed and divisive system of race and gender quotas. Coronavirus should not be used as a pretext to push identity politics that will do nothing to mitigate the pandemic and that will take away from efforts that could help end the current crisis. Wen Fa is an attorney, and Alison Somin is a legal fellow, both with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which litigates nationwide to achieve court victories enforcing the Constitutions guarantee of individual liberty and, amid the current pandemic, restoring freedoms necessary to rebuild America. A strong performance from the heavy financial sector helped drive the ASX to the biggest one-day gain in eight week, closing 2.9 per cent higher at 5780 points. The benchmark ASX200 has gained more than 100 points two days in a row this week. It has also moved out of bear market territory, as the index is now less than 20 per cent from the highs reached in February. The domestic market was also boosted by Wall Street futures pointing to gains of about 2 per cent tonight. The financial sector climbed 4.3 per cent and real estate stocks gained 4.5 per cent. All sectors closed more than 1 per cent higher. Chris Weston, chief market strategist at Pepperstone, said major regional markets were also higher. The Hang Seng index gain 2.2 per cent, Tokyo's Nikkei index was up 2.6 per cent, and China's CSI300 gained about 1 per cent. The whole of Asia has fired up today. This is a reopening story. This is a story that the bears are giving up one by one,'' Mr Weston said. "It's a classic case of not over thinking things. (The market is) just not phased by anything at the moment. You can throw poor data, horrific data, at it and it doesnt even worry about it. You can have concerns around US and China, with Hong Kong and Australia being political pawns in the middle of it." Meanwhile, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave a speech promising to restore jobs and rebalance the federal budget again, which added to optimism. "[It] raises the question are we really in a V-shaped recovery, or are we going to see a correction? But for now this is feeling very V,'' RBC Capital Markets head of equities, Karen Jorritsma, said. "ScoMo did his best at the National Press Club over lunch to remind us there are 850,000 jobs returning in the next few months as the economy opens up, but now shifting to a recovery phases rather than government spending support to drive activity. JobKeeper [is] turning into JobMaker." Domestic banks enjoyed strong gains on Tuesday. Westpac gained 6.3 percent, the best one-day gains since 30 March, NAB gained 5.6 per cent, and ANZ 6 per cent. Commonwealth Bank gained 3.9 per cent. Fortescue Metals dropped 0.4 per cent to $13.78 after reaching record highs last week. And Coca Cola Amatil dropped 1.6 per cent after a trading update. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday distanced his party from the worsening COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra saying his party is only supporting the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and is not a key decision maker. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Tuesday seemed to be distancing his party from the worsening COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra saying his party is only supporting the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and is not a key decision maker in the state government. "I would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but we are not the key decision maker in Maharashtra," Gandhi said, according to PTI, in response to questions on the worsening COVID-19 situation in the state and how he was planning to tackle the situation along with alliance partners Shiv Sena and the NCP in Maharashtra. According to the figures released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family at 8 am on Tuesday, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state in the country, accounting for more than one-third of India's total cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus with 52,667 confirmed infections and 1,695 deaths. "We are decision-makers in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Puducherry. There is a difference between running the government and supporting it," Gandhi was quoted as saying by News18. The Congress MP, however said the Centre needs to give more attention to the state of Maharashtra in order to contain the COVID-19 situation there. "I said very categorically that Maharashtra is an important state, Mumbai is the financial capital and there is a lot of attention, they have a difficult situation and lots of attention needs to be given to the state by the Centre," Gandhi said, according to NDTV. Responding to the former Congress president's remark, NCP spokesperson said Mr. @RahulGandhi is right when he said, Maharashtra does not have a Congress Government, he said so because Maharashtra has the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government. Those trying to distort his statement must stop, the 3 parties are happy together and serving the people of Maharashtra. Nawab Malik (@nawabmalikncp) May 26, 2020 In the past, the BJP has been strident in its criticism of the Maharashtra government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak. In fact, a BJP delegation led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently met governor BS Koshyari and complained to him about the "failure" of the government in tackling the COVID-19 crisis. While the Shiv Sena, without specifying any party or leader, has said the Opposition's efforts to destabilise the state government could boomerang, the NCP has accused the BJP of spreading a rumour that President's Rule will be imposed. The demand for imposition of the President's Rule was indeed made on Monday by BJP MP Narayan Rane after meeting the governor at Raj Bhavan. Notwithstanding Gandhi's assertion, Congress is not supporting the government from outside, but is a part of it. The party holds key portfolios in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government formed in alliance with the Shiv Sena and NCP. In fact, Congress state president Balasaheb Thorat is the revenue minister. Thorat said that the BJP leaders in Maharashtra are trying to destabilise the ruling dispensation for power, but there is no reason to worry. "BJP leaders in the state are greedy for power. They cannot think of helping the government in the current situation. They are trying to destabilise the government," Thorat told reporters on Tuesday. When asked why no Congress leader is seen around Thackeray or NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Thorat said, "We are in touch with each other over phones. Nothing should be read into such appearances or disappearances". Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut too hit back at Rane's demand for President's Rule in Maharashtra, saying Gujarat's performance in handling the COVID-19 crisis is "worse", hence it deserves to be put under the Central rule first. Without specifying any party or leader, Raut said the opposition should get "quarantined", and that their efforts to destabilise the Maharashtra government could boomerang. With inputs from PTI Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answers reporters questions about Chinas foreign policy and relations, May 24. (Photo: Xinhua) By Chen Yang At a press conference during the two sessions on May 24, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hailed the joint response to COVID-19 among China, Japan and the ROK as providing an example and inspiration for the world. His high comments reflected his expectations for the three countries cooperation in the post-pandemic era. Although they had to cancel or postpone political and diplomatic interactions scheduled for this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience of battling the coronavirus together has further consolidated their trilateral relations that offer much to expect in the future. When the epidemic first broke out in China at the end of last year, senior Japanese and ROK officials expressed multiple times their support for China to adopt more epidemic prevention and control measures. Slogans like Go, China, Go, Wuhan appeared on the streets of Tokyo and Osaka, while the ROK embassy in China put up a streamer reading Chinas difficulties are our difficulties. People in Japan and the ROK donated masks, protective suits and other medical supplies for China...When China was at its most difficult time fighting the epidemic, such timely assistance from our Japanese and ROK friends warmed the hearts of the Chinese people. Later when the COVID-19 escalated in Japan and the ROK, especially when they were short of anti-virus supplies such as masks and medical alcohol, all walks of life in China reciprocated their earlier friendly help by providing much-needed medical supplies in return. Japan and ROK helped each other too by, for instance, carrying each others overseas nationals back home on chartered planes. These touching stories of mutual help and assistance redefined the mutual understanding among the Chinese, Japanese and ROK people, narrowed the deficit of people-to-people friendliness to some extent, and injected new impetus into the steady and sustainable development of trilateral relations in the post-COVID-19 era. In addition to friendliness among the people, further joint support for multilateralism will be the new direction of China-Japan-ROK cooperation in the post-pandemic era. During the outbreak, the US, in order to shirk its responsibilities, frequently blamed the WHO and even threatened to permanently stop funding it and withdraw from the organization, which jeopardized the multilateral mechanism at the critical juncture of global anti-virus efforts. However, Tokyo and Seoul, as Washingtons Asian-Pacific allies, were quite cautious this time. Instead of following Washingtons lead, they expressed strong support for WHO and its leading role in fighting the pandemic. At the special meeting held online among the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers on COVID-19 and the special summit between the three countries and ASEAN, Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul also showed willingness to promote regional multilateral cooperation on such issues as medical health, entry/exit management and economic development. Several breakthroughs on regional economic cooperation are worth expecting, including the free trade negotiation among China, Japan and the ROK and the signing of a regional comprehensive economic partnership treaty within the year. Its worth noting that Chinese premier Li Keqiang proposed the China-Japan-ROK plus X cooperation mode when he attended the trilateral summit meeting in 2018, and the 9th foreign ministers meeting among the three countries in August 2019 passed the conceptual document for China-Japan-ROK plus X cooperation mechanism. Therefore, either in terms of the international environment or the reality of the three parties themselves, the three Northeast Asian neighbors are sure to give more support to multilateralism after the pandemic is over and highlight multilateral cooperation as an important booster of trilateral relations. The COVID-19 pandemic will be defeated eventually, but friendship forged in fighting it will last long and beyond. "Though we live in different lands, the same moon and sky make us one" and "United by the same humanity, we forget our nationality". These beautiful verses have witnessed the tripartite cooperation during this rare and hard battle, the deepening consensus on cooperation among Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul, and the new stage of friendship among their peoples. Against such a background, we look forward to the China-Japan-ROK cooperation playing a significant role in promoting economic growth in East Asia, leading regional integration, and contributing more eastern wisdom and strength to development of the region and the world at large. Advertisement The heartbroken family of black man George Floyd have called for cops to be charged with murder after four were fired over the video of a white officer kneeling on his neck during his arrest. Two of George Floyd's cousins said the firing of the officers was just 'a start' after watching footage of the shocking incident and the cops 'murdered our cousin'. The family's lawyer has called for white cop Derek Chauvin to be charged with murder and the other three officers involved charged as murder accomplices as he revealed Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for a staggering eight minutes and blasted the case as 'worse than Eric Garner'. Floyd was filmed Monday begging the Minneapolis cop to stop and telling him he could not breathe before he lost consciousness and later died after officers arrested him for allegedly trying to use forged documents at a local deli. Four members of the Minneapolis Police Department who were involved in Monday's incident have now been fired, and the FBI and state law enforcement authorities have launched an investigation into the man's death. The heartbroken family of black man George Floyd (pictured) who died in police custody after a white cop was filmed pinning him to the ground by his neck have said the firing of four police officers involved is only a start to getting justice Floyd was filmed Monday begging the Minneapolis cop to stop and telling him he could not breathe before he lost consciousness and later died Floyd's devastated family have now broken their silence over his death in an interview with TMX.news, where they told how they watched the horrific footage on TV before realizing it was their 'baby cousin'. I actually saw it before knowing it was my cousin I saw it on Gayle King, said Shareeduh Tate. 'And I remember thinking how devastating this would be for the family who have lost their family member like this then about five minutes after that I got a phone call saying that it was my cousin. She thanked the bystanders who were heard in the footage urging the police to stop what they were doing and warning them that they were killing Floyd. I cant thank them enough. We always see these kinds of things take place and we always wonder what we would do in that position and were so grateful and even more so grateful for the person who was there with a camera to capture it as so many times there is not a witness around and its questionable as to what has happened, Tate said. Floyd's other cousin Tera Brown called the footage 'unbelievable'. 'It's unbelievable to see someone suffering in the way that he did,' she said. 'And to have so many people around asking for them to basically allow him to live.' His devastated family have now broken their silence over his death in an interview with TMX.news, where his cousins Tera Brown (left) and Shareeduh Tate (right) told how they watched the video not realizing it was their 'baby cousin' Tate said the firing of the four police officers was 'a start' but is 'definitely not enough' as she blasted the authorities for 'murdering' the father-of-one. 'They murdered our cousin,' she said. Brown described him as 'the cousin that everybody loved' who was 'always happy' and a 'jokester'. 'He was everybody's favorite everything - he was the favorite friend, the favorite cousin,' she added. She said news of his death has been especially hard on Floyd's daughter who she said is 'not doing well'. Ben Crump, the attorney for the victim's family has demanded officers face murder charges over the killing and said this is 'worse than Eric Garner' because the officers held Floyd down by the neck for a staggering eight minutes. Ben Crump, the attorney for the victim's family has demanded officers face prosecution over the killing and saying this is 'worse than Eric Garner' because the officers held Floyd down by the neck for a staggering eight minutes Crump pointed to the similarities in the case with the death of unarmed black man Garner who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by New York City police and pleaded for his life, saying he could not breathe. Parallels have already been drawn between the two cases but Crump described Floyd's death as even 'worse'. I mean it was 8 minutes. It is in many ways worse than Eric Garner as they have his knees on his neck and he is begging, pleading for not one minute, not two minutes, not three minutes but eight minutes begging them to let him breathe so we have "we cant breathe" again in 2020, he said. It just takes you back to Eric Garner and now we have another black man saying to police "I cant breathe" and them not offering any humanity. Crump said news that the officers had been fired was a good first step but said it does not go far enough to getting justice for the dead man. I think the officer should be charged with murder, Crump told TMX.news, about Derek Chauvin, who has been identified as the cop who held Floyd down by the neck. It was clear that he was begged by public bystanders to take his knee off Georges neck.' Crump also called for the other officers involved to be charged as accomplices to murder. 'They were supposed to protect and serve citizens like George. We in black America, we are done dying at the hands of the people that are supposed to protect and serve us,' he said. Disturbing footage captured by a bystander shows the moment a white Minneapolis police officer pins a black man to the ground with his knees during an arrest on Monday Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced Tuesday that four officers are now 'former employees' of the force. 'We know there are inherent dangers in the profession of policing but the vast majority of the work we do never require the use of force,' Arradondo said. The names of the four fired cops have not been released, however two officers seen in the video were identified by Floyd's family's lawyer as officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao. The two were filmed in a video taken by a bystander on Monday which showed Floyd struggling to breathe on the ground as a white cop kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the four officers' termination on Twitter saying the move was 'the right call.' Floyd, who was arrested on suspicion of forgery on Monday night, was heard repeatedly telling officers that he could not breathe as he lay on the ground next to the tire of a squad car. The man, unresponsive and handcuffed, is then placed on a stretcher before being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died shortly after The incident has drawn comparisons to the case of Eric Garner (pictured) an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life saying he couldn't breathe 'Please, please, please, I can't breathe. Please, man,' Floyd, who is shirtless, begs the cop. The officer repeatedly tells him 'Well get up and get in the car then,' while he continues to pin Floyd to the ground. Floyd responds 'I will' but the cop continues to hold him to the ground by his neck. 'My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts,' Floyd is heard gasping at one point, before saying he needs water. After several minutes, one of the officers tells him to 'relax.' 'Man, I can't breathe,' Floyd responds, before eventually passing out. A number of politicians and public figures have since spoken out against the incident on social media, calling for the police officers involved to be held accountable. Floyd was identified as the victim on Tuesday by Crump, a prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney who said he had been hired by Floyd's family. Crump is also representing the family of 25-year-old black man Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed by two white men in Georgia earlier this month. 'This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge,' Crump said in a statement. 'We will seek justice for the family of George Floyd, as we demand answers from the Minnesota Police Department. How many "while black" deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends?' The black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on Monday has been identified as George Floyd on social media. The attorney representing Floyd's family Benjamin Crump tweeted this photo of the victim on Tuesday, calling for police officers to be brought to justice Floyd, seen in a Facebook photo, was arrested on suspicion of forgery, however details of his alleged offense or what he was doing in the lead up to his arrest were not released Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of 25-year-old slain black man Ahmaud Arbery, has been hired to represent Floyd's family. Crump identified Floyd as the victim on Tuesday, as well as the two officers officers involved in the incident When asked by reporters about the use of the knee on the man's neck, Chief Arradondo said the department has 'policies in place regarding placing someone under control' that 'will be part of the full investigation we'll do internally.' The Minneapolis Police Department released a statement earlier this morning confirming Floyd died in hospital after officers had responded to a 'forgery in progress.' They did not release details on Floyd's alleged offense or what he had been doing in the lead up to his attempted arrest. According to CBS Local, he was apprehended outside Cup Foods grocery store around 8pm after he allegedly tried to use forged documents at a deli. Police found the man, believed to be in his 40s, matching the suspect's description in his car. 'He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers,' police spokesman John Elder claimed in a statement. 'Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.' He was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center where he died a short time later, police said. But in the footage, shared by onlooker Darnella Frazier, the arresting police officer was seen pinning Floyd to the ground for more than six minutes as he pleaded with officers to release him. 'Please, please, please, I cant breathe. Please, man,' the man is heard telling the officer. Despite his pleas and agonizing screams, the officer continued to kneel on the man's neck for several minutes. Multiple witnesses were also heard arguing with the two cops over their excessive use of force. 'Bro, you've got him down at least let him breathe, man,' a male onlooker says. 'He's not even resisting arrest ... he's human, bro.' One of the officers then replies: 'This is why you don't do drugs, kids.' 'This ain't about drugs, bro! He's human,' the bystander says. 'You're enjoying it. Look at you. Your body language, you bum. You know that's bogus right now,' he adds. About four minutes into the video, the man appears to begin to lose consciousness before becoming unresponsive. An ambulance then arrives and police officers move the man's limp body onto a stretcher. 'You just really killed that man, bro,' the male onlooker says. 'And if he's not dead, he's close to death, that's crazy,' Frazier adds. The video, which has been shared more than 15,000 times on Facebook, has sparked outrage among viewers on social media. 'They killed him right in front of Cup Foods over south on 38th and Chicago!! No type of sympathy. #PoliceBrutality,' Frazier wrote in a Facebook post. A man holds a 'Stop Killing Black People' placard while protesting near the area where a Minneapolis Police Department officer allegedly killed George Floyd A Black Lives Matter memorial was left for George Floyd who died in custody on May 26 People gather around a makeshift memorial Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Minneapolis, near where a black man was taken into police custody the day before who later died Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota Mayor Melvin Carter spoke out against Floyd's killing on Tuesday, calling for the police officers to be held accountable Black Lives Matter protesters gathered at the site of Floyd's death on Tuesday, where mourners were seen placing flowers and balloons at a makeshift memorial. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed the FBI has joined in its investigation. All body camera footage has been turned over to the BCA, which investigates most police shootings and in-custody deaths. The officers involved were initially put on paid administrative leave, per department protocol. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey addressed the incident in a press conference on Tuesday morning, calling events in the video 'wrong at every level.' 'Being black in America should not be a death sentence,' he said. 'For five minutes we watched as a white officer pressed his knee to the neck of a black man. For five minutes. 'When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. 'This officer failed in the most basic human sense. What happened on Chicago and 38th, this last night, is simply awful.' Frey also apologized to the family of the man as well as the black community. 'He was a human being and his life mattered,' he said. Throughout the video, the arresting officer is seen kneeling on the man's neck as he lay motionless on the ground The FBI is now investigating the man's death and the two officers have been placed on paid administrative leave Minnesota state Senator Amy Klobuchar released a statement following the mayor's media briefing, calling for the police officers involved to be held accountable. 'We heard his repeated calls for help. We heard him say over and over again that he could not breathe. And now we have a seen yet another horrifying and gutwrenching instance of an African American man dying,' she said. 'Every single person in every single community in this country deserves to feel safe. As the Mayor Minneapolis noted, this tragic loss of life calls for immediate action. 'There must be a complete and thorough outside investigation into what occurred, and those involved in this incident must be held accountable. 'Justice must be served for this man and his family, justice must be served for our community, and justice must be served for our country.' Nekima Levy-Armstrong, a prominent local activist, said watching the footage that was shared on social media made her 'sick to her stomach' and called the incident another example of police brutality toward African American men, the Star Tribune reported. 'Whatever the man may have done should not have ended in a death sentence,' she said. 'What started as an alleged economic incident once again turned deadly for a black man.' Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey addressed the incident in a press briefing on Tuesday morning, calling the events in the video 'wrong at every level' and saying the officers involved 'failed in the most basic human sense' The video has sparked outrage among viewers on social media and has been shared more than 7,000 times Levy-Armstrong said the incident reminded her of the Eric Garner case. He was an unarmed New York man who died in 2014 after he was placed in a chokehold by police and pleaded for his life saying he couldn't breathe. A grand jury later decided against indicting the officers involved, sparking protests around the country. Police in Minneapolis have come under the microscope in recent years for deadly run-ins with citizens. A 24-year-old black man, Jamar Clark, was shot in the head and died in 2015 after a confrontation with two white officers responding to a reported assault. A county prosecutor declined to prosecute the officers, saying Clark was struggling for one of the officers gun when he was shot. A white woman, Justine Rusczcyk Damond, died in 2017 when she was shot in the stomach by a Minneapolis officer responding to her 911 call. That officer, who is black, was convicted of manslaughter and murder and is serving a 12-year prison sentence. Gayle King breaks down on live TV while discussing death of George Floyd after white cop knelt on his neck, as she leads big names speaking out about the killing and says it 'feels like open season' on black men in America Gayle King broke down on live TV as she warned that it 'feels to me like open season' on young black men in America after footage emerged of the white cop kneeling on the neck of George Floyd who then passed out and died. King led celebrities and politicians Tuesday in voicing outrage over his death, with many taking to social media demanding the police officers involved are arrested and that the US tackles what many regard as 'systemic' racism against young African-American men. King's voice broke on CBS This Morning Tuesday after she watched the horrifying footage of Floyd's death followed by another video of a racist incident in Central Park, New York, where white investment banker Amy Cooper called 911 to report an 'African-American man threatening her life' when he simply asked her to leash her dog. An emotional King said she was 'speechless' and that 'this is really too much for me today' before she asked her co-hosts to step in to take over talking about the shocking incidents. 'I don't even know what to do or how to handle this at this particular time... I am speechless,' King said, as she holds back tears. 'Once again, I say thank goodness that there's video tape. You know, I think as a daughter of a black man and a mother of a black man, this is really too much for me today. I'm still rattled by the last story.' Gayle King broke down on CBS This Morning Tuesday as she warned that it 'feels to me like open season' on black men in America after footage emerged of a white cop kneeling on the neck of a black man who then passed out and died An emotional King said she was 'speechless' and that 'this is really too much for me today' before she asked her co-hosts to step in to take over talking about the shocking incidents WATCH: Video of a white woman calling police on a black man in New York City's Central Park is getting a lot of attention.@VladDuthiersCBS explains. pic.twitter.com/mg1wwOSItl CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) May 26, 2020 'I'm so sorry. I'm still so upset by that last story where the man is handcuffed underneath a car, where people are pleading, 'Please he can't breathe,' and we're watching a man die,' she said. 'So we go from that story now to this story where she falsely accuses a black man on television.' 'I am really, really speechless about what we are seeing on television this morning,' King added. 'It feels to me like open season, and that it's just not sometimes a safe place to be in this country for black men. And today is too much for me.' Floyd's death has sparked outrage across the nation, with politicians and celebrities including Ice Cube, Debra Messing and Martin Luther King III taking to social media to brand the Minneapolis cops murderers and demand they be arrested. This comes less than a month after footage emerged of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery being shot dead in a street in Georgia by two white men who evaded prosecution for more than two months. Black celebrities led the cries for the arrest of the officers involved in Floyd's death Tuesday, after it emerged four cops had been fired over the incident The leak of the video sparked outrage across the nation with LeBron James, Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner all leading cries for Travis and Gregory McMichael to be charged with murder. The father and son duo were only arrested and charged with murder after the video went viral. Black celebrities led the cries for the arrest of the officers involved in Floyd's death Tuesday, after it emerged four cops had been fired over the incident. 'How long will we go for Blue on Black Crime before we strike back???' Ice Cube tweeted. The rapper then had to defend his use of the words 'strike back' when some said he was encouraging vigilantism. He responded with a follow-up Tweet: 'Anybody coming at me for what I said aint ready to do s**t...' Singers Ariana Grande, Madonna and Justin Bieber also waded into the issue, sharing posts condemning the police brutality with their millions of followers Ice T also spoke out about Floyd's death in a series of Tweets. 'They Killed another Brother.. On Video,' he wrote. He followed it up with another post that read: 'I play a Cop on TV... But I'll NEVER stop speaking about injustice... EVER. F that.' Snoop Dogg simply posted a meme showing the white cop kneeling on Floyd's neck alongside an image of Colin Kaepernick kneeling, saying 'This is why'. The post was in reference to the #TakeAKnee protest which has involved some black American athletes kneeling during the US national anthem at sports events in protest against police brutality and racism. Martin Luther King III also took to social media over the footage with the slogan: 'Say his name. #GeorgeFloyd #icantbreathe'. Singers Ariana Grande, Madonna and Justin Bieber also waded into the issue, sharing posts condemning police brutality with their millions of followers. Grande posted an Instagram story of a black screen with the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #justiceforGeorgeFloyd. 'Justice is not just about specific officers being arrested. It's about dismantling the systems that make it possible,' she wrote. Pop star Bieber posted a photo of the incident and decried it as 'sick'. 'This makes me absolutely sick. This makes me angry this man DIED. This makes me sad. Racism is evil We need to use out voice! Please people. I'm sorry GEORGE FLOYD,' he wrote. Madonna slammed the police officer responsible for Floyd's death saying he 'knew he was being filmed and murdered him with arrogance and pride'. Will & Grace star Debra Messing uploaded a post that echoed the victim's family's pleas that the firing of the four cops does not go far enough to getting justice for the man's death. '#GeorgeFloyd is the African-American man being MURDERED on this video. You watch it happen. With no respect for human life, these cops used unnecessary force on a man who was already detained. They have been fired. I WANT THEM ARRESTED!,' she tweeted. Several politicians have also slammed Floyd's death and called for action against what they describe as a 'systemic problem' in policing across America Several politicians have also slammed Floyd's death and called for action not just over his death but over all incidents of racism and police brutality. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed to a systemic issue across America as she said 'police brutality' is a 'leading cause of death for young Black men'. '#GeorgeFloyd should be alive. Instead, he was killed as he begged police for his life. The impunity of police violence is a systemic problem we must face to save lives,' she tweeted. 'Police brutality is now a leading cause of death for young Black men in the US. The status quo is killing us.' Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg also said there is a 'systemic' issue as he pointed to both Floyd's death and the Central Park case. He tweeted: 'The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The racism on display in Central Park. This can't just continue to be a day in the life in the USA. This is systemic and it won't change on its own.' Presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted late Tuesday urging for the FBI to conduct a 'thorough investigation' and for the officers to be 'held responsible for their egregious actions'. This Is Still Happening is a feature in which Slate will attempt to offer an update on senior-level administration corruption, what could be done to bring the officials to account, and what Democrats are doing in response (generally, nothing). The ninth installment is about Donald Trumps son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner. The Official: Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser What Is Still Happening: Its depressing and infuriating to contemplate the amount of influence over all of our lives that has been handed to Kushner, whose greatest accomplishments prior to joining the White House were buying a $1.8 billion money pit with his family fortune and marrying Ivanka Trump. Advertisement Kushners ever-shifting and ever-expanding portfoliossolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! Serving as supply chain czar!have become a running joke. Having a second buffoonish real estate princeling draining government resources to play make-believe world leader, though, is less Ha ha funny and more This is fine funny. As with Donald Trump himself, its difficult to summarize all of the damage that Kushner has done to U.S. institutions, constitutional democracy, and global alliances through the sheer distance between his limited capacities and the immense responsibility he holds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its easier to list some of the times that Kushner has used his office for personal gain to the detriment of the country, or otherwise botched very important specific tasks that he was handed because he happens to be married to Donald Trumps daughter. Advertisement Advertisement Lets start with COVID-19. It has been widely reported that Kushner has been placed in the role of shadow pandemic czar. His czarship has not been going so great. Multiple publications have reported that Kushner initially was a skeptic that COVID-19 was as bad as the scientists were saying, and that he encouraged the president to downplay the crisis to the public in its earlier days, rather than act. Last month, Vanity Fairs Gabriel Sherman reported that Kushner advised Trump to hold off on declaring a national emergency in early March for fear that it would tank the markets, according to one source. (A person close to Kushner denied this.) Last month, the New York Times reported that Kushner early on agreed with his father-in-law that the news media was hyping the coronavirus to attack the president, according to several officials. ([P]eople close to Kushner denied this.) Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Kushner had argued to the president that testing too many people, or ordering too many ventilators, would spook the markets and so we just shouldnt do it, according to a Trump confidant. Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, the stock market crashed anyway and the rapid spread of the disease forced state governments to order almost nationwide shelter-at-home measures. Had Trump and Kushner not spent all of February and much of March treating the pandemic like fake news from a hostile media, and instead ordered testing to learn the scope of the problem and earlier shelter-in-place measures to get ahead of the problem, tens of thousands of lives could have been saved. Advertisement Advertisement Last week, Columbia University researchers projected that if social distancing measures had begun one week earlier, 36,000 fewer people would have died, and had it begun two weeks earlier, 54,000 fewer people would have died. (The death toll in the United Stateswhich is almost certainly an undercountis around 100,000.) For perspective, the lives that were lost due to early inaction are more than 12 times the number of American combat deaths in the entirety of the Iraq war, 18 times the number of deaths that happened on 9/11, and 30 times the number of deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina. But at least the March stock market crash that eventually did come was slightly delayed. Advertisement Advertisement Kushner was eventually put in charge of key elements of the response, particularly surrounding the medical supply chain. Those efforts have proved mostly disastrous. Last month, Politico reported that Kushner had taken over the medical and testing supply chain apparatus from FEMA with the help of his former roommate and a suite of McKinsey consultants. One senior official described the team to the New York Times as a frat party that descended from a U.F.O. and invaded the federal government. Politico described a chaotic approach where one team often has little idea what others are doing and reported that Kushners working group duplicated existing federal teams. Kushner was responsible for Trumps major announcement in March that his government was developing a public national testing site database with Google, which turned out to be a complete lie. (The website was not Googles, but rather a project of a health care company founded by Kushners brother, and it only operated in four California counties and not nationwide.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As BuzzFeed reported earlier this month, this chaotic process has resulted in government contracts worth tens of millions of dollars going quickly to people with no experience who have been unable to deliver critical infrastructure. As the New York Times reported, Kushners team was told to prioritize tips from political allies and associates of President Trump, tracked on a spreadsheet called V.I.P. Update. The Times continued: Among them were leads from Republican members of Congress, the Trump youth activist Charlie Kirk and a former Apprentice contestant who serves as the campaign chair of Women for Trump. Few of the leads, V.I.P. or otherwise, panned out, according to a whistle-blower memo written by one volunteer and sent to the House Oversight Committee. Some associates of Mr. Trump sought special treatment from FEMA. In one case, Jeanine Pirro, the Trump stalwart and Fox host, repeatedly contacted task force members and FEMA officials until 100,000 masks were sent to a hospital she favored. Finally, Kushner was responsible for a plan to partner with national pharmacy and retail chains to set up nationwide drive-in testing. As my Slate colleague Julia Craven reported, months later many of those promised test sites still do not exist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In running his shadow coronavirus response team, Kushner has continued his longtime habit of skirting governmental ethics and transparency rules. Politico reported that team members conducted government business on unsecured personal cell phones and emails, while the Times reported that team members demonstrated a lax attitude to policy discussions, at one point using the website FreeConferenceCall.com to arrange high-level meetings. During a press conference last month, Kushner downplayed complaints from governors about federal supply chain woes, saying the notion of the federal stockpile was its supposed to be our stockpileits not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use. At the time Kushner made that statement, the Department of Health and Human Services officially described the stockpile as being for [w]hen state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts. Afterward, someone changed the departments description of the stockpile on the departments website so that it would more closely match Kushners description. Advertisement Kushner recently described the administrations response, which has led to joblessness on par with the Great Depression and numbers of deaths unrivaled in recent history, as a great success story. Prior to mangling the governments response to a once-in-a-century pandemic in a way that has cost tens of thousands of lives, Kushner was corrupting government in ways large and small. As a small example, taxpayers have had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for lodging and sometimes ski lift access for security details for his and Ivankas luxury trips to the Dominican Republic, Vermont, Canada, and Aspen. Advertisement Advertisement More dangerous is Kushners handling of his vague and unmonitored Middle East portfolio. As the New York Times reported in 2018, Kushner repeatedly dismissed State Department protocol around private communications in befriending Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After U.S. intelligence determined that MBS ordered the murder of dissident Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Kushner remained one of the kingdoms biggest boosters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In backing Khashoggis murderer, Kushner also turned away from another American ally, Qatar. Against the advice of the administrations own top State Department and national security officials, Kushner and Trump supported an unprecedented Saudi-led blockade of their Gulf State neighbor. Kushners support for the blockade came shortly after Qatar reportedly backed out of a deal to bail out the Kushner familys distressed investment in the Manhattan office building 666 Fifth Ave. that Jared had purchased for $1.8 billion in 2007, at the height of the real estate bubble. Kushners father continued to meet with the Qataris, though, and later that year, a Qatari-backed group gave the Kushners a $184 million loan to keep the property afloat. Less than a year later, a different Qatari-linked investment firm bailed out the Kushners right before large loan repayments were set to come due, signing a 99-year lease on the property for $1.1 billion. The blockade continued, but lo and behold, the official U.S. position on it shifted at around the time word of this deal was made public. In a carefully worded public statement, the Qataris denied any involvement in the 666 Fifth Avenue development by Brookfield Property Partners, even though the nation is the second-largest investor in the group and the deal was publicly reported months before it was formally announced. Advertisement Advertisement Kushner had to repeatedly revise his ethics disclosure forms over the course of his first two years on the job, because he had left out information about his investments and his contacts with Russian officials. That missing information included a 2016 meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. as part of a Russian offer to provide the Trump Campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia as part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump. Special counsel Robert Mueller, though, declined to charge Trump Jr. and Kushner for a possible campaign finance crime related to the 2016 meeting. Advertisement During the presidential transition after the 2016 election, according to Mueller, Kushner asked [the Russian ambassador] if they could communicate using secure facilities at the Russian Embassy. Advertisement Kushner has consistently used WhatsApp in his official communications in apparent violation of federal record-keeping laws. Perhaps because of concerns around his conflicts of interests, his inability to document those conflicts accurately, and his secrecy in violation of record-keeping laws, as described above, career officials refused to approve Kushners top-level security clearance for months. The offices director, Carl Kline, eventually intervened to give Kushner his clearance anyway, as part of an unprecedented spate of overrulings. (Multiple news outlets have reported that the president himself ordered Kushner be granted the security clearance, but Kline has reportedly testified privately before Congress that the White House had not approached him to adjudicate a single case.) Advertisement Advertisement How Long It Has Been Going On: Kushners work in his father-in-laws administration is his first foray into government. Because of his status as the scion of a New Jersey real estate fortune and husband of a minor celebrity, however, his incompetence and mismanagement in other areas of life have been highly visible for a while. Kushners father, Charleswhose own political influencehunting includes being a major patron of disgraced New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, and who went to prison for a sexual blackmail witness-tampering scheme against other members of his familyfamously gave Harvard a $2.5 million contribution shortly before his son applied and was accepted to the Ivy League school. There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard, a former official at Kushners high school told ProPublica. His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. Not long after graduating from Harvard, Kushner purchased beloved New York media institution the New York Observer. As former Slate and Observer writer Leon Neyfakh observed in 2016, Kushner destroyed that papers reputation. He also reportedly used his ownership perch to have stories about his friends removed from the papers website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kushners sins as a landlord are far worse than those as a newspaper owner. Last year, the Maryland attorney general sued the Kushner company for its management of a building where residents complained of extortionary fees, shoddy maintenance, and rodent infestations so severe that they have rodents living and dying in walls and kitchen appliances; damaging carpeting; chewing holes in drywall and screen doors; and leaving droppings on floors, counter tops, and furniture. Before Kushner left real estate to work on Trumps campaign and in his administration, his company reportedly used regular renovations in its buildings to force out tenants so that it could turn units into luxury apartments, filing false paperwork with New York City claiming that it had no rent-controlled tenants when in reality it had hundreds. Advertisement Last month, the Intercept reported that Kushner property companies were ignoring state moratoriums on evictions and filing lawsuits seeking to remove tenants in the middle of the pandemic. What Would Normally Happen: Presidents have given prominent portfolios to relatives before, but usually to those with more relevant background and experience. Politicians have also faced scandals surrounding mishandling of public records before, but usually with far greater consequences (such as politically debilitating FBI investigations). Whats unprecedented about Kushnerand Trump for that matteris the astounding number of conflicts of interests he has taken with him into public life and how it is basically impossible to tell where his private interests end and his government work begins. Similarly unprecedented are his difficulties getting security clearance and the lengths to which the administration reportedly went to overrule career officials to secure those clearances. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What Democrats Have Done: Last year, Axios reported that thenHouse Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters were discussing how to investigate Kushners conflicts with Qatar and the leasing of 666 Fifth Ave. Cummings also held hearings over Kushners security clearance, but the White House blocked a key witness from answering specific questions and refused to turn over key documents. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, who replaced Cummings as chair of that committee after he passed away last year, and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson have also sought documents from the administration surrounding Kushners shadow supply chain campaign. Advertisement But in the wake of the administrations unprecedented obstruction of House subpoenas during the Ukraine impeachment saga, these would-be House investigators have all but acknowledged they dont expect to hear anything back. Because Jared Kushner is not a Senate-confirmed appointee, the House cant impeach him. Conceivably, House Democrats could be doing more to subpoena the information they need to oversee the pandemic response and all of these other issues, but it would likely then get tied up in court possibly for months or years. What Is Likely to Be Done: I reached out on Thursday to ask the communications team on the Oversight and Financial Services committees whether the Kushner-Qatar property deal and security clearance issues would be further investigated. They hadnt responded as of Friday. The House game plan at this point appears to be to wait for the election and hope for the best, rather than even attempt oversight of this insanely corrupt family and administration. Well see how that goes. How Removable This Stuff Is: In a country governed by basic law and ethics, Jared Kushners job could not even exist. He is the living repudiation of the idea of democratic self-government. 10 out of 10. For more of Slates news and politics coverage, listen to What Next. The rooftop deck of the former Ford automobile factory in L.A.'s Arts District that Warner Music Group moved into last year. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Warner Music Group announced Tuesday that it is moving forward with its IPO, selling 13.7% of its common stock at $23 to $26 a share. The IPO price range values the L.A.-based company at as much as $13.3 billion, showing optimism in the music industry, which has transformed itself by embracing the streaming revolution. The company, which represents artists including Ed Sheeran and Cardi B, is planning to offer 70 million shares. A date has not yet been announced and Warner Music Group declined to comment. The IPO plan comes amid an uncertain time for the music industry, which has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many live events canceled or postponed. Concert promoter Live Nation recently implemented furloughs and Paradigm Talent Agency, which has a large presence in music representation, laid off 250 staffers in March. Endeavor, owner of talent agency business WME, pulled its IPO last year and has since made cost reductions affecting one-third of its staff. Nonetheless, like other record labels, Warner Music has benefited from a surge in music streaming that has revived the music industry. "People are listening to music more than ever before, that makes Warner and its peers so exciting," said Rich Greenfield, a partner at research firm LightShed Partners. "This is a great time to be in the music business." Companies have benefited from the growth of streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, as well as video apps such as TikTok, that have helped broaden the reach of the music industry. Billionaire Len Blavatnik bought Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion in 2011 and today it is the third-largest music company by market share. Warner Music Group has seen sales growth over its last three fiscal years. In its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2019, the company saw sales jump 12% to $4.5 billion in revenue, according to a regulatory filing. The company posted net income of $258 million that fiscal year. Aurora Expeditions is now facing a potential class action from the Australian passengers, while crew who claim they were unnecessarily infected are considering legal action against Miami-based crewing agency CMI/SunStone Ships. Redfern resident Antony Philip, who has joined the class action, does not believe the Greg Mortimer should have left port on March 15. He was among several passengers who questioned whether it would go ahead, but were assured it was safe. "We were all well aware that if we said 'no' to the trip, the money we had paid wasn't coming back," he said. From left: Antony Philip, Jan Richards and Pascal Le Vot in Patagonia the day before flying to Ushuaia, Argentina, to join the ill-fated Greg Mortimer cruise ship. Lucasz Zuterek, the ship's safety officer and third-in-command, was also dubious about whether the voyage was advisable. He had returned the night before from a month at sea and spent the night updating himself on the pandemic. As he briefed the new crew on safety procedures that morning he felt sick. "I looked at them and I couldn't find the breath," Mr Zuterek said. "I could hardly concentrate on how I was supposed to brief them when there was this other subject." P&O Cruises Australia, Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Seabourn had suspended their cruises two days earlier. On the same day that the Greg Mortimer sailed out of the Argentinian port of Ushuaia, Argentina announced it was closing its borders. Dr Mauricio Usme was responsible for treating coronavirus patients on the Greg Mortimer. Credit:Facebook "All the ships in the port are putting their passengers outside, disembarking, disembarking, disembarking," Dr Usme said. "Nobody brought on-board new passengers. Just our ship." As the Greg Mortimer steamed south, the company was already forced to start planning how to get passengers home. Within three days, passengers learned the trip would be cut short. Aurora managed to organise a charter flight, but no port in South America would accept the ship. Then on March 22, a female passenger in her 50s developed fever. This put Aurora's negotiations in a delicate position. The Australian government was working with Uruguay to put passengers on a flight out of Montevideo. But if coronavirus was believed to be on board, Dr Haifer later wrote to Dr Usme, there could be a public outcry and wharf workers might not allow the ship to berth. "Please bear in mind that how you write the health declaration will influence the way that this is viewed," Dr Haifer wrote on March 26. "We don't know we have COVID-19. We are taking precautions as if we do. Give limited information truthfully." Loading Dr Usme was already under pressure. An executive from the crewing agency had asked the captain to get Dr Usme to change the health declaration a day earlier. He refused to do it. "I am the only person on board who is medically responsible for any eventuality that happens," he replied to Dr Haifer. "As a doctor you can also sign this statement and send it on your own, or ask Dr Jeff [Dr Jeff Green, an expedition team medical specialist] to ... sign it. He works directly with Aurora. For my part, this statement will continue to reflect the reality we live in ... All of this started when the global recommendations to stop any flow of people between continents were not followed." Dr Haifer bought into Aurora Expeditions in 2008 when its founders, mountaineer Greg Mortimer and his wife Margaret, stepped back from the operation. The business, which is also part-owned by healthcare investors Michael Alscher and Neville Buch via a series of corporate structures, is slightly anomalous within Dr Haifer's portfolio of pharmaceutical, laboratory and clinical trial companies. But it has made a virtue of its approach to healthcare, with an Australian medical specialist joining expeditions. Loading It is on the surface a lucrative business. In 2017 it commissioned a purpose-built, ice class expedition ship with a patented hull design that would allow it to pierce tall waves on its polar expeditions: the Greg Mortimer, which launched last year. On March 27, Uruguay allowed the Greg Mortimer to anchor and on April 10 most passengers disembarked, but the crew remained aboard and the virus circulated, ultimately infecting 128 people among the 217 on-board. On April 17, engine room worker Ronnie Lorenzo died. An Aurora spokeswoman said the decision to sail on March 15 was made on the basis of the best information available at the time. "Aurora Expeditions was at all times transparent with information provided to government bodies, passengers and crew and factually briefed and sought assistance from health authorities, the governments and diplomatic embassies of many countries involved including the host country and those with passengers or crew on-board," she said. [May 26, 2020] Thingsfactory launches the TF-350 Portable and anonymous facial temperature detector MONTREAL, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To facilitate post-COVID-19 re-launch, Thingsfactory is launching the TF-350, the first fully portable facial temperature sensor suitable for both gatherings and individuals. Designed for real-time performance and long-term reliability, the TF-350 detects, analyzes and classifies the facial temperature of humans in crowded, queued or individual situations, without hesitation and with an accuracy of 5 hundredths of a degree. Its fast scanning and built-in artificial intelligence software that reduces temperature verification efforts by 95%, saving valuable time and increasing worker safety. Entirely developed in Montreal by an experienced team of specialists in Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies, the device is equipped with an ultra-sensitive thermal microcamera and a processor with a processing capacity of 32 TOPS. Our visualiztion and warning software HeatUp! is equipped with powerful artificial intelligence algorithms for visual recognition and temperature measurement. Its unique, portable and powerful design is simple to use and offers a user-friendly interface for the operator. Fully portable and rugged, the TF-350 comes in an ABS carrying case with accessories and cables and can be deployed by the operator in less than two minutes. It is an indispensable component for any post-COVID restart safety plan. The TF-350 can be deployed anywhere and is best suited for high traffic situations such as nursing homes, hospitals, schools, factories, public places, events, professional sports, construction sites, airports and retail stores. For privacy reasons, the TF-350 does not store any personal data and meets the highest computer security standards for a detection device. Currently in production, the TF-350 system will be available for pre-sale at http://www.thingsfactory.co/ from May 26, 2020, with deliveries to first-time buyers beginning in mid-June 2020. About Thingsfactory: Founded in 2017 and based in Montreal, Thingsfactory is an Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence product development company specializing in real-time monitoring of critical systems and prevention of material, financial and human losses. With more than 25 years of experience in product and software development, operations management and software development for large-scale international clients, Thingsfactory's founders and employees take pride in designing and building high-quality products that combine performance and security. Contact information Thingsfactory [email protected] www.thingsfactory.co [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Bengaluru, May 26 : Returnees from domestic travel to three Indian states led to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Karnataka in the past 19 hours with 100 new infections, raising the state's tally to 2,282, an official said on Tuesday. "New cases reported from Monday 5 p.m. to Tuesday noon, 100," said a health official. In the past 19 hours, 80 people who returned from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, 46 per cent or 46 cases had an inter-state travel history to Maharashtra, India's Covid hotspot. Similarly, 21 per cent or 21 cases had inter-state travel history to southern state Tamil Nadu, a bigger Covid sufferer than Karnataka. Likewise, 13 returnees from Jharkhand have also tested positive. Incidentally, four new cases also had international travel history to Qatar. Eighty four per cent of the new cases had a travel history, dwarfing the number of people contracting the disease through contacts. Unlike before, most positive cases in the state nowadays are people with a travel history to Maharashtra, India's Covid hotspot. In the past 19 hours, only 12 contracted the virus from earlier positive cases, constituting just 12 per cent of the new cases. A 47-year-old woman from Davangere is suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A 27-year-old man from Koppal is suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI). Similarly, another 55-year-old woman from Davangere is suffering from ILI. Among the new cases, 71 are men and 29 are female, including five cases below 10 years of age. Seventeen patients got discharged in the past 19 hours, 14 in Belagavi and one each in Kalaburagi, Uttara Kannada and Chikkaballapura. Bengaluru Urban has seen nine deaths, followed by Kalaburagi and Dakshina Kannada (7 each), Davangere and Vijayapura (4 each), and the remaining from other districts. Of the 2,182 cases till Monday, 8 per cent were senior citizens, and 61 per cent men and 39 per cent women. The state's patient discharge rate has fallen to 32 per cent. ATLANTA, GA The number of Georgians who've tested positive for the coronavirus continued to rise as the nation celebrates Memorial Day. The number of tests have risen as well, with more than half a million tests administered, more than 100,000 in the last week alone. Those test numbers come with a caveat, though: They still combine tests for antibodies and tests for the disease itself. The state's website promises to separate the two types of test "as soon as possible." Gov. Brian Kemp apologized on May 21 for counting both types of tests as proof that a person didn't have COVID-19. At 1 p.m. Monday, the Georgia Department of Public Health counted 43,344 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 1,830 deaths. More than 513,000 tests are reported to have been administered so far. Almost 7,500 Georgians have been hospitalized for COVID-19, with almost 1,700 of them admitted to an intensive-care unit for it. Counties in or near metro Atlanta continue to have the highest number of cases, with Fulton County in first place with 4,065 confirmed positives. DeKalb is second with 3,275, Gwinnett is third with 3,116, Cobb is fourth with 2,739 and Hall is fifth with 2,319. Todays statistics also identify 2,607 cases of COVID-19 as from unknown counties, with 2,000 cases counted as Non-Georgia. Get the latest updates on the new coronavirus in Georgia as they happen. Sign up for free news alerts and a newsletter in your Patch town. Fulton County reports the most deaths, with 196, followed by Cobb County, with 142. Dougherty County in southwest Georgia, site of the states earliest hotspot, has dropped to third with 139 deaths. Rounding out the top five counties are Gwinnett in fourth with 121 deaths and DeKalb in fifth with 102 deaths. While all 159 counties in Georgia have by now reported at least one case of COVID-19, about 39 percent of them all rural have reported no more than one death. Thirty-one counties again, all rural have reported no deaths at all. This article originally appeared on the Across Georgia Patch Photo: iStock You can leave your umbrella at home through Thursday, but light rainfall is in the forecast for Boston later in the week, according to the seven-day forecast from drone-powered weather service Saildrone. Saturday's forecast shows the highest chance of rain at 75% with expected rainfall of 0.66 inches. The coming days will also bring warm temperatures, forecast to persist through Friday. Temperatures will turn cooler from Saturday to Monday, reaching just 66 degrees on Monday. Skies will be cloudy for the next few days and partly cloudy on Monday. Winds should reach a modest high of 16 mph on Friday, with daily top speeds over 10 mph for the remainder of the week. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback. China has shut down a popular social media account with millions of followers for spreading fake news and conspiracy theories. One of the outlet's most-read article accused the US of turning deceased COVID-19 patients' bodies into hamburger patties. The online outlet, Zhi Dao Xue Gong, translated as 'Scholar Palace for Ultimate Truth', amassed nearly two million views in April alone on popular Chinese social media platform WeChat, before being censored on Sunday. The online outlet, Zhi Dao Xue Gong, translated as 'Scholar Palace for Ultimate Truth', amassed nearly two million views in April on popular Chinese social media platform WeChat, before being censored on Sunday. The file picture shows an icon of the Chinese app, WeChat The US has recorded a total of 99,462 deaths caused by the killer bug as of Tuesday. Pictured, a patient is taken from an ambulance to the emergency room of a hospital in Arizona on May 24 China has shut down a popular social media account with millions of followers, 'Zhi Dao Xue Gong', for spreading fake news and conspiracy theories including accusing US of turning deceased COVID-19 patients' bodies into meat patties for hamburgers and hot dogs The influential account was embroiled in controversy after publishing an article earlier this month, claiming that the coronavirus had already killed millions of Americans whose corpses were processed into cooked meat. It comes after Beijing has deleted more than 6,000 articles and closed over 18,500 accounts since March as part of a nation-wide crackdown on Chinese online outlets to curb what it calls 'fake news' amid the coronavirus pandemic. 'Zhi Dao Xue Gong' started publishing online articles on WeChat in 2015 with an estimated total of one million active followers. In April alone, the online outlet attracted an average of 1.7 million views per post, according to media reports. In a recent article titled 'Nearly Dead: The Sinking of the US', the WeChat account declared that millions of Americans had already been killed by the deadly disease -tens of thousands higher than the recorded toll without providing any evidence. The US has recorded a total of 99,462 deaths caused by the killer bug as of Tuesday. The post also claimed that the dead bodies of coronavirus patients 'were very likely of being processed into frozen meat, fake beef or pork, or cooked meat, for hamburgers and hot dogs.' It wrote: 'Nowadays, a lot of US factories have gone bankrupt. Eating human meat not only can solve the economic problem and shortage of food, but also the problem of dealing with dead bodies. Two birds, one stone.' One of the outlet's most-read article accused the US of turning deceased COVID-19 patients' bodies into hamburger patties. The screenshot shows the WeChat page before being censored In a recent article titled 'Nearly Dead: The Sinking of the US', the WeChat account declared that more than one million Americans had already been killed by the deadly disease -tens of thousands higher than the recorded toll without providing any evidence. People wearing face masks are seen walking on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, New Jersey on May 24 In another article, the account accused China's top coronavirus expert, Zhong Nanshan, of being a member of a 'international poison enterprise'. A man wearing a face mask is pictured reading from his mobile phone as he walks past a poster of Huawei P40 in Beijing on May 1 In another article, the account accused China's top coronavirus expert, Zhong Nanshan, of being a member of a 'international poison enterprise'. It also slammed medical journals including The Lancet and Nature as 'spies', Chinese media report. The social media account has been shut down on Sunday for 'fabricating facts, stoking xenophobia and misleading the public,' a WeChat spokesperson told The Paper. Another seven accounts associated with 'Zhi Dao Xue Gong' have also been closed. The news came after China launched a crackdown on its online outlets to curb what it calls 'fake news' amid the coronavirus pandemic. Officials deleted more than 6,000 articles and closed over 18,500 accounts since March, the country's internet watchdog said in April. Multiple accounts had promoted false information about the outbreak, causing negative social impact, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) accused. The news came after China launched a crackdown on its online outlets to curb what it calls 'fake news' amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese President Xi Jinping is pictured attending the opening of the National People's Congress at The Great Hall Of The People on May 22 The clampdown was carried out by regional cyberspace authorities, such as the ones in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. The picture taken on February 24 shows a Chinese man wearing a face mask checking his mobile phone while riding a subway in Beijing city The web authority claimed that some accounts had caused social unrest with 'fabricated hot topics' and 'sensational headlines' while others were said to have 'maliciously tampered with the history of the party and the country'. Certain authors also posed as authorities to mislead the public, slandered and smeared heroes and martyrs, and promoted sexual content, the CAC slammed. The clampdown was carried out by regional cyberspace authorities, such as the ones in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. Major Chinese internet companies, including Tencent, NetEase and Sina, also conducted 'self-rectification'. As coronavirus cases continue to rise in Delhi at alarming rate, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government is ready to deal with the situation if there is a spike in number of covid infections. ANI The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital stood at 13,418. Over 500 people tested positive in last 24 hours. The number of coronavirus cases in Delhi was on rise due to the relaxations in the nationwide lockdown, the chief minister added. He urged the citizens not to panic as the number of deaths was relatively low in the state. "Coronavirus is here to stay. As long as people are getting treated, there is no need to worry," Kejriwal added. Addressing an online media briefing, he said that around 3,500 COVID-19 cases were reported since the fourth-phase of the lockdown began. PTI The centre imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and it entered its fourth phase on May 18. "Government and private hospitals in Delhi have 4,500 beds for COVID-19 patients and out of these, only 2,000 are occupied," Kejriwal said. He said 2,000 new beds will be available in private hospitals from Monday for novel coronavirus patients. Most of the coronavirus patients in Delhi are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, the chief minister said. For those patients, the state government advised self-isolation at their residences. Over 3,000 active cases are currently being treated at home, he added. PTI Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday had said the Delhi government has directed private hospitals and nursing homes with a capacity of 50 beds or more to reserve 20 percent of their total bed strength for coronavirus patients. The chief minister said 3,314 coronavirus patients are getting treatment at their house while 2,000 are admitted at hospitals. Amid hectic political developments in Maharashtra involving multiple camps, the BJP on Tuesday vehemently denied the claim that it was out to topple the six-month-old Maha Vikas Aghadi government, led by Uddhav Thackeray. However, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said that the MVA government will "collapse on its own" because of "internal contradictions" between Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress. "We do not want to topple the government.... hamara kaam bhagana nahi hai, jagana hai," Fadnavis said. He said that the MVA partners are engaging in "cover firing" to hide its failure in handling the COVID-19 situation by spreading rumours like - BJP was trying to topple the government and that the Centre wants to impose President's Rule in the state. Fadnavis, a former state two-time Chief Minister, however, said that what the state needs at this stage is "assertive leadership". Fadnavis's statement comes barely after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar's meeting with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and back-to-back meetings with Thackeray coupled with a statement of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. "I would like to make a differentiation here. We are supporting the government in Maharashtra, but we are not the key decision-maker in Maharashtra. We are decision-makers in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Puducherry. There is a difference between running the government and supporting it," Gandhi had said in New Delhi, during his online media conference. Reacting to this, Fadnavis said that Congress has clearly shirked away from the responsibility. "It seems they (Congress and NCP) are trying to put everything in the Shiv Sena and CM....Congress is not just supporting the government but they are part of the government... these are two different things," he said. State Congress President and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the BJP is leaving no stones unturned to get the MVA out of power but the government is intact. "There is nothing to worry about....they (BJP) are greedy for power," he added. NCP chief spokesperson and state Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said that the government is united and stable. "BJP is spreading the rumours with a vested interest," he added. Meanwhile, close Thackeray aide and Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said that Opposition should get "quarantined" but he did not name any leader. "If you go by Gujarat High Court strictures against the government, they are worst positioned...Maharashtra is doing everything possible to tackle the crisis," he said. Asked about the statements of MVA leaders, Fadnavis said that they are playing the role of "constructive opposition". On charges that BJP was rushing to Governor every now and then, he said: "The government works under the name of Governor... the Cabinet and Chief Minister plays an advisory role...those who have read Constitution will know about it...it's my duty and my right to approach Governor's office." On the other side, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who is the chief architect of the MVA government, said that Uddhav Thackeray-led government is safe. "Devendra Fadnavis is getting impatient," he said. "There is no threat to the Maharashtra government. All MLAs are with us, any attempt to break them at this time will result in public beating us," he told a TV channel. A local Malaga investment company has won the contract for the construction of a planetarium on the outskirts of the city, next to the Campamento Benitez nature area, beside Plaza Mayor. The winning bid was presented by engineering firm Gestomer, together with renowned local astronomer Alberto Castro-Tirado and the multinational Sky Skan, which specialises in the construction of planetariums. Their project, which obtained a higher technical and viability score than that of Jaen firm AstroAndalus, also offered a higher annual fee for the use of the land - 115,000 euros. The team of businessmen who won the contract have assured SUR that the difficulties posed by the pandemic will have no bearing on their ability to carry out the project. Once built, it will be the largest planetarium in the country, as the tender specifications required its dome to have an interior diameter of over 20 metres, which is the size of Pamplona's planetarium, the largest in Spain at present. Students of Presidency University on Tuesday pledged to stand by the cyclone-ravaged booksellers of College Street -- the citys one-stop destination for bibliophiles -- and help them get back on their feet. The students council of the varsity has joined hands with the institutes publication society to reconstruct the boi para (book mart) by raising funds for the cause. College Street, a 2-km stretch in central Kolkata, houses hundreds of book stalls. Cyclone Amphan, which tore through Bengal on May 20, flattened many such stalls, with books left floating in the waterlogged lane -- the images of which have gone viral on social media. We were moved to tears after seeing images of books floating on the flooded street, as the stall owners watched helplessly. Nothing could be damaging than a calamity striking in the midst of a lockdown. After deliberations, the members of the council decided to approach classmates and other well- wishers for monetary help. The universitys publication society also came on board, one of the students said. The apex body of publishers and booksellers in the state has said that the losses incurred by the booksellers due to Amphan could run into crores. It has decided to request the state and central governments and different consulates in the city to come to the aid of the booksellers. We have named the initiative Boi Parar Pase Presidency- Pase thakun apnio (Presidency stands by the book hub of College Street -- Need your support, too). College Street has always been the first choice of students when it came to book-hunting. So many of us have borrowed reference books from these stall owners by paying a nominal amount when we ran out of money. Its time to do our bit, another student said. It was chilly that night when Lindy Sue Biechler parked her car outside her apartment complex on Kloss Drive. The pretty 19-year-old newlywed had been grocery shopping. Around 7 p.m. on that evening Dec. 5, 1975 a neighbor saw her start taking the bags into her home. LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, LEAP Group announced the addition of Matter Creative Group, an award-winning, full-service design and branding agency. They bring a depth of capability to the LEAP Group network that further augments LEAP Group's value proposition in the marketplace. The two companies signed a letter of intent to join forces in late 2019 and it became official May 1. All employees of Matter Creative Group have been retained and LEAP Group is currently looking to add additional employees across the network. LEAP Group Matter Creative Group will join LEAP Amp, LEAP Frame, LEAP Spark and LEAP Agency as full-service agencies under the LEAP Group parent company. Matter Creative Group has been rebranded to fit within the overall LEAP Group family of brands and will adopt the name LEAP Matter. "Even in the midst of this pandemic, we're still seeing a lot of positive movement with businesses and many needs arising from a branding, marketing and advertising perspective. Since joining forces with LEAP Group, we've been able to land several new accounts, expand services with existing clients and have become even more competitive in the marketplace." Joel Warneke, President LEAP Matter LEAP Group, an independent network of agencies, was purposely built to address the ever-complex demands on today's marketers. The network is comprised of different agencies each with a deep bench of subject matter experts who provide valuable insights and draw on rich experiences. "LEAP Group has solved the 'jack of all trades, master of none' challenge by having dedicated agencies focused on specific marketing disciplines and advertising services. Today's business landscape has shifted dramatically, leaving many advertising agencies scrambling to stay relevant. This powerful combination of broad perspectives and focused expertise provides clients higher quality thinking and consistently better solutions." Daniel Knapp, CEO LEAP Group As more brands move toward needing customized, full-service solutionsbeyond project workthe addition of Matter Creative Group supports LEAP Group's continued mission of providing scalable capabilities for diverse brands. Matter Creative Group was founded in 1999 by Joel Warneke and Greg Fehrenbach. With offices in Austin and Cincinnati, Matter blends strategy with creativity and has made itself an invaluable branding resource to companies such as Cintas, Mentos, Eureka Camping, Eotech, Petmate, Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. and many others. Warneke and Fehrenbach will continue to lead the agency as President/Austin and President/Cincinnati respectively. LEAP Group is an independent network of wholly-owned agencies. At LEAP Group, we share a common culture, POV and values that make it easy for us to work together and create great work for our clients. Through an integrated approach of human understanding, communication and technology, we create authentic experiences. LEAP Group's consumer-centric, data-driven approach creates a seamless journey for customers across all digital, physical and virtual touch points. Our "Market Less. Matter More." point of view means we partner with brands to guide an informed strategy that truly makes them matter more to their audiences. LEAP Matter will be joining LEAP Group's network which includes: LEAP Amp, a full-service media and amplification agency; LEAP Spark, a full-service agency focused on project-based work; LEAP Frame, a full-service content production agency; and LEAP Agency, a full-service digital agency. Contact Information: Daniel Knapp CEO, LEAP Group [email protected] Related Images image1.png image2.png image3.png SOURCE LEAP Group Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Tuesday regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and its likely health and economic impacts in the countries. While the Austrian president took note of the damage caused by Cyclone Amphan during a telephonic conversation with PM Modi, the leaders also expressed their desires to strengthen the relations between the two countries. READ: PM Modi Dials Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina; Discusses Cyclone Amphan And COVID Crisis 'Agreed on potential to expand India-Austria cooperation' Had a good discussion with President @vanderbellen about the measures adopted by India and Austria to respond to COVID-19. We agreed on the potential to expand India-Austia cooperation in many areas, as both our countries prepare for the post-COVID world. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2020 According to an official statement, "The Austrian President condoled the damage caused in India by Cyclone Amphan. The leaders exchanged views on measures taken in their countries to manage the adverse health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. They agreed on the importance of international collaboration to deal with the present challenges." "Both the leaders reiterated their shared desire to further strengthen and diversify India-Austria relations in the post-Covid world. The Prime Minister highlighted the opportunities for enhanced cooperation in sectors like infrastructure, technology, research and innovation, SMEs, etc," the statement said. The leaders shared the hope that the world would overcome the current health crisis soon, "so as to be able to focus on longer-term concerns like the health of the environment". READ: PM Modi Congratulates Pravind Jugnauth For Successfully Controlling COVID-19 In Mauritius On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Emir of the state of Qatar and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and conveyed his greetings on Eid-ul-Fitr. Conveyed Eid greetings to President @AlsisiOfficial and to the people of Egypt. Also thanked him for the support extended to Indian citizens in Egypt. India-Egypt relations will continue to grow and prosper. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2020 Conveyed warm greetings for Eid to His Highness @TamimBinHamad and the people of Qatar. Appreciated His Highness's personal attention to the welfare of Indians in Qatar, including for their return to India under Vande Bharat Mission. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2020 Earlier on Monday, he had also called up Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to wish them on the occasion of Eid. He discussed the impact of cyclone Amphan and the COVID-19 situation with his Bangladeshi counterpart, and extended India's support to the neighbouring country during these trying times READ: Def Min Rajnath Singh Chairs Meet To Review Situation Along LAC Amid Standoff With China READ: PM Modi, Rajapaksa Agree To Accelerate Indian-assisted Development Projects In Sri Lanka Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. TV journalist Maria Menounos shared a pinup photo for her nearly 1M Instagram followers on Monday. The 41-year-old brunette beauty - who has recovered from brain surgery in 2017 - looked youthful in a frilly white swimsuit as she held on to a pink smoothie. The former Extra host was in the swimming pool at the backyard of her Los Angeles home. In her prime: TV journalist Maria Menounos shared a pinup photo for her nearly 1M Instagram followers on Monday. The 41-year-old brunette beauty looked youthful in a frilly white swimsuit as she held on to a pink smoothie The skimpy suit looked more like lingerie with a lace top. The diva wore her highlighted hair down and she had on minimal makeup as she put her toes in the Spanish tiled pool with brick accents and amazing mini waterfalls on the edge. Maria said in her caption, 'Hi there.' Maria has been quarantining at home with her Greek-born parents Costas and Litsa Menounos. Cabo gal: Maria also shared this flashback photo from the beach in Mexico Life is good for MM! The siren is seen here in another flashback picture It's essential that the family observe the coronavirus quarantine, because her mother Litsa already suffers from a compromised immune system. Maria revealed the detail in October, when she announced that her mother's brain cancer had reappeared on her Better Together podcast Litsa was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive malignant tumor, and her daughter had her own cancer scare after a benign tumor was discovered in her brain. Safer at home: Maria has been quarantining at home with her parents Costas and Litsa Menounos, who immigrated to the United States from Greece prior to her birth Health scare: It's essential that the family observe the coronavirus quarantine, because her Litsa already suffers from a compromised immune system after suffering from brain cancer Luckily, she seems to be doing fine after enduring a seven-hour surgery on her 39th birthday to remove the mass. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Maria has transitioned her podcast into a supply of information for those struggling to stay afloat in the current crisis. Monday's episode featured an interview with #GIRLBOSS author and founder Sophia Amoruso on how small business can get funds recently allocated by congress, while an earlier show featured tips for parents having to homeschool their young children while schools are closed. An ambulance took at least an hour to arrive to a life-threatening emergency call more than 260 times in the first three months of this year. More than 30 were due to the patients being suspected Covid-19 cases. The details have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. Between January and March, the National Ambulance Service got 21,510 life-threatening emergency calls. On 263 occasions, it took more than one hour for an ambulance to arrive at the scene with 62 of the calls being in Cork. 32 of the delays were down to the patient being a suspected Covid-19 case, meaning paramedics had to take precautions, such as wear personal protective equipment. Of all the life-threatening emergency calls, eight had response times of over two hours - in Kildare, Cork, Monaghan, Wicklow, Waterford and Dublin. The longest was two hours and 53 minutes to an incident in Cork. Leitrim GP Sean Bourke says long delays are common at his surgery in Ballinamore. We had a fractured hip last year and it took two and a half hours to get the ambulance, he said. We never would get an ambulance in less than an hour. Possibly, occasionally you will but most of the time its an hour and a half. They could come from anywhere. They can come from Letterkenny, they can come from Longford, Roscommon. So theres no back up at all. The National Ambulance Service says the calls of over an hour represent only 1 per cent of life-threatening emergencies during the three-month period. In a first, an Indian Army officer and woman peacekeeper Major Suman Gawani has been selected to be honoured with the United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award (2019) on May 29. Gawani, who has served with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is being awarded for her outstanding contribution for peacekeeping efforts. Speaking to the news agency, ANI, Major Gawani said, "I was supposed to go to New York at the United Nations headquarters for this award, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I will be honoured in an online ceremony on May 29. I am the first Indian to get this award." The award which was created in 2016, honours the dedication and effort of individual military peacekeepers in promoting the UN principles on Women, Peace and Security in peace operations as nominated by Heads and Force Commanders of peace operations. Read: Pakistan Army chief raises Kashmir rhetoric again, touts 'military might' Meanwhile, along with her, Brazilian Naval Officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo will receive the award by United Nations Secretary-General Guterres during the ceremony. Read: Indian Army Recruitment 2020: Check Out The Last Date For Rally Jobs About Major Suman Gawani Indian Major Suman Gawani who hails from Pokhar village in Tehri Garwhal joined the Indian Army in 2011 where she graduated from the Officers Training Academy. Later, she joined the Army Signal Corps. Currently, she is posted in Delhi. Read: Indian Army increases troops along LAC in Ladakh in response to China's heavy deployment Read: Review illegal mining cases at district level: MP minister (With ANI Inputs) Image Source: ANI As the COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed healthcare systems across the country, doctors have postponed surgery and other treatments for thousands of patients with cancer. These delays may last for months, especially for those with early stage and less aggressive disease. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a good way for doctors to compare the long-term risk to a patient from a months-long postponement of care to the additional risk posed by potential COVID-19 infection if they undergo surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation. So, a team of data scientists and cancer doctors from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and the U-M School of Public Health developed a free, web-based application to do just that. The OncCOVID app draws on large, national cancer data sets to help assess the risk from of immediate treatment versus delayed treatment, depending on a patient's individual characteristics, as well as on COVID's impact on their local community. For many types of cancer, the data show delays in treatment lead to worse outcomes for patients. But each time a cancer patient goes to the hospital to receive care, they're also putting themselves at higher risk of contracting COVID-19. So, it's essential to balance the need for treatment for this very serious disease and the extra risk that COVID-19 poses for cancer patients, whose immune systems are often compromised." Holly Hartman, project's lead researcher, doctoral student in biostatistics at U-M The researchers envision OncCOVID being used by doctors to help identify patients whose risk from COVID is outweighed by the benefits of immediate treatment. "We also see the app providing additional reassurance to oncologists and their patients when the data show that delaying treatment will likely have little or no impact on a patient's long-term outcome," Hartman adds. Meanwhile, OncCOVID could also be used by health care systems that are ramping services back up and need to prioritize a backlog of patients whose treatment was put on hold due to the pandemic, adds Daniel Spratt, M.D., an associate professor of radiation oncology at Michigan Medicine and one of the senior researchers on the project. "Hospitals have basically been using a three-tiered system during COVID: treat, delay a little, or delay a lot," Spratt says. "Unfortunately, this tiered system is an extremely blunt instrument. Our goal was to create a resource that could be tailored both to the individual patient and to their local community." The app allows doctors to enter more than 45 characteristics about a patient -; including their age, location, cancer type and stage, treatment plan, underlying medical conditions, and the proposed length of a delay in care. It then calculates the patient's likely five-year survival following immediate treatment and delayed treatment. Under the hood, the app draws on millions of records contained in the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry and the National Cancer Database, combined with county-level COVID infection data from Johns Hopkins University. In some cases, the personalized risk assessments run counter to the generic, three-tiered approach. For example, Spratt says, the team's model shows that an otherwise healthy 45-year-old woman from Ann Arbor, Mich. with stage 1 breast cancer actually has a slightly higher risk of dying over the next five years if treatment is delayed by more than three months than if she's treated immediately. "Under the three-tiered model, care for this patient wouldn't be considered life-threatening and it's likely her care may be delayed for months under most of the published tier-based systems," he notes. Conversely, under the team's data model, a 70-year-old woman from New York City -; where COVID infections have been high -; with stage 1 breast cancer and several underlying health conditions would be put at significantly more risk by undergoing immediate treatment than the risk posed by a three-month delay. For the data savvy, advanced features allow all of the app's underlying statistical assumptions to be adjusted -; such as the baseline mortality risk from COVID and the disease's infection rate. In the future, the researchers plan to use the same data model to start looking at the effects that treatment delays due to the coronavirus pandemic may have on cancer mortality nationally, Hartman adds. The OncCOVID app is not intended to provide medical advice to patients, the researchers caution. A number of factors may figure into a care provider's recommendation to delay or proceed with cancer treatment, including their local hospital's capacity to safely treat cancer patients during the pandemic. Chennai, May 26 : The Central government on Monday has reduced the annual fishing ban days to 47 from the earlier 61 days, said a top official of the National Fisherfolk Forum (NFF). In a statement issued, M. Ilango, Chairperson, NFF said: "Accepting the demands of various coastal state Fisheries Department and the National Fisher Organisations, including National Fisherfolk Forum, the Govt. of India Ministry of Fisheries today issued an order reducing the 61 days annual fishing ban to 47 days." As per the revised order issued by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, the fishing ban on the East Coast will from April 15 to May 31 (both days inclusive 47 days) and on the West Coast from June 15 to July 31 (both days inclusive 47 days). The amendment in the period of uniform fishing ban is applicable only for the current year and would not set any precedent for future. In a staggering claim, Anas Mamdouh has said that he wants to take up a career in Bollywood, alongside his company 'Salesforce'. The Actor Said that he won't shy away from taking the risk of going for a career in Bollywood. Anas who is a well known Business personality in Egypt started his career as the Director of Digital Marketing of various companies in Egypt. Anas is a well known actor in Egypt and he also seek to be a part of Bollywood now. The Bollywood film industry has long been plagued by overt stereotyping and lack of balanced representation of Arabs and Muslims. Speaking to the media, Anas expressed his excitement about performing with Indian Artists and talked about his efforts to portray his best in Acting in the best way. "I am prepared and excited for this I just felt I wanted to do it from the start. I felt like I wanted to have the whole experience as an Actor in Bollywood," he told to the News Track Team . Mamdouh who is also a fan of Veteran Actor 'Omar Sharif' When asked about the late Omar Sharif, said he had befriended the legendary Egyptian actor prior to his death and the latter offered him some guidance. "I told him I wanted to do characters away from stereotypes. He told me what I should do and what I shouldn't do from his own experience," said Anas, adding that he hopes to build bridges between Bollywood and the Middle East". The 24-year-old graduated from high school in Cairo. After becoming a businessman, he pursued his passion for acting and partook in several Egyptian films and TV series. Apart from local productions, Anas has performed in several Egyptian and European films. He has thus earned numerous regional and international awards, including the Best Actor awards from the Monaco International Film Festival and the Arab Film Festival in California. Also Read: Chandan Bakshi to start his acting innings with Vellapanti Google deleted 50 million reviews of TikTok! Vivo Y70s smartphone launched with strong features Cheetah Camp is home to nearly 15,000 dwelling units spread across one kilometer-square in Mumbais M-East ward that was once ranked the lowest among all city wards in the Mumbai Human Development Report brought out by the United Nations Development Programme. A decade later, the ward spread across Govandi, Shivaji Nagar and Mankhurd is still majorly populated by slums, and is witness to some of the highest incidences of coronavirus infection. While things may not have changed in terms of the human development indices, Cheetah Camps residents know how to bail each other out in tough times. In the past two months of the national lockdown, as employment opportunities have dried up for the slums migrant worker and labourer residents, 35-year-old autorickshaw driver Salim Shaikh set up a community kitchen that prepared meals for at least 250 to 300 residents every day. Putting together the kitchen was the least of the problems, he said. We got funds from some people, some gave us ration and we got utensils from those in the catering business to set up this kitchen, he said. The trouble was that Shaikh had never tried his hand at cooking before. The lockdown made him into one: he learnt to cut vegetables and plan meals and assist his friend Abdullah, who would do the most of the cooking. Another friend Shakir Shaikh, who owns a small shop in the area, would also offer help. Set up in the chota maidan of sector D a small field in the Camp where tents would come up during weddings or festivals the kitchen begins operations at 2 pm. At least 20 residents of the Camp are involved: some like Shaikh chop vegetables; others sift out the ration available for that day; still others plan the meal. By 5.30 pm, the stoves are fired up, and everything from pulao to khichdi to egg curry is prepared. By 8 pm, the food is ready for packaging in plastic bags, which are then distributed among the residents by volunteers. During the month of Ramzan, which culminated Monday with the festival of Eid, special treats like ragda and bhajiyaas were prepared for iftaar. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has also supplied at least 300 food packets daily since March. As a result, Shaikh decided to keep the kitchen for evening meals. He has been an auto-driver for six years and lives in Cheetah Camp named, according to historian Deepak Rao, after the Indian naval ship Cheetah, in the 1960s lives with his wife, parents, grand-parents and sister in the Camp. People dont know how long the lockdown will continue. They have suffered losses in their businesses also, Shaikh said. An area in the camp where most migrant workers used to live is almost empty now. Many have left and most are planning to leave, Shaikh said. Several migrant workers from Mumbai have left for their villages in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, even as the number of cases in the city has crossed 30,000. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tanushree Venkatraman Tanushree Venkatraman is a Multimedia Correspondent covering civic issues and governance in Mumbai. ...view detail The latest: President Donald Trump said he could override governors who decline to reopen houses of worship in their states in many different ways, but did not cite what authority he had to so. I can absolutely do it if I want to and I dont think Im going to have to because its starting to open up, Trump said Tuesday during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. We need people that are going to be leading us in faith. And were opening em up, and if I have to, I will override any governor that wants to play games. If they want to play games, thats okay, but we will win, and we have many different ways where I can override them, he continued. The president also added that "there may be some areas where the pastor or whoever may feel that its not quite ready and thats okay, but let that be the choice of the congregation and the pastor. Last week, Trump announced new federal, voluntary guidance for places of worship to open their doors amid the coronavirus pandemic. He also said then he had the authority to override governors who did not allow their states to comply with the guidance. Masks to be required 'where people can congregate in groups' in Virginia Virginia's governor has announced that face masks will be required in public for those age 10 and older beginning Friday, covering stores, restaurants, public transportation, government buildings or "anywhere where people can congregate in groups." There are exceptions for people exercising, those eating or drinking at a restaurant and others with health conditions that prohibit them from wearing one. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said the masks are about protecting people around us, and he strongly recommended any child age 3 and older to wear one to the extent possible. The masks don't have to be medical grade those are needed for medical providers, he said. He pointed to how they can be made from cloth and rubber bands or bandannas can be used. Health officials recommend self-quarantine for people who crowded Missouri Ozarks Health officials from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, as well as St. Louis and Kansas City officials, are recommending that people who crowded Land of the Ozarks over the holiday weekend do a voluntary 14-day self-quarantine. A video circulated that showed people not adhering to social distancing or wearing masks. The reckless behavior displayed during this weekend risks setting our community back substantially for the progress weve already made in slowing the spread of COVID-19, said Dr. Lee Norman, secretary with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. St. Louis officials also issued a travel advisory for those going to the Ozarks area. Cases are rising in more than a dozen states Packing beaches, pool parties and outdoor gatherings all over the U.S., many Americans used the holiday weekend to mark the unofficial beginning of summer ditching the face masks and social distancing urged by health officials. Many people, undoubtedly, continued to abide by new restrictions set in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus staying in small groups, wearing masks and keeping a distance from others. But in some parts of the country, Memorial Day happenings looked not at all unlike any other year. People jammed into tight spaces, grabbed drinks in groups at oceanfront bars and lined their chairs and towels alongside each other on the beach. The holiday weekend push for a return to normal life comes as health officials continue to warn that the U.S. has not contained the virus. In 10 states, the number of new cases is on the decline, while it seems to be steady in 22 states, according to the data. But in 18 states including Georgia, Arkansas, California and Alabama the number of new cases is rising. That didn't appear to be a concern for some of the thousands of beachgoers who spent the weekend in Gulf Shores, Alabama. "My family has the same mindset as me and we kind of just agreed that if we get it, we get it. We're going to handle it as a family and get over it," one beachgoer told CNN's Gary Tuchman. Related video: Hundreds spend Memorial Day at Alabama beach Second peak is possible, officials say In Arkansas, where health officials reported a pool party last week resulted in a cluster of new cases, the governor said the state was experiencing a second peak. Despite the warning, crowds gathered over the weekend in Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, where Karen Lee told CNN affiliate KARK there were many people going without masks. "We're all just embracing it," Lee told the news station. "I could get killed by COVID today or I could get hit by a bus or a car tomorrow. I am practicing proper hand washing and hygiene." Related video: Arkansas State Parks prepare for Memorial Day Officials with the World Health Organization said this week a second peak during this first wave of the virus is possible especially if countries discontinue public health and social measures that help slow the virus' spread. The second wave of the pandemic would likely not hit before the fall, but a second peak in this first wave could be much sooner, officials said. "We need to be also cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now that it's going to keep going down and that we're going to get a number of months to get ready for a second wave we may get a second peak in this wave," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said Monday. Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO infectious disease epidemiologist, said "all countries need to remain on high alert" and be able to "rapidly detect cases." "A hallmark of coronaviruses is its ability to amplify in certain settings, its ability to cause transmission or super spreading events. And we are seeing in a number of situations in these closed settings. When the virus has an opportunity, it can transmit readily," Van Kerkhove said. More than half of states investigating coronavirus-related illness Meanwhile, officials in at least 26 states are also investigating hundreds of cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a condition doctors believe is linked to coronavirus. Those states include California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. A CNN survey of health departments across the country identified more than 350 confirmed and potential cases of the syndrome nearly half of which are in New York. Last week, doctors said children who may have the syndrome need immediate attention and will probably need to be hospitalized immediately. Symptoms do not look like the classic symptoms of coronavirus and may mostly include stomach pain and vomiting, along with fever and perhaps a rash, the experts told other doctors during a meeting last week organized by the CDC. The syndrome appears to develop two to six weeks after infection with coronavirus and affects mostly children who were perfectly healthy beforehand. Buenas Noticias! 500 000 kits de pruebas rapidas son donadas para la lucha contra el #COVID19. Esta importante contribucion fue realizada por la @snmpeperu y fue entregada al ministro @victorzamora y el viceministro de Gobernanza Territorial de la @pcmperu, Raul Molina. pic.twitter.com/Hl0zsL23bZ Thiruvananthapuram, May 26 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday sparked off a row as he announced that with the number of Covid-19 cases witnessing an upswing with arrival of Keralaites from abroad, they will now have to pay for the quarantine. "The rates will be affordable to all," Vijayan said this new paid quarantine would begin from Wednesday. According to the quarantine rules, all those who return from abroad have to go for institutional quarantine for a week and then remain at their home for another week. Expressing his strong resentment was senior Lok Sabha member and RSP leader N.K. Premachandran, who said that no one must forget what the state government had told the Kerala High Court that adequate rooms are ready to keep the returning diaspora in quarantine, once they come back. "The government said they have identified 2.35 lakhs beds of which 1.53 lakhs beds are already ready to accommodate the returnees. They also pointed out that 9,000 rooms are ready for those willing to pay at private hotels. So today Vijayan has done a somersault on this, as just 11,000 people have arrived and things have gone haywire and are asking the diaspora to pay," said Premachandran. But putting a brave face was the lone CPI-M Lok Sabha member from the state, A.M. Ariff who said that he was always worried on how a small state like Kerala with limited resources can provide free quarantine accomodation. "Kerala is a fund-starved state and all know that the finances are also poor. I on several occasions was wondering if it would be possible to provide free quarantine for all the diaspora who returns," said Ariff. T.K. Ashiq, speaking to a TV channel from UAE, said this was an astonishing remark from the Chief Minister's side. "No one will ever forget what he (Vijayan) said at a reception given to him when he came for a visit some time back. He was so emphatic and said the state government will pay six months' salary if a member of the Kerala diaspora loses his job and returns home. And see what has been said, every diaspora member has to pay for the quarantine," he said. Vijayan also said that of the present 415 cases, 231 have been registered in the past four days, including 67 on Tuesday, the highest recorded in a day. "Of these, 133 have come from abroad and 178 from other states," he said. "We are reaching a new phase of Covid-19. We had a video conference with all the state lawmakers (MPs and MLAs). Irrespective of the party affiliations, each one agreed to work jointly against Covid-19," he added. The Chief Minister said a large number of people had registered to return from abroad and within the country. "We will receive all our people who wish to return... Once they are here, they will have to undergo quarantine," said Vijayan. Vijayan said over one lakh people, who had registered from other states, had returned. Also, 11,189 of the 1.35 lakh registered from abroad had returned, he added. During the day, nine more hotspots were added taking the total to 68 in the state. President Muhammadu Buhari has called for peace on the continent as a prerequisite for sustainable development. In a message to African leaders to mark the Africa Day 2020, commemorated by the African Union Commission in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), President Buhari said Africa has given the world a new hope by choosing the themeSilencing the Guns in the context of the COVID-19 for this years Africa Day. Mr Buharis comments were contained in a press statement issued on Monday by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu. Mr Buhari stressed the need for African leaders to ensure that every effort is made to ensure the success of silencing the guns on the continent, emphasising the need to sensitize Africans about the inseparable connection between peace and development. Peace, security, unity and harmony are prerequisites for development in Africa, the Nigerian leader said, urging citizens all over the continent to innovate on howSilencing the Guns can be used to achieve peace and grow African economies. He also urged regional economic groups, civil society organisations and the private sector in Africa to take full ownership of the theme of this years celebration to strengthen collaborative efforts among member-countries of the African Union. Africa Day is observed annually on 25 May, to commemorate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the precursor of the African Union, which was created on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Princess Beatrice wears Accessorize hair clips for interview with Made By Dyslexia charity - and the accessory is now on sale. (Getty Images) Yahoo Lifestyle is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Princess Beatrice has opened up about her personal experience with dyslexia in a rare interview with the charity Made By Dyslexia. In the video, which was shared on the organisations official Twitter account, the 31-year-old royal discussed how she found education challenging because of the learning disorder. She said: I was very lucky, I got to go to a school that was very nurturing and supporting ... I would describe the actual day to day learning side of things very challenging. Beatrice - who is the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York - wore a pale blue shirt dress for the interview. But there was one item in particular that stood out to us: her hair clips. Watch our brand new Interview with the wonderful HRH Princess Beatrice #MadeByDyslexia who tells us about her school days, Dyslexic Strengths, and hopes for change in education https://t.co/eVaayzfNIo @yorkiebea @bigchange_ Made By Dyslexia (@MadeByDyslexia) May 23, 2020 Beatrice completed the ensemble with a pair of pearl beaded clips, which she wore on the right side of her head to pin back her auburn locks. It turns out the hair accessory is more affordable than we thought, as the Pearl Snap Hair Clips are from the high street retailer Accessorize. Beatrice isnt the only royal fan of the affordable accessory brand. The Duchess of Cambridge wore a 5 pair of earrings by the brand during a royal tour of Ireland back in March. The mum-of-three is also often seen wearing a pair of petal earrings, which cost 8. Story continues Buy it: Pearl Snap Hair Clips | 3.15 (Was 4.50) from Accessorize The already affordable accessory is also currently on sale. The clips originally retailed for 4.50, but have now been slashed in price to just 3.15. Beatrice is not the only member of the royal family who has turned to Accessorize to jazz up an outfit, as the Duchess of Cambridge previously wore a pair of drop down earrings from the brand. TORONTO - Clothing retailer Roots Corp. has named Meghan Roach as its new chief executive. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The storefront of a Roots location in Toronto is pictured on Thursday, September 14 , 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young TORONTO - Clothing retailer Roots Corp. has named Meghan Roach as its new chief executive. Roach, who has been interim chief executive since January, replaces Jim Gabel, who left the company after the board expressed a need for "renewed leadership." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. She joined Roots from Searchlight Capital Partners, the company's largest shareholder. Before becoming interim chief executive, Roach served as the interim chief financial officer at Roots. Roots says that given the circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Roach will forgo her salary and potential bonus payments for the remainder of 2020. Roach has also been appointed to the Roots board of directors. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2020. Companies in this story: (TSX:ROOT) The World Bank (WB) has predicted that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) could help Vietnams GDP and exports grow 2.4 percent and 12 percent, respectively, by 2030, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has reported. browser not support iframe. The deal is also expected to bring 100,000 to 800,000 people out of poverty. The WB believes Vietnam could enjoy greater benefits from joining the EVFTA and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) if it conducts overall economic and institutional reform to comply with their conditions. WB Country Director in Vietnam Ousmane Dione said Vietnam could optimise the deals and reap unprecedented benefits. Requirements on the rules of origin is one of the challenges Vietnam needs to overcome, he said, as a number of Made-in-Vietnam products still rely on imported materials - 62 percent in electronics and 53 percent in automobiles. He suggested that Vietnam improve links between domestic suppliers and foreign enterprises that lead global supply chains. Vietnam will become a destination for EU and global investors because of the EVFTA, he added. When FDI increases, however, the number of trade complaints will also pile up. He therefore advised Vietnam to launch a systematic mechanism to deal with complaints between the State and investors. At the same time, priority should be given to key currency earners post-COVID-19. MoIT will partner with the Ministry of Science and Technology this year to supplement and amend the revised Law on Intellectual Property 2009 and review decrees relating to the EVFTA. From 2021-2025, it will work with the Ministry of Finance to supplement and amend the revised Law on Insurance Business 2010. In the near future, it will popularise the complaint settlement mechanism in the EVFTA and other FTAs to which Vietnam is a member./.VNA EVFTA implementation requires local firms to thoroughly grasp regulations Businesses and management agencies should be fully aware of the regulations and rights included within the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) before the trade deal fully comes into effect. Copyright 2020 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE For restaurants across most of New Mexico, outdoor dining is back in. In a first step toward a broader restaurant reopening, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration on Tuesday amended a public health order so that restaurants can starting Wednesday reopen outdoor patio areas that have been off-limits for more than two months. But no more than six customers will be allowed to sit together at a table. In addition, outdoor restaurant dining will be limited to 50% capacity to allow for social distancing under the revised order issued by Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel. The revised order will also not mandate that restaurants obtain contact information from its diners as previously proposed; instead customers can decide whether they want to share that information. With case numbers in many parts of New Mexico declining or leveling off, Lujan Grisham said the states progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 has allowed her administration to begin loosening restrictions. I greatly look forward to being able to continue to ease the restrictions imposed on us by this heinous virus provided that we continue on the right track and New Mexicans take every necessary precaution, whether in an individual capacity or as a business-owner, the governor said in a statement. While restaurants have been allowed to offer takeout or delivery services since the COVID-19 outbreak began in March, many have been forced to lay off workers due to the financial impact. Carol Wight, the chief executive of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, said the restaurant industry welcomed the news of the soft reopening plan. While restaurants will not have much time to prepare, she said, eateries already offering takeout food will be able to make a quick transition to outdoor dining. We believe this will provide restaurants the opportunity to ease back into the swing of things while taking the time to properly train staff and implement COVID-19 safe procedures effectively, before fully opening to the public on June 1, Wight said. However, she said, the industry association was asking restaurants in Dona Ana County to consider staying closed for now, due to a recent increase in coronavirus transmissions in the area. The outdoor dining option will not be allowed for now in three northwestern New Mexico counties San Juan, McKinley and Cibola that have had elevated case numbers and deaths from the coronavirus outbreak. In the rest of the state, only restaurants that made more than half their revenue from food sales last year will be able to reopen under the amended order, meaning most bars and breweries will have to remain closed for now. New Mexicos death toll from the coronavirus pandemic now stands at 325, after state health officials reported five more deaths Tuesday. The latest victims were adults ranging in ages from their 60s to their 80s, all with underlying medical conditions. Two of the five were residents of group living facilities. Two of the deceased were from San Juan County, while the others were from Cibola, McKinley and Otero counties. In all, state officials said, testing has now confirmed 7,130 cases of COVID-19 the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus since March 11, when the disease was first detected in New Mexico. Of that amount, the Department of Health has classified 2,564 people as having recovered from the virus. There were 107 new confirmed cases of the disease reported Tuesday including 14 new cases of the virus among federal detainees by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Torrance County jail. State officials also said 211 patients were hospitalized as of Tuesday with COVID-19 symptoms, or five fewer than Monday. Restaurants that decide to reopen outdoor seating areas will have to comply with COVID-safe practices, including mandatory masks for employees, regular hand-washing or gloves for servers and the frequent cleaning and sanitizing of menus. However, restaurateurs will not be required to log and store customers and employees contact information for at least four weeks after dining, after some restaurant owners expressed concern about how customers would react to the mandate. The rule had been proposed by the states Economic Recovery Council and included in a list of COVID-safe practices designed to guide the gradual reopening of the states economy. While restaurants will still have to ask, it will be up to customers to decide whether to voluntarily provide their names, phone numbers and other information to support contact tracing efforts. We dont want adversarial relationships with our customers, Wight told the Journal. In addition, pets with the exception of service animals will not be allowed on restaurant patios, despite a 2011 law that allows dogs at designated outdoor dining spaces. Meanwhile, the move to allow restaurant patios to reopen represents a trial run of sorts, as it will allow for outdoor dining a few days before indoor restaurants are allowed to reopen at limited capacity. Thats expected to happen Monday as part of New Mexicos next reopening phase, as Lujan Grisham said last week the state was on track to meeting COVID-19 control criteria established by her administration. Our priority throughout this public health crisis has been the safety and health and well-being of New Mexicans, and this modification of the emergency public health order aligns with that mandate while providing an opportunity for restaurants to begin preparing for a wider reopening next week, Lujan Grisham said. Journal Capitol bureau reporter Dan McKay contributed to this report. The Taliban has declared a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan to mark the Eid religious holiday and the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Fighters from the militant Islamist group were ordered not to carry out offensive operations against government forces in a message posted on social media on Saturday night. It was quickly followed by an announcement by Afghan president Ashraf Ghani that the government extends the offer of peace. Both sides said they would only take action to defend themselves if attacked. The Taliban also warned its fighters not to socialise with Afghan national security forces during the celebrations. Last month the Taliban rejected a government call for a ceasefire during Ramadan, arguing a truce was not rational as they ramped up attacks on Afghan forces. 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 At least 146 civilians have been killed and 430 wounded by the Taliban during Ramadan, according to the intelligence and security office in Kabul. However, a few days ago the groups leader Haibatullah Akhundzada said the Taliban was committed to the peace deal and urged the US not to waste the agreement signed earlier this year. The ceasefire also follows a recent visit by US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who urged the Taliban and the Afghan government to continue negotiations. Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the ceasefire has been declared solely for Eid festivities. He tweeted: Do not carry out any offensive operations against the enemy anywhere, if any action is taken against you by the enemy, defend yourself. Mr Ghani replied: As commander-in-chief I have instructed ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) to comply with the three-day truce and to defend only if attacked. The US military in Afghanistan welcomed the ceasefire announcement and said: We reiterate our call for the militaries of all sides to reduce violence to allow the peace process to take hold. All US and Nato troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year under the terms of the peace deal with the Taliban, two decades after 9/11 precipitated the American-led invasion. Additional reporting by agencies Not wearing face mask, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro greets his supporters at Praca dos Tres Poderes, in front of the Planalto Palace on Sunday, May 24, 2020. As Brazil's daily Covid-19 death rate climbs to the highest in the world, a University of Washington study is warning its total death toll could climb five-fold to 125,000 by early August, adding to fears it has become a new hot spot in the pandemic. The forecast from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, released as Brazil's daily death toll climbed past that of the United States on Monday, came with a call for lockdowns that Brazil's president has resisted. "Brazil must follow the lead of Wuhan, China, as well as Italy, Spain, and New York by enforcing mandates and measures to gain control of a fast-moving epidemic and reduce transmission of the coronavirus," wrote IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray. Without such measures, the institute's model shows Brazil's daily death toll could keep climbing to until mid-July, driving shortages of critical hospital resources in Brazil, he said in a statement accompanying the findings. On Monday, Brazil's coronavirus deaths reported in the last 24 hours were higher than fatalities in the United States for the first time, according to the health ministry. Brazil registered 807 deaths and 620 died in the United States. The U.S. government on Monday brought forward to Tuesday midnight enforcement of restrictions on travel to the United States from Brazil as the South American country reported the highest death toll in the world for that day. Washington's ban applies to foreigners traveling to the United States if they had been in Brazil in the last two weeks. Two days earlier, Brazil overtook Russia as the world's No. 2 coronavirus hot spot in number of confirmed cases, after the United States. Murray said the IHME forecast captures the effects of social distancing mandates, mobility trends and testing capacity, so projections could shift along with policy changes. The model will be updated regularly as new data is released on cases, hospitalizations, deaths, testing and mobility. Britain could soon be carrying out a million coronavirus tests a day thanks to rapid diagnostics technology being assessed by the NHS. If approved, the technology might allow routine monthly testing of every household in the country. Documents seen by the Daily Mail reveal the NHS is in early talks over the tests, which cost less than 2.50 each. Britain could soon be carrying out a million coronavirus tests a day thanks to rapid diagnostics technology being assessed by the NHS. Pictured: A drive-through test centre in Chessington earlier this month The potential breakthrough could be made if genetic testing techniques are adopted, DNA testing experts claim. They say this could increase testing capacity across the country ten-fold. The specialists have been brought in to consult on processes used at the Governments flagship testing centres, named Lighthouse labs. Genetic testing technology offered by the LGC Group is being assessed in Milton Keynes. And a second system called Popmax, created by two scientists who used to run a DNA testing firm, is under consideration for an NHS staff testing pilot in Kent. Internal correspondence between senior NHS England officials says: We are currently looking at the LGC... technology with a potential of 1,000,000 tests a day, we have partnered them with an NHS lab to get the test validated. Documents seen by the Daily Mail reveal the NHS is in early talks over the tests, which cost less than 2.50 each. Pictured: A drive-through test centre in Chessington earlier this month East Kent Hospitals Trust is keen to use the Popmax system to test all 8,000 staff every three days whether they have symptoms or not to catch the virus before doctors and nurses even start to feel unwell. Such a boost to testing capacity will be key to success of the Governments contact tracing strategy, which is due to be rolled out in the coming days. The Government is now often testing more than 100,000 a day, up from fewer than 10,000 a little over a month ago. But it needs to go further if contact tracing is to work. Contact tracing will require every individual who has been in contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19 to self-isolate for 14 days irrespective of whether they have symptoms or not. The period of self-isolation could be significantly shortened if they are tested but officials believe they will not have the capacity to test each person. Critics fear many will simply disobey the order to self-isolate. East Kent Hospitals Trust is keen to use the Popmax system to test all 8,000 staff every three days A significant expansion of testing capacity would solve this problem if results were available within a few days. And if the genetic technology were to be used for monthly testing of every household, the disease could be eradicated in large pockets of the country. Jon Curtis and Phil Robinson, who pioneered mass DNA genetic testing 20 years ago before selling their company, believe their new Popmax system could rapidly increase capacity. DNA testing is near-identical and perfectly suited to the Covid-19 swab testing used by the Government, Mr Curtis said. Mr Curtis said: The golden bullet in the battle had been sitting unused but could be realised. This could transform the fight against the coronavirus, the proven technology is there. The Governments test centres are not efficient at the moment, he explained. Lighthouse labs use plates that hold up to 384 patient samples to be tested in one batch. But the new approach involves hardware technology that instead carries tens of thousands of ssamples to be processed at once. Mr Robinson was brought into the Milton Keynes Lighthouse lab a fortnight ago. A large percentage of the testing units were sitting unused, he said. This allowed me to improve the testing speed system twofold for one bottleneck process on the days that I was in. Ex-World Health Organisation adviser Professor Karol Sikora said: Popmax could give a map of the viral spread in the country and enable us to control it. There is also hope with LGC, which acts as the Government chemist and statutory adviser, as well as holding a separate role as a commercial company. It already carries out 1.5million commercial DNA tests a day. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26 2020 Military and police personnel belonging to the Nemangkawi task force in Intan Jaya regency, Papua, are on a manhunt for an armed group that purportedly shot members of a local COVID-19 response team. As reported by Antara news agency, the Nemangkawi joint task force released a statement on Saturday saying an armed group had shot two health workers affiliated with the local COVID-19 task force in Wandai district, Intan Jaya regency, on Friday at 4:30 p.m. local time. The two medical workers identified as Amalek Bagau, 30, and Eniko Somou, 39 were shot while delivering medical supplies to a remote area in Intan Jaya regency. The Nemangkawi task force, with the assistance of the Intan Jaya Police, managed to locate and evacuate the victims and transferred them to the Nabire General Hospital on Saturday morning, according to the statement. Papua Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. AM Kamal said Amalek had survived the incident, but was in critical condition, while Eniko had died from his wounds. It took us about five hours to arrive at the crime scene, Kamal said, citing difficulties in navigating the steep terrain. The case is the latest in a recent string of violence that has resulted in the deaths of civilians in the region. ______ We want to emphasize that the people who shot the two medical workers were TNI [Indonesian Military] and National Police personnel. They are the culprits. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,000/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Photo from Getty Images SINGAPORE A man was charged on Tuesday (26 May) with breaching circuit breaker measures while conducting illegal moneylending activities. Chua Jun Yong, 20, who was earlier charged for acting for a loanshark, received an additional charge for leaving his residence at Bedok Reservoir Road without justification - two days after Singapores circuit breaker took effect. He is said to have left his residence between midnight and 6am to go to a flat at Holland Close on 9 April. On that day, Chua allegedly locked the gate of a unit with a bicycle lock and used an indelible marker to scribble O$P$ along with a name and phone number on the wall of the the seventh floor lift landing at about 1.49am. The incident constitutes a breach of the Moneylenders Act and is the subject of one of the seven charges he was previously handed. His six other charges relate to driving a car without a license and insurance, and other alleged unlicensed moneylending activities, which occurred a day before the circuit breaker kicked in. On 6 April, at about 1am, Chua allegedly went to a flat in Tampines Street 86 where he locked a gate with a bicycle lock and used a marker to scribble O$P$ along with a name and phone number on the wall of the eighth floor lift landing. He is said to have done so on behalf of a loanshark known as Jasper. About two hours later, he supposedly repeated the act at another flat at Hougang Avenue 4. This time he scribbled words with a marker on the second floor corridor. Chua is also accused of driving without a license and insurance to commit the acts at Tampines. He is expected to plead guilty when he returns to court on 2 June. Under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020, passed by Parliament on 7 April, individuals are not allowed to leave their residences without a reason. If convicted of contravening the Act, Chua may be jailed up to six months, or fined up to $10,000. Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore Story continues More Singapore stories: Court: Woman claims she sneezed due to 'bad odour' and not at security officer 'We are having an illegal gathering...so what?': Man who posted gathering online fined Four sentenced for flouting Stay-Home Notices, quarantine order COVID-19: 'Sovereign' woman faces two more charges, changes lawyer Man leaves house with aim to steal undergarments during circuit breaker Doctors at a super-speciality hospital in Shireenbagh here on Tuesday held a token protest against the alleged harassment of healthcare professionals by police in Kashmir. The doctors were holding posters that read "they may stop us, beat us, strip us, arrest us but we will always be there for you". A video of Chief Medical Officer, Bandipora, Dr Tajamul Hussain being stopped by police has gone viral on social media. The medical officer was on way to inspect a quarantine centre and sample collection centre in the north Kashmir district. Last week, a senior doctor was allegedly humiliated and detained for a day by policemen in Srinagar while he was on way to the hospital. Dr Syed Maqbool, a senior cardiologist, had alleged that he was beaten up and abused by the policemen. The incident has sparked outrage in the medical fraternity with Principal, Government Medical College Srinagar, Dr Samia Rashid calling for a swift action. After the incident came to light, SSP, Srinagar, Haseeb Mughal had ordered a probe into it. He had said a complaint has been registered against the doctor for allegedly preventing a policeman from doing his duty. The Doctors' Association Kashmir (DAK) has called for a one-day black band protest against these incidents. "We are announcing a one day black band protest on Wednesday over the excesses by government forces against the healthcare providers," DAK president Suhail Naik said in a statement on Tuesday. The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, Inc. When a problem gambler feels they have lost everything and sees no possibility to gain or recover, suicidal ideation and/or attempts are very real possibilities," said Jennifer Kruse, Executive Director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling (FCCG). As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshape life as we had once known it, closures of traditional brick-and-mortar gambling facilities coupled with social distancing restrictions and requirements have resulted in dramatic shifts in gambling behaviors along with serious negative consequences as reported by contacts to Floridas 888-ADMIT-IT Problem Gambling HelpLine in March and April. According to Jennifer Kruse, Executive Director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling (FCCG), Of particular concern with recent COVID-19 closures and quarantines, is the associated increase in problem-gambling-related risk factors that occur as a result, such as loneliness, stress, anxiety, depression, and increased use or abuse of substances. The severity of problems reported by individuals contacting the FCCGs 888-ADMIT-IT HelpLine in March and April illustrate the increased occurrence of these associated risk factors and resulting, exacerbated problem-gambling-related impacts experienced during this time. While gambling can be a safe recreational activity for the majority of people, hundreds of thousands of Floridians suffer from gambling disorder, often with devastating impacts. Current and ongoing pandemic-related financial strains from job loss, furloughs, and lost income may lead to more gambling of all types in hopes of winning money just to survive. Receiving a stimulus check may also be viewed as an unexpected big win for at-risk and problem or recovering gamblers. Money lost gambling can lead to financial difficulties, which can trigger associated stressors that interfere with relationships, mental, and even physical health. These experiences can leave problem gamblers and their loved ones feeling discouraged and hopeless about the future. When a problem gambler feels they have lost everything and sees no possibility to gain or recover, suicidal ideation and/or attempts are very real possibilities. This is unfortunately what we have seen with contacts to the 888-ADMIT-IT HelpLine in April, with more than one in five (21%), revealing current or recent suicidal feelings or thoughts due to their gambling problem, explained Kruse. The share of callers referred to Crisis Lines in April (23%), also rose significantly by more than double, with increased levels of hopelessness and desperation reported, due to gambling-related financial and mental health repercussions brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, Kruse noted, as cause for additional concern. If a problem gamblers first game of choice is not available, most do not just stop gambling because they are simply unable to do so. They instead seek to feed their addiction through any accessible and available means, even if not their typical gambling preference. Closures of traditional land-based gambling facilities had a significant impact on the primary gambling problems reported by Floridas 888-ADMIT-IT HelpLine contacts in April. The most frequently cited primary gambling problems shifted from slot machines, cards, and table games that are most often reported, to those forms of gambling which were still accessible; Online Gambling (41%), Lottery (38%), and Sweepstakes (10%), said Kruse. Of equal significance was the reported geographical location from which the HelpLine contact originated. During the month of April, for the first time ever, Seminole County tied with Miami-Dade County (16% each) as the top most frequently cited area from which the help contact originated. Alachua County was the second most frequently cited location in April, as reported by 13%, and 9% of help seekers reported their location as Hillsborough County, which is also atypical from Pre-COVID-19 888-ADMIT-IT HelpLine data, which consistently reflects Broward and Miami-Dade Counties as the top areas from which the contact originated, added Kruse. The data reported during the month of April by 888-ADMIT-IT HelpLine contacts, reveals that help seekers this month were from areas all over the state and were primarily from those engaged in the forms of gambling activities still available during quarantine and social distancing restrictions, Online Gambling and the Lottery. This illustrates the effects that gambling addiction can have on any community in the state, and further highlights that those associated impacts will correlate with what gambling options are accessible or available in a particular area. At a time of uncertainty while the whole world anxiously awaits the return to normal life, whatever that may be, reassurance for anyone negatively impacted by a gambling problem that resources are available and accessible through Floridas 888-ADMIT-IT Problem Gambling HelpLine has never been more important. Gambling addiction is treatable, and population-specific programs and services for gamblers and their loved ones are accessible any time of the day or night, any day of the year. The FCCGs 24-hour confidential and multilingual HelpLine may be reached by calling 888-ADMIT-IT (888-236-4848), texting (321) 978-0555, emailing fccg@gamblinghelp.org, initiating a live chat at gamblinghelp.org, or by reaching out to us on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, concluded Kruse. The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, Inc. (FCCG) is a gaming neutral not-for-profit corporation under contract with Florida State government, serving as the designated state affiliate of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). In addition to operating the 24-hour Problem Gambling HelpLine (888-ADMIT-IT), the FCCG increases awareness of problem gambling through education and outreach efforts throughout the state of Florida, advocates on behalf of the public regarding issues relating to problem gambling, and provides programs, resources, and other population specific supports to those in need of assistance. Several Wipro products have helped clients meet their requirements for remote working, business continuity, security, and seamless supply chain and worker safety among others Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, on Tuesday announced the launch of its global channel partner programme. Wipros products and platforms have been instrumental in helping clients deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Market uncertainties have led organisations to focus on business continuity planning and establish new ways of working. Several Wipro products have helped clients meet their requirements for remote working, business continuity, security, and seamless supply chain and worker safety among others. As the market continues to evolve in the coming months, Wipro will collaborate with the channel partners to identify new business challenges that can be quickly addressed, it said. Ajay Bhaskar, Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Strategy and Intellectual Property, Wipro, said, Products and platforms are central to Wipros strategy to stay relevant and deliver differentiated value to our clients. A key part of accelerating our footprint across segments and geographies is the channel partner programme." He said that the channel partnerships can accelerate adoption and bring innovation in relatively under penetrated industry segments and geographies. "Together, we can take some of the most innovative and differentiated products and platforms to the industry and open newer sources of growth, Bhaskar said. The programme offers partners an opportunity to leverage Wipros best-of-breed products and open new revenue streams for themselves, said Mandar Vanarse, General Manager, Intellectual Property Unit, Wipro. Our partners will receive the best possible support to augment new markets for Wipros products and platforms. We have established a robust onboarding process for new partners which includes special training for their staff at the Wipro Product Academy." He further said that the company's partners will enjoy access to special pricing models, sales enablement support, benefit calculators and other sales and marketing material. "They will also benefit with a Wipro Expert assigned to them to assist throughout the customer engagement journey, he added. BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 Trend: Armenia is trying to divert the attention of the international community from the facts of illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing that the civilian population faces, said spokesperson for Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva, Trend reports. She was commenting on the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan and Hungary dated May 26. Abdullayeva noted that in order to express a specific opinion on this decision, it is important to study it at the level of legal experts. However, one can share observations in connection with this decision. "First of all, it should be taken into account that the root of the pain and suffering of our region today, both at the level of nations and individuals, lies in the hatred-based hostile policy of the Armenian nationalist leaders against the Azerbaijani people and the aggressive policy of Armenia against Azerbaijan. By distorting the main causes of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, occupant Armenia is trying to divert the attention of the international community from the ongoing illegal occupation of Azerbaijani lands and the facts of ethnic cleansing that the civilian population is facing. However, the ECHR decision of June 16, 2015 on "Chiragov and others v. Armenia envisages responsibility of Armenia for the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, she said. Abdullayeva pointed out that if Armenia truly appreciates human rights and freedoms as much as states this and respects the European Court of Justice, it should immediately end the 30-year occupation of Azerbaijani lands and stop violation of the rights of more than one million of Azerbaijanis. Moreover, until the ECHR decision on the Chigarov and others v. Armenia of 2015 is implemented, Yerevan does not have the moral right to make any demands on Azerbaijan in relation to the European Court, said the spokesperson. Speaking about the main results of the courts decision, Abdullayeva noted that first of all, Armenias intention to use the European Court as a tool in the slanderous campaign against Azerbaijan and its attempts to politicize this institution and drag it into the propaganda campaign should be rejected. As for the decision of the European Court, actually, it did not ensure the main intention of Armenia. The Courts decision does not require the annulment of the pardon decision, which is the main subject of the dispute, or the resumption of the case against the person concerned. On the other hand, the lawsuit on violation of the right to life was also rejected, Abdullayeva added. She said the European Court in its decision found that the essential aspect of Article 2 (the right to life) of the European Convention was not violated by the Azerbaijani government. "That is, according to the conclusion reached by the European Court, Ramil Safarov acted individually and did not represent the Azerbaijani government. Therefore, the Azerbaijani government cannot bear international legal responsibility for these actions. At the same time, we believe that the court case should have taken into account the fact that the officer of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov was born in the Jabrail district of Azerbaijan in August 1993, lost close relatives in the war, and became an IDP in adolescence, said Abdullayeva. She pointed out that pardon is a practice used worldwide, and according to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the head of state has the power to pardon. "I would like to emphasize once again that the root cause of all the problems is Armenias policy of aggression against Azerbaijan and the unresolved consequences of this policy. The only way to put an end to hostility between the two countries is to eliminate the consequences of the conflict, that is, to withdraw the occupying forces from the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan and ensure the basic rights of hundreds of thousands of people expelled from these territories. The European Court would better take note of the policy of aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan and would note in its press release that Ramil Safarov is an internally displaced person who has become a victim of this policy, she concluded. New Delhi, May 26 : Amid allegations of mishandling the covid crisis in Maharashtra by opposition leaders who even demanded dismissal of the state government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that his party is not a key player in running Maharashtra government. The Congress is part of "Maha Vikas Aghadi" and holds key ministries but Rahul Gandhi said, "We are only supporting the government and are not a 'key player' in the state". Rahul Gandhi, however, defended the state government and said that Mumbai is a well connected state. and that is the reason why Covid cases are rising there. Rahul Gandhi asserted that the party is doing better where ever it is running its own government. Rahul Gandhi's statement could be a setback for MVA government in Maharashtra where hectic politics is going on. NCP chief Sharad Pawar met the governor on Monday, though all speculations were rejected by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Faut on Tuesday. Tongues started wagging as Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar went to meet Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan, in what was described by both sides as a "courtesy call". Accompanied by NCP MP Praful Patel, this was Pawar's first-ever meeting with the Governor who was appointed in September 2019, crowning a series of recent political developments in the state. Later on Monday afternoon, it was the turn of BJP leader and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane to meet the Governor and reportedly demanded imposition of President's rule in the state. Among various things, Rane has claimed the government headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had failed to handle the Covid-19 pandemic crisis in the state. Rane's demand came days after Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis called on Koshyari and complained that the Thackeray government had bungled in handling the coronavirus situation. The Governor followed it up by a review meeting of the crisis in which Thackeray excused himself but sent his close confidante Milind Narvekar. A couple of days later, Koshyari raised strong objections to a letter written by Minister of Higher and Technical Education Uday Samant to the UGC recommending cancellation of final year university examinations, which the Governor pointed out was against the guidelines. This was followed by Sena MP Sanjay Raut calling on the Governor, and a day later, Thackeray announced that the lockdown implemented suddenly was not proper, and lifting it abruptly would be detrimental to the people. The Member of Parliament of Assin Central, Mr Kennedy Agyapong has disclosed that he owns 147 houses in the country. The legislator says owns real estate properties in Accra, Tema and Kumasi. Mr Agyapong told Joy News in an interview that he rents out the properties to fund a comfortable lifestyle. " . . Oh how, I rent them (houses) . . . only a fool will occupy 147 homes," Mr Agyapong said. "Real estate, you don't make that much money but It makes you comfortable...". Investments On which sectors provide the best returns for investments, Mr Agyapong advised university graduates not to go into farming. He revealed how his over 500-acre farming project in the Ashanti region failed because of theft, lazy farmhands, litigation and a lack of government subsidies for farmers. He added that although media was more profitable than farming, the returns were also low. When you wake up in the morning and you pray that God let me be poor, then you go into farming . . . I have been there, so when I see anybody going into farming, I just laugh," he said. I challenge the government; what are the inputs for you to go into farming? They are just talking. Ive been there and Im telling you, if I go to university, I will not go into farming. Hell no! Ken Agyapong said. He continued: If you make money in Accra and you tell me you are going to farm, you are a fool. I failed at farming not because of my management but because of litigation". Reasons for venturing into media On why he ventured into media ownership, he said it was motivated by a confrontation with Mr Ofosu Ampofo on Peace FM which resulted in him being asked to apologise for saying: "What does it take to establish a radio station?". He said he declined and vowed to establish a radio station as he walked out. "So, I was not doing it for money, I was doing it for posterity . . . I have done it". Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video This article, More than 40% of Republicans think Bill Gates will use COVID-19 vaccine to implant tracking chips, survey says, originally appeared on CNET.com. Fighting misinformation and conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus has almost been as hard as battling the pandemic itself. And a new survey has found that one conspiracy theory about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is taking hold. A conspiracy theory that Gates is planning to use a future COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips in billions of people in order to monitor their movements has gained supporters particularly among Fox News viewers and Republicans, the survey found. The representative survey of 1,640 US adults by YouGov for Yahoo News found that half of respondent Americans who say Fox News is their primary television news source believe the conspiracy theory. It's the largest group responding this way, followed by self-described Republicans and "Voted for Donald Trump in 2016" -- 44% of both those groups said they believed the conspiracy theory was true. Twenty-six percent of respondent Republicans said it was false, and 31% said they weren't sure. Representatives for Fox News, the Republican Party, the White House and the Trump 2020 campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which the namesake founders use to fund medical research and vaccine programs around the world, also didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The survey findings underscore the level at which conspiracy theories have overtaken public perception of the coronavirus. The virus, which has infected more than 1.6 million people in the US and killed nearly 100,000 Americans, has upended daily life since it was first detected in December of last year. Governments around the world have ordered citizens to isolate themselves and shelter in place in an effort to slow the virus' spread and reduce strain on hospitals and morgues. As people adjust to these efforts, they've also begun reading and spreading conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. Such theories address everything from the political ambitions of people involved in the response to whether the coronavirus is as deadly as governments and health agencies are reporting to how and where the virus originated (experts say it came from wild animals). So many people wrongly believed 5G wireless played a role in spreading coronavirus that they vandalized nearly 80 cell towers in the UK over it. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all said they're responding to conspiracy posts, adding links to more information and in some cases pulling down content that the companies believe could lead to people unknowingly harming themselves. Gates has become a center for attention among conspiracy theorists in part because of his high profile efforts to vaccinate people around the world, as well as his recent media appearances over the past couple months. He's also criticized government responses to the crisis, such as in a March editorial published in The Washington Post. "There's no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus," he wrote in a column published March 31. "The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of COVID-19." One analysis done by The New York Times and media watcher Zignal Labs in April found misinformation about Gates was the most widespread of all coronavirus falsehoods. Yahoo and YouGov's May survey didn't find that everyone believed these conspiracy theories though. Forty-five percent of independents, 52% of Democrats and 63% of people who say they voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 said they don't believe the conspiracy theory about Gates and vaccines. The same survey also found that only half of Americans now say they intend to get vaccinated "if and when a coronavirus vaccine becomes available." Twenty-three percent of people say they won't, and 27% say they're not sure. Advertisement Around 250 military horses used in royal ceremonies have swapped their life of pomp and pageantry in London to bask in countryside pastures during lockdown. Horses from the Household Calvary have uprooted from their stables in Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, and have been given roam of a farm just north of Melton Mowbry, Leicestershire. At this time of year they would usually be drilling for next months's Trooping of the Colour - a staple in the monarchy's calendar when the Queen celebrates her official birthday. But the coronavirus outbreak has pressed pause on their duties and afforded the 253 horses a summer break on the 1,600-acre farm. The Irish Draft Cross thoroughbreds have taken centre stage during some of the most high-profile events in recent years, including Donald Trump's state visit, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding, the State Opening of Parliament, and the Queen's birthday parade. Farmer Geoff Brooks and his son Richard, who have given the horses their new home, revealed they received an 'urgent request' to take in the animals this summer. 'We have been regularly taking some Army horses as guests from London in the winter,' Geoff Brooks told Horse & Hound. 'But this year, very soon after they had been returned to London, we received an urgent request to take them back for the summer as well. 'It is due to the cancellation of the horses' ceremonial duties at the Trooping the Colour and other events, due to the virus.' Around 200 horses have swapped their London stables for the freedom of the Leicestershire countryside There are around 235 cavalry black horses, 14 greys and four drum horses which make up the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (pictured in action) The horses from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment are enjoyed galloping around in the fields after being 'furloughed' due to the coronavirus epidemic Worlds apart from their well-drilled processions in the capital, the 235 cavalry black horses, 14 greys and four drum horses have been pictured galloping and sprawling out on the grass. Usually they carry at least 44 kilograms of kit and ceremonial uniform, as well as the soldier riding them. The Queen's Household Cavalry is made up of the two most senior regiments in the British Army, The Life Guards and The Blues & Royals. It is divided into the Household Cavalry Regiment and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment. The regiment is steeped in history and casts its roots back to 1660 when Charles II reclaimed the throne following a gap in the monarchy during Oliver Cromwell's reign. Horses which are of good weight, unblemished and strong are snapped up by the Riding Master when they are about three years old. From there, they are sent to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps Depot in Melton Mowbry before being drafted to a regiment. Horses can be identified as part of the Household Calvary from distinctive identification numbers on their hooves. They are often named after battles and each year the new intake are all called names which begin with the same letter. They are spending time in Leicestershire while their ceremonial duties are on hold The horses are usually based in Hyde Park in Knightsbridge and would normally be preparing for the Trooping of the Colour next month Their other duties include the State Opening of Parliament, State Visits, such as when Donald Trump visited last year They are also used in Royal weddings, including Prince Harry and Meghan's and the Queen's Birthday Parade Some remain part of the Household Calvary until they are in their 20s, and the regiment ensures they are well rested, taking them to the coast in Norfolk each summer for six weeks respite. The Household Cavalry has also earned a formidable reputation on the battlefield, having served in conflicts from Waterloo to Afghanistan. And closer to home, it also provided security for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and has even assisted flood victims. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment carries out regular ceremonial duties throughout the year. As the Sovereign's bodyguard and part of the Household Division, the HCMR mounts a daily guard at the entrance to Buckingham Palace which is normally viewed daily by members of the pubic. The HCMR is also responsible for the provision of the Sovereign's Escort, most commonly seen at the monarch's annual Birthday Parade in June each year. They have been given their new home by Geoff Brooks and his son, Richard, who farm some 1,600 acres north of Melton Mowbray There are around 235 cavalry black horses, 14 greys and four drum horses which make up the mounted regiment They are all Irish Draft Cross thoroughbreds, the horses are spread across a number of fields in the countryside The majority of the horses are black (pictured) there are around 235 cavalry black horses currently on the farm near Melton Mowbray The horses are spending their summer in Leicestershire for a yet undetermined length of time 'We have been regularly taking some Army horses as guests from London in the winter,' said Geoff Brooks who owns the land where the horses are furloughed Some of the horses performing their usual ceremonial duties in London, their usual home The 5G unit at Huawei could be staring down another setback in the UK, following further US sanctions against the company. Thats based on recent news out of the region, reportedly stemming from the potential outcome of a review by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The review itself was announced on Sunday. Its been described as designed to remove Huawei equipment in British phone networks. More specifically, thats a goal it hopes to achieve by 2023 and to stop internal conflicts within the government. Primarily, those are conflicts with a subset of leaders who are opposed to any use of Huawei equipment. In effect, the review is expected to advise against using Huawei equipment to build out the UK 5G network. And the decision comes down to recent US sanctions that call into question some of Huaweis supply chain. Advertisement The controversial sanctions in question effectively stop Huawei from using US semiconductors and software to build 5G equipment. So the Chinese networking and mobile giant will have to look elsewhere when it builds its networks. At issue here is the fact that at least some of those sources would be unfamiliar and untested components. Those suppliers solutions could potentially be exploited, sources say. That could result in the review deeming Huawei a risk to national security. Huawei 5G ambitions have absorbed blow after blow from US sanctions Now, this isnt the first run of sanctions to impact Huawei or its 5G ambitions. But the conglomerate has previously endured in spite of sanctions imposed by the US over the years. Prior to the most recent of those, the company had secured its position as a top provider in much of Europe. And its mobile unit has seen plenty of growth too. Advertisement In the UK, a policy announced by ministers in January set a limit on Huawei networking equipment for the nations 5G. Specifically, that set the limit at 35-percent of networking. So Huawei could still take part in the buildout of key aspects of the network. But the policy would cut off Huawei from certain portions of the network to alleviate potential risks. The end result of that would be lower costs for BT, Vodafone, and other UK-operating phone companies. If the company loses that as a result of US sanctions, that could be a major setback for its 5G goals. The company has repeatedly denied claims that it works as with the Chinese government on surveillance using its equipment. Advertisement In light of the possibility of a UK review to eliminate its equipment entirely, Huawei Vice president Victor Zhang has responded. The executive indicates that the company is happy to discuss any concerns with the NCSC. Huawei hopes that discussion will help it to continue the close working relationship it has enjoyed for the last 10 years. Growing support may be the nail in Huaweis UK coffin The potential for a turnaround in UK policy on Huawei 5G may not be solely dependant on US sanctions although those still play a prominent role. Conservative pushback against the 35-percent cap, led by Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Bob Seely appears to be gaining traction. The group reportedly believes it now has the support it needs to stop the use of Huawei equipment entirely. Mr. Seely took to Twitter on Sunday to say that there are 59 MPs now in favor of removing Huawei. That is enough to add weight to the initiative. Indore: Popular TV actor Preksha Mehta, best known for featuring in shows such as "Crime Patrol", "Meri Durga" and "Laal Ishq", has reportedly committed suicide at her residence here. She was 25. According to Hiranagar police station in charge Rajiv Bhadauria, the actor had been suffering from depression for a while. Bhadauria said Mehta's body was found hanging from a ceiling fan by her family members on Tuesday morning. She left behind a suicide note in which she expressed disappointments regarding her career and relationships. "During our initial investigation, we believe that she was suffering from depression. We are carrying out a detailed investigation in this case," he said. Bhadauria said her body has been sent for post-mortem. Mehta had also posted a cryptic message on her Instagram story on Monday, hours before her death. "Sabse bura hota hai, sapnon ka mar jaana (The death of the dreams is the worst)," she posted on the account which is not verified. The actor had recently returned to her hometown from Mumbai. This is the second instance of a TV actor committing suicide in the wake of the countrywide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. On May 15, actor Manmeet Grewal, who worked on shows like "Aadat Se Majboor" and "Kuldeepak", committed suicide after struggling with dwindling finances. A pigeon has been handed over to police in India after being accused of being a Pakistani spy. The alleged spy was discovered by Geeta Devi who lives in the Kathua district of Kashmir after the bird flew into her home on May 24. It was found having been painted pink and was carrying around on its foot a ring with numbers on. The Times of India report that Senior Superintendent of Kathua Police Shailendra Kumar Mishra said: 'We don't know from where it came. Locals captured it near our fences. We have found a ring in its foot on which some numbers are written. A pigeon painted pink and carrying a numbered ring on its foot has been handed over to police in India after being accused of being a Pakistani spy (stock image) 'Further investigation is underway.' The bird was captured by locals near the India-Pakistan border fence and was eventually passed on to the police by the Indian Border Security Force. The Telegraph reported that police told the Times of India: 'Though birds have no boundaries and many fly across international borders during migration, a coded ring tagged to the captured pigeon's body is a cause for concern as migratory birds don't have such rings.' The pigeon will remain in police custody until they have finished their investigations. This is not the first time that a spying pigeon has been caught passing between India and Pakistan. The pigeon will remain in police custody until they have finished their investigations (stock image) In 2015 another pigeon was intercepted, this time in Manwal village two and a half miles from the border. It had the message 'Tehsil Shakargarh, district Narowal' in Urdu stamped on its tail along with some numbers. The area mentioned is Pakistan's Punjab province. Though an X-ray was carried out on the bird, nothing suspicious was found. Police kept it in their custody anyway and listed it as a 'suspected spy'. Both North and South Korean forces violated the armistice agreement in the exchange of gunfire in the Demilitarized Zone ((DMZ) dividing the peninsula on May 3, the United Nations Command (UNC) said in a statement as of May 26. A multinational UNC special investigation team concluded that the Korean troops of both the nations had violated the agreement that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War instead of a peace treaty. In about two and a half years, it was the first shooting inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two military alliances, however, no casualties were reported. The de facto border on May 3 witnessed four rounds of 14.5mm ammunition at a UNC guard post, fired by the North Korean troops on the southern side of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) that divides the DMZ, the UNC said in a statement. Commanded by the American general, the US-led UN Command oversees affairs in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Shortly after the firing, Seoul's soldiers retaliated and broadcasted warnings in non- compliance with the historic ceasefire that led the UNC to open a probe into the standoff, according to reports. However, in an official statement, UNC said that investigation was unable to conclude whether the Norths Korean Peoples Army (KPA) fired gunshots "intentionally or by mistake". Read: Def Min Rajnath Singh Chairs Meet To Review Situation Along LAC Amid Standoff With China Read: China Declares War On 'problematic Maps'; Targets Taiwan Amid Larger Aggressive Posturing No "formal response" from North Korea Seouls Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) with statements from the Republic of Korea Army (ROK) soldiers reportedly said at the time that military personnel retaliated twice and the tensions escalated. UNC spokesperson Col. Lee Peters said in a video briefing on May 26 that the UNC determined that both the [DPRK] KPA and the ROK Army committed Armistice Agreement violations with unauthorized small arms fire across the military demarcation line. Therefore, no substantial blame on one nations army for violating the ceasefire was to be laid, it added. Meanwhile, North Koreas military had not offered a "formal response" on the investigation, UNC reportedly said, adding the South's forces provided "full cooperation". Furthermore, South Korean and US officials have said that the gunshots could have been an accidental violation, as per state media reports. A ministrys statement claimed that South Korea soldiers fully adhered to the procedures in response to the UN commands investigation. Last, the two military troops exchanged fire on the DMZ in 2014, as per reports. Read: Hong Kong Police Arrests Over 100 People For Protesting Against Proposed Security Law Read: Hong Kong Police Fire Tear Gas As Thousands Protest Against China's New Security Law Former Russian intelligence officer convicted of treason leaves prison TASS, Maxim Shemetov 13:59 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) - Gennady Kravtsov, a former employee at Russias GRU military intelligence service convicted of passing secrets abroad, on Tuesday was released from prison in Russias Republic of Mordovia, his lawyer Ivan Pavlov told RAPSI. Kravtsov was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 14 years in prison in September 2015. Later, the Supreme Court of Russia reduced his sentence to 6 years. In October 2018, he was denied parole. Kravtsovs case was classified and heard behind closed doors, so that no information leaked to the press. However, the media found out that Kravtsov, who worked as an engineer after his resignation from the GRU, sent his CV to apply for a position at a Swedish company. The former intelligence officer pleaded not guilty. Investigators admitted that the defendant did not receive any payment from the Swedes. Professor Hong Yun-chul from Seoul National University speaks during the Korea Forum 2020 in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki By Kim Se-jeong Professor Hong Yun-chul from Seoul National University's medical school said a new infectious disease will attack humanity again soon and Korea should fight that epidemic by developing a system in which individuals can monitor their health at home. Speaking at the Korea Forum organized by The Korea Times and the Hankook Ilbo, Hong Yun-chul said, "Technologies are already available as shown in a smart watch or smart glasses. Also, you can make your toilet much smarter. Human waste holds critical health information but we discard it all. If we can install a system in our toilet that can analyze the waste, we can detect illness early on and take action. This is very possible." Specialized in preventive medicine, Hong is the author of two books, "The Origin of Disease" (2014) and "The Changing Era of Disease" (2019). Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 21:26:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian official and an expert have urged not to politicize the COVID-19 pandemic, as some countries are playing the blame game over it. "One should not politicize COVID-19; instead, they should do their best to safeguard their citizens," Cambodian government chief spokesman Phay Siphan told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. "Some countries have spent time blaming this or that country. This is an irresponsible act for their own citizens," Siphan said. Instead of blaming each other, countries should try their best to protect their people's lives, he said. "We don't want to see any sides put the blame on each other; we want to see them stay united against COVID-19," he added. Cambodia highly commends China for taking strict measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and for helping other countries, including Cambodia, to fight against the virus, he said. The efforts and role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the global battle against the pandemic are praiseworthy, Siphan said, adding that countries should work closely with the respectable organization to defeat the virus. Chheang Vannarith, president of the think tank Asian Vision Institute in Phnom Penh, said politicizing the pandemic is counterproductive, and hinders the international cooperation and collective response to fight, contain and mitigate the pandemic. "China has done a commendable job in curbing the spread (of the virus) and providing critical assistance to countries in need," Vannarith told Xinhua. "Now, China is taking measures to recover its economy from the slowdown." The WHO has been playing a very important role in helping countries stem the spread of the coronavirus, he said. "The WHO is the hub of the international system in this global war against the virus," he said, calling for the international community to support the international body. SALT LAKE CITY, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Suralink and PKF Littlejohn announced a partnership that will expand Suralink's footprint into the EMEA market while providing PKF Littlejohn partners, clients, and staff with leading request list management solutions. Suralink improves efficiency and provides a streamlined client experience through a dynamic request list that is integrated with a secure file hosting system for seamless document request coordination. Image of Suralink and PKF Littlejohn logos PKF Littlejohn is a fast-growing firm of accountants and business advisers based in London's Canary Wharf. It is particularly well-known for working with complex clients with challenging issues in fast-moving and highly technical areas, including listed businesses, the insurance market and the not-for-profit sector. The partnership between Suralink and PKF Littlejohn will provide firms across the globe with access to the leading PBC request list management technology alongside localized support and cultural expertise. "We are incredibly excited to announce this partnership," says Tim Ballantyne, CEO and Founder of Suralink. "This partnership represents an opportunity for exponential growth for Suralink and a whole new chapter in our journey as a company. PKF Littlejohn is a premier UK accountancy firm and a leader in the global market. With Suralink's technology leadership and PKF Littlejohn's global network and influence, we believe we can change the way firms across the world work." Phil Broadbery, a Partner at PKF Littlejohn, added: "PKF Littlejohn has developed a reputation for simplifying complexity for its clients, so partnering with Suralink is a natural next step for usparticularly now that working practices are undergoing the most significant transformation in a generation. "The feedback that we've received from partners, staff and clients since we started using Suralink has been extremely positive, with users commenting on the enhanced client experience and audit efficiency. Clients have pointed out that it saves them time, makes it easier to keep track of audit progress, cuts down on the amount of emails and helps with internal communication within finance teams "Suralink has been instrumental over the past couple of months in helping us to switch rapidly to 100% remote working, providing a trusted, user-friendly and secure platform from which we can continue to support our clients, regardless of their location. "We've seen first-hand the advantages of using Suralink and are confident that other leading accountancy firms will be able to benefit too. With remote working likely to become the new normal in our industry, Suralink has the potential to become an essential part of every forward-thinking practice's software toolkit." About Suralink Suralink is the leader in request list and document management, helping businesses simplify the document exchange process while improving the client experience. The company's cloud-based application integrates a dynamic request list and assignment workflow solution with a secure file hosting platform to serve as a single location for client interaction. Suralink's technology, combined with its industry expertise, helps more than 300 clients in North America and the UK ensure security, simplicity, transparency, and accountability throughout the document exchange process. About PKF Littlejohn PKF Littlejohn is a fast-growing firm of accountants and business advisers based in London's Canary Wharf. We provide a full range of audit, accountancy, tax and advisory services, and are experts at simplifying complexity we're particularly well-known for working with complex clients with challenging issues in fast-moving and highly technical areas. Our aim is to understand people, the organisations they run, and what matters to them, so we can simplify complexity and help them achieve their ambitions. We have three important principles that make a big difference in our business, and they also have a significant impact on our clients' organisations. They are really simple: People matter; making a difference for the people we work with and the people we work for is our priority. We're relentlessly curious, because we want to know each client's organisation as well as they do, even better if we can. And we're good at getting things done. We are the London office of PKF UK & Ireland, currently the 10th largest network in the UK with a combined fee income of over 140m. CONTACT Meghan Mitton Director, Marketing Suralink [email protected] CONTACT Andy Konieczko Head of Brand & Communications PKF Littlejohn [email protected] Related Images suralink-and-pkf-littlejohn.png Suralink and PKF Littlejohn Image of Suralink and PKF Littlejohn logos SOURCE Suralink Related Links https://www.suralink.com New Delhi: The Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed on Tuesday (May 26, 2020) that over 58,318 passengers flew to their destination on the first day of the passenger flight resumption. The Minister also said that there were around 832 flights that operated on Monday. Airports are abuzz & passengers are back in air. 58,318 passengers flew to their destinations on 832 flights on the first day, 25th May till midnight. Operations have started in Andhra Pradesh from today. These numbers are all set to soar higher.@PMOIndia @MoCA_GoI pic.twitter.com/eWB9KeS9W9 Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 26, 2020 The domestic passenger flights resumed operations on Monday (May 25) after it was halted for almost two months due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The first flight on Monday took off from Delhi for Pune at 4.45 AM under strict regulations recommended by the civil aviation authorities, whereas the first flight from Mumbai was to Patna at 6.45 AM. Although, according to PTI, as many as 630 flights were cancelled on Monday after West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh showed reluctancy to allow domestic flight services from their airports. The Civil Aviation Minister also informed that the operations have started in Andhra Pradesh from today (May 26) and that the numbers are all set to soar higher. Earlier on Tuesday, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) state government in West Bengal issued guidelines for passengers who will be taking domestic flights to the state. The West Bengal will restart passenger flight operations from May 28. As per the advisory issued by the government, people entering Bengal once domestic flights are allowed in the state from May 28 must submit a self-declaration form stating that they had not tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two months. The passengers also need to undergo health screening after their arrival at the airport, it said. With the aviation sector reeling under severe stress due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown that was imposed on March 25, the government had last week announced the resumption of domestic flight services from May 25 under specific rules and guidelines. It had set a cap on ticket pricing, made wearing of face masks by passengers mandatory, no food served onboard planes, and making available details of medical conditions by travellers through the Aarogya Setu app or by filling up of a self-declaration form. This recognition [from Expertise.com] acknowledges our firms continuous passion and commitment to helping high-growth tech companies transform their business and, in turn, the way the world works. - Leah Nurik, founder and CEO, Gabriel Marketing Group Gabriel Marketing Group (GMG), the industrys leading marketing and public relations agency for high-growth technology companies, today announced that Expertise.com has selected it as one of its Best Marketing Consultants in Washington, D.C. and Best PR Firms in Washington, D.C. for 2020. Expertise.coms annual list recognizes companies that demonstrate excellence in reputation, credibility, experience, availability and professionalism. We are honored to be named one of Washington, D.C.s top marketing and PR firms two years in a row by Expertise.com, said Leah Nurik, CEO and founder of GMG. This repeated recognition acknowledges our firms continuous passion and commitment to helping high-growth tech companies transform their business and, in turn, the way the world works. Each year, Expertise.com conducts proprietary research and follows a selection process that identifies the top service professionals in more than 200 different industries across the top cities in the United States. Its goal is to connect people with the best local experts. Expertise.com scored 139 marketing consulting companies and 162 PR firms in the Washington, D.C. area by more than 25 variables across five categories: Reputation: A history of satisfied customers giving excellent recommendations Credibility: Established in their industry with licensing, accreditations, and awards Experience: Masters of their craft, based on years of practical experience and education Engagement: Approachable and responsive to clients and available for new business Professionalism: Dedicated to providing consistently quality work and impeccable customer service Expertise.coms team then conducted a manual review to hand pick its top 9 marketing consultants and top 20 PR firms in Washington, D.C. GMG has made a name for itself as the leading marketing, public relations, branding and communications agency within a crowded and competitive landscape of technology-focused PR and marketing agencies. Founded in 2011, GMG serves innovative and fast-growing technology companies, with a special foothold in SaaS, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, non-profit tech, VoIP, retail and hospitality. Its services include award-winning PR and analyst relations as well as market strategy consulting, digital marketing, advertising, SEO, marketing automation and content development. Through its dedication to service and a commitment to excellence, GMG continues to expand its market share, growing at more than a 35% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2015. In 2019, GMG won four major industry awards including a 2019 Communicator Award for Content & Marketing Campaign-Branded Social Campaign; ACQ5 Global Awards U.S. 2019 Boutique Communications Firm of the Year, Technology; ACQ5 Global Awards 2019 U.S. Marketing Executive of the Year for Nurik; and 2019 Bronze Stevie Award for PR Campaign of the Year. Over the past six years, GMG and Nurik have won a combined total of five DC Inno awards, including both 50 on Fire and Coolest Companies. For more information about GMG, visit: https://www.gabrielmarketing.com/. About Gabriel Marketing Group Gabriel Marketing Group (GMG) is a growth marketing and public relations agency 100% focused on high-growth technology companies, helping them to increase market awareness and rapidly grow sales through the strategic planning and execution of highly effective marketing, public relations, branding and communications programs. Its services include award-winning PR and analyst relations as well as market strategy consulting, digital marketing, advertising, SEO, marketing automation and content development. Over the past nine years, GMG has been repeatedly recognized for its work with top industry accolades including multiple Stevies, Communicators, MarComs and Daveys, among others. GMG has also repeatedly landed on DC Innos annual 50 on Fire list and is one of the Best Places to Work as named by the Washington Business Journal. GMG is a Gold Certified HubSpot Agency Partner and a proud member of Eurocom Worldwide, the Global PR Network for B2B and Technology. For more information, visit https://www.gabrielmarketing.com/ and follow on Twitter @GabrielMrktg. # # # Authorities transport undocumented immigrants from the Selayang wholesale market in Kuala Lumpur to detention centers, May 11, 2020. The Malaysian government on Tuesday reported its highest daily increase in new coronavirus cases since April 3, driven mostly by recently detected clusters at three of its 14 immigration detention centers one of which a recent detainee described as overcrowded and unsanitary. On Tuesday, the government confirmed 187 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide total to 7,604. No new coronavirus-related deaths were reported as the toll remained at 115. Local transmission of the virus among foreigners involved 155 new cases, which were detected at the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot, Noor Hisham Abdullah, the director-general of health, told reporters on Tuesday, adding that officials were awaiting results from the other clusters at detention centers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and in Semenyih, Selangor. Another 13 positive cases involved security guards at a shopping mall in Cheras, a district in the Malaysian capital, he said. All undocumented immigrants who tested negative for COVID-19 while in detention were to be deported to their home countries, said Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a senior minister security. Ismail, who on Tuesday chaired the governments special meeting on managing undocumented migrants, told reporters that officials with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would discuss with their counterparts arrangements to transport their citizens back to their countries. Among other things decided during the meeting was to make it compulsory for COVID-19 tests to be conducted on all detainees at the immigration depots at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Bukit Jalil and Semenyih, Ismail told a news conference broadcast live on national television and social media platforms. Those are the three centers blamed for the infection clusters. Meanwhile, a Rohingya who left a different detention center last month described conditions inside that facility. I was in immigration detention from March 2018 until just recently, April 10, at the Lenggeng depot in Negeri Sembilan. I was told that the center could fit 1,500 people and when I was there it was pretty packed, said the 18-year-old who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. The room I was in could fit 100 people, but due to the increase in the number of people being detained, there were more than 160 people in the room, the told BenarNews. He said those in his room could not maintain proper hygiene because they shared a toilet. The sleeping area is very cramped, from edge to edge. We all sleep on the cement floor. No mattress, no sheet, nothing, he said. Its not surprising that this virus spread, knowing how it is inside. Officials did not release details about coronavirus cases in the Lenggeng depot or 10 other detention centers not included in the cluster. Hospital beds available Ismail, the senior security official, announced that immigrants who tested positive for COVID-19 would be treated at the Ministry of Healths temporary hospital at the Malaysia Agricultural Expo Park in Serdang, Selangor, while those who tested negative would stay in quarantine before being sent home. He said the government was adding two more hospitals to treat immigrants suffering from the coronavirus, namely at the National Leprosy Center in Sungai Buloh and the old maternity ward building at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital. The three facilities will have the capacity to treat 1,430 patients at any given time. Ismail told reporters that efforts to quarantine and return immigrants to their home countries represent efforts to protect citizens who largely abide by the Movement Control Order, which establishes social distancing requirements as Malaysia battles the pandemic. Immigrants have to understand that some entered the country illegally. I do not know any country in this world that allows undocumented migrants to roam freely, he said. Those who enter this country illegally commit an offense under the law and can be arrested. They should thank us. Imagine if they were not arrested and spread the virus to innocent Malaysians, he said. Globally, more than 5.5 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and nearly 348,000 have died as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 26) Metro Manila mayors are unanimously recommending to ease COVID-19 mitigation measures in the region to a general community quarantine or GCQ, Metro Manila Development Authority General Manager Jojo Garcia announced Tuesday. All 17 mayors of the capital region are recommending to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to ease quarantine restrictions and allow more businesses to reopen in hopes of restarting the economy. Nakikita ng mayors natin na kailangan nang tumakbo ng ekonomiya natin, Garcia said. Kailangan natin buksan ang ekonomiya kasi mas maraming mamamatay sa gutom eh. [Translation: Our mayors see that the economy needs to restart We need to reopen the economy because more people would die of hunger.] Garcia said, however, that the mayors are ready to implement any decision that may come from the IATF, whether it decides to extend the current stringent modified enhanced community quarantine or it decides to impose the more relaxed GCQ. We trust the wisdom of the IATF and whatever decision that they will do, definitely we will follow, he said. Should the IATF agree with the Metro Manila mayors, mass transportation in the region will still be limited as the MMDA wants buses and jeeps not to operate for two more weeks. Garcia said private companies shuttles, transport network vehicle services, taxis, tricycles and point-to-point buses will still be available for those who need to be transported to work. A modified coding scheme will also be implemented, he said, where all vehicles will be allowed to travel as long as they are carrying two or more passengers. There have been talks that Metro Manila may shift to a GCQ, where more businesses are allowed to reopen so they could recover from losses brought by the COVID-19 crisis for the past two months. This is despite a warning from experts that a spike in COVID-19 infections may happen in Metro Manila if quarantine measures are eased. To date, there are over 14,000 confirmed cases of the viral disease in the Philippines, with over 800 deaths and more than 3,000 recoveries. New Delhi: Facing heat from AAP dispensation over rising cases of dengue and chikungunya in the national capital, the BJP-ruled civic bodies have pressed in more field workers for vector-borne disease control and reaching out to schools, markets and resident societies to raise awareness. Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain had recently said in the Assembly that all the three municipal corporations have primary responsibility to take preventive measures to control these diseases while the city government has curative responsibility. At AIIMS laboratories which get blood samples from Delhi and other parts of the country, 362 samples have tested positive for chikungunya from July to August 20. On the other hand, at least 311 cases of dengue have been reported in the national capital till August 20 and the deadly disease has claimed four lives this season. Several AAP legislators in the Assembly on Tuesday had accused the three BJP-controlled civic bodies of making the citys sanitation facilities a mess which they claimed was the major factor behind the spike in cases of vector-borne diseases. The municipal corporations, however, have claimed that only 20 cases of chikungunya have been reported till August 20. North Delhi Mayor Sanjeev Nayyar said the scare of dengue is not as much as it was last year but NDMC is taking all preventive measures. We have already distributed 1.2 lakh impregnated mosquito nets (laced with special chemical) to people. Our DBCs (dengue breeding checkers) are regularly inspecting households and other places for checking mosquito-breeding, he said. East Delhi Standing Committee Chairman Jitender Chaudhary said a proposal has been mooted to include nala beldars, workers who clean small nullahs before monsoon, in the DBC team, to address the shortage of manpower in this area. Chikungunya is not a notifiable disease, which means, its cases may not be reported to the government. And health experts say, that it could be one of the reasons why there is a discrepancy in the cases reported at hospitals and those by the municipal corporations. We have 710 DBCs and they conduct inspections regularly of coolers and rooftop water tanks in households. For chikungunya and dengue, we are doing regular awareness programmes, especially in schools, and move is to include private, aided schools in the list. Besides, we are planning to hold discussions with RWAs and marketing associations about this, he said. Out of the total dengue cases reported this season in the national capital, nearly 192 were recorded in the first three weeks of August. Grayson's Art Club viewers were left 'sobbing' after a young boy paid tribute to his twin brother who died when he was four in a touching family collage - before adding 'home is where the heart is.' In last night's episode of the Channel 4 show, which was themed 'home,' Grayson Perry spoke to members of the public about their creations - including Simran and his mother Mandish Khebbal, from the UK. 'Mum and dad are wearing Gucci,' explained the youngster. 'I cut it out from a magazine. They're wearing this because they'd normally wear black and white clothes. 'Cash is a grump. He's 12-years-old. I'm practicing for karate for when I go back to school for an exam. This is Sorian. He died when I was four and also when he was four. After Mandish explained that Sorian was his twin brother, Simran continued: 'Home is where the heart is, my heart is, and the heart of my family.' And viewers were quick to take to Twitter to express how moved they were by the touching collage. Simran and his mother Mandish Khebbal (pictured), from the UK, shared the collage with the nation in last night's episode of Channel 4's Grayson's Art Club Commenting on the collage before hearing the story behind it, the renowned artist said: 'I love the fact he's put these character's in the space and the interior decor. That wallpaper is fab and those lamps - he's got all the perspective right' (pictured) Viewers were left emotional (pictured) after Simran revealed he has included a picture of his twin brother, who sadly died when he was four '#GraysonsArtClub beautiful programme. Home is where the heart is wow the last section made me cry, brave mum and little fella,' wrote one, while a second penned: 'Beautiful little boy remembering his twin brother. Made me cry.' 'A third added: 'OMG....Simran's story just made me cry. Such a beautiful way to celebrate his Twin brother's life...by placing dinosaurs around to be collected and loved.. During the episode, Simran's mother Mandish went on to explain how it's coming up to the anniversary of her son Sorian's death. 'It's a really odd time to be in quarantine in your home, which you love, but not being able to get out and about,' she said. Simran pointed out that he positioned his twin brother in the photoframe on the wall of his collage (pictured) One emotional viewer took to social media and penned: 'Ooh that made me cry tonight. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Well done to all involved' (pictured) 'Usually at this time of year, on the anniversary of his death, we put dinosaurs on park benches with a little note like Paddington saying: "I'm brand new, please taken me home and play with me." It's a sad day but it's nice to make people happy.' She continued: 'I know it sounds odd but we kept the ashes. I can't bare to let him go. I always say whoever goes first gets to take him with them. He's always at home. He's ours. Before hearing the touching explanation to accompany their collage, Grayson was already impressed: 'I love a collage and this is a great one. It's got some nice detail.' 'I love the fact he's put these character's in the space and the interior decor. That wallpaper is fab and those lamps - he's got all the perspective right.' After confirming that it has been selected to feature in his exhibition, those who tuned in took to social media to discuss the impact the artwork had one them. 'Another deeply moving #GraysonsArtClub tonight which moved me to tears. I really hope you win an award for this series. This is TV to get you through #lockdown,' wrote one, while a second wrote: 'Loved #GraysonsArtClub again this week. Sobbed through the last 15 minutes!' A third added: 'Ooh that made me cry tonight. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Well done to all involved,' while a fourth agreed: 'Even though it makes me cry, on a Monday I exist purely for #GraysonsArtClub.' Another commented: 'Made us both cry at the end, but in a lovely heartfelt way. Everyone who watches and takes part in #GraysonsArtClub are 'our people' and that's a blessing right now.' By Hilary Russ NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kentucky Fried Chicken on Tuesday will begin testing an overhauled sandwich featuring a bigger chicken filet and other modifications that could reignite last year's Great Chicken Sandwich Wars with rivals Popeyes and Chick-fil-A. KFC, a unit of Yum! Brands Inc , will sell the new version of its chicken sandwich for 26 days - or until supplies run out - at 15 locations in and around Orlando, Florida for $3.99. The larger chicken filet will come on a brioche bun with thick pickle slices and mayonnaise. That appears to be similar to traits that have made rivals' sandwiches such a hit with customers. "We realized that our sandwich wasn't the one to beat and that wasn't okay for us," Andrea Zahumensky, KFC's chief marketing officer in the United States, told Reuters. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, a unit of Restaurant Brands International Inc , introduced a chicken sandwich and social media campaign in August 2019 that launched a war with the dominant chicken brand by market share, privately owned Chick-fil-A. U.S. same-store sales for Popeyes soared and remained high, up 29% in the first quarter of 2020. KFC sales for the same period dropped 8%, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv. Popeyes this month launched its first store in China in Shanghai to huge crowds. Even burger-centric McDonald's Corp began testing a chicken sandwich by December on the urging of franchisees eager to tap into the trend. KFC began reworking its existing chicken sandwich in the middle of 2019, Zahumensky said, testing pickles with different thicknesses and brines and working with six different bakeries to try at least 10 variations of buns. KFC made another move last year, with a trial of a plant-based fried chicken product that sold out within about five hours, Zahumensky said. [nL3N25M31C] [nL1N29Y0W6] "It was a great year for fried chicken," Zahumensky said. (Reporting by Hilary Russ in New York; Editing by Will Dunham) London: A vicar has confronted the British health minister on live television, asking if Britons fined for travelling for childcare would have their penalties revoked. The question came as the fallout over Boris Johnson's controversial adviser's lockdown breaches continued to overshadow the government's coronavirus response. More than 30 government MPs demanded Dominic Cummings quit his post as the British Prime Minister's top adviser for travelling 400 kilometres to his parent's farm during lockdown while his wife had coronavirus. A junior minister even resigned in protest on Tuesday. They and opposition MPs said Cummings had undermined the lockdown message and put public health at risk. Men with longer ring fingers face a lower risk of dying from Covid-19 and are more likely to suffer mild symptoms, researchers claim. Academics found coronavirus death rates in countries where men have shorter ring fingers were up to a third higher. Ring finger length is determined by how much testosterone a foetus is exposed to when growing in the womb, the experts said. The more testosterone a male is exposed to in the womb, the longer their ring finger will be, it is believed. Testosterone is thought to be protective against severe Covid-19 by increasing the number of ACE-2 receptors in the body. Scientists believe the coronavirus, officially called SARS-CoV-2, enters the body and causes infection through these receptors. But studies also suggest that high levels of ACE-2 receptors can protect against lung damage, which the coronavirus can cause. The new study, carried out by Swansea University, found men with low testosterone levels are twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than men with higher levels. How to see if you have a long ring finger: Measure the index finger and the ring finger to the closest millimetre. The first measurement is divided by the second measurement to get the digit ratio. The smaller the digit ratio, the longer the ring finger is. The country with the smallest average male right hand digit ratio was Malaysia, with 0.976. The higher the digit ratio, the shorter the ring finger is. Bulgaria has the highest male right hand digit ratio, with 0.99 Academics found coronavirus death rates in countries where men have shorter ring fingers were higher. The case fatality rate was an average of 4.9 (per 100,000) in the top 10 countries with the shortest finger length, including in Bulgaria, Argentina and Turkey. It was an average of 2.7 in the top 10 countries with the longest finger length, including Malaysia, Mexico and Russia Researchers found that in countries where the right hand digit ratio was smaller, including Malaysia, Russia and Mexico, the case fatality rate was lower (left side) WHY ARE MALES MORE AT RISK OF COVID-19? Several studies have reported a higher fatality rate in men compared with women. Scientists hypothesise that men are less likely to wash their hands often, may not seek medical help, have a genetically disadvantaged immune system compared to women, or have more underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable. Adults The disparity between adult men and women has largely been put down to behaviours, including drinking alcohol, smoking, and eating unhealthily. Dr James Gill, a locum GP and honorary clinical lecturer, Warwick Medical School, said theories lie on the assumption that simply men dont look after their bodies as well, with higher levels of smoking, alcohol use, obesity and other deleterious health behaviours. These would put men at a higher risk of health conditions - which has been confirmed to be detrimental to COVID-19 outcomes. The sex differential in smoking is especially marked in some countries such as China, where 50 per cent of men smoke compared to five per cent in women. However, Dr Gill said: 'Whilst smoking is a plausible factor, globally, across various different cultures, where smoking rates do differ, we are still seeing the sustained difference in mortality between men and women. 'Whilst we dont have a definitive answer on why there is a difference between how men and women respond a COVID19 infection at the immunological level - yet - currently it is a fair assumption that there will be a significant interplay between the biology and the environmental facts.' Children The slight increase in boys being infected with coronavirus compared to girls cannot be the result of behaviours such as smoking. Philip Goulder FMedSci, professor of immunology in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, explained how males and females have genetically different immune responses, which would be present from birth. He said: 'It is becoming increasingly recognised that there are substantial differences in the immune system between males and females and that these have significant impact on outcome from a wide range of infectious diseases. 'Several factors contribute to this, but these include the fact that females have two X chromosomes compared to one in males, and a number of critical immune genes are located on the X chromosome. 'In particular, the protein by which viruses such as coronavirus are sensed is encoded on the X chromosome. As a result, this protein is expressed at twice the dose on many immune cells in females compared to males, and the immune response to coronavirus is therefore amplified in females.' This effect can be seen in how the body responds to vaccines. The immune response throughout life to vaccines and infections is typically more aggressive and more effective in females compared to males, Professor Goulder said. Advertisement Mounting evidence has shown men are more likely to die from the coronavirus than women - but scientists have been unable to determine exactly why this is. In England and Wales, the Covid-19 death rate for men is 97.5 per 100,000 people compared to 46.5 for females, according to the Office for National Statistics. Scientists believe men are less likely to wash their hands, may not seek medical help, and have more underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable. But testosterone could be one of the key reasons why so many men are dying from coronavirus, doctors believe. Swansea University experts added to the theory that men who have low testosterone levels are at more at risk of Covid-19 than other men. They looked at data of 200,000 people in 41 countries where the researchers had already measured the finger lengths of volunteers. Some researchers believe finger lengths reflect a foetus's exposure to testosterone and other hormones that guide development in the womb. The index finger and the ring finger was measured to the closest millimetre. The first measurement is divided by the second measurement to get the 2D:4D ratio. The smaller the digit ratio, the longer the ring finger is. The country with the smallest average male right hand digit ratio was Malaysia, with 0.976. The higher the digit ratio, the shorter the ring finger is. Bulgaria has the highest male right hand digit ratio, with 0.99. Researchers found that in countries where the male digit ratio was smaller, including Malaysia, Russia and Mexico, the case fatality rate of Covid-19 was lower. And in countries where the male digit ratio was higher, including the UK, Bulgaria and Spain, the case fatality rate was higher. Case fatality rate is how many people who die from Covid-19 after being diagnosed. In the UK, official figures show the virus has a case-fatality ratio of around 11 per cent. It is different to the mortality rate, which takes into consideration everyone who has ever been infected, including those with none or mild symptoms. Case fatality rate at this stage of the pandemic is not considered entirely accurate because it relies on testing strategies identifying all cases, and this varies from country to country. The case fatality rate for each nation in the study included women. However, the link between finger length and deaths was still there when women were removed from the statistics. The findings were more significant when looking at the right hands of men than their left hands. Women's finger length didn't seem to affect death rates, according to the study, published in the journal Early Human Development. When looking specifically at the left hand, the top 10 countries with the longest male ring finger had an average case fatality rate of 3.1 per 100,000 people, compared to the 10 countries with the shortest ring finger, with an average fatality rate of 5. HOW CAN YOU MEASURE YOUR 2D:4D RATIO? A relatively long ring finger is a sign of exposure to higher levels of testosterone in the womb, while a relatively long index finger points to greater amounts of oestrogen. One theory is that for a short time in foetal development, there are testosterone receptors on the fingers and that the ring finger may have more of these receptors and grow faster when exposed to it. So, how do you measure your 2D:4D ratio? For readers, there are several ways to figure out their 2D:4D ratio. The new research uses an electronic caliper. Respondents were asked to place their hands on a flat surface, palms facing upwards, and straighten out their fingers. A researcher then measured the length of the index and ring fingers on both hands. This measurement should be taken from the center of the fold between the finger and palm up to the very tip of the finger. That way the upper lip of the caliper does not press against the finger. Advertisement And for the right hand, the top 10 countries with the longest ring finger had an average case fatality rate of 2.7, compared to the 10 countries with the shortest ring finger, with an average fatality rate of 4.9. Lead researcher Professor John Manning, said this may give Australia, New Zealand, Austria and East Asian nations, where male ring fingers are longer, 'a biological advantage', The Sun reports. He added: 'Our findings may be men with long ring fingers will experience mild symptoms and could return to work.' The researchers said that finger length is an indicator of how much testosterone a foetus was exposed to while growing. Professing Manning said: 'The theory is that someone with high prenatal testosterone and a long ring finger has greater levels of ACE2. 'These concentrations are large enough to oppose the virus.' Cell receptors called ACE-2, which coat the surfaces of cells, are what the coronavirus attaches to in order to infect our healthy cells. Its thought that the more of these receptors you have, the more entry points there are for the virus. However, ACE-2 receptors are thought to limit disease progression once the coronavirus is in the body. The virus is known to cause lung damage by depleting the numbers of ACE-2 receptors once inside the body. WHAT IS AN ACE-2 RECEPTOR AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH COVID-19? ACE-2 receptors are structures found on the surface of cells in the lungs and airways which work with an enyzme called ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) to regulate blood pressure. Its exact function in the lungs is not well understood but studies suggest it is protective against lung damage and low levels of it can worsen the impact of viral infections. Scientists say that the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 enters the body through the ACE-2 receptor, which the shape of it allows it to latch on to. This means that someone with more ACE-2 receptors may be more susceptible to a large viral load - first infectious dose of a virus - entering their bloodstream. ACE-2 receptors have a shape which matches the outside of the coronavirus, effectively providing it with a doorway into the bloodstream, scientists say People who have higher than usual numbers of ACE-2 receptors may include those with diabetes or high blood pressure because they have genetic defects which make them produce more. Emerging evidence shows that smokers may also produce more. High levels of ACE-2 receptors may also be protective, however. They are thought to be able to protect the lungs during infection and a study on mice in 2008 found that mice which had ACE-2 blocked in their bodies suffered more damage when they were infected with SARS, which is almost identical to COVID-19. Smoking has in the past been repeatedly linked to lower than normal levels of ACE-2 receptors, potentially increasing the risk of lung damage from COVID-19. Advertisement Therefore, it seems that people who express high levels of ACE-2 may in fact be protected against disease severity. Professor Manning wrote in his paper: 'The ACE-2 gene is more strongly expressed in females compared to males. 'These associations suggest a negative correlation between ACE-2 expression and Covid-19 fatality. 'The down-regulation of ACE-2 may therefore be associated with poor prognosis from Covid-19. 'Research suggests that testosterone in men (and estrogen in women) up-regulates ACE-2.' The paper concludes: 'A strong positive association between male 2D:4D (digit ratio) and mortality may provide a biomarker for male Covid-19 susceptibility and identify those for whom it would be advisable to exercise social distancing.' A recent study found men with low testosterone levels that contract Covid-19 are at far greater risk of dying from the virus, a study has found. Samples from the 45 Covid-19 patients in a German hospital were tested for 12 hormones, including testosterone and dihydrotestosterone. Professor Gulsah Gabriel from the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg, who was involved in the research, told MailOnline: 'The majority of male Covid-19 patients had low testosterone levels. 'Of those male Covid-19 patients who died, the majority also had low testosterone levels. 'Thus, low testosterone levels in men seem to be a risk factor for severe and even fatal disease outcome in men upon infection with so-called cytokine inducing respiratory viruses.' Testosterone is known to help regulate the body's immune response but when a man has low levels of testosterone, the immune system is not kept in check and can go haywire following infection. This leads to a so-called cytokine storm which happens when the immune system goes out of control as it tries to kill the pathogen. A cytokine storm eventually begins damaging the body itself and, if left unchecked, can be fatal. Of the male Covid-19 patients sent to ICU at the German hospital, more than two thirds (68.6 per cent) recorded low levels of testosterone. In contrast, the majority of female patients (60 per cent) had elevated testosterone levels. While low levels of testosterone can not control the immune response in men, the study found that in female Covid-19 patients, higher testosterone levels were linked to a more significant inflammatory response. T wo astronauts are set to make history as they travel into space on a rocket built by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's firm. If all goes as planned, mission Demo-2 will on Wednesday see SpaceX become the first private company to send astronauts into space. It will also be the first time in nine years astronauts have launched into space from US soil. The joint effort by Nasa and SpaceX to send Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley into space has been hailed a major milestone for the global space industry by a leading expert from the UK Space Agency. Libby Jackson, human exploration programme manager at the UK Space Agency, said the work done by SpaceX and Nasa is not only a huge stepping stone for the US but also a major milestone for the global space sector. Robert Behnken is due to travel to the International Space Station on May 27 / PA She said: We have been dependent on just a single way of getting to and from this amazing scientific laboratory we have up there. To reinstate what we call dissimilar redundancy a different way of getting to and from the space station would be very significant for the future of the space station. She added that the mission opens up a new era where space agencies are becoming more open to commercialisation and space tourism, saying it is indeed where I see some of this heading. Since ending its Space Shuttle programme in 2011, Nasa has depended on Russias space agency Roscosmos to transport its astronauts to the space station. The Crew Dragon spacecraft will take off from Florida on May 27 carrying two American astronauts / PA In 2014, Nasa awarded SpaceX and Boeing contracts to provide crewed launch services to the space station as part of its Commercial Crew Programme. According to the US space agency, this is a demonstration mission which if successful, will allow SpaceX to take part in more manned missions. SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket will take off from the launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on May 27, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft where Mr Behnken, 49, and Mr Hurley, 53, will be seated. Mr Behnken will serve as the missions joint operations commander and take responsibility for the rendezvous, docking and undocking of the Dragon capsule, while Mr Hurley will be in charge of the launch, landing and recovery of the vehicle in his role as the Crew Dragon spacecraft commander. Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures 1 /80 Amazing NASA Space Images - In pictures Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 NASA This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft NASA Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984 NASA The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image NASA Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program Getty Images The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960 NASA The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey NASA The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961 NASA President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress NASA Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth NASA A close-up view of an astronaut's bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969 NASA Man's first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, "Eagle," touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969 NASA After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet NASA Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965 NASA The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it's budding young pilots NASA Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968 NASA American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 NASA Home View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission NASA Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969 Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images Lunar mission Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972 NASA First image of Viking 1's foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976 NASA The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977 NASA A dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979 NASA The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981 NASA Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space NASA One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called 'Pillars of Creation' NASA Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973 NASA NASA's Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA's SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona NASA Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000 Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000 NASA 2004 The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004) NASA 2005 A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005) NASA International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008 NASA The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA's Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp NASA Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum's face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks. AFP/Getty Images In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA's Great Observatories -- Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory -- have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way NASA A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn NASA This majestic false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows 'mountains' where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars NASA The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station NASA Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011 NASA NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission's third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012 NASA Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet NASA Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent's Park, Hyde Park and St. James's Park east of Buckingham Palace NASA International Space Station image of London at night NASA This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015 NASA Pluto's haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015 NASA NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL NASA Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 NASA The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017 NASA Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017 NASA The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017 This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater NASA US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen's looking spectacular from above NASA SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018 NASA NASA's Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter's southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018 NASA The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli NASA The Bailey's Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse NASA The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington NASA Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter's northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed it's 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet's cloud tops. NASA Ms Jackson said: Its going to be a 10-minute ride into space. After about two minutes, the rocket will separate into what is called a first stage and a second stage. The first stage will return to a SpaceX landing ship which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, while the second part of the rocket continues the journey with the Crew Dragon capsule. Once in orbit, the capsule will separate from the second stage and travel at around 17,000mph before being in a position to rendezvous, and dock, with the space station 24 hours later. Ms Jackson added: The crew will dock at the front of the space station and we expect to see that on Thursday afternoon. Then, about an hour and a half later the hatch will open and the crew will arrive on the space station. The astronauts will join the three other space station residents Nasas Chris Cassidy and Russias Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner to become members of the Expedition 63 crew. The mission is expected to last anything between one and four months where they will perform further tests on the Crew Dragon. Additional reporting by PA Media Bay Area political events that are happening online and at socially safe distances during the coronavirus pandemic: SATURDAY Voting rights: A two-day webinar on steps needed to ensure fair elections during the pandemic. Hosted by the Center for Common Ground. 9 a.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. More information and RSVP here. Rent, mortgage relief: Car caravans to support cancelling rent and mortgage payments for tenants, homeowners, small landlords and small businesses for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized by Answer Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. In San Francisco, gather at 10 a.m. at 1875 Marin St. at Evans Avenue. More information is here. In San Jose, gather at 11 a.m. at the Diridon Caltrain station, 65 Cahill St. More information is here. In Santa Rosa, gather at noon at Earle Street. More information is here. Climate action speakers: Professionals in the climate action field, including in science, education, policy and advocacy, talk about their work. Virtual series allows youths to interact with local leaders and explore environmental issues. 4 p.m. Saturday; series runs through June 7. Hosted by Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action. More information is here. WEDNESDAY David Frum: Political commentator outlines a path back for American democracy after President Trump. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here. Climate change and the election: A discussion on whether climate issues will play a major role in the November elections. Panelists include Vanessa Hauc, journalist and senior correspondent at Noticias Telemundo; Jeff Nesbit, executive director at Climate Nexus,;and Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. 4 p.m. More information is here. THURSDAY Women reshaping Congress: New York Times reporter Jennifer Steinhauer on the women who were first elected to the House in 2018 and their agendas. Hosted by the Commonwealth Club. Noon. More information is here. JUNE 6 Action against gun violence: A California conversation on gun violence prevention, with online speakers and actions people can take. Hosted by Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gunsafety. 10 a.m. More information is here. JUNE 9 Berkeley home cooking: A virtual rally to support legalizing the sale of home-cooked food. Organized by Foonome. 7 p.m. More information and Zoom link here. JUNE 11 LGBTQ asylum seekers: The challenges and hurdles facing LGBTQ+ immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers coming to the United States. Hosted by the Commowealth Club and San Francisco Pride. Noon. More information is here. To list an event, please email Chronicle politics editor Trapper Byrne at tbyrne@sfchronicle.com Todays agricultural policy is no longer market oriented, nor is it supply management that arose from the Roosevelt efforts to keep enough farmers on the land to produce enough food to feed a hungry nation. The policy is one of government payments designed to indemnify farmers from marketplace disruptions caused by government actions in the case of Chinese trade and now by unexpected pandemic. If that statement is familiar, it appeared a week ago in this column, which ventured into the realm of how the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the agricultural economy and domestic farm policy. Nothing has changed in the past week, but questions continue to arise about what is to come when society sheds itself of pandemic rules, regulations, habits, social distancing and fear of infection. A farmer in a tractor or combine cab is the epitome of social distancing. And Corn Belt states have generally been more immune from widespread coronavirus infections than urban areas. But while crop and livestock production has avoided many pandemic-related issues, processing and distribution of food has not. Government and industry will likely take care of the supply chain problems, but farm policy will have to be refined to ensure there is plenty of food flowing into that supply chain. Currently, market prices that collapsed earlier this year have been supplanted with government payments. While those are less than desirable most farmers say, they have been welcomed at an unexpected time. One of the challenges this year is the growing stocks of corn and soybeans, due to the disruption of trade with China from the exchange of tariffs on imports and exports. The loss of commodity sales to China, plus farmers expansion of acreage due to low prices, is expected to create surpluses that will take several years to consume. And in the meantime, more low prices. There have been some suggestions of a return to mandated idling of acreage in return for guaranteed prices, known to the farm policy gurus as supply management. However, sharp pencils used to work out supply and demand were nearly always dulled by the vagaries of the weather. Even in 1983, when the payment in kind program was implemented to remove millions of acres, Mother Nature participated with one of the worst droughts of the latter part of the 20th century. And suddenly the combination shorted the needed supply of grain. If the Congress and agricultural lobbyists were in the beginning stages of writing a new Farm Bill, there would likely be some innovative programs. However, the 2018 Farm Bill is still at the starting gate of implementation and will provide limited alternatives. In recent months the White House and U.S. Department of Agriculture have stretched farm program authority with the use of funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation to make payments to farmers for their losses. And it is that type of farm program on the fly that may become the law of the land until cooler heads and lower grain stocks prevail. Stu Ellis is an observer of the Central Illinois agriculture scene. In addition to his weekly column, you can view his From The Farm and Harvest Heritage reports on WCIA 3 News. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A veterinarian has opened up about her experience of being pinned up against a wall by a client after saving his dog's life. Dr Margie Bale, from the Gold Coast, was 26-years-old and had been working in a clinic where she was on call 24-hours-a-day, including weekends, for about two-and-a-half years. 'It was about 11pm on a Saturday night and I got the call from a client - I could tell he had been drinking - about his Maltese terrier who had eaten an entire barbecue chicken,' she told SBS Insight. Dr Margie Bale, from the Gold Coast, was 26-years-old and had been working in a clinic where she was on call 24-hours-a-day, including weekends, for about two-and-a-half years She said she was hesitant as the man was slurring his words but she had to save the animal as the intact chicken was preventing it from breathing properly. The operation went smoothly with Dr Bale enabling the animal to breathe fully again but she said she things took a nasty turn when she gave the man the bill. 'With that he launched into a huge tirade of abuse, saying that I was money hungry and that if I really cared that I would've done it for free.' The man grew more aggressive and grabbed Dr Bale by the shirt then pinned her against the wall of her clinic. She managed to talk the man down by saying they could sort the bill, which was $187, out another day - though it was never paid. Dr Bale said the abuse from some clients over money, low wages, high pressure, and extremely long hours made her quit working in veterinary practices and she now works at a university. The Australian Veterinary Association says that veterinarians have one of the highest rates of suicide at about four-times the national average - or around one suicide every 12 weeks in Australia. 'Three colleagues [died of] suicide... the pressures of running a clinic, the emotional intensity of the job, and people always questioning our ethics over the bill after saving their animals' lives, it wears you down,' Dr Bale said. Vets bills can run high because the machines, operating equipment and drugs are the same standard as human medicine but there is no Medicare type system to subsidise the cost. Dr Bale, however, remembers clearly the amount of the bill she was assaulted over because she would have 'dropped that amount on a pair of shoes in a heartbeat'. While pet insurance recently got a negative review from CHOICE because of the lack of competition in the industry, most vets still recommend getting cover as a part of responsible pet ownership to help with unexpected costs. Dr Bale is one of a number of veterinarians who will discuss the industry and mental health on SBS Insight at 8.30pm Tuesday. When the dentists office called to cancel Laura Lizcanos appointment for a crown and cavity filling in March because of the coronavirus, she wasnt terribly worried. The 25-year-old freelance musician didnt know at the time that the pandemic would keep medical offices closed for months, keeping her from getting her teeth taken care of before she lost her health and dental insurance. Lizcano, who lives in Queen Village, will be dropped from her mothers insurance plan at the end of May after she turns 26, the age limit for children to be covered by a parent. Now, at a time when shes lost nearly all her income, Lizcano will pay at least $1,200 out-of-pocket for the procedure. As dentists resume services put on hold during the pandemic, they face new infection-control requirements that could lead to higher costs and perhaps less access for patients. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has said that dental practices must have sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) for all providers and has urged dentists to avoid procedures that create a visible spray of saliva or blood from patients mouths unless necessary as part of emergency treatment. In New Jersey, dentists have been instructed to perform only procedures that cannot be delayed safely, and to follow CDC guidelines for safety protocols. Dentists agree that the protections are important in a line of work in which faces come close and spit can fly, but they are cash-strapped after two months without any income, and are concerned about how they will cover the new expense. Dental insurance plans may cover part of the cost, dentists could charge a PPE fee directly to patients or raise prices to account for the additional expense. Dental care is a financial pressure point for families even in good times and any of these approaches will likely lead to high costs for patients, many of whom have lost jobs, income and health insurance. Its understandable there would need to be more precautions, said Lizcano, who isnt sure whether her dentist will now charge an additional PPE fee, but why does it have to be me who foots the bill? New safety protocol puts dentists in a bind Dentists used masks and protective equipment before the pandemic, but the new guidelines require a bigger investment in more advanced gear than is usually necessary, such as N95 masks. The additional PPE is definitely a significant expense, said Neil Uffner, owner of Broad Street Braces, whose practice donated many of its masks and gowns to hospitals at the outset of the crisis. Its something that weve never really had to consider. A box of 50 masks that used to cost $5 is going for $50 now, while a gown that used to be $1 now costs $15. For now, Uffner doesnt plan to pass on the cost to his patients. To cover the cost long term, the American Dental Association has proposed creating a new insurance billing code or adjusting existing billing codes. Whether insurance companies will agree to cover new fees remains unclear. Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an association that represents major insurance companies including several national dental insurers, said it expects the cost of dental care to increase. How this will be covered by patients, either out-of-pocket or through insurance coverage, is a question that needs to be responsibly considered, said Tom Meyers, a vice president for AHIP. In the meantime, dental practices eager to resume care and get money flowing again are temporarily absorbing the new infection-control costs. We are still operating at a loss through all this, said Michael Barnes, a dentist in South Philadelphia. Its going to be a matter of getting back to some sort of schedule gradually and kind of seeing where all the costs shake out. Mestichelli Barnes Dental Associates, a family owned practice, received a notice that United Concordia, which offers dental benefits through Independence Blue Cross plans, would reimburse $10 for PPE, but he isnt sure yet whether that will cover the practices entire cost per patient. Temple Universitys dental clinic, which resumed emergency and urgent services the last week of May, has been stocking up on protective equipment and built makeshift rooms within the clinic for patients receiving dental treatments that may splatter water, spit or blood. Routine cleanings are still on hold. The school even bought 30 specialty suction machines designed to reduce spray during dental procedures and reduce aerosolization, which is when saliva particles that could be carrying the virus are broken up into smaller particles that can hang in the air longer and potentially spread more easily. Im just focusing on opening and then we will figure out the cost, said Amid Ismail, dean of Temples Kornberg School of Dentistry. The cost of investing in safety precautions to get Temples dental clinic running again is worthwhile because many patients have few alternatives for dental care and because the clinic accounts for a significant portion of the dental schools revenue, Ismail said. However passing on the cost to patients a majority of whom are covered by Medicaid or uninsured is beyond consideration, Ismail said. If insurance wont chip in, the dental school is prepared to make cuts in other areas, such as building renovations and faculty travel. Rising costs hit patients Patient advocates worry that rising dental costs will inevitably fall on families who are already struggling financially during the pandemic. Providers have lost a lot of revenue, but a lot of people who are their customers have lost a lot, too, said Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy analyst at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. READ MORE: Unemployed and uninsured because of coronavirus? You may be eligible for Medicaid. About half of Americans covered by employer-sponsored health plans had dental benefits in 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But these plans often have high out-of-pocket costs, and nearly a quarter of people with private dental insurance didnt go to the dentist in 2019, according to the CDC. Two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries dont have dental coverage because it is not included in original Medicare, though it is part of some Medicare Advantage plans sold by private insurers, said Melissa Burroughs, a senior oral health campaign manager at Families USA, a national consumer health-care advocacy organization. More so than any other health care service, dental is the number-one service Americans skip due to cost, Burroughs said. The way things are changing is likely to exacerbate that. Skyrocketing unemployment rates are expected to leave thousands uninsured. While many may qualify for Medicaid, most states require Medicaid to provide full dental coverage for children only. In Pennsylvania, Medicaid plans cover basic services, such as routine cleanings and fillings. More involved services, such as crowns or root canals are paid out of pocket. For years weve taken the mouth out of the body and treated it as an other kind of disease. We want to see dental health care become part of overall health care, said Helen Hawkey, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health. Hawkey said she fears that the pandemic may move the needle in the wrong direction, potentially further restricting access to care for low-income patients. Even a $10 or $15 fee could prevent some from getting care. The Medicaid managed-care organizations that Hawkeys coalition works with have said they are looking into how to cover dentist fees for infection control. But she worries that even if Medicaid plans agree to cover a portion of the cost, financially strained practices may decide they can no longer afford to accept the rates negotiated by private insurers and the even lower rates paid by Medicaid plans. At that point, such practices might switch to a cash model, taking only patients who can afford to pay higher prices out of pocket. Others could decide against reopening at all. Beginning June 1, Lizcano will be covered by Medicaid. A few years out of college, she was just starting to feel secure in her freelance career, with several regular teaching and music clinic gigs on her calendar. Now shes down to a few private voice lessons through video. Amid the pandemic, shes grateful to have health insurance, but disappointed that she will have to tap into her hard-earned savings if she wants to get her crown and cavity addressed. I have to do it, she said. But considering the situation and not having much income coming in, its just the additional kick. The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the citys push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org. Good morning. (Dont already get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.) On Monday, state public health officials announced that houses of worship could reopen across the state, following Gov. Gavin Newsoms reassurances Friday that guidelines for doing so were in the works. That announcement came in apparent response to pressure from religious leaders and the president to allow in-person services. The new guidelines say that religious or cultural ceremonies including funerals can take place with county health department approval, and in buildings limited to 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower. The guidance also requires that places of worship establish an infection prevention plan and try to minimize or eliminate, if possible, singing or group recitations, which can spread coronavirus droplets, increasing others risk. tech2 News Staff Redmi is set to host a launch event today in China where it will unveil Redmi 10X smartphone series with 5G connectivity and Redmi X TV. There is no confirmation if these products will make their way to India anytime soon. The event will begin at 11.30 am IST today and the livestream might be available on Weibo or Xiaomi China website. Redmi 10X series expected specifications A Weibo post by Redmi suggested that Redmi 10X is likely to come in blue, purple, golden, and white colour variants. The post also revealed that Redmi 10X might feature a quad-camera setup at the back. The four cameras are expected to pack in a rectangular camera module. As per a report by Gizmochina, Redmi 10X series is likely to include a base and a Pro model. The base model is expected to feature a 6.57-inch OLED display and an in-display fingerprint sensor. The report adds that the smartphone might offer 8 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage. It is likely to house a 4,420 mAh battery. In terms of camera, it is expected to come with a 16 MP front camera and a quad-camera setup at the back. Redmi X TV expected specifications Lu Weibing, Xiaomi CEO, confirmed via a Weibo post that Redmi will launch three smart TVs at the launch event- Redmi TV X50, X55, and X65. These TVs will come in three screen sizes that include 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch. Redmi also confirmed that the TV will come with an 8-unit subwoofer audio system and will also sport four 12.5 W speakers. According to a previous report, the Redmi X TV series will feature 4K panels on all models. The televisions are expected to come with a 60Hz refresh rate display and 85 percent NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) wide color gamut. Last week, Brazil saw the highest number of new coronavirus cases in a seven-day period since its outbreak began. The WHOs regional Latin American health authority has warned that the new coronavirus is still accelerating in Brazil, Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, as the Americas become the new epicentre of the global pandemic. Carissa Etienne, WHO director for the Americas and head of the Pan American Health Organization, said that Brazil last week reported its highest new number of coronavirus cases for a seven-day period since the outbreak first reached the country of over 209 million. To date, Brazil has confirmed nearly 375,000 cases, second only to the United States. At least 23,473 people had died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, as of Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. President Jair Bolsonaro has been openly hostile towards coronavirus restrictions. Brazils daily death rate became the worlds highest on Monday and a University of Washington study has warned that the countrys total death toll could climb five-fold to 125,000 by early August. Our region has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, Etienne said, as other PAHO directors warned there are very tough weeks ahead for the region and Brazil has a long way to go before it sees the pandemic end. The Americas have registered more than 2.4 million cases of the new coronavirus and more than 143,000 deaths from the resulting COVID-19 respiratory disease. Latin America has passed Europe and the United States in daily infections, she said. Both Peru and Chile are also reporting a high incidence, a sign that transmission is still accelerating in these countries, Etienne said at a virtual weekly briefing on Tuesday. Peru has reported more than 123,900 cases and 3,629 deaths, while Chile has confirmed more than 76,900 infections, reporting a record 5,000 new cases on Monday, while its death toll reached 806. Etiennes statements come as some of the hardest-hit countries across the world have begun to ease movement restrictions designed to contain the virus, and resistance towards the measures has grown in Latin America. Bolsonaro has criticised governors who have imposed coronavirus lockdowns across the country, while protesters in the Chilean capital Santiago took to the streets on May 18 calling for more government support amid a strict lockdown in the city. Peru last week extended its nationwide lockdown until the end of June. Now is not the time for countries to ease restrictions, Etienne warned. Malaria drug trial The WHO on Tuesday also said it expected a safety review of hydroxychloroquine to be completed by mid-June. The malaria drug was being trialled as part of the bodys global Solidarity initiative, which is exploring possible COVID-19 treatments. The trial was paused after studies brought its safety into question, including one published on Friday that suggested the drug may actually increase the chance of death for those suffering from COVID-19. US President Donald Trump, despite warnings from health officials, has repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against coronavirus, revealing last week that he had taken a course of the drug. Bolsonaro has also promoted hydroxychloroquine. On Monday, Brazils health ministry said it would continue to recommend the drug for COVID-19. Were remaining calm, and there will be no change, health ministry official Mayra Pinheiro told a news conference. The border friction between India and China is no accident but a planned move" by New Delhi to seize territory, an article in Chinas state-run Global Times said, warning the move risks escalating standoffs and conflicts between the two countries. The article blamed Indias illegally constructed defence facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galwan Valley region", for the rising tensions, with both countries bringing in reinforcements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) border in the western Ladakh sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held consultations with the three service chiefs and national security adviser Ajit Doval amid the rise in border tensions. Indian troops sent to the LAC are ready for the long haul, a person familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity. Without specifying numbers, he said they were in sufficient strength to match the opposing side. News reports have put the number of Chinese soldiers along the LAC at between 1,200 and 5,000. There was no official confirmation of these numbers. Details of Modis meeting were not known but it comes as several rounds of talks at the level of brigade commanders have not yielded results, with political and diplomatic intervention expected to break the deadlock. Separately, defence minister Rajnath Singh also met the chiefs of the three services and the chief of defence staff Bipin Rawat on Tuesday. In Beijing, president Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China would step up its preparedness for armed combat and improve its ability to carry out military tasks as the coronavirus pandemic is having a profound impact on national security, a Reuters report said. Though it appeared unrelated to the India-China tensions, the comments are nevertheless seen as significant. The Global Times piece is expected to add to India-China tensions, which are already running high with skirmishes at several points across a 3,488-km LAC, mainly in Ladakh, but also in Sikkim. The border tensions are expected to figure in the Indian Armys biannual commanders conference in New Delhi that starts on Wednesday and ends on Friday. The apex level leadership of the Indian army will brainstorm on current emerging security and administrative challenges and chart the future course for the Indian army," an army statement said. According to the Global Times article published on Monday, Unlike previous standoffs, the latest border friction was not caused by accident, but was a planned move of New Delhi. India has been clearly and definitely aware that the Galwan Valley region is Chinese territory. If India failed to stop such provocations as soon as possible, it will impact on Beijing-New Delhi tiesand may even exceed the sort of intensity of the (2017) Doklam standoff," said the article by Long Xingchun, a senior research fellow of Academy of Regional and Global Governance, Beijing Foreign Studies University and president of Chengdu Institute of World Affairs. The Doklam stand-off in Bhutan lasted 73 days, Long said. But thanks to contacts between the leadership at the highest levels through the informal summits in Wuhan in 2018 and Chennai in 2019, strategic trust was restored." The results have not come easily and should be cherished by both sides," the article said. According to former Indian ambassador to China, Gautam Bambawale, My answer to this would be, let us clarify the LAC. If we do that, then the two armies will not cross into what is perceived as the others territory." Bambawale said the current tensions were due to the fact that both sides had developed infrastructure along the LAC,. The answer to this would be to develop mechanisms in the next one year that will prevent this from happening from next summer." The Global Times article also pointed to a possible link between Indias action on the border with the slowing Chinese economy and some countries in the West blaming China for the spread of covid-19. The article said some quarters in India believed this to be an opportunity to take advantage of. Some Indians believe slowed Chinese economy growth and some Western countries blame game provide them a great opportunity where the border issue will fall to their advantage amid the covid-19 pandemic," the article said, warning against such thinking. However, this speculative mind game is based on an incorrect judgement of the international order and Chinas national condition. This is flawed logic and ultimately detrimental to India," it said. China has effectively curbed the covid-19 pandemic with businesses resuming and life returning to normal, it said. This demonstrates the strong leadership of the Chinese government and firm social cohesion in China," the article said. In contrast, in India, the number of covid-19 infections were climbing, surpassing the numbers of China and the inflection point" is yet to come. Currently, Indias top priority should be handling the epidemic and restoring economy rather than instigating border disputes," the article said. The Indian government should keep a sober head to not be used as cannon ash by the US," it said, adding later that the Trump administration encourages India to be tough on China so as to provoke and profit from the China-India disputes." Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The city of Kolkata cuts a sorry figure with the death toll at 19 due to Cyclone Amphan. On 20 May, the monstrous cyclone made landfall at around 20 km East of Sagar Island in the Indian Sunderbans in West Bengal. This centurys strongest cyclone in the Bay of Bengal wrecked havoc in large parts of the state and devastated Kolkata in a way that was not seen in many decades. On the same day, West Bengal also recorded 3 more COVID-19 deaths and 142 additional positive cases. As thousands of trees were uprooted in the city razing a substantial amount of property to the ground, both physical and virtual connectivity has come to a near standstill in this part of the country due to the joint effect of the cyclone and the ongoing pandemic. In fact, this article was researched for and written over three days using intermittent internet signals from a neighbours mobile device. The Kolkata airport was flooded into a lake and the citys iconic College Street known as Boi Para (locality of books) have incurred unprecedented losses in book stocks amounting to approximately 6 million as per early estimates. It is very rare in the history of modern India that one of the countrys largest cities continues to stand in ruins, days after the cyclone. Many localities in the city, even within the COVID-19 containment zones, grapple with no power or water supply due to the cyclone. Many television and internet operators claim that restoration of connections could take weeks. The following map shows Cyclone Amphans path from the Bay of Bengal into Bangladesh via various cities and towns in West Bengal, including Kolkata. The cyclone had passed Kolkata through the eastern fringes of the city. This has not only shaken the residential towers in this area, but has also damaged a large number of private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients along the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. Additionally, it has also disrupted the supply of medical equipments to these hospitals and has limited the scope of telecommunication between the admitted patients and their family members. Unable to handle the dire situation by the states own capacity, the Chief Ministers plea to the Centre was accepted and five columns of Indian Army was sent on 23 May to restore infrastructure in the capital city of West Bengal. Kolkatas plight in the current situation is twofold: i. A large number of workers required for the restoration process of the city, especially the ones for the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (the citys sole power supplier), are migrant workers from neighbouring states who have returned home amidst the COVID-19 scare. Additionally, at the ground level, the lack of workforce in all sectors has invariably delayed the restoration processes in the city. ii. Owing to the COVID-19 disaster, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections slated to be held earlier this year were indefinitely postponed. As a result of this, Councillors of all the 144 wards under KMC have lost their signing authority due to the expiry of their five year tenures. Even though a Board of Administrators headed by the outgoing Mayor was set up on 8 May, this new arrangement under such exceptional circumstances has undoubtedly led to confusion at the administrative levels responsible for the provision of civic amenities to the residents of Kolkata. Kolkata ranks second, after Mumbai, in terms of Indian cities with the largest population densities. This is also one of the reasons why Kolkata has become the epicentre of COVID-19 infections in eastern India. The city which holds an estimated population of about 4.5 million people as per 2011 census, is larger than population size of sovereign nations like Croatia. Given that Kolkata is the state capital and the administrative nodal point for foreign investments in this part of the country, the physical infrastructure and human capital embodied in the city and adjoining districts are relatively higher compared to the rest of the state. The fact that the cyclone swept across in full force has immensely damaged the regions economy. The following graph shows the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into Kolkatas RBI regional office over a period of 11 years, as per the latest available statistics. Amphan had a stronger economic impact than the previous cyclones because of its crippling effect on the dense urban regions in and around Kolkata. Recent estimates show that the cyclone induced costs incurred by West Bengal is to the tune of $13.2 billion. Dividing this loss by Kolkatas population proportion (Kolkatas share in West Bengals population is approximately 4.9 percent) roughly projects the citys loss at an atrocious value of $647 million. The loss in physical and human capital will have a detrimental effect in attracting foreign investments into the state capital which has shown a phenomenal FDI growth of about 241 percent from 2005-06 to 2017-18. However, restrictions on human mobility and economic activities due to the pandemic have undoubtedly helped in bringing down the human casualties by a large margin. In conclusion, it must be noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines in the global economic order. The situation has directed us towards a growing importance of sub-regionalism in order to increase the efficiency of national economic systems with lower dependency on Chinese supply chains. Additionally, a large number of foreign companies too are expected to shift their manufacturing bases from China to India. In view of this, Kolkata is poised to grow in importance as one of the nodal administrative points for Indias Act East Policy that could connect India to the larger product and input markets in South East Asia, as a potential alternative to Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, the vulnerabilities depicted by Kolkata due to this super cyclone in the Bay of Bengal could impede the city from operationalising economic linkages with the larger South East Asian geography, if it fails to handle such disasters more deftly in the near future. Hence, West Bengal and especially Kolkatas disaster preparedness, governance and prompt action in the light of such natural calamities are of utmost importance in the years to come. LYON, France and PARIS, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Novasep, a leading supplier of services and technologies for the life sciences industry, and Lysogene (FR0013233475 LYS), a phase 3 gene therapy platform company targeting central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today announced the signature of an agreement for the development and manufacturing of LYS-GM101, an AAVrh10-based gene therapy drug candidate for the treatment of GM1 Gangliosidosis, a rare neuronopathic lysosomal storage disorder. With this collaboration, the two companies consolidate their long-lasting partnership initiated with the development and manufacturing of Lysogene's lead gene therapy product, LYS-SAF302, currently in clinical phase 2/3. Mark Plavsic, Lysogene's Chief Technical Officer, said: "Following the successful relationship developed during the past 4 years, I am very pleased to continue working with Novasep, which is emerging as a true leader in gene therapy development and manufacturing. By extending our collaboration, we secure the clinical production of our experimental treatment for GM1 gangliosidosis and take an option for a smooth and effective technical transfer to a future commercial process." Cedric Volanti, Novasep's President of Biopharma Solutions, said: "We, at Novasep, are delighted to pursue and extend our partnership with Lysogene. Novasep will bring its expertise and mobilize its production capacities to first help Lysogene in the clinical development of its innovative gene therapy treatment for GM1 gangliosidosis; and secondly, to shorten the transition to a commercial product manufacturing by ensuring a smooth process transfer to our commercial manufacturing facility." About Lysogene Lysogene is a gene therapy company focused on the treatment of orphan diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). The company has built a unique capability to enable a safe and effective delivery of gene therapies to the CNS to treat lysosomal diseases and other genetic disorders of the CNS. A phase 2/3 clinical trial in MPS IIIA in partnership with Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. is ongoing and a phase 1/3 clinical trial in GM1 gangliosidosis is in preparation. In accordance with the agreements signed between Lysogene and Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc., Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. will hold exclusive commercial rights to LYS-SAF302 in the United States and markets outside Europe; and Lysogene will maintain commercial exclusivity of LYS-SAF302 in Europe. Lysogene is also collaborating with an academic partner to define the strategy of development for the treatment of Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disease related to autism. www.lysogene.com. About Novasep Novasep provides cost-effective and sustainable manufacturing solutions for the life sciences industries. With 20 years' experience in the development and manufacturing of biomolecules, Novasep offers a full range of CDMO services for: - Viral vectors (AAV, Adenovirus, Lentivirus, HSV, VSV, VEEV) for cell and gene therapy, immunotherapy and vaccination, from process development to cGMP production - Fill & Finish services for viral vectors, attenuated and live viruses, mAbs, plasmids and other biologics, from formulation to packaging As part of its growth strategy Rise-2, Novasep recently unveiled a new facility, Senrise-IV, dedicated to the commercial production of viral vectors which has been completed last year by Senefill, a new Fill & Finish commercial facility for aseptic operations. Both facilities located in Seneffe, Belgium, will contribute to the success of biopharmaceuticals' projects. Follow Novasep on LinkedIn. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/815661/Novasep_Logo.jpg SOURCE Novasep Related Links https://www.novasep.com DETROIT, Michigan A Toledo woman is facing multiple charges after authorities say she flipped her car while driving at high speeds, killing two of her young children and critically injuring another. Zantea Marie Jackson-Pool, 23, is charged with reckless driving causing death, driving while license suspended causing death, reckless driving causing serious injury, driving while license suspended causing serious injury, and second degree child abuse, according to the Detroit Free Press. The crash occurred last Thursday at about 8:30 p.m., the Detroit News reports. Jackson-Pool is accused of side-swiping a vehicle with her 2019 Nissa Versa and then driving off at a high rate of speed, ignoring several stop signs. Police say she eventually struck another SUV, causing her vehicle to flip on its side. Jackson-Pools 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, who were unrestrained in the back seat, were killed. Her 5-year-old daughter, who also was unrestrained, remains hospitalized, the Free Press reports. Jackson-Pool and a female passenger both were injured, the News reports. A male passenger also was in Jackson-Pools vehicle but no information was released on his condition, reports say. A man and woman in the other SUV had minor injuries, reports say. More coverage on cleveland.com: Woman with special needs reported missing in East Cleveland Man injured in Memorial Day stabbing in Cleveland, police say Woman stabbed in the eye in Clevelands Buckeye Shaker neighborhood, suspect arrested, police say Cleveland police: Man found dead in Cuyahoga River Man shot to death in Clevelands North Collinwood neighborhood, police say Artificial intelligence technology can tell doctors when a scan reveals a tumor, can help the military distinguish between a truck and a school bus as a target, and can answer a high volume of college students questions. Sectors of our economy such as the military, health care, and higher education are much further along than the K-12 system in incorporating artificial intelligence systems and machine learning into their operations. And many of those useseven when they are not specifically for educationcan spark ideas for applications in K-12 that may be more pertinent than ever imagined. With the coronavirus upending traditional ways of delivering education, AI technologieswhich are designed to model human intelligence and solve complex problemsmay be able to help with logistical challenges such as busing and classroom social distancing, provide support to overwhelmed teachers, and glean new information about remote learning. AI techniques and systems are like the internal combustion engineyou can use them to power a lot of different things, said David Danks, a professor of philosophy and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who studies cognitive science, machine learning, and how AI affects people. The exact same thing can be used to predict whether someone has cancer, or whether students understand a concept, or to classify somebody as a bad guy you want to go after. Of course, there are lots of potential trouble spots when thinking about the role of AI in K-12 education. Artificial intelligence learns from the data that are fed into it, and if that input includes bad data or data applied incorrectly, poor or biased decisions may result. At the same time, the use of AI in K-12 raises very serious data-privacy concerns because such technologies would likely be used to personalize education or make important decisions for individual students. But even with those concerns, AI advocates say other sectors are already offering lessons learned for how the technologies could be used in K-12 for teaching and learning and the management of schools. That is especially the case with the military, health-care, and higher education fields. Here is a look at what K-12 educators, policymakers, and planners could learn from those three sectors: Military Nearly every military in the world believes that advances in AI will play a critical role in shaping the future of military power. But there are big disagreements about what is possible and what is wise. Michael C. Horowitz, a professor of political science who studies military innovation at the University of Pennsylvania. Simulations Military leaders are using AI simulations to assess military tactics and determine the likely outcome of strategic plans. Plugging different variables into these scenarioseverything from weather predictions to the timing of attacks and estimating troop numberscan show how outcomes might change. Also, soldiers can get important practice in simulated real-world settings with low risk. > K-12 Applications: AI-powered simulations could be useful for planning purposes for everything from scheduling to determining the most effective models for social distancing when students return to their school buildings amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Some companies are already using simulations to train educators on successful techniques to help students with social-emotional learning, trauma, and mental-health issues. Maintenance Tanks, airplanes, submarines, trucksall that military equipment needs to be maintained to keep troops safe and operations running smoothly. Some high-tech AI systems can predict when parts need replacing before they break or when systems need tuneup. Artificial intelligence has helped the military optimize in-flight refueling of jets to make the dangerous technique safer and more efficient. > K-12 Applications: School districts also rely on a lot of equipmentthink buses, computers, air conditioning systems, and more. AI-powered smart programs are already being used in some schools to fine-tune building operations, lower energy costs, and manage maintenance and repairs. Logistics The backbone of the military revolves around logistics and supply-chain management. How to get equipment and personnel from point A to point B most efficiently and cost effectively is something that AI systems are tackling for the military. > K-12 Applications: The uses are widespread: AI systems could optimize scheduling, the distribution of laptops, cafeteria operations, and bus routes. In fact, the Boston school district has saved more than $5 million using a high-tech AI system that streamlined bus routes. Health Care At its core, AI is really about using big data to be able to help predict what will happen so we can show up at the right time with the right solution. Ron Goldman, the CEO and co-founder of Kognito, a company that uses an artificial-intelligence-powered platform primarily for mental-health training in the health-care and education fields. Scanning Artificially intelligent technologies can analyze radiology and CT scans looking for abnormalities. Programs can quickly sift through images much faster than humans and identify patterns based on vast data. These techniques can identify tumors and health issues and suggest treatments, which are then reviewed by medical professionals. > K-12 Applications: Programs powered by artificial intelligence could do a better job identifying student risk factors and recommending earlier and more targeted academic or mental-health interventions. The goal isnt to replace teacher decisions but to save teachers time and to amplify their own expertise. Using big data and AI to spot patterns might be applied to other situations, such as taking student temperatures to check for COVID-19 before they enter school buildings or being able to target outbreaks more quickly. Personalization Access to massive amounts of digital medical data and the use of AI to analyze it are making it easier to personalize medical treatments for patients. AI can predict how someones current health behaviors are likely to affect their future health outcomes. High-tech systems can design much more sophisticated drug and treatment strategies tailored to an individual patients biology or type of cancer, for example. > K-12 Applications: Many education companies already talk about being able to help personalize the learning experience for students, but this is still just an emerging effort in most places. Some K-12 programs are using artificial intelligence to collect data on student behavior and academic engagement and then guide students through suggested individualized lessons. CENTURY Tech, a London-based company, for example, uses an AI platform that tracks student interactions and behavior patterns and academic performance to create personalized learning paths. Training Artificial-intelligence-powered programs are being used to train medical professionals in many ways. AI company Kognito, for example, uses its health simulations to help doctors and nurses practice discussing and interacting with patients around sensitive topics like obesity, mental health, and suicide. Through conversations with virtual humans, medical practitioners can practice and model effective techniques. > K-12 Applications: Kognito has a version of its product that is designed for educators, training them to lead conversations with students around social-emotional learning and mental health, using research-based language and techniques. An expanded version of this technology could be applied in other areas. About 15,000 K-12 schools currently have access to Kognito simulations. Cost Savings Early medical intervention, making sure patients adhere to treatment, and supply-chain management are all ways that AI can affect the bottom line in various aspects of health care. > K-12 Applications: The same goes for schools and districts. AI-powered programs could predict what supplies are needed and where with more accuracy, analyze budget trends, and identify spending patterns in areas ripe for savings, especially given that K-12 budgets are likely to be slashed significantly as the economy struggles through COVID-19. Higher Education Theres not an obvious wall between higher education and K-12 [around uses for AI]. Jacob Whitehill, an assistant professor of computer science and a core faculty member in the learning science and technology program at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Remote Learning What if teachers could have more information in real time about whether their students grasp concepts or are struggling when learning online? Whitehill is exploring the idea of an AI-based program that uses a video camera to take many small snapshots of students as they learn remotely to analyze their facial reactions. Such a program would provide teachers with real-time feedback on students cognitive and emotional states. (But that program is also just the kind of technological approach that would prompt intense criticism from student-data-privacy advocates.) Virtual Teachers Assistant When Georgia Tech interactive-computing professor Ashok Goel was having a hard time answering all the questions coming from the hundreds of students in his online computer science class, he created an artificially intelligent tutor he dubbed Jill Watson. She was able to answer many of the students more routine questions, freeing up time for Goel to do higher-level work. Since that first experiment, Watson is now used in 17 online classes, Goel said, covering more than a thousand person-hours of work. Goel, who is also the chief scientist for C21U, a company developing innovative uses for AI, is now working to adapt Watson for high school and middle school teachers. And with remote learning, he believes the AI teaching assistant could also be used to help answer parents questions as they support students at home. Essay Grading Colleges and universities are already using this approach to some degree, and this latest version of that technology is moving into the K-12 education space. Automated AI essay graders have been around for some time, but the makers of the software say the AI features now available are much more sophisticated evaluators of student writing than what were available years ago. They can judge hundreds of features in a written piece, everything from spelling and grammar to sentence structure. (Lots of concerns remain that these programs can be biased, can fail to interpret creativity correctly, and can be gamed by students writing to the algorithm.) Though some states are using these types of programs to grade essays on their standardized state tests, theyre yet to be widely adopted on a district and school level. D ouglas Ross quit his post as Under Secretary of State for Scotland this morning over Dominic Cummings journey to County Durham during the coronavirus lockdown. Mr Rosss decision to resign comes after a number of Tory MPs publicly expressed unhappiness with Mr Cummings actions. The ex-ministers resignation letter, which criticises Mr Cummings behaviour, has already been shared on Twitter more than 15,000 times. Here, we take a closer look at Douglas Ross and why he has stepped down. Who is Douglas Ross and when did he become Under Secretary of State for Scotland? Douglas Ross has been Scottish Conservative MP for Moray since the June 2017 election, where he defeated SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson. He was previously a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Highlands and Islands region from 2016. After he was re-elected as Morays MP in 2019, Mr Ross was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland. He replaced former Gordon MP Colin Clark, who had been unseated by SNP candidate Richard Thompson in the election. Why did he resign and what did he say about Dominic Cummings? Douglas Ross resigned in protest at Dominic Cummings trip to County Durham despite coronavirus lockdown rules. The Moray MP said in his resignation letter that he felt he could best represent the feelings of his constituents and people across the country by resigning as a minister. He wrote: Mr Cummings interpretation of the government advice was not shared by the vast majority of people who have done as the government asked. Mr Ross said his constituents had not been able to say goodbye to loved ones and mourn together, or visit sick relatives because they were following government guidelines. I cannot in good faith tell them they were all wrong and one senior advisor to the government was right, he added. 1. States that reopened earlier or never fully shut down are among those showing signs of further spread of the coronavirus. About a dozen states are reporting upticks in new virus cases, even as the national picture is staying steady or seeing improvement. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, above on Monday, and Tennessee are among the states that have seen increases in newly reported cases, several weeks after moving to reopen their economies. The Washington, D.C., region, which has been locked down for weeks, also saw a jump in new cases as the city approached a planned reopening on Friday. The Mumbai Police have sent back 5.5 lakh migrants, mostly labourers, to their home state, till Tuesday. Around two lakh more are in the waiting list for inter-state travel. Pranaya Ashok, DCP (ops) and Mumbai Police spokesperson confirmed the development. Of this 5.5 lakh people, over four lakh have been sent by trains, while remaining were sent by cars and other modes of transport. Ashok said, till tomorrow morning another 1.5 lakh people will be sent back. On May 18, Hindustan Times had reported that Mumbai Police sent back 1.6 lakh migrants, and there is an urgent need for more trains, to expedite the process of sending back the stranded people. The procedure for registering migrants by Mumbai Police started on May 2. The first bus with migrants left on May 4 for Rajasthan from Mumbai. Film actor Sonu Sood too has helped several migrants reach home by arranging transport for them. Senior inspector from Versova, 6 cops from DN Nagar test positive The senior police inspector of Versova police station tested positive for Covid-19. Pravin Padwal, who holds additional charge of additional commissioner of police (west region), confirmed the development. Before this, another senior inspector from Sahar police station had tested positive. On Monday, assistant police inspector (API) from DN Nagar police station tested positive for Covid-19. So far, six policemen have tested positive for the disease, including an inspector, two assistant police inspectors, a police sub-inspector and two constables. Parameshwar Ganme, a senior police inspector from DN Nagar police station said, Out of six personnel, two constables have been discharged from the hospital, while rest four are recuperating at a Covid care center (CCC). 81 booked, 52 arrested on Monday The Mumbai Police on Monday registered 29 FIRs against 81 people and arrested 52 of them for lockdown violations in Mumbai. A majority of 12 FIRs were for unnecessary use of vehicles, nine for gathering in one place, six for not wearing masks and two against shops for operating despite being non-essential services. A maximum of 12 FIRs were in the central region and seven in the west region. 21 cops dead, total 1,889 infected in state police Till Tuesday morning, 21 police personnel succumbed to Covid-19 with the deaths of two head constables being reported from Nashik rural. Twelve deaths have been reported from Mumbai Police, two each are reported from Pune and Solapur, three from Nashik rural and one each from Thane and Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). A total of 1,889 police personnel from the state police have been infected with Covid-19 till Tuesday morning. This includes 838 personnel who have recovered from it while remaining 1,031 are being treated. Out of the total 1,889, a maximum of 1,682 are constables or assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and remaining 207 are officers. (With inputs from Suraj Ojha) Just weeks after Union Minister Jitendra Singh hailed five North Eastern states for being Covid free, the situation now seems to be changing for the worse, as thousands of stranded people make their way home potentially carrying the virus with them. According to reports, the Centre has taken note of the rise in coronavirus cases in the North East region and has asked the state governments to follow strict protocols to curb the pandemic. Meghalaya, which initially had been declared Covid-free after a woman who tested positive on April 13 recovered, once again became corona-infested on May 17 after a Chennai-return man tested positive for the virus. Another man, who had accompanied him, too, tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. "Another person who had travelled from Chennai along with the 14th case has turned out to be COVID19 positive. The person was in isolation since the day of arrival. Person is presently in Resubelpara under institutional isolation and medical observation (sic)," Chief Minister Conrad Sangma tweeted. Earlier, there were 12 other positive cases, out of which one died on April 15. Notably, the rest 11 cases came from within the family of the deceased -- a well known doctor in Shillong -- and his private hospital's staff. All of them, fortunately, recovered from the infection. In a worrying development, Nagaland, one of the five North Eastern states that was declared Covid-free, recorded its first cases of the virus on Monday. Principal Secretary, Home, Abhijit Sinha said that a total of 1,331 samples were tested and three returnees -- a woman and two men -- tested positive for Covid-19. Moreover, a man, who returned from Chennai recently, tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total number of active cases in Nagaland to four. State Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) and Deputy Director Dr Nyan Kikon said that a 27-year-old man at the quarantine centre in Kohima tested positive and is currently undergoing treatment at Covid-19 hospital. "We have 4 active cases. Contact tracing is being activated," Health and Family Welfare Minister S Pangnyu Phom said. Altogether, 1,328 people, who were stranded in different parts of Tamil Nadu due to the lockdown, had arrived in Nagaland in a Shramik Special Train on May 22. On arrival, they were screened while their luggage was disinfected at the railway station. Those belonging to Dimapur, Mon and Peren districts were taken to quarantine centre at Agri Expo site, Dimapur while returnees belonging to other districts were taken to quarantine centres in Kohima for compulsory quarantine. A total of 2,831 persons are presently lodged at quarantine facility. In Manipur, three more persons tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the state to 39. Of the 39 patients, four have recovered while 35 are under treatment. The three new patients had returned from Chandigarh, Delhi and Assam's Jorhat, sources said. Sikkim, too, now has an active coronavirus case after dodging the virus menace for over two months. Sikkim reported its first case on Saturday after a 25-year-old student who recently returned from Delhi tested positive for the disease. The sample of the student was sent to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri for testing and it came out to be positive. Ive never reviewed a Chromebook quite like this latest one from Lenovo. The Chromebook Duet, first announced in January, defies most Chromebook trends. Its one of the few convertible tablet devices that can run Chrome OS, at a time when the utility of such a tablet is questionable at best. At the same time, its a throwback to the days when Chromebooks were primarily cheap, small, low-powered secondary computers. The Chromebook Duet certainly is inexpensive, starting at $279 with a detachable keyboard included. (The model I reviewed costs $299.) Its also small, with a 10.1-inch screen. Given the lack of an Intel processor, I had serious concerns about whether its performance would be sufficient for my workflow. But after spending some quality time with this tiny device, I came away impressed by what Lenovo pulled off here. That doesnt mean Id want to use it all day though. Lenovo Chromebook Duet Lenovo Chromebook Duet Hardware Even though Lenovo said it considers the Duet a Chromebook first, it clearly does not have a traditional laptop form factor. At its core, the Duet is a tablet with a 10.1-inch screen -- but the fact that Lenovo includes a keyboard case in the price gives the company some wiggle room on how it classifies the device. Unlike most keyboard folios Ive seen, the Duet comes in two pieces. One magnetically attaches to the back of the Duet and has a kickstand that flips out for propping it up while the other attaches to the bottom via pogo pins and folds down to reveal the keyboard and trackpad. Its a bit of an unusual choice, but it means you can prop up the Duet to watch videos without needing the keyboard attached, which amounts to some extra flexibility. Lenovo Chromebook Duet The Duet tablet itself feels well-made for such an inexpensive device. Its similar in size to Apples basic 10.2-inch iPad, though it does have a noticeable camera bump on the rear. The back has a two-tone blue-and-gray color scheme, which gives it some much-needed visual flair. Unfortunately, the sticker at the bottom, filled with FCC ID info, bar codes and an Energy Star logo, among other things, detracts from the experience -- but how much time do you spend looking at the back of a tablet, anyway? Story continues Lenovo Chromebook Duet Moving around to the front, youll find the bezels around the 1080p touchscreen arent exactly razor thin, but theyre totally acceptable for a device in this price range. The screen itself is reasonably sharp, and though the brightness rating of 400 nits isnt going to make for a great outdoor experience, it was bright enough for me unless the sun was shining directly on the screen. The touchscreen is mostly responsive too, though performance can slow down if youre trying to do too much. (More on the Duets overall performance later.) When it comes to the Duets cameras, its obvious Lenovo used lower-quality parts to keep the cost down. Thats fine, as the eight-megapixel back camera is best thought of as a document scanner more than anything. Itll take a photo in a pinch, but theres little dynamic range and details are quite soft. Its better than the front-facing two-megapixel camera though, which is a nice throwback to 2012. That said, it works OK for video calling, which is really all it needs to do to be useful. Rounding out the device are two speakers that point upward when you hold the Duet in landscape with the camera up top. Theyre nothing to write home about but work well enough for casual video viewing or hearing various alerts. I wouldnt want to do much extended listening with them, as they pretty much lack a bass presence, but they dont sound terrible. On the right side, youll find the power button, a volume rocker and a lone USB-C port. Theres no other connectivity on the Duet, nor is there a traditional headphone jack, something you can find on just about every other Chromebook. Sure, USB-C or Bluetooth headphones work fine, but leaving the headphone jack out of a budget device like this is bad form, as someone spending less than $300 on a computer probably isnt going to want to buy new headphones to use with it. A quick note on the different configurations Lenovo is offering. There are only two: The base $279 model includes 64GB of storage, or you can double that to 128GB for $299. Ive never used all that much internal storage on a Chromebook, but given the tiny price difference, I see no reason not to spring for the extra space. Lenovo Chromebook Duet Keyboard and trackpad For starters, I have to give Lenovo props for including the keyboard in the box with the Duet. Basically, no tablets include a keyboard these days, even ones like the Surface and iPad Pro that market those devices almost exclusively with a keyboard attached. Even though Chrome OS works much better in tablet mode than it used to, its a platform thats far more useful with a keyboard and mouse, so this accessory is perhaps even more essential here than it is on an iPad. Using the keyboard itself is a mixed bag though. The width of the keyboard is just about identical to the Smart Keyboard Apple built for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro back in 2016. Apple only stuck with that size for one year before increasing the iPad Pro to 10.5 inches, which meant the keyboard got just big enough to be truly comfortable. The reason I bring up this comparison is that Lenovo had to make some major compromises to fit a keyboard into this limited space, and it makes things tough for extended typing sessions. The biggest problem is easily the size of the non-letter keys on the keyboards right side, including delete, semicolon, quote, dash and so forth. Lenovo made many of these half-size, which makes them difficult to hit reliably. Im surprised at how often I use the quote key, and I missed it far more than I would have liked while writing this review. As with all smaller keyboards, this one has a learning curve, but I never felt as comfortable on it as I did even on the small iPad Pro keyboard I mentioned earlier. That keyboard has full-size quote and backspace keys, which made a big difference for me. Lenovo Chromebook Duet The main letter keys are big enough to comfortably type on, which was a relief, but I do wish there was slightly more space between the keys. Again, going back to my iPad Pro keyboard, the letter keys are a bit smaller, but the extra space between them makes it easier for me to hit the right one. The trackpad, meanwhile, is also small but responsive and reliable. You know going into using a device this small that the input experience is going to be a compromise, but the trackpad was effective despite its small size. The keyboard, on the other hand, is too small for anything but casual use. I got used to it and typed most of this review on it, but I certainly wouldnt want to do that again. Lenovo Chromebook Duet As a laptop If Im going to get any work done, I need a keyboard, so I mainly used the Chromebook Duet with its keyboard attached. Ive explained the pros and cons of that keyboard, but even with its small size I was able to use it for hours at a time to get through my usual workflow. That said, I made some changes to how I usually get things done to accommodate the Duets small screen and weaker processor. Mostly, that means I ran fewer apps at once and leaned heavily on Chrome OS new virtual-desk feature. My browser window, Slack and TweetDeck all got their own space while I kept a fourth open for apps that didnt need to be full screen, like Todoist, Keep, Telegram and YouTube Music. Id close out of those when I didnt need them rather than let them run in the background as I might have done on a different computer. It took some getting used to, but once I found the setup that worked for me I was able to be nearly as productive as I would be with a bigger screen. Of course, its not something Id want to do for 10 hours at a time, but it certainly worked a lot better than I expected. The screen is sharp and bright enough, but the bigger surprise was how the Duet held up with its MediaTek processor and 4GB of RAM. For the most part, multitasking was fast enough, and I didnt experience a lot of slowdowns or hiccups during music playback. That said, tabs reloaded pretty frequently when I navigated away from them due to lack of memory. Its not a computer that Id want to push continuously for a long time, but its totally usable for basic tasks. As for the battery, it was another highlight. It didnt quite make Lenovos predicted 10 hours in a battery test that looped an HD video downloaded to the Duets local storage, but eight and a half hours isnt bad. And it seemed to actually last longer in my normal routine: I hit that 10-hour mark a few times during the workday. Lenovo Chromebook Duet As a tablet Thus far, Chrome OS tablets havent exactly caught on. There have only been a few, but software issues have primarily kept them from being worth a recommendation. The Chromebook Duet is different for a few reasons. But first, heres a quick breakdown of the good and bad. On the plus side, Chrome OS naturally has the full Chrome browser, which makes this a solid browsing machine. And the 1080p screen, while not the sharpest around, is certainly good enough for binge-watching sessions. The small size means the Duet isnt the best machine out there for long work sessions, but its ideal for tablet usage. Indeed, its about the same size as Apples basic 10.2-inch iPad. That said, I wouldnt recommend the Duet if youre just interested in a tablet. The app situation remains a problem, as most Android apps simply dont scale well for a larger screen. Given that the basic iPad can often be found for as little as $250 and has hundreds of thousands of tablet-optimized apps, thats a better option for dedicated tablet users. But for basic browsing, video-watching and a little bit of casual gaming, the Duet can get the job done. That said, the lack of a headphone jack on this device is still a huge bummer, especially in the context of using it to watch movies. The competition Google Pixel Slate If youre looking for another Chrome OS device with the Chromebook Duets strange set of features, Ill save you the trouble: Its one of only a couple Chrome OS tablets. One of those is Googles own Pixel Slate, which had software bugs and was wildly overpriced when it launched. However, last year Google gave it a significant price cut, all of a sudden making it pretty affordable for the quality of the hardware. It has an excellent screen, powerful internals and good battery life. But even though its cheaper now (starting at $500), that price doesn't include a keyboard. (Google was offering one bundled with the Pixel Slate for a while, but its sold out now.) Obviously, the Pixel Slate is more expensive than the Chromebook Duet, but if youre looking for more premium, powerful hardware, its worth exploring. As for options more in the Duets price range, there are many, many inexpensive Chromebooks out there. Seriously, check out the many options Google lists here. Sadly, most of these have fatal flaws like terrible, low-resolution displays: Many inexpensive Chromebooks have 1,366 x 768 resolution panels, which isnt nearly as sharp as the 1080p screen on the Duet. That said, Lenovo itself has another new Chromebook coming soon, the IdeaPad Flex 5. We havent tried it yet, but with an Intel processor, HD display and decent RAM and storage options, it could be a good option. Its more expensive than the Duet (starting at $359), but with a 13-inch display, youll get a more comfortable screen and keyboard. Another option, if youre not dead-set on a Chromebook, is Apples base iPad. It starts at $329 but is often on sale for about $250. Sadly, that doesnt include a keyboard, so youll need to shell out another $159 for that to get the same experience. But the iPad is faster, better designed and has far more apps available. If youre dead set on Chrome OS, this wont work, but if you want a great tablet experience, the iPad is still the one to beat. Lenovo Chromebook Duet Wrap-up To be perfectly honest, I did not expect much out of Lenovos Chromebook Duet. Usually a price this low means there will be some dealbreaking compromises, but thats not the case here. The screen is solid, battery life and performance are better than I expected for the price, and Chrome OS works better on tablets than it did a year ago. The keyboard is tiny, but at least its included! For only $279, its easier to forgive the Duets faults, like the uncomfortable keyboard and occasionally sluggish performance. Its not a workhorse meant to be used all day, but for casual couch computing and something you can easily take with you on the go, the Chromebook Duet makes a surprising amount of sense. International Space Station Commander Chris Cassidy has spoken out about the significance of the imminent spacex launch, which will be the first crewed mission from US soil in nine years. 'It's a gigantic deal,' says Cassidy during a live interview from space as he spoke about the Wednesday launch that will bring astronauts Bob Behnken, 49, and Doug Hurley, 53, to the station. Cassidy is awaiting the arrival of his colleagues aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which replaces the space shuttle which had its program ended in 2011. 'I mean, we retired the shuttle for very sound reasons when that decision was made, with aims to move towards the future,' says Cassidy. International Space Station Commander Chris Cassidy on Monday spoke about the significance of NASA's upcoming historic space flight, which will be the first launched from US soil since the space shuttle program ended. Cassidy is pictured during the live TV interview 'It's a gigantic deal,' says Cassidy during a live interview from space, speaking of the Wednesday launch that will bring astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley to the station. Both are pictured during a dress rehearsal for the mission Cassidy is awaiting the arrival of his colleagues aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which replaces the space shuttle program after it ended in 2011. The Crew Dragon is pictured ready for lift off on Wednesday in an image posted on social media by SpaceX founder Elon Musk 'Now the future is here,' he tells CBS This Morning. The liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, will be the first time SpaceX, the private aerospace company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has launched a manned mission into space. The Crew Dragon capsule will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Launch Complex 39A, the same used for astronauts sent to the moon. The launch is scheduled for 4:32 pm on the east coast. Cassidy offered a vote of confidence for the public-private partnership that's taking Behnken and Hurley to the station. 'They're smart engineers at NASA. They're smart engineers at SpaceX, all with motivation to do the same thing, and that's fly missions effectively and safely,' he said. Weather, however, has been a concern. The liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, will be the first time SpaceX, the private aerospace company founded by billionaire Elon Musk (pictured), has launched a manned mission into space The scheduled takeoff has only a 40 per cent chance of liftoff due to a thick cloud cover and the potential for Space X's Falcon 9 rocket to fly through the rain. Weather forecasts predict Kennedy's Space Center in Florida, where the launch will take place, will see continued thunderstorms starting this week and into the next. 'On launch day, remnant moisture' from a tropical wave will stay in the area, the Launch Mission Execution Forecast said, according to United Press International. The scheduled takeoff has only a 40 per cent chance of liftoff due to a thick cloud cover and the potential for Space X's Falcon 9 rocket to fly through the rain. Launch complex 39A is pictured Monday with a heavy cloud cover The potential delay comes a week after SpaceX had to postpone the latest launch of its Starlink satellite system because of Tropical Storm Arthur. Tropical Storm Arthur crept towards the East Coast as the first named storm in the Atlantic Ocean this year. The NOAA later downgraded it to a post-tropical cyclone that was heading away from the US. Meanwhile, Behnken and Hurley, both veteran space travelers, completed their final rehearsal for the historic mission on Saturday. The two suited up and arrived at the launch pad in a Tesla electric vehicle, in a nod to Musk's auto company. SpaceX also successfully tested their Falcon 9 rocket the day before. Bill on nicotine mixtures excise duty to be reviewed by Russias government flickr.com/ Maria Eklind 16:05 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) A bill envisaging to impose an excise duty on orally consumed nontobacco nicotine-containing products, the so-called nicotine packs, had been submitted to Russias government for review, its author First Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes Sergey Katasonov told RAPSI. According to the MP, a complex regulation of turnover of new nicotine-containing products and stuff is to primarily be carried out as a measure of state control over the market. Citing foreign experience Katasonov said that nicotine packs, on condition they are subjected to reasonable restrictions of technical nature and all necessary restrictions across the models of tobacco products, are a viable alternative to smoking. Therefore, the time has already come to consider how the production and sales thereof are to be subjected to state control; the introduction of an excise duty on such products is the first logical step in this direction, as this measure has already been extended on the whole range of tobacco products. The requirements pertaining to nicotine packs are to be developed at the level of the Eurasian Economic Union the MP noted adding that some countries have already set forth all necessary state requirements as to the production, import and sales thereof. A vigorous effort is being made as concerns the development of anti-tobacco legislation across all member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, as well as at the level of the Eurasian Commission, according to Katasonov. At all levels regulators are getting ready to take control over the turnover of numerous new products containing nicotine, from electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products to nicotine packs, as well as foods. The task those determining necessary control measures face is to decide which of them require state regulation and which irreparably harm health and need to be altogether banned, the lawmaker noted. At present, the State Duma Public Health Committee is studying a complex bill envisaging massive changes in Russias anti-tobacco legislation. Among the amendments are those seeking to give heat-not-burn tobacco products and electronic nicotine delivery systems (vapes) the same status as that of tobacco products, as well as to set forth the rules governing the turnover of nicotine packs. The document has been approved by the lower house of Russias parliament in the first reading and is being readied for the second reading, according to the MP. C$ unless otherwise stated TSX/NYSE/PSE: MFC SEHK: 945 TORONTO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife and John Hancock will be giving its more than 35,000 employees a "Thank You Day" off on Friday, June 19 this year in appreciation of all the hard work they've done serving customers and helping people make decisions easier and lives better. In addition, the Company will be providing five additional personal days next year to each employee to support wellbeing by encouraging regular time off, and provide the opportunity for employees to take vacations that are meaningful to them which they may not have been able to do in the current environment. "I am so proud and grateful for the commitment our people have shown it's taken energy and incredible stamina," said Manulife CEO Roy Gori. "While many communities begin the process of reopening, it's safe to assume that things won't be returning to what we thought was 'normal' for some time. So, we will all need to continue to take care of ourselves and practice healthy habits, which include unplugging and taking time to unwind. We'll be getting that done together, as a global team, on Friday, June 19th this year." Along with this additional time off, Manulife and John Hancock have taken a range of actions to support the well-being of our employees and their families in response to the challenges they face due to the pandemic. The company is offering flexible work arrangements, supplemental paid time-off and additional virtual mental health resources. Manulife is also proud to have contributed $25 million in response to COVID-19, focused on several critical fronts, including relief for its customers, support for employees and aid for communities. About Manulife Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across our offices in Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2019, we had more than 35,000 employees, over 98,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving almost 30 million customers. As of March 31, 2020, we had $1.2 trillion (US$0.8 trillion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $30.4 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 155 years. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation Related Links http://www.manulife.com Two popular restaurants have officially committed to open in the Litchfield Crossings shopping plaza in New Milford. Chipotle Mexican Grill and Jersey Mikes recently signed contracts to open for business. Chipotle signed a 10-year lease for a 2,400-square foot restaurant that is expected to open in late fall. It will be custom built and constructed north of Union Savings Bank in the southern part of the shopping center. The shopping plaza also recently had a five-year lease signed by a group that will be operating a Jersey Mikes Subs as a franchise. We are thrilled to have another dining option to offer our shoppers, said Kristen N. Gizzi, executive director of Litchfield Crossings. It will be a wonderful addition to the center and the Litchfield Crossings family, she said. The newest addition to Litchfield Crossings will have a drive thru and an outside patio for al fresco dining. I have continually heard from both shoppers and employees at the Crossings that they would like more food options, Gizzi said. I am happy to deliver on that request with Chipotle. Chipotle has over 2,600 restaurants as of March 31 in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and German. It is the only restaurant company of its size that owns and operates all its restaurants. Corporate sources attribute Chipotles success and continued growth to its core mission cultivating a better world by serving responsibly sourced, classically-cooked real food with wholesome ingredients without artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Since opening its first restaurant in Denver in 1993, Chipotle has become a longtime leader and innovator in the Food Industry and currently boasts 85,000 employees passionate about providing a great guest experience. Jersey Mikes is a popular sub shop that features a wide variety of authentic Northeast-style subs on freshly baked breads with quality sourced ingredients. Originally out of Wall Township, N.J., the company is frequently touted as the true American Sub. We are excited about Jersey Mikes joining the Litchfield Crossings family, Gizzi said. Mikes will be a tremendous asset to the Crossings and will provide fabulous new fare. Litchfield Crossings, LLC, is located on 169 Danbury Road (Route 7). The Crossings and its management and development company ECCO Development LLC, an affiliate of ECCO III Enterprises, Inc. is owned by the Westchester, N.Y.,-based Gizzi family. For more information on Litchfield Crossings, visit www.Litchfieldcrossings.com. High school seniors enter their school in Seoul, May 20, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul South Korea is on track for its second phase of school reopening Wednesday, bringing back more than 2 million students to their schools nationwide amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Under the government's phased school reopening plan, schools are scheduled to resume in-person classes for the two lowest grades of elementary school, kindergarten students, middle school seniors and second-year high school students. The estimated number of affected students amounts to 2.37 million. About 440,000 high school seniors returned to school last week after more than two months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The resumption of in-person classes has faced hurdles. The latest came Monday when a 6-year-old kindergarten boy tested positive for COVID-19. Taiwan Not Invite to Assembly Despite Success in Preventing Virus Spread Honest News Straight to Your Home. Try the Epoch Times yourself, and get a free gift. Despite receiving international recognition for their performance on epidemic control, Taiwan was still not invited to this years World Health Assembly (WHA). On this issue, Taiwanese Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung expressed that the WHO needs Taiwan. President Tsai Ing-wen also visited the Central Epidemic Command Center prior to her inauguration and invited the epidemic control team to attend the ceremony. On the eve of May 20th, President Tsai Ing-wen personally visited the Central Epidemic Command Center to invite the national epidemic prevention team to the inauguration ceremony. She also brought in 10 types of Tainan Good Noodles, a gift from Huang Wei-cher, the mayor of Tainan.h Tsai said: (I brought in) ten kinds of Tainan Good Noodles to show my gratitude to you all. May our epidemic prevention efforts be exhaustive in all aspects. Everyone here is a hero in the hearts of our people. I think, in fact, this noodle should later on be called the Heroes Noodles. In a video called The Taiwan Model it says: People who are honest are braver than those who deceive themselves. Tsai posted the video on Facebook on May 19, documenting the Taiwan Model in every part of society: Many unsung heroes hold fast to their posts, the government and the people stood united to together protect Taiwan. Though only 5 minutes long, the video has touched many netizens. The Taiwan Model also received great international recognition, however, Taiwan was still not invited to the World Health Assembly this year. Tsai said, The Secretariat of the WHO, under pressure, once again turned us down in inviting us to attend the WHA. I want to use this opportunity to seriously express my dissent. Taiwan will not give up its participation in international affairs just because it has been suppressed, and we will continue to work hard. Minister of Health Chen also added, The WHO needs us. Many countries in the world, many leaders and representatives have said, it is not about pleading for Taiwan to join the WHO, but that the WHO also needs Taiwan. (Many) people have seen the Taiwan Models success, in reference to U.S. Secretary of Health Alex Azars speech at the WHA in support of Taiwans participation. Chen said that the health of 23 million people should never be sacrificed for politics, and that despite the fact that Taiwan has not been able to enter the WHA for more than three years, the world has seen Taiwans efforts. Demonstrators holding signs demanding their church to reopen, protest during a rally to reopen California and against stay-at-home directives San Diego, California, on May 1, 2020. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images) California Issues Guidelines for Reopening Places of Worship Move follows Trump stating he would 'override' governors who maintain ban California state officials released new guidelines on May 25 for reopening churches and other places of worship, days after President Donald Trump threatened to override the governors, of any states where in-person services are still banned. The guidelines, released by the states Department of Public Health, call for churches, mosques, synagogues, and other religious groups to limit attendance to 25 percent of the buildings capacity, or a maximum of 100 people, whichever is lower. This limitation will be in effect for the first 21 days of a county public health departments approval of religious services and cultural ceremonial activities at places of worship within their jurisdictions. They also ask that churches frequently sanitize pews, microphones, and other high-traffic areas in sanctuaries and discourage sharing items used in worship and services, such as prayer books, cushions, and prayer rugs whenever possible. The state also says these places of worship should implement physical distancing of at least 6 feet between staff and congregants, while members of the same household may be seated together but should maintain at least 6 feet of distance from other households. Congregants or visitors should also be screened for temperature and symptoms upon arrival to places of worship and asked to use hand sanitizer and to wear face coverings, according to the guidelines, and places of worship should take reasonable measures, including posting signage in strategic and highly-visible locations, to remind visitors that they should use face coverings and practice physical distancing whenever possible. Babies and children under age 2 should not wear face coverings, in accordance with CDC guidelines. The guidance states that places of worship should continue to provide services through alternative methods such as via live streaming whenever possible and to shorten those services that do take place in person, and try to conduct them outdoors whenever possible. Other recommendations include halting food and drink services within places of worship, discouraging staff and visitors from shaking hands or hugging, and suspending group recitations, like choir practices and performances, where theres an increased risk of transmission, and closing or restricting common areas such as break rooms, kitchenettes, and foyers. As for funeral services, the guidelines ask that places of worship consider limiting the number of people allowed at funerals, wakes, and other similar services and remind attendees, whenever possible, to keep following social distancing guidelines. Places of worship across the United States have been forced to shut down amid strict lockdown restrictions and stay-at-home orders put in place to prevent the spread of the CCP virus, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus. However, President Trump on Friday called upon governors across the United States to allow churches and other houses of worship to reopen if they havent already done so, describing them as essential places that provide essential services. The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now, he said during a press conference. For this weekend. If they dont do it, I will override the governors. MADRID, May 26 (Reuters) - Spain will seek the highest amount possible in transfers from the European Union's coronavirus emergency funds, government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said on Tuesday. "We will keep fighting so that the transfers are the largest possible and so it doesn't mean debt for Spain's government," she told a news conference following the weekly cabinet meeting. The European Commission will propose on Wednesday its blueprint for the 27-nation bloc's budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework and worth around a trillion euros, and the accompanying coronavirus Recovery Fund. (Reporting by Inti Landauro, Emma Pinedo and Jesus Aguado, editing by Andrei Khalip) The young people of Ohio weren't physically distancing, and Gov. Mike DeWine needed to do something. "Young people think they're pretty invincible. That just goes with the age," DeWine said. They are "the hardest demographic to reach ... You've got to have the right messenger." But who? The Republican governor is 73 years old. As the pandemic swept the country in late March, he needed Charli D'Amelio - even if he didn't yet know who she was. Charli is simultaneously a completely ordinary teenager and a complete anomaly. This spring, she had two events to celebrate. She turned 16 with a quarantine-style party where family and friends drove by her home in Norwalk, Connecticut. Oh, and she became the most popular creator on TikTok. For her May 1 birthday, she created a short video of herself dancing to "Sixteen" by Ayesha Erotica while wearing a hoodie printed with the words "Charli's 16 Squad." The hoodie was only for her inner crew, but it looked like a piece of merchandise that her more than 58 million TikTok followers buy in droves. Thanks to her online stardom, she's danced onstage with Bebe Rexha at a Jonas Brothers concert, appeared on "The Tonight Show," and will voice a character in the upcoming animated flick "StarDog and TurboCat." Her family - which includes older sister and fellow TikTok influencer Dixie, stay-at-home mom Heidi, and father Marc, a clothing entrepreneur who came up short in two local political races - recently inked a production deal with Industrial Media to create a reality show. She's finishing her sophomore year of high school while being attacked online by Perez Hilton. She's been on TikTok for a little more than a year. The app where users create, view and share short-form videos has reportedly been downloaded more than 2 billion times. It's one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, and Charli D'Amelio is its undisputed ruler. As with most TikTok stars, Charli creates all kinds of videos, but dancing is her specialty. Goofy dances. Choreographed dances. Solo dances. Group dances. Trending dances. Original dances. She mostly films them in ordinary spaces like her bedroom. Her dad makes sure she makes the bed first. This is in part why people like her videos so much: They feel like she's a peer. And TikTok rewards authenticity above all. For outsiders, her popularity might feel as elusive as TikTok's appeal in general. For insiders, there's no explanation necessary. It just makes sense. She's Charli. Just say her first name and everyone knows who you're talking about. Try to figure out exactly what sets her apart from the other teens dancing in their bedrooms on TikTok, and you won't get too far. Pose the question to Charli, and she'll shrug and tell you she has no idea. Her TikTok bio reads, "don't worry i don't get the hype either." Ask any number of her friends, fans and collaborators, and they all tend to repeat the same things: She's a genuinely real but genuinely talented 16-year-old girl just having fun online. Ask fellow influencer Avani Gregg, and she'll tell you it's that Charli is "the most caring person," and that when hackers took over Gregg's TikTok and Twitter accounts earlier this year and posted graphic videos of people being executed, Charli was the first to call and check on her. Or ask TikTok star Madi Monroe, who will tell you "literally everybody on the internet sees Charli as just like a normal girl. They look at her, and they're like 'Oh, my gosh, I could do that, too.'" Pop star Bebe Rexha will say she's " truly passionate" and that Charli and her sister Dixie are "loving, humble and very hard-working." Dixie, meanwhile, will say, "She's very natural and happy and shows her personality, but also has a real talent for dance." And while that all might sound somewhat benign, it comes with real power. The best way to explain involves a Midwestern governor, a manufacturer of cleaning products and an unprecedented global pandemic. DeWine teamed up with Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble and the ad agency Grey Group to craft a campaign to reach Gen Z. And they called Charli. But she had a demand: The campaign must have a charitable component. Once they acquiesced, she came up with the choreography - after finishing her math homework. The dance, which she posted on March 24, is at once simple and complicated. After some hip flares and hand motions, a full body roll mimics the instructive lyrics of "Big Up's" by Jordyn & Nic Da Kid feat. Yung Nnelg. "Inhale "Exhale "Breath slow "Rewind" Charli encouraged fans to post TikToks of themselves replicating the dance, with the hashtag #distancedance. It spread quickly, earning a short segment on "The View." After nine weeks, Charli's video has been watched more than 192 million times and has spawned nearly 3.5 million other videos with more than 16 billion combined views. P&G donated a product for each video to Feeding America and Matthew 25: Ministries. "It just took off. It's absolutely crazy, the number of people who have seen it," DeWine said. "I've never met a young influencer with such poise," Kenny Gold, Grey's director of social in North America, said. "She could so easily just cash in, do stuff ad hoc and charge per post. But she wants to influence societal change." As an added bonus, she has gained approximately 20 million followers. - - - Charli's story is both highly unusual and increasingly common. She began dancing at age 3 and cycled through ballet, tap and hip-hop. She heard about TikTok at school but didn't give it too much thought. "My life before TikTok was very normal," she said. "I would go to school, go to dance, do my homework and go to bed. It was pretty much like every other teenager's" life. She kept a vision board, topped with a photo of Jennifer Lopez, whom she had wanted to dance with since she was 12 years old. Eventually she downloaded the app, immediately taking to it as "a place for me to be creative and express myself." Her first video, posted on March 30, 2019, doesn't exactly foreshadow her future success. For one, it's a simple lip-syncing gag with a friend that's filmed horizontally, while TikTok videos typically appear vertically. "I never really expected anyone to see my videos other than my friends," she said. Then, in July, on her way to dance class, she posted a side-by-side video of her following the dance moves of a user named "Move With Joy." Her phone started pinging constantly. She didn't know what was happening. "I had like seven followers," she said. But when she picked her phone back up after class, suddenly she had 2,000. "It was crazy. No one knows how to react to that," she said. "There's no guidebook of what to do when you go viral on an app." She still doesn't know why it blew up the way it did. But it did. And things began changing, quickly. Her mom, Heidi, remembers weeks of Charli waking up to hundreds of thousands of new followers a day. Suddenly she needed representation - she now has an agency, publicist and manager. Charli's schedule filled with meetings. In between them, she'd make around seven videos a day. She became deeply acquainted with the city of Los Angeles, where she joined the Hype House, a collective of online creators who often collaborated with one another - and later left when it became a business. Fans want to be her best friend while aspiring to be her. They beg for tutorials to her dances in the comments section. Some dedicated "stans" love to comment before a new video gets a million likes. One wrote, "Everybody just be honest ... everytime you are early to one of her videos, you just get a good feeling inside." However that fame came about, it translates into big business. Earlier this year, Charli appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for Sabra hummus alongside rapper T-Pain and "RuPaul's Drag Race" contestants Kim Chi and Miz Cracker. Soon, she'll announce several brand licensing deals in fashion and makeup. Though her spokesman didn't offer specific numbers, he said Charli "has the potential to make millions this year." That this whole TikTok thing was becoming a thing, that Charli wasn't just popular but actually famous became clear when Dixie began noticing people recognizing her sister at restaurants. When Marc took Charli to a Jonas Brothers concert, he saw fans gathered around her, hoping to catch a glimpse. For Charli, the landmark moment came when she finally met and danced with J-Lo in a TikTok during the Super Bowl. Before meeting her, "I told myself, 'Don't cry. You're going to ruin every picture you take,'" Charli said. But after chatting with her idol for a bit, "I just started crying. I could not hold back. She just embraced me with the biggest hug ever." - - - Charli also discovered the pitfalls of the world knowing your name: The media obsessing over her dating life. The online bullying. The body shaming. In February, she found herself at the center of a minor controversy after helping popularize a dance called the Renegade without initially crediting its 14-year-old creator Jalaiah Harmon. The episode caused several critics to consider the ethics of performing someone else's trending choreography on TikTok - a common practice that can help you garner likes and followers. There doesn't appear to be bad blood between the two, who eventually performed the dance together. Harmon - who described Charli to The Post as "very friendly" and said that meeting her was "really cool" - even posted a Distance Dance of her own. During quarantine, Charli suddenly has more time on her hands. Her friend Monroe bought her an Xbox for her birthday, so they could play Fortnite for hours and chat over headsets from opposite sides of the country. But "being stuck in your home can be mentally difficult," Charli said. Especially since she finds herself spending more time scrolling through the comments, focusing on the negative ones. The dark side of TikTok. Of any social media platform. Jealousy abounds, sure. But sometimes the attacks come from established adults. Perez Hilton, for example, has posted speculation about Charli's love life on his celebrity gossip website and commented on her videos, "Anyone else think it's inappropriate for a 15-year-old to dance to this?" Her fans and fellow creators rushed to her side, creating a Change.org petition, signed by more than 188,000 people, urging TikTok to ban him. But then there were the moms. And you can't kick off all the moms. Teens often create videos in which they ask their somewhat clueless parents basic questions about TikTok, the joke being that the "olds" don't understand the platform. But earlier this year, some creators had their moms rate the appearance of female teenage influencers, sometimes on a numerical scale. Charli became a prime target. She tweeted, "why am i being rated by moms? yeah i'll pass on that whole trend." She tries tuning out the trolls, but she's beginning to feel the damage they can do. "I do have a lot of people looking my way to be a role model and to lift everyone up. And I try to do that so much that sometimes I don't focus on myself, or how I'm feeling, or how things are really hurting me when I see people say nasty things about me. It's really hurtful." She tries to remind herself that "the people who are able to do this without feeling bad must really have something hurting inside of them that they have to take out on other people." When one fan on Twitter asked how she deals with so much hate, she responded, "honestly it hurts really bad. i lost all of my confidence in myself i didn't want to look in the mirror and i would cry when i started dancing because everyone was telling me how horrible i was but i realized dance is my safe place no one can take that from me." She told The Washington Post, "I just hope that people actually listen to me when I say those things because I really do mean it." Though her sudden fame can be overwhelming, Charli is trying to "enjoy this moment for as long as I can." She hopes to one day meet Lady Gaga. She doesn't know why she became famous, so she doesn't know how to remain famous. She'll just keep making TikToks, while aiming to remain true to herself. "We always talk about making sure we're as happy today as we were before this started," Marc said. "If we're ever not, then we'll need to scale it back." Until then, she'll be dancing. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 04:42:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo currently exhibited on the website of Zion National Park shows cottonwood trees blanketing the floor of Zion Canyon and turning a golden color in autumn. (Photo credit: Zion National Park) "Ensuring the safety of NPS (National Park Service) employees, visitors, and gateway communities is your responsibility, and human safety must take precedence over any politically motivated decisions to reopen national park sites," House Natural Resources Chairman Raul M. Grijalva said in a statement last week. DENVER, the United States, May 25 (Xinhua) -- As the fiery orange sun streaked Memorial Day's first rays across the dry, desert landscape, cars were already lined up to get into remote Zion National Park, located in the western U.S. state of Utah. Zion National Park's Scenic Drive was so full Sunday that the park had to close its access by 6:30 a.m. and the whole park was full by 11 a.m., park officials said on Twitter, as visitors flocked to the popular park located 260 kilometers northeast of Las Vegas, where tumbleweed and tiny towns frequent the landscape. It was the same scene at Zion on Monday - one of America's biggest national holidays, held since 1971 to honor the country's military dead - where citizens swarmed to stretch their limbs after weeks of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. With 4 million visitors a year, Zion and nearby Grand Canyon National Park, with 6.3 million guests, are two of the country's four most popular parks, along with Colorado's Rocky Mountain and Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, in the eastern United States, according to 2018 National Geographic statistics. Both Grand Canyon and Zion opened this past week, despite reservations and opposition - both located in parsley-populated, high-elevation desert areas of southern Utah and northern Arizona in states run by Republican governors. In neighboring Colorado, run by Democrat Jared Polis, citizens will wait until Wednesday, when a phased reopening of Rocky Mountain will begin. Meanwhile, the number of infections and deaths continued to grow each week. The United States has so far had more than 1.6 million cases and more than 97,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Tourists are seen along the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the United States, Aug. 9, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Ying) ALARMED A USA Today article last week said COVID-19 cases are still peaking in more than a dozen American states, and noted that "several states that relaxed social distancing measures - or never implemented them at all - now have among the fastest growing rates of coronavirus cases per capita." U.S. deaths from the 90-day pandemic are projected to crest 100,000 in the next few days. With America's national parks hosting some 320 million visitors a year, and that traffic occurring in the summer months, health experts and politicians questioned the rush to reopen, and especially, the absence of direction or a cohesive plan from the federal government. "Ensuring the safety of NPS (National Park Service) employees, visitors, and gateway communities is your responsibility, and human safety must take precedence over any politically motivated decisions to reopen national park sites," House Natural Resources Chairman Raul M. Grijalva said in a statement last week. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, has been critical of Trump administration's call for reopening parks, including Grand Canyon, that reopened for day traffic on Friday, where photographs on Twitter Sunday showed visitors observing social-distancing guidelines at the park's scenic overlook sites. "I recognize the benefits of reopening national parks and other public land sites when appropriate," Grijalva wrote. "But rushing to reopen national parks prematurely and in the absence of stringent safeguards threatens public health and puts lives in jeopardy," he added. Photo taken Aug. 10, 2019, shows a view of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the United States. (Xinhua/Li Ying) To access Grand Canyon, visitors from the populous nearby city of Phoenix must travel through the Native American Navajo reservation, where COVID-19 cases have spiked. Alicyn Gitlin, Grand Canyon program manager for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, told Roll Call last week it was a "terrible time" to encourage wide scale travel through the Navajo Nation and northern Arizona, where cases have continued to rise in Coconino County. "The large population that lives at Grand Canyon and all nearby communities are put at risk by this move," Gitlin said in response to the partial reopening of the Grand Canyon. Last week there had been 4,153 confirmed positive cases and 144 deaths in the Navajo Nation, according to the Navajo Department of Health. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez told MSNBC on Friday "the tribe was forced to temporarily suspend tourism in order to protect tribal members," and asked for funding to mount a formal "opposition to reopening of Grand Canyon." On the Navajo Nation's Facebook page Friday, tribal leaders asked visitors to stay away from the Grand Canyon for the time being. "Unconscionable," said Sandy Bahr, director of Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter of the park's reopening. "National Parks reopen without release of plan or infection data," she posted on Twitter Friday. Photo taken on Aug. 7, 2012, shows the view of Glacier National Park, Montana, the United States. Glacier National Park boasts some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet, preserving more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys in the Northern Rocky Mountains. (Xinhua/Zhang Jun) CONSERVATIVE COLORADO In neighboring Colorado, Rocky Mountain will reopen later than most parks in the west, except for those in the state of California. Memorial Day saw "Closed" signs at Colorado's most visited park, and barred gates kept the park vacant, except for wild animals that park rangers say have proliferated in the absence of humans. Rocky Mountain will begin a phased reopening on May 27, when the park will start issuing wilderness camping permits and the primary shuttle bus will start running again. But restrictions on travel and permits inside the park will continue, officials said. To the south in Colorado, Great Sand Dunes National Park "will open campgrounds, picnic areas and hiking trails on June 3, although backcountry permits will not start until mid-June," the park's website said. Meanwhile, Colorado's fourth national park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison opened limited access to trails and day hikes this past week. Near the state's "Four Corners," Mesa Verde National Park began a phased re-opening Sunday, and reported a steady stream of visitors, who also enjoyed access to the park's concession facilities. In California, famous Yosemite National Park announced this week it will reopen "sometime in June." The Golden State is home to 10 of the country's 62 national parks, more than any other state. Coughlins background includes over two decades working with product companies, retailers, and retail service providers. She currently serves as the President of Kismet Consumer Product Group. Coughlin stated, I am honored that Kevin Harrington and Douglas Scott, Executive Producers at AsSeenOnTV.pro have invited me to join the Advisory Board of such an exciting company. The AsSeenOnTV.pro team is a group of true professionals that have created a unique ecosystem for some of the most clever innovators and product creators worldwide. Im thrilled to have Kelly serve on our Advisory Board. I knew her father, Tom Coughlin, very well. He served as Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart stores, and had an impressive career with that company, which spanned more than 25 years. Kelly proudly follows in her fathers footsteps, says Kevin Harrington, Co-Executive Producer of AsSeenOnTV.pro. Douglas Scott, Executive Producer at AsSeenOnTV.pro, offered, We seek relationships with industry leaders that are experts in their fields and have the kind of connectivity that can take our product company partners to success. We are pleased that Kelly can join us in helping to navigate the retail vertical as it relates to Food, Drug, and Mass. Lisa Vrancken, Executive Vice-President added, We are excited to work with Kelly and her wealth of contacts and partners to provide additional opportunities and platforms for our participants of our media campaigns. It is wonderful to see the success from our broadcast television commercials translated to additional growth. As part of her role as a Board Member, Coughlin will participate in AsSeenonTV.pros quarterly Innovators Think Tank events. The events are structured like the Shark Tank program, with companies presenting their products and utilizing expert guidance to grow their companies. About AsSeenOnTV.pro Headquartered in South Florida, AsSeenOnTV.pro is a full-service production, branding, and marketing company that specializes in direct response television, short- and long-form commercials, and brand building. Based out of a 25,000+ sq ft, state-of-the-art studio, the companys creative team handles every aspect of production from script to screen to airing. For nearly two decades, AsSeenOnTV.pros veteran staff of writers, producers, videographers, and editors has amassed more than 50 Telly Awards, thousands of prestigious clients, and over $20 million in television placements. About Kevin Harrington As the inventor of the infomercial, founder of As Seen on TV, and one of the original Sharks on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington has worked with some of the worlds biggest celebrities and launched some of the best-selling DRTV campaigns in history. Since producing his first 30-minute infomercial in 1984, Harrington has been involved in over 500 product launches that have resulted in over $5 billion in sales. Now, in his latest venture with AsSeenOnTV.pro, Harrington is on the hunt for the best new products and ideas, bringing them to homes everywhere through personalized DRTV campaigns featuring the Shark. Almost 2,000 voters who applied for mail ballots in Montgomery County were sent the wrong ones. Read more Edith Guay was so excited to vote in her first presidential election since becoming a citizen that it didnt make sense at first. But when she realized the mistake, she threw her mail-in ballot to the floor. Montgomery County had mistakenly sent a Republican ballot to Guay, a registered Democrat, leaving her feeling frustrated and disenfranchised. County officials discovered this weekend that they sent 1,984 voters the wrong ballots for the June 2 primary, with Democrats receiving Republican ballots and vice versa. I was thrown off completely, said Guay, 61, a French teacher who lives in Collegeville. It was very emotional. It was apparently a computer error, said Lee Soltysiak, the countys chief operating officer and clerk of its elections board. Pennsylvania is a closed primary state, meaning only registered Democrats can vote in Democratic primaries and only Republicans can participate in Republican ones. When bewildered voters first started reaching out last week, Soltysiak said, county officials believed the error was relegated to just a few ballots. They started individually responding to voters, voiding their previous ballot and sending out correct ones. This weekend, the company that prints and mails Montgomery Countys ballots discovered that the issue was more widespread. We learned this weekend of the size of the [problem], Soltysiak said, which was both sobering but also good, to know exactly what the issue was, know who exactly was affected, and then we had a plan to get these ballots out. In short, the printer removed independent and third-party voters who cant vote in this primary, but accidentally rearranged the remaining voters and parties in its system, mixing them up. By retracing how it happened, the printer was able to identify the voters who received the wrong ballots. County officials on Tuesday were mailing them new ballots and a letter explaining what happened. The county has been working directly with the United States Postal Service, Soltysiak said, in an effort to get the new ballots delivered quickly. (Mail ballots must received by county elections officials by 8 p.m. on election day next Tuesday.) Its another black eye for Montgomery County, which sent tens of thousands of voters flawed instructions and has in some cases experienced long mail delivery times. Pennsylvania counties have been struggling to run a smooth election this year, implementing a new election law and processing massive numbers of mail ballots while also preparing an in-person election in a pandemic. This is the first election in which any Pennsylvania voter can vote by mail, and Philadelphia alone is handling more mail ballot requests this election than the entire state did in 2016. At the same time, counties are trying to figure out polling places and poll-worker staffing, and Montgomery County has reduced its number of polling places by 60%. Its been a logistical nightmare, and county elections officials from across the state have warned that changes must be made to prevent much bigger problems in November. READ MORE: Pennsylvanias 2020 election results were already going to be delayed. Coronavirus will make it even worse. Guay understands it was just an error a mistake can happen, she said and doesnt necessarily blame anyone. But its shaken her confidence. Guay became a U.S. citizen in 2018 after moving to the country in 1995 and was looking forward to casting her first presidential vote ever. Instead, she said, she felt robbed. When I gained the right, and I was sworn in, I was very proud of that," she said. "And then how could you do that to me? Its more than just voting. This is a democracy, for hopefully ever, and this is my right. And now I have it. I dont want to give it up. Shes prepared to go to her polling place on Tuesday despite coronavirus fears. Otherwise shes worried shell receive the wrong mail ballot again, or wont get one at all. Voters who request mail ballots can still vote in person using provisional ballots, which are counted only after county elections officials determine no mail ballots from them were received. Im a bit suspicious that everything will be fine," Guay said. Voter confidence is crucial to elections, and experts warn public trust can be fragile. But theres good news here, said Joshua A. Douglas, a University of Kentucky law professor who specializes in election law and voting rights: The county caught its mistake and is doing something about it, so that should provide some assurance. Dont let a mistake made during a pandemic stop you from exercising your rights, Douglas said. When were changing the election system so soon to an election, so drastically, things like this are just inevitable, he said. The fact they were transparent and they can identify every voter this happened to, thats actually a good sign that theyre trying to do the right thing. For a time, the Nebraska Public Health Department was testing five samples for the coronavirus at once. If that batch came back positive, technicians would test each of the samples individually. The researchers found that the method could result in using more than 50% fewer tests on average than if the lab tested samples individually. India's cotton exports could rise to 4.7 million bales in 2019/20, up 12% from the previous estimate, as a fall in the value of the rupee to a record low made shipments competitive, a trade body forecast. Higher exports by the world's biggest cotton producer could put pressure on global prices, which are trading near their highest level in more than two months. Indian exports could also limit shipments from rivals such as the United States, Brazil and Australia to key Asian buyers such as China, Bangladesh and Vietnam. The rupee's fall has made Indian cotton the cheapest in the world and attractive for Asian buyers, Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India (CAI) said. Indian cotton was sold at around 62 cents per pound on a cost and freight basis (C&F) to Asian buyers such as Bangladesh, while the supplies from the United States were available at around 70 cents, Ganatra said on Monday. The South Asian country exported 4.2 million bales in 2018/19, the lowest in a decade. India is expected to produce 33 million bales in the marketing year ending Sept. 30, down 7% from the previous estimate, the CAI said"Sowing of winter crop was possible this year due to availability of water. Many farmers did not wait for the last picking of cotton. They uprooted cotton plants to make space for winter crops," Ganatra said. Despite lower production and higher exports, India will have ample surplus due to a steep fall in the consumption, which the CAI said could drop to 28 million bales in the current year, down 15% from the previous estimate. Also read: India should immediately start cash transfers of 1,000 per person: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo Also read: After haste to quit India in March and April, FPIs infuse Rs 9,000 crore into Indian equities in May so far Police in the Central Region have confirmed that six of its officers and two Community Protection Assistants tested positive for COVID -19. According to the Regional Police Command, officers contracted the disease after taking part in some risky COVID -19-related operations. I can say six Police Personnel and two Community Protection Assistants have tested positive for COVID -19 and as we speak now two have been discharged but we now have four Police Personnel and two Community Protection Assistants receiving the best of care. The Director-General in charge of welfare is proving for all their welfare need and the Personnel are in high spirits despite being frontline workers, the Regional Police Commander COP, Paul Manly Awini told Citi News. All of them got infected after a high-risk COVID -19 operation because we can trace it. Immediately after the high-risk COVID -19 operation they were tested and some of the cases came up first in Kasoa then after the lockdown operation in Moree and others, the Central Regional Police Commander said. Speaking to Citi News at the launch of Zoomlions disinfection of Police facilities in the Central Region, Regional Police Commander COP Paul Manly Awini indicated that two of the officers have been discharged. The Regional Police Commander believes the disinfection exercise will make Police facilities across the region safer to use. He explained that a total of 104 police facilities will be disinfected in the region. Government has made several interventions to contain the spread of COVID-19 and one of such interventions is what we are seeing today. The Inspector-General of Police and his Management Board Members teamed up with the management of Zoomlion Ghana Limited to make sure that this exercise becomes feasible. Several Divisional, District facilities are going to be disinfected stating from the Regional Police Command, COP Manly Awini said. He indicated that since the Ghana Police Service works very closely with people who fall breach of the law they need this disinfection to ensure that all members of the public who fall foul of the law and are brought to the Police station, do not contract coronavirus. The essence of the exercise is far-reaching and all personnel of the Police in the region must corporate with them, COP Manly Awini said. Central Regional Minister Kwamina Duncan expressed worry with the contact tracing in the coastal communities. According to him, individuals who have come into contact with COVID -19 patients are not ready to allow themselves to be quarantined, adding that opinion leaders and town folks ignorantly jump to the defence of these individuals. We have had to follow up with contact tracing, and for those who have been contact-traced, it is difficult to get them and put them into quarantine centres. Unfortunately for some of the coastal towns we have individuals who rise up to support them and this is disturbing, the Regional Minister said. He indicated that constant engagement with the community folks is the only way to change the status quo. In fact on two occasions I had to discharge my deputy together with the Regional Police Commander but they still proved adamant and I had to go in to do a social distance public durbar where I brought insisted that anyone who has been contact-traced must make themselves available. Beyond that, we are yet to encounter any difficulties now, Kwamina Duncan said. ---citinewsroom Chris Hoskin, who with his mother has led an effort to have his uncles killer kept behind bars, noted that Brooks had been denied parole in August 2019 based on what the parole board said at the time was the serious nature of his crimes, and that releasing him would diminish what he did. Well, what changed in eight months? Hoskin said. Hoskins mother, Ruthie Webster, who was Halls younger sister, said when the parole boards victims advocate called her May 4 to advise that Brooks had been granted parole, the advocate told Webster she didnt know why he was being released. But when pressed, the advocate said Brooks was being paroled under a provision of state law that allows an inmate who is 65 or older and has served at least five years of his or her sentence to petition the parole board for conditional release. But Harrison and family members believe concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in the state prison system may also have played a role. Hes barely served a third of his sentence, and the fact that hes walking free on the geriatric law is absolutely ridiculous, Webster said. The man was 68 when he shot my unarmed brother down to the ground. Amid an escalating propaganda barrage by the corporate media and political establishment against China, accusing it of trying to bully Australia over trade issues, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a blunt threat on Sunday. The US would simply disconnect Australia from its telecommunications, military and intelligence networks if any Australian government made an agreement with China deemed to endanger US national security, he declared. Pompeo delivered Washingtons warning in an interview on the Murdoch medias Sky News channel, thus making explicit and public the kind of threats that are usually made behind closed doors. Asked about a vague 2018 memorandum of understanding signed by the Victorian state government to participate in Chinas global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure project, Pompeo said he was not aware of the specific details of the agreement. Nevertheless, he delivered a sweeping ultimatum. Every nation has its own sovereign right to make decisions for itself, and I suppose Victoria has some rights but every citizen of Australia should know that every one of those Belt and Road projects needs to be looked at incredibly closely, he told Sky News. Pompeo declared: We will not take any risks to our telecommunications infrastructure, any risk to the national security elements of what we need to do with our Five Eyes partners. This was a reference to the US-led global surveillance network that includes the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. While Pompeo alleged that BRI projects could do unspecified harm in the region, his real preoccupation is with protecting the massive and expanding spying operations conducted by the US and its partners, as exposed by Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Pompeos intervention is part of an intensifying campaign by the Trump administration, with bipartisan backing from the US Democrats, to confront China economically and militarily, including by seeking to blame China for the worsening worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. This offensive is driven partly by the White Houses desperate efforts to divert from its criminal responsibility for ignoring public health warnings, leading to the US becoming the worst-infected country on earth, with its death toll reaching 100,000. But its roots lie deeper, in the drive by successive US governments, taken to a new level by the Obama administration, to prevent China from challenging the global economic and military dominance of the US. Pompeo is not just the Trump administrations foreign policy chief. He also speaks on behalf of the US military-intelligence apparatus, having been a US army officer and later the director of the CIA in 201718. In what some media outlets misleadingly called damage control to walk back from Pompeos too-public threat, the US ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse Jr, published a clarification that was equally menacing. We have every confidence that Australia, as a close ally and Five Eyes partner, would take every measure necessary to ensure the security of its telecommunications networks, Culvahouse said. This was a not-too-subtle warning not to deviate from the commitment to the US military alliance that has been maintained by every Australian government since World War II. Liberal-National Prime Minister Scott Morrison also weighed in, saying the Labor Party government in Victoria should never have signed the memorandum of understanding with China. Morrison accused the state government of undermining the national interest and federal foreign policy. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was branded Comrade Dan on the Silk Road by the Murdoch media. He quickly backed away from any suggestion of weakening the US alliance, to which the Labor Party has unconditionally committed for seven decades. Andrews declined to comment on Pompeos threat and his spokeswoman said: Victoria has not, and will not in the future, agree to telecommunications projects under the BRI. Pompeos broadside was his second Australia-related intervention in three days. Last Thursday, during a wide-ranging attack on China, delivered at the State Department in Washington, he declared that the US stands with Australia against Chinas alleged bullying. The Chinese Communist Party chose to threaten Australia with economic retribution for the simple act of asking for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus. Its not right, Pompeo said. This turns reality on its head. China co-sponsored last weeks World Health Assembly vote for an inquiry into the pandemic, to be organised by the World Health Organisation. The resolution was very different from the anti-China and anti-WHO call issued by the Australian government. Moreover, the Morrison government was obviously acting as the spearhead for an American call, as Pompeo has now admitted. Elements within Australias ruling class, especially those most heavily reliant on Chinese markets, have voiced alarm at the nakedness of Canberras frontman role for the US and its discredited Wuhan lab accusations against Beijing. But the dominant financial elite and its parliamentary servants are closely tied to the US, on which they depend for investment and military backing. Pompeos comments come as President Donald Trump continually ramps up his demonisation of China, last week accusing Beijing of mass worldwide killings via the coronavirus. At last weeks State Department event, Pompeo pointed to the calculations behind such inflammatory allegations. He declared a further hostile shift in US policy, saying the US had wrongly assumed that as China grew economically it would become more like the free nations, that is the corporate-controlled Western powers. Pentagon strategists already declared in January 2018 that the post-2001 war on terror had been replaced as the primary focus of US military interventions by great power conflict, especially against China and Russia. American imperialism is hell-bent on militarily re-asserting its hegemony over the Indo-Pacific region and the entire planet. This is putting the US and its closest allies, notably Australia, on course for a potentially cataclysmic nuclear war with China. But workers in Australia, the US and China would be the first casualties. To halt the drive to war, they must reject all efforts to divide them along racial, ethnic and national lines. They have a common interest in unifying their struggles against the capitalist profit system, which is lurching toward another world war, and for socialism. The author also recommends: No to the anti-China campaign! For international solidarity against the pandemic and capitalism! [22 May 2020] As death toll mounts, White House steps up efforts to scapegoat China for pandemic [18 May 2020] Australian government heightens trade conflict with China [18 May 2020] Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffes family have said they are on the cusp of potentially good news as they await a decision on whether she will be granted clemency. The British-Iranian mother-of-one was freed from a Tehran prison on March 17 as part of the Iranian response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Her temporary release from Evin jail was further extended last week pending a decision on whether to pardon her. Speaking to ITVs Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said she could hear that decision on Wednesday. We are on the cusp of potentially good news, he said. Richard Ratcliffe (Dominic Lipinski/PA) On the weekend, the supreme leader of Iran announced there was going to be over 3,000 people being pardoned because of Eid at the end of Ramadan. Nazanins lawyer was being brought down in front of the prosecutors office tomorrow to get a decision on her clemency. So she could be on that list, we dont know yet. Mr Ratcliffe said legally his wife should be on the list because she meets all the criteria, adding that the family is hopeful. However, he added: I think there is a possibility we will find out on Wednesday, theres a chance we will find out in the next couple of weeks, and if it doesnt happen in the next couple of weeks we should presume it hasnt happened. Part of me needs to keep preparing me for when it all falls apart and she is put back in prison and we need to keep negotiating. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehrans Imam Khomeini Airport while taking her young daughter to see her parents in April 2016. She was sentenced to five years in prison, accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, which she denies. She was later afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which argues that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law. Benchmark indices failed to hold on to their their opening gains on May 26 and ended marginally lower with Sensex closing the day with a loss of 63 pointsat 30,609.30 and Nifty settling 10 points lower at 9,029.05. "It is a short week and the focus would remain on the earnings announcements. We feel the upcoming derivatives expiry will keep the participants on their toes. We reiterate our cautious view and suggest keeping a close watch on the banking index for cues. Nifty should see a decisive break from the prevailing range of 9,000-9,200 for any directional move," Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking. We have collated 15 data points to help you spot profitable trades: Note: The open interest (OI) and volume data of stocks given in this story are the aggregates of three-months data and not of the current month only. According to pivot charts, the key support level for Nifty is placed at 8,963.25, followed by 8,897.45. If the index moves up, key resistance levels to watch out for are 9,128.25 and 9,227.45. The Nifty Bank closed 0.93 percent higher at 17,440.35. The important pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 17,273.77, followed by 17,107.23. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 17,644.27 and 17,848.23. Maximum call OI of 29.58 lakh contracts was seen at 9,200 strike, which will act as crucial resistance in the May series. This is followed by 9,500, which holds 27.10 lakh contracts, and 9,300 strikes, which has accumulated 24.17 lakh contracts. Significant call writing was seen at the 9,200, which added nearly 13 lakh contracts, followed by 9,100 strikes that added 9.53 lakh contracts. Call unwinding was witnessed at 8,900, which shed 80,400 contracts, followed by 8,500, which shed 30,525 contracts. Source: MyFNO Maximum put OI of 31.47 lakh contracts was seen at 9,000 strike, which will act as crucial support in the May series. This is followed by 8,500, which holds 27.9 lakh contracts, and 8,800 strikes, which has accumulated 19.68 lakh contracts. Significant Put writing was seen at 8,700, which added 3.19 lakh contracts, followed by 9,100 strikes, which added 2.47 lakh contracts. Put unwinding was seen at 8,800, which shed nearly 2 lakh contracts, followed by 9,000 strikes that shed 1.29 lakh contracts. Source: MyFNO A high delivery percentage suggests that investors are showing interest in these stocks. Based on the OI future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long build-up was seen. Based on OI future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which long unwinding was seen. An increase in OI, along with a decrease in price, mostly indicates a build-up of short positions. Based on the OI future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short build-up was seen. A decrease in OI, along with an increase in price, mostly indicates a short-covering. Based on the OI future percentage, here are the top 10 stocks in which short-covering was seen. Bulk deals (For more bulk deals, click here) Results on May 27 Sun Pharmaceutical, Dabur India, Ujjivan Financial Services, Aditya Birla Fashion, Vaibhav Global, Tube Investments, Tata Investment Corporation, Rane Holdings, Saksoft, Quess Corp, KPIT Technologies, United Spirits, JSW Holdings, Jaiprakash Associates, India Grid Trust, Heritage Foods, Compucom Software, Foseco India Stocks in the news Indian Energy Exchange: Westbridge Crossover Fund LLC sold 18,65,329 shares at Rs 165 per share. JMC Projects: Quest Investment Advisors bought 9,25,660 shares at Rs 38.4 per share. Deepak Nitrite Q4: Profit rose to Rs 172.30 cr versus Rs 91.46 cr, revenue rose to Rs 1,055.54 cr, versus Rs 1,008 cr YoY. SH Kelkar Q4: Profit at Rs 12.02 cr versus Rs 20.15 cr, revenue at Rs 271.16 cr versus Rs 269.74 cr YoY. Lloyds Metals and Energy: Brickwork reaffirmed rating of banks fund based loan facilities (long term) as BBB-/Stable. Hind Rectifiers: Company resumed full manufacturing operations at Dehradun plant. Kewal Kiran Clothing Q4: Profit at Rs 15.76 cr versus Rs 20.12 cr, revenue at Rs 126.64 cr versus Rs 133.34 cr YoY. VIP Industries Q4: Profit at Rs 9.52 cr versus Rs 25.28 cr, revenue at Rs 311.34 cr versus Rs 434.98 cr YoY. Fund flow Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 4,716.13 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), too, bought shares worth Rs 2,841.09 crore in the Indian equity market on May 26, provisional data available on the NSE showed. No stock is under the F&O ban for May 27. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit. A senior U.S. official has warned of a "calibrated" response to any renewed nuclear activities by North Korea. The warning by White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien came in response North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's latest announcement of "new policies to further strengthen deterrence for a nuclear war." "North Koreans, if they want to reenter the world, if they want to have a great economy and we think they do, they are going to have to give up their nuclear program," O'Brien told CBS News. "We'll calibrate our response accordingly." But O'Brien added, "We've managed to avoid a conflict with North Korea over the last three and a half years." "We're watching all of the things that are coming out in North Korea both from public open source but also from the intelligence community," he added. (Bloomberg) -- Oil rose as the head of the International Energy Agency forecast demand will likely grow past its level before the global pandemic. Futures in New York gained as much as 2.3% on Monday, with trading volumes thin due to holidays in the U.S., U.K. and Singapore. Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said oil consumption hasnt yet peaked, countering speculation that the virus will have a long-term impact. In the absence of strong government policies, a sustained economic recovery and low oil prices are likely to take global oil demand back to where it was, and beyond, Birol said in an interview, urging governments to focus spending on combating climate change. Crude has surged more than 75% this month, following a historic crash in April, as countries began to ease restrictions on peoples movements that were put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The price recovery has been supported by a faster-than-expected retreat in drilling and production in the U.S. and elsewhere. Our view is that the worst is now behind us, said Daniel Ghali, a TD Securities commodity strategist. The shale patch is cutting at a phenomenal rate. But the return of U.S.-China tensions may limit the scope of oils rebound. China warned on Sunday that some in the U.S. were pushing the two countries toward a new Cold War. See also: Oils Sudden Rebound Is Exposing the Achilles Heel of Shale The U.S. should give up its wishful thinking of changing China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during his annual news briefing on the sidelines of National Peoples Congress meetings in Beijing. He also warned America not to cross Chinas red line on Taiwan. Clearly, we are in an era of heightened geopolitical risk, Ghali said. We could see that relationship and the trade between countries get reshuffled. While fuel consumption climbs in some nations with the easing of lockdown restrictions, the cheapest U.S. gasoline in nearly two decades wont be enough to entice nervous Americans to hit the road for Memorial Day weekend. The uncertainty around travel is so great due to the virus that American Automobile Association is not releasing a forecast for the first time in 20 years. Big oils annual general meetings in the U.S. and Europe this week should shed light on how heavily producers have been hit by lockdowns, with Total SA, BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. among those fronting shareholders. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given his government until June 15 to come up with a plan to support the countrys oil industry. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 17:38:07|Editor: zh Video Player Close Li Zhanshu, an executive chairman of the presidium of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the second meeting of the presidium at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Yan Yan) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The presidium of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, held its second meeting Tuesday. The meeting decided to submit multiple documents, including a revised draft civil code and the revised draft of an NPC decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security, to lawmakers for deliberation. Li Zhanshu, an executive chairman of the presidium, presided over the meeting. The presidium's executive chairpersons met before the meeting to prepare the documents. Enditem NASA photo of the eruption of Klyuchevsky volcano on 30 September, 1994, the volcano's largest explosion in 40 years. The large Background: Kliuchevskoi is Kamchatka's highest and most active volcano. Since its origin about 6000 years ago, the beautifully symmetrical, 4835-m-high basaltic stratovolcano has produced frequent moderate-volume explosive and effusive eruptions without major periods of inactivity. Kliuchevskoi rises above a saddle NE of sharp-peaked Kamen volcano and lies SE of the broad Ushkovsky massif. More than 100 flank eruptions have occurred at Kliuchevskoi during the past roughly 3000 years, with most lateral craters and cones occurring along radial fissures between the unconfined NE-to-SE flanks of the conical volcano between 500 m and 3600 m elevation. The morphology of its 700-m-wide summit crater has been frequently modified by historical eruptions, which have been recorded since the late-17th century. Historical eruptions have originated primarily from the summit crater, but have also included numerous major explosive and effusive eruptions from flank craters. --- Source: Klyuchevsky information by the GVP (Smithsonian Institution) Hyderabad: To hide the murder of a woman, a man from Bihar committed nine more murders by throwing the victims into a well in Telangana's Warangal district last week, the police after it claimed to crack the case. The police recovered nine bodies from an open well at Gorrekunta village near Warangal town on May 21 and 22. They later arrested one Sanjay Kumar Yadav (24), who confessed to committing the gruesome crime to hide the murder of a woman with whom he had a live-in relationship. Revealing the details of the macabre murders, Warangal Police Commissioner V Ravindersaid that the accused killed nine persons, including six members of one family, by spiking their food with sleeping pills and later dumping them one by one into a nearby well. Bodies of Mohammed Maqsood Alam and four members of the family were recovered from the well at Gorrekunta village near Warangal town on May 21. The next day bodies of two more family members of Maqsood and two men from Bihar and one from Tripura were also found in the same well. The dead were identified as Maqsood (55), a native of West Bengal, who worked at a gunny bag manufacturing unit in Warangal for last 20 years, his wife Nisha (48), daughter Bushra Khatoon (22), sons Shabaaz Alam (20), Sohail Alam (18) and Bushra's three-year-old son. The bodies of Sriram Kumar Shah (26), Shyam Kumar Shah (21), both natives of Bihar and Mohammed Shakeel (40) of Tripura were also recovered from the well. They were all workers in the same gunny bag manufacturing unit. The police found out that Sanjay was in a relationship with Nisha's niece Rafika (37), who had come from West Bengal after separating from her husband and was employed at the same factory. Yadav had taken a room on rent and was reportedly living with her. Police investigations revealed that Rafiqa had recently admonished him for trying to sexually exploit her daughter. The accused hatched a plan to kill Rafiqa and informed Maqsood's family that he is taking her to West Bengal to talk to her elders for marriage. They boarded the Garib Rath train to Visakhapatnam on March 6, but during the journey, he bought buttermilk and after mixing sleeping pills, served it to Rafiqa. After she fell asleep, he strangulated her and threw the body from the train near Nidadavole in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. The accused got down from the train at Rajahmundry and returned to Warangal. When Nisha and her husband enquired about Rafiqa, he said she had reached her village and would come back later. When Maqsood's family threatened to approach the police, he hatched a plan to eliminate all of them. According to the police, the accused visited the factory and examined the surrounding areas. He decided to commit the crime on May 20. As May 20 was Shabaaz's birthday, he came to their house in the evening and mixed as many as 60 sleeping pills in the food prepared at home. Later, he went to Sriram and Shyam's room, both hailing from Bihar, and mixed sedatives in their food since, they had seen him at Maqsood's house. Shakeel, a native of Tripura who had come to Maqsood's house at the latter's invitation, too became Sanjay's victim. After everyone started turning unconscious, Sanjay stuffed the bodies one by one into gunny bags and dragged them to a well-located nearby and threw them into the water. All the nine persons, who were inebriated, drowned. The police commissioner said the CCTV footage of the accused leaving his house on the evening of May 20 and returning the next morning provided the vital clue to the investigating team. "We have no evidence that there is any other person involved in the crime," the police chief said, dismissing reports that four people were picked up in connection with the case. The PM's relief package does not pay any special attention to the thousands of families dependent on local industries Boats anchored on the shores of the Ganga in Varanasi. The pilgrimage town has witnessed dwindling of tourism in the past two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. (PTI) Prime minister Narendra Modi, who is also the MP Parliament from Varanasi, announced the long-awaited economic relief package last week, although the expectations of people from his own constituency seem to have been shattered. The people of Varanasi are concerned about how the government is going to support the local industries and cater to their requirements. Varanasi has a chain of MSMEs, that makes the city stand out and attract people from all over the world. While the PM made suggestions about going local and supporting small businesses, his relief package does not pay any special attention to the thousands of families dependent on the local industries like the brass workers, craftsmen making wooden toys, Pink Meenakaari artisans, the stone craft workers of Ramnagar, Zari/Zardozi workers or the women who have been doing hand embroidery for years in the city. The boatmen of Kashi should be given an allowance of Rs 10,000 per month for upcoming six months as their occupation totally depends on tourism, and the current situation has made it difficult for them to survive. It is to remember that the PM expressed sympathy towards the boatmen during his election speech. Identifying the actual needs of the city, there is a need for special attention towards the state of the artists and artisans, who act as the backbone in the economy of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is highly essential to provide remedies and accommodate the needs of such people with special care in the MSME package. Compensation for the local craftsmen and industries Boatmen should be given Rs 10,000 per month for the upcoming six months. Zari Zardosi women should be given Rs 7,500 per month along with the advantages of any other government scheme that they qualify for. Their numbers in Varanasi district do not exceed 20,000 in total. Pink Meenakaari craftsmen should be given Rs 15,000 per month for four months, and reviewed closer to the wedding season. The total number of crafts people associated in this requisite art form is not even 10,000 in number. The registered handloom workers should be given Rs 7,500 per month for the next nine months, plus the electricity waiver. Beaten copper metal workers, not greater than 5,000 in this region, should be given Rs 7,500 for next nine months. The stone craft workers of Ramnagar should be given Rs 7,500 per month for the next nine months. These craftsmen need great support as the number of families involved in this craft is very small. The wooden toy craftsmen, totalling about 2,000 only, should also be given Rs 7,500 per month for the next nine months. Mirzapur Dhurrie and Bhadohi-Khamaria-Varanasi-Shahjahanpur hand knotted carpet weavers should be given Rs 7,500 per month for the next nine months. Jaunpur black pottery workers should be given Rs 7,500 for six months. Women working in fabric, saree industry, handloom or power loom, should be given a sum of Rs 7,500 per month for the next six months in addition to the benefits of Ujjwala scheme and other government benefits. Policy initiatives Every artisan should be connected with a digital shop set up by the government, facilitating a platform to create a marketplace for products of the artisan, with competitive market price. The products shall be linked with the existing institutions like NIFT and NID to provide design upgrades with the help of e-Pathshalas. The government should be responsible to take care of the work sites, upkeep the listings, photography of products, and maintenance of the website. It will act as a great boost for the workers involved in the handicrafts industry from the eastern UP region, especially Varanasi. The age-old musical tradition of the Banaras Gharana has always been a huge attraction to the classical artistes. It can be created into a wonderful opportunity to encourage the young talents to come forward and seek guidance under the leadership of senior artistes, who can provide a platform to nurture and showcase the talent in the music industry. The hub of these artistes and musicians is located near the Kabir Math and Ramapura area. Government should bring forward All India Radio and Doordarshan to record these artists perform and pay them an honorarium to support themselves. It will not only become a matter of interest across the country but will open up avenues of international opportunities for the community. While these may seem small numbers for the central government, this form of direct intervention will ensure that our art and craft forms are given the correct impetus while ensuring that the economy of the city is nurtured during these pandemic times. Gaurav Kapoor is a first generation politician in the Congress party based out of Varanasi. He is currently a secretary in the research department for AICC looking after Uttar Pradesh. Narendra Modi, Prime minister of India | Though almost all of Indias Prime Ministers have come from the nearly 80% of the population that is Hindu, only Modi has governed as if no one else matters, writes Karl Vick, Time editor. (Image: Reuters) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold "virtual rallies" across India and organise more than 1,000 conferences online on May 26 to mark the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi government's second term. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Council of Ministers were sworn in for the second term on May 26, 2019, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had taken office on May 30. The party claims that the past one year has been full of historic achievements that will be written in golden letters in history. Here are some of the major developments from the past year: Article 370 On August 5, 2019, months after the second term began, the Centre abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave special provisions to the then state of Jammu and Kashmir. The government also bifurcated the state into two Union Territories J&K and Ladakh. While J&K is expected to have its own Legislature, Ladakh will not. The state, and especially the Kashmir Valley, was placed under strict restrictions while this move was undertaken. Some restrictions such as ban on 4G internet service in Kashmir, remain in place till date. Law against Triple Talaq In early August, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the triple talaq bill passed by Parliament, turning it into a law which made the practice of instant divorce among Muslims a punishable offence. The law had been in works for a while. However, the bill could not make it through the Rajya Sabha during the first term of PM Modis government, although it was passed by Lok Sabha. CAA and NRC The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was in works for a while, was passed by Parliament and turned it into an Act after the Presidents assent. According to the amended citizenship law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be eligible for Indian citizenship. The law excludes Muslims. Those opposing the amended law say it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA, along with the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC), is intended to target Indias Muslim community. However, the BJP-led central government has dismissed the allegations, maintaining that the law is intended to give citizenship to the persecuted people from the three neighbouring countries and not take away citizenship from anyone. The development sparked massive protests, some turning violent, against the legislation across the country. Many states and petitioners moved the Supreme Court seeking challenging the constitutional validity of the Act. The matter is still pending before the highest court. Ayodhya verdict and Centre's setting up temple trust On February 5, PM Modi informed Parliament that the Cabinet had approved setting up of a trust to construct a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh as per the Supreme Courts November 9, 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. While the move was based on the top courts ruling, this was seen by many as the BJP meeting one of its key manifesto promises. Tackling COVID-19 The novel coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact on India remains the key challenge in front of the Centre. The entre has already announced a Rs 20 lakh crore economic relief package in this regard. With the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India crossing the 1.45 lakh-mark, tackling the health emergency is expected to be the government's focus in the coming year. Will Bucci After graduating from Bowdoin last May, Bucci was uncertain about what he should do next. "I didn't want to jump into a full-time job without first establishing a strong internal grounding. I thought I would take time to travel and explore," he said. He began putting into place a plan to work on an organic pineapple and coconut farm in Hawaii. But a suspicion nagged at him. "I asked myself, am I going to Hawaii because I am generally excited to go? Or maybe because I am not totally satisfied with where I'm at, as a person, in life. Maybe I am looking for an external fix to an internal problem," he said. So he begin to lay the groundwork for an internal experience, a spiritual quest. From September to December, he traveled to eight monasteries and meditation centers to study different Buddhist traditions. He began at Temple Forest Monastery in New Hampshire on his birthday. From there, he went to centers in Massachusetts, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, British Columbia, and California. All were donation-based, Bucci said, leaving his only expense the travel to and from each center. "I wanted to start my twenty-third year of existence going all the way into this meditation thing and see how far I could take it," he said. By wintertime, he was flying to Myanmar for what would become a sixty-five-day silent retreat at the Panditarama Hse Main Gon Forest Center in Bahan Township. Sixty-Five Days Wake up at Panditarama was at 3:00 a.m. ("Mind you, I had been waking up early at other monasteries," Bucci said. "My wake-up game was in shape by this point!") The fourteen hours of daily meditation began half an hour later, at 3:30 a.m. Breakfast was served at 5:30 a.m., and lunch at 10:30 a.m. No solid food was consumed after noon. The last scheduled meditation was at 9:00 p.m., with bedtime a half hour later. Bucci lived, ate, and meditated with about seventy other men. Women resided on the other side of the monastery. All cell phones were relinquished at the start of the retreat. "We werent supposed to look at people, talk, or write notes," Bucci said. They did, however, have a daily verbal check-in with a teacher. "The instruction was, this is your internal experience, and you need to lean into that as much as you can." For those who know Bucci, the idea of him remaining quiet for such a long period of time comes across as just short of miraculous. He's exuberant, and exudes confidence and an overflowing joy. "Honestly, in normal life, I am outgoing and talkative, but in these retreats I settle into the silence fairly easily," he said. "It wasnt much of a struggle, partly because I had this training beforehand." Practicing mindfulness at Panditarama extended to all activities, including mealtimes, washing clothes, and resting. The monks and nuns encouraged practitioners to tag a mental note onto everything that rose to their awareness, like the rise and fall of the abdomen with breathing, and lifting up a spoon to eat. "Normally at home I eat a meal in between ten and fifteen minutes. At this monastery, I took close to forty minutes to eat most of the meals," Bucci said. (Now that he's back at home in West Gardiner, Maine, he "squeezes in a mindful meal every now and then." But mostly, "I'm back to sucking down my food!") The changes that come from such an experience can take time to unfold. But Bucci is already different, his outlook on himself slightly shifted. Initially, his expectations for self-transformation were high. "I guess I had this idea I could do this epic quest and be this mystical, sage guru," he said. "I wanted to master my mind, have complete control over my thoughts, have epic concentration powers, and not be swayed by the stresses and anxieties of our crazy lives." At times, he considered becoming an ordained Buddhist monk. While he ultimately decided not to become a monk, and he didn't achieve mystical mental powers, he did discover an important truth for himself. "Overall, I dont know if I really experienced anything super unique or anything I have never experienced before on this retreat," he said. "But the degree to which I was able to engage with feelings was so much higher than in daily life." "In our daily lives we have stress, anxiety, frustration, love, euphoria, and peace....These silent times gave me the ability to dive into these moments, become intimate with them, and learn the nuances of these internal landscapes were always navigating." Meditation has taught him to observe his emotions and watch them as they rise and fall away, rather than jumping to act on them. Though his stay in Burma was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic (he flew home in late February), Bucci had begun to wonder by then how much good could come from continuing to push himself. "I was giving meditating my all, and I could have continued doing that, but you do reach a point of diminishing returns," he said. Maybe, he thought, he could adopt a gentler approach. Instead of meditating fourteen hours a day, he could do it one hour a day in a comfortable environment. "I thought that the only way I could get to where I want to be was by being a Buddhist monk. But I can get to that place by teaching music in a high school or opening a bakery," he said. At the moment, he's focusing on writing and playing music, and eventually would like to go to graduate school to become a psychotherapist. "Our human experience of life in general is not necessarily governed by what were doing, but how were engaging with it," he said. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Sunday further limited travel from the worlds coronavirus hotspots by denying entry to foreigners coming from Brazil, which is second to the U.S. in the number of confirmed cases. Trump had already banned certain travelers from China, Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Iran. He has not moved to ban travel from Russia, which has the worlds third-highest caseload. Trump had said last week that he was considering limiting travel from Brazil. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany cast the step announced Sunday as another decisive action to protect our country by Trump, whose management of the crisis has come under sharp scrutiny. The U.S. leads the world with more than 1.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and a death toll that is expected to surpass 100,000 later this week, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Brazil, now Latin Americas hardest-hit country, is second, with more than 347,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths. Third on the list is Russia, with more than 344,000 reported cases and more than 3,500 deaths. The White House did not immediately respond to queries about whether a travel ban would be imposed on Russia. Todays action will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country, McEnany said. Filipe Martins, who advises Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on international affairs, said the U.S. was treating Brazil as it had other populous countries and suggested the news media were overplaying Trumps ban. By temporarily banning the entry of Brazilians to the U.S., the American government is following previously established quantitative parameters that naturally reach a country as populous as ours, Martins tweeted. There isnt anything specifically against Brazil. Ignore the hysteria from the press. Bolsonaro has downplayed the coronavirus by repeatedly calling it a little flu and insisting that closing businesses and issuing stay-at-home recommendations will ultimately cause more hardship by wrecking the economy. Bolsonaro fired his first health minister for going against him and backing restrictions put in place by Brazils governors. His second minister also resigned after openly breaking with Bolsonaro over widespread prescription of the antimalarial drug chloroquine for coronavirus treatment. Trump said in an interview broadcast in the U.S. on Sunday that he had completed a course of a related drug, hydroxychloroquine, as a line of defense against becoming infected. Bolsonaros approach has mirrored that of Trump, who in the early days of the outbreak sought to downplay the severity and suggest the few cases that existed in the U.S. would just disappear. After agreeing to encourage Americans to practice social distancing, Trump began to say the cure cant be worse than the problem itself. He has been aggressively pushing governors to allow businesses to reopen and traveling more himself. Meanwhile, the number of cases in Brazil has continued to surge, pushing hospitals in multiple states to the brink of collapse and causing the Amazon city of Manaus to bury people in mass graves. The pace of deaths has been accelerating and, with a peak still approaching, the country has only an interim health minister. Brazil has more than 360,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to health ministry data released Sunday night, meaning it trails only the U.S. in the Johns Hopkins University tally. Experts consider it a vast undercount due to insufficient testing. The ministry reported more than 22,600 deaths. The White House said Sunday it plans to donate 1,000 ventilators to Brazil. The ban on travel from Brazil takes effect late Thursday. As with the other bans, it does not apply to legal permanent residents. A spouse, parent or child of a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident also would be allowed to enter the country. The restrictions also do not apply to trade between the U.S. and Brazil. Earlier Sunday, Robert OBrien, the U.S. national security adviser, had said an announcement was likely. Were concerned about the people of the Southern Hemisphere and certainly the people of Brazil. Theyre having a rough go of it, he said on CBS Face the Nation. He said the travel ban would likely be temporary. But because of the situation in Brazil, were going to take every step necessary to protect the American people. OBrien said. Data from Brazils civil aviation agency shows there has already been a sharp reduction in U.S.-bound flights from the South American country. There were more than 700 flights from Brazil to the U.S. in February of this year, with the number dropping to just 140 in April, two months later. There were more than 700 flights to the U.S. from Brazil in April 2019, the data shows. David Biller and Marcelo de Sousa in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report. Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap Small, born in 1926 in Chicago, broke into broadcasting after fighting in the Army in World War II, including stints as news director at WLS-AM in Chicago and WHAS-TV in Louisville. Less than a year after he arrived, the Kentucky station was honored in 1957 as the nation's top news operation by the organization that is now known as the Radio Television Digital News Association. The chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., fighting extradition to the U.S., gets her first shot at release this week in a case that's triggered an unprecedented diplomatic tussle between the U.S., China and Canada. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia is set to release a decision on whether Meng Wanzhou's case meets a key threshold of Canada's extradition law. If Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes rules that it fails to meet that test, Meng could be released from house arrest in Vancouver. If not, extradition proceedings will continue. The case was triggered when Meng was arrested on a U.S. handover request in December 2018 during a routine stopover at Vancouver airport, a city where she owns two homes and often spent summer holidays. The fallout has since spanned three countries. Meng, the eldest daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder, Ren Zhengfei, has become the highest profile target of a broader U.S. effort to contain China and its largest technology company, which Washington sees as a national security threat. China has accused Canada of abetting "a political persecution" against a national champion. In the weeks after her arrest, China put two Canadians -- Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig -- in jail, halted billions of dollars in Canadian imports and put two other Canadians on death row, plunging China-Canada relations into their darkest period in decades. U.S. President Donald Trump muddied the legal waters further when he indicated early on that he might try to intervene in her case to boost a China trade deal. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- caught between his country's two biggest trading partners -- has resisted any such attempt to interfere in the high-stakes proceedings, saying the rule of law will govern Meng's case. "Canada has an independent judicial system that functions without interference or override by politicians," Trudeau said last week in response to comments by the Chinese ambassador that Meng's case was the biggest thorn in Canada-China relations. "China doesn't work quite the same way and doesn't seem to understand that we do have an independent judiciary." China's foreign ministry urged Meng's release at a regular briefing in Beijing Tuesday, saying the U.S. and Canada had "abused their bilateral agreement on extradition." "Canada should correct its mistake and immediately release Meng Wanzhou and ensure her safe return to China to avoid continuous damage of China-Canada relations," ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said. He said the rights of Kovrig and Spavor had been "guaranteed and protected." Meng, 48, faces tough odds: of the 798 U.S. extradition requests received since 2008, Canada has refused or discharged only eight cases, or 1%, according to Canada's Department of Justice. Whether she goes free or continues her battle against U.S. extradition, the ruling is likely to further escalate the fight between Washington and Beijing, increasingly at loggerheads over everything from the coronavirus pandemic to the status of Taiwan and Hong Kong to trade and investment. Huawei continues to play a central role in those tensions. Earlier this month, the Commerce Department barred chipmakers using American equipment from supplying Huawei without U.S. government approval, closing a loophole in an effort to cut the Chinese company off from essential supplies used in its phones and networking gear. The move drew condemnation from Beijing and warnings from Huawei's rotating chairman, Guo Ping, that the latest U.S. curbs on its business would cause the whole industry to "pay a terrible price." The U.S. government has lobbied its allies, including Canada, to ban Huawei from next-generation 5G networks, saying its equipment would make such infrastructure vulnerable to spying by the Chinese government. Despite that, the U.K. said in January it would allow Huawei a limited role. But in recent days, British media have reported the government is backtracking and preparing to end Huawei's presence by 2023. Trudeau has been stalling on Canada's decision with the fates of Spavor and Kovrig hanging in the balance. The two detainees have been confined for more than 500 days without access to lawyers. In contrast, Meng was photographed by CBC News on Saturday as she posed with nearly a dozen colleagues and friends -- social distancing rules to fight the virus notwithstanding -- displaying victory signs in front of the courthouse. The pursuit of Meng by U.S. authorities predates the Trump administration: officials were building a case against her since at least 2013, according to court documents in her case. Central to the case are allegations that Meng committed fraud by lying to HSBC Holdings Plc and tricking the bank into conducting Iran-related transactions in breach of U.S. sanctions. Wednesday's ruling will focus on whether the case meets the so-called double criminality test: would Meng's alleged crime have also been a crime in Canada? Her defense has argued that the U.S. case is, in reality, a sanctions-violations complaint framed as fraud in order to make it easier to extradite her. Had Meng's alleged conduct taken place in Canada, the transactions by HSBC wouldn't violate any Canadian sanctions, they say. The U.S. bank and wire fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison on conviction. If the ruling goes against her, Meng's next court hearings are scheduled for June and are set to continue to at least the end of the year. Appeals could lengthen the process for years longer. [May 26, 2020] Patriot One's Xtract AI Division Secures Contract for Department of National Defence and Canadian Firefighters VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Patriot One Technologies Inc.s (TSX: PAT) (OTCQX: PTOTF) (FRANKFURT: 0PL) wholly-owned subsidiary Xtract Technologies (Xtract AI) is pleased to announce it has secured a $157,000 contract with Canadas Department of National Defence through the Public Works and Government Services Canada Division, as part of the Innovative Solutions Canada Program (ISC). The contract is for a project looking to provide better situational awareness for Canadian firefighters. The outcome will be a solution that will provide innovative devices, applications, personal protective equipment and technology to help firefighters work in a more Head Up Hands Free (HU/HF) mode of operation on the fire ground. Using Xtract AIs expertise in artificial intelligence for video and data analysis the project will aim to: integrate multiple sensors and biometric data feeds to assess the health, status and safety of firefighters in the field detect objects and people in smoke, and predict flow path and flashover using thermal and video imaging feeds in real time feed appropriate and necessary data back to incident commanders and firefighters in the field through a combination of dashboards, heads up displays, and haptic and audio feedback to increase efficiencies and remove distractions Work will proceed in multiple phases, including the design and development of advanced machine learning models, proprietary data sets and integration with advanced visualization solutions. Were tremendously excited to be working on this project and thank the Innovative Solutions Canada Program (ISC) for selecting us, expresses Martin Cronin, CEO of Patriot One. Xtract AIs knowledge of artificial intelligence, and data and video analysis are an ideal match for this challenge, and we relish the opportunity to put these into a solution that will assist Canadian firefighters in being better informed, more efficient and, ultimately, safer. For more details on the Public Works DND contract, please visit: https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/award-notice/PW-SI-004-36861-001 The Xtract AI team is already underway with the projects design and development phase, and will make announcements, as required, on the progress of its efforts in achieving the goals of Canadian Department of National Defense. About XTRACT TECHNOLOGIES INC Xtract AI develops and commercializes artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep neural networks and predictive solutions utilizing advanced technology for public institutions nd private enterprise. The firm has an award winning, highly skilled team that develops AI solutions to solve challenges across computer vision (CV), natural language processing (NLP), anomaly detection, and time-series analysis for applications ranging from security and defense to environmental solutions and healthcare. For more information on building your AI solution, visit: xtract.ai About Patriot One Technologies Inc. (TSX:PAT) (OTCQX: PTOTF) (FRA: 0PL): Patriot Ones' mission is to deliver innovative threat detection and counter-terrorism solutions for safer communities. Our PATSCAN Multi-Sensor Covert Threat Detection Platform provides a network of advanced sensor technologies with powerful next generation AI/machine learning software. The network can be covertly deployed from far perimeter to interiors across multiple weapons-restricted facilities. The PATSCAN platform identifies and reports threats wherever required; car park, building approach, employee & public entryways and inside the facilities. Each solution in the platform identifies weapons, related threats or disturbances, or potential health and safety threats for immediate security response. Our motto Deter, Detect and Defend is based on the belief that widespread use of the PATSCAN platform will act as an effective deterrent to diminish the epidemic of active threats around the globe. For more information, visit: www.patriot1tech.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook . For further information, please contact: Patriot One Inquiries [email protected] www.patriot1tech.com Investor Relations John Martin, Patriot One +1 (888) 728-1332 [email protected] Media Contacts: Scott Ledingham, Patriot One +1-613-806-7135 [email protected] CAUTIONARY DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: No securities exchange has reviewed nor accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release. This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to system sales, product development, licensing, commercialization and regulatory compliance issues and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects, believes, and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include counterparty default and other risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements only as expressly required by applicable law. Neither the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Credit: CC0 Public Domain Russia said Tuesday that at least 101 medics have died from coronavirus in the first such official announcement, while an online tally compiled by doctors gives a far higher figure. "Last Friday 101 people were on the confirmed list," senior health ministry official Lyudmila Letnikova told lawmakers, Interfax news agency reported. The head of the ministry's public health department told the parliamentary health committee that the ministry keeps a register of deaths of medical personnel, but this is the first time a figure has been given publicly. Letnikova said the ministry had asked Russian regions to provide death counts. The official number is much lower however than the total on an online list compiled by doctors from data sent in by colleagues, which has 293 names. The "Remembrance List" site was launched in April by medics including cardiologist Alexei Erlikh, who works at a Moscow state hospital. The creators of the list said their aim was to provide reliable information on deaths of health workers, fearing that the authorities would not do so. When the online list appeared, the health ministry did not respond to an AFP request for the number of coronavirus casualties among health personnel. The independent news site Mediazona earlier this month checked the Remembrance List and excluded some medics who were not practising at the time of their deaths or worked in other ex-Soviet states. It confirmed 186 deaths. Russia has reported a total of 3,807 deaths from 362,342 COVID-19 cases, far fewer than many other countries with lower numbers of cases, prompting questions over whether the authorities are accurately recording deaths from the virus. Government officials have cited reasons that include a mass testing campaign that reportedly picked up many mild or symptom-free cases, and the recording of cause of death based on autopsies. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2020 AFP Photo credit: New Line Cinema From Esquire There are watches, and there are watches. The former tells you what time it is. The latter tells the world what kind of man you are one who cares about craftsmanship, and tradition, and time well spent (and, often, well-spent upon). This kind of timepiece is usually assembled in a quiet corner of Switzerland, where as well as cogs and gears and precious metals, its makers add something ineffable, too. Something with more value than merely knowing what time it is. And that ineffability is what makes buying a watch such a pitfall-strewn process. Unlike, say, a new smartphone, your perfect new watch isn't just the one with the most functions (unless that's what you're looking for, in which case, this very expensive Patek Philippe should fit the bill nicely). Nor is it the case that cost automatically equates to quality. It would be foolish (and a little gauche) to place a watch on the ladder of greatness just because it broke your credit card. Proper watches the sort with insides that demand a level of craft run the whole gamut of price tags, and quieter, classic options show that you've done your research, as well as made a significant step towards becoming a watch collector proper. That's no easy to step to make. One of the greatest illusions of the watch world ('horology', to give its proper name) is that the whole club can feel a little exclusive, perhaps even a little exclusionary. It's a world loaded with terminology. In some cases, it's a world tinged with snobbery, too: ask a watch-head the difference between an automatic and a quartz watch and be prepared for a roll of the eyes and a "silly you!" smirk. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures We're not like that, though. We want to help you get into watches. Every man should. So, let us break down the basics below on the Esquire way to buy your very first proper watch or even your 20th. 1. How Watches Work Movements: An Introduction So, what makes them tick? Yes, literally. That all depends on an incredibly important piece of kit called the 'movement'. Story continues Also known as the calibre, the movement is the mechanism inside a watch: often a complicated, esteemed 'engine' that makes the watch go round. To make things even more complicated, there are different sorts of movements, too. The first is quartz. Highly accurate and mass produced, these movements are regulated by a piece of a quartz and powered by a battery. When they were first introduced in the Seventies, it caused a lot of bother as many brands were able to manufacture precise and more affordable watches at large quantities, causing the old guard to have a serious rethink as to how they were going to challenge the 'Quartz Crisis'. Today, they're not so sacrilege to the more esteemed manufactures, but are largely considered as technically inferior to handmade movements elsewhere (know that they're just as good if not better at telling the actual time). Photo credit: Hublot On the other end, there are mechanical movements. Some are manually wound, but the majority are now "automatics": watches that are purpose-built to harness kinetic energy. So every time you move your wrist, the movement stays powered. Think of it as a very bougie bike dynamo. What's more, automatics developed in-house (as opposed to those outsourced by a dedicated company) generally take more time and skill to develop and implement, thus gleaning a more 'respectable' watch by horology standards. Why Automatics Set The Standard A lot of it comes down to one phrase: "The least important thing a watch does is tell the time." People like mechanical watches for the same reason they might prefer vinyl over MP3s. It's not just what something does, but how it does it. And for many, that's pretty important when buying what could be the most complex, artisanal purchase of their lives (yes, even more so than that sourdough from the overpriced bakery round the corner). Photo credit: Mr Porter The very feel of an automatic is said to trump a quartz movement, too. In the former camp, there's a 'sweep' and continuous vibration as the watch continues to power itself; quartz watches are more in line with a traditional wall clock, with a single tick along per second. One feels a lot more like craftsmanship. And look finally to the preferred choice of the 'greats'. While there are countless watches that push the envelope, the top tier Rolex, Breitling, Patek Philippe et al set the benchmark for new innovation and trends in the industry. Like fashion, there's a trickle down, and these largely stem from automatic watches. 2. The Different Watch Types The Big Five So you know what's happening on the inside. But what's on the outside is just as important, with different occasions demanding different types of watches. These are the classic five you should consider. The Diving Watch Designed to function in the ocean's depths, the diving watch is, unsurprisingly, built for divers. However, the majority of these never even touch water, with many opting for a dive watch thanks to its rugged construction, luminous dials and hands, and a punchy unidirectional bezel: all features that make for a handsome watch (and a lifeline when searching for drowned treasures). Most diving watches owe their design cues to the 1953 Rolex Submariner: the first of its kind to work at a depth of 100m. The Dress Watch The most jewellery-like of timepieces, a dress watch tends to be understated. Think Roman numerals, simple face and a lack of adornments. Usually attached to a leather strap, the ideal dress watch is super-thin so it can rest unnoticed under the wearer's cuff until he needs it. Also, as dress watches don't perform any specific function bar telling the time, they're also the most likely to be made from a precious metal. The Pilot's Watch When Cartier first developed a watch for pilot Alberto Santos Dumont in 1911, aviation watches took off, and remain in flight to this today. That's because it's a perfect balance of technicality (multiple dials essential for dispensing large amounts of information to a pilot) and classic touches, with some models taking cues from pieces that are over 100 years old. Good for the sky, and good for everything else, too. The Driving Watch Motorsports and watches have a very close working relationship. And like flying and diving, there's a stuntman level of allure that translates well to its purpose-built timepieces. Driving watches should have a chronograph complication the stopwatch feature is very handy when overtaking Ferrari 512s while some, like the Omega Speedmaster, also boast a 'tachymeter' on the bezel, a device for measuring speed. This is a working relationship that still works off-track, too. The Minimalist Minimalist watches do exactly what they say on the tin. So, pared back watches for pared back looks. Which is great if you seek to cinch the cost-per-wear ratio, but it's also in-step with wider trends of simplicity that look to sparing designs first set by the Bauhaus movement. What's more, some of the more contemporary brands are a touch more affordable in their modernist approach. And that's always good. 3. How To Buy A Watch The Basics Choosing Your First Watch There are lots of variables at play. You've got your own tastes. You've got your own requirements. And, perhaps most importantly, you've got your own budget. Know that there's much flexibility at hand, though, and brands that don't quite boast the cachet of Rolex and Audemars Piguet are by no means lesser. In fact, many of them work (and look) just as well. At the doorway of Swiss watches, you can own an automatic from brands like Farer, and Nomos. Or look beyond Europe to the East Asia, where Seiko and Citizen have forged great pieces at prices south of 200. Photo credit: Seiko Moving up the price scale, mechanical timepieces from the likes of Junghans, Christopher Ward and Sinn provide something a bit more special from around 500. And if you've got more than a thousand pounds to spend, then your options really open up, from a pre-owned classic model through to brand new models from some of the world's great watch brands. How Pricing Works It's a fair question: how come that watch is 15,000 while this apparently identical one is 200? Ultimately, it comes down to materials, length of manufacture and brand heritage. Quartz watches are cheaper because even the best quartz movements from Switzerland cost little more than 50, while you can pick up a Chinese movement for just a few quid. Automatic movements not only cost more (often a lot more if they're made in-house and tested rigorously), but the watches that house them tend to be better designed, made of more valuable materials and come from a long lineage of expert watchmaking that you can buy into with confidence. A Simple Guide To Complications You'll notice that some watches have extra dials and hands: these are called complications. These go from the "chronograph" (the one with stopwatch functionality, used extensively in motor sport models) to the "GMT", which provides a fourth hand that can be set to the alternative time zone of the wearer's choice. Do we need complications in an age when our phones do so much? Not really. But that's not the point is it? Why Size Matters (A Bit) Just as there's no typical wrist size, there's no typical size of watch. While some timepieces are so large they can be seen from space, most have a case diameter of between 34-44mm. If you're a chap with slighter wrists, a 34-40mm case will work best, while rugged gents with wrists like oak trees should opt for models up to 46mm. The thickness of the case also affects how the watch looks. A watch of 10mm thickness will sit better under a cuff than one that's 15mm. Photo credit: Mr Porter A Quick Word On Straps The thing that binds your timepiece to your wrists is hugely important in the character of your watch. A metal bracelet looks great on more masculine, chunky watches, while leather is the choice for conventional, dressy timepieces. A favourite of Esquire is the canvas or "NATO" strap, most famously worn with Sean Connery's Rolex Submariner in Goldfinger. If it's good enough for James Bond, it's good enough for you. Accuracy Isn't Everything Nothing can compete with a quartz watch on keeping time accurately, but a good automatic should only lose or gain 30 seconds or so in a week. If you're after a super-accurate mechanical watch, then look for one that's been certified as a "chronometer" by COSC (Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometres). These watches account for only six per cent of all mechanical watches, which is reflected in their higher prices. The World Of Vintage While some watches can rocket in value as time passes we're thinking the Rolex Daytona "Paul Newman" here most will lose some of their worth over the time. This means that if you're willing look to past the age of a watch, you can get your hands on a true classic, like a Sixties Omega Seamaster, for less than a grand. Last Word Now You're On Your Own After taking in the above, you should have a better idea of what makes a great watch and why some watches command such status, respect and price tags. More importantly, you'll soon be able to justify, to yourself at least, why you've swerved that dream holiday for you and your partner in favour of the chunk of metal, glass and leather proudly sitting on your wrist. Good luck with that. Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more delivered straight to your inbox. SIGN UP Need some positivity right now? Subscribe to Esquire now for a hit of style, fitness, culture and advice from the experts SUBSCRIBE You Might Also Like Even as the markets in Ghaziabad reopened after a gap of two months, most shops in the trans-Hindon areas witnessed a low turnout of customers on Tuesday. Tuesday was the first day when the markets in the areas resumed sales after the district administration eased the restrictions in the fourth phase of the lockdown. On May 22, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey had directed that certain markets, out of a total of 34, will open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while others will open on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He had also given two days to shop owners to finish cleaning and sanitization work. As per our estimates, only 10 to 15% customers as compared to normal days arrived for shopping today and purchased items of regular use like shoes, slippers, readymade clothes, fans, coolers, etc. However, customers stayed away from shops selling snacks and other food items, said Pradeep Gupta, convener of Vyapari Ekta Samiti, Indirapuram. The timing is also a cause of concern as markets have been allowed to open only from 10am to 5pm, while during the summers most people prefer to arrive in the evenings. So, the sales will be affected largely, Gupta said. The markets in Indirapuram, Vaishali, Sahibabad, Bajaria, Gandhi Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Mohan Nagar, Shastri Nagar and Turab Nagar, among others, will open on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The markets allowed to open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday are the ones located in Vasundhara, Kaushambi, Raj Nagar District Centre, Kavi Nagar, Rajendra Nagar, Shyam Park, Raj Nagar Extension, Navyug Market, Ambedkar Road and those in Delta colonies of Ramprastha, Brij Vihar, Surya Nagar and Chander Nagar. Shop owners like RK Agrawal who runs a tiles store in Indirapurams Gyan Khand, said that there was no business at all on Tuesday. The summer heat is taking a toll and alternate day opening of markets is also a concern. It is because a customer takes days to decide about purchasing non-essential items. Nowadays, people have less money in hand. So, most of them only prefer purchasing essential items. As per my estimates, it will take another six months for markets to pick up, he added. The market association of Vaishali said that there was about 40% turnout of customers on Tuesday. The sweet shops also opened and owners were relieved as the administration has allowed opening of such shops on all six days. The shop owners made arrangements for social distancing and provided sanitizer to customers. Even some district administration officers arrived in the market for inspection. However, the closure of border affected opening of shops as a number of owners stay in Delhi, said Sanjay Rastogi, president of Vaishali Udyog Vyapar Mandal. According to Rastogi, the locality has about 600 to 700 shops in market areas. However, in city areas, the turnout of customers in markets was high as compared to the trans-Hindon areas. The customers turned out in large numbers despite heat wave conditions. Our market witnessed a footfall of about 60-65% as compared to normal days. People were a bit confused whether to move out to markets or not, as markets are generally closed on Tuesday in Ghaziabad. This is why many customers might not have come for shopping, said Rajneesh Bansal, chairman of Turab Nagar Vyapar Mandal. Some residents were seen buying daily use items in Vaishali and other markets. The markets have reopened after two months. So, I came to purchase garments, cosmetics and kitchen items. The rest of items I purchased online during the lockdown days. Due the heat wave, I made only specific purchases, said Pooja Negi, a resident of Vaishali. Neelam Verma, a resident of Nehru Nagar, said, I went out to buy T-shirts for my children and some readymade garments for summer. I have used face mask and also carried a sanitizer bottle. The shopping was time taking due to social distancing precautions. According to the official estimates, the Ghaziabad city has a presence of about 1.5-2 lakh shops, including standalone and those in market areas. We have deployed team of inspectors to do rounds in markets. The overall customer turnout was low at about 10%. It was very low in areas like Indirapuram and Vaishali. However, the shop owners were particular about social distancing initiatives and sanitizers were made available at shops for customers, said Rajesh Kumar, district labour commissioner. The timing of closing of shops cannot be extended now as the movement is not allowed from 7pm to 7am as per the lockdown guidelines, he added. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON New Delhi: TVS Motor Company has cut staff salaries by up to 20 per cent for a period of six months, beginning May, amid coronavirus pandemic. The two-wheeler major has decided to reduce salaries at executive level, barring entry level workmen, from May till October this year. "In the wake of the unprecedent crisis, the company has rolled out a temporary salary reduction across different levels for a period of six months (May to Oct, 2020)," a TVS Motor Company spokesperson told PTI. There will be no salary reduction at the workmen level, the spokesperson added. Elaborating on the pay cut, the spokesperson said there will be 5 per cent salary reduction at the junior executive level and about 15 to 20 per cent at the senior management level. TVS Motor Company, which is the third largest two-wheeler firm in the country, had resumed operations at all of its manufacturing facilities across the country on May 6. The company has four manufacturing plants, three located in India (Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Mysore in Karnataka and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh) and one in Karawang, Indonesia. Besides catering to the domestic market, the two-wheeler maker also exports products to over 60 countries. One of Iranian five tankers carrying fuel for Venezuela has arrived safely in the Latin American country despite US threats. FORTUNE moored at the refinery of El Palito, Venezuela, according to TankerTrackers.com. The Iranian oil/chem Handymax tanker, FORTUNE, which loaded 43 million liters of gasoline during mid-March at Port Shahid Rajaee, Iran, has now moored at berth 2 at the refinery of El Palito, Venezuela, situated west of capital city, Caracas, the website said. Iran has dispatched five ships to deliver 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and components to ally Venezuela. Both countries are under US sanctions. Washington vowed to take action against the deal between the two countries whose economies have been crippled by US sanctions. Iran has warned of reprisals if the US prevents the vessels from reaching Venezuela shores. President Hassan Rouhani, in a telephone conversation Saturday told Qatars leader that Iran will respond to any possible US aggression against Iranian oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea or any other point in the world, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reports. Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami on May 20 reportedly stressed that any US harassment of Iranian tankers will be met with a decisive response. Any disruption for tankers is against international regulations and security, he said referring to reports on threats voiced by US officials to harass tankers carrying Irans fuel to Venezuela. Both international organizations and countries that are sensitive to water regulations and security must react to this issue, the Defense Minister added. A second vessel, The Forest, has already entered the Caribbean Sea on Saturday. The remaining three were crossing the Atlantic, MEMO notes. European Council President Charles Michel speaks during a news conference following an EU-Japan videoconference summit at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on May 26, 2020. (Francisco Seco/Reuters) EU Urges China to Respect Hong Kong Autonomy BRUSSELSChina must respect Hong Kongs autonomy, the European Union said on May 26, amid controversy over Chinese plans to adopt a national security law for the city. We attach great importance to the preservation of Hong Kongs high degree of autonomy in line with the Basic Law and international commitments, European Council President Charles Michel, who represents European governments, said. Speaking after a video conference with Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he said Europe and Japan share the same ideas on China. We are not naive about Chinese behavior, Michel said. Anti-government protesters march against Beijings plans to impose national security legislation in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) He said Europe supported the one country, two systems principle that governs Hong Kongs autonomy. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has proposed a security law that would reduce Hong Kongs separate legal status and is expected to be discussed by Chinas National Peoples Congress and approved on Thursday. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the issue at a regular meeting on Friday. A spokeswoman for the EUs executive Commission said it was too early to say if the bloc would consider sanctions against Beijing. Josep Borrell, the EUs foreign policy chief, said on Monday that the EU needs a more robust strategy for Beijing. By Robin Emmott New York, USA, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Traditional structural designs of the cellular networks are facing various challenges due to exceptional upsurge in mobile data trafc, availability of limited spectrum, and increase in power utilization. By taking note of this, several telecom companies as well as research groups have put themselves in an endless hunt for essential innovations for developing advanced network architectures. Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is one such invention that can match with the exploding user demand and also reduce capital as well as operational expenditures for network operators. C-RAN architecture is a paradigm that has altered the concept of cellular networks, and is currently being deliberated as a major candidate for forthcoming 5G cellular systems. On the grounds of interference management, latency, throughput enhancement, energy efciency, and safety, the C-RAN based cellular networks are simply killing it. As compared to traditional architecture, the advanced C-RAN architecture highlights the concept of service cloud and service-oriented resource scheduling & management. Hence, this technology enables the use of novel communication as well as computer technologies. Growing Need for Cloud-Radio Access Networks and Developments in the Telecommunication sector A strong network is very essential at hotspot areas such stadiums, offices, and city-squares where number of users using this network is usually high. For improving the network efficacy in such areas various network operators have now started implementing centralized baseband technology. Moreover, the telecommunication sector is constantly undergoing technological developments to meet the increased demand for high speed and reliable internet. Due to this, the need for C-RAN networks is continuously growing these days. Moreover, dramatic surge in the popularity and sales of tablets and smart-phones all across the globe, along with the rising broadband access is thriving the global C-RAN market. Benefits such as reduction in power cost, ability to adapt to the fluctuating traffic, capacity and spectral efficiency improvement offered by C-RAN have lured may network operators to implement this technology. This technology has an excellent architecture that fulfills the drastically growing data traffic issues. Hence, considering all this factors it is clear that the demand for C-RAN network is sure to augment in the upcoming years especially after the spread of 5G networks. Download Report Sample at https://www.researchdive.com/download-sample/172 Evolution of 5G technology and C-RAN The mobile telecommunications sector is making headway with advent of 5G technology. C-RAN plays a fundamental role in driving the evolution of 5G networks. C-RAN networks have reduced capital investment for operators in terms of CAPEX and OPEX. Furthermore, this technology has the ability to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and boost network performance. Additionally, it offers several benefits such as the ability to pool resources, supports multiple technologies, simplifies network operations & management, ability to reuse infrastructure, and minimize energy consumption. C-RAN is currently seen as a major weapon that can satisfy the rising internet demands by coping up with the speed of evolving 5G technology. Trends and future of C-RAN market As per a report by Research Dive, the global C-RAN market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2019 to 2026. These days, C-RAN is a hot topic in the mobile telecommunication sector. It seems like every mobile network provider is exploring C-RAN and trying to implement it to harness its benefits. One of the famous network providers, Nokia is the first one to launch the worlds first commercially deployed cloud-based 5G RAN in North America. This company is currently satisfying the demands of people in one of the busiest cities in the US. Apart from Nokia, several other companies are actively looking forward to invest in the C-RAN technology. Some of these are ZTE Corporation., FUJITSU, Intel Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., ASOCS Ltd., SAMSUNG, and NEC Corporation. The involvement of such top brands in the C-RAN market is expected to boost the growth of the market in the upcoming years. Analyst Overviwe on C-RAN Market - https://www.researchdive.com/172/Analyst-Review/c-ran-market Hundreds of tins of stolen baby formula were allegedly uncovered in dramatic raids as police arrested two people suspected to be involved in a crime syndicate. Detectives from Bankstown Police Area Command in Sydney's south-west received information from retailers relating to theft and supply of baby formula. Strike Force Polar investigated the activities of the suspected syndicate with extensive enquiries leading them to a vehicle stop at Gibson Avenue in Padstow at 11am on Tuesday. Hundreds of tins of stolen baby formula were allegedly found in Sydney's south-west after the raids Two people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the suspected crime syndicate Detectives from Bankstown Police Area Command in Sydney's south-west received information from retailers relating to theft and supply of baby formula A 45-year-old man was arrested and a short time later, strike force detectives executed search warrants at a business at Bankstown and a home at Chester Hill. The 41-year-old female owner of the business was also arrested in relation to the suspected baby formula syndicate. A significant quantity of baby formula was found during the searches, NSW Police said in a statement. Police also said they found various other items which were believed to have been stolen. Detectives were tipped off by local retailers who suspected a syndicate was operating in the Bankstown area earlier this year. The man and woman were taken to Bankstown Police Station where they are expected to be charged over the crimes. Strikeforce Polar began investigating the suspected syndicate earlier this year and are expected to make further arrests. Strike force detectives executed search warrants at a business at Bankstown (pictured) and a home at Chester Hill Anuradha Shukla By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The coronavirus outbreak has caused losses to the tune of Rs 30.3 lakh crore to the national economy, which is 50 per cent more than the COVID-19 relief package worth Rs 20 lakh crore announced by the central government, says a latest report by SBI Ecowrap. "We estimated the district-wise, zone wise loss in GSDP for each state and found that total GSDP loss due to COVID-19 for states stands at Rs 30.3 lakh crore, which is 13.5 per cent of total GSDP, " the report elaborated. This is important to note that so far there had been no official estimate of loss caused by lockdown imposed over two month due to coronavirus. The report also pointed out that states with largest number of cases have contributed maximum to the GDP loss with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat leading the pack respectively. ALSO READ| Tamil Nadu has suffered Rs 35,000 crore revenue loss during COVID lockdown: CM Edappadi Palaniswami "State-wise analysis indicates that top 10 states accounted for 75 per cent of total GDP loss with Maharashtra contributing 15.6 per cent of total loss, followed by Tamil Nadu (9.4 per cent) and Gujarat (8.6 per cent). These three states also have the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India, " the report, authored by SBI Group Chief Economic Adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh said. According to John Hopkins University data tracker, India become the tenth worst-affected country in the world, leaving behind Iran. India is the tenth most-affected nation by the pandemic after US, Russia, UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Turkey and France, as per the JHU data. According to the latest Ecowrap report, the loss is maximum around 50 per cent in red zones and where almost all the big districts of India are located. The losses recored in green zones is the least as 80 per cent of population in this zone is located in rural areas which is almost open for all activities. The report pegs that the first quarter loss in GDP for FY21 could even exceed 40 per cent, however it hints a smart recovery in next quarter, if we are able to sustain the demand. The report also points at huge gap this time in GDP and GVA growth rate. ALSO READ| Lockdown: Indian Tea Association estimates Rs 2,100-crore revenue loss in Assam, West Bengal "Normally the difference between GDP and GVA growth rate is not large, but this time due to huge losses in net indirect taxes the difference will be quite big. We estimate real GVA growth could be at 3.1 per cent in FY21 and real GDP growth at - 6.8 per cent in FY21," it added. When gambling called, Rebecca Yandoli listened. Thats why Wind Creek Casino security found her 4-year-old wandering the halls of the Bethlehem hotel casino at 4 a.m. while the admitted addict gambled downstairs. But the 27-year-old Hunderton County, New Jersey, woman said shes taken steps to make sure this wont happen again. That was enough to convince Northampton County Assistant District Attorney Laura Majewski that probation was appropriate punishment for Yandoli. President Judge Michael Koury sentenced her Tuesday to five years of probation. I have not gambled since the night of the arrest. I was attending regular GA meetings and will continue to not gamble, she told the judge via Skype during a video court hearing. Yandoli confirmed she is receiving counseling, attends alcoholic and narcotics anonymous meetings and completed a parenting class. She told Koury shes sorry for her decision to leave her child alone during the early morning hours of Nov. 16, 2019. Police said she left the child at 1:15 a.m. There is no excuse for what she did. It is completely unacceptable to leave a 4-year-old in a hotel room by themselves but she did it because of this overwhelming compulsion to gamble, defense attorney Scott Wilhelm said. Yandoli agreed to keep a full-time job. She said she lives in Whitehouse Station. She said social workers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey both closed investigations without finding wrongdoing against her as a parent. Im just taking as many strides as I can to never be the person who committed the offense, doing everything I can to be a healthier mother and the best individual I can be today, Yandoli said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. If theres anything about this story that needs attention, please email him. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 14:21:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has decided to send a medical expert team to Equatorial Guinea to support the country in its response to COVID-19, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. Zhao Lijian said the expert team was organized by the National Health Commission and consisted of experts selected by the Hunan Provincial Health Commission. Enditem SHELTON, CT / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE American:NNVC) (the "Company"), a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform, announced today that it has raised $10.22 Million in gross proceeds from the sale of 1.4 million shares of common stock, and no warrants, at a price of $7.30 per share, in a previously announced registered direct offering (the "Offering"). Maxim Group LLC and Kingswood Capital Markets, a division of Benchmark Investments, Inc. acted as co-Placement Agents in connection with the Offering. The co-Placement Agents were paid a total cash fee of 8% of the gross proceeds, plus $75,000 for reimbursement of legal fees. The net proceeds to the Company were approximately $9.327 Million, after deducting placement agent fees and other costs. The purchase price reflects a discount of 19.7% to the closing price of $9.09 on May 21st, 2020, when the Securities Purchase Agreement was entered into. The Offering closed on May 22, 2020. "We have substantially improved our balance sheet with this Offering," said Meeta R. Vyas, CFO, adding, "The proceeds provide us with an additional runway of over a year at our current rate of expenditures." The Company intends to use the net proceeds of approximately $9.327 Million, after deducting placement agent fees and other costs towards general business purposes. The purchase price reflects a discount of 19.7% to the closing price of $9.09 on May 21st, 2020, when the Securities Purchase Agreement was entered into. The Offering closed on May 22, 2020. "This infusion of funds will help us accelerate our drug development to cure the SARS-CoV-2 infection that is causing the global COVID-19 disease pandemic," said Anil R. Diwan, PhD, President and Executive Chairman of the Board, adding, "The funds will also enable us to further advance our first drug candidate for Shingles through initial human clinical trials, and further advance additional HerpeCide program candidates against HSV-1 that causes cold sores, and HSV-2 that causes genital ulcers, towards clinical candidate selection." The Company has recently announced (on May 12th) that its nanoviricides coronavirus drug candidates were highly effective against certain human coronaviruses, namely hCoV-NL63 and hCoV-229E, in cell culture studies, indicating broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus effectiveness. The Company has also announced on May 20th that these drug candidates were highly effective in combatting lethal lung infection by hCoV-NL63 in a rat animal model study. HCoV-NL63 uses the same ACE2 receptor as the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the pandemic, and also exhibits similar disease pathology in human infections, albeit causing a much milder disease. HCoV-NL63 can be used in a BSL2 lab whereas SARS-CoV-2 currently requires BSL3/BSL4 labs. Therefore, the Company believes hCoV-NL63 serves as a useful model for drug development against SARS-CoV-2. The Company believes that these results are significant and indicate that a clinical nanoviricide drug candidate, once selected, would be worthy of human clinical trials for curing SARS-CoV-2 infection that causes the COVID-19 spectrum of diseases. NanoViricides is one of a few biopharma companies with its own cGMP-capable drug manufacturing facility. The Company believes it will be able to manufacture thousands of doses in a short period of time at this facility. Maxim Group LLC and Kingswood Capital Markets, a division of Benchmark Investments, Inc. acted as co-Placement Agents in connection with the Offering. The co-Placement Agents were paid a total cash fee of 8% of the gross proceeds, plus $75,000 for reimbursement of legal fees. The Shares were issued pursuant to a prospectus supplement dated May 21, 2020 which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on May 22, 2020 in connection with a takedown from the Company's shelf registration statement on Form S-3, as amended (File No. 333-237370), which became effective on April 2, 2020 and the base prospectus dated April 2, 2020 contained in that registration statement. A Current Report on Form 8-K was filed on May 22, 2020 with the SEC. The description of the Offering contained herein is qualified in its entirety by reference to this Current Report and attached Exhibits thereto. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor will there be any sales of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. About NanoViricides, Inc. NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. Our lead drug candidate is NV-HHV-101 with its first indication as dermal topical cream for the treatment of shingles rash. The Company is also developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others. The Company's technology is based on broad, exclusive, sub-licensable, field licenses to drugs developed in these areas from TheraCour Pharma, Inc. The Company has recently engaged in drug development against coronaviruses, in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The Company does not currently have a license to the coronavirus field, however, TheraCour has not denied any licenses to the Company. The Company typically begins the licensing process only after demonstrating effectiveness of some candidates in optimization stage. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by NanoViricides, Inc. are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Although it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, they may include the following: demonstration and proof of principle in preclinical trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our product candidates; and market acceptance of our products. As with any drug development efforts, there can be no assurance that any of these candidates would show sufficient effectiveness and safety for human clinical development at this time. There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in establishing the necessary collaborations, although the Company has been successful at establishing necessary collaborations for its drug programs in the past. Contact: NanoViricides, Inc. info@nanoviricides.com Public Relations Contact: MJ Clyburn TraDigital IR clyburn@tradigitalir.com SOURCE: NanoViricides, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591368/NanoViricides-Announces-Completion-of-102-Million-Registered-Direct-Offering--Funds-to-Accelerate-COVID-19-Drug-Program-and-HerpeCide-Program Patrick Semansky/STF Residents are being warned not to mistake their stimulus payment for a scam after millions of prepaid debit cards were mailed out last week as part of the $2 trillion CARES Act, which offers a one-time payment of up to $1,200 in federal assistance to some Americans. Millions of Americans have already received their assistance, either in the form of a paper check or direct deposit. But nearly four million others will receive their payment in the form of a prepaid Visa debit card, also known as The Economic Impact Payment Card. The card comes in a plain envelope from Money Network Cardholder Services, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Imperial Valley News Center Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Novel Coronavirus Washington, DC - In Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak), I declared a national emergency recognizing the threat that the novel (new) coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 poses to our Nations healthcare systems. It is the policy of the United States to respond to the ongoing, unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19 (the disease caused by SARSCoV-2) with every tool and resource available to the United States Government. Consistent with this policy, I have suspended and limited the entry of aliens recently present in certain foreign jurisdictions where significant COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred. These jurisdictions include the Peoples Republic of China (excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau), the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), and the Republic of Ireland. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a component of the Department of Health and Human Services, working in close coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, has determined that the Federative Republic of Brazil is experiencing widespread, ongoing person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2. As of May 23, 2020, the World Health Organization reported that the Federative Republic of Brazil had 310,087 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is the third highest number of confirmed cases in the world. The potential for undetected transmission of the virus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States from the Federative Republic of Brazil threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security, and I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to take action to restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were physically present within the Federative Republic of Brazil during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States. The free flow of commerce between the United States and the Federative Republic of Brazil remains an economic priority for the United States, and I remain committed to facilitating trade between our nations. NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, hereby find that the unrestricted entry into the United States of persons described in section 1 of this proclamation would, except as provided for in section 2 of this proclamation, be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and that their entry should be subject to certain restrictions, limitations, and exceptions. I therefore hereby proclaim the following: Section 1. Suspension and Limitation on Entry. The entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were physically present within the Federative Republic of Brazil during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States is hereby suspended and limited subject to section 2 of this proclamation. Sec. 2. Scope of Suspension and Limitation on Entry. (a) Section 1 of this proclamation shall not apply to: (i) any lawful permanent resident of the United States; (ii) any alien who is the spouse of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident; (iii) any alien who is the parent or legal guardian of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, provided that the U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident is unmarried and under the age of 21; (iv) any alien who is the sibling of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, provided that both are unmarried and under the age of 21; (v) any alien who is the child, foster child, or ward of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, or who is a prospective adoptee seeking to enter the United States pursuant to the IR-4 or IH-4 visa classifications; (vi) any alien traveling at the invitation of the United States Government for a purpose related to containment or mitigation of the virus; (vii) any alien traveling as a nonimmigrant pursuant to a C-1, D, or C-1/D nonimmigrant visa as a crewmember or any alien otherwise traveling to the United States as air or sea crew; (viii) any alien (A) seeking entry into or transiting the United States pursuant to one of the following visas: A-1, A-2, C-2, C-3 (as a foreign government official or immediate family member of an official), E-1 (as an employee of TECRO or TECO or the employees immediate family members), G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, NATO-1 through NATO-4, or NATO-6 (or seeking to enter as a nonimmigrant in one of those NATO categories); or (B) whose travel falls within the scope of section 11 of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement; (ix) any alien who is a member of the U.S. Armed Forces and any alien who is a spouse or child of a member of the U.S. Armed Forces; (x) any alien whose entry would not pose a significant risk of introducing, transmitting, or spreading the virus, as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the CDC Director or his designee; (xi) any alien whose entry would further important United States law enforcement objectives, as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their respective designees, based on a recommendation of the Attorney General or his designee; or (xii) any alien whose entry would be in the national interest, as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their designees. (b) Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to affect any individuals eligibility for asylum, withholding of removal, or protection under the regulations issued pursuant to the legislation implementing the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, consistent with the laws and regulations of the United States. Sec. 3. Implementation and Enforcement. (a) The Secretary of State shall implement this proclamation as it applies to visas pursuant to such procedures as the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, may establish. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall implement this proclamation as it applies to the entry of aliens pursuant to such procedures as the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, may establish. (b) Consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall ensure that any alien subject to this proclamation does not board an aircraft traveling to the United States. (c) The Secretary of Homeland Security may establish standards and procedures to ensure the application of this proclamation at and between all United States ports of entry. (d) An alien who circumvents the application of this proclamation through fraud, willful misrepresentation of a material fact, or illegal entry shall be a priority for removal by the Department of Homeland Security. Sec. 4. Termination. This proclamation shall remain in effect until terminated by the President. The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall recommend that the President continue, modify, or terminate this proclamation as described in section 5 of Proclamation 9984, as amended. Sec. 5. Effective Date. This proclamation is effective at 11:59 p.m. eastern daylight time on May 28, 2020. This proclamation does not apply to persons aboard a flight scheduled to arrive in the United States that departed prior to 11:59 p.m. eastern daylight time on May 28, 2020. Sec. 6. Severability. It is the policy of the United States to enforce this proclamation to the maximum extent possible to advance the national security, public safety, and foreign policy interests of the United States. Accordingly: (a) if any provision of this proclamation, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this proclamation and the application of its provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby; and (b) if any provision of this proclamation, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid because of the lack of certain procedural requirements, the relevant executive branch officials shall implement those procedural requirements to conform with existing law and with any applicable court orders. Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This proclamation shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This proclamation is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fourth. DONALD J. TRUMP Certainly most of what I experienced on a daily basis was not as extreme or potentially life-threatening as what Mr. Cooper faced in Central Park. But in addition to stories like his, in addition to the tragedy of the black jogger Ahmaud Arberys death at the hands of white men and in addition to the reports of black people being unfairly targeted for social-distancing violations, there are seemingly endless nonviolent, non-headline-making indignities. Black people are often made to feel we arent worthy of respect and dont belong. Most of the encounters I dealt with before quarantine could be described as microaggressions, which the psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines as brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. One study of 405 adults of color found a link between experiencing racial microaggressions and thoughts of suicide. Racial microaggressions used to be a part of my daily life and a regular topic of my therapy sessions. Now theyre not. And Im realizing that as a black queer man living in America, Im often better off at home. I dont miss the panic I feel when I see a police car pass by me when Im walking down the street alone. I dont miss the way my palms get sweaty as a cashier requests to see multiple forms of ID when I make a credit card purchase. I dont miss being asked questions about how I got here in a classroom of white students who werent asked the same. I dont miss the way I can feel my whole face tense up when a white woman clutches her purse as we pass each other on the street. All of this adds up. Quarantine has been protecting me not only from the coronavirus, but also from white people. To be clear, the daily anxiety I experienced before social distancing was nothing compared with the suffering this pandemic has caused. Id give up my newfound peace of mind without hesitation if it meant this virus would cease to exist, the deaths would stop, and all of us including the many who have been economically devastated by stay-at-home orders could return to daily life. Mumbai, May 26 : One of India's moat wanted fugitives, Islamic telly evangelist and zealot Zakir Naik, who is currently based in Malaysia, continues to be engaged in propagation of radical Islamic activities and collection of funds from his wealthy contacts in the Gulf region to support his activities. Sources close to developments have revealed that Naik has reportedly got in touch with one of his old contacts, a prominent Qatari national, and requested him for a generous charity during the just concluded Ramadan period. The well known Qatari national has reportedly assured an amount of $500,000 to him. It is also learnt that this Qatari national, is a close associate of Naik and helps him contact local wealthy businessmen and charity organisations for collection of funds. It may be recalled that Naik is an Islamic preacher and televangelist from Mumbai. He is the founder of Islamic Research Foundation (IRP) and Peace TV, an Islamic TV Channel broadcast in Urdu and English from Saudi Arabia. He is also associated with several local radical Islamic organisations such as South Karnataka Salafi Movement and Al-Lisaan Islamic Foundation. Naik continues to maintain several bank accounts in Gulf countries, including Qatar and the UAE, for collection of such funds to evade scrutiny of the Indian government. He generally uses these accounts to transfer funds to his associates and network for activities by IRF and other associated organisations. The Indian government has since put a five-year ban on IRF. Naik is involved in preaching of radical Islamic ideology that has influenced a number of youth in India and abroad in adverse manner and some of them are found to have been motivated to join extremist organisations such as Daesh. Following are some of the instances, in which individuals influenced by Naik have joined terror organisations: i) Abdul Rasheed @ Abdulla and his wife Yasmin were radicalised while working in Zakir Naik-run Peace International School (Kerala). Subsequently, Abdul Rasheed motivated a group of 23 individuals to join him in leaving the country for Afghanistan to join Daesh. (ii) Mohd Ibrahim Yazdani and Mohd Uyas Yezdani, kingpin of ISIS-influenced Junood-ul-Khilafafil-Hind (JKF) module which plotted to carry out terror attacks in different parts of India, were influenced by Naik's speeches. The module was neutralised by the Indian agencies in July 2016. (iii) Naser Abubakar Yafahi @ Chaus joined ISIS-influenced JKH module after being radicalised by the preachings of Naik. Abubakar Yafahi was arrested in July 2016. (iv) IRF had provided scholarship to Abu Anas from Rajasthan, who intended to join ISIS and was arrested while he was leaving India for joining ISIS. (v) Afsha Jabeen @ Nickey Joseph, while based in Dubai was involved in facilitating recruitment for ISIS. She was influenced by Naik. She was deported back to India in September 2015. (vi) Two Bangladeshi terrorists, namely Nabris Islam and Rohan Imtiaz, who were involved in the July 2016 Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka, confessed to have been inspired by Naik. In view of his involvement in extremist activities, multiple non-bailable warrants (NBW) have been issued against Naik by the India authorities on charges of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and for money laundering. Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili. "Demand for Hepatitis C Treatment Expected to Remain High in North America during 2018-2026 According to a recent study conducted by TMR, the global market for hepatitis C treatment is expected to expand at a CAGR of over XX% during the forecast period (2018-2026). By the end of 2018, market is anticipated to stand at US$ XX and is estimated to surpass US$XX Billion by 2026. Factors such as higher per capita healthcare expenditure worldwide and growing prevalence of hepatitis C infections in countries such as U.S. and Canada is expected to drive the global market for global hepatitis C treatment during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing awareness campaigns by private NGPOs and encouraging government initiatives to limit infection is also supporting the market growth. On the other hand, expensive drugs for hepatitis C treatment and lack of awareness about hepatitis C infection amongst the people in developing regions across the globe may inhibit the growth of the market during the forecast period. Request for Report Sample: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/3728 On the basis of drugs, the global market for hepatitis C treatment has been segmented into HCV NS5A inhibitors, HCV protease inhibitors, interferon & antiviral, HCV polymerase inhibitors, and combination therapy. Amongst these, combination therapy is expected to be the largest, accounting for the highest share of the market. The segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of over XX% during 2018-2026. On the basis distribution channel, the market has been segmented into online pharmacies, hospital pharmacies and retail pharmacies. Hospital pharmacy is expected to be the most dominant segment during the forecast period. By 2026, the segment is anticipated to account for over 43% share of the market in terms of revenue. Due to increasing occurrence of hospitalization and improved services and accessibility, demand for the segment is expected to grow higher in the near future. On the other hand, the online pharmacies segment is anticipated to witness the highest CAGR over the forecast period. The growth of the segment is due to ample stock of hepatitis C treatment drugs with added discount offered by online drug pharmacies. Get Request for Table of Contents: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/requesttoc/3728 On the basis of region, North America is expected to be the leading market for hepatitis C treatment, estimated to account for 45% share by the end of 2016. Whereas, the market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at an overwhelming CAGR of over XX%. By 2018, Europe is estimated to contribute over 19% share to the global market for hepatitis C treatment. The market in Latin America is expected to witness a sound growth, which was estimated at US$ XX Million in 2018 and is expected to surpass US$ XX by 2026 year end. In 2015, the market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region stood at US$ XX Million and is anticipated to cross US$ XXMillion by the end of 2018. Vendor News Key participants operating in the global market for hepatitis C treatment include F Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Gilead Sciences, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc., AbbVie Inc., and Kadmon Holdings, Inc. Most of these companies are actively focusing on partnering with healthcare solutions and service providers in order to offer better patient treatment and enhance operational efficiency. Full View of Report Description: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/hepatitis-c-treatment-market Police have cracked the May 17 hit-and-run case in which a local youth, Jasnoor Singh, was killed after a truck hit his motorcycle on Nakodar-Nurmahal road. Police took the help of CCTV camera footage to identify the truck (UP 86 T 4646). Senior superintendent of police Navjot Singh Mahal said the truck coming from wrong side had hit Jasnoors motorcycle. The driver of the truck sped off from the spot and an FIR was registered on the statement of victims father Satinder Singh. The Nakodar (Sadar) police traced the truck with the help of CCTV camera footage. He said the truck was found registered in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh in the name of one Praveen Kumar. On May 23, a Punjab Police team went to UP, impounded the truck and arrested the driver, identified as Amit Kumar of Hathras. Renault and Nissan get their plans shelved of pushing for the full merger which the former leader Carlos Ghosn longed for. They will instead work on fixing the troubles in their alliance to push for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Renault's proposals for a complete merger was long resisted by Nissan as the executives had issues with the French carmaker for not paying a fair share for the engineering work did in Japan, which was a threat to the partnership. Now, with carmakers around the world reeling from the pandemic, the partners are planning to overhaul an alliance that largely failed to convert its global scale into a competitive advantage beyond the joint procurement of parts. Both struggling carmakers are set to announce mid-term restructuring plans this week that will serve as a peace treaty designed to resolve the long-standing tensions, the five people familiar with the overhaul told Reuters. "After the rain, the earth hardens," said one senior Nissan source, citing a popular Japanese proverb that means relationships become stronger after a period of strife. All five sources within the alliance, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors Corp, declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak with media. Nissan and Renault are each planning substantial restructuring and cost cuts that could affect tens of thousands of jobs, with the Japanese company to announce its measures on May 28 and its French partner likely to follow the next day. Before that, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault are holding a joint news conference on May 27 during which they are expected to outline the philosophy behind their new "leader-follower" approach to the alliance. The sources said the companies were unlikely to disclose many details at the events this week of how the new approach will be used to share costs as the companies were still working on specific projects. However, the crisis at both carmakers has accelerated efforts to resolve the disagreements that have stymied collaboration and cost-sharing in technology and product development for five years, the sources said. Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault all declined to comment officially about alliance plans. 'LEADER-FOLLOWER' The alliance has steadily ramped up output over the years, delivering over 10 million vehicles for the first time in 2017, the first full year after Mitsubishi joined the partnership. But persistent quibbles over sharing the costs of innovation and new vehicle development soured relations and stalled plans to forge an even tighter alliance. Nissan executives believe their engineers are substantially more productive than their Renault colleagues and the way the French carmaker proposed to combine technology and product development did not properly account for Nissan's intellectual property, three of the sources said. "Nissan engineers on average produced 40% more than their Renault counterparts in a given amount of time spent on a job," one insider told Reuters in January. After his arrest in 2018 in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct, former alliance head Ghosn said his detention was part of a plot by Nissan executives to bring him down and block any merger. Earlier this year, relations looked strained to a point where the 21-year alliance was at risk of collapse. However, the turnaround plans due are now likely to be combined to forge what the sources described as a more equitable way of sharing technology and resources while preserving the distinctiveness of the alliance brands. Nissan Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta and Renault Chairman Jean-DominiqueA Senard are both key advocates of the new approach that they're calling a "leader-follower" system, the sources told Reuters. The plan is for one company to lead the development of a type of vehicle or technology with the other following, taking a page out of the play-book Gupta used to revive Renault's commercial vehicle business, as well as reinvigorate Nissan's. When he was in charge of the French business, Nissan used Renault's vehicle architectures as the building blocks for its city delivery vans while Nissan, in turn, provided the Renault group with technology for pickup trucks. OFF THE TABLE A test of the new approach could come in several places around the world, such as how Renault and Nissan work together in Europe and perhaps South America, as well as how Nissan and Mitsubishi cooperate in Southeast Asia and Japan. Under the new working relationship, Nissan could take the lead in Europe on crossover sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), while operating as a "follower" in commercial vans and small city cars, using versions produced by Renault, the sources said. Nissan's factory in Sunderland in the United Kingdom is of particular importance, they said. Renault and Nissan are planning to turn the assembly plant into a hub for sport utility vehicles such as Nissan's Qashqai and Juke, and potentially their Renault counterparts, the Kadjar and Captur. The companies are working on the plans, though it's not clear when a final decision will be made, the sources said. Whether Renault vehicles could be built profitably at the plant is unclear, given the uncertainty over tariffs as Britain leaves the European Union, according to one of the sources. "It should be a purely economic transaction, but it's also likely a political decision, too," he said. In the Philippines, Mitsubishi will likely help make cars for Nissan as it already has a plant there while the two will beef up cooperation in Japan's micro-mini car business, which makes up about half the country's passenger car market. The latest effort to salvage the Renault-Nissan alliance comes at a time of rising global economic nationalism and protectionism that represent a risk to the partnership. But for now, the new approach means the two companies will sideline any discussion of a complete merger, the sources said. Renault owns a 43.4% controlling stake in Nissan, which owns non-voting 15% stake in the French carmaker. "Will merger talk be revived in the future? No one knows. Everybody has to be prepared for that. But as far as I know, it's not being pursued anymore," said one of the senior alliance sources. "It is totally out of our sight today." A mother has told how her five-year-old daughter almost pricked herself on a cluster of used syringes in a park. Nikki Baluyot was with her daughter Skyla in Wynn Vale, north east Adelaide, on Monday afternoon. Skyla found an uncapped syringe next to a phone box and tried to pick it up, the ABC reported. 'My daughter bent down to pick something up and I just stopped her in time and there's four needles in total and a burnt spoon next to them as well,' Ms Baluyot said. Nikki Baluyot was with her daughter Skyla at a park in Wynn Vale, north east Adelaide, on Monday afternoon Skyla found an uncapped syringe next to a phone box as she played on Monday afternoon Ms Baluyot said the disgusting find was something she expected where she used to live in Sydney's Kings Cross but not where she lived now. 'It's hard to explain to a five-year-old I just sort of explained that if someone had used that needle and was sick and had pricked her she could possibly get sick,' she said. 'I'm not here to bag people who've got drug problems but it's like guys, just keep it away from the schools.' Ms Baluyot said the most frustrating thing was there was sharp objects container in public toilets nearby. Local MP Blair Boyer shared pictures of the syringes to his Facebook page on Monday. 'To say Im disgusted, disappointed and concerned would be an understatement,' he captioned the images. Local MP Blair Boyer shared pictures of the syringes to his Facebook page on Monday 'Ive asked the Tea Tree Gully Council send their rapid response team out to ensure no further syringes are around the area. 'To the person/people that left their syringes within reach of children take a serious look at yourself!' Regulations regarding how sharp objects were disposed of were tightened in South Australia after an an eight-year-old girl was pricked by a used syringe in 2018. 'Its disturbing that syringes are still being discarded like this,' City of Tea Tree Gully's manager of building assets and environment Mike Burke said. 'We ask anyone finding syringes to contact us immediately and not to handle them in any way.' EDWARDSVILLE Sam Lewis has a new stay-at-home project during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it could be a lifesaver for the people he is serving. Lewis, a senior at Edwardsville High School, is making 3D printed masks to be given away free to medical personnel in the Edwardsville area. He came up with the idea after noticing a shortage of medical supplies, especially masks. Lewis launched The Mask Project Edwardsville on March 26, and on April 1, he created a GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/f/themaskprojectedw?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet) to help raise money to produce the masks. A donation of $8 funds the production of two masks. A friend of mine named AJ Apone started a similar thing (The Mask Initiative) in California, where they were hit a lot harder (by the coronavirus) than our area was, Lewis said. At the time, I was looking for a way to help people with and I realized it was possible to do this here. Hopefully, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something cool. The response to The Mask Project Edwardsville has been encouraging, both from donors and from the medical personnel who have received the masks. As of Monday, the GoFundMe page had raised $1,600 of Lewis goal of $3,000, but other cash donations have boosted the total to approximately $2,200. More Information LOOKING FOR HEROES Do you know someone who's been a community hero during the coronavirus pandemic? The Telegraph wants to shine a light on everyday people doing great things during this crisis. If you know someone, send a note and photo to theintelligencer.news@thetelegraph.com to say who they are and what they have been doing. See More Collapse To make the masks, you need a 3D printer and some filament, and you need a process in place to keep everything sanitized, Lewis said. The main thing for me starting out was making sure I had a nice clean area to work and getting the printer set up. Once the masks started produced, we found some filters that would work, so we put the filters in and found different ways to attach them. We had some orders to fill right off the bat and then we started reaching out to different places. We talked to a lot of local nursing homes and filled a lot of orders for them. The masks are not medical grade, but are effective, nonetheless. Every mask is 3D printed using PLA plastic filament. After printing, each mask is sprayed with a disinfectant to increase the cleanliness of the mask. Next, the first filter is inserted into the mask. Once the first filter is placed in the mask, the over-ear straps, along with the comfort clip, are attached. Each mask is sprayed for a second time with a disinfectant. The masks come with one filter and six filter replacements and are enclosed in a vacuum-sealed package. Each package also contains a sheet regarding how to replace the filter along with general care suggestions. The filters are rated to protect against dust/lint, mold spores, pollen, pet dander, bacteria, virus carriers, most smoke, and microscopic allergens. You see a lot of people wearing bandanas or home-sewn masks and they work great, but this is an alternative to wearing the same mask every day, said Lewis, who is sometimes assisted by his father, Jeff Lewis. The filters we use are rated to last a month, and I recommend, based on use, that they are changed out every two weeks. As of Monday, Lewis had produced 313 masks. We can print nine shells a day, but I would like to be able to up that in the coming weeks, Lewis said. Were running as a non-profit, so all the money we get goes toward the masks. After Lewis makes the masks, he personally delivers them to nursing homes, doctors, medical workers, and anyone else in the community who needs one. Its great to be able to go and drop these masks off to different places. It makes them feel happy and it makes them feel safe, Lewis said. A lot of people have really been grateful. Ive delivered some masks to The Cambridge House (an assisted living facility in Maryville) and everyone there has been extremely nice. They even sent some thank-you emails afterward, so it was great working with them as well. Lewis plans to attend the University of Alabama at Huntsville, where he will major in electrical engineering with a minor in entrepreneurship. Lewis received a 3D printer for Christmas and has been experimenting with it ever since. He is a member of the Edwardsville Technologies Robotics Team, which is part of a larger Edwardsville Robotics Club, a local 501c3 nonprofit offered to students between 9 and 18 years old. It opened me up to a lot of different fields and a lot of the things you can do with 3D printing, Lewis said. Ive fallen in love with 3D printing and I would like to be able to start a 3D design business. Its a huge market and a lot of people have ideas, so it would be a way to go those ideas out there really fast. Lewis has another business, Okeanos Bottle Company (https://www.okeanosbottle.com), which makes hydro dipped reusable water bottles, with 10 percent of the water bottle proceeds go to The Thirst Project to build sustainable water sources in Africa. Ive been doing that for about a year and a half and its been going really well, said Lewis, who is also part of the Edwardsville CEO Program and the EHS Business Professionals of America (BPA) Club. We just made some EHS edition bottles as well to support the seniors. If you see Lewis out in public, he will be wearing one of his masks. He encourages everyone to wear a mask, regardless of the type. Ive gone out to the story only a few times and I try to stay home as much as I can, Lewis said. I see some people who dont wear masks, but I think its crucial to wear a mask and have that shield so you can be a bit safer. The global pandemic calls attention to the dire impact of structural racism on African-Americans who are disproportionately the victims of COVID-19. Blacks are more likely to be exposed to the coronavirus because their living and working situations make it more difficult to socially distance. They perish in greater numbers than others because stresses bearing down on those living in poverty make them more susceptible to complicating medical conditions such as high blood pressure. African-Americans have less access to affordable, quality health care. With schools closed, the effects of structural racism on education are exposed as disadvantaged urban children have less access to distance learning tools than their suburban counterparts. Structural racism in the criminal justice system renders incarcerated populations, disproportionately minorities, helpless targets of the infectious disease. Crisis heightens the insidious effects of unchecked structural racism, requiring bold leadership. Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, Albany Police Chief Eric Hawkins, Albany County District Attorney David Soares and Albany Common Council President Corey Ellis have before them a unique opportunity to address structural racism in Albany's public safety system. A recently released report by the Center for Law and Justice, "Structural Racism and Public Safety in Albany," describes how a government/community partnership can confront Albany's structural racism problem, culminating in a "Recommitment to Community Policing" symposium in the fall. The Center for Law and Justice will issue a "Public Safety Report Card" in September, awarding each of the four officials letter grades based on responses to questions posed by the center during the coming months. Initial letters were sent to the four officials in early April, each posing several questions regarding structural racism. For example, one question for the mayor is whether she will deem structural racism a public health crisis in Albany. The chief is asked if he will commit to having state officials investigate all police shootings. The district attorney is asked if he will recuse himself from the prosecution of all police shootings. The Common Council president is asked how he will improve the oversight capabilities of the Albany Community Police Advisory Committee. The center has posted these initial letters and response summaries on its website, www.cflj.org. Follow-up questions and response summaries will be posted on a biweekly basis from early May through August, and the public will be invited to comment. This months-long government/community dialogue will help set the stage for the "Recommitment to Community Policing" symposium. Government/community collaboration is crucial to vanquishing formidable public safety threats. New Yorkers are justifiably proud of the manner in which our state has handled the pandemic. By most accounts, Gov. Andrew Cuomo deserves an "A" in leadership as he shepherds New York through its COVID-19 nightmare. The governor candidly concedes the horrifying effects of the virus, pulling no punches in his reports including describing the disproportionate impact on communities of color. He acknowledges his responsibility to address the deadly disease, though he had no role in causing it. He marshals support from those who can help, rather than pointing accusatory fingers elsewhere. The governor calls upon all of us to sacrifice during this wearisome war, telling everyone their participation is vital. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Cuomo self-effacingly says he is doing his job. Albany should use the governor's collaborative model in our battle with structural racism. Government officials should concede the devastating effects that structural racism has on our public safety system; acknowledge their responsibility to address it, even though they may believe they had no role in fostering it; seek out resources that can help fight structural racism, refraining from pointing fingers; and work with their community to fight the scourge of structural racism. On behalf of the community, the center looks forward to partnering with government officials to host the "Recommitment to Community Policing" symposium in the fall. Like Gov. Cuomo, let's all humbly do our jobs. Expedia Shuts a Short-Term Rental Biz It Created From 2 Acquisitions As part of its reorganization efforts, Expedia Group is winding down its multifamily building short-term rental business that it began with the 2018 acquisitions of Pillow and ApartmentJet, Skift has learned. Expedia Group bought the two companies for around $54 million, and combined them, along with some staff from its Vrbo subsidiary, to create Expedia Group Multifamily solutions. Expedia rebranded the product into a suite of software tools called Flex, or Flexible Living Platform, and it was geared to help landlords attract short-term rental bookings for vacant apartments, and to enable tenants to offer up their units to guests. Pillow had counted Airbnb as its exclusive multifamily software partner prior to Expedia buying the company. But Airbnb spokesman Tim Rathschmidt said Monday that Airbnb discontinued the Pillow partnership soon after Expedia acquired the company, and built its own service. An Expedia spokesperson on Monday confirmed that the company is winding down Pillow and ApartmentJet as part of our drive for simplification. Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern and senior executive Barry Diller have been reorganizing the online travel agency for several months, cutting costs, consolidating teams, and trying to simplify what they agree has been a less-than-efficient and complex web of businesses. The Expedia Group spokeswoman said factors that led to the demise of its multifamily business grew out of the Covid-19 crisis, which hurt urban demand and complicated investment in supply. Is Multifamily Dead? Reem Ibrahimi, founder of private equity fund Capstron Capital, based in Boston, said Expedia was in the early stages of its efforts in the multifamily sector so the shutdown of that business wont be extremely impactful. City apartments are the most-impacted because they are driven by travelers coming into cities for work, Ibrahimi said. Its going to take a long time to revive, and that may include a pivot on the ownerss side. Story continues The Sonder model, where that company offered guarantee revenue to building owners and operators when it entered into long-term leases for a number of units at a large property, came with too much overhead, she said. Ibrahimi advocates a diverse cash flow model for owners, where a property might include, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, affordable housing, and some units geared for workers. Addressing the Needs of Big Owners and Operators The comings and goings of short-term rental guests, along with parties and noise issues, has been a major issue for landlords and tenants in large apartment buildings, as well as for their communities. Expedias Flex tools were geared to enable owners and operators to pick up incremental revenue from short-term rental guests, but also to track the stays of such guests. The Expedia Group Multifamily Solutions website touts several case studies, including one from realtor Hartz Mountain, which did a pilot with Expedia for an Austin property, the Whitley. The property booked $200,000 in reservations from December 2017 to June 2018 for five units, according to the case study, although this took place prior to the acquisition. The pilot found that two-bedroom units outperformed smaller ones. With the reset caused by Covid, a lot of these experiments are just getting shut down to focus on the core business, said Andrew McConnell, CEO of Rented, referring to forays into the space by large corporations. In some instances this might be a forcing mechanism to exercise discipline in cutting things that really should have been cut anyway. In other instances, it might lead to cutting things that are promising, but just dont make sense right now. Subscribe to Skift newsletters for essential news about the business of travel. Hugh Jackman and his son Oscar took time out of their day on Monday to honor fallen soldiers on Memorial Day. The Wolverine star and his 20-year-old son were pictured buying flowers in New York City, before placing them in front The Abingdon Square Memorial, also known as the Abingdon Square Doughboy, which is in memory of local men who fought in World War I. The inscription on the monument reads, 'Erected by popular subscription in honor of the brave men who went forth from this neighborhood to join the Armed Forces of the United States during the World War.' Paying respect: Actor Hugh Jackman and his son Oscar were pictured laying flowers in front of a World War I monument in New York City on Memorial Day Hugh, 51, appeared to be taking a moment of silence with Oscar, as they both stood by the memorial. He posted on Instagram earlier on Monday with the caption: 'Our unending respect to the men and women of the military. #memorialday' Meanwhile, the actor has recently been using his time self-isolating in New York to help others in need. After becoming an ambassador of mental health organisation Gotcha4Life in 2017, the actor has recently been hosting secret web seminars to promote 'messages of connection and conversation' through the charity. Good man: Hugh posted this shot on Instagram earlier in the day paying respect for Memorial Day 'I've learned so much from being on the board and we are planning on more of those talks,' Hugh told News Corp Australia of his passion to help people. Gotcha4Life was founded in 2017 by Gus Worland, Hugh's best friend. 'Gus has been incredible [mental health] is something we really need to pay attention to in the world and Australia, a lot,' added Hugh. Tribute: Hugh and his son picked up flowers in NYC on Monday On their way: The father son duo were spotted heading to the site 'Our need to look after each other, not just financially and physically, but mentally is a priority. There's a lot of loneliness out there and this only adds to that.' Hugh urged fans to take care of their mental health on Instagram in April, as he promoted Gotcha4Life and the great work they do. 'I've been a board member since @Gotcha4Life was created,' began Hugh. Memorial Day: Hugh, 51, appeared to be taking a moment of silence with Oscar, 20, as they both stood by the memorial. 'It's extremely important that we pay attention to our mental health. Now more than ever. Please contact your family, friends and neighbours. A call could save a life.' Hugh, wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their children, Oscar and Ava, were in Melbourne when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March. They initially flew there from New York on a work trip as Deborra-Lee directed several episodes of Neighbours. They then returned to America after just four days. 'No one really knew what was going on it was all a bit of a shock,' said Hugh after being advised to return to his American home before the boarders closed. An Israeli court ruled Tuesday that an Orthodox Jewish teacher accused of child sex abuse in Australia was mentally fit to stand trial, bringing her closer to extradition after years of legal battles. The decision was hailed by alleged victims who have campaigned for years for Malka Leifer to be sent back to face trial. Jerusalem district court judge Chana Lomp said that she had 'decided to accept the expert panel's opinion, the defendant is fit to stand trial'. Lomp set July 20, 2020 as the date for the renewal of the extradition process. The decision was hailed by alleged victims who have campaigned for years for Malka Leifer (right) to be sent back to face trial Leifer, who was not in court on Tuesday, is accused of child sex abuse while she was a teacher and principal at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, where she had emigrated from her native Israel. According to Australian media, Leifer is facing 74 counts of child sex abuse, but her lawyers say there were only 'three actual complaints.' After allegations surfaced against her in 2008, Leifer and her family left for Israel and have been living in the settlement of Emmanuel in the occupied West Bank. A previous extradition attempt between 2014 and 2016 failed after Leifer was hospitalised in mental institutions and expert opinions found she was not fit to stand trial. But undercover private investigators later filmed Leifer shopping and depositing a cheque at a bank. This prompted Israeli authorities to launch a probe into whether she was faking mental illness to avoid extradition, leading to her arrest in February 2018. Malka Leifer, who is accused of sexual abuse of girls at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Australia, has fought a long battle against extradition from Israel In her 40-page ruling Tuesday, Lomp noted that while Leifer had 'mental problems,' as the panel of experts confirmed, 'they were not psychotic problems of mental illness as in its legal definition.' Leifer is facing 74 charges of rape and child sexual assault of three female students during her time at the ultra-orthodox Adass Israel school in Elsternwick 'My impression is that the defendant is exacerbating her mental problems and pretending to be mentally ill,' Lomp wrote. 'Therefore, my conclusion is that the defendant is fit to stand trial and the extradition process on her case should be renewed.' Dassi Erlich, one of the women accusing Leifer of sexually abusing her, called Tuesday's decision 'huge'. 'This abusive woman has been exploiting the Israeli courts for 6 years! Intentionally creating obstacles with endless vexatious arguments that have only lengthened our ongoing trauma!', she said in a statement. In a statement to the press following the court session, Avital Ribner-Oron, one of the prosecutors for the justice ministry's international department, said she was 'pleased' with Lomp's decision. 'The removal of this obstacle that has stood in the way of any significant progress in this case, will now enable the court to bring this matter to a timely and swift conclusion,' she said. In her 40-page ruling Tuesday, Lomp noted that while Leifer had 'mental problems,' as the panel of experts confirmed, 'they were not psychotic problems of mental illness as in its legal definition' One of Leifer's lawyers, Tal Gabay, however told reporters the decision was 'not clean of doubt.' 'It's not a black-and-white case,' he said. Another member of the defence team, Yehuda Fried, said that while they could not appeal Tuesday's decision, they would do so when the final decision on Leifer's extradition was made. 'We hope and believe the supreme court will overturn today's district court decision,' Fried said. While we worked to ensure the First Amendment rights of those participating in todays march, the organizers and participants were not practicing social distancing or abiding by the public health guidelines outlined in the stay-at-home order. Therefore, for the health and safety of all residents involved in the rally, the Chicago Police Department issued a dispersal of the crowd and ordered the organizers to shut down the event," the statement read. An alleged IRA man who was jailed for raping teenage boys at a republican safe house over two decades ago is to seek more time to lodge an appeal against his conviction. Passing sentence at the Central Criminal Court in May 2019, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said that Belfast native Seamus Marley used his standing in the republican movement, a movement well capable of clandestine killings, to silence his victims. The 46-year-old, with a last address at Belfield Court, Stillorgan Road, in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting and anally raping the two boys in Co. Louth on dates in the early 1990s. He was unanimously found guilty on six counts of sexual assault and two counts of rape by a Central Criminal Court jury, following a six-day trial, and was given concurrent seven-year and six-year sentences by the judge. The alleged IRA man had filed for an appeal against his conviction outside of the required 28-day period in which to lodge an appeal. A defendant normally has 28 days from the date of their sentence to file a notice of their intent to appeal. Counsel for Marley, Michael Bowman SC, today applied to the Court of Appeal for a date to hear the application for an extension of time so the case can go to full hearing. Patrick Gageby SC, for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told the court that the State would contest the application and the hearing would last 30 minutes. President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham set June 25 next as the date for hearing of the motion to extend time. During the trial, prosecuting counsel Mr Gageby told the Central Criminal Court jury that Marley's victims lived in a large home owned by a dedicated republican and that it began to be used as a safe house. The jury heard that IRA volunteers would be brought to the house during the night and stay for a few days or weeks. Marley was one of these guests in the early 1990s and he was welcomed into the family, according to Detective Garda Seamus Nolan. The older of the two victims said that he awoke one night while on a camping trip to find Marley groping his genitals. He said that he woke up another night in the house to find Marley raping him. After the incident Marley warned him off telling anyone what had happened and said he could be found dead on a border road, the trial heard. The younger victim was given alcohol by Marley and was groped or masturbated by him on three or four occasions. On one occasion he awoke to find Marley engaging in oral intercourse with him, Mr Gageby told the court. Counsel said that the victim was later raped by Marley in a tent nearby the house. Marley had no previous convictions. The court heard he is from a large family in Belfast and that his father was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries. During the trial, gardai agreed with John Fitzgerald SC, defending, that they had no intelligence that the accused was involved in any paramilitary organisation until the complainants came forward with their allegations and that the accused had never been arrested for any alleged subversive activities. Mr Fitzgerald said that Marley has been in a relationship for 16 years and that his partner had been present in court throughout the trial. He handed in a letter from Marley's pastor which described him as being an excellent Christian who possessed a charitable spirit. London, May 26 : Due to impacts of Covid-19, shipments of total mobile phones are forecast to decline 14.6 per cent in 2020, while smartphone shipments will achieve a slightly slower decline of 13.7 per cent year over year to total 1.3 billion units this year, according to a Gartner forecast on Tuesday. "While users have increased the use of their mobile phones to communicate with colleagues, work partners, friends and families during lockdowns, reduced disposable income will result in fewer consumers upgrading their phones," Ranjit Atwal, Senior Research Director at Gartner, said in a statement. "As a result, phone lifetimes will extend from 2.5 years in 2018 to 2.7 years in 2020," said Atwal. In 2020, affordable 5G phones were expected to be the catalyst to increase phone replacements, but now it is unlikely to be the case. 5G phones are now forecast to represent only 11 per cent of total mobile phone shipments in 2020. "The delayed delivery of some 5G flagship phones is an ongoing issue," said Annette Zimmermann, Research Vice President at Gartner. "Moreover, the lack of 5G geographical coverage along with the increasing cost of the 5G phone contract will impact the choice of a 5G phone." Overall, spending on 5G phones will be impacted in most regions apart from China, where continued investment in 5G infrastructure is expected, allowing providers in China to effectively market 5G phones. The combined global shipments PCs, tablets and mobile phones are on pace to decline 13.6 per cent in 2020, according to the forecast. PC shipments are expected to decline 10.5 per cent this year. Shipments of notebooks, tablets and Chromebooks are forecast to decline slower than the PC market overall in 2020. "The forecasted decline in the PC market in particular could have been much worse," said Atwal. "However, government lockdowns due to COVID-19 forced businesses and schools to enable millions of people to work from home and increase spending on new notebooks, Chromebooks and tablets for those workers. Education and government establishments also increased spending on those devices to facilitate e-learning." Gartner said that 48 per cent of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 30 per cent pre-pandemic. Overall, the work from home trend will make IT departments shift to more notebooks, tablets and Chrome devices for work. "This trend combined with businesses required to create flexible business continuity plans will make business notebooks displace deskbased PCs through 2021 and 2022," said Atwal. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Doo Hee makes a good strategy when it comes to producing shows. As she is a producer and the director of an advertisement agency, she's always busy. That's why she planned to take a holiday to surprise her boyfriend of 3 years. It also happens to be her boyfriend's birthday, so she's pretty much excited to go to Jeju. Dr. Kim who is a psychiatrist and is on a business trip to Jeju island to meet one of his patients takes the same plane as Do Hee and seat besides her. Doo Hee's boyfriend is managing a restaurant and they have a long-distance relationship for 3 years. She received a picture of a ring from her boyfriend a few days ago. She thought it was intended for her and a surprise proposal if they meet again. On her way to her boyfriend's place she gets lucky with upgrade services from the airline and rental car services. Doo Hee is more excited to be with his boyfriend. She also made video clips from the airport of her personal experience and what she does going to her boyfriend's place. Dr. Kim prefers not to date anyone after a breakup and to focus on his job. He also prefers to eat and dine on his own. He arrived in Jeju island and went directly to meet his patient to discuss while enjoying a meal. Doo Hee and Dr. Kim met at the same restaurant but it never ended well for Doo Hee. She discovered that her boyfriend is cheating on her and on the day of his birthday he prepared a proposal for the other girl. Doo Hee is devastated to witness and ends the relationship. Dr. Kim saw what happened to Doo Hee. He only listens attentively with his patient and Doo Hee's scene with her boyfriend. But his patient suggested Dr. Kim goes after Doo Hee and checks on her if she is doing fine. Dr. Kim took a taxi and followed Doo Hee's car. He stopped as he saw Doo Hee's car parked beside the shoreline and searched for her. He saw her standing on one of the rocks and thought something bad. He ran after her thinking to rescue her from jumping over but Doo Hee steps aside leading Kim to fall off to the sea. He hit his head on the rocks which caused laceration and he lost consciousness. Doo Hee brought her to the hospital to be treated. Dr. Kim woke up and was surprised to have missed his plane back to Seoul. Doo Hee bought him a new vintage dress to wear and drove him to the airport. Dr. Kim scheduled another flight and canceled all his evening appointments. Doo Hee stayed at Jiju island for another day while dealing with her heartbreak alone. Standing at the check-in counter, Dr. Kim thought of Doo Hee and her traumatic experience earlier. He turned around and decided to find Doo Hee. She was still in the parking area sitting in her car. Dr. Kim knocked on her windshield to surprise her. Doo Hee steps out of the car and is shocked to see him again. Dr. Kim asked Doo Hee to go out for dinner. She smiled and felt relieved to have someone in her saddest night. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the four phases of nationwide lockdown have "failed" and not given the results that Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected as he urged the Centre to spell out its strategy for "opening up" the country. Addressing an online press conference, the Congress leader expressed concern that if the government functions haphazardly during the non-lockdown period, the country will face a second wave of coronavirus which will be "extremely devastating". Gandhi further said if money is not given in the hands of the poor and small and medium industry, there could be "serious economic damage" in the country as he sought to know the government's plan to support migrants and various states in fighting the COVID19 pandemic. "We want to ask the government, what is their strategy as far as India's opening up is concerned and what precautions they are going to take, how are they thinking and how they are going to support the migrants and our states?" he asked. It is clear that the aim and purpose of the lockdown have failed even after 60 days and the disease is growing exponentially in the country, he said. "What India is facing now is a result of a failed lockdown. It is pretty clear that the four stages of lockdown have not given the result that the Prime Minister expected," he said. Gandhi noted that India is the only country in the world which is relaxing the lockdown when the virus is "exponentially rising". The former Congress chief said though he is not an expert but "we need to open up with planning and systematically and not in an ad-hoc way". He said the country's economy needs to be restored and that needs to be done by infusing money into the hands of the poor and the small and medium businesses. "The central government must infuse cash into hands of people and it will be fatal if they do not do it," he noted. A dangerous situation will arise if financial support to people and industry is not provided, he warned. Gandhi also called for financial support to states, saying it will be difficult for states to function without central aid. Gandhi also called upon the central government to be transparent about what is happening in Ladakh and Nepal. "We would like the central government to make it clear to people on what is happening on the border with China," he said. Asked about the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, where Congress is a partner in the government, Gandhi said there is a difference between running the government and supporting a government. "We are supporting Maharashtra government, but we are not in the key decision-making role in Maharashtra," he said, adding that Maharashtra requires full support of the central government as the state is fighting a very difficult battle. WATERLOO One person was arrested after allegedly firing a shot over the weekend. Seyveion Marchelle James Hayes, 20, of 1803 Franklin St., was arrested Saturday for intimidation with a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm. He was released from jail pending trial. Police were called to the 1800 block of Mulberry Street around 8:40 p.m. on Saturday, and witnesses told police that Hayes had fired a shotgun once in the backyard of 1818 Franklin St. following an earlier argument. No injuries were reported. Police searched the house and found a 12-gauge Stevens Model 320 shotgun, an AK-47-style rifle and a bolt-action rifle in the home. Court records show that Hayes is currently on probation in an October 2015 armed robbery at Mr. Jays Cafe on West Fifth Street. Photos: Missing children in Iowa Love 2 Funny 2 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. China on the back foot all year because of its coronavirus handling played catch up to Sun Tsu last week when it sent a strong message to the world during the Communist Party of Chinas (CPC) annual National Peoples Congress (NPC) held in Beijing. It hiked Chinas defense budget 6.6% to USD 179 billion and approved a national security law that bypasses local lawmakers to ban treason, secession, sedition and subversion in Hong Kong. Other subtle hints were no less strong. Though 2 months late due to COVID-19, the NPC comes at a time when the rest of the world is struggling. The 5000 delegates sat next to each other, wearing masks. Top leaders of CPC, including President Xi Jinping, did not. This lack of social distancing is not akin to the bravado promoted by President Donald Trump. The delegates gathered from across China were tested multiple times. It is a victory parade intended to tell the world that China beat the virus without needing a vaccine. Chinas growing confidence in its abilities has been visible all through May. Aware that their Hong Kong decision will raise a stink, it pre-emptively sent nations an explanatory dossier. The one sent to India said: upholding national security in Hong Kong was purely Chinas internal affair and no foreign country may interfere in this matter. Given Indias terrible track record in Kashmir, this was meant to checkmate. Other lines in the communique camouflaged threat: Hong Kongs prosperity and long-term stability is in line with the common interests of the whole international community, including your country, as well as protection of your countrys legitimate interests in Hong Kong. China preceded these veiled threats with physical assaults as incidents were reported in four different areas along Indias Line of Actual Control with China: at Pangong lake in Ladakh on May 5, at Naku La in Sikkim on May 9, and two places in Ladakh Galwan valley and Demchok, leading to a build-up of troops by both sides. Indian soldiers were injured, prompting Indias Army Chief, General Manoj Naravane to visit the Leh-based 14 Corps headquarters in Ladakh to assess the situation. Such aggression puts India in a precarious spot as China has the worlds largest military and its defense budget is nearly three times that of India, increasing steadily in the last six years of President Xis rule. China - the worlds second-largest military spender - seems to be inching closer to the largest USA, which spends over 4 times more than China. Chinas increased military spending puts extra pressure on India to raise its own defense budget, considering also that China became the worlds fifth-largest exporter of major arms between 2014-2018 supplying to 53 states. A bulk of it - 37% - went to Pakistan. The other problem is a lack of transparency with almost every data coming from China. Defense analysts claim China spends more on its military than it announces. As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Chinas military expenditure in 2019 was $261 billion, much higher than its stated $177.61 billion figures. With global trust in China at its lowest since 1989s Tiananmen square massacre and President Trump upping his anti-China rhetoric; the stage seems set for a US-China cold war. Cold War 2.0 wont be for ideological supremacy. Though Chinese propaganda harps on what it calls socialist consultative democracy in practice China looks like an autocracy led by President Xi. And though China since it joined the free market in 1978 - calls its economic model socialist market economy with state ownership of most enterprises, China and USA are fighting for dominance over global free markets and not their economic models. Despite expanding its economic power across Asia by revitalising centuries-old trade routes and via its foray into Africa, China is still largely a local power that flexes its muscles against weak neighbours like India but exercises military restraint against USA. Despite Trump relinquishing US lead in global politics with theatrics like threats to pull WHO funding and China jumping in with $2 billion promise to fight coronavirus USA continues to hold military bases worldwide. This does not mean US will emerge an inevitable victor if the cold war with China turns hot for China not only has 2 million troops, its military is almost entirely geared to defeat the US. Thus a Sino-US cold war wont be as hot as the Russo-US one. This is also because the economies of both countries are entwined. China makes a large part of its money through manufacturing for US companies which make a large part of their profits and retain their competitive edge because of low cost Chinese manufacturing. Yet, no matter how hot or cold this war blows, India will find itself sandwiched. Throughout its almost similar duration of modern history beginning in the 1940s, India and China have quarreled for influence across Asia with China winning comprehensively. This does not mean India does not aspire to usurp China. The coronavirus pandemic has provided India a golden opportunity to do so. Apple has said it is considering moving up to $40 billion worth of smartphone production over the next five years to India. Many other businesses are diversifying away from China to other Asian nations. If India lays out a red carpet, more US and European businesses could migrate - at least partially - to India. During the Russo-US cold war, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spearheaded the Non-Aligned Movement to stay away from both power blocks. Today India is aligned with the US. If Trump comes back to power next year, ideological similarities will make Indo-US ties stronger and Sino-Indian conflict, tenser. China flexing its muscle when the world is on its knees is wanting to be victorious before going to war. Does that mean China has a chance to win the cold war? Hardly. Notwithstanding its many true efficiencies and false propaganda, what China cannot wash its hands off, is its horrid human rights abuse of the Uighurs and its dictatorial designs on Hong Kong. Despite its promises, Chinas socialist consultative democracy will find few takes globally for its lack of either consultation or democracy and because most millennials consider democracy even a malfunctioning one better than an efficient autocracy where even basic freedoms are curbed to serve a ruthless state. China, hence, would do well to remember another Sun Tzu quote: the wise warrior avoids the battle. (Satyen K Bordoloi is a scriptwriter, journalist based in Mumbai. His written words have appeared in many Indian and foreign publications.) Read more by Satyen K Bordoloi: Wages of Wrath: COVID-19 unmasks real map of the world Is over-emphasis on a COVID-19 vaccine hurting the world? Mao Zedong's role in COVID-19 India needs up to 6 crore daily tests to win over COVID-19 Should GoI press the Coronavirus panic button and put India under lockdown? Wages of wrath the city migrant in search of dignity Covid19 lockdown: There's only one way to save Indian lives and economy India under lockdown: what's chess got to do with it? India will lose fight against COVID-19 if... Forgetting the most influential non-political Indian on his 100th birthday How India forgot its most famous woman on her 150th birth anniversary 50 Years of R&AW - Is India's Foreign Spy Agency Dreaded or Dreadful? OTTAWAAmaka Oregbemhe does what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls heroic work. She hopes it is enough to stop her deportation. The Mississauga mother of three is on the front-lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, picking up night shifts as a personal support worker at a group home for people with disabilities on top of her full-time hours in supportive housing for seniors. Her husband, Samuel, is delivering goods as a truck driver. But now, two years after arriving in Canada seeking asylum from Nigeria, the family faces the prospect of being sent back after their refugee claim was denied. With deportations suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, Oregbemhe said they have applied to stay on humanitarian grounds, based on their contributions as essential workers. The work, in other words, is their last hope. We dont know what is going to happen tomorrow. We are scared, Oregbemhe told the Star on Tuesday. It breaks my heart so much. I know that this country is a very good country, she said. I have a lot to contribute to this county. And I have my clients who I love so much, and they love me so much and I love the job that I do. Earlier Tuesday, facing demands to ensure asylum seekers performing essential tasks in the trenches of Canadas COVID-19 crisis arent deported, Trudeau said the government is exploring ways to help including perhaps by accelerating claims for irregular migrants who have crossed into Canada by land and are now working in long-term-care centres. We know there are extraordinary people who are doing heroic work in our long-term-care centres, and we should look at how we can help them, Trudeau said in French during his morning press conference outside Rideau Cottage on Tuesday. Our immigration system is anchored in respect for processes and fairness and equality for everyone. Its important to follow these processes, but in an exceptional situation one can evidently consider some exceptions, he said. What that means remains to be seen, as Trudeau and other government officials did not provide further details other than to say that Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino is looking into the matter. Mendicinos office declined to answer questions from the Star on Tuesday, including whether the exceptions Trudeau mentioned would only apply to asylum seekers in Quebec. Refugee advocates in that province where thousands of people have crossed into Canada by land at Roxham Road, south of Montreal in recent years have called for asylum seekers working in long-term care during the pandemic to receive permanent residency status. But there are asylum seekers in the same situation in Toronto who would benefit from accelerated claims or any other form of recognition from Ottawa, said Francisco Rico-Martinez, co-director of the citys FCJ Refugee Centre. He said the government should also waive application fees for claimants doing essential work, and allow people filing asylum claims with the Immigration and Refugee Board to make concurrent applications to stay in Canada on humanitarian grounds. I would love to see (this) because that is going to affect not only people in Quebec, but people ... here and in Canada everywhere, he said. Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said there is already a sizable backlog for asylum claims at the Immigration and Refugee Board there were more than 90,000 claims pending as of March 31 that she worries will just get longer amidst the pandemic slowdown. Whatever Ottawa decided to do, Dench said it should be simple and broad so that people dont need lawyers or have to jump through hoops to receive the help under consideration. People are working in many different ways, as delivery drivers and security people and many of the front lines, she said. They are filling vital jobs on the front lines, and what would we do without them? Immigration lawyer Ali Esnaashari said that description fits Oregbemhe and her husband, who are his clients, and should be a factor that lets them stay in Canada. He said their asylum claim was rejected based on a now-defunct consideration that claimants from Nigeria from which the family fled out of concern their daughters would be subject to genital mutilation can find refuge if they move to a different location in that country. Now, having established themselves and their children in Canada while working in essential jobs during a pandemic, Esnaashari said the government should show it truly supports people like Oregbemhe. You have people who are putting their lives at risk, their families at risk, he said. Canadians are better off by having these people here. Read more about: South Africa will downgrade its coronavirus lockdown measures to level three on June 1, marking what President Cyril Ramaphosa called a "significant shift" in its approach to the pandemic. The move commences the full reopening of all manufacturing, mining, construction, financial services, professional and business services, information technology, communications, government services, and media services. Wholesale and retail trade will also be fully opened, including in the informal economy. All in all, this relaxation of the alert level sends around 8 million South Africans back to work, out of the country's 58 million people. Businesses reopening will be subject to "strict health protocols" and social-distancing measures, and Ramaphosa said in a televised address on Sunday that the government is "finalizing a number of sector protocols" mandating companies to implement relevant measures to curtail the spread of the virus. Restrictions on public gatherings and "sectors where the risk of transmission is high" will remain in place, while special measures will also apply to hotspot areas with more than five infections per 100,000 people. These areas will still be subject to the downgrading of restrictions, but specialist teams and interventions will be allocated to at-risk regions and Ramaphosa suggested that any particular region could be upgraded back to a four or five alert level if its infection rate spikes. Despite the decision, Ramaphosa was keen to stress that the country has not yet overcome the virus. With 23,615 cases and 481 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University data, South Africa remains the most affected nation on the continent. In Sunday's address, Ramaphosa warned that "the risk of a massive increase in infections is now greater than it has been since the start of the outbreak in our country" and said the state of the pandemic in South Africa "is going to get much worse before it gets better." While the lifting of measures was unsurprising, given that the government had set out its roadmap for reopening earlier this month, the confirmation has been generally welcomed, according to Louw Nel, political analyst at NKC African Economics. "The lifting of the lockdown had become increasingly politicized, with the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, making it a central tenet of their messaging and ramping up the pressure on government," Nel highlighted in a note Monday. Nel said South Africa is set to enter a "crucial and inevitable stage" in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. "The lockdown has given the health sector time to prepare for the inevitable surge in infections, and the coming weeks and months will severely test the plans and contingency measures put in place during this period as South Africa gets back to work," he said. In what is now known as "the before days" before a pandemic landed like an elephant on their tightly-managed worlds parents around the globe worried about how much screen time their children consumed. Now, that seems almost cute. But as we glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel with COVID-19, many parents are concerned about what might result from one specific change the pandemic brought to their house: the relaxed rules when it came to their children's screen time. Daphna Levin-Kahn worries about screen time for her children Kira, 11, and Oren, 13. Credit:Wolter Peeters One parent said, 'My child just finished Netflix', says Dr Jo Orlando, a Sydney digital literacy analyst who has been speaking with numerous parents about their children hopping through a daily technological obstacle course, from laptop to iPad, television and phone. So should we feel guilty? And will it create long-lasting damage? Look, I dont think it will, says Orlando, who has researched the impact of screen use on children. Theres no evidence that suggests that excessive screen terms causes long term brain damage. How do I help students talk about their anger over what the coronavirus has done to their lives? Whether its missing prom, graduation, or just hanging out with friends, theres a lot for kids to be angry about right now. What is anger? Why do we experience it? And what can we do to manage it? Anger is what psychologists call a universal emotion because its cardinal features are common across all human cultures. As psychologist Paul Ekman puts it, the primary message of anger is: Get out of my way! When I feel angerthat red-hot, jaw-clenching emotion Im particularly bad at managingit is because I believe my rights have been violated. There is typically a sense of frustration: I was on a beeline toward a goal and now Im being blocked. And also unfairness: Someone or something is to blame for my frustration, and whats more, theyre wrong. Like all emotions, anger serves a purpose. It can motivate us to stand up for ourselvesand othersagainst bullies and despots. But anger can also get out of hand. When I lose my temper with my husband or kids, for example, I end up saying things that are hurtful. And in the current pandemic, the ultimate enemy is a virus that, while blameworthy, isnt going to change course simply because we yell, scream, and stomp our feet. If you sense that your students are feeling anger, listen empathically . You, too, are surely angry about some aspect of the current situation, and it may help them to know that anger is a normal human response to whats going on right now. Next, help your students manage their anger. One technique is to write about whats going on using third-person pronouns. For instance, you might give students an assignment writing about the things that are making them most angry right now from the perspective of a narrator telling a story of the Pandemic of 2020. Research by psychologist Ethan Kross suggests that this shift in perspective diminishes anger by encouraging thoughtful reflection as opposed to rumination. This is not the last time in their lives that your students will experience anger. The fact that they are experiencing anger at the same time and about the same things presents a golden opportunity to help them learn to understand and manage their emotions now and long after the current crisis has passed. Angela Duckworth, the founder and CEO of the education nonprofit Character Lab , is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. You can follow Character Lab on Twitter @TheCharacterLab . These are challenging times for Africa and the rest of our global village. As of 24 May 2020, 54 countries in Africa had recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases and over 3,000 deaths. As of 24 May 2020, 54 countries in Africa had recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases and over 3,000 deaths. And while the number of cases continues to grow, it could have been much worse had it not been for African governments taking preventive action despite weakened environments. We mourn the lives of the people we have lost and recognize the sorrow and burden of families and loved ones they have left behind. Life as we have known it, has changed in unimaginable ways. Economies and livelihoods have been heavily affected as the demand for Africas commodities has fallen and tourism has declined sharply. Remittances - which can account for more than 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - are also drying up. Already, the price of oil, which accounts for 40 per cent of Africas exports and 7.4 per cent of GDP, has declined by half, sharply reducing revenues for countries like Nigeria and Angola. A similar price crash in coffee and cocoa has lowered earnings for Ethiopia, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire and other producers. Informal workers, 85.8 per cent of the labour force, lacking social protection or buffers against economic shocks, are facing the devastating consequences. This is especially true for women workers who make up the majority of this sector. Africas economic growth could contract by 2.6 per cent, pushing about 29 million more people into extreme poverty. As the toll mounts, learning has been suspended, forcing children out of school, creating uncertainty about whether they will be able to continue their education and losing some of the precious gains realized over the past five years. Shortages of food stuffs, including maize, cooking oil and wheat flour, could trigger a food crisis if problems such as the swarms of locusts devouring crops and pasture in Eastern Africa are not tackled. The disruption of global supply chains is also considerably affecting export capacities. The pandemic has brought long-standing fragilities and inequalities into sharp relief, including systemic discrimination against women and girls. There has also been an alarming rise in levels of violence in the home, and rights-based abuses under the lockdown. These are just some of the reports we get daily - stories of pain, anxiety, frustration and anguish. But there is also hope, rooted in the customary spirit of African solidarity and kindness, of ubuntu - I am because we are. Doctors, nurses, other frontline workers and ordinary citizens, men and women, old and young, are demonstrating sacrifice, courage and commitment in the fight against the pandemic. Women constitute 70 per cent of the healthcare workforce; they are risking their lives to save others, serving as nurses, laundry workers, catering assistants and more. The African Union (AU) leadership responded swiftly to the crisis, setting up a coordinated continental approach, establishing an anti-COVID-19 Response Fund and appointing special envoys to mobilize international support. The UN, led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, has mobilized to support African States to prepare for, respond to and suppress the pandemic. The AUs Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is coordinating with WHO and other partners to provide countries with training and medical supplies. Young Africans are coming up with innovative solutions to healthcare challenges. In Cameroon, for example, 26-year-old Christian Achaleke, rallied his friends and workmates to launch the One Person One Sanitizer campaign. He invested his salary to kick-start the production of homemade hand sanitizers using a WHO recipe. Governments have announced relief measures. Companies are repurposing their production lines to make face masks, sanitizers, gowns and more. Beyond the health response, the UN quickly scaled up its activities across the peace and security, humanitarian and development nexus to support the African response to COVID-19. The UN has launched a Global Humanitarian Plan, much of which is devoted to the African continent. The UN "Solidarity Flights," led by WHO and the World Food Programme (WFP) in coordination with the AU and Africa CDC, are delivering urgently needed medical equipment to all African nations. UN Country Teams and UN missions are providing integrated whole-of-system support by tapping into the comparative advantages of specific agencies, funds and programmes. Guided by a Socio-Economic Response Framework, the UN is working across Africa to support governments in addressing the socio-economic impacts of the crisis, from ensuring essential health services, social protection and basic services to protecting jobs, guiding fiscal and macroeconomic policies and promoting social cohesion and community resilience. For example, in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia, the UN has worked with the governments and development partners to mobilize financial resources. In Burkina Faso, Gabon, Mali and Tunisia, the UN is supporting the governments in procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs). In Ethiopia, the UN - through WFP - is providing logistical support to facilitate delivery of products by private donors. The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) has financed COVID-19 information sessions for civil servants and social workers and supplied information materials for distribution among the armed forces and the general population. And the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) is using its radio station to inform people about COVID-19 in local languages, working to dispel rumours and counter misinformation. The UN Secretary-General has called for more than $200 billion for Africa as part of a comprehensive global response package, as well as an across-the-board debt standstill, options towards debt sustainability and solutions for structural issues in the international debt architecture. Furthermore, the UN, along with the AU and the European Union, has just signed the regional programme of the Spotlight Initiative to end Violence against Women and Girls, dedicating some $40 million to prevention and response. These positive developments help keep hope alive. Just a few months ago, Africas fortunes were on the upswing. Some of the worlds fastest-growing economies were on the continent. Increasing internet access continued to expand the frontiers of innovation for Africans, youth in particular. Declining rates of poverty and infant mortality signaled that Africa was on the right development path, anchored by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Unions Agenda 2063. We must have faith that the pandemic is only a partial eclipse, and that Africas sun will shine again - because of the continents youth, innovation and genuine partnerships to recover better. The inter-connectedness of African countries and particularly, border communities, requires that the continent continues to depend on pan-African solidarity in the COVID-19 fight. The African proverb You cannot clap with one hand rings as true as ever. Recovering better Despite the devastating effects of the pandemic, Africa can build back better. Here are a few ways how to do so: First, improve affordable access to medical supplies by creating green lanes at customs to facilitate fast movement, suspending tariffs on medical items, establishing price control mechanisms and fostering local manufacturing of medical supplies. Second, protect small and medium-sized enterprises, including by leveraging opportunities in the digital economy and expanding access to technology. Third, implement the African Continental Free Trade Area in order to fast-track Africas industrialization and position its economy to better withstand future global shocks. Fourth, use the recovery to accelerate a transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient growth, with a shift to economies that avoid air pollution, create green jobs and ensure clean and sustainable consumption and production. This shift must be fair to all and leave no one behind. Fifth, we must heighten our focus on children, older persons, persons with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons. Our guiding frameworks for a better, more sustainable recovery are the Sustainable Development Agenda and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Women must be at the decision-making table. We must also enlist the talent of the youth if we are to succeed in transforming Africa to a land of inclusion and prosperity that will serve future generations. We will get through this crisis together. COVID-19 can be defeated in Africa, and we can build back better. In the words of Nelson Mandela: It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it. (The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations) 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. Featured Video For all you poor Republicans, I really feel sorry for you. You cant see that Donald Trump is trying to open the country to get his rallies going. He doesnt give a damn about the coronavirus. To the person who wrote in Talk of the County who said that people are trying to down Mr. Trump for saying drink disinfectant. We didnt say it. Nobody said it but Donald Trump himself. So now hes trying to close the post office. You all need to pray that this man doesnt get in again. You think we have a pandemic now? Let him get in again. Please, Lord, dont let this man win again. Deliver us. In early May, Gideon Lichfield, the editor-in-chief for the MIT Technology Review, announced online that he was going to break his isolation for the first time in two months. And he was going to do it by joining up with another household. Effectively well become an extended family, free to visit each others homes, share meals, and yes! hug, wrote Lichfield, who resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I live alone, but Im a very social person, and the mere thought of being able to sit next to someone on a couch feels like finding water after days wandering in a desert. The measure adopted by Lichfield has been referred to as a quaranteam or double-bubbling and, although his was a personal decision, jurisdictions around the world including some provinces in Canada have officially promoted it as a way to provide limited social interaction during the pandemic. New Brunswick and Newfoundland said near the end of April that households may choose to double up as a way to decrease social isolation. Photos of families embracing each other in those provinces flooded onto social media in the ensuing days, according to media reports. Countries such as Belgium and the U.K. have also looked at restricted social bubbles, where people are allowed to have contact with friends outside their households and no one else, which has been studied by Oxford University sociologist Per Block as a way to reintroduce socialization. In British Columbia and Ontario though, officials are still promoting social distancing, limiting public gatherings to five or six people respectively, although the scenes from Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto where thousands gathered Saturday say otherwise. It will be days before we can understand how the social intermingling of a large group which has the potential to be a superspreader event and which the city and province have tried to avoid at all costs will affect the transmission of coronavirus in Toronto. Given the mean incubation period of five days, I would expect us to see an effect of the gatherings in about one week, said epidemiologist Jeff Kwong, a family doctor and a professor at U of Ts Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Hopefully, with the expansion of testing eligibility, people will get tested soon after symptom onset. But it still takes a day from date of testing to reporting of results. Experts say transmission was bound to increase as jurisdictions in Canada open up. The higher number of people we come into contact with, the larger number of social contacts we have, the larger our own risk of becoming infected and the larger our own risk of transmitting it if we become infected ourself, said Susan Bondy, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School. No one knows currently if combining households, or restrictive social bubbles, is a better way to ease out of isolation than social distancing. Ontario officials, including Premier Doug Ford and Dr. Eileen de Villa, Torontos medical officer of health, have stated strongly that people should restrict close interaction to their immediate family. Id keep with immediate family, Ford said earlier in May, according to media reports. That would be my recommendation. I wouldnt get into the big gatherings. That just cant happen. We want to keep it with immediate family just for a little bit longer. Chris Bauch, a professor and a university research chair in the department of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo, said that expanded social bubbles meaning you socialize with people outside of your immediate household or bubble are a fairly new concept and its difficult to determine if they would work. I think its hard for us to quantify how much risk is introduced by bubbling, said Bauch, who hasnt seen a model that can predict what that would look like in Ontario. Currently, if we go out grocery shopping and become infected, the risk is that we spread it to our immediate household. But in a bubbling context, if you happen to get infected in the supermarket, you can spread it not only to your family but very quickly to the people you are bubbling with. So youve doubled the exposure to the virus, said Bauch. And that can still create these continuous chains of transmission in the population, from supermarket to the bubble, from supermarket back to some other bubble. Blocks modelling, which was done in the U.K., says that while social distancing measures clearly do flatten the curve, strategic reduction of contact can strongly increase their efficiency, introducing the possibility of allowing some social contact while keeping risks low. Bauch thinks there could be some value in both approaches. Theyre both ways of trying to give people a release valve on the pressure cooker, said Bauch. And maybe theyre really both beneficial in that kind of meta aspect. Bauch released a study last week, co-authored by Vadim Karatayev and Madhur Anand from the University of Guelph, that said geography should play a part in how the economy reopens in Ontario because of the variability of per capita COVID-19 infection rates in the province. That variability is also apparent in the rest of Canada. New Brunswick and Newfoundland, which are allowing double-bubbling, have 121 and 260 cases respectively as of Monday. A lot of it comes down to that, said Bauch. Ontario and Quebec are the worst affected provinces. The Maritimes and some of the Prairies have flattened the curve very quickly. I think the bubbling is an adaptation, perhaps a justified risk in the case of the Maritimes because theyve been pretty good with flattening the curve. Perhaps in Ontario were not ready for that yet because we still have a lot of activity in lots of parts of the province. However, the policy did cause anxiety in families having to choose one set of relatives or friends over another, and resulted in rejection, according to media reports. And the measure wasnt recommended for people 60 or older with chronic conditions, or other vulnerable populations. One positive sign in Ontario in recent weeks has been the current reproduction number, which refers to the average number of secondary infections that result from one case of the virus. Mathematical models show it has been below one, said Bauch. When the number is below one, meaning an infected person passes the virus on to less than one other person, it dies out. Both Bondy and Bauch say its inevitable that the number will start climbing again. The question is how much can we tolerate, said Bondy. It takes enormous tracking and testing resources to counteract the effect of more social interaction. Weve increased capacity enormously since January, contact tracing and testing. The question is whether it can be sufficient to keep the reproduction number low. Canada managed to drive SARS Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome below one to get rid of the virus, she says. It is not optimistic that we will end this one by driving the (reproduction) number below one, said Bondy. So the question is how close to one can we keep it so that we dont have propagation of the epidemic again so that you have that exponential growth of new cases again. By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary summoned the ambassadors of four Nordic countries on Monday over their countries' criticism of a controversial law that empowers Prime Minister Viktor Orban to act by decree against the novel coronavirus. Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Sunday that he would summon the diplomats as Hungary "wanted no pitiful hypocritical tutelage" and reiterated Budapest would go its own way. The law, which authorises Orban to bypass parliament in taking action to contain the virus and mitigate its after-effects, has provoked international criticism. "When countries use the COVID-19 situation for actions that undermine fundamental rights, we insist on drawing attention to that," Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told Reuters. "Of course, the problem is not only related to COVID-19, but the situation has worsened because the Hungarians have taken a number of measures which among other things risk undermining press freedom," Kofod said. He added that there must be consequences - including financial ones - if fundamental values are not respected. During Monday's meeting, the Norwegian foreign ministry told Reuters that Hungarian State Secretary Peter Sztaray said he believed a March 6 letter by the five Nordic foreign ministers misrepresented the essence and formalities with regard to the Hungarian corona emergency act. "The Nordic ambassadors explained and reiterated the concern of the Nordic countries concerning the Hungarian corona emergency act, particularly the unlimited in time emergency powers and the provisions concerning the criminalisation of incorrect information, putting journalists under additional stress," a Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman said. The Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights body, warned Hungary about its democratic backsliding and issues over freedom of expression in a March 24 letter by Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric. Story continues The foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden wrote to Buric on May 6 saying they "share the concerns expressed in that letter. Even in an emergency situation the rule of law must prevail." Orban has been at odds with European Union institutions since taking power in 2010, going head to head over economic policies, alleged corruption, immigration and his ever-expanding influence over all walks of life. Orban has told Buric that the law does not give him unlimited powers and can be withdrawn by parliament - where his Fidesz party holds a two-thirds majority - at any time. The ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway attended Monday's meeting. Iceland's mission to Hungary is based in Vienna. (Additional reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard in Copenhagen, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Tarmo Virki in Tallinn and Simon Johnson in Stockholm, editing by Larry King and Giles Elgood) New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tours an emergency field hospital being prepared at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, N.J., on April 2, 2020. (Michael Mancuso/Getty Images) New Jersey Governor Okays In-Person Graduation Ceremonies Students in New Jersey can gather in public to celebrate their graduation, but they will have to wait until summer, said Gov. Phil Murphy. The Democratic governor announced Tuesday that in-person, outdoor graduation ceremonies can be held starting July 6, with continued social distancing. TO THE CLASS OF 2020: Beginning July 6th, schools WILL have the opportunity to hold outdoor graduation ceremonies that comply with social distancing ensuring the health and safety of all in attendance. pic.twitter.com/MqwVtPjZh4 Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 26, 2020 I am proud to say that you will have your opportunity to join with your classmates and families to celebrate your graduation, Murphy said during a press briefing. Our goal is to ensure that our students are giving the sendoffs they richly deserve, and which they have been working toward. We want them to celebrate and to be celebrated by their families, friends and the educators who helped get them there. He said this order applied to high schools, colleges, and any other graduations. Certainly these will be graduations will be unlike any others, said Murphy. The steps were taking are necessary to ensure the health and safety of everyone in attendance, but were equally as confident that no one will ever forget the way we will celebrate the class of 2020. Murphy had been under pressure from students, parents, and school officials, who demanded the state ease restrictions so that the class of 2020 can conclude their already disrupted senior year with commencement ceremonies. Earlier this month, three New Jersey high school seniors filed a lawsuit against Murphy, alleging his stay-at-home executive orders preventing them from graduating in public violate their First Amendment right to assembly. The lawsuit claimed Murphys Executive Order 104 suspending gathering at schools is invalid, because state education officials lack the legal authority to control whether a school holds a commencement ceremony. The present prohibition of schools form holding a socially responsible commencement ceremony stands without any rational basis and reason, the suit read. It is utterly arbitrary. Meanwhile, in the neighboring state of New York, students and families are still waiting for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make a decision on whether graduation ceremonies can take place. An online petition calling for in-person ceremonies in New York has gained more than 6,000 signatures in less than a week. In New York City, however, Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month that there will be a single large virtual ceremony for all seniors graduating from public high schools. He said individual schools can also hold their own graduation ceremonies, but those will have to be online too. A maquiladora factory, Schumex-Schumacher worker recently informed World Socialist Web Site the car battery charger maker is obliging them to work even with the COVID-19 outbreak at the factory which has 300 employees. Union delegate at the plant, Gilbert Blass, according to report, died on Thursday due to complications in breathing after working amid the shutdown in exchange of a 300-peso bonus (or $13). The next day, a group of laborers staged a demonstration outside Schumex-Schumacher, demanding the company to release information about Blass's death along with other cases of contagions during the production's shutdown. Allegedly Denying the Cause of Death The management, as well as the trade union, SITPME, which belongs to CTM or Confederation of Mexican Workers keep on denying that the worker's death was because of COVID-19, referring to a prior negative test. Blass' wife mentioned in a report that Blass was part of SITPME's health and safety committee. A Schumex worker who preferred not to be identified explained that the firm wants to conceal "the situation at any cost" so the plant would remain open and operational, "while killing us." The anonymous maquiladora also said she opted not to be named as these companies have the ability of blacklisting workers like her "so that we never find a job again." All of them, she added, fear speaking out since layoffs are on the company's agenda, not to mention abuses from the human resources and supervisors. She also revealed that there have been at least four COVID-19 cases in the factory and these include a co-employee who has been tested positive on three different occurrences. This particular worker, she added, was sent to the state insurance health care agency, IMSS since, as indicated in the contract with Schumex, sick leaves for three consecutive days are considered as excused absences but unpaid by the company. The fourth day of absence, she explained, that's when the IMSS starts paying. However, the IMSS, she said, refuses to offer medical attention with an argument that the said worker should have followed the "stay-at-home policy instead of working." Treated like a Ping-Pong Ball The anonymous worker said, her co-worker who was infected by the virus was treated as if she was a ping-pong ball. She added the ill employee was being treated as such because Schumex is refusing to be accountable as those working amid the closure were said to be "volunteers." As a result, she added, no one was doing anything to address the issue and the company was in denial about the reality "claiming it has taken all the essential processes to prevent an outbreak." The unnamed Schumex employee revealed that the, workers at the plant struck in early April and forced the shutting down of the factory. Nevertheless, Schumex and SITPME both agreed to compensate workers just 80 percent of their salary and have the production restarted nearly immediately by providing them with a bonus. When she was asked about how things are going at the plant, the unnamed employee explained that at "the entrance and exit, a sanitizing tunnel was set up." This same tunnel, she said, was where accidents have taken place from falls because of the liquid chemicals sprayed in the morning and at night. The worker explained too, that employees who refused to work referring to the official decree of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that supposedly postponed the factories' reopening until June 1 "were being fired and blacklisted." Check these out! Oh, when Karens take a walk with their dogs off leash in the famous Bramble in NYs Central Park, where it is clearly posted on signs that dogs MUST be leashed at all times, and someone like my brother (an avid birder) politely asks her to put her dog on the leash. pic.twitter.com/3YnzuATsDm Melody Cooper (@melodyMcooper) May 25, 2020 An interaction between a black male birder and a white woman walking her dog in Central Park early Monday morning went viral after the woman called the police on the man when he admonished her for disobeying park rules by allowing her dog off the leash in a protected area of the park. Christian Cooper posted a video he took of the Memorial Day interaction that occurred in an interior, wooded portion of Central Park known as the Ramble that is popular with birders. Cooper came across the woman walking her dog between 7:30 and 8 a.m. and pointed out to her that unleashed dogs are not allowed in area, before asking her to put her dog on a leash. When the woman refused, Cooper says he took a dog treat out of his pocket that he carries for just such occasions with recalcitrant dog owners, and gave it to the dog. He then took out his phone and started recording. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The video begins with the woman, later identified as Amy Cooper (no relation), standing some 30 feet away. She takes her dog by the collar and then begins approaching Christian Cooper with her arm up as if to cover the phone lens asking him to stop videoing her. When he calmly refuses, asking her please dont come close to me, presumably for social distancing reasons, she threatened to call the police. Please call the cops, he said in response. Im going to tell them theres an African American man threatening my life, she replied. Please tell them whatever you like, he said. Amy Cooper then calls the police on her cellphone, telling them, Im sorry, Im in the Ramble. Theres a man, African American, he has a bicycle helmet. He is recording me and threatening me and my dog. Christian Cooper, who is standing on a footpath, doesnt move and continues to record. Im being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately! the woman says in an increasingly distraught voice. While shes on the phone with police, she clicks the leash back on her dog. Thank you, Christian Cooper says in response to her leashing her dog, as he lowers his phone and stops recording. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The New York Police Department said when officers responded to the call neither Amy Cooper nor Christian Cooper were at the scene. The NYPD said no arrests were made and no complaint was filed for what was determined to be a verbal dispute. Christian Cooper explained in interviews afterward that his chief concern was protecting the bird habitat in the park, which he described as a major birding hotspot. Its on the Atlantic flyway. Thats important to us birders because we know that dogs wont be off leash at all and we can go there to see the ground-dwelling birds, Christian Cooper told CNN. People spend a lot of money and time planting in those areas as well. Nothing grows in a dog run for a reason. Cooper said he carries dog treats on him when birding in the park because dog owners often disobey posted signs that dogs must be on leashes in the unmanicured, 38-acre Ramble. He said dog owners in his experience dont like it when strangers feed their dogs and will leash them in response to him doing so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amy Cooper, however, responded far differently, threatening not just to call the cops, but using the birders race as an implicit trumped-up threat when requesting a police response to being asked to follow the rules and then being recorded for not doing so. I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things, Christian Cooper said. Unfortunately we live in an era with things like Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are seen as targets. This woman thought she could exploit that to her advantage, and I wasnt having it. Advertisement Advertisement Amy Cooper framed Christian Coopers approach as far more menacing than it appeared on camera but was apologetic after the video was posted and widely condemned on the internet. I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone, especially to that man, his family, she told New Yorks NBC 4. It was unacceptable and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone whos seen that video, everyone thats been offended. The blowback however was significant enough by Monday evening that her employer, investment company Franklin Templeton, issued a public statement condemning racism and placing Amy Cooper on administrative leave. I think I was just scared, Amy Cooper told CNN. When youre alone in the Ramble, you dont know whats happening. Its not excusable, its not defensible. Im not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way, she said. For more of Slates news coverage, listen to What Next. FDR Services Corp. While the front-line workers in hospitals and nursing homes have captured the publics eye, its the unsung heroes like the FDR employees, working behind the scenes, that keep the healthcare system of America rolling. FDR Services Corp. a premier healthcare laundry company announced the latest updates on its continued effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and what it means to be an essential company that contributes to a patient-centered care. At FDR, our main focus continues to be the health and safety of our hard-working employees and their loved ones; and of course, our partners who treat acutely ill and vulnerable patients around the clock. Since the corona virus pandemic began, FDR has provided the measures across all assets, including the support for our healthcare community that was massively affected by this disease. Its very important that FDR holds true to its core values, by exercising corporate responsibility through continuous support to the communities and improving lives. While all our plants continue to operate so that we can meet the aggressive demands of local health facilities, FDR takes every CDC outlined safety precaution to secure a continuous laundry supply chain. All this would never be possible without company's amazing essential workers who put their lives on the forefront of this pandemic every day, in order to deliver the unprecedented quality to our nations healthcare. While the front-line workers in hospitals and nursing homes have captured the publics eye, its the unsung heroes like the FDR employees, working behind the scenes, that keep the healthcare system of America rolling. Even though FDR as any local company felt the economic fluctuations, we are very proud of the fact that our employees have our full support in their professional careers, as we understand the uncertainties of our current time and family matters that we cherish so much. On behalf of the entire team here at FDR Services be safe, and know that we are in this fight together for better health! Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus. Mental Health Treatment for Front-Line Clinicians During and After COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic has placed front-line health care professionals--who were already at higher risk for negative effects of chronic stress before the pandemic--at even greater risk for depression and anxiety. A commentary from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Health System discusses how health care professionals should seek mutual support and caring for their own mental health, including seeking help from mental health colleagues when needed. Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-2440. Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Warren D. Taylor, MD, MHSc, can be reached at warren.d.taylor@vanderbilt.edu. ### In the last three months, stocks across all industries have remained volatile due to the impact of the dreaded coronavirus. Cannabis stocks have continued their poor run in 2020 making investors sweat. However, as the equity market recovers, there is a chance for pot stocks to make a strong comeback in the second half of 2020. Aurora Cannabis reported strong quarterly results recently and the stock is up a staggering 177% in the last two weeks. Here we take a look at three marijuana-based stocks that could rebound if the broader market recovers in 2020. A profitable pot stock Shares of Aphria (TSX:APHA)(NYSE:APHA) are trading at $5.81, which is 45% below its 52-week high. However, the stock has gained 119% since bottoming out in March 2020. Aphria has managed to record a profit in three of the last four quarters, when most cannabis companies are grappling with mounting losses. Aphria announced its fiscal third-quarter results last month and reported a 65% sequential increase in sales. It was also the fourth consecutive quarter where Aphria reported a positive adjusted EBITDA. Aphria financials seem strong due to fair value adjustments. However, the cannabis giant continues to focus on reducing costs while maintaining robust top-line growth. Aphrias sales in Q3 doubled year over year. Comparatively, its general and administrative costs were up 24%. The low cash balances of Canadian marijuana companies are a concern for investors. Due to expanding losses, several firms including Aurora Cannabis have to raise equity capital, which dilutes shareholder wealth. Aphria ended Q3 with $515 million in cash. Given it burnt approximately $125 million this fiscal year, Aphria is well poised to ride out the current uncertain macro environment. Aphrias acquisition of CC Pharma last year helped it gain traction in Europes high-growth medical marijuana space. It is now a leading distributor and importer of EU-pharmaceuticals for the German market. Story continues In May 2020, Aphrias subsidiary in Malta, ASG Pharma, received a European Unions GMP (good manufacturing practices) certification. This will allow the company to produce and research medical cannabis products at its facilities. Aphria is part of a rapidly expanding global market and is one of the top pot players. Its profitability and leadership position makes Aphria an attractive bet for long-term investors. A cannabis-based REIT play If you are bullish on the cannabis space, investing in Innovative Industrial Properties is a no-brainer. This is an ancillary pot company. IIPR is a cannabis-focused real estate investment trust (REIT). The stock is trading at US$82.88 which indicates a return of 13% year-to-date. Shares are still trading 40% below its 52-week high and have returned close to 350% since they went public back in December 2016. IIPR acquires medical-use cannabis facilities and leases them to licensed marijuana producers. This is done under a long-term triple net-lease agreement. While several states in the US have legalized marijuana, the product remains illegal at the federal level. This makes it difficult for pot companies to raise capital via traditional debt financing. IIPRs business model helps marijuana producers reduce capital burden as production facilities are capital intensive. As of April 2020, IIPR owned 55 properties in the U.S. totaling 4.1 million rentable square feet. The average term lease is for 16 years, allowing it to pay dividends to shareholders. IIPRs forward yield stands at 4.8%. Similar to Aphria, IIPR will also benefit from the expanding medical cannabis market. The post Market Recovery 2020: 2 Pot Stocks to Buy on the Rebound appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada. More reading The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Innovative Industrial Properties. Fool contributor Aditya Raghunath has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fools purpose is to help the world invest, better. Click here now for your free subscription to Take Stock, The Motley Fool Canadas free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Motley Fool Canada 2020 Dividend paying stocks like China Medical System Holdings Limited (HKG:867) tend to be popular with investors, and for good reason - some research suggests a significant amount of all stock market returns come from reinvested dividends. Yet sometimes, investors buy a stock for its dividend and lose money because the share price falls by more than they earned in dividend payments. With a nine-year payment history and a 3.9% yield, many investors probably find China Medical System Holdings intriguing. It sure looks interesting on these metrics - but there's always more to the story . When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable. Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis SEHK:867 Historical Dividend Yield May 26th 2020 Payout ratios Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, China Medical System Holdings paid out 40% of its profit as dividends. This is a medium payout level that leaves enough capital in the business to fund opportunities that might arise, while also rewarding shareholders. Besides, if reinvestment opportunities dry up, the company has room to increase the dividend. Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. China Medical System Holdings paid out a conservative 37% of its free cash flow as dividends last year. It's positive to see that China Medical System Holdings's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. While the above analysis focuses on dividends relative to a company's earnings, we do note China Medical System Holdings's strong net cash position, which will let it pay larger dividends for a time, should it choose. Story continues Consider getting our latest analysis on China Medical System Holdings's financial position here. Dividend Volatility One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the last decade of data, we can see that China Medical System Holdings paid its first dividend at least nine years ago. The dividend has been quite stable over the past nine years, which is great to see - although we usually like to see the dividend maintained for a decade before giving it full marks, though. During the past nine-year period, the first annual payment was CN0.044 in 2011, compared to CN0.32 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 24% per year over this time. We're not overly excited about the relatively short history of dividend payments, however the dividend is growing at a nice rate and we might take a closer look. Dividend Growth Potential Dividend payments have been consistent over the past few years, but we should always check if earnings per share (EPS) are growing, as this will help maintain the purchasing power of the dividend. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see China Medical System Holdings has grown its earnings per share at 13% per annum over the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing at a good rate, and the company is paying less than half its earnings as dividends. We generally think this is an attractive combination, as it permits further reinvestment in the business. Conclusion When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. First, we like that the company's dividend payments appear well covered, although the retained capital also needs to be effectively reinvested. We were also glad to see it growing earnings, although its dividend history is not as long as we'd like. All things considered, China Medical System Holdings looks like a strong prospect. At the right valuation, it could be something special. Companies possessing a stable dividend policy will likely enjoy greater investor interest than those suffering from a more inconsistent approach. However, there are other things to consider for investors when analysing stock performance. For example, we've picked out 2 warning signs for China Medical System Holdings that investors should know about before committing capital to this stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. By Representative Richard Heath May. 26, 2020 | 02:42 PM | WESTERN KENTUCKY Representative Richard Heath Before I begin this weeks session review, I would like to share an update regarding the Primary Election. I hope you are already aware that the Governor and Secretary of State worked together to postpone this years Primary from May 18 to June 23 and expand the absentee voting options to include all voters as part of the states response to COVID-19. The date is the first of many changes you will see in the election - it will be very different and we all need to decide now how we will cast our ballot. According to the Secretary of State, we have three options: vote absentee by a mail in ballot, make an appointment with our county clerks office and voting in-person during the weeks before the election, or vote the day of the election in person. It is critical that you consider if an absentee ballot is appropriate for you, or if you are determined to vote in person. There is some flexibility for both, however voting in person will likely be far more difficult as most, if not all, counties will only have one polling place open with a limited number of voting stations. Voters may request an absentee ballot through an online portal that will verify voter identity. Postcards with information about accessing the portal were set to mail on Friday, May 22 to all registered voters. If you decide to vote in person on Election Day, you will likely not be voting at your regular precinct since most counties will only offer one polling place. Please check with our county clerk for further details on your particular precinct. For more information on voting in this years Primary, visit elect.ky.gov or reach out to the Graves county clerks office at (270) 247-1697 or the McCracken county clerks office at (270) 444-4700. Our clerks and their staffs are working overtime to make voting as accessible and safe as possible. We are going to have to work harder to have our voices heard at the ballot box, but it is worth it. To put it simply, every election is determined by the people who vote. Now, among the bills we passed into law this session is SB 2, part of Secretary of State Adamss campaign platform to make it hard to cheat and easy to vote. This measure places additional safeguards in our voting procedures to prevent voter fraud and requires a voter to present a qualifying photo ID to cast a ballot. The measure takes into account those who cannot afford a government-issued photo ID, as well as those who have other reasonable impediments to having one. Most importantly, it drives home the message that elections are important. We also passed legislation that will allow gubernatorial candidates to choose their running mate after the Primary which allows candidates more options and hopefully leads to a better ticket for our entire state. The bill, HB 336, moves the deadline to the second Tuesday in August. We also approved HB 457, which locks in precinct boundary lines during a census year to allow for consistency when we do the constitutionally-required redistricting. This consistency will help avoid confusion. Voters will consider two amendments to our state constitution when we cast our ballots in November, HB 405 and SB 15. Known as Marsys Law, SB 15 would provide certain constitutional protections and rights for crime victims. You may remember that we approved this constitutional amendment in 2018, but the Kentucky Supreme Court overturned the vote based on the language of the ballot question. Frankly, this was extremely disappointing and went against more than a century of precedent. If approved by voters, HB 405 would change the length of time circuit court clerks, commonwealths attorneys, county attorneys, and district judges serve. Specifically, it increases from six to eight years the term of office for Circuit Court Clerks and Commonwealth's Attorneys beginning in 2024. It would also increase the term for county attorneys and district judges to eight years from four years beginning in 2022. Additionally, it would require a licensed attorney to practice for eight years before being eligible for a district judge position beginning in 2022. Even though we are not in session at this time, I still want to hear from you regarding concerns about the upcoming election process or any other issue. I can be reached through the toll-free message line at 1-800-372-7181 or here at home. You can also contact me via e-mail at Richard.Heath@lrc.ky.gov. Views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of West Kentucky Star.com, Bristol Broadcasting or any employee thereof. Bristol Broadcasting makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. The Ranking Member on Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has described as shameful the manner and way government is handling the issue of Ghanaians stranded abroad. According to him, the Kuwaiti incident shows a serious lapse on the part of the government in responding to the needs of its citizens abroad. This should be our collective shame. We can do better as a nation in reaching out to our own, the MP said in a Citi News interview. Mr. Ablakwa added that it was really unpardonable that for all these weeks, the government is now talking about collating names and collating data. The Kuwait story should be a wakeup call. He was speaking after over 240 Ghanaian deportees from Kuwait touched down in Ghana over the weekend. Mr. Ablakwa noted that it shouldn't have taken an act of deportation by the Kuwaiti Government at the expense of the Kuwaiti taxpayer for the Ghanaians to be brought back home. A number of Ghanaians are currently stranded in other parts of the world following the COVID-19 induced border closure in ghana. Some Ghanaians stranded in South Africa, are also calling on the government to negotiate with the South African government to make valid, return tickets they purchased prior to the closure of Ghanas borders. According to them, any plans by the government to make them foot the bills of a chartered flight will be at an unbearable cost to them. We have our tickets. We are asking the government to come and helps us and evacuate and be ready to sort our tickets out. That is exactly what we are talking about, one of them said to Citi News. Another was very upset with the government saying any intervention was already too late. We had stayed and we have paid rent and we have wasted all the money we have on us and now countries are about to open borders and now the government is now bringing a chartered flight to come evacuate us. That is a no. They should rather allow us to die here, he fumed. On May 8, a Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Charles Owiredu said Ghanaians who are stranded abroad following border restrictions imposed in the country will soon receive assistance from the government. He said his outfit was frantically putting in place measures to ensure that such an agenda is executed. ---citinewsroom Initial police investigations have revealed that the 38-year-old landlord who shot and killed his tenant, Spark Benjamine had some disagreement over a woman. Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in In an interview on Accra-based Peace FM, DSP George Asare, of the Mile 7 District Police Commander disclosed that Victor Stephen Nana Kankam (landlord) amongst other issues had an unhealthy relationship with the deceased. DSP Asare said the landlord showed romantic interest in a woman the deceased was very close to, and asked the deceased for help to win the womans affection. The deceased, Shark Benjamine. Source: Facebook READ ALSO: NPP awards all the juicy contracts to NDC members - Ken Agyapong fumes "Information reaching us is that the landlord is a womanizer. Another lady also confirmed that indeed, he is into lots of women. The landlord told the tenant that he likes a certain woman who he was very 'free' with, so he (the deceased) should 'link' him to the girl," DSP George Asare stated. He further revealed that the deceased succeeded in assisting the landlord spark a romantic affair with the lady. However, the deceased liaised with the lady to milk the landlord dry, as she requested for several sums of money and gifts from the landlord. "The deceased agreed to connect the two of them, and the girl, with assistance from the deceased spent lots of the landlord's money," DSP Asare added. The landlord, having realized the partnership between the deceased and the lady to empty his pockets, devised a way to take his revenge by ensuring that the deceased moved out when his rent was due. The deceased, 31-year-old Benjamin Otchere in an argument with the landlord asked for enough time to pack out for the house after his rent expired on Sunday, May 24. READ ALSO: Ofankor landlord justifies action for killing tenant; says he did that in self-defense In the heat of the argument, the landlord who had an AK47 rifle on him, allegedly shot Otchere at close range injuring him seriously. He shot the deceased more than four times, targeting the penis, stomach, and chest area of his body. DSP Asare also added that before the unfortunate incident, the deceased confided in a friend who is a police officer in the vicinity about threats he received from the landlord. He concluded that further investigations will be done to unveil all the hidden truths. Meanwhile, the suspect (landlord) in another video making rounds on social said he shot the deceased in self-defense. Also the landlord has been remanded in police custody by an Accra court. YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) announced at a press conference on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, that Ghanas COVD-19 case count is now 6,964. Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye also noted that 2,097 persons have since recovered. Bawumia fires Mahama - Stop embarrassing yourself; always check the data before you talk | #Yencomgh READ ALSO: NDC threatens to boycott Wednesdays IPAC meeting with EC Get interactive via our Facebook page. Source: YEN.com.gh With Zimbabwe's tourism industry reeling from Covid-19 lockdown losses, hotels and lodges have been permitted to open as luxury quarantine centres. Announcing the decision on Sunday, health minister Obadiah Moyo said guests would be closely monitored and tested every eight days for Covid-19. The ministry of health and childcare, which liaised with the ministry of tourism, vetted the facilities. The first six that were approved last week include Bronte Hotel, a four-star facility in Harare. In Victoria Falls, the first luxury quarantine centre was the five-star Phezulu Lodge. Overseas returnees have been at loggerheads with the government for putting them in inhumane lockdown centres countrywide. We are housed with criminals and basic provisions are lacking. If they have seen it fit for those that can afford an alternative service to look for them, its a noble idea, said a UK returnee. According to the Herald, last week alone 23 people escaped from quarantine centres. There are fears that those who escape or illegally return to Zimbabwe could be the source of unexplained local infections. The issue of border jumping has come to our attention and it is the duty of every resident to report such. We urge residents to notify us whenever they receive border-jumping relatives, as anyone who comes into the country must undergo isolation, according to law, said Bulawayo health services director Dr Edwin Sibanda on Sunday. This month alone, 2,000 Zimbabweans have returned from South Africa. Of that number, 527 are deportees - mostly criminals. A further 2,600 have notified the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria about their intention to return home, while 6,000 have said they are in need of food aid. The number of returnees to Zimbabwe from all over the world stands at 4,000. deaths since the first case was detected on March 20. Zimbabwe has tested 35,112 people and has seen 56 positive Covid-19 cases, 25 recoveries and fourdeaths since the first case was detected on March 20. Most of the new cases have been traced back to South Africa and Botswana. By PTI NEW DELHI: With the resumption of flight services, 19-year-old Raibul Sheikh and his two friends, who had not been paid by their employer in Delhi since the lockdown began on March 25, decided to return to their loved ones back home in West Bengal on Eid. Their joy, however, was shortlived as barely five km away from the Delhi airport, they received a message from the airline informing them that their flight had been cancelled. Sheikh and his two friends -- Shariful Haq (18) and Mohammad Rafique (19) were supposed to fly to Kolkata on a 5.55 pm flight thus bringing an end to their two-month long ordeal. The trio, who worked at a showroom in a mall on the Delhi-Haryana border, had paid Rs 2,000 to an auto driver to ferry them to the airport, while their family members had somehow managed to arrange the money to buy airline tickets for them. However, with the flight getting cancelled and the expensive auto-rickshaw ride to the airport, the migrant workers said they had no money left to return to their accommodation as they stood outside the departure gate with their heavy backpacks. While domestic passenger flights resumed after a gap of two months on Monday, a large number of them were cancelled across the country. States like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, which are home to some of the busiest airports in the country, were reluctant to allow domestic flight services from their airports, citing swelling cases of the coronavirus infection in their states. But it was people like Sheikh and his friends who were at the receiving end of the decision. Hailing from Malda district in West Bengal, the three had come to Delhi in search of greener pastures. They were drawing a monthly salary of Rs 15,000 each, but had not been paid for the last two months since the lockdown began. "I had no work for the last two months and was stranded in Haryana. My family from Malda was sending money so that I could arrange food for myself," said Haq. The disheartened migrant workers said they had no information about the rescheduling of the cancelled flight or if and when will they refunded. "We were asked to reach the airport four hours prior to the departure of the flight. Just five kilometres before we could reach the airport, we received a message from the airline that our flight has been cancelled," Rafique said, adding that he was clueless about what will happen to money paid for the tickets. Most British holidaymakers are resigned to the fact that they won't be able to head abroad this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic causing travel havoc. However, if lockdown restrictions are lifted in the coming weeks, swathes of Britons will be placing a trip somewhere in the UK firmly on the agenda. A rise in staycations would give the economy a much needed boost and could encourage UK tourists to explore parts of the country they haven't seen before. A number of UK holiday firms said they have seen a rise in bookings for later this year (pictured: Torquay) This will be much needed as VisitBritain's latest tourism impact forecasts for 2020 show that inbound tourism spending is forecast to drop 54 per cent this year. This equates to a 15.1billion loss to the economy - while domestic tourism in Britain is forecast to lose 22billion in spending across holidays and day visits alone. This is Money spoke to holiday firms to see if they had seen an increase in bookings for staycations in recent weeks and takes a look at whether a UK getaway this summer is likely - it appears the first week of July is the target for many. Are July trips feasible? Under current rules, it is not possible to take an overnight trip somewhere else in the UK. However, it is hoped that this can resume from the beginning of July, according to the Government's roadmap to get the country out of lockdown. It said that, should the five tests that show the spread of coronavirus is slowing be met, hospitality such as food service providers, pubs and accommodation can be reopened from July 4. However, it did say some venues which are, by design, crowded and where it may prove difficult to enact distancing may still not be able to re-open safely at this point, or may be able to open safely only in part. More customers will be looking to take a staycation in the UK as they can no longer go abroad What are UK holidays firms saying? Haven, which specialises in caravan and camping trips, said it has seen an increase in both holiday online searches and bookings. The week commencing May 11 saw an increase of over 40 per cent in new bookings for the remainder of the 2020 season - it is taking bookings from 2 July onwards. It has a 'book with confidence' guarantee on its website - if a trip can't be taken because of coronavirus, it will allow holidays to be moved to an alternative date, or cancelled with a no-quibble refund. It also reported an increase of over 50 per cent in new bookings for 2021 compared to week commencing 20 April. The number of guests re-booking holidays they have had to cancel due to the virus has remained consistent over the last four weeks. Forest Holidays, which offers short breaks and log cabin holidays in in 11 UK forest locations, added that it has seen a fairly significant increase in bookings in the past week - up 138 per cent in actual bookings compared to the previous week. It added that there are no locations which have seen a standout increase in bookings. Over the last couple of weeks, website Holiday Cottages has also seen an increase in bookings from clients for the latter part of the summer and later this year. The site offers cottage holidays in popular locations across the UK but is not accepting any bookings for before July 4, in line with government guidelines. Haven, which specialises in caravan trips,has seen an increase in holiday online bookings However, Skyscanner said it hadn't yet seen a marked rise in staycation searches or booking in the last few weeks for the UK but it did say that data for other locations whose recovery is ahead of the UK would suggest that this may change. While Skyscanner search and redirect volumes are lower than usual, it is still seeing some recovery and intent to travel in the future. For example, over the last two weeks it has seen a 49 per cent rise in domestic hotel bookings in South Korea and a 35 per cent rise in domestic hotel bookings in Spain. A survey conducted by the booking site also revealed that 23 per cent of UK travellers would travel more in the country they live in after the coronavirus pandemic. This might show people have been put off by the chaos and may think simply travelling at home may be easier in the near future. Meanwhile, Center Parcs, said it also hasn't seen a significant increase in bookings in recent weeks and it is not seeing much in the way of volumes for the summer, reflecting people's cautiousness about the easing of lockdown. However, bookings for later in the year remain steady. A spokesperson for Center Parcs said: 'We are looking forward to and planning for a time when we are again able to welcome guests back to Center Parcs and we are reviewing the whole Center Parcs experience to ensure that we can open with appropriate social distancing in place as well as any other measures required in order to keep our staff and guests safe. 'We know that we can adapt and provide reassurance to guests and staff and that we will only re-open when the time is right and when we do, we are confident that we will provide a great guest experience for families.' All of Center Parcs' UK villages are closed until July 5 whilst Longford Forest is closed until July 19. It added that these dates may change in accordance with government guidelines. However, VisitBritain believes many will be cautious. A spokesperson said: 'Our latest domestic tourism research, which looked at travel intentions this year, shows that the majority of people surveyed who had planned a domestic holiday in Britain from July to September believe it is unlikely to go ahead. 'Those domestic summer holidays lost are not likely to be replaced with only a minority who have cancelled holidays looking to replace them, and these were most likely to be from October onwards and to rural and coastal destinations as well as country parks and other outdoor attractions. 'We are working across the industry and with the Government to ensure that tourism is able to recover as quickly as possible once restrictions are lifted.' TravelSupermarket said that searches for long haul destinations are currently up at the moment with the Maldives proving to be the most popular package holiday search. Las Vegas and Orlando in the United States, as well as Tenerife, were also popular searches for later in the year. This is likely due to the fact that these areas are where the sun can be chased in the last few months of the year when holidays abroad are more likely to go ahead. A home cook dubbed 'Australia's air-frying queen' has shared her secrets, and reveals how to create delectable meals in the device. Tracy Press, 52, from Newcastle in New South Wales, said she wasn't always into cooking, but when she stopped working in March due to an autoimmune disease flaring up, she suddenly had a lot of time on her hands and wasn't quite sure what to do with it. 'My air fryer addiction cane about due to being in lockdown and at home resting from work,' Tracy told FEMAIL. 'I went from a very busy life of three jobs, six days a week, over 50 hours a week as a Commercial Site Engagement Coordinator to here playing with my air fryer and making all sorts of meals.' A home cook whose creations in the Kmart air fryer have seen her be dubbed 'Australia's air-frying queen' has shared her secrets (Tracy's air-fried pork belly pictured) Some of the mum's most viral creations online include a cheesy cob loaf (pictured), which was a huge hit The talented cook's creations include everything from breakfast to dinner and dessert. Tracy Press (pictured), 52, from Newcastle in New South Wales, said she wasn't always into cooking, but when she stopped working in March due to an autoimmune disease flaring up, she suddenly had time on her hands Some of her most impressive meals are a cob loaf, poached eggs and bacon and even an entire pork belly. Tracy said she doesn't eat all of the food herself, but rather shares it around with her elderly neighbours, who she cooks for once a week on a Sunday night. 'I have two neighbours either side of me who are elderly females and I love trying to look out for our older generations, as I can see that they are lonely on their own and won't be cooking much anymore,' she explained. Tracy said she has even been known to carry around her air fryer food with her when she goes on bike rides, so she can give her meals and snacks around to people she meets along the way. But Tracy has made all sorts in the air fryer, including breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks, including this crumbed fish meal (pictured) Her advice to others is that you can cook 'practically anything' in the air fryer, including marinated prawns (left) and mini pizzas (right) What are Tracy's air-frying tips? * Sit your air fryer on a wooden board to ensure your cupboards and surfaces don't get too hot. * Ensure that there is room behind the air fryer to allow for ventilation. * Remember anything that can be cooked in the oven can be cooked in the air fryer. * Get creative and give something new a go. * Any tins or oven-proof dishes can also go into the air fryer. * Foil and grease-proof paper are great for lining it and make it easier to pull food out. Advertisement Tracy said she has learned a lot about cooking since she started experimenting with the air fryer, and has launched an Instagram page sharing what she's learned in order to help the 'many that were messaging me asking questions about recipes'. 'I have learned many tips and tricks along the way,' she said. 'These include the fact that you should sit your air fryer on a wooden board to ensure your cupboards and surfaces don't get too hot. 'You should also ensure that there is room behind the air fryer to allow for ventilation.' Tracy keeps her own air fryer away from both cupboards and her splashback so that the hot air can dispense somewhere: 'Remember that anything that can be cooked in the oven can be cooked in the air fryer,' Tracy said. 'Any tins or oven-proof dishes can also go in the air fryer, foil and grease proof paper are great for lining the air fryer and makes it easier to pull food out.' Tracy uses the 3.2 litre air fryer from Kmart, which costs $69. Tracy said you can make all sorts in the air fryer, including scones (left) and the best thing to do is be creative She made this recipe (pictured) for camembert cheese lovers online by wrapping prosciutto around cheese and adding breadcrumbs One of the most impressive meals Tracy made in her air fryer was a mini sourdough cob loaf, where she combined sauteed bacon, onion, capsicum, sour cream, French onion soup mix, tinned corn, baby spinach and cheese in a cob loaf. 'Pour all of those ingredients after they have been on the stove top into the centre of the cob loaf, top with cheese, add bread around the cob and cook at 190 degrees for four minutes,' Tracy said. 'This sweet little mini sourdough cob loaf was so god damn good, if I do say myself.' Other hits online include marinated prawns, mini pizzas and an entire cooked breakfast. Those who have seen Tracy's recipes are huge fans of her delicious meals and can't wait to try them for themselves (one of her breakfasts pictured) How to make Tracy's cooked breakfast in your Kmart air fryer INGREDIENTS Tracy shared how to make a cooked breakfast (pictured) in the air fryer Bacon Eggs Spinach Olive oil Salt and pepper METHOD 1. Cook the bacon for seven minutes on 180 degrees in the air fryer. 2. Take the bacon out of the air fryer and wrap it in foil to keep it warm, 3. Break the eggs into bowls and pour tap water (not hot) over the top of the eggs slowly, less than a quarter of a cup in total. 4. Cook the eggs for seven minutes on 180 degrees, stopping at five minutes to add the bacon back in to heat it up. 5. Serve hot with spinach. Advertisement To make her mini pizzas (pictured), Tracy said you just top bread with various ingredients and cook in the air fryer on 185 degrees for eight minutes Many have described the home cook's meals as looking 'amazing' and something they 'can't wait to try at home' (one of her dinners pictured) Those who have seen Tracy's recipes are huge fans of her delicious meals and can't wait to try them for themselves. 'This actually looks amazing. I'm going to make it today,' one person commented underneath the 52-year-old's cob loaf. 'So many handy hints from you Tracy. These marinated prawns look fantastic!' another added. To find out more about Tracy Press, you can visit her Instagram profile here. At least five oil producers offshore Brazil, including international oil majors and state oil firm Petrobras, have seen COVID-19 infections among offshore workers spike in recent weeks, industry and government sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Brazils Petrobras and Enauta Participacoes, as well as Shell, Equinor, and Perenco have registered cases of coronavirus infections among workers or contractors who are sharing confined areas on offshore oil rigs. At the same time, Brazil surpassed Russia last week to become the country with the second-largest number of COVID-19 infections behind the United States. The U.S. moved to ban as of Tuesday the travel of foreign nationals from Brazil into the United States in a temporary move to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from Brazil. According to sources and data from regulators compiled by Reuters, Norwegian major Equinor had around 60 coronavirus cases as of last week, most of which at the Peregrino oilfield, Perenco had 40 cases, while Petrobras had more than 300 workers among staff and contractors with COVID-19. Shell and Enauta had one coronavirus case each, the two companies told Reuters. Petrobras says that it is taking every persons temperature upon boarding offshore units and has adopted work-from-home as much as possible. Days before the production cuts at the OPEC+ group formally began on May 1, Petrobras of Brazilwhich is not part of that groupsaid that it had reversed the cuts it had announced in early April, opting for the gradual return to an average oil production level of 2.26 MMbpd in April alongside an increase in the utilization factor of our refineries, due to better than expected demand for its products. Yet, the coronavirus pandemic spiraling out of control in Brazil could crush its oil industry, analysts say. Apart from the health of the offshore oil workers, Brazils oil sector is threatened by the low oil prices and the economic downturn in the country and in the world. Being state-held, Petrobrass ratings are closely related to the credit rating of Brazil. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Donations have flooded in from across County Kildare for the family of a native of the Republic of the Philippines, who died after contracting Covid-19. Miguel Plangca, 55, worked at the Birds Eye food plant at the IDA industrial estate at Monread Road in Naas.He was brought to hospital and into the Intensive Care Unit, where he passed away on 13 May. He passed away earlier this month and a cremation ceremony was held on May 15. It was followed by the saying of the rosary outside the family home in Allenwood. Miguel is pictured with family members Mikee, Michael, John and Chekie Miguel battled the disease for 41 days before becoming the second Filipino to die of the disease in Ireland. His death sparked a fundraising drive. The amount stands at 281,000 today Miguel left behind four orphaned children, who live in Allenwood. They are Mikee, 21, Michael, 19, John, 14, and Chekie, 12, and older half sister Stephanie, 29, lives in Abu Dhabi. All of the children were born in the Philippines. Miguel Plangca arrived in Ireland 20 years ago to find work and had been a factory worker since then. He sent money back to the Philippines every week, but five years ago, his wife Gilcerica died of cancer. The fundraising effort is being organised through a go fund me page, having started out with the modest ambition of generating 5,000. The family is now being minded by their aunt Fely Moore, who herself got Covid-19 and recovered, and her husband john. Mikee is a carer for Michael who has intellectual developmental delay. John attends the St. Farnans secondary school in Prosperous while the youngest family member, Chekie, is a pupil at the Scoil Mhuire primary school in Allenwood. Mikee said her father's condition worsened quickly having begun with classic coronavirus indicators - a cough and fever, along with breathing difficulties and he spent some 41 days in hospital before he passed away. Read more County Kildare news Given that our mother died in 2014 dads death was like it happened the second time around. He was always there as a guide for us. All of us are deeply grateful to all who donated and never for a moment did we think there would be such a huge response, Mikee said, adding that life will be a big responsibility now for her as the guardian. Aina Conway, Education Arts and Culture Officer at the Philipinne Consulate in Dublin, said the response has been overwhelming considering that we thought of seeking 1,500 through the page. Ms Conway added: It was daunting and a little scary at first but this is incredible and the children can see the love that there is in the community. This is so touching; it is love in action and we are so, so grateful. The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from Assam, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh to a plea by JNU student Sharjeel Imam, seeking the clubbing of FIRs against him in those states for alleged offences of sedition and hate speech. The bench headed by justice Ashok Bhushan issued notice to the four states after solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, told the court that all states where first information reports (FIRs) have been registered should be heard by the court before passing any order. The states were given two weeks to file their responses. Delhi is another jurisdiction where a case has been registered against the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student. The top court issued notice to the Delhi government on May 1 and its reply is expected by Wednesday. Imam, currently held in a Guwahati jail, has been booked for his alleged role in violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University in the aftermath of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Imam was arrested from Bihars Jehanabad on January 28 by Delhi Police for a speech he delivered on December 13, two days after which protesters, who had gathered outside the Jamia Millia Islamia campus, clashed with police during a march against the citizenship law. Imam, in a speech delivered at Aligarh Muslim University on January 16, had said Assam should be cut off from the rest of the country. He later clarified he was calling for blocking roads leading to Assam as part of protests against CAA. Aside from sedition (section 124A of the Indian Penal Code) and hate speech (section 153A of the Indian Penal Code), Imam was booked under section 13 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a law aimed at punishing those involved in terrorism and activities intended to bring about secession of any part of the country. Imams counsel, Siddharth Dave, on Tuesday cited the case of Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami, who too had approached the Supreme Court to consolidate all FIRs against him in different states for hate speech. The Supreme Court had, on May 19, quashed multiple FIRs against Goswami and retained only the first FIR against him at Nagpur. Dave asked the top court to adopt the same approach in Imams case but Tushar Mehta opposed this, saying the issues involved in the two cases are different. FIRs in Arnabs case were cyclostyled. Not in this case, he said. Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna took stock of the pandemic's impact on state budget and revenue during the first trimester of 2020. During the first three months of 2020, the evolution of central government revenue and expenditure showed the first signs of a crisis. Compared to the same period in 2019, revenues decreased by 0.8% and expenses increased by 19.4%. However, the sharp increase in spending is more nuanced than it might appear at first glance. In 2019, the evolution of spending in the first three months of the year was particularly weak due to the use of the "provisional twelfths" procedure. In April 2020, the gap between spending and revenue increased due to the numerous stabilisation measures implemented by the government to meet the challenge of the coronavirus crisis, both within the health sector and to reduce the economic consequences on businesses affected by the pandemic. As a result, revenue fell 8.4% from the first four months of 2019, while spending increased by around 28.5% on an annual basis. Compared to a third of the annual amounts forecast in the budget voted for 2020, this corresponds to a drop in revenue of -12% and an increase in expenditure of +8%, which results in a significant deterioration of the budget balance . Coronavirus impact The increase observed on 30 April 2020 in terms of expenditure is understandably a result of the many stabilisation measures linked to the Covid-19 crisis. The implementation of these measures amounts to 2.2 billion euros at present, with new measures to be added for the Neistart Letzebuerg project which will add another 700 to 800 million euros. The majority of the stabilisation budget, which amounted to 566 million euros of the total expenditure up until 30 April, was used for short-time working due to force majeure. In terms of direct taxes, the corporate income tax (IRC) decreased by about 23% compared to the same period in 2019, as many companies took advantage of the opportunity to solicit cancellations of advances in the first quarter and payment deadlines . In terms of indirect taxes, the 17% decrease noted in VAT is mainly due to an unrivalled effort in reimbursements by the Administration of Domain Registration and VAT to meet the liquidity needs of companies . In total, repayments made over the first four months of 2020 amounted to 734 million euros, around 160 million euros more than over the same period in 2019. As a consequence, the credit balance to be reimbursed to businesses is at its lowest level in five years . Revenue from customs has also been affected by the containment measures, as well as by the partial border closures, which led to a significant drop in sales of fuel and other products. For the period from January to April 2020, sales of petrol and diesel suffered a decline of 19% and 22% respectively. On the whole, the revenue of the three tax administrations amounted to 5.2 billion euros in April, equivalent to a loss of 284 million euros compared to the same period in 2019. This corresponds to a capital loss of 10% compared to a third of the annual amount provided for in the 2020 budget, with further losses expected over the coming months. These exceptional circumstances account for the deterioration of the government balance, both compared to the same period in 2019, and compared to the budget voted for 2020, reaching a deficit of 1.6 billion euros at the end of April 2020. Minister of Finance comments Pierre Gramegna said the Covid-19 crisis represents a real challenge for all European Union countries, with Luxembourg proving to be no exception. From the outset, the government has prioritised its citizens' health, and the economy, putting measures in place rapidly to reduce the spread of the virus and the impact on the country. This was enabled by the "favourable" situation of Luxembourg's finances at the start of the outbreak. However, Gramegna commented that the numerous measures have had significant repercussions on public finances, with the figures given for the first quarter of 2020 supporting this statement. He went on to say the health crisis and its consequences were expected to linger for the foreseeable future, continuing to affect public finances, and explained the government would continue to monitor developments with a view to finding the right balance with the country's best interests. The Microsoft Edge browser for Android is getting a new feature, called Collections, to make working across multiple devices much easier. First spotted by India-based tech site TechDows, the feature is already available on other platforms. But it is now appearing in the beta version of the app for Android for the first time. For clarity, this feature is billed as being geared toward research. To that end, it allows users to put together groups of links, images, and information from websites. Thats not entirely dissimilar from what Google is attempting to accomplish with tab grouping in Chrome. But there is one vital difference. Collections can be synced across devices. Two different solutions in two variations of Chromium As already noted, this isnt entirely dissimilar to tab grouping in Chrome with syncing being the key differentiator. But thats only true to an extent since these are two different solutions with separate goals in mind. Perhaps more importantly, Googles feature isnt ready for primetime just yet. Advertisement Thats not only because Microsofts solution is intended to allow the saving of links and websites but also images. Comparatively speaking, tab grouping only works with tabs for websites. Google is building its solution to allowing high-productivity workers and users to get things done without being overwhelmed by dozens of tabs. The Chrome feature allows tabs to be organized into collections that can be re-labeled and accessed as a group. But those are locked down to a single computer and a single instance of Chrome. Conversely, Microsoft Collections in Edge and now in Edge for Android take things further. They are intended to improve research capabilities across multiple devices for easy access from anywhere. Now, that can be accomplished on the go. That helps to set Edge well apart from Chrome. Advertisement Google has given no indication whatsoever that its tab groups will ever be able to be synced. That will arguably make Edge the more capable browser since both are based on Chromium code. At the very least, the feature should help Microsoft gain some traction against its long-term rival. And it may help the company gain upward mobility as a true top competitor for the title of best browser on the mobile platform. When will Collections arrive in Edge for everybody and how can you get it now? None of that is to say that Microsoft will deliver Collections in Edge for every user any time soon. Microsoft is hard at work to bring parity between its desktop and mobile browser but this is still only available in beta. For end-users, that means accessing the feature is easy but not without risks. Beta apps dont often work as well as stable apps. It may also not be entirely accessible either since beta signups are often limited. For those who want to try the feature now, the best bet is to navigate to Microsoft Edge in the Google Play Store. Then, users will need to scroll down to the Beta signup card and activate the beta version. Once the system recognizes the signup, the Play Store will automatically suggest or install the update. Advertisement Once available, Collections are found behind a tap on the three-dot menu at the bottom of the page. They take center stage at the top of the resulting slide-out menu and are clearly labeled Collections. One of Japanas major airlines plans to make the wearing of face masks compulsory as the industry shifts toward operating in a new coronavirus pandemic normal. From June, All Nippon Airways Co. will require all passengers to wear face masks inside airports and aboard aircraft. Anyone who refuses will be barred from boarding, meaning ANA is going a step further than an aviation industry body guideline that advises a arequesta be made that passengers mask up. Cabin crew will wear face masks and ground staff will wear face shields as well, it said. Major airlines, including ANA, have also installed plastic curtains at check-in counters. The aviation industry has been hit hard by the virus pandemic, and many airlines are keen to attract business by eliminating passenger concern about infection, even if it means enforcing stricter measures than recommended. Japan Airlines Co. and Skymark Airlines Inc. said they will refrain from allocating passengers into adjacent seats to allow some measure of social distancing to be maintained. JAL said the measure is temporary and is aimed at easing peopleas concern about coming into close contact with fellow passengers. NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Airbnb bookings are rebounding as Americans rush to book post-lockdown vacation rental stays, according to AllTheRooms Analytics, a provider of short-term rental analytics. U.S. Airbnb total nights booked over the next 90 days is now up 18.3% in the last 30 days and down only 15.6% year-on-year, although this also reflects the number of properties listed on Airbnb having grown substantially in the past year. U.S. Airbnb occupancy rates, the percentage of nights that properties listed on Airbnb are booked over the next 90 days, are now up 17.1% in the last 30 days. While this still constitutes a year-on-year drop of 36.4%, the latest data marks the fifth-straight week that both the average increased and the year-over-year decline decreased. The rebound is strongest in states where lockdown measures were eased earliest. In Georgia, Airbnb occupancy is up 22.3% in the last 30 days, although still down 19.7% year-on-year. Arizona and Texas have also seen a strong rebound, with occupancy rebounding 29.7% and 27.5% in the previous 30 days. Occupancy in these two states is still down 13.6% and 32.3% year-on-year, respectively. In three states that are home to 36% of U.S. Airbnb listings - California, Florida, and New York - the rebound remains in its early stages. In California, where a lockdown is still in place, Airbnb occupancy for the next 90 days is up 10.6% in the last 30 days, but down 46.8% year-on-year. Occupancy in New York State is up 15.7% in the last 30 days and down 41.9% year-on-year, despite counties outside of New York City and Long Island seeing a strong rebound. While Florida's state-wide lockdown order has been lifted for some time, a short-term rental ban had been in place since March 27th and was only recently lifted as part of the state's Phase 1 reopening. Occupancy for Florida is up 13.7% in the last 30 days and down 37.5% year-on-year. Locations that rely on air travel to bring visitors, such as Hawaii, are suffering. Occupancy is down 0.7% over the last 30 days, and down 46.1% year-on-year. About AllTheRooms Analytics AllTheRooms Analytics is the leading provider of short-term rental and Airbnb data and analytics. Our data and analytics provide actionable insights to vacation rental hosts, property managers, hotels, and tourism agencies. CONTACT: Steven Jankowski, [email protected] SOURCE AllTheRooms Analytics, Inc. Related Links http://www.alltherooms.com Amid tensions with Taiwan, China in a bid to muzzle the country has launched a 'crackdown campaign' on 'problematic maps' that represent Taiwan as a separate country. "Thirteen Beijing municipal departments, including the Beijing cyberspace administration, will launch the 2020 annual campaigns inspecting problematic maps, demanding that map compilation companies, map publishers and map users as well as online map service providers self-examine and rectify," said the Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources. These departments will investigate maps that 'incorrectly' portray China's territory and 'threaten' its national security and interests. If found problematic, relevant people or publishers will face criminal punishment. According to the Chinese Government, "Problematic" maps refer to those that do not portray China's territory correctly, covering the inclusion of the island of Taiwan, the national boundary lines on Taiwan Island, clear delineation of the Diaoyu Island and islands in the South China Sea. Last year, over 30,000 world maps were destroyed by Chinese customs authorities which referred to Taiwan as a country and 'incorrectly' depicted the Sino-Indian border. Read: Taiwan's President Assures Hong Kong Of 'necessary Support' As Protests Worsen Read: China Will Encourage People Of Taiwan To Promote 'reunification', Says Chinese Premier Taiwan Against 'One Country, Two Systems' Meanwhile, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has stood her ground firmly stating that while her government is willing to engage in dialogue with China it will not accept Chinas "one country, two systems". She added that the administration will continue to handle cross-strait affairs according to the Constitution of Taiwan and the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Amid tensions with Taiwan, China has also come under fire for its brutal use of force on the protesting citizens of Hong Kong. Over 200 politicians from across the world have written a letter condemning China's proposed national security laws for Hong Kong. The letter has been signed by 17 members of the US Congress as well. As protests in Hong Kong worsen, Taiwans president has stated that her country would provide Hong Kong with necessary assistance. In recent years, Taiwan has become a refuge centre for growing pro-democracy protesters fleeing Hong Kong. Hundreds of people took to streets after China proposed a bill aimed at forbidding secessionist and subversive activity, as well as foreign interference and terrorism. Read: Taiwan Warns Of Revoking Hong Kong's Special Status Over China's Proposed Law Read: More Heat On China; 200 Global Netas Pen Letter Panning Beijing's Proposed Hong Kong Laws Lucknow: At least 10 districts in Uttar Pradesh that border Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been put on alert after swarms of locusts attacked crops in the two states, an official said on Tuesday. The locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan. From Rajasthan, locust swarms also entered Madhya Pradesh over the past few days. "In view of the threat of locust attack in areas bordering Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, local officials have been put on alert and asked to remain prepared with chemicals in tractor mounted sprayers, power sprayers and fire brigades, and undertake heavy spraying during the night," a government spokesman here said. Besides, local villagers have been asked to make noise by beating 'thalis' and bursting crackers to drive away a locust swarm. These measures will help in controlling or eliminating locusts at their resting place, the spokesman said, adding that officials have been asked to be in constant coordination with technical teams of the Locust Warning Organisation and farmers. He said a swarm of locusts was seen in the jungles of Jhansi on Sunday and 40 per cent of it was destroyed after chemicals were sprayed by state and central government teams. Due to the wind direction, there was a threat from this swarm in Mahoba district, which was put on high alert, he said. There are reports of partial damage to vegetables in 25 hectares of area and a detailed inspection of the extent of loss is being done, the spokesman said. Another swarm was active in Karauli in Rajasthan, following which an alert was issued for Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun and Auraiya and their adjoining districts like Hamirpur, Kannauj, Etawah and Kanpur Dehat, he said.Deputy Director Agriculture Kamal Katiyar said, "The swarm of locusts is moving and is small in size. We have got news that nearly 2.5 km to 3 km long swarm of locusts has entered the country. A team has come from Kota (Rajasthan) to tackle the locusts." He said at present, the locust swarm is at Bangra Magarpur. "Spraying of insecticides will be done in the night," Katiyar said. The Mathura district administration has started early preparations in view of the growing locust threat and formed a task force. Mathura District Magistrate Sarvagya Ram Mishra said 200 litres of chloropyriphos has been kept as reserve and its sellers in the area have been advised not to supply the chemical outside the district. The Jhansi administration has also directed the fire department to keep its vehicle ready with chemicals to tackle a sudden movement by locust swarms. District Magistrate Andra Vamsi, who chaired a meeting in this regard, said, "The villagers along with the common public has been told to inform control room about the movement. The locusts will go places where there is green grass or greenery. Hence, details about the movement at such places must be shared." As far as soap opera couples go, General Hospitals Luke and Laura will always have a special place in the annals of pop culture history and in fans hearts. Anthony Geary and Genie Francis turned their story into a decades-long love affair that was romantic and at times, controversial. With 30 million viewers who tuned in for Luke and Lauras wedding in 1981, it proved their story was comparable to watching a modern royal wedding. Geary played Luke Spencer for nearly 40 years before retiring from General Hospital. Learn more about his background in acting and his net worth. Anthony Geary | Joe Kohen/FilmMagic/Getty Images Geary has a theater background A native of Utah, Geary studied theater in college and for a while, toured with a musical theater production. A tour stop in Los Angeles, California convinced him to move there, and he built up a sizeable list of credits in the theater world, often traveling for shows. Before landing the plum role of Luke Spencer, Geary played in a number of TV series such as The Streets of San Francisco, The Young and the Restless, and Barnaby Jones. He dedicated much of his life to playing Luke Spencer, but throughout the years, Geary continued to act in other shows and movies. He originally signed on to be Luke Spencer for 13 weeks. The character was introduced on GH as an anti-hero, something that was considered new territory in daytime drama. Although his time on the series wasnt always sunshine and roses, he loved the character and his fans. Celebrate the Luke Spencer Farewell Event with us this week on #GH #FarewellTony!https://t.co/jsKwFUffCI General Hospital (@GeneralHospital) July 21, 2015 RELATED: General Hospital: The Top 4 Characters Fans Love to Hate Geary sold his Los Angeles home and lives in Amsterdam After leaving General Hospital, Geary committed to living in Amsterdam full time. Prior to that, he was living on two different continents and shared his contract allowed for that arrangement. During a 2015 interview with TV Insider, Geary revealed he enrolled in school in The Netherlands. I am free! I got myself into a 10-week course at the University of Amsterdam on Dutch theater history and literature. Ive also been doing quite a bit of writing lately. And I have not retired from acting. Just from GH. This May, he spoke with Nancy Grahn for a quaratine interview. He knew since 1993 he wanted to live in Amsterdam, and found a charming place to stay in the Dutch city. RELATED: General Hospital: Why Genie Francis Wont Justify the Luke and Laura Storyline Anymore General Hospital helped Geary grow his wealth Geary has made it clear he does not plan to stop working as an actor. He wants to write, and work on film and theater projects. A future return to GH is not exactly on his radar however, unless the timing and story feels right for him as an actor. However, Geary doesnt regret a thing. He told TV Insider this about his exit: I have loved every minute of it. Even the minutes I have hated, I have loved. I made a smart move joining GH and then hanging on doggedly through the bad times, bullying my way to the top. Or the middle. Or wherever this is. I had a character that was mythic and wildly unique and the best they had to offer in television. I am really, really fortunate. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Geary has an estimated net worth of $9 million. RELATED: General Hospital: Anthony Geary Reveals How He Really Felt During Luke and Lauras Heyday Migrant labourers protested in Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district on Monday after rumour spread over trains and buses that will ferry them to Bihar, police said. Senior Superintendent of Police Amneet Kondal said a rumour spread that buses will leave for Bihar from the Khalsa School in Mandi Gobindgarh town, following which a large number of migrant labourers assembled at the spot. The police reached and told the labourers that there was no such schedule of trains or buses, following which the agitated people protested against the district administration and shouted slogans. Follow live updates on coronavirus here Civil and police officials rushed to the spot to control the situation. Mandi Gobindgarh police station incharge Mohinder Singh pacified the agitated migrants, Kondal said. According the SSP, misleading information was shared on social media that the labourers were beaten, they damaged police vehicles, and labourers and officials were injured, but nothing happened. Legal action is being taken against such persons who is misleading people on social media, Kondal said. Sub-Divisional Magistrate Amloh Anand Sagar Sharma said after coordinating with railway authorities, special buses were arranged and around 300 migrant labourers were sent to the Ambala railway station, from where they will leave for Bihar. Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in COVID-19: Bank of Ghana hands over GHC10 bn to govt to close the fiscal gap The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has reportedly supported the government with GHC10 billion to help close Ghanas deficit gap. YEN.com.gh understands that the Central Bank halted support for the government after Ghana entered into an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It, however, resumed after the outbreak of the coronavirus led to a widening of the budget deficit from 4.7% to 7.8% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). READ ALSO: TUC lobbies for tax cuts for trotro drivers; says they need more money Ghana records 22.38% average lending rate; the lowest in over 10 years Information available to YEN.com.gh shows that in April 2020, Ghana recorded its lowest average lending rate of 22.38%. According to the Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana, it is the lowest recorded in 12 years. In January 2020, it was 23.06%; it increased to 23.37% the following month and 23.40% in March 2020. 7 million Ghanaian workers earn less than GHC600 a month - Ken Ofori-Atta The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that seven million Ghanaians earn GHC7000 or below every month. He explained that 83.6% of Ghanaians do not have real savings and are therefore likely to be adversely affected by crises such as COVID-19. Ofori-Atta further noted that 59% of Ghanaians fall within the 15 to 34-year-old age group and 39% are found within the 35 to 64-year-old group. Akufo-Addo has managed the economy better than Mahama did - Otchere-Darko Ghanaian political activist and lawyer, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has argued that President Akufo-Addo has handled the economy better, compared to Former President John Mahama. According to him, this is the case despite the increase in Ghanas debt stock from GHS122.2 billion at the end of 2016 to GHS236 billion at the end of March 2020. Despite the 93.1% increase in public debt, Otchere-Darko is of the view that Ghana is currently witnessing its lowest rate of debt accumulation under any government since the change of leadership from Former President Kufuor to Former President Atta Mills. OVER THE WEEKEND: AngloGold Ashanti shuts S.African mine after finding 164 coronavirus cases AngloGold Ashantis Mponeng mine in South Africa has been temporarily closed after 164 workers tested positive for the coronavirus, the gold miner said in a statement on Sunday. The mine, the deepest in the world, only re-opened in April after being shut under a nationwide lockdown and had been operating at around 50% capacity. It accounted for around 7.4% of the companys total gold production in 2019. We cant dismiss allegations against AfDB Pres. US Treasury Dept. The US Department of Treasury says it cannot dismiss allegations against the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina We fear that the wholesale dismissal of all allegations without appropriate investigations will tarnish the reputation of this institution as one that does not uphold high standards of ethics and governance, it said in a statement signed by Steven T Mnuchin. READ ALSO: We have increased growth, reduced unemployment and created jobs - Bawumia Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news! Ghanaians share their thoughts on the mandatory wearing of face mask | #Yencomgh Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos Source: YEN.com.gh by Nguyen Trung Father Joseph Le Quang Uy, a Redemptorist assists the group to help people who sell lottery tickets on the streets, abandoned people, disabled people and unhappy children, including those who living in difficult situations. Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - In the days of "social distancing" in Vietnam, Father Joseph Le Quang Uy, a Vietnamese Redemptorist priest, helped and supported the H ilng An group, the FIAT group and some other volunteer groups to organize charity lunches during the pandemic period for the poor and abandoned. Numerous Catholic volunteers are assisting people who sell lottery tickets on the streets, abandoned people, disabled people and unhappy children, including those who live in difficult situations. Ms. Nguyen Thi No, volunteer of the Hong An group of the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, belonging to the Redemptorists of Saigon, says: Because of this epidemic we have seen many people facing difficulties, like many lottery ticket vendors on the street, street cleaners and street vendors. Everyone had to stay home. " All these marginalized people have had to stop working on the street. So their life is very difficult. They have no money to pay a rent. Even those who are far from their families and immigrants are in the same situation. So, we thought of a way to help these people with free meals. To overcome current difficulties, added Ms No. Some members of the Hong An group (Grace Group) also told AsiaNews about their experience: We come here because we are in solidarity with people who face many difficulties. These days, they cannot work to earn money for themselves and their children. Thus, Father Joseph Uy supported and helped us organize charitable meals for the poor, the abandoned, the lottery ticket sellers and the elderly alone in the local communities. " Father Joseph also told his experiences to the local media, I think our help and sharing with the poor and abandoned are very natural in the conscience of Christians. Furthermore, our conscience is inspired by the Good News of Jesus. It gifts mercy to all of us. We have received Mercy from God. Therefore it is inevitable for us to respond with Mercy to the poor. This describes our solidarity in our communities. " A new maintenance system is helping to make sensors smart. A research team led by Professor Andreas Schutze of Saarland University is combining artificial intelligence with sensors that gather status data on industrial machinery. The system is able to detect damage, wear and error states, and, uniquely, is also able to recognize when previously unknown machine states arise, learning from them and assigning them to their underlying root causes. This approach offers small and medium-sized companies a means of automating their machine maintenance and servicing operations, allowing them to plan more precisely and avoid unpleasant surprises. Vast numbers of sensors are constantly collecting data from today's industrial machinery. And there's a lot that can be learned from these huge data sets. When a machine is operating normally, the way that it vibrates, shakes, hums or heats up is unique to that device. But when machine components start to wear out, these characteristic features undergo subtle changes. Minute temperature fluctuations, slight changes in vibrational behaviour, minor shifts in measurement data can all act as early warning signals that can indicate when a component is beginning to show signs of wear. It is therefore crucial to be able to detect these subtle variations within the sea of data being produced. 'A single sensor can generate a terabyte of raw data in just a few days,' explains Professor Andreas Schutze, an expert in measurement and sensor technology at Saarland University. But in addition to detecting these changes, it is equally important to know how to interpret them. Schutze and his team have been working with partners in industry and academia to develop a system that is able to extract the useful signal data from the vast quantities of data being generated. 'By independently assigning signal patterns to specific damage, wear or error states, the system is able to make the machine's status permanently visible,' says Andreas Schutze. The program continuously compares real-time sensor data with the data associated with normal machine operation and with the typical signal patterns that indicate an incipient malfunction or emerging wear defects. If the system detects a difference between these signal patterns, it will notify the equipment operator and indicate how to respond. The researchers working at Saarland University and at the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) in Saarbrucken have developed a whole suite of hardware and software modules that can be combined to produce a tailor-made monitoring system for a wide variety of industrial machinery and equipment. The system is even able to detect unknown faults, to learn from them and then to assign these faults to their corresponding root cause. This is something wholly new. Up until now, AI-based monitoring systems were not able to evaluate previously unknown events. 'Artificial intelligence works by pattern recognition. If something completely new happens and the system doesn't recognize this novel pattern, it will have effectively reached the limits of its capabilities. We've developed our system to a level where it can recognize states that is has not previously encountered and can notify the operator accordingly,' explains Andreas Schutze. The technical term is 'novelty detection'. If a novel event begins to appear more frequently and more data on it becomes available, the program is able to assign its cause and the consequences that follow from it. Over the course of multiple research projects, Schutze's group filtered out from the vast quantities of measurement data those signal patterns that were associated either with changes in a machine's behaviour or with machine damage. They then created mathematical models, which included simulations of sensor faults, and used these models to teach their system. The program exploits machine learning techniques to automatically acquire new knowledge and to detect deviations from normal behaviour. 'The algorithms also incorporate recently acquired data in their analyses. It is therefore possible for the system to detect and to interpret anomalies,' explains Tizian Schneider, a doctoral student who is currently conducting research into the new system. The knowledge generated by the system can be linked to other AI functions, such as the automated ordering of spare parts. This makes it easier to plan maintenance operations on large or difficult-to-access plant machinery. The system is also able to transfer information to human maintenance operatives in a clearly understandable form. To ensure that maintenance personnel are able to interpret the numerical data correctly, Schutze's team has also examined ways of translating the data into useful information for the user. 'The system breaks down the information into a form that is both relevant and easily understood by the maintenance workers,' explains Tizian Schneider. Schutze and his team now want to help small and medium-sized companies become acquainted with the new technology. The researchers run training courses at the 'Mittelstand 4.0 Competence Centre', which is located at the ZeMA site in Saarbrucken and which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. They are currently developing an AI-based assistance system specifically for small and medium-sized companies. 'The system is particularly attractive for these small and medium-sized enterprises that want to use digitalization to boost their competitiveness.' explains Andreas Schutze. ### Background The AI system was developed by Professor Andreas Schutze and his research team as part of the collaborative project 'Modular Sensor Systems for Real-Time Process Control and Smart State Monitoring' (MoSeS-Pro) and the projects 'MessMo - Measurement-Assisted Assembly' (European Regional Development Fund, ERDF) and 'EaSy-ML'(supported by the Saarland government's ERDF-technology funding programme ZTS). Two new collaborative projects aimed at developing the AI system further are also now starting and will involve a total of twenty project partners from academia and industry, including the companies HYDAC, Festo and Schaeffler. Contact: Prof. Dr. Andreas Schutze, Tel.: +49 (0)681 302-4663; Email: schuetze@lmt.uni-saarland.de Tizian Schneider: Tel.: +49 (0)681 85787-48; Email: t.schneider@zema.de http://www.lmt.uni-saarland.de Latam Airlines Group SA, Latin Americas largest air carrier, sought bankruptcy court protection in New York after the Covid-19 pandemic grounded flights across the region. The Chapter 11 petition allows Latam to keep operating while the Chilean carrier works out a plan to pay creditors and turn around the business. Latam, whose shareholders include Chiles Cueto family and Delta Air Lines Inc., continues to operate on a reduced schedule, and it has commitments for a bankruptcy loan of up to $900 million. The money is coming from shareholders including the Cuetos, the Amaro family and Qatar Airways, according to a company statement. Latam also has about $1.3 billion in cash on hand. Airlines the world over -- and those in Latin America in particular -- have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak, which triggered travel bans and made people reluctant to fly. Avianca Holdings SA, the largest air carrier in Colombia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier in May, burdened by the sharp drop in fliers and its own onerous debt load. Latams affiliates in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina arent part of the bankruptcy case, which was filed in the Southern District of New York. Still, the impact will be felt widely, with Santiago-based Latam previously serving more than 70 million passengers a year on more than 300 aircraft. It also carried more than $7 billion of debt. Latam has already eliminated more than 1,850 jobs in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in recent weeks from its global workforce of about 40,000 people, after cutting 95% of its passenger operations. In some bankruptcy scenarios, an airline can reject aircraft leases, and Latam has more than 20 jetliners on order from Airbus SE and half a dozen from Boeing Co. Exceptional circumstances have led to a collapse in global demand and has not only brought aviation to a virtual standstill, but it has also changed the industry for the foreseeable future, Chief Executive Officer Roberto Alvo said in a statement. Latam listed assets of more than $21 billion and total liabilities of almost $18 billion in its bankruptcy petition. So far, Latam hasnt had access to government bailout packages designed help offset virus-related distress. Talks are underway with governments in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru about additional financing and assistance, the airline said. Brazilian Ban The task was made more urgent this past weekend by U.S. President Donald Trumps order to restrict non-U.S. citizens arriving from Brazil to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Brazil accounts for about a third of Latams revenue. Latam traces its roots to Lan Airlines, founded in Chile in 1929 and privatized in 1989 during the last years of the Pinochet dictatorship. Latam was born in 2012 after Lan announced plans to merge with Tam for about $3.3 billion two years earlier. The Cueto family -- which is Latams largest shareholder and holds two seats on its board of directors -- acquired a stake in 1992 and control of the business in 1994. At that time, another major shareholder was current Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who sold his own 26% stake early in his first term as president in 2010. Last year, Latam signed a $2.25 billion pact to sell a stake to Delta Air Lines, expanding Deltas footprint in South America. The Chilean carrier has been planning to gradually ramp up flights over the next two months, with the goal of reaching 18% of pre-crisis capacity in July. Latam retained Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton as legal counsel, FTI Consulting Inc. as financial adviser and PJT Partners Inc. as investment banker. The case is Latam Airlines Group SA, 20-11254, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The state-run Southeastern Veterans' Center in Chester County suffered a devastating outbreak of coronavirus cases in spring 2020 that took dozens of lives. Read more The head of the state-run Southeastern Veterans Center and a senior staffer there were placed on indefinite suspension Tuesday amid an investigation into operations at the nursing home where dozens have died from the coronavirus, according to a state senator and sources at the Chester County facility. Rohan Blackwood, the centers commandant, and Deborah Mullane, the director of nursing, were asked to turn in their badges and escorted from the center Tuesday, the sources said. Blackwood, 47, took over as commandant of the home for veterans and their spouses five years ago after a brief stint as executive director of the Phoebe Wyncote nursing home in Montgomery County. He had previously worked at a troubled nursing home in Lancaster County. His state salary is $119,453. Mullane is paid $122,113 a year. Blackwood and his senior staff have come under scrutiny in recent weeks after Inquirer articles about how the coronavirus tore through the 238-bed home in East Vincent Township. Leaders of the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which runs the home, have faced questions from state politicians and relatives of residents who died there. Blackwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Mullane declined to comment. Joan Nissley, a spokesperson for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said in an email, While we do not comment on personnel matters, we can confirm the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs has named an Acting Commandant at our Southeastern Veterans Center. HELP US REPORT: Are you a health care worker, medical provider, government worker, patient, frontline worker or other expert? We want to hear from you. The Southeastern Veterans Center had been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, with at least 37 residents dying from the virus since April 4, according to Chester County Coroner Christina VandePol. Several relatives of residents said they were unaware of how widely the virus had spread or that anyone had died there until it was reported in The Inquirer on April 17. By then, at least 10 residents had died from coronavirus complications. The states five other veterans homes, including one in Philadelphia, appear to have kept the coronavirus out, or prevented it from spreading, according to internal reports and data released by the state. Recent interviews with 17 current and former employees at the Southeastern Veterans Center, as well as with residents families and union officials, suggest the facility was not only slow to respond to the pandemic but has been mismanaged by Blackwood, described as having an autocratic style. READ MORE: Its a sinking ship: COVID-19 deaths triple at state-run vets nursing home in Chester County as families clamor for information Staff members who spoke to The Inquirer described cases of resident neglect, escapes from the dementia unit, and staffing shortages. Some of those same employees sent information to State Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat whose district includes the facility. Muth, a vocal critic of the facilitys response to the pandemic, last week urged state officials to remove Blackwood and Mullane. Its their inability to manage a staff to provide a high level of patient care, Muth said. They need to replace the management and anybody that doesnt want to be there to provide care to these veterans. There are some people who have been bullied into enabling their behavior. In a hearing this month by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee on the impact of COVID-19 on nursing homes, Andrew Ruscavage, director of the Bureau of Veterans Homes within the DMVA, defended his agencys response. He said the home had established a plan for handling the virus by March 2, before any residents or staff became infected. But he acknowledged that stockpiles of protective N95 masks were very limited. Maj. Gen. Anthony Carelli, who as adjutant general for Pennsylvania oversees the states six veterans homes, told the Senate committee that he was concerned by The Inquirers articles about conditions at SEVC and asked the state and county to inspect the facility. The full report is pending, but Carrelli said he was told inspectors have found no discrepancies. Richwood, TX (77531) Today Rain showers along with windy conditions. High 44F. Winds N at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 34F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Vaughan, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Spyder Cannabis Inc. (TSXV: SPDR) ("Spyder" or the "Company") and its wholly-owned associated applicants, The Green Spyder Inc. and Spyder Cannabis Subco Inc., is pleased to provide the following update: Niagara Falls Cannabis Dispensary Further to the announcement of receipt of its ROL ("Retail Operator License"), the company is now awaiting receipt of its RSA ("Retail Store Authorization") for its Niagara Falls dispensary located at 6474 Lundy's Lane. The company plans to begin operations at the location as soon as the RSA is issued and final inspection is completed, while ensuring it complies with COVID-19 provincial regulations and focusing on its curbside pickup and delivery business. Calgary Cannabis Dispensary Further to the announcement of receipt of its Conditional Cannabis License, the company is awaiting a final inspection of its dispensary scheduled for the beginning of June, at which point, it intends to begin operations at its Calgary dispensary, located at 104-58th Ave, SE, suite 140. Online and e-Commerce In order to address the challenges presented by the COVID 19 crisis, the company has focus on building up the online and e-commerce components for its US Hemp CBD only locations, in Atlantic City and West Palm Beach. Specifically, the company has launched a US website as well as an affiliate program to generate increased awareness of the Spyder brand at ShopSPDR.com. Filing Extension of Annual Disclosure Documents Due to COVID-19 Due to circumstances created by the COVID - 19 pandemic Spyder will not be filing its audited financial statements and related management discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020 by the scheduled due date of June 1, 2020, as required under section 4.4(b) and section 5.1(1) of National Instrument 51-102 - Continuous Disclosure Obligations ("NI 51-102"). As required by Ontario Instrument 51-502 Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements (OSC Instrument 51-502), BC Instrument 51-515 Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements (BC Instrument 51-515), Blanket Order 51-517 Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements (ASC Blanket Order 51-517) and Manitoba Blanket Order 52-502 Temporary Exemption from Certain Corporate Finance Requirements (Manitoba Blanket Order 52-502), the Company discloses the following: The Company's management and other insiders will be subject to a trading black-out that reflects the principles in Section 9 of National Policy 11-207 - Failure-to-File Cease Trade Orders until its audited financial statements and related management discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020; The Company expects to file its audited financial statements and related management discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020 on or about July 15, 2020 About Spyder Cannabis Inc. Spyder is a Cannabis, Vape and CBD retailer that operates in jurisdictions where the products are federally legal in both Canada and the United States. The Company, through its subsidiaries, is a retailer involved in the development of three retail business units. The first is the sale of Cannabis products, the second is the sale of Hemp CBD in the United States only, the third is the sale of smoking cessation products in Ontario. Cautionary Statements Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release includes statements containing certain 'forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws ('forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. For more information, please contact: Spyder Cannabis Inc. Dan Pelchovitz President & Chief Executive Officer Telephone: 1.888.504.7737 Email: corporate@spydercannabis.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56502 Gregory McMichael, left, and his son Travis McMichael, right, arrested for alleged murder of a young black man: AP A lawyer representing the family of Ahmaud Arbery has said that the US Department of Justice is investigating his killing as a possible hate crime. Lee Merritt said federal authorities are not only pursuing the hate crime line, but are also investigating two local county officials, George Barnhill and Jackie Johnson, who recused themselves from the case shortly after the killing in February, according to several news reports quoting him. Mr Barnhill and Ms Johnson both resigned under pressure over conflicts of interests, as they had professional connections with the killers, Gregory and Travis McMichael and in his letter of recusal, Mr Barnhill recommended that no arrest be made in the case. Ms Johnson is alleged to have made a similar recommendation. Mr Arbery, who was black, was killed by the white McMichaels after they chased him down their street, where he was jogging, and began an altercation with him while each carrying a gun. The incident ended with Mr Arbery fatally shot. While the killing occurred on 23 February, it was only after a video of the killing shot by a neighbour of the McMichaels recently went viral that the two men were arrested and charged. The man who shot the video, William Roddie Bryan Jr., has since been charged with charges including felony murder. While the state of Georgia does not have a hate crimes law, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is reportedly co-operating with the federal Department of Justice as it looks into the case. There are several sets of circumstances under which a hate crime can be prosecuted by the departments Civil Rights Division instead of state authorities, including that a prosecution by the United States is in the public interest and necessary to secure substantial justice and that the verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to state charges did not demonstratively vindicate the federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence. The law was originally introduced in the late 1960s to sanction bias-motivated crimes at the federal level. It has in part been used to ensure that hate-motivated crimes can be investigated and prosecuted even where they occurred in states whose authorities had a history of routinely overlooking them. The original law included race, color, religion and national origin as circumscribed motives for committing a crime against somebody; over the years, gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation have been added to the definition. As the fallout from the Arbery killing has continued, other incidents involving him have come to light, recently including a 2017 encounter with the police in which an officer attempted to tase him. He was apparently being questioned by them after they asked him why he was sitting in his car alone in a park. Gov. Tom Wolf said his administration will come out with more specific guidelines as the states first counties are poised to enter the green phase of his plan to reopen the state. The governor and Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine talked about the efforts to stem the spread of the virus in a news conference Tuesday morning. Wolf and Levine both hailed the decline in new cases seen across the commonwealth, which enables restrictions to be eased. Our case count continues to trend downward, Wolf said Tuesday. Wolf has moved to gradually reopen Pennsylvania after imposing restrictions on businesses and routine activities to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The plan has three phases: red, yellow and green. You can watch it here. May 26 COVID-19 Update Join us for the latest information on COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. Posted by Pennsylvania Department of Health on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 More tests, fewer new cases The governor hailed the states improved testing ability. Wolf said the state conducted more than 80,000 tests in the past week, up from about 50,000 tests weekly last month. Statewide, Levine said an estimated 61 percent of those who have been infected have recovered. Levine said new cases are dropping, with less than 500 new cases reported Tuesday. She said the decline in new cases is especially encouraging, because the state is doing more testing. Wolf hailed residents for doing their part, either by social distancing or wearing masks. People like you are taking precautions and keeping yourself and your communities safe, Wolf said. I thank each and every one of you for doing your part," he added. Going yellow and green Levine was asked about large gatherings in the green zone, such as wedding receptions. Levine said more guidance on the green zone would be coming this week, as the first counties will soon enter that phase this week. The health secretary said while guidance will be coming, she said very large events such as concerts are likely to still be prohibited. Wolf said his administration continues to work with pro sports leagues to talk about how sporting events can resume. Earlier today, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said pro sports teams in the Garden State can begin training camps. On Friday, eight counties will move into the yellow phase of the Wolf administrations plan to reopen the state. Here are the counties heading to yellow: Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, and Schuylkill. With those counties, 57 counties will be in the yellow phase on Friday. In addition, the first counties will enter the green phase - the least restrictive phase - on Friday. These counties will go green: Bradford, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Montour, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango, and Warren counties. Wolf said Tuesday Centre County would also go green. Centre County officials initially indicated they wanted to wait but reversed course and the governor indicated the county, home to Penn States main campus, would enter the green phase Friday. The governor said last week he anticipates the remaining red counties will be lifted from the stay-at-home order by June 5. They include Philadelphia and its surrounding counties, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery; Berks; Lancaster; and Lackawanna. Even as restrictions are eased, Levine said residents still should take appropriate precautions. COVID-19 is still a risk," Levine said, adding there is still community spread of the coronavirus. Across Pennsylvania, more than 68,000 people have contracted the coronavirus and more than 5,100 deaths have been tied to COVID-19. About two-thirds of those deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. Syndrome affecting kids Levine urged parents to be aware of the symptoms of a rare but serious illness affecting kids that appears to be tied to COVID-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent an alert of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, often called MIS-C. Several cases have been found in Pennsylvania, Levine said. The condition is very rare, but has been deadly in some cases, the CDC has said. Some children with the illness have also had the virus that causes COVID-19, the CDC has said. Symptoms include persistent fever, vomiting, red eyes, fatigue and abdominal pain, Levine said. Its unclear how it is transmitted or if this syndrome can affect adults. There is rather limited information about this condition," Levine said. State budget Wolf said the administration is working with lawmakers on a state budget. State lawmakers are hoping to complete work on a partial year budget this week. The governor was asked about the status of budget negotiations. I hope we get to a conclusion fairly quickly, Wolf said. Wolf said he wants to work with lawmakers on finding a spending plan that pays for essential services, despite the staggering drop in revenue due to much of the economy shutting down. Pa. primary Wolf was asked if counties are prepared to handle the mail-in ballots for the primary election on June 2. The governor said the hope is that voting by mail will be a healthier option for Pennsylvanians. Wolf said as more voters cast ballots by mail, it could lead to some higher costs. The deadline to apply for a vote by mail ballot is 5 p.m. today. You can get an application online. Media access The governor said he hopes to do his first live press conference since mid-March - with reporters in the room - on Friday. Hes done conference calls and streamed news conferences where questions have been read by a moderator. Wolf said many state workers the yellow zone will continue to work from home, so fulfilling requests for information under the states open records law may still be difficult. Media organizations and government watchdogs have pressed the governor to respond to requests for information under the states right-to-know law but those requests are not being fulfilled due to the coronavirus crisis, the administration has said. Gov. Tom Wolf's red, yellow and green phases reopening Pennsylvania after coronavirus-related shutdowns in 2020. (Graphic via the governor's office.) More from PennLive What is the future of Harrisburg beyond the pandemic? Pa. police break up DJ parking lot party of 250 people, many without masks Coronavirus survivor who spent 2 weeks on ventilator is new man after losing 38 lbs Pa. lawmakers welcome plans to lift stay-at-home order; some say it shouldve happened sooner A wheelchair-bound man who was robbed as he withdrew cash from an ATM has said the two men who allegedly targeted him need to 'get a job'. Julian Stewart, 42, who has cerebral palsy, noticed two men loitering near an ATM in Haymarket, at the southern end of Sydney's CBD, at 11.45am on Sunday. CCTV footage shows the pair waiting for Mr Stewart to finish his transaction before one of them allegedly snatched the cash out of his hands and ran from the busy ANZ branch on George Street. Speaking on Tuesday for the first time since the incident, Mr Stewart said he felt his alleged robbers 'took advantage' of his condition. 'All of a sudden one of them just lunged at me and grabbed the money. They took advantage of someone in a vulnerable position,' Mr Stewart told Nine News. Julian Stewart (pictured), 42, who has cerebral palsy, was robbed as he withdrew cash from an ATM in Sydney The two alleged robbers were then pictured on CCTV running down George Street. 'They're two young people, able-bodied, they should go out and get a job rather than stoop to those lows,' Mr Stewart said. 'I'm a disabled pensioner, and life's a bit of a struggle - you should worry about helping people - not doing that to them.' After the alleged robbery, Mr Stewart was helped by a man and woman who were passing by. He was uninjured and police arrived shortly after. The pensioner said most Australians are generally happy to help him but warned that there are some 'bad people' out there. Mr Stewart has had cerebral palsy since his birth and is proud to represent disabled people in the community. Mr Stewart is wheelchair-bound due to his cerebral palsy condition. Speaking out after the alleged robbery, Mr Stewart said his two attackers should 'get a job' Two men (pictured) allegedly robbed Mr Stewart after he withdrew cash from an ATM in Haymarket, in Sydney city, on Sunday morning After arriving, detectives from established a crime scene and began investigating the robbery on Sunday. NSW Police later released images from the incident and appealed for public assistance to help identify the two men. The first man wore a black jacket and dark green pants and was described as being of Caucasian appearance, with a large build and red hair. The second man was described as having a medium build, Caucasian appearance and light-brown short hair with a dark blue jacket and dark pants. A Sanctuary Point man, 20, was arrested at Green Valley Police Station at 3.15pm on Tuesday. He was taken to Liverpool Police Station where charged with steal from person. He was refused bail at Liverpool Local Court on Wednesday. Police are continuing to search for the second man. dpVUE.images Just as employees need a few extra dollars to get by, employers are increasing access to their 401(k) savings. Make sure you proceed with caution before you tap those funds. Close to 2 out of 3 companies have increased access to in-service distributions from employees' retirement accounts, according to a recent survey by Willis Towers Watson. The human resources consultancy polled 816 employers representing 12 million employees during the week of April 20. In-service distributions are a way for workers to withdraw or roll over funds saved in their retirement accounts, and do so while they're still working for that employer. It's a timely move, as the CARES Act is now allowing savers to take emergency withdrawals known as hardship distributions of up to $100,000 from their retirement plans. Individuals who are under age 59 can withdraw their 401(k) and 403(b) funds without the usual 10% early withdrawal penalty. This also applies to individual retirement accounts. "You should see if there are other options," said Robyn Credico, defined contribution consulting leader at Willis Towers Watson. "If there are no other options, this is the last resort." Spreading the tax load katleho Seisa Under normal circumstances, if you were to withdraw money from your retirement plan, you would be subject to a 10% penalty if you're under age 59, along with income taxes on the amount you're taking. The CARES Act allows you to pay the taxes over the course of three years. You can also replenish the amount that you pulled from your retirement account over that time .(And that's above the usual annual contribution limit.) These distributions may be taken by people who themselves are diagnosed with coronavirus, or whose spouse or dependent has been diagnosed with it, or who experience adverse financial consequences from being quarantined, laid off or furloughed. Three considerations Uber New Delhi: During the Corona crisis, reports of layoffs and pay cuts began to surface. Ola, an online cab booking service provider, recently announced the layoffs of 1,400 employees. UberNow Ola's rival Uber India has also spoken of evicting 600 people. Uber India chief Pradeep Parameswaran said on Tuesday that the Indian branch of US company Uber Technology Inc. would lose 600 jobs. Advertisement He said the corona virus had affected business so this is why this decision is being taken. In the past, US company Uber has announced layoffs of 3,700 employees worldwide. PhotoMeanwhile, TVS Motor Company has announced a 20 percent pay cut for a period of six months. The company has decided to cut salaries at the executive level from May to October this year, excluding the primary level employees. A company spokesperson said, "In view of the sudden crisis, the company has cut salaries at various levels for six months." Advertisement The spokesperson said that there would be no reduction in the salaries of those working at the labour level. TVS Motor Company is the third largest two wheeler company in the country. Earlier, online food companies Zomato and Swiggy had also announced layoffs. Salman Khan and Bhagyashrees innocent romance in Maine Pyaar Kiya captured the hearts of the nation and catapulted them to fame. The two stars were approached for several photoshoots together, back in the day. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, Bhagyashree said that a popular photographer wanted to take hot pictures of her and Salman. The photographer asked the Dabangg star to take her by surprise and plant a kiss on her lips. There was a very popular photographer back then, who is no more. He wanted to take some not-so-complimentary photographs of Salman and me, some sort of hot photographs. So, he took Salman aside and told him, Main jab camera set up karunga (When I set up the camera), you just catch her and smooch her, she revealed. Bhagyashree, who overheard the conversation, was blown away by Salmans response. He flatly refused to do any such thing without her consent. All of us were newcomers and this photographer thought he had the liberty to do something like that. Back then, smooching scenes were not prevalent. I dont think he or Salman knew that I was standing very close by and could hear every word. For a second, I remained shocked, but just then, I heard Salman say, I am not going to do anything of that sort. If you want any pose like that, you need to ask Bhagyashree. I really respected Salmans response, and thats when I realised I was among safe people, she said. Also Watch | Salman Khans stern message for those attacking cops & doctors: For few Jokers Also see: When Kartik Aaryan borrowed hairstylists t-shirt for stage performance, changed on the road. Watch Even though Maine Pyaar Kiya became a massive success, Bhagyashree gave up a career in films to focus on her marriage and motherhood. In an interview with Humans Of Bombay, she had said, Maine Pyaar Kiya went on to become such a big hit, but I was a woman so in love with my husband and my son Abhimanyu who was born soon after that I said no to every offer I got. I have absolutely no regrets though, I look at my life, my family now and I feel so proud. Bhagyashrees upcoming projects include Radha Krishna Kumars Jaan (tentative title), starring Prabhas and Pooja Hegde, and AL Vijays Thalaivi, which has Kangana Ranaut playing former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Follow @htshowbiz for more Global Cement Market Update Africa In this session, Cemtech turned to Africa to examine recent cement sector trends in the south, east and west of the continent. It also looked at how the economies and construction sectors of the region have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, while providing an outlook for 2020. Read a summary of the session here. Download all the presentations here. Speakers included: What's going on in sub-Saharan Africa's cement sector? Tony Hadley, former regional president of Blue Circle and Lafarge Cement Tony Hadley is a specialist in cement strategy, management, operations and performance optimisation. He runs a consulting company advising on Africa and cement. He also provides advice to selected companies on cement, M&A, strategy, organisation and performance, with a specific focus on running successful businesses in Africa. He has been involved in the sector for almost 20 years, initially as Regional President of Blue Circle Cement and Lafarge, and then as CEO of Dangote Cement. AECI LIMITED (Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa) (Registration Number 1924/002590/06) Tax reference number: 9000008608 Share code: AFEP ISIN: ZAE000000238 Bond company code AECI LEI: 3789008641F1D3D90E85 ("AECI" or "the Company") DECLARATION OF PREFERENCE SHARE DIVIDEND NO. 164 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that on Tuesday, 26 May 2020, the Directors of AECI declared a gross cash dividend, at the rate of 5,5% per annum (equivalent to 2,75 pence sterling), for the six months ending Monday, 15 June 2020. The dividend is payable on Monday, 15 June 2020 to holders of preference shares recorded in the register of the Company at the close of business on the record date, being Friday, 12 June 2020. The last day to trade "cum" dividend will be Tuesday, 9 June 2020 and shares will commence trading "ex" dividend as from the commencement of business on Wednesday, 10 June 2020. The dividend is declared in pound sterling and payment will be made from the offices of the Transfer Secretaries in South Africa and the United Kingdom on Monday, 15 June 2020. Dividends payable from South Africa will be paid in South African currency at the rate of 62,2721 ZAR cents per share (gross dividend) in accordance with the exchange rate ruling on Monday, 11 May 2020 (1 pound sterling = ZAR22,6444). A South African dividend withholding tax of 20% will be applicable to all shareholders who are not either exempt or entitled to a reduction of the withholding tax rate in terms of a relevant Double Taxation Agreement, resulting in a net dividend of 49,81768 cents per share payable to those shareholders who are not eligible for exemption or reduction. Application forms for exemption or reduction may be obtained from the Transfer Secretaries and must be returned to them on or before Tuesday, 9 June 2020. Dividends payable from the United Kingdom office will be subject to such tax deductions as are prescribed by United Kingdom legislation unless a certificate exempting the shareholder concerned from such tax deduction is received before Tuesday, 9 June. The issued share capital of the Company at the declaration date is 121 829 083 listed ordinary shares, 10 117 951 unlisted redeemable convertible B ordinary shares and 3 000000 listed cumulative preference shares. The dividend has been declared from the income reserves of the Company. Any change of address or dividend instruction must be received on or before Tuesday, 9 June 2020. Share certificates may not be dematerialised or rematerialised between Wednesday, 10 June 2020 and Friday, 12 June 2020, both days inclusive. By order of the Board E N Rapoo Group Company Secretary Woodmead, Sandton 26 May 2020 Transfer Secretaries Computershare Investor Services (Pty) Ltd Rosebank Towers, 15 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank, 2196 and Computershare Investor Services PLC P O Box 82 The Pavilions Bridgwater Road Bristol BS99 7NH England Registered office 1st Floor, AECI Place 24 The Woodlands Woodlands Drive Woodmead Sandton Sponsor Rand Merchant Bank (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a two-year study on the efficacy of workplace wellness programs and found that such programs have little impact on employee health, health beliefs and medical utilization. Since the passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the workplace wellness industry has grown rapidly, spurred in part by the law's incentives for firms to adopt such programs by raising the financial benefits offered to program participants. Among large U.S. firms offering health benefits in 2019, 84% also offered a workplace wellness program to reduce health care costs and improve employee health. But a randomized controlled trial showed that, after 24 months, a comprehensive workplace wellness program had no significant effects on measured physical health outcomes such as weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or blood glucose; rates of medical diagnoses; or the use of health care services; according to a new paper co-written by U. of I. scholars David Molitor, Laura Payne and Julian Reif. The paper, which was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, comes out of the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study, which examined a workplace wellness program offered to employees from the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. "Many employers use workplace wellness programs in an attempt to improve employee health and reduce medical costs, but randomized evaluations of their efficacy are rare," said Molitor, a professor of finance at the Gies College of Business and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Our randomized evaluation found no significant effect of the program on employee health measures or medical use." The comprehensive workplace wellness program, dubbed iThrive, was designed to represent a typical corporate wellness program offered by employers. It included three annual components: an on-site biometric screening and survey; an online health risk assessment; and a choice of wellness activities. In the study, individual employees were randomly assigned to a treatment group that was eligible to participate in a two-year comprehensive workplace wellness program, or a control group that was ineligible. The researchers evaluated the effects of the program on health beliefs, self-reported health behaviors, clinician-collected biometrics, and claims-based medical diagnoses and medical use. In a randomized controlled trial of more than 4,800 U. of I. employees, the researchers found that those invited to join the wellness program showed no significant differences in clinical outcomes compared with the control group. Measures taken at 12- and 24-month intervals included 16 clinician-collected biometric outcomes; administrative claims related to medical diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia, and medical use such as office visits, inpatient visits, and emergency room visits; and 14 self-reported health-behavior and health-belief outcomes. The program included paid time off for annual on-site health screenings, health risk assessments and ongoing wellness activities - for example, physical activity programs encouraging campus walks over lunch breaks, smoking-cessation programs and chronic disease self-management programs. The program affected two self-reported health outcomes: It increased the proportion of employees reporting that they have a primary care physician and improved employee beliefs about their own health, the authors report. "A significantly higher proportion of employees in the treatment group reported having a primary care physician after 24 months," Molitor said. "The workplace wellness program also significantly improved a set of employee health beliefs on average. But we found no significant effect of the program on employee health measures or medical use, demonstrating a mismatch between employee perceptions of workplace wellness programs and an actual improvement in health. These findings shed light on employees' perceptions of workplace wellness programs, which may influence long-run effects on health." The study adds to a growing body of evidence from randomized evaluations showing that workplace wellness programs affect some self-reported outcomes but are unlikely to significantly improve employee health or reduce medical use in the short term, said Reif, a professor of finance at the Gies College of Business and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. "Many prior studies found that workplace wellness programs improved health and reduced medical use, but those results were likely due to differences in who participates. Our study complements recent randomized studies and demonstrates the value of using randomized evaluations to determine causal impact," Reif said. ### Payne is a professor of recreation, sport and tourism in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Molitor, Reif and Payne's co-authors are David Chan, of Stanford University and the National Bureau of Economic Research; and Damon Jones, of the University of Chicago and NBER. The research was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health; the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Health Care Delivery Initiative of J-PAL North America, a regional office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab; Evidence for Action, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Illinois Human Resources provided in-kind logistical support for developing the program. The Ranking Member on Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has joined calls for a vaccine for COVID-19 developed in Africa. A belief that an African treatment and an African vaccine for COVID-19 is possible, he said in a statement to commemorate AU Day today, May 25, 2020. The African Union was formed 57 years ago on this day and the day is commemorated across the Africa continent. AU was established to help achieve greater unity, cohesion and solidarity between the African countries and African nations, defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States and accelerate the political and social-economic integration of the continent. Although millions across the world have been infected by the virus, there is no known vaccine for curing persons infected. The North Tongu legislator has in the last few weeks called on Africans to rally behind Madagascar which announced a supposed cure for COVID-19. Madagascar's President launched a herbal coronavirus cure which has become the subject of discussion with many expressing divergent opinions about its efficacy. The COVID- Organic is produced from the artemisia plant, the source of an ingredient used in malaria treatment and other Malagasy plants. But the World Health Organisation has warned against the herbal remedy. In a Facebook post to mark the AU Day, the North Tongu legislator urged African governments to be courageous and not to belittle themselves. May the African Personality which the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah put forth as that confident, capable, courageous and visionary African be rekindled, particularly, at this most challenging time. Below is the post from Okudzeto Ablakwa May the African Personality which the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah put forth as that confident, capable, courageous and visionary African be rekindled, particularly, at this most challenging time. A belief that an African treatment and an African vaccine for COVID-19 is possible. A belief that an African economic transformation far beyond a mere post-COVID-19 recovery anchored on the full realisation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and AU Agenda 2063 is possible. A belief that a new Africa of concrete opportunities for the youth which shall end decades of perilous migration in search of perceived greener pastures is possible. The Africa we want is possible with selfless leadership, genuine commitment and true love for one another. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa [MP, North Tongu Ranking Member, Parliaments Committee on Foreign Affairs] ---citinewsroom Srinagar, May 26 : J&K Police arrested a youth on Tuesday in connection with the killings of two BSF troopers on May 20 in Ganderbal district. Police sources said a youth identified as Waseem Ahmad Ganai was arrested by police station Soura, Srinagar in connection with the killings of two BSF troopers, Zia-ul-Haq and Rana Mandal of 37 Battalion. The troopers were killed on May 20 by motorcycle-borne terrorists who also snatched the service rifles of the slain troopers. The arrested youth belongs to Pandach area of Ganderbal district where the attack had taken place. The youth has been arrested several times in the past in connection with stone pelting incidents in the area. "Further investigation is going on. The interrogation of the arrested youth is likely to lead to other arrests", police sources said. DALLAS, May 26, 2020 -- Higher spirituality among stroke survivors was strongly linked to better quality of life for them and their caregivers who may also feel depressed, according to new research published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. May is American Stroke Month. For many stroke survivors, a caregiver, often a family member or close friend, may help with daily tasks, making the survivor and the caregiver prone to depression. Depression can impact quality of life for both. Roughly 200 stroke survivors in Italy, with low-to-medium disabilities and no other major health issues, and their caregivers completed questionnaires measuring spirituality, depression and quality of life between 2016 and 2018. Women and men were nearly equally represented among the stroke survivors, and their average age was 71 years. Among the caregivers, women comprised nearly two-thirds, and their average age was 52. Spirituality is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an individual's perception of life within the context of the culture and value systems of the society and in relation to the individual's goals, expectations, standards and concerns. "Research shows that spirituality may help some patients cope with illness, yet few studies have looked at its effects on quality of life among stroke survivors and their long-term care partners, who are at increased risk for depression," said lead study author Gianluca Pucciarelli, Ph.D., FAHA, research fellow at the University of Rome in Italy. Quality of life was measured with a 26-item WHO questionnaire on physical, psychological, social and environmental aspects. In this analysis, those who scored one-standard deviation above average were considered to have "higher spirituality." Researchers noted at baseline: A strong relationship between the degree of spirituality and quality of life even if caregivers were depressed. Stroke survivors who scored above average on the spirituality questionnaire reported higher psychological quality of life even when their caregivers reported symptoms of depression. Similarly, the caregivers with above-average spirituality scores reported better physical and psychological quality of life. In contrast, stroke survivors who scored below average on the spirituality questionnaire had lower quality of life, overall, as did their caregivers with depression symptoms. "In summary, when care partners feel depressed, something that is common for stroke caregivers, the survivor's spirituality made the difference in whether this was associated with better or worse quality of life. This demonstrates the important protective role of spirituality in illness, and why we must study it more," Pucciarelli said. He noted that the findings call for greater awareness on the importance of spirituality among health professionals. "Our study emphasizes the importance of viewing stroke survivors holistically, as a patient with symptoms and disabilities, and as an individual with emotional needs and part of an interdependent unit with their care partner," Pucciarelli said. The predominant religion in Italy is Roman Catholicism, which could have affected the results. Also, the study included only stroke survivors with low-to-medium disabilities and no other major health issues, so the study's findings may not apply to survivors with more severe disabilities or other underlying illnesses. ### Co-authors are Ercole Vellone, Ph.D.; Tatiana Bolgeo, M.S.N.; Silvio Simeone, Ph.D.; Rosaria Alvaro, M.S.N.; Christopher S. Lee, Ph.D.; and Karen S. Lyons, Ph.D. The Center of Excellence for Nursing Scholarship in Rome, Italy, funded the study. Additional Resources: After May 26, view the manuscript online. American Stroke Association: Help and support American Stroke Association: Tips for Caring for a Loved One Long Term Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews Follow news from the AHA's Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes journal @CircOutcomes Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association's policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/aha-financial-information. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. Two volunteers are spraying disinfectant at a market in the border city of Suifenhe in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province on May 6, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Chinese Provincial Government Issues Rare Rebuke of State Medias Virus Coverage: Leaked Document A Chinese provincial government has expressed anger at state-run media for publishing wrong information about the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak, an internal government document reveals. Since early April, Heilongjiang, Chinas northeasternmost province, has been hit by second-wave infections, as cluster outbreaks are reported in hospitals and neighborhoods in the provincial capital of Harbin and Mudanjiang, another city in the province. In interviews with The Epoch Times, residents have expressed panic and fear as authorities have failed to be transparent information about the local outbreak. Fake News State broadcaster CCTV was chastised by the Heilongjiang government for spreading incorrect information about a local resident whom authorities have identified as patient zero of the second-wave outbreak, according to a leaked document that was obtained by The Epoch Times. The document is a report drafted by a working team in the provincial government following an investigation about the outbreak in Harbin on April 30. CCTV is a subsidiary of National Radio and Television Administration, a central government agency that oversees Chinas television and radio industries. On the evening of April 14, CCTV misreported Han Peixi as a man. It caused a lot of chaotic public comments and rumors were spreading all around the country, which seriously damaged the image of Harbin and even Heilongjiang, the document reads. However, CCTV didnt correct its fault, nor clarify the truth. A working team from Heilongjiang provincial government complained the central government owned media spread fake news about the CCP virus outbreak in Harbin, China, on April 30, 2020. (Provided to The Epoch Times) CCTV reported that the man, surnamed Han, had come to Harbin from the United States on March 19. The report claimed that Han was infected and transmitted the virus to his apartment building neighbor, 33-year-old Ms. Cao. Cao was announced by local authorities as an asymptomatic carrier on April 9 and was formally diagnosed on April 14. The CCTV report also claimed that Cao then transmitted the virus to her 32-year-old boyfriend Li, her 54-year-old mother Wang, and her mothers boyfriend Guo. Guo was the first confirmed second-wave patient in Harbin; he visited the hospital on April 7 because of fever and coughing, and was diagnosed on April 9. Also on April 14, the Chinese Communist Partys mouthpiece newspaper Peoples Daily published a report via its subsidiary China Economic Weekly which stated that Han and Cao lived together after Hans return from the United States. The cohabitation claim was quickly re-reported by other Chinese media, which insinuated that Han and Cao were involved in an inappropriate sexual relationship. The leaked document noted that CCTV, Beijing News, and other large-scale media, which have government background, have a huge influence on society, and are trusted by people [in China]. Although the Harbin city government tried to clarify the reporting, the effect was limited, the document said. The provincial government suggested that city officials should be more active in leading the propaganda related to the outbreak. Workers in protective suits are seen at a registration point for passengers at an airport in Harbin, capital of Chinas Heilongjiang province bordering Russia, following the spread of the CCP virus in the country, on April 11, 2020. (Huizhong Wu/Reuters) Local Governments Side of the Story A month prior to the news reports, the Harbin city government announced at a press conference on March 15 that Han is a 22-year-old womanand not a man, as CCTV and other state-run media later reported. Li Xikun, a staff at Harbins Center for Disease Control and Prevention, later said at a press conference on April 21 that Han was a student at New York University. On March 18, Han took flights to China via Hong Kong. After arriving in Harbin on March 19, she went back to her parents home to self-quarantine for 14 days. Han has a young brother who also lives in the same apartment. On March 19 and 31, Han took two nucleic acid tests and blood antibody tests. All test results were negative. From April 5 to 8, Han went to Shanghai for surgery unrelated to the virus. At other times, Han stayed at home with her parents and brother, according to Li. Li said that the Harbin government believes Han to be the source of the outbreak because she came back from New York. On April 10, authorities again tested Han, and announced that the nucleic acid test and antibody Ig-M were negative, but antibody Ig-G came back positive. Li said that Han must have been infected with the virus when she was in New York, but recovered without presenting any symptoms. Hans parents and brother, who live with her, werent infected. Its unclear whether the people mentioned in CCTV and other media reports were confirmed as positive as COVID-19. India logs over 3.17 lakh new Covid cases in last 24 hours; daily positivity rate up at 16.41 per cent COVID-19 fatalities may be much more than what is being reported Govt should be more transparent on what is happening at border with China: Rahul India pti-PTI New Delhi, May 26: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked the government to come clear on what is happening at the border with China in Ladakh and be more transparent. Amid a standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh, Gandhi refused to say anything more till he understood the facts. "I think, on the India-China issue, we would like to see some more transparency on what is going on. It becomes very difficult for us to have a position without understanding the facts," he told reporters when asked about the issue at a virtual press conference. "The government should make it clear to the people of India, what exactly is happening on the border. We are hearing different stories so, I don't want to go into conjecture, but it is important that the government of India makes it clear, what is happening on the border so that people can understand and have a proper position," he said. "I leave it to the wisdom of the government. But, transparency is needed. We should know what is happening, but the country does not know," he said. SC takes notice of migrant workers' plight, issues notice to Centre and States | Oneindia News Lockdown is India's 'success', Rahul making 'wrong' statements: BJP He said till the time there is more transparency on the issue, it would not be proper on his part to comment. "If there is more information, only then can I express my views," he said. There has been a standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at the border in Ladakh, amid build-up of troops on both sides since early May. The external affairs ministry has, however, rejected China's claims of Indian troops trespassing the Chinese border and have instead accused Beijing of doing so. Justice commission modelled on bodies in South Africa and South America probes killings during years of martial law. Taipei, Taiwan In 1981, the body of Chen Wen-chen, a rising-star of mathematics on a visit home from the United States, was found on the campus of National Taiwan University the day after he had returned from overnight interrogation at the police headquarters. Only this month did his family get official word that Chen had probably been killed by the secret police. Suspected deaths like Chens that took place in Taiwan during the islands nearly 40 years of martial law would have been consigned to the dustbin of history but not for an investigatory body tasked with ferreting out the facts. Modelled after truth and reconciliation commissions in Africa and South America, the Transitional Justice Commission was established in 2018 to redress human rights abuses and other atrocities before Taiwan became a democracy. The commissions probe covers the February 28 Incident the 1947 bloody suppression of an uprising by native Taiwanese and the White Terror, the martial law-era during the Kuomintang (KMT) regime of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo. An electoral victory in 2016 gave the then-opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) control of both executive and legislative branches for the first time since the suspension of martial law in 1987 allowing them to muscle through legislation to empower the commission and declassify politically-sensitive documents. Yet, the commissions work has been made all the more challenging by the fact that the KMT remains entrenched in the power structure, and holds sway as the second-largest party in the legislature. Chiang Kai-shek interviews faculty members of the Feng Shan Military Academy in September 1952. Taiwans Transitional Justice Commission is investigating abuses committed during military rule [File: AP Photo] This shows both the efficacy and the dilemma of a truth commission, said Jamie Rowen, a legal scholar who specialises in transitional justice at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the United States. Therell be calls for criminal accountability but itll only make [the commission] even more politicised. Rowen thinks a trade-off is likely with the focus on truth rather than justice. Truth over justice Some of Taiwans earliest and most ardent advocates for transitional justice warned long ago of the potential risk. Political scientist Wu Naiteh of Academia Sinica wrote in a 2005 journal article that therere 10,000 victims but not a single perpetrator had been named. But it is scant comfort for those who have spent years clamouring for both truth and justice. Now that the government has determined that this is likely an assassination, but still no one is being held accountable, Longson Chang of the Dr Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation told Al Jazeera. We get it. This is an old case. For the family, this has offered no closure. So far, about 6,000 victims have been exonerated but in name only. Their criminal records remain because the passage of time has made retrials impracticable. All told, between 3,000 and 4,000 people were executed and 140,000 imprisoned during martial law. On April 22, the commission was extended for another, probably final, year, but Rowen believes the truth-seeking will carry on in one form or another: The commission is the beginning of a much longer process, as it should be. Despite, the hurdles, the KMT has played a part in the islands act of reckoning. In 1995, President Lee Teng-hui of KMT allowed political victims of the White Terror to stand for public office and receive pensions once again. Two years into his first term, President Ma Ying-jeou apologised for his partys role in the February 28 Incident. Ma also ordered the death notes that had been buried in the national archives to be returned to the victims families and preserved former detention and executive sites to house a human rights museum and memorials. But a separate committee charged with confiscating the ill-gotten gains of the KMT, one of the worlds richest political parties, in order to compensate its victims has been mired in court challenges after it froze a substantial portion of the partys assets. Scab of history While other countries have been eager to ignore or censor previous atrocities in mainland China, which claims Taiwan as its own, the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has been all but erased the commission sets Taiwan apart in facing up to the darker corners of its past. Families hold portraits to commemorate the dead during a memorial service for the victims of Taiwans former authoritarian regime back in 1997. Only now are people finding out the truth about what happened during the White Terror under former President Chiang Kai-shek [File: AP Photo] China was an early critic of the Transitional Justice Law, claiming investigations into Chiangs rule was a way to cut the islands ties with the mainland and seek independence for Taiwan. Continuing cross-strait tension has rendered the contents of certain newly-declassified dossiers too politically sensitive to disclose, especially given some files contain the names of underground Communist agents. Tsai Kuan-yu, 86, believes some of them were responsible for framing him. In 1962, Tsai was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government on the flimsiest evidence a handwritten slip which he said had been planted by his colleague. Narrowly escaping the death sentence but having been locked up for more than 10 years, Tsai is convinced that only the truth can set him and the island he calls home free. Some people have said lets not pick at the scab of history, said Tsai. How we redress the wrongs perpetrated by our past leaders is critical to Taiwans continued democratisation. A TV news presenter has opened up about the horrific moment she suffered a panic attack live on-air. Brisbane 7 News presenter Katrina Blowers was preparing to read a news segment three years ago when she suffered a 'horrible' panic attack during her countdown. 'I could just feel my heart start pounding, I couldn't breathe properly, I honestly couldn't talk. I just wanted to get out of the studio and I knew I had another hour of live television ahead of me,' the now-44-year-old told The Courier-Mail. 'The only thing that kept me sitting in the seat was that I thought to myself, I don't want to become a YouTube sensation, I don't want to go viral.' Brisbane 7 News presenter Katrina Blowers was preparing to read the hour long news segment three years ago when she suffered a 'horrible' panic attack on-air At the time, Ms Blowers was going through a divorce and she said despite it being amicable it was a stressful time for her. She continued to push through her stress as if everything were normal but eventually it came back to haunt her. Within seconds of going live on that ill-fated day, Ms Blowers suffered the first of many anxiety attacks. 'It was after that night I started to get anxiety about even going into work, about driving up Mt Cootha, going into the studio, everything felt like a trigger,' she said. From that moment, Ms Blowers had to make a decision to walk away from her much-loved job or to 're-learn everything' to regain her confidence. Ms Blowers chose the latter and has since come out better and stronger from her decision. Three years on from the panic attack, she is comfortable in sharing her story and will be speaking about it the virtual Legends for Lifeline event on Tuesday. A Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye has made a presentation of seven hundred (700) LED streetlights to the Bantama Sub-Metro in Kumasi. In all, a total of 8 electoral areas received the 700 street lights, which adds up to several others previously donated by Mr. Asenso-Boakye to be installed in some principals streets in communities in the Bantama constituency which are amenable to armed robbery. In his remarks at the presentation ceremony, Mr. Asenso-Boakye said it is necessary to beef up security to protect lives and property in the constituency. He recounted some experiences where constituents have fallen victim to a number of robbery incidents in some parts of the constituency. "The security of our people and properties is of major concern to me. For that matter, I will do all that I can to advance the safety of our people, he reiterated. These incidents are worrying and if not curtailed can seriously undermine developmental efforts being made. I had therefore started mobilizing for these items even before the call for support came. I believe this will go a long way to improve the lightening and security situation of our communities, he concluded. A former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bantama constituency, Hon. Henry Kwabena Kokofu who also spoke at the event could not hide his admiration for Asenso-Boakyes persistent support to the constituency. Ever since I knew Asenso-Boakye, he has been of tremendous support to this constituency in diverse ways. Todays presentation will go a long way to protect all of us who reside or do business within the constituency, he asserted. According to him, Mr. Asenso-Boakye has initiated and facilitated several intervention projects in various sectors of the constituency which seeks to improve the living standards of residents and to ensure the stability, progress and long-term development of the constituency. Receiving the streetlights, the Administrator of the Bantama sub-Metro, Mr. Oliver expressed profound appreciation to Mr. Asenso-Boakye for his commitment to develop the constituency. He assured of proper maintenance of the bulbs. This gesture is timely, and it has come on the back of recent security issues particularly robbery attacks on residents, he said. According to him, Mr. Asenso-Boakye has initiated and facilitated several intervention projects in various sectors of the constituency which seeks to improve the living standards of residents and to ensure the stability, progress and long-term development of the constituency. These included donation of an ambulance and medical equipment to Suntreso Government Hospital; donation of hospital beds to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH); construction of the first basic school for Ohwim-Hwidiem community; ongoing construction of a modern AstroTurf pitch in the constituency; distribution of computers, books and other educational materials to various schools in the constituency. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Ghana has reiterated that the COVID-19 is another major test of the resolve of the African Union (AU) and its Member States to advance development in the continent. A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency, said while dealing with the pandemic, Africa could not defer urgent action on plans and programmes that would advance continental trade and development; adding that it is therefore, only through our collective efforts and resilience that we can position Africa in the right place among the comity of nations. It said the AU commenced this year with an ambitious theme: Silencing The Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africas Development. The Union has maintained this theme for the past three years. It is a reflection of Africas determination to end all wars, civil conflicts, gender-based violence and prevent genocide in the continent by the end of 2020, the statement said. At the dawn of this millennium and in the wake of post-Cold War geo-political realities, Africa, has survived the unbearable proxy wars of major global powers which have made African conflicts much more lethal due to the arms and ammunitions dumped on the continent. It said, however, arising from a plethora of causes of which at the very heart were issues of governance, African conflicts have seriously undermined and challenged the continents socio-economic development, leaving in its wake, high incidence of poverty, disease and illiteracy in the continent, and a yawning development gap between Africa and other continents. It recalled that the United Nations Security Council in February 2019, passed Resolution 2457(2019) to endorse the AUs initiative to end violent conflicts in Africa. It said the Resolution reaffirmed the need to address the multidimensional nature of peace and security challenges facing African countries emerging from conflict. The statement said the Resolution further highlighted the importance of a comprehensive and integrated approach for peace building and sustainable peace, with a view to preventing countries emerging from conflict from relapsing into more violence. It said to tip the scales on the old order of civil strife and insecurity, contemporary African leaders were deploying targeted efforts to put the continent on an enviable pedestal of economic growth and prosperity. The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is one of such efforts by African leaders, it said. The enhanced trade relations and growth from this initiative is estimated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to be about 52 per cent percent over current levels. It said such a tremendous growth in economic activity, if fairly distributed across the continent, would greatly enhance employment and commercial opportunities. Adding that it would also, pool idle youthful hands available to disgruntled and belligerent warlords for conflict for productive ventures. It said this clear and pragmatic roadmap to leapfrog Africa onto a deserving path to Silence the Guns has regrettably been impacted by the emergence of the incapacitating COVID 19 pandemic. It said the novel viral disease has devastated the worlds most robust economies and heightened uncertainty amongst the investor community. It said despite the relatively lower morbidity among Africas victims, their economies, still very reliant on foreign aid and in-flows, have taken a disproportionate hit. It said thus, the impact of the disease on African economies had been very disruptive. It said several countries in Africa - Ghana inclusive have had their economic targets and ratings revised. The statement said this bleak outlook notwithstanding, Africa was optimistic of riding the storm and coming out successfully from the pandemic, with as minimal damage as possible. It said nonetheless, the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a collective and coordinated global response to assist the worlds most vulnerable countries to mitigate the harsh economic and financial effects of the pandemic. It said the pandemic and its economic fallout highlights the longer-term efforts needed to strengthen the health systems, diversify economies and broaden domestic revenue sources of African countries. The statement said with the benefit of immediate debt relief, developing countries could focus on protecting vulnerable populations, preserve jobs and ultimately, avert consequential political and social instability. It said Ghana supports the call for debt relief for African countries and a moratorium on the servicing of international loans including private loans. 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. Featured Video This is an innovative continuation of the Havis-Getac partnership, said David Skiver, Program Manager for Connectivity at Havis. The UX10 supports mobile computing in a wide range of applications, and were excited to provide a safe and dependable docking solution for those users. Havis, Inc., is pleased to announce the release of its new tablet docking series for the Getac UX10 Tablet. Havis, a leading designer and manufacturer of in-vehicle mobile working solutions, is excited to continue developing products with Getac. The Getac UX10 Tablet is a versatile and cost-effective device that drives performance on any job. This is an innovative continuation of the Havis-Getac partnership, said David Skiver, Program Manager for Connectivity at Havis. The UX10 supports mobile computing in a wide range of applications, and were excited to provide a safe and dependable docking solution for those users. The Havis UX10 dock ensures portable performance for the tablet in the most demanding environments like public safety, utility services, material handling, industrial manufacturing, and more. It preserves access to the tablet's key features like control buttons, communication ports, front-facing camera, and stylus while the tablet is docked. The dock supports a variety of Getac accessories like rotating hand strap, hard handle, RFID reader, smart card reader, and extended battery. It also features bottom-access port replication with integrated strain relieving features to minimize the footprint while providing simple, safe, and secure connectivity to essential peripherals. A lock and key are supplied for peace-of-mind and theft deterrence, and it is available with a pass-through antenna and external power supply options. From vehicle-specific consoles to unique device mounts to K9 transport systems and more, Havis offers a dash-to-trunk line of purpose-built and innovative solutions that provide extreme officer protection. For more information, contact media@havis.com or visit http://www.havis.com. ABOUT HAVIS Havis, Inc., is a privately held ISO 9001:2015 certified company that manufactures in-vehicle mobile office solutions for public safety, public works, government agencies and mobile professionals. For more than 80 years, the Havis mission has been to increase mobile worker productivity with industry-leading products that are built to the highest safety and quality standards and are designed with comfort in mind. Havis is dedicated to responsible intellectual property management, and fosters ongoing innovation. Havis patent and trademark portfolio demonstrates commitment to consistently researching and developing unique products and solutions for mobile industries around the world. With headquarters in Warminster, PA, and an additional location in Plymouth, MI, Havis currently employs more than 300 people. For more information on Havis, please call 1-800-524-9900 or visit http://www.havis.com. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 15:34:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Trust, respect and understanding are needed for Australia to nurture its relationship with China, an Australian businessman has said. "What we need to do is to be very calm, be very respectful ... There are a lot to understand on both sides of the equation," Mark Allison, president of Agribusiness Australia, an agricultural producer and exporter, said in a telephone interview with Xinhua. Allison is also the chief executive officer of Elders, a leading agriculture company in Australia which was started in 1839. Talking about the recent barley tariff friction with China, he noted that the issue should not be politicized. "The barley issue has been going for 18 months and they (China) have raised legitimate issues with what they believe was the dumping of barley in China, as we have raised 10 times as many issues against China in the same process," he said. According to him, about 65 percent of Australia's agricultural products are exported, with Asia being its key market. "Clearly the growth of China is significant for us," he said. "China is the No. 2 economy in the world, and a major trading partner, and we have closest proximity." He said that Australia benefited from the trade of wool, nuts and fruits with China. "And China is a growing grain market for us," he added. "There is a big share of dairy products, and fish products, particularly crayfish, has been increasing." Allison spoke highly of the strong economic ties between China and Australia. "At the agricultural season in Australia, Elders has got very strong support from Chinese factories that were coming out of the COVID-19 shutdowns to ensure that we had products of the Australia farmers. It's very, very strong positive relationship," he said. Victoria is Australia's first state to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, launched by China in 2013 to promote trade and economic cooperation among economies and further open up markets in a mutually beneficial manner. "As chairman of Agribusiness Australia, we issued a report last year on the implications to Australian agriculture of the Belt and Road Initiative," said Allison. "I see a lot of benefits for Australian agriculture." Looking into the future, Allison said he was optimistic. Noting that he feels deep passion for Australia's achievements, Allison expressed his respect for what China has achieved. "The achievements (of) lifting Chinese people out of poverty, the health improvement and education improvement are quite amazing for such an important country in the world." "The long term view for China and Australia will be positive," the businessman said. Enditem GRAND ISLAND Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol arrested a man who was being sought following a pursuit in central Nebraska on Sunday night. The incident began when NSP dispatchers received multiple reports of a westbound Chevrolet Camaro driving dangerously on Interstate 80 near York. Troopers located the vehicle near Aurora and attempted a traffic stop. The vehicle refused to stop and fled at a high rate of speed. Troopers initiated a pursuit. The suspect vehicle accelerated to speeds of approximately 145 mph as the trooper started pursuing. As the vehicle approached Grand Island, a trooper clocked the suspects speed in excess of 170 mph. A trooper was able to successfully deploy spike strips east of Gibbon to slow the vehicle, which then exited I-80 at the Gibbon interchange. Troopers found the vehicle abandoned at Gibbon High School. Troopers began searching the area. The search continued into Monday as NSP developed information that the suspect, Tyler Liles, 22, of Creve Coeur, Ill., still was in the area. At approximately 7:30 p.m. Monday, troopers performed a traffic stop on a Jeep Patriot on Highway 30 near Gibbon. Liles was a passenger in the Jeep and was arrested. Charges are pending. Additional details will be released when available. Flash China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the United States adding relevant Chinese enterprises, institutions and individuals to its "entity list" over Xinjiang affairs, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a press conference when asked to comment on the U.S. Department of Commerce saying on Friday that it would sanction relevant Chinese enterprises and institutions for human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The United States, adding relevant Chinese enterprises, institutions and individuals to its "entity list," has overstretched the concept of national security, abused export control measures, violated the basic norms governing international relations, interfered in China's internal affairs and harmed China's interests, Zhao said, adding that China deplores and firmly opposes such actions. Xinjiang affairs are purely China's internal affairs which brook no interference from any other country, Zhao said, noting the measures on countering terrorism and deradicalization in Xinjiang have been taken for the purpose of preventing the extremism and terrorism at their source, and these measures accord with Chinese laws and international practices. "These measures have been proved effective, been widely supported by 25 million people of various ethnic groups in Xinjiang and contributed positively to the global anti-terrorism cause," he added. The U.S. accusation against China is nothing but absolute nonsense to confound the public, and only further reveals the U.S. malicious intention to disrupt Xinjiang's counter-terrorism efforts and China's stability and development, said the spokesperson. "We urge the United States to correct its mistakes, rescind the relevant decision and stop interfering in China's internal affairs. China will continue to take all necessary measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese enterprises and safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests," he said. US private equity firm Warburg Pincus is raising its stake in Asian real estate fund manager ARA Asset Management Ltd (ARA) to 48.7% from 30.7%, as it seeks to capitalise on rising investor interest in property funds, both firms said in a statement. "We look forward to leveraging our strong capital base to help the business become the largest real estate fund management platform in Asia Pacific and one of the largest globally," said Jeffrey Perlman, head of Southeast Asia at Warburg Pincus. ARA said gross assets managed by it and its associates had grown to S$88 billion ($62 billion) as of end-2019 from about S$35 billion in late 2016, when ARA's co-founder John Lim teamed up with Warburg Pincus and others to take Singapore-listed ARA private, valuing it at S$1.8 billion. The companies declined to comment on the current valuation. ARA, which counts Lim, Li Ka-shing-backed CK Asset Holdings and Straits Trading Company as its remaining shareholders, said China's AVIC Trust is selling its stake as part of the latest transactions, which are expected to be completed by the month-end. ARA manages 19 public and private real estate investment trusts and over 100 private funds. Since its delisting, it has acquired stakes in real estate platforms in Japan, Australia, Europe and the United States. (Bloomberg) -- The list of Intel Corp.s annual supplier award winners tends to read like a whos-who of the semiconductor industrys biggest names. This year, it included a little-known Japanese company whose machines have become indispensable in the race to improve semiconductors and whose stock has been rocketing up as a result. Lasertec Corp. is the worlds only maker of testing machines required to verify chip designs for the nascent extreme ultraviolet lithography (or EUV) method of chipmaking. In 2017, Lasertec solved a key piece of the EUV puzzle when it created a machine that can inspect blank EUV masks for internal flaws. Last September, it cleared another milestone by unveiling equipment that can do the same for stencils with chip designs already printed on them. This March, Intel gave the tiny Yokohama-based company an award for innovation, its first after decades of doing business together. Thats a major milestone for us, Lasertec President Osamu Okabayashi said in an interview. It means a lot to be recognized this way as a supplier. The companys stock has soared about 550% since the start of 2019, more than twice the gain of the second-best-performing security in the benchmark Topix index. Shares increased about 4% Tuesday, pushing its rise this year to more than 60%. Intel declined to say if it was buying EUV equipment from Lasertec, which already supplies test gear to its rivals Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The three chip fabricators are the only ones so far to announce EUV plans, because the technology is so complex and expensive. Okabayashi would only say that his company has two or more EUV customers. This can be read as a sign that Lasertecs tools are indispensable to Intels EUV roadmap. said Damian Thong, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. Read more: Japans Star Electronics Stock Will Be Vital to Intel, Samsung EUV is just entering the mass production phase after two decades in development, but investors are already betting Lasertec will be one of the key beneficiaries. The move to EUV overcomes key hurdles to shrinking manufacturing geometries of semiconductors, allowing more and smaller transistors to be crammed onto silicon. It promises to unleash another wave of gadgets that are slimmer, cheaper and more powerful. Story continues Last month, Lasertec raised its annual order forecast for the second time this year to 85 billion yen ($789 million) in the period ending June, nearly double the amount it received in fiscal 2019. The company is headed for the fourth straight year of record revenue and profits. Sales will climb 39% to 40 billion yen and profit will jump 76%, according to its estimates. And thats likely to be just the beginning. Samsung earlier this month said it is building a 5-nanometer fabrication facility that will use EUV to make processors for applications ranging from 5G networking to high-performance computing from the second half of next year. Taiwans TSMC is pushing ahead with plans to adopt 3-nanometer lithography mass production in 2022 and announced plans to build an advanced fab in the U.S. Intels first product made using EUV is expected late next year. Their primary focus is on so-called logic processors, used to power devices and networking applications, but the new manufacturing technique will eventually filter through into the production of DRAM and other memory chips. Read more: Samsung Takes Another Step in $116 Billion Plan to Take on TSMC Logic makers will be first to adopt EUV, with memory makers following later, Okabayashi said. The real volume of orders will come when they reach mass production stage. Right now its 7- and 5-nanometer chips. 3-nanometer is still in development stage. Okabayashi expects each customer will probably need several of his testers, which could cost well over $40 million apiece and take as long as two years to build. A chipmaker would need at least one machine in its mask shop to make sure the stencils come out right. Another would go into a wafer fab to keep an eye on the microscopic wear and tear that result from concentrated light being projected repeatedly through the chip design stencils. Lasertec is still trying to get a feel for this market and how big it can be, Macquaries Thong said. Their stock is moving on expectation of future orders. But there is little actual visibility on the scale of this market, so Lasertec retains a lot of capacity for surprise. (Updates with share price in fourth paragraph) For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Canberra, May 26 : Smoke from Australia's devastating 2019-20 bushfires killed at least 445 people, health experts revealed on Tuesday. Fay Johnston, a public health expert from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research at the University of Tasmania, told the bushfire royal commission on Tuesday that her team estimated that 445 people died as a result of the smoke that blanketed much of the nation's east coast, reports Xinhua news agency. It takes the total death toll from the 2019-2020 bushfire season, which has been dubbed the "Black Summer", to nearly 480 after 34 people lost their lives directly. According to modelling produced by Johnston and her colleagues, 80 per cent of Australians were affected by the smoke at some point, including 3,340 people who were hospitalized with heart and lung problems. "We were able to work out a yearly cost of bushfire smoke for each summer season and... our estimates for the last season were A$2 billion in health costs," Johnston said. "There's fluctuation year to year, of course, but that was a major departure from anything we had seen in the previous 20 years." Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra all had periods where they had the worst air quality in the world as a result of the smoke. Commissioners also heard on Tuesday that the increasing frequency of significant bushfire events in Australia meant that survivors no longer feel safe during the recovery phase. "Disasters are no longer perceived as rare events, they are often seen as climate change, and they're part of our new reality," Lisa Gibbs, a child welfare expert from the University of Melbourne, said. "We don't know how that is going to affect recovery because the seeds of hope are a really important part of people's ability to deal with what has happened and to get back on track." HAMDEN Quinnipiac University will welcome students back to campus this fall term, the administration announced Tuesday. Quinnipiac will adjust its semester timeline and course delivery to allow in-person instruction and campus living, in addition to several other changes. The fall schedule we are sharing today reflects best practices and current scientific understanding of the virus so that we can maximize three key elements at QU: the quality of our teaching in mixed modalities, the richness of our students campus experience, and the safety of our entire community as we carefully implement safe practices in the face of COVID-19, the university said. Each course will be taught in a hybrid format of both in-person and online instruction throughout the fall semester. Students will alternate the mode of attendance to reduce density in the classroom while providing a dynamic and engaging learning experience, according to the announcement. Our Q-Flex approach - delivering the same course using in-person and online instruction simultaneously - will enable us to continue offering the high-quality academic learning experiences for which QU is known, while maintaining careful health protections and physical distancing throughout our university community, the university said in its announcement. We also know from research that this mixed delivery model of instruction can have very powerful learning results. The move-in period for students living in residence halls also will be modified, in addition to the academic calendar. Beginning Aug. 10, Quinnipiac is encouraging students who live nearby to drop off their belongings early without staying overnight to help reduce traffic and crowds involved with the typical move-in date later in August. On Aug. 24, classes begin for all students, with the exception of graduate students in the medicine, law, health sciences and nursing programs, which will begin sooner, per Connecticuts guidelines for graduate students, according to the announcement. Students will begin living in residence halls that same Monday, with arrival schedules staggered. The early dropoff of belongings by many students will serve to accelerate this process, according to the university. Our faculty are working intensively this summer with pedagogical experts to restructure their courses, incorporate even more innovative learning tools and strategies in their courses, and boost the potential of mixed-delivery modes, the university said. Planning groups have been made up of faculty, staff, health experts and university leadership to analyze every facet of how students can return to campus safely this fall, according to the university. Quinnipiac said it will communicate throughout the summer with more details about plans for the fall semester. Quinnipiac has not announced modified plans for housing configurations or dining services, as they are still being reviewed as part of the fall reopening plan, a spokesperson for the university said. During the first one to two weeks, classes will be held online to provide staggered state-required COVID-19 testing of all students upon their return, according to the announcement. Further details will be provided in the coming weeks explaining how testing will be conducted and how students will alternate between in-class and online attendance in order to manage social distancing requirements, the university said. Unlike in typical years, students and faculty will hold classes on Labor Day, and any university employees working that day will be given a floating paid holiday. On-campus classes will conclude Nov. 24 and when students depart for Thanksgiving break they will not return to campus for the rest of the semester. Since students will be leaving campus two weeks before the end of the term, Quinnipiac will reduce students university room and board costs by two weeks, according to the announcement. Between Nov. 30 and Dec. 12, all fall classes, review sessions, office hours, reading days and final exams will be completed online. Teaching and student activities are being planned accordingly, coupled with changes to our classrooms and facilities to manage density and meet physical distancing best practices, the university said. Throughout our 91-year history, Quinnipiac has been nimble, innovative and bold, the university said in its announcement. While COVID-19 has challenged us all and changed the world around us, it has not moved us from our purpose - as the University of the Future - to prepare graduates for lifelong success in twenty-first century careers, as enlightened citizens, and as leaders and contributors to local and global communities. We cannot wait to welcome you this fall and continue that journey together. mdignan@hearstmediact.com WASHINGTON - District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said Monday that the city is "back on track" to move toward a gradual reopening after seeing a slight spike in new cases over the weekend. Meanwhile, Virginia reported a record number of new cases - mostly in the Washington suburbs - but the area's leaders said they are planning for a transition to Phase 1 of reopening starting at the end of the week. Bowser said she would wait until Wednesday to decide whether to move Friday to Phase 1 of the city's reopening. She said she wants to see 14 days of declining community spread - calculated by the date of symptom onset and excluding cases at confined facilities such as nursing homes - before she makes a decision. The city "reset" to Day 11 of declines after an increase over the weekend. Bowser said officials again saw a decline in cases Monday that put D.C. at Day 12 on the downward trend. "We lost some progress over the weekend," Bowser told NBC4 Washington on Monday. "We're continuing to ask people to stay at home, to wash their hands, to avoid large gatherings - try not to go to go to parties or barbecues and continue to social distance. What we know is that this virus is still circulating in our region." The D.C. Health Department reported Monday that there were 115 new positive cases, bringing the total to 8,225. D.C. also reported eight covid-19-related deaths, all among residents in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Bowser said the city remains on track to have the contact tracers and testing needed to meet its goals in those categories. She had planned to make an announcement Tuesday on the timing of the reopening and what it would include. Virginia reported a record 1,483 new cases Monday - which topped the previous high of 1,229 new cases on May 21. The bulk of the new cases were in northern Virginia, with Fairfax County reporting 493, Prince William County reporting 234, and Loudoun County reporting 226 new cases. Still, northern Virginia leaders sent a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, on Monday asking that the region be included when the rest of the state moves to Phase 2 of its reopening, provided that data supports it. The letter also says the jurisdictions "have been making preparations to support a transition into Phase 1 at midnight on May 28th." Northern Virginia was not included in the state's gradual reopening that began May 15, with restaurants licensed for outdoor seating allowed to resume operations with limited capacity. Barber shops and beauty salons were also allowed to reopen with some restrictions. The city of Richmond and Accomack County on the Eastern Shore, which has had an outbreak related to poultry processing plants, also were not included. Officials said then that the region, along with D.C. and its Maryland suburbs, had not met critical benchmarks. However, Monday's letter to Northam included an assessment from the health directors in the city of Alexandria and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties saying that four of six criteria had been met, including 14 days of declines in the percentage of positive tests and hospitalizations, increased testing and hospital bed capacity. The health officials said goals for contact tracing and personal protective equipment have not been met. Virginia reported 37 new deaths Monday, bringing its total to 1,208. The state has 37,727 reported cases of the virus. In explaining the spike in cases Monday, the state health department said in a statement that it performed maintenance on its reporting system Sunday, so data reported during that time was added to Monday's total. Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for Northam, noted that there have been high levels of testing in the past two days, with more than 10,000 tests reported Sunday and more than 14,000 tests reported Monday. Maryland reported 839 new cases Monday, bringing its total to 47,152. Hospitalizations continued to decline in Maryland, with the state reporting that 1,279 people are hospitalized - a drop of more than 25% since April 30. The state reported 25 new deaths Monday. Maryland had a total of 2,302 deaths reported as of Monday - 562 of which were in Montgomery County and 497 in Prince George's County. The holiday weekend was not without its hiccups - including Northam being criticized on social media for not wearing a mask when he mingled with visitors in Virginia Beach and images of a crowded Ocean City boardwalk. Many visitors appeared not to be wearing masks, and little social distancing was apparent. But there was also kindness and patience among beachgoers this weekend, said Jackie Inman Burns, who owns a bookstore in Bethany Beach, Delaware. Burns, who opened Bethany Beach Books for appointments Thursday, said customers all brought their masks or were willing to wear ones that the store provided. They paid attention to markers intended to help them keep six feet from one another and were considerate of staff members and of one another, she said. "Seeing humans being nice to each other - that's the good thing that has come out of this," Burns said. Retail and restaurants in Delaware will be able to reopen June 1, at 30% capacity, according to Gov. John Carney's reopening plan. Carney, a Democrat, said he would be closely watching to see how this weekend went at the Delaware beaches as he looks ahead to the rest of the summer. Alex Heidenberger, who owns Mango's and Heidaway, two restaurants just off the boardwalk, said that over four days, he did the amount of business that he would do in one during a typical Memorial Day weekend. But he said customers and business owners alike generally did a good job of trying to adhere to the rules, including wearing masks and keeping their distance. "Everyone is really committed to getting to the next step," he said. In D.C., Bowser said officials are closely watching the rate of people who test positive for coronavirus in the city and its suburbs, which Deborah Birx, the lead coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Friday was one of the highest in the country. Bowser said that additional testing sites will open this week and that testing for asymptomatic residents will be expanded. On Monday, the Alexandria, Virginia, Health Department set up two all-day testing sites. Natalie Talis, a health department official, said the city's goal was to test 3,000 people in one day; by 11:30 a.m., about 600 people had been tested. By 5:30 p.m., officials said they had tested nearly 3,000 people and were on track to hit their goal. Talis said that the line for walk-up tests at both Landmark Mall and Cora Kelly School was short, but that the line for drive-through tests at the mall was sometimes long enough that health department staff members running the event gave drivers timed-entrance slips to come back later in the day. The school site is for walk-up testing only. "We want to make sure we're reaching the most vulnerable populations," Talis said. "We're trying to pull out all the stops. If people need testing, it's here, today. . . . You don't need appointments. Some people might feel more comfortable in a situation like this." MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Wirecard AG (WRCDF.PK) again postponed the publication of financial results for 2019 to June 18, 2020, due to delays in finalizing audit procedures. The company expects an unqualified audit opinion on that day. The company also postponed its Annual General Meeting to August 26, 2020. Previously, the company had postponed publication of the annual financial statements to April 30, 2020 from originally planned on April 8, 2020. Last month, Wirecard said that it was handed the report on the special investigation by the auditing company KPMG. No incriminating evidence was found for the publicly raised accusations of balance sheet manipulation. The company had said KPMG did not find any manipulation in its audit of the company's operations in India, Singapore, Third Party Partner Business, Merchant Cash Advance and Digital Lending divisions. The company had said KPMG didn't find any manipulation in all four areas of the audit that would have led to a need for correction of the annual financial statements for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 period. Since October 2019, KPMG had been conducting a special investigation on behalf of the Supervisory Board of Wirecard in order to clarify the accusations of balance sheet manipulation made against the company by media. The accusations made against the business activities of Wirecard AG on Indian territory (EMIF1A / Hermes i-Tickets Private Ltd), in the city-state of Singapore as well as the business segments of pre-financing of receivables (Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) / Digital Lending) and third-party partner business (3rd Party Acquiring / TPA) were being investigated. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, on May 25, revealed that he did not visit his dying mother in a care home as he obeyed lockdown rules. This comes as the issue of top officials flowing lockdown ruled made headlines after a top UK official was accused of travelling 250 amid restrictions. Many countries including the UK and the Netherlands had imposed strict restrictions in a bid to curb the spread of COVid-19 pandemic. According to Rutte, his 95-year-old mother-, Marke Rutte-Dilling died in a home in the Hague on May 13. International media reported that despite an early outbreak of COVID-19 in her care home, she did not die of the virus. Amidst all this, the Dutch PM stuck to the rules and refrained from visiting her in her final days. Speaking to international media reporters, his spokesmen asserted that the Dutch leader had complied with all directives. Read: Netherlands Coach Ronald Koeman Undergoes Heart Catheterisation Procedure In Amsterdam Rutte had earlier spoken about his mother's death and said that "in addition to the great sadness and all fond memories, my family and I also have a feeling of gratitude that we were allowed to have her with us for so long." He had added that they would have to say goodbye to her in a family circle as he hoped to be able to deal with this great loss in peace in the near future. According to John Hopkins University, Netherland has reported 45,445 positive cases as of now out of who 5,830 have died. Read: First Panda Born In Netherlands Amuses Netizens; See Pictures UK official flouts rules Leading British newspapers reported that a top official Dominic Cummings, who lives in London, was seen at the property in Durham, northeast England, at the end of March. A lockdown that began March 23 stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise, and not visit relatives. Moreover, anyone with symptoms was told to completely isolate themselves. Read: Netherlands: School Installs Plastic Shields, Disinfectants To Protect Kids From COVID-19 Read: COVID-19 Outbreak: Netherlands To Begin Easing Nationwide Lockdown The two countries foreign ministers spoke by phone as part of intensive communications between Egypt and its international partners on developments in Libya Egypt and France both warn against the consequences of foreign intervention in Libya, a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry read on Tuesday, as Cairo intensifies communication with other countries to stress its rejection of foreign interference in the war-torn country. According to the Egyptian statement, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received a phone call from his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to discuss bilateral ties and issues of common interest. They discussed the latest developments in Libya and the means to reach a comprehensive political reconciliation to restore security and stability and eliminate terrorism. The two ministers also exchanged viewpoints on developments related to the Palestinian issue, reiterating the necessity of working swiftly to resume peace talks under a two-state framework. The statement stressed the importance of creating a suitable climate for the resumption of peace negotiations away from any unilateral procedures that would hinder the desired peace and stability. They also discussed developments related to the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). The statement added that the two ministers discussed bilateral ties in various fields, including economic cooperation, and the necessity of continued efforts to increase cooperation between the two countries. Shoukry and Le Drian agreed on the necessity of close coordination and consultations between Cairo and Paris on all issues of mutual interest in the coming period, the statement said. The phone call is part of intensive communications between Egypt and its international partners to discuss ongoing developments in Libya after the recent escalation which saw the Government of National Accord (GNA) take significant military action against the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar. Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Monday spoke to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis by phone, the pair stressing their rejection of any foreign interference in Libya. Last week, Shoukry discussed with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio the importance of reaching a comprehensive agreement in the country. Egypt, the UAE and Russia are backing Haftar, while Turkey supports the GNA. El-Sisi said last week that Cairo will never show tolerance for terrorist organisations or the parties supporting them, in remarks on Libya. Search Keywords: Short link: 1 File Photo Chandigarh: Lockdown have made it difficult for people to earn their livings as jobs have also been lost. In the midst of such an economic downturn, many private schools seem to be unable to pay the fees. In such a situation, Vohra has now written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the governor seeking permission to sell the kidney to pay the school fees. Vohra wrote in the letter that he was working on a contract basis in a company and lost his job due to lockdown. Advertisement SchoolOut of five members of the family, he is the sole earner and lives in a rented house in Chandigarh. The money they had saved was used for household expenses during the lockdown. At present their household expenses are covered by their mother's pension. He said that at present his condition was not at all to pay the rent and insurance installments and in the midst of this economic downturn, schools are constantly demanding higher fees. His daughter attends St. Joseph's School and the school is demanding a tuition fee (Rs 32,000) until December. Vohra also questioned the performance of the Fee Regulatory Committee and the School Education Department in Chandigarh. Advertisement He said that the Fee Regulatory Committee was in name only and always favoured private schools. Not even a single school has received a showcause notice from the parents' association. He also expressed disbelief over the Fee Regulation Act. Photo He wrote that if the government is unable to enact strict laws against privatization of school education, then the sale of kidneys to fill the mouths of schools should be legalized. Advertisement Nitin Goyal, President, Chandigarh Parents Association, said that tuition fees in most schools are close to the total fees. Although the Chandigarh School Education Department has allowed schools to charge only tuition fees, most parents are not getting any relief. Monica Chawla, principal of St. Joseph's School, and the school education department did not comment on the matter until a report was written. Fine, who had returned to his prior job as the Pentagons principal deputy inspector general, said in a statement that the time has come for me to step down and allow others to step into the position. The role of inspectors general is a strength of our system of government, he said. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 23:21:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday urged Switzerland to play an effective role to improve the performance of a payment mechanism, Tasnim news agency reported. In a phone conversation with President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga, Rouhani welcomed the initiative of Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) for transactions with Iran and stressed the need for the channel to become more operational. He expressed the hope that Switzerland will do more to enhance the efficiency of the payment channel and help Iran's financial resources in some countries become operational via this channel. The SHTA was originally designed in October 2019 to facilitate humanitarian trade with Iran to tackle the problems emerged in Iran's financial transactions under the U.S. sanctions. Initial transactions were successfully conducted in January 2020 which demonstrated the viability and effectiveness of the SHTA. On Jan. 30, Abdul Nasser Hemmati, the governor of Iran's central bank, said that if the Americans really claim to avail the supply of medicine and agricultural goods to Iran, they should ease banking mechanisms to transfer and procure resources for commodities. Enditem Investigators launch probe into sale of aged lung ventilators flickr.com/ Quinn Dombrowski 18:04 26/05/2020 MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI) Investigators of the town of Kostroma have opened a criminal case over sale of 50 lung ventilators the period of storage of which had already expired, the press service of the Kostroma Regional Directorate of Russias Investigative Committee informs RAPSI on Tuesday. According to investigators, this March a company in Kostroma made a deal with a company from the Vladimir Region seeking to purchase 50 lung ventilators manufactured in 1999 and 2000 for 6 million rubles (about $85,000 at the current exchange rate). However, the storage period for such devices, if in unopened packages, is to make no more than 5 years; manufacturers of lung ventilators and Russias Federal Health Care Supervisory Service have confirmed that these devices could not be used. Therefore, a criminal case over sales of substandard medical products has been opened; if found guilty those responsible may be jailed for up to 5 years. Locusts have invaded western India. The swarms, that entered the country from Pakistan, are spreading like wildfire and have so far invaded five states: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. There is an alert for national capital Delhi too. What makes locusts a concern for farmers and agriculturists is that they can eat almost every type of crop and finish an entire field in few hours. But there are some interesting facts about the migratory pests. Here are a few of them: Locusts are considered halal or lawful food in Islam. According to Salafi Centre in Manchester, locusts are permissible food because it was eaten during the time of the Prophet. The pests were eaten during a military raid, said an authentic hadith, according to Salafi Centre. The desert locusts, the sub-species of the grasshopper-like pests, originated in Saudi Arabia and is eaten there. Even the Yemenis savour locusts during Ramzan. There are reports that some European travellers had seen people in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco selling, cooking and eating locusts. Locust swarms have been recorded in the Arabian peninsula and some African countries since biblical times, but unusual weather patterns exacerbated by climate change have created ideal conditions for insect numbers to surge, scientists say. These warms have infested 23 countries across East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in 2020, the biggest outbreak in 70 years, the World Bank said. Last week, the bank approved a record $500 million in grants and low-interest loans to help countries in Africa and the Middle East fight swarms of desert locusts. Adult desert locust swarms can fly up to 150 km a day with the wind and adult insects can consume roughly their own weight in fresh food per day. A single square kilometre swarm can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people. They feed on nearly all green vegetation - leaves, flowers, bark, stems, fruit, and seeds - and crops including millet, rice, maize, sorghum, sugarcane, barley, cotton, fruit trees, date palm, vegetables, rangeland grasses, acacia, pines and banana. Desert locusts change their behaviour from acting as individuals to becoming part of a group, forming dense and mobile hordes. Swarms can be several hundred square kilometres and extremely dense, with up to 80 million adults in each square kilometre. The last major infestation was in 2003-2005 when more than 12 million hectares were treated in west and northwest Africa, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, including food aid. Sources: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations; Government of New South Wales; Victoria State Government; University of Minnesota; Natural Earth; European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative; United States Geological Survey via Famine Early Warning Systems Network; Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED); Reuters By Troy Stangarone North Korea's decision at the end of January to close its border with China likely minimized any outbreak of COVID-19 domestically, but it has also had a significant impact on its trade with China. The decision by the United Nations in 2016 and 2017 to impose wide ranging sanctions on sectors of North Korea's economy in response to Pyongyang's continued nuclear and ballistic missile tests significantly reduced North Korea's legitimate trade with the rest of the world, including China. But as nations began enforcing U.N. sanctions, China also became more critical for North Korea. By some estimates, it now accounts for 95 percent of North Korea's legitimate trade. Pyongyang's measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are eliminating much of what trade remained. In the first quarter, North Korea's exports to China declined by 79 percent compared to the same period in 2019. In March alone, North Korean exports to China were down 96 percent and only amounted to $616,000. The picture is only marginally better when it comes to imports. In the first quarter, North Korea's imports from China were down 53 percent. While North Korea imported $197.4 million in goods from China in the first two months of the year, that plummeted to only $18 million in March. With trade largely coming to a halt, North Korea has been unable to export watches, wigs, and other items that have become a growing source of revenue for the regime as it adapted to sanctions. But North Korea has also been unable to import the parts from China needed to make those watches. COVID-19 has also meant that tourism, which had become a growing source of revenue for North Korea in recent years, has also come to a halt. As with much of the world, COVID-19 has had a more significant impact on North Korea's trade than other viral outbreaks this century. When SARS occurred in 2003, the outbreak was largely contained to China. China's role in the world and with North Korea was also different. At the time, it accounted for a little more than 4 percent of the world's economy and only around a quarter of North Korea's trade. In the intervening years, China has grown in importance for the world and North Korea. Today. China's economy accounts for more than 16 percent of the world's GDP and the vast majority of North Korea's trade. The measures that North Korea put in place to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), as well as later outbreaks of Ebola and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), were less stringent than the ones in place today. North Korea's prospects are largely tied to China's own recovery in a way they weren't in the past. While some trade in goods may be made up if the border returns to normal, some will be permanently lost from the virus. This is especially the case for tourism. While the decline in trade has reduced North Korea's ability to earn hard currency, it has also impacted its ability to import food and agricultural supplies. In a country where the U.N. estimates that 10 million people are food insecure, this should be a cause for concern. According to the Ministry of Unification, North Korea likely faces a shortage of 860,000 tons of grain this year. The estimated shortfall could be filled in part or whole through imports of food from China and other countries, but the closure of the border has made that more difficult. In 2019, North Korea imported nearly 185,000 tons of grains such as rice and corn from China and nearly 28,000 tons from other countries. While this level of imports would only account for about 25 percent of the expected shortage for this year, during the first quarter grain imports from China were down over 40 percent compared to the same period last year. Some of the shortfall will be made up through humanitarian aid. In mid-May, Russia provided North Korea with 25,000 tons of wheat. China is known to have provided food aid to North Korea in the past and will likely do so again, but Pyongyang declined Seoul's offer of food assistance last year. In the current context, Pyongyang should reconsider that position. While there have been some indications that restrictions along North Korea's border with China were beginning to ease, the border region is now the most significant source of new COVID-19 outbreaks in China. Trade may take time to normalize. Once border restrictions are lifted and trade returns to normal, imports will play an important role in addressing North Korea's food shortages, but some form of food aid will likely be needed as well. Troy Stangarone (ts@keia.org) is the senior director of congressional affairs and trade at the Korea Economic Institute. Angola's billionaire former first-daughter Isabel dos Santos and her husband are seeking to revoke a court order that froze their assets last year as part of a massive corruption probe, their lawyer said Tuesday. Dos Santos and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo are accused of diverting billions of dollars from Angolan state companies during ex-president Jose Eduardo dos Santos' 38-year rule. A court froze their bank accounts last December in the context of a crackdown on graft lead by President Joao Lourenco, hand-picked to succeed dos Santos in 2017. This month, the 47-year-old business mogul accused the government of using a copy of a fake passport to freeze her assets. The couple's lawyer Walter Tondela told AFP he had filed a case against Angola's public prosecution for "presenting false documents". "The magistrate... falsified the documents that deceived the court to the point of making this decision illegal and unconstitutional," Tondela said on Tuesday, adding that "several other contracts" had also been faked. The prosecution had previously dismissed accusations of passport forgery as a "comedy". Dos Santos said her lawyers unearthed the falsified evidence after they were given access to the court documents last month. She has previously clamed the name and birth date on the submitted passport copy were wrong, and that the document bore the signature of late martial arts film star Bruce Lee. Dos Santos has built up a vast business empire over the past two decades, with stakes in several Angolan and Portuguese companies. Public prosecutors estimate that she and Dokola diverted up to five billion dollars from the state. She was charged in January in Angola with a long list of crimes, including mismanagement, embezzlement of funds, and money laundering during her stewardship of the oil giant Sonangol. A consortium of investigative journalists, after analysing a trove of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents, has also accused her of looting state coffers during her father's rule. Nicknamed "the Princess" among Angolans, dos Santos has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claims she is the victim of a "witch hunt". Her fortune is valued at $2.1 billion (1.9 billion euros) by Forbes Magazine, which named her Africa's richest woman in 2013. str-sch/ri Published on 2020/05/25 | Source The film "Innocence" confirmed a release on the 11th of June. Advertisement Starring Shin Hye-sun, Bae Jong-ok and Heo Joon-ho, "Innocence" is about Jeong-in (Shin Hye-sun), a lawyer who tries to prove the innocence of her mother Hwa-ja (Bae Jong-ok), a woman who doesn't remember anything, but is accused of murder at her husband's funeral, Mayor Choo (Heo Joon-ho) and the ugly truth that the village people are trying to hide. "Innocence" has drawn much attention whenever a new trailer is released, with the realistic theme of a 'makgeolli pesticide murder case', the tense immersion of running toward the truth of the incident and solid drama that makes the audience empathize with the character. In addition, the acting synergies of Shin Hye-sun, Bae Jong-ok and Heo Joon-ho, as well as the fact that it is a new project for the production team of "New Trial" add to the credibility of the film "Innocence". The audience's expectations are expected to rise as "Innocence", which has been delayed twice due to the spread of COVID-19, has confirmed its release at last. "Innocence" comes out on the 11th of June. ___________ "Innocence" is directed by Park Sang-hyun-III, and features Shin Hye-sun, Bae Jong-ok, Heo Joon-ho, Hong Kyung, Tae Hang-ho, Ko Chang-seok. Release date in Korea: 2020/06/11. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Shafiqul Alam (Agence France-Presse) Dhaka, Bangladesh Tue, May 26, 2020 09:30 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda1715f 2 SE Asia Bangladesh,Rohingya,Rohingya-people,refugees-camp,refugees,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-infection,COVID-19-quarantine,pandemic Free Some 15,000 Rohingya refugees are now under coronavirus quarantine in Bangladesh's vast camps, officials said Monday, as the number of confirmed infections rose to 29. Health experts have long warned that the virus could race through the cramped settlements, housing almost a million Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar, and officials had restricted movement to the area in April. Despite this, the first cases in the camps were detected in mid-May. "None of the infections are critical. Most hardly show any symptoms. Still we have brought them in isolation centers and quarantined their families," Toha Bhuiyan, a senior health official in the surrounding Cox's Bazar area told AFP. He said narrow roads to three districts of the camps -- where the majority of the infections were detected -- have been blocked off by authorities. The 15,000 Rohingya inside these so-called blocks faced further restrictions on their movement, he said. It comes as charity workers expressed fears over being infected in the camps as they worked without adequate protection. Two of the areas under isolation are in Kutupalong camp, home to roughly 600,000 Rohingya. "We are trying to scale up testing as fast as possible to make sure that we can trace out all the infected people and their contacts," Bhuiyan said. Seven isolation centers with the capacity to treat more than 700 COVID-19 patients have been prepared, he said. Officials hope to have just under 2,000 ready by the end of May, he added. Mahbubur Rahman, the chief health official of Cox's Bazar, said authorities hoped this week they would double the number of tests being performed daily from 188. He said further entry restrictions have been imposed on the camp, with a 14 day quarantine in place for anyone visiting from Dhaka. "We are very worried because the Rohingya camps are very densely populated. We suspect community transmission [of the virus] has already begun," Rahman told AFP. 'Very little awareness' Bangladesh on Monday notched up a record single-day spike in coronavirus cases, with 1,975 new infections, taking the toll to 35,585 cases and 501 deaths. In early April authorities imposed a complete lockdown on Cox's Bazar district -- home to 3.4 million people including the refugees -- after a number of infections. But a charity worker with one of the many aid organizations active in the camps said Monday he and many others were "very worried". "Fear and panic has gripped aid workers because many of us were forced to work without much protection," he told AFP without wishing to be named. "Social distancing is almost impossible in the camps. There is very little awareness about COVID-19 disease among the refugees, despite efforts by aid agencies." The lack of information is exacerbated by local authorities having cut off access to the internet in September to combat, they said, drug traffickers and other criminals. More than 740,000 Rohingya fled a brutal 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar to Cox's Bazar, where around 200,000 refugees were already living. Hong Kong: Further arrest on problematic masks Customs today arrested an online trader's director in connection with a case of supplying surgical masks in violation of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance. The 20-year-old man has been released on bail and the investigation is ongoing. His case follows an arrest of the trader's authorised representative on May 22. The Customs & Excise Department launched an investigation upon receiving complaints. The trader had failed to provide authentication despite the departments repeated demands to prove the masks supplied comply with the labelled claims. Customs strongly condemned any false accusation that its law enforcement action against the trader is political repression. The department stressed that its "Guardian" operation, which began in January, aims to ensure that common protective items available for sale in the market comply with relevant ordinances. Immediate public announcements on law-breaking products will be made for the public's interest, it said, adding the operation will go on to ensure decisive action is taken when suspected violations are found. This story has been published on: 2020-05-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In numerous countries, starting with the U.S. and Canada, cannabis is being legalized for medical, recreational, and research uses. Following them, the U.K., Japan, Norway, Thailand, South Korea, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, and Brazil have also given the stamp of approval on the cultivation of marijuana and hemp, extraction of cannabidiol and usage of the chemical in various end products. As a result, the global CBD oil market revenue is predicted to rise at a 24.3% CAGR between 2020 and 2025, from $1,735.1 million in 2019. This is being further supported by the promotion of the chemical as having numerous wellness advantages, by companies, which is helping increase the demand for it among the masses, primarily recreational users. Moreover, as cannabidiol has been claimed to treat depression, movement disorders, anxiety, and pain, its usage among people suffering from these issues is also rising. Get the Sample Copy of this Report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/cbd-oil-market/report-sample Demand for Cannabidiol Tinctures to Burgeon in Coming Years In the years to come, the popularity of tinctures of cannabidiol is predicted to mushroom rapidly, on account of these products being the most widely used for medical purposes. This is because tinctures can be taken sublingually (placed under the tongue), rather than via inhalation, which helps the capillaries absorb the cannabinoid instantly. Moreover, a lower dosage of tinctures is required compared to that of other forms of the chemical, which reduces the risk of the harmful effects related to overdose. Further, tinctures can be easily bought through e-commerce websites, pharmacies, and specialty and retail stores. Browse report overview with 64 tables and 37 figures spread through 155 pages and detailed TOC on CBD Oil Market Research Report - Global Industry Size, Share and Growth Forecast to 2030 at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/cbd-oil-market North America has dominated the consumption of cannabidiol till now, on account of the early legalization of the chemical in the U.S. and Canada, which has drastically increased the sale. In addition, the availability of cannabidiol-containing drugs, including Epidiolex and Sativex, and successful marketing of the compound as a wellness and lifestyle-enhancing product are other reasons for the high demand for cannabidiol in the continent. In the region, the U.S. is the larger CBD oil market, because of the increasing efforts of companies to license the cultivation of hemp and marijuana and manufacturing and supply of end-products, increase marketing activities, and make people aware about cannabis medical benefits. In the coming years, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is predicted to experience the fastest growth in the market, due to the rising requirement for the chemical in South Korea, Japan, and Australia. Make Enquiry Before Purchase at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=cbd-oil-market Companies Engaging in Mergers and Acquisitions to Strengthen their Hold on Industry Mergers and acquisitions are being initiated by the market players to strengthen their presence in the industry, as such moves allow them the opportunity to: Use the acquired companies portfolio to expand their geographical reach Utilize additional revenue streams Enter new markets with cannabidiol-containing products Advance their research and development (R&D) activities Expand their product portfolio for core markets Aphria Inc., Isodiol International Inc., CV Sciences Inc., Canopy Growth Corporation, Aurora Cannabis Inc., Endoca BV, Tilray Inc., CBDfx, Folium Biosciences, and Gaia Botanicals LLC are the key companies in the global CBD oil market. More Reports of Consumer Products By P&S Intelligence Omega-3 Market Increasing trend of veganism and consumption of plant-based supplement is witnessed as a major trend in the omega-3 market. Growing trend of veganism across the globe is heavily impacting the landscape of food and vitamin supplement consumption. https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/omega3-market U.S. Manufacturing Analytics Market For gaining a competitive advantage and improving business operations, manufacturers in the U.S. manufacturing analytics market are increasingly adopting virtualization software, which separates the applications from the physical hardware they run on. https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/us-manufacturing-analytics-market About P&S Intelligence P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. Contact: P&S Intelligence International: +1-347-960-6455 Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com The subway in Kyiv and Kharkiv reopened on Monday as Ukraine moved to the second stage of easing lockdown restrictions. Last week, Ukraine's government announced shifting to "an adjustable lockdown," with authorities in different regions deciding which restrictions to lift. The new regime started on Saturday, with public transport, hotels and churches reopening, and will remain in place until June 22. In Kyiv, the subway returned to its usual schedule, allowing people in if they wear masks and observe social distancing guidelines. Churches across the country resumed public services on condition of enforcing social distancing. Hotels were allowed to reopen with their restaurants remaining closed. Ukraine was one of the first ex-Soviet nations to impose a strict nationwide lockdown in March, when it had just a handful of coronavirus cases. It has so far reported 21,245 confirmed infections and 623 deaths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended Eid-ul-Fitr greetings to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and discussed the COVID-19 pandemic. During his conversation with President Al-Sisi, Modi expressed his appreciation for the support extended by Egyptian authorities for the safety and welfare of Indian nationals in Egypt during the coronavirus crisis. Referring to his earlier planned visit to Egypt this year, which had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Modi conveyed his desire to meet the president as soon as circumstances permit, an official statement said. Reciprocating the Eid greetings, the president referred to Egypt and India as being among the oldest civilizations in the world, and expressed happiness about the fast expanding bilateral relationship. Speaking with Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Modi appreciated the personal care taken by the Amir for ensuring the welfare of Indian citizens in Qatar during the pandemic. In turn, the Amir appreciated the contributions of the Indian community in Qatar, especially the role being played by Indian health workers, said another statement. The prime minister highlighted the attention being paid by Indian authorities to avoid any disruption in the supply of essential goods from India to Qatar during the present situation. Modi also conveyed his warm greetings for the forthcoming 40th birthday of the Amir, and expressed best wishes for his continued good health and success, the statement said. On Monday, the prime minister had conveyed Eid-ul-Fitr greetings to crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. With planes grounded, cars parked, factories shuttered and offices dark, covid-19 has carved a big hole in the energy economy, and redirected its future in ways that could hardly have been imagined four months ago. Even once the world picks up again, the basics of the business will reflect the legacy of the 2020 pandemic. Coal, already staggering, has taken yet another serious blow. Some analysts ask whether we've now passed peak oil - whether we'll ever again burn 100 million barrels a day. Will investors take a pass on capital-intensive liquefied natural gas terminals and plants? Advocates for renewable sources of energy believe they can survive the price challenges of the near future and emerge stronger than ever. A lot is unknowable right now. A second surge of covid-19 could flatten the economy for many months to follow. Even now, optimists and pessimists argue over the likely pace of recovery. If President Donald Trump is reelected in November, he can be expected to look kindly on fossil fuels. Joe Biden has promised, if elected, to rejoin the Paris climate accords, set new vehicle fuel economy standards, promote renewables, and push for carbon pricing by 2025. SHALE: Oils sudden rebound is exposing Achilles heel of shale "The trend toward renewables and greener energy is unstoppable," said Andres Gluski, the CEO of AES, which operates electric generation plants and is developing lithium ion batteries in projects around the world. From Washington to New Delhi, he said, people are seeing the benefits of cleaner skies and air during the shutdown and won't want to go back to the way things were. Yet open roads and cheap gasoline beckon, at least for now or in the near future. "If you ask a lot of Americans, and tell them we've dropped our CO2 emissions 11% over the last year, they'll say I'm trapped in my house and I'm unemployed, so if this is what it takes to tackle climate change, no thank you," said Kate Konschnik, director of the Climate and Energy Program at Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. "That is a real risk going forward." The two biggest consumers of energy in the United States are electricity generation and transportation. Power companies rely on natural gas, ever smaller amounts of coal, nuclear reactors and a growing helping of renewables. Gas- and coal-fired plants are the easiest to fine tune during the day; Gluski says that advances in storage battery technology will soon make wind and solar competitive on that score. Transportation is almost entirely powered by petroleum - from planes to trucks to cars to motorcycles to freight trains to tugboats to tractors to ferries. Crop-derived ethanol and electricity play a small role. Petroleum production in this country has been slashed 12% since February, all because of the economic slowdown and stay-at-home orders stemming from the pandemic. Output will begin to head upward again someday - but how quickly, and how far? In North Dakota, 55 rigs were working the Bakken shale formation when the year began. Today just 13 are still in operation. Wells producing 550,000 barrels a day have been shut in - turned off, in effect - in the state. NOT YET: Global oil demand hasn't peaked, energy watchdog predicts One big operator, Whiting Petroleum, has declared bankruptcy. (In Oklahoma, the pioneer of fracking, Chesapeake Energy, is widely thought to be headed in the same direction.) Oilfield services companies have laid off workers and cut hours for others. Some outfits have gotten a two-month reprieve through the federal Paycheck Protection Program. "The economy's going to do what the economy's going to do," said Ron Ness, head of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. "Until we see demand recover, we have no idea what's going to happen." There has been some recovery from April's dismal numbers. The futures price for West Texas Intermediate is at nearly $30 a barrel. A few dollars more, Ness said, and some shut-in wells may restart. "But what drives the economy," he cautioned, "is new wells and new investment." And that might require a price back in the $50 to $60 range, to regain the confidence of investors and banks. One problem is in keeping the trained workforce intact despite the layoffs. Most of those in the oil fields of western North Dakota are originally from somewhere else, and if they could find work many might be happy to move on. It's essential, Ness said, to have a workers "ready to ramp up when you need them." "That gets to be problematic as this goes on." A shakeout in the sector is likely. It wouldn't be the first time. FUEL FIX: Now more than ever, you need our energy news in your inbox "Many of the players were highly leveraged," Dan Brouillette, the secretary of energy, said in a video conversation with Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of HIS-Markit. "I think it's fair to say that you'll see some of those players go by the wayside. They may be purchased by larger players in the marketplace, they may just simply close up shop and go by the wayside. "That's the free market system. It's the way it works here in the United States. But I have no doubt that in a few months, or perhaps six months, we're going to see our industry almost back to where it was pre-pandemic levels. That assumes, of course, we open up the economy." If there is a sharp recovery late this year or early next year, analysts expect that the price of oil will meet or surpass Ness' $50 tipping point. The glut that helped send prices tumbling this spring has led to so much production being cut that, once the surplus is gone, producers may have to scramble to meet demand again. But that assumes a sharp recovery. The economy could stagnate. Or people could rethink so much traveling. Millions have been able to work from home; video conferencing, for all its faults, could take the place of a great deal of business travel. If the virus lingers, vacationers might just be reluctant to get aboard planes again. And if Gluski and Elon Musk, the Tesla tycoon, have their way, more and more of the burden of transportation will be shifted to electric power plants and away from liquid petroleum. Even the head of BP, Bernard Looney, said recently that it is time to accelerate the demise of the internal combustion engine. And public policy on electricity - almost worldwide - strongly favors renewables and discourages coal. Bruno Brunetti, head of global power planning for S&P Global Platts, pointed out in a webinar that coal-burning plants tend to be older, and any that are idled now because of the drop in demand are unlikely to be restarted if the shutdown extends for several months. Most of the world's nuclear plants are also heading toward retirement age, he said. His colleague, Roman Kramarchuk, head of energy scenarios, said that European countries, at least, are not wavering on renewable energy, even as their economies falter and fossil fuel prices crater. "We're not seeing covid as an excuse to walk back on energy transition," he said. As Gluski points out, wind and solar energy facilities are extremely cheap to operate once the equipment is in place and up and running. Storage to meet demand hours has been an obstacle, but he argues that battery development will soon make storage even on a large scale a practical reality. Of all the fuels, natural gas has the most diversified uses. Roughly equal amounts go to power generation and manufacturing, with another large portion devoted to heating and cooking. That could make it a little less susceptible to sudden swings in demand. Its historically low price has held fairly steady during the pandemic even as consumption has declined about 2 percent worldwide because, as oil wells are shut in, the gas they had been capturing as a byproduct is also left in the ground. In the United States, people like to say they want the market to drive decisions, but politics and public opinion tend to hold sway in the end. "Do we decide that hey, telecommuting works, and we like not having as many cars clogging up downtown streets and let's make this the new normal?" asked Drew Swindell, professor earth science at Duke. "Or do we decide that . . . the economy is in really poor shape and we need to pour money into tried and true things like propping up fossil fuel industries?" Either way, it's not the market that's calling the shots. What do you get a man who can buy anything himself? Well, it better be something special, and high end fabric manufacturer Scabal may have what youre looking for a diamond-infused fabric that shimmers discretely but is surprisingly comfortable to wear. In 2001, Belgian textile company Scabal changed the luxury fabric industry forever by introducing, Diamond Chip, an exclusive fabric infused with microscopic diamond fragments. The process of creating this intriguing fabric remains a closely-guarded secret, but what is abundantly clear is that the worlds super-rich were so impressed by Diamond chip that luxury fabric manufacturers the world over started incorporating expensive materials like 24K gold, platinum or precious stones into their fabrics. Photo: Scabal Just like some men want their top-of-the-range car to be customized, so we all have clients who ask us to show them only the most expensive cloths, one central London tailor told Financial Times in 2011. And thats where fabrics like Scabals Diamond Chip come in. To create Diamond Chip, the Belgian company, which produces most of its fabrics at its mill in Huddersfield, England, blends Super 150s merino wool with silk and powdered diamonds, through a process that has remained secret for almost two decades. The end result is a luxurious fabric that is not only wearable but quite comfortable, and that shimmers discretely. Back in 2011, FT reported that Scabal makes several varieties of Diamond Chip, and that a bespoke two-piece suit made of this special material started at around 7,000 ($8,600), twice as much as one made of traditional high-quality merino wool. Im not sure what the prices are these days, but I assume they have increased to well over $10,000. Online luxury fabric retailer Tissura sells one meter of Diamond Chip by Scabal for $735. Diamond Chip remains the most exclusive jacketing fabric for truly luxurious suits, but to keep things fresh Scabal has adapted its secret process to create fabrics infused with a variety of other precious materials, such as lapis lazuli, gold or platinum. It is quite a small number of clients who want this type of cloth. I have a couple in Saudi Arabia and two more in New York, one Saville Row tailor told FT. They are the sort of people who wear a 100,000 watch. There is a psychological thing about wanting to wear the most expensive example of something. Our goal is to generate greater return for investors, and we saw an opportunity to expand on our full-service offering to help private equity firms find success in the post-COVID-19 world and beyond. Aprio LLP, a nationally recognized top 50 CPA-led business advisory firm, announced the formation of Aprio Private Equity, an integrated service team and comprehensive offering designed to meet the growing needs of private equity and strategic buyers and sellers in the middle market. Building on Aprios ten-year history of providing transaction advisory services, the team will provide fund services, post-merger integration services, portfolio services, and exit strategy services in addition to transaction advisory services to drive value at every stage of the investment lifecycle. Averaging 80 transactions annually with buy and sell-side deals ranging from $1 million to $300 million, Aprios dedicated private equity specialists leverage their breadth of domestic and international experience to help clients through all stages of the transaction lifecycle. Aprios 40 plus private equity clients, ranging in fund sizes up to approximately $6 billion, invest in a variety of industries including Healthcare, Technology including software, Manufacturing & Distribution, Education, Retail & Hospitality, and Professional Services. Aprio Private Equity will draw on our advisory, audit and assurance, tax, wealth management and outsourced accounting services expertise to provide an integrated approach to our private equity clients that will create opportunities for improved financial and operational performance, minimized tax liabilities, and elevated marketplace credibility, said Richard Kopelman, CEO and Managing Partner of Aprio. Aprio Private Equity is led by Michael Levy. Levy has 25 years of experience in audit, merger, acquisition, and divestiture due diligence and structuring. He has served clients across a variety of industries with transactions varying in size from $1 million to $10 billion. Our goal is to generate greater return for investors, and we saw an opportunity to expand on our full-service offering to help private equity firms find success in the post-COVID-19 world and beyond, said Levy. Transaction markets continuously evolve in order to accommodate changing economic realities, so its vital to improve deal performance and remove uncertainty from identified transaction risks while focusing on enhancing performance of existing investments. As a part of Aprio Private Equity, the firm is launching a webinar series, called COVID-19 Private Equity Reset: Creating Value in a New World. The series will focus on topics including portfolio company performance improvement, COVID-19 related tax resources, evolving approaches to due diligence, cybersecurity, and restructuring and turnaround resources. For more information about Aprio Private Equity and to sign up for the webinar series, visit https://www.aprio.com/covid-19-private-equity. About Aprio Aprio is a premier full-service, CPA-led business advisory firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, that advises clients and associates on how to achieve whats next. Aprios associates work as integrated teams across advisory, assurance, tax, outsourced accounting solutions and private client services, bringing the best thinking and personal commitment to each client. Across practices, Aprio brings together proven expertise, deep understanding and strategic foresight for industries including Manufacturing and Distribution; Non-Profit and Education; Professional Services; Real Estate and Construction; Retail, Franchise and Hospitality; and Technology and Biosciences. In 65 years, Aprio has grown to over 550 team members. To serve clients wherever life or business may take them, Aprios teams speak more than 30 languages and work with clients in over 40 countries. In addition to its Atlanta headquarters, Aprio also operates in Birmingham, Ala. and Charlotte, Greensboro, Mt. Airy and Asheboro N.C. For more, visit https://www.aprio.com. An official data revealed on May 26 showed that Singapore has cut its economic forecast for 2020 for the third time in the first quarter of the year as it is badly hit by coronavirus pandemic. Ministry of Trade and Industry reportedly said that the economy of Singapore is expected to shrink by almost 4.0% and 7.0% this year from the prior range of 1% to 4%. It is the third official downgrade in economic forecasts this year. READ: Singapore Reports Lower Number Of 344 New COVID-19 Cases Major economies hit The ministry reportedly said in a statement while announcing its last economic forecasts in March that other major economies around the world are also suffering more severe than expected. The statement explained that the lockdown measures taken to curb the coronavirus pandemic have hurt economic activities in major economies such as the US, Europe, and China. The ministry reportedly said that such downgrade of the economy would continue even after countries roll back those containment measures but there is a further risk that second wave of infection may emerge. READ: Singapore Reports 448 New Coronavirus Cases, Nationwide Toll Soars To 29,812 Manufacturing, wholesale trade, and transportation and storage will be hit in Singapore while many consumer-facing companies in retail and food services have suffered during the containment measures taken to control the virus, the ministry added. According to the reports, Singapore's finance minister is all set to deliver the latest economic package of multi-billion-dollar to bring in track the businesses and households hit by pandemic. 23 coronavirus deaths The city-state reportedly imposed a partial lockdown after a second wave of the deadly coronavirus. This second wave was mainly sparked by foreign workers that lived in overcrowded dormitories where social distancing cannot be practised. Singapore has till date only reported 23 coronavirus related deaths and plans to lift coronavirus restrictions starting June. As per reports, Singapore plans to slowly reopen the country so that its citizens are able to conduct essential activities abroad and this would also allow foreigners to enter the country, be it to stay in Singapore or transit through. The Singapore government has announced that foreigners will be able to transit through its Changi Airport from June 2 onwards. The passengers will still have to follow several protocols and the passengers must also remain in designated areas during their transit. READ: Human Rights Group Criticises Singapore SC Over Death Sentencing Of A Man Via Zoom Call READ: Singapore F1 Can't Be Held Behind Closed Doors: Organisers (Image Credit: AP) It doesn't seem to make much sense. China's President Xi Jinping tried to get tough with Hong Kong and Taiwan last year. The people in both places responded emphatically. They stood up to his bullying. They rejected his efforts to push them around. The only thing Xi achieved was to alienate the smartest and freest Chinese populations within Beijing's claimed sphere. Many ordinary middle-class people were so incensed that they turned out to vote and to protest for the first time. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ratcheted up the heat on Hong Kong and Taiwan. Credit:AP Xi's response? His regime has now made new threats against both Taiwan and Hong Kong. And formalised them in the executive's annual work report to the National People's Congress over the past few days. "It's sad to hear," says the veteran Hong Kong-based political analyst Willy Lam, "a nation going down the wrong path". It also seems bizarre that Xi should want to persist on such a losing course. CHARLOTTE, NC On the same day groups demanding an end to pandemic restrictions protested throughout the state, North Carolina reported its highest number of hospitalizations from COVID-19. North Carolinas health department reported Monday morning that 627 are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Nearly 24,000 cases have been confirmed so far, and 754 people have died. Almost 345,000 people have been tested so far. The Charlotte Observer reports that seven-day rolling averages in positive tests have been increasing since testing has expanded and restrictions have been relaxed. Meanwhile, ReopenNC, a group protesting government restrictions to prevent spread of the coronavirus, had planned Memorial Day protests in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Asheville, and Wilmington. The group, which started on Facebook in early April, now has nearly 80,000 members. On Friday, the husband of one of the groups founders used a Facebook video to threaten violence in support of their cause. Are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay our lives down? We have to say yes, said Adam Smith, husband of ReOpen co-founder Ashley Smith. He later said in the same video that if you bring guns, were going to bring guns. The video was deleted after Raw Story reported on it. This article originally appeared on the Across North Carolina Patch She has been keeping up with her fitness regime during lockdown after shedding a staggering eight stone. But Michelle Mone has revealed one of her workouts didn't go quite to plan after her billionaire fiance Doug Barrowman was left screaming in agony. The Scottish bra tycoon, 48, revealed a resistance band snapped and hit him across the face, causing the pair to have a lovers' tiff after he blamed her for the mishap. Oops: Michelle Mone has revealed one of her workouts didn't go quite to plan after her billionaire fiance Doug Barrowman was left screaming in agony Michelle said in Jenni Falconer's Runpod podcast: 'We do boot camps together and we do running together. 'We are very competitive in the boot camps. He is an entrepreneur and I'm an entrepreneur so I'm thinking "you're not going to win" and he's thinking "you're not going to win either". 'It can be a really powerful hour, I am exhausted lying on the grass after the hour. We are so competitive. Painful: The Scottish bra tycoon, 48, revealed a resistance band snapped and hit him across the face, causing the pair to have a lovers' tiff after he blamed her for the mishap 'We almost had a fight last week. You know those bands that you put round. It's a partner boot camp so he puts the band round his waist and I'm pulling him. 'The band snapped and it slapped him right in the face. He was screaming. I said "It's not my fault is it that the band just snapped so don't you start". 'So he kind of went off in a huff with a big line across his face. 'Maybe I need to invent a band that doesn't snap.' Dedicated: The Scottish beauty and Barrowman, 55, have been exercising together every day during lockdown at their home on the Isle of Man Shock comparison: Michelle Mone has revealed she would eat two McDonald's a day at the height of her battle with weight and food addiction (left pictured in 2003) Ultimo founder Mone said she now wants to invent a non-snap resistance band to prevent any further injuries from happening. The Scottish beauty and Barrowman, 55, have been exercising together every day during lockdown at their home on the Isle of Man. She had been due to marry Barrowman in London earlier this month but they were forced to postpone the big day due to the pandemic. Instead, they celebrated the day on a Zoom call with family and friends ahead of the rescheduled date for August, which will now be an extended three-day celebration. Examining Belvoir Group PLC's (AIM:BLV) past track record of performance is an insightful exercise for investors. It allows us to reflect on whether or not the company has met or exceed expectations, which is a great indicator for future performance. Today I will assess BLV's latest performance announced on 31 December 2019 and compare these figures to its longer term trend and industry movements. Check out our latest analysis for Belvoir Group Did BLV beat its long-term earnings growth trend and its industry? BLV's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 December 2019) of UK4.7m has increased by 3.4% compared to the previous year. However, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 27%, indicating the rate at which BLV is growing has slowed down. What could be happening here? Well, let's examine what's going on with margins and if the rest of the industry is experiencing the hit as well. AIM:BLV Income Statement May 26th 2020 In terms of returns from investment, Belvoir Group has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 19% instead. However, its return on assets (ROA) of 12% exceeds the GB Real Estate industry of 5.5%, indicating Belvoir Group has used its assets more efficiently. And finally, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Belvoir Groups debt level, has increased over the past 3 years from 10% to 16%. What does this mean? Belvoir Group's track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. While Belvoir Group has a good historical track record with positive growth and profitability, there's no certainty that this will extrapolate into the future. I recommend you continue to research Belvoir Group to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for BLVs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for BLVs outlook. Financial Health: Are BLVs operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why weve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. While Connecticut forges ahead with plans to reopen, touting increased testing and capacity to trace new coronavirus cases to control the spread, the systems launch has been delayed. Originally set to be fully operational by May 18, two days before the first phase of reopening began, the statewide contact tracing system is now pushed back into June, state Department of Public Health epidemiologist Kristen Soto said. We are doing sort of a scaled rollout, and planning to be operating at our full capacity by June 1, she said. As of late ;ast week, 55 of the states 64 local health departments had access to the system, but statewide data was still being uploaded. Some departments will continue to use their own tracing systems until theyre more familiar with the states software. The process is a key component of plans to reopen the states shuttered businesses and operations. Contact tracing, also done to monitor other diseases like measles, entails interviewing people quickly after they are diagnosed, identifying their recent close contacts and informing those people that they also need to isolate themselves to prevent further spread. Its integrally tied to the amount of testing being done. But as testing has increased and the number of cases climb, the burden on the contact tracing system rises, too. In the week ending Saturday, the state reported an average of 393 new cases and 6,292 tests per day. Thats about 6 percent, a positive trend as the figure had hovered closer to 10 percent in some previous weeks. But the numbers have been volatile. From May 14 to May 21, the number of positive cases in Connecticut climbed by more than 3,500, adding an average of more than 500 each day putting pressure on contact tracing efforts. The system will not retroactively trace cases that have been diagnosed prior to this week, and the percentage of new cases being traced is pretty low, Soto said, though she declined to give a specific number. The ultimate goal is to successfully interview 90 percent of newly diagnosed people and their contacts. Thats an ambitious goal, experts say, considering the hundreds of new cases the state is seeing each day with increased testing and community infection continuing. As the number of tests continue to rise, DPH will also increase its contact tracing capacity, Soto said. As of Thursday, more than 500 employees of local health departments around the state were credentialed to access the system, and the agency was working to bring on board about 200 volunteers from the Yale School of Public Health. Another 50 staff members are in the queue, and the department anticipates working with 300 to 400 student volunteers from other academic institutions, she said, but structures like internships and practicums to facilitate that are still being created. As the program continues, the workload will be evaluated and scaled up if needed, she said. And according to an analysis from Johns Hopkins University, Connecticut is one of 29 states that do not meet guidelines for reopening as advised by the World Health Organization. For governments to safely reopen, the percentage of total COVID-19 tests that return positive should be at or below 5 percent for 14 consecutive days, according to the WHO. The analysis from Johns Hopkins University put the percentage of total coronavirus tests that are positive in Connecticut at 7.04 percent as of Friday morning, close to but not at or below the WHOs guidelines. Gov. Lamont laid out strict criteria for reopening our states economy in a deliberate and phased way and those have been achieved over the course of the past month, said administration spokesman Max Reiss. As a matter of fact, Connecticut was among the last states in the country to ease restrictions, while simultaneously doubling capacity. The WHO was just one organization that laid out suggested benchmarks to reopen economies. The White House recommended only a downward trajectory of COVID- and influenza-like illness. The Centers for Disease Control was more specific in their recommended guidelines. To begin relaxing restrictions on businesses the CDC said the percentage of positive tests should be less than 20 percent for 14 days. Of those 29 states, Connecticut is ninth with a lower percentage of positive tests in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina. The percentage of total tests showing positive results was not part of the governors criteria for reopening, as he said at the end of April. The states Reopen Advisory Group laid out guidelines including a 14-day decline of hospitalizations and 42,000 coronavirus tests per week, among other benchmarks. A low rate of positivity in testing data can be seen as a sign that a state has sufficient testing capacity for the size of their outbreak and is testing enough of its population to make informed decisions about reopening, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. Reiss said the administration has been prudent, and that the state will be closely monitoring all metrics to ensure we can mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the interest of public health, while also weighing the economic effects of this pandemic. Soto said the health services department is also trying to speed up the process by cutting down the time from diagnosis to contact. Were aiming for a turnaround time of two to three days from a person first feeling sick until us hearing about the result, she said. Currently, its taking about two days for the department to hear the result after people are tested, so theres definitely room for improvement. Some test results are still being submitted with paper reports, contributing to some of those delays. People have a constitutional right to health, safety, and dignity while incarcerated something that Elkton has proven it cannot provide right now, David Cole, the ACLUs national legal director, said in a statement. Around the country, courts have been slow to step in and take responsibility to protect the tens of thousands of incarcerated people who are at risk from this virus. WASHINGTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) today launched "Here to Help," an education effort to connect U.S. homeowners and renters with tools and resources to navigate the available options if they experience a financial hardship due to COVID-19. "Fannie Mae is committed to providing sustainable housing options to help keep people in their homes," said Hugh R. Frater, Chief Executive Officer, Fannie Mae. "We hope Here to Help will bring some clarity, transparency, and assurance to homeowners and renters who are facing job loss, reduction in work hours, illness, or other issues related to COVID-19." The "Here to Help" online portal at KnowYourOptions.com features informative videos, fact sheets, mortgage loan and apartment rental lookup tools, and other resources to equip homeowners and renters with the information they need to successfully navigate their options. The portal also provides mortgage servicers and lenders with tools to better assist their customers. This includes clear explanations of forbearance, repayment options after forbearance, and training videos for loan servicers. Through "Here to Help," homeowners and residents of multifamily rental properties with a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage can access HUD-approved housing counselors via the Disaster Response Network. Fannie Mae finances about one-in-four homes and one-in-five multifamily mortgage loans in the United States. "We are committed to putting people first, helping Americans stay in their homes, helping customers stay in business, and ensuring that the nation's mortgage and housing markets remain strong," said Frater. Since March, Fannie Mae has taken a number of actions to help homeowners and renters facing financial hardship due to COVID-19. We took action to suspend foreclosures and evictions affecting homeowners, extended eviction protections to multifamily renters when the property owner received a forbearance, reminded homeowners they are never required to repay missed payments during a forbearance period all at once, shared tips to help homeowners avoid foreclosure fraud or scams, and announced a new COVID-19 payment deferral option to help homeowners who are ready to resume their monthly mortgage payments following a COVID-19 forbearance. About Fannie Mae Fannie Mae helps make the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and affordable rental housing possible for millions of Americans. We partner with lenders to create housing opportunities for families across the country. We are driving positive changes in housing finance to make the home buying process easier, while reducing costs and risk. To learn more, visit: fanniemae.com | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Blog Fannie Mae Newsroom https://www.fanniemae.com/news Photo of Fannie Mae https://www.fanniemae.com/resources/img/about-fm/fm-building.tif Fannie Mae Resource Center 1-800-2FANNIE SOURCE Fannie Mae Related Links www.fanniemae.com Exposure of Ulterior Motives Behind Stigmatization of China with COVID-19 (Part IV) The blames that certain American politicians have been trying to shift to China have all backfired on themselves, and the hardest-working blame-game player Mike Pompeo is considered by many American media and netizens as one of the worst Secretaries of State in history. Shifting the blame to others has eventually boomeranged against themselves. What exactly have they done to shift the blame then? At first, the American politicians played face change repeatedly. They praised Chinas anti-virus efforts when COVID-19 first broke out in the country. Then all of a sudden, they changed their tune and began to criticize China. The U-turn in their attitude came at a subtle timing when the outbreak quickly escalated in the US. With a mentality of speculation and adventurism, the anxious and upset US politicians felt no qualms about going back on their own words. What an eye-opening farce for the world! Later, they joined efforts to stigmatize China. As the pandemic spread ever more quickly across the US to the brink of going completely out of control, some politicians couldnt wait to stand up and collectively slam and smear China, using very tough and strong words even though they knew the accusations carried no weight. Being incompetent in controlling the pandemic at home, they have been adamant about scapegoating China and put forth all sorts of China-bashing fallacies. But the truth always beats lies in the end. The false accusations made by those politicians were not bought even by their own people, not to mention the rest of the world. When asked if they had any evidence to prove that the virus came from China, the politicians just beat around the bush, unable to give a direct answer. Their bluffing trick, after playing for a long time, was seen through. The continuously worsening pandemic situation in the US has infuriated its media and people so much that criticisms of the government and its officials for their slow and bungled response have never stopped. Facts have proven that these politicians, failing to shift the blame, have finally shot themselves in the foot. Now that the blame-game doesnt work, the true situation about Americas pandemic prevention and control can no longer be covered up. It is exactly because of those American politicians who, instead of concentrating on bringing the outbreak under control, are only focused on smearing other countries and shifting the blame to others that the US has left the world far behind in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Closer scrutiny would show that their blame-game just revealed their incorrigible sinophobia paranoia. Some American politicians have been trumpeting the end of history theory. They dont want to see a fast-developing and strong China, much less a successful socialist country. Still, history rolls forward irrespective of personal wishes, and no force can stop Chinas progress. Thanks to the tremendous efforts made since the outbreak, China has achieved remarkable success in containing the virus, and resumed business operation and production across the country. In contrast, the US has become the epicenter of the global pandemic, with the virus spreading further, and the number of infections and deaths still on the rise. Such a comparison is the last thing that those infected with sinophobia paranoia want to see. So, they played the blame-game to pass the buck for their poor epidemic response, and defame and throw obstacles at Chinas development. How insidious! Justice lies in peoples hearts. The people of the world have seen clearly that the fancy slogans like America first and making America great again should be based on bearing responsibilities rather than shirking them. The irresponsible and unconscionable move of shifting blame will in no way help with the anti-epidemic efforts; rather, it will only lead to an irremediable situation where the US has no choice but to eat the bitter fruit of its own making. There is an old Chinese saying that goes lift a rock only to drop it on ones own feet, which is similar to shift the blame only to have it backfire. We advise those American politicians, who confuse right with wrong, cling to the past, maintain biased viewpoints and randomly shift blame, to stop making anti-China noises and face up to justice, reason, and public opinion. After all, blaming China wont cure your disease or make your wish to curb Chinas development come true. That the US insists on going its own way stubbornly and recklessly will only make itself a laughing stock and the target of disdain. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, inflicting mass death and suffering on a global scale, calls by international institutions like the United Nations and the World Health Organization for global solidarity are falling on deaf ears, as far as the capitalist ruling classes are concerned. In his statement on the COVID-19 crisis, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned against the pandemic being used as the pretext for abolishing the right to asylum and driving back those fleeing death and oppression. In these challenging times, let us not forget those who are fleeing war and persecution. They needwe all needsolidarity and compassion now more than ever before, he said. Far from solidarity and compassion, refugees and migrants on a global scale are on the receiving end of state violence, mass deportations, incarceration, hunger and death. As with the social inequality and intensified exploitation of the working class that pervades capitalist societies around the world, the relentless drive toward imperialist war and the turn toward authoritarian methods of rule, the coronavirus pandemic has served to accelerate, and justify, a war on refugees that was raging well before the virus claimed its first victim. As of today, 177 countries have either fully or partially closed their borders, and the right to asylum has effectively been abrogated throughout most of the world. Nowhere is this truer than in the United States, where the Trump administration has seized upon the coronavirus pandemic to implement sweeping anti-immigration decrees that it had planned well before the term COVID-19 was ever coined. It has invoked an obscure immigration statute enacted as a defense against communicable diseases to deport tens of thousands of people to countries where the spread of coronavirus is far less than in the US itself. While promoting conspiracy theories about China having deliberately seeded the virus into the US and Western Europe, the Trump administration is doing precisely that with the summary deportation of planeloads of immigrants to impoverished countries in Central America as well as Haiti and elsewhere in the Caribbean. As immigrants are dragged out of detention centers, many of them run by for-profit prison corporations, where the coronavirus has spread like wildfire, these deportations have become a driving force in the spread of the pandemic in countries whose healthcare systems are quickly becoming overwhelmed. Even Guatemalas far-right President Alejandro Giammattei, a servile ally of US imperialism, was compelled to condemn the US deportations, telling the Washington think tank, the Atlantic Council, We understand that the United States wants to deport people, we understand that, but what we dont understand is that they send us contaminated flights. His words provide an accurate reflection of his governments contempt and cruelty towards those of his countrymen forcibly shipped back from the US. Not even children are exempt from the US governments sadism, with more than 1,000 of them subjected to summary deportations to Mexico and the violence-ridden Northern Triangle countries of Central America since March. The Trump administration is notorious for its abject failure to carry out any effective policy to stem the spread of the coronavirus, leaving the US, a country that accounts for barely four percent of the worlds population, with roughly a third of the worlds infections and deaths. It has excelled, however, in the closing of borders and riding roughshod over US and international laws to deny essential rights to immigrants and refugees, all under the pretext of protecting America from a virus that has already spread without hinderance from coast to coast. That such a response is not merely the product of the fascistic and criminal mind of the US president is made clear by the enactment of similar draconian crackdowns on immigrants across the globe. In Europe, the two nations that serve as the main frontline border guards of Fortress EuropeGreece and Hungary, guarding, respectively, the Mediterranean and Balkan migration routeshave carried out equally barbarous policies against masses of refugees fleeing for their lives. In Greece, hundreds if not thousands of asylum seekers have been subjected to extrajudicial deportations since the beginning of the pandemic. Men, women and children fleeing the effects of imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere have been met at the Greek border with police firing tear gas and deploying razor wire. Refugees and migrants already in the country have been grabbed by police from the street and from detention centers, beaten, robbed of their money and cellphones, stripped of their clothes and forced across the border into Turkey. Meanwhile, coronavirus is running rampant in the overcrowded Greek refugee camps. In Turkey itself, which hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world, conditions are growing increasingly desperate. A survey conducted by the countrys Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants found that 63 percent of refugees said that they had difficulty accessing food during the pandemic, and that more than 88 percent had no employment, compared to 18 percent before the outbreak. Hungary last week bowed to a European Union court ruling that the so-called migrant transit zones on its borders, where refugees seeking entry from Serbia and Croatia were trapped, in some cases for more than a year, living in shipping containers and surrounded by razor wire and heavily armed border guards, were illegal. At the same time, it announced that it would bar access to its territory to anyone seeking asylum, a direct repudiation of the Geneva Conventions. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, where 20,000 have died trying to reach Europe over the past four years, conditions have only become crueler with the pandemic. With both Malta and Italy having closed their ports to migrants on the grounds of the coronavirus threat, hundreds of refugees have been left stranded in the sea for weeks. In a shocking videotaped incident, Maltese patrol boats staged threatening maneuvers around refugees who had found themselves cast into the water from a sinking rubber boat. Thousands of those stopped from reaching Europe have been sent back to Libya since the pandemicwith the aid of a Libyan coast guard" funded by the EUending up in detention centers that are in many cases run by armed militias, where they are assaulted, starved, raped and even sold into slavery. Driving this barbarous treatment of immigrants and refugees are the policies and interests of the ruling classes of all of Western Europe, those of Germany, France and the UK at their head. Within country after country, from the US to Europe to the Persian Gulf oil monarchies, migrant workers face the worst conditions and account for a grossly disproportionate share of COVID-19s victims. This includes the meatpacking plants in the US, previously the targets of ICE raids in which workers were frog-marched out of the factories, and now declared essential services, with workers being forced back onto production lines where hundreds upon hundreds have been infected, and many have died. The same response of capitalism extends to the masses of South Asian workers who are now being unceremoniously thrown out of countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where they have served as the backbone of the workforce, toiling for low wages and without basic rights. And it includes the large number of Eastern European workers laboring under the worst conditions throughout the European Union. Meanwhile, in refugee camps across the globe, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are crowded into spaces where the admonitions of health authorities to combat the coronavirus with social distancing, hand-washing and other basic sanitary precautions are quite beyond their reach. The fascistic conception that the coronavirus can be defeated by sealing national borders from foreign contagion is as unscientific as it is reactionary. The virus respects no national boundaries; it requires neither visa nor passport. As long as it persists anywhere on the planet, it will continue to threaten all of humanity. The coronavirus pandemic poses the necessity of the working class mobilizing its immense social power independently on the basis of a socialist program, irreconcilably opposed to the economic interests of the capitalist class and the capitalist system as a whole. This requires above all the unification of the working class across national boundaries based upon the strategic perspective of the world socialist revolution. An integral part of this perspective is the unconditional defense of the right of workers from every corner of the globe to live and work in the country of their choice, with full citizenship rights, including the right to healthcare, a livable income and the ability to work and travel without fear of repression or deportation. Police officers in Florida shot and injured an armed suspect who pointed a rifle at them after allegedly trying to carjack a Popeyes worker who was waiting for the fast food eatery in Daytona Beach to open on Monday. The victim was waiting outside the Popeyes restaurant at 120 South Ridgewood Avenue at around 8am when the man approached her with his rifle and attempted to steal her car, Daytona Beach police Chief Chief Craig Capri told WKMG. The woman was able to fight the attacker off and get away from him. She then drove to a nearby convenience store and called 911, Capri said. The Daytona Beach Police Department has released body camera video showing an officer-involved shooting that took place on Monday morning An officer opened fire on a carjacking suspect after the man allegedly refused to drop the weapon and pointed it at the cop Together with a sergeant, the officer shot the armed suspect six times (man pictured laying on the ground after being wounded) The armed would-be carjacker then walked toward a nearby Walgreens and WaWa gas station brandishing the rifle, the chief said. Video released by the Daytona Beach Police Department showed arriving officers repeatedly telling the suspect to drop the gun. Instead, the man pointed the rifle at the responding officers, who opened fire, striking him. The body camera footage showed the first officer on the scene yelling, 'Put it down, put the rifle down!' at the suspect at least a half-dozen times before firing the first round. A sergeant arrived on scene as the first shots were fired by the officer. He drew his service handgun and fired at the suspect until he fell to the ground. Prior to the shooting, the suspect allegedly tried to steal a car from a Popeyes employee at a nearby parking lot, but the woman was able to fight him off The man was handcuffed and then taken to a hospital to be treated for his gunshot wounds In total, six shots were fired by the officer and the sergeant. 'When you point a gun at officers, expect to get shot,' Capri said. Paramedics took the suspect to Halifax Health Medical Center for treatment after officers placed him in handcuffs. He underwent surgery and is expected to recover from his injuries. The officers and the female Popeyes worker were not injured. 'Im very proud of my officers, the way they acted today. They were very professional. They did their jobs,' Capri told reporters. 'Its unfortunate that someone had to be shot in this incident, but we didnt start this. The suspect escalated this incident. We tried to deescalate.' Additional details, including the mans name and the names of the officers who were involved in the shooting, were not immediately released. The officers were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting, which is standard procedure, Capri told news outlets. Sterling Bank offers to help Cynthia Morgan Nigerian commercial bank, Sterling Bank has declared its williness to endorse Cynthia Morgan as its ambassador after her saga with Jude Okoye made media headlines. The commercial bank made the disclosure in the late hours of May 25, 2020 on their verified Twitter page. Hey Cynthia Morgan, we have followed your story and believe there is a bright future ahead of you. We would like to work with you on our ONE BANK campaign. Please get in touch by DM. the bank wrote. Recall that over the weekend, the once popular Cynthia Morgan also known as Madrina disclosed how she lost everything to Jude Okoye, the older brother to the now estranged Psquare duo. This has elicited pity from Nigerians who have been following her music career. It could also be recalled that one of Africas most promising artistes, Davido recently promised her a free comeback song. Eid is the most special time of the year for Salman Khan as he feasts with his family, greets his fans outside his Galaxy apartments residence and releases a new film on the occasion. However, this time the actor couldnt be home as he is isolating at his farmhouse in Panvel. Father Salim Khan, who is staying at their Bandra home during the lockdown, revealed that Eid this year was just a regular day for them and there were no special delicacies prepared to mark the festival. On being asked about how they were celebrating Eid in Salmans absence, Salim told The Times of India in an interview, He has been spending a lot of time there. I just spoke with him today on the phone and we exchanged wishes. We are always in touch with each other through our regular phone calls. On being asked if a special dish was being prepared to celebrate Eid, he said, Bilkul nahi, buss regular khaana hi bann raha hai (Not at all, only regular food is being made). Salim has been going on his regular morning walks each day during lockdown and kept up with the routine on Eid as well. Meanwhile, Salman did keep his promise of delivering a new project on Eid. While he couldnt release his scheduled film Radhe Your Most Wanted Bhai due to the lockdown, he treated his fans with a new song. titled Bhai Bhai, on the special occasion. The Sultan star released the song on Eid and wrote in a tweet, Maine aap subb ke liye kuch banaya hai, dekh ke batana kaisa laga... Aap subb ko eid mubarakh ... #BhaiBhai. He further wrote: A special gift for all of you on this auspicious occasion of Eid. Listen to Bhai Bhai and spread the brotherhood. Eid Mubarak to everyone! Also read: Bhai Bhai: Salman Khan bats for Hindi-Muslim brotherhood in special Eid song. Watch Bhai Bhai celebrates the spirit of brotherhood and unity and has been shot with minimal crew and resources at Salmans farmhouse in Panvel. The three-minute-fifty-four second song communicates a significant message and evokes the right emotions of love and compassion in between people belonging to different religions. The song spreads the message of brotherhood and unity. This is the third song that Salman has released amid the lockdown, after Pyar Karona and Tere Bina and has been crooned by him. (With ANI inputs) Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON VALLETTA, Malta, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OKEx (www.okex.com), the world's largest cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange, launched the India Crypto Market Research Report with Coinpaparika, a leading cryptocurrency market research platform. As the first report of the series, OKEx laid a focus on various new markets with a rapid increase worldwide from a global perspective, showing the latest changes in the global cryptocurrency landscape. As one of the fast-growing crypto markets, the driving force of India markets can be attributed to 3 major factors, immigrants, finance, and government policies. The first two bring momentum to the Indian market on demand-side, including the huge demands of cross-border remittance and exchanging foreign currency, while the policies offer the market possibility to provide crypto trading related services. "India has always been a vibrant crypto market. Adopting its scene to our first market research report also conforms to the current growth pattern of the global cryptocurrency market," said Jay Hao, CEO of OKEx. "We are pleased to work with Coinpaprika to provide objective and neutral insights to the market, helping industry players, including crypto exchanges, traders, etc. to better understand the whole picture of this rapidly changing industry." India, the fastest-growing crypto market in the world Cryptocurrency is with two of the most extensive application scenarios in India, scilicet cross-border remittance and exchanging foreign currency. The large population of Indian immigrants around the world creates a demand for cross-border remittance. According to World Bank data, the remittance fees in India in 2019 were as high as USD 5.67 billion, which forced Indians to find a low-cost way of cross-border remittances. Crypto is one of the alternatives. On the other hand, the value of Indian Rupee is not stable. As the exchange rate between India Rupee and USD keeps rising during the COVID-19 epidemic, the real purchasing power of the India Rupee has plummeted. Given that, the Indians have a strong need to convert their Rupee into a more stable fiat currency and Bitcoin has become the best intermediary, allowing Indians to bypass strict foreign exchange regulations. In addition, on March 4, 2020, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) banking ban against cryptocurrency was lifted, stimulating the activity of the Indian crypto market. Crypto ecosystem in India is still under development Currently, the major players in the Indian crypto sector are exchanges, media/influencers, and foundation. Especially after April 2018, the RBI banking ban against cryptocurrency, the Indian crypto ecosystem suffered severe damage. CoinDCX is one of the largest exchanges in India, which is known for DCXfutures. Powered by its strategic partnership OKEx, CoinDCX supports spot, margin, and future trading. Apart from that, other major exchanges include ZebPay, WazirX acquired by Binance, etc. "Since the beginning of this year, we've seen many people from India coming to Coinpaprika to research and learn about cryptocurrencies. It's not surprising for me, however. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies solve many issues they are struggling as a nation," said Matt Sroka, Marketing Director of Coinpaprika. "I believe that with the pace they have, we will see a new giant emerging very soon in the cryptocurrency market." For full report, please see here. END About OKEx The world's largest and most diverse cryptocurrency marketplace, OKEx is where global crypto traders, miners, and institutional investors come to manage crypto assets, enhance investment opportunities, and hedge risks. We provide spot and derivatives trading, including futures, perpetual swap, and options, of major cryptocurrencies, offering investors great flexibility in formulating their strategies to maximize gains and mitigate risks. Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200526/2813046-1-LOGO SOURCE OKEx New Delhi, May 26 : Although air travel has resumed, a majority Indians are skeptical about traveling in the next 30 days. According to a survey by Local Circles, only 21 per cent say one or more members of their household will likely be taking a flight within the next 30 days. The survey finds that most of the people traveling are those who were stranded due to lockdown or have an emergency. Only 10 per cent say one or more members of their household will likely be taking a train in June. With COVID-19 cases hitting new peaks every day, citizens are extremely concerned about travelling. Feedback in discussions on LocalCircles indicates that those who are travelling by flights are primarily the ones who were stranded due to sudden lockdown on March 22 or individuals on temporary assignment/studies in different cities and going back home or those wanting to visit aged or unwell family members or be with them. Feedback from train travelers also indicates a similar situation. With train providing better point to point connectivity than flights especially in Tier 2, 3 and 4 towns, people will be travelling but the reason is once again either to get home or to be with family that may be unwell or high risk. The feedback from those travelling indicates that of the total travel by flights in the next 30 days, business travel would be less than 5 per cent. If the feedback from citizens holds true, it seems that while Indian Railways can afford to run trains with poor utilization, private airlines would have a difficult time in filling up seats, atleast in the next 30 days, Local Circles said. LocalCircles conducted a survey to check with citizens if they or any of their family members had any plans to travel in the next 30 days. The 2-poll survey received around 16,000 votes from 212 districts of the country. The survey asked a question if they have booked a flight ticket for their family's travel between May 26 and June 25. Only 10 per cent said they have booked tickets and will travel soon while 11 per cent said they have not made the bookings yet but will make it soon. A large 76 per cent said they do not have any plans to travel currently. The numbers show that one or more members of around 21 per cent households are likely to take a flight within the next 30 days. The survey posed a question if people have booked a train ticket for themselves or their family's travel between June 1 and June 30. A 88 per cent said they have no plans to travel while only 4 per cent said they have already booked tickets and will travel soon. A small 6 per cent also said that they will be booking their tickets soon. This means that one or more members of only 10 per cent households will likely be taking a train in June. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text LATAM Airlines has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 protection in the United States Latin America's largest airline LATAM filed for bankruptcy in the US on Tuesday, the company said in a statement, following a drastic slump in business caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The world's travel and tourism sectors have been hammered by the contagion, as they are directly affected by border closures and population lockdowns. "Given the impact that the COVID-19-generated crisis has had on the aviation industry, LATAM has been forced to make a series of extremely difficult decisions in the past few months," said the airline's chief executive Roberto Alvo in a video statement. "LATAM Airlines Group and its affiliates in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia entered into a voluntary reorganization under Chapter 11 protection in the United States," he added. Chapter 11 proceedings allow a company that is no longer able to repay its debt to restructure without pressure from creditors. Last month, the Chilean-Brazilian airline said it was scaling back its operations by 95 percent in response to the global health crisis. It also announced hundreds of job cuts earlier in May. The airline said there would be no immediate impact on passenger or cargo flights. "The US Chapter 11 financial reorganization process provides a clear and guided opportunity to work with our creditors and other stakeholders to reduce our debt, address commercial challenges that we, like others in our industry, are facing," its statement said. It came just two weeks after Latin America's second largest airline, Colombia's Avianca, also filed for bankruptcy in the US to reorganize its debt "due to the unpredictable impact" of the pandemic. The International Air Transport Association has forecast a $15 billion loss in revenue for Latin American airlines this year. Before the pandemic, LATAMa merger of Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAMflew to 145 destinations in 26 countries, operating around 1,400 flights a day. On Friday the World Health Organization declared Latin America "a new epicenter" of the coronavirus pandemic, as cases surge across the continentespecially in Brazil, which now has the second highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases after the US. Latin America and the Caribbean have reported more than 41,000 virus deaths and over 766,000 total cases, according to an AFP tally. Explore further LATAM airline suspends international flights 2020 AFP BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend: Turkmenistan and Turkey have discussed cooperation in trade and economic sphere, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. The sides held talks via a videoconference held between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu. The parties reviewed the cooperation between the two countries in political, diplomatic, trade and economic fields, taking into account the existing objective situations at the regional and global levels. The importance of regular contacts held at various levels, as well as intensive resumption of meetings between the public and private sectors of the two states, at the initial stage via videoconference, was noted as well. The ministers noted the high level of interstate relations between the two countries, as well as considered priority areas that can be implemented in the near future. The parties also noted the need for comprehensive measures and joint efforts to counter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. They also emphasized the readiness of countries to use the experience and potential of interaction available in the active bilateral relations to counter the pandemic. The parties agreed to intensify cooperation in priority areas, in order to develop the agreements accepted during a telephone conversation between president of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held on May 24, 2020. During the mentioned phone call, the foreign ministries of the two countries were instructed to further develop relations, especially to strengthen their transport and transit, trade and economic ties. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @JeilaAliyeva The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has issued emergency orders related to COVID-19 for insurance companies providing property/casualty, long-term care, and life and disability insurance. The orders require insurance companies providing these policies to do the following: Provide at least a 60-day grace period to pay any past-due premiums; Pay claims for any covered losses during the first 30 days of the grace period; Extend all deadlines for reporting claims and other communications, and provide members with communication options that meet physical distancing standards. The orders are effective through June 23, but can be extended in 30-day increments as needed to address the COVID-19 outbreak. An emergency order March 25 applied to all lines of insurance other than health, property/casualty, long-term care, and life and disability insurance. That order has been extended to June 23. Topics COVID-19 Oregon 26.05.2020 LISTEN The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the crucial Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 27, 2020 has been improperly and illegitimately called hence its decision not to attend. The Electoral Commission expects to brief the political parties on preparation for the voters registration exercise. The political parties will be divided into two groups to allow for social distancing during the meeting. Peter Boamah Otokunor, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC in a Citi News interview called on the Electoral Commission to put proper mechanisms in place and organise a legitimate IPAC meeting which decision can be accepted by all the stakeholders involved. The last IPAC meeting which was held on 25th March 2020, we raised various concerns which led to political parties boycotting and we (NDC) walked out. That meeting does not constitute a proper IPAC meeting because they had divided one committee into groups you may want to call it double tracking to decide on the same issue. And we think that with any such approach, you are not going to properly appreciate and understand the issue and contributions from various political parties and we believe that, decision making will be problematic. So we decide not to participate in that meeting because we raised a question earlier and we are waiting for a response which did not come so we decided to boycott the meeting because it was not going to serve the purpose for which it was called. Again, we thought the Electoral Commission would have learnt its lessons and now we have been called to another IPAC meeting on Wednesday with the same arrangement that we are going to have the meeting in two halves with some coming in the morning and some coming in the afternoon and we think this is an improper way or organising an IPAC meeting and it gives one the opportunity to perpetrate any mischief in the meeting and we think the National Democratic Congress cannot be part of that meeting. If the Electoral Commission is refusing to put in place the proper mechanism to hold a proper legitimate IPAC meeting which decision can be accepted by all stakeholders, then NDC [officials] are not going to participate in the Wednesday meeting and we have since relayed our concerns to the EC again, he said. ---citinewsroom Ukraine has to either restructure debts before the IMF or claim the default. Viktor Medvedchuk, the MP and Chairman of Political Board of Opposition Platform - For Life party said so during The Pulse, an evening show at 112 Ukraine TV channel. "This country has been staying in the area of U.S. external management. It's been there since 2014, and it still is. (...) the law on the land market, and the law on banks and banking activity. Both of these rudely breach the Constitution, contradict the demands of the basic law, depriving courts of the very opportunity to appeal against certain decisions in terms of banking relations. They (the Ukrainian government, - 112 International) forgive everything that Poroshenko's criminal government had committed in terms of banks. 103 banks are closed, investors are robbed, and the owners are short-changed", he said. The politician added that those who suffered losses can't even go to the court to appeal, because the banking law was approved. 'The MPs not just pass the laws during extraordinary parliamentary sessions. Mr. President comes [to the session hall] (...) and says: "We have to pass it, because the IMF will not give any loans, and there will be a default", Medvedchuk said. 'And what is a default? Default is a voluntary refusal of the country to pay off the foreign debts during the announced period. This is what Ukraine needs. One had to voice out a condition: either you re-schedule our debt commitments, restructure the debts, or we stop paying and announce a default. If there was such a position, the IMF would consider this". The Delhi government on Monday issued guidelines for domestic travel, including by flights, trains and interstate buses, in the wake of coronavirus outbreak New Delhi: The Delhi government on Monday issued guidelines for domestic travel, including by flights, trains and interstate buses, in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. According to the guidelines, asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to go with advice that they shall self monitor their health for 14 days. In case, they develop any symptoms, they shall inform the concerned Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) or state helpline number. "All passengers shall be advised to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile devices. Those having moderate or severe symptoms will be admitted to dedicated COVID health facilities. Those having mild symptoms will be given the option of home isolation or isolated in the COVID Care Centre, both public and private facilities," the guidelines said. Some trains to ferry stranded migrants and others have already started running while domestic air services resumed from Monday after two months. The Railways will operate 200 passenger trains from 1 June. Meanwhile, the DDMA directed all District Magistrates to appoint a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) level officer as nodal officer with a sufficient number of team members for facilitating home isolated persons, with a dedicated mobile number in each district. Take part in Nightingale House Hospice fundraising quiz night from home This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 Nightingale House Hospice supporters can help raise vital funds from the comfort of their own homes in a virtual quiz night tomorrow evening. With so many of the hospices planned fundraising events either cancelled or postponed, the event will be a great way to bring together the community and raise much needed funds. The quiz is free to join live on the hospice Facebook page (@Nightingalehouse) and those taking part will have the opportunity to make a donation during the event tomorrow (Wednesday) evening starting at 7.30pm. The hospice have said, With a show business theme, the quiz will be hosted by local actress, Ruby Snape, whose career spans over 30 years in theatre, TV and Film. The virtual quiz will be filmed from stately home Trevor Hall, near Llangollen. The present owner, Louise Parker and her late husband were tour agents for bands such as The Prodigy, Boyzone, Nirvana, All Saints, Steps and many others. Their home is lined with pop memorabilia from their days in the music industry. There will also be general knowledge questions too, so please put your thinking caps and join in. All donations however large or small will be appreciated. Hospice daily running costs are just over 9,000 so every penny helps. Ruby said: I feel honoured to be hosting the fundraising quiz for Nightingale House Hospice. Having grown up in the area Im thrilled to have the opportunity to support this wonderful charity. Nightingale House has continued patient care throughout these worrying times, especially when hospices are struggling to raise funds. The quiz is going to be a fun, uplifting evening and Im so grateful to have the chance to thank everyone involved, including nurses, support staff, carers and to all the people who give up their valuable time to support this wonderful Hospice. Hospice fundraiser Bethan Scott added: We are so grateful to Louise Parker for enabling this great opportunity to live stream Nightingale Houses second virtual quiz night from the magnificent Trevor Hall. We are also extremely excited to have local film, television and theatre actress Ruby Snape as our quiz host for the evening. It will be another great opportunity to bring our community together and thank them for their incredible support. Ruby trained at the Guildford School of Acting and has worked extensively in television, film, theatre, commercials and voice-over. (You may have seen Ruby in TV: Agatha Raisin, Coronation Street, Casualty, Murderland, Holby City, Bodies, The Worst Week of my Life, Daylight Robbery, Doctors, Dirty Work, Kiss Me Kate, Married for Life, The Bill, Agony Again, Swallow, Grange Hill, Grafters and The Grimleys. Film: Byzantium, Parting Shots, It Might Be You, Covert Assassin, Wild Justice. Theatre: (West End) Ducktastic, Dont Dress for Dinner, Love and Lust in Lewisham, (Rep & Tours) One For The Road, When We Are Married, Seasons Greetings, Noises Off, Rookery Nook, Sailor Beware, Habeas Corpus, Treasure Island, Freedom to Forget, Ding Dong Dead, Cinderella, Much Ado About Nothing, Whale Music, The Heiress, Under Milk Wood.) YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Institute of Molecular Biology of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences will send the test kits produced by it for diagnosing the novel coronavirus disease to the healthcare ministry in coming days, the National Academy of Sciences told Armenpress. We have received all the necessary materials for making 100,000 test kits, currently we are conducting experiments. We are working with the ministry of healthcare and the national center for disease control and prevention, Director of the Institute Arsen Arakelyan told President of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Radik Martirosyan. Arakelyan said after the experiment period they are planning to produce nearly 1000-2000 test kits daily. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan Jay Leno remembers watching Elon Musk unveiling Tesla's new Cybertruck, which set the auto world abuzz, on television in November. But apparently there's nothing like seeing Tesla's first all-electric pickup with his own eyes. "I saw it on TV but nothing strikes you until you see it in person," Leno says in a new episode of "Jay Leno's Garage" that airs on CNBC on Wednesday at 10 pm ET. The former late-night talk show host and longtime auto aficionado travels to Tesla's Hawthorne, California headquarters for the episode. There he's joined by Musk and the Cybertruck, which is slated to begin production in late-2021 and will start at $39,900, for a test drive. In fact, Leno drives the Cybertruck in Musk's The Boring Company test tunnel for a rapid transit system, which runs for 1.1 miles underneath Los Angeles. Elon Musk and Jay Leno "Elon has dared me to take [the Cybertruck] down The Boring Company's test tunnel, right under Los Angeles," Leno says as he and Musk drive the electric pickup into the tunnel, which is roughly 14 feet wide. Musk says the tunnel averages between 50 feet and 60 feet in underground depth. "It'll be quite interesting to see if we actually can fit down there." Musk says, noting that the company had never before even tried to fit the more than six-foot-wide truck through the tunnel. Tesla Cybertruck CNBC FORT MYERS, Fla., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's specialty retailer Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS) (the "Company") will host a conference call with security analysts on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET to review the operating results for the first quarter ended May 2, 2020. The conference call is being webcast live over the Internet, which you may access in the Investors section of the Company's corporate website, www.chicosfas.com. A replay of the webcast will remain available online for one year at http://chicosfas.com/investors/events-and-presentations. The phone number for the call is 1-877-883-0383. International callers should use 1-412-902-6506. The Elite Entry number, 0077814, is required to join the conference call. Interested participants should call 10-15 minutes prior to the 8:30 a.m. start to be placed in queue. ABOUT CHICO'S FAS, INC . Chico's FAS is a Florida-based fashion company founded in 1983 on Sanibel Island, Fla. The Company reinvented the fashion retail experience by creating fashion communities anchored by our Most Amazing Personal Service, which put the customer at the center of everything we do. As one of the leading fashion retailers in North America, Chico's FAS is a company of three unique brands Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma each thriving in their own white space, founded by women, led by women, providing solutions that millions of women say give them confidence and joy. Our Company has a passion for fashion, and each day, we provide clothing, shoes and accessories, intimate apparel and expert styling in our brick-and-mortar boutiques, digital online boutiques and through Style Connect, the Company's proprietary digital styling tool that enables customers to conveniently shop wherever, whenever and however they prefer. As of May 2, 2020, the Company operated 1,332 stores in the U.S. and Canada and sold merchandise through 70 international franchise locations in Mexico and 2 domestic franchise airport locations. The Company's merchandise also is available at www.chicos.com, www.chicosofftherack.com, www.whbm.com, www.soma.com and www.mytelltale.com. To learn more about Chico's FAS, visit www.chicosfas.com. The information on our corporate website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this press release or incorporated into our federal securities law filings. Investor Relations Contact: Tom Filandro ICR, Inc. (646) 2771235 [email protected] Chico's FAS, Inc. 11215 Metro Parkway Fort Myers, Florida 33966 (239) 277-6200 SOURCE Chico's FAS, Inc. Related Links http://www.chicosfas.com Government is implementing a clear strategy to return stranded Ghanaians home from abroad in phases, Mr Charles Owiredu, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has said. Those stranded include Ghanaians who travelled on their own volition, government officials tasked to perform a specific task abroad and students on government scholarship who had completed their course of study. Giving an update on the first batch of Ghanaians who returned home from Kuwait at the Minister's briefing on Tuesday, Mr Owiredu said 230 Ghanaians returned, instead of the 245 initially announced. Upon their arrival in the country last Saturday, the deportees were tested for COVID-19 and conveyed to designated isolation centres for a 14-day quarantine whilst awaiting their test results. They were received in accordance with immigration and health protocols conducted by Immigration and Health personnel at the Kotoka International Airport. The Deputy Minister said Ghanas Missions abroad gathered data on Ghanaians who expressed the desire to return home and would evacuate them in phases. However, he could not mention the specific number of Ghanaians stranded abroad, but said they were in the thousands. He said some were in Yemen, Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Niger and that government had been supporting them with basic necessities of life while awaiting evacuation. Mr Owiredu expressed appreciation to the National Security, Ghana Ambulance Service, Ghana Armed Forces, Ministry of Transport, National Disaster Management Organisation and the Ghana Airport Company for their cooperation in receiving the returnees. Information Minister, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, last Friday told journalists that Ghana had granted permission to the Kuwaiti Government to deport 245 Ghanaians stranded in the Gulf State. The decision to accept the deportees back home, amid the closure of the country's borders to prevent the importation of COVID-19, was reached at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, May 21. This follows weeks of bilateral discussions on the status and welfare of the Ghanaian citizens after Kuwait informed Ghana about its intention to deport the illegal migrants, the cost to be borne by Kuwait. Subsequently, the Government granted a special permit for their return in line with immigration and health regulations and protocols to prevent any threat to the Ghanaian population. The trip, however, falls under the exemptions granted for special evacuation flights of foreign nationals during the border closure. "The deportees will be in the custody of the State for preliminary investigations on the circumstances of their illegal stay in Kuwait, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said. "Upon completion of the investigations, a case by case determination will be made on the status and the further handling of each deportee in accordance with law". He said they would be mandatorily quarantined and tested for COVID-19 and those who would test positive would be supported with treatment, while those who test negative would remain in quarantine for 14 days for a second test and released based on the results. The Minister said the cost of quarantine and treatment would be borne by the Government. 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. Featured Video WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to shelve a judge's order that hundreds of at-risk inmates at a federal prison in Ohio be expeditiously moved because of an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The court left open the door for the Trump administration to try again "if circumstances warrant." It said a new filing could be appropriate later, after the case proceeded through lower courts. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the administration's request now. Courts across the country are seeing a rising number of lawsuits involving the covid-19 risk to prisoners But the Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to stop an order from a federal judge in Ohio regarding an outbreak at one of the worst hit, the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution. One in four inmates tested were positive for the virus, and nine inmates have died. Based on a directive from U.S. District Judge James Gwin, prison officials identified 837 prisoners who were particularly vulnerable because of their age or underlying medical conditions. The low-security prison houses inmates in dormitory-like settings, which lawyers said makes an outbreak of the virus more likely to spread to inmates and corrections workers. "There is a continued risk of harm to others, including prison staff, if inmates remain in the prison and the virus continues to thrive among the dense inmate population," Gwin wrote last month. Last week, he gave corrections officials new deadlines. He noted that even Attorney General William Barr had said prison officials should be identifying prisoners who could be released on home detention or by other means. "By thumbing their nose at their authority to authorize home confinement, [officials] threaten staff and they threaten low security inmates," Gwin wrote. Gwin said officials should consider compassionate release, home confinement or transfer to a different prison. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit refused to put Gwin's order on hold, and the government went to the Supreme Court. In a short order, the Supreme Court said the Department of Justice was appealing only Gwin's original order, not the amended one he issued after he said corrections officials were dragging their feet. "The government has not sought review of or a stay of the May 19 order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit," the unsigned order said. "Particularly in light of that procedural posture, the court declines to stay the district court's April 22 preliminary injunction without prejudice to the Government seeking a new stay if circumstances warrant. In asking the Supreme Court to step in now, Solicitor General Noel Francisco said the lower court had gone too far. "A judicial order peremptorily requiring the removal of over 800 inmates from a federal prison based on an alleged Eighth Amendment violation - in the midst of a pandemic - presents extraordinarily significant questions and should not be imposed without this court's review," Francisco wrote. He added: "This extraordinary pandemic poses risks to those inmates, but it also poses risks to the population as a whole, and BOP [the Bureau of Prisons] has worked diligently to mitigate the risks at Elkton." The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the inmates who initiated the lawsuit, said prison officials have lost control of the situation. "People have a constitutional right to health, safety, and dignity while incarcerated - something that Elkton has proven it cannot provide right now," ACLU legal director David Cole said in a statement. "Around the country, courts have been slow to step in and take responsibility to protect the tens of thousands of incarcerated people who are at risk from this virus." The Bureau of Prisons reported on its website Tuesday that 1,577 federal inmates and 181 staff members have confirmed positive test results for covid-19 nationwide. Additionally, 3,180 inmates and 413 staff have recovered. There have been 64 federal inmate deaths. The Supreme Court last month rejected an application from older Texas prisoners who said corrections officials were not doing enough to protect them from the virus. In April, a district judge in Houston agreed with prisoners that the pandemic threatened hundres of prisoners at a state geriatric prison in Grimes County, Texas. But a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit put the judge's order on hold, saying Texas prison officials were taking steps to address the problem and that federal judges need not intervene in prison management. The Supreme Court rejected the attempt to overturn the circuit decision, but Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed concern about prison conditions. "It has long been said that a society's worth can be judged by taking stock of its prisons," Sotomayor wrote. "That is all the truer in this pandemic, where inmates everywhere have been rendered vulnerable and often powerless to protect themselves from harm." There may be times, she continued when prison conditions "could open the courthouse doors where they would otherwise stay closed." That day, the justices received a new request brought by Louisiana inmate Christopher Marlowe. who is serving his sentence at the state's B.B. Rayburn Correctional Center for attempted second degree murder. Marlowe suffers from diabetes, which makes him susceptible to serious complications should he contract covid-19. As of mid-May in Louisiana, his lawyers told the court, "374 prisoners and 134 Louisiana Department of Corrections staff have contracted the virus. Ten prisoners and three staff have died." But again a panel of the 5th Circuit put on hold a a district judge's order requiring new plans involving hygiene and social distancing. The Supreme Court has not yet addressed the Louisiana request. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:39:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ACCRA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of people infected with the new coronavirus in Ghana has increased to 6,964, with 156 more cases confirmed as of Tuesday morning, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said. The Director-General of the GHS Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said 27 more infected people under treatment had recovered, increasing the number of recoveries to 2,097, while the number of deaths remains at 32. "There are 15 severe cases, but they are not critical, so there is none on ventilators," he said during the bi-weekly COVID-19 press briefing on Tuesday, adding that the country has so far carried out 202,000 tests. Ghanaian citizens and residents are required to wear face masks whenever they go out of their homes, and before entering public places and institutions, to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Enditem BJP MPs participation in Taiwan Presidents swearing in ceremony irks China India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: The Chinese have expressed displeasure after BJP MPs took part in the virtual swearing-in ceremony of Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen. BJP MPs, Meenakshi Leikhi and Rahul Kaswan had attended the ceremony and also sent in congratulatory messages to the President. The two MPs were among the 92 dignitaries, which also included US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. Liu Bing, the counsellor (parliament) of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi registered a protest against India's participation. He called the participation as utterly wrong and said that this ought to be corrected. Virtual rallies to mark Modi 2.0 anniversary The one-China principle enshrined by the UN Charter and its relevant resolutions is a generally recognised norm in international relations and a general consensus of the international community, he also said. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News Kaswan, however, said that facts were being twisted by China. The issue is blown out of proportion and what I did does not violate India's stated position. The Chinese foreign ministry had said that it hoped that everyone would support the just cause of the Chinese people to oppose secessionist activities for Taiwan's independence and realise national re-unification. Liu further reminded the BJP MPs that the Indian government has pledged to adhere to the one-China principle since bilateral ties were established 70 years back. Any wrong signals, including message of congratulations to President Tsai will encourage those separatists to go even further on the wrong and dangerous track, which would undermine peace and prosperity in the region. President Donald Trump is still scheduled to attend a fireworks display on July 3 at Mount Rushmore. Visit Rapid City Executive Director Julie Jensen told the Civic Center Board of Directors on Tuesday that the fireworks show at Mount Rushmore is still scheduled and President Trump is scheduled to attend. She said the event would have audience numbers controlled by a ticketing process even though it will be free. "They will have to shut Mount Rushmore down during the day for Secret Service to sweep the area," she said. "We don't know all of the details yet, but we are still preparing for the president to be here." Jensen said she is optimistic about how the area is reopening after being shut down by the coronavirus. "People coming here have been very safe and everything is very, very clean," she told the board. "Our industries are doing an incredible job keeping people safe." She said they are marketing the area as a great opportunity because so many activities are available to enjoy the great outdoors while maintaining plenty of distance from other people. "The Black Hills are great for socially distant fun," Jensen said. She said the Visitor Center and Visit Rapid City offices are opening June 1. She said the downtown ambassadors program will also resume in mid-June. Tracy Heitsch told the board that the financial status of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center was about where they expected. She said April revenue was down from an average of about $147,000 to only about $100,000 this year. Expenses were only $577,000 compared to a normal expenditure of $800,000. May revenue will depend on the BBB payment, which will be revenue from March activity. "We think expenses will be a little bit better than we thought and revenue will be about the same," Heitsch said. Civic Center Executive Director Craig Baltzer said all 41 employees at the civic center are registered for the furlough program that begins next week. He said they have been careful to stagger the furloughs so that business could still be conducted at the facility. The disparity is not unique to the capital area. Latinos young and old are contracting the virus at alarmingly high rates in places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, although the fatality rate for their community is significantly lower than that of African Americans. In an ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday, 26 percent of Latino adults in the country said they know someone who has died of the virus or from complications related to it. The Kremlin employs its "puppets, toward whitewashing Russia in the MH17 case", the report reads. The Hague District Court on June 8 will resume hearings of the MH17 downing case. In May 2018, the Netherlands and Australia accused Russia of being involved in the crash, while in June 2019, the Joint Investigation Team announced the names of the four suspects (three of them Russian nationals) directly implicated in the destruction of the airliner. Russia's position in the case will remain unchanged the Kremlin has been denying any involvement in the disaster, while also trying to compromise the factual evidence gathered by JIT, News Participation reports. "To this end, Russia has created across Europe a wide network of assets tasked with carrying out a pro-active disinformation campaign," the report reads, adding that Kremlin's main tactic lies in "casting doubt on the evidence gathered by JIT, fabricating alternative versions, and shifting responsibility to other countries." Earlier, Moscow created and widely exploited to generate and spin fake reports about the disaster an online platform Bonanza Media, founded by pro-Kremlin Dutch journalist Max van der Werff and former RT journo Yana Yerlashova. Read alsoJournalists identify FSB's elusive operative "Elbrus": From MH17 to assassinations in Europe The Global Rights of Peaceful People non-profit and the Dutch political party Forum for Democracy (FvD) have also joined the efforts to discredit the JIT probe and spin disinformation. Another asset used to this end is Honorary Consul General of the Russian Federation in Maastricht, Contantijn van Vloten, who has long been a vivid lobbyist of Kremlin's interests in Europe, the report says. "He helps coordinate Russian embassy's events in the Netherlands, as well as contributes to the operations of both Bonanza Media and GRPP," the report reads. Today, van Vloten, married to a Russian wife, owns a restaurant chain hosted by Russian museums, including in Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, the Hermitage, the Catherine and Menshikov palaces, Pavlovsky and Russian museums. "Mr van Vloten had opened these restaurants with Putin's personal approval. Back in the day, Putin chaired the External Relations Committee at the St Petersburg Mayor's Office so he personally signed off the registration certificate for the relevant joint venture," reads the piece. "It's due to these 'business ties', it appears, that the Dutchman has been promoting mainstream Russian narratives. He's been praising the annexation of Crimea, condemning sanctions against Russia, and calling EU officials 'fleas on a bear.' In December 2019, at the grand opening of yet another restaurant, van Vloten treated the guests with chocolate bars with Stalin's portrait on them," the article says. The businessman intends to expand his business operations and "open a restaurant in the occupied Crimea, as well as an international financial center in Kaliningrad." "And this is only a tiny fraction of Moscow's 'active measures' executed including with the assistance of paid puppets, toward whitewashing Russia in the MH17 case," the report says, adding that nevertheless, the official position of the Netherlands remains unchanged. TORONTO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- VEXOS Inc., a Global Electronics Manufacturing services (EMS) provider, has signed an agreement with the Government of Canada to manufacture 10,000 Mechanical Ventilator Milano (MVM) units in the national mobilization to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government of Canada's continuing support for companies producing critical medical supplies will enable Vexos to manufacture and deliver these much-needed ventilators that will assist in the treatment of patients affected by the COVID-19 virus. Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry today stated: "Throughout this period of crisis, we continue to see Canadian companies across the country making tremendous contributions to fight COVID-19. The story of Dr. Art McDonald, his team, and Vexos is one of true innovation. These new, easy to build ventilators are a great example of Canadian innovation at work and will be a key resource for our hospitals to save lives." "We are extremely honored to be working with an international group of innovators who were able to design and develop the MVM Ventilator in a very short timeframe. The order from the Government of Canada is a testament to not only international collaboration, but also collaboration within Canada between governmental, institutional, and business entities focused on delivering rapid solutions in national mobilization efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic," said Paul Jona, CEO & President of Vexos. "During these challenging times, it's important that we contribute where we can to assist our communities. Delivering the MVM Ventilator to support Canada's mobilization against the COVID-19 pandemic is a clear indication of our commitment." "We created a task force to coordinate with our international, national and local partners since March in preparing extra manufacturing capacity and an increased supply chain pipeline to meet the expected demand for the MVM Ventilator," said Wayne Hawkins, SVP & General Manager for Vexos Markham. "We are proud to support Canada in the effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic." The MVM Ventilator, developed by the International MVM Group, is an innovative, simple but powerful ventilator designed to address the specific needs for the care and recovery of severely affected COVID-19 patients. The International MVM group, led by Professor Cristiano Galbiati, originated through an international consortium of Italian, US, and Canadian physicists, engineers, and companies in early March 2020 working collaboratively across the globe to bring the MVM Ventilator from project initiation to FDA approval in a span of 6 weeks. Achieving this result in such a short time was made possible thanks to the cooperation of laboratories, institutes, universities, and companies mainly across Italy, Canada, and the United States, maximizing the benefits that come from sharing skills and resources. The Canadian arm of the International MVM Group is led by Queen's University Professor Emeritus, Dr. Art McDonald, a co-recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Canadian group includes national laboratories and institutes: SNOLAB, TRIUMF, McDonald Institute and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). Dr. McDonald said, "I have enjoyed working with such a skilled and dedicated team of scientists and engineers, including our Canadian manufacturing partners, in this humanitarian effort. Everyone is strongly motivated to make a difference in this difficult situation for Canada and the rest of the world." Vexos will build the MVM Ventilator under an exclusive license agreement with Elemaster Group for the Americas (North, Central, and South America). Vexos is also working closely with JMP Solutions, a London, Ontario company that specializes in industrial robotics, control systems, and systems automation in the manufacture of the MVM Ventilator. "We are honored to be collaborating with Vexos and the MVM team in the manufacture of the MVM Ventilator to support our national mobilization efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic," stated Scott Shawyer, President and CEO of JMP Solutions. The MVM Ventilator which has received FDA approval in the US (under Emergency Use Authorization) will be undergoing Health Canada review for approval under the provisions of the Interim Order issued on March 30, 2020 respecting the importation and sale of medical devices for use in relation to COVID-19. Deliveries of units are expected to commence in July 2020. About VEXOS Inc., Vexos, is an award-winning global Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) and Custom Material Solutions (CMS) company, providing complete end-to-end supply chain management solutions in electronic and mechanical products for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and new emerging technology companies. Vexos services extend over the entire electronic product life cycle, from value engineering services for product development to prototyping and New Product Introduction (NPI) through to the growth, maturity, and end-of-life phases with a strong focus and commitment to quality and customer service satisfaction. With manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, China, and Vietnam, Vexos can efficiently compete in today's marketplace, primarily focused within the medical, industrial, automotive, computing, communications, and aviation/defense markets. To learn more please visit us at www.vexos.com For more information about the MVM Ventilator, please visit https://www.vexos.com/mvm-ventilator Vexos Media Contact Tom Reilly Director of Marketing Vexos Inc. +1-905-479-6203 x 286 [email protected] SOURCE Vexos Related Links http://www.vexos.com Britain's Got Talent star Lettice Rowbotham has welcomed a baby girl. The violinist announced the happy news with a Instagram post on Monday that read: 'she's a little piece of magic'. It is the first child for the 30-year-old musician and her partner, who found fame on BGT six years ago. New mum: Britain's Got Talent star Lettice Rowbotham has welcomed a baby girl. The violinist announced the happy news with a Instagram post on Monday Alongside the post, Lettice penned: 'We're all so in love & we cherish her so much, my beautiful baby girl. 'Our new adventure in life, parenting has just begun & I am the happiest & luckiest girl in the world to be her mummy & start this adventure with her daddy, who has looked after me so so so well!' Revealing that she had wasted no time working on her craft, the violinist continued: 'We're all doing so great and now I'm feeling extra inspired with my music. Sweet: Alongside the post, Lettice penned, 'We're all so in love & we cherish her so much, my beautiful baby girl' Throwback: Lettice found fame on series eight of Britain's Got Talent back in 2014, when she was dubbed 'the show's poshest ever contestant' 'Have already written two songs since she was born (must be mummy super powers!) and I can't wait to start sharing more music with you all on here again soon. 'Thanks so much to everyone for being so supportive during my pregnancy & sending in so many wonderful messages. I feel so loved & supported by you all. Thank you. 'Lots of love from my brand new family '. Cute couple: It is the first child for the 30-year-old musician and her partner, who found fame on BGT six years ago Lettice found fame on series eight of Britain's Got Talent back in 2014, when she was dubbed 'the show's poshest ever contestant'. She reached the final with her incredible violin playing skills, but ultimately lost out to opera group, Collabro. Prior to appearing on Britain's Got Talent, the Royal College of Music graduate has performed for Russian premier Vladimir Putin and Prince Charles. Hey, wine lover! On Friday, May 29 at 5 p.m., join me on thestar.com for a live tasting of two delicious yet inexpensive wines, including a $9 Chilean red and a $12 South African white. The wines I will be tasting are the 2019 Concha Y Toro Frontera After Midnight Dark Red Blend from Chile (LCBO 553917 $8.95) and the 2019 Boschendal The Pavillion Chenin Blanc from South Africa (LCBO 281311 $12). So, grab a bottle of each, then tune in to follow along as I prove that, yes, inexpensive wine can offer great value for your money. Wine tasting is very different than wine drinking. When I taste a wine wearing my critics cap, I pull apart the pleasure experience. I hold each aspect of the wine up against the cold yardstick of imaginary perfection. Hows the colour, fruit, alcohol, and acidity? What about the tannins, balance, complexity, and length? Is it typical? Mature? Good value for money? The whole process is rather clinical but also insightful. Let's go through the process together during this livestream event Friday. If you have any questions, fire me an email before or during the tasting, and Ill do my best to answer it while I'm on the livestream. Im at TorontoStarWineFind@gmail.com Remember: Friday, May 29 at 5 p.m., right here. Bookmark this link, mark your calendar, and get ready to have a little fun. See you then! A proposed change to Californias sacrosanct Proposition 13 that seeks to raise $12 billion annually for schools and local government was already primed to be one of the hottest battles on the November ballot before the coronavirus pandemic hit. But the financial damage brought on by the disease is transforming the fight over a measure that would raise property taxes for many businesses into a struggle over the future of California. Passing the initiative was critical a few months ago, said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, whose city is one of many in California that are teetering on the edge of a financial abyss. Now, it is a matter of life and death for many California families. The initiatives opponents are sounding equally dire messages about how the pandemic has changed the political and economic climate. Changing Prop. 13s formula to raise commercial property owners taxes is tone deaf at a time when countless small businesses are already dying, opponents say. It will increase the cost of living in California, said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which opposes the initiative as part of a coalition called Californians to Save Prop. 13 and Stop Higher Property Taxes. People are already gravely concerned that California is too expensive a place to live. The Schools and Communities First initiative would create a new stream of tax revenue for local governments and public schools by reassessing commercial and industrial properties in California every three years instead of whenever they are sold, the system voters put in place when they approved Prop. 13 in 1978. Now, property assessments are capped at 2% a year. Properties now assessed at less than $3 million would be exempt from the initiative an attempt by backers to shield smaller commercial property owners from higher taxes. The proposed initiative wouldnt touch residential property taxes. Many homes change hands every few years, so theyve been repeatedly reassessed since Prop. 13s passage. Large businesses, however, often remain under the same ownership for a long time. Some California businesses are paying property taxes based on assessments that havent changed in 40 years. Proponents have submitted far more than the 997,139 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot, and should know by Friday whether enough of them have been verified as valid to put it before voters. An April survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 53% of likely voters would support such a measure, nearly the same support that a similar survey found a year ago. A new $12 billion revenue stream sounds great to many city and school officials. Californias estimated $54 billion deficit could lead to deep cuts in school budgets as much as $19 billion. San Francisco is looking at a $1.7 billion shortfall, and Oakland has to solve a $122 million budget problem over the next 14 months which is more than the cost of paying half the citys police force for a year. The worst thing we can do in this crisis is to simply cut health and other vital services it endangers our public health and a potential recovery, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California and a supporter of the initiative. Raising business property taxes would not only provide an important lifeline for people who depend on the safety net, but frankly for all of us, he said. Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Sasha Cuttler, a public health nurse in San Francisco, experiences the pandemics impact every day. Half the calls Cuttler fields on advice lines are from people who either fear that they have COVID-19 or need help finding services to treat it. Cuttler worries about potential cuts to public health programs. For many nurses, the prevalent feeling is one of betrayal, Cuttler said. Were constantly told that we need to save money. How are we supposed to save lives if we dont have enough money? Opponents of the proposed initiative point out that the pandemic has hit small businesses hard, too. An April survey by the Small Business Majority advocacy group found that 44% of small-business owners, most of whom employed fewer than 25 people, either had closed their operations or expected to by July. A report last week by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 56% of California small businesses have experienced large negative losses from the pandemic. Small businesses owned by women, Asian Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately hurt, according to the policy institutes analysis. Even though the initiatives changes are directed at larger commercial and industrial property owners, Lapsley, the California Business Roundtable leader, predicted that its costs will trickle down to small-business owners who rent space in those buildings. They will pay for it and pass (the cost) along to consumers at exactly the wrong time, Lapsley said. Proponents say the $3 million floor for properties subject to higher taxes would assure that the burden would fall on wealthier owners. A February study by the University of Southern California found that 78% of the tax revenue generated by the initiative would come from properties valued at more than $5 million. Nevertheless, representatives of Californias $50 billion agricultural industry are also fearful of the initiatives impacts at a time when farmers expect upward of $10 billion in losses because of the pandemic, said Rob Spiegel, a policy advocate for the 36,000-member California Farm Bureau Federation, which opposes the initiative. Although the proposed measure would exempt agricultural land from its provisions, Spiegel worries that it would not apply to what is planted on that land. But those concerns are completely distorting the initiatives provisions regarding agriculture, said Lenny Goldberg, a policy consultant to the supporters. Lapsley said supporters are overstating how soon the proposal could provide help. If the initiative passes, the new property tax revenue wouldnt start pouring in until 2022 at the earliest, by which time budgets might be recovering in a post-pandemic world. Schaaf, however, said the measure represents the kind of fundamental shift that California needs to make, pandemic or no pandemic. This is a moment to actually make people uncomfortable, Schaaf said. Businesspeople should be uncomfortable about the level of income inequality that we have. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli Queensland's construction industry might not be in the best shape to handle the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on its housing market and the economy, according to experts. A report from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) said that total dwelling approvals in the state have dropped by 1.8% in March. A possible culprit could be the predicted halt of immigration, but that fails to explain why Australia as a whole still saw an increase in that same period, REIQ said. While Australia is starting to recover from last years slump in approvals, Queensland has failed to keep up. On an annual basis, dwelling approvals across Australia grew by 1% Queensland, on the other hand, experienced a decrease of 7.8%. Paul Bidwell, deputy chief executive officer of Master Builders, said in the report that the state's residential sector lacks the strong foundations necessary to face the potential risks of the COVID-19 outbreak. The 12-month total of dwellings in Australia isn't far off the post-GFC low point and that's without the impact of COVID-19, which we don't expect to really begin to hit until August or September 2020, he said. Bidwell explained that the projections of a high unemployment rate and the slowdown in population growth could potentially drag home construction by 26% this year and 31% next year. This will take us down to a level not seen in the 35 years that current records have been collected, he said. Mike Roberts, executive director for Queensland at the Housing Industry Association (HIA), said there is a need for the government to introduce stimulus to boost the building industry in the state. "The long lead times associated with building a home means that stimulus is required now to lessen the impact later in the year. We can't wait until the industry grinds to a halt before a stimulus is introduced; that would be a catastrophe," he said in the report. Roberts said an economic stimulus is crucial to ensure the security of the residential building industry that employs over 200,000 people. The tradies who do the concreting, bricklaying, the carpenters, electricians, plasterers, plumbers and painters will all be out of work. The ramifications for the Queensland economy will be widespread if action isn't taken sooner rather than later, he said. The state government recently announced a $400m stimulus package aimed at boosting the local economy and creating jobs. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that the stimulus boost would see new projects added to the state's $23 billion, 21,500-job pipeline of transport and road upgrades. Nothing has been off the table in our response to this crisis. We've spoken to businesses to create a package that will see more than 430 jobs enter the fold at a time when it's never been more important, she said. Our laser focus is on managing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's investing in infrastructure and jobs that are crucial to tackling those economic impacts head-on. In March, the most recent month for which statistics are available, passenger volume dropped by more than half at both Dulles and National, compared with the same period in 2019. Roughly 456,000 passengers flew through National in March, down from just over 1 million in 2019 a 56.5 percent drop. Passenger traffic at Dulles dropped by more than a million to 928,709 less than half of what it was last March. The biggest decline at both airports came among international travelers. Its a pattern that has played out at airports across the country. The argument between Missouri and China over the coronavirus is intensifying as hard words begin to cast doubt on a deal intended to ease trade troubles. Last month Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party and other officials, claiming China suppressed information, arrested whistleblowers, and denied the contagious nature of COVID-19, ushering in a pandemic. Torontos Trinity Bellwoods park was filled with non-distancing lovers of the outdoors this past weekend, a scene that was profoundly disappointing to political leaders. While their disappointment was understandable, it was also a bit rich. When it comes to leadership by example during this pandemic, some notable Canadian politicians have amassed an array of examples of what not to do. Why does this keep happening? Mayor John Tory is the latest public figure to sheepishly acknowledge he had strayed from his own advice when he played fast and loose with mask-wearing in that same crowded park over the weekend. And hes not alone in the pack of leaders who have failed to walk their own talk during this crisis. Justin Trudeau crossed the Ontario-Quebec border to spend Easter with his family at Harrington Lake, even though that option was not open to other families with property in Quebec. Premier Doug Ford visited his own cottage that same long weekend to check the plumbing, he said and then on Mothers Day, held a gathering at his own house that was larger than public-health-prescribed limits. Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer piled his family into a not-physically distant plane ride from Saskatchewan to Ottawa in April. Its debatable whether Canadians were ever inclined to blindly do as politicians say, but its certainly not the case in 2020, even in a national crisis. But while we dont expect them to order us around, we do expect things from politicians: first, to be consistent, and second, to behave as though theyre equal to us, even when they obviously enjoy certain advantages. Flouting the guidelines of the pandemic violates both of those rules of political engagement. So why does it keep happening, even with leaders such as Ford, whos built his whole brand around for the people populism? One obvious explanation is that our leaders really are mortals like us, struggling with a world whose rules have already been shifted on their axis, and worse, keep shifting. The whole saga around mask-wearing is a prime example of the sliding scale of pandemic behaviour. Two months ago, we were told masks were useless; now they offer some sort of protection is it for ourselves, or for others, or both? Who can remember? Tory wont be the first or last Torontonian to have trouble getting the hang of the whole mask etiquette. Pandemic rules are also new, complex, and contradictory. Why can you buy a TV at Walmart and not from your local electronics dealer? Why is my neighbour going to work at a crowded grocery store while Im staying away from my empty office tower? Ford doesnt appear to have paid any political price for his two forays outside the COVID-19 guidelines, likely because people can identify with him not being clear on the rules and exceptions. One common theme emerges through much of the leaders flouting of pandemic rules family. Trudeau, Ford and Scheer committed their COVID-19 sins for the sake of those nearest and dearest to them their own children. Trudeau did an Easter egg hunt with his kids at Harrington Lake; Ford had his daughters over for Mothers Day; Scheer wanted to make sure his young children were with him when he went back to Ottawa for the long haul. Kids arent always shields for political controversy, but its hard to be angry at fathers who stay close to their children in troubling times. Trudeau has been an interesting case study on the matter of leadership by example during COVID-19. Forced into isolation at the outset because of his wifes positive test, the prime minister has continued to work from home, holding daily briefings outside Rideau Cottage in what his aides call modelling behaviour. The idea is that if Canadians see their top political leader working from home, theyll understand this is normal during the lockdown. Theres nothing normal about Trudeaus job right now, of course and Trudeau-haters still try to whip up accusations that hes hiding or skipping work. But they would probably be accusing him of spreading the virus if he went to the office anyway. None of the errant leaders has been all that forthcoming with the basic question around each pandemic gaffe: What were you thinking? So were left to guess. It may be something as simple as believing they were owed some latitude given all the extraordinary roles theyre playing right now. All of them know that theyre going through an experience for which there is no precedent, no guidebook. Its been two months of hard realization that the world is not perfect neither the world before the pandemic nor the world we are learning to manage during it. As it turns out, our leaders arent either. Susan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based columnist covering national politics for the Star. Reach her via email: sdelacourt@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: Ghanaians who travelled on their own volition and are now stranded due to the covid-19 induced border closures, government officials tasked to perform a specific task abroad and students on government scholarship who had completed their course of study. Giving an update on the first batch of Ghanaians who returned home from Kuwait at the Minister's briefing on Tuesday, Mr Owiredu said 230 Ghanaians returned, instead of the 245 initially announced. Upon their arrival in the country last Saturday, the deportees were tested for COVID-19 and conveyed to designated isolation centres for a 14-day quarantine whilst awaiting their test results. They were received in accordance with immigration and health protocols conducted by Immigration and Health personnel at the Kotoka International Airport. The Deputy Minister said Ghana's Missions abroad gathered data on Ghanaians who expressed the desire to return home and would evacuate them in phases. However, he could not mention the specific number of Ghanaians stranded abroad, but said they were in the thousands. He said some were in Yemen, Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Niger and that government had been supporting them with basic necessities of life while awaiting evacuation. Mr Owiredu expressed appreciation to the National Security, Ghana Ambulance Service, Ghana Armed Forces, Ministry of Transport, National Disaster Management Organisation and the Ghana Airport Company for their cooperation in receiving the returnees. Information Minister, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, last Friday told journalists that Ghana had granted permission to the Kuwaiti Government to deport 245 Ghanaians stranded in the Gulf State. The decision to accept the deportees back home, amid the closure of the country's borders to prevent the importation of COVID-19, was reached at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, May 21. This follows weeks of bilateral discussions on the status and welfare of the Ghanaian citizens after Kuwait informed Ghana about its intention to deport the illegal migrants, the cost to be borne by Kuwait. Subsequently, the Government granted a special permit for their return in line with immigration and health regulations and protocols to prevent any threat to the Ghanaian population. The trip, however, falls under the exemptions granted for special evacuation flights of foreign nationals during the border closure. "The deportees will be in the custody of the State for preliminary investigations on the circumstances of their illegal stay in Kuwait, Mr Oppong Nkrumah said. "Upon completion of the investigations, a case by case determination will be made on the status and the further handling of each deportee in accordance with law". He said they would be mandatorily quarantined and tested for COVID-19 and those who would test positive would be supported with treatment, while those who test negative would remain in quarantine for 14 days for a second test and released based on the results. The Minister said the cost of quarantine and treatment would be borne by the Government. ---GNA BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 26 Trend: Azerbaijan is ready for new technologies and innovations, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev during the videoconference with Chief Executive Officer of Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) Eric Rondolat, General Manager for the CIS Eric Benedetti and other executives of Signify, Trend reports. I remember our meeting in Davos. I am told that we have made good progress since then. Despite the fact that the situation associated with coronavirus somewhat interfered with our plans, I am told that everything we discussed and agreed on is currently being implemented, said President Ilham Aliyev. Touching upon the installation of LED lamps in Baku, thanks to which a large amount of energy will be saved, the head of state said he is glad that everything is on schedule. I have been informed that after the meeting in Davos, your team visited us in March. As you noted, the first stage will already be implemented before the end of September. It includes thousands of new street lighting lamps in Baku. This will primarily cover the areas with poor street lighting. At the same time, as you noted, we will save a lot of energy, which will benefit our people. As we discussed, after this first project we have major plans on expanding our joint activities and covering Baku and other cities. At the initial stage, we may cover large cities. We talked about street lighting in Sumgayit. As far as I know, the evaluation process is now underway. So I hope we will have long-term cooperation in this area, said President Ilham Aliyev. Speaking about establishing lighting systems by Signify for ensuring road safety in Baku, the head of state said he is aware that the company has already implemented several projects in Azerbaijan together with the public and private sectors. However, the project we discussed in Davos and are jointly implementing now is, of course, the largest project. As we discussed earlier, it has great potential for the future because this is the first experience. I am sure that this will be a very successful experience and municipal authorities and city governments will benefit from this in the future. It has been noted that we will save a large amount of energy and fuel produced for other purposes, of exports and improve the life of the city, said President Ilham Aliyev. Touching upon the serious measures taken in Azerbaijan in the fight against the pandemic, the head of state noted that the virus has affected all countries. It is clear that it will not disappear and we will have to live with the virus. Therefore, I believe that these precautions, of course, have entered our lives for a long time. For this reason, we need modern preventive tools that would meet the most complex technological requirements. We are doing our best to protect our citizens. From the very beginning, we took very important preventive measures, which allowed us the opportunity to protect our citizens and find a way out of this situation with minimal losses. Our efforts were also acknowledged by the World Health Organization, which has described Azerbaijan as an exemplary country in the fight against coronavirus. Of course, I fully support your technology initiative to assist in the self-defense of humanity, said President Ilham Aliyev. The meeting participants also touched upon the issues of cooperation in the field of a significant increase in agricultural productivity, including the field of livestock breeding, poultry and agriculture, the production of environmentally friendly agricultural products, reduction of water consumption, application of modern technologies to the field of agriculture and the training of young personnel. The head of state noted that thanks to the reforms carried out in this field, we see that more and more young people want to become agricultural specialists, and the number of young people choosing this profession at the Agrarian University is growing. We are applying a new e-agriculture system. This helps us a lot in increasing the effectiveness of an important area of our life and economy, because it is possible to say that 50 percent of our population lives in rural areas. Therefore, I am sure that this will become a very important new project we can jointly implement. In general, Azerbaijan is ready for new technologies and innovations. We have already created a powerful human capital for this, and our technologies related to state and social services are now being used by a number of other countries. Therefore, we are absolutely open to new technologies, as they lead to new prospects, dynamism, progress, jobs and welfare, said President Ilham Aliyev. The head of state pointed out that he highly values the personal relations with Chief Executive Officer of Signify, saying that they are focused on the result. I believe that your modern technologies aimed at improving people's lives, strengthening the economy, saving resources and obtaining better results in agriculture make a good unity with our countrys desire to become one of the leaders in the application of these technologies. I know that your company is one of the global leaders in this area. Therefore, the more new technologies you invent, the more opportunities there will be for our cooperation. Thank you for that. I look forward to seeing in person soon, said President Ilham Aliyev. Modified On May 27, 2020 11:20 AM By Dhruv Attri for Skoda Karoq The mid-size Skoda SUV is only available with a 1.5-litre TSI petrol engine Skoda Karoq launched in a single, fully-loaded variant coming in through the CBU route. It gets all-LED illumination, panoramic sunroof, virtual cockpit and an 8-inch touchscreen. Safety equipment comprises nine airbags, ESP, ABS with EBD and TPMS. Its 1.5-litre TSI petrol is mated to a 7-speed DSG. The Karoq is an alternative to the Jeep Compass and the facelifted Hyundai Tucson. After months of dilly-dallying, Skoda has finally launched the Karoq at an introductory price of Rs 24.99 lakh (ex-showroom India). Available in a single, fully-loaded variant, it is a CBU (completely built-up unit) just like its sibling, the Volkswagen T-ROC. In terms of design and proportions, it looks like a scaled-down version of the Kodiaq. Just like any Skoda, the Karoq has oodles of equipment, including all-LED illumination units for the front headlamps and daytime running lamps and tail lamps, puddle lamp, 17-inch alloy wheels and contrasting silver roof rails. Inside, you get leatherette upholstery, 10 LED ambient lighting options, 12-way electrically adjustable drivers seat, an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment unit with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, virtual cockpit instrument cluster, wireless charging, two-zone climate control, cruise control, panoramic sunroof and even connected technologies. It also features 521 litres of boot space which can be increased to a massive 1630 litres. For safety, it packs a whopping nine airbags (highest in the segment), ISOFIX child seat anchors, electronic stability control, driver fatigue alert, tyre pressure monitoring system, and a rear parking camera. Under its hood, youll find the 1.5-litre, four-cylinder TSI petrol engine that also performs in the VW T-Roc. This engine deploys 150PS/250Nm and is paired with a 7-speed DSG unit. This engine features active cylinder technology that shuts down two of the four cylinders under lower load to improve efficiency. The company claims 16.95 kmpl (WLTP cycle) of fuel economy for the Karoq, which could vary under the ARAI cycle in India. Theres no diesel engine or petrol manual on offer even as an option. Colour options on offer include Candy White, Magnetic Brown, Magic Black, Lava Blue, Brilliant Silver and Quartz Grey. The Skoda Karoq gets a 4-year service program which includes warranty, roadside assistance and an optional servicing package as standard. The Skoda Karoq rivals the likes of Jeep Compass and the upcoming Hyundai Tucson facelift. Will you pick it over the rivals? Let us know in the comments. The Karoq is just one of the three cars launched by Skoda today. Accompanying the SUV are two sedans: the facelifted Superb and Rapid TSI. Read More on : Karoq on road price China's onetime cosy relations with Israel are now in steep decline and in line with a pattern which is emerging from Japan to India where China appears to be on an unexplained path of aggression. The Jerusalem Post, quoting a US official with knowledge of talks on the matter, said in a report that Washington had last week asked Israel to sever ties with China, especially in areas with security risks. Even during his trip to Israel on May 13, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had asked Tel Aviv to reconsider some of its joint projects with Beijing. The recent pressure from US marks an escalation of the heightened feud between Washington and Beijing over the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. It also focuses on the establishment of a more robust review process for foreign investments that could pose risks, and a reduction of reliance on China for emergency equipment in light of the pandemic, jeopardizing ties between Jerusalem and Beijing. Chinese companies are operating in Israel today in deals reaching more than USD20 billion and more is on the way. Jerusalem has gone so far as to even allow Chinese companies that do business in Iran to compete for major infrastructure projects in the State of Israel. As per media reports, the US request is based on two motivations. The first seems to be a desire to punish China for hiding news of the original outbreak of the novel coronavirus from the world and then not doing enough to stop it from reaching US shores. US President Donald Trump, for example, has long called COVID-19 a "Chinese virus," going so far as to accuse President Xi Jinping for standing behind a "disinformation and propaganda attack on the United States and Europe." "It all comes from the top," Trump tweeted last week. "They could have easily stopped the plague, but they didn't!" Earlier this month, Pompeo told ABC's This Week that there is "enormous evidence" that the virus came from a Chinese lab in Wuhan, the original site of the outbreak," he added. The US is upset with China and wants it to pay a price. The best way to do that is to hurt its pocket and to get American allies like Israel to reconsider their trade and joint infrastructure projects with China. The second motivation is the fear from Chinese espionage. Back in 2000, after the cancellation of the planned sale of the Phalcon AWACS China, Israel made a decision not to sell Beijing any military equipment. It was a decision based on an ultimatum that if Israel continued selling weaponry to China it would lose American support. The US and Israel share some of the most sensitive intelligence with one another. In addition, American defense contractors sell Israel some of the most classified military hardware and weapons in the US like the F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter jet. The US is concerned that with China building most of Israel's infrastructure - roads, trains, tunnels, ports and more - it will eventually gain access to the lines of communication through which Israel and the US communicate intelligence with one another. That is something that Washington will not tolerate. "I don't think polite deflection will cut it anymore," he stated. "This is a high priority for the US," a senior State Department official was quoted as saying by the Post. "Israel's government now includes two former chiefs of Staff - Gabi Ashkenazi and Benny Gantz - who more than others, understand the importance of Israel-US ties. China is an important trade partner for Israel and we hope it will remain that way but clearer lines need to be drawn and there is no better time to do so than the present," the official added. -ANI Also Read: WHO suspends trial of hydroxychloroquine temporarily Arho Anttila, Pipedrive's General Manager for Africa and Asia, confirms that Pipedrive has expansion plans in the African market as the continent has shown steady and rapid growth in the past years with a vastly developing SMB sector and improving living standards. "Thanks to 'Ambitious Africa' we can build our network and learn more about the specifics of sales in each of these African countries while enabling this great continent to reach its full potential." On May 26, Ambitious Africa held its first Global Matchmaking Summit which brought together more than one thousand Nordic and African entrepreneurs, students, and policymakers. "Pipedrive is extremely excited to partner with such a unique large-scale initiative, which aims to empower the transformation of African countries by creating contacts, collaborations, and fostering entrepreneurial mindset among the youth in two continents," says Anttila. As part of the partnership, teams of 54 African countries participating in the program use Pipedrive CRM for managing their projects and contacts. For Pipedrive, South Africa has for years been among its top 20 markets globally but the company also sees several other African countries with huge CRM adoption potential, starting with Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya. "Most sales professionals in Africa are still not benefitting from CRMs that could significantly increase their effectiveness, help them to sell better, and significantly expand their business. It is time to change that and let local professionals take advantage of our CRM's generous suite of smart marketing and sales management tools that are reasonably priced and easy to use." About Pipedrive Inc. Founded in 2010, Pipedrive is the first CRM platform developed from the salesperson's point of view. Today, Pipedrive is used by sales teams at more than 90,000 companies worldwide. Pipedrive, the top-rated CRM, is headquartered in New York and has offices in London, Lisbon, Prague, Riga, Dublin, Tallinn, Tartu, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Learn more at www.pipedrive.com . About Ambitious Africa Ambitious Africa was founded in 2020 with a goal to initiate and support Nordic and African youth-led large-scale grassroots projects with social impact in Africa. It is an umbrella organization of 15 entrepreneurship societies from the Nordics and young change-makers and organizations across Africa. Within a few months, the initiative has started operations in 14 African countries with plans to spread to all 54 African nations. The organization provides stakeholders with a platform to make relevant connections to develop projects in a specific country, supports scaling of successful initiatives across Africa, and offers consulting and impactful internships to Nordic students. Ambitious Africa has been supported by Peter Vesterbacka, angel investor and founder of Slush, the world's leading startup and tech event. SOURCE Pipedrive Related Links https://www.pipedrive.com The dispute over how much coronavirus aid private school students should receive intensified over Memorial Day weekend, following U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announcement that she would soon propose a rule to resolve the issue. In a May 22 letter to a group representing state education leaders, DeVos announced that the U.S. Department of Education would issue a proposed rule on the subject in the next few weeks, and that her department would invite public comments on the issue. And she reiterated her position that a relief package passed by Congress in March was designed by lawmakers to benefit all private school students within local school district boundaries, not just certain private school students. She said she hoped this process would settle the disagreement before the start of the next school year. But DeVos also seemed intent on taking her state counterparts down a peg. In her letter, she took direct aim at the state leaders motives as well as their understanding of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Yet in a response to DeVos the same day, the state chiefs groups executive director declined to back down. The Education Department issued nonbinding guidance outlining its view roughly a month ago, and private school advocates have hailed the directive , which stressed that all students are struggling during the pandemic. But state and local leaders have sharply and repeatedly criticized it. Theyve argued that congressional intent was to have the aid provide equitable services to disadvantaged and at-risk private school studentsthe students typically eligible for those services under the main K-12 lawnot private school students in general. Advocates have also accused DeVos of exploiting the pandemic and CARES aid to shore up private schools fearful that they could be forced to close permanently, at the expense of traditional public schools . The fight over roughly $13 billion in federal COVID-19 aid revives long-running and bitter disputes over DeVos stance on traditional public schools, and whether she is intent on redirecting resources and other benefits to private schools and other educational models. At least two states have said recently they plan to ignore the late April guidance, and at least one stateTennesseehas said it will follow the directive. However, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee, said last week that he differs from DeVos about equitable services under the CARES Act. Congress has the power to overturn DeVos guidance, although Alexander did not say he supported a move to do either of those things. Federal lawmakers can also nullify regulations from agencies like the Education Department. Equitable services, which districts provide through things like tutoring and technology licenses, benefit students and dont involve cash transfers to private schools. However, private schools (which can decline to participate in equitable services for its students) could benefit tremendously during difficult economic times if all their students became eligible for those services during the pandemic and its aftermath. Before the rule is finalized, DeVos says that states or districts that dont plan to follow the guidance on equitable services should put CARES money in escrow. That escrow money, she said, should equal the difference between funding for equitable services for the smaller group of private school students typically eligible for those services, and the broader group of such students DeVos says is eligible for CARES aid. In that way, she said, at least some students would begin receiving equitable services to which they are entitled. But that advice might not sit well with state and local school leaders making plans now for how to use emergency CARES relief. Share as Little as Possible In her May 22 letter to the Council of Chief State School Officers that was her response to the groups previoius criticism of the guidance, DeVos said the new rule would be released in the next few weeks and that her department would invite public comment on it. In her letter, DeVos said that when lawmakers said that equitable services should be provided in the same manner as under the Every Student Succeeds Actthe main federal K-12 lawCongress made it plain that since the CARES Act is designed to benefit all students, not just disadvantaged and at-risk children, then eligibility for equitable services is also meant to be universal. Therefore, to make services equitable in comparison to public school students, it follows that the same principles must apply in providing equitable services to all non-public school students and teachers, she wrote. But DeVos not only outlined her agencys interpretation of the law. She also took aim at what she called state K-12 leaders reflex to share as little as possible with students and teachers outside of their control. DeVos returned to the theme of reflexes later in the letter, stating, Although I understand their reflex to share as little as possible with students and teachers outside of their control, I would remind states and LEAs [districts] that their non-public school peers have also been overwhelmed by COVID-19. All students and teachers have had their learning disrupted. (Not all public school districts appear to be eligible for the $13 billion pot of CARES aid for school districts, as the department itself stated earlier this month.) In a statement responding to DeVos May 22 letter, CCSSO Executive Director Carissa Moffat Miller repeated the groups position that DeVos guidance on COVID-19 last month was a misinterpretation of the CARES Act. Miller added that the departments position could significantly harm the vulnerable students who were intended to benefit the most from the critical federal COVID-19 education relief funds Congress has provided. Read DeVos May 22 letter below: Photo: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testifies at a House Appropriations Subcommittee budget hearing in February. --Graeme Sloan/Education Week Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa . It may sound strange, considering her lolly shop is closing because of COVID-19, but Nina Menezes' fellow traders see her as one of the lucky ones. After eight years in King Street, just off Chapel Street in Prahran, Red Balloon Candy Artisans will close its doors this Friday to become an online-only retailer. Red Balloon lolly shop owner Pascal Menezes is closing his Prahran store and moving his artisan business online. Credit:Justin McManus With their lease up for renewal and rent payments becoming increasingly onerous, Ms Menezes and her husband, Pascal, decided to hand in the keys after corporate and wedding sales collapsed because of the pandemic. It will mean yet another "for lease" sign on a shop window in a precinct that was once one of Melbourne's glitziest retail hubs. [May 26, 2020] Walmart MoneyCard Adds 2% High Yield Savings Account, Free Cash Deposits and Family Accounts Walmart (NYSE:WMT), together with Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT), today announced updated features and benefits for the Walmart MoneyCard Reloadable Debit Card program. The Walmart MoneyCard, issued by Green Dot Bank, member FDIC, will now provide accountholders with a 2% annual percentage yield on money saved in the integrated savings account, up to four additional MoneyCards for family members 13 years of age and older, free cash deposits and the ability to add money to your card from an existing bank account. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005264/en/ The Walmart MoneyCard, issued by Green Dot Bank, member FDIC (Photo: Business Wire) The Walmart MoneyCard, already the number one retailer-branded debit card available in the U.S., has made banking from your mobile phone even more attractive and easier than ever. With its easy-to-use online and in-app money management tools, it allows users to make the most of their money. Now, in addition to gaining Prize Savings sweepstakes entries for dollars saved in the savings account, MoneyCard cardholders will earn 2% interest (APY) on savings1. The new High Yield Savings Account is just another example of how Walmart and Green Dot are supporting the financial wellness of our customers through financial services innovation. "Now more than ever, consumers are looking for ways to manage their money for less, while saving as much as they can. The new Walmart MoneyCard allows customers to do both," said Mike Keeslar, General Manager of Consumer Products, Green Dot. "Whether you have a specific savings goal in mind, or just want to set aside cash for an unexpected emergency, we have a free and easy savings solution, combined with other features Walmart customers depend on to more effectively manage their money." Available at Walmart stores or online at WalmartMoneyCard.com, features and benefits of the updated Walmart MoneyCard include: ASAP Direct Deposit: Get your pay up to 2 days before payday or your government benefits up to 4 days early with ASAP Direct Deposit. Get your pay up to 2 days before payday or your government benefits up to 4 days early with ASAP Direct Deposit. High Yield Savings: 2% Interest on Savings within the Walmar savings account included within the MoneyCard App. You can easily move money into and out of your savings account at any time by simply tapping the Save or UnSave button. 2% Interest on Savings within the Walmar savings account included within the MoneyCard App. You can easily move money into and out of your savings account at any time by simply tapping the Save or UnSave button. Free Cash Deposits: Cash deposits to your MoneyCard are now free at any Walmart Money Center or Customer Service area when using the MoneyCard mobile app. The mobile app generates a unique barcode for the cashier to scan and funds are available within 10 minutes. Cash deposits to your MoneyCard are now free at any Walmart Money Center or Customer Service area when using the MoneyCard mobile app. The mobile app generates a unique barcode for the cashier to scan and funds are available within 10 minutes. Free Family Accounts: The primary cardholder can assign up to four additional MoneyCards to family members 13 years and older for free, giving busy families a digital alternative to cash to manage and share their money. The primary cardholder can assign up to four additional MoneyCards to family members 13 years and older for free, giving busy families a digital alternative to cash to manage and share their money. Cash Back Rewards: The 3-2-1 Save cash back program provides all qualifying cardholders in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with 3% Cash Back at Walmart.com, 2% Cash Back at Walmart fuel stations, and 1% Cash Back at Walmart stores, up to $75 each year. The 3-2-1 Save cash back program provides all qualifying cardholders in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with 3% Cash Back at Walmart.com, 2% Cash Back at Walmart fuel stations, and 1% Cash Back at Walmart stores, up to $75 each year. Monthly Fee Waiver: Waive your monthly fee when you deposit $1,000 or more to your account each month. Waive your monthly fee when you deposit $1,000 or more to your account each month. Bank Transfers: Use the app to add money to your Walmart MoneyCard from your existing bank account. Use the app to add money to your Walmart MoneyCard from your existing bank account. Prize Savings: In addition to earning 2% interest on savings and cash back rewards on spending, customers also earn entries into the monthly Prize Savings sweepstakes. Once in the savings account, each dollar earns an entry for one of 1,000 cash prizes every month (one grand prize of $1,000 and 999 $25 prizes). In addition to earning 2% interest on savings and cash back rewards on spending, customers also earn entries into the monthly Prize Savings sweepstakes. Once in the savings account, each dollar earns an entry for one of 1,000 cash prizes every month (one grand prize of $1,000 and 999 $25 prizes). Free Cash Withdrawal: Get cash withdrawals from your card for free at Walmart Money Centers and Customer Service desks. Get cash withdrawals from your card for free at Walmart Money Centers and Customer Service desks. EMV Chip Security: Personalized Walmart MoneyCards now include EMV chips, providing additional security to your account. Personalized Walmart MoneyCards now include EMV chips, providing additional security to your account. Account Lock Security: Ability to Lock and Unlock your account through your mobile phone. When locked, your Walmart MoneyCard cannot be used to spend or access cash at ATMs. Consumers can open an account online at WalmartMoneyCard.com or get a starter debit card by visiting the Money Center in their neighborhood Walmart store. About Walmart Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better - anytime and anywhere - in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, nearly 275 million customers and members visit our more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2019 revenue of $514.4 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook (News - Alert) at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter (News - Alert) at http://twitter.com/walmart. About Green Dot Green Dot Corporation, [NYSE:GDOT], is a financial technology leader and bank holding company with a mission to power the banking industry's branchless future. Enabled by proprietary technology and Green Dot's wholly-owned commercial bank charter, Green Dot's "Banking as a Service" platform is used by a growing list of America's most prominent consumer and technology companies to design and deploy their own bespoke banking solutions to their customers and partners, while Green Dot uses that same integrated technology and banking platform to design and deploy its own leading collection of banking and financial services products directly to consumers through one of the largest retail banking distribution platforms in America. Green Dot products are marketed under brand names such as Green Dot, GoBank, MoneyPak, AccountNow, RushCard and RapidPay, and can be acquired through more than 100,000 retailers nationwide, thousands of corporate paycard partners, several "direct-2-consumer" branded websites, thousands of tax return preparation offices and accounting firms, thousands of neighborhood check cashing locations and both of the leading app stores. Green Dot Corporation is headquartered in Pasadena, California, with additional facilities throughout the United States and in Shanghai, China. ____________________________ 1 Customers are eligible to earn 2% APY up to a $1,000 balance. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) as of 3/27/20, may change any time. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005264/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Imperial Valley News Center President Trump at a Memorial Day Ceremony Baltimore, Maryland, Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine - Remarks by President Trump at a Memorial Day Ceremony: THE PRESIDENT: I stand before you at this noble fortress of American liberty to pay tribute to the immortal souls who fought and died to keep us free. Earlier today, the First Lady and I laid a wreath in their sacred honor at Arlington National Cemetery. Now we come together to salute the flag they gave their lives to so boldly and brilliantly defend. And we pledge, in their cherished memories, that this majestic flag will proudly fly forever. Were joined for todays ceremony by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper; Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley; Congressman Andy Harris; and a number of service members and veterans of the Armed Forces. The dignity, daring, and devotion of the American military is unrivaled anywhere in history and any place in the world. In recent months, our nation and the world have been engaged in a new form of battle against an invisible enemy. Once more, the men and women of the United States military have answered the call to duty and raced into danger. Tens of thousands of service members and National Guardsmen are on the frontlines of our war against this terrible virus caring for patients, delivering critical supplies, and working night and day to safeguard our citizens. As one nation, we mourn alongside every single family that has lost loved ones, including the families of our great veterans. Together, we will vanquish the virus, and America will rise from this crisis to new and even greater heights. As our brave warriors have shown us from our nations earliest days: In America, we are the captains of our own fate. No obstacle, no challenge, and no threat is a match for the sheer determination of the American people. This towering spirit permeates every inch of the hallowed soil beneath our feet. In this place, more than 200 years ago, American patriots stood their ground and repelled a British invasion in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. Early on a September morning in 1814, the British fleet launched an assault on this peninsula. From the harbor, some 30 British warships attacked this stronghold. Rockets rained down. Bombs burst in the air. In the deck of one ship, a gallant young American was held captive. His name was Francis Scott Key. For 25 hours, Key watched in dismay as fire crashed down upon this ground. But through torrents of rain and smoke and the din of battle, Key could make out 15 broad stripes and 15 bright stars barraged and battered, but still there. American forces did not waver. They did not retreat. They stared down the invasion and the held that they had to endure. The fact is, they held like nobody could have held before. They held this fort. The British retreated. Independence was saved. Francis Scott Key was so inspired by the sight of our flag in the battle waged that the very grounds that he fought on became hallowed and he wrote a poem. His ageless words became the anthem of our nation: The Star-Spangled Banner. Every time we sing our anthem, every time its rousing chorus swells our hearts with pride, we renew the eternal bonds of loyalty to our fallen heroes. We think of the soldiers who spent their final heroic moments on distant battlefields to keep us safe at home. We remember the young Americans who never got the chance to grow old but whose legacy will outlive us all. In every generation, these intrepid souls kissed goodbye to their families and loved ones. They took flight in planes, set sail in ships, and marched into battle with our flag, fighting for our country, defending our people. When the cause of liberty was in jeopardy, American warriors carried that flag through ice and snow to victory at Trenton. They hoisted it up the masts of great battleships in Manila Bay. They fought through hell to raise it high atop a remote island in the Pacific Ocean called Iwo Jima. From the Philippine Sea to Fallujah, from New Orleans to Normandy, from Saratoga to Saipan, from the Battle of Baltimore to the Battle of the Bulge, Americans gave their lives to carry that flag through piercing waves, blazing fires, sweltering deserts, and storms of bullets and shrapnel. They climbed atop enemy tanks, jumped out of burning airplanes, and leapt on live grenades. Their love was boundless. Their devotion was without limit. Their courage was beyond measure. Army Green Beret Captain Daniel Eggers grew up in Cape Coral, Florida, determined to continue his familys tradition of military service and it was a great tradition. He attended the legendary Citadel Military College in South Carolina. Soon, he met a beautiful cadet, Rebecca. They fell in love, married, and had two sons. In 2004, Daniel left for his second deployment in Afghanistan. On the morning of May 29th, Daniel and his team were courageously pursuing a group of deadly terrorists when he was killed by an improvised explosive device. This week is the 16th anniversary of the day that Daniel made the supreme sacrifice for our nation. He laid down his life to defeat evil and to save his fellow citizens. At the time of his death, Daniels sons Billy and John were three and five years old. Today, they have followed in Daniels footsteps both students at the Citadel planning to serve in the military. Their amazing mom Rebecca has now served more than 23 years in the U.S. Army. Everywhere she goes, she wears Daniels Gold Star pin on the lapel of her uniform. Colonel Rebecca Eggers and her two sons are here today, along with Daniels father Bill and mother Margo. To the entire Eggers family: Your sacrifice is beyond our ability to comprehend or repay. Today, we honor Daniels incredible life and exceptional valor, and we promise you that we will cherish his blessed memory forever. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Please. Thank you. Thank you. Great family. Thank you very much. To every Gold Star family here today and all across our land: Our debt to you is infinite and everlasting. We stand with you today and all days to come, remembering and grieving for Americas greatest heroes. In spirit and strength, in loyalty and love, in character and courage, they were larger than life itself. They were angels sent from above, and they are now rejoined with God in the glorious Kingdom of Heaven. Wherever the Stars and Stripes fly at our schools, our churches, town halls, firehouses, and national monuments it is made possible because there are extraordinary Americans who are willing to brave death so that we can live in freedom and live in peace. In the two centuries since Francis Scott Key wrote about the stirring sight of our flag in battle, countless other American patriots have given their own testimony about the meaning of the flag. One was World War Two veteran Jim Krebs from Sunbury, Ohio. Jim and his twin brother Jack fought side by side in General Pattons Third Army. At the Battle of the Bulge, the twins volunteered for a dangerous mission. Together, they took out four enemy tanks, two machine gun nests, and a mothar [sic] position that was very powerful, loaded up with mortars. Jims brother Jack was mortally wounded. Jim held his dying brother in his arms, praying together as his twin passed away. Jim fought to victory and came home to build a great American life. He married, had children, became an electrical engineer, and taught young people about war. As an old man, Jim was asked what about the American flag and what it meant to him. Jim said, The flag to me is as precious as the freedom that the flag stands for. Its as precious to me as the thousands of lives that have been lost defending her. Its that important to me; it gave me a value of life that I could have never gotten any other way. It gave me a value of my Lord, my family, my friends, loved ones, and especially my country. What more could I ask? Last month, Jim died peacefully at his home at the age of 94. This afternoon, we are greatly honored to be joined by his grandsons, Andy and Ron. Please, thank you very much. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you very much for being here. Today, as we remember the sacrifice of Jims brother Jack, we honor Jims service, and we are moved by his beautiful words. Andy and Ron, thank you for being here to remember your grandfather and his brother, and what they did for us all, and most importantly, what they stood for. From generation to generation, heroes like these have poured out their blood and sweat and heart and tears for our country. Because of them, America is strong and safe and mighty and free. Because of them, two centuries on, the Star Spangled Banner still proudly waves. For as long as our flag flies in the sky above, the names of these fallen warriors will be woven into its threads. For as long as we have citizens willing to follow their example, to carry on their burden, to continue their legacy, then Americas cause will never fail and American freedom will never, ever die. Today, we honor the heroes we have lost. We pray for the loved ones they left behind. And with God as our witness, we solemnly vow to protect, preserve, and cherish this land they gave their last breath to defend and to defend so proudly. Thank you. God bless our military. God bless the memory of the fallen. God bless our Gold Star families. And God bless America. Thank you very much. FELTON, California, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - The global Vegan Food Market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 9.6% over the forecast period to reach USD 24.06 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Million Insights. The rise in a number of vegan populations coupled with growing awareness about the health benefits of vegan food is the key factor driving the market. In the recent past, the consumption of plant-based food has increased significantly, primarily driven by health benefits. Increasing consumption of vegan foods among celebrities has created a mass appeal and consumers are increasingly adopting it. Countries such as the United States, Canada, China, Ireland and U.K have a considerable number of vegan populations that in turn aiding in the growth of the market. Meat substitutes accounted for a considerable market share, in 2018. Among different meat substitutes, Seitan is projected to grow with the highest CAGR owing to the presence of high protein content. Other meat substitutes such as tofu and tempeh have comparatively low protein content. Further, the introduction of various new products in developed regions such as Europe and North America over the past few years is also fueling the growth of meat substitutes. A British food brand, Linda McCartney Foods introduced meat-free sausages, in April 2019, it was made from pea protein. Various other companies such as Grill'd, Danone and others also followed a similar suit. Please click here to get the sample pdf and find more details on "Vegan Food Market" Report 2025. Among different distribution channel, offline segment held the largest vegan food market share largely because of rise in sales of vegan foods through supermarkets/hypermarkets, convenience stores and specialty stores. However, growing number of millennials opting for plant-based products coupled with rise in e-commerce platforms is fueling the sales through online channels. Further key findings from the report suggest: North America was the largest market in 2018 with a market share of over 30%. was the largest market in 2018 with a market share of over 30%. Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 12.1% over the forecast period. is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 12.1% over the forecast period. Among different products, dairy alternatives held the largest market in 2018, and this segment is expected to continue its dominance. Meat substitutes are expected to grow with a significant growth rate over the forecast years. The offline distribution channel held the largest market share in 2018. However, the rise in multi-channel retailing has resulted in sales of products through the online sales channels. Key players operating in the market are Tofutti Brands, Inc., VBites Foods Ltd, Danone S.A, Plamil Foods Ltd and Daiya Foods, Inc. among others. Browse 80 page research report with TOC on "Global Vegan Food Market" at: https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/global-vegan-food-market Million Insights has segmented the global vegan food market on the basis of product, distribution channel, and region: Vegan Food Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Dairy Alternatives Cheese Desser Snacks Meat Substitutes Tofu TVP Seiten Quorn Others Others Vegan Food Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) Offline Online Vegan Food Region Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025) North America U.S. Europe German Asia Pacific China Japa Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa Browse latest market research reports available with Million Insights: About Million Insights: Million Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive. Contact: Ryan Manuel Research Support Specialist, USA Million Insights Phone: +1-408-610-2300 Toll Free: 1-866-831-4085 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.millioninsights.com/ Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter SOURCE Million Insights Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that home isolation was an effective option for patients with mild or no symptoms of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).This is in line with a health ministry advisory from the end of April, which had allowed home isolation, but under conditions a 24x7 caregiver; constant communication between the caregiver and a hospital; and immediate medical help if severe symptoms developed, among others. The Delhi CMs categorical call for home isolation is welcome. The number of Covid-19 cases is continuing to rise in the Capital, and the peak is, according to medical experts advising the government, yet to arrive. The health care infrastructure is under strain. Anticipating this, the Delhi government has put aside an additional 1,500 Covid-19 beds at a government facility, and asked private hospitals and nursing homes to reserve at least 20% of their total bed strength for Covid-19 patients. Many patients may also be able to cope better emotionally with the disease if allowed to recuperate with their families. The home isolation plan, however, will only work if there is strict monitoring on the ground, which in itself is not easy given Indias weak governance structure, and the State apparatus is busy tackling several other related crises. But it is, most crucially, dependent on the idea of citizens exercising responsibility and care, by being transparent about their health status, reaching out to doctors on time, and following the home isolation protocol in letter and spirit. Do it for yourself, for your families, for the community, and for the city you call home. President Trump celebrated Memorial day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. President Trump honored the people who fought for America by taking a moment of silence in front of the wreath before placing his hand to it and finally, saluting it. After the wreath ceremony, President Trump traveled to Baltimore to speak at the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine which is where the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" were born. Baltimore is still under a stay-at-home order, which is the reason why the mayor of Baltimore suggested the President not come to Baltimore. "That President Trump is deciding to pursue non-essential travel sends the wrong message to our residents, many of whom have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 virus." However, President Trump's actions were defended by White House spokesman Judd Deere with the statement, "The brave men and women who have preserved our freedoms for generations did not stay home and the President will not either as he honors their sacrifice by visiting such a historic landmark in our Nation's history." As a result, dozens of Trump supporters gathered outside of Fort McHenry, going against stay-at-home orders. The mayor of Baltimore argues that President Trump's visit to Baltimore to share a speech was non-essential but the White House argues that since the people who fought for America did not stay home, neither will Trump. On Memorial Day, American flags flew at half-staff to remember the nearly 100,000 people who have died from COVID-19. PLANO, Texas, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of the 17th annual Huawei Analyst Summit, Huawei Technologies USA brought together experts from the GSMA and Royal Holloway, University of London for an informative webinar titled: "Cybersecurity Standards and Testing in Europe." The May 20 webinar, which is now available on demand at RCR Wireless and on YouTube, discussed uniform standards and independent verification, and why these are all necessary for effective risk management. Panelists for the webinar included Andy Purdy, Huawei Technologies USA Chief Security Officer; Bob Xie, Cyber Security Officer of Huawei Western European Region and Director of Cybersecurity Transparency Centre Brussels; Professor Chris Mitchell from Royal Holloway, University of London; and Jon France, Head of Industry Security, GSMA. Comprehensive, credible, internal and external testing of all network elements is a critical component of effective, trustworthy cyber security. Independent external testing is also essential to certify compliance with industry standards by equipment vendors, network operators, and service providers. In this era of ubiquitous connectivity, everyone who operates within the communications ecosystem has a responsibility to do their part to manage risk. To establish a common baseline across the telecom industry, the GSMA, in collaboration with 3GPP, operators and vendors, developed the Network Equipment Security Assurance Scheme (NESAS). NESAS provides an industry-wide security assurance framework to drive progress and consistency in security levels across the telecom industry. These requirements have been developed in accordance with vendor processes and cover the lifecycle of a network product to provide baseline security assurance. NESAS is designed to be used alongside other requirements to ensure heightened network security. Establishing uniform standards and best practices helps mitigate cybersecurity risk across the world, especially in underserved or rural areas, and ultimately encourage innovation and development. Prioritizing network testing and consistency will continue to push the telecom industry toward safer and more trustworthy cyber security. For more information on Huawei Analyst Summit, visit www.huawei.com/us/press-events/events/has2020. To watch the "Cybersecurity Standards and Testing in Europe" on demand, please visit: About Huawei: Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services we are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. Huawei's end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes. At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research, concentrating on technological breakthroughs that drive the world forward. We have more than 188,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees. For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on: http://www.linkedin.com/company/Huawei http://www.twitter.com/Huawei http://www.facebook.com/Huawei http://www.youtube.com/Huawei Contact: Kimberlee Bradshaw Archibald / [email protected] SOURCE Huawei Technologies USA Related Links http://www.huawei.com BETHEL Masks and meals will be distributed to local senior citizens on Wednesday morning. Beginning at 10 a.m., seniors will drive through the parking lot in the back of the municipal center to get the items, said Lisa Plumb, director of the Bethel Senior Center. The center has been offering two grab-and-go meals on Wednesday mornings since late March or early April, Plumb said. The food comes from CW Resources, an organization that supports people with disabilities and provides meals to various senior centers. But this is the first time masks will be distributed, thanks to a donation of 900 of these items, Plumb said. Former Republican State Rep. Dan Carter helped acquire the donation, she said. About 180 afghan kits donated from a group in Cheshire will also be given away, Plumb said. The meals include a main entree, fruit, dessert and usually snack, Plumb said. About 30 seniors usually pick up the meals, she said. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell says Germany has to have a selective engagement with Russia on the issues that matter to it EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs AP EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell reminded the German diplomatic service, which will take over the EU presidency in the second half of 2020, of the need to support Ukraine and all the challenges posed by Russia. This was discussed during his virtual speech at the Annual German Ambassadors Conference 2020 that took place in Berlin, European External Action Service reports on its website. "To the east, we must support Ukraine and strengthen ties with all Eastern Partners for sure," Borrel said. He also stressed the need to have a selective engagement with Russia on the issues that matter to Germany. This is not contradictory to being firm. We need a smart balance between firmness and sanctions with Russia with a careful attempt at engagement in selective areas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs added. As we reported earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to return to compliance with the Open Skies Treaty. "Russia's constant selective fulfillment of its obligations under the Open Skies Treaty has undermined the contribution of this important Treaty to ensuring security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region ... Returning Russia to compliance is the best way to preserve the advantages of the Treaty," he said. Ann Morrow Johnson created the Museum of Quarantine on Quebec along the wall by her driveway. She asked her neighbors to hang their creations during a time of isolation. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) It is a simple yellow Post-it Note with a message written in childish scrawl: Happy Birthday Daddy. A second Post-it Note features a rudimentary drawing of what appears to be a princess. Both are pressed up against the curb held there by a piece of wood. The piece, signed, Peter, is among more than 75 contributions to the Museum of Quarantine on Quebec, an outdoor community gallery, and home to all manner of telling ephemera related to life in the coronavirus era, in the winding hills of the Hollywood Dell neighborhood of Los Angeles. Creative director, architect and artist Ann Morrow Johnson started it on the gray fence bordering her property. Were trying to find ways to interact digitally, but having something that feels like its a physical presence in the real world has made a huge difference in the way I connect to people, said Johnson, who in quarantine experienced a deep sense of despair and isolation that she began trying to alleviate by making art. Her paintings are featured, along with all kinds of community contributions that together provide a touching, humorous and at times downright silly folk-art narrative of this surreal moment in history. (To reduce the chance of crowds and maintain social distancing at the museum, The Times has been asked not to divulge the exact location.) Johnson catalogs each contribution to the museum on Instagram in a feed she created after launching the project in mid-April with a sign stating the museums name and purpose: Add art, crafts or cool found stuff to this wall, please. She included a watercolor of her own, two old relief studies and a pup self-examination station, which really was just a mutt-height mirror with doodles on it (and which has been the only piece to be stolen). She also writes the equivalent of wall text for the museum's exhibits. The caption accompanying the Instagram photo of Peters message reads, Sharpie on Post-it Note. Potentially the next generations Banksy, the artist draws on banal materials and unexpected placement in a public space to create a strikingly heartfelt and arresting message. Story continues A square of pink felt, festooned with the word soap and stitched to a fabric head with a tidy blond bun, is captioned: Soap, Mixed Media. Dali-style surrealism and crafting are blended here into an examination of the fact that after all the hand washing and sanitizing, human beings have all become the embodiment of soap. An image of a Clorox bottle has been pinned up at the Museum of Quarantine on Quebec. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) Walk by the wall in the flesh, and it resonates with the psychic buzz of community, even though you are unlikely to see anyone else perusing its intriguing offerings. Johnson said she has never witnessed another person contributing, but she has heard them, as was the case when somebody spent an exorbitant amount of time hammering a bracket to secure a heart emblazoned with the words you are amazing. Johnson later discovered, to her unbridled joy, that the heart turns into a crazy LED light show for a few hours each night erupting in white and shades of flickering pink that draw gawking passersby out for an evening stroll. A 1,000-piece puzzle featuring a hodgepodge of celebrities below the Hollywood sign Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump was mounted and hung on the wall as the contribution of neighbor Bill Atchinson and his family. My wife and I have no art talent, but we had this puzzle, Atchinson said, unintentionally re-enforcing the trope that art is in the eye of the beholder. The puzzle is missing four pieces, likely destroyed by Atchinsons dogs, he said, but this flaw added a bit of mystery to the wall as evidenced by Johnson's caption: Hollywood Puzzle & Resin. Locally relevant, and the missing pieces feel particularly apropos. Atchinson said he has watched the wall take shape, and it has brought great joy to the neighborhood during a difficult, socially distanced time. You cant go up and hug each other right now, he said. But you can hug each other with that wall. Ann Morrow Johnson started the Museum of Quarantine to reach out to her neighbors in a time of isolation. (Jessica Gelt / Los Angeles Times) Speaking of hugs, one of Johnsons favorite pieces was among its first entries. Its a lovely hand-drawn picture of halved lemons above the words Thought you could use a squeeze. An address listed at the bottom of the drawing serves as the metaphorical Easter egg, directing curious museum-goers to a nearby house where they will find a basket of fresh lemons accompanied by a sign inviting visitors to pick as many as they want from the tree in the front yard. Johnson said she is not a crier, but this early contribution, signaling the kind of lost connection she so yearned for in the early days of Gov. Gavin Newsoms safer-at-home order, made her misty-eyed. The neighbor behind the lemon art is Meghna Khanna, who responded to a Times interview request by email. During this unprecedented time, we are constantly overwhelmed with all of the negatives of COVID-19," she said. "I want to use this time as an opportunity for more sharing, more collaboration and finding ways to bring everyone together! She said the Museum of Quarantine has given neighbors a sense of being together in this strange time. That is certainly true for artist Megan Bourgeois, who moved to the Hollywood Dell from Austin, Texas, five years ago. Art by Megan Bourgeois is part of the Museum of Quarantine, a community gallery created in the Hollywood Dell neighborhood of L.A. (Jessica Gelt / Los Angeles Times) Bourgeois has never met, or seen, Johnson, but she regularly contributes her brightly colored creations interwoven circles resembling geodes or the rings on a tree to the wall. She credits the project with igniting a personal artistic renaissance. I lost my artistic mojo, Bourgeois said breathlessly over the phone during one of her regular walks through the neighborhood. This was so inspiring to me, I almost felt like I had a reason to create art again. Art stores werent open, so she used found materials (her preferred medium anyway) including cardboard and plastic foam. By her count, she has about six pieces on the wall. She includes her Instagram handle and has nabbed a few new followers. Its such a huge ray of sunshine every time I go up there to see whats new, she said. It gives me something to look forward to in these dark days. Thats exactly what Johnson hoped for when she conceived of the Museum of Quarantine, which she has since shared with her godmother, Marley Lott, in Houston. It turns out that this expansive, symbolic, non-hierarchal, community-minded art project is contagious. Lott took the idea and started what she has dubbed The Plague Tree. She initially hung a few teddy bears from the limbs of a Japanese apricot tree in her front yard. I have no idea why a single woman has a bunch of teddy bears and panda bears, but I had three or four, she said, adding that after she hung them, they looked lonely, so she added some Christmas balls. People walking by picked up where she left off, hanging ballroom dance medals, an empty Clorox wipes bottle decorated with diamonds and pearls, a red ball cap that says Make America Safe Again and a dish towel embroidered with the words Wash your hands, among other things. A passerby looks at "The Plague Tree," a community gallery of sorts in Houston by retired lawyer Marley Lott. (Marley Lott) I like that I dont know these people, said Lott, a retired lawyer. Its a remote way of communicating, but with a physical object as opposed to email or a web call. Back in the Hollywood Dell, Johnson recently mounted one of her watercolors, a melancholy, carefully rendered depiction of downtown Los Angeles as seen from a distance, outlined by the soft blaze of the setting sun. Houses, tucked in the hillside in the foreground of the painting, emerge from the shadows of the gloaming. Her caption on Instagram: View from Quarantine No. 5. The picture speaks of longing and loneliness but also of the great beauty of life, even when viewed from afar. By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The remaining Kerala school public examination papers which were deferred due to the two-month nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, began on Tuesday. The VHSE examinations began at 10 am on Tuesday. The SSLC examination is scheduled in the afternoon session and it will begin at 2 pm and the HSE examination will begin on Wednesday. Students will appear for the SSLC Mathematics paper on May 26, Physics on May 27, and Chemistry on May 28. The Kerala government has decided to conduct the public examination this month itself even after the opposition demanded postponement in the wake ongoing coronavirus crisis. As examinations have begun amid a rise in Covid-19 positive cases, safety measures such as wearing facial masks by all students, teachers, parents, and staff is mandatory. A separate team of teachers has also been assigned to conduct thermal screening of students and directing them to wash their hands using soaps or sanitizers. All schools have facilitated special arrangements for washing hands and students unable to buy masks beforehand, can procure them from special counters set up at their respective school centres. For smooth conveyance of students, school buses and KSRTC buses have also chipped in. State Police Chief Loknath Behera has instructed parents to not gather in front of the schools. The DGP said that strict action will be taken against the violators. The students should not be allowed to leave together and the teachers should ensure that the social distancing norms are maintained. A total of 13.74 lakh students are expected to appear for the examinations and the government said it will ensure that no students miss the examinations due to lack of transportation or any other reasons. Sources said asymptomatic students in quarantine would also be allowed to write their papers in an isolated room. The education department, said that said there was no confirmation of any Covid-19 positive student appearing for the examinations. However, they also said that they put in place precautionary measures in case any student is infected or belongs to an affected family and was in quarantine due to this. The department will look into each case individually. I know Im wanted everywhere. The black list with my name underlined in red is circulating here and there. It seems my time has not yet come, otherwise I would be with the other co-defendants. Thus wrote Protais Mpiranya in a book attributed to him and published posthumously in 2010 by Editions Sources du Nil, under the title Rwanda, the lost paradise. Last secrets of the ex-commander of the Presidential Guard of J. Habyarimana [President Juvenal Habyarimana, killed in an attack on 6 April 1994]. Mpiranya is now the first name on this black list. After the arrest of Felicien Kabuga in Paris on 16 May and the confirmation, a week later, of the death of former Rwandan Defence Minister Augustin Bizimana, the former head of the Presidential Guard is the number one target of international justice. A strong understanding of where he is hiding Cover of the book attributed to Protais Mpiranya and published posthumously in 2010. Editions Sources du Nil At the beginning of the book Rwanda, the lost paradise, it is said that Mpiranya, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2000, died a natural death on 5 October 2006. Stricken by illness during this ordeal of solitude, it was while courageously fighting an unequal battle against fate that he sent me a script recounting what he experienced, saw or heard about the hell that Rwandans are living through, says in a preface Major Faustin Ntilikina, secretary to the chief of staff of the Rwandan army in April 1994 and former battalion commander, who now lives in France. The preface does not indicate the illness that Mpiranya supposedly died of, or where he allegedly died. Two months after the books publication in December 2010, ICTR Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow told the UN Security Council that Mpiranya had been reported more than once to be in Zimbabwe. There are indications that Mpiranya has connections with Zimbabwe and has resided there on several occasions, said the Gambian magistrate, supporting reports in the Zimbabwean press. But there is nothing to confirm or disprove Mpiranyas death. Today Serge Brammertz, Belgian Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) the body that succeeded the ICTR after its closure in 2015 is certain that Mpiranya is not dead. I have been clear that the search for the remaining fugitives and Mpiranya in particular remains our highest priority, Brammertz wrote to Justice Info on 18 May. Through our intensified investigations over the last three years, we have developed a strong understanding of Mpiranyas movements and where he is hiding. Our task now is to obtain the necessary cooperation from relevant countries. Assassinations of 7 April 1994 Protais Mpiranya, now 60, comes from the same region as former President Habyarimana. After graduating from the Ecole Superieure Militaire (ESM) in Kigali in 1983, he was assigned to the national gendarmerie. In 1991, while the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) were battling the rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Mpiranya was transferred to the Presidential Guard battalion. Two years later, he was promoted to commander of that unit. After the defeat of the FAR in July 1994 and the RPFs seizure of power, Mpiranya reportedly circulated in several African countries. According to the NGO African Rights, the former officer fought in 1998 alongside the Congolese Armed Forces against Congolese rebels supported by the new Rwandan government. According to African Rights, he was later sent to Zimbabwe to establish business ties on behalf of the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwandan armed rebel movement accused of exploiting the minerals that abound in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In January 2000, the ICTR confirmed the indictment against Mpiranya for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The document alleges that elements of the Presidential Guard, acting under the orders of Major Mpiranya, participated in the kidnapping and murder of opposition leaders on the morning of 7 April 1994. Among the victims were Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and the President of the Constitutional Court, Joseph Kavaruganda. The accused is also alleged to have played a role in the killing by regular army soldiers of 10 Belgian peacekeepers in the centre of Kigali. In his book, Mpiranya denies these allegations. I learned along with everyone else about the deaths of some members of different political parties, including MRND, the party of President Juvenal Habyarimana. What I cannot understand is the fact that some specialists and some media have attributed these facts, including the death of the head of state, to the presidential guard, which was besieged by an army of heavily armed invaders, he wrote. The South African trail The hunt for this key player in the events of 1994 began under former ICTR Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. But both the Swiss magistrate and her successor Jallow turned up a blank. Brammertz seems confident that he can succeed where his predecessors failed. Brammertz refuses to reveal the country where he thinks Mpiranya is now. In his last two reports to the Security Council, he implicates South Africa and Zimbabwe, but without specifying which country he thinks is harbouring which of the six fugitives indicted by the ICTR and still on the run. The latest report, dated 15 November 2019, focuses on South Africa. The Prosecutor deeply regrets that South Africa has not yet arrested and transferred a wanted fugitive indicted for the crime of genocide, writes the Prosecutor. For more than a year, and with the full knowledge of the South African authorities, the fugitive has remained at liberty in South Africa, facing no judicial proceedings and seemingly under no measures to ensure he does not have the opportunity to flee again. As of the time of writing, despite extensive attempts by the Office to engage with the South African authorities and resolve the matter, no other conclusion can be drawn except that South Africa is failing to provide cooperation in accordance with the statute of the Mechanism and numerous resolutions of the Security Council. On 11 December, Brammertz again complained strongly to the Security Council. This time he only targeted South Africa. Who is the fugitive he has in mind? Is it Mpiranya? I never mention the names of the fugitives were looking for, but I noticed that several newspapers at the time mentioned the name you raised, Brammertz replied in an interview with Jeune Afrique magazine on May 22. It is not necessarily correct, so I cant confirm that it is him. Mpiranya is still on the run, but the net seems to be closing around him more than ever. Recommended reading Rwanda: The most judged genocide in history A teenager says he reversed into and killed an older man because he feared for his own life. Setefano Pahul Tupou deliberately struck Timothy Williams after the 41-year-old father-of-two attacked the teen's vehicle at a Geelong beach car park on October 28, 2019. Setefano Pahul Tupou leaves court on Tuesday Credit:AAP Mr Williams was missing from a psychiatric facility and punching a safety sign when he heard Tupou and his girlfriend laugh. He walked up to their car, kicking and punching it. Budding squash player and French Junior Open winner Yash Fadte returned to his home state Goa on Monday after being stranded in the United Kingdom, where he went for training in March. Fadte, 18, who is currently lodged at a quarantine facility in Panaji, told PTI over phone that he is happy to be back home, but expressed displeasure over social distancing norms not being followed in the Goa government-run bus in which he travelled from Mumbai to his home state. The player left for the UK on March 7 for a one-and- a-half month training at Solihull Arden Club. Fadte was also scheduled to play in some of the tournaments there before his return to India on April 29. "I had begun my training and it went on for two weeks before the lockdown was announced in the UK due to COVID-19 outbreak on March 22, he said from the quarantine facility. He then tried to return to Goa as he could foresee that the lockdown would continue for long. "But, to my bad luck, both the UK and India declared shut down of their airports on the same day. I had to stay back in a rented room, he said, adding that following the lockdown there, it was difficult to get groceries and many items were sold at higher rates. The young player was worried as he was stuck abroad alone while his family was in Goa. "I was worried for myself, and also for my parents in Goa. I was reading about COVID-19 cases. I was afraid because Goa is a place where tourists arrive from across the world, he said. Fadte spent his time meditating and practising yoga to take care of his physical and mental health. "I was regularly in touch with my parents in Goa through video calls. I also got moral support from people like industrialists Shivanand Salgaocar and Vijay Chowgule, who called me, he said. Fadte, who is supported by Vimson Group led by Shivanand Salgaocar, won the French Junior Open in February this year. He also said that in the second week of May, he was almost about to take a Mumbai-bound flight, but the ticket was cancelled at the last minute. "The Indian High Commission told me the flight was carrying only passengers from Maharashtra. I was asked to hold on. I had faith in the Indian High Commission, but I was also worried, he said. Fadte finally got to travel from the UK on May 23. "I reached Mumbai on May 24 and arrived in Goa on May 25," he said. But he had a bad experience travelling in a bus of the Goa government-run Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited. "There was no social distancing in the bus. We got very good treatment in the flight, but when we sat in the bus to come to Goa, social distancing was compromised, he said. Fadte will remain in the quarantine facility for seven days before going home. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China may have marshalled close to 5,000 soldiers on its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh sector where India has also sent military reinforcements to strengthen its defences as growing tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) threatens to plunge the bilateral relationship to a new low, people familiar with the development said on Monday. Indian and Chinese soldiers are eyeball-to-eyeball at four locations along the LAC and several rounds of talks between local military commanders , including a meeting on Monday, have failed to end the standoff that began with a violent confrontation between rival patrols three weeks ago near Pangong Tso. Also Read: Army Chief Naravanes 2012 prophecy on Chinese strategy rings true in Ladakh sector There have been troop reinforcements by China, around 5,000 of whose troops may now be present in the region, two officials said on condition of anonymity. The Chinese forces are not concentrated anywhere near the flashpoints, but scattered on their side, the officials said. Sending the military reinforcements, including troops, vehicles and heavy equipment, did not require much effort as China diverted the resources from an ongoing military exercise in the region, said one of the officials cited above. India is tracking all aspects of the Chinese deployments and parity in troop numbers is being ensured, said the second official cited above. Chinas state-run media has described the latest tensions as the worst since the 2017 Doklam standoff that lasted 73 days. Also Read: Chinas tactical play in Ladakh isnt just about the boundary Officials and China watchers said that there was no need to get too fixated on numbers when it comes to troop reinforcements on either side of the disputed border. As long as troops remain in their current positions and there are no further transgressions, it could set the stage for talks to defuse the situation, said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd). He added that there was no space for the deployment of 5,000 troops along the LAC and it was quite possible that the reinforcements were in so-called depth areas. His reference is to areas within the Chinese side of the LAC. There has to be parity in troop numbers at the face-off sites and the back-up areas, said Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd), also a former Northern Army commander. You have to show presence of troops to induce dissuasion. And you also have to be concerned about the military build-up escalating into a conflict. Also Read: New chopper drone may be deployed along India border: Chinese state media Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane made a low-key visit to Ladakh last week for a security review as tensions grew between India and China near Pangong Tso and three pockets in the Galwan Valley region where Chinese troops have pitched close to 100 tents and erected temporary structures to establish a presence. Chinese soldiers are also said to be constructing bunkers in some disputed areas. HT was the first to report on May 10 about tensions flaring between India and China in north Sikkim where 150 soldiers were involved in a tense standoff a day earlier. Four Indian and seven Chinese soldiers were injured at Naku La during the confrontation. Around 250 soldiers from the two countries clashed near Pangong Tso on the night of May 5-6, with the scuffle leaving scores of troops injured. While an immediate flare-up was avoided as both armies stuck to protocols to resolve the situation, tensions spread to other pockets along the LAC. The latest standoff is not confined to a small area, has triggered an increase in troop numbers on both sides at multiple locations and seems to suggest a greater design rather than adventurism by local commanders, as reported by HT on Sunday. Experts said breaking the stalemate would require political direction and diplomatic intervention. Both India and China are locked in a war of words over the border row. Last week, India rejected Beijings allegation that Indian troops were responsible for triggering tensions, and instead accused the Chinese army of hindering Indian patrols. The Indian reaction came after Chinas foreign ministry accused Indian troops of trespassing across the LAC and said Beijing had to take necessary countermeasures after the Indian Army allegedly obstructed patrols by Chinese troops. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Drinking water and electricity supply has been restored in large swathes of Kolkata ravaged by Cyclone Amphan even as some parts of the city witnessed protests over lack of essential services. According to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sources, the restoration work is on at a war footing and they are hopeful that all the roads will be cleared of uprooted trees either by tonight or Wednesday morning. "Our job is almost complete. Now the issue of power restoration is being looked into by CESC. They have assured us that the power would be restored in remaining areas by Wednesday morning," a senior KMC official said. Lakhs of people were rendered homeless as cyclone Amphan cut a path of destruction through half-a-dozen districts of West Bengal, including state capital Kolkata,on May 20, blowing away shanties, uprooting thousands of trees and swamping low-lying areas. Large areas of the city continue to remain without power as electric poles and communication lines had been blown away by gusting winds. Unlike the last five days, the city reported scattered protests on Tuesday. Agitators at Garia and Behala in south suburban Kolkata blocked roads with branches of uprooted trees and placed barricades to restrict the movement of vehicles to press for their demands. "Six days have passed, but electricity is yet to return to our area. We don't know when it will return," said a resident of Garia. People blamed the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) for not being able to restore power supply, and claimed that no official of the private utility had visited the locality so far. "We have contacted the local administration and the local police station to apprise them of our problems. No help is forthcoming from any quarter so far," another resident said. People in Behala also demonstrated against increased water prices amid rising mercury levels. At Seoraphuli town in Hooghly district, Congress leader Abdul Mannan took to the streets protesting against CESC's failure to restore power supply. He blocked the arterial G T Road. Police tried to convince the Congress leader to lift the blockade but Mannan said, "I will not leave the area till CESC officials come and rectify the situation". "Diabetic patients who are dependent on insulin are not being able to get their daily dosage of shots as refrigerators are not working due to no electricity," a protester said. The Army was deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring districts on Saturday, hours after the West Bengal government sought its help for immediate restoration of essential infrastructure and services in the state. Contending that 80 per cent of all essential services have been restored in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday sought the cooperation of people for bringing the cyclone-hit state back on its feet. Mobile and internet services are yet to be restored in several parts of South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore district. MENLO PARK, Calif., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti has been named to the Great Place to Work 'Best Workplaces in ChicagoTM list for the third consecutive year. To compile the list, Great Place to Work analyzed anonymous survey feedback from 27,000 Chicago-based employees who were asked to rate their companies' culture on more than 60 elements of their experience on the job, including respect, fairness of workplace decisions, camaraderie among the team and the extent to which employees trust their leaders. List rankings reward those companies who best include all employees, no matter who they are or what they do for the organization. "As we support each other in these challenging times, it's rewarding to know that our people trust Protiviti's leadership team and appreciate the inclusive and collaborative workplace culture we've built here," said Tom Andreesen, a Protiviti managing director and market leader of the Chicago office. "As a key location for our firm's innovation program, Protiviti Chicago is especially well-placed to find innovative solutions to help steer our clients through the current pandemic crisis and beyond." In addition to helping its clients solve critical business problems, the Chicago office is dedicated to helping people in need in the local community. Among their community service projects, the employees volunteer in the fight against hunger as part of Protiviti's 'i on Hunger' initiative, and they donate scholarships to high school students in Chicagoland. "Best workplaces like Protiviti have built powerful foundations of trust and human connection to help carry their organizations through stressful and uncertain times," said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. "This gives companies on this list a powerful opportunity not just to do well for their people, but to do well for their businesses and for Chicago." In February, Protiviti was named for the sixth consecutive year to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Data from the annual survey to determine the companies on that list, which is also administered by Great Place to Work, is used to compile the Chicago regional Best Workplaces list. The Best Workplaces in Chicago stand out for excelling in one of the nation's most competitive marketplaces. About the Best Workplaces in Chicago Great Place to Work based its ranking on a data-driven methodology applied to anonymous Trust Index survey responses from over 27,000 employees at Great Place to Work-Certified organizations in the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area. This ranking was finalized prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and does not reflect companies' roles or responses to their people or communities in addressing the impact of the coronavirus. To learn more about Great Place to Work Certification and recognition on Best Workplaces lists, visit Greatplacetowork.com. About Protiviti Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Protiviti and its independent and locally owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit through its network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries. Named to the 2020 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index. Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services. Editor's note: Protiviti photo available upon request SOURCE Protiviti Related Links https://www.protiviti.com/ Over 800 Indian citizens stranded abroad were repatriated on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney on Monday under the Vande Bharat Mission, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. "Vande Bharat - Mission of Hope and Happiness. 833 Indian citizens return on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne and Sydney to Delhi, Gaya, Kochi and Ahmedabad on May 25, 2020," Puri tweeted on Monday. Vande Bharat - Mission of Hope & Happiness. 833 Indian citizens return on four flights from Doha, San Francisco, Melbourne & Sydney to Delhi, Gaya, Kochi & Ahmedabad on 25th May 2020.@MoCA_GoI @MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/Yv6lQKxX5a Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 25, 2020 The first phase of the Vande Bharat Mission was launched by the central government on May 7 to evacuate Indians stranded abroad on account of the coronavirus induced lockdown imposed by governments across the world. The second phase of ferrying the special flights to bring back Indians started on May 16. Puri also informed that until May 6, 30,000 stranded Indians were brought back to India who were stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We brought back more than 30,000 stranded Indians on Vande Bharat flights since 6 May 2020. We flew 917 tons of medical & essential cargo on Lifeline UDAN flights since 26 March 2020. Today, we restart domestic flights. India's civil aviation is always on the forefront. Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 25, 2020 Last week, Puri had said that upwards of 20 thousand Indian citizens have been brought back to the country under the mission so far and the number will rise further in the coming days. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently announced that the second phase of the mission has been extended to June 13. "The second phase of this mission began from May 16 onward and this phase will last till June 13. We are looking to bring back our nationals from 47 countries on 162 flights in this phase," MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. "In this phase, we are including places like Istanbul, Ho Chi Minh City, Lagos, etc and also increasing flights to the US and to Europe. We also looking at developing Frankfurt as a hub," he added. One of the victims in a triple homicide in the Danville area Sunday night was the suspects wife, according to court records, and she had filed a contempt motion against him three days before her death. Decatur police issued capital murder warrants for Carson Ray Peters, 60, in the shooting deaths of his wife, Teresa Lynn Peters, 53, of Danville; and her sister, Tammy Renee Smith, 50, of Danville; and James Edward Miller, 55, of Laceys Spring. A fourth victim, whose identity has not been released, was in stable condition at Huntsville Hospital on Monday morning, Decatur police spokeswoman Emily Long said. The shootings, which Long described as a "domestic/family situation," occurred at 68-70 Flint Creek Private Drive. Teresa Peters would have turned 54 Monday. Authorities on Monday afternoon issued a BOLO saying Carson Peters could be in a 2013 Chevrolet 1500 pickup with Alabama tag 52GL447. Peters was described as being 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds. The BOLO said Peters may be accompanied by April Hanner, who was described as being 4-foot-11 and 110 pounds. "Subjects should be considered armed and dangerous," according to the BOLO. At 7:25 p.m., police said they had information suggesting Carson Peters "and any additional persons of interest may have left the Danville-Neel area. Detectives are currently pursuing additional leads at this time." "Officers and deputies will continue patrolling in the event that Peters returns to the area," Long said. "The public is encouraged to remain aware and alerts." Carson Peters retired from Decatur Utilities in 2011, according to DU spokesman Joe Holmes. Lydia Easterly, a neighbor of Carson Peters, said he was "a good person." I know him better than (I know) her. Hes just a real nice guy. I dont know what happened to set him off, because hes just a real nice guy. She said he was active in a volunteer fire department. In 2011 he was with the Punkin Center Volunteer Fire Department and served as an adviser to a youth firefighter program, according to a news report then. Carson Peters and Teresa Lynn Mauck obtained a marriage certificate in August 2017, according to Morgan County Probate Court records. Carson Peters filed a complaint for divorce in January and as of March they resided together at 68 Flint Creek Private Drive, but in separate rooms, according to court records. On Thursday, Teresa Peters filed a petition for contempt in the divorce proceeding alleging Carson Peters had arrived at the marital residence uninvited and removed the air conditioning units and her personal property and locked them in a shed behind the residence. "(Carson Peters) then left the marital residence and took the key with him, refusing to open the shed for (Teresa Peters)," according to the petition. Carson Peters had previously lived at the same address with a former wife. She filed for divorce in 2014, alleging he "exhibited obsessively jealous conduct." The former wife said that on Aug. 11, 2014, he physically injured her, and a family member took her to the emergency room. According to the divorce pleadings, Carson Peters was charged by Decatur police with domestic violence for the incident. Police said anyone who can assist them in locating Peters should contact Detective Sean Mukaddam at 256-341-4617 or email him at smukaddam@decatur-al.gov. Police said the public should not approach Peters. Morgan County Coroner Jeff Chunn said the three deceased victims died from gunshot wounds and their bodies were taken to the Department of Forensic Sciences for autopsy. The wounded victim was transported by helicopter to Huntsville Hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds, Chunn said. The shooting was reported at 6:57 p.m. Sunday in Decatur's police jurisdiction, Long said. Staff writers Cassie Kuhn and Bruce McLellan contributed to this article. 2020 The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.) Visit The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.) at www.decaturdaily.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Mainstream Medias Malignant Moral Narcissism Commentary Why does the mainstream media rarely apologize or even admit, beyond a buried notation on page 34 or so, to their seemingly biased errors and, to be kind, misstatements? For nearly three years, they yammered on about TrumpRussia collusion, even winning and accepting Pulitzer Prizes for their efforts, when they all knewand its clear now from recently revealed transcripts that the principals did as wellthat it was all an unmitigated lie. What occurred regularly over those years (and unfortunately still does) was that one of those principalsor someone who could plausibly sound close enough to the principalsleaked something that might be true, but wasnt actually, to one of those mainstream media mainstays, some of them quite famous, who then turned around and trumpeted the prevarication to the world. The leaker was criminally liable for leaking, of courseeveryone knew thatbut would rarely, if ever, be punished because the only one who could really finger him or her was the innocent journalist (i.e., the leakee profiting from the leak) him or herself. Why would he or she do that? But again, why would he or she do something so reprehensible as to participate in a despicable pas de deux of disinformation that a decent citizen might consider unpatriotic or even treasonous? You have to be pretty power-mad for that or a true believer in the ends justify the means. If you dont mind my being a little self-referential, I think the answer may be in my 2016 book, I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already. We all have some idea what narcissism is, even if not the formal clinical variety. We know the story of the Greek youth Narcissus who was so entranced with his own image it went, shall we say, to his head. But what is moral narcissism? Heres a short definition of the moral variety for that, alas, vast majority that havent read my book (yes, I read my royalty statements): What you believe, or claim to believe or say you believenot what you do or how you act or what the results of your actions may bedefines you as a person and makes you good. Isnt that virtue signaling? Not exactly. Virtue signaling is what moral narcissists do. Moral narcissists are what virtue signalers and others are. They do other things as well that are worse, such as lying in the press for what they convince themselves is the right thing. As I describe in the book, by being a moral narcissistby adhering to the agreed definition of the good, no matter the resultyou become part of a team, an elite ironically similar to Stalins nomenklatura. Since I wrote the book, really 2015 for 2016 publication, the moral narcissism of our media has become more severe almost by the day. They admit nothing. They say nothing about what occurred or why. What was their role in the promulgation of the Steele dossier when so many, it has become obvious, knew it was a fraud? Do they regret it? Do they wish they had said something as it took off and became the bogus linchpin of the Russia investigation? Why, to name but one name although one of singular importance, did Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, devote the attention of nearly his entire press room to a subject so fundamentally dishonest for months on end? To call it a witch hunt was an understatement. It was a mass delusion. Virtually all the major media outlets played along except the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal and, sometimes, Fox News. Why? We have no answer to this, not even a hint. Its as if the whole thing never happened. After all, theyre on the good team. They are the moral ones, in their own heads anyway. Its a greater sickness than I had imagined. If I were writing that book now, I would add a special chapter for our media and call their condition Malignant Moral Narcissism, because their form of narcissism has evolved into the dangerously clinical. It is beyond mere neurosis because it negatively impacts society at large to a maximum degree. We are now a nation divided as never since the Civil War, and these media lies are largely the instigator of that. This is especially bad because, coming out of a pandemic, the likelihood of our society to have the ability to work together is seriously undermined, perhaps for years to come. We may never be the same. Many, influenced by their moral narcissism, consciously or unconsciously, dont want us to succeed. They are the medias children. Some have criticized my book for not offering a solution to the illness. I wish I could. But we may have reached a tipping point, as Van Gordon SauterCBS News president in the 80snotes in the May 25 Wall Street Journal. He suggests even-handedness is no longer commercially viable and the answer is for everyone, at minimum, to admit their bias and move on. I agree, in principle, but moral narcissists, as I define them anyway, are unlikely to do that. They think they have the truth and bias is no part of it. To be perfectly honest, Im not sure where we go from here, but Im looking for an answer. (Authors note: I would like to thank Cindy Simpson and Rush Limbaugh for bringing my book back to life, at least temporarily.) Roger L. SimonThe Epoch Times senior political columnistis an award-winning novelist and and Oscar-nominated screenwriter. He was the co-founder of PJ Media and tweets @rogerlsimon. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Sometimes cancer stays put, but often it metastasizes, spreading to new locations in the body. It has long been suspected that genetic mutations arising inside tumor cells drive this potentially devastating turn of events. Now researchers have shown for the first time that our own pre-existing genetics can promote metastasis. A new study, published May 25 in Nature Medicine, suggests that differences in a single gene, carried within someone's genome from birth, can alter progression of melanoma, a type of skin cancer. The researchers suspect these inherited variations may have the same effect on other types of cancer as well. "Patients often ask 'Why am I so unlucky? Why did my cancer spread?' As doctors, we never had an answer," says lead investigator Sohail Tavazoie, Leon Hess Professor and senior attending physician. "This research provides an explanation." The discovery may transform how scientists think about cancer metastasis, and lead to a better understanding patients' risks in order to inform treatment decisions, Tavazoie says. The mystery of metastasis Metastasis occurs when cancer cells escape the original tissue to establish new tumors elsewhere, a phenomenon that leads to the majority of cancer deaths. Scientists have suspected that cancer cells, which initially emerge due to mutations inside normal cells, gain their travelling ability following further mutations. But after decades of searching, they have yet to find such a genetic change that could be proven to encourage metastasis. Previous research in Tavazoie's lab had identified a gene called APOE, present in the DNA of all of the body's cells before any cancer arises, that can impact the spread of melanoma. The gene produces a protein that appears to interfere with a number of processes used by cancer cells to metastasize, such as forming blood vessels, growing deeper into healthy tissue, and withstanding assault from tumor-fighting immune cells. Humans, however, carry one of three different versions of ApoE: ApoE2, ApoE3, and ApoE4. Benjamin Ostendorf, a physician scientist in the lab, hypothesized that these variants could explain why melanoma progresses differently in different people. In experiments with mice possessing one of each of the versions of the gene, he and colleagues found tumors in those with ApoE4 grew the smallest and spread the least. A closer look revealed that ApoE4 is the most effective version of ApoE in terms of enhancing the immune response to tumor cells. Compared to animals with other variants, the mice carrying ApoE4 showed a greater abundance of tumor-fighting T cells recruited into the melanoma tumor, as well as reduced blood vessels. "We think that a major impact of the variations in ApoE arises from differences in how they modulate the immune system's attack," Ostendorf says. Toward better treatment Genetic data from more than 300 human melanoma patients echoed the mouse experiments: On average, people with ApoE4 survived the longest, while those with ApoE2 lived the shortest. This connection to outcomes suggests that doctors could look at patients' genetics to assess the risk of their cancer progressing. It could also influence the course of treatment. Melanoma patients are sometimes given therapy that encourages their own immune systems to better fight the cancer. The team's analysis of information from such patients, as well as experiments with mice, showed that those with ApoE4 respond best to immune-boosting therapies. Likewise, the researchers showed that an experimental compound that increases production of ApoE, RGX-104, was effective at helping mice with ApoE4 fight off tumors. RGX-104 is currently in clinical trials. (Tavazoie is a scientific cofounder of Rgenix, the company that developed RGX-104.) Further research is needed to determine how to optimize treatments for patients with other ApoE variants, Tavazoie says. ApoE2, for instance, was associated with an increased risk of metastasis. The researchers evidence so far suggests that ApoE3's metastasis-suppressing ability falls between that of the other two. We need to find those patients whose genetics put them at risk for poor survival and determine what therapies work best for them." Sohail Tavazoie, Lead Investigator and Leon Hess Professor The implications may extend beyond cancer. Other studies have shown that variations in ApoE contribute to Alzheimer's disease: ApoE4 aggravates risk of this neurodegenerative disorder, in contrast to its suppression of cancer progression. "It's not quite clear what ApoE does in Alzheimer's, but we believe our work in cancer can inform our understanding of this disease as well," Tavazoie says. His lab, normally focused on cancer, has begun investigating the connection to the neurodegenerative disorder. Mumbai: Maharashtra education department has announced that it would begin the new academic session for schools in the state from June 15, irrespective of whether the school authorities can reopen their institutions because of the prevailing lockdown restrictions, which were imposed in end-March to contain the spread of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak. The new academic year for schools in the state will begin from June 15. Well use online learning mode, where schools cannot be reopened because of the pandemic, said Vishal Solanki, education commissioner, Maharashtra. Schools, however, cannot be reopened from mid-June in Mumbai, a red zone. Earlier, the department had sought suggestions from the stakeholders, including school owners, principals, and parents, for reopening schools in the state. Most responses opposed any bid to reopen schools before at least till the end of July. If the academic year doesnt begin on June 15, a lot of students are likely to drop out especially in rural areas and from poor urban households. These students shouldnt be denied an education. Even if some schools open, itll be a relief, as children will get mid-day meals, when many parents are struggling to provide for two square meals a day, said Hemangi Joshi, a social activist. In Maharashtra, about 30% of students have access to smartphones, or the technology required for e-learning, according to the data available with the state education department. Its going to be a challenge, when the new academic session starts on June 15. Most schools are likely to remain shut because of the viral outbreak. While the rest of the students dont have any access to e-learning tools. Besides, e-learning is not just about staring at a computer screen, as students need to get acquainted with its modes, said a principal of a Mumbai-based school. The education department is currently sharing online links for students between Class 1 and VIII, which can be accessed through the DIKSHA mobile application. It has also released portable document format (PDF) copies of all the textbooks from classes 1 to XII on the website of Balbharti, the states school textbook publication bureau. After entering Rajasthan's capital Jaipur yesterday, swarms of locusts have now made their way towards Uttar Pradesh, putting on alert almost 10 districts in the state in what some people are terming as the worst such attack in more than two decades. In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, farmers said the locusts could have an adverse impact on the yield of their standing summer moong crop, which has been sown in record areas this year. The locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan and from there the swarms moved towards Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab over the ... Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of facial coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has exploded from under 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. BACK TO THE BAR: Houston bars reopened Friday. Here's what it was like What has happened at Tyson - and the meat industry overall - shows how difficult getting the nation back to normal is, even in essential fields such as food processing. Meat companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars - on protective gear, paid leave, ventilation systems and more - because they were forced to shut dozens of plants that were among the top covid-19 hot spots outside of cities. But the industry has still experienced a surge in cases, and some of the companies say they are limited in how much they can keep workers separated from one another. A small portion of the industry's labor force has gone back to work - some workers kept away on purpose - and the nation's meat supply remains deeply strained as barbecue season gets underway. A May report from CoBank, which specializes in serving rural America, warns meat that supplies in grocery stores could shrink as much as 35%, prices could spike 20% and the impact could become even "more acute later this year" as the effects on the U.S. agriculture supply chain are felt. Grocery stores have been able to partially meet consumer demand thanks to meat already in the supply chain in March, when the pandemic broke out, but the report said those supplies were quickly being used up. The prospect of long-term shortages is giving rise to an intensifying debate about whether the industry should reopen faster or safety should be prioritized, even at the cost of the nation's food supply. With an April 28 executive order encouraging meat plants to reopen, the Trump administration has said the food supply must be weighted equally with safety. Over the past month, more than half of the 30 meat processing plants that had shuttered because of covid-19 have reopened. "Our objective is two equal goals," Vice President Mike Pence said in a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican. "Number one is the safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and, two, there's strength in our food supply and getting people back to work." But others say safety must be the paramount concern - and the industry still has a long way to go before facilities are safe again. "Absolutely, positively, no worker's life is worth my getting a cheaper hamburger. No worker's life is worth that," former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, told Yahoo News last week. Officials with the meat processors say they are doing whatever they can to protect workers, while trying to make sure the nation's food supply remains sound. "The safety of our team members is paramount and we only reopen our facilities when we believe we can safely do so," said Gary Mickelson, Tyson's director of media relations. What's clear is the industry's efforts so far, though they may have lessened the virus's spread, have not come close to stopping it. Over the past month, the number of infections tied to three of the country's biggest meat processors - Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS - has gone from just over 3,000 to more than 11,000, according to the analysis by The Post. Throughout the entire industry, worker deaths have tripled, surging from 17 to at least 63, according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, which is tracking outbreaks through local news reports. Four of the plants that reopened saw outbreaks with more than 700 positive cases, according to the Midwest Center: Tyson Foods operations in Logansport, Indiana; Perry, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa; and a Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, coronavirus cases linked to meat workers represent 18%, 20% and 29% of the states' total cases, respectively, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization. HOLIDAY WEEKEND: Astros stars spend Memorial Day eating mudbugs from Houston favorite Many plants that have reopened are operating at reduced capacity - either due to widespread absences or to reduce the number of workers on shift to allow for social distancing. Closures have affected 45,000 workers, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the largest organization representing meatpacking workers. JBS, the second largest meat processor in the United States, said it is paying workers who could be particularly vulnerable to covid-19 to stay at home - about 10% of its workforce. The question over reopening, even amid safer conditions, can cause difficult choices for communities. Meat plants are usually located in rural communities where they are among the area's largest employers. Covid-19 infection rates in communities within a 15-mile radius of meat plants are twice the national average, according to the Environmental Working Group. The recent closures have cascaded through local economies, as farmers who supply plants are left with nowhere to take their animals. The National Pork Producers Council estimates that current plant capacities are creating backlogs of 170,000 hogs a day. "These hogs will eventually stay on farms too long and grow too large to be accepted by harvest facilities. It is estimated that up to 10,069,000 market hogs will need to be euthanized," the pork producer group said in a recent fact sheet. - - - Although companies have tried to get back to normal operations, union and local officials question whether they are ready. Tyson's biggest pork plant, in Waterloo, reopened May 7 with new safety precautions and social distancing policies. "Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members, their loved ones and our communities," Tom Hart, the plant's manager, said in a news release. Tyson had just finished running a national ad campaign warning, "The food supply chain is breaking." But the Waterloo plant reopened the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County - where it is located - reported more than 1,000 employees out of 2,700 there had tested positive for the coronavirus "Tyson did not go above and beyond," said Iowa state Rep. Ras Smith, a Democrat who represents Waterloo. "They did what they already should have done." He called Tyson's handling of the outbreak "appalling." Smith and fellow Iowa Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat, say they suspect Trump's executive order encouraged Tyson to reopen faster, a point the company disputes. The plant shuttered April 22 after weeks of resisting calls from local officials. The lawmakers said they met with the plant's human resources director on May 1 and were told the facility was weeks away from reopening. Four days later, they said, they were told production would resume May 7. They said there was no explanation for the new timeline. "It really doesn't feel like our local Tyson was in this big of a hurry to reopen," Brown-Powers said. "It became a hurry for them because of the pressure they're getting from above." Mickelson, Tyson's spokesman, said in an email to The Post that the executive order had helped Tyson by providing "clear, uniform standards" for how processing facilities should protect workers and by giving the company better access to protective gear. But he said it did not accelerate the reopening of the facility. - - - When he announced the executive order on April 28, Trump initially said it would solve "liability problems" for companies and force them to stay open during the pandemic. "Now that Trump issued that executive order, it gives plants this insurmountable feeling that they are invincible," said Kim Cordova, a local union president in Greeley, Colorado, where a JBS beef plant was shuttered in April amid a coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least seven workers. In practice, the order was more narrow, legal experts said. It designated meat producers as critical infrastructure and ordered them to follow federal guidance developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It also enabled Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to take steps to get meat companies federal contracts and access to protective gear. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. OSHA - the federal agency in charge of worker safety - has not issued enforceable guidelines for protecting employees, as it did during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, instead opting for voluntary guidance. The agency has said it plans no enforcement action so as not to overly burden companies during the pandemic. Smithfield cited the Trump executive order in federal court, saying it meant local and state authorities no longer had any authority over meat processors. It was part of the company's defense in a Missouri lawsuit, which was filed by an unnamed employee saying Smithfield failed to protect employees by not accommodating social distancing and by discouraging sick employees from staying home. "The president has identified state interference with meat and poultry processors as 'undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency,' " Smithfield's attorneys said in court documents. "State law, whether statutory or through private lawsuits, cannot be used to regulate the subject matter covered by the EO. This task belongs exclusively to the federal government." Judge David Gregory Kays dismissed the case 12 days later, citing the "significant steps" Smithfield had taken to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection at its plant in Milan, Missouri. In a news release, the company praised the outcome of the case, which it said was "frivolous, full of specious allegations that were without factual or legal merit." Less than two weeks after the case was dismissed, voluntary testing at the Milan plant revealed an outbreak at the facility, according to local news reports and the worker behind the lawsuit. She told The Post that fearful workers have been staying home, and that those who do show up for shifts are working overtime to keep up production. "They could have listened to workers and protected the company and the people by being proactive," said David Muraskin, the worker's attorney. "Now that they've failed to do the right thing, their responsibility is to make sure they take care of their workers and pay them their wages while the company puts in place the protections that should have been there all along to protect the community." Smithfield said the Milan plant is "operational" but declined to provide further details about absences and production capacity. The company said it would not confirm coronavirus cases "out of respect for employees' legal privacy." - - - On April 16, the JBS beef plant in Greeley was forced to shut down after about 100 workers came down with the virus and three died. Another worker died during the closure, and four others since it reopened on April 24. Coronavirus cases at the plant now exceed 300, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment records show. "We are raising hell because the numbers continue to rise," said Cordova, the local union president. "People are scared to go to work because people keep getting sick. There are hundreds of workers who have not come back. We don't know if they have moved on, if they are on ventilators. We can't find them." Nikki Richardson, a JBS spokeswoman, said in an email that JBS USA has adopted more than $100 million in enhanced safety measures throughout its facilities, including "increased sanitation and disinfection efforts, health screening and temperature checking, team member training, physical distancing, reduced line speeds and increased availability of personal protective equipment, including face masks and face shields." Cordova toured the Greeley plant last week and said improvements have been made on the processing side, where the beef is cut into steaks, ribs and briskets. Metal dividers have been installed between workers, and protective equipment has been placed next to workstations so employees can avoid congregating to pick up their supplies. Still, she said, additional safety measures need to be taken to lessen the risk of infection. Workers are still crowded into halls and stairways. Due to the loud noise in the plant, workers take off their masks and lean in close to speak to supervisors. In the area where cattle are slaughtered, Cordova said, plastic dividers between work stations have yet to be installed. "They are on rafters, right next to one another," she said. Richardson said the company is trying its hardest. "We are doing the best we can to ensure social distancing in the facility, but we recognize the challenges that exist to maintain social distancing in areas where people naturally congregate," Richardson said in an email to The Post. "We have hired people to be part of an employee health team that is responsible for covid-19 program management, compliance and auditing, including enforcing social distancing." - - - The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy and Julie Tate contributed to this report. WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI Almost two-thirds of Washtenaw County businesses said they lost more than 50% of their expected revenue since February, according to a new report released Tuesday. EntryPoint, a nonprofit research group, surveyed more than 400 Washtenaw County businesses about the coronavirus pandemics impact on the local economy. The survey found that 60% of survey respondents say they saw a 50% decrease in revenue since February. An additional 12% saw between 30 and 50% of revenue decline, according to the report. EntryPoint partnered with local chambers of commerce, downtown development groups, municipalities and other community organizations to provide insight on the effect of COVID-19 and the stay-home order in Michigan, which began in mid-March. The 403 businesses were asked 24 questions about their businesss preparedness for changes to e-commerce or remote work, their business type, demographics and more. "We wanted to provide local policymakers, foundations, and other community-focused organizations with the research insights needed to implement more effective programs to support Washtenaw County businesses, Emily Heintz, founder and managing director of EntryPoint, said in a statement. The goal is for residents, businesses and community-focused organizations to use the data to support local businesses during and long after the pandemic. Business, not as usual: Washtenaw County plans for a reopened and retooled economy Almost all survey respondents 97% said they have been impacted by COVID-19, according to the report. A majority of businesses, or 62%, were considered non-essential under the states stay home order, which required businesses that were not necessary to sustain or protect human life to close in-person operations. Only 17% of businesses in the county are hiring, the report shows. Survey respondents largely run small businesses in Washtenaw County: 74% of respondents operate with fewer than 10 employees and 88% have fewer than 25 employees, according to the EntryPoint report. Three out of four businesses have or plan to apply for loans to support their operations during and after the pandemic, according to the report. As of early May, 56% of companies were approved for a loan of any kind and 8% were denied. Countywide, 74% of companies that applied for the federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, which will be forgiven if employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks, said they were approved. Michigan businesses urged to apply quickly as new round of Paycheck Protection Program begins For minority-owned businesses, however, 57% of companies that applied for the Paycheck Protection Program were approved. Almost 20% minority-owned businesses were denied a loan of any kind, according to the report. Nearly half of companies surveyed said they were at least somewhat prepared to operate during the shelter-in-place, by having an e-commerce shop or ability to work remote, for example. But still, many reported some combination of layoffs, budget reductions, reduced hours or business closure to deal with the shelter-in-place order, according to the report. Downtown Ann Arbor Wilmas restaurant closing permanently Almost half 46% of the businesses surveyed were located in Ann Arbor, according to the report, and 41% of businesses said they were in a downtown area in Washtenaw County. Suggestions for residents to support fell into general categories of ordering online, purchasing gift cards, scheduling services, donating or spreading the word about the business. Organizations, like chambers of commerce or downtown associations, can help businesses by providing financial, marketing or transition support, as well as encouraging residents to support the local economy, possibly through publishing lists of open businesses. MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS: City attorney rejects claim that Ann Arbor council members COVID-19 video series violates law Ann Arbor council divided 7-4 on COVID-19 financial recovery plan Ann Arbor library launches Pandemic Log, asks public to share COVID-19 stories, photos Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged the government to come clean on the border standoff with China, saying there should be transparency on the issue. What we would like to see is some more transparency on what is going on. It becomes difficult for us to have a position without understanding the facts. I think the government should make it clear to the people of India what exactly is happening on the border, he told a news conference held through video conference. Indian and Chinese soldiers are engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation at four locations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since early May, and several rounds of talks between local military commanders, including a meeting on Monday, have failed to end the standoff that began with violent clashes between troops from both sides in the Sikkim and Ladakh sectors three weeks ago. The external affairs ministry has rejected Chinas contention that Indian troops trespassed across the LAC, and accused Chinese forces of hindering patrols of the Indian side of the disputed border. China is said to have marshalled more than 5,000 soldiers on its side of the disputed border in Ladakh sector, where India too has sent military reinforcements to strengthen its defences as growing tensions along the LAC threaten to plunge bilateral relations to a new low. Gandhi said, We are hearing different stories. I dont want to go into conjecture and it wont be appropriate for me to comment on it without knowing the details. But it is important that the government of India makes it clear what is happening on the border so that the people can understand and they have a position. Frankly, there is no clarity. What is happening with China in Ladakh or Nepal, there should be transparency. I dont see that transparency. Regarding China, it is a live issue so I dont want to comment on that. I leave that to the wisdom of the government. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday headed a meeting with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and the three Service Chiefs to discuss the ongoing border standoff with China in Ladakh. The military brass is learnt to have apprised Modi about the evolving situation in eastern Ladakh although officials maintained the agenda of the pre-scheduled meeting was to discuss the ambitious military reforms and ways to boost India's combat prowess. Government sources said India will not stop infrastructure development projects in strategic areas along the nearly 3,500-km Sino-India border notwithstanding China's well-coordinated efforts to stall them by attempting to vitiate the situation in areas like eastern Ladakh. Sources said China has put forward the condition that India stop building infrastructure even on its own side of the LAC, a condition that will remain unacceptable to New Delhi. India, on the other hand, has asked Beijing to maintain status quo at the border, sources said. But the Chinese have refused to back off from India territory. Modi's meeting came hours after the top four generals briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh about the situation in Pangong Tso lake, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldi where Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in aggressive posturing for the last 20 days. People in the military establishment said the prime minister was briefed about the situation in Ladakh. There was no official comment or details available about the meeting. Official sources said Doval has been closely monitoring the evolving situation along the LAC in Ladakh as well as in north Sikkim and Uttarakhand. "China's strategy to put military pressure on India will not work. We want restoration of the status quo along the LAC," said an official on condition of anonymity. The meetings are the latest in a series of such consultations held in the last two weeks as India weighs its options to respond to the latest provocation by China at the border. Singh was briefed by Army Chief General MM Naravane about the situation at the LAC two days ago after his return from Leh to take stock of the matter. It is learnt that Singh asked questions on troop deployment and expressed his full support for the Army's response to Chinese aggression. Six rounds of talks between Indian and Chinese troops since the first border skirmish on May 5 have failed to de-escalate tensions as the two sides have maintained aggressive posturing in the disputed border areas. The People Liberation Armys main bone of contention has been the 255-km Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road that India last year built on its side of the border. It provides access to the Depsang area and Galwan Valley and ends near the Karakoram Pass. The infrastructure development has made it easier for patrols to operate and the frequency of patrolling can also be increased. The series of meetings on Tuesday come a day before top Army commanders meet in Delhi for the three-day biannual army commanders conference. "The apex level leadership of Indian Army will brainstorm on current emerging security and administrative challenges and chart the future course for Indian Army," said a statement released by the Army. While army sources have said the conference will focus on logistics and human resources, there is little doubt the situation unfolding at the border with China is going to dominate discussions. The conference was originally scheduled to be held from April 13-18, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now be held in two phase. The first phase will be from May 27-29 and the second one in the last week of June, said Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand. Tensions had erupted earlier this month when around 250 Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods and sticks and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in Ladakh in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector on May 9. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries. After the violent clashes, both India and China have pumped in additional troops, built fortifications and pitched tents at a few stretches along the LAC in three areas in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army has also increased its presence in Uttarakhand after reports of Chinese troop build-up on their side of the LAC. UAVs have been deployed for intelligence gathering and surveillance. (With inputs from PTI) Microsofts C.E.O., Satya Nadella, made a similar point in a recent interview with The Times. Referring to hiring in a remote-working setup, he said: I ask myself if somebody new had joined Microsoft, even at the senior ranks, how would they feel? How connected will they feel? What about company culture? David Plotz of Business Insider predicts a potentially destabilizing divide between workers who get ahead by going into the office and those who work remotely and miss out on career opportunities. Everyone who wants to manage, to run things, to influence, to jockey, to make friends, to build a network they will clamor to work in the office, he writes. Almost every single ambitious person in a company will be demanding a desk at HQ. What about the C.E.O.? Proximity to power is important, so if an executive promotes a remote-first approach but works mostly in the office, the message could be diluted. Andrew polled his Twitter followers and found them almost evenly split on whether the C.E.O. should work from an office. What do you think? Let us know at dealbook@nytimes.com. Take Note: Tone at the top Michelle Leder is the founder of the S.E.C. filing site footnoted*. Here, she considers the widening range of companies announcing executive pay cuts in financial filings. You can follow her on Twitter at @footnoted. In the early stages of the pandemic, the companies hit hardest began announcing executive pay cuts. This helped soften the blow for employees who were laid off or furloughed. For example, United Airlines disclosed on March 10 that its top two executives at the time the C.E.O., Oscar Munoz, and the president, Scott Kirby would forgo their base salaries through June 30, a move other travel companies soon followed. But pay cuts are now spreading beyond the most heavily impacted sectors. Belden, an industrial cable manufacturer based in St. Louis, announced on Friday that its new C.E.O., Roel Vestjens, would receive only 50 percent of his $750,000 salary this year. The American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City (AmCham Vietnam-HCMC) has elected its vice-chairman and Mekong Capital partner Chad Ovel as the new chairman, effective June 1. Incumbent chairwoman Amanda Rasmussen will step down from her role as she has accepted a new position in Europe and will be moving with her family to Denmark. Mary Tarnowka will continue in her role as executive director of AmCham Vietnam-HCMC. Chad Ovel has lived and worked in Vietnam continuously since 1996. He is a partner at Mekong Capital, a Vietnam-focused private equity firm specializing in consumer-driven businesses. Established in 2001, Mekong Capital has the most extensive private equity track record in Vietnam, having completed 35 private equity investments, of which 26 have been fully exited. Ovel has led Mekong Capitals successful investments in various sectors including pharmaceuticals, real estate, logistics, casual dining, and retail. Before joining Mekong Capital, Ovel had a successful track record as a CEO leading the rapid growth of ScanCom Vietnam, a foreign-owned furniture export manufacturing business, and AA Corporation, a local company operating in the sectors of construction, retail, and manufacturing. Ovel is originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He holds a BA from Carleton College and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! (Newser) A video taken in New York's Central Park over the weekend has gone viral, leading to accusations of racism against an investment exec. Per NBC New York, a woman posted the clip on Twitter showing her brother, Christian Cooper, in a confrontation with Amy Cooper (no relation) Monday after he says he asked her to put her dog on a leash, per the rules in that part of the park. "That's important to us birders," Christian Cooper tells CNN, adding to NBC: "If the habitat is destroyed, we won't be able to go there to see birds." Per his own Facebook post, she refused, which is when he offered the dog a treat he carries "just for such intransigence." That's when he started recording and things "took a dark turn," he notes. The video shows Amy Cooper, who's white, insisting he stop recording. When he won't, she tells him she'll call the cops and "tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life." story continues below The clip shows her doing that, saying into her phone, "I'm being threatened by a man ... Please send the cops immediately!" The NYPD tells CNN that by the time officers arrived, neither Cooper was there; no arrests were made. Cooper, now on "administrative leave" by her employer, tells NBC she knows what she did was "unacceptable," but that Christian Cooper was screaming at her (he denies that) and that she was scared and didn't know what was in the dog treat. Christian Cooper notes, "We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make ... I'm just not going to participate in that." Meanwhile, after complaints online that Amy Cooper seemed to be choking her dog while restraining it during the incident, the shelter she adopted it from notes she'd "voluntarily surrendered" the dog back as the shelter looks into what happened. (Read more Central Park stories.) Feedr, the food tech startup that delivers personalised meals to office workers as an alternative to companies setting up their own canteens, has been acquired by Compass Group, the publicly-listed foodservice company. The price is described as "in the region" of $24 million, while I understand that the deal between the two companies was completed in early March 2020. Compass Group says the purchase of Feedr will help accelerate its digital transformation, and -- amidst the coronavirus crisis -- form part of its "return to work" strategy. Specifically, it plans to utilise Feedrs software across its portfolio of corporate clients in the U.K. and Ireland, with further potential applications of the technology in education and healthcare sectors. "Feedrs mobile ordering and pre-pay technology will enable Compass to transform the way people interact with on-site restaurants, so employees can browse menus, pay and collect more flexibly, enhancing their food at work experience," explains Compass Group UK and Ireland. Launched in 2016 by Riya Grover and Lyz Swanton, Feedr pitched itself as a cloud canteen". This sees it operate a two-sided marketplace that connects healthy food suppliers with office workers at companies, in addition to arranging delivery. To do this, Feedr publishes a unique rotating menu every day and asks workers to choose what they want to eat by 10.30am. It then pools those orders and sends them to the food suppliers it works with, which are mostly artisan and independent food producers, to have ready for delivery at lunch time. The technology behind Feedr handles logistics planning, in terms of predicting and helping to manage demand for each meal on offer from specific suppliers. There is also a large emphasis on personalised recommendations based on the preferences of individual customers and their order history. And it's this aspect of Feedr's offering that Compass Group thinks has utility when applied to on-site restaurants and canteens, too. With that said, in addition to adopting Feedr's technology, Compass says it will also invest in growing Feedr as an independent brand that will continue to operate in the delivery market with its cloud canteen product. Story continues Riya Grover, co-Founder and CEO of Feedr comments: We are thrilled to be part of Compass Group and to integrate our ordering, payments and health technology across their portfolio. Operating at new levels of scale will allow us to accelerate our product innovation, and to support our marketplace of restaurant partners with new opportunities. Meanwhile, Damien Lane, partner at Episode 1, an early backer of Feedr, adds: We invested in Feedr because we bought in to Riya and Lyz's vision of using technology to deliver healthier meal options to the workplace, and have been hugely impressed with the progress made since our investment. I'm sure that Feedr will prove to be a hugely successful acquisition for Compass, who will be able to deploy Feedr's technology platform into its worldwide network and accelerate Feedr's mission of bringing healthy food choices to consumers and employees". Alongside Episode 1, which led Feedr's 1.5 million pre-Series A funding in 2018, other investors include Founders Factory, and angel investors Errol Damelin (Wonga founder and renowned fintech investor), Richard Glynn (former Ladbrokes CEO and founder of Alinsky Partners) and David Pritchard (founder of OpenTable Europe). The company had raised 2.7 million in total. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking more contingents of Army for West Bengal, which has been ravaged by Cyclone Amphan. In the letter, Chowdhury has said that the West Bengal administration has miserably failed to cope with this disastrous situation. Out of desperation, Chowdhury starts his letter, I do like to draw your kind attention that there is no tangible improvement of post-Amphan devastation in West Bengal, which has already assumed catastrophic dimension. He then describes the situation and says there is no electricity in large parts of the state including capital Kolkata. He also says that there is acute shortage of drinking water and there are fears of water contamination. Chowdhury is an MP from Berhampore in West Bengal. He has served as the president of the Bengal unit of the Congress. At least five columns of the Army were pressed into service in Kolkata last week at the request of the state government to help in road clearances, along with teams of the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force. The National Disaster Response Force had earlier said they were putting together 10 more teams to help the state. The state already has 26 NDRF teams in the cyclone affected areas of Bengal. The Centre had also released Rs 1,000 crore to the West Bengal government, as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited the state on Friday last week to take stock of the devastation caused by the cyclone. Cyclone Amphan, the most severe storm in the Bay of Bengal since the super cyclone of 1999, made landfall around 20km east of Sagar Island in the Sunderbans on Wednesday last week, cutting off road links, snapping telecommunications and power lines. It killed about 86 people in West Bengal including about 15 in state capital Kolkata. The Bengal government had earlier in the day asked the railways ministry to stop the Shramik Special trains from reaching the state till May 26, pointing that the district administration was already stretched to its limits. From 10am today, Leaving Certificate students will be able to register for calculated grading. All Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied students are required to register between 10am today and 10pm Thursday, May 28. Some 61,000 students are expected to register on the portal; 58,000 of which are following the Leaving Certificate or Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme, and 3,000 Leaving Certificate Applied Students. Students will have the option of confirming the level at which they wish to sit each subject, or changing to a lower level. Upon registering, students must have the following information to hand: Their Examination Number Their Personal Public Service number (PPS), which they will use to create a four-digit Personal Identification Number Email address Mobile phone number Once the Department has received all the necessary data from schools, students will be asked to opt in through the portal to indicate if they wish to receive calculated grades. Education Minister Joe McHugh has urged students to not "leave it until the last minute" before registering for calculated grading, adding, "we need every student to register so that the new system can operate smoothly." "The important message for Leaving Certificate students is that they must now register by Thursday at 10pm to ensure that they can receive their Leaving Certificate Calculated Grades," Mr McHugh added. It is also essential that students confirm their levels at this time so that schools can complete the task of providing information for each student about their expected level of performance in each subject. Students can register from 10 am by clicking here. Several US states have been accused of bungling their coronavirus figures, amid fears that the true toll from the pandemic is even higher. Florida has stopped medical examiners from releasing a death toll which was sometimes higher than health department figures, and recently fired a data scientist who claimed she was being asked to 'drum up support for the plan to re-open'. In Georgia, where governor Brian Kemp has been eager to re-open the state, health officials published a misleading graph which appeared to show a falling infection rate but was actually not in chronological order. Meanwhile, some states including Virginia, Texas and Vermont have lumped together different kinds of virus tests - showing a higher testing rate but giving a less accurate picture of how the disease is spreading. All these states say they had no intent to deceive the public, but public health experts say that faulty data will make it harder to judge their response. Two people wearing masks lift a coffin during a burial in Boston earlier this month - amid fears that the true death toll from coronavirus is higher than official figures The 50 states are reporting their virus data in different ways, and even the CDC's data has been criticized as 'uninterpretable'. 'It is incumbent on health departments and the CDC to make sure they're presenting information that's accurate,' said Ashish Jha, director of Harvard's Global Health Institute. 'And if they can't get it, then don't show the data at all,' Jha said. 'Faulty data is much, much worse than no data.' Some states have been combining PCR tests, showing people who are currently infected, with antibody tests which show whether someone had the virus in the past. Public health experts say these figures should be reported separately, because a combined figure can give the false impression that the virus is in decline. The CDC's Dr Daniel Pollock said the agency was working to separate the data but had not initially realized that some states were combining them. In Arizona, governor Doug Ducey used a graph showing a declining rate of positive tests when he announced that barbers, salons and restaurants could reopen. Ducey did not disclose during the televised news conference that the figures combined PCR and antibody tests. Positive results from PCR tests were declining, according to published state data, but adding the antibody tests made the decline look steeper. Vermont and Virginia said they stopped combining the two types of tests in the past few days. Health officials in Virginia, where Democratic governor Ralph Northam has eased up on restrictions, said that combining them caused 'no difference in overall trends.' Georgia published this graph which appears to show a falling infection rate, but the numbers are not sorted in chronological order. The state denied trying to mislead readers A nurse places a blood sample in a bag after an antibody test in New York - a test which has sometimes been lumped together with current diagnostic tests in official figures In Florida, health officials ordered a medical examiners' death toll to remain private after local media pointed out that it often showed a higher figure. A redacted list was subsequently published, but without the cause of death - meaning it could not be used as a reliable count of Covid-19 deaths. The health department said the discrepancy was caused by a different method of collecting data, saying: 'It is not true that deaths have been hidden'. Separately, Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones alleged she was fired after refusing to manipulate data 'to drum up support for the plan to re-open'. Records show that Jones had been reprimanded several times for violating health department policy by making public remarks about the information. Governor Ron DeSantis lashed out at a news conference last week, saying Jones had a pattern of 'insubordination' and should have been fired months ago. Health officials deny any inaccuracy in the data and say their publications are 'transparent'. One of the methodological changes which she opposed was announced by governor DeSantis at a news conference. In Georgia, one of the earliest states to ease lockdown, health officials published a graph which appeared to show cases declining in the worst-affected counties. However, the graph was not in chronological order - with May 7 coming right before April 26, followed by May 3. State lawwmaker Jasmine Clark, a Democrat with a doctorate in microbiology, said the graph was a 'prime example of malfeasance'. 'Sadly it feels like there's been an attempt to make the data fit the narrative, and that's not how data works,' she said. Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones, pictured, alleges that she was fired after being asked to drum up support for re-opening. The state denies this Jones had worked on Florida's official coronavirus dashboard (pictured), which has been used useful by the public, media and researchers to access information regarding Covid-19 Republican governor Brian Kemp's office denied there was any attempt to deceive the public. 'It was not intended to mislead,' said Kemp spokeswoman Candice Broce. 'It was always intended to be helpful.' Georgia's health department also regularly publishes a graph that shows cases over time, except that new infections are not listed on the day they came back positive, which is the practice in many other states. Instead, Georgia lists new cases on the day the patient first reported symptoms. That practice can shift the timeline of the outbreak and make it appear as if the state is moving past the peak. Kemp spokeswoman Broce insisted that the governor's office is not telling the department what to do and that officials are not trying to dress up the data. In Texas, where health officials said last week that they were including some antibody results in their testing totals and case counts, Republican governor Greg Abbott said Monday that the numbers were not being mingled. Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said a lot of these cases are not necessarily the result of any attempt to fool the public. For example, she said, states may not have updated information systems that allow them to tell the difference between an antibody test and a viral test. Still, if states are mixing a lot of testing numbers together, 'you're not going to be able to make good decisions about reopening and about what level of disease you have in the community,' Nuzzo said. The CDC's current totals show 1,637,456 cases recorded in the United States, with a tally of 97,669 deaths. Both are by far the highest in the world, although a surging outbreak in Brazil has moved the country's infection count into second in the world. The continent of South America has seen more new cases than North America in some of the last seven days. Seattle, May 26 : The Amazon team behind products like Kindle e-readers and Echo smart home speakers is now working on to build Covid-19 testing capabilities. Amazon's hardware group Lab126 is hiring engineers to work on its coronavirus testing initiative, according to job listings reported by GeekWire. In a series of job posts, the ecommerce giant is looking for new Lab126 mechanical design engineers to "investigate and introduce new technology and methodology to enhance quality and efficiency of Covid-19 testing," among other responsibilities. "Lab126 is based in Silicon Valley, but the posts indicate these jobs are located in Hebron, Ky., where Amazon is separately hiring lab assistants, scientists and others for its COVID-19 testing programme," said the report. Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has made it clear that the company's Covid-19 response will be a major new initiative. Amid the call to shut its warehouses and protect front-line employees from the COVID-19 disease, Amazon recently announced to build its own coronavirus testing lab and test more employees at its warehouses and other facilities. According to the company, a team of Amazonians with a variety of skills from research scientists and programme managers to procurement specialists and software engineers have moved from their normal day jobs onto a dedicated team to work on this initiative. "We have begun assembling the equipment we need to build our first lab and hope to start testing small numbers of our front line employees soon," Amazon said in a statement. To date, Amazon has made over 150 process changes at sites around the world to ensure the health and safety of its teams. Covid-19 claimed the life of another Amazon warehouse worker in the US last week, amid demand for enhanced safety measures for the e-commerce giant's employees. The latest victim became the eighth Amazon warehouse worker in the US to have lost life due to complications from Covid-19, although the e-commerce giant did not disclose the exact numbers. ARM has announced the next generation of smartphone processors, set to deliver up to 20 percent or greater performance than the prior generation. It includes something special: a new Cortex-X1 design, an optimized version designed for ultimate performance. In the smartphone industry, ARM designs its Cortex CPUs, Mali GPUs, and Ethos machine-learning processors, then licenses them to companies like Qualcomm. (This differs from the PC chip business, where AMD and Intel keep their designs proprietaryand Intel manufactures its own CPUs as well.) Those chip designers, in turn, are permitted to customize and enhance them, depending upon their license terms. The new coresthe Cortex-A78, the Mali-G78, and the Ethos-N78will debut in smartphones shipping in 2021, ARM executives said. The company is promising that the Cortex-A78 will deliver 20 percent greater sustained performance over the prior generation; the Mali-G78, 25 percent better overall performance; and the Ethos-N78, 25 percent more performance efficiency. ARM Then theres the ARM Cortex-X1, which ARM is promising will deliver 30 percent peak performance over the prior Cortex-A generation. This, according to ARM, represents a new category of off roadmap performance, requiring specific engineering collaboration with partners. It sounds like well be hearing more about the first fruits of the Cortex-X1 partnership within the coming weeks. It answers the question of how much performance can be pushed for this generation when youre not so constrained by the usual power area constraints, Paul Williamson, vice president and general manager of ARMs client line of business, said of the Cortex-X1. Its really targeting flagship smartphones and larger-screen devices. And given the silicon area and dissipated power, its not really something we expect to see in every device. Smartphone makers have a choice between using the new ARM cores to maximize performance, or to deliver better battery life with the same performance as the prior generation. This is actually the angle Williamson took when explaining the new cores, as the three deliver more out of the same power budget as last year, he said. More on the Cortex-A78 Williamson said the A78 was specifically designed for the demands of 5G, with use cases that included how fast applications launch, and how responsive webpages are when scrolling. Sustained performance in a device with limited power will avoid power throttling in really high-performance applications, Williamson said. So youll get less lag and less framerate drops. ARM A summary of the ARM Cortex-A78s performance. Like the prior Cortex-A77, the Cortex-A78 will consist of what ARM calls its big.LITTLE octacore architecture, with four high-performance A78 cores and four A55 cores optimized for long battery life. ARM said that a Cortex-A78 core running at 3GHz would deliver 20 percent more sustained, single-core performance than the Cortex-A77 core running at 2.6GHz, assuming 1 watt per core. The performance is based on simulated estimates. Alternatively, a phone maker could clock the A78 to consume half the power at the same performance as the A77, Williamson said. ARM believes that the octacore Cortex-A78 layout will require 15 percent less die space than the Cortex-A77, leading to smaller phones. Williamson said ARM is also moving ahead with its Built on Cortex technology program, which it established with some of its partners in 2016. Weve collaborated closely with a small number of key partners to deliver a new performance level thats going beyond our traditional roadmap, he said. ARM The Cortex-X1: ARMs version of the gaming-class processors normally found on the PC. The fruits of that partnership are what it calls the Cortex-X Custom Program, and with it the Cortex-X1. With this program, they [ARM partners and phone makers] can create devices that dont compromise on the power and efficiency to deploy cores that deliver an all-out performance point, Williamson said. ARM says the Cortex-X1 offers 30 percent more peak single-core performance than the previous Cortex-A generationa bit more than the 20-percent improvement offered by the Cortex-A78 in general. Its designed for ultimate performance, Williamson said. He said he expects partners using the Cortex-X1 to announce their phones later this year. ARMs licensing terms require those companies to use the Cortex-X1 brand, which shouldnt be an issue. An ARM representative noted that while a licensee like Qualcomm builds its Snapdragon smartphone processors on ARMeven branding its own CPU cores as Kryothe company typically discloses exactly which ARM cores theyre built upon. We view this as a win/win on both sides, she said. More on Mali-G78 and -G68 ARMs Mali-G78 graphics processor includes several specific improvements: an increase to 24 cores, a 30-percent reduction in power for a key math unit, and performance optimizationsspecifically around complex gaming scenes involving smoke, grass, and trees. Its the most powerful GPU ARMs made on its Valhall [stet] architecture, ARM said. Overall, theres a 25-percent performance boost from the prior generation, the Mali-G77. ARM Heres how ARM describes the Mali-G78s performance in various undisclosed games. Games are getting more complex, people are expecting console-like performance with Fortnite and [PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds] being played more often, Williamson said. Mobile-enabled gamers wants to take the immersive experience on the go. And for that you need a high-performance GPU. ARM also said that it will offer a version of the Mali-G78 known as the Mali-G68, specifically for less expensive phones. Although the G68 will keep all of the same features of the G78, it will have just 6 cores, rather than 24. In addition to gaming performance, ARM says machine-learning capabilities have improved by about 15 percent inside the G78. Thats useful in AI-driven applications like face-unlocking and various camera modes, including AI-driven portrait modes that highlight the subject and blur the background. More on Ethos-N78 ARM also has a dedicated machine-learning core, the Ethos-N78, which its optimized for more efficient data movement. ARM A summary of the Ethos-N78s specs. ARMs Ethos-N78 improves performance efficiency by 25 percent per square millimeter, and the company has increased the MAC capacity to a peak of 10 teraflops per second. That means were doing more work in the same area, or the same work in less area with respect to previous-generation devices, Williamson said. The Lincoln Airport is the only one in Nebraska affected by the cuts. Elizabeth Wolf, a Delta spokeswoman, said in an email that the service suspensions are "an effort to reduce costs and reduce employee exposure while customer traffic is very low." Last month, Delta had 318 passengers in Lincoln, a 97% decline from April 2019. Despite reducing its capacity by more than 70% compared with a year ago, it only filled 10% of its seats. United did even worse, seeing a 98% drop in passengers and only filling 8% of its seats. Together, the two airlines had 705 Lincoln passengers in April, less than their combined daily average. Lincoln Airport Executive Director David Haring said passenger numbers have improved in May, nearly doubling over the April numbers, but he does not see that as signs of a recovery. "That doubling is more reflective of the historic magnitude of the decline than signs of a recovery," Haring said in an email. "At the peak of the decline (in) April, traffic at (the airport) was down approximately 97%. We are now down about 93%-95%." Gold ticked higher on Tuesday as brewing Sino-U.S. tensions over Hong Kong lifted demand for the safe-haven metal, though easing coronavirus-induced lockdown restrictions supported equities and capped bullion's gains. Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,732.38 per ounce by 0241 GMT. U.S. gold futures were down 0.1% to $1,733.50. "The key supportive factor for the (gold) market is rising tensions between China and the U.S.; and if we see a further escalation, we would see another move higher in gold," said ING analyst Warren Patterson. China's foreign ministry office in Hong Kong and the city's security chief defended proposed security laws by describing some acts in mass pro-democracy protests last year as terrorism. The proposed legislation could lead to U.S. sanctions on Hong Kong and China, and threaten the city's status as a financial hub, White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said on Sunday. Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset during political and economic uncertainties. One of the factors keeping a cap on gold prices is the easing of lockdown restrictions, said Patterson, adding that: "People are getting more positive on recovery." Asian shares gained ground on expectations of an economic recovery and as investors focussed on more stimulus in China. Helping risk-on sentiment, a survey showed on Monday German business morale rebounded in May, recovering from its most dramatic fall on record the previous month. Market participants are now awaiting the U.S. consumer confidence data due at 1400 GMT for more clues about the health of the world's top economy. Among other precious metals, palladium gained 1.1% to $2,013.98 per ounce, platinum added 1.3% at $849.32, and silver rose 0.8% to $17.34. By Tom Balmforth and Alexander Marrow MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian prosecutors asked a court on Monday to sentence former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is on trial accused of spying for the United States, to 18 years in a maximum security prison, his lawyer said. Whelan, a U.S. national who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports, has been in custody since he was detained in a Moscow hotel room in December 2018. He says he was set up in a sting and has pleaded not guilty to the charge. "The prosecution has made a very harsh demand, it's absolutely unjustified and groundless. To be honest, we're in shock," Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told reporters after Monday's hearing. The court will announce its verdict on June 15, he said. The trial, which began on March 23, has been closed to the public as its content broaches classified information. Many of the case's details have emerged through his lawyer. U.S. Ambassador in Moscow John Sullivan said the proceedings amounted to a "secret trial" and a "mockery of justice". "There is no legitimacy to a procedure that is hidden behind closed doors. It is not transparent, it is not fair, and it is not impartial," he said. The prosecution accuses Whelan of being at least a ranking U.S. military intelligence colonel and that he was caught red-handed trying to obtain secrets, his lawyer said. The defence said Whelan had only believed he was receiving photographs of a trip that he and an acquaintance had been on, not classified material, and that he had been tricked, Zherebenkov said. "This was a game by Russia's Federal Security Service...," he said. U.S. authorities have called the charges against Whelan spurious and have called on Russia to release him, describing the case as a "significant obstacle" to improving bilateral ties. Whelan, 50, has used his appearances at hearings to allege he has been ill-treated by prison guards and been denied medical attention. Russian authorities have accused him of faking health problems to draw attention to his case. (Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova; Editing by John Stonestreet) News that the mandatory quarantine for foreign tourists will be lifted in July has given Balearic Hoteliers a massive boost. Earlier this month they had all but written off this summer because of the coronavirus crisis, but now they are determined to make up for lost time in Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. From July we will open some hotels in the Balearics and depending on demand, we may offer more accommodation in Majorca, said a Melia spokesperson. The Barcelo, Riu and Santos chains have decided to open one hotel each, from June 1. Barcelo will reopen the Formentor Hotel and the Riu chain plans to open one of its hotels in Playa de Palma. The Santos chain has chosen to get the Nixe Palace in Palma back up and running, but Hotel Director, Francisco Serrano says not all floors will be opened. It is a business decision that denotes the commitment of the Santos family to Majorca. We will open two floors of the hotel, with adequate services and all sanitary security measures in place. This is the first step to having it 100% operational when demand grows in July and August, he said. The Chairperson of the Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca, Maria Frontera, said opening the hotels is a very positive move. They are coherent actions aimed at facilitating the recovery of International markets announced by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez. She has called for a pilot test to be carried out between June 15 and 22 "to take advantage of developments in health indicators in those territories, Frontera says the Governments of Spain and Germany should reach an agreement and authorise these pilot tests so that, after June 22, the airport can resume tourist activity and National and International flights. Its vital for Majorca and the Balearic Islands to be able to start tourist activity as soon as possible." Germany The CEO of Germanys Main Tourist Group, TUI, Fritz Joussen, described the Spanish Government's attitude as very positive: "Now we can plan holidays to Majorca and offer them to our customers, he said, adding millions of tourists can rest assured that summer vacations in Spain will be possible during the school break, which is a good sign for many families. " Airlines German and British airlines are confident they can make up for time lost since the onset of the coronavirus crisis. EasyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair have listed flights to Majorca and other islands on their websites. In Germany, the Lufthansa group, (Eurowings) and TUI Fly have also started scheduling flights Majorca from July. Any mobile game that captures in-game player achievements can now reward players in cash on the acQyr eXchange platform without the need for blockchain, cryptocurrency, or NFTs. The Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri has thrust itself into the center of coronavirus fears as videos from the park went viral on Sunday afternoon. With Missouri already reopened videos spread via social media of people partying poolside. The state peeled off its coronavirus restrictions on May 4 and recorded a spike in case counts that day, according to The Kansas City Star. And while epidemiologists have noted that swimming or going to the beach can be manageably safe with social distancing practices, that is not what was recorded all over the internet. Current US death toll: 97,414 Incubation period: 2-14 days Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri - today #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/3Kn8U4g8Gv Tom Folan, MD (@tomfolanmd) May 24, 2020 Missouris coronavirus case count already spiked as Gov. Mike Parson allowed businesses to open on May 4. Missouri has 11,752 confirmed cases of the coronavirus with 676 deaths. What the hell is going on in the Lake of the Ozarks right now? Are people really this dumb? pic.twitter.com/66hlawnSYM Bishop (@Bishop_SAF) May 24, 2020 This is also Lake of the Ozarks on Memorial Day weekend. #SocialDistanacing pic.twitter.com/7bFQpH86Qs Ryan Watson (@ozarkboi323) May 24, 2020 MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE The COVID 15: Yankees doctor makes dire prediction for MLB players returning to spring training Trump threatens to move Republican National Convention from North Carolina CNY child-care centers ready to reopen again, but they wonder: Will the children come? Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing out of hospital after being treated for coronavirus Coronavirus vaccine: US company begins trials by injecting volunteers in Australia An ancient olive oil mill in southern Italy seems an unlikely spot to wait out a pandemic. But its perfectly suited to the role, with vaulted ceilings, open doorways, and an endless expanse of hills and sea that offer a sense of freedom rather than confinement. Of course, the idea of escaping a deadly virus wasnt a factor when the 17th-century building, 40 kilometres south of Naples, was restored and converted into a four-bedroom villa. But it was a fortuitous move, given that Italy became one of the countries hit hardest by COVID-19. It is not a traditional home, said listing agent Sabrina Majello, calling the conversion unusual. Its a house without perimeters. The continuity from the inside to the exterior and the impact of the sea view give the sense of total freedom. Located on a hilltop on the Sorrento Coast and surrounded by three acres of terraced land some of it planted with olive groves the villa enjoys a panorama of the Gulf of Naples to the west, Mount Vesuvius to the north and Mount Faito to the east. The interior is equally unfettered, with curved ceilings that soar up to 20 feet and a free-flowing layout that allows flexible use of space. There are no doors, and rooms merge together in an unconventional way, explained Majello, of Italy Sothebys International Realty. Bedrooms, for example, can be used as living areas and the kitchen, which utilizes free-standing metal furnishings, can easily be reconfigured. The original structure of limestone and tuff (a light, porous rock formed from volcanic ash) has been restored, deliberately retaining the factory proportions and raw state. In a nod to the homes industrial past and rural setting, concrete walls, staircases and ceilings are left bare, warmed by whitewashed timber flooring. With sunlight pouring through oversized windows, furnishings have been kept sparse, contributing to the spaciousness. Long white curtains are used in place of doors. Noteworthy are the natural materials of mortar and plaster that were used in the eco-friendly restoration, according to Majello. It seems to be incomplete and this is the most attractive detail. Remnants of old, oil-making equipment can still be seen in places, hearkening back to bygone days of crushing olives into paste with large millstones, followed by several stages of pressing at room temperature called cold-pressing settling and separation to extract the virgin oil. (It takes about five kilograms of olives to make one litre of oil.) Divided into four levels, the building is the perfect house for a free spirit such as an artist or writer, Majello suggested. Or simply someone who wants a magic place to live in, feeling the contact to nature but still being not so far away from the centre of Sorrento Coast. On the highest part of the site, theres an 860-square-foot tower that could be restored and repurposed, she pointed out. A large underground cistern is still used to collect rainwater. Typical of the Mediterranean climate, southern Italy enjoys mild winters and long, hot summers: just what olive trees like. Centuries ago, picking olives and making oil typically involved a number of workers performing endless hours of labour. Centuries later, that sense of working together for the common good continues at a distance. CV Carola Vyhnak is a Cobourg-based writer covering home and real-estate stories. She is a contributor for the Star. Reach her at cvyhnak@gmail.com The numbers Price: $1.8 million Size: 5,382 square feet Bedrooms: 4 Bathrooms: 4 The governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State has been slated for June 22, 2020. A source in the party has revealed that the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, due to his rift with the sitting governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, might play a game of power in selecting the governorship candidate in the state, if President Muhammadu Buhari fails to intervene. The Oshiomhole camp will attempt to disqualify Obaseki at the screening level before the primaries. Dont forget what happened in Kogi were many strong aspirants who were seen as threats to Governor Yahaya Bello were screened out, he said. According to Daily Independent, Governor Obaseki is already in Abuja to meet President Buhari on the controversy surrounding the mode of primary to be adopted by the party. The Anselm Ojezua led a chapter of the party has adopted the indirect primary option, which allows accredited delegates to vote, while the Oshiomhole chapter of the party has adopted the direct primary, which involves all card-carrying members of the party. The Edo State governor while reacting to the decision of Oshiomhole, opposed the direct primary due to outbreak of Coronavirus in the state. Obaseki who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, noted that as the popular candidate he is not afraid of any mode of primary and would defeat any aspirant who slugged it out with him for the APC ticket. The Edo State Governor further stated that gathering together over 500,000 party members because of the primary may trigger the number of COVID-19 cases in the state that might put the lives of people at risk. The governor of Edo State and leader of the APC in the state, Governor Godwin Obaseki, is an extremely popular candidate who will defeat any aspirant that contests the partys ticket in whatever means of primary that is used. The question we should ask is, Is direct primary the better alternative now in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic? Governor Obaseki, as a responsible citizen and chief security officer of Edo State, will not take any action that will put the health and safety of the good people of the state at risk. That is why we are opposed to the idea of direct primary at this period, Osagie said. Share this post with your Friends on Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 20:34:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MACAO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Ho Iat Seng on Tuesday extended a condolence message to the family of late entrepreneur Stanley Ho, saying he has made important contributions to the prosperity and stability of Macao. The chief executive expressed deep condolences to his family, adding that Ho has been benevolent and philanthropic, and cared about the social welfare all his life. Hong Kong-Macao entrepreneur Stanley Ho passed away in Hong Kong on Tuesday afternoon at the age of 98. Enditem Only 50 people will be allowed in the church at a time as it opens its doors to visitors for the first time since March. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, which houses the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born, has reopened after nearly three months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. The reopening of one of Christianitys most sacred shrines on Tuesday was part of an easing of restrictions across the occupied West Bank announced by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Mosques, shops, parks and restaurants will also gradually reopen. The Church of the Nativity was closed in early March ahead of the busy Easter holiday season that typically draws tens of thousands of visitors and worshippers. On Tuesday morning, a handful of priests from different Christian denominations stood watch as the door to the church was opened. Once inside, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Bethlehem, Bishop Theophylactos, kissed an icon while a priest sprayed holy water in the grotto of the church, the spot where it is believed Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus. Bishop Theophylactos called the reopening a day of celebration for Bethlehem since all the people now can enter the church and pray like before. Initially, only 50 people will be allowed in the church at one time, and visitors must wear face coverings and observe physical distancing, according to a joint statement from the churches that control the site. Kissing or touching the stones, including in the grotto, will be forbidden. Cautious return to normality On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announcing the easing of coronavirus restrictions, said the gradual return to normal life was being taken with caution. Shtayyeh warned, however, that restrictions would return should the numbers of new infections begin to rise again. Palestinian health officials have confirmed more than 350 coronavirus cases in the West Bank and 55 in the besieged Gaza Strip, with three virus-related deaths reported across both territories and 357 recoveries. Most of the cases in the West Bank were traced to Palestinians who worked inside Israel, which has faced a much larger outbreak. Israeli authorities have begun to gradually reopen schools, places of worship and markets as the spread of the coronavirus has slowed. Israels Ministry of Health has reported more than 16,700 confirmed infections and 279 related deaths. More than 14,000 people have recovered. West Bengal has released its guidelines for air travellers arriving in the state on domestic flights from Thursday, more than two months after flight operations were banned to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. West Bengal, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh were among the states who did not open their skies on Monday when most allowed domestic flight operations to restart. Click here for full Covid-19 coverage Among the guidelines for air passengers are submission of self-declaration forms on arrival and monitoring their health for 14 days. Heres what you need to follow if you are planning to travel to West Bengal: * You will be required to submit self-declaration form at the time of arrival to the state health officials. * At the airport, during boarding and travel, you will have to use face covers or masks. You will also follow hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and maintain social distancing norms. * You will have to undergo health screening at the point of departure and only asymptomatic passengers shall be allowed to board the plane. On arrival, health screening shall be done for all the passengers. * The guideline said asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to go with the advice that they shall self monitor their health for 14 days. In case they develop any symptoms, they shall inform the local medical officer or state call centre at 1800 313 444 222/033-23412600,2357 3636/1083/1085 for medical interventions. * Samples will be collected for Covid-19 test from all symptomatic passengers. They will be taken to the nearest health facility for sample collection and health condition assessment. * Those with moderate or severe symptoms will be admitted to the dedicated Covid-19 health facility and managed accordingly. Those with mild symptoms will be asked to go for home or institutional isolation. * Further, medical interventions will be taken as per the test result. * Regular sanitisation or disinfection of the common surfaces shall be done at the airport. There should be adequate availability of soaps or sanitisers at different points in the airport. * Adequate publicity for maintenance of social distancing norms and health hygiene protocol should be done at the airport. A 26-year-old man from Bihar allegedly murdered his 23-year-old live-in partner in Haridwar by strangulating her, stuffed her body in a suitcase before fleeing with her friend, police said The deceased was a resident of Madhya Pradesh. Both the man and the woman used to work in the same company in Haridwar. Both the man and the womans friend are absconding. The incident happened on Friday but came to light late Sunday night after neighbours informed the police about a foul smell coming out of the couples apartment which was locked from outside, Kamlesh Upadhyay, superintendent of police Haridwar (city) said, During the investigation, police found that the woman, a resident of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh was in a relationship with the accused and was living with him. The accused is from Vaishali district in Bihar. Upadhyay said, Both first used to work together in Gwalior where they developed a relationship and later shifted to Delhi last year where they joined the same e-commerce company. Later in December last year, both along with about 90 others from their company shifted to the industrial unit of State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited in Haridwar. The whole group started living in the same residential area where the man and the woman also rented an apartment. The accused started getting close with another woman in his building which increased problems between him and the deceased. On Friday, while the two were in their apartment, the accused strangled her to death. He then stuffed her body in a suitcase in an effort to hide it and fled after locking the apartment, said Upadhyay. The police officer said during the probe, the other woman was also found to be missing which suggested that she must have fled with the man. Another police officer privy to the probe on the condition of anonymity said, The neighbours had said that on Friday, the man had put loud music in his apartment so that the womans screams were not heard. He murdered that night. Police found some clues about the whereabouts of the other woman. On Tuesday we have found clues about the whereabouts of the woman and will soon nab her to know about the prime accused. Investigations are on in the case and the two will be nabbed soon, said Upadhyay. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Reverend Minister said easing the restrictions without appropriate measures in place could severely affect the fight to bring down the further spread of the disease in the country. Reverend Owusu in a virtual sermon, called on Ghanaians to adhere to the preventive protocols and social restrictions to help contain the further spread of the disease. Although some of the restrictions such as the lockdown have been lifted, Ghanaians are still anticipating the ease of the remaining restrictions, especially on public gatherings and closure of borders until May 31, this year. Rev. Owusu, however, expressed the concern that it would be too early to lift the ban on public, social, and religious gatherings since the country's COVID-19 case count was rising every day. He called on the President not to give in to those calling for the opening of schools, churches, and other social gatherings. Rev. Owusu said though Ghana, like other countries, had been hit by the negative impact of the COVID-19, there was the need for the government to mobilize available local resources to manage the country amid the virus. Sometimes, we look at what is in our hands and it looks like it doesn't seem like it's enough but we must look at that in relation to the problem we have at hand. He noted that, God would continue to protect the world, particularly Ghana, and that, soon the virus, which was claiming the lives of many people and causing social distortions would be a thing of the past. ---GNA File image The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold "virtual rallies" across the country and organise more than 1,000 conferences online as it readies to celebrate the first anniversary of the Modi government's second term whose "historic achievements", the party said, would be written in golden letters. In a communication to state units and other senior office-bearers, BJP general secretary Arun Singh said all big state units will hold at least two virtual rallies and smaller units will hold one, adding that more than 750 people should attend each of these programmes. There will also be 1,000 conferences using the internet, he said. Due to the coronavirus lockdown and ban on political meeting, the BJP is turning to technology for holding the events to mark the first anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's second term. It had taken office on May 30 last year. The year has been full of "historic achievements", the party said in the communication, listing nullification of Article 370, which had given the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir special powers, and the law against triple talaq among its successes. The path to the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya has also been cleared, it said. "All these achievements will be written in golden letters in history," it said. The party described Prime Minister Modi as the world's "most popular leader" and said his government in the first year has fulfilled people's decades-long aspirations and dreams. The events organised by the party to mark the day will begin on May 30 and may continue for a month, sources said. BJP president J P Nadda will address the people through Facebook live, the party said. With the government focusing on "self-reliance", the party has asked its member to resolve to use local and 'swadeshi' products. They should reach out to all sections of society while following the social distancing norms, it added. The party has asked its members to inform the masses about Modi government's work to combat COVID-19 and told them to carry a letter penned by the prime minister about his resolve to make 'Atmnirbhar Bharat' to 10 crore families. Party members have been asked to share the highlights of the Rs 20-lakh-crore package announced by the government and also told to distribute sanitisers and masks among the masses on the occasion. (With PTI inputs) BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks rose sharply on Tuesday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out a timetable for businesses as part of moves to ease the coronavirus lockdown. Outdoor markets and car showrooms could be reopened from June 1, while all other non-essential retail will reopen from June 15 if the government's tests are met, he told a news conference. The lifting of the state of emergency in Japan and growing optimism about a potential coronavirus vaccine also helped underpin investor sentiment. The benchmark FTSE 100 climbed 94 points, or 1.6 percent, to 6,088 as traders returned to their desks after the Spring bank holiday. Travel-related stocks were moving higher amid easing travel bans across the world. Shares of easyJet and IAG soared as much as 20 percent, while Ryanair Holdings surged over 9 percent. Aston Martin jumped 37 percent as the struggling luxury carmaker announced the appointment of Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, as its new chief executive officer. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Peter Manfredonia (pictured), 23, has been on the run since killing his first victim, Ted DeMers on Friday and was last seen walking in Pennsylvania, police said The 23-year-old University of Connecticut senior who allegedly killed two people was reportedly stalking one woman who lived near his first victim, and a neighbor has recalled hearing screams on the night the second victim was murdered. The family of Peter Manfredonia, a finance and mechanical engineering major, are pleading with him to turn himself in after he was accused of murdering Ted DeMers, 62, and his acquaintance 23-year-old Nicholas J. Eisele. Manfredonia, 23, has been on the run since killing his first victim, DeMers on Friday and was last seen entering a Walmart in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, according to investigators. The student is accused of killing DeMers and assaulting DeMers' passenger in Willington, Connecticut, after they found him walking along a road and offered him a ride back to his motorcycle. The other man suffered severe wounds described as sword or machete wounds, state police said. Police told DeMers' wife, Cynthia, that Manfredonia had been on their street because he had been stalking a neighbors daughter, according to The New York Times. Manfredonia is also accused of killing his acquaintance 23-year-old Nicholas J. Eisele, who was found dead at his home in Derby. Eisele's neighbor told WTNH that he first heard arguing and loud banging that was followed by screams and then silence from the apartment above him on Sunday. Manfredonia has been accused of killing DeMers and assaulting another man, after they offered him a ride back. Police told DeMers' wife, Cynthia (both pictured), that Manfredonia had been on their street because he had been stalking a neighbors daughter Manfredonia is also accused of killing 23-year-old Nicholas J. Eisele (pictured), who was found dead at his home in Derby. Eisele's neighbor said he heard arguing and loud banging that was followed by screams and then silence from the apartment above him on Sunday Meanwhile, Connecticut state police and the FBI have been desperately searching for Manfredonia across three states: Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey The neighbor said he and his roommate did not call police. 'I feel guilty for not making that phone call. Maybe it wouldnt have saved them, but it would have caught him at least. Thats my guilt. I have to live with that,' the neighbor told the station. Meanwhile, Connecticut state police and the FBI have been desperately searching for Manfredonia across three states: Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey. Police describe Manfredonia as a 6ft 3in white man who should be considered armed and dangerous. Through their lawyer, Mike Dolan, Manfredonia's parents have pleaded with him to turn himself in. 'We love you. Please turn yourself in,' they said in a statement. 'You have your parents' and your sisters' and your family's entire support. It is time to let the healing process begin,' Dolan added. Dolan said Manfredonia had struggled with mental health issues and 'sought the help of a number of therapists'. Authorities are still actively searching for Manfredonia and a motive for the slayings has not been determined. Manfredonia is suspected of killing DeMers on Friday. Two days later, police say he was seen on surveillance footage walking directly toward Eiseles home between 5am and 6am on Sunday. Manfredonia is suspected of killing Eisele before forcing Eisele's girlfriend into her car and fleeing the state with her. The 23-year-old woman was located in her Volkswagen Jetta near Paterson, New Jersey on Sunday and was not hurt, police said. Authorities have not named her. State police described Eisele, who worked with his father in a landscaping business, as an acquaintance of Manfredonia's. The medical examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine cause of death. Police describe Manfredonia as a 6ft 3in white man who should be considered armed and dangerous Manfredonia was last seen walking along railroad tracks in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, wearing dark shorts and carrying what appears to be a duffel bag Manfredonia was separately seen carrying a duffel bag near train tracks in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Authorities said in a press release on Tuesday that they were able to confirm that Manfredonia was dropped off by an Uber in front of the East Stroudsburg Walmart. 'Through interviews with the driver and recovered security camera footage, troopers were able to determine that Manfredonia walked behind Walmart and other businesses onto a set of train tracks and was still in possession of a duffel bag full of guns he stole from a home invasion in Connecticut,' the release reads. 'It is believed that Manfredonia does not have ties to the area and does not have a vehicle. He may attempt to solicit ride sharing services, possibly through third party means, to flee the area.' Earlier on Sunday, a Willington man reported being held against his will by Manfredonia, who then left with food, several guns and the man's truck. The truck was later found abandoned near Osbornedale State Park in the early hours of Sunday morning. Eisele's family set up a GoFundMe page to help cover funeral expenses. On the page, friends and family shared memories, including his love of his mother's German shepherds, Trooper and Sandy. The car Manfredonia is suspected of stealing from Eisele was found in New Jersey at the Pennsylvania border on Sunday afternoon, police said. Connecticut State Police on Sunday released a photo of the 2016 black Volkswagen Jetta which bears a Connecticut license plate with the number CT AU78524. Police said that the driver's side of the car has a bumper sticker paying tribute to the 26 victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, which took place in Newtown. The alleged killer (pictured) is thought to be armed with several guns stolen during a home invasion Police in Willington, Connecticut, on Friday are seen gathering evidence near the area where the grisly murder and assault took place The University of Connecticut on Sunday released a statement confirming that records show Manfredonia is enrolled as a student in the joint school of engineering/school of business program. Manfredonia first enrolled at UConn in the fall of 2015, and is a senior. 'He is not attending summer courses, and had not been living on the UConn campus either at the time of the incident in Willington or during recent semesters,' UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz said. Reitz said the university is in contact with authorities to provide assistance that might help the investigation. 'The university expresses its deepest, most heartfelt sympathies to the victims and their families in this horrible, incomprehensible tragedy,' Reitz said. 'They are all in our thoughts.' When asked if the university knew of any problematic behavior by Manfredonia in years past, she said the university couldn't discuss specific individuals and cases. She did say, however, that 'UConn strives to do everything possible to identify and engage with students of concern and to provide them with all the assistance and resources we can both for their own well-being and that of the wider community'. Anyone with any information is asked to call Derby police at 203-735-7811, state police at 860-896-3200 or the FBI at 1-800-CALLFBI. Any sightings of Manfredonia should be called in to 911. The chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, fighting extradition to the US, will get her first shot at release this week in a case that's triggered an unprecedented diplomatic tussle between the US, China and Canada. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia is set to release a decision on whether Meng Wanzhou's case meets a key threshold of Canada's extradition law. If Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes rules that it fails to meet that test, Meng could be released from house arrest in Vancouver. If not, extradition proceedings will continue. Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou could walk free this week, with a judge set to rule on whether her case meets a key threshold of Canada's extradition law. Credit:AP The case was triggered when Meng was arrested on a US handover request in December 2018 during a routine stopover at Vancouver airport, a city where she owns two homes and often spent summer holidays. The fallout has since spanned three countries. Meng, the eldest daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder, Ren Zhengfei, has become the highest profile target of a broader US effort to contain China and its largest technology company, which Washington sees as a national security threat. Women from the poorest backgrounds are most impacted. (Getty Images) Poverty, debt and the inability to pay household bills are driving young women to self-harm, new research has found. Sixteen-to-34-year-olds from the poorest backgrounds in the UK are more than five times more likely to self-harm than women from well-off backgrounds. The study by NatCen Social Research, released by the charity Agenda, found that young women affected by poverty are much more likely to suffer from mental health issues. The research was highlighted after recent studies have focused on how women are affected mentally by things like social media and body image worries, with little information on how deprivation can impact a young woman psychologically. Read more: Dakota Johnson describes depression as beautiful Its devastating to see such high and increasing levels of self-harm among young women, especially those living in poverty and facing deprivation. This is especially concerning as we move into an economic downturn, Jemima Olchawski, Agendas chief executive shared. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, experts are predicting a recession will follow the virus, which has potential to put even more people at risk of deprivation. The increase in self-harm among young women is deeply worrying. Yet the discussion around this issue and women and girls mental health is often very narrow, focusing on issues like social media rather than reflecting on wider causes. This research highlights the important relationship between self-harm and poverty, Olchawski continued. Numerous studies, including an analysis from the Childrens Society, have noted that self-harm is on the increase across the board with young women and teenage girls being most impacted. Read more: Is this the antidote to lockdown blues? NatCen did more than 20,000 face-to-face interviews with women in the UK to determine its findings and came across some other notable mental health impacts. The first looked at the regularity that women with serious money problems self-harmed. It found that one in five 16-34-year-olds that fell into this category had self-harmed in the past year. Story continues Its also three times higher among women who are struggling to pay for household bills, with further increases seen in women who have had their utilities switched off as a result of unpaid bills. The safety factor also features highly in this research. Women who feel that theyre in an unsafe neighbourhood or environment are four times more likely to self-harm that those who arent. While middle-aged men are still the most likely to commit suicide, suicide rates among women aged 10-24 was at an all time high in 2018. Read more: People are happier making big life decisions with a coin flip People have become increasingly likely to report using non-suicidal self-harm as a way of coping and this increase is particularly apparent in young women. This report indicates that self-harm often occurs in the context of poverty and debt, especially for young women, lead NatCen researcher, Sally McManus, explained. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 25, 2020) - Upco International Inc. (CSE: UPCO) (OTCQB: UCCPF) (FSE: U06) ("Upco") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Gerben Borsje, Mr. Juan Ramos Taboada and Mr. Sebastiano Massimo Galantucci to the Board of Directors, and Mr. Trent Collett as Executive Vice President Corporate Development and Investor Relations North America. Mr. Andrea Pagani Chief Executive Officer, Upco International Inc. was appointed as Chairman of the Board effective May 8, 2020. Mr. Borsje and Mr. Ramos Taboada were elected by shareholders at the Company's AGM held on December 20, 2019. Mr. Ramos Taboada consented to act as Director effective from the date hereof. Messrs. Franco Zanichelli and Sergio Mistrali were not re-elected as directors at the AGM and the Company would like to thank Messrs. Zanichelli and Mistrali for their service to Upco. Mr. Galantucci was appointed as the fourth member of the Board of Directors effective May 8, 2020. Mr. Borsje is a self-made sales and distribution entrepreneur with extensive experience and a proven track record with fast moving products. Over the past more than two decades, he has successfully built a number of consumer brands on a global and pan-European scale. In this context, he has gained considerable experience managing negotiations for commercial agreements on an international level. Mr. Borsje's contributions as a director will draw on his broad experience, innovative approach, and focus on building win-win relationships. Prior to joining Upco International Inc. in the capacity of Executive Manager responsible for the Telecom Division and M&A strategy, Mr. Ramos Taboada was the Vice President Latinamerica and Caribbean at KPN ibasis (based in Argentina). He has extensive experience playing lead roles in building successful mobility and telecom companies including iBasis, which grew to be one of the largest carriers of international voice traffic in the world. From 2011 to 2015 he was the COO of Business Telecommunications Systems (revenues USD $350m), where he was responsible for world operations. He has also worked as a strategic advisor for SKYPE, where he was instrumental in helping to develop its Latin American footprint. Story continues Mr. Galantucci joined Upco Systems in 2019 as COO and, effective January 1, 2020, became the Executive Manager responsible for the Digital Division at Upco International, which includes UpcoPay. He joins the Board with more than twenty years of diverse experience in the traditional telecom sector, and more recently in the digital arena. His broad experience in cross-cultural business management ranges from leading local teams to executive management positions. Prior to joining Upco, Mr. Galantucci was involved in building a Digital Enabler focusing on innovative telecom (OTT) and fintech solutions, with operations in London, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Manilla. His key areas of interest are M&A and business development. Mr. Collett, based in Victoria, BC, is a senior business consultant with international experience, specializing in venture capital / financing and investor relations. His proven track record includes successful capitalization and business development of assorted ventures in the international mining exploration sector, with more recent diversification into telecom and Fintech ventures. In his new role, Mr. Collett will focus on business development activities in North America, as well as investor relations. Mr. Andrea Pagani Chief Executive Officer, Upco International Inc., commented, "Upco International is at a turning point in terms of its corporate management, and is in the process of restructuring to better respond to a number of significant opportunities. We are very fortunate to have engaged these four gentlemen on our Board and senior management team. Their successful track records to date reflect proven expertise in their respective fields, as well as entrepreneurial competence. The diverse backgrounds, business acumen and international experience they bring to Upco will be invaluable as we continue to build the depth and vision needed to diversify offerings and expand within Europe and into the Latin American and North American markets." Upco also announces that Mr. Andrea Pagani, CEO, has loaned USD $150,000.00 to Upco International Inc. Additionally, Upco announces that it has issued 5,531,704 common shares in its capital at a deemed price of $0.07 per share to arm's length parties and insiders in settlement of CAN $387,225 in debt. The shares are subject to a statutory 4-month hold and are so legended. As three of the creditors are "insiders" of Upco, part of the debt settlement constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). Upco is relying on the exemptions from the formal valuation requirement and the minority approval requirement set out in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(a) respectively of MI 61-101 (Fair Market Value Not More Than 25% of Market Capitalization). About Upco International Inc. Upco International Inc. is a cloud-based mobile service company which provides high-quality voice termination to a market driven by the growing activity in online communications and commerce. Upco is a licensed Global Telecom Carrier within the international VoIP (voice over IP) wholesale business. Upco has designed a software application for Apple iOS and Android, similar to SKYPE and WhatsApp. With the forthcoming addition of the Upco e-Wallet using Blockchain Payment Services, users will be able to: send invoices, approve payments, transfer international funds, convert international currencies, and track transfers and payments. The application will also allow vendors to securely share account information with their clients. Please visit upcointernational.com or upcomobile.com for further information. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Andrea Pagani, CEO Upco International Inc., Upco Systems Inc. office@upcointernational.com +1 (212) 461 3676 Forward-Looking Statements Except for the statements of historical fact, the information contained herein is of a forward-looking nature. Such forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by statements containing forward-looking information. Such factors include continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that statements containing forward looking information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on statements containing forward looking information. Readers should review the risk factors set out in the Company's Filing Statement as filed on SEDAR. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56533 When Archie Williams was freed last spring after serving almost four decades for crimes he didn't commit, his mind kept returning to the thousands of men he was leaving behind an untold number facing wrongful convictions and excessive sentences in Louisiana's massive prison system. "I'm not free until they're free," he said just moments after stepping outside the Baton Rouge courthouse where a judge had declared him innocent. Now those men will be watching from behind bars as Williams fulfills one of his biggest dreams: singing on"America's Got Talent." The NBC reality competition's latest season premieres Tuesday evening with Williams among the contestants. A video of his audition went viral almost immediately after it was shared on social media last week, shedding light on an issue that often goes unnoticed. Williams was sentenced to life without parole for the 1982 rape and stabbing of a woman at her Baton Rouge home after the victim identified him in a photographic lineup despite almost no other evidence supporting his guilt. He was exonerated after new fingerprint technology matched another man to the crimes. +5 Serial rapist went free while wrongfully convicted man spent decades behind bars until his exoneration last week It was late one morning in December 1982 when a Baton Rouge housewife saw someone approaching her home in the city's Hundred Oaks neighborhood During his audition Williams described watching "America's Got Talent" when he was at Angola. "I would visualize myself being there," he said. "I always desired to be on a stage like this, and now I'm here. Thank God. I know it's the chance of a lifetime." He was released from prison in March 2019 after attorneys with the Innocence Project New Orleans worked with a national organization also called the Innocence Project that fights wrongful convictions. The groups requested additional fingerprint testing. One of his attorneys, Vanessa Potkin, said Williams "never gave up fighting" even after he was sent to Angola at age 23 and "told by the legal system that he would die in prison." "He has an incredible spirit and music helped carry him through what none of us could imagine," she said. "As far as we are concerned, the moment Archie stepped foot on the stage he already won he personifies the triumph of the human spirit." She noted that Louisiana holds the nation's highest incarceration rate and highest percentage of people serving life without parole sentences an estimated 15 percent of the state prison population. One of them is Hayward Jones, who met Williams decades ago at Angola. He described how it felt watching his friend's recent audition. "It brought tears to my eyes hearing his story like that even though I have known him for many years," Jones said in an email from Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, where he now runs a mentoring program for other inmates. "His story and so many others are the reason for second chances." Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Jones said he watched Williams become "a very passionate and loving person who took what was given him and did not become more bitter and angry, though he could have." When asked during his audition how he got through his imprisonment, Williams pointed to music: "Freedom is of the mind. I went to prison but I never let my mind go to prison. When you're faced with dark times, what I would do is pray and sing. This is how I got peace." He noted the lack of evidence from his trial, at which three people testified he was at home with other relatives when the crime occurred. "I couldn't believe it was really happening," he said. "I knew I was innocent. I didn't commit a crime, but being a poor black kid, I didn't have the economic ability to fight the state of Louisiana." +15 Man exonerated in 1982 Baton Rouge rape after fingerprint technology shows match to serial rapist Archie Williams stepped out of the 19th Judicial District courthouse and into the sunshine Thursday afternoon surrounded by relatives and lawy In the audition Williams sings Elton John's classic "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." His performance left the show's four judges including the notoriously blunt Simon Cowell and audience in a tearful awe. "Archie, I will never, ever listen to that song in the same way ever again after you sang that. It took on a whole new meaning for me," Cowell told Williams. "By the way, you have a really good voice. This is an audition I will never forget for the whole of my life." The judges gave Williams a standing ovation and voted with no hesitation to allow him on the show. "Even though you did 37 years, it's 37 years that didn't break you," actress Sofia Vergara told him. "I can picture you watching the show, hoping and hoping, holding to something. And now you're here, and we love you." Advocate staff writer Judy Bergeron contributed to this report. 'America's Got Talent' WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesdays CHANNEL: WVLA, Channel 33 (cable Channel 3 in Baton Rouge, KLAF, Channel 15 (cable Channel 3 in Lafayette) and WDSU, Channel 6 (cable Channel 7 in New Orleans) INFO: https://www.nbc.com/americas-got-talent LONDON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OnApp has launched Cloud.net, a new self-service portal for rapid deployment of ready-to-use public and private cloud platforms. Cloud.net enables companies to configure, buy and remotely deploy a complete cloud platform, including OnApp's KVM virtualization, software-defined storage and networking stack; a full set of cloud management and provisioning tools; a white-label cloud management UI; and the hardware infrastructure, in less than two hours. By automating cloud platform deployment, Cloud.net offers an easy way for service providers and enterprise IT departments to create the public and private cloud infrastructure they need, when they need it, without CAPEX on hardware or long-term OPEX commitment. The whole cloud environment is provided as a managed service, with 24x7 support, 5x9 SLAs for the hardware and software infrastructure, and simple month-to-month pricing. More information and sign-up is available at https://onapp.com/cloud-net. "There has never been a greater need for companies to have a hybrid cloud strategy, so they can respond to the next market trend, national event or international crisis," said Tim Meredith, Chief Commercial Officer at OnApp. "The challenge with that has always been balancing rapid deployment, IT availability and cost control: you either needed available CAPEX to buy hardware yourself (and the teams and time to set it up) or a large OPEX budget to keep cloud hardware reserved but not used. Cloud.net overcomes these challenges by enabling companies to deploy hybrid cloud infrastructure at speed, without CAPEX or commercial lock-in," he said. Once a company has deployed their cloud platform, they are provided with their own OnApp control panel instance, which gives them intuitive tools to create whatever flavor of public or private cloud they need. For service providers, it's an easy way to create cloud services they can sell to their customers; for enterprises, it's an easy way to execute on their hybrid or multi-cloud strategy, or transition to cloud for the first time. Cloud.net currently allows customers to build cloud environments using two types of compute infrastructure: shared compute from OnApp's federated cloud marketplace, and dedicated bare metal instances from AWS. 40 locations are currently available, and workloads can easily be migrated between them, allowing companies to adapt their infrastructure strategy to suit changing market conditions. For the full text of this release, visit https://onapp.com/2020/05/26/cloud-net-self-service-hybrid-cloud-portal. There is 'very little evidence' to link Covid-19 to eyesight problems and more data is needed to establish a connection, experts have said. Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings yesterday admitted to taking a trip to Barnard Castle with his wife and child before embarking on a 260-mile drive home amid the coronavirus lockdown in April. In a press conference, the PM's chief aide claimed he had merely ventured to the market town to check he was fit to drive ahead of a five-hour journey back to London, as his 'eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease.' He was backed up by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who later suggested he too had suffered problems with his vision after contracting coronavirus. Mr Johnson told the daily Downing Street briefing: 'I'm finding I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years, I think because of the effects of this thing. Mr Johnson told the daily Downing Street briefing yesterday: 'I'm finding I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years, I think because of the effects of this thing' 'So I'm inclined to think that's very, very plausible, that eyesight can be a problem associated with coronavirus.' But the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and Moorfields Eye Hospital said today there is little evidence of a link at the moment. A statement said: 'At present, there is very little evidence to suggest that Covid-19 can affect eyesight. 'Cases where Covid-19 is recorded alongside an impact on eyesight are rare, so we cannot establish a direct causal effect. 'We need more data to be collected on Covid-19-related eye conditions to see if there is an association.' The Royal College of Ophthalmologists also said it was unable to report on the association of vision impairment 'due to a lack of evidence'. Dominic Cummings (pictured yesterday) admitted to taking a trip to Barnard Castle to check his eyesight before embarking on a 260-mile trip home to London CAN CORONAVIRUS AFFECT YOUR EYES? Dominic Cummings admitted taking a 60-mile round trip while in Durham to check his eyesight had recovered from the effects of a suspected case of coronavirus. And Boris Johnson defended his top aide in tonight's Downing Street press conference, pulling out his pair of glasses and saying: 'I'm finding that I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years - I think because of the effects of this thing. 'I think that's very, very plausible that eyesight can be a problem associated with coronavirus.' So, what is the truth to the claims? One leading ophthalmologist - a medic who specialises in eye care - says it is possible that the coronavirus could cause permanent eye damage. Dr Annie Nguyen, of the University of Southern California, said that oxygen deprivation may cause damage to the optic nerve and retina, in theory. Oxygen deprivation is a known side effect of severe Covid-19, and can lead to patients needing urgent treatment in intensive care. But in a blog post about how Covid-19 affects the eyes, Dr Nguyen said: 'At this point permanent eye damage from Covid-19 has not been reported.' CAN THE VIRUS ENTER YOUR BODY THROUGH YOUR EYES? Doctors first warned the killer coronavirus could be spread through the eyes in January, when the epicentre was in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization warns people can become infected with the virus by touching a contaminated surface and then their eyes. However, the main way the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads is through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Medics on the pandemic frontline are supposed to wear goggles or face visors in order to protect their eyes and cut their chance of infection. CAN COVID-19 AFFECT YOUR VISION? Some Covid-19 patients have suffered conjunctivitis - an inflammation of the eye which causes it to become red and infected. Researchers behind one study found that conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, was a symptom in around 30 per cent of patients. The tell-tale symptoms of Covid-19 are a cough, a fever, shortness of breath and anosmia - the scientific term for losing your sense of smell and taste. Advertisement 'A direct causal effect can only be established through the reporting of proven cases of Covid-19 patients and their symptoms,' a statement added. The College said its scientific journal, Eye, has recently published a collection of research papers looking at Covid-19 patients and eye health. One of these papers points to potential problems experienced by some patients in intensive care, including corneal infection, inability to close the eyes and the eye surface becoming very dry. The College said: 'We believe that there have been a few cases reported on viral conjunctivitis and a statement was issued on this topic, in association with the College of Optometrists, in March.' The Association of Optometrists (AOP) said any motorist concerned about their vision should contact their optometrist before driving. It said an estimated 2,900 road casualties per year are caused by poor vision. Dr Peter Hampson, clinical director for the AOP, said: 'We are seeing a rise in the number of people who have a disregard for how important good vision is for driving ability and it's impacting the safety of the individuals who use our roads. 'Sight loss can often be gradual, and can go unnoticed, so if you're a driver and have concerns about your vision, while routine sight tests are currently suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, most practices are open for essential and urgent eyecare and will be able to offer advice over the phone.' Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways. 'It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan (China) in a recent study. 'The ocular manifestations in the Wuhan patients included conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia (red eye), chemosis (eye swelling), epiphora (watery eye) and increased secretions (sticky eye). 'Any of the above symptoms may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all if there was significant blurring of vision or double vision.' Other experts in eye care have claimed it is possible coronavirus could theoretically cause permanent eye damage. Dr Annie Nguyen, of the University of Southern California, said that oxygen deprivation may cause damage to the optic nerve and retina, in theory. Oxygen deprivation is a known side effect of severe Covid-19, and can lead to patients needing urgent treatment in intensive care. But in a blog post about how Covid-19 affects the eyes, Dr Nguyen said: 'At this point permanent eye damage from Covid-19 has not been reported.' The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex government body for biomedical research, which has expanded the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as prophylactic to all frontline COVID-19 workers to prevent them from contracting infection, may not budge despite criticism from several quarters. The government said its decision to expand HCQ use is based on a retrospective case-control study at ICMR that found a significant dose-response relationship between the number of prophylactic doses taken and frequency of occurrence of SARSCoV-2 infection in symptomatic healthcare workers who were tested positive. It cited another observational prospective study of 334 healthcare workers at AIIMS, out of which 248 took HCQ prophylaxis (median 6 weeks of follow-up) in New Delhi, which also showed a lower incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than those not taking it. However, ICMR hasn't made public the full data related to the studies it cited. To be sure, HCQ as treatment and as a prophylaxis are two different use cases and should, therefore, be evaluated separately. But critics point out that ICMR could have been more transparent by providing full data of its observational studies, which were the basis of its decision. They also raise concerns over the potential side-effects of the drug, when it is given to hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 frontline workers. They also say that a randomised control trial would have been more credible to allay the fears. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show So far, there wasn't any randomised control trial to test the effectiveness of HCQ as prophylactic. Meanwhile, doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have defended the use of HCQ through a correspondence in the Lancet journal saying that the safety of hydroxychloroquine is well established with prolonged use. They argued that the pharmacokinetics of hydroxychloroquine, such as its long half-life and high lung concentration (500-times the blood concentration), are ideally suited for use as an agent for prophylaxis. The AIIMS doctors were responding to the correspondence on April 17 by four Indian doctors from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, who raised concern over use HCQ as prophylaxis for COVID-19 in India citing scarcity of evidence, among other things. The AIIMS doctors further said the use of HCQ as prophylaxis in selected groups of high-risk contacts is a prudent approach considering the risk-benefit analysis. They added that the drug would only be used among a targeted group which is at high risk rather than the general population. "A paucity of data is expected in the first wave of a pandemic caused by a novel virus. HCQ has been shown to have in-vitro activity against the virus. Recently published human trials, along with other unpublished data suggest that it could decrease the duration of viral shedding and symptoms if given early. A study from South Korea shows the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for post-exposure prophylaxis," the doctors said. However, there is mounting evidence that HCQ has little benefit as a therapy against COVID-19; in fact it is also associated with elevated risk for the cardiac adverse effects. Data on over 100,000 patients among three studies published in NEJM, the Lancet and JAMA have all pointed to no benefit of HCQ. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has temporarily paused the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board. Doja Cat has denied being a part of a white supremacist chatroom in a lengthy Instagram Live stream in which she addressed the series of controversies that have engulfed her in recent days. The pop star, who recently earned a US number one with her track Say So, was accused across social media of participating in racist chatroom conversations on the site TinyChat. A demo track titled Dindu Nuffin, titled after a racist meme typically used by the alt-right, was also unearthed, as well as claims that she had mocked the pronunciation of Beyonces name. Despite publishing an apologetic statement yesterday (25 May), Doja Cat revealed on Instagram Live this morning (26 May) that it was edited by her management team, and had decided to use her own live stream to address the controversy herself. Next [allegation] is stripping for white supremacists, Doja said. The chatroom that I go to is a public chatroom. Its me and my friends, you go in there I learned that there are racist people who come in and out of the chat. Theyre there. They happen, and then theyre banned. The idea that this chatroom is a white supremacist chatroom is I dont understand it in any way. Not even. She said that racism happens more on TinyChat, in comparison to Twitter and Instagram, because it is not as monitored. When you see racist s*** on TinyChat, its because people arent paying attention, she added. Addressing Dindu Nuffin, Doja said that she had been called the term in the same chatroom, and had attempted to reclaim it by using it in a song. She admitted that the song is the worst, saying that the lyrics made no sense, but also denied that it was in any way written to mock police brutality or Sandra Bland. Bland was a 28-year-old black woman who was found dead in a Texas jail cell in 2015, three days after being arrested during a traffic stop. That song is in zero ways connected to police brutality or Sandra Bland, and to see something like that, to see a song, my song that I made, connected to an innocent black womans death is one of the most awful rumours that Ive ever encountered, Doja said. Doja Cat also denied mocking Beyonce, following a video that spread across social media in which she appears to refer to her as Beyonkey. I saw something about how people thought I was coming for Beyonce? Doja said. Beyonce is the cream of the f***ing crop. Beyonce is the reason why I believe I can be who I am. Beyonce is one of the driving forces of who I am in my career. Beyonce is undeniably talented and every f***ing time anyone has ever came for Beyonce, I was there. And thats all I have to say. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Last week, Doja was one of a number of female pop stars, including Beyonce, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, who were mentioned in an Instagram rant by Lana Del Rey, who claimed they had all had number one tracks about being sexy and wearing no clothes. LOS ANGELES, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- More than half of the employers responding to a national survey conducted by talent development accelerator LeadersUp report they are finding creative ways to reduce staffing costs and delay layoffs. The survey revealed gaps in employer support for current and displaced workers and opportunities to upskill their workforce and advance virtual talent solutions through the crisis and the recovery. The report, "Identifying Opportunities for Rapid Response and Inclusive Economic Recovery," is the second in a three-part "Flatten the Curve, Bridge the Divide Insights" series and relies primarily on respondents operating in at least one of three LeadersUp target markets: Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and Chicago. LeadersUp is a social enterprise that connects employers to the untapped potential of the next generation of diverse talent to address labor market disparities and economic inequities in poor communities of color. Employers reported they are reducing staffing costs by either closing their offices, decreasing executive salaries and employee wages, furloughing full-time or part-time staff, and as a last resort, laying off employees. Just 22% said they had initiated layoffs and 10% of respondents indicated they are hiring. The report also revealed that more can be done to support employed and displaced talent during the COVID-19 crisis. Less than half of the respondents, 45%, said they are referring full-time employees with benefits to their Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Research shows EAPs can be effective but are woefully underutilized and are nonexistent at most small companies. This is particularly damaging for the three out of four young people between the ages of 16-24 who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are more likely to be hourly workers and may not have access to EAP programs due to their part-time status. In addition, employers' responses indicated that the majority, 70%, are providing work-from-home options and more than half said they are using virtual conferencing to conduct business and believe their reliance on virtual tools will increase. Although 60% of employers reported being prepared to implement virtual solutions during the coronavirus response, respondents said nearly half, 49%, of their employees have not adjusted well to the virtual workspace. This is particularly troubling since nearly 60% of all employers believe that their reliance on virtual solutions will "likely" or "very likely" increase post-COVID-19. If virtual solutions are here to stay, then employers may need to consider providing new skills and supports to upskill their workforce. In the LeadersUp Flatten the Curve, Bridge the Divide Young Adult Survey conducted between March 23-28, 65% of respondents ages 16-30 said it is extremely or very important to gain new skills during this unprecedented time. "These findings reveal opportunities for employers to leverage this time of crisis to improve the skills of the most valuable yet most vulnerable members of their workforce," said LeadersUp President and CEO Jeffery Wallace. "LeadersUp stands ready to partner with employers to facilitate workforce training to ensure an economic recovery that benefits their bottom line and the next generation of diverse talent." The "Identifying Opportunities for Rapid Response and Inclusive Economic Recovery" report is based on two surveys conducted from April 13 to May 5, 2020. The first, in partnership with Los Angeles World Airports' (LAWA) Business, Jobs and Social Responsibility Division (BJSR), received responses from 53 employers (62% of respondents) at LAX and Van Nuys airports. The second survey gathered responses from 32 members (38% of respondents) of the LeadersUp Future at Work Leadership Network, and 12 public sector and four nonprofit employers. Nearly 60% of all survey respondents are associated with the air travel industry, which has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak due to travel restrictions and social distancing measures imposed to limit the spread of the virus. Some 80% of companies in this sector have either laid-off employees (60%), closed operations, or furloughed employees, compared to 35% of non-air travel sector employers, according to the LAWA survey. Approximately 30% of respondents work for a large company that employs more than 1,000 workers, including the freight and commercial trucking divisions of a major transportation, distribution and logistics (TDL) company; a global financial services firm; one of the largest nonprofit healthcare plans in the U.S.; and a major U.S. airline. About LeadersUp: Established in 2013 by the Starbucks Coffee Co. and forward-thinking business leaders, LeadersUp is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit and talent development accelerator that bridges the divide between the untapped potential of young people and the business challenge of finding and keeping the best talent. LeadersUp provides professional development training and career opportunities in Chicago, Los Angeles and the Bay Area/Silicon Valley to connect the untapped potential of young adults who are out of work and not in school with employers in need of talent. Media contacts: Karen Lewis | [email protected] | 323-424-9400 (LA/San Francisco Bay area) or Shawn Taylor | [email protected] | 312-371-6260 (Chicago). SOURCE LeadersUp Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer implemented some of the toughtest cornavirus stay-at-home rules in the United States (AFP Photo/JEFF KOWALSKY) Washington (AFP) - The Michigan governor who implemented some of the toughest coronavirus lockdown rules in the United States came under heavy criticism Tuesday over allegations that her husband pressured a dock to prepare his boat for an outing. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has defended her tough stay-at-home policies against armed protestors and attacks from President Donald Trump, announced last week the lifting of some restrictions ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend. According to a claim posted on Facebook by Northshore Docks owner Tad Dowker, Whitmer's husband Marc Mallory subsequently tried to use her position to get his boat moved ahead of others for launching before the holiday weekend. "I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?" Dowker said Mallory asked staff, in a post on a Facebook page that is now inaccessible. The request did not violate COVID-19 safety policies for Michigan, which has been hard-hit by the pandemic, with more than 33,000 cases and 5,241 deaths. But it appeared to go against her recommendation last week that people celebrate the holiday in their home areas and avoid travel to vacation spots such as the popular Traverse City locality on Lake Michigan. "If you don't live in these regions... please, think long and hard before you take a trip into them," Whitmer said in announcing openings for the northern part of the state on May 18. "Don't descend on Traverse City from all regions of the state," she cautioned. But her husband's request suggested he hoped to go specifically to that area: Northshore Docks operates around Traverse City and Whitmer and Mallory have a vacation home nearby, according to media reports. The allegation brought strong criticism of Whitmer, who is considered a potential vice president choice for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. In a Facebook post Michigan state Senator Tom Barrett said accused Whitmer's husband of abusing her position. Story continues "Real leaders don't cut in line and not follow their own demands placed on the rest of us," he wrote. Whitmer said Tuesday during a press conference that her husband had tried to make a joke that missed its target. "My husband made a failed attempt at humor last week when checking in with the small business that helps with our boat and dock up north, knowing it wouldn't make a difference," she said. "He thought it might get a laugh, it didn't. And to be honest, I wasn't laughing either when it was relayed to me, because I knew how it would be perceived," she said. By Trend Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia has congratulated the Muslims living in Georgia on the occasion of Ramadan, Trend reports via the prime minister's press office. Giorgi Gakharia met with Muslim religious leaders at the government administration on May 25. During the meeting, Gakharia emphasized the multi-century long tradition of peaceful coexistence of representatives of different nationalities and religions in Georgia. It is a great honor for us to have the opportunity to congratulate our Muslim citizens on the occasion of Ramadan. This is a day of reconciliation, warmth, love, and caring for each other. I once again congratulate every Muslim on this great holiday, Gakharia said. Muslim religious leaders of Georgia thanked the prime minister for his assistance to the Muslim community in recent years. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz New Delhi, May 26 : The Delhi Police told the Delhi High Court on Monday that the Tablighi Jamaat "deliberately, willfully, negligently and malignantly" disobeyed the orders of the government with regard to the lockdown and the social distancing norms amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The police informed the court that the authorities of the Markaz at the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin area were contacted by the Delhi Police. One Mufti Shahzad was apprised of the situation arising out of the spread of Covid-19 and was asked to take immediate action for preventing the spread of the disease. He was directed to send the foreigner devotees back to their respective countries and other Indian persons to their respective native places. "However, no one paid any heed to the lawful directions of the Delhi Police," the investigating agency told the court. "They deliberately, willfully, negligently and malignantly disobeyed the lawful directions promulgated in this regard. Written notices were also issued to Maulana Saad and the Markaz management. However, they refused to pay any heed," the police said in their report. The Delhi Police also told the court that an audio has been found where Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad was "heard asking his followers to defy the lockdown and social distancing measures and to attend the religious gathering of the Markaz." "An audio recording, purportedly of Maulana Saad, head of the Tablighi Jamaat, was found in circulation on WhatsApp on 21.03.2020, in which the speaker was heard asking his followers to defy the lockdown and social distancing measures and to attend the religious gathering of the Markaz," the police said. The status report was filed while a division bench of the high court presided over by Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar heard a plea seeking the release of 916 foreign nationals, who participated in a congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-March, and have been held in institutional quarantine since March 30 despite having testing negative for Covid-19. The court has also issued a notice to the Delhi Police in connection with the said petition filed by 20 of the 916 foreigners, who said the continued detention violated the very fabric of liberty. It was further informed by way of the status report that the Delhi Police had neither arrested, nor detained anyone in connection with the case lodged against members of the Tablighi Jamaat for participating in the religious congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz. During the course of the hearing, Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain appraised the court that the investigation was being conducted on a day-to-day basis. Senior advocate Rebecca John and advocate Ashima Mandla, representing the petitioner, requested the court that the foreign nationals who have tested Covid-19 negative be released from institutional quarantine. The police informed the high court that around 1,300 devotees from various states as well as foreign countries were found residing in the Markaz premises without maintaining any social distancing norms. "No one was seen following the directions such as use of facial masks, hand sanitisers etc.," the report read. The police also told the court that the investigation has revealed that most of these foreigners had arrived on tourist visas or e-visas. "The passports and copies of visa application forms of these foreign participants clearly showed that they had obtained tourist visa or e-visa to arrive in India," the police said. Another status report was filed in this matter by the Sub-district Magistrate (SDM) which stated that the Department of Revenue is looking after these foreign nationals and is providing all possible facilities to them. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police filed 20 charge-sheets in the Saket court against 82 foreign nationals from 20 countries in connection with the case. The said foreign nationals belong to Afghanistan, Brazil, China, the US, Ukraine, Australia, Egypt, Russia, Algeria, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, France, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, UK, Fiji, Sudan and the Philippines. The charge-sheet was filed before duty metropolitan magistrate, Saema Jamil, who is slated to take cognizance of the documents on June 12. The FIR in this regard was registered on March 31. The case pertains to a congregation at the Banglewali Masjid in Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin area in mid-March, in which a large number of foreign nationals had participated. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday that he would ease the state's restrictions on barbershops and hair salons for some counties in the state that meet certain health criteria. The state, which issued one of the earliest statewide stay-at-home orders in mid-March, has been reopening its economy statewide in phases. The state is currently in phase two of its reopening plan, which has allowed for the resumption of retail businesses and manufacturing jobs with modifications. Counties in the state that meet certain health criteria, including less than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 days or less than 8% testing positive in the last week, are allowed to move further into the state's reopening plan. Newsom said 47 of the state's 58 counties have "self-attested" to meeting the state's criteria to move further into phase two, and starting Tuesday they will be allowed to reopen barbershops and hair salons with modifications, he said, including enhanced cleaning protocols and face covering requirements. "Those counties will begin to allow for those kind of operations with meaningful modifications, with the appropriate protective gear, particularly face coverings that are so essential in that environment, sanitation requirements and the like," Newsom said. So far, those 47 counties have been allowed to reopen dine-in restaurant services with enhanced sanitation practices and modifications. Newsom has yet to lift restrictions on nail salons, bars and wineries, nightclubs and theme parks, among other businesses. "We are advancing conversations with the legislature in particular supporting efforts to put out guidelines on nail salons and personal care, personal services," Newsom said. "The issues there require, I think, a little bit more specificity, a little bit more nuance and details in terms of the guidance to satisfy our health experts." Some of California's largest counties, however, like San Francisco and Los Angeles County, have yet to move further into the state's reopening plan. Newsom has allowed cities to follow their own stay-at-home orders and ease restrictions when officials felt it's safe to do so. Both the Bay Area and Los Angeles have issued their own stay-at-home orders. Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County department of public health, has indicated that the county's stay-at-home restrictions will likely remain in place in the county through August, according to reports from NBC Los Angeles. Newsom said that the hospitalization rate for Covid-19 cases in the state has remained stable and there's now more intensive-care unit beds available, although he said the number of people in the ICU remains "stubborn but stable." "All of these numbers are part of those indicators that have to turn yellow to green so we can continue to march forward and indeed, they are turning yellow to green and we are marching forward as it relates to these modifications to the stay-at-home order," Newsom said. Some restrictions put in place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic have been eased (Brian Lawless/PA) An intensive care boss has said hospital staff are considerably worried over the risks of a second wave of coronavirus as Ireland relaxes its quarantine rules. Dr Catherine Motherway, president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, said there is particular concern ahead of next winters flu season as the hospital system is always under pressure during that period. Experts have warned of the dangers of a second wave hitting the country if it moves too quickly to relax restrictions on peoples movement. Expand Close (PA Graphics) Press Association Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (PA Graphics) Professor Motherway told RTEs Morning Ireland: I think were all considerably worried about that (second wave) in the hospital services because we will always be stressed and under pressure in the winter anyway because of the flu season. We do have an anxiety about that and I think the entire hospital system is trying to increase its capacity. Were going to have to run at less capacity than before, were going to have to try and get rid of trolley waits. Thats going to be very difficult and will be a significant challenge for those of us trying to get elective surgical activity through the hospital system in the winter. The professor said it will take time to see which restrictions, when they are lifted, will have an impact on the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19. She said the Governments phased plan is appropriate and added any decision to move through the road map quicker has to be based on science. Significant milestone today. First day with no reported #CoVid19 deaths since March 21st. This is a day of hope. We will prevail. Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) May 25, 2020 She added: Currently, we have just under 50 people with confirmed Covid in ICU and about two days ago when I looked at the information we had 279 patients in intensive care beds in Ireland, which was above our baseline capacity at the very start of this. I think that what were currently doing is appropriate. I think if there are people who will accelerate it that should be based on science and not necessarily on a particular piece of worry. I do think we need to balance the science against the economic realities of life we do have to get back out and earn a living. On Monday, Ireland recorded no new Covid-19 deaths for the first time since March. The total number of Covid-19 related deaths is 1,606. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hailed the news as a day of hope. The last day when no death was reported in Ireland was on March 21. A further 59 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed, bringing the number to 24,698. Illinois Republicans are rightly calling for the removal of Gov. J.B. Pritzkers graduated income tax referendum from the November ballot. That needs to happen. Pritzker should call for it. But if he doesnt, lawmakers should do it themselves. It would take just a simple majority vote in each house to remove it. Weve always had reservations about what Pritzker slyly calls the fair tax amendment. But even apart from those concerns, we agree that its not the time to put a question before voters that would amend the state constitution to allow it. We all have too much else to worry about as we attempt to successfully emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. In the referendum, Illinois voters would decide if the states constitutional requirement of a flat income tax should be scrapped to allow higher income tax rates charged on greater levels of income, according to Capitol News Illinois. But now theres even more at stake. We agree with a recent analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute: Hiking taxes during a recession, or just as the economy attempts to get back on its feet, would be a clear policy mistake. A massive income tax hike in the midst of the most sudden and severe downturn since the Great Depression is counter to what economic experts recommend. Economists are in near-unanimous agreement: reducing the harm of recessions requires expansionary monetary and fiscal policy. That means avoiding tax hikes while spending on the programs Illinoisans truly need. The analysis suggests the tax could hit small businesses hard. At a time when many of those businesses are uncertain whether they will even survive, it is unthinkable to saddle them with more of a burden. Times have changed dramatically since this initiative was first put forward, said Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, R-Bloomington. But never more has our states economy been challenged than it will be, and is today. True. We also agree with a column we published by Jim Nowlan, a political science professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign: The tax on the highest-end earners will generate about $3 billion annually. But the state needs about $5-6 billion to straighten out its mess (even before the coronavirus). So, next year, Pritzker will have to increase taxes further, something he implied he wouldnt need to do. Were already struggling with Pritzkers response to COVID-19. Must we also be burdened in the aftermath? Daily News, Effingham A white woman was captured on video calling the NYPD as she accused a black man of harassing and threatening her and her dog. The confrontation started when the black man asked the white woman to leash her dog in Central Park. The viral video The now-viral video is making rounds on Twitter and was posted by the sister of Christian Cooper, the man on the video. The woman, who was later identified as Amy Cooper, is shown on the viral video asking the man to stop recording her. When he continued to record their conversation, she told him she will call the cops on him and tell the authorities that there is an African American threatening her life. Cooper repeated the line numerous times throughout the encounter, and each time she sounded more distressed and she got more hysterical while she looked like she was trying to call 911. While Cooper was trying to call the cops, Christian did not move closer to her. He told NBC New York that he is a bird watcher and he was on The Ramble, a spot in Central Park that is made for bird watchers, on May 25, at around 8 a.m. Christian said that he only asked Cooper to put her dog on a leash because it is an area in the park that pets must be on a leash at all times. Christian explained that the habitat must be preserved because if it gets destroyed by dogs, bird watchers can no longer see the birds. When Cooper refused to put her dog on a leash, he said that he offered her dog a treat and he started recording what happened after. Also Read: Pakistan Airlines Passenger Jet Crashes On Residential Area With Only 2 Survivors The video shows that Cooper used the race card in the situation, and when Christian refused to stop recording their confrontation, Cooper grabs her dog's collar and she moves away from him to call 911. She claimed that Christian was threatening her life and the life of her dog. Christian said that he kept recording the confrontation because he refused to be intimidated. He said that they live in the age of Ahmaud Arbery, where black men are killed because of assumptions that people make about their race. He stopped recording the incident after Cooper put her dog on a leash and he was heard thanking her after. The police arrived at the scene but he already left. There were no complaints or arrests made after the authorities noted that it was just a verbal dispute. The backlash The video had more than 11 million views on Twitter. Amy Cooper talked to NBC New York and said that she overreacted and claimed that Christian was screaming, she added that she felt threatened because she didn't know what was in the treats that Christian gave her dog. Amy Cooper apologized for the incident but the damage was already done. Her employer, Franklin Templeton, has put her on administrative leave. Cooper works at an investment management company. Aside from the criticism that she received because of her racist outburst, she is also criticized for animal cruelty because she appeared to be holding her dog's collar for almost a minute, thus choking the dog. According to an animal shelter, Abandoned Angles Cocker Spaniel Rescue, she adopted the dog a few years ago and has surrendered the go while the incident is being investigated. Related Article: Gov. Cuomo Now Permits New Yorkers to Gather, But Should Be Limited to 10 People @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement THE INCIDENCE There is a story. A narrative we may already be familiar with. It is a sad tale involving a married teenager, Salma Hassan 17. You see, Salma Hassan confessed to killing her beloved husband in their home, Bauchi State. The dagger she used on his chest was recovered by the police. Why did she do such evil? That is not up for riddles, really. Her husband needed to consummate their blessed union that very night but Salma Hassan claims she had no idea that sexual intercourse was part of her marital obligations. She admits denying consent. She asserts that she got physically assaulted for denying her husband what we know as his right to consortium. When things got ugly, Salma Hassan swung a knife across his face sending the back-off signal. Her beloved husband dared his chi and Salma Hassan had cause to thrust her dagger in some delicate part of his chest. Rushed to the hospital, but the rest of him is history. It is to the quasi-chattel status of women that this work would consider in bits, briefly. THE BAD LAWS Advertisement Bride price (the million dollar bride list especially) creates an ugly picture of women being items to be bought in the market by the highest bidder highest bidder because there is the need to obtain parental consent. Whether parents blessings are overrated is a topic for another day. Uglier, a woman is a prospective married woman with a price on her head thus attracting bounty hunters from all parts of the earth these days, persons of same gender status dare to dream of the bounty in Nigeria. Yes, customs and traditions are mammoth practices we inherited and must respect does not mean we cannot tweak it here and there to bringing it in conformity with s.35 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) (hereinafter referred to as CFRN 1999) which vests fundamental right to personal liberty on citizens (women included). The selling of women by their parents, births this quasi-chattel status of Salma Hassan as there is this underlying owner-slave status created when the love waxes cold it is admitted that the choice between personal liberty and property sometimes present difficulty especially remembering the case of ONWUCHEKWA v ONWUCHEKWA [1991] 5 NWLR (Pt. 194) 739 where women were referred to as properties of men. Another bit is the issue of consortium. There is nothing wrong with this right to marital company and affection, ordinarily. It expressly means that Salma Hassans husband had a right to demand sexual connection from his newly wedded bride. The inquiry becomes does she have a right to say NO? The thing about right to personal liberty means Salma Hassan had a choice to consent to sexual pleasures. If the refusal to consummate was wilful and persistent, then a petition for dissolution of the marriage was a remedy for the late husband vide s.15 (2) (a) of the Matrimonial Causes Act (hereafter referred to as MCA). The right to consortium does not rank higher than the right to personal choice of the other spouse and if the deceased had known better he would have slept that night calling the swung knife across his face a little marital misunderstanding. Take home that a basic liberty of a person ranks superior to property and contract (a contact to marry). A bit more on the unravelling, is the question whether Salma Hassan enjoyed an independent legal personality upon marrying her deceased husband? It is necessary to understand that it would be a misconception to hold tenaciously the biblical account of a man and a woman becoming one in every sense such that a husband cannot kill his wife and be charged for murder; rather he kills his wife to justify the sin that is suicide. Fallacious it is! The true position is that Salma Hassan enjoyed her independent legal rights and protection under the Constitution. Why this comes up is because this misconception was impliedly told the society from the wordings of pieces of legislation that would be produced hereunder. Section 6 of the Criminal Code (Nigeria) reads: unlawful carnal knowledge means carnal connection which takes place otherwise than between husband and wife. Section 357 of the Criminal Code (Nigeria) reads: Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by force or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm, or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or, in the case of a married woman, by personating her husband, is guilty of an offence which is called rape. Section 282 of the Penal Code (Nigeria) reads: A man is said to commit rape when he has sexual intercourse with a woman, against her will, without her consent, with consent obtained under duress, et al. It is true that from sections 357 and 282 of the codes, a woman cannot be said to rape a man. Admittedly, the provision is archaic and to the entire boy child, it is regrettable that the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 (hereafter referred to as VAPPA 2015) which expands the scope of rape is applicable solely in the Federal Capital Territory. The point that is most relevant is Section 6 of the Criminal Code which excludes possibility of rape between spouses. It is regrettable that marital rape is not an offence known to law save in Lagos State vide its Domestic Violence Laws. Yes, it is for that reason that The Law wants us to disregard the viewpoint of an attempted rape of Salma Hassan and see her as a murderer. The mischief in section 6 is that it aids the rapists or sociopaths who find pleasure in applying brute force to secure a sexual connection the connection not being a meeting of minds but engagement of the private organs for a spouses selfish gratification (this law opens its doors to rapists who need a form of legal protection via marriages to bask further in their evil habits of raping women). You may not know this but section 282 (2) of the Penal Code, applicable in Northern Nigeria, says it is not a case of rape where a man has sexual connection with his wife forcefully provided she has attained the age of puberty. One may say the deceased husband had a right under the law to forcefully consummate the marriage and her ignorance of the law is not excusable. But it is unintelligent the treat a constitutionally guaranteed right to choice or liberty as having no say in this matter. Basic liberty would mean that Salma Hassan is not a property to be tossed, used at will and disposed as at when due. The right to privacy would mean Salma Hassans marriage to the deceased did not mean she lost a say over her body. The above constitutional provisions must ensure that s.282 (2) (supra) dies a natural death to the extent of its inconsistency with our Constitution. THE FATE OF SALMA HASSAN Some report that she was 17 at the commission of the offence, others say 18. Well, it is not exactly going to change the outcome should Salma Hassan be 17 or 18. Understand that under the law, a Juvenile Court can only try a young person who is under the age of 16 (sixteen) years notwithstanding the definition of young persons a young person is a person who is above 14 years but below the age of 18. If Salma was 16 years at the time of commission of the homicide, she would be found guilty and detained at the pleasure of the governor or the president (as the case may be) vide MODUPE v STATE (1989) 9 SCNJ 1. To be mentioned is that Juvenile Courts lack jurisdiction to try offences where a child or young person is charged with homicide. Thus, if Salma was 16 years, she would have been tried in regular courts save that all the rules applicable to the sentence of a young person will apply vide s.3 of the Children and Young Persons Law, Kwara State, for instance (later referred to CYPL). If at the age of 17 years, there is a commission of a capital offence, then the outcome takes a twist. At 17, Salma Hassan can be found guilty of a capital offence and sentenced to death vide GUOBODIA v STATE [2004] 6 NWLR (Pt. 869) 360 time of commission, not conviction is what determines the relevant age of the young person: See UWA v STATE (1965) 1 ANLR 356. The reality becomes that Salma Hassan will be tried in regular courts for culpable homicide and the defence like self-defence may not cut it if we consider the fact that a man can forcefully gratify himself off his wife vide s.282 of the Penal Code (supra) effect is, she cannot claim to be defending herself from a threat to life or unlawful force by her deceased husband since he was doing all he had to do within the law to consummate his sacral marriage. As a result of this bad law, Salma Hassan is in a very precarious situation and there is need to pick placards carrying justice for Salma! THE WAY OUT 1. Lagos has recognized marital rape. All other states should. The VAPPA 2015 should be domesticated in all 36 states if we must protect the girl child and the boy child from sexual violence. If we have this law reform, Salma would clearly have a day in court. 2. If the legislature will not see to domesticating the VAPPA 2015, then the courts must ensure judicial reforms are in place. It was held in ORIANZI v A.G., RIVERS STATE [2017] EJSC (Vol. 60) 1 S.C., inter alia: There cannot be a right without a remedy for want of right and want of remedy are reciprocal. The maxim ubi jus ibi remedium is the latin rendition of the principle. The maxim is so fundamental to the administration of justice that where there is no remedy provided by common law or statute, the courts have been urged to create a new one. The courts cannot therefore be deterred by the novelty of an action. In other words, the law is an equal dispenser of justice and leaves none without a remedy for his right. Wherever there is a wrong, there must be a remedy to redress that wrong. Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. It can be argued, under distinguishing, that from the penal statutes relied upon above, there was never a recognized right for Salma Hassan as she owed a duty to her husband to consummate the marriage. Yes, she had a duty and she can as well choose not to comply with the duty as she had rights to independent choices under the Constitution. Thus, Salma had a right to say NO! and the laws on rape excluding a married woman from persons who can give consent to sexual intercourse, is ridiculously insidious. Marriage is not a prison; for better or for worse does not mean a married woman should succumb to modern-day slavery! We have seen in LABOUR PARTY v INEC & ANOR (SUIT NO. FHC/ABJ/CS/399/2011) as well as SENATOR KALUs case, the power the court wields to render null and void provisions of laws inconsistent with the Constitution. Salma needs justice and the society, our girls in particular, would indeed benefit from this judicial reform as it offers protection and recognizes the fundamental right of women to privacy and basic liberty in a world where it is constantly marginalised. 3. It is about time we stopped incidence of child marriage in Nigeria. It is sad that in Nigeria, there is no marriage age. Section 21 of the Child Rights Act 2003 (hereafter referred to as CRA 2003) pegged age of marriage at 18 years but it unfortunate that the Act borders on child welfare rather than formation, annulment and dissolution of marriages which is contained in item 61 of the 2nd schedule to the Constitution the Marriage Act and the Matrimonial Causes Act, being the relevant laws made pursuant to the exclusive legislative list of the Constitution, failed to give the age of marriage. The effect of this is that it breaches the constitutional arrangement for CRA 2003 to make marriageable age in Nigeria. It is hoped that a legislative reform be in place to effect the intendment of the drafters of the CRA 2003 in the Marriage Act. Item 61 was clear enough to restrict the law making powers such that the National Assembly cannot make laws as to formation of marriage and give age of marriage in the process with respect to Islamic Law and Customary Law. But it should be stated that due to the enormous child marriages springing up every now so often from customary practices and traditions a wife of 13, for instance, will be expected to consummate a marriage and it would not be a case of defilement since s.6 of the Criminal Code excludes husband and wife from persons suable for unlawful carnal connection some states have had cause to prescribe marriageable age. Some of the laws and their ages are s.2 (1) Age of Customary Marriage Law, Cap. 5 Laws of Rivers State, 1999, Girl-Child Marriages and Female circumcision or Genital Mutilation Law, No 2 of 2000 (Cross River) and s.3 Harmful Traditional Practices Against Women and Children Law, No. 10 of 2001 (Ebonyi) which peg the age of consent at 18 years. It is time all states have similar laws to protect the girl child from becoming subjectless properties or quasi chattels. FEW WORDS Salma Hassan was almost raped. She should be getting all adulations rather than seeing the chains or knowing prison bars. She is an example of a woman who attained liberation from slavish practices and the knife to her deceased husbands chest symbolizes the voice of a true black woman. Justice must be seen to be done! The High Court has dismissed an application brought by BCX against Vexall which argued that Vexall illegally poached its employees and customers and unlawfully appropriated its intellectual property. MyBroadband reported earlier this year on a High Court dispute between BCX and Vexall over computer software used by hundreds of pharmacies in South Africa, including Dis-Chem. Dis-Chem is a shareholder in Vexall, which is a software company that began trading in September 2019. The intellectual property which BCX has accused Vexall of appropriating is Unisolv, the industry-standard software used by hundreds of local pharmacies to dispense medicine. In addition to this court victory, the Competition Tribunal also recently found in favour of Vexall, ordering that BCX be prohibited from selling or offering a Unisolv licence on condition that customers purchase value-added services for six months. On Thursday 21 May 2020, the High Court of South Africa dismissed an application with costs on the scale as between attorney and client that was brought by BCX against Vexall and 47 other respondents most of which are Vexall employees, Vexall said. In its application, stripped of its emotive and strong language, BCX sought interdictory relief on allegations of collusion, solicitation, springboarding and the use of confidential information against Vexall and most of its employees in addition to the enforcement of restraint of trade provisions against some of the Vexall employees. Due to regulations implemented to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the case was argued virtually and the High Court found no evidence of any unlawful conduct on the part of Vexall. As a result, the application was dismissed with costs. [The ruling] is welcomed and celebrated by Vexall, its clients and alliance partners and central to the promotion of the rights of software users to elect their value-added service provider of choice, the company said. BCX responds BCX said that it has noted the judgement by the High Court and is disappointed by the ruling. BCX has noted the judgement passed down by the High Court on Thursday, 21 May 2020 regarding the matter between Vexall and BCX, the company said. As would be expected, we are disappointed by this ruling. We are currently studying the judgement and taking advice on the implications and effect of this judgement, BCX added. We will decide on further actions, if any, once we have received the advice requested. Poaching accusations The case above was brought about after a number of BCX employees involved in the development of Unisolv resigned and joined Vexall last year. BCX argued that these resignations were orchestrated, while Vexall said the workers were either retrenched as part of a substantial cost-cutting exercise or resigned seeking job security. After these employees joined Vexall, Dis-Chem and many other pharmacies told BCX that they would no longer procure value-added services from the company. These include services such as hardware and software installation, central patient profile hosting, and inventory management services. BCX required customers to purchase value-added services in addition to the Unisolv licence, stating that it was not possible to unbundle these from its software offering. Following the legal action initiated by BCX, Vexall asked the Competition Tribunal to prevent BCX from inducing its customers not to deal with it by making the licensing of the Unisolv software conditional upon the purchase of value-added services. The Tribunal subsequently ordered BCX to halt this practice. Now read: How many South Africans have taken payment holidays Motorola is stepping up its foldable game with the second generation Razr. Heres what to expect from the Moto Razr 2. Motorola is working on a second-generation foldable phone which will launch later this year. Dubbed as Moto Razr 2, the foldable phone is said to come with some serious specifications upgrade along with 5G connectivity. It may be recalled that Motorolas first Razr foldable phone had faced a lot of criticism over its underwhelming specifications. For instance, the phone offered one 16-megapixel camera on the back. It ran on Qualcomms Snapdragon 710 processor a chipset usually found in mid-range phones. At 1,24,999, Razr was more affordable than the Samsung Galaxy Fold but came nowhere close in the specifications department. Samsungs flip-fold hybrid Galaxy Z Flip also had better specifications and overall experience to offer. Motorolas second-generation Moto Razr, however, is going to address these concerns with an upgraded chip, RAM, camera, and battery. According to XDA Developers, Moto Razr 2 will run on Qualcomms Snapdragon 765 processor coupled with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. The chip along with Snapdragon X52 modem is going to bring the 5G connectivity. The battery capacity will be increased to 2,845mAh. The rear camera will be upgraded to Samsungs 48-megapixel ISOCELL Bright GM1 sensor. The selfie camera on Moto Razr 2 is said to have a 20-megapixel sensor. The phone will run on Android 10 with Motorolas customisations to the OS for the foldable screens. There is no word on the possible upgrade of the display, but Motorola will likely make some improvements in this department as well. The latest report comes shortly after Lenovos South Africa General Manager Thibault Dousson confirmed to the Reframed Tech podcast that a new iteration of Motorola Razr was indeed in the works. According to Dousson, the phone will launch in September this year. A World War I memorial was vandalized in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 25, 2020. (Pittsburgh Public Safety) War Memorials Vandalized During Memorial Day Weekend Police are working to locate suspects who vandalized multiple memorials on Memorial Day or the days leading up to the national remembrance in acts described as cowardly and incomprehensible. Vandals used red paint to scrawl communist symbols on a World War I memorial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Vandalizing a memorial on any day is wrong, but it is incomprehensible to vandalize this memorial on a day in which we honor those who served and gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today, Wendell Hissrich, the citys public safety director, said in a statement. Police officers are vigorously investigating the crime and anyone with information should contact them immediately, Hissrich said. Mayor Bill Peduto said that whoever vandalized the memorial should leave the city. A World War I memorial was vandalized in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 25, 2020. (Pittsburgh Public Safety) In Boston, the Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial was vandalized. Officers found two pillars knocked over and the Puerto Rican flag touching the ground. Our veterans are heroes that have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Im disgusted by the act of vandalism, Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement. The vandalism was disrespectful, Tony Molina, president of the Puerto Rican Veterans Monument Square Association, told the Boston Herald, not because this is a Puerto Rican veterans memorial, this is a monument for veterans who gave their lives. Whoever did it doesnt realize its because of us veterans he can do that, Molina added. Police officers are working to locate those responsible. With Brazil emerging as one of the world's most infected countries, President Jair Bolsonaro is deflecting all responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, casting blame on mayors, governors, an outgoing health minister and the media. By contrast, he portrays himself as a clear-eyed crusader willing to defend an unpopular idea that shutting down the economy to control Covid-19 will ultimately cause more suffering than allowing the disease to run its course. The refusal of governors to fall into line with his decree allowing gyms to open, he said, verged on authoritarianism. Asked about Brazil's death toll surpassing China's, he feigned impotence: "I don't work miracles. What do you want me to do?" Confronted with a travel ban imposed on Brazil by the US because of widespread Covid-19, one of his advisers called it press hysteria. Since the outbreak started, the Brazilian leader has avoided acknowledging the potential effects of his actions, particularly in undermining local leaders' stay-at-home recommendations. A rare exception came in mid-April, as Bolsonaro appointed a new health minister tasked with sparing the economy from the coronavirus. "Reopening commerce is a risk I run because, if it (the virus) gets worse, then it lands in my lap," he said. Less than two weeks later, as Brazil's death toll blew past 5,000, he told reporters, "You're not going to put on my lap this count that isn't mine." Almost a month on, the death toll in the country of 211 million has more than quadrupled, to 22,666, and continues to accelerate. The Brazilian Supreme Court determined that states and cities have jurisdiction to impose isolation measures. So Bolsonaro on May 7 walked purposefully across the capital's Three Powers Plaza to the top court, a tight cluster of ministers and business leaders in tow, and demanded local restrictions be tempered. "Some states went too far in their restrictive measures, and the consequences are knocking on our door," he said, adding that tens of millions of Brazilians have lost their income. He has repeatedly singled out some local leaders by name. When governors defied Bolsonaro's subsequent decree that gyms, barbershops and beauty salons be allowed to operate as essential services, he accused them of undermining the rule of law and suggested the move would invite "undesirable authoritarianism to emerge in Brazil." On Saturday night, Bolsonaro ventured into the capital of Brasilia to lead by example, this time eating a hot dog bought from a street vendor. Video he posted to Facebook showed supporters snapping selfies and calling him by his nickname "Myth!" while those in self-quarantine in overlooking apartments banged pots and pans in protest. A May 17-18 poll by XP/Ipespe found 58 per cent of those surveyed rated Bolsonaro's pandemic response as bad or terrible, and only 21 per cent as good or excellent. Governors fared more than twice as well in both counts. The poll had a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points. Latin America's largest nation has confirmed 363,000 Covid-19 cases, more than any nation except the US, and experts say that figure is a significant undercount due to insufficient testing. The strain on Brazil's underfunded hospitals has pushed them to the brink of collapse in multiple states and prevents some patients from getting treatment. Havoc and heartache are unfolding beneath a void of leadership, according to Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil's Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials. Two health ministers have left office during the pandemic, making Brazil the world's only nation that can claim such distinction, he said. Brazil is "completely incapable of dealing with and responding to this crisis as this crisis should be responded to with complete leadership, clear messages, political stability and unity," Lago said. "That's not the case here. Basically, what we're seeing is a complete lack of seriousness and competence." The far-right leader fired his first health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, for supporting governors' restrictions. In his departing address, Mandetta referred to Bolsonaro in what he later confirmed to magazine poca was an allusion to the Albert Camus book "The Plague." The novel about a diseased city includes a passage that says those who did not believe in the plague were first to die because they took no precautions. Bolsonaro's second minister, Nelson Teich, resigned about a month later after openly disagreeing with Bolsonaro over chloroquine, the predecessor of the anti-malarial often touted by US President Donald Trump as viable treatment. Bolsonaro in his 17-month tenure has often expressed open admiration for Trump and the US. Weeks after praising chloroquine and directing the Army to ramp up production, Bolsonaro admitted last week that there is no scientific evidence of its effectiveness, but said the nation is "at war", and it is better to fight and lose than not fight at all. The country still has only an interim health minister: a general with no health experience whatsoever before April. In the capital on Sunday, pro-Bolsonaro supporters staged a small demonstration in front of the presidential palace, as they have for several weeks. Bolsonaro joined and once again lifted children in his arms. He shared a video from a helicopter flyover of the demonstration that revealed a sparsely occupied plaza. There were perhaps 1,000 people in attendance, in a city of 3 million. Aldi is selling bulk quantities of plain flour, sugar and toilet paper - offering major discounts for the items which were flying off the shelves only weeks ago. Photographs from the supermarket's North Sydney store on Tuesday showed the special buys section offering dramatic savings on the two items. The shelves were stocked high with 12.5kilogram bags of plain flour, self-raising flour, and sugar for only $14.99 and 12 packs of toilet paper for only $5.99. Aldi is selling bulk quantities of plain flour, sugar and toilet paper - offering major discounts for the items which were flying off the shelves only weeks ago Confused shoppers also shared images of the finds on the Aldi Mums Facebook page, questioning whether the items were excess supply off the back of recent demand linked to panic-buying. 'Good lord does anyone still need flour?' one woman wrote. 'I guess they saw a need for it a month ago, made an order and it finally arrived ...feel like they missed the rush,' another wrote. An Aldi spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the supermarket 'always aim to deliver the best prices for our customers on quality products'. 'In this instance, we have the ability to sell core range items like toilet paper and flour to our customers in selected stores through our Special Buys program,' she said. Photographs from the supermarket's North Sydney store on Tuesday showed the special buys section offering dramatic savings on the two items Only weeks ago supermarket chains across Australia were struggling to keep stock on the shelf as a result of frenzied panic buying due to COVID-19. The first round started with toilet paper three months ago, causing supermarkets to limit the number of items available to purchase per transaction. Shoppers soon turned to canned goods, pasta, rice and long-life items, stripping supermarket shelves bare and sparking fights in the aisles. Almost a month later it was impossible to find flour on the shelf. Confused shoppers also shared images of the finds on the Aldi Mums Facebook page, questioning whether the items were excess supply off the back of recent demand linked to panic-buying The shelves were stocked high with 12.5kilogram bags of plain flour, self-raising flour, and sugar for only $14.99 and 12 packs of toilet paper for only $5.99 On Tuesday Coles lifted its final restrictions on item limits at stores across Australia as frenzied buying came to a close. Woolworths is still limiting shoppers to two items per customer for all anti-bacterial wipes, frozen fruit and hand wash. A spokesperson for Aldi Australia said they always aim to deliver the best prices for customers. 'In this instance, we have the ability to sell core range items like toilet paper and flour to our customers in selected stores through our Special Buys program,' the spokesperson said. Contact tracing apps have the potential to slow the spread of COVID-19. But without proper security safeguards, some fear they could put users data and sensitive info at risk. Until now, that threat has been theoretical. Today, Amnesty International reports that a flaw in Qatars contact tracing app put the personal information of more than one million people at risk. The flaw, now fixed, made info like names, national IDs, health status and location data vulnerable to cyberattacks. Amnestys Security Lab discovered the flaw on May 21st and says authorities fixed it on May 22nd. The vulnerability had to do with QR codes that included sensitive info. The update stripped some of that data from the QR codes and added a new layer of authentication to prevent foul play. Qatars app, called EHTERAZ, uses GPS and Bluetooth to track COVID-19 cases, and last week, authorities made it mandatory. According to Amnesty, people who dont use the app could face up to three years in prison and a fine of QR 200,000 (about $55,000). This incident should act as a warning to governments around the world rushing out contact tracing apps that are too often poorly designed and lack privacy safeguards. If technology is to play an effective role in tackling the virus, people need to have confidence that contact tracing apps will protect their privacy and other human rights," said Claudio Guarnieri, head of Amnesty Internationals Security Lab. For contact tracing apps like EHTERAZ to work, they need widespread adoption -- Amnesty says mandating the apps is not the right approach. Security blunders like this one could discourage people from using the apps and undermine efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Qatars misstep may encourage more countries to adopt the Apple-Google model. The decentralized API stores sensitive info in users phones, rather than a centralized server. It uses Bluetooth to exchange keys and it doesnt gather location data. While the Apple-Google API cant identify users, the apps that use the API may be able to. So security and privacy policies should be examined on an app-by-app basis. Hopefully incidents like this will remain rare. A man with more than 170 convictions brought gardai on a high speed cross-city chase before causing the garda car to crash into a wall, a Dublin court has heard. Garda Thomas Bialkowski suffered severe eye and facial injuries after the butt of his firearm hit him in the face after his garda car crashed in Tallaght in the early hours of December 29, 2018. Thomas Stokes (30), the driver of the car, was caught a short time later after trying to flee the scene. He has 171 previous convictions, including 88 for road traffic offences. Stokes, with an address at Anne Street, Newbridge, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of endangerment, one count of assaulting Gda Bialkowski and one count of dangerous driving at Promenade Road, Dublin Port and Cookstown Way, Tallaght. He also pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage in relation to a separate incident at Limekiln Green, Crumlin six years ago, on October 10, 2014. He will be sentenced on Wednesday, May 27. Sergeant Wes Kenny told the court that members of the garda armed support unit approached a car parked at Dublin Port containing Stokes and an unknown man. When Stokes saw the gardai approaching, he tried to start the car. One garda stuck his hand in the window to try and stop Stokes from driving off and was dragged along for a short time before letting go. A high speed pursuit ensued, with Stokes making for the Port Tunnel. Due to safety protocol, gardai were unable to pursue the car in the tunnel, but instead followed at a safe distance, the court heard. Once on the M50, the pursuit started again, with Stokes reaching speeds of up to 180km/h, Sgt Kenny said. The car also drove in the hard shoulder at times and swerved aggressively across all lanes of the motorway. At times, gardai could see items being discarded from the car window. The pursuit came to a head at Cookstown Way, Tallaght, when Stokes braked hard and crashed, causing the garda car to swerve and crash into a wall. The garda car airbag caused Gda Bialkowskis firearm butt to hit him in the mouth, causing injuries to his teeth. His eye was also injured in the crash and he suffered soft tissue damage to his arm and shoulder, the court heard. Stokes was arrested nearby. He has been in custody ever since, save for a short period of compassionate bail in March this year. Carol Doherty BL, defending, said her clients father was an addict and he had a difficult upbringing. From the age of 13 he got involved in anti-social behaviour involving cars, she said. His uncle was murdered a few years ago and he has struggled with substance abuse. The court heard Stokes is now drug-free. He has three children and wishes to raise them in a very different way to his own upbringing, Ms Doherty said. In relation to the incident six years ago, the court heard Stokes was one of a group of men who smashed the patio door of a house they were breaking into. They were spotted by a witness who took down the car registration number and Stokes was arrested shortly afterwards. He was not charged with that offence until he was arrested again in December 2018. Remorseful Ms Doherty said her client was extremely remorseful for his actions. Stokes had 500 in court as a token of his remorse and to help repay the cost of the damaged door, she said. East African press outlets are reporting that Uganda is to begin manufacturing its first smartphones. The manufacturing partner will be Chinese brand SIMI. The phones will be built to ensure long battery life, like SIMIs existing feature phones, although the feature phones can apparently last up to at least two weeks and be charged using solar power. The smartphones, by contrast, are expected to have a battery capacity of at least two days. SIMI claims it has the capacity to make 2,000 phones a day and will involve university students in the development of apps and software for the handsets. While this may not be welcome news for competing manufacturers, they will probably be even less impressed with moves to slap a new 10 percent tax on all internationally imported smartphones. Up to five million phones a year are imported into Uganda untaxed, though its not clear how many are smartphones. The aim is to limit the importation of handsets and increase the purchase of smartphones being manufactured locally. The government appears to be set on giving incentives and priority to firms that produce products or components such as computers and smartphones, according to press reports, which go on to suggest that the tax may eventually go as high as 25 percent. Budget phone maker SIMI Mobile, which began business in Ethiopia in 2013, has enjoyed a steady growth in the Africa market, where feature phones still dominate. SIMI's nearly two-dozen feature phone handsets are priced between $10 and $20, while its smartphones are mostly sold below $50 and are already on sale in Ethiopia, Cameroon, and soon Uganda, with more African countries likely to follow. The Government is being urged to intervene to save the jobs of Debenhams workers. According to People Before Profit TD Mick Barry, it would cost the State about 19m to save the 2,000 jobs lost after the company folded last month. 26.05.2020 LISTEN The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has advised the government not to hasten the reopening of schools in the country amid rising Coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in the country. Schools at all levels have been closed since March when Ghana recorded its early cases of the deadly disease which has burdened almost every country in the world. Two months on, the number of confirmed cases stands at 6,808 with as many as 2,080 recoveries and sadly a death toll of 32. In the midst of the increasing number of positive cases, the government is engaging institutional heads over the possibility of allowing students to go back to school. While commending the government for engaging the relevant stakeholders on the matter, GNECC says the rate of the spread of the disease is a challenge and reopening of school now will not be ideal as students will be put at high risk. We commend the government for engaging stakeholders on the best possible ways of sending learners back to school. However, the current statistics from the Ghana Health Service shows that the rate of spread of the virus keeps increasing. The other challenge is that, it is difficult to identify those who are asymptomatic and there is the likelihood of a high incidence in the spread of the virus. Furthermore, there is a high risk of the spread of the virus due to the crowdedness of the children in both the classrooms and dormitories, a statement from GNECC Monday noted. It added, The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition, gauging from the public sentiment, is of the view that the re-opening of schools should not be hastened. We believe that before schools are re-opened, some measures must be put in place to ensure the safety of learners and education personnel. Among many other things, GNECC is recommending that the government should ensure all schools are disinfected and teachers are tested before schools reopen. The Coalition also wants a collaboration with the Ghana Health Service to provide mandatory temperature checks for students and teachers daily as and when schools reopen. Read full statement from GNECC below: To the Editor: Re Foot-in-Mouth Special at The Breakfast Club (news article, May 24): How does The New York Times decide which offensive comments made by presidential candidates are worth writing full articles about? Joe Bidens comment on The Breakfast Club radio show that voters aint black if they are torn between him and Donald Trump was obviously a gaffe and he was right to apologize for it, but it was not the worst thing said by a presidential candidate this past week. The day before, President Trump visited a Ford factory and stated that the Nazi sympathizer Henry Ford had good bloodlines. The comment was not even mentioned in your article about Mr. Trumps factory visit, despite being arguably more vile than anything Mr. Biden said during his Breakfast Club interview. Will The New York Times repeat its missteps of 2016, or will Mr. Bidens gaffes, of which there are sure to be more, be put into their proper context and held up against the words and actions of his opponent? Henry Mantel Los Angeles To the Editor: Joe Biden has not made any public appearances outside his house since mid-March except for an unannounced one to lay a wreath on Memorial Day. Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he is preparing to take action against China this week over its effort to impose national security laws on Hong Kong, but did not give details. Asked if he was going to impose sanctions on China over its actions in Hong Kong, Trump told reporters at the White House: "We're doing something now. I think you'll find it very interesting. But I won't be talking about it today." US President Donald Trump. Credit:AP "It's something you're going to be hearing about ... before the end of the week - very powerfully I think," Trump said in response to a second question. Proposed action against China comes as hundreds of riot police have taken up posts around Hong Kong's legislature overnight ahead of expected protests. Manila (CNN Philippines Life) Being stuck in quarantine has many of us staring at the same four walls day in, day out which for others is a solitary exercise. Prohibited from physical interaction and hounded by the struggles of subsistence, it is all too easy for spirits to sink and anxieties to grow in this new normal. It becomes almost an imperative then for us to seek solace anywhere we can find it, even if it means simulating human connection from across our LED screens. Sometimes this means chatting up a friend; other times, seeking digital versions of physical activities we used to enjoy from e-numans to Netflix parties. Museums worldwide have also picked up on the need to inspire everyone quarantined at home, and have opened their virtual doors to our search for a pastime, a distraction, a connection to the art that reminds us there are still beautiful things out in the world. In the time of the pandemic, viewers are free to choose their own virtual museum adventure. Here are five online exhibits launched during the quarantine that allow us to momentarily shrink the social distance weve built, revisit old loves, and explore new museums that would otherwise be inaccessible to us in both cost and distance. "The Night Watch" (1642) by Rembrandt. Screencap from RIJKSMUSEUM For a day with the classics: Rembrandt's The Night Watch Found at Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands The Rijksmuseum has created a master digital rendition of The Night Watch by Dutch painter Rembrandt, which it claims is the largest and most detailed photograph ever made of this 1642 piece. The original painting, which stands at 3.63 m x 4.37 m, was photographed in 528 exposures, creating a photograph with the size of 44.8 gigapixels. The online version can be zoomed in to see every crack in the paint, every brush stroke, and every blemish. After all, the photograph was intended to help researchers undertake a restoration of the painting, which was unfortunately delayed because of the pandemic. At least in this way, this Rembrandt masterpiece can still be appreciated by art lovers worldwide. Another Rembrandt online exhibit is being hosted over at Madrid, Spain by the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Called Rembrandt and Portraiture in Amsterdam, 1590-1670, the exhibit was launched on February 18 during the outbreak, before the museum closed its doors. The 360-degree tour offers even a V.R. option, and walks you through the nine rooms showcasing works from the different periods of Rembrandts art career and even works from his contemporaries. "The Rotting Donkey" (1928) by Salvador Dali. Photo from THE DALI MUSEUM For a dreamlike tour: Midnight in Paris, 1929" Found at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA If youre seeking art more along the lines of the bizarre and the unconscious, you should check out the Surrealism exhibits at The Dali Museum. One such exhibit on their page is Midnight in Paris, 1929, which celebrates the works of artists such as Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Andre Breton, Max Ernst, and Rene Magritte. The exhibit celebrates the energy and confrontations that shook the Surrealist movement as it blossomed in the 1920s, straight from the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The site features a gallery of artworks that celebrate the dreamlike and the curious, accompanied not only by labels but also by audio narrations for each piece. The online exhibit runs from March 31 to December 31 a welcome accompaniment for the year that has so far been anything but easy. "Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" (2013) by Yayoi Kusama. Photo from THE BROAD MUSEUM For an immersive experience: Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room Found at The Broad Museum in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Fans of Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama can now enjoy her world-famous installation Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away in their own homes. The installation is an immersive piece which makes use of mirrors and lights to produce an out-of-body experience, and used to attract swarms of visitors at its home in The Broad in Los Angeles, before it closed its doors to the public last March 13. To continue bringing the experience to the public, the museum launched the exhibit both as an Instagram T.V. series and a YouTube playlist. The series called Infinite Drone tries to simulate the multi-sensory experience using both visuals of the room and music by L.A. musicians and sound artists best played in H.D., full screen, and full volume. Pro tip: If you happen to have a projector, try projecting Kusamas cosmic infinity onto your bedroom wall or ceiling for maximum immersion, too. "The Space of Wonder" at Studio Ghibli Museum. Screencap from STUDIO GHIBLI MUSEUM/YOUTUBE For lovers of Japanese animation: Studio Ghibli Museum Found in Mitaka, Japan Ghibli fans rejoice! The Studio Ghibli Museum which usually prohibits videos of its interiors has created a YouTube channel this April that allow fans worldwide to take an exclusive peek at the fantasy world filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has captured inside. The videos take you on a tour down your childhood memory lane, from Totoro greeting you at the museums entrance, to "The Space of Wonder" which features a fresco ceiling of beloved characters such as Kiki from "Kikis Delivery Service" and siblings Mei & Satsuki from "My Neighbor Totoro." You also get to tour "A Boy's Room - A Gift from Grampa" which is a mock studio covered in sketches and film props that recreates how a Ghibli film is born; "The Central Hall" with its spiral staircases and bridges; and the "Straw Hat Cafe" whose menu was inspired by the culinary wonders from different Ghibli films. Too bad we cant book a flight to Japan just yet; everyone in the YouTube comments section will just have to do with reminiscing together through this virtual tour. Libuo Isnan Nemnem (2019) by Kankanaey artist Jayson Duclan. Photo from BAGUIO ARTS AND CRAFTS COLLECTIVE, INC./FACEBOOK For a look into local indigenous art: Binadang Di Kordilyera Found in Baguio City, Benguet The Philippine arts scene also has its fair share of online exhibits, such as those of the National Museum and the Presidential Museum and Library, but one exhibit created specifically in response to this pandemic is Binadang Di Kordilyera or "Bayanihan of the Cordillera." It was launched last May 11 on Facebook by the Baguio Arts and Crafts Collective, Inc. and the Council for Baguio Creative City (CBCC) to not only promote Baguio craftsmanship but also raise funds for the participating artisans from Baguio and Benguet through the sale of the artworks posted. The exhibit runs until June 11. Furthermore, if youd like to turn your newfound burst of inspiration into action, participating in Binadang Di Kordilyera will even allow you to provide care packs to cultural workers, since a portion of the exhibits proceeds will go to the CBCC's continuing Good Acts project. michael barbaro From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. [music] Today: For the first time in history, a private company is sending astronauts into space. Science reporter Kenneth Chang on the dawn of a new era in space travel. Its Thursday, May 28. Ken, how many space launches have you covered in your career? kenneth chang Ive forgotten. Because I started covering these at the end of the space shuttle era. So it was probably five or six then. And there was a few other scattered ones. And Ive actually made more trips than that. Because especially with the space shuttle, they would postpone the launch at the last second a gazillion times. So I would just fly in in, fly out, fly in, fly out, and not even see a launch. michael barbaro But if you had to guess, how many fly-ins and fly-outs have you made to try to watch a space launch? kenneth chang Oh, Id say 20. michael barbaro [LAUGHS] Thats a lot. kenneth chang Yeah. michael barbaro And thats where you are right now, when we say fly in, fly out, you are in at the moment. kenneth chang I am in. Im actually currently in a Hampton Inn in Titusville, which is 20 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center. michael barbaro Give me the scene there in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center. I know youre not there, but youre soon to be there. Whats it look like right now? kenneth chang So because of the coronavirus, NASAs basically limiting the number of people there. The visitors center, where the public usually gathers for the launch, is closed. So when I go there, Ill get to watch it. But Ill be outside the whole time and with a mask and at least six feet away from everyone else. michael barbaro So Ken, at this point, its about 1:20 p.m. Where are we in the countdown for todays launch? kenneth chang So the astronauts have put on their space suits. Theyre about ready to get in a car to drive to the launch pad. And this is part of whats really different about this launch versus whats happened in past years from the Kennedy Space Center. In the past, it was NASA having the space shuttle and such. This time, it is a private company, one called SpaceX that was founded by Elon Musk, the billionaire who also operates Tesla, which is a company that makes electric cars. michael barbaro So whats happening where you are in Florida on Wednesday is that a private company is putting NASA astronauts into space on a privately owned vessel? kenneth chang Yes. And this has never been done before. If you think, theres been three countries that have sent people to space: the United States, the former Soviet Union and now Russia, and China. And now you have this small company called SpaceX, which I guess is not so small anymore. But it is now joining these big nations to do something thats really hard. michael barbaro Ken, when I think of the space program, I think of it as the pride and joy of the United States. And I think of it first and foremost as a federal government program, NASA. So how did we get to this point where a private company has more or less supplanted NASA in sending astronauts into space? kenneth chang So of course, at the beginning of the space era, you think of Sputnik. archived recording [RADIO SIGNAL BEEPING] Until two days ago, that sound had never been heard on this Earth. Its a report from mans farthest frontier kenneth chang The Soviets sent a satellite up before the great, mighty United States did. archived recording a radio signal transmitted by the Soviet Sputnik, the first manmade satellite as it passed over New York earlier today. kenneth chang This spurred, of course, a lot of fear and worry in the United States. archived recording Is it possible that it is transmitting a code, not just a beep signal for radio listening? Yes, its quite possible that its transmitting a code. kenneth chang So the United States started a major space program and created NASA to do things that would counter what the Soviet Unions were doing. archived recording The space age had begun. kenneth chang And so the first space missions, you just think of archived recording Shepard himself had been hauled up into the helicopter. kenneth chang you think of Alan Shepard, the first American to reach space. archived recording (john glenn) Roger kenneth chang John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. archived recording (john glenn) A little bumpy along about here. kenneth chang And each of these baby steps that led to Apollo. archived recording (neil armstrong) Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. kenneth chang And of course, Neil Armstrong walking on the surface of the moon. archived recording (neil armstrong) Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. kenneth chang These were all events tied up in the identity of the United States as a nation. archived recording (richard nixon) This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation. The world is bigger, infinitely. I only hope that all of us in government, all of us in America, we can reach for the stars just as you have reached so far for the stars. kenneth chang And so that was the mentality that drove the space program through the 60s into the early 70s. And then after that, it was a transition to try to figure out what to do. Once weve gotten to the moon, how do we get to the next step? So NASA basically came up with three options to present to President Nixon. You could go for broke, you could start planning to go to Mars. Or you could build a space station and a space shuttle to go to the space station. Or you could just build a space shuttle. And Nixon chose just to build the space shuttle. That was the cheapest that he was willing to invest in. And so because the space shuttle did not have a space station to go to, it had to serve other purposes. One of them was that the military wanted to use it to launch spy satellites. Other people want to use it to run science experiments in orbit. And so this sort of became this pickup truck that was supposed to do all these different chores for different parts of the federal government. It ended up being a technological marvel that was not great at doing any one particular task. archived recording 8, 7, 6, 5. kenneth chang I mean, with the space shuttle, if you think about the launch, if you watch one, it was an amazing sight. archived recording 2, 1, [INAUDIBLE]. [LAUNCH SOUND] kenneth chang You could hear the rumble as it goes up. But you could never get over just how bright the light from the engines are. It never does justice to see it on a computer screen or a TV. But it didnt capture the imagination of people like going to the moon did for Apollo. Tasks were not the grand dreams that fueled the Space Age. michael barbaro So what happens to this kind of underwhelming NASA space program that youre describing? kenneth chang The space shuttles were actually designed to be run almost like a commercial enterprise. They were reusable. The thought was that they could land and fly very quickly. And that they would fly often enough that the cost of a mission would be fairly cheap as NASA got better and better at running the shuttles. In fact, at various points, there were actually discussions that NASA would outsource the operation of the shuttles to a private company. michael barbaro Hm. kenneth chang Those didnt happen. archived recording We have main engine start 4, 3, 2, 1, and liftoff, liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission. And it has cleared the tower. kenneth chang Because first, in 1986 archived recording 1 The engines throttling up. Three engines and now at 104 percent. archived recording 2 Challenger, go with throttle up. kenneth chang There was a Challenger accident where the shuttle disintegrated during launch. archived recording We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded. Flight director confirms that. We are looking at checking with the recovery forces. kenneth chang And it killed Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who was aboard. archived recording President Reagan has declared a week of mourning for the seven astronauts five men and two women who lost their lives on their way into space this morning. kenneth chang And this was a huge setback. And NASA had to go back and fix the design. And then they became very careful to make sure that it was safe enough for the astronauts. And of course, once youre very careful about safety, youre safer. But that means that everything costs more, everything is slower. And this piece of the space shuttle program continued. Then in 2003, there was another accident. archived recording A few minutes ago, it was about eight oclock, the space shuttle Columbia was going over north Texas. kenneth chang Columbia, it was actually on a mission conducting some science experiments. And archived recording Youll notice here it looks like you can see pieces of the shuttle coming off. kenneth chang as it reentered the atmosphere for landing archived recording Some kind of objects leaving some kind of trail over the skies of North Texas. kenneth chang the structure of the shuttle disintegrated and the seven astronauts aboard died. And this was a turning point, for NASA and the country to decide going to space is dangerous. We are risking our astronauts lives to do something in space. What should we be asking them to risk their lives for? michael barbaro Mhm. kenneth chang And this soul-searching led to the decision that the shuttles were now too old, too complex, too dangerous to continue operating. archived recording (george w. bush) The shuttles chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station. kenneth chang So that there would be a few more flights, and then it will be retired. archived recording (george w. bush) In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service. michael barbaro So after all these years of neglecting the space shuttles and running into safety problems, the decision is not to invest more in them, but essentially, to kind of walk away from the program? kenneth chang Thats essentially what happened. But still, NASA needed a way to get its astronauts to and from the space station. archived recording Included in the White Houses two billion dollar budget is $850 million to help along commercial space ventures, like SpaceXs Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule. kenneth chang So when the Obama administration came in, they took a look at what NASA was doing and decided that was an opportunity to get more commercial companies into this business of sending people to space. michael barbaro And what is NASA thinking at this moment, as it starts to contemplate farming out travel to the space station? kenneth chang So the thinking of the NASA officials were, we really want to go back to the moon. We really want to go to Mars. We want to go send astronauts off on new places where they can go look at things that we have never seen before. And because too much of the budget was tied up with the space shuttle, they wanted to find some way to spend less money on what they thought was routine missions, so that they could do something that was more exciting and could better justify what they were created to do. michael barbaro Got it. So the thinking is: let a private company do the kind of grunt work of space travel. And that would free the federal government, NASA, up to do the grand explorations. kenneth chang That was exactly the reason. And NASA chose two of them that they liked and decided to fund them. One was Boeing and one was SpaceX. And of course, NASA wanted both of these to be operational as soon as possible. It became a sort of friendly competition. Both companies actually ended up three years behind schedule. michael barbaro [LAUGHS] kenneth chang And at this final time, SpaceX is going to be first. And Boeing is still, perhaps, a year behind. michael barbaro So SpaceX wins the competition. kenneth chang Yes. There actually is a flag on the space station. So on the very last space shuttle mission, the astronauts left a flag there. And whoever was going to be on the first vehicle to get to the space station would capture the flag. michael barbaro And so that will be SpaceX. kenneth chang Yes. michael barbaro OK. So Ken, I know you need to go actually watch this rocket launch. So we will let you go kenneth chang Yes. michael barbaro and talk to you once the launch is done and you are off deadline. kenneth chang If I miss the launch, my editor is going to kill me. This was actually a conversation I had with my editor. [LAUGHS] michael barbaro Well be right back. archived recording 1 we want to make that call. Because shortly after that, we will begin loading liquid oxygen onto the second stage. Standby. archived recording 2 We continue violate a couple different weather rules that we now do not expect to clear in time to allow for a launch today. And todays launch attempt, Launch Control would end the launch auto sequence and proceed to the launch abort auto sequence, please. archived recording 3 Launch abort has started. archived recording 4 And Dragon SpaceX, unfortunately, we are not going to launch today. You are go for 5.100. Launch scrub. archived recording 5 Weve heard the call from the crew. They have been informed. Launch director michael barbaro So Ken, its nearly 7 p.m. And things did not quite go as planned. What actually just happened down there in Florida? kenneth chang So through the whole day, the weather looked really icky. It was raining. It was cloudy. And then, about an hour before liftoff time, the rain sort of cleared up. The clouds start thinning out. And it looked like, for a while, that they were going to actually be able to get the rocket off the launch pad. But then, at the very end, about 15 minutes before the liftoff time, the weather officer said were still red for launch. They called off the launch. And theyre going to try again on Saturday. michael barbaro So no launch on Wednesday, but perhaps a launch over the weekend? kenneth chang Yes. michael barbaro So I want to talk about, Ken, this private company that, I guess, almost just put American astronauts into space SpaceX. I mean, what was it about this company that attracted NASA to it and allowed it to get this coveted contract? kenneth chang So SpaceX was this upstart small company. It was very ambitious. And they found ways to do rockets and such that was less expensive and faster than many of the bigger companies in the past. And I always described them for the longest time as the Southwest of the rocket business, Southwest Airlines. michael barbaro [LAUGHTER] kenneth chang They found efficiencies that other companies did not that has allowed them to find new markets and find ways to do things that werent a business model before, because it was too expensive and too slow in the past. michael barbaro What are some examples, Ken, of ways that they inexpensively innovated and seemed to save a lot of money on this kind of a launch? kenneth chang So in the very beginning, their engineering decisions were often driven by how things could be done efficiently. And this could have been as simple as recycling parts of their rockets. So if youve ever watched a rocket launch, the bottom part of the rocket, which is the first stage or booster stage, is the part that lifts up the rocket through the thick bottom part of the atmosphere. And it usually just drops away when its done after a few minutes. michael barbaro Right. kenneth chang And for the longest time, this piece would just fall back into the ocean and be lost. michael barbaro Right. And that sounds like a pretty expensive thing to just toss off into the ocean. kenneth chang Its a very expensive thing. Just each engine would be several million dollars. michael barbaro Wow. kenneth chang So one of the things that, from the very beginning, Elon wanted to do was, we should try to use them again. And for a while, when they were trying to land these boosters, they would just crash and abort. And there was these fantastic explosions as the thing almost landed. And then, finally, they succeeded. They actually managed to land this booster back on the ground at Cape Canaveral. And then now, they do this almost routinely. For every SpaceX launch, you watch it go up, you see the booster drop off. And about 10 minutes after launch, you see it land vertically, almost like those rockets in those 1950s science fiction movies. michael barbaro Wow. kenneth chang Its amazing. This is where SpaceX went from being the Southwest Airlines to a true innovator in this field. michael barbaro So Ken, how much, in the end, does it feel like SpaceX has saved in terms of cost from what NASA might have paid to put someone into space a decade ago? kenneth chang So the clearest comparison that we have is that before SpaceX came along, NASA had a plan to develop its own rocket and capsule for taking astronauts to the space station. And when that program was canceled, the estimated cost to do this would have been at least $20 billion dollars. michael barbaro Wow. kenneth chang Now SpaceX has a contract with NASA basically to provide the exact same service, so that all the development costs, plus providing some of the actual launches, for $2.6 billion. michael barbaro Wow. So a fraction of that $20 billion dollars? kenneth chang Yes. michael barbaro Saving that much money would seem like a tremendous boon for NASA, for the federal government, for the American taxpayer. Does anyone at NASA worry that something fundamental is lost when a private company that is ultimately a business thats interested in making profit is running a launch like this? kenneth chang I think theyre most excited about what the rocket does as opposed to who builds it and who operates it. michael barbaro Hm. kenneth chang I always remember the Saturn V rocket from the Apollo missions in the 60s, the most impressive thing thats flown to date. However, it wasnt because it was so big. Its because it went to the moon. Thats why we remember it. It doesnt necessarily matter whose rocket goes to the space station or ultimately takes people to the moon and beyond. Its that these systems, if they work well, they enable NASA and other agencies to go explore the solar system in new ways that we werent able to do before. michael barbaro Ken, is this ultimately a positive development that youre describing here, the privatization of space exploration? Which, I guess, at first blush, seems like something people might be worried about. Is it turning out that this is a very natural evolution of a process that began with the government creating a market, taking these serious risks and opening up to a more efficient private company, and that thats a pretty good progression? kenneth chang So if we go back in history, think of an example where this has happened before. And that is the airplane. So in the very earliest days, there was various people building different types of an airplane. But theres no real business for doing it. It is when the government decides to start sending air mail that it created a business where people could start airlines to carry the mail. And thats led to this wonderful air travel system that we have in the United States and around the world today. michael barbaro So if we follow that logic, eventually private space travel could be a vast network that many companies enter and perhaps many civilians use, just like civilian aircraft? kenneth chang So once its no longer just NASA astronauts going to space, theres all sorts of new possibilities that open up. So if you have a commercial space station that has nothing to do with NASA that could be filled with millionaire space tourists to spend a couple of weeks in space. It could also be a pharmaceutical company that wants to try out new drugs that can only be made in zero gravity. So once there is a market of going to space that doesnt involve the government, then everyone else can start thinking of how can I get up there, too? How can I make money up there? michael barbaro So when SpaceX does pull off this launch, maybe its in a couple of days, youre saying its not really just putting two astronauts into space on a private aircraft. Its truly launching a new era in the space program. And its, I guess, the private era of space travel. kenneth chang Yes. And its coming sooner than you realize. Theres a company out there doing it right now called Axiom Space. They have a contract with SpaceX. They have an agreement with NASA to use part of the space station for these tourists. And this could be launching as soon as the second half of next year. michael barbaro Hm. So Ken, everything that youre describing is very exciting. But it occurs to me that its also somewhat conditional. I mean, what happens if, now that its delayed on Saturday, on Sunday, whenever this launch occurs, what happens if it fails? What happens if it goes badly? Is everything youre describing then in doubt? kenneth chang Its certainly pushed into the future and delayed. Is it such a setback that everyone says this was a bad idea, we give up, we need to go back to the way things were? I dont think so. Space is still a very hard business, no matter whether its SpaceX or NASA or someone else running these programs. There is a risk to whoever is riding on top of that rocket every time it launches. Everyone whos down there watching is nervous. They always go, I hope this is not a bad day. Because they realize it could be a bad day. And I dont think that one bad day means we never go back to space. michael barbaro Well, Ken, good luck. I hope that you do get a launch in the next few days. And well check in with you after that. kenneth chang Great. Thank you very much. michael barbaro But that promise cannot be kept until he is elected, and whether he is elected may turn on how he keeps the first promise: to name a female running mate. Its safe to say that at no other time in recent history has the person riding shotgun been so critical. Biden would be the oldest president to assume office at 78 and has begun lately to look challenged at times by his age. Thus, voters must be able to envision the vice president, whoever she might be, as the president of the United States. And even if Biden bears up well, his pick will likely be next in line, at least, for the Democrats. South Africa's alcohol industry has welcomed the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday evening that the move to Level 3 would include the sale of alcohol for home consumption under strict conditions that would restrict trading hours and days. Cathy Yeulet via 123RF Economic inclusion of taverners Addressing transmission risks Industrys proposed click & collect model: The President confirmed that these conditions had not been finalised and would be done so following further discussions with the sector.Industry bodies like the South African Liquor Brand Owners Association (SALBA), the Beer Association of South Africa (BASA) and VinPro have been engaging with Government to develop practical trading proposals that will support Governments Covid-19 objectives.Vinpro CEO Rico Basson said players in the alcohol industry have been operating for more than eight weeks with zero income revenue but had remained committed to ensuring the industry gets back on its feet.An estimated 117,600 jobs have been lost throughout the industry and 13% of the craft beer sector is in the process of shutting up shop, while the wine industry is in severe distress. As an industry, we are willing to participate in consultation with government to provide proposals that help to reopen the alcohol industry further and begin to reconstruct the countrys economy to protect the livelihoods of one million people employed throughout the value chain," he commented.Commenting on the opening up on the sector, Distell CEO Richard Rushton said: We welcome the move by Government to allow the alcohol industry to return to responsible trading. The alcohol industry currently contributes to nearly a million jobs along the value chain, and supports nearly 800 small and medium enterprises. We are working with Government and providing input on the draft proposals.Distell, which is part of SALBA, said that its two areas of concern are the unintended consequences of restricted trading that result in overcrowding, and continue to incentivise illicit trade. Secondly, it wants to ensure the economic inclusion of taverners who are currently excluded from transforming to off consumption outlets.BASA CEO Patricia Pillay said the industry had made a strong argument for government to especially grant off-consumption trading licenses to the licensed taverns as well as the microbreweries. We want taverns and microbreweries to be able to trade legally and safely."In India, where after a 6-week ban on the sales of alcohol, similar decisions were taken to open up with restricted trading which lead to over-crowding and fighting at outlets. Distell said in a statement that this outcome would be counterproductive to strict safety protocols and Governments overall Covid-19 objectives.Illicit trade has also seen a dramatic rise since the ban, which also may continue should trading be banned over the weekends when customers typically consume alcohol.Industry associations have presented several proposals to ensure safe off-consumption trading of taverns. These solutions include safety protocols for trading, including e-commerce, and also addressed transmission risks across the value chain and the safety of the workforce, suppliers, retailers and consumers.One of the solutions include a click and collect' model which has been developed with taverns to ensure social distancing measures are followed, in the same way that traditional restaurants will be allowed to operate.The taverner associations have committed to ensuring adherence to health and safety regulations, as well as social distancing at all times. This forms a part of the industrys educational and training initiatives aimed primarily at the 34,500 tavern owners to ensure they provide a safe environment for customers in which to trade.Part of the support for taverns includes supplying the free personal protective equipment packages, including sanitisers, masks, gloves, as well as education and training material to meet strict Covid-19 safety protocols. What we know for certain is that coronavirus has had a marked impact on virtually every industry. It's unlikely we'll be able to go back to how things were before it struck, and businesses need to account for that in their marketing strategies. The coronavirus pandemic will force brands to embrace digital marketing more than ever before, announced Daniel Page, Director of Business Development at search engine optimization focused hosting provider ASEOHosting. "The coronavirus has created an unprecedented situation for businesses all around the world," says Page. "It's jumpstarted what was originally a gradual evolution towards distributed work. More people are now working from home than ever before, and I have little doubt that once the pandemic is over, that isn't likely to change." The shift towards distributed work also represents a major shift in consumer behavior. Because so many people are stuck in their homes, eCommerce and expedited delivery have seen both a considerable upturn. Consequently, this also means that many traditional marketing tactics have lost a certain degree of value. "Marketing departments are suffering the same setbacks as everyone else, but the impact of the pandemic goes beyond just staffing and budget," explains Page. "In addition to many marketing campaigns being put on hold for the foreseeable future, and brands cannot rely on the upturn in traffic and awareness generated by large gatherings such as festivals or sporting events. Brands will need to shift their focus almost entirely to digital campaigns and remote fulfillment." Now well into its fourth month, the virus, known also as COVID-19, has surpassed 1.8 million cases worldwide and resulted in more than 111,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. In response to its high infectivity and potential to overwhelm healthcare infrastructure, governments around the world have issued sweeping lockdown orders. Non-essential businesses in major cities are shut down, and many people have been instructed to either self-isolate or shelter-in-place. Page further notes that although the COVID-19 pandemic will pass eventually, at this point no one is entirely certain how long it will last. Moreover, it will have a permanent impact on consumer behavior and workplace dynamics. With this in mind, he advises that businesses take the time to not only understand how the pandemic has changed the media consumption habits of their audiences but that they also establish frameworks that allow them to more effectively adapt to an entirely new marketing paradigm. "No one is really sure what the future holds," says Page. "But what we know for certain is that coronavirus has had a marked impact on virtually every industry. It's unlikely we'll be able to go back to how things were before it struck, and businesses need to account for that in their marketing strategies." #### About ASEOHosting: Launched in 2002, ASEOHosting is a leader in providing SEO Hosting, including Shared SEO Hosting, Dedicated SEO Hosting, US Dedicated SEO Servers, and EU Dedicated SEO Servers. Based in Orlando, FL, and Detroit, MI, ASEOHosting has established one of the webs premier solutions for reseller web hosting, multiple IP hosting, dedicated servers, and VPS hosting. For more information, visit https://www.aseohosting.com. Brunswick, Halfmoon, Malta and Saratoga Springs are among fastest growing New York communities with a population of at least 10,000, according to the most recent data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The three Saratoga County municipalities and one Rensselaer County town are the only Capital Region communities to crack the statewide list of the 15 fastest growing towns or cities from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2019. The distinction puts them on a nationwide list of 678 fastest growing municipalities that was recently compiled by the bureau. Rolling landscapes, low taxes, a mix of housing and easy access to the Capital Regions urban center is what local officials site as the reasons why the four communities continue to show up on both the state and the nations fastest growing municipalities lists over the last 10 years. While the Capital Regions growth is small compared to the southern and western states, these three towns and a city stand out for the decade of growth. The newest population estimates were released as the 2020 Census is taking place and larger cities such as Albany and Troy are fighting to get a complete count that will turn around their recent population declines. Its all about location and the scenery about why people have moved into the town, said Brunswick Supervisor Phil Herrington, where the town's population jumped by 9.2 percent from 11,952 to 13,046 residents, according to the census bureau data. You can get everywhere - Saratoga, Albany - pretty much from here. Its a real pretty town out here, said Herrington, adding Highland Creek Condominiums is an example of the housing that attracts new residents. Halfmoon is tops, ranking fourth for percentage growth in the state, followed by Malta at fifth, Brunswick at seventh and Saratoga Springs at 11th. Nationwide, Halfmoon is 353rd for growth, Malta is at 471st, Brunswick is just behind at 485th and Saratoga Springs is 536th. Saratoga Springs' population grew 6.2 percent, from 26,568 to 28,512. Malta's grew 10 percent from 14,768 to 16,252. Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen observes that a variety of housing stock - from single-family homes, to apartments, to farms - gives his Northway community an advantage in attracting new residents. Halfmoon grew the most in the Capital Region - swelling by 14.5 percent, from 21,514 to 24,635 residents. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. We have low taxes. We have a great environment, Tollisen said. Halfmoon, Malta and Saratoga Springs are stacked from south to north along the Northway corridor that before the coronavirus pandemic was packed with commuters headed to Albany. Tollisen said the challenge for his town is to provide the infrastructure to deal with the expanding population and the resulting demands. He said the town has focused on road improvements and is investing $2 million to connect to the county water system to provide a backup for its residents. The other municipalities in the states top 15 are led by the Hasidic majority village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, ranked first in the state and 101st nationally with growth of 31.7 percent. The town of Palm Tree, in which Kiryas Joel is located, ranked second statewide and 102nd nationally at 31.6 percent growth. Ministers of the central government or state governments or officers on their official duty, who are travelling across states, will be exempted from requirements of quarantine, the Karnataka government said on Monday. The state government issued an addendum to Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for inter-state passengers. Any person who gets a negative COVID test certificate (from ICMR approved lab) which is not more than two days old from the date of journey will be exempted from the requirement of institutional quarantine, read the addendum. The state government has laid down new norms for those coming from other states (including those coming by domestic air flights). Passengers coming from high prevalence states (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh) would be required to undergo a seven-day institutional quarantine, which will be followed by home quarantine. The new norms also said that home quarantine of 14 days would be necessary for the passengers coming from other states. None of this contributes to the sense that Assad is as much in control of the country as he likes to portray, said Makki, the political analyst. This is more dangerous and more challenging than any period in the entire war, he said. Unless he can find solutions, he is never going to rule over a stable Syria. The Woman In Black, Arrival, Prisoners. High concept sci-fi, emotionally astute horror and the coolest film youve never seen are all on offer today as TopFilmTip brings you the best films on TV today: Tuesday, 26 May. Some films may require a Sky subscription. Welsh noir classic as a young girl witnessing a murder and becomes infatuated with a murderer in taut drama Tiger Bay 11:00am Film 4 Aural abuse of aliens and selenium enema administration when freaky foreign fungus forms fiendish fauna- madcap comedy Evolution 4:45pm Sony Movies Secret service shrink surgeons in super submarine to cure civil servant's cerebral stroke using scuba science in Fantastic Voyage 5:10pm Film 4 Morose widower travels to remote marsh house and encounters infanticidal ghost in Gothic fogbound British chiller The Woman in Black 9:00pm Horror Channel Intuitive visionary walks precipice of apocalyptic abyss in abstract encounter of etymologically enigmatic alien entity Arrival 9:00pm Film 4 Substandardly sized sloop sailor and chum-chucking chief chase child-chomper in coffee cup crunching sharp shooting fish em up Jaws 9:00pm ITV4 Stoic criminal evades obsessive cop in nocturnal game of cat and mouse in the coolest film youve never seen: Walter Hills The Driver 10:00pm Talking Pictures British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley and canadian actor, screenwriter and producer Mike Myers on the set of , directed by American Jay Roach. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) Spy on her majestys secret service with a view to a kill and license to kill gets some octopussy in catchphrase comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 11:00pm 5 Star Machiavellian father and dogged detective search for missing girls in gripping, unflinching and morally grey metaphor Prisoners 11:20pm Film4 Apologetic assassin sees troubles looming in balls to the wall conspiracy led non-stop shoot/sew em up action spectacular Wanted 11:20pm ITV4 A poster for 2008's Wanted, based on the Mark Millar graphic novel. (Universal Pictures) Would Elijah Wood become creepy, scalping obsessed, mannequin collecting, POV psychopath serial killer? Elijah Wood would Maniac 00:50am Horror Channel Marriage built on inebriated foundation of fun time alcohol addiction fragments as wife attempts first steps to sobriety Smashed 2:25am Film 4 Story continues Amid island isolation and global pandemic, fraying miscarried marriage endures test of trust under yoke of menacing captor Retreat 2:40am Horror Channel Everything new on streaming in May: Netflix UK: Mays new releases NOW TV: Mays new releases Amazon Prime Video UK: May's new releases Disney+ UK: May's new releases Siemens Healthineers started shipping its total antibody tests globally, including to the largest analyzer installed base in the U.S. The company has a total of 20,000 systems worldwide and will ramp up its production capacity of more than 50 million antibody tests per month as the pandemic evolves. The total antibody test has demonstrated 100 percent sensitivity and 99.8 percent specificity in identifying SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in as few as 10 minutes. The SARS-CoV-2 total antibody test is CE marked and the company is pursuing FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). FDA authorized EUA for the company's real-time PCR molecular SARS-CoV-2 detection test kit, which demonstrates 100 percent positive percent agreement and negative percent agreement. The company plans to ship more than 2.5 million molecular PCR tests per month worldwide as production capacity increases. Siemens Healthineers announced today that it is now shipping worldwide its laboratory-based total antibody test1 to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies in blood. The test received the CE mark and data has demonstrated 100 percent sensitivity2 and 99.8 percent specificity. The total antibody test allows for identification of patients who have developed an adaptive immune response, which indicates recent infection or prior exposure.3 The company is prepared to ramp up production as the pandemic evolves with capacity exceeding 50 million tests per month across its platforms starting in June. Siemens Healthineers is poised to increase production at the company's Walpole (Walpole, Mass.) and Glasgow (Newark, Del.) facilities. The antibody test is now available on the largest installed base in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world with 20,000 Siemens Healthineers systems installed worldwide. This includes the Atellica Solution immunoassay analyzer, which can run up to 440 tests per hour4 and enables a result in just 10 minutes. By detecting both IgM and IgG antibodies, the test provides a clearer clinical picture over a longer period of time as the disease progresses. Importantly, the test detects antibodies to a key protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus-a spike protein, which binds the virus to cells with a distinct human receptor found in lungs, heart, multiple organs and blood vessels. Studies indicate that certain (neutralizing) antibodies to the spike protein can disarm SARS-CoV-2, presumably by interfering with the ability of the virus to bind, penetrate and infect human cells. Multiple potential vaccines in development for SARS-CoV-2 include the spike protein within their focus. "Not all antibody tests are created equal. A high-quality test that targets the right protein and is highly scalable is essential for antibody testing to help ensure we effectively manage the threat of COVID-19," said Deepak Nath, PhD, President, Laboratory Diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers. "Siemens Healthineers sought to provide a highly accurate antibody test that could reach millions of people to address the current need for identifying immune response, and also for delivering long-term value as we look toward immunity and vaccination." The total antibody test also is available on the company's expansive installed base of ADVIA Centaur XP and XPT analyzers, which can test up to 240 samples per hour, with a result in 18 minutes. Comparable tests for Siemens Healthineers Dimension Vista and Dimension EXL systems also are being pursued,5 with a view to realize clinical reach. The company intends to develop an IgG test to provide flexibility for testing needs as the pandemic evolves.5 About the Siemens Healthineers SARS-CoV-2 Molecular Test Siemens Healthineers also announced that the FDA issued an EUA on May 5 for its molecular PCR Fast Track Diagnostics (FTD) SARS-CoV-2 Assay6 test kit, which can detect the virus that causes COVID-19. The FTD SARS-CoV-2 Assay also is CE marked for diagnostic use in the EU since April 24. In method comparison studies, the real-time PCR test has shown 100 percent positive agreement and 100 percent negative agreement7. The molecular test, of which more than 500,000 have already been sold in Europe, is compatible with many lab platforms and evaluates two targets in one test tube, detecting two genes with less test preparation. Sample-to-answer time, including extraction and generating the result, takes 2-3 hours, depending on the molecular system and lab resources employed. "I'm proud of our team who saw the societal need and mobilized very quickly to bring this high-quality, diagnostic test to the U.S. market," said Deepak Nath. "Siemens Healthineers now offers the broadest portfolio of high-quality tests for SARS-CoV-2 to help address the global pandemic. Our tests arm healthcare professionals with the information they need to accurately detect SARS-CoV-2, assess disease severity and therapeutic response, and aid care management for patients with comorbidities or complications such as escalated immune response or sudden development of coagulation disorders. These tests will assist clinicians with more timely interventions that can result in better patient outcomes." To meet demand, the company plans to ship more than 2.5 million molecular PCR tests per month worldwide as production capacity increases in May and June. The FTD SARS-CoV-2 Assay can be run on equipment widely used in laboratories worldwide and may be run simultaneously with Siemens Healthineers FTD Respiratory Pathogens 218 and FTD FLU/HRSV8 molecular syndromic testing panels that identify a wide range of pathogens that can cause acute respiratory infections. About Siemens Healthineers Commitment to COVID-19 Testing In addition to the antibody and molecular tests, Siemens Healthineers offers a broad diagnostics portfolio to aid in the prognosis, treatment and follow up of COVID-19 patients. The company's broad and differentiated menu includes hematology, coagulation, cardiac, respiratory, inflammation and infectious disease panels. Blood gas and imaging solutions from Siemens Healthineers deliver actionable results that aid clinicians in caring for COVID-19 patients. 1 CE-marked for sale in the EU. This test has not been reviewed by the FDA. In the US, use of this test is limited to laboratories that are certified under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) to perform high-complexity testing. Product availability may vary by country and is subject to regulatory requirements. 2 14 days post-PCR positive test 3 Product claims, including intended use, are applicable to the CE-marked assay. These claims have not been authorized by FDA. 4 Dependent upon test mix. 5 Under development. Not available for sale. Future availability cannot be guaranteed. 6 CE-marked for sale in the EU. This test has not been FDA cleared or approved. This test has been authorized by FDA under an EUA for use by authorized laboratories. This test has been authorized only for the detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, not for any other viruses or pathogens. This test is only authorized for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of in vitro diagnostics for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 under Section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21. U.S.C. 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.Product availability may vary by country and is subject to regulatory requirements. 7 In method comparison studies, FTD SARS-CoV-2 has shown Positive Percent Agreement: 100% (91.8-100, 95% CI) and Negative Percent Agreement: 100% (88.7-100, 95% CI) when tested in Copan eSwab nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs. 8 CE-marked for sale in the EU. Research Use Only (RUO) in the U.S. For further information, please see https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/laboratory-diagnostics. Siemens Healthineers AG (listed in Frankfurt, Germany: SHL) is shaping the future of Healthcare. As a leading medical technology company headquartered in Erlangen, Germany, Siemens Healthineers enables healthcare providers worldwide through its regional companies to increase value by empowering them on their journey towards expanding precision medicine, transforming care delivery, improving the patient experience, and digitalizing healthcare. Siemens Healthineers is continuously developing its product and service portfolio, with AI-supported applications and digital offerings that play an increasingly important role in the next generation of medical technology. These new applications will enhance the company's foundation in in-vitro diagnostic, image-guided therapy, and in-vivo diagnostics. Siemens Healthineers also provides a range of services and solutions to enhance healthcare providers' ability to provide high-quality, efficient care to patients. In fiscal 2019, which ended on September 30, 2019, Siemens Healthineers, which has approximately 52,000 employees worldwide, generated revenue of 14.5 billion and adjusted profit of 2.5 billion. Further information is available at www.siemens-healthineers.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005220/en/ Contacts: Contact for journalists In the United States: Kimberly Nissen, Siemens Healthineers Phone: +1 (610) 241-2129; Email: Kimberly.Nissen@Siemens-Healthineers.com Outside the United States: Thorsten Opderbeck, Siemens Healthineers Phone: +49 (173) 617-8107; Email: Thorsten.Opderbeck@siemens-healthineers.com Financial media: Philipp Grontzki Phone: +49 (152) 03350194; Email: philipp.grontzki@siemens-healthineers.com A popular trail to a waterfall in Altadena had to close over the weekend due to overwhelming Memorial Day crowds. Eaton Canyon, a favorite among day hikers in Los Angeles County, was overtaken by visitors failing to keep their physical distance from others and neglecting to wear masks. As a result, the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation shut the entire area on Sunday and Monday. "Although a County team of park staff, trail monitors and the Parks Sheriff Bureau were on site to patrol, monitor and reinforce the Los Angeles County COVID-19 Public Health requirements, many trail users did not comply with the guidance and directives being given by the County team to wear masks and maintain safe physical distancing," the department wrote in a statement. "Many visitors did not adhere to the safety directives given by park monitors and also entered the park and trail through unauthorized and/or temporarily closed trail access points. Given this behavior, the County had no choice but to close the trailhead and trail." Fifteen trail monitors, regular park staffers and some members of the sheriff's department were on hand Sunday to do crowd control, but their efforts weren't enough to keep the area from becoming unsafe. According to KABC, locals in the nearby residential neighborhood also expressed concerns about crowded streets; some told the local TV station that they had difficulty getting out of their driveways due the busy scene. "While we understand that trails are a beloved form of recreation that offers much-needed opportunities for exercise, respite, getting fresh air, and connecting with nature, the public did not follow the guidelines required, and it put themselves and staff at risk," the department said. MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE: Sign up for 'The Daily' newsletter for the latest on coronavirus here. The Spanish government has declared 10 days of mourning starting Wednesday for the nearly 27,000 people who have died with the novel coronavirus in Spain, the longest official mourning period in the country's 4-decade-old democracy. Flags will be hoisted to half-staff in more than 14,000 public buildings across the nation and on Spanish naval vessels until June 5, under the declaration made Tuesday. King Felipe VI, as Spain's head of state, will preside over a solemn memorial ceremony once the country emerges from the lockdown imposed 2 1/2 months ago, the government said. The dead are ``men and women whose lives have been suddenly cut short, leaving friends and family in great pain, both from the sudden loss and from the difficult circumstances in which it has occurred,'' government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said following the Cabinet meeting where the grieving period was approved. Opposition parties had criticized Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's left-wing coalition government for not paying tribute to the virus pandemic's victims as Spain's death toll - the world's fifth-highest after the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and France - became a point of political debate. Arguing that some unconfirmed virus cases had been erroneously counted, Spanish health authorities reduced the country's official mortality figure by 1,918. Montero said that 80% of Spain's virus-related deaths were people age 70 or older, ``those who helped build our country as we recognize it today, and ultimately laid the foundations of our democracy.`` ``They might not accompany us physically, but they will remain forever in our memory,'' she said. Flags at half-staff and other expressions of grief have become common around the world during the pandemic. In Italy, the military's aerobatic team honored the dead over the past few days, saluting cities such as Codogno, Milan and Turin with flybys. Nightly or weekly applause and singing to honor medical personnel working to save lives has been the most clear expression of collective unity amid personal losses and the isolation of lockdowns. No other country so far has announced an observance on the scale of Spain's 10-day mourning period, an event unprecedented since the country reinstated democratic rule in 1978. Three years earlier, when dictator Gen. Francisco Franco died, a 30-day mandatory mourning period was declared. Three days of mourning were observed in March 2004 for nearly 200 victims of Al-Qaeda-inspired attacks on Madrid commuter trains. COVID-19 deaths have become a touchy issue for Sanchez's government since it imposed a strict lockdown on March 14 with the aim of slowing the spread of the virus. In the ensuing 10 weeks, the death toll climbed from 120 to 26,800, and confirmed infections in Spain grew from 4,200 to over 230,000. Spanish politicians across the political spectrum, left and right, have raced to capitalize on the collective loss. National flags with a black-ribbon have appeared on the balconies of apartment buildings and in the hands of right-wing protesters, a symbol of the country's loss and of anger over the government's handling of the pandemic. Authorities in the hard-hit Madrid, a stronghold of the conservative opposition, put gigantic displays of black ribbons at some of the Spanish capital's main landmarks. As a permanent tribute to COVID-19 victims, local officials installed a cauldron with a gas-powered flame in front of City Hall. A plaque, surrounded by floral bouquets, reads, ``Your flame will never go out in our heart.'' In recent weeks, strict home-confinement orders and bans on public activity have eased across the country. ``They should have declared the mourning days ago,'' Madrid resident Conchita Hernandez, 77, said. Her husband, Agustin Alvarez, 77, compared the Spanish capital's nearly 9,000 virus-related deaths to the casualties during times of war. ``The mourning would have made more sense when we were all homebound, but I still think it makes a lot of sense,'' Alvarez said. Search Keywords: Short link: Allowing nothing to distract his attention, he stood tall and confident. For an hour on this Memorial Day afternoon, Fred Mossbrucker hardly moved. As American flags waved gently in the breeze, the 62-year-old retired teacher maintained his focus and purpose. Honoring the memory of two former student-athletes at Pitman High School killed serving their country, it was the least he could do. "Arthritis is arthritis, but the little bit of pain I felt is nothing compared to what those two young men felt," the Washington Township (Gloucester County) resident said. Mossbrucker is a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, an organization dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of veteran heroes who fought and worked to save the Union in the Civil War. With parades and ceremonies canceled Monday due to the coronavirus outbreak, the group conducted a Silent Sentinel Project. As part of the project, members were supposed to go to the grave of a solider killed in action and serve as an honor guard from 2-3 p.m. With hip replacement surgery scheduled for June 16, Mossbrucker was not able to leave his home to participate. "I talked to a buddy and he said why not just do it in the yard," said Mossbrucker, who retired as a special education teacher last year after nearly 30 years at Pitman. He also taught for eight years at Delsea after spending the first six months of his teaching career at Haddonfield Middle School. A teacher at Pitman High School for nearly 30 years, Fred Mossbrucker honored the memory of two former students on Monday - Sgt. Alessandro "Sandrino" Plutino and Cpl. Sean Kelly. Mossbrucker honored the memory of Sgt. Alessandro "Sandrino" Plutino and Cpl. Sean Kelly. A 2001 graduate, Plutino was just 28 when he died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his army unit using small arms fire in Afghanistan on Aug. 8, 2011. Kelly, a member of the Marine Corps, was a 2000 graduate. He died at 23 in a helicopter crash in Iraq on Jan. 26, 2005. Wearing part of his Civil War uniform, Mossbrucker stood between a pair of black chairs draped in black cloth symbolizing the soldier who would never come home. A photo of each serviceman was placed on the chairs. "I never served but always felt it was a citizen's duty to remember these people," Mossbrucker said. "This was the way I was brought up. My grandfather would take me to Memorial Day parades and services as a kid, family members talked about their service. "If I never served, the least I could do was remember those people who did and accord them the respect that they deserve." As cars passed his home, some people slowed and saluted. There were those who beeped their horns, while some took pictures or video. Mossbrucker plans to be in his front yard again Saturday to honor additional veterans in the same way he recognized his two former students. Decoration Day is May 30 - a day dedicated to honoring the memory of those soldiers who died in the Civil War. "I often felt that if we remembered the veterans of the past, the veterans of today will at least know they'll never be forgotten, and that's a big thing," Mossbrucker said. "It's a big thing for everyone in the service. To forget someone is just bad. (Abraham) Lincoln said it in the Gettysburg Address that we shouldnt forget these things, these people. Especially American soldiers. They fight for an ideal, stand for an ideal. Have you seen an inspiring story in your community during this troubling time? Tell us about it. See more uplifting stories in #TogetherNJ. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Kevin Minnick may be reached at kminnick@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. SANTIAGO, Chile, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LATAM Airlines Group S.A. ("LATAM") (NYSE: LTM; SP IPSA: LTM) and its affiliates in Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and the United States today initiated a voluntary reorganization and restructuring of their debt under Chapter 11 protection in the United States with the support of the Cueto and Amaro families and Qatar Airways, two of the largest shareholders of LATAM. In light of the effects of COVID-19 on the worldwide aviation industry, this reorganization process provides LATAM with an opportunity to work with the group's creditors and other stakeholders to reduce its debt, access new sources of financing and continue operating, while enabling the group to transform its business to this new reality. The Chapter 11 financial reorganization process is a proven legal framework under which LATAM and said affiliates will have the opportunity to resize their operations to the new demand environment and reorganize their balance sheets, enabling them to emerge more agile, resilient and sustainable. LATAM and its affiliates will continue flying as conditions permit throughout the process. "LATAM entered the COVID-19 pandemic as a healthy and profitable airline group, yet exceptional circumstances have led to a collapse in global demand and has not only brought aviation to a virtual standstill, but it has also changed the industry for the foreseeable future," said Roberto Alvo, Chief Executive Officer of LATAM. "We have implemented a series of difficult measures to mitigate the impact of this unprecedented industry disruption, but ultimately this path represents the best option to lay the right foundation for the future of our airline group. We are looking ahead to a post-COVID-19 future and are focused on transforming our group to adapt to a new and evolving way of flying, with the health and safety of our passengers and employees being paramount." The group has secured the financial support of shareholders, including the Cueto and Amaro families, which have lasting ties to LATAM, and Qatar Airways, to provide up to $900 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. These partners have a profound understanding of the industry, the group and its operational challenges. Their support demonstrates a belief in LATAM and its affiliates and their long-term sustainability. To the extent permitted by law, the group would welcome other shareholders interested in participating in this process to provide additional financing. In addition, as of the filing, the group had approximately USD$1.3 billion in cash on hand. LATAM and its affiliates are also in discussions with their respective governments of Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru to assist in sourcing additional financing, protect jobs where possible and minimize disruption to its operations. LATAM and its affiliates would like to thank its shareholders, employees, creditors and the communities it serves for their support to help secure the group's long-term future. The group is confident that this process will bring together these diverse stakeholders to build a new LATAM that is better placed to succeed for years to come. "Faced with the biggest crisis in the history of aviation, the Board has approved this path forward having analyzed all the available alternatives to ensure the sustainability of the group. As we have adapted to new realities in the past, we are confident that LATAM will be able to succeed in the post-COVID-19 context and continue to serve Latin America, connecting the region with the world," said Ignacio Cueto, Chairman of LATAM's Board of Directors. The group is continuing to adapt and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and is actively preparing to welcome customers back once travel prohibitions are lifted and demand increases, guaranteeing the highest safety standards for passengers and crew for which LATAM is highly recognized. Continuing to serve Latin America LATAM group is committed to preserving business continuity as it reorganizes especially with respect to employees, customers, suppliers, commercial partners and local communities. LATAM Airlines Group S.A. and its affiliates will continue to operate passenger and cargo flights, subject to demand and travel restrictions. All current and future tickets, travel vouchers and frequent flyer miles and benefits, as well as flexibility policies, will be honored. The group's employees will continue to be paid and receive benefits as provided in their employment agreements. Suppliers will be paid in a timely fashion for goods and services delivered from May 26, 2020 forward and throughout this process. forward and throughout this process. Travel agencies and other commercial partners will experience no disruption in their interactions with the LATAM group. The right option to strengthen the group The LATAM group has shared its journey with the people of Latin America, thriving in times of growth and pulling together to overcome times of adversity, and like many, LATAM and its affiliates began 2020 with hopes of progress that COVID-19 has brought to a virtual standstill. In 2019, the group launched 26 new routes and transported a record 74 million passengers, 5.4 million more than in 2018. The group's plans for 2020 included further enhancing its passenger experience through cabin transformations and strengthening its strategic partnerships to further connect Latin America with the world. While the group will change through the Chapter 11 process, its culture, commitment to customers, shared history and Latin American identity will not. After careful consideration, LATAM is confident that the Chapter 11 reorganization process is the best path forward to achieve the group's objectives and meet its obligations while comprehensively managing its fleet and addressing its debts, most of which are held in the United States. Importantly, this process is markedly different from the concept of "quiebra", "bancarrota", or liquidation. LATAM intends to rely on specific relief that will allow it to pay its employees, meet benefit obligations, pay critical suppliers and conduct other day-to-day business operations as the group works with the court and creditors to resolve its case. With Chapter 11 protection, the group's management team will remain in place and will continue to lead LATAM through the reorganization and transformation process. These unique provisions of the Chapter 11 reorganization process will enable the group to minimize disruptions to the business and protect the interests of stakeholders while it restructures its balance sheet to emerge as a more agile, resilient and sustainable airline group. While most of LATAM's affiliates are included in the reorganization process, several entities are not, due to the nature of their debt structure and current financial status. A full list of filing entities is available at cases.primeclerk.com/LATAM. The list below summarizes the inclusion of these entities in the Chapter 11 financial reorganization and other proceedings. Material filing entities: Chile : LATAM Airlines Group S.A . and certain other entities incorporated in Chile are included in the Chapter 11 filing and will also file recognition proceedings in Chilean Courts in order to ensure that the Chapter 11 process is given full credit and effect, providing even greater protection to LATAM's businesses. LATAM Airlines Group S.A and certain other entities incorporated in are included in the Chapter 11 filing and will also file recognition proceedings in Chilean Courts in order to ensure that the Chapter 11 process is given full credit and effect, providing even greater protection to LATAM's businesses. Colombia : LATAM Airlines Colombia and other entities incorporated in Colombia are included in the Chapter 11 filing and will also file recognition proceedings in the Superintendencia de Sociedades in order to ensure that the Chapter 11 process is given full credit and effect, providing even greater protection to LATAM's businesses. LATAM Airlines Colombia and other entities incorporated in are included in the Chapter 11 filing and will also file recognition proceedings in the in order to ensure that the Chapter 11 process is given full credit and effect, providing even greater protection to LATAM's businesses. Peru : LATAM Airlines Peru and other entities incorporated in Peru are included in the Chapter 11 filing and are also filing a "Preventative Reorganization Process" with INDECOPI in order to ensure to these businesses are further protected from adverse actions of creditors. LATAM Airlines Peru and other entities incorporated in are included in the Chapter 11 filing and are also filing a "Preventative Reorganization Process" with INDECOPI in order to ensure to these businesses are further protected from adverse actions of creditors. Ecuador : LATAM Airlines Ecuador is included in the Chapter 11 filing. LATAM Airlines Ecuador is included in the Chapter 11 filing. United States : All of the group's operating entities, other than special purpose vehicles, in the United States are included in the Chapter 11 filing. Non-filing entities Argentina , Brazil and Paraguay : LATAM's affiliates in Argentina , Brazil and Paraguay are not included in the Chapter 11 filing. LATAM's affiliates in Brazil are in discussions with the Brazilian government about the next steps and financial support for their Brazilian operations. Importantly, whether included in the filing or not, all of the companies in the group will continue to operate as travel restrictions and demand permit. Additional Information LATAM Airlines Group and its affiliates understand that their employees around the world, their families, their suppliers and customers will have many questions. While LATAM may not have all the answers at this point, the group will be guided by transparency in all its interactions. The group has created a dedicated website: www.LATAMreorganizacion.com, where stakeholders can find additional key information about what this announcement means for them. LATAM has also established a hotline for Chapter 11-related inquiries, which can be accessed at (929) 955-3449 or (877) 606-3609 in the U.S. and Canada. International toll-free numbers will be available on www.LATAMreorganizacion.com in the coming days. It also has a dedicated email for inquiries related to the reorganization at [email protected] . LATAM is advised in this process by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Claro & Cia. as legal advisors, FTI Consulting as financial advisor and PJT Partners as investment banker. Forward Looking Statements This report contains forward-looking statements. Such statements may include words such as "may" "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "project," "believe" or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations. These statements are based on LATAM's current plans, estimates and projections and, therefore, you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve inherent known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of LATAM's control and difficult to predict. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. These factors and uncertainties include in particular those described in the documents we have filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly any of them, whether in light of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE LATAM Airlines Group S.A. Gettyimagesbank South Korea on Tuesday reported two suspected cases of an unknown inflammatory syndrome in children possibly linked to the new coronavirus for the first time. The two cases one under the age of 10 and one teenager were reported in Seoul for the disease whose symptoms are similar to the rare illness Kawasaki, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). The KCDC said the two children did not test positive for COVID-19. "One of the two suspected cases currently do not fit the definition of the disease," KCDC's Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing. "However, we are looking into both reported cases." The disease, named Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), first emerged in Europe in April. Hundreds of children in a total of 13 countries have since been treated in hospitals, with some cases leading to death. The symptoms of MIS-C include inflammation of the blood vessels, swollen hands and feet, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea, which are similar to those of the Kawasaki disease, a rare illness that occurs in 1 in 10,000 children under the age of 5. There is no currently no proof that MIS-SC is linked to COVID-19, with the exact cause remaining unidentified, according to the KCDC. The disease remains exceedingly rare. The KCDC published a case definition for the disease. Children and adolescents under 19 show symptoms of a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or above lasting 24 hours or longer, with inflammation and multisystem (two or more) organ involvement in severe clinical condition requiring hospitalization. No other pathogenic cause of inflammation should be found, and evidence of COVID-19 infection, or history of COVID-19 exposure within four weeks prior to the onset of illness, should be found, according to the KCDC. The cases come just a day after the KCDC established a system to detect and analyze MIS-C. Doctors are advised to report to health authorities if they identify patients showing such symptoms. (Yonhap) I was seized with delight when I discovered recently that chef Justin Yu was doing a curbside Yustons menu based on favorites from the classic Americana of the Houstons chain for pickup at his Warehouse District flagship, Theodore Rex. The punning, the presence of a Franch Dip among the offerings at one of the citys temples of gastronomy, the enticement of half bottles of champagne, a Houstons signature: They all spelled fun to me at a time when fun is in short supply. Yus longtime devotion to Houstons was one of the factors that prompted me to dine at the Kirby location last year after decades of ignoring it. Hed post about his visits on social media, and Id hear a friend or two declaring their love for the place, and finally my curiosity kicked in. To my surprise, I really liked it. I went back later on my own dime, and I was sorry (and a bit puzzled) when the original Westheimer location, where Yu enjoyed dining as a teenager, closed last fall. The Kirby location was usually so packed there was a throng waiting to be seated. More Information Theodore Rex 1302 Nance, 832-830-8592; trexhouston.com Current hours for curbside 5-9 p.m. Thursdays-Mondays See More Collapse The idea of sampling Yus ingredient-conscious version of the restaurants justly celebrated French dip sandwich, the crowd-pleasing spinach and artichoke dip, the kale! freaking! salad! amused me greatly. Im pretty sure it amused chef Yu as well. His sardonic sense of humor has always leavened the basic seriousness with which this James Beard Best Chef Southwest winner approaches his craft, and here it had room to play. I logged into Theodore Rexs online ordering system, created an account with a credit card and filled up my cart with a festive Sunday supper, adding the 25 percent tip that I leave as a matter of course these days. At the appointed time (well, actually, a little late), I pulled up in front of the restaurant and was greeted, after a minute, by a masked and gloved staffer who handed my two small shopping bagfuls of food and my split of Brut Rose through the passenger-side window. All contactless and easy as pie. Back home, I poured myself a glass of well-chilled champagne and unboxed my loot. Tiny loops of masking tape held small containers of sauce to their appropriate dishes the regulation salsa and sour cream sat firmly on top of the carton of kale-and-Jerusalem artichoke dip, to my amusement. And, glory be, horseradish sauce clung to the box in which my Franch Dip resided, along with a portion of mushroom jus, Yus change-up for the beef jus that makes the Houstons sandwich what it is. Noting the T Rex Yustons menu description for the Franch Dip, which mentioned aioli and persillade, I had resigned myself to Absence of Horseradish, an element that, to me, makes the original dish. But there it was, sharp and tingly as you please, although in the rich, herbal context of the roast beefs aioli treatment, I suppose one could protest another creamy sauce was too, too much. I didnt. I savored its snap and slide against the satiny, salt-rimmed slices of rare prime rib. The sandwich was richer and more complex than the Houstons original, but it offered all the originals primal satisfactions. To be honest, I never even felt I needed the clear brown mushroom jus, as nice as it was. And I loved the fact that the $20 price, with one side, was the same as the price at Houstons. I kind of wallowed in the salt-baked potato, another of Houstons great classics, here spread out wide and squiggled with just the right amounts of cheese and sour cream and butter and green onion. It was perfect. So was the Geoffroy Brut Rose de Saignee I had chosen, with its strawberry tint and staircases of tiny bubbles. I felt as if I had thrown myself a party. Later, I discovered the springy kale salad with its honey mustard dressing and rye croutons was too sweet for me. (Sos the Emerald Kale salad at Houstons.) But a couple of days later a friend told me she orders two of them at a time, so there you go. I had to try Yus kale-and-Jerusalem artichoke dip, of course, even though Im not the biggest fan of the Houstons spinach-and-artichoke original. It confounded me. I admired the big, nutty bloom of the Comte cheese that bound the kale and artichokes together, but the chewy kale kept biting back at me. That quality challenged the whole notion of dip as a voluptuous ooze into which ones palate sinks, as into a giant featherbed. This dip fought back. And to add to that attitude, a helpful menu note added that Jerusalem artichokes give some people gnarly gas. OK, then. Yus unorthodox kale dip was fun to eat, in a weird way. I even put the remainder in an omelet the next day, with which I enjoyed the last glass from my champagne split. My midnight snack? The warmly spiced, tart-and-sweet, crumb rubble of brandied apple cobbler that came on like sophisticated baby food, more apple than cobbler. Strangely great. Altogether I made three meals and some snacks out of my haul, for a grand total of $111.51, which included the $55 splurge of the champagne split. Plus a generous tip, which I urge you to add to your curbside orders. Im thinking of going back for the Yustons pan-roasted Scottish salmon with rice and butterbeans and Sauce Louisiane. My kale-salad-loving friends swear by the tempura chicken tenders with honey mustard. Im curious about Yus Japanese beef and noodle salad, too, a changeup to the Thai-style original. Yuzu kosho aioli and toasted seaweed, apple and peanuts and basil? Yes, please. That dish, and the whole Yustons tribute menu, sums up a hidden benefit of this pandemic. Chefs and restaurant operators now have the latitude even the necessity to do things differently, to experiment with ideas they might not have felt free to act on before. Consider it a tiny point of light in a dark time. alison.cook@chron.com twitter.com/alisoncook Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 17:54:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Residents sign in a street campaign in support of national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Hong Kong, south China, May 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Gang) No country would allow the same kind of riots and lawlessness in Hong Kong to occur in their own territory. Neither will China. HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Once again a scene of indefensible, horrific violence has unfolded on the streets of Hong Kong in broad daylight. The innocent victim this time was a young woman who, after being brutally knocked down, was dragged along the ground and viciously punched and kicked by a group of black-clad men and women wearing face masks. She was barbarically beaten by the so-called "freedom fighters" because she was trying to clear the barricades blocking the road to let the cars get through, video footage that emerged online showed. On the same day, a 41-year-old man, identified afterward as a lawyer, was assaulted and chased down the street by a mob for complaining about their unlawful behavior. While he was being savagely beaten up, a group of rioters opened umbrellas to cover the gruesome assault. The violent acts, abhorrent in any civil society, happened on Sunday in Hong Kong after China's top legislature announced a draft decision to introduce national security legislation for the city. Masked radicals flocked to the streets on Hong Kong Island, blocking roads, dismantling railings, trashing shops and setting fires. Not surprisingly, none of those atrocities and law-breaking activities caught the attention of politicians in Washington, whose sole interest lies in blaming, attacking and smearing China. In one of the most shocking remarks made by a U.S. politician, congressman Scott Perry introduced a so-called "Hong Kong Freedom Act," which, he explained, "authorizes the President of the United States to recognize Hong Kong as a separate, independent country." Absurd and ignorant as the remarks are, such reactions of Perry and the like, undoubtedly, further embolden the rioters and their hidden handlers in Hong Kong. The collusion between the two sides, ironically, perfectly highlights why China indeed needs the national security legislation in Hong Kong. Residents attend a street campaign in support of national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Hong Kong, south China, May 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Gang) Under the "one country, two systems," Hong Kong, as a special administrative region of China, has a high degree of autonomy and retains its own capitalist system and lifestyle. However, first and foremost, Hong Kong is part of China and is under the overall jurisdiction of the Chinese central government. Every country has a right and a duty to protect its national security. To suggest that China does not have the same right to legislate to protect national security in Hong Kong shows a double standard and hypocrisy. The absence of national security law in Hong Kong has long been taken advantage of by local and foreign anti-China forces. Activities jeopardizing national security have become increasingly rampant in Hong Kong. During months of social unrest last year, rioters besieged government and legislative buildings, trashed metro stations, banks and stores and assaulted innocent residents, plunging Hong Kong into chaos and deep economic recession. Those who claim to be acting in Hong Kong's best interests turn a blind eye to the violence and its traumatic consequences and focus purely on hyping up anti-China sentiments and stoking fear and chaos in Hong Kong. By doing so, their true, deceitful intentions are exposed. No country would allow the same kind of riots and lawlessness in Hong Kong to occur in their own territory. Neither will China. The legislation in the pipeline is aimed at rescuing Hong Kong from being ruined, ensuring the "one country, two systems" stays on track and guaranteeing a stable future for Hong Kong. Those who truly value and cherish the Pearl of the Orient should rest assured that the legislation will better protect and secure the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Hong Kong residents. Only those who attempt to use Hong Kong as a political pawn for their own political or economic gains should feel uneasy. The Chinese government is rock-firm in protecting national sovereignty, security and its development interests. Anyone trying to use Hong Kong as a bargaining chip to contain China, split the country, or subvert state power, is either ignorant or self-deceiving. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:32:37|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TUNIS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Minister of Health Abdellatif Mekki called on Tuesday to accelerate the reform of the national health system and improve the medical services offered to citizens. Speaking at a ceremony held at the headquarters of the ministry on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, Mekki called in particular to further develop the health sector to face all emergencies amid the coronavirus crisis. The minister praised the positive results of the national strategy to control the spread of the coronavirus, highlighting the efforts made by all health professionals in the public and private sectors. According to the latest report released by the health ministry on Monday night, Tunisia reported no new COVID-19 cases. The total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country remained at 1,051. "A total of 919 patients have recovered in Tunisia while 48 deaths were reported in 14 provinces," the ministry said. Enditem For voters, six-foot distancing will be marked with tape on the ground while they wait in line. Finger cots will be available to voters if they would like to cover their finger when they use the voting machines, Angerman said. #PeruEstaEnNuestrasManos El presidente @MartinVizcarraC, junto a la presidenta ejecutiva de EsSalud, Fiorella Molinelli, recorrio el Centro de Aislamiento del hospital Octavio Mongrut, donde se ha ampliado la oferta hospitalaria a 836 camas para atender a pacientes con COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/Rd3WFMCqTi A Warao family from Venezuela pictured at a shelter in Manaus, Brazil, where they had been relocated amid the COVID-19 pandemic. UNHCR/Felipe Irnaldo Brussels, May 26, 2020 UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) welcome the commitments made by donors today, amounting to US$2.79 billion, including US$653 million in grants, during the International Donors Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Conference, convened by the European Union (EU) and Spain, with the support of Canada, Norway, UNHCR and IOM, aimed to mobilize support for one of the largest external displacement crises in the world which is now exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Donors at the conference confirmed funding to support refugees, migrants and host communities in countries across the region where Venezuelans have found safety, healthcare and jobs. These contributions will make a real difference to the lives of refugees and migrants from Venezuela, who have been extremely hard-hit by the pandemic, said UNHCR-IOM Joint Special Representative, Eduardo Stein. Countries in the region have responded to this unprecedented displacement with remarkable solidarity and hospitality, while facing significant challenges to their own economies and the social fabric of their societies. In the coming months, it will be crucial to maintain the leadership and commitment shown today in support of refugees, migrants and their hosts. To date, more than five million refugees and migrants from Venezuela have sought safety and protection across the world. The vast majority, around 80 per cent, are hosted across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have now wreaked havoc on their lives and that of their hosts. Venezuelan refugees and migrants now face a myriad of challenges, including the loss of daily incomes and livelihoods to cover basic needs such as shelter, food and health care. Many are also at risk of being exposed to gender-based violence, stigmatization, exploitation and abuse. Amid the current global health emergency, many refugees and migrants from Venezuela are at risk of being left out of health and social welfare programs, especially those in an irregular situation, said Stein. The commitments made today to support humanitarian efforts offer a ray of hope to many families who have lost everything they had. We thank Spain and the EU for their leadership in this process and now welcome Canadas commitment today to move this forward. Todays pledging conference follows the commitment made during a solidarity conference in Brussels in October to mobilize additional humanitarian funding for refugees and migrants from Venezuela and their host communities as well as financial support for their socio-economic integration in receiving countries. Earlier this month, humanitarian organizations that comprise the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform (R4V) response - across 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, revised the Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP). The Plan, which was initially launched in November last year, supports the efforts made by governments in the region to address the most pressing needs of refugees and migrants from Venezuela as well as ensure their integration and inclusion in national systems. The requirements of the RMRP amount to USD 1.41 billion, around one third of which are for COVID-19-specific activities. Critically underfunded, only 10 per cent (US$142 million) of the Plans funding requirements had been met prior to the conference. More information on the International Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean can be found here. An interagency media package with photos and videos can be found here. For more information, please contact: In Panama: In Brussels: Maeve Patterson, UNHCR ( [email protected] ) +32 470 99 54 35 ) +32 470 99 54 35 Ryan Schroeder, IOM ( [email protected] ) +32 (0) 492 25 02 34 In Geneva: Haiti - Justice : The National Association of Magistrates denounces the lack of sense of Presidential Decree Judge Jean Wilner Morin, President of the National Association of Haitian Magistrates (ANAMAH) in an open letter addressed to the President, Vice-president and Members of the Superior Council of the Judicial Power (CSPJ) denounces the decree of May 20 last hhttps://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30843-haiti-flash-presidential-decree-setting-the-general-rules-for-protecting-the-population-from-covid-19.html setting the general rules of protection against Covid-19, while claiming to be willing to join, in good faith, reasonable initiatives which tend to reverse this disease, stressing that in such circumstances "reason and common sense must in no way give way to panic." He deplores "[...] the presidential decree fixing the general rules of protection against Covid-19 testifies to the state of mind of a legislator who, failing to lack common sense, lets glimpse a proven ignorance of reality the functioning of local courts on the one hand, on the other hand, the adequacy relationship which must always and necessary exist between the law and social facts, on the other hand [...]" Taking as an example a simple police court, he explains in his correspondence "[...] a simple police court is made up of at least one judge, a registrar, two public defenders, at least one agent ensuring security inside the courtroom, by joining the defendant(s) without omitting the public nature of hearings of this nature (which are of public order). It is a safe bet that such meetings cannot meet the requirements of Article 6 without being themselves struck down by illegality and therefore contrary to the provisions of the same article. An example, if not the least, but that on which rests the whole basis of the mechanics of sanctions applicable to offenders : Article 6. which elevates to the rank of offense any meeting of more than five people in an open or closed environment (the criminal law being strictly interpreted). When you know that a simple police court is made up of at least one judge, a clerk, two public defenders, at least one agent ensuring security inside the courtroom , by joining the accused (s) without omitting the public nature of hearings of this nature (which are of public order). It is a safe bet that such meetings cannot meet the requirements of Article 6 without being themselves struck by illegality and therefore contrary to the provisions of the same article." Judge Morin while stressing that "[...] several other provisions of the said decree deconstruct the legal and sociological reality of the functioning of the Courts of ordinary police and are likely to expose the Magistrates of Peace to the lynchings in good standing of politicians in search of authority." He asked the CSPJ to see with the author of this decree "its difficulties in applying in peace of mind in the current state." See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30843-haiti-flash-presidential-decree-setting-the-general-rules-for-protecting-the-population-from-covid-19.html SL/ HaitiLibre Sudan opens path toward religious freedom Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In what appears to be a promising positive change, Sudans transitional government and a rebel group that fought against the Muslim-majority countrys longtime authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted last year, have agreed to form an independent national commission for religious freedom. As part of the latest round of negotiations between Sudans transitional government and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-North (Agar) under the Juba Peace Process, an agreement was reached to establish a commission for religious freedom to address all issues relating to religious freedom in order to affirm the principle of peaceful coexistence in the country, the Transitional Sovereign Council said on its Facebook page. The SPLM-N armed group is based in Sudans predominantly Christian South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which fought against al-Bashir. Today we have agreed to establish the religious freedom commission because the Two Areas have a considerable number of Sudanese Christians, so this is an important issue that has been resolved, the armed groups Deputy Leader and chief negotiator Yasir Arman was quoted as saying by the U.K.-based group Christianity Solidarity Worldwide. The two parties have also agreed to create a Ministry for Peace and Human Rights. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has acknowledged improvements in the countrys religious and political atmosphere. After a visit to that country in February, the commissions chair, Tony Perkins, expressed optimism. We are grateful to Prime Minister Hamdok and other members of the countrys bold transitional leadership who met with USCIRF to convey their explicit desire to bring a new era of openness and inclusivity to their country that suffered for 30 years under brutal and autocratic religious repression, he said, according to Crux. At the same time, we understand that the countrys challenges are deeply-rooted, and we urge the leadership to move quickly to turn that optimism into tangible and meaningful reforms for all people across Sudan, such as acting to formally repeal Article 126 of the 1991 penal code, which outlaws apostasy, he added. Since 2010 and the separation of South Sudan, the persecution of Christians had intensified with church land being confiscated by the state, church leaders facing trial for national security crimes and latterly misdemeanors, CSWs Kiri Kankhwende was quoted as saying. General harassment of the Christian community, human rights defenders working on FoRB by the intelligence service; harassment of women and interference with the administration of churches and confiscation of private land owned by Christian businessmen. Nasreldin Mofreh, Sudans Minister of Religious Affairs, signed an order in March requiring the dissolution of church councils that international advocates said legitimized the former governments confiscation of church properties. We are pleased by the ministers decree, given the role these illegitimate church councils played in the former regimes persecution of Christians and the obstacles they continued to present to churches ability to represent their own interests to the government, Perkins said in a statement. Prime Minister Hamdok and other transitional government officials met with USCIRF in Washington, D.C., during a visit last December the first time in three decades that Sudanese leaders had visited Washington, D.C. The officials also shared at the time how they planned to expand religious freedom in a country that is ranked as the seventh-worst in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs World Watch List. Last month, Sudan's new leaders also outlawed the practice of female genital mutilation, The New York Times reported. Nearly 90% of Sudanese women have been subjected to the practice, which involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia. Norway's Equinor ASA, Brazil's Dommo Energia SA and Anglo-French firm Perenco are among at least six oil producers that have registered coronavirus cases among employees or contractors at facilities off the coast of Brazil, according to industry and regulatory sources. Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Brazil's Enauta Participacoes SA have registered one case each. Hundreds of cases have been recorded at oilfields operated by state-run Petrobras. The infections illustrate the threat the virus poses to workers toiling in cramped quarters miles offshore. They also have raised questions about the effectiveness of extensive testing efforts to contain the pandemic's spread on platforms. Alongside industries like mining and meatpacking, oil production has come under scrutiny during the pandemic as employees are forced to work, sleep and eat in confined areas. That is particularly true on offshore oil rigs, service vessels and so-called "floatels," where a single infection can multiply quickly. In most other nations, outbreaks have been contained to a handful of rigs. US industry group National Ocean Industries Association said it had registered just 99 cases of coronavirus among offshore workers in the United States, according to data shared with Reuters last week. In Brazil, which last week became the country with the second highest number of coronavirus cases after the United States, that number is significantly higher. Oil regulator ANP had registered 544 active coronavirus cases as of Thursday among workers who had accessed offshore facilities. That figure does not include workers who have recovered and the total number of infections remains a mystery. Equinor has registered approximately 60 cases as of last week, largely at its Peregrino field, according to a source with direct knowledge of data collected by regulators and a source with knowledge of the company's operations. Perenco has registered approximately 40 at its Pargo field, according to the government source and a separate source with knowledge of the firm's operations. Dommo registered roughly 50 cases at a well at its Tubarao Martelo field, said two regulatory sources. The well has been paralyzed since early May, they added. Asked about the issue, Shell and Enauta told Reuters they have each registered one case. In a statement provided to Reuters, Equinor acknowledged that it had registered cases but did not provide details of how many. Perenco declined to confirm or deny that any employee had been infected by the virus. All four companies emphasized their commitment to protecting workers. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, has registered well over 300 cases among offshore workers, including contractors, the government source said. The company has acknowledged infections, and said that as of Saturday it had 181 active cases among all of its 46,416 total employees, but that number does not include contractors or employees who have recovered. The company said it has adopted several safety measures such as large-scale testing, and that the number of cases has stabilized in recent days. It said it had carried out over 15,000 tests as of Tuesday. Representatives for Dommo did not respond to multiple e-mails, social media messages or phone calls. All Measures Taken Many oil firms are ramping up universal testing and mandating long quarantine periods among workers before they go on board platforms and sterilizing platforms. Yet that has not been enough to contain all offshore outbreaks. The infections at Equinor's sprawling Peregrino field, its largest international production asset, spread through workers doing construction work at a new oil platform and the outbreak occurred in multiple waves, the two sources said. At times, efforts to contain the virus have led Equinor to suspend some construction operations, they said. The company told Reuters that workers were infected "despite all the preventative and proactive measures" taken. Shell said its one employee tested positive for the virus upon disembarking from a vessel hired by the company and was in quarantine. No other workers appeared to have been infected, it said. Enauta said one of its contractors had contracted the virus and has since recovered. Petrobras has been unable to provide universal testing for workers and contractors before going on board platforms, upsetting unions. According to the government source and a fourth source with knowledge of Petrobras operations, testing has rolled out at different paces in different regions of Brazil, partially impeded by difficulties finding labs willing and able to process the results. A Petrobras spokeswoman told Reuters the company has been ramping up its testing capacity as market availability allows, and now tests all workers before they embark except in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. The case of a transgender Virginia high school student who sued for the right to use the girls bathroom returns to court on Tuesday. The high-profile case, which has garnered national attention and been closely watched by transgender rights proponents, began in 2015 when Gavin Grimm sued the Gloucester County School Board over its policy preventing transgender students from using the bathroom of their preferred gender at Gloucester High. Grimms American Civil Liberties Union legal team argued that the school boards policy is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to privacy, and violates Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. The Supreme Court was originally scheduled to take up the case in March, 2017, but the hearing was canceled when the Trump administration scrapped an Obama administration rule requiring schools to allow students to use the bathroom of their preferred gender. A federal district court ruled in Grimms favor in August of last year, saying the school boards policy amounts to discrimination based on sex. The perpetuation of harm to a child stemming from unconstitutional conduct cannot be allowed to stand, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen wrote. The school board afterwards appealed Allens decision at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals will review the appeal on Tuesday remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. The school board implemented the policy requiring students to use the bathroom corresponding with their birth sex in December, 2014 in response to complaints by parents of fellow students about Grimms use of the boys bathroom. The boards legal team said that the policy is intended to protect other students privacy and argued that Grimms complaints no longer apply since the California college student has already graduated and no longer attends the high school. Grimm, 21, who was born female but began transitioning to male after freshman year, graduated high school three years ago and says the school continues to refuse to provide a transcript with the new male sex designation on Grimms birth certificate. Grimm has a legally changed name and has undergone hormone therapy as well. More from National Review The government will carry out support measures to shore up demand in the travel and restaurant industries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, starting late July, sources said Monday. In what has been dubbed the aGo To campaign,a the government will compile a series of support measures, including the issuance of coupons. In its revised basic policy on response to the coronavirus crisis, the government will include plans to ease restrictions on outings in stages by the end of July. The government booked some A1.7 trillion to finance the measures under its first supplementary budget for fiscal 2020. Under the campaign, when a travel product is purchased through a travel agency, a discount coupon worth 50 percent of the product price will be offered, the sources said. On May 22, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged William Sadleir, the owner of a film distribution company, with defrauding a publicly traded fund of at least $13.8 million. The SEC's complaint alleges that BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT), a registered closed-end management investment company, invested approximately $75 million in Aviron Group LLC, a film distribution company founded, owned, and operated by Sadleir. The complaint alleges that Sadleir represented that the investments would be used to support the company's distribution of films. Contrary to these representations, Sadleir allegedly used a sham company as a vehicle to fraudulently divert and misappropriate BIT funds and issued fake invoices seeking BIT funds for services that were never provided. Sadleir allegedly used the funds to pay personal expenses, including his purchase, furnishing, and renovation of a Beverly Hills mansion. The SEC's complaint charges Sadleir with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest, civil penalties, and injunctive relief. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed criminal charges against Sadleir. The SEC's investigation, which is continuing, is being conducted by Salvatore Massa, Vincent T. Hull, and Brian Fitzpatrick of the Asset Management Unit, and Dugan Bliss and Kerri L. Palen of the New York Regional Office. The case was supervised by Andrew Dean of the Asset Management Unit. The SEC's litigation will be led by Mr. Bliss and Mr. Massa. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Tommy would call me up a couple of times a year and share some bit of Tommiana. Those were fun conversations. Hed always say he was calling from Hollywood, though apparently he wasnt. He was calling from Bethesda, site of his most famous creation: the Yacht Club, a singles event held in a landlocked Holiday Inn on Wisconsin Avenue. WASHINGTON Three small postsecondary programs at Connecticut technical high schools are slated to receive more coronavirus relief per student than the University of Connecticut or numerous private colleges, thanks to an unexpected distribution formula used by the U.S. Department of Education. Goodwin Technical High School in New Britain, Cheney Technical High School in Manchester and Platt Technical High School in Milford are each eligible for $500,000 for their higher education programs under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act. Goodwin and Cheney have about 60 students enrolled in those programs; Platt has about 37. For Platt, that means $13,513 per pupil. In contrast, the University of Connecticut, which educates over 32,000 students, will receive $21.5 million in relief. Thats $665 per pupil. The striking disparity in aid is a result of how the DOE distributed a portion of the $14 billion in higher education relief that Congress approved to help schools struggling to support their students and institutions during the pandemic. The legislation was written in a hurry, and the department has moved fast to get money out the door as quickly as possible. But the inconsistent distribution has created a scenario where some small schools say they will eventually return funds to the DOE, while larger colleges and universities are desperate for more relief. While most of the money was distributed via a formula that accounted for a schools size and population of low-income students, about $350 million was earmarked for hundreds of the smallest schools in America so that every not-for-profit higher education institution that teaches students in person received at least $500,000 in coronavirus aid. In order to receive this funding, an institution will need to request it, a DOE spokesman said. Once the requests are processed, the remaining money will be distributed through a competitive grant process. Ben Miller, vice president of postsecondary education at the think tank Center for American Progress, said thats not how Congress planned for this $350 million to be used. He called it a complete screw-up. It was supposed to go to places that demonstrated a lot of need and within that, they were supposed to give priority to smaller colleges, said Miller. The department just basically blew past any of the requirements around demonstrating need. Jason Delisle, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the bill was written to suggest $500,000 was a mandatory minimum for college aid, while allowing DOE some discretion. DOE took a pass on using discretion, he said. Doing something else, while obviously it would prevent extreme cases like youre talking about, would take a lot of time, said Delisle. This has to fall on Congress they could have written a formula spelling out how they wanted the money allocated. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the committee that writes the DOE budget, urged Education Sec. Betsy Devos to reverse this distribution. This decision is unacceptable and will be detrimental to students at institutions significantly impacted by COVID-19, many of which are in desperate need of relief, she wrote to Devos. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who sits on the Senate committee overseeing education, said he wanted Devos to testify before Congress immediately to explain her methods. Congressional oversight is more important than ever in making sure the money we appropriate gets to those who need it most, Murphy said. With so many Connecticut colleges and students suffering from closures related to COVID-19, I am troubled that Secretary DeVos seemed to have prioritized funding for schools that didnt necessarily need it. But Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who chairs the Senate committee on education, countered that Devos is doing a good job implementing the law the way Congress wrote it. Where Congress gave the secretary discretion, or minimal direction, she is taking reasonable steps to implement the law fairly, effectively and efficiently, Alexander said. As a result of the DOEs choice, five of the smallest postsecondary schools or programs in Connecticut could receive $500,000 in aid. In addition to the three technical high school programs, Holy Apostle College and Seminary in Cromwell, which has about 650 enrolled, and Hartford Seminary, which has 170 students, are each eligible. Notice of this funding was unexpected, and the grant has not yet been received, said Susan Schoenberger, director of communications at Hartford Seminary. Our plan is to ensure that every dollar goes toward student aid and student programs during this difficult moment, allowing our diverse students to continue in their interreligious peace studies, chaplaincy degrees, and leadership training, preparing them to serve in our countrys hospitals, prisons, military, schools, and nonprofits. If the amount given exceeds what is needed, it will be returned. In contrast, larger colleges and universities said the aid that they are receiving from DOE hardly makes a dent in their forecast losses. UConn refunded $30 million in housing, parking and dining fees to students this semester, said Stephanie Reitz, spokesperson for the university. For next fall, we estimate a loss anywhere between $29 million in the best-case scenario (that takes into account the likelihood of the loss of at least some of our international student population) to a worst-case scenario (if we remain fully online) with about a $121.6 million loss, if a large segment of our current international and out-of-state students do not return and many others decline to enroll as new students, Reitz said. Wesleyan University, which has about 3,240 students will receive $2.3 million from the CARES Act, or roughly $697 per pupil. The school is forecasting $11 million in losses this semester, said Lauren Rubenstein, director of media relations for the university. The University of Bridgeport, which has 4,615 students, will receive $3.4 million from the CARES Act, or roughly $744 per pupil. Though the university is appreciative of the funding, the allocated amount falls short of defraying the substantial losses and the unplanned costs associated with the coronavirus pandemic, said Tarek Sobh, interim provost of the University of Bridgeport. About half of the coronavirus relief that larger colleges and universities receive must be spent on emergency grants to low-income students with demonstrated coronavirus needs. Only students eligible for federal student aid programs can apply, excluding international and undocumented students. UConn has given grants to more than 12,200 students at all levels, with the average being about $830 each, Reitz said. The university is about to start a second round of grants to help students cover the cost of food, housing, health care, child care and more. Wesleyan awarded cash grants ranging from $650 to $1,300 to 1,200 students this week using CARES Act funding. The university paid for grants for 120 additional students, Rubenstein said. After distributing those students grants, the schools can then access the second half of their funds institutional relief that can be used to defray expenses and lost revenues. Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, said this process has proven difficult and complicated for many schools. In general, Connecticuts private, nonprofit colleges have found the process of accessing and determining the appropriate use of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds authorized by the CARES ACT to be challenging given the complicated guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education over the last few weeks, Widness said. Some wealthy private schools with large endowments, like Harvard and Stanford universities, have rejected the federal funding allocated for them, following pressure. Yale University announced in April it would decline the funding so the funding can go to other schools whose continued existence is threatened by the current crisis, Yale officials said. Debate over further coronavirus relief legislation has stalled in Congress as Senate Republicans urge a pause as funds from earlier legislation continue to be distributed. House Democrats proposed another $37 billion for higher education in the Heroes Act passed May 15. Thats far short of the $46.6 billion the American Council on Education and 40 other higher education organizations requested from Congress. emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson A Canadian politician has called it a great time to build oil pipelines because coronavirus lockdowns are preventing large protests. Albertas energy minister Sonya Savage made the remarks during a podcast on Friday with the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors. During the discussion, she was asked about the ongoing Trans Mountain Expansion project, which runs from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia. The pipeline is opposed by indigenous communities and environmentalists. Ms Savage said: Now is a great time to be building a pipeline because you cant have protests of more than 15 people. Lets get it built. The comment drew laughter from the podcast host but Ms Savage, a member of the United Conservative Party, continued: People need jobs and those types of ideological protests that get in the way are not going to be tolerated by ordinary Canadians. Wilderness Committee Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney told The Independent: "It's frankly disgusting during a global pandemic that Minister Savage is celebrating how it could help get her pipeline built. "It's a stunning example of the Government of Alberta's warped priorities at a time like this but rest assured we're going to find safe ways to make our opposition to Trans Mountain known." The pipeline extension project began in December and is intended to triple the volume of oil produced from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 per day. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the project is in the national economic interest. First Nation communities who live along the pipeline route along with environmental campaigners and the government of British Columbia, are fighting the pipeline expansion. Anti-pipeline protesters have raised concerns that the expansion of the 67-year-old pipeline will lead to oil spills and threaten wildlife, along with the wider impacts of continued fossil fuel development on climate change. The pipeline project is classed as essential work during the pandemic while protesters have been forced to cancel physical demonstrations. Kanahus Manuel, a Secwepemc spokesperson for the Tiny House Warriors, who oppose the pipeline, told Politico: It only takes one person to block a highway. If we stand down, it means our land is destroyed. ... We still have big plans to stop this pipeline, and were going to stop it. Activist Greta Thunberg tweeted a link to the story and commented: "Well, at least we are seeing some honesty for once... Unfortunately this how large parts of the world are run." Ms Savages spokesman told the Globe and Mail: We respect the right to lawful protests. I would note that the limitations to public gatherings have benefited no one including project proponents and any opposition groups. Albertas coronavirus measures currently allow for 50 people in outdoor gatherings. (Natural News) Should people who dont wear face masks in public spaces be held accountable for potentially putting others at risk? A recent incident in a New York City subway has left lots of people debating this very important issue. It all started when 22-year-old Kaleemah Rozier, who was traveling with her young child in the Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center subway station, was asked by police to wear her face mark correctly before entering the subway. Although she and her 5-year-old son had face masks on, they were not covering their noses and mouths for some reason. Rather than taking the polices request for the potentially life-saving move that it was, she chose to respond with ugliness, using vulgar language to respond to the officers and repeatedly refusing to comply even after being asked politely three times to place her and her sons masks correctly. She can be heard in video footage cursing at the officers and yelling while being escorted out of the subway station. She also threatened to cough on the officers. She can then be seen slapping away an officers hands, which is when the police decided to take her to the ground and handcuff her. Rozier was charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest. The NYPD is defending its officers, whom they say acted appropriately and with respect. However, the outrage generated by the incident has led to a change in police procedure, with ABC7 NY reporting that NYC cops are no longer allowed to arrest people simply for not wearing masks. The woman involved is planning a civil suit because she believes there was a racial element to her arrest. She has also expressed outrage that officers arrested her in front of her child; apparently the fact that she defied police orders in front of the kid doesnt bother her a bit never mind the fact that all of this could have been avoided had she simply put the mask she already had around her neck in the proper position. After video footage of the incident went viral, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted about the incident, writing Face coverings are important to protect everybody theyre not optional. But no one wants to see an interaction turn into this. Posting a video of what went down, he added: Weve made progress with de-escalation. This isnt it. De Blasio has understandably been vocal about face coverings. New York City has been hit extremely hard by the virus, due in no small part to the many cramped spaces packed with people there like the subway where this incident took place. The city has seen nearly 200,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 15,789 deaths. People reacting violently to the idea of protecting others The news has been full of incidents lately involving people responding with violence after being asked to wear a mask. For example, in Aurora, Colorado, a man shot a Waffle House employee after being asked to use a mask to get a take-out order. When the cook told 27-year-old Kelvin Watson that he wouldnt serve him without a mask, Watson pulled out a gun and threatened him with it. The following night, he returned without a mask yet again, and the same cook refused to serve him. Watson then slapped the cook across the face and shot him in the chest or abdomen as he tried to run away. The 27-year-old has been charged with attempted first-degree murder. While not wearing a mask may not get you arrested in New York City these days, it will in some parts of China. In Singapore, it could earn you a fine, while everyone aged 6 and above must wear a mask in public places in Spain. Whether its a legal obligation in your area to wear a mask or not, it just makes sense to do so. Face masks arent just there to protect you from exposure to coronavirus theyre also there to protect everyone else. Some people may not care whether they live or die during this pandemic, but they shouldnt be putting those who do value their lives at risk because of their ignorance. Sources for this article include: ?NBCNewYork.com KDVR.com BBC.com No one involved with the purchase was willing to say how much the three investors paid, but Oppenheimer said it would cost in the millions to repair the track and bridges between Santa Fe and Lamy and restore some of the roughly 20 train cars, which date to the 1920s. Australian Senator Calls for Recognition of Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides Prominent Aboriginal leader Senator Pat Dodson has signed an Affirmation of Support backing the Joint Justice Initiative for national recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides. The February 2020 launch of the Joint Justice Initiative at Australia's Parliament House featured the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) and Australian Hellenic Council (AHC), which declares Australia's recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides as a priority on behalf of their communities. Elected to the Federal Senate in 2016, Dodson's pre-parliamentary career included various roles defending the human rights of indigenous Australians, including as Chair of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. In February 2020, the Western Australian met a Joint Justice Initiative delegation of advocates representing Armenian-Australians, Assyrian-Australians and Greek-Australians. In May, he signed the Affirmation of Support. "Senator Pat Dodson has an unimpeachable record in defence of the human rights of indigenous Australians, and we are honoured to have his support as we strive for Australian recognition of the genocides committed by Ottoman Turkey against the region's indigenous Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks," said Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) Executive Director, Haig Kayserian. The Joint Justice Initiative has so far announced the support of Dodson, Jason Falinski MP, Josh Burns MP, John Alexander MP, Senator Andrew Bragg and Bob Katter MP, with a promise of more announcements to come. On 25th February 2020, over 100 Federal Australian parliamentarians, diplomats, departmental officials, political staffers, academics, media and community leaders were treated to cultural performances, food, wine and brandy, as well as the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which affirmed that the signatory public affairs representatives of the three communities were jointly committed to seeing Australia recognize the Turkish-committed Genocide against the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian citizens of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. A bronzer that claims to give users a 'perfect airbrushed look' has amassed a 5,000-strong waiting list in the past week since it launched. The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Bronzer is available in four different shades and costs $75, with those who have managed to get their hands on the coveted beauty product dubbing it 'life-changing' and 'summer in a compact'. While an expensive product, the bronzer isn't like others on the market insofar as it also boasts skincare ingredients that boost your complexion while you wear the makeup. A bronzer that claims to give users a 'perfect airbrushed look' has amassed a 5,000-strong waiting list in the past week since it launched (the Charlotte Tilbury bronzer pictured in action) The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Bronzer is available in four shades and costs $75, with those who have managed to get their hands on the coveted beauty product dubbing it 'life-changing' Why is the bronzer so special? * It has hyaluronic acid, which moisturises the skin so it feels softer and looks smoother. * It has mica, which helps to hydrate the skin as it bronzes. * It has silica, which gives a rich and velvety texture and reflects the light for a soft-focused effect. * It has micro-fine perfecting powders, which help to deliver an invisibly thin and silky filter on the skin to add depth to your colour and coverage. Advertisement Some of the major ingredients include a hydrating hyaluronic acid - which moisturises your skin so it looks smoother and softer; mica - which helps to hydrate; and silica - which gives a rich and velvety texture and reflects the light for a soft-focused effect. The bronzer also has micro-fine perfecting powders, which help to deliver an invisibly thin and silky filter on the skin to add depth to your colour and coverage. The new Charlotte Tilbury product is sold in a golden sunbeam compact, which can be re-filled once you have finished the bronzer. The bronzer isn't like others on the market insofar as it also boasts skincare ingredients that boost your complexion while you wear the makeup (the bronzer shades pictured) Those who have already tried the product online have given it rave reviews and an impressive 4.9 star rating (the bronzer pictured on a half face) Those who have already tried the product online have given it rave reviews and an impressive 4.9 star rating. 'Absolutely love this bronzer!' one reviewer posted. 'The shade Medium is perfect for my skin tone as I don't like harsh or dark bronzers. The compact is stunning and so sleek... it's perfect for a glow and just glides on perfectly.' Others highlighted that it is 'subtle, blurring and beautiful' and 'super long-lasting'. 'This goes on lightly and evenly!' another added. Charlotte recommends you apply the bronzer where the sun naturally tans - whether it's your cheekbones, jawline, top of your shoulders, collarbone and the centre of your arms and legs To apply the bronzer, Charlotte Tilbury herself recommends that you apply it with a brush to your face and body 'where the sun naturally tans'. 'Think your cheekbones, jawline, the top of your shoulders, collarbone and the centre of your arms and legs,' she told FEMAIL. 'I recommend you use a skin-enhancing shade to add warmth to your face, neck, decolletage, the tops of shoulders and down the centre of arms and legs. 'Then, use a deeper skin-sculpting shade to contour the neck, above and below the collarbone, down the centre of the decolletage and down the inner and outer sides of your arms and legs.' The bronzer has been inspired by Charlotte's Airbrush Powder, which is the best-selling matte powder in the United Kingdom. Speaking to FEMAIL last month, Charlotte (pictured with Kate Moss in 2013) said the most important thing to age gracefully is to go for makeup that has skincare infused with it What are Charlotte's tricks for ageing gracefully? 1. Look for skincare and makeup: Try to find skin and makeup hybrid products as these are the ones that will make you look younger. 2. Consider the texture of products: A cream will work well on your eyes, lips and cheeks, while something that is light and water-based will also allow your complexion to breathe. 3. Add a serum: In these decades, you absolutely need a serum in your routine - to be used morning and night. 4. Go lighter: Instead of black eyeliner, switch to brown for a softer look. 5. Perfect the feline flick: A feline flick with eyeliner will draw the gaze outwards and accentuate your eyes. Advertisement Speaking to FEMAIL last month, Charlotte shared her beauty secrets for women as they get older. Charlotte explained that the most important thing is you make your makeup work a little harder, while also helping to make you look younger. 'Look for products that are makeup and skincare hybrids - like my Airbrush Flawless Foundation,' Charlotte told Daily Mail Australia. 'These sorts of products will work hard at nourishing your skin and reducing the appearance of wrinkles, while also hydrating and providing you with coverage.' The makeup artist also said you should look at textures in your makeup at this time - she always looks for 'sophisticated' textures with subtle sparkle and a bit of pearlescence. 'Lighter, water-based textures are always better for our complexions too, as they hydrate and let the skin breathe,' she said. Think creams for your eyes, lips and cheeks and brown eyeliner instead of black to soften your entire look. The makeup artist also said you should look at textures in your makeup at this time - she always looks for 'sophisticated' textures with subtle sparkle and a bit of pearlescence (Charlotte pictured with her niece, Sofia) If you could add one product to your regime at this time, Charlotte recommends a serum like her Magic Serum Crystal Elixir, which helps to add 'bounce, plumpness and elasticity'. 'This has been the perfect addition to my personal skincare regime and I use it by massaging just a few drops into my skin with my fingertips,' Charlotte said. 'The instant hit of intense hydration makes my skin look and feel so glowy, and it makes makeup application so much easier.' She also said a feline flick works well into these decades too, as it will help to accentuate your eyes and draw the gaze outwards with your face. For more information about Charlotte Tilbury's new bronzer, visit the website here. Ethnic minorities have been the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. And now, Latinos experience another hardship as they suffer discrimination after they reportedly contracted COVID-19 in meat processing warehouses and plants. Over 10,000 meatpacking laborers, many of them, Latin Americans, the United Food and Commercial Workers union said, have contracted the virus in the US, and dozens of them have died. According to Latino advocates, employees are encountering racism because of fears they have contracted COVID-29 in the workplace. They said, they have received reports "that some workers at a planet were" asked to leave the grocery shops and not allowed to enter. The Latino workers, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens or Lulac, Domingo Garcia said, were not allowed to get in the stores as they believed to have COVID-19 because they were "working at the local meatpacking plant." Garcia added they have also heard that in Iowa, people were being rejected service as they are thought to have been positive for COVID-19 seemingly not because they were tested for the illness but "because they were Latino." Hard-Hit by the Pandemic Latino workforces have been specifically hard-hit in several areas according to their dependence on employment in big warehouses or meat processing plants which have stated operational even amid the pandemic. Also, in spite of reports of lack of PPE or personal protective equipment and poor standards in health and safety, these plants and warehouses remained open during the worldwide health crisis. According to Garcia, four in every five Latin Americans "are considered essential workers." A vast majority are working at grocery stores, food processing, construction, or are farmworkers. The advocate further explained, they do not have the luxury of having the ability to work from home, and thus, they get so exposed to COVID-19 in ways, he added, "that many American employees are not." Moreover, Garcia claimed that some Latino workers lack health insurance. In addition, he also said Lulac is currently probing a lot of cases involving Latino workers who complain about conditions in their workplace and being fired from jobs. Outbreaks in Plants, a Shocking Report According to reports, the outbreaks in meat plants and warehouses have been shocking. Last month, an outbreak at a Colorado meat processing plant, specifically, JBS, killed three employees while many of over 8,000 COVID-19 cases in Iowa have been associated with plants which include Tyson Foods, located in Waterloo. Relatively, Tyson Foods was obliged to have its operations suspended end of last month after nearly 200 COVID-19 contagions were linked to the plant. In other parts of the country, the anti-Latino sentiment is coming from officials. Specifically in Wisconsin, Patience Roggensack, the Supreme Court chief justice, early this month, was criticized after apparently downplaying COVID-19 outbreak among the meatpacking facility's workers in Brown county, where a large fraction of the employees are immigrants and minorities. Reggensack's defense was that the surge in COVID-19 cases "was due to the meatpacking" where, he added, "Brown County got the flare." Wisconsin-based immigrant-rights group Voces de la Frontera executive director, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, on the other hand, said that the remarks of the chief justice were "'racist' and 'elitist.'" Check these out! By Express News Service HYDERABAD: Along with migrants, a new cluster has emerged in the State as a total of 28 foreign evacuees have tested positive for Covid-19 so far. Out of the 66 new cases recorded on Monday, 18 are foreign evacuees, 31 come under GHMC limits, 15 are migrants, and one each from Maharashtra and Ranga Reddy. Three new deaths were recorded, taking the toll to 56. The total number of cases stands at 1,920 and 1,164 people have recovered so far. Over 700 active cases are still being treated. Cop at Gandhi Hospital tests positive A police constable posted at Gandhi Hospital tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday. According to the police, the constable had been suffering from severe fever for the past two days and had been admitted to a hospital for treatment. Later, he complained of cough and cold. Based on his symptoms, he was tested for the virus and the result came back positive. He was then shifted to Gandhi Hospital for proper treatment. Following the incident, doctors collected samples from his family members and asked them to be home quarantined. Police officials have directed all staff to take measures in preventing Covid-19 while performing duties. Regular medical check ups are being done for the staff. The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu says he is unable to confirm whether or not reports that some Members of Parliament (MPs) and parliamentary staff have tested positive for COVID-19. The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye on Tuesday, May 19, ordered for the immediate mass testing of MPs and staff of the House for Coronavirus. 690 samples were collected by health officials in Parliament following the directive. Although the Parliaments Medical Service Directorate had said the results will not be made public, media reports on Tuesday suggested that some of the MPs had tested positive for the virus. But the Majority Leader in an interview said: The Director of Parliaments Medical Services is the only person who will know if any member of Parliament test positive for COVID-19 and the information then will be transmitted to the individual Member of Parliament or staff. So as I stand here, I dont know if anybody has tested positive so thats it and I dont know anybody who will tell you that he/she knows that somebody has tested positive. So I have told you the official position so if anyone tells you a member or two or three have tested positive for the disease, ask the person for the source and please that is the official position, he said. Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Oquaye earlier today threatened sanctions for persons who work within Parliament but fail to test for COVID-19. The testing team has been asked to return to Parliament to test all persons who were not available for their samples to be taken last week. MPs' COVID-19 test results won't be made public Medical Services Director The Director of Medical Services in Parliament, Dr. Prince Pambo has said the results of the tests will not be made public. He said the results will instead be made known individually to the persons tested without the involvement of Parliament. The exercise was meant not only for Members of Parliament but the staff of Parliament as well and other support staff who have a duty in the parliamentary precinct and the results will be made known to them individually, he said. ---citinewsroom The Union labour ministry is examining a set of radical changes made by Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to their labour laws, including moves to freeze them altogether, and may suggest several modifications because some changes could be against acceptable norms, a government official said, asking not to be identified. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states passed ordinances to give effect to various changes, some of which effectively suspend labour laws. None of the ordinances has received approval from President Ram Nath Kovid, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Madhya Pradesh sent its ordinance for the presidents approval on May 18. The UP government sent its ordinance soon after the states governor Anandiben Patel approved it on May 14. Gujarat too sent its soon after the states governor Acharya Devvrat gave his nod. Under the Constitution, labour falls under the concurrent list, which means the Union government and states have joint jurisdiction. Therefore, changes by state need to be ratified by at the federal level. The main concern is violation of accepted universal norms. Industrial dispute resolution mechanisms, compensation etc are important considerations. Can you simply suspend all labour laws? Legal views matter in this, the official cited in the first instance added, without elaborating. Uttar Pradesh suspended key labour laws for all units for three years on May 6 through an ordinance. Madhya Pradesh announced on May 7 it was taking a similar course to put all labour laws on hold for new units, barring some provisions of the Factories Act, 1948, for the next 1,000 days. This changes signalled the start of an experiment to remove rigidities in the countrys labour markets and stringent rules on hiring and firing, as global companies start shifting their supply chains away from China and reduce their dependencies on factories in the neighbour. Five other states -- Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam and Odisha -- have increased working hours from 8 hours to 12 hours a day for three months. Rajasthan too extended work hours, but rescinded it . However, the moves drew criticism from labour experts, who say suspending the laws not just eased regulation but infringed on workers rights. The labour ministry is examining whether the changes impact conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Ten central trade unions wrote to the Geneva-based ILO, stating that changes in labour laws by these states violate workers rights and ILO convention No 144, to which, India is a signatory. ILO convention 144 enjoins signatories for tripartite consultations among government, employers and workers. The moves to simply suspend labour laws effectively brings the North American hire-and-fire model to the Indian hinterland economy. However, they will also lead to a basic violation of universal workers rights, said economist KR Shyam Sundar of the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur. The ILO has said it was deeply anguished by the move and issued an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 25. Please allow me to assure you that the ILO director general has immediately intervened, expressing his deep concern at these recent events and appealing to the prime minister to send a clear message to central and state governments to uphold the countrys international commitments and encourage engagement in effective social dialogue, an ILO letter addressed to the trade unions stated. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON [May 26, 2020] Pearson Elevates Alexa Christon to Chief Marketing Officer LONDON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Pearson, the world's learning company, today announced the promotion of Alexa Christon to chief marketing officer reporting to chief corporate affairs officer, Deirdre Latour. Since coming to Pearson a year ago, Alexa has made major strides in developing a global brand strategy and deploying that strategy to enable Pearson's ongoing transformation to the world's online learning company. In appointing a chief marketing officer, Pearson will strengthen its focus on building a direct, lifetime relationship with learners around the world in addition to enhancing its partnership with the world's greatest learning institutions. "Alexa brings the energy, expertise and innovative thinking that Pearson needs to position the company as a market shaper and help learners understand how we can be a valuable partner throughout their education," said John Fallon, CEO of Pearson. "This is essential to Pearson's efforts to reach learners directly with our broad range of outcome driven online learning products." Alexa brings a wealth of exerience leading world class, cross functional marketing teams that help brands modernize and drive growth. Her award-winning career has included time as the head of media innovation at GE, and guiding clients including Yahoo, Pepsi-Cola, and Time-Warner Cable while on the agency side. At GE, she revamped the media and content strategy, and led the creation of new media platforms, including a #1 iTunes branded podcast and spearheaded both the NYT X GE Virtual Reality partnership and The Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show ongoing segment, GE Fallonventions. "In her short time with Pearson, Alexa has made a big impact on the way the company shows up to learners and customers," said Deirdre Latour, chief corporate affairs officer at Pearson. "We have even more exciting work to do as we reach further into the world to showcase Pearson as the company helping people make progress in their lives through learning. Alexa's creativity and deep marketing expertise make her well positioned to lead us in that effort. Alexa is also the co-host of ADLANDIA, a bi-weekly podcast focused on the signals in the noise of the advertising/marketing industry and attempts to solve the toughest questions plaguing marketers, publishers, and platforms, leaving listeners with new perspectives to bring back to the boardroom. A proud native of Omaha, Nebraska, Alexa currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and daughter. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa. About Pearson We are the world's learning company with more than 22,500 employees operating in 70 countries. We provide content, assessment and digital services to learners, educational institutions, employers, governments and other partners globally. We are committed to helping equip learners with the skills they need to enhance their employability prospects and to succeed in the changing world of work. We believe that wherever learning flourishes so do people. Visit Pearson.com. Contact: Scott Overland, (202) 909-4520 [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pearson-elevates-alexa-christon-to-chief-marketing-officer-301065229.html SOURCE Pearson [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] WASHINGTON Progressive groups are zeroing in on Asian American voters, a key constituency they believe will help turn Texas blue later this year. The group is among the fastest growing populations in the state, especially in the suburbs, which Democrats see as providing a path to victory in November. But its a diverse group and one that Democrats need to work to woo, according to research of Asian American and Pacific Islander swing voters in Texas funded by a trio of national progressive groups. The groups include Everytown for Gun Safety, the Michael Bloomberg-backed gun violence prevention group planning to spend $8 million in Texas this year; Forward Majority, a group focused on flipping statehouses; and AAPI Victory Fund, a super PAC focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Islanders. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox The findings, shared exclusively with Hearst Newspapers, show Democrats have an in: Asian American voters in Texas do not like President Donald Trump, who they see as racist and divisive, and health care and gun safety two of Democrats marquee issues are among those they care most about. But Democrats need to be aggressive in winning their votes if they want to flip the state, the findings show. And Republicans will be gunning for their votes, as well, especially in a slew of competitive congressional and state House districts with significant and growing Asian American populations. While AAPI voters tend to lean more Democratic, this is not a monolithic voting group. Texas Democrats cannot simply count on their vote, according to a memo outlining the findings by D.C. firm Lake Research Partners. Instead, Texas Democrats need to engage AAPI voters and persuade them to vote for Democrats on Election Day. To do this, Democrats need to commit to learning more about what is important to these voters, as little research has been done with Texas AAPI voters as the central focus. The Asian American voting population in Texas is growing at a much faster clip than other groups. From 2012 to 2018, the number of eligible Asian American voters in Texas grew 46 percent, compared with a 12 percent rise in the statewide eligible voting population, according to data from APIA Vote. And while Asian Americans account for 5 percent of the state population, they make up 10 or more percent of the population in 19 different state House districts, many in the Houston suburbs and many of which Democrats hope they can flip this year, according to data provided by Forward Majority. They make up nearly 20 percent of the population in a long-red Fort Bend County where Democrats hope to win a congressional seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, whos retiring. THE BIG TARGET: Gun safety group planning $8M campaign in Texas If you look at the major suburban centers in Texas, some have flipped and more are going to flip, its just a matter of time and its because of AAPIs that live in the suburbs, said Varun Nikore, president of the AAPI Victory Fund. Asian American voter turnout has hit historic levels since Trump was elected, and theyve overwhelmingly supported Democrats, Nikore said. There was a 241 percent increase in Asian American voter turnout in Virginia last year, when Democrats claimed control of the state Legislature for the first time in 26 years. The concerns that were brought out in the research I think are further accelerating a trend that was already in place, Nikore said. The Texas research is based on an online message board with 20 swing voters in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas home to the highest Asian American populations in Texas. Participants who came from a wide range of countries of origin, including India, Vietnam, China, the Philippines and Pakistan logged in twice a day for four days to respond to prompts on a variety of issues. Almost across the board, participants said they dislike Trump and many said a lawmakers support for Trump matters to them in their decision to support that lawmaker. In sample responses, participants said Trump has bred hatred in this country and called him narcissistic, sexist, racist. WITHOUT CHINA, WERE DEAD: As GOP targets China, Texas has much on the line Top issues for the participants were the economy and jobs, affordable health care and gun violence; and they said they tend to agree more with Democrats than Republicans on health care and gun laws. Gun violence prevention could become a wedge issue in many races, the research suggests, as participants said they think lawmakers need to do more. I do think we need to vote and replace legislators in order to see change, one sample response said. The research also found that voters in this group strongly dislike insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and the gun lobby, and that they are angry at the Texas politicians who have taken significant contributions from drug and insurance companies. Part of our electoral program and the early strategic work is working to determine what messages resonate, what the diverse and influential voting blocs across the state, said Charlie Boyd Kelly, a senior political adviser with Everytown for Gun Safety, which plans to pour millions into Texas this year. Its one of a handful of gun safety groups that are planning to follow the same playbook they used in Virginia last year, when guns emerged as a top issue for voters there after a mass shooting in Virginia Beach in 2019, especially for voters in the suburbs around D.C. and Richmond. Its not just about mobilizing our supporters across Texas, its really about identifying new voters, voting blocs and really doing this sort of deep dive to get an understanding about the needs and priorities of these communities, Kelly said. A DEMOCRATIC TRAGEDY: Coronavirus threatens Texas voter registration efforts But they arent the first to key in on the growing voting bloc. In 2014, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, focused much of his reelection efforts on winning Asian American and other minority voters, said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist who ran the campaign. Cornyn, who is running again for reelection this year, easily won reelection that year and carried the Asian American vote, according to CNN exit polls. Cornyn was just one of several Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who focused efforts on that population, said Steinhauser, who is not working with Cornyns current reelection campaign. Still, Steinhauser said, in the era of President Trump, its been different, a little bit more difficult, just for all the politics and rhetoric. I would just say the effort we did and Im very proud of those efforts theyre not that hard to figure out and theyre not anything anybody couldnt do today or shouldnt do today, Steinhauser said. Its based on principles of listening to people and engaging with people. Republicans need to double down, he said. I frankly dont think were doing enough as a party on this front, he said. Id like to see us do more especially, significantly Asian American outreach. ben.wermund@chron.com RA'ANANA, Israel, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SMART Medical Systems Ltd., a developer and manufacturer of innovative endoscopy products, announced that the FDA issued 510(k) clearance for its flagship product, the G-EYE Colonoscope. G-EYE Colonoscope The G-EYE colonoscope is a standard colonoscope which SMART remanufactures by installing its proprietary G-EYE balloon on the distal bending section of the colonoscope. During colonoscopy, the G-EYE colonoscope is inserted in the standard technique, with the balloon deflated. Once the colon is intubated and prior to withdrawal, the balloon is inflated to engage the colon lumen. Withdrawal of the G-EYE Colonoscope through the colon with the balloon moderately inflated centralizes the image of the colon lumen, flattens colonic folds, and reduces the amount of bowel slippage, thereby assisting in controlling the colonoscope's field of view and positioning. In published clinical studies comparing adenoma detection rate of G-EYE colonoscopy to that of standard colonoscopy, G-EYE colonoscopy demonstrated substantial increase in the detection of cancerous polyps which are the precursors of colon cancer (GIE 2019; 89: 545-553; and Endoscopy 2015; 47: 238244). Under the current FDA clearance, the G-EYE colonoscope will be available based on selected 510(k) cleared colonoscopes of OLYMPUS (8 models) and PENTAX Medical (3 models). SMART is currently preparing its 510(k) submission for the FUJIFILM brand. "We are excited to have the G-EYE colonoscope available for American patients, doctors and endoscopy practices, and are proud of taking part in the global effort to provide advanced technologies for colonoscopy", said Brian Cochrane, CCO of SMART's US subsidiary. "We are now initiating our launch of the G-EYE colonoscope in the US market, aiming to make it available to clinical collaborators and customers". "This FDA clearance is a cornerstone for our company", said Gadi Terliuc, SMART's CEO. "This important milestone, adding to our recently-formed strategic partnership with FUJIFILM, is part of our evolution as a meaningful provider of enabling endoscopy products". About SMART Medical Systems SMART Medical Systems is a pioneer in the development and manufacture of innovative medical devices in the field of gastro-intestinal (GI) endoscopy. SMART's unique approach is to use available brand name endoscopes and address key challenges in contemporary endoscopy. SMART's CE Marked and FDA cleared NaviAid product family is commercially distributed in key global markets. With its new partnership with FUJIFILM adding to its already existing alliance with PENTAX Medical, SMART's G-EYE colonoscopy solution is currently adopted by two of the three industry leaders in GI endoscopy imaging. SMART is headquartered in Israel, and operates in the United States through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SMART GI Inc. For more information, please visit: www.smartmedsys.com/us/ Contacts: Brian Cochrane - CCO +1-201-661-3795 [email protected] SOURCE SMART Medical Systems Ltd. Related Links http://www.smartmedsys.com/ Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir By Mark Lanegan Hachette Books. 352 pp. $28 --- In his fearsome and brutal new autobiography, "Sing Backwards and Weep," musician Mark Lanegan details his journey from small-town miscreant to the frontman of grunge-adjacent, mid-level rock band Screaming Trees, with heroin and sex addictions in tow. "Sing Backwards" is a masterpiece of self-loathing and score-settling, a nothing-but-warts memoir that has more in common with books by Charles Bukowski and Jim Carroll than those by fellow musicians-on-smack Keith Richards and Motley Crue, which seem lighthearted by comparison. Though Screaming Trees partly came up in Seattle during the early '90s, and "Sing Backwards" details Lanegan's friendships with Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley, it's much too internal to serve as a remembrance of the time. "Sing Backwards" is at its best when examining the ruthless mechanics of a junkie musician's daily life: where to hide syringes - which were hard to come by, and often shared, in the days before needle exchanges - on a tour bus during border searches; the terrifying prospect of going through withdrawals during a snowstorm or transatlantic flight; how the citrus needed to break down European heroin can be found by scavenging lemon slices from abandoned hotel room service trays; and the various black, noxious fluids excreted by junkies in withdrawal, described in enough detail to chill even the most devoted gastroenterologist. Lanegan grew up hard in a rough household in Ellensburg, Washington. By the time he left high school, he was a small-time hustler with a lengthy rap sheet and a drinking problem. Screaming Trees, a fledgling band assembled by local musicians Gary Lee Conner - Lanegan refers to him as "Lee Conner" throughout - and his brother Van, were his only ticket out of town. Lee Conner is the book's Big Bad, a 6-foot, 300-pound rampaging lunatic with no social graces and a diva's sense of entitlement. He "projected an unwelcoming, unhappy, borderline scary presence," writes Lanegan, who often fantasized about strangling him. The band soon signed with venerated indie label SST, and Lanegan moved to Seattle at the dawn of the grunge years. In a more conventional memoir, this would be the happy part of the narrative arc, where us-against-the-world bonds form between bandmates, touring is a joyful novelty and fame hasn't yet ruined everything. But even in the early days, life in Screaming Trees was a punishment to be endured. Contemptuous of his bandmates and ashamed of the music they made, Lanegan lurched from one disaster to the next. He and the Conners were often in open, violent warfare with fans ("In those days, no one pressed charges"), club bouncers and each other. "The band was sick, violent, depressing, destructive, and dangerous," he writes. A longtime blackout drunk, Lanegan soon found that heroin was the only thing to quiet his mind and deaden his urge to drink. As his habit grew, he guarded it jealously. "There was zero chance of anyone getting me to stop now that I had found my one true love, the only peace of mind I'd ever had," Lanegan writes. "As far as I was concerned, heroin had lifted me up from the grave." Lanegan found a fellow traveler in Kurt Cobain, whom he first met when Nirvana played an early gig at the Ellensburg Public Library. Lanegan depicts Cobain as a gentle soul who remained a steadfast friend despite their increasingly uneven status levels. One day, Cobain withdrew thousands of dollars from an ATM and handed it, unasked, to his destitute friend, much to Lanegan's shame. In turn, Lanegan helped save Cobain from at least one overdose, but his role in encouraging the superstar's own heroin use still haunts him. "Instead of being a positive influence on this guy I considered a genius and cherished little brother, I had become a facilitator to his undoing," Lanegan writes. In the days before Cobain's April 1994 suicide, he left voice mails for Lanegan, asking him to come over. Lanegan, hoping to avoid Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, didn't pick up the phone. The grunge explosion powered by Nirvana briefly helped keep Screaming Trees' major label hopes alive, but whatever traction the band had was stalled by Lanegan's demons, which seemed to multiply. As Lanegan's band idled and his promising solo career withered, his heroin habit grew. "Sing Backwards" devolves from a brutally candid tell-all to a numbing catalogue of miseries once Lanegan discovers crack. "I was a perfectly functional junkie for years," he writes, "but crack quickly took me to my knees." He began cooking and dealing the drug, sinking deeper into poverty, addiction and despair. He dodged the law, and multiple attempts at interventions. At one point, he and a homeless sex worker ran a prostitution scam from a mattress in his dining room (she is later murdered by a serial killer, a fact mentioned only in passing). He eventually became homeless himself, living on the streets until Love funded his rehab. "Sing Backwards" ends with Lanegan leaving treatment, being taken in by Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan, who gave him a job as caretaker of his properties, and by Josh Homme, his bandmate during the last days of Screaming Trees, who recruited him for his own band, Queens of the Stone Age. In rehab, Lanegan - previously the kind of guy who rolled joints using pages ripped out of a Bible - experienced a religious epiphany, not mentioned again. He was changed, he writes, "maybe not by anybody else's God but by some very real force that intervened in the life of one sad piece of human roadkill the moment it was asked to." --- Stewart writes about pop culture, music and politics for The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. She is working on a book about the history of the space program. The first of what is expected to be five Iranian oil tankers has docked at a Venezuelan refinery, defying U.S. sanctions on both countries. The ship arrived in Venezuela Sunday and the country's oil minister announced that it has moored at the El Palito refinery. A second ship entered Venezuelan waters Monday and a third is sailing through the Caribbean. "I want to thank -- from the most noble and sensible heart of the Venezuelan people -- the Islamic Republic of Iran, President Rouhani, my friend and colleague, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei... and all of Iran, from the heart, for its solidarity, for its support," President Nicolas Maduro said. ALBANY Federal prosecutors say a brazen pimp ran a prostitution ring from the Albany County jail, directing orders to his top associate to recruit women from nearby states under false promises of $1,000-a-night pay to sell their bodies. The alleged pimp, Christopher J. Thomas, known as P and Daddy, and his associate Janell Grady, 22, known as Nelly Nelly, were thwarted because of their earlier alleged recruitment of a drug-addicted Vermont woman who was reported missing and quickly escaped their business. The duo were charged in U.S. District Court in Albany earlier this month with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of a person for prostitution. Thomas allegedly ran the sex ring even as he was in the Albany County lock-up between Dec. 16 and Jan. 21 on a parole violation. In phone calls recorded at the jailhouse, Grady referred to Thomas, 36, as Daddy a term for pimp and told him a trick is at the house for an $180 appointment, court papers said. In a Jan. 19 call, Thomas expressed that he is upset with being disrespected by females and instructed Grady to start smacking bitches so they take you serious and stated that behavior is expected of a bottom, a term for a woman who supervises prostitutes and imposes discipline on sex workers on behalf of pimps. In one call, Grady established a conference call with Thomas and Thomas mother. On the call, Thomas told his mother that Grady was available to assist her. On another call, Thomas referred to Maine and New Hampshire and said Its nothing to go pick people up, court papers said. In this call, Thomas encouraged and/or directed Grady to recruit females from other states into prostitution in New York, the complaint said. It said Thomas instructed Grady to look for a new joint in Randolph and Brockton in Massachusetts guaranteeing $1,000-a-night. He asked Grady to stay away from Vermont because of the experience with the missing woman, court papers said. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple said the department typically does not monitor inmates' phone calls unless there is a reason for it. If need be, he noted, officers can go back and listen to the recordings. He said the department was not aware of Thomas' activity. Thomas, formerly of Dorchester in Boston, served three years in prison for attempted criminal possession of a weapon for carrying a loaded gun in a car outside a hotel on Central Avenue on Sept. 2, 2012. In that case, police said Thomas rented a room for a female to conduct prostitution at the motel. The more recent investigation began last July after a State Police investigator assigned to the FBIs Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force in Albany started monitoring Facebook accounts of people associated with a website that allows users to search for prostitutes based upon their location, according to a federal complaint. The complaint said prostitution ads on the website included images of prostitutes and/or sex trafficking victims along with phone numbers which are used to schedule appointments, commonly referred to as dates. At least two people in the group were associated with Thomas, who was using the name Thomas Chris on Facebook, the complaint said. It said Thomas disabled that Facebook account and began a new one called Seeaboutme Imlikedat. As the probe continued into October, the investigator learned that a woman featured in recent prostitution ads on the website -- and who was associated with Thomas account -- was a 20-year-old woman who had been reported missing to Vermont State Police on Oct. 7, the complaint said. The woman was identified as being addicted to crack and heroin. When Vermont police tried to locate the womans cell phone, it pinged on Exchange Street in Colonie near a residence used by Thomas and Grady, The complaint said. The woman later told investigators that Thomas had friended her on Facebook, gave her his cell phone number and offered her a chance to make a significant amount of money nightly. Thomas sent the woman a message in September saying she would earn $1,000 a night." Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. In early October, before she went to work for the ring, Thomas told the woman, Send me a pic of you and your body baby. When she sent a photo of herself in underwear and naked, Thomas replied, Perfect and Youll make great money! How long can we expect to have you for, the complaint said. The woman said on Oct. 7 she was picked up in Vermont by Grady and driven to Colonie, where she had prostitution dates in the home of the defendants on Oct. 7. She said she was also sent out on dates. The woman told police that customers were charged $160 for a half hour and $300 for a full hour. She said half her proceeds went to Thomas. As she started to earn money, she said, she was taken to an associate of Thomas and Grady to purchase cocaine and crack using her share of the money. The woman said she overheard a conversation between Thomas and Grady and, as a result, believed they planned to injure her or steal her money. She said she abruptly exited a car driven by Grady and escaped back to Vermont, the complaint said. After the woman made it back to Vermont, the complaint said, Thomas tried to make it appear that he had never met the woman in Colonie. He texted her: Damn I heard you was in Albany babes why didnt you hit me up. Also allegedly writing: Damn I thought we can get some money together and You couldve at least hit me up when you was out here i couldve got you right in the strip club. On Oct. 24, Thomas told the woman, according to the complaint, You disrespected talking about sex trafficking and police and st. He also said: Your date didnt even like you. The investigator said Thomas customer address on his Facebook account was called chooseup.tothis.1. Based on my training and experience, I know that 'choosing up' in relation to sex trafficking and/or prostitution means is a process in which a different pimp takes ownership of a victim/prostitute, the investigator stated. Thomas, who is from Colonie, waived his right to a detention hearing. A preliminary hearing set for Tuesday was rescheduled for June 2. Grady has been released on home confinement. Flash Provisional results show Burundian ruling party's Evariste Ndayishimiye wins the presidential election held on May 20, the country's electoral body said on Monday. Ndayishimiye from the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) won 68.72 percent of votes in the presidential election, followed by National Council for Liberty (CNL)'s Agathon Rwasa who got 24.19 percent of votes, figures presented by the National Independent Electoral Commission showed. Burundi voters went to the polls last Wednesday to elect a new president, members of the National Assembly, and district councilors. The total turnout was 87.71 percent with over 4.48 million voters cast their votes in the presidential election, among which 83,690 votes were declared null and 87,534 votes were abstentions, according to the results. Current First Vice-President Gaston Sindimwo from the National Progress Union (UPRONA) ranked the third, by winning 1.64 percent of votes, while each of the other four presidential candidates gained less than one percent, the results showed. The results also showed that CNDD-FDD overwhelmingly won the legislative election, obtaining 72 out of the total 100 voted seats at the National Assembly, while CNL and UPRONA got 27 and 1 seats respectively. The general elections were held "in serenity", and were "fair and transparent", said Pierre Claver Kazihise, chairman of the electoral commission, when presenting the results in the presence of country leaders, some candidates of the elections and diplomats accredited to Burundi. He also said 24 lawmakers, including 21 from ethnic Tutsi and three from ethnic Twa will be co-opted to the National Assembly after being chosen by the three parties that won seats in the general elections, to fulfill the requirement that 40 percent of seats are allocated to Tutsis, 60 percent to Hutus and three seats to Twas in accordance with the Constitution. Ndayishimiye is currently the secretary general of the ruling party. Earlier he was the interior and public security minister. He also served as the private secretary in charge of military and civilian affairs at the office of the president. Under the new constitution promulgated in June 2018, the presidential term is extended from five to seven years and allows the president to serve two consecutive terms. Burundi's National Independent Human Rights Commission last Saturday said this year's general elections were held in a "good and fair" manner. It also called on political competitors to respect results of the elections once they are released. Burundi plunged into crisis in April 2015 when the current president, Pierre Nkurunziza from CNDD-FDD, decided to run his controversial third-term bid, which he won in July 2015. His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015. However, the overall security of Burundi has improved, and the current situation is generally stable. New York (United Nations) 26 May 2020 (SPS)- Polisario Fronts Representative to the UN, Dr Sidi M. Omar, issued a statement on the occasion of the Annual Decolonization Week, which also coincides with the Africa Day, May 25, recalling the UN pending mission of decolonisation of the occupied parts of Western Sahara, still under Moroccan illegal occupation. The Sahrawi diplomat further stressed the responsibility of Spain, as Western Saharas administrating force under international law, even if it abandoned its responsibilities of completing the decolonization of the occupied parts of Western Sahara. Following is the full text of the statement of which SPS received a copy: The Decolonisation of Western Sahara: The UN Pending Mission The UN observes these days the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories in accordance with General Assembly resolution 54/91 of 6 December 1999, by which the General Assembly decided to observe annually the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, beginning on 25 May. The General Assembly also affirmed once again that the existence of colonialism in any form or manifestation is incompatible with the UN Charter, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On 14 December 1960, the General Assembly adopted resolution 1514 (XV) containing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in which it solemnly proclaimed the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations. To this end, the General Assembly declared a set of principles including the need for immediate steps to be taken to enable the peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories to enjoy complete independence and freedom (OP 5). Western Sahara, of which parts are now under illegal occupation by the Kingdom of Morocco, remains one of the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories since the inclusion of the Territory (known then as the Spanish Sahara) on the list of territories to which General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) was applicable. The list was elaborated and adopted by the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1963 and approved by the General Assembly in the same year. The inclusion of Western Sahara on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories was an international recognition of the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence and the responsibility of the United Nations with respect to the Territory and its people. It also implied the need to end colonialism in the Territory in line with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), a process for which responsibility was entrusted to the then administering power, Spain, in cooperation with the United Nations in line with Chapter XI of the UN Charter. In this context, since the adoption of its resolution 2072 (XX), the General Assembly kept calling on Spain, as the administering power of Western Sahara, to take all necessary measures to decolonise the Territory. Spain however did not fulfil its obligations as an administering power in Western Sahara nor its sacred trust regarding the Sahrawi people. Rather, it signed a tripartite agreement with Morocco and Mauritania on 14 November 1975. Spain also declared, on 26 February 1976, that it considered itself henceforth exempt from any responsibility of an international nature in connection with the administration of Western Sahara and then withdrew from the Territory. The fact remains, however, that both Madrid Agreement, which is null and void, and Spains declaration of exempting itself from its responsibility regarding Western Sahara have not altered or affected the legal status of Western Sahara as a Non-Self-Governing Territory. The UN General Assembly, which has exclusive competence on matters related to Non-Self-Governing Territories, has never taken any decision that officially absolves Spain of its responsibility regarding Western Sahara. Furthermore, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and the UN Legal Counsel affirmed, in his legal opinion issued at the request of the Security Council on 29 January 2002, that: The Madrid Agreement did not transfer sovereignty over the territory, nor did it confer upon any of the signatories the status of an administering Power - a status which Spain alone could not have unilaterally transferred. The transfer of administrative authority over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975, did not affect the international status of Western Sahara as Non-Self-Governing Territory (paragraph 6) In view of the above, two fundamental facts stand out: first, the decolonisation of Western Sahara has not yet been completed and Spain is still the de jure administering power of the Territory as confirmed by the ruling of the Spanish National Court of 4 July 2014, which established that Spain de jure, although not de facto, remains the Administering Power, and as such, until the end of the decolonisation period, it has the obligations set forth in articles 73 and 74 of the UN Charter (paragraph d); second, Morocco remains an occupying power of parts of Western Sahara, as confirmed by the General Assembly in its resolutions 34/37 of 21 November 1979 and 35/19 of 11 November 1980, in which the General Assembly urged Morocco to terminate its occupation of Western Sahara. In addition to the Articles of the UN Charter and General Assembly and Security Council resolutions related to self-determination, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Western Sahara of 1975 is a key reference for the legal foundation of the right to self-determination as an inalienable and peremptory right under international law. With regard to the issue of Western Sahara, it is worth noting that the ICJ affirmed, in its advisory opinion, two fundamental facts: first, Western Sahara was not a land belonging to no one (terra nullius) at the time of Spanish colonisation because it was inhabited by peoples having their own social and political organisation (paragraph 81) and it was in these peoples together that sovereignty over the Territory was invested; second, there was no tie of territorial sovereignty between the Territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity (paragraph 162). Thus, based on these two facts, the ICJ inferred its logical conclusion, which encapsulates its answer to the two questions that were presented to it, to the effect that the Court has not found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonisation of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory (paragraph 162). The ruling of the ICJ, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, has unambiguously laid down the two legal foundations on which the decolonisation of Western Sahara should proceed; first, sovereignty over Western Sahara is vested in the Sahrawi people; second, as a result, only the Sahrawi people have the right to decide, through the free and genuine expression of their will, the status of Western Sahara in accordance with General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) and other resolutions relevant to decolonisation. It is worth noting that the ICJ affirmed that the expression of the will of the Sahrawi people must be free and genuine. This means that the expression must be carried out without any foreign interference of any kind and that it should be done directly by the Sahrawi people through the internationally established democratic processes. As we observe these days the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories, we recall the speech delivered by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres, at the opening of the organisational meeting of the UN Committee on Decolonisation (C-24) on 21 February 2019, when he said that decolonisation is one of the most significant chapters of the Organisations history. But this story is still being written, as 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remain. The Sahrawi people are still waiting patiently and resolutely for the United Nations to accomplish its pending mission in Western Sahara by taking the necessary, immediate measures to enable our people to enjoy complete independence and freedom, so that Africa could close one of the most hideous and brutal chapters of the history of our continent. Dr. Sidi M. Omar Polisario Front Representative to the UN 26 May 2020." (SPS) 090/500/60 (SPS) The epicentre of Covid-19 infection has shifted in the Himalayan state from Garhwal to Kumaon region with a sudden spike in migrants testing positive for coronavirus infection in the last four days. On Tuesday, Uttarakhand reported 51 new Covid 19 positive cases, taking the states tally to 400 including 136 cases listed in Kumaon regions Nainital district, which has now overtaken Garhwal regions Dehradun, also the states capital, which has recorded 74 cases so far. The shift happened on Saturday when 57 fresh cases were reported from Nainital, increasing its tally to 85. From Saturday onwards, more cases have tested positive in the Kumaon region with the influx of migrants from other states. Till Tuesday evening, Kumaon has a total of 237 cases, while the Garhwal region has reported 158 cases. According to JC Pandey, public relations officer (PRO) state health department, 51 new cases including a nurse at the government hospital in Haridwar, have been detected in the state on Tuesday, while five patients recovered on Tuesday taking the total number of recoveries to 64. For Coronavirus Live Updates Fresh cases were reported from Nainital (10), Udham Singh Nagar (2), Tehri Garhwal (14), Haridwar (5), Almora (3), Haridwar (5) and Pithoragarh (14). Most of these cases are migrants who returned from places like Maharashtra, Delhi, Meerut, Chandigarh and Punjab. So far over 330 migrants have tested positive in the state. According to government officials, till Tuesday evening, over 2.52 lakh registrations had been made on the state website by people seeking to return to the state. Of these, the state government has so far brought back 1.64 lakh people through trains and buses. Uttarakhand has so far tested 23,076 samples of which 18,193 have tested negative and 400 have tested positive. The rate of doubling of cases (in the last seven days) stands at 3.84 days. The percentage of recovery for Covid-19 patients in the state has now reached 16 %. The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19 Meanwhile, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday announced a monetary reward of Rs 50 lakh to those Covid-19 hospitals in the state that have managed to treat positive patients without letting their staffers getting infected. Making the announcement Rawat said, The health workers are our frontline fighters in the fight against this deadly virus. Their health safety is our utmost priority. This move will definitely motivate the Covid hospitals to ensure the health safety of their staffers and also boost their morale while fighting the pandemic. Veteran Ghanaian actor Henry Harding popularly known as Pattington Papa Nii has called for a national policy to guide and protect Ghanaian local content. This comes on the heels of the proliferation of foreign content on local TV in the country. Speaking in an interview with Benjamin Akakpo on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Friday, 22 May 2020, the veteran actor noted that the government must direct and regulate foreign content on local screens in order to avoid the fading out of the local creative industry. He said: We need a government direction, and we need to put leaders in our various departments. These foreign content are very cheap. It is very expensive to produce local content. In fact, it is very very expensive, especially if you want to do a good job. So, the TV stations find it more convenient to go for the 30-dollar, 50-dollar, 20-dollar programmes and show them. So, if, once a day, like Im saying, there should be a national policy that should even guide and protect the local industry. Theres nothing like that. You find a TV station from dawn to dusk showing foreign content and nobody cares. Even prime time, there must be regulation of a sort, other than that we shall continue to wallow in great misery, said the former Taxi Driver star who is famous for his use of big words. Source: classfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Food Safety During a Pandemic: An Expert Weighs In Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine shared an article on food safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you might want to check out some of their tips. Food safety continues to be a main topic of conversation within during the COVID-19 era. With delivery services, restaurants beginning to reopen and a number of meat plants (in the U.S. and Canada) dealing with outbreaks among their workers, it is no wonder concerns about food safety on behalf of employers, retailers and consumers are flying. Ebrahim Noroozi, food scientist and occupational health and safety specialist with McGills Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry, shared his findings with Canadian Occupational Safety (COS): While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in US has not found evidence that COVID-19 has been transmitted through meat or poultry, public health officials have said that coronavirus strains can live at live and freezing temperatures on food packaging. And so much about the risks of COVID-19 are uncertain and evolving that companies need to be on their toes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reduced the number of inspections during the outbreak, but that does not limit the liability of executives if outbreaks (of COVID-19, salmonella, E-coli or other) reach the consumer. Recently, the Canadian government released guidance for manufacturers, including those operating in the food sector, on how to prevent and limit the spread of COVID-19 in workers in these environments. Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) have made many resources available online, including PPE best practices, employee re-integration for larger groups and guidelines for workers psychological health and safety. The husband of a co-founder of the ReOpen North Carolina protest group has said he would be 'willing to kill people' to fight the government's coronavirus lockdown measures. In the 17-minute video Adam Smith, husband of ReOpenNC founder Ashley Smith from Morganton, North Carolina, said he would 'bring force' and 'bring guns' if armed authorities tried to stop them protesting. The 'peaceful action' group, ReOpenNC, was founded to protest against Governor Roy Cooper's coronavirus lockdown measures. Ex-marine Adam Smith said in the Facebook live video posted Friday: 'Are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay our lives down? We have to say yes.' Ex-marine Mr Smith said in the Facebook live video posted Friday: 'Are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay our lives down? We have to say yes.' He added: 'If you bring force, we're gonna bring force. If you bring guns, we're gonna bring guns. If you're armed with this, we're gonna be armed with this.' On the group's Facebook page they state: 'This grassroots movement has grown to 68,000 North Carolina Patriots. In the 17-minute video Mr Smith (right), husband of ReOpenNC founder Ashley Smith (left) from Morganton, North Carolina, said he would 'bring force' and 'bring guns' Ashley Smith, an organizer of Reopen NC, is arrested outside the Executive Mansion during a rally in downtown Raleigh Tuesday, April 28, 2020 Mrs Smith was arrested by police for not obeying lockdown orders, her husband who filmed the incident can be heard telling police: 'Look at these thugs' 'We stand for The Constitution. We are mostly business owners and employees that are losing our income and denied our right to provide for our families. We have come together to demand action from their elected officials.' Ashley Elaina Smith's mugshot after her arrest at the April 28 protest Mr Smith deleted the Facebook video from his personal page soon after it was posted, but his wife reuploaded the video to the ReOpenNC group on Sunday Mrs Smith wrote to Facebook: 'Maybe you agree with him and maybe you don't, but we have nothing to hide. 'This group is built on the Constitution and that includes free speech and the second amendment. He is simply stating to protect his family and our freedom he is willing to take up arms like our forefathers did', reports The Charlotte Observer. They aim to end all restrictions on social and business activity due to covid-19. The group has been protesting weekly in downtown Raleigh outside the Governor's Mansion and the Legislative Building and held five protests in North Carolina cities over Memorial day weekend. ReOpenNC continue to demonstrate despite some businesses and restaurants being allowed to reopen in phase 2 of the lockdown easing measures. Protesters gather near the North Carolina Legislative Building to protest the stay-at-home orders issued by Gov. Roy Cooper amid the outbreak of COVID-19 in Raleigh, April 28, 2020 The 'Reopen North Carolina' rally (pictured) went forward as planned on April 28 despite the group's leader, Audrey Whitlock, testing positive for the coronavirus At one such protest Mrs Smith was arrested by police for not obeying lockdown orders, her husband who filmed the incident can be heard telling police: 'Look at these thugs, people, arresting her for walking on the sidewalk.' Mr Smith was present at a controversial demonstration in Raleigh on May 16, supporting Blue Igloo, a group who protest the right to open carrying of weapons while citing the second amendment. The group were photographed not practicing social distancing while carrying military grade weapons. The name Blue Igloo is believed to come from the word 'Boogaloo', the Anti-Defamation League's slang for a coming civil war, reports The Charlotte Observer. Amidst the ongoing tension, soaring health crisis and military stand-off between India and China, in what looks like a clear cut political move, the latter has decided to evacuate its citizens from India in the current situation. As per the news reports, China has arranged flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to Shanghai, Chongqing, Jinan, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou, starting June 2. The Chinese embassy on its website recently asked its citizens wishing to return to book themselves on the flights. Taking to this news on his Twitter account and calling this step as ironic, Mahindra Group Chief Anand Mahindra wrote, I have never seen a better occasion to apply the adjective Ironic! Besides, a notice by the Chinese embassy in India said those willing to return home should register by May 27. The evacuees will have to pay for the tickets, according to reports. I have never seen a better occasion to apply the adjective Ironic! https://t.co/EwOWairLbs anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) May 25, 2020 Well, we do agree on this ironic part and people on social media were also quick enough to respond to his tweet and some even came up with their own theories. Check out some of the reactions here: @naveenvb1 sir ka caption dekho Akshay Zanje (@zanje_akshay) May 25, 2020 Really ironic Jee (@gbalajindia) May 25, 2020 Do we smell trouble, China extracting chinese for a full fledged trade war Ravi Muthreja (@RAVIMUTHREJA) May 25, 2020 I'm sensing something fishy...India needs to prepare for it.. Sharon L (@SL211187) May 25, 2020 It seems they are planning something and under the guise of COVID -19, they are evacuating their people. Arindam Sarmah (@sarmahabk) May 25, 2020 Sir, seems even you are pissed off with China. Anirban Banerjee (@banji_007) May 25, 2020 Are they doing the same for USA? I doubt. Although great example of nudges and signalling. They want to convey something. Let's pretend not to understand. Atul Mishra (@mr_a2ul) May 25, 2020 Its better, let them take all Chinese Items back! Neel_PowerPuff Girl (@Nish70574141) May 25, 2020 Heres a food for thought. At a time, when there is strained relations between the two countries, as India supports the move for an inquiry into the origin of COVID-19 and has also decided to scrutinise the Chinese investments, Chinas announcement of evacuating its citizens from India has only given rise to several speculations. SANFORD (AP) The mother of a Marine who was killed in Iraq is pledging to rebuild a war memorial that was destroyed by a dam failure in central Michigan. I sat there and cried, Kim Burgess said after visiting the scene in Sanford last week. I just felt like I had let our veterans down. I know it wasnt my fault. I just feel like I worked so hard to give them something, and it was just destroyed. The Sanford Flagpole Monument was washed away by the Tittabawassee River when the Sanford dam failed during steady rain last week. The memorial was built with a lot of hands. More than 10 businesses donated money or supplies, and the Sanford American Legion Riders held fundraisers over three years, the Detroit Free Press reported. About $70,000 was raised to build it. Sanfords Memorial Day parade started and ended at the monument last year. There were seven aluminum flag poles that honored every branch of the military. The poles were designed to hold their ground in strong winds but not a rare flood. Burgess son, Lance Cpl. Ryan Burgess, was killed in Iraq in 2006. She is promising to rebuild the memorial and add a flag pole to honor first responders who saved people during the flood. A mud-stained American flag was recovered when the water receded. Burgess wants to permanently display it to remember the flood. If it takes us 10 years, were gonna do this for our veterans, Burgess said. We want these veterans to know that we still love them. We still care for them. The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has issued a warning regarding prank videos involving farm machinery circulating on social media app TikTok. Videos uploaded to social media site TikTok of people recording pranks while using farm machinery have been branded as grossly irresponsible by the IFA. Tim Cullinan, IFA President, has hit out at people who are recording the pranks with farm machinery. This practice is grossly irresponsible and is an accident waiting to happen. I am disgusted that people could be so casual and have no regard for the dangers involved in what they are doing, he said. Videos have emerged in recent weeks depicting individuals in dangerous scenarios involving different types of farm machinery such as quad bikes, tractors, trailers and other machinery carried out to be uploaded to the popular app. With eight farm fatalities already this year, Tim Cullinan said those carrying on like this should take a hard look at themselves. Too often, people are not willing to act responsibly and identify the risks. All farmers and contractors need to make it clear to their employees that engaging in these practices is a sackable offence, he said. The Gauteng Department of Health on Sunday confirmed that 53 employees at AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng mine in the Merafong district have tested positive for Covid-19. According to the latest update on the company's website, the number of positive cases has now been confirmed as 164, of which the vast majority are asymptomatic. All positive cases will be isolated in line with national health protocols, with on-site facilities available for those who may need them. Mponeng uses electronic tracking of all people underground as a safety tool in the event missing miners have to be located. This system has been useful in quickly locating primary, or close contacts. The management of the mine has indicated that the underground production will remain closed until further notice, the department said. MEC Bandile Masuku and the Gauteng health team will meet with the mine management on Sunday afternoon to receive a report. Additionally, a meeting is arranged between the West Rand District Health team and the mine team for Monday for further engagement and collective intervention. Limited mining activities restarted in the country about a month ago. In terms of lockdown regulations, employers are required to provide a workplace risk assessment plan that should include the provision of screening and testing facilities, sanitary and social distancing measures and measures to protect vulnerable employees. Recently, Impala Platinum revealed that about 19 cases of COVID-19 had been detected at its Marula mine in Limpopo. The workers were asymptomatic, highlighting the challenges of both monitoring and preventing new infections in confined underground mining, Fin24 reported. AngloGold Ashanti operates the Obuasi and Iduapreim mines in Ghana. Source: class fm Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Jamal Khashoggis family may have publicly forgiven the eight men Saudi Arabia had convicted in the journalists 2018 assassination, but that has done little to take Congress eye off Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans alleged role in the murder. Democrats are doubling down on efforts to force the Donald Trump administration to publicly release a report on every Saudi official complicit in the murder, which could include the crown prince himself. A United Nations report found credible evidence that Prince Mohammed was involved in the journalists murder. The CIA has reportedly reached a similar assessment. There can be no accountability for the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi until the administration makes public what the US government knows regarding who in the Saudi government ordered, carried out and attempted to cover up the killing, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Al-Monitor in a statement. Congress will need to take further legislative and budgetary steps to ensure declassification of a report the intelligence community provided to Congress earlier this year. Last years defense authorization bill required the Trump administration to submit an unclassified version of the list to Congress. The initial bill also included a provision that would have sanctioned every Saudi official named in the report. While that veto-proof provision passed the House 405-7, the final bill did not contain sanctions amid opposition from the White House and its Senate Republican allies. The Trump administration refused to give Congress an unclassified report per the law. Instead, the intelligence community submitted a classified version in February, arguing that publicizing it would jeopardize sources and methods. A House Democratic aide who did not want to be identified told Al-Monitor, We are unaware of any harm to US national security that would result from declassifying the February report. This is especially the case because the [intelligence community] should be able to rely on a broad range of sources and reporting to reach analytical conclusions consistent with what is outlined in the annex, added the aide. The administrations failure to comply with the law [that] required an unclassified report on Khashoggi gives rise to concerns that [the Office of the Director of National Intelligence] is using the classification process impermissibly in order to shield information of public interest. Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., who stepped down earlier this month, urged the Trump administration to declassify the report in a letter alongside the panels top Democrat, Mark Warner, D-Va., earlier this year. And one Intelligence Committee member, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has threatened to take advantage of a little-used Senate mechanism that would trigger a vote on declassifying the report. Wyden has yet to trigger the vote on the committee, and his office did not respond to Al-Monitors request for comment. Still, the Oregon senator did list Intelligence Director John Ratcliffes refusal to commit to declassifying the Khashoggi report during his confirmation hearing as one of his reasons for voting against his nomination. The Senate nonetheless confirmed Ratcliffe in a 49-44 party-line vote last week. Pang Premchuenpanawan, a keeper from the Karen Elephant Experience, and her team embarked on a journey to bring back the elephants to their home village because of coronavirus. When the COVID-19 pandemic brought collapse to tourism all across Thailand, funding ceased and keepers no longer had the resources to maintain the welfare of their elephants. The keepers waited several months with hopes that the situation would get better and was soon faced with the reality that it would not. Pang finally decided, with the help of some friends, that they needed to go home and bring their elephants with them on what would become the biggest elephant migration in Thailand's history. The great migration included hundreds of elephants from different sites moving across 100 miles. The journey would be long and difficult, especially since one elephant is still young. One little guy is only 4 months old who still walks a little floppily. After 3 or 4 days, the animals will finally reach the mountains of Chiang Mai province. In the villages, the keepers will grow food for the animals and their families and be united with other rescued elephants. The elephants' response? Smiles and noises telling everyone that they are happy to go home. Disastrous Tourism Industry Pang shares that due to the demand in the tourism industry, it took a toll on these majestic creatures. Still, some elephants continue to suffer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In other tourist sites, the elephants are chained with very little food left. Pre-pandemic days, around 3000 elephants were employed in the Thai tourism industry. Locals took advantage of foreigners willing to pay big amounts of money just to interact with the animals. Unlike many tourist photos, the industry has been accused of abuse and cruelty. One man, Uncle Eddy, is concerned that without work, mother elephants struggle to deliver their babies, and the babies would die without proper exercise. He says that if things don't get better in a few months, his connections in Myanmar will allow him to take his 'elephants to work in the logging business there.' Unfortunately, the local government doesn't offer much protection for the elephants. Read Also: Chinese Man Arrested for Smuggling 107 Turtles Worth over $400,000 Safe Passage Two days after Pang pass through a village, the locals chase them out fearing that they carried coronavirus with them. The team shares that they stopped at a river to rest since the elephants became 'very thirsty and it seemed the little one had no energy to walk.' To the rescue was Lek Chailert, charity owner of Save Elephant Foundation, who funded the 'great migration.' She had previously worked with Pang's group in setting up ethical tourist camps, which have all disappeared because of the pandemic. She hopes that they can all start over 'to transform the entire industry.' If it weren't for coronavirus, she shares, 'the elephants would be in the same place.' What the pandemic is doing is allowing elephant keepers and charities time to think, and give tourists time to reflect as well, on the reality of working elephants in the tourist industry. On the third day, the great migration comes to an end as the elephants arrive safely and feast on a buffet prepared by villagers. Once captive, the elephants are free after their 3-day migration, and will hopefully face a better future. Read Also: Penguin Poop Releases High Levels of 'Laughing Gas' Hundred Times Over a Newly Fertilized Danish Field: Study The news keeps getting worse for Republican Ted Howze. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy became the latest Republican to pull his support from the Central Valley congressional candidate in the wake of Politico stories revealing anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant posts that had been deleted from the Turlock (Stanislaus County) veterinarians social media accounts. In light of Mr. Howzes disappointing comments, Leader McCarthy has withdrawn his endorsement. As the leader has previously stated, hateful rhetoric has no place within the Republican Party, Drew Florio, a McCarthy spokesman, said in a statement to Politico on Monday. In the past week, Howze has seen his backing evaporate. The California Republican Party, the National Republican Campaign Committee and numerous local officials have withdrawn their endorsements, even though Howzes opponent, first-term Democratic Rep. Josh Harder, is one of the GOPs top targets in November. Things are going so badly for Howze that he has pulled his list of endorsements from his campaign website. The dozens of vitriolic posts, which appeared on Howzes Facebook and Twitter accounts, attacked Muslims, Mexican immigrants and a variety of Democratic leaders and endorsed a wide range of conspiracy theories. One post said that Christian nations should all be suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS! arguing that a good Muslim cannot be a good American. A 2016 post, signed Ted Howze, American Citizen, called for arresting then-President Barack Obama for treason because he puts the welfare of foreign Muslims ahead of his own citizens. Howze has denied writing the Facebook and Twitter posts, blaming them on an unidentified person who had his password. But none of the contested posts was deleted until the day he announced his unsuccessful 2018 run for Congress. The denials didnt convince GOP leaders. Howzes reported posts are disgraceful, disgusting and do not represent the values we hold or the party we are building, Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the California Republican Party, said in a statement last week pulling its endorsement of Howze. Howze was quick to push back, saying in a statement to the Turlock Journal that what the political party bosses in Sacramento do, thats their business. ... Unlike them, my first priority is the Central Valley and our community. McCarthy, a longtime congressman from Bakersfield, didnt immediately disavow Howze, saying last week that while the posts were disappointing and disturbing, the messages did not reflect the Ted Howze that I have briefly interacted with. But a video call last week obtained by Politico that showed Howze telling supporters that McCarthy would support him if the contest against Harder was still competitive in September apparently convinced the GOP leader to cut Howze loose. The growing clamor over the posts and the danger the accusations of racism against Howze poses to other GOP candidates in California also likely played a role in McCarthys decision. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, for example, attacked former GOP Rep. David Valadao of Hanford for donating $2,500 to Howzes campaign. The Democratic group said Valadao, who is in a tight race to take back the seat he lost in 2018 to Fresno Rep. TJ Cox, has been silent about Howzes long history of racism. Cox already is using Valadaos donation in his own fundraising efforts, and targeted Democrats across the state are likely to point to Howze as an example of the type of candidate the GOP is backing this year. Howze continues to fight back, arguing in a statement that we are under attack by national Democrats and their left-wing media because our campaign is a real threat to beat Josh Harder. At least one group was convinced. The California College Republicans last week reaffirmed their endorsement of Howze. The group says he would protect the God-given right to bear arms and not only oppose creeping socialism, but restore our decaying republic. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth Super Eagles captain and Al Nassrs forward, Ahmed Musa has revealed why he was greatly challenged at Leicester City. According to Musa, the presence of Algeria winger Riyad Mahrez was the major reason he failed to earn a first-eleven playing berth during his spell at Leicester City. Musa signed to the English side, Leicester City for a then club-record 16.6 fee in July 2016 from the Russian top-flight division club, CSKA Moscow. The 27-year-old forward scored two goals in 22 league matches during his time with the Foxes. Advertisement However, after struggling for game time at the club, the management saw it fit to loan him back to CSKA Moscow in January 2018. READ ALSO Avoid Fake News Ahmed Musa Dispels Rumors About Him (Photo) Musa finally left Leicester for Saudi Arabia Professional League club Al Nassr in August 2018. Before they signed me at Leicester City, they told me Riyad Mahrez was leaving. If I knew that Mahrez is going to stay, I will not join Leicester, I would have stayed at CSKA Moscow. When I came, we had a lot of wingers at Leicester City, yet, I still got the chance to play. Musa said on Instagram Live while speaking to SuperSport TVs Carol Tshabalala. Landry's CEO and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta warned of a collapse in the commercial real estate industry as countless businesses are unable to pay rent as they remain closed or are operating at partial capacity. "We can't pay rent if we're not doing business," the Houston billionaire said Tuesday, citing a potential "commercial real estate bust" on CNBC's Power Lunch. Fertitta repeated comments he had made previously about how everyone along the retail business chain should absorb some of the financial pain. "I want to be a reasonable tenant, and I expect the landlord to be reasonable with me. But don't expect me to pay you 100 percent rent when I've been closed by the county, the city, the state, the government -- and you -- because your mall's not open, you're facility's not open, you have no business, your hotel's closed," he said. "This is a time we all have to work together." RESTAURANT MOGUL'S NEW REALITY: How Tilman Fertitta plans to ride out the coronavirus He also addressed the real estate issue with President Donald Trump recently when he visited the White House with a group of restaurant industry executives. During a meeting with Trump and members of his administration, he spoke mostly about the Payment Protection Program, which he received money for but then returned. But he also urged the president to take action on lease terminations, citing million-dollar leases in some of his biggest New York City restaurants. His request was cut off by the president's comments commending him on the good job he's done. The company's biggest chains include Del Frisco's, Mastro's, Morton's and the Strip House. Fertitta has been a tenant in some of Trump's properties. The CNBC report also noted that of Landry's more than 600 restaurants and other hospitality concepts, 270 have reopened. He has reopened two of his five Golden Nugget casinos. LISTEN: What's eating Tilman Fertitta Fertitta also said Tuesday that his suburban restaurants are doing better than those in urban areas, unlike during the great recession, which was driven by a housing crash and suburban restaurants in single-family neighborhoods were hit the most. "People couldn't even make their mortgages and were being evicted. Now its just the opposite," he said. His urban concepts are getting slammed, he added, because business, group and convention travel has effectively come to halt. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met the press on the sidelines of the 3rd session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at 3 pm Sunday afternoon. He took questions regarding China's foreign policy and diplomatic relations via video link. The press conference provided simultaneous interpretation services in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Japanese. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi takes questions at a press conference on China's foreign policy and foreign relations via video link on the sidelines of the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, May 24, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua] Here are the highlights: On the COVID-19 pandemic The most important lesson that can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that peoples lives and health are closely connected with each other's and that all countries are in the same global village, Wang said. Wang said all countries should transcend their differences and work together to overcome the novel coronavirus, instead of political manipulation, seeking benefits at others expense or ignoring science. On China-US relations A political virus that is trying to attack and slander China regardless of basic facts is spreading in the United States, Wang said. Wang said the US has made up so many lies and brewed so many plots about China that they can be compiled into a collection. Given that the COVID-19 has taken so many lives around the world, Wang urged China and the US to learn from each other and share their experience on combating the virus to help the anti-epidemic efforts in both countries. On globalization Globalization, multilateralism and global governance should be championed and optimized in the post COVID-19 pandemic world, Wang said. Wang said the development of human history is punctuated with triumph against major disasters. "So long as we make the right choices and follow the right path, we will embrace a bright future," he said. "We need to mitigate the unbalanced regional developmental issues and inequality created by globalization," he said. "But the issue of globalization needs to be solved with globalization." A joint fight by China and Russia against the novel coronavirus will give a strong boost to bilateral relations, Wang said. China is willing to work with Russia to turn the crisis into an opportunity to maintain the stability of cooperation in energy and other traditional fields, and accelerate cooperation in new areas, such as e-commerce and medicine, to make new engines of economic growth after the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang said. On global aid China has been offering assistance to other countries to fight COVID-19 with the sole intention of trying to save as many lives as possible, Wang said. Wang said China never seeks any geopolitical economic interests through such assistance, neither does it attach any political strings to the assistance. China has provided assistance to about 150 countries and four international organizations, held video conferences to share disease treatment and control experience with more than 170 countries, and sent teams of medical experts to 24 countries, according to Wang. On National security legislation for HKSAR Wang Yi said the national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will not influence the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors. Wang said the draft decision to establish and improve a legal framework and enforcement mechanism for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong, which has been submitted to the third session of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation, aims to punish the small minority of people who jeopardize the national security. It will not influence the high autonomy of the SAR, the rights and freedom of Hong Kong residents as well as the legitimate rights and interests of the foreign investors, he added. On origin of virus The history should be based on facts and truth instead of being misguided and contaminated by lies, Wang Yi said, refuting some US politicians' efforts to politicize and stigmatize attempts to find the origin of the novel coronavirus. Wang called for conscientious and rational efforts to leave an objective and true memory of the COVID-19 pandemic for the whole mankind. China views the international scientific research into the origin of the virus with an open mind, but the process should be conducted in a professional, fair and constructive way, he said. On China-EU relations China and the European Union are not ideological competitors, but are strategic partners sharing many interests and aspirations, Wang said. "The most important lesson from the relationship is that both sides can build mutual trust through fair dialogue, and handle differences through constructive exchanges," he said. "China and the EU do not have fundamental conflicts of interests. China-EU interactions are a mutually beneficial positive cycle, not a competition where one side loses and the other side wins," the minister said. Lawsuits related to COVID-19 doom to fail Beijing will not accept lawsuits from other countries on losses from COVID-19 and such attempts to infringe on China's sovereignty and dignity are doomed to failure, Wang said. Wang said that the accusations are completely baseless both in terms of laws and facts and have no international precedents. China, like other countries, is also a victim of the pandemic, he said. On China, Japan and ROK cooperation China, Japan and the Republic of Korea should continue their cooperation to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and work together to resume their business operations and ensure stable supply chains, Wang said. The three countries have been working closely to control the outbreak, and their people have been looking out for and helping each other to overcome COVID-19, which has set an example for the world in fighting the pandemic, Wang said. The three countries also should cooperate to improve regional economic cooperation by measures such as reducing tariffs and opening markets to each other, Wang said, calling for them to work to get the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership signed this year. On the tasks of Chinese diplomacy in 2020 China will be firmer in its determination and take much stronger measures to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests and resolutely prevent the external forces from interfering in its domestic affairs, Wang said. Speaking of the tasks of Chinese diplomacy in 2020, Wang said the country will also strive to maintain the stability of the global industrial chains, promote trade liberalization and facilitation to counter the downward pressure on the world economy. While consolidating partnerships with the rest of the world, Wang said the country firmly supports multilateralism, particularly in enhancing the global health governance, backs the World Health Organization in playing a leading role in the fight against COVID-19, and commits to the building of a global health community. On helping Africa combat virus China will work with G20 members to implement the Debt Service Suspension Initiative to ease the debt burden of African countries and continue helping the continent to combat COVID-19, Wang said. China is also considering supporting African nations under the greatest strains through bilateral channels to get through the difficult period. China will offer more anti-epidemic assistance to African countries, as well as other developing nations, send more medical experts teams to the continent and accelerate the construction of the headquarters of the Africa Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, he said. On foreign exchanges Wang pledged efforts to gradually resume normal exchanges with other countries and adopt forceful measures to bolster international win-win cooperation in helping the country win its war against poverty. Wang said that China's development is faced with extremely complicated external challenges, and the Foreign Ministry will work to minimize the shock from the pandemic over the safety and health of the people and socioeconomic development. On China's approach of diplomacy China will never seek international hegemony, and will always stand by the common interests of all countries, Wang said. China has always adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, and will champion world peace and common development, Wang said, rebuking comments that China is adopting a "wolf-warrior" approach of diplomacy. The Chinese people cherish peace, and China will never take the initiative to bully others, Wang said. It will, however, hit back powerfully at intentional defamation, he added. On the WHO role Smearing the World Health Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic runs against the humanitarian spirit and will not be accepted by the international community, Wang said. The WHO is an organization dedicated to public health under the United Nation. "The reputation of WHO will not be tarnished by some countries' smearing efforts," Wang said. At every critical juncture of the epidemic, the WHO has promptly issued professional advice based on scientific evidence. "Those that have followed the WHO's advice have relatively handled the COVID-19 outbreak well, while countries that ignored or rejected its advice have paid a heavy price." On Belt and Road Infrastructure and public well-being projects under the Belt and Road Initiative have played an important role for partner countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang said. Wang said that looking into the future, the joint building of the Belt and Road will be conducted on a more solid foundation, with more vitality and broader prospects after the pandemic. According to Wang, China-Europe freight trains have transported 8,000 tons of materials used to help combat the virus from January to April. On ties with ASEAN China stands ready to further improve the level of economic integration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with joint efforts to enable the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership this year, Wang Yi said. Wang said that China will continue to see ASEAN as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and support the central role of the trade bloc in East Asian cooperation. The two sides must step up cooperation in reopening businesses and make up for the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. On Korean Peninsula Enhancing mutual trust and breaking the impasse on the Korean Peninsula require more concrete actions, Wang said. China is glad to see continuous interaction between the leaders of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and hopes the two sides will resume meaningful dialogues at an early date, Wang said. The DPRK has taken positive measures to promote de-escalation of tension and denuclearization on the peninsula, but it is regrettable that such moves meet no response from the US, which is the main reason for the ongoing stalemate of their dialogue. On opposing official interactions with Taiwan In response to a question about Taiwan, Wang said one-China principle is the common consensus of the international community, and also constitutes the political foundation of bilateral ties between China and the countries having diplomatic relations with it. China firmly opposes countries taking anti-epidemic measures as an excuse to develop official relations with the island, which is an inalienable part of China, he said, and it opposes the violation of "one-China" principle to seek international space for Taiwan. On South China Sea It's "totally ungrounded" to assume that China is expanding its presence in the South China Sea during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang said. Wang said the truth is that China is focusing on cooperating with ASEAN countries to fight the pandemic. The situation in the South China Sea keeps getting more stabilized and better, Wang said, adding that China and ASEAN countries are making progress in marine cooperation. On helping overseas Chinese The Foreign Ministry and its embassies and consulates have conducted a special campaign worldwide to help the overseas Chinese nationals fight against the COVID-19, Wang said. Wang said the ministry has coordinated with more than 20 teams of medical experts to provide guidance for overseas Chinese and has sent over one million health kits to Chinese students studying abroad. On Afghanistan's peace-building process China will keep playing a positive and constructive role in facilitating peace and economic development in Afghanistan, Wang said. Wang said that he hoped the country can return to normality after the signing of the peace deal between the US and the Taliban in February. Wang said the US side should withdraw its military responsibly to avoid damaging the interests of Afghanistan and neighboring countries. On restarting Hubei's international exchanges The ministry will host a special global promotion event to introduce Central China's Hubei province, the country's hardest-hit area by the COVID-19 pandemic, and its capital, Wuhan, which have had a rebirth after the pandemic, to garner more global understanding and support, he said. Kerry Katona has used her troubling appearance on This Morning in 2008 as a way to call out trolls who 'take the p**s out of people's mental health illnesses'. The reality personality, 39, featured on the ITV magazine show 12 years ago, when she slurred her way through an interview, leading to much concern for her well-being. It was eventually revealed that she was suffering side-effects of her bipolar medicine, and that she was battling an addiction to drugs - despite her insisting during the live interview that she was 'absolutely fine'. Mocking: Kerry Katona has used her troubling appearance on This Morning in 2008 as a way to call out trolls who 'take the p**s out of people's mental health illnesses' Taking to TikTok on Tuesday, Kerry posted a video of herself mimicking her behaviour while clutching a bottle of champagne. She mouthed along to the audio from the This Morning appearance, with her slurring: 'Absolutely fine, I've literally just got here! Woke up this morning and literally just got here. Fine - never been happier, I swear to God!' In the interview she was questioned by then-hosts Fern Britton and Philip Schofield about her behaviour, in which she insisted she was perfectly well. She captioned the TikTok spoof: 'Soooo apparently its okay to take the piss out of peoples mental health illnesses.... well if you cant beat them join them! #ownit #past #moveon #bekind' Making a point: Taking to TikTok on Tuesday, Kerry posted a video of herself mimicking her behaviour while clutching a bottle of champagne She mouthed along to the audio from the This Morning appearance, with her slurring: 'Absolutely fine, I've literally just got here! Woke up this morning and literally just got here. Fine - never been happier, I swear to God!' The latter hashtag - #bekind - came to prominence earlier this year when presenter Caroline Flack took her own life. It appeared that Kerry was hitting out at trolls who have seemingly recently been making fun of her - although the specifics of this wasn't explained. Back in January, she mocked the infamous appearance again, this time in a more humorous vain. She took to Instagram to share a snap from the dentist after having her 'dirty rotten teeth taken out' and likened her groggy-eyed expression to her drug-induced appearance 12 years ago. Car-crash TV: It was eventually revealed that she was suffering side-effects of her bipolar medicine, and that she was battling an addiction to drugs - despite her insisting during the live interview that she was 'absolutely fine' Looking back: Back in January, she mocked the infamous appearance again, this time in a more humorous vain Kerry detailed her dental treatment to her 555,000 Instagram followers as she revealed she was having teeth extracted. Sharing the shot when she had just come around for the procedure, she wrote: 'So this is me after having my dirty rotten teeth taken out yesterday! everytime I look at this pic I just p**s myself laughing!!!! Dont think they knew what to do with me'. She then seemed to see an even funnier take on image as she wrote: 'Some things never change if you cant laugh at yourself what can you do! thought Id get there first!!!! after being sedated @the.sandford fun times'. Kerry has proudly boasted of her life overhaul since the interview during which she was slurring and appeared out of sorts. During the chat, Phillip asked: 'If I'm honest you don't seem right to me. You're speech is slurred. How are you feeling?' Groggy: She took to Instagram to share a snap from the dentist after having her 'dirty rotten teeth taken out' and likened her groggy-eyed expression to her drug-induced appearance 12 years ago Kerry, who was married to Mark Croft at the time, replied: 'I'm on medication at night time. This is going to be made as a huge publicity thing,' as Phil added: 'I am merely pointing out what people are thinking who are watching.' Fern, who presented the show at the time, asked about a recent magazine photo shoot. She said: 'The interview did say you'd only go in the early hours of the morning, you'd had quite a bit to drink... 'It said you went to get ready with a bottle of champagne. They wanted you to jump in the pool and you were tempted after they said you'd have a shot afterwards.' In 2010, Kerry reflected on the car-crash interview, saying: 'That wasn't me back then. I was in a very dark dark place, I was on a lot of heavy medication, I was in a very unhappy marriage, and I was taking drugs.' She said that her behaviour was down to her Bipolar medication: 'I was on 350mg of chlorpromazine, which I took at quarter to twelve the night before, and every morning my speech would be very slur, and it'd wear off in the afternoon.' Asked previously if she had looked back on the interview in full, she said: 'No. I'm too embarrassed and ashamed. It's mortifying. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people around me. I've moved away... A month later: Kerry and Mark split up. A police investigation into how the couple spent 10m in their five years together was launched (pictured in February 2008) 'I wasn't a good person then. And it's hard to watch it back, it's hard, oh my God [to think that] my kids are going to have to watch this when they grow up.' While she discussed the interview with Phillip and Holly Willoughby two years later, Holly asked: 'But when you see the clips, can you understand why Phil and Fern would've asked those questions?' Kerry responded: 'Yes, completely. I completely understand, you have to remember I was in complete denial of my life at that point. 'I was in a wrong marriage, with the wrong person, [but] I'm not going to blame anybody else for my doings - I hold my hands up and take complete responsibility. Nobody forced me to do anything. 'But when you're in a marriage like that or relationship or surrounded by people... until you find strength to get out of what you're in, there's not a lot you can do.' Shocking: Kerry was caught in an infamous 2009 News of the World video in which she was seen snorting cocaine (pictured in a promo for her 2005 reality show My Fair Kerry) Kerry continued: 'I shouldn't have done the interview - but I'm glad I have done because it's changed me. That interview, the News of the World video... it's all changed me. It gave me a massive wake up call.' Kerry was referring to the infamous 2009 News of the World video that she admits did indeed show her snorting cocaine. She said: 'Yes. Yes, I was. I hold my hands up. And if I hadn't of done any of those things, the situation I was in, the people I was surrounded by, I had nobody to help me - these were my friends and family - and I had no one to help me. 'I was made bankrupt. I'd been dropped by Iceland. It was spiralling out of control and I started taking more and more drugs.' State education officials are looking to waive certain high school testing requirements for many students in Massachusetts due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley posted a memo ahead of the boards Tuesday afternoon meeting in which he recommended modifying the competency determination for high school graduation for the classes of 2021, 2022 and 2023. The determination requires that students pass one high school science and technology/engineering Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test to graduate. Many students take the test in their freshman or sophomore year. Under Rileys recommendation, the determination could be awarded to students who earned credit for a course in the relevant field and who showed competency in one of the four subjects. The goal is to address disruptions caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 or the state of emergency, and the modifications would apply to students entering grades 10, 11 or 12, Riley said. While some students in the classes of 20212023 have already met the state standard in STE, many others are missing the opportunity to take the end-of-course MCAS test this spring. In the next school year, some students will move on to science classes in which we do not offer an MCAS test, the commissioner wrote in his memo. The recommendation comes as the outbreak of the viral respiratory infection has altered academics across the country, forcing students and educators throughout Massachusetts to move to remote learning. Last month, Gov. Charlie Baker announced students would have to remain home for the rest of the school year to stave off transmission of the virus. The commissioner is allowed to make the testing changes for the 2019 to 2020 school year because of a bill Baker signed into law in late April permitting the Department of Elementary of Secondary Education to modify MCAS graduation requirements for high school seniors due to the public health crisis. Riley also recommended that students in the class of 2024, who were in eighth grade this year and are entering their freshman year of high school in the fall, complete STE MCAS testing in 2021 or 2022, depending on their school or districts testing plan. We recognize that the situation for next school year may change depending on the evolving nature of the pandemic. We will reassess as needed and keep the Board and the public informed about any changes, he wrote in his memo. As part of the commissioners recommendations, students in the classes of 2021 to 2023 will still be able to qualify for the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship and the Stanley Z. Koplik Certificate of Mastery Award. Both awards require that students earn certain MCAS test scores across science and technology/engineering, English and mathematics. He noted that the board is working with the state Department of Higher Education to find a fair approach to changing the criteria for the scholarship programs and will announce the changes soon. Related Content: On a cloudy, unseasonably cool Memorial Day Sunday, people along Olde New Jersey Avenue in North Wildwood mingled with drinks in hand as if it were New Orleans. They did not fear police or bars from cracking down on them - its legal. Last Tuesday, North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello announced the town would allow public consumption of alcohol in certain designated areas - a major shift in public practice. The move followed Gov. Phil Murphy signing a bill allowing businesses with liquor licenses to sell sealed alcoholic beverages for takeout, as part of the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions. North Wildwood then allowed buyers to start sipping right outside because Rosenello said it would be an enforcement nightmare for police. Its temporary, the mayor said, until the public health emergency from the coronavirus pandemic is over. Its working, bar owners and the mayor say. Bill Mecca, left, Andrew Fehrle, and Ryan Wanner, of Philadelphia, enjoy a takeout cocktail outside of Keenan's Irish Pub in North Wildwood on Sunday, May 24, 2020. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com This is our first time, and it is pretty good, said Bill Mecca as he and friends Andrew Fehrle and Ryan Wanner sipped mango crushes near Keenans Irish Pub. It is nice, convenient, easy, and it brings some normalcy to the summer. You can go right there, pick it up, and drink it right outside," Mecca said. The three, from Philadelphia, traveled to North Wildwood to take advantage of the take-out offerings. Typically, on Memorial Day Weekend, the seats around the outside bar and nearby tables are full. Now, Jimmy Reeves, the general manager of Keenans Irish Pub, has had to adjust to the new regulations. It is different, but anything is better than nothing, Reeves said. At least we have the doors open, and we can sell some alcohol and keep people happy. Reeves is looking forward to the day when the bar is entirely back open, but understands the situation. We encourage people that when they feel comfortable, to come out and support local businesses, Reeves added. If you do not feel comfortable, just stay at home until you do feel comfortable. Up and down Olde New Jersey Avenue, people were milling about with their plastic, sealed cups, enjoying their drinks. Blackwood resident Heather OConnell was also outside Keenans, drinking a blueberry lemonade while standing just off the premises. It is a better option than just not going to go to a liquor store again, OConnell said. And of course, it gets us outside and brings some normalcy back. Heather O'Connell, of Blackwood, right, waits for food and takeout cocktails outside of Keenan's Irish Pub in North Wildwood on Sunday, May 24, 2020. With her is her daughter Caitlin Coccia. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Rosenello, the mayor, told NJ Advance Media the first weekend of public drinking went well. Some small crowds were gathering outside of the bars Friday night, but after the citys police department and business owners talked and worked it out, the gatherings dispersed, and everything went smoothly for the rest of the weekend. "People would get their drinks in very small groups, have their drink, and then move on, Rosenello said. "It did not become a party or festival atmosphere, so I think that our first attempt managing this new state law worked out pretty well. The mayor said people just need to behave responsibly, and he sees other towns going the way North Wildwood has. Once restaurants are permitted to provide onsite, or inside service, the town will evaluate the outside consumption change. I think mature adults should be able to consume alcohol in a responsible way, he said. "With the new state law allowing to-go alcohol, my sense is that every town in the state is going to have to revisit their open consumption laws. Keriann McKissick, from Tacos and Tequila in North Wildwood, bags up a takeout cocktail for Bailee Otto, of Philadelphia, on Sunday, May 24, 2020. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Down the street, Joe Lerro, owner of Joe Joes Place / Tacos & Tequila, said Memorial Day is historically one of the busiest weekends of the year, even busier than the Fourth of July weekend. Now, among New Jerseys pandemic restrictions, his businesses are only doing 20% of the typical volume during a good year. Even if he reopens and can have the limited clientele inside, it will be a very rough year. It might be August before we even break even, Lerro said. I do not foresee making any money this year. It comes down to just surviving and taking care of your health and that of your employees. Ferro said the city has been helpful and understanding, but hes frustrated with restrictions and fears the property tax bill he and other similar businesses face. I wonder if next year when these businesses are worth 30% or 40% less or are boarded up if they are going to be that quick to reassess our taxes and give us a 30 or 40% discount on our taxes," he said. "I would really like to ask the governor that question. Customers order to go drinks from the Seaport Pier on the boardwalk in North Wildwood on Sunday, May 24, 2020. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com On the boardwalk at Seaport Pier, stickers placed 6 feet apart on the wooden planks remond people where to stand while ordering - as has become commonplace at takeout restaurants around the state. Like Lerro, Seaport Pier Co-Owner John Little Jr. is happy to have some business with takeout alcohol, but hes also suffering. Right now, we are just doing it to make people see that we are here and do things of that nature, Little said. Financially, it is not helping as much at all. The mayor and the police chief in North Wildwood have been helping us tremendously trying to get us open. But until we are fully open, as big as this place is, that is when we can get your money. Enjoying drinks outside of Keenan's Irish Pub in North Wildwood on Sunday, May 24, 2020. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Tim Hawk may be reached at thawk@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. New Delhi, May 26 : Airtel Payments Bank (APBL) has partnered with Mastercard to develop customized products catering to customers across the underbanked spectrum including farmers, small and medium enterprises and retail customers. As part of the Government's vision of Digital India and Banking for every Indian, both entities have been working towards driving adoption of formal banking and digital payments in the country. The collaboration will bring together Mastercard's global and local experience in developing advanced financial solutions and Airtel Payments Bank's strong distribution network to reach the last mile and its large customer base. The collaboration aims at building a digital platform which provides farmers with knowledge about advanced farming techniques and connection to marketplaces, while simultaneously enabling them to receive payments directly in their Airtel Payments Bank account. Combined with 500,000 banking points of Airtel Payments Bank, the platform will provide farmers with access to neighbourhood banking, earnings stability and income growth. This will be a significant move towards building a cashless economy. Both partners will also work together to create customized solutions for millions of small businesses across the country. These solutions will empower small and medium scale enterprises, who have limited access to finance, to make assisted payments, manage their financial & transactional processes, and also avail working capital in these times of crisis. Finally, Airtel Payments Bank and Mastercard will work together to create differentiated card solutions, including solutions for contact less payments via NFC (Near Field Communication) for customers and merchants. Anubrata Biswas, MD and CEO, Airtel Payments Bank said "..we aim to create products that will motivate customers to adapt formal banking behaviour and start opting for digital payments. These solutions will be an addition to our existing differentiated bouquet of easy, accessible and convenient banking and payment solutions to serve the underserved and unbanked population." Porush Singh, Division President, South Asia, Mastercard said, "These solutions will enable them to access a larger market base, receive payments easily into their bank accounts, safeguard their money against risks associated with cash and get easy access to credit. The partnership will also play an important role towards achieving Mastercard's goal to empower India's merchants with digital payments acceptance infrastructure by the end of this year. Airtel Payments Bank has been working with Mastercard for last three years to offer Mastercard powered debit cards to its savings bank account customers in the country. The tool uses machine learning techniques to analyse public data and deliver hypothetical projections of how different isolation measures will impact the spread of COVID-19. The intention is to make it possible for experts and governments around the world to analyse how various exit strategies will impact the spread of COVID-19 in a six-month time frame. Four different activity areas are given as variables: workplaces, outdoor activities, public transportation, and retail. To generate its predictions, the tool uses data that is publicly available from the Google COVID-19 dataset, in particular mobility data as well as data from Johns Hopkins University. A user is able to understand how policies related to each activity impact the spread of the disease by selecting a country and changing the value that represents the intensity of any given isolation measure. Yves Le Traon brought together two teams at SnT to collaborate on this project. The researchers are releasing a beta version of the instrument for two reasons. First, in order to provide this tool as quickly as possible for the benefit of the public. Second, as with any beta version, they have arrived at the point in the development process requires the feedback of users in order to refine the machine-learning algorithm that drives it. The Adaptive Exit Strategies simulator is available here: https://serval-snt.github.io/covid19/ The simulator is an ongoing project, as such it is updated gradually by the interdisciplinary team as they progress in their research. In the future, scientists consider adding customisation features based on datasets from the World Health Organisation (WHO), such as wearing masks and testing strategies. "The simulator is a ground-breaking instrument with the potential to enhance the COVID-19 exit strategy planning of all included countries," said Prof. Stephane Pallage, rector of the University of Luxembourg. "COVID-19 requires agile solutions and Prof. Le Traon's team have reacted swiftly by disclosing a valuable technology that allows to model possible effects of public policy decisions as exit strategies are being planned and implemented." "The saying 'knowledge is power' may be overused, but when it comes to the coronavirus it takes on new meaning as every piece of data has the potential to impact the lives of people around the world," said Prof. Yves Le Traon, Vice-Director of SnT. "Given the enormous amount of data to analyse, we have developed this tool to support exit strategy planning. As many countries in Europe are beginning to execute on their plans already, we wanted to release our work as soon as possible." ### Add CoolSocial badge. Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: Towalker.com scored 59 Social Media Impact. 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Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Sagar : , May 26 (IANS) Thousands of people have benefitted from 'Sarokar Yojana launched by authorities in Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh to help people finding it difficult to arrange two square meals a day for their families due to loss of jobs amid the coronavirus outbreak. Dry ration and food has been provided to the needy for the last 66 days under the programme across the district, in which local people too have contributed. Nodal Officer Mahendra Pratap Tiwari said that over eight lakh food packets and dry ration to more than 8,000 families have been provided since March 23 to the poor and needy. Such distribution of food and dry ration has been done at various places across the city. He said that 13 community kitchens have been set up by different social organisations in Sagar, where food is prepared and then distributed to the needy. Even the government officials have chipped in this endeavour. As many as 669 staff of the Education Department are helping in distributing food packets which are ferried across the city in vehicles requisitioned by the district administration. Even migrant labourers returning home on foot to their native places have been provided cooked food. Tiwari said that food and other items worth Rs 3.5 crore have so far been distributed among the intended beneficiaries. A day after he was asked to help a fan procure some alcohol during the lockdown, Sonu Sood has been asked to reunite a man with his girlfriend. The actor has been helping migrant labourers travel back to their home states from Maharashtra. On Tuesday, a Twitter user wrote to Sonu, Bhaiya, girlfriend se hi milwa dijiye. Bihar hi jaana hai. (Brother, help me get to my girlfriend, shes in Bihar). To this, Sonu humorously responded, Thode din door reh ke dekh le bhai, sache pyaar ki pareeksha bhi ho jayegi (Try to stay apart for a few days bro, itll be the acid test for your relationship). Sonu has been flooded with requests both of a serious and joking nature. Just a day earlier, a fan had written, Sonu bhai main apne ghar me fasa hua hu. Mujhe theke tak pahucha do (Brother, I am stuck at my home, please help me reach a liquor shop). The actor replied, Bhai main theke se ghar tak to pahucha sakta hu, zarurat pade to bol dena (Brother, I can help you reach home from a liquor shop, if you need help do tell me). Also read: Fan tells Sonu Sood hes stuck at home and needs help to visit liquor shop, actors reply leaves Twitter laughing In an interview to Hindustan Times, Sonu spoke about his efforts. It has been an extremely emotional journey for me, as my heart pains to see these migrants staying away from their homes and trying to walk all the way home. I will continue sending migrants home until the last migrant reunites with his family and loved ones. This is something really close to my heart and I will give it my all, he said. Recently, Union minister Smriti Irani and actor Ajay Devgn also praised the actor for helping migrant workers return home amid the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown. Tagging a tweet by Sood in which he asked a migrant to share his number so that he can arrange for his travel back home, Irani said: Ive had the privilege of knowing you as a professional colleague for over 2 decades now @SonuSood and celebrated your rise as an actor ;but the kindness you have displayed in these challenging times makes me prouder still thank you for helping those in need. Praising Sonu for his efforts in sending migrants home, Ajay wrote, The sensitive nature of the work that you are doing with sending migrant workers back to their homes safely is exemplary. More strength to you, Sonu. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Click the photo to write a caption and have a chance to win a free subscription to the Norfolk Daily News. U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive to the South Lawn of the White House after a trip to Baltimore, Mld. on May 25, 2020 in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images) Trump Says He Has A Chance To Break The Deep State, Teases New Revelations From Declassification President Donald Trump on Sunday hailed recent disclosures of information regarding government surveillance of the Trump campaign, saying that it has afforded him a chance to break the so-called deep state. In an interview with journalist Sharyl Attkisson, Trump suggested that additional information is going to come out about the surveillance efforts. Other things are going to come out, too. And a lot of other things are going to come out, but you dont even need other things, he said. I would like to see it move much faster, Trump added. Trump went on to accuse the deep state of trying to derail his presidency through the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. If it keeps going the way its going, I have a chance to break the deep state, Trump said. Its a vicious group of people. Its very bad for our country. And thats never happened before. Trump called former FBI Director James Comey a dirty cop, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe a bad guy. Trump praised Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, for declassifying and releasing a slew of documents related to investigations of the Trump campaign. Richard Grenell is a superstar. He had guts, he had courage to do what he did, Trump said. He also said he has high hopes for Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, who takes over for Grenell on Tuesday. We have another superstar going in as you know, John Ratcliffe. Earlier this month, Grenell declassified a list of Obama administration officials who requested intelligence reports regarding Michael Flynn. In April, Grenell declassified footnotes from a Justice Department inspector generals report which showed that the FBI had evidence in 2017 that Russian intelligence operatives fed disinformation to Christopher Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier. Grenell said Saturday the he is working on declassifying other documents related to the FBIs investigation of Flynn. When you look at what Richard Grenell has done in eight weeks, these people didnt do anything for two and a half years. They should have been exposing this. Trump criticized Dan Coats, who served as director of national intelligence through August 2019. Coats, he sat there, Trump said. He didnt do anything. Follow Chuck on Twitter From The Daily Caller News Foundation Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. The Chairperson of the COVID-19 Trust Fund, Sophia Akuffo, has revealed that all companies that have donated to the national Covid-19 fund will enjoy some tax reliefs. She said the companies will enjoy the benefit when they report at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to file their tax returns. Speaking at an event at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, Sophia Akuffo, said the move by the GRA is aimed at rewarding companies and institutions that responded to calls for a national fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. Were also happy to announce that the Ghana Revenue Authority has confirmed that tax reliefs will be available to donors who make donations to the COVID-19 National Trust Fund when filing their tax returns. This is subject to fulfilling requirements that the GRA has set out in its recently published guidelines for their implementation of the tax incentives in support of taxpayers against the pandemic, she said. The COVID-19 National Trust Fund has in a short while received many donations and contributions from businesses and individuals to complement the efforts of government in the fight against the novel coronavirus. The Fund, which has so far received over GHS50 million, is to help improve the lives of the vulnerable who are worst-hit by the pandemic. In turn, the Fund has also begun donations of distributed toiletries, PPE and other essential medical items to the Ghana Health Service, COVID-19 Care Team and some selected health institutions. Over 12 vehicles have also been handed over to public hospitals and laboratories involved in the testing and treatment of COVID-19 cases as part of fulfilling its purpose. Calls for accountability Meanwhile, the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has asked government and trustees in charge of the COVID-19 Fund to ensure transparency and accountability in the utilization of the fund. The Coalition in a statement also urged the government and all other persons in charge of procuring goods and services in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak to be guided by value for money considerations and strictly abide by public procurement laws. Former President John Dramani Mahama has also called for an audit of the Fund. He has asked administrators of the Fund to keep receipts of expenditure to enhance accountability in the management of the Fund. ----citinewsroom FILE PHOTO: The sun is seen behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County By Noah Browning LONDON (Reuters) - Recovering demand as coronavirus lockdowns ease combined with output cuts by top producers could balance global oil markets as soon as June, some analysts and banks predict. "Bullish sentiment continues to gather momentum as we move closer to June, when ... the global crude balance is set to reach net short territory, to the tune of a non-negligible 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), its tightest point since August 2019," JBC Energy said. (Graphic: Demand/supply balance, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/dgkplwgonvb/ieabalance.JPG) Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak was quoted as saying that a demand rise should help cut a surplus of about 7 million bpd to 12 million by June or July. Russia said its output had dropped almost to its quota for May and June under the deal agreed by major producers known as OPEC+. Traffic congestion data from some of the world's capitals shows a return to gasoline demand levels of a year ago. (Graphic: Tokyo Traffic, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/jznpneyedvl/Tokyo.JPG) The International Energy Agency expects pressure on global storage to ease sharply in the second half of the year. "The trend of stocks filling will start to turn around as we move into deficit in the second half of the year," Neil Atkinson, head of the IEA oil industry and market division, told reporters. Goldman Sachs said this month that the global oil market would move into deficit in June, adding that the biggest demand improvement is in gasoline road transportation in China, the United States and Germany. (Graphic: Change in China oil products demand, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/qmypmoneepr/woodmac.JPG) But Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International told Reuters it expected balance to be reached by around the end of August or mid-September, saying the uptick in mobility so far "won't counter the demand collapse". Cautioning on any projections, BofA Global Research said: "we cannot rule out a second virus outbreak and further lockdowns ... any small oil market surplus could quickly tilt the fine balance." (Additional reporting by Asha Sistla in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith) The Supreme Court on Tuesday took suo motu cognisance of the plight of migrant labourers stranded across the country amid coronavirus lockdown. The apex court said that there are lapses on the side of the Centre and the State governments and urgent measures are needed to address the problems of the migrant labourers, PTI reported. The matter has been listed by the Supreme Court for May 28. The top court has also asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist it on the issue, the report added. The apex court further said, "They have also been complaining of not being provided food and water by the administration at places where they were stranded or in the way i.e. highways from which they proceeded on-foot, cycles or other modes of transport. In the present situation of lockdown in the entire country, this section of the society needs succor and help by the concerned governments, especially steps need to be taken by the government of India, state governments/Union Territories in this difficult situation to extend a helping hand to these migrant labourers." Notice has been issued to the Centre, states and Union Territories by the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M R Shah and replies have been sought by May 28 on the measures taken to redeem the situation. There were reports of many migrants being stranded in different parts of the country due to the suspension of transport services amid lockdown. Many were reported to have walked long distances to reach their villages from the urban centres of the country. The nationwide lockdown in India, which started about a month ago, has impacted nearly 40 million internal migrants, the World Bank recently said in a report. The lockdown in India has impacted the livelihoods of a large proportion of the country's nearly 40 million internal migrants. Around 50,000 60,000 moved from urban centers to rural areas of origin in the span of a few days, the bank said in a report. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government recently announced creation of a Migration Commission for employment of such labourers in the state and made it clear that any state that wants them from UP has to seek its permission. Over 23 lakh workers and migrants have returned to the state till last Sunday. Also read: Mukesh Ambani's youngest son Anant debuts in Jio Platforms as director Also read: Coronavirus updates: Delhi govt issues guidelines for travellers of domestic flights, trains, inter-state buses Actor Mandana Karimi shut down speculation that she has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and clarified in an Instagram live that she has an eye infection. She also assured fans that she was fine and taking care of it with the help of her doctor. The reason I came live is because some of you sent me messages of concern, asking if I have got coronavirus and what is happening. Thank you so much for your concern. No, I havent got coronavirus. I just have an eye infection, which I am taking care of, with my doctor, she said. Guys, educate yourselves, before making any suggestions to anyone. When you dont even know about the symptoms of any sort of sickness, you cant really be a doctor and you cant be making assumptions, she added. Mandana said that the eye infection was probably caused when she was cleaning the house, and accidentally touched her eye with her hand, which was in contact with chemicals. She also advised fans to be cautious while cleaning their houses. Make sure you are careful because this can happen to you. We keep using hand sanitisers, even at home Probably it has contacted my eye and that is why this has happened, she said. During the live, Mandana also said that her dog Elvis was staying with a friend for a few days, as she cannot take him downstairs for a walk or do too much around the house due to her infection. Also see: When Kartik Aaryan borrowed hairstylists t-shirt for stage performance, changed on the road. Watch In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, Mandana said that she is constantly talking to her friends and family through video calls, as she is all alone in Mumbai during the lockdown. It is a strange experience to be locked down. I was shooting in Mumbai for the last two months and was barely home and suddenly, I am home [all the time], she added. Mandana has participated in the popular reality show Bigg Boss 9, on which she was the second runner-up. She has also acted in films such as Main Aur Charles and Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The 360 shows you diverse perspectives on the days top stories and debates. Whats happening In late March, Congress passed the largest stimulus package in American history in an effort to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the most important elements of the massive $2 trillion bill was a provision that boosted unemployment insurance benefits for those who lost work because of stay-at-home orders designed to limit the spread of the virus. Nearly 39 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past nine weeks. The benefits are designed to replace a certain percentage of an unemployed workers lost income. The amount of money given out can vary significantly from state to state, from an average of $213 a week in Mississippi to $555 in Massachusetts. The stimulus bill added an extra $600 a week from the federal government to each of those state payments. Those enhanced benefits are scheduled to end July 31 unless Congress votes to extend them. The issue is likely to be one of the key points of contention as Congress considers its next stimulus bill in the coming weeks. House Democrats passed a bill that would continue the $600 bonus through the end of January. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the GOP would allow an extension over our dead bodies. Why theres debate Opposition to extending the enhanced benefits centers mostly around the claim that the program will hold back the countrys economic recovery by giving people an incentive to stay home rather than go back to work. When combined with the average payout from states, a large number of workers are actually making more money on unemployment than they would if were to return to their jobs. Workers typically lose their benefits if they turn down a suitable job offer, but some conservatives worry that the scale of joblessness in the country would make that provision impossible to enforce. This imbalance will ultimately cause businesses to suffer, Republican lawmakers argue, if employees refuse to accept what would effectively be a pay cut by going back to work when stay-at-home orders are lifted. The situation could also create resentment among the millions of essential workers who have remained on the job during the crisis for less pay than those who were laid off. Story continues Proponents of continuing the enhanced payments say the extra money has helped stave off an even more severe economic collapse. Despite unemployment at levels not seen since the Great Depression, many people have been able to make ends meet thanks to the boost in benefits. The larger checks also mean people have money to spend, which helps businesses stay afloat. If the extra funds go away, the country could see a wave of evictions, foreclosures and other secondary economic impacts that result in a prolonged and severe recession, some economists have warned. Others say incentives that compel workers to stay home are an important part of limiting the spread of coronavirus, which they see as the No. 1 priority. Not only would extending the enhanced benefits save lives, but lessening the severity of the outbreak would also ultimately benefit the economy more than a premature rush to push people back into the workplace, some public health experts say. Whats next Republicans in the Senate have yet to release a plan for what might be in their next stimulus package, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it won't look anything like the bill passed by Democrats in the House. The earliest any legislation could move forward will be the first week of June, when senators return from a weeklong recess. Perspectives Letting the extra benefits expire would cause a major shock in the economy When peoples incomes are stabilized, they pay their bills on time... and keep buying things. Since most workers whove been laid off are at the low end of the income spectrum and thus eligible for generous unemployment insurance benefits, the country has mostly avoided secondary shocks that would further exacerbate economic problems. So far. Matthew Yglesias, Vox Generous benefits create backwards incentives that hurt the economy Its obvious that this level of aid really disincentivizes productive activity in the market and it puts business owners in a terrible situation. A lot of small business owners, they are getting that green light to start reopening, but theyre worried that their employees may prefer to stay home and get paid for that. Kristin Tate, Fox News Forcing people to go back to work puts their lives at risk Forcing people to choose between getting COVID-19 or losing their livelihood is inhumane. It is also nonsensical. Public health still depends on as many workers as possible staying home. Thats a big reason why Congress provided the extra benefits. Robert Reich, Guardian The benefits are holding back the effort to reopen the country We cant keep paying people extra to stay home for the entire rest of the year. Were reopening, like it or not, and we need a safety net appropriate to our new circumstances. Robert Verbruggen, National Review The money is helping millions of people make ends meet Its a good bet that at this point most though not all of the loss in wages caused by social distancing is being offset by increased government aid. ... Unemployment assistance, after a troubled start, is doing a lot to help American workers. Paul Krugman, New York Times People shouldnt make more money staying home than they do working Some extra unemployment insurance is necessary, but the rich extra compensation from the $2.2 trillion Cares Act is encouraging those employees to stay home. Editorial, Wall Street Journal People are unlikely to choose unemployment over a steady job People go back to work for all kinds of reasons. People want that stability, they want their health insurance and any contribution to retirement that they might have been getting. And so once you factor all that in, you know, getting a little bit of extra money for a couple of months doesn't compare. Employment policy expert Michele Evermore to ABC News Giving extra money to the unemployed helps the whole economy When the economy is in a deep hole, as it is today, sharply reduced unemployment benefits for tens of millions of unemployed Americans mean less spending, less demand and less economic activity. ... Lawmakers didnt toss in the extra $600 a week because they wanted to make life cushy for laid-off low-wage workers. They did it to try to keep the economy going in spite of the collapse in demand. Jon Healy, Los Angeles Times The benefits should continue, but they should be smaller Americans in trouble should get the support they need without becoming wards of the state. A compromise between current Republican and Democratic approaches to unemployment insurance can give us just that. Henry Olsen, Washington Post Unemployment laws dont allow people to simply decide to stay home For the majority of Americans, there is no actual choice between collecting unemployment benefits and returning to work. This means that the question of whether benefits disincentivize work isnt germane. Shahar Ziv, Forbes Is there a topic youd like to see covered in The 360? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com. Read more 360s Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images MILFORD A South Carolina woman was recently arrested after allegedly breaking plexiglass designed to protect gas station employees from the coronavirus, according to Milford police. Dena Roeglin, 43, was charged with breach of peace, police said. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 26, 2020 | MASSAC COUNTY By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 26, 2020 | 12:31 PM | MASSAC COUNTY Two North Carolina men suspected of vehicle theft and burglary were arrested in Massac County. The Massac County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded at 6 a.m. Friday to a report of a suspicious person in a vehicle on Jefferson School Road. Deputies learned 33-year-old Sean Woods of Andrews, NC had three felony warrants for possession of meth out of South Carolina, along with several misdemeanor warrants. Woods was arrested without incident. Deputies found several guns inside the vehicle along with collectors coins, collectible knives, jewelry and ammunition. Deputies and Illinois State Police troopers began searching the area after they discovered Woods had a second person with him who had left the area. Through collaboration with the Cherokee County, NC Sheriff's Office, Massac deputies determined the vehicle, along with the firearms, knives, coins, ammo and jewelry were reported stolen from a home there. On Monday afternoon, a deputy arrested 28-year-old Austin Cole after seeing him walking on US 45 North near Oak Glen Lake. Items located on Cole tied him to the recovered stolen vehicle. Woods and Cole are expected to be extradited back to North Carolina. " Local lockdowns" will be enforced in areas where there are coronavirus flare-ups as a part of the NHS test-and-trace system, Matt Hancock has said. Speaking at the Downing Street press conference on Tuesday, the Health Secretary said the Government is putting a system in place alongside Publice Health England, the new joint bio-security centres and local directors of public health. It comes as the Government prepares to ease more restrictions, with plans for schools to back next week and shops to reopen on June 15. But Mr Hancock has now revealed that if an area sees a sudden resurgence of Covid-19, a localised lockdown will likely be enforced. He said: We will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups and we have a system we are putting in place with a combination of Public Health England and the new joint bio-security centre, along with the local directors of public health who play an absolutely crucial role in the decision-making in the system to make sure if there is a local flare-up there is a local lockdown. Mr Hancock addresses the nation at Downing Street / 10 Downing Street/AFP via Getty And so local lockdowns will be part of the future system that we put in place as part of the NHS test-and-trace system. Mr Hancock also updated the nation on developments in supplying personal protective equipment (PPE). He said the UK can now begin to replenish its PPE stockpiles after brokering new deals and increasing manufacture. UK lockdown eases as more people return to work - In pictures 1 /54 UK lockdown eases as more people return to work - In pictures A woman wearing a face mask and gloves walks on a platform at Waterloo Station in London Reuters Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn General view of roadworks on London Bridge, London PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park. PA People are seen at Waterloo Station in London Reuters People wear a face masks at Leeds station PA A worker from LNER stands beside ticket barriers that have been blocked for social distancing measures at Newcastle train station, PA Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Police at Victoria Station as Lockdown is slowly lifted at Victoria Station Nigel Howard Nigel Howard Burnt Oak tube station. PA A Victoria line train is deep cleaned at Northumberland Park depot PA Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA Nigel Howard Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Nigel Howard Passengers board and leave a train at a station in Bracknell, Berkshire PA Commuters and staff in and around at Clapham Junction Railway Station Daniel Hambury Police officers pictured at Colliers Wood Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Euston Station Jeremy Selwyn Increased police and security personnel at New Street station in Birmingham PA Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Commuters at Clapham Junction sStation PA Nigel Howard Cannon Street Station Jeremy Selwyn Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park PA Nigel Howard Commuters and staff in and around at Clapham Junction Railway Station, Daniel Hambury Nigel Howard Increased police and security personnel at New Street station in Birmingham PA Increased security at New Street station in Birmingham, PA Busy tube train between East Ham and Upton Park PA Commuters at Clapham Junction Station PA A sign advising passengers to wear a face mask at Clapham Junction station, PA Stickers being installed on a bus at Abellio Camberwell bus garage, as more people are set to return to offices, factories and building sites this week PA I can announce that we have now signed contracts to manufacture two billion items of PPE here in the UK," the Health Secretary said. Around the world, weve signed deals with over 100 new suppliers including agreeing contracts for a further 3.7 billion gloves. While we continue to improve the logistics and work hard to get everyone the PPE they need, these new supplies mean were not simply keeping up with demand, were now able to begin to replenish our stockpiles. The Health Secretary also updated the UK on the latest developments in treatments, announcing a new trial of the anti-viral Remdesivir drug. He told the press conference: This is probably the biggest step forward in the treatment of coronavirus since the crisis begun." TORONTO, Sept. 13, 2014 (Xinhua) -- Director and actor Chris Evans poses for photos before the world premiere of his directorial debut "Before We Go" at the Princess of Wales Theater during the 39th Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Can Image Source: IANS News Los Angeles, May 26 : Actor Chris Evans says there was a time when he was contemplating about quitting acting, after suffering from a series of horrific anxiety and panic attacks. He added that he almost turned down the role of superhero Captain America. The actor is best known for essaying role of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in the Marvel blockbusters "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011), "The Avengers" (2012), "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014), "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015), "Captain America: Civil War" (2016), "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018) and "Avengers: Endgame" (2019). Before picking up the shield, he was seen as Johnny Storm, aka Human Torch, in "Fantastic Four" (2005) and "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (2007). "That was back when the superhero thing was just taking off," he said in an episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. "I had just been dumped and I needed it," he added. The actor recalled that he began experiencing severe anxiety at the time of the sequel's release. During that time, he missed out getting roles in "Gone Baby Gone", "Milk", "Elizabethtown" and "Fracture", and then his movie "Sunshine" went unnoticed. "Nobody sees my good movies," he joked. The actor said that his struggle with anxiety got bad while shooting for "Puncture" in 2010. "It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set," Evans said, adding: "I really started to think, 'I'm not sure if this (acting) is the right thing for me, I'm not sure if I'm feeling as healthy as I should be feeling'." It was around that time when Marvel approached him for the superhero role. The studio invited him to test for the part of Steve Rogers. The deal on the table was -- a nine-film deal with a big pay, and a chance to get wider fame. Evans was worried that his anxiety problem might escalate. "My suffering would be my own," Evans said, going on to share that he turned down the opportunity to test several times. He also shared that the "proposed number of required films was reduced to six" and the proposed salary was increased, reports www.hollywoodreporter.com. He consulted with "Iron Man" star Robert Downey, Jr., who advised him not to make a major decision based on fear. He finally decided to say yes. After a decade later, he can't be gladder about the decision he took. "It was the best decision I've ever made, and I really owe that to (Marvel chief) Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake. To be honest, all the things that I was fearing never really came to fruition," he said. New Indian Roads, Airstrips, Sparked Border Standoff With China, India Observers Say NEW DELHI/SRINAGARA Himalayan border standoff between old foes India and China was triggered by Indias construction of roads and airstrips in the region as it competes with Chinas spreading Belt and Road Initiative, Indian observers said on May 26. Soldiers from both sides have been camped out in the Galwan Valley in the high-altitude Ladakh region, accusing each other of trespassing over the disputed border, the trigger of a brief but bloody war in 1962. About 80 to 100 tents have sprung up on the Chinese side and about 60 on the Indian side where soldiers are billeted, Indian officials briefed on the matter in New Delhi and in Ladakhs capital, Leh, said. Both were digging defenses and Chinese trucks have been moving equipment into the area, the officials said, raising concerns of a long face-off. China is committed to safeguarding the security of its national territorial sovereignty . the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons office said in a statement. There are sound mechanisms and channels of communication for border-related affairs. The road leading to the Pangong Lake near Leh, India, with the Himalayan mountain range to the south on Oct. 5, 2012. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images) There was no immediate Indian foreign ministry comment. It said last week Chinese troops had hindered regular Indian patrols along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). But interviews with former Indian military officials and diplomats suggest the trigger for the flare-up is Indias construction of roads and airstrips. Today, with our infrastructure reach slowly extending into areas along the LAC, the Chinese threat perception is raised, said former Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao. Xi Jinpings China is the proponent of a hard line on all matters of territory, sovereignty. India is no less when it comes to these matters either, she said. After years of neglect Prime Minister Narendra Modis government has pushed for improving connectivity and by 2022, 66 key roads along the Chinese border will have been built. One of these roads is near the Galwan valley that connects to Daulat Beg Oldi airbase, which was inaugurated last October. The road is very important because it runs parallel to the LAC and is linked at various points with the major supply bases inland, said Shyam Saran, another former Indian foreign secretary. It remains within our side of the LAC. It is construction along this new alignment which appears to have been challenged by the Chinese. Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road) is a string of ports, railways, roads, and bridges connecting China to Europe via central and southern Asia and involving PakistanChinas close ally and Indias long-time foe. By Sanjeev Miglani and Fayaz Bukhari Houston, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - Psychedelic drugs have been written off for years. But that's quickly changing as multiple studies prove its effective in the treatment of mental and health related issues. For example, in recent months, Johns Hopkins Medicine announced the launch of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research to study compounds like LSD and psilocybin to treat a range of mental health problems, including anorexia, addiction and depression. Psychiatrists at Johns Hopkins University even found that mushrooms can help with smoking cessation, and another study found it can assist with alcohol dependence. Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), or what's commonly known as ecstasy, could be approved by the US FDA by 2022 following successful Phase III trials. Three years ago, the US FDA gave "breakthrough therapy" status to MDMA for the treatment of post-traumatic stress (PTSD). Nowadays, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) says they're seeing big success with their Phase III trials of MDMA in the treatment of PTSD. In fact, according to MAPS Founder, Rick Doblin, "The results of the interim analysis of MAPS' pivotal first Phase 3 trial are the most powerful evidence yet that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy could help transform the lives of people suffering from PTSD." Aside from PTSD, depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and chronic pain, Yield Growth Corp. (CSE: BOSS) (OTCQB: BOSQF) subsidiary NeonMind Biosciences Inc. is nearing studies to confirm whether it's an effective treatment for obesity, too. Psilocybin May Even Help Address the Global Obesity Epidemic NeonMind Biosciences Inc. has taken further steps towards commencing its clinical studies to confirm whether psilocybin (a compound in psychedelic mushrooms) is an effective treatment for food cravings and weight loss. NeonMind has now identified a source of psilocybin in Canada and has identified a laboratory at a University in Canada in which to conduct the studies. Story continues NeonMind previously announced that it had engaged Translational Life Sciences Inc. to conduct the study and that TLS had completed the design of a study to confirm whether psilocybin (found in psychedelic mushrooms) is an effective treatment for weight loss and food craving. TLS has identified a source of synthetically created psilocybin, manufactured by a licensed laboratory, for use in the NeonMind studies. Also, NeonMind has identified a laboratory where the studies can be carried out. Before the psilocybin can be ordered and before NeonMind can enter into an agreement with the Lab, the Lab must first obtain an exemption from the Canadian Minister of Health pursuant to Subsection 56(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 1996, c. 19 by the researchers at the Lab to allow them to use psilocybin, a controlled substance, in research studies. NeonMind expects the exemption to be granted within a few months. Researchers at the Lab have previously obtained other exemptions for research involving controlled substances. TLS has provided an estimate of $250,000 as a budget for the study and an estimated time frame of 6 months to complete the study, with valuable data anticipated to be available within the first few months. TLS estimates that all necessary approvals can be obtained so that the study can commence in the fall of 2020. NeonMind plans to fund the study using previous capital raised and from the proceeds of a planned initial public offering of NeonMind, for which due diligence is currently underway with a Canadian investment dealer. According to the terms of the TLS engagement, signed on May 6, 2020, NeonMind and TLS agreed to work together to conduct the evaluation of psilocin or psilocybin on cravings, on the metabolism, on food addiction and on glucose and hormone levels. Neon authorized TLS to perform activities required to prepare for and conduct the study and the parties shall work towards entering into a clinical study agreement. NeonMind agreed to pay for all costs related to the study and TLS agreed to arrange for required regulatory exemptions and licenses, and engagement of all necessary parties to conduct the study. The company hopes to tap into multi-billion-dollar market opportunities, including the $245 billion weight loss and management market, $64 billion cardiovascular disease treatments, the $156 billion depression market, and the $87 billion diabetes treatment market. For more information, visit the company's website at https://yieldgrowth.com. About MarijuanaStox MarijuanaStox.com is a leading web destination for all cannabis related companies. Investors can also find current marijuana-related quality financial, medical, legal and social news. MarijuanaStox.com is a media agency in North America dedicated to the cannabis industry, helping companies that operate in the space to attract quality investors, working capital and real publicity. Since 2005, we have had public companies in the US and Canada have rely on us to grow and succeed. 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Pursuant to an agreement between Winning Media (partners of MarijuanaStox.com) and The Yield Growth Corp, Winning Media has been paid four thousand dollars for advertising and marketing services for The Yield Growth Corp. We own ZERO shares of The Yield Growth Corp. Please click here for full disclaimer. Contact Information: 2818047972 ty@marijuanastox.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56549 Burrs stock sales came to light on March 19 when ProPublica and the Center for Responsive Politics revealed that he had sold between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13. In January and early February, as the novel coronavirus outbreak was beginning to spread beyond China, intelligence officials in closed-door Senate briefings were issuing dire warnings about its effects, according to The Washington Post. Burr also is a member of the Senate Health Committee, which also received briefings about COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, in January. Burr has said he sold his stocks on the basis of publicly available information, not on confidential briefings. Two other U.S. senators, Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Kelly Loeffler of Georgia have turned over documents to the FBI involving stock trades made around the same time. Feinstein has said she was not involved in the trades by her husband. So far Burr is the only one known to be under criminal investigation by the Justice Departments Public Integrity Section. Panaji, May 26 : Goa may formulate a separate standard operating procedure (SOP) for incoming travellers from Maharashtra, because 90 per cent of the state's 48 active COVID-19 cases are imports from the neighbouring state, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Tuesday. Sawant also said, that the Goa government had already informed the Union Civil Aviation and Railways Ministries about the impending fears over allowing of air and rail traffic from Maharashtra on account of the rising number of cases there. "We are thinking separately about a separate SOP for Maharashtra, because most of our cases, 90 per cent of the patients who are positive (in Goa) are from Maharashtra. We could issue a separate SOP," Sawant told reporters on the sidelines of a state government function in South Goa. "We have already informed the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Railway Ministry. If Goa has any to fear, it is from Maharashtra. Therefore, we are thinking about drafting a separate SOP for Maharashtra, after discussing with everyone concerned," Sawant said. Goa currently has 48 active COVID-19 cases. Following the start of pre-orders in the Netherlands, the Xperia 1 II can now be booked in two more European countries - Germany and Poland. The price is the same - 1,199 or PLN5,299. The official German Sony store listed the phone for pre-order along with local retailer mobilcom-debitel.de. Both stores are offering the Black and Purple versions. Those who place their orders before June 7 will get a free pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 noise cancelling headphones. Those normally cost over 250 on their own and arguably the best at what they do as we found out in our review. In Poland, the handset is offered directly from Sony. The period for the headphones promotion is a bit longer though - until June 14. Judging by past releases, the same deal will be available for most of the European countries but not all. Via (Newser) Few company-customer disputes reach this level of personal. As the Denver Channel reports, the controversy revolves around the death of a bride-to-be, the videography company that was hired to film her wedding, and the company's refusal to issue a refund in the wake of her death. In February, Alexis Wyatt of Colorado Springs was killed in a car crash. Fiance Justin Montney then reached out to Copper Stallion Media to request a refund of the $1,800 he paid ahead of their May wedding. The company offered its condolences but said the contract was non-refundable. Montney tells WRDO that, yes, he knows the contract he signed was non-refundable, but he thought the company would give him a break under the circumstances. When the company refused to budge, he took his story public, and Copper Stallion has responded in remarkably blunt fashion. story continues below Montney "admits that the contract was non-refundable but says we should give the money back due to the circumstance," says the company. "Life is a b----, Justin." This is on a website called JustinMontney.com created by the company expressly to present its side of the story. The site, which includes the company's correspondence with Montney, states that the couple booked two videographers who blocked off the day. "Now, we have two shooters who cannot film that day and lose out on that income," it explains. "Nonrefundable deposits are the industry standard." A since-deleted online post went further. The company posted an image of the couple on May 23 and wrote: "Today would have been the day where we would have filmed Justin and Alexis' wedding. After what Justin pulled with the media stunt to try and shake us down for a refund we hope you sob and cry all day for what would have been your wedding day." The company did not respond to either Denver outlet. (Read more wedding photos stories.) Due to school closures from COVID-19, Texas received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide more than $1 billion in pandemic food benefits to families with children that have temporarily lost access to free or reduced-price school meals. Houston ISD families may be eligible to receive a Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer, a one-time benefit of up to $285 issued on an EBT card to assist families during the district's closure. CLASS OF 2020: Houston ISD announces virtual graduation date The EBT card can be used like a debit card to buy food from any retailer that accepts the Texas Lone Star Card. Families who received SNAP food benefits for March 2020 and children up to 21 years old who are certified for free or reduced-price meals at school in Texas during the 2019-20 school year are eligible for P-EBT. Families who received SNAP benefits and have children 5-18 years old as of May 17, 2020, should automatically receive P-EBT benefits on their current Lone Star Card. ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Tracking coronavirus: Interactive maps, charts show spread of COVID-19 across Houston, rest of Texas Families with children up to 21 years old who are certified to receive free or reduced-price meals during the 2019-20 school year need to apply for P-EBT. This includes families who received SNAP benefits for March 2020 and have children younger than 5, and between 19 and 21. For eligible families, Houston ISD should send them a link to an online application by the first week of June, according to Texas Health and Human Services. Foster youth, migrant youth, homeless youth, runaway youth, and Head Start participants are also eligible for P-EBT. HISD has been committed to providing food to our students and their families when they need it most, said Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan in a news release. This is another much-needed source of help for the HISD community during this time of hardship. P-EBT benefits are in addition to SNAP benefits, grab-and-go school meals, such as Summer Meals, and other nutrition resources. Receiving P-EBT will not affect a familys ability to receive other benefits, according to Houston ISD. For more information, visit hhs.texas.gov/PEBT. A P-EBT call center will be available in June when the application is available. The phone number will be included in the information sent with the application link. ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com Rising cases of coronavirus in the country have proven to be inversely proportional with Indian consumer's affinity with Chinese products. Experts pointed at a structural shift in buying patterns post the outbreak where customers are now ready to pay more for a product rather than going for a cheaper Chinese version. "After the coronavirus crisis, there has been a major shift in the mindset of consumers. Now, they are willing to pay higher prices for a good that they consider to have higher quality and one that comes with adequate guarantees. After the rampant spread of COVID-19, people are scared of Chinese goods," said Praveen Khandelwal, national secretary-general of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a traders' body. "There is a behavioural change in consumers after COVID-19. Now, if I give consumers a Chinese product for free, most of them will refuse to take it," he added. Khandelwal also said that traders have decided to stop importing from China. "The ultimate consumer in India wants to keep a distance from Chinese products because of constant fear that it may result in spread of coronavirus. While that may or may not be true, the general sense among consumers is to avoid Chinese products. Therefore, traders also do not want to lay more emphasis on them," he said. He further said traders are currently looking for an alternative to China. "Our search is particularly in countries such as Japan, South Korea, Germany, United Kingdom, United States and the Middle East," he added. India is also looking to lure companies that are looking to shift base from China. The centre government is currently eyeing more than 1,000 US businesses, including medical devices giant Abbott Laboratories, to relocate from China as President Donald Trumps administration steps up efforts to blame Beijing for its role in the coronavirus pandemic. The government in April reached out to more than 1,000 American companies through overseas missions to offer incentives for manufacturers seeking to move out of China. India is prioritising medical equipment suppliers, food processing units, textiles, leather and auto part makers among more than 550 products covered in the discussions. "If companies that have their units placed in China want to relocate to India, that will be a win-win situation because that will cut down cost for traders, including import and travel costs. The traders will also be able to capture high-quality goods at a reasonable price and will be able to compete with global markets," said Khandelwal. India relies heavily on China to meet its electronics requirement to the extent that after the prolonged lockdown of factories in China due to the outbreak, supplies of several premium handsets, including iPhones in India, were disrupted in March. Chinese companies accounted for more than 70 per cent of all smart phone shipments in India in the last quarter of the last financial year, according to the International Data Corporation. The total size of Indias trade with China was $87 billion in 2018-19, according to the Union Ministry of Commerce. "Most of the imported materials from China are either of finished products, raw materials or spare parts needed in the electronics industry. As far is finished goods are concerned, they can easily be produced in India as well. There is a general consensus in the trader community that they will import nothing from China except those items which are not available in any other country," added Khandelwal. This is not the first time that Chinese products or brands have drawn flak in India. In 2014, Xiaomi was pulled up and its phones were banned by the Indian Air Force after security company F-Secure found that the phones were sending details like phone number, IMEI number, name of operator to a remote server in China. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Brnovich announced that the Attorney General's Office awarded nearly $400,000 in grants to community organizations that provide mental health treatment and services to first responders. The organizations will assist firefighters, emergency medical services, and law enforcement across the state. Four different grants were awarded to organizations, including the United Phoenix Firefighters (two separate grants), EMPACT Suicide Prevention, and Marana Health Center. Over 2,000 first responders and first responder families are expected to be served statewide over the next year through direct treatment, mental health services, and training. "Our first responders are always there for us and were going to be there for them too," said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. "These funds will help drive mental health education and services that support the continued well-being and fitness of our heroes." United Phoenix Firefighters $159,920 in total grants were awarded to United Phoenix Firefighters to support two different mental health support initiatives. The first program will serve firefighters and law enforcement by developing and implementing an intensive outpatient program for first responders dealing with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse. 20 first responders per week will be served by this program as a result of this grant. The second grant will provide funds for the hiring of a Behavioral Heath case manager who will work to increase membership in Firestrong, an existing web platform that provides a peer support network, crisis support line, and other important resources for Arizona fire departments and firefighters. This grant will help serve another 50 fire departments per year. "Our proactive approach to managing the effects of PTSD and behavioral health have been instrumental in keeping first responders healthy and capable. The grants awarded by the Arizona Attorney Generals will give our programs some much needed resources to continually grow and improve. The members of the United Phoenix Firefighters Association are deeply grateful for this funding and all the support that we have received from Attorney General Brnovich and his office." - Steve Beuerlein, United Phoenix Firefighters EMPACT Suicide Prevention $100,000 was awarded to EMPACT Suicide Prevention to provide first responder peer navigation services, connect individuals to evidence-based treatment, train first responder professionals in mental health first-aid, and implement first responder wellness conferences across the state. EMPACT, which has more than 30 years serving the community by providing recovery-based services, will implement Support for Arizona First-Responder (SAFeR) Project, which is designed to meet the unique needs of Arizonas first responders and increase mental health self-awareness, provide hands-on support, and seamless access to treatment for first responders. Approximately 280 first responders will receive services as a result of this new grant. "Arizona first responders are at greater risk for behavioral health related problems due to the constant exposure to death and trauma, but are often reluctant, resistant or ill-prepared to access care and treatment due to the culture of the profession. EMPACT is excited to expand our recovery-based efforts by implementing the Support for Arizona First-Responder (SAFeR) Project, thanks to support from the Arizona Attorney Generals Office. SAFeR is specifically designed to meet the unique needs of first responders by helping to change the narrative and mindset from Be strong and keep things to yourself to Be strong and take care of yourself. SAFeR will increase mental health self-awareness, provide hands-on support, and seamless access to culturally appropriate treatment for first responders." - Erica Chestnut-Ramirez, EMPACT-Suicide Prevention Center Marana Health Care $96,249 was awarded to Marana Health Care to provide training for clinical professionals, community members, first responder family members, and enhance a peer support program with a goal to help identify when first responders are having difficulties and help them get the treatment they need when they're experiencing mental health-related challenges. More than 50 first responders will be provided direct services and another 400 will be served through valuable training as a result of this grant. Its an honor to be a recipient of the PTSD first responders grant from the Attorney General's Office. These funds will allow MHC Healthcare to expand on the services and mental health support we are currently providing to our first responders and expand those services to first responder families". - Dr. Clinton Kuntz, MHC Healthcare Background The month of May is Mental Health Month. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has reported that first responders are more likely than members of the general public to develop behavioral health problems, including depression and PTSD, as a result of exposure to trauma, life-threatening situations, and the physical strain of working long hours in the line of duty. According to a study cited by SAMHSA, 37 percent of fire and EMS professionals have contemplated suicide, nearly 10 times the rate of American adults. It is estimated that 30 percent of first responders develop behavioral health conditions including depression and PTSD, as compared with 20 percent in the general population. Funding for this grant was provided by fees and penalties obtained from a settlement negotiated by the Attorney General's Office with Wells Fargo. During the 2019 legislative session, the Attorney Generals Office worked with Representative Kelly Townsend to secure $400,000 in grant funding to support first responders who experience PTSD, depression, and other forms of stress and mental trauma. Isaac Windes/Tony Webster, Flickr San Jose police arrested a 56-year-old man they say fatally stabbed a woman at a home in the northeastern part of the city over the weekend, the department announced Monday. Gregory Hoppe of San Jose was taken into custody Sunday afternoon at the scene of the crime on the 3600 block of El Grande Drive, police said. He was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of murder. By Marcelo Rochabrun, Fabian Cambero and Tatiana Bautzer (Reuters) - LATAM Airlines Group , the continent's largest carrier, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, becoming the world's largest carrier so far to seek an emergency reorganization due to the coronavirus pandemic. The filing highlights the financial weakness of Latin America's carriers, following a similar bankruptcy earlier this month by the region's No. 2 airline, Avianca Holdings . But unlike Avianca, which experienced management turmoil and losses, Chile's LATAM posted profits for the last four consecutive years totaling more than $700 million. LATAM had also approved a dividend payment this year, in contrast to other carriers that have halted payouts. One of the world's largest airlines, LATAM said it would continue to fly through its bankruptcy restructuring. LATAM shares closed down 36% after falling as much as 58% in Santiago. Latin American governments, many under severe budget constraints themselves, have been reluctant to bail out their key airlines, in contrast to the United States and Europe. Chile's finance ministry said in as statement LATAM is a "strategic company for Chile" and that the government would "consider" how it could contribute to LATAM's restructuring, but it did not offer a bailout. In Brazil, LATAM has been negotiating a bailout of up to 2 billion reais ($367.45 million) that has yet to materialize. LATAM's Brazil unit is not part of the bankruptcy, although the company may file for bankruptcy there as well if the negotiations for aid fall through. The airline's CEO for Brazil Jerome Cadier told Reuters on Tuesday evening that LATAM would rather not go through a separate bankruptcy filing in Brazil. "The history here shows that the vast majority of companies don't make it out of bankruptcy restructuring because the process is too complicated," Cadier said. Story continues Delta Air Lines last year paid $1.9 billion for a 20% stake in LATAM, becoming the No. 2 shareholder in the company. "We remain firmly committed to our partnership with LATAM and believe that it will successfully emerge a stronger airline and Delta partner for the long term," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement. LATAM said its bankruptcy filing would seek to expedite the timeline for the necessary antitrust approvals for it and Delta to coordinate flight routes between Latin America and the United States. The plans still need approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation, as well as regulators in Chile, Brazil, and a few other countries in South America. In the lead-up to the bankruptcy filing, LATAM laid off 1,800 employees out of more than 40,000 in total. TROUBLED MERGER LATAM is an instantly recognizable brand for South Americans, dominating international air travel in the region, as well as a leading domestic flight operator in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Ecuador. In addition to Brazil, subsidiaries in Argentina and Paraguay are also not part of the bankruptcy process. LATAM said it raised up to $900 million to support operations through its bankruptcy reorganization from major shareholders, including the Cueto family, which controls the airline, and Qatar Airways. In addition, LATAM has $1.3 billion in cash on hand. LATAM was born in 2012 through a merger between Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM, spawning a carrier with large aircraft order books and major exposure to Latin America's top economy as it went through its worst recession on record. It has since dropped many plane orders but maintains 44 with Airbus and seven with Boeing Co . LATAM said it would seek to cancel several of those orders. LATAM did disclose that Delta canceled the planned purchase of four Airbus A350s from LATAM, and paid $62 million to break the deal. LATAM said that as of Tuesday its debts totaled $18 billion. The airline was downgraded by S&P and Fitch on Friday after not paying interest and principal on $1 billion worth of debt tied to new aircraft purchases. (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun in Sao Paulo; Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in Sao Paulo, Rama Venkat in Bengaluru, Tracy Rucinski, Fabian Cambero and Dave Sherwood in Santiago, and Jamie Freed in Sydney; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Matthew Lewis and Aurora Ellis) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As people continue to be diagnosed with the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Joan & Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center (JCC) has teamed up with the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York (UJA) to help borough residents impacted by the pandemic access social services. The COVID-19 Connect to Recovery program was created to respond to the growing needs of Island residents who were affected by the virus. Individuals who are part of the program will each undergo an individualized assessment for an approach that best fits that persons needs. We know that so many people on Staten Island have been hurt by this crisis. We created COVID-19 Connect to Recovery to provide a one-stop shop experience for people in need. Through our intake process, we can identify peoples needs and refer them to services that they may not know they qualify for," said Orit Lender, deputy executive director and incoming CEO of the JCC. The program will include services such as access to the JCCs Kosher Food Pantry, health insurance navigation, financial and legal counseling, and English as second language classes. Participants will be assessed and if eligible will be enrolled for benefits and entitlements, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, utility assistance programs, and other services. Individuals in crisis can also be referred to partner organizations for short-term loans, cash assistance, and other social services. The program also offers people of all ages help with mental health. This includes weekly meditation groups done remotely as well as art, music, theater and dance programs. JCC CEO David Sorkin added, After Sandy, the JCC was here for Staten Islanders, helping long after the storm surge had subsided. We plan to do the same during and following this current crisis. We hope to provide a lifeline to those struggling and help get Staten Islanders back on their feet. The program is also supported by the Robin Hood Foundation, Verizon, Con Edison, National Grid Foundation, Mannix ShopRite Stores, United Way, Food Bank NYC, Met Council, the Brooklyn Home for Aged Men, Borough President James Oddo, and the Department of Youth & Community Development. COVID-19 Connect to Recovery programs will take place in conjunction with Met Council, NYLAG, Hebrew Free Loan Society, Project Hospitality, and Weill Cornell. For more information on COVID-19 Connect to Recovery services, contact Carolyn Magliolo at COVID19@sijcc.com or 718-475-5264. By Express News Service KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday said he saw a light of hope after the Prime Ministers Bengal aerial survey of Amphan-ravaged areas with CM Mamata Banerjee joining him. Bengal is in the crossfire of COVID-19 and Amphan. On both counts, we are in great difficulty. The government of late is playing with a straight bat and that is after the central team came here. There is a light of hope at the end of a dark tunnel after the PMs visit. The CM was also there for an aerial survey. Working together and cooperative federalism is being seen at the moment, Dhankhar told TNIE on Monday. Incidentally, the Governor on Sunday had criticized Mamata for the delay in seeking the Armys support to deal with the cyclone aftermath. "I was in touch with the chief of eastern command who informed me that 11 columns of Army personnel were ready with full preparedness. She (Mamata) should have sought Armys help very next morning after Amphan made a landfall, he reiterated. The CM, a doughty street fighter, will realise someday that he was trying to protect and preserve the Constitution, the Governor asserted. Regarding his verbal spats with the CM, Dhankhar said he was a critic of none and believes in constitutionalism. I take counsel from everyone. I take command from only the Constitution. CM is a nice person. My only problem is that I want the CM not to constitutional distance me. I have tried to impress on her that your friend is in Raj Bhavan, that I will never ever violate the Lakshman Rekha of Constitution.The moment she feels I have overstepped my limits, she can remind me. I would like to leave the baggage of past behind. (But) here is a big change I see in her. I am picking up the thread. I am trying to convince her. Things are brightening up. It will augur well for the state I see the ice melting, he explained. Most people do not appreciate the Governors role. If you look at the oath I have taken, I have pledged to protect and preserve the Constitution. The second part of the oath is I have to serve the peopleThe CMs oath also says about following the Constitution. When an elected CM took to the streets on a law of the land that emanates from Parliament, I questioned her, he said about the CM-Governor equation. Referring to Mamatas decision of hitting streets on the CAA, Dhankhar said she could have moved the SC. Right to protest is an expression of ones view. But if one is holding a constitutional positionand if a state is aggrieved by a law, the CM has a remedy to challenge the law. An elected CM hitting streets against a law is not acceptable Her party wrote a letter saying she hit the streets as a party president. But that role ends the moment someone takes oath (of office). Flash The Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and the U.S. has no right to criticize or interfere, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday. "If the U.S. is bent on harming China's interests, China will have to take all necessary measures to fight back," Zhao told a routine news briefing. The spokesperson made the remarks when asked to comment on a media report that White House National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said that if the Chinese national legislature's national security legislation for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is enacted, the United States would likely impose sanctions on China. Zhao said China is firmly opposed to the noises made by certain U.S. politicians on the Hong Kong-related agenda of China's National People's Congress (NPC) session and has lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side. "China's attitude and position have been made very clear," Zhao said. The spokesperson said that no country would allow any activities that endanger its national security on its own territory, adding that the Central Government is responsible for upholding national security in China, as is the case in any other country. "The U.S. itself has enacted dozens of laws on national security in an effort to build an impregnable fortress of its own national security. However, it has interfered in China's national security legislation and even attempted to drill a hole in China's national security network. Such double standards fully exposed the sinister intentions of some people in the U.S.," Zhao said. The NPC decision targets a very small number of people who are splitting the country, subverting state power, organizing and carrying out terrorist activities, and foreign and external forces that are interfering in the affairs of the HKSAR, Zhao said. It will protect the law-abiding Hong Kong citizens, who are the overwhelming majority, guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents and foreign institutions and personnel in Hong Kong. It has no impact on Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents, and will improve Hong Kong's legal system and bring more stability, stronger rule of law and a better business environment to Hong Kong, he added. "It will be more conducive to Hong Kong's long-term stability and tranquility, which is most representative of the public opinion of the society in Hong Kong," Zhao said. Zhao said the legal basis for the Chinese government's administration of Hong Kong is China's Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, not the Sino-British Joint Declaration. "Then again, what on earth does the declaration have to do with the U.S.? With Hong Kong's return to China in 1997, the U.K.'s rights and obligations stipulated in the Sino-British Joint Declaration were all completed. The U.S. side has no legal basis or right to invoke the Joint Declaration to make irresponsible remarks on Hong Kong affairs," Zhao said. NANJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Every workday morning, nearly 400 employees of Cablex Electronics (Xuzhou) Co., Ltd. put on masks and goggles and get their temperature measured before starting the day's work. The company, located in the city of Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise with headquarters in Slovenia. As the COVID-19 epidemic has waned in China, the company has resumed its full production capacity, churning out millions of wiring harnesses every day. Governments at different levels in China have shown great efficiency in implementing measures to contain the epidemic, which has bolstered the confidence of foreign companies in China, said Bostjan Slajkovec, general manager of the company. "We are determined and confident to reach our sales target this year," Slajkovec said, adding the company has maintained an average of 30 percent annual sales growth since it settled in Xuzhou. According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Commerce, of 8,200 major foreign companies in China, 76.6 percent of them had a resumption rate of over 70 percent as of the end of April. China has more than 400,000 foreign-funded firms, over 90 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. Foreign firms can equally enjoy preferential policies that China has rolled out to help domestic companies cope with the fallout of the epidemic, including financial support and tax cuts, according to the ministry. Andreas Risch, managing director of Fette Compacting (China) Co., Ltd., a German pharmaceutical giant, said thanks to the supportive policies such as helping purchase anti-epidemic materials and reducing transportation fees, production of the company quickly returned to normal. In Jiangsu, a main destination of foreign direct investment in China, the resumption rate of foreign firms has climbed to 99 percent by mid-May, according to the provincial bureau of commerce. "As the pace of work resumption of foreign firms is quickening, their confidence in investment is also growing," said Liang Ruiheng, an official with the commerce bureau in Xuzhou. Dutch company ASML Holding, a key supplier of chip-making equipment, signed a deal with the local government this month to expand its technical service base in Wuxi, another city in Jiangsu. The upgraded base will consist of two 2,000-square-meter centers that will provide services such as maintenance and upgrade of lithography equipment. ASML said the move was to meet increasing demand in the Chinese market. British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has also expanded its presence in China as the epidemic eases. In late April, the company launched an international life science innovation park in Wuxi's high-tech zone. The innovation park has benefited from a series of governmental policies in areas like research and development, taxation, intellectual property rights and commercialization, according to Wuxi municipal government. "During the epidemic, the government has given us great support," said Tina Xu, vice president of AstraZeneca China. "We have full confidence in our future development in China, as we are optimistic about the bright prospects of the Chinese economy and the life sciences industry." Tuesday, May 26, 2020 Kimberly Daniels, a member of our Emerging Fellows program inspects the players that may change the rules of world-power game in her fifth blog post. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the APF or its other members. The question of a plausible world power shift from the West to Eurasias Heartland in 2050 necessitates an understanding of the trends driving change in todays geopolitical landscape. Geopolitical positioning by the U.S., Russia, and China could continue the status quo. However, trends of increasing geo-economic strategies, geo-technological warfare, and geo-cultural identity suggest possible disruption to the current world order. These drivers of change could influence alternative ways in which the future unfolds. Continued geopolitical positioning by the U.S., Russia, and China to exploit Heartland power is driving change from a unipolar to a multipolar international system. Following the Cold War, the U.S. moved forward, unchallenged as the sole superpower in a world order characterized by unipolarity. America extended her assumed greatness and sought to spread her influence throughout Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East directly or indirectly through regional partners and global institutions. Russia and China did likewise, albeit more gradually and astutely. All threes tendency to leverage the Heartland to their own advantage shows a pattern of promoting and protecting their geopolitical agendas and interests in the region. Presently, the U.S. hints at purchasing Greenland, whether to block China from establishing a Polar Silk Road or contain Russias growing presence on the island. As Russia, China and other stakeholders increasingly drive a multipolar world order, with the U.S. promoting an America First policy, Americas greatness is diminishing. Russia and Chinas foreign-policy shifts toward geo-economic commerce is disrupting the U.S. extension of power. Russia expanded her foreign policy, desiring partnerships with Muslim majority countries and other non-traditional partners in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. Beyond political, military, and or security cooperation, Russia organizes international commerce among them by trade and energy imports-exports. China became the manufacturing hub for American companies pursuing competitive advantages through inexpensive labor. She adapted her foreign policy to support state-controlled capitalism, and could become the economic superpower by 2050. Ideally, Chinas Belt and Road Initiative will facilitate international commerce across Afro-Eurasia through connectivity. However, India and other stakeholders perceive it as a precursor to economic colonialism in the Heartland. Russia and Chinas foreign-policy shifts along with their embrace of geo-economic commerce has the U.S. scrambling to Make America Great Again. This change driver signals increasing disruption to U.S. power abroad. Still, Chinas handling of COVID-19 may disrupt her superpower dream. Geo-technological warfare supposedly waged by Russia, China, and Iran is progressively disrupting the international order. In this New Cold War era, they stand accused of cyberterrorism, cyber espionage and cyberwarfare against Western targets. These digital tactics pose as serious a threat to the established international order based on peace and cooperation as nuclear weapons, although on a different scale. Election hacking is eroding peoples trust in democracy. Fake news continues to damage the medias credibility. And thefts of intellectual property and trade secrets are costing businesses, inventors, and artists billions of dollars in unrealized revenues. As digital warfare increasingly undermines international law, disorients governments, threatens national security, and destabilizes societies, disruption to the international order is accelerating. Geo-technological warfare has Western targets concentrated on reactive policies and measures and distracted from Heartland strategies. It is a change driver that could threaten the U.S. Buy American, Deregulate, Innovate domestic agenda. Geo-cultural identity as a unifying ideology emphasized by Russia and increasingly adopted by her partners is disrupting Western influence in the Heartland. The underlying cultural spirit of Russias foreign-policy is expressed by Eurasianism. Identification with this ideology seemingly implies ones rejection of Western civilization and capitalism, acceptance of authoritarianism, and or value for unity. South Caucasus, North African, and Muslim majority countries in Central Asia identify with the ideologys inclusion of the Muslim community (Ummah in Arabic). Turkey adopted Eurasianism to symbolize her geopolitical reorientation from the West to Eastern and Central Asia. However, growing resentment among Turkish citizens of Syrian refuges and migrants may disrupt Turkeys embrace of Eurasianist solidarity, especially if COVID-19 worsens. As Russia increasingly unites much of Afro-Eurasia around a geo-cultural worldview, Western influence in the Heartland is declining. This change driver could transform geopolitics, while Russias Ummah Pivot (rebalance to Asia) may position the Heartland for a world-power shift to the East. Will the geopolitical landscape be shaped by a continuation of the same? How might geo-economic strategies, geo-technological warfare, and or geo-cultural identity drive change toward alternative futures? Could world power shift to Eurasias Heartland in 2050? These are the questions scenario stories will explore. Kimberly Kay Daniels 2020 French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. Photo: Ludovic Marin/ AFP via Getty Images The French government has so far spent 450bn (402bn, $490bn) on a raft of fiscal aid measures to help the economy withstand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire told BFM TV that the cost of the measures were equal to 20% of the countrys GDP. France, like its neighbour Germany, mobilised a package of aid that included state-backed loans for companies, grants for small companies, and state-funded furlough schemes. Le Maire said that the furlough programme wherein the government pays 70% of a workers wages, while they are sent home was the most expensive element of the aid measures for the government and would be gradually reduced from next month. READ MORE: German companies felt a glimmer of hope in May The finance minister noted that the 300bn earmarked for state-guaranteed loans would only affect the national budget if a borrower went bust. The French government will set out its new support measures for the car industry this week but any aid will come with the requirement that carmakers bring some of their production back home to France. Le Maire told French daily newspaper Le Figaro last week that carmaker Renault (RNO.PA) is fighting for its survival and had applied for a state-guaranteed loan of 5bn. French flag carrier Air France (AF.PA) has been offered a 7bn bailout from Paris, as a mixture of guaranteed bank loans and direct loans from the state. However, the airline has been asked to agree to drastically slash its CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 in exchange for the aid. New Delhi: With the number of coronavirus cases steadily rising in India, China on Monday announced repatriation of those of its nationals from India who want to return. International students, tourists and temporary business inspectors, who have faced difficulties in taking temporary flights back to China, can make use of this facility, its Embassy said. The Chinese nationals will have to pay for their return journey if they want to go back as well as agree to quarantine inspections on their return to their country. Incidentally, the past few days have also seen rise in border tensions between the two countries in the Ladakh sector although it seems unclear whether Mondays move has anything to do with that. In a statement in Mandarin, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi told its interested nationals, Temporary flight tickets and isolation fees for returning home are at your own expense. Air ticket prices are reasonably determined by airlines according to business model. The flight attendant bears all possible risks in the process of returning home, and consciously accepts various quarantine and epidemic prevention arrangements during the flight and after entry . Purchase of tickets shall be deemed as consent. It added, In order to ensure public health and safety, diagnosed, suspected cases, those who have fever and cough symptoms within the past 14 days, and those who are in close contact with new coronary pneumonia, please do not book and take flights. If the body temperature exceeds 37.3 degrees (inclusive) or there are suspected symptoms before boarding, the airline will refuse to board. The Chinese Embassy said that strict quarantine inspection will be carried out at the port of entry of the flight. The Embassy added that a passenger will be liable for endangering public safety if he or she conceals his illness and contact history or is found to have taken anti-pyretics and other inhibitory drugs during the quarantine. The passenger must agree to accept the Chinese Customs' sampling of nucleic acid and blood tests, the Embassy said. BOULDER, Colo., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ArcherDX, Inc., today announced a strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca to develop assays to support multiple planned Phase 3 clinical trials for AstraZeneca's targeted immuno-oncology therapeutics. Under the terms of the agreement, ArcherDX will perform Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) of resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient samples and generate patient-specific circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assays. ArcherDX plans to leverage the PCM assays to develop companion diagnostics (CDx) for AstraZeneca's associated therapies, and together, the companies plan to seek global regulatory approval if the Phase 3 clinical trials are completed successfully. The assays are currently for investigational use only. "While there has been progress in improving adoption of precision oncology for patients with late-stage cancers, there is a pressing need to accelerate access to precision oncology for all patients diagnosed with cancer regardless of the stage or location of the care setting," said Jason Myers, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, ArcherDX. "AstraZeneca shares this critical mission, and we are pleased to partner with them in the development of biomarker-driven therapies and the expansion of personalized cancer monitoring for all patients. Because Archer's distributed model does not require a centralized laboratory, we intend to distribute regulated products globally. We believe our approach will revolutionize how cancer is managed by measuring cancer progression based on the genomic tumor profile of the individual cancer regardless of where the patient receives care." ArcherDX's Personalized Cancer Monitoring (PCM) development program is being developed by ArcherDX and is supported by a collaboration led by Professor Charles Swanton of UCL and the Francis Crick Institute to detect evidence of disease progression in lung cancer patients from cell-free ctDNA as part of the Cancer Research UK-funded UCL-sponsored TRACERx study.[1] PCM applies ArcherDX's proprietary Anchored Multiplex PCR (AMP) technology to accurately detect exceedingly low levels of cancer-derived DNA from patient blood. "MERMAID-1 is a novel randomized trial using ctDNA to identify patients at high risk of recurrence after surgery who may benefit from intervention with immunotherapy," said Charles Swanton, M.D., Ph.D., UCL and the Francis Crick Institute, lead researcher of the TRACERx study. "We hope this approach will lead to better patient outcomes by intensifying treatment in patients most likely to relapse, while avoiding additional chemotherapy after surgery when not needed." Jose Baselga, Executive Vice President of Oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, said, "While detecting and monitoring for minimal residual disease has proven challenging in solid tumors, the MERMAID-1 trial and this partnership stand to break new ground in lung cancer. This innovative endeavor is reflective of our strategy to improve cancer outcomes by treating patients as early as possible. It is in this early setting that the chance of cure is higher and identifying personalized, effective treatments could increase survival and improve quality of life." The master collaboration agreement also allows for expansion into additional disease indications and therapeutic categories. About ArcherDX ArcherDX is a leading genomic analysis company democratizing precision oncology through a suite of products and services that are highly accurate, personal, actionable and easy to use in local settings. Our Archer platform, with our proprietary Anchored Multiplex PCR (AMP) chemistry at the core, has enabled us to develop industry-leading products and services to optimize therapy and enable cancer monitoring across sample types. We develop and commercialize research use only (RUO) products, are developing in vitro diagnostic (IVD) products, and offer services that meet the unique needs of our customers and their clinical applications. Our RUO product portfolio consists of VariantPlex, FusionPlex, LiquidPlex and Immunoverse, which we collectively refer to as ArcherPlex. IVD products currently in development for solid tumor biomarker identification and Personalized Cancer Monitoring (PCM) have both received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA. ArcherDX is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Learn more at www.archerdx.com and follow @ArcherDXInc on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. [1] TRACERx (Tracking Cancer Evolution through therapy (Rx)) lung study is the single biggest investment in lung cancer research by Cancer Research UK. Taking place over nine years, we believe the translational research programme is the first study to look at the evolution of cancer in real time and immense detail. Researchers follow patients with lung cancer all the way from diagnosis through to either disease relapse or cure after surgery, tracking and analyzing how their cancer develops. TRACERx is led by UCL (University College London) via the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence and also supported by the National Institute for Health Research, University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, Francis Crick Institute and the Rosetrees Trust. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties for purposes of the safe harbor provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "expect," "predict," "potential," "opportunity," "goals," or "should," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding ArcherDX's plans to leverage the PCM assays to develop CDx for AstraZeneca's associated therapies; the companies' plans to seek global regulatory approval; and the impact of ArcherDX's platform and decentralized approach on how cancer is managed. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results and performance could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of many factors. ArcherDX has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and trends. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Moreover, ArcherDX operates in a competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for its management to predict all risks, nor can it assess the impact of all factors on its business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements it may make. ArcherDX undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to such forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. SOURCE ArcherDX Related Links http://www.archerdx.com Subscribe to the Wake Up, cleveland.coms free morning newsletter, delivered to your inbox weekdays at 5:30 a.m. Weather It will be hot and muggy today, with mostly sunny skies and highs approaching 90 degrees. It will be clear overnight with lows in the upper 60s. Read more. The headlines Gyms: Gyms, fitness centers and pools can open today across Ohio. Julie Washington reports on how businesses have prepared to open their doors, from spacing out equipment to keeping patrons from hanging around after classes. Jimmy Dimora: Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who is serving his decades-long sentence at a federal prison in Ohio where nine inmates have died from the coronavirus, has tested positive for the virus, reports Eric Heisig. Attorneys have urged the warden at Federal Correctional Institution Elkton several times in recent weeks to release Dimora on home confinement because of his medical ailments, including a weakened immune system. The warden wrote back and said Dimora is not eligible for release. Subtext: Cleveland.com has started a new, free Subtext account to send coronavirus updates. Every day, the team covering the coronavirus will send three to four updates about the progress of the virus -- confirmed cases of the virus, major cancellations, the latest medical advice, relevant scientific information and more. You can even text us back. Go to https://joinsubtext.com/ohiocoronavirus and enter your phone number. Fill out the form below. Or send a text to 216-279-7784. Did we mention its free? This Week in the CLE: Will 300 guests really stay socially distant at a wedding reception during the coronavirus pandemic? Were talking wedding logistics on This Week in the CLE, the daily half-hour news podcast on cleveland.com. MetroHealth raises: MetroHealth will give approximately 4,000 frontline, nonunion workers a 2.25% pay bump for the last 12 pay periods of 2020, as hospital staff continue to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. This isnt the norm in Cleveland for healthcare workers, as hospital systems face economic pressure due to COVID-19, reports Emily Bamforth. At University Hospitals, merit-based pay raises are delayed until the end of the year. At the Cleveland Clinic, merit increases are suspended in 2020 as the system develops a recovery plan. Telehealth: The coronavirus pushed healthcare systems into the age of the digital house call, and thats unlikely to end anytime soon, reports Emily Bamforth. At a City Club forum, both Cleveland Clinics Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic and MetroHealths Dr. Akram Boutros say theyve seen patients taking advantage of telemedicine options at an unprecedented rate during the coronavirus pandemic. New numbers: The Ohio Department of Health reported Monday afternoon that 1,987 people in Ohio are now dead from the novel coronavirus and more than 32,000 have now been infected, Kaylee Remington reports. The numbers include 199 probable deaths and 2,172 probable infections. Cleveland numbers: Twenty new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Cleveland, Kaylee Remington reports. The total number of coronavirus cases in Cleveland is now at 1,411. There are no new deaths in the city. Most of the Ohio counties with large numbers of coronavirus deaths are in Northeast Ohio.Rich Exner, cleveland.com Trends: Ohios deaths reported daily last week were 36, 55, 61, 63, 32, 15 and 29, Rich Exner reports. The numbers can lag several days from the actual date of death and sometimes are reported by the state in clusters. Cuyahoga numbers: Cuyahoga County had 4,237 coronavirus cases as of Friday. Courtney Astolfi reports that of the suburban cases, 49% are white, 38% are black, 21% are healthcare workers, and about 42% have pre-existing conditions that make them more susceptible to the virus, though medical and occupational data isnt known for roughly one-third of cases. Cuyahoga hospitals: Hospitals in Cuyahoga County this week recorded the highest usage of intensive-care beds since the coronavirus outbreak began, Courtney Astolfi reports. Seventy-seven percent of available ICU beds were filled as of Friday, marking an increase of 5 percentage points over last week. Ventilator usage this week increased by 1 percentage point to 33%. Usage of non-intensive care beds at local hospitals remains unchanged from last week, at 70%. Underlying conditions: The United States may lead the world in known coronavirus-related deaths not only because it is one of the largest countries, but also because it is among the least-healthy among comparable nations when it comes to things like obesity, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. Rich Exner reports on the research, which shows the United States has higher rates than Europe for heart disease (21.8% to 11.4%), high blood pressure (50% to 32.9%), diabetes (16.4% to 10.9%) and obesity (33.1% to 17.1%), among other factors. Memorial Day: While traditional Memorial Day commemorations across the state and country have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine marked the holiday Sunday by laying a wreath at the Ohio Statehouse. Jane Morice reports that DeWine wore a cloth mask even though he was alone. Edgewater Beach: Edgewater Park was so crowded on a sunny, hot Memorial Day that the Cleveland Metroparks closed vehicle access to the beach, Whiskey Island and Wendy Park. Kaylee Remington reported there was limited access to all of the other marinas and yacht clubs. Surfaces: Wiping surfaces is less important than avoiding crowded indoor gatherings to stop the spread of coronavirus, according to revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Julie Washington reports the CDC says now that touching surfaces or objects is not thought to be among the main ways the coronavirus spreads. Cleveland Hopkins: The city of Cleveland is providing $46 million in federal aid to help buoy Cleveland Hopkins International Airport through a downturn in travel caused by the coronavirus crisis, reports Courtney Astolfi. Twenty million dollars will be used to offset losses in landing fees that airlines pay to use the airport; $18 million will be used to offset losses in concessions; and $8 million will be used to support the airports expenses in 2021. Federal prison: Attorneys on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to accelerate the process of releasing or transferring hundreds of inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, where nine felons have died from the coronavirus. John Caniglia reports the ACLU is seeking to allow an order from U.S. District Judge James Gwin to go forward. Coronavirus relief: Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says hell prioritize protecting frontline businesses from COVID-related lawsuits when the U.S. Senate drafts its next coronavirus relief bill, that idea is a non-starter with Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, reports Sabrina Eaton. Brown this week argued that the proposal amounts to giving corporations a blank check to abuse workers," and said that he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill that would extend the amount of time that workers have to take action against companies that violate labor and employment laws during the pandemic. Cleveland State: Cleveland State University has already lost $8 million dollars this fiscal year during the coronavirus pandemic and could lose more than $37 million, officials estimate. Emily Bamforth reports the university will implement a slew of temporary cost-cutting measures, including four-week staff furloughs, tiered pay cuts for six months, a hiring freeze for 70 open positions and reduced spending. University of Akron: The University of Akron plans to open residence halls and resume in-person classes for the fall semester after it closed and transitioned to online classes this spring due to the coronavirus crisis. Robin Goist reports that new guidelines will allow for social distancing and other health considerations. Kent State: Kent State University plans to reopen its campuses for the fall semester after having transitioned to online classes and closing residence halls this spring due to the coronavirus. Robin Goist reports there will be notable differences to the school year, including requiring face masks or coverings, implementing social distancing and offering more online courses. A new report from Attorney General Dave Yost's office shows that of the 18,638 Ohio children reported missing in 2019, almost 98 percent were eventually found safe. (Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com) Missing children: Nearly 400 children reported missing in Ohio in 2019 weren't found by the end of the year, Jeremy Pelzer reports. Of the 18,638 Ohio children reported missing in 2019, 18,246 almost 98 percent were recovered safely, according to Attorney General Dave Yosts annual Children Clearinghouse Report. Federal courthouses: All of Northern Ohios federal courthouses will be closed to most of the public until the end of July because of the coronavirus, reports Eric Heisig. For those who do enter, a mask must cover a persons nose and mouth and is required unless a judge or courthouse official says otherwise. Unemployment: Ohios unemployment rate nearly tripled to 16.8% in April as the state lost 823,700 jobs with many employers shuttered, Rich Exner reports. The unemployment rate is higher than at any point in published state records by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics going back 1976. Accidental shooting: Malachi Wicks was 16 when he was accidentally fatally shot May 12, reports Adam Ferrise. His short life was filled with tragedy: His mother became ill and died in February, and his best friend, Alianna DeFreeze, was kidnapped on her way to school and murdered in 2017. Put-in-Bay: Adjustments in seating and spacing inside once-crowded bars and restaurants on Put-in-Bay may be the most visible changes required by health concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. Susan Glaser has a look at what tourists will find this summer on South Bass Island. Music Box: The Music Box Supper Club, one of Clevelands popular concert venues and a high-profile presence in on the West Bank of the Flats, is bringing back live music June 19 with its Table for Two series. Seating will be limited and spread out, with at least 12 feet between tables. Performers will be limited to solo acts or duos and they will play on a stage thats 15 feet away from the audience, reports Anne Nickoloff. House of the week: Everyday feels like a luxury beach vacation at this Euclid home, custom built in 2010, reports Joey Morona. Check out the 4,000-foot open floor plan with a chefs kitchen and two-story great room. Joe Biden: Former Vice President and current presidential candidate Joe Biden answers the internet's most searched questions about himself on a video from cleveland.coms sister site, WIRED. Other headlines Coronavirus closings and delays in Northeast Ohio for Tuesday, May 26, 2020 Read more Woman stabbed in the eye in Clevelands Buckeye Shaker neighborhood, suspect arrested, police say Read more 2 separate shootings on Clevelands west side sends 2 people to the hospital Read more Cleveland police: Man found dead in Cuyahoga River Read more Man injured in Memorial Day stabbing in Cleveland, police say Read more Man shot to death in Clevelands North Collinwood neighborhood, police say Read more Global Center for Health Innovation should be re-purposed as convention center extension, review finds Read more Work on new Sherwin-Williams HQ in Cleveland slowed but not stopped during coronavirus pandemic Read more Destination Cleveland starting to think about how to pitch travel again; residents will be key Read more Recording backs former Akron Art Museum employees claim she reported allegation about museum in 2019 Read more Gov. Mike DeWines gun-reform proposals gather dust during the coronavirus crisis Read more Cleveland Museum of Art postpones Picasso and Paper to tentative Sept. 22 opening Read more Innovative Euclid project inspires lakefront trail planning in Cuyahoga, Lake and Lorain counties Read more Woman with special needs reported missing in East Cleveland Read more Employee at downtown Cleveland Heinens tests positive for coronavirus Read more Cleveland police-officer-involved accident sends 2 people to the hospital Read more Aquatic products processed for exports at Ba Ria - Vung Tau Seafood Processing Import Export Co (Photo: VNA) The idea is to improve the ability of domestic producers to cope with the application of trade defence measures on the global market. At the same time, the ministry will also provide information about current trade remedies for domestic associations and production industries. This will include guidance on using or dealing with trade remedies for key industries such as steel, wood, seafood, chemicals, textiles and support industries. The ministry will also build an electronic portal to provide early warnings about trade remedies, while looking at how these industries deal with trade remedy lawsuits. In addition, it will simplify the implementation of regulations on trade remedies to help Vietnam join the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA). The implementation of these solutions in the coming years is expected to help domestic production industries and enterprises, especially small and medium sized ones, to have clear information about trade remedies so they can improve the efficiency of their international economic integration. Le Trieu Dung, Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industrys Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam, said for FTAs with very high tariff reduction levels such as the EVFTA, there would certainly be high competitive pressure and challenges for Vietnamese enterprises. Most trade remedies in the EVFTA are based on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. In addition, the EVFTA included principles that suited Vietnam's legal system. That would help Vietnam's production industries and businesses to adopt legal trade remedy tools and ensure economic efficiency when the country joined the EVFTA, Dung said, In addition, they needed to regularly monitor and study early warnings for trade remedies to take suitable actions to deal with them, he said. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, some sectors with large export volumes such as agricultural products, fisheries, textiles, footwear, iron and steel may be at higher risk of facing trade remedies. Trade remedies such as anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguarding measures are important legal tools that protect local industries and enterprises, especially when tariff barriers are removed under international commitments. Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS) 25x25 work-from-home (WFH) model has set new standards indeed for the IT sector. This is ambitious and of course could result in huge savings in terms of facilities, transport and rentals. However, industry watchers are not quite convinced. Many have pointed out that the system is still evolving and it is too early to say if it works. What is 25x25 WFH model? Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO, TCS, in the FY20 annual report, said, Our customers are comfortable with this model and want us to take more work that others are not able to handle. This has given us the confidence to come out with a bold new Vision 25x25. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show By this model, the company believes that by 2025, only 25 percent of its associates will need to work out of facilities at any point of time. Also, the employees will not need to spend more than 25 percent of their time at work. The company employs close to 4.5 lakh employees. By its estimation, it expects only 1.12 lakh to work from office by 2025. From the companys standpoint there are advantages for both the employer and employees. What does TCS save? Most of the experts and top IT executives Moneycontrol spoke to agreed that savings come from facility and travel. Facility expenses account for about 3.1 percent of its revenue on average for TCS. However in FY20, the expense came down by 33 percent and it accounted for only 1.4 percent of the overall revenue. The facility expenses stood at Rs 2,175 crore, down 33 percent from Rs 3,275 crore in FY19. A top executive from a major IT firm said the biggest saving would be from transport. The company picks up and drops employees using its own transport. Though the company did not disclose the quantum of saving, the executive said that the savings are huge. This could apply to TCS as well. In addition to employee transport, the company can cut down on visa and travel expenses if remote working becomes a norm globally. Travel accounts for about 2 percent of overall revenue. With close to 3.5 lakh employees WFH, there could be potential savings in rentals as well. According to FY19 annual report, the Tata Group's operating lease rent expenses, which are treated as rental payments, were Rs 2,181 crore. TCS operates out of 135 offices across 23 cities in India alone. The offices are a mix of SEZ, company-owned spaces and IT parks. In its FY20 annual reports, the company said that it does not foresee any large-scale contraction in demand despite the reduction in the workforce operating out of its offices. The leases that the Group has entered with lessors towards properties used as delivery centers / sales offices are long term in nature and no changes in terms of those leases are expected due to the COVID-19, the company said in the report. The lease agreements range from four years to a decade or more, according to the report. Why it might not work despite advantages This model is not without advantages. It offers flexibility to young mothers and women who are caring for the elderly, and were unable to avail this earlier. It would give more opportunities for those in tier 2 and 3 cites as remote working becomes a norm. Unlike TCS, most of its peers are still evaluating options with some looking at 50-50 model, where 50 percent will work from office and others from home, till the time vaccine is in the market. According to reports, that could take 12-18 months or longer. C Vijayakumar, CEO, HCL Tech, and R Srikrishna, Hexaware Technologies, said that they foresee 50 percent of its workforce working from office on a rotational basis till there is more clarity. But, WFH for 75 percent of workforce in the longer run is not convincing as the challenges are multi-dimensional. Productivity and digital burnout Milind Lakkad, Chief Human Resources Officer, said in the annual report that the productivity levels have increased since the employees are saving time on the daily commute and better engagement. Some of the projects has seen higher throughput, though these are early days, he added. However, this productivity cannot be taken for granted. VV Apparao, Chief Human Resources Officer, HCL Tech, explained to Moneycontrol that while the productivity has seen 16-20 percent increase during lockdown for HCL Tech, it is unclear if it would still remain high once the lockdown ends. "People will have other responsibilities then like children going to school and you are going to get things from outside. There could be a lot of distractions," he said. The other issue would be dealing with burnouts. Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, in a recent media interaction said that permanent WFH could be damaging to employees. TCS has launched an initiative to help employees deal with stress and anxiety. However, it is too early to say how effective this would be. Take for instance Praveen*, a TCS employee. Before lockdown, Praveen worked an average of 9 hours. Now he works 10-11 hours on average per day and his break times are shorter. But his productivity has increased. Two months in, he is not burnt out yet, but he is not keen on working from home for longer. Well, it might work for higher officials or those with kids to take care of. But I would rather work from office, he says. This is a challenge companies have to prepare for. Other challenges Pareekh Jain, founder, Pareekh Consulting, pointed out that Indian homes are not suitable for long-term WFH given that people live with extended families and often share smaller space. Kanchana Krishnan, Senior Director, JLL India, a real estate consultancy firm, said that majority of the workforce are middle-class families who might not be able to invest to create a workstation at home. In addition, WFH in part works wells since you are already working with people you know. It is yet to be seen how team collaboration will work when a new person joins the team, pointed out Jain. Company culture Most of all, each company has its distinct company culture, which attracts employees. This could the infrastructure perks employees enjoy, employee engagement programme or the managements flexibility in letting employees learn new skills. So with WFH how will companies ensure that the company culture is intact? asked Jain. According to Jain, management has to evolve to address these challenges. One needs to rethink employee engagement and how to connect with them, he added. In addition, there is not much clarity on various challenges prolonged WFH can create. It is too early to even think about making it permanent, added another expert. *Name changed to protect privacy. A father convicted of the female genital mutilation (FGM) of his daughter in the first case of its kind in the nation's history is to appeal his conviction and sentence. The 37-year-old was sentenced to five-and-a-half years imprisonment by Judge Elma Sheehan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last January. He was also sentenced to three years imprisonment on a count of child cruelty which the judge ordered to run concurrently with the other sentence. The defendant had pleaded not guilty to one count of carrying out an act of FGM on a then one-year-old girl at an address in Dublin on September 16, 2016. He had also pleaded not guilty to one count of child cruelty on the same day. He is originally from an African nation but cannot be named to protect the identity of the child. James MacGuill, solicitor for the appellant, today applied to the Court of Appeal to come on record and asked for a copy of the digital audio recording of his client giving evidence through an interpreter at his trial. Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), John Byrne BL, said he was not opposing the application. President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham acceded to the request. Passing sentence on the man and his wife earlier this year, Judge Sheahan said the offence of FGM carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. She said it was important to repeat that this practice is not religious, but rather a cultural belief stemming from the mistaken belief it will help the child rather than cause physical and psychological harm. Judge Sheahan said the child underwent a severe and invasive procedure without cause and this would have a real impact on her life in the future. She said the true significance of what had occurred may not become apparent for years to come. She said the court had no explanation or understanding for why the offence was committed in this particular way to this particular child, nor was it known how it was done or under what conditions the act was performed. Judge Sheahan said the accused had denied the charges and maintained the child injured herself accidentally by falling on a toy steering wheel play centre. She said the court had a concern regarding their lack of insight and remorse. She said the case was aggravated by the nature of the offence itself involving the procurement by both parents of the services of a third party to perform surgical intervention neither medically warranted nor justifiable. Judge Sheahan said it was further compounded by the most egregious breaches of trust. She said the court viewed this offence as being not an act born out of anger or loss of self-control, but an act carried out in a premeditated and planned manner. She said the appropriate headline sentence in the absence of mitigation was a term of imprisonment of seven years for both accused. Judge Sheahan said the mitigating factors in the case were the previous good character of both accused, that they had brought the child for medical care and that prison was more difficult for foreign nationals. She noted that prison may be more difficult for the accused because of the type of offending involved. She noted the effect that losing their parents can have on children. She sentenced the female accused to four years and nine months imprisonment. She also sentenced her to two years and nine months imprisonment on the count of child cruelty to run concurrently with the other sentence. Judge Sheahan said that the female accused did not go into evidence during the trial. She backdated all sentences to the date the accused first went into custody. Brisbane's love affair with the electric scooter will continue for another 12 months, after the council extended a year-long trial with 1000 scooters deployed across the CBD and some suburbs. On Tuesday morning, Brisbane City Council public and active transport committee chairman Ryan Murphy announced the trial extension with more focus on scooters being rolled out in suburbs. Electric scooters are here to stay for another year in Brisbane. Credit:AAP/Darren England Eight Mile Plains, Greenslopes and other suburbs along the bus and train lines will be targeted with scooters from Lime and Neuron to encourage Brisbane residents to use them for the "last mile" trips. Cr Murphy said designated parking areas using decals and painted signs would also be trialled to manage complaints about scooters cluttering footpaths and becoming a trip hazard. Jayanta Roy Chowdhury By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The government may look at demands for raising the import duty on edible oil gradually in a bid to incentivise farmers to grow more oilseeds locally as well as plug loopholes which allow export of edible oil routed from elsewhere via Nepal and Bangladesh into India. Edible oil extractors have been demanding that duties on soyabean, palm and sunflower oils should be raised from their current levels of 37.5-45 per cent. However, the commerce ministry has been resisting such a move fearing that a duty hike could increase consumer prices of a produce which is essential to Indian kitchens. However, officials agreed that a combination of incentives and duty safeguards were needed to encourage local edible oil farmers. India spent an estimated Rs 75,000 crore to import 23 million tonnes (MT) of edible oil in 2019, accounting for about 70 per cent of the oil consumed in domestic market.Also, Indias huge appetite for edible oil has resulted in peculiar situations. Palm oil imports from Nepal rose three times last financial year to 1.9 lakh tones, while import of edible oil rose five times from Bangladesh. Though this years edible oil demand and consumption is expected to fall given the nationwide lockdown and the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the economy, officials agree that it is time India worked on plans to rebuild its pulses and edible oil policy. Since the 1980s, we have not really worked out holistic plans to encourage significant increase in production of oilseeds and pulses and there is a crying need for this if we are to gain self-suficiency in food and not just foodgrains, said officials. According to a study commissioned by the government, India has a potential of two million hectares of palm cultivation. However, the actual area under oil palm is 15 per cent. San Antonio police are searching for individuals involved in a triple shooting Monday morning on the East Side. Officers responded to a shooting in progress at the Viridian Apartments near the 5400 block of Foster Road at 2:43 a.m. When they arrived they found 21-year-old Saul Gonzalez sitting in a vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds and an extended handgun magazine, according to a report. Police also discovered a second vehicle nearby with multiple gunshots to the exterior and multiple shell casings as well as fresh blood inside, police said. FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox As officers investigated, Willie Henderson, 20, approached and told police he too had been shot along with Gonzalez and a third man. Officers then contacted the third victim, Jyquon Mackey, 20. Gonzalez told police the three were going to pick up a girlfriend when someone started shooting at them, according to the report. However, police said stories of the three victims weren't consistent with where the shooting occurred and the three couldn't provide any suspect descriptions. Officers searched the area described to them by the victims but could not find a crime scene, according to the report. Police say investigators also located handguns and narcotics inside a bag that Gonzalez had been holding, according to the report. All three victims were transported to Brooke Army Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. No arrests have been made. Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for MySA.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Spaceflight is a dangerous enterprise. That unrelenting reality underlies every decision as NASA and SpaceX near the hour when they'll strap two veteran astronauts into a spacecraft that will mark not only the first human launch to orbit from United States soil in nearly a decade but also the first time a private company has performed the feat. That mission, scheduled for 4:33 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday, is being celebrated as a historic moment for NASA and the nation. It's also an enormously risky endeavor whose failure could be a major setback for a growing commercial space industry and a devastating blow to SpaceX, which has upended the traditional aerospace pecking order. That's among the reasons that weather now looms as the most likely obstacle to an on-time launch. It has been rainy and overcast here the last few days with low thick clouds that unveiled a stunning rainbow Tuesday morning. But forecasters at Patrick Air Force Base still predicted a 40 percent chance that weather would force a postponement of Wednesday's launch, an improvement from Monday's 60 percent, but still casting doubt on the schedule. And conditions at Cape Canaveral may not be the only reason for cancellation: forecasters are watching developments all along the East Coast, where the Dragon capsule might have to ditch in the case of an emergency abort. Fear of lightning also could force a postponement under complex NASA rules that prohibit a launch if the spacecraft is going to fly within 10 nautical miles of storm clouds that might generate an electrical discharge. Rockets tearing through such clouds can cause a lightning strike, as happened during Apollo 12 when the Saturn V rocket was hit twice, causing damage to some non-essential components. The crew was still able to complete its mission to the moon. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine emphasized at a news conference Tuesday his concerns for the safety of the two astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, and said the expected presence of President Trump and Vice President Pence would not increase pressure to launch if conditions are not right. "We want people to be able to feel free to say, 'No,' and not feel any pressure to launch," he said, adding that he had texted Hurley and Behnken on Monday and told them, "If you want me to stop this for any reason, say so." There is no way to exaggerate the inherent risk involved any time people are placed atop a rocket filled with thousands of gallons of highly volatile propellants. The danger is compounded by the fact that SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has never flown humans before. In an interview, Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, called the launch a "crucial step. Can't mess it up." He said he was optimistic. "The probability of success, you know, knock on wood, I think is high," he said. "But it it is not 100 percent. And so we're just doing everything we can to think of, any possible way, to improve the probability of success, because this would be a big setback if something were to go wrong." Paul Hill, a member NASA's safety advisory panel and the former director of mission operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, warned that human factors can lead to mistakes. "Now is the time to be on alert for 'go' fever," he said after the panel's recent quarterly meeting. "So much work has gone into being this close to launch, it can be difficult to resist the pressure to accept some risk or trivialize some concern with less rigor." For all of NASA's accomplishments, human spaceflight remains a relatively rare and exceedingly dangerous enterprise. Since John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, NASA has launched a total of 164 spacecraft with astronauts to orbit, an average of fewer than three a year. Two ended in disaster - the Columbia and Challenger shuttle flights that killed 14. And many others narrowly escaped harrowing calamities, like the Apollo 12 lightning strike or the oxygen tank rupture that threw the Apollo 13 mission into chaos. Maiden flights of spacecraft with humans on board are the scariest. When the space shuttle flew for the first time in 1981, for example, officials estimated the chance of losing the crew was somewhere between 1 in 500 to 1 in 5,000. Later, after NASA had flown the shuttle many times, it found that first flight was far riskier than originally thought - the chance of death was actually 1 in 12. There are many key differences between the shuttle's first flight and the upcoming launch of what's known as NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The spacecraft and rocket are owned and operated by a private firm, SpaceX, not NASA. The technology has advanced a great deal since the shuttle days; SpaceX's Dragon capsule is outfitted with modern touch screens and safety measures, such as an abort system, not available on the shuttle. And while the space shuttle's first flight had crews on board, Dragon last year completed what NASA said was a flawless test mission without crews to the International Space Station that returned to Earth safely. Flying astronauts to the station may be a new feat, but SpaceX has flown 21 cargo and supply missions to the station since 2012 in the uncrewed version of the Dragon spacecraft. That's given the company plenty of practice sending spacecraft to orbit, and then chasing down the station and attaching to it as it orbits the Earth at 17,500 mph. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has also proved to be a reliable work horse that is closing on 100 launches. But spaceflight is governed by unforgiving physics, requiring extraordinary amounts of energy to escape gravity. Launching a rocket is like detonating a bomb, but with the blast controlled so it flows in a single direction. "We've done everything we can to make sure that the rocket is safe and the spacecraft is safe," Musk said in the interview. "But the risk is never zero when you're going 25 times the speed of sound, and you're circling the Earth every 90 minutes. It's a speed that's difficult for people to even comprehend." The mission would also be the first time since the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz flight, when Russian and American spacecraft docked in orbit, that NASA astronauts would return to Earth by landing in the ocean, rather than on land. Water landings have their own risk, such as when Gus Grissom nearly drowned in 1961, after his capsule filled with water and eventually sank. The space shuttle landed on a runway, and since its retirement in 2011, NASA astronauts have been flying in Russian Soyuz spacecraft that land on the steppe in Kazakhstan. But there have been hair-raising moments with the Soyuz as well. In 2018, one of the side boosters failed to separate properly and slammed into the rocket, triggering the emergency abort system, which sent NASA astronaut Nick Hague and his Russian counterpart, Alexey Ovchinin, on a harrowing ride to the edge of space. "If you do this business, you're going to get your nose bloodied some," said Gerry Griffin, who served as a NASA flight director during the Apollo era. "Hopefully, you don't kill anybody. But if you do it long enough and fly enough vehicles, you're going to have a failure." No one knows the risks inherent in human spaceflight better than Behnken and Hurley. Since they were assigned to the Commercial Crew mission in 2015, they've spent thousands of hours training for the flight and are confident, especially since Dragon has a robust abort system. "Now, I will add that it is the first flight with crew," Hurley said during a recent news conference. "It's the second flight of the vehicle. So the statistics will tell you that's riskier than, say, the 15th flight or the 20th flight of the vehicle." Still, he said he was "confident in both the SpaceX and NASA teams. We've looked at all the stuff that we need to look at. And when we're ready to launch, we'll go do it." The whole point of this test flight is to put the spacecraft through its paces and wring out any problems before NASA certifies it for the operational missions the agency hopes will ferry crews to the space station and back for years to come. Boeing, the other company NASA is paying to develop a new vehicle to fly its astronauts, suffered troubling setbacks late last year during the test flight of its Starliner spacecraft. No astronauts were on board, but the spacecraft encountered trouble almost immediately upon reaching orbit. The onboard computer was 11 hours off, making the spacecraft think it was at a different part of the mission than it actually was. Crews on the ground scrambled, and then discovered a second software problem that would have caused the wrong thrusters to fire during the spacecraft's return to Earth, when what's known as the service module was to separate from the crew module. Controllers on the ground discovered the problem while the spacecraft was in orbit and were able to correct it. Had they not, however, it could have damaged the spacecraft's heat shield or sent the crew module tumbling off course. Since then, NASA officials have said they should have been better at holding Boeing accountable to the agency's rigorous safety standards. And they are confident that after years of working closely together to deliver cargo and supplies to the station and now crew, NASA and SpaceX won't encounter any such problems on the upcoming mission. But there are always concerns about the unexpected and the overlooked. The space shuttle Challenger exploded on chilly January day in 1986 after an "O-ring" joint failed amid unheeded warnings about launching in cold weather. In 2003, Columbia disintegrated as it was reentering Earth's atmosphere after a piece of foam became dislodged during the launch and damaged heat resistant tiles on the wing. A subsequent investigation found a "broken safety culture" at the space agency. In the past several years, NASA and SpaceX have led investigations into a trio of failures. In 2015, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies to the station exploded during flight after the failure of a strut designed to withstand 10,000 pounds of force buckled at 2,000. A year later, another rocket blew up on the launchpad after the failure of a pressure vessel in the second stage liquid-oxygen tank. And last year, during a test of the abort system, the Dragon spacecraft exploded because of a leaky valve. SpaceX also has struggled with the parachute system that would guide the spacecraft to a soft landing as it returns to Earth. No one was injured in any of those failures. NASA and SpaceX said they have investigated all the problems, fixed them and are now ready to launch humans. "This endeavor is the culmination of not only years and years of experience, or time and work, but hundreds of thousands of hours of tireless effort to bring us here," said Benji Reed, SpaceX's Commercial Crew Program manager. "And it's all focused on the safety and reliability of the system." He said that the mission was a "sacred honor" and that the company would do everything possible to fly the astronauts "to the space station and safely bring them back home to their families. Fundamentally, this is what SpaceX was founded for." Outside experts agree the teams have prepared as best they could. "I would say the risk is acceptable. But it's not zero. Spaceflight is inherently dangerous, so there is always risk," said Wayne Hale, the former manager of NASA's shuttle program. "But I think that all the appropriate checks appear to have been done. I think appropriate measures have been taken and having an uncrewed test flight was a big step." That said, everyone will be holding their breath the moment the countdown ticks to liftoff. "I think we're all very appropriately nervous," Reed said. The Delhi Police told the Delhi High Court on Monday that the Tablighi Jamaat "deliberately, willfully, negligently and malignantly" disobeyed the orders of the government with regard to the lockdown and the social distancing norms amid the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The police informed the court that the authorities of the Markaz at the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Delhi's Nizamuddin area were contacted by the Delhi Police. One Mufti Shahzad was apprised of the situation arising out of the spread of Covid-19 and was asked to take immediate action for preventing the spread of the disease. He was directed to send the foreigner devotees back to their respective countries and other Indian persons to their respective native places. "However, no one paid any heed to the lawful directions of the Delhi Police," the investigating agency told the court. "They deliberately, willfully, negligently and malignantly disobeyed the lawful directions promulgated in this regard. Written notices were also issued to Maulana Saad and the Markaz management. However, they refused to pay any heed," the police said in their report. The Delhi Police also told the court that an audio has been found where Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad was "heard asking his followers to defy the lockdown and social distancing measures and to attend the religious gathering of the Markaz." "An audio recording, purportedly of Maulana Saad, head of the Tablighi Jamaat, was found in circulation on WhatsApp on 21.03.2020, in which the speaker was heard asking his followers to defy the lockdown and social distancing measures and to attend the religious gathering of the Markaz," the police said. The status report was filed while a division bench of the high court presided over by Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar heard a plea seeking the release of 916 foreign nationals, who participated in a congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-March, and have been held in institutional quarantine since March 30 despite having testing negative for Covid-19. The court has also issued a notice to the Delhi Police in connection with the said petition filed by 20 of the 916 foreigners, who said the continued detention violated the very fabric of liberty. It was further informed by way of the status report that the Delhi Police had neither arrested, nor detained anyone in connection with the case lodged against members of the Tablighi Jamaat for participating in the religious congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz. During the course of the hearing, Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra and advocate Chaitanya Gosain appraised the court that the investigation was being conducted on a day-to-day basis. Senior advocate Rebecca John and advocate Ashima Mandla, representing the petitioner, requested the court that the foreign nationals who have tested Covid-19 negative be released from institutional quarantine. The police informed the high court that around 1,300 devotees from various states as well as foreign countries were found residing in the Markaz premises without maintaining any social distancing norms. "No one was seen following the directions such as use of facial masks, hand sanitisers etc.," the report read. The police also told the court that the investigation has revealed that most of these foreigners had arrived on tourist visas or e-visas. "The passports and copies of visa application forms of these foreign participants clearly showed that they had obtained tourist visa or e-visa to arrive in India," the police said. Another status report was filed in this matter by the Sub-district Magistrate (SDM) which stated that the Department of Revenue is looking after these foreign nationals and is providing all possible facilities to them. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police filed 20 charge-sheets in the Saket court against 82 foreign nationals from 20 countries in connection with the case. The said foreign nationals belong to Afghanistan, Brazil, China, the US, Ukraine, Australia, Egypt, Russia, Algeria, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, France, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, UK, Fiji, Sudan and the Philippines. The charge-sheet was filed before duty metropolitan magistrate, Saema Jamil, who is slated to take cognizance of the documents on June 12. The FIR in this regard was registered on March 31. The case pertains to a congregation at the Banglewali Masjid in Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin area in mid-March, in which a large number of foreign nationals had participated. Technavio has been monitoring the automotive head gasket market and it is poised to grow by 15.43 mn units during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 3% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005604/en/ Technavio has announced the latest market research report titled Global Automotive Head Gasket Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Please Request Latest Free Sample Report on COVID-19 Impact The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. AB SKF, Dana Inc., Datwyler Holding Inc., ElringKlinger AG, Flowserve Corp., Freudenberg SE, Parker Hannifin Corp., Smiths Group Plc, Tenneco Inc., and Trelleborg AB, are some of the major market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing. Rising demand for silicon rubber gaskets has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. However, high repair costs might hamper market growth. Automotive Head Gasket Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Automotive Head Gasket Market is segmented as below: Application Passenger Vehicles Commercial Vehicles Geography APAC Europe North America South America MEA To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR43646 Automotive Head Gasket Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our automotive head gasket market report covers the following areas: Automotive Head Gasket Market size Automotive Head Gasket Market trends Automotive Head Gasket Market industry analysis This study identifies the utilization of performance MLS with the LaserWeld technology for performance improvement in engines as one of the prime reasons driving the automotive head gasket market growth during the next few years. Automotive Head Gasket Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the automotive head gasket market, including some of the vendors such as AB SKF, Dana Inc., Datwyler Holding Inc., ElringKlinger AG, Flowserve Corp., Freudenberg SE, Parker Hannifin Corp., Smiths Group Plc, Tenneco Inc., and Trelleborg AB. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the automotive head gasket market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Automotive Head Gasket Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024 Detailed information on factors that will assist automotive head gasket market growth during the next five years Estimation of the automotive head gasket market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the automotive head gasket market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automotive head gasket market vendors Table Of Contents : Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Market characteristics Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 2024 Five Forces Analysis Five forces summary Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Threat of rivalry Market condition Market Segmentation by Application by Volume Market segments Comparison by Application by volume Passenger vehicles Market size and forecast 2019-2024 (million units) Commercial vehicles Market size and forecast 2019-2024 (million units) Market opportunity by Application by volume Market Segmentation by Distribution channel by Volume Market segments Comparison by Distribution channel by volume OEM Market size and forecast 2019-2024 (million units) Aftermarket Market size and forecast 2019-2024 (million units) Market opportunity by Distribution channel by volume Customer landscape Overview Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market Drivers Market Challenges Market Trends Vendor Landscape Overview Landscape disruption Competitive scenario Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors AB SKF Dana Inc. Datwyler Holding Inc. ElringKlinger AG Flowserve Corp. Freudenberg SE Parker Hannifin Corp. Smiths Group Plc Tenneco Inc. Trelleborg AB Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005604/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 844 364 1100 UK: +44 203 893 3200 Email: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com/ Coronavirus India Lockdown Extension News, India: Lockdown 5.0: As the number of coronavirus cases near 1.5 lakh mark, sources say that centre is planning to extend the lockdown till June 15. Coronavirus India Lockdown Extension News, India: Lockdown 5.0: As India enters the list of 10 most affected nations by Covid-19, Centre is planning to extend the lockdown for two more weeks to curb its spread. Sources say that the lockdown might get extended till June 15. This time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi might not convene a meeting with the Chief Ministers of different states. He is likely to ask all the states to submit reports on the various measures that have been taken by them in Lockdown 4.0. The final call would be taken based on those reports. It is also reported that the central government is closely monitoring the response to partially lifting restrictions of rail and air services. The impact of lockdown relaxations will determine the way moving forward. Considering India is recording spikes in Covid-19 cases every single day, it is most likely that the government will rule in favour of extending the lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also slated to address the nation on May 31 with this months edition of Mann Ki Baat. He has urged everyone to send in their recommendations and ideas by recording a message on the given number or writing on NaMO/MyGov app. Also Read: Coronavirus India: Spike of 6,535 cases in 34 cases, total count crosses 1.45 lakh, death toll at 4167 Also Read: Ministry of Civil Aviation allows domestic air services by private operators, non-scheduled I look forward to your ideas and inputs for this months #MannKiBaat, which will take place on the 31st. You can: Record a message by dialling 1800-11-7800. Write on NaMo App or MyGov. https://t.co/3KdKpSSCUW Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 18, 2020 In the last 24 hours, a spike of 6,535 new cases and 146 deaths were reported. The total number of cases has now reached 1,45,380, including 80,722 active cases, 60,490 cured/discharged/migrated cases and 4167 death cases. The top 3 worst affected states of Covid 19 in India are Maharashtra (52,667 cases), Tamil Nadu (17,082 cases) and Gujarat (14,460 cases). Also Read: Congresss Alka Lamba booked for indecent remarks against PM Modi, Yogi Adityanath For all the latest National News, download NewsX App Tests for healthcare workers should be considered every two to three weeks, in order to stop the continued spread of Covid-19 to other workplace and living settings, according to an Irish immunologist. Dr Tomas Ryan, from Trinity College in Dublin, says that the number of health staff with Covid-19 in Ireland is extraordinarily high, when compared to other countries, including the UK, where a large number of healthcare workers were not presenting symptoms. HANDOUT, Contributor / NASA/AFP via Getty Images NASA and SpaceX are targeting Aug. 30 for their first "operational" crewed launch, which will have Houston-born astronaut Shannon Walker onboard. The August flight will be considered the first operational crewed flight because this week's launch, scheduled for Wednesday at 3:33 p.m. CT from Kennedy Space Center, is a flight test. NASA and SpaceX are launching astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley as the final major test before SpaceX's human spaceflight system can receive NASA certification to begin more routine trips to the International Space Station. President Donald Trump walks across the South Lawn upon returning to the White House in Washington, DC on May 21, 2020.(MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) Trump Displeased With Beijings Move to Tighten Control Over Hong Kong: White House U.S. President Donald Trump is displeased with the Chinese regimes latest move to tighten its grip on Hong Kong, saying it would jeopardize the citys status as a global financial center, the White House press secretary said on May 26. Trump said that hes displeased with Chinas efforts, and that its hard to see how Hong Kong can remain a financial hub if China takes over, Kayleigh McEnany, press secretary, told reporters. The president, later in the day, told reporters his administration is planning to take action in response to the regimes move before the end of the week, but declined to provide details. Were doing something now. I think youll find it very interesting. But I wont be talking about it today, Trump said. His remarks came amid growing anger at Beijings plan to introduce a national security law for Hong Kong that critics say would spell the end of the citys autonomy. The regime last week unveiled proposals for a national security law in Hong Kong, set to be passed by its rubber-stamp legislaturebypassing Hong Kongs local legislature. The law would criminalize acts of succession, subversion, and terrorism activities. It would also allow Chinese security agencies to set up bases in the city. Critics fear the law would provide the Chinese regime with a cover to suppress dissenting voices. The move has drawn international condemnation and sparked protests in the city on Sunday and further demonstrations planned for this week. Beijing and the Hong Kong government have defended the law, saying it would only apply to a minority of criminals or secessionists. Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said at a Tuesday press conference that she fully backed the move, insisting that the citys freedoms would not be infringed upon by Beijings proposal. Enacting national security legislation will actually reinforce Hong Kongs position as an international financial center, she said. However, U.S. officials and critics argue the law would do the opposite. White House national security adviser Robert OBrien said on Sunday the move would also jeopardize Hong Kongs status as an international financial hub. I just dont see how [the financial industry] can stay, he told NBC. One reason that they came to Hong Kong is because there was the rule of law there, there was a free-enterprise system, there was a capitalist system, there was democracy and local legislative elections. If all those things go away, Im not sure how the financial community can stay there. OBrien said that the draft legislation may lead to sanctions under the U.S. Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019. Under this federal law, the secretary of state must certify every year if Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous from the mainland to justify special trading privileges granted by the United States. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the move marked the death knell for the citys autonomy, guaranteed under the one country, two systems framework. When the city reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, the regime agreed to grant Hong Kong autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in the mainland under this framework. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents American companies in the city, said Tuesday that it was deeply concerned about the plans, urging the regime to preserve one country, two systems. There are over 1,000 American businesses operating in Hong Kong. Hong Kongs autonomyhas long been among its greatest assets in fostering an innovative, transparent, rule-of-law-based economy that prizes the role of markets, it said in a statement. It would be a serious mistake on many levels to jeopardize Hong Kongs special status, which is fundamental to its role as an attractive investment destination and international financial hub. Miffed by the announcement of President Muhammadu Buharis administration that their April stipends have been paid, some N-Power benefic... Miffed by the announcement of President Muhammadu Buharis administration that their April stipends have been paid, some N-Power beneficiaries have publicly debunked the claims. Last Saturday, the Humanitarian Ministry claimed that April stipends had been credited to beneficiaries under the N-Power scheme. Admitting that there was a slight delay, the Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, blamed it on Governments Integrated Financial Management Information System, GIFMIS. GIFMIS is an IT-based system to improve the management of public expenditures and enhance accountability in ministries and agencies. But in separate SOS e-mails, aggrieved beneficiaries rubbished the payment claims. A complainant, Stephen (surname withheld), said he was amazed by the ministers statement. He wrote: I want to tell you that none of us in my PPA (Place of Primary Assignment), even in Kaduna State generally, has received any money from her for April allowance. Im sending this message to you so that you can help us press for the payment of our allowances( April and May). The press is the last hope of the masses. I know through you, a solution will come to our problem. Also, Loveth (surname withheld), sent the following: Most of the N-Power beneficiaries have not been paid April and May stipends. I am surprised the people in charge are claiming we have all been paid. Please, we all have not been paid. Jethro, (surname withheld) another beneficiary also reacted in a similar manner. The beneficiaries also alleged that some have not gotten their March payments. Out of a hundred, ten percent received and they concluded that all beneficiaries have received. She (Farouq) doesnt know what beneficiaries are facing. Since they came to office, we have been facing lots of setbacks, please help us. In her press release, the minister said: I can now announce that all N-Power beneficiaries from Batch A and B have been paid their April stipends. Farouq further assured that details will be provided as soon as May stipends are paid. The N-Power programme was inaugurated by President Buhari in 2016 under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP). Its mandate is to lift citizens out of poverty through capacity building, investment and direct support. The government said the N-Power scheme has enrolled about 500,000 beneficiaries 200,000 from Batch A (September 2016) and 300,000 from Batch B (August 2018). The Buhari administration continues to face criticisms over its handling of projects that involve the disbursement of cash and food items. Aside the controversy trailing N-Power stipends, the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) and other similar schemes, have been enmeshed in fraud allegations. Nigerians have repeatedly asked the Nigerian government to publish a list of programmes beneficiaries, amounts expended and other details for transparency and public scrutiny. Last week, Nigerian Patriots (NP) declared that the feeding project was a scam and insisted that officials be probed. Former Deputy National Chairman of opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, said, Pumping money into the school feeding programme while schools are not open is a little absurd. It is a redundant, unworkable palliative. In a nation where there is no standard numbering of houses, how do you get the food to the beneficiaries? This is more than laughable. It is tragic. In her reaction, the minister explained that the idea of take-home rations is not unique to Nigeria, neither is it a scam. Farouq said it is a globally accepted means of continuing to have access to nutrition and nutritionally-rich foods, despite disruptions to the traditional channels of school feeding. Five wards of Mumbai, which cover areas such as Kurla, Bandra (East), Mankhurd, Govandi, Andheri West, Jogeshwari, Byculla and Mumbai Central, have reported more than 100 Covid-19 related deaths each, according to the civic bodys data. However, officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said while the deceased had tested positive for the virus, the death audit committee is yet to certify if the death was caused due to Covid-19 or other underlying conditions. As of Tuesday, 1,065 deaths in Mumbai have been certified as Covid-19 deaths, according to the state health department. The city saw 1,002 cases and 39 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the case count to 32,974 and toll to 1065. While the data for Tuesday for the five wards wasnt released at the time of going to press, as of Monday, L ward (Kurla) had 154 Covid-related deaths, E ward (Byculla and Mumbai Central) had 129, K -west (Andheri West, Jogeshwari and Oshiwara) 103, M-East (Govandi) had 108 and H-East (Bandra East, Santacruz E) had 116 deaths. Padmaja Keskar, chief of the BMCs health department, said, Once we get the data on the number of deaths, the death audit committee scrutinises and certifies the death as Covid-19 death, after which they are reflected in the toll. As of Monday, of the 1,026 deaths in the city, 67% had comorbidities. While 26% had diabetes, 24% hypertension; 32% both diabetes and hypertension; 8% had heart diseases, and 10% other comorbidities. The five wards accounted for around 7,800 cases by Monday. Topping the list was E Ward (1,726 cases), followed by L ward (1,689 cases), H-East (1,680 cases), K-West (1,623 cases) and M-East ward with more than 1,150 cases. The wards are densely populated, cover more areas and have a high number of slum pockets. The numbers are in contrast to G-North and G-South wards that cover areas such as Worli, Prabhadevi, Dharavi, Dadar and Mahim and have more than 3,000 cases, but less than 100 deaths. Manish Valanju, assistant municipal commissioner of L ward, said, As per the 2011 census, the ward has a population of 9 lakh. A majority of the deceased are senior citizens or those having other ailments. We have screened 60,000 senior citizens so far and are screening more. Another BMC official from M-East ward said, The ward is densely populated like L Ward, and a huge chunk of population has other ailments. There have been several incidents of crowding, especially during night hours, when shopkeepers used to open shops, after which curbs were brought in. Iqbal Chahal, BMC commissioner, on Tuesday held a video-conference where he spoke about bringing the mortality rate on a par with the national average. Chahal said, Our mortality rate earlier was very high, but now we are working towards maintaining it close to the national average of less than two per cent. Our mortality rate currently is 3.2 per cent. Chahal has asked the BMC officials to trace and quarantine at least 15 people in slum areas. Aneesh Makwana, BJP corporator from Andheri, said, More and more people need to be traced and screened everywhere. Also, many are not getting beds on time, which aggravates the condition. The BMC needs to work on it, if the city is yet to hit the peak. Dr Siddarth Paliwal, a Mumbai-based health consultant with a private hospital, said, The number of deaths in every part of the city depends on the number of citizens that are being screened or tested there. One needs to detect patients at an early stage, considering there are several reasons behind citizens having symptoms or otherwise not coming forward. Predicted cloud altitudes and compositions for a range of temperatures common on hot Jupiter planets. The range, in Kelvin, corresponds to about 800-3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, or 427-1,927 degrees Celsius. Credit: UC Berkeley image by Peter Gao Giant planets in our solar system and circling other stars have exotic clouds unlike anything on Earth, and the gas giants orbiting close to their starsso-called hot Jupitersboast the most extreme. A team of astronomers from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have now come up with a model that predicts which of the many types of proposed clouds, from sapphire to smoggy methane haze, to expect on hot Jupiters of different temperatures, up to thousands of degrees Kelvin. Surprisingly, the most common type of cloud, expected over a large range of temperatures, should consist of liquid or solid droplets of silicon and oxygen, like melted quartz or molten sand. On cooler hot Jupiters, below about 950 Kelvin (1,250 degrees Fahrenheit), skies are dominated by a hydrocarbon haze, essentially smog. The model will help astronomers studying the gases in the atmospheres of these strange and distant worlds, since clouds interfere with measurements of the atmospheric composition. It could also help planetary scientists understand the atmospheres of cooler giant planets and their moons, such as Jupiter and Saturn's moon Titan in our own solar system. "The kinds of clouds that can exist in these hot atmospheres are things that we don't really think of as clouds in the solar system," said Peter Gao, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, who is first author of a paper describing the model that appeared May 25 in the journal Nature Astronomy. "There have been models that predict various compositions, but the point of this study was to assess which of these compositions actually matter and compare the model to the available data that we have." The study takes advantage of a boom over the past decade in the study of exoplanet atmospheres. Though exoplanets are too distant and dim to be visible, many telescopesin particular, the Hubble Space Telescopeare able to focus on stars and capture starlight passing through the atmospheres of planets as they pass in front of their stars. The wavelengths of light that are absorbed, revealed by spectroscopic measurements, tell astronomers which elements make up the atmosphere. To date, this technique and others have found or inferred the presence of water, methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, potassium and sodium gases and, in the hottest of the planets, vaporized aluminum oxide, iron and titanium. But while some planets seem to have clear atmospheres and clear spectroscopic features, many have clouds that completely block the starlight filtering through, preventing the study of gases below the upper cloud layers. The compositions of the gases can tell astronomers how exoplanets form and whether the building blocks of life are present around other stars. "We have found a lot of clouds: some kinds of particlesnot molecules, but small dropletsthat are hanging out in these atmospheres," Gao said. "We don't really know what they are made of, but they are contaminating our observations, essentially making it more difficult for us to assess the composition and abundances of important molecules, like water and methane." Ruby clouds To explain these observations, astronomers have proposed many strange types of clouds, composed of aluminum oxides, such as corundum, the stuff of rubies and sapphires; molten salt, such as potassium chloride; silicon oxides, or silicates, like quartz, the main component of sand; sulfides of manganese or zinc that exist as rocks on Earth; and organic hydrocarbon compounds. The clouds could be liquid or solid aerosols, Gao said. Gao adapted computer models initially created for Earth's water clouds and subsequently extended to the cloudy atmospheres of planets like Jupiter, which has ammonia and methane clouds. He expanded the model even further to the much higher temperatures seen on hot gas giant planetsup to 2,800 Kelvin, or 4,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,500 degrees Celsius)and the elements likely to condense into clouds at these temperatures. The model takes into account how gases of various atoms or molecules condense into droplets, how these droplets grow or evaporate and whether they are likely to be transported in the atmosphere by winds or updrafts, or sink because of gravity. "The idea is that the same physical principles guide the formation of all types of clouds," said Gao, who has also modeled sulfuric acid clouds on Venus. "What I have done is to take this model and bring it out to the rest of the galaxy, making it able to simulate silicate clouds and iron clouds and salt clouds." He then compared his predictions to available data on 30 exoplanets out of a total of about 70 transiting exoplanets with recorded transmission spectra to date. The model revealed that many of the exotic clouds proposed over the years are difficult to form because the energy required to condense the gases is too high. Silicate clouds condense easily, however, and dominate over a 1,200-degree Kelvin range of temperatures: from about 900 to 2,000 Kelvin. That's a range of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the model, in the hottest atmospheres, aluminum oxides and titanium oxides condense into high-level clouds. In exoplanets with cooler atmospheres, those clouds form deeper in the planet and are obscured by higher silicate clouds. On even cooler exoplanets, these silicate clouds also form deeper in the atmosphere, leaving clear upper atmospheres. At even cooler temperatures, ultraviolet light from the exoplanet's star converts organic molecules like methane into extremely long hydrocarbon chains that form a high-level haze akin to smog. This smog can obscure lower-lying salt clouds of potassium or sodium chloride. For those astronomers seeking a cloudless planet to more easily study the gases in the atmosphere, Gao suggested focusing on planets between about 900 and 1,400 Kelvin, or those hotter than about 2,200 Kelvin. "The presence of clouds has been measured in a number of exoplanet atmospheres before, but it is when we look collectively at a large sample that we can pick apart the physics and chemistry in the atmospheres of these worlds," said co-author Hannah Wakeford, an astrophysicist at the University of Bristol in the U.K. "The dominant cloud species is as common as sandit is essentially sandand it will be really exciting to be able to measure the spectral signatures of the clouds themselves for the first time with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)." Future observations, such as those by NASA's JWST, scheduled for launch within a few years, should be able to confirm these predictions and perhaps shed light on the hidden cloud layers of planets closer to home. Gao said that similar exotic clouds may exist at depths within Jupiter or Saturn where the temperatures are close to those found on hot Jupiters. "Because there are thousands of exoplanets versus just one Jupiter, we can study a bunch of them and see what the average is and how that compares to Jupiter," Gao said. He and his colleagues plan to test the model against observational data from other exoplanets and also from brown dwarfs, which are basically gas giant planets so massive they're almost stars. They, too, have clouds. "In studying planetary atmospheres in the solar system, we typically have the context of images. We have no such luck with exoplanets. They are just dots or shadows," said Jonathan Fortney of UC Santa Cruz. "That's a huge loss in information. But what we do have to make up for that is a much larger sample size. And that allows us to look for trendshere, a trend in cloudinesswith planetary temperature, something that we just don't have the luxury of in our solar system." Explore further Astronomers find Jupiter-like cloud bands on closest brown dwarf More information: Peter Gao et al. Aerosol composition of hot giant exoplanets dominated by silicates and hydrocarbon hazes, Nature Astronomy (2020). Journal information: Nature Astronomy Peter Gao et al. Aerosol composition of hot giant exoplanets dominated by silicates and hydrocarbon hazes,(2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1114-3 Speculations are rife in Jammu and Kashmir about the Centre setting up an advisory council led by Altaf Bukhari in early June as an alternative political front. Apni Party leaders, however, said they discussed the matter last at the March meeting of the party leadership with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to test political waters before Covid-19 struck. Its not clear whether it is going to take shape or not. The top leaders of Apni Party, including Altaf Bukhari, are silent on the new advisory council, but the leaders who met both the Prime Minister and home minister in New Delhi in March said that the prospect of an interim government was discussed at the time. Political activities came to standstill after a lockdown was enforced across the country, including J&K, to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid19). A senior Apni Party leader and former legislator who was part of the delegation that met Modi and Shah in March confirmed that the prospect of setting up an interim government in J&K before the elections was discussed. This could be on the table as an option in New Delhi, but council members taking an oath in the first week of June is just a rumour, the former PDP leader said, adding that New Delhi now feels that bureaucrats have failed miserably in J&K and that an advisory council led by a senior politician could help remedy the situation. This time, there is a political vacuum in J&K and many leaders in New Delhi think that new leadership could act as a buffer between J&K and New Delhi, as Delhi is being blamed for everything wrong in Kashmir and there is visible anger on ground, he said. Another former legislator who resigned from the Congress and joined the Altaf Bukhari-led Apni Party said that it was ambiguous whether the interim setup discussed between the Apni Party leadership and New Delhi had been cleared by the Centre, as everyone was now busy fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. He, however, added that speculations could be true. Under the Union Territory (UT) model of Pondicherry, the President of India has powers to appoint a council which can function in a UT. That can be the case for our UT as well. BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur termed this a mere rumour spread by politicians. There is no provision in the constitution which allows the setting up of any advisory council in the UT, he said, adding that those who are being tipped to be part of the new advisory council have themselves denied it. J&K Pradesh Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that BJP government had taken several unconstitutional and undemocratic steps in the last one year and bifurcated the state into small pieces. We can expect anything from them, but the 12.5 million people of J&K have not endorsed that decision and wont endorse this as well. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and three service chiefs on Tuesday and reviewed the ground situation in Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese trops are locked in a face-off. Sources said the meeting continued on for over an hour. Singh was briefed about the Indian response to the Chinese troops mobilisation. It was clarified during the meeting that the Indian Army will hold its fort as talks to defuse the situation would continue in parallel. It was also decided in the meeting that road constructions must continue and Indian fortifications and troop deployment must match those of the Chinese. Earlier, Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army held several meetings to resolve the situation in eastern Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control. However, no breakthrough was reported till Monday. The previous meeting took place on Sunday, but many things remained unresolved, said sources, adding more commander-level talks are likely to resolve the issues. Sources said there have so far been five rounds of talks between military commanders on the ground without much progress. A top Indian Army officer told IANS: "No breakthrough. Status quo is maintained." He said the situation will be resolved, but Indian Army will continue with its construction work along Line of Actual Control. Sources said there has been a troop build-up on both sides and that there are at least three places where there has been an eyeball-to-eyeball situation since May 5. Both sides have deployed over 1,000 troops at four places along the Line of Actual Control. The Indian Army is keeping a close watch on the Pangong Tso sector of eastern Ladakh and the Galwan Valley region, where the Chinese have enhanced their deployment. Other than the extremely volatile Pangong Tso sector in the wake of the recent escalation are Trig Heights, Demchok and Chumar in Ladakh which form western sector of the India-China frontier, which are also under strict vigil. The disengagement took place in eastern Ladakh after troops came to blows on May 5 and were involved in a face-off till the morning of May 6 when troops from both sides clashed, leaving several injured. Sources said there is a massive troop build-up by China on their side, not too far from the point of the standoff. It was also observed that enhanced patrolling is being carried out by China in Pangong Lake. They have also increased numbers of boats. The face-offs took place after the Chinese side objected to Indian road construction and development work. However, Indian Army has maintained that there is no continuing face-off at the Pangong lake and that there is no build-up of armed troops in the area. On Friday, Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane visited Leh, the headquarters of 14 Corps in Ladakh, and reviewed security deployment of forces along the Line of Actual Control with China. He held a meeting with Northern Command (NC) chief Lieutenant General Y.K. Joshi and the 14 Corps commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and other officers to know the ground situation at forward locations along Line of Actual Control. With domestic violence on the rise amidst lockdown, one must consider being empathetic, understanding and sensitive towards others It is incredibly sad that we are seeing a sharp rise in domestic violence amidst the Covid-19 lockdown and quarantine times. For couples, being holed up together in close confines for long periods may seem unending, and are getting at each other and venting their frustrations at each other. But in these times, when life itself is tenuous, to add to ones trials by creating additional angst is so avoidable. In the lockdown, my opinion was that this time is such a valuable gift for us to spend time with loved ones and maximise this me time with family in our homes. To bond and make up for all the times we pined to spend more time with our family but work pressures pressed upon us and took us away. This is the one time in our lives, probably, when we wont have the rush of work, errands, and duties hanging above us and we can actually converse, connect, and grow with loved ones. What saddens me is that instead of the joy of bonding, this period is turning into a nightmarish dark tunnel for many couples, going for each others necks both literally and metaphorically. Oftentimes, this goes beyond fights and unpleasantness into domestic violence which includes humiliation, intimidation, threats, and verbal abuse, apart from physical abuse. When angst, acrimony and antagonism turn into violence, it is important to reach out for help from the outside, which includes the police, a counsellor, parents, and doctors. But if it hasnt reached that stage and you can salvage your relationship, I urge partners to consider recounting the reasons they got together in the first place. You went into the marriage for reasons that were strong enough to make a marriage, so dont be so hasty to break it up so easily. You have come this far together. Yes, the confinement and being in each others space is getting to many people; small idiosyncrasies morph into large turn-offs as tiny faults get magnified with more exposure to each other. It seems true for these cases that familiarity does breed contempt. Todays wife too needs her own individual space and sense of comfort and identity, as much as the husband. She could also do with some assistance at home, now that her partner and maybe even kids are at home and the workload has multiplied. She is absolutely entitled to her free time too and is not the designated slave of the home. Shared responsibilities are the need of the hour. Even just procuring and decontaminating the groceries is such q production in these times, isnt it? These are troubled times and an impulsive egoistic decision may be a reason for regret when things get back to somewhere near the times that were. What concerns me here is that all the people I advise even those considering the extreme step of divorce already know all that I tell them about creating boundaries and allowing for differences in nature, in walking away when in the heat of the moment, and also counting to 100 when wanting to rant. But a prevailing compelling surge of words spewed in anger ensues before any rationale can kick in. Momentary hate takes over and clouds all judgement, and then starts the viral effect of allegations, hate, and having the last word instead of the desire to work it out. Animosity breeds animosity and rage breeds rage and recrimination. One might need to shake oneself into perspective! They do say tough times dont last, tough people, do. And these are unusually hard-hitting circumstances in our lifetimes by any definition. Confinement of two people in a space without any relief or respite can sometimes be a reason to breed intolerance and conflict if one does not school oneself to be reasonable and allow for personality differences. Avoid extreme reactions, because the consequences of ones extreme responses and outbursts are often likely to be severe loneliness and often a life that loses its moorings. There may even be children to consider. But the persons in the throes of this moment often know these things. I almost always beg partners to consider empathy, understanding and sensitivity of the other rather than the self. Better sense must prevail, and with distance the edge of anger gets dulled. You begin to see the joys of companionship, bonhomie, sharing and selflessness within your relationship. The person you chose to marry is still the same individual. The cares of life and the current situation may create irritation and stress, but a little effort on your part and then theirs will transform the nature of your responses and consequently you restore your relationship gently. And at the very least, you will stay friends. Could first home buyers use an extra $100,000 in their pocket? (Image: Getty) The decline in the housing market due to the coronavirus might be the perfect opportunity to make a permanent change to save home buyers up to $100,000. That's according to buyers agent and Your Property Your Wealth director Daniel Walsh, who told Yahoo Finance that Australian states must consider scrapping stamp duty. "Stamp duty has long been the bane of most property owners existences with buyers having to fork out tens of thousands of additional dollars for the supposed privilege of purchasing a piece of real estate," he said. "In some cases, in exclusive Sydney suburbs for example, buyers are stumping up more than $100,000 every time they purchase a home. In many other locations, you wont get much change from $20,000 to $40,000, depending on the propertys price point." The problem is that the tax levels were set decades ago when housing was much cheaper, so now in the eyes of stamp duty rules, all buyers are purchasing 'luxury' housing. "Over the decades, as the price of property has increased, the percentage rate of stamp duty has generally stayed the same, which has resulted in the cost of stamp duty soaring." AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver told the same message to Domain last month. "Stamp duty is a terrible tax, it should be repealed and this is the perfect time to do it," he said. "The problem with stamp duty is that its a massive impost on a single transaction which inhibits economic decision-making in a less-than-optimal way." Walsh said removing stamp duty would mean first home buyers could purchase sooner because that money would go towards their deposit. "For example, in Queensland, the stamp duty on a $500,000 home is about $18,000. "Say, a would-be buyer had saved $68,000, but no longer needed to pay stamp duty, their purchasing power has increased by a staggering 26 per cent." However, some experts are against the idea of eliminating stamp duty, arguing it could inflate property prices and put it further out of reach of many Australians. Story continues "If you take stamp duty away, youre going to take away a massive barrier to entry and increase demand for property," Metropole Property Strategists director Michael Yardney wrote for Yahoo Finance this week. "This could push property prices higher and create an artificial property bubble as demand soars." State governments rely heavily on stamp duty for revenue, so how can this income be replaced? The proposal from most experts who want stamp duty scrapped is an annual land tax. "How that will look in practice is not clear, but its likely to include an annual fee of a few hundred dollars for all property owners based on the rateable value of their land," said Walsh. "That system would ultimately be more equitable whilst also providing the income that governments need from year to year." Yardney said the current system is already fair, and a land tax would punish people who are not in the property market or who have already paid massive stamp duty. "If you dont buy property, you dont pay it," he wrote of stamp duty. "It may not be fun, but it is fair. "Now, rather than a discretionary tax, every single person in Australia is going to end up paying a little extra for broader taxes that bite at everyones budget." Big reforms usually occur in democracies because of a change in government, but this is a unique chance to enact meaningful change without political upheaval, according to Walsh. "While all of us would prefer that coronavirus never existed, its impact long-term on our society may also include leaving a legacy of a fairer taxation system for everyone." Sign up to the newsletter for exclusive access. Follow Yahoo Finance Australia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and his Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi have been sending mixed messages to the country's new Islamic Republic Parliament ahead of its opening on May 28. Rouhani tweeted on Monday: "As the Majles turns 40, and starts the fifth decade of its activity, the people are looking forward to the cooperation between the Majles and the administration during the next year. The administration is reaching out to the new Majles for friendship." On the same day, Vaezi warned the next Majles not to intervene in the affairs of the administration. Some of the conservatives who dominate the new Majles had vowed during their election campaign to question Rouhani's performance once in the legislature. Some have even threatened to impeach Rouhani for his poor performance during the past seven years and particularly for his reaction to major events such as the nationwide protests in November 2019. Rouhani's last year in office as Iran's President coincides with the first year of the 11th Majles. Several political analysts in Tehran have said that Rouhani is likely to have a hard time in his dealings with the Majles once the parliament leaves its first few weeks behind and elects its speaker and presidium members. At least three of the four conservative factions, the ultraconservative Paydari and Pro-Ahmadinejad groups as well as the pro-Qalibaf neoconservatives have made it clear that they oppose the Rouhani administration and will stand against it once the Majles starts its business. The administration's media outlet, Iran daily in its May 26 issues extensively covered the administration's expectations of the new Majles, however, it did shy away from highlighting Rouhani and his administration's concerns about the possibility of damaging confrontations with parliament. Although it is highly unlikely that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would allow the Majles to take the idea of impeaching Rouhani any further, but he couldn't care less about criticisms that might damage Rouhani's image and his political ambitions beyond his presidency. Rouhani is far less than Khamenei's ideal model of a president. He has said at least twice recently that he wants a "youthful revolutionary president" in 2021. The new Majles is full of aspiring examples for that model. Rouhani's concern about what the Majles might have in mind about him is clearly evident in the way the administration's mouthpiece, the Iran newspaper, has configured its interviews with four pro-administration and pro-reform figures, a media expert, an academic and a conservative analyst. The way the opinions are lined up and presented in the paper emphasize the need for healthy interactions between the Majles and the administration. Akbar Torkan, a confidant of Rouhani, said the Majles should refrain from intervening in executive affairs, and suggested that instead of creating trouble for the administration, parliament needs to restore its damaged status and prestige. Gholamreza Ansari, a leading member of the reformist Unity of nation Party offered some pragmatic advice and told the new Majles to try to avoid tensions with the administration ahead of the 2021 presidential elections. Ansari suggested that the Majles should try to resolve the deadlock surrounding the anti-money-laundering and terror-financing bills that in reality have already cleared parliament and are being held back by hardliner watchdogs. Another member of the same Party, Majid Farahani suggested that the new Majles should avoid differences and disputes with other institutions, without noting that within the Islamic Republic's political structure, some of these institutions have the upper hand in legislation and may overturn any decision by parliament. Academic Gholamreza Zarifian called on the new Majles to have a realistic approach to Foreign Policy but did not say how this can be done despite the approach of powerful institutions that drag the country in a different direction. Media analyst Hassan Beheshtipour advised that the Majles needs to be in some kind of accord with the administration and conservative analyst Nasser Imani opined that the Majles should stay away from political disputes within and outside the parliament and instead, attempt to follow up the idea of amending the Election Law. Former reformist MP Mohammad Reza Khabbaz expressed his concern about the way the new members of the parliament might attack the administration in its last year in office because of old grudges and factional interests. Reminding that some of the new MPs have said they want to impeach Rouhani as soon as the new parliament opens, Khabbaz said this might disrupt the state of affairs in the country. Thank you for tuning in to episode 74 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your host, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight.com. This episode is brought to you by our friends at PSCU. As the nations premier payments CUSO, PSCU proudly supports the success of more than 1,500 credit unions. In the midst of a crisis, it can be difficult to balance members immediate needs with the long-term plans and goals for your brand. To discuss this challenge and more, I sat down with Mark Arnold, Founder and CEO of On The Mark Strategies and long-time contributor to CUInsight. Mark and his team have a ton of experience helping credit unions across the country align their marketing and strategic planning efforts with their values to build trust and relevancy in their community. During our conversation, Mark shares some important themes he thinks credit unions should keep in mind when communicating with their members and teams. We also discuss why Mark believes marketing will never be the same following COVID-19, and what credit unions should be doing to build a brand thats consistent, clear, and unique going forward. His recommendation is to start by writing down what makes your credit union different in six or less words. Mark and I also talk about his path to starting his own business and some of the difficult career decisions he had to make along the way. He shares that leadership can get lonely, which is why its important to build a network of people you can tap into for advice and more. We also chat about mentors, a typical workday, and Marks love of running. As usual, we finish with the rapid-fire questions, where we learn that Mark wanted to be a writer when he grew up. He also tells us about the first time he got into trouble as a child, the books he thinks everyone should read, and that his dad is the person he thinks of when he hears the word success. You dont want to miss this episode! Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher Books mentioned on The CUInsight Experience podcast: Book List How to find Mark: Mark Arnold, Founder and CEO of On The Mark Strategies mark@markarnold.com www.markarnold.com Twitter | LinkedIn Show notes from this episode: A big shout-out to our friends at PSCU, an amazing sponsor of The CUInsight Experience podcast. Thank you! Check out all the outstanding work that Mark and his team at On The Mark Strategies are doing here. Watch Marks 3 Questions interview with Randy here. Shout-out: Texas Credit Union League (now Cornerstone Credit Union League) Shout-out: Terry Young Shout-out: Jill Nowacki Shout-out: Jeff Rendel Shout-out: Casey Boggs Shout-out: Eric Pointer Shout-out: Dave Krause Shout-out: Stefanie Rupert Shout-out: Maurice Smith Shout-out: Marks dad Shout-out: Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union Shout-out: Brett Martinez Shout-out: Marks wife Shout-out: Bill Cheney Shout-out: Crissy Cheney Album mentioned: The Very Best of John Williams Book mentioned: Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness by Ray Davis Book mentioned: Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the Worlds Greatest Companies by Jim Stengel Book mentioned: The Revenue Growth Habit: The Simple Art of Growing Your Business by 15% in 15 Minutes Per Day by Alex Goldfayn Previous guests mentioned in this episode: Jill Nowacki (episodes 4, 18, 37 & 64), Maurice Smith, Brett Martinez, Bill Cheney You can find all past episodes of The CUInsight Experience here. In This Episode: [02:15] Mark, welcome to the show! [03:03] Mark shares tips on communication with their members and teams. [05:02] Are you rethinking strategic planning for the future? Do you have a plan? [07:13] Mark believes that the way members interact with credit unions will change. [09:20] Mark shares what he thinks credit unions need to fundamentally change to stay relevant. [10:47] What makes your credit union different in six words or fewer without using the words community, people, and service. [12:42] Mark speaks about what he will be proud of that he and his team accomplished this year. [13:47] What was the inspiration for you to start On The Mark Strategies? [16:35] Marks shares how motivation has changed over the years. [19:01] Mark discusses what his team has heard him say so often that they can finish his sentence. [20:21] Mark says that the ability to make the tough decisions is something he has cultivated. [21:13] Leadership is a team sport is a myth that he wants to debunk. It can be lonely at the top. [22:47] Is there a mistake you made or one that you see young leaders making today? [23:52] Mark shares that passion is critical is the advice they gave him along the way. [26:53] Marks speaks about his dad leading with vision and compassion. [27:35] Mark discusses a time when he felt over his head and was ready to throw in the towel. [28:44] What does a typical workday look like, and what would it take to have a perfect workday? [30:25] Mark shares what he loves to do when he has a day off and needs to recharge. [31:24] Mark says its a struggle to keep his business and personal life separate. [33:08] What was Mark like in high school and when was the first time you got into memorable trouble? [34:43] Mark chats about wanting to be a writer when he grew up. [35:31] Running, reading the bible, and writing in his journal is what Mark does every day, and if he doesnt, his day is off. [36:41] What is your favorite album of all time? [37:25] Is there a book you think everyone should read? [38:22] Spending time with his family has become more important, and titles are less important. [39:52] When you hear the word success, who is the first person who comes to mind? [41:15] Now is not the time to pause; now is the time to grow; now is the time to accelerate your growth. [42:33] Thank you so much, Mark, for being on the show. Jerusalem, May 26 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country will not miss "the historic opportunity" to annex a portion of occupied West Bank. Speaking during a meeting of lawmakers of his right-wing Likud party, Netanyahu on Monday said the annexation is "a top task" for the new unity government he had formed with his former rival Benny Gantz last week, reports Xinhua news agey. Netanyahu told the lawmakers that "there's a historic opportunity that hasn't existed since 1948" to impose Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank's Jordan Valley "in a wise way and as a diplomatic step". "We will not let this opportunity pass," he said. He said he was determined to start cabinet discussions over the plan on July 1. The Palestinians consider the annexation as illegal and the European Union warned the move will harm chances for peace, with some of its member states calling to impose sanctions on Israel should it continue with the plan. President Mahmoud Abbas said last week that the Palestinian Authority is no longer committed to any signed agreements with Israel or the US. On May 7, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that American President Donald Trump's administration supports Israel's application of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel seized the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip, in 1967 war and kept controlling it ever since despite international criticism. More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (DiDi) set up in April a Beijing-registered company dubbed Beijing Woya Technology Co.,Ltd., according to the business data search platform Tianyancha. The newly-established company is wholly owned by Shanghai DiDi Woya Technology Co.,Ltd, which is held as to 90% by Cheng Wei, founder and CEO of DiDi, and 10% by Zhang Bo, DiDi's CTO. Wei Junqing, CTO of DiDi's autonomous driving company, serves as the new firms legal representative. Beijing Woya will work on the following businesses: the car rental and leasing services, the sale of communications equipment, electronic products and auto parts, as well as the technology transfer and development, etc. (Photo source: DiDi) After reached by a local media outlet, DiDi revealed that it plans to conduct autonomous vehicle tests in the Chinese capital. In last August, DiDi hived off its autonomous driving unit as a separate company run by CTO Zhang Bo. But its R&D of the emerging technology could data back to 2016, when it decided to form its own self-driving technology team. Unveiled in Feb. 2018, DiDi's autonomous vehicles have been qualified to be tested on open roads in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and California. In Sept. 2018, the company obtained T3 plates for autonomous vehicle road tests. License plates used in the autonomous driving road tests of Beijing have five levels, from T1 to T5. The T3 shows that the vehicles possess capabilities such as road condition recognition, vehicular traffic laws compliance and emergency disposal. Moreover, in last September, DiDi obtained the first license plates applied to the demonstration of manned autonomous driving tests in Shanghai. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray to be hospitalized for treatment of neck pain Lockdown-like restrictions to return in Maharashtra? Here's what CM Uddhav Thackeray has to say CM Uddhav Thackeray meets Sharad Pawar, Sena says Maharashtra govt strong India oi-Madhuri Adnal Mumbai, May 26: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with NCP president Sharad Pawar here, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Tuesday while asserting that the state government is "strong". India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News The two leaders met for about one-and-a-half hours late Monday evening, Raut said while dismissing speculations about the Thackeray-led government''s stability. Coronavirus crisis: Raj Thackeray slams UP govt over 'seek permission for migrants' remark The Sena Rajya Sabha MP, however, did not reveal what transpired between the two leaders. The meeting between Thackeray and Pawar took place after the NCP chief met state Governor B S Koshyari on Monday morning. NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting for one-and-a-half hours. Those doubting about the stability of this government are doing so out of their own grudge. This government is strong," Raut tweeted in Marathi. Earlier, Pawar met Koshyari on Monday morning, following which the NCP claimed the meeting took place on the invitation of the governor and no political issues came up for discussion. However, the timing of the meeting is significant as it took place against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and the Raj Bhavan. Maharashtra reports highest single-day COVID-19 spike as cases cross 50,000-mark The NCP is one of the key constituents of MVA. Pawar was one of the key leaders from Maharashtra who had openly complained about Koshyari''s "intervention" in the functioning of the state administration. Recently, senior BJP leader and former state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis complained to the governor about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the COVID-19 crisis. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 11:05 [IST] VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (TSX: SGQ, HK: 1878) (SouthGobi or the Company) announces an update on issuing its 2019 Financial Statements and the publication and dispatch of the 2019 Annual Report. Reference is made to the Companys announcements dated April 27 and May 12, 2020 (collectively, the Announcements). Unless otherwise defined herein, capitalized terms used in this announcement shall have the same respective meanings as defined in the Announcements. As disclosed in the announcement dated May 12, 2020, the Company has been advised by its Auditors that they have not been able to render an unmodified opinion on the 2019 Financial Statements prior to the filing deadline of May 14, 2020, as they have not had sufficient evidence to support managements going concern assumptions due in part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the State Emergency Commission of Mongolia imposed travel restriction of non-Mongolian passengers to enter Mongolia since February 2020. On April 28, 2020, the State Emergency Commission of Mongolia decided to extend the suspension of international passenger flights till the end of May 2020. As a result, the Company was not able to file the 2019 Financial Statements by the filing deadline of May 14, 2020. On May 13, 2020 the Company made an application to the BCSC, the Companys principal securities regulator in Canada, requesting that a MCTO be granted in respect of the late filing of the 2019 Annual Filings and 2020 Interim Filings. On May 15, 2020, the BCSC granted the Company a MCTO which will be effective until June 15, 2020. Pursuant to the MCTO, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer of the Company will not be permitted to trade any securities of the Company unless and until such time as the Company files the 2019 Annual Filings and 2020 Interim Filings. While the MCTO is in effect, the Company expects that shareholders of the Company will continue to be able to trade the Companys common shares on the TSX. Until the 2019 Annual Filings and 2020 Interim Filings are filed, the Company will be required to comply with the provisions of the alternative information guidelines specified in NP 12-203 by issuing bi-weekly default status reports in the form of press releases for so long as the MCTO remains in effect. Story continues Meanwhile, an application was made by the Company to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for further extension of time for the publication of the 2019 Annual Report (the Further Extension) as provided for under the Further Guidance on Joint Statement in relation to Results Announcements in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic issued by the Securities and Future Commission in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 16, 2020. The Company anticipates trading of the Companys common shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be permitted to continue if the Further Extension is granted by Hong Kong Stock Exchange. During the effective period of MCTO, and if the Further Extension is granted, the Company will use the additional time so granted to obtain relevant evidence so as to support managements going concern assumptions, and to obtain an unmodified opinion from the Auditors on the 2019 Financial Statements or pursue another appropriate resolution to this matter. If the Company is successful in obtaining an unmodified opinion from the Auditors on the 2019 Financial Statements, the Company will file the 2019 Financial Statements and 2019 Annual Report as soon as possible following the receipt thereof. There can be no assurance, however, that the Company will be able to provide sufficient evidence to the Auditors and obtain an unmodified opinion on the 2019 Financial Statements prior to the expiry of the MCTO or Further Extension. If the Company is unable to file the 2019 Annual Filings and 2020 Interim Filings prior to the expiry of the MCTO, it is anticipated that the BCSC will issue a general failure to file cease trade order (CTO) prohibiting the trading by any person of any securities of the Company, including trades in the Companys common shares made through the TSX. The Company anticipates that the CTO would take effect shortly after the expiry of the MCTO and would remain in place until such time as the 2019 Annual Filings and 2020 Interim Filings have been filed. The Company will make further announcement(s) in relation to the updates on status of the Further Extension application with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the 2019 Financial Statements, and the publication and the dispatch of the 2019 Annual Report as and when appropriate. Shareholders of the Company and potential investors are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the Company. About SouthGobi SouthGobi, listed on the Toronto and Hong Kong stock exchanges, owns and operates its flagship Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine in Mongolia. SouthGobi produces and sells coal to customers in China. Contact: Investor Relations Kino Fu Office: +852 2156 7030 (Hong Kong) +1 604 762 6783 (Canada) Email: kino.fu@southgobi.com Website: www.southgobi.com Chair Professor Song Ho-geun from POSTECH delivers a presentation under the theme "From Corona New Normal to Civilized New Deal" during the Korea Forum 2020 at Hotel Shilla in central Seoul, Tuesday. The Korea Times and its sister paper Hankook Ilbo daily co-hosted the forum under the theme of "Post-pandemic. Challenges or Opportunities" to explore changes and challenges that could emerge after the coronavirus pandemic. Hundreds of people, including key politicians, scholars and business leaders, attended the forum. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon It has won millions of fans and multiple syndications following its successful BBC launch in 2009. But popular quiz show Pointless has reportedly enjoyed a boost in ratings as a result of the coronavirus crisis, with more viewers tuning in if the daily briefing - which airs at the same time - is fronted by an unpopular MP. Its understood that the popularity of each Tory figurehead determines how many people tune in to the show, which airs on BBC2 at 5:15 while the briefing takes place on BBC1. Inconsistent: Pointless has reportedly suffered fluctuating viewing figures as a result of the coronavirus crisis, with ratings going up or down depending on which political figure is leading the Governments daily briefing According to Richard Osman, who created the show, ratings increase if beleaguered Health Secretary Matt Hancock fronts the live Q&A, only to dip if popular Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak takes the reins. He told The Mirror: 'Pointless is definitely getting a new audience, although were up against Boris Johnson or Matt Hancock sometimes. 'If its Matt Hancock, our ratings shoot up, but when its Rishi Sunak, were in trouble. Hes very much the Bradley Walsh of the Cabinet.' Divisive: According to Richard Osman, who created the show, ratings dip if beleaguered Health Secretary Matt Hancock fronts the live Q&A ... only to increase if popular Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak takes the reins Pointless sees four teams of two contestants attempt to find the correct answers to four rounds of factual questions, with the triumphant team given an opportunity to win the show's cash prize. Reflecting on its increasing popularity, host Alexander Armstrong admitted the ongoing lockdown has had a positive effect on ratings. 'Were spending an awful lot of time inside our heads,' he told the Radio Times. 'For some people, thats a nice place to be, and for some, its a very difficult place to be. Funny: 'If its Matt Hancock, our ratings shoot up, but when its Rishi Sunak, were in trouble. Hes very much the Bradley Walsh of the Cabinet,' explained creator Richard Osman 'A quiz show distracts you. You cant be worrying as much if youre trying to think of an African country.' The show has had a peak viewing figure of seven million in the years following its launch, with its success resulting in a move from BBC2 to BBC1 in 2011. Its easily replicated format has also been syndicated globally, notably in Australia, where it launched in 2018. Serbia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland and Switzerland also offer their own versions of the show. Success: Reflecting on its increasing popularity, host Alexander Armstrong (pictured with Osman) admitted the ongoing lockdown has had a positive effect on ratings Your Stories is a collection of memories sent by our readers and readopted as article for this website. If you are interested in sharing your memories and stories with us please contact us HERE. Missing in Action by Chris Henry I think most of us have the life goal of knowing our actions have made a positive difference to someone somewhere. Whether it be as simple as giving them a special day out, or lending a helping hand when they needed it most, it is important to contribute where you can, when you can. When you become involved in the world of vintage military aircraft and historic aviation, it isnt long before that opportunity presents itself. I have had the pleasure of working for the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the last seven years, and it has been my distinct honor to spend some of that time with the air tours department in a few different areas. This would include our 1929 Ford Tri Motor, as well as our WWII-era B-17G Flying Fortress Aluminum Overcast, and most recently our North American B-25 Mitchell Berlin Express. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a special place in my heart for the B-17. From the start of my time here, I have been amazed by how many lives this aircraft still touches. Sadly we are now at a point where members of the Greatest Generation are a rare breed indeed. Indeed, with the youngest of them being in their mid-90s, there are very few WWII veterans who are still able to come out and fly with us. However, the number of families who had a loved one fly and fight aboard the Fort are stepping up to help keep their memories alive. Some want to experience what it was like to sit where their grandfather once rode, while others simply want a way to be closer to them now that theyre gone. Its inspiring to see that an aircraft once built exclusively for combat now has this healing quality today. What follows here is indeed one of those stories. In October 2015, our B-17 tour had taken us to Oklahoma, not far from the town of Fletcher. I received a call from a woman named Fern enquiring about coming to see Aluminum Overcast. She spoke with a gentle southern accent and was delightful to talk with. I asked about her interest in the B-17 and she said proudly, My husband Allen was a crew member on one in Europe. When I receive comments like this, I always want to hear more. Fern continued, He was shot down and, to this day, is still listed as Missing In Action, and then noted that she just wanted to come out and see the B-17 station where her late husband would have served. Ferns husband, Allen Chandler, came from Fletcher, Oklahoma. Allen and Feen married in 1942 and had a son named Wiley. When Allen was called to war, he was only in his early twenties. Fern said, As we walked to the bus station, he seemed to really be concerned that he wasnt going to make it home. He didnt want me to see him away at the station. So we walked to the library and parted there. Allen would join the United States Army Air Corps. After training as a radio operator, he found himself assigned to the 322nd Bombardment Squadron in the 8th Air Forces 91st Bomb Group. Flying bomber missions over Europe in 1944 was no piece of cake. A B-17 veteran once told me, Being assigned to bombers in the 8th was a death sentence, and you knew it. But you went anyway. If you didnt someone else would have to take your place. Thats not a good feeling to have for the rest of your life. On November 2nd, 1944, the 322nd BG was scheduled as part of a large force hitting Mersberg, Germany. Allen was in the radio room of a B-17 named Bomber Dear, with John Liekhus as her pilot. On their way to the target, Bomber Dear came under fighter attack and caught fire. The stricken bomber was last seen spiraling down out of formation. Five of those aboard her died that day. It was just devastating to get the news which came in a telegram, Fern recalled. His parents took it very hard as well. He was such a good man, she recalled. I just sat there kind of numb. I had never heard the war told from this point of view. After talking to our Aircraft Manager, Kristy Busse, we agreed that Fern needed to fly with us, so we surprised her. She thought she was coming out to see the radio room. Instead we had a seat in that station reserved for her. She sat at the radio table where we had a photo of Allens plane. For the next 30 minutes we let the memories flood in that room. The day after, I received an amazing phone call from Fern telling me all about her flight. She was so excited! We had taken a photo of her in the B-17s radio compartment and posted it on our Facebook page. A few weeks later, the 91st Bomb Group Association contacted me, and later the The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. They thought that they had found Allens aircraft! Through contact with Fern and her family, they were able to confirm that the crash site they were investigating did indeed belong to Bomber Dear. The crew was no longer MIA. They were brought home and buried together in May of 2018 at Arlington National Cemetery. Getting to know Fern and getting to be a small part of her story was a true honor. In my opinion these missions are the most important ones that those of us associated with these machines can undertake. Its the real reason why it is so important to keep these planes flying, and to keep the restorations going. Ferns story is one of many that have happened around our B-17. We recently put a book together of some of these stories. You can find it at our site by clicking HERE. Chris Henry is on staff at the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, WI. He is the Museum Programs Coordinator. There he works to help create special moments in the museum and with the EAAs aircraft. The EAA Aviation Museum, formerly the EAA AirVenture Museum, is a museum dedicated to the preservation and display of historic and experimental aircraft as well as antiques, classics, and warbirds. For more information visit the website, clcik HERE. Would you like a free digital issue of Warbird Digest magazine? Would you like to see your warbird-related story enjoyed by our readers? Given that the global pandemic has temporarily shuttered almost every aviation museum and warbird collection around the globe, we have been looking for ways to supplement WarbirdsNews.com content with readers personal stories to share with our significant worldwide audience a collaboration, if you will to help inform and entertain us all during these difficult times. Do you have an interesting warbird-related story to tell, or a similar experience about active-duty military aircraft from back in the day? If so, wed love to have an email from you (click HERE). All we need is a written story (max 1,000 words) and publishable photos (i.e. ones which you have explicit permission to use) to go with it. For each story you send us, we will compensate you with a free digital copy of a Warbird Digest magazine issue of your choice! Richard White Boy Rick Wershe Jr. is expected to be released from the Florida prison system in July. The new release date of July 20 is earlier than Wershe was expected to be released. He is currently lodged in a Florida halfway house, according to Florida Department of Corrections records. Wershe is the longest-serving nonviolent juvenile offender in Michigan history after he was sentenced to life in prison for drug offenses when he was 17 years old. He was 48 years old when he was released from Michigan prison in 2017; he was unanimously granted parole that June. Upon his August 2017 release from the Michigan prison system, Wershe was immediately transferred to the Florida Department of Corrections to serve a 5-year sentence for a 2006 conviction of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. The July release date comes two days after Wershes 51st birthday. His Florida release date was initially set for April 2021. It was then moved to Christmas Day 2020, then August 2020 before the current July date was set. Wershes story became nationally known in the 1980s after he was sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for possession with intent to deliver more than 650 grams of cocaine. It is now known that Wershe began trafficking drugs while working as an FBI informant; he was the youngest FBI informant ever, having worked with the department when he was 14 years old. The story of his life was translated to the big screen in the 2018 film White Boy Rick starring Matthew McConaughey as Wershes father. McConaughey visited Wershe while he was lodged in a Michigan prison to research his role in the movie. READ MORE: Stalking suspect dies in crash after police pursuit 2 toddlers die in Detroit crash, mom faces child abuse charges Motorcyclist killed in crash, other driver intoxicated, police say Summer forecast just issued, Michigan in the orange temperatures Tuesday, May 26: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Gov. Whitmers relationship with Republican leaders is at an all-time low. Now they need to solve a $3.2B problem together. The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council says it is not expecting a spontaneous easing of the COVID-19 restrictions in the country. The Council has rather advised that such a move should be done in a gradual process. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has hinted that consultations are ongoing with relevant stakeholders on the form and timing for the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. The President says the proposed easing is meant to restore social and economic lives. Speaking to Citi News the General Secretary of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, Rev. Emmanuel Barrigah said their call for a gradual easing of the restrictions will give them ample time to prepare their congregants on how to embrace the new normal. When we think about the easing of restrictions, we are not thinking of a sudden lifting of the ban on social gatherings including churches for instance, an announcement coming in a day telling us to reopen the following day for activities. We think we should put in place certain protocols and then educate our members so that when we start with the new normal life of the church, we will know how to behave when we come to church at all times. Rev. Barrigah also announced that they have presented to government some measures that will make the church safe for congregants. He said during communion services, churches could get the kind of communion that has the bread and the wine together in one small pack so that each member will pick and administer to him or herself after the priest has said prayers over them. In the area of offertory, we want to discourage the use of offertory bowl that is passed around. We are advising the use of placing of that offertory bowl in front of the congregation so that in rows with social distancing in mind church members could move around and drop the offertory in the bowl. A ban was also placed on all public, social and religious gatherings by President Akufo-Addo on March 15, 2020, as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. When he extended the ban, the President said there was a unanimous decision with the leaders of the major interest groups that it was early to lift it. Heads of Christian Ecumenical Bodies in Ghana recently, however, expressed their preparedness to resume activities, as they put together a proposal for the government to clearly spell out modalities under which they can safely perform their programmes without endangering the lives of congregants. ---citinewsroom By Trend According to Marine Traffic website, the second Iranian tanker named "Forest" arrived in Venezuelan waters and near Isla Margarita. Marine Traffic reported that the Iranian tanker is now moving toward Venezuela and the destination port is not still identified. The speed of the Forrest is about 14.5 knots. Forest had left Mahshahr port in Iran on March 31. "First Iranian oil tanker berthed at Venezuela's El Palito port, TankerTrackers.com- an online service which tracks shipments in different geographical areas- reported on Monday," he added. The Iranian oil tanker had loaded 43 million liters of gasoline from southern Iranian port of Shahid Rajaei in mid-March, TankerTrackers tweeted. This is the first out of five Iranian oil tankers that has docked at the northern Venezuelan beach despite the US warnings and sanctions. Satellite images show that the Iranian tanker named "Fortune" is completing its berthing operations while being helped by two Venezuelan tug boats at El Palito refinery. The Iranian tanker was escorted by the Venezuelan Navy in order to reach the Venezuelan port without facing any incident which might had happened due to the US threats. Three other Iranian oil tankers are "Faxon", "Petunia" and "Clavel" that are passing Atlantic Ocean to reach Venezuela. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Irish premier Leo Varadkar has insisted he did not break any rules by visiting a Dublin park with friends. The Taoiseach, 41, was photographed near Phoenix Parks Wellington monument on Sunday with his partner Matthew Barrett and two other people. In video and images shared online, the group of four appeared to be enjoying a picnic, leading some to question whether Mr Varadkar had been following the 2m social distancing measures set out by the World Health Organisation and included in Health Ireland guidance. [People may] meet friends or family within 5km, in groups of no more than four people while keeping at least 2m apart, the guidance adds. A spokesperson for Mr Varadkar said in a statement on Monday night that he broke no laws, breached no regulations and observed public health guidance. Government guidelines allow people to spend time in the outdoors within 5km of their home while continuing to observe social distancing and good hygiene. There are no specific government guidelines on eating outdoors or picnics, the spokesperson added. Irelands chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, also said the images suggested Mr Varadkar did not break any rules. I didnt see any pictures that are in violation of that involving the Taoiseach, he told reporters at a press conference on Monday. Mr Varadkar is thought to be living on the Farmleigh Estate, just outside Phoenix Park. Last week, Liz Canavan, assistant secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, said that people should only visit parks for exercise and not stay too long. If youre visiting a public amenity try not to stay too long at the site or have picnics. Please do your exercise and then go home, she said. Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures Show all 7 1 /7 Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures People enjoy the hot weather at Bournemouth beach in Dorset on 20 May PA Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures People enjoy the hot weather at Bournemouth beach in Dorset on 20 May PA Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures Beachgoers bask in the sun on Brighton Beach in Brighton on 20 May EPA Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures People enjoy the sunshine on Birling Gap beach on 20 May near Eastbourne Getty Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures Seagulls are perched on a street lamp as beachgoers bask in the sun on Brighton Beach EPA Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures People head to the beach as England basks in sunshine in Blackpool Getty Sunseekers head to beaches amid lockdown measures Parts of the country were expected to reach 29 degrees celsius, luring sunbathers and testing the capacity of parks and beaches to accommodate social distanced crowds. Getty Controversy surrounding the Fine Gael politicians picnic followed widespread outrage on the other side of the Irish Sea, where Dominic Cummings has been accused of flouting lockdown guidance by driving 260 miles to a home in Durham and by taking a day trip to a nearby beauty spot. Boris Johnsons top adviser has refused to quit or apologise for the breach, saying he had acted responsibly and legally. On Tuesday, Conservative MP Douglas Ross resigned his ministerial role in protest. Mr Ross said he could not in good faith tell constituents who have followed government advice in the face of heartbreak that they were all wrong and one senior adviser to the government was right. A Kildare cafe is one of two Irish businesses which will receive a 5,000 community grant from online dating app Bumble. The Mad Hatter in Castledermot, which is owned and run by Alice Cope, was nominated by locals who use the app. The Bumble Community Grant is a programme which aims to provide financial support to small businesses in need during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bumble received over 2,600 applications and nominations in total for the grant across Ireland and the UK. Two grants were made to Irish businesses - the other being to Seamus McGrath Servicing and Tyres in Limerick. Nominated by a member of the local community, The Mad Hatter Cafe was selected for the Bumble Community Grant by many from the local town who say it is the heart of Castledermot, according to Bumble. "Alice, the owner of the cafe and a busy mom of three, creates mouth-watering dishes and tasty coffee and her business serves as one of the main meeting points in town. Unfortunately, as with all hospitality businesses, Alice had to close her doors. Alice is running a weekend food delivery service for the time being to keep business afloat. The Bumble Community Grant will help Alices business survive these unprecedented times until she can re-open her charming cafe." The Mad Hatter usually serves homemade breakfast, lunch and baked goods. It opened in November 2008. My wonderful team and supportive local community pulled us through the last recession, and twelve years later Mad Hatter was a thriving business in the heart of the community. No one could foresee this current pandemic and the devastating impact it would have on the hospitality industry; our doors have been closed for almost ten weeks already, while bills keep coming in. I am determined to bounce back and this grant is a step towards making that possible and yet another signal of local support knowing that one of our customers and friend nominated us for the Bumble Grant, said Alice. The Bumble app connects people across dating, friendship and professional networking. It has nearly 93 million users worldwide, and is unique in that women are the only ones who are allowed to make the 'first move' using the platform. PM Modi's meeting with NSA, CDS and the 3 Services Chiefs happened shortly after the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed border security arrangements and consulted on China's issue. India-China face-off in Ladakh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and the three Service Chiefs to review the ongoing tension at India-China border in Ladakh. Reports said PM Modi also separately met Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. PM Modis meeting with NSA, CDS and the 3 Services Chiefs happened shortly after the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed border security arrangements and consulted on Chinas issue with them. Notably, China has been doing provocative actions from last two weeks at the LAC. Army Chief General MM Naravane, who visited the. India-China border in Ladakh 2 days ago, briefed Defense Minister about the actual situation at the de-facto border between the two countries. Reports said Singh expressed his full support for the Armys response to Chinese aggression and gave a nod to deploy more Army if required. 6 rounds of talks between India and China have already failed on the ans both the sides countinue to maintained aggressive in the disputed areas. Reports added that China has asked India to stop building infrastructure even on its own side, which was junked straight away by the Indian troops. While, India has asked Beijing to maintain status quo at the LAC. But the Chinese Army is not ready to back off from Indias land. For all the latest National News, download NewsX App I cant express any opinion so long as there is no bill. This is what head of the Bright Armenia faction of the National Assembly of Armenia Edmon Marukyan told reporters today, touching upon the fact that the authorities plan to solve the issue related to the Constitutional Court through the National Assembly. When the Bright Armenia faction was telling them that they are committing an unlawful act and was asking them why they are engaging the people and not committing that act with the 88 members of the ruling faction, the members of the faction would get offended. Now they have probably decided to commit the unlawful act with those 88 members. Let them introduce the bill. If its unlawful, well go against it, he said, adding that the authorities havent consulted on the issue of the Constitutional Court with the opposition faction, but if there is an offer, the faction will participate in the consultations. By Express News Service ROURKELA: At least 40 people, including policemen, were hurt, as members of a minority community on Tuesday resorted to violent protests demanding the lifting of containment order imposed on a particular location in Rourkela city exactly a month ago following the detection of the first Covid-19 positive case. The locals protested after Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) Commissioner on Monday night issued an order withdrawing restrictions from the buffer zone and also squeezed the size of the containment zone to half. Sources said the protesters hit the streets at about 2 am in the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday, but they were pacified as the police sought time till Tuesday morning to address their grievances. Before the administration could take any decision, a strong mob of over 2,000 people dismantled barricades, broke chairs at police camps, and indiscriminately assaulted those who came on their way, and intermittently resorted to stone pelting on police at about 6 am. At least 40 persons, including policemen, local media persons and protesters were injured. Even as the police resorted to lathi-charge and firing of tear gas shells at about 9.30 am, the violent mob did not stop. The protesters, however, relented after DIG (Western Range) Kavita Jalan reached at the spot and appealed for peace with the assurance of addressing their grievances. Sundargarh Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan rushed to the spot and held talks with the senior administrative and police officers to bring the situation under control. "Appropriate action as per law will be taken after assessing the situation," he said. Palpable tension was continuing amid deployment of additional forces. Earlier, a section of people from the same community had pelted stones on police amid containment restrictions and frequently engaged in skirmishes with police. Meanwhile, under the new RMC order only half a portion of the earlier containment zone on the southern side of Rourkela's main road from Janata Nivas Lane to AB Lane has been earmarked as containment zone. The other portion of the containment area on the northern side of the main road and the entire portion of the buffer zone have been freed from restrictions. So far, 20 Covid-19 positive cases have been reported from the containment zone while another connecting locality reported two cases. The journalist Meredith Talusan was a young teenager in a small town in the Philippines when, in 1989, the legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw proposed the concept of intersectionality to describe the ways in which race and gender and sexuality overlap to either amplify or ease discrimination. Decades later, as social media has catapulted academic jargon into everyday vocabulary, the term has become warped to signify a restructuring of society, with minorities at the top. But still this theory that identity categories are not mutually exclusive, but integrated components of a single, multidimensional experience remains immensely relevant today. Talusans debut memoir, Fairest, embodies both Crenshaws original framework as well as its contemporary misunderstanding, rendering an intellectual debate intimate. Recounting her coming-of-age as a transgender Filipino-American person with albinism, Talusan sails past the conventions of trans and immigrant memoirs. Rather than flaying her identities one by one, she examines the links between them to illustrate that it is here, in the messy overlap, that a person is made. I was an outcast among outcasts, she writes of her earliest years in America, but I didnt feel despair because Id come to accept the blessing of my unique experience. From her boyhood in the Philippines, to her years as a gay Harvard undergraduate, to becoming gender nonbinary and then a trans woman, Talusans account is informed by the social, historical and political contexts of each environment she has called home. American cultural hegemony looms over her childhood in the province of Bulacan, north of Manila, where she tries to emulate the Western inflection of the English she hears on TV and in pop music. In college, she liberates herself on the dance floor and through the women protagonists of her literature syllabuses. Later on, she seizes on art and personal relationships to continue that exploration. Image Recounting their coming-of-age as a transgender Filipino-American immigrant with albinism, Talusan sails past the conventions of trans and immigrant memoirs. Reclaiming the right to self-identify is often portrayed as the archetypal journey of the marginalized, but no identity occurs in a vacuum. Far from making her a pariah, Talusans fair skin and blond hair offer her both a steppingstone and a protective barrier that too frequently elude immigrants with darker features: I quickly confirmed that it was to my benefit to seem white. (Alliance News) -A Kavango Resources PLC on Tuesday reported a wider loss in 2019 due to an impairment. The mining exploration firm's pretax loss widened to USD1.5 million in 2019 from USD534,242 the year before. This was largely due to a USD1.0 million impairment in 2019, with no such cost taken in 2018. The impairment related to prospecting licenses that the directors have elected to relinquish. These licenses are located in the south of the Kalahari Suture Zone in Botswana, which the company has determined is "no longer an area of strategic focus" based on results to date. Administrative expenses were reduced to USD472,049 in 2019 from USD534,242. Chief Executive Michael Foster said the company looks forward to an "exciting programme of exploration" in 2020. "Our mineral exploration activities on the Kalahari Suture Zone in the southwest of Botswana, where we have an area of 5,573 kilometres squared under licence, continue to show considerable potential for the discovery of world-class base metals deposits with the completion during the year of our initial drill campaign. In addition, we are nearing completion of our first farm-out by selling a 51% interest in the Ditau project. We have added to our mineral portfolio with our involvement on the exciting Kalahari Copper Belt where two new copper mines are now being developed," said Foster. Kavango shares were untraded at 1.05 pence in London on Tuesday. By Lucy Heming;A lucyheming@alliancenews.com Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. In the last week of April, some news reports suggested that coronavirus cases were stabilising in Uttar Pradesh Indias most populous state. With only 2,328 confirmed cases on May 1, it seemed as if Uttar Pradesh was able to keep its tally largely under control. However, the next day, a first Shramik Train carrying 700 odd guest workers reached Charbagh and inadvertently launched a spurt in Covid-19 cases that continues till date. Since May 1, Uttar Pradesh has seen a 179 per cent increase in positive cases from 2,328 to 6,497 cases in just 25 days. Reports from Uttar Pradesh suggest that samples of over 54,000 returnees have been collected, out of which 1,663 tested positive. This roughly translates to over 60 percent of the cases being traced to migrants coming from states like Maharashtra and Gujarat both Indias worst-affected states. The trend is similar in other eastern states like Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. These states, too, recorded comparatively fewer cases than their economically better-off counterparts like Maharashtra, Gujarat or Tamil Nadu before the migrant influx began in early May. Bihar, which just had 466 cases on May 1, now has over 2,800 confirmed cases an exponential increase of 615 per cent in less than four weeks. Moreover, the number doubled from 1,033 on May 15 to 2,166 on May 22. According to state government officials, guest workers returning from Covid-19 hotspots constitute over 60 per cent of the total positive cases recorded so far. Over 1,000 out of the total cases are of guest workers returning from just three states Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat. While it is understood that the migrant influx during Lockdown 3.0 has led to the spread of the virus in these two states, a deeper scrutiny also suggests an sub-regional disparity. Western Uttar Pradesh economically better off than the rest of the state was initially the epicentre of the infection. With the influx of migrants, economically backward Eastern Uttar Pradesh became a hotspot: With at least 40 per cent of the cases there linked to migrants. In addition, Basti, an Eastern UP district, is now a corona hotspot. Similarly, poorer districts of North Bihar like Madhubani, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Purnea and West Champaran did not record any cases up to the last days of April. But once the guest workers began to enter, these districts recorded a spurt in positive cases. This apparent spurt in the poorer region of the two states could be linked to the fact they contribute heavily to the labour market in the prosperous Western and Southern states. Harvard University professor Sai Balakrishnan, in a recent Harvard blog, made an interesting observation worth noting: These long-distance journeys of distress migration reveal a spatial rift. The regions that expel distress labour form a swath along the eastern side of the country, stretching from the poor districts of north Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (districts bordering Nepal), down toOdisha. Odisha, statistically, is a curious case of extremes. Until May 1, the state had recorded just 154 cases. Ganjam district, which is now the biggest hotspot, had zero cases until May 3. But once guest workers from Gujarat began to return, the district recorded over 200 cases in less than a week. In the last three weeks, Ganjam has recorded 358 cases. Notably, the state recorded its biggest spike till date on Monday, when 103 cases were detected. Ninety-six of them being guest workers. The coastal state now has 1,517 confirmed cases, which is a whooping 885 per cent increase since May 1. Further east, West Bengal, already battered by Cyclone Amphan, has witnessed a three-fold increase in the number of positive cases since the beginning of the month. The state has recorded a 404 per cent increase in confirmed cases from 795 on May 1 to 4,009 on Tuesday. While the first Shramik Train carrying over a thousand guest workers reached West Bengal on May 5, it is unclear how many cases are directly or indirectly linked to migratory factors. Nevertheless, West Bengal has garnered undue attention in national media due to the ongoing spat between the Centre and the state government over these special trains. Amidst the political 'tu-tu, mein-mein', the plight of the guest workers continues to trouble the conscience of the Indian nation. MBABANE About 69 000 people from the Manzini and Shiselweni regions will be receiving the relief money donated by the Kirsh Foundation this week. The exercise started yesterday. This was said by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, at Cabinet Offices yesterday during the official handover of the E45 million relief fund that was donated by billionaire Natie Kirsh. The donation was officially handed over by George Lys, Director of Kirsh Philanthropy-Africa. The 69 000 people were said to be from 11 000 households in both regions. What came as good news was that beneficiaries of the relief would also include workers who had been laid off, street vendors and hawkers. We will continue to explore all available avenues to increase the number of people receiving food assistance. We also encourage emaSwati to help each other in this time of need, remarked the PM. benefit The premier said over 300 000 people in total were going to benefit from the Natie Kirsh Foundation relief in the country. He said the process was going to be done over a period of two-and-a-half weeks. It is worth noting that the rest of the regions, according to the premier, will be covered in the coming weeks. I urge all beneficiaries of this cash transfer to use these funds carefully and for the purposes they have been given which is to buy food, he said. The PM went on to appreciate the Kirsh Foundation for standing with the nation and extending a helping hand to assist the country effectively respond to this pandemic. The premier went on to state that government was continuing with the implementation of a hybrid model for food distribution, which was also going to see food parcels being distributed. cash The total assistance from the Kirsh Foundation is worth E110 million and came in the form of cash, medical supplies and hiring of a chartered plane that brought doctors and medical assistance, from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the country. Lys gave a breakdown of the funds and how they were used from April 1 to May 19. He said the total E110 million was donated in stages as first came US$350 000 (approximately E6 181 889.35) at the end of March followed by US$5 million (E96 246 391) on the second week of April. The rest of the donation came in the form of products, among which were ventilators that are expected to be in the country by the end of July. He said the reason for the delay was the demand for the products as other countries also needed them. When Kirsh called as a liSwati willing to help his country, he asked what was needed and during our consultations with government, we were made aware that personal protective equipment (PPE), food and transportation were the critical needs, said Lys. supplies He said they had, for now, spent E19 million on medical supplies including face masks, gloves and thermometers. He went on to commend government for what he described as being very professional in identifying those who were truly in need. He assured government that their doors remained open for more support and further commended all who had contributed while encouraging others to do the same. By the time of going to print, it was established through the Deputy Prime Ministers Office that 1 894 households of about 11 364 beneficiaries got paid yesterday. As each household is entitled to E700, a total of E1 325 800 was disbursed yesterday, according to the DPM, Themba Masuku. The beneficiaries were from areas such as Nkwene, Khubuta and Ngudzeni constituencies. Police at scene on Oakley Street in May 2020. Photo by Pacemaker A 34-year-old man has been charged with murder following the discovery of the body of a man in north Belfast on Saturday. A murder investigation was launched following the discovery shortly before 11pm at the property on Oakley Street. The 34-year-old is expected to appear at Belfast Magistrate's Court on Wednesday. PSNI detective chief inspector Darren McCartney said: The investigation is ongoing and there are no further details available at this time." Maersk containers onboard the container ship Hammonia Husum, as it leaves Portsmouth harbour. (Photo by Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images) Several major Danish firms, including Orsted and Moller-Maersk, have formed a partnership aiming to produce sustainable fuels on an industrial scale. The goal of the partnership other members include Copenhagen Airports, DSV Panalpina, DFDS and Scandinavian airline SAS is to establish a large facility that will provide fuels for maritime, air and road transport in the Copenhagen area. In an announcement Tuesday, the companies said that a hydrogen and e-fuel production site could be up and running by 2023 and fully scaled-up by 2030, by which time it would have the capacity to generate over 250,000 metric tons of fuel annually. It's envisaged that the scheme's electrolyser the piece of technology needed to generate the hydrogen will be powered by offshore wind installations. Under the plans, the size of the electrolyser is seen as growing from 10 megawatts at the start of the project to 1.3 gigawatts in its final stage. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has described hydrogen as an energy carrier with "great potential for clean, efficient power in stationary, portable and transport applications." There are, however, some challenges when it comes to producing the hydrogen needed for fuel cells used in transportation. As the U.S. Department of Energy has noted, hydrogen does not usually "exist by itself in nature" and needs to be generated from compounds containing it. A number of sources from fossil fuels and solar to wind can be used to help produce hydrogen through a range of processes including electrolysis and gasification. If renewable sources are used in its production, it's dubbed "green hydrogen." If all goes to plan, the Danish project could provide hydrogen to public buses as well as trucks managed by DSV Panalpina; renewable methanol for ships operated by Moeller-Maersk; and e-kerosene for SAS planes and other air transport flying from Copenhagen Airport. In a statement, Orsted said that the partnership would, "now move forward and engage in dialogue with the regulatory authorities on the framework and policies needed to support the development of using sustainable fuels at scale in the transport sector in Denmark, and to seek public co-funding to conduct a full feasibility study of the project." If the project's viability is confirmed by the feasibility study, a final investment decision for its first stage could take place in 2021. Hydrogen technology is already being deployed in a number of scenarios, albeit on quite a small scale. London is already home to a number of hydrogen buses while European railway manufacturer Alstom's hydrogen-fuel-cell train started running in September 2018. Major automobile manufacturers that have dipped into the hydrogen fuel cell market include Toyota and Honda, while smaller firms, such as Wales-based Riversimple, are also developing cars that use the technology. Tuesday also saw Western Australia's Water Corporation announce a project with Hazer Group to generate renewable hydrogen and graphite from sewage at a wastewater treatment facility. In an announcement, the Water Corporation said the project would "produce around 100 tonnes of fuel-grade hydrogen and 380 tonnes of graphite each year," adding that there was also the potential for expansion. BERKLEY, MI A stalking suspect died in a car crash while fleeing police on Monday, May 25, in Metro Detroit. The 53-year-old Warren man was pronounced dead at a hospital after the crash in which he ignored a red light and crashed into another vehicle and a light pole, according to a news release from Berkley Department of Public Safety. Police were dispatched to a reported stalking incident around 10 p.m. on Monday at a residence on Ellwood Avenue north of Catalpa Drive in Berkley, police said. A 2012 Chevy Cruze driven by the suspect was leaving the area when officers arrived, police said. Officers attempted to make a traffic stop as the suspect traveled southbound on Greenfield Road north of Catalpa Drive. The driver fled from police. When the suspect reached 11 Mile Road, he disregarded a red traffic signal, causing the fatal crash in which he hit another vehicle and a light pole, police said. Officers removed the suspect from the vehicle, and began life-saving measures, including CPR. He had sustained severe injuries. The suspect was then transported to Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak where he was pronounced dead. The driver of the second vehicle sustained minor injuries, police said. There were no other injuries. The Southfield Police Department is investigating the crash while Berkley police investigate the alleged stalking incident. READ MORE: 2 toddlers die in Detroit crash, mom faces child abuse charges Motorcyclist killed in crash, other driver intoxicated, police say Summer forecast just issued, Michigan in the orange temperatures Tuesday, May 26: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Gov. Whitmers relationship with Republican leaders is at an all-time low. Now they need to solve a $3.2B problem together. Your browser does not support the audio element. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a surge in electronic payments as a growing number of Vietnamese households are opting for online shopping. Van, who lives in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that she has a habit of going to the market to buy fresh food in the morning. However, since the first COVID-19 patients were reported in Vietnam in January, she has gradually switched to a personal shopper service that uses a mobile wallet, or e-wallet. I choose several items and make [online] payments. Then, I just stay home waiting for the delivery of my products, and process them, she said, adding that she feels immensely relieved when she does not have to visit the market by herself. She said she has been enjoying several benefits of digital wallet payments. For example, she can pay her household electricity and water bills, thanks to a few clicks on an e-wallet platform. By doing so, her online account gets bonus points, and she receives vouchers from convenience and fast-food stores in return. As Van refills her prepaid phone cards, she also gets discounts and earns more refunds on the purchase of SIM cards. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a certain group of Vietnamese people to adopt online payment methods for the first time, according to Grab Vietnam. Data from Moca, a strategic partner of the ride-hailing firm, revealed that the number of customers who conducted cashless transactions on the Grab platform for the first time in March ascended 22.5 percent against the previous month. Non-cash transactions made up a staggering 43 percent of the total on Grab during the COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam. The figure for its on-demand grocery service GrabMart amounted to some 70 percent. Statistics from VisaNet, the electronic payments network of Visa, the worlds leader in digital payments, revealed that the value of purchases made by Vietnamese consumers on their Visa credit and debit cards in 2019 rose 39 percent against the previous year, while the number of transactions surged 54 percent over the same 12-month period. Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa country manager for Vietnam and Laos, said the study has shown an increased preference for new payment technologies such as contactless, where a user simply taps their card, phone, or wearable device against a point-of-sale (POS) terminal. As many as 37 percent of consumers are using contactless card payments in Vietnam, while an even higher number of 42 percent are making mobile contactless payments. Of those using contactless card payments, 85 percent are doing so at least once a week. The study also found other new technologies are garnering interest among consumers with 82 percent saying they are interested in making biometrically authenticated payments, by using their fingerprint or voice recognition to complete a transaction, while 81 percent are keen on digital banking. Banks strive to gain foothold in e-commerce Nguyen Minh Tam, deputy general director at Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank, or Sacombank, said despite the ongoing pandemic, card payment sales at his bank between January and April this year grew 15 percent from a year earlier to reach 35 percent. In contrast, POS transactions, especially those international deals, at the banks local counters suffered a steep decline, according to Tam. He said the virus crisis has led to an upsurge in e-payments. Many households have become increasingly interested in online shopping, notably during the social distancing campaign which ended last month. Contactless payments also enjoyed a substantial increase in growth. The number of transactions through the mBanking and Sacombank Pay apps has greatly grown, he said. He added Sacombank has launched a host of cashback and incentive schemes, such as lucky draws and reductions in service fees, in an attempt to bolster cashless transactions. Customers conduct transactions at a Sacombank office on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre Internet banking transactions at Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank, or HDBank, in the first quarter of this year went up 112 percent, according to the banks deputy general director Nguyen Huu Dang. Dang said the number of new customers using cards soared 67 percent over the same period last year. Aside from technology, those customers who make cashless transactions at HDBank will benefit from an ecosystem where they will get incentives in card payments whenever they purchase goods at electronics supermarkets, Vietjet Air tickets, and essential goods at the Saigon Co.op chain, he said. Vietnam records 30 million daily online transactions Pham Tien Dung, general director of the Payment Department at the State Bank of Vietnam, told Tuoi Tre that there have been investments in and upgrades to technical infrastructure and technologies designated for cashless transactions, particularly online payments. As of February this year, a total of 78 banks and financial institutions offered Internet banking services while 47 organizations provided mobile payment services in Vietnam. Dung cited statistics of the Vietnamese central bank as indicating that last month saw around 15 million users of Internet banking and mobile banking services, as the government took social distancing measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus between April 1 and 22. The country had a daily average of around 30 million online transactions, he commented. If someone has used e-payments for their electricity and phone bills on their mobile phones, I think no one will want to pay in cash anymore, he said. Cashless transactions, why not? Taking the statistics on cashless transactions into account, Nguyen Tri Hieu, a banking and financial expert who have worked in the United States, Germany, and Vietnam for more than three decades, said the e-payment industry in Vietnam has grown rapidly as there are a wide range of payment methods to satisfy the publics needs. However, cash is unlikely to go away soon. Paper currency remains the most popular way to pay for trivial things, such as for food, motorbike taxi rides and gasoline, or valuable assets, like cars and land. Pham Quang De, a banking technology expert, stressed the need for more convenience for customers, especially the elderly. Once people get out of this habit, he said, they will recognize the benefits and convenience of non-cash transactions. Regarding electronic paying, people can open banking accounts that allow easy payments with a few clicks on their device, according to the expert. Pham Tien Dung from the central bank said that the cash payment habit poses the largest obstacle to the cashless economy. However, according to the official, the services involved should be diverse. Banks should partner with stakeholders in electricity and water providers, hospitals and schools, among others, to foster a cashless ecosystem. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A woman stripped off and put her knickers over her face after a Ukrainian shop worker refused to serve her without a face mask on. The unidentified woman was filmed on a CCTV camera at a 'Nova Poshta' post office in Ukraine. Reports say she came to the post office to pick up a parcel and entered the room without wearing a face mask, which is against the country's quarantine laws. Pictured: The woman begins to undress at a busy Nova Poshta post office in Ukraine Pictured: After taking her jeans off, the woman also removes her knickers, before putting them over her face at a Nova Poshta post office in Ukraine Pictured: After removing her underwear and placing them over her face she puts her jeans back on at the Nova Poshta post office in Ukraine After one employee asked her to stick to the rules, the woman took an extreme route to ensure she could pick up her package. In the clip, she can be seen pulling down her jeans, taking off her underwear and placing them over her face. She then put her jeans back on while keeping the knickers over her head. The clip cuts out but it was reported that the employee ended up handing over the woman's parcel. Pictured: With her knickers over her face, the Ukrainian woman gives the Nova Poshta employee her parcel details Pictured: It's reported that the Ukrainian woman received her parcel from the Nova Poshta post office The administration of the Nova Poshta company, which has 2300 branches throughout the country, confirmed the incident without specifying where it had happened. A spokesperson told local media: 'Our employee asked the woman to put on a face mask and even gave her one for free. But the woman refused to use it.' The company said they do not condemn the customer's actions and are not going to report her to the police. Senior students wait for class to begin with plastic boards placed on their desks at Jeonmin High School in Daejeon, South Korea South Korean students began returning to schools last week as their country prepares for a new normal amid the coronavirus pandemic. Read more Twenty percent of U.S. teachers say they are not likely to return to their classrooms this fall if schools reopen - and most parents and educators believe school buildings will open, according to polls published Tuesday. The polls - one taken of K-12 teachers and the other of parents with school-age children - found that 73% of parents and 64% of teachers said they believe children will eventually make up for learning lost because of the disruption of school during the crisis. And 63% of parents and 65% of teachers said they believe school buildings in their areas will reopen this fall. The findings came in USA Today-Ipsos polls published Tuesday. The newspaper and Ipsos, a global research and marketing firm, conducted two polls at the same time from May 18-2 and said that "credibility intervals," which are similar to margins of error, are plus- or minus-5 percentage points for the teachers survey and 5.6% for the survey of parents with school-age children. It is not possible to know how school districts would be affected if 1 in 5 teachers do not show up to reopened schools, because schedules and attendance expectations will be different in the fall to comply with social distancing requirements. READ MORE: Why many Philly students arent logging on for school, and what that could mean for September School districts are racing to complete plans for the fall semester but are also factoring in contingencies: full-scale openings, no openings or some hybrid of the two. Many districts have said they are considering having students come in on some school days but not others so social distancing rules inside classrooms can be respected. An outbreak of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, on any school campus could lead to a full-scale closure. In the polls, about two-thirds of teachers and parents said they support having students go to class up to three days a week and staying at home to work remotely the other days. Such a schedule could mitigate a loss of teachers unwilling to return to school. Twenty percent of teachers said they were unlikely to go back. Schools across the country - and much of the world - closed this spring as the coronavirus spread across the world. Some, such as in South Korea, have started reopening, but few have in the United States. According to the U.N. Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization, nearly 70% of the worlds students are still being affected by school closures. That is down from nearly 95% of the worlds students a few months ago. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority has published new regulations blocking ground-mounted commercial and industrial solar projects and capping rooftop installations at 2 MW.Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) has announced "ground-mounted projects are no longer envisaged under Shams Dubai" - the net metering regime introduced in the emirate in 2015. The stunning policy move was accompanied by an announcement that, under new Shams Dubai rules, "the maximum capacity to be installed in a [rooftop] plot is capped at 2,080 kW." The Shams scheme, which had driven 106 MW of solar generation ... Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Sergio Monleon worked alongside just one employee when he opened his Berkeley tapas bar La Marcha for takeout after Marchs shelter-in-place order closed dining rooms. He sold only about $100 worth of food that first day and didnt think the business would make it. I felt like my entire life came crashing down on me, he said. I thought bankruptcy was the only option. It seemed pointless to even try. A lot has changed at La Marcha since March 17. The restaurant signed up for multiple third-party delivery services, began offering curbside pickup and started feeding frontline workers through programs like East Bay FeedER. To inject a little fun into his new normal, Monleon started a guest chef series on Monday nights. For the first edition, he collaborated with his friend Miguel Escobedo, the chef behind popular Mexican food truck Al Pastor Papi. It was a hit. Weve been joking about a paella burrito for six years, but that would be frowned upon by the paella police, Monleon said. But I said, Hey, what the heck? What do I have to lose at this point? Amid the dire landscape of the hospitality industry, a handful of restaurant owners have emerged more resilient than they ever expected and some are even doing better than before shelter-in-place, including those serving tech workers who no longer get free lunch at the office. Some have experimented with expanded delivery options and special menus, like Monleon; others have offered meal kits for customers to recreate their dishes at home. Of course, success is relative in the days of the coronavirus. For some, being guardedly optimistic in their survival over the next few months already feels like a victory. After all, the outlook for most Bay Area restaurants is bleak many have laid off all of their employees or permanently closed. Among San Francisco restaurants currently open for takeout, 60% are losing money by doing so, according to a survey of more than 200 restaurant owners conducted by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. Just 1% of respondents are bringing in the same amount of revenue as before the coronavirus. Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle All restaurants have had to adapt to stay open, and expanding into at-home meal kits and grocery has turned out well for San Francisco Spanish restaurant Canela. The paella kit is now the restaurants most popular item, and chef-owner Mat Schuster has also started selling them at specialty market the Epicurean Trader. Schuster expanded with kits for brunch and happy hour alongside boxes of produce and raw meat. We just kept trying to get in the mind-set of what people want, whats hard to get right now and how we can bridge that gap, he said. Now Canela is encroaching gift shop territory, selling meat thermometers, olive wood kitchen tools and shelter-in-place-branded tote bags. Schuster is continually looking for creative collaborations one resulted in pairing a private online yoga class with a delivery of vegetarian tapas. It gives us the opportunity to have conversations that probably we were all too busy to (have) before, Schuster said. Moving into grocery worked out for Gozu, chef Marc Zimmermans San Francisco restaurant devoted to wagyu. Now, hes selling high-end cuts of the Japanese beef for pickup and also shipping boxes nationwide. The national demand has been unexpected and astronomical, he said. For other restaurants, few radical changes are needed. The most commonly ordered items in San Francisco during shelter in place, according to food delivery service DoorDash, are comfort food staples youd expect: pad Thai, burritos, chicken tikka masala, fried chicken. Brian Feulner / Special to The Chronicle 2019 Redwood Citys Nam Vietnamese Brasserie has seen steady business thanks to takeout-friendly noodle soups at reasonable price points. Thats allowed Nam to keep its core staff and break even, despite opening less than three weeks before shelter in place, according to owner Anne Le Ziblatt. San Franciscos Square Pie Guys is actually doing better than before shelter-in-place, and owners Danny Stoller and Marc Schechter acknowledge their immense luck. Its simple: Its pizza, Schechter said. Stoller and Schechter originally built the restaurant, which specializes in Detroit-style pies with cheesy, crispy crusts, to rely on a brisk takeout and delivery business before shelter in place, more than half of orders were out the door. Still, they think three other things helped them significantly through this period: strong branding, an active social media presence and clear communication with customers about safety practices. If you can create that excitement about the food youre doing without anyone ever having to come to your restaurant, youre going to be OK, Stoller said. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Burma Love, the Mission District restaurant from the Burma Superstar team, is seeing record-breaking days, said director of operations Nghia Tran. Thats helping keep the whole group afloat, alongside delivery orders for tea leaf salad, curries and other Burmese fare have increased by 50% in Oakland and San Francisco and by 100% in Alameda. Im thankful people are looking for family-oriented meals that are shareable, Tran said. Meanwhile, restaurants on the Peninsula and in the South Bay are seeing more orders from tech workers who are eating at home instead of in campus cafeterias. When youre already making a strong salary, spending $20 for tacos for lunch is no big deal, said Nathan Casper of Araujos Taqueria El Paisa in San Jose. Araujos typically operates two restaurants and a taco truck, though Casper shut down the truck during shelter in place. There werent any layoffs the restaurants absorbed the truck employees and are extremely busy thanks to a huge increase in delivery orders. Before shelter in place, just 15% of Araujos business was delivery, and now its more than 45%, with business up overall by 1% compared to this time last year. Casper said the delivery apps have brought Araujos tacos into new ZIP codes notably much wealthier ones. These people arent going to drive deep into the east side to get their taco fix, but theyll get it delivered, he said, adding that he just signed a lease on a third location that should open toward the end of 2020. Kimberley Hasselbrink/Special to The Chronicle It helps that Araujos already enjoyed a great reputation in San Jose. Zareen Khan, owner of Pakistani restaurant Zareens in Palo Alto and Mountain View, feels similarly. She made a lot of changes to her business model, including signing up for more delivery services and selling frozen dishes like beef chapli kebabs and naan for people to heat up at their convenience. She mostly credits customer loyalty for Zareens current stability. One customer even asked a couple of weeks ago if she could make a large donation to the restaurant to make sure it survives. I will not accept it, but just the gesture... Khan said, trailing off. It was a very emotional moment for me and made me realize were not just serving food, were serving our community. The way theyve taken care of me is precious. Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker Shake, rattle and roll. Even though they are miles from the epicenter of an earthquake, buildings can collapse due to how an earthquake energy makes the ground shake and rattle. Now, a team of engineers led by Guoliang Huang, a James C. Dowell Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Missouri College of Engineering, has designed a flexible material that can help buildings withstand multiple waves of energy traveling through a solid material, including the simultaneous forward and backward and side-to-side motions found in earthquakes. "Our elastic material can stretch and form to a particular surface, similarly to a wrap on a vehicle," Huang said. "It can be applied to the surface of an existing building to allow it to flex in an earthquake. What is unique about the structured lattice-type material is that it protects against both types of energy waves -- longitudinal and sheer -- that can travel through the ground." Huang said the material also can be used by the defense industry to protect against vibration in mechanical parts, such as aircraft or submarine engines. "For over 20 years, no one had a natural solution for this issue in a solid material," Huang said. "Now, we've designed, modeled and fabricated a new material with properties that do not exist naturally for what we believe is a nearly perfect protective device." The Army Research Office, which provided funding for the basic research effort at the University of Missouri associated with this project, is encouraged by the results from Huang's team. "The results that the University of Missouri team has recently published are encouraging," said Dan Cole, the program manager at the Army Research Office, a part of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory. "This research could lead to new strategies for steering mechanical waves away from critical regions in solid objects, which could enable novel capabilities in soldier protection and maneuvering." ### The studies, "Polar Metamaterials: A New Outlook on Resonance for Cloaking Applications" and "Physical Realization of Elastic Cloaking with a Polar Material," were published in Physical Review Letters, a journal of the American Physical Society. Other authors on the studies include Nassar Hussein, Yangyang Chen, Xianchen Xu and Chen Wangat MU; Wan Shou, Beichen Li and Wojciech Matusik at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Zongliang Du at MU and the Dalian University of Technology in China. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. 26.05.2020 LISTEN In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. On Sunday 24th May 2020, during the virtual Eid-Ul-Fitr message to the nation, His Eminence the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu after he led for the first time, the leadership of the various sects namely Tijjannya, Ahlusunna, Shia and Ahmadiyya; in prayer, expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Muslim ummah in Ghana to His Excellency the President of the Republic for nominating and subsequently appointing Justice Issifu Imoro Tanko Amadu to the Supreme Court Of Ghana. In his address, His Eminence the National Chief Imam said, "Though we believe you based your nomination and subsequent appointment on merit, we as Muslims feel greatly indebted to you for the appointment. Justice Issifu Imoro Tanko Amadus appointment will indeed serve as an inspiration to many up and coming Muslim President o aspire to greater heights in the legal profession, we therefore register our deep appreciation". The Almighty Allah said in the Holy Quran, " If you are grateful, I would certainly give you more; and if you are ungrateful, My chastisement is truly severe. (14:7). It is against this background that the Leadership of the Coalition of Muslim Organizations, Ghana (COMOG) wishes to associate with the National Chief Imam's message, by expressing our profound appreciation to the President for appointing the first Muslim, who has played a pivotal role in the affairs of the Muslim community in Ghana; to the Apex Court of the land. Having engaged Justice Tanko, COMOG is of the firm view that he had no intention of slighting Islam or compromising on the struggle by the Ummah for recognition of their constitutional rights. The Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana (COMOG), wishes to remind the Muslim Ummah of the need to forge the spirit of forgiveness and support for one another. We have to build sustainable tolerance for peaceful development while ensuring that we do not surrender or sacrifice the tenets of Islam, our most cherished faith. The Prophet of Islam makes us understand that when believers are being pardoned by Allah, two believers who hold grudges against each other are not pardoned, and if the said believers fail to forgive each other after three days any of them who dies will be put in hellfire. It is therefore imperative for all to imbibe the spirit of forgiveness in order to derive the full benefit of the month-long fasting, prayers, and diverse sacrifices. It is in this spirit of forgiveness that COMOG calls on all Muslims all over the world to forgive one another and to rally round things that unite us rather than our differences. That is the surest way to make progress as an Ummah. COMOG wishes Justice Tanko Allahs guidance and protection as he begins work today as the Judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic. Hajj Abdel-Manan Abdel-Rahman COMOG President In this uncertain time of the coronavirus pandemic, many renters, eager to change their living situations, may consider breaking their lease. Some may be interested in moving from their city apartments and to less populated areas, while others may find themselves suddenly unemployed and forced to look for cheaper housing options. But can you legally break a rental lease because of COVID-19? Generally, it can be difficult and expensive to break a lease for an apartment. Tenants are typically responsible for paying the rent until their lease is upso if you're three months into a one-year lease, you'd still have to pay rent for the remaining nine months. And the same laws still hold right now: If you end a lease early, even in the era of COVID-19, you're still responsible for your rent until the end date in your contract. "It's bad news for tenants these days," says Craig Blackmon, a real estate lawyer based in Seattle. "Generally speaking, the pandemic does not relieve a tenant from having to pay rent, even if the tenant feels compelled to move out." That said, the coronavirus might make landlords more flexible on ending leases early for tenants than they may have been in the past. Here's whyand how you can use this to your advantage. What happens if you break a lease without a landlord's permission For starters: If you're thinking of just stopping your rent payments and running for the hills without your landlord's blessing, that's certainly one way to break a lease. But be warned: Leaving your last place on bad terms could spell trouble when it comes to finding a new place, and it could severely affect your credit rating. Many landlords will want to contact prior landlords," says Denise Supplee, a real estate agent and property manager in Philadelphia. "Whether tenants like it or not, tenant screening is available virtually. And if a renter breaks a lease without a landlord's blessing, this will certainly not bring a positive reference. So if you want to break a lease early, it is important that you check with your landlord first. ___ Watch: Coronavirus Self-Care Kit: Stock Up on These Items ___ Why COVID-19 might let you break a lease early While you might be legally on the line for your rent until the end of your lease, landlords might be more flexible these days because many tenants can't pay rent right now. In the past, such tenants who couldn't pay rent would be evictedbut COVID-19 has led to the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act, which prevents landlords of certain residences nationwide from evicting tenants from March 27 to July 25, 2020and perhaps beyond that. This means that for the time being, many tenants not paying rent can stay put. The CARES Act suspends evictions for any properties secured by federally backed mortgages," says G. Brian Davis, director of education for SparkRental.com. "That includes conforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, FHA loans, and VA loans." So if your landlord has such a loan, you're safe. Plus, Davis adds, "it also suspends evictions for Section 8 landlords and those taking the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Even if your rental doesnt fall into one of those categories, Davis says its a good idea to check with your city. Some cities and towns have also temporarily suspended evictions," he adds. "Plus, many other jurisdictions have temporarily closed civil courts, preventing landlords from scheduling a rent court hearing." Bottom line: Having lost the threat of evictions, landlords may be more lenient about a whole lot of things, including rent due dates and breaking a lease, since the alternative may be that these tenants can otherwise just occupy the unit for free. If a tenant calls their landlord and explains that they lost their job and cant pay rent and asks to move out early, landlords would be wise to let them out, given their inability to enforce evictions right now, explains Davis. The landlord can then sign a new lease agreement with an employed renter. And even if you can pay rent but just want to break your lease to find a cheaper or more remote apartment elsewhere, a landlord may still show more flexibility than usual rather than put up a fight. With so many now wishing they could end their lease quickly and more conveniently, Davis says that many landlords and tenants alike may find comfort in shorter-term lease agreements. Its a time of great uncertainty, and in times of uncertainty it pays to stay as flexible as possible, Davis says. It goes for tenants facing an uncertain employment market, and it goes for landlords, too. How to break a rental lease If you're ready to ask your landlord about breaking your lease, here's what to do: Be upfront about your situation, whether you've been laid off or just want to move. Since landlords may be getting skipped or late payments from many tenants, they may appreciate your being honest with them and willing to negotiate. If you can pay one more month's rent but that's it, say so and see what your landlord says. There may be a solution. Since landlords may be getting skipped or late payments from many tenants, they may appreciate your being honest with them and willing to negotiate. If you can pay one more month's rent but that's it, say so and see what your landlord says. There may be a solution. Even if your landlord won't let you out of your lease early, try for a middle ground. You could try to negotiate a lower amount for early termination than the lease calls for, or you could also forfeit your security deposit. You could try to negotiate a lower amount for early termination than the lease calls for, or you could also forfeit your security deposit. Of course, you could always offer to try to find a new renter, or to sublet your place. While this could be a difficult task in this unpredictable time, however, you might get lucky. You never know until you ask around. While this could be a difficult task in this unpredictable time, however, you might get lucky. You never know until you ask around. If your landlord does agree to new terms, get everything in writing and keep a copy for your records. Don't trust any nonverbal agreements because, when push comes to shove, it'll be the landlord's word against yours. The last thing you want is to move out and end up with some legal trouble down the road. Don't trust any nonverbal agreements because, when push comes to shove, it'll be the landlord's word against yours. The last thing you want is to move out and end up with some legal trouble down the road. Finally, ask for a letter of reference. Remember that finding a new lease may be difficult, especially if you're currently unemployed. A good reference from your landlord could help you get into your next home. The post Can You Break a Lease Because of COVID-19? What Renters Need To Know appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Joseph Quesnels article in support of exporting oil through Churchill was a refreshing change to the deluge of COVID-19 pandemic coverage (Churchill pipeline a unique opportunity, April 16). He reminds us that the new story will soon be the post-pandemic a period that is likely to bring less trade, more unemployment and, potentially, monetary instability. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Opinion Joseph Quesnels article in support of exporting oil through Churchill was a refreshing change to the deluge of COVID-19 pandemic coverage (Churchill pipeline a unique opportunity, April 16). He reminds us that the new story will soon be the post-pandemic a period that is likely to bring less trade, more unemployment and, potentially, monetary instability. It is worthwhile considering ideas to encourage economic growth. If oil exports are part of the future recovery, then we should give consideration to the Churchill corridor. The Hudson Bay route certainly has advantages in terms of geography it is a short way to saltwater, and all downhill from the Alberta oilsands. Granted, the sea route is seasonal now, but the Arctic Ocean is changing quickly, and traffic could eventually be sufficient to have icebreakers available. The only real question is, why would anyone invest billions of dollars to build a pipeline when an existing under-utilized railway serves the same corridor? Lets consider the merits of the two options. Generally speaking, pipelines are a less expensive means to transport oil than railways, but this depends on the timeframe and cost of capital. Pipelines can last more than 60 years, but oil consumption is expected to drop over the next 25 years, with increased efforts to slow climate change. The lifetime cost of an oil pipeline is not as attractive if the asset is stranded before it is half used. Hudson Bay Railway (HBR) is a much more flexible option given the uncertain future. Oil shippers own the railcars, and they can be moved to other locations if the need changes. The HBR has lots of capacity to move oil to Churchill. According to an earlier analysis, the HBR only carries about one-third of the freight necessary to be sustainable. Moving oil by rail could provide the volume needed to sustain the railway and maintain the Port of Churchill. Environmentalists can be expected to protest any new oil transport proposal; however, the HBR is in a better positioned than any pipeline. The railway already moves petroleum products over this line. Similarly, the port has a petroleum tank farm that has been operated safely for decades. No doubt there would be hearings and consultations, but the rail route has a clear regulatory advantage over the pipeline. The main risk to the environment is oil spills. Here the trade-off between railways and pipelines is a wash generally speaking, pipelines have few accidents, but spills can be large; railways have more spills, but the volumes are small. Some concerns may exist about the stability of the HBR roadbed, so safety will require slower speeds and intensive maintenance to mitigate the risk in those sections of the rail line. Quesnel notes the benefits of creating employment in the North and in having the First Nations involved in ownership of the pipeline. Certainly, jobs are welcome, but the pipeline jobs are mainly in the initial construction phase. The jobs on the rail line are permanent and ongoing. Besides, First Nations already are heavily invested in the HBR; they will get a bigger return on the greater use of the railway than owning a pipeline that competes with their current investment. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. If exporting oil through the Port of Churchill is meant to assist in the post-pandemic recovery, the railway option has a timing advantage. No new permissions are needed for the railway to move oil, and tanker cars are available. A pipeline project could be stalled for years before environmental reviews are completed and land claims are negotiated. Then, the pipeline has to be built. Economic normalcy will have returned long before any oil would flow. As a large oil exporter, and a country committed to green technologies and carbon reduction, Canadian policy can at times be considered conflicted and confused. Expanding oil exports while reducing global carbon emissions sounds contradictory. The reality is that we must accommodate a transition to lower oil consumption. This will take decades, and even then, we are not talking about eliminating fossil fuels completely, just reducing consumption to a sustainable level. Perhaps a policy for new oil exports could be engaged that offers a compromise solution: as a new export port, Churchill could be designated a "green oil" corridor. All the oil moving through this port would have to pay the current Canadian carbon tax. If the oil were being consumed by another country that is already imposing a carbon tax (or cap and trade system) on its consumers, then the carbon tax would be remitted back to the Canadian oil exporters. But if the end customers are not paying for their carbon emissions, these taxes would be used in Canada for projects that reduce the equivalent amount of carbon emissions. The road to recovery is uncertain, but its time for creative economic policy to help Western Canada find the new normal. Barry Prentice is a professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitoba. Gov. Charlie Baker says Massachusetts is past the surge as hospitalization levels for coronavirus patients decline. Baker said the surge, which was projected to infect up to 172,000 people in Massachusetts with COVID-19, is over and that field hospitals around the state are starting to shut down. He said Tuesday the Boston Hope field station would stop accepting new admissions but would stay open until the last patient is safely discharged. Boston Hope has treated more than 700 COVID-19 patients since opening April 10 and housed homeless people from across the city, Baker said. Weve talked a lot about preparing for and dealing with the surge, which is now something that, thanks to a lot of work by a lot of people, is behind us," Baker said Tuesday during a news conference at the Massachusetts State House. "As a result of that many of the field hospitals that we set up around the state to add beds and reduce strain on hospitals have begun to close. On Monday, health officials announced 596 new COVID-19 cases and 44 new coronavirus deaths across Massachusetts. The state conducted 8,188 new tests on Monday. Of those who tested positive, 2,179 people are hospitalized, which Baker noted was a significant decrease from hospitalizations in previous weeks. In total, state officials recorded 93,271 coronavirus cases and 6,416 deaths. A study by the Imperial College London, however, suggests that the number of infected people in Massachusetts may be much larger. Researchers suggest that 896,000, or 13% of the states 6.9 million people, contracted the coronavirus. The state began its first phase of reopening earlier this month, starting with places of worship, manufacturers and construction sites on May 18. A larger group of businesses got the green light to resume operations with certain restrictions in place on Monday, including hair salons and barber shops that can take appointments and retailers who could conduct curbside pickup. Researchers suggest that the impact of reopening in mid-May might not be seen for several weeks. Dr. Richard Ellison, an epidemiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, told MassLive that it could take two to four weeks for state officials to see a spike in cases because many people who contract COVID-19 dont show symptoms for the first few days. If there were another increase, however, leaders from UMass Memorial Health Care and Baystate Health said they would be prepared to handle those additional cases in a matter of hours. Related Content: PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 09:03:03 KKR Acquires Majority Stake in Etche France, A Leading Owner-Operator of French Real Estate Assets Media enquiries: KKR: International Finsbury Alastair Elwen Tel: +44 20 7251 3801 kkr@finsbury.com KKR: France Olivier Blain Tel: +33 6 72 28 29 20 ob@addingvalueconseils.com KKR, a leading global investment firm, and Etche France (Etche), announced that KKR has acquired a strategic stake in Etche from Groupe BMF and co-founders. Etche is a private real estate company, founded in 2010 by the late Jean-Pierre Raynal and Leon Baruc, that owns and operates a portfolio of over 120 assets (400m GAV) across France in the logistics, light industrial and office sectors. The transaction will further expand KKRs real estate presence and capabilities in France, with an increased focus on driving growth in the industrial and logistics (I&L) sector through Etche. KKR has a significant recent track record in the I&L real estate market across Europe, having acquired c.800,000 sqm of I&L space over the last 24 months across France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Ireland. The investment in Etche was made through a European real estate fund managed by KKR. Mai-Lan de Marcilly, Director, European Real Estate at KKR, commented: KKR and Etche have substantial experience having successfully invested together in the French logistics and light industrial sectors for the past 6 years. This transaction comes as an exciting next step in our relationship and reinforces KKRs trust in the Etche team. We are delighted to invest in a high quality, diversified portfolio geared towards the I&L sectors that will benefit from structural tailwinds and strong market dynamics. As we navigate the challenges of the current market environment, we are excited to be able to leverage the expertise of the Etche team to expand the platform, and continue the work initiated by Jean-Pierre and Leon more than 10 years ago. Leon Baruc, CEO of Etche, commented: This transaction with KKR is not only a great opportunity for Etche but also a recognition of the quality of work delivered by our team. It will give us the chance to broaden our horizons. Etche will remain a nimble company with the financial strength and expertise of a major one. This deal began while Jean-Pierre Raynal was still amongst us and he would be delighted with this outcome. Michael and Fabien Bertini, founders of Groupe BMF, commented: Groupe BMF has been proud to support Etches development these past few years and to have leveraged our expertise to help the company execute its growth strategy. We are pleased to complete the sale of our majority stake to KKR who, along with the Etches team, will be able to continue to expand the Group. KKR was advised by Gide, Etude Wargny Katz, Norton Rose and Accuracy. Etche was advised by Cabinet Kramer Levin, Etude Durant des Aulnois and CE2C Expertise & Conseil. Groupe BMF was advised by Bredin Prat. ENDS Note to Editors: About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co. About Etche France Etche is a private real estate company which owns and operates a portfolio of ~120 assets (400m GAV) across France in the logistics, light industrial, office sectors. Etche was co-founded in 2010 by Leon Baruc, Chief Executive Officer, and the late Jean-Pierre Raynal. Etche invests, manages and develops opportunistic or complex operations with high level of value-add. Asset management initiatives and close relationships with tenants allow for a high occupancy rate across the portfolio. The team has a great real estate expertise and is accustomed to reacting quickly and with pragmatism. About BMF Group BMF is a family-owned Group specialising in six areas of expertise: Property Development, Construction, Asset Management, Hotels, Property Dealer and Private Equity. Managed and owned by Michael and Fabien Bertini, the Group is driven by the pleasure of entrepreneurship and the desire to create strategic synergies between all its business sectors. The Group's financial independence guarantees short decision-making processes and enables to the staff to implement a dynamic development strategy. In the space of a decade, the team members have made the BMF Group a recognised player in the property and investment markets. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005 Amid allegations of mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis in Maharashtra which has prompted opposition leaders to demand dismissal of the state government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that his party was not a key player in running the Maharashtra government. The Congress is part of "Maha Vikas Aghadi" and holds key ministries but Gandhi said, "We are only supporting the government and are not a 'key player' in the state". Gandhi, however, defended the state government and said Maharashtra is a well-connected state and that is the reason why Covid-19 cases are rising there. He asserted that the party is doing better wherever it is running its own government. Gandhi's statement comes amid hectic politicking in Maharashtra even as NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said only those without a job could think of the government being unstable. Attacking the BJP for playing politics at a time when Maharashtra is reeling under the effects of coronavirus with the dubious distinction of over 50,000 cases, Pawar said, In such times of a huge crisis, our efforts are to relieve the pain of the people. Rumours of a potential political upheaval in the state began when former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis complained to Governor BS Koshyari about the "failure" of the Thackeray government in handling the Covid-19 crisis. This was followed by Pawars meeting with Koshyari against the backdrop of strained relations between the Shiv Sena, which heads the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, and the Raj Bhavan. The NCP is one of the key constituents of MVA. Vidya Iyengar By Express News Service BENGALURU : Following the path taken by theatre houses world over during this pandemic, Prataya Saha and Shatarupa Bhattacharyya decided to go digital with their critically-acclaimed play, Chitraa. In this month of Rabindra Jayanti, Saha and Bhattacharyya have given a cinematic touch to Rabindranath Tagores famous work, Chitrangada, which will be premiered on May 28. There have been multiple renditions of the play but this one has a hybridised fusion structure: contemporary comedy interlaced with the untouched original romantic scenes by Tagore, he says. The story from the Mahabharata revolves around Arjuna, who, after roaming the jungles, reaches Manipur which is ruled by princess Chitra, a woman brought up as a fierce warrior and archer. She meets Arjuna and falls in love with him but he refuses to marry her. A dejected Chitra seeks the help of God Madana to change her into a more conventionally feminine, fair and beautiful woman. After the boon, she transforms and comes to Arjuna again as a completely different woman. Will Arjuna accept her? The play delves into pressure and expectations of a patriarchal society on women and raises some important questions for the audience to ponder upon, Saha says. A cross between a play and film, Saha points out that the loud body language and gestures of theatre have had to be mellowed for the purpose of film. The four actors Anshulika Kapoor (Surupa), Archana Kariappa (Kurupa), Surya Vasishta (Arjuna), and Subhabrata Kundu (Madana) were each asked to record their parts which were then merged and edited to ensure continuity, says Saha who has been working on this project over the last 10-12 days. The film will be screened on their social media platforms, including their Instagram feed(@redpolkaproductions). Spain calling In addition to his theatre-cinema project, Sahas recently completed short film, titled Slapped, has been selected for screening at Marbella International Film Festivals Grounded category. The project features films made in isolation while adhering to physical distancing norms during the pandemic. The team relied on Zoom, with two days going into scheduling alone. Revolving around a woman in an abusive relationship, the four-long film took 22 hours to shoot. In normal circumstances, it would have taken us just six hours. But we also had to explain the technicalities of setting up the camera to the actor and had to stay present on video call so she could show us the settings, explains the 33-year-old. We had to be crazily patient but it all added up when the film got selected for the festival, says Saha, who worked on it with Singapore-based screenwriter Tanuj Khosla and Kerala-based editor and cinematographer Abhishekh Saravanan. The films producer Anshulika Kapoor, actor Moumi Guha and colourist Jai Mangal Sharma are based in Bengaluru. Like his previous projects including the short film, The Good Wife, which has won 13 awards and featured at 22 film festivals Slapped too has a women-centric theme. Gender-based subjugations are the same across borders, says Saha, whose film will be screened at the festival between October 7 and 11 this year. (With inputs from Simran Ahuja) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:18:41|Editor: zh Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks during a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, capital of China, May 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Gang) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday stressed achieving the targets and missions of strengthening the national defense and armed forces for 2020, while maintaining effective epidemic control on a regular basis. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks when attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police Force, at the third session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's national legislature. Xi heard speeches by military deputies on fulfilling epidemic control tasks, strengthening training amid the epidemic, and accelerating capacity building on biosecurity defense, among others. Commending their role in battling COVID-19, Xi said the people's armed forces have once again proven themselves to be heroic forces that can be fully trusted by the Party and the people. Xi said the epidemic has brought a profound impact on the global landscape and on China's security and development as well. He ordered the military to think about worst-case scenarios, scale up training and battle preparedness, promptly and effectively deal with all sorts of complex situations and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests. Xi demanded reform and innovation to address new situations and problems exposed in the epidemic and ordered accelerating the research and development on COVID-19 drugs and vaccines by tapping the advantages of military medical research. He also stressed scientific innovation on national defense and training of high-caliber professional military personnel. Noting that this year marks the end of the 13th five-year plan for military development, Xi said extraordinary measures must be taken to overcome the impact of the epidemic to ensure major tasks on the military building are achieved. He demanded good planning on the next five-year plan. On defense expenditure, Xi said every penny must be well spent to produce maximum results. He also asked the military to support the economic and social development, poverty relief and others. Enditem M ichelin-starred Texture and Nathan Outlaws Siren have both announced that they will not be reopening after the coronavirus lockdown is lifted. The permanent closure of the two London restaurants was revealed over the weekend in tweets from Bloomberg restaurant critic Richard Vines. Vines reported that Agnar Sverrisson, chef-owner of Scandinavian-influenced Texture in Marylebone, had personally told him that the restaurant would not be reopening after lockdown. It was also revealed that Sverrisson is currently in his native Iceland. The closure of Siren at the Goring was also personally revealed by Michelin-starred, Cornwall-based chef Nathan Outlaw, who reportedly told Vines that he plans to focus on his business in Cornwall. Seafood restaurant Siren opened less than a year ago as the first new restaurant to open at luxury Belgravia hotel The Goring in more than 100 years. Despite its considerable pedigree, the restaurant had a mixed reception from food critics, with the Standards Fay Maschler giving it two stars. "Due to the situation that all of us in UK hospitality find ourselves in, we are going to have to operate differently for a while in order to protect the business and its staff in the long term," said the hotel's owner Jeremy Goring in a statement sent to the Standard. "For this reason, when we eventually reopen the Goring it will be with a smaller food and beverage department, and very sadly we will not be able to re-open Siren. "This restaurant has been a real adventure: scouring Cornwall for the very best fish Ive ever seen, and putting together something really special both in the room and on the plate. Also, working with some of the best in the business both out front and in the kitchen - what a privilege. Im looking forward to the day some time in the future when we can do something exciting together with Nathan again." The Standard has also asked representatives for Texture for comment. The two locations are the first high profile London restaurants to announce that they will not reopen after the coronavirus lockdown. The closures confirm fears that a number of restaurants would not survive the government-enforced closure of restaurants, bars and pubs. In Italy, the owner of world-famous Harrys Bar in Venice said that he would not reopen the cocktail bar, and criticised the governments handling of the countrys transition out of lockdown. There has also been concern in the UK hospitality industry that, even when restaurants are allowed to reopen to eat-in diners, social distancing guidelines will harm their ability to make a profit. Industry heavyweights including D&D London and Angela Hartnett have backed a campaign for the government to make it easier for restaurants to add extra seating on the pavements and outdoor spaces outside their premises. There is much to be admired about the Sinn Fein president, Mary Lou McDonald. She is an articulate politician and a staunch advocate for social change. Ms McDonald is clearly a vote-getter, but, more importantly, she is not Gerry Adams. Had her party run enough candidates in the recent Irish general election, almost certainly she could have been Tanaiste, if not Taoiseach, by now. The Irish electorate has never been bothered much by Sinn Fein's past, or the north in general, when it come to voting. Ms McDonald and her coterie of polished front-bench representatives learned a lesson from previous elections; this time putting Northern Ireland on the back-burner, while concentrating on sweeping up the anger of the Irish public against the status quo and the establishment. If current opinion polls are correct, the Irish public appear to be reverting to the safety of a traditional party of government (ie Fine Gael). But Ms McDonald seems comfortable and ready to take on the mantle of Opposition leader. Protesting too much for a few years will suit Sinn Fein. Such is the standing of Ms McDonald in the Anglo-Irish arena that she publicly acknowledged correspondence from none other than Prince Charles following her illness with Covid-19. She seemed chuffed. In the same interview with the Sunday Independent, responding to a question as to whether she would have joined the IRA, Ms McDonald did not duck the question with an evasive answer. She said, yes, there was every chance, every possibility. A remarkable answer for a woman who was privately educated behind the exclusive walls of Notre Dame de Missions in Dublin. The bullets of the IRA, which travel not only through bodies, but time, never pierced the comfortable world of the young Ms McDonald. Her retrospective view of the republican movement in the 1970s and 1980s is blurred by romanticised propaganda, jaundiced through green-tinted glasses. Her comments made me recall former SDLP agriculture minister Brid Rodgers once saying that, growing up in Donegal, she was reared on stories about the exploits of the legendary republican Dan Breen and the flying columns. Unlike Ms McDonald, Brid Rodgers did not carry through any of this hagiography into her politics, nor would she ever be found eulogising the Nazi admirer and IRA leader Sean Russell, or for that matter Dan Breen, who wasn't far behind in his Nazi sympathies. The fact that Ms McDonald, who was brought up geographically, physically, educationally, emotionally and socially miles away from the Troubles, felt the need to publicly speculate on something like joining the IRA, which was never on her radar, is testimony to the grip of the paramilitary remnants within Sinn Fein hierarchy. This is not, as McDonald claims, a sign of the progress of the peace process, but a sign of control not yet surrendered to the politicos. In the Sunday Independent interview, Ms McDonald seems to believe that, because one lived in Belfast, Tyrone or Derry, it was inevitable that one would join the IRA. She labours with the misguided notion that the majority of those who, in her words, "lived through it", flocked to the standard of the IRA. Let's dispel that whopper - they did not. As one who lived through it, like the majority of my counterparts, we were kept away from the clutches of shadowy figures in the IRA by our parents. From our housing estates in the 1970s emerged a whole legion of teachers, lawyers, doctors, tradesmen, clerks and even clergy. Our parents may not have been able to afford Notre Dame de Missions, but they made sure we got schooled. The Troubles were an everyday factor of life in Newry and certainly the British Army and the RUC were contributory factors to the violence. But, back then, the greatest fear among the majority of parents was the all-too-real prospect of their children languishing in jails because of IRA membership, so, they turned us towards education and the voice they listened to was that of John Hume, not Ruari O Bradaigh. Hume was etched in Derry and it in him and yet not once he did advocate turning to the IRA, or any other purveyor of violence to redress political issues. He asked people to expend sweat, not blood; to live for their country, not to kill, or die, for it. The contrast could not be more stark from the sterility of the IRA strategy. Ms McDonald, during her interview, also seems to believe that the IRA campaign was justified. Her timing for such comments could not have been worse. As her interview was being published, her deputy, Michelle O'Neill, and the DUP's Arlene Foster were waxing lyrical about how the Covid-19 crisis had brought them closer together. Political unionists will squirm at the thought of the Sinn Fein president trying to legitimise IRA violence. It certainly doesn't make life any easier for Mrs Foster, the First Minister. Many thousands of innocent IRA victims of the Troubles will see no justification for the conflict and even less justice for their deceased relatives. Perhaps Ms McDonald is not able to escape the justified war narrative of her mentors - especially that of Gerry Adams. She admits that she was a favourite. When all is said and done, the process of selection to the presidency of Sinn Fein was more of an anointment than an appointment; more selection than election. Indeed, there is more transparency among a conclave of cardinals than the Sinn Fein ard comhairle when it comes to choosing a leader, or for that matter, a deputy leader (as John O'Dowd found out). Ms McDonald is a pragmatist. She will know that keeping an eye to the future with a foot stuck in the past is not going to fuel the growth of Sinn Fein in the Republic of Ireland. The north is a different story. Electorally, Sinn Fein came very close to being in power on both sides of the island. Unionists were not ready for such a change. In fairness, neither was Sinn Fein. The two jurisdictions often have different - and, at times, competing - needs, all requiring bespoke solutions. Being in charge in both camps will be challenging and those differences won't be easily covered up with a rendition of A Nation Once Again at the ard fheis. Ms McDonald is a politician with much promise, but the pitfalls which lie ahead are those she appears to dig for herself. To be an agent for change, the change has to come from within. Just how much the Sinn Fein president is up for that remains to be seen. Tom Kelly is a writer and commentator Dontwaitmt.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 10 Dec 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. The total number of people who shared the dontwaitmt homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the dontwaitmt homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the dontwaitmt homepage on Twitter + the total number of dontwaitmt followers (if dontwaitmt has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the dontwaitmt homepage on StumbleUpon. 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Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND ALBANY The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a cloud over residential solar energy development in New York State setting back the pace of development by six months to a year, according to a recent survey. A convergence of factors, ranging from New Yorks archaic municipal permitting process to the pressures from private equity investors, means that growth in the industry may be slower than previously thought, according to a recent survey of solar firms. The financial wreckage brought on by the pandemic will almost certainly pose a challenge to New Yorks ambitious timetable for the residential and community solar portion of the industry, which usually consists of 5 megawatt projects and less. That includes rooftop solar systems for single homes and community systems in which people can sign up to get their electricity from a given project. Almost no (solar) construction activity has happened since the pause, said Shyam Mehta, executive director of the New York State Solar Energy Industries Association. The recently completed survey of solar energy firms operating in New York shows the same financial devastation that has hit countless other industries brought to a halt by the pandemic and its subsequent shutdown. In aggregate among survey respondents, 63 percent of the solar workforce has been furloughed or laid off since March 1. That equates to 6,800 lost jobs. Additionally, 54 percent of responders said they dont have the liquidity to operate beyond six months if the states PAUSE, or pandemic shut-down order would have gone beyond mid-May. Fortunately, the state has been lifting the pandemic shutdown, allowing many solar projects to re-start this week, with the exception of New York City. There are other factors unique to the residential solar industry that makes it especially hard hit, though. Building solar installations typically requires municipal permits, but many municipalities are closed and their zoning boards have been backed up with requests. Furthermore, many communities dont take electronic applications which further slows the process. There are a lot of bottlenecks and holdups in the permitting process, said Mehta. Residential solar developers, whether standalone panel installers or community projects, rely heavily on door-to-door personal sales calls, which have been halted amid the pandemic. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Despite the Trump Administration tariffs, a good number of solar panel components still come from China, and shipments have slowed significantly due to the pandemic. Going forward, solar development was relying on money from private equity firms and banks. But facing pandemic losses, many of these firms will no longer need the tax breaks that solar investments would have brought them. Theres no need to offset their tax bills, said Mehta. New Yorks decision to declare solar workers as non-essential also put the state at a disadvantage. Solar operators in some cases have seen workers, including some with specialized skills, simply leave for New Jersey, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania where the solar projects were continuing. Empire State developers will now have to work doubly hard to get those workers back when they re-start their projects. More for you New Saratoga County solar farm is among largest of its kind upstate Finally, the financial worries that many are facing due to the pandemic means they may view solar panels or even switching suppliers as a luxury. Homeowners are very worried and are not looking to invest in solar as much as they were, said one survey respondent. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-248-6070 @RickKarlinTU Microsoft claimed it is eager to invest more in Skype and work on adding new features. Skype has passed 40 million daily active users with a 70 percent increase month-over-month with Skype-to-Skype calling minutes seeing a rise of 220%. With Microsoft Teams becoming the software of choice for people working from home, Skype is all but forgotten. Microsoft acquired the video calling service for $8.5 billion in October 2011, yet while the new Teams app keeps receiving new features to accommodate the surge in usage since the COVID-19 pandemic, Skype has taken a back seat. The app is also pre-installed in all Windows builds these days, and sure enough, the app saw a surge in active users since the pandemic took full effect. Microsoft now claimed it is eager to invest more in Skype and work on adding new features, regardless of its plans with Team, which just so happens to be the fastest-growing business app for the Redmond giant. The company shared that Skype has passed 40 million daily active users with a 70 percent increase month-over-month with Skype-to-Skype calling minutes seeing a rise of 220%. A big reason for the surge is the fact that Microsoft Teams is still part of the companys offering for business users which requires a monthly subscription to Office365, now renamed to Microsoft365. However, the daily surge in users may get affected with Microsoft also planning to build a consumer version of Teams in the coming few months. For now, it asked consumers to stick to Skype for their personal life. This indicates that Microsoft may finally think of retiring Skype altogether. Skype For Business has anyway been announced to be discontinued in favour of Microsoft Teams. In a conversation with VentureBeat, Jeff, Teper, CVP for Microsoft 365 said, Were continuing to invest in Skype. Its growing through all this. Youll see some new features. Youll see Skype and Teams interoperate. As Teams lands with consumers and does more things, I think people will pick Teams. But were not going to be heavy-handed about this. People love Skype. And so, were not going to get ahead of ourselves here. If you are more inclined towards VoWiFi calling rather than using apps like Skype, you can check this article out. HDFC's standalone net profit declined 22% to Rs 2232.53 crore on 3.41% rise in total income to Rs 11,981.66 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Profit before tax (PBT) for the quarter stood at Rs 2692.44 crore, down by 27% from Rs 3690.89 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Current tax expense for the March quarter declined 42.20% to Rs 541.66 crore in Q4 March 2020 from Rs 937.11 crore in Q4 March 2019. Dividend income slumped to Rs 2.08 crore in Q4 FY20 from Rs 536.88 crore in Q4 FY19. With dividend distribution tax being abolished, some of the subsidiary company did not pay interim dividend, HDFC said. Bosch's consolidated net profit slumped 80.4% to Rs 80.91 crore on 18.1% decline in net sales to Rs 2236.87 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. The decline is due to the reduced turnover following the market slowdown and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic during the last few days of the quarter, the company said in a statement. Avenue Supermarts' consolidated net profit jumped 41.61% to Rs 271 crore on 23.6% increase in total revenue to Rs 6,256 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. ITC on Saturday, 23 May 2020, entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire 100% stake of Sunrise Foods (SFPL), which is engaged in the business of spices under the trademark 'Sunrise'. Maruti Suzuki India informed that Suzuki Motor Gujarat would re-start production of vehicles from 25 May 2020, strictly in accordance with the Government regulations and guidelines. Suzuki Motor Gujarat manufactures cars on a contract basis for Maruti Suzuki India. Bharti Airtel promoters are likely to sell $1 billion worth of shares in the company, as per reports. Bharti Telecom will sell shares via a block deal today, 26 May 2020. Promoters are going to sell nearly 15 crore shares at around Rs 558 per share. After the block deal, stake held by the promoters of Bharti Airtel will fall to 56.23% from 58.98% Eicher Motors on Monday (25 May 2020) said that its board will on 12 June 2020 consider sub-division of the equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each. UPL's consolidated net profit soared 147% to Rs 617 crore on 30.7% rise in net sales to Rs 11,141 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. On a consolidated basis, JSW Steel reported 87.4% slump in net profit to Rs 188 crore on 19.6% decline in net sales to Rs 17,556 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. The profit was impacted due to an exceptional item of Rs 805 crore. This was on account of impairment provision of Rs 725 crore for the iron ore mining operations at Chile and Rs 80 crore towards retirement of certain fixed assets in India in its consolidated results. Trent reported consolidated net profit of Rs 12.73 crore in Q4 March 2020 as compared to net loss of Rs 4.36 crore in Q4 March 2019. Consolidated total income rose 25.09% to Rs 880.54 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. RITES on Friday (22 May) said it has signed an agreement for acquiring 24% stake in Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) for Rs 48 crore with Rail Land Development Authority and IRCON International being the other equity partners. WABCO India's consolidated net profit dropped 39.54% to Rs 31.50 crore on 37.44% fall in total income to Rs 422.99 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. On a standalone basis, BASF India's net profit slumped 53.2% to Rs 40.37 crore on 40.4% jump in net sales to Rs 1,840.81 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Birla Corporation's consolidated net profit jumped 51.9% to Rs 194.73 crore on 9.8% decline in net sales to Rs 1,689.97 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Bayer Cropscience reported a net profit of Rs 31.50 crore in Q4 March 2020 as against a net loss of Rs 57.1 crore in Q4 March 2019. Net sales for quarter ending March 2020 stood at Rs 459 crore, up 82% from Rs 252.20 crore in the same period last year. DCB Bank's net profit fell 28.6% to Rs 68.76 crore on 9.2% rise in total income to Rs 1011.79 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Trump is going all-in on pushing for a rapid, robust return to normal life, creating a visual, visceral contrast with Joe Biden and other Democrats who are more reticent to rip the masks off. The state of play: Business friends have been urging Trump from the beginning to keep the lockdowns short. He's listening more and more. Trump wants a packed auditorium for his convention in August, and yesterday threatened to move ("reluctantly") the years-in-the-making event from Charlotte if North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) doesn't quickly guarantee that a full house will be allowed. Fearing erosion in his evangelical base, the president declared ahead of Memorial Day weekend that states must designate houses of worship as "essential" services. He threatened to "override the governors," which he can't. The backdrop: So far, the pandemic has mostly been a blue-state problem, and red states are revolting. The N.Y. Times calculates that counties won by Trump in 2016 with 45% of the population have recorded just 27% of virus infections and 21% of the deaths. And Bloomberg reported: "In states Trump won in 2016, 23 people have lost a job for every 1 person infected. In states Democrat Hillary Clinton won, 13 people have lost a job for every person infected." Reality check: Polling also shows that even in red states, most people remain cautious about reopening, and that the boisterous protests of stay-at-home orders aren't representative. Our Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index consistently shows Americans arent rushing to go back to "normal," and are largely wearing masks and practicing social distancing across party lines and regions. But when it comes to questions about reopening the economy, Republicans and rural voters arent worried as much as Democrats and residents of cities and suburbs. The big picture: As part of this great divide, masks are becoming a political signifier, which is absurd. North Dakota Doug Burgum (R) choked up last week as he implored his constituents not to turn masks into a red vs. blue issue. "I would really love to see in North Dakota that we could just skip this ... divide either it's ideological or political or something around mask versus no mask," Burgum said. "This is a, I would say, senseless dividing line." David Axelrod tweeted: "This is leadership." What to watch: As Axios' Jonathan Swan reported, Trump plans more mask-free events as he resumes more frequent travel. Health secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a coronavirus media briefing in Downing Street. (Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street via AP) The UK government has signed contracts with firms to manufacture 2 billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the country, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday. Weve been working hard to build our supplies of personal protective equipment, Hancock said, noting that domestic production had been dramatically ramped up in recent weeks. The government has also signed deals with over 100 suppliers across the world, including contracts for as many as 3.7 billion gloves. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the issue of PPE for healthcare workers has become one of the defining issues of the crisis. While frontline workers in healthcare settings should wear an apron, gloves, a face mask, and eye protection, the country has struggled to source supplies. READ MORE: Retail sales 'deeply depressed' with firms 'up against it' I have been completely open about the scale and difficulties of this challenge, Hancock said during the governments daily coronavirus media briefing. Speaking last month, the chief of the British Armed Forces, General Sir Nick Carter, said that the coronavirus crisis was the the single greatest logistic challenge the military had ever faced. The military has been helping with the distribution of PPE to frontline services across the country. Weve ramped up domestic production. I can announce that we have now signed contracts to manufacture two billion items of PPE here in the UK, Hancock said on Tuesday. While we continue to improve the logistics and work hard to get everyone the PPE that they need, these new supplies mean that were not simply keeping up with demand. We are now able to begin to replenish our stockpiles, he said. READ MORE: London estate agent Foxtons to resume viewings with social distancing There is a lot further to go on PPE as there is on so many things. But we have made significant progress and Id like to thank everybody involved. PPE, of course, is so important, because its about protecting the people who protect us and well do that for as long as the virus remains on these shores. There were 134 new deaths from coronavirus reported as of 5pm on Monday (25 May), Hancock noted, bringing the total number of deaths to 37,048. Some 265,227 people have tested positive for coronavirus as of 9pm on Tuesday, an increase of 2,004 on the previous day. Of all the front-line workers stepping up around the globe to help out in the fight against COVID-19, perhaps none have been called upon quite so often as Cuba's medical personnel. In recent weeks, at least 24 countries from Italy to South Africa have requested and received assistance from Cuba, which has a team of 2,300 emergency medicine specialists. The Latin American country's record on controlling the deadly virus has been exemplary, with 1900 confirmed cases and 79 deaths for a population of 11.2 million. To better understand why Cuban docs are in such high demand and their most recent efforts in the response to COVID-19, we spoke to John Kirk, a professor in Dal's Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies. Dr. Kirk, an expert on the history of the countrys humanitarian efforts and its medical internationalism, had the opportunity to be embedded with, and observe, Cubas Henry Reeve medical emergency brigade in El Salvador 10 years ago after that country was hit by a hurricane. How did this all start? The first Cuban medical mission was in Chile in 1960, following an earthquake. Since then, the Comprehensive Health Programme has provided basic medical coverage to scores of developing countries. Through the Latin American School (ELAM), which 25,000 doctors from 115 countries have been trained free of charge for those students from developing countries. Cuba now has 95,000 doctors, which is three times the amount of doctors in Canada (in a doctor-patient ratio). About nine years ago, following lengthy discussions about how to improve economic conditions, the Cuban government decided to start prioritising the exports of goods and medical services. As a result, almost a quarter of Cuban physicians are now working abroad most in developing countries. What is the Henry Reeve Brigade? The Henry Reeve Brigade was established in 2005 in response to an earthquake in Pakistan, and included 2,400 doctors and nurses. It was named after an American who fought in the first war of independence (1868-1878) against Spanish colonialism. Today, the Brigade consists of several thousand specially-trained doctors, nurses and technicians who have assisted with the response to natural emergencies in over 30 countries. People may remember the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. The WHO requested support, and Cuba was the first country to respondin all some 256 specialists. Roughly 2,300 Cubans, who are part of the Henry Reeve Brigade have gone to a variety of countries in the last month, including Italy, Andorra, Qatar, Mexico and South Africa to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its the first time they have been deployed in Europe. Many people are realising how severe this problem is, and the Cubans have got a surplus of medical personnel that are very, very well-trained in difficult circumstances, so they are easily able to adapt. The Brigade has been invited into these countries, and after being briefed on what is needed (which may differ from country to country), they deploy from there, and stay until the task is completed. What is the motivation? Cubans are socialized to give back to others, and support the collective. The Preamble to the Cuban Constitution states that they have an obligation to share their resources, especially with Latin America and the Caribbean. They also put an emphasis on preventative medicine. The funding they receive is on a sliding scale that is dependent on what countries are able to pay. Countries that are not able to pay are not expected to. It is difficult for many people to understand this sprit of altruismwhich in fact is profoundly rooted in the Cuban DNA. Cuba has been sending medical brigades throughout the world since 1960, and at present has more medical staff working abroad than the G7 countries combined. It is an astonishing, largely unknown, story that deserves to be told. Ofcom has ruled against China Global Television Network over its coverage of protests in Hong Kong (Yui Mok/PA) Ofcom has ruled against China Global Television Network over its coverage of protests in Hong Kong. A spokesman for the media watchdog said in a statement that five news programmes from the overseas arm of Chinas state broadcaster failed to preserve due impartiality. The 2019 reports covered the protests in Hong Kong and issues linked to the widespread demonstrations, which were triggered by Chinas plans to restrict freedoms in the semi-autonomous region. Our investigations found that CGTN failed to preserve due impartiality in five news programmes Ofcom The spokesman said: Our investigations found that CGTN failed to preserve due impartiality in five news programmes. The reports, which covered the protests in Hong Kong and related developments, did not give due weight to a wide range of voices on this matter of major political controversy. The rule breaches came across August and September during The World Today and in November during the China 24 programme. Ofcom will now weigh up whether to impose a punishment on the broadcaster. The spokesman added: We have told CGTN that we are minded to consider imposing a statutory sanction for these breaches. The broadcaster now has the opportunity to make representations to us, which well consider before proceeding further. Video of the Day Expand Close A Channel 4 programme is also being investigated (Victoria Jones/PA) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A Channel 4 programme is also being investigated (Victoria Jones/PA) Ofcom also announced that it has launched an investigation into Channel 4 programme Dispatches: The Truth About Traveller Crime, which was broadcast last month and looked at illegal activity within the community. The spokesman said: We are investigating whether this programme breached our rules on harm and offence. In a statement issued after the programme was aired, Channel 4 defended the programme, saying it has a strong track record and remit to conduct public debate including about difficult and uncomfortable issues. The statement added that the programme analysed the link between crime statistics and traveller sites and spoke to members of the communities, as well as those who live near them. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 18:43:24|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 171 Mongolian nationals returned home from Russia on a chartered flight on Tuesday, according to Mongolia's State Emergency Commission. The people will be isolated at designated facilities for 21 days, the commission said in a statement. As of Tuesday, a total of 1,248 people are under treatment or in isolation at designated facilities across the country, it said. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the country has evacuated around 10,000 nationals on chartered flights, buses or trains from COVID-19-hit countries, according to the commission. "Our country will evacuate more than 590 nationals from Russia on trains via Altanbulag border point in the coming days," Lkhanaajav Munkhtushig, director general of the consular department at the Mongolian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a press conference. So far, Mongolia has confirmed 141 COVID-19 imported cases, including four foreign nationals. Enditem ST. GALLEN, Switzerland Swiss sex workers group ProCoRe over the weekend called for the lifting of a government order that bans prostitution in the country. Since March 16, Switzerland temporarily banned prostitution as part of measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. ProCoRe, which urged the Swiss government to lift the restrictions as a matter of urgency, said that the current ban was giving rise to illegal sex work and creating safety issues. Prostitution in the country is legal and regulated, but human trafficking and most forms of pimping are illegal. As part of a plan to reopen the sex industry, ProCoRe released a list of best practices guidelines earlier this month. Under ProCoRes plan, sexual positions that avoid face-to-face contact, like doggy style and reverse cowgirl, are advisable. Kisses, and other face-related services, are not. Sessions would be limited to 15 minutes and kept to a strict schedule. Rooms would be aired out for 15 minutes in between clients, and sheets should be washed after every encounter. Lingerie would be washed with disinfectant detergent in between sessions, under the plan. ProCoRe also recommended wearing a mouth and nose cover for all services. Contactless payments would be encouraged for customers, who would have to offer their real names for a contact sheet that would be available for up to four weeks to aid with contact-tracing in case someone does get infected. ProCoRe, in a letter to Swiss government officials, said that the negative effects of the ban on the sex trade are significant and serious. The organization hopes to get the green light for brothels to reopen when the next round of lockdown measures are rolled back on June 8. In the light of current developments, we do not see the need for a new restriction on trade and we consider it disproportionate and contrary to the principle of equal treatment, ProCoRe wrote. As with other personal services involving physical contact, which have been authorized since April 27, protective measures can be followed and implemented in the erotic trade. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Revelers who attended a wild 'Zero Ducks Given' pool party at the Lake of the Ozarks have been told they need to self-quarantine for two weeks by furious state officials. St Louis County Executive Sam Page slammed the hundreds of party-goers who crammed into pools, disregarding social distancing guidelines. On the weekend that marked the unofficial start of summer, authorities had warned people heading to beaches, parks or backyard barbecues to heed social-distancing rules to avoid a resurgence of the disease that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans. After pictures of packed bars and pools surfaced St. Louis County Department of Public Health issued a statement Monday, telling party-goers: 'Any person who has traveled and engaged in this behavior should self-quarantine for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result for COVID-19.' St Louis County Executive Page said: 'This reckless behavior endangers countless people and risks setting us back substantially from the progress we have made in slowing the spread of COVID-19.' His comments come as timelapse footage shot from a local resident over just 20 minutes shows dozens of boats arriving for the boozy bash, breaching lockdown guidance amid the coronavirus pandemic. A constant stream of white boats - packed full of party-goers - can be seen blasting across the water as they made their way to the 'Zero Ducks Given' party at Blackwater Jack's Bar & Grill over the weekend. Hundreds of party-goers crammed into pools and were spotted without masks as they partied over the Memorial weekend at Osage Beach of the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri St Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson slammed the antics of the party-goers as 'deeply disturbing' A man and woman are seen kissing at Shady Gators, a multi-level bar and grill restaurant on Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri Further drone footage reveals scores of bikini-clad revelers drinking on ship bows as they fail to socially distance from each other. Adam Kirk, who shot the footage, said: 'It definitely seems like more (traffic) than last year. It seems like everyone is having the same idea, to come to the lake to enjoy summer, because you can social distance at the same time.' Missouri's health director issued a dire warning Monday after the photos and video showed weekend revelers partying close together. 'When they then carry the virus and transmit it to a more vulnerable person, this is when we tend to see the long-lasting and tragic impact of these decisions that are being made,' said Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams. Crowds flooded some bars and restaurants at the Lake of the Ozarks, which attracts Missouri residents, as well as people in surrounding states, including Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas and Iowa. Hundreds of revelers were seen partying without wearing masks as they crammed into the pools throughout the weekend. St Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson slammed the antics of the party-goers as 'deeply disturbing'. She said: 'It's irresponsible and dangerous to engage in such high risk behavior just to have some fun over the extended holiday weekend,' KMOV reported. 'Now, these folks will be going home to St. Louis and counties across Missouri and the Midwest, raising concerns about the potential of more positive cases, hospitalizations, and tragically, deaths. Deeply disturbing.' Despite a sign at Shady Gators asking people to keep six feet apart, people are seen crowding around the packed venue Revelers are seen celebrating Memorial Day weekend at Osage Beach at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri on Saturday 'What a nice day': Blackwater Jack's hosted their first party of the summer pool season despite the coronavirus pandemic. People were seen in a crowded pool at a venue decorated in flags Vast numbers of boats stream into the waters as this drone footage shot by a local resident reveals Guests at the $10 Zero Ducks Given party were caught in a stream of photos shared online that revealed people just inches away from each other as they drank and engaged in intimate dancing. One video posted on social media shows a crammed pool where people lounged close together without masks. Although coroanvirus is not believed to spread in water, it is contagious in areas where people are in close proximity. Scott Pasmore, a KTVK-3TV Arizona anchor tweeted: 'No covid concerns at the lake of the ozarks.' Party attendee Jodi Akins told CNN: 'When we walked up my first words were 'oh my gosh' it was intense for sure. Social distancing was nonexistent. 'However everyone was enjoying themselves. It was a very carefree environment but security was heavy.' Missouri Governor Mike Parson partially lifted lockdowns earlier this month and specifically said that gyms and hotel pools could open but only 'if they adhere to strict social distancing and sanitation protocols'. An order from the state health director requires 6-foot social distancing until at least the end of May. The order leaves it up to local and state health officials to enforce social distancing. Camden County Sheriff's Department Capt. Chris Twitchell on Sunday said the typically crowded resort region has been even busier than normal this year. He said people with second houses on the lake moved in a few months ago to quarantine there, plus Memorial Day vacationers too worried to travel by airplane flocked to the mid-Missouri region instead. 'Our normal holiday weekend without all this COVID is ridiculously crazy,' Twitchell said. 'So add COVID to it and all the people influxing down here to get away from everywhere else, (and) it just adds more to it. It's a perfect storm.' Guests at the $10 Zero Ducks Given event at Backwater Jack's were spotted hugging and kissing on Saturday afternoon. Zero Ducks Given organizers said they worked with government officials to kick off the pool season safely and stated on Facebook that there would be reduced capacity They didn't wear any protective face masks as they kicked off the busy pool party season in Lake of the Ozarks on Saturday Attendees appeared without a care in the world at packed out summer events on Saturday and Sunday in Missouri Zero Ducks Given organizers said they worked with government officials to kick off the pool season safely and stated on Facebook that there would be reduced capacity. The bar posted on Facebook that this was its launch of a summer party and said several DJs and bands would be performing throughout the event. Despite the advised reduced capacity, the area was predicted to have one of its busiest weekends for the holiday this year. 'It's supposed to be one of the biggest Memorial Day weekends we've seen at the lake here in years,' Bill Morgan, manager of Robins Resort in Lake of the Ozarks, told KTVI. The City of St. Louis and St. Louis County plan to reopen some pools in early June. There have so far been close to 11,800 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Missouri and nearly 680 deaths. Lockdown restrictions have now been eased in every US state, with crowds of people turning out to celebrate Memorial Day over the weekend. Tiger King favourite John Reinke has teased a second season of the Netflix hit as he claims producers have 'hundreds of hours of unused footage'. The right-hand man to documentary subject Joe Exotic, 54, won praise for his frank attitude and candid interviews in the show, which followed the controversial workings of the GW Zoo and its wild cat collection. After the roaring success of the series, he has now revealed producers have enough to create a second series based on the footage. The acclaimed documentary from Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin focused on Oklahoma zookeeper Joe, 57. Shocker: Tiger King favourite John Reinke has teased a second season of the Netflix hit as he claims producers have 'hundreds of hours of unused footage' Joe was sentenced this past January to a 22-year prison stint in Oklahoma in connection with a 2017 murder-for-hire plot of his business archival Carole Baskin; and numerous wildlife law violations. Discussing follow-up episodes, John said: 'There's so much more content that needs to be in there and I know Netflix have footage for two or three more episodes. The Network said they are going to be in touch with me about it.... 'There's still a bunch of other footage out there. Joe had a bunch of directors through the zoo at various points and they took the footage with them... 'They filmed everything and took what they had on video with them. That footage is also likely to surface at some point.' Star: The right-hand man to documentary subject Joe Exotic, 54, won praise for his frank attitude and candid interviews in the show, which followed the controversial workings of the GW Zoo and its wild cat collection Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, told Netflix he was focused on getting released from custody and 'exonerated from all these charges. John said that Joe Exotic is 'not where he should be' with the sentence. 'He shouldn't be in there for 22 years. He did do some stuff wrong, but I think he's done time.' Last week, John spoke to TooFab, and revealed he hasn't seen a penny from his participation in the smash hit Netflix doc. Shocking: After the roaring success of the series, he has now revealed producers have enough to create a second series based on the footage The show garnered more than 34 million viewers in its first 10 days of release after its March 20 debut, according to THR. John, who worked with Joe Exotic for 14 years, said: 'I filmed that thing for five or six years, and didn't make biscuits out of that. Netflix made all the money. I have heard that some people made money on it, and that kind of irritates me a little bit. 'But I've not tried to make money at all through this... until now.' New Delhi, May 26 : The only India-China conflict that remains etched in our collective memory is the 1962 war, which India tragically lost. But five years later, in 1967, India and China faced off once again in the heights of Cho La and Nathu La at the Sikkim border. This time, overcoming the odds, India triumphed. The fallout of these forgotten battles was immense. China shied away from actively allying with Pakistan and the US during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. And despite several stand-offs in the past half a century, Beijing has never again launched a military offensive against India. The book 'Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten War with China', written by Probal Dasgupta, an ex-Indian Army officer who served in the Gorkha Regiment for several years, tells us why these battles ushered in an era of peace. It is based on extensive research and interviews with army officers and soldiers who participated in these historic battles. Here are some excerpts from the book: The Tipping Point: A Tale of Spies and a Breach at the Watershed For twenty-six-year-old Krishnan Raghunath, Peking was a window to discover China. As a teenager growing up in India, Raghunath had lived through the heady days of the 1950s when slogans of 'Hindi-Chini bhai bhai' rent the air. In his early youth in the 1960s the war ended all bonhomie between the two countries. So, as a young foreign service officer, a posting as the second secretary at the Indian embassy in Peking in 1965 was an opportunity to better understand China. At the embassy he was heading the Information Services of India (ISI). Among ISI's challenges was to cope with the restrictions on exchange of information that the communist government posed for them in China. June was the beginning of the summer season in Peking. Midsummer rains would pelt the city every time the temperatures rose. June 4, 1967 began as any other regular day for Raghunath. At the hour past midday, he settled into his car along with his colleague P. Vijai and set off towards the Western Hills to visit the temple of the Sleeping Buddha. Along the way, a curious Raghunath noticed the decrepit remains of another temple and stopped the car. He fished out his camera and began to take pictures of it. As he looked through the aperture of his camera to take more shots, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. A bystander asked him why he was taking pictures in a sensitive military zone where photography was prohibited. Before Raghunath could realize what was happening, the two Indian diplomats were surrounded by soldiers of the PLA. A harried Raghunath tried to reason with the people around him that he did not mean to take photographs for any spying purposes and that he was only interested in the ruins of the temple. The Chinese, however, believed that Raghunath was using the pretext of the temple nearby to click pictures in a prohibited military zone. Upon inspection, their identity cards as embassy staffers were confiscated. The two were whisked into a vehicle and taken away. That evening, news broke about the unprecedented arrest of two Indian diplomats by Chinese authorities. The Indian embassy immediately swung into action. The diplomats had been accused by China of spying. Denials followed and clarifications were issued that they had not indulged in any espionage activities. But China maintained that Raghunath and Vijai were taking illicit pictures in a sensitive area that had a prohibited military facility close by. The Ministry of Foreign Aff airs in Peking alleged that the diplomats had been trying to create a topographical map of a 'prohibited area'. According to the Chinese, 'Upon discovering them, soldiers of the Chinese PLA guarding the area immediately urged them to desist and asked them to leave. K. Raghunath and P. Vijai, however, paid no heed whatsoever and continued to hang around and take photographs of the prohibited area stealthily.' The Chinese government withdrew Krishnan Raghunath's diplomatic status and declared Vijai a persona non grata. Image Source: IANS News Over a week later, on June 13, about 15,000 people gathered at the Peking Municipal People's Higher Court for the trial of the two Indian diplomats accused of spying on China. Raghunath and Vijai were 'tried' and found guilty of espionage. Raghunath was sentenced to 'immediate deportation' by the court and told to leave the country forthwith, while Vijai was given three days to leave China. However, despite the different orders, they were brought to the airport at Peking the following morning where an irate mob awaited them. Red Guards kicked and punched the Indian diplomats. A cordon of members of the Indian embassy staff who tried to protect them were also assaulted. Raghunath was forced to walk through a jeering mob of Red Guards, who jostled, kicked and spat on him. Vijai was dragged with his head shoved down, his shoes tearing off in the melee. The humiliation of the two diplomats was meant to send a loud message to India: beware. In Delhi, the news gave rise to shock and anger and was received with angry protests from political parties. The Indian government believed that the Chinese government had violated international norms by making a film on the confessions of two Indian diplomats for use as propaganda against Indian espionage in China. The Jana Sangh, which was trying to cultivate a muscular Hindu Indian identity, seized the opportunity to try to press the government into a corner. China had thrown down the gauntlet to India's young prime minister who had built up an early reputation for a certain kind of decisiveness that swung between foolhardiness and brilliant audacity. Indira Gandhi would respond soon. In response to the Chinese belligerence, Chen LuChih, the first secretary of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, was accused of gathering vital intelligence from India and carrying on subversive activities on Indian soil. Chen was stripped of his diplomatic immunity and ordered to register under the Foreigners' Registration Act. Unlike China, India didn't bother with a trial. The next day, on June 14, the external affairs ministry ordered his immediate deportation to China. The government now turned towards Hsieh Cheng-Hao, who was the third secretary of the embassy, and accused him of subversive activities too. He was promptly declared persona non grata and ordered to leave India within seventy-two hours. The Indian government had responded with alacrity and unusual boldness, showing the heart to return China's compliment. By now public emotions were riled up. The very next day after the deportation order, crowds gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Delhi, demonstrating vociferously as political parties pounced on the opportunity, instigating mobs to break into the embassy compound and go on a rampage. The mob smashed windows, set fire to a garage, tore down the Chinese flag and assaulted members of the embassy staff. That day seven members of the embassy staff, including Chen Lu-Chih and Hsieh Cheng-Hao, had to be taken to hospital. The attack on the Chinese embassy set off alarms in Peking. Taking serious note of the violence in Delhi, the Chinese government sent a notice to Ram Sathe, the Indian charge d'affaires in Peking, that the Indian embassy staff's safety could no longer be guaranteed. Protesters soon gathered outside Sathe's residence, tearing down the windows of his house, sending the occupants scurrying for safety. The Indian embassy was also under siege with sixty-three men, women and children holed up inside. The hostility on both sides had crossed diplomatic lines. The danger to the lives of the diplomats on both sides was beginning to raise international concern. The likelihood of another war loomed dangerously close. In Peking, Western diplomats rushed to intervene and decided to deliver food to the persons trapped inside the Indian embassy. But the Western food convoy was turned back by the Red Guards and the police. India sent a note that unless the siege was lifted 'appropriate counter measures' would be adopted. Armed sentries arrived at the Chinese embassy in New Delhi the following day with specific instructions for the Chinese diplomats: the occupants were ordered not to leave the building. India was not about to back off, even if it meant that the embassy staff in both countries ended up being detained as prisoners. Looking for a possible detente, the Chinese foreign ministry suggested sending an aircraft to Delhi to bring back their diplomats injured in the attack in Delhi. The Indian government responded with a similar request for its diplomats holed up in Peking. China, however, turned down their request. But they didn't seem to anticipate that India was in no mood to capitulate. The following day, as a Chinese aircraft touched down in Delhi to take back the diplomats, the government in Delhi refused to provide refuelling facilities for the aircraft. Finally, after assurances, an injured Hsieh Cheng-Hao was allowed to leave Delhi on June 21. Chen Lu-Chih was kept under detention and deported three days later. The demonstrations outside the Indian embassy in Peking, somewhat staged, were called off soon after. Sathe was told that the embassy staff were free to leave the compound and return to their flats. The Indians responded with a reciprocal gesture and withdrew their sentries at the Chinese embassy. The staff could now step out of the embassy in Delhi, though their personal safety remained unguaranteed. India had matched China for every stride and even outwitted the adversary on occasions. After having mirrored each other's unyielding and harsh steps, peace overtures from both sides also started to mimic each other. An uneasy truce was established and the ugly diplomatic fracas didn't blow up into a military crisis. Th e bickering, though, resumed when the Chinese embassy accused Indian customs of seizing literature that contained Mao Zedong's works. The Indian government, their note complained, was preventing the Chinese staff from their right to study Mao's thought. To the Chinese, this was the larger conspiracy of capitalism at play. The rivalry between India and China had begun to worry the West. The diplomatic stand-off had attracted international attention and shortly manifested itself on the border. As if on cue, attention turned to the tiny Himalayan outpost of Nathu La. Since 1965 the Chinese had been attempting to dominate the border by various means. They used to make regular broadcasts from loudspeakers at Nathu La, pointing out to Indian troops the pathetic conditions in which they lived, their low salaries and lack of amenities, comparing them to those enjoyed by Chinese officers. Sagat had loudspeakers installed on the Indian side and played similar messages in Chinese every day. Throughout 1966 and early 1967, Chinese propaganda, intimidation and attempted incursions into the Indian territory continued. As mentioned earlier, the border was not marked and there were several vantage points on the watershed which both sides thought belonged to them. Patrols which walked along the border often clashed, resulting in tension, and sometimes even casualties. -- Syndicated from IANS A lot of people suggest that and hopefully someday people are going to find out, the president said when asked by reporters about his tweets suggesting that Mr. Scarborough had committed murder perhaps because of an affair with Ms. Klausutis. Its certainly a very suspicious situation. Very sad, very sad and very suspicious. Mr. Trump brushed aside the widowers letter asking that the family be left alone. Im sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it and its a very serious situation, the president said of Ms. Klausutiss relatives, calling on law enforcement to investigate. As you know, theres no statute of limitations. So, it would be a very good, very good thing to do. Mr. Scarborough said the president was being cruel and callous by making an innocent family the collateral damage of his war against critics. The widower of a woman who died 19 years ago begged the president of the United States to stop torturing him and his family, Mr. Scarborough said in an interview. And yet he continues to torment this family and even went to Twitter accusing Lori of having an affair that resulted in her death. Mr. Scarborough was in Washington when Ms. Klausutis, who was 28, died at a district office in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. The police found no sign of foul play, and the coroner concluded she had an undiagnosed heart condition that caused her fall. The latest burst of wild allegations and fact-free innuendo came at a time when Mr. Trump has appeared eager to redirect attention away from the continuing coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of nearly 100,000 people in the United States and cratered the American economy. Among other things on Tuesday, he boasted about the rising stock market and tried to sow doubt about the results of the coming fall election that polls currently show he would lose, saying, This will be a Rigged Election. Sudhir Suryawanshi By Express News Service MUMBAI: After Yogi Adityanath claimed workers from his state were ill-treated in Maharashtra, Maha Vikas Aghadi ministers went all out against the Uttar Pradesh chief minister saying he could not put entire blame on others. Maharashtra minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the Uttar Pradesh government and its CM had failed to provide jobs and other facilities to migrant workers which resulted in them having no option but to come to Maharashtra. If the mother refuses to take care of the child, then the child naturally goes to his/her aunt for assistance. The Maharashtra government took proper care of migrants and their families. We offered food and shelter during lockdown. We even paid for their travel back home, Thorat said. Another minister of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Eknath Shinde said that they are ready to correct their errors if any. We are here to rectify our mistakes. But the UP government cannot blame us for their own failure to protect their own peoples interest and provide them jobs, Shinde said. A day earlier, Adityanath had stated that states will have to seek permission from his government if they want UPs migrant workers back. Raj Thackeray, MNS chief, responded by saying, I wish to tell them that if workers want to come back to work here, then they have to seek the Maharashtra governments permissions. The government needs to take such things seriously. The registration of migrant workers should be made compulsory. They should submit their application along with photographs and only then should they be allowed to work here, Thackeray said. The Maharashtra government had already pitched for the son of the soil agenda and asked industries to offer employment to local people. State industries minister Subhash Desai said, 80% jobs will be reserved for locals and stringent action will be taken against errant firms. Washington: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has warned that his anti-secrecy campaign will release new documents concerning Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which could be significant for the election. Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Assange, who has been sheltering in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 while fighting extradition, said WikiLeaks was combing through thousands of pages of material. A variety of documents from various institutions that are associated with the election campaign had yielded some quite unexpected angles, that are quite interesting, some even entertaining, he said. Assange reported the documents would absolutely be released before the November 8 election. Asked whether the leaks would be a game changer for the vote, Assange said: I think its significant. It depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media. Ahead of the Democratic National Convention last month, WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 emails gleaned by hackers who apparently raided the accounts of seven DNC leaders. The emails showed the nominally neutral party staff trying to undermine Democratic candidate Bernie Sanderss campaign and caused the resignation of Democratic Party leader Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In the case of the DNC leaks for example, we pushed as fast as we could to try and get it in before the Democratic Nomination Conference, because obviously people had a right to understand who it is that theyre nominating, Assange said. The same is true here for the US electoral process, he added. Assange, 45, recently marked the start of his fifth year inside Ecuadors mission in Britain in his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden. The anti-secrecy campaigner is wanted there for questioning over a 2010 rape but fears that he could then be extradited to the United States to be tried over publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Governments have provided airlines $123 billion to help weather the coronavirus storm, the global aviation industry said Tuesday, warning though that the assistance was adding to surging debt in the industry. The International Air Transport Association warned that the sector's debt was expected to rise to $550 billion by the end of the yearan increase of 28 percent. While governments have in many cases come to the rescue of their countries' embattled airlines, IATA pointed out that $67 billion of the $123 billion committed so far would have to be repaid. The remainder of the state aid consists of wage subsidies ($34.8 billion), equity financing ($11.5 billion), and tax relief/subsidies ($9.7 billion). "Government aid is helping to keep the industry afloat. The next challenge will be preventing airlines from sinking under the burden of debt that the aid is creating," said IATA chief executive Alexandre de Juniac. IATA highlighted regional disparities, saying that airlines in North America had been promised aid worth 25 percent of their 2019 revenues; in Europe, the figure was 15 percent and in the Asia-Pacific region, 10 percent. However, in Africa and the Middle East, that was 1.1 percent and in South America, just 0.8 percent. IATA pointed to bankruptcies in Australia, Britain, Italy, Thailand and Turkey where governments had not stepped in strongly enough. "If we don't see an improvement in conditions during the restart period", planned from June for domestic flights and July for continental flights, "we are fearful we are going to see a number of failures on the restart", said IATA's chief economist Brian Pearce. Aviation has been crippled by border closures that have prevented travel since March almost everywhere in the world. Air traffic is not expected to return to its pre-crisis level until 2023, according to IATA. Geneva-based IATA represents some 290 airlines comprising 82 percent of global air traffic. 2020 AFP Community Forests to be upgraded for food security in the Deep South The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center (SBPAC) is joining hands with the Royal Forest Department and other relevant agencies in rehabilitating and upgrading community forests in the Deep South in order to generate employment and income for local residents. Tuesday 26 May 2020, 10:37AM Photo: PRD SBPAC Secretary-General Rear Admiral Somkiat Pholprayoon said that SBPAC is promoting the development of community forests to increase forest areas for conservation and food security, reports the Pubic Relations Department of Thailand. The centre has encouraged the people to plant trees on their premises, in their communities, and on public land, under the One Subdistrict, One Public Land programme. Local communities have also been encouraged to establish a tree bank for community forest development, based on the approach of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej concerning the planting of three types of trees for four uses, that is, economic, agricultural, energy and environmental uses. According to the Royal Forest Department, there are altogether 103 community forests in the three southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat, and four districts of Songkhla (Chana, Thepha, Na Thawi, and Saba Yoi). Model community forests have been already developed in 38 local villages. These villages are located in five districts of Narathiwat, four districts of Yala, three districts of Pattani, and two districts of Songkhla. The community forests in these villages are being rehabilitated so that local people can make a living and earn money from the forests. This programme will also cope with the continued returning of many Thai people in the Deep South from Malaysia. SBPAC expects that the upgrading of the community forests will bear fruit within 2021. The areas around the forests will also be expanded and developed to generate employment and income for the people. "There is nothing like this on the market," says Phil Swift, CEO and spokesperson. "You know what's really cool about this is that you can apply it to wet surfaces, so if it's raining and you're having a leak in your basement window, you can literally go out there and seal it up to stop the flood right away!" Weather experts are cautioning that this storm season could be one of the most active to date. This news has urged many to prepare early. "I've been living in Florida for 19 years and have been through many hurricanes. Protecting my home and inspecting my clients' homes before storm season is something I do every year," says Juan M. Alba, Home Inspection Specialist in South Florida. Alba recommends inspecting every area of your house, including your roof, windows, doors, and basement. "For hurricane prep and emergencies, I recommend using Flex Seal products. I've used their products for fixing pipe leaks, roof leaks, and caulking my windows. I'm excited to go and get the new product Flex Paste for this hurricane season." Nick Smith, Storm Chaser in Oklahoma City, echoes this statement as he prepares for a chance of large hail, tornados and strong winds this season. "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail," says Smith. "There is no reason to fail, especially when there are incredible products like Flex Seal out there to help you get ready for a storm. Since experiencing how amazing the Flex Seal products are and how well they work, we keep them at our house and in my storm chase vehicle at all times." Let Flex Seal help you protect your home and family this storm season with Flex Paste, now available at Ace Hardware or Menards. About The Flex Seal Family of Products Swift Response, LLC created The Flex Seal Family of Products in 2011. The company provides a variety of adhesive and sealant products. Contact: Lindsay Page, [email protected] SOURCE The Flex Seal Family of Products BANGKOK - Latam Airlines, South Americas biggest carrier, sought U.S. bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it grapples with a sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FILE - In this July 25, 2016, file photo, an agent of LATAM airlines stands by the counters at the airport in Santiago, Chile. The South American carrier said Tuesday, May 26, 2020, it is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it grapples with the sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix, File) BANGKOK - Latam Airlines, South Americas biggest carrier, sought U.S. bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it grapples with a sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing underscores the severity of the financial challenges facing the travel industry as a result of the lockdowns, quarantines and other measures taken by governments the world over to stem the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Passenger and cargo flights will continue to operate during the reorganization, and employees will still be paid, the Santiago, Chile-based airline said. Travellers with existing tickets and vouchers can still use them. Chief Executive Roberto Alvo said Latam was profitable before the pandemic brought most of the world's flights to a halt, but is now facing a collapse in global demand. We are looking ahead to a post-COVID-19 future and are focused on transforming our group to adapt to a new and evolving way of flying, with the health and safety of our passengers and employees being paramount, he said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing. Latam Airlines said that it and several of its affiliated companies launched the Chapter 11 reorganization effort in the United States in a bid to reduce its debt and find new financing sources. Air travel has plunged to a fraction of the levels it was just months ago as the virus spread from China to countries around the globe, prompting growing alarm in the aviation industry. The International Air Transport Association last month predicted that airlines' revenue from hauling passengers would drop $314 billion this year, meaning they could bring in less than half of what they did in 2019. A lone passenger sits near the empty check-in area for Latam airplanes at the Arturo Merino Benitez airport in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. South Americas biggest carrier is seeking U.S. bankruptcy protection as it grapples with a sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) Latam's move comes little more than two weeks after another major Latin American airline, Avianca Holdings, filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. Australia's second-largest carrier, Virgin Australia, sought bankruptcy in its home market last month. Latam and Aviance are part of a years-long trend of foreign companies filing for bankruptcy in the U.S., which is more friendly to debtors and usually lets management stay in control. To file, foreign companies need only show that they have assets or operations in the U.S. The International Air Transport Association has warned that other airlines could fail without government support. On Tuesday, the global airline trade group said the industrys total debt could jump to $550 billion this year, a $120 billion increase since Jan. 1. Government aid is helping to keep the industry afloat. The next challenge will be preventing airlines from sinking under the burden of debt that the aid is creating, said the trade groups CEO, Alexandre de Juniac. Among U.S. carriers, American Airlines is widely seen as facing the greatest risk of bankruptcy, but Washington approved up to $50 billion in grants and credit for the industry, buying it some time. On Monday, Germany agreed to provide 9 billion Euros ($9.8 billion) to help Lufthansa. Air France-KLM has received billions from the French and Dutch governments. Others are scrambling. Richard Branson is seeking help from the U.K. government and selling shares in his space company to prop up troubled Virgin Atlantic and other travel holdings. Analysts have been watching some discount airlines including Norwegian Air. Latam's bankruptcy filing includes parent company Latam Airlines Group S.A. and its affiliated airlines in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, as well as its businesses in the U.S. The company is not including its affiliates in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in the turnaround effort. It says it is talking with the Brazilian government about how to proceed with its operations there. Latam is South America's largest carrier by passenger traffic. It operated more than 1,300 flights a day and transported 74 million passengers last year. The airline had more than 340 planes in its fleet and nearly 42,000 employees, according to its more recent annual report. It reported a profit of $190 million in 2019. It said the reorganization effort has the support of two prominent shareholders the Cueto family in Chile and Brazils Amaro family as well as Qatar Airways, which owns 10% of the company. Those three shareholders have agreed to provide up to $900 million in financing as Latam makes its way through the bankruptcy process. It currently has $1.3 billion on hand, it said. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Latam reached a deal to sell a 20% stake to Delta Air Lines for $1.9 billion last year. Its announcement Tuesday made no mention of the Atlanta-based airline. Delta CEO Ed Bastian expressed confidence in Latam's management in an emailed statement responding to questions. Airlines globally have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, for which no business plan could have adequately prepared. We remain firmly committed to our partnership with LATAM and believe that it will successfully emerge a stronger airline and Delta partner for the long term," Bastian said. He did not say whether Delta might provide further financial support, and the company declined to comment further. ___ David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report. Police, investigating the mysterious snake-bite murder of Uthra S (25) in south Keralas Kollam district on May 7, on Tuesday decided to conduct a post-mortem on the carcasses of two snakes, a viper, and a cobra, which had bitten the deceased two months apart, in a bid to collect more scientific evidence. So far, two persons, including the deceaseds husband, Sooraj, and a local snake handler, have been arrested for letting a cobra loose in Uthras room on May 6, which led to her death a day later. The fatal second bite occurred when she was undergoing treatment for the first bite by a viper at her husbands home two months ago. We never came across such a case in the recent past. We have to collect maximum scientific evidence to corroborate the crime. Our preliminary investigation shows that it was a well-planned and executed murder. We have sought veterinary surgeons help for the post-mortem of the two snakes, said S Harishankar, Kollam rural superintendent of police (SP), who is supervising the probe. Circumstantial and scientific evidence would hold the key to crack the case, as there are no direct witnesses in the murder, he added. The cold-blooded murder has shocked many after last years cyanide murders in north Kerala, where a woman allegedly killed six of her family members by serving cyanide-laced food. Many criminologists said the Kollam murder incident is a first of its kind in the state. Earlier, the deceased parents had filed a police complaint alleging that Sooraj and his family members often harassed her for dowry. The couple had got married two years ago and has a one-year son. Her father alleged that he had gifted over 100 sovereigns of gold and a new car to appease her demanding in-laws. The probe revealed that Sooraj had bought a cobra from a snake handler for Rs 10,000. On May 6, he reportedly took the snake to Uthras paternal house in Anchal, where she was undergoing treatment since the first snake bite two months ago. The police said after Uthra fell asleep, Sooraj allegedly took out the snake from the bottle and threw it on her. He remained awake all night to ensure that he could escape unscathed. He left the room in the morning and started reading a newspaper on the verandah. Soon, Uthras mother found her daughter lying unconscious in the bed. She was rushed to a hospital, where doctors said she died of a snake bite. Later, when the room was searched, the family members found a cobra, which was killed by Sooraj. The couple slept in an air-conditioned room and it was difficult to believe that he did not notice the snake before, Uthras parents alleged in their police complaint. The forest department has also filed a case against both the arrested accused of catching and killing a cobra and viper under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Police said Sooraj plotted the murder to grab her property and marry another woman. An investigating officer said Soorajs parents and other family members would be interrogated soon. Kerala Womens Commission has ordered that Uthras son should be handed over to her parents immediately. State Forest Minister K Raju, who also belongs to Anchal, has congratulated the police team that cracked the case. I know the victims family members. Well ensure justice to them, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ramesh Babu Ramesh Babu is HTs bureau chief in Kerala, with about three decades of experience in journalism. ...view detail [May 26, 2020] RIMES Grows Board with Two New Directors RIMES Technologies, the leading provider of managed data and RegTech services for the financial sector, has announced the appointment of Donal Smith and Robert Jeanbart, experienced leaders in technology, data and analytics, to its Board. Both Donal and Robert join the Board with immediate effect and will serve as Directors. Robert Jeanbart is an EQT Advisor. Prior to this, he was the CEO of SIX Financial Information, where he drove major and sustainable operational and business transformation, supported by innovation and new business development. Robert has 33 years of international management experience and proven expertise in various areas of the financial information business. He held senior management positions at SunGard (now FIS) and Reuters (News - Alert) (now Refinitiv). Donal Smith is Executive Chairman of Credit Benchmark, Chairman of PIRUM Ltd and a non-executive director of Web Financial Group. Prior to co-founding Credit Benchmark, Donl was CEO of Data Explorers and Chairman of BISAM. He has also held roles at Thomson Reuters (News - Alert), including CEO of Thomson Financial's businesses in Europe and Asia and served as CEO of FT.com and Director of Electronic Publishing for the Financial Times Group. David Brierwood, Chairman of RIMES commented: "It's great to have two industry leaders in Donal and Robert on the board of RIMES. Both will make an invaluable contribution to the company's future. Robert is an exceptionally capable business specialist who brings with him over three decades of international management experience as well as being an adept strategic leader in the fields of financial data and regulatory solutions. Donal brings an incredible portfolio of experience to the Board and will help us to adapt our business and support our clients in a rapidly changing business environment." ENDS About RIMES: RIMES is an award-winning data management and regulatory technology specialist that truly understands the challenges faced by its customers. It serves over 350 asset managers, owners, servicers and banks in 45 countries including 60 of the 100 largest global asset managers by AUM and 9 of the top 10 asset servicers in the world. www.rimes.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200526005063/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] After graduating from high school, Olofinsky went on to complete a Bachelor of Business degree at university. It was from there that he was accepted into the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) graduate program. After four years at CBA working across various parts of the bank, I took an opportunity to work abroad spending 18-months in Dublin and London, before deciding to return to Sydney. I commenced working for Brookvale Insurance Brokers in 2003, he said. Now, through dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, Olofinsky says the insurance industry is actually at an advantage. As an industry we are fortune to have a very diversified income source and being able to work remotely, he explained. We have been able to keep our staff safe and continue to service our clients. Unfortunately, many of our clients do not share that same fortune, as restrictions have prevented them from being able to trade. The biggest lesson he has learnt from the health crisis, which effectively threw the entire insurance industry into remote working with little to no warning, is the importance of preparation. Its always good to have something in reserve in case of the unforeseen hopefully, we never go through anything similar again, he said. The irony is there are plenty of books and movies that have been written about pandemics - some were very close to the mark. Investment in IT systems that have been designed to allow staff to work from home, or the office, throughout the restrictions has been critical. Business continuity plans are also helpful. But further challenges lie ahead for insurers and brokers, despite the pandemics grip on the economy and workforce slowly easing Olofinsky says the attention, now, should be transferred to clients. A big challenge will be helping clients re-establish themselves from the enforced hibernation. We are still seeing rate increases across most lines of insurance, at a time when many businesses have serious cash flow issues, he said. The focus in the next six months will be on renewals, as well as getting closure on the run of property claims from January fires and February storms in NSW. Olofinsky believes the company is well positioned for the future, for both its own continued success as well as to support clients, due to its diversity and community engagement. We have a great team of people with a wide range of experience - we are local and actively involved in the community, Olofinsky added. We try and make the office a relaxed and enjoyable place to work. I would like to think that we care that little bit more than most. Chris Evans has revealed he repeatedly turned down opportunities to play Marvel superhero Captain America, before eventually accepting the role. The actor has starred as Captain America since 2011, but in a recent interview he explained he had rejected the role numerous times because he was suffering from anxiety. Evans told The Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast that he started feeling anxious as his career progressed. All of a sudden your hobby becomes your job, he said. Anxiety comes with that. Also, it was during the proliferation of the internet age, where all of a sudden you can read peoples reactions online and your narrative becomes entangled with what was once this pure little ball of joy. It manifested as anxiety and stress, and Ive got a lot better with it, but at the time it was hard to separate. Evans said he especially struggled with his mental health when he was shooting the 2010 film Puncture. It was the first time I started having mini panic attacks on set, he said. They were enough to throw me a bit and enough to make me question if I was on the right path I really started to think, Im not sure if this [acting] is the right thing for me, Im not sure if Im feeling as healthy as I should be feeling. When Marvel invited him to test for the part of Captain America, which would have meant committing to a a nine-film deal, Evans turned the opportunity down because he was worried about the impact it could have on his mental health. I went to a few different therapists, he said. My suffering would be my own, that was too much to cope with at the time. Evans rejected more opportunities to test, even as the number of required films was reduced to six and the salary offer was increased. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Marvel later offered him the part outright, with no need to test or audition, and Evans finally took the role. It was the best decision Ive ever made, and I really owe that to [Marvel chief] Kevin Feige for being persistent and helping me avoid making a giant mistake, he said. To be honest, all the things that I was fearing never really came to fruition. Editor's Note: With so much market volatility, stay on top of daily news! Get caught up in minutes with our speedy summary of today's must-read news and expert opinions. Sign up here! (Kitco News) - Strong inflows of gold into exchange-traded funds are more than offsetting unusually weak demand from key consuming nations China and India, said Commerzbank analyst Cartsen Fritsch. Data from Hong Kongs Census and Statistics Department on Monday showed that China exported more gold to Hong Kong (14.5 metric tons) last month than it imported from there (4.2 tons). Thus, Chinese gold imports from Hong Kong were negative for the first time since records began in 2007. Normally, Hong Kong serves as the leading import hub for gold to China because Chinese gold demand significantly exceeds domestic supply, Fritsch said in a research note. However, Chinese households have been buying virtually no gold because of the corona crisis and record-high local prices. Chinas imports during the first four months of 2020 were just 17.1 tons, down 89% from the same period last year, Fritsch continued. Meanwhile, he pointed out that gold demand in India has also been weak, with April imports grinding completely to a halt. This underlines just how much gold demand and the gold price depend at present on demand for gold ETFs, which has remained extremely robust recently, Fritsch said. This month alone, more than 120 tons of gold have flowed into the gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg. This is significantly more than is normally imported by China and India combined. Chinese Government Sent Medical Team of COVID-19 Experts to Equatorial Guinea 2020/05/25 Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian announces: To support Equatorial Guineas fight against COVID-19, the Chinese government has decided to send a team of medical experts to the country. The team is put together by the National Health Commission and its members are selected by the Hunan Provincial Health Commission. Originally live streamed on May 25th at 7am PST. www.twitter.com/soarfinancial - make sure to follow us & click on the https://twitter.com/soarfinancial/status/1264918192754810884?s=20 #Gold #Yukon #BanyanGold BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL - BANYAN GOLD CORP. (TSX.v: BYN) Guest: - Tara Christie, President & CEO Banyan Gold Corp. President & CEO Tara Christie discusses today's publication of a maiden resource for the AurMac property - 903,945 oz of gold in the inferred category. BANYAN ANNOUNCES 903,945 GOLD OUNCE INITIAL MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE FOR THE AURMAC PROPERTY, YUKON, CANADA Press release here: https://www.banyangold.com/news-relea... Follow Us! Twitter: http://twitter.com/soarfinancial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soarfinancial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soarfinancial/ Website: http://www.soarfinancial.com #finance #investing #mining #Canada #investment #stocks #exploration #success SF Live is a new format by Soar Financial Partners. The goal is give short company updates and more importantly get investors engaged directly with the companies. Intro Music: "Endless Motion" by Bensound.com Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only and not to be regarded as investment advice. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 22:08:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 875 people have committed suicide during the lockdown period in Nepal. The country has been under lockdown since March 24. According to the data compiled by the Nepal Police, the suicide cases across the country increased by 16 percent in the first month of the lockdown. A total of 482 suicide cases were filed during mid-March to mid-April in police stations across the country against 414 cases for the period between mid-February and mid-March. The data compiled by Nepal Police suggests that the number during the lockdown is considerably high and 38 people had committed suicide in the Kathmandu valley alone. The highest number, 742 died by hanging themselves followed by 114 people who committed suicide by consuming poison. The deceased had used burning, stabbing, drowning, jumping from heights as major ways of attempting suicides during the review period. "The suicide cases have been recorded as of May 16," said Niraj Bahadur Shahi, spokesperson of Nepal Police adding that the Nepal Police was updating the data of suicide cases after that. Many psychiatrists have linked the deaths with mental health of the people who have been forced to stay indoor during lockdown. Enditem WATERLOO REGION The flag the Waterloo Catholic District School Board will fly to mark Pride month is insulting and disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community, says trustee Melanie Van Alphen. On the flag is a drawing of a figure with outstretched arms, standing in front of a colourful crowd of people with the words, We are all wonderfully made we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). The board heard Monday that the flag is in production and will be flown outside Catholic schools in the region for Pride month in June. Trustee Van Alphen criticized the decision and a lack of consultation with students, staff members and the LGBTQ+ community that went into choosing the flag. People will not recognize this to represent Pride because its not the Pride flag, she told the board. Director of Education Loretta Notten said the messaging and the flag were decided upon by members of the Catholic Education community during consultations. I am trying to choose my words carefully, but this was not, to some degree, not a board level decision but one done in consultation with the larger Catholic education community, Notten explained. She said a number of images were provided to the school board via the Institute for Catholic Education. We selected the image which reflected the individuals in colour ... as oppose to just in a black and white silhouette, she said, adding there was also a multicoloured fingerprint image available. Those were the images that were possible for Catholic boards to choose, if they chose to fly the flag this June. Notten said special permission to fly a second flag at schools where there is only one flag pole was also granted by the federal government. In the report about the flag presented to the board on Monday, it said students have previously expressed a desire to see schools fly some outward symbol that reflects our lived reality of inclusion, but Van Alphen took issue with that, saying that was not how she understood the student requests. She said two petitions were circulated by students last year one at St. David Catholic Secondary School in Waterloo and one at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School in Kitchener requesting that the rainbow Pride flag be flown at the front of the schools during Pride month. She also pointed out that the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board has raised the Pride flag. I personally find it disappointing that more Catholic boards dont fly the Pride flag during the month of June especially, she said. Some board members agreed with Van Alphen, stating while the image that was put forward represented inclusiveness, it was not an appropriate symbol to mark Pride month. I dont think its going to represent or meet the needs of the Pride community in June, said Tracey Weiler. I would probably be prepared for some negative feedback from that community on where we landed. Van Alphen brought forward a motion to postpone the raising of the flag until consultation could be had with staff members, students, parents the catholic community, the LGBTQ community, and trustees about Pride month and raising the rainbow flag. Her motion was not seconded and died. Cait Glasson, president of the Waterloo region LGBTQ organization, SPECTRUM, said Tuesday she was willing to accept the gesture being made by the Catholic board. With the history that we have with the Catholic church, thats a step, she said. Im personally perfectly willing to take the gesture for what its meant to be, which is meant to be at least a gesture towards our community and making us feel more welcome. Some of the trustees voiced their support for the flag decision at Mondays meeting, including Kevin Dupuis who said it is a wonderful representation of bringing all of our people together so that everyone does feel comfortable. Trustee Greg Reitzel was also supportive of the flag decision. I think this shows that we care about everybody, everybody is made in the image of God, we are to love everybody, he said. He also said he would have to resign if the Pride flag was flown at schools, telling the board that his belief is that Pride is the deadliest of the deadly sins. I could not support a decision to actually fly a Pride flag, he said. MPP for Kitchener Centre Laura Mae Lindo took to social media Tuesday to say Reitzels comments were not inclusive and were in fact hateful. No inclusive flag thats being chosen to fly now can change that, she said. The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere. Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago. Drawn from a combination of 3D numerical impact simulations and geophysical data from the site of the impact, the new models are the first ever fully 3D simulations to reproduce the whole event - from the initial impact to the moment the final crater, now known as Chicxulub, was formed. The simulations [2] were performed on the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) DiRAC High Performance Computing Facility. Lead researcher Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "For the dinosaurs, the worst-case scenario is exactly what happened. The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This was likely worsened by the fact that it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles. "Our simulations provide compelling evidence that the asteroid struck at a steep angle, perhaps 60 degrees above the horizon, and approached its target from the north-east. We know that this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact, because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywhere - the very thing that led to a nuclear winter." The results are published today in Nature Communications. Crater creation The upper layers of earth around the Chicxulub crater in present-day Mexico contain high amounts of water as well as porous carbonate and evaporite rocks. When heated and disturbed by the impact, these rocks would have decomposed, flinging vast amounts of carbon dioxide, sulphur and water vapour into the atmosphere. The sulphur would have been particularly hazardous as it rapidly forms aerosols - tiny particles that would have blocked the sun's rays, halting photosynthesis in plants and rapidly cooling the climate. This eventually contributed to the mass extinction event that killed 75 per cent of life on Earth. The team of researchers from Imperial, the University of Freiburg, and The University of Texas at Austin, examined the shape and subsurface structure of the crater using geophysical data to feed into the simulations that helped diagnose the impact angle and direction. Their analysis was also informed by recent results from drilling into the 200 km-wide crater, which brought up rocks containing evidence of the extreme forces generated by the impact. Peak performance Pivotal to diagnosing the angle and direction of impact was the relationship between the centre of the crater, the centre of the peak ring - a ring of mountains made of heavily fractured rock inside the crater rim - and the centre of dense uplifted mantle rocks, some 30 km beneath the crater. At Chicxulub, these centres are aligned in a southwest-northeast direction, with the crater centre in between the peak-ring and mantle-uplift centres. The team's 3D Chicxulub crater simulations at an angle of 60 degrees reproduced these observations almost exactly. The simulations reconstructed the crater formation in unprecedented detail and give us more clues as to how the largest craters on Earth are formed. Previous fully 3D simulations of the Chicxulub impact have covered only the early stages of impact, which include the production of a deep bowl-shaped hole in the crust known as the transient crater and the expulsion of rocks, water and sediment into the atmosphere. These simulations are the first to continue beyond this intermediate point in the formation of the crater and reproduce the final stage of the crater's formation, in which the transient crater collapses to form the final structure (see video). This allowed the researchers to make the first comparison between 3D Chicxulub crater simulations and the present-day structure of the crater revealed by geophysical data. Co-author Dr Auriol Rae of the University of Freiburg said: "Despite being buried beneath nearly a kilometre of sedimentary rocks, it is remarkable that geophysical data reveals so much about the crater structure - enough to describe the direction and angle of the impact." The researchers say that while the study has given us important insights into the dinosaur-dooming impact, it also helps us understand how large craters on other planets form. Co-author Dr Thomas Davison, also of Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "Large craters like Chicxulub are formed in a matter of minutes, and involve a spectacular rebound of rock beneath the crater. Our findings could help advance our understanding of how this rebound can be used to diagnose details of the impacting asteroid." ### The upcoming Xiaomi Mi Band 5 has just appeared in first real-life images. Based on this information, the Mi Band 5 will not stray away too much from its predecessor, in terms of the design. Those of you who have used a Mi Band fitness tracker in the past, will be right at home. The jump from Mi Band to Mi Band 2 was the biggest, as the company added a display. This leak confirms that the device will keep its egg-shape, and that it will include a capacitive home key once again. It will feature a 1.2-inch display, allegedly, and that will be a color display. Advertisement The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will be made out of plastic, real-life images report The device will, once again, be made out of plastic. It will charge in a similar charger as before, as it will come with pogo pin connectors. That charger will look somewhat different this time around, though, but it will function the same. The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 will once again ship inside a silicone band, at least according to these real-life images. Chances are that its battery life will be great once again, as you should be able to go for weeks without a charge. The source notes that the device will cost around CNY200. That translates to $28, in case you were wondering. So, you can expect a similar price as for its predecessor. Its price tag in Europe will be a bit higher than in China, of course. Advertisement A previous report, the one that surfaced last week, shared some more information about this device. The Mi Band 5 will offer Amazon Alexa support, allegedly, and also SpO2. Those will be the biggest upgrades in terms of features, it seems. It was also reported that this fitness band will probably arrive at the end of June, or in early July. An NFC chip will be included The Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is expected to include an NFC chip, at least in its global variant. It will offer a number of fitness-centric features, of course, including the Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI). Advertisement The Xiaomi Mi Band fitness trackers managed to become quite popular over the years. That is not exactly surprising considering Xiaomis branding, and their extremely affordable price point. The Mi Band 5 is expected to continue that tradition, as it will be quite affordable as well. Were expecting to see more leaks as the release date comes closer. This fitness tracker will become official in China first. It will ship to a number of regions around the world, though, same as its predecessors. Advertisement It is one of the of the most iconic views of Cambridge University set around a pristine lawn that has been carefully maintained for centuries. But now the sloping grass verge that sits between King's College Chapel and the River Cam and has been neatly manicured since the 1720s has been transformed into a blooming wildflower meadow. The spectacular transformation, which will last for the next three months, has come about as a result of an initiative to promote biodiversity and includes harebells, buttercups, poppies and cornflowers. It is hoped that the project will attract a variety of new insects with temporary paths also constructed to allow visitors to get a close-up view of the array of beautiful bright wildflowers now blooming in the Spring sunshine. Wildflowers are blooming on the pristine lawn at King's College in Cambridge which has been neatly manicured for 300 years The grass has been neatly mown since the 1720s and an area of the lawn is now a wildflower meadow to support biodiversity The initiative, started by Geoff Moggridge, a fellow from the college, in 2018, received a groundswell of support from Head Gardener Steve Coghill, the Gardens Committee and the Fellows of Kings, and now the project has become a reality, with a section of the lawn turned into a wildflower meadow. The famous view of King's College Chapel is popular among tourists looking to get the perfect snap for their Instagram and other social media pages. But after 300 years of the grass being kept in pristine condition, the gardeners removed the well-established 'keep off the grass' signs to carry out the project. Mr Coghill told the University's website in January: 'Grass lawns are essentially monocultures so it will be incredibly rewarding to instead create a biodiversity-rich ecosystem to cherish and enjoy, and in a time of climate change and fear of loss of species it is becoming more important. 'Once it is all flowering it will be spectacular; there will be a riot of colour in the summer.' Photographs showcasing the wildflower meadow with the backdrop of the College's famous Chapel have been published The college hopes the flowers will attract a large variety of insects, which are crucial to healthy ecosystems For 300 years, the lawn has been kept in pristine condition before a 2018 project saw part of the grounds transformed. This picture was taken before the lawn was converted into a wildflower meadow. Once the wildflowers have finished flowering they will be harvested for hay and the lawn will be mown again. Then next year the process will be repeated. Caroline Fitton, spokeswoman for the Wildlife Trust in Cambridgeshire, told the BBC in January: 'More establishments are realising it's pointless having a green space monoculture which no-one is allowed or encouraged to use. 'Anyone walking through will be delighted to see buzzing bees, butterflies and other pollinators all enjoying a new habitat. It's currently very species-poor grass, with few invertebrates of interest, so using native, sustainable meadow plants is a superb replacement.' The King's College in Cambridge was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. The College's original site was north of the current College, between the present Chapel and Senate House Passage. The College was later sold to the University, which went on to demolish most of it apart from the gateway arch close to Clare College. Bright wildflowers, including harebells, buttercups, poppies and cornflowers are now blooming in the Spring sunshine Once the wildflowers have flowered they will be harvested for hay and the lawn will be mown again the following year The iconic view of King's College Chapel with its perfect lawn sloping down to the River Cam is one of the city's best-known images and hugely popular with tourists It is thought that sheep and horses may have been the most effective way of keeping the lawns prim and proper before the creation of the mechanical lawnmower in 1831. Alumni of King's College include poet Phineas Fletcher, Sir Robert Walpole, a former Prime Minister, John Bird Sumner, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Zadie Smith, a novelist and essayist. SALT LAKE CITY - Relatives of a Utah woman who police say was killed last weekend after meeting a man via the popular dating app Tinder have called the suspect a monster who took their daughter in a crime as senseless as it was evil. The family of Ashlyn Black issued the comments Monday night in a statement, a day after police say she was choked and stabbed to death inside the suspects home in Layton, Utah. A monster has taken away the life of our little girl in a crime as senseless as it was evil. Our hearts are broken and our lives are forever changed due to the despicable acts of another person, the family said. Black, 25, was a fun-loving woman with a passion for being the voice of those who could not speak out for themselves and a gift for working with special needs people, the family said. The lives of her friends and family are permanently altered, the statement said. No time can fill the emptiness we feel, and the hole it has left in our hearts. Ethan Hunsaker, 24, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of murder and is being held without bail. He had not yet been charged. Court documents do not indicate if he was being represented by a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. No listed phone number could be found for Hunsaker. Layton Police say the motive is still under investigation, but that the attack appeared to be unprovoked. The two met for drinks Saturday night after meeting on the dating app and then went to Hunsakers house in Layton, a city of 78,000 people about 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of Salt Lake City, according to a probable cause statement filed by police. Hunsaker called 911 to report he had killed someone inside his home, telling a dispatcher to tell officers to shoot him. Hunsaker also asked officers to shoot him after they arrived, the document said. Police said they found Black lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds. Emergency workers tried to resuscitate her, but she died of her injuries at the scene. Hunsaker told police he had thoughts of killing himself and others daily. He has been diagnosed with an unspecified mental illness, police said in the document. Production on MasterChef: Back to Win appears to have finally wrapped. After filming started in January, finalists Reynold Poernomo and Laura Sharrad celebrated as they left Melbourne on Sunday and returned home. It's believed that Reynold and Laura make the final four, along with Emelia Jackson and Poh Ling Yeow, who have all been isolating together in recent weeks. Done! Production on MasterChef: Back to Win appears to have finally wrapped. Reynold Poernomo (far right), Poh Ling Yeow (second from left), Emelia Jackson (not pictured) and Laura Sharrad (fourth from left) are tipped to make the final four on the show 'Back with my bebe,' Laura gushed on Instagram as she flew back to Adelaide and was reunited with her husband, Max Sharrad. The self-described 'pasta queen' looked thrilled to be home after months away. Similarly, Reynold shared a series of pictures to Instagram on Sunday and Monday, celebrating the fact he was back home in Sydney with friends. He appeared in high spirits, possibly after winning the Channel 10 show. Reunited: 'Back with my bebe,' Laura wrote on Instagram as she flew back to Adelaide and was reunited with her husband, Max Sharrad Celebrating a win? Similarly, Reynold shared a series of pictures to Instagram on Sunday and Monday, celebrating the fact he was back home in Sydney with friends Melbourne-based Emelia is yet to share a picture celebrating her return home. However, it is believed she makes the final four after recent Instagram posts showed her socialising with Laura in the Victorian capital. If Emelia had been eliminated, she would have been self-isolating at home, rather than spending time in temporary accommodation with her co-stars. Spoiler: Melbourne-based Emelia (pictured) is yet to share a picture celebrating her return home. However, it is believed she makes the final four after recent Instagram posts showed her socialising with Laura in the Victorian capital Meanwhile, Adelaide-based Poh was spotted shopping for food in Melbourne on May 19, seemingly confirming she also makes it to the finale. At present, there are still 12 contestants left in the competition on the show. Over the past two months, the majority of the 12 have shared pictures of themselves self-isolating at home, appearing to confirm they fail to make the finals. FILE PHOTO: An employee holds a sample of crude oil at the Irkutsk Oil Co-owned Yarakta field in the Irkutsk region BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as China's top crude oil supplier in April, customs data showed, with imports rising 18% from the same month a year earlier as refiners snapped up cheap raw materials amid a price war between the two producers. Russian shipments reached 7.2 million tonnes last month, equivalent to 1.75 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the General Administration of Customs released on Tuesday. That compares with 1.49 million bpd in April 2019 and 1.66 million bpd in March. Supplies from Saudi Arabia fell to 1.26 million bpd, down from 1.53 million bpd in April 2019 and 1.7 million bpd in March. China's total crude oil imports in April came in at 9.84 million bpd, up from 9.68 million bpd in March, but well below 10.64 million bpd in April last year, according to data released earlier this month. Still, imports during the first four months of the year were up 1.7% on a year earlier as Chinese oil refineries take advantage of slumping oil prices. Analysts have estimated that average utilisation rates at independent refineries, known as "teapots", rose to nearly 70% in late April - their level before the virus outbreak - but that state-backed refiners will not climb back to their normal level until May. Refinitiv's oil research team expects China's May imports to hit an all-time high of 53.7 million tonnes, or 12.7 million bpd, with record volumes from OPEC producers. Chinese refiners are also receiving their first crude cargo from the United States in May since November, a shipment booked in March when oil prices started to collapse. Customs has not reported imports from Venezuela since last October, as China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Caracas's top oil client, avoided lifting any oil from there to avoid violating secondary U.S. sanctions. Some of the Venezuelan shipments, however, have been diverted to Malaysia for blending before exports to China, resulting in surge of Malaysian shipments that more than tripled in the first four months. (Reporting by Muyu Xu in Beijing and Chen Aizhu in Singapore; Editing by Richard Pullin and Tom Hogue) Update: Biscuits and Gravy has died, the kitten's owner said in a Facebook post shared Sunday. "He was born with the longest of odds and by living nearly 4 days, he beat those odds," the post read. An Oregon cat gave birth to a brood of six kittens Wednesday, including what appears to be a rarity a cat with two faces. Kyla King, of Albany, Oregon, told KOIN-TV in Portland that having the two-faced kitten was like having 6-1/3 kitty cats." She named the cat Biscuits and Gravy, or just Biscuit for short. Biscuit eats and breathes from two separate mouths and noses. Sometimes, King told KOIN-TV, it would meow from one mouth while eating with the other at the same time. Its unclear, though, whether it has four eyes or if two of them are conjoined. Cats with two faces, while rare, are not unheard of: Theyre known as Janus cats, named after the Roman god with two faces. Janus cats, according to National Geographic, have an excess of a protein called sonic hedgehog" that influences how its face develops. Janus cats also have no identifiable sex. Biscuits left face, she told the Albany Democrat-Herald, is stronger than its right one. Still, its rare condition means that its chance of survival beyond a week is rare due to its congenital defects. The oldest-ever Janus cat in the world, Frank and Louie of Worcester, Mass., died at the age of 15 but was able to survive because it had only one esophagus, making breathing problems less likely. Cats with two faces are known as "Janus" cats, after the Roman god Janus often depicted with two faces in mythology. Posted by KOIN 6 on Thursday, May 21, 2020 It doesnt really know how to nurse properly because it has two mouths, so Ive been trying to feed it, King told KOIN-TV. Biscuits head is also too large to be fully supported by its body, King told the Albany Democrat-Herald. But if its able to survive, she wants to keep it and raise it. Reviewed: 19 things that make life easier with a new kitten Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Janus cat: Two-faced kitty named Biscuits and Gravy born in Oregon Xiaomi has confirmed the design of the RedmiBook 16 ahead of its official release. Launching tomorrow, the RedmiBook 16 will also support up to 12 hours of battery life from its Ryzen 4000 Renoir processors. A plethora of ports are on board too, as is a fingerprint scanner. Working For Notebookcheck Are you a techie who knows how to write? Then join our Team! English native speakers welcome! News Writer (AUS/NZL based) - Details here The RedmiBook 16 is almost here, with Xiaomi having already confirmed heaps about one of its next Redmi-branded laptops. Previously, the company has claimed that the device's Ryzen 4000 Renoir processors will "deliver up to 60% better performance" compared to their predecessors. Additionally, the RedmiBook 16 has been shown to have a 16.1-inch display with a 90% screen-to-body ratio, putting it in direct competition with the MagicBook Pro 2020. Xiaomi is not content with leaving any surprises before it announces the RedmiBook 16 tomorrow, though. Instead, it and its CEO have published yet more photos of the device. Based on the photos uploaded to Weibo, the RedmiBook 16 will have two USB Type-A ports, which Xiaomi has complemented with two Type-C ports, an HDMI output and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It seems that Xiaomi has opted for downward-firing speakers too, along with a large trackpad that has integrated mouse buttons. Moreover, the device has a six-row keyboard that Xiaomi has recessed within its chassis. A fingerprint scanner is also on board, which would appear to be integrated within the power button. Xiaomi is promising that the RedmiBook 16 will achieve up to 12 hours of battery life, too. The company is yet to disclose the capacity of the device's battery, but manufacturer battery life estimates rarely relate to real-world usage. The RedmiBook 16 will also feature fast-charging. According to Xiaomi, the RedmiBook 16 can reach 50% charge in just 38 minutes with its 65 W charger. The company has stressed the compactness of said charger, too. Khloe Kardashian shocked fans on Friday after looking almost unrecognisable in a string of Instagram selfies. The 35-year-old reality star's new look sparked speculation she had undergone surgery or other cosmetic enhancements. Cosmetic and injectables specialist Claire McGuinness weighed in on the discussion on Monday, offering her opinion on what changes Khloe may have made. Scroll down for video Makeover: Cosmetic and injectables specialist Claire McGuinness has offered her opinion on Khloe Kardashian's dramatic physical transformation. Pictured left: Khloe on April 22, 2008. Right: in a selfie posted on Friday Khloe's glamorous selfies showed her with a noticeably slimmer face and nose, flawless skin and a fresh bronde hairstyle. McGuinness, a registered nurse who hasn't met Khloe and is basing her assessment on the star's latest social media posts, said on Australian radio show 3pm Pick-Up: 'There's so much going on in this photo. Who knows what she has had?' She speculated that the mother-of-one had changed her appearance so dramatically thanks to a combination of 'surgery, injectables, weight loss... and filters, makeup and lighting'. Dramatic: McGuinness speculated that Khloe had changed her appearance so dramatically thanks to a combination of 'surgery, injectables, weight loss... and filters, makeup and lighting'. Pictured left: Khloe on April 20, 2012. Right: in a selfie posted on Friday Expert: McGuinness (pictured), a registered nurse who hasn't met Khloe and is basing her assessment on the star's social media posts, shared her views on Australian radio on Monday 'Everyone is starting to look the same,' McGuinness said of the Kardashian family and their millions of imitators around the world. 'We don't know what Khloe's mindset is. It's hard being in the public eye,' she added. 'She's always going to be judged or people think she's unwell or that she's just rich.' Khloe has had her looks and figure scrutinised by fans ever since she first rose to fame on Keeping Up with the Kardashians in 2007. Trend: 'Everyone is starting to look the same,' McGuinness said of the Kardashian family and their millions of imitators around the world. Pictured left: Khloe on January 25, 2014. Right: in a selfie posted on Friday In 2016, Khloe admitted to having fillers to change her facial shape. She had previously denied having any work done when asked about her changing appearance by her sisters on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. To this day, Khloe maintains she has never had a rhinoplasty, and says her nose looks slimmer because of contouring. Mumbai, May 26 : The Vinay Pathak-starrer "Chintu Ka Birthday" is all set to release. The makers have decided to go ahead and launch the modest-budget film on OTT. "Chintu Ka Birthday" also features Seema Pahwa, Tillotama Shome, Reginald Barnes, Nate Scholz, Vedant Raj Chibber, Bisha Chaturvedi, Khalid Massou and Mir Mehroos. The film is billed as a family drama and will stream on Zee5 from June 5. The story of the film revolves around a six-year-old named Chintu, who is stranded stuck in Iraq with his family in the time of Saddam Hussein's fall. "Chintu Ka Birthday" has been ready for a while, and has already been screened in 18 cities as part of a film festival in 2019. " 'Chintu Ka Birthday' is the most important film of my career, as well as my association with the new immensely talented director-duo of Satyanshu and Devanshu Singh. They've written an amazingly crafty and sensitive film with gentle humour and huge hearts. It's surprising to learn that it's their first full length feature film," said Vinay Pathak. Recently, Zee5 released another small film, the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer "Ghoomketu", which had been lying ready to release for a few years now. Memorial Day Weekend is over, but the stay-at-home executive order is still in place and COVID-19 cases continued to be reported over the weekend. On Friday night Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended the stay-at-home executive order to June 12, which includes the closure of gyms, salons and other businesses. A group of independently-owned gyms are suing the Governor over the order. The attorneys representing more than 120 gyms filed the lawsuit on Friday, May 22 at the U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. The lawsuit claims Whitmers executive orders to prevent the spread of coronavirus violate their clients rights under the U.S. Constitution and are not allowed under state law. Heres what else happened with regard to the coronavirus over the weekend: New cases show weekend lull, recoveries at 33k The state is approaching 55,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the latest numbers released on Monday. The state now has 54,881 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 5,240 deaths attributed to the coronavirus. Only five deaths were reported due to COVID-19 on Sunday, May 24, the states lowest single-day total since March. The news brings the states total confirmed cases up to 54,679 as of Sunday, May 24. As of this past weekend, more than 33,000 recoveries from COVID-19 have been reported. Boat launch claim sparks controversy A Northern Michigan dock company owner claimed on Facebook recently Gov. Gretchen Whitmers husband, Marc Mallory, had called asking for his boat to be launched ahead of Memorial Day. It gained traction on social media over the weekend. A spokesperson for the governor did not address the claim in a statement, saying, "Our practice is not to discuss the governors or her familys personal calendar/schedules. Whitmer allowed some businesses, including dine-in restaurants and retail, to open in the Traverse City area and Upper Peninsula this weekend. Restaurants in the rest of the state are still limited to takeout only in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus, while retail in the rest of the state will soon open by appointment only. Memorial Day looked a lot different this year In Lapeer, many of those marking Memorial Day remained in their cars or spread out on the lawn, but the spirit of the day carried through. In Kalamazoo, meanwhile, some residents participated in a national movement to play taps from their driveways instead of at large gatherings. In Muskegon, some of the veterans honored included those who had died from COVID-19. But not all festivities went on as planned. See here which events were canceled on Memorial Day in mid-Michigan. Businesses open in northern Michigan, people flock to Upper Peninsula Adjustments to Gov. Whitmers executive orders allowed businesses in the northern Michigan region and Upper Peninsula on Friday, May 22. As soon as the news broke that this was the case, residents from all over the state flocked to the regions as things begin to slowly return to normal. A year ago, the parking lot in front of Hilltop Bar and Grill in Oscoda was packed with Memorial Day weekend crowds, with a line out the door. Around dinnertime on Friday, owner Adam Hume surveyed the empty lot. I cant believe that were still being closed for this, he said. To the north and to the west, other Memorial Day vacation destinations, including Traverse City, are open. Officials ask residents to stay off bottom lands during Memorial Day celebrations The Midland County Sheriffs Office urged residents to stay off bottom lands as they celebrate Memorial Day. Bottom lands, or land areas where lake waters once were, have been exposed for the Sanford and Wixom Lakes due to recent dam failures, Sheriff Scott Stephenson said. While the bottom lands, also called river basins, are currently dry, he warns that the insecure river and dam systems could cause further flooding or bodily harm through dam debris. The bottom lands are considered dangerous sections of the disaster recovery area, Stephenson said. Residents are not permitted to walk, ride recreational vehicles or perform other activities in the disaster recovery area. Anyone who does not comply will be subject to arrest by the Midland County Sheriffs Office and its law enforcement partners. MLive Media Group announces incentive program to help businesses rebuild from the effects of the coronavirus Since Whitmer declared a state of emergency March 10, she has issued more than 100 executive orders restricting business and social activity. Michigan businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic and by the orders intended to halt transmission of the virus. Nearly a quarter of small businesses in the United States could close permanently because of coronavirus, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimated in early April. Now, MLive Media Group is launching an initiative to help them recover, by doubling the value of their advertising and marketing dollars. Michigan to report coronavirus antibody test results separately Michigan health officials will begin separately reporting results of statewide diagnostic and antibody testing for the novel coronavirus, which previously had been reported together in available COVID-19 data. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced the change to reporting Saturday, May 23. It comes as antibody testing becomes more widely available to the public around the state. Out of the 512,891 total tests that have been conducted statewide, 450,918 of those tests were diagnostic tests and 61,973 were serology, or antibody, tests, according to data posted Saturday by MDHHS. Health officials emphasized the change in reporting will not affect the percentage of positive tests that are reported statewide. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Read more at MLive.com/coronavirus. As tensions soar, China to evacuate its citizens from India India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: At the height of strained relations, China said that it would evacuate its citizens, stranded due to the lockdown in India. We would begin the process from next week, as our citizens are facing difficulties, China said. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News Reports said that China has arranged flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to Shanghai, Chongqing, Jinan, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou, starting from June 2. The Chinese embassy on its website asked citizens wishing to return to book themselves on the flights. Tensions soar at border as China increases number of troops India says that it would facilitate the return of the Chinese citizens. This development comes in the backdrop of ties between the two nations soaring in the wake of the border face off. The stand offs are due to Chinese troops infiltrating into Indian territory in parts of Ladakh. This resulted in a stand off at five locations. Even as both sides are locked in a war of words, India has rejected allegations by Beijing that the Indian troops were responsible for triggering tensions. The Chinese have in fact hindered Indian patrols, India has further said. Meanwhile, the Chinese military has been fast increasing its troops in areas around Pangong Two Lake and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. China is trying to send a clear signal that it is not ready to end the confrontation with the Indian Army. The Chinese side has increased its presence in the Galwan Valley and has erected around 100 tents in the past two weeks. It has also been bringing in machinery for possible construction of bunkers, despite the stiff protest by the Indian troops. Armies of India, China appear heading towards biggest face-off after Doklam In this backdrop Indian Army Chief, General M M Naravane paid a visit to the headquarters of the 14 Corps in Leh and reviewed the situation with the top commanders. Shareholder advocates have warned the Morrison government's temporary weakening of rules requiring listed companies to keep investors informed threatens to harm market confidence and could blemish the Australian sharemarket's strong reputation for transparency. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg this week gave listed companies a six-month reprieve from strict rules on continuous disclosure, a regime that requires companies to keep investors constantly updated on issues that could have a material effect on share prices. Ownership Matters co-founder Dean Paatsch says even the perception Australia was watering down continuous disclosure laws could affect the cost of capital. Credit:Paul Jeffers Mr Frydenberg said the changes would shield companies from "opportunistic" class action lawsuits which could arise if company forecasts made during the highly uncertain backdrop of the pandemic turned out to be wrong. While company directors have supported the changes, critics on Tuesday warned the move was unnecessary and said it could raise corporate funding costs by hurting the Australian sharemarket's reputation overseas. The rate of infection of the coronavirus disease has been increasing in the country, an analysis of the infection data by Hindustan Times Hindi language publication Hindustan shows. Nearly 7,000 cases were reported on Monday, taking the overall tally to 1,38,845. The infection has been steadily rising in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi due to which there has been an 11 per cent increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the last two days, according to Hindustan. More than 70,000 cases have been reported in the last 15 days. Before this, it took 100 days for the infection to increase by 68,000. It took 12 days for the infection to double in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, 14 days in Delhi and just seven in Bihar. The rate of infection in Bihar is 10.67 per cent, the highest in the country. The rate has gone down in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. It now takes 18 days for the infection to double in these states. India on Sunday overtook Iran to become the 10th biggest hotspot of the pathogen. If the cases keep increasing at this rate, the tally will cross 1.5 lakh in two days. New Covid-19 cases dropped to zero for the first time on Saturday in China, the country where the pandemic originated, but surged in India and ravaged South America. Experts say that in countries with weak health care systems and impoverished populations, fighting the virus has proven to be difficult. The death toll has nearly doubled in India in the last 15 days. It has gone up by eight per cent in the last two days. Nearly 41 fatalities have been reported in Maharashtra, the state worst affected by the coronavirus disease. If data from Gujarat, Madhya Pradeshm West Bengal and Delhi is included, it accounts for 82 per cent of the total fatalities in the country. Indias trajectory of Covid-19 cases appears to be tracking that of Brazil, according to analysis of latest data. Indias case count on Sunday was where Brazils infections stood about 15 days ago. The diseases doubling rate, which is defined as the average period it takes for a two-fold rise, decreased from 13.9days on May 18 - the day the cases hit 100,000 - to 13.1on Sunday. The doubling rate - which is calculated over a period of last seven days - was four days at the beginning of April. Several experts say the peak of the outbreak in India is yet to come. Pressure stays on Cummings after refusal to apologise The Prime Ministers chief adviser Dominic Cummings remains under fire this morning over allegations he breached lockdown restrictions. Mr Cummings said during a press conference yesterday he did not regret driving to Durham because of fears about a lack of childcare childcare if he became incapacitated with coronavirus. His defence failed to win over some newspapers, with the right-leaning Daily Mail and the left-leaning Daily Mirror running almost identical headlines stating: No apology, no regrets. Opposition parties have also continued the pressure on Mr Cummings and Boris Johnson, demanding action was taken against the adviser. Meanwhile some of the Church of Englands most senior bishops have reported receiving hate mail and death threats after speaking out about the controversy. Retailers welcome re-opening for shops announcement The row over Mr Cummings overshadowed the Prime Ministers announcement that shops across England will be able to open from next month if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. The British Retail Consortium welcomed the move, saying it will allow businesses to start playing their part in getting the economy moving again. Mr Johnson said outdoor markets and car showrooms would be able to open from June 1 while all other non-essential retailers can follow on June 15. Virgin Orbit test launch terminated Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Orbit has failed in its first test launch of a new rocket carried aloft by a Boeing 747 and released over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. The inaugural launch had appeared to be going well until moments after the rocket was released from beneath the left wing of the jumbo jet dubbed Cosmic Girl. Virgin Orbit said it terminated the mission shortly into its flight but there was no immediate word on what went wrong with the rocket, which carried a test satellite. Another warm week ahead People have been reminded by police to practise social distancing this week as more fine weather tempts Britons outside. Crowds flocked to beauty spots on Bank Holiday Monday and forecasters say Tuesday will see mostly dry and warm weather, with London expected to hit 25 degrees. Aside from some rain for the far north and north-west on Wednesday, the rest of the week should be dry, largely sunny and very warm, the Met Office said. Same-sex marriages set to happen in Costa Rica Costa Rica is expected to become the latest country to legalise same-sex marriage when a ruling from its supreme court comes into effect. Couples have scheduled ceremonies mostly private due to the Covid-19 pandemic to celebrate their unions before judges and notaries as the ban lifts at midnight local time on Tuesday. On this day 1865: The Confederate Army surrendered, ending the American Civil War. 1868: Irish terrorist Michael Barrett was hanged outside Newgate Prison for causing an explosion in London which left 13 dead the last public execution in England. 1906: The rebuilt Vauxhall Bridge over the Thames was opened. 1913: Emily Duncan became Britains first woman magistrate. 1950: Petrol rationing ended in Britain. 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a bed-in for world peace in a Montreal hotel. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 05:52:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close AMMAN, May 25 (Xinhua) -- King Abdullah II of Jordan on Monday commended all efforts exerted by the country's various bodies in the battle against COVID-19. The king made the remarks in an address to the nation on the occasion of Jordan's 74th Independence Day. "Our battle with coronavirus is one of those tough tests that have shown the efficiency of the state, its enduring institutions, and the strength of its army and security forces," the king said in the address, according to a statement by the Royal Court obtained by Xinhua. An official celebration was held in Jordan on Monday to mark the Independence Day. Jordan won its full independence from the British mandate and declared itself a kingdom on May 25, 1946. Enditem A new study of the Louisiana marshlands outside New Orleans says the region has already passed its tipping point and could be completely submerged within 50 years. The study was led by Tulane University's Torbjorn Tornqvist and found that sea levels rising between six and nine millimeters a year would be enough to completely submerge the 8,500 year old marshlands, which span more than 5,800 square miles. The change would dramatically reshape New Orleans and the territory around the city, disrupting the lives of more than 1.2 million inhabitants. New research from Tulane University shows the Louisiana marshlands will be lost to rising sea levels within 50 years, though with mitigation efforts it could be slowed to a couple hundred years 'What it says is we're screwed,' Tornqvist told NOLA. 'The tipping point has already happened.' 'We have exceeded the threshold from which there is basically no real way back anymore, and there probably won't be a way back for a couple of thousand years.' The changes could leave Lake Pontchartrain open to the the Gulf of Mexico and submerge parts of eastern New Orleans, including the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge, and reshape the Louisiana coastline all the way to the state's border with Texas. While it may seem dire, the team's sea level estimates were less severe than those from the Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority 2017 projections, which estimated between 8.6 and 16.6 millimeters rise a year through 2067. According to Tornqvist, if rising sea levels in the region could be brought back inline with the global average--3.58 millimeters a year between 2006 and 2015--it might take hundreds of years for the marshlands to be completely submerged, rather than a few decades. Rising sea levels of between six and nine millimeters a year would submerge more than 5,800 square miles of the Louisiana coastline (red areas), radically reshaping the state According to the researchers, the tipping point has already been passed, and an estimated 1.2 million inhabitants will see their lives disrupted, but with mitigation efforts the rise could be slowed and parts of the area could be resettled The rise could be mitigated through efforts to lower global greenhouse gas emissions, and constructing large sediment diversions to channel water away from the most vulnerable parts of the wetlands. 'I don't think this is going to happen in my lifetime,' the 58-year-old Tornqvist said. 'But my daughter turns 10 next week, and a lot of these things are going to happen in her lifetime.' 'I'm not saying that when she is old, we'll have no wetlands at all, but we will have massive changes.' With the marshlands submerged, New Orleans would be more openly exposed to storms that come onshore from the Gulf of Mexico, which could severely damage the city and cause major breakdowns in the city's property insurance policies 'We have exceeded the threshold from which there is basically no real way back anymore, and there probably won't be a way back for a couple of thousand years,' Tulane's Torbjorn Tornqvist said Rising sea levels and the disappearance of the marshlands would also leave New Orleans exposed to more violent storms from the Gulf of Mexico. 'If we have no wetlands left, the impacts of these storms are not going away, and sea-level rise is going to make those impacts bigger,' Tornqvist said. 'It's only a matter of time until large insurers and companies that consider investing in the city look at it, and say, "Wow, this is becoming too risky."' The plan for Chicago comes as state health officials announced 1,178 new cases of COVID-19 and 39 additional deaths, bringing the total number of known cases statewide to 113,195 and the death toll to 4,923. Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the states top public health official, said case numbers were lower in recent days, in part, because fewer tests are processed and reported over weekends. Ezike also said that the week ending in May 16 was the first week with fewer deaths than the previous week since the pandemic began. On Monday, Salman Khan released a song 'Bhai Bhai' where he preached the message of unity and brotherhood. Salman Khan sent out a meal kit with ingredients for sheer korma, an Eid delicacy, to 5000 underprivileged families on the festival. Yuva Sena member Rahul Kanwal thanked Khan for this gesture and wrote, "Humans like you balance the society." (Click here for LIVE updates on coronavirus outbreak) Kanwal mentioned that the kit comprises of enough ingredients to feed 50 families. He further wrote that Khan's food truck initiative Being Haangryy has been able to reach out to feed with essential meal kits 25,000 families and 5,000 with the Eid kit amid the coronavirus outbreak. Here is the post Thank you @BeingSalmanKhan bhai for reaching out to 5000 families in your own special way on the occasion of Eid and spreading happiness...Humans like you balance the society,Thank you for the Eid kits distributed to one and all...special way of bhai wishing Eid !!! pic.twitter.com/7oTPPeXZMv Rahul.N.Kanal (@Iamrahulkanal) May 24, 2020 Khan has launched the food truck in Mumbai, where volunteers are providing huge bags of ration. A long queue of people is standing near the truck to get the essentials. Earlier, the 54-year-old actor urged people to take up the Anna Daan challenge and donate to the underprivileged ones who are worst affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. To encourage people to take up the challenge, the actor also posted a video on Twitter, that features him and Iulia Vantur, Jacqueline Fernandez among others loading the bags filled with ration on to a truck. Khan has been actively posts videos on his social media handles to raise awareness about the importance of social distancing during COVID-19. In April, he had dropped a song titled 'Pyaar Karona' through which he urged his fans and followers to follow physical distancing measures to stop the spread of the highly contagious virus. Though the pandemic obstructed possibility of his annual Eid release, he did share a song 'Bhai Bhai' where he preaches unity and brotherhood. Foremost Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has described as unprecedented success the current strategies of the Nigerian Military in waging the last phase of the war on terror with the physical presence on the frontlines of the theatre of battles by the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai just as the Rights group said now more than ever before is the time for all and sundry to show solidarity and support to the combatants so the outcome will be favourable to Nigeria. HURIWA has also appealed to the National Assembly to tread carefully with issues around the current war on terrorists and armed bandits by the Nigerian Military just as the Rights group said the open disclosure by a serving Senator of the All Progressives Congress dominated National Assembly Senator Gobir representing Sokoto East that military operatives from Niger Republic are in charge of security for his constituents who he said are no longer relying on the Nigerian Army since they are too slow to respond to distress calls just as the Rights group said this disclosure in the open was harmful to the morale of the fighters of the Nigerian Arned forces and coyld have been handled differently. HURIWA maintained that such sensational disclosure which graphically paints Nigeria's Sokoto East as an area under occupation by the Niger Republic Armed Forces was capable of deflating the morale of fighters on the frontlines just as the Rights group said such a sensitive national security matter could have been exhaustively tackled in an executive session of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Moreover, HURIWA reminded the National Assembly that Nigeria belongs to a Multinational Armed forces which included Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon just as the Rights group said it was possible that the Nigerien soldiers were part of the Multinational Armed forces battling Boko haram terrorists and since insurgents are now to have dispersed all across the subregion it is possible that during the cause of military confrontations such encounters may encroach into certain areas of Nigeria and since Sokoto borders Niger Republic the Rights group said the National Assembly could have asked questions and obtain authoritative responses from the public office holders in the relevant Armed forces of Nigeria and the Defence sector. HURIWA has however encouraged the Nigerian Military to continue to carry out their assigned roles of defending the territorial integrity of Nigeria notwithstanding the increasing demands of the all important national security duties of dealing decisively with all threats against the National security interest of Nigeria just as the Rights group said there is the need for the political authority of Nigeria to continue to improve on the wellbeing and welfare of the men/women and officers of the Nigerian Armed forces who are now making the supreme sacrifices to keep the whole of Nigeria and Nigerians safe from the attacks of daredevil terror gangsters and armed hoodlums by providing the enabling environment and the Appropriation to match the increasing and varying demands of the Covid-19 era. HURIWA has also expressed satisfaction that it is evidently clear that the unprecedented level of synergy between and amongst the different segments of the Nigerian Armed forces has increasingly enhanced the imminent victory of Nigeria over armed terror groups and bandits even as the Rights group said in a Statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf that the Defence headquarters is performing excellently well in the area of professional information management because according to the Rights group quality information dissemination about the phases of the war on terror is imperative to gain the support, solidarity and buy in of the millions of Nigerians who are in their own right praying for the successful completion of the war on terror that has lasted over a decade and has cost Nigeria a lot in terms of human and material losses. HURIWA has therefore commended the Nigerian Government specifically for making it possible for the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai and other Service Chiefs to continue to demonstrate their collective resolve to improve the welfare of the combatants and other men/Women and officers of the Nigerian Military just as the Rights group said the milestones recorded particularly in the areas of housing and health welfare programmes of the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai has shown what it means to put the right leadership in place in all strategic institutions of the nation State. HURIWA stated that: " On good authority we have it that In line with the policy of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt Gen TY Buratai to ensuring absolute commitment to the welfare of officers and men of the Nigerian Army, especially those in the frontline/Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE, a befitting Eid-el-Fitr Sallah Luncheon was organized to celebrate Eid-el-Fitr Sallah with troops as a mark of appreciation for their uncommon determination, hardwork, resilience, sacrifices and patriotism in prosecuting the war on Boko Haram/ISWAPs terrorism in the North East Geo-political zone. In his remarks at the occasion, the COAS expressed his gratitude and indeed that of the Nigerian Army to the President, C-in-C President Muhammadu Buhari and the governors of Borno and Yobe States for their numerous supports. Lt Gen Buratai uses the opportunity to appreciate the troops, the Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Airforce as well as personnel of the Nigerian Police Force, State Security Services, Nigeria Security and civil Defense Corps, Civilian Joint Task Force and Vigilantes for their courage and supports in the war against terrorism. " HURIWA said it was gratifying that the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai has carved a niche for himself as someone who always ensures that he spends time with the troops on the frontlines of the war on terror during religious occasions which he uses to socialise and interact with his troops and behaves like a servant/leader by personally serving the operatives with the delicious meals prepared to mark each of those festivities. This tendency may not make any significance to persons who lack the philosophical appreciation of how some exemplary conducts can in a big way psychologically and emotionally boost the morale of soldiers in the frontlines of the war on terror but those who should know are abreast of the monumental contributions made by the powers of personal examples shown by leaders. So we encourage the Army Chief to continue to be the good leader that he is and we task him to FURTHER improve on the much talked about attitudes of the military operatives against the civilian members of the society and ensure that the department he has established for CIVIL/MILITARY Relations continues to carry out sensitization and enlightenment of the operatives of the Armed forces on the imperative of respecting the fundamental human rights of Nigerians in all their internal security operations and even as they wage war against terrorists and armed bandits. HURIWA demanded that soldiers who are found wanting in the areas of respecting the human rights of citizens must be made to face the full wrath of the law since constitutional democracy thrives of the Resoect to the Principle of the Rule of law. "HURIWA is always willing and ready to partner with the Department of Civil Military Relations in the area of taking the messages of human rights and the pivotal place of respect of the Principle of the Rule of law and constitutionalism to all corners of the military establishment so the Country would have some of the best respected Professional soldiers that can be a pride for the black race all around the World. " HURIWA has also appealed to the other Service Chiefs to show their readiness to partner with credible civil Rights advocacy groups to take the lessons of human rights to all corners of the barracks in Nigeria. Advertisement NASA and spacex have been given the 'go' for their historic manned launch tomorrow and have begun final pre-flight checks, despite fears that bad weather could scupper the plans at the last moment. Falcon 9, topped with the Crew Dragon capsule, is standing upright on the pad and the access arm was swung open on Tuesday. The mission will be the first manned launch from American soil in nine years, as astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley blast off to the International Space Station. Officials said the weather forecast is currently 60 percent favorable for the launch, which is scheduled for Wednesday at 4:33pm ET. Scroll down for video NASA and SpaceX are gearing up to send two American astronauts to the ISS aboard an American rocket. The access arm has been swung open, which Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will walk across to board the Crew Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 craft The mission, dubbed Launch America, passed its final major review Monday and the teams involved received the go to proceed to launch. Kathy Lueders, manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program, said: Were burning down the final paper. All the teams are a go, and were continuing to progress toward our mission. Im very proud of the team. We are continuing to be vigilant and careful, and make sure we do this right. A thick cloud is hovering over Cape Canaveral Tuesday morning, but that is not stopping NASA and SpaceX from setting up for the launch. The crew access arm attached to the Falcon 9 is swung into position for Behnken and Hurley to walk across to board the capsule. Robert Behnken (left) and Douglas Hurley (right) are set to travel to the ISS on Wednesday aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. This will mark the first time in nine years that NASA has sent humans to the ISS from US soil The two astronauts remain in quarantine, a routine part of prelaunch preparations for astronauts journeying into space. Here they are pictured inside the isolated room, with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine standing on the other side of the glass The two astronauts remain in quarantine, a routine part of prelaunch preparations for astronauts journeying into space. Norm Knight, deputy director, Flight Operations, NASA Johnson Space Center, said: It was a really good review today, and from a crew perspective, we were very happy with the discussions that took place the thoroughness of the review. Were definitely ready to press forward. News outlets have also started claiming their spots around the launch pad and are setting up their gear to cover the event. However, the unfavorable weather is causing issues for some crews a CBS News reflector toppled over from the strong winds Tuesday morning. News outlets have also began claiming their spots around the launch pad and are setting up their gear to cover the event. The unfavorable weather is causing issues for some crews a CBS News reflector toppled over from the strong winds Tuesday morning NASA is performing the final pre-flight checks on the Falcon 9 that went horizontal Tuesday morning. And has event powered washed the massive NASA logo on the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building Prior to tomorrow's launch, NASA will lower Falcon 9 into a horizontal position to complete the final pre-flight checks. Mike McAleenan, launch weather officer with the 45th Weather Squadron, said in a briefing on Monday that the weather is expected to improve from a 40 percent to 60 percent by launch day. 'It's really a dynamic situation that's developing across Florida,' said McAleenan. 'We have some hope for launch day.' If the highly anticipated manned launch is delayed, NASA said it will make another attempt to fly the Crew Dragon capsule to the ISS on Saturday. And NASA is also taking the chance to have a last minute spring clean, as crews were spotted power washing the massive logo on the side of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Launch Pad 39A and Crew Dragon will hit speeds of 17,000 miles per hour as it travels into Earth's orbit towards the ISS. The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Launch Pad 39A and Crew Dragon will hit speeds of 17,000 miles per hour as it travels into Earth's orbit towards the ISS Falcon 9 rocket is being lowered on Launch Pad 39-A Tuesday morning as NASA and SpaceX gear up for the mission on Wednesday at 4:33 pm ET. It will be lowered back into the horizontal position before tomorrow's launch to complete the final pre-flight checks The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft attached is seen as it is prepared for tomorrow's scheduled liftoff from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center A thick cloud is hovering over Cape Canaveral Tuesday morning, but that is not stopping NASA and SpaceX from setting up for the launch. The weather is expected to improve from a 40 percent to 60 percent by launch day. Once in orbit, the crew and SpaceX mission control will validate the performance of the craft by testing the environmental control system, displays, maneuvering thrusters and other technologies. About 24 hours after takeoff, Crew Dragon should be in position to dock with the ISS and will do so autonomously. After successfully docking Behnken and Hurley will be joined with the other members on the space station and become part of the Expedition 63 crew. Kirk Shireman, manager, NASA International Space Station Program, said: I think the on-orbit crew is definitely ready for some company, and very much looking forward to the launch this Wednesday. The ISS team is ready to support the docking of Crew Dragon. The two astronauts performed their 'dress rehearsal' Saturday, Hurley said. They arrived at the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida wearing their SpaceX-designed spacesuits and in a Tesla with the license plate ISSBND, ISS Bound. They then climbed into their Crew Dragon spacecraft at Launch Complex 39A. SpaceX also successfully tested their Falcon 9 rocket Friday. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Elon Musk's SpaceX is the conductor and NASA the customer as businesses begin chauffeuring astronauts to the International Space Station. With American shuttles no longer in use, the US has had to rely on Russia for rides to the station Their instructions are to perform tests on the capsule, along with conducting research and other tasks with the ISS astronauts. Once the mission is completed, Crew Dragon will autonomously undock with Behnken and Hurley inside and return to Earth. The two astronauts performed their 'dress rehearsal' Saturday, Hurley said. They arrived at the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida wearing their SpaceX-designed spacesuits and in a Tesla with the license plate ISSBND, ISS Bound. Lady Colin Campbell has claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tried to 'influence' her upcoming tell-all book Meghan And Harry: The Real Story. The Jamaican-born British writer, 70, is releasing a book she has written with the help of her sons , Dimitri and Michael, who appeared on an MTV reality show with Meghans nephew Tyler Dooley, which she claims tells their real story - though it is not known if she has ever met Meghan, 38, or Harry, 35. The release of the book is said to coincide with Harry and Meghan's new biography Finding Freedom in August, which is co-written by Harper's Bazaar journalist Omid Scobie. But in a new interview uploaded to her YouTube account this week, Lady Colin claims the couple's friends 'called her to influence her book', and said she thinks they are keen to get the biography released before her own book. Lady Colin Campbell has claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (seen in London in March) tried to 'influence' her upcoming tell-all book Meghan And Harry: The Real Story The socialite, who was married to Lord Colin Campbell for one year in 1974, sniped: 'I had been told that she was desperate to get her book out earlier, or at least coincide with mine, because their book is 'their' version of the truth.' She ranted: 'The fact is that Meghan and Harry's book, which is basically her book, it's written by Omid Scobie, who has been beating the drum for Meghan all along.' And when asked whether Harry and Meghan tried to 'influence Lady Colin Campbell' book, she claimed: 'Yes they did. They were getting mutual friends to ring me up to influence the narrative, to feed me stuff, some of I was receptive too, some of it I was not.' The Jamaican-born British writer, 70, is releasing a book she has written with the help of her sons , Dimitri and Michael, who appeared on an MTV reality show with Meghans nephew Tyler Dooley, which she claims tells their real story - though it is not known if she has ever met Meghan, 38, or Harry, 35 She then claimed that Diana 'also tried to influence the narrative of her book on the late royal, claiming the next generation had not 'learned', adding: 'I will not go into it, it's in the book, but it was absolutely beyond belief, and I was outraged.' Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family is set to be released worldwide online on August 11 At the beginning of the month Lady Colin told the Daily Mail about her new book,adding: Its called Meghan And Harry: The Real Story. 'There are plenty of revelations. Ive had members of the Markle family to stay, but Im not saying anything until closer to the book launch. Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family is set to be released worldwide online on August 11, with the hard copy on sale from August 20. A description of the biography on Amazon promises to offer an 'honest, up-close, and disarming portrait of the confident, influential, forward' Prince Harry, 35, and Meghan Markle, 38. The 320-page biography, due to be released in August, is expected to be a global bestseller. Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam listens to reporters questions during a press conference in Hong Kong, Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Lam tried again Tuesday to defend a new national security law that Chinas parliament is going to impose on Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) The UK remains deeply concerned about the crisis in Hong Kong and Number 10 has raised the issue with Beijings ambassador in London. Hong Kongs leader Carrie Lam insists national security legislation proposed by Chinas legislature will not threaten the semi-autonomous territorys civil rights. But Downing Street said it has raised concerns with both Hong Kong and Beijing. Expand Close Riot police use pepper spray on protesters during a demonstration against Beijings national security legislation in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong (Vincent Yu/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Riot police use pepper spray on protesters during a demonstration against Beijings national security legislation in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong (Vincent Yu/AP) After police used tear gas and pepper spray on pro-democracy protesters over the weekend, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said the scenes were deeply concerning. We have always said that it is essential that protests are conducted peacefully and the authorities avoid any actions that could inflame tensions, the spokesman said. He underlined the UK is fully committed to upholding Hong Kongs autonomy and respecting the one country, two systems model. Maintaining Hong Kongs stability and prosperity serves the interests of both China and the UK. Interfering in Hong Kongs affairs does not only damage China-UK relations but also harm UKs own interests. https://t.co/lLgkSpg6qA Liu Xiaoming (@AmbLiuXiaoMing) May 25, 2020 Chinas ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming warned Britain against interfering in the affairs of its former colony. Maintaining Hong Kongs stability and prosperity serves the interests of both China and the UK, he said. Interfering in Hong Kongs affairs does not only damage China-UK relations but also harm UKs own interests. Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation for the bigger benefit of the great majority of Hong Kong people Carrie Lam Ms Lam defended the change being considered by Chinas ceremonial National Peoples Congress amid concerns about its impact on civil liberties. She said: Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values. Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation for the bigger benefit of the great majority of Hong Kong people. She repeated claims the law will only target a minority, citing concerns about terrorism and subversion. Such a move by Beijing has long been under consideration and was hastened by last years street protests in the former British colony, which was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Coldwell Banker Realty agent Daniel Oster did all of the customary work to market a high-end property in Californias Santa Cruz Mountains. He hired a photographer to take magazine-quality twilight shots and aerial images to show the deck-wrapped contemporary dwelling, guest house and handsome workshop surrounded by redwood trees. But Oster still needed to find the missing link between standard marketing and something that would stand out. Then inspiration bolted out of the wild. Oster put on a Bigfoot costume, posed for more photos as he baked in the remodeled kitchen, lounged in one of the five bedrooms and gently clipped azaleas on the 0.7-acre estate. As he always does, he promoted the listing on social media and the gimmick caught fire. There have been 650,000 views on Zillow since the property at 5649 Hillside Dr. in Felton was put up for sale May 14, and hes getting media calls. No one thinks Bigfoot is real, but there is a kitschy Bigfoot Discovery Museum in town, said Oster, explaining what prompted the 6-foot-tall real estate agent to order a furry costume and get busy acting burly. In almost 18 years of being successful at selling real estate, this is the first time Oster went yeti. He had seen another agent install an inflatable T-Rex in a house to draw attention. Home shoppers flipping through real estate listings have also been stopped by superheroes and cartoon celebrities. Lookyloos spotted the mischievous green Grinch beckoning them inside a 1920 brick building, Spider-Man performing a handstand in a townhouse and an inflatable unicorn outside the front step of a home. Osters goal: To make people laugh and maybe buy the property for $999,000. Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072 jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories Some mobile policemen in a rage of madness have beaten, brutalized and held hostage officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agen... Some mobile policemen in a rage of madness have beaten, brutalized and held hostage officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, at Badore area of Ajah, Lekki, in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria. The policemen are attached to an ongoing building construction site at Olumide Madariola Street, Sea Side Estate, Badore Ajah, Lagos. The LASBCA officials, who were at the site to ensure that the ongoing construction conformed with the laid down standard were giving the beating of their lives, after which they were held hostage amidst sporadic shooting by the police. Narrating their ordeal, LASBCAs team leader stated that they were acting on the directive of the General Manager of the Agency after several reports of illegal and non-conforming construction were reported in the axis. According to the leader of the team (name withheld for security reasons), who was visibly shaken by the ordeal, trouble started when they noticed that work was ongoing on a construction site that had been previously sealed by the Agency after they had visited several other properties in the area. They approached the workmen on site and asked for necessary documents required by law for construction, but rather than produce the documents, a couple of mobile policemen dressed in black tee shirts pounced on them, forced them into the compound against their will and held them hostage for several hours. Reports from eyewitness also confirmed that one of the policemen referred to as Joseph shot sporadically into the air making passers-by scramble for safety; while the LASBCA officers were held hostage. However, it took the intervention of a lawyer living in the vicinity to rescue the officials who had their phones confiscated. Speaking on the development, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako said this act would not be tolerated and would not deter officials of the Ministry and its Agencies from carrying out their official assignments. He reiterated that the zero tolerance on illegal construction which had impacted negatively on planning in the state would continue till full compliance was achieved. The General Manager of LASBCA, Engr. Biola Kosegbe condemned this dastardly act by the policemen. She wondered why law enforcement officers who were charged with protecting lives and properties of the people would resort to obstructing and harassing innocent state officials who were fully kited and drove a branded official vehicle to carry out their assignment. She added that the Agency had made necessary reports to the police authority and that both the owner/developer and the two police officers would be prosecuted for infringing on the rights of the officials. Kosegbe warned erring owners/developers to stop harassing officers of the Agency who were only performing their lawful duties in making sure that all buildings within the State were safe, secure and habitable. Update: Workers, at the advice of Gardai who were present at the scene, had to stand down their protest this afternoon, allowing a secure van to leave with the store's cash. Earlier: Former Debenhams staff blockade Cork store over attempted cash removal A blockade has been established by former Debenhams staff at Patrick Street in Cork this afternoon amid claims that efforts are being made by the company to remove cash from the store. Staff at the branch, who lost their jobs through a generic email on Holy Thursday, insist that that money should be used on their redundancy payments. Earlier this month Debenhams Ireland staff voted overwhelmingly for strike action. Valerie Conlon, a shop steward for over 20 years at the Cork store, said that former Debenhams staff were picketing on South Mall when their co workers on watch tipped them off that there was a lorry at the shop. "We had three girls watching the yard because we don't want stock movement. We got a call saying they wanted to move cash from the store. We have been here since half past twelve. We are officially on strike under the Industrial Act 1990 so we are within our rights to be here. We will stay here as long as it takes. If we have to stay here obviously we will get different shifts because not all of us will be able to stay here all the time. But there will be someone here all the time. It is understood that stock across the Irish Debenhams stores nationwide is worth in the region of twenty million euro. Workers believe the liquidated stock and cash in the stores should be going in to the Irish redundancy pot. Instead 2,000 workers in 11 shops are facing in to only receiving statutory redundancy. Some of the workers have decades of service in the Cork shop having previously worked for Roches Stores onsite. The former employees are enduring that their picket and blockade complies with pandemic guidelines on social distancing. When Debenhams shut their Irish branches just before Easter the company said it was "desperately sorry" to have to liquidate its Irish business. However, staff believe that the company used the Covid 19 pandemic to quietly shut Irish stores knowing that their former employees couldn't even hold major protests to mark their dissatisfaction. In a statement the company said that they regretted having to close their Irish stores but were facing in to a difficult situation with challenges in retail and the Covid 19 pandemic. In these unprecedented times, Debenhams is having to make exceptionally difficult decisions. Unfortunately, our Irish business has had trading challenges which were exacerbated by the impact of Covid-19. In the UK, Debenhams has entered into administration in order to protect its business. Regrettably, due to the challenges facing Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd, it is anticipated that an application will be made to appoint a liquidator to the Irish operations. As you know Debenhams has already suspended trading in the Republic of Ireland stores and we can confirm that these stores are not expected to reopen. The company thanked the invaluable service of their staff and wished them success in the future. Debenhams opened its first outlet in the Republic in the Jervis shopping centre in 1996. Its big expansion in the Republic came in 2006 when it bought the lease for nine Roches Stores outlets nationwide. [May 26, 2020] Atrium Expands Enterprise Analytics Capabilities with Snowflake Partnership Atrium combines leading analytics technology platforms, Artificial Intelligence (AI) expertise and industry acumen to help Snowflake customers deliver business transformation INDIANAPOLIS, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atrium, a next-generation consulting company that leads enterprises through a business transformation with AI and analytics , today announced a partnership with Snowflake, the integrated cloud data platform delivered as a service, in order to further assist enterprises in leveraging their data through the power of AI. Atriums service offerings, powered by Snowflake, will enable Atrium prospects and customers to further evolve their investments in business intelligence with the added benefits of Snowflakes market-leading cloud data platform. Atrium will look to augment Snowflakes consulting partner network by creating unique service offerings focused on deploying predictive analytics and machine learning use cases. The partnership will focus on helping companies transform their data from operational reporting and analytics to predictive analytics in an environment of rapid migration to cloud-based analytics and AI. Snowflakes innovation as a cloud data platform is setting the standard for compnies looking to dramatically accelerate their adoption of AI and analytics. Snowflake has made tremendous progress in helping Fortune 1000 companies migrate significant analytics workloads from on-premise legacy data warehousing solutions to modern cloud infrastructure, said Chris Heineken, Atrium CEO and co-founder. We expect Snowflake to be a critical partner in helping our customers along their journey toward developing enterprise-wide use cases for AI and analytics. A first priority for Atriums Snowflake practice will be to work closely with Snowflake customers to develop analytics and AI strategies with close linkages to investments in Salesforce and Tableau software. Atrium is a great addition to the Snowflake Partner Program. Their focus on helping companies evolve legacy analytics investments into a modern data architecture is a perfect fit for Snowflake customers, said Kevin Miller, Vice President of Global Systems Integrators at Snowflake. Atriums success in the market is lowering the barriers for companies to take advantage of cloud-based analytics and AI. Atrium is currently developing playbooks to help the market frame the best approaches for merging the product roadmaps developed from Salesforce, Tableau, Amazon, and other leading analytics providers. Our vision continues to be around enabling companies to leverage analytics and predictions to drive positive business transformation through better decision making, said Atrium Snowflake Practice Lead, Dustin Weaver. Our partnership with Snowflake will greatly enhance that capability. For more information on Atrium and their Snowflake partnership, visit atrium.ai/partners . About Atrium: Atrium ( www.atrium.ai ) is a next-generation consulting services company that helps companies navigate business transformation by establishing IT systems of intelligence augmented with artificial intelligence and analytics. We take a data-driven approach by fusing together industry and process expertise across the disciplines of math, programming, and consulting. Founded in 2018, Atrium is recognized as a leader in enabling Fortune 1000 companies across diverse industries to deliver on the promise of digital transformation and AI. Media Contact: Brad Baer Brad@atrium.ai 517.260.5861 [ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ] Italy plans to reopen its borders to countries within the European Union from June 3. With more countries easing coronavirus lockdowns in an effort to restart their economies as summer gets underway, CNBC takes a look at where you might be able to go on vacation in the coming months. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, recently issued guidelines outlining how the tourism industry might reopen and operate this summer. Crucially, it said EU countries should only allow tourists to visit if their own coronavirus contamination levels are under control. The Commission had already recommended European countries keep in place temporary non-essential travel restrictions until June 15. But, after more than two months at home due to widespread lockdown measures, many people around the world are likely to be anxious to take a vacation. Though others may be reluctant to book a trip abroad, given fears that easing confinement measures too quickly could prompt a second wave of Covid-19 cases. Nevertheless, some European countries are now sharing when they expect to reopen borders. Here's what we know so far: Portugal Augusto Santos Silva, Portugal's foreign minister, told newspaper Observador Friday that "tourists are welcome in Portugal." He said that tourists flying into Portugal will not be subject to a quarantine period but that there will be health checks in place. So far 30,788 people have contracted the coronavirus in Portugal, while 1,330 have died from Covid-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Marco Bottigelli Greece In a televised address on Wednesday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country's tourist season would restart on June 15 and that international flights would resume gradually from July 1. Greece has had among the lowest number of Covid-19 cases in Europe, with 2,882 infections confirmed and 172 deaths. It was one of the quickest countries in the region to impose strict lockdown measures, which is thought to have helped it keep the virus under control. The country has now started to ease restrictions, including reopening more than 500 of its beaches. Spain Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced over the weekend that tourists would be allowed into the country from July. Sanchez encouraged tourist establishments to start preparing to resume activity and urged Spaniards to start planning domestic vacations, which he said many will be able to go on from the end of June. On Monday, the Spanish government then said that from July 1 foreign visitors would no longer have to undergo a 14-day quarantine following their arrival into the country. Last weekend, the Spanish health ministry said daily deaths from the coronavirus had fallen below 100 for the first time in two months. It has now confirmed 235,400 cases of Covid-19 and 26,834 deaths, in total, from the virus. Italy Last week, Italian Transport Minister Paola De Micheli announced the country would be reopening airports, once again allowing interregional and international transfers from June 3. This comes after Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced last weekend that Italy would be opening its borders to countries within the European Union from June 3. Though he said this depended on whether data on the virus continued to be encouraging. To date, a total of 230,158 people have contracted the coronavirus in Italy, while 32,877 people have died. Positano, Italy. Francesco Riccardo Iacomino/ Getty Images Sweden Sweden controversially never actually went into a full lockdown and has kept borders open. The government has imposed a temporary ban on citizens from all countries except European Union member states, the United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. There have been 33,843 confirmed cases of the virus in Sweden so far and 4,029 deaths as a result of Covid-19. Netherlands Similarly, the Netherlands has kept borders open for tourists from so-called Schengen countries the 26 states in mainland Europe which have allowed free movement without a visa. U.K. citizens are also allowed to travel to the country but, reportedly, a full declaration of health is required. The Netherlands has confirmed 45,445 cases of the coronavirus and 5,830 deaths. Iceland Borders in Iceland have also remained open for tourists from Schengen countries but a 14-day quarantine has been required. The Icelandic government expects to ease restrictions no later than June 15, in line with the European Commission's guidelines. It then plans to start offering testing as an alternative to quarantine to travelers. In Iceland, 1,804 people have contracted Covid-19, while 10 people have died from the virus. Gljufrabui waterfall, Iceland. Marco Bottigelli/Getty Images The Central Regional police commander, COP Paul Manley Awini says six policemen and two community protection assistants have tested positive for COVID-19. Speaking in an interview with an Accra based radio station in Accra at the launch of Zoomlion disinfection of police facilities in the central region, COP Paul Manley Awini said two of the officers have been discharged while the others are still receiving treatment. They have all been taken to treatment centres, they are being given the best of care and as we are speaking now, two were discharged over the last weekend and we now have about four police personnel and two community protection assistants still in the treatment facility. According to Mr Awini, these personnel contracted the disease while on duty. We are doing our best despite the fact that we are exposed to the risk of contracting the disease. All of them were in the line of duty. Mr. Awini also said that the personnel under treatment are not discouraged by the disease and are not being stigmatised by their colleagues. The personnel are in high spirits despite the fact that they tested positive for it. And I must also say those who havent tested positive for the disease have not done anything to dampen the morale of the officers mainly in the region, he said. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Eight more people have died of Covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh, taking their number to 169 as 229 fresh coronavirus cases surfaced in the state on Monday, an official of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) said. With this, the total number of confirmed cases in the state has reached 6,497, Vikasendu Agrawal, State Surveillance Officer, IDSP, said in a statement. Of the eight deaths, two were reported from Meerut and one each from Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Pratapgarh, Gorakhpur, Bareilly and Etawah, Agrawal said. Among the fresh cases, 19 were reported from Rampur, 16 each from Basti and Ballia, 13 each from Varanasi and Gorakhpur, and 10 cases were reported from Firozabad, he said. So far, 3,660 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals in the state, while the count of active cases stands at 2,668, the statement said. Of the 169 deaths reported in Uttar Pradesh, Agra leads the tally with 33 fatalities, followed by 22 in Meerut, 12 in Aligarh, 11 each in Kanpur Nagar and Moradabad, and eight in Firozabad, it added. Addressing a press briefing earlier in the day, Principal Secretary, Medical and Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said pool testing of 936 samples was undertaken. With migrants returning to the state, the positive outcome in the pool testing has increased. Overall positive outcome has also gone up. Hence, we are insisting that the migrant labourers who have come should undertake 21-day home quarantine. This will help in curbing the spread of the infection in the society, Prasad told reporters. The principal secretary also said air travellers arriving in the state would have to stay under home-quarantine for 14 days. On the sixth day from their arrival, one can get themselves tested, and if they are negative for Covid-19, their home-quarantine will be ended, he added. BIG FM, one of the biggest radio networks in the country, that has proved its mettle time and again through its exemplary content and distinctive initiatives, has once again maintained its leadership across 35 out of 44 markets with an overall listenership of 1.05 Cr as per India Readership Survey 2019 Q4. (Source: IRS 2019_Q4 | 25+ All | Last 1 Week Listenership Rank | Pvt FM Stations | Leadership: TOP 3 ranks). Taking the lead in the metro cities, the station topped the charts at no. 1 in Bengaluru while maintaining 2nd spot in Kolkata and Mumbai followed by third place in Delhi NCR. BIG FM, as a network, continues to dominate its presence across North, East and South regions claiming the numero uno position while taking second spot in the West and North Zone (with Delhi NCR) respectively. The radio listenership has also grown by 7.4% i.e from 67.4 Mn (IRS 2017) to 72.4 Mn (IRS 2019_Q4). (Source: IRS 2019_Q4 vs IRS 2017 | 25+ All | Last 1 Week Usage | Radio category listenership in Mn) As a brand headlining purpose driven initiatives that exemplifies responsibility on every front, it has been BIG FMs positioning of Dhun Badal Ke Toh Dekho that has given the brand an edge in the market. Leveraging the message of changing perceptions amongst society for the better, the radio station has launched many initiatives around social issues affecting millions of lives. Be it raising a concern on the issue of womens safety or environmental care via initiative like Shramdaan, where RJ Vrajesh extended help to build watershed management structures in villages across Maharashtra , the radio station has been determined to add value in peoples lives and play a telling role towards contributing to the social as well as economic welfare of the country. Commenting on the same, Mr. Sunil Kumaran, Country Head Product, Marketing and Thwink BIG, BIG FM said, These resounding numbers that display the progress weve made from IRS 2019 Q3 to IRS 2019 Q4 are a testament to our initiatives executed by our dedicated team across our 58 stations. In addition to cementing our dominance across markets, we have also leveraged our presence by partnering with brands who wish to reach out to a large set of listeners with a strong message to communicate. We look forward to make a difference in the society through each of our endeavours and connect with listeners on multiple levels. These figures have given us further motivation to propel ourselves in setting many more milestones coupled with the support of our listeners and stakeholders. BIG FMs unique content and continuous efforts to engage, inform and entertain listeners across cities based on local insights and extensive research have paved the path of success for the radio network. Being a customer-centric brand that places the preferences and tastes of the listener at a pedestal, the network consistently curates specially campaigns and activities all across the country with intent to expand its listenership base. A recent study has revealed that the foodgrain being grown around rainy river Jojari in Rajasthans Jodhpur has presence of heavy metals like lead, cadmium etc. And the levels are much higher than the permissible limit prescribed by the World Health organisation (WHO). The study was carried out by the Department of Chemistry of Jai Narayan Vyas University with support from the University Grant Commission (UGC). The team of experts from the university analysed wheat, pearl millet, sorghum, barley, corn, moong, pigeon pea, red lentil and split chickpea lentil grown in the area with atomic absorption spectrophotometre. Due to water scarcity, many farmers are using industrial effluents from tie and dye printing, steel products manufacturing and textile industries for growing different foodgrain. We have reported an analysis of heavy metal contents in foodgrain grown in the agricultural fields of Jodhpur around the Jojari. We have collected samples from various sites around the river where industrial effluents are thrown without treatment and are readily used by the farmers, university professor Pallavi Mishra, who led the study, said. Jojari flows from the North-East to South-West, 83 km from the hills near Pondlu village in Nagaur district. Before it meets the Luni river near Khejalda Khurd in Jodhpur district, small streams join the Jojari in the upper part. Continuous effluent water irrigation of agricultural land has caused a large build-up of poisonous heavy metals in the effluent irrigated soil as well as in the foodgrain and vegetables grown here. The metal ion concentrations obtained in our samples were compared with the permissible limits as prescribed by WHO and FAO. After carrying out sample testing of different grains, we found alarmingly high concentrations of cadmium, lead, zinc, nickel, copper and chromium. The concentrations of six heavy metals in study were found to be well above the standards specified by the WHO and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), she added. In Rajasthan, cereals and millets are the major source of nutrients and the most commonly consumed food. Approximately 85 per cent of the population is vegetarian and mainly survives on millets, cereals and pulses. Indira Gandhi canal water is the main source of potable water and agricultural produce in the area. Rain is observed only in the monsoon season; drought-like condition prevails in rest of the months. Due to water scarcity, industrial effluents and sewage water is used for irrigation in many areas of Jodhpur, especially around the Jojari River which has become a dumping ground for all kinds of waste water. Even a slightly high concentration of these metals is dangerous for human beings and animals. An increasing number of cancer cases, gastrointestinal problems, skin problems in people living in the areas from where samples were collected have also been reported, said professor Mishra. Consultant Physician Dr Sawai Jain said that heavy metals are harmful to human health. Such foodgrain, when consumed by people, may cause cancer, skin allergies, peptic ulcers and acidity. ConsumerAffairs is not a government agency. Companies displayed may pay us to be Authorized or when you click a link, call a number or fill a form on our site. Our content is intended to be used for general information purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances and consult with your own investment, financial, tax and legal advisers. Company NMLS Identifier #2110672 Copyright 2021 Consumers Unified LLC. All Rights Reserved. The contents of this site may not be republished, reprinted, rewritten or recirculated without written permission. It was still in effect in the capital and four other prefectures. For the government, the infections are under control. Schools and public places reopen. Economy in recession. Migrant workers most affected by the crisis. Premier Shinzo Abe: new stimulus of 850 billion euros. Tokyo (AsiaNews) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday announced the end of the state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic nationwide. The halt in economic activities and restrictions in circulation were still in force in Tokyo and in the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, which contribute to one third of the national GDP. The restrictive measures were rolled out on April 7, and gradually eased over the past two weeks. Japanese authorities believe the virus is now under control. Japan has recorded 17,200 cases of contagion and 853 deaths. With 5100 infected, the metropolitan area of the capital is the most affected. The government will monitor the health situation in the coming weeks, not excluding the possibility of reintroducing limitations in the event of a new wave of infections. Public places such as bars and restaurants may remain open longer; schools will reopen. The population is however invited to wear masks in public, to maintain a safe distance and to work from home. The pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the Japanese economy. The country is technically in recession. In the first three months of the year, the economy had a 3.4% decrease on an annual basis. It is the second consecutive quarter with negative growth: in the October-December period last year it registered -6.4%. Analysts' forecasts for the second quarter of 2020 are even worse (-22%). Hundreds of thousands of layoffs are expected in the coming months. The group most at risk is migrant workers, who usually have fixed-term contracts and are the first to be fired in the event of a crisis. At the end of last year, they were 1.6 million; the government does not disclose data on their employment. To restore the national economy, Abe promised a stimulus of 100 thousand billion yen (850 billion euros); it follows an earlier intervention of 117 trillion yen (990 billion euro). STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As nearly a third of Staten Islands coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths have come in nursing homes, officials have ramped up criticism of Gov. Andrew Cuomos handling of the outbreak in long-term care facilities sharply denouncing a March 25 order requiring nursing homes to accept medically stable coronavirus patients. The March 25 directive is no longer viewable on the state Health Department website, and Cuomo effectively reversed the order on May 10, forcing individuals to test negative before being admitted to a nursing home facility. Data through May 19 shows 260 people died at nursing homes across Staten Island which accounts for almost 30% of the boroughs total fatalities. There have been over 5,600 total coronavirus deaths at nursing homes across New York State, Health Department data showed on the same day. Now, calls for an independent investigation from Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-South Shore) have been made to review the handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes across the state. In one letter to the chairmen of the Committees on Health; Oversight, Analysis, and Investigation; and Aging, a group of 14 Republican Assembly members asked for a review of the states policies, decisions and protocols they say fell short. In a separate letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr, Malliotakis wrote that the March 25 order issued by the New York State Health Department which is overseen by Cuomo effectively unleashed a wolf into a hen house. Even if unwittingly, these lives are forever gone," the letter said. In the letter, Malliotakis asks Barr to take charge of the investigation," which she said should look into the March 25 memo, along with Cuomos decision to launch an investigation of his own into the long-term care facilities themselves. These facilities were not provided with tests to identify all infected patients and staff in order for proper quarantine measures to be taken, the letter said, Yet, our Governor wants to place blame on these facilities, staff and their administrators for the enormous death toll that his edict ensured. Neither Barrs nor Cuomos offices responded to requests for comment on the letters, but Malliotakis said the governors office acknowledged their receipt. ROLE OF NURSING HOMES Borough President James Oddo expressed grave concern over the effect the coronavirus would have within Staten Islands nursing homes early in the coronavirus outbreak. Only 17 days after Staten Island recorded its first confirmed coronavirus case on March 9, Oddo said, In a growing volume, were going to have real issues at our nursing homes," echoing sentiments shared by Dr. Ginny Mantello, his offices director of health and wellness. On March 24, Carmel Richmond Health Care and Rehabilitation Center said "one or more senior residents at the facility tested positive for the coronavirus. A day later, Clove Lakes Health Care and Rehabilitation Center confirmed a resident tested positive after being admitted to the hospital. These were the first independently confirmed cases within Staten Islands nursing homes. As New York worried the coronavirus would further overwhelm the states medical system, significant measures were taken to expand hospital capacity, and nursing homes played a crucial role in that effort. The facts on the ground in the lead up to the peak of this virus pointed to our hospital systems being overrun, Oddo said on Thursday. And if that moment came, difficult choices would be made. Choices would be made as to who got a ventilator and who didnt, and essentially who got to live and who got to die. While noting such models didnt peak as high as some projected, Oddo said the mission to expand hospital capacity did not have the benefit of knowing exactly how quickly the outbreak would expand. The Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan was transformed into a COVID-19 field hospital and the South Beach Psychiatric Center field hospital began accepting patients April 7. Other locations like the College of Staten Island were eyed as potential field hospitals plans that ended up not being carried out and the USNS Comfort left the New York Harbor April 30 after treating 182 patients, 70% of whom were afflicted with COVID-19. However, early on in the crisis, there simply was not enough space to handle the potential influx, making nursing homes a vital piece of the health care puzzle. The least we can do is say the ones that are not critically ill and not in an ICU setting and not on a ventilator should be sent to the next-step-down level, Mantello said in late March, which is not a triage tent, its not a building we stood up to take patients, its not a dormitory or a hotel its a nursing home. And the idea was, if we dont decompress hospitals, if we dont find a place to send stabilized COVID patients, other people will die on the other end, Oddo said. And it was a difficult decision, but the decision was made ... theres nothing ideal about this, but the experts at the time thought this was the best approach to save lives. But it came at a steep cost. S.I. NURSING HOME DEATHS SOAR An initial report released by the DOH showed at least 44 people died at Carmel Richmond by April 17, though Oddo worried the list could paint an inaccurate portrait of how the virus is affecting the states most vulnerable. I dont think that number, in a vacuum, and having Carmel Richmond alone on that list, is fair to those heroes that work in that facility and run that facility and are doing their very best under circumstances that they did not create, said Oddo. In addition to re-admitted patients deemed stable by hospitals, some of the boroughs largest nursing homes, including Carmel Richmond and Eger Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Egbertville took in nearly 40 coronavirus patients who were not previously residents by late April, the Advance/SILive.com reported. In mid-May, 10 Staten Island nursing homes were on the list of facilities with at least 11 probable deaths. While some nursing homes did receive patients from hospitals, others didnt, and Oddo said the (March 25) decision didnt introduce COVID into nursing homes. If people think there wasnt COVID in nursing homes (at the time), then theyre mistaken. In a survey that included over 500 New York nursing homes, less than half said they were willing or equipped to accept COVID-19-positive patients. Throughout the outbreak, personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a severely sparse resource, even for hospitals inundated with an alarming amount of coronavirus cases something Oddo said made acquiring such equipment far from simple. The lack of protective gear prompted concerns by officials and hospital nurses alike. Having the proper equipment thats key in preventing the spread, one nurse said. Despite widespread shortages, some equipment was sent to nursing homes in late March, Oddo previously told the Advance/SILive.com. However, two weeks later, staff at nursing homes across the Island voiced concerns over a lack of PPE and other necessary medical supplies, with one nurse saying, Its like a med-surg unit ... without the equipment. Mantello, despite the lack of testing and PPE available, said the efforts performed by nursing homes throughout Staten Island was very valiant, to say the least." Our nursing home partners stepping up was very brave on their part, she said, adding that the facilities were forced to stretch themselves to the limit in order to help overall hospital capacity. In an interview with the Advance/SILive.com on Thursday, Oddo did not mince words, saying that government as a whole set nursing homes up to fail by not resourcing them early on. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo held his daily coronavirus press briefing at Upstate Medical University Hospital Thursday, May 14, 2020, to announce the start of reopening for Central NY.N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com INCREASED CALLS FOR NURSING HOME INVESTIGATIONS Cuomo has directed New York State Attorney General Letitia James and the DOH to probe the COVID-19 situation in nursing homes, but officials decried those efforts as lackluster namely because such an investigation would involve the state investigating itself. On top of the aforementioned calls for an investigation to the Assembly committees and Barr, Republican Congress Reps. Lee Zeldin (NY-1), Pete King (NY-2), Elise M. Stefanik (NY-21) and Tom Reed (NY-23) have called on the federal government to investigate New York States adherence to appropriate safety and health guidance within nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, the chairman of the Committee on Health, told the Advance/SILive.com that a broader review of decades of problems within nursing homes, along with the states role during the coronavirus pandemic should be conducted by an outside counsel. Gottfried said the Attorney General is the Health Departments lawyer, adding, she cant really be asked to investigate her client. The AG really needs to bring in an outside counsel on nursing homes and the states role here, for both today and for years prior. Criticized for the March 25 memo, a move considered to be a fatal error by some, Cuomo has publicly pushed back against his detractors, saying that he relied on the best available facts at the time to make his decisions. In response to the call for investigations, Oddo said he understands the need to review and analyze and figure out what went wrong" saying such investigations are necessary to improving for future crises. However, he said utilizing nursing homes to help alleviate otherwise-insurmountable hospitalizations was an educated decision made with the facts at the time. While saying that the decision looks suspect in the rearview mirror, he said we didnt get to benefit" by being able to look in hindsight. I fully get the anger and the confusion and people being confounded, he said of the directive. Its not a simple formula. This was a much more complicated ecosystem we were dealing with." Now, with officials issuing some calls that Oddo, a Republican, said smack with political expediency, he feels the politicalization of things rearing its ugly head," adding that such motivation undercuts the entire effort. I find that counterproductive, he said. Ginny Mantello, Borough Hall director of health and wellness, meets with the Advance Editorial Board in 2016. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel) Staff-Shot NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE NEXT CRISIS Despite declining case totals and fatalities in recent days, Mantello said were not anywhere near over the crisis. We dont know what the next day or the next week or the next month is gonna look like, especially as we start to open ... we can let our guard down for a minute. While de Blasio recently announced nursing homes would be guaranteed weekly diagnostic testing alongside an antibody testing partnership forged by Borough Hall and ChemBio and vowed to send staff to nursing homes in need, Mantello said we are nowhere near resourced right now. The only people that were getting prioritized was the hospitals at the start of the outbreak, Mantello said, and when nursing homes did begin receiving vital supplies, it was not adequate nor was it robust nor was it consistent, adding that there is currently an extreme shortage of gowns in the facilities. Everything weve had, weve had to reuse, Mantello said, ranging from gloves, to masks to gowns. Even the most equipped nursing homes have been calling her to help secure more PPE, she said. Over the next few weeks, Mantello said Staten Islands incident command system, which includes the Islands hospitals and other vital health care components, will be critically analyzing the boroughs response to the coronavirus in an effort to be prepared for the next round should it come. The analysis will tackle the effect of the virus on nursing homes, hospitals and the community so we can go back and critique and analyze what worked and what didnt." Still, as the coronavirus persists throughout Staten Island with the potential to flare up Mantello said health care workers, specifically those in nursing homes, are still reeling and attempting to gain their footing in just a very, very difficult situation. And they are at the point of, you know, breaking down." Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 12:52:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RIGA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's restaurant association has launched a protest campaign against the tax policy implemented by the government, local media reported Monday. The country's catering industry has long demanded a reduction of value added tax (VAT) rate but was rejected by the parliament. Catering service providers from all over Latvia including food suppliers to schools, family cafes and lifestyle restaurants are invited to join the protest, local media said. Lauris Aleksejevs, vice president of the association, said that protesters will bang pots and pans to remind politicians of their earlier promises, including a 5-percent reduction of VAT on hospitality services. The association said the government had promised to reduce VAT in return for the conclusion of a general collective agreement, under which the hospitality services providers committed to raising wages and lowering their prices. Since COVID-19 broke out in Latvia in March, the country's hospitality sector has suffered losses of 77 million euros, with 4,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and approximately 40,000 employees working in the sector directly affected. Enditem The former D&H Distributing headquarters on Seventh Street in Harrisburg has been sold to Hudson Companies of Mercer County in Hermitage for $4.75 million, according to RSR, Realtors of Lemoyne. Hudson Companies will demolish the current structure and build a new one that will be leased to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. D&H Distributing last fall moved into new headquarters at 100 and 200 Tech Drive in Lower Paxton Twp. According to RSR, Realtors, the old headquarters at 2525 N. Seventh St. will be replaced with a 120,000-square-foot, three-story building that will be leased to the state to house the Pennsylvania Departments of General Services, Human Services and Office of Administration. Those offices are currently located in multiple locations. About 850 employees will work there. There will be more than 1,000 parking spaces. D&H had operated out of the North Seventh Street building since 1952. The new 50-acre location has two buildings, 240,000 square feet of office space and 950 parking spaces. The new building has a unique feature - a spiral slide known as the Main Street Express in the lobby that reaches from the second floor down to the first. It also has an amphitheater-style lobby known as Main Street, which has stadium-style seating for around 100 people and a large scale video wall. D&H is also building a 745,200-square-foot warehouse in Lower Swatara Twp. with 452 parking spaces and 118 trailer parking spaces. READ MORE The former D&H Distributing headquarters at 2525 N. Seventh St. in Harrisburg has been sold to Hudson Companies for $4.75 million. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. Some travel insurers are refusing to give policyholders their money back despite expensive cruises being canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Princess Cruises) Most travel insurance has so many exclusions including for epidemics that I generally don't advise people to bother with coverage unless they're spending big bucks on a trip, like for a cruise. But what if you cancel your cruise, or the trip is canceled by the cruise line, because of the coronavirus? Should you be able to get the cost of your travel insurance refunded? After all, it's protection you no longer need due to circumstances beyond your control. You haven't gone anywhere. You haven't submitted any claims. What rationale could the insurance company have for keeping your money? That's what David and Barbara Negrete were wondering after asking AIG, the insurance giant, for a refund of the more than $2,300 they said they spent on AIG's Travel Guard coverage. The Huntington Beach couple purchased the policy after plunking down a $1,500 deposit for a $12,000 jazz-themed cruise scheduled to set sail a year from now. They've decided not to make the voyage. "We're both 67," David Negrete told me. "We won't be taking that cruise because of the coronavirus." First he contacted the cruise organizer, a company called Flying Dutchman, and asked for their deposit to be refunded. "They said no," Negrete recalled. "They're keeping the deposit." No surprise there. I've written about the difficulties cruise passengers have had obtaining refunds for cancellations. In many cases, cruise operators have offered credit for a future trip but no money back. Then Negrete contacted AIG with the same request. "They won't give us a refund, either," he said. "Instead, they offered us a voucher for travel insurance that can be used between now and 2022." The thing is, Negrete and his wife have no plans to travel during that time. "It doesn't seem safe," he said. "And we're not getting any younger." My usual response to situations like this is a deal's a deal. If you purchase a service, and then you decide you don't want that service, well, too bad. Story continues But this is different. Consumers aren't acting on a whim when it comes to the coronavirus. They're protecting themselves from a potentially lethal global pandemic that grows worse by the day and over which they have zero control. That's why I've taken cruise operators, airlines, hotels and others to task for stubbornly refusing to give people their money back. It's why I raised a stink when most vehicle insurers said they wouldn't give discounts to policyholders even though many people had stopped driving. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara subsequently ordered that partial discounts be provided. I understand companies' reasoning from a business perspective who wants to return cash that's already been booked as revenue, especially when profits are dropping off a cliff because of the coronavirus? But come on. There's what's good for business, and then there's what's just plain good. And if doing the stand-up thing is so tough, consider the long-term consequences of short-term greed. Every cruise and airline passenger I've spoken with has told me the behavior of companies during the pandemic will absolutely affect their decision-making when it comes to future travel plans. In some cases, the problem appears to be miscommunication. Pasadena resident Howard Abrams contacted me with the same problem Negrete is having. Abrams, 73, said the insurance company Allianz was refusing to refund the travel coverage he purchased for a canceled July cruise he intended to take with his son. But when I contacted Allianz, I was told refunds are in fact being made available "for a temporary period" because of the coronavirus. Abrams tried again and, lo and behold, was told his money would be given back. He was told it could take about a month to process the refund because of a backlog. Daniel Durazo, an Allianz spokesman, said the company has decided to cover trip cancellations for people who become ill with COVID-19, despite the typical exclusion for epidemics. "We are also offering premium refunds to customers whose trips have been canceled by their travel supplier due to COVID-19," he said. Good for them. This shows an awareness of how the current pandemic is devastating for so many people. It's also an important way to demonstrate to customers that the company cares. AIG, by comparison, is just being mulish. Its obstinacy is all the more galling when you consider this company would have collapsed if not for $182 billion in bailout cash from taxpayers during the Great Recession. New York-based AIG reported net income of $1.7 billion in the first quarter, up nearly 90% from a year earlier. "If you are considering canceling your trip due to the COVID-19, please read your insurance policy thoroughly," AIG told customers in March. "Generally, fear of travel is not a covered event under most of our policies." It said refunds are possible only if requested within 15 days of purchasing travel coverage. If it's outside that narrow window, and you're freaking out about the tens of thousands of Americans who have been killed so far by COVID-19, bummer, but no. I said up top that most travel insurance comes with so many exclusions, travelers may want to think twice before splurging on coverage. Negrete's Travel Guard policy, for example, excludes claims involving preexisting medical conditions and pregnancy. It excludes claims related to risky holiday fun such as bungee jumping, as well as claims for natural disasters, pollution and, once again, epidemics such as the one we're currently experiencing. An AIG spokesman told me the company would be willing to discuss the matter, but only off the record, which means I couldn't share what they said with you. I declined. The spokesman then sent me an on-the-record statement from the company. "In the midst of the unprecedented challenges caused by COVID-19, Travel Guard has deployed significant additional resources to meet the demands of an extraordinary volume of claims, including those involving requests for premium refunds and the recovery of trip cancellation costs," the statement said. "Travel Guard will continue to look carefully at the specific facts and circumstances of each individual claim, as well as the relevant policy language, in honoring the commitments made to its customers." As best as I can tell, the company isn't making any commitments to customers regarding refunds, but that's what it had to say. All I know is that if I were ever in the market for travel insurance, I know which company I'd trust. Representative image live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More TVS Motor Company has cut staff salaries by up to 20 percent for a period of six months, beginning May, amid coronavirus pandemic. The two-wheeler major has decided to reduce salaries at executive level, barring entry level workmen, from May till October this year. "In the wake of the unprecedent crisis, the company has rolled out a temporary salary reduction across different levels for a period of six months (May to Oct, 2020)," a TVS Motor Company spokesperson told PTI. There will be no salary reduction at the workmen level, the spokesperson added. Elaborating on the pay cut, the spokesperson said there will be 5 percent salary reduction at the junior executive level and about 15 to 20 percent at the senior management level. TVS Motor Company, which is the third largest two-wheeler firm in the country, had resumed operations at all of its manufacturing facilities across the country on May 6. The company has four manufacturing plants, three located in India (Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Mysore in Karnataka and Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh) and one in Karawang, Indonesia. Besides catering to the domestic market, the two-wheeler maker also exports products to over 60 countries. Marketing supremo Sir Martin Sorrell said he will maintain a high tempo in the face of Covid-19, as he made another acquisition in Latin America. The businessman, who is trying to build his second media empire, said the covonavirus crisis is driving customers more and more towards digital ways of running their operations. Now is not the time to slow down, as we see Covid-19 accelerating digital transformation at all levels consumer, media and enterprise, Sir Martin said. His comments came as his new company, MightyHive, announced plans to merge with Digodat, a Latin American business that consults on data and analytics. Latin America has a particularly rich tech and creative talent pool Sir Martin Sorrell He owns the businesses through S4 Capital, a listed company, which said it will continue to expand its data, digital advertising content, and analytics arms throughout the covonavirus pandemic, as long as the strength of its balance sheet is not compromised. Digodat, which was founded in 2015 by Alan Daitch and Mauro Giordano, has 50 employees in Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico. It counts Google, Telecom Argentina and BBVA among its customers. MightyHive now runs 20 offices in 15 different countries. Sir Martin said: Data and analytics are at the heart of our tech-led new age/new era model and we look forward to working with our clients in Latin America as they invest in deeper first-party data-driven content and programmatic capabilities. In my view, Latin America has a particularly rich tech and creative talent pool, as Digodat and our previous mergers with Progmedia and Circus exemplify. Digodat co-founders Alan Daitch and Mauro Giordano said: Marketers need experts to help them adapt to new analytics standards, to remain compliant, and to gain valuable insights required to grow their business. Our existing analytics practices and consulting offerings will increase the depth and broaden the reach of MightyHives analytics services. The ability to offer MightyHives entire suite of consultancy services is an exciting move for Digodat and our clients. Chron.com is following the latest headlines on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Houston area. 5:05 p.m. Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday tweeted a link to the Texas Tribune's coverage tracking cases of novel coronavirus in Texas, highlighting some of the data points in his tweet. Abbott pointed to the number of daily fatalities being at their lowest point since late March, as well as the fewest daily hospitalizations since mid-April. He said Texas has the second-most COVID-19 recoveries in the U.S. 10:00 a.m. The Health Museum and Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center are hosting an emergency blood drive to help offset the need for donations created by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a release. Blood can be donated by appointment only from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at the museum, which is located at 1515 Hermann Drive, Houston. YOUR FAVORITE PLACE: Houston DMVs are reopening today "The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center needs 800 to 1,000 daily donations to be able to provide blood and blood products to 170 hospitals and health care institutions in the local region," the release stated. Donors will receive two free guests passes to the museum. To book an appointment, visit the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center's website. 8:30 a.m. Monday marked the sixth straight day a drop was reported in the seven-day rolling average of novel coronavirus cases statewide, according to the Houston Chronicle's data team. Cases increased by .88 percent to 56,443 statewide, and the death count increased by 2, for a total of 1,530. It's important to note the drop in the state's weekly average is still uncertain due to a lack of reporting from several Texas counties that did not update numbers on Memorial Day. REOPENING SCENES: Houston bars reopened Friday. Here's what it was like. In the Houston region, the number of COVID-19 cases increased by .5 percent, up to 15,358 cases. The region's death count increased by 1 for a total of 332 deaths. A total of 74 cases were reported within Harris County, bringing the total up by .7 percent to 10,995. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Tue, May 26, 2020 15:37 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda2e20a 1 SE Asia Indonesian-migrant-workers,Malaysia,COVID-19,COVID-19-Malaysia Free The Malaysian Health Ministry has confirmed that 38 Indonesian undocumented migrants detained at three Malaysian immigration custody depots have tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier this month, Malaysian authorities arrested more than 1,300 undocumented migrants, including 421 Indonesian citizens. Authorities claimed the crackdown was a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. Malaysian Health Ministry director general Noor Hisham Abdullah said on Sunday that 277 new COVID-19 cases had emerged from the Sepang, Bukit Djalil and Semenyih immigration depots. In general, the 277 new cases from these three clusters are not Malaysian citizens, Noor said, as quoted by Antara news agency. He said 53 of the cases were foreigners from Bangladesh, 41 from India, 38 from Indonesia, 37 from Myanmar, 28 from Pakistan, 17 from China, four from Cambodia, three from Nepal, two from Sri Lanka and one each from the Philippines, Libya, Egypt and Syria. The Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpurs head of social and cultural information, Agung Cahaya Sumirat, said the embassy was monitoring developments closely, including the well-being of the infected Indonesian citizens in custody. As of Tuesday, Malaysia had recorded 7,417 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 115 deaths. China's banking and insurance regulator said on Tuesday that bad loans at banks now stand at a high level due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. "Asset quality at smaller banks will also be under pressure this year, and credit risks in some institutions will continue to accumulate," according to a statement sent by China's Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) to Reuters. Chinese lenders recorded rising soured debt and shrinking net interest margins, a gauge of banks' profitability, amid the economic impact from a prolonged ... BOSTON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- West Shore LLC, a fully integrated, multifamily real estate investment firm, has acquired two Class A multifamily communities in the Carolinas in as many weeks. With the addition of Plantation at Pleasant Ridge in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Town Center at Lake Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, West Shore now owns and manages seven properties across the Carolinas. In the past 12 months, West Shore has acquired four properties in North and South Carolina. The company's expanding national portfolio now includes 26 residential properties with 8,111 apartment units and well over $1 billion in assets under management. "These properties are in proximity to several other properties that West Shore owns in the Carolinas, situating us well for future expansion in the market," said Steven P. Rosenthal, Chairman of West Shore. "We are very optimistic about the prospect of continued growth in the Carolinas and our portfolio is well positioned to benefit from that growth." Plantation at Pleasant Ridge (www.pleasantridgeplantation.com), located at 1198 Pleasant Ridge Road in Greensboro, North Carolina, offers 288 apartment homes ranging in size from one to three bedrooms. The community has four unique floor plans complete with modern kitchens and high-end finishes such as granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, spacious oversized closets, and private balconies. Extensive community amenities include a zero-entry swimming pool, outdoor cabanas, a fire pit, a state-of-the-art 24-hour fitness center, and a clubhouse containing a billiards room and game room. Pleasant Ridge is conveniently located minutes from Piedmont Triad International Airport, Highway 68 and I-40, and near downtown Greensboro. Town Center at Lake Carolina (www.towncenteratlakecarolina.com), located at 20 Helton Drive in Columbia, South Carolina, is comprised of 260 one to three-bedroom luxury apartment homes. The property features generous clubhouse space, a resort-style pool, a fitness center with yoga studio, a playground, parks and green space, and miles of walking trails. The apartment units are designed with exclusive interior features including open floor plans, high ceilings, and chef-inspired kitchens. The property is located near Lake Carolina with easy access to I-77 and I-20, and a short drive from the University of South Carolina, BlueCross Blue Shield of South Carolina, Fort Jackson, and Prisma Health. "The Plantation at Pleasant Ridge and Town Center at Lake Carolina are both terrific properties and very valuable additions to West Shore's portfolio," said West Shore President Lee Rosenthal. "We look forward to much continued growth in this region for West Shore." In addition to The Plantation at Pleasant Ridge and Town Center at Lake Carolina, West Shore's other multifamily properties in the Carolinas include: Ansley Falls and Aurea Station in Charlotte, NC, Arcadia's Edge in Columbia, SC, Reserve at Mill Landing in Lexington, SC, and Riverwalk Apartments in Rock Hill, SC. ABOUT WEST SHORE LLC West Shore LLC is a fully integrated real estate investment firm with a specific focus on the acquisition and management of multifamily assets. It is a dynamic, fast-growing company that blends an entrepreneurial approach to real estate with institutional investment discipline. Its principals are experienced management and real estate private equity executives. Boston-based West Shore was founded in 2016 and owns and operates a diverse portfolio of 26 multifamily properties in seven states, totaling 8,111 units with a total market value of more than $1 billion. For more information about West Shore LLC, visit the company's website at www.west-shore.com. SOURCE West Shore LLC Related Links www.west-shore.com Backers of a ballot initiative to protect LGBT Michigan residents from discrimination are suing the state, arguing measures taken to limit the spread of COVID-19 made it impossible to collect the required number of signatures for ballot access. Fair and Equal Michigan, whose ballot initiative would amend the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBT people, filed suit in the Michigan Court of Claims Monday challenging rules for citizen-led ballot initiatives, which requires ballot initiative campaigns to collect 340,042 signatures in 180 days to qualify. Theyre asking the courts to reduce the signature requirement to 127,518 registered voters, as the campaign was only able to canvass in-person for 45 of the 180 days allotted to campaigns under state law. The group started collecting signatures in January and also sought mail-in and electronic signatures after the COVID-19 pandemic began. But the states ongoing stay at home order and other COVID-19 measures have made the task of collecting signatures in 180 days insurmountable," Fair and Equal Michigan legal counsel Steven Liedel said in a statement. Dr. Mira Jourdan, a co-chair for the campaign, said Fair and Equal Michigan sought innovative ways to get around the COVID-19 pandemic while complying with state and federal guidelines. "Unfortunately, there is no substitute for traditional canvassing based on cost, time, and quality, Jourdan said in a statement. In a press webinar, Jourdan said Fair and Equal Michigan was on track to meet the campaigns goal of 500,000 signatures prior to COVID-19. Campaign co-chair Trevor Thomas said the campaign will turn in all paper and digital signatures collected in the 180-day period on May 27. Thomas said the campaign plans to turn in just under 180,000 signatures, the vast majority of which will be the paper signatures collected prior to the pandemic. State Sen. Adam Hollier, D-Detroit, and state Rep. Mari Manoogian, D-Birmingham, are also listed in the suit as petition supporters who would be unable to exercise their right to vote for the petition under current law. The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act currently protects people from discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status. The act protects people from housing, employment and other forms of discrimination. The initiative has backing from several businesses, including DTE Energy, Consumers Energy, The Whirlpool Corporation and Herman Miller. It isnt the first time an Elliott-Larsen expansion has been tried. In 2014, a Republican, former Rep. Frank Foster, introduced a bill to add sexual orientation to the list of protected groups, but the effort was unsuccessful. The next year, now-Attorney General Dana Nessel launched a ballot initiative to expand the law, which garnered some bipartisan support but ultimately proved divisive among LGBT activists who preferred a legislative route. The effort eventually folded due to funding issues. Democratic lawmakers renewed their legislative push to include LGBT protections in the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act last year, although Republican lawmakers have said theyre not planning to take up the issue. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission, which investigates claims of discrimination against the groups protected by the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, has authorized investigations into LGBT discrimination by interpreting the laws protection based on sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity. PREVENTION TIPS In addition to washing hands regularly and not touching your face, officials recommend practicing social distancing, assuming anyone may be carrying the virus. Health officials say you should be staying at least 6 feet away from others and working from home, if possible. Use disinfecting wipes or disinfecting spray cleaners on frequently-touched surfaces in your home (door handles, faucets, countertops) and carry hand sanitizer with you when you go into places like stores. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also issued an executive order requiring people to wear face coverings over their mouth and nose while inside enclosed, public spaces. Read all of MLives coverage on the coronavirus at mlive.com/coronavirus. Additional information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. Read more on MLive: Group trying to put LGBT initiative on Michigan ballots turns to electronic signatures Ballot language to include LGBT Michiganders in anti-discrimination law OKed by state board Complete coverage at mlive.com/coronavirus Tuesday, May 26: Latest developments on coronavirus in Michigan Memorial Day boat launch claim sparks controversy as conservatives question Gov. Whitmer Gov. Whitmers relationship with Republican leaders is at an all-time low. Now they need to solve a $3.2B problem together. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently issued an opinion providing helpful language policyholders and their counsel will likely cite in support of arguments for insurance covering business interruption losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Friends of DeVito, et al. v. Tom Wolf, Governor, et al., Pennsylvania business owners brought an emergency petition for relief against the governors executive order closing nonessential businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19. The petitioners generally argued the governor exceeded his statutory authority in issuing the executive order. The court found the governor is vested with broad emergency management powers under the Emergency Code. Indeed, the governor is responsible for meeting the dangers to this Commonwealth and people presented by disasters, and the governor may, by proclamation or executive order, declare a state of emergency. Upon the declaration of a disaster emergency, the governor has expansive emergency management powers, which include controlling the ingress and egress to and from a disaster area. The petitioners raised several challenges to the application of these powers in response to a viral illness such as COVID-19. First, the petitioners argued COVID-19 is not a natural disaster as defined by the Emergency Code. The court disagreed, finding COVID-19 qualifies as a natural disaster, which is defined as: Any hurricane, tornado, storm, flood, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, earthquake, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, drought, fire, explosion or other catastrophe, which results in substantial damage to property, hardship, suffering or possible loss of life. Second, the petitioners argued that even if the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a disaster, the governors authority to control ingress or egress to and from a disaster area did not apply because there had not been any disasters in the areas in which their businesses were located. The court found no merit in that argument, and found the petitioners argument ignored the nature of this virus and the manner in which it is transmitted[:] "The virus spreads primarily through person-to-person contact, has an incubation period of up to 14 days, one in four carriers of the virus are asymptomatic, and the virus can live on surfaces for up to four days. Thus, any location (including Petitioners businesses) where two or more people can congregate is within the disaster area." Therefore, the court held the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the governors authority under the emergency code and the governor had the authority to declare the entirety of the commonwealth a disaster area. Finally, the petitioners argued the respondents exceeded their police powers by ordering the closure of businesses deemed to be non-life-sustaining. The court disagreed, discussing again the risks of the virus. The court noted the exponential increase in positive cases and deaths in Pennsylvania within a short amount of time. A man who vanished while on a camping trip with a female friend went on a solo trip with his drone to nearby woods a week before the pair disappeared, detectives have revealed. Mystery surrounds the disappearance of Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, who went missing on a secret camping trip on March 19 in Victoria's Gippsland Valley. Their disappearance has baffled local authorities who found their campsite burned out two days later, with investigators unable to find the source of the blaze. Investigators feared the pair may have become lost in the remote bushland, but haven't ruled out the possibility that they intentionally went missing. Detectives said Mr Hill went camping by himself between March 11 and 13 around the King Billy and Bluff tracks - about 30km from where the pair disappeared from. He had his had his DJI Mavic drone with him and was driving a white Toyota LandCruiser. Police are urging anyone who was in the area at the time to come forward as they continue to hold out hope of finding the pair alive. Carol Clay, 73, (pictured, left) was once the President of the Country Women's Association of Victoria, and went missing with experienced bushman Russell Hill (right) The pair went missing in the Wonnangatta Valley, more than 200km north east of Melbourne 'This is so police can eliminate people and vehicles from their extensive investigation,' a spokeswoman said. A string of unconfirmed sightings of the missing campers two months after they last made contact has plunged their fate into question, with no bodies found and police finding no evidence of foul play. Mr Hill's Toyota four-wheel-drive was found at the scene with possessions belonging to the couple still inside - but his expensive drone is missing. The pair may have been spotted three times since their disappearance, up to two hours' drive away at Black Snake Creek and Eaglevale River. Detectives have not been able to verify the sightings, but locals reported seeing a couple of similar age. The apparent sightings came two days after Mr Hill last made radio contact with a friend on March 20. Two days later, a woman was seen at Black Snake Creek waiting to use a long-drop toilet, police said. Investigators feared the pair may have become lost in the remote bushland, but haven't ruled out a theory that they vanished intentionally Russell Hill's car (pictured) was also found at the scene with fire damage, but still driveable An older couple were also seen driving from Black Snake Creek hut, with the woman described as wearing lipstick and looking 'out out of place'. Ms Clay has frequently been described as glamorous and well-dressed, and was a beloved member of the Country Women's Association of Victoria. A couple were also seen near the Eaglevale River crossing and campsite, with none of the people in these sightings otherwise accounted for. Police are trying to verify the sightings. A statement on Tuesday night said: 'Police would like to speak with anyone who was in those areas on that date in the hope they can determine whether the couple was Russell and Carol. Friends of devoted grandmother Carol Clay (pictured, right) were surprised to learn she had gone camping, with one close friend describing her as a glamour queen A burnt out campsite was found in remote bushland in Victoria's Wonnangatta Valley (pictured) after the friends went missing on March 20 'Despite a number of searches over the past two months, the pair have not been located and have not contacted family or friends. 'It is still yet to be determined whether their disappearance is suspicious.' Mr Hill's wife of 50 years, Robyn, previously admitted she had no idea her husband had gone camping with another woman. She said her husband had been friendly with Ms Clay for decades but was unaware they were travelling together. Their disappearance is the subject of a major missing persons squad inquiry. Mr Hill's wife Robyn, 71, said her husband (pictured, left) had been friendly with Carol Clay (right) for decades but had no idea they were travelling together VANCOUVERShe arrived at the Vancouver courthouse steps with friends and family and flashed a thumbs-up and a V sign perhaps for victory, or for peace as a photographer snapped pictures. Outwardly, a smiling Meng Wanzhou did not appear worried. The bizarre moment, captured by CBC News this past weekend, seemed somewhat apropos for an extradition case that has drawn international political and legal intrigue. It came just days before a pivotal B.C. Supreme Court ruling in the Huawei executives Canadian saga one that could set her free, or just set the stage for the next round of legal arguments. One legal observer said the staged photo shoot is not something he wouldve advised his client to do. I think its probably ill advised to have done it so blatantly, Gary Botting, a criminal defence lawyer and extradition expert, said Monday. I would have said, Keep a relatively low profile and everything should be normal until the judge has a chance to make her judgment public. Canadian authorities arrested Meng, the Chinese telecom giants chief financial officer and daughter of billionaire entrepreneur Ren Zhengfei, at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, at the behest of U.S. authorities, who have charged her with fraud-related crimes for allegedly violating American sanctions against Iran. The United States alleges Meng lied to HSBC, one of Huaweis bankers, about the companys relationship with its Iran-based affiliate, Skycom, putting the financial institution at risk of violating U.S. sanctions against the country. The American government is seeking to extradite Meng to the U.S. to face those charges. But Canadas extradition act says a suspect can only be extradited to a foreign country if the alleged crime for which they are being sought is a crime in the country where they were arrested a test known as double criminality. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes is expected to announce Wednesday whether that burden has been met. If she says it has, that will pave the way for further hearings in which Mengs lawyers will argue her charter rights were violated when she was detained at Vancouvers airport. However, if Holmes decides the Crown has not met the threshold for double criminality, experts say its likely Meng will be set free. She would no longer be on bail and would be free to move about the country, or she might choose to get on an international flight, if one is available. I would expect, if released from house arrest, that she would leave the jurisdiction as soon as possible, said Lisa Jean Helps, a criminal defence and extradition lawyer. The Crown, of course, would still have the option of filing an appeal. Helps declined to say what she thinks the court will decide, noting there are compelling arguments on both sides. What the defence are saying is this is a very specific crime and we dont have this crime in Canada. What the Department of Justice is saying is this is a very specific crime the way that its on the indictment, but what the actions are would still amount to fraud and we prosecute fraud. Botting, however, said hell be surprised and disappointed if Holmes finds the test for double criminality has been met. Were talking about a case that allegedly occurred in Hong Kong with a bank thats registered in the United Kingdom, he said. Canada doesnt have jurisdiction. Both Huawei and Meng have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Mengs lawyers have denounced her arrest as politically motivated. Less than two weeks after her arrest in December 2018, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians, diplomat-on-leave Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, in a move some Western observers have said can only be seen as retaliatory. They remain in custody. Meng, meanwhile, has been under partial house arrest during the legal proceedings. The CBC reported that Meng arrived to her photo shoot Saturday night in an SUV surrounded by about a dozen family and friends. At one point, the GPS monitoring bracelet she is required to wear on her ankle was visible. The Star reached out to her lawyers and to Huawei representatives for comment but did not get a reply. With files from Wanyee Li and The Canadian Press Read more about: The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has identified the Western Region as a new hotspot for the novel coronavirus in the country. Director General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Aboagye revealed this at a press briefing on Tuesday to give an update on the countrys case update and other associated matters. The new hotspot is the Western Region which has recorded 57 new cases and that is mainly from the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis and Tarkwa. We are going to dispatch a team there to ascertain the situation and offer support to contain it as we did in the case of Obuasi, he stated. According to him the region has already isolated the infected persons and is currently embarking on an aggressive contract tracing to avoid the spread of the disease. Currently Ghana has recorded 6,964 cases with 2,097 recoveries and 32 deaths as at today Tuesday. Dr. Aboagye said the country has so far conducted about 202,130 tests. He also revealed 15 cases are in severe condition although nobody is on a ventilator with about 800 patients in isolation across the country. The latest data also shows ten regions have not recorded any new case while the Savanna Region recording its first case. Dr Patrick Aboagye in his presentation revealed Obuasi which until recently was a hotspot did not record any new case. He also mentioned that they are still awaiting the results of the 245 Ghanaian deportees who currently going under a 14 day mandatory quarantine after arriving in the country on Saturday. Currently government is finalising consultation with various stakeholders including teacher unions and religious boarding ahead of the announcement of guidelines for easing the restrictions. It is unclear whether the President will lift the restrictions when he addresses the country in his next address on the pandemic in the coming days. Meanwhile, the ban on public and social gatherings as well as the closure of the countrys borders is still in force till 31st May. It's been six years since Tama Tauali'i rose to fame in the Australian comedy series Jonah from Tonga. The young actor played Moses, the brother of Chris Lilley's eponymous troublemaker, Jonah Takalua. After stepping away from the spotlight, Tama resurfaced recently as a male model and Instagram influencer. Growing up: Tama Tauali'i, the former child star who played Moses in 2014 comedy series Jonah from Tonga, is now a male model and Instagram influencer. Pictured left on the show, and right in September 2019 Tama, who is based in Melbourne, has a cult following online thanks to his designer wardrobe and edgy social media posts. In March, he showed off his $500 Louis Vuitton beanie on Instagram, striking a number of sassy poses for the camera. 'LV winter set, I'm set,' he wrote in the caption, making sure to tag the luxury designer. Blast from the past: The young actor played Moses (centre right), the brother of Chris Lilley's eponymous troublemaker, Jonah Takalua (centre), in the short-lived series Designer wardrobe: Tama, who is based in Melbourne, has a cult following online thanks to his designer wardrobe and edgy social media posts. Pictured in March Several days earlier, he had posted another photo of himself modelling a Gucci T-shirt, worth around $1,000. Tama has also dabbled in professional modelling, according to his StarNow profile, but has only appeared in a handful of shoots so far. He is set to return to screens this year in the upcoming comedy Paper Champions, alongside Gary Sweet and John Tui. Poser: Tama (second from left) has also dabbled in professional modelling, according to his StarNow profile, but has only appeared in a handful of shoots so far Expensive taste! In March, he posted this photo of himself modelling a $1,000 Gucci T-shirt Jonah from Tonga was a spin-off that aired for one season following the success of Chris Lilley's 2007 hit series Summer Heights High. Chris played a volatile teenager named Jonah who was expelled from school in Sydney and sent to Tonga to strighten himself out. Jonah from Tonga ran for six episodes and followed Jonah's return to Australia with the new goal of becoming a well-behaved student. Coming soon! Tama is set to return to screens this year in the upcoming comedy Paper Champions, alongside Gary Sweet and John Tui (Newser) The widower of a former congressional staffer of Joe Scarborough has gone directly to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with a plea: Delete President Trump's conspiracy theories suggesting that Scarborough killed his wife. Trump has been pushing the idea hard of late that Scarborough, now at MSNBC, played a role in the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, and Timothy Klausutis is now pushing back. Coverage: The letter: Trump "tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough," Klausutis wrote in a letter to Dorsey that was first revealed by Kara Swisher in a New York Times column. "Please delete these tweets. My wife deserves better." At another point: "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the president of the United States has taken something that does not belong to himthe memory of my dead wifeand perverted it for perceived political gain." Trump "tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough," Klausutis wrote in a letter to Dorsey that was first revealed by Kara Swisher in a New York Times column. "Please delete these tweets. My wife deserves better." At another point: "I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the president of the United States has taken something that does not belong to himthe memory of my dead wifeand perverted it for perceived political gain." Another line: "An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed." story continues below The death: Lori Klausutis, 28, worked as a constituent services coordinator, and she died in Scarborough's office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. An autopsy found that she suffered from an undiagnosed heart condition, and authorities concluded that she fainted and struck her head, reports Newsweek. Scarborough was actually in DC at the time of her death, notes Axios. Lori Klausutis, 28, worked as a constituent services coordinator, and she died in Scarborough's office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. An autopsy found that she suffered from an undiagnosed heart condition, and authorities concluded that she fainted and struck her head, reports Newsweek. Scarborough was actually in DC at the time of her death, notes Axios. Trump: The president has tweeted multiple times about the death. An example: "A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida ... and, he's a Nut Job (with bad ratings)," Trump wrote Saturday. "Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!" On Tuesday, Trump revisited the subject: "The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus," he wrote. The president has tweeted multiple times about the death. An example: "A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida ... and, he's a Nut Job (with bad ratings)," Trump wrote Saturday. "Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!" On Tuesday, Trump revisited the subject: "The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus," he wrote. Twitter response: Twitter has not removed the Trump posts, notes Politico. "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," said a spokesperson. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly." Swisher's column reports that the company is speeding up plans to label some tweets as false and provide links to credible information refuting them. Twitter has not removed the Trump posts, notes Politico. "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," said a spokesperson. "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly." Swisher's column reports that the company is speeding up plans to label some tweets as false and provide links to credible information refuting them. Scarborough response: What Trump is doing is "unspeakably cruel" to the Klausutis family, Scarborough said Tuesday on his show, per Cleveland.com. "I know all too well how much (widower) T.J. has suffered, and how muchhe's told me his family has suffered. ... Every time they spread these lies, they're hurting the family." What Trump is doing is "unspeakably cruel" to the Klausutis family, Scarborough said Tuesday on his show, per Cleveland.com. "I know all too well how much (widower) T.J. has suffered, and how muchhe's told me his family has suffered. ... Every time they spread these lies, they're hurting the family." Fact-checker: The Fact Checker blog of the Washington Post previously dug into the conspiracy theories and concluded they're bunk. They received the worst possible score of Four Pinocchios, "and we wish we had more to give." (Read more President Trump stories.) Avenue Supermarts, the owner of supermarket chain D-Mart, is among few stocks that enjoy the reputation of giving strong returns to its investors. The company is well-positioned in terms of the business model and balance sheet, but the ongoing turmoil, caused by coronavirus, has cast a dark shadow over the near-term prospects of the company. On May 23, the company registered a 41.6 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit for the quarter ended March 2020, driven by the lower tax rate, other income and strong revenue growth. However, the jump in profit was overshadowed by contracting margins and management commentary which underscored the stress that the company experienced during the month of March 2020 due to lockdown. "Overall revenue grew by 23 percent during the March quarter, however during March month 2020 it grew by just 11 percent over March 2019 due to the lockdown effect of the last 9 days of March this year," Neville Noronha, CEO & Managing Director said. "Margins have also seen erosion as regulations did not permit us to sell any apparel and general merchandise products," he added. On the operating front, there was a mixed picture. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 12.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 417.33 crore in March quarter, but margin contracted to 6.67 percent in Q4FY20, against 7.35 percent reported in March quarter 2019. Read more: D-Mart operator's Q4 profit jumps 42% to Rs 271 crore, but margins contract Brokerages keep negative views The near-term outlook for the company, at this juncture, looks gloomy. Most brokerages have come out with 'sell' or 'reduce' ratings on the stock. A few have retained a 'neutral' view. The company has witnessed a 45 percent decline in its April revenue, as more than half of its stores remained closed during the lockdown. Even after the lockdown ends, there are apprehensions that there may be a shift in consumer behaviour in terms of spending. If the apprehensions turn into reality, stress for D-Mart will accentuate. Credit Suisse Global brokerage firm Credit Suisse has a 'neutral' rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,150. Credit Suisse has cut the company's earnings estimates by 3-9 percent. Kotak Institutional Equities Kotak Institutional Equities has a 'sell' call on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,480. The brokerage said while revenue growth at 23 percent and rise in profit at 41 percent YoY was below estimates, store addition of 18 exceeded expectations. Kotak, too, has revised down FY21 EPS estimate by 8 percent. However, it expects normal operations FY22 onwards. Motilal Oswal Motilal Oswal Financial Services has maintained a 'sell' call on D-Mart with a target price of Rs 1,900 and said retail companies are expected to see revenue erosion. We cut our FY21 EBITDA by 17 percent but retain our estimates for FY22. We raise our target multiple on EV/EBITDA to 40 times from 35 times and arrive at a target price of Rs 1,900 from the current price, which still implies a 21 percent downside," said Motilal. HDFC Securities The brokerage has a 'sell' call on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,750. The brokerage expects D-Mart's gross margin and EBITDA margin to remain under pressure as the essentials remain high in revenue mix till June-end. "To add to the woes, D-Mart may also have to contend with the rising cost of retailing as contract labour comes at a premium and lower margin D-Mart Ready sales may inch up during the pandemic," HDFC Securities said. It has cut D-Mart's FY21 EPS by 11 percent to factor in lower gross margins. ICICI Securities The brokerage has downgraded D-Mart to a 'reduce' from a 'hold' and cut the target price to Rs 2,200 from Rs 2,300. "We cut earnings estimates by 7-14 percent to reflect greater than-expected margin impact; modelling revenue/EBITDA/PAT CAGR of 25 percent/29 percent/32 percent over FY20-22E. At our target price, the stock will trade at 60 times P/E March 22E," ICICI said. The brokerage said key upside risks for D-Mart are fast turnaround of e-commerce operations and faster-than-expected recovery. IDBI Capital IDBI Capital, too, has downgraded the stock to a 'reduce' and cut the target price to Rs 2,076 from Rs 2,139. "Recovery in revenue during the first two weeks of May 2020 is encouraging but significantly below normal levels. We believe, FY21E will be very challenging for D-Mart in terms of business-recovery in brick and mortar stores due to social-distancing and restricted store opening timings," IDBI said. Crumbling walls? It will be an exaggeration if Avenue Supermarts is termed as the story of the past. The company has the ability to come back strongly, surprise the Street and make analysts and investors rethink their strategies on it. Motilal Oswal is of the view while Q1FY21 could be a washout, D-Mart could see recovery sooner than other retailers as nondiscretionary revenue contributes 72 percent to the total revenue," said Motilal. Motilal highlighted that the company had raised Rs 4,000 crore through QIP in Q4FY20, which has strengthened the balance sheet and helped it reach the current net cash position. This has enhanced its liquidity position in these uncertain times. "D-Mart is well-positioned in terms of both business model and balance sheet to recover from the ongoing turmoil in the economic environment. This is as it caters to a large proportion of low-ticket items and has a strong balance sheet," said Motilal. Besides, the fear of a shift in consumer behaviour in the post-coronavirus era seems to be overdone. Ridham Desai, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley India in a chat with CNBC-TV18 said India has come away relatively unscathed by COVID-19. So, it is unlikely that there will be a permanent shift in consumer behaviour. "A lot of the businesses that have been affected by the lockdown and social distancing will come back. I think consumer behaviour will revert to the way it was. A permanent shift in behaviour is unlikely. I do not see disruption caused by COVID-19 persisting more than 6-12 months," Desai said. D-Mart is going to have a tough time in the near-term due to disruption caused by COVID-19, but it makes little sense to write off the company's long-term story. From the second half of FY21, the company is expected to see normalcy coming gradually. The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Managing chargebacks has become even more critical to businesses these days, given the global pandemic situation and the uncertainty that has come with it. Thats why weve chosen to partner with the industry leader in chargeback mitigation, Chargebacks911 PayCertify, a leading online payment processor for the eCommerce, healthcare and hospitality sectors, today announced its partnership with dispute management specialist, Chargebacks911. The collaboration has been established to deliver a complete chargeback management and mitigation system for PayCertify. As such, its online merchants will benefit from assistance in preventing, managing and recovering lost revenue due to chargebacks. Chase Harmer, CEO of PayCertify, commented: Chargebacks are never a good thing for online merchants. Theyre destructive, take valuable resources away from real business growth opportunities, and cost businesses millions every year. Managing chargebacks has become even more critical to businesses these days, given the global pandemic situation and the uncertainty that has come with it. Thats why weve chosen to partner with the industry leader in chargeback mitigation, Chargebacks911, to support our merchants and protect them from the financial losses resulting from chargebacks and issues with an order. PayCertify reached out to Chargebacks911 due to the end-to-end benefits of its merchant services. Even though chargeback services are often seen as a post-transaction process, appropriate management has positive effects on a transaction from the start of the payment process to the settlement. Chargebacks911 does so by using chargeback data to help merchants identify the main source of their chargebacks, enabling them to better understand fraud, errors in their own operations and consumer behavior. Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO and Co-Founder of Chargebacks911, explained: The complexities in the chargeback system often leave merchants throwing their hands in the air in frustration. However, when properly managed, chargebacks can be a great source of important information that can be used when growing a business. Were perfectly placed to help PayCertify to better inform its merchants about chargebacks, to help them reduce losses and increase revenue and were thrilled to be doing so. Reports also show that consumers who register a chargeback that goes unchallenged are 50% more likely to file another chargeback within 90 days. So, by helping to identify which disputes to challenge, Chargebacks911 will also help PayCertifys merchants reduce future claims (and the associated costs). Available immediately, chargeback management solutions include Visa Merchant Purchase Inquiry (VMPI), alerts and chargeback dispute resolution. For more information, you can or contact a PayCertify representative at https://paycertify.com/. For more about using chargeback data insights to grow your business with Chargebacks911, go to: https://chargebacks911.com/. About PayCertify: PayCertify was founded in 2014 to protect merchants from fraud while reducing processing fees and increasing bottom-line profit up to 10%. PayCertify offers an all-in-one suite providing merchants a full service, front to back solution that merges fraud prevention of each transaction while stopping chargebacks in their tracks. With our robust platform, we also provide additional services such as CRM management, shopping cart integrations, and the ability to issue manage Virtual Credit Cards. These virtual cards can be used in any B2B model, pay vendors, affiliates, or buy media with instant cashback up to 2% - giving you free cash where there wasnt before. PayCertify's technology and services give users the optimal merchant processing experience and maximum protection from beginning to end on every transaction. We have filled a gap in the marketplace and have become a leader in the verticals of E-commerce, Healthcare, and Travel/Hospitality sectors. PayCertify understands merchants struggles and has created easy, user-friendly integration for world-leading shopping carts. To find out more about PayCertify and how it can help you scale your business, you can check out our explainer video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yz2W2JU0DM) or visit us at https://paycertify.com/. About Chargebacks911: Founded in 2011, Chargebacks911 is the first global company fully dedicated to mitigating chargeback risk and eliminating chargeback fraud. Its comprehensive and highly scalable solutions such as Intelligence Source Detection (ISD) and Tactical Representment provide chargeback compliance, handling services and fraud strategy management, working to uncover the true source of chargebacks; battle unjustified disputes; rescue lost revenue; safeguard reputations, and defend against relentless cyberthreats. As an industry-leading innovator, Chargebacks911 is credited with developing the most effective strategies for helping businesses maximize revenue and reduce loss in a variety of industries and sectors within the payments space. The companys unparalleled expertise and proprietary technology has earned four consecutive CNP Customer Choice Awards for Best Chargeback Management Solution, three successive AI Lions Den Awards for Best Airline Industry Solution, Gold and Silver Stevie Awards from the American Business Awards (ABA), Most Innovative Retail, PSP or Acquiring Solution at the 2019 EPAwards, and more recently was named Best Technical & Service Provider Organisation at the 2020 MPE Awards. A new species of cockatoo has been discovered in Western Australia. A large genetic study discovered the new subspecies of a red-tailed black cockatoo after mistaking it for an inland species. Researchers from the Australian Museum, University of Sydney, CSIRO and the University of Edinburgh made the find in the Wheatbelt, east of Perth. Researchers including Kyle Ewart have helped discover a new subspecies of the Australian red-tailed black cockatoo when it was previously thought to be the same as the inland species (Kyle Ewart pictured taking tissue samples) Researchers collected roadkill and cockatoo specimens from museums across Australia and found the new subspecies existed east of Perth, on the Wheatbelt (the Calyptorhynchus banksii macrorhynchus subspecies pictured) Researcher Kyle Ewart said they knew the population was in the region but until now had assumed they were the same as the inland species. But genetic testing showed the Western Australia red-tailed black cockatoo was more closely related to the forest red-tailed cockatoo than the inland species. 'They have evolved to be similar because they both feed on the ground and live in similar arid and semi-arid habitats,' Mr Ewart said. 'Despite this similarity, an avian morphologist contributed his analysis which found specific features that can be used to distinguish (between them).' As a result of the discovery the team had to give the subspecies a new classification. The new classification is Calyptorhynchus banksii escondidus, which in part means 'new' and was chosen because the animal was 'hidden in plain sight'. Researchers collected roadkill and old taxidermy birds from museums across Australia to take tissue samples for genetic testing. The Australian red-tailed black cockatoo is divided into five subspecies spread out across wide regions of Australia (pictured) with focus now turning toward conservation of the new species 'We were able to extract a large amount of genetic data from these specimens, some of which were over 100 years old,' Mr Ewart said. 'Allowing us to investigate the relationships between the current subspecies. 'This extensive genetic assessment of the red-tailed black-cockatoo has shed light on the species evolution, taxonomy and conservation.' Those samples revealed the birds were genetically different to what researchers expected, which has put a priority on uncovering the protection needs of the animal. Mr Ewart said they had to study the new subspecies in more detail because the discovery was an 'important step' in protecting the red-tailed black cockatoo. 'We hope that this study can be used to inform conservation strategies to ensure the ongoing survival of this magnificent species,' he said. Paris -- With cat photos and sometimes scathing irony, Mathieu Rebeaud, a Swiss-based researcher in biochemistry, has nearly tripled his Twitter following since the coronavirus pandemic began. With 14,000 followers, he posts almost daily, giving explanations on the latest scientific research and, in particular, aims to fight misinformation that spreads as fast as the virus itself. He is among a growing number of doctors, academics and institutions who in recent weeks have adapted and amplified their scientific messaging in hopes of countering what has been termed an infodemic -- a deluge of information, including widespread false claims, which experts say can pose a serious threat to public health. To cut through the noise however, it is imperative to work quickly and maximise social media engagement to get simple prevention messages across to the public, according to researchers and specialists. "In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories provide complete, simple, seemingly rationalistic and watertight explanations," Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius, a University of Helsinki researcher, said. "This is in stark contrast to the available scientific knowledge -- complex, fragmented, changeable and contested -- and to the actions of political decision-makers and state authorities, which appear haphazard and self-contradictory," she added. In February, British medical journal The Lancet warned that "the rapid dissemination of trustworthy information" was needed most during a period of uncertainty. This includes transparent identification of cases, data sharing and unhampered communication, as well as peer-reviewed research, it said. Rigorous and time-heavy scientific studies and publications, however, compete with the immediacy of social media and a public often demanding firm and definitive answers. "How do we communicate in this context of radical uncertainty?" asked Mikael Chambru, a scientific communication specialist at France's University of Grenoble Alpes. No choice Jean-Francois Chambon, a doctor and director of communications at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said he had no choice but to forcefully deny a widely shared video in March accusing the institution of having "created" the new coronavirus. "We must go to any lengths" to debunk the lies, he said. The institute created a web page dedicated to educating the public about the virus, Chambon said. "We realised that there was a lot of 'fake news' on the subject," he added. The Pasteur Institute currently has a combined 16,000 new subscribers a month on its social media networks, he said, compared with 4,000 before the pandemic. Jean-Gabriel Ganascia, chairman of the ethics committee at France's National Centre for Scientific Research, agreed that the scientific community must counterattack in such situations. "We don't have a choice," he told AFP. Earlier this month, the Red Cross launched what it said was the first global network of social media influencers to battle misinformation and spread lifesaving content about the pandemic. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has entered into an agreement with Facebook to transmit information directly to users via personal message services. But it is often individual doctors and researchers who can have a strong influence online. Dutch microbiologist Elisabeth Bik tweeted a one-sentence summary of a vast study on the effects of antiviral drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine last week, just hours after its release. Her tweet -- "Each drug combination was associated with *lower* survival and more ventricular arrhythmias." -- sparked a lively and wide-ranging debate online. Education Scientists involved in the debate want to forge a "culture of science" among the public to help them understand what they hear and read, Chambru said. Rather than simply imposing the view of a leading authority without any explanation, they aim to help people understand how science works including the need for studies to abide by rules and standards, he added. "The position of authority would be extremely unpopular with the public," Ganascia agreed. Rebeaud, the biochemistry researcher popular on Twitter, said he was much less present on social media before the pandemic but had felt drawn to defend science. The battle however feels unbalanced, said the researcher, who works at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. "Dismantling nonsense takes 10 times more energy than spreading it," he said, agreeing with the findings of a 2018 study by the magazine Science which noted that "lies spread faster than the truth". Some scientists have called for a review of science education so that the public is less permeable to false information. Information campaigns "cannot be perceived as an exclusive antidote to fight fake news," Italian communications researcher Mafalda Sandrini said. Eliza Paris was 25 years old when she was diagnosed with stage four appendix cancer, requiring 12 rounds of chemotherapy and an 18-hour surgery to remove her ovaries, gallbladder, spleen, appendix and part of her colon. She relearned how to walk in the halls of New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. When she finished treatment and left, she hoped the cancer was gone and she would never have to come back. But a few months later, the disease returned, requiring chemotherapy that drips for 48 hours every other week a regimen she'll likely need in some form for the rest of her life. "I thought I'd tackled everything I could tackle in my lifetime, and then comes a pandemic where I live in New York City, in the epicenter," said Paris, now 27. Much of the day-to-day cancer treatment at Sloan Kettering paused when COVID-19 hit, and Paris drove to Atlanta to work from home with her family. Twenty-five days into her quarantine there, after family dinner and Jeopardy!, she began feeling sick to her stomach. Later that night, she fainted. She recalls being asked if she had a living will, and whether she wanted to be resuscitated. After emergency kidney surgery, she woke up in the ICU. She had sepsis, coronavirus and cancer. "I hit the trifecta," Paris said. "I was also trying to advocate for myself, to say, 'Listen, I'm not your normal 27-year-old woman. I have cancer.'" Image: Eliza Paris (Courtesy of Eliza Paris) "It was a very overwhelming experience," Paris continued. "But, you know, when I think back to it, I don't think about all of that. All I think about was how hard I was trying to catch my breath." For cancer patients in the age of COVID-19, the road to recovery has taken a tumultuous turn. Cancer hospitals like Sloan Kettering have been forced to reimagine how to care or how to safely postpone care for tens of thousands of patients, including many like Paris who battled cancer and coronavirus simultaneously. Cancer surgeries have been postponed, treatments interrupted and screenings practically halted; operating rooms had to morph into ICUs, as the world's oldest and largest private cancer center joined the frontline of a global pandemic. Story continues "We were all feeling scared," said Dr. Jeffrey Drebin, the chair of surgery at Sloan Kettering. "But there was a sort of a sense of mission, a sense of trying to continue our cancer care and to do COVID care for our patients, and to be part of the greater community." Paris, like the majority of Sloan Kettering's patients with COVID-19, has now recovered from the virus, the hospital said. A longer term challenge lies ahead; patients must feel safe enough to return to Sloan Kettering to resume their cancer treatments, even if it means braving the coronavirus crisis outside. Nationwide, preventive screenings have dropped by roughly 90 percent compared to the same period in each of the past three years, according to a recent analysis of 2.7 million patient records. And as coronavirus continues to consume news cycles, Sloan Kettering's leaders worry that cancer patients may feel safer at home even after that is no longer the case. Image: The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. (Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images file) "Cancer has not taken a vacation," said Dr. Lisa DeAngelis, the chief medical officer at Sloan Kettering. "It hasn't been sheltering in place. It's been doing what it does, which is develop and, unfortunately, grow." But while Sloan Kettering is a specialized cancer center, it too was consumed by coronavirus's descent on New York City hospitals. The hospital says it had 25,000 patients in active cancer treatment at the time, in addition to serving hundreds of thousands more who continue to seek health care there after their treatment finishes. "Many hundred" of Sloan Kettering's patients contracted coronavirus, DeAngelis said, and looked to the cancer center for help. Cancer patients are high-risk for coronavirus complications, as both the disease and its treatments tend to weaken the immune system, according to the American Cancer Society. In a recent study of 218 coronavirus patients with cancer in New York City, roughly one in four patients died. A similar study involving 14 hospitals in China found the coronavirus's death rate was three times higher for cancer patients. The faces behind those statistics can be younger than most coronavirus victims. David Behrbom, a Bronx elementary school teacher, passed away at age 47 after being diagnosed with both leukemia and coronavirus within the span of a few days. Jeffrey Ghazarian, who reportedly beat testicular cancer four years ago, passed away in Pasadena at age 34. Ron Golden, a Marine in the Reagan White House turned truck driver in Tennessee, had just started chemotherapy for lung cancer when he contracted COVID-19 and passed away at age 56, said his wife, Josie Keaton. Related: "This is really the safest approach," said David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. "It's like a nightmare," said Keaton. "We knew he had maybe a year, but we knew we had time together. We had things we were going to try and do." This heightened risk is part of the reason why many cancer hospitals like Sloan Kettering tried to reduce patient volume as much as possible, moving oncologists meetings onto iPads, for example, and postponing surgeries in favor of chemotherapy and radiation. In the toughest weeks, Sloan Kettering went from roughly 110 surgeries a day to about 20 to 25, Drebin said. Triage decisions are not easy at the U.S.'s largest cancer surgery program; there are very few optional surgeries. A multi-departmental committee met twice a day on matters like these a series of risk-benefit calculations that pitted a global pandemic against America's deadliest disease for adults under 65. "We worked very hard to try to get everyone cared for as quickly as possible," said Drebin. "But I would say ties always went to kids." Image: Eliza Paris (Courtesy of Eliza Paris) Surgeries decreased in part because of Sloan Kettering's preparations for an influx of coronavirus patients. It repurposed operating rooms and converted an additional floor into ICU beds, promising coronavirus care to their patients, employees and employees' families. Aside from early restrictions on N95 masks, Sloan Kettering had enough resources to offer help to the rest of the city; they say they sent out 35 ventilators and offered to take in cancer patients from more crowded hospitals. They now believe, cautiously, that the worst is behind them. "There've been many moments when I sort of can't believe that this is happening in the United States of America" said DeAngelis. "We, along with others, are really now turning our attention to the fact that, you know, we've got to take care of people. They have other illnesses, other problems that haven't gone away." Cancer is the devil they know, and they are increasingly shifting resources back to that original mission. Testing is a big part of that; DeAngelis said patients are screened the day before their appointment, tested upon admission and tested again every three days afterward. All patient-facing employees have been tested at least once, and staff on high-risk units are tested weekly. Related: Many cancer treatments weaken the immune system, putting patients at greater risk for contracting COVID-19. NBC's Sarah Dallof reports. But the once-bustling hospital, much like the Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood where it sits, still feels empty. When Paris, now back in New York, goes in for treatment, she is the only person allowed in the waiting room. The halls are less crowded, and visitors are restricted; her mother must wait in the car as she undergoes procedures like CT scans, chemotherapy and blood work taken through a port in her chest. "Sloan's doing an amazing job of keeping all the patients comfortable and isolated from one another, but making sure that they're also attended at the same time," said Paris, who has filmed a series of video diaries for NBC News about her return to treatment. "I cannot say enough amazing things about the staff here right now." Paris drove 14 hours from Georgia to resume chemotherapy at Sloan Kettering, but many other patients still have cancer treatment on pause. One in four cancer patients surveyed by the American Cancer Society as of April 8 reported a delay in their treatment, and half of those patients didn't know when treatment will be rescheduled. Thirty-eight percent of survivors and patients said the pandemic had affected their ability to pay for health care. A cancer treatment backlog is troubling, DeAngelis said, because an early-stage disease is much easier to treat. The current situation could become even more serious if another wave of COVID-19 comes, DeAngelis said, especially because some patients appear more scared of coronavirus than cancer. "They're going to want to wait for the virus to get quieter, if you will, which hopefully that's coming," said DeAngelis. "In the next month or so, maybe they will start coming back. But...if screening has been delayed, there might be yet another wave of people who need care just at the point in time when the virus may reemerge as a more prevalent public health problem." "If those things coincide, we can't just shut everything down," DeAngelis continued. "I think we would be doing a real disservice to our patients with cancer." It's a concern echoed by the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society in a recent interview with NPR. Last year, investigators found that lung cancer patients who experienced a hurricane disaster during radiotherapy had worse overall survival rates. For natural disasters lasting just under a month, risk of death increased 27 percent. With data like this in mind, experts fear the coronavirus pandemic, officially over two months old, could spike an already somber estimate out of the American Cancer Society; 600,000 people will die of cancer in 2020. One of the greatest challenges for cancer care will be restoring patient confidence, DeAngelis said. To this end, Drebin and DeAngelis said Sloan Kettering has taken every possible precaution to be able to protect patients from coronavirus. "We have to be able to reassure them that we can get them through their course of treatment and take care of them," said DeAngelis, adding, "It is a huge amount to ask, because people are feeling vulnerable in many ways right now, right? Health is only one of them." Experts like DeAngelis and Drebin say it is crucial to return to identifying and healing the melanomas, leukemias, carcinomas, lymphomas and sarcomas that have been claiming Americans young and old for decades. They will continue to do so, pandemic or not. "We have to all figure out how to coexist with it, to take care of people who are affected by the coronavirus, but also take care of their cancer," said DeAngelis. "That's the mantra right now." Congress will "probably" have to pass more legislation to mitigate the damage from the coronavirus pandemic, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. The Kentucky Republican said a measure to lift the U.S. economy would have a more narrow scope than the $3 trillion package House Democrats approved earlier this month. He said states' progress in restarting their economies in the coming weeks will help to inform what Congress does. McConnell noted that "we need to make sure we have unemployment insurance properly funded for as long as we need," as tens of millions of people lose paychecks. "So, in the next few weeks, we'll determine whether there is yet another bill," he told reporters Tuesday in his home state. Congress has passed four bills to respond to the crisis, most recently approving a plan to replenish a small business aid program about a month ago. Many lawmakers and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have argued Washington should take more steps to jolt the economy as the unemployment rate stood at 14.7% in April and pockets of the country remain under restrictions to protect public health. While Democrats have pushed for more legislation for weeks, the GOP has started to warm to another round of stimulus in recent days. President Donald Trump and his top advisors signaled their support for another rescue bill last week. The president mentioned the possibility of a second direct payment to individuals which McConnell did not address Tuesday. The Senate Republican leader again insisted he would push for liability protections for doctors and businesses as the economy reopened. Democrats have been uneasy about creating shields from lawsuits. McConnell also said he would want additional relief for state and local governments to be tailored only to increased expenses and revenue lost due to the coronavirus outbreak. Democrats included nearly $1 trillion for cash-strapped states and municipalities in their bill as leaders from both parties ask for more money. It is unclear for how long and at what level McConnell would want to fund federal unemployment insurance benefits. Last week, the senator said the next congressional bill would not extend the $600 per week sum the U.S. government added to what recipients normally get from states. The extra federal benefit is set to expire at the end of July. The Democratic bill passed earlier this month would extend it through January. Iran-China trade falls 40% in first 4 months of 2020 yr/yr 05/26/20 Source: Tehran Times TEHRAN- Iran's trade with its top trading partner China reached $5.26 billion in the first four months of 2020, 40 percent less than the same period last year, Tasnim reported. As reported, the two countries' trade turnover stood at $8.76 in the last year's four-month period. Based on the data released by the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, Iranian imports from the Asian country reached $2.92 billion in the January-April period, indicating a three percent rise compared to the same time span in 2019. The exports to China, however, fell 61 percent to stand at $2.34 billion. China mainly imports oil from Iran and the drastic fall in oil prices has been the main reason for the devaluation of Iran's exports to China during this period. The outbreak of coronavirus was also another major factor that contributed to the significant decline in China's trade with Iran. The commercial exchange between the two countries stood at $3.94 billion during the first three months of 2020 to register a 30.4 percent decline compared with the corresponding period of 2019. Iran's exports to China totaled $1.81 billion in the Q1 2020, indicating a 52.7 percent year-on-year decrease. In return, China exported $2.13 billion worth of commodities to Iran during the period under review, up by 15.9 percent year-on-year. Iran and China have had a long history of cultural, political, and economic exchanges along the Silk Road since at least 200 BC, and possibly earlier. To this day, China and Iran have developed a friendly economic and strategic partnership. Approximately 80 percent of China's total imports from Iran are oil and the rest is mineral and chemical products. With a drastic fall in the number of migrant workers, including construction labourers, daily wage earners and their dependents, the district administration has shut down one of its five community kitchens set up at a Shani temple at the Delhi-Noida border. During the peak of the lockdown period, the Noida authority had served food to 1.3 lakh migrant workers daily. However, presently, only less than 40% of the dependents need free food from kitchens, said officials. We have decided to shut down a community kitchen at the Shani temple because most of the migrants who were depended on this facility are not turning up for free food. Earlier, we were cooking food for at least 600 people at this facility. But now, most of them may have either gone back to their respective home towns or have gone back to their work, said Avinash Tripathi, officer on special duty of the Noida authority. The authority officials said that less than 40% the people now need food across the city in different areas. The Noida authority is running four community kitchens in the district in areas such as Harola, Sector 5, Bhangel, Sorkha and Mamura. When the government announced the nationwide lockdown with the aim of preventing the spread of Covid-19 infection, the Noida authority had started these kitchens to distribute fresh food for the migrants, who were left jobless. But the Uttar Pradesh government on May 18 decided to resume operations at factories, construction sites and other businesses. The government also started providing transport facilities to the migrants so that they can go back to their respective home towns. The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration and other agencies have sent back more than 80,000 migrants already. We believe that most of them have back gone to their home towns and others have returned to their respective jobs, said Tripathi. The authority officials said that migrants are leaving the city daily and their numbers are decreasing very fast. If all these migrants leave, we will shut down all the kitchens. As per data available, till May 24, the authority has distributed 1,07,376 food packets to migrant workers. An additional 50 lakh food packets were distributed by self help groups, developers, private firms, corporate houses and individuals. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON 2) If Trump tried to move the GOP convention to one of his Florida properties, either Mar-a-Lago or the Trump National Doral Miami, the Fake News media would claim hes trying to profit off the convention. But if he moves the event offshore, it wont be his fault if conventiongoers decide to stay at Mar-a-Lago or Doral and get ferried via Trump-branded Super Duper Ferries, only $500 each way back and forth to the convention while wearing Trump-branded life preservers ($50/per day rental, life preservation not guaranteed) and taking out MAGA-approved hurricane insurance policies through Trump Insurance Service. Thinking about Brad Pitt hanging out with both of his ex-wives Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie is somewhat like a dream or fantasy in the Hollywood world. With the history surrounding the trio, it seems impossible that they could be friends or even hangout randomly. With all the drama of divorce and alleged cheating, seeing Brad, Angelina and Jennifer altogether could be on the top of the list of all impossible things that could happen on Earth. But did you know that decades ago, Pitt's exes got the chance to meet each other and even exchange pleasantries face-to-face? However, it looks like the "Maleficient" star is quite in denial about it. The Lie Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were considered Hollywood's golden couple back in the 90s. Their romance eventually led to the aisle in 2000 but ended with a divorce and zero children five years later. Before their most-talked-about public separation, Brad was working on a movie with Angelina Jolie. The action-romance "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" hit the theaters in 2004. The film about a husband and wife struggling to keep their marriage while working as assassins became a blockbuster movie. Rumor has it that it was the start of Brad's infidelity to Jenn because a year later, their marriage fell apart and Brad eventually had a relationship with Angelina. During the height of the controversy, Angelina claimed that she never got the chance to meet the famous "Friends" actress, but it seems she is not telling the real story. Jennifer Aniston's Side of the Story In an interview with Vanity Fair in September 2005, Jennifer revealed that she had the opportunity to meet Angelina once. "I was on the Friends lot and pulled over and introduced myself," Jenn said. "I said, 'Brad is so excited about working with you. I hope you guys have a really good time.'" During the same interview, the actress revealed that when Brad started filming for the said blockbuster movie, he has been emotionally unavailable in their marriage. Angelina Jolie's Explanation When the same question about meeting Jennifer was asked to the now 44-year-old actress, an immediate "no" was her initial response about it. "But... so... you asked if I have ever met Jennifer, and I said no," Angelina said in a 2007 Vogue interview. The "Tomb Raider" star explained what happened when Jennifer approached her was not a proper meeting in her point of view. "I did, but it was not a proper meeting. We've, like, passed each other and said hi briefly, shook hands. But not a real sit-down-and-talk kind of meeting," she added. When asked if she is up for a get-together with Brad's ex-wife, Angelina said: "That would be her decision, and I would welcome it." Brad and Angelina had been in a relationship for almost 12 years before ending their marriage in 2016. They share six children, namely Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 13, and twins Viviene and Leon, 11, to whom they are currently having a tedious custody battle. Derby/New Delhi/IBNS: A man of Pakistani origin, who on Monday vandalised a Gurdwara in the English city of Derby on Monday, has been arrested, media reports said. The man has allegedly caused damages worth thousands of pounds at the Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara which is around 200 km from England's capital city London. A CCTV footage also shown the arrested man was breaking the windows of Gurdwara. An investigation has also been launched by police. As per a communique received by New Delhi, the man also left a note on Kashmir, which has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan since 1947 which marked the end of the British rule in India. "When the attack took place, it was time of kirtan (prayer) but due to lockdown, no one was in the gurdwara," a government official told NDTV. A statement issued by the Gurdwara read, "This morning at 6 am an individual entered the Gurdwara premises causing thousands of pounds of damage... We can confirm that no individuals were injured and that the clean-up process has begun." Jammu and Kashmir, the former Indian state which was turned into an union territory in August last year after the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, is a bone of contention between the two nuclear armed nations- India and Pakistan. Pakistan is going all out to raise the Kashmir issue internationally since India's abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A (special powers to former Jammu and Kashmir state) , often seeking the help of its all-weather ally China. (Image Credit: Screenshot grab) Earlier, as part of its pre-series A round, Euler Motors had raised Rs 15 crore from Blume Venture, US based Emergent Ventures and Andrew Lee. With this series A, Euler Motors has so far raised more than Rs 35 crore. Euler Motors, the automotive technology start-up focused on commercial Electric Vehicles (EVs) has raised Rs 20 crore as a part of its ongoing Series A funding led by the Inventus Capital India. The other investors in this round of funding include Blume Ventures, Singapore-based Jetty Ventures India Investments, and Udaans co-founder Sujeet Kumar. Earlier, as part of its pre-series A round, the company had raised Rs 15 crore from Blume Venture, US based Emergent Ventures and Andrew Lee. With this series A, Euler Motors has so far raised more than Rs 35 crore. Talking about the Series A funding, Saurav Kumar, Founder and CEO, Euler Motors said, We want to accelerate the adoption of commercial electric vehicles by creating a full stack ecosystem with Indian-centric EVs, charging and service station networks. The Series A funds will be primarily used for hiring talents, R&D and launching our vehicles across the Indian key cities with a focus on localisation of the supply chain. Euler Motors has a dedicated manufacturing and R&D facility for production of light commercial EVs along with automotive-grade lithium-ion battery packs that could match the performance required for intra-city logistics in all-weather, temperatures and road conditions, the company said in a statement. In the last 18 months, companies like BigBasket, EcomExpress, Udaan have employed more than 200 prototype e-vehicles for their last-mile delivery. The company has also established a network of 100 plus charging infrastructure in Delhi NCR for charging 200 plus electric vehicles at any point. Click here to follow LIVE news and updates on stock markets Rutvik Doshi, Managing Director, Inventus Capital India said For India to unlock the next wave of growth in Electric Mobility, it is essential to drive the adoption in the commercial vehicle segment with superior electrical vehicles and infrastructure. Euler Motors will utilize the funding to expedite its product and technology as well as scale its network of charging & service stations across India. The company plans to launch its 3-wheeler electric vehicle for commercial logistics by the end of this year. Click here for Latest News on Coronavirus "Blume Ventures has been associated with Euler Motors since early days. Our initial investment was on the promise of building world-class electric vehicles for Indian conditions. We believe their innovative business model brings down the total cost of ownership (TCO) and makes EVs accessible to many in Indian market. said Arpit Agarwal, Principal at Blume Ventures. Jetty Ventures and Sujeet Kumar have also contributed to this round, making their first investment in the Indian electric vehicle space. MaryAnn Lawson collects prayer requests from people gathering in their cars in a Santa Ana parking lot before an Easter service with the Rev. Robert A. Schuller on April 12. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) Orange County supervisors on Tuesday declared religious services "essential" and expressed concerns that Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to reopen places of worship with major restrictions is too constraining for megachurches and other large institutions. The unanimously approved resolution, proposed by Chairwoman Michelle Steel, makes clear the board's belief that "gathering together in fellowship and worship in the faith of one's choice is an 'essential' service, and we support the resumption of in-person religious assemblies," starting this weekend. Under the recently revealed guidelines, houses of worship must limit total attendance to 25% of a buildings capacity or a maximum of 100 people, whichever is lower. High-traffic areas and commonly touched surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned and regularly disinfected. Congregants also should be screened for fever or other symptoms of illness and are asked to use hand sanitizer and wear face coverings. Houses of worship also are discouraged from sharing items, and congregants and staff are asked to abstain from singing, shaking hands or hugging. But some Orange County officials said those rules could hurt huge churches that regularly draw thousands to services. "Its too restrictive with the state guidelines right now," Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said. "I understand what they are, they need to be followed, but at the same time, we need to push, push, push at the state level to have some flexibility." She said large churches would find it particularly difficult to comply with the attendance cap. "There are a number of houses of worship that are very large, and 100 doesn't even include 2% of their congregation," she said. "For some of the very large houses of worship one in my district is Saddleback Church they would literally have to hold Mass every five minutes in order to get their entire congregation through in a given Sunday." Story continues Steel characterized Tuesday's resolution as a statement that "Orange County supports the right of our residents to practice their faith, and that we believe the right is essential." "We begin each of our meetings with an invocation because we understand the importance of joining together in prayer," she said. "Orange County residents have gone without communal prayer for Easter, Passover and Ramadan, and our residents of all different faiths have missed their communal prayers for more than two months." Houses of worship in Orange County and throughout the state have for weeks been unable to hold in-person services under California's stay-at-home order, which was put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus. However, the board's resolution doesn't preclude Orange County from being subject to orders from the California Department of Public Health including new guidelines unveiled Monday that allow in-person religious assemblies to resume, subject to restrictions. "Does it transcend the CDPH guidance? In my view, no," County Counsel Leon Page said of the resolution. State health authorities still strongly recommend that places of worship continue to facilitate remote services and other related activities for those who are vulnerable to COVID-19." Dozens who addressed the board Tuesday said these restrictions are untenable and infringe on their 1st Amendment rights. Gathering in fellowship, speakers said, is more than a spiritual experience: It has profound and positive impacts on their physical and mental health. Others said it makes no sense that houses of worship haven't been considered essential businesses, while like large retailers, including liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries, have been able to keep their doors open. Supervisors said they too have missed attending church in person. "I have lamented from this dais numerous times that I missed Easter service for the first time in my life this year," Supervisor Andrew Do said. "And it still causes me a lot of personal grief so much so that I would change the route that I run so that I can run past a church so that I can pray at an altar outside." As California and the rest of the nation lift coronavirus-related restrictions, churches have emerged as a particularly heated battleground issue. President Trump on Friday declared that he was designating churches as essential businesses so they could reopen immediately. The U.S. Department of Justice also sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration warning that the states stay-at-home order may discriminate against religious groups and violate their constitutional rights. However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Newsoms ban on in-person church services. After 21 days, the state Department of Public Health will assess the effect of the latest restrictions and provide further direction as part of a phased-in restoration of activities in places of worship. "It is, to my mind, absolutely absurd that in the United States of America we are discussing, much less debating, the question of whether churches are essential," said Supervisor Don Wagner. "All we need to say is, 'Governor, get out of our damn way while we pray,'" he said. Times staff writers Monte Morin, Alex Wigglesworth, Sonali Kohli and Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report. Homi Mistry The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruption and uncertainty for businesses. One of the key priorities for many companies is to conserve cash and ensure continuity. Many employers have introduced non-cash compensation components such as Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs) to tide over the immediate funds crunch and to also be fair to employees who may benefit when businesses return to normalcy in the future. Non-cash compensation An ESOP is an option that is granted to an employee for purchasing the companys shares at a pre-determined price, at a future date, upon completion of certain vesting conditions. These conditions may be performance (of the employer or employee) based or time-based. Upon fulfilling the vesting condition, the ESOPs vest to the employee, i.e., the employee gets an unconditional right to purchase the shares at a pre-determined price. From an employee perspective, the benefit from ESOP is based on the future expected growth and valuation of the company. Hence, the ultimate gain may vary significantly depending on the companys growth. At the time of granting options, the future growth and valuation expectations are all projections, making the ultimate gain uncertain. Tax implication is also one of the key considerations. In the case of ESOPs, there will be tax implications at two stages on allotment of shares and on sale of shares. On allotment, the difference between the Fair Market Value and Exercise Price, is taxable as a perquisite and the employer withholds the necessary taxes thereon at the slab rate applicable to the employee. The Fair Market Value is the average of the opening and closing price on the stock exchange in case of listed shares and for unlisted company shares, as determined by a Category I Merchant Banker. Further, appropriate perquisite value and the tax thereon is reported in the salary certificate. Thereafter, on sale of shares by the employee, the difference between the selling price and the Fair Market Value (that was taken into account for the perquisite valuation) will be taxed as capital gains. The tax rate may vary based on how long the shares were held before the sale, i.e., whether the gain is a short-term capital gain or a long-term capital gain. Taxation on notional gains It is pertinent to note that, on allotment of shares, even though there is no cash flow to the employee, the allotment triggers tax and the employer is required to deduct tax at source. This causes cash flow issues for employees as they are required to pay tax on notional gains without actual receipt of cash. In case the employees are allotted shares of listed companies, they may sell a part of the shares allotted to meet the tax liability and ease the cash flow. However, in case of an unlisted company, disposing the shares could be a challenge given their limited marketability. In such cases, the ESOP plan generally provides for specific exit mechanisms for employees, which could include selling to existing shareholders or to a special purpose vehicle. However, in the absence of a regulated market, selling the shares at a desired price may sometimes be challenging. This is especially true in the case of start-ups in which a large part of key employees compensation, comprises of ESOPs. In order to ease such difficulties faced by start-ups, the Finance Act 2020 introduced provisions for deferring the tax payment on the exercise of ESOPs of specified start-ups, by five years, or until an employee leaves the company, or when he/she sells the shares, whichever is earlier. Further, it is worthwhile to note that the above mentioned relaxation in respect of ESOPs is available only to eligible start-ups that hold a certificate of eligible business from the Inter-Ministerial Board of Certification. Employees of foreign multinational corporations may receive shares of foreign companies under an ESOP. Incorrect or non-reporting of options / shares of foreign companies or income from the same may have penal consequences not only under the Income Tax Act, but also under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Imposition of Tax Act, 2015. Further, compliance under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) also needs to be ensured. For example for a resident under FEMA, the sale proceeds upon sale of shares of foreign company allotted under ESOP, are to be repatriated to India within 90 days of sale of shares. ESOP is an effective compensation tool. A prudently drafted ESOP plan can help an employer conserve cash during these challenging times, while at the same time letting employees share in the profits and growth of the company, when the good times arrive. (The writer is a Partner with Deloitte India. Mousami Nagarsenkar, Reena Poddar, and Yaseen Boxwala from Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP also contributed) Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 03:26:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BISSAU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The government of Guinea-Bissau announced on Tuesday to ease certain COVID-19 restrictions, including the reopening of borders and the authorization of movement for public transport. Regarding the reopening of the borders, the authorities require that all passengers entering Guinea-Bissau present at the borders a medical certificate indicating that the passenger has tested negative for COVID-19. However, all the residents of Guinea-Bissau's nine regions are still confined to their regions, and not allowed to travel between regions. The condition that the government requires for this "partial deconfinement" is rigorous compliance with barrier gestures, especially in public transport where the distancing of passengers must be respected and all passengers must wear masks. Public transport can only operate at half capacity, and there is a limit of three passengers for all taxis. According to the government, the curfew is maintained, but people can now go out for one hour between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time. All cafes, restaurants and bakeries can only do take-aways. Prime Minister Nuno Gomes Na Biam said the easing of restrictive measures allows the population to relax a little after two months of restriction and gradually resume their economic activities. President Umaro Sissoco Embalo extended earlier in the day the state of emergency again throughout the national territory by 15 days until June 10. The West African country has isolated itself since March 17 when the government ordered the closure of all borders and suspension of all international flights. Several other measures have also been taken, including the closing of restaurants, bars, places of worship and schools, as well as the ban on gatherings and circulation of people. Due to a lack of lab materials, the national laboratory sometimes could not carry out tests. Guinea-Bissau on Monday received a third batch of medical supplies, including testing kits, from China's Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations. So far, Guinea-Bissau has reported 1,178 confirmed cases, including seven deaths and 42 recoveries. Enditem New Delhi : A policeman was shot dead by suspected militants in south Kashmirs Pulwama district on Saturday, police said. Constable Khurshid Ahmad Ganai was shot by unknown gunmen outside his residence at Koil in Pulwama this morning, a police official said. He said Ganai sustained critical injuries and was rushed to a hospital for treatment. The cop, however, succumbed to injuries at the hospital, the official said.Amid continuous Curfew of 50 days, suspected militants shot dead a policeman in Quil area of south Kashmirs Pulwama district, reports said. Early morning, men armed with guns fired shots at constable Khurshid Ahmad Ganai outside his house in Quil in the volatile southern district, Kashmir Dispatch reported.Ganai, who was on way to the district police lines Pulwama, sustained critical injuries in the attack. He was taken to sub-district hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. During the coronavirus pandemic, Philadelphia resident Charlie Tranen undertook an ambitious DYI project of redoing his laundry room. "... After everything I need to do," he says, "it turns out theres a million other things I didnt realize I also needed to do." Read more Like so many Philadelphians during the coronavirus pandemic, Charlie Tranen was spending an unprecedented amount of time at home. He had noticed that, over time, the laundry room ceiling in his house had sprouted a thatch of pipes and cables. He had the time. He could fix it. With the way the ceiling was built, he realized he needed to do a little work on the walls, too. Then he thought hed redo the floors, as well. And once the laundry room was done, why not get a new washer and dryer? I watched a couple of YouTube videos, and I went out and got some stuff," said Tranen, a husband and father of two who lives near Chestnut Hill. He expected it to be a fairly quick weekend project. Its been five weeks. I dont think thatll be the last [weekend]," he said. Its not like I have anything better to do on the weekends with the pandemic." Like Tranen, millions of people relegated inside for months during the pandemic have taken to various outlets to appease boredom or pursue enterprising activities previously cast aside in favor of more immediate responsibilities. For some, online shopping for alcohol, puppies, and patio furniture has proven satisfying. Others, such as Tranen, decided to remodel their house even though they have limited experience in construction. He could save money this way, he said, instead of hiring a professional. Pete Rose, owner of the Home Hero, a repair service in Philadelphia, has heard this story many times. People ask for a quote, and then theyre saying, Im going to do this, Im going to do that. I dont need your help," Rose said. Its usually the husband. Not always the husband. But they say, 'Its too much money. Ive got the time. Of 2,000 people in the United States who said in a poll that they had attempted a do-it-yourself project in 2019, the most common regret was trying to put down floor tiles, followed by replacing a ceiling, according to the survey from the online home repair guide ImproveNet. Twenty percent of respondents said they tried to install floor tiles, and 7% tried to fix a ceiling. The majority of those polled 56% said they took on home improvement projects to save money. The biggest obstacle that 55% of respondents said they faced was that the work took longer than expected on average, 22 hours longer than projected followed by 50% who believed that their undertaking was too physically taxing. In the end, according to ImproveNet, 55% were disappointed with the results of their handiwork. Right now, Im sure theres a lot of people doing their own thing, said Paul Cofield, the owner of South Philly Renovations & Handyman, who has seen residents try and fail to properly install steps to patios, perform plumbing work, and put up wallpaper. Some projects, such as installing drywall, arent too difficult, but unless you do it regularly" a matter of practice, he said "its hard to do it good. Just before the stay-at-home order, Cofield repaired three botched drywall jobs. Then, in the first few weeks that the regions residents were mostly confined to their homes, Stephen Mazzone, owner of the home repair and remodeling company A Guy With Tools, got roughly 20 calls for one specific repair: garbage disposals. Some people had lost utensils in them. Some people were using their disposals more now. It was something different every time, said Mazzone, whose company operates in Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties. Now, months into the pandemic, Cofield has a theory about what his business will look like once operations resume: Im sure coming out of this, our volume is going to be up. So far, Tranen said, he has not messed up his project, unlike others who optimistically tried to repair a broken microwave or install a bidet. He simply needs more time. It felt like every day I was going back to Lowes or Home Depot for more stuff," he said. Its been kind of like an If you give a mouse a cookie kind of experience, where after everything I need to do, it turns out theres a million other things I didnt realize I also needed to do. He has no intention of calling a professional to finish the job. The good news is that Im making progress, and Im spending way less than having people come into the house," he said. Hopefully, the end is in sight somewhere." Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission So you want to get your dog that summer cut before the temperature spikes? Doing so will take more planning under the latest restrictions for pet groomers, which were allowed to resume business with restrictions on Monday. Home visits from groomers wont be likely to resume soon. The guidelines specify that groomers can only provide services in mobile units, salons or stores, and they can only operate by appointment. Those that can reopen must implement a number of staffing and hygiene changes, as well as impose social distancing requirements, before they can reopen. They include staggering shifts to minimize contact among workers, improving ventilation, mandating masks, giving employees sanitizer and other cleaning products and avoid sharing tools and supplies between workers. Customers will also have to abide by new protocols, as pet groomers can only operate by appointment. The states industry-specific guidelines advise pet groomers to communicate with customers by phone or video chat to avoid in-person conversations. Customers are no longer allowed to enter the salon. Instead, they must drop off and pick up their pets at the curb. Theyre advised to call the groomers to let them know they have arrived. To keep groomers from making contact with a customers leash, the salons will supply leashes to pets. Customers will also be asked about any possible exposure to or symptoms of COVID-19. The guidelines state, grooming cannot be allowed if someone in the client household is confirmed to have or suspected of having COVID-19. While some long-haired dogs could use a summer cut as temperatures rise, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says pets fur should not be shaved because it keeps them from overheating in the summer just as it insulates them from the winter cold. Our pets coats have several layers that are essential to their comfort in the heat. Robbing your dog or cat of this natural cooling system can lead to discomfort, overheating and other serious dangers like sunburn or skin cancer, the ASPCA wrote on its website. As businesses reopen, the state is seeing a drop in the number of new coronavirus cases every day. State officials recorded 57 new deaths on Tuesday and 422 new cases. A day earlier, health officials recorded 44 new deaths and 596 new COVID-19 cases. With phase one of the reopening now underway and as more sectors in our economy slowly reopening, this data indicates we are trending in the right direction, Baker said Tuesday afternoon at the Massachusetts State House, adding he believes the surge is behind us." Related Content: Click here to read the full article. Twitter issued a public apology to the family of a woman whom Donald Trump has repeatedly insinuated in tweets may have been murdered by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. But for now, the social network isnt taking any actions against Trumps account or the offending tweets on the subject. The companys statement comes after Timothy Klausutis, the husband of Lori Klausutis who worked for Scarborough when he was a U.S. congressman sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week requesting that Twitter delete Trumps tweets alluding to a years-old debunked conspiracy theory, as reported by the New York Times. Lori Klausutis died in 2001. We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family, a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. Weve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly. Twitter already has rules in place banning bullying and harassment. The company grants special exemptions to Donald Trump and other political figures for tweets that would be violations for regular users, as long as Twitter deems those posts in the public interest. Twitter last year put into place a policy under which tweets by political figures that violate its regular policies would be displayed with a warning notice in front of tweets but to date, it hasnt applied such warnings to any of Trumps posts. (UPDATE: Later in the day, Twitter applied a warning label to two Trump tweets that included several falsehoods about mail-in ballots.) On Twitter, Trump in recent weeks has promoted the idea that Scarborough killed Lori Klausutis, even though law enforcement officials found no evidence of foul play in connection with her death. On Saturday, Trump explicitly called for the case to be reopened, saying, A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Floridaand, hes a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses! Story continues That came after Trump on May 12 tweeted, When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isnt it obvious? Whats happening now? A total nut job! On Tuesday, May 26, Trump continued his campaign to falsely smear Scarborough in the case. He claimed in a pair of tweets that when the host of MSNBC Morning Joe and his spouse and co-host Mika Brzezinski interviewed him in 2016, I would always be thinking about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I wont bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will? In a letter dated May 21 to Dorsey, provided to the New York Times, Timothy Klausutis asked the CEO to delete Trumps tweets on the matter, writing, My wife deserves better. Klausutis wrote that Trump tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough. The son of the president followed and more directly attacked my wife by tweeting to his followers as the means of spreading this vicious lie. Continued Klausutis, I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved. I understand that Twitters policies about content are designed to maintain the appearance that your hands are clean you provide the platform and the rest is up to users. However, in certain past cases, Twitter has removed content and accounts that are inconsistent with your terms of service. Last fall, Twitter tried to clarify which situations would prompt it to disable the accounts of prominent political figures like Trump. Those would entail violations including promoting terrorism; making clear and direct threats of violence against an individual; posting someones private info; or engaging in activities related to child porn. Lori Klausutis worked in one of then Rep. Joe Scarboroughs offices in Fort Walton, Fla., as a constituent services coordinator. She died unexpectedly at 28, and an autopsy revealed it was due to an undiagnosed heart condition that caused her to pass out and hit her head, which was the cause of death. Florida police ruled that her death was an accident and there was no foul play involved. Jordan Moreau contributed to this report. The Trump administration is encouraging American companies to bring their production facilities back to the U.S. from China and one top official claims that it will pay them to do it. "We welcome any Americans companies in Hong Kong or China mainland, we will do what we can for full expensing and pay the cost of moving if they return their supply chains and their production to the United States," chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Business on Tuesday. Kudlow provided no further details, but he has mentioned something similar in the past. Last month, Kudlow, who serves as the director of the National Economic Council, said the U.S. should pay the moving costs of companies that leave China, with the payments apparently consisting of tax breaks. I would say, 100 percent immediate expensing across the board for plant, equipment, intellectual property, structures, renovations ... In other words, if we had 100 percent immediate expensing, we would literally literally pay the moving costs of American companies, he told Fox Business. Reuters reported last week that administration officials and lawmakers are discussing a range of options to encourage companies to move production facilities back to the U.S., including a possible $25 billion reshoring fund that would provide direct payments to firms. That particular option has met resistance, however, due to worries that paying companies would amount to the government setting industrial policy, which has long been opposed by Republicans as interference in the free market. Like what you're reading? Sign up for our free newsletter. President Donald Trump, flanked by officials and business leaders, announces a national emergency with regard to the coronavirus in the White House Rose Garden in Washington on March 13, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Trump Wants Schools to Reopen ASAP President Donald Trump on Sunday again called for reopening schools in the United States, saying that very good information has been made available to help schools make that decision. The presidents comment come as school districts across the country prepare to open their doors again, after educators and families went to great lengths to make sure students continue learning while at home over the past months. Schools in our country should be opened ASAP. Much very good information now available, Trump wrote on Twitter, indicating that he wanted schools to open before the end of this school year wherever possible, instead of waiting until the next school year. He also tagged Fox News and host Steve Hilton, who discussed on his program about whether it was safe for schools to reopen as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic still poses a threat to the country. Students leave the Thurgood Marshal Elementary school after the Seattle Public School system was abruptly closed due to CCP virus fears in Seattle, Wash., on March 11, 2020. (John Moore/Getty Images) If children cant go to school, parents cant go to work, said Hilton, citing a study conducted by Icelandic company deCODE genetics, which has been studying the CCP virus with Icelands health authority and top medical school. The April 14 study suggests that children under 10 are less likely to be infected than adults and if they get infected, their symptoms appear to be less severe than those in adults. Were talking about a handful of cases, which are almost always treatable, Hilton said, referring to recent news coverage of a potentially dangerous inflammatory syndrome that may be related to COVID-19 in children. Trump has repeatedly called on school districts to reopen, as children and young people seem to be much less affected by the virus. I would like to see schools open, wherever possible, he said earlier this month during an Oval Office event. He went on to recommend caution when it comes to teachers who are over 60 years old or have preexisting health conditions like diabetes. I think that they should not be teaching school for a while, and everybody would understand that fully, said the president, shifting back to students. We see how well children seem to do, its incredible. You realize how strong children are, right? Their immune system is maybe a little bit different, maybe its just a little bit stronger, or maybe its a lot stronger. Trump reportedly told governors in April to consider reopening schools before the end of the academic year. I think youll see a lot of schools open up, even if its for a very short period of time, he said, reported the Associated Press. The wife of Qatari royal Sheikh Talal Al Thani held in prison for seven year, has called for the release of her husband amid covid-19 pandemic spread in the Gulf country. Asma Rayyam said her husband been unjustly and without charges held in prison where she believes his life is under threat over the spread of the novel covid-19 disease in the central prison, Saudi Al Arabiya TV has reported. The Gulf country has reported 45,439 and 26 deaths as of Monday. Rayyman argued that her husband remained in detention although he had been acquitted by justice. The woman charged Qatar officials for torturing and blackmailing her husband. Sheikh Talal is the grandson of the late Sheikh Ahmed Bin Ali Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar, who ruled from 1960 until 1972. Sheikh Ahmed was removed from power by cousin Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad, the father of former emir Hamad Bin Khalifa and the grandfather of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad, Qatars current emir. Authorities have reportedly frozen Sheikh Talals assets. These are the main steps set out in the guidance for teachers: Preparing the premises The government guidance published today stipulates that the first thing institutions should do is ensure the premises is ready to receive children safely. The building should be checked if it has been out of use for a long time, and if it has been closed then schools should consider legionnaires checks. Any activities should be reassessed in light of the coronavirus pandemic and once children have returned 'all frequently touched surfaces, equipment, door handles, and toilets, used during the day, will need to be cleaned thoroughly several times a day.' Educators will have to consider how best to use the space of their premises 'and how they can be best used to keep small, consistent groups of children together throughout the day, and to keep the groups apart from each other.' The guidance adds: 'Depending on the size and the layout of individual settings, consider how floor space, rooms and outdoor space can be organised to ensure physical distancing between staff and between groups of children, considering the early years foundation stage age-based space requirements.' Children under 2 years need 3.5 metres squared per child, two-year-olds need 2.5 metres squared per child, and children aged 3 to 5 years need 2.3 metres squared per child. It could be useful to utilise area dividers to keep children in different parts of the room or use floor markings to help staff keep track of different groups. Area dividers may help to keep children in different parts of the room, and floor markings could be helpful in assisting staff with keeping groups apart. The use of communal spaces in settings should be managed to limit the amount of mixing between groups as much as possible. The guidance adds: Public health advice is to remove all soft toys, and any toys that are hard to clean, such as those with intricate parts. Where practicable, remove soft furnishings, for example pillows, bean bags and rugs.' Implement measures to reduce risk for staff and children Schools and other premises where children are going to be learning or looked after should look at how to reduce possible transmission of coronavirus, the guidance says. The new measures admit that children in early years are unlikely to keep two metres apart but there are a range of protective measures, these are: ensure parents are advised to keep children with any symptoms at home; ensure staff who are symptomatic do not attend work; frequent hand cleaning and good respiratory hygiene practices; regular cleaning of settings; minimising contact and mixing The guidance says that staff are encouraged to keep group sizes to a maximum of eight children and 'to ensure that there are no more than 16 children in a group in early years settings.' It is understood that children and staff in early years provision are unlikely to be two metres apart but that children and staff should mix in a 'small consistent group' and that 'small group stays away from other groups.' The new measures should ensure that: Physical distancing between groups of children and staff as far as possible; that individual groups use the same area of a setting throughout the day as much as possible; that the sharing of toys and resources is reduced; that any toys or resources that are shared can be easily cleaned between different groups use The guidance also states that children should take part in handwashing throughout the day and they should be supervised. There should also be a number of disposable tissues to 'implement catch it, bin it, kill it. Enhanced clearing is a core mantra within the government measures and says that all surfaces touched by children, such as doors or doors, are cleaned more regularly than usual. There should also be a clear policy on bringing toys or items from home and this should only be done if 'absolutely essential'. Staff will have to implement some kind of queuing system when picking up children, to limit contact with carers. The guidance suggests that 'for example by limiting drop off and pick up to one parent or carer per family and staggering timings.' It adds: 'Consider how you can use technology to communicate with parents and carers digitally, for example when providing handover information at the end of the day.' Schools should also keep windows open as much as possible and limit the amount of visitors. The guidance states that the vast majority of children and staff will not need PPE and that staff do not have to take the temperatures of children every day. Reviewing staff for availability at work There should be an audit that takes place on what staff are available to start work on June. The guidance says that: 'Anyone who is displaying coronavirus symptoms, or has displayed symptoms in the previous 7 days, or lives with someone who has displayed symptoms in the previous 14 days, should not attend work unless they have tested negative for coronavirus.' A staff member who is clinically vulnerable is also advised not to attend school. Agree a protocol for responding to a suspected case of coronavirus and ensure setting is prepared A school's sickness policy should be amended to reflect what to do if you have a case of suspected coronavirus. The guidance states: 'Anyone who begins to display coronavirus symptoms while in the setting should be sent home immediately and follow government guidelines on what to do if you or someone in your household develops symptoms. 'If a child is waiting to be collected, they should be separated from their group and isolated with one member of staff if this is possible. A facemask should be worn if a distance of 2 metres cannot be maintained from a child who is symptomatic and awaiting collection and if contact is necessary, then gloves, an apron and a facemask should be worn. 'If a risk assessment determines there is a risk of splashing to the eyes, for example from coughing or spitting, then eye protection should also be worn.' The World Health Organization has warned there could be a 'second peak' of infections in America and Europe where coronavirus is declining if lockdown restrictions are relaxed too soon. Dr Mike Ryan, the head of emergencies at the WHO, issued the grave warning in an online briefing Monday saying that while cases are declining in many countries, these nations could still face an 'immediate second peak' if they let up too soon on measures to halt the outbreak. Ryan also warned that several countries in Central and South America, South Asia and Africa are continuing to record spikes in cases. This came the same day that the WHO announced it is suspending its trial of hydoxychloroquine in coronavirus patients amid safety concerns over the anti-malaria drug. The World Health Organization has warned there could be a 'second peak' of infections in America and Europe where coronavirus is declining if lockdown restrictions are relaxed too soon. Pictured WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus The world is still in the middle of the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, Ryan said Monday. He explained that epidemics often come in waves, which means outbreaks could come back later this year in places where the first wave has subsided. There is also a risk that infection rates could rise again more quickly if measures to halt the first wave were lifted too soon, he warned. 'When we speak about a second wave classically what we often mean is there will be a first wave of the disease by itself, and then it recurs months later. And that may be a reality for many countries in a number of months' time,' Ryan said. 'But we need also to be cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now it is going to keep going down and we are get a number of months to get ready for a second wave. We may get a second peak in this wave.' He said countries in Europe and North America should 'continue to put in place the public health and social measures, the surveillance measures, the testing measures and a comprehensive strategy to ensure that we continue on a downwards trajectory and we don't have an immediate second peak.' Many European countries and US states have taken steps in recent weeks to lift lockdown measures that curbed the spread of the disease but caused severe harm to economies. All 50 US states have now started easing their stay-at-home orders and reopening their economies to varying degrees. The WHO official's stark warning of a renewed 'peak' came the same day the health agency suspended its clinical trial of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in coronavirus patients after a study revealed higher mortality rates among COVID-19 patients who took the drug. 'The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board,' WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday. Hydroxychloroquine has been touted by President Donald Trump and he even revealed he took the medication for two weeks as a prophylactic. ST. LOUIS Crowds of revelers seen last weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks could cause "needless suffering and potential strain to our health care systems," the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said Tuesday. "We must all continue to remember that the virus hasn't left us," Dr. Alex Garza said. "It hasn't changed. It's still here. It's still very contagious and dangerous." The task force reported 12 new hospital admissions on Sunday the latest data available representing the lowest one-day total since early April, Garza said. The average number of those hospitalized in the St. Louis region, those in intensive care and those using ventilators all have declined over the past week, but Garza said the progress could be erased if people relax social distancing recommendations and other guidelines. "We let our guard down or act like the virus is gone," Garza said, "it will continue to improve the odds of hitting our region again with a second wave and those really hard-fought investments that we've made to suppress the curve will be wasted." Garza's admonition Tuesday comes as Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said there is little he can do to break up the parties. Although Parson called scenes of people shoulder-to-shoulder at lakeside pool bars potentially dangerous ways to spread COVID-19, he said local health departments are responsible for ensuring people stay six feet apart. Im not going to send the National Guard," Parson said. "I am not going to send the highway patrol out to monitor this." Rather, the Republican governor said he is leaving enforcement to city and county-level officials. Thats their business. I trust the people in those positions," the governor said. "These people are elected to do these positions. In an interview that aired on Fox affiliates across the state Tuesday, Parson reiterated that social distancing should be enforced by local governments, though he called the weekend parties "disappointing." His comments came a day after state and St. Louis-area officials issued dire health warnings as videos showing holiday weekend celebrations at the lake brought national media attention to Missouri. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page this week issued a travel advisory urging those who ignored protective practices to self-quarantine for 14 days or until testing negative for COVID-19 and encouraging employers to ask workers how they spent their holiday and to take necessary precautions. St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson called the behavior irresponsible and dangerous because visitors to the lake could spread the disease across the Midwest when they return home. Garza said it's unclear whether weekend party crowds will cause a spike in cases but he said it wouldn't be surprising. "Without a doubt, this type of activity, this type of behavior increases the risk of transmission, which means it can only go in one direction," he said. Missouri lifted stay-at-home restrictions on May 4. The state as of Tuesday has seen 694 deaths from the coronavirus along with 12,291 cases. The number of new cases has risen by 8.3% over the past week as state officials have ramped up testing. The state acknowledged this past weekend that it had overcounted testing totals for COVID-19 by lumping together viral and antibody tests. A St. Louis County spokesman said its tests did not include antibodies. A spokesman for Krewson said he didn't know if antibody tests were included in the city's totals. Revised data from Missouri health officials shows the state's first positive COVID-19 case as early as Feb. 2, more than a month before Missouri's first case was publicly reported March 7 a woman from St. Louis County. The revised data on the state's revamped COVID-19 website show 10 people were positive for the virus between Feb. 2 and Feb. 29, with two dozen more detected the first week of March. A spokeswoman for the state's Department of Health and Senior Services said Tuesday that Missouri's first case was March 7 but that dates reported for some cases have been revised to reflect when symptoms began for some people. "As weve learned more about each case, information is entered for the patient including date of symptom onset," DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox said in an email. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday he was dismayed over large Memorial Day weekend gatherings reported in Midwestern states, including reports of large crowds in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a popular weekend destination near the Illinois-Wisconsin state line. The challenge here is I want every resident to feel safe and keep themselves safe, Pritzker said during his daily COVID-19 briefing Tuesday. They have the ability to do that and people who choose not to havent been reading newspapers (and) don't seem to understand how dangerous this is. Illinois reported 1,178 more positive cases and 39 more deaths Tuesday, bringing the state's total to 113,195 cases and 4,923 deaths. Dr. Ngozi Ezike with the Illinois Department of Public Health said she wants those who feel theyve been in a high-risk place of transmission such as the Lake of the Ozarks to stand down by self-quarantining, but this is not often done, she said. She stressed that there is no way to know who is harboring the virus and who isnt. She added, Take all the mitigation strategies we do have and employ those. Use your mask and keep your distance. After that, that is the most I can offer. Kurt Erickson and Sarah Teague of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Three kids were rushed to hospital after letting a black widow spider bite them, in hopes it'd turn them into 'Spider-Men'. The three young brothers are aged eight, ten and twelve, and live in Potosi, Bolivia. While on their family farm, the boys found a black widow spider and believed it would give them the same spider-like powers that Peter Parker developed in Spider Man. While the boy's mum wasn't around, they provoked the spider with a stick until it bit them. Baring in mind - black widow spiders are extremely venomous, with venom 15 times stronger than a rattlesnakes. While most people can be bitten by a black widow without suffering any serious damage, the spider's venom can be fatal to children. Much to the kids suprise, they didn't become Spider-Men, but instead started developing symptoms from the bite. These symtpoms can include increased heart-rate, abdominal cramps and muscle pain. When their mum found them in tears and in pain, she rushed them to the doctor, and later the hospital. After five days of sweating, muscle pains, a fever and generalised trembling, the boys recovered and headed back home. We're glad the kids are okay, but they found out the hard way that superhero movies are in fact, fiction. An Illinois man was arrested and charged with battery and disorderly conduct after grabbing a local news reporter and yelling obscenities during a live broadcast. WGN-TV reporter Gaynor Hall was giving a weather update in Shorewood on Saturday when a man grasped her shoulders and shouted F-ck her right in the p-ssy, which is a years-old trend. According to the police department, Shorewood police arrested 20-year-old Eric Farina and charged him with battery and disorderly conduct on Sunday morning, when he made a full confession and was released on $2,500 bond. Farina grabbed the reporter around her shoulders and uttered a profane and disturbing statement, per the department. Also Read: BuzzFeed News Halts Local Coverage of UK and Australia Hall posted her reaction to the incident on social media Saturday. A brief note to the young man who jumped in my liveshot tonight: It was not funny. You violated my personal space. You grabbed me. You scared me. Was it worth it? she wrote on Facebook before announcing in an update that he had been identified and arrested. Thanks to your help, he was identified and arrested. Thank you all so much for your kind words and support. I am ok and I appreciate you more than you know, she added. A representative for the police department did not immediately return a request for comment. Read original story Illinois Man Arrested After Grabbing Local News Reporter On-Air At TheWrap Eighty-eight out 0f 118 coronavirus patients have recovered in the Eastern Region as at May 24. The 88 recovered represents 74.6 percent leaving 30 active cases being managed at the various isolation centres. Mrs Bridget Anim, Eastern Regional Health Promotion Officer of the Ghana Health Service, disclosed this at an editor's forum at Aburi. Eleven out of the 33 districts in the Region had recorded coronavirus including 16 healthcare workers representing 13.6 percent. She indicated that most of them were asymptomatic and had gone through the two test and confirmed negative. The Editors forum was organized by the Ghana Journalists Association with funding from Star Ghana Foundation to train senior media personals on peace and security sensitive reporting towards the 2020 elections. 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. Featured Video The Trump administration says that the coronavirus started at the Wuhan lab, but the laboratory director dismisses these claims. Wang Yanyi, immunologist and director of the the Wuhan lab, went on the offensive and refuted the claims of the US that its negligence has caused more death and misery due to coronavirus, as reported by Newsweek. The lab director said the claims of the US were not true, and all proofs were not relevant or legitimate. But in recent days, the Chinese admitted to destroying viral samples that were vital to reaching a cure. Accusations of China's complicity Immediately, the claims and charges were refuted by Wang Yanyi, who is connected to the WIV and its main director. She responded by citing a level 4 biohazard lab and claimed that all were mere conjecture and lies. She supplied extra information that the WIV in Wuhan got a sample of the coronavirus last December 2019 but it was not handled haphazardly. According to her, the lab does not have a stored sample of the coronavirus. And just like everyone, they were not aware of the virus' extent yet. Later on, she argued that the lab does not have it in the first place. Most know that the coronavirus was transmitted from bats to humans, with pangolins as the link. Many animals sold in wet markets in China were endangered and considered exotic species, even dogs too. Also read: US and China: China Pledged Two Billion to Avoid Critical Censure Over Coronavirus There is unanimous agreement among scientists that the virus is not made-made, but zoonotic in origin. Professor Kristian Andersen sent a letter to Nature Medicine and stated that the coronavirus is most likely natural, not created in a lab with proof from genetic data. In the case of the coronavirus, it has evolved naturally, and became more potent with natural selection. Based on their observations, natural selection makes it even more virulent than SARS. The scientists gave two scenarios that point to coronavirus origin, it is either transmission to humans from an animal host, or evolving in humans and jumping to animals. Those are the choices which are currently being studied by these scientists. New coronaviruses to be studied On Saturday at May 13, Wang Yanyi was interviewed but it was shown on May 23. According to the director, there are new coronaviruses gotten from bats to be studied. Wang Yanyi added that with the 3 strains are all live viruses, but only reaches 79.8%, to the kind to the strain of COVID-19, according to Rappler. Moreover, the lab director said that the coronavirus genome will have an 80% deviance to the SARS virus which is very different. This points out a similarity, since both are forms of the coronavirus. Until the US decided to bear down, the whispers of a virus released in Wuhan is now heard by everyone. Even as the Wuhan lab director denies it, there will an eventual reckoning where coronavirus came from. Related article: Coronavirus Origin: Is It Really a Bio-weapon Created in a Wuhan Laboratory? @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The coronavirus pandemic threw a spotlight on health care coverage and the future of Texas beleaguered oil industry ahead of what is shaping up to be the closest presidential election in the state in decades. Just a few months ago, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party were leading with a booming American economy and grim warnings about socialism as they anticipated a race against Bernie Sanders. Instead, its former Vice President Joe Biden who has all-but sealed the Democratic nomination, and Texans are now grappling with record unemployment and related loss of health insurance. The early jabs show just how important both camps see those issues as they make their case to voters here. The Trump campaigns message is that the president is a champion to the states reeling oil and gas industry and Biden is a threat. Biden hasnt signed onto or even endorsed the Green New Deal, but he did call it a crucial framework and thats enough for team Trump. We cannot afford to have Joe Biden and the Democrats enact these Green New Deal policies that would just destroy the Texas economy, put tens of thousands of people out of work and just re-engineer our country to fit some coastal dream that would be more fit in a state like California, Trump Victory Director of Regional Communications Rick Gorka told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday. TEXAS GOVERNOR GOES TO DC: Gov. Greg Abbotts White House whirlwind: praise for Trump, jeers for foes and COVID germs? For Bidens camp, the very health and safety of Americans hangs in the balance as Trump continues to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, threatening the health coverage of millions of Americans including over 1.6 million Texans who have already lost jobs and, as a result, their employer-based health coverage, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In a moment where health care has never been more important, the Trump administration is moving forward with its cynical, partisan push to take away access for millions of Americans, said U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat who endorsed Biden back in January and has been a featured surrogate for Biden in Texas. But for all the policy differences, a Texas political analyst says the race could come down to one simple question that has been central when a president seeks re-election: Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Most Americans were in a good position to answer yes when the nation had historically low unemployment and a booming economy. That advantage has waned with the growing toll of the pandemic and related job losses, said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox While he wont be ratified as the Democratic nominee until August, Bidens team points to polling numbers that show a tighter race since the coronavirus outbreak. I think the battleground state map has gotten broader I think theres more opportunity for Joe Biden than there was 60 days ago, said David Plouffe, the 2008 campaign manager for Barack Obama, who attended a May 1 fundraising event for Biden. Both candidates are having to adjust to a new world of campaigning because of the pandemic. Trump has lost the raucous rallies that had become have been a voter outreach bonanza, while Biden has been stuck at home trying to raise the money and enthusiasm that is essential for any challenger to unseat a sitting U.S. president just three incumbent presidents have lost re-election since World War II. Trump is itching to get back to holding rallies, Trump 2020 Campaign Senior Adviser Lara Trump told reporters on Tuesday, adding that it wouldnt feel like a real campaign season without them. On the other hand, just because we have switched everything to virtual, does not mean we have slowed down at all, she said. About that Texas battleground hype Dont count Texas on that battleground list yet. But Democrats see an opportunity they havent had in decades. In the 1990s, Bill Clinton came within 5 percentage points of winning Texas in both 1992 and 1996, but both those races had eccentric Texas tycoon H. Ross Perot taking voters from the Republican nominees. Minus those races, Hillary Clinton coming within 9 percentage points of beating Trump in 2016 is the closest a Democrat has come to winning Texas since Jimmy Carter won the state in his first election in 1976. The chairman of the Texas Republican Party James Dickey has been warning the party faithful that Democrats are energized and are going to put a lot more money into Texas to try to flip it and Republicans need to be prepared. Hes been touring the state since last year outlining how the party is more aggressively fundraising, hiring field staff and registering voters than in past cycles. While he dismisses the state being a blue state, he has been emphatic that Texas is on Red Alert for 2020. But while Republicans scoff at the idea of Texas turning blue, Trump has already spent more time and money in Texas than many past Republican presidential contenders. Before the pandemic had even hit, Trump had made 14 trips to Texas since he was inaugurated. That is more than three times as many visits as President Barack Obama made during his first term in office. And with a big financial advantage over the Democrats, Trump has been able to do more to shore up Texas, rather than just focusing on traditional battle grounds in Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin. It is not hard to imagine a race that is decided by 5 percentage points or less in Texas, said Jillson, the SMU political science professor. But Jillson said if Trump struggles to hold Texas, it would be a sign of a bigger problem nationwide. If Texas is in play, it probably means Joe Biden has won 40 other states, Jillson said. The states increasing diversification, its growing voter registration rolls and the election results in 2016 and 2018 have Democrats convinced they have a shot at shocking the nation with Trump at the top of the ballot. Just two years ago, Democrat Beto ORourke lost by just 2.6 percentage points to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Kyle Rivas, HO / TNS Two recent public polls in Texas have shown Trump and Biden in a virtual dead heat in Texas. A Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll of 1,183 registered voters released on May 2 found Trump and Biden were both the choice of 43 percent. Another poll released by Public Policy Polling showed 47 percent of 1,083 responding registered voters said they would choose Biden and 46 percent would pick Trump. Seven percent said they were not sure. Just in late February, some Republicans in Texas were relishing the idea of having U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders then considered the front runner by many battling Trump in a good economy. Texas State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said he could hardly believe the partys good fortune. Sanders was in San Antonio on Feb. 22 having just won Nevada and promising to move the nation off of oil and gas and touting Medicare for All. Then, just like that, our midsummer nights dream was gone, Bettencourt said. When Biden won South Carolina and carried Texas days later on Super Tuesday, it made the battle in Texas very different, not just in the presidential race, but down-ticket as well. Bettencourt said particularly in Houston, every Democrat would have had been tied to socialized medicine and the Green New Deal. While that can still happen, Bettencourt said the mission will definitely require more work than if Sanders were at the top of the Democratic ticket. Texas economy To be sure, Biden has supported climate change initiatives that reduce the nations reliance on fossil fuel, but his plan for a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050 is far from that of Sanders, who had pledged to decarbonize transportation and power generation, the two largest sources of emissions, by 2030. And Sanders had also called for a ban on fracking that included blocking the federal government from approving new pipelines, new natural gas and oil export terminals, and other oil and gas infrastructure. Biden has supported limiting and regulating fracking but not banning it. Still, on his website hes called the Green New Deal a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. That is enough of an opening for the Trump campaign to equate Biden with the plan as they warn it could devastate the economies of Texas and Houston. Were going to make him own it, Trump spokesman Gorka said. Biden, who has deep roots in labor unions, has countered with assurances that he will look out for energy workers. He has emphasized that he has a trillion-dollar infrastructure program that gets former fossil fuel workers into $50-an hour plus benefits jobs as the nation transitions to more clean energy sources. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Were not going to leave any workers or communities behind, Biden says on his website. For Biden, Trumps handling of the coronavirus and the Affordable Care Act are central to arguing that there needs to be change in the White House. Trump has decided hed rather destroy President Obamas legacy than protect the health care of millions upon millions of Americans, Biden said, adding that if he were in office now, he would have re-opened the enrollment period for people to get on ACA plans as layoffs compound. Trump has not wavered on the ACA. "Obamacare is a disaster, but we've run it very well, and we've made it barely acceptable," Trump said earlier this month. "It was a disaster under President Obama, and it's very bad health care. What we want to do is terminate it and give health care. We'll have great health care, including preexisting conditions. It all sets up what Democrats say is their best chance in over 40 years to win the state in a presidential contest. Texas is the biggest battleground state in the country, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said. If Donald Trump loses Texas, he cannot win the election. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) is now offering Defense Base Act (DBA) insurance on a global basis through its DBA-dedicated underwriting and claims team in Dubai. According to Neeraj Yadvendu, head of Third-Party Lines, BHSI Middle East, the mandatory coverage is now available to contractors and companies operating throughout the Middle East and around the globe. The coverage is supported by BHSIs Dubai-based DBA specialists who have relationships with vendors in volatile regions. DBA insurance provides disability, medical and death benefits to covered employees, whether the injury or death occurs on or off the job in the course of employment. Further to its standard offering, BHSI can provide additional coverage in other key areas, such as Emergency Medical Evacuation and Supplementary Repatriation Expenses, tailoring its approach to meet customer needs. U.S. federal law mandates DBA insurance for U.S.-government contractors, private employers and contractors working outside the U.S. on American military bases or under a contract with the U.S. government for public works or for national defense. These works include providing defense equipment, life support, materials or services to U.S. allies; or providing welfare services to benefit U.S. Armed Services. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company (incorporated in Nebraska, USA) provides commercial property, casualty, healthcare professional liability, executive and professional lines, surety, travel, programs, accident and health, medical stop loss, and homeowners insurance. Topics USA The country's capital Mexico City has already released 8,072 more death certificates than the average for the same period in a span of four years, suggesting that the true figure of the death toll was significantly higher than what was being reported. The investigators of the study, Mario Romero Zavala and Laurianne Despeghel, published on Monday by Nexos concluded that by the end of May, that number would swell by as much as 120%. They gathered the data from the capital's civil registries to approximately measure the number of death certificates made between the first day of the year to mid-May. Mexico ranks bottom in testing in Latin America Romero and Despeghel clarified that not all excess deaths were caused by COVID-19. They did say that some of those who died did not go to hospitals because they feared they might catch the coronavirus, and instead died of other causes. The researchers said that the excess deaths from the overall death toll in the city alone that were confirmed to be connected with COVID-19 was at 25%, unlike in Germany or in U.K., the rates of which were at 97% and 54% respectively. Their investigation further prodded into the underreporting of the death count in the country and in its capital. Health officials have thus far denied any deliberate miscalculations, so the cause must be a great lack of oversight. As of yet, the country is ranked at the bottom in testing among Latin American countries, and is at the top because of its high mortality rate. Check these out! Reported figures are very low Mexican Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell previously said that his estimates would put the peak at May, and the death toll would climb to 6,000. He and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador were of the mind that the curve in the country has already flattened. Lopez Obrador's response to criticism about the low death toll was that people were suggesting the government was hiding the dead. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Alejandro Macias said that he was certain there was an underreporting of the true figure. He added he did not think it was a personal attack against the administration to admit that the official figures were incomplete. According to Dr. Pablo Villasenor, he believed that what officials said was the death count was disproportionate to what he was experiencing at the General Hospital in Tijuana. He and his team of medical workers counted over 200 coronavirus-related deaths at their hospital, and the official death toll of Tijuana as of Friday was over 400 according to a recent report. Romero, writer of the study, said in an interview with the Guardian that she too believed health officials were undercounting the death toll. She further remarked that confirmed coronavirus cases were indicative of high testing. Because the Mexican government was directly opposed to testing, they might resort to undercounting the death toll. Francis Chan has admitted that he did not believe in healing and miracles until recently. Chan was speaking at the virtual International Association of Healing Ministries conference, saying: "What I do know is for many years I didn't believe in healing, I didn't believe in miracles, it was pretty much what I was taught in seminary." He added, "Humbly, I have to say, I used to ridicule people who spoke in tongues or prophesied or believed they could heal, even though when I personally read the Scriptures, I saw this available." He continued, "It took me years, to be honest, with what I saw in Scripture and start pursuing these gifts of the Spirit and I'm still somewhat on that journey. "That's why when you first asked me to speak for this healing conference, I go, 'You've got the wrong guy.' I've been praying for gifts of healing for years and it was only like a few months ago that I saw healing for the first time." Just earlier in 2020, Chan testified that he and other Christian leaders healed various people in a rural Myanmar village. Among the healed were a little boy and girl who were deaf. Chan testified following that miraculous healing event: "Every person I touched was healed. OK, this is craziness to me. I have never experienced this in 52 years." He added, "I'm talking like a little boy and a little girl who were deaf. We laid hands, she starts crying and smiling. "These are not Christians who have even heard about Jesus, and she's freaking out. We lay hands on her little brother, we lay hands on him, and he starts hearing for the first time." Francis Chan is a well-known Christian author, and was previously senior pastor of California megachurch, Cornerstone Community Church. He stepped back from that role in in 2010 after saying the extensive size of the church had made him feel like a "celebrity pastor" and he felt it was time for a different path for him. The International Healing Conference took place from 20-23 May. It was initially scheduled to take place in Porto, Portugal, but with coronavirus restrictions in place across Europe and the West, the event was reorganised as a virtual conference. The rulings were delivered by Kyiv's Pechersky district court. Kyiv's Pechersky district court has met prosecutors' motions on three suspects in the notorious Sheremet murder case Ukrainian army medic Yana Duhar, pediatric surgeon Yulia Kuzmenko, and Donbas war veteran and member of the Riffmaster band Andrii Antonenko. Antonenko's pretrial restriction was extended and he will be remanded in custody for another 60 days. The corresponding decision was made by investigating judge Vitaliy Pysanets on May 25, according to an UNIAN correspondent. "The motion should be satisfied the preventive measure in the form of detention should be extended until July 23 inclusively," the judge read out the court's ruling on Antonenko. Kuzmenko will also stay behind bars for another two months, until July 24. Meanwhile, Duhar's pretrial restriction was changed from house arrest during hours of darkness to bail set at UAH 168,150 (US$6,258). She should also wear a GPS-tracking ankle monitor. The court also obliged her to arrive at request of an investigator, prosecutor or court; not to leave the place of residence in Dnipropetrovsk region's Novomoskovsky district without the permission of the investigator, prosecutor or court; to notify of a change of place of residence or work. She should refrain from communication with witnesses and other suspects and hand her travel passport over to the authorities. As UNIAN reported earlier, Sheremet was assassinated in a car blast in the center of Kyiv on the morning of July 20, 2016. On December 12, 2019, police said they suspected five persons of complicity in the crime: former Donbas war volunteer and musician Andrii Antonenko, army volunteer and pediatric surgeon Yulia Kuzmenko (nom de guerre "Lysa," or "Fox"), nurse with a paratrooper unit Yana Duhar, and a family couple of army volunteers Inna Hryshchenko ("Puma") and Vladyslav Hryshchenko ("Bucha"). Law enforcers claim that the goal of the Sheremet assassination was to destabilize the social and political situation in Ukraine. Antonenko, Kuzmenko and Duhar were notified of suspicion on December 12, 2019. Read alsoInconsistencies found in official version of Sheremet murder probe media Ukrainian investigative journalists with the Slidstvo.info project said they had found the forensic analysis report used in the probe into the murder of Sheremet far from being unambiguous, while evidence presented by the police was unconvincing. What is more, many Ukrainian activists consider the proof collected by the investigators to be insufficient. Speaking at a recent press conference on his one-year anniversary in office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Interior Minister Arsen Avakov should bring the Sheremet case to an end. Broadcasters and television producers recently had a virtual meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray to chart out ways for the industry to resume work on a limited scale. Producer JD Majethia revealed that the CM doesnt want the work to move out of Maharashtra but wants the industry to put protocols in place and take all necessary precautions. All shootings and production work has been stalled since a lockdown was announced across India to stem the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, JD Majethia said, He has asked us for a plan to work in studios in areas like FilmCity and several others beyond Dahisar. He doesnt want shooting to move out of Maharashtra and the committee has started identifying floors at studios. He also told the tabloid, We have requested immediate permission to put up monsoon shades and look into fire safety and hygiene. TV industry will resume work before films, given that they have sets standing and shoots can take place in a controlled environment. Its too early to say when shooting will start because new developments are happening every day. But a dialogue has started, which gives us hope that things will start soon. Also read: When Kartik Aaryan borrowed hairstylists t-shirt for stage performance, changed on the road. Watch Majethia also told Hindustan Times, Our CM has said that shoots can happen in green zones and in places where studios are far from civilisation. He has asked his principal secretary to take charge, make a report and initiate the job to allow monsoon maintenance of sets and post-production work. People have started shooting across the world. We all are aware that this virus is going to co-exist and we will have to work our way out through it. For example, an elaborate wedding scene might be changed to a court marriage or the couple getting married with only the immediate family involved. Some of the measures that the CM wants to be taken to ensure safety of everyone involved are as follows: While work will not be allowed in red zones and heavily populated areas, proper care for regular sanitization of sets and availability of a doctor and an ambulance on stand-by must be taken. The technical crew will also be provided with sanitisers, make-shift wash basins and masks. While post-production work may resume in some time, the shooting is not expected to resume anytime soon. Stressing on the risks involved, actor Dilip Joshi of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah told Hindustan Times, Its going to be difficult and I dont think this is the right time to start shooting. We should wait for another month before taking a call. Despite the idea of having a limited crew, we wouldnt be aware whether people are following the right hygiene. Even if we plan to shoot with a limited cast, it will be a challenge for writers to conceive a scene. Follow @htshowbiz for more SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Jigawa State government on Monday confirmed that four additional patients of COVID-19 died while in isolation at their various homes, bringing the total number of deaths to seven. The states task force chairman on COVID-19, Abba Zakari, said 32 more persons recovered from the disease and were discharged, bringing the total number recoveries to 143 in the state. The ones that died at our isolation centres are three. There are also additional four that died at their houses, even before they came to (the) isolation centre, making a total of seven, Mr Zakari said. The official added that the state has concluded contact tracing of the latest deaths which occurred in Ringim, Birnin-Kudu and Gwaram. He, however, did not give much details on the deaths. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday also announced additional seven deaths across the country. However, it did not mention the state (s) where the deaths occurred. Mr Zakari said four of the deaths occurred in Jigawa State. The state has also commenced discharging of patients tested negative once, to provide for more space in the 240-bed isolation centres in the state. The government also announced the lift of the lockdown in Birnin-Kudu, Gwaram and Gumel Local Government Areas. COVID-19 Deaths Mr Zakari, while briefing journalists on the previous deaths from coronavirus, had described and identified the deceased. He, however, avoided questions on the recent deaths, which allegedly involved governors aides. A political ally to Governor Muhammad Badaru, Ibrahim Ismail, died while on self isolation after exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, he died at his country home in Ringim Local Government Area, one of the town Mr Zakari confirmed as having a coronavirus death. Before his death, Mr Ismail was the Special Adviser to the Governor on Adult and Higher Education and recently, the Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission. The governor, in a condolence greeting to the Ringim Emirate council and the family of the deceased, described the deceased as a kind hearted gentleman and selfless politician. The deceased held the traditional title of Jarman Ringim, one of the five emirate councils in Jigawa with first class Emirs. Also, within the week, another governors aide on people living with disabilities, Farouk Gumel, died, after a brief illness. There was no public condolence and/or statement from Mr Badaru. The chairman of the Joint National Association of Persons with disabilities, in Jigawa, Muhammad Usman, said the deceased died at home in Gumel Local Government Area, one of the towns under lockdown following confirmed cases of coronavirus. Capital amnesty should be introduced in Ukraine from 2021 lawmaker 10:00, 26.05.20 2007 Major debate on the subject is focused on the number and size of rates. Senegal - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses Sydney, May 26, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Just released, this edition of Paul Budde Communications focus report on Senegal outlines the major developments and key aspects in the telecoms markets. Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Senegal-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses Senegals economic growth has improved steadily in recent years, with GDP having grown at about 7% in 2017 and 2018. This has translated into consistent growth in the telecom market, with the number of mobile subscribers having increased 4.5% in the year to June 2018. Orange Groups local subsidiary Orange Senegal (Sonatel) is the dominant player in both the fixed-line and mobile sectors, though there is effective competition in the mobile sector from Tigo Senegal (now owned by Saga Africa Holdings) and Sudatels local unit Expresso, which have a 24% and 22% market share, respectively. Competition in the fixed-line sector was introduced when Expresso launched services as the second national operator (SNO) in 2009. The new entrant initially chose CDMA2000 technology to serve both market segments but switched to GSM technology in 2010, including 3G/HSPA mobile broadband. Despite its market entry, Sonatel commands a near monopoly on fixed lines. The mobile market has prospered, helped in part by poor fixed-line infrastructure in some rural areas. Mobile penetration reached about 106% by mid-2018. A range of value-added services is available to subscribers, including mobile broadband access, which has become by far the dominant internet platform, accounting for about 99% of all internet accesses as of mid-2018. Recent licensing developments will help propel the LTE sector. In June 2016 Sonatel secured a 17-year LTE licence (reduced from 20 years), as well as an extension to its fixed-line, 2G and 3G operating concessions (which had been due to expire in 2017) for no additional cost. The LTE licence includes the use of 10MHz of spectrum in the 1800MHz band and 10MHz in the 800MHz band. Sonatel must provide 70% population coverage within five years and 90% coverage within ten years. Story continues Development of the internet market until 2007 was hampered by Sonatels monopolistic pricing of bandwidth on the only high-capacity international submarine fibre optic cable serving the country. Competition in the DSL sector was also hindered by the lack of local loop unbundling regulations. Shortly after this facility finally became available in July 2018 three ISPs were granted licenses, each with coverage obligations in five regions of the country. BuddeComm notes that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020 is having a significant impact on production and supply chains globally. During the coming year the telecoms sector to various degrees is likely to experience a downturn in mobile device production, while it may also be difficult for network operators to manage workflows when maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. Overall progress towards 5G may be postponed or slowed down in some countries. On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth. Although it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the industry forecasts contained in this report. The report also covers the responses of the telecom operators as well as government agencies and regulators as they react to the crisis to ensure that citizens can continue to make optimum use of telecom services. This can be reflected in subsidy schemes and the promotion of tele-health and tele-education, among other solutions. Key developments: Tigo Senegal sold to Saga Africa Holdings; Tax on telecom services increased to 5%; Tigo Senegal secured LTE licence; Expresso launches E-Money platform; Sonatel delivers LTE to 50% of the population; Senegal Internet Exchange Point (SENIX) is opened; Tigo and Sonatel inaugurate Tier III data centres; Regulator awards more MVNOs licenses, deactivates some five million unregistered SIM cards; Digital Senegal 2016-2025 programs to cost XOF1,346 billion; ATOS Senegal replaces the State IT Agency (ADIE) to manage the 3,000km fibre network; Report update includes the regulator's market data to June 2018, operator data to Q4 2018, Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, assessment of the global impact of COVID-19 on the telecoms sector, recent market developments. Companies mentioned in this report: Sonatel (Orange Senegal), Millicom (Sentel, Tigo Senegal), Saga Africa Holdings, Sudatel (Expresso), Arc Informatique, Globacom, Mainstreet Technologies, Lycamobile Senegal Key Statistics Country overview COVID-19 and its impact on the telecom sector Economic considerations and responses Mobile devices Subscribers Infrastructure Telecommunications market Historical overview Regional Africa Market Comparison Regulatory environment Telecom sector reform Telecommunications Act of 2001 Regulatory authority Universal Service Fund West African common regulatory framework 2005 Electronic Transactions Act Taxes Telecom sector liberalisation Digital Cities Digital Senegal Second national operator (SNO) licence VoIP Fixed network operators Sonatel (Orange Senegal) Subsidiaries Privatisation Financial results Network infrastructure and services Telecentres International expansion Expresso Telecommunications infrastructure Overview of the national telecom network National Research and Education Network (NREN) International infrastructure Satellite Terrestrial fibre and microwave Submarine fibre Data centres Smart infrastructure Fixed-line broadband market Introduction and statistical overview Broadband statistics Fixed-line broadband technologies Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) Other fixed broadband services Digital Economy E-health E-government E-commerce Mobile market Market analysis Mobile statistics Mobile data SMS OTT messaging services Mobile broadband Regulatory issues Mobile Number Portability (MNP) SIM card registration Millicom licence dispute LTE licence Roaming Mobile infrastructure 4G (LTE) 3G Major mobile operators Orange Senegal (Sonatel Mobiles) Tigo Senegal (Sentel GSM) Expresso (Sudatel) Hayo Telecom Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) Mobile content and applications Manobi M-payments and m-banking Glossary of abbreviations Related reports List of Tables Table 1 Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities - Senegal 2018 (e) Table 2 Sonatel Group financial results 2004 2018 Table 3 Sonatel Group subscribers by platform 2014 2018 Table 4 Orange Senegal financial results (XOF) 2012 2017 Table 5 Orange Senegal fixed-line ARPU 2004 2018 Table 6 Historic -Fixed-lines in service and teledensity in Senegal 1999 2009 Table 7 Fixed-lines in service and teledensity in Senegal 2010 2018 Table 8 Market share of fixed-line subscribers by operator 2012 2018 Table 9 International internet bandwidth in Senegal 2002 2016 Table 10 Internet penetration by platform 2015 2018 Table 11 Internet users in Senegal 2000 2018 Table 12 Internet user penetration 2011 2018 Table 13 Market share of internet connections by platform 2011 2018 Table 14 Internet subscribers by platform 2011 2018 Table 15 Fixed broadband subscribers and penetration 2007 2018 Table 16 Market share of internet subscribers by operator 2012 2018 Table 17 DSL and fibre subscribers in Senegal 2002 2018 Table 18 Fixed wireless internet subscribers 2012 2018 Table 19 Fixed wireless broadband market share by operator (keys and data cards) 2013 2018 Table 20 Historic - Mobile subscribers and penetration 2000 2009 Table 21 Mobile subscribers and penetration 2010 2019 Table 22 Market share of subscribers by operator 2011 2018 Table 23 Prepaid and contract subscribers 2012 2018 Table 24 Mobile voice traffic per subscriber per month 2016 2018 Table 25 Mobile voice traffic 2002 2018 Table 26 SMS messages sent 2014 2018 Table 27 SMS traffic per month 2016 2018 Table 28 Mobile broadband (2G/3G/LTE) subscribers 2011 2018 Table 29 Active mobile broadband subscribers 2010 2018 Table 30 Market share of 2G/3G internet subscribers by operator 2011 2018 Table 31 Orange Senegal mobile broadband subscribers 2013 2018 Table 32 Orange Senegal mobile subscribers 1999 2018 Table 33 Orange Senegal mobile revenue () 2011 2018 Table 34 Orange Senegal prepaid mobile ARPU (XOF) 2011 2018 Table 35 Orange Senegal blended mobile ARPU () 2012 2016 Table 36 Orange Senegal prepaid ARPU (XOF) 2016 2018 Table 37 Tigo mobile subscribers 2010 2018 Table 38 Expresso mobile subscribers 2011 2018 Table 39 Orange Money subscribers (active) 2014 2018 List of Charts Chart 7 Sonatel Group financial results 2004 2018 Chart 8 Fixed-lines in service and teledensity in Senegal 2005 2019 Chart 9 Mobile subscribers and penetration rate in Senegal 2005 2019 Chart 10 Market share of subscribers by operator 2011 2018 Chart 11 Active mobile broadband subscribers 2010 2018 Chart 12 Market share of 2G/3G internet subscribers by operator 2011 2018 List of Exhibits Exhibit 1 Map of Senegal Exhibit 2 Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment Exhibit 4 West African common regulatory framework 2005 Exhibit 5 2Africa submarine cable Exhibit 6 2Africa landing stations Read the full report: https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Senegal-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses Nicolas Bombourg nbombourg@budde.com.au Within Australia (02) 8076 7665 Outside Australia +44 207 097 1241 Bangladesh: Brood fishes finally begin spawning in Halda River May 26,2020 | Source: Dhaka Tribune Fish breeders eagerly waiting for a successful spawning season were delighted to see brood fishes of a variety of indigenous fish species releasing thousands of eggs in the Halda River, Bangladeshs largest natural breeding ground for carp. Chittagong District Fisheries Officer Farhana Lovely said that a total of 616 spawn collectors have collected 25,536kg eggs from the Halda on Friday. Noted Halda River researcher, Prof Dr Manzoorul Kibria, told the Dhaka Tribune that the brood fishes started releasing eggs around 7:30am on Friday and local spawn collectors started collecting eggs in the river. Prompt vigilance by local administration, the shutdown of key pollution sources last year, and this years countrywide coronavirus shutdown have helped the river detoxify itself, Dr Manzoorul added. He said recent efforts and the coinciding shutdown is a boon for the river, raising hopes for a big haul. Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, the Hathazari Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) said three government hatcheries and 60 Kuas (small mud ponds) are all set for hatching. We have also made a list of all spawn collectors and issued Halda cards to spawn and fry collectors for being able to transport their haul without restriction. We have heightened our vigilance on the river to ensure an undisturbed spawning environment, said the UNO. Veteran spawn collector of the Halda, Kamal Sowdagor, said the authorities should strengthen vigilance so that no one who is not authorised, can catch the brood fish in the spawning season. During the Bangla months of Baishakh and Jaishtha (April and May) every year, different species of mother fish, like Catla (Catla catla), Ruhi (Labeo rohita), Mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala) and Kalbaoush (Labeo calbasu) start migrating to the spawning grounds of the Halda, from rivers like the Karnaphuli, Matamuhuri, and Sangu. The Halda which flows through the Hathazari and Raozan upazilas of Chittagong, considered the only natural breeding ground in the world where these species of fish release their eggs at a certain time in the monsoon. Fry-collectors use unique methods to catch these eggs and sell to fish farmers across the country. After collecting the eggs, the fishermen keep the spawn in small mud ponds or Kuas on the riverbank where the fry are hatched within 18 hours. After hatching, the fries are then sold out to fry collectors or hatchery owners. Catholic churches in Hudson, Bergen and Essex counties could reopen for some services next week, according to an email obtained by The Jersey Journal. The email, which was sent by a Newark Archdiocese official to Catholic priests, said phase two daily Mass (except Sundays), baptisms, funerals, weddings, all with limited numbers for re-opening of our churches has been set for RCAN for June 1st." The email emphasized that all events would need to follow the archdioceses safety measures, including masks to be worn when distributing communion, spacing in the church, sanitizing after each event, etc." It appears that the archdiocese is leaving the gradual reopening to individual parishes if they want to comply with the June 1 reopening. According to the email, June 1 is a flexible date, dependent upon the parishs ability to prepare appropriately according to guidelines and the capacity, or possibly the vulnerability of the individual pastor." A spokeswoman for the archdiocese declined to address the contents of the email, instead citing the archdioceses previous reopening plans. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin ordered the closure in late March. On May 17, churches began the first phase of reopening, meaning parishioners can worship at churches privately, provided a number of safety measures are taken. The coronavirus pandemic has forced celebrations for some of the churchs holiest days of the year online and delayed many other events. Scheduled ordinations for priests and bishops have been pushed from May to late June, a source told The Jersey Journal. Alyana Alfaro, a spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphys office, declined to comment on the archdioceses plans, but said that church services were under serious consideration. We currently allow gatherings, including those for religious purposes, of up to 25 individuals to take place outdoors and up to 10 individuals indoors and are actively exploring further options, she said. "While the Governors orders will remain in effect, the Governor encourages religious institutions to offer religious services, including communion, in safe and responsible ways. Its unclear if those orders will change by June 1. If the reopening takes place with the blessing of Murphy, the resumption of services could ease tensions between Murphy and some religious leaders. Last Friday, a group of 67 New Jersey pastors threatened to sue the governor if their churches were not allowed to reopen. "No one, including our governor, can dictate to churches and their congregants when and how they choose to worship, said the groups attorney, Demetrios Stratis. When asked at Mondays daily press briefing about the status of churches, Murphy said the issues are not black and white questions. Are you for worshiping or are you against worshiping? Thats not the question, he said. I personally would like to do that, as someone who goes to church. This is a question of doing it responsibly and doing it at the right time. The Rev. Joseph Mancini, pastor at St. Stephens Church in Kearny, said despite the unclear timeline, the ability to resume some services would be a comfort to parishioners. It will bring a sense of relief, he said. It will bring a sense of hope. Mancini, who was not involved in decisions about reopening procedures, added that funerals would provide a sense of closure to grieving family and friends, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lots of people, Catholic or not, see the funeral as a final goodbye, he said. That ability to have that closure is important to people. United Nations, May 26 : More African countries should heed the UN call for a global ceasefire to push back deadly COVID-19, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said. Marking Africa Day, the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union (AU), on May 25, 1963, the UN chief said in his message on Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic "threatens to derail progress" which would enable countries to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and development targets set out in the African Union's Agenda 2063, Xinhua reported. The AU has established a task force to develop a continent-wide strategy and appointed special envoys to mobilize international support, said the UN chief. Its Peace and Security Council has also taken steps to counter the negative impact of COVID-19 on the implementation of critical peace agreements and reconciliation efforts. He noted that the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention established a response fund, while African member states have undertaken "robust measures to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate the socio-economic impacts." Guterres welcomed the AU's support for his global ceasefire call, an imperative that also reflects the AU's 2020 theme: "Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development." "Armed groups in Cameroon, Sudan and South Sudan have responded to the call and declared unilateral ceasefires. I implore other armed movements and governments in Africa to do likewise. I also welcome the support of African countries for my call for peace in the home, and an end to all forms of violence, including against women and girls," he added. Some 20 African countries are scheduled to hold elections this year, some of which are likely to be postponed due to the pandemic, with potential consequences for stability and peace, noted the secretary-general. "I urge African political actors to engage in inclusive and sustained political dialogue to ease tensions around elections and uphold democratic practices." Last week, the UN issued a policy brief outlining the impacts of the pandemic on the continent. "We are calling for debt relief and action to maintain food supplies, protect jobs and cushion the continent against lost income and export earnings. African countries, like everyone, everywhere, should also have quick, equal and affordable access to any eventual vaccine and treatment." An opportunity now exists, for African governments to "use this moment" to shape new policies that bolster health systems, improve social protection and pursue climate-friendly pathways, he said. Targeting measures to those employed in the informal sector, the vast majority of whom are women, will be an important step to recovery, said Guterres, as will empowering women to ensure their full participation and leadership. "The inclusion and leadership of young people will also be crucial every step of the way," said Guterres. Short-term rentals in the Hollywood Hills have become party hot spots during the coronavirus lockdown. (Charles Fleming / Los Angeles Times) With nightclubs closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, short-term rental homes in the Hollywood Hills have become hot spots for illicit parties. Now, the Los Angeles Police Department and city attorney are warning homeowners that they can be held criminally and civilly accountable for renters' unruly parties. The LAPD said it has responded to complaints about several parties in recent weeks. The biggest occurred May 16, when police arrived at a home to find 100 people partying. They then heard a gunshot and found a partygoer with an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. "Cabin fever has gotten to everyone," said Sheila Irani, a member of the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council. Irani said people are flocking to the Hollywood Hills to party night and day. Many of the short-term rentals of large homes are going to visitors from out of town. "By the time anything happens, they are up and gone," she said. "We have houses here with 12 people floating in the pool all day." In the Lake Hollywood Estates, she said, one owner has been operating a four-bedroom house as a rental without the required registration for at least a month. Calls to the police, City Hall and the city attorney haven't changed that. "We tried to get them to wear a mask. They're walking down our streets in crowds," she said. Ralph Sanchez, LAPD's senior lead officer for the area, has a message to people looking for a replacement for closed nightclubs: "Please don't come up here to party." Capt. Steve Lurie said his Hollywood station last week received 49 calls about parties, 15% to 20% more than usual for a Memorial Day weekend. "It is taking up a lot of officers' time," Lurie said. LAPD Asst. Chief Robert Arcos said the department is doing its best to respond to party complaint calls at a time when officers are undertaking additional tasks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "As you know, we are stretching deployment to cover beaches and support all tiered openings," he said. Story continues The Los Angeles city attorney's office said homeowners with a history of renting to partyers will face more than a slap on the wrist. "If police are called to the location of a party, there will be consequences," said Ethan Weaver, the Hollywood-area prosecutor for the city attorney's office. "The consequences can range from a citation up to criminal prosecution and six months in jail. Those consequences don't just apply to the person throwing the party; it can apply to ... the homeowner. If your house has been cited for a party violation in the past, you as a property owner can be held responsible even if you are not present." Police say the party-house issue emerged a few years ago with the explosion of short-term rentals through services such as Airbnb. Since Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti in March instituted stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, the LAPD's Hollywood Division has gotten a steady stream of complaints of loud parties, with music and voices echoing through the tight canyons and narrow hillside arteries at all hours of the night. Those complaints include jam-packed hillside parking, public intoxication and partygoers urinating outside people's homes. With bars & clubs closed due to COVID 19, we have seen an increase in calls for loud house parties in the Hollywood Hills. Our Senior Lead Officers as well as Ethan Weaver from the @CityAttorneyLA office put together a video with info on nuisance party laws in LA. pic.twitter.com/kGN5NG7IG6 LAPD Hollywood Division (@LAPDHollywood) May 26, 2020 The issue came to a head May 16, when officers entered a raging party at a 4,000-square-foot luxury home in the 1400 block of Miller Drive, which had been rented for the weekend, and heard a gunshot. Josh Rubenstein, the LAPD communications director, said the investigation determined that there was gang activity at the party. Three guns were recovered from the scene, he said. The house had been rented out for the party, Rubenstein said, and the owner of the property was seemingly unaware of the plan for its use. That home was not rented via the most popular short-term rental service, Airbnb. That company has cracked down on such violations since the pandemic, warning property owners that they will be forbidden from using the service if it is discovered they rented to people throwing parties. Gatherings of any size are prohibited under the stay-at-home orders issued by L.A. County and the state. Hollywood Hills party houses were a problem well before coronavirus. In 2018, the City Council approved an ordinance proposed and championed by Councilman David Ryu, who represents the Hollywood Hills, that imposed fines on both party hosts and homeowners. Ryu is now looking at expanding the law to crack down on those who continue to flout the law and put others at risk. Party promoters turning homes into de facto nightclubs have been a problem for years. Its why we passed the party-house ordinance in 2018. This has always been dangerous, but during a pandemic it is especially selfish and stupid," Ryu said. "This is no longer a standard-of-life issue; its a standard-of-health issue. Whether its by expanding the party-house law or stronger enforcement of physical distancing rules, we must crack down on these parties and hold party hosts and homeowners accountable. System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
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Eric Hallin brings more than 40 years of international hospitality experience to his new role as general manager at Six Senses Con Dao. His management expertise has contributed to the success of many properties, including Six Senses Samui in Thailand, voted "Best Hotel in the World" by Conde Nast Traveller readers in 2008. Eric's arrival on the pristine island of Con Dao brings a fresh breeze to the resort and its hosts, sharing his working philosophy that a general manager is only as good as his ability to inspire, motivate and empower his team. He also attaches importance to community issues and local business development, having held many leading positions in PATA, chambers of commerce and Skal. Growing up in Africa and Europe, Eric attended the Universities of Malawi and Stockholm before joining the travel industry. Fluent in several languages, his career has spanned an impressive list of countries, including France, Greece, Maldives, Spain and Thailand. COVID-19 has decimated many nations around the globe, and we've seen industries crumble under the impact of this deadly virus. We've seen the airline industry hang on by a thread, the gambling industry suffer millions in losses, and life as we know it will not return to normal for quite some time. Japan is one of those countries that has been badly affected, it is only a guess how the Japanese industry changed under the influence of the coronavirus and we've looked into this in more detail through this short piece. The impact on Japan Bank of Japan Governor, Haruhiko Kuroda said that the coronavirus pandemic is having a "genuine effect" on the Japanese economy and that the worldwide financial viewpoint stays extremely hazy. COVID-19 has burdened the nation's economy as exports, spending/outputs, and the number of visitors to Japan has all declined. The vulnerability from a financial standpoint is also extremely high, as it is still unclear when the worldwide coronavirus contamination will end. In contrast to other such immediate lockdowns in other countries, Japan had gone about its Coronavirus realization through a very incremental increase in hysteria, and then a somewhat slow decline in everyday activities. Naturally, it has turned into something of a polka-dot economy. With people moving around at just 30% of normal levels, only small restaurants are still existing, beauty salons and the occasional clothes boutique have their doors open, and what is "essential" seems to be highly ambiguous. However, one of the biggest impacts is on the way many businesses in Japan operate. So many companies in Japan are highly corporate and the etiquette is very serious, as is the way that business is conducted. Therefore, this transition into digital and video conferencing is most challenging for many companies, as it came as quite a shock. How the country responded In early April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state emergency when there seemed to be a significant rise in new cases. However, unlike other countries, Abe chose to limit the state of emergency to a mere month with the intention to curb the economic losses. Hours after the decision to call a state of emergency, Abe started to limit the economic risk. The month-long declaration of emergency had a pack of new laws too. For example, the police could arrest people that were hoarding such important supplies, and they had the power to take over buildings for the use of treating the mass influx of sick people. In contrast to other cities, they didn't feel the need to detain or fine citizens that left homes or gathered outdoors. At just shy of $1 trillion, there was a brand new package of measures that detailed the government's spending in this crisis. However, we simply do not know whether this amount of money could ever rebuild the closing businesses and households getting increasingly poorer. The current state of affairs The current state of affairs in Japan is somewhat troubling, given the fact that the county has very recently fallen into a deep recession. This is the first time this has happened since 2015. Japan, which is the third-largest economy in the whole world, had its economy shrink at a yearly rate of 3.4 percent in the early months of 2020. Given that the Coronavirus is affecting all countries, and due to Japan being one of the top economies globally, this has had a notable effect on the global economy, with an estimated consequence of up to a staggering $7.1m! As mentioned above, the state of emergency that only lasted one month severely impacted supply chains and companies of all different sizes, as the country was dependent on trade and this had been affected tremendously. Analysts believe that Japan's economy will diminish by 22% during the months of April to June, which would be the biggest decline ever witnessed there. As Japan is reliant on exports and does not have any say on the consumer demand in different countries, it is proving to be difficult for the country. The tourism industry in Japan has also seen monumental declines due to the country having more than 16,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, and this is making people turn away in numbers never seen before. What lies ahead In a survey completed by more than 10,000 Japanese companies, it is apparent that 63 percent of the respondents said that the virus would have a substantial impact on the performance of domestic businesses. However, many companies are still digitizing and creating remote working measures, perhaps putting an end to the Japanese business culture of expecting long hours of their employees. Also focussing on life as opposed to just business, families will now be much closer together, which will perhaps challenge the country's traditional domestic roles. Not only will businesses feel the burden, but the country also has to face the reality that there was a one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. So much investment was put into it, and it was truly going to spark a revival in the Japanese economy. For now however, like other countries around the world, Japan will need to try everything to revive the economy, continue to protect the people, and Coronavirus restrictions might still continue for some time. Closing thoughts With all points considered, it is crystal clear that Japan has seen grave consequences of the virus. At the time of writing, it would seem that the country really has got a grip on the virus, as the daily death toll is very low, and things are slowly returning to normal. While this shows light at the end of the tunnel, we have a feeling that Japan might feel the economic effects of COVID-19 for quite some time. Jerusalem, May 26 : Bethlehems Church of the Nativity reopened its doors on Tuesday after being closed for almost three months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The sacred building, widely considered to be the cradle of Christianity, welcomed worshippers again along with other churches and mosques as part of the West Bank's lockdown de-escalation, reports Efe news. "Following the evolvement of the situation in the Holy Land, we wish to inform that the celebrations of the communities, the Greek Orthodox, the Latin and the Armenian will continue regularly, even though for safety reasons and in order to avoid the risk of the diffusion of the COVID-19 infection, the number of participants in the celebrations will be limited to few persons and the basilica will be accessible during the liturgies only," the custodians of the church said in a statement. Worshippers will be required to wear masks and access will only be granted to those who do not have fever or other symptoms of the virus. There can only be a maximum of 50 people inside the church and the faithful must maintain a distance of at least two metres between each other and avoid any act of devotion that includes physical contact, such as touching and kissing stones, icons, vestments or staff in the basilica. The custodians added that prayers will continue inside the basilica for "the end of the pandemic, the recovery of the sick, the protection of the medical personnel, the wisdom for the pastors and the governors and the eternal salvation to those who lost their lives". The Christian temple closed its doors on March 5 after a group of Greek tourists who had visited the site were confirmed to have the disease. Bethlehem was the first Palestinian city to register an outbreak of the virus, which led to the closure of places of worship and schools before the whole city was put into lockdown. The reopening of the basilica came after the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem welcomed faithful again on Sunday after two months of closure. These two sites are of great importance for Christian pilgrims, thousands of whom travel to the Holy Land every year. It came as part of the beginning of a gradual de-escalation in the occupied West Bank, which was announced on Monday by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. The region has reported a low rate of COVID-19 infections with no new cases detected in the last 24 hours. Establishments such as shops, businesses, churches and mosques reopened on Tuesday while restrictions on travel between West Bank provinces were also lifted. Other premises such as cafes and restaurants are due to open their doors on Wednesday. Less than 600 cases have been detected in the Palestinian territories, most of them in the West Bank, as well as five deaths. LONDON, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dubai-based newspaper Khaleej Times is hosting a webinar on Citizenship by Investment (CBI) on Wednesday, May 27, starting at 2PM (UAE time). Themed "Immigrant Investment Opportunities in Post Pandemic World," the event will feature Dr. the Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica - the best country for CBI. Allan Jacob, Khaleej Times' Senior Editor, is hosting the webinar. The main topics of discussion cover preparing an alternative life plan for one's family, the benefits of obtaining second citizenship, and what makes a CBI programme successful. After the conversation with PM Skerrit, the webinar will continue with an expert panel discussion. This will feature three special guests: H.E. Emmanuel Nanthan, the Head of the Citizenship by Investment Unit in Dominica; H.E. Hubert John Charles, the Dominican Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates; and Beatrice Gatti, the Head of the Government Advisory Practice at CS Global Partners in London. "Khaleej Times is proud to host a webinar with Dr the Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, and talk to him about what the current world crisis means for the immigration investment programs offered by countries," the organisers comment. "Immigrant investor programs help countries become a more globalized economy and attract private investors from all parts of the world looking for a better standard of living and a safer environment," cites the publication. Dominica remains the best country for citizenship by investment, a position it has held for three consecutive years. This is according to an independent study published by the Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management magazine. The prestigious publication credits Dominica's success to meeting investors' expectations in terms of efficient processing, affordability, no residence requirements, and reliable due diligence that offer lifetime safety and security. Dominica maintains an impeccable reputation for transparency, accountability and integrity. Reports from the IMF, ECLAC and CDB commend the vital role the CBI Programme has played in transforming the island. That is why, to obtain second citizenship from Dominica, all applicants must first pass all the due diligence checks. If successful, they can either make a one-off contribution of US$100,000 to the Economic Diversification Fund or invest at least US$200,000 in pre-approved real estate. The former is more straightforward, while the latter gives the chance to also earn ROI from luxury, eco-friendly resorts in what fDI intelligence calls one of the top 20 tourism destinations of the future. Known as the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean," Dominica has made extraordinary strides towards climate resilience - a promise kept by PM Skerrit. For example, the government is building over 5,000 modern homes across the island as part of PM Skerrit's Housing Revolution, sponsored entirely by the CBI Programme. A PwC report details how CBI has benefited virtually all aspects of life on the island. Meanwhile, the Financial Times filmed a documentary on investing in Dominica and how the country is "carving a niche of its own." Register here. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1172808/Dominica_CBI_Webinar.jpg Contact: pr@csglobalpartners.com www.csglobalpartners.com UN Command probe finds breaches by both sides, with the Norths forces firing first and the Souths returning fire. A United Nations investigation into a recent exchange of gunfire between North Korea and South Korea has determined that both countries violated the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The May 3 gunfire exchange was the first shooting inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the peninsula in about two and a half years. There were no known casualties on either side. The DMZ, a de facto border established as a buffer at the end of the Korean War, is officially jointly overseen by North Korea and the US-led UN Command. The UN Command said in a statement on Tuesday that a multinational special investigation team led the probe with the full cooperation of the South Korean military. It said it invited North Korea to provide information on the incident but the country had not offered a formal response. The investigation ruled that North Korea breached the armistice by firing four rounds and South Korea by returning fire, according to the statement. It said the probe was unable to determine if the North Korean rounds were fired intentionally or by mistake. The South Korean defence ministry expressed regret that the UN Command reached the conclusion without investigating North Korea, which Seoul says fired first. In a statement, the ministry said South Korean troops were reacting in accordance with a response manual and that the Souths military is committed to government goals of promoting peace and easing tensions along the border. South Korean officials earlier said they fired warning shots towards North Korea after four bullets fired by the North hit one of its front-line guard posts. The two sides remain technically at war, since fighting in the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953 that was never replaced with a peace treaty. The UN Command, which monitors compliance, said the terms of the armistice agreement are in place to minimise the risk of incidents such as gunfire exchanges. Unlike its name, the DMZ is the worlds most heavily fortified border, guarded by mines, barbed-wire fences and combat troops on both sides. Gunfire exchanges inside the DMZ are not unusual, but no deadly clashes have occurred in recent years. The recent incident came amid a deadlock in negotiations between North Korean and US officials on Pyongyangs nuclear weapons programme. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea. Members of Parliament arrive to take part in a Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 6, 2020. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) Conservatives Push for Full Sittings of House Through Summer The Conservatives pushed back against the Liberals proposal to suspend full House of Commons sittings through the summer, as MPs debated how Parliament should function amid the pandemic when they returned to the House on Monday. The Liberals are proposing four sittings per week of a special COVID-19 committee to talk about the pandemic and how the government is responding to it, using a hybrid system with some MPs in the chamber in Ottawa and others participating by video conference. The Conservatives have said they want to do away with the special COVID-19 committee and bring back House sittings, albeit with no more than 50 MPs in the House at any one time. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer underscored the need for Parliaments immediate return in his address to the House on Monday, citing the ballooning deficit, billions in new pandemic-related spending, and the Liberals weakness on China relations as some of the reasons for MPs to be able to ask questions on behalf of their constituents. We can get better results for Canadians, but to do so the House must sit, Scheer said. Opposition House leader Candice Bergen laid out some of the key differences between a normal parliamentary session and the special committee. These include a lack of opposition days, private members motions, and the ability to submit order paper questions, which is one of the key ways opposition parties have to get information from the government. Although the special committee is one where questions can be asked, we certainly are not seeing questions answered, said Bergen. And there are many things that the Opposition can do when Parliament is actually sitting in order to try to get answers and to try to hold the government to account. That is not going to be happening if this motion passes. The Liberals and NDP argue that the Conservatives plan essentially disenfranchises the majority of Canadians, as MPs who live far from Ottawa or with potential health risks will face extreme difficulties attending in-person sessions. However, all sides agree there are technical limitations to establishing a full virtual Parliament right now that do not exist for committees. Those limitations were highlighted in a report by a Commons committee earlier this month, including concerns about hacking when it comes to MP votes and procedural questions such as how to handle points of order and privilege. The Liberals say that is why they have proposed expanding the current COVID-19 committee by adding an additional meeting per week and using a hybrid format that will allow all MPs to participate through either in-person or virtual attendance. Under this motion, with a hybrid Parliament, there would be more time for questions, government House leader Pablo Rodriguez said. There would be MPs in the House and there would be MPs via video conference regardless of the party. And this would allow our democracy to function. MPs would be able to ask questions because they were elected and not because they live close to Ottawa. The Liberals are seeking the NDPs backing for the plan, which they need to pass the motion, after the Bloc Quebecois said they would not be involved in negotiations. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus promise to work with provinces to give workers 10 days of paid sick leave per year is a good start, but more action is needed before federal New Democrats will agree to suspend full sittings of the House through the summer. The government must also make good on a promise to provide more support to Canadians with disabilities who are struggling during the pandemic, Singh said. With files from The Canadian Press Canadian senior struggles to care for foster daughters in Haiti amid COVID-19, May 20 Thank you for informing the public about the situation of Sebastien De Marre and his daughters in Haiti. I met Sebastien and his wife, Marie Paule, in 1983 when I first came to Canada. They are people with big, kind and generous hearts, always ready to help, to work for justice, to build community. They have a home in Nelson, B.C., and a community there that is willing to support them. I live in Vancouver and am willing to do whatever it takes to help them. I hope the Canadian government is doing the right thing and will allow the family to reunite in Canada. The Australian Red Cross has been hit by almost 900 cyber attacks attempting to access the $216 million raised in donations for bushfire victims. The charity has also received a large number of "suspicious" applications for assistance, its Australian program director Noel Clement says. "We had very significant cyber activity from the outset," Mr Clement told the bushfires royal commission on Tuesday. Mr Clement said there had been close to 900 electronically-generated "botnet" applications to date. "The Pinion is one of our most popular floor plans in the greater Austin area, so we're excited for buyers to be able to check out this beautiful new model home," said Brian Bekker, Austin Division President. "It's also a great opportunity to learn about everything that SaddleCreek has to offer." MORE ABOUT SADDLECREEK New single-family homes from the low $200s 13 floor plans across two home collections Single- and two-story layouts Up to 5 bedrooms and 2,413 square feet Quick access to I-35, Highway 130, and local employers like Dell, Emerson, IBM and Apple VIRTUAL TOURS AND HOMEBUYING In addition to onsite appointments, homebuyers can also schedule real-time video tours from the comfort of their homes. Century Communities also provides online resources for buyers to electronically sign contracts, submit earnest money deposits and more. Learn more about online homebuying at Live.CenturyCommunities.com/HomebuyingMadeEasy. For more information, call 512.942.2300. Community address: 8613 Daisy Cutter Crossing, Georgetown, TX 78626 About Century Communities Century Communities, Inc. (NYSE: CCS) is a top 10 national homebuilder. Offering new homes under the Century Communities and Century Complete brands, Century is engaged in all aspects of homebuilding including the acquisition, entitlement and development of land, along with the construction, innovative marketing and sale of quality homes designed to appeal to a wide range of homebuyers. The Colorado-based company operates in 17 states across the U.S., and offers title, insurance and lending services in select markets through its Parkway Title, IHL Insurance Agency, and Inspire Home Loan subsidiaries. To learn more about Century Communities, please visit www.centurycommunities.com. SOURCE Century Communities, Inc. Related Links https://www.centurycommunities.com NEW HAVEN A coalition of familiar groups, with some new names, again has asked Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital to greatly increase their voluntary contribution to New Haven on the day that the Board of Alders was poised to cut millions from Mayor Justin Elickers proposed fiscal 2021 budget. The groups strategy is to collect as many names as possible on a petition to the two institutions, which the coalition hopes will be successful in generating more funds from the citys largest employers by later this summer. Sarah Miller said the inequality in the city among black and brown neighborhoods is not an accident of history. Rather , it a result of history. And a big part of the history that stares us in the face all over town is Yales enormous property footprint for which they pay very limited taxes. The charitable purpose that allows for Yales tax exemption is education and yet year after year our public schools run a deficit and cannot afford the core staff and supplies needed to meet childrens needs, she said. Miller, who is part of New Haven Public School Advocates, said there is not enough money in the system to do what needs to be done. She said the wealth of both institutions, which are also the citys biggest employers, increases daily. She said there are losses, but they are positioned to weather them. Yale has nearly 14,000 faculty and staff, and it has promised to hire more in low-income neighborhoods. The university pays the $12 million a year in voluntary payments. Our $12 million voluntary payment in the most recent fiscal year was the highest from a university to a hometown anywhere in the United States, and represented a 44 percent increase from the payment we made just three years earlier, according to Yale University past statements. And that is only one part of what Yale gives directly to the city. In that same year, we paid $5 million in property taxes on our non-academic properties (making us the citys third-highest taxpayer). Yale is supporting the New Haven community during the COVID-19 pandemic through a growing number of initiatives and programs. Examples are outlined at https://bit.ly/2X1VGVM. Speaking of its operating budget, Marna Borgstrom, president and CEO of Yale New Haven Health, recently said in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has gone from a $300 million surplus to a $350 million loss. Yale University, in response to previous criticisms, has listed the contributions it makes to the city, such as the $5 million in property taxes on its non-academic properties and the $5 million each year in permitting fees. Yale has also noted: Its medical school sponsors free clinics; the law school offers pro-bono legal advice; and the architecture school designs and builds homes for the economically disadvantaged. Yale students also volunteer in the city, provide tutoring, mentoring, tax preparation, ESL classes, and food pantry services, Yale has noted. It has said it supports the schools as a co-founder and primary funder of New Haven Promise, having contributed $4 million to cover full tuition at any public university in the state for eligible New Haven public school students. Since 2014, the program has awarded scholarships to 1,900 students and has placed 400 paid interns at Yale. Miller said the many community programs that Yale offers do not address the citys need for fundamental structural change. Miller said the bright spot, in what she views as a dark moment in the citys history, is the coming together of people in New Haven who are done settling for the status quo. In this moment of crisis, we invite our anchor institutions to collaborate with us in a new spirit of partnership to advance education and improve health not only within the walls of Yale but also the city we all call home, she said. The city has estimated that if the university were not tax exempt, it would generate $144 million in revenue annually for New Haven. The city would have TO subtract the money it now gets in PILOT from the state and the fire contribution from the university. New faces among the advocates included Elizabeth Gonzalez, a mother of four, and her daughter, Jaidy Gonzalez, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School, who are members of the Semilla Collective, a grassroots group that has been providing food for immigrants and others hard hit by illness from the coronavirus and financially, due to job losses. Elizabeth Gonzalez first got to know the group when it helped her with groceries back in March and some cash, an organization that has reached 300 families since then. Due to the pandemic, Gonzalez said the hours both she and her husband worked were cut back. She said they pay taxes, do not use food stamps and try to send money home to their parents in Mexico. We cover all of our expenses with our hard work and effort, she said. She said she and her family are paying their fair share of taxes, which is what the hospital and the university should do. Jaidy Gonzalez said it is hard to feed her big family, but she was excited to get help from her neighbors, which she is now paying back by volunteering for Semilla. Kiana Flores, a junior at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School and a member of New Haven Climate Movement, said it was important to actively work to prevent disaster from climate change. Time is running out. Denying New Haveners access to such an enormous amount of money will only lead further to the decline we are already experiencing, Flores said of Yale and the hospitals tax exempt status. Yale University has denied its place in New Haven for too long, she said. We can no longer tolerate this massive amount of non-taxable property. Albert Alston, who is with the Local 3429 of the New Haven Public Schools paraprofessionals union, said they are short staffed and underpaid, despite the important work they do. He said they are assigned as substitute teachers at all grade levels, which makes it impossible to carry out their normal duties. He said they are burned out because there are not enough resources in the New Haven school system. Students who should have one-on-one help are not getting this support. An infusion of tax revenue from Yale would help with these issues. Esul Burton, a member of Yale College Democrats, who just graduated from Yale, said the university needs to do better in light of the proposed tax increase and budget cuts in New Haven. The COVID-19 crisis threatens to compound the structural inequality already present in New Haven. Any path forward must require a radical re-imagining of Yales responsibility to the city and its residents, Burton said. Scott Marks, who leads New Haven Rising, said for over 80 years communities that were red-lined to keep out black and brown people are still paying the price. He said the inequality has left sectors without affordable housing and now they are suffering food scarcity. He said they are the same neighborhoods where black and brown residents are dying at a higher rate than other groups to COVID-19. As a large corporation, he said Yale recovered greatly from the 2008 recession and it will again, but the neighborhoods left behind suffer high foreclosure rates is high and the schools struggle. The list of groups supporting the petition to Yale and Yale New Haven Hospital includes 18 groups so far. The universitys tax-exempt properties made up 42 percent of New Havens tax-exempt grand list, while the hospitals tax-exempt properties add another 9 percent. Altogether, the total universe of tax exempt land is just under 60 percent of the citys grand list. mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577. Dankaur : , May 26 (IANS) A juvenile has been held in connection with the murder of a septuagenarian farmer, whose son is a senior officer in the Defence Ministry, police said on Tuesday. Greater Noida DCP Rajesh Kumar Singh said that Rajender Sharma, 75, was killed on Thursday night while he was asleep at a tube well in Issepur village. The officer said the accused was a resident of Sikandrabad and used to visit the area for hunting partridges. The accused allegedly stabbed the septuagenarian with a knife and hit him with a brick to rob him of Rs 6,300. Police said the accused came to know about the cash when Rajender Sharma took out the money from his pocket to give to the juvenile to buy some provisions from a village shop. He later returned to kill the old man while he was asleep, police said. A murder case was lodged on the complaint of the victim's son Rakesh Sharma, who is a Joint Director in the Defence Ministry. The accused has since been sent to a juvenile home. On the other hand, the bereaved family claimed that police had pinned the blame on the juvenile to save the real culprits. A state representative has started the formal process of trying to recall the governor. Recall elections are processes through which an elected official can be removed from office before a term expires. It has rarely been successful with governors, however. Republican state Rep. Allen Skillicorn of Crystal Lake said Tuesday that he is pursuing the measure against Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, on the grounds he has done little to fix the states unemployment claims website. The site has frustrated those trying to apply for claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. The governor has had ample time to fix this website, Skillicorn said. I called him out on it and nothing has been addressed nor has there been a plan presented to fix the problems. Enough is enough. The incompetence cannot continue. Pritzkers office has not responded to the action. Call center data obtained from the Illinois Department of Employment Security for the period of March 2 through April 28 shows an increase in daily calls rising from an average of 6,500 calls for the first 10 days to almost 370,000. The number of agents available to answer those calls increased from a low of 88 to a high of 122. Skillicorn was also critical of Pritzkers efforts to keep businesses closed during the pandemic and the early release of prisoners. To advance a recall petition, 10 state representatives and five senators from each party would have to sign off, and then signed by a number of voters equal to 15% of the total votes in the gubernatorial election. Marco Cartolano MUSKEGON, MI - Coming out of the long Memorial Day weekend, you may not be ready to jump back into cooking duties. Weve got you covered: here are five local businesses to support, while letting someone else take care of dinner (or breakfast or lunch) this week. This week features a few of Michigans Best, including some of the best hamburgers, chili, and diner food the Mitten has to offer. The homemade Italian food and sandwiches may not have made an official list just yet, but theyre pretty great, too. Signature Tootsie Rolls next to dishes at Tootsie's Diner in Muskegon, on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019. Tootsie's is a finalist in MLive's search for Michigan's Best Diner. (Kayla Renie | MLive.com) Kayla Renie | mrenie@mlive.comKayla Renie | mrenie@mlive.com Tootsies Diner (1125 W Hackley Ave., Muskegon) Nothing beats sliding into a diner booth for a long, leisurely breakfast, but in the absence of sit-down dining, this iconic Muskegon mainstay offers its robust menu to go. A Michigans Best Diner finalist last year, Tootsies is famous for its hand-fried onion rings, thick sandwiches, shakes and desserts - like sundaes and cakes - as well as a range of breakfast goodies, like stuffed hash browns, omelets and pancakes. And even under the stay-at-home order, What a Deal Wednesdays are still running, where most menu items cost six bucks. Find their menu here, and call 231-755-5005 to place an order for pickup or delivery. MLive's John Gonzales and Amy Sherman sampled eight burgers at Hamburger Mikey, 1125 3rd St, Muskegon, Michigan on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The restaurant is a finalist for Michigan's Best Burger.Alison Zywicki | azywicki Hamburger Mikey (1129 3rd St., Muskegon) It feels like just yesterday that MLive was chowing down on some of Michigans best burgers right here in Muskegons Midtown neighborhood. Already honored for its world-class French fries, Hamburger Mikey might also have the states best hamburgers - and after shutting down for a few weeks, theyre yours to take out. From 11-6 p.m., pick up an original hamburger or a Fat Mikey (two patties) with whatever toppings you please, the special Burger of the Month, or a grilled cheese - and dont forget the fries. Theres no calling ahead here. Instead, order inside the restaurant (mindful of social distance, of course), and servers will deliver the burgers to you outside. The Spagman Crunchies are Teddy Spaghetti's version of potato chips. They are topped with Romano cheese, garlic, parsley and cayenne pepper. CHRONICLE PHOTO BY GREG LINDSTROM DATE SHOT: OCTOBER 1, 2011 The Muskegon ChronicleThe Muskegon Chronicle Teddy Spaghettis (3032 Heights Ravenna Road, Muskegon) Food is a family affair at this Fruitport Township spot, so what better way to replace your home cooking with someone elses? Teddy Spaghettis Italian restaurant is famous for its toasted ravioli, but its menu is full of all kinds of pastas, plus pizzas, lasagna, salads and more. In light of the novel coronavirus impact on many peoples paychecks, the restaurant is also offering family-sized platters to give a little more bang for your buck. For a little pre-dinner snack, try the spagman crunchies, fried potatoes doused in cheese and herbs, or Italian nachos (featuring Italian sausage and with a side of dipping sauce), and dont forget a batch of zeppole - Italian donuts - for dessert. Find the menu here, and call 231-777-8337 to place your order. The Chili Flight at Dr. Rolf's BBQ, Muskegon - Michigan's Best Chili Top 10. John GonzalezJohn Gonzalez Dr. Rolfs (477 W. Western Ave., Muskegon) Technically, this isnt a Takeout Tuesday option, because this downtown barbecue joint is only open Wednesdays through Saturdays, but you can start planning now to pickup a cup or bowl of Michigans Best chili, wings, or a meaty platter or sandwich. And dont sleep on the sides and starters:, like dirty tots and pork sliders. Top it off with an extra order of the cornbread waffles and thank us later. Find the menu here, and call 231-246-2168 to place an order. North Grove Brewers participates in a food and drink pairing for the White Lake Wanderland in Montague, Michigan on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. - Scenes from the White Lake Winter Wanderland on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020. Alison ZywickiAlison Zywicki North Grove Brewers (8735 Water St., Montague) The latest addition to the growing Muskegon County craft beer scene, this brewery also has a deli-style food menu with something for everyone. The sandwiches are all on bread from Hodgepodge Bake Shop, with meats, cheeses and even the condiments paying homage to the brews (think beer cheese, stout marinated pastrami, and pale ale mustard - although not all on the same sandwich!). Soups, salads, and hot dogs for the kiddos round out the takeout options. And yes, you can also get some adult beverages to go, in a can, six-pack or growler formation. Find their rotating options on Facebook, and maybe pair it with a snack, like a soft grain pretzel or house made beer cheese dip. Find the menu here, and call 231-894-0144 to place an order. The Powering Positivity campaign by MLive Media Group highlights how Michiganders are supporting one another during the coronavirus pandemic. It is sponsored by The MediLodge Group. Read more on MLive: Heres whats on the ballot in Muskegon Countys Aug. 4 primary election Muskegon Community College announces plans for virtual graduation ceremony Norton Shores movie theater announces reopening plan West Michigan Symphony cancels live performances through the summer New Delhi: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday (May 26) asked that the Narendra Modi-led central government to come clean on the situation arising at the Ladakh border, stating that there should be transparency on the issue. The Congress leader asked the government to make it clear to the citizen what is happening on the border. His statement comes amid reports of a face-off between the Indian Army and China`s People's Liberation Army in eastern Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). "The details of what happened along the border, the government should share with the people. I cannot see transparency. The issue of Ladakh and China is a live issue. Transparency is required," Rahul said, in his address through video conferencing today. He added that what happened with Nepal and why, what is happening in Ladakh should be made clear. Indian and Chinese troops remained engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in several disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh, signalling that the confrontation could become the biggest military face-off after the Doklam episode in 2017. Top military sources said India has further increased its strength in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley -- the two contentious areas where Chinese army is learnt to have been deploying around 2,000 to 2,500 troops besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure. The biggest concern for Indian military has been the presence of Chinese troops around several key points including Indian Post KM120 along the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley. "It is serious. It is not a normal kind of transgression," former Northern Army Commander Lt Gen (Retd) DS Hooda told PTI. Speaking on the issue, Rahul said that till the time there is no transparency on the matter, it won't be wise for him to speak on the subject. "If I have more information then I will share more details on it," he added. When asked to respond on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman calling him 'dramebaaz' over his meeting with migrant workers in the national capital a few days back, Rahul said "it is the minister's view". He added that his motive was only to speak for the poor and highlight their pain and sufferings. Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as Chinas top crude oil supplier in April, customs data showed, with imports rising 18% from the same month a year earlier as refiners snapped up cheap raw materials amid a price war between the two producers. Russian shipments reached 7.2 million tonnes last month, equivalent to 1.75 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the General Administration of Customs released on Tuesday. That compares with 1.49 million bpd in April 2019 and 1.66 million bpd in March, Reuters reported. Supplies from Saudi Arabia fell to 1.26 million bpd, down from 1.53 million bpd in April 2019 and 1.7 million bpd in March. Chinas total crude oil imports in April came in at 9.84 million bpd, up from 9.68 million bpd in March, but well below 10.64 million bpd in April last year, according to data released earlier this month. Still, imports during the first four months of the year were up 1.7% on a year earlier as Chinese oil refineries take advantage of slumping oil prices. Refinitivs oil research team expects Chinas May imports to hit an all-time high of 53.7 million tonnes, or 12.7 million bpd, with record volumes from OPEC producers. Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself because he was preparing a multi-layered legal and media strategy to fight his case, the late pedophile's lawyer has claimed. David Schoen, who Epstein asked to lead his legal team in his final days, said he planned to mount legal and factual defenses to the sex trafficking allegations against him. During a five-hour meeting with Epstein nine days before his death, Schoen said Epstein was 'upbeat and excited' and looking forward to clearing his name. But Epstein was in a 'dangerous situation' in jail and suggested other prisoners were considering blackmailing him. They would see him on TV inside the prison and tell Epstein: '$70 million mansion, huh?' Schoen speaks out in a new documentary about Epstein's death called Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein? The first episode began streaming online on Investigation Discovery on Monday and will be premiered on TV on May 31. Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself because he was preparing a multi-layered legal and media strategy to fight his case, the late pedophile's lawyer has claimed A new documentary on Discovery questions whether or not the financier took his own life last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, as the official autopsy claimed. Epstein's death sparked a slew of conspiracy theories, which were bolstered by the apparent failures at the prison where he was being held in NYC Renowned pathologist Michael Baden was brought on board and concluded that Epstein's injuries were not consistent with suicide by hanging, as the New York City Medical Examiner said. Instead Baden believes the broken bone in Epstein's neck suggests he had been killed David Schoen, who Epstein asked to lead his legal team in his final days, said he planned to mount legal and factual defenses to the sex trafficking allegations against him. During a five-hour meeting with Epstein nine days before his death, Schoen said Epstein was 'upbeat and excited' and looking forward to clearing his name The three-part series questions whether or not the financier took his own life last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, as the official autopsy claimed. Epstein's death sparked a slew of conspiracy theories, which were bolstered by the apparent failures at the prison where he was being held. The guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan allegedly did not check on him all night - and the cameras outside of his cell were not working. Schoen is based in Atlanta, Georgia and had been giving Epstein sporadic legal advice for 11 years before his arrest last July. He claims that despite his vast finances, Epstein's legal team was in turmoil and he sought out Schoen to lead them to trial. Speaking to DailyMail.com Schoen even called Jay Lefkowitz, one of Epstein's longtime lawyers, a 'numbskull'. Central to Epstein's legal strategy was that the prosecution in New York was the same as the one in 2008 for which he agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors. Schoen explained Epstein 'asked me to take over the whole case' and that they discussed factual rebuttals. As Schoen says in the documentary: 'I think it was a homicide but I don't know who killed him' The guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan allegedly did not check on him all night - and the cameras outside of his cell were not working He said: 'People who were coming forward he'd never seen before and had nothing to do with. 'I thought he was getting killed in the media when he could respond, he should at least explain and respond. There was a miserable failure to do so and his lawyers were dysfunctional.' The plan to push back included 'appealing to the public sense of fairness' because Epstein had not been formally accused of anything since 2005. Schoen wanted to talk about the 'political pressure' that led to Epstein's arrest and the 'extortion attempts' by victims' lawyers. In one case a lawyer supposedly sent Epstein a letter demanding $25 million to make the victim's claims go away - Epstein did not pay. Schoen said: 'At least I wanted people to report on the fact how much lawyers were making off this thing. I'd hope that some people agree that some of these women tricked him.' During their five hour meeting at the MCC on August 1, Epstein and Schoen had 'mapped out a strategy and he was upbeat and excited'. Schoen said: 'We were in the area where prisoners meet lawyers. At one point a prison psychiatrist came in and asked me to leave so she could talk to Epstein on his own. 'They talked for five minutes and he seemed relaxed. He was smiling as she left. 'He had plans to really fight this case. He'd made arrangements to hire me'. Schoen did not reveal the contents of his discussions with Epstein but said Ghislaine Maxwell, his alleged madam, 'never came up'. Epstein had a lot of 'powerful friends' who he did favors for and Schoen was 'disappointed' they did not offer help to him after his arrest Schoen did not reveal the contents of his discussions with Epstein but said Ghislaine Maxwell, his alleged madam, 'never came up'. Epstein had a lot of 'powerful friends' who he did favors for and Schoen was 'disappointed' they did not offer help to him after his arrest. He said: 'I'd hoped that Prince Andrew would be the one guy who stood up and said he was a friend, I didn't know anything about it'. Instead the Duke distanced himself from Epstein in a BBC interview a few months after he died. When Schoen learned Epstein had been found dead, he immediately told his legal team to hire renowned pathologist Michael Baden to be present for the autopsy. Baden was brought on board and concluded that Epstein's injuries were not consistent with suicide by hanging, as the New York City Medical Examiner said. Instead Baden believes the broken bone in Epstein's neck suggests he had been killed. As Schoen says in the documentary: 'I think it was a homicide but I don't know who killed him'. Schoen said he was especially concerned about Epstein's former cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione, a hulking ex-cop accused of four murders. Schoen said he was especially concerned about Epstein's former cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione, a hulking ex-cop accused of four murders. Tartaglione was Epstein's cellmate during his first apparent suicide attempt on July 23 last year and some reports suggested he beat Epstein up, a claim his lawyer strongly denied Tartaglione was Epstein's cellmate during his first apparent suicide attempt on July 23 last year and some reports suggested he beat Epstein up, a claim his lawyer strongly denied. Schoen said: 'The first incident that happened which the newspapers reported as a possible suicide attempt, Epstein didn't want to discuss any further. He told the prison officers he couldn't remember what happened, he didn't want to answer any more questions. 'Look, he was in a dangerous situation. He's a very wealthy guy accused of sex offences stuck in with a guy accused of four murders. 'First of all he shouldn't have been locked up in the general population, that's reprehensible. 'He'd have guys who watch the nightly news on the prison TV and say to him, $70 million mansion, huh? 'I've been through this with other clients and I told him to keep him an eye on this and tell me if anyone was extorting him'. Tensions soar at border as China increases number of troops India oi-Vicky Nanjappa New Delhi, May 26: The Indian Army has increased its presence in Uttarakhand after reports suggested that the Chinese are indulging in a troop build-up. India-China LAC tensions: India reinforces troops in Uttarakhand| Oneindia News The Army has inducted additional troops and also increased surveillance along the Line of Actual Control. There are reports that China may have marshalled around 5,000 soldiers on its side of the border in the Ladakh sector. The enhanced troop build-up took place following a failed meeting that took place on Monday between the two sides. Indian, Chinese troops clash near Naku La in Sikkim sector Sources tell OneIndia that the Chinese troops are scattered on their side of the border. They are not concentrated in the flash points the source also added. Indian officials are tracking the developments closely. The officials also said that there is no cause for worry owing to the number of troops the Chinese have deployed. On the other hand, the Chinese state media has described the developments as the worst since the Doklam standoff in 2017. India says that there is a need to set the stage for talks. There is no problem as long as the Chinese troops are stationed wherever they are. Last week, Army Chief General M M Naravane made a visit to Ladakh for a security review. It has been reported that the Chinese have pitched 100 tents and also put up temporary structures to establish a presence. The Chinese are also said to be constructing bunkers in some of the disputed areas. Armies of India, China appear heading towards biggest face-off after Doklam Even as both sides are locked in a war of words, India has rejected allegations by Beijing that the Indian troops were responsible for triggering tensions. The Chinese have in fact hindered Indian patrols, India has further said. Meanwhile, the Chinese military has been fast increasing its troops in areas around Pangong Two Lake and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. China is trying to send a clear signal that it is not ready to end the confrontation with the Indian Army. The Chinese side has increased its presence in the Galwan Valley and has erected around 100 tents in the past two weeks. It has also been bringing in machinery for possible construction of bunkers, despite the stiff protest by the Indian troops. In this backdrop Indian Army Chief, General M M Naravane paid a visit to the headquarters of the 14 Corps in Leh and reviewed the situation with the top commanders. A New Jersey appeals court has upheld a trial courts ruling that Chubb Insurance Co. is not responsible for damages to two insureds homes caused by Superstorm Sandy because of a flood exclusion in their policies. In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, sixty miles south of Mantoloking, N.J. With wind gusts as high as 80 miles per hour, a severe storm surge occurred with tides in Mantoloking rising between nine and 11 feet, not including wave height, according to the appeals court opinion document. Plaintiff Stephanie Doerfler, who owned a home in Mantoloking, had previously purchased an insurance policy from Chubb Insurance Company of America covering her real and personal property. Plaintiff Ronald Doerfler, now deceased, lived on the same street as Stephanie and had purchased an identical policy from Federal Insurance Company, a member of Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. The policies contained a surface water exclusion that barred coverage for any loss caused by flood, surface water, waves, tidal water, overflow of water from a body of wateror spray from any of these, even if driven by wind. The policies also included a mandatory New Jersey notification that they did not cover damages from flood. Additionally, Stephanie and Ronald had purchased separate flood insurance policies from Fidelity National Indemnity Insurance Company, which insured the structure of each of their homes for $250,000 and provided some coverage for the contents of their homes. Due to the storm surge during Superstorm Sandy, surface water flooded onto both of the plaintiffs properties. Their homes ultimately collapsed. Stephanie and the estate of Ronald notified their insurers of their losses and submitted claims to Fidelity. Fidelity paid both Stephanie and the estate the maximum available under their flood insurance policies. Storm Surge Damage Chubbs claims adjuster for Ronalds property, Scott Shearer, retained Kimball J. Beasley of engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. to investigate the propertys damage. Beasley reported that wind was not a significant factor in the collapse of the home and that the damage was instead caused by storm surge. As a result of this report, Shearer informed Ronalds estate on January 18, 2013, that the damage was caused by surface water and was not covered by the policy. Stephen Constanzo, Chubbs claims adjuster for Stephanies property, obtained a report with similar findings. On December 3, 2012, Jason Peddle and Harald Greve of Applied Engineering and Technology submitted a report based on their inspection of Stephanies property, concluding that the damage had occurred because of storm surge and flood waters, not wind. As a result, Constanzo denied Stephanies insurance claim because of the surface water exclusion. Exclusion Language Dispute In disputing these denied claims, the plaintiffs pointed to the exclusion language in their policies. Because the policies surface water exclusions did not specifically exclude loss caused by storm surge, they contended their claims should be covered. The trial court judge dismissed this argument, stating the surface water exclusion was clear in barring damages caused by floodwaters. The exclusion was unambiguous, and defendants were not required to list every synonym that could be used to describe a flood, according to the appeals court opinion document. The plaintiffs also alleged their damages should have been covered since building collapse was not an excluded loss under their policies. The trial court judge concluded that while the collapse of their homes was the form of damage, it was not the direct cause of damage. there is no evidence in the record suggesting there was a defect within the walls of plaintiffs homes that would account for the collapse of the structures, the appeals court opinion document stated. Instead, the record clearly established that the water pressure caused by the flood waters inundating the properties directly caused their collapse. No Coverage After the trial court judge ruled on April 17, 2019, that the losses claimed by the plaintiffs were not covered under their insurance policies, Stephanie and the estate of Ronald appealed. An appeals court judge upheld the trial courts decision, finding that the trial court judge correctly concluded that Stephanie and Ronalds policies did not cover the losses they sustained in the flood that destroyed their homes. Here, the record clearly indicates that plaintiffs homes were destroyed by the surface water that flooded their properties during the storm, the appeals court opinion document stated. Therefore, the judge properly concluded that the exclusions barred plaintiffs from recovering under their policies. Topics Flood Property Homeowners Chubb Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) Former President Jacob Zuma's legal team on Tuesday accused the South African National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of using the coronavirus pandemic to justify the postponement of his high-profile corruption trial until next year Fitness clubs rocked by covid-19 closures face a swell of bankruptcies with more than $10 billion of revenue wiped out as clients ditch memberships, according to investment bank Harrison Co. In a Harrison survey of 1,000 fitness club users, more than a third said they have canceled or plan to terminate existing memberships. The No. 1 concern we had in our study is cleanliness, said Paul Byrne, an investment banker at Harrison. He expects more brands to go digital and many boutique studios to raise class prices to keep up with rent payments. Michigan Governor Faces Criticism Over Husbands Boat Request Ahead of Memorial Weekend Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is facing criticism from lawmakers after her husband reportedly requested the familys boat be placed on the water ahead of Memorial Day celebrations. Whitmer has imposed some of the strictest lockdown regulations in the United States, prompting widespread protests throughout Michigan. Congressman Paul Mitchell is suing Whitmer over the governors CCP virus-related emergency orders that he said violate the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches, and also peoples rights to association, intrastate travel, and commerce. The governor first issued a statewide stay-at-home order on March 23 in an effort to combat the spread of the virus, but on Monday announced she was lifting some business and travel restrictions in Northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula before Memorial Day weekend. However, she urged residents to think long and hard about taking a trip to certain regions if they did not live in them. If you dont live in one of the regions, think long and hard about taking a trip there, she said during a CCP virus briefing in Lansing. Please be smart. The whole state is watching to make sure we get this right. A small spike could put the hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly. Thats precisely why were asking everyone to continue doing their part. Dont descend on [waterfront] Traverse City from all regions of the state, Whitmer added. But around three days later, in a post that is now longer visible to the public, NorthShore Dock LLC and its owner, Tad Dowker, wrote on Facebook that Whitmers husband, Marc Mallory, had requested that his boat be placed in the water before Memorial Day, Detroit News reported. While Whitmer and her husband own a house about 25 minutes from Traverse City, their primary residence is three hours away, in Lansing, according to the publication. This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend, Dowker reportedly wrote on Facebook. Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen, Dowker continued, according to the outlet. Well our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference? the post went on. After a long day of keeping crews running, adhering to the additional safety regulations that need to be in place to operate our small business and fielding calls from customers frustrated with our lagging installation schedule I was told the governors husband called asking for install availability, the company posted. Up until this point we, as a company, had no idea we installed their dock or boat. The company reportedly posted a second statement on Facebook on Saturday after removing its initial one when it went viral, and stated that employees did not have time to respond to multiple requests from media. They added that Mallory was respectful and understanding when the company couldnt schedule the installation early. In Facebook post which has since been deleted, State Sen. Tom Barrett criticized Mallorys apparent request for the boat installation after Whitmer had urged Michigan residents not to descend on the city. The lawmaker said he removed the post after the governors office reached out to the staff of Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey asking for the post to be removed and contending the comments were false. The Epoch Times has contacted Whitmers office for comment. SAN FRANCISCO, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The global sintered steel market size is anticipated to reach USD 177.9 million by 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% from 2020 to 2027, The advantages such as low manufacturing cost, freedom in component design, and flexibility over other processes like forging and casting is anticipated to augment market growth. Steel is a versatile material with various characteristics and is easily available at low cost. These attributes make it preferable over other materials in producing components, equipment, and tools. The demand for sintered steel parts is majorly driven by the automotive components industry followed by tools, electrical appliances, machinery equipment, and others. Key suggestions from the report: Asia Pacific is expected to register a CAGR of 3.8% in terms of volume over the forecast period. The demand is expected to remain low for 2020-2021 due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak North America is expected to be the fastest growing regional segment in terms of volume, considering the establishment of automotive plants and factories in the region, with regard to the tariff concerns by the U.S. government Machinery and tools is anticipated to accelerate at a CAGR of 5.2%, in terms of revenue, over the forecast period, on account of increasing production of electrical appliances and cutting tools across the globe U.S. is among the key markets for sintered steel considering the tariff policies, which are propelling manufacturers to set up their components plants in the country in close proximity of the automotive manufacturers. The country accounts for a volume share of 51% of North America in 2019 Read 120 page research report with ToC on "Sintered Steel Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Automotive, Machinery & Equipment), Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/sintered-steel-market The advantage of producing complex parts at ease has propelled the demand for sintered metal products, which has resulted in increased production capacity. For instance, Hoganas, a key market player invested in a new sintering furnace with an aim to cater to the rising demand for 3D printed components and additional material alternatives. The new furnace increased the company's production capacity and is capable of catering to a wide range of metal powder. Growing production and demand for sintered metal parts is anticipated to positively influence market growth. Electrical appliances is anticipated to be amongst the fastest growing application segments over the forecast period. Growing investment in the industry is expected to augment product demand over the forecast period. For instance, in November 2018, Bosch Home Appliances announced about investing USD 111.9 million (100 million) in India over the next 3 to 4 years. This is expected to positively influence the market growth as sintered steel finds application in producing various components of home appliances like washing machines and refrigerators. Cutting tools is another prominent application segment, which is expected to register a steady growth rate over the forecast period. Increasing demand from the manufacturing sector and other industries is anticipated to bode well for the segment growth. The cutting tool market is witnessing various strategic initiatives by the key players which is anticipated to have a positive impact on the product demand. For instance, in January 2020, GWS Tool acquired Inrepid Tool Industries. Automotive components is the major application segment. However, the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic in one of the largest economies of the world, China, is anticipated to negatively impact the country's production sector along with other major countries such as Japan, Germany, and India. China is a hub for manufacturing ample products and is involved in major imports and exports including automotive components, machine tools, and electrical appliances. As a result, Asia Pacific is anticipated to register a sluggish growth over the next couple of years on account of decline in production. The market growth is expected to pick up from 2021 to 2022, once the manufacturing sector in China resumes and definitive alternate options are sorted and put in place by the key countries for bring the trade and manufacturing sector on track. Grand View Research has segmented the global sintered steel market on the basis of application and region: Sintered Steel Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027 Automotive Machinery & Tools Others Sintered Steel Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027) North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany France Italy Asia Pacific Japan China India Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa & List of Key Players in the Sintered Steel Market Advanced Technology (Bazhou) Special Powder Ltd Changsha Hualiu Metal Powders Ltd (HL Powder) CNPC Powders Erasteel GKN Hoganas AB POLEMA Pometon Powder Sandvik AB Yingtan Longding New Materials & Technologies Ltd United States Metal Powders, Inc. Find more research reports on Advanced Interior Materials Industry, by Grand View Research: Diamond Market - The growth of the industry can be mainly attributed to the rising demand from jewelry application especially in emerging economies in Asia Pacific like India and China . The growth of the industry can be mainly attributed to the rising demand from jewelry application especially in emerging economies in like and . Retro-Reflective Materials Market - Rising demand from the automotive industry driven by the growing concerns regarding vehicle safety across the economies is projected to propel the market growth over the forecast period. Rising demand from the automotive industry driven by the growing concerns regarding vehicle safety across the economies is projected to propel the market growth over the forecast period. Steel Rebar Market - The global steel rebar market size was valued at USD 214.9 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2019 to 2025. The expansion of construction sector is anticipated to remain a key driver for market growth. Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports About Grand View Research Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg Bengaluru, May 26 : Returnees from domestic travel to three Indian states led to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Karnataka with 101 new infections, raising the state's tally to 2,283, an official said on Tuesday. "New cases reported from Monday 5 p.m. to Tuesday noon are 101," said a health official. In the past 24 hours, 81 people who returned from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, 46 per cent or 48 cases had an inter-state travel history to Maharashtra, India's Covid hotspot. Similarly, 21 per cent or 21 cases had inter-state travel history to southern state Tamil Nadu, a bigger Covid sufferer than Karnataka. Likewise, 12 returnees from Jharkhand have also tested positive. Four new cases had international travel history to Qatar. Eighty-one per cent of the new cases had travel history, dwarfing the number of people contracting the disease through contacts. Unlike before, most positive cases in the state nowadays are people with a travel history to Maharashtra, India's Covid hotspot. In the past 24 hours, only 12 contracted the virus from earlier positive cases, constituting just 12 per cent of the new cases. A 47-year-old woman from Davangere is suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). A 27-year-old man from Koppal is suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI). Similarly, another 55-year-old woman from Davangere is suffering from ILI. Among the new cases, 72 are men and 29 are female, including five cases below 10 years of age. Of the new cases, Chitradurga contributed (20), followed by Yadagiri (14), Belagavi and Hassan (13 each), Davangere (11), Bidar (10), Vijayapura (6), Udupi (3), Bengaluru Urban and Kolar (2), Chikkaballapura, Ballari and Koppal (1 each). As many as 43 patients got discharged in the past 24 hours, 17 from Bagalkote, 14 in Belagavi, seven from Uttara Kannada, two from Gadag and one each in Kalaburagi, Bengaluru Urban and Chikkaballapura. Of all the cases, 1,489 are active, 748 discharges and 18 patients are admitted in ICU. In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 9,020 people for Covid, out of which 8,169 were negative. In total, 2.28 lakh samples have been tested, out of which 2.23 lakh reported negative. Top five places with active cases in the state include Mandya (227), Yadagiri (140), Bengaluru Urban (116), Hassan (112), and Chikkaballpura (106). Bengaluru Urban has seen nine deaths, followed by Kalaburagi and Dakshina Kannada (7 each), Davangere and Vijayapura (4 each), and the remaining from other districts. Of the 2,283 cases, 8 per cent were senior citizens, and 62 per cent men and 38 per cent women. The state's patient discharge rate has declined to 33 per cent. The North East Link toll road is too financially important to Victoria to be stopped, especially amid the coronavirus pandemics economic fallout, the Andrews government has argued. Four suburban councils have gone to the Supreme Court to overturn Planning Minister Richard Wynnes approval for the $16 billion toll road the biggest road project in Victorian history. The planned North East Link interchange in Bulleen. Credit:North East Link Authority But the government, in its court response to Banyule, Boroondara, Manningham and Whitehorse councils, has argued the tunnelling and road-widening project is too big to fail. Even if the councils succeeded in convincing the Supreme Court that Mr Wynnes environmental approval was legally invalid, the government said the "economic significance of the works" meant the court should "exercise its discretion" and not overturn the minister's decision. Chandigarh, May 26 : A total of 2.90 lakh migrant labourers has been sent to their home states through 77 trains and 5,500 buses from Haryana, an official said on Tuesday. For this, an expenditure of Rs 10 crore has been incurred, Additional Director General of Police Anil Rao, who is monitoring their transportation, said in a statement. He said the labourers who have been sent to their respective states included Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Rao said as per directions of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar the entire expenditure on their transportation would be borne through the Haryana Corona Relief Fund set up to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. He said about 15,000 labourers are left in the state and arrangements have been made for their transportation. After the resumption of the economic and industrial activities, a large number of migrant labourers and workers have opted to stay back in the state, he said. Rao said bus and train service to other states would continue till May 27. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text COLUMBUS, Ohio - There have been at least 2,002 probable and confirmed coronavirus deaths in the state by Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health. The state has at least 33,006 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases. Thats an increase in 529 cases that were reported in the past 24 hours and an increase of 15 deaths that have been reported, although this doesnt mean they all occurred within the last day. There is sometimes a lag between local numbers getting to the state. The R0 number, pronounced as R-naught and a measure of transmission, has slightly gone up, said Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton. On May 15, the R0 was just under 1.2, that means for every one infected person, just over one person gets infected by them. Before then, the R0 had been on a downward trend. Acton has previously said she would like to see the R0 to be under 1. Gov. Mike DeWine announced an effort to test nursing home staff and patients throughout the state for coronavirus. At least 5.5 million people around the world have had COVID-19, with nearly 350,000 people dead, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University. In the U.S., there have been at least 1.7 million cases and at least 98,000 deaths. Testing in nursing homes In nursing homes, a large number of the deaths -- around 70% -- have occurred among nursing home patients, where people are vulnerable due to age and health. I have asked my team, challenged them, to work with the Ohio National Guard, local health departments, hospitals to go after this problem," he said. Were going to start this week, a new plan and a new effort. Fourteen Congregate Care Unified Response Teams -- each with 10 National Guard members -- start testing in nursing homes this week, DeWine said. The goal will be to test all staff, DeWine said. Testing of residents will be based on assessments, perhaps a wing of the nursing home or all the nursing home will be tested, based on possible exposure to the virus, he said. The decisions on which patients get tested will be data-driven, he said. When the nursing homes determine which patients have the virus, they can start isolating them. The effort will start with nursing homes that have had outbreaks, both ongoing or in the past There are 960 nursing homes in Ohio, with about 200 with a COVID-19 history. The testing will only be of nursing homes and will not include other types of long-term living for senior Ohioans, such as assisted care facilities. But the Congregate Care Unified Response Teams will begin the testing of all residents and staff members of the states eight developmental disability centers to try to limit the spread of the virus. Ohio doctor gets COVID-19 Dr. Jeff Manser and his wife, Dr. Tina Gabbard, are physicians in Southeast Ohio. Manser was hospitalized for a month with COVID-19. Dr. Jeff Manser is a pediatrician in Wilmington, a town between Columbus and Cincinnati, who spent a month fighting the virus. Hes now recovering. His wife, Dr. Tina Gabbard, is a family medicine physician in Wilmington who also contracted COVID-19 but had a less severe case. Manser describe himself as active and fit. But on March 20, he started to feel fatigued and had a low-grade temperature. He went to an urgent care clinic, knowing that it had coronavirus testing. He didnt want to transmit anything to his patients. He tested positive but his oxygen levels were not low enough for hospital admission. About a week later he was admitted, when he had a fever, chills and fatigue. I never had much of a cough," he said. ...But I think I was not always lucid, and my wife decided she was going to take me to the hospital. He was intubated in the intensive-care unit and was under sedation for the ventilator, which is uncomfortable, to stay in place. He said it was difficult for his wife because hospitals dont allow family visits, due to transmission concerns, which means they experience a highly emotional event without being able to see and touch the patient. His heart was affected by the virus. His cardiac enzymes were way up. He was on a ventilator," Gabbard said. Liver and kidney functions were abnormal. And a lot of his markers that show that he was in something called cytokine release syndrome were elevated, including some of his clotting factors. His blood pressure started to drop. Doctors treated him for cytokine release syndrome, which is an inflammatory response in the body that affects organs. Within four days, he was off the ventilator, Gabbard said. But that was the beginning of his month in the hospital, she said. Then he was put on an external ventilator, one of which Manser described as an astronauts helmet that changes pressures to assist breathing. It also steams up around the face and is loud. All this is anxiety-provoking, he said. When people complain about the discomfort of wearing a mask, I hope they never experience these external ventilators," Manser said. Wearing the astronaut helmet-style ventilator, as well another external ventilator, was difficult. His COVID-19 got better and worse throughout the month. Of course, I had no one there with me, he said. After the second worsening concluded, he spent another 10 days in the hospital, gradually improving, Gabbard said. Mansers now recovering at home, still having some trouble breathing on his own and talking. He wore a breathing tube through his nose during the briefing. Manser emphasized theres no federally-approved drug for COVID-19. But people can reduce risk through lifestyle choices -- socially distancing, hand washing and mask wearing. Other coverage: Gov. Mike DeWine provides Tuesdays coronavirus update: Watch live Gov. Mike DeWine announces measures to fight coronavirus in racial minority communities Ohio State Fair is canceled this year due to coronavirus Ohio House unanimously passes Aishas Law Ohio Senate rejects House plan to limit Dr. Amy Actons authority Kerala, Punjab and Haryana seem to have crossed the peak in coronavirus cases, says a prominent public health specialist, who expects India to keep COVID-19 deaths at less than 8,000 in the country with strict enforcement of standard protocols and hospitals in high alert. India should not be seen as one entity when it comes to tackling COVID-19, because the population size across States and districts vary, health systems vary and level of literacy varies across and within States, said Professor G V S Murthy, Director of Indian Institute of Public Health-Hyderabad. Therefore, it will be more appropriate to talk about State level and district level peaks, he said. As against total cases per million population which increased in India from 17.6 cases per million on April 25 to 99.9 per million on May 25, in Maharashtra it rose from 61.9/ million in April to 383/ million on May 25, Professor Murthy noted. In Tamil Nadu it increased from 23.4 per million on April 25 to 199.3 per million on May 25, and in Gujarat from 48.1 per million in April to 219 per million on May 25. Delhi has shown the steepest increase in the country from 140 per million on April 25 to 690 per million on May 25. COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show "These States (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Delhi) seem to be nearing the peak while those like Kerala, Punjab and Haryana seem to have crossed the peak," Prof. Murthy, told PTI in an interview. "Since six states (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) contribute 70 per cent cases in the country, unless these States peak, the country peak cannot be reached. From the present trends, this can happen as early as early June to as late as the middle of July, he said|. On his assessment about "eventual" COVID-19 deaths in India, Professor Murthy said evidence from some models shows that nearly 80,000-100,000 deaths have been avoided due to the lockdown. He said data shows that the daily increase in deaths across the country has been two deaths per million population over the last week. Most governments, Prof. Murthy noted, have ramped up their health systems to prevent deaths by providing appropriate care. "Efforts have also been made for early identification of severe respiratory illness and influenza like illness. These are positive indicators that the country will be able to keep mortality on the lower side." "If standard protocols are meticulously followed and hospital facilities remain on high alert, direct COVID-19 deaths should be kept to less than 7,500-8,000 in the present pandemic. That would translate to four to five deaths per million population," he said. On India moving to 10th place in the world in terms of the number of cases, he said this statistic is misleading as the countrys population is much higher than most of the nations in Europe put together. "Therefore, one must use a comparable population denominator like cases or deaths per million population (called case rate or death rate). When we do this, the total case rate per million population in India is 101 compared to 6,050 in Spain, 5098 in the US, 3825 in the UK and 3,801 in Italy," Professor Murthy pointed out. Similarly, death rate per million population in India is three per million compared to 615 in Spain, 542 each in the UK and Italy, 435 in France and 300 in the US, he said, adding, most countries in South and South East Asia have similar rates as India. Asked if he thought the COVID-19-induced lockdown should be completely lifted from June 1, Murthy said once steps have been taken to lift it in whatever measure, the same direction should be followed by easing it in a staggered manner. Clusters of cases have to be identified on a daily basis and containment measures have to be in place for such clusters. This has to be a dynamic process and reviewed based on new cases occurring in a large number. "Public gatherings should not be permitted for the next couple of months. This includes cinema houses, religious or social events. If such activities have to be opened up, sophisticated sanitisation measures like ultra violet disinfection tunnels should be set up and all people should pass through the same," he said. Public transport will need to be made available, he said, adding, measures like short distance buses rather than long distance ones will reduce the duration of contact and may be preferred. "Metros can be made operational with adequate sanitation procedures." Its becoming increasingly clear that in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the nations school systems will soon engage in a massive, simultaneous act of social promotion, passing students along to the next grade whether or not they have the requisite skills and knowledge. School leaders quite reasonably feel they have no choice but to move in this direction, given the impracticality of retaining in grade substantial numbers of students. Such retention would immediately overwhelm the already maximally stressed capacity of school systems staff, budgets, and space. Understandable though this mass social promotion may be, its time to start thinking strategically about the implications of such a move. How will educators meet the widely disparate learning challenges faced by their students this fall? We know that the coronavirus-induced school closings have already exacerbated academic and social inequities. The disadvantaged have been further harmed by disparities in access to all forms of support, especially high-quality online learning. Those families with social and financial capital have had a much easier time of riding out the crisis and a much higher probability of having access to the tools and opportunities that enable out-of-school enrichment and learning. Next fall should mark the beginning of the end of the 'one size fits all' approach to schooling." Educators must take action. Next fall should mark the beginning of the end of the one size fits all approach to schoolingwhether schooling is conducted in person or remotely. To get students back on track, educators will need to meet them where they are and give them what they need, customizing an education strategy for each child designed to get that child to success. While schools will be facing a host of operational, health, and financial challenges next fall, the first order of academic business must be some form of diagnostic assessment, not for any accountability purposes but to determine the particular academic and social-emotional needs of each student. Success planning starts with creating a running record of each childs needs followed by the intentional development of an actual plan that is designed by educators after consultation with families. Sound familiar? Schools have been required to take this approach, called individualized education programs, or IEPs, for decades to meet the legal requirements for serving children with special needs. But we know all children have special, unique needs. While we should avoid the bureaucratic and adversarial pitfalls of the IEP process, its high time we started customizing education to meet the needs of all our students, especially in this time of crisis. A shift to a new paradigm of personalized education not only makes common sense, its essential to address the current challenge. In a recent Harvard Graduate School of Education interview, former U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. told me, If we want to avoid a lost generation of kids, we need to make that shift. How do we get all children to meet a high standard of academic mastery if we dont take account of their current strengths and weaknesses and provide them with targeted learning opportunities and supports? How can we address the particular challenges that students with disabilities, English-language learners, and those living in poverty have faced during this crisis? Treating all students the same or teaching to the average has proved ineffective. Personalization is what we do in medicine: differentiate the needs of patients and tailor prescriptions to meet their needs and achieve the goal of good health. Business has long adopted strategies of customization and niche marketing to satisfy the needs of customers. Our most elite schools do this implicitly by reducing class size to the point that every student is known and cared for in a systemic way. Public schools, however, have generally proved unable to shift the paradigm from the factory modelbatch processing of studentsto the more targeted strategy of customization. There are all kinds of reasons for this resistance, including underfunding and lack of resources, the day-care function of schools, inertia, and misconceptions that confuse equality with equity. While the resistance to the obvious need to differentiate our students and customize our approach to them is formidable, this crisis may provide the opportunity for a bold paradigm shift in education. But it will take visionary leadership, financial resources, public engagement, capacity building, and effective strategy to overcome these barriers. At Harvards Education Redesign Lab , weve been exploring the idea of personalized student success plans for several years. These plans are both a diagnostic tool that captures students academic progress, interests, strengths, and nonacademic needs and a concrete plan for action that must happen inside and outside of school. Most schools already have foundational structures and processes to enable a shift to success planning, including individualized education programs and multitiered systems of support that offer a framework for identifying differing levels of need and intervention. For example, 44 states and the District of Columbia either require or encourage the use of individualized learning plans to help students identify and reach postsecondary academic goals. Despite these precedents, there are many complex challenges in a shift to success planningamong them capacity issues (who takes responsibility for all the work involved) and privacy (who develops a plan and who has access to it)and yet these obstacles can be surmounted. School and district leaders will need a clear vision; a plan for engaging key constituents; a thoughtfully sequenced, gradual implementation process; and lots of professional-development opportunities for teachers whose roles will be enhanced. In the end, a shift to customization can create a system where each child has a comprehensive, running educational success record and the opportunities and supports to fulfill their potential. This is the pathway to equity. By shifting to a personalized-success paradigm, educators can make the most of this potentially evolutionary moment in educational history. Mobile, Ala. Though Gov. Kay Ivey has mostly reopened the state restaurants, hair and nail salons and gyms included cases of COVID-19 are increasing here, not declining. And Mobile County, home to a sleepy Gulf Coast port city, has led the state in confirmed cases for weeks now, though it has a smaller population than Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham. Unfortunately, the case count and the death count will likely worsen after the bustling Memorial Day weekend, when throngs will flock to beaches, ignoring guidelines about social distancing. We have not reached our peak. The worst is not over here. According to The Washington Post, epidemiological experts have warned that the South may experience a second wave of coronavirus infections in coming weeks as its governors rush to reopen and its residents embrace the freedom to catch a virus and expose others. Never mind that our best scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said that regions need to show a steady decline in confirmed cases of coronavirus before they reopen. The South is led by politicians who belong to the cult of President Donald J. Trump, the "very stable genius" who has publicly ruminated about giving COVID-19 patients disinfectant internally and who has claimed that he doses himself with hydroxychloroquine to ward off the coronavirus, though physicians have warned that the drug may be deadly and there is no proof it prevents COVID-19. Many Southerners also continue their long traditions of disdain toward experts George Wallace infamously called them "pointy-headed" intellectuals and of contempt for federal authority. Even Trump, the highest-ranking federal authority, shows this contempt, ignoring his own diplomats, assailing his intelligence experts and disputing his scientists. In addition, the South has a disproportionate share of the nation's unemployed and working poor, people less likely to have access to decent medical care. The South's Republican governors have refused to expand Medicaid even though most of it would be paid by the federal government a tenet of Obamacare. Many rural hospitals have been forced to shut down for lack of funds. As if that were not enough of a miasma to breed a viral stew, the South has another pre-existing condition: a hyper-religiosity that conflates church attendance with Christian morality. The South has a higher rate of church attendance than any other region, and preachers are ready to fill up their pews again, claiming religious intolerance to thwart any regulations that might prevent it. They ignore the many news reports pointing out that church gatherings from choir practices to funerals have been super-spreaders of the virus. Given the South's history, culture and politics, it's no great surprise that Georgia's Gov. Brian Kemp led the charge to reopen everything in late April. To "prove" he was being prudent, the Georgia Department of Health released doctored data claiming that COVID-19 cases were steadily declining. They were not. Ivey at least had the clarity of mind to issue guidelines advising her citizens to continue social distancing, reminding them they are "safer at home." In Alabama's Gulf Coast beach towns, local authorities have passed ordinances mandating social distancing and small gatherings. But I fully expect those to be ignored as residents return to their annual celebration of the unofficial opening of summer. According to a team of researchers at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, the entire state of Alabama is likely to see a COVID resurgence. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed recently called a news conference pointing out that the city's hospitals were already overwhelmed and urging residents to practice preventive measures. Researchers have also warned of hotspots in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky and along southeast Florida's Gold Coast with its dangerous mix of elderly residents and beckoning beaches. Miami already seeded the spread back in March, as heedless spring-breakers insisted on partying. Those beaches remain closed for now, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is among the Trump-ites who insist that it's time to fully reopen the economy. The South seems destined for a dangerous summer. Do you remember when Pope John Paul II went back to his native Poland, about eight months into his pontificate? The Communist officials couldn't not let him in -- he was too beloved. As Pulitzer Prize winner Peggy Noonan, author of "John Paul the Great," has written, from the moment he eventually arrived behind the Iron Curtain, "the boundaries of the world began to shift." Despite the government's attempts to keep Poles from getting too emotionally invested in the visit, the people lined the streets to see him. During his first Mass in Warsaw, the crowd thundered, "We want God," stopping the Pope's words with a cry from the human heart so deep and insistent -- and resilient -- that the coming victory over Communism could be envisioned. The Polish people saw their pope's visit as a sign like no other that freedom was coming, that God was not leaving them orphaned in their suffering. In his sermon, Pope John Paul II said: "Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude of geography. The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man ... The history of the nation is above all the history of people. And the history of each person unfolds in Jesus Christ. In him it becomes the history of salvation." He went on to say: "It is right to understand the history of the nation through man, each human being of this nation. At the same time, man cannot be understood apart from this community that is constituted by the nation. Of course, it is not the only community, but it is a special community, perhaps that most intimately linked with the family, the most important for the spiritual history of man." He was talking about Poland, but he could have been talking about us today. On Ascension Thursday in New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced plans for getting the Church reopened, making clear to anyone in doubt that the Church is essential. That needed to be said. For months now, supermarkets and liquor stores have been operating, but many church doors have been locked. Not all of them, but none of them have had regularly scheduled public Masses. In Poland, as I understand it, they didn't close churches or cancel Masses; in fact, they increased the number of Masses so people could continue to pray the greatest prayer in person, while still following social-distance guidelines. They know what they want. Do we know what we want? Do we know what is most important to us? It takes a time of loss sometimes to help us put things in perspective. People miss the sacramental life of the Church. I confess I don't even know who I am without it. Of course, during this time, there have been myriad opportunities to connect with the Mass virtually. But that isn't the same. Organized religion is about community, after all. Will the reemergence of the Church from quarantine change something? Over the past weeks and months, there has been a clamor for the sacraments. An open letter to bishops pled early for some creativity so that people could celebrate the Easter season properly, albeit prudently. It was one of many modern American versions of "We want God." These days have left people on edge, needless to say. Can the gradual reopening of churches -- most slow, perhaps, in the northeast -- lead us to a spiritual reawakening? This month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope John Paul II. Can the courage of his people who suffered the tyranny of Communist atheism be an inspiration? To courage? To love as a cure for loneliness and anxiety? We want God, don't we? Let's get back to churches so we can get to know God better, so we can be examples of God's love to people who need it. Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 French reinsurer SCOR announced that its Chairman & CEO Denis Kessler will receive 30% less in his annual variable compensation for 2019, which is equal to 325,260 (US$354,333). In addition, the company has decided to cancel its 2019 dividend. Kesslers overall renumeration during 2019 was originally 6,700,700 (US$7,299,640), while his bonus originally totaled close to 1.1 million (US$1.2 million). SCOR said these moves were made in response to statements issued in April by the French regulator Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution (ACPR), which recommended that re/insurers curtail dividend distributions as a result of the economic uncertainties created by the coronavirus crisis. In its release of April 3, the ACPR said that insurance companies must refrain from proposing the distribution of dividends. The French regulator further urged insurers to exercise restraint on variable compensation award policies. In light of these regulatory missives, SCORs board of directors decided on May 25 to propose for next months shareholders meeting that no dividend be distributed for the 2019 fiscal year and that the entire income for that year be allocated to distributable earnings. The number of SCORs shares outstanding is 186 million, said the companys website. At 1.8 euros per share, the amount allocated to distributable earnings as a result of the dividend cancellation should equal approximately 336 million (US$366.0 million). These statements by the supervisory authorities are dictated by heightened prudence during this profound and unprecedented health crisis, said SCOR in a statement. The ACPRs request that dividend distributions be canceled covers the period from April until October 1, 2020, noted SCOR. The shareholders meeting will be held virtually on June 16. At the same time, SCOR said that the ACPRs request promopted Kessler to propose to the SCOR Compensation and Nomination Committee that his annual variable compensation for the 2019 fiscal year be reduced by 30%. SCOR pointed out that its estimated solvency ratio at March 31, 2020, is 210%, which is in the upper part of the optimal solvency range of 185% 220%. Over the past year, Kessler has faced criticism from activist shareholder, CIAM, for his lavish remuneration at the reinsurer which he has run since 2002. At the time, SCOR was struggling, and Kessler is widely credited for turning around the company. Source: SCOR Related: Topics COVID-19 USA Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of facial coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has exploded from under 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. What has happened at Tyson - and the meat industry overall - shows how difficult getting the nation back to normal is, even in essential fields such as food processing. Meat companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars - on protective gear, paid leave, ventilation systems and more - because they were forced to shut dozens of plants that were among the top covid-19 hot spots outside of cities. But the industry has still experienced a surge in cases, and some of the companies say they are limited in how much they can keep workers separated from one another. A small portion of the industry's labor force has gone back to work - some workers kept away on purpose - and the nation's meat supply remains deeply strained as barbecue season gets underway. A May report from CoBank, which specializes in serving rural America, warns meat that supplies in grocery stores could shrink as much as 35%, prices could spike 20% and the impact could become even "more acute later this year" as the effects on the U.S. agriculture supply chain are felt. Grocery stores have been able to partially meet consumer demand thanks to meat already in the supply chain in March, when the pandemic broke out, but the report said those supplies were quickly being used up. The prospect of long-term shortages is giving rise to an intensifying debate about whether the industry should reopen faster or safety should be prioritized, even at the cost of the nation's food supply. With an April 28 executive order encouraging meat plants to reopen, the Trump administration has said the food supply must be weighted equally with safety. Over the past month, more than half of the 30 meat processing plants that had shuttered because of covid-19 have reopened. "Our objective is two equal goals," Vice President Mike Pence said in a meeting with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican. "Number one is the safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and, two, there's strength in our food supply and getting people back to work." But others say safety must be the paramount concern - and the industry still has a long way to go before facilities are safe again. "Absolutely, positively, no worker's life is worth my getting a cheaper hamburger. No worker's life is worth that," former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, told Yahoo News last week. Officials with the meat processors say they are doing whatever they can to protect workers, while trying to make sure the nation's food supply remains sound. "The safety of our team members is paramount and we only reopen our facilities when we believe we can safely do so," said Gary Mickelson, Tyson's director of media relations. What's clear is the industry's efforts so far, though they may have lessened the virus's spread, have not come close to stopping it. Over the past month, the number of infections tied to three of the country's biggest meat processors - Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and JBS - has gone from just over 3,000 to more than 11,000, according to the analysis by The Post. Throughout the entire industry, worker deaths have tripled, surging from 17 to at least 63, according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, which is tracking outbreaks through local news reports. Four of the plants that reopened saw outbreaks with more than 700 positive cases, according to the Midwest Center: Tyson Foods operations in Logansport, Indiana; Perry, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa; and a Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, coronavirus cases linked to meat workers represent 18%, 20% and 29% of the states' total cases, respectively, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization. Many plants that have reopened are operating at reduced capacity - either due to widespread absences or to reduce the number of workers on shift to allow for social distancing. Closures have affected 45,000 workers, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the largest organization representing meatpacking workers. JBS, the second largest meat processor in the United States, said it is paying workers who could be particularly vulnerable to covid-19 to stay at home - about 10% of its workforce. The question over reopening, even amid safer conditions, can cause difficult choices for communities. Meat plants are usually located in rural communities where they are among the area's largest employers. Covid-19 infection rates in communities within a 15-mile radius of meat plants are twice the national average, according to the Environmental Working Group. The recent closures have cascaded through local economies, as farmers who supply plants are left with nowhere to take their animals. The National Pork Producers Council estimates that current plant capacities are creating backlogs of 170,000 hogs a day. "These hogs will eventually stay on farms too long and grow too large to be accepted by harvest facilities. It is estimated that up to 10,069,000 market hogs will need to be euthanized," the pork producer group said in a recent fact sheet. - - - Although companies have tried to get back to normal operations, union and local officials question whether they are ready. Tyson's biggest pork plant, in Waterloo, reopened May 7 with new safety precautions and social distancing policies. "Our top priority is the health and safety of our team members, their loved ones and our communities," Tom Hart, the plant's manager, said in a news release. Tyson had just finished running a national ad campaign warning, "The food supply chain is breaking." But the Waterloo plant reopened the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County - where it is located - reported more than 1,000 employees out of 2,700 there had tested positive for the coronavirus "Tyson did not go above and beyond," said Iowa state Rep. Ras Smith, a Democrat who represents Waterloo. "They did what they already should have done." He called Tyson's handling of the outbreak "appalling." Smith and fellow Iowa Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, a Democrat, say they suspect Trump's executive order encouraged Tyson to reopen faster, a point the company disputes. The plant shuttered April 22 after weeks of resisting calls from local officials. The lawmakers said they met with the plant's human resources director on May 1 and were told the facility was weeks away from reopening. Four days later, they said, they were told production would resume May 7. They said there was no explanation for the new timeline. "It really doesn't feel like our local Tyson was in this big of a hurry to reopen," Brown-Powers said. "It became a hurry for them because of the pressure they're getting from above." Mickelson, Tyson's spokesman, said in an email to The Post that the executive order had helped Tyson by providing "clear, uniform standards" for how processing facilities should protect workers and by giving the company better access to protective gear. But he said it did not accelerate the reopening of the facility. - - - When he announced the executive order on April 28, Trump initially said it would solve "liability problems" for companies and force them to stay open during the pandemic. "Now that Trump issued that executive order, it gives plants this insurmountable feeling that they are invincible," said Kim Cordova, a local union president in Greeley, Colorado, where a JBS beef plant was shuttered in April amid a coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least seven workers. In practice, the order was more narrow, legal experts said. It designated meat producers as critical infrastructure and ordered them to follow federal guidance developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It also enabled Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to take steps to get meat companies federal contracts and access to protective gear. OSHA - the federal agency in charge of worker safety - has not issued enforceable guidelines for protecting employees, as it did during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, instead opting for voluntary guidance. The agency has said it plans no enforcement action so as not to overly burden companies during the pandemic. Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years. Smithfield cited the Trump executive order in federal court, saying it meant local and state authorities no longer had any authority over meat processors. It was part of the company's defense in a Missouri lawsuit, which was filed by an unnamed employee saying Smithfield failed to protect employees by not accommodating social distancing and by discouraging sick employees from staying home. "The president has identified state interference with meat and poultry processors as 'undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency,' " Smithfield's attorneys said in court documents. "State law, whether statutory or through private lawsuits, cannot be used to regulate the subject matter covered by the EO. This task belongs exclusively to the federal government." Judge David Gregory Kays dismissed the case 12 days later, citing the "significant steps" Smithfield had taken to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection at its plant in Milan, Missouri. In a news release, the company praised the outcome of the case, which it said was "frivolous, full of specious allegations that were without factual or legal merit." Less than two weeks after the case was dismissed, voluntary testing at the Milan plant revealed an outbreak at the facility, according to local news reports and the worker behind the lawsuit. She told The Post that fearful workers have been staying home, and that those who do show up for shifts are working overtime to keep up production. "They could have listened to workers and protected the company and the people by being proactive," said David Muraskin, the worker's attorney. "Now that they've failed to do the right thing, their responsibility is to make sure they take care of their workers and pay them their wages while the company puts in place the protections that should have been there all along to protect the community." Smithfield said the Milan plant is "operational" but declined to provide further details about absences and production capacity. The company said it would not confirm coronavirus cases "out of respect for employees' legal privacy." - - - On April 16, the JBS beef plant in Greeley was forced to shut down after about 100 workers came down with the virus and three died. Another worker died during the closure, and four others since it reopened on April 24. Coronavirus cases at the plant now exceed 300, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment records show. "We are raising hell because the numbers continue to rise," said Cordova, the local union president. "People are scared to go to work because people keep getting sick. There are hundreds of workers who have not come back. We don't know if they have moved on, if they are on ventilators. We can't find them." Nikki Richardson, a JBS spokeswoman, said in an email that JBS USA has adopted more than $100 million in enhanced safety measures throughout its facilities, including "increased sanitation and disinfection efforts, health screening and temperature checking, team member training, physical distancing, reduced line speeds and increased availability of personal protective equipment, including face masks and face shields." Cordova toured the Greeley plant last week and said improvements have been made on the processing side, where the beef is cut into steaks, ribs and briskets. Metal dividers have been installed between workers, and protective equipment has been placed next to workstations so employees can avoid congregating to pick up their supplies. Still, she said, additional safety measures need to be taken to lessen the risk of infection. Workers are still crowded into halls and stairways. Due to the loud noise in the plant, workers take off their masks and lean in close to speak to supervisors. In the area where cattle are slaughtered, Cordova said, plastic dividers between work stations have yet to be installed. "They are on rafters, right next to one another," she said. Richardson said the company is trying its hardest. "We are doing the best we can to ensure social distancing in the facility, but we recognize the challenges that exist to maintain social distancing in areas where people naturally congregate," Richardson said in an email to The Post. "We have hired people to be part of an employee health team that is responsible for covid-19 program management, compliance and auditing, including enforcing social distancing." - - - The Washington Post's Kimberly Kindy and Julie Tate contributed to this report. AUSTIN, Texas, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonic Healthcare USA's Bernhardt Laboratories, located in Jacksonville, Florida, hosted U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar at their facility last week. Bernhardt Laboratories is an anatomic pathology provider specializing in women's health, dermatopathology, and molecular pathology. Bernhardt Laboratories significantly changed its operations to mitigate supply chain challenges for Sonic Healthcare USA's COVID-19 testing initiative. Over the last few months, Sonic Healthcare USA has been one of the leading commercial laboratories who, as a member of the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA), has assisted in the response for COVID-19, in close coordination with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Sonic Healthcare USA has also worked closely with our scientific experts and medical and operational leadership to bring up multiple platforms to ensure testing access for patients. As of March 10, 2020, Sonic Healthcare USA launched molecular testing for COVID-19 and is performing over twenty thousand tests per day at our clinical laboratories. On April 21, 2020, we launched COVID-19 antibody testing to complement our existing molecular PCR testing. "It was an honor hosting Secretary Azar to discuss and showcase the strategies we have employed to ensure testing access and timely result delivery for our patients," said Dr. Phil Chen, MD, PhD, the Chief Strategy Officer and Head of the COVID-19 Taskforce at Sonic Healthcare USA. "Secretary Azar was very informative and gracious during his visit by offering us access to explore automated technologies and associated financial support, to further expand testing capacity," added Dr. Chen. "It is incredibly important that we continue to partner with governmental agencies aligning resources and approaches as we manage through the COVID-19 pandemic together. We are grateful to Secretary Azar for his leadership and support," said Dr. Jerry Hussong, MD, MBA, the Chief Executive Officer of Sonic Healthcare USA. About Sonic Healthcare USA Sonic Healthcare USA is a subsidiary of Sonic Healthcare Limited, one of the world's largest medical diagnostic companies, providing laboratory services to medical practitioners, hospitals and community health services, with operations in eight countries, on three continents and providing care to over 100 million patients each year. Sonic Healthcare USA is a leading provider of state-of-the-art laboratory services and pathology practices throughout the USA with nine operating divisions and nearly eight thousand US-based employees. Sonic Healthcare USA utilizes a federated business model that emphasizes medical leadership and community-based testing services to provide outstanding quality and service to the doctors and patients that they serve. For more information, visit the Sonic Healthcare website at www.sonichealthcareusa.com. MEDIA CONTACTS: Sonic Healthcare USA Dr. Phil Chen, MD, PhD Chief Strategy Officer [email protected] 512.439.1653 SOURCE Sonic Healthcare USA Related Links http://www.sonichealthcareusa.com The last time I wrote a full review of a Cohiba was in 2017 when Cohiba Blue had just come out. This was around the same time Sean Williams of El Primer Mundo was introduced as the new Cohiba brand ambassador. I dont know this for sure, but my sense is the Cohiba marketing team was aiming for a differentiated look that expressed modernity and approachability, I wrote. The purpose of Cohiba Blue, after all, seems to be to attract more (presumably younger) consumers to the brand at a less intimidating price point. This April, General Cigar announced a new Cohiba line that (as far as pricing is concerned) throws caution to the wind. Cohiba Royaledubbed the fullest-bodied Cohiba expression to dateis an ultra-premium offering that retails for $24-$29 per cigar. The Cohiba Royale recipe calls for a sun-grown Nicaraguan Broadleaf wrapper, a Dominican Piloto Cubano binder, and a filler blend that includes tobaccos from Honduras (Jamastran) and Nicaragua (Esteli and Jalapa). Each leaf has been aged five to six years. All of the tobaccos that comprise Cohiba Royale are hand-selected and deeply aged, representing the best of the best tobacco growing regions in the world, said Williams in a press release. The result is a cigar that is as bold as it is refined, befitting of the Cohiba name. Cohiba Royale is made at General Cigars HATSA factory in Danlimaking it the first Cohiba to be crafted in Honduras. It is packaged in five- and ten-count boxes and offered in three sizes: Gran Royale (4.5 x 52), Robusto Royale (5.5 x 54), and Toro Royale (6 x 50). Aesthetics are not the most important trait of any cigar. That said, when you pay $29, it should be a fine-looking specimenand, unfortunately, the Toro Royale falls short of the expectations set by its lofty price. The cap is borderline sloppy with cracks, lumps, and edges that were ineffectively smoothed down. And the seams that run the length of the cigar are likewise not as tight as they should be, and therefore prone to cracking. Other characteristics of the rough, mottled wrapper I am willing to chalk up to the rustic-ness of Broadleaf. The real test, though, is in the taste. As advertised, the Toro Royale starts full-bodied and strong with an intense profile of black pepper, espresso, and leather. Its the kind of powerful intro that leads you to believe there will eventually be a nicotine penance to payeven for a seasoned cigar veteran. After a half inch, the strength and body pull back considerably. The core flavors remain, but now the taste is better-balanced, sweeter, and more interesting. The new-arrival notes include cocoa powder and black cherry. There are also some unwelcome flavors, most notably a stale bitterness and a chewy meatiness. From a construction standpoint, its all good news. The burn is straight and the cigar stays lit even when not puffed frequently. The ash holds well, the draw is smooth, and the smoke production is voluminous and aromatic. That isnt nearly enough to merit a recommendation, however. I smoked three for this revieweach provided by General Cigarand Im afraid the aesthetics, flavor, and price are all disappointing. I am left with no choice but to settle on a poor score of two stogies out of five. [To read more StogieGuys.com cigar reviews, please click here.] Patrick A photo credit: Stogie Guys TORONTO - A new report from the military helping battle COVID-19 in five long-term care facilities in Ontario has revealed extreme neglect and exposed the extent of the ugly conditions facing residents, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to offer help for what he called an infuriating situation. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 26/5/2020 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds his daily briefing from Rideau Cottage amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick TORONTO - A new report from the military helping battle COVID-19 in five long-term care facilities in Ontario has revealed extreme neglect and exposed the extent of the ugly conditions facing residents, prompting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to offer help for what he called an infuriating situation. The report found people left in filth for weeks, others left on the floor where they had fallen, cockroach infestations, people choking while being improperly fed, patients with brutal pressure sores, and seniors pleading for help for hours to no avail. "There are things in there that are extremely troubling," Trudeau said of the report, as he offered federal help. Premier Doug Ford raised the prospect of criminal charges as he grasped for words to describe what he had read. "It's appalling. It's disgusting," an emotional Ford said. "The dignity of these patients in long-term care, not being cleaned? These are standard operating procedures." At the request of Quebec and Ontario, the Canadian Armed Forces have been helping out at nursing homes, which overall have accounted for most of Canada's 6,638 deaths from coronavirus disease. More than 80 per cent of fatalities in Quebec have been in such facilities. Ford, who said he was concerned at least some other homes in the province and elsewhere in Canada were in similar crisis, made the military document public. "You need to know exactly what I know," Ford said. The five Ontario facilities cited in the report are Orchard Villa in Pickering (69 deaths), Grace Manor in Brampton (11 deaths), and three Toronto homes: Altamont Care Community, with 52 deaths, Eatonville Care Centre, with 42, and Hawthorne Place, with 39. At least one faces a proposed class-action lawsuit. Ford, who has asked the Canadian Forces to extend its homes mission for another 30 days, thanked the military for exposing the issues. He called it the worst report he had ever read, and promised action to fix what he called a broken system. "It was gut-wrenching. I was up all night thinking of this," Ford said. "There'll be accountability, there'll be justice." The premier said one death had been referred to the chief coroner, who would share findings with police for a possible criminal investigation. Inspectors would also be looking into "critical incidents." Quebec's ombudswoman said she would investigate why so many seniors had died from COVID-19 in facilities for older seniors. The Green party, however, called on the Trudeau government to launch a national inquiry into the "horrific tragedy" that has unfolded in long-term care homes. The COVID deployment has also exposed military members to the virus. As of Tuesday, the Armed Forces reported that 39 members working in long-term care homes in Ontario and Quebec had become sick a 30 per cent jump in less than a week. Of those, 24 infected were in Quebec and 15 in Ontario. Some good news did emerge from Ontario, which reported its lowest number of new cases 287 in more than two weeks. That's down sharply from the more than 400 a day reported over the previous five days. However, 21 more people died from the disease. The ongoing battle to keep the novel coronavirus in check comes as a blanket of hot, humid air settled over much of south Central Canada, while anti-pandemic measures have closed many places where people might usually seek relief. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Heat waves can be dangerous for those with health conditions. In Quebec, for example, only about one-third of long-term care rooms have access to air conditioning. Elsewhere, with malls, swimming pools and most cooling centres closed, authorities have been trying to come up with ways to mitigate the concern. The City of Toronto, for example, has opened six designated sites from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at otherwise idled community centres, a stark contrast to the hundreds of sites that would normally be available to cool off. The centres have a total combined capacity of about 580 people or one person for every four square metres. Environment Canada did say conditions would moderate in the next few days. The comments from Trudeau and Ford came after a new poll found a substantial mistrust of governments when it comes to the pandemic. Half of Canadians said governments were hiding information about COVID-19, while some said they believed conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus, according to the survey from Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies. -With files from Canadian Press reporters across the country. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 26, 2020. Former Debenhams workers physically blocked a van today carrying what workers believe was a safe containing an estimated 70,000 from its closed Cork stores. And they vowed to mount further blockades to prevent any further attempts to remove cash or stock from the former retail giants network of Irish shops until the company pays its workforce here a fair redundancy. This is an official strike action. That money is ours, former worker Madeline Whelan said as she and more than 20 former Debenhams workers mounted the blockade at the rear of the Debenhams flagship St Patricks St store. They had just taken part in one of a series of coordinated noon protests with colleagues around the country outside Bank of Ireland branches in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Waterford, and Newbridge as part of their ongoing campaign for a fair redundancy package (the bank owns around 5% of Debenhams parent company) when word came through that an attempt was being made to remove something from a service entrance to the rear of the St Patricks Street store. A security guard was involved in the operation. Workers said they had information that the van was carrying a safe containing tens of thousands of euro in cash, which had been in either the city centre or Mahon Point store. Gardai were called to the standoff on Merchant St, off Parnell Place, which continued for several hours. A number of local and national politicians stood with the workers. Cllr Ted Tynan joins Debenham workers in Cork protesting outside The Bank of Ireland on the South Mall in Cork. Pic: Eddie O'Hare Socialist TD Mick Barry said the money stored in the companys safes should be used to defend jobs or at the very least to find decent redundancy packages. The workers have my full support in taking the stand they took and blocking the truck, he said. If the liquidators have this much trouble moving one safe out of one shop, I cant imagine the problems they are going to have trying to move 1.25m items of stock out of 11 stores without a just settlement. Sinn Fein councillor Mick Nugent said the workers were entitled to take the stand they did. They are flagging to the company that any attempt by them or the liquidators to remove assets will be blocked. The workers are determined to take a stand and the members of Cork City Council are supportive of the workers, he said. Debenhams liquidation process was triggered just before the Easter weekend when Debenhams Retail in Britain moved to appoint an administrator and indicated that it was withdrawing support from its loss-making Irish operation which manages 11 stores and directly employs almost 1,000 people. A further 500 people work in concessions within the stores. The number of active COVID-19 cases climbed to 80,722. New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,167 in the country, while the number of cases climbed to 1,45,380, registering an increase of 146 deaths and 6,535 cases since Monday 8 am, the Union Health Ministry said. The number of active COVID-19 cases climbed to 80,722. As many as 60,490 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said. "Thus, around 41.61 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior Health Ministry official said. Of the 146 deaths reported since Monday morning, 60 were in Maharashtra, 30 in Gujarat, 15 in Delhi, 10 in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Tamil Nadu, six in West Bengal, four each in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, three in Telangana, two each in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one in Kerala. Of the total 4,167 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,695 deaths followed by Gujarat with 888 deaths, Madhya Pradesh with 300, West Bengal with 278, Delhi with 276, Rajasthan with 167, Uttar Pradesh with 165, Tamil Nadu with 118 and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with 56 deaths each.. The death toll reached 44 in Karnataka and 40 in Punjab. Jammu and Kashmir has reported 23 fatalities due to the disease, Haryana has 16 deaths, while Bihar has registered 13 and Odisha has seven deaths. Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have reported five deaths each so far, while Jharkhand and Assam have recorded four deaths each so far. Chandigarh and Uttarakhand each have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each, while Meghalaya has reported one fatality so far, according to the ministry data. More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, according to the ministry's website. According to the ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 52,667 followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,082, Gujarat at 14,460, Delhi at 14,053, Rajasthan at 7,300, Madhya Pradesh at 6,859 and Uttar Pradesh at 6,532. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 3,816 in West Bengal, 3,110 in Andhra Pradesh and 2,730 in Bihar.It has risen to 2,182 in Karnataka, 2,060 in Punjab, 1,920 in Telangana, 1,668 in Jammu and Kashmir and 1,438 in Odisha. Haryana has reported 1,184 coronavirus infection cases so far, while Kerala has 896 cases. A total of 526 people have been infected with the virus in Assam and 377 in Jharkhand. Uttarakhand has 349 cases, Chhattisgarh has 291, Chandigarh has reported 238 cases, Himachal Pradesh has 223, Tripura has 194 and Goa has registered 67 cases so far. Ladakh has reported 52 COVID-19 cases, Puducherry has 41 instances of the infection, Manipur has 39 while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections. Meghalaya has registered 14 cases. Nagaland has reported three cases of the infection, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Arunachal Pradesh have reported two cases of the virus each, while Mizoram and Sikkim have reported a case each till how. The Delhi government on Sunday directed private hospitals and nursing homes with 50 beds or more to reserve 20 per cent of their total capacity for COVID-19 patients as the number of infections climbed to 13,418 with 508 new cases in a day in the national capital, while the death count rose to 261. With domestic flights resuming on Monday after a two-month gap due to the coronavirus lockdown, officials said asymptomatic passengers coming to Delhi through such flights will not be kept at paid quarantine or state-run centres. In its order, the Delhi government has directed the officials concerned to ensure compliance of guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in "letter and spirit". Thermal screening at exit point shall be arranged and asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to go with the advice that they shall self-monitor their health for 14 days, the guidelines said. Those found symptomatic will be isolated and taken to the nearest health facility and will be assessed for clinical severity at the health facility, they said. The Centre has said that states can also develop their own protocol with regards to quarantine and isolation of air passengers on arrival as per their assessment. The Tihar Prison reported its first coronavirus case after a 45-year Assistant Superintendent of Central Jail No 7 tested positive for the infection on Sunday. The Assistant Superintendent is posted at Jail No 7 and is a resident of Staff Residential Complex, Tihar jail, they said. Out of total 13,418 COVID-19 cases, 6,540 patients have recovered while 261 have died. According to an official, there are 87 containment zones in the national capital. On Saturday, the number of coronavirus cases in the city was 12,910 with 231 fatalities. With the number of cases rising daily, ten private hospitals in the city have been declared as COVID-19 dedicated hospitals for admitting confirmed/ suspected cases of coronavirus on payment basis. "It has been found that in the recent past the majority of beds earmarked for COVID-19 patients in the dedicated private hospitals are occupied at any given time. Therefore, there is a need to increase the number of beds dedicated for COVID-19 patients in the private hospitals in the city," an order issued by the government said on Sunday. To increase the bed capacity for COVID-19 patients, all 117 nursing homes/private hospitals having bed strength of 50 beds or more are directed to reserve/ earmark at least 20 per cent of their total bed strength for COVID-19 patients, it added. On Sunday, the festive atmosphere was missing on the eve of Eid in the national capital as people preferred to stay at their homes to offer namaz and most markets wore a deserted look due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. The old city areas, which are usually crowded during Ramzan as people go for shopping to buy new clothes for the festival, were missing the usual hustle and bustle. With religious places shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been advised by Shahi Imams of Jama Masjid and Fatehpuri Masjid to stay indoors and offer Eid namaz at their homes. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal condoled the death of eminent pulmonologist Dr Jitendra Nath Pande due to the COVID-19 and said Delhi salutes him for his work. The former head of the Department of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi died at his residence on Saturday. He was 79. "Heartfelt condolences to Dr Pande's family. He retired from AIIMS after a long career of service but continued to work in another hospital until his unfortunate demise this week due to Corona. Delhi salutes you sir. RIP," Kejriwal tweeted. BANGKOK Latam Airlines, South Americas biggest carrier, sought U.S. bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it grapples with a sharp downturn in air travel sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing underscores the severity of the financial challenges facing the travel industry as a result of the lockdowns, quarantines and other measures taken by governments the world over to stem the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Passenger and cargo flights will continue to operate during the reorganization, and employees will still be paid, the Santiago, Chile-based airline said. Travelers with existing tickets and vouchers can still use them. Chief Executive Roberto Alvo said Latam was profitable before the pandemic brought most of the worlds flights to a halt, but is now facing a collapse in global demand. We are looking ahead to a post-COVID-19 future and are focused on transforming our group to adapt to a new and evolving way of flying, with the health and safety of our passengers and employees being paramount, he said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing. Latam Airlines said that it and several of its affiliated companies launched the Chapter 11 reorganization effort in the United States in a bid to reduce its debt and find new financing sources. Air travel has plunged to a fraction of the levels it was just months ago as the virus spread from China to countries around the globe, prompting growing alarm in the aviation industry. The International Air Transport Association last month predicted that airlines revenue from hauling passengers would drop $314 billion this year, meaning they could bring in less than half of what they did in 2019. Latams move comes little more than two weeks after another major Latin American airline, Avianca Holdings, filed for bankruptcy protection in New York. Australias second-largest carrier, Virgin Australia, sought bankruptcy in its home market last month. Latam and Aviance are part of a years-long trend of foreign companies filing for bankruptcy in the U.S., which is more friendly to debtors and usually lets management stay in control. To file, foreign companies need only show that they have assets or operations in the U.S. The International Air Transport Association has warned that other airlines could fail without government support. On Tuesday, the global airline trade group said the industrys total debt could jump to $550 billion this year, a $120 billion increase since Jan. 1. Government aid is helping to keep the industry afloat. The next challenge will be preventing airlines from sinking under the burden of debt that the aid is creating, said the trade groups CEO, Alexandre de Juniac. Among U.S. carriers, American Airlines is widely seen as facing the greatest risk of bankruptcy, but Washington approved up to $50 billion in grants and credit for the industry, buying it some time. On Monday, Germany agreed to provide 9 billion Euros ($9.8 billion) to help Lufthansa. Air France-KLM has received billions from the French and Dutch governments. Others are scrambling. Richard Branson is seeking help from the U.K. government and selling shares in his space company to prop up troubled Virgin Atlantic and other travel holdings. Analysts have been watching some discount airlines including Norwegian Air. Latams bankruptcy filing includes parent company Latam Airlines Group S.A. and its affiliated airlines in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, as well as its businesses in the U.S. The company is not including its affiliates in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay in the turnaround effort. It says it is talking with the Brazilian government about how to proceed with its operations there. Latam is South Americas largest carrier by passenger traffic. It operated more than 1,300 flights a day and transported 74 million passengers last year. The airline had more than 340 planes in its fleet and nearly 42,000 employees, according to its more recent annual report. It reported a profit of $190 million in 2019. It said the reorganization effort has the support of two prominent shareholders the Cueto family in Chile and Brazils Amaro family as well as Qatar Airways, which owns 10% of the company. Those three shareholders have agreed to provide up to $900 million in financing as Latam makes its way through the bankruptcy process. It currently has $1.3 billion on hand, it said. Latam reached a deal to sell a 20% stake to Delta Air Lines for $1.9 billion last year. Its announcement Tuesday made no mention of the Atlanta-based airline. Delta CEO Ed Bastian expressed confidence in Latams management in an emailed statement responding to questions. Airlines globally have been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, for which no business plan could have adequately prepared. We remain firmly committed to our partnership with LATAM and believe that it will successfully emerge a stronger airline and Delta partner for the long term, Bastian said. He did not say whether Delta might provide further financial support, and the company declined to comment further. ___ David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report. Recent research from the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health suggests that neighborhood crime may be reduced by enhancing "place management" resources in and around off-premise alcohol sales outlets, particularly at small and independent stores. Place management is monitoring and controlling what people do in and around a place. Poor place management may provide opportunities for crime. Neighborhood crime is sometimes higher where there is higher alcohol outlet density and, often, alcohol outlet managers are held responsible for these problems. However, it's unclear how alcohol stores staff can control neighborhood crime. To understand how place management operates across a wide range of store and neighborhood types, researchers assessed crime prevention strategies at all 403 off-premise outlets in six contiguous California cities; interviewed managers in 40 of these outlets; and conducted extensive observations in 15 of these 40 outlets. According to some managers, physical and verbal threats from customers and intoxicated people and insufficient law enforcement response made it difficult for store staff to control behavior of people in and around their stores. Some managers reported relying on their own strong personalities and friendships with neighborhood-based customers to manage problems. Managers reported some ability to assert their authority over interior spaces, but less so over exterior, public spaces. Further, small and independently-operated stores were the most common type in the study but had fewer resources for place management than large and chain stores. Says Principal Investigator Dr. Juliet Lee: "In under-regulated alcohol markets like California many stores, and many kinds of stores, can get a license to sell alcohol, but not all retailers have sufficient resources or authority to prevent area crimes. Improved law enforcement and manager training may help reduce crime in areas with high density of alcohol sales outlets." ### Source: "Place management in off-premise alcohol outlets: Results of a multi-methods study in a six-city California area," by Lina Ghanem, Juliet P. Lee, Natalie Sumetsky, Anna Pagano, Paul Gruenewald, and Christina Mair. International Journal of Drug Policy 80; doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102735 PIRE is an independent, nonprofit organization merging scientific knowledge and proven practice to create solutions that improve the health, safety and well-being of individuals, communities, and nations around the world. http://www.pire.org The Prevention Research Center (PRC) of PIRE is one of 16 centers sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), of the National Institutes of Health, and is the only one that specializes in prevention. PRC's focus is on conducting research to better understand the social and physical environments that influence individual behavior that lead to alcohol and drug misuse. http://www.prev.org The Resource Link for Community Action provides information and practical guidance to state and community agencies and organizations, policy makers, and members of the public who are interested in combating alcohol and other drug abuse and misuse. https://prev.org/community-action/ Facebook: facebook.com/PrevResources Twitter: twitter.com/PrevResources LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/PrevResources If you would like more information about this topic, please call 831.429.4084 or email thomas.pire.org MINNEAPOLIS, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Law, a global legal network that includes nearly 3,000 lawyers worldwide, is pleased to announce that 7 of its member firms have been listed in the 2020 Chambers and Partners USA Guide. Ally Law is also ranked a Band 1 Leading Law Firm Network, Global-wide, in Chambers Global 2020, as well as Band 1 in Chambers Latin America (Global Law Firm Networks, Latin America-wide) and Band 3 in Chambers Asia Pacific (Leading Regional Law Firm Networks). Said Bjorn Welinder, president of Ally Law and a partner in Lund, Sweden-based law firm Lindmark Welinder, "It is my pleasure to congratulate our United States members that have been honored in this year's Chambers USA Guide. We are proud of the high-quality legal and business counsel and coordinated client service that we provide throughout the United States and around the world." Ally Law member firms ranked in Chambers USA 2020 include: Alaska : Birch, Horton , Bittner, Cherot - Band 2, Litigation, General and Commercial; Band 2, Real Estate : Birch, , Bittner, Cherot - Band 2, Litigation, General and Commercial; Band 2, Real Estate Colorado , Moye White LLP- Band 4, Real Estate , Moye White LLP- Band 4, Real Estate Illinois : Much Shelist, PC - Band 2, Construction : Much Shelist, PC - Band 2, Construction Michigan : Varnum LLP - Band 3, Banking & Finance; Band 4: Corporate/M&A; Band 3, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation; Band 2, Labor & Employment; Band 3, Real Estate : Varnum LLP - Band 3, Banking & Finance; Band 4: Corporate/M&A; Band 3, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation; Band 2, Labor & Employment; Band 3, Real Estate Ohio : Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP - Band 2, Banking & Finance; Band 2, Bankruptcy/Restructuring; Band 2, Corporate/M&A; Band 2, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation; Band 3, Healthcare; Band 2, Labor & Employment; Band 2, Litigation: General Counsel; Band 2, Natural Resources & Environment; Band 2, Real Estate; Band 2, Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use, and USA - Nationwide: Band 3, Retail : Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP - Band 2, Banking & Finance; Band 2, Bankruptcy/Restructuring; Band 2, Corporate/M&A; Band 2, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation; Band 3, Healthcare; Band 2, Labor & Employment; Band 2, Litigation: General Counsel; Band 2, Natural Resources & Environment; Band 2, Real Estate; Band 2, Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use, and - Nationwide: Band 3, Retail Washington : Summit Law Group - Band 3, Labor & Employment; Band 3, Litigation: General Commercial Ranked firms above all also have individual lawyers ranked in the guide. In addition, member firm in Utah: Fabian VanCott, has individuals ranked in Band 1, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation; and Band 3, Environment, Natural Resources & Regulated Industries. About Ally Law Ally Law, a Chambers and Partners Band 1 Global Law Firm Network, provides sophisticated legal services to major corporations, with a sharp focus on value. Our 70+ firms include nearly 3,000 lawyers in 100+ business centers worldwide. For more information, visit www.ally-law.com. Press contact: Wendy Horn Ally Law, +1 612 770 6046, [email protected] SOURCE Ally Law Related Links http://www.ally-law.com BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22 Trend: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated Azerbaijani people on Ramadan holiday. Dear fellow compatriots! I sincerely congratulate you and all our compatriots living in different parts of the world on the holy Ramadan holiday and convey to you my most cordial wishes, the president said. The month of Ramadan, when the Holy Quran, the treasury of divine wisdom, was revealed to humanity as the path of truth, calls people to purity, unity and mercy, President Aliyev said. This month, believers get the opportunity to fulfill their moral duty to the Almighty, experience the joy of the victory of spiritual and moral perfection over worldly temptations. This year, we are completing the month of Ramadan in difficult conditions, when the world has come face to face with a great danger, the president said. The current situation dictates the need for urgent measures to protect the health and well-being of our population. The success of the fight against the global calamity we are facing largely depends on the responsibility and disciplined conduct of each member of our society, the president said. The Holy Quran also always calls for unity and equality, mutual assistance and kindness. I am sure that our people, always distinguished for such noble qualities for whom national and spiritual values are above all, will overcome this difficulty thanks to good organization and solidarity. Dear brothers and sisters! Our faithful citizens who have passed the test of fasting with dignity are seeing off the month of Ramadan with pride and gratitude, President Aliyev said. I join the prayers you made on these holy and festive days in the name of prosperity and well-being of our country and once again pay tribute of respect to the brave sons of the Motherland who sacrificed their lives in the name of independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. May Allah accept your fasting and prayers, the president said. I wish each of you good health, happiness to your families, and abundance and prosperity to your homes. Happy Ramadan! Chinas national governance system and capacity withstood a major test in the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. The countrys achievements have drawn wide applause from the world, and are making Chinas national governance system and capacity a major focus during this years two sessions, the annual sessions of the top legislature and political advisory body of the country. Residents watch the opening ceremony of the third session of the 13th National Peoples Congress in Wenhui neighborhood, Dongying district, Dongying of east Chinas Shandong province, May 22. Photo by Liu Zhifeng/People's Daily Online The two sessions this year are the first convened after the fourth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). By upholding and improving the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and advancing the modernization of Chinas system and capacity for governance, China is not only showcasing its image and spirit, but also enlightening the world. The pandemic is a litmus test for a countrys national governance capacity. Leading the 1.4 billion Chinese people, the CPC and Chinese government have put peoples lives as a top priority and mobilized national strength to work as one in pandemic response. In one month, the country preliminarily curbed the spread of the virus; in two months, it limited the daily number of newly added domestic cases in single digit; in three months, it achieved remarkable progress in safeguarding Wuhan and Hubei, the former epicenters of COVID-19. The fundamental reason behind Chinas solid progress in epidemic prevention and control as well as work and production resumption lies in the advantages of the CPC leadership and the socialist system, said Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. It echoes the points of many foreigners seeking the secrets to Chinas success. They believe that the convening of the two sessions at this special moment indicates Chinas high capacity of national governance. Many issues on governance during this years two sessions are attracting global attention, such as the improvement of major epidemic prevention and control mechanism, the improvement of national public health emergency management system, the institutional guarantee for achieving the countrys targets to eliminate absolute poverty and complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the promotion of a transition from the opening-up based on flows of goods and factors of production to that based on rules and related institutions, as well as the deliberation of the draft civil code. What the two sessions convey are the power and vision of Chinas governance to address both current and long-term issues. Aikyn Konurov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Peoples Party of Kazakhstan, noted that by constantly improving the national governance system and capacity, the CPC will lead the country to advance in a correct, science-based, and effective manner. Professor Pierre Picquart with Paris-VIII University said deputies across China are gathering at the two sessions to discuss national development and seek benefits for the people. He believes this will pull more wisdom and power for the development of both China and the world. The world is filled with instability and uncertainties, so to improve governance is gradually becoming a major issue that calls for joint efforts from the world. The COVID-19 pandemic might lead to a 3-percent fall of the world economy and big slides in international trade. The United Nations Development Programme warned that global human development which can be measured as a combination of the worlds education, health and living standards could decline this year for the first time since the concept was introduced in 1990. Given the severe and complex situation of the global economy and development, it is fundamental to improve governance system and capacity. China has well explained whats the best governance through its practices: to put people in the first place and bring benefits to them. All the topics during the two sessions, from the hotspot issues of poverty alleviation, building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and rule of law, to major development agenda of reform, opening-up and innovation, aim to increase peoples welfare and improve their sense of gain, happiness and security. Many international observers believe that Chinas governance experience is of huge referential value for countries that urgently need to walk out of the shadow of the pandemic and development predicament. Great governance cannot be achieved without great institution. More and more people are finding out that the two sessions, a practice that draws wide public opinions and wisdom, are exactly a manifestation of Chinas institutional advantages. Such institutional advantages are a sharp weapon of China to tackle challenges and achieve goals. Realizing high-quality development and efficient governance, China firmly chooses to stand on the correct side of the history, adheres to multilateralism and greater democracy in international relations, and seeks development with open, cooperative and win-win spirit. It will also work to make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all, and build an open world economy. Chinas practice has contributed wisdom and power to the world regarding tackling challenges and seeking long-term development. Mandana Karimi of Bigg Boss fame recently did a live video with all her fans wherein she went on to clarify to them that she has not contracted coronavirus but has instead, got an eye infection. Mandana Karimi revealed that she caught the infection after cleaning her house with some chemicals and rubbing her eyes accidentally after that. The Bigg Boss 9 contestant also showed her eyes to her fans which looked swollen and bruised. Also Read: Mandana Karimi Stresses Over Family Being Stranded In Iran Due To Coronavirus Mandana Karimi cleared to her fans that she has not contracted coronavirus Mandana Karimi thanked all her fans who were showing concern for her but went on to clarify to them that she has not got coronavirus. Talking further about her infection, Mandana Karimi revealed that she must have caught the infection due to the increased use of chemicals and sanitizers at her home. Furthermore, Mandana Karimi said that she rubbed her eyes accidentally after using the chemicals which must have led to the infection. Also Read: Mandana Karimi Says She Can't Meet Her Family In Iran Amid Coronavirus Lockdown However, Mandana Karimi also spoke about the rumours of her catching coronavirus. To this, the Bigg Boss contestant said to her fans that they must educate themselves before giving out suggestions like these. Mandana Karimi further mentioned that when one does not know about the complete symptoms of coronavirus, they must not jump into conclusions and make assumptions like these. Take a look at the Bigg Boss contestants' live video wherein she rubbished the rumors of her catching coronavirus. Also Read: Mandana Karimi Distributes Food To The Needy Amidst COVID-19 Outbreak Mandana Karimi revealed that she has given her pet to a close friend owing to her infection Mandana Karimi also said how she had to give her pet dog Elvis to one of her close friends owing to her infection. However, the Bigg Boss contestant clarified that she is not giving away her pet but has given him to her close friend as she cannot clean the house or take him out for a walk due to her condition. The Bigg Boss contestant also thanked her friend for agreeing to take care of her pet dog, Elvis. Mandana also informed her fans in the video to be careful while using the sanitizers as they may affect the eyes. The Bigg Boss contestant was also all thanks to them for their immense love and concern for her health. The Main Aur Charles actor also advised her fans on a concluding note to take help from their doctor virtually in case they are feeling sick and not to go all the way to the hospital. Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. Types of Disinformation Countering Disinformation For many small nonprofit organizations and government entities, being the target of state-sponsored disinformation may seem like the plot to an action movie. Still, in today's dynamic global political and cyber environment, it is a genuine possibility. Public administrators must be aware that state-sponsored and state-supported groups and cybercriminals may target their networks, websites and social media streams to disrupt information flow, deceive the public and interfere with legitimate government functions.National Public Radios Geoff Nunberg named disinformation the 2019 Word of the Year because of the concepts rising impact on governance and society. Disinformation can be defined as, all forms of false, inaccurate, or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause public harm or for profit. This is a timely concept as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world.In just the first two weeks of March, the European Union's Commission on Strategic Communication and Information Analysis reported 110 discrete cases of coronavirus-related disinformation campaigns . These campaigns were aimed at disrupting national and local governments, promoting pro-Russian, pro-Chinese pro-Iranian , and pro-Islamic State agendas. In the month since, policy analysts from around the globe have identified daily examples of disinformation and nearly a third of people surveyed in Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. reported having personally seen misleading or disinformation on social media Not only is disinformation a national security problem, it poses challenges to public-sector organizations, from small nonprofits to schools to local, state and federal governments. In the digital age, the primary means for delivery and promulgation of disinformation is through data systems and the Internet.In and of itself, disinformation is not a new concept. From the Trojan Horse in ancient Greece to the Allied information campaign to conceal the actual location of the D-Day invasion from the Nazis during World War II, disinformation has been a tool employed by governments to gain political, diplomatic and military advantages for centuries. In todays disinformation environment, campaigns by state actors and criminals are enabled by artificial intelligence and cyberattacks, with demographic data being particularly valuable to both parties. Controlling and manipulating data is at the heart of disinformation operations, as it directly translates into political and criminal power.There are three types of disinformation that can impact governments and public-sector entities: deception, disruption, and interference . Each of these concepts has specific objectives and each method lends itself to particular propagation techniques.Deception refers to the intent to influence public opinion and its formation by deliberately introducing false narratives. Deception can be achieved through doctoring online content, mimicking legitimate media or government communications, and hiding the true identities of the perpetrators. Disruption involves directly interfering with the inherent functions of government or society while interference consists of attempts to undermine the sovereignty of a nation. Interference is most often perpetrated by manipulating websites and social media content and replacing legitimate information with false information. The most dangerous form of interference is mixing legitimate speech and media reports with deliberately misleading information or statements and images taken out of context.The Department of Homeland Security recommends several actions that can be taken at the local level to combat disinformation. First, public-sector organizations should create a prioritized list of themes that may be vulnerable to disinformation. Under the COVID-19 crisis, that will probably include topics like the viruss impact on the demographics of the local community or the tension between maintaining a shelter-in-place mentality versus reopening businesses to stimulate the economy. Administrators need to be vigilant for social media and messaging narratives in their community that run counter to official government statements, especially now as state and local governments are planning to emerge from stay-at-home orders.The response is a three-step process: hit the actor, hit the technology, and build resiliency . This methodology is based on the premise of promoting both information transparency and consumer literacy. For municipalities and local public entities, hitting the actor involves identifying social media posts that are directly impacting their agencies and refuting them with official statements and facts.Once identified, administrators also need to report those posts to social media platforms for action. This allows the industry to hit the technology being used to propagate disinformation. Social media companies are using a two-pronged system to fight disinformation: block content and provide vetted, alternative information alongside the fake information to allow users to see how data is being manipulated.Building resiliency requires partnering with educational institutions and advocacy groups that can reinforce fact-based messaging. On the national level, the Department of Homeland Security is appealing to the patriotic duty of American citizens to discern disinformation in their media feeds. On the local level, partnerships with trusted civic organizations like rotary clubs and the Red Cross can help reach constituents and disseminate correct information.Mayors, city managers, nonprofit managers, and other public administrators must be aware that disinformation is not only a national issue, it is a local problem as well. Protecting citizens and constituents from deception, disruption, and interference requires a deliberate campaign to monitor networks, websites, and social media outlets and counter false narratives with transparency and build societal resiliency. The relentless onslaught of disinformation will not end with the coronavirus. Local officials must start now to understand and counter false narratives in their jurisdictions. Of all of Calistogas historic buildings, perhaps there are none with the particular charm of the Green Church at the corner of Washington and Berry streets. Painted the color of pistachio ice cream, the Community Presbyterian Church of Calistoga was constructed in the late 1870s and has long served as home not only to Calistogas Presbyterian congregation, but also to community groups, offering meeting space to the Girl Scouts, the Rotary Club, Bennett Valley 4-H, Alcoholics Anonymous, English as a Second Language (ESL), and other continuing education classes and programs. But the passage of time has left the church in disrepair, and it was red-tagged by the citys building inspector a few years ago, leaving much of its three stories unstable and unusable. Now, a group of civic leaders has pledged to breathe new life into the Green Church so that it can continue to offer public service to the community as the Brannan Community Center, a 501 c (3) nonprofit organization. According to its mission statement, The Brannan Centers vision is to serve as a multi-purpose community resource for civic, educational, and nonprofit organizations, and to provide a venue for musical and theatrical performances. The Center serves as a model of fiscal and civic responsibility, strengthening cross-cultural integration and a vibrant, healthy community. The name Brannan is a nod to Sam Brannan, Calistogas founder. Serendipity at work Ed Kozel, a Calistoga resident and member of the Centers board of directors, said the project evolved as the brainchild of two groups of Calistoga residents concerned about the churchs decay: members of the local Rotary Club, especially Jim Barnes, who is president of the Center; Dick and Edie Englehard, also on the organizations board; and others including Kozel, his wife Sara; and architect and Calistoga Planning Commission vice chairperson Tim Wilkes, who is vice president of the Center. Said Kozel, My wife and I were always dismayed that Calistoga has no performing arts venue. We looked at the fairgrounds, but that was a no-go. At the same time, others were trying to find a way to restore the Green Church to its long-term role of continuing to provide public service to Calistoga and the Upper Valley community. It really was a case of serendipity. Over the course of last summer, the group came together and held organized discussions about the fate of the church. Until March of this year, just before the shelter-in-place order was issued, the Green Church was still used for AA and ESL meetings, and by the Presbyterian congregation, which had dwindled to only about 10 congregants, according to Kozel. The congregation was also no longer able to maintain the upkeep of the church. So, the centers board of directors signed a 50-year lease with the Presbyterian congregation governed by the Presbytery of the Redwoods in Napa with the option to renew as long as the church, as a tenant, has the right to continue services once the transformation to The Brannan Center is complete. Part of Calistogas history The Green Church sanctuary was erected in 1871 and originally had close ties to St. Helenas Presbyterian congregation. Over the years, the church was moved twice to make room for improvements. For some time, Calistogas Methodist and Presbyterian congregations were conjoined as a federated church until 1956. After the churchs last move to its current location, the social hall and second story were added, and stucco was applied to its exterior to tie the sanctuary and the social hall together. According to church records, in the 1950s an airplane approaching the Calistoga Glider Port crashed into the buildings second story. Mercifully, the pilot survived and the damage was repaired. Renovations While the Brannan Center group plans to renovate the church completely, the structure itself will remain intact. Kozel said the renovation of the church will include converting the sanctuary and main hall into a performance space and creating a community hall that can seat 120 to 130 people to be used by high school, theater, and other community groups. There is a commercial kitchen on the lower floor of the church that will also be renovated so it can be used for catering. The churchs restrooms will be upgraded, and offices and conference space will be added as well. As a nonprofit organization, no city money will be needed for the renovations. Kozel admitted, however, that the Brannan Center most likely will not be painted green. A local focus on the arts We want to make Brannan Center a venue where the local community can schedule events like wedding receptions, quinceaneras, and other celebrations and fundraisers without breaking the bank, Kozel said. The Center will be a place to meet for community organizations like the Boy Scouts, after-school groups, and even Zumba classes along with ESL classes and AA meetings. Because my wife and I have strong interest in the performing arts, we plan to make all theater, music, and dance performances free to any Calistoga youth under the age of 18 so that our local students have more exposure to the arts, he said. The Brannan Center board is working with local construction contractor Paul Coates, also chairperson of the Planning Commission, who conducted a complete structural analysis of the Green Church and reported that the structure and bones of the facility are excellent. The Brannan Center board has an agreeement with the city of Calistoga and has submitted planning documents. Kozel expects it will be at least 30 months before the Brannan Center will be complete. The projects initial funding comes from the Presbyterian church and a donation by a local Calistoga family. Our board is a magical mix of personalities and skills that including fundraising, architecture, development bound by a common interest to continue this historic buildings mission of public service. IndiGo on Tuesday grounded the crew of Chennai-Coimbatore flight after a passenger travelling on-board was found to be coronavirus positive. This is the first case of a passenger testing positive for Covid-19 after the domestic flight services resumed on Monday. The passenger, who was on-board the Chennai-Coimbatore IndiGo flight 6E 381, has been sent on quarantine at ESI state medical facility at Coimbatore. As a precautionary measure, the crew members that operated on the flight have been grounded for 14 days, IndiGo said in a statement. The passenger was seated on-board the aircraft with all precautionary measures including face mask, face shield and gloves, as were the other passengers. Additionally, no one else was seated in his vicinity, significantly reducing the possibility of transmission, the statement said. The operating crew has been grounded for 14 days and we are in the process of notifying other passengers as per the government guidelines, to ensure safety of our passengers and staff, IndiGo said. India on Monday resumed air travel across the country after grounding the flight services for two months as a measure to control the spread of coronavirus. Several states have announced varied quarantine and self-isolation rules for the passengers arriving. Universal child care. Living wages, not minimum wages. Paid sick days for all workers. A plan for the future that supports the climate and the countrys most vulnerable. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fragility of many facets of Canadian society, from affordable housing to proper worker compensation, according to a group of more than 150 organizations that includes Oxfam, Leadnow and the Canadian Labour Council. And now, they say, is our chance to something about it. Theyve banded together for a campaign called Just Recovery, which is calling on the Canadian government to use economic recovery as an opportunity to address some societal issues highlighted by the pandemic, including living wages and worker benefits. Claire Gallagher, senior campaigner with Leadnow, said the campaign which sets out a list of principles the group hopes will influence Canadas recovery planning has been building for more than a month. Gallagher said the pandemic has brought attention to issues from the plight of low-income workers to housing inequality. It is an opportunity for us to really take note of the gaps in our system and the reasons it doesnt work for so many people. Gallagher said COVID-19 outbreaks at meat plants and warehouses have revealed the instability faced by many low-income workers. She said the government actions to help workers facing financial crisis have been short-term solutions. Were really looking at an overhaul of how we do things, she said, adding that Canadians have also developed new appreciation for workers in grocery stores and other such essential services. Its only now that our government and people across the country have started to realize how important these jobs are. On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will work with provinces to ensure all workers are guaranteed 10 days of paid sick leave per year. Canadian Labour Council president Hassan Yussuff said this is the kind of change for which Just Recovery, which launched Monday, is advocating. Yussuff said the pandemic has uncovered a paradox in the Canadian labour force: that the most precariously employed people are often some of the most important. We are calling them heroes right now, he said, but these workers often dont have paid sick leave, benefits, full-time hours or pensions. The announcement by Trudeau is a good first step, but Yussuff said its also time to reconsider the issue of minimum wages. While Canadian minimum wages might be a living wage for some people, such as those living in small towns with lower costs of living, Yussuff said for many, minimum wage is not enough. Certainly in Toronto, nobody could work for minimum wage and try to raise a family, he said. Clearly we need to strive for a more robust living wage for Canadians. Gallagher said Canadians have also become more aware of the issue of affordable housing, as the pandemic has rendered many unable to pay their rent. Yussuff said the pandemic has also shed light on the need for pharmaceutical coverage for Canadians who are unemployed, or whose workplaces dont offer it. And its also underlined a need for more accessible child care, he said, an issue that, if unaddressed, could lead to deepening gender inequality as Canadians begin returning to work. If we want to rebuild the economy and really bring womens participation back into the economy, I think child care will be something that the government has to give serious consideration. New Delhi, May 26 : Amid reports of a face-off between the Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army in eastern Ladakh at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the Narendra Modi government must come clean on the situation arising and inform the citizen what is happening at the border. Addressing a press conference through video conferencing, Rahul Gandhi said: "The details of what happened along the border, the government should share with the people." He said, what happened with Nepal and why, what is happening in Ladakh should be made clear. "I cannot see transparency. The issue of Ladakh and China is a live issue. Transparency is required," he said. He was responding to a question on the face-off on LAC that was triggered the Chinese objected to road construction and development of infrastructure by India within the Indian territory. Last week Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli asserted that Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura belong to Nepal and vowed to "reclaim" them from India through political and diplomatic efforts. His Cabinet also endorsed a new political map showing the three areas as Nepalese territory. Oli went a step further and told in the Npal parliament that the territories belong to Nepal but has been made a disputed area. The former Congress chief also said that till the time there is no transparency, till that time it would not good for him to speak. "If I have more information then I will share more details on it," he added. This is Rahul Gandhi's fourth interaction with the media in the last two months. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text (Bloomberg) -- DefinedCrowd, an Amazon.com Inc.-backed startup that provides data sets to train artificially intelligent speech programs, is setting its sights on a public listing in the next five years as voice interactions between humans and machines become more common.The Seattle-based company raised $50.5 million in a recent funding round led by existing investors, paving the way for an initial public offering within the next five years, Chief Executive Officer Daniela Braga said in an interview. The company declined to comment on its valuation. Its the road to an IPO, Braga said, adding her companys ambition is to support the development of AI so that people eventually will communicate with machines the same way we do with humans. Founded by Braga in 2015, DefinedCrowd curates voice and text data for clients including BMW AG and Mastercard Inc. to train virtual assistants and customer-service chatbots. The company designs the sets to be diverse and balanced, representing certain dialects or age ranges for audiences most likely to use the systems. Revenue grew 656% last year and is expected to triple this year, Braga said. Once the pandemic subsides, Braga said she expects businesses from a range of industries including telehealth and education to build AI personal assistants to better serve customers, something that might require more specific data that incorporates an industrys vocabulary. Amazon, Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google have come under fire over revelations they used recordings of customers interactions with virtual assistants to train their AI systems. A former contractor working on Apples Siri transcription project in Ireland last week complained to European privacy authorities over the massive violation of the privacy of millions of citizens. The companies said theyve made changes to provide users with more control over their data. By contrast, DefinedCrowd uses a crowdsourcing platform, Neevo, to generate data from a paid community of more than 290,000 members in 70 countries. Crowd members are asked to complete tasks like recording their voices or transcribing and annotating recordings rather than pulling data from customers who are using voice AI products.Braga said the newly raised funds will help the company expand its products and nearly double the number of employees in 2020. The company current employs around 268 people. Existing investors that participated in the funding round include Evolution Equity Partners, Kibo Ventures, Portugal Ventures, Bynd Venture Capital, EDP Ventures, and Ironfire Ventures as well as new investors Semapa Next and Hermes GPE.Amazon and Sony Corp., which is also an existing investor, didnt increase their stakes in the latest round, Braga said, adding it was a strategic move not to increase the involvement of other companies as DefinedCrowd moves toward an IPO. Story continues For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. Police are asking for help to identify an unknown woman with serious head injuries after she was hit by a car in Melbourne's eastern suburbs on Monday evening. Police have been told a car was entering a driveway on Elmhurst Road in Bayswater North and hit a pedestrian shortly after 6.30pm. A spokeswoman from Ambulance Victoria said a woman was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious but stable condition with head injuries. Police said the woman, believed to be 40 to 50 years old, was in a life-threatening condition. New Delhi: The early arrival of rapacious crop-eating desert locust swarms in India this year has officials and farmers across states on their toes. After arriving in Rajasthan, the swarms crossed into Madhya Pradesh, reaching as far as Panna in Bundelkhand region, and now there are reports that the swarms have reached Maharashtra. Officials from the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage under the agriculture ministry told News18.com that 43,000 hectares have been brought back in control across Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. State agencies, farmers and central teams have been spraying Malathion-96 organophosphate insecticide on the swarms at night during control operations. Rajasthan is the most affected so far, followed by Madhya Pradesh. We have managed to control the swarms in at least 43,000 hectares in these two states and our teams are camping on sites. Currently, the swarms appear rosy pink which means they are fledgling, said KL Gurjar, deputy director, Locust Warning Organization and Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage. But if they are able to survive on crops and plants till monsoon, there might be more trouble as they will be able to lay eggs. Efforts are on to control the swarm before monsoon arrives in these parts. Their movement is being aided by north-westerly winds and they can fly above 200 km per day, Gurjar added. Locust swarms can vary from less than one square kilometre to several hundred square kilometres. There can be at least 40 million and sometimes as many as 80 million locust adults in each square kilometre of swarm, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A desert locust adult can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day, that is about two grams every day. A swarm 1 square kilometre in size contains around 40 million locusts, which eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people. This is based on a person eating an average of 2.3 kg of food per day, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Farmers and government officials have been spraying insecticides using tractors, drones and fire-mounted trucks. The control operations have to be planned carefully as swarms can get disturbed by noise. Behind the Large Swarms, Cyclones and Climate Change The swarms seen right now and early this year in January have been linked to the locust outbreak in east Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa region. The Horn of Africa region, comprising countries like Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan, was hit by eight cyclones in 2019, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and also saw widespread rainfall between October and November. Scientists have said that these conditions proved to be ideal for breeding of locusts. Green vegetation and moisty sandy soils are favoured for breeding by locusts, the WMO said this February. The high rainfall and cyclone systems have been spurred by a positive Indian Ocean Dipole, an ocean circulation pattern. The Indian Ocean Dipole is the difference between sea surface temperatures in the western and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. A positive IOD usually brings good rainfall to Indias west coast and to East Africa. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said in its May 21 situation update that new swarms from current breeding will form from mid-June onwards, coinciding with the start of the harvest. Thereafter, there is a risk that swarms will migrate to the summer breeding areas along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border as well as to Sudan and perhaps West Africa. New Mexico voters are on the verge of making history during this year's election following the possibility of sending an all-female, all-colored U.S. House delegation to Congress. According to multiple reports, women are seeking nominations in all six of New Mexico's primary races for the seats in Congress. There is at least one Latin or Native American candidate running in each of the three races. The primary contests were said to be one of the most diverse political campaigns in the United States. The candidates also include women who have been among the largest fundraisers in the races. Women's Party In 2013, New Hampshire achieved a national milestone after sending a Congressional delegation composed of all-female members. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, the delegation included Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte as well as Representatives Ann McLane Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter. In 2017, Delaware's Democratic Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester helped the state gain an all-female of color House delegation. Rochester is a member of the black community. New Mexico could follow suit this year should it elect a delegation where the members are all women or women of color. If it happens, the delegation would be the largest all-women or all-colored women delegation in the country's history. Jean Sinzdak, associate director of Rutgers University's political unit, claims the record number of women running for a seat is unusual and exciting. Who's Running? In the state's 3rd Congressional Democratic Primary, a lawyer who was trained at Stanford University named Teresa Leger Fernandez is among those hoping to represent the northern region. She will be joined by former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Both candidates hail from traditional Hispanic and Coastal Liberal pasts. Navajo Nation member and businesswoman Karen Bedonie is set to run for the Republican side. She has been campaigning for the GOP nomination while observing isolation. Her campaign features her in traditional Navajo garb and as a mother of eight. Democratic Representative Deb Haaland currently holds the state's 1st Congressional District. She made history when she became one of the nation's first Native American congresswoman. Hispanic and Republican retired law enforcement officer Michelle Garcia Holmes is set to challenge Haaland for the seat representing Alburquerque. In the 2nd Congressional District, oil exec Clair Chase will be competing against former lawmaker Yvette Herrel. Chase is the first female chair of the state's oil association, while Herrel is a member of the Cherokee Nation. Both candidates aim to unseat Democrat Xochitl Torres Small, known as the granddaughter of Mexican migrants. 2020 U.S. Elections According to the Center for American Women and Politics, more than 490 women have filed as electoral candidates for seats in Congress this year. The number surpasses 2018's record-breaking midterm elections where 476 women ran for House seats. The number is expected to grow as many states have yet to pass filing deadlines. Local elections are also seeing more female candidates. In 2019, votes in Tucson, Arizona, elected Regina Romero as the city's first Latina mayor. Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA is the founder and CEO of BayouClinic, and was the 18th United States Surgeon General (2009-2013). As America's Doctor, she provided the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. Benjamin specializes in prevention policies and health promotion among individuals as well as large populations, especially concerning obesity, childhood obesity, and children's health. She has special interest in rural health care, health disparities among socio-economic groups, suicide, violence, and mental health. Benjamin holds a medical degree from the University of Alabama Birmingham and an MBA from Tulane University. She currently serves on the boards of Ascension, Kaiser Hospitals and Health Plan, ConvaTec Plc, and Computer Programs & Systems, Inc. "HealthQuest has a unique, collaborative approach to investing in and developing transformative healthcare companies, and the team recognizes that creating value in healthcare at scale requires coordination of many stakeholders and the inclusion of vulnerable populations," said Benjamin. "We are honored and delighted to have Regina bring her passion for increasing healthcare access to HealthQuest," said Garheng Kong, founder and managing partner, HealthQuest Capital. "Her incredible breadth of experience, insights and patient advocacy will provide an invaluable resource to our portfolio companies, and make her a complementary addition to our existing board of advisors," said Kong. Benjamin joins HealthQuest in sharing a passion to support and foster the growth of transformative companies that increase value in healthcare, either by improving patient outcomes, or by reducing inefficiencies and cost. HealthQuest invests across many sectors of healthcare, including medical products, diagnostics/tools, digital healthcare and innovative healthcare services. Examples include: Avizia, a telemedicine platform that has partnered with health systems to bring telehealth into underserved areas, and was acquired by AmWell in 2018, CleanSlate, a pioneer and leader in outpatient addiction medicine, and Castle Biosciences, a diagnostic tools company that offers tumor-specific information and can determine the likelihood of melanoma to spread with increased accuracy and lower cost, that IPO'd in July 2019 About HealthQuest Capital Founded in 2012 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, HealthQuest Capital is a growth capital firm investing in commercial-stage companies that meaningfully improve patient outcomes and reduce costs in healthcare. With more than $850 million in capital under management, the firm focuses on fostering innovation across the healthcare industry, including medical technologies, diagnostics, digital health and innovative services. The HealthQuest team combines decades of successful investing experience with deep domain expertise in all aspects of the healthcare industry. For more information, visit www.healthquestcapital.com . SOURCE HealthQuest Capital Related Links http://www.healthquestcapital.com After 21 years as an unnamed passive park with benches and paths, the Skokie Park District officially designated the land as Dr. A. Louise Klehm Park during a May 19 virtual meeting. The move is meant to honor a woman who practiced medicine in the village from 1902 until her death in 1941 at age 71. As more businesses reopen, dental practices are considering enhanced measures to clean their facilities and equipment, as well as protect their patients and staff. One method involves using ultraviolet light to sanitize the air, surfaces and equipment in dental offices. Disinfecting with UV light products is widely used in hospitals and larger medical facilities, but now small practices are looking into adopting the technology. "We're getting calls, emails, hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of requests on a daily basis," said Brett Messina, vice president of sales and marketing at Medical Illumination, which makes VidaShield, an air purifier that disinfects using UV light. In mid-May, Messina estimated that 80% to 90% of the company's new requests were coming from dental offices. However, before committing to purchasing a product that may cost $2,000 per unit, dentists should understand the advantages and drawbacks of UV technology and know their options. This investment could be particularly costly at a time when practices may be trying to recoup profits after closing operations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dentists in particular may be considering new sanitizing technology in reopening their business because they use procedures where people can easily transmit the virus through droplets in the air, according to Ann Marie Pettis, president-elect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. She said basic hygiene practices and protective gear should be dentists' first step in preventing disease transmission. "Much of what they need to do is what they probably and hopefully were already doing," Pettis said. They can also implement new measures such as spacing people 6 feet apart in the waiting room, staggering appointments, practicing "telephone triage," where patients are asked questions to ensure they are not sick prior to dental treatment and even temperature-screening visitors, according to Pettis. The American Dental Association gives similar recommendations in its "Return to Work Interim Guidance Toolkit," which does not mention UV light decontamination. In response to being asked about UV sanitizing in dental offices, ADA told CNBC it "is researching many strategies to mitigate possible routes of infection." "We will continue to evaluate the validity of emerging evidence and research to support any future recommendations supporting the safety and health of the public and profession," the association said in a statement. If dentists are interested in purchasing sanitizing equipment in addition to following ADA hygiene practices, UV light products may be a viable option. Pettis said UV sanitizing has been used in large health care facilities for years and is "very effective" in killing germs and bacteria. UV light is also particularly useful against coronaviruses, according to Dr. Richard Martinello, an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine and medical director of the Department of Infection Prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital. Martinello is also on the board of the International Ultraviolet Association, which promotes the use of ultraviolet light in sanitizing practices. "One good thing about the coronavirus is that it is a very fragile virus," Martinello said. "What makes it fragile is that it has a layer of lipids, a fatty layer that coats the virus itself, and that layer is very easily disrupted." UV light as well as cleaning products like soap and disinfectants can destroy this layer, causing the virus to degrade and die, according to Martinello. He said his association has seen an increasing interest in UV light applications since the onset of the pandemic. However, just because UV light is effective in decontaminating surfaces does not mean it's effective for treating the virus in humans, which was an idea President Donald Trump pitched at a press briefing in April. "There's just absolutely no plausibility for the use of ultraviolet light to treat people with coronavirus," Martinello said. "There should be no research in this area because it would just be an incredible waste of money." In addition to understanding how UV light decontaminates, dentists should also learn about the different UV sanitizing products available, which include disinfecting towers for rooms, chambers for sterilizing equipment and air purifiers. Disinfecting towers, which are portable columns that beam UV light into a room in order to decontaminate the area, are traditionally found in hospital settings. These devices use UV-C, which is ultraviolet light with a shorter wavelength, for sanitizing. However, staff members need to take special precautions in order to use this equipment properly, including not being in the room when it is in operation, according to Nicole Greeson, director of the Occupational Hygiene and Safety Division at Duke University and a board officer of the American Industrial Hygiene Association. "It can cause burns to the skin and to the eyes if the person was not covered with appropriate personal protective equipment, so the best means of protection is to actually have them leave the room so that they wouldn't have exposure," Greeson said. She said this kind of large equipment may not be the best fit for small medical or dental practices, and that other options are available, especially when it comes sanitizing dental tools. "UV is typically not used for equipment because there are definitely materials for which it's not compatible," Greeson said, citing plastic as an example. Instead, dentists can rely on autoclaves, which are chambers that can come in small sizes and use heat to sterilize tools, according to Greeson. However, that's not to say there aren't UV sterilizing chambers available. Online dental supplies retailer Treedental has seen an increase in demand for its UV Dental Disinfection Cabinet, according to Jenny Pan, an advertising and marketing planner at the China-based company. The unit has a list price of $145 and a disinfection time of 15 minutes and is supposed to be able to eliminate germs on glass, metal and plastic tools. The company has been careful in mentioning UV light as being effective against the coronavirus in marketing its products, as research into this is "ongoing," according to Pan. "There is not enough data to say that UV lights can inactivate Covid-19," she said. Instead, when advertising items like masks and gloves, Treedental only mentions products' ability to "protect" against the coronavirus. Medical Illumination has taken a similar tactic in promoting its VidaShield UV light air purifier, though Messina said the product has been effective in eliminating different coronaviruses, as well as other germs and bacteria, including MRSA, tuberculosis and influenza. "The interest in the VidaShield product has gone up significantly with the pandemic that we're going through now," he said. "The air is where a lot of stuff lives." In eliminating germs in the air, the product keeps them from settling on surfaces, according to Messina. He said the product is commonly used in hospitals, but that dental offices are becoming interested, too. Installed in the ceiling, VidaShield uses fans to draw in air from the surrounding environment and purifies it using UV-C light. It also contains either fluorescent or LED tubing allowing it double as a ceiling light panel. VidaShield also doesn't have the same risks as a disinfecting tower does in exposing people to UV light because it is self-contained within the product, according to Messina. "No UV escapes out of this unit, so it's safe to use in an occupied space, meaning this can be on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, continually cleaning the air," he said. VidaShield costs anywhere from $1,400 to $2,000 per unit, depending on the model, according to Messina. Comparatively, UV light towers typically used by hospitals and other medical facilities can range in price from $25,000 to $100,000 per unit. However, any extra cost could be a burden for businesses reopening after weeks of lost income. Messina said that in addition to dental practices, offices, day-care centers and restaurants are also making inquiries into VidaShield. UV Resources, another manufacturer of UV light sanitizing devices, has seen a tenfold increase in business inquiries, including from dental offices and other businesses. "It's been pretty crazy," said Daniel Jones, president of UV Resources. "For the UV companies, the surge has been incredible." Currently facing back orders, the company has been struggling to meet demand because there are a limited number of manufacturers that make the UV lamps it needs for its products, according to Jones. UV Resources makes Upper-Room UV-C fixtures, which are mounted on the wall in order to treat air in the environment and costs around $1,000 per unit. Unlike the VidaShield, the UV light is not contained within the unit. Instead, it emits UV light at an upward angle, creating a "kill zone" for microbes that rise in the air near the ceiling, according to Jones. "The key is we don't want UV to be in the lower space where people are working or walking around," he said. With the kill zone limited to this upper portion of the room, Jones said the product is safe to keep on 24/7 and when people are in the room. He even has one in his own home. While UV light has been proven effective against SARS and MERS, as well as other kinds of coronaviruses, Jones said there have been limited studies looking at how it interacts with the Covid-19 virus. "That's why I'm really emphasizing that we are not putting out anything that says, 'it kills Covid-19,'" Jones said. However, even without specific mention of the coronavirus in its marketing, UV Resources has faced a rush of inquiries from various businesses consider installing air purifiers in their offices and break rooms. In the past, it's been a struggle to get people to spend money on UV technology, but all that changed with the pandemic, according to Jones. "Knowing what we know and what the entire world is having to put up with ... it's just brought UV to the top," he said. It is well documented that certain groups have been identified as high-risk regarding susceptibility and more severe symptoms resulting from COVID-19. They include adults 65 years old or older, anyone with immune system issues, people with health issues including heart disease and stroke or cancer. In addition to the high-risk groups that also include those facing other chronic conditions, concern has also been expressed regarding COVID-19 and those with disabilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have issued separate statements regarding the impact of COVID-19 on those with disabilities. Because of the characteristic issues related to some disabilities, specific precautions should be taken to help prevent infection. Some of the results of COVID-19 on the disabled are physical and some are emotional. Specific areas of concern beyond the usual Disabled people may not be more susceptible to infection as a general population, according to CDC, but if their disabilities include chronic medical conditions, the risk could be increased. For example, someone with an underlying respiratory issue may have more severe symptoms if infected. Additionally, if mobility is limited or the person must rely on others for daily assistance, the possibility of infection increases because social distancing may be impossible during a usual day. There are some physical barriers that may make it more difficult for the disabled to practice the established recommended methods of prevention. The World Health Organization acknowledged in its statement that increased hygiene, such as hand washing, may be limited because of the possible inaccessibility to sinks. Certain disabilities may also physically hamper the ability to rub hands together without assistance, thus causing hand washing to be more infrequent. Certain disabilities lend themselves to touch in identifying objects and locations. This increases the spread of germs from surfaces. Social distancing may also be harder to achieve if the person resides in a group home specific to a condition, such as autism, or a nursing home. Another area of concern emanates from the ability to communicate. Depending upon the cognitive issues that may be characteristic of certain disabilities, a person may not understand the importance of not touching others or their faces. They also may have trouble understanding or communicating the possibility of symptoms that may begin to appear. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 20% of disabled Americans are employed. Some of them are self-employed and others go to work for someone else. In either case, many report to a job site or regular place of employment every day. The ability to navigate workspaces and keep a safe distance from co-workers may present problems with social distancing. Recommendations and preventative measures Suggested practices for those with disabilities who are independent and caregivers, employers, medical professionals, and others who regularly interact with the disabled have been published. For employers and independent people with disabilities, WHO recommends the ability to work from home whenever possible. While that advice applies to everyone, it is especially important to those whose risk may be heightened by a physical disability. If an occupation prevents work from home, extreme care should be taken to make sure all workspaces are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized regularly. For those whose daily routine includes the use of wheelchairs, canes, walkers and other mobility aids, it is important that those items also be cleaned frequently. If a disability involves an emotional or mental issue, caregivers, family members and friends should make sure to keep communications flowing. While keeping in touch with friends and family members is recommended for everyone in these times, it is especially important to offer encouragement and reassurance to those facing emotional difficulties. Ask Dr. Haqqani If you have questions about your cardiovascular health, including heart, blood pressure, stroke lifestyle and other issues, we want to answer them. Please submit your questions to Dr. Haqqani by e-mail at questions@vascularhealthclinics.org. Dr. Omar P. Haqqani is the chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Vascular Health Clinics in Midland: www.vascularhealthclinics.org Japanese companies invited to invest in Indian Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices industry A webinar on Medical Devices and API sector: Challenges & Emerging Opportunities was held on 22nd May, 2020 for business and trade collaboration between India and Japan in the post COVID-19 scenario. The webinar was organized by the Embassy of India, Tokyo in partnership with the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt. of India at the initiative of Ambassador HE Sanjay Verma & AiMeD (Association of Indian Medical Devices Industry) Sanjay Kumar Verma, Ambassador of India to Japan shared his thoughts on the golden opportunity for India and Japan to further boost their relationship in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Dr. P. D. Vaghela, Secretary, Pharmaceuticals presented the sectoral view and the investment opportunities in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry in India. He also presented various initiatives taken by the Government of India to promote trade and business in the country. Navdeep Rinwa, Joint Secretary, Pharmaceuticals explained the Departments schemes to promote manufacturing of bulk drugs and medical devices viz. Production Linked Incentive schemes and Promotion of Bulk Drug/Medical Devices Parks and requested the delegates to avail benefits of the schemes. Pharmaceutical Traders Association and Japan Federation of Medical Devices Associations deliberated on the Post COVID-19 challenges & opportunities for Pharmaceutical & Medical Device sectors and its impact on the global supply chain and suggested that cooperation between the two countries can contribute to stabilize the supply-chain of especially APIs and Medical Devices. Representative of JETRO Chennai also shared insights on challenges and emerging opportunities in API sector and Medical Devices. Mona K C Khandhar, Minister (Economic & Commerce), EoI, Tokyo mentioned about the resilience and strength of the Indian economy and detailed on the stimulus & reform packages announced by the Government of India to address the COVID-19 crisis and to improve the investment environment. The advantages of Indian economy, FDI ecosystem & Japan specific facilitation were also mentioned. Representatives of Japanese subsidiaries Nipro India Corp and Eisai Pharmaceuticals India Pvt Ltd shared a detailed presentation and their experience about Make in India program. Representatives of major Indian Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Associations presented the future growth opportunities and way forward for Pharmaceutical and Medical Device industry in India. Overwhelmed by the interest expressed by Japans Medical Device Industry, Rajiv Nath Forum Coordinator, AiMeD on behalf of Indian Medical Devices industry invited Japanese investors in the field of Medical Device (including Medical Electronics & IVD) who are interested to set up Manufacturing base in India via Technical Collaboration with Japanese MSME Joint Venture with Japanese SME 100% Direct Investment by Large Company Licensing of Technology / Patent by MSME We invite Japanese expert manufacturers to teach us & partner with Indian and be a part of Indias upcoming big story in global Medical Devices sector. Let us replicate the success of Automobile & IT industry, said Mr. Nath. India imported 544 Billion Yen (38800 Cr ) of Medical Devices in 2019 & exported178 Billion Yen (12700 Cr ) of Medical Devices with market size at Retail & Institutional sales level of over 1500 Billion Yen (1,05, 000 Cr). India has Potential for over 1000 Billion Yen (70,000 Cr ) investment in Medical Devices over next 5 years. India is targeting 1200 Technical Collaborations with Indian Investors for 600+ Billion Yen, 200 Joint Venture by Overseas Foreign Investors for 200+ Billion Yen and 50 MNCs for 200+ Billion Yen. Last month , the Indian Med Devices Industry had requested Indian Ambassador to invite Japanese Inc to shift Factories from China to India for enabling actual Make in India instead of spending over 200 million $ to assist them to shift elsewhere and suggested that Indian Govt. can possibly offer to subsidize by 100 Million $ this shifting. The Dark Cloud of COVID has one Silver Lining - Make in India of Medical Devices has become a valued entity as the few factories that are there, not only took up the challenges to meet the demands of the buyers in scenario of disrupted supplies, of the 85% import dependent market but are being looked at globally as possible 2nd factory to the World after China, said Mr. Nath. In his presentation Mr Nath explained the potential Japanese Collaborators that the business environment in India is changing to bring in a new era to boost Manufacturing of Medical Devices with the following measures having been taken in last 2-3 years : a) Correction of Inverted Duties for 78 Devices on January 19th, 2016 & 5% Cess added on to Basic Duty on 01.03.2020. b) Launch of ICMED Quality Assurance Certification by QCI c) Medical Device Regulatory Framework, separately from Pharma being implemented in phases by MoH&FW. d) Central Govt. and State Govt. are creating Medical Device Parks with Common Manufacturing Facility to create a conducive cost-effective Manufacturing Environment e) A Preferential Market Access Policy to protect investments and support Indigenous Manufacturing under Make in India Public Procurement Order. f) India Invest providing facilitation services to investors as Make in India enablers Representatives of State Governments of Gujarat, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Goa offered finer details of the investment opportunities in their respective States including package for incentives and taxation benefits, ease of doing business initiatives, land availability, infrastructural facilities, regulatory framework and invited Japanese companies for investing in their respective States. Representatives of Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, SMT Technologies, Allengers, Transasia, Trivitron, Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices Ltd and Wockhardt, Sun Pharma, Panacea Biotec in Pharma Sector and other large number of Japanese companies also participated in the webinar as part of G2B and B2B networking. West Bengal will start receiving special Shramik trains from Wednesday following a controversy over the eastern state not allowing trains from Maharashtra to arrive. Starting from Wednesday, 206 trains will arrive in the state, with 12-15 trains every day, said West Bengal home secretary Alapan Bandyoadhyay, adding that the state had to move cautiously as it was battling Covid-19. Bengal had earlier urged the railway board not to send any train to Bengal between May 20 and 26. For sending back and accept migrant workers, both states need to agree. Some states are planning suddenly. However, discussions are on so that the synergy doesnt get disturbed. People in our state are also coming through the land ports from Bhutan and Nepal. People are coming from other states by road. Arrangements have to be made for all of them, Bandyopadhyay said. His statement came after Maharashtra said West Bengal was not giving permission to send migrant workers back. When we had sent dozens of trains to other states, the migrants who wanted to go to West Bengal had stuck. It was only after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, we got the permission. We could have sent less than ten trains to West Bengal. Now again the West Bengal and Odisha government have refused to allow trains to their state because of the cyclone Amphan, a Maharashtra government official who was not willing to be quoted said. Earlier in the day, West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha wrote to his Maharashtra counterpart to say that Bengal is not in a position to take 34 trains, as planned, from Maharashtra in the next few days. Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary-general and state education minister Partha Chatterjee accused the Centre of mismanaging the Covid-19 crisis and playing politics with states over migrant workers. It is the Centre that created the crisis over migrant workers with its unplanned lockdown and it is now trying to hamper states own plans, he said. As of Tuesday, the West Bengal and Odisha government gave permission to operate Shramik trains carrying migrants from Maharashtra. By Tuesday evening, two trains departed for West Bengal from Maharashtra and one Shramik train departed for Odisha. Officials in the Maharashtra government stated that the controversy over the trains was uncalled for as they have been complying with all the notifications issued by the railway ministry. We have been submitting the list of the trains required and would submit the list of passengers at the time of buying tickets for them. Until May 24, they (the ministry) never asked for the names of the passengers and why are they insisting on the names now? the Maharashtra government official quoted above asked. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON UPDATED AT 1:24 P.M.: LOS ANGELES, CA Hawthorne-based SpaceX Wednesday had to postpone its historic launch of astronauts into space on the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft because of stormy weather in Florida. The next launch attempt will be in three days. It will be the first-ever manned space launch testing the breakthrough technology and the first time astronauts have launched from American soil since the space shuttle program was retired nearly a decade ago. If all goes as planned, it will also be the first time a private company ever launched astronauts into Earths orbit. The two astronauts were strapped in the Crew Dragon and awaiting lift-off Wednesday when the launch was called off less than 20 minutes before takeoff. Nearly a million fans were watching NASA's live streaming launch, listening to the astronauts communicating with the crew in Hawthorne at SpaceX. The next launch attempt is set for 12:22 p.m. PST on Saturday . SpaceX has been testing the technology over the last few years, launching satellites into space with the goal of eventually propelling humans into space with the reusable and, therefore, more affordable rockets. If successful, such launches could revolutionize and privatize space exploration. Viewers around the world are expected to tune in and watch the historic launch. "This is a unique moment where all of America can take a moment and look at our country do something stunning again and that is launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. As of Tuesday morning, NASA officials said the weather forecast was 60 percent favorable for the scheduled launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Backup launch windows are scheduled for 12:22 p.m. PT on Saturday and noon Sunday. Launching from the Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39A, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft will carry veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on what is technically a demonstration flight, showing the capabilities of the SpaceX ship, which will be propelled by one of the company's signature Falcon 9 rockets. Story continues NASA astronauts Bob Behnken (left) and Doug Hurley pose for the media May 20 after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) SpaceX will attempt to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket by landing it on a floating barge dubbed "Of Course I Still Love You" floating in the Atlantic Ocean. Astronauts haven't launched into space from American soil since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011. Traveling to the International Space Station is now done aboard Russian Soyuz rockets launched from Kazakhstan. SpaceX conducted an unmanned test flight of the Crew Dragon capsule in March 2019, sending the spacecraft to the International Space Station with an array of cargo and a mannequin playfully named Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver's character in the "Alien" film series. The company and its founder, Elon Musk, have dubbed the space station trips a steppingstone for bolder plans, most notably returning to the moon and, ultimately, flying crewed missions to Mars. Once launched, the Crew Dragon with its two occupants will orbit the Earth, with Hurley and Behnken testing flight capabilities of the spaceship, although it is designed to essentially fly itself and autonomously dock with the space station. The ship is scheduled to arrive at the space station about 8:30 a.m. Thursday PT. A date has not yet been set for the ship and Hurley and Behnken to return to Earth. NASA Deputy Administrator James Morhard said the return of American flight capabilities to the space station is critical to future research. "Why are we here? We're here to expand the human condition for all mankind," he said. "Right now, we've got one astronaut on the space station, and when we get the full complement back, we're going to increase our research up there by 300 percent, and that's about helping others. That's why we exist." Bridenstine said he believes the launch will be a unifying national event at a time of frazzled nerves and heightened political divisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "This space program that we have in this country unites people, period," he said. "It always has. We look at the most divisive times in American history. We think about the Vietnam War, the 1960s, not just the war, but the protests. We think about the civil rights abuses and the civil rights protests. The very divisive, challenging times. And here we are all these years later in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and we have this moment in time where we can unite people again." City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on the Los Angeles Patch COLUMBUS, Ga., May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac Incorporated, a leader in supplemental insurance at U.S. worksites, today announced a $1 million donation to Crisis Text Line. A global, not-for-profit organization established in 2013 and specializing in mental health intervention, Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, confidential support to people in crisis via SMS texting. Aflac's donation will help fund the organization's new campaign, For the Frontlines, aimed at helping individuals battling the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S. Crisis Text Line responds to thousands of texts each day from individuals experiencing mental or emotional distress and has reported an increase in communication with frontline workers and their family members impacted by the pandemic. Individuals seeking crisis counseling who text FRONTLINE to 741741 are connected to trained counselors who provide support in dealing with issues such as anxiety, stress, fear and isolation and help them identify coping strategies and other resources. "The physical toll this pandemic has levied against so many people has been profound," Aflac Incorporated Chairman and CEO Dan Amos said. "An equally and sometimes greater emotional impact has been felt by the frontline and essential workers who have faced this virus head-on for months, without relief, in areas like New York City and other communities. Aflac Incorporated wants to recognize these dedicated heroes by providing this donation of $1 million to Crisis Text Line, who will use it to assist those enduring unbearable mental and emotional fatigue." "When you're sinking and you reach up for a hand, Aflac and Crisis Text Line are those hands you want to be there. And right now, a lot of folks could use a strong hand. We want to thank Aflac for this generous donation that will help us help frontline workers and others in need," said Nancy Lublin, Co-Founder and CEO of Crisis Text Line. In April, Aflac Incorporated donated a total of $5 million to the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) and Direct Relief to manufacture and deliver personal protective equipment (PPE) and essential medical items to health workers responding to the coronavirus. The company also donated 500 million to similar organizations in Japan, where Aflac generates more than 70% of its revenues. As part of its overall pandemic response, Aflac has addressed the needs of policyholders, employees, 1099 independent agents who sell Aflac products, and the local communities where Aflac and Aflac Group Insurance are headquartered. "We are pleased that Aflac Incorporated is able to step up and do our share to help communities and individuals in crisis," said Aflac Incorporated President and COO Fred Crawford. "Like all responsible businesses across the country, we understand there are extraordinary challenges caused by COVID-19 that require attention. Providing assistance to people in distress aligns with our core mission, and that of our partners and shareholders, of being there for people in their time of need." About Aflac Incorporated Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) is a Fortune 500 company, helping provide protection to more than 50 million people through its subsidiaries in Japan and the U.S., where it is a leading supplemental insurer by paying cash fast when policyholders get sick or injured. For more than six decades, insurance policies of Aflac Incorporated's subsidiaries have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. Aflac Life Insurance Japan is the leading provider of medical and cancer insurance in Japan where it insures 1 in 4 households. For 14 consecutive years, Aflac Incorporated has been recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies. In 2020, Fortune included Aflac Incorporated on its list of World's Most Admired Companies for the 19th time, and Bloomberg added Aflac Incorporated to its Gender-Equality Index, which tracks the financial performance of public companies committed to supporting gender equality through policy development, representation and transparency. To find out how to get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover, get to know us at aflac.com or aflac.com/espanol. About Crisis Text Line Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, confidential support for people in crisis via text. Crisis Counselors complete a 30-hour training and have 24/7 supervision by full-time Crisis Text Line mental health professionals. In the US, Text CRISIS to 741741 to be connected to a trained Crisis Counselor. Crisis Text Line currently offers its service in the USA, UK, Canada, and Ireland. Aflac | Aflac NY | WWHQ | 1932 Wynnton Road | Columbus, GA 31999. Media contact Aflac - Jon A. Sullivan, 706-763-4813 or [email protected] Crisis Text Line Ashley Womble, 212-729-7797 or [email protected] Analyst and investor contact David A. Young, 706-596-3264, 800-235-2667 or [email protected] SOURCE Aflac Related Links http://www.aflac.com As well as being a world-class LNG exporter, Australia may soon become a major exporter of renewable energy. Engineers are now looking to connect Singapore with Darwin, using a 3,800-kilometer undersea cable, effectively connecting the South-East Asian country to the Australian grid. Perth-based company Guardian Geomatics has been awarded the contract to conduct a route survey for the Sun Cable project which is backed by Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and Fortescue Metals founder Andrew Forrest. The two billionaire backers led a capital raising round for the project last November. And while the total amount of money raised remains undisclosed, the two funds Grok Ventures and Squadron Energy raised tens of millions of dollars during this first capital raise. The total cost of the project is expected to be around $13 billion. Guardian Geomatics will commence preparations this month, with initial plans to utilize sister company Guardian Offshores vessel Offshore Solution to deliver the work, starting later in 2020. The 15,000 hectare, 10GW solar farm near Tennant Creek in Australias Northern Territory is the largest solar farm in the world currently under development. The project also includes plans for a massive 50-megawatt battery storage facility which ensures a steady around the clock energy supply. Most of the energy from the project will be exported through the undersea cable to Singapore, but a small part will be delivered to consumers in and around Darwin. Related: Driving Season Wont Save Gas Demand Sun Cable expects to reach financial close for the megaproject somewhere in 2023, with full commercial operations starting in 2027. As an island nation with limited space for power generation, Singapore has relied on LNG imports for about 95 percent of its electricity needs and despite the growth in solar PV and other renewables, Singapore will continue to rely on natural gas for the next 50 years or so. Solar PVs contributed 174.3 MW in 2019, or just a meager 1.3 percent of total electricity capacity. Sun Cable says the project can supply a fifth of Singapores power. By Tom Kool of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Duong Thi Bich Ngoc (centre), head of the Golden Lotus charity group in Berlin, Germany, presents face mask to Berlin Mayor, Michael Muller (right). VNA/VNS Photo Anh uc HA NOI Sen Vang (Golden Lotus), a Vietnamese charity group in Berlin, Germany, has donated 20,000 face masks and protective gloves to help the city in the fight against COVID-19. Speaking at the handover ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany, Nguyen Minh Vu, said the Vietnamese Government, localities and organisations in Viet Nam have shown solidarity and spirit of mutual support during difficult times with the German people by presenting masks and other medical equipment. Despite many difficulties in the pandemic, the Vietnamese community in Germany not only supported and helped each other, but also launched campaigns to work with the German people in the battle against COVID-19, he said. These activities have attracted the participation of numerous Vietnamese people across Germany. Hundreds of thousands of masks, many medical equipment and thousands of meals have been sent to agencies, organisations, hospitals, schools and nursing homes in many places throughout Germany. The activities created a bridge between the people of the two countries, as well as contributing to promoting the friendship between Viet Nam and Germany, the ambassador said. At the ceremony, Berlin Mayor, Michael Muller, appreciated the volunteer activities of the Vietnamese community in Germany and in Berlin. He also thanked the Golden Lotus charity group for giving the people of Berlin the practical and meaningful gifts. VNS Our officers are fully cooperating, the union head, Lt. Bob Kroll, said. We must review all video. We must wait for the medical examiners report. It could take at least three weeks to determine the cause and manner of Mr. Floyds death, Hennepin County officials said. Mr. Frey said on Tuesday that he did not know how the initial police statement, describing a medical incident, had come to be written, but he said he wanted to be absolutely as transparent as possible. Its the kind of thing where you dont hide from the truth, you lean into it, because our city is going to be better off for it, no matter how ugly, awful it is, he said. If it points out the institutional racism that we are still working through right now, well, good it means that weve got a lot of work to go. The video did not show what had happened before the officer pinned the man to the ground by his neck. Chief Medaria Arradondo of the Minneapolis police said at the news conference on Tuesday that he had received information the night before that led him to deem it necessary to contact the special agent in charge of the Minneapolis bureau of the F.B.I. He said he had asked the agency to investigate, and he declined to comment on what information he had received. The F.B.I. is conducting a federal civil rights investigation, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement. The state bureau also said that it was conducting its own investigation at the request of the Police Department and that it would release its findings to the Hennepin County district attorneys office. A total of 37,048 have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus, the Department for Health has said. The figures, announced on Tuesday afternoon, account for those who have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community. It is a rise of 134 from 36,914 the day before. In the 24-hour period up to 9am on Tuesday, 109,979 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 2,004 positive results. The figure for the number of people tested in the same period was unavailable for the fourth day in a row because of technical difficulties. Overall a total of 3,681,295 tests have been carried out and 265,227 cases have been confirmed positive. But the Department of Health has declined to say why it cannot provide figures for how many people are being tested for coronavirus. A daily tally of coronavirus tests is still being provided, but not the breakdown of how many people this includes. A spokesman said "technical difficulties" meant the number of people being tested cannot be reported but declined to say what these issues were. Loading.... The most recent data shows there were 109,979 tests carried out on May 25. The official Government figures differ from those released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS published its latest data on Tuesday, finding that the number of deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK has passed 47,000 - 10,000 more than the DoH figures suggest. Loading.... The figures found that 42,173 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to May 15, and had been registered up to May 23. Latest figures from the National Records of Scotland, published last week, showed 3,546 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to May 17. And data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, also published last week, showed 664 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Northern Ireland up to May 20. Together these figures mean that so far 46,383 deaths have been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases. A further 964 hospital patients in England who had tested positive for Covid-19 died between May 16 and May 24, according to figures published on Monday by NHS England. Together with the total figure of 46,383 registered deaths, this puts the overall death toll for the UK at just over 47,300. MEMPHIS FedEx and Microsoft's new alliance will bolster FedEx's technological capabilities, but that alone won't be enough to edge out rival Amazon, experts say. FedEx and Microsoft announced their multiyear collaboration on May 18, focused on combining the twos strengths in logistics and computing to give customers better insight on their supply chains. FedEx Chairman Fred Smith proclaimed in a news release the team-up will help revolutionize commerce and create a network for whats next for our customers. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said the two will build new commerce experiences that transform logistics for our mutual customers around the world. Both companies are pairing up while "sensing a big challenge from Amazon, particularly after FedExs public split with the e-commerce giant, said Kumar Singh, a supply chain consultant with warehousing startup Jagah.AI. Blame COVID-19: Get ready for higher prices at the grocery store Coronavirus clashes: Masks spark public judgment, ridicule among customers as businesses reopen Amazon has the advantage of being both a technology and a supply chain company, giving it the advantage over those more focused on one or the other, Singh said. FedEx's Microsoft team-up allows it to compete technology-wise with Amazon without having to spend years developing its own cloud capabilities in-house, he said. The first piece of the two's collaboration is FedEx Surround, giving businesses information on any logistical slowdowns, such as severe weather or clearance issues, and how their inventory is selling in different areas. The release said it will provide an "unprecedented level of data-driven insight" for customers. Although FedEx Surround will help in shipping time-sensitive goods, Amazon won't notice any competitive effect from the collaboration's services, according to Rick Watson, CEO of marketplace and e-commerce consulting firm RMW Commerce Consulting. Story continues "In the retail and e-commerce space, Amazon is No. 1, and its not just because theyve been able to dominate in e-commerce," Watson said, comparing its current dominance to Microsoft in the 1990s. "... Theyre good at everything, it seems like. Thats why everyone is trying to gang up on Amazon." Azure vs. Amazon Web Services FedEx and Microsoft highlighted the use of Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform, in their announcement. Azure competes with Amazon Web Services, Amazons hugely profitable cloud computing subsidiary. Cloud computing services like Azure provide on-demand availability of technology such as computer servers, storage, software and analytics over the internet. Microsoft explains that customer payment is typically only for cloud services used, helping companies lower technology costs, run their infrastructure more efficiently and easily scale as needed. Amazon Web Services remains the dominant player in the cloud infrastructure services space. As of the 2019 fourth quarter, it had a 32.4% market share while Azure had a 17.6% market share, according to estimates from technology analysis firm Canalys. FedEx is likely using Azure to incrementally boost the scale and scope of its data tracking and analytics capabilities, said Matthew Young, a FedEx analyst at financial services firm Morningstar. Young doesnt view the collaboration as a significant competitive boost for FedEx. Rather, he says its part of the evolution of the shipping and supply chain process becoming clearer for customers via better data. Since FedEx wasnt going to go to Amazon for cloud computing services after their split, Microsoft remained the obvious vendor to use, Watson said. Plus, FedEx is already familiar with tapping into Azure and other Microsoft resources. In 2017, FedEx CIO Rob Carter detailed in a blog post for Microsoft that the company used it to build an application for same-day service for retailers. This competitive, last-mile solution extended our business with fewer IT resources required, Carter said. Air Traffic Launch Advisor George Dixon watches tack-off systems from the control tower above the Memphis FedEx super hub on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. Better for Microsoft? Watson sees the team-up benefiting Microsoft more long-term than FedEx. The collaboration wont transform the Memphis logistics giant, Watson said, but it does ensure Microsoft keeps a large customer. The collaboration provides Microsoft with a flood of real-world shipping data it can use to improve its software services, Watson added. Microsoft got all of the benefits, save for FedEx getting good software, he said, adding that FedEx did need to invest more in cloud-based technology and artificial intelligence. The announcement also opens the door for Microsoft to become a larger player in the retail space, which Britain Ladd, chief marketing officer at consultancy Pulse Integration believes Nadella sees as the Holy Grail. FedEx and Microsoft partnering convinces me Im right about Nadellas long-term growth strategy, Ladd, formerly of Amazon, wrote on LinkedIn. In order to be a player in retail, Microsoft must have the ability to fulfill orders. Enter FedEx. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn will become a social media, marketplace and e-commerce platform, and the tech giant will use both virtual reality and voice technology to make a new retail experience, Ladd predicts. Battle with Amazon ahead Future FedEx and Microsoft services will include more integrated ways to shop and faster and more efficient deliveries, per a news release from the two companies. Further details remain scarce, and FedEx declined an interview request on the announcement. FedExs extensive delivery fleet combined with Microsofts ability to capture and analyze data could be a game-changing combination as they roll out these services, according to Singh, although he cautions the two must execute their plans quickly before Amazon debuts any new competing service. They do have some solutions which are innovative in terms of Amazon not having it, Singh said. The key is how fast or scalable that solution is and how easy it is for customers to use Amazon can execute once they have an idea that is something they are good at. Max Garland covers FedEx, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @MaxGarlandTypes. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Is FedEx, Microsoft team-up enough to gain the edge versus Amazon? By PTI PANAJI: Samples of 50 passengers who arrived in Goa by domestic flights have tested negative for coronavirus infection, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Tuesday. Three flights - two from Delhi and one from Bengaluru - ferried 91 passengers to Goa on Monday, the first day of resumption of domestic air services. After their arrival, samples of 50 passengers were tested and results of all of them came out negative, the minister said. The remaining 41 passengers were home quarantined and their health was being monitored by authorities, he said. The standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the Goa government lays down that arriving passengers need to have a COVID-19 negative certificate from an ICMR-accredited lab, or must pay Rs 2,000 for testing or spend 14 days in-home quarantine. "Those travellers who are carrying COVID-19 negative certificate from ICMR-approved labs would be exempted from checking at the state border. Others will have to get themselves tested for COVID-19 by paying Rs 2,000. Those who don't want to be tested will have to stay in home quarantine for 14 days," Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Sunday. He said this SOP will be applicable to all those coming to Goa by flights, trains, road or water routes. Meanwhile, Rane said two out of the 48 COVID-19 patients, who were undergoing treatment at a hospital in the state, have been discharged after recovery. Both the patients have been shifted to a quarantine facility where their health will be monitored for 14 days. With this, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the coastal state is now 46, Rane said. Goas COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases- 67, deaths-nil, discharged-21, active cases 46. Two organizations have donated 10 ventilators to support governments fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic. The companies include Peewood Limited and Tema Bonded Terminal. Presenting the medical equipment to government in Accra on Tuesday at a Press Briefing by the Information Ministry, a representative of the two organizations, Mr. Adu Arthur said the donation was part of their contribution to support the efforts of the Government of Ghana in the handling and management of the pandemic in the country. He said the ventilators have the same specifications as those being ordered by the Ministry of Health. Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo who received the items on behalf of government praised the two companies for their support and urged corporate Ghana to continue to assist the state in fighting the pandemic. He appealed to the general public to cooperate with health officials in observing the preventive etiquettes especially wearing masks and social distancing. The two companies have requested that government distribute the 10 ventilators to the following hospitals and health institutions. 1. GPHA International Maritime Hospital, Tema 2 Ventilators 2. Tema Government Hospital, Tema 1 Ventilator 3. Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital 2 Ventilators 4. South Suntreso Government Hospital 1 Ventilator 5. Sunyani Regional Hospital 1 Ventilator 6. Ho Teaching Hospital 1 Ventilator 7. Oda Government Hospital 1 Ventilator 8. Yilo Krobo Municipal Health Directorate 1 Ventilator Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Peterborough County OPP investigators have charged a former employee with forging prescriptions at area pharmacies. Police began a probe Feb. 19 and investigated at drug stores in Peterborough County and in the City of Kawartha Lakes. A suspect was arrested Sunday. Jaime Flannigan, 40, of Selwyn Township was arrested and charged with nine counts of using, acting and dealing on forged documents, possession of a schedule I substance (opioids), forgery and failing to comply with a probation order. Flannigan appears in Peterborough court July 28. Married At First Sight star Jules Robinson has been documenting her pregnancy journey on social media. On Tuesday, the mother-to-be, 37, shared a precious ultrasound photo that left her convinced she's expecting a son. The shape of the child's head and upper body was visible in the image, which she posted on her Instagram story. 'It's such a good looking baby!' Married At First Sight's Jules Robinson shared an ultrasound of her unborn child that has her 'convinced' she's having a son Jules, who is married to Married At First Sight co-star Cameron Merchant, 36, also shared a video of her ultrasound appointment to her secondary Instagram account last week. Oh, that's cute,' she said, 'Little baby. It's such a good looking baby!' she replied to the ultrasound technician in a video on the account. 'We are not finding out the sex of our baby cub, everything is so instant in life and this is one of the rare 100% surprises in life!!' she noted in the caption. 'But I'm convinced most see the scan and think it's a boy! It's just so dark and masculine looking.' Special moment: She also shared a video of her ultrasound appointment technician, noting in the caption that she would not be finding out the gender of her child before birth 'But I'm convinced': Jules, who is married to Cameron Merchant, 36 (pictured together) conceded however that 'most see the scan and think it's a boy!' Jules noted the scan of her bump was taken at 13 weeks. Jules and Cameron, who met on Married At First Sight in September 2018 and legally wed a year later in November 2019, revealed their pregnancy news last month. Just the beginning: Jules noted the scan of her bump was taken at 13 weeks However, it was a bittersweet announcement because the pair will be welcoming a child in the midst of a global pandemic. Jules found out she was pregnant in January. 'I've had my moments - times of sadness, fear, despair and tears, fuelled by hormones. We're all in this together, though. It has to be okay,' she told Stellar magazine at the time. More cash is needed to help small businesses in Northern Ireland deal with the coronavirus pandemic, council chiefs said (Liam McBurney/PA) More cash is needed to help small businesses in Northern Ireland deal with the coronavirus pandemic, council chiefs have said. Support should be broader than just the clients of Government jobs creation agency Invest NI, a group of councils told a Stormont committee on Tuesday. An extra 20 million was recently allocated by the Communities Department to help local authorities support those in need and provide essential services. A reminder that we are reopening our car parks at our parks from tomorrow (Wed), and are putting the necessary arrangements and signage in place to assist with social distancing. Please remember that social distancing is still vital! #staysafeBelfast https://t.co/tg5A6Zi08H pic.twitter.com/ptGXKnUCju Belfast City Council (@belfastcc) May 26, 2020 Suzanne Wylie, Belfast City Council chief executive, said: There is not sufficient finance to help the small and micro-businesses. Recovery funding packages are being put in place through Invest NI, primarily for their clients, not for the small businesses out there which employ so many of our population. She said a funding package needed to be put in place for towns and villages to help reskilling and invest in digital infrastructure for the future recovery. She said councils were facing significantly reduced incomes and acknowledged the Communities Department had announced its multi-million pound package of support. Businesses have also enjoyed special support grants and rates relief as well as the UK-wide furloughing scheme. Representatives from the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE NI) gave evidence to Stormonts Economy Committee on Tuesday morning. They said councils have been at the forefront of providing small business support during the coronavirus crisis. Stephen Moutray, from NILGA, said councils only hold 5% of the public purse yet will be on the front line of the economic rebuild. Economic development teams across the country are responding quickly to business needs and concerns, but their resources and capacity are stretched. The coronavirus presents a serious danger to local businesses and the vitality of towns and villages across Northern Ireland. Government interventions like offering rates relief to most businesses for 12 months, amending and extending the furlough scheme for a longer period and widening the self-employment support scheme would be enhanced measures to protect our local economies. Scholarships were recently awarded to two Stafford MSD students through fundraising efforts organized by former district communications coordinator Michael Sudhalter and his wife, Whitney. The Evangeline Paige Sudhalter Memorial Scholarships were presented in partnership with the Stafford MSD Education Foundation to two graduating Stafford High School students who plan to study medicine or counseling in college. Sudhalter said he and his wife were inspired to start a scholarship program to honor the memory of their daughter. In November of 2015, doctors told Whitney and I the heart-wrenching news that our daughter did not have a heartbeat at 23 weeks, Sudhalter said. The following days, weeks and months were very difficult for us emotionally and we spent a great deal of time thinking of ways to honor our daughter in a way that would provide hope to other people. Sudhalter, who served who served as editor of a community newspaper at the time at the time, said he and his wife eventually decided to start a scholarship program as a way to memorialize their daughter. Earlier this year, the Sudhalters officially launched the Evangeline Paige Sudhalter Memorial Scholarship program in partnership with the Stafford MSD Education Foundation to recognize two Stafford High School seniors planning to study medicine or counseling in college. Nothing can bring back our daughter, but we find comfort in the fact that two Stafford High School seniors will be awarded these scholarships in honor of her memory, Sudhalter said Stafford High School senior Co-Salutatorian Kylie Bui and Stafford High senior Destiny Ugo were recently recognized as the inaugural recipients of individual $500 scholarships awards, Sudhalter said. We have no doubt that both students will excel academically, honor Evies memory and continue to make the world a better place, Sudhalter said. He and his wife currently live in the greater Dallas area. Our only regret is that we will not have the opportunity to present the scholarships to them at the annual SMSD Education Foundation Scholarship Reception. Both scholarship recipients are planning to pursue careers in the medical field. Bui will begin college at the University of Texas, and Ugo, at Houston Community College. Honoring Evangeline Paige Sudhalter, as well as living through this global pandemic, sheds ample light on the growing importance of science within our lives- especially in regards to medicine, Bui said. The work and progression done by all healthcare officials shows the true unity and compassion each one of us hold for human life. With the opportunity of receiving the Evangeline Paige Sudhalter Memorial Scholarship, I will reach towards my higher purpose of aiding those around me by becoming a physician. The Sudhalters voiced their appreciation to the Stafford MSD community and the SMSD Education Foundation Board for supporting scholarship fundraising efforts, which were organized in large part via social media. For information about the scholarship fund or to make a donation, visit www.facebook.com/EvieScholarship. knix@hcnonline.com Canadian autoworkers at Ford, Fiat-Chrysler and General Motors began a partial return to work last week after a two month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Toyota and Honda workers had returned the week before. The back-to-work drive in Canadas auto industry is being spearheaded by hard-right Ontario Premier Doug Ford in concert with the auto corporations, the financial oligarchy and, in the case of the Detroit Three companies, the Unifor union. The back-to-work drive, which is forcing thousands of autoworkers to congregate in large plants with inadequate safety protections, has been imposed in open defiance of the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other medical experts. Auto assembly and auto parts production were classified by the Ford government as essential services from the outset of the provinces COVID-19 lockdown, meaning that they have been free to operate. If the auto sector was shut down since mid-March, it was only because North American autoworkers took matters into their own hands, staging job actions to protest unsafe working conditions at the Fiat-Chrysler assembly plant in Windsor and various Detroit Three plants in the US. Subsequent labour stoppages by highly-exploited maquiladora workers in the network of auto parts plants in northern Mexico further complicated auto assembly production, forcing the automakers to grudgingly announce a shutdown. Almost immediately after the plants were closed, Unifor and the United Auto Workers in the United States set about working hand-in-glove with the automakers to quickly reopen them. In Ontario, Unifor drafted a series of safety regulations in cooperation with the Detroit Three and the Ford governments Ministry of Labour. Plexiglas has been installed in some plants and ventilation adjusted. Workers at some Ford Canada plants are reportedly wearing armbands that vibrate when they come too close together. Masks and gloves are also mandatory under the regulations. Some workers have pointed out that this provision will be impossible to observe in the plants as the weather heats up. The reality is that these measures are totally inadequate. As they have done at their facilities in the United States, the Detroit Three have refused point blank to regularly test their workers for the coronavirus. Instead, temperature checks are being carried out as part of a so-called screening process when workers arrive, which leaves asymptomatic cases undetected. Experts believe that asymptomatic carriers of the virus could account for about half of all transmissions. Within hours of the reopening of auto plants in the United States last week, several autoworkers tested positive for the virus. By weeks end, just as in March, work stoppages began again as more workplace infections were announced. The total disregard for the well-being of autoworkers on the part of corporate management and the union bureaucracy alike flows from the fact that they view the coronavirus as a challenge to the Detroit Threes profit-making operations, not a health problem. They know full well that workers will get infected, but this is seen as just one of the costs of doing business. As Kristen Dziczek, vice president for industry, labour and economics at the Centre for Automotive Research, a key industry think tank that advised automakers on reopening, put it recently, The supply chain is everywhere, so if theres a disease outbreak or surge in an area, thats going to cripple manufacturing elsewhere. I think were going to see hotspots keep popping up and thats going to be one of the disruption factors in automotive production. In other words, hundreds or even thousands of autoworkers in Canada will get infected over the coming months, leading to a mounting toll of deaths among them and their families. The right-wing Ford government stands fully behind this reckless agenda. Even as autoworkers began returning to the plants, Ford acknowledged that basic public health measures that are essential to safeguarding working people, including mass testing for the virus and contact tracing, remain mere aspirational goals. We want to go into areas of the automotive sector and start testing people in [the] automotive sector right across the province, said Ford, himself a multi-millionaire business-owner who until recently boasted about his admiration for Donald Trump. Fords claim to be concerned about the lack of systematic COVID-19 testing among auto workers is so much hot air. Last month, he blustered about how Ontario would be conducting 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day by the end of April. Last week, the number of tests carried out across the province fell well below 10,000 on two days, and barely surpassed 10,000 per day during the rest of the week. Medical experts are warning that the lack of testing means authorities have little idea about where the virus is spreading. The opening up of auto plants and the rest of the economy is being done under conditions where hundreds of new coronavirus cases are being reported across the province each day. Ontario reported 460 new cases Sunday, and 25 deaths. Infections have been trending upwards over the past week and total COVID-19 deaths in Ontario have now surpassed 2,100. The forcing of thousands of workers back into the plants under these conditions could not have been carried out without Unifors full support. Unifor President Jerry Dias admitted to reporters that whilst workers were nervous about returning to the plants, he believed that safety is the number one priority. We havent heard this big outcry saying Dont do it, its too early. We havent heard any of that. If the Unifor president hasnt heard an outcry it is because his ear is turned, as always, to the demands emanating from the corporate boardrooms and not the legitimate concerns of the workers he purports to represent. In response to the restart plans, workers have expressed their outrage on social media. Refuse to work, Its still unsafe, Union leaders, management and government all in bed together, They care about their profits, not our lives, Dont gothese are just a few of the hundreds of comments from autoworkers. Auto executives and industry analysts have responded to a dramatic plunge in auto sales in both March and April by calling into question the viability of current levels of Canadian auto assembly. With contracts at the Detroit Threes Canadian operations set to expire in September, Unifor will soon be heading into contract negotiations with the auto bosses. Already, the threat of further layoffs, company demands for further wage and benefit concessions to make up for plunging profits and the possibility of plant closures loom large for Canadian autoworkers. In addition to the collapse of auto sales, the new Canada, US, Mexico trade agreement is scheduled to take effect July 1. Changes to supply chain rules and regulations will combine with ongoing auto parts shortfalls produced by disruptions in the parts sector from work stoppages and other production impacts stemming from the pandemic. Responding like a corporate manager, Dias has rushed to assure the automakers that Unifor will not consider strike action under these conditions, and to try to cover over the fact that the auto bosses, as always, will respond to profit shortfalls by demanding a pound of flesh from workers. If after months and months and months of reduced volume based on the pandemic things are starting to get back to a resemblance of where they were pre-crisis, no one is going to want a disruption, Dias told Automotive News Canada. And I mean nobody; both the workers and the automakers. These remarks underscore that in their struggle to secure safe-working conditions amid the pandemic, and to defend their jobs and working conditions in the face of the auto bosses demands for sacrifices to guarantee corporate profits, workers confront a mortal enemy in Unifor. Workers must oppose the drive to push them back into the plants without proper and regular testing and contact-tracing protocols. Rank-and-file health committees must be formed, independent of and in opposition to the pro-company Unifor apparatus. These committees must ensure that safe production is overseen by workers and medical experts, who must be on hand in every plant. Through these committees workers should also prepare to answer the coming assault on their jobs and living standards by reaching out to and uniting their struggles with those of their class brothers and sisters in auto plants in the United States and Mexico. All this must be linked to the fight for the Detroit Three and other automakers and parts plants to be transformed into publicly-owned utilities under workers control, so that their production can be organized to fulfill social needs, rather than enriching investors. The author also recommends: Auto companies continue opposition to mass testing as COVID-19 spreads in factories [23 May 2020] GM workers in Mexico call for an international struggle to keep plants closed during the pandemic [11 May 2020] Ontario Toyota worker describes company inaction in the face of coronavirus pandemic [20 March 2020] British scientists have developed a coronavirus inhaler designed to help patients fight off the disease as soon as symptoms start to show. In a trial launched today, researchers at University Hospital Southampton will send inhalers to 120 virus victims to use at home. The researchers hope the technology which uses an experimental drug that boosts the immune system will stop people entering the drastic deterioration phase of the illness. This is when patients develop breathing problems and are rushed to hospital. In the trial, patients will be assessed and tested within 72 hours of developing symptoms and sent the inhaler straight away to tackle the virus. British scientists have developed a coronavirus inhaler Aerogen Ultra (Southampton University) If the inhaler works Synairgen, the Southampton-based firm behind the drug, hope to be producing millions of doses by the end of the year. At the moment there is no at-home treatment for Covid-19 and anyone who shows symptoms or tests positive for the virus is told to self-isolate. The inhaler which uses a drug code named SNG001 could make a difference by allowing sufferers the ability to treat themselves rather than just hope for the best. The team have almost completed a trial involving 100 hospital patients, with results due in July. But the new test which helps people at home is where the treatment could make the biggest difference. Study leader Professor Nick Francis said: 'We are in need of a treatment for Covid-19 that can be given to patients early in the course of the illness in order to prevent progression to severe symptoms.' The patients who have a severe case of Covid-19 tend to develop serious symptoms such as breathing problems and pneumonia in the second week after contracting the virus. Richard Marsden, head of Synairgen, said: 'We can stop people from having that bad second week. SNG001 contains a protein called interferon beta, which our bodies produce when we get a viral infection (stock image of an inhaler) Boris Johnson had that problem it was that second week when he was in hospital. That seems to be the pattern it's about day ten when people are getting into big trouble. They move from flu-like symptoms to being extremely breathless and having pneumonia.' SNG001 contains a protein called interferon beta, which our bodies produce when we get a viral infection. Interferon beta is already used as an injection to boost the immune response of people with multiple sclerosis. But if the drug is inhaled via a handheld nebuliser a device to turn it into a fine mist it can be delivered directly to the lungs where it can help fight Covid-19. And from today, the trial will enable par - ticipants to use the nebuliser in their own home to hopefully treat the virus. The sample includes over-65s or those aged 50 and over with underlying health conditions who live within 40 miles of Southampton. The patients with symptoms will be assessed via video call and sent a coronavirus test, which will then be returned to a lab at the hospital. Patients with a positive sample will then be sent a treatment box containing the nebuliser as well as a pulse oximeter, to measure oxygen saturation, and a thermometer to record their vital signs. Participants will take a puff of the nebuliser once a day for 14 days, at which point they will be assessed via video link. Doctors will carry out another call after 14 days to ensure there is no relapse. If the trial is successful, it will be up to drug regulators to decide whether a licence can be issued or further research is needed. The researchers hope a strong result will allow the treatment to be rolled out immediately. Mr Marsden said: 'We are aiming to be in a position to provide millions of doses later this year.' The global death toll from the coronavirus is almost 350,000 with more than 5.4 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the new respiratory illness. Here's a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL's broadcast regions. Russia Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) -- Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan -- should beef up their capacity to repel biosecurity threats such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Speaking after an online conference with his CSTO counterparts on May 26, Lavrov said the five countries had agreed to develop further mutual assistance in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak that "fully reflects the principled and consistent position of our organization. Lavrov also said that Russia and other CSTO members will react "without hysteria" to a recent U.S. decision to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty because of what it says are violations of the agreement by Russia. "Our approach to the situation will be very balanced and we will analyze it, relying primarily on our national interests and on the interests of our allies, including first of all the Republic of Belarus, which, within the framework of this agreement, together with us forms one group of countries," Lavrov said. Washington said it was withdrawing from the Open Skies agreement because of violations by Russia, mainly blocking the United States from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad and near Georgia, which are permitted by the agreement. The treaty aims to increase international stability by allowing the 35 signatories to conduct surveillance flights over one another's territories to observe military installations and other objects. Lavrov also said the issue of border problems between two CSTO member states, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, was also discussed at the conference. Russia is "ready to provide mediator services to the two countries," Lavrov said, calling on Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to avoid using force in solving the border-related problems. Some border sections between former Soviet republics in Central Asia have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The latest incident along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border took place on May 24, when border guards opened fire. Dushanbe and Bishkek accused each other of escalating the tensions. Georgia Georgia has marked its Independence Day without public events due to restrictive measures imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia marked the day when the Act of Independence was adopted in 1918 by the First Democratic Republic of Georgia by visiting the Vaziani military base near Tbilisi, where he congratulated all the citizens of the South Caucasus nation, including residents of two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "Today we are all combating a global pandemic together. We all must remember the contribution that the Georgian Army, together with all our citizens, made to the successful management of the pandemic. Now, Georgia can say that we were able to localize the risk and manage the situation effectively," Gakharia said. The First Democratic Republic of Georgia ended after communist forces took over the country in February 1921. Georgia regained its independence after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. With reporting by RFE/RL's Georgian Service, TASS, and Interfax Yenifer Alvarado Portillo liked doing homework. School, the 5-year-old said, made her feel good. But ever since Arlington Public Schools shuttered, kindergarten has become a cause for tears. While other kids find their assignments online, Yenifer's teacher has to relay them by phone. Even then, she can't complete most it because her family's Northern Virginia home lacks Internet. She and her mother, Maria Silvia Portillo, huddle by the hotspot on Maria's Galaxy cellphone. But the signal is just too weak. "My friends can do their work," Yenifer said. "It makes me sad." It's a predicament facing millions of families around the country - roughly 162 million people, by one estimate - with no end in sight, as the virus seems likely to disrupt school again next academic year. In Virginia, as in other states, school officials are racing to reach families like the Portillos, publicizing discounted offers from Internet providers, extending school WiFi into parking lots and distributing hotspot devices. And Internet access is becoming more vital every day, as parents must head online to fill basic needs such as job hunting and doctor's appointments. But school solutions are limited and makeshift, officials acknowledge, unlikely to serve in the long term. And schools trying to do more face a major hurdle: long-standing laws that effectively bar county governments and public school systems from providing Internet directly to families. Although these laws exist in dozens of states, they are especially harsh in Virginia. "Schools are taking on the onus to solve a society-wide problem with almost no resources," said Sascha Meinrath, a professor in telecommunications at Penn State University. "It's necessary, but it is entirely insufficient to address the need." As the pandemic stretches into its third month, some lawmakers, school staffers and advocates in the state are clamoring for change: They want to revise or repeal the laws and replace them with regulations that treat Internet access as a public utility. "We need to make sure our citizens have access to something that, at this point, is as essential as electricity," said Katie Cristol, an Arlington County Board member who supports the idea of new legislation. Opponents, however, assert the existing laws protect business from needless government interference and guard against the waste of taxpayer dollars. Del. C. E. Cliff Hayes Jr., D-Chesapeake, who chairs Virginia's communications, technology and innovation committee, said he is expecting a slew of proposed changes, and a pitched battle, during the next legislative session in January. He plans to spend the intervening months exploring every inch of Virginia law around broadband, hunting for ways it could be tweaked to expand access. "I can think of an era when the Internet was a luxury, a nicety, something neat to have," Hayes said, "but now it has become a necessity." "This," he added, "may be the civil rights issue of our time." - - - The pandemic is bringing to the boiling point a long-simmering dispute on whether Internet access should be offered and regulated by the government. Internet is currently provided to most Americans by one or two private companies at a time, Meinrath said. He traces the state of affairs to a seminal 2005 Supreme Court ruling that limited competition in Internet services. Buoyed by that success, Meinrath said, large companies led a lobbying campaign over the past decade that saw roughly 20 states pass laws edging municipalities out of the Internet provision arena. "The effect is very clear," said Meinrath, who co-founded Measurement Lab, an international consortium of Internet researchers and scientists that tracks broadband speed worldwide. "Data show that states that pass these laws have worse service, at more expensive prices, in fewer locations." Virginia - along with Wisconsin and Alabama - claims the most rigorous restrictions against municipal Internet provision, according to Broadband Now, a data aggregation company. By that site's estimate, roughly 83 percent of Virginians had Internet connectivity - defined by the Federal Communications Commission as sufficient streaming power to conduct one high-definition Zoom call at a time, Meinrath said - as of March 2020. Broadband Now ranked Virginia 15th in the nation for Internet coverage. Although Virginia law technically permits local governments to offer broadband to residents, it places a minefield of regulations in the way. It forbids municipalities from pricing their services lower than established companies. It bars them from subsidizing their rates. It forces them to clear bureaucratic and procedural hurdles companies don't face. And if a county government wants to offer voice, video and data services, the law requires that officials prove they can turn a profit within the first year of operation, an extremely difficult feat even for a private provider. Last year, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed a new law giving municipalities the power to employ independent providers to build networks reaching communities in need of Internet. But the law only affects areas where less than 10 percent of residents have access to broadband. Jonathon Hauenschild, who directs a task force focused on technology and communications for American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), said laws like Virginia's lead to better service by freeing companies from the fetters of big government, enabling the healthy competition that characterizes a thriving market. ALEC, which draws much of its funding from large corporations, has a long and successful track record of advancing conservative bills in state legislatures. "We also need to ensure a level playing field," he said, "so that a municipality can't build a network and freeze out all competitors." A 2020 study conducted by Broadband Now, however, found that states without legislative roadblocks to municipal broadband tend to have lower-priced Internet services on average, and that those services are available to more people than in states with barriers. And amid the pandemic, Hauenschild's line of thinking is less convincing to some lawmakers, including in Arlington County. Roughly 10 percent of the county's 230,000 residents lack a home Internet connection, said Cristol, the county board member. The virus has converted this digital divide, long a source of inequity, into an emergency, she said. What is especially infuriating, Cristol said, is that Arlington could easily offer Internet to some its most vulnerable residents. The county in 2015 spent $4.1 million to install a 10-mile fiber network that runs throughout the county, including near areas that are low-income and lack broadband. "It can provide high-speed Internet to anyone who connects to it," Cristol said. "But - and this is the crux - Virginia law says we are not allowed to let individual consumers connect to that network." Efforts to get that law changed, pursued over the last few years, fell on deaf ears, Cristol said. Proposals foundered as recently as Virginia's last legislative session. But the pandemic, Cristol believes, could finally force change - across the nation. "It has to," she said. "As a society, we can't avoid the truth that people are being left behind because they do not have home Internet." - - - As life shifts online, Arlington Public Schools is one of thousands of school systems suddenly forced to play Internet provider. Its frantic activity over the past few months, and the shortcomings of those efforts, mirror struggles taking place nationwide. The division began making preparations to offer families makeshift Internet access a few days before Northam ordered schools closed, said Rajesh Adusumilli, assistant superintendent for information services. The district, which serves 28,000 students, was better prepared than some: Students in third through eighth grade receive iPads, and high-schoolers get MacBook Air laptops. With devices largely taken care of, Arlington's technology team focused on assessing Internet access. By analyzing activity on student devices in early March, Arlington officials identified roughly 1,000 households without connectivity, Adusumilli said. The division also started researching ways it could work around Virginia Internet laws. The first of several options involved publicizing the services of Comcast, which is offering free Internet through June for families who qualify for federally subsidized meals, and at a reduced rate of $10 a month afterward. This is still too pricey for many parents who have lost jobs because of the virus, Adusumilli said, so the school system has partnered with the county to secure a $500,000 grant to help families through the summer. The school is also exendingits WiFi to places such as school parking lots, permitting any member of the public to drive up and connect. But that method has drawbacks, too. For example, Adusumilli said, not all families own cars. The third temporary fix involves MiFis - small, Internet-giving devices that Arlington staffers have delivered to 870 households since schools closed. But they have serious limitations, Adusumilli said. They can support just 90 minutes of high-quality video class per day. This has not been a major problem so far, Adusumilli said, because Arlington is not offering video instruction during the shutdown. But that may change come fall. And families are already using the MiFis for much more than school, he said. Anonymized, aggregate data show "families looking at news sites, county sites, hiring sites," Adusumilli said. "It's clear why: Some of the families we provided MiFis for, this is their only connection." The school district is doing all it can short of actually providing Internet, as forbidden by law, said Adusumilli, who is eager to see legislative change. While proud of his team's work, he fears the future. There will be no equity in education or life, he said, until every household has high-speed Internet access. And he is haunted by the roughly 5 percent of families, like the Portillo, that the school has been unable to reach. Yenifer Portillo often wonders why she cannot submit essays, listen to audio recordings, or watch pre-recorded school videos like some of her friends do. It''s the same reason the family cannot watch movies online, her mother explains. The same reason Mami cannot access job-hunting sites, although she and her husband are desperate to replace the restaurant work they lost to the pandemic. "We just don't have enough Internet," Maria Silvia Portillo tells her daughter. The 5-year-old nods. But when the kindergarten teacher phones again, with yet another bevy of activities she cannot complete, Yenifer can't help herself. "Mami," she asks, "but why can't I do my homework?" Flash The Iranian authorities on Monday allowed partial reopening of the Muslim Shiite shrines across the country after more than two months of closure over the coronavirus pandemic. During the opening hours between an hour after dawn and an hour before dusk, the worshippers, however, were still not allowed to enter the interior covered spaces where the saints' tombs lie, according to a statement by the health authorities. Social distancing regulations must be obeyed, the statement noted. In most of the shrines, the worshippers were checked for their body temperatures upon entrance and were asked to wear masks, the local media reported. The reopening coincided with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the Muslim festival of breaking the fast at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Along with other holy shrines across the country, Imamzadeh Saleh, an imamzadeh mosque located at Tajrish Square in Tehran's northern Tajrish district, opened early morning on Monday. The courtyard of the shrine had already been disinfected and incoming people were asked by the attendants to use their own prayer mats and books. "Life without spirituality has no meaning. Worship is central to our life," said a middle-aged attendant of the shrine, standing inside the courtyard and instructing the worshippers with health directives. Iran's health authorities announced the closure of all shrines across the country on March 17 as the country was struggling to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Sitting on a stretched prayer mat at a quiet corner of the yard of Imamzadeh Saleh, a young man facing toward the saint's tomb was citing verses from the holy Quran. "Praise God for this moment, on this happy Eid. People should appreciate the change of situation," said the young man, who only identified himself as Matin, a Persian Literature student at Iran's Islamic Azad University. The Iranian health ministry on Monday confirmed a total of 137,724 cases of the COVID-19 in the Islamic republic, including 7,451 deaths. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc addressed the National Assembly last week Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc summitted to the National Assembly (NA) last week that the legislative body consider and enact new incentives and policies to beef up economic recovery and development, besides the current fiscal and monetary measures implemented in favour of the public and business community. Notably, he stressed, it is proposed that the government should consider the issuance of a new economic stimulus package amid the pandemic still raging across the globe. This will help stimulate domestic consumption, spur on production and business, generate more employment, and reduce unemployment, ensuring sufficient resources for preventing and fighting the pandemic and ensuring social security. Also, this will further consolidate the confidence of people and the business community. It is expected that asides from the existing packages worth dozens of billlions of US dollars, in the new economic stimulus package, the NA will provide special fiscal incentives regarding reduction and exemption of many types of taxes, and this fiscal package will also likely be worth billions of US dollars. The new package aims to help the government to effectively implement its dual task of combating the pandemic and developing the economy. Vietnam is quite open to the global economy, so there may be a very high risk of the pandemic resurging. The fight against the pandemic is unprecedented, requiring strong and synchronous measures that can help us cope with it swiftly and flexibly in a timely and effective manner, PM Phuc stated. Do Van Sinh, member of the National Assembly Economic Committee, told VIR that this is the first time he heard about this newly-proposed package, and he said it is quite necessary given enterprises are facing massive difficulties. However, he said, for the package to be realised, it is necessary to have a close look at the existing state budget situation, as revenue is expected to suffer from a reduction of VND70-75 trillion ($3-3.26 billion) this year compared to the initial plan. This figure is calculated based on an expected 4.5 per cent in economic growth this year. In case this rate is not reached, the revenue loss will be bigger, Sinh said. Thus, if another economic stimulus package is enacted, how much will it be, especially given numerous difficulties in the state budget? I think it is necessary to first effectively carry out the existing packages. Chairman of the committee Vu Hong Thanh also told the legislature that it is necessary to effectively expedite economic stimulus packages for further economic development and ensuring social security in an open, transparent manner. NA deputy Truong Minh Hoang, representing the southernmost province of Ca Mau, also told VIR, it is quite necessary to have a new economic stimulus package to further support enterprises. However, before implementing this initiative, it is necessary to consider the existing state budget situation expected to see a big budget deficit this year. Thorough studies must be made to decide on what sectors and who will benefit from the new package, he added. It is urgent now to provide more support to enterprises. Also commenting on the governments proposed new package, Nguyen Minh Cuong, principal country economist from the Asian Development Bank, told VIR that the package is important for both economic relief and recovery. More fiscal measures should be provided to support affected firms and individuals. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has cut rates further to strengthen the liquidity in the economy, and commercial banks have arranged substantial amounts of credit to assist businesses. Now it is time to increase fiscal support, Cuong said. For instance, the existing VND180 trillion ($7.82 billion) package on tax deferrals may need to be extended as five months would not be sufficient for affected firms to recover. As the banks are not able to relax lending standards to accommodate affected firms which may have deteriorating cash flows and balance sheets, the creation of a credit guarantee system from the state budget at the national level may be useful to assist the banks to lend more to these firms, especially small- and medium-sized ones, he continued. Over the past few months, the government has been deploying drastic measures to support businesses. For example, the SBV has been deploying a package worth over VND300 trillion ($13 billion) for enterprises and households in the form of debt payment deferral and preferential loans. The Ministry of Finance has issued a VND180 trillion ($7.82 billion) package to support both people and enterprises. The Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization today held a session through a video call, as reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. The foreign ministers discussed a broad range of issues related to the strengthening of cooperation within the scope of the CSTO, global and regional developments, the challenges of and threats to security, etc. In his speech, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenian Zohrab Mnatsakanyan reaffirmed Armenias commitment to deepening cooperation within the scope of the CSTO to increase effectiveness of synthesis of foreign policies and strengthening the defense component and the mechanisms for countering threats and challenges. Touching upon the challenges facing the international community due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, Minister Mnatsakanyan particularly stated the following: Armenia expresses full solidarity with its allies in the fight against the coronavirus and is ready to work in all directions to overcome the consequences. In this context, Mnatsakanyan attached importance to the adoption of the declaration of the foreign ministers to pay heed to the call of the United Nations Secretary-General for global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic. In this context, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, in spite of the common understanding of the international community that it is necessary to establish global ceasefire and focus on the pandemic and on exerting efforts to overcome the consequences of the pandemic, Armenias neighboring Azerbaijan isnt rejecting its expansionist approaches and belligerent rhetoric. Azerbaijan continues to violate the ceasefire regime, and there is still sabotage on the border, and all this poses a threat to the security of peaceful civilians, he said. In this context, the Armenian foreign minister touched upon the May 18-22 large-scale operative-tactical military exercises that Azerbaijan conducted in violation of international commitments (Vienna document). He also emphasized that such operations, which undermine regional stability and cause serious harm to the peace process, must be properly condemned. The Armenian foreign minister also reaffirmed the commitment of the authorities of Armenia and the newly elected authorities of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. We sharply rule out the use of force or threat of use of force and continue to participate in the peace process constructively, and the potential of this cant be fully realized without the participation of the people of Artsakh and adequate mutual concessions of all the parties, he said. Minister Mnatsakanyan also touched upon the events unfolding in the Middle East, emphasizing the need for the defense of religious and national minorities. At the end of the session, the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers adopted joint declarations On the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, On Support to the Call of the United Nations Secretary-General to Establish Global Ceasefire due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, On Solidarity and Mutual Understanding in the Fight against the Coronavirus and On Establishing Loyalty to the Goals and Principles of the United Nations Charter. Mary-Kate Olsen's legal team wasted little time on Monday in officially filing the paperwork for the designer to divorce her estranged husband Olivier Sarkozy. The documents, a summons and complaint, were filed electronically with Manhattan county clerk, according to the New York Daily News. The socialite, 33, had previously filed an emergency petition April 17 to break up the marriage, but a statewide PAUSE order due to the COVID-19 lockdown kept New York courts closed for all hearings that were not consider to be emergencies or immediately essential. The latest: Mary-Kate Olsen's legal team wasted little time on Monday in officially filing the paperwork for the designer to divorce her estranged husband Olivier Sarkozy The 5ft2 beauty earlier has attempted to put in the paperwork for the split, but a judge denied the request. The legal team for the Los Angeles native, who shot to fame as a young child in the 1980s with her sister Ashley on the show Full House, put in the paperwork on Monday as the city's courts opened up Monday. The designer on May 12 earlier this month sought to prevent the banker, 50, from having her leave their New York City apartment. The ex-couple initially began seeing one another in 2012, and tied the knot in November 2015. Stalwarts: Mary-Kate and sister Ashley were snapped in NYC in 2018 Setback: The 5ft2 beauty earlier has attempted to put in the paperwork for the split, but a judge denied the request Sarkozy has two teenage children from a prior relationship, son Julien, 18, and daughter, Margot, 16. Last week, according to the paper, court officials said that electronic documents would be accepted following the Memorial Day weekend. Olsen is worth an estimated $500 million and has an 'ironclad prenup' and 'business interests and fortune are protected' in the split, insiders told Us earlier this month. YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. On May 25, the Armenian Humanitarian Mission in Syria ceremonially handed over 51000 square meters of de-mined territory to the authorities of the Aleppo Governorate. More than 200 munitions and sub-munitions were discovered and disposed of during the clearing operation, the Armenian Center for Humanitarian De-Mining and Expertise said. Disposed ordnance included anti-tank and anti-personnel landmines, remnants of artillery shells and air bombs, guided munitions and IEDs. The ceremony was attended by Aleppo Vice Governor Ahmed Yasim, Armenias Consul General Armen Sargsyan, the command of the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria deployed in Aleppo and others. Vice Governor Yasim highlighted the de-mining work and express hope that the process will contribute to the return of Aleppo residents to their settlements. The Syrian side thanked the Armenian mission for the life-saving support, noting that it is a historic day which is once again affirming the centuries old friendship between the two peoples. A total of 142,000 square meters of territory was cleared by the Armenian specialists since they were deployed in Aleppo. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan By P.J. Huffstutter and Rod Nickel CHICAGO/WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Inside the small-scale Iowa abattoir Stanhope Locker and Market, owner Shaunna Zanker yawns with exhaustion as she listens to yet another farmer asking her to slaughter his pigs. "I'm so sorry, but we're booked through March of next year," Zanker said on the phone. "How about next June?" Slaughter operations like Zanker's are booming as novel coronavirus outbreaks at major U.S. and Canadian meat plants force farmers and meat-loving consumers to seek out alternatives to a crucial supply-chain link. Since 1946, this Stanhope, Iowa, shop one of 1,500 independent American slaughterhouses - has processed a few farm animals from local farms each week and sold cuts of beef and pork to the public. Now the family-owned business and others like it are overwhelmed and are forced to turn away farmers. Large meat plants across the United States and Canada are closed or running at reduced capacity. The result: not enough places to slaughter hundreds of thousands of cattle and pigs, and store shelves with little or no meat in major exporting countries that normally have abundant supplies. Small-scale slaughterhouses account for a miniscule part of the market: Around 80% of U.S. beef is produced by four large companies. Some 1% of American hogs or less are processed at small-scale meat lockers, economists say. The consumer rush for meat is straining supplies at TL Keller Meats in Litchfield, Ohio, and forced them for the first time ever to ration sales: Five pounds (2.3 kg) of ground beef per person and two packs of burger patties per family. Owner Tom Keller and his 23 employees are processing as fast as they can. In March, they slaughtered 104 cattle, twice the rate a year earlier. "People are going mad trying to fill their freezers," Keller said after putting in a 13-hour day. PANIC BUYING North of the border, Canada's main cattle-producing province, Alberta, is struggling to deal with reduced production at the country's two main beef plants, owned by Cargill Inc and JBS SA , both in the province. Story continues The farms where cattle are raised to slaughter-ready weight, known as feedlots, are being turned away by the big plants, which have a backlog of cattle. So some are calling Marc Lustenberger, owner of the Meat Chop abattoir near Penhold, Alberta, who already has a brisk business cutting meat for farmers to sell directly to consumers. There's lots of panic buying," Lustenberger said. "Looks like it's not going to stop anytime soon." In March and April, Alberta's Red Deer Lake Meats slaughtered twice as many pigs and cattle as it normally does. The provincial agriculture department called Red Deer butcher Darrel Barrett to ask him to pick up some of the slack from the two-week closure of Cargill's plant. "Which is absurd, with Cargill slaughtering 4,500 head a day," Barrett said. "We're lucky if we do 20 a week." Like other Alberta butchers, Barrett is also busy cutting meat for farms that are suddenly doing booming sales directly to consumers. One customer, rancher Ben Campbell of Black Diamond, Alberta, pre-sold 10,800 pounds (4,900 kg) of grass-fed beef in two months, one-third more than he sold all of last year. Small ranchers like Tim Hoven, who runs an organic beef farm near Eckville, Alberta, have years-long relationships with small butchers that are now seeing massive demand. Neighbors, used to delivering to the big plants, are left with cattle that have nowhere to go. "They're in a tough spot because they're small and they're at the bottom of the list to get that kill spot at these big plants," said Hoven, whose meat sales have tripled. "They can't get that spot at the small plants" either. 'NEW WAY TO BUY FOOD' At Uniontown, Alabama-based BDA Farm, sales have jumped more than 800% in two months, said partner Allen Williams. "Initially it was panic buying, but it has gone far beyond that now," Williams said. "They're discovering an entirely new way to buy food and they're discovering it's pretty dad-gum convenient." "We're selling out of absolutely everything, every single week. But we're running into a choke point - we can't get it all processed." Back in Iowa, Zanker hangs up the phone. It's the 10th farmer to call that day. Next, a woman calls asking if Stanhope Locker and Market has meat for sale. They do. The woman lives two hours away. Others have driven further, Zanker said. "I had one person call, telling me they had gotten a hog for free," Zanker said. "I told them, 'There's nowhere to take them. Congratulations, you now have a pet.'" (Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago and Dane Rhys in Litchfield, Ohio; editing by Caroline Stauffer and Jonathan Oatis) WASHINGTON - Sen. Marco Rubio, the new Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is warning that foreign actors will seek to amplify conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and find new ways to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. The Florida Republican said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that one possibility could be an effort to convince people that a new vaccine against the virus, once created, would be more harmful than helpful. I think the COVID-19 crisis is one in which youve seen efforts to promote false narratives that drive some of the friction in this country, Rubio said. Four years after Russian efforts to sow division in the U.S., he warned: Im not sure that were any less vulnerable than we once were. The new intelligence post comes as Rubio has risen to greater prominence in the Senate since his turbulent 2016, when he lost the Republican primary to Donald Trump and then decided to run for reelection after originally saying he would retire. He was tapped as chairman last week when Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina decided to temporarily step aside amid a federal investigation into his stock sales. As Rubio considers whether to run for president again thats a question he says I need to answer in the future he is now working two crucial jobs, at intelligence and also as the chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, which is trying to resuscitate the spiraling economy. For the senator, who arrived in Washington on the 2010 tea party wave, the dual gavels offer a prime platform for his populist economic outlook, particularly his early warnings on China, that are now mainstays of the GOP and on point with Trumps appeal to Americans who feel left behind by the global economy. I do think theres going to be a broader conversation, Rubio said about supply chains and domestic manufacturing, thats going to have to be part of the new 21st-century economy post-pandemic. Now privy to the highest level classified briefings as chairman, Rubio says he cant talk about specific influence operations because obviously some of that is ongoing. But he believes the Russian efforts so far have succeeded far beyond Putins wildest dreams. By tapping into polarized politics and fanning conspiracy theories, he said, Russia and other foreign actors are like lighting a match. He also points to Chinas efforts to deflect its own role in the crisis. The goal is to keep you so divided and fighting with each other that you become dysfunctional and unable to respond to the threat, he said. Rubio is taking over the chairmanship just as the committee wraps up a three-year investigation into the Russian interference. The panel has publicly released its endorsement of a 2017 assessment by intelligence agencies that Russia interfered and favoured Trump, a conclusion that Trump has disputed. It has also laid out Russias disinformation efforts in detail. He indicated that the final report, which is undergoing a declassification process, will say there is no evidence of co-ordination between Trumps campaign and Russia. I think our report will be one of now several inquiries or investigative efforts that have led to the same conclusion, Rubio said. The House Intelligence Committee similarly said so in a 2018 report, and special counsel Robert Mueller identified substantial contacts between Trump associates and Russia but found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Like most of his Republican colleagues, Rubio has been loath to condemn the president and is unlikely to be a foil, even as Trump has made clear his distaste and distrust for the nations intelligence agencies. Rubio is also less likely to cross the president than Burr, who has been generally supportive of Trump but angered many in his own party during the Russia probe when he called Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to testify privately a second time. Rubio has shown little interest in criticizing Trumps response to the coronavirus, including his refusal to wear a mask in public. I would prefer the president wear a mask for his own good. I dont want to see the president be infected, Rubio said. But ultimately, in the order of priorities, I think whats more important is that we develop an antiviral, that we develop rapid testing, that our health care systems never become overwhelmed, that we have the ability to test people. Still, Rubio has had good relationships with members of the intelligence panel and is close to Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat. In a statement, Warner said he believes that Rubio has a very clear eyed view of the threats posed by Russia and China, and the two have worked on a number of issues together over the years. As for his own presidential aspirations, Rubio says it would be silly for him to say that hed never be interested in running again, since hes already run once. Ive learned in the last few years that you can be prepared for the future, but you cant necessarily know exactly whats going to be before you down the road, he said. Thats a choice Ill make when the time comes to make it. For now, he says his second term is much more rewarding than his first term, part of which he spent in the minority and all of which was under a Democratic president. It is rare for a senator to lead two committees, as he is doing. I simply didnt have the ability to influence policy the way I now do, Rubio said. And so it just makes the work more fulfilling, makes it more important. And it makes my second term a lot more fun than my first. New Delhi, May 26 : AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal on Tuesday moved a Delhi court seeking bail in connection with a case of alleged suicide of a doctor in the national capital last month. A 52-year-old doctor residing in Durga Vihar in south Delhi had allegedly committed suicide on April 18. In his suicide note, the doctor held the legislator responsible for taking the extreme step. In the bail plea, Jarwal, who represents the Deoli assembly constituency, claimed that the allegations against him are completely false, fabricated and that he had no role in the suicide of the deceased. He added that as a public representative, he is equally pained by the death of the person. Jarwal was arrested on May 9 after a case of extortion and abetment to suicide was filed against him pursuant to a police complaint by the doctor's son. The victim and accused were involved in the business of water supply with the Delhi Jal Board. The Delhi Police alleged that the legislator and his associates were extorting money from other water-tanker owners, including the doctor. The police said during the investigation, a big nexus was found between water-tanker owners and Jarwal. A fire in a slum in South Delhis Tughlaqabad in the early hours of Tuesday destroyed at least 250 homes. Social distancing norms, in place to control the spread of Covid-19, were ignored as the tragedy left many with just the clothes on their backs. Authorities said there were no casualties in the fire and that it was likely caused by a short-circuit. According to Atul Garg, chief fire officer (Delhi Fire Services), the fire broke out around 12.45am in Tughlaqabad village . The department deployed 28 fire tenders that took four hours to douse the flame and another two hours to finish the cooling operation. The operation was difficult because the slum is on a hilly terrain, the area is poorly lit and the materials with which the homes were constructed were highly inflammable, said Garg, adding that there was no real threat of his men contacting Covid-19 as they didnt have to rescue the residents who had escaped by then. The impact of the blaze was such that exploding cylinders flew across a wide road, affecting a smaller cluster of jhuggis on the other side. RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police (south-east), said: We are yet to ascertain the trigger for the blaze, but we suspect it was due to short-circuit. We are registering a case. Rinku Mandal, a scrap dealer, said that dense smoke woke her up. I had withdrawn all my savings of 16,000 when the lockdown began. While trying to save my three children from the fire, I forgot about the notes, she said, holding a plate of yellow rice in her hands. There were many like Mandal and even more like Ram Phal, a restaurant employee who lost 35 kg of rice and wheat. Many of us had hoarded food to keep us going during the lockdown, he said. His family now took shelter under a cloth supported by four sticks. Many wished they had returned to their home villages after the lockdown was imposed from March 25 to control the spread of Covid-19. I stayed back in the hope that the lockdown would be lifted. I returned to work as a domestic help just a week ago, but now I am back to where I was when I moved to Delhi four years ago, said Aklima Khatoon, a 45-year-old woman. People from the neighbourhood came out to provide relief. Mazhar Alam, a teacher, and his friends collected 6,000 from the neighbourhood colonies to prepare food and buy water. Kakoli Das, a domestic help, collected used clothes to distribute to the slum dwellers. We tried to practice social distancing all this while, but now it may not be possible anymore, said Parvez Ali, an e-rickshaw driver who allowed a family of four to move in to his home. A few unaffected homes that were unoccupied -- their owners had returned to their home towns and villages during the lockdown -- were quickly occupied by those affected. By early afternoon, the government began setting up tents to serve as a temporary solution. We are trying to ensure social distancing. Well provide them space and meals till the time they can rebuild their homes, said BL Meena, sub-divisional magistrate of Kalkaji. By late afternoon, the Delhi government announced a financial aid of 25,000 to each affected family. The families will be provided food and accommodation in the nearest government school, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said. A few slum dwellers, meanwhile, tried to salvage whatever they could from the burnt debris. I have collected all the burnt items from my jhuggi. Ill see if I can find the gold ornaments I had purchased for my daughters future, said Sapan, a scrap dealer. No one in his six-member family wore masks. For us, life is no more about coronavirus. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Simon Cheng was tortured by Chinese secret police for two week in 2019 after being labelled an 'enemy of the state' while working at the British consulate in Hong Kong - OLIVIER MARCENY/COPYRIGHT 2019 OLIVIER MARCENY Simon Cheng Man-kit, a former UK consulate worker tortured by Chinese secret police, is urging the British government to give Hong Kong people the opportunity to come to the UK as Beijing imposes a national security law in the territory. The law set to be approved Thursday by Chinas parliament, bypassing Hong Kong's legislature will criminalise separatism, subversion, terrorism and acts of foreign interference, and paves the way for the ruling Communist Party to quash dissent under the guise of national security. Its a disaster I cannot imagine any other scenario worse than this, Mr Cheng told The Telegraph, who fears the torture he endured in China last year over Britains role in Hong Kong, will soon become commonplace. Once they legalise it, then it will become undeniable reality. The UK government has no excuse to turn a blind eye, he said. British authorities should grant asylum to Hong Kong citizens and equalise the rights of British National Overseas holders. British authorities must take care of the Hong Kong people, rather than spouting words [that] are still quite constrained and moderate. Thirteen asylum applications have been filed in the UK by people from Hong Kong, including Mr Chengs, since the start of 2019; a decision on his application is expected next month. During the same time frame, two applications were refused and four were withdrawn, according to government data. Mr Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen, applied for asylum last year after being disappeared by Chinese secret police for more than two weeks, during which he was subjected to physical torture, psychological intimidation, political indoctrination, and repeated interrogations, sometimes by a team of 15 men. Before speaking, he had to seek permission by saying, Report, my master, and was shackled for hours at a time. The nameless men threatened to kidnap him again if he ever revealed his ordeal. Story continues Authorities called him an enemy of the state for working at the British consulate, threatened to charge him with espionage, and demanded he confess the UK government was masterminding protests in Hong Kong as a direct challenge to China. For months, Beijing had accused unspecified foreign black hands for fomenting unrest. The UK government publicly acknowledged Mr Chengs treatment and granted a visa for him to arrive in the UK, after the Telegraph reported details of his detention, while the Chinese government retaliated with a smear campaign against him. Mr Cheng also urged the British government to extend the right to abode to British Nationals Overseas, giving Hong Kong people another option to come to the UK. Introduced near the end of colonial rule, BNO status affords a passport and consular assistance, but no right to live and work in the UK. Its long been a point of contention, especially after Portugal extended citizenship rights before returning its colony of Macau to mainland Chinese rule in 1999. About 315,000 people currently hold BNO passports, though about 3 million people who let their status lapse upon expiry would be eligible to renew. An activist holds up a sign with Mr Cheng's face after his disappearance last August - AFP/AFP Contributor#AFP The UK government has so far resisted calls to grant full citizenship to BNO passport holders, a move that would further aggravate China. But Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, among other MPs, are renewing a push to extend greater rights to BNO holders. Last year, as pro-democracy protests roiled the streets of Hong Kong for months, a petition seeking citizenship for BNO holders received nearly 102,000 signatures. The UK could also implement sanctions against China or raise a debate at the United Nations over whether Beijings actions breach the Sino-British Joint Declaration, an international treaty meant to guarantee Hong Kongs unique way of life until 2047, said Mr Cheng, who now leads the Umbrella Union, an overseas activist group. While that could encourage greater global scrutiny regarding the rise of China, it would be too little, too late to diminish Beijings encroaching influence on the city. Its already the end of one country, two systems, said Mr Cheng, referring to the territorys unique system of governance, aimed at preserving the former British colonys rights and freedoms, unseen in mainland China. China wants to build the world order themselves, rather than comply with the international order. He fears Hong Kong is becoming another Xinjiang or Tibet, two regions in China that have suffered severe crackdowns under what Communist authorities justified as rooting out separatists and terrorists. In Xinjiang, millions of Muslims are being tortured in detention camps, according to Telegraph interviews with former detainees, and Tibet remains sealed. Simon Cheng demonstrates one of the positions security officers made his stand in for hours each day as part of his torture. If his muscles shook, he would be hit with a rod - OLIVIER MARCENY/OLIVIER MARCENY Chinese authorities are paving the road to detain protesters by saying they are terrorists, said Mr Cheng. Then the Communist Party can legitimise and legalise dealing with the protesters with an iron fist and heavy hand. As Hong Kong braces for more clashes, Chinas military has warned ominously that it stood ready to safeguard sovereignty in Hong Kong, Chen Daoxiang, commander of the garrison stationed in the territory told state television. Fear is so pervasive about what life in Hong Kong will be like under the new national security law that providers of virtual private networks, or VPNs, which mask internet traffic, have seen demand spike in recent days. In mainland China, police routinely detain people whose comments online go against the Partys official line a harrowing ordeal that some of Mr Chengs friends have experienced Most recently, thousands of Chinese have been punished by police for online speech about the coronavirus pandemic, even as the government crowed success in curbing the disease. It is not rule of law; it pretends to be rule of law, but it is definitely rule by law, said Mr Cheng. Its an opaque system...the status of the highest court is still lower than the Party apparatus. There is no judicial independence at all. Actor Prithviraj Sukumaran on Tuesday revealed that he had to drop his body fat to dangerously low level in preparation for his character in upcoming Malayalam drama Aadujeevitham. In a Facebook post, Prithviraj opened up about his transformation for the character. One month since we finished the last of the bare body scenes for Aadujeevitham. On the last day, I had dangerously low fat percentage and visceral fat levels. Post that, one month of fuelling, resting and training my body has got me here, he wrote. I guess my crew whove seen me a month ago when I was at my weakest, and way below my ideal weight will be the ones truly surprised, he added. Ajith Babu my trainer/nutritionist and Blessy chetan and team for understanding that post THAT day, shoot will have to be planned with enough time allocated for my recuperation. Remember, the human body has its limits, the human mind doesnt, he added. In the film, directed by Blessy, Prithviraj plays an abused migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. It is based on the critically-acclaimed eponymous 2008 novel. Last week, Prithviraj and 58-member crew of Aadujeevitham returned to Kochi after being stranded for over two months in Jordan. Prithviraj is currently under state imposed quarantine for seven days. In March, he shared how the team got stranded while shooting the second schedule of the film, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He said the team decided to stay back in Jordan and continue shooting by taking all precautionary measures. Also read: When Kartik Aaryan borrowed hairstylists t-shirt for stage performance, changed on the road. Watch We are currently in Wadi Rum, Jordan and continuing shoot. We have decided so because, given the circumstances, that seems to be our best option. There are no international flights operating in and out of Jordan at the moment, and given the fact that all of us are already here, we can either stay put in our camp in the desert which is currently accommodating only our unit, or get out and shoot at our location which is barely a few minutes outside our camp. After consulting with the authorities and undergoing medical check-ups for each member of the unit, we have been given a go-ahead for the shoot as the location and the process of filming Aadujeevitham is in itself very isolated, he had posted. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop By Scott Murdoch HONG KONG, May 27 (Reuters) - Hundreds of riot police took up posts around Hong Kong's legislature overnight, as protests were expected on Wednesday over a bill criminalising disrespect of China's national anthem and against plans by Beijing to impose national security laws. The proposed new national security laws have triggered the first big street unrest in Hong Kong since last year, when violent protests brought Hong Kong's biggest crisis since the return of Chinese rule in 1997 from Britain. Activists say the security laws could bring an end to the autonomy of China's freest city, now guaranteed under a policy known as "one country, two systems". Diplomats, trade bodies and investors have also raised alarm. Thousands of protesters clashed with police on Sunday in the first big demonstrations since last year. As he headed into the metro station next to the Legislative Council, known as Legco, 23-year-old Kevin said he was worried about what he called increasing Beijing assertiveness. "The idea of one country, two systems is broken," he said after a late dinner at McDonald's. "China said it would stick to that agreement, but thatas not the case." Authorities erected a wall made of two-metre-tall (6 ft), white and blue plastic barriers filled with water around Legco, extending across a nearby park up to the picturesque Victoria Harbour. Around midnight, riot police roamed the park, with squads stationed outside Legco and the neighbouring Central Government Offices building. Several police vans were parked on nearby roads. The anthem bill is set for a second reading on Wednesday and is expected to be turned into law next month. It requires China's "March of the Volunteers" to be taught in schools and sung by organisations, and imposes jail terms or fines on those who disrespect it. Opponents say it represents another example of Beijing encroaching Hong Kong, while supporters say the city has a duty to ensure national symbols are treated respectfully. Story continues Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have issued repeated statements insisting there is no risk to the city's high degree of autonomy, urging patience until the laws are finalised. Hong Kong police issued a warning late on Tuesday that they would not tolerate disruptions to public order, after activists circulated calls online for protests on Wednesday. The security legislation could pave the way for mainland security agencies to open up branches in the global financial hub. It targets secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference -- terms that are increasingly used by authorities to describe last year's pro-democracy protests. (Writing by Marius Zaharia Editing by Peter Graff) Oils recovery from its historic crash last month is barreling ahead, with some OPEC producers displaying signs of confidence that the market is stabilizing. Nigeria and Algeria -- both members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- have lifted the official selling prices for their supply, a sign that they believe customers are willing to pay more for their barrels. That would offer some respite after demand was crushed by the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. The global market is starting to tighten a bit, said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC. Youve got constrained supplies in the face of a bit of a rebound at least in demand that is a recipe for these higher prices. Output cuts have started to chip away at a massive oversupply. U.S. oil output will reach a low point of about 10.7 million barrels a day in June, which would be the lowest in two years, according to Rystad Energy. Meanwhile, demand is showing tentative signs of picking up as some economies ease lockdowns that were aimed at containing the virus. Thats helped oil surge about 80% this month, after prices tumbled below zero in April for the first time ever. The so-called futures curve is flattening -- a signal supplies are growing tighter. FUEL FIX: Our energy news + your inbox = a perfect combination Still, the fragile nature of the recovery was on display over the Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., when gasoline demand dropped an estimated 25-35% from a year earlier. It slid 1.34% from Thursday to Monday of the holiday weekend compared to the week prior, according to Patrick DeHaan, an analyst at GasBuddy. Russia, a key member of the OPEC+ alliance that has pledged record production cuts, expects the market to balance in June or July. The country wants to start easing oil output cuts from July, in line with the terms of the deal with other producers struck in April, according to people familiar with its position. On Tuesday, futures in New York rose 3.3%. Nigeria lifted the selling price for its supplies in June from record lows. Algeria also hiked its official prices by almost $3 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 2.1% to $33.93 a barrel. Global supply is still heading lower while demand is rising, said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB AB. This all lays the ground for higher prices down the road. Around the world, producers have slashed global production by 14 million to 15 million barrels a day so far, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday. The nation sees the current global surplus at 7 million to 12 million barrels a day, RIA Novosti reported Monday. Though output has been cut and demand is recovering, there are ongoing signs of the damage the virus has wrought on the industry. Both refineries in the Philippines have now been shut as a result of weak fuel demand, according to their operators. 2020 Bloomberg L.P. The President of University of Limerick, Dr Des Fitzgerald, is to tender his resignation over personal concerns the coronavirus pandemic would limit his ability to fully perform the role, going forward. The retired cardiologist, who turns 67 in October, announced his intention today to step down as UL President later this year. The universitys Governing Authority will commence an international recruitment process to select his replacement. Dr Fitzgerald said that he had taken the decision to resign in the context of Covid-19. A source close to the UL President said Dr Fitzgerald made the decision due to his own personal concerns, in the context of the virus, given that he is regarded as being in the vulnerable age category for Covid-19, and given that the nature of the presidents role involves interacting with large groups of people. There are approximately 17,000 students and staff attending UL, which remains on lockdown ahead of plans to begin reopening in September. In a letter to the UL Chancellor, and former Tanaiste, Mary Harney, Dr, Fitzgerald wrote: Unfortunately this virus will directly impact my ability to serve the university and limit my ability to fully engage once we get our community back onto the campus. Speaking today, Dr Fitzgerald said that he had been privileged to lead UL, a role he took up three years ago, which saw him oversee plans to establish a UL campus in Limerick city centre, away from its main campus in Castletroy. One of his big first tasks in the role as President was to address allegations surrounding ULs finance, human resources, and governance policies, after malpractice claims were raised by a number of whistleblowers who had been suspended before he took up the role in May 2017. Dr. Fitzgerald said: I believe we have also made important progress on tackling many of the controversial issues which predated my appointment and which were set out in the Thorn Report, the Deloitte Internal Audit and the report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG). I am glad that during my period in office most of the issues detailed in the above reports have been dealt with and their recommendations implemented. Paying tribute, Mary Harney, said Dr Fitzgerald has been a transformational President. I regret that he has had to take this decision as a result of Covid-19, she added. Dr Fitzgerald has led ULs response to Covid-19, and oversaw the erection of a field hospital on the grounds of the university. He is a medical graduate of UCD, and trained and worked as a cardiologist at Vanderbilt University in the United States of America before returning to Ireland where he was in practice for 27 years. A Fellow of the American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology, Dr Fitzgerald has also has served on the boards of the Mater Misericordiae and St. Vincents University Hospitals in Dublin as well as the University of Limerick Hospital Group, and was chairman of the Health Research Board. Texas Supreme Court rules against Episcopal Church: $100M in properties belong to breakaway diocese Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Texas highest court ruled that approximately $100 million in church properties of a diocese whose leadership left The Episcopal Church over theological differences belongs to the breakaway group. The Texas Supreme Court released an opinion last Friday in The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth v. The Episcopal Church in which they partially reversed an earlier ruling against the breakaway leadership. At issue was who controlled the diocese name and property leadership chosen by the national denomination or the breakaway leadership that joined the more conservative Anglican Church in North America. The Episcopal Church said it controlled the property through the Dennis Canon, a measure labeling all church properties as being held in trust for the benefit of the national denomination. Justice Eva Guzman delivered the opinion of the court, ruling that changes made to the Dioceses Constitution and Canons in 1989 prevented the Dennis Canon from being applicable. While it is true, as TEC says, that the dioceses organizational documents prohibited the adoption of canons inconsistent with the national churchs constitution and canons, revocation is not inconsistent with a revocable trust, wrote Guzman. Moreover, in the twenty years between revocation and eruption of a dispute over the property, TEC lodged no objection to the amended canon and does not now contend the 1989 amendment is invalid for any other reason than purported inconsistency. In a statement released last Friday, the Anglican diocesan leadership celebrated the high court decision, saying they were grateful for the Courts hard work on this decision and for the clarity with which it was rendered. We give thanks for our visionary founding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. A. Donald Davies, and for those who assisted him in setting the legal and temporal foundations of the Diocese and Corporation, they stated. We praise God for the steadfast faith and leadership of our third Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, a true shepherd of the flock, who made many sacrifices throughout his episcopate for the sake of Christs holy Church. Episcopal Bishop Scott Mayer, who oversaw the continuing Episcopal diocesan leadership, sent a letter to supporters expressing disappointment at the ruling. Mayer noted that he and the other Episcopal leadership were considering their next steps and that as followers of Jesus Christ, we live in hope. I ask for your prayers and urge us all to stay focused on the saving gospel of Jesus Christ and on our mission and ministries in the days ahead, wrote Mayer. I remain convinced that we are right in our affirmation that we are the continuing Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and that I am its bishop. In 2008, a majority of the Fort Worth Diocese voted to leave The Episcopal Church over the increasing liberal theological direction of the mainline Protestant denomination. A major point was the ordination of the denominations first openly gay bishop, the Rev. Gene Robinson, which led to other churches and dioceses opting to depart the denomination. Litigation over who rightfully owned the diocesan property ensued in 2009, with the Fort Worth Court of Appeals ruling in favor of The Episcopal Church in April 2018. Although Appellees argue that under state associations law they were within their rights to remove the diocese and diocesan property from TEC, such law applies to the rules used by associations to regulate, within legal limits, their own internal affairs, not to the question of an associations identity, read the 2018 ruling. Individual members of a parish may decide to worship elsewhere; a majority of individual members of a parish or diocese may decide to do so. But when they leave, they are no longer Episcopalians as identified by TEC; they become something else. And that something else is not entitled to retain property Successive governments, since the Thatcher years, have lived in fear of the state taking stakes in troubled private sector firms. Northern Rock in 2007 and the financial crisis of 2008 changed that, when only the state was capable of preventing financial Armageddon. The allergy dates back to the Wilson governments of the 1960s and the perceived failure of the National Enterprise Board (NEB). If the crisis requires direct assistance for strategic industries or cutting-edge tech companies, such as Imagination then the government should be willing temporarily to take share stakes The reality is that interventions have often been more successful than credited. Rolls-Royce was saved from calamity by Ted Heath's government in 1970. After being returned to the public markets Rolls established itself as a world leader in engines for long-haul aircraft. Among the much discussed failures of the NEB era are British Leyland. But for all the costs layered on government, it helped to keep valuable marques such as the Mini and Land Rover alive, and formed the basis of a revived motoring sector. Another NEB-created firm, computer pioneer ICL, returned to the public markets where it was snapped up by Fujitsu. Plainly, the first port of call for help for troubled firms such as Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Steel, Virgin Atlantic et al ought to be wealthy owners. If that is not forthcoming, there is no shame in the Government financing them directly by acquiring equity stakes or making loans convertible into shares. Britain is not blessed with enough manufacturing to comfortably wave goodbye to whole industries such as car making and aerospace. The Government has demonstrated a willingness to get involved with rail franchises, effectively taking them back into the public sector. If the crisis requires direct assistance for strategic industries or cutting-edge tech companies, such as Imagination to keep them out of Chinese hands then it should be willing temporarily to take share stakes. The US did it for General Motors after the financial crisis and the German government is doing it for airline Lufthansa. In the extremis of the pandemic fallout, doubts must be swallowed. Marston's muddle AS A brewer badly holed by the lockdown, Marston's may feel it had no choice but to take the Carlsberg krone when it agreed to hand the lager group a 60 per cent stake in its Burton-on-Trent beer business. In succumbing to Danish charms, Marston's is following Scottish & Newcastle (remember it?), which was taken over by Carlsberg and Heineken, and, more recently, Fuller's, which sold its historic Stag Brewery to Japan's Asahi in 2019. Both Fuller's and Marston's inexplicably decided that hospitality, through pub chains, is more important than centuries of history and the art of brewing. The City welcomed the Marston's transaction on the grounds that it pays to have scale. No one following the value destruction, share price plunge and travails of highly-leveraged brewer AB Inbev can really believe that. The real sector stars are craft breweries in the UK and the US, which have been a glorious entrepreneurial hit largely because the tasteless, mass market brewers have afforded them the space. The Campaign for Real Ale rightly notes the transaction is a cause for concern about the future of British beers, brands and breweries. The Carlsberg offer is less a joint venture and more a shotgun overseas takeover. Shareholders and competition authorities should show the red card. Testing patience By the standards of fat cattery of those involved in the implosion at Neil Woodford's investment empire from the great man himself to Hargreaves Lansdown's former head of research Mark Dampier the awards to Susan Searle, chairman of former Patient Capital trust, are a flea bite. The 2019 accounts show her fee climbed by 15 per cent to 46,000 and Searle tells investors she was 'proud' of her work during the scandal. She would be better apologising to savers for governance blunders. Why did she expose investors at the Patient Capital trust (now rebranded as Schroder Public Private) to greater risk by allowing them to be stuffed with holdings expelled from the Woodford fund? Similarly, Searle never has explained how it was possible to be chairman of a quoted trust which held stakes in companies in which she had a personal interest. The idea that Searle deserved more, because she had to attend 16 extra meetings as the crisis deepened, is risible. If she had been a truly independent chairman, the extra work might never have been necessary. (Newser) A plane carried passengers from Germany to Italy before turning around midair because its intended airport is closed until next month. A spokesperson for German airline Eurowings confirmed the Saturday mix-up, which played out over four hours, per CNN. Flight EW9844 set off from Dusseldorf, intending to make the 730-mile trip to Sardinia's Olbia Airport. It wasn't until the plane began its approach that air traffic control informed pilots that the airport was closed to commercial traffic, per AFP. Pilots were given the option to land 120 miles away in Cagliari, on the southern tip of Sardinia, but instead returned to Dusseldorf. story continues below Olbia Airport had been reopened May 17, but the decision was reversed that same day, per CNN. All Italian airports, with the exception of some in Rome and Florence, are to remain closed until at least June 3, reports AFP. A Eurowings spokesperson acknowledged "a misunderstanding," noting the situation at some European airports is "very dynamic," with information on operating hours and closures "often changed at short notice." Fortunately there were only two passengers on board. After experiencing "this little sightseeing tour of western Europe," they were rebooked on another flight, per CNN. (Read more airlines stories.) A coronavirus field hospital at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center will begin the process of closing down as health officials continue to observe a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations, Gov. Charlie Baker said on Tuesday. The 1,000-bed field hospital, which came online in early April ahead of an anticipated surge in patients, will no longer be accepting new coronavirus admissions, as officials overseeing the operation have determined the site is no longer necessary, Baker said. The facility, dubbed Boston Hope," will stay online until all patients are safely discharged, Baker said. Over the past several weeks, Boston Hope has treated more than 700 COVID-19 patients on the hospital side and also served as a respite site for homeless and housing insecure folks on the other side, Baker said. Were grateful for the partnership and coordination that went to standing up this facility." Many of the states field hospitals have been decommissioned or are in the process of shutting down. The field hospital constructed in the gymnasium at Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne closed last week without seeing even a single coronavirus patient, according to the Cape Cod Times. On May 15, Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. announced the DCU Center field hospital would be decommissioned as well. Baker on Tuesday said public health officials continue to see a decline in several key metrics vital in the fight against the virus, including the number of new hospitalizations, the rate of positive cases and ICU admissions. Baker added that Massachusetts has gotten beyond the so-called surge, despite concerns about a second wave of infections as restrictions begin to lift. Weve talked a lot about preparing for and dealing with the surge, which is now something that, thanks to a lot of work by a lot of people, is behind us," he said. "And as a result of that many of the field hospitals that we set up around the state to add beds and reduce strain on hospitals have begun to close. Related Content: The University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has become famous for producing a COVID-19 model that is widely referred to by policymakers and journalists. I have described the IHME model as useless as a guide to governors and other decision-makers, for several reasons. First, because it runs out on August 4, by which time it assumes that fatalities will have been flat for some time. What happens after August 4? Is the epidemic over, or will it resume in the Fall? The model gives us no answer. Second, the models predictions of fatalities in individual states have fluctuated so wildlye.g., declining by more than 90 percent in just four daysthat no policymaker could properly rely on them. Third, while proclaiming that it assumes social distancing, it gives no guidance as to what will happen if a particular state reopens its economythe key point on which governors need information. The IHME model was updated a week ago; you can see the current information here. The most recent update didnt change the fatality projection for the U.S. through August 4 by much. It sits at 143,357. What will happen after that is anyones guess, although the model implies that well before August 4 the disease has pretty much flat-lined. It projects fewer than 10,000 deaths between July 1 and August 4. If you want to know what impact the current loosening on restrictions in various states will have on fatalities, youve come to the wrong place. IHME admits that its prior assumption that more liberal policies would lead to more fatalities was wrong: With mobility rising throughout the US over the last several weeks, our team had expected to see large increases in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths in more recent days. After all, the time lag between heightened mobility and potential rise in COVID-19 infections is approximately two weeks. Yet such a surge has yet to materialize, suggesting that increases in human mobility alone may not fully capture risk of transmission. This has been obvious in states like Florida, where liberal journalists wrote that the state was conducting an experiment in human sacrifice when Governor DeSantis relaxed his shutdown order.* Those predictions turned out to be entirely wrong, and Florida has been a shining example of how to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic. The IHME team is now focusing on face mask use as possibly explaining why the disease hasnt picked up in the wake of relaxed economic and social dictates. Good luck with that. IHME has moved toward expressing COVID fatalities, by default, as a percentage of population rather than in raw numbers, although those are still available. Perhaps the most helpful item on the current IHME web site is this map, which shows COVID fatalities per 100,000 of population in each state. At the IHME web site you can hover over each state for information. But the map pretty much speaks for itself. Click to enlarge: COVID-19 is a local or regional phenomenon. It has struck Northeastern statessome of them, anywayhard, and has been a non-factor in most of the rest of the country. I believe there are a number of states where Wuhan fatalities are lower than those from a typical seasonal flu. New York City and environs are obviously the center of the epidemic in the U.S. It still is not clear why that is, although Governor Cuomos mismanagement of the states nursing homes is undoubtedly a factor. Certainly densely-populated cities are likely to be hit harder than rural areas, but that doesnt explain the low impact in San Francisco, or in the large cities of Texas, Florida and other states. Also, you can see that in the Upper Midwest, Minnesota and Iowa perform poorly compared with other states. South Dakota, the only state that has refused to enter any sort of shutdown order and was viciously smeared by the Washington Post and other Democratic Party news outlets as a result, has one of the lowest fatality rates in the U.S. Not quite as low as Arkansas, however, which the virus seems to have skipped altogether. The fatality rate in New York is around 150 times that in Arkansas. The uniform solution insisted on by our national press makes, apparently, no sense. Still, I have assumed that the virus will come to less-populated areas in time, and that eventually, case rates will be similar from one place to another. It looks increasingly like that assumption is wrong. In fact, there is evidence that the virus is dying out on its own. What will happen in the coming months is anyones guess. To me, it is striking how little guidance Americas most-cited model even pretends to give. * A reader reminds me that it was Georgia, not Florida, that the Atlantic accused of engaging in human sacrifice. Memory is fallible, but the point is the same: Georgias track record has been about as good as Floridas. If liberals are looking for human sacrifice, they need look no farther than New York State and its feckless governor, or Minnesota, whose inept governor has allowed hundreds to die in nursing homes without taking any meaningful action. LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May, 26, 2020 / Enterprise virtual reality software company Immerse announces the appointment of Bill Finegan as Executive Vice President, North America. Having held senior positions at GP Strategies for nearly 20 years, Bill has a wealth of experience in the Human Capital Software sector. This strategic hire will see him continue Immerse's growth in enterprise VR and drive the ongoing expansion of global strategic relationships. Tom Symonds, CEO at Immerse, comments: "I am delighted to welcome Bill to our talented team. His arrival is a statement of intent for Immerse as we continue to accelerate our growth in 2020 and look to build out our presence in North America. Bill brings a terrific blend of experience and commercial skills to help drive our expansion strategy forward." Over the past year, Immerse has seen a substantial increase in the number of companies looking to licence their Virtual Enterprise Platform (VEP), which enables organizations to create, scale and measure VR training. To build on their successes Immerse aims to consolidate their position as a market leader through the creation of this EVP North America role. Bill Finegan, newly appointed EVP North America, adds: "It's a great time to be joining Immerse given that enterprise VR solutions are rapidly moving up the priority list for global enterprises. What impressed me about Immerse is that their technology is already well established, with an impressive client list that includes Shell, QinetiQ and DHL." In his previous role as Senior Vice President at GP Strategies, Bill was responsible for global operations and sales for the Human Capital Technologies team of over 200+ members, with resources in over 12 countries providing implementation, integration, support and consulting services across a wide spectrum of HR and Learning Technologies. Bill has an MBA from University of Baltimore (2003) and is an Affiliate Instructor at Loyola University Maryland (since 2009). Bill continues: "My role as EVP will be to help Immerse develop a strong proposition alongside a brand that stands out in this rapidly developing market. Expanding into North America, from both a sales and delivery perspective, will allow us to ensure customer satisfaction as we continue to meet the needs of an ever evolving market landscape." Media enquiries Please contact George Fryer or Katie Charlton at Man Bites Dog on: teamimmerse@manbitesdog.com or +44 (0)1273 716 820 About Immerse Immerse is a UK virtual reality technology company that has developed a proprietary Virtual Enterprise Platform (VEP). Built for enterprise from the ground up, the platform enables companies to create, scale and measure virtual reality training. Using the Immerse VEP enables companies to train and assess their employees in radically new ways, maximising human performance by creating a more engaged, better equipped and safer workforce. Current clients include Shell, DHL, QinetiQ and GE Healthcare. For more information, visit: www.immerse.io Contact: Company: Man Bites Dog Contact Person: Katie Charlton Email: teamimmerse@manbitesdog.com Website: www.immerse.io SOURCE: Man Bites Dog View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/591247/Immerse-Accelerates-US-Growth-with-the-Appointment-of-Former-GP-Strategies-Exec-Bill-Finegan-as-EVP-North-America A Welsh zoo has said it may be forced to kill hundreds of animals it says are at risk of starvation due to a lack of funds. The owners of Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, Tracy and Dean Tweedy, fear they only have enough money for one week amid the coronavirus lockdown. Im sorry to say that financially things are looking bleak here at Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, captions in a video released by the zoo reads. We have maybe a weeks money left and then we will have to start looking at re-homing some of our animals, or as a last resort euthanizing the ones we cant find homes for. The zoo, already struggling after a long, quiet winter season, said the issue was compounded when it emerged a special government zoo fund only applies to businesses in England. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 January 2022 Surfers enter the sea as the sun rises over Tynemouth on the North East coast PA UK news in pictures 17 January 2022 Bonhams Danny McIlwraith holds a Nigerian polycrome carved wood mask during a photocall for the sale of the Jim Lennon Collection at Bonhams in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 16 January 2022 The moon rises above the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 15 January 2022 Demonstrators outside Downing Street during a Kill The Bill protest against The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in London PA UK news in pictures 14 January 2022 Ecologist Emma Smart (left) and retired GP Dr Diana Warner outside HMP Bronzefield, in Surrey, following their release from the prison where Emma undertook a 26-day hunger strike during her incarceration. Ms Smart was sentenced in November, along with other members of Insulate Britain, to serve four months for breaking a High Court injunction by taking part in a blockade at junction 25 of the M25 motorway during the morning rush hour on 8 October last year PA UK news in pictures 13 January 2022 A TV presenter holds a copy of a newspaper outside 10 Downing Streetafter the Prime Minister apologised for attending a gathering of colleagues in the Number Ten garden in May 2020, while the UK was in strict lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic Getty UK news in pictures 12 January 2022 Fitness guru Derrick Evans after receiving an MBE during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 11 January 2022 A couple walk underneath an umbrella during wet weather on Westminster Bridge in central London PA UK news in pictures 10 January 2022 A jogger passes the Covid Memorial Wall in London AP UK news in pictures 9 January 2021 The sun rises over horses at Seaton Sluice in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 8 January 2022 Riders compete during the Veterans Men's race at the UK Cyclo-Cross National Championships 2022 in Ardingly, south of London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 7 January 2022 A dog looks out of a car window at the wintry conditions in Killeshin, Co. Laois PA UK news in pictures 6 January 2022 People walk through frost and mist alongside a frozen lake during sunrise in Bushy Park, London REUTERS UK news in pictures 5 January 2022 A skier jumps on the slopes at Allenheads in the Pennines to the north of Weardale in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 4 January 2022 Freshly-fallen snow covers houses in Corbridge, near Hexham in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 3 January 2022 Dean Morrison, 13, receives his Covid-19 vaccine from student nurse Anthony McLaughlin during a vaccination clinic at the Glasgow Central Mosque PA UK news in pictures 2 January 2022 Konastantinos Tsimikas of Liverpool with Chelseas Mason Mount during the Premier League match at Stamfrod Bridge Liverpool FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 January 2022 New Years Eve Lasers, drones and fireworks illuminate the sky in front of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich shortly after midnight in London EPA UK news in pictures 31 December 2021 Competitors in fancy dress run across the Pennine tops near Haworth, West Yorkshire, in the annual Auld Lang Syne Fell race which attracts hundreds of runners every year PA UK news in pictures 30 December 2021 Sunrise at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland PA UK news in pictures 29 December 2021 The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, looks at Becket, a six month old red-billed chough as he visits Wildwood Wildlife Park in Kent on the anniversary of the murder of Thomas Becket PA UK news in pictures 28 December 2021 Troops of the Household Cavalry are seen reflected in a puddle during the changing of the Queens Life Guard, on Horse Guards Parade, in central London PA UK news in pictures 27 December 2021 A pedestrian walks past a winter sale sign outside a John Lewis store on Oxford street in London Getty UK news in pictures 26 December 2021 Riders take their bikes through the snow near Castleside, County Durham PA UK news in pictures 25 December 2021 Patrick Corkery wears a santa hat and beard as waves crash over him at Forty Foot near Dublin during a Christmas Day dip PA UK news in pictures 24 December 2021 People stand inside Kings Cross Station on Christmas Eve in London Reuters UK news in pictures 23 December 2021 Christmas shoppers fill the car park at Fosse Shopping Park in Leicester PA UK news in pictures 22 December 2021 The sun rises behind the stones as people gather for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Getty UK news in pictures 21 December 2021 People take part in a winter solstice swim at Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to mark the solstice and to witness the dawn after the longest night of the year PA UK news in pictures 20 December 2021 An auction employee displays poultry to buyers and sellers attending the Christmas Poultry Sale at York Auction Centre in Murton PA UK news in pictures 19 December 2021 Joao Moutinho of Wolverhampton Wanderers looks on during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea at Molineux Getty Images UK news in pictures 18 December 2021 Freight lorries queuing at the port of Dover in Kent PA UK news in pictures 17 December 2021 Newly elected Liberal Democrat MP Helen Morgan, bursts 'Boris' bubble' held by colleague Tim Farron, as she celebrates following her victory in the North Shropshire by-election PA UK news in pictures 16 December 2021 Brussels sprouts are harvested by workers as they prepare for the busy Christmas period near Boston in Lincolnshire PA UK news in pictures 15 December 2021 Lewis Hamilton is made a Knight Bachelor by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 14 December 2021 The Royal Liver Buildings surrounded by early morning fog in Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 13 December 2021 People queue outside a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centre at St Thomas's Hospital in Westminster Getty Images UK news in pictures 12 December 2021 People take part in the Big Leeds Santa Dash in Roundhay Park, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 11 December 2021 People arrive at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Elland Road in Leeds, PA UK news in pictures 10 December 2021 Stella Moris speaks to the media after the US Government won its High Court bid to overturn a judges decision not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange PA UK news in pictures 9 December 2021 Camels are lead around Salisbury Cathedral during a rehearsal for the Christmas Eve Service PA UK news in pictures 8 December 2021 Margaret Keenan and Nurse May Parsons, a year after Margaret was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine PA UK news in pictures 7 December 2021 Snowfall in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire as Storm Barra hits the UK with disruptive winds, heavy rain and snow PA UK news in pictures 6 December 2021 A person tries to avoid sea spray on New Brighton promenade in Wallasey as the UK readies for the arrival of Storm Barra Getty UK news in pictures 5 December 2021 People release balloons during a tribute to six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes outside Emma Tustin's former address in Solihull, West Midlands, where he was murdered by his stepmother PA UK news in pictures 4 December 2021 People walk through a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square Reuters UK news in pictures 3 December 2021 A pedestrian carries a dog as they dodge shoppers on Oxford Street in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 2 December 2021 Duchess of Cambridge inspects a Faberge egg at the Victoria and Albert Museum Getty UK news in pictures 1 December 2021 Meerkats at London Zoo with an advent calendar PA UK news in pictures 30 November 2021 Workers put the finishing touches to the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree ahead of the lighting ceremony later in the week PA We need help now more than ever. Despite everything, we are as determined as ever to not give up, the couple say. The zoo, in Ceredigion, was ordered to close in January due to a lack of trained marksmen in case of an animal escape. It was allowed to open again in February. The zoo, which houses more than 300 animals, has previously faced calls to close after it emerged a lynx was accidentally strangled in a terrible handling error just days before a second lynx was shot and killed following an escape. Critics branded the business a hobby zoo, throwing a spotlight on fears that at some UK animal attractions well-meaning but under-qualified owners are failing to look after creatures properly. Mr and Ms Tweedy have previously denied the zoo is a hobby, insisting that it was in a terrible state when they took it over in 2016 and that they have made improvements. German zoo may have to feed animals to each other due to coronavirus lockdown We bought this place not to make money, but because we are animal lovers and could see that this place in this beautiful location needed some serious love and attention," they said. Many of the animals are rescued from the animal trade or are exotic pets that the owner cannot look after any more." Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 11:08:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CANBERRA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Scientists from Australia's South Australia (SA) state have discovered how an obscure protein can accelerate the development and growth of breast cancer. In a study published on Tuesday, researchers from the Centre for Cancer Biology (CCB) at the University of South Australia (UniSA) described how aggressive cancers produce Creld2, a protein that hijacks healthy cells to promote tumour growth. "Scientists have been aware of this protein for some time, but it has not been well-studied and until now we hadn't understood the role it plays in breast cancer. Creld2 appears to make normal, healthy cells surrounding the tumour behave abnormally, causing them to help tumours grow," Michael Samuel, co-author of the study, said in a media release. According to Breast Cancer Network Australia, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in Australian women, accounting for about 29 percent of all new cancers in Australian women in 2019, and the second leading cause of cancer death in Australian women after lung cancer. The team at the CCB, an alliance between the University of South Australia and SA Pathology, is now working on how to stop or destroy Creld2 with the aim of stopping breast cancers from growing and spreading around the body. High levels of the protein are found in triple negative breast cancers, which make up 15 percent of breast cancer cases in Australia and have the poorest survival rate. Creld2 at high levels is also found in kidney cancers and non-melanoma skin cancers, which are the the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia. "The prognosis for all these cancers is not good, so if we can destroy or block this protein, we could potentially stop these cancers from growing," Samuel said. Enditem PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 23:36:16 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 974 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / CIBT Education Group Inc. (TSX:MBA)(OTCQX:MBAIF) ("CIBT" or the "Company") provides the following answers to questions frequently asked by our shareholders with respect to the impact of COVID-19 on the Company.Present situation:Q: Is the pandemic affecting rent collection at properties in the GEC student apartment portfolio?A: In the traditional rental apartment scenario, some tenants are facing financial hardship and are under the pressure of unemployment. Some are unable to pay rent, which in turn affects the landlord's cashflow management and their ability to meet the mortgage payment for the property.CIBT Education Group is pleased to report that, thus far, the pandemic has caused only a limited and acceptable level of adverse business effects to most GEC properties with long-term rental students for several reasons:Students usually budget a year in advance for their annual tuition fees and housing expense.Certain rents are bundled and pre-paid with the tuition.A number of students receive assistance from their parents or government student loan programs.For international students, a majority of their overseas-study costs are paid by or with the assistance of their parents.Breaching a contract and defaulting on a relatively small sum may cause consequences to a student's study permit and their ability to stay in Canada.Q: Is the pandemic affecting the occupancy rate at various GEC long term stay properties?A: GEC provides students with reliable and secure rental apartment-style housing. The units are marketed by the GEC marketing team, through reservation platforms, and through a large network of schools associated with GEC.At the beginning of the virus outbreak, some students were rushing to go back to their home countries, while many chose to stay in Canada. In early April, the country of residence for many international students started to face a more difficult situation than in Vancouver, and the exodus of students quickly subsided. By late April, many students had changed their minds and elected to stay in Vancouver instead. Furthermore, many students who were planning to return home during the summer holiday period have decided to extend their stay in Canada at GEC properties. We are expecting a steady occupancy rate this summer.Q: Why is the demand for student rentals strong, despite the current COVID-19 pandemic?A: The pandemic has caused hardship to domestic and international students who were living in dormitory-style residences across the globe. The traditional dormitory-style facilities incorporate a co-living design, which causes many students to share a communal kitchen, shower stalls and lounge area. Students face a high-risk of COVID-19 community transmission in such an environment. For safety reasons, students were required by universities to vacate their dormitory and return after the summer, while many countries have imposed travel restrictions and quarantine measures upon arrival. As a result, students faced early termination of their school residences while many of them were unable to return home due to travel restrictions.In comparison to the traditional dormitory-style design, all GEC properties are either rental apartments or hotels. GEC long-term stay properties resembled the elements of a traditional apartment with self-contained kitchen, living room and bedroom. Our hotel property has both single and twin rooms, and certain rooms are equipped with a kitchenette. Therefore, unlike conventional dormitories, the design of GEC properties could reduce the chances of community transmission.In addition to closures of dormitory / co-living style housing at universities across the country, we have also noticed that home-stay parents are also cancelling reservations made by students for fear of virus transmission in their family home.GEC is working with local universities and colleges to offer their students accommodation at GEC properties at a discounted rate supplemented by early move-in incentives. This arrangement helps those students affected by the social distancing policy. GEC has also allocated self-contained units to doctors and nurses for short term stay contracts ranging from one to three months for healthcare workers afraid to go home after work for fear of transmitting the virus to their family members.These actions are helping GEC properties maintain a high level of occupancy.Q: What about the short-term stay properties, such as the GEC Granville Hotel and Suites?A: As a result of the implementation of travel bans around the world and the suspension or reduction of flights, our short-term-stay hotel has experienced cancellations from visitors and tourists. GEC has one hotel property operating in downtown Vancouver.However , with the aid of the GEC marketing and recruitment platform supported by hundreds of schools in Metro Vancouver, GEC stepped up its marketing effort at the start of the pandemic in Canada by recruiting students displaced by universities and colleges for the GEC Granville Hotel. Also, two floors at this hotel property were converted and isolated for the use by frontline healthcare workers working at the nearby St. Paul's Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital.These measures have allowed GEC Granville Hotel to maintain a steady cash flow as compared to some hotel brands which outright shut down operations in mid-March.Q: Is the pandemic affecting the occupancy rate at the short term stay property - GEC Granville Hotel?A: GEC is renting regular apartments and not dorms. Our demised and self-contained units allow us to adapt to market changes. GEC leveraged its strategically designed business model and recruiting and marketing platforms, and converted its short-term stay facility (hotel property) into student accommodations, immediately replacing hotel cancellations with new bookings.Looking ahead:Q: Are the students coming back after the COVID-19 pandemic?A: Students committed to a two-year diploma program or four years of university are unlikely to give up what they have accomplished during the past years because of a virus outbreak. Vacation plans may be cancelled and lifestyles may be modified, but lifelong education plans are not easily abandoned. Furthermore, tens of millions of Its a startlingly malicious and racist letter sent to a Black vice-principal who had just left her Parkdale school. It reads, Im glad you bought my sorrowful goodbye in December [redacted name]. Really, I was thinking ding, dong, the witch is gone! Im so happy to see you leave. You and your little crew that make everything about black this and black that. So what, white people dont count? Then, I never even got a thank you when I bought lunch for ALL of you. A little later it says, Well, got rid of [redacted name]. Now I got rid of you. The letter, which the Toronto District School Board calls clearly an incident of anti-Black racism, is leading the board to change its procedures on communications about discrimination, hire an external investigator and place the principal of Queen Victoria Public School on a leave of absence for the course of the investigation. I apologize on our behalf, John Malloy, the school boards director of education, told the Star Friday. And our accountability is to continue to figure out what happened, how it happened and what we can do differently because it happened. The external investigator would be retained any day now, he said. This escalation came about after a hard fight by parents of Black students at Queen Victoria who refused to stand down after the boards initial bureaucratic response that included silence and a lack of transparency and accountability after a three-week internal investigation closed inconclusively. Queen Victoria is a JK-8 school with about 700 students. It has a gifted program with mostly white students, and a regular program which is majority non-white. The parents reckon about 10 per cent of the students at the school are Black. The saga began in January when vice-principal Jamea Zuberi received the unsigned racist letter that named six Black and racialized teachers, and referenced parents who had formed a Black Students Success Committee in October 2019 with Zuberis help. The parents called Zuberi a vocal, passionate person, particularly vocal in her advocacy for Black children and an amazingly engaged role model, in an interview with the Star. When Zuberi was transferred to another school in December, the parents organized the schools first Kwanzaa evening and farewell for her at Queen Victoria, with their own funds (and about $100 from the school). By the parents account, it was very visible, very well-attended and a special moment. They think now that event may have been a trigger for the letter. Zuberi did not comment on the situation. I am on a leave of absence from work until further notice, she told the Star Monday. The parents were initially unaware of the letter. In mid-January, they noticed five Black teachers were absent from school and began asking questions. They asked the superintendent about it, the executive superintendent, the school board trustee and even reached out to the affected teachers but didnt hear back from anyone, they said. Teachers were going on strike about that time. Shortly after, the school was shuttered due to COVID-19. In April, someone anonymously sent them a copy of the letter that had been sent to Zuberi. The parents published the letter on Twitter on April 21 with all staff names redacted. In their tweet, the parents demanded answers of the TDSB. How has the TDSB handled and investigated this human rights violation? Who is responsible for creating and distributing the hate mail and what disciplinary action has been taken? On April 24, school parents received a letter from executive superintendent Sandy Spyropoulos. It acknowledged the incident of racism and clarified that no teacher had been removed. The sparse details left the parents of the Black students unhappy. They wrote a letter to the board demanding specifics, asking why they, the parents who were also targeted in the letter your little crew were not informed about the letter sooner, and what the board was doing to support the teachers. Privacy and confidentiality cannot be prioritized over school and public safety, they wrote. It was clear the teachers were being dehumanized in their own profession, Debbie King, one of the parents of the Black Students Success Committee told the Star. If that happens to staff then our children are just fair game for anybody. On April 27, Spyropoulos wrote another letter to the school parents. The board acknowledged the act explicitly as anti-Black racism, clarified that the absent staff members were victims, apologized for not communicating to parents and committed to a change in communications procedure. It informed them there were new investigations based on complaints related to the letter and that the principal will be on leave. The board told the Star this was a nondisciplinary decision. School principal Alana Hardy declined to comment. Given the ongoing investigation, it wouldnt be appropriate for me to comment, she said via email Monday. Spyropoulos letter also revealed that the board had concluded an internal investigation because based on the information gathered and reviewed, we do not know who wrote and/or sent this letter. The parents were aghast. There had been an investigation and nobody had even reached out to them? The board was handling this like it was an administrative oversight, another parent, Tania Daley, told the Star. It had been five months and no progress had been made. The parents met with Malloy on May 8. It was following that meeting that parents began to receive clear answers. Vice-principal Zuberi received the letter Jan. 13, the board told the parents in a written memo that the Star has seen. Zuberi immediately told the principal at her new school and contacted Toronto Police. The board conducted an internal investigation in February, which wrapped up in three weeks after it could not determine who wrote the letter. The Human Resources Office of the board began to receive complaints related to anti-Black racism in mid-March and was investigating them separately. By May 15, the board sent a letter to the parent community, saying that with further reflection, we have decided to take additional action. The TDSB would be hiring an independent external investigator. It transferred oversight for all investigations higher up the chain of command to legal services chief Leola Pon and the highly reputed equity czar Colleen Russell-Rawlins. It temporarily removed superintendent Sandra Tondat and executive superintendent Sandy Spyropoulos from having oversight of Queen Victoria Public School. The community asked for an external investigator and I agreed, Malloy said, because trust had clearly been broken. Here was the challenge Malloy said the board faced: How do we deal with information when were dealing also with investigations? Part of the challenge is, there has to be a confidentiality, but unfortunately sometimes, that confidentiality is communicated as a lack of care or a lack of accountability. The board is updating its procedures around incidents of discrimination. It is making communications with affected communities mandatory. Internally, principals must now share every allegation of racism with the superintendent, who would then inform an organizational response team where, Malloy said, everybody comes together and we figure out what the next steps should be. As for the police investigation, the board told parents police were consulting with a Crown Attorney to determine if this incident constitutes a hate crime. Toronto Police confirmed last week the matter was under investigation, but said the detective on the case was away for a few days. The Hate Crime Unit is aware of the report, said Meaghan Gray from police corporate communications. We need everyone to see this as a human rights issue that impacts everyone, Daley said. Said King: It shouldnt have taken a hate letter for them to have paid attention to our complaints but (even with one) they had to be shamed into action. The letter writer remains unidentified. Three Cancun men arrested in Yucatan for avoiding sanitary filter Tizimin, Yucatan Three men from the state of Quintana Roo were detained by Tizimin municipal police officers after trying to enter the city evading sanitary health filters. The three were arrested after they decided to avoid the filter and chose to access the city through the Xhuencal gap that leads to Tizimin, however, along the way, their vehicle was stopped by police. After reviewing their documents and learning the trio were from Cancun in the state of Quintana Roo, they were arrested and transferred to the municipal command where they were jailed for 24-hours. Once released, they will then be escorted out of the city to their original state. Arrested were 47-year-old H.C.M., 40-year-old Miguel A.M.P. and 30-year-old Gilberto C.R.H. Yucatan Police Director Roberto Pacheco Aranda said On the dirt road of the Xhuencal section, more than 10 outsiders have been arrested for trying to enter the city. Our elements that are in the daily filters have to bare insults and negative attitudes from people who are not allowed to enter the city, as we have been doing the above as a preventive measure against the coronavirus pandemic. He says that there are around 80 vehicles a day that are rejected from entering the city in through the installed filters. The woman who prompted online outrage for reprimanding a carer for wearing her uniform and spreading germs' is a nurse who works on the coronavirus frontline and says she would do the same thing again, MailOnline can reveal. Marina Kendrick, 53, told friends that she had been enforcing the nursing code and could not believe the backlash against her as she has had to report to the police dozens of threats, including death and rape after the incident at B&M Bargains in Burton-upon-Trent. A close friend said: She fully stands by what she did and she would do it again. People can call her whatever they like but she regards it as being part of her nursing code to protect her patients and uphold her profession. That is what she signed up to do. Mrs Kendrick, who was head of nursing at a vocational training company before retraining as an intensive care nurse, was queuing for the till when she spoke to carer Kimberley Simpson to express her view that she should not be wearing her uniform in public. Miss Simpson captured part of their altercation on video and shared a post about it. Marina Kendrick, 53, told friends that she had been enforcing the nursing code and could not believe the backlash against her Kimberley Simpson, from Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire, claimed the customer followed her through the store for ten minutes 'shouting' that she shouldn't be allowed inside CAN NHS STAFF WEAR THEIR SCRUBS OUTSIDE OF HOSPITAL? 'The short answer is that no NHS hospital staff should not be wearing their uniform outside of the hospital apart from the travel to work and then it should be covered,' Nicki Credland, a senior lecturer at University of Hull and chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses told MailOnline. 'However, there are a lot of community staff who wear a uniform as part of their normal job (district nurses for example) and this is perfectly acceptable.' District nurses work in the community visiting people in their own homes and residential care homes. Most NHS workers in hospitals are told not to wear uniform outside the hospital unless permitted for exceptional reasons, various trust guidelines state. This is mostly because the public can have a perception that wearing uniform outside of a healthcare setting is unhygienic. Uniforms for hospital can be contaminated with blood or body fluids from patients in hospital. In terms of Covid-19, infected droplets from patients coughs or breathe can find their way onto scrubs and can stick to the material for a long time, if not washed. The risk of a hospital working transmitting bacteria or a virus from their uniform is low, but not impossible. Whether scrubs are contaminated with hazardous fluids is very dependent on the role of the member of staff, and will guide when they should remove them. Dark blue scrubs must only ever be worn in an operating theatre, whereas light blue scrubs can be worn around the hospital but never to and from work. Green scrubs can be worn in public but must be covered up by a coat, official guidelines say. Amid the pandemic, NHS workers have been told to not wear their uniform in public because the public may accuse them of being virus spreaders, The Telegraph reported. Advertisement Another friend of the 53-year-old nurse, who until February was senior lecturer in adult nursing at the University of Wolverhampton and is married and has two grown-up children. They added: I have spoken to Marina and I know she is traumatised by what happened. 'She has had to delete all her social media due to the volume of hatred being directed against her. She was sent 32 separate threats on Messenger which included death and rape before she took down her Facebook page. There have even been people calling for her to be refused NHS treatment. The ignorance is stupefying. The flashpoint came yesterday afternoon as both women queued with items at B&M Bargains. Noticing her uniform and her lanyard, Mrs Kendrick asked Miss Simpson if she worked in a hospital before pointing out that she should not be shopping in her work uniform. Her friend said: She made the point because she is an educator and a nurse and even before Covid the guidance for all uniform wearing nursing staff was to cover up their uniform in public. There are two reasons for this infection control and to protect the nurse themselves for if somebody had a heart attack in a shop, others would see the uniform and might expect them to do things which were beyond their level of competence. She fully stands by what she did and she would do it again. 'People can call her whatever they like but she regards it as being part of her nursing code to protect her patients and uphold her profession. That is what she signed up to do. In her post, Miss Simpson said: All I've done is cry this afternoon, whether I should delete this post or not. The friend of Mrs Kendrick added: All people see is a pretty girl who is crying crocodile tears after the event. She ought to take down her post. I believe she has been asked to but has so far refused. 'Marina did not follow her around the shop, just tried to have a quiet word and what has followed has been shameful. Mrs Kendrick, who was head of nursing at a vocational training company before retraining as an intensive care nurse, was queueing for the till when she spoke to carer Kimberley Simpson to express her view that she should not be wearing her uniform in public In a clip of the altercation (pictured), Mrs Kendrick tells Ms Simpson she is 'spreading germs' by entering the store in her work clothes - before threatening to report the carer to her manager In footage from the incident, which has been viewed more than two million times, Ms Simpson (pictured) is seen speaking with the woman who stands behind her trolley Sharing footage of the incident on Facebook, Ms Simpson said she was 'disgusted' by the shopper's behaviour Marina is so dedicated to nursing that she put her own family at risk by going back into clinical practice after 15 years of teaching nursing so she could join the fight on the frontline. She is one of the heroes we all clap every Thursday and now the mob have reduced her to living in fear. Mrs Kendrick lives with her husband in a smart detached house near Burton-upon-Trent. She had been senior lecturer in adult nursing at the University of Wolverhampton until February of this year when she was recruited to be head of nursing at Impact Futures, a national private sector training provider. That role had barely started when the Covid pandemic struck and Mrs Kendrick immediately volunteered herself for the frontline, undergoing a re-training programme to prepare her for re-entering clinical wards after 15 years of teaching. Since then she has been working in ICU at the Burton Hospital NHS Trust. Impact Futures proudly shared a post of their 'Head of Nursing' in full PPE gear in ICU. A spokeswoman for the University of Wolverhampton confirmed that Mrs Kendrick had been a senior lecturer in nursing until February. According to an NHS England document published on April 2, there is 'no evidence that wearing uniforms outside work adds to infection risks' Ms Simpson was inundated with thousands of messages of support after she posted the video online, with one woman congratulating her for 'sticking up for yourself' Sharing footage of the incident to Facebook, Ms Simpson said she was 'disgusted' by the shopper's behaviour. She added: 'I know I'm an ugly crier, but this lady has just followed me around B&M shouting at me saying I'm not allowed in the shop because I'm in uniform. 'Apparently I'm not allowed to buy non-essential items, how does she know I'm not doing client's shopping? 'Apparently I spread germs before and after Corona, and she's reporting me to my manager who I've just spoken to, and they said I'm not doing anything wrong. 'We have worked so hard, no clients have Covid-19 so we are clearly doing something right. She shouted at me for a good ten minutes before I decided to film her because she was following me. 'No staff in the shop helped me, no one stuck up for me, a Polish couple told me not to cry bless them and said she's stupid. 'I feel really disgusted at this lady's behaviour, I have done nothing wrong.' According to an NHS England document published on April 2, there is 'no evidence that wearing uniforms outside work adds to infection risks.' It added, however, that 'public attitudes indicate it is good practice for staff to change at work or cover their uniforms as they travel to and from work.' VATICAN CITY (RNS) Tranquil on its surface, as COVID-19 has shut down nearly all activity in its churches, museums and offices, the Vatican has nonetheless been quietly dealing with its troubled finances during the pandemic. The worlds smallest state relies for revenue on a mix of donations, the sale of souvenirs and tickets to see its sites, along with investments. With the Vatican museums closed and donations down as its faithful face fears of a global recession, news reports continue to bubble up describing the Vaticans financial health as opaque, murky, scandalous and, more recently, at risk of default. A large portion of donations are made through Peters Pence, a worldwide collection that sustains the Churchs charitable works as well as supporting the offices and departments that make up the bureaucracy known as the Curia. Normally collected at the end of June, contributions to Peter's Pence will be postponed until October this year. But recession isn't the only threat to its charitable donations. For months Italian newspapers have been reporting a scandal concerning a dubious $200 million real estate investment in London that was paid for with funds from Peters Pence. Though its unclear how much the Vatican benefited from the investment, if at all, there is growing certainty that several middlemen pocketed significant proceeds from the deal with the knowledge of highly placed churchmen. Five lay Vatican employees have been arrested in the ongoing investigation. The Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera reported on Tuesday (May 19) that the Vatican had dismantled a network of holding companies in Switzerland and concentrated the resulting real estate and liquid assets worth at least $50 million into a single company named Profima SA. The realignment, which eliminated almost a dozen companies, can be read as an attempt to streamline and increase transparency in the little-known network that, the Corriere said, has survived, with its secrets and capital, seven popes. Two days later, on May 21, the Vatican announced that its accounting division, the Data Processing Center, would be separated from the Administration of the Patrimony for the Apostolic See, which administers the Vaticans real estate holdings, including Profima, and be placed under the supervision of the Secretariat for the Economy. Cardinal George Pell was the first to propose this idea when he was the head of the Secretariat for Economy in order to increase efficiency with the support of the former Auditor General Libero Milone. Pell was brought to his native Australia to face historic charges of sexual abuse of minors in July 2017 and was absolved of all charges last April. Of all the Vatican financial institutions, APSA is considered the least transparent and has been described by some Vatican observers as a hub of corruption. These moves point to a renewed commitment by Pope Francis to clean up financial systems with a long history of questionable practices and outright bad dealing. They also suggest that the power lines inside the walled city, which have contributed to the Vaticans schizophrenic approach to cleaning up its finances, may be shifting. It remains to be seen whether any reorganization can bring about the long-awaited Vatican financial reform that faithful religious laypeople have been demanding for decades. Article originally published by Religion News Service. Used with permission. Photo courtesy: RNS/David Iliff/Creative Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump said he is no longer taking anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible Covid-19 treatment. Trump repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as effective in the treatment of the deadly disease. In an interview broadcast on Sunday, the President said he completed taking a two-week course of the medicine. Defending his decision to take the drug, Trump told Sinclair Broadcasting: 'Well, I've heard tremendous reports about it. Many people think it saved their lives. Doctors come out with reports. You had a study in France, you had a study in Italy that were incredible studies,' 'I believe in it enough that I took a program because I had two people in the White House that tested positive,' he added. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has suspended trials of hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus amid safety concerns. It comes a week after a study in The Lancet underrated the benefits of hydroxychloroquine in treating coronavirus patients. According to the report in the medical journal, it might even prove dangerous than as a cure for the disease. The United States and some other countries are using Hydroxychloroquine as a life-saving measure against the coronavirus, but there is no conclusive scientific evidence that the tablets can cure the infection from the novel pathogen. U.S. hospitals are stockpiling Hydroxychloroquine after Trump called the drug a 'game changer' in the treatment of the coronavirus. India, which is one of the major manufacturers of the medicine, exported it to the United States on Trump's request. He was so badly in need of the medicine that he even threatened of repercussions on New Delhi if it doesn't respond favorably. Hydroxychloroquine is used to prevent and treat acute attacks of malaria. It is a chemotherapeutic agent that acts against erythrocytic forms of malarial parasites. It is also used to treat discoid or systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis in patients whose symptoms have not improved with other treatments. This medication is sometimes prescribed for other uses. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in March warned against the experimental usage of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. But in a U-turn on Tuesday, the government agency said it found the drug very effective and having less side effects for prophylaxis consumption for COVID-19. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Richard Friedman, co-chair of Mount Sinai Health System in New York, told CNBC on Tuesday that the prospect of the coronavirus in the fall will create a distinct set of challenges for hospitals and employers alike. Mount Sinai will be prepared for a resurgence of Covid-19 with its staffing plans and personal protective equipment supply, Friedman said on "Closing Bell." But, he said, "what will get complicated" in November and December is the presence of Covid-19 cases alongside seasonal influenza and the common cold. People may "start sneezing and coughing and they won't know, do I have a cold? Do I have a flu? Or do I have Covid?" said Friedman, who also is chairman of the merchant banking division at Goldman Sachs. Mount Sinai is working with companies to create "advisory assignments" in preparation for the fall, when many public health experts have warned there could be a second spike in cases, Friedman said. It will be "a very, very stressful period when their employees don't know what they have." "So that's what we're most worried about, about the next surge, is it will coincide with cold and flu season, and just no one knows how this is sort of going to meld together," Friedman said. "We're all going to learn, but Mount Sinai will be ready for this." Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a White House press briefing last month that U.S. officials were preparing for both the coronavirus and seasonal flu. "Next fall and winter, we're going to have two viruses circulating and we're going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus," Redfield said on April 22. Mount Sinai Health System has multiple locations across hard-hit New York City, which has 196,623 confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to the city's health department. Daily cases are trending downward as the city seeks to ease some virus-related restrictions on business in mid-June. "No more than 20% of our hospitals basically have Covid patients, and the other 80% has been cleaned and sanitized and is essentially reopened for mandatory or required kind of surgeries," Friedman said, adding that the next step is getting approval from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resume elective procedures. "That's what comes next, is for people to resume their normal health care, which is critical, because if people basically stop and don't go in for their procedures that they need to, that's going to create a bigger issue," Friedman said. The coronavirus crisis is dying down, and the murder rate is back in solid blue Chicago, but that hasn't stopped city officials from enforcing their "priorities." Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Sunday launched a police raid on a predominately black church for holding services in defiance of her coronavirus shutdown orders. Lightfoot allegedly dispatched three marked squad cars and two unmarked police vehicles full of officers to Chicago Cornerstone Baptist Church in the South Side's Woodlawn neighborhood. Cornerstone Pastor Courtney Lewis was in the middle of his sermon when he heard loud banging on the church's front doors. After discovering it was the police, he instructed the men of the church to lock the door and deny the officers entry, Todd Starnes reported. Lewis said he felt as if he was confronting "the Soviet-style KGB" as they continued banging on the door and demanding the church be shut down. This is pretty revolting just in itself after all, hadn't the ruling leftists in Chicago made a big stink about churches being sanctuaries from jackbooted federal government thugs in the matter of allowing illegal aliens to thumb their nose at the law with impunity? Suddenly, they're not sanctuaries. And suddenly, the left's hypocrisy is showing. Silvio Canto has more about this sudden change of the rules here. But perhaps even more problematic is the blue city's disgusting ordering of priorities. According to local station WGN-TV 9: CHICAGO COVID-19, stay-at-home orders and severe weather have not been enough to keep people inside and gun violence down. A shooting early Monday injured a 15-year-old girl. Police said she was grazed in the leg while standing on a porch in the 12000 block of South Wallace Street. It's among the latest shootings that's turned the Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago into one of the deadliest in recent years. At least nine people have been killed and 36 shot. The Chicago Tribune reported that Saturday was the deadliest day in Chicago with five people killed and 17 wounded. The murder and mayhem are back bigger than ever in already lawless Chicago, and the city government has decided to attack churches for social distancing violations. And they're doing it not as a matter of any real danger to the public the curve had flattened long ago but to demonstrate their power and compel obeisance. Killers, fine. Church services, no. And here we have a city that wonders why its killers think they can get away with anything they like. It's obvious because now the muscle of law enforcement is directed at churches, whose congregations are defying coronavirus lockdown orders, instead of actual killers. This Chicago idiocy goes California one better in its practice of letting killers and career criminals out on the streets before their terms end in order to stop them from getting COVID-19, while arresting and hauling off surfers and skateboarders to jail for social distancing violations instead. What's wrong with this picture? It is indeed a bad look for Democrats in itself, but it's actually a latently explosive one because the targets of the raids are black-majority churches, not white ones. That's a really bad look for Democrats, who are seeking to rally the black vote yet also are targeting the heart of the African-American community in their highly cherished churches. Black Democrats already have a host of reasons to walk away from the Democrats and join the Republicans as it is just ask Kanye West or Candace Owens. The incident earlier this week with Joe Biden telling black people they must vote for him or they'll lose their identities and become social pariahs is another reason why Democrats are walking away from Biden. The church raids, singling out black churches, have got to be a last straw. Churches are places to congregate, and the Chicago cops are getting out their truncheons and handcuffs to make sure black churches don't congregate. Already black radio hosts are thundering against this lunacy. Look for President Trump to draw even more black supporters to his side after this stupid maneuver. Attacking black churches can only spell trouble for the Democrats, who have prioritized this hypocrisy against all common sense. Image credit: YouTube screen shot. A protest against Beijings proposed National Security Law on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. The marchers hold up five fingers symbolizing their demands and hold signs saying "Heaven Is Eliminating the CCP." (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images) Why Beijing, in Act of Desperation, Wants to Completely Take Away Hong Kongs Freedom Commentary On May 24, more than 10,000 people took to the streets in Hong Kong after Beijing proposed at the annual meeting of its rubber-stamp legislature a new national security law custom made for the special administrative region. This is a move at once both carefully calculated and taken in a desperate spirit reminiscent of Russian roulette. If this law is passed, it is the end of the one country, two systems promised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Beijing will set up a national security office in Hong Kong. People can then be arbitrarily arrested and taken to the mainland to be prosecuted in a system with no rule of law; or they can be arrested and handled in Hong Kong, after the Hong Kong legal system is subverted and turned into a replica of the mainlands. Locals suspect military police have already been sent to Hong Kong. Beijing is taking this action after the mayhem unleashed by the pandemic, as more than 122 countries are calling for an investigation into how the CCP virus outbreak happened in China. Why take such a step in Hong Kong, knowing it will bring more international condemnation down upon the CCP? The Party has actually weighed the political and financial risks carefully. In the end, political safety appears more urgent and critical to the party. This September, Hong Kong will elect members to its legislature, the Legislative Council (LegCo). In the district election in November 2019, Beijing underestimated the stance of the Hong Kong people. Three hundred and eighty-eight seats went pro-democratic, while only 62 were held by pro-Beijing candidates. A similar result in the LegCo election would have a much bigger impact. The CCP cannot tolerate such a political challenge, and so it wants to take action now. Then, there are the protests. In April 2019, the CCP introduced an extradition bill, which, like the just-proposed national security legislation, was seen by Hongkongers as a bid to take away their civil rights. The CCP was shocked by the result: persistent mass protests for half a year. At times, an estimated 2 million people were out in the streets, something that has never happened before under the CCPs rule. The Party fears that if it cant get Hong Kong under control, the mainland will follow Hong Kongs example. Finally, Beijing feels it must act because of the severe political infighting happening between factions at the top level of the Party. Hong Kong has been a base for the mainland elite for more than two decades, including the opponents of CCP leader Xi Jinping. Hong Kong serves as a key hub: assets are held there, inside information is released there, and the city provides a convenient window for getting money out of China. The CCP has always used Hong Kong to do what it wants to do but cant do in the mainland. To many people, Hong Kong is like what West Berlin used to be. To Xi, it could be an anti-Xi base. Beijing arrested a Hong Kong bookseller who published a book that criticized Xi and billionaire Xiao Jianghua, who managed assets for the children of top Party leaders. There are more individuals Beijing would like to arrest, and the new national security law makes such arrests easy to accomplish. Beijings only window to access the international market is Hong Kong. Formerly a manufacturing center, Hong Kong has lost that business to the mainland and now only serves as a financial center. If the CCP puts Hong Kong under one country, one system, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe will take away its free port status. The only financial window Beijing has will be closed. For the CCP, this is suicidal. But the CCP has no good choices. Recently, its every move looks self-destructive. No wonder Hongkongers hold signs on the street reading Heaven Is Eliminating the CCP. Diana Zhang, Ph.D., is a staff writer with 20 years experience in the study of China. Based in the United States, she uses a pen name to protect her family members in China. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Jim Sturgess is on the 32nd floor of a high rise apartment building in Vancouver, Canada when he calls me. Like most other people in the world, his 2020 is not going the way he had originally planned. The British actor should be halfway through filming the second season of Apple TVs Home Before Dark, but instead he and his wife of barely a year, Dina Mousawi, are in lockdown in a rental apartment thousands of miles away from their home in London. Sturgess has been acting professionally since the early 2000s, making his silver screen debut as the lead role in the 2007 movie musical Across The Universe and has not stopped grafting since. Getty Images Over the years hes worked on blockbuster hits such as 21, Cloud Atlas and The Other Boleyn Girl, independent projects and multiple television series, being everything from a card shark to a detective to his latest role as journalist turned stay at home dad. Home Before Dark sees Sturgess stepping into a new role for him where his main scene partner is child actress Brooklynn Prince whose career started at the age of 7, starring opposite Williem Dafoe in The Florida Project. Jim Sturgess in 21 (2008) / Sony Pictures When Sturgess video calls me to discuss his role in Home Before Dark and how hes handling lockdown it feels like chatting with an old friend. Its unclear if this because weve both been lacking in outside human contact for so long now that any conversation out of the norm is welcome, or if Sturgess is always this warm of a person, I like to think its the latter. After two months of isolation and having some time for the world to digest the dark yet somehow family forward themes of his latest project, Sturgess has some very thought provoking things to say. Season two of Home Before Dark stopped filming mid-season due to the coronavirus - what are you up to now? I'm in Vancouver. We had started filming, and then we got shut down. We're all sitting here on hiatus waiting to find out what's going to happen next. We filmed about three episodes. We were in the middle of a scene, and they came in and said, "All right, we're going to have to shut the set down, and everybody's just going to go home." Apple TV+ Are you in a house with outdoor space or are you stuck in an apartment? I'm in a one-bedroom apartment on the 32nd floor of a big high rise building which is kind of amazing. We're able to go outside and go for a walk and stuff like that whenever you need, but it's hard being stuck in a one-bedroom flat that's not your own home. But on the flip side we do have views that are amazing that are keeping us sane at this point in time. Did you try to get back to England or had they shut the borders due to coronavirus before filming came to a halt? England had shut their borders already and even if I went back to England it would be very hard to come back again if we are able to get production back up on its feet. We were all kind of set to be here for the next six or so months anyway, so we all had apartments and everybody's kind of settled here. So most of the cast stayed in Vancouver. How was having a child actress as your main scene partner - was it a different experience? It is different. Of course Brooklynn [Prince] is just beyond amazing, and I knew very, very quickly that she was more than capable of getting to the places emotionally. But at the same time, she is eight years old, and you can't forget that. You have to try and keep everybody concentrated. I don't normally do a scene with another actress, and then when 'cut' is called, start playing around and making up songs and making up silly handshakes. There was just an extra layer, but I really enjoyed that. When I first watched The Florida Project, which is where I first saw Brooklynn acting, I knew that she was amazing. You started acting when you were young, but you didn't start in Hollywood until you were in your twenties... I did a few bits and pieces, some theater stuff back home. Then I sort of lost interest in it a bit. I was more into skateboarding and music and hanging out with friends. Then I picked it up again when I went back to university, and then I really got sucked into acting, as well as filmmaking. So I definitely have memories of being quite a young age and being involved in a theater production and memories of the older actors in those productions taking care. I really cherish those relationships I had with some of the older actors when I was younger. You've played a dad in shows before, but it's never been the main trait of a character that you've played. Did you have to approach this role really differently than past roles youve done? No more than any other role that you take on has a different set of rules on how you approach it because it's a different part, it's a different situation, it's a different dynamic. I didn't feel there was any difference in that. But I did really enjoy being a part of a family and making that family feel as real as possible. I remember really early on we did some scenes in the kitchen with the whole family, and I remember thinking how the energy had this sort of alive, kind of phonetic energy that a family has. It did make me think a lot about my own childhood. I remember those big family breakfasts where everything's chaotic, and people are all trying to rush off to school and getting their bags packed and eating breakfast at the same time. What do you make of the 'hot Dad' comments? I haven't seen them, but I'm very pleased. It's nice to hear! I think I was a bit nervous to play a dad. I wanted to make sure if you're going to do it, it was going to be in the right context and that it was going to be something interesting and it wasn't just a 'generic TV dad', that there was something sort of interesting about the character. Do you use social media much? I have an Instagram account, I like taking pictures, so I enjoy posting there. Instagram, for me I like the fact that you can promote your own work on it. A lot of us make independent films that don't get huge distribution deals. I've found loads of music and loads of films because of the people that I follow on Instagram that I wouldn't have necessarily found because theres no big poster campaign or there's no big online support for the project. Do you have any projects in the works that you're working on or are you mainly focusing on Home Before Dark? Home Before Dark took up a lot of time last year. I then shot an independent film straight after in Georgia. That's one of the great things about acting is you can travel to places that you would probably never normally go to. It's tucked right underneath Russia in between Russia and Turkey, so it's got Eastern European and Middle Eastern influences. I really fell in love with the place and met some incredible people and made some really great friends. It couldn't have been a further experience from shooting something like Home Before Dark. I was shooting some weird independent film in this beautiful but very unique country. And I literally did it straight off the back of doing Home Before Dark. I pretty much went from one set to the next. But it was great. And then it was really nice to have done that, and then I was able to take a bit of time off and spend some time back home in London. Do you get recognized a lot or can you go around without being stopped? I've always felt like I can go out and about. Particularly back home in London it's like nothing ever happened, which I found confusing at the beginning. But as time went on, I realized it was a real blessing, I could be pretty anonymous. I feel I'm probably more recognized in America than I am back home. Sturgess with Ed Harris and director Jim Weir on the set of The Way Back (2010) / Newmarket Films Which actor has been a real inspiration to you? I shot a movie called The Way Back with Ed Harris, which was about a bunch of prisoners who escaped a Soviet labor camp in the second world war. It's a true story about how the guys walked from Siberia to India. So the actors and the cast we were on set all day every day with each other, and we were the only people in the film. We were with each other all day every day out in the wilderness, in the woods and climbing deserts and mountains. It was a bigger experience than just making a film. Ed Harris was one of the other actors in the film, and we spent three months all day every day together. And we learned a lot from him, became good friends and have remained friends since. He was somebody that I really looked up to as a young actor. P lans by some continental countries to to lift restrictions on tourism sent shares in TUI, easyJet and Ryanair surging on Tuesday, spelling hopes of a broader revival in battered consumer stocks. Travel stocks rose on plans to start reopening hotels and beaches in Spain in July and consumer shares were firmly in the green after a flurry of activity by governments to reopen got the thumbs- up from financial markets. The elite FTSE 100 index, recovering from its worst sell-off since 1987, rallied to its highest level in 11 weeks, mirroring similar strong gains seen across Europe. Airline shares led the index after Spain, a magnet for UK sunseekers and Europes second-busiest travel destination with 80 million visitors, on Saturday urged tourists to flock back when restrictions are lifted in July 1. The German government is also reportedly planning to ease a travel ban on 31 countries, paving the way for German tourists to go abroad on holiday again. UK travellers are still advised by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office not to travel abroad unless the trip is essential. TUI, the worlds largest tourism company, was the biggest riser gaining a staggering 38% while British Airways owner IAG and easyJet also rose by double digits. The German government bailout of Lufthansa, set to be announced today, also helped lift sentiment. Europes largest airline Ryanair welcomed Spains move and backed its decision to scrap the quarantine period for holidaymakers jetting in, which has become a source of tension for the airline sector. While still fragile compared with pre-Covid-19 activity, signs of life in the moribund consumer sector and ongoing hopes of a vaccine are slowly lifting investor sentiment around the battered economy. The specialist FTSE 350 Travel & Leisure index, which tracks the UKs largest consumer stocks, was up 7% today led by some of the hardest-hit consumer stocks, like pub chain Mitchell & Butlers and Cineworld. As they are are at the sharp end of the crisis pubs and cinemas could be the last to reopen they have become a proxy for Covid-19 investor sentiment and the rally points to more optimism of an economic recovery sooner rather than later. M&B rose 25% and Cineworld 23%. The FTSE 100 was up 1.56% or 93.53 points to 6,086.81 and the pound rose one cent to $1.2288 on hopes of a recovery for the UK economy. Car showrooms and open air markets are set to be allowed to reopen on Monday under the UK government plan. Marshall Motors, a 98-strong dealership chain which works on behalf of manufacturers likes of BMW and Maserati, said staff were going back to work now to prepare for the reopening. The company said it would follow health and safety guidelines to help people safe when the doors reopen. Shares rose 9% Meerut : , May 26 (IANS) An Instagram post, purportedly uploaded by Shubham Malik, son of Umesh Malik, BJP MLA from Budhana in Muzaffarnagar, has created an uproar. The post, which has now been deleted, 'unfairly' compared India and the US on various parameters, largely socio-cultural aspects. Shubham is currently pursuing his studies at the Michigan University and has been in the US for the past five years. MLA Umesh Malik has now filed a police complaint claiming his son's ID was hacked and some people are trying to tarnish his social and political image. "His social account has been hacked and his video and posts have been wrongfully edited and is being spread on social media. Using my son's name, people are trying to blemish my political and societal reputation," Malik said in his complaint. The MLA told local reporters that, "Someone hacked my son's account. I have sent a complaint to the Civil Lines police station for further action. The post mentions a comparison of eight years, but he has been in America only for the past five years. The one who hacked his account was not aware of the fact and wrote eight instead of five." Umesh Malik further said, "My son is currently in America and he has already registered to come back home. He is a big fan of Modi ji, Yogi ji and our country. I have been a worker of the BJP and RSS and the same culture and family values are instilled in him." Meanwhile, an FIR under relevant sections of IT Act has been registered. "We have received a complaint from MLA Umesh Malik regarding his son's account being hacked. We will look into it and take appropriate steps," said Satpal Antil, Superintendent of Police (city), Muzaffarnagar. Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston Courtesy photo by Mary Favre The Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce believes that the future success of the regions workforce is tied directly to the success of higher education. Each year, the chamber assembles a panel of local college representatives for a discussion on the State of Higher Education in the area. This years address will be free to attend, and will take place via Zoom webinar on June 26 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Weve asked the leadership of all of our higher ed to come and talk about what's going on within their educational community, said Keri Schmidt, president and CEO of the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce. Obviously, this year is going to be quite interesting as we will be hearing about how these schools are adjusting to the rapidly changing times. As every investor would know, not every swing hits the sweet spot. But you want to avoid the really big losses like the plague. So take a moment to sympathize with the long term shareholders of iSelect Limited (ASX:ISU), who have seen the share price tank a massive 90% over a three year period. That would certainly shake our confidence in the decision to own the stock. And the ride hasn't got any smoother in recent times over the last year, with the price 66% lower in that time. The falls have accelerated recently, with the share price down 42% in the last three months. However, one could argue that the price has been influenced by the general market, which is down 21% in the same timeframe. We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway. See our latest analysis for iSelect Given that iSelect didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth. Over the last three years, iSelect's revenue dropped 8.5% per year. That's not what investors generally want to see. Having said that the 54% annualized share price decline highlights the risk of investing in unprofitable companies. We're generally averse to companies with declining revenues, but we're not alone in that. Don't let a share price decline ruin your calm. You make better decisions when you're calm. You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values). ASX:ISU Income Statement May 25th 2020 This free interactive report on iSelect's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further. Story continues A Different Perspective While the broader market lost about 12% in the twelve months, iSelect shareholders did even worse, losing 66%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 32% over the last half decade. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Even so, be aware that iSelect is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant... Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges. Love or hate this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 19:08:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong-Macao entrepreneur Stanley Ho Hung-sun passed away here on Tuesday afternoon at the age of 98, his family announced. Ho died at around 1:00 p.m. local time at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, his daughter Pansy Ho Chiu-king said at a media briefing outside the hospital. Born in Hong Kong in November, 1921, Ho had served as member of the Standing Committee of the ninth to 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Ho had also served as member of the Basic Law Consultative Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). He was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2010. Chief Executive of the HKSAR Carrie Lam expressed deep condolences to Ho's family on behalf of the HKSAR government in a statement. Lam hailed Ho's contributions to Hong Kong, including his participation in the development of Hong Kong's community service and donations to charity organizations, schools and establishment of leisure and cultural facilities. Enditem Scott Morrison has announced industrial relations reform. The last time a federal government tried wholesale workplace reform it triggered rallies against it. Images: Getty Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dumped his governments controversial union-busting bill while announcing industrial relations reform as part of the governments economic recovery plan. Morrison said the Ensuring Integrity Bill, which was an attempt to crack down on alleged union misconduct, would be shelved as a sign of good faith. The bill would have cleared the way for unions or union officials to be deregistered if the Federal Court found them guilty of inappropriate conduct. Morrison also flagged industrial reform changes. Our industrial relations system has settled into a complacency of unions seeking marginal benefits and employers closing down risks, often by simply not employing anyone, he said. The system has lost sight of its purpose to get the workplace settings right, so the enterprise - the business - can succeed, so everybody can fairly benefit from their efforts and their contributions. It is a system that has, to date, retreated to tribalism, conflict, and ideological posturing. No side of that debate has been immune from those maladies. This will need to change. Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter will head up a job-making agenda which will include discussions between employers, employee representatives, industry groups and government. Across five working groups, Porter will aim at achieving award simplification and changes to the way enterprise agreements are made. The groups will also look at how casuals operate within the workplace system, wage theft and union conduct. The five working groups will carry out discussions until September. The purpose is simple and honest - to explore and hopefully find a pathway to sensible, long-lasting reform, with just one goal - make jobs, Morrison said. To maximise the opportunity for a genuine course of negotiation, and compromise and cooperation that is vital to create jobs and chart an economic path back to what is mutually beneficial prosperity. Story continues WorkChoices 2.0: Scott Morrison faces challenges This is the first time in around 13 years that a national government has embarked on a broad campaign of industrial relations reform, following the politically damaging WorkChoices program championed by the Howard government in 2006. WorkChoices was unpopular as it allowed for businesses with fewer than 100 employees to dismiss workers without facing unfair dismissal claims, among other changes. While Morrison today said he has been genuinely heartened by how unions, employers, employees and the government have worked to keep Australians in jobs, he said the working groups may not reach a consensus by the September deadline. However, deputy Labor leader Richard Marles described the industrial relations reform campaign as something that would send a chill down the spine of every Australian worker. We welcome the shelving of the Ensuring Integrity Bill. Sure, it's a good thing to get people around the table. But I can tell you there's a lot more to industrial relations than simply booking the room, he said. He said there was a lot unsaid about the reform plan and called for Morrison to be clear about what simplifying awards will mean. Australians also described it as a return to WorkChoices. Award simplification? Sounds like WorkChoices in a new media release, Twitter user William Constable said. Award simplification? Sounds like WorkChoices in a new media release. william constable (@wilfrog1968) May 26, 2020 Seems to me like Scott Morrisons JobMaker announcement is really just WorkChoices 2.0, added Emma Brown. Seems to me like @ScottMorrisonMP JobMaker announcement is really just WorkChoices 2.0 Em Brown (@Emma_Brown) May 26, 2020 Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sally McManus said the ACTU will measure industrial relations reform on whether it gives working people better job security and if it leads workers to receiving their fair share of the countrys wealth. The work of job creating will involve much more than industrial law changes and we will continue to put forward ideas on Australia can create good, secure jobs for workers, she said. The Ensuring Integrity legislation is symbolic of the politics of the past, we welcome it being withdrawn. We will make sure the voice of working people continues to be at the table, as we have been throughout the crisis, as we rebuild the economy. Follow Yahoo Finance Australia on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. WA Health Minister Roger Cook has clarified the states aim in its fight against COVID-19 is to suppress it with a vengeance and stop it from reaching the general public. His comments followed conflicting health advice between the federal and WA government on state border closures leading to speculation WA authorities were quietly trying to eliminate the virus. WA Health Minister Roger Cook says WA's plan is to "suppress COVID-19 was a vengeance". Credit:AAP Nationally, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated the countrys strategy is to suppress and control coronavirus to ensure the health system can manage the intake of positive cases while allowing the economy to recover. WA's suppression of the virus to date has been so successful five out of the seven cases detected in May came from international travellers who had been staying in hotel quarantine while the other two had close contact with returned travellers, indicating there was little if any community spread. - The government has gradually pumped KSh 5 billion in Rivatex East Africa Limited as part of the clothe maker's revival efforts - The revival gives farmers an option of what to cultivate underscoring the importance of diversification in agribusiness - President Uhuru has been strongly advocating for Buy Kenya Build Kenya policy and regularly dons shirts made from Rivatex Maize, wheat and dairy farming in the Rift Valley and Kenya in general has been facing numerous challenges right from high cost of inputs, shortage of inputs during planting season, pests and disease and mostly poor market prices that hardly match the effort. This trend has discouraged many farmers who have opted to side step into horticultural farming which has equally faced lots of challenges like yields meeting international standards for markets in Europe and US. READ ALSO: Police arrest Nyeri MCA Wamumbi whose wife's body was found in dam Daily operations at the Eldoret-based Rivatex. The company is waking up from its deep slumber. Photo: Michael Ollinga/TUKO.co.ke. Source: Original READ ALSO: You're forgiven son: Raila Odinga instructs ODM not to punish Ledama after he apologises There is a ray of hope though in the cotton farming industry which collapsed in past decades due to poor market prices and closure of textile manufacturing industries. The government has gradually pumped KSh 5 billion in Rivatex East Africa Limited (REAL) which was taken over by Moi University to revive the cotton industry and offer an alternative for farmers in the country. READ ALSO: Opinion: Kenyans must be ready for new world order as Uhuru prepares to reopen economy Rivatex thanks Uhuru for being number one customer, buying shirts from them Source: Original READ ALSO: Video ya jamaa akimzomea mkewe aliyemnyima asali kwa miaka 2 yatamba mtandaoni TUKO.co.ke sat down with Rivatex managing director Thomas Kipkurgat in a Question and Answer session to get a clear view on what this revival means to local farmers. Among other things, Kipkurgat said it is time for farmers to increase acreage for cotton because there is a huge demand from the modern facility that roared back to life and is churning out quality, affordable and attractive apparels including President Uhuru Kenyattas famous shirts. 1. Is the revival of Rivatex a new ray of hope for maize farmers who have been decrying numerous challenges including poor market prices? The revival gives farmers an option of what to cultivate and at what value. The importance of diversification is that, it gives an individual an opportunity to focus on more than one crop thus be able to reap maximum gains. Our revival is a ray of hope for not only maize farmers but individuals who rely on one crop. A significant number of farmers have gone back to till their farms and plant cotton in place of cereals because of the assurance that they have a ready market. READ ALSO: Angry Kisii man lectures wife for denying him conjugal rights for 2 years in viral video Rivatex boss Kipkurgat said it is time for farmers to increase acreage for cotton because there is a huge demand from the modern facility. Photo: Michael Ollinga/TUKO.co.ke. Source: Original As one way of supporting farmers, we have been giving them free seeds and pesticides. So far we have been able to sensitise more than 22 counties on the need to plant cotton as one way of diversifying from other crops such as maize and wheat. 2. The president has been strongly advocating for Buy Kenya Build Kenya and regularly dons shirts made here. What is the response of other Kenyans towards supporting locally manufactured textiles? This is a new phenomenon which is slowly being inculcated in the minds of Kenyans. With time I am optimistic we shall get even more positive feedback because so far we are doing well. Gradually, more Kenyans will rally around need to support local products. The notion was that imported textiles were the best thus most of them looked overseas for quality. We are reversing this notion by producing quality local apparels at affordable prices and so far it is working. Most Kenyans are believing that they dont need to depend on second hand clothes imported from abroad when they can afford quality apparels locally. We thank President Uhuru Kenyatta for standing firm on his quest to see Kenyans embrace locally manufactured clothes. 2. What are the main challenges the textile industry is facing? For many years, the textile industrys challenge has been shortage of raw materials. We are now optimistic though that most farmers are enlightened through continued efforts by government and key stakeholders to educate them on the need to plant cotton. Though their production is not adequate, we are hopeful that soon, we shall be relying fully on their raw materials. This will in turn see a robust improvement in their livelihoods through the backward and forward integration chain. 3. People like boasting of imported suits and clothes, what's your view on this trend? They have a right to do so at the moment but they should understand that there are life dynamics that often change. An example is the current pandemic that has seen most countries close their borders making importing and exporting tedious and expensive. This is the right time for Kenyans to look home and be proud of products from their companies which are very affordable and of high quality. We should focus on growing our economy by embracing new designs made by our citizens. We have amazing dressmakers in Kenya and they can only get better 4. What is the place of youths at Rivatex? What courses could give those in colleges and universities relevance to work in Rivatex or the textile industry in general? Youths hold a special place in every economy being energetic, more creative, ambitious and skilled in new technologies. They constitute a bigger percentage of the population and are among the most skilled and that is why at our facility, those in operations are our youths both men and women. Most of them have the technical based skills like operating machines and design which are relevant to our facility. Similarly, we also have a training school which is instrumental in imparting practical skills. There are institutions such as Moi University that offers bachelors degree and diploma in textile courses. 5. On a light note! Do you give some commission to the president for being your number one brand ambassador? That is our little secret. But we are always grateful for his bold gesture. It means a lot to us because through his resolve to wear our shirts through the Made in Kenya Friday Wear initiative, our facility has become a centre of attraction from clients and potential clients. Most leaders in the political circles have followed suit and are making orders for their custom made apparels or something close to the presidents wear. President Uhuru wearing a shirt he bought from Rivatex. The Head of State directed all pubic servants to don local wears every Friday. Photo: Michael Ollinga/TUKO.co.ke. Source: Facebook 6. Which other politician supports the industry more? The ministry of Trade and Industry and MPs drawn from committees affiliated to this ministry have been instrumental in supporting us achieve growth. Similarly, most leaders from different political affiliations and regions have continued to show us huge support and we shall continue partnering with them even as we scale the heights through our eye catching apparels. 7. Tell us about the new machines launched by the president - their efficiency and advantages At the moment, the facility produces 40,000 metres of finished fabric daily with a capacity of producing more than 100,000 metres in the same duration depending on the demand. This is besides the increase in the number of spindles per day from the initial 500 to 16,800. Initially, the facility used to consume less than 10,000 bales of cotton annually. However, with the commissioning of the new machines, the company has been able to take up huge orders from the government such as supplying superior fabrics for the National Police Service, county hospitals, Kenya Power, Geothermal Development Company, KEMSA, Ministry of Defence and many more others. Modernisation of the factory has significantly increased the production capacity and diversification of product range and outfits in the cloth line. We are having more attractive designs targeting both local and global markets. The faculty has invested on quality assurance and control, which ensures all the products are fully tested and checked to meet international standards. 8. Potential clients say your fabrics are expensive and thus a preserve for certain classes in the society. How true is this? That is not true and might be claims made by those who have not interacted with our fabrics. The prices are favourable to any citizen and give them value for their money. We have an array of apparels such as khangas, kitenge, bed sheets, suiting materials (for knitting suits), curtains, bags, overalls, shirting materials and camouflage among others. These are in our shops spread in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret and are trading at very affordable prices. 9. What are the current cotton prices? The prices are dictated by global cotton regulators and have been increasing each year. This trend should encourage farmers that cotton is the new gold away from maize and wheat. Demand and supply chains play a critical role in determining market prices. We have prospects as African countries of quantity and quality because of availability of land and improvement on seed varieties. 10. In which counties can cotton be grown in terms of suitable weather and soils? We have done sensitisation in 22 counties where this crop can thrive. These counties with suitable soils and climatic conditions for cotton farming are Siaya,Homa Bay, Busia, Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot, Kilifi, Makueni, Kisumu, Kirinyaga, Meru, Isiolo, Kitui, Bungoma, Lamu, Kericho, Tharaka Nithi, Muranga, Embu, Machakos, Kwale and Tana River. 11. Police uniform deal: How's the progress? We were given an order to produce 60,000 metres of fabric for the police force and we successfully completed that. This gave our government a clear indicator that local manufacturing sectors are in a position to do more thus no need to dwell on imports. We are currently engaging other disciplined forces and soon we shall be making all the camouflage apparels at our facility. 12. What role are you playing in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 pandemic Since government announced the first case of COVID 19, as a textile facility we stepped in and began producing Personal Protective Equipment like masks and protective clothes. Currently, we produce more than 40,000 pieces of face masks in a day. So far we have distributed them across the country and beyond. The demand also saw us adopt a 24 hour production regime through our dedicated staff. Story by Mercy Chebet, TUKO.co.ke correspondent in Uasin Gishu county. Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690. Contact Tuko.co.ke instantly. I slept with multiple women, did all sorts of drugs before God changed me - Pastor Chris Chege - TUKO.co.ke. Source: TUKO.co.ke Researchers led by Osaka University show that collagen maturation regulates the availability of PEDF, a secreted protein that influences whether a cell lives or dies Osaka, Japan - Cells are like tiny self-contained machines that are constantly fine-tuned in response to both internal and external signals. Some of these signals are induced by extracellular ligands, specialized proteins that bind to specific receptors on the cell surface, stimulating signaling pathways and altering gene expression. One such ligand, called pigment epithelium-derived factor, or PEDF for short, is involved in multiple biological functions. Depending on which of its many cellular receptors it binds to, and even the timing of the binding, PEDF can either promote cell survival or trigger cell death. But until recently, researchers had no idea how PEDF itself was regulated. In a study published in scientific journal PNAS, a research team led by Osaka University finally explain how cells make sure PEDF is in the right place at the right time. "Previous studies had shown that collagen binding is very important for the function of PEDF," explains lead author of the study Kazuki Kawahara. "Therefore, we investigated the influence of collagen binding on the function of PEDF by examining the crystal structure of PEDF in complex with collagen." Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in the web-like structure called the extra-cellular matrix that surrounds human cells. This tangle of proteins and carbohydrates not only helps hold cells together, but also allows them to communicate with one another. As cells mature, the collagen matrix undergoes remodeling, characterized by tighter binding between collagen fibrils. "The crystal structure revealed that PEDF binds to a cryptic site on the surface of type I collagen, where it is sequestered away from the cellular receptors," says Kawahara. However, the researchers also found that a lysine residue in the binding site is involved in the crosslinking of collagen chains during collagen remodeling. "We showed that PEDF binds to newly synthesized collagen but is gradually displaced as crosslinking increases," says senior author Yuji Kobayashi. "In this way, collagen controls the spatiotemporal accessibility of PEDF, regulating its interaction with target cell surface receptors." PEDF has known anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic activities. Interestingly, the researchers found that PEDF selectively destroys developing vessels by binding to the newly synthesized collagen that is abundant on endothelial cells, which may then allow interaction with cellular receptors. This activity likely helps maintain homeostasis during tissue remodeling. The researchers hope that this new information on the spatiotemporal control of PEDF will help in the development of novel therapies for cancer and vascular disease, as well as in the design of therapeutic biomaterials that target angiogenesis. ### The article, "Spatiotemporal regulation of PEDF signaling by type I collagen remodeling," was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004034117. About Osaka University Osaka University was founded in 1931 as one of the seven imperial universities of Japan and now has expanded to one of Japan's leading comprehensive universities. The University has now embarked on open research revolution from a position as Japan's most innovative university and among the most innovative institutions in the world according to Reuters 2015 Top 100 Innovative Universities and the Nature Index Innovation 2017. The university's ability to innovate from the stage of fundamental research through the creation of useful technology with economic impact stems from its broad disciplinary spectrum. Website: https://resou.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/top A fire and explosion led to abrupt closure of the PES refinery in South Philadelphia. Hilco, the Chicago developer buying the property has a mixed track record. Read more The General Motors Stamping Plant was the economic engine that powered tiny Ontario, Ohio, for half a century, until GM declared bankruptcy and abruptly shut down the factory 10 years ago. About 1,250 people lost their jobs. In 2012, two developers, one from Chicago and another from Florida, bought the Ontario property from a GM trust whose mission is to help local communities recover from the automakers closures. It didnt turn out so well for the north central Ohio city of 6,000 residents. "The wheels fell off the whole thing, said Mark Weidemyre, a former city councilman and chair of the citys economic development committee. The developers walked away from the project in 2018, after demolishing and selling off most of the buildings. The Chicago company that initiated the Ontario deal, Hilco Global, has a long history of buying and salvaging distressed businesses and real estate. It is much sought after by corporate clients, including Exelon Generation and PSEG Power in New Jersey, to unload surplus industrial property. But its record as a developer is mixed. Hilcos latest acquisition is the 1,300-acre Philadelphia Energy Solutions property in South Philadelphia, the largest oil refinery on the East Coast before it shut down last June after a devastating fire. A subsidiary, Hilco Redevelopment, is buying PES out of bankruptcy for $252 million. The sale is set to close around the end of the month. Hilco officials have not publicly articulated a plan for the PES property a Hilco spokesperson declined to respond to written questions for this article, saying the company is under a legal commitment to refrain from comments until the sale closes. Hilco officials have told city officials and neighborhood activists they want to redevelop the land as a mixed-used industrial park, possibly warehouses. Its also likely Hilco will retain many of the sites fuel storage tanks, which have grown in value with the recent plunge in oil prices. Philadelphia officials, who met Hilco executives before the bankruptcy court auction, seemed relieved that Hilco did not plan to restart the refinery, which had employed 1,100 people, but also was the citys largest source of air pollution and had become the target of climate activists. Brian Abernathy, the citys managing director, in January said his initial research suggested Hilco has a great track record. Epic turnaround tale Hilco Redevelopments portfolio of projects includes dismantling or repurposing power plants in Boston, Chicago, and New Jersey, and demolishing a Sony Factory, a Cooper Tire plant, and numerous auto plants. In recent years it has begun to acquire existing office buildings, particularly in suburban Boston, acting more like a commercial landlord. Its signature project, the overhaul of the bankrupt Sparrows Point steel mill property near Baltimore as a modern warehouse distribution hub, is featured prominently on the companys website. A Bloomberg Businessweek article last year called the former Bethlehem Steel mills transformation an epic turnaround tale," and focused on Hilco Redevelopments chief executive, Roberto Perez. The project, now renamed Tradepoint Atlantic, is impressive indeed. In the last three years, gigantic warehouses and distribution centers for Amazon, FedEx, Home Depot, Volkswagen, and Under Armour have sprung up on cleared parts of the 3,100-acre property, along with new roads and infrastructure. Remediation and redevelopment is continuing. But Hilco has had only a secondary role in the redevelopment. Since 2014, the steel mill project was taken over by Redwood Capital Investments LLC. The investment firm is owned by Baltimore billionaire James C. Davis, the low-profile founder of the staffing firm Allegis Group who grew up near Philadelphia. He may be best known here for his $50 million donation to the Villanova School of Business in 2013, the largest gift in the universitys history. Redwood Capital acquired a majority interest in Tradepoint Atlantic in September 2014," said Doug Mayer, a Tradepoint Atlantic spokesperson. "Since that point, the redevelopment, environmental remediation, construction, business recruitment, and general management of the site has been conducted by Tradepoint Atlantic employees. Tradepoint Atlantic officials declined to discuss the steel mill redevelopment, saying it has no relationship to Hilcos acquisition of the Philadelphia refinery. Environmental advocates and community leaders in nearby Dundalk say they dont really know Hilco. "All our interactions are with Tradepoint, its not really with Hilco, said Amy Menzer, executive director of Dundalk Renaissance, a community development nonprofit. Hilco owns about 15% of Tradepoint Atlantic, according to filings in a federal lawsuit between Tradepoint Atlantic and an industrial neighbor over environmental liabilities. Hilcos primary potential interest in the property pertains to certain above-grade assets from the former steel mill, Judge J. Frederick Motz wrote in a 2017 memorandum in the case. Hilco, however, does gets credit for initially conceptualizing the steel mill redevelopment. Hilco and another partner bought the property out of bankruptcy in 2012 for $72 million Hilco owned only the buildings and equipment above ground, and the other company, Commercial Development Co. Inc., owned the land itself. But the demolition of the steel mill site under Hilcos watch was problematic, resulting in a $5 million settlement in 2015 with Maryland environmental regulators over alleged violation of water pollution, erosion and sediment control, solid waste, hazardous waste, oil control, and asbestos laws. But by the time the settlement was announced, the project had been taken over by Redwood Capital, which had committed $48 million to remediate Sparrows Point. "We are encouraged that the new local ownership group has reached an agreement with the Maryland Department of the Environment and the EPA that clears the first hurdle to redevelopment of this important industrial property, then-Baltimore County executive Kevin Kamenetz said in 2014. In Ohio, Hilco and its partner, the Adler Group of Florida, took over the shuttered GM plant amid great optimism. The developers said they had lined up prospective tenants who promised to hire more than a thousand workers to move into the former factory. Ecstatic local and state officials gathered with the buyers to celebrate the momentous rebirth of the plant, renamed the Ontario Business Park. But the new jobs never materialized. Against the advice of the sellers, the developers demolished most of the plants buildings nearly 2.5-million square feet of space and sold the material for scrap. Unable to attract new tenants, the developers later transferred the property to the city to settle litigation over the failure to meet job-generation targets. I think they netted between $4 million and $6 million from the scrap after including the costs of the teardown, said Weidemyre, the former chair of Ontarios economic development committee. In 2018, the city of Ontario took title to a now vacant 266-acre property, which formerly represented 40% of its tax base. It got zero new jobs. We wanted jobs, said Weidemyre. Thats what the city was all about." Developer or liquidator? Hilco is frequently called in to liquidate some of the nations best-known business failures. With an expected wave of store closures from the coronavirus crisis, it has already issued a call for new clients among distressed retailers looking to liquidate. Hilcos founder and chief executive, Jeffrey B. Hecktman, a colorful executive who enlisted Sting to perform at his daughters wedding, was introduced to the world of liquidation after his familys Chicago industrial supply business went bankrupt in 1986. He went on to liquidate Montgomery Ward & Co. and part of the Sears catalog operation. The intellectual horsepower thats sitting in this company is unparalleled, Hecktman told Crains Chicago business in 2007. We can get to a deal quicker because of our 'Delta Force mentality. In 2007, Hilco went into partnership with the now disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein to buy the distressed fashion house Halston. Weinstein exited the business four years later, and Hilco eventually sold off the iconic Halston brand names. Hilcos bread-and-butter business is typically more mundane. Its record as a liquidator is efficient. Using contractors, it rapidly dismantles old sites and finds buyers for anything it can sell equipment, building materials, intellectual property and trademarks, even the soil, if theres a buyer. It uses a wide range of channels to sell the stuff private sales, auctions, and large on-site public sales. But its methods have irked some neighbors. Its implosion of a towering smokestack at a former coal power plant in Chicago last month, which sent a cloud of dust over a low-income neighborhood already under COVID-19 lockdown, irked activists, who called for a criminal investigation of the toxins released by the demolition. Hilco apologized. The subsidiary that is acquiring the PES refinery, Hilco Redevelopment, is one of about 20 operating units under Hilco Global. It says it acquires and redevelops complex real estate assets, and has $2.5 billion in property assets under management. The refinery site is an immensely complex property that presents an opportunity to replace a business that has run its course, creating a new development on the citys southern gateway. Its closure sparked a round of wishful speculation that a dirty fossil-fuel industry might be replaced with clean-energy producers, or even parks. But the property is contaminated after more than 150 years of processing fuel and requires environmental remediation. It is subject to deed restrictions that limit development to non-residential use with limited public access. The PES cleanup is further complicated because responsibility for remediation of any damage that occurred before 2012 belongs to the previous owner, Sunoco Inc., which transferred the property that year to Philadelphia Energy Solutions. Evergreen Resources Group is managing Sunocos remediation efforts. Hilco has hired teams of environmental lawyers and is negotiating with Evergreen over remediation, but no agreement has been announced.. It is our understanding that Hilco is in discussions with both PES and Evergreen/Sunoco on who is responsible for what, and how to coordinate the redevelopment with the cleanup that will be done, Mike Dunn, a city spokesperson, said in an email. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are responsible for reviewing and approving a final plan. Hilcos involvement with the PES site remediation differs from its approach in the Sparrows Point project, where it brought in Commercial Development Co. as its initial partner specifically to take on cleanup responsibilities. Hilco wanted to buy the whole site, but they wouldnt buy it with environmental contamination, Michael Roberts, the chief executive of CDC, testified in a federal lawsuit brought by a former employee who claimed he was owed a sales commission on the 2014 sale to Redwood Capital. "They just absolutely refused to even go there. Roberts testimony sheds some light on Hilcos business methods. CDC put up about $25 million of the initial $72 million purchase price -- Hilco covered the rest. Roberts said his company aimed to clean up the site and sell out to a developer. Hilcos aim was to salvage anything of value, all the equipment, anything salable, Roberts said. The steel mills previous owners, RG Steel Sparrows Point, left behind a gold mine for a liquidator like Hilco, including rolls of finished steel and a blast furnace that was later dismantled and sold overseas. When RG Steel went bankrupt, they literally locked the doors and walked away, said Roberts. "They kept on security, but there was iron, caterpillar tractors, 'dozers, cranes. There was a hundred years of equipment there. It was just unbelievable, the equipment there. There was 30 train engines, 400 train cars. It was a massive project. After the 2012 sale closed, Roberts said the Hilco team flew from Chicago in a private jet for a celebration dinner at a St. Louis restaurant. At the dinner, Hilco executives suggested that Hilco would be interested in eventually acquiring the entire property. They said as long as you guys take care of all the environmental, were definitely interested in buying the property, Roberts said. Roberts said the two partners discussed a sales price of about $200 million. But as a year of joint ownership stretched out, CDC, which was responsible for the carrying costs of the property, began to feel the pain from $10 million in annual ongoing utility payments that were based on an operating steel mill -- not a demolition site. "We didnt know what we were getting into early on, so we were, we were sweating it, Roberts testified. I think, looking back on it, that Hilco knew that it was slowly choking us out, Roberts testified. "So then they started playing the negotiating waiting game. And they were trying to bleed us out. Commercial Development Co. eventually sold the property to the entity headed by Redwood Capital for $110 million. Roberts said his company made between $60 million and $65 million on the deal. We made money on the sale, but it wasnt easy, he testified. If we had done our proper due diligence, we probably would have never bought the property. Roberts story about getting squeezed by Hilco apparently found little sympathy with the federal jury in Baltimore that heard the lawsuit by the former executive, John H. Macsherry, who claimed he was owed a commission on the sale to Redwood Capital. The jury awarded Macsherry $6.6 million in damages in 2018, the largest ever for a single plaintiff under Marylands wage payment laws. The case is under appeal. Tradepoint Atlantic, meanwhile, continues to forge ahead, announcing last month that Amazon would expand its existing distribution facility on the site, adding 500 jobs to the workforce. At full build-out, Tradepoint Atlantic estimates the project will generate 11,000 permanent jobs. But thousands of $15-per-hour warehouse workers doesnt quite fill the gap in the public imagination left behind by Sparrows Point, which employed generations of steelworkers -- nearly 31,000 people at its peak in 1959 and produced the steel for the Golden Gate Bridge. Obviously wed all love $55-an-hour jobs with full benefits and retirement, but most jobs in the world dont look like that anymore, said Menzer, with Dundalk Renaissance. The economic impact of the new Tradepoint Atlantic development is difficult to measure in Dundalk, which has never recovered from the last recession and the Sparrows Point closure. The immense Steelworkers Union hall in Dundalk, where thousands of well-paid Bethlehem Steel workers formerly congregated, is now a gloomy hulk, festooned with graffiti. Any improvements to the community are incremental. Youll see new chain restaurants come in like a Chilis or a Texas Roadhouse, Menzer said. And you might think, well, thats not really community revitalization per se. But on the other hand, it was just very exciting for people to see chains come in that before they had to drive 20 minutes to go to that kind of restaurant. People wait in line to take communion at Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Newbury Park on April 5. (Los Angeles Times) To the editor: A letter writer suggests that the temporary suspension of on-site religious services has reduced the 1st Amendment to a "total sham." The government has not outlawed the practice of religion in America. Front yards in my neighborhood display signs with online links to the virtual religious services they attend. Maybe the writer should ask himself why any religious organization would defy this precaution, arrogantly exposing worshippers to a disease that has already killed more than 100,000 Americans. As for liquor stores, remember that they do not host large gatherings where everyone shows up simultaneously for an event. Bethia Sheean-Wallace, Fullerton .. To the editor: All churches who are lobbying to open early might want to check Romans Chapter 13: "Everyone must submit themselves to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those that do so bring judgment on themselves." As they say, it might be a good idea to practice what you preach. Bruce Holthaus, Glendora .. To the editor: The way I see it, if you cannot commune with God when you're home alone, you aren't getting much more in church. God is everywhere, available always and in all ways. Reach up as far as you can and He will reach down the rest of the way. Stay safe, healthy and home. Sheila Winston, West Hills When Kate and William wed in 2011, I was 19 years old and fascinated with all things Royal Wedding. I taped the live, six-hour event and kept the footage on my DVR for years. I used to watch it late at night when I couldnt sleep; a real-life fairytale wedding can be a strange, soothing device for a single heart. I also remember getting stuck on one clip in particular: a shot of Prince Harrys ex, Chelsy Davy, walking into Westminster Abbey, clad in teal, blonde hair breezily pulled back under her lace fascinator. Id seen hundreds of photos of her through the years, laughing with Harry at sporting events and sitting on the grass while he played polo. She was still smiling at the wedding, looking vaguely unsure, but also comfortable. It was a homecoming of sorts. Chelsy had been in similar situations countless times before. She was the seasoned royal girlfriend, just like Kate had been before her. AFP/Getty Images I loved Harry and Chelsy together. They were the carefree, silly counterparts to straight-laced Will and Kate, both of whom seemed to value privacy over the privilege of going out and about. When Chelsy and Harry broke up in 2009, I never really thought it was a forever-breakup. Surely, the Royal Wedding was the moment theyd reunite, right? During one of the biggest global occasions of the new century, where nearly three billion pairs of eyes would be on him, Harry had asked Chelsy to come support him. It seemed like they just couldnt quit each other, so they had to get back together. Eventually. Someday. I liked the delusion that their love would eventually triumph. It was reported that the relationship ended because Chelsy did not want to marry into The Firm, as Diana used to call it, and have her life disrupted. She valued her privacy and guarded it so carefully, a friend reportedly told Angela Levin, author of Harry: Conversations with the Prince. Chelsy once called the press attention she received with Harry scary and uncomfortable, which is one of the apparent reasons she fled back to South Africa. I found it very difficult when it was bad. I couldnt cope, she once said. Story continues But Chelsy seemed like Harrys person. She was always there for him, even in their broken-up periods; she reportedly even helped him craft his best mans speech over the phone for Kate and Williams wedding. Rationally, I knew love didnt always conquer all, but I had yet to accept that emotionally. When love has only existed in your mind, its easy to believe happy endings are common and inevitable when the reverse is actually true. So, I tucked their relationship into the back of my mind, expecting their paths would eventually intertwine. I missed the realization that they were probably not ever getting back together while I was living my own life and learning for myself that even good relationships dont last forever. Anwar Hussein/Getty Images In the years that followed Kate and William's wedding, I would have multiple on-off, bumpy relationships as well as my first serious relationship. We were in love at the time, despite our five-year age and life experience gap and starkly contrasting personalities he, an empathetic extrovert, and me, a serious-minded introvert. But our minds worked in tandem. I was scared that staying together meant Id stay in his shadow, perhaps forever, but I was also scared to lose him. I remember our three-hour phone call exhaustively discussing the odds that wed get back together if we broke up. He did not think we ever would, and was against it. I was nervous, but still an optimist. It didnt make sense to be together now, but in the future, just maybe; believing in that maybe gave me the courage to roll the dice. We had a clean breakup, but after we split in 2014, we still connected in the years that followed when we needed comfort, support, or someone who just gets you in the way only a person who has watched you grow into an adult really can. We were often single, and not dating (each other, or anyone), but became each other's shoulder to cry on when things got challenging. I always felt inspired after talking to him, the way hed walk me through my own hairy problems. He was this person I kept coming back to like an old habit. Not a bad habit; just a familiar one. RELATED: We Are the Texting Your Ex Generation, and Its Actually Fine And then, I started dating my now-fiance in 2017, and it became apparent how well we fit together, how happy I was. There was an ease between us. I spoke less and less with my ex. When I got engaged in late 2019, that was it. My ex and I stopped speaking entirely. I didnt really know how to tell him, or what to say, so I didnt say anything. Sometimes, I wonder if that was right or wrong. In October 2016, word leaked that Prince Harry had been dating Suits actress Meghan Markle and was happier than hes been for many years. Just days later, it would become apparent how true that was when he made a formal statement defending Meghan against the presss cruel treatment. I remember being fascinated, a little stunned, still half expecting one day to see a surprise announcement that Harry and Chelsy were set to wed. Looking back through the lens of experience, its easier for me to see now that the writing was on the wall a long time ago. But that didnt mean Harry and Chelsy's relationship wasnt real, important or full of love. The exes reportedly even had a final phone call the day before he married Meghan to close the chapter. Then, Chelsy put on the bravest face ever the next morning, arriving at Windsor Castle to support the man she once loved as he married someone else. It was bittersweet to witness. RELATED: Kirsten Dunst and Jake Gyllenhaal's Breakup Is Forever Linked to My Parents' Divorce Today, Harry and Meghan are a happily-married, iconic power couple who are daring to forge their own path together, and Chelsy is seeing someone with whom shes quite taken, while living in South Africa designing jewelry. Everything is falling into place, she said earlier this year. Some people are an integral part of your journey, even though the love isnt meant to last. Its also a beautiful thing to use old relationships as a springboard to growth even if youre propelled in different directions. Breakups That Broke Us is a weekly column about the failed celebrity relationships that convinced us love is dead. By Associated Press MADRID: Spain's Foreign Minister says that European Union members should agree to a common approach to open borders, reestablish freedom of travel in the Schengen Area and define which countries outside it should be considered safe to travel from and to. Arancha Gonzalez Laya told Cadena SER radio that restarting cross-border travel should be decided collectively even if countries in the EU are phasing out lockdowns at different dates. "We have to start working with our European partners to retake the freedom of movement in European territories," Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday, adding that she would like to see a European definition of which countries should be deemed as safe. The minister said that Spain is eager to welcome tourists to shore up an industry that amounts to 12% of the country's GDP but that it plans to do it with "health, sustainability and safety." At least 10 Uttar Pradesh districts were on alert Tuesday after swarms of locusts were spotted in Mahoba and Jhansi districts, moving into the state after attacking crops in neighbouring Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, officials said. Locusts entered Rajasthan from Pakistan earlier this month, and then drifted into other parts of western India. Desert locusts are a regular feature in the country but on a very small scale, a Union Environment Ministry official told PTI. This attack is huge. It is a once in a three-decade situation and timed very badly for us as we are already dealing with coronavirus, Soumitra Dasgupta, Inspector General, Wildlife told PTI. Local officials have been put on alert and asked to remain prepared with chemicals in tractor-mounted sprayers, power sprayers and fire brigade, an Uttar Pradesh government spokesman said. In Jhansi, locusts have been spotted over the last couple of days and farmers told that they should alert a control room whenever they see a swarm. In Mahoba district, there are reports of partial damage to vegetables over 25 hectares and a detailed assessment of the loss is being done, the spokesman said. In Rajasthan, pesticide was sprayed on locust swarms at two places in Dausa district on Monday night. Some swarms then moved towards Karauli and other nearby areas on Tuesday, Rajasthan Agriculture commissioner Om Prakash said. He said Jaipur and Dausa have now been cleared of locusts. The locust activity in Rajasthans Karauli triggered an alert in Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun and Auraiya in UP as well as in districts like Hamirpur, Kannauj, Etawah and Kanpur Dehat which adjoin them. UPs Deputy Director Agriculture Kamal Katiyar said a team from Kota in Rajasthan is helping tackle locusts. Jhansi district magistrate Andra Vamsi said farmers have told to contact the control room as sharing information is important. "This is an emergency, and we need to remain vigilant. This swarm has come travelling through Iran, Pakistan, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Two days ago, a large number of locusts were killed following spraying of chemicals, the DM said. At some places in UP, farmers have been advised to beat thalis to drive these insects away. In Vamsis district, authorities were arranging sound systems in the fields where crops could be attacked. Farmers have been advised to play loud music to drive the insects away and save crops like moong and vegetables, the official said. Locusts dont attack animals or humans, but can devastate crops and other areas of greenery. Vamsi said a seven-member team from the Centre has been touring Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, dealing with the problem. KALAMAZOO, MI -- The Western Michigan University Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved a contract with professors that includes a temporary 2.25% salary reduction. The board approved the one-year contract extension between the university and WMUs chapter of the American Association of University Professors at a special board meeting live streamed online Tuesday, May 26. Related: Western Michigan University faculty agrees to 2.25% salary cut in draft contract Faculty salaries will be reduced by 2.25% effective July 1 and continuing through June 30, 2021, according to the recommendation approved by the board. The contract ratification does not alter the health care plan benefits available to the unions about 900 members, the recommendation states. The university is also offering a retirement incentive plan as part of the contract ratification. The plan is open to tenured employees more than 55 years old with at least 10 years of service to the university. Retiring employees will receive a full year of their base salary in two installments, according to the recommendation. Faculty are really happy to have a contract extension amid the tremendous amount of uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, AAUP President Carol Weideman said in a message to MLive. Faculty are ready to be flexible in their preparation for fall, Weideman said. The amended labor agreement, that is now in effect through September 2021, comes as WMU faces significant COVID-19 induced fiscal challenges in the wake of the pandemics economic impact on higher education and other sectors of society, the release said. University officials predict a $45 million to $85 million budget gap for WMU for the next fiscal year that begins July 1. I greatly appreciate that our faculty members are working with us to help WMU address the unprecedented challenges of this health crisis and the financial toll it has wreaked," President Edward Montgomery said. Students, their families and higher education institutions across the country are under great stress, the impact of which may be felt for years to come. Montgomery said in a virtual town hall May 11 that the university is preparing to cut 20% of general fund spending in each of its divisions to make up millions of dollars in expected shortfalls. The university will lay off a substantial number of employees, Montgomery said. Each university division is being told to put forward a plan for a 20% cut in spending, Montgomery said. Those cuts are aimed to prepare the university for the projected worst-case scenario, knowing leaders will have a clearer idea of what is needed when the budget picture firms up in August or September. The past couple of months have certainly been an extremely difficult time for our university community and the level of uncertainty has been palpable in many ways, Weideman said during the meetings public comment period. I feel strongly that putting the contract extension in place is just one step in alleviating some of the unknown for the faculty and the administration, and Im grateful for that. WMU previously announced in April that it was laying off 240 employees from one of its unions, and implementing 2.5% wage reductions for all benefits-eligible, non-bargaining staff. Also taking a pay cut are the universitys senior executives, including the university president and seven vice presidents, who each took a 10% salary cut. In addition, all associate and assistant vice presidents, associate provosts and vice provosts and deans will take a 5% pay reduction, the university said. The university also implemented a hiring freeze, travel freeze, canceled construction and cut special projects. Also on MLive: Substantial layoffs still coming at Western Michigan University as budgets cut by 20% Michigans universities and colleges bleeding revenue amid coronavirus closures PR-Inside.com: 2020-05-26 15:00:33 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 908 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Starch recovery systems market players are focusing on R&D investments for processing operations and equipment to mitigate losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.DUBAI, UAE / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / The global coronavirus outbreak has been creating a host of logistical challenges across the food processing sector. Starch recovery systems market is also bearing the brunt of pandemic to a large extent. As public markets remained closed for most of Q1 2020 and labor shortages still prevail in the farming sector, traders in global starch recovery systems market are set to face a severe threat in procurement of potato stocks in the immediate future. The starch recovery systems market is projected to reach the valuation of US$ 457 Mn during 2019 - 2029, according to a new Future Market Insights (FMI) report. Rising demand for starch byproducts in the food processing industry will continue to generate major opportunities in the starch recovery systems market, says the report."The development of high yield, low cost equipment in the sector will remain lucrative for the market participants. However, the pandemic is pushing the starch recovery systems market into rough waters in the short term," says the FMI analyst.Request report sample with 200+ pages to gain in-depth insights https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-11454 Key Takeaways of Starch Recovery Systems Market StudySales of hydrocyclones and centrifuges will continue to hold the lead for food processing applications, while refining sieves are witnessing a higher growth rate.The high demand for frozen starch foods is set to stay prominent, particularly for frozen potato products.Large scale industry applications will hold pole position, while small and medium scale enterprises are projected to gain ground during the forecast period.Asia Pacific will hold a major share of the global starch recovery systems market, driven by a trend of eco-efficient processing systems for reduced discharge in the region.Starch Recovery Systems Market - Key Growth FactorsHigh demand for efficient and ecofriendly equipment for potato processing applications is a primary factor sustaining sales through the forecast period.Awareness about starch and associated food nutrition derivatives drive market growth through the forecast period.Substantial funding initiatives by food processing companies into research and development contributes to market development.Frequent innovations in next-gen food processing technology will support the market growth through 2029.Starch Recovery Systems Market - Key RestraintsHigh capital requirements for research and development for new products hinder market growth.Poor rate of infrastructural growth in for starch recovery systems is having a negative impact on the market.Impact of COVID-19 on Starch Recovery Systems MarketThe impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the starch recovery systems market has largely been negative. Traders in the industry have been slammed owing to the closure of public markets, which has cut into sales. As a larger portion of the industry workforce is now operating from home, government aid for businesses in the starch recovery systems sector is key to sustaining operations, and recovery post the pandemic.While the growth in population and lifestyle standards has resulted in increased expenditure for food, the restrictions and preventive measures set up to contain the contagion are impacting transport and logistics for the procurement of essential potato produce. The economic slowdown is impacting agriculture through a shortage of workers, negatively impacting the overall market.Explore the full starch recovery systems market report with 112 illustrative figures, 128 data tables and table of contents. Request ToC of the study atCompetitive Landscape of Starch Recovery Systems MarketSome of the major companies profiled in this FMI report include, but are not limited to, Hiller Gmbh, GEA, Flo-Mech, Alfa Laval, Sino-Food Machinery, Andritz, Larsson Sweden, NivobaHovex, Myande Group, and Microtec Engineering Group. Players in starch recovery systems market are investing in centrifuges and hydrocyclones to leverage multifunctional features, with eco-efficiency and upgradation trends.More About the ReportThis FMI study of 250 pages provides all-inclusive insights on the global starch recovery systems market. The market analysis is based on component (refining sieves, hydrocyclones and centifuges, vacuum filters, screw conveyors, and filling stations), plant size (small, medium, and large), and application (frozen products, chips & snack pellets, dehydrated products, and filling stations), across seven regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Oceania, and Middle East & Africa).Explore Extensive Coverage of FMI's Food & Beverages LandscapeFood Glazing Agents Market- Get the latest insights on the global food glazing agents market through FMI's study covering detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis for predefined projection period (2020-2030).Polyol Sweeteners Market- FMI's detailed study on the global polyol sweeteners market encompasses emerging trends, technological advancements, key players, and prominent strategies for the course of forecast period (2019-2029).Polydextrose Market- Obtain comprehensive analysis on the global polydextrose market through FMI's latest report covering key regions, competitive analysis along with segmental analysis for 2018-2027.About FMIExpert analysis, actionable insights, and strategic recommendations of the veteran research team at FMI helps clients from across the globe with their unique business intelligence requirements. With a repository of over thousand reports and 1 million+ data points, the team has scrutinized the food & beverages sector across 50+ countries for over a decade. The team provides unmatched end-to-end research and consulting services. Reach out to explore how we can help.Contact:Mr. Abhishek BudholiyaUnit No: AU-01-H Gold Tower (AU), Plot No: JLT-PH1-I3A,Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab EmiratesMARKET ACCESS DMCC InitiativeFor Sales Enquiries: sales@ futuremarketinsights.com For Medi Housing in the Elm dorm at California Institution for Men in Chino. (U.S. District Court filing) The state corrections agency has implemented mandatory testing of all employees at the California Institution for Men in Chino as the number of inmates who have died after contracting COVID-19 there has risen to nine and the total number of inmates testing positive has grown to 635. The decision to test all employees followed a weekend during which three more inmates who were hospitalized with COVID-19 died. So far, 58 staff members at the prison have tested positive, with 35 of them recovering and returning to work. Under the new program, any employee who has not tested positive for the virus will be tested. According to an information sheet given to employees, anyone not complying would face disciplinary action. The prison has been the source of all the coronavirus-related deaths in California state prisons and more than half the total number of inmates testing positive in the California correctional system. State officials did not identify the three inmates who died over the weekend after being hospitalized. The deaths come as the state prison system will begin this week to take in new prisoners for the first time in two months. Correctional officials also implemented mandatory testing for staff at Avenal Prison in Kings County, according to state corrections press secretary Dana Simas. That prison, located along the I-5 corridor, has seen its number of the infections jump to 198 in the last week, along with 10 of its staff. It now ranks second in terms of the number of inmates infected among state prisons. In the information sheet given to the Chino prison employees, it said the state is working on a wider mandatory testing program for correctional employees across the state. Inmate John Blagg, who is serving an eight-year sentence at Chino for driving under the influence with injury, said inmates have been split up into groups of those who have tested positive and those who have tested negative. Prison authorities have also set up tents in the courtyard areas in an effort to spread the inmates out. Story continues I dont deserve a death sentence, he told The Times last month in an interview. I am afraid I am not going to make it out... I understand I did what I did. Ill do my time. I dont want to die and I dont want other people to die. Californias prisons resumed processing this week for the first time since Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended their intake in March. New inmates will be accepted from only four counties: Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Fresno. It is anticipated that no more than 200 inmates will be accepted from those counties through June 19, according to the state corrections department. Inmates will go to one of two intake centers, at North Kern State Prison and Wasco State Prison. At each location, inmates with be offered coronavirus testing. If they test positive, theyll be isolated. Any inmate declining testing will be quarantined for 14 days. More than 3,500 prisoners have been released as the state sought to socially distance inmates in an effort to help stem the spread of the virus. The lack of intake in state prisons for the past two months further reduced the number of prisoners by 6,000, according to statements made in recent federal court hearings. But outbreaks of the virus have gripped prison populations across California and the nation. There have also been outbreaks at federal prisoners in California, where a combined total of 1,800 inmates have been infected at Lompoc and Terminal Island and 10 prisoners have died. The ACLU is suing to force the release of some of those prisons' federal inmates, citing the health dangers. In state prisons, an effort by prisoner lawyers to force releases has so far failed. A three-judge federal panel and a single federal judge have rejected moves by lawyers seeking more releases for inmates in a long-standing legal fight over overcrowding and medical treatment in California's prisons. According to a court filing by the state, 108,850 inmates were housed in the states 34 adult institutions as of May 13, which is 127.9% of design capacity. Defending the state's actions, an attorney for the governor and corrections said in court last month that the state had implemented a recommendation from a court-appointed federal receiver to create smaller pods of inmates and separate each group of inmates. The greyhound racing community is in mourning following the suspicious death of industry stalwart Karen Leek at her home in a small town south-east of Melbourne. Those close to the 69-year-old say she was a much-loved and dedicated greyhound breeder known to raise champion racers. On Tuesday, police cordoned off Ms Leek's home and training facility on Cross Road at Devon Meadows after someone close to the respected trainer found her body inside about 10am. Homicide squad detectives are now investigating her death as they work to piece together her final moments with fears she may have been killed. No arrests have been made. Another case was earlier launched into the allegations of treason by Ukraine's fifth president. The State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine has opened a criminal proceeding into the leak of audio recordings of what purportedly is ex-President Petro Poroshenko's phone talks with former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. That's according to Ukrainian Pravda citing own sources in law enforcement. Investigators will probe illegal wiretapping of the fifth president's office at the Presidential Administration in Kyiv, the report says. "The illegal use of technical means of obtaining information could inflict damage to national interests," reads the copy of an extract from the unified registry of pre-trial investigations. As UNIAN reported earlier, on May 19, 2020, Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, released heavily edited audio recordings he said he had received from "investigative journalists" of what he claims are phone conversations between former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, former State Department head John Kerry, and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made at the time the said politicians held the said offices. The voice resembling that of Poroshenko is heard discussing with his U.S. contacts issues of Ukrainian politics, including utility tariffs, nationalization of Privatbank, dismissal of prosecutor general and appointment of his successor, and more. Read also"Biden-Kerry-Poroshenko tapes" reveal push for prosecutor general's dismissal Subsequently, the Office of the Prosecutor General in Ukraine opened a case targeting Poroshenko, accusing the former president of treason. Incumbent President Volodymyr Zelensky said the tapes would be investigated by the country's law enforcement, while Poroshenko issued a rebuttal, claiming the tapes are "fabricated". Biden's spokesman said the leaked recordings were "heavily edited [] and it's still a nothingburger that landed with a thud," according to The Guardian. Just when you think 2020 couldnt get any stranger, Pennsylvania lawmakers are hoping to complete work on a partial year budget this week before the last month of the states 2019-20 fiscal year even begins. According to House and Senate Republicans and Democrats, the spending plan expected to be considered is intended to be a five-month temporary budget that keeps the state moving forward and allows time for the revenue picture to become clearer. According to multiple other sources, the proposal includes flat funding for all levels of education from preschool to colleges and universities for all of 2020-21, which undoubtedly will be helpful to school districts as they finalize their annual budgets next month. It also provides for full-year funding for food programs that have seen unprecedented demand as the states jobless benefit claims topped 2.1 million since March 15. The temporary budget does not require any increase in the states personal income or sales tax. The states fiscal year begins July 1. But pushing back the April 15 deadline for personal income tax filings to July 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic added some uncertainty to the states available funding for next years budget. So does the movement seen in Congress to provide some stimulus funding to help state governments balance their budgets. Going with a five-month budget leaves lawmakers with maximum flexibility to plan for the remaining seven months of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, said House GOP spokesman Mike Straub. That will get us to a point where we hope to have a better fiscal picture as we begin to emerge from the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 lockdown, said a Senate GOP source. The governors office declined comment about the budget at this time. Both chambers are scheduled to be in session this week, which is another peculiarity of this year. Typically, the General Assembly takes a break for a few weeks before a primary election to allow incumbents time to go back to their districts to campaign. Pennsylvanias April 28 primary was delayed until June 2 due to concerns related to the pandemic. However, perhaps the legislative calendar was impacted by the fact that so many 1.6 million voters according to the Wolf Administration have already cast their ballots through absentee voting or the new mail-in option. Action on a temporary budget isnt the only legislation that could see action this week. The House could consider on Wednesday key pieces of a reform package for the State System of Higher Education that would shift more control of the 14 state-owned universities to its central administration and away from the General Assembly. Another bill that may receive the Houses attention would freeze state officials pay through 2021. That chamber also may consider a bill creating a program that would provide up to $15,000 grants to small businesses facing financial hardships due to the governors COVID-19 business closure order. Another bill that could receive attention in the House is a concurrent resolution that would terminate the governors March 6 declaration of a disaster emergency in response to the coronavirus. Wolf indicated last week he intends to renew that declaration when it expires early next month but he may decided to end it before its 90-day life runs its full course. By the time the current declaration expires, all 67 counties are anticipated to have moved into the green or yellow phases of Wolfs three-tiered color-coded reopening plan although even in the green phase, there remain some restrictions. In the Senate, some are looking for that chamber to consider legislation that directs how the $3.9 billion in federal stimulus funding the state received to offset the pandemics impact will be spent. Both chambers will continue their practice of allowing lawmakers to cast votes remotely, a practice put in place in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy. Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev signed three important laws from the package of political reforms put forward within the framework of the National Council of Public Confidence (NNOD). Next in line is the consideration of the parliamentary opposition bill. According to experts, Kazakhstani legislation in the framework of political reforms is becoming the most liberal in the post-Soviet space. After the quarantine introduced due to the spread of the coronavirus, political life returned to Kazakhstan. On May 25, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev signed the most anticipated law on rallies, the discussion of which in the republic caused a lot of controversy. However, the wide participation of civil society in the discussion of the bill, according to experts, made it possible to prepare a liberal and progressive document. Recall that the current law on rallies was adopted in 1995. The reason for his change was the mass actions against the presidential elections held on June 9, 2019. After the inauguration ceremony on June 12, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev announced the need for political modernization of the country. He called on the socio-political forces of Kazakhstan for dialogue and promised to create a new law on rallies that would allow the population to gather and express their opinion, but cautioned that everything illegal would be suppressed. The law on rallies adopted on May 25, 2020 establishes the notification principle of holding and organizing peaceful assemblies, the mandatory norm for securing venues in the central parts of city districts, and other innovations. True, specialized venues for peaceful assemblies will be determined by the authorities. In addition, Kazakhstanis can now hold solo pickets anywhere, including at government buildings - previously this was strictly prohibited. The law shortens the list of information that the organizer must indicate in the notification. The deadline for notifying of a meeting, rally or picket was reduced to five business days from 15 proposed by the government. From 10 to 3 working days, the period during which local authorities must respond to a notification has been reduced. The deadline for submitting an application for approval of a demonstration or procession has been reduced from 15 to 10 business days, and the time for its consideration is from ten to seven business days. In addition, the law signed by the president excludes prohibitions and obligations restricting the activities of journalists. Media representatives are not required to provide photo and video materials from the venue to government agencies. The head of Kazakhstan also signed laws on political parties and elections, within the framework of which, the registration barrier for parties is reduced two times - it is necessary to collect 20 thousand signatures instead of 40 thousand. A 30% quota is introduced for women and youth in party lists. According to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Marat Beketaev, firstly, reducing the requirements for registration simplifies the process of creating parties in Kazakhstan. Secondly, the introduction of a quota guarantees equal access for women and youth to the electoral process. Today, most countries of the world take the necessary measures to guarantee equal access for women and youth to the electoral process. For example, party gender quotas are widespread in Germany, Norway, France, Belgium and are fixed at the level of the election law. Thus, the minister emphasized the proposed norms will allow women to be actively involved in the socio-political processes of the country, "the minister emphasized. Thus, the adoption of the law on political parties will ensure the further development of the multi-party system, the purpose of which is to involve new political parties in the process of development and adoption of state decisions. Kazakh political scientist Yerlan Karin noted that the presidential package of political reforms is already at the stage of active implementation. Not even a year has passed since the creation of the National Council, as the first serious political reforms have already been implemented within its framework. Moreover, members of the National Council participated both at the nomination stage and at all stages of the development and discussion of all key bills. Other laws are coming. Press -The Senate service reported that a bill on parliamentary opposition is being introduced at the upcoming meeting of the House on May 28. A German budget airline tried to resume flights to Sardinia over the weekend only to find its plane had to fly straight back because the airport was still closed. Eurowings flight EW9844 took off from Dusseldorf on Saturday and made the 730 mile journey to Olbia Airport. But as the A320 arrived in Sardinian airspace, officials told the pilots that Olbia wasn't open for commercial traffic. The plane, which was carrying just two passengers, considered rerouting to Cagliari 120 miles to the south of the Italian island, before it decided to head back to Germany. Eurowings flight EW9844 took off from Dusseldorf on Saturday and made the 730 mile journey to Olbia Airport. But it had to go all the way back after Sardinian authorities denied it permission to land. The total time for the trip was just over four hours The total flight time for the passengers - who were at least able to practice social distancing aboard the Airbus - was just over four hours. A Eurowings spokesman told CNN Travel: 'Against the background of the corona crisis, the situation at numerous airports in Europe is very dynamic. 'The large amount of information provided on operating hours or airport closures are often changed at short notice,' the spokesman added, and there are 'daily changes in entry regulations in the various countries.' Travel blog One Mile at a Time speculates that the confusion arose because Italy's Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation reopened the airport on May 17, but had since been overruled by the local authority. Olbia Airport will remain closed until at least June 2. Meanwhile Eurowings said the passengers have been able to re-book. Airlines are desperate to get back to work and have been urging governments around the world not to impose stringent quarantine conditions on travellers. File photo: A Eurowings aircraft prepares for take off at the Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2020 Ryanair's boss Michael O'Leary has said the UK government's 14-day quarantine period for those arriving in the UK is not based on any evidence. The UK is to impose its two week requirement for anyone arriving in the country from June 8, but the rules will be reviewed every three weeks. Mr O'Leary - who has been running a skeleton daily schedule of 30 flights throughout Europe - said last week the government was 'making stuff up as they go along.' Ryanair has said it will start operating more flights from July 1, meanwhile EasyJet has announced it will resume flights from June 15. British Airways is due to launch 'a meaningful return to service in July', while Jet2.com is to resume its flight programme at the beginning of that month. Health Secretary Matt Hancock previously warned that foreign holidays for UK residents are unlikely this summer. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2020) - good natured Products Inc. (TSXV: GDNP) (the "Company" or "good natured"), today announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2020 ("Q1 FY20"). Key Highlights: Revenues for Q1 FY20 increased 48% to $3,052,087 compared to $2,056,014 for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Gross profit for Q1 FY20 was $1,108,240 compared to $772,545 for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 36.3% for Q1 FY20 compared to 37.6% for the three months ended March 31, 2019. SG&A excluding acquisition activity for Q1 FY20 was $1,294,771, a 30% increase as compared to $995,183 for the three months ended March 31, 2019. SG&A expenditures, minus variable outsourced supply chain and fulfillment costs, increased by 23% for Q1 FY20 compared to the three months ended March 31, 2019. The Company's EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, loss in Q1 FY20 was $307,727 compared to $342,896 for the three months ended March 31, 2019, an improvement of 10%. In Q1 FY20, the Company incurred a net loss of $806,325 compared to a net loss of $720,361 for the three months ended March 31, 2019. "Despite the rapidly changing market conditions in the back end of first quarter, our team's dedication to serving our customers delivered strong organic growth" said Paul Antoniadis, CEO of good natured. "We also positioned the Company for future growth with the expansion of our product portfolio to include takeout food supplies, the recent acquisition of Shepherd from which we will begin to recognize revenues effective May 1, 2020, and the addition of new team members to support our business development activities." The good natured corporate profile can be found at: investor.goodnaturedproducts.com The Company's Q1 FY2020 interim financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Singular Research Spring Select Webcall Paul Antoniadis will be presenting at the Singular Research Spring Select Webcall on Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 10:45am Pacific time/1:45pm Eastern time where he will provide an update on company performance and strategic direction. To register and participate in Q&A, please contact Mike: mike@singularresearch.com. New Appointment & Change to Board of Directors The Company also announced today that its board of directors has appointed Joel Marsh to its board of directors effective June 1, 2020 to fill the vacancy left by Salil Munjal who is transitioning from the board of directors to the board advisory team effective June 1, 2020. The Company will be nominating Marsh for election at its 2020 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Mr. Munjal will not be standing for re-election. Mr. Marsh is a Senior Director at Best Buy and brings over 30 years' experience in operations, financial management, sales development, supply chain, standard operations process and scaling new businesses. Beginning in April 2006, Joel led the scaling of Best Buy Mobile in the US to 1,407 store-within-store locations and over 400 free-standing stores within a 3-year period. Mr. Marsh has also overseen the development and implementation of operational efficiencies that have delivered savings of $100s of millions over his tenure. Prior to 2006 as a Sales Development Director at Best Buy, Joel led Best Buy's US Sales Development team to 47 straight months of positive like-for-like sales growth while improving gross margin rates by 500 basis points. "We would like to express our sincere thanks to Salil for his tremendous contribution over the past 8 years as a board member and fully support his desire to take on a different role going forward," said Paul Antoniadis, Executive Chair & CEO of good natured. We're also very pleased to welcome Joel, whose extensive experience in scaling operations and business development complements our board of directors' skills and experience for the upcoming growth stages of the Company." The Company's other independent directors include Jim Zadra, CFO of Great Panther Mining Limited and Michael Thomson, President of Independent Capital Partners Inc. The good natured board is composed of four directors, three of whom are independent. The Company intends to complete its search and nomination for a fifth board director by the end of 2020. About good natured Products Inc. good natured is producing and distributing one of North America's widest assortments of better everyday products made with the highest possible percentage of renewable, plant-based materials and no BPAs, phthalates or other chemicals of concern potentially harmful to human health and the environment. With a growing assortment of over 385 products and services, good natured creates eco-friendly home and business products, food packaging, restaurant/take-out containers, medical and industrial supplies designed to do good for the planet, good for human health and good for business by driving incremental sales, minimizing waste and reducing environmental impact, all bundled up in a fresh and approachable brand. For more information: goodnaturedproducts.com On behalf of the Company: Paul Antoniadis - Executive Chair & CEO Contact: 1-604-566-8466 Investor Contact: Andy Phillips Investor Relations 1-877-286-0617 ext. 113 invest@goodnaturedproducts.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibilities for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information Information in this news release regarding the search and nomination of an additional board director constitutes forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the risk that the Company may not identify a suitable board director candidate or that a suitable candidate may not be willing to stand for nomination to the board of directors. When relying on the Company's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. Other than as required under securities laws, we do not undertake to update this information at any particular time. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on our current estimates, expectations and projections regarding, among other things, sales volume and pricing which we believe are reasonable as of the current date. The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. All forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/56530 New Delhi [India], May 25 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and conveyed greetings on Eid-ul-Fitr to the government and people of UAE. A PMO release said that the two leaders expressed satisfaction about the effective cooperation between the two countries during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The Prime Minister thanked the Crown Prince for the support extended to Indian citizens in United Arab Emirates. The Prime Minister also conveyed his best wishes for the good health and well-being of the Crown Prince, the royal family and the people of the UAE. The Prime Minister referred to his conversation with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in a tweet and said India-UAE cooperation has grown stronger during COVID-19 challenge. (ANI) Epstein Accuser: Alleged Co-Conspirators Should Face Justice A woman who says Jeffrey Epstein raped her repeatedly said two women she described as his co-conspirators should face justice. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins one-time girlfriend, is said to have helped Epstein run a sex trafficking ring with young, mainly minor girls. She had denied involvement. Sarah Kellen, a top assistant to Epstein, has admitted to being involved with him. Sarah Ransome says she was taken to Epsteins island in the Caribbean and essentially trapped there. Maxwell or Kellen would call her to go to Epstein, who would rape her. The more he saw you being damaged, the more he enjoyed it, the more it excited him, she said in a Netflix documentary Filthy Rich, due for release on May 27. Ransome recalled being in the New York courtroom last year when Epstein faced sex trafficking and other charges. He later died in what was officially ruled a suicide. Sarah Ransome in a still image from Filthy Rich. (Netflix) I wanted to see him held accountable. I have faith that maybe Ill get another day in court where I can face my co-conspirators, the people that helped Jeffrey rape me every day, Ransome said during an appearance on CBS This Morning on Tuesday. Ransome said Kellen, who was always on her computer on the island, booked all of her flights. Maxwell, always on the phone, is alleged to have regularly help bring girls into the fold for Epstein to abuse. In a statement to CBS, a spokesperson for Kellen said she was a victim of Epstein. She was sexually and psychologically abused by Epstein for years, the spokesperson said. She did schedule appointments for Epstein and Maxwell and deeply regrets her involvement. Maxwell, whose whereabouts are unknown, says she wasnt involved with the sex trafficking ring. Asked about the statements, Ransome said, I think its disgraceful and these people are going to burn in hell. Ghislaine knew exactly what she was doing. She knew that every time she called me, I was going to be raped. Every time. Sarah Kellen knew for every girl that she organized to go on that island or to be picked up by a car to go to the New York mansion, she knew that these girls were there to be raped repeatedly. Shes going to rot in hell, definitely, she said. Ghislaine Maxwell attends a gala in New York City in a file photograph. (Rob Kim/Getty Images) Ransome said last year that she tried escaping the island by planning to swim from Little St. James, Epsteins island, to St. Thomas, but Epsteins security team stopped her. She was eventually rescued by a woman in a New York nightclub, she told the Daily Telegraph. Neither Kellen nor Maxwell have been criminally charged, nor have any others who were allegedly involved with assisting Epstein. Ransome said she lives daily in fear of being contacted by people who were involved with Epstein. Until theyre charged, she said, she doesnt believe she can start to heal. Ransome settled a lawsuit with Maxwell and Epstein in 2018, as did Virginia Giuffre, another accuser. Police investigators in Waterford Township are trying to identify a man who is suspected of using a stolen credit card at least three times recently. The man had used a card stolen from the center console of an unlocked vehicle, police said. The card was used by the same man in three different stores in both Waterford and White Lake townships. The shopping sprees totaled $484, police said. Investigators are asking for the publics assistance in identifying the suspect, police said in a release. If you recognize the man in the pictures, please call Waterford police Det. Al Knapp at 248.618.6077 or call anonymously to the tip line at 248.674.COPS, or 248.674.2677. Sir Richard Henriques, one of Britains most distinguished lawyers, played a leading role in some of the most notorious trials of recent years. In extracts from his new book in the Mail, Sir Richard has given a gripping account of his role in the trial of Dr Harold Shipman, his forensic review of Operation Midland the shambolic police investigation into an alleged VIP paedophile ring and the savage murder of toddler Jamie Bulger. Today, he relives his role as the judge in the trial of the Chinese gangmaster and his accomplices whose greed cost the lives of 21 cockle-pickers . . . The trial began in unique fashion with the jury, counsel and myself the judge aboard a hovercraft in Morecambe Bay, all of us in Wellington boots. We were going to the scene of a tragedy six months earlier in which at least 21 Chinese cockle-pickers all of them illegal immigrants, untrained and inexperienced were drowned by an incoming tide. It was a balmy, still, sunny day a total contrast to the February night in 2004 when the disaster occurred. From the shore, a large expanse of sand appears to be flat, but that is an illusion. We were able to observe that Morecambe Bay is riddled with deep channels, some 30 or 40 ft deep, making a speedy escape in the dark virtually impossible either in a vehicle or on foot. The hovercraft travelled away from shore for between one-and-a-half and two miles, before stopping and parking with its engines shut down. It was mid-morning and on board there was an artificial silence. Jurors and counsel were in close proximity and both realised, and had been told, that intercommunication was not permitted. There was not the slightest breeze and only an occasional seagull or a nervous cough disturbed the tranquillity. Sir Richard Henriques relives his role as the judge in the trial of the Chinese gangmaster and his accomplices whose greed cost the lives of 21 cockle-pickers. Pictured: Cockle-pickers at work in Morecambe Bay (stock image) Within minutes, however, we heard a sound; it began as a gentle whistle, increasing in volume as the skipper announced that the tide was approaching. We were to be told later that on a windy night with a high tide, the speed of advance is that of a galloping horse, approximately 30 miles per hour. On this perfect autumnal morning, the tide passed our hovercraft certainly at the speed of a cantering horse, possibly 20 miles per hour. No human being could have outrun that tide. We watched as it filled the channels and gullies and pondered the thought of being on those sands at night in a howling wind, as the water rose. I permitted myself a glance at the jurors: the impact was profound. Back on land, the trial proper began at Preston Crown Court. In the dock was a Chinese gangmaster named Lin Liang Ren, charged with the manslaughter of the 21 who died, as well as with facilitating illegal immigration and conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Sir Richard Henriques is one of Britains most distinguished lawyers Alongside him were his girlfriend, Zhao Xiao Qing, charged with the immigration and conspiracy offences, and his cousin, Lin Mu Yong, charged with the immigration offence. It was alleged that Lin Liang Ren provided accommodation for the migrant labourers, equipped them, paid them, obtained cockling permits for them and, most significantly of all, sold the cockles they harvested. Lin Mu Yong was alleged to have been his sub-boss in all this. Miss Zhao was accused of being their accomplice by finding accommodation for the workers, fabricating bogus cockling permit applications and acquiring vehicles. All three were accused of helping the workers breach immigration law. The alleged conspiracies were that they had interfered with the police investigation in the aftermath of the tragedy by trying to smuggle Lin off the beach, telling the police lies and instructing others to give false information. The principal issue in the trial was simply this: was Lin the boss of the Chinese cockle-pickers who died and therefore grossly negligent in causing his gang to go far out on the sands so late in the day and in those conditions? His defence was to deny he was the one in charge. He was not responsible for them being on the sands that night. He did not owe the deceased a duty of care and was thus not guilty of manslaughter. The real culprits, the defence said, were English cocklers who let them go to their death without warning them of the dangers, the local authority who did nothing to control the sands and granted permits to the untrained and incompetent, the police who did nothing to prevent breaches of immigration law, and Coastguards who failed to guard the coast. First in the witness box was the leading authority on the bay, Cedric Robinson, the Queens Guide to the Sands. He explained how the tide comes up in all directions, cutting off all possible routes of escape. He thought it madness that the authorities had opened the cockling beds to all and sundry. This was a disaster waiting to happen. Pictured: A court artists impression of Lin Mu Yong (centre), Zhao Xiao Qing (second right) and her boyfriend Lin Liang Ren with their co-accused David Anthony Eden Snr (far left) and David Anthony Eden Jnr He said the Warton bed, where the disaster happened, was particularly dangerous and so far out from the shore that cockles there couldnt possibly be gathered safely. You cannot play with the tides, he declared. Five or 10 minutes can make all the difference. Any delay can be disastrous. Over the years, he told the court, many people had died in Morecambe Bay. Even experienced people got into difficulties; it could be a trap for people who did not know what they are doing. The prosecution next called Trevor Fleming, who had cockled in the bay for 20 years. He was out there with his team that particular afternoon and was surprised to see Chinese cocklers being driven out between 5pm and 6pm. Some 30 workers were dropped off near him. By about 5.30pm the wind was picking up, and he reckoned the tide would be coming in a lot quicker than normal so he decided to head back to shore. A Chinese party of some 30 pickers was nearby but they carried on raking up cockles, while even more were just arriving on foot. A Chinese gangmaster named Lin Liang Ren (left) was charged with the manslaughter of the 21 who died, as well as with facilitating illegal immigration and conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Lin Liang Ren's girlfriend Zhao Xiao Qing (right) was charged with the immigration and conspiracy offences He was concerned they were cutting it fine and approached a Chinese worker to tell him, tapping his watch to draw attention to the time but was not understood. Asked why, when he got ashore, he did not alert the Coastguard that there were cocklers still out in the bay, he replied, his voice breaking: That is a question I have asked myself every night since the tragedy. A number of other English cocklers also gave evidence about the importance of knowing about the sands and tides, the irresponsibility of those who issued permits to persons completely ignorant about the bay and the damage to the industry of over-cockling. The issue was explored of whether there was bad feeling among locals because the Chinese worked faster and were felt to be saturating the market. One man whose family had fished the bay for six generations said he was annoyed at the invasion of the beds, both on grounds of conservation and safety. Evidence was later given of cockles harvested by the Chinese being deliberately set alight. The jury then heard from the bystander on the promenade at Morecambe who at 9pm spotted headlights far out in the bay and people walking. He rang the police three times but was told they were on a shift change or break and could not attend immediately. Extremely angry at this response, he later lodged a formal complaint. Lin Liang Ren's cousin Lin Mu Yong was charged with the immigration offence Eventually another onlooker alerted the lifeboat station, and a hovercraft, a lifeboat and a helicopter were sent but by then conditions had worsened, with two-metre high waves that beat back the hovercraft. The lifeboat rescued one person stranded on a rock. The helicopter searched the bay and recovered 12 bodies on sand or soft mud. From the survivors, the court heard graphic evidence. Zhang Ping was a woman in her early 20s who flew from China in 2003 and moved into a flat in Liverpool where she shared a room with five other cocklers. She said the boss was Lin, who provided rakes, boots, and overalls and paid them wages of 5 per bag of cockles. (Later it was established that the market rate for a bag of cockles was 12.50, meaning that if Lin was the boss, he was profiting by 7.50 a bag, resulting in a daily profit of 750 to 1,500. With double-tiding, the profit would be double.) On the day in question, Ping was driven out on to the sands but it was very dark and windy and she was only able to pick one bag before feeling unwell. She walked back to the shore through knee-deep water but other Chinese workers continued cockling. From the beach, she saw people swimming. The wind was raging and she was petrified. When the police arrived, Lin told her to deny she had been cockling and say she did not know who the boss was. Another worker, Wei Si Mao, said he was sent out in a pick-up to get bags of cockles that were in the back of a jeep stranded in the mud. He made three journeys, taking with him eight other workers to assist in the collection. On the third trip, the tide was very high and it was no longer possible to drive back. The water had risen to the door, which would not open, so he climbed out of the window and jumped into the sea. He swam towards a pile of rocks but one of his friends swam in the wrong direction and drowned. Another witness remembered struggling through the water and three of his companions going off in a different direction. He got back but they all perished. Once on shore, all the survivors were told by Lin to say, if asked, that two men who were known to be dead in the water had been the ones in charge. Other survivors gave similar evidence of desperately swimming for their lives. They all stated that Lin was the boss but that he had told them to say he was not. Each confirmed that their cockling permits contained their photograph along with false information about them. All of them were illegal immigrants who had paid a lot of money to come to the United Kingdom, and many had huge debts in China. Critical evidence was provided by Janie Bannister, the English girlfriend of the defendant Lin Mu Yong, whom she called Yammi. She was very much involved in the cockling operation and was, in legal terminology, an accomplice. She found the properties occupied by the workers, bought and delivered food to them and was involved in purchasing vehicles. She also went cockling herself, loading cockles onto quad bikes. But the prosecution chose not to charge her and instead put her up as a witness. It was a good decision. She told the court she met Yammi in Liverpool, where they worked in the same chip shop. He spoke no English and she spoke no Chinese but they moved in together. Lin then moved into the same flat with them, as did 15 to 20 Chinese workers, sleeping on the floor. She said Yammi was the first to start cockling and had 120 cocklers working for him. Lin joined his team for a while but then set up as boss of his own gang. But they remained good friends and she regarded herself and Yammi and Lin and Miss Zhao as a foursome. On the night of the tragedy, she was travelling back to Morecambe from Liverpool with Miss Zhao and Yammi when Lin rang to say that the boys are stuck out. She alerted the Coastguard. The beach was pitch black, dead windy and rainy when the three of them got there, to find mayhem with police and ambulances everywhere. Some Chinese workers were wet and shaking while others were trying to hide, worried they were going to be arrested. She saw Lin about to leave in a transit van with more Chinese in the back, but, when he saw her, he stopped, got into her car and lay down so nobody could see him. Yammi then drove him away from the scene. After he had gone, Miss Bannister was ordered into a police car with Miss Zhao and as they were driven away, they came upon Lins car which had been stopped by the police. The trial proper was held at Preston Crown Court (pictured). The jury convicted Lin, his girlfriend and his cousin on all counts An officer asked if they could identify Lin as one of the cocklers. Miss Zhao said no, but Miss Bannister told police it was him. Later she gave a false statement to the police that Lin had been with her and the others on the journey back from Liverpool that night and thus could not have been in charge of the ill-fated cockling expedition. But in court she said she had only done so under considerable pressure from the others. She candidly admitted her own part in the management of the two cockling gangs. She signed for cars they bought because she spoke English but they were all owned by Lin or Yammi. She acted as interpreter, making arrangements to go cockling and buying waterproofs for the workers at B&Q. She arranged prices, held the money they were paid for the cockles and distributed wages. Lins counsel pressed her that she was wrong to talk about Chinese bosses, because it was a co-operative. Everybody worked together, and there was really no organisation as such. She disagreed. There were workers and bosses, and Lin and Yammi were the bosses. She was adamant she herself was not a boss. Everything she did was for them. She told the court that at the time of the tragedy she was 24 weeks pregnant with Yammis baby but she had ended their relationship when they were arrested. I took off my engagement ring. I dont hate him. I just wanted them to tell the truth. Janie Bannister was in the witness box for a considerable time and my assessment of her evidence was that though she was clearly guilty of facilitating the immigration offences she was truthful, brave, and also ashamed of the role she had played in the running of the two gangs. She had identified Lin on the shore, cooperated thereafter, and more than anyone was familiar with the workings of the cockling gangs. In court, she had done her three former friends no favours. In his defence, Lin, 27 at the time of the disaster, said he had begun cockling to pay his tuition fees at a college in Liverpool. He worked for another man before buying some vehicles and setting up his own gang. But he had then decided to give up cockling and sold his van and tools to two other Chinese workers, Lin Li Shui and Tian Long. In his defence, Lin (a court artist's impression), 27 at the time of the disaster, said he had begun cockling to pay his tuition fees at a college in Liverpool On the night of the tragedy, he said, it was Lin Li Shui who was in charge. However, he, Lin Liang Ren, had been asked to drive out to the cockle beds and had done so. But he made a mistake in the dark and got stuck. With the water up to his waist, he walked back to the shore. He denied trying to escape from the beach without being seen and he denied telling others to say he wasnt the boss. He denied stating that Lin Li Shui and Tian Long were the ones in charge because he knew they were dead and in no position to dispute the fact. In his closing speech, Rens counsel submitted that it was a tragic accident with many causes, including the Governments failure to control immigration. The authorities knew full well what the Chinese were up to and did nothing to stop them. The permit scheme was a meaningless farce: no applicant was ever asked a basic question concerning safety, there was no input from Health and Safety, and no effort was made to warn the gangs on the sands. He said the English gangs had wickedly destroyed Chinese cockles and their actions had driven them into going out later in the day and further from shore. The English cocklers saw the Chinese going out but gave them no effective warning, nor did they inform the coastguard or police of the obvious danger. They left them to their fate. He argued that, even if Lin was technically in charge, it was reasonable for him to delegate the timing to Lin Li Shui. The jury disagreed, convicting Lin, his girlfriend and his cousin on all counts. I thought the guilty verdicts accurate. This was an appalling and wholly avoidable tragedy. The criticism of the permit scheme, Coastguards, Health and Safety and the police was all well founded. The conduct of Lin Liang Ren, however, involving a total and callous disregard for his wickedly exploited workers merited a very long prison sentence. Fourteen years represented the longest sentence passed for gross negligence manslaughter by some distance. I was amazed that this gang of exclusively and obviously illegal immigrants could move into a residential street in a Lancashire town, attracting no adverse intervention from any authority. So far as I know, no form of inquiry into the multiple failures in this case has ever taken place. The response of the police, namely, Sorry, we cannot attend at present. A changeover is taking place. Nobody can attend for half an hour, was a disgrace. This was a critical emergency meriting instant action. The case provoked two incidental thoughts. Firstly, it became apparent from the evidence that the Chinese cocklers were far more productive than their English counterparts, most of whom had far more experience. Although living in the most cramped and crowded conditions and being fed the most modest fare, they farmed cockles with far greater application and intensity than their local rivals. It was primarily for this reason that their cockles were soaked with petrol. Secondly, and in contrast to the dispiriting facts of the case, Morecambe Bay on a fine day is a place of great beauty. Views across the bay from Morecambe to Grange-over-Sands are as fine as I have seen. The representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the southwestern province of Khuzestan has visited some of the people who were wounded by security forces during a protest over a lack of drinking water last week. In a video published by the semiofficial Fars news agency on May 25, Seyed Abdolnabi Mousavifard is seen in the home of a young man who had one leg badly injured by plastic bullets during the rally two days earlier. "I'm here to apologize to this young man," Mousavifard is seen saying in the video. Photos of the man and his injured leg have been widely circulated on social media. He was among residents of the Gheizaniyeh district who had gathered in front of the local governor's office on May 23 and blocked a road to protest against their drinking water being cut off. Security forces fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse the crowd. Police claimed the protesters had attacked the police with stones and sticks. It was unclear how many people were wounded in the violence. President Hassan Rohani on May 25 instructed the energy minister and the governor of Khuzestan Province to take immediate measures to resolve the problem with drinking water in the district. Khuzestan Governor Gholamreza Shariati also apologized to residents and promised to resolve their water issue within two weeks. Water shortages are a chronic problem in Gheizanieh, a district with a population of more than 25,000 people, as well as in many other areas of the province. Khuzestan, home to an ethnic Arab minority, holds around 80 percent of Iran's onshore oil reserves. It also has a wealth of rivers and water reservoirs but suffers from underdevelopment, a lack of drinking water, and poverty in many areas. Khuzestan is currently one of the hot spots of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, where the virus has officially infected more than 139,500 people and killed over 7,500 people. Five days of protests shook Iranian cities and towns in November following a government announcement about a fuel-price hike. At least 304 men, women, and children were killed during the "ruthless" crackdown on the protests by security forces, according to Amnesty International. Thousands of others were "arbitrarily" detained and many were subjected to "enforced disappearance, torture, and other ill-treatment, and unfair trials," the London-based human rights watchdog said. U.S. sanctions have targeted Irans oil industry and other sectors, depriving Tehran of much-needed cash. San Francisco merchants battered by the coronavirus pandemic will soon be able to apply for free, fast-tracked permits to use portions of outdoor public spaces sidewalks, streets, parks and plazas for business activities. The new Shared Spaces Program represents the latest city initiative to support a gradual increase of economic activity while balancing mandates around social distancing, which remains crucial for stopping the spread of the virus until a vaccine is developed. The program is also the first effort born from the citys Economic Recovery Task Force. Individual business owners and merchant groups should be able to apply for shared-spaces permits beginning in mid-June. After obtaining a permit, businesses will be responsible for maintaining safe travel paths and complying with arrangements for people with disabilities. The program is a creative solution that will give our businesses more space to operate safely, and shift some of our street and sidewalk space to protect the economic and physical health of our entire community, Mayor London Breed said in a statement. By giving businesses easier access to portions of public rights-of-way, city officials hope to create more room for restaurant take-out pickups, curbside retail and other business activity allowed under the citys current health order. This month, San Francisco allowed most retailers in the city to reopen for curbside pickup and sales, though shoppers are still not permitted inside the stores themselves and all transactions must be completed outdoors. Supervisor Aaron Peskin said in a statement that he intended to use his legislative authority to waive additional fees that present unnecessary barriers to entry for small businesses on the brink. The program also lays the groundwork for expanded outdoor dining at restaurants, once health officials give the all-clear. Currently, restaurants are only able to fulfill take-out and delivery orders. From a diner perspective, a lot of them are wondering if its safe to eat inside of a place, said Evan Kidera, a co-owner of Senor Sisig, the Filipino-inspired Valencia Street restaurant. Doing service outside gives patrons a little comfort with going to their neighborhood spot, which is good when so many of them are struggling. The business, which began with a food truck, is potentially well-suited for outdoor service. Most of its roughly 40 seats are scattered between the restaurants patio and a parklet outside. Kidera said outdoor dining could be a boon to struggling restaurants, but there remain hurdles, including how it would affect bike lanes on Valencia and parking for delivery drivers. The big thing will be listening to what everyone in these neighborhoods need, he said. City officials also suggested the program could open up a broader repurposing of San Franciscos travel lanes, and even entire streets, during shelter-in-place. In some cases, that could mean restaurants would be able to serve food on closed-down streets. Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes Because of their potential impact on public transit, such proposals will be considered on a case-by-case basis, city officials said. Both San Francisco and Oakland have shut down streets to most vehicle traffic to give people more space to walk and bike outdoors while maintaining distance from one another. Our COVID-19 response challenges us to reimagine and repurpose how we use our streets to either accommodate curbside pickup or room for social distancing, said Jeffrey Tumlin, director of transportation for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. We are thrilled to support Shared Spaces, a broader repurposing of travel lanes or entire streets to support our small business community, he said. Chronicle reporter Justin Phillips contributed to this report. Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa In a recent article by the CBC, Tom Bain of the Lakeshore Horse Racing Association has discussed how Standardbred horsepeople in southwestern Ontario will be making adjustments to their normal procedures while racing through the current COVID-19 pandemic. The article explains that racing is scheduled to be be starting at Sarnia's Hiawatha Horse Park and at Dresden Raceway in early June, while live action is scheduled for Leamington Raceway in August. Bain has stated that horsepeople will be facing a significant adjustment to the norm when it comes to adhering to social distancing procedures while racing. "We'll have to follow all the rules that's been set concerning COVID-19," said Bain, who went on to say, "it's certainly going to be a lot different." Bain has stated that horsepeople are relieved that racing will in fact be taking place at the tracks this year, as there was a great deal of uneasiness among those that make their living off of the industry. "There were certainly a lot of fears that we may not be racing whatsoever and certainly, fears that a large number of stables were just going to have to close their doors and go out of business," Bain was quoted as saying. To read the CBC article in its entirety, click here. Standardbreds pictured in behind the starting gate at Dresden Raceway. Standardbreds pictured in behind the starting gate at Dresden Raceway. (With files from the CBC) Amid social distancing measures put in place to fight the coronavirus pandemic, case numbers have flatlined for a number of other diseases. But experts warn with the easing of movement restrictions, people have to keep following social distancing measures to ensure they dont come back. Measures put in place to halt coronavirus have also taken out a range of other diseases. Credit:AP Rates of influenza have been squashed flat after initially hinting at another serious year for case numbers. The numbers went so low Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said residents of the state were more likely to get COVID-19 than a flu in 2020. MSNBC political analyst Zerlina Maxwell acknowledges that the title of her debut book of political commentaryThe End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide (Hachette, July)sounds like a pretty bold statement. But from the beginning of America, we've been doing white identity-focused politics; we just didn't call it that. We called it politics. Yet, according to Pew Research and census data, America is soon going to be majority nonwhite, and that's going to change how we do politics. So I'm trying to get people to rethink their perspective on certain issues. Maxwellwho is also co-host of Sirius XMs "Signal Boost will moderate the Adult Book & Author Dinner, live online from 5:307 p.m. at the BookExpo Facebook page. The panelists are United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo; bestselling author Carmen Maria Machado; U.S. Representative for Minnesota Ilhan Omar; and speculative fiction writer Rebecca Roanhorse. Maxwell is excited to see how the conversation develops among one of the first Muslim members of Congress, the first Native American poet laureate, two fiction writers, and a political operative. It's a pretty cool mix of folks. As a child, Maxwells scientist father nicknamed her Little Miss Questions. Fittingly, she grew up to earn a law degree from Rutgers University, become a speaker and writer on policy and culture issues, and work on the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Although Maxwell had previously been in meetings with Hachette to brainstorm book ideas, The End of White Politics was born of a 2018 Politicon panel entitled What Now, Liberals? in which Maxwell was a participant. Politicon is a bizarre event with a mix of people from all over the spectrum of politicsAnn Coulter, Dennis Rodman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Alyssa Milano. I'd participated in this panel two years in a row, and both experiences were similar. But it was right before the midterm elections and we were analyzing what Democrats needed to do to win back the House, the Senate, and the White House. There was a lot of aggressive, burning energy in the rooma lot of booing and hissing and yelling. I said, Look, the people that you guys need to win elections look like me. So booing me, or black women who want their perspectives considered seriously, isn't really the way to go. It turned out that also in that audience was Hachette executive editor Krishan Trotmanwho suggested that expanding on some of the ideas that shed put forward on the panel was the book Maxwell needed to write. Maxwell agreed. The End of White Politics she says, is turning the way we think about politics on its head, but it seems so natural to mebecause I'm coming from the perspective of a black woman [while] most of the time, the people who talk and write about politics are white men. What I'm hoping to do is to expand it, so the rest of us can have our say. It's a very current book, but it's looking forward to the next 25 years. For more information on BookExpo Online, visit the BookExpo Facebook page. The Anambra State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Andrew Kumapayi, on Tuesday confirmed the death of a motorcyclist at Orie Akwu-Ukwu on the Owerri-Onitsha highway. Mr Kumapayi, who confirmed the incident in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka, said the unidentified motorcyclist was hit by a Toyota Siena car. The commander said the accident which occurred at about 10 a.m. was caused by over-speeding It was gathered that an unregistered motorcycle was hit by a Toyota Sienna with registration number YAB 549 WD. One out of the two male adults involved in the crash, who happened to be the motorcyclist, lost his life. READ ALSO: On getting to the scene of the accident, the FRSC rescue team reported that operatives of the Nigeria Police Force were already on ground. They took the corpse of the victim to Gateway Mortuary in Oba, near Onitsha. The policemen also took the driver of the Toyota Sienna to their station. Mr Kumapayi said that clearing of obstruction was going on at the scene of the crash to ensure the free flow of traffic. He warned motorists against over-speeding, which he said, could lead to loss of control and road accidents. (NAN) The rollout of Rich Communication Services (RCS) in the US and much of the world has been a slow affair. However, the next-generation replacement for SMS and MMS messaging just got a much-needed boost from T-Mobile and Google. The companies say they've partnered to make RCS messaging available to all T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers. Following a more limited rollout in 2015 and an expansion in 2018, T-Mobile claims it's the first carrier to implement a full standards-based RCS interconnect with Google's Messages platform. If you're a subscriber who owns an Android device, you'll be able to take advantage of all the protocols features, including typing indicators and read receipts, when messaging Android users in other countries. Of course, the person you're chatting with will still need to own a compatible device and pay for service from a carrier that supports the protocol. For much of its existence, taking advantage of RCS has meant jumping through a variety of hoops. A lot of that has had to do with the fact that some carriers have used a slightly tweaked version of the protocol. Now that T-Mobile is entirely on board with the Universal Profile, the experience should be more seamless. As long as they own a phone that fully supports the protocol, T-Mobile customers won't have to dive into Android's settings to enable RCS or install another messaging app on their device. Currently, the carrier says approximately 40 devices, including some of those available through its Metro flanker brand, support the protocol out of the box, with more RCS-capable phones to come in the future. This isn't the first time Android users in different countries have been able to message each other using RCS. In 2017, Sprint and Rogers in Canada made their networks compatible with one another. That said, RCS has come a long way since then, both in terms of availability and ubiquity. It's not clear how the partnership will affect the Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) announced in 2019. At the time, the carriers said the project would create a "seamless" and " interoperable" RCS experience across their networks. We've reached out to both T-Mobile and Google for clarification, and we'll update this article when we hear back from them. Peru was one of the first nations in the Americas to take strict preventative coronavirus measures, like stay-at-home orders, curfews and border closings. So how did it become one of the hardest hit? As of Monday, Peru had more than 123,900 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,600 deaths -- putting it second only to Brazil both in number of cases and deaths in Latin America. The two countries had handled the epidemic entirely differently: While Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed the dangers posed by the coronavirus, Peru's President Martin Vizcarra declared on March 15 a nationwide state of emergency that included mandatory self-quarantine, and shuttered the country's borders. But the virus surged all the same. About 85% of Peru's ICU beds with ventilators are currently occupied, according to government figures, and overcrowding at hospitals is feared. "This situation is not just a health emergency, but a health catastrophe, defined as a situation where the pandemic has overtaken the response capacity of the health sector," Dr. Alfredo Celis of the Medical College of Peru told CNN en Espanol. How did a country that responded assertively and seriously to the pandemic end up like this? Needs vs. quarantine measures The deep inequality in Peru is one reason, according to Dr. Elmer Huerta, a Peruvian doctor and contributor to CNN en Espanol. "What I have learned is that this virus lays bare the socio-economic conditions of a place," he said. Many of Peru's poor have no choice but to venture outside their homes for work, food or even banking transactions. For example, only 49% of Peruvian households own a refrigerator or freezer (61% in urban areas), according to the country's 2017 Census. This translates to a need for many to visit markets daily for food because they can't stock up, Huerta said. "You're supposed to avoid human contact in a society where one can't stay at home," Huerta said. On April 14 -- about a month after Peru enacted its mandatory stay-at-home policy and implemented a curfew -- CNN affiliate TV Peru showed images outside of a market on the outskirts of Lima. Shoppers waited in line for hours and a large mass of people milled about. Most wore masks, but social distancing seemed impossible. "We must endure (the crowds) because there is no other way," one woman standing in line told TV Peru. "If not, we will not have food. We have nothing to eat, that's why we have come here." On that day, the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country was 10,303. Today, it is 10 times higher. Unintended consequences People have also ended up crowding at banks as they attempted to access coronavirus relief funds. The government's stimulus package to help millions of Peru's most vulnerable families was a good idea, but its distribution was poorly designed, said Kristian Lopez Vargas, a Peruvian economist and assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In a report last year, the agency that regulates Peru's banks reported that only about 38% of adults have a bank account. The lack of access to the financial system means a majority of aid recipients have to go in person to the banks to obtain their money. "It was not hard to anticipate people's behavior in their attempt to access this aid," Lopez Vargas told CNN. "Instead, these policies caused unnecessary harm by inducing people to gather in large crowds in banks." Many Peruvians also live and work in ways that simply can't be reconciled with social distancing, he pointed out. According to Lopez Vargas, more than 30% of households in Peru live in overcrowded conditions, with four or more people sleeping in the same room. And more than 72% work in the informal economy, according to Peru's National Institute of Statistics and Information. For those living day-to-day in the informal sector, earning an income oftentimes depends on going out to work and not self-isolating. This, combined with the needs of millions to obtain food and other items from crowded markets, "was an explosive mix," Lopez Vargas said. What now? On Friday, President Vizcarra extended the state of emergency until June 30, keeping in place the mandatory self-quarantine and curfews across the country. It was the fifth time the emergency measures have been extended. But this time, the extension was paired with authorization for certain businesses to re-open, including services like salons, food delivery and dentistry. Peru's priorities for enforcing health guidelines also appear to have evolved since the state of emergency was first declared. In early April, Vizcarra reported that during the first weeks of the stay-at-home mandate, as many as 3,000 people were detained for disobeying the measures on some days. On Monday, he announced that the priority will be on enforcing health protocols at the country's markets. One lesson learned from the pandemic response is that people must change certain "social behaviors that have done much damage," he added. "This kind of behavior is individualistic, selfish...ignoring what's happening around us, and precisely what has brought this situation upon us, not just in Peru, but the whole world," said Vizcarra. But Huerta, the doctor, and Lopez Vargas, the economist, caution against placing too much blame on the people. The underlying problems that the pandemic has laid bare are not new. "While it may seem like a mystery to some, it's not," Lopez Vargas said. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday held a long security review meeting with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and the three Services Chiefs amid the border standoff with China in Ladakh. The meeting was the latest in a series of such consultations held in the last two weeks as India weighs its options to respond to the latest provocation by China at the border. Singh was briefed by Army Chief General MM Naravane about the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border between the two countries, two days ago after his return from Leh to take stock of the matter. It is learnt that Singh asked questions on troop deployment and expressed his full support for the Army's response to Chinese aggression. Six rounds of talks between Indian and Chinese troops since the first border skirmish on May 5 have failed to de-escalate tensions as the two sides have maintained aggressive posturing in the disputed border areas. Sources say China has put forward the condition that India stop building infrastructure even on its own side of the LAC, a condition that will remain unacceptable to New Delhi. India, on the other hand, has asked Beijing to maintain status quo at the border, sources said. But the Chinese have refused to back off from India territory. The People Liberation Armys main bone of contention has been the 255-km Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road that India last year built on its side of the border. It provides access to the Depsang area and Galwan Valley and ends near the Karakoram Pass. The infrastructure development has made it easier for patrols to operate and the frequency of patrolling can also be increased. Tuesday's meeting comes a day before top Army commanders meet in Delhi for the three-day biannual army commanders conference. "The apex level leadership of Indian Army will brainstorm on current emerging security and administrative challenges and chart the future course for Indian Army," said a statement released by the Army. While army sources have said the conference will focus on logistics and human resources, there is little doubt the situation unfolding at the border with China is going to dominate discussions. The conference was originally scheduled to be held from April 13-18, but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now be held in two phase. The first phase will be from May 27-29 and the second one in the last week of June, said Army Spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand. Tensions had erupted earlier this month when around 250 Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods and sticks and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in Ladakh in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries. In a separate incident, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector on May 9. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries. After the violent clashes, both India and China have pumped in additional troops, built fortifications and pitched tents at a few stretches along the LAC in three areas in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army has also increased its presence in Uttarakhand after reports of Chinese troop build-up on their side of the LAC. UAVs have been deployed for intelligence gathering and surveillance. YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan highlights the recent agreement reached with head of the United Homeland party Samvel Babayan and the future cooperation with foreign minister Masis Mayilyan. In his remarks the President said their greatest political achievement is the agreement reached with the United Homeland party and its leader Samvel Babayan, which has also been presented to the public in the form of a memorandum. In terms of future cooperation we have recorded quite serious success with Masis Mayilyan. Despite the fight with one another in the presidential election, we have presented an agenda of solidarity and unity, Arayik Harutyunyan said. He urged the other politicians not to insult the sons of Artsakh who played a role in the state-building process. Do not try to label the agreement reached as a result of the commitment assumed towards our nations future, our country. Currently we are facing a crucial time and we are not going to fulfill our mission with a position, he said, adding that those political figures, who received the publics trust vote, will take part in the events taking place in Artsakh with their share. The President of Artsakh said they are ready to cooperate with all. Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan The fact that director of the Landscaping and Environmental Protection Community Non-Commercial Organization of Yerevan Municipality Ara Aghayan hasnt organized a meeting with the Organizations employees for a long time after assuming office and is dismissing them for no reason is unacceptable. This is what member of the Council of Elders of Yerevan Lilit Kirakosyan, who represents the My Step faction, declared during a question-and-answer session at the municipality today. In addition, Aghayan says hell sign documents when its convenient for him. During this period, he has dismissed dozens of employees, and three of them have quit their jobs upon their desire, according to him. Im certain that the dismissed employees dont know the director and cant state the reasons for their dismissal, she said. According to Aghayan, he has met with hundreds of employees and has decided to work with those whom he needs to work with. I knew all the employees who were dismissed, including the spokesperson, who hadnt informed me about the press releases about the Organization and hadnt responded to them, he said. Lucknow, May 26 : The Congress has stepped up its attack on the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, accusing it of putting out fake statistics regarding coronavirus cases and also spreading communal hatred. Senior Congress leader P L Punia, while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, said that UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu had been sent to jail only because he was helping the migrant workers. "No one is being allowed to meet the UPCC president and the Congress will not tolerate this injustice," he said. Punia alleged that UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath said in an interview to a TV channel that migrant workers were responsible for spreading the corona infection. Meanwhile, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Aradhana Mishra said that the Yogi government had claimed that 25 lakh migrant workers had returned to UP. "The government has said that the number of infected persons is 6228 so how can they claim that the 25 lakh migrant workers have brought the infection to UP? The chief minister should explain the basis of his claim," she said. Mishra demanded that the state government should come clean on the number of patients, testing figures and preparations made for corona. Mahendergarh district on Tuesday witnessed a spike in Covid-19 cases after 15 persons, who had returned from other states, tested positive on Tuesday. So far, the district has reported 36 cases, which include 34 returnees, a Mahendergarh resident who had brought his father, a Rajasthan Police employee from Delhi, and his one contact. The district has 30 active cases and 6 patients have returned home after recovery. Mahendergarh civil surgeon Dr Ashok Kumar said the district reported 15 cases on Tuesday, and all of the infected persons had returned home from other states recently. The new cases have been reported from 13 different villages and one patient belongs to Adarsh Nagar in Mahendergarh. The patients had returned from Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The cases include a barber, two Delhi Police cops, a 23-year-old student, two health workers, a tailor and carpenter and among others whose professions are yet to be ascertained, the civil surgeon said. He said all the new patients except a Delhi policeman, who had returned on May 23, have been admitted to the isolation ward of the Covid-hospital in Narnaul. MAHENDERGARH SAW 36 CASES IN 19 DAYS Mahendergarh had recently become the second district in Haryana to lose the green zone tag on May 8 after two government railway police (GRP) personnel tested positive for coronavirus disease. However, before May 8, Mahendergarh district administration was being praised for not letting the deadly virus enter its territory even though it shared border with Rajasthan. SURVEILLANCE HELPED IN DETECTING CASES The civil surgeon said proper surveillance and testing has helped the district administration in detecting the infection among people returning from other states. People coming from other states are being monitored by doctors and health workers. We have asked the returnees to strictly go into home quarantine and approach us if they notice any symptoms of Covid-19. All the patients, except one of the contacts of an infected man from Mahendergarh, had contracted the disease in other states before returning home, Dr Kumar added. YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Representative of the Republic of Armenia to the European Court of Human Rights Yeghishe Kirakosyan assesses the judgement of the ECHR on the case of axing to death the Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan while sleeping by Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov in Budapest as a great move. Its very important to emphasize that the court recorded the violation of Article 14 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - Prohibition of Discrimination by Azerbaijan. This is a significant achievement. The court also recorded violation of procedural obligations for Article 2 of the Convention - Azerbaijan violated the right to life and failed to ensure the adequate punishment given the fact that it has been proved that the crime was committed on the basis of national hatred, Kirakosyan told ARMENPRESS. He expressed regret that the court did not provide the attribution, which would presuppose the attribution of the crime committed by the person to the state. Kirakosyan thinks that there were enough evidences for the ECHR to give clear assessments. The European Court of Human Rights has issued a judgement in the case of Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan and Hungary, concerning the presidential pardon of Azerbaijani convicted military officer Ramil Safarov who murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in 2004 during a NATO training course in Hungary. Margaryan was asleep in his room when Safarov attacked him with an axe. Safarov admitted in court to having killed Margaryan because of his hatred towards Armenia and Armenians. He was sentenced to life in prison by the Hungarian court. However, in 2012 Hungary extradited him to Azerbaijan. He was released upon arrival, glorified on the state-level and pardoned by President Aliyev. The ECHR found that there had been no justification for the Azerbaijani authorities failure to enforce the punishment of R.S. and to in effect grant him impunity for a serious hate crime. The ECHR found that Azerbaijan had clearly endorsed [Ramil Safarovs] acts, not only by releasing him but also by promoting him, paying him salary arrears and granting him a flat upon his return. The court unanimously voted that there had been a procedural violation by Azerbaijan of Article 2 (Right to Life) of the Convention, by six votes to one, that there had been a violation by Azerbaijan of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) taken in conjunction with Article 2. The ECHR found that there were no facts to suggest that the Hungarian authorities couldve been aware about Safarovs future release. The applicants had not expected financial compensation: in an earlier interview they said they seek justice and Azerbaijans condemnation. They only requested the court 15,143 pounds compensation for covering the expenses of lawyers. The court found that Azerbaijan must make the payment. Editing and Translating by Tigran Sirekanyan NEW YORK, May 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- UM, the global marketing and media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, today announced it has been named media Agency of Record for E. & J. Gallo Winery (Gallo), the world's largest family-owned winery and the acclaimed producer of award-winning wines and spirits. UM will take on strategy, planning, buying, research, and data and analytics media duties across the U.S. for Gallo's wine and spirits portfolio, including the #1 selling wine brand, Barefoot Cellars, as well as key brands including Apothic, Dark Horse, La Marca and New Amsterdam Vodka and Gin. "We are so proud to welcome Gallo, a renowned family-owned company to our own family," said Lynn Lewis, U.S. CEO, UM. "We are excited to leverage our data-first approach to supercharge Gallo's media and marketing efforts, driving meaningful connections with high value audiences and delivering better outcomes for their business." "Critical drivers in winning our business were UM's investments in technology and data," said Stephanie Gallo, Chief Marketing Officer, Gallo. "We looked for a partner who shares our ambition to accelerate data-driven plans, that will allow our brands to connect with consumers and prospects across all consumer journeys." Gallo joins several brands that have recently appointed UM media Agency of Record in North America including Shinola, CVS Health-Aetna, Levi Strauss & Co. and Energizer brands, Armor All and Rayovac. About UM UM is a strategic media agency committed to proving that media is a topline growth driver as much as an efficiency play. We believe that better science and better art deliver better outcomes for our clients. We deliver science through the transformational power of business analytics and real-time data intelligence. We deliver art through creating moments that matter in media to deliver momentum for brands. As the leading global media network in IPG Mediabrands, UM operates in over 100 countries, with more than 5,000 people innovating on a roster of global clients including Accenture, American Express, BMW, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Fitbit, GoPro, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss & Co, Sony, Spotify and The Hershey Company. About E. & J. Gallo Winery Founded by brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo in 1933 in Modesto, California, E. & J. Gallo Winery is the world's largest family-owned winery and the acclaimed producer of award-winning wines and spirits featured in more than 100 countries around the globe. A pioneer in the art of grape growing, winemaking, sustainable practices, marketing and worldwide distribution, Gallo crafts and imports wines and spirits to suit a diverse range of tastes and occasions, from everyday offerings to boutique, luxury bottlings. Gallo Spirits currently offers New Amsterdam Vodka and Gin, Familia Camarena Tequila, RumHaven, Lo-Fi Aperitifs, E&J Brandy, Argonaut Brandy, Germain-Robin Brandy, Diplomatico Rum, Don Fulano Tequila, as well as imported Scotch whiskies from Whyte & Mackay, including The Dalmore, Jura and John Barr. Premium wine offerings include J Vineyards & Winery, Louis M. Martini, MacMurray Estate Vineyards, Orin Swift, Talbott Vineyards, and William Hill Estate, along with highly acclaimed imports, such as Alamos, Brancaia, La Marca, Whitehaven, and LUX Wines, importers of Allegrini, Argiano, Jermann, Pieropan, Renato Ratti and Tornatore. SOURCE UM While much of the USA cautiously begins opening for business again, hoping the COVID-19 pandemic is withering away, Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) faces an apparent resurgence of the novel coronavirus: 570 employees at a North Carolina chicken processing facility with a total workforce of 2,000, or roughly 28.5%, are confirmed to be infected after testing. The meatpacking industry, where workers typically carry out their tasks in crowded conditions, was earlier hit by significant local outbreaks. At one point, America's meat supply chain was thought to be verging on breakdown, prompting President Trump to issue an executive order mandating the industry to keep operating. Tyson indicated that the majority of the 570 employees who tested positive are asymptomatic, appearing healthy even as they're infected. It also detailed the steps it's taking to combat further COVID-19 spread, including increased tests, placing shields between workstations, and otherwise "working closely with local health departments to protect our team members and their families." Meanwhile, a fifth worker from Tyson's huge Waterloo, Iowa, pork processing complex, died yesterday. Jose Ayala, 44, had spent six weeks critically ill in an area hospital. At least one business owner in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, where the latest chicken plant outbreak of 570 was confirmed, is temporarily closing his business to Tyson employees. Bob Hartley of SmartCuts hair salon said the policy isn't meant "to dishonor or disrespect them" but is a response to the large infection cluster, which "raised a red flag and gave us concern." Tyson workers are, however, welcome to return after June 8 and will receive a special $3 discount. Food and Ag Industry Continues to Donate to Michigan's Food Banks; Michigan potatoes, beans, dairy products and other foods headed to families in need across the state Food and Ag Industry Continues to Donate to Michigan's Food Banks; Michigan potatoes, beans, dairy products and other foods headed to families in need across the state Michigan potatoes, dry beans, dairy products and more are headed to struggling families across the state, thanks to the continued generosity of our states food and agriculture businesses. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer today recognized several Michigan food and agriculture businesses for their donations to the Food Bank Council of Michigan (FBCM) and other non-profits as part of the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Initiative launched earlier this month. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) has partnered with the Governors Office and the FBCM seeking donations of food and funds as part of the initiative. At a time when everyone is facing challenges, and the need for food assistance is so great, our food and agriculture businesses continue to answer the call for help, said Governor Whitmer. We are also fortunate to have such a wonderful network of food bank staff and volunteers who know how to stretch a dollar and provide nutritious, wholesome food to people across the state. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are facing economic hardship and food insecurity, and are turning to food banks for assistance. Through its network of regional food banks and distribution centers, FBCM provides food to more than 3,000 local food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries across the state. Food banks are currently operating at four times their normal capacity and are experiencing significant trouble securing food to meet demand. Although the federal stimulus package will provide future relief, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has told FBCM they will not receive food through the federal program until July, well beyond the expected food gap food banks are facing right now. I am continuously humbled by the generosity of Michigans food and agriculture community, said Gary McDowell, MDARD director. These donations will keep food on the tables of countless Michigan families who are struggling right now. The following food and agriculture businesses have made donations of food and funds to the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Initiative to support food banks in our state: Michigan Bean Commission and its Michigan dry bean farmers, processors and shippers donated seven tons of dry beans to the FBCM for distribution to food banks across the state. The beans were delivered to FBCMs seven food bank partners in 7,000 two-pound packages for ease of distribution to families. The beans were packaged by Howard City-based Carlson-Arbogast Farm and Pigeon-based Cooperative Elevator Co. Michigan Turkey Producers, of Grand Rapids, a cooperative of family farms, donated 9,160 pounds of turkey, valued at $25,373.20, to Feeding America West Michigan. Eden Foods, located in Clinton, donated 7,868 pounds of soy milk, valued at $9,756.32, to the South Michigan Food Bank. Little Diablo Salsa, of Brighton, donated 125 pounds of salsa, valued at $232.50 to Gleaners Community Food Bank. The following have made recent donations of food and funds directly to food banks in our state: Michigan Potato Industry Commission donated $5,000 toward the purchase of a truckload of Michigan potatoes. A GoFundMe site established by MPIC raised another $5,000 from Michigan potato growers and other potato industry partners, toward the purchase of a second truckload of potatoes, for a total donation of $10,000. Michigan Farm Bureau Family of Companies, through its one-week Million Meal Challenge, raised $187,405, or more than 1.1 million meals. All funds raised were donated to the Food Bank Council of Michigan to be distributed to each of the seven regional food banks across the state. Farm Bureau Insurance and the Agent Charitable Fund each donated $50,000 to the challenge, and matched additional donations from members, clients and supporters. Dairy Farmers of America, a farmer-owned dairy cooperative, partnered with the Country Fresh Grand Rapids dairy processing plant to provide milk to Michigan food banks. DFA is donating the milk and Country Fresh Grand Rapids is providing the milk to the food banks for the cost of processing. More than 56,000 gallons of 2% milk was donated between April 15 and May 15. DFA also partnered with Farm Country Cheese in Lakeview to provide 20,000 pounds of cheese to Michigan food banks for 50 cents a pound to cover a portion of the processing and packaging. Food and agriculture businesses who would like to arrange for a donation should contact MDARD at MDARD-COVID19@michigan.gov. If transportation assistance is needed for donations, the state has secured trucks and can assist in donation pick-up and delivery. For other businesses and individuals interested in donating to the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Initiative, a secure online donation with the Michigan Department of Treasury can be made by visiting www.michigan.gov/fightcovid19 and clicking on donations. Donations of any size can be made by credit or debit card. Information around the COVID-19 outbreak is changing rapidly. The latest information is available at Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus. To the Editor: I recently contacted some Connecticut politicians to ask them their position on a ban on fur sales and manufacturing. I was pleased to discover a number of officials supported the idea who I wasn't previously aware of. These included state representatives Kim Rose of Milford, John Hampton of Simsbury and Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford. They join a growing list of Connecticut politicians opposed to the fur industry. Former Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company and Memberof the Concordia Leadership Council Andrew N. Liveris speaks onstage during the 2018 Concordia Annual Summit: Day 1 at Grand Hyatt New York on September 24, 2018 in New York City. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images) Northern Territory Appoints Heavyweights to Turn Economy Former Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris and former Chief Minister Paul Henderson have been tasked with setting up the Northern Territory as a gas manufacturing hub. The globally recognised Darwin-born businessman who ran Dow Chemical and advised two U.S. presidents has been appointed chair of a commission to restart the Northern Territorys economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. Andrew Liveris will be co-chair of a Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission packed with industry heavyweights. NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner says the NT can achieve five percent economic growth and turn a once-in-a-century crisis into a once-in-a-century opportunity to become a manufacturing capital and energy superpower. Natural gas will be a major component of this recovery, given the territory has large offshore reserves already being exploited, and onshore gas soon to be drilled through fracking. Solar power would also play a key role, with the Singapore Sun Cable consortium planning a $20 billion project to export Australias sunshine to South East Asia. It would be the worlds largest solar storage. Solar power could also play a role in data storage becoming a lucrative industry in the Top End, Gunner said. We are the safest place in Australia and fastest to crush the coronavirus and first to start the comeback, Gunner told reporters. I think we have got a very easy pitch the NT puts a compelling case of being the best place in this country to live and thats what we will be pushing after the coronavirus crisis. The global economy will be different after this, supply chains will be transformed, our country will need to be more self-reliant in the future National shortcomings have been exposed by this crisis and there is massive potential for the Territory. Liveris, a pro-gas advocate previously lead U.S. President Donald Trumps American Manufacturing Council and is already a special adviser to Australias National COVID-19 Coordination Commission. The commission will be co-chaired by former Chief Minister Paul Henderson and includes Martin Parkinson, former secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Infrastructure Australia CEO Romilly Madew and former Westpac CEO Gail Kelly. The commission and its plans are backed by industry groups such as the NT Minerals Council and NT Chamber of Commerce, who said a first step should be speeding up the approvals process for shovel ready projects. The appointment of pro-gas advocates Liveris and Henderson was criticised by the Protect Country Alliance group which opposes plans for an onshore gas fracking industry in the NT. The commission will provide an interim report by late-July, and a final report with plans for implementation in November after the August NT election has been held. By Greg Roberts New Delhi: Superstar Akshay Kumar, along with filmmaker R Balki, shot for a public service advertisement amid the coronavirus lockdown at Kamalistan studio in Mumbai on Monday. The crew had sought permission from the authorities to shoot for the ad and adhered to all social distancing norms and precautionary measures on the sets. Several pictures and videos from the ad-shoot have been doing the rounds on the Internet in which Akshay, Balki and team are seen wearing masks. There were about 20 people present on the location. While speaking to Zee News, the producer of the video Anil Naidu said, The entire shooting got completed in two hours. The ad will be out in a couple of days. He added that Akshay himself drove to the sets and got ready at home. Balki, who previously directed the superstar in PadMan, told news agency IANS, "Akshay and I have shot this ad-campaign for the Government of India to make people aware about their responsibilities post lockdown. Things might seem difficult but through this ad, we now know what all precautions need to be taken to shoot in the post-lockdown era. Our producer Anil Naidu made everything seem effortless and we all maintained social distancing. The shoot happened smoothly following hygiene protocols, ensuring minimum crew with maximum efficiency and safety." Film, TV and ad shootings have been stalled amid the pandemic, which has brought the entire world to a standstill. India currently is in its fourth phase of lockdown, which began late in March. (With IANS inputs) Photo: The Canadian Press NDP leader Jagmeet Singh holds a press conference on Parliament Hill amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on Monday May 25, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick How Parliament should function in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis remained unresolved Monday as the Conservatives dug in on their demand that the House of Commons resume normal operations with a reduced number of MPs in the chamber. For much of the day, MPs debated a government motion to waive "normal" Commons sittings in favour of expanding the special COVID-19 committee that has acted as a stand-in for the chamber over the past month. But Conservatives ran out the clock, including employing a procedural a manoeuvre that forced an hour-long debate and a vote on a report from the Canada-China relations committee. Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez eventually served notice that the government will move to cut off debate on the motion when the Commons resumes on Tuesday. A spokesman for the NDP said New Democrats will support cutting off debate "if it comes to that" because they "don't want to let other parties delay our ability to move forward." Should debate be cut off, the government's motion to expand the COVID-19 committee meetings to four days a week in a hybrid format with a small number of MPs in the chamber and others participating virtually via two large screens set up on either side of the Speaker's chair would be put to a vote late Tuesday night. If it passes, the Speaker's office said the first hybrid committee meeting could then take place Wednesday. The Liberal government holds only a minority of seats so it will need the support of at least one of the main opposition parties to support the motion. With the Conservatives demanding the resumption of Commons sittings and the Bloc Quebecois abstaining from the negotiations, that leaves the NDP. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took steps Monday to secure the backing of the NDP, promising to work with provinces to give workers paid sick leave and to provide more financial support for Canadians with disabilities to help them weather the pandemic. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called that a good start, but said more action is needed before federal New Democrats will agree to suspend full sittings of the House of Commons through the summer. The back and forth came as the Commons resumed "normal" operations Monday, as the previous agreement on the COVID-19 committee format expired. Shortly before debate started on the floor of the House of Commons, Singh laid out his conditions for supporting the Liberal motion by demanding real action on paid sick leave for all Canadians and support for people with disabilities struggling with the COVID-19 crisis. During his daily news conference outside his home in Ottawa, Trudeau said it makes sense to support paid leave for all workers if they're ill, so people who might be infected with the novel coronavirus don't have to choose between going to work sick and not getting paid. "The government will continue discussions with the provinces without delay on ensuring that as we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, every worker in Canada who needs it has access to 10 days of paid sick leave a year," Trudeau said. "We'll also consider other mechanisms for the longer term to support workers with sick leave." Yet Singh said the promise fell short of the NDP's demands. "We've seen a positive announcement today by the prime minister, but it is not enough," Singh told the House of Commons. "We need to see the action as well. And we are hopeful though that action will be coming." The NDP leader had previously suggested the federal government use the Canada Emergency Response Benefit or employment insurance to deliver paid sick leave immediately and work with the provinces to secure two weeks of leave even after the pandemic is over. The question now is how the two sides might bridge that difference and if not, what other options might exist. The Conservatives have said they want to do away with the special COVID-19 committee and bring back House of Commons sittings, albeit with no more than 50 MPs in the House at any one time. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer underscored the need for Parliament's immediate return in his address to the Commons, while Opposition House leader Candice Bergen laid out some of the key differences between a normal parliamentary session and the special committee, which she referred to as a "fake Parliament." Those include a lack of opposition days, private member's motions and the ability to submit order paper questions, which is one of the key ways opposition parties have to get information from the government. "Although the special committee is one where questions can be asked, we certainly are not seeing questions answered," said Bergen. "And there are many things that the Opposition can do when Parliament is actually sitting in order to try to get answers and to try to hold the government to account. That is not going to be happening if this motion passes." But the Liberals and NDP argue the Conservatives' plan essentially disenfranchises the majority of Canadians, as MPs who live far from Ottawa or with potential health risks will face extreme difficulties attending in-person sessions. However, all sides agree there are technical limitations to establishing a full virtual or hybrid Parliament right now that do not exist for committees in particular on the issue of electronic voting for MPs. Those limitations were highlighted in a report by a Commons committee earlier this month, including concerns about hacking when it comes to MP votes and procedural questions such as how to handle points of order and privilege. The Liberals say that is why they have proposed expanding the current COVID-19 committee by adding an additional meeting per week and using a hybrid format that will allow all MPs to participate through either in-person or virtual attendance. "Under this motion, with a hybrid Parliament, there would be more time for questions," Rodriguez said. "There would be MPs in the House and there would be MPs via video conference regardless of the party. And this would allow our democracy to function. MPs would be able to ask questions because they were elected and not because they live close to Ottawa." Editors note: Todays guest editorial comes from The Seattle Times. Editorial content from other publications and authors 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. More than a year into the grounding of Boeings 737 MAX fleet, regulators like the manufacturer are still attempting to defend the indefensible. The business and regulatory failures that led to the deaths of 346 people in two crashes continue to be papered over, including in a Federal Aviation Administration report released Tuesday. The report shows how badly the FAA lost its way in ensuring safety. The agency needs a thorough overhaul of the safety review process that enabled the 737 MAX to take flight with full federal certification, yet the report maps out an opposite agenda. It says the FAA will continue to delegate to Boeing detailed safety reviews of new aircraft and mechanism as an effective and efficient method to enhance safety. Extensive reporting by The Seattle Times and official investigations of the MAX crashes have shown that delegation of safety reviews to the company itself is too risky to continue in the same form. The flying public needs impartial expert analysis of air safety mechanisms. Allowing Boeings in-house engineers to conduct the majority of certification testing opens the door to shortcuts and manipulation. This concern cuts deeper than a theoretical conflict of interest. When Boeing was rushing to complete the 737 MAX safety approvals, engineers said they encountered extensive improper pressure from company managers to disregard safety concerns and meet production schedules on the cheap, according to Seattle Times reporting. FAA officials likewise reported feeling pressure to cede increased responsibility to Boeing. Thats a textbook example of a broken system. The FAA has a foundational role in Americas and the worlds air safety. Its regulatory reach cannot be significantly reduced without potentially dire consequences. Boeing has strayed far from its reign as the standard-bearer for safe, trustworthy airplanes. The company cannot be trusted with the heavy burdens of reviewing its own work as long as quick profits and boosting stock valuation are central to its ethos. As the report notes, the FAA has delegated certain reviews to manufacturers including Boeing for decades. With proper limits and accountability, the procedure can create efficiencies with cutting-edge private-sector engineers dealing straight with regulators. That means curtailing interference from managers on either side. But thats not what the FAA has embraced. The agencys 2017 blueprint for transforming certification calls for empowering companies to self-police in that reports phrasing, relying less on the numerous, prescriptive interactions that can lead to project delays. This abdication is the wrong path for safety and stability in an essential sector of the economy. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and other Congressional leaders are right to push for stronger safety processes. The human and business costs of encouraging slipshod safety practices amount to disasters. The long-term benefit to Boeing and the flying public of rigorous safety standards easily justifies the investment of time and resources. Boeing and the FAA each need to move toward that goal, instead of backing away. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 The debate over whether Americans should wear face masks to control coronavirus transmission has been settled. Governments and businesses now require or at least recommend them in many public settings. But as parts of the country reopen, some doctors want you to consider another layer of personal protective equipment in your daily life: clear plastic face shields. I wear a face shield every time I enter a store or other building, Dr. Eli Perencevich said. Sometimes I also wear a cloth mask if required by the stores policy. Perencevich is an infectious disease physician at the University of Iowa and the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System. In an opinion article published last month in JAMA, he and two colleagues argued that simple, clear plastic face shields could help reduce the transmission of infections when added to public health measures like increased testing, contact tracing, social distancing and hand hygiene. The idea is not just a thought experiment. In Singapore, preschool students and their teachers will receive face shields when they return to school next month. Local health experts recommended that teachers in Philadelphia wear shields when schools reopen, and a teachers union in Palo Alto, California, requested them as well. But it can be difficult to imagine Americans being willing to put on another form of protective equipment. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have shirked wearing masks in settings that would seem to call for them, and simple face-covering requirements have provoked conflicts at grocery stores and restaurants. Face shields have long been required equipment for many procedures in hospitals. Doctors and nurses wear them when intubating COVID-19 patients and during surgeries that may cause blood and bone fragments to fly out. As debate arose over whether tiny coronavirus droplets could float on air currents, protecting the eyes and the entire face became a bigger issue in health care settings, said Dr. Sherry Yu, a dermatology resident affiliated with Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. People needed them to do nasal swabs for the coronavirus test or for triage in the emergency room. As shortages loomed, Yu was among the many people and groups around the country who began fabricating face shields for front-line health care workers. The nice thing about face shields is that they can be resterilized and cleaned by the user, so theyre reusable indefinitely until some component breaks or cracks, Yu said. A simple alcohol wipe or rinse with soap and hot water is all it takes for the shields to be contaminant-free again. Surgical masks and N95s, on the other hand, are meant to be disposed after each use, although some studies have shown masks can be reused two or three times after being sterilized before they lose integrity. Perencevich believes that face shields should be the preferred personal protective equipment of everyone for the same reason that health care workers use them: They protect the entire face, including the eyes, and prevent people from touching their faces or inadvertently exposing themselves to the coronavirus. Face shields may be easier to wear than masks, he said, comparing them with wearing glasses or a hat. They wrap around a small portion of a persons forehead rather than covering more than half their face with material that can create the urge to itch. Many people also wear masks incorrectly, letting them dangle off the tips of their noses or concealing just their mouths. People also tend to readjust face masks frequently or remove them to communicate with others, which increases their risk of being exposed or infecting others, he said. And while cloth masks can prevent people from spreading germs to others, they dont usually protect the wearer from infection. Face shields can also aid people who depend on lip-reading, Perencevich said. They may be slightly dorky-looking, but the shields allow facial expressions and lip movements to remain visible while serving as an obvious reminder to maintain social distancing. Still, he and other experts acknowledge that face shields have their limits. Just like masks, they must be removed when eating in cafeterias or restaurants. And studies on how effectively they can reduce a persons viral exposure are scarce. One cough simulation study in 2014 suggested that a shield could reduce a users viral exposure by 96% when worn within 18 inches of someone who was coughing. But most people in the general public are much farther away from others they are interacting with, said William Lindsley, a bioengineer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health who led the study. Large droplets that may contain virus will fall to the ground quickly, reducing the need for a face shield worn when standing farther away. Even in close range, there can be scenarios where face shields are not as effective as masks like N95s that create a seal around ones face. If youre facing sideways, or Im behind you maybe youre sitting at a desk, and Im standing theres other scenarios you can imagine where droplets can come around a face shield, Lindsley said. There is also no research on how well one persons face shield protects other people from viral transmission, the concept called source control that is a primary benefit of surgical and cloth masks. One of the main reasons the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed their recommendations to suggest everyone wear a face covering in public was to protect others in case they were among the asymptomatic or presymptomatic group of people infected with the virus. Im a huge fan of face shields, said Saskia Popescu, a senior infection prevention specialist at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. But I dont think we can swap them out for face masks just yet. Perencevich and his colleagues expect that more research will show shields to be superior to cloth masks, not only because shields provide full face protection but also because they are nearly impossible to wear incorrectly. Remember, effectiveness depends not only on the inherent properties of the facial covering but also how well the facial covering is worn, he said. And he and his co-authors like to imagine that people who are reluctant to wear masks will find face shields more comfortable: Once a person tries one on, they say, the wearer realizes its many benefits. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Theres a lot of uncertainty, a lot of risk, andparticularly in eCommercea lot of opportunity. Just remember to be clear, be creative, and be careful," Eaton-Cardone says As of the third week of May, 37 states were in the process of reopening stores, restaurants, and other public venues that had since been ordered closed to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Another 10 states were set to reopen on a regional basis, one had announced plans to reopen soon, and twoIllinois and Michiganwere still shut down.(1) Its important to remember, says Monica Eaton-Cardone, an entrepreneur and IT executive specializing in risk management and fraud prevention, that these reopened businesses face a retail environment much altered from the one that existed in mid-March, when the lockdown began. Since the beginning of May, for example, four major U.S. retailersJC Penney, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, and Stage Storehave filed for bankruptcy.(2) While these firms financial difficulties predated the coronavirus crisis, notes Eaton-Cardone, they were certainly exacerbated by weeks of lost instore sales, as was the entire retail sector. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the countrys retail sales during April 2020 were down 16.4% seasonally adjusted from March, and 21.6% unadjusted year over year.(3) Meanwhile, consumers in recently reopened states seem to be in no hurry to return to their pre-crisis levels of buying activity. In New Hampshirewhere the governor has imposed tight safety restrictionsmalls were mostly empty and main streets far from bustling as the lockdown lifted. Shopkeepers acknowledge that shopping will not be the same experience it once was.(4) Part of the difference lies in the fact that shopping habits themselves have changed significantly. Online grocery sales, for example, are expected to grow 40% in 2020, driven by new activity patterns from homebound consumers.(5) In other words, notes Eaton-Cardone, the lockdown has created opportunities as well as difficulties. One food-by-subscription service has seen demand so far exceed supply that prospective new subscribers are placed on a waiting list.(6) In some cities, restaurants have pivoted not to takeout, but to foodstuffs and supplies sales, becoming in effect contactless grocery stores open one day a week to fulfill online orders.(7) In her own area of expertise, fraud prevention, and security, Eaton-Cardone has seen consumer behavior changes as well. New risks are coming into existence, Eaton-Cardone says. For instance, she notes that credit-card chargebacks based on service complaints, typically made by consumers new to ecommerce and impatient with coronavirus-crisis-related delivery delays, have come to outnumber fraudulent chargebacks, which normally account for some 80% of all chargeback volume. To navigate this new and rapidly changing landscape, Eaton-Cardone urges retailers to focus on: Clarity: Understand what is being offered by the company, what the rules are, and communicate that clearly to customers Creativity: Some of todays most successful merchants are doing things that wouldnt have occurred to them to do before Caution: This is a tight-margin business, now more than everbe sure to minimize unnecessary risk Its a different world from the one we lived in just a few months ago, Eaton-Cardone says. Theres a lot of uncertainty, a lot of risk, andparticularly in eCommercea lot of opportunity. Just remember to be clear, be creative, and be careful. About Monica Eaton-Cardone: As an acclaimed entrepreneur, speaker, and author, Monica Eaton-Cardone is widely recognized as a thought leader in the FinTech industry and a champion of women in technology. She established her entrepreneurial credentials upon selling her first business at the age of 19. When a subsequent eCommerce venture was plagued by revenue-leeching chargebacks and fraud, Eaton-Cardone rose to the challenge by developing a robust solution that combined human insight and Agile technology. Today, her innovations are used by thousands of companies worldwide, cementing her reputation as one of the payment industrys foremost experts in risk management, chargeback mitigation, and fraud prevention. Monica Eaton-Cardone is honored to be the recipient of various industry awards. Her own expertise, as well as the services provided by her companies, have been recognized as outstanding by her peers and other industry leaders. For more information, visit http://www.monicaec.com. 1. Mervosh, Sarah, et al. See Which States Are Reopening and Which Are Still Shut Down. The New York Times, 25 Apr. 2020, nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-map-coronavirus.html. 2. Isidore, Chris. JCPenney Will Close Nearly 30% of Its Stores as Part of Its Bankruptcy Plan. CNN, 18 May 2020, cnn.com/2020/05/18/business/jcpenney-store-closings/index.html. 3. Kramer, Matthew. NRF: Retail Sales Drop During April. HomeWorld Business, 15 May 2020, homeworldbusiness.com/nrf-retail-sales-drop-during-april/. 4. Martin, Naomi, and Gal Tziperman Lotan. New Hampshire Takes the next Step in Reopening Businesses, but This New Normal Is a Work in Progress, Boston Globe, 15 May 2020, bostonglobe.com/2020/05/15/metro/nh-is-open-business-its-far-normal/. 5. Redman, Russell. Online Grocery Sales to Grow 40% in 2020. Supermarket News, 18 May 2020, supermarketnews.com/online-retail/online-grocery-sales-grow-40-2020. 6. ButcherBox, butcherbox.com 7. Goldfield, Hannah. The Restaurants Transforming Into Grocery Stores. The New Yorker, 11 May 2020, newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/the-restaurants-transforming-into-grocery-stores. OTTAWACyber criminals are pivoting their operations to scam Canadians out of emergency COVID-19 benefits using imitations of government websites and phishing campaigns, according to a previously unreleased threat assessment from Canadas cyber defence agency. In an April 27 memo, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security warned it had identified more than 1,000 malicious imitations of federal government websites, mostly mimicking the Canada Revenue Agency or the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). While the cyber defence agency turned over information to try and have those sites taken down, they warned more than 120,000 new COVID-19-themed domains had been registered, a large proportion of which was considered malicious or related to fraudulent activity. Cyber threat actors know that affected populations are anxious about the future and less likely to act prudently when presented with emails, SMS messages, or advertisements involving COVID-19 that would otherwise seem suspicious, the threat assessment, obtained by the Star, reads. Recent COVID-19 lures have pivoted to take advantage of the emergency benefits and economic stimulus packages being stood up by governments across North America and Europe. Canadians were an early target for cyber criminals and state-backed hackers, according to the documents. As early as March 10, Canadians were being targeted with phishing emails impersonating the Public Health Agency of Canada, which included malware disguised as an important COVID-19 update. A couple of weeks later, a SMS campaign claiming to be from the Canadian government directed people to go to a Canada-alert-COVID19 website that prompted them to download more malware. Another phishing campaign preyed on Canadians trying to access the CERB, an emergency benefit aimed at keeping people afloat while the economy remains shut down. The operations included a link where victims could access their benefits, but only once they divulged personal financial details. Im a little bit surprised we havent heard more about (this) from Canada and the Canadian government, said Brent Arnold, a partner with Gowling who specializes in cyber security law. Arnold noted that the U.S. government has been warning for a month that cyber actors are trying to leech off economic stimulus meant to soften COVID-19s economic blow. Theyre taking advantage on the benefits piece (from) average consumers with an average awareness of what cyber threats even look like. And theyre more afraid than they ever were before, Arnold said. While the Communications Security Establishment, Canadas cyber intelligence agency, has said that the majority of malicious activity related to COVID-19 has been criminal in nature, the threat assessment makes clear that state-sponsored hackers and intelligence agencies are also in the mix. Countries intelligence agencies are already trying to identify targets who work in sensitive or strategic industries, but are working from home due to pandemic-related lockdowns. Many Canadians, including federal and provincial government employees across the country, are accessing sensitive data through virtual private networks (VPNs) and cloud computing solutions for the first time, and many are using their personal devices and home Wi-Fi networks that are poorly secured in comparison to corporate IT infrastructure, the threat assessment reads. Since January, Canadian and allied intelligence agencies have observed multiple cyber threat actors exploiting popular VPNs to establish persistent access to networks in Canada and other countries. Thats a problem that is likely to stay with Canadian businesses for a long time. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke announced earlier this month that the e-commerce giant and Canadas most valuable company will ditch its trendy offices for a permanent work-from-home model. Other companies, seeing an opportunity to cut down on expenses, may follow suit. But Arnold noted while company executives may be quite familiar with security measures for remote work, thats not true of every employee. Most of them arent as sophisticated or savvy about where is it safe to do this, what do I need to worry about it, because they were never working with sensitive stuff outside the office, Arnold said. So in a lot of cases they have had minimal or no training, because this isnt something anyone thought theyd have to be prepared for. Read more about: Yesterday (May 25, 2020), the entire nation celebrated Eid with less enthusiasm and social distancing. The three superstars of Bollywood, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan also had a silent Eid celebration with their near and dear ones. Unlike previous years, Shah Rukh Khan ditched meeting the media on Eid, while Salman refrained from returning to his Galaxy Apartments in Mumbai and rather chose to stay at his Panvel farmhouse. When a leading daily asked Salim Khan, how was his Eid celebration without the presence of Salman Khan, he said, "He has been spending a lot of time there. I just spoke with him today on the phone and we exchanged wishes. We are always in touch with each other through our regular phone calls." When asked if any special dish was prepared for Eid, Salim Khan said, "Bilkul nahi, buss regular khaana hi bann raha hai." Salim Khan also spoke about the ongoing lockdown in the wake of the Novel Coronavirus outbreak. He said, "It has been going like this from over last two months. I am used to it now. I followed my regular routine. I woke up early and went out for my morning walk. I came back and did things that I do on a normal day." Salman Khan's Bodyguard Shera Celebrates Eid With Him: My Eid Isn't Complete Without My Maalik Coming back to Salman, on the eve of Eid, the actor released a new track titled 'Bhai Bhai' for his fans and wrote, "Since we couldn't release our film on this Eid, I have worked on a very special song for all my wonderful fans. It is called 'Bhai Bhai' as it celebrates the spirit of brotherhood and unity. Eid is the best day to release this as it is also the festival that brings people close to each other. I hope people enjoy the song as much as I did while making it for them." 974 Shares Share When I found out that health systems across the country contract with prisons for hospital laundry and other services, the same systems that train medical students like myself, someone dear to me was in prison. Each time I walk into a patients room and see fresh linens, when I wear fresh scrubs, I am still flooded with my friends calls and letters. Imagery of being surrounded by only concrete. Without access to healthy food or quality care. No connection to the Earth. I recalled how much his time in prison was changing him. Was breaking him. When I see those linens, I remember how many tears I shed after our phone calls. Introduction Unpaid labor, slave labor, is older than the United States itself. Nearly 250 years after the first enslaved African was sold on this continent, the U.S. abolished slavery, with a caveat: slavery could not exist except as punishment for a crime. Presumptively, driven by the threat of a decimated economy, prison labor served as a cheap surrogate that allowed for continued exploitation. A surrogate that prevails to this day and weaves health systems in its web of contracts, labor, and illness. Today, in all federal and most state prisons, people who are able to work are legally required to. Those in prisons are not considered employees, are not required to receive minimum wage, and cannot receive workers compensation if injured on the job. The United States incarcerates the largest percent of its population in the world and furthers the racism of its predecessors, chattel slavery and colonization, by disproportionately criminalizing then working people of color. In my home state of Oregon, hospitals contract with prisons to launder linens, scrubs, and gowns, with average wages between 5 and 47 cents per hour still a slightly higher wage than states like Texas, where workers are not paid at all. On the backs of these workers lies the billion-dollar industry that is prison enterprises. Working conditions Expecting justice from an unjust design, built on devalued and exploited labor, is senseless. And the deep-running injustice of our system is particularly apparent in the state of health and the health care in our prisons. Incarcerated people are more likely to have chronic health problems including diabetes, hypertension, TB, and HIV, as well as substance use and mental health disorders. Yet, within prisons there is little access to nutritious food, and health care quality varies with significant barriers to access. One barrier being the sheer cost of care, as most prisons require a copay for provider visits. An impossible hurdle, when hard-earned cents may rather be spent on other needs like a box of tampons, which can cost two weeks worth of wages alone. This dim picture is compounded by few rights to healthy working conditions. In 2017, incarcerated members of Operation PUSH in Florida organized a strike to end slave labor and directly called out environmental conditions [they] face, like extreme temperatures, mold, contaminated water, and being placed next to toxic sites such as landfills These same sentiments echoed across 17 states in the National Prisoners Strike of 2018. COVID-19, incarcerated It is clear that the health of some in our community relies upon the harm of others. Each patient visit to a provider wearing prison-laundered scrubs, becomes rooted in the coerced labor and illness that it seeds and exacerbates. In other words, the healing we hold space for with our patients is intricately enmeshed in the illness-provoking labor of those incarcerated. We are complicit in a complex web of contracts that is in direct opposition to the oath we all take. This tension becomes achingly visible as COVID-19 ravages through our health systems and our prisons. With 86 percent of reporting correctional jurisdictions with confirmed cases, we see an aging prison population with chronic health conditions washing the laundry of infected patients; we see them then struggle to quarantine in prison cells, their bunkmates always less than six feet away. Those with inconsistent access to health care are the same who make face masks and hand sanitizers for doctors and nurses. Amidst growing fear of their own fate in this pandemic, they dig mass graves while, we can imagine, praying theirs wont be the bodies to fill them. The pandemic has shown just how much health care systems rely on prison labor, and reinforces how little those in prison receive in health care in return. While health care workers are lauded as heroes with funds raised to ensure our protection, what acknowledgment and care is demonstrated for those whose labor lays the foundation for our own? What protection is there for them, for their essential work? As providers, we continue to exploit an injurious system for our own benefit, both economically to avoid higher labor costs, and medically, through putting those of perceived lower social value to work on these tasks. Heartbreaking signs in the window of a Chicago jail put it starkly, Help, No Supply and Dont Let Us Die. This is not justice. This is a human rights crisis. Calling for change As a society, we seem reluctant to remember that people incarcerated are exactly that: people. We construct concrete walls and iron cages around them, but they are not separate from us. They are our neighbors, parents, children, siblings, friends. People who are deeply loved. And who deserve to be radically transformed by what we call justice, not further harmed by it. We in the field of medicine commit ourselves to improving health, to doing no harm, and to remembering our responsibility to all human beings, not just those in front of us. COVID-19 has only served to further widen our own cracks in that commitment. We must find ways to mend these cracks. To turn to restorative justice, to divestment, to decarceration to save lives, and transform these legacies of oppression. Bit by bit weaving a world where health isnt traded for harm, where care is offered over cages, and where justice and health systems are allied in authentically healing us all. Alexandria Dyer is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com The selection of E-Mediate comes as Washtenaw County Prosecutor candidate, Dr. Hugo J. Mack seeks to bring his experience and guiding principle of restorative justice to the office. Dr. Mack seeks to re-affirm that the prosecutor's office is a "minister of justice." Josh Mediate, President and founder of E-Mediate explains his support for Dr. Hugo J. Mack and how E-Mediate decided to help direct the marketing efforts for the campaign: "I have always believed in voting for the right candidate for the job." says Mediate. "Dr. Mack's immense legal experience as a public defender, criminal defense lawyer and his commitment to restorative justice is something which the E-Mediate team and I resonate with." Mediate continued to identify elements of Mack's campaign which he believes in. "Hugo's commitment to running the prosecutor's office as a 'minister of justice' is something which will benefit all citizens of Washtenaw County; my team and I are proud to be a part of this." E-Mediate aims to help Dr. Hugo J. Mack win in his quest for the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office. The election for the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's office will be held on August 4, 2020. About E-Mediate Marketing E-Mediate Marketing is a Michigan-based marketing firm specializing in digital marketing. E-Mediate Marketing provides services to various US - based businesses across multiple industries. E-Mediate Marketing is based in Ann Arbor, MI. Please visit http://emediatemarketing.com to learn more. About Dr. Hugo J. Mack Dr. Hugo J. Mack is running for the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's office in the upcoming August 4, 2020 election. Hugo's unique qualifications make him the unmistakable and clear choice for Washtenaw Prosecutor. Dr. Hugo J. Mack has experience as a public prosecutor for Washtenaw county, real life courtroom experience as a criminal defense lawyer, and experience from running a large law office, comparable to the Washtenaw County prosecutor's office. For more information on Dr. Hugo J. Mack, please visit https://www.hugoforprosecutor2020.com. Press Contact | Tong Wu | Chief Operations Officer | [email protected] SOURCE E-Mediate Marketing, LLC Related Links http://emediatemarketing.com Three brothers settled in Chayanta, Bolivia, recently made a black widow spider bite them in hopes of acquiring Spider-Man powers. The three brothers, between the age of eight and twelve, poked the spider with a stick to make it attack them. The children were rushed to the hospital, where they were given a serum for the bite. Three brothers take spider bites in hopes of becoming Spider-Man The brothers recently made a venomous black widow spider bite them so that they could the superpowers of the Marvel character, Spider-Man. The boys were reportedly watching over their sheep while their mother was away, collecting wood. They saw the spider and the idea occurred to them, following which they poked the spider with a stick which made it attack them. The boys soon started experiencing venomous bite symptoms like muscle pain, sweating, fever, and generalized trembling. The three boys were quickly rushed to the hospital after their mother found them crying at home when she returned. The boys were first taken to Chayanta health centre, where they were given a few medicines. However, their condition continued to deteriorate due to which they were reportedly transferred to another hospital in Llallagua. Their condition only stabilized after they were shifted to the Childrens hospital in La Paz. Here, the boys were given a serum, which helped them with their situation. The boys were then discharged five days later. Read Viral Video: 'Young Coronavirus In India' Video Will Remind You Of 'Taare Zameen Par' Also read James Harden's 'quarantine Look' Goes Viral, Fans React To Rockets Star's Latest Pictures The black widow spider only retaliates when provoked. However, when it bites, the condition must be quickly looked into. It has been named black widow because it kills its partner after mating. According to a leading daily, in a recent press conference related to Coronavirus, the head of Epidemiology, Virgilio Pietro, spoke about the case and disclosed the details related to it. He also asked the parents to take immense care as children tend to believe whatever they see on the screen. He also added that children are the hope of life and hence they must be nurtured rightfully. Such incidents can come out to be fatal just due to lack of knowledge. Read Viral: Mumbai Police Take Cues From 'The Batman' On How To Not Wear A Face Mask Also read Fan Seeks Sonu Sood's Help To Reach A 'theka', The Actor's Amusing Reply Goes Viral; Read Image Courtesy: Canva Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment. For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here. A woman was photographed Friday allegedly posting xenophobic letters in San Leandro, demanding that if you are a woman or man and was born in other country, return, go back to your land immediately, fast, with urgency." The woman, who police identified as 52-year-old Nancy Arechiga of San Leandro, reportedly posted the handwritten flyers on at least five homes and around the neighborhood. PROFILING: White woman calls police on black birdwatcher in Central Park Arechiga was arrested Friday night by police officers investigating the incident. "I am aware of reports that a woman was posting flyers containing anti-Asian messages at residences and public places in our community yesterday," San Leandro Mayor Pauline Cutter wrote in a message on Facebook on Saturday. "Id like to commend our Police Department for taking this situation extremely seriously. They were able to identify the person responsible within a matter of hours and take appropriate action right away. "The City of San Leandro is committed to being a welcoming place for everyone. There is no place for hate in our community." A copy of the letter was reportedly found on a tree in the neighborhood. Facebook "You, because we consider youre a stranger, one bad person for this country, leave, go far away, go back to your country, the place you belong," the letter read. "Leave this place. "You have until the day May/23/2020 Saturday 10:30 am to leave this country, it continued. In this place, no Asian allowed. My Country USA." The incident comes as hate crimes and harassment against the Asian American community are on the rise due to the coronavirus pandemic. A Ring doorbell camera allegedly caught Arechiga posting one of the notes on a home. Within a matter of hours, Arechiga, who was still in the area and had a backpack that contained more of the letters, was arrested, police said. Arechiga was booked into Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Due to the state's current bail policies, she has been cited and released from custody. Matthew Tom is a Homepage Editor at SFGATE. Email: mtom@sfgate.com. A young pro-China businesswoman who was a key figure in the nation's controversial trade deal with Victoria has praised leader Xi Jinping for his handling of COVID-19. Jean Dong encouraged Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to join the Belt and Road Initiative in October 2019, which provides loans and investment in infrastructure projects from the Chinese government. Victoria is the only Australian state to sign up, and did so despite the disapproval of the federal government and warnings from security agencies. Ms Dong, 33, was interviewed by the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, Guangming Daily, on March 27, and described Mr Xi s a 'global saviour' in his response to the coronavirus pandemic, The Australian reported. She praised him for 'providing confidence and directions for the global fight over the epidemic and economic growth'. The Belt and Road Imitative has been criticised by Western governments as a stealthy expansion of Chinese influence (Chinese President Xi Jinping pictured), and as a means to trap smaller countries into debt Beijing then uses as leverage The chief executive of the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative company said the Chinese president had taken the lead in the fight to get the pandemic under control. According to Ms Dong, other nations are turning to China to imitate their handling of the virus. 'China is the first major country to constrain the epidemic and resume work smoothly, therefore the Australian friends around me paid special attention to President Xi's speech at the G20 leaders video conference,' she said. The glamorous businesswoman, who has a background in connecting China with the rest of the world, boasted about her political influence in a YouTube video titled 'Journey of influence'. The footage provides a look into Ms Dong's life, from her early days as a student journalist in Beijing to rubbing shoulders with political leaders, including former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and prominent Labor figure Bob Carr. The video includes photographs of her with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured), then Tasmanian Liberal premier Will Hodgman and former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr Pictured: Jean Dong, left, with former foreign minister Bob Carr and his wife, Helena The footage begins with Ms Dong standing on a hill with the Melbourne skyline behind her as she speaks about the people who have inspired her before she talks of her own success. The video includes photographs of her with Mr Turnbull, Mr Carr and the then Tasmanian Liberal premier Will Hodgman. The former Chinese television journalist moved to Australia to study at the University of Adelaide. After graduating in 2009 she moved to Melbourne to study international law before taking on a consulting position at PwC. 'At the age of 21 I presented and convinced the PwC Australian leadership to consider Asia growth as a priority strategy and to achieve a clear advantage over its competitors,' she says in the YouTube video. 'At the age of 26 I successfully facilitated a mutual and long-term economic collaboration agreement through China-Australia free-trade agreement for both countries.' Ms Dong, 33, (pictured) has emerged as a key figure behind the controversial trade deal between Victoria and China Calls are growing for Victoria's labor premier Daniel Andrews (pictured in China's Tiananmen Square) to review his controversial Belt and Road agreement with Beijing AUSTRALIAN BARLEY: IN NUMBERS Between half and two-thirds of all Australian barley is sold to China. Barley is grown across 4,035,000 hectares, with the largest amount being grown in Western Australia. Australia's grains industry accounts for more than 170,000 jobs across Australia from farm to export dock. About 65 per cent of Australia's overall grain produced is exported. This includes up to 90 per cent of that grown per in Western Australia and South Australia. Source: National Farmers Federation Advertisement The video was filmed while she was working as the managing director of Spark Corporation Group, The Australian reported. The company focused on Chinese investment in Australian agriculture and resources. Ms Dong described it as 'expansion of Australian businesses into Chinese markets through strategic partnerships'. Mr Andrews is believed to have first become connected with Ms Dong through his former adviser, Mike Yang. Mr Yang and Ms Dong both attended a youth delegation to China in 2014. There were only 30 delegates to the Beijing conference. The well-connected Labor Party operative is believed to be the reason behind Mr Andrews' strong relationship with China's communist government. Years after the conference, Ms Dong was tasked with promoting the Belt and Road Initiative to Mr Andrews. During that time her pro-Chinese company was also paid to provide advice on the deal. The company was awarded two taxpayer-funded contracts advising on China's global commercial play in 2017-18 and 2019-20 worth $36,850 in total, The Australian reported. The Andrews government did not immediately disclose the information, which they blamed on an administrative error. 'The advice from ACBRI provided valuable insights into opportunities for Victoria arising from the BRI,' a government spokesman told the publication. 'An administrative error led to the first of the engagements not being published in the relevant department's 2017-18 annual report. The second of the engagements will be reported as scheduled.' The glamorous businesswoman with a background in connecting China with the rest of the world boasted about her political influence in a YouTube video, titled: 'Journey of influence' Premier Daniel Andrews signed up to the controversial Belt and Road Initiative that provides loans and investment in infrastructure projects Algeria will continue to use the drug hydroxychloroquine against the novel coronavirus, a member of its scientific committee said, despite the World Health Organization suspending clinical trials of such treatments. "We've treated thousands of cases with this medicine, very successfully so far," said Mohamed Bekkat, a member of the scientific committee on the North African country's Covid-19 outbreak. "We haven't noted any undesirable reactions," he told AFP. Public figures including US President Donald Trump have backed the drug as a virus treatment, prompting governments to bulk buy -- despite several studies showing it to be ineffective and even increasing COVID-19 hospital deaths. Bekkat's comments came days after medical journal The Lancet published a study of nearly 100,000 coronavirus patients, showing no benefit in those treated with the drug, which is normally used against arthritis. The study found that administering the medicine or, separately, the related anti-malarial chloroquine, actually increased Covid-19 patients' risk of dying. Both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia. Bekkat, who is also head of the Order of Algerian Doctors, said the country had not registered any deaths caused by hydroxychloroquine. Algeria decided in late March to treat patients infected with the Covid-19 illness with a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, an antibiotic. "For confirmed cases, we use hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. Then there is a whole protocol for serious cases," a health ministry official told AFP on Monday. Thousands of people infected or suspected of being infected with the virus have received such treatments, said doctor Djamel Fourar, the scientific committee's spokesman. The World Health Organization said on Monday it had temporarily suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus, following the Lancet study. That study looked at records from hundreds of hospitals, comparing a control group with patients treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, either alone or in combination with antibiotics. At the end of the study, of those treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine alone, 18 percent and 16.4 percent respectively had died, compared with nine percent in the control group. Those given each drug in combination with antibiotics were even more likely to die -- 23.8 percent with hydroxychloroquine. Bekkat argued that the Lancet study had led to "confusion" as it "seems to concern serious cases in which hydroxychloroquine is of no help". "There is evidence that the use of chloroquine by Arab and African countries has proven to be effective when used early," he explained. Algeria's coronavirus outbreak is one of the worst in Africa, with a total of 8,503 cases and 609 deaths officially recorded since 25 February. A Lancet study found that administering hydroxychloroquine or, separately, the related anti-malarial chloroquine, increased Covid-19 patients' risk of dying HOUSTON We woke up one day, and all the restaurants were closed. All of them, said Felix Florez, the owner of Black Hill Ranch, a hog farm in Cypress. Just like that, the coronavirus pandemic changed his business overnight. Florez who also has his own restaurant, Cherry Block at Bravery Chef Hall, and co-owns Ritual and Blood Bros. BBQ sells his naturally raised pigs mostly to high-end restaurants in town, whose concepts dont translate well to to-go service. He had a handful of more casual restaurant clients who were selling to-go, but because their profits were so low, they were looking for the cheapest product possible, and thats not Black Hill. Whats more, the ranchs biggest customer was Florezs own restaurant, Cherry Block. So Florez picked up the phone and called everyone he knew, friends, family, and asked if they would consider using Black Hill for their personal meat needs, to tide him over while the crisis played out. The Black Hill operations have changed a little since then, the Houston Chronicle reported. Some of its restaurant clients turned their spaces into small markets, where Florez was able to sell some of his pork at retail. Then H-E-B asked Cherry Block to be part of its ready-to-eat meal program, which helped both the restaurant and the ranch. Hes also started selling direct-to-consumer. These new revenue streams are not easy to navigate for a purveyor used to selling wholesale. A retail order of meat for the general public has to be cut very small, put in branded packages and completely ready to cook at home. For wholesale, its rough-cut items delivered in large containers, and no one cares what they look like. Companies that specialize in retail cuts have machinery to package the product in a cost-effective way, but Florezs staff of 16 is vacuum-sealing and applying stickers by hand. His employees are exhausted and working overtime, and though the new business is keeping Black Hill afloat, Florez says its still losing revenue. Patrick Bierschwale, the owner of Katerra Exotics in Katy, didnt have many restaurant customers, but his business is affected nonetheless. He specializes in bison and also raises sheep, goats and cows, which he sells mostly at farmers markets in the Houston area. When the restaurants closed, more people started cooking at home and seeking him out. Bierschwale has received many calls from people looking to buy a whole or half animal, spurred by concerns about reports of the national meat shortage. Its mostly new customers who are being turned onto the local meat scene, Bierschwale said. They just did a Google search for grass-fed beef Houston or something like that, and I popped up. Its often their first time buying meat in bulk, he added, and explaining to them what theyre getting is an educational process. Its gonna be nothing like you go buy at H-E-B, he said. Though hes willing to sell in bulk to individuals, if he sells a whole or half cow to one person one week, he wont have any meat to sell to his regular customers at the farmers market on Saturday. This in itself creates a shortage. If everyone will stay calm and buy what they need, well be fine, said B.J. McElroy, chief financial officer of 44 Farms, a cattle ranch in Cameron. But if everybody starts panicking, then yes, well be in trouble. McElroy has been getting concerned calls about the meat shortage, too. Consumers stocking up on more meat than they can currently eat brings further uncertainty to purveyors forecasts. McElroy wonders, when restaurants open back up completely, will those people stay at home because their freezer is full of beef that needs eating? 44 Farms direct-to-consumer retail sales have gone up 680 percent over last year; its typically only 5 percent of the companys total sales. The other 95 percent of its business comes from restaurants. When the stay-at-home orders went into effect, our production came to a screeching halt, McElroy said. The team didnt slaughter a single animal for an entire month. It resumed harvesting on May 5, as its been getting creative in finding opportunities to sell the product, filling in here and there. For example, Chris Shepherds Korean braised beef dumplings available at H-E-B are made with 44 Farms shortribs. Its a drastic business-model shift, McElroy said, as the company is not used to acting as a stopgap. Its now back up at 85 percent of its usual production with deals lined up through May, but June is still a big question mark. Despite being hectic and uncertain, for Bierschwale and Katerra Exotics, business has been good: He is doubling his usual output. Hes able to do this because he always has a little more stock than he needs to for risk management (animals can die, get stolen or get eaten by coyotes). But its not easy. He needs to source more females to breed. Hes also the only full-time worker at Katerra, helped by six part-time employees. Theyre grateful to have jobs and be making good money while also helping people get food on the table, Bierschwale said. Many produce farmers have also seen sales increases. Jason Angell, owner of Angells Farmstead & Apiary in Shiro, was lucky to have only two restaurant clients. He farms just 1 acre and focuses on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm-share model. Orders for his CSA boxes have almost doubled since the beginning of the pandemic. With the boost in demand, he was worried about having to turn people down at first, but hes been able to handle it by planting more. Scaling up is not easy on such a small farm, but Angell is just happy to have a job at a time when so many people dont. Plant It Forward, a nonprofit that empowers refugees to start their own sustainable farms, has a network of 13 farmers who work at eight different farms, comprising a total of 6 acres. Their CSA subscriptions amount to 80 percent of their business, with the remaining 20 percent coming from restaurants. When the latter closed, Liz Vallette, Plant It Forwards president, started panicking. But she neednt have worried. Just like Angells, the demand for its CSA boxes doubled. The dozen-plus farmers now feed 500 families every week through those sales. The farmers are making more money than they ever have, its an incredible silver lining, Vallette said. Going to the grocery store is not an appealing prospect right now, especially for the immuno-compromised. Physical stores are breeding grounds for germs, and the stress from shortages, and waiting days and weeks on end for delivery or curbside orders, has led consumers to alternate sources of food. People appreciate that they have a guaranteed share of vegetables each week, Vallette said. Stacie Gundermann, owner of Gundermann Acres in Glen Flora, recognized peoples need for a more contactless experience. The farm mostly sells wholesale to grocery stores and retail at three farmers markets in the Houston area. The team had been trying to sell farm-share boxes for years, Gundermann says, but they never really took off. Then the pandemic came along, and all of a sudden, they were a hit. Verdegreens, a hydroponic grower in northwest Houston, also launched farm boxes to make up for the loss in revenue from restaurants, which made up between half and two-thirds of its business. It grows mostly leafy greens in greenhouses, such as lettuce, herbs, kale, collards and bok choy. The farm boxes combine the outfits own produce with that of other farms, which it sells at cost. (Many) people call us with requests for more contactless pickup, often people who are compromised in some way, who are fearful of venturing out to grocery stores, said Billy Trainor, one of Verdegreens owners. Its been great to be able to provide them with an alternative. The boxes have more than offset Verdegreens restaurant-revenue loss; it just recently sold its thousandth box. The farm has even hired two additional employees just to manage the extra load. Given the success, Trainor anticipates itll continue offering them in the future. Gundermann also sees this as a possibility for her own farm-share boxes, if interest stays strong. Theres no guarantee that consumers will keep these new habits once the pandemic is over. Vallette is working very hard on retention at Plant It Forward. She hopes people will continue to see the benefits of a shortened supply chain and being connected to their food and their farmers. But for now, at least, the shift in the way we eat is helping some small farmers and ranchers, who too often struggle with razor-thin profit margins. I appreciate that everyone is looking for the local guy, Bierschwale said. Wuhan has conducted testing on over 6.5million residents for COVID-19 in the space of nine days after the former coronavirus epicentre launched a city-wide mass-screening on its 11million citizens to prevent a second wave. Wuhan government ordered all residents to be tested for COVID-19 in a '10-day great battle' on May 14 after a new cluster of infection emerged earlier this month. As of Sunday, swab samples have been collected from over nine million residents, of which 6.5 million people have completed the screening, according to official figures. On May 15, Wuhan government ordered all residents to be tested for COVID-19 in a '10-day great battle' after a new cluster of infection emerged earlier this month. Workers line up for medical workers to take swabs for the coronavirus test at a large factory in Wuhan on May 15 Local authorities identified a total of 189 asymptomatic patients during the city-wide mass-testing, according to state media Health Times. Pictured, residents queue for medical workers to take swabs for the city-wide coronavirus testing launched by officials on May 15 As of Sunday, swab samples have been collected from over nine million residents, of which 6.5 million people have completed the screening, according to Wuhan Health Commission. A medical worker is pictured taking a swab sample from a worker at a factory in Wuhan Local authorities identified a total of 189 asymptomatic patients during the city-wide mass-testing. Wuhan government released a directive on May 11, ordering all of its citizens to be tested for COVID-19 in a '10-day great battle' to avoid a comeback of the killer infection. But only the residents who never received a nucleic acid test before would be screened, officials said. Three million Wuhan citizens were tested before the ambitious plan was announced, state media reported. This meant that the former epicentre needed to screen approximately 800,000 people per day. By the end of Sunday, the city where the pandemic began has completed nucleic acid tests on more than 6.5million residents. About 1.15million people were tested on Friday alone, according to Wuhan Health Commission. Wuhan has tested over 6.5million residents in the space of nine days after the former coronavirus epicentre launched a city-wide mass-screening on its 11million citizens to prevent a fresh COVID-19 outbreak. Pictured, a medical worker takes a swab from a resident in Wuhan Three million Wuhan citizens have been tested before the ambitious plan was announced, meaning that means that the former epicentre needs to screen approximately 800,000 people per day. Residents wearing face masks wait in line for nucleic acid testing in Wuhan on May 15 By the end of Sunday, the city where the pandemic began has completed nucleic acid tests on more than 6.5million residents. Two medical worker are pictured taking swabs from residents Health workers have taken swab test samples from more than nine million citizens - accounting for more than 80 per cent of the population - according to the government's social media account. Local authorities have also set up 231 sample-collecting points across the city for citizens who missed the testing, according to a notice released by Wuhan Health Commission Sunday. The officials said that a report for the mass-testing would be released soon. A nucleic acid test detects the presence of the novel coronavirus in a person's body. The officials said that a report for the mass-testing would be released soon. Pictured, a resident receiving a nucleic acid test from a medical worker in city of Wuhan on May 15 Authorities reported the first cluster of infections in Wuhan since a lockdown on the central Chinese city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease. Pictured, a group of factory workers queue for coronavirus testing in Wuhan on May 15 A total of seven confirmed cases were found in the same residential compound, Sanmin Residence, in Wuhan. A woman is pictured being screened for COVID-19 in Wuhan on May 15 It came after authorities reported the first cluster of infections in Wuhan since a lockdown on the central Chinese city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease. A total of seven confirmed cases were found in the same residential compound, Sanmin Residence, in Wuhan. One of such patients has recovered from the deadly disease today and six of them are still receiving medical treatment, according to Wuhan officials Tuesday. Wuhan has recorded a total of 50,340 confirmed COVID-19 cases and at least 3,869 deaths. More than 46,000 patients have been discharged from hospitals. A trend for washing your hair with just conditioner and no shampoo has emerged during the coronavirus isolation period. Google searches for 'co-washing' - short for conditioner washing - are up 178 per cent over the past few months, and experts say it could be better for your hair. Not only will co-washing save you time and money, but it could also give you healthier, shinier hair while letting your locks maintain their natural oils and moisture. A trend for washing your hair with just conditioner and no shampoo has gathered speed during the coronavirus isolation period (the results pictured) Google reported search increases of 178 per cent for 'co-washing' in the past few months (the results pictured) 'Many people are opting for a co-wash to avoid that frizz you get from shampooing,' Aveda Educator and Artistic Lead, Mathew Wickham, told FEMAIL. What is co-washing? * Co-washing is washing your hair without shampoo and just conditioner. * By cutting down on the use of shampoo, your hair is able to maintain its natural moisture levels, so it can grow healthier and more resilient. Advertisement 'Traditionally a co-wash would utilise just your conditioner, refreshing the shine and health of your hair without that just washed look. 'Thicker hair that has more texture is particularly more prone to frizz post shampoo, yet they still want to wet and condition their hair.' Aveda have even brought out a product targeted at the co-washing market, their 'Be Curly Co-Wash'. This costs $38 and gives your hair a light clean while also just helping to boost your hair's natural state. Devotees claim that ditching or at least reducing your use of shampoo will help to smooth and calm any unwanted frizz (pictured using before and after) By co-washing, you will also be allowing your hair to maintain its natural oils and moisture level without being stripped from shampoo (pictured after co-washing) What are the benefits of co-washing? * Money-saving * Time-saving * Allows your hair to maintain natural oils and moisture level * Smooths and calms frizz * Easier on the hair * Makes hair shinier Advertisement When it comes to the benefits of co-washing, they are myriad. Devotees claim that ditching or at least reducing your use of shampoo will help to smooth and calm any unwanted frizz. By co-washing, you will also be allowing your hair to maintain its natural oils and moisture level without being stripped from shampoo. Frequent washing and using harsh sulphates, detergents, or some of the chemicals frequently found in shampoo can strip the hair of its natural oils. 'I love love love this co-wash,' one woman wrote in a review of Be Curly. 'I wash my hair twice a week and I use Be Curly Style Prep every day. I no longer use a separate shampoo and conditioner at all... It has really helped to reduce the frizz in my curls.' Frequent washing and using harsh sulphates, detergents, or some of the chemicals frequently found in shampoo can strip the hair of its natural oils (pictured after co-washing) Previously, a hair stylist told FEMAIL we should all only be washing our hair once a week maximum (results pictured after co-washing) Aveda have even brought out a product targeted at the co-washing market, their 'Be Curly Co-Wash' (pictured) Using just one product also means you can save money and valuable time in the shower in the morning. The Be Curly co-wash has a five star rating online, and is one of many co-washing options on the market. The haircare trend also boasts countless celebrity fans, including Beyonce who credits it with her incredible curls. Speaking previously to FEMAIL, the hair stylist and owner of Windle London Paul Windle revealed you should only be washing your hair maximum once a week - and merely rinsing it with water in between times. The top stylist also revealed that if our hair does feel dirty then a simple rinse with water can be just as effective as using a product, as shampoos and conditioners just loosen any dirt in the hair. When you do come to washing your hair you should also note how much shampoo you're using. 'If it's not foamy enough, add more water, not more product and massage it in,' Paul told MailOnline. We are so honored and proud to be a multi-year winner of a Stevie award. It is a direct reflection of our unwavering commitment to quality customer support that differentiates us as a merchant of record, and is one of the key reasons that our customers see us a true partner in their growth. FastSpring, a full-service ecommerce partner for software and SaaS companies, has been honored as a Bronze Stevie Award winner in the Support Team of the Year category in The 18th Annual American Business Awards today. The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word meaning crowned, the awards will be virtually presented to winners during a live event on Wednesday, August 5. Tickets for the virtual event are now on sale. More than 3,600 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories, including Startup of the Year, Executive of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year, Marketing Campaign of the Year, Live Event of the Year, and App of the Year, among others. FastSpring was nominated and announced a winner in the Support Team of the Year category for the Support Awards. We are so honored and proud to be a multi-year winner of a Stevie award, said Marina de la Torre, VP of Customer Success at FastSpring. It is a direct reflection of our unwavering commitment to quality customer support that differentiates us as a merchant of record, and is one of the key reasons that our customers see us a true partner in their growth. More than 230 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this years Stevie Award winners. Despite the toughest business conditions in memory, American organizations continue to demonstrate their commitment to innovation, creativity, and bottom-line results, said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher. This years Stevie-winning nominations are full of inspiring stories of persistence, ingenuity, resourcefulness, and compassion. We celebrate all of their stories and look forward to showcasing them during our virtual awards ceremony on August 5. Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2020 Stevie winners are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA. About FastSpring FastSpring is the trusted ecommerce partner for companies that sell software around the world. Companies using FastSprings full-service ecommerce solution sell more, stay lean, and compete big. Founded in 2005, FastSpring is a privately owned company headquartered in Santa Barbara with an office in Amsterdam. For more information, please visit https://www.fastspring.com. About the Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com. Sponsors of The 2020 American Business Awards include John Hancock Financial Services, Melissa Sones Consulting, and SoftPro. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France Tue, May 26, 2020 17:30 604 fc6853813033f564188675f8bda35cf6 2 World France,tracing-COVID-19,coronavirus,COVID-19,COVID-19-tracing-app,StopCovid Free France's privacy watchdog gave the green light Tuesday to a government-backed cellphone app that will alert users if they have been in contact with an infected person. Use of the app called StopCovid will be voluntary, and will keep track of users who had been in close proximity of one another over a two-week period. If any become infected, they inform the platform, which alerts the others. Privacy defenders have expressed fears that the app marks the first step towards a society under constant online surveillance. But the CNIL watchdog, which gave provisional approval for StopCovid in April, said Tuesday that the app met the legal requirements for privacy protection, with ample safeguards to prevent abuse. It nevertheless made a number of recommendations to make it even safer, including improving the quality of information provided to users, allowing users to object to information shared, and providing an option for erasing stored data. The app will not rely on geolocation, but instead use Bluetooth technology which allows mobile phones to communicate with each other over short distances. The French parliament, which must vote on the rolling out of the app, will debate the matter on Wednesday. If it says yes, StopCovid could be available in app stores from this weekend. France started reemerging on May 11 from a two-month lockdown to curb coronavirus spread. Public transport has resumed, though many people are still working from home and most schools have yet to reopen. Bars, restaurants and public parks remain shuttered. The issue of how to track coronavirus spread with mobile technology has sparked privacy concerns in several countries now lifting strict home confinement measures as they hope to kickstart their economies. As a result of the lockdowns, few people in most countries have been exposed to the virus, and thus do not have immunity and remain at risk of infection, raising fears of a second wave once people start mixing again. The European Commission has recommended that data harvested through contact-tracing apps be stored only on users' own phones and that it be encrypted. Innovative pharmacy projects allowing North Wales nurses to spend more time caring for patients during COVID-19 pandemic This article is old - Published: Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 Innovative pharmacy projects across the region are helping nurses spend more time caring for patients during the outbreak of COVID-19. Pharmacy teams across Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have been supporting their colleagues by providing ready to administer medicine to be used for patients in critical care. The departments at Wrexham Maelor Hospital, Glan Clwyd Hospital and Ysbyty Gwynedd have so far prepared over 3,000 doses for patients. Andrew Merriman, Technical Services Pharmacist, said: This medicine would have usually been prepared by nursing staff working in Critical Care. This task has been made more challenging both by an increase in demand and nurses having to wear full Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The use of the Smartfiller Syringe Filling Machine at Glan Clwyd Hospital, which is the first of its kind in Wales, has greatly increased capacity for the Pharmacy team to produce syringes in significant numbers. This type of production has saved a huge amount of nursing time, allowing them to dedicate more time towards direct patient care. The three hospital Pharmacy departments have worked collaboratively to ensure that the ready to administer injectable medicines have been available when needed across the Health Board. The pharmacy teams have taken on this additional work whilst continuing their normal services for general hospital departments, including cancer services. They have been able to do this through welcoming back recently retired pharmacy staff who have provided extra resource and enthusiasm to support the teams to provide this valued service. At Ysbyty Gwynedd a centralised hub has been established on the second floor of the hospital to ensure the safe and timely administration of antibiotics for patients on the wards. Previously nursing staff have prepared and administered medication for patients on the wards, which on average would take around 15-20 minutes. The hub has been established to reduce the increasing demands on nursing time and provide a team approach to patient care. Sue Murphy, Assistant Director for Pharmacy and Medicines Management for the West of Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board, said: This is an innovative joint project undertaken between Pharmacy and nursing leads to set up the ward based service. The hub is staffed by registered nurses, health care assistants along with support from our portering team. Pharmacy staff have provided their expertise to develop the policies and procedures for the preparation for a variety of IV medication frequently administered to patients on the wards in the hospital. The products are prepared for immediate use. Each day the wards send orders to the hub where staff prepare the antibiotics, then they are delivered to the ward. As well as releasing nurses from this time consuming task so they can spend more time caring for their patients, the centralised IV preparation service also minimises waste and reduces costs. There are now plans to roll out this service across the two other main hospital sites and also significant interest has been received from other hospitals across the UK. Chief Pharmacist, Berwyn Owen added: I am very proud of the pharmacy teams across the Health Board who have stepped up to support their colleagues during this pandemic. A huge amount of work and effort has gone into these projects and its fantastic to see how it is benefiting our nursing teams across the hospital sites. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/26/2020 ADVERTISEMENT GEOFFREY AND VARYA ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT DAVID AND LANA ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT STEPHANIE AND ERIKA ADVERTISEMENT LISA AND USMAN ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT AVERY AND ASH ADVERTISEMENT ED ADVERTISEMENT DARCEY Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. : Before the 90 Days featured Usman Umar proposing marriage to Lisa Hamme before another huge fight between the couple, Varya Malina trying to win Geoffrey Paschel back after he had moved on, David Murphey receiving a little kiss from Lana during a date night, and Stephanie Matto and Ed Brown resuming their lives in America during Sunday night's Season 4 episode on TLC.Like : Before the 90 Days' first three seasons, the fourth season has followed Americans who started online romantic relationships with overseas partners traveling overseas hoping to get engaged to someone they've never met in person and then hopefully begin the K-1 Visa immigration process.Along the way, they've encountered challenges that include large age gaps, language barriers, cultural issues, and questionable pasts.The couples who appeared on Episode 14 of : Before the 90 Days' fourth season were David, a 60-year-old from Las Vegas, NV, and Lana, a 27-year-old from Ukraine; Ed, a 54-year-old San Diego, CA; Avery Warner , a 32-year-old from Seattle, WA, and Ash Naeck , a 38-year-old from Melbourne, Australia; Geoffrey, a 41-year-old from Knoxville, TN, and Varya, a 30-year-old from Ryazan, Russia; Stephanie, a 29-year-old from Yonkers, NY; Lisa, a 52-year-old from York, PA, and Usman, a 30-year-old from Kaduna, Nigeria; and Darcey Silva , a 45-year-old from Middletown, CT. Erika Owens , a 24 year-old from Port Augusta, Australia; Tom Brooks , a 39-year-old from Nottingham, United Kingdom; Rosemarie Vega , a 23-year-old from Caloocan, Philippines; and Yolanda Leak, a 51-year-old from Las Vegas, NV, did not appear in the episode.And viewers are led to believe Yolanda's boyfriend Williams, a 40-year-old from England, is a scammer.Below is what was shown on the latest episode of : Before the 90 Days.When Varya saw Mary, Varya asked, "Who are you?"And then Mary turned to Geoffrey and questioned, "Why is she here?""What is she doing here?!" Varya countered.Mary told Varya that she was "in the wrong," but Varya refused to talk to Mary and said she had followed her heart to the United States. Geoffrey said he hadn't talked to Varya in weeks since returning home from Russia, so he was shocked to see her.Geoffrey welcomed Varya into his house, and he said it was "absolutely crazy" to see her again and he wasn't ready for that. Geoffrey said the situation was not fair to Mary because it was not her fault, especially since he had promised his relationship with Varya was over with.Varya asked Geoffrey to speak outside alone because Mary "irritated" her, and the girls essentially had it out for each other at the front door."The only thing irritating here is you being here, showing up on the doorstep!" Mary argued.Varya yelled at Mary in Russian, and Varya asked to speak with Geoffrey in private.Mary started to cry, saying she felt embarrassed and "extremely foolish."When Geoffrey and Varya got a moment alone, Geoffrey told her that he had no idea she was coming, and Varya seemed hurt that her appearance was "a bad surprise" although she had traveled to show her "serious intentions."Varya couldn't believe Geoffrey was with another woman in his house in the morning, saying it hurt her that he moved on so quickly and didn't tell her that he had entered a new relationship.Geoffrey explained that Mary was there for her after their breakup, and then Varya called Mary "a b-tch."When Mary came outside, she called Varya "disrespectful" and told Geoffrey that she didn't understand why Varya was at his house."My place is here. Your place is there. So go!" Varya snipped at Mary.Mary went back into Geoffrey's house and Varya snapped at her, "Leave your panties there?" Varya said Geoffrey had never told her that he had moved on in all of their text exchanges."I wanted to do a surprise for you... I came here to say that I love you," Varya told Geoffrey.Mary complained about how Geoffrey didn't defend her or kick Varya out, saying she felt "duped" and "betrayed.""Like, what the actual f-ck are you doing?!" Mary vented in a confessional.After Mary drove off, Geoffrey allowed Varya to enter his home. He said their relationship had "completely fallen off" and he felt "very, very bad" for Mary because she was completely innocent in the situation.Geoffrey didn't understand why Varya hadn't communicated her plans to travel with him, but she was apparently scared he was going to reject her and turn her down.Geoffrey admitted he and Mary were "moving in the direction" of a relationship, and so Varya essentially asked him to make a decision and make up his mind. Geoffrey admitted he hadn't fallen out of love with Varya yet and he was in a tough situation."She's the one that said 'no' to me. She's the one who turned my proposal down. And now she's done a complete 180 on her feelings. It's hard for me to know or not whether it's genuine," Geoffrey told the cameras.Varya revealed she'd be staying in the United States for two weeks and "had" a hotel. She had been hoping Geoffrey would invite her to stay, but Geoffrey acknowledged he wasn't ready to just jump right back into their relationship the way it was before.Geoffrey said he had a lot of emotions running through his head and didn't know what to do. Varya said from her side of things, she and Geoffrey had never stopped communicating."I don't want to lose you," Varya told Geoffrey. "I'm not going to surrender. I'm not going to give him to [Mary]. I love him. He said he loves me still. So, I will try my best to get him back."Feelings had been hurt and Geoffrey said he had a lot to process, but he decided to take Varya to a friendly gathering that Mary was also supposed to attend. Geoffrey had agreed to allow Varya to stay with him for two weeks.Geoffrey explained Varya and Mary had gotten to a tiff upon Varya's arrival, and his friends were quiet and wary. Geoffrey's friend Mark seemed to believe Mary was the right woman for him and had been there for him all along.Varya explained her romance with Geoffrey just went too fast for her to be comfortable accepting a marriage proposal, and she admitted to feeling uncomfortable at the outing, especially since the people were Mary's friends as well.Geoffrey's friends Mark and Jessica told Varya that Mary's a great person who really cared for Geoffrey, but Varya said spouses should be each other's best friend, which only seemed to validate what Geoffrey's pals were saying.Geoffrey said his relationship with Mary had been "good" and so he had a tough decision to make. Suddenly, Mary showed up at the bar, and Varya couldn't believe it."If she wants a war, she will get a war," Varya noted.David took Lana on their first official date to a restaurant, and they communicated through a language-translation app. David found speaking to Lana easier than he had predicted or anticipated, but he told Lana she could receive all the English lessons she would like.Lana said it was really great to meet David in real life but they needed to get to know each other better in order to determine whether they'd have a real connection or spark.David gifted Lana a box of chocolates, and then she told the cameras she liked "getting gifts and money from David." But when a producer asked Lana how much money David given her up to that point, she said, "Can we skip this question?"David told Lana that he loved looking into her eyes, and he said he was "over the moon" to be with her. David said he had been willing to do anything to meet her, including traveling to her alleged home address, which turned out to be wrong.Lana explained she had given David a fake address because she didn't think it would be safe to give that out to a man she had never met before. She thought it was "insane" a man would be willing to knock on someone's front door looking for her."I have something to tell you. I hired a private investigator to find you," David shared.Lana didn't understand why David would do that when they had spent so many years talking online, but David assured her the past didn't matter and their future started now.However, Lana admitted she wanted to go home, and David said things got quiet. David was concerned he had blown his relationship at the first meeting.Although Lana had ended their first date early, she agreed to go out with David again. David didn't have Lana's phone number since she doesn't speak English, but he planned to document their next meeting and take photos so he could apply for her K-1 visa.Lana apparently told David that she only wanted "a few-day meeting" because of how busy she was, but he said he wanted more time in order to verify she's the woman for him.Lana said she was upset David had hired a private investigator, but at the same time, she understood why he felt desperate since she had stood him up on multiple occasions.David then took some pictures with Lana and the pair went bowling, but David complained she wasn't showing him much affection. David therefore made a bet -- if he bowled a strike, he would get a kiss. Lana agreed to the bet, but she told the cameras it was still a little early for a kiss on the lips.David told the cameras he was a professional bowler back in his twenties, so he was confident he'd bowl a strike. The pair apparently had fun together, but David fell short of knocking all the pins down in a single turn."Maybe I'll get the kiss just because I came all the way here?" David asked Lana."No," she replied with a laugh.But in the end, David finally bowled a strike and got a little kiss on the lips."I know David wants more physical closeness, but I think we need to spend more time together to see if I want this or not. Of course I want to go to America, but time will tell," Lana said in a confessional.Later that night, the couple did some sightseeing and enjoyed a romantic dinner out together. David wanted to show Lana his romantic side and also talk about the potential of getting engaged. Lana gushed to the cameras she felt "warm" with David.David and Lana hugged at the table, and then David brought up the idea of getting engaged before her trip to the United States because of the K-1 visa.David asked Lana what she needed from him in order to determine he's "The One" for her, and Lana said she needed more time but could hopefully give him an answer before his trip home.David then asked Lana to join him in his hotel room that night, but she responded by saying, "I think it's a bit early for that."A producer asked Lana how she would respond if David popped the question, and she admitted she wasn't sure because although they had communicated for seven years, they had only spent two days with each other in person.David hoped Lana would open up and show him the affection he needed in order to propose marriage.Stephanie said her trip ended in the worst way possible and her relationship with Erika was officially over. Stephanie said she was sad and disappointed, adding she and Erika had spoken or texted since their last meeting.Stephanie wasn't sure what she was going to tell her mother once she got home, and she said she wasn't looking forward to "bottling up" her emotions and experience in Australia since she had yet to come out as bisexual."I can't believe this is where we are now. I was hoping she would show up at the airport just to say goodbye and give me a hug. I would say, 'I'm so sorry for the way things ended," Stephanie said.She added, "I don't regret coming here; that's the risk you take in every relationship. I took a huge risk and I learned a lot about myself, and I will always have a piece of Erika in my heart. I hope one day we can talk.'"By the time Stephanie got home in the United States, she and Erika had apparently removed each other from their respective social media accounts. Stephanie was clearly upset, but she was just happy to be reunited with her mother and two dogs.Stephanie told her mother that she had a good trip, but she wasn't sure when to come out to her mother as bisexual. Stephanie wished she could be open with her mom about the emotional experience she had just went through.Stephanie skimmed over details of her trip on the way home and admitted she and Erika had fought one night during her trip. Stephanie just said Erika probably thought she was a different person given her online persona and appearance on social media.Stephanie's mother could tell something was not right, so Stephanie hoped to open up and be vulnerable soon."If I keep bottling it up, I am going to explode," Stephanie said in a confessional.Lisa said she was "done" with Usman and left him alone in their hotel room. It was the day before their wedding, and Lisa was apparently upset because Usman had yet to propose to her.However, Usman told the cameras the only reason he hadn't proposed the previous night was because they had fought over a girl messaging him on Facebook and Lisa was "so angry."Usman said he wanted to pop the question at the right time and knew time was running out because his family was about to arrive for their wedding. However, Usman acknowledged he wanted to be on good terms with Lisa when getting engaged.Lisa said she had done everything to "blend in" to Usman's culture but he was doing very little to blend into her American culture.Lisa was then shown speaking to Usman in private, telling him that it was going to look like she's pregnant or he just wants a Green Card since they'd be getting married before an official engagement.Lisa expected Usman would have proposed already, but Usman promised her, "I love you," and hugged her.Usman didn't want Lisa to be mad at him right before their wedding, so he decided to pop the question once they returned to their hotel room.Lisa came out of the bathroom in their room to find Usman down on one knee."Will you marry me Lisa? With peace, with happiness?" Usman asked."If we can blend our cultures together, then yes," Lisa replied.Usman hoped he had done it right, and he clearly did because Lisa cried tears of joy and told the cameras, "It was everything I ever wanted... It touched me. It's something I'll remember until the day I die. He's my everything and I am ready to marry this man tomorrow."Lisa later met Usman's brother Faruq, who had traveled seven hours with his young daughter to witness his brother's wedding. Lisa prayed with Usman's family in a hotel room and participated in a cleansing ritual, just 24 hours before their wedding day.Lisa got a chance to talk to and get to know Usman's relatives, and she said it meant a lot to her to have them attend her wedding. Lisa asked Usman's two older brothers for their thoughts on her issues with her fiancee.Lisa wanted to ask questions about Usman's "stubborn" behavior, but Usman told Lisa it wasn't the appropriate time to bring any of that up. Usman said he was "offended" and didn't want to give his family any reason not to support his marriage."I will not let anybody tell me what to do," Usman told his brothers. "Controlling me, that is what I will not tolerate."Usman's brothers advised Lisa to "minimize" the time she needed to spend with Usman because she couldn't expect her future husband to be with her from morning until night. The men thought wives were supposed to follow their husbands.The conversation became tense and then Lisa stormed away from the gathering and said she was "done." Usman's brothers could tell there problems, and Usman said Lisa behaved very poorly in front of his family."At this point, I don't know if there will be a wedding tomorrow," Usman told the cameras.It was Avery's last day in Australia with Ash, and she said she had a lot of mixed emotions.Avery told the cameras she felt like she had been in "relationship boot camp" for the last several weeks because of all the challenges she and Ash had to overcome and the emotions they had gone through.Avery told Ash that he may not be able to move to the United States until five years down the road so they must promise to be loyal and dedicated to each other while his son Taj grows and gets older.Ash told Avery that he wanted to move forward with her and build something together. He said he missed Avery already and was dreading being away from her. With that being said, Ash said he wanted to marry Avery but wasn't ready to propose.Ash said he'd like to spend a few months with her in the United States and meet her family before proposing marriage, and Avery agreed it was important for Ash to see her life before committing to her as a husband and the child she raises as a father."We still have a lot to work through. I feel good knowing that we're on the same page," Avery told the cameras.Ash explained he was trying to obtain a visa so he could travel to America."I am from a small island called Mauritius next to Madagascar. It's harder to get a visa under the passport I have now, a Mauritian passport, so I need to get the Australian passport to be able to actually get a Tourist Visa to get to the states," Ash explained in a confessional.Ash said he had applied two months ago but it could take up to a year to receive the Tourist Visa. Ash told Avery that he'd just be waiting for a letter in the mail with limited information available to him in the meantime.Avery admitted she was going to worry about Ash receiving his passport, and so she asked him to keep her updated on every step along the way. Ash was trying to be honest and clear about the way things were going to work, and Avery said they could only hope for the best.Ash then dropped Avery off at the airport, and they both appeared devastated. The pair obviously wished they could be together, and Avery feared things were going to be very hard for them going forward."I don't want to wait nine months to see you again. It's my priority to get my passport and come see you... I am not taking this lightly, and I think you know that," Ash told Avery.Ash said he didn't want to let go of a woman he had just connected with so deeply, but he knew Taj had to get older before he could move to the United States.Ash cried with Avery walked away from him to board her flight, and Avery said she was hurting as well but truly believed their unique connection would flourish and last."The love that we have can literally conquer anything," Avery insisted.Ed was shown flying back to the United States, where his mother and dog waited for him at the airport. Ed told his mother that his trip was "fun, exciting and crazy," but "Rose is out. No Rose. No Rose."Ed teared up when revealing the bad news, and his mother promised her son that the pain would pass. Ed's mother was upset the situation didn't work out for him, but she confessed to having many doubts about the romance from the beginning.Ed just didn't want to have more kids, which upset Rose, and Ed explained to his mother that Rose would "clam up" every time he asked her about her past. Ed said by the end of the trip, it was too much for Rose and she had lost trust in him."I had the best chance at love, but I screwed it up. Right now, what I want more than anything, is to pick up my heart and move on. But there's a big part of me that still hopes Rose might talk to me again," Ed told the cameras.It had been a couple of weeks since Darcey last saw Tom, and she said it had been difficult to move on. However, Darcey was ready to "start fresh" and have some fun with her twin sister Stacey Silva.Darcey wanted to rid herself of bad energy and negativity, and she insisted she'd "never go back" to Tom. Darcey said she needed to learn from her mistakes and bad decisions and it was time to focus on her family.Darcey missed her big brother and wished he was still around to protect her. Their brother, Michael, passed away from a rare form of cancer at age 27 after being diagnosed at age 24.The twin sisters then visited Michael's grave and put flowers on it. Darcey knew Michael would want happiness, health and true love for her, adding that he was "a real man" who was loyal and "loved being in love."Darcey gained a new sense of hope and told the cameras everything was going to be okay.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! More than a fifth of the countrys coronavirus cases are in Mumbai, where people struggle to find hospital beds. When Manit Parikhs mother tested positive for the new coronavirus, she was rushed by ambulance to Mumbais private Lilavati Hospital, but officials told the family no critical-care beds were available. Five hours and dozens of phone calls later, the family found a bed for her at the private Bombay Hospital. A day later, on May 18, Parikhs 92-year-old diabetic grandfather had breathing difficulties at home and was taken to the citys Breach Candy Hospital, another top private facility, but there were no beds. My dad was pleading with them, Parikh told Reuters. They said they didnt have a bed, not even a normal bed. Later that day, they found a bed at Bombay Hospital, but his grandfather died hours later. His test results showed he was infected with the virus. Parikh said he believes the delays contributed to his grandfathers death. Officials at Lilavati and Bombay Hospital declined to speak with Reuters. Representatives of Breach Candy hospital did not respond to requests for comment. 630,000 to 2.1 million could be infected by July For years, Indias booming private hospitals have taken some of the strain off the countrys underfunded and dilapidated public health network, but the ordeal of Parikhs family suggests that as coronavirus cases explode in India, even private facilities are at risk of being overrun. India on Sunday reported 6,767 new coronavirus infections, the countrys biggest one-day increase. Government data shows the number of coronavirus cases in the worlds second-most populous country are doubling every 13 days or so, even as the government begins easing lockdown restrictions. India has reported more than 145,380 infections, including 4,167 deaths. The increasing trend has not gone down, said Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, referring to Indias cases. Weve not seen a flattening of the curve. Mukherjees team estimates that between 630,000 and 2.1 million people in India out of a population of 1.3 billion will become infected by early July. The increasing trend has not gone down. We've not seen a flattening of the curve. Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan More than a fifth of the countrys coronavirus cases are in Mumbai, Indias financial hub and its most populous city, where the Parikhs struggled to find hospital beds for their infected family members. Indias health ministry did not respond to a request for comment on how it will cope with the predicted rise in infections, given that most public hospitals are overcrowded at the best of times. The federal government has said in media briefings that not all patients need hospitalisation, and it is making rapid efforts to increase the number of hospital beds and procure health gear. The federal governments data from last year showed there were about 714,000 hospital beds in India, up from about 540,000 in 2009. However, given Indias rising population, the number of beds per 1,000 people has grown only slightly in that time. India has 0.5 beds per 1,000 people, according to the latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), up from 0.4 beds in 2009, but among lowest of countries surveyed by the OECD. In contrast, China has 4.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people, and the United States has 2.8, according to the latest OECD figures. India has reported more than 145,380 infections, including 4,167 deaths [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters] While millions of Indias poor rely on the public health system, especially in rural areas, private facilities account for 55 percent of hospital admissions, according to government data. The private health sector has been growing over the past two decades, especially in Indias big cities, where an expanding class of affluent Indians can afford private care. Mumbais municipal authority said it had ordered public officials to take control of at least 100 private hospital beds in all 24 zones in the city of 18 million people to make more beds available for coronavirus patients. Still, there is a waiting list. An official at a helpline run by Mumbais civic authorities told Reuters that patients would be notified about availability. Shortage of staff It is not just beds that are in short supply. On May 16, Mumbais municipal authority said it did not have enough staff to operate beds required for patients critically ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. As a result, resident doctors will receive less time off than prescribed by the federal government, the authority said. Some medical professionals told Reuters they are already overburdened and treating patients without adequate protective gear, exposing them to a higher risk of infection. Several hospitals in Mumbai, western Gujarat state, the northern city of Agra and Kolkata in the east have in recent weeks shut partially or fully for days because some medical staff were infected with the virus. The federal government has not reported any deaths of medical staff from the virus. In our country, healthcare has never gotten priority, said Dr Adarsh Pratap Singh, head of the 2,500-strong resident doctors association at New Delhis top public hospital, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The government is now realising the reality, but its already too late. The AIIMS group has in recent weeks protested about the lack of health gear and publicly rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modis call for doctors to donate part of their salaries to his coronavirus fund. Some health experts say Indias struggle to treat coronavirus patients is the result of chronic underinvestment in healthcare. The Indian government estimates it spends only about 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public health. That figure is higher than it was about 1 percent in the 1980s and 1.3 percent five years ago but India still ranks among the worlds lowest spenders in terms of percentage of GDP. Some health experts say Indias struggle to treat patients is the result of chronic underinvestment in healthcare [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters] This year, Modis federal government raised its health budget by 6 percent, but that is still short of the governments own goal of increasing public health spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025, according to New Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation. Too many patients Keshav Desiraju, a former Indian health secretary, said more investment in the health system before the virus outbreak might have made the health system more resilient. At the times of a crisis, all the holes show up, he told Reuters. Dr Chaitanya Patil, a senior resident doctor at King Edward Memorial government hospital, one of Mumbais largest, said the facility had a shortage of medical staff, and the 12 coronavirus wards catering to about 500 patients were almost full. There are just too many patients coming in, said Patil, It is lack of preparedness or a lack of insight of the people planning. Last week Rajesh Tope, health minister of the state of Maharashtra, which contains Mumbai, said the lack of hospital beds for critically ill patients would not last long. In the next two months, more than 17,000 vacant posts of doctors, nurses, technicians and other health workers will be filled, he said in a public address. Indias United Nurses Association, which represents 380,000 medics, took a list of 12 issues they said they are facing including lack of protective gear and accommodation to the Supreme Court in April. The court told them they could lodge complaints on a government helpline. Some nurses are leaving the big cities. Earlier this month, some 300 nurses working at hospitals in the eastern city of Kolkata left for their hometowns 1,500 km (930 miles) away in Indias remote northeastern state of Manipur. A group representing them said they had left because of irregular salaries and inadequate safety gear, among other issues. We love our profession, said 24-year-old Shyamkumar, who quit his nursing job in one of Kolkatas hospitals and is planning to head back to Manipur. But when we are going to work, please give us proper equipment. Nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow, the official said. As this crisis has unfolded, things have developed very quickly. That being said, if returning to the U.S. is something that you and your family want to do, our official advice is to do it now. Now means as soon as possible. Now means now. The Maharashtra government on Tuesday ordered re investigation by the CID into the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer and his mother, allegedly over non-payment of dues by TV journalist Arnab Goswami and two others. State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said he ordered re investigation after Adnya Naik, daughter of interior designer Anvay Naik, claimed that Alibag Police in neighbouring Raigad district did not probe the non-payment of dues which had driven her father and grandmother to suicide. "Adnya Naik had complained to me that #AlibaugPolice had not investigated non-payment of dues from #ArnabGoswami's @republic which drove her entrepreneur father & grandmom to suicide in May 2018," Deshmukh tweeted. "I've ordered a CID re-investigation of the case," the minister, an NCP leader, added. He also used the hashtag "Maharashtra government cares" while sharing the tweet. Earlier this month, the police registered an abetment of suicide case against Republic TV editor-in-chief Goswami and two others. The suicide note purportedly written by Anvay Naik, managing director of Concorde Designs Private Limited, said he was forced to take his life as he was not paid dues of Rs 5.40 crore by the three accused. Republic TV denied the allegation and said that certain vested interest groups were running "a false and malicious campaign and making false statements and innuendos against the company by exploiting the tragic event". Mumbai Police are also conducting a probe against Goswami over his statements about the Palghar lynching case of April this year. Attorneys everywhere have had their lives disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is to support bar members in any way we can, especially through their member benefits...we are so proud to [add] Fastcase to our core member benefit program. Phillip McCallum Today, Fastcase announced a partnership with the Alabama State Bar (ASB) that provides free access to Fastcases nationwide legal research platform for all active members. Since 2005, Alabama State Bar members have received unlimited access to a nationwide legal research content service as a member benefit. After a review of its member benefit offerings, the ASB decided to change legal research providers and will now be providing complimentary access to Fastcase, starting in September of this year. The Alabama State Bar is committed to providing benefits to Alabama lawyers that enhance their practices and help them better serve clients, said 2019-2020 State Bar President Christy Crow. Throughout my Presidency, I have been committed to improving member benefits so that every lawyer in Alabama realizes value for their membership. Our new partnership with Fastcase will allow members access to a tool trusted by many across our country. This year has been incredibly challenging to attorneys across our state due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is more important than ever that the Alabama State Bar enhances our services for our members. Fastcase and the ASB are providing each of the approximately 18,000 lawyers, judges, and legal professionals who are members with complimentary access to one of the largest law libraries in the world. This member benefit provides access to Fastcases robust primary law database, a service that includes unlimited printing, webinar training, and reference support; it is not restricted by time or number of transactions. Attorneys everywhere have had their lives disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is to support bar members in any way we can, especially through their member benefits. At this difficult time when member services matter more than ever, we are so proud to announce this partnership by adding Fastcase to our core member benefit program, said Phillip McCallum, Executive Director. Bar members can login through the ASB website with their existing username and password to access the Fastcase library, which includes state and federal caselaw, as well as statutes and regulations at both the state and federal levels. This content is augmented by Fastcases patented search tools, which makes legal research smarter and easier, including its Interactive Timeline visualization of search results, Forecite to suggest cases researchers may have missed, and Bad Law Bot, the leading algorithmic tool to identify negative case treatment. Alabama is now one of 34 states, in addition to the many metro, county, and specialty bar associations, that offer Fastcases smarter legal research tools as a free benefit to members. Through bar partnerships, Fastcase is made available at no charge to more than 900,000 lawyers, nearly three-quarters of all lawyers in the U.S. Many of the largest law firms in the country also subscribe to Fastcase, as well as the majority of U.S. law schools and leading corporate counsel. Legal researchers can extend their capabilities in Fastcase by opting in to integrated products, such as Full Court Press publications, data analytics and docket updates via Docket Alarm, bankruptcy and workflow tools through NextChapter, lawyer directory information from Modern Attorney, and artificial intelligence tools within the AI Sandbox, plus access to licensed secondary materials through Wolters Kluwer and other publishers. About the Alabama State Bar The Alabama State Bar (ASB) is the official statewide organization of lawyers in Alabama. Since 1923, when the Alabama State Bar was created by an act of legislature, ASB programs and activities have continuously served the public and improved the justice system. It is dedicated to promoting the professional responsibility and competence of its members, improving the administration of justice, and increasing the public understanding of and respect of the law. For more information, follow the Alabama State Bar on Facebook and Twitter at @AlabamaStateBar or visit alabar.com. About Fastcase Fastcase is a leading legal publisher that democratizes the law, making it more accessible to more people. Fastcase is a comprehensive research suite of primary law, treatises, legal blogs, analytics, workflow tools, and legal news. Founded in 1999, the service has more than 900,000 subscribers from around the world. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, follow Fastcase on Twitter at @Fastcase or visit fastcase.com. Representative Image Satellite images published by news channel NDTV have shown that massive construction activity is underway at a high-altitude Chinese air base, about 200 kilometres from Pangong Lake, where a skirmish between the Indian and Chinese forces occurred on May 5 and 6. The images, according to the news channel, were sourced from open source intelligence expert @defresfa_ and they show Ngari Gunsa airport in Tibet. According to the report, there has also been an addition of a second taxi-track or secondary tarmac. This helps in the positioning of helicopters or combat aircraft. Moreover, a third image obtained by the news channel show the main tarmac of the airport, with either J-11 or J-16 fighters of the Chinese Army lined up. Their deployment, according to the report, was first spotted in December 2019. The report states that the location of the base is significant, since it is among the highest in the world and is a dual-use airport serving both military and civilian purposes. However, according to the report, while there is advantage to an air base this close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), jets at such altitude are capable of carrying limited war-load and fuel. "The useful endurance of Chinese J-11 or J-16 fighters deployed at such altitudes will not be more than an hour," Squadron Leader Sameer Joshi, who is a former Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot and a veteran of the Kargil War, told the news channel. He added that in the case of IAF, however, the useful endurance could be "up to three to four hours if air to air refuelling tanks are used". Ever since the skirmish, tensions between India and China in the region have been high, with reports indicating that several thousand Chinese troops crossed the LAC, or are close to it. Meetings between local commanders in the region, from the rank of Colonel to Major General, have not garnered any breakthrough. Another report suggests that due to the developing situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting with the National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and the three Service Chiefs. He also met Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla separately to discuss the issue. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Foundation has put together seven "priceless, outdoor experience packages" for its 2020 Tennessee Conservation Raffle. Formerly known as the Elk Tag Raffle, this years Conservation Raffle has opportunities for everyone whether a hunter, fisherman, camper or lover of the outdoors. One hundred percent of the funds from the raffle goes to support wildlife habitat restoration, it was stated. The packages available this year include: an elk hunting package, including a tag to participate in the 2020 Tennessee elk hunt; a deer hunting package, including a deer hunt on Presidents Island with crossbow and gear; an off-road package with a 2020 Honda Pioneer UTV; a turkey hunting package, including gun and participation in the Governors One Shot Turkey Hunt; a waterfowl hunting package; a camping package; and fishing package, with lots of fishing gear and a day of fishing with the legendary angler Bill Dance. All the packages feature additional items and a complete list of the prizes can be found at https://www.twrf.net/. "This Tennessee Conservation Raffle offers once in a lifetime experiences like elk hunting in the premier zone, deer hunting on Presidents Island and fishing with Bill Dance, said Kurt Holbert, chairman of the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission. I hope that everyone who values wildlife in Tennessee buys chances to win one of these great packages. A single ticket is $20, three tickets are $50 and 10 ticket are $100, and are on sale now until Aug. 16. There is no limit to the number of raffle tickets that can be purchased and the more tickets you buy, the better opportunity you have of grabbing one of the packages. Raffle tickets may be purchased online directly at https://raffle.twrf.net/. The winning tickets will be drawn live this year at the August meeting of the Commission, which will be held in Kingsport. The seven winners will be drawn for the seven packages. The first person drawn will get to select the prize package they prefer. The next person drawn will select their package and the process will continue until all seven packages are selected. HONG KONG - On good days, Leung Wai-sheung's hardest task is disinfecting mattresses, bed rails and cabinets. On others, she must change diapers for coronavirus patients who are hooked to a ventilator, too weak to make their way to the bathroom. Leung, a 54-year-old patient-care assistant in an isolation ward at Hong Kong's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, does not consider herself a front-line fighter against the coronavirus. A decade of serving patients had prepared her for the risks, she said, and quitting has never been on her mind. But Leung and others like her - street cleaners, hotel housekeepers, subway disinfecting crews - form a largely unheralded hygiene army helping to prevent the spread of the virus. Many of them elderly or migrants, they toil at considerable risk to their health, spending extended periods away from their families to minimize potential exposure. As anti-government unrest resumes here, many of these workers also bear the brunt of clearing debris, spent tear gas canisters and broken glass left behind by protesters and police. On Sunday, a cleaner collapsed after a group of people rushed into a bathroom where she was working; she was hospitalized in critical condition. In November, an elderly cleaner was struck in the head by a brick and died during street clashes. Two boys aged 16 and 17 have been charged with his murder. In cities such as Hong Kong, these workers earn minimum wage and are often treated as part of an underclass. While their efforts have allowed residents to ease back to normal life after the pandemic, they have largely relied on social workers and charity groups for protective gear such as masks, sanitizer and eyewear, underscoring the inequality and disproportionate burdens that have defined this public health crisis. "Back in February, when things were at the worst here, we had nothing, no protective gear or no masks," said Lee Chun Kwok, 70, a street cleaner who has become a daily fixture in his assigned area in Mong Kok, a dense Hong Kong neighborhood. "But luckily I have a strong body, so I have been safe." - - - Lee used to work as a security guard for a bus company. But when he reached the mandatory retirement age, he had barely enough saved. He turned to a company contracted by Hong Kong's government to clean public spaces and began working 10-hour shifts sweeping, collecting trash and clearing garbage cans. Like most street cleaners, Lee was hired on a contract without health insurance or other benefits. He earns about $1,500 a month with overtime but gets help from a Catholic charity, the Pastoral Center for Workers. Ho Tin Lok, a program officer at the group, said private companies win government tenders by offering the lowest rates. Street cleaners are typically paid the legal minimum, about $4.50 an hour. "It is almost impossible for them to survive in Hong Kong on such low pay," Ho said. Even before the outbreak, he said, the charity had been helping cleaners apply for subsidies and rental relief. Developing covid-19 does not count as a work-related injury, he added, meaning any cleaner requiring treatment for the virus must pay for it. Lee lives apart from his family - which is on the other side of Hong Kong, in a subdivided apartment of less than 100 square feet - so that he can be closer to work for his 6:30 a.m. starts. He does not have a washing machine, so on his own dime he visits a laundromat to clean and disinfect everything he wears, including his uniform. Lee said his wife works in a restaurant where business suffered as patrons dried up during the outbreak. "There is no other choice for me, really," Lee said. "I have to make a living." When reports of a new respiratory virus reached Hong Kong, which was hit hard in the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, Lee and other cleaners badgered their employers for protective gear such as surgical masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and eye protection, aware that their exposure to a variety of surfaces puts them at greater risk. "Unlike the others, there is no work from home for us," Lee said. For weeks, he said, street cleaners reused masks for nine-hour shifts, until nongovernment organizations stepped in to provide more. Later in February, authorities set aside masks produced by inmates at correctional facilities for some 21,700 government-contracted cleaners. But cleaners interviewed by The Washington Post said that one mask a day is insufficient - the coverings turn moist and unhygienic after a few hours. Rai, a 54-year-old street cleaner from Nepal who spoke on the condition of using only her first name, for fear of retribution from her employer, said she packs her own masks when she goes out to her assigned area in Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping district, and swaps them out on her breaks. She had to ask her family in Nepal to send additional supplies. Of the $1,496 she makes a month, she sends most of it back home to her four children and spends the rest on rent. - - - In March, as hundreds of Hong Kong residents returned from coronavirus hot spots around the world and served mandatory quarantine orders, the risk of infection shifted from the streets to the hotels that housed these suspected carriers. Chan Lok, a 38-year-old housekeeping supervisor at a hotel in Mong Kok, said his team went on high alert. Without a standardized policy across hotels, Chan consulted other cleaning supervisors to implement new hygiene protocols. Their hotel - which Chan declined to name, because he was not authorized to speak on its behalf - was not a designated quarantine facility. But management decided that if there were a confirmed case on the premises, no one would enter the room in question for 48 hours, after which workers would disinfect it - mattress, sheets and all - and then clean it again. Protective gear was sourced from around the world for the cleaning staff, and a new disinfecting regimen was implemented for all rooms. "They just asked us to figure out a plan," Chan said of his managers. "They never discussed a situation where a staff member may have to self-quarantine if they come in contact with a confirmed case, or what would happen to their salary or livelihoods." Chan said he is not hard-up, but most of his front-line cleaning staffers are new migrants who support families in China. Hotels are making employees take unpaid leave each month because they cannot afford to pay them with the dramatic drop in revenue. A tense moment came last month when Chan noticed a guest wearing one of the government-issued electronic monitoring bands given to returning travelers under mandatory quarantine. Chan and the hotel manager kicked him out. - - - At Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Leung finds herself slipping into the role of a therapist, trying to cheer up her patients and distract them with small talk. But at times, Leung has struggled, too. At the height of the outbreak, when she was tending to several coronavirus patients, hospital management put her up in a hotel to protect her family from the risk of infection. She has not gone home since mid-March. "I miss my family very much, especially my 2-year-old grandson," she said. "We only get to talk via video chat at night." Leung says she is grateful for the $2,300 she makes a month and feels a great sense of pride and mission in her work. The hospital also provides her with an allowance, she said. With Hong Kong recording no new local cases for several weeks, everyday life is restarting for many. Some students have returned to school, fitness centers have dusted off their machines, and movie theaters have resumed screenings. Karaoke bars will reopen this week, and air passengers will be able to transit through the city from Monday. Just 31 coronavirus patients remain in hospitals. For Leung, work goes on. The N95 masks stifle her breathing, fitted so tightly they leave marks on her face. Her family has to wait awhile still before they can see her. "But that's just my work, and my responsibility," she said. "I just want the patients to be well as soon as possible and for the virus to leave our society." (Photo : Private Companies Are Spreading Their Wings. Who Will Take Americans Back to the Moon?) The modern-day race to the Moon is not between superpowers but among private companies which are competing for NASA contracts. These companies are willing to invest their own money to achieve this ambitious goal. Who are the people behind these companies? What benefits would such space companies as Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, OrbitBeyond and Firefly Aerospace receive by traveling to the moon? After the triumph of the Apollo program, the U.S. space program was in the shadows for some time. NASA's budget was significantly reduced and the agency itself was criticized for wasteful spending. Today, a new golden age has arrived in space travel. This is due to several factors. One is that NASA has a new long-term goal: to send astronauts to Mars. As would be expected, the ambitious plan was divided into separate stages and one of the first is to return humans to the surface of the Moon. Another important factor is the change in NASA's approach to project management. The space agency no longer puts "all its eggs in one basket." It does not fund projects whose cost could rise to unpredictable levels. Instead, private companies are offered development money and several guaranteed orders at a fixed price. All other contracts must be arranged by the various companies themselves. In addition, they must pay for any cost overruns. Cargo taxis to the Moon NASA plans to return American astronauts to the Moon in 2024. However, the bridgehead for astronauts to land on the Moon will be prepared by unmanned missions that will conduct scientific experiments and test technology. NASA will work with several private U.S. companies under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to deliver cargo to the surface of the Moon. These companies of various sizes must ensure the entire process of cargo delivery: integration, launch from Earth and a successful landing on the Moon. The first deliveries are scheduled for 2021. There are nine companies that NASA plans to work with. These are: Astrobotic Technology, Deep Space Systems, Draper Laboratory, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin Space, Masten Space Systems, Moon Express and OrbitBeyond. In May 2019, NASA selected the first three contractors: Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond. Astrobotic was a participant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition with a prize fund of $30 million. Under the terms of the competition, which began in 2007, participants had to send a self-propelled vehicle to the moon. After a soft landing, the vehicle had to travel 500 meters and transmit high-resolution photos and videos to Earth from the surface of the Moon. The competition ended in failure in 2018 as none of the private teams were able to launch their lunar rover. Astrobotic, which was considered a favorite, withdrew from the competition in December 2016 and decided instead to focus on finding commercial customers for its landing gear. Peregrine lunar lander Under its contract with NASA, Astrobotic is expected to launch its Peregrine lander in June 2021 as cargo on the Atlas V launch vehicle. Landing is scheduled for July 2021. The spacecraft will deliver up to 14 NASA instruments to the Lake of Death on the Moon surface for which Astrobotic will receive $79.5 million. Interestingly, among the commercial cargo will be former competitors of Astrobotic for the Google Lunar XPRIZE: rovers from Hakuto and Team AngelicvM. NASA's second CLPS contract has been awarded to the Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, which intends to launch its Nova-C landing station in July 2021 on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle which will deliver four scientific devices. This is a $77 million contract. Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lunar lander The third contract went to OrbitBeyond, which was to launch the Z-01 in September 2020 with a contract of $97 million. The Z-01 is an almost unchanged HHK1 developed by another Google Lunar XPRIZE contestant, TeamIndus of India. However, OrbitBeyond withdrew from the contract citing internal problems at the company. Another Google Lunar XPRIZE contestant will be resuscitated by Firefly Aerospace. This is the Beresheet spacecraft by the Israeli company Israel Aerospace Industries. This is the only spacecraft from the participants of the competition which was sent to the Moon. However, it was launched after the competition period had ended. Due to an engine failure in April 2019, Beresheet did not reach the surface of the Moon. It had aimed to become the first private spacecraft to reach the lunar surface. Firefly Aerospace is using the Beresheet design, with refinements to the basic technology. Agreements on the use of intellectual property have already been signed. The new device is called Genesis. Firefly's Genesis moon lander The technical characteristics of Genesis have not yet been disclosed, as well as the date of its possible launch. Firefly Aerospace, revived by international businessman Max Polyakov, is currently preparing for the first launch of the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle, which is scheduled for the summer of 2020. However, due to a delay in receiving components from suppliers because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the launch may be postponed for several months. On April 8, 2020, NASA announced that Masten Space Systems will also receive a contract worth $75.9 million. In 2022, Masten Space Systems is expected to deliver nine scientific instruments to the lunar surface and plans to land near the South Pole using the XL-1. Technical details are currently unknown as is the unnamed launch vehicle they plan to use. Masten Space Systems is a small aerospace company based in Mojave, California. It was founded in 2004. As of 2018, Masten Space Systems had only eight employees. NASA later added five more companies to the list of CLPS contractors that could potentially provide payload delivery services to the lunar surface: Blue Origin, SpaceX, Ceres Robotics, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Starting with the already planned missions for 2021, NASA plans to conclude contracts for at least two CLPS missions for each successive year thereafter. Britons look set for five days of sunshine this week as a spell of high pressure keeps temperatures above 20C and puts further pressure on lockdown restrictions. Near London, the mercury rose close to 27C on Bank Holiday Monday, while the Met Office predicts sunny spells and temperatures of up to 25C on Tuesday. Thousands of sunseekers flocked to beaches and beauty spots to make the most of the warm weather on Monday, prompting authorities to urge people to use common sense. Bournemouth Council was forced to tell people to "think twice" before visiting the beach after its carparks reached capacity shortly before 12pm. Meanwhile, images from Margate Main Sands in Kent and Weston-super-Mare showed beaches thronged with sunbathers lining the shore. There will be isolated showers in the far north and north west on Tuesday, the Met says, although the majority of the country will remain dry, mostly sunny and warm. Met Office forecaster Alex Deakin said: All the computer models are in strong agreement that high pressure will sit around for most of next week, certainly bringing most of the south and central Britain fine and sunny weather. Looking ahead to Wednesday, it will be dry and sunny across England and Wales, while Scotland and Northern Ireland will be mostly cloudy. There will be a chance of rain for northern coasts of Northern Ireland as well as western parts of Scotland. Recommended Flood warnings issued as high winds and heavy rain to lash UK Thursday will be dry, warm and sunny for the vast majority. Cloudy with a few showers in the far north of Scotland, including Shetland. Gentle variable winds. Friday will be dry, sunny and very warm for most. There will be patchy cloud and a few showers later in Northern Ireland and western Scotland. On Saturday the dry and mostly sunny conditions will continue for most, but it may be cloudier to the far north-west, according to the Met Office outlook. Beckwith was the Districts fourth homicide victim since Friday, bringing the total number of people killed this year to 61. That is a 5 percent increase over the number at this time in 2019, which finished the year with a decade-high number of killings. Across Canada, many parents, educational policy experts and educators are now looking at possibly late August or early September as they consider how schools can safely reopen amid the unknowns of the coronavirus pandemic. I've had the good fortune to spend close to 30 years in the education sector including working as a teacher, principal and director of education. I'm now a professor of educational leadership and dean of the faculty of education at the University of Regina, which is on Treaty 4 territory and the traditional homeland of the Metis/Michif Nation. My career has spanned the geographical, social and political contexts of the prairie provinces. Over the past eight weeks, I've been hosting a web series for educators (Leading a School Community Through a Pandemic) and connecting with other Canadian deans of education. I've spoken to other educators about the challenges for schools, from hindered learning and children's developmental needs to the impact COVID-19 has on Black, racialized and Indigenous students and their families. Educational leaders are facing an overwhelming task: establishing effective mechanisms to maintain physical distancing and to practise adequate hygiene while, at the same time, continuing to support teachers so they can meet students' learning and developmental needs. Pan-Canadian school road map needed Given what we are collectively facing, we need a national, rapid-response task-force made of educational expertspractitioners such as teachers or educators, policy makers as well as scholars who understand how schools operate and experts from community health and infectious diseases to work together. This would be similar to what the Public Health Agency of Canada has done under the leadership of Dr. Theresa Tam. A task force for education could develop a pan-Canadian road map to inform how authorities responsible for kindergarten to Grade 12 education could develop and implement their own specific frameworks for reopening. Such a task force would require meaningful involvement of Indigenous education leadership groups to support school reopening efforts on-reserve and for Indigenous students going to school off-reserve. There is a need to recognize the inherent sovereignty of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people, especially following from the Calls to Action offered in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Any school reopening efforts on reserve require that the Canadian government not forget the a dire need for additional pandemic funding. Without a road map, it's hard to see where we are headed. Openings can't be unconditional Without robust, evidence-based plans, a rapid return to school will only increase existing pressures. One serious challenge is that large numbers of students who return to school could, in fact, be carriers of the virus but not present obvious symptoms. Despite physical distancing measures in schools, the simple act of mingling with others may lead to a steep increase of transmission. The planning for school reopening cannot be unconditional. If infections rise, schools would have to be closed again. Changed spaces Education affects the development of children intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically, artistically, creatively and spiritually. Schools are social systems that buttress students' academic achievement as well as shapeand hopefully supporttheir social and emotional development. Research has illustrated the important role that formal education plays to support students as they develop the social and emotional skills essential for working with others. This includes developing healthy coping mechanisms, resiliency, and achieving educational and life goals. Research points to the fact that the physical setup of classrooms and schools contribute to student learning. Everything from classroom seating arrangements to playground spaces to a school's physical layout can impact how and what students learn. The physical, built environments of schools and classrooms certainly impact learning and development. Changed, responsive teaching Teaching extends beyond transmitting subject and content knowledge to students. Teachers introduce children and youth to societal values, norms and life-skills. Learning is an interactive process, and effective teaching is based on relationships. Reopening is a complex public health concern that requires preparation and considers such factors as how the newly arranged physical environment of schools and classroomsenacted to mitigate risks of COVID-19impact teaching philosophies and practices and the overall goals of what students learn. What it might look like A Washington Post article shows what schools could look like: one-way hallways; students and teachers in masks; lunch inside classrooms instead of cafeterias if they exist; buses running half-empty; and students and staff having their temperatures checked before entering. The government of Scotland is considering such measures as: placing limits on class sizes; grades alternating weekly between studying at school and at home; splitting the day between students who attend in the morning and those who attend in the afternoon; redesigning and reconfiguring classrooms to ensure physical distancing; requiring students to take recess and lunch breaks at different times. The weight of this unknown is compounded by the varied impacts that months of the pandemic may have on vulnerable families, individual children and communities not to mention how social distancing, shutdowns and COVID-19 is interacting with other social inequities such as racism, poverty and colonialism. There is a considerable amount of work that needs to be done to develop plans.The need for a collective, strategic approach to support the health, education and developmental well being of children and youth is critical. If we don't start working collaboratively now on a road map, the experiment of reopening this fall might result in a kind of failure that not only negatively impacts student learning and development, but could also cost lives. Explore further South Koreans return to school amid virus outbreak This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The day a New Jersey university named its new president will also be the day its music department died unless its incoming leader heeds calls for him to save it. Kean Universitys Board of Trustees voted to eliminate the music program May 11, one of several budget cuts made to offset what President Dawood Farahi called a humongous deficit caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Now, students, faculty and alumni are calling for Farahis replacement, current New Jersey Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet, to reverse his predecessor and save the program. Is this a brazen and cynical use of the tragic circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis to attack the arts at Kean? a petition with more than 7,500 signatures asks. You decide. Farahi defended the budget cuts as tremendously difficult decisions and said the music, sustainability sciences, theatre and economics programs slated to be cut had low enrollment. The university projects cutting the four programs and their faculty will save about $2 million a year. We must ensure the university is able to support the programs that it does best and that continue to draw demand from students, Farahi said in a statement. The budget fight at Kean comes as colleges nationwide are grappling with the colossal financial consequences of COVID-19. Room and board refunds, lost revenue from hosting events and a partial freeze of state funding have wiped out millions in revenue for the 2019-20 academic year. Public colleges like Kean are also bracing for a decline in enrollment this fall as well as the possibility of further state aid losses. Farahi told the universitys board he estimates a $20 million setback for the 2019-20 school year. The deficit for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, could grow as high as $15 million, he said. But Kean Federation of Teachers President James Castiglione urged the administration to use financial reserves as much as possible, work with the faculty to determine possible cost-saving measures and allow Repollet to make decisions about budget cuts. The union also warned that sweeping decisions to cut programs and lay off staff could lead to legal action. Each of the programs being eliminated had an enrollment of between one and nine new freshmen students each year over the past five years, according to the university. But music department faculty challenged those statistics, saying the program has 18 to 25 new freshmen each year. The decision to cut music programs at Kean based on financial terms alone is absurd," wrote Mark Terenzi, Keans director of choral activities, in a letter to the university board. Repollet becomes Keans president on July 1. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. P rince Charles has warned about the terrible impact of the pandemic on arts institutions. Speaking during an interview on Classic FM, the Prince of Wales expressed his concerns about how theatres and classical music venues would get back on their feet. He said: "They're in terrible difficulties, of course, because how are they going to be able to restart? "It is a very expensive art form, but it is crucial because it has such a worldwide impact. "We have to find a way to make sure these marvellous people and organisations are going to survive through all this." Asked by presenter Alan Titchmarsh whether he thought this possible he replied: I hope so, because otherwise weve all had it. Life becomes insupportable. London's West End Theatres go dark during coronavirus - In pictures 1 /25 London's West End Theatres go dark during coronavirus - In pictures A woman wearing a face mask waits for an evening show of "Les Miserables" at Queen's Theatre AFP via Getty Images Staff from The Prince of Wales Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA A notice outside The Apollo Theatre, London, informing patrons, that it has shut its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA Staff from The Sondheim Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson today PA Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson today PA Staff from The Lyric Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA A notice outside The Prince Edward Theatre, London, informing patrons, that it has shut its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA Staff from The Prince Edward Theatre, London, inform patrons, as it shuts its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnson PA A notice outside The Apollo Theatre, London, informing patrons, that it has shut its doors, following a statement from Pime Minister Boris Johnso PA Pretty Woman at Piccadilly Theatre SplashNews.com Jamie at The Apollo SplashNews.com The Seagull at The Playhouse Theatre SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com Thriller at The Lyric SplashNews.com SplashNews.com The Seagull at The Playhouse Theatre SplashNews.com Pretty Woman at Piccadilly Theatre SplashNews.com The Prince of Wales is a patron of dozens of arts institutions, including the Royal Opera House, which has reported 60 per cent of its income lost since the crisis began. A number of arts institutions, including the National Theatre, Shakespeares Globe and Southbank Centre, have also warned about the potential of financial collapse without help from the government. Playwright James Graham spoke on BBC Question Time about the theatre industry needing an investment rather than a bailout, adding that in London alone tourists bring in 2bn of cash a year specifically for London theatre. The Prince of Wales also emphasised that the arts are of enormous importance to the economy. Its absolutely crucial that they can come back twice as enthusiastic as before. During the programme, the first of two on Classic FM celebrating his love of classical music, he recalled his first visit to the opera house in 1956 to see a performance of The Fountain of Bakhchisarai by the Bolshoi Ballet. He said he found the experience unbelievably exciting. I was completely inspired by that. He chose to play music by Vivaldi, Haydn, Bach and Strauss, performed by musicians such as Nicola Benedetti and Jacqueline du Pre. The Prince of Wales will be presenting a show on Classic FM this evening at 8pm, in which he will share some more of his favourite pieces of classical music including Frederic Chopins piano concertos, the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss, and Julius Benedicts Piano Concerto in E flat. Police in Palghar district of Maharashtra has seize banned tobacco products worth Rs 28.48 lakh in two separate incidents and arrested seven persons, an official said on Monday. The consignments were seized from a truck and a mini- truck on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway on Sunday, he said. The seizure included scented tobacco and paan masala, the official said, adding that seven persons have been arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. (Photo : LUCY NICHOLSON on Reuters ) China's 'Batwoman': Coronavirus "Just Tip of the Iceberg"; Lots of Pandemics May Come Ahead (Photo : Thomas Peter on Reuters ) China's 'Batwoman': Coronavirus "Just Tip of the Iceberg"; Lots of Pandemics May Come Ahead The coronavirus has now caused over 300,000 deaths and nearly 6 million confirmed cases around the world. Unfortunately, the current pandemic may not be the last in our lifetime. A famous Chinese virologist dubbed 'Batwoman' recently warned the public that the novel coronavirus may not be the last pandemic that will occur on the planet. She said that this virus is "just [the] tip of the iceberg." Chinese expert warns more outbreaks may come soon aside COVID-19 As reported via Bloomberg, Shi Zhengli, a Chinese virologist known for her work on coronavirus in bats, recently said that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the coronavirus may not be the last pandemic we should expect. She called for international unity among countries affected by the virus to quickly identify other outbreaks that humans may acquire from other wild animals used for consumption. She also said that Coronavirus was "just [the] tip of the iceberg." And that other pandemics may occur soon if governments won't stop the blaming game against China. "If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings," Shi told CGTN. "If we don't study them there will possibly be another outbreak." Aside from being an expert in studying bat viruses, Shi was also the deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology--which was being accused as the place from which the virus was allegedly created and first spread. She said that it is "very regrettable" that science is now being politicized, instead of governments being transparent and cooperative with researchers. Wuhan virology director said Coronavirus lab is just "pure fabrication" Many countries have now put the blame on China of for the creation of the coronavirus after unfounded theories were released in different media platforms. It was said that a specific lab inside Wuhan province was created to start a viral disease and to prove that they're better than the United States when it comes to finding the cure. However, these speculations were already answered by the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wang Yanyi. The Wuhan Lab Chief said that the lab was "pure fabrication" and nothing about these claims were based on facts. "This is pure fabrication. Our institute first received the clinical sample of unknown pneumonia on December 30 last year. After we checked the pathogen within the sample, we found it contained a new coronavirus, which is now called SARS-CoV-2," Wang said. "We didn't have any knowledge before that, nor had we ever encountered, researched, or kept the virus. In fact, like everyone else, we didn't even know the virus existed. How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?" 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. An alleged request from Gov. Gretchen Whitmers husband Marc Mallory to launch a boat stirred controversy on social media this weekend. Some conservatives, who for weeks have chafed at Whitmers stay-at-home order and state of emergency declaration, turned to social media to question actions from the governor and those close to her over the holiday, from launching a boat to whether she was at a packed bar. The boat launch claim originated on the Facebook page of Northern Michigan docking company owner, Tad Dowker, who owns NorthShore Dock LLC. His original Facebook post, which has since been taken down but MLive reviewed a screenshot of, said a man called the company a few days before Memorial Day weekend asking if he could put his boat in the water. According to Dowkers post, when office staff said the company started working three weeks late so that was not going to happen, staff told him the caller said, I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference? The post said they were moved to the back of the waiting list. The Detroit News reported the companys Facebook page, which is now private, said Mallory had inquired about install availability and responded respectfully and with understanding. MLive was unable to reach Dowker or his company on Monday. Tiffany Brown, Whitmers spokeswoman, did not confirm or deny the claim from the dock company owner. She said, Our practice is not to discuss the governors or her familys personal calendar/schedules. Whitmer made an executive order May 18 that allowed much of the Northern Michigan economy to reopen. However, she also urged people to think long and hard before traveling to Northern Michigan from places with high counts of the coronavirus. Dont descend on Traverse City from all regions of the state, Whitmer said. If youre fortunate enough to have a place up north and youre headed there, bring your groceries with you and try not to go out unnecessarily. Antrim County property records show Whitmer and Mallory own a home there. One person who found Dowkers claims credible was State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, who made a Facebook post on May 22 about the claim. He said it was a double standard after the governor discouraged travel to Northern Michigan. Later that evening, Barrett said his chief of staff was contacted by the Senate Majority Leaders office, who approached by the governors team to have him take the post down after denying the claims credibility. He did, but said in an interview Monday he later thought he was an accessory to a cover-up of the situation after doing some research into it and determining the dock companys claim was true. He said Whitmer failed as a leader and tried to cut in line in front of Michigan citizens. He said Whitmer and Mallory should address the situation truthfully. Trucker Randy Bishop, who hosts the Your Defending Fathers radio show, said the alleged boat launch request from the governors husband was an example of elitism. He really thought that was going to carry some weight with us in Northern Michigan? They obviously dont know us very well," Bishop said. The controversy around the alleged boat launch request circulated on conservative blogs over the weekend and was one of several items about Whitmer to be passed around social media. Brown said there has been a lot of misinformation and threats floating around about the governor and her family and the threats are downright dangerous. One image of Whitmer sampling beer floated around Facebook over the weekend, claiming to be a current photo of her in Traverse City. However, a Twitter post shows that this photo was from early 2019. Note: This article has been clarified to reflect Whitmer asking people to think long and hard before traveling up north for Memorial Day weekend. Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-27 01:06:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency said Tuesday it's working closely with partners and governments in eastern Africa to find solutions for urban refugees in these challenging times sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The UNHCR said urban refugees are struggling to survive as economic impact of COVID-19 worsens in East, Horn and Great Lakes of Africa. "Refugees in urban areas across the East, Horn and Great Lakes region of Africa are struggling to meet their most basic needs as the economic impact of COVID-19 begins to take hold," it said in a statement. UNHCR is requesting some 13.4 billion shillings (about 126 million U.S. dollars) for life-saving interventions in response to COVID-19 in those regions. "However, we fear that without further support, many urban refugees will become extremely vulnerable to exploitation, risk falling into significant levels of debt and may be forced into desperate situations to survive, such as transactional sex or child labor," UNHCR said. UNHCR has been providing emergency cash assistance to the most vulnerable in both Rwanda and Kenya and exploring options to expand programming. In Uganda, UNHCR and WFP are introducing one-off cash assistance for some 80,000 urban refugees using mobile money to help cover rent, food and other key items, said the UN refugee agency. However, it said these are only temporary measures and socio-economic conditions are expected to deteriorate further in the coming weeks and months. UNHCR urged the international community to support its emergency response with further funding so that the UN agency can meet the rapidly rising needs before the situation reaches a breaking point. It said urban refugees are facing job losses as businesses are forced to downsize or close due to COVID-19 restrictions. "Many were daily wage workers or worked in the informal economy and were already living hand-to-mouth before the pandemic struck," said UNHCR. UNHCR said many urban refugees are also living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions and are particularly vulnerable to the spread of the virus, as in Kenya where thousands of refugees live in impoverished neighborhoods in Nairobi with little access to clean water, making it nearly impossible to practice regular hand washing. UNHCR called on states to ensure that urban refugees additionally have access to social safety nets providing health insurance, food and cash assistance, which the international community should further support. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2020-05-26 09:48:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that it appreciates China's openness to joint efforts by the international science community to identify the source of the virus, and that such a scientific mission should consist of "the right mix of scientific experts from a multinational perspective." "We've been in discussions day-to-day with our colleagues in China about putting together the necessary scientific inquiries into the origin of the virus," Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said in a press conference in Geneva on Monday. "I think the authorities in China, governments around the world and ourselves are very keen to understand the animal origin of the virus itself. And I am very pleased to hear a very consistent message coming from China, which is one of openness to such an approach," he added. "So I think we will be very pleased to continue for those discussions. I don't believe there is a date yet for a scientific mission, but we will be looking forward to doing that as so on as possible and with the right mix of scientific experts from a multinational perspective to join such a team," he said. "We have been in regular contact with our colleagues in China and they have all the expertise in country to do this. We welcome the opportunity to work with them and with the international community, to really understand the virus' origins and the animal human interface," said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead COVID-19 of WHO Health Emergencies Programme. Meanwhile, Ryan said he was "pleased" to see the publication of the first peer-reviewed journal publications of the vaccine studies from China. "I think in terms of the number of scientific publications that have come from China over the last number of months is very good and the number of scientific collaborations between Chinese institutions and institutions all over the world is also a very positive sign," he said. On Sunday, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China was open to joint efforts by the international science community to identify the source of the virus, and the process must be professional, impartial and constructive. Enditem Three burglars broke into the Mall at Short Hill, which has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and stole $5,000 in cash from an Italian restaurant after they couldnt get into the Louis Vuitton store, police said. The restaurant, Primo Mercato, has also been closed, though an employee who answered the phone there Tuesday said they were preparing to reopen soon for takeout. The restaurant has an exterior door to the parking area of the mall. Millburn police officers responded to the mall at 4:43 a.m. for a report of a burglary. The mall is locked overnight and entry was forced, said Millburn Capt. David Bonney. The trio first made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Louis Vuitton store before hitting the restaurant. Police described the suspects as thin men wearing hooded sweatshirts. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. For the first time in 65 days, Ireland reported no deaths from the Coronavirus, marking a major milestone in the countrys bid to suppress Covid-19. Chief medical officer Tony Holohan sounded a note of optimism confirming that the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will meet today to consider phase two of the lockdown exit roadmap. Amid growing pressure from within cabinet and from businesses across the country, Dr Holohan said it was a risk to reduce the current social distancing guidelines from two metres to one but that Nphet was constantly reviewing these. He will meet government ministers later this week, after a Cabinet row between ministers over reducing the rule to one metre, in line with WHO recommendations. Announcing the daily statistics, Dr Holohan said there were now a total of 24,698 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, with 59 identified. But for the first time since March 21 there has been no reported death in 24 hours. This leaves the number of confirmed fatalities at 1,606. Dr Holohans comments come as critical failures in the handling of nursing home patients and residents in direct provision where scores of clusters of the virus emerged will be expressed at the Dails special Covid-19 committee today. Key State bodies left nursing home residents and their carers isolated at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, TDs will be told. In a blistering opening address, Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Daly will tell TDs on Tuesday that the response to Covid-19 that the dismay will live forever with us. We were exasperated. The sector required a specific plan. We knew that Covid-19 disproportionately impacts on older people. The planning and focus was almost exclusively on our acute hospitals. Multiple clusters initially emerged in our hospitals. But the numbers in nursing homes started to increase, he will say. The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), also appearing before the committee today, will tell TDs that there is "no national clinical oversight of care being delivered to some of our most vulnerable citizens". Later in the day, the impact of Covid-19 on Direct Provision centres will be raised at the committee. Representatives from the HSE and Department of Justice are to face questions from TDs on the situation in the centres. The most recent figures show that there were 13 clusters of the virus - that is two or more cases in a single setting - in Direct Provision amounting to 171 cases overall. The issue has been brought into focus by the case of the former Skellig Star hotel in Caherciveen, County Kerry, as revealed by the Irish Examiner. At least 25 residents of the hotel, which was hastily turned into a Direct Provision centre in March, have tested positive for the virus. Green Party TD Roderic O'Gorman said that the outbreak of the virus shows the larger issues with Direct Provision. Leonard Perlmutter Online Retreat Host This new kind of online retreat format has been shaped by our desire to provide each participant a meaningful and rewarding retreat experience as they convert their own home into an oasis of learning, healing and introspection. Leonard Perlmutter, AMI Founder For the first-time ever (July 29-August 2, 2020), The American Meditation Institute (AMI) will host Leonard Perlmutters online summer retreat that will transform each attendees home into an oasis of learning, healing and introspection. This physician CME accredited foundation course of Yoga Science as mind/body medicine will include topics on AMI Meditation, stress and pain management, breath as medicine, easy-gentle yoga, Ayurveda, Yoga psychology and mind optimization practices. For the first-time ever (July 29-August 2, 2020), The American Meditation Institute (AMI) will host Leonard Perlmutters online summer retreat that will transform each attendees home into an oasis of learning, healing and introspection. This physician CME accredited foundation course of Yoga Science as mind/body medicine will include topics on AMI Meditation, stress and pain management, diaphragmatic breathing, easy-gentle yoga, Ayurveda, Yoga psychology, and mind optimization practices. The five-day curriculum is designed for first-time and experienced meditators from all walks of life, and also offers 18 continuing medical education credits (CMEs) for physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals. AMIs new online retreat will enable attendees to participate from the comfort and security of their homes. This engaging five-day experience will include the complete foundation curriculum of Yoga Science through an entertaining mix of live lectures and panel discussions, helpful video instruction, engaging at-home assignments, daily social hours for networking with other attendeesas well as private one-on-one consultations with AMI founder Leonard Perlmutter. By weeks end, each participant will have received a set of 36 practical tools that can empower conscious, discriminating and reliable choices to enhance health and well-being, creativity and optimism. Regardless of how challenging the circumstances brought about by COVID-19 might feel today, the science of Yoga taught at this online retreat can help. The core Heart and Science of Yoga online retreat curriculum has been endorsed by noted medical pioneers Dr. Oz (Mehmet Oz MD), Dean Ornish MD, Bernie Siegel MD and Larry Dossey MD, and has been certified by the American Medical Association and American Nurses Association to provide continuing medical education credits for health care practitioners in attendance. Meditation master and retreat host Leonard Perlmutter (Ram Lev) is one of the worlds leading authorities on integrating the principles and practices of Yoga Science into modern life. Leonard has taught on the faculties of the New England Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine, the Himalayan Yoga Teachers Association and the College of Saint Rose. He is a disciple of holistic health pioneer Swami Rama of the Himalayas, the Yoga scientist who, in laboratory conditions at the Menninger Institute, demonstrated that blood pressure, heart rate and the autonomic nervous system could be voluntarily controlled. Leonard has presented Yoga Science courses at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Albany Medical College, the Commonwealth Club of California, The New York Times Yoga Forum, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. According to Leonard Perlmutter, This new kind of online retreat format has been shaped by our desire to provide each participant a meaningful and rewarding retreat experience as they convert their own home into an oasis of learning, healing and introspection. About the American Meditation Institute The American Meditation Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization devoted to the teaching and practice of Yoga Science, meditation and its allied disciplines as mind/body medicine. In its holistic approach to wellness, AMI combines the healing arts of the East with the practicality of modern Western science. The American Meditation Institute offers a wide variety of classes, retreats, and teacher training programs. AMI also publishes Transformation, a quarterly journal of meditation as holistic mind/body medicine. Media Contact: Robert Washington 60 Garner Road Averill Park, NY 12018 Tel: 518-674-8714 Fax: 518-674-8714